A pitched battle raged around Sam and Arnold, men and women slinging death upon each other as they stared down a much more powerful version of Kameron Jones than when she had first run him off. He stood in the middle of a football field, containers full of varying athletic equipment on either side of him. His followers broke off to engage her fathers infantry and Lake Pleasant's men and women. A few remained in the bleachers, casually watching the coming exchange between the three of them.

“OOOOOOooooWEEE! I’ll tell you Arnold, I’ve been waiting for THIS! You see, I remember your moms in school, always coming down on me. Keeping me from playing ball. Putting me down. Oh yeah.”, Jones monologued menacingly.

“What the hell is he talking about?” She asked Arnold who was still glowing white hot with plasma. Tears ran down his face an inch before evaporating under the heat of his magic.

“What!? You don’t wanna talk? Tell her, Arnold! Tell her how your mom FUCKED ME OVER!”

“You did that to yourself, Kameron.” he responded, barely a whisper.

“BULLSHIT!” Jones snatched a baseball from the pile and launched it at Arnold impossibly fast.

Sam layered her shields in front of her while drifting into the path of the rocket-like ball. For a moment she thought she’d stopped the projectile dead, then her psychic shields shattered down to the last, which cracked from the impact before spinning her violently aside.

“SAM!” Arnold yelled, now behind her.

Heat flared against the sound of multiple high speed projectile impacts. When she looked over her shoulder she saw Arnold was vaporizing the impromptu projectiles against a wall of plasma, once converted to his element, they did little more than irritate the young man.

“We have to close the distance!” She hissed at Arnold who only nodded as he returned fire against Jones.

“Ok, [Plasma Wave]!” Arnold activated an ability that created a plume of plasma, connected to the ground, then shot forward, burning everything in its path. Heat shimmers screened smoke created by everything touched by the ability turning to ash. He ran through the path of destruction without hesitation.

Sam quickly applied [Psychic Barrier] to the boy, giving him a minute of protection. She paused long enough to watch Jones’ projectiles deflect off the barrier at odd angles, often smashing small potholes in the street as they crossed it, or flying off to demolish another piece of suburbia, then she flew forward herself to enter the edge of the football field. As she did so, the first sounds of Lieutenant Portnoy’s artillery landing several hundred meters away reached her ears along with the concussive impacts that followed.

Explosions bloomed orange against the haze of thick black smoke drifting across the field turned arena. The stands that were sparsely populated by Jones’ people were now bare, seemingly the people inhabiting them being called to support their fellows in the nearby school building that was now being pummeled by artillery. Jones just snickered as the pair arrived, a football in his hands, already charged with kinetic energy.

“Finally, you know, Arnold, I never had an issue with you. Didn’t even know ya’. But when your mom got me expelled, well, she I do have a problem with. If you hadn’t attempted to kill my best friend, well, we’d still probably be here. It just wouldn’t be personal. And wait a second!? What kind of mom sends her retarded son to kill a man? She ain’t done right by you either, no. No she hasn’t.”

The motes of plasma that had been hanging around Arnold's body before had now seemed to condense into his eyes, causing them to glow with an unnatural light. The veins in his neck pulsed with internal light while he clenched and unclenched his fists in frustration, or rage.

“You’re a bully, Kameron. You got yourself expelled. All she did was catch you and report it. You made the choice, and the choice had consequences.”

Jones spun on Arnold with a finger pointed at his face, “FUCK YOU! The fuck do you know!? I lost my scholarship because of that. She had no reason to even be down there when I was. Fuck you, you stupid fucking retard!”

Arnold didn’t respond, nor did Sam interject. If Jones wanted to yack while they regenerated their mana, she wasn’t going to stop him. When neither of them responded to his taunts and accusations he realized the conversation was over. He spat at his feet, then looked up with violent intent written plainly across his face.

“Fine. I’ll kill you, you’re little one armed girlfriend, then your mom.”

Time slowed as Jones snatched an aluminum baseball bat out of a container in a single fluid motion that had it swinging in a low arc to bite into the turf at his feet. At the same time Arnold activated one of his newer abilities, [Plasma Whip]. The white hot tendril of plasma coiled out of his right hand extending sinuously, reaching for the angry black man in front of them.

Dirt began to fly where Jones was drawing his kinetically charged bat through the ground, obscuring Arnolds aim. Sam realized in a fraction of a second that the angle was wrong and Arnold would miss his target, so she activated [Vanguard’s Advance] and plowed into Jones just as his swing would have rose up to catch Arnorld in the chin. The plasma whip in Arnold’s hands snapped into the ground behind her with a white hot explosion as she carried a surprised Jones ten meters away. She released him to tumble across the field.

To her surprise he regained his footing before she could build up her defense. He spun, delivering a solid side kick that shoved her painfully back the way she had just come.

“Bitch.” He muttered before being forced to dodge a well timed [Plasma Lance].

In the initial exchange of attacks, the containers holding all of the athletic equipment had spilled out across the field. As Jones rolled to his feet he snatched up several loose tennis balls, charged them with energy, then let them fly randomly, causing both Arnold and Sam to focus on dodging the deadly improvised projectiles, rather than pressing the attack.

Jones began to shift his weight to launch towards Arnold, who was still regaining his footing having had to lay down in the grass to avoid the hypersonic tennis balls. Sam distracted the man with a well timed [Psionic Bolt]. The attack struck just as Jones left the ground, causing him to tumble sideways towards the bleachers. He managed to right himself in the air and stick a three point landing, digging furrows in the carefully manicured turf as he halted his momentum.

Already in a runners starting stance, he sprinted towards Sam with murder in his eyes. He got three steps before a trio of [Plasma Bolts] smacked into his side. He spun to face Arnold now, unsure of which threat was greater.

“You bitches are really starting to get on my nerves!”

Jones then jumped impossibly high into the air, dodging a wave of plasma that Arnold flung at him. As he reached the apex of his leap, he spun, flinging a dozen kinetically charged projectiles at Arnold. None of them came near the young man, however, they exploded the ground around him in a spray of dust and loose grass, obscuring his vision. At the same time he let a soccer ball drop below him as he began to fall back out of the sky. With a swift backflip he kicked the ball at Sam, charging it as he did so.

The ball shot at Sam like a hypersonic bullet, sending shockwaves of physicalized sound expanding in concentric rings behind it. It struck Sam in the chest with the force of a runaway jackhammer, stealing her breath. Failing to bring her defenses to bear, she was thrown backwards painfully into the aluminum bleachers behind her. Pain lanced through her body as the floor gave out where she impacted, dropping her underneath the structure which then began to collapse. Before she could rise out of the quickly disintegrating structure, an aluminum beam descended across her forehead, knocking her instantly unconscious. As she faded to blackness she heard the faint sound of Arnold calling out her name.

Arnold stared at the structure that collapsed on his friend. Jones snickered as he dropped to the ground. “Good. Now that your little fucking slut is out of the way, let’s get to the main event!”

Arnold was already dealing with deep, internal, emotional turmoil, seeing his newest and best friend fall to an indeterminate fate seemingly pushed him over the edge. All at once his plasma seemed to extinguish itself. However, the ground he stood on began to smolder, heat shimmers rising around his body. The veins across his body that were exposed and already glowing with power somehow tightened in clarity, while simultaneously growing brighter and more radiant. When he opened his eyes they were now beams of light, and updrafts of heat tousled sweaty locks of curly hair.

Jones laughed, “OH SHIIIIIIT! DID ARNOLD JUST POWER UP TO A THOUSAND!?!? Fucking nerd. Good, you’re going to need it.”

He reared back another football and let it fly. It crossed the less than twenty meter gap between the two in the blink of an eye, exploding as it made contact with Arnolds monolithic figure. For a moment, the debris from the exploding football obscured the sight of the young man. Jones wondered briefly if he had actually managed to obliterate him where he stood.

When the dust settled, Arnold stood there with a single glowing hand extended in front of him, a blank look in his glowing white eyes. He turned his palm back towards him, curling his fingers slightly while studying them curiously. Jones wound up another attack, drawing Arnolds disconnected attention. Before he could release his next projectile Arnold straightened his palm towards Jones and muttered a single word.

“[Burn].”

A white hot lance of plasma reached out and connected with a shocked Kameron Jones. Rivulets of plasma dripped onto the field, releasing tiny wisps of smoke where they landed on the quickly browning grass below. Further streams of plasma splashed around Jones’ form, obscuring him in a haze of vaporizing ozone. The smell of burning flesh permeated the field where they fought, while the heat forced any remaining onlookers to close their eyes and shield their faces up to a hundred meters away. In fact, everyone currently engaged in fighting within sight of the trio seemed to stop and watch the awesome display of power, their current conflict forgotten in the moment.

A collective breath was held by all the participants in the battle as Arnold’s beam of dripping plasma sputtered and died out. Surprisingly, Jones was still standing, arms crossed in front of him with one leg back for stability. He hadn’t come through the attack unscathed, the skin on his forearms was stripped clean into the deep muscle tissue, while the rest of his body was patchy with blisters that were quickly healing. All of his clothes had been stripped away as well. Smoke and ash swirled around him as he glared back at Arnold with a now hairless face.

“Holy shit, motha fucka. My turn.”

Jones appeared instantly in front of Arnold driving a kinetically charged fist into his stomach. Arnold doubled over in pain as the air immediately left his lungs. He attempted to place a white hot hand on Jones’ chest but the man was too fast. He snatched his arm up and twisted it hard, breaking it around the elbow joint, then slamming another kinetically charged fist down on his shoulder.He gasped out an airless cry into the air as the plasma surge that had overtaken his body sputtered out.

“Don’t fucking think so.” Jones grabbed Arnold roughly by the neck before his suddenly weakened body could sag to the ground in defeat, “Now. If only your mom could be here to see me end you.”

Arnold attempted to pull away only to feel his knee shatter from a well placed strike by Jones, who let him fall to the ground. He winced when his body flopped to the ground, his broken shoulder and arm twisting behind him at an unnatural angle. Jones walked to his side, looking down on him in disgust as he tried to somehow crawl away, towards where Sam had fallen.

Jones grabbed him by the hair on the back of his head, wrenching his neck back painfully to growl in his ear, “You shouldn’t have fucking tried killing my boy. You shouldn’t have been born to that bitch of a mom. And you definitely shouldn’t have fucking tried to take me on your own.” He roughly released Arnold's head to bounce in the grass when he was done taunting the broken young man.

Jones looked to the collapsed bleachers where Arnold was staring with tears in his eyes, “Oh don’t you worry Arnold, I will definitely show her a good time.”

Then he stomped down on the small of Arnold’s back, the sound of bones snapping echoing across the now silent field. The last thing Arnold saw as blackness overtook him was a metal beam shifting in the pile of rubble where Sam had fallen. I hope she survives, was his final thought even as his painful screaming died on parched lips.

Jones, so wrapped up in the torture of the young man at his mercy, didn’t notice immediately when Sam had managed to regain consciousness and using [Telekinesis], remove herself from the collapsed stadium bleachers where she’d come to rest briefly while they fought. She stood at the edge of the field, stunned, as she watched the now naked, blistered, black man stomp on her friends back.

“No…” Her voice was barely a whisper. Jones didn’t even look in her direction as he stood triumphantly over Arnold’s motionless body.

“NO!” Her body lifted into the air, psychic energy powered by unadulterated rage coursing through her body in an uncontrolled state. [Armor of the Psionic Vanguard] activated, followed by a full activation of [Armament of the Psionic Vanguard], seven psychic blades appeared, a meter in length, spinning in concentric circles around her.

Jones slowly turned his nude form in her direction, glaring as invisible gusts of mana-infused winds churned her dress and hair in a wild display of power. “I promised Arnold I’d show you a real good time. As you can see, I’m a man of my word.” He waved a burnt hand dismissively in the boy’s direction.

Her magic began manifesting randomly, snatching up steel beams, aluminum sheets, and the random abandoned car in a pink tornado of telekinetic energy. Jones began to run side to side in a zig-zag pattern, trying to avoid the objects as they streaked across the field towards him. All of this was done with little conscious input from Sam however, as a slew of System messages battled to overtake her vision.

ALERT: Ability Resonance detected…

Ability evolution commencing… standby…

WARNING: Evolution unstable, ability rank higher than user level…

Ability Resonance determined as follows; Psychic Scream (Beginner Level 1) has now evolved to Banshee’s Mournful Wail (Advanced Level 21)

WARNING: Due to mental state, ability usage restrictions have been temporarily lifted…

Higher level ability usage may result in serious side-effects up to and including SUDDEN DEATH!

She activated the new ability without hesitation, followed by a much louder scream.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo!!!!!!!!!”

The pain in her voice seemed to be enhanced by the mana that powered her abilities. At first, the effects of the ability went unnoticed. Several bodies flopped dead where they were just fighting, unnoticed to those around them as if they had simply caught one of the unlucky bullets that were flying freely between the two forces. Then the screaming started. Not the screaming of people in a fight for their lives. These were the blood curdling screams of people dealing with a truely irrational terror. Weapons of all kinds clattered to the ground as men and women began to run in random directions from the battlefield. Several more dropped as they ran, the damage over time effects of her ability finally grinding them down.

She looked down contemptuously at Jones. The man stared back at her, blood streaming from his eyes, ears, and mouth. His fists were clenched at his sides, malice in his bloodshot eyes spoke the hatred in his heart cleanly. He seemed to struggle to remain standing in place, as if by force of will he refused to budge to the fear forcing his heart to pound in his chest. Or maybe the hatred in his soul was powerful enough to override the unnatural terror that coursed through his veins. Regardless, the man found himself unable to move.

“[Mental Cleave].”

The blades from her Armament that were swirling around her stilled in the air, shifting to point straight at Jones. They then swept out in wide arcs to slice through the man at several opposing angles. One eye rolled into the back of his head, while the other blinked at her. In the next moment he simply crumbled into several large bloody chunks of meat.

She drifted down to Arnold’s motionless, broken form as the sound of her fathers tank company could be heard rolling up on her position. She felt his presence as he approached, only later realizing she hadn’t heard him calling out to her over her own loud crying. When she checked later, she found he’d been true to his word. It took him three whole minutes to reach her, and in that time her closest friend had been murdered in front of her.