Lightning's Limit Read online

  1

  The sun rises with a faint orange glow penetrating through the dome of Pharis. Vargas was used to getting up this early but it's usually just to get to class on time. It felt strange going to school on an off day. He didn't have to follow dress code but he did have some school work he needed to turn in. That could be for later, because today was tournament day and nothing could be more exciting.

  Pedaling his bike across the dome was tiring, but he didn’t mind it. He convinced himself it was mostly for training because he always trained. It could have also been because his older model bicycle's magnetic drive system, or magdrive, was broken. That was the real reason. He hadn't fixed it yet because his finances were tight. Like usual, nothing new there. With the cardio being good for his physical conditioning he might as well keep it that way. The only down side was everyone at school liked to pass judgment upon the poor kid from the edge of the dome. Sure he could have some of the frills of life if he wanted them but if he did he would be in debt up to his eyeballs. One of the few things his father taught him was not the place to be.

  Vargas should have slept like a stone the night before, after a hard day of school, practice, and apprenticeship but didn’t. And he was feeling it now. He just hasn’t been able to rest with the tournament getting so close. When was the last time he got a good rest, he thinks. Had it been a week, month, year... Vargas' mind wandered... How long had it really been? He has been on a streak of luck recently, starting with gaining an apprenticeship with the Seleaf Mativ, a highly accomplished Sage, and that was two years ago. But even before then he was working side jobs when he could. It must have been the last time his mother put him to bed.

  Right after his mother passed he threw himself into work. He was only six at the time, but he didn’t want to feel. He cleaned, started cooking, and did the laundry. His father was a mess, but he was there less and less. Picking up two more jobs by the end of that dark year. Vargas always had to stay strong for his father, and not let him see how much he was hurting. It would just make things worse on his father, and they got to spend so little time together.

  He missed his mother every day since she was murdered. It’s still an open yet cold case. Then with his dad having to picking up the slack in the income, it was almost like he lost both his parents that day. But today he wasn’t going to think about any of that and was going to make this day be a great day all around. It was the first official Mixed Magical Arts tournament, and his father promised to give him a ride home from the arena, and he knew he would find a time and place to use everything Master Sel taught him. He just hopes where ever his mother is she can see him now.

  He thinks about his training. ‘Only in life threatening situations.’ Master Sel's caveat kept resonating in Vargas' head over and over about a rune symbol he had shown him. He also said something about delorium metal with its half life of about four seconds. He remembered that him saying this rune worked best on that metal.

  ‘It's forged in a special rune chamber that alters time and master time elementals cast powerful and focused spells to make that four second half life into something akin to regular steel but molecularly stronger than a diamond. It is extremely time consuming, ironically enough, to forge with...’

  Vargas remembered most of speech just not exactly as it was spoken. He was just waiting for his 'life threatening situation' to come up. If it doesn’t, he will just have to make one. Master Sel was very clear on the use of it but if he doesn’t try it out, how will he know he’s using it right when he needs it. All he had to do was inscribe the rune on the ground, because only the planet is strong enough to support the pressure of magical power this rune can exert, other than delorium. All he needs now is the right opening and once drawn he was going to blow the other teams away.

  As he gets close to the school he can see he’s the first one to arrive at the school, other than Coach Hillborn. He gets off his bike and folds it up into his bag and walks toward the bus.

  Hillborn says, “You’re early as usual Mitchel.”

  “I am, how are you doing coach?”

  “Doing good, and I just hope no one gets hurt today at the tournament.”

  “What about us winning it?”

  "Mitchel, throw your bag in the storage let's talk about that."

  "Oh! Do want to talk strategy? How about the Hillborn hand block? Or maybe the Pharis fetal position? Or if things get dicey we can run that trick play where we all get in Julie's mirage field and-”

  Hillborn cuts Vargas off, ”Mitchel, you know that bothers me as much as it bothers you. Just like I told you two weeks ago, a week ago, and yesterday. We have to keep the rich kids safe. Rich kids have rich parents and rich parents pay off school administrators to put rich kids as team captains. If a team captain gets hurt, my boss gets hurt. Where it counts.”

  Vargas sighs, “I know, right in the wallet."

  "That's right. Look, I know you can do more and I'm actually looking forward to seeing it, but as long as I have verbal orders it's going to be drills, drills, drills. It keeps them occupied during practice and they will filled with defense, defense, defense. Hopefully keeping them somewhat safe in a real match."

  "I know coach, and thanks for being truthful with me. I still haven't told that to anyone or plan too. I was just giving you a hard time since no one was here yet. Speaking of which, I was wondering if I could get your help on some history. I was supposed to have it finished for class yesterday but Mr. Black said I could send it to him as long as I was on the schools network and before we leave today."

  “Don’t you have the check software the school provides?”

  “No I don’t.”

  Vargas would have loved to have signed up for the school’s work check program but didn't have the extra credits each month to have his work validated like that through his HaLO. Everyone on Eden may be fitted with a Haptics Language and Optics bracelet at birth, but that didn't mean they were all born equal.

  Hillborn crosses his arms and leans against the bus, “Alright, what’s the question?”

  "I'm still a little unclear as to why people came here. I'm glad we did but why don't we try to go back to Earth?"

  Coach Hillborn put on the best thinking face a coach can have when not looking at a play book and simply said, "From the way I understand it, we didn't have any magic there. They only had weapons, like guns and bombs. Some of those people would come up with a weapon that no one else had and then they would dominate without fear of retribution. That is of course until the other side copied or improved upon that weapon. Then it was flipped, and back and forth. Then one side finally made a weapon that was so big that it would not only kill far and wide, but also over time."

  "So it wasn't enough to just blow up whatever they were aiming at, they also had to make sure no one could use it?"

  "Exactly. It was rarely used, until it was used frequently. It didn't take long after that to make the planet pretty inhospitable. As the old saying goes, peeing in your own bed and all."

  Vargas was quickly jotting down notes during this impromptu session because the teachers are not usually so candid. He stops and looks up at Coach Hillborn and asks, "That was when Adam Augustus made the Ark Aspiration, and took everyone that wanted to leave here?"

  "Exactly. It wasn't the only one, just the only Ark that we know survived."

  "Thanks Coach. This should get me what I need. I'm going to go turn this in real quick."

  Vargas runs over to the sidewalk near the school. It was the edge of the school network, which is what he needed to be connected to so he could turn in his assignment. It doesn’t take him long, and he turns to go back to the bus. Walking back he sees all the girls are finally here. Amber walks over to him and says hello.
She is the teams healer and is a shy girl who doesn’t have many friends. She’s also the only one truly nice to him within the sea of the privileged he is in. She spends most of her time in the test lab learning new healing techniques or at volunteer hospital using what she knows. He’s just happy to have at least one friend in this place.

  As they walk back to the bus talking about what’s going to happen today, Julie appears beside them as they talk about their chances at winning the tournament today. Vargas looks over and can see that she doesn’t realize that her spell has worn off. He decides to play a joke on her.

  “So Amber, I just wanted to tell you something that you might be able to help with.”

  Amber looks over to Vargas and sees Julie between them, and answers Vargas without any surprise in her voice. “What might that be Vargas?”

  “Well you see Julie confided in me the other day, and told me that she was in love with me.”

  Julie blurts out, “No I did not!”, followed by her covering her mouth.

  Vargas gets a big grin on his face as he says, “Well then you shouldn’t be spying on people. You don’t want people to hear a rumor about you falling in love with the poor kid.”

  Julie starts to turn four different shades of red in anger, “I swear Vargas if you tell anyone that I will have your head on a platter.”

  “Well you would have to catch me first.” He says as he directs the flow of magic in his body down to his feet. Starting with just a spark of electricity to a full bolt of lightning that he arcs around behind Julie and he glides behind her and whispers in her ear, “And you’re not fast enough to catch me.”

  Julie turns to slap him in the face but she hits nothing but air. He is already back standing next to Amber.

  Coach Hillborn yells out from the bus, “Julie Brawn please stop using your illusion magic outside of lessons to spy on people.”

  “But people get paid really good money to do that, I have to practice sometime.” She retorts.

  “Yes yes, you’re going to be a big spy one day but not today. Load up on the bus so we can head out to Bastion.”

  Vargas heads toward the middle of the bus and takes a window seat and the bus slowly fills with the girls as they each have their chauffeurs take their luggage to the underside storage compartment of the bus. They all sit toward the front of the bus and begin gossiping about everything that had happen the week prior. Vargas rolls his eyes, and pulls up his overlay. He scrolls through his songs he has on his HaLO because he would rather listen to music than those girls chattering on the whole way there.

  The ride through the dome was quick as they pull up toward the gates that leads out. The gates themselves are massive in size. There are three of them in total and each are as thick as the bus is long. As they approach, each go through an opening process that unhinges and spins out of the way. Once though, waiting at the next door, the one behind spins closed, creating a seal before the next can open.

  Trees cover the road on either side of the bus and Vargas is shocked to see as much technology as he does on the drive there. He had heard there are digital advertisements attached to everything, that can only be seen with your overlay. A few boys were talking about when they left the dome for vacations how awesome they were. They must have been talking about further out than what they are or they could have just been full of it. Nothing he is seeing right now is any different from what he normally sees.

  Passing through the forest they come out to the open sky and a clear field and view of Bastion in the distance. The sun shining off the water and buildings through the ever thinning tree line. The Coliseum is clearly visible from the road and is the largest structure there. The closer they get the larger it becomes. It almost starts to almost intimidate Vargas.

  Thoughts of doubt start running through his head. Is he ready to do this, is he good enough, just because a sage taught you a few things who do you think you are to win something like this, and you’re nothing but a poor kid from the dome you have no right to be here. He sees Amber look back and give him a funny looking face. She sends him a message.

  ‘Everyone here knows you are going to be the one that carries us through this. So please cheer up.’

  Vargas was caught off guard by her kind words and flushes his doubts and fears out of his mind. He is a mage of lightning and apprenticed under one of the highest regarded sages alive Seleaf Mativ. He has to believe he’s good enough so he can be, and deserves to be.

  2

  They arrive at the Bastion Coliseum and drive up to the participant drop off at the front doors. There are physical flashing signs and digital advertisements everywhere, and the hum of conversation and flow of people feels almost the same as back in Pharis, just more frantic. Coach Hillborn tells everyone they have an hour before they have to register and to have a look around while he parks the bus.

  The girls run off into the building and start to look for places to shop with Amber begin dragged behind them. Vargas takes him time and walks up the small staircase into the main lobby. It is one big circle with stores lined up all around the outside of the Coliseum with gambling machines in the inner circle. At the center of it all is the Coliseum floor and seating, which is where he’s going to be participating.

  As he walks around digital advertisement pop up and are personalized to him with the data from his purchases in his digital wallet stored in his HaLO. He ignores most of them until one in particular catches his eye.

  It reads ‘Would you like to know your fate, or perhaps just how you will do in the tournament? Find Fortune now!’

  He stops and looks at it with a surprised look because he hasn’t yet registered for the tournament, so how did this advertisement know he was going to.

  “Well my friend that is the magic of Fortune.” Says a voice from behind Vargas with a strange accent.

  Vargas quickly turns around to see a short caramel skinned man with teeth of silver smiling at him. He couldn’t place the accent, and didn’t know if he wanted to. The man was rapping his fingers on a crystal ball, with a confidence behind him that made Vargas want to listen to what he was going to tell him.

  “Now that you have finished deciding on whether you were going to listen to me or not. My name is Fortune, and I know you were participating in the tournament Vargas because that is what I do.”

  “Ok…” Vargas thinks to himself. There is no way this guy could have known his name. “You’re a weird one but sure I’ll bite. What can you tell me and how much does it cost?”

  “I will give it to you now, and you can pay me later. I know you’ll be good for it.”

  “Alright, I guess. What can you tell me?”

  “Sacrifice is not the only way to power, beware the lure.”

  “Is that it?”

  “That is free advice for the day, yes. It may not sink into that adolescent head of yours until it is too late but I have given you your fortune. I will give you one other piece of advice, the other boy I came here to see today will be strong, keep an eye on him, because he will be an ally.”

  Vargas confused slightly tilts his head, “And who might that be?”

  “That is for you to decide.” Says Fortune with a shinning smile.

  Bailey Jacobs, the team captain, yells across the room at him. “Vargas!”

  He turns and looks over at her annoyed that she would be yelling at him like that. Who did she think she was, his girlfriend. “What do you want?”

  “What are you doing over there?”

  “Can’t you see I’m talking to...” Vargas turns his head back to where Fortune was, only to see that there is nothing there. The booth and small tent that was behind Fortune was all gone. But there is a message waiting to be read on his HaLO.

  It reads ‘Advice when most needed, is least heeded’.

  Bailey walks over to him and gives him a funny look.

  Vargas finishes what he was going to say, “Well I was talking with someone and it looks like they aren’t here any longer."
/>   “You’re not going all loopy on me are you? I need you to at least be able to swipe your HaLO over the check in reader. Think you can do that.” She remarks sarcastically.

  “Yea yea, I think I can handle that.” He replies letting the comment go. There were so many things he could toss back at her. How she was a rich kid with no skills, or how her father paid for her to be the captain over him. This wasn’t the place to be petty. He can show his skills in the arena and that will work just as well, team captain or no.

  Registration had finally started and they walked over as a group. Being first in line to get themselves set up as the Pharis Magitecks. Their placements were all set up and they all swiped their HaLO’s over the registration scanner. The receptionist tells the group that they will all need to take all of their possessions and go to the rune scanner to register their belongings. Vargas walks through the scanner and has no problems getting through because he doesn’t use runes. They slow him down too much, so he just doesn’t use them.

  Bailey, on the other hand, was the only one of the group that had trouble getting through the scanners. She is a technology specialist and uses tech to augment her spells. One of those was a rune pistol she uses for long range attacks. The two Paladins that were doing the scanning told her that she had to check all of it in and use what would be provided.

  She questioned why, and they went on to explain that the Captain Commander, Tyler Hemlic, is going to be presiding over the tournament today. He made the change because he wanted to. This news made Vargas’ ears perk up a bit. If the Commander of the Paladins is going to be here for this, they have to be looking for recruits. Why else would the highest ranked Paladin in the Order come to a high school event.

  This could be the chance that he was looking for when he joined this MMA team. The Paladins get a good salary, do good work that he could be proud of and he could get recognition for it. Perfect! Vargas starts running through everything in his head that he can do to give himself a shot at winning. With everything he knows this should be easy.