“GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE PARA!!!!”

The entire mood in the arena had changed, attitudes shifting beyond a simple bout for initiation. Erdwut was turned immediately out of bat, all the agreement and principle dashed by the end result of this surprise attack. He knew that Seth would do anything and everything he could 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. And Para didn’t question it, but still hesitated. A need for victory too damning, but the pressure to leave 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 yet again, the latter half feeling the strain of getting smacked around over and over again. But more so on their willingness to hold back against what was supposed to be a powerless trainee. Maglev stumbled closer to the podium and the healing field, snapped his arm back into place and raised it to pull Samurai’s sword out of the wall. He caught it and immediately locked into a defensive stance, jovial demeanor a distant memory at this point. The rest of the heroes lined up in the center of the ring, Hothead in the center flanked by swords, 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, that living blackhole had killed all his tech, so he had to record everything he could by hand. He met Para back on the stands, fear and spite meeting technological judgment, but both joined the audience in their rising 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 a familiar fear. And confused at the sudden display of power to match their city’s greatest heroes. But questions ceased as metal clawed its way back up, titanic movements shifting away, something new rising to take its place.

Seth rose up loosely, hunched over and arms swaying as he pulled up his head. The burn had hollowed, eye slits half charred around their edges, but his wild stance and empty glare did nothing to ease the fears wringing the air tight. The pull upon him had inverted and changed, the out edges deadened and full weight falling square. The hum of his threads, the song of his existence, it denied what had happened and floated him up. But denied any other outcome but this. A shiver. No a tensing! Talons digging into metal and sand alike, claws rounding back and splaying, 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 left to draw their ire away... but the Elite staunchly defiant before them.

Tensions redoubled, both atmospheric and physical. Servos winding themselves up, legs locking like springs made of dynamite and det cord. The heroes gripping tighter on their weapons, hardening their stances, and building up heat and metal to fight off whatever the hell 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 with abhorrent speed. It cleared the edge of the ring as heroes launched their own attacks, screening themselves to intercept despite. Another metal panel bent violently up, a blast of flame adding velocity to it and heating it to near melting viscosity. It occluded paired swordsmen pushing forward to strike when all that momentum was crushed. 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. Because they weren’t targets yet. Blades followed 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 trying 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 this fury’s first summoner was thrown over face first into the sand again. Talons raking and turning to a stop, refacing everything that had been ignored.

They charged as one, a tiger tattoo forming on the right, a new brace of metal bars raising on the left. Erdwut and Samurai dashing in from ahead, and Hothead snorting out a bloody nose full of sand to rise as well. Only to be flattened as that mountainous mass of metal fell upon him in counter. The right leg pressed the wind out of his chest and latched down around his neck, the left slamming ground and leaned on hard. A flashing back hand scattered those metal bars seeking purchase, before shooting forward and snatching Maglev by the neck as well. Samurai pulled ahead of Erdwut, an overhead slash aimed at the right shoulder. Another flash, a right catching and locking around that too fast of a blade. Ziyou flanked around, moved in from behind to strike the now undefended side. But the animalistic roar cut short as metal plates snapped over and wrapped around her left, whiplashing her from impact. Once ancillary tail yanking her back 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 and without mercy. Only for that metallic maw to crunch down on that molten edge, jagged metal digging in and stopping it dead. The heroes all tried to attack as one, but were instead caught as one. That impenetrable stiff helmet showing little outward emotion, but blaring clear as day a wicked smile beneath it all, as Erdwut realized their situation.

A shift on that loadbearing left, talons twisting and digging deeper, 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 left to turn with violent acceleration, reaching launch speeds before even half way round. The right bearing Hothead rose and whipped him like a missile into the oh so awaiting wall head first. That free right then slammed down, tail coming about, whipping Ziyou at that same wall in a low tumble. A final turn cleared left arm again, whipping Maglev in kind. Leaving all three to impact in sequence.

Hothead crashed 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 as those 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 real maw, the head whipping about to be rid of it. The sword tossed back toward Erdwut, molten material sizzling the sand as it slid to a glassy stop. The maw whipped clear of scraped bits of blade and those burning eyes stared down their adversaries, all out daring them to keep going.

Both unarmed swordsmen looked to each other and 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. Erd charged in, Eschenwald trailed behind to add run up distance. A hard right counter charge, a balled up armored fist slamming in as a horizontal edge swung around, a notable indent and ripple across its surface as both implements recoiled. But that challenging glare 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, his heels dug ruts all the way 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 an impact at full forced speed. A dash strike from distance cutting nothing but edge, but laying down what the pace would be. A sudden 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 was refusing him a chance to keep up. Another strike, and another, faster than could be caught but not fast enough to go unblocked. Each strike adding more spalling and sparks to this wayward dance, and adding to the solid tone that whited out all else and demanded attention. All that metal echoed with the sound of that sacrificial cacophony, as that blade wore away its own edge. The ineffectual strikes meant nothing to the armor, not even enough to bother bocking it away as it pushed in to silence this chorus.

A slash at the chest was the last Samurai could wring out, a show of sparks and counter fury to carry one last resounding tone. A balled left slammed into his chest, no malice brought to bear but enough to send him away. Samurai was sent to crash down out of the ring at last, but his job was done. The armor already reflecting a new shine to rival its own, 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, fiber… flesh, and bone.

Seth had never seen Eschenwald shine like this before, never seen it solidify, never 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 seeping through and baking all of it. It dropped him to his knees like a felled giant, strength sapped away as his blood steamed and boiled. His arm dropped limp, collar bone split by this near pure white sword Erdwut just brought down on him. But the heat from it wasn’t where this burn came from, that was just the excess pouring through the gap without care for this sudden reawakening. This light… it was 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 into his helmet through its burned out eyes. The darkness of that faux maw driven away, its jaw hanging slack and revealing the flesh wincing underneath. Because there was no way it could escape the fury blazing through his shoulder. Yet despite this Erdwut was… hesitating. He seemed to have realized what he’d done, 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 so much power into just a fight against a trainee? His regret, his shame, he felt sorry and worry and… ‘Wait…?’ Seth could feel what he was feeling. A fine line, a connection, not close enough to see and scry but enough to hear his plight. Like his attempt to save his mother. A connection through this true Eschenwald, frayed thread affixing to it in the wound. A pure expression of will and thought brought to bear and made physical. Seth felt him say something before he could speak it, the mind faster than the mouth. A low whisper under the hum of all this heated metal.

“I’m sorry.”

Seth felt his sincerity, his loss of that stoic mask. But still… he knew this wasn’t over like Erdwut would hope. He felt himself getting dragged back, bones searing and vain cauterizing as the heat waxed against his resolve. But a little more control was etched out from the void trying to swallow him. He wasn’t going to fall far this time, only enough to push himself on. As he dropped though, he fought to stay afloat long enough to speak, maw still limp and hanging open but rearticulating as he eked out all the words he needed.

“No… I’m sorry.”

Erdwut flinched as that wincing flesh beneath denied his worry, he wasn’t expecting Seth to still be conscious. Less so still able to move. But expectations are always challenged, weren’t they. A shift, Seth shaking off the weight and pain that yoked him. Another flinch of his grip like a sudden shock of disengaging wires. But what truly startled hm was the sudden claw against the underside of his manifest expression, the one that had dropped limp under its cleave. And the pressure of it pushing back against it.

That claw dug into the gleaming hot metal, finding give despite its new perfect surface, and pushing it upward out of Seth’s shoulder in defiance of all brought forth. Erdwut fought against it, knew it would only exacerbate the wound and bleed this defiance dry, but his might wasn’t enough to keep it down. He could only watch as his true blade was forced out, and replaced. Sparks and arcs of electricity radiating from the gash in its rising wake, the wound beneath disappeared under the display of true power. The suit repairing yet again, but also flesh, and bone, and vain, and muscle. A healing in violent splendor, a refutation… too familiar. This mending suit rose off its knees, a titan rising from a presumed grave. Erdwut’s anger flashed as the connection finally severed, something deep seated and kept below that veneer. A wrath… and a 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 brought back down and ahead and burning once again. Renewed in color corrected plasma, twin blue flares to say more than enough. That this fight was not over, not by a long shot.

Erdwut fell back, a fucking trainee just took a hit from the true Eschenwald and he was still getting back up. And the look on his face was like he’d just seen a ghost murder his entire family. Something Aegis knew was bad. Really bad! This wasn’t some official bout anymore, this was a real fight, and... and he needed back up!

“AEGIS!!!”

On simple reflex, her stance dropped, disregarding the ceiling sequestering the arena from everything beyond it. Like it was the only thing she knew in this world, she dashing from her guilty prison to her leader's defense. Sliding in, round shield unfurling and slamming sequence off the momentum. Cold eyes staring back at those blue flares. But her expression said everything for her. 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 away, 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’d needed to see what Seth has really been made of for a while. A soft orange glow rising to match, to meet his as this new brighter burn stared back. A greater tension in his movements, a mutual realization, he was taking her challenge, 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 BRACE!!! THIS IS GONNA GET LOUD!!!”

She slammed her shield back up, hardening her stance to near bulging maximum. The warbling burn searing her back ignored completely. Erdwut rearing back from his failing composure at the sudden full frontal warning. His consternation pulling him back in and swinging that true Eschenwald up to match alongside her shield. A two person sword and board formation. The stands mumbled in confusion, but quickly tensed in kind, began covering their ears and hunkering down. All as that power made itself known.

A new round of electric discharge raked the burst and glassed floor, but it didn’t come from without. It came from within. Bolts centering, becoming focused on the back and legs. Like Ohmega’s abilities but turned up to a scale too extreme to compare. Sand and metal melted to slag as the discharges increased in frequency, an ionic jet of all the power sucked in forcing its way out. Suddenly though those armored claws dropped forward, dug into the sand with their matching talons, and the charge boosted to ludicrous wash. The stands behind were buffeted by the lucky sand that escaped. The whole arena beganing to understand what was 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 before a hurricane of energy being thrown pushed out before it could feed this hungering void. All as a simple thought pried itself through to its surface, one that not even that reigniting scar could keep down, and one that only Seth could have brought to bear.

‘Let’s finish this!! ONCE AND FOR ALL!!!’

The world failed to keep up. All the audience saw was a monumental back blast of plasma wreathed sand as everything came to an overridden standstill, and as the mother of all haymakers came screaming through this overwhelming perception. But even from within it 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.

Shockwaves tore away like several hundred pounds of dynamite were just set off without a damn given to minimum safe distance. Overpressure rippled and broke and carried this tone to all in its path. Sand and glass and metal shards fled as flesh and bone and all in between defeated and bore it as just another burden to take on. Aegis had matched this excessive force, perception and brace both in parity. But she could do nothing for the audience as this action finally broke to reaction.

People, heroes, trainees, the walls, the shutters, the very foundations. All were assaulted as the shockwave propagated upward. The closed up roof rattled like a drum about to burst, the stone and metal of the Hill shook to nearly the foundational pillars, all to the baffled out screams of careless terror coming from those left to bear the brunt in the stands. Wind force tearing away at what got in its way, throwing everything back against the stone and structure behind.

That haymaker recoiled off, opposite metal abnormal in its own right, a shield fitting a paragon of defense, and a shockwave hitting back just as much as everyone else. But despite the lack of damage and wear, Aegis and Erdwut were recoiled in kind, a rut dug into the sand at their heels, a single step won under monumental force. ‘And so many more to go.’ Talons sliced barely covered floor as they took that recoil and kicked back on, 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 splintering strike matched at speed, Aegis able to equal it at every turn, and follow as this dance picked up pace. Impact came again, shockwave and all. Another buffeting, another violent quake to make the breadth of the power Seth had truly clear. And another step won. He followed through, momentum carrying him over as his fist glanced off its force into the shield, but pulled him aloft with its overwhelming 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 swinging her shield around like this fight wasn’t already fast enough, pulling it over her head and bracing it too fast for normal anatomy to keep up.

Another impact to add to the thunderous reverb. Sparks and friction glancing off before it could shine, a near ton of metal flipping over behind the pair priming a left at Erdwut. Eschenwald fell vertical into the sand, braced hard as it struck. Both blade and wielder recoiled, but stayed firm, the reverb deadened but still ringing. Seth spun back with his recoil, momentum turned to spring tension and loosed to round his target again but a foot stayed up as its opposite scathed and transferred all this momentum to kick that shield. Another equal reaction, a following lin drug in the sand, a brace before impact. A reemphasized reverberation, but another glancing blow, complete with screeching scathe of that stainless bronze surface.

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. As the prospect of him succeeding drew closer one foot at a time.

Another glancing off throwing him around, sending Seth 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 always be misleading. The left talons scraped all that inertia to a stop at Aegis’ side, catapulted that huge right in her direction, but it sailed over her shield as she braced against it. The fist skimmed the rim, spalled the barest fleck of surface to spark, 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 to finally get ringed out like the rest.

Toughened bone from innumerable hours of training, skin hardened by power and burden, none of that mattered as it crunched and Erdwut flew back like a human baseball pitched with extreme prejudice. Face contorted, jaw relocated, massed concussions all returned at once as he spiraled through the air. A last attempt to slow his flight dug his blade into the piled up sand. But that only led to cementing his impact into the wall back first. He bounced off, cracking stone and that dauntless 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 kept the pace like nothing had changed, her footing held like she never had Erdwut at her back in the first place, because she may as well hadn’t. But she was still losing ground. He struck, another resounding hit, but no recoil fueled rebound. He kept his position, locked hard and close, and poured the onslaught that was waiting for its chance. Giving Aegis no chance to counter, no chance to change tactics, only more ringing in her ears and more ruts dug toward the edge. Each hit paired into that resonance, battering the audience and shaking this mountain of justice to its very core. A tone irrefutable, his own manifest expression to show his power to all who doubted.

But still Aegis held her stance, and there was only so much ignoring Seth could take. He pulled his foot up and blasted himself off that damnable shield, kicking her stance up and voicing his rising frustrations. She quickly slammed her shield back down, ready for whatever he threw at her, head rising over the lip to blare her own message in a less destructive fashion. To show that he was heard loud and clear but this was not just his fight alone. But she froze as the recipient came into her guardless view. Seth landing down, glassed 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.

An image, a memory, deja-vu driven motions forced to life as those talons shattered the metal floor for one final attack. That darkened doorway, that waking thunk, that desperate lock 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 than thus. Instinct overrode empathetic handicaps, her shield furling back as her hands reared back, eyes closed tight in fear and too late realized shame, and those hands shot out. A translucent orange barrier flashing out before her.

True indestructibility, an impregnable barrier that nothing could defeat beyond the stamina of its wielder. A vaunted wall that kept this city and its people safe through the worst this world had offered. A set purpose in professional life that demanded all and cared little for its bearer’s pride.

But Seth knew clear its hidden weakness, knew what he had to do to stay on its good side, understood that he could strike right through it like it wasn’t even there at all. But hesitation invaded his perception, a flash of guilt, of 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. Way too soon, and definitely at the wrong goddamn time! 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, he could do nothing but hold himself tight to stop from falling right through her barrier and turning this fight to an incident beyond reckoning. A catch in the metallic scream, friction winning out at the very last moment. A titan stopping on a dime, but betrayed by its momentum.

His upper body carried over against his restraint. Head falling forward, narrowly putting the snout of his helmet through like an unstoppable oaf. But forgetting the horns still crowning atop it. A single top glancing in, imparted the faintest ripple onto the barrier despite the colossal force put forth to stop it. All his perception and reflex, all his overdriven senses and weighed down existence, all of it came crashing back to normal speed as he shot his head back. Desperately raised like nothing unexpected had happened, but he knew it had. But despite this the near infinite ramifications he just narrowly avoided, he didn’t have time to deal with this shit! The maw snapped open, slack and masking nothing, trying to call Aegis out of her literally impossible blockade, to snap her out of her instinct, to demand she come back to the fight at hand but- *EEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRR* He was cut off… as a blaring horn came from the arena's speakers.

Everything froze of its own volition, 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 expression half hidden in metal 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 battered stage, 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 still in penance. Her 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.

That false maw slammed shut of its own accord, the spark and burn of fusing metal and layers followed but the clear jagged outline of where it was remained on the helmet. What little light left in the eyes waning away as the armor shook, as Seth lost the strength forced upon him and backed away from his pyrrhicly victorious opponent. Aegis shot up from her feet, from that 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 narrowly passed through it but fully aware of what it had caused. She rushed toward him, desperate to stop the oncoming fall 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 taken and used up. The weight of the suit now squarely dropping over him. The weight of all the things he'd given up. And the weight of all of it lost by the barest inch. It was too much to take, took much to bear, too much...

His suit retained its mode as he fell to the side with a colossal crash, one last echo of the that reverberating resonance desperate to blare its existence. But nothing left of the monstrous strength displayed to raise it up. Anyone else would see it as just power withdrawal, using so much and exerting yourself too great had adverse effects. But only Seth knew what truly drove this. He had lost his cover, lost his past, opened himself up to a scrutiny he’d feared and hid away from for so long. He’d 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 drowned them down to incomprehensible static with good intentions. He couldn’t move, could barely feel the over heated suit searing the skin falling onto it. There was nothing but the suffocating blankness it created around him.

Aegis worked up the courage to advance again, but that same heat 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 without even the strength to stay. 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 in his absence. And adding more weight on top to bury him deeper still.

As if time blinked, Seth found himself brought back to this world. To feeling and existence returned by simple uncaring processes. A sensation he had long wished to never feel again, but had forced upon him 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 straining his eyes through it, shapes moving around and out of it. He forced his eyes close, recentered and fought to clear the fog.

He heard the sounds of music and cheering, of announcements and pageantry. He heard Para still playing up his role and burdening him further. He focused again, tried to shake his head to clear the mental fuzz that clouded everything away, only to look up in time to see a hardlight display half projected over the arena. A flickering holographic jumbotron showing the faces and names of all the trainees… all but one. A shower of faux fireworks sprayed from its edges as Seth looked on and saw the official tally of his loss. Weight forcing him back down, forcing him to see the other trainees cheering from a prepared stage in the center of this devastated arena, forced him to see Para congratulating them with overly ecstatic pride.

The world started to fade again, his senses failing as the hell he was going through crescendoed in celebration. He felt himself slip as the proceedings flew by before him, his perceptive advantage failing hard with the rest of his senses. The trainees cleared the stage, filed out one final time toward the now shutterless exit. The stands cleared of spectators and family, flash feelings of leering eyes coming from all angles as the clean up began. The stage was cleared and put away, what was left of the hardlight array shut down. The lights dimmed as the last in attendance filed out as well. Yet Seth wasn’t alone, he saw blurs of a few heroes checking in 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, to Aegis and Erdwut arriving in front of him. He still couldn’t move, not enough to matter anyway. They both seemed rushed in their mannerisms. Erdwut staying back with a clear look of disdain mixed with whatever was hidden under all that stoicism. Aegis stayed her concern and knelt down, trying to catch eye line as best she could.

“Listen… it's going to be okay.”

Her voice was like an echo in Seth’s ears, everything burned out and aching. She hesitantly put a hand on his shoulder, still wary of 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 on a level way above everyone 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 to 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. As she looked back up into those empty 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! All that faded burn and broken weight dropped to clarity like an atomic razor, senses flooding back as anger ignited that depressive void. He could see every detail through the oversaturated backdrop, in spite of the distance, in spite of his fried being. He saw that smug face turn toward him, a face that could drive a jester mad, an air that oozed a pride in the pain and suffering he put Seth 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 would be forced away from this place with.

The door closed and sank the whole arena back into the dim darkness it rested in. Save for a single spot building opposite. A burning red light straightening up off its burdening weight, illuminating the whole of that protected bench in a fury onto itself. A crackling sound filling the quiet of the empty arena. The stone of the wall cracking, 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 returned to that helmet’s left eye, and a near inaudible word echoed in the crackling electricity. One overriding everything but driven like a beast in blinders.

“Rage.”