Hello crazy, beautiful world! Did you miss me?! Sorry for the long absence(customary excuse about end of term assignments, work and holiday shenanigans), but I finally got the next chapter ready! It was way faster now that my computer has been fixed and I got a new keyboard! It clicks and glows~~~!

How are you guy's holidays? I recently finished the 2nd season of The Mandalorian and man... thank you whatever god is listening for gifting us Favreau and Filoni, for they are the last hope for the franchise!

Reviews:

Infinite Freedom & SirParacelsus, I am so happy you are enjoying the story! I am not doing this for reviews, but getting confirmation that people are enjoying my work makes this thing all the sweeter!

Now, without further ado, on with the show!

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"This means someone is talking."

'This means someone is thinking to themselves.'

This means it's a flashback.

*This means it's a sound effect!*

{This means I'm speaking in a different language!}

Angel in a Gilded Cage

"Hey!"

"Ow!"

"Jeeze, where's the fire?!"

It was an odd scenario Angel found herself in. In any other circumstance, she would've been overjoyed that she was moving through a crowd of people with nary a bead of sweat.

But right now, she couldn't bring herself to care! Her body was buzzing with adrenaline and worry!

She needed answers, she needed to know what she did wrong!

Finally, she emerged from the sea of bodies just in time to catch a glimpse of his violet hair turning around the corner at the end of the hall!

"Shinso-kun! Wait!" She called out, running down the corridor as fast as she could, silently thanking her recent decision to start exercising!

Turning the corner, she saw him, still continuing on his way!

"Shinso-kun! Can we please talk?!" She pleaded as she kept running after him, only to be met with silence and possibly an increased walking speed! Undeterred, she picked up the pace, pumping her legs harder until she was finally within reach!

"Shinso-kun! Please! Tell me what's wrong!" She yelled, reaching for his shoulder!

Only for him to whirl around and slap her hand away! Pulling back her appendage, she gasped!

Shinso's eyes had departed from the tired, yet mirthful energy that she knew and were now filled with anger and brooked little patience!

"You really are bad with people. You can't seem to take a hint!" He spat as he turned to leave.

Shaking off her initial shock, Angel kept in step behind him. "A hint?! I'm just worried and confused! Why the hel-heck are you acting like this?! Why did you say all that back there?!"

"None of your business!" He shot back over his shoulder!

A burning grew in Angel's chest as she grit her teeth! She wasn't going to give up!

"Of course it is! It was my fault isn't it?!" She yelled!

He immediately came to a stop but didn't turn around. She took it as an invitation to continue.

"I didn't know that you didn't get into the hero course." She said, rubbing her hands together with remorse as she looked to the floor. "I just assumed that someone as nice as you with such a great quirk would have been a shoo-in! I'm sorry that I brought it up, just… please… give me a chance to make it up to you!"

There they stood in silence, neither of them saying a word in the hall which at the moment was empty save the two of them. Angel's heart thudded in her chest as she waited for his response.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he took a deep sigh as his shoulders slumped.

"You're making this harder than it needs to be." He ran a hand through his hair, before dropping it against his side. "Fine. You want the truth? I'll give it to you, but you're not going to like it. Like I said before, I took the hero course entrance exam and didn't make the cut. Can you guess why?"

Angel blinked and considered his question. In the entrance exam, all he needed to do was destroy enough robots or save someone, not that anyone knew about that test metric back then. In her mind, it would have been a simple enough job to use his quirk to control the robots and turn them against each other.

Then she broke into a cold sweat as she finally realized her oversight.

"You couldn't control the exam robots with your quirk, could you?"

"Exactly. I was unable to get any points just because the exam only used robots to judge our abilities. Guess I shouldn't have been surprised. The world isn't kind to those whose quirks are "villainous"." He said, the last word dripping with disdain.

"My quirk is called Brainwash. It allows me to control people's bodies against their will. Ever since I got it, people have walked eggshells around me, always worried that I'll make them do something they don't want to. They think I'm a villain in the making as soon as they learn what my quirk is. They judge me before they even get to know me. It's... infuriating." He recounted.

"If they got to know me, they would know that I had the same dream as most of them. To be a hero. So I worked hard to make my dream come true and to prove everyone wrong. That just because I have a scary quirk, it doesn't make me a villain. In order to do that I needed to get into Yūei's hero course. But… I failed, all because of those stupid robots! I didn't get a fair chance while the students with the "heroic" quirks passed! Am I not just as qualified?! I have the drive, I've put in the work! But I don't get picked because I'm not lucky, like them!" He spat before taking a breath to calm himself.

"Then, after the exam, I heard rumors. Rumors about a particular candidate who could control machines, shoot lasers and grow wings, like an Angel they said. Imagine how I felt when I heard them speculate that this person was the top of the exam scoreboard, someone named Hodunk."

She swallowed as he finally turned back to face her, his eyes narrowed while he frowned at her.

"I had spent so much time imagining you as some kind of self-righteous, arrogant girl that when I first learned your name it didn't occur to me that you were her. I brushed it off, thinking it was only a coincidence, that you were too timid, that the number one candidate wouldn't be afraid of a crowd. It was not until earlier today that you said that you were first in the exam that it became obvious. You, out of all of them, are the worst offender. You hit the genetic lottery, getting such a powerful, "heroic quirk". With a quirk like that, even someone like you would get the top score."

Angel's lip trembled, feeling as if she had been slapped across the face. An unfamiliar part of her was fuming, asking how dare he make such an assumption like that, that all of the work she put into the entrance exam wasn't worth a damn, that he thought she only got in because she was lucky. Funny, she never felt that lucky.

At the same time, she felt sorry for him. Ever since she was three, she had worried that people would be scared of her, that they wouldn't give her a chance because of the harm she knew she could cause.

Shinso had been living that stigma his entire life. He felt like the world was forcing him into a corner that he never wanted to be in, that they didn't see him, another teenage boy, but a potential criminal.

It was a combination of both feelings that made her want to tell him, to prove him wrong. To tell him of what she had to go through to even have a chance at the program, to be able to go to school. To make him realize how much his words made her hurt and to tell him how much she believed in him.

But she couldn't. For if she did, she'd be placing him in danger and that was what terrified her most of all.

"And that brings us to the Festival." He continued. "This is my second and possibly last chance to get into the hero course and that means that I have to compete with not only the rest of the school, but also the first years who survived a villain attack. That means that I can't hold back and I can't be worrying about who I might be replacing and that includes you. So... sorry. I know you aren't as bad as I made you out to be and I know you wanted to be friends. But we're not… and we never will."

Her heart stopped. Shinso's violet eyes bore down on her with the faintest shadow of regret behind them.

"See you at the festival." He said quietly and left without another word, leaving the girl alone in a deluge of emotions and dread that threatened to pull her under.

Angel prodded at the noodles on her plate, her eyes fixed on the morsels as she pushed them around aimlessly. She didn't feel hungry, an all too familiar scenario although this time she wasn't being smothered in self loathing.

Instead she was drifting aimlessly in frustration as she tried to come up with answers to her dilemmas; Shinso, the exposure she'd receive from the Festival and the speech she needed to give. Albeit, the latter paled in comparison to the other two problems, but it still hung over her head.

After the sobering conversation in the hall, she had walked with her friends to the train station as usual. She hadn't been very good at hiding her displeasure as they asked about what was bothering her. Unfortunately she still couldn't tell them the whole story for the same reason she didn't tell Shinso, so she waved it off, claiming that it was merely pre-festival jitters.

She felt numb inside the entire train ride afterward, continuing to this moment, struggling to eat her pasta.

"Angel? Angel?"

She glanced up from her food to finally notice Moxxi looking at her from across the table, paused over her dinner with concern written all over her face.

"Are you okay Sugar? You haven't eaten much. Is something… wrong?" She asked delicately, making Angel feel guilt amidst the storm of uncertainty.

Her guardian was clearly worried that she was starving herself like before.

She sighed in response, returning her gaze to her meal. "It's okay Moxxi. It's nothing like that. A lot of stuff happened at school today and I'm just… confused. I wanted to talk to you about it."

"About what?"

She breathed in. "Well… a lot of things. First thing I guess… there's this boy-no, it doesn't have anything to do with that." She quickly added when the woman's eyes gleamed for a moment before she became serious again, remaining that way as she listened to Angel's story.

"Wow… that blows."

"I know!" Angel whined, messaging her forehead. "It's all too much and… I want to participate in the Festival, but if I do… we'll be found out! But if I don't, I'll lose my spot to Shinso and I-I kinda want to because I feel bad but at the same time I want to prove him wrong and I don't want to give up on being a hero, and, and-!"

"Woah! Woah!" She felt Moxxi's hand on her shoulder. "We can figure this out, alright? But first you need to take a deep breath and calm down."

She obeyed, taking several deep breaths and looked back up to her.

"O-Okay."

"Good. Let's tackle these problems one at a time. We'll start with your biggest one." Moxxi stated, retrieving her hand and lacing her fingers together. "Angel, you are definitely participating in the Sports Festival."

"W-What?!" Angel sputtered! "But it's one of the biggest events in the world! It's going to be broadcasted on national television and he will-!"

"He already knows you're at Yūei Angel." The older woman butted in, giving her a serious look.

"You were probably too occupied at the time to think about it, but the attack on USJ made big headlines. An incident of that significance would definitely come up on his radar. We could run, but that'd be throwing your future hero career away. We can't hide anymore. That's why…"

She smirked with excitement and pointed at her.

"...we're going to throw you into the spotlight!"

Angel was taken back, imagining herself upon a grand stage, a ray of light shining down on her!

"Why?" She gasped, completely confused.

"It was inevitable that that bastard would eventually find you Angel. You know more than anyone how wide his web is. He will stop at nothing to get you back, but he also has an image to maintain. That was one of the benefits of attending Yūei, the most famous hero academy in the world! If you suddenly went missing, all sorts of people would be on his trail. Nezu, Mordy and I considered this our long term strategy, placing you under so much scrutiny that it'll be practically impossible to steal you away!" Moxxi declared and threw her arms out!

"That is why you aren't just going to take part in the Sports Festival, you are going to excel, pulling all of the world's attention on you! This way, not only will you be making it safer for you in the future, you will also be seen by hero agencies which will give you the opportunities for your future career, but also give you a chance to gain more publicity and attention which in turn will buy you more time to get strong enough to protect yourself when he finally makes his move!"

Angel sat there, in awe at Moxxi's forethought. It was a truly bold tactic to basically be flaunting where she was, almost like she'd be taunting him. But when she put it that way, it made a lot of sense.

"I see." Angel said as the feeling of awe and spectacle wore off. "It sounds really crazy, but it might just work."

"Give me some credit, Sugar!" Moxxi tittered as she flicked some of her hair over her ear. "I didn't get so far in life just by being a pretty face."

"Well… that addresses the elephant in the room." Angel said and began to twiddle her thumbs. "But what about this whole thing with Shinso?"

"If you ask me, this Shinso kid has some serious baggage. He considers you his opposite, thinking that you got in because you "got lucky"." She made the air quotes with her fingers. "It sucks for him that he couldn't do anything against the robots in the exam, but you can't afford to lose your spot because you feel bad for him. Instead, you are going to prove to him that it wasn't your power that got you into Yūei, but your drive and your efforts, just like him."

"By participating in the Festival?"

"By excelling. Your best opportunity to do this is in the finals. The Festival's first two events are different year to year, so I can't guarantee there won't be robots to fight, but the final event is always one on one battles. All the more reason to get to try and get as far as you can, so I guess you'll be plenty motivated."

Angel rubbed her fingers anxiously. "So bottom line, I need to reach the finals to bring attention to myself so I can get scouted by agencies, keep myself safe from… him... and to show Shinso that I didn't get in just because of my quirk."

"That's about the size of it." Moxxi nodded. "You've got your work cut out for you…" She reached across and gently grasped Angel's hands. "...but remember that I am here for you. We have a week. We will prepare, here and at school. And you're going to give the world and Shinso a show they won't soon forget!" She declared with an infectious smile, proven as Angel grew one of her own before frowning.

"Wait! What about the opening pledge?! What the heck am I going to say?!"

"That's gonna be on you, Sugar." Moxxi shrugged apologetically. "The pledge is something that must come from you, not me nor anyone else. The only advice I can give you? Think about everything we've talked about. What this opportunity means to you. But most of all, think about what you want to prove to not just the world, but to yourself."

Angel blinked and looked at the table. "What I want to prove…" She muttered. She nodded and smiled again, pushing out her chair and standing up. "Thank you Moxxi. I'm going to eat in my room, I've got work to do." She said as she collected her utensils and her plate and left the table.

Moxxi watched her leave, filled with pride. "Do your best Angel. We're all looking forward to it."

And so began an anxious week of study and training. Every day, Angel would join Moxxi on her morning run, head to school, talk strategy with her friends and work to improve herself as much as she could in the afternoon hero classes. She continued the one on one exercises with Kirishima for three days before both she and Aizawa approved of her progress.

Thanks to her and Kirishima's work, she was feeling a lot more confident in her ability to regulate her energy output as to fire her blasts with enough force to incapacitate, but not maim human opponents.

After that, the two of them went their separate ways, allowing her to experiment with a certain aspect of her quirk, something she touched upon during the invasion at USJ.

Then before she knew it, the day had finally arrived. Fireworks whistled and boomed in the clear blue sky. The campus was swarming with people, reporters getting ready to broadcast the events, friends and family of the students and pro heroes eager to get the first peek at any talent they'd want to recruit. After the security checkpoint, there was a small market of food stalls, the scent of their freshly cooked foods wafting on the breeze.

While the crowds moved to get their seats and the faculty prepared the first event, the students were gathered anxiously in their assigned waiting rooms, including class 1-A.

"Everyone! Make sure you are aptly prepared! We will be called out at any moment!" Iida loudly announced with his signature hand flourishes!

Most of the class were chatting nervously amongst themselves, both impatient and excited for what was to come. Dressed in the school's P.E outfit (modified to have holes in the back for her wings by her request) along with everyone else, Angel's stomach was fluttering like her cereal had been filled with butterflies. She was trying to keep the pressure from overwhelming her and keep her speech ready in her head.

Eventually, she decided to talk to Koda to relax a little. She hadn't spent too much time with him as of late and she missed his familiar, anxious presence.

"So, you feeling ready for this?" She asked.

He gave her a weak smile and a teetering motion with his hand.

"Heh, yeah, me too." She snickered despite her worry. "Don't worry, we're going to do great." She assured him.

"Midoriya." A voice called out. Angel turned like everyone else as their conversations died down, all of them surprised by the resident stoic, Todoroki, addressing the equally startled greenette as he approached.

"Y-Yeah?" He answered, his voice lined with trepidation.

"Strictly speaking, I'm certain that I'm stronger than you." The bi-coloured boy muttered, his neutral yet serious expression making it difficult for Angel to guess if he was intentionally coming off as antagonistic.

"However, All-Might seems to be paying a lot of attention to you. As to why, I don't know, don't really care, but know this, I'm going to beat you."

His declaration sent a wave of whispers across the room.

"Woah! Todoroki is playing to win!"

"Hey man! We're all friends here, why do you gotta be like that?" Kirishima protested, putting a hand on Todoroki's shoulder, who promptly shook it off.

"I'm not here to make friends."

"Todoroki-san…" Midoriya responded. "I don't know why you're telling me of all people this... and I can't argue that you're not at the top of the class. I'm not sure if I can meet your challenge."

"Come on, Midoriya, don't take it like that…" Kirishima tried to placate him.

"BUT! Everyone here, even other courses are aiming for the top! I know that I can't afford to fall behind…" Midoriya gave the other boy a defiant glare! "...so I'm going to do my best and I'm not going to make it easy for you!"

The room went silent as the two boys were locked in their standoff, neither one backing down, all the while Angel was trying to piece together what was going on.

Why was Todoroki acting like this and what did he mean when he said All-Might was fixated on Midoriya? She recalled him calling the boy to lunch last week, but that wasn't indicative of anything weird was it?

A quick rapping at the door shattered the tense atmosphere and a member of the arena staff poked their head in!

"Class 1-A, please make your way to the stadium!"

Todoroki grunted and turned to leave the room first, but not before taking a glance at Angel again, sending a quick shiver down her spine. Everyone else began making their way out, entering the long hall to the centre of the stadium.

Passing Midoriya by, she gave him a quick pat on the shoulder, getting his attention.

"Well said." She praised, getting a nervous smile in return before they returned their gaze to their destination, the literal light at the end of the dark tunnel. The classes' footsteps echoed off the walls, mimicking the steady thumping of Angel's heart as the sound of the crowd grew louder and louder!

"Are you ready ladies and gentlemen?! It's time for the debut of the new generation!" Present Mic's voice crowed over the loud speakers as they stepped into the light!

"Give it up! For the freshman year, class 1-A!"

Angel's body shook as a wave of cheers washed over them from where they stood! Rows upon rows of people waving, talking and aiming cameras! She felt herself get nauseous at the sheer numbers present, thankfully as a result of the crowds being so far up and her gradual exposure to people in the cafeteria, she was able to keep herself from getting too sick.

The buzzing tsunami in her head didn't help. So many cellphones and cameras sang in the bleachers around her, it was a sea of intangible voices that was almost too much for her to bear!

It was only the second highest amount of technology she had ever encountered however. Choosing to focus on the physical world, she was able to drown the white noise out, like covering up the sound of the ocean with the engines of a large jet.

"Holy crap that's a lot of people!"

"I'm getting sweaty, is anyone else getting sweaty?!"

"I'm getting goosebumps!" Her classmates chattered as they all walked across the grass towards the raised platform at the centre of the arena.

"Following them along are their fellow heroes, class 1-B as well as the rest of the freshmen year!" Mic continued, drawing Angel's attention to the other entrances along the ring as the students from the other hero class, general education, support course and management entered the light.

She didn't have to look long to spy Shinso's purple amongst them. By chance, he glanced over and their eyes met. Before, she would have been easily cowed.

'Not this time!' She thought, not backing down. He didn't visibly react, then nonchalantly turned away. The stare down concluded, she returned her gaze to the stage where the students were congregating, not missing the pointed glares and angry whispers the other classes were giving them.

"Alright! Everyone listen up!" A proud, commanding voice called accompanied with the snap of a cloth fan! Standing on the stage was her art history teacher, the R-Rated hero Midnight! Some of the crowd hooted in delight at her appearance, wearing her black leather corset inlaid with red gems connecting to her collar that laid between her large breasts, on top of her thin, tight white leotard and underneath the garter belt holding up her stockings and high heel boots, all of which served to accentuate her voluptuous figure. The handcuffs on her wrists glittered in the sunlight as she flourished them through her mane of long, spiky, black hair!

'Just barely less appropriate than Moxxi's costume.' Angel sighed.

"Is that really an appropriate outfit for a school competition?" She heard the bird headed boy from the exam (who she learned was named Tokoyami)comment.

"YES!" Mineta cheered, immediately getting a snap of the fan for his shamelessness.

"Silence! All of you!" Midnight demanded, effectively quieting the voices. "We will now have the player representative give the opening pledge!" She declared, her blue eyes meeting Angel's own from behind her triangular glasses as she pointed at her! "Hodunk Angel of 1-A!"

She felt everyone's eyes turn to her, making her swallow. This was it.

Making her way through the crowd, she walked as calmly as she could muster.

"Wait, that's the top scorer?" Someone scoffed snidely.

"I call bullshit." Some else snorted.

'Keep it together. Keep it together.' She kept repeating in her head as she climbed the steps. Moving beside Midnight, she stood in front of the microphone, her heart pounding in her ears as her eyes swept over the participants, the audience and the cameras, all of them focused on her.

Right now, she was the centre of the world. Millions and millions were waiting for what she had to say.

She took a deep breath.

"Hello." *EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEING-!* She and everybody in the arena flinched from the sudden ringing from the mic! It rang for a few seconds before fading away.

Great start.

"S-Sorry." She said, feeling the weird sensation of hearing her own voice amplified on the speakers. Taking another breath, she gathered her thoughts and her courage.

"Hello. As you recently learned, I am Hodunk Angel and I may not look like it, but I have the top score in Yūei's entrance exam." She began, feeling jealousy from a number of the participants before her. "I bring this up not because I want to make myself out to be this big shot or anything, but because I want to make something clear." She paused.

"Recently, someone told me that I am lucky. That I was "blessed" with a powerful quirk. Perhaps…" She closed her eyes briefly, remembering the fire, the room, the death. "But I honestly never saw it that way. Then that same someone claimed that I only got first place because of my power, that it was the only reason that I got into the hero course at all."

Shinso raised a brow.

She opened her eyes and frowned.

"That couldn't be further from the truth! Almost no one here knows what I went through to get to this point. Coming here from America, learning how to speak japanese and most of all, my own fear that I didn't have what it takes to be a hero. I think I speak for pretty much everyone in front of me that you share this uncertainty with me." She said, many of the other students silently agreeing with her.

"In light of all of this, I want the whole world to know, the true reason I am here is not because of fortune, but because of the effort I put into bettering myself and all of the people that helped me along the way." She continued, her words reaching the four corners of the globe into the homes and businesses of many.

On a computer in a dark room of a seedy bar, the blue haired viewer absently scratching his neck as he wondered why his teacher was so excited about some girl.

On a wide screen tv, in front of three men on a couch, eating some chips while they waited for their friend.

On a small, low quality television, propped up on a crate in front of four wanted "criminals", cheering and raising their bottles of beer.

And on a hologram, floating above a large wooden desk. The owner kept tapping his finger on his swivel chair's armrest, eyes glued to the girl on stage.

"I'd like to thank my guardian, who offered up her home for nothing in return, my friends from America, who gave me the confidence that I needed to make my journey and the ones I have made in my short time at Yūei," She glanced down and saw Midoriya, Iida, Uraraka, Yaoyorozu and Koda smiling at her(she assumed Toru was too)."...who look out for me. They are the reason that I stand before you all today.

That is what I share with all of you before me, you are all here because of your dreams...your efforts... and your friends and family who helped you every step of the way. We all want to prove to them, to the world and ourselves that all of that will not go to waste." She said and took another deep breath in preparation for the big reveal.

"And that is why… my pledge for this festival… I declare that I will be number one!"

She heard Midnight gasp, all the students' eyes went wide and the stadium hushed in a second.

Everything went so strikingly silent, that Angel was sure the entire world had frozen.

She grabbed the microphone from the stand just as the other classes were about to start booing! "And so should all of you!" She loudly announced, watching all of their faces twist and freeze in confusion!

"And so should all of you…" She repeated, needing to strike while the metal was hot! "...because it is the only way we can make that true! Imagine for a moment that you won the Festival, but then you find out that your opponents weren't trying their best? Wouldn't you feel horrible, that everything that had been building up to this moment was wasted because you were the only one giving it your all?" She asked, spying how some of class 1-A looked at Midoriya, who himself had his eyes glued on her.

"That is why I swear that today I will take the gold medal and I challenge you all to do the same! For only when we are all fighting our hardest, will our labours and our loved one's hopes and dreams be vindicated!" She pointed to the sky! "Today, please join me in going Plus Ultra!" She proudly concluded, leaving her with baited breath, worrying for a split second that the crowd before her would start jeering again!

"PLUS ULTRA!" Only to be almost deafened by the sudden roar of the audience and most of the students combined, making stagger back in awe! The spectators were all standing from their seats, applauding ecstatically! Looking down, she could see the majority of the students, including many who had been ready to heckle her doing the same, swayed by her encouraging words!

"Way to go Hodunk! I'm getting pumped up!" Kirishima cheered!

"You go girl!" Ashido waved her arms!

"Way to show that Yūei spirit!" Uraraka hopped up and down, whistling with her pinkies!"

Angel trembled, tears beading in the corners of her eyes as she felt countless people praise her! She felt her self-esteem soar, flying from the shadows of her own self deprecation.

She wasn't worthless. People liked her and she could succeed!

For the first time in her life, she strode forward, head held high, a bright smile on her face!

"Thank you for your passionate words Hodunk-chan!" Midnight said as Angel stepped by, returning the microphone to it's stand. She wiped the joyful tears away as she descended back into the group of students, her usual anxiety fleeting as people gave her thumbs up and pats on the back.

"That was an amazing speech Angel-chan!" Iida congratulated her.

"That was so crazy!" Toru whispered. "First I was like "uh huh", then I was like "whaaaat?!" when you said you were going to win! Then I was like "YEAH!""

"That speech was so manly!" Kirishima flashed her an excited, toothy grin!

"T-Thank you." Angel said to them all as she finally returned to the class line up.

Taking one last glance towards the general course, this time she saw Shinso looking away altogether towards the ground.

She could only hope her words reached him.

'Now I have to prove it.' She thought resolutely, returning her attention Midnight on the stage.

"All right!" She declared as a holoscreen flickered to life behind her. "Now that we are all fired up, we can reveal the preliminary event! And the first trial is..!" She flourished as a series of event names whizzed by like a game show wheel, slowing down until:

OBSTACLE RACE!

The stadium murmured in anticipation, a large gate at the end of the arena opening wide!

"A simple event! All eleven classes will race in a four kilometer obstacle course that laps around the stadium! Use whatever strategies and your abilities as you like, so long as you don't leave the course! All participants, please line yourself up at the starting line!"

Angel moved along with the tide of her fellow competitors, the tension in the air having risen to greater heights after her own speech. All their faces were serious and determined, as was hers.

'This is it!' She swallowed as she lined up with the rest of her class in a sprint ready position!

*BEEP!* One of the three red lights blinked green! The familiar buzzing pumped through her veins!

*BEEP!* One light to go! Her markings began to glow!

*BEEP! AAAANG!* The horn blew!

"RACE! START!"