Daniel rubbed his head as Carmen cheered to herself, jumping up and down. “Oh, man, I did it! That felt great! This is what I’ve been wanting to do! We’re really Fighters, Daniel!”

He got to his feet and gave her a high five. “That was crazy! That blue shield I put up was how I block, right? How were you able to hit me anyway?”

“Because I attacked low,” Carmen said. “If you’re blocking standing, low attacks still hit you.”

“Wow. Didn’t we just become Fighters? Did I miss a handbook or something?”

Carmen snickered. “No, man! I told you, this is what I do all day. I watch videos of people fighting, and videos of people breaking down fights. It’s just…the physical activity. I’m not used to it.” She panted, holding her side. “I think I pulled something.”

Daniel helped her down to the floor and sat beside her. “You’re still tired? I thought we get healed after the fight.”

“Only the loser does.”

A translucent yellow bird fluttered in from behind Carmen’s back. Daniel nearly jumped in surprise, but Carmen raised her palms. It landed steadily in her hands and collapsed onto its side, exhausted.

“Whoa…is that the bird thing you were fighting with?” Daniel asked, leaning in closer. The bird yawned, its ruffled feathers standing on end.

“His name is Chip. I think so,” Carmen said, running a kind finger along its back. Daniel raised a finger to do the same, but it went right through Chip’s back, and he instead rubbed Carmen’s soft palm.

Daniel realized just how close he was. He hurriedly sat straight up, clearing his throat. Change the subject. “That counter was harder to time than I thought.”

“Yeah, you messed it up almost every time. Why didn’t you hit me when you got it right? You could’ve actually done some damage, there.”

“I…” Daniel bit his lip. “It ran out before I could. What about you, though? You kept using the same move over and over. Don’t you have anything else?”

“Sorry! That was the only move I remembered, so I had to spam a bit,” Carmen said. But, the grin on her face made it clear she wasn’t sorry at all. She swiped open her menu, navigating to her command list in the Self menu. “Let’s see what else I have.”

Surprisingly, there was more than just Electroshock. Carmen raised her eyebrows and scrolled through, nodding. Daniel counted two other special moves, a few simpler moves, and an ultimate move, too, with a complex command just like his own Hard Punch. Below that, an entry described the mechanics behind Chip.

Carmen kept her menu floating beside her, reading as she stepped a good distance away. “Come out, Chip!”

Chip fluttered behind her. With a crack of lightning, he exploded into the same giant half-man-half-bird ghost from earlier. Carmen watched him ambiently float behind her, bold and muscular. She punched at the air, noticeably slower than before. Chip followed the same motion, and his arm extended a whole foot out further than her noodle arms.

“It feels like my attacks are slower when he’s out,” she said.

“Yeah, I could tell, but his arm goes out a lot further. He hits harder, too.” Daniel rubbed his healed jaw.

Carmen glanced at her menu. “That’s good, Chip.”

Chip shrank back down into his tinier, cuter form, letting out a chirp. Carmen punched at the air once more. “Definitely. My arms feel lighter now that he’s gone. No offense, Chip.”

“What’s one of your other special moves?”

Carmen squinted at her menu, nodding. “Here’s one.” She backed away for a second. As she stepped forward and kicked, yellow lightning surrounded her leg, and she lunged several feet in the blink of an eye. The blinding burst of speed caught her off guard, and Carmen tumbled along the floor for the last few.

“Ow!” she cried out. Yet, she still laughed on the ground. “Oh, I’ll have to study this, later. This is great.”

Daniel helped her to her feet.

Daniel helped her to her feet. “You have to actually study your moves? Imagine that.”

“You only have one special move? Imagine that.”

“It’s perfect for me! I just gotta work on my timing. What’s next? Are we gonna stay here and train?”

“I wish, but…this place doesn’t work like when we were taking the test. Time passes in the real world, too” Carmen sighed and checked her watch. “It’s been ten minutes. If we’re here for too long, my parents are gonna get really worried.”

“You don’t think they’ve noticed you gone yet?”

“I doubt it. The only time they care where I am is when I try to go out and have fun. Then, it’s always a no. Let’s go back.”

Carmen opened her menu, heading to the menu from before. Daniel followed her lead, and they pressed the buttons to leave the training room at the same time. The segmented blue training room faded to black. Daniel opened his eyes, back in the gym from before. It was just as busy as before, but a new set of eccentric figures trained around them.

Together, they left the gym, heading down the main hallway and back to the front door.

Carmen checked her phone. “Oh, no.”

“What?”

She showed him the screen, and the notification made his stomach drop. A new text from her father.

“Both of you come home. Now.”

Daniel missed his parents, but he didn’t miss the feeling of coming home when you knew you were in trouble. It rarely came for him. Whether he slacked off on his schoolwork or made too much of a ruckus in the back of the class with his friends, his parents never answered the phone and never cared to see his grade card. He got away with more than most other people, but sometimes news of his behavior slipped through.

And he never liked to remember what happened when it did.

It was different for Carmen. Her parents were different; they cared, and he understood exactly why they’d be as ticked off as they were.

When they returned to the Maroon Bar, a man sat at a table off to the side, eating a hamburger. Mrs. Garcia stood in front of the counter, her arms crossed, a stern look on her face. Mr. Garcia wasn’t in the kitchen. He stood at the foot of the stairs, eyebrows knit, his face as cross as Mrs. Garcia’s arms.

The air felt heavy and stifling. Daniel’s mind searched for a witty joke, and he chuckled nervously. “Hey, did you guys know there’s a McDowell’s down the street?” he said. “I didn’t know it was called that in this—”

“We’re aware, Daniel.” Mrs. Garcia said, her voice like ice. “Go upstairs.”

Carmen kept her gaze down as she went towards the stairs, her father stepping aside to let her through. Daniel didn’t move.

“You too,” Mrs. Garcia said.

You’re a part of this mess, too, Daniel heard the rest in his mind. Mr. Garcia stepped aside to let him follow Carmen, and followed them upstairs, too. “Go into Carmen’s room. Both of you sit down.”

Daniel did as he was told. Carmen sat on the end of her bed, while he took the chair at her desk.

Mr. Garcia’s broad shoulders filled the door frame, and he closed the door behind himself. “Open your menus.”

Daniel opened his menu at the same time as Carmen. Mr. Garcia was on the other side, so he couldn’t read it. But he didn’t have to read to recognize the glowing yellow button at the top.

He pointed down at Carmen’s menu. “What is this button, Carmen?”

Carmen averted her eyes.

“What is this button?” he repeated, heavily emphasizing every syllable.

“The Fighter menu,” she finally mumbled.

“It’s a Fighter menu. What is the one thing me and your mother don’t want you to become?”

“A Fighter.”

“And what did you do? You snuck out of the house again, deliberately disobeying our orders again to go to the Fighting Center, but you took it a step further this time — you went and became a Fighter!” Mr. Garcia raised his voice. “Did you forget what we told you last birthday? Or Christmas? Or your birthday before that?”

“No.”

“And you did it anyway? What’s wrong with you? Do you realize how worried we are every time you sneak out of the house like this? You could be in the back of someone’s van or dead in a ditch, for all we know. Do you even know why we don’t want you to become a Fighter?”

Carmen sighed and mumbled something under her breath.

Anger flared through Mr. Garcia’s face, and Daniel winced. Muttering something under your breath? If there was a list of what not to do when you were in trouble, that would fight for #1. He thought he knew what would come next, but Mr. Garcia didn’t seem to be wearing a belt.

“What was that?” he asked.

“Yes, Dad, yes! Yes, I know! Yes, Mom told me the story about grandpa getting hurt in his fight! I know! You won’t let me become a Fighter, you don’t let me hang out with my friends, you don’t let me have a boyfriend, and yes, I know it’s because to you I’m just your weak frail little girl!” she screamed, her voice breaking under the weight. “I’m not someone who has to constantly be protected and kept under a shell. I’m a human being!”

“You’re a sixteen-year-old girl, Carmen, not Lola Moreno, or Serena Gonzales, or whatever other celebrities you always obsess about! We’re your parents. We protect you. That’s what we do!”

“I don’t even know how to ride a bike, Dad!” Tears spilled onto her cheeks. “I’m sixteen and I can’t ride a bike because the last time I did, I got hurt, and I was seven! I want to live my life, too!”

“Not after this, you aren’t,” Mrs. Garcia cut in, throwing the door open. “No friends, no phone, no video games, and no fights for a month, Carmen Garcia.”

“So? So what? Take it all away. Lock me in my room if you want. You can’t un-Fighter me!” Carmen yelled.

And with that, she shot out of her bed, stomping out of the room and into the bathroom across the hall. The door slammed shut behind her, clicking a moment later. Underneath Carmen’s soft weeping from the bathroom, the world was silent. Mr. and Mrs. Garcia shared a look, and Daniel just sat there, watching it all.

It wasn’t long before they turned their attention to him.

“What’s your name again?” Mr. Garcia said.

Daniel licked his lips. “Daniel Chase, sir.”

Mr. Garcia took a deep breath. “You don’t have to call me sir, Daniel. You’re not my son. But, you know how dangerous becoming a Fighter is, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And you became one anyway. That’s your decision. I can’t control that, even if I’d rather you didn’t. But, Carmen is my daughter, and we specifically were against her becoming a Fighter. Did you know that?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And you let her become a Fighter anyway?”

Daniel pursed his lips. There wasn’t a good reply to that question, but at this point, digging them out of this hole wasn’t possible.

“Well?”

“If you want to know what I think…” he said, looking between both of them. “I think Carmen is a lot stronger than you think.”

Mr. Garcia shook his head. “I’m disappointed in you, too.”

“Excuse me!” a voice called.

Mr. and Mrs. Garcia immediately left their seats, heading for the hallway, and Daniel followed. The man that ate downstairs stood at the base of the stairs as the source of the voice. Daniel got a closer look at his features. A casual exercising tracksuit and an older face, with brown skin darker than his own, a gray beard, and clean gray dreadlocks hanging down his face.

“Do you need more ketchup, sir?” Mrs. Garcia asked, descending the stairs.

“No. Forgive me, but…I overheard your conversation,” the man said.

Mrs. Garcia gasped. “Oh, I’m so sorry you had to hear that. My daughter, she’s—”

“It’s alright, I was the same way in my years,” he said. “I think I can solve both of your problems. She wants to become a Fighter, but you two want her to be safe, as the parents.” He bowed. “I’m Jonathan Stone, and I can teach her to become a Fighter.”