Hey everyone! Sorry for the text walls, and thanks for reading. I'd like to recommend some songs to listen to while you read this.
~Zeta
Gold Dust: Dj Fresh
Centuries: Fallout Boy
We'll Be Coming Back for Yee: Hardwell Mashup
I can't Stop: Flux Pavillion
Keep on reading and stay awesome:)
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I heard the roar of the crowd and the crunch of the sand under my feet as I entered the arena (And left my precious jacket behind with Andi. I'm not letting that get torn up). Sure, the roar wasn't precisely deafening, but it was still hella loud. It looked like there were at least a hundred people in the stands. This was in addition to the few hundred I had seen outside at the Flea and however many were holed away in the living quarters. This place is huge, I realized. It's like a second city. I looked around the arena for my fellow competitors, and saw none. I saw a second gate raise, and lower. I sized up my first competitor; A guy with bright yellow hair pulled into a ponytail, wearing a hoodie and jeans and carrying wicked-looking spear. When I say spear, what I really mean is a metal broom handle with two hunting knives duct-taped to the end of it. I laughed as he spun the spear around and showed off to the crowd, because well damn son, metal broom handle. The next gate opened, and out came a brown-haired girl in a red windbreaker. She was brandishing a mace-like contraption. Guess what the mace head was made of? Yep, metal. She had a grim determination about her, like she just wanted to get in and get out. Third gate opened, another brunette girl came out. She was in a t shirt and shorts, and brought no weapon besides a pair of brass knuckledusters.
Well crap. She's got some kind of powers. The fourth and final gate swung open, revealing a guy with bright blue hair and fingerless gloves. He smirked and flexed his hands, Another one with powers then. I unslung my Amp and looked from person to person. "Hmm." I spun it lazily in a circle, deciding who to attack first. The decision was made for me though. Spear guy lunged at Mace chick, and Blue hair took in a deep breath and exhaled blue fire at me and Unarmed. I rolled out of the way easy enough and Unarmed did the same. I ran directly for spear guy, leaving the other two to sort it out, and swung for his head, using my running momentum for an extra punch but he ducked and my Amp sailed harmlessly over him. He slammed the butt of his spear into my chest, but I grabbed it and absorbed part of the handle. I yanked him forward and headbutted him but he saw it coming and rushed forward to block. Luckily for me, he was a little too hasty and stumbled, giving me the chance to slam my palm into his chin. His neck snapped backwards with a sickening crunch of bones that resonated in the arena, and the crowd roared.
These people love their goddamn bread and circuses. I looked up, raised my Amp and roared. The people screamed in response and I couldn't help but notice Kristil's look of disappointment— not in me but rather in Spear-guy for not gutting me. Unfortunately for me, I was too occupied by winning the crowd to realise that Mace chick was right behind me. She bashed me in the side of the head, and suddenly I was down in the sand. Damn it. I pushed myself to my feet, my pulse pounding in my ears, and backflipped away from another attack. I grabbed my Amp, and swung to parry her mace. The two weapons clashed in a shower of sparks, but I was glad to see the Amp stood strong. Mace Chick drew back for another swing, and our weapons met once again; but this time her mace split into a billion tiny pieces, and she was left holding a very ruined wooden handle. The shock on her face was priceless. I just offered her a smile before punching her and sending her flying across the arena. She'll be seeing stars for the rest of her life. Having finished two, I turned around to face Unarmed and apparently Puff the Magic Dragon. I wasted no time in tackling them both to the ground— they were too busy to even see me coming. I rolled off Puff and began hammering punches into Unarmed. She was good though, and we traded blows before Puff tried hauling me off of her. He got a headbutt and a broken nose for his trouble. Unarmed seized her chance and and let loose with a vicious right hook to my jaw. Every time she swung her fists, I could hear a faint whistling coming from her hands, no doubt some sort of power, and when her punch hit home, I felt the bones in my face crack. Luckily, falling to the floor meant that Puff spat fire into her face instead of mine. I kicked Puff's legs out from under him and smashed his head with the butt of my Amp as soon as he hit the ground. Unarmed was still reeling from the fire, which would probably have killed a normal person twice over, and I seized the opportune moment. With a yell, I charged forward and delivered a massive uppercut that actually lifted her off the floor. I was again conscious of the roar of the crowd, I sheathed my Amp and raised a fist. They actually bought that cheesy shit, going wild. I laughed inwardly, and brushed the dirt from my clothes. "That wasn't hard," I murmured to myself. A clanking sound came from behind me and my gate opened for a second time. Out strolled Nexi, with an annoying grin on her face. She flicked out two collapsible metal batons , "Not bad, Magneto. But you'll never beat me."
"We'll see about th-" There was a rush of air, and a baton cracked against my face. It hurt like hell and I was nearly thrown to the ground. Nexi was standing in front of me, so I swung. My Amp hit nothing but air. Nexi was a good fifteen feet away, and spinning one baton so quickly it blurred. Great. Super speed.
She cracked a grin, "Don't feel too bad. I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch—"
"—And was in bed before the room was dark," I finished. "Muhammad Ali."
Her grin got even wider. And then the punishment resumed. She was so damn fast her power could have been teleportation if not for the breeze whistling past every time she struck. She was so damn fast, in fact, that I wasn't able to establish control of her metal batons. If she had my brains, she would create a vortex and suck the air out of the arena, guaranteeing her a win. But luckily for me she doesn't and was too busy showing off. She zipped around the arena and dashed in every few seconds to give me a good whack in the face, always accompanied with taunts about how much I'm like a snail. I pretended that I was trying to create a giant metal construct to stop her and every time she attacked me, I deliberately shattered it, making her think that she was doing damage. In fact, her attacks, while they stung, were really only hurting my pride. I mean, come on. I heal so fast that bullets only leave scratches. I was really focused on creating a ball of finely woven metal threads in my hands. I grinned with satisfaction when the ball was done, and thrust my hands outwards. Thousands of threads shot in every direction, and anchored themselves in the walls. I laughed when my speedy opponent had nowhere left to run and found herself tangled in a metal spider's web. I walked over to where she was currently trapped, moving the threads out of my way with a wave of my hands. She was shaking her body frantically, trying to get out of the web.
I couldn't help but smirk at her pointless actions and knelt down next to her, "How does it feel to slow down?"
"Okay," She returned my smirk with one of defeat, "You got me, Prime…"
"Yep." I laughed, "Yeah, I did."
"Or maybe you didn't." She interrupted before promptly vibrating her body so fast she was vibrating through the metal. But, sadly for her, I've read too many comics and simply forced the threads to vibrate with her, so she was still stuck. "Come on, Nexi. I've read enough Flash to know what's up: that's the oldest trick in the book."
"You're a comic fan?" Her eyes widened, "Oh we're gonna get along just fine!" She tried raising a hand to fist-bump me but her limbs were hopelessly entangled. I laughed and I put my fist out. Unfortunately, I 'missed' her fist and instead punched her in the face, knocking her out. Oh well. Two guys wearing black masks came in to drag her limp body away and a crowd-cheer later, three more gates swung open, and out came Ethan, Alfie and a girl I'd never seen before. She could have been my twin: She was Black, with dark brown hair and a blindingly bright smile. The eyes threw me off though; they were honey colored. Kindness shone out through them, and I almost didn't want to punch her. Almost. I was nearly fed up with this arena bullshit and I thrust both arms towards them. "Go to fucking hell." I re-absorbed all the metal threads and fired two rockets directly at them, making sure that they would hurt Female Me less than the other two. She looked at the rockets sailing through the air, gave them a warm, welcoming smile— her eyes glowing like Opal's had, only a hell lot brighter— and... shot them right out of the air. She was like a female version of Scott Summers, except that her eye-lasers were the brightest blue I'd ever seen and I could feel the heat given off from where I was standing. Wasting no time expressing my shock, I launched right at Alfie, and took him down in a tackle, planning to deal with Fem-Cyclops later. He grabbed my arm, lightning fast, and all I felt was white-hot pain as every bone in it ruptured. In panic, I grabbed him by the face and fired a shot, which knocked me back and sent him flying. I plated my right arm with metal as I waited for it to heal.
Fem-Cyclops was still smiling which honestly creeped me out. Feeling my bones realign, I shed the metal plating in the form of a shot directly at Ethan. He raised one hand, which was sporting a similar glow to She-Cyclops's eyes, and shot a laser that vaporized it midair, but he didn't expect me to come rushing in behind it, Amp raised high. I brought it down on his glowing hand and my weapon sizzled and sparked but, thankfully, didn't give way, and he ended up with a broken hand. I spun on one heel to deliver a kick to the face, which he ducked. Ethan tried to counter with a punch with his un-broken hand but I sidestepped, also dodging a shot from Cyclops's twin lasers, and followed up by slamming a foot into his chest, feeling ribs give way. He tried to get up, back against the wall, but slid down, mumbling "Ivy" before passing out, hopefully in agony.Why do I even hate this guy? Maybe it's the tattoos.
Before I could expand on my thoughts, something stabbed into my back and sent me sprawling. I grit my teeth and rolled out of the way, just to see two laser beams lance into the sand. Then the pain kicked in. Searing pain from the giant burns just above my kidneys. She-Cyclops had tears streaming down her eyes and lasers blazing from them, it was hard to tell if the roaring, whining sound was from her screaming mouth or the heat of her armageddon eyes. I narrowly avoided getting shredded in two as I jumped over the twin streams and used a quick burst of Iron Sand to dash to land behind her. Still not wanting to hurt her, I hit her as gently as possible. She hit the ground and grunted, and I pinned her arms down before hitting her again. I caught a laser blast to the side of the face, but she passed out, her face immediately returning to a kind smile. What the hell? I barely had time for the crispy skin to heal before two hands grabbed my head and squeezed. It was Alfie, and the agony… was indescribable. My mouth opened in a silent scream; it felt like my head was being torn to pieces. Somehow, through the blood-red haze of searing torture, I managed to swing my arm back, directly into his balls. His concentrations slipped, his hands left my head, and I spun to my feet, delivering an incredibly strong backhand that made him faceplant into the sand. He punched the ground on the way down and a shock wave rippled along it, sending me flying backwards along with a huge cloud of sand. Shit! It felt like a good few minutes— though it could only have been a couple of seconds— before I hit the floor but I quickly flipped back up and found Alfie walking slowly towards me, he had a slight limp, No doubt from sore balls, I gave him a lopsided smirk lined with sarcastic sympathy. He raised his trainer a few inches and slammed it down, sending another shockwave across the ground, but I was expecting it. I ran towards the shockwave and somersaulted right over it. I dashed again with Iron Sand to build up enough momentum to deliver one hell of a punch to his chin which left him unconscious on the floor with a slightly shocked expression.
The crowd, which had remained so silent that I forgot they were even there, roared so wildly loud that I was about to cover my ears when I noticed that they were cheering for me. There had to be a good couple of hundred people and they were all screaming their heads off for me. Well, it's nice to have my badassery appreciated every now and then.
My vision was blurred and my head was throbbing but... I had won. I could still feel the excruciating pain in my back and face but the crowd needs pleasing, right? So I was too busy pleasing the crowd to notice that the guys in balaclavas had dragged off the three unconscious bodies again and I even missed Kristil's venomous stare in my direction.
That's it, right? A smiley-chick who shoots lasers from her eyes and a wannabe Avalanche, plus Alex Summers 2.0. That's got to be all they're sending. I groaned mentally as I heard the clink of another gate open. Give me a break here. My brain was just set on scramble and my face feels like an overcooked sausage. Oh, and there's two holes in my back. And let's not forget that my new shirt is practically ash at this point. Despite my mental protest, which Kristil was probably laughing at, David stepped out from the gate accompanied by another, slightly shorter figure behind him. When the figure came into the light I recognized it as a Liger, a giant hybrid of lion and tiger… and Dave had it as a pet! The Liger looked so damn awesome that I was debating whether or not to kick it's ass. Sadly, I had not patience left at this point. I was more than 100% done at this point; like 5000% done. Like stick a fork in me and get out the carving knife done. Calling upon my knowledge of Guardians of the Galaxy I shot a metal tendril from my right hand which quickly wrapped around David. I lifted him off the ground and began smashing him into walls. Left, right, left, right, left, right. Each impact shook the arena and put ever-larger holes in the huge cat didn't seem to notice, it just sat there and pawed the ground, seemingly amused by my performance. I raised David up, high, and slammed him down directly into the sand. The result was a huge dust cloud. I re-absorbed the tendril and sat down, exhausted. Still easy.
A shadow formed in the dust cloud, like a cheesy kung-fu movie. David stepped forward, sporting a bloody nose but otherwise seeming fine. He smirked, "Really? That's your best?"
"No." I forced myself to my feet and brandished my Amp. "Come and find out what my best is."
He laughed, and charged. I did the same, but right before we intersected I slid underneath him, tripping him, and caught one of his feet with my Amp. I quickly rolled to my feet and began smashing him back and forth, but he twisted his foot and slipped out of my grasp. He jumped up and punched me. I flew across the arena and made my own personal crater in the back wall. He… hits… hard. I landed facedown in the sand, feeling the cool grit against my skin. I think he hits harder than the Queer Scottsman. I tried to get up, but it seemed like all the strength had gone out of my limbs and so I lay there, glancing warily at both David and the Liger, which still seemed to be too bored to do anything but stare. I managed to push myself to my feet just in time to neatly sidestep a punch from David. I launched backwards, putting some space between us and leaving a metal pillar behind. Range is my friend, but I'm running low on metal. I noticed that I had landed next to one of the gates, and a brilliant idea hit me. David charged at me again, and I waited until he was about five feet away. I ripped the gate from it hinges and smashed him across… well, across his entire body. I expected him to soar across the arena and land somewhere in the stadium— not to block the entire impact by lazily raising an arm. He yanked the gate out of my grip and smashed me across the face with it and a second later, I crashed into the wall on the other side of the arena and slumped onto the ground. I opened my eyes to see the ceiling, I was flat on my back, and I noticed something that was hung just below it. A net made up of metal, no doubt to try and stop someone from crashing through; result of an uppercut from David or maybe even Opal. I focused on the bolts holding up the net and waited while David slowly made his way towards me, making a show of cracking his knuckles— the crowd was roaring for him now. Oh it's on now. No one steal my spotlight. As soon as he was in the center of the arena, I snapped my hands upwards and the bolts shattered, dropping the net.
He saw the move coming a second too late and only managed to bark, "Achilles!"
The Liger— Achilles— pounced. I blinked and completely missed him dart (please don't say that this crazy cat is another Converted with super-speed) for me. By the time, I knew what I was going on, I was already pinned down with a pair of powerful feline paws. Achilles's muscles literally bulged from his body, the perfect pet for a guy with practically-Kryptonian strength. David was entangled in the metal net but wasn't wasting any time getting out. Oh no you don't. I flicked a couple of fingers and a few chains broke of the net and wrapped around the Liger's back legs and lifted him into the air, swiftly wrapping around him in a cocoon that only left him enough space to breath. He had raked his claws across my chest, completely destroying Alice's gift, not to mention cutting deep wounds into torso. Fuck! What happened to not being barbarians? I could hear Kristil's telepathic-laughter at that thought and started seeing red. I've had FUCKING ENOUGH. I snapped my fingers and the entire net wrapped around David's neck, strangling the air out of him. He fell to his knees, frantically pulling at the chains. He even managed to break most of them, but he wasn't fast enough to stop himself from losing consciousness.
Pure genius strikes again, I thought, giving an exhausted, half-hearted fist pump to the crowd, whose roars had once again come to my side, Even though the original plan was to absorb the net and blast the pair of them with rockets. I guess necessity really is the mother of invention. I was, again, too occupied to notice the men carrying out David and releasing Achilles to follow them out.
I can't decide if you're extremely intelligent or just incredibly stupid and lucky.
I whirled around to see Kristil standing in the archway that was all that was left of the gate. I only know one French person that annoyingly smug…
I'm not smug, I'm just cynically overbearing. Kristil smirked, and spun a hunting knife slowly in one hand. Though I can see why you might get confused.
So, you're the Boss battle then, I tried to take control of the knife and make her impale herself but it refused to budge.
Made from onyx and ruby, She raised the twirled her weapon around her fingers. Now that she mentioned it, the creepy-looking black and red knife looked antique too. No doubt purchased with the money she wins from 'poker matches'.
Really. I'm going to fight the mind reader. Well, you already know what I'm going to do. I raised my hands, and all the metal in the room began to swirl above my head. The remaining gates, jewelry, watches, phones. The crowd will probably be pissed at me but I'd stopped giving any fucks right after the Liger showed up. A flick of my wrist and it was all shredded into scrap. It was not as big as I would have liked, but it served the purpose.
Impressive, Kristil thought with a smirk. But insignificant.
What are you talking about? You can't move fast enough to dodge-