79 - Introductions

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The sight of Tate knocked the wind out of Lexie. Literally. She didn’t breathe for several seconds as he stood there, eyeing the rest of the class with that cool, implacable, and slightly defiant expression. The same expression he’d had on the day he’d been shot. 

Am I seeing things? Lexie wondered again because that was a distinct possibility. Actually, to her, it made more sense that she was possibly losing her mind than the fact that Tate Reynold was standing there in the flesh. But he’d looked at her. He’d seemed to recognize her. Maybe she imagined that too. 

Or maybe it’s not him. I haven’t seen him in a year, after all, and he looks a lot younger now. Maybe it’s just someone who looks like him. 

“Tate!” Conrad waved him over as though to confirm Lexie’s suspicions. “Come on, don’t just stand there. We’re doing intros. Come, sit, Boris is about to go first.”

Shit. It really is him. 

Lexie didn’t know what to do next. She felt like she was frozen in time, watching Tate move in slow motion toward the bench next to Boris. And he didn’t look at her once. Lexie didn’t know if he was actively trying not to look at her or if he was just too busy sussing out the other candidates. 

Despite what Conrad said about making friends, Tate didn’t look like he was here to make friends at all. 

As he sat, she stared daggers into the back of his head, willing him to turn around, wanting to know what the heck he was doing on Earth 9 too. Was he dead? Had they shot him after they shot her and whatever entity dragged her in dragged him in too? Or was he here to help her? 

If it was the latter then why the heck wasn’t he even looking at her?

“Alright Boris,” Conrad said. “Continue your story.”

“Right. Hello everyone.” Boris hopped onto his feet, in a surprisingly graceful manner given his size. “I’m Boris Nabokov. The first son of the couple of ballet dancers Bron and Iskra Nabokov, and brother to Darina, Mila, and Zayac Nabokov. Everyone in my family is a dancer and I thought I would be too. But then on system day, I got the Berserker affinity and with it, soon enough, came this fantastic body.” He gestured down to his muscular form. “Body is great for the ladies and the fighting, but not so much for dancing. Being a Berserker made me inelegant and I stuck out like a sore thumb during performances. But I still love to perform and what better way for a Berserker to perform than with the AFC? It would also be nice to get some money out of it. That’s why I’m here.”

It was a good story, but Lexie barely paid attention to it. She was too focused on Tate's presence, questions whirling in her mind. She barely paid attention to Jan's story either, when he spoke about how he wanted to earn enough money to open up his own store. He didn’t necessarily watch the AFC games but he was talented enough at it, and his skill, a regenerative skill with a strength boost, made him perfect for it.

“You could have been a [Hero] if you wanted money,” Conrad pointed out.

“Nah. Too much work for too long. I’m a lover, man, not a fighter. I’m just doing this until I can afford not to.”

Conrad nodded and seemed to accept that explanation. He didn’t appear offended that Jan only saw this as a means to an end, and even thanked the boy for his honesty. That made Lexie feel better about also seeing this as a means to an end. 

Next came Lane and Blondie–whose real name was Ken–who had similar stories about being fans of the AFC since they were young and wanting to fight to make money for their families. And then it finally came to another boy whose name Lexie didn’t know but was slender with an affable smile. 

“Hi everyone,” he spoke in a soft voice, dragging Lexie away from her intense perusal of Tate. “My name is Urmas. I’m a fairly normal boy, born to fairly normal parents with a fairly normal sister.”

“Isla is anything but normal,” Conrad quipped. “But keep going.”

“Erm…” he said. “I was a B-Rank Knight Type and was in training to become a full-fledged Knight of the Order. But then I sustained a pretty serious injury during one of our training battles…” He shifted his left leg and it made a clank on the floor. That was when Lexie realized it was a prosthetic. “My leg got amputated from the Knee down, and for some reason, my body does not work well with prosthetics. I’m not sure why. My doctor says it's a compatibility problem. Anyway, I couldn’t be a Knight anymore. Knight training is all about precision and accuracy and the prosthetic knocked me off balance. I’m…glitchy.” He sighed. “I thought my days of fighting were over. But then my sister’s boyfriend told me he could help with my balance problems, and he seemed to have a lot of faith in me–” 

“I do,” Conrad concurred.

Urmas grinned and nodded determinedly. “So I think I have to at least give it a shot. I mean what’s there to lose?”

“Your dignity.” This came from a boy who’d been lounging far from the group, by the walls. He was the only one who hadn’t responded to Lexie’s wave. “Your other limbs, your mind, possibly your life.” 

“Don’t be dramatic, my friend,” Boris the ballerino said. “No one has ever died from these fights before.”

“There’s a first time for everything. And plenty of people have gotten hurt. Recently everyone just found out that Maverick has a concussion that had been there for years and he could have died if it remained undiscovered."

“Luckily it didn’t,” Conrad said. “And once it was discovered, Maverick was suspended from fighting and has regular sessions with a healer.”

“That’s still a stupid reason for you to fight,” the boy continued speaking to Urmas. “You think that you're going to win a championship just because someone believes in you?”

Conrad sent the boy a look but Urmas answered charitably. 

“Well, I’m not sure I have a chance at winning a Golden Glove or any championship right now,” he said. “The competition is pretty stiff this year and that’s not my goal. But I think maybe it’s worth it if I get a little stronger, isn’t it?’

If anything the boy's expression became even more stormy. “So you’re here because you want … try it out?”

“Yeah,” he said. "Why not?”

He muttered something under his breath and looked away angrily while Conrad clapped his hands and said, “Alright well then. Next person. How about you, Cara? Introduce yourself and tell us why you're here."

“Hiya,” she said. “I’m Cara Skysoarer. Yes, my family is one of the famous elementals, no I don't have elemental powers. At least not really. I’m kind of fast, with wind support, but I can’t control it, to be honest. I'm a C-Rank Wind User, and I’m learning to transfer my mana into physical points. I’m a B-Rank Martial Artist though and so that helps.”  She shrugged. “Anyway, I’m here because I love the AFC. I’ve been watching it since I was a kid and have been practicing that long too. And I do think I have a shot at winning the championship and so I’m going to go for it.” She grinned confidently, swinging her legs. “Also I like apple pie. So if you wanna pretend to be my friend to get closer to my family, then that would be the best way to go about it.”

“That happens a lot?” Boris asked, a tad sympathetically. 

“All the time,” Cara responded but she didn’t sound offended. More so accepting of it. 

Boris sighed. “I get it. Back in my ballet days, tons of people used to wanna be friends with me just because all my friends were hot chicks.”

“Wait, all your friends are hot chicks?" Jan's head swung to Boris in interest but Conrad had already moved on. 

“Next, Shadow, give us your story.”

Shadow turned out to be the guy who'd been talking to Urmas earlier. He was now staring at Cara.“I thought this program was supposed to give free training to those who needed it. You can afford private training, can't you?”

“Yeah, but I wanted Conrad to train me.” Unlike Urmas, Cara didn’t flinch from Shadow’s gaze. “He’s a berserker so he can probably help me better than other private trainers to figure out the kinks of my power. Like Urmas, I have a problem with balance too, and whenever I fight, it hinders me. Conrad can help me with focus better.” She raised an eyebrow. "That a good enough explanation for you?"

It must have been because Shadow accepted that answer with a nod, but he didn't seem happy about it. 

“I’m Shadow,” he said. “A Brawler. I don’t have a sob story or anything of interest. I fight because I want to and because I’m good at it. And I fight to win. Always." He ran his glance over the group, then settled on Conrad. "I joined because I thought this would be my chance to learn from someone I respected as a fighter, who was at one point number two in the league. 

Lexie couldn't decide from the tone, whether Shadow was jabbing at Conrad or not, and from his frown neither could Conrad. But Conrad shrugged like it didn't matter as Shadow concluded. “Anyway, I didn't come to make friends. So don't feel obliged to be friendly. I'm here to train and that's it."

“Ooooh, tough guy,” Boris said and Jan snickered while Shadow ignored him.

Conrad smirked and said, “Those things aren’t mutually exclusive. You’ll find that a huge part of being in these games are the friendships you make.”

Shadow didn’t look like he believed him.

In the brief lull, Lexie turned her attention back to Tate. She couldn't believe that he was there. It still wasn’t making any sense to her and while someone else droned on, her mind frantically tried to put the pieces together. Her running theory for now was that Robbie had shot Tate, probably to hide the fact that he’d shot her too. Maybe Robbie had staged it as a murder-suicide. Or maybe Robbie's senator dad had sent people to kill Tate so he didn’t talk. 

And then after he died, he came here through the ISTS just like her. Did he know anything about the organization? Did he know what a Chosen was? Whose life had he taken over?

And why the heck was he still not looking at her?

“...ie? Lexie?"

Lexie’s head snapped forward and she realized that Conrad had been trying to get her attention for quite some time.

Conrad grinned. “If you could pull your eyes away from Tate for two seconds to introduce yourself, that would be great.”

Lexie’s face flushed especially since Jan took that opportunity to croon, “Ooh, someone has a crushy-wushy.”

“I do not,” she said, wishing that her voice sounded more mature and less childlike. She cleared her throat and said, “My name is Lexie Sparrowfoot. And I’m here to learn how to defend myself.”

Everyone turned to her, and she bit her tongue. Damn it, she’d been so focused on Tate that she’d completely forgotten about the story she concocted and accidentally told the truth. 

“I mean, that was my initial reason for learning to fight,” she tried to amend, as everyone stared at her. “But like Urmas said, I also wanna push myself to the limits and see what I can do. And I want to try to get into the circuit if I can. I’ve been a huge fan for a long time.”

“You have huh?” Boris crossed his hands over his chest. “Who’s the reigning champ?” 

“Top Dog,” she said automatically. 

“That was an easy one,” Jan said. “What about who won a Division 23 rematch twice in a row with the odds stacked against him?’

“Lone Silver,” she responded. “And he fought against Kane the mundane and Ghost.”

“And who is the  youngest female Golden Glove champ?” Cara challenged.

Lexie turned to her. “Jane Phoenix.” AKA my mother. Lexie debated whether or not to reveal that, but decided she didn’t want people to think she was bragging or view her as a threat. And it wasn’t like she was hiding it either because anyone who did serious digging into her could probably find out anyway. 

“You really do know your stuff.”

“Like I said, I’ve been a fan for a while. I even met Top Dog once. He gave me a head pat. It was great.”

Conrad smirked. “I’m sure it was.” 

“I also watched your last exhibition match against Top Dog last spring. It was amazing. And you gave my friend Xena a shoutout and she went crazy.” Lexie nodded. “She really wanted to meet you but she had to go to hero school, so she couldn’t.”

“Oh that’s too bad,” Boris said. 

“Which hero academy is she going to?” Cara asked. 

“Victoire,” Lexie said and Cara gave an impressed look. 

“My cousin Kai goes there,” she mentioned.

“Oh. Cool.” Lexie didn't know how else to respond to that. Plus she was focused on Conrad who wasn't moving on to the next person. Instead, he was now frowning at her. 

“Hang on, did you say your name was Lexie Sparrowfoot?” he asked. 

She nodded. 

“Any relation to Aiden Sparrowfoot?”

Discomfort immediately tightened her spine. Silence fell as both Jan and Boris stopped messing around and suddenly the stares on her took on a whole other intensity. 

“Yes,” she said, straightening her spine and losing him straight in the eyes. “He’s my father.” Lexie waited to see Conrad's reaction. She didn’t flinch under their stares because she wanted them to know she wasn’t ashamed of her father, nor was she going to deny him or hide him.

That may have been the old Lexie Sparrowfoot, but this Lexie didn't care what anyone else thought about Aiden because she knew what a fantastic person he was.

Do you? The niggling doubt echoed in her head but she brushed it aside. 

“You’re Aiden Sparrowfoot’s daughter?” Somewhat predictably Boris spoke up first. “Huh.”

Lexie kept her eyes trained on Conrad who beyond his initial surprise, now looked thoughtful. 

“That explains a lot actually,” he said, rubbing his chin. 

Lexie raised an eyebrow. What did that mean?

“Are you still going to let me train here?” she ventured carefully. 

“Huh?” He snapped back to attention, and then, “Oh yeah, of course. Of course.” He chuckled. “What, did you think I was going to kick you out because of that?”

A little bit,” she admitted, even as her muscles unknotted.

“I’m not an idiot, I don’t hold kids accountable for stuff their parents did. Besides…” He hesitated a little as though trying to look for the appropriate words to continue. “My dad knew your dad I think. And he always spoke highly of him. He was very…regretful about how things went down.”

Regretful? Lexie wondered. Why regretful?

“I think my parents knew your dad too,” Cara said, eyeing her with a look Lexie couldn’t decipher. Lexie would have guessed that an Elemental would probably have something against Aiden, but Cara didn’t look resentful. Mostly curious. 

But then Lexie also noticed something else. The entire time she’d talked Tate hadn’t looked her way once. Now she knew for sure that it was intentional. He was explicitly avoiding looking at her and he hadn’t seemed all that shocked when he’d walked in and seen her. 

Which meant he knew she was going to be here. 

I need to talk to him, Lexie thought as Conrad finally said, “And then, last but certainly not least, we have Tate Graham.”

As all eyes went to Tate, his expression turned a little uncomfortable. It was the look he usually had whenever he had to give a presentation. He always seemed to hate those, and the first thing Lexie had noticed about him was the way his hands did that flarey-fidgety thing before he folded them together. 

He did it now and stared straight ahead into the air as he spoke.

“My name is Tate Graham,” he said stiffly. “I’m here because I’m going to be the next Golden Glove champ.”

That was all he said. Conrad gave him a wry look, “Come on give us a little more buddy. Even Shadow managed to spit out more than that.”

Tate shrugged. “There’s nothing much to know about me. I don’t have any interesting hobbies or famous parents.”

“I think there’s at least one thing that’s interesting about you,” Conrad said. Tate’s face heated and he didn’t seem to want to share it but Conrad shared it for him.

“Tate here,” he said, “is a mundane.”

That was almost as shocking as Lexie’s announcement. A hush fell over the room for several seconds and Tate appeared even more uncomfortable. 

“This is a really interesting group.” Jan broke the silence. 

“No kidding,” Cara murmured. 

Conrad gave Tate an apologetic look. “Sorry, buddy. Sometimes it’s better to do it quick and rip off the bandage. Like I already told you, if you’re gonna do this, you’re going to have to get used to talking about being mundane. Sometimes it’s gonna be all people wanna hear about because it adds to the spectacle. You have to learn to own it.”

Tate nodded, mutely. He attempted an effortless shrug that didn’t quite succeed. “Yeah. I’m a mundane.”

“But even with being a mundane,” Conrad continued before anyone else could chime in. “He managed to get me to give up my flag, with little help from his teammates.”

“I think we helped more than a lot,” Shadow mentioned, his eyes glittering fiercely when he looked at Tate. He didn’t like anyone in the group, but he obviously hated Tate especially. “He just rode in here off our coattails.”

“I was there remember?” Conrad said. “It was ultimately Tate’s plan that led you guys to your win. If he hadn’t sacrificed himself, you never would have gotten the drop on me.” 

Shadow pressed his lips together, clearly disagreeing but he didn’t say anything further. Lexie made a mental note to watch Tate’s match when she got back home, to see what Conrad meant.  

“Maybe he’s not really a mundane,” Lane whispered to Blondie but Conrad caught it because Lane was terrible at whispering. 

“Nope,” Conrad said. “He is. I even had a look at his system screen to make sure. He uses mechs in his fight. Mechs unlike any I’ve ever seen.”

“Ah. So you must have a rich sponsor then,” Jan said. “Hook me up, friend.”

"No offense but I don’t think you’re going to make it,” said Blondie-Ken. What an appropriate name. “Not unless you have a sponsor with as much money to blow as Kane the Mundane and even Kane hasn’t been able to crack Top 5 yet. It’s just hard for mundanes even with mechs that usually need to be charged and run out of steam faster than we run out of mana.”

“Like I said,” Conrad said. “I’ve never seen mechs like his before. But I’m sure you guys will see it in action once you start training. Speaking of which, let me talk about what training is going to entail. First of all, we’re going to get your vitals done in that office over there, to see where you’re at in regard to your speed, strength all of that. I already have an idea of how you guys fight based on what I saw during 'Capture the Flag'. With the results of the scan, I’ll meet you one-on-one to discuss what we need to work on. Alright?” 

They all nodded. 

Conrad clapped again. “Alright, once again, we’ll start with the oldest. Boris.”

“Again with the age shaming, Conrad.”

Boris shook his head as he got up and headed toward the backroom with Conrad.

Tate also got up and headed for the front door. 

Lexie’s heart raced. Was he leaving?

She couldn’t let him escape.

But before she could rush off after him, Ken of all people stepped into her path. 

"So you’re Aiden Sparrowfoot’s kid,” he asked. 

“Yeah." She was wondering why he was talking to her.

“Did he teach you any secret techniques or something?” he asked “Is that why you’re so good with those cards?”

Ah, I see. He’s trying to suss me out as competition.

Unfortunately for him, Lexie didn’t have time to answer those questions right now. Tate was leaving and she had to catch him before he disappeared again. 

“No,” she said simply and then ran around him to catch up with Tate.