Daniel jumped in surprise when the box appeared in front of him, taking a moment to read it carefully. “Whoa. We’re both unranked?”

“Yeah. If someone verbally says ‘I challenge you to a fight’ to you and then your name, you have to accept or you automatically lose the fight. We’re both unranked, so there’s no rank to lose, but we didn’t just come here to stand around.” Carmen shrugged.

He grinned, finger hovering over the accept button. To the side, the box displayed information about Carmen — her headshot, her Fighter name, and a chart showing her stats.

Daniel opened his own stats page, comparing the two. Her stats looked similar to his. They both had low health, and they were both good at close range. But, while Daniel had higher flat-out Damage, Carmen’s spikes at Combo Potential and Speed were worrying, along with her decent Long-Range stat. She’d screw him up when they got close, and she clearly had something to pester him with far away.

Daniel shrugged and pressed accept. No matter. All he had to do was counter and it wouldn’t matter.

In the blink of an eye, a referee appeared between them, standing slightly off to the side. His body was semi-transparent, and his clothes and his skin glowed bright blue, just like they did on TV.

“Two-round match!” The referee’s voice boomed throughout the training room, even though his microphone wasn’t connected to anything. “Fighters! Are you ready?”

A green bar appeared above Carmen’s head; that must be her health bar. As she put up her fists, Daniel squinted. Was something fading into existence behind her? Were his eyes playing tricks on him?

They weren’t. A transparent creature floated behind her, half man, half humanoid bird, feathers jagged and lightning yellow. Daniel’s jaw dropped.

That was her new power.

“I don’t have a name for him yet, but…” Carmen looked back at the half-bird-half-man ghost. “Chip. He looks like a Chip. What do you think?”

Daniel smiled, putting his fists up. “I think I’m about to get jumped.”

He didn’t show it, but it felt awkward holding his fists in front of his face. Were they too low? Were they too high? He relaxed his fists, lowering them. Hopefully, it didn’t look like he had never been in a fight before — that was true. Thanks to his sarcasm and humor, everyone back at school liked him too much to want to fight him.

As he over-thought the positions of his fists, he noticed something new on each of his wrist. A green bar floated on his inner left wrist, with a 90 on the other side, where a watch would’ve been. That must’ve been his health and the timer, but what was the blue bar on his right wrist?

“Ready!” Carmen said, entering a fighting pose, raising her fists just like his own.

“I’m ready, too.” In his mind, Daniel reminded himself of his one move. Fists to the side, chest out, and boom — he could counter anything.

“Round one!” the ref shouted, raising his hand. “Ready? Fight!”

Time to put it to the test.

Carmen crouched and rose to her feet as she stepped forward, raising her hand to snap. Behind her, Chip, the bird ghost, struck the same post.

Block!

Daniel’s inner voice shouted at him, and every alarm in his body went off at once. Frozen in panic, frozen in processing what was about to happen, Daniel couldn’t put his hands up fast enough. She snapped her fingers, and a bolt of yellow lightning struck his chest, crossing the distance in an instant.

He cried out in pain. Every muscle in his body jumped, going numb, refusing to obey his commands. Yellow electricity arced along his skin. As he stood there paralyzed, Carmen rushed closer and drove her fist into his chin, throwing an uppercut. Daniel thought he’d just get knocked back, but no — he flew several feet into the air. Carmen leaped after him, kicking him twice before Chip punched him back down.

Daniel hit the ground hard, groaning. His chest still buzzed where the lightning hit, and his chin throbbed. Was this what Fighters felt all the time? This hurt!

Carmen was on the approach. As she landed, Daniel shot to his feet, tripping over his own ankle and stumbling backward. Carmen did the same motion, crouching, rising, and raising a finger to snap, but Daniel put his forearms up.

Lightning cracked through the air. Daniel shut his eyes, hoping he blocked right. He heard a hollow thunk, and a transparent, spherical blue field appeared in front of him. It had blocked Carmen’s energy blast, and faded with every second.

Daniel gasped. So that was how he could block!

Carmen fired another lightning blast. Daniel kept his arms up. His guard appeared to block the lighting, and she followed with the same move again, and again, and again. Come on! Wasn’t there a word for using the same move over and over? It didn’t hurt, but a force shoved against him every time, forcing him to stay vigilant.

A lightbulb went off in Daniel’s mind, and he grinned. If he knew what was coming, he could use that. After the next electric blast, he thrust his fists to the side and put his chest out. His body shuddered, surging with power, shimmering blue.

It faded away as briefly as it came. As his guard was down, lightning struck his chest, paralyzing his body. Carmen charged forward, stopping to repeat the action for Electroshock as Chip uppercut Daniel.

His jaws exploded with white-hot pain, force reverberating through his skull. Daniel flew high into the air. Carmen jumped after him, her hand raised to snap.

“Electroshock!” she shouted.

Yellow electricity surged around Carmen’s hand, surged through her eyes, surged through the air around her body. A clap of lightning assaulted Daniel’s ears as the electroshock filled his vision with infinite light. At that moment, there was no ground to hit, no friend to fight, no pain to feel — nothing became his everything.

And then, it was back. Daniel didn’t remember closing his eyes. He sat up from the training room floor, feeling his chest, surprised to find he felt as good as new. What was that? Did he die from that attack?

The blue referee stood over him, arm extended. “Electrica wins round one!” he boomed, helping him to his feet.

Daniel knit his eyebrows as he rose. “Uh…what just happened?”

“What happened is that you lost.” Carmen playfully flexed her arm. Chip followed behind her, flexing actual muscles.

“No, duh, I mean after that!” Daniel patted himself again, ensuring that he truly wasn’t hurt at all. “Wasn’t I just all beat up? How…?”

“Round two!” the referee shouted. “Ready?”

The overwhelming nothing from a few moments ago burned into his memory, and Daniel pushed it away for now. Questions could come later; he had a fight to win, and the counter was harder to time than he thought.

“Fight!”

Daniel broke into a sprint, bolting towards his opponent. He couldn’t afford to let Carmen go on the offensive first. If she won this round, the entire match would be hers.

She crouched and rose to her feet, edging forward, raising a hand. Daniel blocked the Electroshock, but Chip went into an aggressive all-out offensive. His lightning-fast flurry of fists blurred against his guard, deflected a foot away from his face. Daniel winced before every hit. Hopefully, the strange shield wouldn’t go away.

Chip paused on the next hit. Daniel froze, waiting — expecting — another punch. But, Carmen dropped down and swept at his ankles. His shield didn’t block that. Daniel landed hard on his back. Above, Chip clenched his raised fist.

It was going to strike down at him.

Even with his back to the ground, Daniel put his fists to his side and puffed his chest out. Chip’s fist struck his stomach as it gleamed bright blue, and an incredible surge of energy coursed through his veins. He scrambled to his feet in the blink of an eye. The surge of energy disappeared a moment later.

Carmen’s jaw gaped, clearly just as surprised as he was. That’s how the Counter felt! Was he invulnerable during that period?

Carmen retreated a step, pointing, and Chip came in with another flurry of punches. Daniel struck his counter pose. Chip’s first right hook landed square in his jaw, but raw power exploded through his bones instead of pain. Time slowed around him. His senses went into overdrive, registering every single punch that merely faded through his body. Intangible, Daniel weaved through Chip’s flurry of punches, raising a fist as he rushed at Carmen.

Carmen couldn’t block this in time. Yet, when he looked into his eyes, all he saw was the cute girl from his eighth hour glass. His mind willed it, but his body and his soul refused to attack.

The surge of energy blinked away. Chip spun on a dime, swinging, and Daniel tried to go for the counter. Before he could even start the pose, his jaw burst with pain. Chip let out a beastly caw as he demolished Daniel’s shoulder with a left hook, demolished his ribs with a right hook, took him by the ankles, and tossed him hard against the nearby wall.

Daniel didn’t even feel himself land. The world faded to black, and he then returned to the familiar sight of the referee over him, healing his battered body. As soon as he was fully healed, the referee teleported next to Carmen and raised her fist into the air.

“K.O.! Electrica wins!”