When Lexie returned to her booth, Xena said, "It's about time."

"Sorry." Lexie slid between Xena and Dewie, who were watching the next match about to start. "I had to help Urmas with his card."

"Did you manage to fix it?" Xena asked, and Lexie thought about it, then shrugged.

"We'll see, I guess," she said as the bell announced the next fight.

Lexie spent the rest of the time trying to enjoy the next few matches, but she was distracted by thoughts of Tate.

What did he want from her that he couldn't just text on the phone?

Why was he hiding his face?

Was this a trap? Should she just ignore him?

Lexie sighed. She wished her father could have made it to this game. She would have just introduced him to Tate and been done with it, but he had to catch up with schoolwork today. Lexie had already told herself that she wouldn't help Tate with anything unless he agreed to speak to her dad first. She wasn't going on any adventures with him because she simply didn't trust him to tell her the truth about anything.

She'd thought she'd been clear about that before.

So what did he want now?

"Lexie." Xena bent and stared at her. "Are you even paying attention?"

"Yeah. Yeah." She shook her head. "Sorry, I'm just a little distracted."

"More like a lot distracted. You didn't even react to that incredible cartwheel kick by Ozzie."

Yeah, but that was also because moves like that had sort of lost their luster for her. Not only because Lexie had been in real fights at the academy and she'd seen the students there do far more incredible things, but also because she just wasn't as interested in the AFC as she used to be.

Even if she wasn't distracted by Tate, she probably wouldn't enjoy these fights that much.

That didn't mean she had to ruin the experience for Dewie and Xena, though, especially since Dewie had spent a lot of money to make this happen. The real reason she was here anyway was to spend time with her friends and Tamsin, entertaining themselves.

"Okay, I'm awake," Lexie said, smacking some life back into her face. "I'm paying attention now."

From then on, Lexie tried her best to focus. Most of the matches were predictable, for Lexie anyway, but there were a few moments that surprised her, like when a guy called Network shot what looked like spiderwebs out of his fingers, and also when another fighter shattered a forcefield with her scream.

There were a lot of new players here today, and Lexie didn't know if she was that far out of the loop or if a lot of AFC fighters had quit and had been replaced by others.

She'd look into it later.

But the closer it got to Urmas' fight, the more Lexie's mind began to drift again. She was getting nervous about the card she'd made, wondering if she'd unknowingly nerfed Urmas somehow, or if she'd made a mistake somewhere. She redrew the pathway in her head, trying to spot something she might have missed.

Nothing stuck out to her, yet the anxiety throbbed low in her belly. Her hands pressed into fists at her knees, and she swallowed, feeling more than a little nauseous.

Finally, the announcer called out.

"Ladies and gentlemen, next up, for our sixth match of the day, we have King of the Unexpected, Kane the Mundane!"

At his entrance, cheers and boos abounded in the stadium, because Kane was as loathed as he was loved.

He strutted out with his swagger, blowing kisses to the audience and especially to those who were booing the hardest. One guy in the front row was ranting at Kane so much that he drew Kane's attention. Kane made an obscene gesture, and the man, red-faced, tried to break through the forcefield to reach him.

The scene looked familiar to Lexie for some reason as Kane laughed in his face and continued to strut to the middle of the field. Then he began his stretches.

"From the other corner, facing up against Kane the Mundane, we have the Silent Soldier, Urmas!"

Lexie cheered loudly when it was Urmas' turn to come out. He walked out as confidently as he could manage, but he didn't have the natural flair for theatrics that Kane did. He simply waved at those applauding him and attempted some smiles and thumbs up.

"Is that your friend?" Dewie asked, and Lexie nodded.

"Yeah," she said.

"I hope he kicks Kane's ass," Xena muttered.

"Xena, there's a kid here."

Although, Tamsin wasn't paying attention. She was too busy staring gooey-eyed at Kane with her face practically pressed against the forcefield.

"Uh oh. I think I might have turned her into a Kane fangirl by accident," Lexie muttered to Xena, who snorted.

The fight began with a bell, and Kane drew a gun and immediately began shooting at Urmas.

Urmas erected a forcefield from a new mech around his wrist. He held it up with his left hand as he ran, trying to get a good shot at Kane.

In retaliation, Kane launched an elastic band that attached to Urmas' forcefield, and he used it to spring forward, flying through the air.

He thrust his shooting hand back, and like a transformer, a large metal fist folded over his human one.

He slammed it down and shattered the forcefield with Urmas barely jumping out of the way in time.

"Jeez. He's not playing around," Xena said.

Lexie exhaled. She was so nervous for Urmas that there was a knot in her throat, and she gripped the seat.

Urmas managed to run, but Kane was in hot pursuit, and he was faster, thanks to the jets at his heels. He grabbed Urmas by the collar and flung him, but Urmas flipped over in the air and began shooting rapidly at Kane.

"Go, Urmas!" Lexie yelled even as Kane's force field blocked all the bullets.

Urmas erected another forcefield behind him and bounced off it as well. As he dropped to the ground, he still kept shooting. Kane held his shield, and his mechanical fist folded to reveal another gun that fired one large bubble floating high into the air.

"Uh-oh," Xena said as the audience gasped. "I know what that is. It's his bubble blast. He got it earlier this year, I think, and basically Urmas is donezo if it touches him."

Though she let Xena explain it, Lexie knew what the bubble blast was, too. It was one of Kane's most insidious weapons. It was basically a bubble that, once burst, exploded with enough air to knock out the average person.

The insidious part of it was how unthreatening it looked.

It was pink and moved slowly, floating in the air so gently that you might be tempted to forget it was even there. Lexie had seen more than one fighter make that mistake. They would often subconsciously ignore it, which was easy to do in the chaos of fighting, and they wouldn't know when it snuck up on them.

Once it made contact…boom. It would activate it, and the bubble would burst, releasing enough force to knock out the opponent.

The worst part was that the bubble was impervious to bullets, so it couldn't be taken out prematurely.

Urmas needed to keep an eye on it, but it was hard when so many things were happening all at once. Kane was shooting all manner of things at him and had even tossed out a few self-shooting guns like Diana had, all aimed at Urmas. They were coming at him from all angles, and Urmas was essentially tiring himself out trying to avoid it all.

His pathways should start acting up any moment now, and if Lexie hadn't made the adjustments she did, he'd probably be in trouble.

Urmas was right.

Kane wasn't giving him a chance to breathe and would definitely not have given him a chance to activate the card if he'd needed to. Urmas would have been donezo at that point. He still might be, because Kane was a fierce fighter.

He might be a mundane, but his experience, superior mechs, and the giant chip on his shoulder made him a force to be reckoned with.

He also wasn't underestimating Urmas at all.

But Urmas kept going. He kept dodging, shooting, dodging, shooting.

If anything, the silent soldier began getting better and faster as time went on.

"Wow," Xena said. "I thought Kane had it in the bag for a second there, but your friend is surprisingly still standing."

"Urmas," Lexie corrected. "His name is Urmas."

Urmas was somehow dodging all of Kane's endless attacks. Once, when a bullet almost hit him, one leg dropped to the floor, forcing him to lean to the side to avoid it, and he recovered in time to take a shot at Kane's feet, hitting and disabling one of his mechs.

Another time, Urmas spun in the air, like in the movies, and with his force field, he avoided an array of bullets.

It was incredible.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

That was when Lexie knew that the added dexterity was doing its job. Of course, the speed and dexterity boost only lasted for five minutes at a time, giving Urmas a chance for his overactive pathways to relax. Once his pathways were back to normal, the card was supposed to turn off.

The problem, though, was that by adding the speed and dexterity components, Lexie was giving the card too much to do. She hadn't estimated that since the card wasn't getting much downtime in this whole fight, it might overheat and get damaged as a result.

Yeah, she needed to fix that.

Hopefully, it wouldn't get damaged before the match was over, and hopefully, the damage wouldn't rebound to Urmas' pathways. She didn't think it would, but it should have been something she figured out ahead of time.

Damn it, Lexie, she scolded herself. Learn to think things through better. You got arrogant by adding those things at the last minute. How did you miss that it might make the card overheat? There was essentially no cool-off time for the card and if anything happens, it will be your fault.

The voice in Lexie's head sounded like her mom's–not Lara, but Dr. Harlow Evans.

She hadn't thought about her Earth 2 mother for some time. It made Lexie's twist her hands even tighter to remember it, and she felt the familiar sensation of failure.

Her self-flagellating thoughts made her heart race. Luckily, Urmas seemed like he was still doing well, but he wasn't getting an edge on Kane.

The effort wasn't enough.

Urmas was sweating as he weaved between two waves of bullets, and he shot one diagonally at Kane's midsection. It landed, and Kane frowned. With a flick of a finger, his guns loaded more clips.

"Does he ever run out of bullets?" Dewie asked.

"Nope. His parents can buy him as many bullets as he needs." Xena shook her head and scoffed. "Rich kids."

Dewie and Lexie gave her a look. Neither of them pointed out that Xena was a rich kid, too. In fact, everyone in this booth, except Lexie and the bodyguards, probably, was a nepobaby.

Lexie tuned back into the match, and she had to admit that it was a lost cause. Urmas was doing his best, but Kane had the overwhelming upper hand here, and nothing short of a miracle would help Urmas win.

Lexie didn't even know what weakness Conrad thought Kane had, because so far, she wasn't seeing anything.

Somehow, though, Urmas found an opening.

No one else saw it, but suddenly, he shot forward and slipped through the bullets and Kane's shield, getting in his face.

Kane's eyes went wide in shock, and before he could say anything, Urmas put the gun to his head.

Obviously, a headshot at close range wasn't allowed in the AFC, even with rubber bullets, but the move got a dramatic gasp from the crowd.

The announcer went wild too, saying, "Ladies and Gentlemen! Did you see what just happened? Look at him go!"

Urmas smiled as Kane hurtled back and shot him in the chest. Urmas took the shot and got close to Kane again, at which point the bubble blast finally caught up to him from behind.

Lexie now saw that Urmas had planned.

The headshot had been a distraction, because Urmas was probably out of bullets.

So he wanted to take them both out. The bubble blast met them at the same time.

The explosion hit and rattled even the forcefield that protected the audience.

When the dust cleared, it showed that Urmas was on the ground unconscious while Kane had erected a metallic shield around himself.

Lexie's spirits sank.

Damn it. Urmas had lost.

"And that folks is the match!" the announcers said, "One of the more exciting ones for today, I'll say. The winner is Kane the Mundane, but that last move by the Silent Soldier was incredible. That near headshot–chef's kiss. He basically announced, 'Hey buddy. I can kill you if I want to, but I won't.' Incredible. That will be replayed in the highlights reel for tonight, I can tell you that much."

While Lexie was still sad about Urmas' loss, and somehow even blamed herself for it, she was a bit comforted that the announcer was right. Urmas' final moves would be cemented in memory for a lot of spectators, and it earned Urmas a lot of fans, if the crowd's cheering and reaching for him as he was carted away, was any indication.

Lexie stood. "I'm going to go check on him before the next match."

"Tell him I'm a fan," Dewie said, and Lexie was surprised. It was the first time Dewie had admitted to being a fan of any of the AFC players. Usually, he was only a passive spectator.

"Me too," Xena said. "That was sick."

"Me three," one of the invisible bodyguards, Nathan, it sounded like, said.

Lexie grinned. "I'll tell him."

She jogged down the steps, accompanied by Nathan and Mide, and saw Kane walking into his tunnel, looking annoyed. Lexie figured he was annoyed that his win hadn't been a decisive victory and was only due because of the sheer amount of gadgets he'd had, not pure skill.

Had he not had those things, Urmas would have won. Easily.

Lexie got backstage again and headed straight to the medical bay, which was at the other end of the hall.

When she got in, Urmas was conscious but lying down as a medic read his vitals. Conrad and the rest of the dojo were standing back watching.

They glanced at Lexie when she entered, and she asked Conrad, "Is he okay?"

"Looks like it," the medic answered instead. "He just got the wind knocked out of him, but he looks to be awake, alert, and oriented. System healing is underway, so he should be right as rain in an hour or so."

"That's great," she said, and Urmas struggled to sit up in bed and grinned at them.

"That was incredible," he said breathlessly, and from his smile, you wouldn't even have known he lost. He appeared very happy with himself and his performance.

"You're telling me," Conrad said. "You were flying out there, man. And that move at the end…cold as hell."

"Seriously cold," Lane said.

"Practically frosted," Cara said, and Boris was just shaking his head in astonishment.

"It was a tour de force."

"I don't know what that is, but thank you," Urmas said. "It was all thanks to Lexie and the card she made, too. If not, I wouldn't have been able to last long."

"Do you mind if I check out the card?" Lexie asked. "I think I might need to adjust some things on it."

"Sure." He handed it over to her. Just as she'd suspected, the card was heated, and the pathways were bloated, probably due to back-to-back overuse.

"I might have to take down the speed and dexterity component," Lexie said. "Just so the card doesn't overheat."

"No problem," Urmas said. "Like I said, I trust you."

"Can you do what you did for Urmas with my card so I don't have to activate it?" Cara asked.

Lexie nodded. "I could, but not right now. I told my friends I would watch the rest of the matches with them."

"Sure thing. We can do it on Ansing. My match isn't till after that anyway."

"That sounds good. I have to head back now. Urmas, my friends Dewie, Xena, and Nathan wanted me to let you know they're officially part of your fan club. Also, do you mind if I take your card and give it back to you later?"

"Of course," Urmas said and held out his hand. Lexie put her hand in it, and he kissed the back of it, formally.

"Thank you," he said. "Really."

Lexie tucked her hair behind her ears, her face red. "No problem."

As she was about to leave, she was met at the door by Kane. He was passing by, but he decided to poke his head in at that last minute, and this time his gaze was firmly on Urmas.

"Not a bad performance," he said. "Pretty good actually."

"You were better," Urmas said graciously.

Kane nodded. His eyes flickered to Lexie as she shifted past him.

As she was leaving, she thought she heard one of Kane's people whisper to him. "She made him a card…"

Lexie went back to her friends to watch the rest of the matches. They introduced two hero matches at the end of the day, the final of which was Emiris Shadowsbane versus Frazer Ruth.

Emiris was dark-haired, paler than Zakhar, and smaller, but he had a sharp gaze that was wholly intimidating.

His powers seemed more straightforward as well.

He drew a scythe made out of darkness and used it as a weapon of attack. He was swift and agile, and reminded her a little of Tate with the way he fought.

Lexie tried to read his mana while they sparred, but he was too far away and she couldn't do much more than feel the general mana clouds of the two opponents shifting.

She sighed. Today looked like it would be a bust when it came to the Shadowbane agenda. She couldn't figure out how to talk to Shadowsbane, much less convince them. Maybe she could have tried to go backstage to meet Zakhar or Emiris, but the Hero area was sectioned off, and she didn't know how to get in. Even if she did, she didn't want to keep Tate waiting any longer.

She already felt bad as is.

Though the final match was more exciting than the others, purely because the two fighters were more skilled, Lexie couldn't pay much attention.

As the day drew to a close, looking like it would be a decisive Shadowbane victory, Lexie finally stood again and told Xena, "I'll be back."

Xena nodded as Lexie walked out of the booth, but she didn't head to the fighters' section. She headed to the entrance.

When she was close, Nathan materialized beside her and said, "Be careful. There are a lot of people out there."

Lexie nodded. Crowds were still pressed against the entry forcefield, entranced by the hero match.

Once Lexie walked out of it, she felt the press of the bodies, but Nathan and Mide helped her make her way through to the other side of the largely empty streets. She looked for Tate, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Tate?" she called out as she glanced around. "Tate, where are you?"

She texted him, but didn't get a response. She kept walking aimlessly to the far end of the crowd until she saw what looked like a burly black sack propped against the wall.

Except it wasn't a sack at all. It looked a lot like the structure of Tate Reynolds.

"Tate." Lexie ran toward him.

"Lexie," she heard Nathan call, but she ignored him.

Tate wasn't responding to her. He was curled in on himself, his arms around his knees. His sleeves had fallen back to reveal bruises all over his forearms, and when she pushed his hood back, she gasped in horror.

His face.

Not only was it bruised and bloodied, but it was also sunken in.

He looked like he'd been beaten to within an inch of his life and then starved.

"Oh God." Lexie felt sick as she dropped to her knees, whispering, "Who did this to you?"

"You might not want to touch him," The person standing closest to them said. "He's been acting weird all day. Talking to himself."

"What did he say?"

"Wasn't paying attention." The boy shrugged and turned back to watch the match.

Lexie bit her lip, at war with herself, and she finally stared at Nathan, who was next to her. "Can we take him home with us?"

Nathan pressed his lips together. "I don't know if that's a good idea."

"Please. He's my friend and he's really sick."

Mide materialized, and she shook her head, too.

"Please?" Lexie begged. "At least let me drop him off with my dad."

"It's getting late. We won't have time to make a stop at Hovelton."

"Okay, then maybe my dad can come pick him up later. Just at least let him see a healer. Please. I can ask Stella. Or Theo."

Mide sighed then tapped her earpiece. "I'll make the call."

She stepped away from Lexie to do so as Nathan dropped beside her.

"What happened to him?" Nathan asked.

"I don't know," Lexie responded.

"What's he sick with?"

"I don't know either."

Clear disapproval shone in his eyes. "Do you know if it's contagious?"

"I don't think it is," Lexie said hesitantly.

Mide finally returned and said, "Stella gave the go-ahead. I'll take the boy to the quarantine infirmary separately and have him see a healer, while the rest of you go home."

"Can I come with you?" Lexie asked.

"Stella didn't–"

"He's my friend," Lexie said. "He'll be scared if he wakes up alone with people he doesn't know. And he might run away again."

Mide sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "I'll make another call."

She walked away again, and Nathan gave Lexie a small smile while he drummed on his knees.

"Stella says fine," Mide said upon her return "The two of us will go with you to the quarantine area, and the others will go home separately."

"Thank you," Lexie said meekly.

"You're really something, you know that?" Nathan said shaking his head.

"Yeah, that's what I'm told."

As Nathan carried Tate, and they began walking to the back of the stadium, Lexie felt her neck prickle with the familiar awareness of being watched intensely.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.