- The Control Voice: Evolution is guided by the principle of survival of the fittest. For the human animal, the urge to compete is ingrained in our spirit. But in some arenas the rules are not clear and victory may well be an illusion.
An aging athlete attempts to regain his edge by having an experiment endow him with super speed, but there are side effects.
- The Control Voice: For the human race life is a ceaseless competition for power, for fame, even love. But when the desire for victory is reduced to winning at any cost, then we can only guarantee our defeat.
In the Tropes:
- The Alcoholic: Jessica describes a time when she nearly drank her way out of her marriage to Tanner.
- Fictional Sport: The Octal.
- Heroic Sacrifice: A scientist uses his own body to absorb excess energy from his device, and vanishes, trapped in Super-Speed to be invisible to normal people and rapidly age until death.
- Muggle Sports, Super Athletes: Tanner Brooks undergoes an experimental treatment offered to him by Dr. Michael Chen and gains Super-Speed in the process. He uses it to regain his former status as an Octal champion.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Jessica says that Dr. Chen and Tanner are both alike as they obsess over victory regardless of the costs or whom it hurts.
- Super-Speed: Tanner Brooks, a former champion of the combat sport called the Octal, receives experimental treatments from Dr. Michael Chen which directly tap into the power of the nervous system. As a result, he gains super speed and exhibits Flash Step and Speed Blitz in the ring, once again becoming the champion that he was in his younger days. However, further treatments cause him to move so fast that his body shifts entirely into an accelerated time zone, making him imperceptible to everyone else.
- Technobabble : Dr. Chen initially explains his treatment by speaking about nerve impulses moving up the spine. Tanner bluntly responds by telling Chen that he is not a doctor.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: How Dr. Chen describes the accelerated time zone. He tells Jesssica that seconds feel like hours to Tanner after his shift there. The ending has Tanner aging decades despite what seemed like a few hours.
- Younger Than They Look: Tanner and Jessica Brooks discover that Dr. Michael Chen, who appears to be in his mid-60s, is only 30 years old. He had previously used his experimental treatment to tap into the power of the nervous system on himself and entered an accelerated time zone just as Tanner did.
