Virtually Existent

Prologue

The sun filtered in through the steel blinds, barely lighting the room at all. Eli sat back in a lounge chair with a laptop in, of all places, his lap. His bored face was illuminated by the green light radiating from his email screen. He was watching it periodically recieve another every few seconds, which was strange because of the two people he had given it neither was named RadiantX. 

"GRAND MELEE, PROMINENT, TERMINAL - RadiantX."

Eli opened a program and began tracing his secret admirer back through the internet protocols, idly cracking a grin he clicked the result. His expression was replaced by a frown at the sight of the hotel website that had apparently sent his message. "I didn't expect it to be that easy."

In the end, he didn't really care. He might have a look around the arena when he entered the tournament tomorrow, but until then he didn't care about a cryptic spam email. It was a celebration, time to put some of those virtual training programs to use and prove he didn't need to live under his parent's shadow. He'd moved half way around the world and cut off contact with them already so if winning the Grand Melee without anyone's help didn't do it nothing would. He pulled the leather jacket up his arm while he dug into his pocket to retrieve the phone.

"Mike, is Rohi still open?" Eli asked as he descended down the stairs in complete distrust of the elevator "Eli, my man! You're coming?" "Yeah." "I take it that's a huge yes?" Eli nodded silently as his long time friend Mike explained how there were chicks and drinks avaliable at the night club.

Eli took the phone off of his ear and swiped it over the sensor to lock his door, "Mike, I get the picture. I'll be there in a few minutes." Mike didn't hear him or didn't want to, and Eli simply hung up. Once he did, he could hear the sound of metal clanging against metal in the park. He walked across the street and hopped up onto the sidewalk that skirted the park to pass through it.

Night in the city was much like the day. Every block was lit up by neon signs or screens trying to convince the passers by to purchase everything from cars to fast food that overpowered the street lights themselves. The natural light of the sun or moon didn't do much either, to a city full of skyscrapers that constantly shadowed the streets.

Eli eyed the two people as they sparred in the basketball court. A man and a teenage girl. They must have been dead broke if they were considering whatever this training so important but weren't using any virtual programs, every athlete in the world used virtual training and had been doing so for years. As he stepped into the illuminated area beneath a lamp, the girl stopped fighting and just stared at him. He was going to raise his hand for a wave but it neatly swooped up over his hair as the girl was clobbered down onto the ground. She was busy. "Hey! Taxi!"

"Rohi," Eli ordered as he got into the car and sat back against the luxury leather seats "I thought I knew that face, you're Eli," the driver observed as he pulled onto the street. "Yea--" "Hey, are you selling those homicidal robots yourself or do I have to go through someone else to get one?" the driver butted in. "Hey, that whole thing was a misun--" "You think you're hot shit, huh?" Eli leant forwards towards the grate and told the driver in a half snarl "You can either shut the hell up or pull over here."

The trip continued in silence until they reached Rohi and Eli quickly hopped out "Woah, hey, the fare!? A tenner, mate." Eli pulled a handful of change out of his pocket and neatly counted out ten dollars before throwing them onto the ground "Fetch."

"Eli, my man!" Mike exclaimed, practically pulling Eli into the club and shoving a drink into his chest while he did it. "Where are we going, Mike?" Eli asked him as he was weaved through the dance floor "I've got some ladies that were totally asking about you!" "Mike, why?"

Rohi was a club full of technology. A pale blue light covered just about everything, being the colour of choice for whoever designed it. The dance floor alternated between blues and the walls showed silhouettes of dancing girls in front of a pale blue background. Even the waitresses wore blue, minidresses floating through the crowd to take orders and deliver drinks. Eli's own jacket turned blue, reflecting the light off of it's polished black leather.

The screams of the teenage crowd drowned out the electronica as the dozen or so girls saw Eli coming through those on the dance floor. He, of course, was just staring at the homely girl in a hoodie curled up in the corner of the lounge occasionally violently slapping anyone who touched her. "What's wrong with her?" "Oh she's just pumping herself up for the Grand Melee tomorrow."

Eli sat down, relunctantly allowing a girl under either arm. "Eli, welcome back to Rohi. Should I come back later?" a waitress named Beam asked him through a strong japanese accent with a wink. "Ginger beer?" she asked "Ginger beer," Eli replied.

Eli untangled himself to take the bottle off of Beam. "So you're doing the Grand Melee. My last boyfriend put his name in for it every single year since he was twelve and still hasn't gotten in," Beam said laughing "I don't think it was luck, Beam."

It was then that a man roughly shoved his way through the dancers, knocking more than a few over. He must have been nearly seven feet tall and was built like a fridge, and when he approached Eli's lounge the girls squished in even closer.

"Miss Hammond," the man started, looking down at the shaking figure in the hoodie "You have not answered your phone. I am here to ensure that you are aware of the conditions within your contract, legalling binding from the point your name was registered in the drawing."

After standing there for a full minute being stared at by everyone on the lounge, the huge man decided she wasn't going to respond "Very well, Miss Hammond." The immense man reached into his jacket and pulled a folded page out. "I will see you at the Grand Melee. I will personally garuntee this."

As the night died out, Eli drank and listened to the music not really caring about anything going on around him. It was not an hour later when Eli declared he was going to get some sleep, and so he did. Awaking the next day fresh and ready for the Grand Melee, the greatest threat he would face in his life.