A flash perception slowed the world down, drove Seth’s arm up to shield his head. To counter the oncoming punch already outpacing it. A static sheen and halo, like the shot of a cannon made out of a tesla coil. And the fucker firing it grinning menace upon Seth’s barely managed block. He was thrown out of his slow down, arm buckling into his head and kicking him back to the real speed of the world, footing along with it kicked out from under him. Sent spinning away off kilter and near terminal, sand grinding its way into his fingers as he stopped that fall, balance barely righting as he slide to a stop. All to only immediately need to block again.
As Kabar came rocketing forward with both feet first. A lassoing rope around Ohm’s waist pulling him back, transferring momentum in seesaw competition. Sandy soles crinkling against guarding arms and all that countering reaction recoiling Seth back again. Except now he had actual footing. Those arms shooting back, repulsing that kick and sending Kabar sprawling backward instead. Finally earning a second of breathing space. A chance to see just what was coming for him.
See the lineup collapsing, everyone jostling for position, spreading out to get clear angles of attack because of who cares about this being a free for all. They wanted a reward. Only Razor was the slowest on the uptick, renewed confidence getting the better of him or just no drive left. Only to have whatever it was be rebuked as Kaz turned about, meeting razor knife with sword. Words said but only a grimace and shrug seen. So Seth was faced with ''only'' ten other opponents.
Ohmega and Kabar were getting back up, but the main issue was Cleo rushing in closer. He couldn’t let her tie him down, he had to go on the offensive. He set his feet and bound forward, slipping past a freshly materialized strap Cleo probably thought he would be too distracted to dodge. She wasn’t expecting a head on attack either, with emphasis on head on. Seth bull charged right into Cleo’s bare gut, sending her sputtering back into Jacob and David who had bunched up behind her.
Only slightly dizzy from the impact, Seth pulled in both arms as Alex and Marco were flanking him now. Alex bringing in what looked like a hastily mimicked air fist, while Marco brought the genuine article. Launching in near perfect unison to the surprise of all but Alex, like she was way too on the draw. But both were still a step below. Seth quickly kicking back, still guarding against what was liable to blow hard. But none of them expected two air fists to over compress and explode! All three were blown off their feet, the wind force ignoring most of Seth''s defense and blasting him onto his back hard. Head bashed whipped into the sand as a hand scraped away, pushing him back upright before he rolled. But he was still stumbling and feeling dizzy now. At least he had distance though.
He could see Maya compressing sand into stone around her fist and charging past her prone ‘allies’, while Zeleny was… flying over her!
‘Why the hell can she fly?!’
She quickly surprised and grabbed Maya by the uncoated hand. Looping up and bringing her up to speed, a flying catapult. Seth wasn’t the only one studying the fight earlier but the issue right now was he couldn’t reorient himself in time, or at all really. He couldn’t move his left leg! He saw Cleo, beaming a sadistic smile from the ground behind everyone, a hand extended and a strap coiled around his leg from way too far away. He was stuck.
No choice but the risky one, he pulled back on his right leg, a futile hard block as Zeleny released Maya with an underhand swing. Seth closed his eyes, focused his power as safely as he could into his arm. He’d have to eat the tax for it since his suit was too far, but right now it was necessary. Because Maya was rumbling in with a hardened fist for Seth’s head. And he had a feint to blast out of. Counterweighting left arm flung back, his right barreling forward. All to meet that sandstone fist with more power than it expected. A chunky explosion of dust and sandy rocks, and Maya’s knuckles taking only the excess. Enough to send her spiraling past him off her own destabilized momentum.
There was no time to pull the probably toughened leather strap wrapped around his leg, so Seth dragged his extended right back out through the dust cloud ahead of him, trying to clear his line of sight. Only for a lynx paw to come flying out of the cloud and smack him across the face. Tabby was in the fray now, swinging a big snowshoe-like paw like he’d insulted her to her face. And continuing along with a flying roundhouse like drag and air resistance were suggestions. The summary double batting turning that dizziness into full on daze, meaning there was no resistance left as both massive paws slammed into his chest. The force enough to dislodge him from the strap, and send him flying back even further.
His back hit sand with a softer crunch, elbows taking the brunt out of instinct rather than reaction. The persisting dust cloud gave him a moment to shake off the daze and stand up, but not long enough to react. A rush of water splashed the cloud apart, and quickly froze as it drenched his legs. David and Jacob were working together, and Seth was stuck in place again. Before he could pull his arms up to crack it though, a shoot of sand came in from his right and swallowed his arm. Maya wasn’t out just yet. And neither was Cleo as she rounded the settling cloud, and whipped his left with a sudden strap around it. No time, no momentum, no leverage or space. And so the real rush came barreling through the last of that cloud.
“HE’S MINE!!”
Everyone running at him, pushing and shoving. Alex hung off Zeleny. Kabar whipping back Marco and David as he rushed forward.
“NO HE’S MINE!!!”
Tabby was hanging off Jacob trying to swing him out of the way. Maya and Cleo both dichotomy of emotion yet storming forward.
“MINE!!!”
“MINE!!”
“MIINNE!!!”
But Seth could only watch as Ohmega flashed ahead of them all, a full punch sparking with electricity reeled in.
“Mine!”
Fist compacted gut as undo force echoed across the arena. Ice, sand, and leather were unable to hold him down. Rocketing into the wall already bearing enough scars. Soft stone shattered and crumbled in another bass kick, Seth rebounding off and falling to its base. Rubble coming down on him, a hard sandstone beat adding to the crash. Cracking over his hand, knocked it low and darkening this world in more ways than one. Pinning him down for the ill expected count, the fight clearly ended once and for all.
As the dust settled and everyone stopped their bickering. Waited for the call they all knew the answer to. Para, having moved with the fight, observed the scene with earned arrogance. About to speak up and say it clear before Ohmega struck an even more arrogant pose.
“Ha! I got him! So who do I get to train und-OMFH!!”
And before Maya body slammed straight into his overbearing arrogance. Para’s smirk more than audible.
“The school of hard knocks if you think this fights even over!”The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Leaving the rest to determine a real winner amongst themselves, he broke off toward the pile of rubble that was now Seth, stopping short and squatting close. Too close.
“You see kid, I said this place wasn’t for you. You weren’t ready, more than likely you’ll never be ready. Just give up, it will hurt less. You never deserved to be a hero anyway.”
The darkness echoed that word over and over, burning it in with undo cause. Under that rubble he could hear everything. He could feel everything.
“He’s all yours Medi!”
He was still there, standing unperturbed on the sidelines. Finally clanging in slowly, disappointment laden in his step. He''d had to clean up Para’s messes before. Was that all he was now? Just...?
Under the rubble there was only that darkness, that pressing weight forcing him down deeper into the sand. The rumble of heavy hits rippling through, the heat of stymied attacks turning about, the clang of metal on metal disregarding what transpired in their absence. But for some reason…
Seth couldn’t feel anything of himself.
His bones were splinters stabbing at him from all angles, his muscles emptied of energy just to keep up with the bruising, his head was swimming around and around without a course or speed. But despite all this pain, the hammering of his body with every beat of his heart…
He couldn’t feel it.
Couldn’t know it.
Couldn’t understand it.
Because that damn word kept echoing through him!!
An unmetered pull textured the darkness with its syllables, drew him deeper than even the sand, toward the source of those accursed echoes. A hateful sound too low to hear. A bleeding reverb pouring out over him like so much taken in electricity. His bones healed, his head righted, the bruises ceased, but the pain stayed! Blotted out everything like there was nothing there in the first place! Nothing… nothing but the-
‘Who the FUCK does he think he is??!! He can’t even imagine what I’ve had to go through!! What I’ve suffered to get HERE!!! What I’ve had to FUCKING LIVE WITH!!! What I''ve had to LOSE!!! All!!! ALL BECAUSE OF-’
Seth stopped himself. Stop spiraling into something he’d only ever felt once before. When he burst that dam and cried for his old life. When he first used his powers to their burning extent. The edge of an abyss was loom before him, pulling at his psyche even in vague abstraction like this. Eating away at it, feeding off of it, off of all that his pain had carried away. He could feel what it gave in trade. The hateful emotions that nearly consumed him seething out, wisping to nothing as he pulled away from it, before it could pull him in. The Garkah had warned him about this, about the power they had to lock away. Why that dam was there in the first place. This was the holdover from when he lost control. And further still from when Threat lost everything.
A roiling mass of anger and hatred stuffed into a box and thrown into the dark. Passed along with them when they were shunted into his head. Seth stared into it, scrutinizing it. But could only feel its effects and not its form. Could only hear it beat that word out, trying to mask a low hiss below it. A whisper. It was seeping out at the edges of the container it had been shoved into. Amounts too insignificant to keep back wisped off like steam. It was indecipherable, but he could feel it. And somehow he knew just what it really was. He planted his figurative feet at that cavernous hole in his head, focused on it like any other source of electricity before it. A focus that not only extended, but pulled. Dragged this abyss up, closer than it wanted, pulling that whisper for what it really was.
Power.
‘I’ll show him what I can do! Whether he likes IT OR NOT!!!’
The rubble shook and Mediknight stopped in his tracks, tension sudden in his undue deceleration. He’d dealt with enough supers to know when someone just pushed their limits, the healing field around him rippling in response before it could even touch the poor kid before him. The rubble lifted and fell away with meaty thunks, alerting Para to what Mediknight already knew first hand. In front of both of them, Seth’s suit stirred. The eyes lighting up with a blue internal glow, signaling something long expected was occurring at last. But before Para could fully turn back to see the true cause, he was buffeted by the kick of sand and air. His turn stopped to shield his eyes. So he could double back his turn toward the fight, yet only watch as that poor kid tore across the sand. A fist raised with all the vengeance it felt like taking hold of.
Still wrestling with Maya on the ground, barely able to force her away with a double kick at the last minute, Ohm was ready to break free from the sand she’d wrapped around him. But instead he was summarily slammed down upon! Sand and lung aerosolizing, rippling with all the power Seth taken from that abyss. Using all that momentum to pole-vault off Ohm’s narrowly caved in chest. And lock away the rest of his kick off to find the next in need of a beat down.
At the hint of step, he rocketed off, parting the dust cloud he created. Finding a stunned David caught mid sneak attack with no hope of getting away. Seth pivoting to slid, using his trailing leg to break and swing that inertia all the way around. Slamming into David’s back, flinging him into the cloud, straight into Maya on the other side still recoiling from Ohm’s dislodging.
His foot dug itself through the rest of the inertia as Seth scanned the battlefield, his perception finding a hold out of sheer glutting overdrive. Jacob and Kabar were duking it out at the far end of the sector, though Jacob seemed like it wasn’t mutually wanted. Zeleny and Alex were flying and jousting, Alex color shifted to red for everybody’s sake. Marco and Tabby were trading blows close by, Tabby still in lynx form. And Razor and Kaz were still meeting blades in the center of all this, undisturbed by the rest of the fighters. So he locked on to Marco and Tabby, planted his foot hard, and launched forward with both fists crossed.
Razor and Kaz clashed to a standstill, the match up poor but held simply because they were the only ones with sharp weapons. Razor knives losing edges and whole blades to cold folded steel. But the battle was really just window dressing, as both watched Seth burst between the Tabby and Marco out of nowhere and backhanded the both of them away from each other. Razor trying desperately to look like he never even thought about attacking him, slowly swinging back and forth against Kaz’s sword while looking for a reaction from the guy he’d been mean mugging since they got here.
“Eyes on your opponent!”
Kaz for his part played along, observing the fight more candidly. Snapping Razor back to him so he’d take their fight more seriously. Even as he mouthed “Thank you!!” when Seth rounded them to get to the rest of the fighters.
Another head down bull rush slammed into Kabar from behind. Coming in low and scooped his legs up from under him, and menacingly grabbing hold like he was a human club. Seth bringing him down on Jacob and smacking their heads together, leaving them in a heap so he could move on. Kicking off to the side just as a new round of straps attempted to grab him. He swiveled and scanned around, catching Cleo back over by Para, just as Zeleny and Alex came crashing down in a ball between them.
His foot set again and shot toward them, barely allowing Cleo to react. Alex tried to lift herself off the ground to get distance, but found Seth lunging alongside, spiraling horizontal and grabbing her by the throat. Dodge a field of straps Cleo materialized beneath the lot of them, locking Zeleny down before she could get away as well. The sound of slapping leather was crescendoed by Alex getting chock slammed into the field, flinging Seth away from it with the centrifugal motion. But not far enough to keep him away.
Seth bounded back over, aligned with Zeleny in bunching launch. Connector boots planting themselves on her overly green chest. Using her as a backstop to blast closer to Cleo. Seth rocketed forward, sending Zeleny sprawling back in the expanding field. And sending Cleo recoiling in desperate interdiction. Spreading out another field of grabbing straps through the entire ground between them.
Seth landed running, charging straight into it, no more fear of getting tied down left. Because it couldn''t hope to stop him. They snapped at his legs but snapped in turn, any that were able to grab him were broken like they were never there at all. His left arm locking hard as he screamed into toward his goal, slamming her in the gut and flinging her out of the way. Because he wasn’t about to stop. He couldn’t stop. There was only one way this could end, only one place this power he took allowed him to see.
Sand burst in every storming step, till he was right at Para’s side. Momentum overwhelming as he launched himself toward his face. Massive right hook charged and unwilling to hold back. His fist slammed Para across his still stunned face, harder than Seth hit the other trainees, harder than he’s ever hit anything. The shockwave alone shook the arena and kicked up a final blast of sand to buffet his defeated opponents. Para sent flying, spiraling through the air. Crashing through the wall of the arena, smashing into one of the ancillary storage rooms with all the prejudice put in.
This free for all was over, but the war was just declared.