Fred was nervous. Fred was nervous for a lot of reasons. So nervous he barely even registered Vibe talking about him or the flashing lights until it was too late to strike a pose. Or do anything that didn't make him feel awkward as hell. The lights were too bright. The stage was too big. Vibe was too loud and the golden lady standing across from him with a big vibrant blue “H” glowing on her chest was incredibly scary. Much more than the archer or V.
Maybe not more than the Swarm Hunter.
No, definitely not more than the Swarm Hunter. He thought that the skeleton monster was going to eat him for sure and it didn’t even have a stomach. Terrifying times. That made him feel a little bit better. Remembering that he had already gone through something that was definitely worse then whatever this fight was about to be.
“Thats right man.” Fred said, smacking his face and hyping himself up. “You got this. Ain’t nothing to be nervous about.”
Although it was a bigger stage.
And there was a much bigger chance of him looking like an idiot and being clipped all over the web. This was probably the first time most people were seeing him. What if their first impression was him getting beaten down by a golden lady named “H” which Fred felt was a much worse name then V.
I’m nervous again. Dammit! Fred thought, trying not to shake as the whole Pit did from the sheer sound the audience was making. He assumed a stance as Vibe introduced H, trying to look menacing as he internally calmed himself. The most calming thought he could pluck from his head was that he’d, at the very least, won twenty five thousand. Twenty five thousand was more money than he’d ever seen in his life. The list of cool shit he could buy with damn near endless. Which would only make his mum appreciate the money more when he gave it to her instead.
And it could be much more money… if he won.
Yeah, doing this for mum. Fred thought, steeling himself. By the time he’d managed to calm himself Vibe had retreated back to his little platform and announced the start of their fight. His friends, Cesar and the rest of the Pit watched on as he slowly started stalking towards H. He kept an uneven pace, hesitant of an opponent he didn’t know the powers of. H on the other hand, kept an even, stoic stride, walking towards him a calm written across the distance.
Before the Pit, Fred was sure he would’ve just charged her with a blade hand, hoping to surprise her when she got close enough. But the whole tournament had been rather informative. It had informed him that decisions like that were dumb and uninformed. The Vibe had described the woman in front of him, whether the announcer was being dramatic or not, made it sound like she had beaten all her previous opponents with sheer brute force.
I could be running into a trap. Or it could be a front. An all in approach on their first clash would be a bad idea. He should try and jab at her from a distance, in case he needed to escape-
“You're nervous, aren’t you?” The words cut right through his thought process, causing Fred to freeze for a second. It took him a second to realise that the melodious accusation hadn’t come from his lips.
One second too many.
In the blink of an eye the blonde woman had crossed the distance in a burst of speed, leaving a stream of golden radiance and crackling blue lightning behind her. Her fist was cocked back, aimed at his stomach before Fred had time to think, too shocked by the sheer instantaneousness of what had just occurred.
And in that second instant, as her first race towards his gut, her eyes looked up at him. Fred had seen many things in his attackers eyes before. A tantrum anger in his sixth grade bully. An insolent rage in his deadbeat step dad. A confused annoyance against V. But never… pity?
No, sympathy.
“I know you’re doing this for another.” H said, slamming her first into his midsection, causing it to crackle with golden force. “But so am I.”
Fred was blown back. Pain raced through his stomach like a fire as he was sent tumbling backwards. The pain crawled up into his ribs like a plague, making it hard to breathe as the spot she had struck cracked. Fred had managed to harden it into metal in time… but that had only made the pain worse. Immediately he was sure no one had ever hit him that hard because nothing had ever made his metal crack.
The taste of iron and rust filled his mouth as the teen spit out blood, hardening his fingers on instinct and digging them into the tile to catch himself. Fred tried to steady himself and actually breathe but H was already speeding after him, cape flapping behind her. Even though his stomach felt like it had been crumpled, the teen bit down and hardened his whole body at once.
Usually he tried to specify an area, since it was easier to focus and thus made the metal thicker and stronger. But she was so much faster than Fred immediately knew that she would just strike him in an unarmoured area. Her speed would also make it damn near impossible to hit her without taking a hit.
She didn’t speak the second time she engaged him. H just raced forward and ducked under Fred’s punch, snaking an axe kick straight into his jaw. The second Fred felt the force try and push him up he stamped down as hard as he could, using his toes as anchors and digging them into solid tile like it was sand. For a moment, it felt like he’d feet would be torn off his ankles but then the force of her kick lessened enough for Fred to throw a monster overhand. All the online boxing videos told him that when in doubt, overhand. So that’s exactly what he did.
Pushed forward by the momentum from her own kick, H couldn’t swerve her way out of the strike. His fist connected with her face full force, catching the edge of her chin. With his full weight behind it and an arm of metal, Fred expected to twist her jaw the entire way round. That was not not what happened.
Instead, her jaw tilted slightly to the left with the blow and then his fist just slipped off her, trailing along the golden aura around her. Fred did not get another free shot. H knee’d him with her other leg long before he could throw a haymaker with the other hand, knocking him backwards and eliciting a groan as his metal stomach cracked even more.
Ow, ow, ow, ow okay why is this lady so TOUGH?! Fred thought, spitting out some of the blood dripping in his mouth. He’d spent so long worried about dealing with other Supes that had a bunch of tricks like V, that Fred found himself almost unequipped to deal with someone who just hit like a truck. Not to mention how his punch seemed to just slip off her.
That wasn’t fair.
That wasn’t fair at all.
And he had no idea how she did it. He also didn’t have time to think it through because she was sprinting straight after him again, relentless as ever. Her electricity crackled as she pulled back for another devastatingly quick liver shot. Fred in response, weaved his chest out of the way, pulling to the side only to be kicked in the face again.
“Will you stop doing that?!” Fred shouted, spitting out more blood.
“Nope.” H replied with a stern expression, pressing the advantage yet again.
Please for all that is good and holy don’t let me be kicked in the face again.
***********
“I hate to say it, but I think the young lad might be a bit outmatched.” Snapper said between bites of his croissant, watching Shrapnel kicked in the face for about the seventh time.
Luke was by no means an expert or even journeyman when it came to hand to hand combat, but it was a little hard to watch Shrapnel’s incapability to figure out that if he was going to dodge her body strike then H was going to kick him in the jaw. He wished the teen had a walkie talkie so he could scream in his face to just attack instead of getting walked down, but it probably wouldn’t have helped much. As Snapper said, he was outmatched. Not only did it seem like H was more experienced than Shrapnel.
From a glance it was clear that she was simply stronger as well.
But that doesn’t mean she’s got no weaknesses… Luke thought, watching the match play out.
“I agree Shrapnel’s probably going to get done in,” Fangtooth chimed in, sipping on her drink. “What do you think V?”
I think he needs to stop getting kicked in the face.
“If she's just a flat strength and speed type Supe, there’s not really anything he can do.” Luke answered instead. Although he wasn’t entirely convinced she was a full Neutral Supe. The golden aura that burned a bit away every time she hit Shrapnel spoke of something a bit more complicated.
Her first strike had the most power to it. Every subsequent strike had been weaker. On top of that, there was another curiosity hidden beneath the way she fought Shrapnel. Her golden aura grew bigger every time the teenager struck her. Luke could only guess it was some type of energy absorption and redistribution.
Which meant the reason she kept going for his stomach was because she didn’t have the strength to muster a strike that could fully crack Shrapnel’s defences. H had to damage him there to trigger the Guardian Bracelet and she couldn’t let him figure that out. That was why she kept up an urgency in her attack. Her easy victory hinged on him not realising, both how her powers function or her plan to employ them.
However, with all the being said, the teenager still didn’t possess a path to his own victory. Her speed all but cut off.
In other words.
“He’s screwed unless he can pull something new off.” Luke concluded, watching the teen try to weather the blows from H while on the backfoot. He was getting dangerously close to the edge of the ring.
There was really only one way out.
Shrapnel had to evolve.
***************
Eight times. He’d been kicked in the face eight times.
This isn’t working! Fred thought in deep frustration, trying to create just a couple seconds of space between him and H to think. It didn’t work. It never worked. Every time she’d just catch right back up to him and try to attack his midsection again, which was full of cracked steel. At least Shrapnel had learned something new about himself through this experience. If a transformed part of him was damaged enough, he couldn’t transform it back. At least not without focusing on it heavily. Focus he didn’t have to spare.
Again she charged aiming for his cracked stomach. Again he threw a strike her way, forcing her to dodge and again she switched strikes, this time trying to kick out one of his legs. Fred almost tripped as his foot got kicked out from under him, forcing the teenager to balance one leg. H took advantage of that change, attempting to hit him in the stomach again and forcing Fred to block with both his arms, sending him tumbling backwards. The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
I’m going to lose! He couldn’t move forward. He couldn’t defend. He couldn’t do anything! Every exchange ended with him worse off. Every time he tried to attack her golden glow would just divert the attack and every time he tried to defend she’d just find some way to slip through his defences.
Something had to change.
He had to think outside the box.
What if I…
H rushed him, streaking forward in a blaze of gold. Fred knew he was the prime target, so he flipped himself up, throwing an unaimed haymaker at H before she could hit him where it hurt. The teenager knew that if he let her get a good hit at his stomach again his Guardian Bracelet. That could not happen.
H ducked under his haymaker with her usual nimbleness, aiming to deliver a finishing blow.
That’s when Fred struck from behind. The teen had a middling amount of experience with his super power, really only using Metal Madness for what it felt like it should be used for. He had an… idea of what the power should be able to do. A box of rules for his power Fred hadn’t been given the chance to break down. He’d just been doing what felt natural.
But maybe what felt natural wasn’t the extent of what was possible.
The most focus he’d put into Metal Madness so far was his full body transformation and turning his arm into a blade. That was the farthest he’d gone. But throughout his time in the Pit, Fred had become aware of just how limited that perspective was. In a way, he was almost afraid of pushing his limits.
Of finding out where his powers ended. Finding out what they couldn’t do. An image of a certain, coated supervillain with a very dumb mask came to his mind when he thought of the limits to his own power. V had only had powers for a week, and he had managed to pull so much out of them already.
Even after beating the enigmatic Supe, Fred couldn’t help but feel like he was somehow behind him. It bothered him. But in a way that made Fred want what V had. To be more than he was limiting himself too.
So when Fred used Metal Madness on the arm that had missed H, he didn’t try to think of what it couldn’t do. He thought of what it might be able to do. First he sharpened it into a blade, as was his supervillain moniker. Then as H dove towards him and his imminent demise loomed, Fred pictured the coolest thing he could. A ranged attack that would sling around and catch H off guard.
A whip.
And for a whip to form, it needed to extend. So for the first time ever, Fred tried to stretch his arm, along with the limits of his power. It was a strange sensation, like working out a new muscle for the first time and feeling it contract as his arm flung around, splitting into multiple sharp ends and heading straight to H’s back.
It worked.
It worked!
“Suprise goldy! I-” Before Fred could finish he felt his feet leave the ground as H struck him with the same force as before, using all the control he had over his body to twist so it was above the stomach.
Her fist struck just above his sternum, cutting off his breathe. But the whips were right behind her, stabbing into H’s back even as his feet left the ground. Two of the three whip blades slipped off her back, but one nailed the side of her spine.
For the first time, Fred got to see H’s face twist into something other than calm. Surprise, written all over her wide eyes as he felt his arm stab into her from afar. For a split second, the teen lived in that joy. Enjoying the small victory that came with trusting himself and choosing to take a risk…
…then his ass hit the dirt, outside the tiled Pit floor.
That small surprise he earned on H’s face slowly faded into pained relief.
“A ring out ladies and gentlemen, and just when things were getting good!?” Vibe said, his voice booming all over the Pit. The announcer appeared in the middle of the circle in a burst of gold, hyping up the crowd as usual.
But Fred wasn’t concerned with that.
He wasn’t concerned with anything.
Because he’d just… he’d just lost?
A whole bunch of emotions were flying through his teenage head real fast as the young supervillain tried to process exactly how he felt about that. There was the obvious sadness of not getting his one hundred thousand, the bandage of remembering that he hadn’t expected to win in the first place… and regret that he hadn’t gone out of the box sooner.
Because it had worked.
And I could’ve had it sooner if I had just…
“Need a hand?” A melodious voice came from above, extending down a scary golden hand.
Fred looked up at H’s hand and hesitated for a second. There was a prideful part of him that didn’t want to take it and an angry part of him that wanted to pull her down with him. Into the dirt. Here, with a crowd so loud, after being embarrassed when he was so close to success, the teen couldn’t help but fall to his impulses. He grabbed her hand.
And just as he was about to tug it, he saw H smile. It was a pretty smile. Not because of the face that it was on. But because it held a level of understanding and sympathy that Fred wasn’t sure he’d ever experienced before. Like the smile knew what he was planning and didn’t mind if he really did pull her down.
So long as he would feel better for it.
A self-sacrificing smile.
“There are so many things that could make us turn against each other in this world.” She said, smiling at him in a way no normal person could. “Don’t let a game turn us against each other, Shrapnel.”
…
I could still pull her down…
…
“Yeah.” Fred said, letting himself be pulled up. “You’re probably right.”
*************
Well this is embarrassing. Luke thought, finding himself somehow back in the Pit arena after the finals had concluded. He’d been happily sitting up in the viewing area, enjoying food, drinks and not being in front of thousands of people. But no, he wasn’t allowed to stay there.
The cashier had to work for that twenty five thousand.
And by work, he meant to being teleported back into the arena next to Vibe, Shrapnel and H as a mythical marble podium emerged from the ground below. Because of course every podium needed a first, second and third place. A third place that hadn’t been there for the finals. A third place which felt a lot more like a participation award at that point.
He was also barely presentable, having lost his cool overcoat and jacket, leaving him with in a dress shirt and pants with a vest. Oh and a masquerade mask that was half broken. As it turned out, the cheap costume mask from Dot-mart was not made up to Pit quality. Who would’ve guessed?
Whatever the case, he found himself standing on the third place podium regardless as Vibe ran through the most memorable moments of the night’s happenings.
I’m getting my five thousand. Which was really all Luke cared about at this point. The publicity was nice, but the cashier didn’t really have any way to funnel it. Then again, he didn’t really want to be the type of villain that hyper-monetised any fan base he might accrue. A true supervillain was more a figure of awe and mystery. Someone who didn’t have official media accounts.
Less a personality and more an urban legend.
…yes. Luke got goosebumps just thinking about it. Becoming the type of villain he wanted to exist in the world.
“Pssss, V.” Shrapnel said from above him, tapping him with an elongated limb of metal, curving it around H who was in between them. Despite just learning the trick, it seemed to have become the teen’s new favourite toy. “Third place isn’t so bad. You’ll definitely get better next time. I might even let you get second when I win.”
Oh. So the kid had gotten a cocky streak in him to go with his newfound ability.
“If I wasn’t tired out your ass would’ve been grass.” Luke assured him, earning a suspicious look from the young man. “I wouldn’t start this if I was you?”
“Oh yeah?” Shrapnel said, nudging him again with the whip arm. Playfully of course. “Whatcha going to do about it?”
“Make you complicit in a double homicide.” Luke answered.
“...You're joking right?” Shrapnel questioned, his face morphing into an expression of unease.
“He’s not.” H chimed in, in between the both of them on her victor platform. Her eyes flicked from Shrapnel, giving him a kind look to Luke, staring into the cashier’s eyes with a blank expression. When she did, Luke felt something almost… needling at his super. “Huh, how strange.”
“Me?” Luke asked, thumbing himself.
“I can’t tell if you’re just playing a character.” H said. “Or a legitimate danger to society.”
“Bit of both.” Luke explained with a shrug. “Depends if it’s a monday. Or if I've neglected my crippling addiction to caffeine.”
“Again, I genuinely cannot tell if you just have an… odd sense of humor or are an actual psychopath.” H said, seemingly a little confused and giving Luke a cautious distance. The superhero looked like she didn’t know whether to try and save him or stab him.
Luke just waved her off with his villainous smile. “I wouldn’t sweat the small stuff.”
“Right…” H said, looking unconvinced as she returned back to waving at the roaring crowd.
“I’d just like to say, from everyone working here at the Pit, we hope you folks had a helluva night!” Vibe said, beginning the send off as he approached the victory podium. “Now, to close us out, a final word from our winners. Let’s start off with our lovely heroine H and work our way down!”
Vibe rushed his golden spangled ass towards H and shoved a glammed microphone in his face.
“Any parting words for the audience here and at home?” Vibe asked, clearly catching the superhero off guard.
But like a trained veteran who’d been on more than one talk show she calmed herself immediately, taking the microphone and giving a very elaborate speech about…
Togetherness, virtue, inner strength… And literally every other thing that superheroes classically represented. Justice and all that good stuff that made the Supe world go round. While H seemed to mean it to some extent the things she talked about were, in Luke’s humble opinion, just a bit too broad. Considering how fast Vibe took the microphone away from her when she finished, Luke was willing to bet the announcer agreed.
So he moved over to the strappy youth with something to prove. The result were a two minute stammering speech about how life could be hard and that mothers were important. While the speech was not spoken nearly as well as H’s, Shrapnel’s clearly came directly from the heart. It sounded like he was speaking more or less directly to troubled youths. In some ways, it was actually kind of touching.
Only Luke was not the audience for it.
Am I being too judgemental? Luke thought, wondering if his old habit was coming back. Probably, especially considering his turn was coming up last. Vibe eventually wandered his way over to Luke, sticking the microphone in his face.
“And you V?” Vibe asked, leaning forward. “Any last words from the wildcard?”
Do I do short and sweet? Luke wondered, looking between Vibe and the microphone ominously. Or go full villain monologue?
It might’ve been a bit early for a monologue. Sooooooooo…
“This is but a step on my journey to world domination.” Luke said, grabbing the microphone and staring directly into the crowd. “Be they mortal, Supe, Echo or god. All of you are just pawns on my chessboard.”
“Huh? Well, thank you for that informative tidbit V.” Vibe said, slowly backing away from the cashier and giving his goodbyes to the crowd.
Thank god that’s over. Luke thought, huffing a sigh of relief as the lights dimmed around the Pit. He tried to spot Bloom in the audience but it was a futile effort considering just the scale of the crowd. Hopefully she was happy with third place. Third place was probably enough to dodge getting fed to plants… right?
Red words popped in front of him before he could think further on that.
[Congratulations, you have completed quest {Pitied To Win}]
[Would you like to claim the rewards for completing {Pitied To Win}]
[Yes/No]
“Gimme!” Luke said greedily.
[You have earned 500EXP]
[You have reached V.L 4]
[You have earned a {Skill choice}]
[You have earned Infamy]
[You have reached a higher Infamy level]
[Infamy: Amateur(1.5x)]
The world turned to static.