The Multiversal Tournament was the start of many things. It was the very first event of its kind; a contest where the participants were gathered from across the multiverse. It had made history by crowning the first ever multiversal champion, even if that title was more a source of pride than anything. And thanks to said champion's wish, it was the start of many extraordinary relationships among its 16 contestants. But life must go on, even for them. Just with a few new interdimensional friends by their side. That's where this story begins: With two hot-blooded rivals training side by side deep in a mountain range in Universe 2.
"METAL… KICK!"
Yet another crack in the cliff wall was formed as the spirited automaton struck it with his completely ordinary jump kick. 6 months ago during the tournament, this simple attack had only managed to land a total of once. Every other time it had been endured, avoided or - more than anything - countered. So this, together with all the practising of new moves and honing of his reaction time, had been Prime's main focus over the last couple of days. After all, it was his go-to physical move unrelated to his swords; he couldn't simply let it keep missing.
Barring the occasional grunting or heavy breath, his nearby companion wasn't quite as vocal. But his training was equally intense, and while his reptilian biology meant he wasn't sweating it was still clear that Goh'ji was pushing himself to his limits like always. The tournament had proven that he still had ways to go as a martial artist, and thanks to the magical bracelets granted by the winning wish he could work towards that together with the one who felt the same way he did. So just like every month, Goh'ji and Prime were fighting back to back against their own limits. This time on the former's home turf.
"So, my friend, are you getting tired yet? Because I can keep fighting for much longer still!" Goh'ji shouted over towards his rival, although his rough voice couldn't hide the fact that he wasn't quite as fresh as he claimed.
"Pal, you know I can't get tired like you can! I'm just getting started!" Prime answered fiercely.
Prime's statement was only partly true. He had no stamina that could run out, that was indeed correct. But his main core could only keep working at full intensity for so long - as long as he kept burning power faster than said core could generate it, he would in fact get tired like Goh'ji could. That very same robotic nature of his also meant that he, unlike the organic Goh'ji, couldn't train to improve his strength or speed. Which meant that all he could focus on was honing his skills. But in his book, skill and experience outranked everything. With enough grit and ability, even the highest of walls could be toppled.
Of course, all the positive thinking in the world didn't change the fact that both warriors were just about out of steam; it was high time for a break. And so the two rivals tensed up to gather what remained of their energy in order to finish this session in style. In other words, those battered logs that they'd been mercilessly attacking were about to feel the power of their new special moves.
"HAAAAH!" Goh'ji shouted as he lunged towards the dead tree stump he'd been furiously beating for the last half hour.
After running towards the thick log, the Dragonborn skidded to a halt as he tensed up his legs and tail for a high jump. Mere moments after taking to the air, he raised his right leg upward as far as he could while sparking ki gathered around his foot. And with another intense grunt, Goh'ji struck the log with a thunderous boom as the heavy axe kick was delivered. Now he could fall on his behind to catch his breath without any regrets, even if said kick had left him with a very aching foot.
"PLACEHOLDER… ATTACK NAME!" Prime yelled as he rushed towards the heavily sliced-up tree trunk.
His need for loud announcements aside, the robot put all his remaining focus towards taking off into a full-speed dash on the spot. Going from standing still to full speed immediately was still a work in progress - particularly the part where he had to match the timing of his thruster ignition with his leg hydraulics - but he was getting there. And in the blink of an eye Prime had not just reached the tree trunk, but slashed clean through the side of it. Of course, with all that momentum he still ended up tripping into a less than elegant rolling crash. Clearly the Placeholder Attack Name™ still had some kinks to work out.
"Owww… damn, that one was rough. But I think I'm starting to get cl- OW!" Prime whimpered as he grabbed his right arm.
As Goh'ji looked over towards his foolhardy rival, he let out a deep sigh. It appeared that Prime was fine overall - he was merely suffering from his equivalent of a heavily scraped arm - but even he could see that the robotic fighter had trouble restraining himself. Maybe that's what he needed to work on first, not another special attack. Though for now, the Dragonborn simply motioned towards their little camp a few metres behind them.
"So… a break, then?"
A few moments later, the two rivals found themselves recuperating at their campsite. Barring a makeshift wind shelter, a couple bedrolls, an almost depleted set of rations for one person and a smouldering campfire, said campsite wasn't much to look at. But it did its job just fine. Although Goh'ji had chosen a great spot; there was a small spot of greenery just a stone's throw away, which housed a lush and sturdy tree overlooking a steep cliff. A cliff which offered a fantastic view of the wild forests and barren fields that the wandering Dragonborn called home. And with said tree smack-dab in the middle of the verdant zone atop the cliffside, the tired martial artists had something to lean against while gathering their thoughts.
"Are you certain that you'll recover? Will putting a metal sheet on top really help in curing that wound of yours?" the puzzled Goh'ji asked.
"Don't sweat it, buddy! I have an auto-repair system, remember? All I need is some raw material, a new coat of paint and some good night's rest and I'll be fine before you know it!" Prime confidently responded as he pressed the thin steel sheet against his scraped arm.
The automaton had many revolutionary systems keeping him going, but among the most spectacular was the one that allowed him to artificially mimic a living being's healing factor. All Prime had to do to fix minor injuries was to treat any source of metal like a plaster, although his occasional grunt and pained expression hinted that it still stung. But all in all it was a trivial process, at least to him. Trivial enough for him to eventually put the matter aside in favour of the other things on his mind.
"Say, Goh'ji… there's something I've been wondering about for a while. We've known each other for about half a year now, and somehow I don't think I've ever really asked this. If I may ask… why do you fight? Like what's your reason for continuing to reach greater heights?" Prime suddenly asked, his tone going from his usual enthusiasm to a surprisingly pondering one.
Just like most of Prime's exclamations, this question had practically come out of the blue. So it was no wonder that Goh'ji was left stunned for a moment - partially because he hadn't expected such an existential question, partially because he struggled to understand why his friend seemed to think he wanted to climb steadily higher mountains. His grasp on metaphors hadn't improved much since the tournament.
"As in why you keep training to improve your skills" Prime hastily added, having briefly forgotten to consider his friend's slow thought process.
That one Goh'ji could understand. The Dragonborn slowly gazed out over the vast wilds below the duo, as if gathering his thoughts. But eventually he seemed to come to an answer, which he showed with a deep smile as he leaned back against the tree. And as his eyes turned towards the blue afternoon sky, he began to answer Prime's curiosity-fueled question.
"I don't think there is one complete answer to that, my friend. But I do have a few reasons, and I believe the best one to start with would be my upbringing. As I'm sure you've realised, I'm fairly thin for a Dragonborn and - compared to the rest of my clan - somewhat short as well. And since my clan prides themselves on their brutish strength and warrior ways, I could never live like they do without being ridiculed at best. But my parents were going to make me a warrior no matter how much I protested. So that's why I started to study the Way of the Open Hand - as a way to spite them. I would prove that I could be the greatest warrior of them all, but not by following their thoughtless rules and orders" Goh'ji laid out.
The memory of his life in the Daardenrian clan, a clan of wandering Dragonborn ruffians, wasn't a memory that Goh'ji looked back upon too fondly. As far as he was concerned, it was a part of his life that he'd put far behind him. A part symbolised by a family that had nothing in common with him anymore - actually, he wasn't sure that they'd ever had anything in common in the first place.
"But what started as a rebellious act quickly became an obsession. It didn't take much time before I spent almost every moment training to improve my skills, and the remaining moments were spent on finding ways to train secretly without my mother finding out. It became a living pathway, as I believe you put it" the Dragonborn continued.
"I think you mean 'way of life', pal. But don't mind me, keep going!" Prime chimed in, quickly correcting his literal-minded rival.
The robot was otherwise listening intently to the story - everything else around him might as well have been a blur. The tale of how his greatest rival became who he is… this was something he didn't want to miss a second of.
"Eventually I became old enough to leave home, which I did as soon as possible. I haven't seen my parents since then, and I don't regret that. One thing out in the world led to another, and eventually I found myself at a college. I don't remember all the details about how I got there, just that somebody I passed by mentioned that they had a course in martial arts. It wasn't until I'd already enrolled in the bard course - the only one I was able to get into without any previous education - that I learned that they merely had a couple guidebooks in their archives, not a full apprenticeship. And with a student loan that expensive, I figured I might as well stay and learn all I could about the musical arts to make it all worth it. And it was a very good thing I did, because it was there I met some very good friends" Goh'ji reminisced, visibly getting more and more content the further into the sentence he got.
"Their names were Trallexander and Cas, both of them being in the same class as me. And they never treated me differently because of my love for martial arts, even if they could sometimes be annoyed at my 'simple mind' as they called it. They were the first people that I could be myself around, as I believe you say. Anyway, it was during my time there that I realised that this… this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Fighting new opponents and improving myself as much as I'm able to - there's simply nothing better to strive for. But you already know that as well as I do" Goh'ji continued, with Prime nodding eagerly as an answer.
"But like I said, when we graduated we all had very high student loans to pay off. So one of us - I can't remember who - had the idea of forming something like an adventuring group, and travel together to earn enough money to solve that issue. So that's what we did: Travel from town to town, occasionally playing music in local taverns or working as mercenaries. But eventually, we found that we all had things we wanted that could only be accomplished alone. So we said our goodbyes and promised to meet again, then left to travel on our own. And that's what I've been doing over the last year or so - wandered around without any destination to arrive at, just looking for as many fights and challenges as I can" Goh'ji finished, all with a bittersweet look of melancholy on his face.
"Damn, they sound like good people. You ever miss 'em?" Prime responded, his thoughtful tone proving how intrigued he had been with his rival's life story.
The scaled warrior had certainly gone quite off-track: Prime had just asked what drove Goh'ji on as a fighter, not about his whole upbringing and school years. But the construct didn't seem to care. He'd gotten to hear about his eternal rival's origin in the form of an elaborate retelling - Goh'ji might not have been the brightest, but he sure knew how to sound professional and use fancy words. Prime chalked it up to the Dragonborn's years studying in college.
"I do, quite often. But I don't regret anything about our decision. They would've never accomplished their own goals if they followed me around, and neither would I if I did the same for them. I just hope that they've been more successful in paying off their student loans than I have" Goh'ji sighed.
The Dragonborn stood up to look out over the vast horizon. The duo had been here for a while, and the story had taken longer than he'd expected; the blue sky had started to show hints of orange. Goh'ji took a deep breath as he admired the view before him, before turning around to face Prime. He still had a question to answer, after all.
"So I suppose that's the answer. I fight not just because it's the single greatest fun I could ever have or because I want to improve myself as much as possible, but also because I'm grateful to my two old friends. By doing what they believed I could do, I can remember them and the time we spent together. It's a way to honour them, I think you could say!" the blue-scaled martial artist exclaimed.
Prime simply sat there in silence for a moment. A moment which did not last very long; the robotic martial artist suddenly burst out into a short but heartfelt fit of laughter.
"And here I thought I couldn't respect you more! Not just a perfect opponent and training partner, but a model student and undying friend too? Aaah, you're almost making me feel lacking here!" Prime laughed, clearly satisfied with the answer.
"Lacking? I… didn't accidentally break one of your parts during the warm-up, did I?" the literal-minded Dragonborn worriedly asked.
Seeing his friend's signature confusion, this time combined with a hint of concern, caused Prime to let out a small chuckle. Now it was his turn to explain his reasoning and drive, even if it was far shorter than Goh'ji's life story.
"Nope, I'm just saying that compared to you my reason to fight is much less elaborate. You fight because you cherish your friends' memories and because you find it fun, I just do it because… well, there's nothing I love more in all the multiverse. I don't fight to please anyone else, to prove a point or to be the strongest one out there. Just to be the best I can possibly be, and to have as much fun as I can in the time I have before I'll go offline. Even if that's probably still many decades from now" Prime elaborated.
He leaned back against the sturdy tree again with his arms behind his head, letting out a content sigh as he gazed towards the steadily setting sun.
"It's a bit ironic, really. Abby says she made me to find my own identity and explore all of life's possibilities, but I ended up finding my true calling pretty much instantly. Almost instinctively, even. But I don't really care if it's that simple - it just means I never really had to ponder much about the reason I exist. Just give me a good fight and I already have all I could ask for" the automaton declared.
Goh'ji hadn't quite understood every word Prime had said, but the meaning behind them was crystal clear. And just like the robot was filled with reaffirmed respect for his rival, so was he. Right now, he wanted nothing more than just let this moment last as long as possible. This moment of the duo, one standing up and the other leaning against the tree, gazing over the sunset while enjoying the other's company. Nothing else was needed. But eventually the moment, like all good things, ended. In the form of Prime and Goh'ji sharing a fist bump. Their friendship might have been solidified and the view might have been awe-inspiring, but the break had lasted long enough.
"Let's go again!" Prime eagerly proposed as he maintained the fist bump.
"You're on!" Goh'ji responded, using one of the few metaphors he'd managed to grasp.
With Prime's scraped arm mostly taken care of, the two went right back to training. And despite this training session lasting until long after dark, the next morning they were both already up and running. Goh'ji was used to early mornings thanks to years of holding himself to a strict training regimen, while the robotic Prime didn't need to sleep in the same way organic people do. Which meant that when the sun had just risen above the horizon, the duo were already almost done with dismantling their little campsite. Prime had been away for several days now after all - it was high time to head on home to Universe 6.
"Is that everything you brought here? You haven't forgotten anything?" Goh'ji asked as he put out the smouldering remains of the campfire.
Prime simply patted his backpack as a response. He had his spare metal "plasters", his grindstone for the swords, emergency power charges and his volume of The Blue Blur - his favourite comic that he'd brought to read during downtime - in the bag, his swords were sheathed and accounted for and his bedroll was tied down on top of the backpack. Everything a super fighting robot might need for a road trip.
"Yup, so I think we're all set to go. If I hurry I might still see Ashes for a moment before she and Abby are finished with their little tea party!" Prime chuckled as he and Goh'ji started walking.
"Ah, do say hello from me if you do! So have you had a chance to fight her yet? She's still on my list of challenges to overcome too, you know!" Goh'ji eagerly asked.
Prime merely chuckled. The notion of fighting the other semifinalist of the tournament was about as exciting to Goh'ji as it was motivating, so when his at least equally fighting-ready friend shook his head the Dragonborn was left quite surprised.
"And steal Abby's perfect sparring partner away from her? Nah, I don't think so. Trust me, fighting her would be an absolute blast - as in, it would be really fun - but I'll stick to training alone or with you for the moment!" the automaton responded, optics still on the road ahead.
This response was enough for Goh'ji to stop walking, which in turn caused Prime to do the same. And one look at the Dragonborn's face was enough to tell you why. Prime's declining of a fight, especially one that was practically served on a silver platter, had caused his rival to become very perplexed. Maybe even a bit worried.
"But why would you say no to that? Actually, now that I think about it… you haven't done any actual fighting in months, have you? We have just trained every time we've met up so far, and I know you would've told me about any thrilling battle you'd partaken in. But you haven't. Prime, is something wrong?" the reptilian warrior wondered.
Prime stood still for a second or two, followed by another small fit of lighthearted laughter. The robot turned around to place a steely reassuring hand on his rival's shoulder, before making his behaviour clearer.
"Nope, nothing is wrong with me. As a matter of fact, my entire body is practically itching for a real fight. But I'm gonna stay strong and wait. Because when the inevitable next tournament comes around, it's gonna be so much more fun if I've saved myself up for it! Trust me, it will be all worth it!" Prime giddily laid out.
Upon hearing this, Goh'ji let out an exasperated sigh. He was of course happy that Prime was still himself, but even he occasionally found the robot a bit unbelievable. Of course, that was part of the reason he liked him so much.
"You really are an intense optimist, Prime. Another tournament would be fantastic, but if they were planning another one I think we would have known by now. Maybe there has already been one, but with only entirely new contestants. I'm just saying that you probably shouldn't limit yourself for something that might not happen, but knowing you I'm guessing you're not going to reconsider" Goh'ji replied while shaking his head with a smile.
Like he usually was when it came to Prime, Goh'ji was absolutely right. Even if there was simply a 1% chance of another multiversal tournament happening, then in Prime's mind it might as well have been a 100% chance. And until the day when that dream would be realised, he would keep training to test himself against the best of the best once again. Even if it wouldn't happen until a century later. That was just the way Prime rolled.
About an hour of eager chatter and loud laughter later, Prime and Goh'ji had reached the foot of the mountain range. To their left; a dirt road leading nowhere but the uncharted wilds. To their right; the very same road, only with a city just barely visible on the horizon.
"Well then, I think this is where I'll leave you. Fight well, and let's meet up again next month like usual! At my place this time!" Prime exclaimed while reaching out his hand for another fist bump.
Goh'ji didn't waste a second answering the gesture, grinning all the while.
"Very well, my friend! Goodbye for now, and say hi to Abigail - and Ashes, if she's still there - for me!" the Dragonborn eagerly responded.
Prime simply gave a fierce nod for an answer, before holding out his right arm in front of him facing the road to the city. As he closed his eyes and thought of home, a by now very familiar green bracelet adorned with a white infinity symbol began to form around his wrist. As the symbol slowly blinked while generating tiny pulsating shockwaves, the air in front of Prime began to twirl and crackle like a miniature cyclone. And with a dramatic pose, the martial artist finished forming the dark green portal. The pose was, of course, completely unneeded; Prime just had to throw a bit of his own flair into the process.
"I will! See you soon, buddy!"
With these loud words, Prime leapt through the swirling gateway. And a couple seconds later, the distortion in spacetime quickly closed itself back up. With no trace of ever having been there in the first place. Now left alone, Goh'ji chuckled a little before turning around towards the road towards the wilds. And as he started to resume his journey of self-improvement and repaying of student loans, his eternal rival's surefire enthusiasm stayed on his mind for a good while. If Prime could believe it so much, then maybe a follow-up tournament was inevitable. And if so, then he and Prime would be there. Always ready to fight for honour and to feel alive… and just the sheer fun of it all. No matter the universe, the life of a martial artist seemed to be filled with these thoughts.
The lives of the tournament's participants went on, all with new friends at their side. Friends who would always help push each other on towards greatness, and keep the flames fueling their dreams burning brightly.