A multitude of lights hung from the ceiling or were attached to the walls. Some were mounted on swivels allowing them to cast beams of light all over as they rotated while others remained motionless, their sole goal to illuminate the indoor arena. Several hundred people were in attendance, their bottoms planted onto plastic chairs as their gaze was fixed on the large screen at the front of the room. The voices of two men came through speakers strategically mounted throughout the arena as they commentated on what was happening on said screen. Lastly a pair of booths stood facing the crowd, each containing a single occupant and computer.
The first was a gangly looking boy, only fourteen or fifteen years old. The other, and the main reason these people had come here today, was someone who had advanced to that stage of life where she had ceased to be a girl and matured enough to considered an adult, physically at least. Her flowing mane of hair was almost the same shade as her brown eyes and a pair of trademark pink triangles were painted onto both of her cheeks. They were far from the only ones though as many of the people, both men and women, in the crowd had similarly shaped marks on their faces to show support of their favorite player.
A flurry of activity appeared on the screen and the announcers voices grew more estatic. The pace of the last several minutes had been slow but steadily growing in tension. Neither player had been willing to commit, instead preferring to engage in a slow dance. Move forward to threaten a base then withdraw when the opponent's army approached. A few potshots had been exchanged but nothing that couldn't be healed or regenerated by the shields that all Protoss units had. But now the steady buildup came to a halt as both sides hit the supply limit and were maxed out. Upgrades were still being researched but no more units could be made and it was only a matter of time until the battle came.
D'va stared at her monitor intently, her mouse practically a blur as it swiped back and forth across the pad while her other hand danced over the keys. It was almost a meaningless act at this point, there was nothing left to build but she was still spamming actions just to keep her APM number up.
Her army moved outwards from her third expansion, an assortment of infantry and mech with ships to support them. She flicked to the middle of the map and dropped a scan to try and spot her opponent's units. Empty. Then came the sound of combat and her adjutant's robotic voice warning her that her units were under attack. Warning beacons flashed on the minimap and she could see tiny red dots at each of her mining bases. Her opponent had just dropped high templar at each of them and her workers were falling to pieces even as he tried to micro them away, frantically flipping from one base to the next but she was too slow to save more than a handful.
Almost immediately afterwards another beacon appeared, this time on top of her army. D'va flicked over to the scene as the battle commenced but too slowly, Storms of psionic energy had already been dropped on top of her forces and the deathball was rushing in. She desperately tried to split the units up to avoid the AOE damage but it was too late. Her marines were dying and the tanks were at the mercy of zealots who had closed the gap and were happily slicing away. D'va's hands slowly came to a halt as the Protoss army rolled through to her newest expansion, destroying the mining base there as well as the command center she had just built for the next base she was planning to expand to.
Outside in the arena most of the crowd had fallen silent, stunned by what had just happened. There were still enough resources and gas left over to build a small army, but not one strong enough to fight the deathball tearing through her buildings. D'va, also known as Hana Song had erupted onto the scene a little over three years ago. A player who could compete at the highest levels as random, something that hadn't been seen since the earliest days of Brood War. Her rise up the ranks had been meteoric until had laid swiftly claim to being the top ranked player in the game. Since then she had been undefeated in every competition... until now.
This wasn't even a major event, just single elimination qualifiers for the GSL. It had been taken for granted that she would advance through these without any trouble. Her opponent was someone playing his first game on LAN, newly acquired by a pro-gaming team after seeing him compete online. His nerves had been so evident that he had put his headphones on backwards, much to the amusement of the crowd and announcers. Most of the people in the crowd didn't even know his handle and yet somehow he was the one who had broken D'va's legendary streak. The Queen of Starcraft had just fallen. To a nobody.
D'va put her hand on the keyboard and pressed down on the same letter twice. 'gg'
She was seated in an insulated booth, wearing circumaural headphones over a pair of earbuds in order to block out the noise of the crowd but she could still see them through the glass window. Some people were standing up to cheer while more were banging thundersticks together and she could see others pointing their phones and computer tablets in her direction. Then the worst happened. Her opponent had strode out onto the stage and was bowing to the crowd before pumping his fists in exultation. It wasn't enough to beat her, he was doing a ceremony, the lowest of the low was rubbing it in her face much to the delight of the audience.
D'va shoved her chair back from the desk and stood up, yanking her keyboard and mouse out of the computer by their cords. "You cocky piece of crap. I'm going to destroy you next time." D'va muttered to herself once she was facing away from the pane of glass and the crowd beyond it.
Normally her coach would be outside, ready to talk about the game she had just played. Usually that involved discussing her opponent and what they had tried to do to beat her. All-in's with workers, delayed all-in's, cannon or bunker rushes, the latest unorthodox unit combination someone had come up with to try and catch her off-guard. Sometimes people even tried to play her straight up but that was uncommon these days.
Her coach was still there but with an expression even more dumbfounded than the ones of the people in the audience. Three years of beating everyone and everything had left him sorely unprepared for this moment. D'va slowed to a halt as she approached him but all he did was stare at her. She huffed and shook her head irritably. "Fine." she bit off. "I don't need your help anyways!"
D'va stormed past him and out the backdoor. Screw her coach. Screw the interview. Screw her opponent. She was going back to the team house and she was going to practice. Three years undefeated? Screw that, she was going to go undefeated for ten years this time.
A white van was sitting outside in the parking lot, the logo of her team emblazoned on its side but D'va headed right past it. It was what all her teammates and coaches used to get to and from events but being the world's best Starcraft player had its perks. She pulled her keys and pressed the button to unlock her car's doors. The almost sickeningly bright pink Maserati flashed its lights and she heard the clunking sound of the locks disengaging. She sat down inside the sports car and leaned back in her seat, not bothering to put on her seat belt. "Back to the team house."
When the other members of her team competed the others would come along for support during the game, to celebrate when they won or to be there when they lost. They had done the same for her at first but after a year and a half of never losing they had begun to take her victories for granted. Why waste time they could spend practicing when she was always going to win?
Half an hour later her car pulled into the parking lot of her apartment complex. Hana stepped out of the car, locking it behind her as she headed to the elevator that would take her up to the top floor. Their team house, so to speak, consisted of two apartments. The larger of the two had been designated as the living quarters for the rest of the team. The second was where the coaches and D'va stayed, along with the practice room. She stopped in the apartment's foyer, slipping into a pair of slippers before sneaking a peek into the practice room. All the chairs were empty though half of the monitors were sitting on the Starcraft main menu and a pair of them were even paused on what looked like the same game as well. She smirked and shook her head. 'Wusses, all of them. Off hiding because I lost a game? Typical.'
D'va moved onto her bathroom, shutting the door behind her and making sure it was locked before dropping her pants to the floor. Several spots of crimson had seeped through the fabric and were plainly visible on the front of her underwear much to her annoyance. 'Losing today and now my flow's ruining my underwear. How many tampons am I going to need to this cycle?' She grabbed the box from underneath the sink and opened it up. One left. 'Great, now I have to go to the store.'
She grabbed the last remaining tampon and tossed the box aside. Just as she was starting to put the new one in someone had the audacity to knock on the door. "What!? I'm busy right now!" she yelled, not bothering to sugarcoat getting pissed that she was being interrupted, while in her bathroom.
"Hey Hana, it's Seo. I heard about the match. It's understandable if you're angry right now but the other coaches and I want to have a meeting today."
Hana yanked her pants up and buttoned them shut before opening the door. "Fine. We can have a meeting but I gotta go get some tampons from the store."
A woman in her late fifties or early sixties was standing outside, dressed in a dark jacket and black turtleneck beneath it. She raised one arm up, a rectangular cardboard box in hand, the same brand of tampons as the one Hana had just put in. Hana looked at it for a long moment then snatched them away but not without a muttered. "Thanks Seo..." She tossed it over her shoulder without looking, the box landing in the sink. "Fine, let's get to this meeting." Hana rolled her eyes once Seo's back was towards her as they headed towards the dining room.
Seo Eul Ji. There had been a time when she was the best woman in the game but that was back in the days when men and women played in separate leagues. KESPA had eventually merged them together and Seo soon found herself struggling to maintain the dominance she once had but not without victories over several notable players in the upper echelons. Eventually she had retired and become one of the best coaches in Starcraft, perhaps one of the best in any E-sport. Hana thoroughly enjoyed giving Seo a hard time but there was a definite kinship between them that she didn't have with the other coaches, beyond the fact that they were both women even. Hana might be the top Starcraft player now but without a woman like Seo paving the way she might never have gotten the opportunity to be a pro-gamer.
As they rounded the corner into the dining table Hana quickly realized it wasn't just the coaches attending this meeting. A man wearing a hand tailored suit made of fine gray wool was also sitting at the table. Lee Jae Yong, the teams owner and a former world champion in his own right. A folder sat on the table in front of him and the coaches seated to either side. Seo took a seat and folded her hands in front of her, not looking especially ecstatic to be here. Lee looked to his left and right before turning his attention to Hana. "Before we get started let me say that this is not meant to be an attack on you Miss Song. You've been the face of our team almost since the day we signed you and your win streak these last three years is the greatest run any player has ever had in Starcraft."
"Your dedication to the game is something to admire. You practice longer than everyone else on the team and you've demonstrated that you understand the game as well as any of us, if not better. However, over the past year the coaches and I have been having some concerns." He opened up the folder and started to pull out spreadsheets that he had compiled for this meeting. Lee slid them over to Hana's side of the table for her to look at. Each row of the spreadsheets had her name in the first cell, her opponent's name in the next, the date after that and finally a three digit number in the last.
"One of the things that we've noticed is that your APM has been slowly but steadily decreasing as of late. A year ago your average APM was four hundred and now it's down to just above two hundred, including spam actions. What happened in the game today is proof enough on its own. You didn't lose because he outplayed you, you lost because you couldn't react fast enough to what he was doing. A year ago this wouldn't have happened."
Lee took a deep breath, ignoring the fact Hana was trying to burn two holes into his face with her glare. "How long have you been hurting Miss Song?"
Hana scowled at him and slapped the table with both hands as she stood up to shout at them. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm fine! I've won every game the last three years and now you're coming down on me the second I lose!? I'm the star of this goddamn team! How many times have I carried us in the Proleague? How many trophies? How many all-kills? How many reverse all-kills? You guys wouldn't be anywhere without me!"
"Hana..." began Seo, her voice warmer than it would be with anyone else in the same position. She reached into her pocket and started setting bottles down on the table. Acetaminophen, naproxen, trolamine salicylate, ibuprofen. "You forgot that I use the same bathroom as you and I found some pills you spilled on the floor a week ago. How long have you been using these?"
Her initial reaction was to yell more, curse, threaten and cajole until they dropped the subject. It had worked in the past but she could see Lee's iron fist lurking behind Seo's velvet glove this time. Hana slowly sank back down into her chair, shoulders slumping in defeat. "A year and a half now."
"What hurts Hana?" asked Seo. Hana sighed and looked away, not wanting to answer the question. "Hana. What hurts?" repeated Lee, his voice harsher and more demanding of an answer now.
"My fingers and wrists. They've been getting sore after an hour or two of practicing." said Hana, unable to meet their gazes.
Lee shook his head disapprovingly. "I have a great deal of respect for your skill Miss Song but I cannot, I will not, lie and say I admire what you're doing. Pretending you aren't in pain, medicating yourself in secret, pushing your body until it begins to break down. I can understand where you're coming from however, and I'll admit I was even guilty of the same flaws at your age. My shoulder still bothers me on some days because I didn't take care of myself when I should have. I'm not going to let you make the same mistake I did. As of now I'm taking you off the active roster until your health improves. The other concern I have is that this situation might be a distraction to the rest of the players so I'm going to have to ask you to move out of the team house until the matter is resolved. We haven't started looking yet but we'll find an apartment for you within the next few days."
Hana started to stand up again but a warning look from Seo stopped in her tracks and she stopped short, hands on the chair's arms as if to push herself up. Lee started picking up the spreadsheets and putting them back in the folder. "Your salary will still be paid but you won't be allowed to play or practice until your doctor clears you." He pulled a card out of his shirt's breast pocket and held it across the table the table until a uncharacteristically mute Hana reluctantly took it. "Call that number and set up an appointment. I look forward to the day you're ready to compete again Miss Song."
Lee stood up and left the room, all the coaches but Seo following him out. The older woman remained seated at the table with Hana, neither of them moving for several minutes. Eventually Hana broke the silence. "You didn't tell them about the other things did you?"
The pills were an indication that something was wrong, that Hana had issues with pain and was trying not to feel it. But if Seo had found the bottles then it stood to reason that she had found the other, and far worse, paraphernalia.
"I don't know how you got your hands on cortisone injections though I guess that's why you always have a jacket or sweater on these days. Go to the doctor Hana or I'll be forced to do something that will hurt both of us." After that she was gone, leaving Hana alone with her thoughts and the number to the person who her career rested upon now.