Trials of a Hero

The Tension training center was quiet at this hour, not because it was too late for the night crowds but because this is the time when Tension tapings were live at the Kyoto arena. It was not a requirement to attend shows in which matches had not been booked so for a few individuals it hadn’t been an issue. It was just going to be them here tonight, in theory.

Akane was sparse on the details herself, this entire situation originally was planned to be the night following their meeting with Starboy at the gym but it had since turned into something more. Raine had kept her in the dark most of the way, only having her relay key bits of information back to Starboy. Now nearly a week later and Raine had finished whatever preparations she had been making.

Akane Saito:

So Akane sat and waited on the apron of the training ring, kicking her boots. She had come dressed in her ring attire, unsure what tonight may bring. She had let Starboy know the time and to meet her here. From there she knew only one more bit of information but she was supposed to save that.

For a good while, Starboy had already thought that his promising start to the new year had been nothing but a mirage. He had managed to meet a couple of charming ladies, arrange a spar with one of them, and even secured a phone number for himself... One that he had crucially managed to memorize for about a half an hour, just enough to type it out onto his phone. But while all that had been a success, the communications that had followed had left him with serious doubt.

"Good afternoon, Lady Saito! Have you heard details of tonight?"
"Uhh, no... She hasn't told me anything, sorry. I'll let you know."

So, the supposed day of the action had passed... Leaving the hero disappointed that nothing had happened. But maybe they just needed more time... But after two more days...

"Hi, any news abou the spar?"
"Umm, no, she says she needs more time..."
"OK, I understand. Let me know when you know."

After a couple more days, Starboy was already becoming sure that either one of them had gotten cold feet, or then they had actually changed their mind of wanting to spar or tussle with him. It was too bad, but he didn't want to bother them. That wasn't his style. If they had changed their mind, they were completely free to do so. Until...

"OK, she says she's ready. Come to the training center during the tapings tonight."

Unfortunately, by this time, Starboy's phone had been on silent during the day. It was only in the evening, that the Lonely Superhero finally realized to check his phone...

"Oh wow... Cool! When are the tapings...?" When he checked the time, he realized that they were starting in five minutes. "Ohh... Shit shit shit!"

Quickly typing "On my way" as a response to the text, not knowing if it was too late for Akane to even read it any longer, Starboy hastily changed his attire to his hero one, and grabbed a pair of handcuffs with him as a frantic solution to the burning question inside his head over what should he bring with him to the seemingly mysterious battle ahead. Rushing out the door, the hero hurried his way down the hallways towards the training center, not wanting to be too late from the assigned meetup time.

Reaching the training center, the hero took a moment before entering to catch his breath. The instructions were rather vague, but probably sufficient in any case - even though the training center was certainly a rather big area. Entering it, Starboy began carefully looking through his surroundings and into the corners, trying to see if there was anyone there... But also being acutely aware of the risk of a surprise attack - like an adept hero always should have been. The lights were extremely dim, as most of the wrestlers were somewhere completely elsewhere during this hour... And while he was slowly getting closer to the training ring, it was in fact likely that Akane would be the one spotting his approach first.

The training center was mostly devoid of activity, large sections of the open area darkened by a lack of people roaming in places with automated lights that tracked motion. Akane had been front and center at the big training ring, sitting for a time but had at some point laid down underneath the bottom rope and let her legs fangle over the side of the ring. She had been early, not out of any real obligation to whatever this was, but because she and Raine had arrived together and split the cost of their ride. Since then she had been left to loiter alone, hoping Starboy might show up early just to give her some company. He didn't of course, having turned over to check the clock every so often and finding another five or ten minutes had passed. She had regretted handing over her phone to Raine when they got here, left with idle hands and a wandering mind for well over an hour now.

She had closed her eyes for a spell and just let the time pass, fighting the urge to count the seconds or watch the clock. Eventually, she relaxed and just lay there quietly, listening to the distant sounds of the few people here making weights clack together in the distance. She wasn't sure if she had dozed off or not, but a soft click and hum of the automated lighting coming on made her open her eyes. Lifting her head she spied a far of Starboy looking around warily as if something were going to jump out at him.

It gave her a fun idea.

Carefully, quietly she scooted herself under the ropes and then let herself hang off the side of the apron. She practically oozed out of the ring, dropping to the floor below in a crouch. Quickly she ducked down, crawling under the fabric around the outside of the ring to hide herself. Akane had to clap her hands to her mouth to keep from giggling aloud, trying her hardest to stay quiet and listen. Ears perked and she waited for Starboy to draw close… she heard some steps, some shuffling… she lowered her head to peek underneath the cloth to see him right there. Shifting around she crouched low… and lunged out from under the ring, attempting to tackle Starboy to the ground and pin his shoulders down while straddling his waist. “Sneak attack!”

Starboy advanced rather carefully inside the gym, being well aware that he didn't know what to expect... Before realizing how stupid it actually felt. There wasn't really anyone there. Besides, the lights were brighter further away in the distance, and as they managed to track some of his slow, careful motions, they actually turned on alleviating his concerns. The ring seemed to be empty as well... But instead, he could hear somewhere a bit further away some clacking of the weights. That was probably where he should have headed to!

Starting to take his steps a bit quicker, also reminding himself that he was slightly late, the hero proceeded to pass the ring... Before suddenly getting tackled to the ground from the side! "Wha- ough!" Star could feel himself getting promptly straddled and pinned, and his instincts had time to initiate the first milliseconds of struggle, before "Oh." Suddenly seeing Akane's face and her battle geared body in front of him, the hero's resistance ceased as he realized that it was actually her who had tackled him and was straddling him... And for a moment, he couldn't help but drool at the gorgeous sight.

"Oh... Wow... You surprised me well..." the hero finally began as he found the mindspace to actually address his attacker. "I told you... You'd make a great superhero!" he complimented, before taking another look at the pinkette, and managing to resist stating "You look gorgeous" out loud right to her face. Frankly, he actually had no desire to get out of this position... But eventually realized that he should do something to avoid appearing too suspicious.

"How did you... Oh, wait... Am I supposed to fight back? Was this the start of the battle?" he then began asking the girl while blushing a little, realizing that if the sneak attack had actually been part of Raine's plan, he was giving a pretty hapless look of himself right now.

Akane brought Starboy to the ground perhaps quicker than any other opponent she had ever faced, quickly throwing her legs around the young hero to perch herself on his abdomen while she held him down. He held a look of deathly seriousness… until Starboy looked at her and she broke into a small laugh immediately, unable to keep the expression of intensity. She leaned back to sit on him, lightly pressing her hands to his chest to hold him down but she didn't really apply any force, he could sit up whenever he wished. She beamed down at him with a big smile.

“Caught you unprepared!” She coked her head at the mention of being a good superhero, and glanced aside, thinking about that. “I think if I was one, I wouldn't be the sort for ambushes. I like facing my adversaries head-on.” She smiled back down to him, though blinked at the compliment. She blushed faintly and gave a soft giggle. “I guess that's part of my superpower maybe?”

“Oh… no, this wasn't part of the… thing.” Akane pushed off his chest, backing herself up off him to stand. She offered a hand down to help him up. “But I am going to still count that as a win for me… or a point. Whatever grading system Lady Raine has in mind.” She gave Starboy a slightly apologetic look as if the decision was somehow out of her hands. In her mind, she needed every advantage she could get though, he was a superhero after all. “I  have to take us to a certain hall and then she said she would let us know what we were doing?”

Starboy couldn't help feeling like a prey that had just been caught by its predator - although this certain predator seemed to be one of the nicest ones there had ever been. Trapped and pinned beneath Akane, the pinkette was only loosening her hold on him, leaving him plenty of opportunity to fight back if he wanted to... Although it looked like this superhero was very happy being her prey for the moment. At least until he realized that he may have been supposed to fight back already...

"Oh, good... I already thought that I was going way too easy on you..." the hero began in a slightly embarrassed tone, still blushing a little from the brief worry over appearing like a willing victim. But as it became evident that this wasn't the case, the Lonely Superhero accepted the girl's help a little hesitantly with getting back up again. "Well yeah, that's true... Us superheroes rarely ambush anyone. Like you said, it's much more honorable to face your enemies head-on!" he began explaining as a comment to Akane's reflection. "And yes, I guess it's more often those villains that ambush us heroes... So, maybe..." the hero paused for a moment, before deciding to continue "If you for some reason wanted to be one, you could be a very sneaky villain as well!" Star concluded, wanting to commend Akane's potential while trying not to sound like he outright suggested her to be a villain. Then, he got even more excited by her continued pondering... "Oh haha, yes! Stealth could be your superpower! Like, if there actually were superpowers, you could be able to stay invisible, say, like further than six feet away from your opponent, if you had your powers left. Like, you could always surprise your opponents!" he then concluded, clearly getting carried away by his imagination, and probably sounding way too nerdy to his liking in hindsight. "What do you think my superpower could be then?" he then carried on with a more mischievous tone, legitimately interested to hear if the girl would have an answer.

As they made their way further though, Starboy began concentrating again on the situation at hand. "Oh, well, I trust you know where we're going..." he replied, noting that they definitely were going a bit deeper into the halls than he would have first imagined. "But, what... What did you say about a grading system?"

“Batman ambushes people I think. He’s technically a superhero despite not really being all that super, right? He is just a very wealthy man with gadgets and smarts.” Once Akane had helped Starboy up, she had taken on the role of guide, walking them through the main gym to one of the branching hallways. She occasionally stopped at doors to eye signage or peer around corners, trying her best to walk through the path she needed to take to get where she was going.

“Do you think I’d become a villain?” She stopped, turning back around to face him with a slight frown. “I don’t know how well I sneak in normal circumstances. Having bright pink hair tends to be a bit of a giveaway… so unless there is a ring or like… a large table with a cloth over it in every room I sneak in I’m not sure how well that would go, to be honest… besides, I would rather be a hero." She hugged her arms around her, giving a bicep a light rub. “Being able to turn invisible does sound fun though.”

“Hm.” Akane leaned herself against the wall, bringing a hand up to tap her chin as she thought. “Maybe something like, the more you believe in yourself the stronger you get. Determination embodied. That way no matter how dire a situation becomes you can rise to meet it.” Akane gave a small nod. “Either that or like… having a cool transformation. Like calling on star signs to gurn into zodiac-themed stuff, cause you are Starboy. That would be neat.” She giggled at the thought and flashed him a smile before continuing on through the halls.

“I think we are almost there…” Akane furrowed her brow, hoping she hadn't taken a wrong turn. She let out a small excited gasp as they reached an intersection, spotting what looked like a blue and purple “X” on the floor near the end of the hall. She jogged ahead, turning around to face Starboy as she took her strides backward while going down the hall. “Not sure. She kept saying this was going to be trials. With an S. So I imagine there are a few of them and since we are head to head, I needed to be on top. So it's 1-0 right now." She accidentally passed by the purple “X”, but took a small hop forward to plant herself on it.

Both marks on the floor were placed with colored tape. The hallway was narrow, but beside the mark was an open door that had been propped open with a wedge. Just inside the doorway were some padded mads laid down for undefined reasons.  “This is where we are supposed to wait.”

Batman? Well, sure, Akane got a point there. But Batman wasn't honestly one that Starboy would have usually compared himself to... He was kinda, way too big, powerful and dark on some level... If anything, he associated himself more with Robin. Batman was like a level up... Heck, if he and Akane were to fight against him, they'd probably stand no chance even together.

...And why exactly was he having thoughts like this again?!?

Luckily though, Akane didn't seem to mind at all of him nerding out. If anything, she was going fully along with it... Well, not really a surprise at all considering how she and Raine were, but it was still a pleasant and unusual feeling. "Yeah, I guess you're right about Batman... Would you find it fun to battle against him?" the hero couldn't resist posing the question in a bit of a mischievous tone to Akane, obviously still not wanting to reveal what he had just thought about.  

"Oh, I didn't mean the stealth thing had to be a villain thing... Perfectly good for a hero as well!" he quickly corrected himself, not wanting Akane to be left with the wrong impression about his idea. Him having asked the question over his own superpower proved to be a rather interesting one though, as the girl's ideas were definitely way different from what he had thought of himself. The first one of her ideas was a bit of a head-scratcher though... Did she mean that believing in himself would actually make him physically stronger? Or only mentally more determined? Like, was she thinking of him suddenly being able to overpower much bigger foes, or simply being able to endure much more punishment in a battle?

He didn't have time to ask about it though, before the pinkette moved onto an even more curious idea though. Transformation? Now that was a wild idea. And Starboy probably even liked it. The only problem was, that she mentioned Zodiac signs. While the idea actually made total sense as she very logically explained, Starboy didn't really dare to comment on it on a detailed level though... As he was too embarrassed to admit that he could actually recall only a few of them.

"Wow, those are so cool ideas... Much more interesting than my own..." he began responding to her suggestions. "I had only thought about something like, that I could jump up really high..." he continued, toning his voice down in the process to signal his growing dissatisfaction with his own lack of ingenuity. "Besides, even that would be useless if you get caught..." he still continued, basically muttering to himself by now.

Finally, Akane's statement that they were almost there woke the hero once again back to focusing on reality. Spotting the crosses on the floor, Star could see Akane turning to face him while explaining everything she knew. Trials? No, the hero couldn't really guess quite yet what was being meant by that. But based on how keen Akane seemed to be on keeping a score and making sure that she would have already scored a point from the sneak attack - which Starboy surely on some very quiet level wanted to protest a bit, but was definitely still not going to bring up or speak up about in any type of way - the theme of the night sounded like some kind of competition.

Noticing Akane hopping onto the purple X, it was easy for Starboy to deduce that he should settle on top of the blue X to face her. So he did, and glanced a bit to the side towards a wedged door... Behind which he couldn't really see. Then he turned to his eyes to Akane again, who simply told him they were supposed to wait. Nodding in response, the hero began waiting... But he had nothing else to do, than stare at Akane, measuring her body from head to toes rather openly again. The mood had suddenly changed in a drastic fashion... The two competitors were left faced with each other, knowing that they were going to soon battle it out somehow, but without a chance to do anything yet. The situation was awkward, exciting, tense and hot at the same time... "You know... You start feeling like a real opponent already. So you better watch out..." the hero couldn't resist breaking the silence, trying to sound as confident and dangerous as he could, also signaling that the tensity of the situation was quickly pushing him into his hero role now.

Starboy - Ready for Battle!:

“It would be pretty neat to fight against Batman if he were real. I am pretty sure he would kick my butt… pretty sure he would kick everyone’s butt in AFW honestly.” She would answer rather openly as they walked, eventually reaching the location where they both settled on their individual X marks.

“Oh?” Akane smirked over at Starboy, folding her arms under her breasts. “Or maybe its yo-”

Shoom!

The hallway suddenly went dark.

“Eee!” Akane cried out in the pitch darkness at the sudden inability to see even an inch in front of her. “Are you still there?” She called out to Starboy as she reached out, her hands accidentally swatting at him as she felt around blindly. “I can’t see anything!” She was practically shouting despite them still being right beside one another.

A faint rumbling sound filled the hall then stopped with a soft metallic screech. A bright flash from down the hall as some sort of bright directional light shined on the two in the hall. Akane shielded her eyes from the brightness of it, though now they could at least see the immediate area around them.

“The separation between brave and foolhardy is a thin one. A true hero must face their fear and stand tall in the face of adversity but also know the perfect moment to abandon a fight to salvage a victory for another day!” Raine’s voice echoed loudly down the hall, a tinny sound to her words she spoke through a bullhorn.

“Let us see how wisdom has tempered your bravery!” An engine revved as Raine put the golf cart she now sat in into gear, the headlights blazing down the hall as she hit the gas pedal. The golf cart was wide, taking up practically the entire hallway. Akane and Starboy were in its immediate path with the only obvious escape being the doorways beside their marks.

“She isn't going to run us over… is she?” Akane breathed out her words in a panic, not even willing to spare a glance towards Starboy as the cart was zooming down the hall towards them. It showed no signs of stopping.

Starboy was really starting to get in the mood already... Mood for battling against Akane, of course. He was looking already rather intently at her, when suddenly - "Huh?"

The lights going out completely surprised the self-proclaimed superhero, although he wasn't quite as scared as Akane was, based on what she was hearing. And it wasn't only the squeak, it was also the looking for support from him afterwards as well. Which the hero kinda appreciated - if she just hadn't been swatting at him in the process. "Yes, yes! I'm right here! Don't panic! Surprises like this... They are everyday stuff for a superhero!" he tried to come up with a convincing reply on the go, one that would boost his credibility also in Akane's eyes as well. Sure, he couldn't see anything either, but he didn't consider it to be any imminent problem.

Besides, losing one sense always made the others more sensitive. This time it was what he was hearing that picked Starboy's interest... Which made it more crucial that Akane wouldn't squeak and panic any longer. Which she luckily didn't, as suddenly a light from behind him appeared in the hallway, albeit a blinding one... But again, it was what he heard that made the most difference.

Really, Starboy was starting to be digging this. He could recognize Raine's voice, and this whole situation was exciting. She had seemed to certainly come up with something original and unique, something that would surely put their abilities in an adventure to a test. That was at least what he was gathering from all her words as well...

As Raine concluded her words and the engine started revving, Starboy glanced over at Akane with a wide smile on his face. He couldn't hide his excitement for this! And he couldn't help but find it a little funny how scared she seemed to be...

Well, that was until she actually voiced her concerns. And sure enough, as Starboy glanced over to behind his back again, the lights were indeed rapidly making their way towards them.

"Run over us? Wha-...?" the hero let out in utter confusion, before his survival instinct rapidly kicked in. Akane voicing out loud the prospect of getting run over had suddenly convinced his brain of the possibility as well, and there was very little time to act. Thus, the hero draped his arm hastily around Akane's shoulder, shouted "DUCK!" while pushing and pulling her to the side, trying to quickly rush the trialed duo through the open doorway on the side of the hallway!