“Heya, mate!”
Kayel frowned as he straightened himself out. He and his team were supposed to have been going home, but he was currently sitting around outside the Dessaron team medical bays, as Retvik had been dragged away by the Raptor to discuss something important, and Tenuk and Nyssi were busy dodging fans and talking with one of the other Thraki Dessaron teams. Not the ones they’d just beaten. He’d hoped that the voice belonged to one of his friends, but as Kayel looked up, he was surprised to see a very tall, very green Skyan.
“Uh, hello…” Kayel hastily put his green house fighter helmet back on. He wasn’t supposed to let people know who he was, although it was getting harder and harder to hide the fact that he was the main reason that Retha Squad One had lost their most recent streak. However, as Kayel scanned the Skyan standing in front of him, he lowered his guard. This Skyan was a house fighter, the same way Kayel was. And he knew he was one of Retvik’s friends.
“You must be Kayel!” Psiksi smiled. “May I sit with you? I’d love to have a chat.”
Kayel shifted over to one side. “Yeah, sure. I suppose you don’t see many other Skyan house fighters around here.”
“Nope. When it comes to house fighters, it’s kinda been just me for a while now ever since Thitaksi retired. Been meaning to try and catch you so we could talk for ages, but, well, I can understand that you’ve been busy.”
Psiksi was very friendly, but also very big and strong, which was unusual for a Skyavok. There were marks around Psiksi’s natural green plating, where his muscles and skin were pressing against his armour, that was how muscular Psiksi was.
“I’ve not been intentionally avoiding you though…” Kayel lowered his gaze, trying not to stare. Not only was Psiksi powerful, but he was attractive too. It occurred to Kayel that he hadn’t really socialized with his own kind ever since the… event… at the family planning centre where he used to work. “You been specifically looking for me?”
“Yep. I know the Raptor wanted to keep your identities a secret, but Retvik and I go way back and we tend to talk. Still, nice to meet you, Kayel!”
“Nice to meet you too, Psiksi. What did you want to talk about?”
Psiksi shrugged. “Nothing in particular. Just wanted to get to know you. After all, considering what we’ve seen of you, you’re clearly, clearly not a simple L-Class worker.”
Kayel glanced at Psiksi, then shivered. “I… I don’t like talking about it.”
“Oh? Why not? You have shadow powers, you must be special. Definitely D-Class or K-Class. Or maybe you’re Ξ-Class like me and just got trained to do that stuff, because most Skyans don’t go far in the arena if they don’t have shadow powers.“
“Yeah, I gathered…” Kayel hesitated. “Alright, I’ll tell you, but don’t tell anyone else. The last Skyan who asked who I was, they shot me in the arm. The time before that, the bitch emptied twenty bullets into my stomach because they didn’t believe me.”
Psiksi eyed Kayel, blinking several times. “Uh… you’re not some criminal on the run or something, are you? Because that’s… needlessly violent. And I say that as a vok who hits people for a living.”
“I got caught up in the family planning centre raid...” Kayel lowered his voice, barely whispering. “I’m a K-Class defector, got out, changed my name, moved to L-Class because I wanted to give back to the universe. Then I got brutally murdered, woke up in the hospital with Retvik guarding me because apparently the R-Class had tried to take me away, a bunch of stupid shit happened and here I am.”
The veteran house fighter tilted his head to one side. He felt a bit bad, even though this was the first time he’d met Kayel. “Huh. Sorry. Must be pretty tough. If you don’t mind me asking, why did you defect?”
“Classified. Can’t say. Arkay says we can’t die, but I’m pretty sure they’d would work out a way to kill me.”
“Ah…” Psiksi trailed off. “Well, I won’t push any further. I do have one question though, again, if you don’t mind me asking.”
Kayel grunted. “Sure, one more won’t kill me. I hope.”
“I was… I was going to ask, are you the real deal?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you a real Phantasma?”
Kayel hesitated, then nodded. “Yeah. Born and raised. Death cult and everything. Gave up seven years ago though.”
Psiksi leaned back, casually putting an arm around Kayel. “Considering you’ve been out of the game for seven years, your shadow skills are stupidly impressive. Took me a decade to get not even half as fast and efficient as you are. Plus, we all saw you take down Kograh and Gathin-“
“Please, don’t remind me!“ Kayel shrugged Psiksi off. “I nearly fucking lost myself to the shadows in that fucking match, Nyssi had to take me on a hunt a few days later so I could kill something and get rid of the excess adrenaline. It’s one thing if you just dabble in Phantasma stuff like you do, you just run out of energy, can’t do anything for a few days and then go back to normal! For me, if I go too far, I get… weird. And I’m feeling weird right now.”
Psiksi waited for a moment, then stood up. “I’m sorry. I caught you at a bad time, didn’t I?”
“I just fell from like 100m in the air via a badly timed shadowjump and snapped my right arm and half the bones in my rib cage, but I woke up in the recovery bay without a scratch on me, while feeling that damn hunger that I only just got rid of. Yeah, you caught me at a bad time…” Kayel trailed off, then took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Psiksi. I like you, you’re really fucking attractive, but my head is spinning and I can’t concentrate.”
“It’s fine!” Psiksi didn’t seem at all bothered. “Stuff happens. We’re cool. Do you want to go out for coffee or something when you feel better?”
Kayel blinked. “You’re… asking me out?”
“Yeah. Alright, you’re kinda too young for me, but I’d like to be friends at the very least. You seem like a cool guy, even if you do have a bit of a troubled past.”
“Wait, how old are you?”
“I turned 51 back in December. How old are you?”
Kayel blinked some more. “Damn, you look… amazing! I… I’m turning 32 in April.”
Psiksi seemed pleased about that. “You’re not doing too bad yourself. I would have guessed you were in your mid-twenties. So yeah, do you want to go out for coffee at some point?”
Kayel smiled weakly. “Yeah, I would, actually. I got a busy week ahead of me though, so I gotta look up when I’m free.”
“That’s fine!” Psiksi beamed, holding his hand out. Kayel awkwardly shook it. “I’m always here, so just pop by to the main training area when you have the time and we can sort something out!”
“Sure!” Kayel let go of Psiksi’s hand, glancing behind him. “I think my team’s here, I oughta go…”
Psiksi patted Kayel on the shoulder. “No worries. Have a good one, mate!”