The inside of the whale building was less whale and more building, which was nice since it meant we didn't have to walk down a stone throat or something, but was disappointing because I'd been hoping for something more interesting. It was still nice to look at, with smooth marble floors and intricate wall carvings, but it was a pretty huge let down from the external facade.

Despite that, I was still pretty impressed by the sheer size of the place, with the whale interior all forming once huge room. The ceiling seemed to be a wide open sky, and miniature floating islands drifted among the clouds, containing hot tubs or small bars with different kinds of food. Loud music pumped through room as the sky above flashed a variety of shifting colors.

As we entered, a massive man with curly red hair who I didn't recognize strode up to us, throwing his arms wide in effusive greeting. "Apollyon! My friend! Good to see you." Boomed the friendly, accented voice of the large man I assumed to be Craygen. "I wasn't sure you would be coming tonight." He turned his head, calling to someone we couldn't see. "Cady! Come meet my opponent from earlier today. A mighty warrior who bested me in single combat."

The crowd shifted a bit and a girl appeared. Short and athletic, with pink hair pulled back into a ponytail and wearing a stylish hat over a pair of shorts, a t-shirt and a brown leather vest. She looked mostly annoyed. "Cray, we've been over this. You need to slow down in crowds this size. I'm short enough that I can't SEE which direction I'm going if we get separated."

Callie gave a groan of frustrated empathy. "Oh my gods I know right? I don't mind being short most of the time, stats make up for it. But crowds are the worst. It's so easy to get turned around." The pink haired girl turned, raising an eyebrow at my girlfriend, who grinned and held out a hand. "I'm Nightstrike. Apollyon is my teacher." She hip checked me without turning around. "The big lug in the long coat is my boyfriend Solomon, and that's Starbreaker, Agria, and Clockwork."

Nat had come along with Perit and Valk, but they had wandered off with Selka keeping watch. Zeke was around, I knew that somehow, but he also...wasn't. I couldn't see, hear, or really detect him anyway except somehow knowing he was nearby. I suspected even that last bit was him allowing me to notice him so I didn't go looking. His Stealth Skill was undoubtedly MUCH more sophisticated than mine or Callie's.

The rest of our group waved to the newcomer, who grinned widely. "I like her." Taking the offered hand she gave a firm shake, pulling back and then sweeping into a sophisticated curtsy the should have looked ridiculous in shorts, but that she somehow pulled of. "As you may have heard I'm Cady. Craygen is my older brother. He got all the height in the family, and I got all the brains."

The red haired giant scoffed. "She just tells herself that because she's not any good in a fight. She has a support ability, and she's jealous I have the strength to face my problems head on."

"You keep telling yourself that you drooling thug." She said loftily. "Anyway, come on in, you guys just got here and we would be terrible hosts if we just chatted with you at the entrance all night. We want to introduce you to some people. We can introduce you to a few friends of ours then leave you to mingle."

Leading us into the crowd, we followed close behind them, making sure not to lose their forms, despite Craygen's massive size being an easy enough way to find them again (for me at least). It made more sense to keep our eyes on them, and luckily we didn't have far to go.

They dragged us to a group of people standing under one of the miniature islands. There were four of them, a short dark haired girl. A blonde guy with his hair sticking up and a handsome face, and two dark haired men with identical faces who seemed to be twins, one standing on the shoulders of the others as he groped around the top of the island for food without being able to see what he was doing.

Can't pinched the bridge of her nose. "What are you idiots doing and where are the other four? We wanted to introduce you to our new friends."

"Hungry." Grunted the lower twin. "Trying to get food." His voice wasn't strained obviously, he was just lifting a person, albeit on with thirty plus Impact, and I didn't know how that effected things exactly. Still he sounded gruff and not very personable.

Cady just glared. "You have SUPERPOWERS." She said scathingly. "You could just teleport up there and get the food yourself!"

The top twin, who was still busy scrounging blindly on top of the barely in reach island, with drew a hand and pointed off to the side where we could see a shattered pile of rock and debris in an empty spot on the floor. "Tried that. Couldn't support my weight."

"I don't..." She just rubbed her temples. "It hurts being around you sometimes. How are you both so good at fighting and so fucking stupid at the same time. If not for the dramatic difference in size and hair color I would think you were related to MY brother." She sighed and turned to us. "Sorry you had to witness that. I can feel my Focus points dropping every time I talk to them, but I assure you it's just an illusion. I've checked."

"Rude." Said top twin, appearing next to her without moving. "We're always so nice to you, why do you say things you know will hurt us." He nodded to our group. "I'm Blink, that's Flicker." He said, jerking his thumb at his twin. The girl with the dark hair is Alice, and the guy is Chad. We came over from the Boundwave System. Chad was the winner in our tournament, but he lets Cady run things." He pitched his voice a bit lower, making sure it was loud enough to be heard even at a nominal whisper. "It's less trouble that way."

Said pink haired girl slapped him upside the back of his head. "I don't want to hear about trouble from you layabouts. I'm shocked Chad even managed to win the tournament." She pointed at the blonde. "Our hunky champion over there works out with my useless brother and these two menaces at one of the more upscale gyms on our planet. He didn't know who else to invite along so he extended us an offer."

I noticed Alice looking annoyed at Cady's description, and she stepped closer to Chad surreptitiously, putting herself in his personal space. He didn't seem to mind, giving a stoic, relaxed impression that reminded me a bit of Norman. Still, despite him being the winner, Flicker and Blink were among the five we were told to watch out for, so they were probably stronger. I didn't get the impression of terror and oppression that I did from Abel, but that was true of most people.

It was hard not to suspect that the more intimidating parts of Abel's personality and bearing were recursion based. The result of the terror and anguish of his enemies over literal decades. The only person I'd met with an aura like that was Lament, and she walked a similar path of fanatical bloodshed. On reflection it might be something similar to being an Adamant. I'd have to ask Zeke about it later.

Craygen, meanwhile, had taken over introductions. "Chad is pretty scary. He charges up off damage, and can burn it to fuel his strength. Alice's power is even cooler, though it's kind of weird. She can absorb attacks into a specially prepared box. The box holds one hundred attacks. Every time she opens it, a random attack comes out, if she guesses which attack it's going to be and gets it right it triples in power!"

I blinked, looking at the diminutive girl. "That's...really interesting actually. Can you absorb any attack? Because that sounds really powerful."

Alice flushed a bit, clearly embarrassed to have her abilities praised in a public setting. "It's not like...unbeatable. The box has to be made of materials that can withstand the attack. Plus I need to see it coming and activate my power with the box open. It doesn't work on surprise attacks or anything too strong."

"Still." Said Callie in an impressed tone. "That's a fascinating power. I just have shadow powers." Despite the self-deprecating tone I could feel her satisfaction at having more useful powers now. She was playing the game but Callie loved her new ability. Abyssal Infiltration was pretty much her dream power.

We all chatted for a while longer, trading stories about our planets. They'd actually been out into their system and checked out a few other planets. Their own planet was C-grade so they had a bit of an advantage, and when they found out ours was only psuedo D-grade, Craygen was even more blown away by how strong Abel was.

Cady whistled. "A Master Candidate one a psuedo D-grade planet? That's pretty damned impressive. It must have been excruciatingly slow going training your soul to that standard in such a backwater place. I bet it took ages." She seemed almost appalled by the amount of work, which, having made it a ways into my soul strengthening before ranking up I could totally understand.

Abel just shrugged. "It wasn't easy, but I wouldn't call it hard. Just took time and focus. One fist in front of the other, so to speak. For the most part, it was just battle. You want to get better at fighting? You fight. Training is great, but it can't beat the rush of single combat with your life on the line." He clenched his fists and I felt a bit of that murderous, stifling aura he emitted sometimes leak out. "I love being able to test myself."

That got a grin from the red haired giant, who held up his fist to bump Abel's. "Hell yes! I hope one of us gets picked for the random exhibition bout tonight!"

We all froze. As one, we turned to Abel, who was agreeing vehemently with the big man, and talking about all the powerful opponents they might come up against. When he realized we were staring, he turned to look at us. "Oh...did I forget to mention those?"

Mel's orange eyes were blazing...literally blazing, as in they were on fire slightly, her irises shifting color like flickering embers as flames spit from the eyeholes of her mask. Abel looked, for one of the first time in my memory, genuinely scared. "I swear honey, I just got excited and forgot. I didn't mean to trick you all. I promise!'

Before she could react, though I had no clue how that would go. the sky shifted from bright colors to pitch black, stars coming out as night fell. The moon, full and round, emerged and cast a spotlight across the crowd, falling on one person, and then a second.

As the booming voice came echoing from the dark, I winced as I processed what had just happened. I closed my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose, I exhaled slowly. After a second, I opened them, and looked across the crowd to where the other party goers were pulling back from the first person chosen, just as my surroundings were being cleared by revelers to let me pass. I turned to glare at Abel, who had the good grace to look sheepish. "Well, shit." His said sourly. "I was hoping I would get picked. Oh well, good luck kid. You're going to need it."