LOUISE

As I trained, I kept getting distracted by Amvery’s grunts. Whenever she was ticked off, she’d grunt doing anything, and it was so obnoxious. This time, her grunting as she tried various moves on the practice dummy, as well as trying to shift into dragon form, was somehow louder but less painful to be near. It felt like she was being loud to get attention, which was kind of sad. And kind of…precious.

“Louise!” Amvery yelled. “Quit watching me and focus on yourself!”

She had told me that about twelve times.

“Then practice more quietly.” I said. “You grunt like you’re constipated.”

“Maybe I am!” Amvery snapped back in maybe not the best comeback. “Or, no I’m not! Shut up! Have you shifted yet?”

“I think you would have noticed.” I said, leaning on the ropes. “Have you heard the shifts in person? They make a sound like a thunderclap.”

“In the game it was more like a lightning zap.” Amvery said, grunting as she flopped on her face. “That’s your fault. Stop distracting me.” She grunted as she got up. “I’m gonna shift before you.”

“Is that a bet?” I asked.

Some friendly competition could be good for us. When we played DFA, Amvery and I could motivate each other to do things we probably wouldn’t be able to prior. Like hitting secret moves that aren’t even listed in the move sets, or glitching to the top of the stage in this one level so we could fling each other far down to the ground (for some reason no Proto dragons fly when chucked off of high up places). So we made a bet of 50 DFA bucks for whoever successfully shifted into our dragon form first.

In game, it involved a lot of meter building with attacks, so I went on the assault on the dummy right away, feeling more energy course within me as I chained each attack together. I tried not to look Amvery’s way as much, but even out of the edge of my vision I could see that she was trying a lot harder now. That she was actually able to get moves in. I had to really push if I was going to beat her.

I threw my dummy against the ropes, and booted it in the face when it launched back. A few stomps and submissions followed. I leapt to the corner and slammed down on it. It was then that I felt it. I pictured it like a glass of water filling up where I could just sense that I was ready. An aura of energy coursed around me. I shut my eyes and let it happen just as I saw a similar aura around Amvery.

I always wondered what shapeshifting felt like for Proto dragons. It was one of my favorite parts of the game. I did have a bit of a bias towards shapeshifters, as I was one myself in a way. Going through my own transition as I played the game in my original life made my personal connection to DFA even deeper, as I felt an innate connection to the shapeshifting dragons as I worked to change my own form.

Playing the dragon shift in a game was one thing, but living that transformation was something else. My body felt like it became liquified for a moment, one with my element of water, then rising upward, the world becoming smaller beneath me. I only had the sense to look down and see my incredible clawed hands before the innate need to violently let out my energy burst hit me, and I hit my training dummy with another diving attack. Waves I didn’t know I conjured rained down on the dummy, barraging it as I held it in place, roaring. As my attack finished, the dummy blinked red, indicating that if this was a match, I would have hit enough damage to win.

I rose proudly, looking over at Amvery’s dragon form. Hers was beautiful, her crimson scales shining brilliantly against the spotlights above us. She too had won against her training partner.

Amvery and I locked onto each other. We could only hold the full Proto form for a few moments, but as we shifted back to our base forms, we never diverted our gazes, as we caught our breath in unison.

“I win.” Amvery grinned.

“No you don’t.” I said.

“I so win.”

“We shifted at practically the same second.”

“And I was practically a second earlier.”

“I doubt that.” I said. “Is there security footage we can verify this?”

“’Is there security footage so we can verify’ —you are such a baby. I won.”

We argued over this for what felt like hours but must’ve only been a few minutes. Amvery’s annoyance was just that powerful, as I caved and handed over the DFA bucks.

“Great work back there!” A woman called out behind us.

Amvery scowled. “Oh, great. Louise, mains.”

“Huh?” I asked. A duo approached us. Two main characters that I recognized from the game. Two of my absolute favorites. When I wasn’t playing as my own character, I was usually playing as one of them. Their names were Mikayla Speed and Kylie McCloud, dragons united by a long history of battling for Indicordia. I won’t deny I squealed.

“Oh, wow,” I said. “It’s an honor to meet you.”

“No, the honor’s all ours.” Kylie said. She had short hair and a great number of piercings, including one big one on her blue and yellow tail. “Rookies with this much promise don't come around often.”

This sounded familiar, and I was very excited to hear what came next if this was following career mode.

“I don’t know if you’ve been told, but we’ve been assigned to be your mentors.” Mikayla said. She had long black hair and a yellowish green tail with a rainbow hue on each scale. She was my favorite of the two by a little bit. Always cool and heroic and ready to take a stand against evil forces.

“We don’t need mentors.” Amvery said. “Wait…” She held her head low and started backing away for some reason. Was it because this was familiar dialogue?

“What you need is a hat.” Mikayla said.

“A what now?” I asked.

It took me a second to remember that your mentors give you a random piece of advice when you first meet them. Pushing a hat on the player was one of them. They even had a cap ready. I was a fan of the look I had chosen, and a baseball cap would ruin that, even if it was being offered to me by two of my favorites.

“Um…I’ll think about it.” I said.

“No on the hat for me.” Amvery said. “Is that all then?”

“Just one more thing,” Kylie said. “To let you both know that we prefer the more hands-on approach.”

“Neato.” Amvery said. “What does that mean?”

“It means that you two will be facing us next week.” Mikayla said.

“What, like me against one of you and Louise against the other?” Amvery asked.

“Like both of you teaming up against us.”

“Teaming up…” Amvery squinted. “As in…” She slowly turned her head to me. “Teaming. With Louise?”

“Yep.” Kylie said. “It’s on the schedule.”

Amvery looked like she’d seen a ghost and took off. I followed her, knowing from the layout of the DFA arena that she was headed to the big wall where the schedules for fights were broadcasted on a big screen. Lots of other new fighters were there already, and Amvery pushed through them.

“I cannot get that storyline,” Amvery muttered. “I am absolutely not doing the oddball partners thing. Please don’t be the oddball partners thing.”

She froze when she saw our names on the board.

* * *

“What did I do to end up with the freaking stupid boring oddball partners who don’t get along storyline?” Amvery asked. “And with you of all people?”

Amvery was, as usual during our first week at DFA, whining. We ended up in my room so she could, in her words, “Have a tantrum without anyone seeing.” She paced around in front of me as I sat on the default starter couch.

“This couch sure is lumpy.” I said. I was more miffed I was out 50 DFA bucks and that it would now take me longer to save up for better furniture.

“Wow, terrific listening, Louise. No wonder you’re so popular.”

“You didn’t have to come here to have your baby moment.” I said. “I’d prefer if you leave, I’d like to get caught up on my studies.”

“What’s there to study? We have all this memorized.” Amvery said. “I either have to talk here or in my room, and I don’t want you in my room. Aren’t you pissed you have to team up with me? That we’re stuck with one of the worst storyline in DFA from the gate?”

“I think the manager B route is worse.”

“Yeah, but that one has that shower scene,” Amvery said. “I doubt you and I would have a shower scene as good as that.”

“We could try.” I said. I wasn’t thinking when I said it, just jabbing back at something. Amvery flinched and started babbling angrily at me, and it hit me what I’d actually just said. “I was just kidding!” I exclaimed, trying to claw it back. That was a lie. And very unlike me. Usually she was the one to throw out a flirty line to get me off my game. But I wasn’t intending mine to be flirty. I don’t know what I was intending. So I babbled back at her and we argued for a while.

“So this isn’t gonna work,” Amvery said. “I should go see if we can get it canceled.”

“And just how are you going to do that?” I asked. “We can’t exactly start a new save file here.”

“I could request a trade with the managers,” Amvery said. “That would get me away from you.”

My stomach dropped unexpectedly at that. Amvery going to Crimsalia would basically mean I never saw her outside of the big events. With her being a rival and all, that could be a good thing. But for reasons I couldn’t articulate, I didn’t want that.