A New Friend?

Thaleus exited the vr system and stood up from his chair exhausted. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that someone was standing by some vending machines off to his right watching him while sipping on a beverage. He turned to look at them and noticed it was none other than the dark haired man with the red and black eye. He thought about it for a second and then walked over to the vending machines. "Hey man, are you Dark Sceptor?" Thaleus asked as he used a couple credits to buy himself a drink.

"What gave it away?" Damien replied.

"Well I think its a mixture of that scar, your eyes, and that intimidating presence." Thaleus smiled.

The other chuckled "The real name is Damien how about you Clockmaster?"

Thaleus started. "How did you know?"

"Call it a guess, a gut feeling if you may" Damien replied.

"I could believe that, my name is Thaleus" he put his hand out.

The two young men shook hands and headed outside. Kip was outside waiting on one of the benches for Thaleus so they could walk back to their dorm together. "Hey Thal, Who's that you got with you... Wait is that Dark Sceptor?!"

The two new friends laughed seeing Kips reaction before Thaleus introduced the two. "Yeah Kip this is Damien. Damien this is Kip."

"Nice to meet you" they replied in unison as they shook hands. With that the trio started walking to the dorms. The sun was setting and now that the action from the past couple days was over the champion and runner up were exhausted. They didn't talk too much during their walk. They did find out that Damien was actually in his final year at the academy and would be shipping to the planet Galdoreth to start hunting for better beast gear as soon as he graduated.

The boys were starting to get closer to the Academy and they made their goodbyes. They made sure to exchange information so that way they could still hang out or possibly spar with each other later. "Dude, we have to introduce the others to him. He could give a lot of insight and jumpstart our growth for the following year." Kip said

"I agree. let's plan it for this weekend or next weekend. We all need to get stronger. I only beat him in the tournament through sheer luck. I mean the dude blew my fucking arm off."

"Hey, what're you two chatting about? Also where have ya'll been i havent seen you all weekend." The boys turned to see The big smiling face of Derek right before he grabbed them both by the shoulders.

"There was a tournament for the VR game Colisseum at the arcade and we signed up for it to test how much we've grown." Thaleus responded nonchalantly.

"How much we've grown my ass, you won the damn tournament. you should've heard what the scouters were saying" Kip nudged him.

"Yeah, but it wasn't real, if those had been real fights i could've lost my arm at the very least." Thaleus retorted. "We still have a lot of growing to do and I'll be damned if I'm not reasy when my actual life is on the line." His final words brought a somber mood among the three friends.

*knock* *knock* The boys started as they weren't expecting any guests as it was a school night.

"Whoooo iiis iiiiiit." Derek chimed causing the other two to chuckle as they watched him skip like a little kid to the door.

He peeked at the corner of the window. After a second or two he opened the door.

"May i come in?" a polite feminine voice asked quietly.

"Uh... sure sorry wasn't expecting anybody to come around tonight." Derek replied

He stepped aside and a young lady with red hair swept past him. It was none other than Alice. The other two boys smiled. "Hey Alice" They said in unison.

"Hey guys, so you guys know ability selection is tomorrow right?" she asked. "Oh also they'll be talking about how much they pay students."

"Oh, shit that's right after all some of us have no way of making credits" Thaleus mused. "That's good though, I have a few things i need to save up for to help me progress."

"Thanks for the info Alice, we'd practically forgotten. We were a tad sidetracked with that VR tournament this weekend." Kip said pointing at himself and Thaleus. "We also met a very interesting character" Thaleus added. "Have either you or Derek heard of a Damien Sable?"

Alice's eyes widened. "You mean you don't know THE DAMIEN SABLE?!" she yelled exasperated. " Damn, i was just curious we made friends with him after I won the tournament."

"You two are so dense, He's only the most talented student between ALL of the military schools in the last decade or so. Plus he's fricken hot."

Derek rolled his eyes. "You can't blame these two, remember they didn't come from a rich upbringing like most of us."

He looked at Thaleus. "However you do need to be careful even if you might've beat him. I doubt he used everything he had. That man is on par with a Core Captain." (Core Captain is part of the tier system after you enter a faction.)

"Hold up, isn't a Core Captain like top 10 in a faction?" Kip asked.

"Not just that but he was offered a spot in The Vulcan Crusaders" Alice chimed in.

"So what you're telling me is that he let me win?" Thaleus asked angrily.

"For better or for worse, but the reason might be is because he see's something in you." Alice said comfortingly.

"After all your growth has been oustanding, and you've managed to help Kip progress quickly" she added.

"To be fair we have had the most progress because we were the weakest." Kip said quietly.

"Anyways it's getting late and you guys have given me a lot to think about, I think I'm going to hit the hay." Thaleus went to his bunk and climbed into bed. "Who is Damien really" he thought to himself as he turned over and closed his eyes.