Zora sheepishly woke to the sound of yelling and furniture crashing outside her room.
They'll stop, she thought, rolling over and burying her face in the pillow. *Five more minutes.*
BOOM.
Tori came flying through the door, slamming down on top of Zora with an explosive oof.
"Ugh—get off me—!"
Tori teleported away in a blink, just as Lena's voice echoed down the hallway:
"Yeah, hard to zip around when you're dizzy, huh, bitch?!"
Zora sat straight up, groggy fury building. Her door was in pieces, wooden shards scattered everywhere. Her stars hovered nervously around the mess.
"Spark… come here."
The little star zipped into her chest without a word, sensing the edge in her tone.
Zora climbed out of bed, her bare feet crunching bits of wood. Another crash shook the hallway.
"Yeah, stand the fuck up!" Tori's voice rang out, now further down the hall.
Zora moved to her shattered doorway and peeked down the corridor. Tori was literally bouncing off the walls. Lena stood in the center of the chaos, clearly provoking her.
Across the hall, a door creaked open. Ivory poked her head out, hair a mess.
"Please stop them. I just need five more minutes." She shut the door again without another word.
Zora rolled her eyes.
She stepped into the hallway, raised a hand, and clenched it into a fist.
Gravity surged.
THUD.
Tori slammed into the ground like a meteor.
Lena dropped to her knees, trembling as she tried to resist the weight—until she collapsed forward, cracking the edge of the table with her face.
"I give! I give!" Tori screamed, flattened against the floor.
"Me too!" Lena groaned.
Zora eased the gravity down to a more manageable two times normal weight. The girls groaned as they lifted their heads, wheezing.
Zora sighed and rubbed her temples.
Zora folded her arms, her eyes narrowing as she turned to Lena.
"What happened?"
Lena groaned, still brushing herself off. She raised a shaky hand and pointed at Tori. "I don't like that b—"
"I don't care," Zora cut her off flatly, releasing the gravity field. The weight around them vanished.
Tori and Lena both staggered upright, locking eyes with one another again like they hadn't learned a thing.
Zora sighed. "Fine. You want to fight someone? Then fight me."
Tori's hands immediately shot to her nose.
Lena's eyes went wide.
Both of them snapped their gazes to Zora, all fight draining from their bodies.
Zora turned and headed toward her room. "Let me just get dressed…"
Behind her, she heard the simultaneous surrender of raised hands.
"There's no getting out of this!" she called back over her shoulder.
With a casual wave of her hand, she repaired the damage to her room. Splinters and debris evaporated into smoke, her door reforming itself as if nothing had happened.
Zora grabbed her pants and shirt off the floor and tossed her oversized sleep shirt aside. After lacing up her boots, she stepped back into the hallway.
She imagined an arena set high in the mountains, surrounded by towering cliffs and echoing silence. With another wave, the ceiling above them vanished into a crisp blue sky. The walls expanded outward as the team's rooms stretched and peeled back, revealing the vast new space.
WHUMP.
Two bodies hit the rocky ground.
"What the hell, Zora?!" Ivory sat up with a groan, brushing gravel from her hair. "I asked for FIVE more minutes. Just FIVE—!"
Zora's eyebrow twitched. "Fine. You want to give attitude this morning too? Get dressed. You've got two minutes."
Confusion crossed Ivory's face. Her eyes darted to Lena and Tori, who were now standing like death-row inmates awaiting sentencing.
Understanding dawned.
"I-I'm sorry—"
"One minute," Zora said coolly.
Ivory scrambled to her feet. "Can I at least get a wall?! Or—something!?"
Zora ignored her, glancing at Paul, who was still lying flat on his back, snoring away.
*At least he's not causing trouble,* she thought, turning away.
She stepped into the center of the new arena. Gravel crunched under her boots as Tori and Lena followed in tense silence.
Zora raised her arms over her head and stretched with a long groan.
"Ahhh... so, who wants to go first?" she said, turning to the three girls behind her.
Silence.
Only the sound of footsteps broke it—Ivory quietly stepping into line beside Tori and Lena.
Zora scanned their faces.
"No one?" she asked, eyebrow raised.
All three avoided her gaze like guilty schoolchildren. Heads down. No eye contact.
"Hmmmmm..." Zora mused aloud.
She strolled up to Lena.
"So tell me, Lena. What exactly happened this morning?"
Lena sniffled, hugging herself.
"W-Well... she made fun of me f-for singing—" A tear escaped down her cheek. "I wasn't even being loud…"
"I see, I see," Zora said with a false sweetness, cutting her off with a pat on the head before pivoting toward Tori.
"Tori-i-i," she sang, walking toward her like a lion circling prey. Tori took an instinctive step back.
"This isn't a year ago. You don't get to bully people just 'cause you're bored."
Tori rapidly nodded, eyes wide.
Zora turned toward Ivory.
"And you—dear Ivory," she said with mock disappointment, "you gave me attitude... that's all."
Ivory looked ready to melt into the ground.
Zora strode into the center of the arena and faced them all.
"Well. Since we're playing 'who wants to get humbled today,' let's make it interesting."
"Nexus, please come down here and show yourself" she called.
A trail of light streaked from above as Nexus zipped down, spinning theatrically in front of the group.
"Would you do the honors?" Zora asked sweetly.
Nexus's light blinked like a strobe.
"Ohoho... I wouldn't want to impose," she said dramatically. "Such a difficult choice!"
She spun toward Tori with a gleeful hum.
"Whoever shall I pick...?" she sang, zipping circles around Tori.