A flash perception slowed the world down, drove Seth’s arm up to shield his head. To counter the oncoming punch already outpacing it. A static sheen and halo, like the shot of a cannon made out of a tesla coil. And the fucker firing it grinning menace upon Seth’s barely managed block.

  Impact threw out the grim realization, arm bucking into his head and kicking him back to the real speed of the world. To foot the bill as footing caved out from under him. Sending him spinning away off kilter and near terminal, sand grinding its way into his fingers to stop a tumble away. Balance barely righted with heel and dune dug. All to only immediately need to block again.

  As Kabar came rocketing forward with both feet first. A lassoing rope around Ohm’s waist pulling him back, transferring momentum in seesaw competition. Sandy soles crinkling against guarding arms, heat exuding to sparkle the grain. So all that countering reaction could recoiling Seth back again. Except now he had actual footing.

  Those arms loaded up shot back, repulsing that kick and sending Kabar sprawling backward instead. Finally earning a second of breathing space. A chance to see just what was coming for him.

  See the lineup collapsing, everyone jostling for position, spreading out to get clear angles of attack. Because of who cares about this being a free for all, they wanted a reward!

  Only Razor was the slowest on the uptick, renewed confidence getting the better of him or just no drive left. Only to have whatever it was be rebuked as Kaz turned about, meeting razor knife with true sword. Words said but only a grimace and shrug seen. So Seth was faced with 'only' ten other opponents.

  Ohmega and Kabar were getting back up, but the main issue was Cleo rushing in closer and whatever she was about to do to him. So offense seemed like an absolute necessity.

  He set his feet and bound forward, slipping past a freshly materialized strap Cleo probably thought he would be too slow to dodge. Instead, she was the one not expecting the head on attack. With emphasis on head on. Seth bull charged right into her bare gut, sending her sputtering back into Jacob and David who had bunched up behind.

  Only slightly dizzy from the impact, Seth reeled back, both arms pulling up. As Alex and Marco were flanking him now. Alex bringing in what looked like a hastily mimicked air fist, while Marco wielded the genuine article. Launching in near perfect unison to the surprise of all but Alex, like she was way too on the draw. But both were still a step below what Seth was ramping up to.

  He quickly kicking back, still guarding against what was liable to blow hard. But none of them expected two air fists to over compress and explode!

  All three were blown off their feet, the wind force ignoring most of Seth's defense and blasting him onto his back hard. Head bashed whipping into the sand as a hand scraped away, pushing him back upright before he rolled. But he was still stumbling and feeling the dizzy now. At least he had distance though.

  He could see Maya compressing sand into stone around her fist and charging past her prone ‘allies’, while Zeleny was… Flying over her!

  ‘Why the hell can she fly?!’

  She quickly surprised and grabbed Maya by the uncoated hand. Looping up and bringing her up to speed, to a flying catapult. Seth wasn’t the only one studying the fight yesterday but the issue right now was he couldn’t reorient himself in time. Or at all! He couldn’t move his left leg!

  He saw Cleo, beaming a sadistic smile from the scrambling pile behind everyone, a hand extended and a strap coiled around his leg from way too far away. He was stuck.

  So no choice but to risk it.

  He pulled back on his right leg, a futile hard block as Zeleny released Maya with an underhand swing. Seth closed his eyes, focused his power as safely as he could into his arm. He’d have to eat the tax for it since his suit was too far, but right now it was necessary. Because Maya was rumbling in with a hardened fist for Seth’s head. And he had a feint to blast out of.

  Counterweighting left arm flung back, his right barreling forward. All to meet that sandstone fist with more power than it expected. A chunky explosion of dust and sandy rocks, and Maya’s knuckles taking only the excess. Enough to send her spiraling past him off her own destabilized momentum.

  There was no time to pull the probably toughened leather strap wrapped around his leg, so Seth dragged his extended right back out through the dust cloud ahead of him, trying to clear his line of sight for what was coming next. Only for a lynx paw to come flying out of the cloud and smack him across the face.

  Tabby was in the fray now, swinging a big snowshoe-like paw like he’d insulted her to her face. And continuing along with a flying roundhouse like drag and air resistance were suggestions. The summary double batting turning that dizziness into full on daze, meaning there was no resistance left as both massive paws slammed into his chest. The force enough to dislodge him from the strap, and send him flying back even further.

  His back hit sand with a softer crunch, elbows taking the brunt out of instinct rather than reaction. The persisting dust cloud giving a moment's shake off the daze and a standing up to face all doubled comers. But wasn't long enough to react.

  A rush of water splashed the cloud apart, and quickly froze as it drenched his legs. David and Jacob were working together, and Seth was stuck in place again. Before he could pull his arms up to crack it though, a shoot of sand came in from his right and swallowed his arm. Maya wasn’t out just yet. And neither was Cleo as she rounded the settling cloud, and whipped his left with a sudden strap around it.

  No time, no momentum, no leverage nor space. Nothing left but the real rush barreling through the last of that cloud.

  “HE’S MINE!!”

  Everyone running at him, pushing and shoving. Alex hung off Zeleny. Kabar whipping back Marco and David as he rushed forward.

  “NO HE’S MINE!!!”

  Tabby was hanging off Jacob trying to swing him out of the way. Maya and Cleo both dichotomy of emotion yet storming forward.

  “MINE!!!”

  “MINE!!”

  “MIINNE!!!”

  But Seth could only watch...

  As Ohmega flashed ahead of them all, a full punch sparking with electricity reeled in full.

  “Mine!”

  Fist compacted gut as undo force echoed across the arena. Ice, sand, and leather were unable to hold him down. Rocketing into the wall already bearing enough scars. Soft stone shattered and crumbled in physical bass kick, Seth rebounding off and falling to its base. Rubble coming down on him, a hard sandstone beat adding to the crash. Cracking over his hand, knocked it low and darkening this world in more ways than one. Pinning him down for the ill expected count.

  This fight ended once and for all.

  As the dust settled and everyone stopped their bickering. Waited for the call they all knew the answer to. Para, having moved with the fight, observing the scene with earned arrogance. About to speak up and say it clear so all would know. But Ohmega struck an even more arrogant pose and broke that hold.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Ha! I got him! So who do I get to train und-OMFH!!”

  But not before Maya body slammed straight into his overbearing arrogance. Para’s smirk more than audible.

  “The school of hard knocks if you think this fights even over!”

  Leaving the rest to determine a real winner amongst themselves, breaking off toward the pile of rubble that was now this stupid kid. Stopping short and squatting close. So they knew once and for all.

  “You see, I said this place wasn’t for you. You weren’t ready, and more than likely you’ll never be ready. Just give up, it will hurt less. ...You never deserved to be a hero anyway.”

  The darkness....

  echoed that word...

  over....

  and over...

  Burning it in with undo cause. Making sure it was heard over everything else.

  But still he could hear them, still he could... feel them...

  “He’s all yours Medi!”

  Mediknight was still there, standing unperturbed on the sidelines. Finally clanging in slowly with disappointment laden in his step. He'd had to clean up Para’s messes before.

  Was that all he was now? Just...?

  Under that rubble was only darkness. A pressing weight forcing him down deeper into the sand. Into the rumble of heavy hits rippling through, into heat of stymied attacks turning about, into clang of metal on metal disregarding what transpired in their absence. But for some reason…

  Seth couldn’t feel anything of himself.

  His bones were splinters stabbing at him from all angles, his muscles emptied of energy just to keep up with the bruising, his head was swimming around and around without a course or speed.

  But... but despite all this pain, the hammering of his body with every beat of his heart…

  He couldn’t feel it.

  Couldn’t know it.

  Couldn’t understand it.

  Because that damn word kept echoing through him!!

  An unmetered pull textured the darkness with its syllables, drew him deeper than even the sand, even the metal accepting all this tribute. Toward the source of those accursed echoes.

  A hateful sound too low to hear. A bleeding reverb pouring out like so much taken in electricity. His bones healed, his head righted, the bruises ceased, but the pain stayed! Blotted out everything like there was nothing there in the first place! Nothing but... but this-

  ‘Who the FUCK does he think he is??!! He can’t even imagine what I’ve had to go through!! What I’ve suffered to get HERE!!! What I’ve had to FUCKING LIVE WITH!!! What I've had to LOSE!!! All! ALL BECAUSE OF-’

  'Of...'

  Seth stopped himself. Stop spiraling into something he’d didn't want to relive. And yet now was staring up at him as unmistakable as it was dark.

  The edge of an abyss looming before him, pulling at his psyche even in vague abstraction. Eating away at it, feeding off of it, off of all that his pain had carried away. He could feel what it gave in trade. The hateful emotions that nearly consumed him seething out, wisping to nothing... as he pulled away from it, before it could pull him in.

  The Garkah had warned him about this, about the power they had to lock away. Why that dam had been there and why they were afraid of their first meeting. Because this was the holdover from when he almost lost himself that day. When the darkness threatened to take away who he was, like the rest of his family. But... further still...

  It was from when Threat lost everything.

  A roiling mass of anger and hatred stuffed into a box and thrown into the dark. Passed along with them when as they crossed the stars. Only stopped when they were shunted into his head. When they locked it away... or tried to.

  Seth was staring into it, scrutinizing it. But could only feel its effects and not its form. Could only hear it beat that word out, trying to mask a low hiss below it. A whisper. A seeping out at the edges of the container it had been shoved into. Amounts too insignificant to keep back wisped off like steam.

  It was indecipherable, but he could feel it. And somehow, he knew just what it really was. He planted his figurative feet at that cavernous hole in his head, focused on it like any other source of electricity before it. A focus that not only extended, but pulled. Dragged this abyss up, closer than it wanted, pulling that whisper for what it really was.

  Power.

  To show...

  'To make him see what I can do! Whether he likes IT OR NOT!!!’

  The rubble shook and Mediknight stopped in his tracks, tension sudden in his undue deceleration. He’d dealt with enough supers, enough heroes and villains to know when someone just pushed their limits. The healing field around him rippling in response before it could even touch the poor kid before him.

  The rubble lifting and fall away with meaty thunks, alerting Para to what Mediknight already knew first hand. As in front of both of them, Seth’s suit stirred. The eyes lighting up with a blue internal glow, signaling something long expected was occurring at last.

  But before Para could fully turn back to see what had been awakened, sand and air and blurring buffet refused him. Made him stop to shield his eyes. So he could double back his turn toward the fight, yet only watch as that kid he tried to tear down tore backbinto the fray. With a fist raised with all the vengeance it felt like taking hold of. And an expression that could only be described one way!

  Still wrestling with Maya on the ground, barely able to force her away with a double kick at the last minute, Ohm was ready to break free from the sand she’d wrapped around him. But instead he was summarily slammed down upon!

  Sand and lung aerosolizing, rippling with all the power Seth taken from that abyss. Using all that momentum to pole-vault off Ohm’s narrowly caved in chest. And lock away the rest of his kick off to find the next in need of a beat down.

  At the hint of step, he rocketed off, parting the dust cloud he created. Finding a stunned David caught mid sneak attack with no hope of getting away. Seth pivoting to slid, using his trailing leg to break and swing that inertia all the way around. Slamming into David’s back, flinging him into the cloud, straight into Maya on the other side still recoiling in her own right now double over!

  His foot dug itself through the rest of the inertia as Seth scanned the battlefield, his perception finding a hold out of sheer glutting overdrive and make it all his.

  Jacob and Kabar were duking it out at the far end of the sector, though Jacob seemed like it wasn’t mutually wanted. Zeleny and Alex were flying and jousting, Alex color shifted to red for everybody’s sake. Marco and Tabby were trading blows close by, Tabby still in lynx form. And Razor and Kaz were still meeting blades in the center of all this, undisturbed by the rest of the fighters. So he locked on to Marco and Tabby, planted his foot hard, and launched forward with both fists crossed.

  Razor and Kaz clashed to a standstill, the match up poor but held simply because they were the only ones with sharp weapons. Razor knives losing edges and whole blades to cold, folded steel. But the battle was really just window dressing, as both watched Seth burst between the Tabby and Marco out of nowhere and backhanded the both of them away from each other.

  Razor trying desperately to look like he never even thought about attacking the guy with death gritted between his teeth. Slowly swinging back and forth against Kaz’s sword while fretting a retaliation for mean mugging this guy since they got here.

  “Eyes on your opponent!”

  Kaz for his part played along, observing the fight more candidly. Snapping Razor back to him so he’d take their fight more seriously. Even as he mouthed “Thank you!!” when Seth rounded them to get to the rest of the fighters.

  Another head down bull rush slammed into Kabar from behind. Coming in low and scooped his legs up from under him, and menacingly grabbing hold like he was a human club. Seth bringing him down on Jacob and smacking their heads together to leave them in a disregarded heap.

  So he could kick off to the side just as a new round of straps attempted to grab him. He swiveled and scanned around, catching Cleo back over by Para, just as Zeleny and Alex came crashing down in a ball between them.

  His foot set again before Cleo could even catch the glare of him shooting forward. Alex tried to lift herself off the ground to get distance, but found Seth lunging alongside, spiraling horizontal and grabbing her by the throat. Dodge a field of straps Cleo materialized beneath the lot of them. Locking Zeleny down before she could get away as well. The sound of slapping leather crescendoed by the choke slam of Alex into that field. Flinging Seth away with the centrifugal motion, and freeing Zeleny to rip back into the air. But not far enough away.

  Seth bounded back over, aligned with her desperate escape. Connector boots planting themselves on her overly green chest. And using her as a backstop to blast closer to Cleo.

  Seth rocketed forward, sending Zeleny sprawling back. And sending Cleo recoiling in desperate interdiction. Spreading out another field of grabbing straps through the entire ground between them.

  Seth landing in pure sprint. Charging straight in, straight through, no more fear of getting tied down left. Because it couldn't hope to stop him. They snapped at his legs but snapped in turn, any that were able to grab him were broken like they were never there at all.

  His left arm locking hard as he screamed into toward his goal, slamming her in the gut and flinging her out of the way. Because he wasn’t about to stop. He couldn’t stop. There was only one way this could end, only one place this power he took allowed him to see.

  Sand burst in every storming step, till he was right at Para’s side. Momentum overwhelming as he lurched it in toe and launched himself toward his face! Massive right hook charged and unwilling to hold back!

  His fist slamming the stun right off, harder than Seth hit the other trainees, harder than he’s ever hit anything! The shockwave alone shook the arena and kicked up a final blast of sand to buffet his defeated opponents. Sent the bastard flying, spiraling crashing through the wall. Smashing into a storage room with all the prejudice put in.

  To put an end to this free for all on his overt term. And yet declare the war already begun.