61 The Day Before

Micu awoke with a start. The book lay open on his bed. He picked it up and laughed to himself. He had barely made it 15 pages in before he had fallen asleep. Placing the book underneath his closet he threw on some clothes and headed downstairs. Jayce and Jenira were already awake discussing the next day's competition. "Morning," Micu said as he strolled into the kitchen. Both looked up and smiled brightly at him, "Morning Micu!" He glanced around. "No Ralnas?" They shook their heads. Nodding he pulled out some juice and poured himself a glass.

"What are you thinking for tomorrow?" He said as he sat down across from the two of them. Jayce expanded the projection of the map so that Micu could see it as well. "The other three all agreed to send a few teams to compete for them. But a ton of other races want to participate too. Tara called to say there are over 2000 teams entered. They're worried it'll take too long and people won't watch." Micu nodded. "So they're going to have the lower level teams compete in the morning to thin the numbers down to around 100 or so. It might be a very late night for us." Jenira smiled, "Which means we all have to sleep in tomorrow. Ralnas is already practicing." Micu started laughing and juice came out of his nose. "Really? You're going to betray me like this body?"

His two friends burst out laughing. Micu blushed as he grabbed a towel to mop up the mess. As he was cleaning up they heard a groan and a damaged Ralnas descended the stairs. "How are you two okay after last night? My body still hates every movement." Micu looked up at his friend. He moved so slowly down the stairs it was as if he was an old cripple. "Really Ral? You're this out of shape after three days?" Micu said with a grin. Ralnas glared at him. "This workout was insane. You are lucky you didn't have to do it. I swear Jayce was trying to kill me." Jenira shrugged, "I thought it wasn't that bad."

Ralnas turned his icy gaze to her. "I swear no one here ever supports me." The three made mocking "awhhh" sounds. Ralnas dragged himself to the fridge and pulled out a protein shake. Drinking it in one go he made a satisfied "mmm" sound as he wiped his lips with the back of his hand. Just as he was about to say something they heard a quiet voice from the top of the stairs. "Morning everyone." Jayce and Jenira whipped their heads around and saw Anna standing at the top of the stairs. "You're here!" Jayce said excitedly. Jenira stood and climbed the stairs. "Here you can borrow some of my clothes. You must be sick of always wearing that ugly white thing." The two girls went into her room.

Jayce turned to Micu, "You got her to join?" Micu nodded, "Did you expect anything else?" Jayce cracked a mischevious grin. "Well considering your luck with Isabel I thought you would convince her to join one of the other Overwatchers." Micu scowled as Ralnas broke into the same devilish kind of smile. As he was about to join in on the teasing he felt a stinging slap on his tired legs. "Ouch!" Ralnas jumped away from Micu. Jayce started howling with laughter.

Ralnas massaged his leg while glaring at Micu. "I hadn't even said anything yet!" Micu smiled at him and returned to sipping his juice. Ralnas hobbled over to the chef robot and started typing in commands. "What's the plan for today Jayce?" Jayce grinned wickedly. "More practice. We have to get Anna integrated." Ralnas groaned and then added more things to the breakfast menu. Micu stood and headed towards the stairs. "Guess I'll get dressed then." Jayce nodded and returned his focus to the map he had been looking over with Jenira.

After breakfast the five of them headed over to practice at Chiron's gym. Jayce was grateful for all the offers from other elite teams to use their facilities but preferred what he was familiar with. When he had called up Chiron to ask if they could use the gym Chiron had almost exploded with excitement. He quickly dashed over to the school and started setting things up for Jayce. He then called his secretary and had him invite all the current students to watch the most famous team come out of the school practice. They arrived to see it was a packed stadium.

Jayce looked around and smiled to himself. "Guess we've officially become celebrities." Suddenly old man Ralnas was gone and a spritely version of himself was shaking hands, signing autographs and posing for pictures. Jenira whispered in Micu's ear. "I really do hate him sometimes." Micu nodded and smiled. Anna felt a bit overwhelmed and followed a few steps behind the other four. Micu slowed his pace and smiled at her. "It's going to be worse than this at the Royal Coliseum. Just try and relax." Anna did her best to appear relaxed. The five of them walked inside the simulator after an extended period of interacting with the fans. Jayce then turned to his friends as thin dark webs began to extend from his chest. "Ready?"

...

As teams across the simulation fervently began practicing across the simulation the Overwatcher's were completing their bases. Each was deep in thought of what they wanted the final version to look like. Tatewari and Ahti were to the left of the massive hub while Zcerneboch had chosen to be to the right. They announced the final designs and news drones flocked to the beach to watch each base get unveiled.

Being the oldest Tatewari was given the privilege of going first. His base materialized from the ocean with an eruption of lava. A massive volcano rose from the ocean and began to vomit forth huge amounts of lava. As the steaming hot magma reached the ocean it formed into land that was instantly populated with trees. The ground rose into cliffs, valleys, lakes, and sandy bluffs. Tatewari didn't need to use the lava but he liked the spectacle and had worked tirelessly on making the look of his island appear natural. Even though it had been shaped in a way that made it quite difficult to assault should it ever be attacked. He also buried his gem deep in the volcano to make it even more difficult to be stolen. He released his nature-inspired beasts throughout the island. Finally, an area of the volcano dissolved and a throne made of pure magma formed with an imposing six armed figure sitting contently upon it.

Those gathered to watch clapped at his magnificent entrance. Tatewari smiled inwardly. Though he thought little of the praise of the lower races it was still nice to receive. He stood and bowed before pointing to his left and sitting back in his fiery throne.

As the crowd rotated their attention a spout of water burst through the waves and the outline of a shell broke the surface. An enormous turtle emerged from the ocean with a lush forest on its back. Tree houses and rope bridges extending from the trees and a variety of amphibious creatures emerged from the thick forests with battle shouts. Ahti walked onto the beach from the ocean and bowed to the gathered reporters. He gestured to the imposing turtle and it roared deafeningly. The crowd was stunned silent before a nervous applause broke out. Ahti smiled to himself and glided across the water before leaping atop the turtle. He had hidden the gem deep inside the turtle. He felt confident that nothing would be able to assault and defeat his living base. As he turned to face the crowd he bowed again and then pointed across the beach.

The water began swirling in a whirlpool before the tip of something emerged from the center. An imposing mountain began climbing out of the water. It continued climbing until it rose far above the other two bases and was equal in height to the mega-skyscrapers of the major hub. As it slowed small holes appeared throughout the mountain. Massive buzzing insects emerged from the holes and swarmed around the mountain. Spectators gasped as they realized it was a massive termite mound. Zcernboch's face was formed out of the swarm of insects and it gazed down on the beach. The bugs then broke off and returned to the mountain. The holes closed and a loud buzzing echoed throughout the area.

The crowd clapped in admiration of such a seemingly impenetrable fortress. Both Ahti and Tatewari were rolling their eyes. They had both taken risks and made their bases somewhat open in the spirit of making the competition more interesting. Their younger brother had chosen to take advantage and had a very difficult to assault base. In their eyes, he had lost some respect by playing it so safe. The three finished their performances and the crowd began to disperse to get better views of the three bases.

Ahti and Tatewari waved to the crowd before retreating to the center of their fortresses. The crowd got as close as they could to the individual bases and took a plethora of pictures. News reports quickly began creating a ranking of which base was the most beautiful or most impressive. On Ripple, comments began flowing as the debate over which team to join raged. Overall the majority were excited for the event tomorrow and to formally declare which side they were going to be part of. It had become an unspoken rule that people would wait until the end of the competition tomorrow before formally deciding which Overwatcher team they would be joining.

Most already knew but it was now part of the fun to wait and see which group would impress the most. The crowd was slowly getting whipped into a frenzy and advertising was already amping the matches tomorrow up as a once in a lifetime event. Seemingly overnight posters of Jayce and his teammates had appeared throughout the mashed together major hub. Of course, no one knew that Tara and her network were working overtime to promote Jayce. This competition had played right into their hands and they were fervently working to build support for the human team.

As the night descended on the simulation very few were actually sleeping. The thousands who were participating in tomorrows event were wide awake with nerves. Those who weren't actually participating were desperate for tomorrow to come so they could enjoy the show. Elite teams were deep in debate over who was the correct Overwatcher to join. TV networks had their staff frantically setting up for tomorrow. The night seemed to take its sweet time ending against the wishes of all of the simulation. As the sun crested over the horizon hundreds of eyes were already wide awake and heading to the Royal Coliseum.