Game On

Chapter 3

Amalia's POV

The ship landed smoothly, but the feeling of the ship hitting off the soft soil was enough to wake Cal from his nap. Once we stopped moving I went to the back of the ship and woke Honto and came back. When we were all gathered, they all looked to me.

  " Are you guys ready?" I asked. They nodded, Sena added a sigh and Honto added a grunt. We moved as a unit, smoothly. Honestly we had rehearsed it to look more badass, but that's besides the point, it worked. We were welcomed by a stiff looking group, led by a well dressed man with green skin, big dark eyes that took up a lot of his face and dark hair, his strut exuded confidence.  I stood up straighter. We stopped around a metre away from each other.

   "Mister Gaad?" I asked. The man nodded.
   "That's me. How can I help you?"
   "We're here with an application for your show? With the gangs?"
   "Ah, yes. I'll take that for you. We'll get in touch if you make the cut." he explained as he took the pile of sheets. He turned and walked away.
   "well, that was brief." Sena commented "Let's leave before he contacts the police." she bounced out of our perfect formation and towards the spaceship. Cal and Honto followed behind her. Ricky turned to me.

   "She needs a little faith" I nodded and we joined them on the ship.

    While we waited for a while for Mister Gaad to get back to us, life went on as normal, we had to take what we needed to survive, and we were often hired to take things back that were stolen. Sena liked to think of herself as some sort of vigilante but the rest of us knew we were just thieves. We had no other choice. At home, on Earth, my father was a bad man, he had a lot of people after him and my whole family. One day someone had found us, my dad was tortured and tied down as they murdered my mother and my infant brother. My sister and I got away but we got split up. I ended up on the streets, where I met Ricky. He helped me look for my sister but we never found her. After a while, we knew there was nothing for people like us on earth, we stole someone's ship and got out of there.

 Sena and Honto were playing ball outside, Honto can morph himself into different shapes and change how flexible or tough he can be. He can therefore absorb the ball or bounce it off himself. It's usually really fun to  play with him, until you can't find the ball.
Cal stood abruptly, as if jolting himself from his own thoughts, he shook his head and looked away from the window where the two were playing.
  "Yeah, I'm just going to go outside." he said as if he had made a decision that had taken a while to make.
  "You okay there, Cal?" I looked up at him from the playing cards in my hands. He whipped his head back to me, he looked dazed, his hair was ruffled from fidgeting with it as he thought, which was a habit of his.
  "Hmm? Me? Yeah. I was just day dreaming. Thinking, you know?" Cal often got lost in thought, when he got distressed over it, we'd ask what was wrong but he'd never answer, we assume it was about his family or his home, but we never knew for sure.
  "Yeah. Some air might do you good. It gets cramped in here after a while." Ricky nodded. Cal repeated the gesture, turned and exited the ship. Ricky turned back to me with a grin. "Now watch" we turned to look out the window.
  As Cal approached Sena and Honto, Sena's face completely changed, her brows almost collided as worry crinkled her face, she noticed the second she saw Cal that there was something wrong.
  "She acts like he's dirt on the bottom of her shoe, but look how much she cares." Sena walked towards him, he replied to what she said and she raised an eyebrow challenging whatever excuse he had replied with and gestured to his ruffled hair and shook his face, she sometimes did this to snap him out of things, whether it was bad decisions, day dreams or just being unfocused and sometimes just to cheer him up, it had grown to be affectionate after many times of it just being a sign of frustration. A smile pricked at a corner of his mouth. A big, proud smile spread across her face like a shooting star across the sky, instant and beautiful. She poked him playfully and turned back to Honto and they continued playing, Sena and Cal shoving each other to get the ball. I smirked and turned back to Ricky.
  "you're way too invested in their nonexistent flirtationship."
  "non... Nonexistent? Are you blind?" he blinked at me several times in confusion and disbelief. I loved winding him up like that.
  "it's completely platonic" I shrugged "it's just because he saved her and brought her to our gang"
  "so, you're implying that they're relationship is as friendly as ours? No chemistry, or tension, or heat" I shrugged
  "yup" I had no interest in forcing the two together, it was better without people fooling around and getting involved. To be honest, I saw that Cal liked to tease her and that Sena cared deeply about him, but they were like that with everyone, to a degree. Even so, what if they got together and it ended badly. That's just not good for a gang. We're a team. We need to cooperate smoothly or people get hurt.
  "Ooohh! Did you see that? He really put all his power into that push. She bounced off the ground!" Ricky grabbed my arm. "Oh, he's in trouble. She threw a snowball in his face. Shh! They're coming back in."
"I wasn't even talking" I shook my head. Honto had morphed into a chair shape and carried her back into the ship and to her usual seat. Once seated she smiled and pat him affectionately.
  "thank you, buddy" she reached over and punched Cal as hard as she could with the arm what wasn't all scraped. "you're such a waste of space. All you do is provoke me!" I looked at Ricky and smiled
  "I see tension, no heat" I hissed while they bickered.
  "Ow! Don't bite me you animal!" Cal screamed
  "would you prefer frostbite?" she snapped. She blew a kiss with snowflakes twirling around her breath that she blew towards him.
  "if that's the price of a kiss, my snow angel" he neared her face and puckered up, over dramatically. She pushed his face away with a grunt and a roll of her eyes, he fell from where he was crouched in front of her.
  "Oh please, keep your day dreams where they belong, in your head, I don't need that image" she grimaced. He stood up quickly and returned to his own seat silently. Sena looked at him confused with wide eyes. "hey, I was joking" she reached and touched his arm. He took her arm in his hands and healed the gash along the left side of her body and smiled widely.
  "do you think you offended me? As if I would ever think about getting that close to you. I don't want hypothermia, thanks" she immediately relaxed, her shoulders lowered and her face softened. She ignored the insult and looked at her arm.
  "thanks" she smiled up at him. She held his arm firmly. He smiled back.
  "I suppose I owe it to you, considering I caused it."
  "don't think that means you receive any immunity from revenge, Cal." she grinned.
  "can't wait" he smiled.
I looked back at Ricky who was beaming, his teeth shone like stars, contrasting to his dark, smooth skin, he wiggled his eyebrows and winked.
  "Is that our engine on fire? 'Cause it's hot in here! Oh no, it's just the heat emanating from the two lovebirds, sorry if I alarmed you." he whispered.