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The last few days have not been kind to Victoria. First, Dunk & Donuts came up with a great plan to get ahead in the contest, and were kind enough to involve her in it. And what did she do? She cheapened out on them and rather than making the bugs herself, or at least properly checking the Alchemex stuff she bought was going to work, she wasted everybody's time, blaming her already large build list for it.

And to what end? The headsets she designed turned out to be abysmal. The only saving grace was that she only made one first and then went to do her 'factory acceptance testing'. IT was a nightmare. Functionality wise it was okay, but the usability was through the floor. Even in her own human limited conditions, the headset kept flying off of her head if she did any acrobatics. When she bent it a bit to increase the friction, it pushed against her head so much that anyone organic would have a massive headache after an hour of wearing it. And the less said about the extendable eyepiece the better - the boom tended to snap under a punch and cause puncture hazards to the eye.

Speaking of training, she has tried, really tried to sway Usagi from her insane regimen. But it was to no avail. She tried reasoning with arguments. She even tried to offer herself as TA instead of Teddy, feeling like a hoe for selling herself out for favors. No joy. The Mad Cat was unmovable. And what limited efforts she could make during the regular training sessions did not seem to awaken any semblance of team spirit in the five of them.

One by one, she considered the problems snags as they came, a setback to be fixed the next time. But yesterday, as she was preparing for the qualifiers and doing a review, it hit her all at once - So many days have gone by, and she achieved absolutely nothing of what she set out to do.

She was a steaming pile of failure.

Failure of a crafter, failure of a leader. Her nerves were already wound up with multiple uncertainties about the VEIL protocol possibly failing, which was forcing her more back into the isolation that she has grown to hate. But this realization was the straw that broke her back. She leaned against the wall of her workshop and slid down, curling up against the vault. As her anxiety spiraled out of control, she broke into dry sobs, heaving air her ventilators did not need, which served to only curse her lot in life further. Couldn't her mimicry routine let her cry, at least this once?

She just wanted to do good in the world. Any amount, whatever was needed at the moment. Put out a fire. Help the granny over the streets. Lower the kitten from the tree. But was she cut out for this? Guiding others to do the same? It seemed like she wasn't. Or maybe that part of her was just a giant lie? Her personality, her wants, her dreams, how could she even know if those were real, or just an extension of the VEIL? All of it was probably fake! Maybe she should stick to what ASTRAs were made to do. Maybe that all she was good for. Fight. Kill. And when told to, die.

She tried to rationalize some way out of those feelings. Did she not make friends? Did she at least not improve the survivability of her teammates? But no matter the logic or evidence to the contrary, she could not get out of the dark pit her mind sunk into. So she sat there gathering dust all night, like the broken machine she knew she was, until her phone buzzed with Leah's text.

She looked at it and nearly threw the phone against the opposing wall. But that would not help her any. So she gathered what remained of her marbles and opened the vault. The suit’s lens glaring back at her were as empty as she felt. At least she managed to do some of the modifications to this thing. Rerouting the powerline for the chest projector was a bust - Her internal skeleton had a solid layer of adamantium in the front, with overlapping plates to allow for mobility, but no holes to route lines through as that would be a weak point. At least she managed to run redundant power lines into all of the generators, so they should not be disabled with a single hit like last time.

Putting the armor on, she bent down and picked up the box of spare parts, the design making for a faraday cage to protect the insides from EMP. She set it on the table and opened it, shoving in the first aid kit from her backpack and also the Powerglove, just in case. Working the gear reminded her that she also went out of her way to try and explain the capabilities of her armor, so that the team would stop treating her like an Iron Man. She laughed out loud when Diana described that in the first session, she tried to stab her thrusters. There were none, ASTRAs flew by creating a repulsor field around them. Hopefully this knowledge at last might be handy to them today, and they would not ask of her something she just could not do.

She closed the box, picked it up under her arm and off she went.

Training room B…

When she arrived, she spotted that at least some of the team were wearing some more padding than usual. Good. This would be pretty much the first time they would be in a real fight, and injuries were bound to happen. Hopefully not too bad, none if she had a say about it. She set the box of her stuff at the edge of the room behind the hostage and nodded towards the judges, signalling she was ready.

Almost immediately, the opposing team beelined for the objective. Victoria positioned herself between the hostage and them. One of the OpFor seemed to also drain power from around her, which immediately put Victoria on alert. That was a problem for her, but fortunately she spent her time fighting a technopath who was even worse. The tactic was clear: Remove them from the game, ASAP. Alright. You want a villain, I’ll give you a villain. Come here little golem, let me just put you immediately into a headlock with a MFG to your head, see what the heroes d- she thought, but was interrupted when Ed and Diana took a hit. She watched in horror as a nasty burn stretched over Diana’s front side. Soon after, Leah went with her own idea, and Vicky could immediately see it was better than hers. Maybe she should just give Earthbender the reins?

Shaking the surprise off, she focused. Time to get a game face on. Leah managed to separate the enemy team, turning this into a 2v5. Two of them were already hit though. They could use the advantage to restore their capability somewhat, 2v3 was still an advantage. “Ed! Help Diana, take cover behind the hostage! First aid kit in the box behind it, there’s hydrogel spray and painkillers! Zari, Leah, that glowing one will turn me into a degustation menu, waste her!” she called out, uncaring if the enemy heard. It would do them no good if they could not do anything about it, and if this team was good at one thing by now, it should be taking people down. If not, they were all a cavalcade of fuck ups.

The birdbrain was hers. She turned herself into an anti-air artillery: All of her sensors scanned for the threat, with the addition of her left hand MFG shining a searchlight into the area, while she set her rear MFGs to her usual redundant electric field defense. She locked on easily, but both of her shots missed, one went wide as hell, and the other at least made him change course away from the hostage. Vicky cursed herself and shuffled back a little, making sure that any of the enemy team would get zapped if they approached the cage. She would have to trust the rest of her team to take care of the two fliers or wait until her weapons cycled.

Danni woke up a whole hour before his alarm, wired and ready. The smile wouldn't leave his face, even when he knocked over a cup of coffee on his psych homework, even when he tripped over a sloppily tossed sleep shirt from the night before, even when he started choking on toothpaste when he spat. He felt like he'd slammed back six pots of espresso and an energy drink all in one; Danni's feet barely skimmed the ground and he couldn't help but violently shake Dee while screaming unintelligible, garbled nonsense in excitement at random intervals.

It was the qualifiers for the Contest of Champions! Them, in the Contest of Champions! Danni couldn't believe it - well, he could because they were awesome and they totally deserved to be in the Contest, but it was the vibe he was feeling right now. They were like, real Superhero students now, not ones on the sidelines. They'd win this whole contest and put the Young Avengers in their place 'cause Excelsior was a way cooler name than Young Avengers. Washed up copycats, blegh. Excelsior sounded so much cooler, newer, fresher and what villain could stand against aggressive modern branding?

Music pounded from their dorm, cranked up at 6:30am with the She-Ra theme song taking first pick. It was the cartoon that inspired them to superheroics after all, and what would the dawning of the Championship be without their… Danni lost that train of thought as he considered their opponents. They hadn't gotten anything useful on them - something about bugs bugging out or whatever, but he could just feel the determination oozing around the campus and he had to shake Dee again as his excitement overwhelmed him again.

Did it bother him that they had been practicing survival exercises over and over when they were going into a battle? Not really. They had a great team; Beanie there to keep things focused in her mean, sharp, cool way, Dee with his jokes and lighthearted way of helping, Spicy with his teleporting and his nasty little temper, and Zelds with… well, shy, timid, but creative brain juices. And of course, the diamond on the crown, Danni Kingston, the fashionable, loveable sharpshooter, heartthrob of the team and beloved by all of them, just like he loves them! They're the perfect team and no one can stop them!

Well, they weren't really the perfect team. The only thing undertone of disappointment was that it wasn't the perfect team. Princess would be fighting her own battle alone and without them. She was a kickass Warrior Princess so duh she didn't need them, but he wanted them all together. It's been the only real damper on the everything and for the briefest second, the room went blurry but a quick wipe of his eyes and a sip of coffee brought the mood back up. He whipped out his phone and shot off a morning text:

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Danni was ready. Dressed to kill and oozing confidence, he knew they had this on the bag. "Spicy, we don't need t'em ta tell us. All t'ey know 'ow ta do is fail. Danni smirked, responding to Spicy's dry comment. "They look so drab, maybe we can spice t'in's…" Danni trailed off as he looked at the yellow eyes girl, the soft humming sound a second thought as he blinked and found a familiar scene…

It was his favorite place back home. When the City that Care Forgot woke, she woke slowly with a heavy blanket of fog encouraging her children deeper into their blankets and bundles and it was that moment that Danni found his little nook a special place. Somewhere that, as the sun painted the sky pink and burned away the fog, he'd willing wake up early to hike to and just watch the sunrise. He'd chat with Lt. Colonel Whittnebane, or that was what he thought the faded inscription read, for a bit, keep them updated on his daily life and the weird events of the world. It was a special place, one that he didn't talk about much because it existed in that liminal space and any disturbance would break the magic. He liked his early morning dates with the Lt. Colonel.

Which was why, he was shocked when someone else was there. Danni thought it his place, carved out and waiting for him to discover it after time stole it away from the rest, and yet here stood... Danni felt a blush on his cheeks and in his ears as the most beautiful person in the world stood, staring at him. The soft crooning in the background faded away, meaningless as the brief feeling something was off, because she looked like she belonged there with him.

She just fit and it felt like something he'd been missing all his life clicked into place.

Yellow eyes caught his and he saw images of them weaving flowers in each other's hair on summer nights, the crackling of a bonfire miggling perfectly with their laughter. He felt her skin beneath his finger tips as their breaths mingled where they lay in their bed, the intimacy of secrets and confessions shared lulling them to sleep together. Danni knew in that moment that his soul mate found him and he was helpless as he approached, his heart pounding in his chest and butterflies in his stomach but a smile, soft and secret just for them, on his face.

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Dorian could hardly sleep the night before, excitement for the qualifiers filling his every bone as he lay there in bed constantly turning and thinking up new fantastical ideas of what might happen tomorrow. That is, until he passed out into a drooling mess resembling Anna from Frozen. He hadn't quite woken up as early as Danni did, his alarm nowhere near setting off as he heard the sounds of his best friend running around the room like The Rhino down Manhattan. He'd waved Danni away at first, grumbling something incomprehensible as he may in his dream stupor with one arm elegantly tossed across his eyes. It wasn't until Danni shook him awake, saying something about the qualifiers, that Dorian jolted up in bed with wide eyes. The excitement and thrill of it all hitting him like patch day or a new game expansion for the still ongoing FFXIV mmo.

Dorian jumped out of bed, making his way over to his roommates side when he spied something on the floor. A letter. Was this like team assignments all over again? Did it reveal today's mission or task that started now? He quickly flipped it over, ripping the envelope to see a familiar writing on it. It was the same writing he'd been seeing for over a week now, penned into the pages and notes that adorned Percy's copy of The Illiad. His cheeks tinged pink as he read the words penned on paper, causing him to rush towards his desk and pen one back. He didn't think he'd have the chance to hand it off before the qualifiers, so it lacked any good luck wishes, but simply showed his gratitude as well as noting that he's poured through his book front to back three times already since the copy was handed to him. Granted he'd flipped the pages much more than that as it let off a slight scent of Percy’s Lush scent.

Dorian quickly showered, getting himself perfectly pristine for his debut fight amongst the A-listers that would be attending this year's Contest. It was a perfect time to be on a judges team, as they were looked at with more vigor than the others for promising new heros. He opened up his closet, seeing a hanging suit bag that held the hero outfit he'd asked Zelda to make for him. He had asked that all their outfits be fireproof, just in case one of Danni's flames took an odd turn during the Contest of Champions. He unzipped the bag to show his suit. A form fitting black suit with enough belts to make a Final Fantasy character proud. It had a ghostly looking P emblemed over the heart for his hero name, white under the knee boots and long white gloves with a flared white collar.

Dorian grinned from ear to ear as he looked at Zeldas handiwork. She really outdid herself, and it was something she felt more comfortable doing. He put the suit on for the first time since the measurements were taken, and it fit like a glove. Clipping his sword to his side and shoving a few items into the few external pockets the suit had before putting on his gloves and giving them a test. It felt right.

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Out on the field Dorian stood waiting for the call to action. The Mighty Marvel's at the other end as they played the hero to their villainous side. The objective was simple: keep the Golem on their side and fend off those who dared steal it back, without maiming or killing of course. Crystal announced the bell and MM seemed to just stand there. No, that wasn't quite right. As Dorian watched, Percy began to walk his way over towards the enemy team, wondering what the hell he was thinking. Sure he had the hubris of a demi-god, but even he wouldn't be this brazen. It wasn't until he noticed Sabine and Danni that he began to piece things together. Someone was playing with their minds.

Dorian scanned the enemy team, not bothering to take a good look at them or figure out their powersets yet until he identified who it was that entranced half his team in one go. He caught the lilting song of the siren and found his mark. They should've kept her as an Ace in the hole rather than start off with her. Sloppy. He looked towards his boyfriend from across the field, giving Jim a half cooked smile as he tried to make sure he was ok. "You alright Perce?" He didn't wait for a response though, his cold gaze fixating on the Siren before him. "So? You like to take away people's bodily autonomy? Not cool." he said with an edge in voice before he began to walk towards his right. As he passed behind Danni he vanished from view.

Dorian quickly flew towards Xeńia, possessing her as he gave her a sample of her own powers. Percy didn't like losing control of himself, and now he'd show her how badly she'd messed up. She was weak, unprepared for the Astral assault. One of the quickest grabs Dorian had ever made , save for Danni. He wasn't used to her powers yet, to her body, but he understood enough. He tried to drop the enchantment on his allies and reverse it back towards the Mighty Marvel's, but while he was able to ensnare the other team, he couldn't quite drop his own teams. That was fine, he got half the equation, now he just needed to try again. He felt her powers more vividly now, capable of dropping Danni and Sabines enchantment while maintaining the ones on the Might Marvel's. Changing the tune she was singing to a nod that his own team would understand so they'd know he got them.

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Diana had spent most of the evening in her dorm, she had teleported back to her home briefly to stock up on as many normal and trick arrows that she could. She spent some of the time making sure that her bow was in working order and made sure that she had some spare bow stings on her as well to. Diana didn't really get much sleep the night before really she was excited to start the qualifiers and wanted to prove to her team this time that she wasn't a fuckup like the first day of training Diana before leaving the room she grabbed her usual quiver of arrows, along with the quiver of arrows that Agatha had gifted her back on the first day and left to get something to eat.

Luckily classes were all canceled for the day which was nice Diana had gone to the cafeteria and grabbed a bit of breakfast thirty minutes before they needed to go to their assigned training room for their match. She was one of the first to arrive Diana was actually surprised to see some of the more well known heroes were playing as the judges. Seeing She-Hulk, Rogue and Blade himself were sitting there, her eyes turned to look at the team that they were going up against. The Unity Squad, Diana only really recognize two of them Momchil looked like a Rito from the Winder Waker Zelda game, they could fly and was also a skilled archer like she was. It'll be interesting going up against her, and then there was Jyoti Singh another flying who could manipulate weather.

The rest Diana wasn't really familiar with when the match started the lights quickly went out and she was immediately hit with a blast knocking her backwards and slammed into the back wall of the training area. Diana groaned as she slowly started to stand up she held her chest and winced looking down at her clothes they were singed a bit. She had opted to just wear her training uniform over anything else she turned to Victoria. "I'm good." Diana said, as she ran for cover thanks to Leah she wasn't going to let a burn get to her. Diana quickly drew out her bow sadly she didn't get a good line of sight thanks to Leah's barricade. So she angled her bow into the air, enough so that she could get her shots off, they needed to take Abby out so that they could see again.

"If you got weather sensors in that fancy suit of armor of yours, Jyoti Singh she is a weather manipulator. Momchil is an archer like me." Diana said to Victoria she hoped that information was useful as Diana fired off five explosive arrows in quick succession over the barrier and over to the other team's side. She wasn't sure if they had hit targets or not however.

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Madalyne had stayed up for awhile last night talking to her bestie and roomie April about the qualifiers the next morning she had also spent some of it just practicing some of her spells as well to. The next morning she had gotten up early and grabbed some breakfast, and eventually met the rest of the team in Training Room C where they would be going up against their opponents. Madalyne eyed the judges seeing that they were Iron Man, Black Widow and the Hulk. They definetly did need to be at the top of their game if they wanted to get their attention during these matches.

Her eyes turned to their opponents, Madalyne only recongnized two of them Theda Papadopoulos was a Siren and could manipulate people like they could do in myths with their singing Theda also had an identical twin sister. Micheala was also a senior with some kind of cosmic powers like the Pheonix thats about all she knew however. And Madalyne also easily recognized Megan Pendragon back during their first day as well to.

When the match started The New Defenders quickly sprung into action she turned to Mary-Sue. "Create a barrier or cage of some kind around the golem to make it harder to get to them." Madalyne suggested as she noticed the speedster luckily April managed to slow him down and she can manipulate the water and turn it to ice. "April handle the Speedster and keep him on ice and away from the golem with Mary." Madalyne then started to chant a quick spell sending an eldritch blast directly at Theda.

Sadly the first shot had missed but luckily the second blast hit her and knocked her down breaking the Siren's concentration. "Gideon! Turn your focus on Megan. Have her direct her anger on you. Theda i'll take her on. And Andy you focus on Micheala." Madalyne suggested, the team didn't really have a leader assigned to them and usually switched it up, or if anyone did offer to act as the team leader during their training sessions. She turned her attention back to Theda, she would help out wherever they needed.

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Sabine awoke earlier than usual. That was, in part, due to today being an important day for her. She got up to face the morning, wondering what to wear. Zelda had managed to work on their costumes for today's match. Sabine had to admit that Zelda had talent here. For her own costume, it was a lightly-wrapped number in dark and light blue that Sabine felt drew out her eye and hair color. It was easy to move in, allowing her to run around without worry of being burdened by heavy fabrics or tangled up in unnecessary nonsense. It also allowed for her to equip her sword to her hip for easy access.

Though they were not required to dress up for this, Sabine felt it showed their dedication to the team. Zelda was a talented designer and if they showed up wearing suits designed by her, it showed their focus. Granted, Sabine wasn't extremely confident in her team, they at least had some time to get to know each other during training. That would have to be enough for now.

Once she was in her outfit, she fixed her hair in a sleek up-do so it wouldn't get in her eyes. She looked at herself in the mirror and saw the picture of confidence. This was it. A chance to show who she was and what she could do. Would the others uplift her? She had to believe they would.

She got a notification on her phone and saw that Leah, who had gone off for her own preparations, texted her and April. Sabine smiled, staring at the screen. She had gotten very lucky. She sent off a quick reply.



She put her phone away and grabbed her sword, hooking it to her side. Once satisfied, she made her way towards the training room gym and to her team.

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Her team looked amazing. Sabine glanced at the room they stood in, facing off against the other team. It wasn't surprising how big a deal they made this. This was entertainment in its own right. A heroes versus villains match with them being the villains. Hell, part of the school already thought of her as some type of ice queen so it was only fitting. The goal was simple, keep the hostage with them, stop the heroes. Easy.

Sabine waited for the match to start, thinking of possible strategies. Dorian's ability would be great here. He could easily possess one of them and take them out. She could manipulate maybe one or two of them to fight against their own side or, as a last chance, have them just sleep it off. She would be good offensive or defensive. Danni would also be good at defending. Percy was an attacker, able to teleport, though he would have to take it easy. Zelda was the unknown one here. Sabine didn't get a chance to see much of her skills, but Zelda would hopefully stand up and defend.

Once Cristal sounded the start, Sabine began to move forward but stopped. What was she doing? Here she was, about to charge ahead when there was this beautiful creature in front of her. That made no sense. Sabine loved beautiful things and this girl was no exception. Sabine wanted nothing more than to go to her and embrace her and forget about this stupid competition.

She strode forward, determined to meet her new muse. Each step got her closer to her. Sabine reached out, hoping to feel her delicate skin.

And then the world came crashing down as Sabine fell, landing on her knees. She shook her head. What had just happened? A new song filled her ears, once she understood. She looked and saw what confirmed it for her, Dorian was not nearby. It seemed she had been bested by someone's abilities. She assumed it was the woman she had just been infatuated with. Dorian managed to stop it, thankful for the assist.

"Clever, but not clever enough." Dorian had gotten into the one girl, but Percy was facing off against someone else. They would need Percy to help with the others.

Sabine reached out, attempting to insert herself into Paul's mind. Once inside, she would do some damage.

Mary Sue had been going over strategies and counter attacks in her head for possible situations she might find herself in the past week. She had a notebook full of ideas and limitations and all the things that could go wrong or right. It was in this way she took after her father, never content to assume she was okay. After one more night of pouring over the possible permutations of the coming competition, she had arrived ready and anxious an hour early, to make sure she got any jitters or nerves out of her. This strategy, of course, while well founded, was futile.

Given that she was to be judged by three former Avengers, there was no world in which she could handle this calmly. That was okay though, she was on edge, but cracking under pressure wasn't something she had to worry about. If she screwed up, on the other hand, she might never live it down. It was because of that, that once the competition had begun, she was on point, acting almost without thought. When playing the villain, it was a game of keep away, something her powers had an obvious application for. Sticking a hand out, a dome spread from her palm, and encapsulated the golem in a protective barrier.

It was at that point, that she realized she felt deeply angry, in a way that made her cheeks flush red and fists ball up. She wasn't used to feeling any emotion this intensely that wasn't self directed. Her gaze wandered over to Mega, and her jaw clenched up. The rational part of her brain recognized that this wasn't normal, but she didn't care much. Anger was anger, and she could at the very least direct that anger; focus it into a weapon for her to use. The best way she could do so would be by beating them and stopping them from advancing.

Upon hearing one of them was a Siren, Mary Sue knew exactly what to do. She didn't expect her constructs to hold up well against people who could physically resist them; she knew she wasn't going to manacle something with super strength, but this was somebody she was an almost natural counter to. Rushing up on Theda without hesitation, she put her hand son either side of the young girl, her eyes wide with concentration. There was a quiet hum for a moment, before all at once, a solid piece metal gag was wrapped around the Theda's face and inside her mouth. That would shut her up, or at least that was Mary Sue's hope.

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Andy felt type-casted. She wondered if the others felt the same. And of course, there was that girl, Megan, god she wanted to punch her face. Maybe if her mom asked for a virginal sacrifice again she'd see if she fit the bill. Mads had suggested the team break up and tackle different people. Andy didn't know enough about the other students to have an idea of what to do. Mary Sue put a barrier around their 'victim' and was fighting the siren. It'd be so easy to just zap Megan, she had a sword even. That had to be conductive. Can't fight with something that keeps electrocuting you. Maybe they should have looked up the other students they might go up against and considered tactics. Something to keep in mind for next year or round or whatever Andy supposed. Her attention was still on Megan.

It wasn't that she was ignoring Mads' suggestion. It was just that Megan was so...punchable. She pulled at the electricity within her and shot it at Megan, she missed wildly. That was fine, she wasn't one to be deterred easily. She threw another bolt at Megan, this one struck the sword but did not travel it. This was stupid.

Andy stalked over to where Megan was and just decked her. She didn't even power it. Just punched her. That felt good. The crunch of Megan's nose breaking was satisfying too. She hoped that didn't count against her, but she honestly didn't care.

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She was not super thrilled with this whole thing really. Fighting each other didn't seem like the best of things (though the fact that their team was a bit dysfunctional didn't help their situation) so when others wanted superhero costumes for them to use, she happily jumped on it. Since it allowed her time to go race around and make things for everyone. Zelda's own costume was already made, her Sheik costume that she had worn during the auditions. Plus she had focused a bit on making Percy's at one point, so there was that.

When it came to the day of, she switched into her costume, and made sure that she had her sling of knives that she carried around to throw. The key thing was to go attack people where it wouldn't kill and would only seemingly result in an injury. Since that was not the sort of situation she wanted to find herself in. However in her costume, she was definitely a bit more confident in what she was doing. That was the thing, pretending to be someone else made her feel better. It made her feel like if she messed up then it wasn't necessarily her messing up, just the persona that she had adopted for the fight.

As the fighting began, the siren person's voice was a bit odd to her, but it didn't necessarily stop her from being able to do anything. Though the corny song that Dorian had decided to start up when he was clearly taking control of that girl was a bit weird to him. Her attention turned towards the light manipulator person, and she threw her first knife. Aiming a bit too high the person had managed to throw up a shield to defend against something that would have not been what she had been aiming for. Her next two shots were mixed, one the person had managed to dodge, though the other had managed to lodge itself in the upper shoulder stuck there. At least that was something for her to have accomplished to say the least.

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Zari was super excited for this whole fighting thing. Sounded like a whole lot of fun in her mind, though she also didn't think having an actual team leader was a good idea. So for the most part she still kind of ignored Vicki's stuff for things. Not to mention she had decided to try to make comms for everyone. By herself. She does realize that Zari literally is great with any for of tech and electronics right? That literally is her entire thing, but nope, decided to do it all on her own. There was the issue of having to prevent herself from giggling a little bit at the fact that she had sort of failed in that mission.

Anyway when it came time to join up with her team, she had armored up in her own armor, her sword was at her side and a horn was hooked at her waist as well. She was wearing her Valkyrie helm as well, and so she was prepared for just about anything. Then as the battle begun, the lights decided to go out because of someone, and with Leah's wall she couldn't exactly see. Now that was annoying. Zari used her powers (or attempted to) to at least get it so that there was some light as one flickered back on overhead, but was weak. That was better then nothing she figured. After another moment of thinking though, she facepalmed as she realized how much of a moron she was.

"I am such an idiot, who needs lights when my sword is literally called Glowstick for a reason," she said with a bit of a laugh as she unsheathed her sword, and it began emanating with a bright bit of light. Sure, made her a bit of an easy target, but now she could at least see everything around her. Zari shook her head a bit at Victoria though, "You'll be fine, plus think the fact that we are in a bowl of sorts means let's attack the aerial ones first, since you know, arrows can hurt. Plus some of us can fly you know," she said, the first part of her sentence was a bit more firmly directed towards Victoria in more ways then one a bit.

Without so much as a second thought though, she unhooked her horn and blew on it very loudly, the sound echoing throughout the room as a portal opened up next to her, and out walked Mr. Sparkles the Pegasus. Hoping on board, she giggled a bit, "Mr. Sparkles, let's go!" she said happily as they took off into the air, her sword still glowing to light the way for her. It didn't take long for her to get up and find the bird guy, and with one swing, making sure to aim for using the hilt of her sword as opposed to fully the blade, and slammed it into him, resulting in the guy dropping like a fly and hitting the ground out cold.

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Training Room A
Excelsior (villains) vs the Mighty Marvels (heroes)
Ser Nemo vs Jack of Harts
Judges - the Black Knight, Crystal of the Inhumans, Shang-Chi


Training Room B
Uncanny Avengers (villains) vs the Unity Squad (heroes)
Usagi vs Tigra
Judges - She-Hulk, Blade, Rogue


Training Room C
The Huntresses (villains) vs the New Defenders (heroes)
Lady Nimue vs Brunnhilde
Judges - Iron Man, the Hulk, Black Widow

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Ed managed to catch his breath, scrambling up from his position on the wall. His head was spinning slightly and the adrenaline was pounding through his body. Vicky was yelling at him to help Diana - but Diana was already running off. It was so incredibly hard to see though in the dark, and he fumbled around in his many pouch'd belt. He knew where he had put these things earlier, and it helped that they had a distinct shape to the other items he had. He awkwardly undid the zipper, before pulling out a pair of green goggles.

He smirked, once they were on his head - and he could see perfectly again. They were night vision goggles. Everything was a shade of green now, but that was fine. He got an idea then. It would maybe get them disqualified... But it might not. He reached into another pouch of the belt, pulling out four little discs. He'd made these last year for his final project in his engineering course. He stuck them onto various points of the earth tent Leah had made around the hostage, and they began to blink.

"No one's saving you now," Ed whispered to the golem encased in Earth. "At least, not in one piece..."

They were bombs, of course - pressure activated ones.

Over by the Wall, Momchil took a nasty dive, hitting the ground with a thud. They were out cold, thanks to a firm whack in the head from the flat of Zari's sword. But they weren't maimed or dead, so the judges didn't do much, beyond scribbling down a note or two. Their team didn't have any healers.

Diana's explosive arrows had sailed over the wall, but given her inability to aim, they hit the ground without striking anyone. Rada and Sveva had a few close calls, narrowly running and getting out of the way of the arrows. None of them fell near Abby.

It was easier to see now though, between Zari's flashlight sword and Victoria's spotlight. On the other side of the wall, Rada Sternberg punched repeatedly in a single location. In her metal form, she had super strength - much like the X-Man Colossus. A small hole began to form, growing bigger with each punch, but it wasn't enough yet for a person to get through.

"Let me," Sveva insisted. Rada stepped to the side, quirking an eyebrow at her teammate.

Sveva then narrowed her eyes, lasers shooting out of them, as she started to burn away at the wall. It wasn't unlike the circular sweep of a lightsaber in a Star Wars movie, creating a circle that could be easily kicked on through.

Without a word though, Abby walked up to another portion of the wall, and they threw their weight against it. They were stronger the more electricity they had consumed, and they were bursting with light and energy. Their glow faded, but the earth gave way, creating a person sized entrance to the other side. "Hey guys," Abby said. "We're here to save the day. You can surrender now if you want."

Jyoti had taken advantage of the chaos, and everyone focusing on Momchil. She was staying up high towards the ceiling, doing her best to fly quietly over to the hostage. But now with a flying pegasus, Jyoti decided there needed to be a change of plans. Channeling her favorite hero, Ororo Munroe, Jyoti cried - "lightning! hear my cry!"

Storm clouds began to gather around her, a light and gentle rain falling.

---

---

April nodded. "Got it, boss, I'll..." her voice drifted off. She had been about to try to freeze Neferkare solid, at least until the match was over. It was the logical thing to do. Speedsters didn't mix well with the cold. It's what a villain would do. But suddenly... Suddenly she didn't want to do that anymore. The little girl with the black braids, she infuriated April more than anyone had infuriated her before in her life. Her heart was full with hate as April abandoned the speedster, instead making a beeline for the daughter of King Arthur.

"You!" April hissed. "What gives you the fucking right?" she screamed. There was blood on Megan's face - Andy had definitely broken her nose - and it made April want to spin her aunt up in the air in joy. She only could've been happier if she had gotten to break Megan's nose herself.

"Hey, hey, she's MINE!" Gideon complained. She had reluctantly left the hot siren alone, and instead went over for a sword fight - which was admittedly her favorite thing to do.

"How about we all fuck her up together? How's that sound? She def deserves it. I bet she's a future psycho or something," April swore. And without waiting for an answer, she reached out with her hands and pulled towards herself. A small whip of water flew from the pool, flying into April's hands. She wanted to strangle Megan with it. She was going to strangle Megan with it. Nothing else mattered. She didn't care if she won today. She didn't care if she went to super hell for murder.

But just as April was about to strike, a webbed hand grabbed her by the back of the hair... and dragged her backwards, catching her unawares. The person dragged her into the pool, where April thrashed violently, trying to get free, but she didn't surface.

Enya Mac Suibhne was, after all, a selkie.

Megan swung her sword at Andy, aiming to hit her in the head with the flat of it, but Gideon was faster - she parried the blow with her own sword. The two swordsmen then became locked in a struggle, Megan attempting to get the upper hand, nearly managing it, and Gideon faring much the same.

"Little help here, Elvira?" Gideon asked Andy playfully. She had a crush on the tiny girl.

Meanwhile, Theda was screaming soundlessly, trying to speak through the gag. But it was no use. She couldn't access her powers. So instead, she grabbed Mary Sue by the hair and slammed her down to the ground hard. She went to kick at the other girl in the chest, but Mary Sue would be able to roll out of the way, avoiding the blow.

Neferkare's feet were still stuck in the ice, and he was tugging at them, trying to get free.

But Michaela, no one was bothering her. She walked almost nonchalantly on down, as if she was going for coffee. Her hair was floating gently, as if being picked up slightly by the wind. She reached out and set a hand gently on the dome. "No more," Michaela whispered. An intense ball of light and darkness and hope and despair appeared in her hand, colliding violently against the dome, beginning to warp and fracture it - it wouldn't last for long against the horror.

---

---

Surprisingly, Sabine wasn't able to get inside of Paul's mind - perhaps he had taken some anti-telepathy courses or seminars. He did keep on glancing over at Xènia though, his eyes full of love. He wanted to make her proud of him. And what better way to do that then by obliterating their enemies and securing their spot in the Contest of Champions?

"This is for you, Xènia!" Paul boasted.

Percy saw the punch coming before it connected. Paul swung wide and Percy ducked down (not that he had to duck far, Paul was approximately three feet taller than he was). The older boy kept his momentum going and ended up spinning around entirely, losing his balance and immediately collapsing back on the floor. Percy looked on dispassionately, noting that Paul had definitely hit his head in the fall that time. "I wouldn't recommend trying that again - you need all the braincells you can keep," Percy advised, before snatching up Paul's spear.

He hesitated for a moment. What was he allowed to do with this that wouldn't break contest rules? He couldn't exactly stab Paul (not that he particularly wanted to). If he wanted to stab anyone, it would be the siren. It had been brief, but enough to irritate and chaff at him. He didn't like it. He didn't like not being in control.

And that then informed him as to what to do next. He kicked with all his might (which was not much, thankfully for Paul) and hit the back of Paul's head. The not-so-gentle giant was unconscious moments later. Percy couldn't help but smirk, feeling a rush of endorphins. He'd got one.

Arsène had rushed on over to Xènia, stars in his eyes. "Xènia, baby... I love you so so much... Let's get married," he urged. "Would you do that? Would you marry me?" He collapsed on one knee, hugging Xènia's - well Dorian's - knees. "Please?" he sobbed.

Salah looked like they might've had something to say about that, had they not been cursing in pain from the fact that Zelda had thrown a knife into their shoulder. They weren't too sure where exactly Zelda was, as she had been sneaking around, but the knives had come from more or less one location. But Salah realized they didn't need to beat Zelda.

The hostage was completely unguarded. They made a run for it.

Emily made a quick decision, knowing that Danni had a reputation for being flammable. They put a finger to the side of their head and they concentrated, tapping into Danni's mind, and messing with his perception of time. To everyone else, Danni would more or less be moving in slow motion.

Percy caught what Salah was going for just in time. His teleportation was doing better today than it ever had before - perhaps the pressure was helping, somehow. He reappeared in seconds right in front of the hostage, spear in hand, as he stared at Salah. "Going somewhere?"

---

---

She growled quietly as Zari attacked a different target. There she goes again, doing her own thing. If Victoria was sad and discombobulated before, Zari was managing to cause those feelings to burn to cinders in righteous anger. She was partly trained by a military man, and had certain expectations on how people behaved on a battlefield, and this attitude has been suffered for far too long. Yelling at her now would only demoralize the rest of them, but if they didn't flunk out in this round, Victoria was shutting them all in the locker room and having a few select words with the lot of them, and maybe the coach too. She was okay with getting feedback when it could be easily acted on, but this was the last time she was getting questioned in the middle of the stars damned fight. Whether they fall in line or decide to give someone else this thankless fucking job. One way or another. No. More.

Refocusing on the battlefield, Victoria quickly analyzed the situation at hand. If Zari could be trusted to at least do what she said to be the best thing to do, she should be attacking the fliers and that meant Jyoti next. She heard Diana call out that she was okay and saw her lob the arrows overhead, meaning she probably was indeed good to go at least for a while, hopefully not being only sustained by adrenalin. Ed did Ed things - Vicky didn't know what he planted on the cage, but she imagined it had to be something along the lines of scorched earth tactics - fine by her, commendable even.

That left the ground targets. Swinging her arm from upwards to the hole in the wall with two targets, she watched in satisfaction as they were dazzled and protected their eyes. Raising her other arm, the MFG on it and her chest fired off concussive shots, but to her bewilderment, the two managed to dodge her attacks somehow. What has happened to my accuracy as of late?! Ugh! I REALLY need to hit the range after this one! Needing to act before they got the dazzled duo regained their wits, she retasked the others on it: "Diana, can you hit that lit up chokepoint? Leah, follow up and either take care of the other or plug those holes! Then everyone to the ground!"

Hopefully that would be enough to halt their progress, preferably the three would end up out cold. She added the last command as she watched the gathering storm clouds. Not willing to hedge her bets on the Asgardian's ability to remember what she said she'd do a minute ago, she raised one arm as a lightning rod and engaged her remaining MFGs in an attempt to attract the lightning. From what she quickly googled in her head, 95% of the natural lightning strikes were negative. Those odds would have to do. Charging the MFGs on her back with a positive charge, she engaged her skin's absorbtion function. In theory, such method was designed into her as an emergency recharge. Victoria hoped the theory was built on good grounds. Most of natural lightning should be directed to her, and on the 5% chance of it having a matching positive charge, hopefully it would be forced to hit outside of her 'sphere of influence' due to matching charges repelling each other. She was certain with their positioning Ed and Diana were covered, although Leah might be pushing it. Zari wasn't grounded in the air, so she should be fine as long as she did not fly into the clouds, although Victoria's vicious side wasn't exactly bothered.

---

---

---

The wall was beginning to crumble. Thankfully, the bastards got shoved backwards through it, which Leah took as her cue to reinforce the defenses. Leah lifted broken chunks of the wall and floated them over to the larger hole, the one that had been melted open. With a twisting motion of her hands the rocks fused together at a molecular level, effectively undoing any damage done. Leah had to hold the line. They were dealing with five separate powers they barely grasped on a working, foundational level right now. One of them could punch through the wall like her, and another could just laser clean through. What little Leah could gather meant the walls were at least a threat they had to consciously devote their effort to. So if she could keep them distracted, then they’d either wear themselves down or forget about the golem. Either outcome was favorable.

The other hole was still being punched through. That was fine, it was slower. When Vicky turned around and called for an anti-air strike, Leah dig up some loose debris from the ground, and whirled them mid-air like saw blades. She flicked her wrist and send them flying after Jyoti. Two of three miss as Jyoti pranced about, but she ended up smacking straight against one. She could be tripped up at least. A birdshot firing pattern was needed. Leah felt a droplet of water fall off her forehead, and looked up at Vicky, who was banking on being a human lightning rod. Could she possibly use her robo-bullshit to punch someone orb a stored electrical charge? Maybe Leah could hurl her like a cannonball at the metal one, and see what happened there.

Leah had to make a choice. And quick. The wall needed constant attention, but she was also in the best position to take Jyoti out of the air. If she focused too much on one then she’d lose track of the other. But her entire team could focus on Jyoti, and wherever Momchil went. If the wall failed. Then they definitely couldn’t make this advantage useful. So Leah planted her feet and slammed her fists into the base of the wall, gripping it tightly. She felt through the structure of each atom, and dredges up as much focus as she could.

The wind does not move the mountain. The wind does not move the mountain…

The cemetery dissolved away and revealed the training room behind it. It was trippy as hell, Danni shaking his head as he tried to rearrange his head properly. He felt a little woozy as his memory sharpened again. They were in the middle of the Contest of Champion and his entire team had already jumped into action. What the hell was he doing?! Getting caught up in some sort of mind fuckery! No wonder Pops hates it.

Still, Danni had to get a move on it. Poisson-Pas may not have taught them much, but he was trying to teach them how to survive an apocalypse and rule number… whatever was control your environment! And in this case it meant fire. Lots and lots of fire! But with a no maiming rule in place-Danni was pretty certain setting people on fire would be considered maiming, right?-he was settling for a little crowd control. Like, no one wanted to be caught on fire so he'd just put a wall of fire up and his kick ass team mates could do the fighting while he concentrated on not burning anyone alive.

Yeah, team work!

Wait if everyone jumped into action, and he got ganked in the brain that meant… He panicked with that thought, ignoring the enemy for the moment and bolted for the hostage. Since Danni couldn't set up, they didn't have anything stopping the enemy from just sauntering over and grabbing the poor baby! He was just a kid who wanted to hang back with the fun team, it'd be so unfair for him!

Luckily, he got there as one of the so called "Heroes" did as well and Danni stuck his tongue out at them as he skidded to a stop. "Aight, bitches! Let's light t'is shit up." Danni cackled, entirely unaware he was slowed down and likely slurring. None of his team was near him so with a sweep of his arms, a burst of flames wove themselves into a roaring circle. Danni left out a whoop and did a little jig, proud of himself for getting the ring up without setting the hostage on fire!

"What the hell is wrong with you?!"

Danni paused in his happy dance, one leg raised and arms thrown out. Was that Spicy? Was he yelling at him? Was he yelling at the enemy? It… it was very hard to see past the fire and Danni realized that was… going to be a problem if the team needed his back up. Well, that was for another day l. For now, Danni would just cheer Spicy on as he screamed at whatever silly hero.

"Yeah Spicy! Tell t'ose awful 'eroes what's what! Kick t'eir butts, you can do it, yes you can! If Spicy can't do it, no one but t'e ot'er people outside t'e rin' of fire can!" Danni cheered as loudly as he could, pleased that he was able to at least provide emotional support.

---

---

---

Dorian felt relief as he saw Sabine's steps stop midway. Good, she was snapped out of the enchantment as well. He'd hoped she'd manage to get them all paranoid, or fighting amongst themselves, but it didn't seem like she'd managed to do anything. Dammit. He kept his song up, singing to weave the enchantment amongst the Mighty Marvels. He wanted to expand the enchantment, to grab more of them in it, but he didn't want to risk losing the ones he had for the sake of greed. Daggers went flying wide, moving past Dorian/Xènia and digging into the shoulder of Salah. He really hoped that it didn't count as maiming. But the judges didn't seem to say anything so far, so perhaps they were in the clear. After all, Paul was attempting to spear them, and from what little intel Dorian had of this group he knew Paul's only skill was using a spear. Dorian had to fight the urge to help Percy out when Paul charged towards him. He didn't think that this enchantment would make them fight the team harder, he wanted it to distract them!

Dorian felt useless, like he couldn't do anything to help but keep the siren captive in her own body until they eventually won out. There was a loud thwack and before he knew it Percy had knocked out Paul. Good. Now all that was left were…his legs were locked up. He looked down and watched as Arsène and began professing his love, asking for his hand…or well her hand in marriage. An idea instantly clicked in his head. "You want my hand? Prove to me your dedication, your love. Fight Salah until there is only one victor, knock them out and show me how much my hand means to you." He'd thought about giving Arsène a kiss, a little tease of the treat waiting for him if he succeeded, but then he recalled he wasn't in his own body. It didn't feel right to use someone else like this without consent. So he left it at the verbal promise. Once those who were enchanted had fallen, Dorian could tell his team of those who's powers he knew of, but till then he needed to keep up the charade.

---

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---

---

Diana could hear the other team bashing at the walls of Leah's cage around them and their hostage, Ed managed to rig up a little present for them just in case the enemy team had gotten to close. A bit overkill in her opinion, but it would make the other team cautious about trying to break open their little makeshift cage. Then the walls suddenly failed Abby, had made herself a little hole, and so did Sveva and Rada. Victoria managed to disorient the two slightly with her suit's lights she looked towards her team lead and gave a slight nod. "Sure thing boss." Diana said and quickly teleported herself ontop of the wall in the space between the three of them.

Leah managed to seal up the holes once more luckily as Diana took a crouched position on the wall giving the three of them a little wave. "Hey there you guys." Diana said as she quickly took out three arrows, She thought about using more of her explosive arrows, but that might end up hurting them to much at this range without much of a gap to get out of the way of the explosion. Instead she chose one of her non lethal arrows and fried off three ensnarement arrows. Two of them managed to hit their intended targets Rada wasn't lucky as the arrow burst into a little net of sorts and trapped them, the other one on Sveva however didn't go off. And she ended up missing them completely which was annoying to her. "Anyway was nice meeting you guys laters." Diana said as she quickly tried to climb back off of the wall just as the light rain started now.

---

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---

Madalyne started to curse herself as she watched her team started to fall into chaos, Gideon, Andy, and April were now on Megan as she started to get the blind hatred for the girl now as well to. And was now starting to focus all of her rage and anger on the girl as well to, and started to form a fireball into her hands. She wanted to set the girl on fire and watch her burn as she tried to send it Megan's way only for it to completely backfire on her.

Madalyne found herself on fire and she quickly started to panic and dropped down trying to pat herself off, and the fire continued to get worse for her and she started to roll and try to put the fire out. It took her a way longer than she would have liked to as Mads rolled herself around getting the fire under control now however her clothes were now burnt pretty badly.

---

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---

It was annoying, but it seemed their enemies were good at blocking out mental attacks. Thankfully, Dorian had managed to get most of them under his spell. The toughest seeming one was lost in the song, leaving the others to be dealt with. Percy and Danni were managing on their own, Percy especially using his teleportation powers to defend the hostage, which had been abandoned. Even Zelda was holding her own, though Sabine was sure she didn't want to be there.

Sabine left Dorian to handle Arsene, setting her sights on Salah. The girl was somewhat controlled, but she was not gone and she could be a valuable ally. Sabine attempted to breach her mind, but ended up hitting a wall. She tried again, but came up short. Frustrated, she dropped the pretense. She looked around. The enemies seemed to be able to block mental assaults through her mind. Had they read up on her and prepared? She was not one to lay down though.

Sabine made her way over to the hostage. If she could not attack, she would defend. She unsheathed her sword, holding it up before slamming it into the ground, hoping to produce a force field around her and the hostage. Hopefully, the others could manage the fight. Even if she had to drop the shield, she would be willing to fight them off. Maybe in the onslaught, she could pierce their stubborn minds.

---

---

Zelda was trying to stay hidden and in the shadows a bit, since she wasn't exactly the most durable of combatants. Being a ninja was definitely her more sort of style when it came to fighting or anything. However her hopes that Salah would decide to try and figure out who had stabbed them didn't exactly work out too well as Salah had decided to go straight for the hostage that they were trying to keep from the heroes. That wasn't good. Of course, there was Percy now teleporting in the way, and the wall of fire that Danni threw up that almost caught Percy on fire or something. That was getting a bit ridiculous. However a thought crossed her mind when it came to ways to defend or fight this whole thing. And she decided to take some inspiration from Dungeons and Dragons with this one, since constructs and golems were always fun. Zelda held her hand out, pointing towards the area right next to Percy, and right by him there would be a bluish glow as what looked almost like blue glowing rocks started to form and morph together that kept growing bigger and bigger until the form was almost 8 feet tall.

She had decided to make a stone golem.

Once formed, the glowing blue form let out a loud roar, before it took a few steps forward and took a big swing, slamming it's arm into Salah and sending them flying off to the side. Zelda had a bit of a smile underneath her mask, since that worked out a bit better then she had fully expected to. However she was having a much easier time with this whole fight when it came to the fact that she was able to pretend to be someone else. That was always fun, to put on a mask and not have to be yourself.

---

---

Well this fight was going rather well in general for her, since the archer guy who was probably a bit of a nuisance at the very start was knocked out, so hooray for that. Vicki was yelling a few orders about something or whatever, but the thing was that Vicki needed to understand that they weren't exactly soldiers. This was starting to get a little ridiculous since she didn't seem to understand what actually made the most sense in the combat area. Well that and the fact that Vicki didn't get the strengths and weaknesses of everyone on the team or something. Since she kind of didn't seem to know what she was doing.

Then again, she didn't seem to have actual experience in combat or anything like that. Real situations were very different then this. Something she knew very well.

While Zari typically was the happy go lucky person, in a fight she was not someone you wanted to cross. Especially if someone hurt the people she cared about. Now though, she was focused on Jyoti, who was starting to summon up lightning, and she charged right at her, leading Mr. Sparkles to charge at her, with her sword still in her hand. Sure, probably not the smartest situation considering the fact that Jyoti could strike her with lightning, but she very much didn't care. She managed to hit Jyoti with her first attempt, but didn't knock her out of the air. "You know, I have an uncle whose a god of thunder, never really met him in person though, however definitely can say lightning doesn't overly worry me," she said rather happily, before with her second attack she managed to knock Jyoti out of the air, and they were starting to fall now. Zari contemplated heading back to the ground already, but decided to wait another minute, to see what Jyoti would do since if she took back off into the air, then she could do something, and if she chose to stay on the ground then she could just land. Of course she was prepared in the event Jyoti decided to throw lightning at her anyway, since she was a bit of an easy target with that.

Mary Sue's face hardened as she was pulled down towards the ground. There was an anger in her eyes at the assault that made her want to fight back. As she rolled way, she was ready to spring up and hit her back, but she hesitated. The siren was gagged; she wasn't a threat anymore. The smart thing would be to raise herself up, and go after the person that was threatening to take down her barrier. That, she decided, was exactly the thing she was gonna do. Rising to her feet, she drew ragged breath, and turned towards Michaela, ready to stop her.

Closing the distance between them, she wanted to cut off her sight. If she had the ability to damage her barriers, she knew that Mary Sue couldn't beat her in a straight up fight. That meant she absolutely had to give herself a combat advantage in some form. reaching out a hand behind her, an eyepatch covered one of Michaela's eyes, and Mary Sue seethed. This was a failure, and she needed to make sure it didn't matter "Guys, we should really focus over here. Please." As she threw a fist towards the girl, only to miss. This was bad, and somebody needed to step in to help.

---

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Training Room A
Excelsior (villains) vs the Mighty Marvels (heroes)
Ser Nemo vs Jack of Harts
Judges - the Black Knight, Crystal of the Inhumans, Shang-Chi


Training Room B
Uncanny Avengers (villains) vs the Unity Squad (heroes)
Usagi vs Tigra
Judges - She-Hulk, Blade, Rogue


Training Room C
The Huntresses (villains) vs the New Defenders (heroes)
Lady Nimue vs Brunnhilde
Judges - Iron Man, the Hulk, Black Widow

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---

Ed was really hoping that this would all be over soon. He glanced at the clock on the wall, but found that the lighting was too poor for him to make it out. He didn't think to include a watch in his superhero get-up, but maybe that'd need to be an improvement for the future. He was, of course, perfectly content to hang back with the hostage while the others did the heavy lifting. It was his strategy in almost every physical activity.

Momchil was still out cold, but no one had made any move to move them. There was a possibility they'd wake up before time had elapsed, after all.

Sveva and Rada were both dazzled, seeing spots in their vision thanks to Vicky's high intensity spotlight. Diana's arrows had set off a net around Rada, the steel girl tripping to the ground and flailing about, trying to get free. Sveva instead just got a nasty bruise on her chest, from the blunt force of the failed arrow hitting her. "Hold still!" Sveva shouted, blinking a few times before activating her eye beams. She knew she didn't have any real risk of hurting Rada, as long as Rada was in her steel form, but she tried to be careful anyways.

Her control was perfect, her moves precise, and her laser beams burned away the net ensnaring Rada.

Rada then charged into the hole she and Sveva had been working on earlier, throwing all of her might against it. Leah was doing her best to maintain the structural integrity of it, but so many assaults at once was difficult to parse. Sveva joined her eye beams to another spot, Abby rammed with electricity flickering all around them. Three different potential breach points. Once again, Abby was the only one who was victorious - and rather than dramatically monologue, Abby ran through.

Their supply of electricity they'd consumed was beginning to run low though, and instinctively, their gaze narrowed in on Vicky. "Yum," they said with a grin.

Up in the sky, Jyoti was doing her very best not to fall to her death. Her concentration had been shaken, the lightning briefly ceasing, as she struggled to stabilize herself. She managed to do so at the last second, slowly her descent enough to minimize the pain as she hit the ground. She saw that Abby had made it on through, and given the numbers disadvantage, Jyoti did the first thing that came to mind.

"Wind!" Jyoti shouted. Maybe it was the extra adrenaline pumping through her veins, but she executed her move perfectly. A GIGANTIC gust of wind shot from out of nowhere, blowing the opposing team back towards the hostage. Vicky, Leah, and Arcade were all blown into the back wall. Diana fell off of Leah's earth wall, towards her team's side. Mr. Sparkles lost control, flying into the back wall, neighing in distress.

Unfortunately for Jyoti, Abby was sent flying as well - Abby crashed into Vicky, Ed, and Leah.

Sveva and Rada took advantage of the chaos, and charged on through the hole that Abby made.

---

---

April gasped for air instinctively, water filling her lungs. From a distant, logical perspective, she knew this wasn't ideal... But somehow, she felt fine. She felt like she was breathing. She should have been drowning, struggling for breath, and yet she was breathing easily - as easily as she could be when fighting a seal-creature. Her opponent she recognized as a selkie, a variant on the classical mermaid. She knew that they were Celtic creatures, people with seals for the bottom half, but... That was about where her knowledge began and ended.

It didn't help either that Enya was thrashing April underneath the water. She tried to force the water to shoot upwards, to spring them both from the pool, but April couldn't move her hands. She needed that physical connection, that physical movement, in order to control the water around them. Instead, Enya managed to shove her closer and closer to the bottom of the pool.

April tried then the only option available to her. She threw her head forward, hoping to stun Enya and get free. Instead, her nose collided with Enya's face and there was a sickening CRACK! Blood began to flow, drifting upwards in a red cloud around the two of them.

Enya narrowed her eyes, as if to say gross.

Meanwhile, Megan and Gideon were still locked in swordplay. It was a masterclass in fighting techniques and skills. At one moment, Megan held her sword to Gideon's neck - the next moment, Gideon was somehow on top of Megan, a sword to Megan's chest. The dance continued, over and over again. They had to get tired eventually - right? "I guess you just like to watch, huh?" Gideon baited Andy.

Nefekare let out a scream of frustration. "Fucking melt already, you stupid ice!!!!!!!"

That left then, of course, Theda and Michaela. Michaela had almost broken through the dome by the time Mary Sue got to her. An eyepatch had manifested itself onto one of her eyes, blocking her sight - her sight on this plane, at least. The force that fueled her was not of any sentient species known to the galaxy. She saw with more than just eyes. It was easy then to dodge Mary Sue's punch.

"Thanos spawn," Michaela whispered, her voice strangely echoing. "You will disappoint those you love." She then turned and brought down her hand against the dome. It shattered. The hostage golem was then revealed. Theda grabbed Mary Sue from behind, putting her into one of the wrist locks they were taught at the school, as Michaela grabbed the hostage.

---

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Inside her mind, or the astral plane, or wherever the person possessed by Dorian perceives themselves to be, Xènia was fighting to regain control. However, she had little experience with being the one under sway - she was typically the one doing it to other people. Her efforts to free herself were relatively feeble and weak, easily brushed aside by Dorian, as he managed to continue the possession with ease. However, the same could not be said for Dorian's continuation of the siren's song.

Arsène was staring at Dorian/Xènia with clouded eyes of adoration. He was nodding eagerly at the idea of fighting Salah, of proving his worth against theirs. But then, Arsène's eyes cleared. His mind was his own again. His hands were still grasping Dorian/Xènia's feet. That made things easier. His eyes glowed red as he drained Dorian/Xènia dry of energy, almost to the brink of death, but not quite. That would've been against the rules, after all.

As Dorian/Xènia collapsed, Arsène made an executive decision, shuttling the energy over to Paul. The tall boy stirred, suddenly alert and conscious again, fueled with the energy of almost two extra lives. Things were not looking good for Excelsior. Arsène and Paul both ran towards the hostage, seeing that Salah had been going on the assault. Emily joined them. The entire team was closing in.

Percy's eye twitched. Danni didn't even seem to realize he had almost set him on fire, all in his stupid stunt to make a fire circle. Percy didn't support a mutant cure, but maybe some version of it would be good for Danni. He was a walking disaster, just waiting to burn someone alive and not even notice it had happened. "We are going to have a chat later," Percy growled.

Sabine had rushed on over, pulling out her replica She-Ra sword. She slammed it into the ground, and a forcefield formed in a dome around it. It encapsulated the hostage and Danni, and the fire circle, and then Percy and Sabine. Salah was on the outside of it - as were the rapidly approaching other members of the team. Including Paul. Whose spear Percy still had. Damn it.

"Where the hell is Dorian?" Percy then muttered, noticing that he didn't see his boyfriend or the siren.

A creature of legend - a stone golem. As a young Jewish boy, he always felt a little bit emotional when he heard about golems. Seeing one in person was something entirely different. For a moment, he was stunned speechless - and then the golem swung, knocking Salah back at least half a dozen feet or more, their head colliding with the ground.

The lights in the room began to dim. Salah, in an attempt to heal themselves and regain some strength, had started to absorb it - scooping it up with their hands somehow and popping it into their mouth. With each bite, the room was a little darker, a little colder - the light was dim now.

Arsène started to siphon energy from the golem - it helped that it was a construct made of (emotional) energy. Percy's form flickered as he reappeared behind Arsène, and he swung at the back of his head with Paul's spear. Unfortunately, Arsène ducked down, causing Percy's blow to miss.

"I think that belongs to me!" Paul snapped, rushing Percy and trying to grab his spear back, only for Percy's form to flicker and reappear next to Sabine.

Emily, meanwhile, had shut her eyes. She couldn't see where Zelda was, but she could feel her mind. Her telepathic specialty was in giving people slow-mo goggles, but she could do other things. She slid into Zelda's mind with ease, whispering - You're a worthless failure. No one even wants you around.

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Andy's head had cleared a bit. The seething anger and hatred had stopped boiling inside her a bit. Gideon had asked for her help, but there were people over by their hostage. She was torn, but that hatred boiled up again. What was it about Megan?

Ignoring the situation with the hostage, or rather forgetting about the problem. Andy tries to punch Megan again. This time she is pushed back, her punch missing too. Infuriated Andy steps in closer and kicks with all her might into Megan's stomach letting off a blast of electricity at the same time.

[hider]If attacked Andy would like to use the attack against the attacker and try for a touch and electrical blast.[/color]

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Sabine seemed to double down on Gilem defense. Not exactly what Dorian had in mind but it also wasn't a bad idea, adding an extra layer to overcome made it so the enemies had to expend more energy just to reach the target. Good. He only hoped the other two would fight Emily the way he'd left her open to attack. Of Course that couldn't happen, that'd be too easy. Instead he watched through siren eyes as glowing blue rocks began to form near Percy before finally forming into a massive Golem. The stone creature instantly went to bat for Salah and all Dorian could do is smack himself in the face as he wondered why everyone was focusing on the one person he'd just told Arsène to attack. His aggravation would be his downfall however, as while back in the Astral turf he was keeping Xènia at bay, here in the material realm he'd just distracted himself long enough to lose grip on her powers.

Dorian could see the fog of enchantment lifting from Arsène. His eyes cleared up and were now filled with determination. That was when he realized he was still being held by what he considered to be the biggest threat. He'd felt this feeling before, when he hugged Andy a few days back, but it was different somehow. One minute he was standing there about to call for backup, the next he was in the Astral Realm. His steps felt weak as he stumbled across floating and searching for what to do. That Arsehole stole his energy, and he needed it back. He'd be damned if he was the first one out of the fight. He strained his eyes, but he could see the movements, watching as his energy was transferred from Xènia to Paul, giving him a second wind. That's what he needed to do, take it back and then some.

Dorian took a deep breath, phasing out of Xènia as he went barreling towards Arsène. He made contact, and passed right through. Fuck. He did not want to be stuck both exhausted and in the Astral Realm, he needed to get help and Sabine was his ticket out of here. Dorian concentrated, focusing on the task at hand as he heard his boyfriend calling out for him. "I'm coming Achilles, today they will learn how the most dangerous thing is to love." he whispered to himself just before snatching control over Arsène's body. Instantly he could tell it was different. He didn't know if it was the exhaustion or if this mutants powers were that complex, but he felt a bit lost and overwhelmed inside his new host. He reached for Paul, trying to grab him to take back the energy he was gifted but the powers wouldn't budge.

"Watch it t'ere, Perce! Almost got me wit' t'at swing. Play keep away wit' t'e damned spear, Paul's a flatscan and relies on it. Beanie t'is merde 'ere 'as t'e ability to siphon energy and transfer it. We gotta time t'is perfectly got it? You make 'im wanna take it back from one of 'is folks and 'ave 'im give it to me. I'll jump out right when's 'es ready so give t'e signal. I need all t'e juice I can get." There was no sense in hiding where he was, he needed to communicate his plan and more importantly he needed to advise them against the others. Hopefully this way they could gain an upper hand. It was a Hail Mary, but if they could get it down to just Paul they could easily overwhelm him, he knew nothing about Emily but she hadn't seemed to do anything all fight so perhaps she was a flatscan as well.