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[center][h2][color=darkred]Ardere Terrane[/color][/h2][/center]
[hider=First Letter from School][color=darkred][i]Dear brother, 
I’m writing you this letter to tell you that if there was a method to lose brain cells quickly, it’s auditioning at Avengers Academy. I was placed to be the finale since we were all going in alphabetical order by name. I didn’t want to be sent home in shame so I knew I had to make it unique. I couldn’t decide which idea to pick so I went with all of them...[/i][/color][/hider]
In hindsight, looking at the judges at the booth, all eyes focused on her, perhaps Ardere should’ve been more modest in her designs. The first challenge was a wall break, though, for her powers, it was more of a wall melt. There are ten layers of walls, each made of a different material, ranging from most easy to most difficult: paper, cloth, ice, glass, plastic, tile, brick, stone, steel, and finally concrete. For this first challenge, all she had to do was to make a hole to go through. 

Good thing the redhead wore her mask to avoid showing how thoroughly anxious she was.  

Nonetheless, she began. The paper wall was a no-brainer; one brush from her fingers and it all burned away. The wall of cloth was just as easy, turning into a smoldering ruin, as her power forced a spark to ignite. So far, the challenge was rather straightforward, melting a hole through the ice wall as simple as walking. Here I was worried for nothing! Ardere thought cheerfully as she approached the glass wall. For a second she contemplated bashing through but that would go against the spirit of the challenge. 

Ardere’s blue eyes were miniature red giants as she concentrated her strength on the crystal-clear plane of glass; like a polished mirror, the redhead could see her own reflection perfectly before the image began to warp and distort. It began slowly at first but devolved into a melting puddle as the glass wall resembled an object out of Salvador Dali’s paintings. Taking a deep breath to regather her thoughts, Ardere pushed forward once again. After going around the blob of hot liquid, the wall of plastic was next. 

Unlike glass, the material melted much more quickly with less concentration. As for the smell, it was extremely unpleasant from the leaking chemical odors. 

Moving on, the tile wall loomed over Ardere like Goliath, ominous and imposing. Confident of her own spirit, she gathered her strength once more to burn or melt it down. [color=darkred][i]I can do this. I CAN do this.[/i][/color] The words bounced around in her mind, an echo chamber, as the outside world grew dimmer and dimmer. So deep was her concentration, Ardere felt a vague sensation of pain like a rubber band stretched too wide. Her vision blurred as tears obstructed her vision, her mouth tasting ash and iron, and her legs struggling to stay upright.

A brief scream of frustration erupted from her mouth when Ardere pounded her head onto the intensely hot tile wall as if her thick skull could knock it down. With the sensation of drowning in sweat, she ripped out her cloth mask, letting it fall to her side, to reveal a most downcast expression.

Ardere was crying blood as were her nose and ears. Smeared by pulling off her mask and her eyes glowing deep red, she looked more like a possessed demon than a teenager, glaring hatefully at something so mundane. Yet, she was forced to admit defeat and she walked around it to melt the next wall: bricks. Miraculously, it melted into a loose, smoking, foul-smelling puddle.

Feeling encouraged, Ardere pushed on to melt the eighth wall: stone. Her breath was short even as her vision was clear for the moment. The pain quickly resumed, a hidden blade stabbing into her arms, legs, and torso. An unfamiliar strain was felt around her fingers and eyes as Ardere struggled to turn it into lava. 

In an instant, the redhead bowed to its will and decided to move around it to face the steel wall. As she attempted to melt the metal, Ardere felt rigidness. The long sleeves and pants suddenly gave no warmth at all as she shivered as if she ate a bowl of ice cream outside in the middle of the coldest blizzard in New England. Her own mind was engulfed in a fog as her body slowly collapsed into a curled ball. Ironically, Ardere used the boiling temperature of the steel wall to heat her own body up. 

After using her sleeves to wipe the blood off her face, she took the time to rest and recuperate for the final wall of this section: concrete. Which Ardere immediately skipped to move on to the next challenge she set up for herself.

[color=darkred]“I’m alright.”[/color] She spoke meekly, unsure who she was trying to convince.

Before she was a pool of water filled with freezing cold water. Ice cubes floated on the surface like tiny icebergs while three mannequins wearing cotton sweaters sat at the bottom waiting to be retrieved. It was to be a simple affair: dive down, pull them up, and dry them with her powers. 

Taking a deep breath, Ardere dipped headfirst into the pool. The only thing she felt was the cold water restricting every muscle in her body. Ardere thought she felt cold before, under the shadow of the steel wall, but this was omnipresent, omnipotent. As her heart and mind demanded action, any action, to swim to the surface yet her body sank like a rock before her thoughts were ground to a halt. The last thing she saw before the frozen darkness found her was her hand reaching out to grab the shoulder of a mannequin.

[color=darkred]“I can still do this,” [/color]she whispered, almost pleading while gasping for air, while one of the judges, the Lady of the Lake, fished her out of the pool. [color=darkred]“I need to finish it.”[/color] Ardere’s eyes returned to their sapphire color as she glanced over to the other challenges she planned.