Amber (Chapters 1-2)

Chapter 1

Amber readjusted the fingerless black gloves on her hands while waiting for the tournament to begin. It was always her least favorite bit of the game. She wanted to be out on the archer pillars shooting enemies with her favorite multishot enchanted crossbow. Not sitting around with her teammates waiting for the other teams to show up. She looked around at the four other people and the brown woods wolf which made up her team, The Bladers.

Finn, the team’s (self-appointed) second leader and primary aerial vanguard, stood out in his purplish-blue Zanite armor. He was rarely seen without his glider harness, which allowed him to soar out of danger, or his signature Zanite sword that hummed with red electricity. It was this very weapon that inspired him to name the group "The Bladers," a title he insisted sounded heroic despite Amber’s pointed reminders that she used a crossbow. As Finn adjusted his gear, Amber shot him a look; to him, the name was a badge of honor, but to her, it felt like a dishonorable title to her favorite multishot weapon.

Then there were the twins, Mae and Kael, a neon blur of defensive power leaning against a nearby pillar. As Juggernauts, they utilized a unique property of Zanite embedded in Skyroot: the more harm their pink Gravitite armor took, the stronger it became, quickly exhausting any enemy who dared to strike them. Their physical appearance was just as vibrant as their combat style; Kael wore bright yellow clothing under his plate while Mae wore blue, and both sported dark brown hair streaked with their respective signature colors. Ready for battle, they waited for the first blow, knowing that the coming damage would only make their pink Gravitite shells tougher.

Elara, the team's sharp-eyed alchemist and strategist, adjusted her tan bag, careful not to jostle the volatile chemicals and custom-created concoctions inside. Dressed in a brown jumpsuit with various hidden pockets and her blond hair pulled into a high ponytail, she was the team's brain, silently guiding their moves with subtle hand signals. She was ready to deploy her arsenal of exploding, freezing, or confusion-inducing potions, including Amber's custom Ambrosium flash bomb arrow that blinded and poisoned enemies, making her an indispensable and highly effective member of The Bladers.

Last, there was Hagan, Elara’s loyal brown woods wolf. While he was usually her shadow—a gentle pet who lived for head scratches and cuddles—that version of him vanished the moment he stepped onto the field. As the tournament clock ticked down, a low, predatory growl vibrated in his chest and his hackles rose, signaling his transformation into a ferocious beast. On the field, Hagan was no longer a companion but a blur of teeth and fur, a protective force who would tear through any obstacle and hesitate for nothing to keep Elara safe.

Finally, there was Amber, the team’s marksman and assassin. Dressed in a black crop top, worn-out running pants, and noise-canceling grey-white sneakers, she was a silent shadow on the battlefield. With her long orange hair tucked back and her skin bronzed from countless hours on the range, she pulled her black gaiter tight to conceal her face. Amber gripped the special poison-tipped arrows Elara had crafted for her, ready to provide cover for her teammates. She was a lethal force of precision, and her sights were set on more than just winning the tournament; she was ready to take down Ignis, the leader of the Sunburst Scorchers.

Ignis and Amber were mortal enemies. Ever since Amber’s win in the Celestria Archery Ball games, Ignis had been seething over it. He had always been trying to defeat Amber in hand-to-hand combat, getting his own archer to shoot at her and knock her off the archer pillar.

He always failed of course. Cole, the archer of the Scorchers, was not as skilled as Amber was. The Bladers’ island home was in the Frostpine Islands, a cold, windy, isolated area of the Aether, but that wind was Amber’s greatest ally. While others struggled against the gales, she had spent years jumping from high posts, learning to bend her arrows around the very air that made others miss. Ignis might want hand-to-hand combat, but he’d have to reach her first—and Amber never missed the impossible shot.

Yeah, Amber did triumph over Ignis a lot, and had gotten away with it innumerable times. So there was no way that Cole would ever beat her high score.

“Amber?”

Amber blinked. Waking up from her daydreaming and looking at the person to her left who had spoken to her. It was Kael, in his pink Gravitite armor that glinted in the light.

“Are you ok? You were just staring into space so intently I thought you were sleeping with your eyes open.” Kael said.

"Yeah, I’m fine, Kael. Just thinking about the battle ahead." Amber forced a smile, though her grip tightened on her bow.

“Ignis should be scared of us!” Mae called out from across the room, mid-stretch. She didn't look worried at all. “We’ll beat him in three minutes, tops.”

“Yeah, Amber’s the best archer in the Aether,” Finn said, vaulting over a bench to land in front of them. “And she’s got an amazing team. The Bladers! Best name ever, you're welcome.”

Amber laughed, her tension finally breaking. “Finn, for the thousandth time—I don't use a blade! It’s a crossbow. You know, the thing that isn't a sword?”

Finn shrugged. “Look, the name is already locked into the server. We’re stuck with it.”

“COMPETITORS!”

A flickering blue hologram—Mr. Score—materialized inches behind Mae. She let out a sharp yelp, nearly tripping over her own boots as she scrambled away.

Mr. Score chuckled, his digital form pixelating with the sound. “Sorry to startle you, Mae. It’s just that time again! Tell me, are the Aether's top-ranked ‘Bladers’ ready for another round of The Last Team Standing?”

“You bet!” Finn declared, brandishing his zanite blade.

“My potions are popping for a fight!” Elara said, reaching into her bag.

“Yellow and blue are in the mood!” Mae and Kael high-fived each other.

“Ruff, ruff!” Hagan barked.

“Let's do this.” Amber pulled out her crossbow.

“Then please proceed to the battlefield portal! Fight smart, and don’t forget to have fun!” Mr. Score’s hologram disappeared after he said that.

The Bladers made their way over to the portal and stepped through it one by one until Amber was left. She took a deep breath, then stepped through the portal as well.

Chapter 2

Amber stepped out of the portal, and a wall of sound hit her. Echoing off the walls of the tunnel she was in. Thousands of spectators roared from the stands outside, their cheers vibrating on the arena floor. Before her lay the battlefield: a sprawling landscape of hills and dense forests, broken up by stone pillars that soared high into the sky.

“COMPETITORS! Welcome back to the Aether Sky Tournaments!” Mr. Score’s voice boomed, amplified to a deafening volume. “Will the opponent team add a seventy-third win to their record? Or will our reigning champions, the Bladers, defend their eighty-nine-win streak? Here they are now! Let's hear it for—Hagan! The Courageous Wolf! Elara! The Alchemist! The Twins! Jumping Juggernauts! Finn! King of the Sky! And the Archer of the Aether, the leader of the Bladers... Amber!”

The whole team stepped out of the tunnel, bathed in the glory of their names being cheered by half the crowd. Then the cheering suddenly stopped. And from the opposite tunnel, a red glow appeared, and it grew brighter, and brighter.

“And now, here is the battling team, the one, the only… Sunburst Scorchers!”

The other half of the crowd cheered as a massive fireball burst from the tunnel and soared into the sky. It shrank down, down, down, until it was just a tiny flicker of light, and then something landed in the middle of the arena.

A person. With pyrokinesis. Only one person in all the Aether had pyrokinesis.

Blaze.

“Wow! An amazing entrance from Blaze! The Fire Witch!” Mr. Score yelled as Blaze summoned balls of fire in each hand.

Suddenly, four more streaks of crimson-orange light trailed Blaze’s fireball, slamming into the arena floor with enough force to send a shockwave of dust toward the Bladers. As the smoke cleared, the Scorchers stood in a jagged ‘V’ formation.

At the point stood Ignis, his Zanite sword already unsheathed and glowing with a heat that shimmered in the air. To his immediate right, Cole stood tall, his bow gripped tight, eyes already locked onto Amber with cold precision. Behind them, the air hummed with the sound of steel as Calida crossed her twin swords over her chest, while Pyrrhus slammed his massive, stone-clad fists together, the impact sounding like a crack of thunder. None of the Sunburst Scorchers wore any kind of armor.

They didn't just land; they claimed the ground. Ignis stepped forward, his eyes burning with the memory of his last defeat, his gaze cutting straight through the cheers of the crowd to find Amber. And as their eyes met, there was a silent moment.

A deep connection.

Familiarity.

And for some reason… trust.

“The other four members of the Sunburst Scorchers have made an amazing entrance! What a show! The countdown for the game has started! Fifteen, fourteen, thirteen, twelve, eleven…”

Amber ran over to one of the pillars, and shot a Blink arrow at the top of the tower. Amber hit the top of the stone pillar just as the count hit seven. The wind here was sharp and familiar, tugging at her orange hair. From her perch, the arena looked like a tactical map: Calida and Cole vanishing into the treeline like shadows, Elara’s vials glowing with a soft light below. She made her perch there, watching everyone get ready for battle.

“Six, five, four…”

She watched as Calida and Cole hid behind the trees and as Elara prepared a potion.

“Three, two, one, zero!”

The horn blasted, a sound so loud it rattled the stone beneath her boots.

The tournament had begun.

Finn immediately glided over to the spot where Cole and Calida were hiding just as Cole prepared to fire an arrow at Amber. Finn smashed into him and slashed his sword at Cole.

A scraping sound against the stone beneath her boots made her stomach drop. She looked down to see Calida—twin blades clamped between her teeth—scaling the vertical blocks with the terrifying speed of a spider. The high ground wasn't safe anymore.

Amber notched a Force arrow in her crossbow and let loose. It hit steel. A Gravitite sword rebounded the arrow from its original course and sent it falling down below. Calida made it to the top and started swinging her swords at Amber, who was forced to use her crossbow to block her hits.

“Salutations, most peculiar personage! Pray tell, does the illustrious ‘Luminary of the Longbow’ lack even a simple sliver of steel? One might assume the ‘Greatest Archer in the Aether’ would possess at least a toothpick for such a sticky situation! Or perhaps you fear that a blade’s weight might overbalance your delicate, feather-filled noggin while you're busy fumbling shots at the approaching rabble?” Calida said.

“What? What are you saying?” Amber asked.

“It appears, belike, your cranial cavity is so thoroughly stuffed with avian fluff that you neglected to procure even a singular sliver of steel for your own preservation!” Calida yelled as she kicked Amber in the chest and sent her flying off the pillar.

The last thing she heard was the sound of Finn’s glider harness slicing through the air.

And the last thing she saw was Ignis’s eyes looking at her with concern, before everything went black.

*

Amber slowly woke up, bright lights searing her vision. Her head felt heavy, and a dull ache pulsed in her ribs. She lolled her head to the side, scanning the empty room. Her arm was attached to thin tubes that led to an IV bag of glowing, golden fluid suspended from a wheeled wooden stand. The last image in her mind—Ignis’s eyes wide with genuine concern—flared behind her eyelids, more confusing than the pain itself.

Did he really have concern on his face? Or was that a hallucination? Ignis was a hard, tough person. But the way he had looked into Amber’s eyes at the start of the game…

A slammed door woke Amber from her thoughts, and a figure came in. Amber’s vision was still a little blurry, but she was sure the person was wearing a brown jumpsuit.

A warble of sound hit her ears, painfully but soft.

Everything was weird, it hurt to move, the light was blaring in her eyes. Then she slipped back down into darkness.

*

She abruptly woke up and immediate pain seared through her arm. She looked down, but saw nothing. Her arm was just attached to the tube as always, and nothing had changed.

There was another figure standing over her, but it wasn’t wearing a jumpsuit. It had glossy, shiny skin, moved with little jerks, and had glowing yellow eyes. A robot. The first one she had ever seen, in fact. It looked toward her, its kind eyes analyzing her, then it waved a gentle wave.

She weakly waved back. The robot nodded and gave her something warm. Amber’s fingers brushed against the smooth surface of the vessel the robot had placed in her hand. It was a ceramic mug, the liquid inside smelling faintly of honey and scorched earth. As she took a small sip, the warmth spread through her chest, dulling the rhythmic throb in her ribs.

The robot didn't speak. It adjusted the flow of the glowing golden fluid with mechanical precision, its movements a series of soft, hydraulic clicks. Every time its yellow eyes swept over her, Amber felt a strange sense of safety—a stark contrast to the violent world outside this room.

Then the robot softly pressed a button on the wall Amber hadn’t noticed before, and made a few weird sounds that sounded like warbling.

“Reep-op-chip, chip-rrrrrt.” It said to the wall, then tilted its head as it saw Amber try to put the mug on the stand next to her.

“Brrr-it.” It warbled as it gently pushed the mug back into her hands, nodding toward it.

Amber pointed to her mouth and the robot nodded.

“Bip-pip-trrrt.” The robot chirped, sounding satisfied.

Amber drank more of the sweet liquid, feeling relieved as it warmed her body. She looked back over at the robot and saw a name and a number lightly etched into its chest.

IATROS - 248

The robot saw her looking and tapped its chest. “Tri-it-it-bip.” It warbled.

“Your name?” Amber asked.

Iatros nodded, then pointed to the half-finished drink.

Amber took another sip of it, letting the sweet drink heal her.

Amber handed the empty mug back to Iatros-248. The robot took it, its hydraulic joints clicking in a rhythmic, satisfied sequence. Then, it reached into a small, recessed compartment in its chest and pulled out a tarnished silver disk.

With a soft “Tri-it-pip-bip,” the robot pressed a button on the disk’s edge and placed it on the floor between them.

A shimmer of blue light erupted from the center, forming a grainy, flickering hologram. Amber gasped, her hand flying to her chest as she recognized the perspective. She wasn't looking at a recording of the room; she was looking through Calida’s eyes.

The hologram showed the top of the pillar. Amber saw herself, pale and desperate, blocking Calida’s twin blades with the frame of her crossbow. The audio was distorted, but Calida’s mocking voice cut through the static with cruel clarity:

“...neglected to procure even a singular sliver of steel for your own preservation!”

The holographic camera—Calida’s vision—jolted forward. Amber watched from the enemy’s point of view as a leather-booted foot slammed into her own chest. The perspective leaned over the edge of the pillar, watching Amber’s body shrink as she plummeted toward the clouds below.

But then, the hologram panned upward.

Amber stared at the silver disk as the holographic projection faded to the image of Finn diving through the air, catching her just two feet before she slammed into the ground. She saw Ignis in the background, his face etched with a rare look of raw concern before Finn frantically signaled for a medic.

Then, the recording showed a sleek, white vehicle hovering into view. Iatros-248 was in it as Finn delivered Amber to him.

“So, Finn saved me,” Amber murmured, a wave of relief washing over her. “And he sent you to heal me.”

Iatros-248 chirped a neutral, affirmative “Bip-pip,” and tucked the disk back into its chest. It moved to the wall and tapped a touchscreen Amber hadn't noticed. The screen flickered to life, displaying a map of the arena and the Aether islands outside it. They were on an island marked, MEDICAL BAY, just to the side of the arena island.

The robot warbled a long, melodic string of sounds and pointed to the door. As if he was saying that her treatment was finished and she was healthy.

“Wait,” Amber said, standing up. Her legs felt surprisingly strong, probably from the golden fluid. “Where are they now? Finn and my team—are they still in the tournament? Or are they in one of these rooms too?”

Iatros-248 paused, its yellow eyes scanning her. It didn't speak, but it pointed its mechanical finger toward the arena on the screen. A bright red dot pulsed far away from the medical island, labeled: THE ARENA - SECTOR TS7.

“Thanks. Where’s my gear?” Amber asked.

Iatros-248 tilted its head, warbled something, then its eyes flickered blue and a hologram of a person appeared in front of her. It was Finn, and he was crouching. It was dark where he was, probably in a training simulation.

“Yo, Amber. How are you feeling?” Finn asked, smiling.

“I’m fine now, Finn. But what are you doing?”

Finn suddenly ducked out of sight to avoid a giant laser that was shot at him on the screen.

“Training simulation,” Finn said, coming back within view. “The team was really worried about you when you fell off the pillar. I was able to save you in time, though.”

“Finn!” a far off voice called. “Finn! What are you doing? We need to defeat Gorgo!”

“Mae, get over here! Bring the others!”

The camera banked and pointed to someone at the far side of the room jumping over moving pillars to get over to Finn. It was Mae, with Kael not far behind her.

“Amber!” Mae beamed, taking hold of the camera. “Amber! Oh. My. Sun Guardian, how are you? We were so worried about you!”

Kael suddenly appeared on the screen.

“Hey, Amber! Glad to see you’re okay, I personally took privilege in making Calida go poof after she kicked you off the pillar. No idea how you didn’t poof though, that fall should’ve taken you out!” he said just before Mae shoved him off the screen.

“Ow! What was that for, Mae?” Kael asked from off screen.

“Did you want Amber to die?” Mae demanded. “Sorry Amber. Kael’s a little shocked from a laser.”

“How many times do I have to say it; I didn’t see it! He took me by surprise!”

“That’s what happens when you fight a monster that can tunnel underground!”

Finn guided Elara over to Amber so she could check in on her, then the team said goodbye and told her that her gear was in the team house. Then Iatros-248 guided Amber outside of the Medical Bay, and she alone started the long walk home.