The instant Myelin latched on, the pink cloudy world faded away. Headmaster Cain went from the orange figure back to an old man in a clean suit. The Mind Demon's presence faintly remained looming behind Myelin.
Dambe lowered one concerned brow and kept the other up. "You good?"
"More than good," said Myelin, a fire set ablaze in his heart ready to burn the world down.
"Good, good, cause if either of you don't pass, I'm going to hunt you down and lock you in my home gym. You'll eat barbells for breakfast and dumbbells for lunch," said Noor, cracking her neck to each side.
"Sounds like a plan," said Dambe.
The leaderboard was blazing around until it wasn't. Lizzy and Jace walked out with their heads bolted down, their blonde hair curtained their ashamed faces. They were nowhere to be found on the leaderboard. Myelin could see Noor scrambling through the list with her hand covering a mouthful of laughter. Maybe I just need a shot of confidence like Noor. Right, I am a streetfighter. Who cares if some rich kids got shown up.
A freckled face peered between Dambe and Noor. "A shame isn't it?" he said.
It was Arcti. His siblings' rainbow clothing was no longer on him. Instead he repped strips of red lights hung across the sleeves of a black turtleneck. Myelin nearly didn't recognize him because of the black mask looming over the bottom half of his face, but fiery red hair gave his identity away. His smile was cold.
"But they never deserved a spot."
Noor's smile wiped right off her face. "You feeling okay?" she asked with a smile pried open by the awkward force of the ambience.
"More than okay," Arcti said, widening his smile like a great white shark ready to bite. "It's like I've got a weight off my chest. I'm no longer tied down by them." He reared his head back and shook manically with laughter. You can't be serious, this is the same happy goof from before?
"Arcti, you're not really acting like yourself right now," said Noor.
"I'm more than myself. It's me, myself, and all the talent of this family left in I." Arcti rolled his eyes and leaned forward in a condescending manner. "I wonder if all those muscles of yours could keep up, Noor."
Her eye twitched and Noor strained to stand still. "Keep up? Keep up? Keep up. You're joking." Noor leaned forward with Arcti. "Your family name won't get you anywhere without hard work. If you're not training you're just a poser. Let's see how far those twigs of yours take you."
"Ouch," chuckled Arcti.
"Arrogance won't take you far," said a new voice from behind Arcti.
Myelin peered over to see a white thobe adorned by a scruffy kid with patchy facial hair and a dead stare.
Dambe scrambled for his sword, brandishing it and matching it with his own cold stare. "Muzahrib," said Dambe.
Noor grabbed onto her sword, and Myelin grabbed onto his. I won't freeze up this time. The three stood prepared now more than ever to stop Muzahrib in his tracks.
The sleeves of his white thobe swished as hands were thrown into the air. "I have no intention of fighting any of you, relax."
"Quit playing games, why are you here?" asked Dambe.
"To be a bastion to protect God's universe of course." He dropped his hands into a shrug.
The three holstered their weapons and stood straight but uneasy.
"I'm guessing that old man you beat up wasn't a part of God's universe," said Myelin.
"I do what God asks of me, you wouldn't understand. God is begging you to shower yet you still reek."
Reek? Shoot, do I smell? I don't smell anything. He's playing mind games on me. He's gotta be.
In the blink of an eye, the entire right half of Myelin's vision was covered. In its place was a frizzy haired girl uncomfortably close to Myelin. She took one whiff, pulled back, waived her hand, and pinched her nose.
"What the—hey! Scram you creep!" said a rosy-cheeked Myelin.
After a second of being stuck in a trance of embarrassment, he noticed something peculiar about the girl. Well, peculiar other than the fact that she smells random people. She didn't have a mouth.
"What're you on about, your breath stinks," said Myelin crossing his arms.
The girl's eyes squinted in a cheery happiness as a not so visible smile appeared where her mouth should've been. Is she laughing?
"Her name's Shanti," said Muzahrib.
Shanti pointed at herself with both hands and jumped around.
"That's enough banter though, isn't it," said Arcti pointing at his leaderboard. "Look at them go, such a competition for us. I'm sure we'll all make the top five easily," he said to Dambe.
"Five? Ouch," said Dambe.
"Oh my bad, probably a miscount or something, but don't worry everyone who fails top 50 will just reapply to some easier school outside of Khyber City. There's so many of them they just accept anyone, you'll just have to wait another year," said Arcti roaring with laughter. Another year if I fail here, man I don't have that kind of time.
Muzahrib moved forwards in line passing Arcti and grabbing him by the collar. "Dambe's worth a hundred times you'll ever be, let's move on."
Arcti shook off his grip and walked along with him. Shanti looked back as she caught up with her group, and gave Myelin a quick wink. Before Myelin could react she had already twirled back away.
"Let's show 'em up, top 5 and we'll be the top three. That sound better?" said Myelin.
Noor punched her hand into her palm. "Sounds just like how it should be."
"Top 5 sure, I'll bring my suave, but, uh, aren't you guys aren't gonna question what Muzahrib was doing here? He's a criminal across the solar system, how he's allowed in here... somethings up," said Dambe.
"And we'll figure it out, together," said Myelin as he took the first step of the group forward in line. "I know exactly where I wanna take myself now."
The rest of the group pushed onwards and waddled through. It was then that from behind his ears Myelin heard a shriek. Standing next to Noor's leg was the nuzzling, orange, four-legged creature himself.
Noor threw her hands over her head, started whistling, and played with the ends of her headscarf. "Um, heh. Sorry, It's just—well like the cat came like out of like nowhere like I swear I'm not like scared of cats or like anything."
Myelin and Dambe's necks shot straight to each other. With a smirk and a peek through the corner of their eyes they both came to the same conclusion. Noor's 'like' scared of cats.
"What! Stop looking at each other, I know what you guys are thinking. I'm. Not. Scared. Press off... and take this thing off of me, I don't want lint on my clothes," Noor's legs were jittering and quivering like a cheap building in an earthquake.
Dambe picked up the cat and held it up to his shoulder. "This is Gatito, Myelin's cat. He's gonna be a part of our team, you should get used to him." Dambe held out one of Gatito's paws for a handshake.
Noor reached out as far as she could to grab Gatito's fluffy hand, and when she lightly pinched onto him with her fingers, the cat vanished.
Noor shrieked and jumped back. "Whe-where-where-where did it go? Quit playing around!"
Myelin looked into Dambe's arms as he still held the cat to his disbelief. The damn cat can turn invisible. At this point nothing could surprise me.
"Aw, good invisible boy, you're so cute even when you can't physically be seen," said Dambe, who looked like he was petting the air. He let Gatito down after a few loud meows. "That explains where he disappears off to. Here I thought maybe he had enough of us and left to go eat bugs on the street."
"Cats are weird, man," said Myelin.
The leaderboards had completely stopped moving. The world inside the cafeteria stood still; all that was left were the two trios, Muzahrib's group and Myelin's. It's do or die.
Muzahrib's cyan aura flashed as he got into stance to punch. "In the name of the most merciful," murmured the cyan boy. Myelin barely picked up on it, but the phrase seemed to get a huff and a nod from Dambe and Noor.
The punching bag swung up with a solid thud. The leaderboard shifted, but Muzahrib never moved. His arm never swung, his body never left its place, and yet Muzahrib now sat in fourth place, with a score of 1500.
No way in hell he hit that. What is he on? Myelin could tell Dambe was feeling all the same, jittering like Noor when she had met Gatito. Noor this time around, however, remained ice cold confident.
Next up was Arcti, interestingly enough he had pink soul energy to match his hair and light up sleeves. Arcti beamed a bright smile like always as he scored himself a first place spot, a score of 1800. This guy's a lion in sheep's clothing this whole time, he's on a whole different level!
Shanti was up to the tee. She skipped and hopped up to the punching machine. There, she made a finger gun out of her hand and pointed her index finger right at the punching bag. She pressed her thumb down onto her hand.
Bang!
A bullet of purple soul energy emerged from the end of her finger and put a hole right through the punching bag. Third place, and a 1000 score. The top of the leaderboard was now dominated by this new trifecta of strange characters: Muzahrib, Arcti, and Shanti. Muzahrib hitting the bag without moving, Shanti's finger gun... How did those work? Is this a part of soul energy too?
Myelin turned back to his motley crew, with a face of newfound determination and all anxiety and chills brushed away into the back of his head. "I'm gonna go first, I'm gonna beat every last one of them. Hell, I'm trembling just thinking about this next punch."
"Let's see it, but I'll let you know one thing for sure. You're not getting first place," said Noor, punching Myelin on the shoulder.
Myelin stared at the obnoxious pink and red machine and its glaring analog score display. The sounds of punches died down; they were the last people up to change the leaderboard. Myelin let out his aura of blue. He pulled his fist back to his shoulder, let his left foot lead and while the right side of his body leaned away. Myelin kept his eyes on the punching bag. If I make the top fifty, one more person gets booted out and sent home. It's me or them. I'm here to fight, I'm no coward, no more waiting! Everything holding back his fist, Myelin let go of.
In front of him was the number 1250. Myelin let his breath leave his lungs. He slouched forward and relaxed. Myelin could see a kid swing his head down, as one did each round. But this time it was his fault, this time Myelin had kicked this kid away from his dreams. I made it, it's okay. I'm okay, Atal. I'm gonna become a bastion, and save you. Myelin was now in fifth place. He smirked at his friends and clasped his fist. "Who's next?"
Noor pushed Dambe up front.
"Hey, why me?" said Dambe, his voice cracking scrambled up and down.
"Because you're nervous and it's distracting me. Go," said Noor.
Dambe pouted and crossed his arms. "Fine, I got something to show off anyways. It's super cool too." He stuck his tongue out at Noor. Noor stuck her tongue out right back.
Dambe stood a good distance away from the machine. He ran his hands through his hair and ran his palm across his forehead. He was playing it cool for the audience, but up front and close Myelin could hear Dambe's mumbling. "Play it cool, Dambe. You got this. You are special. You can do this."
Myelin and Noor decided on giving him the extra push he needed with a few cheers and a round of applause. Dambe smiled a goofy grin and burst into his shining gold energy.
He leapt an inhuman height from the ground, but it wasn't a fast takeoff. Instead, Dambe slowly floated up. His black thobes rippled and waived in the air.
"Told you," said Dambe to Noor. He stuck his tongue out one more time before he faced the bag again.
His descent was mad. He fell with a speed even greater than that of a normal drop. He was accelerating downwards faster than gravity. Dambe's fist crashed into the bag. 1400, a new fifth place pushing Myelin down a spot to sixth. Ouch, I mean I'm proud but ouch. Oh well, not like he's that strong on a normal punch.
Noor was last and she was already in the right spot. Perfectly an arm's length away from her machine. Dambe limped away from the spot of his fall. Clearly he hasn't practiced landing on two feet after all that show. Myelin helped Dambe out of the way. The two boys watched intently as their final peer readied to perform.
She didn't even look around. Not a glance elsewhere or a smile. Instead, she had pure intent and focus on the bag. Her red aura radiated around her, calm yet strong in presence. Myelin could see the mentors and even the headmaster lean forward to see.
Noor punched, and at first, it seemed perfectly normal of a punch. Good form, clean path, solid hit. However, when her fist collided with the bag there was a bright flash of light blinding everyone in the room.
Snap!
Briefly all Myelin could see was white, and in the aftermath all he was left with was an opaque image of Noor slowly becoming clearer. After a few dozen seconds Myelin could say what he was seeing was in fact reality, once again. Noor stood tall smiling from ear to ear. A roar could be heard from around the room. Noor was now in first place. Her score: 10,000.