Chapter 149:

Once they got to the hotel, they each did their own thing for a few hours, and then, they met up in the lobby - the ones who were going to the party that was.

It was only Win, Igor and Ace, Noelle was resting in her room, and the others did not want to go out the night before their final fights.

They got in the car, and Ace gave the address to the driver, it took them about 15 minutes of driving to get there, a large house, music pouring out from it. They got out of the car, and walked to the front gate, which was swung open. There were people everywhere, but somehow, they were spotted instantly, a few big guys - meatheads, most definitely, came up to them menacingly. "Why are you here.", one said, attempting to square up to Igor, who, unfortunately, was much bigger than him. Igor just smiled and looked at Ace, asking him without words if they should back down. Ace was about to shake his head, when a voice came out of nowhere.

"Ace! You actually came, good stuff man, hey guys, chill, he's with me, plus, you would not be able to stop him, he was the one that took down Chain and LJ, on his own, and he did not even get hit.", he gave the two big guys a grin, and they walked off, muttering about 'stupid Tobias'.

Tobias noticed the two people that were with him, and Ace explained, "The only ones who could come, unfortunately, Igor,", he said, pointing at him, "and Win. You should probably warn your boys to be careful, these guys don't enjoy violence,", a lie, but a necessary one nonetheless, for it to have the appropriate outcome, "but they don't back down, and they aren't weak sprouts."

Tobias squinted his eyes, but then nodded, "You guys are calm now, you are in, so nobody will mess around, if they gave you shit, just say your name's Sculpture, they know the stories.", Ace arched his eyebrow at the nickname, but Tobias just waved his hand.

"Well, you can get drinks from wherever, but you should probably get the guys at the bar to mix you something, you can choose what you want, and they won't spike it. They make some mean stuff to be honest, I recommend the mojitos. And, Ace, can you come with? There's someone who wants to meet you.", he said, as he walked into the house.

This was clearly a college party, there were people everywhere, all with drink in hand, getting up to various forms of f*ckery. Ace had to step over a multitude of things, from plastic glasses to… 'Anyway, let's see who it is he wants me to meet, the boss from the gang or something?'

They then went in through a hallway that was definitely quieter, here, there were people making out or just outright getting on. Tobias opened a door, and Ace went in, it was actually an office, and sat in a comfortable chair, looking through something on his phone, was someone who looked like Tobias' older brother, he was pretty big, but more muscle than fat. He looked at Tobias and Ace, and smiled, surprisingly having a kind smile.

"Hey, bro, let me talk with Ace for a minute, you know what it is I'm gonna ask. Tell them to get the beer pong table set up, I'll go out now, I was just finishing up a paper.", he smiled at Tobias, and he nodded, walking out of the door.

Then, the brother turned to Ace, and offered his hand - a firm hold, with just the right amount of strength, Ace matched it, but it did not seem to surprise the other at all.

"Harold, sorry, my Politics professor is kind of annoying, I had to finish some extra work.", he smiled, "Well, before anything, I wish to thank you for meeting up with me, I know you did my brother a solid, and I also want to thank you for that.", he paused shortly, "I also wanted to congratulate you, the winner of the freshman Arena Tournament, it was not even a challenge, I guess that explains how you dealt with them so easily. Also, say congrats to Igor and Win, they both won, right?", Ace nodded, still curious where this is going.

"Well, that's pretty much it, I know you are not gonna be in the city for much longer, only about a week or so, but we have pretty insane parties every day, especially on Friday and Saturday, that's when it gets pretty crazy. You are free to come and go, now, let's go, have some fun.", he smiled, and opened the door, walking out and into the party.

It was a crazy experience, Ace did not drink or do any sort of drug, he was not stupid enough to do so. There was no need to do so anyway, things were fun as is, he admired all the people, and the things he got up to. Girls and even some boys came up to him, but soon realised he was not interested. They looked pretty displeased, but Ace just wanted to make sure his friends were ok, Win had gotten absolutely sh*tfaced, and was now dancing with a group of girls. Igor was playing Beer-Wrestle, he would arm wrestle someone, and if you lost, you had to chug a can of beer, the person who won three in a row was the winner.

It was an interesting game, everyone was pretty much equal, at least until they got about four beers in them, after that, the drinkers were separated, some got angrier, some got more serious, whilst others just began to bawl their eyes out. Regardless, Igor was able to win, only getting a bit tipsy, which considering how much he had drunk, was pretty crazy. However, it all made sense to Ace, Igor had told him of drinking Vodka with his family, and to be fair, his constitution was not a normal one, even if he was 14.

It was like this for a bunch of the night, Ace just having fun looking at the ridiculous things people did, while the other two were just enjoying themselves by doing those things.

At about two in the morning - early compared to pretty much everyone else there, Win dropped cold to the floor, and Igor was now even more tipsy, bordering on drunk.

Ace grabbed his two friends, and carrying Win like a sack of potatoes, walked out of the door, people waved and shouted goodbyes, until they got in the car, and went home.

***

The morning after, Ace woke up at the usuuall time, going for his workout, and then having a shower and getting some breakfast. Today was the day of Nai and Brom's finals, and they were pretty much all set to win it. Nai knew her opponent like the back of her hand, and Brom was a direct counter to his, a girl who used her agility and speed to launch barrages of kicks and strikes at weak points.

Zach would be fighting in the semi-finals, and had already been notified whom he would be fighting in the morning: Suspect 2. He was not too worried, since he had learnt the file to a T, and had created a multitude of strategies to deal with him.