The battle for the crown of the pairs contest was beginning to heat up.

Following Codi and Gareth's demolition of the pair from Zulu Forge, the next round continued to serve up no shortage thrilling encounters, and before long it was apparent that the field was tightening. Seeded pairs from big colonial rivals began to meet; crowds swelled around them, shaking the vast stadium with their feral support.

Despite one forfeit for the Academy as a whole, the number one seeds, Chris O'Leary and Ripple Thawborn continued to display their much vaunted pre-tournament form by smashing aside a pairing from Knossos City like a man swatting a fly. With them into the next round marched Joshua Bayden and Cardle North, the pair coming out on top of an intra-academy tussle with another Battlecast duo.

Codi noted with a small hint of satisfaction that Rokkie Thakkar's pairing from Firequake also advanced, carrying the standard for one of the fan favourites among the colonial academies. Despite his loss to her in the singles matches, Thakkar had rallied to win his next two, finishing second in the group to join her in the knockout stages as well. The brackets for the most highly anticipated event in the Gauntlet had yet to be announced, but she hoped she would get another chance to go toe-to-toe with the ferocious competitor.

However, it was their next opponents in the paired bracket that gathered Codi's full attention now. In a few minutes she and Gareth would take on the nineteenth seeded pair from Zazana Lake. A pair containing Arvin Lee.

Although the experts never paid much attention to that little colonial academy or its fighters, Arvin Lee had dug himself a special place in Codi's memory. He was the first person she'd ever fought in a Gauntlet match, and in that exchange she'd come of far the worse.

That was the old Codi James. Since then she had proved to a whole galaxy what she was capable of, but she'd never had a straight rematch with the kid from Zazana Lake. He and his partner had overcome their opponents from Thor's Wake Academy in the previous round, setting up a third round confrontation that she couldn't wait to get stuck into.

Good things come to those who wait, she thought as she and Gareth stood waiting at the Arena entrance.

The announcer's voice was already thundering around the bell-chamber of the main arena, generating surges of noise from the crowds contained within. Standing alongside them, Thradd folded his arms and leaned impassively against the doorframe.

"You two know the drill," he said. "Nothing fancy in there. These two got to where they are by fighting solid and straight. They'll come at you nice and simple."

"I like simple," Gareth replied, nodding slowly.

"Simple doesn't mean easy." Thradd jerked his head towards the Arena. "They made it this far. Don't take your foot off the gas, alright?"

"Would I do a thing like that?" Codi smiled sweetly.

The grizzled old coach chuckled. "I guess not." He looked at the Gauntlet attendant then back to them. "Good luck. See you in the next round." Codi nodded, bumped fists with Gareth, and together they loped out into the light of the Arena.

The familiar, benevolent thunder of the Battlecast crowds poured out over them, and Codi came to a halt, eyes flashing to take in the construct for the next match. The surface itself was a flat sheet of burnished metal, but littered with a forest-like arrangement of rectangular metal pylons, each one constructed of a lattice of metal tubes. Some were little more than stumps, others loomed over a dozen meters high. There were even some that hung in mid-air suspended by the invisible bands of gravity tethers.

Through the mesh of metal she spied their next opponents. Arvin Lee hadn't changed since she last saw him; a squat individual, built like a beer keg, with a shaved dome of a head that shone under the arena lights. According to the roster his companion was named Gina Pele. She was a sturdily-built girl with deep, dark skin, who stood a little shorter than her male counterpart, and sported a long tail of black, braided hair.

All in all, they made a pretty good match.

She glanced at Gareth. "What do you think?"

"Thradd said nothing fancy." He shrugged. "Go in hard and knock 'em for six. We can go toe-to-toe."

"I like your thinking." Baring a vicious smile she thumped him on the breastplate and then turned to the crowds, waving her arms upward to generate even more noise. The fans obliged and in a matter of seconds the Arena rumbled with the thunder of thousands of voices. Satisfied with the volume, Codi turned and locked eyes with their opponents, hooking her mouth into a smirk.

"Let's do it."

The all-too-familiar shriek of the Arena klaxon launched both Battlecast fighters out into metal forest in a blur of blue and cyan. She felt Gareth tuck in behind her as she took the lead, close enough to keep the tether slack as they jinked their way through the metal maze. She caught a glimpse of the deep blue exoskeletons, their shoulders streaked with red, flashing through the towers ahead of them.

Codi twisted to intercept them. "Up and over," she hissed over her shoulder.

"Gotcha," Gareth confirmed instantly.

Keeping her sharp eyes focused on the burst of colour she could catch between the metal pillars, Codi wove towards them with Gareth close on her heels. A moment later they rounded another bend in the forest and came face to face with their opponents.

Arvin Lee was out in front, just like she'd hoped. With a growl of exertion she dropped to one knee, at the same time snapping the gravity tether tight, and pulled hard. The resulting force whipped Gareth over her shoulder like a ball and chain, and his weight increased to maximum as he smashed into the other boy with a leading shoulder.

The force knocked him flat and sent him skidding across the floor. The girl, Pele, twisted and caught the tether to stop Lee from flying too far, but Codi was on her before she could do anything else. A thunderous uppercut lifted Pele off her feet and threw her into the nearest scaffold.

To her credit, she kept her head and latched onto the metal construct when she hit it, preventing a painful fall. Codi was about to follow her up, when an animal roar split the air, dragging her attention to the male competitors.

Arvin Lee had recovered, and clearly didn't like being knocked to the ground. He charged wildly, burying a shoulder into Gareth's stomach and carrying the Battlecast fighter several steps before Gareth managed to twist and shift his weight, planting his feet against the ground. The fighter from Zazana lake drove his feet onward, but Gareth used the momentum, wrapping an arm around Lee's neck and heaving. A snarl of exertion ripped from his throat and Codi watched in amazement as he tipped backwards, lifting the other fighter off the ground and flipping him head over heels. At the last second he released his hold and sent his opponent hurtling into one of the scaffolds, buckling the metal with a crash of impact.

Reacting fast, Codi latched the tether tight and gave a single sharp yank that hauled Gareth back to his feet. Then she released the tether and swung back the other way, just in time to meet Lee's team-mate, who'd launched herself off the railing, with a barnstorming swipe to the jaw.

The girl howled in pain as she took the full force of the blow, the sheer force spinning her sideways. Codi was about to follow up, when a sudden yell from Gareth pulled her attention back.

"Swing!"

Looking up to the sound of his voice, she saw that he'd clambered up to the top of a nearby scaffold, knees braced to hold her weight. She knew what he wanted her to do, and the idea sent her pulse pounding. With both fighters from Zazana picking themselves up, she burst into motion, sprinting in quick circles around the pillar to build up momentum.

Gareth turned with her and when she'd wound up enough speed, she jumped, increasing the weight of her exoskeleton to maximum. Her team-mate clung on and swung her like a wrecking ball, straight into Arvin Lee.

Both her feet crashed into his chest plate, sending lightning bolts of pain through her legs, but the result was beyond what even she'd expected. Lee's considerable bulk was fired backwards as though he'd been shot out of a cannon, and when he inevitably struck one of the climbing scaffolds he broke it in half. His team-mate was wrenched along for the ride as he crashed through three of the metal towers before coming to a halt, half buried under a pile of broken pipes and metal.

*

"That was quite a display," Ripple said between sips of her iced water. "I didn't think those scaffolds could actually break."

Codi grinned. Not long after she'd used Arvin Lee as a piece of demolition apparatus, she and Gareth had finished off the pair from the minnow academy, advancing into the last sixteen of the paired brackets with style. She raised her coffee to the other girl in acknowledgement.

"Thanks. Who knows, if we keep this up maybe we can have a Battlecast showdown for the title."

"Won't that be fun," Chris O'Leary chuckled. "Who'd you get in the sixteen?"

"Firequake," Gareth interjected. "That nutcase with sword tattoo on his face and one of his crazy buddies."

A little kernel of excitement swelled in Codi's chest at the prospect. Another match with Rokkie Thakkar would certainly get her adrenaline flowing. She reminded herself, however, that it would also be an important test of her and Gareth's abilities. So far, their bracket had been relatively soft, but the team from Firequake were genuine contenders for the title.

"What about you guys?" she asked, wrapping her hands around the coffee mug. Currently the four Battlecast fighters had taken a moment of respite from the constant controlled chaos of the Gauntlet to get some refreshments and decompress in the mess area.

"We've got Alpha Centuri – fifth seeds," Ripple told them impassively. Codi waited for further comment, but evidently there was none to come. Ripple just relaxed back into her seat, taking another sip from the crystalline glass.

She knew a little of the Alpha Centuri pairing in question – the male fighter, Norv Davies, had climbed to the sixth seed in the singles matches alone and was one of the outside title prospects. It seemed that the next round would also be Chris and Ripple's toughest test yet.

Tough or not, she didn't have any doubts that Battlecast's top-seeded pairing would do what they'd done all tournament long: smash any illusions that they wouldn't be taking the trophy home. She smiled and picked up her mug. The coffee was halfway to her lips when she caught a dark shape out of the corner of her eye that made her pause.

"Hold that thought," she murmured absently. Turning her head to look, she saw, with a stab of surprise, that Keefer Darkwood was moving through the cafeteria.

Alone.

"What is it?" Ripple asked, but Codi's attention was already locked onto the thug from Black Horizon.

It was definitely him – his frame rising above the hubbub like the tip of an iceberg as he skimmed the edge of the room. He wasn't wearing his exoskeleton either, clad in a simple black t-shirt and matching track-bottoms.

"Codi..."

All the anger she'd managed to bottle up through the last round of fights came roaring back with a vengeance at the sight and she stood up, her coffee forgotten. Before anyone could stop her she set off in pursuit of the enigmatic giant who'd thrown the whole tournament upside down.

Dodging between bodies as he exited the room, she moved as fast as she could through the throng. Swerving a pair of chattering fighters in green uniforms, Codi bounded over the threshold and saw her quarry disappear down a hallway to her right. Not wanting to lose him, she darted over to the passage Keefer had taken.

To her relief she saw him striding along without a care in the world and from the look of it he was heading for the lower levels of the Arena, in the direction of the Lock-Tech storage areas. She shoved the question of what he might want there out of her mind. Right now there were more immediate charges to be answered.

Waiting until they had both cleared the main hubbub of the upper levels, she increased her pace, and shouted down the empty passage, "Keefer Darkwood!"

Her voice echoed through the white-washed hall, the only sound above the faint hum of activity on the upper levels. Keefer, paused for an instant and cast a single furtive glance back over his shoulder. But then, to her surprise, he kept walking, his pace increasing sharply. With her brows drawing into a frown, Codi set off in pursuit, hands balling into tight fists by her sides.

"Hey," she barked. "I'm talking to you."

Still he didn't turn, his long limbs sweeping him down the passage towards the nearest connecting door. She wasn't willing to let this chance slip by, however, and broke into a run to catch up to the towering, shadowy figure ahead. Just as Keefer reached out to press the door release she lunged toward, covering the panel with one hand and pivoting her body to bar his path.

"Not so fast," she snarled.

Keefer stepped away from her sharply and to her amazement she saw his eyes were wide with something that might have been fear. It was almost enough to put her off. Almost.

"So, got somewhere to be, big guy?" she challenged.

Keefer blinked, as though confused. "Can I help you?"

"I don't know." She folded her arms, taking a step forward. "Maybe you'd like to explain why you're going out of your way to injure the people from my academy?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Codi felt her anger flaring. "Don't lie to me. Anyone watching can see it."

"I'm...I'm just competing," he stammered, and the look on his face was so completely genuine that Codi couldn't square it with his actions.

She looked at him as though he were insane. "You broke my team mate's leg in your singles match, for no reason. You'd already won that fight. In the Mayhems you deliberately hunted for our competitors. That's not just competing."

"It's Codi, right?" He shook his head, uncomprehending. "I was told that Battlecast were the ones to look out for, that's all. I'm not really sure what I'm being accused of."

"How about unnecessary violence in the arena?" she snarled. "You can hide behind the stewards for as long as you want, but we can all see it."

Still Keefer didn't seem to register what she was talking about. His expression turned almost vacant as he replied. "I'm just...fighting."

"With Battlecast's old coach egging you on every step of the way?" She gave a derisive snort. "How stupid do you think I am?"

Then, to her amazement, he swallowed hard and gave a small nod. "I guess I'll try and be more careful."

She blinked. This conversation had taken a turn she really hadn't anticipated. For a moment she just stood there, staring at him. She'd braced herself for a fiery confrontation; even a fist-fight if it came to that, but here before her was just a big, sheepish giant who didn't look like he wanted to even be here.

"I'm sorry if you're offended," he continued quietly. "It's just...we were warned that Battlecast were the best fighters we were going to come up against, and if we wanted to beat them we had to fight harder. That's all – I promise you."

Codi didn't want to believe it. The violent side of her wanted to have it out with him, but right now, looking at him, she couldn't shake the feeling of utter sincerity that hung on his every word.

"Just watch yourself, okay?" she growled eventually. "I'll be waiting for you in the knockouts, and if you hurt anyone else on my team, I'll do worse to you. Are we clear?"

"I'll keep that in mind." Keefer gestured tentatively to the door controls. "Now, if you've made your point, can I...?"

Bemused, Codi let her arm drop and stepped aside. Then she just stood there, watching as the door opened and Keefer Darkwood strode away down the passage, trying to put the pieces together.