***Neon***

"Hey! Stop running!" "Nu-uh! You're too slow!" "Damn it, get back here!"

Never miss a beat… Never miss a beat... This is too easy. I keep swerving around both the trees and my opponent's shots, agitating the black-haired girl with the dark dress and wielding twin revolvers ever further.

"Yo, Neon, you about done?" Flynt calls from the middle of the arena as the siren announces the ring-out of his opponent. Now it's three on one, so this is pretty much over.

I stop in a small clearing and ready my nunchucks; I got no idea which element I have on them right now. "I'm right here!" I call in the direction of my opponent. "Let's finish this!"

A few moments later she steps onto the clearing, her weapons transformed back into katar. "Oh, I am gonna finish you, kitty-cat."

"Oh yeah? What are you gonna do, blacky-black? Read poetry at me about how no one understands your dark, tortured soul?" What? With her pale skin and ton of makeup, she really does look the part.

"That's it, you're going down!"

As the girl charges at me I bend my nunchucks to activate them; looks like fire, I can work with that. I meet her attack head-on, but suddenly with a twirl she transforms into a writhing dark cloud headed in my direction and I just barely manage to get out of the way and start skating. I move along the edge of the clearing as the cloud transforms back into the girl, then the cloud again, moving to intercept my path.

Never miss a beat… Never miss a beat... I just narrowly skate around her while striking with my nunchucks, and it feels like I hit something, even if my arm takes a minor hit from her blade, but my aura stops any actual damage.

"What's with the black cloud? Can you even see in that thing?" I taunt my opponent as I keep accelerating, and in reply the cloud darts past me again, slashing at my thigh. "Come on, your dress is actually really pretty, why hide it?"

Never miss a beat… Never miss a beat... Now I charge at her too, my right arm trailing behind me until I'm close enough and strike with my nunchucks full force, the impact sending the cloud reeling, and she quickly transforms back into the girl who looks like she's just barely hanging on.

"Neon! Are you alright?" I hear Flynt, and I grin at my opponent.

"Now it's time to... Um, you are... Just pretend I made some witty quip before beating you, 'kay?" Yeah, weak, but sometimes you just draw a blank, nothing I can do.

I attack again and she blocks, but the fire Dust detonating on the impact combined with me swinging around to bodycheck her in the back are enough to knock her to the ground as the siren announces the TKO.

"Aaannd there is the knockout via aura levels for Darcia Glowe after a beautiful endgame from Neon Katt!" The announcer-guy announces.

"Yes, quite," the other one adds "Using her Dust-infused weapon to hit through Miss Glowe's semi-tangible Semblance, a very good move."

Hm, yeah I guess I did that. Was the fire on my nunchucks really so important? Well, he's the doctor, so he's bound to know.

"Yes, indeed." The first announcer says "And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the end of the match, and a clear victory for Team FNKI of Atlas!"

Yay, they're cheering for us! With a smile I hold out a hand to my fallen adversary and after a split second's hesitation she takes it and gets up.

"You know I didn't really mean any of that, right?" I say "I was just teasing you. I actually really like that dress of yours, it's so… gothic-y. You put up a good fight, Darky. How about you ask your Team if they want to go party with us some time soon?"

Instead of an answer Darcia just turns around and stalks away. Sore losers, some people. Well, whatever. I make my way back to the middle of the arena, meeting up with the rest of Team FNKI.

"Good job, Neon." Flynt is waiting for me, while Iris is still fuzzing over Kyle, who took a hit that was aimed at her after she misstepped and got knocked out instead. It's kind of funny to see the petite girl in the white suit supporting the boy two full heads taller than her and wearing a legit suit of metal gray plate armor.

"I keep telling you, I'm fine." With his size and deep voice, even after half a year of Team FNKI, it's still hard to get over the fact that Kyle's like 3 months younger than both me and Iris.

"Are you sure? I'm really sorry, you only got hit because of my mess-up."

"No, I didn't. I chose to shield a teammate from an attack she would have had no chance of avoiding."

"Well, yeah, but you didn't have to. Why did you do that?"

"Because that's what I do. At that point you weren't only a teammate and a friend, but also a damsel in need, so my course of action was clear."

Really? Who still uses 'damsel'? And the best thing is, Kyle was in fact raised just like that; even in modern times, he is a knight in shining armor. Except the armor is much more dark gray and not very shiny, but still.

Flynt and I share a knowing glance at Iris getting so worked about Kyle. It's adorable. The two knew each other already before attending Atlas Academy, and the chemistry between them is absolutely obvious for anyone else but the two. I really hope they get together at some point, they'd make an absolutely cute couple.

Iris probably would go on for a while longer, but Flynt steps in. "I'm sure Kyle's just fine. We can have a nurse look at him if that makes you happy, but let's get going."

"Hear that, Iris? Come on."

"Well, okay."

As the commentator announces the lunch break before the next two matches we make our way back to the locker room.

For all the fuzz Iris is making, it's like she's forgetting who the MVP of the battle actually was. Right off the bat Flynt bust out his Killer Quartet and knocked one of our opponents out of the ring, then he, Iris and Kyle got another, then Kyle got knocked out and then they got the third one, while I just took the one who reacted to best to my initial mocking of the group and ran with it.

Normally, if applicable, I just keep running circles around my opponent and hit them a bit if I can until the rest of the team gets an advantage and can clean up the one I kept occupied, so the forest biome and me actually getting the KO myself this time are just the icing on the cake. ...Now I'm hungry for cake.

It's lunchtime anyways, and I need my sugar, so I'm gonna persuade our fearless leader to treat us all to cake to celebrate our victory. And if that fails, Kyle was never good at refusing Iris or me a favor, so I will get my cake either way.

"Hey, Iris," I ask while we're in the locker room "You totally agree that some delicious cake would be the perfect lunch, right?"

"Guess so, why?"

"'Cause I'm gonna get Flynt to treat all of us. To celebrate our victory and stuff."

"How about you treat all of us if you want cake?"

"And where would I take the money for that?"

"Where would Flynt?" ...Good point.

"Then how about you ask Kyle for me? The two of you are really close."

"One, ask him yourself. And two, don't. You shouldn't take advantage of him like that."

"Because you're the only one allowed to do that, right?" I grin as Iris protests.

"What? No, I'm not either."

"Then he just happened to be carrying your bags for you all the way from the airport."

"Well, they were heavy, and Kyle didn't mind-... I'm a terrible person, aren't I?"

"Just a little. So how about you treat all of us to cake to make up for your bad karma?"

"You'll have to try better than that, Neon."

Hm... "Then how about a bet? We'll ask both Flynt and Kyle, and if both would have agreed to treat us, you pay instead, but if even one says no, the cake's on me instead."

Iris ponders for a moment before nodding. "Okay. But only under the condition that I ask Flynt and you ask Kyle." Sneaky, but it's not gonna change the outcome.

"You're on." I extend my hand and Iris shakes it. "Then it's official. Let's go, the boys are probably already waiting."

We leave the locker room and, yes, they are waiting. "What took you so long?" Flynt asks "Hurry up, the next batch of shuttles is about to take off."

That's my cue. I dart ahead on my rollerblades and quickly reach the docks, picking the shuttle that looks the least full and standing in the doorway so there's no way it can take off without us on board. The driver is just about to get annoyed when the others catch up, and we quickly board before he comes out to yell at me. Some people just have no chill factor.

It's lunch break, so the shuttle is still pretty cramped and there aren't even four seats left, much less next to each other, so we end up standing. I think now's a good time. I cast Iris a meaningful glance, and once she understands and gets Flynt's attention, I tap Kyle's shoulder.

"What is it?"

"Well, I was thinking, and Iris totally agrees, that some cake in celebration of our exemplary victory would be just the the thing right now."

"I suppose you have a point there."

"Yeah, and, I was wondering if you could perhaps treat the team, seeing as you're ..."

He sees what I'm getting at. "Relatively wealthy?"

"Pretty rich. Same thing. I mean, your family has a castle. An actual, centuries-old castle, so you gotta have a lot of money too, right? Oh, and by the way, you totally have to show us that castle during the holidays. It's probably got like a hundred rooms, doesn't it?"

"It's not that big. About 70, 80 rooms. And as for your first request, my – admittedly very generous – allowance is not intended for such… frivolities. However given everyone's performance in battle, for my friends I suppose I can make an exception."

"Yay! You're the best, Kyle."

I turn to Iris and carefully study her expression. Looks like…

"So, Flynt," I move closer to him, as much as the cramped space allows "I hear as the team leader you were gonna treat us all to celebratory cake?"

"Yeah, but didn't you just ask Kyle-"

"I did, but good news for you, both of you guys get to keep your money, because in fact Iris will be paying."

"And here you go." The baker hands me the last plate and Iris grudgingly pays while Flynt and I carry everything to a table next to a window and once the others are with us dig in.

This is the best thing ever. How did I not know rainbow cake existed until now? It's a pretty normal, soft cake in a stack of 7 different colors, held together by a white cream that tastes just a little sour, something like cream cheese, I think, with a hint of lemon. It's absolutely delicious, even though the different colors of cake all taste the same. But it shouldn't be too hard to toss in some different flavorings in the cake mixtures, should it? Strawberry is an obvious one, as is black currant. Then lemon, apple, or should the green one be lime? But we can't have lemon and lime. Banana?

"Hey, guyf, help me out here. I need feven-" I swallow the cake before continuing "-seven different flavors to match the seven colors here." After a heated debate we come up with strawberry, orange, lemon, apple, blueberry, banana 'cause there's no other blue fruits and I like bananas, and currant.

Sounds tasty, now I'd just need someone to bake it. "Hey, Iris, I know you like cooking and-"

"Bake it yourself, Neon." Welp, that was a clear answer.

"Hey, Flynt..."

Neither of the others is intent on any fancy baking, especially not while we're in Vale, but Flynt says he'll consider doing a cake like that for my birthday if I'm a good girl. I have no idea what he's getting at, I'm at all times an absolute paragon of- yeah, right.

Just as I finish the last bit of my second piece of cake – this one out of my own pocket – Iris remembers she wanted to get Kyle seen by a nurse, so she goes and drags him off, leaving just Flynt and me. He wants to go back to the Colosseum and watch the remaining fights, to see some of our potential opponents for the next round and stuff, but I don't think I could stand sitting around right now, I just had two large pieces of cake, all that energy has to go somewhere.

So we part ways for now, Flynt heading back to catch the next shuttle, while I'm gonna try to find a skate park of some sort, and if not I'll just go skate in the city, main thing is I get to stay in motion.

After a quick look around the fairgrounds and finding nothing interesting, I start in direction of Vale city, picking up speed and easily curving between the people, ignoring the angry shouts I get. Never miss a beat… Never miss a beat... Leaving the gate of the Beacon grounds I have no real idea where I'm going, but that never stopped me before, I'm bound to find something.

...Or someone. That hoodie with the green hair protruding from the front looks familiar. I swiftly approach the girl walking down the street looking like she has no idea where she's going either and she flinches a bit when I zip right past her and turn around to come to a stop facing her.

"Hey there! I remember you, we ran into each other in the Colosseum."

"More like you ran into me."

Oops... I rub the back of my head with a sheepish grin. "Yeah. Sorry 'bout that, my match was about to start."

Now that I'm getting a bit of closer look at her, she's got green eyes, a bit darker and greener than her hair and some weird make-up in the shape of two rectangular black bars on her cheeks, and she looks about my height, though I guess without my skates she might actually be a little taller. She's wearing a mauve sweater under her blue hoodie and a set of black protectors on her knees, elbows and wrists.

Looks like my kind of girl. This could be good. I extend a hand. "I'm Neon, by the way."

AN: Some OC side characters in this one, but don't worry, I know some people have reservations against OCs, so there won't be too much focus on them.

Iris is named after the Greek goddess of the same name, the personification of the rainbow and messenger of the gods (like a female counterpart to Hermes), and her last name is derived from the month May (despite the name she's wearing white because Neon already has that rainbow thing going on, and as a reference to a certain other internet phenomenon). Kyle can be derived from Gaelic, possibly meaning "a woody region" or from the word *cill*, "church" or "churchyard", his last name Saint is very obvious. And if "Goodwitch" still fullfills the Color Naming Rule, then so do these two names. Darcia Glowe is from "Dark(ness)" and "Glow", easy enough, also a shoutout to my younger sis for helping me come up with some of the side OCs.

Rainbow cake is indeed a thing, which I didn't know until I googled it while writing this., because it sounded like it could be a thing. I totally want to try it myself, but while it isn't too complex, it seems like it'd be rather elaborate and time-comsuming to make. Well, I'm sure I'll get around to baking one some time (yeah, right.)