“I won’t listen to you,” Ty turned his back to Elinor automatically going against her wishes as he did so many times. It wasn’t that he did not want to help Gecko, especially after the guy attempted to stick out for him, but he just did not want to do it just because a ghost asked. It would have felt like as if he was listening to her. He thought that only a nutcase would listen to a ghost. 

When he looked back at Jon he got surprised by his opponent standing right in front of him only an inch further away. That was a mistake. Jon mistook Tyson’s last sentence as being addressed to him and raised his fists ready to punch. Ty dodged without thinking the last minute. 

There goes my lunch break, Ty sighed. Jon came at Ty with a few more attacks and kicks, trying to impress the spectators around them. Tyson gracefully dodged each and every one of the attacks as he learned during his trainings, then he abruptly grabbed Jon’s head and firmly smashed it into the nearby cabinet. He wanted to end this fight quickly and effectively. He remembered that one of the best ways to do that was to attack the opponent’s head. He did not want to poke Jon’s eyes or making him deaf but breaking his nose would probably suffice. 

The viewers of the fight recoiled, amazed and a bit scared by Ty’s physical abilities and sheer brutal force. Ty did not pay attention to his audience the same way as Jon did before. Instead he focused on Jon’s movements who was in the middle of balancing himself after the hit. When he pulled himself together, Jon charged again and Ty swiftly opened the cabinet door, letting his enemy run into the opening. When Jon had hit his head again, Ty kicked him in the buttocks and twisted his arm. At last, he forced Jon to turn around and punched him in the nose. Great Big Jon fell to the ground like a piece of wood and did not move after that. Ty knew that he should have withheld his brutal fighting techniques but as he learned as child, in real fights there were no nasty attacks and everything was allowed for self defence. He still felt a bit bad about the kick in the buttocks, however he was grinning about it like an idiot when he finished with him. He found it amusing. 

To the boy’s surprise, everyone started clapping, whistling and cheering so loud it almost busted his ears. 

Gecko, who stopped crying by that time, quickly gathered his laptop or at least what was left of it, stood up eyeing Ty with his bloodshot eyes. He then turned around and sprinted away without saying a word. Ty watched him running still a bit transfixed by his audience’s cheering. He felt that he should have helped Gecko sooner. 

The cheering continued and almost everybody in the audience came to congratulate him. Girls were fidgeting and blushing when he looked at them. Slowly he was beginning to understand why Jon enjoyed public fights: The amazing feeling of being the center of attention, the cheers and the love he received for doing something that his audience enjoyed. The satisfaction of hard training and showing it off. He thought that maybe that was what performers felt on stage? 

During competitions not many cheered for him or at least not that loud because otherwise they would disturb the others competing at the same time on other mats. 

“Oh yeah. He did not thank me,” he suddenly remembered the short blonde boy, nicknamed Gecko, absent-mindedly scratching his head, still feeling proud of himself. 

“You didn’t really help him. His device is still broken,” Elinor responded to him. Her cold expression was showing how she did not approve Ty’s actions. The others were booing at Gecko because they wanted to please the hero of the fight. Tyson glanced back again at the place where the mysterious transparent prisoner looking man with popcorn was sitting. He was gone.

“He followed Gecko,” Elinor told him as if reading his mind. “Do you think, he is –”

Ty instantly broke out of the crowd to go after Gecko. 

“I assume he is,” Ty replied back to Elinor while running, his smile reaching ear-to-ear, his ocean blue eyes glowing happily, “a ghost like you.”