Kaiju Club

The gym was crowded that early autumn afternoon, packed with athletes training with weights and practice dummies and sparring partners. Reese liked the gym, though he typically was there very late at night or early in the morning when there were less people to use the weight and machines. He lived, however, on the other side of the sprawling campus, so he began every workout with a two-mile run to the track, followed by another mile on the track before going inside. Reese enjoyed the morning run; even in the winter it was still a beautiful place.

Kaiju Club was one of the best, and largest, competitive teams in the world, and that reputation brought with it a plethora of perks. Winnings from each competition kept the lights on and then some, the surplus used to better the campus. Their gym was stocked with some of the finest equipment available, as was the clubhouse and the apartments that circled the outskirts of the property. The central buildings, open at all times to all club members, were comprised of restaurants, stores, a large recreational area, and the club’s Arena. The walking paths were wide enough for 5-6 normal people standing shoulder to shoulder, and were brightly lit by LED lampposts. There were plenty of oaks and sycamore trees, and the flower beds were kept neat and tidy. It really was a pleasant place to live.

Reese’s eyes settled on his quarry, a rather large young man with broad features, sitting at a resistance machine. Each thrust of his arms raised the weights and strained the equipment, his gigantic frame handling easily the pressure. “Derrick. Hey man, let’s take a walk.” Reese’s voice was light and calm, as always.

“Sounds good, dude,” came a booming reply from the mountain-of-a-man as he rose from the bench.

The apartments provided by the Kaiju Club spared no expense. While spacious enough for the occupant who lived there it also included updated appliances, usually specified to the preferences of the tennent. For someone who preferred shadows their apartment would be decorated with darker colors and appliances. For someone who needed absolute cleanliness softer colors with chrome appliances.

That's exactly how Ilos apartment looked. White paint for the walls, marbled countertops and silver chrome decorated the space. She stood in the doorway, inspecting the space to make sure that she had not missed anything with her initial clean. Having been assigned that home earlier that day, she had spent the majority of her time cleaning it and organizing her belongings.

Glancing at the clock she decided that if she missed anything it would have to wait, much to her displeasure, she had obligations to the team that had to come first. She needed to meet the lead by the rec center and that would take a few minutes walk, so she had to get started, there was no more time for cleaning. Pulling a fresh pair of gloves from her pocket she covered her scarred hands and began the trek to the meeting place.

Walking down the path to the rec center she was able to take in and appreciate how well kept the grounds were. Everything had its place, nothing looked as if it didn't belong. It was aesthetically pleasing. As she approached she heard voices and wondered if she should hang back and wait for them to leave, but it sounded as if it were an argument and didn't know how long it was going to last so she pressed forward. Ilo didn't like being late and if eavesdropping on an argument prevented her from tardiness then so be it.

Ilo came around the corner and spotted two men, one was quite large and seemed displeased while the other looked rather calm. Trying to mask her discomfort, she just hang back away from the two men while maintaining a close enough distance to hear them...

"... that may be, but the league is imposing quite a few expensive penalties on our club, namely YOUR penalties." My voice remained calm, despite the escalation in Derrick's volume and tone. Clearly the larger... much larger man was getting pretty irritated by what I was telling him, but that didn't matter. As team leader it was my responsibility to enforce disciplinary actions. I didn't care for the job, but it was mine to do.

"C'mon... you know those are bad calls. A few years ago they'd have never even blown the whistle!" Derrick's arms were quite active, swinging in wide arcs with every sentence like a poorly animated Disney character. "Besides, i'm just leveling out the competition. All those folks posed a continued threat."

I couldn't help but muse in my head... that sentence was probably the most eloquently-spoken phrase in his life. "It doesn't matter who your targets are. Your actions have cost Kaiju club thousands and thousands of dollars and the league is considering dismissing you entirely. We don't have a choice here. We have to..."

"You're CUTTING ME!?" Derrick's voice boomed across the quiet landscape, the sheer magnitude enough to blow the dried leaves off the sidewalk a few feet away. His fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned completely white. I could hear the straining in his muscles and the hiss as he inhaled through his tightly clenched jaw.

My visage, however, remained calm and still like a pool of undisturbed water. I kept my tone soft and won the fight with my emotions. Derrick could be infuriating to speak with, but I was not going to allow him to get a rise out of me. "This is how it is, Derrick. You don't have anyone to blame but yourself."

"No! You have to do something! Talk to the league! Tal..."

"This was my decision," I said abruptly, interrupting him as he had me. The look of surprise and anger took over Derrick's face. I could see that familiar flame there, the burning in his soul as he prepared to use that massive frame and immense strength to divide my torso in two. But I didn't back down. Not even a little. "You don't want to do that, Derrick. You know what'll happen if you go down that road."

After a few tense moments, the flame in his eyes diminished. I didn't smile or try to hold the victory over his head, but waited until he calmed down completely before I spoke again. "Go get your stuff. I'll have a car ready for you." I gave the huge man a clap on the back.

"Yeah... yeah okay," he replied, his voice quite and defeated. He shuffled away, leaving me alone in the yard. Except I wasn't alone. In the conversation I had missed the aura that had appeared nearby. I smiled and turned to the newcomer, walking over as if my life wasn't actually at risk only moments ago.

"Hey! You must be Ilo. I'm Reese, club captain. Nice to meet you!"

With each passing second the rather large male got louder and more aggressive towards the other male who remained as calm as an undisturbed pond. His booming voice echoed across the near empty lot and Ilo was sure that he was going to crush the other man into dust at any moment. He didn't, however, but calmed down after a few moments and seemed defeated as he sulked away not noticing her standing there.

After a moment the male who remained turned to face her and smiled as if nothing had happened. A few seconds passed before her senses came back and she nodded, managing a smile of her own.

"Yes! Nice to meet you, too." It took a bit of effort not to recoil as he got closer but she managed, even going so far to extend her gloved hand to him for a handshake. Physical contact was okay, she had to remind herself.

"I don't mean to sound like an idiot, but I wasn't really told much about what I'd be doing here? The agent who dropped me off just, kind of, left without saying anything..." Ilo tried to hide her nervousness and apprehension but she'd never been good at concealing how she felt.

I shook her hand heartily, a wide grin on my face. Listening to her question brought me a little bit of disappointment; they hadn't briefed her yet? "God I can't imagine having to wander around like that without a target. Don't worry, i'll take care of you. Come on, i'll show you around." I motioned for Ilo to follow me, then headed back toward the central building. It was a large, impressive structure, with a modern design that made it look like something straight out of a Chinese concept-art portfolio.

The columns glowed softly, illuminating the stairs toward the front door, which I held open, as any gentleman would. "I like to call this the Main Stage. It's our arena, for home tournaments. What's your sport?" The inside looked very much like a sports arena, with ticket booths, an expansive lobby, and concession stands. Elevators and escalators were scattered strategically throughout the area to take spectators up to their seating sections, and several sets of double-doors lined the far wall. I took Ilo to the center doors and flung them open, revealing the playing area.

Shaped as an oval, the play floor wasn't all that remarkable, although it was quite massive. It was quite boring, in fact, being a simple flat off-white floor with no paint and no marks whatsoever. "Most of our games are played here. The floor is shaped when the refs come, so there's never a way to anticipate what the terrain will be like. Even's the playing-field, so to speak."

Ilo remained silent for most of the walk around, taking everything in. It was quite a large compound, but not designed so oddly that she would get lost. It was actually easy to remember the way to the arena from her apartment appeasing some of her initial anxiety.

"Uhm, I'm participating in the CTF." She sounded like she was questioning it, but that was the only thing she qualified for. She wasn't a tank, but more of a support player, so it would only make sense. And depending on the terrain of the arena during game time she was fast enough and agile enough to, hopefully, capture the flag, so to speak.

"What do you play in?" Ilo was aware of multiple sports in the club; she'd been fascinated by the broadcasts she'd watched prior to being accepted and felt a bit of excitement at being a part of it. Plus, asking Reese what he was in didn't seem like there's be any harm, she was new and curious and he was the team captain.  Made sense to her to have a little small talk and get to know the guy.

“CTF, huh? Lucky you. That’s one of my sports, and, luckier still, we have a vacancy. Normally you’d have to sit on the bench and play backup until a start spot opened up, but it’s a pretty tough sport and I’m already using all my backups. You’ll have a start position… if you’re any good.” I gave her a wink and a playful nudge with my shoulder to let her know I was not actually that conceited. It was my favorite team sport, however, so I tended to get excited when someone brought it up. “We’ve got a really good group this year… hoping we’ll make it back to the Championship this season.” Our path took us around the back of the first section of seating, where a small wall divided it from the second section. Along the walls were framed pictures of past teams, both epic moments and roster shots. My phase was in several of them, in one form or another, though I did not point that out.

“I read your admittance file,” I continued, turning to face my newest teammate. “There wasn’t much about your ability, but your athleticism score was really high. I’m looking forward to seeing what you can do in person.” I had to admit, I was rather concerned at first about her power. An amplifier was definitely a great asset to have on the field, but without a power to directly control her part of the field, it would almost be like playing one person short. However, her ability to amplify powers made the veteran players even more effective, a trait that other teams will not be expecting. I just had to hope that it would be too late before they figured out how to counter it.

“How much did you play before you came here?”

Looking at the photos and plaques on the walls, subtly noting that his face was in nearly every photo. It looked like they were having a great time, it made me excited and nervous, and hopefully it was in a good way.


"I played a lot on my college team, nowhere near as advanced as this, but we did pretty good, I think. It was really fun, I'm excited to get back into it." I made sure to memorize the way we walked in case I had to come back this way. I skirted the topic about my avility, as I knew there wasn't much in my file about it, and there wasn't really an easy way to explain it.

I could tell him what I knew, or I could show him, but I wasn't sure if either one would help expand on it. "Being a free-runner, I think, helps in some ways, I usually use it as a distraction tactic, though. I'm not normally the one that goes for the point. It helps to hide from what I'm doing for the rest of the team. Opponents focus on what I'm physically doing, why I'm even there that usually they don't recognize that the strength of the team is being amped up."

I laced my fingers together, some of my anxiety fading, feeling the soft material of my gloves on my hands, shielding me. "To be honest, it's also why I came here. I can train my ability, make it stronger, better, without actually hurting anyone. That, and I can help bring us to the Championships." I gave a slight nudge back to let him know I was joking, and not so stuck up.

"Well if you're half as good as you sound, then we'll be there in no time." Joking around was nice, seeing as how I had just expelled one of our key players. True, he was dirty and underhanded, but he put points on the board and that was important. "That parkour will help in a lot of situations, but remember that there are players in this game that can change the landscape on you in the blink of an eye. You're going to have to be able to use your power, maneuver the existing terrain, and compensate for new terrain. You'll have to think on your toes."

The tour of the Colosseum ended, so we headed back up the ramp and to the exit. I held the door open again for her, still thinking about her statement about training up her ability. "Training your power won't be easy. There's not a whole lot of training techniques that i'm aware of that will help you with that. The only thing I can think of is to find someone that will let you amplify them. We do have trainers available, but I don't know if they've ever worked with someone like you."

My tone wasn't pessimistic. On the contrary, I was quite excited to see what she'd be able to do with some practice and training. Either way, it'd be really interesting to witness. "Well what else do you want to see?"

"I'm always up for a challenge." I smiled. Truthfully I was a bit anxious about it, though I was pretty good about thinking quickly, especially if my grip slipped and I was on the verge of falling. I guess it was just a part of being good at free-running. I never thought much about it; my mum used to joke about me being a cat in my past life when I was a kid, but I'd just laughed it off.

"I've learned that to strengthen what I can do, I just have to do it a lot and slowly push my limit further. I know when it's too far, but I could always use help. If you think of anyone willing to get amped up just let me know, yeh?" He was right. There was no specific strategy to make me stronger, there wasn't an exercise in could do that would make my endurance longer. The only thing that would work was doing it over and over and over again. As much as it stressed me out thinking about it, the long naps afterword would be nice.

"I'd like to see everything, get a feel for the place, so I don't get lost," I added softly as an afterthought, "but I don't imagine you'd have time for that." I breathed in the fresh air, equally relieved and (a bit) anxious. I had already showered once that day, but I was thinking I might need another...

"Uh, for now just the basics, I can wander around and look at everything later."

“Well the only other places to check out would be the training area and The Square. PT’s pretty busy at this time of day so let’s check out The Square. We can circle back around to the other one later.” I led Ilo down the street, passing under the poplars and dogwoods. I explained how each tree was planted by a former or current club member, while the largest tree in the compound, a giant oak on the Square grounds, was planted by the founder. “He wanted this to be a place of growth and development as well as for sport. He wanted us to be proud of the club we joined, so we’ve carried on that tradition long after his death.”

Much of the rest of the walk involved me asking questions, small talk things, between which I pointed out places of interest. ‘Something happened there,’ and ‘this one time, right here…’ I did so with a pleasant tone, as I truly liked where I lived, and I really loved what I did. Being a professional athlete was something my parents were positive I would never achieve, yet there I was, doing what I loved and showing others how amazing it was to do it for themselves.

“Whelp, here we are,” I said, pointing to The Square. Literally a square in the landscape and building design, the perfectly angular building and decorations gave me a wonderful sense of balance, like everything was where it was supposed to be. The building was four stories tall, with a large food court on the bottom floor, entertainment on the second and third floors, and a forth that could not be seen in through the windows. “If people aren’t training or in a match, you’ll usually find them here. You can shop, eat, play… whatever you want here. It’s pretty busy, but if you’re hungry I can show you how to get food.”

Making a note of the time when PT was busy I mentally arranged a schedule in my head for when I could train with minimal interaction aside from the team exercises. It wasn't that I disliked people, but being around too many at a time made aspects of my condition to flare up, and wanting to keep it a secret for as long as I could, I couldn't risk too much contact with others. Luckily my ability had a good range.

Small talk was nice and easy as we walked towards the Square. The whole place was absolutely beautiful and I knew I was going to love it there. Upon arriving at the building I let myself stare at it for a long moment. The perfection in the structure appeased my anxiety about over populated places; I found myself quite liking it.

"I would like to see inside, but I'm not really hungry." The truth was that I didn't eat food I did not prepare myself. I didn't eat out or go for coffee, or anything like that. My... condition made it nearly impossible for me to enjoy things like that, so I hardly ever bothered. Couldn't miss something you never had.

"Fair enough," I said with a shrug of my shoulders as I picked up my feet and headed toward the door. I was actually quite hungry, but I wasn't about to wolf down an entire plate while she sat across from me awkwardly trying to make conversation. No, we would avoid that area entirely and head up to the floors above, showing off the shops and entertainment areas, though we would have to avoid the top floor for now. It's purpose was a mystery to most; only a select few were privileged with that information.

Despite the hunger rumbling in my stomach I bypassed the food court and headed to the escalator. "Well when you do decide to eat, we've got a lot to choose from. Asian, American, Mexican, Italian, French... you name it they can make it. Up here, though... this is where it's at." The second floor came into view, as did the expansive hallway, lined with stores and theaters and arcades and anything else one could imagine.

"We've got movies, VR, clothes, gadgets... basically everything. The next floor up has more of this."

"It's quite nice here." I remarked while admiring the spacious area and all the shops and things housed in the building. "So.. the first floor is a food court, and the second and third is full of this. But what about the fourth floor? Wasn't there a fourth?" I couldn't help my curiosity. If it was none of my business then I would just let it be, but it would be nice to know.

I did also notice that he seemed to be hungry, given the way we completely avoided the food court instead of him, even casually, just showing me around. I felt a pang of guilt sharply through my chest. If it hadn't been for my condition we could have sat together and had a nice chat over a meal. It was something I had longed to overcome, but it wasn't as easy as I had hoped it'd be.

"You know," I began, wringing my fingers together tightly behind my back, "you can go eat if you're hungry. I can find my way back.." I hoped my voice didn't give away any of my unease or anxiety, I didn't want the first person I met, and team captain, to think I was a psycho already.