An Extreme Rivalry

Callie?!

Nickolas wakes up at about Nine in the morning.  He drags himself out of bed and barely lifts his bare feet with what little strength he has, and walks to his closet to put on more suitable clothes for the long day ahead.  Nickolas opens up his fridge, just to find that all his food and drinks are past their expiration dates.  He lets out a huge sigh and decides to walk to the bar not too far from his house to get some coffee and a non-expired breakfast.  When he gets there, he sees a familiar head.  It's his friend, Callie.  "Callie, is that you?!", Nickolas shouts as he walks closer.  The feminine figure turns her head and slips out of her seat.  And she speaks in a familiar voice and responds with, "Hey, you're back already?!"  The figure starts to walk up to Nickolas and then he can finally make out a face.  He realizes that the figure is none other than his best friend, Callie Hinson.  Callie is Nickolas' teammate in the 'Interdimensional Academy for Army/Monster Hunter Training' and is the slightly shorter, but elder of the duo.  They talk to catch up on what happened during the whole year Nickolas went into hiding.  An hour into the conversation, Callie told Nickolas that there was a meeting for two people teams that was in forty minutes and said that they best be heading on to the academy.  Nickolas said that he needed a new communicator since his got busted up doing some heavy pressure training he did while he was away.  Callie told him that everyone supposed to get some new ones in sometime that week.  Nickolas finishes his breakfast and chugs whatever is left of his coffee.  The two heroes in training walk outside.  Callie opens up a temporary Inter-Portal.  (An Inter-Portal is an interdimensional portal that can take the summoner and their comrades to a location desired by the summoner of said portal.)  Callie and Nickolas walk into the Inter-Portal and in no time at all, the two are in the lobby of the academy and are informed by the secretary of the academy that they are wanted at the meeting room in the lobby.  Callie and Nickolas are the first ones there, but within twenty minutes, all of the chairs are taken by the other trainees and due to the lack of seats, some are required to stand up or lean against the wall.  Another twenty minutes pass and the president of the academy walks into the meeting room.  The president's deep voice startles some of the trainees.  President John Lilligan is the deep voiced, stern, but laidback president of the academy.  He starts speaking about the upcoming graduation for trainees that are rank twenty six.  Callie and Nickolas are one of the few rank twenty six teams in the whole academy.  At the end of the meeting, the president of the academy passes out new communication devices for everyone there.  Before he disbands the meeting, he announces that Callie and Nickolas must stay while others may leave.  Before the last person leaves, the president tells said person to shut the door on the way out.  After the last person leaves, he gives Callie and Nickolas each a small box that contains two special badges.  The president says that those special badges will strengthen their wings and will allow them to buy different types of special armor that's stronger than their old tungsten armor.  The president finally tells the two they can leave.  

Later, Callie's and Nickolas' monster detector watches start updating to new firmware while they rest from fusion training.  This new update added a revamped map and a locator for shops that sell armor.  After the duo gets done with fusion training, they decide to fly out to one of the shops on their newly updated watches.  fortunately for them, the shop that they're closest to is right in their Dimension, but not only that, it's in the same world and country that they're from however, it's in Nickolas' home state of Arkansas, but more specifically, in the state capital of Arkansas.  The pair decides to Inter-Portal to Little Rock in Arkansas.  When they get there, they are behind the capitol building and decides that this is the perfect chance to retract their wings since they had to fly through the Inter-Portal instead of walking (The walking bridge for the Inter-Portals were under construction.)  After the two retract their wings, they walk out from behind the building and starting walking to the location on their watches.  While they're walking, they constantly get dirty looks from passerby.  All of a sudden, their communicators get a call from someone and it's from president John Lilligan.  He asks the duo how their trip is going and they're confused as to how the president knew.  He said that someone overheard your conversation and said that you were heading to Nickolas' home state to visit a shop.  Afterwards, he says that they're getting close to the shop and that he opened up a special banking account that adds funds of a certain type to Callie's and Nickolas' watches that are meant to allow the two to buy the stronger pieces of armor.  The president then ends the call.

The duo eventually ends up right next to an alleyway that was on the path to the shop they were going to.  The two walks down the alleyway and sees wooden stand.  They walk up to the stand and are met with a young looking man who invites them into the building behind the stand.  The duo walks behind the stand and follows the man into the building.  In the building, they see armor stands with new sets of armor.  The man said that he was expecting the two.  The three have a conversation and eventually both buy similar sets of armor that were both decently priced, but the materials were surprisingly enough, stronger than tungsten.  The two leave the shop and thank the man.  They return to the academy, still having to fly though Inter-Space since the bridge was still under construction.  The duo decides to go to their shared dorm and sleep for the weekend.