Chaos Simulation

Micu clenched his body and closed his eyes tightly. He didn't want to watch Ralnas explode. A shaky voice from Ralnas asked, "You kissed?" Micu opened an eye slightly, his curiosity getting the best of him. Jenira nodded, "Yeah." Ralnas leaned against the wall as if he had just heard someone died. "You liked it?" Jenira laughed softly, "yes but that's a weird thing to ask your sister." Ralnas just stood there dazed as the chef robot easily picked up his now unattended duties. Ralnas looked at Jayce, "this is what you want too?" Jayce nodded slowly. "My life has been a little crazy lately but this felt completely right."

Micu started to relax his body but his mind was even more jumbled. He had expected Ralnas to explode and lash out at both Jenira and Jayce but he seemed to be handling it fairly well. "You're both happy?" Ralnas asked finally. Jayce stepped closer to Jenira and extended a hand to Ralnas at the same time. "Ralnas you're my best friend I promise this won't change anything." Ralnas looked down at his hand and then back up to Jayce. "You know that's a lie. This is definitely going to change things." Jayce started to lower his hand as Ralnas spoke. Quickly Ralnas grasped it though and squeezed tightly, "but things are already pretty crazy. Let's just add this to the list." A huge smile of relief filled Jayce's face and he hugged his friend tightly.

Jenira was crying and quickly wrapped both of them in a hug. Micu stared at them dumbly. "That is not how I expected that to go..." he said as he watched his friends embrace. All three of them laughed and Ralnas looked from Jayce to Jenira and then to Micu. "Honestly things have been so crazy lately I don't think I can even get half as worked up about this as I used to." He then stepped back into the kitchen, "and he saved her life so that has to count for something." Micu considered this and then nodded. He checked his watch and noticed that it had still recorded them talking. He quickly deleted the video and returned his focus to the TV. Ralnas called out, "it is going to be super weird seeing you two actually act like a couple though." "I 100 percent agree with that," Micu replied.

Jayce sat down next to Micu and leaned against him, "I can act coupley with you if you want?" Micu put his arm around Jayce and winked at Jenira, "just stole your boy. Sorry, not sorry." Jenira rolled her eyes and sat down beside Jayce. "What team were we supposed to visit today?" Jayce asked still leaning on Micu. Ralnas and Micu answered at the same time, "Team Chief!" Jayce sat up with his palms extended upwards, "sorry sorry I didn't realize asking simple questions was such an annoying thing to do." Micu started laughing, "Ralnas is just salty because that's the second time someone has asked that before he's finished breakfast."

Jayce rested his head on the back of the couch. "So what should we do instead?" The two friends beside him offered no ideas and the three sat there blankly as Micu continued to flip through channels. Ralnas shouted from the kitchen, "breakfast is served!" The chef robot quickly set the table for the four of them and they sat hungrily as Ralnas brought plate after plate of delicious looking food. "What is all this stuff Ral?" Jayce looked at each plate with longingly. Ralnas did an extravagant twirl with his wrist and began to point at the first dish. "First up we have my world famous pancakes, some are burned deal with it." He then looked back at the chef robot who was quietly cleaning up their mess. "I actually don't know the names of anything else."

His three friends almost fell out of their seats from laughing as Ralnas brought the chef robot over to introduce the dishes. "Young masters! This chef is humbled to be able to serve you today. Besides the incredible pancakes master Ralnas has expertly prepared for you," Ralnas puffed out his c.h.e.s.t slightly at this compliment, "I have prepared four other dishes for you. To my left is a rare kind of meat from the Yuhru zone. It is a bat-like creature but has eight wings to support its rather heavy body. Their meat is considered high in proteins that help repair damaged muscles." Jayce looked at the thin sausage rolls of the bat meat. He licked his lips as he waited for the chef to finish talking.

"To my right is a local dish, some records indicate that it was the first cross race dish created. It is a mix of a variety of plants that when steamed together turn a lovely maroon shade. Master Ionas often eats it for breakfast." The chef then picked up the largest plate in the middle of the table and theatrically displayed it to the four. "And this is a secret recipe from Mistress Dalia's family. It was once called paella and was a common dish on Earth. I don't have access to all the same ingredients it originally called for so I have slightly modified it to be a breakfast dish." The chef bowed to applause from the humans and rolled back into the kitchen to continue cleaning.

Jayce quickly began serving himself before handing the plates to his left. The four ate and laughed as they teased Jenira and Jayce about their new relationship. Though Ralnas had worried that he had made too much after forty minutes every plate was empty except for crumbs. Ralnas picked up the plates and laughed as Jenira began teasing Micu about calling Isabel and having a double date. Micu was bright red and trying to brush her off as quickly as he could. Jayce leaned back in his chair and smiled at their interesting little group. "We're all pretty weird honestly," he said without thinking and the other three looked at him and nodded with wide smiles.

Ralnas finished clearing the table and sat back down. "So what should we do today?" Micu adjusted his glasses, "I actually had an idea for that." The three turned to look at him. "Ralnas you know more about the elite teams than some reporters do. Why don't you give us a presentation on team Chief?" Ralnas considered it for a second before making a "why not" look on his face and standing up. "I'll need to do some research give me like....two hours?"

The three others nodded and he scampered upstairs to prepare his presentation. "I think you just made his day," Jenira said to Micu. "It was the least we could do after he didn't strangle Jayce with his b.a.r.e hands." The three laughed and dispersed to waste time until Ralnas was ready.

...

Anna stumbled into the center of major hub one and looked up in wonder at the buildings that extended far past the clouds. She started heading towards the Royal Coliseum as she did her best not to stand out in the crowd. As the crowd dispersed she gasped. Before her was a large group of people wearing the same clothes as she was. The team Pure symbols had been crossed through with thick black lines. Anna started walking towards the group and spotted a familiar face. Arik was sitting on a bench staring off into the distance.

"Arik?" He looked up surprised to hear his name and smiled at Anna. "You wanted to talk to him too?" She nodded and joined him on the bench. "How long have you been here?" He scratched his neck before answering. "I just got here like an hour or so ago. But this group was already pretty big by then. It just keeps getting bigger too." Anna gazed around then and lost count of the number of people huddled around the small grove just outside the Royal Coliseum.

"It's mostly humans here..." she said as she looked through the crowd. Arik nodded, "yeah turns out team Pure liked recruiting humans. Who knew?" He shrugged as he watched another group of white-clothed individuals join their mob. Anna bit her lip, "think we're going to see him tomorrow?" Arik sighed, "probably not? I mean he's been pretty good at hiding the fact that he's got two gods watching over him for 16 years. I doubt he'd get caught by us so easily." Anna nodded at his words and settled into the bench. "I guess we might be here for a while then." Arik paused before saying anything, "Hey Anna can you call me by my real name?" Anna looked at him with a surprised expression.

"I only got my angel name a few weeks ago and it feels wrong to use it now. My real name is John but I go by Johny." Anna smiled and extended a hand, "pleased to meet you, Johny." A relieved expression mellowed his tense face and he shook her hand, "the p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e is all mine."

...

Ralnas had set up the living room to look like a classroom with the couch serving as the only seats. He had found one of Ionas' old lab coats and was walking around the living room pretending to be Chiron. His three friends were stifling laughter as he mimicked Chiron's mannerisms perfectly for a few more minutes before he looked up at Jayce. "Mr. Good please don't leave class today. I know I was 14 minutes late but you must remain in class." Jayce hung his head, "Sorry Mr. Marrow it won't happen again." Ralnas resisted the urge to smile and turned around to hide his breaking exterior of seriousness.

"Now class we're going to begin...my class. Intro to Elite teams 101 is now in session." Micu raised a hand, "if you have intro in the class name you don't need to add 101 to the end." Ralnas scowled, "It's my class I get to name it what I want." Micu shrugged, "I guess that's fair." Ralnas coughed and returned to his professor character. "Today's subject is team Chief. Please take out your notebooks and prepare for the best lecture of your life."

He looked at his three friends who were all smiling widely. "This is serious class!" He slapped the wall and started laughing as he did so. Quickly regaining composure he cleared his throat. "Team Chief is the largest team in the elite competition by thousands of members. It is also the hardest team to actually get famous in." He turned a slide to the symbol of team Chief. An animated leaf wielding a knife and a gun filled the screen. "They were originally associated with plant type races but have opened up their ranks to anyone who wants to join in the decades since their founding. The only thing they changed was giving the little leaf guy weapons."

He scrolled to the next slide. A group of Chief members were in an action pose surrounded by a jungle landscape. "Chief is famous for their favorite tactic. Overwhelming numbers. Every time they get to pick the competition they pick one that favors horde tactics." Ralnas took a sip of water and looked at his friends, "How am I doing?" Three cries of encouragement answered his question and he gave them a thumbs up before continuing. "If you remember any history from Native American tribes they would sometimes work together as one nation but were always separate tribes. Chief functions in a similar way. You start out at the bottom of the barrel and join a tribe. Each tribe has their own markings and leaders. As you challenge tribe leaders and win you move up in their organization. But uniforms always have to be mostly green. They usually wear camouflaged stuff during actual competitions."

He pulled a new slide across the screen. Four black silhouettes were displayed. "They don't care how well you do in the competition because they think winning against tribe leaders is a bigger deal. They have one team leader and he can get challenged once a year by anyone. The current leader is Baneberry. He's been their leader for six years and he's slowly moving the team into using more advanced tactics but it's been a slow process." His silhouette was illuminated and a barky face stared back at them. "He usually likes to lead from the front which doesn't help his tactically inept tribe leaders much." Ralnas shrugged and Micu raised a hand. "Professor Marrow, what type of competitions do they focus on?"

Ralnas opened his notes quickly before answering. "These are the three most common game types chosen by Chief. One, castle defense with them being the ones who are assaulting the castle. They have won 76% of these type of matches. Two, they like open plain battles and have won 68% of these type of games. Three, they will pick game types that are on small maps and simply overwhelm the other team regardless of objective. I couldn't find any good stats for this but they do this against teams that are about equal or below them in talent."

Micu nodded and actually took some notes. Jayce raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Ralnas was already beginning his next speech. "There are three-nation bosses who are in charge of the tribe bosses. It's a pretty confusing leadership model but I guess it works. Anyway, the longest-serving nation boss is Jack-in-the-Pulpit." His silhouette colored in and a green-skinned alien with three eyes and a blooming flower around his neck appeared. "He might look like a flower but I swear this dude is crazy good. When he came out of the capability exam three years ago everyone wanted him. Kind of like Jayce." Ralnas rubbed his chin and examined Jack-in-the-Pulpit. "He added the flower look through a surgery after joining Chief. Most people agree he's slightly unhinged but definitely fun to fight with."

Jayce raised his hand, "Do they have any rivals?" Ralnas scowled, "I'm getting there!" Jayce rolled his eyes and leaned back in the couch. "Now I understand why Chiron hated you so much." Jenira and Micu burst out laughing and Ralnas smirked at his friend. Jayce nodded with annoyance, "School was never my best environment." "That's for sure," Ralnas snarkily replied.