As Zelgadis steps onto the lit circle, he feels the slight rush of adrenaline substitute, raising his senses to a more alert status, washing away all thoughts save that of the Game; it is at this point, and only at this point, that he ever feels truly alive. Lina steps onto the other circle, closing her eyes for a moment as she basks in a similar feeling, taking a deep breath, causing Zel to forcibly remove his eyes once again, then opening them, now shining with a competitive light. They both look into the other's eyes at that moment, recognizing the competitive spirit within the other, acknowledging it, and challenging the other. They finally look down toward their consoles, expecting to see the usual primary grid.
But instead, nothing, until a familiar voice is heard, "So the chimera and the sorceress want to play, do they?"
"Wha…?" Zelgadis and Lina say almost in unison.
"Sore wa himitsu desu!" replies the purple haired holographic head.
"Xellos…" Zelgadis starts in a warning tone.
"I know, I know," beside the first, another head appears; Zel finds staring at his own head very odd.
"Damn you Xellos! Stop screwing with my grids! I swear to you that I will refuse to play any game where you interfere in the very least!" the second head yells at Xellos. Chibi-Xellos cringes from it, waving his hands as if to fend off the angry Zelgadis. The real one begins to get the same look on his face as the holographic one.
Lina laughs, "You're cute when you're angry." This immediately changes Zelgadis' expression from the beginnings of anger to extreme embarrassment; he can't turn the typical fifteen shades of red, but he felt like it. As it is, he scrunches his shoulders and lowers his head, same as anyone else would be to accompany a blush. This sent Xellos into fits of laughter while Lina just smiles triumphantly at the success of her comment in causing his anger to retract.
"Can we get on with it?" Zel asks in an annoyed tone.
"Yes master, yes master!" Xellos says imitating and projecting a certain hunchbacked minion from an old horror movie, just before fading out.
"I wish he had a physical body, so I could beat it to a pulp." Zel comments wistfully, Lina nodding agreement.
"I take it you know each other?" Lina asks in an I-already-know-the-answer-but-I-want-to-know-more tone; Zelgadis just grunts in reply, "At least you have final say," attempting to cheer him out of the grunting only state.
Another grunt for answer, "Such a conversationalist!" She continues in an exaggeratedly cheerful voice, "Tell me, are you usually this dumb? …or were you just so struck by my beauty that your brain is suffering whiplash?" She smiles with obviously faked innocence when Zel started choking on the second questions, as it, to use an arcane idiom, hit the nail on the head.
He clears his throat in a 'get on with it' manner, "Can we get on with it before Xellos pops back in?" A sneeze sounds above the consoles, and Zel glares at the air it had issued from as Lina smiles at the old joke.
They finally get around to looking down at the primary grid. Zelgadis mentally grimaced; he'd gotten the letters, A: Naked, B: Tool, C: Machine, and D: Animal. She would choose from the numbers, 1: Physical, 2: Mental, 3: Chance and 4: Art, therefore setting the actual mode of competition. Zelgadis' analytical circuits kick into full gear as he considers all possible outcomes, factoring in the psychological information he had on his opponent. She might go for physical; they surely couldn't compare in that category, but she was hotheaded, and might feel the need to prove herself in an area where he would most likely defeat her. If he chose naked, that would pit them against each other in hand-to-hand combat, or a race of some kind, most likely; no contest. Tool wasn't any better; she might be a good swordswoman or get into a game that was all finesse, but unlikely if she were to choose physical; she would go for something requiring strength. Machine or animal would even it out, pending her unknown skills. If she chose mental? He would have a large advantage with his large memory banks that ran into before Proton/Phaze had been colonized. But he had already judged her as intelligent, if to no certain degree, so the mental category was a toss-up, whatever he chose. He wouldn't even consider chance; if she chose that, he wouldn't care who won anyways. Art? She would likely be at least fair at it, her natural human creativity most likely defeating him easily; he would be best to go with machine or animal there, since those particular cross-sections were almost all oddities.
So he chose animal, seeing that as the best choice for a good, even competition. Her selection had already been made; Physical, as he had thought. The 1D box expanded to fill the screen, showing a new grid. Across the top, unlit again, are 1: Separate, 2: Interactive, 3: Combat and 4: Cooperative. And down the side are A: Earth, B: Air, C: Fire and D: H2O, lit. If she followed the same pattern as before, it would be combat, pitting them into fighting animals of some kind against each other. The surface didn't really count for anything at this point; he was good at most of the animal combat games, and she, as per usual, is at an unknown state of skill. He selected air at random; the 3B square filled the screen, showing the empty tertiary grid. Lina had received the first choice at random; Dragon Dueling appeared in the middle square.
"How historic of you." Zelgadis remarks with a raised eyebrow.
"Aye, but nay; I am no Sheen, and methinks… hopes… thou'rt no purple." She replies with a mock-serious Phaze inflection, then smiles and switches back to Proton speech, "Closer to Blue or Translucent, I'd say."
"Surely thou flatter me, but not I, thee, when I say thy beauty surpasses that of the late Suchevvane in her youth." He fires back with the same inflection, smiling as she flushes at the extreme compliment, and… something else, amusement about something in the statement. Suchevvane was still considered the most beautiful woman to have ever existed, though now long dead; it was once said that if she walked by any male, and his head not be turned, then that head be blind.
"You're a liar." Lina tells him, grinning now.
"I must plead half-guilty; what is my punishment?"
"Let's just go, shall we?" she asks, catching the innuendo of the double meaning, muttering something about his having an intelligent posterior. Zelgadis grins at his victory in the verbal fencing, and returns to the grid; after playing it out, they come back to the first choice: Dragon Dueling. They take the game-slips and leave the booth, heading for the transport to Hardome, since the closest battlefield was there.
"Zelgadis… I have a condition for victory in this…" Lina says as the transport rockets out of the station; Zelgadis gives her a measuring glance, so she continues, "Next game, you play the grids to win, how 'bout it?"
"I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about." Zelgadis replies, looking anywhere but towards her.
"Playing dumb won't work twice."
"So I wanted a game rather than a concession, what's the crime in that?" Zelgadis answers innocently. His answer is shortly followed by an impressively colorful tirade on sexism and size-ism. It receives applause and calls of encouragement from the women and a few of the shorter men; Zelgadis just sits there and blinks, shocked.
"Besides," Lina says, in a mostly-normal voice, "I'm almost as strong as you are." This kept Zelgadis blinking until the transport stopped.
"My apologies, but you just don't look strong, for any species…" Zelgadis explains, jogging to catch up with her as the door closes just behind him.
"Maybe I was wrong; maybe you really are stupid." Lina says, not answering his not-quite-spoken question.
"Sorry to have made you angry, but perhaps I can ameliorate it by returning one of your previous remarks… 'You're cute when you're angry' was it?" Lina's angry flush disappeared in another low-reaching blush.
"Baka!" Lina elbows him in the stomach, proving her strength as Zelgadis feels the air leave his lungs; unfortunately, he was made of a stronger material.
"Itaiii!" Lina gripped her elbow, waiting for the pain to leave.
Another Bloody note: I thought Xellos and the GC of the later books had much in common... Next Time: Valgaav comes into the picture and a vampire appears!