Harrison ‘Cheater’ Smith

  Student Coach

  Level 409

  XP: 55/100

  HP: 100/100

  EP: 89/100

  RP Status: Controversial— Leaning Positive

  Weakness Lvl 9

  It was long past Lunch period when Harrison found Calista in the Kappa training room, sparring with a CD-Sim hologram. He wasn’t surprised; no one she knew personally was fighting today, and considering her fight was the next day, she’d want to be fully prepared.

  She dodged two of the hologram’s punches before striking back with a knifehand and a well-placed frontal kick. She still went off-balance, her toes giving out, and the hologram tripped her.

  She sprung back onto her feet as soon as she hit the ground, but she was still slightly off-balance, panting in exhaustion. The CD-Sim kicked her out of the boundary, ending the spar and costing her a Health Point.

  She remained on the floor, panting and staring at the ceiling. Harrison went up to her and offered a hand. “Li told me you’d be here.”

  After a few seconds, she accepted his hand and got to her feet, wiping sweat and hair from her forehead. Harrison couldn’t help noticing the uniform; an exercise bra-and-shorts pair styled in Kappa’s colors, orange and white. It displayed the abs that were developing and tightening her porcelain skin. All the bruises she would have had during reconstruction therapy were long gone, save for a couple dark spots here and there. Her nylon hair was tied up in a high ponytail, which she hadn’t bothered to fix.

  Her entire body looked so much stronger than when she started. When he first met her, he thought she could break at a simple touch, like a twig. She was so thin that he wondered how she lived. Now she’d gained great amounts of muscle— she was still lean and her waist retained that curved shape she’d trained it to have, but it didn’t look unhealthy anymore. Her face glowed brighter now, her cheeks naturally rosy, and Harrison thought she was more beautiful now than she ever was.

  “Something on my face?” Calista self-consciously wiped her hand across her forehead, then her cheeks, then her nose.

  “No, no, nothing. I was just…”

  +3 Rom-P

  “You should take a break,” he continued, ignoring the pop-up.

  “I don’t have time for a break.” Calista walked back to the CD-Sim.

  “Your Energy Bar’s almost to fifty.” Harrison watched Calista’s tag hovering above her head.

  “Well, then, I’ll work until it’s at fifty.”

  “I think you’re ready enough for your exam.”

  “I don’t.” Calista reinitiated the hologram and resumed her spar.

  “You’ve been in here all morning. You’ve only come out for Meal breaks. You need to rest, Calista.”

  She ignored him, wobbling as she attempted a pirouette kick at the CD-Sim’s face, and missed.

  Harrison sighed, frustrated by her stubbornness, and reluctantly went to the CD-Sim control screen, shutting it down. The hologram disappeared just as Calista charged forward with a punch. She stumbled and tripped, falling on her chest and losing another Health Point.

  “What are you doing?!” She stood, her messy ponytail swishing behind her as she stormed over to him.

  “You need to rest,” he repeated firmly. “As your SC, I’m telling you to stop.”

  “I don’t want to stop. My test is tomorrow, remember? I have the duel, I have Teamwork…”

  “We have Teamwork.”

  “Exactly! I need to keep working!”

  “And how are you supposed to fight when you have no EP left?”

  “I’ll sleep tonight.” Calista moved to turn the program back on, but was blocked by Harrison. Rolling her eyes, she tried sidestepping him, but he followed every move. Her cheeks tinted red, showing her irritation— Harrison always found that sort of adorable.

  +3 Rom-P

  Task Acquired: Make Calista take a break— Unknown Rel-P

  “What is your problem?” Calista hooked her ankle around his knee and pulled him off-balance, but her Energy was too low to pull hard enough. He quickly recovered and caught her hand just as she was going to turn the program on.

  “It’s no problem, I just want you to survive. Why are you so obsessed?”

  “Obsessed? What are you talking about?” Their forearms smacked against each other as they exchanged blows.

  “You’re really overdoing it! Are you really that worried about the test match?”

  “I don’t know who I’m going to end up fighting!” Calista shoved him and stalked across to the opposite wall.

  “You know you don’t have to win to pass the test.”

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

  She retrieved a baton from the weapons selection. “That’s not the point!” She threw it towards the CD-Sim screen. Thankfully, her aim wasn’t that great, so she missed by quite a few feet. Seeing her retrieve another, Harrison rushed to the fallen baton, returning just as she reached the screen.

  “Then what is the point?” Harrison blocked her baton with his. “If you deplete your EP, you won’t have enough tomorrow. The bot’s not going to restore it because it’s not a proper fight.”

  “I’ll have plenty of EP tomorrow,” she argued, thrusting her baton forward like a sword. Harrison blocked it with his own and pushed against her, but her legs provided a strong base that prevented her from moving. He felt a twinge of pride at that.

  “I think I know why you’re like this.” He pushed against her harder, forcing her back. With her low Energy and his higher skill, it was easy to break her base.

  “Enlighten me, then.” She twisted away and tried running past him. He caught her arm and pulled her into a nelson hold, which she still had trouble breaking out of.

  “You know who you’re fighting,” he told her.

  She moved her foot behind his and threw her weight forward, letting gravity break her out. His brows raised and he felt another surge of pride, which was interrupted by Calista’s baton in his stomach.

  -2 HP

  “Right, because I know who the glitch is ‘Question Mark’.”

  “I think you and I both know who it’s probably going to be,” Harrison strained, stumbling as he blocked her way to the screen again. “But maybe it won’t be. Maybe it’ll just be some rando.” He glanced at her Energy Bar, which was flashing urgently as the level sank below 50. It began to reflect in her movements as she clumsily smacked her baton against his chest.

  “You know it’s her! And I’m not letting her… humiliate me… again…” Calista panted and her movements slowed. Her Energy Bar was sinking very low, very fast.

  “She won’t. Not if you’re at your full strength tomorrow.” Harrison gently held her by the shoulders, stopping her from collapsing to the floor. Knowing her, she’d want to remain on her feet and salvage her pride, so he kept her upright for as long as possible.

  She sighed, her eyes drooping with exhaustion. “I guess you’re right,” she finally conceded.

  Task Complete— +5 Rel-P

  Harrison smiled and turned her around, pushing her to the doorway. “Straight to your dorm, and to sleep.” He continued walking with an arm around her shoulders, keeping her from falling.

  Task Acquired: Drop Calista back at her dorm

  It was the afternoon, so most people were either in the Arena watching the fights or studying intensively in many places around campus, mostly the Studitorium or their own dorms. Calista tripped over her feet a few times, her emerald eyes blinking with exhaustion.

  “You really overdid it, huh?” Harrison said as they crossed the empty common room of the first-year dorms. He paused at the hallway leading to the girls’ side— he wouldn’t be allowed in. “Can you make it over? I can summon a Medic.”

  She shook her head. “No, it’s fine…” Her legs’ wobbling suggested otherwise.

  “I should summon one,” he said.

  “AIDA, I have a guest…” Her speech was slurring now. “I don’t want a stupid drone… shut up, Lindsay…” Her face flushed at whatever her Pet had said to her.

  “You don’t have to make me a guest, you just have to- whoa!” Harrison hastily supported Calista’s weight as she completely sagged. Her Energy Bar was completely depleted. He tried shaking her and saying her name to no avail.

  “You’ll have to leave her in her dorm yourself,” Jupiter told him.

  “I’ll just get a drone…” Harrison hoisted Calista upright.

  “She didn’t want a drone. She wanted you.”

  “Why?” Harrison sighed in frustration, hooking his arm under her knees and lifting her up. Her arm dangled at a painful-looking angle that he tried to adjust.

  “Beats me…” Jupiter said, followed by:

  +5 Rom-P

  “Will you stop doing that?”

  “I’m not doing it,” said Jupiter, and Harrison could imagine him shrugging if he had a body. “I’m just responding to what you’re feeling.”

  Harrison sputtered as he reluctantly and slowly approached the women’s dorm hall. He glanced around, ensuring no one but the SECURE microcameras were watching.

  He inhaled and winced as he crossed the threshold. No alarms or warnings— AIDA had acknowledged him as a guest for the night. He sighed in relief and strode down the hall quickly until he got to the last room on the right. Unlike the hallway, he had no access to this room.

  Calista’s Pet ejected from her belt. “I’ll take care of it,” she said, winking one of her blue screen eyes. Looking at the locked doorway, she made a series of beeping sounds that almost sounded musical, like Calista. She just seemed to have a musical… way about her in how she moved and danced and fought. There was always some rhythm to her.

  The doorway opened and Lindsay seemed to smile at him. Harrison had never heard of Pets attempting to ‘set up’ anyone, and he wondered if he was somehow making history with his Pet and Calista’s Pet doing so. As if reading his thoughts, Jupiter answered with:

  +5 Rom-P

  “Cut it out, Jupiter!” Harrison said.

  “You cut it out, then,” his Pet answered, bordering on laughter. Harrison cursed whoever achieved such a level of AI in these Versus Pets.

  Going into her room, he looked around the space, mildly curious. He hadn’t gotten his own room during his first year, plagued with two roommates that didn’t like him or respect him at all. The room seemed a lot bigger without the two extra sleep capsules in place. Calista was lucky,

  He went to her sleep capsule and gently laid her down. The capsule took care of detecting her presence and adjusting the covers. She took a deep breath and settled in comfortably, her Energy Bar slowly recharging. Lindsay flitted past Harrison’s face and nestled into her capsule slot.

  Task Complete— +8 Rel-P

  +5 Rom-P

  Approaching Crush Status

  Harrison sighed in frustration at Jupiter, moreso because he knew he was right. It wasn’t his Pet’s decision to take on Romance Points. He didn’t know how he brought them on; they just appeared. When he found her laugh adorable, or admired her smile, or watched her fight with increasing pride. He thought she was pretty when he first met her, but now that the body mods were fading and she was breaking out of the cocoon to show her real self, he found her even more attractive.

  It wasn’t as if he was afraid of romance or anything, but he didn’t know how to respond to it. He’d never experienced it before, and his parents were one of the worst examples on how to handle a relationship. It would also be distracting to both him and Calista. He wasn’t even sure if she felt the same with him— she was naturally flirtatious and fangirled over pretty much everything… something else he found cute about her.

  He gazed at her sleeping form, relieved to see peace in her face instead of the anxiety she was exuberating earlier. There was no doubt in his mind that the professors would pair her up with Hillary Kaye. It was out of character for her to not challenge someone or accept a challenge, leaving a question mark by her name. A higher-Level fighter couldn’t challenge someone at a lower Level, and Calista never would have challenged someone like Hillary after everything that happened.

  The only way was to have the faculty pair them up, which they undoubtedly would do. Having to sit for hours in the Arena watching the same old fights would make them anxious for some excitement.

  Harrison knew the likelihood of her winning wasn’t high, but it wasn’t impossible. Hillary had a low Self-Control Level and she’d hopefully be enraged enough to leave some holes open. He hoped, for Calista’s sake, that she would be put in her place.

  She had to get on the team. Whether she won the test match or not, her name had to be on the list. She’d worked harder than anyone to Level Up as much as she did. She’d completely transformed the way her body worked, her habits, her mentality… everything. She’d sacrificed her old life and reputation for this.

  He quietly left her room, relieved to see the hallway still empty. Jupiter drove his point home.

  +10 Rom-P

  Achieved: Crush Status

  +Flirting II

  +Check-Out II

  +Shyness I