"Oh Fuck." Seth held his ground in the enter of the ring, but his trepidation couldn't really be held at bay. He’d expected to fight maybe a few members of the Elite, a real want to kick the shit out of Hothead had colored his expectations, 'but seven of them!?’ The entire team walked out of the washed out backdrop as it dimmed behind them. Aegis and Samurai were looking away, they didn’t want to be here, clear looks of regret and guilt below presentational stoicism. Seth tensed at this, though most of his worry came from Hothead’s smug face. He was serious as well, finally wearing his suit. It was surplus, a navy blue base with patterned rings of fire sewn all over it. He even had a laurel crown on his head made of condensed fire. The other members looked much as they did the last time he saw them. Technomancer was eyeing him with disdain, his sensors still unable to get a good reading on him. Maglev was looking like this was a waste of time, barely regarding him at all. Ziyou looked like she’d wanted this, another chance to really fight. And Erdwut was… softer than before. Or at least not as annoyed.

Seth knew damn well this wasn’t going to be easy, challenging doesn’t even begin to describe this. He hoped at least the rules would land in his favor, but of fucking course that was up to Para! His mother’s scarf trailed behind as he turned back toward the podium with all his disdain blaring uncovered. Para was smirking, smug as ever, but understood he still had to be fair in this regard. “His challenge is simple, though that is in complexity not difficulty!” The clock screen lit up behind him. “Tinman has 15 minutes to knock each member of the Elite out of the central fighting ring! Once out of the ring though, the challengers may return under their own power! So each member must be knocked out at least once for him to win! No penalties will be levied for getting knocked out himself! And not holds shall be bared beyond what is expected of a duel in this arena!” He swept his arms out as a final flourish. “So let this fight be a true test of your resolve!! Of your strength to hold out!! And once and for all reveal your worth as a hero!!” Seth sneered as he slammed his helmet shut, thankful he at least made that sound hopeful. He turned back to the Elite, all seven had set foot in the ring, still lined up like they were posing for a photo shoot.

He took a centering breath, hallow echo filling his suit, he was going to need to go hard in order to win this. If he even could win this. A realization stopped him as he saw his scarf flutter beneath his vision, he needed to put it away before the fight started. He popped the chest compartment open and swirled it off his neck. But as he did though an uneasy feeling shook his grip, reflexive perception slowing things down, like he'd just exposed himself to an attack. He looked up, Aegis was still looking down in guilt, but was saying something like her will was lost to her. “Inside. Left shoulder bracket.” Wait… ‘That’s the internal suit release!!’ His tension just skyrocketed, Aegis knew a lot about him and his suit. ‘What the hell else has she told them!?’ He tried to shift back and shove his scarf in quickly, he hesitated at the thought of accidentally tearing it or getting it caught. He stammered down to keep accuracy, but heard the whoosh of a thrown down arm and the worst word he could have heard in this moment. “FIGHT!!!”

His head shot back up, but Erdwut was on him already, left hand deep in his suit before he could react or even focus. He felt the click of the panel release, and the rush of outside air. Erdwut’s mailed hand was around the collar of his connector suit, eyes staring straight into his, no longer occluded by an emotionless helmet, no longer protected. He was ripped out of his suit, slow panels were torn off their hinges, unhardened metal buckled and crumpled without power and focus on them. Erdwut tossed him away, throwing him to the side of the ring like he was just in the way. Tumbling on his back, Seth focused up to catch himself with a hand and foot dug into the sand. He tried to rebound, push off with his dug in feet and fight, but Ziyou was on him already. A rifle burst of three strikes to his shoulder, chest, and neck knocked him back and off balance. He tried to move, to react, but his muscles wouldn’t budge. She’d hit pressure points and turned him of his target. He could only watch as Techno leveled one of his mechanical support arms at him from across the ring. It fired two shots, globs of something slamming into his shoulders. The impact forced him the rest of the way upright, but he still couldn’t move as he felt the goo start to harden instantly. Suddenly a flash of silver, metal bars flying at him. Maglev moved in from his right and forced five metal binds around his limbs and head. Gravity stopped becoming a factor as his feet lift the sand and his inertia skyrocketed. The bindings shot him away, magnetic push careening him out of the ring and- *CRACK* into the wall.

The stone cracked and Seth’s head bounced off. What little focus he had broke under the pain and concussion. The bars bent and buried themselves into the wall, the immaterial press of Maglev’s power forcing him tight, pressing his head to the side. The goop on his shoulders hardened solid as his muscles finally responded, completely immobilized from the outside this time. The haze of getting his head slammed into the wall faded as he struggled, but he couldn’t budge the metal bindings, couldn’t get leverage. He stopped, had to focus, had to pull some power out of the wall. He just had to- *CKKREEEEN*.

The sound of metals being cleaved by heat and force. The clang of heavy metal hitting the sandy floor. Seth push back as he inched his vision back to the arena center, but his resolve cracked like the wall behind him. Erdwut was tearing his suit apart, like a zealot tearing down a heathen idol. He slashed it over and over again with his Eschenwald, molten earthen blade melting through the unhardened metals, baking away ferroceramic, boiling gel layer. Even the titanium skeleton was rent to pieces. Seth could only watch wide eyed as his life’s work, his only means of hiding his powers, his protecting suit was reduced to smoldering pieces scattered about the ring. He saw Techno pick up pieces and try to gauge their composition, their attributes. He saw Aegis stand at the inner edge of the ring, wincing at every cleave, still too sullen to stand being a part of this. He saw Samurai in the same boat, disappointed in himself for not speaking up but still duty bound to fight alongside his team. A final splitting strike tore through the scrap to the sand below, Erdwut turning up to the stands and whipping Eschenwald to his side still dripping with molten slag.

“Let it be known that the League warned this one of the futility of his actions… the idiocy of his undertaking!! Though he made it this far, he did so with the benefit of metal and motor, steel and servo!! A hero that cannot contribute with the strength of their ability, the skill of their mastery, of the conviction of their heart is not Welcome Here!!! A powersuit is not a substitute for being a super, no matter how powerful it may be!! No matter what enemies it may best!! Even if it allows a novice to defeat a full laceroid, it has NO PLACE HERE!!! And so such artificial power must be DESTROYED!!!” The rings pressing Seth down creaked, his whole body refusing to to accept such BULLSHIT assertions! His teeth gritted, his fists bleed, he see red as his eyes tried to… wait.

He snapped out of his spiraling, saw the red for what it was, his mother’s scarf floating toward him. It must have been knocked away and thrown into the air, spared from his suits fate. It fluttered on its meandering trajectory, carried by the aftershocks of all this callous force, drawn to him as if trying to return to him… but instead falling right into another waiting hand. Seth struggled again, forcing his head over to see who grabbed it, screeching the metal as he defied Maglev’s push, only to struggle harder at the sight of Hothead holding it out. His smug devilish face regarding his scarf like it was frilly nonsense. Shrugging and looking Seth dead in the eye. “Sorry kid, you heard the man.” Seth went wide eyed and tried to scream. “Everything must go.” His hand flared, and flames seared into the fabric. A torturous flail took hold of the scarf, flames burn down its length, turning red... to black... to nothing. It flailed out of his hand, tried to escape its demise, but the fire caught it before Seth's eyes. Turned thread to ash, memories to just that, killed all that was left of Frigateville in a callous fire of malice. The last frill rippled upward off its conflagration, flames finally swallowing it whole. A dancing fade of orange and yellow, a dark grey puff of soot and smoke, and everything was lost. Completely... and utterly... everything... but the rage...

Darkness, vertigo, the feeling of falling back. The wall didn’t give out but Seth’s psyche did. He fell past the Garkah, stymied by principle but desperately extending out to him to keep him in control. But they couldn’t reach him, nothing could ground him. The last thing tying him to an old life he barely knew was burned before his eyes. Burned into his memory, repeated over and over but dying little by little with every repetition. He couldn’t even feel the heat it gave off in its deaththrows. Couldn't feel its warmth in his hand. He couldn’t feel anything. Not the magnetic press stopping him from saving it. Not the disappointed leer judging his perceived weakness. Not even the regret that could have ended this before it started. Nothing… but an emptiness... that screamed to be filled. That demanded justice. That raged for him to go all out. To tear this world asunder with everything he had. And so he pulled, and the power came flooding in.

The world snapped back to that horrid reality, Seth’s perception turning it to a near still life landscape… in need of a violent redesign. The hardlight array buried deep in the wall behind him ripple and flare, power wrenched through and from it with out care of obfuscation or coverage. Techno’s scanning equipment finally light up in his face, like a small sun had just appeared in the arena. The Elite mixed in their reactions to the sudden shift in speed, trained perceptions desperate to catch up. Hothead still turned in his dying smug satisfaction, only just catching up to the rest of his allies’ reactions. But all of it. Far. Too. Late.

That still life was ruthlessly despoiled, the wall at Seth’s back cracked and baked, the pressing metal over his extremities unable to impede him, the hardened goo on his shoulders cracking under pressure… and burned under power. With a massive push, the metal bars snapped, the wall gave way, and the goo disintegrated, as he denied his confinement to his own perception slowed world. His feet crunched back down on the sandy arena floor as Hothead only now looked back, his reaction a league below his compatriots and an offense needing rectification. One he could only now dread as he looked down at the one who would enact that grand renouncement. A clear and concise message written across his contorted face. “YOU GOD DAMN FUCKED UP!!!”

The still life shattered as all hell loosed itself at last. A monumental step turned sand nearly to glass, blasting it into the stands in his wake. A right arm folded over and aimed at Hothead’s side. All he could do to prepare was complete his turn in time to receive a full force gut check… into the prevailing wall. Stone, metal supports gave way as he was slammed aside with extreme prejudice and shook the foundation of this hallowed den of pieces of shit!!. Seth didn’t stop, couldn’t stop, momentum far too great to be impeded by a casual tossing away of the trash. And not an ounce of will spared to oppose what his being demanded.

Ziyou was closest, the edge of the ring. She was moving to intercept him, but misunderstood how she was ever going to do that. His opposite foot cut his inertia in front of her, an opposing burst of sand and a right leg carrying everything left around to refute the 'bitch who though she could look down on me!!' She tried to block, but only succeeded in shortening Seth’s travel time. Her guard buckled, impact crumpling it and shooting her away. Back met wall with at least a little less force than Hothead, but more than enough to make her feel it. She bounced off the shattered stone in clear pain as Seth followed through, foot grinding him to a halt and slamming another devastating step through the air.

Maglev was next, his reaction more matured than the others. A new set of metal bars releasing from under his metallic cape and flying at Seth. They were invalidated completely. A hand swatted into one, clanging it into its brethren until all were all were scattered away from Maglev's push. But that hand came back as it neared mister too cool to fucking care! It snatched his cape, metallic fabric crinkling and screeching as Seth slid to a stop before him and span violently. Woven metal tore and screamed as it ripped away, exposing the plain navy blue surplus suit hidden underneath it. Maglev was spun counter, his cape acting like a top string as it was viciously torn away. He spiraled uncontrollably out of the ring, cape thrown down spitefully as Seth lurched down and another blast rocked the floor.

Techno was up next and he knew, sensors overloading and failing as their over calibrated detectors found that sun in their face. His support arms reacted faster than then he ever could, lining up shots and other unknown attacks. Both feet stopped Seth in front him, both arms locked to strike as he desperately blocked and fell back as fast as he could. The top left support arm tried to reacquire him, mechanical speed and precision caught unprepared. But that metal machinery was dashed before it could carry out its programming, a fist recoiling off its destruction. The others were dashed to pieces in kind before they could even compensate. Techno was left disarmed and cowering, but only partially guilty. Seth took another hard loaded step and pushed him aside with a suppressed right palm, though that was enough to send him tumbling and scattering. Seth just wanted him out of the way, a clear sightline on the bastard who started this destruction.

Erdwut was still stood over his destroyed suit, his only reaction a slow turn to regard what had happened to his team. A reaction Seth could not accept idle. He blasted toward him, over the disparate wreckage of his suit, passed Aegis’ comparable and concerned perception, straight for Erdwut. He landed, blasted another wake of friction glassed sand, and launched one final time in front of him, all his rage poured into his right to knock the fucking hell out of this stupid stoic bastard!!. But Erdwut was not so easily intimidated. A sudden shift, perceptions matched in velocity. He spun about from the left, Eschenwald turned flat end on and careening... straight for Seth's head. A softly searing flat iron suddenly dominated his vision, and totaled his perception. The en mass concussion just added on to that. His feeling returned, the barest sliver of Eschenwald's heat melted through to him, but quickly disappeared as it bashed him head first away. He was sent tumbling end over end, more concussions to add to the pile, only losing momentum and sliding to a stop before the protected bench’s barrier. The violated still life finally disappeared and the world returned to everyone else. Trainees, shocked by the lightning fast proceedings, crowded up to see Seth unconscious body before them. A seared in patch on the side of his head, his eyes limply closed, but his teeth gritted in pain… or anger.

“PARAAAAAA!!!” Erdwut bellowed up at the podium like he’d never done before. “You said he didn’t have powers!!” Para looked down, smug satisfaction had been burned away by spite riddled contortions as he'd watched history repeat itself, as he'd watched Seth tear through another group of supers like they had been nothing. “He Doesn’t!! Have!! Powers!!! It’s all that damn suit!!!” Erdwut spread out his arm at the scrap metal display around him and the slowly re-congregating Elite, stoicism perturbing away. “WHAT SUIT!!! There’s Nothing Left!!” Technomancer shakily stood up and pressed a few buttons on his suit gauntlet, a skittering sound from the stands signaled a new set of support arms were on their way. He bent down to the floor as they approached, letting them rip the broken pack off his back and allowing himself to pick up a piece of the suit off the ground. He groaned back up, support pack whirring into place, and presented the piece forcefully toward the podium. “Para!! I scanned this thing from top to bottom!! There’s no power source among this junk!!”

Hothead and Ziyou both sorely walked back into the group from their respective landing points, Hothead angrily gripping his more than bruised side and grumbling at getting thrown through a load bearing wall. “I don’t give a crap what his suit’s got!! This damn kid is Not this powerful on his own!!!” Ziyou held her arm in dimming pain and popped it back where it belonged, shrugging halfheartedly but rather loudly as she crossed in front of Hothead. The rather pleasant feeling of Mediknight’s healing aura was washing over the arena and dissipating what damage had been done. Para’s frustration at this back and forth only grew. “He can’t have powers!! No one wears a suit like that just for FUN!! And a few heavy sucker punches doesn’t make him super!!” Aegis was watching on from her spot on the edge of the ring, an ultra light chuckle cutting through her concern at what just happened. She hadn’t told them everything apparently and preferred to let them flounder in their own ignorance. Though her guilt still kept her head down… as a piece of suit floated up from the ground in front of her. “Uhm... guys.”

Techno reasserted himself to Para. “Listen!! This suit had no power driving it!! That means he’d been moving it all on his own!! There’s several hundred pounds of scrap here damn it!!” Para shot back at him. “Just because he’s strong doesn’t mean he’s a super!!” More pieces of suit began floating around the heroes, all of them looking up at Para’s tunnel visioned glare at Techno and Erdwut and his refusal to accept the facts he just saw. Aegis was now joined by an almost shocked Samurai observing the rising metal field. “Uhm… Guys!” Techno pulled up his data pad with his scanning readings on it. “Para!! The moves he’s been recorded doing don’t line up with just super strength!! This suit has adapters, capacitors, layers that don’t work without a massive amount of external power put into them!! And the ONLY source of power that could come from is-” “GUYS!!!” The heroes finally snapped out of their argument and all turned to Aegis, seeing the floating pieces of metal around them at last. And it finally dawned on them now as they followed those shattered pieces out and away from the ring… that Seth was lurching back up again, ready for round two.

A glare that could burn steel and that ever present and verbose expression were the only things the heroes received as they stared back through Seth’s growing metal constellation. A buzz in the air slowly rose as he reared up, arms pulled in at his sides. A new wave of energy siphoned away from the hardlight array crashed over him, wispy ionization burning the air around him in a dim rainbow of colors. The floating pieces starting to slowly pull toward him like magnets to each other. Techno fumbled with his piece and held tight to it, getting dragged along as he tried to keep hold. His support arms began to flail stiffly with calculation as he flicked his visor down and reeled. “He’s… trying to rebuild the suit!?!” “Not a GOD!! DAMN!! CHANCE!!!” Maglev pulled ahead of everyone and extended is hands. Seth could feel the countervailing pull against his own, true magnetic force arraying against him. One paled utterly. Erdwut showfully pulled his molten blade up, pointing with clear command and a final bellow behind it for everyone to hear. “STOP HIM!!!” But all of it... ‘Too Late!!’

Seth reared back hard, the ionized air flared to match with the massive pull against Maglev’s. The pieces shot away with extreme force and wanton prejudice, almost pulling Maglev along with them. The first pieces impacted onto his body like the starting pieces of a puzzle, recoiling him with every impact but was far from in danger. A half a gauntlet here, a shin guard sliver, a third of a rotator cuff, the rib from the skeletal frame, the helmet’s lower half. Maglev righted himself in time to join Hothead and Ziyou as they charged toward him, pieces flowing past them at violent velocities. Hothead reached out and grabbed a large chunk, most of the right gauntlet, and fought the force reeling it in. ‘NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!!’ Seth suddenly lurched down into his pull with all the grace of loosed beast, counter charging as more parts slammed into their places. He pulled up his left as its main plate slotted in, just as Maglev loosed a metal bar at him. It sparked and screeched as it glanced off and launched away. His left foot sprang him up and spun him over as Ziyou came in with a low strike. A sweeping strike failed to catch his other leg as it left the ground, momentum carrying her about to prepare for a counter. The right boot reformed around his foot as it came around as expected. Ziyou brought up her guard up tight, but weight and power denied her preparation. Her arms buckled as the plated boot struck her in the face, spinning her back around violently. That right slammed down and halted his spin, locked down again, and launched him back on his malicious course.

Maglev was coming in, swinging one of his metal bars down with rebuked fury. The rest of the left gauntlet formed around Seth’s hand as it extended and caught it mid strike. Momentum carried through, loaded up as his arm kept that bar held tight but his body passed it by. Fully locked, he slammed it forward, out of Maglev’s hands and into his face. A bloody nose and lost footing knocked him on his ass as all the momentum was transferred away. The metal bar was whipped away as he lurched to lock and shot off, dragging his right out to punch Hothead as he struggled against the right gauntlet. It suddenly pulled up oddly, realigned, and what was left of the fingers curled up into a fist right in his face. Seth loosed his punch right into the waiting gauntlet, slipping in, slamming shut, and bashing Hot in the chest. He ricocheted away, was sent tumbling past Aegis still locked in her spot but watching with a tinge of pride in her guilt ridden concern. Seth planted his right again and launched back into the ring.

Techno ducked away to preserve his tech, and to get clear of Erdwut as he came up to bat. Seth leapt off his left again, spinning over Eschenwald like a pole-vaulter as it sought purchase against the empty space he left. More pieces formed on to their respective places as he continued forward through the air. The rest of the left boot, the back plating, the hip joints, the once shattered servos. All of it flowed on to him as he spun around, dragging his hands through the sand to slow himself to land. He skidded to a stop as more pieces shot into place, forcing him back into the center of the ring again. Each piece clanged into place like a metallic symphony until the helmet top slammed down on his head. The cacophony and struggle ceased as he was hit low and dragged down by the weight of it all. But this was his weight to bear again.

He opened his eyes, like they’d been shut for a time without him knowing, like he had blacked. The weight of the suit labored his breath, its soft pull at the power scathed off the excess he'd accumulated, it brought him out of… whatever he fell into. He felt the Garkah again, heard them scramble to support him, to diagnose the damage done to the suit and how to mitigate it. But Seth didn’t need them to fix it for him. "We... we got you back!" Threat was hollowed with worry, but tried to mitigate himself. "Do what you have to... kick some ass!!" Seth took that in stride. He felt the threads, the infinitesimal electron strings he pulled at to put his suit back together again. Wound tight through every piece, across every crack and break, but it took all they had to hold the whole thing together. Seth needed the suit whole again to fight at full power. So he needed more power.

The discombobulated heroes regrouped on the other side of his shattered view screen, Ziyou and Maglev nursing their heads under Mediknight’s healing field. Hothead hacking for air and holding his chest, rushing forward once he could hold a breath, trying to catch Seth out. But he was stopped as Eschenwald was put in his face. Erdwut staring him down to stop him from making a fool of himself. “We can’t blindly engage him anymore. We need to understand just what he’s capable of.” Hothead sneered, but understood. Instead he redirected his ire at Seth, snorting at the situation. “Like he could do much with a broken suit like-” *ZAP* His arrogant redirection was interrupted by an electrical discharge… no… an inflow!

The floor of the arena glassed as a bolt of electricity shot up out of it, crashing into the suit like an inverted lightning rod. The heroes could do little but watch the light show. Seth was pulling power in at an excessive rate, wispy aurora of ionizing turned the air around him to flashing plasma as tendrils found their shortest path. And probably melting the metal floor a little on its way through. But this was what he needed. He focused, pooled all that power into the suit, flowed it around to flex his control. fattened up those infinitesimal threads. ‘There!!’

Suddenly the cracks on the boots of the suit sparked with a plasma blue burn. A burn that traveled up to the shin guards with a shower of sparks, the cracks disappearing in its wake. Metal fused by a self-contained arc weld. Layers below melded back together, servos snapped into place and righted themselves, boiled away gel left out but disregarded. The burn continued on, the heat unabated and searing up his leg, fusing to the knee. Seth hunched his head, lifted a foot as it split apart into metal talons, before slamming it down into the glassy sand below. The burn fused thigh and hip, back and chest, every crack ceased under exist under the rising blue fire. The inside baked, heated metal and skeleton singeing chafe points, but continuing regardless. The spine of the suit folded up and clanked down, extended down into a tail that pooled around taloned boots. The burn fused shoulder and hand as the clawed gauntlets were forced open. Finally the burn fused the helmet back together as Seth reeled away in reflex before forcing it back down as two forward swept horns slashed out from the helmets top edges. Seth straightened up, the weight of this suit was his weight, indistinguishable from the body it covered. Fused to his skin and reforged all the same. He looked up at that flickering reformed view screen at the heroes arrayed against him, as the eyes of the suit opened with the same plasma blue burn. He was ready for a real battle this time.

It was clear that his suit had an effect on the Elite… most of the audience as well. If not for the bright lights of the arena he would more than likely be mistaken for a laceroid. Whether incidental or otherwise, he didn’t care. All that mattered right now was beating this challenge. Though it was obvious things were going to get harder based on the hardened stares of the veteran heroes. Ziyou’s enjoyment of this challenge seemed to fall away, tainted by the repeated knock downs and apparent disgust. Maglev just despised him even more than before. Samurai shifted in from the other side of the ring, he understood this was a real fight now and not something he could sit out of, and a hint of inner hate seemed to drive away his guilt. He shifted to the right side, next to Maglev. Techno shifted in next to Erdwut, wearing a nervous expression at the display of power he just saw. Aegis’s guilt still weighed her down, but she seemed to feel… relieved almost. Maybe she didn’t like keeping so many secrets. Hothead glared at Seth like he’d just mirrored his own actions, a grand yet tasteless insult. He stared back with as great a death glare as Seth had given, just without the justification behind it. And Erdwut… his stoic nature wavered. The air around him almost seemed to seeth and boil, his grip on Eschenwald tightening audibly. But that anger died away as soon as it came, melting to distaste.

Erdwut took a centering inhale and focused back on his team. “Tech, fall back and bring up C.A.S.P.E.R. We need intel.” “No complaints here.” Techno took another leery glance at Seth and backed up out of the ring, setting up in front of the protected bench. He knelt down, the two lower support arms staked into the ground at his sides to steady him. He pulled up his data pad and pulled down a support arm, socketing it on to a port on the side of it. The sensor suite on the arm cycled up as the pad connected to a system Seth had never seen in the Hill’s systems. The Central Automated Super Prediction Engine and Registry, he couldn’t even find any ports for it anywhere. Must be air gapped, he had trouble with wireless systems like this if they weren’t at close range. The sensor suite lit up an augmented reality display for Techno to view the battlefield through. Each hero highlighted with their simplified and recorded stats… it even had health bars.

It scanned over Seth, highlighting his silhouette but flashed up question marks for every value. Seth noticed it access the Hill’s records, as well as offsite databases he couldn’t reach. It brought up recordings of his training bouts, his sparring matches, even the looped footage he feed it when he broke the Ark. The icing on the cake though was there was something missing, Seth’s Berta scenario footage. The program flashed up a message saying the footage was deleted, with a handy prediction of who deleted it underneath. Ninety two percent Parasonic. Techno looked almost expectedly disappointed, in his creation and in his team. “Erd… we have a problem! Incomplete data! Para deleted his midterm scenario footage… FOR SOME REASON!!” Techno turned his head up to the podium. Para, who had been stock still with burdening anxiety since Seth repaired his suit, finally moved to stare down at Techno with the eyes of someone having a hell of a reckoning.

Erdwut kept his eyes on Seth. “What was the scenario?” “Doesn’t say… just says he passed.” “Paraaaa!!” Para kept his mouth shut by gritting his teeth, defiant to the last. “Heh… heha” Erdwut finally took his eyes off Seth to look at Aegis as she giggled somberly. “You want to tell us what happened.” Aegis stared straight at Seth, the concern melted away from her face. “That suit mode right there… he used it to beat Berta at 70%.” Erdwut reacted slightly, more at the scenario than the degree of difficulty. Hothead on the other broke completely. “70!!! THAT FUCKER BEAT BERTA ON 70!!! Fuck You, Fuck That, and Fuck EVERYTHING about this!!!” Erdwut turned back toward Seth, still stood waiting for something to happen. He looked like he found a new reason to fight, if not out of disgust for Seth’s fashion choices than to see for himself just what the hell he really was. He was resolved in his team’s next move. “ELITE!!!”

All at once everyone stopped their reactions, their personal consternations, all falling in at their leader’s side. “ROUNDEL FORMATION!!!” It was finally time for a real fight. Erdwut and Samurai both moved first, preplanned choreography as they sidestepping around the ring. Erdwut took the left and Samurai the right. Swords were raised in unison as they neared the center line. Both held high on their right and pointed straight at their target. The other members shifted in after they locked their positions. Maglev and Ziyou took up positions on the opposite side of the ring, Maglev to the left of Erdwut, Ziyou to Samurai’s right. Hothead moved in between them, squared up with Seth’s back while Aegis shifted dead center front of him. With a slow focused motion, she spread her hands out above her. A new orange energy ceiling formed, seemed like this was going to get dangerous. Seth didn’t move from his spot, merely stole slight glances at the combatants as they passed out of his immediate sight. But he returned his gaze straight ahead at Aegis, a faceless helmet almost obviously bearing a smile of excitement and defiance. Seth saw his masked expression mirrored in Aegis’, a tacit acknowledgement. “Go all out.”

Tension, focus, palpable excitement, metal joints tensed with barely perceptible whirs and gripes were tightened with stringent purpose. Seth's mind dropped to a knife edge, perception overclocked, and the only thought a simple phrase of pure adrenaline. ‘Fucking bring it!!’ And so it was brought. Sand was blasted back in tandem sprays as the swordsmen released, Samurai aimed for his back, Erdwut for the front. Both blades, renowned for disregarding even the toughest of armors, hadn’t dealt with anything like this. Seth stayed solid, tracking the incoming attacks like they were just oncoming glaciers, but with noticeable slowness in the swordsmen’s moves. They weren’t going in to kill, just to scare and cause an imbalance that the rest of the heroes could exploit. ‘Wrong move!’ Blades came in, velocity well beneath what these two could muster in half the time given, and practically an insult to the level Seth had kept showing time and time again. A right flashed up and Eschenwald halted, spattering molten earth in its wake as metal claws dug into it. A left rose and turned at the same time, a sword Seth really should know the proper name of found no purchase in the metallic palm of the other claw. Both heroes were stopped dead in their feigned attacks, but in turn found their reactions far too slow. Perception was not on their side any more.

Right and left yanked away, upper body twisting hard, both swordsmen finding themselves pulled in with their blades. Right into grabbing range. Claws released and rose level, intended targets snatched before even the slightest grip could be second guessed. Heavy metal thunks signaled a head in each hand, and his stance shot out and killed their footing, took away their control as he pulled both together in front of him, and conked those underestimating heads together like newtonballs. The fighters recoiled back, equal action leading to equal reaction, their rebounding momentum carrying them back several feet.

The feint a failure, the rest of the formed up heroes stayed their course to keep the pressure. Hothead fired, a flurry of fire blasts shot from his hands as he punched forward. Maglev stopped short, hands and powers extended out to lock Seth in place. The same pull and press of his powers against the suit, against him… but it meant next to nothing. Seth dropped low and twisted around under the oncoming barrage, the weight alone enough to prevent Maglev from influencing his movements. Fire sputtered out past his head as metal talons raked the sand and Seth turned to face his next opponents.

Ziyou had moved up under perceived cover, but now found herself completely caught out as he rose up face to face with her. Undeterred, she launched into a flurry of strikes, aiming for weak spots, joints, anything. A right crossed over and struck at the right elbow, but it bashed solid metal. A left at his left shoulder, but it to failed. Her attacks just banged against his armor with no points to pressure. Another right, hard at Seth’s shoulder joint. Finally making headway as it pulled back to avoid, but dashed that hope immediately as it dropped below her punch and slammed his own right forward. Metal fist met chest and Ziyou was knocked away into a tumble out of the ring.

A new round of fire blasts, Hothead had moved up to shorten Seth’s reaction time. They crashed into the suit, concentrated heat and flame balled up and set to explode on contact. He didn’t try to dodge, no point. The blasts heated up his outer layers, but little else. What they did do was put up a great deal of smoke, enough for Maglev to feel safe in advancing on him to rip that god awful suit apart at close range. Seth felt the pull on his suit wane as it heated, knew he was coming in. It just made it easier to deal with him.

The smoke parted as Maglev charged through, hands pulled in and locked to use every bit of power he had to smash against him. He didn’t move, why bother... 'This suit is MINE!!' He loosed, slammed his hands forward, and that foreign press became a tremendous push against everything the suit had. Loose metallic dust sprayed off of it as Maglev gave an all mighty push at every bit of metal in front of him. A column of distortion, pushed sand, and violent metal bits crashed against the far wall of the arena, right next to the protected bench. Trainees recoiled as their seats were nearly sand blasted by microscopic metal particles. But not a single piece of Seth’s suit moved under the assault. Except the horns on is helmet, both slamming back into place as he reared back. Maglev gave up his assault, but wasn’t fast enough to avoid Seth’s plate metal head slamming into his. Another underestimator gonged away, thrown on his back passed Hothead readying another barrage. The horns re-extended, slicing back into place to add intimidation to Seth's already burning glare at him. Hot wasn’t deterred, redoubling his next volley. His hands became a blur as more blasts crashed into the suit, but remained little more than wasted heat.

Seth pressed forward against the onslaught. Metal talons making his weight known to all as they stomped through the fire. He felt fighters get up behind him, but he didn’t care. He shot suddenly forward through the ineffectual distraction, left leg dragged as he crashed through the thick obscuring smoke. A low sweep took out Hot’s legs and knocked him forward. Seth spun about behind him before he could lose a degree, left still kept off the ground and right dug in a locked. He bounded up off his spin, brought that taloned left up to clutch around the back of Hot’s head, as all that weight dragged the both of them down… hard.

Hothead ate and breathed sand as he was power slammed down, just as the obscuring smoke was parted by skilled steel. Samurai slices in, a low upward cut against a hardened metal chest. Resistance and sparks the only reward. He halted his follow through and cut back down at a more respectful speed. Blade met gauntlet plate as Seth flashed up a right guard at a similar full tilt. Both metals rang against each other, recoil shared between. Seth was twisted to the left too much to counterattack, but Samurai was set for more attacks. A shift over to high left, a quick left guard. A low right against the abdomen, a fast switch of the leg and a knee block. Hothead spat out a mouth of sand and struggled. Perfect time to make some space. A right guard came up as he threw himself into it off his still planted foot. He raised Hothead up, pulling his right leg high and lining him up with Samurai. “*PUhaa* Wait WAIT!!!” A forceful kick and release knocked the two together, head met chest and catching hand, but did nothing against the inertia that carried both away and out of the last of the smoke. Just as it parted completely as Erdwut swung in.

The prepared right guard met Eschenwald, hammered Seth against the momentum he threw himself into, and putting his legs back underneath. Talons scrape into the sand to stop this expected force dead, the feeling of the marginal give in the molten blade as it inscrutable met resistance. Seth dug in and pressed against, swinging his left over to start countering. But Erdwut shifted, turned his sword flat end on and scrapped it up to block just as his attack comes in. Molten earth rippling, but a deep imperceptible clang ringing out as well. He quickly shoved Eschenwald up with both hands, causing Seth’s guarding right to get pushed up by form fitting friction. No guard and recoil slowing his left’s return, he was a sitting duck as Erdwut shifted his grip to pull Eschenwald down hard. But Seth still had his legs. A quick pull on his right, leveled at gut, and an equally quick release. Not much force behind it, but enough to get clear. Erdwut was pushed back, off balance from his moves, swinging Eschenwald down as he stumbled back to the edge of the ring. He stabbed it through the sand to stop this momentum, slotting in right next to Aegis’ almost out of character smug face.

Seth was clear, the center of the ring owned by none but him. He hadn’t won yet though, Erdwut, Aegis, and Samurai still hadn’t been knocked out of the ring yet. But that bit of breathing space let something well up inside. It wasn’t like he’d never felt proud before… but fucking hell this felt awesome! He was going toe to toe with the goddamn Elite, and winning! This… this felt amazing, and using his power openly just added to the sensation. He was getting recognized as powerful, treated like a threat that demanded respect and understanding. He almost couldn’t feel the heartache and rage that brought this whole thing on. The pride was really getting the better of him.

“This…” Seth pulled out his right arm and slammed it against his chest, metal resounding against metal. He popped open his helmet releasing a burst of heated air and bearing his arrogant smile for most everyone to see. “This is What I’ve Been Waiting For!!” The heroes around him still shaking off their respective impacts were surprised by the sudden display. “Some god damn recognition!! To be treated like I’m worthy of something other than contempt!!” A tinge of catharsis drove him down but failed spectacularly as he forced himself back up. “To show you assholes just what the hell I can do!!!” The scattered and realigning Elite all watched on as Seth beamed his, rather uncharacteristic pride to everyone. Aegis smiled as her guilt seemed to get melted away in the shine. She leaned over to Erdwut at her left. “Heh, Well at least he’s happy... and not some kind of horrible rage monster in there. Hehe!” Erdwut was looking at Aegis with concern now, but almost… almost seemed to soften his hardline attitude at the apparent prideful catharsis.

Seth kept up his antics for as long as he could get away with them, though it was odd that the Elite behind him didn’t take the opportunity to catch him out. But it became clear when Seth pointed up to the podium to call out Para for putting him down. “And You Better… believe…” Because he pointed to an empty podium, Para wasn't in his immediate line of sight. He felt out, saw movement behind Aegis’ right, dropped his point down to the advancing Para just now reaching the ring’s edge… with a look of pure malice and both hands leveled at him. Aegis caught sight of him at the last second as she followed Seth’s sight line, but it was already too late.

The air between tore asunder, sand rippling into violent waveforms, and Seth was struck by an unrestrained barrage of sonic torture. “AAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!” Those metal claws tried to crush his ears closed, but no seal could deaden this assault. He slammed his helmet closed, but it only added reverb to the cacophony tearing at everything he was. He screamed out in baffled pain as he fell to his knees. The suit shook, metal screeched along with the symphonic assault. His body vibrated, muscle, bone, teeth, and tissue tore and bleed as they were raked by the constant sound. He felt his very being shake against its will. The electron threads rattled with the tune of his pain, snapping with ever agonizing wave beating too fast to even distinguish. He collapsed forward, horns buried into the sand, head trying desperately to bury itself and escape. It was like before, like when Para shook the abyss… but now it was him, it was all of him.

Aegis finally reacted, breaking her stance and blaring at Para. “What the hell are you doing Para!?! You’re supposed to be-” “You heard what I said at the start!! He was challenged by the Elite. That means all of us!! And you better believe I’m not going to just stand by and let this damn unpowered fraud make a fool of the most powerful heroes here!!!” Aegis was livid, angrier than most had ever seen her. But she couldn’t act on her anger as Para turned to Erdwut’s renewed hard line. “Now knock this bastard out already so we can be done with him!!” Erdwut hesitated, but only for a second. He was in agreement with Para, but only on principle, not bias. He brought Eschenwald up and advanced back into the center of the ring. He did not reel away from the sonic pillar as he walked it parallel, but he stopped halfway regardless. Because the suit’s eyes began to burn brighter.

Seth had nearly buried his head in the arena sands, the weight and pain driving him lower and lower. But despite this pain, pain that seemed to emanate from the deepest recesses of his mind to the fine edges of his suit, he wasn’t done fighting. Something in him was demanding to fight. Yelling, roaring at him. He felt it all around him, but felt himself yell in kind. He felt himself move without volition, metal claws pushing against the weight, pushing him upward under power he didn’t have. He felt himself howl in pain, but he couldn’t move his mouth. He felt the emptiness inside himself… despite all the power he absorbed before. He needed more… he needed it all!! He felt the suit crack, layer after layer, threading snap in violent succession counter to the sonic barrage. And then he felt nothing at all.

Erdwut was snapped out of hesitation as Seth fought through pain to rise up off the ground, the unnatural contortions of pain and agony keeping him back. He watched as a fine crack formed under those burning eyes, a jagged edge rose and fell toward the snout like front. It broke and snapped like a beast breaking a muzzle, like the suit was coming to life as the laceroid it resembled. Terror and rage froze him solid, but his dread was short lived… As that maw snapped apart and roared in defiance of the sonic cacophony… And that new born sun collapsed in on itself.

Everything in the immediate area of the ring was suddenly pulled inward with extreme force. Sand swirled in, the metal floor below started to buckle upward, and the heroes on the floor felt themselves get pulled inward… toward the black hole that was now their enemy. They fought against the pull, digging feet in, reaching out and keeping hold of each other, and stabbing blade and bar against the flow. Suddenly, like the flashbulbs of thousands of cameras exploding in sequence, the hardlight projectors in the walls of the arena burst in showers of electrical overload. Electrical arcs thundered past the heroes, the pull strong enough to drag power over open distance. The power that now flowed in to fill that demanding gap, blowing out everything with its overbearing shine, blinding everyone to cover… before that maw slammed shut on it all. Sending everything into darkness... but the rising glow of burning sand and slow ions.

A heavy clawed foot pulled up and rose off its knee, sand piled up and glassed around the suit in rippling patterns, buckled metal creaking under its destabilized weight. Heroes rubbed their light washed eyes and reorienting themselves to meet this new threat. Erdwut gritted teeth and gripped Eschenwald with new found hatred. Aegis winced and hardened her stance on her shields between the audience and this fight. And Para cowered back, his attack staunched by its counterintuity, and a deep seated spite turned to fear at what it had caused. At the sight of Seth turning to face him, maw grinding against itself in congruent breath, stance contorted and weighed down, and a burning blood red eye filling the darkness and staring straight back at him.

There was no time or care for tension. A single step forward, like a striding titan, buckled metal into a screaming choir. The crescendo flattened to silence as the metal followed suit, a maliciously advanced in Para’s direction clear. And the reoriented Elite saw fit to cease that advance, a single step too much to allow. Erdwut was closest on his immediate front right, blasting forward with all the speed he could muster, Eschenwald swung horizontally at his chest. A full metal right flashed up, the molten blade deftly pushed over and away, and that right poised high between blade and wielder. Another step and that right caught around Erd’s neck on its way down, carried on and tossed him aside, sending him skidding across the sand out of the way.

Metal screeching from behind signaled that Maglev was striking. He was pulling the metal floor up from its sandy cover, stealing a slab to throw. Another screeching step and it flew, a metal wall set to crush Seth down. Talons righted alongside each other, the right foot rose up and leveled, the whole body aimed as that right stamped. The metal slab snapped and folded, halves sheared away, still under Maglev’s push. A right hand flashed up again, claws dug into screaming metal. That right foot slammed down, and the half slab thrown back toward its source. That burning red eye never left Para, but the sound of metal meeting body was clear enough indication that Maglev was knocked away again.

Presence filled the left side, Ziyou and Samurai were reaching in unison, paired foot falls masking what may. Samurai went low, set to stab his sword into one of the leg joints. Ziyou went high, leaping off Samurai’s back. Samurai’s blade made contact as Seth took a step, hitting the stopped left leg in the hip servo. But glanced off, no give or cut, just sparks and a dulled edge. Ziyou’s attack came in at the back, a right swung hard with a tiger roar adjoining it. She was getting serious and using her powers. Her strike banged into the left shoulder, but resulted in nothing but shattered claws and broken teeth. Both rebounded off their failed attacks and shifted. Ziyou grabbed hold of that shoulder, pulled her feet into the back, and continued hammering the same spot over and over again. Samurai shifted ahead of him to attack the opposite side, swinging horizontally at the midsection from the opposite side. A whole zodiac’s worth of animal roars resounded off that left shoulder, Ziyou had a lot of tattoos, but each one just bashed away with no effect as another step was taken. A flashing right again, Samurai’s sword in a full metal hand. But this time a quick shift and pull away and slashed at the palm instead.

An ox call slammed the shoulder, and the left arm moved at last, but only to fold over and back at its attacker. A metal claw grabbed Ziyou by the head and pulled her over. She had plenty of grip against gravity but nothing against retaliation. She was flipped over that beaten shoulder, loosed to fall head first into the ground. She extended her arms to cartwheel away, but never touched ground as that freed up right came and snatched her foot. Samurai saw what was coming and ducked low, lining up to strike an expansion joint as Ziyou was flung hard over him. As she was tossed away to tumble, trained metal shot forward at a small slit between suit plates covering the joint mechanism. It stopped dead, blunted edge a narrow inch from contact, and a death-gripping left locked over the blade. It was lifted away, Samurai letting go in learned temperance. The left flung it away in exacerbation, stabbing its ringing song into the arena wall. Samurai backed up and out of the way, it was clear he couldn’t do much even with a sword.

Hothead took his place, jetting in from the left as Ziyou skidded away over the sand. He crossed in front, a balled up blast of fire straining between his hands, a full force attack without risk of collateral damage. The horrified chorus of another step drowned as a gout of flame crashed over it, enveloping the armor but spreading out in its shadow. That burning eye couldn’t see Para anymore, but Para could see that eye burn brighter than the surrounding conflagration. Suddenly menacing metal shot out from the torrent, a right back hand locked and leveled at Hothead’s face, and the ire of that burning red eye looking down on him. He only had a chance to stop attacking as a titanic bitch slap slammed him, extinguishing flames with force alone, and sending Hot careening off, spiraling into the ground just a few feet from the far wall. That eye turned back up and burned its ferocity at Para, only a few feet separated them now, and every step was adding to the ambient hell exuded by that torrential glare.

An echoing step and that rage became physical as the heat of the suit poured over Aegis. She gritted her teeth, duty to her team out weighing her feelings. She lowered an arm between the two, asserting her defense. A final step was stopped in its decimating cadence, but not by an assertive arm, but by the guilt ridden concern on her face. A clear message written in her expression, “Don’t go down this road!” All that metal hesitated for only a moment, but it may as well have been a timeless expanse. Long enough for that burning eye to blink and dim, for Seth to snap out of his cascading rage, long enough for him to feel himself again, but in turn deaden the world around him. And long enough for Erdwut to come in from behind, Eschenwald leveled, flat end on, at his head. Impact resounded with metal on metal, and he was knocked away with violent force. His weight and grounding denied as he flew low crashed, skipped out of the ring in a heap. His feeling holding, but swiftly fading as he crumpled to a stop on the sandy floor.

“GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE PARA!!!!” Erdwut turned immediately out of bat, all the agreement they had dashed by the results of his surprise attack. He knew that Seth would do anything and everything he could in order to beat him to death if he stayed on the field, so he had to go. Now!! Aegis knew this as a certainty, a matching glare turned to face him despite her protective stance. Para didn’t question it, but he hesitated. He needed to be sure of a victory here, but the pressure to leave was too great. He ran back to the wall, disappearing into a side door as he continually looked back to insure his escape. The rest of the heroes regrouped again, most were feeling the strain of getting smacked around over and over again. But more on their willingness to hold back anymore. Maglev raised a hand toward the west wall and pulled Samurai’s sword out of the wall and toward him, catching it and immediately raising it up in a defensive stance. The heroes lined up in the center of the ring, Hothead in the center flanked by Erdwut left and Samurai on the right, with Ziyou on the right end and Maglev on the left. Aegis stayed put on the edge, but knew she couldn’t stay there forever. Techno had fallen back completely, the energy siphon had killed all his tech so he had to record everything he could by hand. He met Para back on the stands, anxious exacerbation meeting technological judgment, but both join the audience in their tension

The atmosphere turned thin and weak, pulled taut as the heroes waited to see if Seth really was down for the count. The trainees were anxious and scared of who they had been training alongside this whole time, the stands were hushed with fear and confusion at the sudden display of power, let alone him being a match for full blown heroes like this. But questions ceased as metal clawed its way back up, titanic movements of solidified rage shifted. Seth rose up loosely, hunched over, arms swayed as he pulled up his head. The burn had hollowed, eye slits almost charred around their edges, but his wild stance and empty glare did nothing to ease the intimidation factor. A shiver… no a tensing. Talons dug into the sand, claws rounded back and splayed, tail… swished to life, and a low metallic growl escaped that freshly made maw. The heroes winced as the eyes reignited open, blue plasma right bright as ever, red burning left dimmed back down to match. And nothing to draw their ire away... but the Elite before them.

Tension remounted, both atmospheric and physical. Servos wound themselves up, legs locked like springs… made of dynamite and det cord. The heroes gripped tighter on their weapons, hardened their stances, and built up heat and metal to fight off whatever it was that Seth had become. But preparedness can only get you so far. A flinch and all that potential came loose. A column of sand shot up and back, and a thousand pounds of metal and monstrosity launched forward at abhorrent speed. It cleared the edge of the ring as heroes launched their own attacks, screening themselves to intercept him despite his speed. Another metal panel sprang violently up, a blast of flame adding velocity to it and heating it to near melting. It occluded swords as they push forward to attack when all that momentum was lost. But that plate bulged and snapped apart like timber to a freight train, a metal shoulder smashing through unhindered. A high held right coming down on its counters, molten earth and folded steel slammed down upon before impact and vaulted over. They weren’t targets yet! Blades follow through haphazardly, forced to cut sand. Their target flipping over behind them and landing on relocked legs. He was after Hothead first.

Another column of sand buffeted the swordsmen at point blank range as those locks released. Hot tried to counter, arms ahead building up for another blast of flame. But a claw skimmed the ground and came up between them. It shot upward, skewering just short of his chin and snagging collar, wrapping around and pulling with force enough to carry him off his feet. Metal twisted beneath as Hothead was thrown over face first into the sand again. Talons skidding and turning to a stop, refacing everything that had been ignored.

They charged as one, Ziyou on the right forming a tiger around her fist, Maglev on the left with a new brace of metal bars raised over his arm. Erdwut and Samurai dashing in from ahead. Mountainous metal shot counter to their charge, right leg ahead to meet occupied ground. Hothead was spitting out a new mouthful of sand and rising up as that right flattened him back down. The left leg slamming hard and leaned on as more Maglev bars came in. A flashing back hand scattered them before shooting forward and snatching Maglev by the neck as he pushed ahead without a chance to stop. Samurai pulled ahead of Erdwut, an overhead slash aimed at the right shoulder. Another flash, a right catching and locking around Samurai’s blade. Ziyou flanked around, moving in behind to strike the undefended side with a fully realized tiger claw. Animalistic roar cutting short as metal snapped over and wrapped around her left, whiplashing her from impact. Previously ancillary tail catching her by the arm and locking her at distance. Finally Erdwut came in, a heavy slash prepared to smash into the head of this beast again with everything he could bring, edge on this time. A swift turn and that metallic maw opened and crunched down on the molten sword, jagged metal edges digging in and stopping it dead. The heroes all tried to attack as one, but were instead caught as one. The impenetrable and stiff helmet showed little outward emotion, but it was clear as day that a wicked smile lay underneath, as Erdwut realized their situation.

A shift on that loadbearing left, a monumental turn, and all the heroes became part of the merry-go-round to hell. Erdwut and Samurai relinquished their grips as it picked up speed, learned restraint finding footing. The remaining heroes turned with violent acceleration, reaching launch speeds before going half way around. The raised right bearing Hothead whipped him like a missile into the wall, head first. That right then slammed down, tail coming about, whipping Ziyou at the wall in a low tumble. A final turn cleared left arm again, whipping Maglev in kind. All three impacted in sequence. Hothead crashing through the stone reinforcement and into the periphery hall. Ziyou tumbling into the closed shutter door and getting it wrapped over her. And Maglev impacting the other side wall with just a bone curdling crack, but more than sufficient force. All three were out for good now. Talons scathed to a stop, fighting momentum with a whipping back right, slamming Samurai’s sword out of the hand and sticking it into the floor before the protected bench. Eschenwald still in its faux maw, the head whipped about. The sword tossed back toward Erdwut, molten material sizzling the sand as it landed near him. The maw whipped clear of scraped bits of blade and burning eyes stared down their adversaries, all out daring them to keep going.

Both unarmed swordsmen wasted no time, Samurai dashing toward his sword as Erdwut kicked up his, catching it and whipping off the fresh layer of glass and burned sand. He intended to make Seth regret wanting this fight kept fair. Erdwut charged in, Eschenwald trailed behind to add run up distance. A hard right counter charged, a balled up fist slamming the horizontal edge as it swung around, a notable indent and ripple across its surface as both implements recoiled. But it wasn’t done. A sidestep right and forward, a low left under the blade, plate mail meeting as a full metal fist bashed Erdwut in the gut. Lungs strained and retaliation obliterated, he was pushed back to the rings edge. But those burning eyes didn’t have time to watch his travel. A quick right guard against a slash, metal ringing true from the impact. Samurai pulled to the right, flanking him as he dash struck at his arm with a horizontal right slash. A turn over, a strike from his left, faster now. A hand extended out to catch again, but the blade sparked across the palm, metal singing like a vehement chorus.

Samurai picking up the pace, another strike, and another, faster than could be caught but not fast enough to go unblocked. Each strike added to the solid tone that whited out the environment and demanded attention. All that metal echoed with the sound of that sacrificial cacophony, as that blade wore away its edge. The ineffectual strikes meant nothing to the armor as it push in to silence this chorus. A slash at the chest was the last Samurai could wring out, a show of sparks and one last resounding tone. A balled left slammed into his chest, no malice brought to bear but enough to get him away. Samurai was knocked out of the ring at last, but his job was done. Armor reflected a new shine as it wheeled about, turning to face one final opponent. But those eyes found themselves blind… as a gleaming Eschenwald dropped on the left shoulder like the Sword of Damocles let loose. Cleaving metal, ceramic, gel… flesh, and bone.

Seth had never seen that blade shine like that before, seen it solidify, felt such heat from… He could feel again! And fucking hell this hurt a lot! The weight of his suit, the weight of the sword cleaved into his shoulder, and the burn of it all. It weighed him down, dropped him to his knees like a felled giant. His arm dropped limp, collar bone split by the near pure white sword Erdwut just brought down on him. But the heat it did not burn, more like a pure ray of sunshine soaking through everything in its path. Or like the light of a god telling you that “You fucked up!!”. Seth could feel it through every layer, feel it pour through his view slits. The screen had been shattered and burned away but he could still see out. And there was no way to ignore the fury blazing through his shoulder. Despite this... Erdwut seemed to have realized what he’d done, he seemed to regret going all out on a trainee, regretted displaying a higher level of his power. In an official bout no less. How could he have had to put this much power out just to fight a trainee? He felt regret, shame, he felt sorry at… wait… Seth could feel what he was feeling. A fine line, a connection through this true Eschenwald, frayed thread affixing to it in the wound. He felt him say something before he could speak it, the mind faster than the mouth. A low whisper under the hum of heated metal. “I’m sorry.”

Seth felt his sincerity, but knew this wasn’t over like he would hope. He felt himself getting dragged back, bones searing and vain cauterizing as the heat waxed against his resolve. But he could feel a little more control etched out for him. He wasn’t going to fall far this time. As he dropped he fought to stay afloat long enough to speak, maw affixed open but rearticulating as he eked out all the words he needed. “No… I’m sorry.” Erdwut flinched, he wasn’t expecting Seth to still be conscious. Less so still able to move, but expectations are always challenged aren’t they. A shift, Seth seemed to shake off the weight and pain that yoked him. But what truly startled Erdwut was the sudden claw against the underside of Eschenwald, the one that dropped limp under its cleave.

A pressure… no, a push back. The claw dug into the gleaming hot metal, finding give despite its new solid surface, and began pushing it upward out of Seth’s shoulder. Erdwut fought against the push, knew it would only exacerbate the wound, but his might wasn’t enough to keep it down. He could only watch as his true blade was forced out, as sparks and arcs of electricity radiated from the gash in its wake, as the wound disappeared under the display of true power. The suit was repairing, flesh fusing, bone mending, and metal layers reforming and reconstituting. Seth rose off his knees, a titan rising from a presumed grave. Erdwut’s anger flashed as the connection severed, deep seated and kept below that veneer of stoicism, anger… and fear. With a final massive push out and release, the blade was flung back at him, the suit reformed as if it had never been cut, and those eyes burned again in renewed and color corrected plasma. This fight was not over, not by a long shot.

Erdwut fell back, a fucking trainee just took a hit from that true Eschenwald and he was still getting back up. And the way that wound healed brought back flashes of a far too real terror. This wasn’t some official bout anymore, this was a real fight, and... and he needed back up! “AEGIS!!!” On trained reflex, her shielding stance dropped, disregarding the ceiling sequestering the arena. Like it was all she knew, all she understood in life, she dashed from her guilty prison to her leader's defense. Sliding in, her round shield unfurled and slammed home, a solid defender... but still defeatable. And her expression said everything it needed to. She was needed in this fight, needed to keep this from getting worse than it already was, needed despite her feelings. She shook the reflexive loyalty, but knew her part to play was still necessary. It wasn’t enough of a test if all the fighters didn’t fight, and she’s needed to see what Seth has really been made of for a while. Soft glowing orange eyes looked out at him, a new brighter burn staring back. A greater tension in his movements, a mutual realization, he was going all out and she knew what that looked like. She knew what that meant, and… she had just dropped the only defense the audience had between them and this power.

She winced, stuck her shield in the sand and reared up at the stands. “EVERYBODY GET READY!!! THIS IS GONNA GET LOUD!!!” She slammed her shield back up, hardening her stance to its visible maximum. Erdwut reared back, he knew that anything that scared Aegis enough to get her this tense was a serious threat. He pulled that True Eschenwald up, matching alongside her shield. A two person sword and board formation. The stands mumbled in confusion, but quickly tensed and began covering their ears and hunkering… as that power made itself known.

A new round of electric discharge raked the burst and glassed floor, but it began centering, becoming focused on the back and legs. Like Ohmega’s abilities, but turned up to an abhorrent scale. Sand and metal melted as the discharges increased in frequency, an ionic jet of all that power forcing its way out. Suddenly claws dropped forward, dug into the sand with their matching talons, and as the charge boosted to ridiculous levels. The stands behind were buffeted by the lucky sand that escaped. The whole arena began to understand what coming, dreading what was about to happen. Heroes in the stands yelled for the audience to brace before blocking in front of them. The protected bench received a sudden sandstone wall as the trainees braced for dear life. Glassing sand flowed like a storm surge, as a simple thought pried itself through to the surface from deep within, one that even the suit could not keep down, and one that only Seth could have brought to bear. ‘It’s time to finally RING THAT GONG!!!’

All the audience saw was a massive back blast of plasmaed sand as everything came to an overridden standstill, the mother of all haymakers carried aloft by overwhelming perception. And even then impact came in the blink of an eye. Metal striking metal, hardened layers and fiber reinforcement meeting the inscrutable and indestructible. And ringing it like there was no tomorrow, shockwave tearing away like several hundred pounds of dynamite were just set off without a damn given to overpressure. Aegis had matched his excessive force, perception and brace both in line with the attack, but she could do nothing for the audience... as the reaction finally broke away. People, heroes, trainees, and all were assaulted as the shockwave propagated upward, the shuttered roof rattled like a burst drum, the stone and metal of the arena shook to nearly the foundational pillars, all to the baffled out screams of careless terror coming from those stands. That right recoiled off that obviously abnormal shield, shockwave hitting Seth just as much as everyone else. Aegis and Erdwut were recoiled back in kind, a single step was won under monumental force. ‘And so many more to go.’ Talons sliced barely covered floor as they took that recoil and kicked backward, turning and burning another streak of glass into a curved right turn on Aegis’ flank, left dragged for another haymaker. All in the time it took for the shockwave to reach the stands.

Another air splitting strike matched at speed, Aegis able to equal him at every turn, and follow as he picked up the pace. Impact came again, shockwave and all. Another buffeting, another violent quake to make the breadth of his power truly clear. And another step won. Seth followed through, momentum carrying him over as his fist glanced off its force into the shield, but pulled him aloft with its momentum. He landed back down on the opposite flank, arm primed for another right, but legs charged as well. He leapt, adding weight to force and angle to attack. Aegis swung her shield around in kind, pulled it over her head and braced again. Another impact to add to the thunderous reverb. Seth glanced off again, flipping over behind the pair, priming a left at Erdwut. Eschenwald fell vertical into the sand, braced hard as he struck. He recoiled, but stayed firm, the reverb deadened. Or purposefully weak. Seth spun back with his recoil, launching off his back foot to round the pair again. But kept his right out as his left scathed and transferred all his momentum to kick that shield. Another equal reaction, a brace before impact. A reemphasized reverberation. But another glancing impact, complete with screeching scathe of that stainless surface. Seth launched himself off, pole-vaulting over top to flank again. Landing down locked into yet another attack.

Again and again he pounded the shield, each time sending resounding shockwaves through the arena. A number of the heroes in the stands fearing for the audience’s safety, a few desperately and vainly pleading for Para to end the fight before the roof collapsed. But all he could do was watch in horror as his tainted resolution was shattered with every hit. Seth glanced off again, slamming down in front of the duo. A new attack locked in, the expected reaction already in place as he blasted forward. Another right dragged along, charged for yet another haymaker, and giving off every intention he was going to ring the gong to earn another step toward the edge of the ring. But intentions can be misleading. The left talons scrapped him to a stop at Aegis’ side, a huge right loosed in her direction, but it sailed over her shield as she braced against it. The fist skimmed the rim of her shield and revealed its real target, an unsuspecting Erdwut. Plated fist met face as he looked up from his own brace, Eschenwald kept too low to block or retaliate. The only outcome left was to finally get ringed out like the rest. Erdwut flew back like a human baseball pitched with extreme prejudice. Face contorted and bone sprained as he spiraled through the air, attempting to slow his flight with his blade forced out to catch sand. But that only led to cementing his impact into the wall back first. He bounced off, cracking stone and doubtless bone. Leaving just one opponent to ring out, and just a few more steps to push.

Seth rounded back, got distance and continued his assault. Aegis reacted like nothing had changed, her footing held like she never had Erdwut at her back in the first place, and she continued to keep pace with the ensuing onslaught. But she was still losing ground. He struck, another resounding hit, but no recoil fueled rebound. He kept his position and attacked immediately with alternating fists, giving Aegis no chance to counter, no chance to change tactics. Each hit continued the resonance, battered the audience and shook this mountain of justice to its very core. But still Aegis held her stance, and Seth had had enough. He pulled his foot up and blasted himself off that damnable shield, kicking her stance up and voicing his rising frustration. She quickly slammed her shield back down, ready for what ever he threw at her, head rising over the lip to set her retaliation in line. But what she saw froze her. Seth landed down, glassing sand trailing like kicked up incendiaries, maw agape and voicing one final yell against that inscrutable impediment, claws extended out before re-balling into over tight fists, and eyes burning the brightest they ever had.

A memory, deja-vu driven motions forced to life as Seth shattered the metal floor for one final attack. That first, that darkened doorway, that waking thunk and bounding assault. The very definition of a laceroid was bearing down on her with malicious intent, and her mind would allow no other reality. Instinct overrode stymying handicaps, her shield furled and her hands rose, eyes closed tight in fear and too late realized shame, and a translucent orange barrier formed before her. An true indestructible, impregnable barrier that nothing could defeat beyond stamina and sleep deprivation. A vaunted wall that kept this city and its people safe. A set purpose in professional life. But Seth knew its weakness all too well, knew what he had to do to stay on its good side, understood that he could attack right through it like it wasn’t there at all. But hesitation invaded his perception, he felt guilt, shame, and… he can feel again. A snap realization, he was out of his personal abyss and screaming toward Aegis about to break her vaunted invulnerability. It was too soon, and definitely the wrong goddamn time to break this news! A swift shift, both feet pulled up in front, weight brought about and desperately tearing through sand blasted metal against the titanic force that they had imparted. A screaming balance, a strenuous fight against momentum, Seth could do nothing but hold himself tight to stop from falling right through her barrier. A catch in the metallic scream, friction winning out at the very last moment, he was stopped, but betrayed by momentum. His upper body carried over against his restraint. His head fell forward, narrowly putting the snout of his helmet through, but the tip of a horn glanced and imparted the faintest ripple into the barrier despite the colossal force put forth to stop it. He shot his head back, raised it like nothing unexpected had happened, but he knew it had. The hesitation completely killed his perception, drew him further out. But he didn’t have time to deal with this shit! The maw opened to snap at Aegis, to call her out of her instinct, to demand she come back but- *EEEEEEERRRRRRR* he was cut off as a blaring horn came from the arena's speakers.

The arena froze at its own speed, that maw left open as Aegis rose up to face the result of her instant of weakness. Seth’s hesitation dimmed eyes met hers over translucent orange. A horrified metal expression slowly turning toward the podium, toward the clock behind it. A painful slowness that Aegis mirrored, in horror at her own actions. The audience was turned in surprise, some still covering their ears and bracing for more buffeting. The heroes were all turned, exacerbated expressions mixed with genuine relief. And Para was turned from his podium, an evil desperate grin rising on what could be seen of his face as he stared back at the clock, as it flashed zeros across it. Seth inched back over to Aegis, turned down toward her feet as she followed his horrified gaze. Her back heel backed to the line, touching the border between a win and a loss, signifying the outcome of all this struggle and pain. Seth had lost.

The false maw slammed shut of its own accord, the sounds of fusing metal and layers followed but the clear jagged outline of where it was remained on the helmet. What little light that was left in the eyes went away as Seth grew shaky and backed away from Aegis. She looked up from her feet, from the undeniable signifier, and pleadingly looked back up with new found guilt and concern. She ripped down her true shield, none the wiser of what had passed through it, but fully aware of what it had caused. She rushed toward him, desperate to stop him from falling but his knees gave out before she could take another step. The weight of the world had just fallen on his shoulders and buckled the battered metal floor. The weight of all the power he took and used up. The weight of the suit he now squarely felt over him. The weight of all the things he'd given up to fight today. And all of it lost by the barest inch. It was too much to take. His suit retained its mode as he fell to the side with a colossal thud, nothing left of the monstrous strength he had displayed.

Anyone else would see it as just power withdrawal, using so much or exerting yourself too much had adverse effects. But only Seth knew what truly drove this fall. He had lost his cover, lost his past, opened himself up to a scrutiny he’d feared, lost his chance at a bright future, and now had nothing to show for it all. He could hear the Garkah in the back of his mind trying to reassure him, trying to keep what cover they could manage, but his hopelessness was drowning them out. He couldn’t move, he could barely feel the outside world. There was nothing but the suffocating blankness of the suit around him. Aegis worked up the courage to advance again, but the heat exuding off the suit forced her back before she could attempt to comfort him. Para reasserted his role as the world around Seth blackened, his head slumping down in his helmet. He blacked out and fell into a darkness he had seen too much of already. The darkness that swallowed up his feelings, his senses, but left his subconscious to hold its vigil as his mind lost itself. Like the world ceased to be for him, as his mind could no longer stand the weight forced upon it. And yet he knew full well what was occurring.

As if time blinked, Seth found himself brought back to this world. When he finally felt again it was as if the gulf of time lost was imprinted upon him, but he could recall nothing from it. A feeling he had long wished to never feel again, but was forced to as his senses rebooted. He blinked his dried out eyes, the helmet was still on and light flooded in from the burned out eye slits. He felt himself sitting down, propped up on a stone seat. He made out the barrier that blocked the protected bench, saw a great deal of lights through it, shapes moving around and out of it. He forced his eyes closed and recentered himself.

He heard the sounds of music, cheering, announcements. He heard Para still playing up his role. He focused again, tried to shake his head to clear the mental fuzz that clouded his senses and looked up in time to see a hardlight display half projected over the arena. A flickering jumbotron showing the faces of all the trainees… all but him. A shower of faux fireworks sprayed from the edges as he looked up and saw the official tally of his loss. He looked down, saw the other trainees cheering from a prepared stage in the center of the devastated arena, saw Para congratulating them with uncharacteristic pride. But his senses were deadening again from the hell he was going through all over again, just with more celebration at his expense. He felt himself slip as the proceedings seemed to fly by before him, his perception failing with the rest of his senses. The trainees cleared the stage, filed out a final time toward the shuttered exit. The stands cleared of spectators and family, Seth caught plenty of leering faces but some seemed to leer at Para as he remained behind to officiate the cleanup. The stage was cleared and put away, what was left of the hardlight array shut down. The lights dimmed as the last of the audience filed out. Seth wasn’t alone, he saw flashes of a few heroes checking on him, milling about and pondering over his situation. He saw Mediknight keep the worst offenders at bay and maintain a watchful eye on him. Healing warmth lost to his fried nerves.

He blinked and his perception finally returned to life, as Aegis and Erdwut arrived in front of him. He still couldn’t move, not enough to matter anyway. But they seemed rushed in their mannerisms. Erdwut stayed back, a clear look of disdain mixed with respect under all that stoicism. Aegis knelt down, catching his eye line as best she could. “Listen… it's going to be okay.” Her voice was like an echo in his ears, everything burned out and aching. She hesitantly put a hand on his shoulder, wary of the past heat but still determined to make things right. “We know Para set this up to fuck you over, we know full well just what he did. We’ve talked this over and decided to take it up with HQ. They can go over Para’s head, get you admitted despite what he says. You fought better than anyone else today… even Hothead agreed on that.” The concern on her face deepened as she pulled closer. “You just need to hold out! Everything’s going to be okay. Just please… hold on!” Erdwut looked over his shoulder at the exit, clearly looking at something before turning back. “It’s time to go Aegis. We still have our own duties to uphold.” She glared back at him, Seth felt a tight grip on his shoulder even through the metal as she turned back in restraint. She looked up at his eyes one more time before getting up and following Erdwut out.

They walked through the dimmed arena toward one of the side doors that led to the periphery, outside light flooding in and silhouetting a figure holding the door open. Seth’s focus returned enough to make them out as Aegis glared passed them behind Erdwut. It was… Para! Seth focus sharpened like an atomic razor, senses flooding back as anger burned through that depressive void. He could see every detail of him through the oversaturated backdrop, despite the distance, in spite of his fried being. He saw him smugly look in his direction, a face that could drive a jester mad, an air that signaled he was proud of the pain and suffering he put him through. He walked back into the light of the periphery, into the sounds of the reception put on in the foyer. Smiling the whole time, practically laughing at him for all the work he put in and how little he came out with. The door closed and sank the whole arena back into the dim darkness it rested in. Save for a single spot building opposite the door. A burning red light straightening up off its burdening weight, illuminating the protected bench. A crackling sound filling the empty arena. The stone of the wall cracked, the red burn of exuding electricity burning through it in jagged patterns. The bench creaked beneath it all, burning as well but straining under weight that wasn’t there before. All the while a blood red burn came from the helmet’s left eye, and a near inaudible word echoed in the crackling electricity. “Rage.”