Nightfire Warriors (Remastered)

3.

We receive the opportunity to watch the Nightfire television show, a recap of what happened during the tryouts. All of them, the good and bad, are mainly edited to make a five-hour experience appear two to eight minutes long. In the end, they had to use seven one-hour episodes to fit us all. Epic warriors, the memorable, the entertaining, and even the embarrassing laughingstock receive five or more minutes of fame. Whereas Danny simply has ten seconds of the judges saying yes to him, they don't show his battle whatsoever.

Frankie's tryout is in the very first episode and the very first one the universe gets to see who's participating in the tournament. My teeth grind in frustration because he oozes charisma. First, his interview. Then he introduces himself to the judges and reveals a hidden fact about himself that I never knew. He has six girls' names tattooed on his butt. Three on the left cheek, and three on the right, are all in black cursive. All were representing the number of women he's slept with. I know this because he moons the entire audience, who foolishly finds it hilarious. Nothing from his battle against the reptilian stands out to me. All he did was shoot it with a pistol. The judges yet love him, don't have anything wrong to say, and he received four yesses. He was edited into about a six-minute clip.

I'm surprised they broadcasted my tryout in the first episode because I heard the judges didn't tour Prescyla One until much later. Not to mention, my tryout is an eight-and-a-half-minute edited clip. With complete coverage of me battling the reptilian. Close to zero cuts. It's conceivable to the people who aren't in the tournament to think Frankie and I had the same tryout date, but really, the continuity of the show is atrocious. Cody's seven-minute tryout doesn't air until episode five, and he went right after me.

The crew instructs us to be in the arena for drills. The weapons, guns, and gadgets hanging on brackets had been rolled in from the training room. I can see the four judges— Palmer, Amanda, Kendall, and Abigail—sitting in the same order as always from left to right and elevated on the platform, watching our every move.

Abigail gives us an introduction and leaves us with: "Remember what I'm looking for. I want a whole team full of Ryans." As if I'm capable of interpreting what she means by that. It can suggest anything. Of course, now the name lingers in my mind. Who's Ryan?

Once she releases us, everybody heads straight for the deadliest-looking weapons in the arena and handles them with aggression. The field is intimidating, destructive, and hazardous.

Somebody nudges me. Another warrior. His chestnut brown skin and eyes are familiar. I remember his tryout perfectly because it stood out amongst others. The story about how he lost contact with his mother, was kicked out of the house and became homeless moved me. Despite his sad story, he's positive enough to forget sometimes what he went through. "Your name is Sagittarius, right?" He's twinkling at me.

"Y-yeah," I answer.

The flamboyant boy smiles. "I'm Tyrone," he says. "Tyrone Davis."

I know his name already. He has the same amount of excitement he did at tryouts. "Hi, Tyrone," I say. "Nice to meet you."

"Your story moved me," Tyrone says. "The stuff about your dad. Must be rough."

"Yeah," I mutter. "I'm training to save him. Go figure, right?"

"I think what you're doing is beautiful. A classic story." Tyrone seems interested in me. More than standard. "Why don't we train together with swords?" he says.

I follow Tyrone to where all the knives, swords, and blades are. Weapons I have never seen before in my life. I see a pickaxe made from funky-looking metal that doesn't exist on Earth. Spears are also designed to turn into guns with just a quick pull on the handle. You must twist the handle back and forth to pull out the gun barrel to change its shape. Then you tuck the handle back inside, lock it into place, and then flip the gun around back at your opponent, so you don't shoot yourself in the face. Over half of these warriors can perform cool tricks to get this done faster within two or three seconds. It takes me a whole minute.