3000 Stars

Rule-Breakers

V : scared yet?

Yoongi: I'll never be scared of you. 

Taehyung kept his back straight and his chin up as he walked down the street to the old meeting spot, pausing beneath the old cherry tree for a moment before turning on his phone and declining an app update. He didn't need that nonsense. The hack tickled his skin, but he ignored it, except to smirk at himself when he saw the glowing black lines spiraling beside the outer corners of his eyes. He looked much more dangerous this way than the angel image FaceUpp had given him when he started a new account. He checked the locations of old accounts he hadn't checked on in years before shoving the phone back in his pocket and walking from the meeting spot to the train.

He felt eyes on his back the entire ride, but he dismissed them. Every other 10-K in the arena, according to his quick check, favored bright colors and sickeningly sweet pastels. They had completely forgotten the old staples and rushed for pop-culture candy wrappers. In his black and white with his hack glowing over the top of his mask, he knew he looked unusual at best.

Yes. This would be a good day.

As he stepped off the train, checking his hood to make sure it remained firmly on his head, he heard the first call.

"V!? Is that you?"

V lifted his eyes from the ground to the person who had called, tipping his head. "Hullo, Zen," he said, smiling as the voice changer in his hack lowered his voice to a tone he could usually reach only while singing. "Blue suits you."

Zen looked down at the long blue robe he wore, laughing and tugging at the white trim. "You gotta follow the trend to stay on top," he said. "What changed your mind?"

"A bet," V said. He started walking again, and Zen fell into step beside him.

"A bet?" Zen asked.

"Yeah. Been itching for a fight lately," V said.

He noted how fast Zen tensed, but Zen, to his credit, maintained a casual attitude as he asked, "Wanna duel me, then? I've gotten a bit better since last time."

"Sure," V said, laughing and stretching his neck. "But go easy. I'm rusty. Haven't even had a practice session."

Zen snorted, shaking his head. "Whatever."

They entered the duel ring, and V rolled his eyes as the glass cylinder descended over him. He missed the original entrance-- a platform that shoved you into the air and onto the battlefield with no warning but a quick countdown. This slow rise was boring, just like the rest of the candy-colored game.

He hoped Zen hadn't become boring as well.

The rules flashed before his eyes, but he ignored them. It would be good to see what would happen if they actually broke the rules. He could plead lack of habit either way. As the cylinder retreated, he felt the temperature in his body rise and laughed, shaking his hands out. He had missed this.

Twin poles of energy formed in his hands with barely a flicker of thought, and he shot toward Zen before the starting chime had finished echoing through the enclosure. Zen brought his hands up in a swift motion, raising a shield of flickering white energy, but V slammed one of the poles into the ground and jumped, flipping over the top of the shield and swinging the other pole around to slam it into the back of Zen's head.

Zen dropped to his knees, the shield flickering out. V stood behind him, waiting as one of the hearts flickered out.

"Out of practice?" Zen said.

V laughed. "How's your head?"

Zen whipped around, forming a spear of energy and shoving it toward V's stomach. V dropped the poles and formed a shield, but he was a moment too late-- the impact shattered both objects and sent him flying off the field. He rolled to a stop and popped to his knees, laughing as he charged up the steps toward Zen.

"I missed this!"

Zen brought up another shield, but V just ducked around behind him, punching him in the shoulder and slamming a wall of energy down on top of him. Zen fell to his knees for the second time, and his second heart flickered out. Moments later a spear of energy barely missed V's eye, scraping him across the face. 

V paused for a moment, then laughed when he heard no warning chime. Zen slammed into him, and they rolled across the arena floor, kicking and punching, until V formed a shield between them and pushed it up, throwing Zen into the air. Zen's last heart and V's second flickered out at the same time, but they didn't stop. Heedless of the trophy hovering over V's head, Zen charged, and V let out a wild laugh, spinning in place and thrusting his hands forward. Spikes of hot red energy shot up from the floor, then shattered to pieces as Zen drew their energy into himself, throwing it back out in a wild pulse. The boundary lines glitched and fell. V rolled off the end of the arena, but no stairs appeared to help him up. He formed a small shield beneath his feet and threw himself up instead, only to find himself locked in hand-to-hand with Zen again, rolling across the floor.

They were laughing, their energy high, their powers melding and blending together--

Then a siren ripped through the room, and the floor dropped out from beneath them.