Versus (Parts I and II)

Chapter 5- One Spot

It had been well over a week since the incident at Cosmos. Both Medley girls had kept their mouths shut and Calista healed her bruises as fast as she possibly could, applying all kinds of treatments at the Thinning Spa to avoid scarring.

Catalina had stayed home since then, visibly tense. Poor thing probably felt anxious without a job. Calista couldn't get over the fact. What could've happened if she weren't there? What happened over the past year?

She herself had a lot of questions since the incident. She didn't realize she'd retained so much from her self-defense and combat training. After four years, she expected to have forgotten completely. She fought a gang of possible criminals, in a bar, on the spot, and escaped with not a scratch to her face. What did she do wrong in the past, then? Why wasn't she accepted?

It didn't matter. Applications had closed last week and the new class was announced to the country. It was all she'd heard on the way to the Spa the other day. 330 lucky students who had a 9% chance of getting on the team.

Calista answered the SociaLights group call. The three girls appeared around her in live holograms. Danica was sitting in a comfy chair, projecting filters on her face. The other two stood.

"What are you doing?" Calista asked the clique leader.

"Testing the new filters," Danica replied. "It enhances my smooth skin and makes my lips look more luscious."

Calista tried not to roll her eyes. Danica was very pretty by herself. It seemed like every day that she had a new filter to try on. No wonder Catalina called them all masky.

"We have some news," Rebecca said. "That fighting school expelled someone."

Calista nearly choked on her own spit. "What?"

"Yeah, some kid from the Versus class. Turns out he was a Dnilian and he turned into a Martian so he could spy on Fistborn, something like that. We thought we could do a broadcast about it. How the planets are spying on each other and eventually will end up killing each other in those games."

"It's a time bomb," Danica commented, still experimenting with the filters. "Eventually, they're all gonna get tired of keeping their fights in that competition, and they're gonna get so bugged off that they'll start a war. Peacekeeping." She scoffed.

"Well... it has been a couple of centuries," Calista shyly pointed out. "They're used to keeping the fights inside the competition."

"Right now. It's like a fire pocket on Mercury. It builds up slowly. Eventually, it bursts. Grudges, cheaters, criminals. They're not going to last much longer."

Calista remained silent, not only to conceal her disagreement, but also because... she agreed, in some part. What they said made sense. But the Versus had become such a tradition already. It would be difficult to violate the peace treaty. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as they thought.

"So... if they expelled someone, does that mean...?" Elizabeth didn't finish.

"Yeah, they're gonna open apps again." Rebecca chuckled, picking her nails. "Oh-my-God, people are gonna literally kill each other for that spot. Proves our point."

An open spot? Calista's stomach twinged, but she kept a deadpan on her face.

"Anyways, I've got good news for all of us!" Danica closed her filters and jumped up from her seat excitedly. "Guess what I found out!"

"Sociapalooza? Yeah, we know about that," said Rebecca.

"No. NYWS is giving out a full scholarship!"

"What?!" the other three, including Calista, exclaimed.