purple. — maze v nowles, day six.

He finished the last of his martini in a gulp, handed the glass off haphazardly to an avox, who only barely managed to keep it from toppling off the side of the tray. Kiss on the back of Astrid's hand after she connected the adapters to his temple.

"Be back in a sec."

Hades was already initiating startup protocol by the time the crew had exited through the maintenance shaft. He was almost ready for projection by the time they had finished the introductions, and he was on the lift just as soon as it was made available. This fight, admittedly, made him nervous. He'd pondered whether it was too early or not- after all, they were both very much occupying similar places in this games, whether they cared to know it or not. Both from lower districts. Both brilliant. And fuck's sake, if he was being honest, two of his biggest intrigues. Two little daggers, bent into the shape of question marks. The scorpion and the frog- he snorted. Sounded like the beginning of a fable.

"Everyone," he said in a deadly calm voice, "this is a clash of the titans. Trust me, I'd know."

Who beat the titans again? He smirked, closing his eyes from within his mech- which shimmered as if aflame with a custom force field. When he opened them, he saw the world through the projected version of himself standing on the purple court. His projection folded his arms over his chest and he raised an intrigued eyebrow.

The girls needed no go ahead from him- they were already within melee range. They were among the first the clash- flashes of black and red. Maze ripped one of Nowles' scorpion legs off, crunching another unusable.

"Beautiful combo," he remarked, setting up a replay on the screens above.

Nowles struggled to fend her off for a bit, it seems. Expected. Should've chosen a more practical mech. Why isn't she using the tail to grapple and then attacking up front? To be fair, the positioning was off from the start. Nowles needed to get the jump on her opponents in this mech, and Maze's frog mech was designed as a direct counter.

But then, just as always, she rose to the challenge. He rolled his eyes. The resilience. That's the thing they had most in common. These were both survivors- not killers, not hunters. This was two people who were always supposed to live, in a world where only one of them ever feasibly could.

He set his jaw. Nowles regained her footing and cratered in a beautiful mass of teeth and metal, and suddenly the playing field was as even as ever. He replayed it, grinning as the crowd lapped it up even moreso upon seeing it a second time. He forgot he was supposed to be speaking, but also he didn't really care. They'd hear what he felt like saying. That was enough.

"Close," he said.

And then, explosion.

"Was that- Did Maze...?"

His eyes widened with uncontrolled glee. He bent forward, his mouth stretching into an open smile.

"HAHA!!!!! HA! HOLY FUCKI-" The debris broke up the pixels of his hologram for a moment before he reshaped- "-AT AGAIN! REPLAY! NOW!"

All of The Static turned at once to face the purple court, their screens conjoining to form massive stadium-wide screens replaying the explosion, each screen from a different angle.

Booming from the speakers, a robotic woman's voice chimed in pleasantly, "Play of the Round!" Followed by the arcade-like sound of a coin jingling, and Maze's face, turning to look over her shoulder.