Chapter 7: Burn Me

Fouzia

"That was insane." She gasped.

She looked down to see Mrs. Zambiea in shock as she watched Victoria restrain Kevin. The girl jumped from the stands so easily. She's powerful, Fouzia knew that for sure.

"Is Aerolynn okay?" A blond girl Fouzia had learned was named Cleo said.

"Who knew Kyle had it in him," Jake said.

Fouzia rolled her eyes. "His name is Kevin asshat."

"Same difference." He snorted.

After about five minutes, a pair of medics from the school was loading Aerolynn on a stretcher.

"Are her injuries that bad?" Matt asked.

Maryanne shook her head. "These fights are insane. Hunter tore through Faith, Aurélie jumped Sarah, and Kevin drank Aerolynn like she was a freaking juice box!"

"Calm down Maryanne," Alexander said she placed his hands on her shoulder.

She sighed. "I don't know if I'm cut out for this. What if Mrs. Zambiea puts me against Victoria? Did you see what she did to Kevin? Where did she even get that chain from?"

"You'll do fine Maryanne." Cleo smiled.

"She should be worried," Fouzia said.

They all turned to her, which caused her to blush. "I just mean that we all should be on edge. None of us know each other or our quirks. It's clear that some of us will do anything to win."

"Doesn't sound like their training us to be heroes, they want us to be ruthless in the ring." Kaleb sighed.

Jake snorted. "Did you think it would be easy training for Morningstar? This is one of the best schools in America. Did you expect it to be all sunflowers and rainbows?"

Before anyone could speak up, Mrs. Zambiea made her way to the teens.

"Attention everyone." She smiled.

"That's it? We just watched an actual vampire attack someone, and that's all you have to say?" Fouzia snapped.

Matt took a step forward. "What she means to say is we're concerned about Aerolynn."

"Both Kevin and Aerolynn are being taken to the hospital, but the EMT was confident they'll both be ready to come back tomorrow." She said.

Cleo raised an eyebrow. "What were you and Victoria talking about?"

"Miss Crown has requested to go next." She said.

Everyone visibly gulped, even Hunter who already won his match. Kevin seemed powerful, yet Victoria restrained him so easily. Even Mrs. Zambiea seemed impressed. Fouzia took a step forward.

"I would like to go against her." She said.

Mrs. Zambiea frowned. "That's not who we scheduled you to go to against."

If she wanted to be a good hero, she needed to learn how to fight the best.

"Well I'm telling you what I want, just like she did." Fouzia said.

"You're insane if you think you can beat her." Hunter snickered. "Trust me, I'm one of the few people here who knows Victoria. She could slit your throat without even sweating her edges her out."

Fouzia crossed her arms. "I can handle myself."

"Thank god it's not me." Maryanne gasped in relief.

Everyone turned to look at her with an eyebrow raised, which caused the girl to blush.

"Did I say that out loud?" She asked.

Mrs. Zambiea sighed and wrote something on her clipboard. She turned to Fouzia.

"Go ahead and go to the ring." She said.

Fouzia nodded and made her way to the ring, as she made it there, she felt a hand grab her. She turned to see Matt watching her.

"Hunter's not the only one that knows Victoria, I've known her since I was a kid." Hunter said.

Fouzia stared at him confused. Why was he telling her this?

"Our families are friends. Her mother is one of the top heroes in America. Be careful her quirk allows her to-"

Fouzia placed a finger to her hips and frowned.

"Are you trying to give me info about the enemy?" Fouzia asked.

Matt looked down. "I was trying to help you."

Fouzia crossed her arms and frowned. "Because you don't believe in me."

"No!" Matt stammered. He blushed. "I'm sure you're capable, I just wanted to help. Trust me, she's ruthless."

Fouzia sighed. "I know she might win, but if I win, it will do so much for my reputation. Looking the way I look, so many people already assume I'm the bad guy. If I can defeat someone as strong as Victoria, then people will start to respect me."

Matt nodded. "Well just know that you have one guy rooting for you."

Fouzia smiled. "Thanks Matt."

She walked away from Matt and made her way to the arena. She gulped. Why did she volunteer? Vitoria stood in the arena calmly. Her eyes looked up to Fouzia.

"They sent you to fight me?" Victoria said.

Fouzia wasn't sure if that was a question or a statement.

"I volunteered." Fouzia said.

Victoria had an unreadable look on her face. She seemed confused.

"You chose to fight me? Why would you do that?" Victoria asked. "Are you stupid?"

Fouzia forced a smirk. "Maybe you aren't as scary you think you are."

"3! 2! 1!" Mrs. Zambiea said. "Go!"

With amazing speed Victoria charged towards Fouzia. She jumped with catlike reflexes, her foot aiming towards Fouzia's head. Fouzia dodged quickly. Causing Victoria to smirk.

"Your quirk must not be defensive, if it was you would have attack me just then." Victoria said.

Fuck, she was calculating. Fouzia grunted and held out her palm.

"If you wanted to see my quirk you just had to ask." She yelled.

Fouzia held out her hands as she released a column of flames. Victoria swiftly rolled out of the way of the flames. She smiled.

"You just revealed your hand sweetie." She smiled.

Fouzia Zambiea

Quirk: Fire Spin- She can shoot spirals of fire from her palms. The longer she uses it, the less effective it becomes until she has to stop for a cooldown period

"Not only did you reveal you could shoot flames from your hand, the shape and the direction of the flames suggest you can't control the flames just emit them." Victoria observed.

The way she said that really pissed off Fouzia for some reason. "Stop observing me!" Fouzia yelled.

She charged, her arms bursting into flames as she swung a flaming fist towards Victoria. Victoria sighed like she was bored with the situation and held out her arm. Black mist swirled around her arm. The mist slowly began to pull together until it solidified and shaped itself into a shield. It happened so fast Fouzia couldn't even pull away. Her fist slammed into the metal shield causing her to scream in pain. She was pretty certain she heard bone shatter.

Victoria Crown

Quirk: Shadow Smith- She can pull shadows together and turn them into solid objects. She has the ability to control the density of said objects.

Using her free arm, she swung and punched Fouzia in the face. Fouzia grunted as she fell back. Who was this girl? She had an amazing reaction time and had the precision of a sniper.

"That's your quirk? Creating shields? Seems pretty boring to me?" She said.

Victoria smirked. "My quirk has defensive and offensive capabilities."

She held up her hands and the same black mist swirled around her fingertips. Soon those tendrils reshaped themselves into a chain. A chain with a very sharp tip. Fouzia gulped.

"Shit." She cursed.

Victoria snarled and released her chains, the spiky whips flying towards Fouzia. Fouzia lunged out of the way and took off in a sprint. Dodging the chains. The chains were huge and the tips were about as wide as a battle axe. One slice of them and she was done.

Fouzia paused. Victoria was a strategist. As soon as she figured out what her quirk was, she probably had a thousand ways to defeat her. She needed to outsmart a genius.

"No pressure." She coughed.

She turned to a series of pitch-black arrows flying towards her. Fouzia held out her hands and created a column of fire acting as a shield between her and the arrows. Fouzia looked around and tried think of how she could beat her.

She could take her on both long range and short, she needed a good plan if she wanted to beat her. Before Fouzia could come up with a plan a loud tremble was heard. Fouzia looked down to see a black spike shooting out of the ground. Before she could roll out of the way it penetrated her shoulder causing her to scream. She was now certain this girl was trying to kill her. Matt wasn't kidding when she said she was ruthless.

"You psychotic bitch!" Fouzia hissed in pain.

She looked down and gulped when she saw the amount of blood squirting out of her wound.

Fouzia rose weakly. Her eyes searching the arena for Victoria.

"Wanna play a game!" She yelled.

She looked around the arena at the stone pillars. Suddenly she got an idea.

"What about Marco Polo!" She yelled.

Fouzia grunted and pointed to the base of one of the pillars. "Marco!"

The flames smashes into the stone, causing an explosion. The pillar shifted and fell over, causing a loud tremble. She pointed to the next one and did the same thing. Each time a pillar fell the earth rattled and made her teeth clatter.

But it would all be worth it soon enough.

"Polo!" Victoria hissed.

She leaped from one of the pillars, a pitch black katana in her hand. Fouzia grunted quickly grabbed the blade and thrusted her knee to Victoria's chin. The girl yelped in pain and stumbled back.

"You landed a hit on me." Victoria said surprised.

Fouzia smirked. "You're not the only one who knows how to plan. I figured you thought I was stupid and would spend most of my time focusing on the pillars so I wouldn't notice you. Of course, you would choose stealth, because you wouldn't want to risk getting hit. But the thing about stealth is, once you know it's coming, it's not stealth anymore, it's predictable." Fouzia smiled.

Victoria looked at Fouzia's shoulder. "You're bleeding, you're losing a lot of blood. You won't make it if you keep fighting in this arena."

Fouzia coughed and held up a flaming fist. "Well, I better make kicking your ass quick, huh?"

Victoria snarled and the two girls charged.

Maryanne

"This is both arousing and incredibly terrifying," Hunter said.

They all watched as Fouzia and Victoria traded blows. Fouzia was shooting fireball after fireball, which Victoria dodged quickly. However, it seemed different somehow. Her technique wasn't as flawless as it used to be.

Everyone gasped as Victoria created a throwing star and hurled it at Fouzia, the girl tried to block it, but it sailed through the air so quickly it stuck itself in her forearm.

Fouzia screamed. A loud scream.

"Enough of this!" She yelled.

Fouzia raised her hands in the air, a small flame began to circle around her body. This flame grew into an inferno.

"Bring it bitch!" Victoria snarled and charged. Shadows from the ground rose and flew toward her like she was a magnet. The shadows formed a cloud of razor-sharp blades around Victoria. The girls charged towards each other. The flames and the shadows collided in a powerful fury.

"Everyone get back!" Alexander yelled.

The combined blasts created a massive explosion which threw them all back. Everything felt numb for a couple seconds. Maryanne coughed sat up slowly. The others started to get up as well. They all curiously walked over to the railing.

Laying on the floor of the arena was Victoria and Fouzia. Both girls covered badly in bruises and severely bleeding. Neither of them was conscious.

"So…who won?" Jake asked.

Mrs. Zambiea didn't answer them and simply looked over at the girls concerned.

"The nurses will be here to pick them up, the next contestants get ready." She said in a monotone voice.

Maryanne gulped. She didn't seem that fazed that the girls didn't look like they were alive. She turned to look at the others. They all seemed worried, even Jake. Especially Hunter. He was looking over the railing with a look she could only describe as intense worry. The same medics who had picked up Aerolynn and Kevin loaded the two onto the stretcher.

"Up next is Maryanne Isla and Jake Hyde!" She called.

Maryanne paused. Was she serious? Jake was almost seven feet tall! He would tear her apart. Maryanne frowned, why would she pit them against each other. At least Aerolynn and Faith could hold their own against the boys they fought. Jake would rip her to shreds.

Alexander placed a hand on her shoulder. He gave her a warm look. Could he tell that she nervous.

"You got this." He said comfortingly.

Maryanne blushed. He was really close, and really cute. And he smelled like lavender. Maryanne shook the thought of her head. She was about to clobbered by Jake, and she was thinking about how nice Alexander smelled?

"Maryanne and hurry up and get to the arena, I want to speed up your ass-kicking." Jake called.

Matt crossed his arms. "I have the worst roommate ever."

Maryanne sighed and made her way to the arena. Blood was all over the ground, left from the others. Would she add to the pile?

Jake smirked. "Nervous?" He laughed.

Maryanne frowned. "No."

Of course, she was, but she wasn't going to let this dick know that.

"3!" Mrs. Zambiea called.

Maryanne gulped and took a fighting stance.

"2!" She yelled.

Jake reached into a pouch and pulled out an apple. Then something strange happened, he ate. Well, the fact that he ate an apple wasn't the strange part, but how he ate. His jaw unhinged and his massive lips swallowed it whole. He let off a loud gulp before turning to Maryanne to grin. His throat started to glow with a golden light.

"Fuck me." Maryanne gulped.

"1!"

Jake charged. His massive muscles bulging. Maryanne yelped and her whole body became transparent. Her flesh bones liquefied, and her movements became fluid. She flew out of the way, her body moving like an ocean's current. She was water. A being of water.

Jake growled. "What the hell?"

Maryanne Isla

Quirk: Water Spirit- Maryanne can take on the properties of water. While she is in this state she can control the temperature of her water form.

"Cute," Jake growled.

He opened his mouth and an orange light appeared in his throat. That orange light turned into a massive blast of energy.

Maryanne gulped and dropped to the floor, her water form falling into itself to create a puddle. Jake howled in frustration.

Jake Hyde

Quirk: Converter- He has unusually large lips and inside his throat is a shredder. Every time he eats something he grows in size and strength. He can also harness this energy and fire it out of his mouth.

Maryanne turned back to her solid form and gulped. She didn't know how long she could keep this up for. Eventually one of his attacks would hit her. Jake howled and charged.

His large arm swung, preparing to deliver a punch. Maryanne quickly swiped his arm with her left arm and with her right, she transformed into water. Boiling hot water. She grunted as she fired the stream towards him.

As soon as the hot water hit his flesh he screamed. It wasn't hot enough to severely burn him, but it still hurt like hell. Reacting on instinct Maryanne kicked him in the throat. Jake stumbled back and coughed. Water spilling out of his throat.

"You fat bitch!" He yelled.

Maryanne paused. What did he just say? Maryanne looked down at her body. She was curvier than most girls. Suddenly every insult anyone had ever used against her hit her all at once. Fat, dump truck, bitch, dirty, slut, loser, unwanted.

"Shut up!" She screamed.

Then she exploded. Her body literally exploded transforming from her normal form to a vicious current. She hurled her water form towards Jake. The pressure of it hit Jake like a semi-truck. The boy yelped as the current took him. Maryanne wasn't sure what happened next.

One minute she was a tidal wave, the next she was lying on the floor. Coughing. She turned to see Jake was unconscious. He wasn't moving. Did she drown him?

"Oh my god." Maryanne cried in horror.

Next Chapter: Is That Blood