Daylin rose to his full height and pulled his helm, which he had removed to inspect his reflection, over his head. His hand moved to grip the handle of his flail, adrenaline pumping thickly through his veins. This was no time to nap, a job needed to be done. His voice was muffled by his visor as he voiced his opinion, "I say we go now. We're here, we got weapons, and we're all ready." He turned to address the rest of the group, dark eyes boring into them intensely. "Don't ya'll think so? Best ta get it outta the way."

Daylin hung his head and slumped forward, resigned to his fate. He knew she was going to say yes before she had, he was fully aware she was going to drag him along before she asked; that didn't mean it bothered him any less. It didn't upset him that she wanted him to go, even if she hadn't he would have insisted. It was his job to make sure she didn't go and get herself hurt. He was just skeptical about being a hero, unsure if he could even make a difference. No one else there may have been special, but at least they were their own people."I guess I don't got much of a choice, now do I. If you got hurt because I didn't go with you lord knows what all those fancy lords and ladies you go out with would do to me, not to mention your Pa. I'd be deader than a doornail."

Daylin listened in rapt attention to the goddess, awestruck as she rose off the ground and her eyes glowed with the Heaven's light. He had no doubt what she said was true, even in his wildest dreams he couldn't think up something like this, but... "You gotta have made a mistake, accidentally taken me with Floressa. I can't do nuthin' to change the world." He didn't look the goddess in the eye, his gaze cast downward and his brow furrowed. "You should send me back and find whoever ya meant to, cause it wasn't me. I'm just a slave."

He had that lethargic feeling one gets in the morning, when the mind is preoccupied with last remaining wisps of last night's dreams, unable to operate as efficiently as it should. When Daylin opened his eyes, everything seemed darker to him, the colors less vivid, as if the air had a bluish tint. And this is because even the sun had yet to arise, and so the world is suspended in some unrealistic fantasy in which everything is perfect and peaceful and blue - except he knew that outside the confines of these early morning hours, the world would return to its original deformity of depression.

He sat up, his movements smooth and supple, like that of liquid mercury. He ruffled the back of his hair, wishing to shake away such musings and forget how routine the world is, because now is the time of suspension and everything needs to be quiet, including his thoughts. And looking about, he noted that there was a certain dullness to the morning. The feeling caused him to sigh as he rose from his bed and neatly made it, then crept to the kitchen to make his first meal of the day. No one else had risen from bed yet, and by the time he returned from the fields no one would be awake. The only interaction he normally had with the family that possessed him was when he returned for lunch, which Iowen always had waiting for him with a smile.

The old woman's cheery face made him happy, and he finished his breakfast and silently cleaned up his mess, a slight bounce in his step. He slipped out of the family shack and into the dark farm yard with a smile. Though he may not like the hours he worked, he would never complain. He owed the kind family far too much to ever complain about anything they asked of him.

Night had descended upon the park like a blanket, and a cold winter wind swept over the forest, rustling the trees. The only light was offered by the old, rusting street lamps that flickered on and off randomly, and the starry sky shimmered above the forest, unlike in the busy city. The place was simple and unpolished, and it reminded Aaron of his roots, of the small town boy he had been before he had ever dreamed of being a rising astral battler. He always ended up here when things in the city became overwhelming, when he just needed to run until he was too tired to ask himself what-ifs, and tonight was no different. He had swapped his clothes for a faded whte t-shirt, an old pair of elastic shorts, and dusty sneakers and he was freezing. The air bit into his exposed skin and his breath was a foggy cloud in front of him, but he knew he would warm up as soon as he started running. He switched on his Ipod and began to jog, letting himself fall into step with the music and allowing his mind to roam.

He had met tons of new people today, and they had all been battlers in the tournament. He needed to organize things, before his head exploded from an overload of information. 'Okay so... Alexa. She seemed pretty shy, but for her first battle she did real well. Way better than I did, I accidentally shifted into a bird and just squawked and flew around.' He chuckled a bit at the memory. 'Hope she isn't mad at me though, she rushed off before I could explain the voice or the reason she knew what her weapons did, hope someone told her. I'll check to see at the tournament later.' The thought of making someone upset got to him, and he picked up his pace and shook it off. 'I didn't really learn too much about Clark, but I know his astral now. He's a squirmy little bugger, and that super hurt real bad. Once I got him pinned down he couldn't do much, and he wasn't tanky at all. Mighta had a chance at beating them both if I had just dodged that big laser. No point in what-ifs, though.' His music increased in tempo and he matched it, breaking into a full blown sprint. 'Rika seemed real chill, if a bit awkward. Prolly somethin' about bein' a teenager, I sure as hell had my weird moments. She reminded me of Kyran though, always makin' me feel dumb. Grades never were too great, barely eligible for cross country and track...' The thought of Kyran brought their last confrontation to the forefront of his mind, and he immediately steered it in a more pleasant direction. 'Scarlet didn't get mad about me running into her, and she even agreed to battle with me. Sucks I couldn't get her a win, but she didn't seem to care that much...' He would have blushed if his face had not already been beet red. 'That was probably just her astral rubbing off on her though, not anything special. The pegasus, Rainbow Dash... She was unique. She seemed pretty fast from what I saw, and I'm assuming that burst of light must have been her super... Must not have gone well. Can't believe she almost flew into Wukong and I, that was a new one.'

He smiled, but it slowly turned upside down. 'Feel bad about ditching them at lunch, but I have no idea what that was...My stomach hurt so bad, and my mark... It was glowing like a beacon and howling angrily, like an enraged chimp. My whole arm felt like lead... I've never heard of that happening before, and no one seemed to be able to see it but me.' He cast his gaze to the stars, not breaking pace at all. 'It stopped as soon as I got back to my room too, I have no idea what that was...' He was so lost in his own world he didn't notice the road block that had just appeared in front of him, and ran into the brick wall of a man that was the guard hard. He fell on his ass and stared up at the guard momentarily before scrambling to his feet. "Sh*t man, sorry. Is it time for the tournament already?" He was panting for breath, and his hair was plastered to his forehead. The guard nodded and motioned for Aaron to follow before turning and striding away. The young man barely had time to scoop up his headphones, which had hit the sidewalk and shattered, before the guard had disappeared and he was forced to run to catch up to him.

They trudged through the forest without rest, and the guard didn't let up his pace until they had arrived at the arena. He could hear the crowd roaring from outside, and he waved the guard off. He knew the place better than he knew himself, he didn't need an escort. The big man nodded and disappeared, and Aaron hesitated before stepping into the building. This was it, it all began here. There would be no going back after this point, it was do or die. He stepped past the door and the noise inside the enormous arena was overpowering, the screams of fans reverberating until he wanted to cover his ears. An employee spotted him and rushed over to verify his ID, and when they saw he was marked as a competitor they immediately led him to the entrance of the underground room all battlers fought in. In there they were separated from the crowd and could focus, they had their own monitors to view battles, and most importantly they had the high-tech sync stations the hosts provided. The technology blew his mind every time. They were far bigger than the stations in the sparring room, with various monitors that displayed your stats and known abilities, with an actual platform to stand on. He could see his station glowing orange, and noticed most of the other battles had beaten him here. Well then, no time to waste in getting to his station. He stepped up to the platform and quickly signed in.

Immediately a robotic arm brought a monitor down to hover in front of his face, which powered on when it came to a rest. With a roar an emerald dragon descended onto the screen, and the different bars and numbers that represented stats sprung to life. In the center of the exhibit Sun Wukong floated on his Nimbus Cloud, his name in bold, jade-green letters below him. In the bottom right corner was a 3D representation of his astral mark, and in the left were the stats he knew by heart. High strength, average armor, health, and utility, but low speed and abysmal range . He was meant to brawl, not chase and fight from afar. On the right were his abilities, and he reminisced on when half of those slots had been grayed out. He had slaved long and hard to unlock his moves. Art of 72 transformations, Art of Deception, Art of Wind, Art of Extension, Art of Tide, and the earth shattering super, Nimbus Strike. He knew there were more to unlock, there was even a slot that boasted an ability more powerful than his super, but he would have to unlock those in time. He was interrupted from analyzing the screen by the announcer, who boomed out the match-ups across the entire arena. He smiled when he found out he was against Rika, that would be interesting.

Immediately after the announcements the first battle started, Raithen vs Gatillio. He had never heard of either of them, but their astrals looked interesting enough. The first was a man with gravity defying gold and red hair, and a strange device clasped around his wrist. The other was a big man, with a big beard and an even bigger gut. They synced into the forest and the battle began, but from the start he could tell something was wrong. The large man named Gragas had appeared, but Yugio Moto never had. In his place was... No, oh dear God no. Not him, he couldn't be here. Aaron stumbled backwards in panic, back pressed against the support bar around the platform. His eyes were wide and terrified as he observed the fight, but he couldn't take them away from the screen. He knew what would happen before anyone else, the poor drunk man didn't stand a chance... When Zeta transformed he screamed and shut his eyes, astral mark glowing and screeching so loud he felt like his ears were gonna bleed. Not again, he didn't wanna think about it again. Not that battle...
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"Come on Kyran, Mom and Dad are worried about you. They say you haven't been out of your room in days." Aaron pounded against his brother's bedroom door incessantly, frowning. "If you don't come out, I'm coming in. I'm not gonna let you rot away in there." There was no response. He sighed, and pulled his pocket knife out of his coat. The lock on the door had been broken since they had shared the room as little kids, and all it took was a jiggle and the door would open. He slid the blade in the lock and turned it until there was a 'click', and then he shoved the door open. His brother laid on his bed and it looked like he hadn't moved for a long time. His clothes were stained and grungy looking, and his hair was greasy and stuck to his forehead. The room smelled like a something rotten had died in there, and it was like a sauna. He grabbed Kyran be the arm and pulled him to his feet, forcing them face to face. He looked worse than had been originally believed, with sallow skin and dark, heavy bags under his eyes. "C'mon, you're gonna shower and then we're going to get you out of here for a while."

The younger brother didn't react, and Aaron stormed over to his closet and grabbed a spare change of clothes. He shoved it into Kyran's hands and pushed him off towards the bathroom. "Go, now." He disappeared into the restroom, and Aaron stayed there until he heard the water come on, then he fell back onto the bed with a sigh. Kyran was so much worse than he had thought, and he only had a vague idea why. He had come to him a few weeks ago crying and telling him about a horrible dream he had been having and the creature within it, and then showed him the mark on his neck. The older man had laughed and explained that it was an astral mark, and that he had nothing to be afraid of. He even offered to battle him, to prove nothing was wrong, but the younger had refused vehemently and not spoken of it again. Aaron shook his and sighed. He knew what he had to do.

Just as he came to a decision Kyran emerged from the bathroom, looking like a completely different person. The grease had left his hair, and a shower and change of clothes had made his skin seem a lot less pasty. He even seemed more awake and out of the fog he had been gripped in. He stopped at the door and crossed his arms, shooting Aaron a glare. "Happy?" The elder nodded. "Yeah, now come with me." He turned towards the door and fished his keys out of his pocket, and the younger hesitated a second before following him. He might as well get this over with. They headed downstairs and Aaron told his parents they were going out, and would be back in a couple hours. Not a word of where they were going, even after they had gotten in the beat up old pick up and started down the street.

"We're going to the chanseyin' sync station, aren't we?"

"Yeah, you have to face your fear. Astral battling isn't a nightmare, it's awesome. I promise nothing bad will happen, I wouldn't let anything hurt you."
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The lights flashing off in the arena brought him back to reality, and he gasped for breath. He was sweating again, and he had somehow ended up on the ground. Slowly, he picked himself up, knees wobbling. 'My last words to him... They were a lie, I wasn't able to stop it.' The numbness in his arm had gone away, and the screeching had stopped. The lights slowly flickered back on, and Aaron noticed Rika was at her sync station across from him. He smiled weakly. "Uh... hey there, fancy meeting you here." He hoped she hadn't been there long enough to see his episode, but it had been dark and he had been on the ground, so most likely no one had seen him. He awkwardly attempted to steer the conversation away from himself, in case she had witnessed anything. He noticed a new battle between two people named Yui and Angelo was about to start, and he motioned towards the screen. "So... This is gonna be a good battle, eh?" He just couldn't muster his usual energy, and the question came out half-hearted and weak. If she had known him longer she might have spotted the difference in his attitude, but she hadn't, and surely she wasn't that observative. Then again, she was a genius...

"Like this." Aaron held his fork aloft, then dramatically impaled an enormous portion of lettuce and shoved it into his food chute in one fell swoop. Sauce dribbled from the corner of his mouth, and he wiped at it with his sleeve and waved his fork at Scarlet. "Be amazed by the master!" He scooped up another chunk of his salad and devoured it hungrily, already gazing at the salad bar like a forlorn lover. "I think I'mma need seconds, all that battling worked up an appetite!"

Aaron nodded, absentmindedly rubbing his growling stomach. "Sure, I haven't eaten since yesterday." He glanced over at Scarlet, then realized Alexa and Clark had disappeared. "Uh... Guess they already went to lunch. You in Scarlet?" He hoped she would say yes, she was fun to have around and talk to. "I still need to explain that astral battling stuff to you anyways!"

Aaron nodded. "Thanks, I was the Monkey King. Disapointed I lost, but guess they just played better than us in the end." He glanced over at Scarlet as she approached, intrigued by the change in attitude. "Is that how the crab girl beat you? I just saw a big flash of light, distracted me enough for the little portal guy to get me by surprise." He grinned crookedly. "Got the little bugger though, no chance he could dodge the Nimbus strike once he used all his energy. Did anyone see it? My rod was freakin' enormous!" He hadn't realized just how bad the phrasing was until he had already said it, and he clammed up immediately afterwards.