Bec had absolutely no clue what her courses should be. She didn’t really anticipate both a school arc and a tournament arc all at once. She was thoughtlessly wandering the streets of Metro hoping to find that oblong shape with a cross on it which marked an establishment with food payed for by the city itself.

Could she really handle the course load as well as her work? Bec stopped reading the different majors and classes she could take and started flipping through the rule book. It seemed fairly similar the rule book of her old middle school. Her online high school had no such thing. She flipped through the pages until she found an odd page about duels.

Duels

Anyone can challenge anyone to a black box fight at any time. This constitutes a Duel. (See subsection 7 for details on what defines a Duel). Combat outside of black boxes are approved as long as there is minimal property damage. For the Duel occur, both parties must agree to the terms in front of a Hass official or AmiGo. Anything within reason, can be wagered including, but not limited to, LuCre, possession, access to the user’s Word, or points on the Help Desk leaderboards. If the loser is unable to deliver on the wager, they are dishonorably discharged from the Hass, and their points on the board is offered to the winner. (See Points, pg 27)

Bec flipped to that page and read some more about points. Bec’s quick perusal of the page seemed to imply that this was how they’d be progressing in the Hass. The TPC (Total Point Count) would determine person’s rank in the Hass. The points could actually be spent on a variety of things including direct conversion into LuCre, but that wouldn’t affect the total points accrued during the competition. The final TPC at the end of the year would reflect on the competitor’s next leg of the Hass, but in a way that wasn’t readily explained. She was enjoying flipping through the rules when she heard as sound come from an alleyway.

“Pssst.”

Bec stopped and looked down the dark alleyway. It was supposed to be dark, but Bec could see fine. There was a man standing there, obviously feeling like they were shrouded by darkness.

“Gray. You’re Ms. Gray?”

Bec nodded but didn’t approach.

“Good instincts, I would have kicked your ass if you came in here.” The man stepped out of the shadows and into the low sun, but Bec had already sized him up. He was dressed head to toe in dark camo. He was a lithe fellow with lots of facial hair. His salt and pepper beard merged with his white mustache creating a streaking effect. “I’m your tutor.”

“My tutor? Why’d they send me your shady ass?”

“I’ve watched your footage closely. You will be a perfect protégé.”

“I already have a master.” Bec huffed indignantly. “Ms. Scarlet, the red demon.”

The man chuckled. “Mmm, yes. That makes sense.”

“It would?” Bec crossed her arms.

“Yes.” The man stroked his beard in thought. “I guess it makes a lot of sense they’d send me to you. I trained her after all.”

“What are the odds?” Bec shook her head at the serendipity.

“Well, I don’t believe in coincidences. So, I’d say someone pulled some strings.” His voice was tired and old, but his body looked like he could have been in his forties. Ignoring the beard, of course.

Bec narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure you trained Scarlet? I’ve heard that line about coincidences before, but it wasn’t from Scarlet.”

“Ah, maybe from another movie buff. It’s from a favorite spy movie of mine, On the Other Side of the Killing Moon.”

Bec nodded. “So, you’re going to teach me?”

“Oh no, not unless you convince me you deserve it.” He ambled by her. “I feel like I would be doing a disservice to my protégé’s protégé if I didn’t at least make her work for it.”

Bec shrugged and started tugging on her mask to make it sit tighter for whatever happened next. “If you want, old man. I want some advice on my course load, so I guess I’ll have to win you over.”

“I know. You’ll have a lot of trouble picking classes without this!” He took a few steps down the street as he waved a black data slate. Bec patted her Timelet to find it still snug in its holster. Then she realized, that was the slate given to her for the Hass. The man was trotting down the street by now. Bec ran after him.

~~~

*huff* *huff* *huff* Bec had been chasing down this man for hours. She was finding that, no matter how hard she pushed, he would automatically increase speed to remain just out of reach. She was downright furious as even full energy kicks off the ground seemed to miss him by a hairsbreadth. He turned around, still trotting at high speeds backward, and laughed. “Your stamina isn’t terrible. I’m impressed since you’ve only had nanites for a year now.”

“How do. You know. That?” Bec said through deep inhales.

“All in due time, my dear! Come on, I knew you were a little dense, but surely you can figure out a cleverer tactic than lunging at me like a wild ape?”

Bec was frustrated. Grabbing a trashcan from a curb, she chucked it at him. He didn’t even change his speed and, yet somehow it fell short of him. Bec needed to focus. Focus. She went into autopilot. Chasing him, but deep in thought. She needed a plan, so she came up with one. Al helped her theorize the best approach and even suggested an interesting backup plan. Bec looked up at the sun at her back. It was low, and she knew the plan would need to happen sooner rather than later, although she had a back-up to her plan if it failed.

Bec jogged at the man for a few minutes before calling out to him, “Hey, what’s your name?”

The man pivoted towards her to do that maddening backward run. His hands were up to shield his eyes from the sun, casting a shadow on his grinning face. He shouted back, “Tempe. Tempe O’Malley. Do you think you’ll share your real na—ACK”

Bec threw out a blinding punch right in O’Malley’s eyes and dived right at him. He just lazily kept his trot just out of her reach. This was to be expected so she pivoted and bolted down an alley. Bec, at Al’s suggestion, hooked a right and tried to get ahead of O’Malley. She ran at a full empowered sprint down the neighboring road and found an alley that would theoretically be ahead of the path where she could wait for him to pass by. Then she’d wait to pounce.

Poking just the tips of her fingers around the corner, she watched the old man as he rubbed his eyes as he hopped backward down the road towards Bec. He blinked and looked around in confusion. Right before he passed the alleyway, Bec reared up like a sprinter and pushed with all her might. She dived at high speeds towards the man just as he crossed into sight. He saw her and did a single foot pivot on the black tarmac, shifting all of his momentum instantly parallel to Bec. Bec felt her fingers get so close to him that she could swear that she could feel the air sucked out from the space between her finger and his leg. She stumbled as he backpedaled away from her, slipping into the alley across from Bec’s lunging spot.

Bec tumbled, but, on her first roll, she wildly managed to pull herself to her feet and transition from dive to dead sprint without wasting any momentum. Tenet One of Bec’s Principles of Movement paying dividends.

The man laughed, “Fantastic, my girl. You got my heart racing for a moment there.” He cleared the alleyway into another street when his face fell from a smile into seriousness. He saw Bec not just roll back onto her feet, but now she was winding up.

“Another flash? That’s a neat trick, but I’m not going to be fooled twice.” He decided to let instinct take over as he shut his eyelids. Something was odd about her movements, though, and it gave him a weird feeling in his gut. He only had an instant to realize what it was. It wasn’t the windup to a punch; it was much more the windup you make when you throw something. In an instant, he shifted his vector right, shifting back down the street as he heard something cut through the air. He opened his eyes to see what she was doing, but she gave him another face full of blinding light accompanied with a thunderclap sound now. He was disoriented so he picked up the pace well beyond the speed she was capable of.

When he gathered himself, she was gone? He bounced down the street with a confused look on his face. He started to slow down to give himself time to prepare for an ambush from any of the alleyways he was passing by. He found himself staying in the exact center of the street for fear of that speedy lunge being too fast for him to react to if he strayed too close to her inevitable hiding spot. He had a sense that she was tracking him, informed by nothing but his experience in the field causing his instincts to flare. He shielded his eyes from the setting sun as he scanned the alleyways for any sign of the girl. He even watched the rooftops, making sure she didn’t jump down on him. He hopped anxiously, waiting for her to— bump

He ran into something and tumbled over it. He looked but he couldn’t see. The sun was in his eyes. This was when he realized there were two suns. The one on the horizon, and the one he ran into. The second sun flickered out to reveal the girl with a face that oozed pure joy. She had been standing there, hiding not in the dark alleys, but in the sun itself. That was certainly a new one for him.

He thought wryly about that plan. The whole move required him to change directions entirely so that he was running towards the sun. Did she guide him through her actions? He grinned wide.

Bec let out a big sigh as she sat there on the asphalt. “Phew, I was terrified that wasn’t going to work.” She flopped back. “Ah, I love it when a plan comes together.”