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Interlude 5

Beta-Reader: Ant0nius

Pulsar woke up from his bed with a mission in mind.

This mission was the same as the previous days ever since he joined this group of strong warriors trying to do the right thing. Day in and day out; all that was done was Train, Train, Train. Maybe also beat the Fire Crest at some of the exercises, get some advice from Theo and ultimately get better at what he knows how to do best.

That was a simple plan to follow and a flawless one too. A grin plastered on his face, the Hamster Prime bolted from his room and rushed to get some breakfast so he could shift his attention right at his main priority. Humming and eagerly awaiting to face his rivals in a fight, Pulsar was caught off-guard when he spotted a scene most confusing. As he moved to reach the table so he could happily get to his meal which was ready for him to enjoy, he paused the moment he noticed that everyone there had already eaten their breakfast and… were talking about boards and pawns?

His frown deepened as he began looking at each of the crew members one at the time. First was Theo, the human quietly explaining to Grace how to operate what looked to be a board with unusual pieces. One side was black, the other white, but the pieces on each side were similar to one another. His gaze quickly moved to Carmesi, the Fox Prime having her head in her hands as she failed to compute her clear defeat before a giddy-looking Adela that was happily scoring a win against the Fire Crest.

Pulsar wasn’t sure what was going on- heck, he was incredibly bamboozled by the fact the four were lost in what looked to be a fun but complicated game and, while he was unsure how it was supposed to work, he couldn’t help but feel that the four felt incredibly… invested into it. Especially when he saw a begrudging Carmesi leaned in to land a tiny peck on the young queen’s cheek. His jaws dropped, his blue eyes widened and…

I want to play as well!

Just as he mentioned this, his attention was taken away by a nearby giggle. The Ice Crest turned to the origin of it and saw Archie waving, with a board with pieces already set on the table right beside his meal.

“Wanna learn how to play chess?”

The young man sure wanted to. While at first he was driven just by a sense of curiosity, soon he began picking up a genuine interest into the mind-based game. It definitely was a different taste he was trying when it came to challenges, but it wasn’t that boring as he expected it to be from the rules. There was a sense of… amusement in going through multiple matches, despite the fact he was being annihilated by the giddy Spirit. Archie was quick to mention that this game was quite unforgiving without several defeats, and he could see why. With each defeat, he slowly understood how one small mistake could lead to a serious loss. Pulsar had never thought much of strategy, mostly because he never had a reason to study it as an essential topic. But since he was meant to be one of those individuals that were going to be leading the forces of ‘good’ against the Empire, it was easy for him to understand that a form of military mind had to be developed.

Fighting was nice, but losing people because he was caught unaware in that duty felt… incredibly bitter. And it didn’t help that he sucked at something that Archie had defined as a ‘simplistic view to a war’. Which is why Theo thought that them learning more about chess was actually a priority. If they were at least decent in ordering well-enough the pieces to a decent win or defeat, then that meant they would have the basic knowledge of leading an army. There was much more to learn to properly be a leader, but chess was the starting ground and Pulsar took his time to learn its rules and the various hidden laws within the game.

The various kinds of pieces were meant to represent different task forces with specific specializations which were meant to be exploited in the best and most accurate way to not lose neither the pieces themselves nor the ‘war’. He was so focused into understanding what moves he had to take to lessen the losses to a minimum, that he failed to realize that with each try, Archie was actually taking more time to beat him. The cheeky smile on the short spirit soon vanished as he found even more trouble against Pulsar.

The Ice Crest’s attention had become fully devoted to the game, to a point where he was drawn more and more into the bizarre sense of amusement he felt with the feeling of getting closer to success. A grin worked its way to his face, and soon Archie was absolutely stumped by what was unfolding before him. Beyond that struggle… a pause, a tiny break from the real action as Pulsar silently retreated his right hand away. He stared up at the Nanozell Spirit, the floating being giving him a surprised look before turning to gaze down at the board.

In a twist of events well-beyond his understanding, Archie couldn’t help but see that this was his loss. Pulsar’s grueling path to glory had gone for a full hour, and, much to the spirit’s surprise, right now he wasn’t able to move his King away without getting cornered. As much as he tried to, the board was stacked against him.

“This sucks...”

“Aha! I got you!” The Hamster Prime eagerly exclaimed, making Archie groan even further at the unexpected development. And soon the two realized that their latest game had gained the attention of the rest of the crew.

“H-How is he doing that?!” Carmesi whispered furiously, her eyes wide open in utter shock at the sight. “He tripped on himself twice while practicing the same standard kick. How is he doing this?!”

“He is not flexing, and he looks quite focused on the situation,” Theo muttered with a nod, surprised himself at the sight. “As absurd as it might sound, I believe he is a fast learner when it came to this kind of game.”

“Poor Archie, he should have expected that he was playing with… fire, hehe,” Grace commented mirthfully.

Finally, Adela stared at the scene with a frown. “To think he was hiding this much cleverness.”

“Street smarts aren't exactly easy to find under normal circumstances. Plus… he really seems rather taken by chess.”

The Ice Crest could only grin at the shower of compliments as he really had gone out of his way to achieve this win. No hesitation, nothing too flashy, just him being… AWESOME!

And just as he gleefully accepted the praises, his attention was soon taken away by a new individual he had never seen until that moment.

“That was quite an impressive move from your part, Pulsar,” A familiar voice called, yet Pulsar himself was confused.

“Uh? Who is- woah!”

His jaws dropped as, right to their left side, a gorgeous spirit stood while giving him the kindest of smile. A mere glance and he felt his heart burning in surprise and… it was like when he had the chance of first seeing a hot woman. He was blushing a tiny bit at her beauty, so much that he was stunned into silence because of it.

The spirit giggled. “Apologies, I didn’t mean to interrupt the scene.”

“I don’t believe you created any trouble, Apogeo,” Theo warmly greeted. “Would you like a coffee?”

The floating woman nodded, her smile widening at the lovely offer. “I would be most happy if I had a warm cup.”

The Ice Crest stared and stared, only for his face to be assaulted by an annoyed Archie.

“Stop ogling. That’s my mom!”

His jaws dropped at the accusation, and he spluttered apologies out of mere instinct, both dummies unaware of the amusement this exchange was giving to the rest of the people nearby. An amusing sight that lifted Apogeo’s hopes up.

_ Especially now that their first real fight was soon going to see them give their all to win through the clutches of the Empire. _

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AN

Next time… a serious space battle! And things get really tough for our heroes!