Space and Time

Solar Flares

God, the fresh air was such a good idea. I am feeling pumped!

"You look like you're ready to take on literally anyone," Faith says. She sounds excited, like I'll give her a show or something.

I totally will.

"Honestly, she looks more like she's ready to fight the fricken sun. You should stand back, Faith."

"Maeva! You don't trust me?!" I call back to Maeva as I adjust my sleeves.

"No!" she calls back immediately. Tsk.

"Listen, I'm not going to fight the sun."

"You're literally fighting against a dude named Sun."

"Bite me."

"OK, ladies, settle down, I know I'm dazzling." In walks the Sun himself. Faith giggles at his quip. I can't lie, I'm smiling at it, too. Even if it's cheesy. Sometimes the cheesy jokes are the best jokes.

"You ready for me?" I say confidently as I finish adjusting my sleeves.

"You ready for me?" he throws back.

"The sun's a tiny little speck in the grand canvas of space; you've got no chance," I click back. He just laughs and gives me a lazy wave as he walks off to his end of the stage.

"Smartass," I hear him call back before he skips out of earshot. A few of the people sitting up front look worried and confused.

"I think some of your fans completely misread that whole situation," Maeva says. I shrug and give the crowd a smile and wave to check on them. Most of their anger deflates, so I think that's covered that.

"Handled," I announce proudly. Man, though, I really do feel like I could fight the sun and win right now. I'm probably boiling with more fire than that giant star in space could ever hold.

Santeri joins us up on stage. That's Maeva and Faith's signal to go sit down.

"Ooh, this is gonna be a good one, I can feel it," Faith squeals as she hops down the steps.

"Kick the sun's ass," Maeva adds in her usual saucy tone.

Now they've both disappeared into the crowd.

Santeri pats my shoulders and is giving me his "focus" speech. I've noticed he's started doing that ever since my frustrating training session a week ago. It's helped. I need to keep my eyes on the goal, and my head in the now. I need to relax.

It's all over in less than a minute.

Sun hesitates for a moment, looking like he's readying to run at me, and although I usually wait, something comes over me. I'm hyper-focused and everything seems so clear to me. I see the opportunity and go for it. I warp over to him, across a good ten metres of convoluted stage mess, and I catch him off guard. A little twist of the foot and he goes down.

He's tall. His shoulders reach out of bounds.

I'm elated.

This is what focus looks like, Evren!

This is the furthest I've been able to move in NCC competition, and I even managed to bend this weird terrain.

The crowd is silent a moment, but with the call of the Out of Bounds, it erupts. I can't help but smile my widest smile as I hear the cheering. The room's filled with celebration and excitement. This is why I do this. I live for moments like these.

Sun gives me a very sportsmanly pat on the back that's a little harder than it probably needed to be, but he seems satisfied with the Out of Bounds call. He hasn't challenged it. "I did not expect that, Evren, Jesus," he laughs.