Iron Heart (The Gauntlet #2)

Chapter 19 - Fire on the Horizon

When Codi first heard where the final practice tournament would be held she'd thought the other fighters were joking. Now that they'd actually arrived she understood why this temperamental ball of molten rock had been chosen. Sheer spectacle.

Io – a world of flames.

A line of erupting volcanoes stretched across the horizon like a wall of hell-fire, bathing the sky in a lurid orange as they belched smoke and lava out across the landscape. Massive geological anchors kept the tremors and shocks away from the handful of defiant, armoured settlements that pockmarked Io's landscape like enormous metal studs.

Walking with the Battlecast fighters through the tube from the main docking bay, Codi couldn't help staring out at the violent, primal landscape that greeted her. The structure had been built out of thick blast-proof glass, letting new arrivals see Io in all its glory. Something about the burning skyline spoke to the very deepest parts of her.

The mere thought of fighting here made Codi shudder with anticipation.

Io hosted the last and largest of the tournaments that preceded the Gauntlet. It would be a huge event, with every academy in the Solar System in attendance. That meant Kye would be here, and it meant she could quiz him on the mystery fighter, the black-armoured giant from some hidden corner of the galaxy.

It shocked her that such an individual had managed to slip through Battlecast's ruthless team of analysts. It had been different for her – before the Gauntlet her little academy's form was dismal, not as much as a blot on a canvas. This kid was different, wrecking his way through the training rounds without a flash of media scrutiny. It made her apprehensive and excited in equal measure.

They trooped through the streets of Prometheus, Io's largest city, and all around them the hardness of the people and the world rose up. Gone were the glittering spires of Earth, replaced with huge soot-dark monoliths arranged in gridiron blocks. Thin yellow window slits glittered across their black faces, apertures that could slam shut in the event of a dome rupture. Each of these tower blocks was a fortress-in-waiting.

It occurred to Codi that if the fighters from the home academy were anything like their planet then the competition was about to get a lot more intense.

It wasn't long before they started spotting the other academy groups piling through the geometric streets. Their colours seared out against the volcanic darkness of Io's architecture, a sign that human civilisation was descending on this little fireball. She spotted the blood red uniforms of Olympus Mons, the deep evergreen of Everest and the aquamarine kit of the Atlantic troops. Then came the smaller academies: the searing blue of Luna's Cobalt Storm; Eilbarder, an academy based out of Neptune's largest satellite that bore a livery of burnished gold. And all of them were converging on the bowl-like mass of the vaunted Io institute:

Firequake Academy.

She knew it by reputation, but seeing the colossal dish firsthand still thrilled her. It loomed out of the forest of cinder-coloured buildings; not as tall but sprawling out like a black hole in the centre of the city. Massive struts jutted out like coal spider legs, holding the walls up, and gaping before them was the main entrance. Above the open double doors was an insignia six feet across; the motif of two black lightning bolts in front of a flame. The fighters from every other academy were being funnelled through the streets to this one point.

In a single surge they crossed the threshold into an entrance hall with a floor the colour of fire. Obsidian desks waited for them, manned by hard-faced staff from the Firequake administration. As the process of checking in began she let her eyes wander around the room, looking for the black tracksuits of the Zulu Forge team. She spotted several familiar faces in the crowd; Dustin Morto's huge frame stuck out like a miniature mountain. She exchanged a nod and a grin with Darien Fallow at the head of the Olympus Mons contingent; shook hands with the boy from Cobalt Storm that she'd encountered back on Earth all those weeks ago.