Tournament of Heroes

6. WINTER

Winter stepped into the cafeteria, his eyes scanning all of the tables set up for the Tournament competitors. Everywhere he looked, he saw competitors from every Team having lunch. Over in the table at the far right corner, Rubberman and the Necromantress were eating spaghetti together while arguing about something he couldn’t hear. Closer to the center was Tsunami, eating a large steak and lobster all by himself, while Lethal Injection, sitting a couple of tables down, was scarfing down hot dog after hot dog. Bug Bite sat over on one of the common areas’ sofas, sipping coffee while reading what looked like a newspaper called The Daily Dimension, of all things, while Blizzard and Beams were playing some kind of video game on the commons’ big flat-screen TV. Not every single competitor from every Team was present, but nearly everyone was.

Everyone, that is, except for the one guy I am looking for, Winter thought, his hands balling into fists.

“Whatcha doing, boss?” said Cyclone, appearing next to Winter all of a sudden, l*****g a huge chocolate ice cream cone that looked like it was about to fall out of the cone any minute now. “Aside from just looking cool and trying to creep everyone out by staring at them intently?”

Winter, who was used to Cyclone’s sudden appearances by now, spared his Sidekick one glance before returning his attention to the commons. “I’m looking for Atmosfear. And Giggles. But mostly Atmosfear. Where is he? Did he go back to our Team room already?”

Winter’s eyes fell on the four doors on the other side of the commons. In particular, his eyes focused on the room with the label ‘TEAM WINTER’ on its door in golden lettering, which signified that that was the room where Winter and his Teammates slept in between matches during the Tournament.

“No, I don’t think so,” said Cyclone in between licks of his ice cream cone. “I was just in there rearranging my bottle cap collection and didn’t see anyone.”

Winter’s eyes shifted over to Cyclone. “Since when do you collect bottle caps?”

“Since I learned how amazing they are,” said Cyclone. “Did you know that there are approximately one point five billion different bottle caps across the multiverse? And that more come into existence all the time thanks to the nature of the multiverse? Makes it really hard to collect ‘em all, but apparently, interdimensional bottle cap collecting is a big deal.”

“I’m kind of afraid to ask where you learned that interdimensional bottle cap collecting even exists,” said Winter. He sighed. “But I will anyway, seeing as you are going to tell me what it is regardless.”

“That’s the spirit, boss!” said Cyclone with a smile. “I learned about it from an interdimensional bottle cap collector in Nexus City yesterday! I was walking down the marketplace, looking at all of the cool things they have on sale when I saw this guy selling bottle caps. He told me all about it and even sold me a starter pack of bottle caps to get my collection started. He totally sold me on it.”

Winter raised an eyebrow. “You can buy bottle cap starter packs?”

“Sure!” said Cyclone. He licked his ice cream again. “So I’ve decided to work on my collection while I’m here in the Nexus. There’s even an Interdimensional Bottle Cap Collectors’ Society in Nexus City. They meet on the first Tuesday of every month at the Square and give a ten percent membership discount to members who bring in new members.”

Winter frowned. “Are you trying to sell me on joining your interdimensional bottle cap collecting club?”

“No, of course not, boss,” said Cyclone. “I mean, I think you would really enjoy it and I would really like that ten percent discount, but it’s totally your choice. Here’s a flyer, by the way.”

Cyclone pulled out a flyer from nowhere and handed it to Winter, who took it in confusion. The flyer showed what looked like a generic bottle cap floating in a dimensional portal, with the words ‘INTERDIMENSIONAL BOTTLE CAP COLLECTORS’ SOCIETY’ written above it in bold, yet hard to read letters. Flipping it open, Winter saw images of members from the Society, including a rather ugly frog-looking guy. Though they were of a variety of different species, they all wore the same ugly red sweater with bottle cap nametags over their hearts. The image was captioned ‘CURRENT MEMBERSHIP AS OF THIS YEAR,’ with a slightly smaller caption adding, ‘THIS COULD BE YOU.’

“Why is it in English?” said Winter, looking up at Cyclone. “I thought they spoke and wrote in another language around here.”

“They are interdimensional, after all,” said Cyclone. “According to the guy I spoke to, they have flyers in thirty-five billion different languages from across the multiverse.”

“Thirty-five billion—?” Winter shook his head and thrust the flyer back into Cyclone’s hands. “Never mind that. I’m not interested in bottle cap collecting or joining a society where that is the main focus. I’m looking for Atmosfear.”

Taking the flyer back, Cyclone looked at Winter curiously. “Why are you looking for Atmosfear, anyway? Are you gonna congratulate him on our win in the last match? ‘Cause I dunno, I wouldn’t congratulate him since he didn’t really contribute that much, but I know you’re more of a Team player than I am and—”

“I don’t want to congratulate him,” said Winter. His eyes scanned the cafeteria again, but he still didn’t see Atmosfear. “I want to talk to him about his tactics in the last match.”

Winter kept his words vague because Blizzard, Bolt’s girlfriend, was still within hearing distance of him and the matter that he wanted to talk about directly involved her.

Before Bolt and Trickshot ran off to Nexus City, Bolt had told Winter that Atmosfear was the thief who had stolen his engagement ring from the Clock Keeper. Atmosfear had then used the ring to try to blackmail Bolt into throwing the match for Team Winter, a plot which Winter foiled without even knowing it.

Winter could not say he was surprised to hear that. There was a reason Atmosfear had the Villain Alignment and it wasn’t because he kicked puppies or stole candy from babies. It was because he was a cruel, manipulative, and all-around evil man who was willing to do whatever it took to win. Nor was Winter surprised that Atmosfear had not mentioned that fact to him beforehand. Atmosfear likely knew how Winter would have responded if he had told Winter his plans for the third match.

Bet that’s why he’s missing, Winter thought. Probably trying to avoid me until curfew. Too bad for him that I’m willing to stay up all night to confront him about this if necessary.

Still, Winter did not relish staying up past midnight just to confront Atmosfear about his tactics. The sooner he could confront Atmosfear—and, more importantly, retrieve Bolt’s engagement ring—the sooner he could get to bed on time and get a good night’s sleep. Though the Nexus was not in Capes Online, Winter found that he still suffered debuffs if he risked staying up too late and didn’t get enough sleep every night.

“Well, I don’t see Atmosfear anywhere in here,” said Cyclone, looking at the cafeteria as well. He licked his ice cream cone. “He could be anywhere. Maybe he decided to explore Nexus City a little. I’m sure there’s, like, a little old lady whose purse he really wanted to snatch or something like that.”

Winter shook his head. “No. Atmosfear wouldn’t go near Nexus City. Bolt is there, for one, and if people found out that he was the thief, then he might be arrested. No, I suspect Atmosfear is likely hiding somewhere within the Universal Castle itself.”

Winter turned around to look at the hallway extending behind him. The hallway extended for a long way forward until it curved sharply off to the left out of sight.

“That makes sense,” said Cyclone. He looked at Winter. “Are we gonna explore the Universal Castle, then?”

Winter sighed. “I suppose, but I’d really rather not. This place can be confusing.”

Winter didn’t say that merely because the Universal Castle was huge and he was unfamiliar with it. He was thinking about the fact Aeno could alter the Castle’s layout whenever he wanted. He was worried about possibly getting lost in the twisting hallways of the Universal Castle and being late for tomorrow’s match.

Still, Winter needed to find Atmosfear and couldn’t put off searching for him forever. It was either now or wait in his room until midnight, and because Winter was not a night person, he decided it was now.

“Come on,” said Winter, gesturing at Cyclone. “Let’s do a little exploration of our own and see if we can find Atmosfear.”

“Sounds good, boss,” said Cyclone, giving Winter a thumbs up. “Lead the way and I shall faithfully follow, as always.”

-

As Winter expected, exploring the Castle was not quite as easy as it sounded. Without any clues to Atmosfear’s location, Winter was forced to pick hallways at random, sometimes going left, sometimes going right. It didn’t help that all of the hallways were starting to look the same to him. Even the suits of armor looked the same, which was impressive given the sheer variety of suits of armor that stood at attention along the hallway walls.

He and Cyclone also peeked into each room they passed on both sides of the hallway or at least the ones that weren’t locked. But no luck. They did not see Atmosfear or Giggles in any of the rooms along each hallway, either.

As a result, it didn’t take long for Winter to start to feel discouraged. Neither he nor Cyclone had seen any hint of Atmosfear. And even worse, he was starting to forget which was the way back to the commons. He wished he had a map of the Universal Castle, though knowing the way the Universal Castle regularly changed its layout, a map probably would have been useless anyway.

Even the normally chipper Cyclone was starting to seem discouraged. As Winter peeked into one last room, Cyclone said, “Boss, do you think maybe we should head back to the commons? ‘Cause we’ve searched, like, a hundred rooms by now and haven’t found any sign of Atmosfear or Giggles.”

Winter sighed. The room he looked into now was mostly empty aside from a desk covered in a white shroud and a few chairs and empty bookshelves. Pulling his head out of the room and closing the door behind him, Winter looked at Cyclone. “I know how you feel, Cy, but this is important. If we don’t find Atmosfear now, we’ll never get to confront him about the ring.”

Cyclone’s shoulders slumped. “I guess you’re right, but I’m still getting bored. Also worried about us being late.”

“Don’t worry,” said Winter with a wave of his hands. “We haven’t been out here for maybe half an hour if that. Still have plenty of time to get back to our room before curfew. I promise.”

Then Winter gestured down the hallway. “Anyway, we’ve searched every room in here, so I say we keep going—”

Winter was interrupted by the sound of metal scraping against metal. The sound came from up ahead, just around the corner leading to the next hallway, though Winter could not see the source of the sound.

“Did you hear that?” Winter whispered to Cyclone. “Metal scraping against metal?”

“I did,” said Cyclone in an equally low whisper. “Do you think it’s Atmosfear?”

Winter’s hands balled into fists. “Only one way to find out. Let’s check it out.”

Winter and Cyclone walked down the rest of the hallway’s length. Turning the corner, Winter was surprised by what he saw.

Rather than connecting to another hallway, like Winter expected, this hallway opened up into a wide stone staircase that seemed to connect the first floor with the second. The staircase—which was easily wide enough for all four members of Team Winter to walk up side by side, with plenty of room to spare—stopped at the foot of a stained glass portrait of a smiling elderly man who reminded Winter of a thin Santa Claus with dragon wings. The stairs then split, heading up to two separate wings of the Castle on the second floor.

On all sides of the room stood more suits of armor. They stood in one-foot intervals, each one looking like a guard standing at attention. Once again, Winter was heavily reminded of the Protectors from the Ninja Guild HQ back in Capes Online, even though the suits of armor looked nothing like the Protectors aside from being made of metal and wielding bladed weapons.

“Oh my gosh,” said Cyclone, putting his hands on his cheeks. “Look, stairs!”

“Yes, I see that, Cy,” said Winter. “Very perceptive of you.”

“Nah, it actually isn’t,” said Cyclone in complete sincerity. “Otherwise my Perception would have leveled up. I just think stairs are cool.”

Rubbing his forehead in exasperation, Winter decided not to say anything about that. Instead he said, “I think the stairs are less interesting than the stained glass figure. Who is that, do you think?”

“Dunno, boss,” said Cyclone as he picked his nose. “I just wish I hadn’t eaten my ice cream cone so quickly. I’m hungry again. Can we go back to the cafeteria?”

“Only after we check out this staircase,” said Winter. “There’s a good chance that Atmosfear and Giggles went up this staircase, which means they are probably on the Castle’s second floor.”

“The Castle has a second floor?” said Cyclone in surprise. “That’s amazing. I thought it only had one floor.”

“Sigil mentioned it had multiple floors when we first got here,” said Winter, looking at Cyclone questioningly. “Weren’t you paying attention?”

“Yep,” said Cyclone. “It’s just that when he said floors, I thought he was talking about, like, the actual floor we’re standing on. Like the Castle has multiple literal floors.”

Although Winter was used to Cyclone’s non-sequiturs by now, that one floored even him. He was so taken aback by Cyclone’s bizarre interpretation of Sigil’s earlier speech that he found himself utterly speechless.

Then he shook his head and said, “You know what? Never mind. Let’s just go up the stairs and see if we can find Atmosfear and Giggles.”

Winter and Cyclone walked across the open Mr. Space between the hallway and the stairs. Winter felt n***d for some reason. Perhaps it was simply that they were walking in a fairly open Mr. Space with all of the suits of armor glaring at them like they had done something wrong.

Cut it out, Nyle, Winter told himself. You’re worrying about nothing. You and Cyclone will be able to walk up the stairs and everything will be fine.

Winter then put one foot on the bottom step of the stairs … and a large sword came flying at his head.

“Boss, watch out!” said Cyclone, tackling Winter to the ground right before the sword cut his head off.

Hitting the floor, Winter looked up to see that the two suits of armor standing on either side of the stairs had come to life. The European knight raised its sword and shield, its eyes glowing a dangerous blue, while the samurai armor drew its katana and held the weapon before it like it was getting ready for a charge.

“What the—?” said Winter as he and Cyclone scrambled to their feet. “Why did they come to life?”

“I don’t know,” said Cyclone, “but they’re not the only ones looking like they want to kill us.”

Cyclone was right. All along the walls, the various suits of armor that Aeno had collected over the years stepped off their plinths. They wielded a variety of weapons, ranging from simple daggers to sharp swords to deadly-looking axes. The armor themselves ranged in size and appearance, with some looking almost human and others looking like the sort of armor worn by giant grasshoppers.

But they all had one thing in common:

They had Winter and Cyclone completely surrounded, with no way to escape, either forward or backward.

Which meant that they would have to fight for their lives against an enemy that they couldn’t kill.