• • Sunset: Heroes of the Milky Way
• September 28, 2025

Sunset: Heroes of the Milky Way (Chapter 25)

Aleti Ra’non

Boot to Ass

---

I sweep for his ankles, but he rolls to avoid me.

“What is the hypotenuse of a right triangle with with the sides 12 and 13?” I ask Rom.

He turns around to kick towards my head and I bring my arms up to block.

Pfft!

The first time his leg met my arms, I thought they would break. Now the pain only comes from old bruises. What a few hours will do…

“17.692, roughly,” Rom answers me, before hopping to dropkick me in my ribs, sending me tumbling to the ground.

Crick!

I know my rib didn’t actually crack because I’m breathing fine, but it still feels like a break. I take back what I thought before, it’s more like a bruise being touched can’t hurt more than the bruise being made.

It’s weird, because for me at least, it used to be the opposite.

As I lay flat on my back, Rom takes his turn to quiz me, “You could have blocked my first kick with one arm, which would have allowed you to defend against the second kick,” though it feels more like criticism.

He jumps up to bring his fist down a top of me, but I roll on my side to the left, then onto my head, to come out in squatting position on my feet. I bet my mom doesn’t think half as much about this as I do, or maybe she used to when she started. 

I always feel like there’s a moment of hesitation before I do anything. I never see that Mom, or Clay, or Hideo. Is that what muscle memory is, or am I always going to be behind everyone else?

I keep those thoughts to myself, I’m good at that at least.

“Noted,” I tell him, before I get to other stuff that I’m good at, “Chemistry now, what combination of elements would create salt?”

We run towards each other, and I swing with my right arm for his ribs, but Rom smacks away my attacking wrist. 

“Sodium and chlorine,” he chimes as he throws a punch with his right hand straight towards my head. How does he sound so friendly while his fist tries to take my head off?

I barely dodge my head, his fist going through my hair.

Ew. The feel of it sends an icky ripple down my spine… you know… because he’s all sweaty.

I ask him, “What’s salt’s scientific name?”

Rom leaves his right side open after missing the punch, I remember what I was told about using the palm over my knuckles, and palm strike his ribs, halfway through his answer..
“Sodi—”

There’s this satisfying ‘hmph’ sound that comes out of his mouth. He recovers by bringing his right arm down on my neck. I sink to my knees from the sharp pain.

“—chloride,” he croaks.

“It’s pronounced sodium actually.”

Rom really does recover quickly, which is good for him, not me, so I stay on him. I uppercut with my right hand towards his chin, and he leans back so I miss his face.

“What are the noble gases?” I ask him at the same time, just before he grabs the arm I uppercutted with. 

He pulls me towards him and grabs my shoulder, while sweeping me off my feet with his leg. He brings me down to the ground flat on my back.

The sound I proceed to make I shall never forget.

“Eee!”

Rom answers my question, “Helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon.”

“Correct,” I groan through the pain. Then he brings his right arm under my legs. Is he gonna carry me like that? I’m not that hurt.

Then he lifts up only my legs and flips me over to fall onto my face.

That wasn’t a real move, that was just insult to injury. 

I cough, and get back onto my hands and knees. I look up at him and he’s waiting for me. He makes a come hither motion with his left hand.

“Which of the noble gases can combine with a platinum fluoride?” I question him. 

I then run at him and throw a fast right punch. He pushes it aways with a swipe of his hand. I throw another left and he swipes that away too. Already, that… that was a lame punch. 

Fuck, he did it again.

“Xenon can combine with platinum fluoride,” Rom answers correctly as I fail to land a hit..

When I try to kick him, he puts his right hand behind his left and blocks it.

Rom tells me, “Now you’re just getting angry. Don’t throw so many random punches and kicks one after the other, you’ll tire yourself out.”

While he holds my knee, I bring back my arms, mold fists in my hands, and then slam them both into his chest sending him backwards onto his back.

Rom chuckles and compliments me from the ground, “Much better, I guess, not sure what kind of punch that was though.”

I jump and try to bring my fist down on his head, but he quickly raises his legs up straight, catches me in the gut 

“Ulk!” 

I never hear my mother making these sounds.

Then he flips me over onto my back with a hard thud.

“Ow,” I groan as the pain only continues..

Before I know it, Rom is on top of me. He grabs my arms and pins them over my head. His legs are on both sides of my thighs, and he clutches them so I can’t move.

His head blocks the sun, and I can somewhat see his smile. “I think I win now,” he taunts me. 

I attempt to struggle but I find that I can’t move anything… except my head. 

“Not yet,” I tell him. He arches his brow in confusion.

I swing head forward to try and catch him in the jaw. He reels his head back so I miss, lets go of my left arm, and swipes me across the chin with his fist. My head goes reeling back against the mat. He then brings his forearm across my shoulder and neck to hold back my arm and head. 

“How about now?” 

“Yeah, you got me, I tap out.”

Immediately Rom gets off of me.

 “Do you want to stand?” he asks me. I shake my head and bring my hand to my chin to start feeling it around. I can tell where the bruise is already forming. “Sorry if I went overboard”.

I wave him off. “Don’t be. I told you not to go easy, and to be honest I would be angry if you did.” 

“Oh yeah, I totally went all out,” he drones.

I glare.

Then as I mess with my chin I feel a sharp pain. “I’m a fast learner though. Before too long I’ll make you tap out.”

“Doubt it.” 

I glare again.

As I rub my chin the pain feels sharper, I hiss in response and immediately let go. 

“Stop touching it. Let me see.” He brings his hands to the crunch where my chin meets my neck, avoiding the spot where he hit me. He gently lifts my head up and inspects it. “It’s already bruised. Should probably get some ice.”

I ask him, “But we still need to practice don’t we?”

He shakes his head, “Not for battle, I mean you may need to, but I’m good. We can take a break.” 

Rom offers me a hand again and he pulls me to my feet. “Can you walk?” 

“I’m not hurt that bad,” I tell him comically. “You don’t punch as hard as you think.” 

He rolls his eyes, but then seems to actually take my taunt to heart when he starts the walk back to the Rango without me.
I quickly catch up to him. “Are you okay?” 

His whole expression changed on a dime and all he did was look down without ever looking back up. 

I put my hand on his shoulder and tell him, “It’s only trash talk. you’ll win you know, we all have faith in you.”

Rom looks at me sideways, and his eyes say that he doesn’t believe me. His words try to assure me, “I know, I’m just nervous, that’s all.” 

I tilt my head to the side to showcase that I don’t buy what he’s selling. “I swear that’s it. I mean, it’s not just about me, or even my whole town, there’s a whole race of people depending on me. Before, there was enough pressure just trying to win so people have hope for the next time. Now, it’s all about changing everything today, not leaving it for others tomorrow. 

“But I mean, come on, it’s not like it’s that big a deal if I mess up.”

Whelp, that’s heavy shit. Kind of reminds me of something Mom said about fighting. 

Sometimes you can’t rise to the fight, you have to make it smaller. 

She was talking about luring bigger dudes and groups into tight corridors, but it could apply here.

“Well, I think that’s a stupid way to think about it.”

Rom’s eyes snap to me as he questions, “How else should I think about it?” 

“Your race doesn’t depend on you. There will be more chances should you fail. Sure, you shouldn’t do anything less than your best, but that still doesn’t leave everythingon your shoulders. 

“And let’s be honest. If you lose, the Watree don’t lose anything. You’re not going to make anything worse. You can only make things better, or change nothing.”

Rom thinks about what I said for a second, his face twisting into something twisted and confused. “I don’t think that made me feel better, but that does make it kind of distracting.”

“How about this, you should win because if you get your ass kicked by some short and scrawny pretty boy, I will never let you live it down.” 

Rom’s little frown shrinks into a smaller pout. “If that happens you can make fun of me all you want. Though then again, that means he would beat you too.”

“As if.”