[b]THE FIRST BATTLE[/b] [hider=THE COLLAB POST] The two pairs would go to their assigned ends of the arena being given some time to prep for their fight. The Villains would have to decide where they would stash the hostages and what kind of defence they would put up. Meanwhile the Heroes would have to think up a battle plan and figure out a safe way to retrieve the hostages. ---- Sora was watching her partner Edith very carefully. Of course she’d be paired with the only student she didn’t want to be paired with. Of course. “So,” Sora started to asked the crazy smiling lunatic, “Any ideas or plans?” --- Edith frowned for a moment when she was chosen as a villain, hoping she wasn’t just chosen as one because of her parents and what not. Shaking her head Edith lets her mind refill with its usual chaotic chatering, drowning out the thoughts as her grin returned. Hearing sora speck up Edith looked over to Sora, she didn’t exactly know the extent of her powers, but the wings and horns where really cool and had to count for something. [color=ed1c24]“Umm… how powerful are your wings? Could you maybe carry the hostages?”[/color] Edith’s mind raced, she was pretty sure she could remember her parents telling her about a game they played very similar to this on a few occasions, and she was desperately trying to recall how it was they had won. [color=ed1c24]“Ahh, daddy said that to win this game we have to use our quirks to give us the advantage, and to hurt the… but if we can use our quirks to get the hostages up high, then we will win right?”[/color] ---- Sora blinked. That...was actually a good plan! The sheep girl then told Edith as much, before adding “I didn’t take you for a strategist, no offense. I’ll fly these hostages up, then they’ll have to climb the stairs of this building to get to them, giving us plenty of chances to hold them off on the stairwell!” Smiling, the winged sheep girl grabbed all the hostage dummies and flew them up to the roof of the building, placing them in ways she’d seen hostages on rooftops in movies; posing them so that they were all kneeling with their hands on their heads. She then hovered back down to earth, landing in a somewhat dramatic manner, and grinning slyly at Edith. It seemed Sora was starting to get into the villain role. “And now we wait, it seems.” ---- Mycel scratched his head. He wasn’t the best when it came to saving hostages-he was the type who’d concentrate on the fight. He turned to his partner, Kiyoshi. Quite a performance he put back at the gym yesterday- knocking out a teacher. He hoped they could knock out the two and get an easy win. But that wasn’t an easy option. Mycel tapped his chin as he thought of any plan if he could. They could use the old distraction tactic- Mycel and his army of mold swarming at the two while Kiyoshi either got rid of them or searched for the hostages. “Got any plan, big guy?” Mycel said, turning to Kiyoshi. ---- Kiyoshi frowned. “None at the moment...Any chance you can see through the eyes of your mold?” He stroked his chin. “Then again, we could always divide and conquer.” He quickly sunk into the realm of his own mind. They’ll no doubt be defending the hostages but the question is will they send someone to ambush us or will they stay in place. “I think our best course of action here is to stick together. I’ll watch our front, you watch our backs. Hopefully we can reach the hostages and secure a win. If we get attacked at any point in time, you are to break off and continue towards the hostages and I will keep them occupied. It’ll be difficult, but I’m sure we can find some way to make it work.” He looked at the building. “Showtime.” ---- Edith grin only widened at Sora’s praise. Remembering her father's [i]‘lessons’[/i] Edith gave a moments thought to her opponents quirks. [color=ed1c24]“Umm… I think Mycel can make things out of himself, more Mycel’s and stuff. But I think we can just stab those til’ they stop moving… how do we deal with the sleepy guy though? I’m not ready for bed yet.”[/color] Edith made a show of making exaggerated stabbing and sleeping gestures amongst others while she spoke as if to emphasize her point. ---- Sora nodded. “Kiyoshi? He won’t be able to put to sleep what he can’t reach,” the sheep girl answered, grinning and gesturing to her wings. “Leave him to me. I’ll fight him out here, where I have more space and can keep my distance. You’d be better off fighting Mycel inside the building, on the stairway, where there’s less room to use his quirk to its full potential and you have the advantage.” ---- [color=ed1c24]“Okay, that sounds fun!”[/color] Edith pauses, thinking about their plan and hyping herself up for the battle ahead. Edith was glad to have a partner smart enough to formulate a strategy with her more effective than hitting the enemy until they surrender. [color=ed1c24]“You’re really smart Sora. I like you.”[/color] ---- Celia’s voice came on over a speaker system all around the arena. [color=00aeef]“Now that everything is all ready to roll. I’ll run over the rules again. Firstly, there is a thirty minute time limit whoever has the most hostages at that point will win, if the heroes can get them all before then, they win. Secondly, keep the hostages alive, if any get broken and you both lose. Also, your aim is to incapacitate the other team, not kill them. So avoid majorly injuring your opponents to avoid disqualification. Lastly, have fun. Begin!”[/color] After the speaker crackled off some horns sounded signalling the start of the exercise. ---- Sora smiled back at Edith. Maybe the crazy blood girl wasn’t so bad after all. Maybe they could be friends. At that moment, The teacher’s voice was heard through the speakers, and a horn announced that it had begun. Sora’s face immediately turned serious and she pointed to the doorway. “It’s time to start this thing, so let’s get into positions. Edith, go and wait on the stairwell. I’ll join you if I have to fall back or if Kiyoshi gets inside. Until then. I’ll stay out here. Good luck.” ---- Kiyoshi looked to Mycel. “Alright. Move in.” He stepped towards the entrance, warily looking in with his hands extended. ---- Mycel grinned as he followed Kiyoshi. This will be one of those days he’s waited for. A section of his arm started to grow, something like a tumor popping out of the opening on his costume. Mycel lazily popped it with his finger. Mold sprayed around them, the spores in the air. The spores traveled past them and into the building, traveling in the air as some fell to the floor and started growing. “Surveying for hostiles.” Mycel muttered. ---- As the two got closer, they’d see, hovering in midair, a winged, horned figure in the sky. It was Sora, but without her uniform, glasses or bell, she didn’t look as cute. She actually looked striking and intimidating, in that dress, with her tattoo visible, in a pose not dissimilar to a devil. “Fufufufufu…” she cackled, with the back of her hand against her opposite cheek, as she slowly descended to Earth. All the scene needed was dramatic organ music. “You two will go no further!” --- Edith hearing Sora’s plan Edith sprinted into the building, stopping at the stairs. Careful not to spill Edith dipped jar finger into one of the blood bags on her suit, rapidly assuming control of the blood inside and distributing it across the concealed vein like webbing throughout her suit. With that done Edith sat herself on the banister and began gently rocking back and forth, humming to herself. ---- Mycel slapped his cheeks with his hands, expressing his exaggerated, and obviously fake, astonishment as he saw Sora hover in the air with a cliche anime evil cackle. Obviously she put a lot of effort into her costume to make her look intimidating, but in Mycel’s opinion… Yeah, a bit scary. He’d give her that. “Oh, no, we can’t go any further?” He said, and scratched his chin, his head unnecessarily turning around as if scanning for a way out of this situation. Then, he raised a finger, and let out a loud ‘aha!’ out of his mouth. “Well, I guess it’s time to MAKE A NEW DOOR!” Mycel yelled as he plucked his left hand out of its place. It balled up into a lump of mold as he threw it past Sora towards the building. --- What Kiyoshi would find strange would be Sora make absolutely no move to intercept him. And Edith was nowhere to be seen. The villains were trying to split them up! Sora never had any intention of fighting them both alone! The winged sheep girl would hover close to the ground in front of Kiyoshi, and grin. “Sorry, but you won’t be joining your friend inside,” she stated. --- Kiyoshi stroked his chin under his mask as it all played out. “Wait...Mycel, NO!” When Sora told him he wouldn’t be entering he paused, getting into a fighting stance. “We’ll see.” He made a move as if to turn around, then lunged for Sora, focusing power into his hands. “Night night, little sheep.” He wanted to dispatch Sora as soon as possible. Mycel would inevitably be dealing with Edith, and...well Mycel could use some assistance. Kiyoshi had no idea the extent of Edith’s combat ability, but he imagined she would be a challenge. --- Sora had never been in a real fight before, but her father had given her a little bit of training. It was enough to give her the edge against people who relied on their quirks alone. When Kiyoshi charged at her, she flew back up into the sky, out of his reach, before flapping her wings and sending down a shower of loose feathers. Unlike her father’s, her wing feathers weren’t strong or sharp enough to be weapons. In fact, they were ordinary feathers. But they tickled! --- “Heh, that’s gonna be a fight.” Mycel muttered as he ran past Sora and Kiyoshi, who were in the middle of a fight. He’d love to fight the winged girl himself, but they couldn’t spend the whole day fighting. They had hostages-or hostage props- to rescue. Also Edith was waiting inside the building. The mold, which used to be his left hand, took lead of Mycel and crawled around the building’s interior. “Come out, come out, wherever you are!” Mycel shouted. --- Edith lets the blood in her costumes veining flow out of her sleeves, forcing the red liquid to twist itself around each of her hands, and form into a pair of surprisingly sharp looking blades. She giggles a little when she hears Mycel calling, and takes a moment to let Mycel notice her sitting on the banister above. [color=ed1c24]“Hello Mycel. I think I’m gonna fight you now.”[/color] Content with her introduction, Edith drops down from the banister, ignoring the shooting pain in her legs upon impact and swaying wildly as she regains her footing. Brandishing her blood blades menacingly, Edith’s already wide grin practically spreads to her ears, and her eyes go wide. [color=ed1c24]“This is going to be the greatest!”[/color] --- Mycel turned to the source of the voice as he heard Edith speak to him. He tilted his head to the side as Edith jumped down, her bloody weapons shining threateningly at the boy. Unfortunately, it failed to strike fear into the boy’s mind. It rather thrilled him. “Greatest... isn’t really the right word.” Mycel said, tapping his chin. He stretched out his left arm, calling back the lump of mold that was creeping in circles in front of Edith. As the lump returned to its rightful position and became his left hand once more, Mycel clapped his hands against each other and rubbed them. “I’d prefer the term.... ‘legendary’.” He said, and gestured Edith to make the first move. --- Kiyoshi looked at Sora in the air, sending a quick glance at the door. “Sorry little sheep. I don’t have time for games.” He sprinted towards the entrance, praying his speed could negate her flying ability. His best course of action was to join Mycel. From what he could guess, Sora wouldn’t be able to fly as well if she was inside. He ran as fast as he could, hoping he could help his friend. --- Unfortunately, Sora could fly faster than he could run, and instead of trying to cut him off, aimed straight at his back, and tackled him to the ground, quickly getting up so she couldn’t reach over his shoulders and grab her. Only once he was down, she circled him so she was once again between him and the building. --- The impact against the ground was much harder than Kiyoshi had originally thought it would have been, and he tasted blood. He got up. “Little sheep’s a coward, huh?” He spit saliva tinged pink with blood. “Why don’t you come down and fight me? Let’s see who’s really better. No powers, nothing. Just fists.” --- Sora responded with another ‘evil laugh’ from the safety of a few feet out of his reach. She knew this couldn’t go on. There were no ways to subdue him or impede his progress that didn’t involve close contact. If he touched her, she was knocked out. Knocked out...Sora had an idea. “Do you really take me for a fool? The slightest skin to skin contact and I get put to sleep! Though, I can’t take that coward comment lying down. Very well.” she replied, setting herself back on the ground. “Come at me.” She just hoped that he didn’t know how to fight, and that him touching her wing feathers wouldn’t put her to sleep. Otherwise this would be a very short fight. --- Edith's grin somehow managed to get wider as Mycel proclaimed the battle would be legendary, beginning to whisper a chant to herself, gradually working it's way up in speed and excitement until it's nothing more than incoherent gibberish. [color=ed1c24]“Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight...”[/color] Edith ends her chant with a overjoyed yelp as she surges forward, wildly swinging her crimson weaponry towards Mycel’s abdomen. --- “So you wanna see how much muscles I’ve got, huh?” Mycel said. His head started working as Edith charged at him. His quirk couldn’t make sharp and hard stuff like Edith, but it could help him grow on everywhere. And, of course, ignore lots of attacks that could be fatal to most and all normal human beings. As Edith’s weapons charged for Mycel’s abdomen, Mycel showed no move to get out of the way. Instead of dodging or blocking, he let the weapon sink in deep, the section of his body turning into mold. The mold gathered up to once again form muscle-like strands, as an attempt to fix Edith’s weapons and her arms in place. --- For a moment as her arms began to sink into Mycel Edith panicked, thinking she might have just killed her friend, the moment his torso tightening around her hands and weapons however Edith began to grasp just how durable her foe was. [color=ed1c24]“Hehehehehe… If I kill you will you die!?”[/color] Already Edith was hardly listening as she summoned more blood from he costume, trying to force it into Mycel like a razor sharp root system. --- “Hmmm, hmmm, HMMMMMM!” A wide grin spread over Mycel’s face. He turned his entire face into mold,his grin disappearing into a hardly intelligible outline of mold as Edith spread the blood across his body. The mold arms moved ‘around’ the root that held what used to be Mycel’s arm, breaking free from them. Edith’s arms still held tight, Mycel flinged his mold fists at her. --- Kiyoshi grinned under his mask. Hand to hand combat was his speciality, and he had forgotten no one knew that simple fact. He ran at Sora, feinting at her face, changing his course at the last second, his fist heading for her gut. He was silent. During combat, he stayed focused and calm. --- Sora admittedly hadn’t been expecting the feint, and at the last second, dug her heels in, pulled back, and shielded herself with her wings Luckily, her low punch wouldn’t be hitting any of the wing membranes, only the feathers. Which when still attached to the wing in the pattern that they were, would be like punching a very soft kevlar vest. The wings opened up, suddenly revealing that Sora was lunging at Kiyoshi horns-first. --- Kiyoshi cursed as he missed his attack. When the wings opened up, he smiled. Kiyoshi, seeing an opening, surged all of his power as he lunged back at Sora. If this didn’t knock her out, he didn’t know what would. --- The good news was that Kiyoshi managed to make contact, grabbing Sora’s bare arm, and the power of his work passed into her, but Sora didn’t stop. Her horns were coming straight at Kiyoshi’s face. The last thing he’d remember noticing before those incredibly tough horns connected with his forehead, would be seeing Sora’s face. She was already put under a calm serene sleep. Her face was relaxed, and she looked kinda cute… --- Edith cackled, completely ignoring the appendage flying her way letting it hit her and hoping for the best as she began to constrict her creation around Mycel's body. [color=ed1c24]“Die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die…”[/color] Edith closed her eyes, starting to pump her remaining blood in her costumes as well as her own into a cocoon around Mycel, and trying to ignore her encroaching fatigue and rapidly dimming vision. --- The mold arms continued hitting Edith, eventually slowing down as Edith continued pumping blood inside the giant lump of mold, also known as Mycel. His whole body turned into mold, Mycel could feel the amount of blood under Edith’s control inside his ‘body’. It seemed a bit too much-and Edith, evidently, wasn’t doing too good. A section of mold jumped off the cluster and created a small humanoid form on its own. It’s insides started gaining detail, soon getting its own vocal cords good enough for Mycel to speak through. “Come on, there’s more than just that.” He taunted. --- Edith's body was shaking badly and she could hardly tell if her eyes were opened or closed by this point. Just as she was going to give Mycel's taunts reached her ears, egging her on to pump even more of her blood into Mycel, by this point completely unaware of any logic or strategy and just blindly trying to tear him apart from the inside out. [color=ed1c24]“I’m going to…”[/color] As one final wave of nauseating dizziness hit her, the lack of oxygen to her brain finally pulled her into unconscious. --- Mycel slowly pulled his mold body away from Edith’s blood structure that’s been holding it in place. He rebuilt himself, his partially tattered costume fitting around the mold cluster as he soon recovered his human form. Flexing his arms, Mycel lowered himself to take a closer look at Edith. “Knock knock? You in there?” Mycel said, poking the girl on the cheek. --- The speakers crackled as Celia’s voice rang out over the whole arena, [color=00aeef]”Alright it looks like the heroes win by knockout! Now someone get the nurses out there.”[/color] Celia would slither back into the viewing room with the students and looked around. [color=00aeef]”Well wasn’t that an exciting match? Well after lunch we’ll have another one, but this time it will be Noru and Adam against Koharu and Charles. That one should be very interesting. But for now, it’s off to lunch with you, the others need some time to recover anyway.”[/color] With that Celia would wave off the students before heading out into the arena to check up on Edith and Kiyoshi. She felt like Sora and Mycel were fine, tho Sora and Kiyoshi were a little tangled. [/hider]