1
“Damn it's hot today.”
Maria tugged back and forth at the collar of her shirt trying to generate some light airflow. She felt the sweat rolling down her skin and sticking her clothes to her body.
“Why was I the one sent on petty errands? Three years ago I was captain of this team, now I'm the damn maid.”
Maria looked for a nice place to rest for a moment and found it under a lamppost. She sat beneath it with one leg propped up and resting her arm on the knee. The metal plate on her boots clanged as her other leg fell across the ground leaving her legs spread open. What a proper lady. Most people would think having plate armour leggings but nothing else doesn't seem like it would protect against many attacks but Maria would argue they've lost sight of the strategic value of aesthetics. Also getting kicked in the shins by someone wearing plate armour hurts like a son of a bitch. Even as she reached into the inside of her jacket and pulled out a small tablet she was already holding the home button to unlock the screen.
“try again” read the screen.
“piece of shit” responded the girl.
The fingerprint scanner had been acting up for months but it didn't amount to much more than a minor inconvenience. She swiped the screen and brought up the manual password screen.
3-8-2-5
Better known in alphanumeric as “fuck.” Just because she's 84 years old doesn't mean she isn't 11 years old. Maturity is weird like that. Maria pressed the home button again to minimize the ebook she was reading earlier then pressed the notes icon on the screen. The note read:
casper the asshole ghosts shopping list
1.cereal – something good if you bring home plain cherios youre sleeping in the hallway
2.millk
3.soda
4.cup noddles
5.something microwavable (pizzabites?
6.lunchmeat at least a pound
7.loaf of bread
Each line came with the misspellings associated with touchscreen keyboards and the general lack of caring about spelling in Maria. She checked her bag again to make sure everything was there. It was. At first finding it all was a problem as Sarun didn't seem to have room in their society for microwavable food. Also their milk came in bags which is weird. One store however had thought ahead to the influx of strange people that would be coming to watch the tournament and had stocked the kind of food Maria would expect in a grocery store back home in Terminal City.
[Hopefully no one finds out about that place. They'll buy the whole stock.] she thought.
Maria got up and stretched her arms and back with a loud grunt. Then she picked up her bag and made her way down the market street. It was only a short walk back to the hotel rooms from the markets and she couldn't wait to get back. Yuki had figured out how to hook their computer to the tv in the hotel room even though it was really old. The two of them where going to watch anime when she got back. Even though their hotel looked out over a very nice looking park maria didn't plan to do much sightseeing while they were in Sarun.
Maria rushed past market stalls and patrons trying to figure the fastest way through the side streets. She never even noticed the shadow mage standing in front of a table of assorted blades and staring down intently at a knife she had picked up for a closer look.. The champion almost paid Maria the same lack of attention but her signature bright yellow jacket caught the champions eye for just a moment. Turning her attention away from the knives for just a moment she turned to she a small girl with lavender hair and a yellow jacket emblazoned with an eye pierced by a flor de lis.
“No mistaking fashion that bad.”
The champion outstretched her arm and called the the quickly moving girl.
“Hey, wait up.”
She put the knife she had been examining back down on the display table and jogged forward a few steps still calling out to Maria. Maria took notice and cocked her head back to see what the strange person calling out to her in the market wanted. She took in a good look at champion of Sarun who had been calling out to her.
“Sorry... Do I know you?”
The champion recoiled slightly at the question but recovered quickly. She let out a slight chuckle only loud enough for her to hear. Her hands found their way to her hips and she stood straight with her chest out and a smile on her lips.
“Shade.”
“Oh.”
Maria closed her eyes and let out a series of small nods. Her head came slowly to a stop and she opened her eyes again.
“Who?”
The champions tongue clicked. Her hands instinctively balled into a fist. Her voice was rougher when she responded.
“Mondshein!”
“Oh.”
Maria's purple eyes stared straight through the champion and after a few moments her head cocked to the side. Her brow showed the distinctive shape of confusion.
“Who?”
The champions first curled even harder digging her nails into the palms of her hands nearly breaking the skin. Dark wisps of shadow billowed out from her knuckles. Shadow formed around her ears and took on a pointed wolf like appearance. She quickly produced the mask that she had worn for the majority of her time just a few years ago and held it up in front of her face. Instantly Maria snapped her fingers and a look of realization came over her face.
“Ahh! The angry one!”
In an instant Shade closed the distance between them and was close enough to Maria to kiss her, although her ideas were decidedly more malicious than that.
“THE HELL DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME!?”
Maria curled back in surprise. Shades arms were now fully enveloped in swirling darkness and her eyes where taking on a faint purple. Maria wasn't particularly worried about losing a fight because her endless confidence didn't allow her to believe in things like the concept of losing, but it was bad practice to start a fight with the people hosting you. She changed her position slightly so her body language read as, “It was just a prank bro.”
Shade saw the apology in her curled up form and started to calm down. Over her arms she was wearing a shrug, a kind of shawl except with sleeves, and she now reached to the inside of it. A small pocket sown on the inside held a folded piece of paper.
“Just who invited you anyway? They're going to hear from me.”
She unfolded the paper reveling a long list. Starting at the top were several team names of participants of previous tournaments and toward the bottom it changed over to individual names of new prospects for invitation. Most of the names were scratched out with a small note next to them identifying who had invited them to come back. Towards the top of the list free from and stray scribbles was the name “Equally Destructive.”
“No one has talked to you yet. Don't tell me you just showed up planning on fighting in the qualifying rounds.”
Maria opened her mouth to respond but shade starting talking again before she got a chance.
“Showing up uninvited... That's bold. I like it.”
Shade paused briefly remembering that she was supposed to be mad.
“I can give you one, under certain conditions. There is a price. Also you better behave yourselves.”
With that the champion placed a sealed envelope in Maria's bad of groceries and then walked off back toward the knives in the market.
2
Styx was sitting precariously on the arm of the couch. Her legs stretched over to the nearby bed and rested on it allowing her body to hang in between the two. She perched there reminiscent of a gargoyle staring out the window protecting it territory. Her expression never changed and her head never turned to Yuki but she spoke to him.
“I don't like it.”
Yuki took in a glance around the room and then moved his arms to his hips in displeasure.
“I don't either. They call it 'Trinity Tournament' but they only give us two beds. I don't want to share with Maria.”
“We shared a bed back home.”
Maria's voice called in to them from the open door to the hotel hallway. Her Hand was still on the doorknob. Yuki looked at her and wrinkled his brow.
“Is timing one of your powers too?”
“I didn't get it with the rest of my abilities. I think that one just comes built in.”
“Any way we never shared a bed. I went to sleep alone and when I woke up you were there. That's different.”
Yuki paused.
“And creepy..."
"Please stop!”
"Please stop!”
Maria slammed the door behind her with her foot and made her way to kitchen or what passed for a kitchen in a hotel room. It was really just a small alcove with a bathroom sink, a coffee maker, and a wall mounted microwave oven. She sat the grocery bag down on the counter pushing the coffee maker out of the way in the progress due to the lack of counter space.
“I'm hurt Watanabe-kun! Wasn't it just yesterday that you were hugging me so tight?”
Yuki rebounded a bit and turned his eyes away from her. His face turned flush and his voice was low.
“That's not fair, I thought you were dead you know.”
Maria ran into the main part of the room from the kitchen alcove and jumped at yuki wrapping her arms around his shoulders. She landed on one of the beds and he followed shortly after landing on top of her awkwardly. Not the type of awkward landing you would expect from an anime where to protagonist accidentally gropes the love interest but the kind of awkward landing that involves his back arching at a bad angle as his shoulders land across her stomach and his lower half unaware that the bed is the new plan instead hang off the edge limply.
“Just admit that you missed me Yuki.”
“Never!” he moaned in pain.
For the last few minutes Styx' face slowly changed from a neutral to a down turned angry scowl.
“Would you two idiots cut it out!?”
Maria and Yuki froze in place. Yuki was still hanging awkwardly off the edge of the beg and Maria had him in a headlock. They both stared straight at the tall woman who had jumped up from her seat and now stood in front of the window. The light coming in from behind her turned her into a dark silhouette which made her seem even more menacing.
“Don't either of you find it strange that we're here?”
The two of them stayed perfectly silent and perfectly still.
“Charon making us come here and participate in this tournament again is seriously strange.”
Yuki finally broke himself free of Maria's headlock and stood up. Maria shifted around to a sitting position on the bed. The glanced at each other for just a moment. Maria turned her whole head to do so hoping Yuki would have the answers like he always did. Yuki only shifted his eyes to meet hers then shifted back to Styx.
[Shit, she's leaving me to answer.]
“Maybe he just wants someone to check in on the tournament each year. He picked us because we were already familiar with the town and the tournament.”
“Then why didn't we come back at all in the last three years. And another thing, Me and you are ferryman but she isn't!”
Styx pointed violently at Maria although her angry eyes where still planted firmly on Yuki.
“We captured her and turned her into the Ministry of Souls as a wanted criminal. Until yesterday you had assumed that she had been judged by the River Styx and sent to Heaven or Hell. So tell me why a wanted criminal who was supposed to be dead was delivered to us by the Ministry's second in command as a teammate.”
Yuki picked a spot on the floor between his feet and stared at it intently.
“I don't know.”
“No, you don't.”
Styx sat back down on the couch and slowly began to calm down. She turned back to the window behind her and resumed her endless gaze into nothing in particular. Yuki walked silently over to the bag of groceries deciding he would put them away in a poor attempt to get over his embarrassment.
“Maria, didn't you get any soda?”
Maria was laying back on the bed now staring blankly at the ceiling. She turned her head slightly toward Yuki.
“Yeah, I hope orange soda is alright. They didn't have any kind of cola.”
Yuki continued to remove all the items from the bag. He was fairly sure he would have seen it at the top but maybe it was at the bottom of the bag on its side. He walked back over to where the two girls were sitting uncharacteristically silent not looking at each other.
“I went through the whole bag. There is no soda but there is this.”
Yuki held up a small white envelope with a red wax seal on it. The two turned there gaze to the envelope and then styx' gaze moved to Maria.
“Oh I forgot about that! When I was walking back I ran into shade and she gave that to me.”
Yuki looked puzzled for a moment then asked her.
“Who is shade.”
“Sorry, Mondshein.”
“Oh. Who?”
“The champion with the purple and gray mask.”
Yuki slammed his fist into his palm in a gesture of understanding.
“Oh, The angry one!”
3
Somewhere within the high walls of the castle Shade stumbles back with a large grimace before letting out a machine gun burst of sneezes. She flares her nostrils and moves to wipe her nose on the elbow of her shrug but decides against it. One of the guards who was posted on the wall made his way down a stair case and out into the courtyard. He runs over to the champion with an outstretched arm and offers her a handkerchief.
“Someone must be talking about you.”
Shade wiped her nose and then gave the guard a sideways glance of confusion.
“What does that mean?”
She asked her question in earnest and tried to hand the handkerchief back to the man. He waved it away politely.
“I heard one of the guests say it. A woman who came to watch the tournament. She told me that where she comes from they say that when you sneeze it means someones talking about you. Some type of superstition I suppose.”
Shade nodded to the guardsman who turned and began to head back to his post. She turned as well and resumed her walk. She had roses that needed tending. While she walked she unscrewed the cap on her drink and took a big swig of orange soda. She had told the purple girl that the invitation wasn't free. Besides, she probably wouldn't miss it too much.
4
Yuki looked carefully at the package again to make sure he was following the instructions properly. He had placed four chicken nuggets on a plate spaced evenly both from themselves and from the edge of the plate. He moved the small illustration on the package into his vision in front of the plate. Moving it away again the two views matched perfectly. It was exactly the way it was meant to be prepared.
Yuki let out a small grin at how perfect he had made it. He lifted the bag with the remaining nuggets up and turned it over dumping the remaining contents into the plate below. He picked the plate up, spilling a few of the dinosaur shaped pieces onto the counter, and threw it into the open microwave door. Scooping up the three or four spilled pieces and tossed them in as well. With a beep he had begun to cook their dinner.
"It says we need a team name."
A voice called from the other part of the room. Yuki left the small divide that was their kitchen and walked to the main area with the two beds. Maria was lying down with her head hung over the foot of the bed. Her hair was falling down toward the floor but wasn't quite long enough to reach. Her arms were extended straight up toward the ceiling and in them she held a few folded pieces of paper and a old yellow pencil that had been improperly sharpened with a knife.
"I'll take that."
Yuki snatched the bundle of papers from her hands then went back and gently removed the pencil as well.
"What was that for?" Cried Maria.
"I'm just fixing what you have so far."
Yuki turned back to the paper and got the eraser end of the pencil ready.
"Here it is. Team captain: Yuki Watan..."
He trailed off weakly. He turned back to Maria and mustered a weak confused voice.
"You already put me down as team captain?"
"Yeah. You can't fight worth a damn but you're smarter than me and Styx so you can do all the strategy."
Styx stretched her body out with a yawn and readjusted her position on the couch by the window.
"It's true. Being team captain only gets you the honour of negotiations with a bunch of jackasses. I turned it down."
Maria added, "she says that but I had your name written down from the start."
A succession of beeps started from the kitchen area. Yuki handed Maria the papers again and started toward the microwave. After two steps he turned around and came back to slide the yellow pencil back into Maria's hand before returning his attention to the food.
"So what are we going to do about a team name?"
Styx said, "I don't really care do whatever."
Yuki returned with a plate in his hand and a tyrannosaurus in his mouth. Maria grabbed one shaped like a triceratops and put it in her mouth.
"It nnebs tu be sumfin coor."
"Don't talk with food in your mouth. You really do act like a child."
Maria swallowed and turned to look at Yuki.
"I'm older than your grandfather."
"That's ok. He likes older women." Styx chimed in.
Yuki's eyes sharpened to a point.
"No one asked for your input."
Styx leaned back in her seat with a satisfied grin. Yuki and Maria started to think hard. Yuki had the first idea.
"How about we just go with the ferryman. Or ministry of souls team."
Being first didn't exempt it from being terrible.
"How about the stardust crusaders?"
Styx sat forward in her chair again.
"That's fine as long as it's not a weeb thing. Yuki, it's a weeb thing isn't it?"
Yuki shifted around a bit leaving a long pause before he answered with a sigh.
"Yeah it is."
Maria pursed her lips together in a pout.
"And what's your suggestion then?"
Styx let out an abrupt and short lived chuckle.
"Just call it we win. That way the other teams know what they're in for."
Yuki took the pencil from Maria once again and jotted something on the paper.
"If it should be something simple, be something cool sounding, and be something that says we're a strong team then how about this?"
Styx and Maria examined the paper closely and both smiled.
They both let out a word of approval in unison. "Works for me.”
5
Styx was the first to wake on the morning of the opening ceremony. She sat up and looked around drowsily for a moment before rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She stepped slowly out of bed and then scuttled over to the small divide that held their kitchen. She slapped the button on top of the coffee maker bringing it to life. Yuki had set up the grinds the night before so Styx only had to sit with her back leaned against the wall and wait. 40 minutes later Styx was finally feeling awake and decided it was time to get the others up as well.
[those idiots always sleep in] she thought.
Styx idea of sleeping in late only amounted to 6:00 am. There are certain schools of thought that would postulate that 6:00 am is not late but in fact too damn early. Yuki belonged to that school of thought. Maria on the other hand did not but due to years of sleep deprivation her body did.
Styx had occupied the bed closest to the door the night before and now stood above the bed closest to the window. The blanket covered the entire bed and other than a large lump in the middle of it you wouldn't be able to tell there was anyone in it. Styx flung the blanket upward letting it flutter I the air above the bed. She looked like a magician unveiling an amazing trick.
The newly reveled yuki moved his arm to his eyes in a vain attempt to shield them from the morning light. His left arm was occupied by Maria who clung tightly to it unmoving.
"Time to get dressed, both of you."
Styx slept in her clothes on most nights unless she was washing them overnight. She had been ready from the moment she had gotten out of bed. Yuki wore a pair of green striped pajamas. His clothes for the day had been sitting neatly folded and ready on the nightstand since he had placed them there just before he got in bed the night before. Maria slept in a pair of black shorts and a baggy white shirt with some anime character printed on it. She also had a long fluffy tail and a pair of pointed animal ears. Not worn but grown.
[this girl has the ability to shape shift and all she uses it for is bothering Yuki. If I live a million more years I'll never understand this girl.]
Styx stuck her hands under the mattress and lifted with ease. The two sleeping bodies tumbled to the ground with a loud crash. Yuki popped up with incredible swiftness.
"What was that for?"
"It's time to get up."
Yuki walked across the room and sat in the small wooden chair in front of the room's desk. This was the group's dinning room despite the lack of more than one chair. Maria stayed on the ground where she landed still sleeping.
"We don't even have to be to the arena for another five hours."
Maria began to toss a bit on the floor. Styx sat down on her bed and crossed her legs.
"Getting up in the morning never killed anyone you know."
"You could have fooled me with your wake up techniques."
Yuki cocked his head to the side and began to massage his neck trying to ease the pain of his landing. He finished and then held up his hand extending three fingers. After a moment he dropped one of the fingers back into his fist and in another moment yet another finger retreated to his fist. As the last finger dropped Maria let out a scream and sat up quickly with terror in her eyes. She used her oversized shirt to wipe the sweat off of her forehead.
"Good everyone's up." Shined Styx.
Maria got up and made her way to the makeshift kitchen. On her way past she showed Styx one of her fingers. Bonus points for guessing which one. She poured herself a sloppy bowl of cereal. It was coco puffs that she bought in town and she was excited to see the milk turn into chocolate milk by the time she was done. She plopped down on the desk and began to eat her breakfast.
"You can have the chair. I'm gonna go have breakfast in town."
Maria pointed a stern finger at Yuki and spoke with a mouth still full of cereal.
“Vry foo peopre ur rucky enuf...”
She swallowed.
“to eat breakfast with a vampire you know”
Yuki got up and moved towards the room's exit. As he walked he called back to his teammates.
“I'll remember that. But maybe I can gather some information on the rest of the teams.”
6
Yuki sat on the far end of the bar with his head down. He had told his team he would get something to eat and he had even ordered it but when it came he only picked at it for 15 minutes before giving up on it completely. Gathering information hadn’t happened either. Instead Yuki had spent the whole time with a pen and a scrap of paper thinking through the situation he was in. Styx suggestion that something wasn't right had stuck with him but unlike her he didn't want to just accept it as something that was unavoidable.
Unbeknownst to Yuki A young boy that was passing by took notice of him and had watched him for a while. The boy moved in and jumped into the stool beside him sitting backwards facing away from the bar.
“Something's troubling you.”
Yuki was startled at the boys voice. Yuki didn't expect anyone would try to talk to him, let alone a young boy with long unkempt hair.
“Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you.”
“That's alright.”
“So, what is it that has you so worked up?”
Yuki took another look at the young boy. He didn't recognize him at all. He thought maybe it was a contestant from the Tournament three years ago that he had gotten to know. That would explain why the boy was so casual towards him but if that was the case Yuki had long forgotten them. Yuki picked his words carefully not wanting to sound standoffish but instead just curious.
“Why are you worried about my problems.”
“As a champion of Sarun my peoples problems are my problems. And during Tournament time My guests problems are my problems.”
“A champion?”
Yuki looked the boy over for a third time.
“You are a little less anonymous than I remember. My team left a bit early last time we were here and it seems I missed something.”
The young champion motioned to Yuki's paper and pen asking to use it. Yuki slid it over to him and watched as he jotted something down on it. He turned it over before hand so not to get in the way of what Yuki was writing.
“In that case I'll give you this. Hopefully it will help.”
The boy slid the paper back to Yuki. On it he had the names of the three champions written top to bottom. Next to that he had put equals signs and the names that they had gone by in the tournament three years ago. He also included little doodles of what each champion looked like although Yuki thought he wouldn't get much use out of those as they were a bit too simple. Next to the drawing on the bottom that was linked with the name Lloyd was a little note that said 'me' with an arrow.
“Thanks for the cheat sheet.”
“Sorry but I peeked a little bit at the front of your paper. Who is Charon.”
Yuki glanced back at the breakfast that he hadn’t eaten and didn't say anything for a while. Just before Lloyd was about to apologize for pushing the matter Yuki started.
“I guess you could say he's like my boss. A police chief... kind of. Anyway he is the one who sent my team here to compete.”
“I see.”
“It was just me and Styx at first but he sent us anyway without a third member. That was the first strange thing. When I asked about it he said he was sending the third in later. He also said that our entry into the tournament was taken care of.”
Lloyd leaned back a bit more and rested his back against the bar.
“But you hadn't been invited.”
“Exactly.”
“So he lied to you for some reason?”
“No. Charon has never lied to us. He didn't mean that we were already entered but that by the time the tournament started we would be.”
Lloyd scratched his head in confusion. It made his rats nest hair even messier although he didn't seem to care.
“But he couldn't know.”
“Not him. If he knew that he means he got his information from higher up which is really bad. I think he knows something and he's keeping us in the dark.” “
Yuki looked directly at the young champion and began to talk faster.
“Even our third member is out of place. She doesn’t belong to the ministry. She was taken into custody by them as a wanted criminal. She was with us three years ago but it doesn't make sense that they would have brought her here let alone that she should even be alive still.”
Lloyd jumped up off the stool and landed flat on his feet before turning to look back at Yuki.
“I don't really get it... But I hope you're wrong. If there really is something else going on then it could be bad for Sarun as well.”
Yuki smiled back at the boy. Talking to someone about all of that had really made him feel better.
“I hope I'm wrong too.”
Yuki turned back and decided to give his breakfast another chance. He shoveled a large bite into his mouth and froze in place. A single tear rolled down his cheek.
“It's stone cold.”
7
Muffled cheers echoed from the large building. The crowd was getting worked up as each team introduced themselves. Yuki ran for the building as fast as he could.
“If I miss the introduction I'm gonna look like a huge jackass.”
He could see it in his mind. The entire crowd falling silent and then beginning to boo as a team with only two members walked up to be introduced by the announcer. It was in his favour that he had been in the tournament before as he vaguely remembered the layout of the arena. If he had gotten lost on top of being late he would never live it down. Yuki turned the corner that lead to the large circular hall connecting to each dugout. He wasn't sure which one his team had been assigned to wait in so he would have to check them all one by one.
“We're this way jackass.”
Yuki turned around to see Styx leaning against the wall with her arms folded.
“You're late!”
“Yeah sorry.”
“You should be. Don't leave me alone with Maria ever again. She does nothing but bounce around and make noise when she's excited. Like a puppy.”
“Sorry.”
Styx led him back to the dugout that his team and a few others had occupied. Maria jumped out in front of them and grabbed Yuki's arm.
“Yuki, Yuki! We're next!”
She pointed out towards the ring set up in the middle of the arena. There was a young man flying circles around the rings perimeter as three people walked from it back towards a dugout on the other side of the large building. Yuki let out a sigh.
“At least there is one person in this town that looks the way I remember.”
The young man floated back down the the ground level of the ring. He didn't touch the floor but lay sideways hovering a few feet above it. A crackle came over a large speaker system followed quickly a warm and familiar voice.
“And up next we have...”
Before the announcer could finish his sentence Maria had jumped off of the railing that divided the dugout from the arenas inner area and landed on the ground with a forward roll followed by a full speed dash to the center. Her two teammates made their way out properly using the stairs at the far end of the dugout and began to walk to the middle. Styx held her head in her hand the whole way. They didn't even make it a quarter of the way by the time Maria had finished her run and grabbed the microphone roughly from the announcers hand. She tapped the top of it sending three loud electronic bonk noises ringing through the arena's speakers.
“Have I got your attention? If not now is the time to wake up and start listening like the good little children I know you can be.”
She began to pace around the ring being sure to look all around the crowd for their reaction.
“Each and every one of you teams sitting around giggling you little school girl giggle... each of you that thinks your going to have fun, maybe make a few friends... You can feel free to leave now.”
Maria held the mic closer to her face and threw her arm in a wide arc across all the dugouts holding all the teams. Her face was deftly serious.
“Because I have bad new for all of you. This will be the most brutal competition this town has ever seen. The most dangerous fights you have ever been in. When you step in this ring your going to feel the fear weigh down on you... make you slow... it's going to feed on you. But that doesn't matter because I fear nothing and regret even less.”
Styx and Yuki finally made it to the edge of the ring and hopped up as Maria was finishing.
“So have you fun and make your friends while you can.”
Maria pointed up to the large board that held all the tournament info.
“But when you see your names on that board written across from ours just leave. Because we are the Black Cats, and when you cross our path your going to have a bad time.”
Yuki walked up behind Maria who was staring confidently into the crowd. She never even saw him wind up for the large smack he delivered across the back of her head. In surprise she dropped the mic which landed perfectly in Yuki's waiting hand below. Yuki repositioned the mic in his hand so the the handle pointed out and held it to Alto to take back which he did. Yuki looked over to Maria mildly annoyed.
“We were supposed to introduce ourselves, not cut a promo on the other teams.”
Without a hint of regret Maria gave back a dopey smile.
