“Well... Chevy. Looks like I pulled you into the lion's den.” Reynolds began to inspect the two muscular students. They were indeed well-built. Both of them had their suppressors on. The male’s had his strapped around the neck. It was honestly amazing people could even put it around their necks and other body parts. Some models were always stretchable or could increase in size depending on the features of a model. While his was around the neck area, it didn’t seem like he had another on him. Though it was a different case, the girl had two suppressors colored in pink strapped down to both wrists. It wasn’t common to see colored suppressors. The normal was always in grey or white, the newer ones being in black as well.

“Calling them lions is a bit harsh, teach.” Cheveyo glanced back at Reynolds.

“Oh? Then what would you call these two?”

At that moment, Cheveyo’s tattoos began to glow with the essence of green. Directly on his back, his eagle tattoo began to change shape turning into a crow. Reynolds couldn’t possibly detect it since he was still wearing his uniform. But, there was a slight difference in Cheveyo now.

“Vultures.” He snarled.

“A vulture and a lion. I think we should stop.” Reynolds added. The two East Bridge students turned around to see them.

“Oi, Gabby.” The male's voice was quite profound. “Are they allowed in here?”

“Hm?” The girl turned around, looking at Reynolds and Cheveyo. She was not in full view; both of them noticed she had both of her hands wrapped in bandages, and in her left hand was a rapier.

“They’re allowed in here. The exhibition match hasn’t even started yet. But…” Gabby’s words stopped short as she saw Cheveyo’s uniform.

“But, what?”

“That’s a nice uniform you have on. What’s the name of your school? It must be pretty fancy if you’re flashing colors like those.” Gabby gave a smile to both of them, ignoring the student to her right.

“The lion…” Cheveyo muttered underneath his voice.

“I’m sorry?” Gabby couldn’t quite hear what he said.

“I apologize. We’re from Starlight Academy. It’s a new school within the region. I’m Reynolds, a teacher at the academy and coach for our singularity club.” Reynolds introduced himself properly, but Cheveyo didn’t seem keen on speaking.

“Well, it’s always nice to see new schools participating. I’m Gabby Harper…My more stoic friend here is Daniel Moore.”Gabby motioned her hands towards Daniel next to her.

“Nice to meet you, folks!” Daniel gave a cheery smile along with a thumbs up.

“I take it you’re here to watch the exhibition match? I don’t mind other schools getting a read on us, but so long as you enjoy the show, it's all fine.” Gabby informed.

“No, we weren’t here to watch anything. I just wanted to show my student here the arena. This is his first time participating.”

“Oh? So this isn’t Deveron. Hm… It was my mistake in thinking it was. I was hoping to see the little MVP face to face.” Gabby crossed her arms over her chest.

“Sadly, he’s back at school, but don’t worry. You’ll get to see him next month.” Reynolds glanced up at one of the stands seeing people from the media setting up cameras once more. He even saw the students from Saint Mary’s within the stands. Just what sort of exhibition was about to go down.

“A shame… I wanted to see starlight's champion. Well, if you’ll excuse me, I have a match to attend.” Gabby turned around and gave a wave of goodbye. Daniel took a brief second to give a salute to them then headed off after her.

“So… Was that who I think it was?” Cheveyo glanced over at Reynolds, who was smiling like a fool.

“Oh yeah! That’s the Idaho state champion. Gabby Harper. I didn’t think she’d be back from France already.”

“What was she doing there?”

“She was attending an exhibition match similar to this one in Paris. Though, No broadcasts or media were allowed in that match. So it’s unknown of what went down.” Reynolds turns around, heading back inside.

“Come on, let’s watch this match.”

“Yes, Sir.” Cheveyo followed behind. The two would head up towards the stands taking a seat in a relatively good spot to see the screens. Down below, a few people dressed in business suits would enter and greet Gabby. These individuals were affiliates from the Singularity Foundation. Organizers of tournaments around the world along with researchers in singularity. To say the foundation had a considerable part to play in the world would be an understatement. Some considered many within the foundation to be similar to the Vatican in terms of secrets. Others would simply create bizarre rumors about them online. Regardless of what the foundation was up to, they always made a note of unique singularity users. At the end of the day, the foundation was first and foremost sponsoring potential fighters.

“Hmmm… Wonder who’s going to be fighting.” Reynolds glanced around before noticing at least ten other singularity fighters standing on Gabby and Daniel's opposite side. Reynolds wasn’t sure about what the foundation was doing with these people; they seemed like the typical athlete, but some were already flexing their powers by summoning flames in their hands. Another was simply punching the air at lightning speeds; it was hard for Reynolds to keep up with just the punch alone.

“They look tough. Is this going to be a one on one match?” Cheveyo asked

“Doesn’t look like it.” As Reynolds said that both Gabby and Daniel stepped up onto one of the staging hexes together. The other ten fighters stepped up on the opposite two, splitting in half by five on each. The foundation staff that accompanied them moved to the sides to watch some of them had clipboards in hand.

On the other side of the stands, opposite of Reynolds and Cheveyo. Saint Mary’s Academy was seated watching the scene.

“Hey, Hey Quinn~.” Angela began to tug at Quinn's uniform.

“What.” He replied.

“How do you think this is gonna go? It’s ten against two!”

“East bridge won’t lose. It’s a shame, really. They’re already flaunting their powers.” Quinn replied.

“But, that guy has flames!”

“So? What use are those flames if they can barely reach his own toes.”

“Oh, deary! The foundation really wants to test their strength against schools nowadays.” Lennox took a seat beside both of them with a bottle of water in his hand.

“Hey, hey! Why is that, Professor?” Angela became curious about Lennox’s answer.

“I guess because your generation has an increased affinity in your powers. There are a lot of you with unique abilities nowadays compared to past generations. Though… I do feel sorry for those people. Oh, deary.” Lennox began to drink his water bottle.

“Oi… Don’t forget why we’re here, Angela.” Quinn looked back at her with an annoyed grin.

“R-Right! I didn’t forget. This is for Mary!” Angela reached into her pocket, taking out a tiny cam recorder. “This is going to be great for her.”

Angela began recording the match. Quinn, on the downside, was even more disappointed, merely shaking his head in disbelief at Angela.

“Oh, deary. Why are you using a camera?” Lennox asked.

“A-Ah… This is the only thing my dad had. He said it still works; it's from the ’90s.”

“That thing is an antique. It’s even rusting in a few spots. Whatever...Just make sure you have the footage when we get back.” Quinn added.

“Are we even allowed to do this?” Angela began adjusting the camera onto the machine below.

“It’s fine, deary. Most exhibition matches don’t allow recordings from anyone, but this is a public one.” Lennox continued to sit there, focused more so on the foundation members below than the match.

“Perfect!” Angela finally got the camera adjusted and focused it directly on the viewing screen. The stage was set for this exhibition match for all those viewing. One of the foundation’s staff members had a microphone in his hand as he stood on the steps of the singularity machine.

“I thank you all for coming. We will now begin the exhibition match for East Bridge Highschool. The rules are simple. The machine will have its safety off. Meaning your attacks can be fatal. If any of you try and kill, we will eject you immediately from the match.” The staff member began to inform them about the safety. Indeed, all singularity machines come with safety options. The safety toggle is meant to prevent permanent injuries on individuals when they eject. But, with the safety off, whatever fatal injury that occurs in the match itself will stay with you.

The foundation staff member then motioned to two individuals in the back. The two were dressed up similarly to the foundation members; their color-format and outfit were the only difference. While the regular foundation members wore a black and white business suit, these two were in a white and red medical robe—the medical branch of the singularity foundation composed of singularity users with incredible healing abilities.

“But, do not worry. Our medical branch will heal your wounds that will be inflicted on you. Fighters prepare for battle!” The foundation staff member moved away from the machine while the fighters were preparing for battle.

“Our club's machine has a safety feature also.” Cheveyo continued to primarily look down at Gabby from the stands.

“Yep. It would be bad if we set it off. But, don’t worry. The actual tournament will have the safety on. In fact, it's against the rules to take it off unless all parties agree.” Reynolds added.

“So you’re saying east bridge accepted this ruleset?”

“Most likely. Honestly, I’d be terrified to even participate in a match like this. Two against ten, safety’s off. It’s going to end badly for someone.” Reynolds didn’t like the fact that they were about to witness a false deathmatch or anything that had the potential to kill. Yet, in this crazy world at the end of the day, people enjoyed watching this kind of stuff. The special people who partook in it were even crazier oftentimes.

Gabby held up her rapier, merely staring at it, not even focused on the other ten fighters. Just then, Daniel lightly smacked her back, giving a stellar smile. He was excited to finally face people who could contend with him other than his classmates. Waiting to meet his peers in the nationals would take too long anyway since that was in December.

“Heh… So Gab. I’ll take all of them, and you can stand there looking pretty~.” Daniel didn’t seem to have any sort of weapon on him. Only his muscles and bare fists.

“How about you get off the stage, and I'll handle this,” Gabby responded.

“No way! It would ruin our tradition if we didn’t fight together! Last time you didn’t even let me participate in the doubles match.”

“For good reason, you always get in the way and charge ahead. You’re more brawn than brain.”

“Hehe! I’ll take that as a compliment! ALRIGHT! PREPARE TO BURN!” Daniel shouted towards the ten fighters who weren’t having any of it. Upon closer inspection, these fighters wore tags with the ‘S.F.’ initials on them. They were also foundation members, yet none of them looked the part. In fact, some of them seemed like they were handpicked off the streets.

Suddenly, the singularity machine began to rev up. A wide disbursement of blue particles manifested from the hexes. A monotone voice began to emit from the machine.

“Players at the ready!” It echoed through the stadium as the particles' light began to cause all the panels to shine brightly underneath all the fighters' feet.

“Location set! Train station! Beginning transfer!” With that said, the machine finally activated as all the fighters began to dematerialize and then manifest in a train station similar to ones found all across America.

Gabby and Daniel stood in the middle of the tracks, the distant sound of trains clearly approaching. Daniel bumped both of his fists together as a large embrace of flames scattered all across his body, even spiking up his hair. Gabby didn’t do anything special other than step back from the fire gripping tightly on her rapier.

“Let’s make a quick bet, Danny.” Gabby tugged at Daniels jersey, which was now half in flames, yet not disintegrating.

“Hm? Okay, I’m listening.”

“First one to get the highest k.o. count gets to take the captain spot.” She smirked, knowing full well he wouldn’t deny this.

“You’re on! I’ll claim the spot as captain of the team! Daniel Moore! Heading out!” With that, Daniel charged off without saying anything else. Gabby stood there in the middle of the tracks while the flames trailed off her teammate. He left just as quickly as they arrived.

“Idiot.”