There was some jostling amid the mob, but it was a fairly well-behaved scrum as the teams closest to the door jockeyed to get in first. Perhaps they thought there might be an advantage to going in first, but most of us realized it made no difference and waited our turn to head inside. We may have been mostly young and eager keeners, but we were also Canadian. Waiting our turn was as inbred into us as cooking with butter was to the French or respecting their elders to the Japanese.
The eleven teams made their way in and found places in the stands. Everyone was in clusters of up to twenty people, depending upon how many Players on the team had died-died before the expansion. Having lost Andy, Team Maple Leaf’s new doubled-up group should’ve had eighteen, but Lianna and I sat with them making for an even twenty.
Tiff and Achmed’s teams were nearby, sitting within a few rows of each other. The only other teams that sat close together were directly opposite from us: the Axis of Evil of Invictus, Overgeared, and the Droogs. Kiki’s Team N3m3s1s wasn’t far away from them but it was hard to tell if she was associated with them. She appeared even more uncomfortable than Lianna, and when our eyes met once her cheeks puffed out and she quickly looked away like before.
“Hey Lianna,” I said. “This would be a great time to put on your glasses to get a good look at the competition.”
“But I don’t wear...oh! Right. Glasses.”
Sigrid on my other side eyed the special glasses I’d given Lianna as she put them on. Lianna blinked a few times getting used to them.
Sigrid looked at me, quirked an eyebrow, smiled, and patted my leg. “You’ve been busy,” she said, leaving her hand resting on my thigh. Unlike my friendship with Ruka, the one I had with Sigrid was very touchy feely. It had made me uncomfortable at first, but by now I’d grown used to it to the point that I barely ever noticed her touches anymore.
We didn’t have to wait long for the event to begin, but there was enough time for Lianna to start checking out other people’s Statuses and memorizing teams while I finally got a look at all the other team builders’ Statuses.
I knew who they all were, but even if I hadn’t they would have been easy to spot: they were the ones whose heads turned slowly as their intently staring eyes scanned row by row, going from person to person as they used All Shall Be Revealed to size up the competition. It kind of made me feel better knowing I wasn’t the only one habitually invading other people’s privacy by checking their Statuses.
I looked at Lianna and saw her head moving the same way, only faster. I nudged her.
“Here’s an easy way to pick out the team leaders,” I said, and went on to describe how their heads moved and why. “You can always tell someone with All Shall Be Revealed by the way they move their head and eyes.”
“That’s good to know,” Lianna said, nodding.
I kept watching her out of the corner of my eye and noticed her head barely moving at all anymore. Under her glasses, her eyes still scanned quickly back and forth across the stands. She could go so quickly because all she had to do was open their Statuses to get a quick glimpse and her Eidetic Memory skill would take care of the rest. She’d be able to recall each one and take her time going through them later.
After seeing the other team builders’ Statuses, I was sure that Jane and I were the only Players who’d been given the ability to have affinity with all the elements. A second affinity wasn’t overly rare, maybe one in twenty had that, but only the two of us had more than two affinities.
The other team builders didn’t have powers or gifts that were all that out of the ordinary either, not like the ones I’d been given. There was the occasional outlier like that luck power Warren the chief Droog had, but those were quite rare. In fact, a few of the team builders had received pretty blah abilities, and had they not been the ones choosing the teams they might not have been on one at all.
I guess they didn’t do so well at the convention’s God Game.
“Wow,” Lianna said. “You weren’t kidding.”
“About what?” I said.
“Your Status really isn’t normal, is it?”
This made Sigrid laugh. “Nothing about this guy is normal, honey.” I felt more pressure from the hand resting on my leg as Sigrid leaned across me. “Psssst!” she hissed.
Lianna lowered the glasses to the end of her nose and peered at Sigrid over the top of them. “Yes?”
“Be careful with those glasses, huh? If those do what I think they do,” Sigrid whispered, casting a meaningful glance at me before looking back at Lianna, “just maybe be a bit more discreet about using them.”
Lianna’s eyes flared and she clapped her hand over her mouth. “That was a bit loud, wasn’t it?” she whispered back.
“Uh huh,” Jane grunted without looking back at us from the row in front.
From down at the end of the row, Chika’s voice rose. “And don’t forget there’s a lot of people with superhuman hearing around here too.”
Lianna’s face paled. “Sorry. I fucked up.”
“It’s fine,” I said, blowing at the blonde hair that tickled my face. Sigrid took the hint and leaned back into her seat.
“Is it, though?” Lianna said.
“Yeah, sure,” I said. “It wouldn’t be such a bad thing if people did find out what you can see with those anyway. They’ll be less likely to try to mess with you if they know you know all their tricks.”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“But what if someone steals them?” Nina said, leaning forward from where she was sitting behind us.
I shrugged. “Won’t do them any good. Nobody else can use them, they’re locked to Lianna exclusively.”
“You can do that?” said Byron. He was also behind us, sitting beside his wife.
I turned around to face him. “Locking an item to the first person who uses it counts as a restriction just like limiting a power’s use to someone with the right affinity. Ironically, I wouldn’t have been able to make those glasses without that restriction, and I wouldn’t have dared to make them without it. Take a look.”
“Huh? Oh!” Byron exclaimed as I shared my All Can Be Revealed power with him.
Team Player Vice-Captain’s Glasses
Seeing is believing. Restriction: Use locked to Lianna Drake
Powers:
All Can Be Revealed - See any Status; Affinity with Life required
Far Sighted - Microscopic vision; Affinity with Life required
Feel It Hot, Hot, Hot - Thermal vision; Affinity with Life required
I See All - True sight; Affinity with Life required
Near Sighted - Telescopic vision; Affinity with Life required
“Oh my,” Byron said. “That’s some pretty incredible eyewear. I don’t suppose—”
“No,” I said. “Have all the guns you want, but those are one-of-a-kind for Team Player’s Vice-Captain.”
“Can’t blame a guy for trying. Can I at least keep using this power until things get going?”
“Sure,” I said. “Knock yourself out.”
The next moment, the trademark tinny eight-bit theme song started to play and everyone immediately settled down as a cloud of purple smoke rose from the center of the arena floor.
“Looks like things are getting going,” I said, and stopped sharing my power with Byron.
“Aw crap,” he said.
The purple smog swirled and billowed for a few seconds, then started to dissipate, revealing the outline of a human figure inside. As it cleared, Annabelle was revealed in all her glory. I knew her so well in other capacities, as arena master, as mentor, as friend, it was strange to see her in emcee mode again.
This time she was wearing a suit of gleaming armor, the kind you picture when you imagine a fairytale knight, or, if you’re a gamer, a Paladin. The chunky metal plate mail had been sleekly fashioned in a way that alluded to the feminine curves underneath. She held a matching full helmet with a strip of purple horse hair sprouting from the top like a mohawk under the crook of her arm, and her own purple hair flowed like a mane down her back. Annabelle grinned up at us.
“Yahello Players!” she boomed, and was met with a roar of approval from the crowd. “Who’s ready for a quest?” An even bigger roar. “That’s good, because we’ve got a doozy for you. Wanna know what it is?” Crazy roars, which made Annabelle laugh. “I love your enthusiasm, I really do. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you the details just yet, but I can tell you this much: in this quest, all teams will be competing together in a special dungeon, and the prize for the team that wins the quest will be...” Her big eyes scanned the crowd as she held us breathless, clearly enjoying her dramatic pause. “The winners get the dungeon!”
This was met with an appropriate amount of oohing and aahing and, yes, more approving roars. As far as prizes go, it topped the charts.
“I thought you might like that,” Annabelle said. “But before we get there, how about we start things off with a little game, huh?”
She could’ve asked us if we wanted to check the person next to us for lice and still received the same raucous response. With control of a dungeon on the line we would’ve agreed to anything.
“Can all the team Captains please make your way down here to the arena floor, please?”
I groaned.
Anything but this.
“Hey Lianna, wanna be team Captain?” I said.
“Sorry Player, this one’s all on you,” she said, nudging me toward the stairs down with her elbow. Then she must’ve seen the look on my face because her smile vanished and a look of concern replaced it. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, it’s just...”
Nina leaned forward again. “You did fine during that duel, Daniel,” she said.
“A...kari taught me some focusing techniques, but I doubt they’ll work outside of a combat situation.” I’d almost said Annabelle because she was actually the one who’d taught me, but I still hadn’t revealed the full extent of my relationship with her to anyone. Not even Lianna or Sigrid knew all of it.
“Ah,” Lianna said, nodding. “I get it. Just imagine everyone watching is in their underwear.”
“That doesn’t work,” I said. “Tried it before.”
Jane turned back to look over her shoulder. “How about you try this then: just imagine that you’ve already got three dungeons under your belt and have nothing to prove to any of these people. Pretend the only thing that’s on their mind when they look at you is envy.”
Yeah right.
I heaved a sigh. “I’m gonna try the underwear thing.”
I stood up and joined Morgan, who was waiting for me at the stairs, and together we went down to meet Annabelle and the other team Captains in the middle of the arena. When we got there we all sort of shifted around uncomfortably, eying each other warily, not knowing what to expect. Morgan stuck next to me and Achmed and Tiff gravitated towards us. Annabelle and I studiously ignored each other, both wanting to keep the true nature and depth of our relationship a secret.
“Alrighty,” Annabelle said. “Before we begin the quest we’re going to play a little game to figure out the play order. Sound like fun?”
“What’s the game?” Tiff said, arm behind her head stretching her triceps. I couldn't help admiring the firm smoothness of her muscles as she did so, and when she caught me looking she winked at me. I really hoped she knew I was looking at her muscles and not at other things.
“Great question, but before that, you need to pick your Players.”
A System window opened in front of me, listing all the members of my team. It was a very short list. Judging by their reactions, the same thing happened to the other team Captains.
“So we’re supposed to just pick people from our team without even knowing what the game is?” Morgan said.
“Uh huh, yup,” Annabelle said, beaming a thousand-watt smile.
“How many?”
“Just one.”
Morgan shrugged. “Okay.” She tapped the space in front of her so quickly you’d think she was making the selection at random, but I knew Morgan better than that. It must have been an easy choice for her, which made me wonder who she’d selected.
I glanced up to the stands, finding Lianna. We made eye contact. Her face was ashen and she was shaking her head, mouthing “Nooooo.” I gave her what I hoped was an apologetic expression and tapped her name where it floated in the air in front of me. It wasn’t like I had an option.
The team list closed and Lianna jumped a bit at the same time. I could only assume by that and the accompanying grimace that she’d received a notification summoning her to the arena floor.
Sigrid leaned over my empty seat and said something in Lianna's ear, then Lianna’s face steeled and they made their way together to the end of the bench and headed for the stairs. That answered the question of who Morgan chose from Team Maple Leaf.
I’d have made the same choice.
Up next: A little game