"I would like to try it first," Seluna declared obstinately.

"This is not a plaything," Mert replied, his voice reverberating through the room. The heavily built man towered over Seluna and had a square, clean-shaven face, an amiable smile, and neatly combed, wavy, brown hair.

"Which is why I want to try it before Ms. Ailoraw does," Seluna said.

"Has there been some misunderstanding?" Mert asked with a concerned air. "Do you suspect it might harm her?"

Two-faced jerk, Pinz thought, as she caressed Puff in her arms. She would have blurted outright at his face about Bastelle's death and what she had told her. But Seluna had advised her to play along with the act for now. It was all she could do to keep her lips pursed. I can still be an absolute jerk about it, though, Pinz thought.

Pinz shrugged. "I'm sure you would forgive me if I feel the need to be prepared for the effects, if any, so that I don't make a fool of myself in front of my fans."

She looked around at the camera lenses fixed into the metal walls of the testing area. She had been informed that the demonstration of the new fightsense technology would be screened at the foyer of Hotel Grande and several other places as part of the Galactic Battle Fighting Tournament promotion. That gave her much solace. Surely, they would not dare cause harm to her with so many people watching?

Behind Pinz was a large glass partition that separated the testing area from the monitoring area, where personnel sat behind screens and peered through the glass into the testing area. Before Pinz had crossed the partition, she had heard all sorts of digital noises, from text scrawling over screens to the beeping of the electronic gadgets, but now when she stood on the other side, not a single sound came from the monitoring area.

Mert nodded. "Very well. If you would please step up, Ms. Artis?" he said to Seluna.

Seluna descended a couple of short steps onto the metal floor below. Her footsteps echoed through the silence as she approached the center of the room. Two personnel got to fitting Seluna up with the fightsense gadget, which consisted of a black, fingerless gauntlet and a small earpiece.

Facing Seluna was another man who was already geared up. He had been introduced to Pinz as Utsu, from planet Digitex, a fellow fighter in the tournament. Lean, with spiky, black hair, he was the champion of the GB tournament held two years ago.

Puff gently slapped Pinz with her little paw to reclaim her attention and to show her displeasure at being confined within the walls with these strange people. Pinz stroked the cat's head and chin to ease her restlessness. Even she is uncomfortable, Pinz thought.

When they were done, the personnel climbed the steps to the raised edge of the area and crossed the glass partition back to the monitoring area.

Mert spoke into his headset, "Fire it up."

Pinz watched through the partition behind her as one of the personnel tapped away into a keyboard before him. She turned back to glance at Seluna. All at once, a layer of turquoise light flooded the floor and enveloped all four walls while a turquoise aura emanated from Seluna and Utsu. Seluna gasped in amazement and gawked at each of her arms one by one, turning and twisting her limbs.

Two holograms materialized overhead, one over Seluna, one over Utsu. They displayed health bars with the respective names, akin to the ones Pinz had seen in video games she had played as a kid.

"Behold the revolutionary fightsense technology that will but redefine... fighting," Mert announced triumphantly, his face awash in the turquoise glow.

"Which, apparently, lets you fight on a funky disco floor?" Pinz said, raising her eyebrows.

"Well, that is an added bonus, I admit." Mert chuckled. "But allow me to demonstrate its real power. Ms. Artis, if you will, would you strike Utsu as hard as you can?"

"I suppose he will block my blow and throw me to the ground?" Seluna asked uncertainly.

"No, he won't do a thing," Utsu chimed in. "I will take your blow with full force."

"Oh," Seluna exclaimed.

She pulled up her fists and gingerly moved toward Utsu while the latter stood straight, his chest puffed out, arms folded behind his back.

Pinz watched in consternation as Seluna pulled her fist back and then smacked Utsu's face with all her might. Utsu grimaced a little as the turquoise aura briefly pulsated at the point of impact along with a 'bop' noise. Above him, a bit of red crept into Utsu's turquoise health bar indicating the damage he had taken.

"Did it not hurt? Not even a bit?" Pinz asked Utsu.

"Ah, a funny vibration in my head, but other than that, no." Utsu shrugged.

Without warning, Utsu brutally socked Seluna in the face. Pinz jumped in shock, and a shriek escaped her mouth. Seluna's life bar turned completely red as yet another hologram materialized in midair, displaying the words, Fighter One Wins.

"You should have told me before doing that!" Seluna said indignantly.

"My apologies, ma'am," Utsu said, bowing.

Mert cleared his throat. "We here at Galactic Enterprises have always found fighting a bit too... savage, shall we say? Kicking and punching and generally beating your opponent into an oozing mess of enertrons just for sport... it's something that should be best left in the past." The way he spoke, as if in a trance, he might as well have been talking to himself. "The fightsense gear and the fightsense arena shroud the combatants and the battlefield in a polarized force field. The gear also accurately analyzes the combatants' skills and physical conditioning. It tracks the force applied by the attacking combatant in each blow and the endurance of the defending combatant to calculate the damage caused... all the while protecting the combatants from real pain or injury. Even throwing the opponent down onto the floor and knocking them into walls will not hurt them."

Despite herself, Pinz found herself marveling at what she was hearing. Technology designed to eliminate pain from a sport had to be something good. But then, she remembered that Bastelle was dead. Are these people really involved with that? Pinz wondered. "What about twisting your opponent's joints?" she asked.

"The force will be applied, and the joint will be immobilized, but again, the force field will not allow it to be twisted to the point of pain. But since the gear analyzes everything, including endurance, it will automatically cause the defending fighter to lose due to submission if its calculations show that the fighter would have given up had they felt the pain," Mert explained.

"That's... amazing," Pinz whispered.

"Isn't it? So, are you ready? Your fans are waiting up there for your fight. Shall we?"

"Let's!" Pinz replied.

...

"How long do you suppose we have to wait?" Heraclark asked as he lay on the floor, staring at the passageway ceiling.

"We will leave the hotel when that actress of yours does, along with her fans," Jayrock replied, slumped against a wall.

"But, I need to get my blueprints."

"What is in those darned blueprints?" Jayrock asked, annoyed.

"Some... some technology that is to be used in that fighting tournament."

Jayrock gazed at Heraclark, perplexed. "Your father invented something to be used in the tournament? Years after his death?"

"Of course, he didn't, you fool," Heraclark snapped. "They want to use whatever he invented in the tournament."

"Oh," said Jayrock.

Neither of them said anything for a while. "Tell me," Jayrock finally broke the silence. "How did you know I would still be in our room?"

"I didn't," Heraclark said wistfully. "I just took a risk."

"Well, you were lucky," Jayrock said. "I did leave the room. I was headed for the bank in one of those glass elevators when I glimpsed you walking along with these men on one of the floors. Something told me you were in danger."

"How did you know I would go to the room?" Heraclark rolled on his side to face Jayrock.

"I went back up and watched from the railings where you'd go. You boarded one of the elevators, but you started coming up instead of going down. That's when I knew you were coming to the room."

"Ah, I see," Heraclark said as he rolled back. "Thank you."

"You owe me one."

"Excuse me?" Heraclark sat up straight. "I saved you from the lake! And didn't tell anyone!"

"Oh, that. Yeah, OK, we're even," Jayrock conceded. After a bit, he added, "Do you have a mother waiting for you at home?"

"Yes. Why?" Heraclark asked, frowning.

"Then don't put yourself in danger. Don't be so reckless."

"Ah, that again," Heraclark snorted. "I'm just going to say, if you'd lost your father, you'd understand."

"My parents died in an accident when I was a baby. I never really knew them." Jayrock watched as Heraclark's face softened while he thought of something to say. "But yes, I can't even imagine what it would be like experiencing... what you experienced."

Heraclark sighed. "You know I hate my job. I only chose it after my father died because he always wanted me to be a bank manager when I grew up. That too at the Bank of Loogmor. Until now, I never knew why—"

A bloodcurdling scream of a girl drowned out Heraclark's words and echoed through the passageway, sending shivers down Jayrock's spine.

The screaming continued for a painfully long time, making Heraclark cover his ears. Whoever it was, was clearly in extreme agony. Then, suddenly, it died down. They sat stunned for a moment, staring at the double doors ahead.

"What in the galaxy..." Heraclark swallowed a lump in his throat.

Jayrock cautiously got up. "There's somebody on the other side."

"Umm... are you really this stupid? Or do you purposefully try to get on people's nerves?" Heraclark said.

"I mean..." Jayrock said, trying to find something to cover up. That's how Gylith must have felt all the time. "Ah, forget it."

They silently approached the double doors. Jayrock pressed his ears against them and listened. "Nothing," he said.

Heraclark created a pair of swirling dark-orchid orbs that spread out and engulfed them both.

"What are you doing? I can't see," Jayrock protested.

"Yeah. But I can hear better," Heraclark said and pressed his ear against the doors. His eyes popped out as he heard the sounds of someone getting a savage beating. "She is being beaten up. We need to do something."

"Remove this stupid smoke first," Jayrock said.

Heraclark absorbed the mist back into his hands. "We need to hack that," Heraclark said, eyeing the keypad next to the doors.

"And by that, we mean busting it with a club?" Jayrock asked skeptically.

Heraclark hunched over the keypad and examined it. "I have experience with all sorts of locks. That one required a club — this one requires more... tact."

Heraclark formed wispy mist on his hands again and grabbed the frame of the keypad. The mist spread onto the frame and enveloped it. He then yanked on it and pulled it apart from the wall.

"That was tact?" Jayrock said.

Heraclark did not reply as he let the keypad drop to the ground. He got to work on the tangle of wires exposed underneath. He had had experience with these kinds of circuits when he oversaw maintenance at the Bank of Loogmor. This one was much less complex than the ones over there.

Suddenly, something or somebody slammed hard into the double doors with a deafening clang that rang through the corridor.

Heraclark balked. "Is it such a good idea to get involved with this?"

"You were the one who said we need to do something! Now, hurry!" Jayrock cried.

Heraclark frantically worked on the wires, trying to get the right ones connected. Finally, the doors disengaged and silently slid apart.

Jayrock squinted in confusion at what he saw through the gap. A translucent, turquoise wall, seemingly made of pulsating light, lined the entrance. Through that, he could only vaguely make out a spacious room of some sort.

Heraclark poked his hand through the turquoise wall. He felt a tingling in his fingers, palm, and wrist as they passed through, but there was no resistance.

"Wait," Jayrock said as Heraclark stepped forward, but he passed through the light into the room anyway. He gasped as he looked around the place, which seemed to be made of the same turquoise light. He could see people peering back at him through the light wall ahead. Strangely, despite all the light walls and floor, the room was still... dark. He felt his senses heightening. He heard footsteps behind him as Jayrock entered in.

And then he felt another presence... something ominous. He abruptly turned to his left, and his eye caught another glow... in the shape of a mer... a mer with twin pigtails... in the shape of Pinz Ailoraw.

She had her back to them. A body lay at her feet, its clothes ripped apart, and malachite-green enertrons oozed out. Dark-orange claws extended from Pinz's fingers.

"Pinz Ailoraw?" Heraclark called out.

She turned around in a flash and stared at Heraclark with such ferocity in her bright-green eyes that it made him instinctively step back and regret calling out to her. She wore the traditional outfit of female practitioners of the athletic yet stealthy Felitte Ubuckiff — a sleeveless, red tunic with white trimming and accents along with thigh-length, navy stockings and red boots, shin guards, and arm guards.

"I thought she was the one getting beaten up," Jayrock exclaimed in shock. "Is she always this mad?"

What an infuriating pair of jerks! I should kill them! A dark-orange burst of energy flashed beneath Pinz's soles, sending her hurtling high up into the air.

What the? Heraclark thought just as Pinz came crashing down. Her heel slammed into his face, which sent searing pain up his already hurting nose. Clutching at his face, he violently stumbled back and lost balance as the floor came up to meet the back of his head.

Pinz swiped her claw, leaving a dark-orange trail, at Jayrock, who formed an amethyst shield to block it, but then she unleashed a pair of chartreuse optic beams from her eyes that went right through the translucent shield and singed Jayrock's arm.

Letting out a grunt, she went in for the kill and stabbed at Jayrock's face, but Jayrock formed deep-saffron rock on both his hands and grabbed her hand to keep it away from himself. She stabbed with her other hand, so Jayrock freed one of his hands and held her other hand as well.

It was taking all his strength to keep her at bay while she growled and struggled, trying to wrench her hands free.

How dare he?! Insufferable fool!

A foot caught Jayrock's chin with such jarring force that it sent his teeth snapping together, and his tongue got bit. His grip faltered before another foot to his face knocked him down to the floor.

Pinz rushed toward him and aimed for his eyes with both her claws. He closed his eyes in terror, but then he heard her grunting wildly. He opened his eyes to see the claws hanging just inches above his eyes. Smoky tentacles were wrapped around her wrists, pulling her away from him.

Has she gone mad? Heraclark thought as he gave the tentacles a sudden pull before Pinz lost her balance and half-stumbled, half-dragged over toward him. He leaped into the air and twisted around to drop kick her hard before landing on his hands. The Loogmort Krokkning he had learned from action movies may be all about swank, but it still hit hard.

Jayrock, still on the floor, stamped his foot. A series of rocks jutted out of the ground and progressed forward until one struck the stumbling Pinz in her back.

Pinz fell splat on her face. In that moment of refuge, Heraclark looked to his right through the translucent, turquoise wall. The people beyond sat watching with flat faces, making it all feel like a sick cage match. A lone, tall man stood stroking his chin, staring intently. "Why aren't you doing anything?!" Heraclark cried angrily. "Come and help us!"

He watched as one of them looked up at the tall man as if waiting for his approval, but the man only held out his hand.

Something orange suddenly bounded out from somewhere beneath the consoles on the other side. Heraclark caught sight of it long enough to realize it was a cat before it jumped up and disappeared into a vent set low in a wall. Is it that annoying cat of hers? Heraclark wondered.

"Let's restrain her," Jayrock said and grabbed Pinz's arms, bringing them together behind her.

As he began forming rock on her hands to bind them together, her forearms began flashing with dark-orange tiger stripes. To his horror, she effortlessly broke the rock away and rolled onto her back. Her arms still flashing with tiger stripes, she drove her palm into his chest. A massive paw print formed and exploded at the point of impact, sending Jayrock flying into one of the light walls — only it felt and sounded like metal as Jayrock's back smashed into it. He sank to the floor, groaning in pain.

As Pinz sprang up from the floor, Heraclark shot tentacles at her once more, which began wrapping around her. However, this time, she grabbed the smoky appendages. The next thing Heraclark knew was being lifted off the ground and catapulting through the air, his own tentacles pulling at him. Pinz swung him around once before the partition rushed to meet his face with a crunch. His senses knocked out of him, he fell to the floor like a brick.

The body lay motionless, and there was a scanty bubbling of enertrons. It was a man with tangled black hair and clothes ripped in places. Something small, black, and broken lay next to the body. Jayrock crawled over on his hands and knees to get a closer look. It was fragmented, so it was hard to figure out what it was, but it looked like an earpiece. On one of the pieces, Jayrock could make out the word 'sense.'

Jayrock looked up above. At the far end, Pinz Ailoraw moved menacingly toward Heraclark, who lay slumped against the wall between them and the creepy people in lab coats on the other side. She is wearing the same gadget, Jayrock realized. Even the glove thing. On the right hand, Pinz and the man on the floor were wearing a black metal glove of some sort.

Heraclark barely dodged out of the way as Pinz tore out his tuxedo with her claws. He then rushed her, lifting her off the floor on his shoulders, and slammed her into the opposite wall.

Pinz retracted her claws, and a pair of dark-orange feline jaws formed around Pinz's fingers and thumbs. She snapped the jaws shut on Heraclark's shoulders, who yelped in pain. Then she vaulted over his head onto the other side.

Jayrock stood waiting and lunged at Pinz with a spinning ax kick covered in rock. Pinz pulled Heraclark from behind her and held him in the way, disrupting Jayrock's kick.

Heraclark turned around with a sudden backhand that connected with Pinz's jaw, making her shriek in pain. He grabbed her head and started channeling scarlet shadow force into her that threatened to overload her. She writhed and struggled, trying to break free.

Jayrock rushed to her back, pulled her arms together, and once again attempted to bind her hands with rock. It's working, he thought in triumph as he watched the rock grow.

Pinz's eyes glowed chartreuse, and a pair of moonbeams burned and nearly blinded Heraclark, who let go. She then thrust her hands upward and smashed the rock