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9:00 AM - Mon. Oct. 18th, 2038 - Margaret Carter Institute
Classes had been canceled for the day, as all students were participating in the qualifiers for the Contest of Champions. Only four teams could be submitted to compete in the actual contest, so today's purpose was for the school to decide which groups stood the best chance of winning it all. To minimize any chance of favoritism, contest coaches were prohibited from sitting on the judges panel for this. Instead, their colleagues in superheroism had graciously donated their time to come and observe the students. Usually, these tended to be C-listers - the sort of Avengers that would be placed in the very back of a group shot and most definitely did not have their own merch at Hot Topic.
This year was different. A-listers were coming to watch. As to why that was? Well, the AA gossip mill had brought up a few explanations, some of which may even be true -
- Half of the Young Avengers were graduating this year, so the school needed to find replacement members, and having a more experienced eye would help.
- Half of the Young Avengers were graduating this year, so the school was trying to create more chances for them to be seen in action by high ranking members of the Avengers.
- The Young Avengers were an actual superhero team with public recognition, with higher profiles than the usual C-listers who came to town
- Most of these rumors really tended to revolve around the Young Avengers
At any rate, all the students knew was that big names were coming. They would be evaluated by a panel of three judges, based on their performance in the scenario given. If they scored high enough, they'd have a shot at getting to go and compete in the actual Contest of Champions, up against the best of the best of youth superheroes. If they didn't, then they'd be stuck on campus watching as others lived out their dreams, and they studied for algebra tests.
The first round began at 9:00 sharp. Six teams were being evaluated. The second round would begin after lunch, where the remaining seven teams would be evaluated by the judges. This year's scenario was simple - heroes vs villains. The teams would have to compete in direct combat. The last team standing would win. Additionally, the villains team would begin with a Shi'ar golem hostage.
ROUND ONE - 9:00 AM
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
Uncanny Avengers
In training room B, the stage was set - literally. Behind the Uncanny Avengers was a Shi'ar golem that looked suspiciously like Britney Spears. There was a pool of water in the middle, off to the side, for anyone who might have elemental powers. Students were allowed to bring whatever weapons and equipment with them that they wished. Vicky had tried to cobble together some comm devices, but it had been an outrageous failure (a nat 1 on a d20) - the approach definitely needed to be rethought.
But the room made it unlikely that anyone would have trouble hearing anyone else - it was large, but no so large that a good shout wouldn't do.
Arcade had shown up almost at the last minute. He had a belt with a million pouches on, likely containing different tricks and whatnot. He had thought about bringing his laptop, but he didn't want to risk damaging it. He had goggles on as well, to protect his eyes, and a Kevlar vest.
The judges today were Rogue (famously of the X-Men, but she had served as an Avenger too) (she was getting up there in age, but looked like she was 50 at most, and still in her prime), She-Hulk (in her green form, looking not a day over 30), and Blade (who insisted on wearing his sunglasses indoors).
The other team, coached by Tigra, was called the Unity Squad. They were mostly freshmen, with a sophomore and a senior. The senior (Momchil Angelov) was somewhat well known around school, on the account that they were a bird person - they looked like one of the Rito from a Legend of Zelda Game. They had a bow strapped to their back and a quiver of arrows at their side. There were two girls with excessively curly hair and bushy eyebrows. There was another person who was incredibly androgynous and had a weird glow to them, and the ceiling lights seemed to flicker when they moved. And then there was Jyoti Singh, the It Girl of the sophomore class, her bubblegum pink hair tied back in a braid. When she moved, her feet barely touched the ground.
"Well, hey there, sugahs!" Rogue greeted. "Ma name is Rogue, that's Jen, and that's Blade. You all have fifteen minutes tah do yer task - villains, that's keepin' the hostage, and heroes, that's savin' poor Britney. No maimin' or killin' now, y'all understand? Good. Yer time starts now!"
Angelov took off into the air, as did Jyoti. The two of them flew across the room, making a beeline for the hostage. The lights all then suddenly went out, and Abby Smith was a glowing being of energy, having eaten the power like it was candy. They looked across the room, their eyes glowing bright yellow, as they grinned a knowing grin.
The lights weren't the only source of power around.
One of the curly haired girls suddenly turned into metal - only lit by the intense light bouncing off of Abby. And the other one's eyes began to glow, before laser beams emitted from them. She swept her head in an arc, in order to maximize the number of targets hit. She ended up hitting Ed and Diana, sending them both flying backwards into the back wall, their uniforms smoking. Diana had a bad burn - it would hurt somewhat to move, at least at first. Ed's vest had taken most of the damage for him.
April Flynn
Location: Gym - Training Room C
Skills: Hydrokinesis, Ice Generation
So by the time she was in the training room with her team, facing down their opponents, she was more than ready to get this all over with. But simultaneously, she felt sick to her stomach. If they messed this up, there'd be no Contest of Champions for them. And even worse, real Avengers were watching them. Iron Man didn't suit up much these days - he was in his 60's or 70's now, his hair long since gone white, and he walked with a cane. Black Widow creepily looked like she was still in her 20s or 30s - must've been the super serum she had received in the Red Room. The Hulk - well, Doctor Banner - looked like he was in his 50s or so. But he had looked like that for the last thirty years from what April could remember.
Standing on the other side of the training room were their opponents - Brunnhilde's team, the New Defenders. April only recognized two of them - Theda Papadopoulos, a gorgeous Greek girl with unnatural piercing yellow eyes and almost translucent skin, as if her corpse had long ago been cast off into the sea. April didn't remember anything about her powers or what she could do, but she knew that she was looking at a predator. The other one she recognized was Michaela Jones - a dark skinned girl with her hair done in bantu knots. She had no idea what Michaela's powers were either. Both Theda and Michaela were a year above April - seniors.
The three she didn't know, she assumed must've been freshman. One was a pale girl with her hair done in braids - for whatever reason, April immediately decided she hated her. There was a ginger with a wild spray of freckles across the nose. And an Egyptian boy who kept dancing from foot to foot, as if he couldn't bear to stay still.
"We ready to get this show on the road?" Mr. Stark asked, before taking a sip of his ginger ale. "Great. You know the rules. No killing or maiming. Huntresses will be the villains. New Defenders will be the heroes. Blah blah blah. You have fifteen minutes, so don't screw it up. Go." He waved his hand dismissively.
Black Widow rolled her eyes. Banner shot them all two thumbs up. "You're gonna be great!"
April swallowed nervously. The Shi'ar golem, looking like a cute little girl with pigtails and a dress, was tied up behind her team. There was a pool of water in the middle of the room, off to the side - she assumed for her, Lady Nimue must've asked for it. "Okay, let's do this!!" April cheered.
In the blink of an eye, the other team was on the move. Megan drew her sword, only for Gideon to smirk. "Hell yeah!" the senior girl shouted. Gideon was an accomplished sword-fighter, but her superpower was that she couldn't die. The only way that she could be killed would be if someone consumed her soul, and even then, her body would continue to live on without her.
But instead of rushing forward to meet Megan, Gideon went right for Theda. A forked tongue slipped out of Theda's mouth, as she began to sing in a strange language, whisperings that April couldn't understand. She felt a longing to know though, to go and kneel down at Theda's feet, to... "Shit, she's a siren!!" April realized. "Plug your ears! Gideon, don't get distracted by her boobs!!"
Gideon had a reputation for being a himbo butch lesbian.
Neferkare dashed forward with supernatural speed - nowhere near Speed or Quicksilver or Northstar - but still incredibly fast. He was making a beeline for the hostage. April's reflexes were somehow fast enough though, as she yeeted a gigantic portion of the pool water at him, and froze it around his feet.
Percy Novikov
Location: Gym - Training Room A
Skills: N/A
However, he knew how much this meant to Dorian. So he was going to put his best foot forward. He had selected a freshly cleaned uniform, wanting to look his best, even though these uniforms tended to get destroyed throughout training sessions. Or at least, ruined enough that he had no intention of ever using them again. He had slipped a nicely penned note under Dorian's door the previous night - writing letters was really becoming a lost art - wishing his boyfriend good luck today.
And reminding him that they still had a test on the Iliad at the end of the week.
Now, he was standing in the training room, facing down their opponents. The judges didn't impress him very much. There was Crystal of the Inhumans, who seemed to have aged nicely into her role as a cougar / a candidate for the Real Housewives, given the way she was inappropriately touching (or trying to touch) the Black Knight. Percy was fairly certain the Black Knight was dating Sersi of the Eternals at the moment - that would be some interesting drama for the tabloids. And then Shang-Chi seemed to be regretting his life choices, seeing how far he could scoot his chair away from those two.
"Oh, sorry, duh, it's time to start this thing," Crystal of the Inhumans said with a sigh. "Don't kill each other. Or do, that might be interesting. Fifteen minutes, villains - that's Excelsior - keep the hostage. Heroes - try to reclaim her. Last team standing wins, and all that jazz. So, like, um, go?"
Percy was not feeling inspired. He glanced behind him, noting the tied up Shi'ar golem - it had been made to look like a little boy with a balloon, which he wasn't sure if that was twisted or funny. Perhaps both.
He didn't recognize anyone from the other team - the Mighty Marvels (Percy hated that name. It felt very gimmicky). There was a tall boy who looked vaguely French, a short girl with an insane number of piercings and her hair clipped almost to the scalp, a larger boy holding an impressively sharp looking double sided spear, a Greek looking girl with haunting yellow eyes and sharp features and prominent veins, and then an Arabic person who was tossing a ball of light back and forth in their hands.
Percy raised an eyebrow. "I don't suppose they're going to just tell us what they can do," he observed dryly. Hopefully the older students on his team knew. And hopefully Zelda didn't fall over from having a panic attack.
Almost unconsciously, he found himself walking forward, drawn towards the Greek girl. But then he was snapped back into focus, as he found the tip of a spear pressed into his chest. "No," Percy refused. He executed a perfect jump through the fabric of space, reappearing behind the taller boy with the spear. He kicked the boy in the back, sending him stumbling forward to the ground, the spear falling from his hands.
"You little shit!" Paul cursed, scrambling back up to his feet.
