"Hey Nikki, ease up on the arrow spam a bit, you're going to blow through your ammo."
"Well, how else are we going to push the group back?"
"Nyke's shots have slight knockback if you charge them up, save the quickfire for when enemy heroes show up."
"Right, of course..."
Mashing the buttons, Nikki was surprised when the dashing archer character she was testing out did in fact push back the angry mob of spearmen more easily.
"See, told ya it'd work!" the shark girl said, patting her on the shoulder. "You're picking this up really well."
"I...thank you..."
Perhaps it was being treated like a social pariah for so long, but the way that this girl treated her with kindness had been...genuinely surprising. Despite looking and like a vicious predator of the ocean, Kahiau, though she preferred to be called Kay, was about as dangerous as a teddy bear. Sure she was built as hell with the strong muscles of a seasoned swimmer, but the shark girl mostly used those arms of hers to give out big hugs more then anything else. Not exactly something Nikki was fond of, admittedly.
"How are we doing with the trial runs?" Mohini asked as she slithered up behind the pair occupying the sofa.
"Not too bad...I am getting a good grasp on the fundamentals, as it were," Nikki reported.
"Oh, wonderful!" the nagi said, the end of her tail wagging happily.
"I keep telling her she has a knack for finding the good players," Kay explained. "There's you and Luke obviously, but I don't think you were here when Vindani and Jenna were in this team. Those two were legends at this game, they could run over anyone without even blinking."
"What happened to them?" Nikki asked.
"Uh..." Mohini said, stumbling over her words slightly. "It's...complicated."
"No it's not," Kay said sharply "Those two treated you like dirt, no shame in admitting that." Watching Kay's sudden sharpness at the idea of someone mistreating her friend was almost as much of a shock as her kindness. Note to self, the shark girl's a teddy bear, just don't mess with her friends.
"Well, they're gone now, at least," Mohini muttered to herself. "And besides, Luke's a solid tank player, put that with Nikki on assault and we'll be solid."
"I thought you were the tank," Nikki asked the shark girl.
"Nope, support!" Kay confirmed cheerfully. "And Mo's the assassin."
Nikki raised an eyebrow, somewhat amused that the one on this team who would be racking up kills and sneaking around was the quiet and bookish nagi with the librarian eyeglasses. Suppose it fit better then the hulking shark girl playing the squishy healing type, at least. Snakes and what have you.
"Hey gals..."
Shutting the classroom door behind him, Luke shuffled up to the group on the couch. The tiefling was quite enigmatic, very Hot Topic-looking with his goatlike demon horns and charcoal skin with the blood red eyes. Effortlessly chill, he almost seemed too cool to hang out with the shy nagi and the boisterous shark, and yet here he was. Nikki didn't have an opinion on him just yet, but his chill attitude was enough that she at least felt comfortable near the guy. Of course one look at his face right now and you could tell he wasn't quite his usual chill self.
"You look like you have unfortunate news," Nikki pointed out.
"What's up? Did the principle give us the green light?" Mohini asked.
"Well....technically, yes," Luke said warily. "But he seemed to waffle over whether or not it was worth the expenses, something to do with efficiency of school funding, I don't know."
"So what, does he want us to do a bikini car wash? Cause I can absolutely do a bikini car wash," Kay spouted out, causing Mohini to blush and Nikki to smirk at the idea.
"He's set up an exhibition match against another school. Some west coast school, can't remember the name."
"Oh, is that all we have to do?" Nikki asked, but the other two girls looked worried.
"Th-the game got popular out west, Nikki," Mohini explained. "The school teams there are pretty solid, and if we have to play against them...well, it's an uphill battle. Maybe with enough prep time we can-"
"It's in a month."
The two other girls in the room dropped their jaws to the ground."
"A MONTH?" Kay shouted. "Is he trying to make us lose?"
"I wouldn't be shocked," Luke admitted. "He didn't seem all that enthused about the idea."
"How are we supposed to get up to the level of a west coaster with a new player in one month?!?" Mohini fretted. "No offense, Nikki."
"None taken, I am with you on this. The fool is clearly trying to sabotage us!" Nikki jumped onto the sofa. "And are we going to let them defeat us?"
"Uh, no?" Mohini said, somewhat taken aback.
"I guess not," Luke muttered.
"HELL NO!" Kay shouted.
"Then we are going to work our butts off and then kick their butts so hard that they fall off so we can use them ourselves!" Nikki shouted in triumph. "I have totally lost track of this metaphor, THAT IS HOW FOCUSED I AM ON WINNING THIS MATCH AND MAKING THIS TEAM A REALITY!" And keeping me in a club to prevent me from getting expelled, Nikki thought to herself.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Kay said, tossing Luke and Mohini a pair of controllers. "Time to get training ladies!"
"No time like the present I guess," Mohini said, squeezing in between Nikki and Kay while Luke sat on Nikki's opposite side, settling down into what was to be a long and hard month of training for the first big game of the year for this ragtag team.
Choice 1: Nikki and the Fists And Fighters team train hard, relying on copious amounts of snack food to get them through their training sessions, so by the time the game day arrives, the gang isn't quite as svelte as they once were.
Choice 2: Nikki, wanting to help the team in her own unique way, remembers a certain compound she created that could make for great gamer fuel, keeping her and her teammates focused and working at peak efficiency. Sure it has that one little side effect, but it's not like they'll be doing a lot of physical activity anyway, right?
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