Nate and Yoli found themselves standing in the lobby, a space that felt different now after having experienced one of the most impactful moments of their lives. How does one even begin to follow up receiving magical powers? They both checked their links, noting that it was only noon, still a whole day ahead of them.

  "Maybe we should go back to the shops at the Nexus." Nate suggested, glancing over at Yoli. "See if there's anything that might be useful? We could grab a quick bite too."

  "Yeah, I bet we might run into Peggy and Hal there. We could ask them for some ideas as well." Yoli replied with a grin.

  Together, they stepped out of the lobby and onto the street. The bustling foot traffic was much lighter than when they’d first arrived, but there was still a steady flow of people. Most of the passersby were humans, which made sense, being lunchtime for that species. The siblings walked down the street, past Slop, and toward the nearest gateway leading back to the Nexus. Stepping through the gateway was always refreshing. The moment they emerged, they were greeted by the familiar sight of Happy’s stand. This time, however, there was no crowd gathered around.

  Nate called out as he approached the stand. "Hey, Happy! We met you yesterday when we first arrived. We were thinking of checking out the booths today. Are there any you’d recommend for newcomers like us?"

  Happy’s eyes brightened, and he and his magical disc zipped up into the air to be closer to eye level with Nate, eager to offer advice. "Well, to be honest, a lot of the booths could be useful. But, some of them tend to cater to foot traffic outside the Nexus, selling more complex items you might not need or fully understand just yet. This is the only time they get to set up like this so they take advantage of it."

  Nate glanced at Yoli and nodded thoughtfully. "Anything else you think we should do on our second day? We’ve already found a place to stay for a while, and this morning we actually attuned."

  Happy's eyes widened slightly, clearly impressed. "Wow, that's a productive day and a half! What affinity did you both pick?"

  Yoli smiled and spoke first, "I went with Life."

  Nate hesitated for a moment before answering, "Void."

  The shock was immediate. Happy’s eyes widened in pure amazement, and a faint sense of awe crossed his face. "Void? How did you... I’ve never actually met a Void-attuned person in the flesh, let alone a brand newcomer to The Union. How did you afford that? There’s no way your stipend covered that. It must have been expensive."

  Nate shrugged non-chalantly, "It was a gift."

  Happy’s surprise lingered for a moment longer, but he eventually regained his composure. "I’ll say… That’s a big gift. Something you might want to look into is getting an implant. Pretty much everyone uses them, though I know there are some purists out there who don’t."

  Nate raised an eyebrow, considering the suggestion. "That’s a good idea. We’ll do that. Thanks, Happy."

  With a friendly wave, they continued their journey, heading toward the booths and deciding to see what other wonders the Nexus had to offer, their minds buzzing with only possibilities they could make up.

  Nate and Yoli stepped out of the Nexus, the booths were entreating patrons of various species, alluding to Happy’s comment earlier that the booths were really for them and not for people from Earth.. They headed straight for Peggy and Hal’s booth, relieved to find that they were there, probably due to the lower foot traffic that day. As they approached, a loud squeal pierced the air, and Peggy launched herself from around the booth to embrace them.

  "Hi, sweeties! How are you doing? How's your day been so far?" she greeted, her enthusiasm contagious. Hal stood next to her, smiling, seemingly as genuinely happy to see them as Peggy was, but with a lot less energy..

  "We attuned!" Yoli said first, her excitement barely contained. "Gemma told us to go to Kalazan. She said that’s where you would’ve sent us anyway."

  "Yeah, he was great. We’re really glad we went to him." Nate chimed in.

  Peggy had a proud look on her face. "I bet you were. Kalazan and Hal were teammates for many decades."

  Nate’s eyes bulged in surprise. "Decades?! If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you guys?"

  Hal answered first, his voice calm but tinged with pride. "I’m seventy two, Peggy here is sixty-five. We quit the team not too long after Kalazan and I met Dalma and Peggy."

  "That’s... really old in human years." Nate blurted out, awestruck by their ages.

  Yoli elbowed him sharply in the ribs, causing Nate to hunch over clutching his chest. "Sorry about him."

  Peggy laughed, brushing it off. "Oh, it’s no big deal. Most bipeds have similar life spans, something about gravity and blood flow, so says the IC."

  "The IC?" Nate asked, still recovering from his near-fatal blow.

  "Oh, the Intelligence Consortium. It’s too long to say, so everyone just refers to it as the IC." Peggy explained as if this was a known fact.

  "Gotcha." Nate said, trying to regain his composure.

  "So, what did Kalazan have you attune to?" Hal changed the subject.

  "Life." Yoli answered, her expression thoughtful. "I’m a doctor back home, and after I get stronger abilities, I’m going to bring them back and change things, maybe perform some miracles or something."

  "A noble pursuit, dear." Peggy chimed in, her tone warm and encouraging.

  "And what about you, son?" Hal asked, turning to Nate.

  "Void." Nate answered, a little sheepishly. "Kalazan just... gave it to me. I know it’s really rare, but still, he just handed it over. He made me promise not to hide it."

  Hal’s eyes grew wide with shock. "Void? He should’ve... Why would he..." He grumbled, frustration building in his voice. "I’ll have a talk with him. We haven’t spoken since..." He trailed off, the pain of loss evident in his eyes, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to finish the thought. "Agh." he sighed aggressively, shaking his head. "What’s done is done. No turning back now."

  "I know he said not to hide it, but just be smart." Hal continued, his voice softer now but laced with concern. "People are going to ask you a ton of questions, and they’ll be suspicious. Human Void users are almost as rare as the gem itself. Most of the remaining Void users are passed down through family lines. Mostly rich Leos, the type that are so rich and removed from society they can’t help themselves but look down on you. Our old teammate Jarris is one of those, not a Leo, and not rich, well I guess he is, anyway, we haven’t seen him in a really long time, though."

  "Kalazan said he was going to get Jarris to train us, actually. He said Jarris is a hermit of sorts, but he knows how to get in touch with him since he’s resurfaced."

  Hal’s eyes widened in shock again, and a tear started to form in the corner of his eye. He turned to Peggy, his voice strained. “Can we…” He didn’t need to finish the sentence. Peggy nodded in understanding and quickly reached for her link to make a call.

  She stepped away from the booth, through the distant muffle Nate could hear her say that they would be closing up for the day due to a family emergency. As she made the call, Hal turned back to Nate and Yoli.

  "He’s my oldest friend." Hal said quietly, his voice full of emotion. "I haven’t seen him since we left the team. We’re going to Kalazan’s now to see how we can contact him. It’s been too long… and so much has happened." He turned to walk to their car before turning back, his mind filled with turmoil that was outwardly showing as confusion on his face.. "You should go watch a fight, see what you're getting yourselves into."

  With that, Hal and Peggy left, the weight of the conversation hanging in the air behind them.

  "I didn’t really expect that." Nate said softly, watching them go.

  "Grief rewires your brain." Yoli replied, her voice quieter now. "The strongest people can completely crumble under the weight of it. A part of me always dreaded child cases because I hated the aftermath if I failed."

  Nate put a hand on Yoli’s shoulder, trying to comfort her but also shifting the mood. "Should we look around, maybe grab a snack and then “go see a fight."?" His voice reflected that he was eager to move on from the heavy moment.

  "Yeah, let’s see if we can get a snack to push these feelings down." Yoli said with a half-smile, glad to change the subject.

  The siblings wandered toward the other booths, their footsteps echoing lightly against the metallic walkway. The path that circled Tree Park opened up ahead of them, revealing rows of booths stretching at least a mile down the walk way. It resembled a state fair back home, only more vibrant and eclectic, with everything from practical goods to fantastical artifacts on display. They could immediately tell that some stalls sold nothing more than common trinkets, while others offered goods so unique they definitely came from another world entirely.

  Nate wandered over to a stall covered from top to bottom in racks of weaponry. He paused, intrigued by an axe that looked as if it had been pulled straight from an epic Viking battle. Its blade was perfectly polished, but upon closer inspection there was a symbol etched along the steel that didn’t auto-translate in his vision but he recognized it as the symbol for Connection.

  Yoli, noticing Nate's interest, rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath, “This is some real mall ninja shit.”

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Nate shot her a glare, but his attention quickly shifted back to the axe. Why did this have the symbol for connection etched into the blade?

  "Excuse me." he called out, his voice polite but tinged with curiosity. "I'm new to the Union, and I was wondering what this symbol means?"

  The shopkeeper, a burly, barrel-chested human, walked over with a slow but confident gait. He looked Nate up and down before responding, "Oh, that's the symbol for Connection, just means that this weapon can interact with an attuned abilities.”

  Nate raised an eyebrow. "So what does it do?"

  The man chuckled, noticing Nate’s lack of familiarity. "It really depends on what abilities someone has. Like any weapon your abilities are an extension of you, this weapon is also an extension of your abilities. Some are more productive than others though.”

  Nate was impressed. "That sounds amazing. What do you mean by more productive?"

  The shopkeeper grinned, clearly proud of his merchandise. "Lets say you had, the ability to shoot fireballs, an axe wouldn't really do you any good, but if you had this…” The shopkeeper said as he pulled out a gun that resembled old western style revolvers, but without the revolver. “You would be able to channel your ability a bit better through this. I’d let you try it out here, but I can’t let you test anything in the booth since it's not safe. I keep my best stuff back at the shop, anyway. If you want, come by later and we can let you try some things out. Here’s my link." He held out his link device, and Nate tapped his own against it.

  "Thanks! Can I ask, though, how did you know that the axe can interact with abilities?" Nate asked, genuinely curious.

  The shopkeeper’s eyes twinkled. "Well you asked what the symbol was, that's how you tell. Something that was crafted by someone attuned to Connection. Connection always leaves its mark. Anyway, anything else I can help you with?" the shopkeeper asked, folding his arms and waiting patiently.

  "Not really, unless you can tell me how to get tickets for a fight tonight?" Nate asked.

  The man perked up. "Ah, a fight! Well, you can always drop in on practice. But there’s a blood fight tonight, so if you’re into that kind of thing, tonight’s a good one."

  "A blood fight?" Nate repeated, confused.

  "Yeah, where they fight and there’s blood, you know fight to the death and all that?" The shopkeeper looked at him as if the answer should have been obvious.

  Nate blinked. "Sorry, I just assumed all the arena fights were to the death."

  "Death?!" The shopkeeper looked at Nate with wide eyes, clearly taken aback. "No, what the hell gave you that idea? I mean, it looks like that when you are a spectator, and it feels like that when you're doing the fighting but it's all done through virtually connected avatars, well, except for blood fights.”

  “What do you mean by virtual? Like virtual reality?” Nate asked.

  “Sure, it's a combo of tech and Connection that's above my skill level but yea. Blood fights are the real deal though. When the fighters die, they really die, but there’s always a team of high ranked healers on standby, and referees with powers to stop the fights if things get too out of hand. It’s very well controlled. Sure, death happens, but we haven’t had a permanent one in, like, fifty years or something.”

  "Okay, cool. How do I get tickets, then?" Nate asked, still absorbing everything.

  "Oh, you can go to their link page or just buy them when you get there." the shopkeeper explained. "It’s easy either way."

  "Great, thanks!" Nate said

  As he walked away, he spotted Yoli browsing an apothecary booth nearby, her fingers gently brushing over vials and jars filled with mysterious substances. He made his way over to her, still processing everything he'd just learned.

  "Hey." Nate said, catching her attention, "I figured out how to get tickets for tonight. Apparently, there’s some high-level healing involved, so you’ll get to see what that looks like."

  "Okay, cool." Yoli said, smiling as she examined a particularly shiny vial. "When should we head over?"

  Nate thought for a moment, then pulled out his link to check the time. "I’m not sure, let me take a look."

  Later on, Nate had acquired tickets through the link to the main card event and was making his way to the arena with Yoli in tow. The fight was billed as an exhibition called “Settle the Score.” The narrative to go along with the fight was that it featured two rival teams, one of which had pulled a controversial move that was now banned that knocked the other team out of a major tournament in the semifinals. It was a six versus six “blood fight." with the same ability restrictions as that tournament, except with the controversial move explicitly outlawed this time around.

  Nate and Yoli exited a gateway to the entertainment district that placed them in a clean and well kept alley way between two towering buildings. A throng of people had come through the gateway with them, and more continued to stream in behind them. Not wanting to stop and get trampled, they kept pace with the crowd, moving along with the river of bodies towards the street. Once they reached an area where the crowd dispersed, they paused to take in their surroundings.

  To Nate, it was like Las Vegas on steroids. Lights blazed from every direction, some forming holographic shapes that danced in the air above them. High-definition displays the size of buildings played clips of fighters’ past victories, bold logos, and flashy promo reels. Nate thought back to their first night in The Hub and how he’d noticed the glow of this district’s lights from two districts away, now he understood why.

  The area the gateway had deposited them into was called “Fight Street." a punny reversal of the phrase “street fight.". Along with the Vegas-like chaos of blinding lights and booming music, it felt like Earth had taken every stadium ever built and crammed them onto a single street. Each arena had its own unique architecture. There were spiked domes, crystalline towers, floating rings, all reflecting the diversity of cultures and styles they had seen earlier while flying over the residential district.

  At street level, storefronts lined the walkways, selling merchandise for the various fighters, teams, and organizations that competed. Nate spotted jerseys, cloaks, and a ton of other merchandised trinkets. There were balls that closely resembled Earth sports balls like footballs, basketballs, and even cricket gear. However there was also other equipment that looked completely alien; hexagonal racquets, floating disks with grip sensors, and coiled sticks that glowed.

  Nate pulled up his link to navigate to the arena they were supposed to go to. The map showed the destination was several blocks away and he was starting to feel pressed for time.

  “Hey, it’s kind of far from here and we’re getting close to the opening fight, should we see if there’s a cab or something?” He said getting closer to Yoli’s ear so she could hear him.

  As if on cue, a muscular bipedal tiger wearing a bomber jacket whistled while holding up his hand. A dark matte black vehicle peeled away from traffic and he hopped in without hesitation. Yoli, being well-versed in hailing cabs back home in New York, copied the move. She raised her hand, let out a sharp whistle, and another vehicle pulled right up to them.

  It had the body of a passenger van, but the chassis had sharper, more angular edges, giving it a modern luxurious feel. Nate and Yoli hopped in the back, and without missing a beat the driver asked, “Where ya headed?”

  “Uh, to arena fifteen, please?”

  “Sure thing, kid.” And they were off.

  The interior of the van reminded Nate of Peggy and Hal’s wagon. The seats were lined along the sides instead of arranged in rows, allowing for more space and better visibility of all the passengers in the vehicle. Nate couldn't actually see the driver though as there was an opaque divider between them.

  “So who’re you rooting for tonight?” the driver asked, his voice casual and friendly.

  “Oh, I don’t know. We’re from Earth, so we’re pretty new here.” Nate replied.

  “Ah, ok ok. Well, whoever told you to go to this fight was looking out for you. This one’s gonna be great. I’m actually planning to take a break around that time so I can watch it. Big beef. There’s been a ton of press, tons of smack talk. I’m sure they’re raking the money in on this one.”

  He glanced at them through the rearview mirror. “Anyway, how are you guys liking things so far?”

  “It’s a lot to take in. Like, a lot.” Nate said.

  The driver chuckled. “Yeah, you’re not wrong there. So are you guys staying long term or heading back home?”

  “We’re going to try out contracting actually, but I’m going to go back home eventually, to bring healing magic back.” Yoli replied.

  “Contractors, ok ok. Well, good luck to you. Risky business all around. I never attuned myself, didn’t see the point since I didn’t want to be a fighter or do merc work. Have you guys attuned yet?”

  “Yeah, I did Void, and she did Life.”

  “What the?! Didn’t you say you came from Earth? As in the planet that hasn’t even officially signed the Pact yet?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Then how in the galaxy did you get your hands on a Void gem?!”

  “Right place, right time, I guess?”

  “That’s one hell of a place and time." the driver muttered, clearly stunned. “Speaking of which, we’re here.”

  The vehicle pulled out of traffic and glided to the side of the road in front of a monolithic structure covered in animated banners of tonight’s fighters.

  “Thanks for the ride! How do we pay you?” Nate asked, halfway out of his seat.

  “Oh, the system already took it from your account. I would’ve said something when I picked you up if there was an issue. Enjoy the fight!” The driver and his van took off looking to find another passenger.

  Nate and Yoli turned to see where they were dropped off. The arena was circular and the size rivaled the Broncos stadium Nate had been to back home. A wide yellow carpet stretched from the street to what looked like the main entryway, roughly 150 yards away. The building had no roof but even from this distance they could hear the roar of the crowd reacting to something unfolding during the opening fight. The other arenas and buildings were so close together though he could tell if he was actually hearing commotion from arena fifteen or one of the others.

  The structure itself exuded wealth and prestige. The dark green stone that made up most of the building was left unpolished, giving it a raw, earthen texture, while elegant gold trim and accents framed the structure in a way that felt both regal and aggressive. It was a venue that screamed power and spectacle.

  A long line moved quickly along the yellow carpet toward the doors. There were no guards in sight, no visible security checkpoints, no metal detectors, just attendants scanning digital tickets at the threshold like it was the most natural thing in the world. It felt strange to Nate, who was used to being frisked or funneled through scanners for far less significant events back home. He assumed that in a world of magic, including his own abilities, someone would have to be pretty confident to try something here.

  Nate and Yoli finally reached the ticket scanners and Nate held up his link, the virtual tickets glowing softly against the screen. With an affirming beep, the device flashed green, and they were waved through the entrance.

  Inside, the interior felt more like a high-end marketplace than a sports venue. Neon signs and floating holograms advertised vendors. Storefronts lined the walls, hawking flashy merchandise from various fighters, teams, and organizations. There were booths selling everything from glowing sugar treats that levitated slightly above their plates to piping hot full-course meals being plated by robots. The scent in the air was a hypnotic swirl of spices, sugar, and sizzling meat.

  They followed the signs toward their section, weaving through the dense but flowing crowd. The hallway narrowed before opening into the full arena. When they stepped inside, the scale of the crowd hit them all at once.

  The place was packed. Thousands of beings, humanoid and otherwise, shoulder to shoulder, shouting, cheering and waving banners. The ceiling was open to the night sky, and faint lights from the other districts in The Hub mimicked a starry night sky as it peeked through beams of moving lights and holographic displays that circled the arena’s upper edge.

  Nate looked up the stairs in front of them and immediately noticed a design choice that delighted him. The stairs were split down the middle, and on each side of the railings, one half of the steps moved like a slow escalator while the other half remained still for those who preferred to walk or run. There must have been at least a hundred rows rising to the top with multiple layers of seating overlapping each other, it would have taken forever to get to their row without the convenience of the escalator. Nate smiled, impressed. Why don’t we have this back home? he thought as he stepped onto the moving side. The escalator took them up to row twenty-five with a smooth, steady glide.

  Once they reached their row, Nate and Yoli found their seats and finally settled in. For the first time that day, Nate felt he could relax for a bit as he turned their attention to the glowing battlefield below.