Tick Tock. Tick Tock.

A pristine clockwork tower shadowed over the steampunk townscape, its clock rising near the clouds. Steam emitted from the sides of the clock and various compartments of the building — Situated inside the tower Alexia tightened her gloves once more to allow fragments of stardust to discard along the floor. Taking a gander about realizing she was in some sort of lobby, along the 3rd floor of a 30-floor tower. Merely peering out the window was enough to witness a fantastic view of such a world.

“Wow~! They weren’t kidding about the newer models. This place seems too good to be true.” From the looks gazing at the city streets below, it actually housed people moving about making their mundane life choices in this steampunk world.

“Far too good…” Such a sight captivated her — Yet it ended rather quickly as an orb of light whizzed past the window shattering the glass in front of her. Quickly covering her face from the shattered glass, the pieces that did hit her were flung off by her turquoise aura projecting itself as cover.

Looking off in the distance to where the orb went, it shot up into the clouds — the noise it distributed disturbed the denizens below. At first, who merely pondered what happened. Alexia knew what was about to occur, shifting their gaze to the right witnessing Marissa floating in the air on top of two hexagonal panels made up of her energy.

“Alright, now let's see what you ca-” Just as Alexia stepped on shattered glass — A dozen orbs, each one differently colored, surrounded her. Before they made contact, She dashed backwards, avoiding the collision as a small explosion occurred. By the time Alexia caught her footing again, A dozen more orbs had come plummeting from the other side of the building, breaking through the walls.

This time Alexia retaliated by deflecting a few of the attacks with her fist. The rest missed destroying the other side of the lobby.

“Heh~. You’re gonna need to make more of an impact than that to best me.” Yet, before she realized it, a reply met her ear. Seated behind her on a partially destroyed couch, Marissa continued to fiddle with the clockwork.

“So it seems,” Marissa called down a dozen more orbs with the snap of her fingers, only this time they manifested above Alexia, colliding instantly forcing her down to the 1st floor. The dust kicked up as the steampunk town citizens started to get worried; some rushed to call authorities while others opted to survey the damage being caused to the tower.

Marissa let out an exhausted breath of air, glancing down the hole she made for Alexia. “Was that more to your li-” The stardust particles that laced the floor shined brightly only to explode, simultaneously destroying the entire 3rd floor. The tower itself almost collapsed, but the sturdy metal mechanics within the holding held firm.

Alexia got to her feet, dusting themself off, her aura protecting her once more from the impacts, however, fluctuating in the process.

“Sixty.” Marissa’s voice rang next to Alexia, quickly attempting to react to an elbow smacking her in the face. Alexia staggered only to be kicked out of the tower and into the streets with onlookers gazing confused.

A commotion occurred as onlookers started to speak in an unknown tongue never heard before to Alexia. No English, french, german, Russian, Italian, nothing that would denote the common language she’d listen to back home. These simulations were by far the best she’s seen — Yet such a thought came to a halt as a flurry of energy orbs dashed from the entrance of the tower.

Alexia once more deflecting them with her fists, yet accidentally knocking one into an onlooker, ripping off their head in the process. A few other unlucky souls were lost in Marissa’s attack. Unfortunately for them, such an attack was just the beginning.

What followed was the frenzy of a bullet hell lashing down upon the crowd as Alexia moved through them. Screams of terror echoing about as each individual orb attempted to hit Alexia to no avail, only breaking through the fragile bodies of the misfortune in their warpath.

“Fifty-Five.” Marissa let out another number as they stood in front of Alexia, unleashing more orbs.

“Man, her speed is insane.” Ducking underneath one of the orbs, then kicking another back into Marissa herself. Alexia took note of what appeared to be sirens in the distance, closing in on them.

“Fifty.” The reflected orb missed Marissa as it dashed into a nearby coffee shop that lingered with a few individuals. Before they could react, the sphere exploded, destroying the entire shop and damaging several other nearby buildings.

This was awkward for Marissa, swearing easily that Alexia would go down within the first minute. But, this already was going south — All of their time researching predicted none of Starlight could match her. While the girl lingered in the sky, more and more orbs started to manifest around her — The bullet hell was far from over. Only now, she continued to fiddle with her clockwork more.

“This time, I’ll make sure you won’t last another minute.” Gripping the clockwork, a button was pressed on the side, as time immediately stopped. The crowds ran away in fear of the two strange fighters. To the flock of birds in the distance and even the sound of sirens approaching halted.

Alexia, frozen in time, only fixated on Marissa. The two of them were too engrossed in their own fight to notice the ants around them. A scary factor is that people watching the match hardly noted it besides a few individuals.

“My... Starlight might be more trouble than it's worth.” Leilani Academy’s advisor Francis Le took a sip from his tea watching the match. A rather dashing old man that wore a vintage business suit. Standing behind him was Kalena — it seemed all eyes were on this match.

“So that’s Starlight's captain, right? Against Oxford's Lieutenant.”

“Yes, it would appear so. Although, no one expected Starlight to have what appeared to be an all-star team. To think East Bridge lost to them is also a hard pill to swallow.”

“During their state tournament, Was the favored school to win, Saint Mary?”

“Oh, yes. They were going to make a historic comeback if that was the case. But, it seems the real dark horse was Starlight.”

“Hmm. So if they win this. We’ll be facing them next.”

Francis turned to look at Kalena then back to the match at hand. Though, the look on his face was more concerned if Starlight managed to even the score with them. Deep down, he knew if East Bridge’s Gabriel Harper had trouble with one of their fighters. Then, it will be an uphill battle.

KABOOM!

A momentous explosion occurred within the steampunk city as a chain-reaction of the fight hitting steam tanks next to houses created a wildfire as it spread, beginning to engulf the town. Situated above the flames watching the city burn, Marissa let out an exhausted breath then merely replied.

“Forty…”

Her eyes adjusted down to see Alexia having avoided the frenzy of attacks. The only damage to the girl was blood trickling down her left leg and forehead. Damage was damage — Yet, the sheer audacity that such a foe was even dodging.

“Monsters...Every step of the way. This tournament has its fair share of monsters, and each year they keep getting worse and worse.” Marissa’s eyes darted to the people around screaming, crying, and trying to escape. Merely smiling at the destruction she's caused, lifting their right hand in the air as a large quantity of energy started to gather. “Well, I’m no exception either. Alright, Starlight! TAKE THI-”

As if experiencing a sudden shift of blood-loss. Marissa’s vision became hazy, her body heavier, and before she knew it. She had just plummeted into the ground by sheer force of gravity. Quickly snapping out of it, when she looked up, she noticed Alexia floating in the air without any support on her feet. The only thing that looked to be aiding the girl was three tiny stars revolving around her.

“You know, you should stop monologuing. It would help you out a bit more.”

“Thirty.”

Just as Alexia was about to continue speaking, one of the bullet orbs hit her in the side, sending her into a nearby building. Marissa stood up, quickly preparing to finish this match. She didn’t have long to keep using her singularity. Halting time more and more in rapid succession uses up a ton of energy and lowers the duration. This next one would end it!

“Twenty-Five is all I need.” Time once more slowed to a crawl as Marissa’s energy started to spike. The orbs gathered together, forming a larger one that was bigger than the city block but with enough power to end the match. Letting the ball go while time still halted, then it resumed as it hit the building unleashing an explosion similar to a mini-nuke.

It took only a few seconds for Marissa to realize her attack didn’t end the match. “...TWENTY!” Time slowed to a crawl. Gazing to her left, she saw Alexia inches away from punching her in the face. Moving to the side, Marissa avoided the attack as time resumed again, only for Alexia to turn around with her other fist.

Time halted.

What’s this?

Why…

“Why are there two of them?” Marissa confirmed Alexia was about to punch her, yet another Alexia was situated to the side with a shining star in hand, ready to attack. Conjuring up more orbs allowing them to form a barrier to protect her from the attacks. Time resumed, yet the punch was a fake-out while the star hit the barrier-breaking it.

Marissa knocked back higher in the sky once more halted time.

“T-Ten!”

What?!

Why is this happening?!

One, Two, Three, no Four Alexia’s surrounded her. What’s with this girl? Was it possible to be in different places at once with time halted? The only logical consideration was speed; three of them were after-images. While one was real! Marissa conjured up a flurry of orbs positioning each one around the four.

As time resumed, the orb hit each one while Marissa escaped quickly, only for her back to feel pressure. Out of instinct, she halted time one last time.

“Five.” Only five seconds to realize what was about to happen, behind her, Alexia’s fist wrapped in stardust was about to deal a decisive blow. Marissa couldn’t believe it, she expected Starlight to have one or two regional-class monsters, but this one was something else. Far beyond her team's calculations — Before she could even conjure up a defense.

Time resumed.

“[Star Shatter!]”

Stardust redirected from Alexia’s fist into Marissa’s body as a chain-reaction triggered, forcing her insides to temporarily shut down. A loud crunch would follow with the sound of her spine breaking. Something Alexia didn’t quite want to happen; it seemed Marissa wasn’t as durable as anyone else she’s faced.

Just as the sound echoed through the sky — A bright light engulfed the two, and before she even realized it. They were back in the tournament building — Alexia looked to the cameras and simply waved, not knowing what to say.

“W-W… With that, STARLIGHT TAKES THE WHEEL OF FATE VICTORY!!!” Livia shouted at the top of her lungs as crowds from around the building started to cheer.

Paige was hardly done with Alexia's drawing, yet the picture itself was more so information based on the fight. Stars drew around the board's edges, a list of elements from the periodic table, and simply Alexia half-finished. Paige erased what she drew and would leave it at that. What followed next was medics proceeding to heal Marissa of her fatal wounds.

“My… I like that one.” Mahdri’s voice crept in from behind the couch as her team finished watching the match.

“Oh? That’s odd. I didn’t think anyone in this tournament would interest you.” Valdo replied.

“I am most interested in all that makes it closer to the finals.”

“Uh-Huh. And what do you say about Starlight? They did defeat East Bridge.”

“Hmm…” Mahdri pondered for a moment. “If Star continues to do well, eventually we will collide. My hopes are that we will collide. But, there lies another problem.”

“Oh, and what would that be?”

“Georgia..”

Georgia? Valdo glanced at the tournament chart, realizing Starlight was not only on a collision course for Hawaii and Texas. But, Georgia, last year's winning state.