Wake up…

Come on... Wake up…

A gentle voice echoed out to Deveron, blinking for a moment he’d find himself back home in his bed, but younger. His eyes gazed upon the one waking him, his little sister.

“Come on! Mom’s waiting!” The girl shouted before rushing out of the room, holding a hand to his head. He wondered why he was here, where…was he? Oh, that’s right the day when his sister entered into a coma.

But, why now? His mind started to wander slowly exiting the bed, only to fall to the ground, seeping through the floor into a white void. Time quickly passed by the boy as he aged up to now where he is, eventually, the void of white halted his movements, there Deveron stood looking at the empty void. Only for buckets of cash to fill up around him, a flash of light hit his face.

Cameras!

The sound of people buzzing away in awe at him, only for pamphlets and newspapers to come falling down, one with the header ‘Prodigy Boy’, and ‘Middle-School MVP’. Next, Deveron heard the sound of a heart-rate monitor, slowly the boy turned to face his sister, laying in a medical bed, eyes closed and no signs of waking up. This…Curse. As he would describe it, a curse that has sprung up in the past 10 years, that only seems to affect very few singularity users. Before the incident, his sister was gifted with the power of flames, a common power, but over time the power started to fade more and more.

Likely, it was for a good reason their family thought until the ability of her losing her power started to affect the body. As if the power was linked to one's soul, she slowly drifted into a sleep that she has yet to awaken to.

With the prize money, Deveron can finally provide for his sister, and get to the bottom of this curse. One by one, the money started to fade away, even the newsletters, and now standing before him was his team. Cheveyo, Roy, Heidi, and Alexia. The five of them were likely to split the money, he had his doubts about his teammates at first, Two of them were otherwise useless depending on the circumstance, he could only trust Cheveyo to get things done, and above all else, without even so much as reviewing the newcomer. Reynolds let in a novice. Despite, Alexia being a year ahead and a senior classmate, she lacked knowledge of the fights and had no interest until the money was brought up.

An exhausted breath of air left him — Indeed, he wasn’t much of a team player even after all the matches they went through. He was a fighter forged by the individuals, where the claims and rewards were solely on him and him alone. But, now things were different — He HAD to be a team player. If he didn’t he’d regret everything.

Everyone slowly faded away in front of him, only to be replaced by Pearl. The pro-fighter that sprung up as if hidden from the system. Connections with Reynolds who has hands somewhere in the foundation and other leagues. Despite his harsh attitude to them upon meeting, she made quite the teacher.

The hard part was getting used to the way they spoke. Yet, it was Pearl that allowed him to tap into his singularity and improve upon it. To endure pain and send the pain back was always a double-edged sword. But, to endure the hit and replicate one’s own attack and send it back even stronger was another story entirely.

Teaching such a skill could damage one mentally if they aren’t prepared for the pain, yet Deveron endured each attempt at fighting Pearl the vibrations became less and less painful, and to replicate it was even harder and when he managed it, the damage was devastating.

Some of the lessons required him to be on the verge of losing consciousness, a fear that only further reminded him of his sister. It was this that allowed his powers to develop further. By the end of it, he could tell if their team were to have duo matches. It wasn’t him and Cheveyo that would be the star duo. It was him and Alexia. But, even he wasn’t foolish enough to try and replicate the attacks, Alexia dished out. The heat emitting from those stars would burn his handoff. Taking the brunt of those attacks was one thing, but replicating what she does was something not even he wanted to attempt.

Closing his eyes, Deveron once more took a deep breath in, then exhaled. Upon opening them, he was once more back into the fight, flames flickered around him, his body no longer on fire, and chaos ran amok in the small town, yet everything was set on pause.

Turning to his left, He saw the owl.

“Took you long enough…But… Thanks, I needed to clear my head it seemed.”

The owl merely turned its head around and flew up towards a nearby building, only for a commanding voice of the spirit to echo out.

“Ten…Seconds…”

Ten seconds to brace himself, the situation escalated more and more, Not only was Tae altering the terrain with their singularity, each time a number hit, it would either buff or debuff all of them… Even herself. It could be used to his advantage in the next attack.

Next was Mason, the guitarist with a singularity similar to Pearl, only he needed a guitar to let out the vibrations. Deveron often heard about those that would use their voice or musical notes to emit powerful vibrations in the European League. If he played his cards right, he might have a chance to take the vibration and return it back.

Lastly, Triston, Millennium's high’s rising flamer. In reality, he is the most destructive one compared to the rest, his flames burned hotter than even those in the regionals back home. Truly, he was blessed with the talent of burning things. To harness such intense flames, one likely was born with an affinity for it. Such an affinity he noticed in Heidi also, only to think back momentarily on his sister. Maybe she would have had a similar affinity, alas, Deveron stopped such a thought placing his gaze on everyone's position.

Time started to once more flow. Ten seconds were up, and the owl was no longer in sight — But, with it finally activated, finally they could stay on the attack!

Triston lifted up his hand altering the course of the flames, everything was burning and getting hotter and hotter. A number started to change above his head during the process.

[+14]

“Thanks for the help, Girlie!”

Thrusting his fist forward an enormous fireball hurtled its way towards Tae. Tae prepared to brace herself for the incoming fireball, only for it to be intercepted by Deveron jumping in front of them and absorbing the brunt of the attack by extending his hand out.

“W…Wait a minute, don’t think just cause you saved me we’re gonna team up.” Tae’s number started to change from +-0 as she spoke.

“Hm? Oh, I know.” Swiftly, Deveron turned around kicking Tae in the side of the head. The sheer speed of which she couldn’t follow only for the kick to knock her out. Deveron then attempted to redirect his body by back-flipping. His hand extended out during the flip gathering the flames, only to be knocked back by the force of his own fireball being sent at Triston.

“Oi…You’re supposed to be the one on fire.”

Triston once more raised his hand, preparing to absorb the flames. The heat from this particular fireball was far more than even he could handle, as his own hands started to burn upon making contact.

“No…Way!”

Triston had to force both of his hands onto the fireball as it started to push him back, his hands were starting to break through the flames. Control being lost rapidly. Eventually, the fireball backed Triston into a building, only to explode wrapping that part of town in a swirl of flames.

Deveron collided with the ground next to Tae holding the side of his hip. Performing a stunt like that will likely round him up in the hospital if he isn’t careful. Two down, one more to go, luckily none of the secondary fighters showed up, they were all occupied with each other. Too busy to lend a hand.

A light strum of the guitar echoed out across the street, there was now only one more fighter left. No sense in fueling one's confidence towards the end. Finish the fight, then there's room to celebrate. Those words ran through Deveron’s mind as he slowly stood up holding his sides.

Deveron instinctively looked to the right down the street near the swirl of flames. Erupting through a building, Cheveyo and Taylor came tumbling out. Cheveyo managed to catch himself up against a tipped-over streetlight. Taylor on the other hand smacked right up against the wall, the barrier protecting them breaking apart. A few of her drones were seen coming out of the fire shooting at Jumon. Such toys were rendered useless because of his high-speed singularity, a few kicks, and the drones collided with the ground.

“Phew~!” He adjusted himself only to perk up seeing Elsie from above, raising his arm to defend himself. Elsie delivered a powerful dropkick that shook the ground beneath them. Jumon responded by grabbing her leg and tossing her towards Taylor. Which, Taylor couldn’t avoid or shield herself from as they collided.

A light strum from a guitar echoed through the area as Mason finally stepped in, watching Elsie get tossed like a ragdoll was amusing to him, but clearly things needed to end. And just his luck, everyone was in a single area. Ready for the match to end.

“[Flow]...”

Purple energy began to gather around his body, his guitar lighting up as well, and pressure in the area started to condense as everyone felt the gravity push down on them more and more. First, Taylor would collapse and sink into the ground, then Elsie who unfortunately was being caught in friendly fire. Triston still wrapped in flames wasn’t going to budge as gravity pushed him down. Jumon couldn’t move his legs, and Cheveyo tried to push up.

“Let’s play a nice tune to end this…A victory song to me~.”

This is bad! Very bad! Deveron tried to move, but the pain in his side and the gravity prevented him from budging also. The energy building up and up around Mason continued, something needed to be done. Could he take the brunt of the hit? This type of technique the more it built up, the more it reminded him of Pearl. This means, he only had one chance.

“Once more…Let’s say it together~.”

Mason once more strummed his guitar only this time, an enormous vibration emitted from his guitar, this vibration, however, was visible. A purple wave of energy was about to overtake the entire town and all the fighters in one go. Five seconds till impact!

Five!

The vibration uplifted the earth, buildings being swept off their foundation as hurricane-like winds followed behind.

Four!

Three!

Two!

Deveron felt someone touch his leg, and then the cry of an owl.

One!

Time slowed to a crawl, the vibration was inches away from Deveron. He looked down at the one grabbing his Leg, it was Tae who was slowly breathing, but still being weighed down by gravity. She was unaffected by the owl, likely due to touching him.

“...C…Ka..”

She tried to speak, but words couldn’t come out, the pressure was too much. Yet, the number above her started to change. And once more a number above Dev appeared.

[-1] - Tae

[+-0] - Deveron

“Sta….Stop….H…Him.”

The girl looked like she was about to blackout, either the kick was too strong or the gravity started to cripple their breathing, either way. This stroke of luck is thanks to the spirit and not only that, Tae.

“Geez…Guess you don’t like winning~.”

Upon being given +-0 the pressure of gravity no longer affected him, he held out his hand in front of the wave of energy. Only one way out of this, take the hit and end this. Out of the corner of his eye, Deveron spotted the owl.

The spirit spoke once more.

“Five…Four…”

Even this owl was rushing him. He merely closed his eyes, concentrating. Once more time starts to flow again, the wave of energy colliding against Deveron. His body began to endure the hit, absorbing the energy forcing it on him. Hands started to violently shake, legs twitching rapidly. His heart pumped more and more ready to explode.

“[FLOW!]”

Deveron lifted his fist, only to slam it into the ground sending out his own wave of energy that consumed Tae, followed by Jumon, Cheveyo, and the rest. Mason watched on as his attack looked to be returning towards him, first the hurricane-like winds swept past him knocking him from his feet, followed by the debris from buildings.

“N-No way!”

It all happened so fast in his eyes, there was no way Starlight had the time to process that attack on him. Of course, Mason was hit by the energy as well.

“Game Set!”

The familiar robotic voice emitted around the destroyed field.

“Winner! Starlight!”

Triston and Taylor were forced out of the system first, slamming onto the ground outside. Followed by Mason and Elsie falling down the stairs to the machine. Jumon reappeared on the machine only to catch an exhausted Tae who was now gasping for air. Cheveyo hit the ground hard, only to glance up to see a victorious Deveron lift up his hand as the crowd hyped up his accomplishment.

An amazing comeback by Starlight as the audience and many around the nation were set up for a rather unique finale.

1-1-1-1

All the schools were tied, with no aid from teammates. And a grand prize on the horizon, this tournament will be going down in the history books!

A captain's showdown is imminent!