The Key To Combat

Chapter 8

It only took me three minutes to run to the university. I like that everything is conveniently close in this simulation but I don't care how close everything is, I'm getting back to my real life. All I can think about is Kyscin. The real Kyscin. When I do get back home should I tell him how I feel? Should I ask him how he feels? What if I said those words to the real him, would he confess his love for me or would he break my heart? I don't think I want to know, but for my minds sake I think I have to find out. I need to get back. I push open the university doors and walk in seeing a group of warriors playing air hockey and another group playing pool. There are some warriors just talking in the hallway and watching. I see Anna standing by the pool table. Why is she talking to Lynn. She never talks to Lynn. Correction Lynn never talks to her. Even when Lynn comes over to me and Anna in the cafeteria, she doesn't even acknowledge Anna. She comes to make me feel inferrior and walks away. Anna does sometimes chime in a whitty retort in my defense but Lynn just disregards it. "I don't need you to tell me when *I* need to talk to *my* best friend." Anna snaps. "Hey Wavi." Lynn says. She waves at me and then walks away. Anna turns around as I wave at Lynn. I know we're not friends in the real world but I'm nice to people who are nice to me. In here, Lynn is nice so I have no reason to be rude to her. "Wavi, I need to talk to you." She says quickly. "Okay," I reply. "Wait, Did Lynn just call you Wavi? she asks, perplexed. "Don't ask. I still don't under-" I stop myself before I waste anymore breath on the same problem. Anna looks at me and raises her eyebrow. "Never mind, it's not important. What do you need to talk to me about?" I quiz. She bows her head down in shame. "It's about Kyscin." She starts. She looks up at me. I stare at her intently waiting for her to go on. Am I going to fight Anna? I wonder what this battle will be. "Four years ago on the third day of school. September 8th to be exact. You told me you were going to go ask Kyscin if he wanted to have lunch with you." She continues. I nod rememberring that day. Whenever I would look over at him in class, he would turn to me and wink. He really made me feel like I was the only girl in the room. I believed we were going to have something special even though all the girls would crowd him in between classes. I started to have doubts about ever becoming his girlfriend. But then I thought if a guy can make me feel like I'm floating on air and being pulled by a magnet towards him, with a connection like that I'm not going to let fear or doubt interfere. That is until Lynn came along which made Kyscin stop flirting and noticing me. I thought she must be the one for him, if she can make him forget about me. "I thought where will it end? If they're eating lunch together, soon they'll be trainng together too. I was worried I was going to disappear to you." She admits. Anna is trying to confess something. I don't think this is my challenge. Copycat me must not have been trying to anger me. I think she was playing into my doubts about Kyscin and friendship with Anna. She spoke my doubts to me out loud so I could here them and try to put the pieces together. I know I'm in a simulation which is why no one in here is acting like themself. It's why nothing makes sense. But how am I talking to the real Anna? How am I in her simulation? I thought Diane fixed our machines. So she hesitated that doesn't mean what she did to fix the machines combined or three simulation tests. OMG. When are simulators were malfunctioning what Diane did to fix them connected our three machines together. I don't know how it's possible but we all must be together. Anna must not know I'm real yet I have to tell her. She looks down ashamed and then back up at me. "Anna it's-" I try but she interjects. "No Wavi, I need to say this." she insists. I gesture for her to continue. "That's why I left five minutes early from class that day. I had to get to Kyscin's locker before you could," she continues. I look at her in disbelief knowing exactly where she is going with this. I can't believe it's true. My best friend actually *would* do something like this because she *did*. I don't know if her doing it is worse than why she did it. I think it's pretty evil to ruin someones happiness just because you're trying to protect your own. I didn't know she was capable of this. Here I was, thinking the only relationship I'd ever have was going to with my best friend and I was okay with it knowing that she'd never do anything to hurt me. I was happy only having my best friend because 'she's awesome'. Or so I thought. I only had my best friend *because* of my best friend. "I told Kyscin that you he is MILES from what you're into and he needs a much higher IQ to even get close. I knew Mr. Muscles had to have an IQ way below yours." she admits. I don't know if I can ever get over this. This is low, especially for Anna. She's the kindest person I know. The most thoughtful, honest and trustworthy friend a girl could ask for. We connect on another level. I once thought she was solely created to be my best friend. Anna gets me and she protects me even though she knows she doesn't have to because we are warriors. We fight every battle together. She's supposed to be my rock, ready when I need a shoulder to cry on. I can't even look at her right now. I stand up. "I never thought I'd be so disappointed to see the real you. Literally and figuratively." I snark. I turn around and walk away. "Wavi wai-" Anna calls. I whip around and start to say something but Anna is gone. She disappeared. She must be in a battle. I don't blame the simulator for making bravery one of her challenges. The sad part is she doesn't know she was talking to the real me and not the simulation Wavi. I wonder if she'll think to tell me the truth when we wake up from our simulators. I could guess but I'll probably be wrong considering I cleary don't even know what she's capable of. I turn back around and head to the stairs but Priya walks in front of me. Lynns best friend. She's the nice one of the two of them. I guess since Lynn is playing for team nice now, Priya is playing for team grintch. I sigh. "It's rude to block someones way Priya, so get out of mine." I say annoyed. "Do you think you can make me?" she challenges. I laugh. "I'm really not in the mood for this Priya." I say exasperated. "Don't care. Answer the question." she demands. I look around at all the lurking eyes. This must be another challenge. The quicker I answer the quicker I can kick my ass and get out of here. Priya is Lynn's level good but not my level good. She knows I can beat her, so what exactly am I being challenged to face. It can't be fear because I'm not afraid of her nor am I afraid to be honest. We battled that one two days ago. That also rules out embarrassment because I'm going to kick her ass. Well, my ass but even if it were her ass, I'd still kick it. Doubt? She must think I doubt my skills. That's definitely it. The simulator is connected to my brain and my thoughts creating a virtual world with people that I know. Magnifying everyones least frequently used personality traits to prevoke my most frequent thoughts, causing me to face my inner battles within my mind. Sometimes I have doubts about my skills but I know I'm more than good enough. "Yes, I do." I reply. "Great, care to show us?" she quips. "Love to." I retort. I stretch my right foot behind my left. I put my left arm up under my neck almost restng my chin on my forearm. I twist my right arm to face upward and quickly pull it towards my back leaving my fist resting beside my left hip. The room quickly disappears and the mirrors return. I am so going to enjoy this. I look behind the quickly morphing Priya and realize there is no charm. Okay, scratch that. I'm going to quickly end this. Before she can finish morphing I take a quick step forward with my right foot and push my right arm out punching her in the stomach. She stumbles backwards. I take two leaps forward. I quickly raise my left knee and kick her in her chest. She bangs against the wall shattering the glass. She falls to the ground laying flat on her left side. I walk over and bend over to grab her but she whips her right leg straight across my face and I let out a grunt and stumble to my right. She spins herself up and kicks me in the stomach with her left leg. I grunt again and stumble backwards. She takes two leaps forward and jumps with her right fist in the air. I quickly lift up my right leg and kick her in the stomach. She flies to the centre of the room and hits the floor. I run over to her and pick her up. I spin around twice and then let her go and she spins to the other end of the room. I kartwheel towards her, then leap forward and jab her in the face with my right hand. She stumbles back and hits the wall. I hit her in the face again with a left hook and then a right jab to the stomach and she grunts. I raise my left hand to hit her again but she quickly whips her head up and back and then into mine. I stumble backards and she takes two step towards me and throws a right jab but I dodge it whipping my body to the left. Giving me momentum to whip back up and jab her with my left hand. Her head recoils. She throws another right jab at me but I jump back. She jabs me in the face with a left hook and my head whips to the right. I grunt and stumble backwards. She steps forward with her left foot, plants it firmly then spining to the right she lifts up her right leg and her leg comes swinging at me. Her leg whips across my face and I hit the wall. I bend down and grab a piece of glass as she leaps towards me and I shove it into her stomach. I let out an exasperated breath. "I gotta learn how to do that spin kick." I say breathing deeply. The room blurs and I'm back at home in my room. I turn around and see my parents are standing in the doorway. I jump and put my hand to my chest make sure my heart isn't going to beat out of it. "You scared me." I tell them. My dad walks towards me and wraps his arm around me. I wrap my arms around him and lay my head on his chest. "sorry, my little warrior. Just came in to say goodnight." he says. His little what? What happened to, 'you won!?' and 'Really?!' I think beside connecting mine, Anna and Kyscins simulation tests something else is going on. They can't just change into new people in the middle of my testing. Can they? He kisses my forehead then walks out. "night dad." I say almost asking. It's obviously not the same person I spoke to this morning. Mom walks over to me and puts her hand on the side of my face. "have a good nights sleep, hero." she says. Wait are they actually proud of me? In the real world yea but what happened to all the negativity? First Lynn and now my parents? I would much rather positivity but I don't think it's what I need to finish the test. Everytime I won a charm it was initiated becuase I was being challenged. If everyone is now going to be nice, how can I end this? Well everyone except Priya, who now I can also rule out. Unless you can fight the same person twice. I still don't have answers to the many questions in my head. From the book, I recall that most of the questions I have about this test, RHI is not permitted to be answer. Like, How much time do I have left?' It must be because some people may get self concious and start to doubt themself or lose focus. Which makes perfect sense. I don't know who'd be able to stay calm knowing they only have an hour left. RHI also doesn't answer, 'which location should I go to next?' I understand this is a test but it's not like I'm asking her to tell me what to say when I get there. It would end a lot quicker if I got to the right place, faster. My mom takes her hand off my cheek and rubs my arm. "Night, mom." I say. I walk over to my bed and lay down. She walks to the door and closes it behind her.