Chapter 150:

"Well done guys! You were amazing!", a very hungover Win, who had only woken up about half an hour before, greeted them.

Indeed, both Brom and Nai had beaten their opponents, winning their brackets, and Zach had also beaten Subject 2, passing through into the finals. The truth was, they were quite easy fights for them, both Nai and Zach knew all they had to know about their opponents, having created plans for every action they could have taken. Furthermore, Brom was a direct counter to his opponent, so all he had to do was wait and then counter, once the moment was right.

They were all tired, so they had a quick diner, and they each went to rest, Zach had already made preparations for his future encounter, so now all he had to do was to rest, so that he would be at 100% for tomorrow. Win was still suffering from headaches, so he had gotten an IV drip to his arm, and gone to bed. Igor laughed at him, which Ace found funny.

Igor had probably had twice the amount of alcohol, but had only gotten a bit tipsy, which meant he was completely fine the morning after. Ace on the other hand, after the fights, had a shower, changed his clothes, and went out, intent on watching more of the nightlife. The skyscrapers were fully lit up, and there were people filling the streets, Ace weaved through the streets on his skateboard, looking just like one of the other many skaters.

His hood was pulled up, and covered his face partially, protecting it from the bright glares of cars that zoomed through the streets. The roads were full of people, not much different to the streets of New York, his natal town.

He spotted celebrities here and there, just looking to have a night out, but it was when he was coming back from his trip, that he spotted something that made him laugh. He saw a group of pros and streamers, all sitting in a large table at a bar. They were all drinking and laughing, most of them seemingly a bit drunk all ready. 'This is what people don't realise, I guess. We are people too.'

Had he been feeling cheeky, he would have approached them, intent on laughing at them. It would have probably just been a good laugh, considering that they knew who he was - at this point, who didn't. But he thought better of it, he would just tease them next time he saw or played with them. They deserved a break, and would probably be embarrassed if he saw them like that, he was a 14-year-old at the end of the day, and most of them had child-friendly channels.

Regardless, Ace went back to the hotel in a good mood, happy to see people he knew enjoying themselves.

***

"Ok, it's your big day, make sure to tell us how it went, ok?", Noelle said, and they all nodded. It was only Zach and Coach that would go, the others wanted to all go as well, in order to cheer for Zach, however, Zach had told them not to. He knew he was going to win, and some, especially those who had fought the previous day, needed another day of rest.

Therefore, Zach now had a group of grumpy teammates, who understood and appreciated his point, but did not care for it nonetheless. Ace had to drag all his teammates back, as they looked like they were going to jump into the car at any moment.

As they all went into the hotel, Noelle asked, worriedly, "Will he be ok?", to which Ace responded, "92%", they all looked at him quizzically, and he responded, "The probability of him winning, and that is if he does not go full out, I assure you, he will be fine."

They all looked less worried now, they knew about Ace's ability to analyse and predict, hell they had made use of it before. If he said Zach would be ok, then he would.

"Now, you should go rest, we have a party to go to today anyway, and we owe it to Zach to be in good conditions for it, he did want to go after all.", Ace said, and they all nodded, each doing on to do their own thing.

Ace went to his room, and called his grandmother, with the intention of catching up to see how she was doing, and how all the projects were coming along. This was mainly also so that if she wanted him to do anything once he came back to school, he was able to begin preparing for it, to ensure no failure occurred.

Once the call was finished, he decided to go up to the roof of the building with his tablet, and draw for a while.

It had been a while since he had done so, but it was a brilliant way - at least for him, to just relax and enjoy the moment, especially when he did what he was planning on doing now, painting the view.

He began with a light sketch, adding demarcation lines in light grey, and placing his main idea on paper. Then, he put the tablet down, and thought exactly what his process would be. He thought over 500 steps ahead, and once he had gone through all the steps, up to the finishing of the piece, he picked up both the stylus and the tablet, and really got into it.

Truthfully, he could have drawn this scene easily, memorising it with just a look, and going straight through the process, able to skip various steps due to his skills and abilities. However, the goal of this was not to rush himself and finish as quickly as he could, it was to relax. This meant he would often simply stare at the horizon, enjoying the view, and pretty much just daydreaming. Then, he would draw again for a while, his back against the wall, tablet resting on his leg and hand, his stylus softly gripped with the other, his eyes twinkling in merriness.

This was how Noelle found him, just peacefully drawing on his tablet, for a second, seemingly unaware anyone was there with him, as if he was alone at the top of the world, undisturbed by anything and anyone.

Of course, Ace was aware Noelle was there, but he just ignored her, and kept on doing his own thing, she was free to do as she wished, and if she wanted, she could come up here as well.

Although to be fair, if you came all the way up here, chances were you wanted to be alone. There was actually a massive balcony on the top floor, where you could admire the view, but this was even higher than that, the only way to get in was by climbing a small service stairwell.

It was impractical, but you were truly at the top of the building, and you could see even further in the distance. Furthermore, it offered a sense of solitude that was truly unmatched, like an observer, high up in the air, watching those puny humans continue on in their lives.

***

After finishing the drawing, Ace turned to leave, only to see Noelle still looking at him, 'Oh, I guess she stayed.', he smiled at her and then went down the stairs. Once he got there, he posted the piece he had just finished to I-Gram. He had started doing so, after in one of his streams, as a joke, a viewer had said he should draw a character model for a horror game they were playing at the time. It was all sh*ts and giggles, until Ace drew some sort of monstrosity, that would make Lovecraft quiver in his boots.

This had started the conversation, and he told his chat that he enjoyed drawing once in a while. From then on, he had begun to post his stuff on I-Gram, and people loved it.