Hades' Birth Right

Friendly Competition

It's July 8th, 2018. It's been almost five months since the Great War had ended and the Elementals had defeated Jack. With no threat looming over them, Steve as the newly crowned king, and the Elementals at what felt like full strength, it seemed as though nothing could go wrong at times like this. Steve was wandering throughout the castle hallways with him examining all of the new lighting and electricity that was installed over the past few months. He slowly made his way to the courtyard where Sub and Neos were training. Upon seeing the sight of his now older brother, Neos grinned along with Sub.

Neos: How's it going, your majesty?

Steve: Um, excuse me, why haven't you bowed yet?

Neos: Ha! Listen buddy, you may be my older brother, but I'm not bowing to you ever.

Steve: Haha, I suppose I'll have to see to it that the guards throw you in the dungeon.

Neos: Yeah, good luck with that. They couldn't hold me if they tried.

Steve: I suppose you've got a point. Anyways, what're you guys up to?

Sub: We've just been training. We've not really had anything else to do. Without anyone to fight, this whole high society thing has gotten kinda boring, to be honest.

Neos: Yeah, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't entirely with Sub on that one. We don't really have all that much to do, and the only things that we really can do involves training and well.. work.

Sub: Hey, I've got an idea. Why don't we have a miniature tournament between all of us? We won't use our powers or anything, but we'll just compete with each other as if we were just fighting normally.

Neos: Oh, I like the sound of that! Let's do that idea!

Steve: That does sound like it would be fun. How would that work though? There's only three of us, so it would be a bit uneven, wouldn't it?

Ava: Mind if I join?

Steve and the others turned in surprise to see Ava walking up to them with a usual look of complete joy on her face.

Steve: Wait, you don't fight though. How would you even know how to fight?

Ava: Well, how about I show you how well I can fight by beating you?

Neos: Haha! Oh, this is great, you're actually getting called out by your girlfriend!

Sub: Well, I say if she wants to, we let her. It would be a bit unfair of us to just assume that she can't fight. After all, it's like you said, she never does, so how would we know if she can or not?

Ava: Exactly! Come on Steve, I like hanging out with you guys, and I wanna prove to you that I can fend for myself.

Steve continued to look at Ava knowing that she wouldn't give into his pleas to not fight, so he eventually folded and would give into Ava's desire.

Steve: Well, I suppose we would have an even amount of people if you did... Alright... You can join in...

Ava: Yay!

Steve: But, just know that I'm not gonna go easy on you.

Ava: Oh, that's alright! I get the feeling you won't have to.

Steve: Wait, what did she just say?

The group would then begin their matchups with Sub and Neos being the first ones up.

Steve: Well, this should be interesting. Alpha VS Omega... I wonder who'll come out on top here.

Ava: Don't you think it would be Neos? I mean, he's the most experienced with hand to hand combat by far.

Steve: That's true, and if we're being honest, if it was against anyone else in the world, I'd pick Neos without a second thought. With that being said, he's facing Sub, and Sub's the type of person that can figure you out more and more with every step you take until he finally comes up with a way to beat you. He's a strategical mastermind, there's no doubt about it.

Ava: I guess you have a point there. I just wanna see a cool matchup.

Steve: Hehe, that makes two of us.

The two men began to slowly circle each other with their eyes remaining locked on one another.

Neos: I'm not gonna lie, Sub, I've been looking forward to facing you one on one for once.

Sub: Yeah, same here. The only question is which one will come out on top: experience or strategy?

Neos: I hate to break it to ya, but I think we both know the answer already.

Sub: Well then, how about we find out?

Neos: Let's go...

The two charged each other and immediately locked up forcing a test of strength. As Sub attempted to get lower than Neos, Neos would simply kneel further down so Sub could never gain any leverage. As Neos began to slowly push Sub back, Sub was quick to counter falling backwards onto his back which caused Neos to fall with him. As they both fell, Sub placed his feet on Neos' stomach and pushed, flipping Neos over Sub and onto his back as well. The impact loosened Neos' grip which allowed Sub to free himself from the hold that Neos still had on him. As Sub began to scurry back up off the ground, Neos was quick to kick back up, even beating Sub back onto his feet. Sub and Neos began to stare down each other once again with Sub in slight amazement.

Sub: How on Earth was he able to get back up that fast?! How many bumps can this guy endure before it starts to get to him?!

Neos: You're gonna have to be a bit faster than that if you wanna beat me. Strategy's useless if you aren't capable of going through with it.

Sub quickly finished getting back up with the slightly bigger Neos still looking down on him.

Neos: Come on, now... You don't wanna quit already, do you?

Sub: Hehe, no way... Neos Briggs... You truly are quite the puzzle to solve.. but I can figure you out...