After their hair was done, which took WAY longer than Lana expected it would. Four hours just seemed a little extreme. Sure, it looked nice and smelled nice but it was almost time for lunch by the time they went looking for their friends. The boys didn't seem overly impressed though Almin threw a smile in Kattie's direction. Vorden had saved a seat for her next to his in the last row. They were all seated in the last three rows but at the end of the row so they could talk but also get up easily as soon as the event was over. They were all excited about dinner to various degrees. Lana decided to read a book until the fighting event. Ancient Herbal Medicines was a much more interesting topic.
While everyone was busy watching the screen, Vorden leaned in and quietly whispered, "You smell nice." And put an arm along the back of her chair after pretending to stretch. She giggled and mouthed the words "thank you."
She resumed reading until Vorden nudged her. Dobin and Nate were on the same stage again. She watched nervously. Dobin stopped at one ring, Nate stopped at another. She exhaled but not fully because she knew how close to losing Dobin got the previous day. This was actually why Vorden was sitting next to her. Sil didn't appreciate her screaming in pain the previous day when Dobin got hit and insisted he be near her for this fight. Lana was barely aware there were others around as her eyes were glued to the screen and a monster of a boy from another school stepped on the platform along with her brother. He was more than twice Dobin's size. She wondered how the military found a uniform in "Extra Muscle" size.
Lana had her bottom lip between her teeth as the familiar beep, beep, beep, went off. Juggernaut, as he named himself, turned silver the minute the third beep sounded. Lana leaned forward in her seat. Dobin decided to try encasing himself in earth and sort of succeeded. The skill was more on a hardened mud but Dobin's mud wasn't very hard and slumped to the ground. He then surfed toward his opponent. His biggest problem was, while he used an ability book for level 8, he didn't for levels 3, 5, 6 or 7. He didn't have all the skills a normal level 8 would have because he gained his strength without the support of the military. He earned his right to be on this stage, but he was not truly prepared to be based on the skills he learned. Dobin surfed straight to Juggernaut and encased his fist in a huge earth ball. Hoping to use his momentum, he threw his fist in hopes it would do something against this coating on his opponent's skin. Juggernaut saw the punch coming and met it with one of his own. As the fists collided, it was no contest. Juggernaut not only shattered the earth ball but the fist inside it. As Dobin reeled from the pain, his opponent then threw a fist at Dobin's stomach. He was wearing his armor which absorbed some of the impact, but the punch was thrown with such force, intermediate armor just could not hold back that level of energy. Lana screamed again and doubled over in pain, tears falling from her eyes.
"Just end it already," she whimpered.
With Dobin doubled over in pain, the next blow was to his back. Juggernaut clasped his hands together and brought the hammer down. He was nice to avoid the spine but it still hurt. As Lana was doubled over in pain, she was no longer able to see the screen as her brother collapsed to the ground and was barely moving. The referee declared Juggernaut the winner. Dobin was collected and taken to the healers. A few moments later, Lana was sitting up and looking at the screen. Nate had also lost but once again, she had missed the fight. She finished releasing her tears then wiped her face. She then stood up, placed a foot on her chair and leapt over the back of it. She raced to the elevator in the lobby. She paced back and forth until it mercifully opened and she grabbed her brother in a huge bear hug, barely allowing him to escape the metal box before the doors automatically closed to move on to the next floor.
Dobin held his twin close, "I'm okay, I'm okay," he said over and over again. Little Caser in her bra was protesting the tight hug and she was forced to release Dobin to investigate if the scratches broke the skin. She was lucky.
She then grabbed Dobin's hand in both of hers, took a few deep breaths, then walked back to her friends, not allowing Dobin to have his hand back. She didn't say a word. She didn't trust her voice. Vorden heard footsteps approaching and turned around. Danger flashed in his eyes as he saw her holding her brother's hand in such a way but Vorden quickly flushed that away and replaced his facial expression with a soft sadness. Lana noticed that Sam had left because he was now walking up with the boy who she saw opposite Quinn yesterday until she focused on her brother's fight.
There were introductions all around as Dobin and Nate were new to the group. Nate was speechless to learn that Sam knew Quinn. He had used the name Cursed Child in this event so Nate used that name to ask how they knew each other. The conversation was so interesting, most of the remainder of the event was missed. With an hour before dinner, Lana told everyone they needed to go get ready and meet outside Hotel 1. Lana finally let go of her brother, finally accepting that he was in fact OK. She went to her room to get ready.
Sil watched her dress and zipped her up. He then adorned her with all the sparklies he had told Vorden she needed to have. He personally didn't think any of the things in the store were pretty enough to be worn by her but Vorden did convince him the set had potential. After looking at it for a while, he had finally relented and asked him to allow her to see it as a suggestion. He was happy she was happy with them. He then had to listen to Vorden complaining because she wasn't wearing heels as was appropriate for a dinner dress. No, this girl chose to wear comfortable boots with a flexible sole. As if she could move well enough in this dress to conduct herself properly in a fight if one were to happen! Sil told him to shut up. Lana was happy so he should be too.
She had chosen to purchase a form-fitting red dress that had an extra layer of fabric around the arms that poofed a bit. The poofy part was translucent allowing one to see the fabric that clung to the arm underneath. The earrings and necklace attachment she chose was the dangly diamonds as her hair was in a reverse French braid where the remaining hair was tucked down behind the braid so all of her hair was of her neck. Sil couldn't help kissing her neck when he placed the necklace around it. He then took her to the hotel mirror in the bathroom and allowed her to see how gorgeous she was. She glanced at herself but what she really wanted to look at was the gorgeous blond attached to the arms wrapped around her waist. She smiled, filled with contentment. She did notice one thing. There was a noticeable bump between her boobs that made her giggle because it looked like she had three of them. She stroked the extra "boob" and it started purring. It made her laugh and Sil smiled broadly. It was the simple things that brought joy and blocked out the horrors of the past.