Trials of a Hero

Akane squinted at the oncoming lights, seemingly frozen in place as it came bouncing down the long hall. It was clear she had just as little information to go off of as Starboy so she tried to go over what Raine had just said to them, trying to find what the answer had to be. As she silently worked through it though as time ticked away, Starboy acted, hooking an arm around her. Taken by surprise she let out a soft yelp as she was tugged off to the side to the safety of one of the side rooms.

Her foot caught on the edge of the mat inside the room, making her fumble her steps and trip into Starboy as he practically dragged her along, possibly knocking the both of them down in the process. Beyond the doorframe, the headlights shined brightly as the sound of the golf cart continuing down the hall labored on, taking a bit longer to reach the intersection they had been standing at than likely either participant had expected. When it pulled up to the doorway, both participants could see. Mats strapped to the front of the cart like bumpers briefly before Raine pulled up the driver-side seat to the doorway.

With a soft sigh, she withdrew a small Nerf gun from her passenger seat and aimed it at the two, firing off a few harmless foam balls to pelt the duo. “You both have failed your first test. While your intentions may have been good, and your instincts sharp to the escape I had provided you, you acted far too hasty. Timing is important, and by fleeing before the right moment presents itself, you allow your enemy time to respond.”

Raine set the toy gun aside as she lectured. “You should have waited before acting. If you had both dodged at the last moment, I wouldn't have been able to stop my vehicle and shoot you.” The self-proclaimed princess reached up to tap a small light on top of the golf cart hood, illuminating the seating. She pulled up a small clipboard and began jotting something down with a pen. “We are off to a very poor start. Both of you, take a seat in the back please “ She motioned with her clipboard to flat rack on the back of the small cart

Starboy was anything but certain over his ideal course of actions, but the situation he had been put in did not really present any other choice for his survival instinct. It was never smart to stand in the way of an oncoming car, right? He wasn't a Superman who could stop it with a single punch after all... Besides, he wasn't there alone. Akane was there too. Surely he had to take care to save her too, right? The poor girl had practically frozen in place!

No, it wasn't a pretty move, but in the short-term a surprisingly rewarding one, since not only did he manage to save the damsel in distress, the said damsel also stumbled on top of him for a nice little piece of body contact. Yes, his brain was obviously still mainly on the shocking turn of events... But he couldn't have denied watching plenty of Akane's matches in the past, and dreaming of getting his hands on her, especially in that attire.

His focus soon turned fully onto the doorway though, as he could hear the vehicle slowing down, and seeing a familiar figure make her appearance in front of the headlights. Sure, it was Raine, no surprise... But... "What was that?" Starboy couldn't help asking her in a slightly confused and irritated tone. While he absolutely did not want to get confrontational with the princess at all, especially as he was having high hopes for the night and the surprising scenario was, technically, rather promising, he was still a bit thrown off by what had just happened.

Of course, Raine then proceeded to fire her little foam balls at them before explaining all of it. And yes, Starboy was pretty impressed by what she had come up with... This was indeed going to turn out very interesting... But he couldn't help still being irritated by it. The surprising scenario, and a threat of a vehicle hitting you just seemed a little unfair, especially without having any context at all. But also, as it had been his decision to duck away, he kinda had made a mistake, and a fool out of himself in Akane's eyes as well. Had she been simply waiting for the right moment, as suggested by Raine?

"Hmph. Fair enough..." the hero eventually replied with a slightly disgruntled tone, before immediately regretting it a bit, trying to switch his mood once again to a more positive one. Pushing Akane gently a bit as he started making his way back up again, he also offered his hand out to the pinkette to see if she needed any aid with doing so herself after he had just rather forcibly downed her. "You OK?" the hero then asked in a slightly apologetic tone, before taking his seat in the pimped up golf cart. He then couldn't help noticing Raine's clipboards, which drew his attention to her shenanigans once again. "So, could you maybe explain a tiny bit, what is this all about?"

Akane had gracelessly face-planted beside Starboy as the two escaped to the safety of the side room. Her backside lofted in the air almost comically by the time Raine had her made reveal and pelted the duo with foam balls. A few bounced harmlessly off her butt, perhaps in another life she might have been a bulletproof heroine. For now though, she groaned softly, red-faced with embarrassment, at not only failing their first test but having to be saved from it. Would she have moved in time? No one could say. She certainly hadn't pieced together what they were supposed to have done in the time it took Starboy to act.

“Yeah…” She rolled off of him as he gave her a light push, flopping onto her back with a soft sigh. She had left her eyes closed but seemingly sensing the offered hand, she peeked out from behind her eyelids and took the offered aid to rise with a quiet “thank you” spoken under her breath as they made their way to the cart. She seated herself beside him, gripping one of the metal supports to the cart's roof since the back lacked any sort of seatbelts.

“I have constructed a series of tasks to gauge levels of heroism. Moral quandaries, tests of one's body and mind. Both you and Akane will be competing against one another. Consider this the Olympic games of heroism.” With a crank of the golf cart controls she drove forward through the darkened halls, moving at a brisk but mindful pace to keep the ride from being too rough on her passengers.

“I actually got a point already. I snuck up on him.” Akane had been listening intently and seemed to jump at the chance to give herself a head start, a competitive fire in her eyes.

“Invalid.” Raine remarked simply. “Your points will be accrued only through the activities I have set forth for us tonight to ensure paramount fairness between the both of you in its grading. I am to be an impartial arbiter, so our relationship will provide you no favor."

Akane frowned softly then turned to look at Starboy, giving his leg a small nudge with her foot. “I'm ahead, in spirit.”

“What was that?” Raine inquired over the hum of the golf cart's electric engine.

“Nothing.” Akane chirped innocently.

Truthfully, it was hard for Starboy to gauge which part of this was actually the more strange and peculiar one for him - the fact that he was supposed to be competing in a strange scheme dubbed "Olympic Games of Heroism", which has just apparently begun by almost getting run over by a random golf cart, or the fact that he was currently actually seated in the said golf cart, speeding through some darkened hallways along the AFW premises in it. Both ideas seemed absurd.

Still, they were both absolutely real. At first, Starboy's focus had remained on trying to comprehend what Raine had been telling, really understand what they were going to be up to... And of course, it had been very exciting. Still, the longer he had been riding in this golf cart, which admittedly was at times a little bit of a struggle to stay seated and upright, the more his focus was turning into the unusual method of transportation. Where exactly was this blue-haired girl taking them?

Star could then hear Akane making her claim at already having one point over Starboy, and to be fair, the hero found no fault with her claim. She had managed to sneak up on him after all, and could have easily made him fall in trouble in a real battle for it! Still, he couldn't deny feeling satisfied when hearing Raine dismissing her claims, declaring herself completely impartial and fair... In any case, he did feel like some of his credibility and honor had to be in line here. What if he lost to Akane? Could she or Raine ever really consider him a convincing and credible superhero after that?

With that in mind, Akane's mischievous declaration and the little nudge at his leg certainly felt like a challenge - and somehow a little flirty one as well. Star suddenly realized having to fight an urge to start tussling with her right there and then on the back seat of the golf cart, but it still wasn't too hard at all to contain himself. His response to the aspiring heroine was still now a more confident and competitive one... "Oh, that's fine... I'll leave you pointless against me for the rest of the night!" the hero declared, still without a hint of malice in his tone despite his defiant words.

Akane grinned at Starboy's claim, leaning in shoulder to shoulder with him to keep her voice low enough that Raine couldn't hear them easily over the electric hum of the golf cart's motor. “Oh yeah? We'll see about that…” She seemed to be good natured about this all as well, clearly enjoying the idea of the head to head challenge. In truth, she felt more confident here in this little test than any match she had in the ring. Starboy was a veteran compared to her after all, so in a match she imaged him to have the upper hand.

“We're here.” The golf cart came to a slow stop, the heavy mattresses strapped to the bumper and the three occupants not helping the cart break easily. They had passed a few darkened halls before entering ones where the lights remained on, bathing them all in white light from above. Raine set the parking break, turned off the cart and slipped out of the driver seat with clipboard in hand. A short but expectant glance given back to the hero and his adversary for the night before she made her way through a set of double doors wanting the duo to follow.

Akane would hop off the back of the cart, giving it a look over now in the light, cringing slightly at the thought of having possibly been struck with it earlier. When she caught movement from Starboy though, she would snap out haze and try to shoulder past him playfully, trying to beat him through the double doors as if this was part of the competition.

Once inside, a sprawling room stood before them, heavily padded and lengthy. A series of sections set up in order to form a long looping obstacle course. Tires laid sideways meant to be stepped between leading to a section of room lined with elastic bands strung end to end that needed to be climbed through. From there, a loose net needed to be climbed to a raised platform. A long balance beam hung suspended over a pit of foam blocks which lead to another platform. A ladder from the hard to traverse foam pit lead back to the start of the balance beam section. After this was zipline to the ground, though it had no device or handle to hold onto to reach the ground. This led to a large wall to scale with a hanging chain dangling down to climb or a series of scattered handholds on the wall itself. On top of the wall was a paper cutout that looked like waving fire with a small stuffed cat sat just in front of it.

“Your next task is one of planning, speed, and execution. My precious Mittens is in terrible danger…” Raine gave a gesture to the shabby looking cat plushie high on the wall part of the obstacle course. “An arsonist has set fire to my home and now he is in need of immediate rescue. Your task is simple. Retrieve Mittens and bring him to me through the obstacles.” Raine made her way over to a table where a large tube like device was set out with tightly bundled cloth beside it. She secured a small tank to one end, and jammed the cloth into the other. When she turned, she presented the t-shirt cannon in her hand to both contestants to view.

“You must navigate these obstacles as quickly as you can. Your opposition will have this and be attempting to stop you from afar. Once you have retrieved Mittens, should your opponent shoot him with a shirt, or if you drop Mittens before you bring him to me, you fail. Should you both succeed, the fastest time between you will be awarded points. Questions?” Raine Glanced between them. “Once I have answered all inquiries, you made decide who will go first“

"Yeah. We'll see." Starboy's stern yet friendly response was quiet and short, perfect to maintain a more stoic appearance, and not cause their discussion get overheard by Raine.

In reality, there was a lot more going through the Lonely Superhero's head. Stuff that he kinda wanted to say, or that he was realizing about himself and the situation, but stuff he knew he absolutely shouldn't say. Truthfully, he was having a bit mixed feelings about this... Or mainly about Akane. On the other hand, the recollection of how she had ambushed him in the gym was admittedly quite an...enticing one, and even if they were clearly about to engage in a contest of heroism, Star had to admit that Akane's attire could have been quite suitable for a villainess as well. One that knew how to ambush and torment heroes like him... And thus one that he inevitably must have had at least some kind of soft spot for... Based on his history.

But then again, she was challenging him now as an aspiring heroine. And Star was also getting this weird feeling, that he also needed to put her in her place. He couldn't let her simply to come out on top of him, much less dominate him. Even if he was an honorable hero, he needed to put her in her place. He kinda needed to dominate her. And if there was one who he could... Well, Akane was a prime contestant for that role.

All these mixed feelings... Huh. Strange.

Yet, none of this was something he could have said out loud. Not that he even could have any longer, as the golf cart was coming to a halt. Star could see Raine hopping out, and wasted no time with following her lead. He had to circle around the mattresses at the front of the car to follow her, by which time he passed Akane who was still staring at them. Lady Saito was soon awaken by the movement though, as she was trying to rush past him, which prompted the hero to instinctively grab hold of her arm, which in turn soon turned into an awkward moment when his hand slid down the arm to hold the girl's hand for a while...

"Easy! It's not the competition yet!" he tried to state in a humorous and relaxed manner despite of his flash blushing again, trying to ease the tension of the moment before letting her hand go, enabling the both to enter through the double doors into the room ahead of them.

And what a way that was to forget about the awkwardness of the moment just prior. Wow. Just wow. Starboy couldn't believe what he was seeing! It was liike one of those ninja warrior -tracks, ones that he had sometimes seen on TV! He couldn't help but stare and adore the elaborate setting in front of him, starting to gaze all over and observe all of its little details, trying to figure out what all of those tools and equipment was really going to be used for...

"Your next task is one of planning, speed, and execution. My precious..." Honestly, Starboy started to listen to Raine when she began speaking, but he very quickly lost his concentration towards her words. All of his focus was basically on trying to visually figure out how to traverse the track, what kind of challenges there laid ahead of him, and where were the danger points. He did pick up some random words though, such as "an arsonist", "immediate rescue", "mittens" and "shoot him with a..." Shirt? What? At that point, Starboy's focus directed towards Raine and her words again - and the hero immediately realized that he should regret about not listening to her more carefully. What the hell did "shooting with a shirt" even mean?

Luckily, she opened the floor for questions in the end.

"Yeah, umm... Just one, I think. Umm... Is it forbidden to just wear those mittens on our hands while we bring them to you? I mean, it's hard for me to see how we could drop them that way."

An honest question.