Nate, Lindy, and Dee all sat with their legs dangling off the side of the virtual connection table, heads hanging low. Jax entered the room to see his teammates, his friends, lower than they had been in a long time.

  "Bring it in, guys." he said, trying to get them up and moving instead of dwelling on their loss.

  The team slid off the VR beds and shuffled their feet over to Jax. The team circled around and put their heads together for their normal post-loss ritual.

  "That was it, guys. We came so far…" Jax started.

  "We did come so far. I should have just let loose and we would have won." Nate said, trying to be a leader and put the blame on himself.

  "We lost, not you lost, remember Nate? Isn't that what you always say?" Lindy added.

  "Yea." Nate sighed.

  "I wasn't there, but it felt like a close fight from this side. I'm proud to be on this team." Jax said.

  The team came together for a big hug before wiping away wet eyes and streaming tears. They stepped into the locker rooms to collect their things, and when they pressed the button for the door to open, they were met with all their friends and family who came to support them and have been supporting them all this time.

  Yoli embraced Nate in a deep hug, allowing her brother to sink into her shoulder, letting out a deep breath, trying to release all the guilt and sadness he was holding on to. Lindy hugged her uncle, tears streaming down her face. Jax was surrounded by his family rather quickly, his parents and siblings all proud of him for his invaluable contributions to the team. Dalma and Peggy wrapped around Dee together. Although she wasn't related to anyone there, or very close friends with any of them, she, like Nate, had been adopted into their circle of chosen family. Dee had never felt chosen before, so when she returned the love she received from the matriarchs of the group, she didn't know if she was crying from the pain of the loss or from her heart healing over old wounds.

  "Tough loss, guys, but we have a lot to discuss." Jarris interrupted the moment.

  "J, you old fool." a womanly voice said from a short distance down the hall.

  The group turned to find Mistress Helena walking in with a gaggle of people following her, and following them were floating cameras.

  "Team Arcane, you competed with such an admirable effort. You should be proud of what you've accomplished. I know it's fresh, I know it stings right now, but I'm telling you that you each will get incredible draft offers, possibly even as a team. Making it to the finals tournament means you not only have the ability, but you also work well as a team to make up for each other's shortcomings. After the solos tournament tomorrow, draft negotiations will be allowed to begin, even though your sponsors will have been having these conversations for several weeks at this point. Isn't that right, J?"

  The last syllable that left her lips was laced with lust as she stared down Jarris with pure sexual intensity. Mistress Helena was a predator, no doubt, and she had chosen her prey long ago.

  "Yes! That's right." Jarris said, clearing his throat.

  "Since I make the rules." Mistress Helena mused, letting out a soft, maniacal laugh. "I can tell you four have nothing to worry about, generational wealth, darlings, if you are smart with it. Though I guess that's not as important for you two." she said, pointing to Lindy and Jax. "But you, Nathan, if you do well tomorrow, you may get the highest offer this school has seen since we opened. There are some suitors that are practically salivating to get you to work for them. Anyway, I think I've said enough. Terrific job this year. Grieve for a little while longer, but then celebrate. You deserve it more than you think right now."

  Mistress Helena continued down the hall, running the tip of her furry finger along Jarris’ chest as she walked by, the sound of her heels echoing over the clamoring footsteps of her staff and the reporters following her.

  "Thanks, everyone, truly, your support has meant so much to us.” Nate said with a genuine tone of gratitude.

  “You know what I like to do when my dreams die and my life seems to have no purpose, and no reason to continue going on?”

  Every single head turned to look at Lindy’s Uncle Harry, the prodigal prince of Mara, who had made an outfit change at some point, out of the former black-on-black embroidered jacket and pants combo to a plain but vibrant light blue suit with black-button down shirt, with all-black accessories, shoes, and sunglasses. His black hair was slicked back and oily to capitalize on the vibe of his outfit.

  "Party." he uttered to the crowd of mostly older people, except Team Arcane and Jax’s younger siblings. His grin was not malicious, but he definitely wasn’t thinking of having a totally wholesome night out either.

  "I’m down for drinking till I black out." Dee spoke up.

  "Atta girl!" Harry said loudly, catching his niece Lindy off guard, causing her to step away from holding her Uncle as he stepped forward and put an arm around Dee. "You Piggans have a bar, right?" he asked, looking at Hal and Peggy.

  Peggy nodded, not sure where this was going but having a pretty good idea.

  "Excellent. The first five shots for each of you are on me. You’ll have to come up with some change from your pocketbook afterwards. I’m sure you Stocks can manage, right?" he said, smiling, but the joke didn’t exactly land. "Come now… what was your name again?" he continued as he looked at Dee, confused as to why he couldn’t remember.

  "Tonight, I hope I drink enough to forget it myself." Dee replied.

  Harry laughed, twirling her around with him as they walked off down the hall to find an exit. Everyone else looked at each other in confusion before Kalazan broke the silence.

  "The only thing that might make this even more enjoyable would be if we got Helena and Jarris at that bar tonight and one of them got drunk.”

  A grin cracked along Hal’s face. "Now that’s what I’m talking about!" he shouted.

  Later at Slop, Nate found himself with Lindy, Harry, and Dee listening to Harry’s wild adventures as a wayward royal using his connections and money to do almost whatever he wanted. Even though monarchies were a thing of the past in Union space, Planet Mara still held on to traditions by treating the Royal family as a symbolic figure for the planet.

  The Arcane Operators, their spouses, and their fifth wheel Jarris were sitting at a booth drinking, eating, and having a good time remembering their own adventures from the height of their days as contractors. Peggy and Dalma were harassing Jarris about not calling Helena and that it was only a matter of time. Jarris would argue that there was no way that would happen as he’d been out of contact for so long and so on. The same argument they’d had decades ago before Jarris went underground, literally.

  Nate turned his head and saw Jax showing his parents and Hix the blueprints for the gear he had made for the team. They were all hunched over a table looking at his link while Jax was explaining the design process, earlier iterations, and other enhancement ideas he’d had for future iterations. Nate felt a hand on his shoulder causing him to turn and see his sister Yoli, Solvei, and Kiki.

  “Hey, we just got a call, some huge flood on some swamp planet. You would think their infrastructure would be prepared for that sort of thing, but I guess not. We are probably going to miss tomorrow since they are calling for all hands on deck.”

  “No problem, thanks for coming today, I really appreciate it.”

  “That really was some incredible fighting." Kiki spoke up. “Never saw that good of stuff when I was at the ACC, you’re going to crush it tomorrow.”

  “It was nice meeting you, Nate, and good luck tomorrow, you’ll do awesome.” Solvei added.

  “Ok, ok, let’s not give him too big of a head.” Yoli put her hands up to stop the puffing up of her younger brother, she then pulled him in for a hug. “You’re a hero in my book already…. If you tell anyone I said that, I’ll kill you… and then bring you back to life. Cause I’m…”

  “A doctor?” Nate interrupted.

  Yoli pointed an obnoxious finger gun at her brother before waving and leaving Slop. Before she walked out the door though, she stopped at the table where Kalazan and the others were sitting. They exchanged a few words, Kalazan nodding a lot, and then she waved and actually left this time.

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  Nate turned back to where Harry and Dee were supposed to be, but all he saw was Lindy. She was in her tracksuit the team received earlier that morning, but she was making it work for her. Nate looked her up and down, noticing how low she had let the zipper fall down her chest, how her curves from her chest to her hips to her legs filled out the suit. She made anything look good; she was a goddess in Nate’s eyes.

  “You get a good enough look?” Lindy asked.

  Nate was startled but tried to play it smooth. “Not yet.”

  Lindy punched Nate in the arm for that but blushed at the same time.

  “Are we allowed to be a thing now, I mean, be more open?”

  “No.” Lindy said non-chalantly.

  Nate frowned. “Why not?”

  “Because you have a tournament tomorrow, you need to be ready for that. You’re going to have to face Biff, you know?”

  “Yeah, that’s true. But right now I can only focus on you.”

  “Well then maybe I should leave.” Lindy said playfully.

  “Maybe we should leave together?”

  “Naughty boy! It’s almost bedtime for you.”

  “It’s almost bedtime for us.”

  “Nathan!” Lindy scoffed as she took his hand. “I’m not that kind of girl. You have a little more work to do just yet.”

  Nate moved in closer and put his arm around Lindy as they watched Hal and his band get on stage for the millionth time.

  “Tough loss for Team Arcane today, but the semifinals in the finals tournament ain’t nothing to sneeze at. We are proud of them and we are looking forward to seeing how the draft goes for them, everyone give it up for Team Arcane!”

  The audience clapped, cheered, and hollered as Hal turned the energy of the crowd into their first upbeat country bop. Once again, Nate’s, Lindy’s, Dee’s, and Jax’s worries were washed away as they were surrounded by friends, family, and good music.

  “I’m going totry to go to bed early, big day tomorrow.” Nate said, turning to Lindy. Lindy held his face and gave him a brief but passionate kiss before saying goodnight.

  Seeing Nate head towards the door, Jarris got up from the booth filled with his friends and caught him before he hit the elevator. “Hey, let’s take a walk.”

  Nate nodded as they then rode the elevator down to the ground level and walked out to the early evening atmosphere of The Hub. Young people were walking about shopping in the Market District, trying to decide where to go for their Saturday night festivities.

  “Meet me at the training room at Kalazan’s, let’s see how much faster you are now." Jarris said with a smirk as he hunched over, getting into a runner’s position before disappearing after a couple of seconds. Nate did a couple of stretches before he too took off in a spontaneous run. Jarris’ words were repeating in his head: Let’s see how fast you are now. What did he mean by that? And why is it so windy in a giant space station? That’s when it clicked for Nate. He took note of where he was, the wind blowing through his hair, how fast he passed people on the sidewalk. He was moving fast, very fast, faster than ever before.

  After a few short minutes, he had arrived at Kalazan’s Emporium and Attunement Services and took the elevator to the top level. Walking through the ornate lobby, he entered the training room that Kalazan had let him train in for a few months before he entered Contractor School about a year ago. It had been a while since he had been in the sterile dojo, as Nate liked to call it, but it was familiar and almost like a home away from home while he was very far away from his real home.

  Jarris was standing there, link in hand. “Were you even trying? Five minutes and twenty-four seconds. Have you even been training this whole time, or have you been sitting on your ass just studying like some nerd?”

  “I literally sat on my ass in this very room while you lectured and quizzed me on so many things, so I don’t know who you think you’re talking to.”

  Jarris smirked and chuckled. “You’re much faster now, and you’ve got a lot of room to improve, if you can believe that.”

  “I can’t, actually. I’ve never run that fast in my life, I think i could have gone faster though if we are being honest. Just this last week I finally broke a 7-minute mile, I don’t understand.”

  “You resonated, I thought we went over that already?”

  “I remember you getting pissed at me, but you didn’t go into much detail other than I should hide my new capabilities for the Solos Tournament.”

  “And that, my boy, is why I’ve brought you here! It’s time to see what you can do. We just need to be careful not to break stuff.”

  Jarris called up several dummies and a black wall between the dummies and the wall of the training room that bordered the exterior of the building. “When you knock a dummy off its hooks, knock it into this wall and we will be able to tell the level of force you are repelling things.”

  Nate stepped up and focused his shield into his fist and then took a stance to jab at the dummy. When he connected with the dummy, it rocketed into the wall effortlessly, cleanly snapping the wires holding it up from the ceiling.

  “Awesome, now give me full force. I’m going to stand behind the wall and make sure we don’t break anything.”

  Nate walked to the next dummy and readied a perfect punch, positioning his body, aligning his hips, and stretching his arm just a little before letting his fist fly into the dummy. But instead of the whole dummy being sent back into the wall, only the head flew back, having been ripped clean from the rest of the body leaving a large crater in the metallic wall.

  Jarris poked his head from around the wall and then stepped in front of it to examine the damage. “That’s a very expensive alloy and Kalazan is going to be very mad at you.”

  Nate’s face went red with embarrassment and anger. “You told me to give it everything.”

  “Oh, please, I’m only kidding. The guy is super rich; he won’t care at all.”

  Jarris walked over to the console where he attempted to gather the readings from the sensors. “Yeah, so you broke it for sure, but that’s a good problem. Just be careful on a mission so you don’t, ya know, kill someone or something you don’t mean to, ya know?”

  Nate nodded, gulping down the guilt of breaking the sensor and the stress of remembering that he needed to be careful and pull his punches now.

  “Let’s try your teleportation. We already know you can teleport a lot farther, have you tried anything else with it?”

  Nate shrugged. “Like what?”

  “Can you bring other people with you now?”

  “Oh, uh, I don’t know.” Nate walked up and awkwardly put a hand on the dummy with no head and activated his warp step ability, but only he appeared on the other side of the room.

  “Maybe after your next resonance. Have you felt or seen anything else appear since your dream?”

  “Well, my shield can cover my whole body now, like my suit helped me do. So I guess I don’t need that anymore.”

  “That’s excellent, actually. Being your own shield in a firefight will really take the pressure off your team. What about your tingling fingers?”

  Nate summoned the tingling feelings to his fingers as he had at the beginning of their first match of the tournament against Team Stomp. He put his hands out and let the feeling flow from his fingers, causing him to become an epicenter of faint ripples in space-time. The ripples faded about twenty feet from him, where he could hear the straining stretch of the metal wires hanging on to the dummy with a missing head. Nate focused on the dummy, and the coiled wires got louder as they stretched, the dummy sinking lower to the ground. Nate focused harder and the wires snapped, causing the dummy to quickly and unnaturally fall to the floor with a thud. The halves of the wires that were still hanging from the ceiling weren’t swaying, and the frayed edges were taut and pointing straight down.

  “What is this, Jarris? Some kind of gravity field?”

  “You, my friend, have been given an aura ability. They are extremely rare and equally dangerous. It appears you can control the gravity in an area centered on you. Let’s try a couple of tests.”

  Jarris walked over to Nate and stood about ten feet from him. “Okay, turn it on, but not full blast. Let’s see how this works.”

  “Are you sure?” Nate asked.

  “If you could hurt me, I wouldn’t be doing this. Trust me.”

  Nate slowly allowed the powerful feeling to flow from his body outward in a circular area around him.

  “Interesting, I feel it now.”

  “What does it feel like?”

  “It feels like a weighted blanket lightly fell on me. Go ahead and increase.”

  Nate searched within himself and visualized a fountain of water increasing its flow, filling up the bowl where the water sat.

  “Oh yeah, awesome. It’s so much heavier now.”

  Jarris got down and started doing some push-ups.

  “It still has the feeling of the weighted blanket, but it’s 10 times heavier.”

  He started doing laps around Nate, casually jogging, but his breathing was heavier than when Nate had seen him exert himself before.

  “Okay, let’s see how far this extends.”

  Jarris walked away from Nate to about twenty feet. As if he was dodging punches, Jarris swayed in and out of the gravity shield Nate was producing, gauging where the border of his aura was.

  “Right about here.” Jarris said, twenty feet away from Nate.

  “Okay, in just a second I want you to give me everything you got.”

  Jarris started tapping away at the panel he used to summon the dummies and the black wall that measured the force of his shield. A square metal platform appeared from the ground that was about two feet long on each of its sides; He then picked it up and placed it in Nate’s gravity field.

  “Okay, turn the dial all the way, Nate.”

  Nate searched for the fountain of power inside him again and when he found it, he imagined it as a full geyser, like Old Faithful from Yellowstone back home. The surrounding room creaked and groaned, feeling the burden he was placing on it.

  Jarris stepped from the panel and into the increased gravity field.

  “Wow, this is incredible, truly. I’ve seen and fought against aura abilities before, but this is unique.”

  Jarris got down again and did some push-ups like normal but was more out of breath than before when he got back up.

  “When you get this up to master level, this will be just a terrifying power, Nathan. I would keep this in your back pocket until the end of the tournament or if you are in big trouble. Then again, I don’t know if anyone at Greenie or Rookie is going to be able to deal with this.”

  Jarris looked Nate straight in the eyes. “You’re going to win this thing, no doubt.” He said with a big toothy smile.