NASL Quarterfinals Matches: Squad 1 vs the Los Angeles Stars, September 25
Before the Fight
Roy sat in the team’s locker room, wrapping his hands in protective tape in silence. Roy wasn’t the type for rousing speeches or pre game heroics, so before one of the biggest moments of his currently young career, Nightshade appeared relatively calm on the outside. Internally he was a swirl of fierce determination and lingering self doubt. Roy was an experienced warrior even despite his young age, but being responsible for others in such a public environment was a whole new world for him. He felt responsible for his teammates own dreams and expectations, and he had no plan to let them down.
Once it had become clear that the Stars and the Young Bloods would be facing off in the quarterfinals, it seemed like the only thing the whole country could talk about for days. The Young Bloods were the breakout story of the tournament after all, and their fairly public feud with the Stars only served to fuel the budding rivalry. San Diego had seemed to fully rally around the Young Bloods, and a lot of people across the country were hopping on board.
Fans were disappointed however to discover that Armorer and Captain Quake wouldn’t be participating in the fight however, and members of the team in some cases were out right insulted. Personally Roy was relieved Quake wasn’t fighting, not because he didn’t think they could take him, but because he didn’t want to risk his hot headedness getting one of his teammates hurt. Still Surge and Jackrabbit weren’t slouches and they still had a tough fight ahead of them. Roy certainly hadn’t expected to be fighting Surge, but the fact that they knew each other wasn’t going to change anything. They had a fight to win and that was all there was to it.
The Fight Begins
When the time for the fight came the Young Bloods entered the stadium once more, this time to an even greater roaring of the crowds than before. It was a sold out crowd, and the roaring reached deafening levels as the Stars came out to join them.
After a few feet of walking, the terrain for the battle became apparent. The very first thing that the Young Bloods could see was a large, hollow stratified structure seemingly made of weathered stone, each layer offering plenty of space for combat as the building grew narrower towards the top. Naturally it was nowhere near as large as actual pyramids were, but each stratum was several meters tall, with the building being comprised of about six, the last one being a square that capped the pyramid and was comically adorned with beams and ropes, as though it were a boxing or wrestling ring. There were four entrances, each corresponding to a cardinal direction, and the competing teams’ starting locations were next to the eastern and western entrances, respectively.
Beyond the pyramid, the environment chosen for the match between the Los Angeles Stars and the Young Bloods appeared to be a desert, with every inch of the arena covered in fine sand. Ruins dotted the terrain outside of the hollow monument, though instead of relating specifically to ancient egypt, they seemed to belong to various civilizations: a half-buried sphinx lay not far from broken Ionian columns, and on the opposite side of the arena were dolmens and other assorted megaliths. Overall, a rather straightforward terrain with a few assorted features on the periphery and a large battlefield in the center.
As both teams took their places at opposite sides of the stage, Nightshade and Star Queen walked forward and met each other in the middle. They both had tempered looks on their faces that betrayed the somewhat unfriendly tension that bubbled beneath the surface of the fight. They shook each other’s hands respectfully and made their way back to their respective starting point. Once they arrived, the starting clock began to count down and soon a loud ringing announced the beginning of the fight.
With the sound of the bell, three figures darted from the side of the LA Stars. The twins Red and Blue and Jackrabbit quickly accelerated towards the center of the map, with Red carrying Blue through the air. For any of the Young Blood's still in the starting area, the menacing view of a fast moving blue human cannonball was sent flying toward them at breakneck speed. Then, it was further propelled as Quake's sidekick ran upward through the air to intercept and add on even more force. The opening move had been made, with Blue going from a cannonball to a tank shell. Even if avoided, it appeared that Red and Jackrabbit were once again accelerating, aiming to follow up with crashes of their own.
Viviana barely had time to let out a gasp as the tremendous opener shattered the area in front of the Young Bloods into a violent cloud of resurgent sand bursts. She threw herself to the side avoiding the worst of the attack and instead rolling onto the harsh desert floor. Sand got into her hair and the scratchy irritant was abrasive as she rolled into it. The brunette quickly got to a kneeling position and barely saw a red colored blur aim itself into her team’s right flank. Instinctively she raised her hand and stretched out her hand to be as twice as wide as a man’s torso. Like a baseball mitt Red was caught and the tremendous force he built up only acted against him as he was turbulently bounced far back enough into the arena’s center to crash into the pyramid.
Viviana fell flat onto her butt as her hand returned back to normal. She could almost feel her heart thump out of her chest, which it probably could if she wanted to imitate a cartoon, but this LA Star member was just something else to the people she’s fought before.
“Cass!,” she shouted suddenly turning back to her team, “Let’s get him while he’s down!”
“Your request is noticed Ms. Chicle,” coldly stated Cassandra as she suddenly appeared next to the downed gummy girl.
The red haired android then swiftly turned to Red’s direction as the superhero was busy trying to budge himself out of the hole his body made in the earthen pyramid. Her raised arms suddenly disassembled and reassembled into burning hot plasma cannons. As a meter on their side lit up to indicate their charge the android unleashed a volley of shining plasma bolts and Red. The superhero barely heaved himself out of the pyramid to smack against the lower floor of the structure. This exchange wasn’t unnoticed however as his sister Blue had rebounded from the crater her impact had made and was well on her way to attack Cassandra from behind.
Cassandra however was prepared as her sensors noticed a body suddenly coming from behind. Her automatic reflex protocols came into hyperdrive and she swiftly got out of the way. As Blue kept on throwing punch after punch at the battle butler, said butler’s eyes moved unnaturally fast to analyze the superhuman’s movement patterns. She couldn’t counterattack just yet as transforming her arms back would take up valuable time. Suddenly a large hammer came from behind and socked Blue right across the jaw. The superheroine staggered back but apparently not dazed instead she leapt backwards.
“Take that and then some!” said Viviana as she bounced towards Cassandra, “I’ll keep em off your back Cass! And I’ll have their heads if they hurt you!”
“Your concern is unwarranted Ms. Chicle. And I would advise you to look at your own opponent,” she bluntly stated.
“Whaaaa?” gaped Viviana as a single broken off chunk of the pyramid came right towards her.
Viviana yelped in surprise before holding her palms up and expanding them to act as a shield. The stone’s flat side crashed against her palm and the broken block bounced off into the sand letting loose a cloud of sand. Red was now high in the sky with another broken block resting on his shoulder. The red costumed hero chucked it up before catching it and spinning in the air to throw it at Viviana. Now that she saw what he was doing she squashed her knees to cleanly duck under it before coiling her knees several times over. She released the pressure and vaulted herself in the air like a dart towards Red.
The hero’s face flashed in surprise as he barely maneuvered out of the way but he failed to notice that Viviana’s leg had snaked around his ankle. Unaware of his new fate, Red yelled in shock as he was suddenly brought down to earth by the sudden pull. Viviana let go in time for him to smack into an Ionian column buried into the sand. He got up and clutched his face as he winced in pain from the impact. At this point his face was quite red and scratched up. Viviana had crash landed not too far and swiftly got up as Red leaped at her to deliver a karate chop. Viviana brought her arms up, expanding them to a brick shape, to cushion the immense blow that caused a burst of sand to fly around them. Subsequently, Red’s own attack made him bounce off into the distance before crashing to the ground.
“Ooooh, I smell hesitation on you! You’ve been holding back this entire time,” spat Viviana.
“I mean I don’t want to hurt you by accident if I can help it,” confessed Red as he got up.
“You can’t hurt me at all!” shouted Viviana, “And I’m not going to tolerate some folk that won't take us seriously by having 40% of their match be sidekicks!”
She began running towards Red with one arm stretched back. As she ran the entire arm’s length began coiling up from the shoulder to the wrist stretching the arm and coiling up to the most she’d ever done to this point. Red opened uncupped his hands from his bruised face in time to see a scowling Viviana running towards him with an arm that looked like a rubber band that had been wound up way too much.
“RIFLE BEAM!” shouted Viviana as she stopped point blank from Red and shoved her punch into his chest catapulting Red several meters away as the extending arm uncoiled. It swiftly retracted back to her and Viviana clenched her fist while smiling. Viviana blinked and closed her eyes for just a moment. I gotta make it lickity split back to Cass. Girl needs my help! She rested her hands on her knees as she caught her breath faltering in her movement.
Rest was not in her cards, however, as she was stormed by a charging Andrew Donovan who scooped her up unceremoniously. "You know, I'm hurt you forgot about me, but you did have a point. You would be very difficult to get rid of physically. So let's get you out of here." The tactic was clear to anyone watching or involved. He was charging towards the boundary at top speed, using anything that tried to slow him down to just pull him forward.
"Huuuwwhaaat!," yelled Viviana as her eyes widened at the incoming arena boundary, "So that's how the cookie crumbles, huh?"
Viviana rapidly elongated her arms and warped them around Andrew’s neck coiled like a boa constrictor to make sure he'd get dragged along with her. Hopefully this would ease the burden on the rest of the squad.
With a deep sigh, the sidekick seemed to realize what Viv was doing. "Seems to be. Good show out there." Then, just as the boundary was coming up, Jackrabbit stopped abruptly, making sure to hold onto Viviana with one hand as he used the other to wave to the crowd. Then, with two steps, they are out. "This sucks."
As the fight between Andrew and Viviana had ended with the announcer calling both names, Cassandra was still in a stalemate of blocking the superheroine Blue's super fast attacks and returning some of her own. The announcement of her teammate getting out of the match prompted Cassandra to prioritize the offensive more so she could team up with another of her squadmates. As Blue went for a gut punch Cassandra gripped both sides of her wrist and wrenched it upwards to slam Blue into the ground in a 180 degree arc. Cassandra gripped the arm using it like a lever to keep Blue on the ground.
“Through your actions I managed to discover that you do not have super strength at the moment. Therefore your threat level is inconsequential,” she stated.
“She doesn’t but I do!,” roared Red as he dived bombed Cassandra knocking her over.
Red flew back up clutching his knuckles as the android was much harder than he had expected while letting loose all sorts of expletives. His sister on the other hand went right again for the offensive by letting out a flurry of blows at Cassandra. The battle butler easily blocked all the blows now having adjusted a protocol for the superhuman. Red came back diving down but instead of attacking Cassandra he pulled up Blue into the sky by hoisting her arms and threw her upwards. As she came down to the ground the siblings high fived each other and this time it was Blue that dive bombed Cassandra while Red plummeted to the ground. Blue abruptly caught Cassandra by the throat and brought her into the air at least six meters.
The superhuman woman began spinning around in the air like a fan motor building up as much momentum as she could muster. Once she was satisfied she let go of Cassandra launching the battle butler out of the arena like mortar shell. Blue didn’t get to see the crash to the ground as she herself fell to the arena only to be caught by her brother.
“You alright there?,” said Red in between deep breaths.
“Sorta, not really. I guess I underestimated them,” said Blue wiping sweat off her brow.
“You and me both,” said Red with a big smile before wincing in pain from the crash against the column.
A double buzzer blew across the stadium as the announcer proclaimed the Young Bloods next casualty.
Cosmic & Ashen Moth
“Hello Mark,” Ashy began as the squad walked into the arena, walking alongside the newly famous newcomer to the team, “Roy informed me of our target, and that we must work together to bring down Star Queen.” As she spoke, Cosmic looked straight ahead, as if he didn’t hear his teammate, but she continued on regardless. “Do you have a plan to beat her?” She asked, walking a little bit ahead of him and turning her head to look directly at him.
His eyes sharpened as he looked at Ash, and his reply was quick and cutting, “That is my plan. I’ll beat her. Don’t get in the middle of things, I’ll handle it, all of it.”
Ash looked a bit confused at Mark’s words, blinking in surprise at the hostility in his tone. Frowning, she tried to make sense of his plan. He sounded confident, but wasn’t she supposed to be doing something as well? “B-but we are on the same team. We should help each other.”
“No one helped me when I was in the hospital after my fight with Mayhem.” He jabbed back, Ash stopping in her walk as Cosmic pressed on and the venom in the boy’s voice became evermore apparent.
“I did not know.” Ash said softly, “I would have came if I knew.” As Mark walked on without her, Ash shook her head and jogged to catch up behind him, silent and looking down as he and the rest walked onto the stadium floor with a wrought iron gaze, his piercing eyes a noticeable feature of the Young Bloods’ First Squad, and his appearance generating some buzz.
As Nightshade made quick work of the respect given to the Stars, Cosmic readied himself for the upcoming fight. Though he figured his time could be better spent knocking out a few of the Stars’ sidekicks and then turning to face Star Queen as a team, mirroring the battle that happened with the Braves, he figured Roy’s battle plan was sound enough to stick. The bell sounded and Cosmic ignited his aura, disappearing from the group in a cloud of sand as Red, Blue, and Jackrabbit rushed the squad. He ascended rapidly into the air and twisted himself around, knowing Star Queen would appear any moment now.
Right on cue, Mark felt a sudden air pressure change as a scorching hot beam of energy whizzed past his head, catching a few hairs as he tilted his cranium to the side. He blasted himself forward toward the beam, finding several more spinning his way. Bobbing up and down and side to side, the Corpsman effortlessly glided through the barrage and made direct contact with Star Queen, slamming his clenched fist into the woman’s stomach abruptly, the Stars’ Lieutenant looking a bit upset at that development. “Figured you’d be interested in battling with energy,” Cosmic stated, “But I’m more of a brawler.”
“Oh, I know.” Star Queen retorted, crashing her own fist into Cosmic’s jawline with an explosion of energy, jarring the young hero at the heroines’ raw power. “You don’t think I studied up on you, Cosmic? It’s pretty obvious they’d send you to target me, you teens aren’t slick. I need you to know something as well,” She continued, following her punch by a side kick that brutally bent Cosmic and caused him to fly off to the side. “You’re my target, fly boy.”
Ash caught the faintest glimpse of Cosmic’s exit from the group, the energy blast propelling him forward so quickly that it sent up a cloud of dust and sand behind him. Lifting her two upper arms to try and shield her eyes, Ash had to brace herself as the pressure wave from Cosmic’s takeoff washed over her. Blinking in surprise at her teammate’s sudden departure, she tried her best to follow him as the three Star members made their assault. Breathing in and out quickly, the moth heroine took flight, shakily at first, but more confident as her climbed higher in the air. “Cosmic!” She shouted, seeing the bright light of his aura and following it on instinct, narrowing her own eyes as she saw beams flying past Mark, knowing he was fighting Star Queen. “I will not be useless, I will not be in your way, I can help!” She declared, perhaps aware that Cosmic couldn’t hear her, but assuring herself more than anything.
But suddenly, memories of the searing pain in her wing and the flash of light from Renata’s hands caused Ash to furrowed her brow. Her upwards pace, eager and determined at first, slowed to a crawl until she hovered motionless little more than a body length above the ground. Warily, she looked down towards the sandy ground that waited not too far beneath her feet. If she went any higher, what would happen if she fell? Star Queen used energy blasts too, so if one of them clipped her wings would she simply collapse from the sky like she had done before? Ash’s courage seemed to seep from her limbs as doubt and worry crossed her features.
No! I promised that I would help. She thought, desperately trying to steel her retreating mind. Maybe…maybe I could help without flying too high? Glancing around, she looked around for something, anything that she could use to her advantage. But all she could see were her teammates trading blows with their opponents, each of them giving the fight their all while she simply hovered their helplessly.
Looking upwards, Ash’s eyes made out the two figures in the distance trading a few blows, letting out a small gasp as Cosmic was knocked away by Star Queen. The older heroine raised her hand and formed a large ball of energy almost effortlessly, swirling the power in her hand for a moment before firing it out like a solid wall of kinetic force at her tag-team partner. Seeing the movement and watching as Cosmic appeared to be in no position to avoid it, Ash’s jaw set in determination as she forced her doubt from her mind. I must prove to everyone that I am a hero. If Casimir says that I can do it, then I cannot let him down. With a renewed sense of conviction, and a determined effort to not look down, Ash proceeded to flap her wings harder and lift herself towards the fray. The insect heroine narrowed her eyes and flew faster, unsheathing her wrist stingers and using her enhanced senses to track the subtle movements of Star Queen, ignoring the brilliant bright light she was producing.
Ashy flew lower and turned up quickly, lunging at Star Queen with her left in a powerful haymaker, intent on just catching just a small part of the heroine with her poison. To the heroines’ surprise, the Stars match captain leaned back and avoided the blow, her eyes shifting from Cosmic to her in an instant, and in that moment, Ash felt a sense of dread. Though she hesitated, Star Queen rushed forward into Ash, grabbing the girls’ upper arm and putting her knee into the teen’s thorax, narrowly missing a massive return blast from Cosmic that would have engulfed both his teammate and his opponent. “What an asshole.” Star Queen stared bluntly, Ash taking the opportunity regardless of what Cosmic may have tried to do.
Rearing her head back, the moth heroine ignored the pain racing in her center and drove her head forward, cracking her tough exoskeleton against Star Queen’s nostril bridge. The older heroine recoiled from the hit, spinning midair while still grabbing Ash, and threw the teen in a different direction. As Ash tumbled in the skies for a moment, she kept her eyes on Star Queen and watched as she opened her palms with her eyes closed and nose bleeding, and caught another massive blast from Cosmic, the energy exploding on contact. “If I had still been there..” She said aloud, getting angry as Mark acted reckless and kept putting her in danger.
As Star Queen emerged from the cloud, she wore a look of contempt and disgust. “We’re going to have a chat.” She announced, her entire form exploding and suddenly crashing into Cosmic, whom she had grabbed by the throat, and with her forceful entry, slammed him into the sand below without retaliation from the space hero. “You’re trying to hit me and your teammate at the same time, that’s a little bit rude, don’t you think?”
Cosmic flared his aura harshly as he began to resist Star Queen, “I told her to stay out of my way and she hasn’t. No one on this squad or this team cares about me, so I couldn’t care less about them.” He lifted his palm to the side of Star Queen and detonated a large blast of energy, knocking the woman off of him. Twisting over and rising to his feet, “As long as I deal with you, that’s all that matters. I’m gone once this is all over, anyways.”
“You have some problems you need to work out with your team,” Star Queen replied, pointing a finger at Cosmic, a concentrated beam of energy firing out of it and zapping through his abdomen, cutting through it and melting part of the sand behind him into glass in an instant. “Right now isn’t the time to do it, either. Have you ever tried talking to your team about how you feel?”
“Hurk…” Cosmic muttered as he clutched his stomach and took a knee. “Some things don’t need to be said. Everyone else gets a helping hand or a friend they can rely on and they don’t ask for it or talk about it with the others. I’ve always been alone and now that I’m on the Young Bloods, I’ve never felt any lonelier.” As he spoke, anger rose in his voice, and Mark stood up and took his hand away from the painful wound, still very burnt but no longer a clean hole all the way through. “It’s all teenage melodrama to you, anyways.” With that, Cosmic charged forward, concentrating his aura in his muscles and nerves to increase his power, speed, and reaction time, entering into his Flow State in order to combat Star Queen in his familiar style. As Cosmic swung, Star Queen stepped back and avoided his first few blows, two orbs of energy forming in her hands as she played defensive against the Corpsman.
Ducking down without warning, Star Queen blasted Cosmic’s chest with one of the orbs and immediately pivoted on her heel, launching the other energy attack against Ashy as she tried to sneak up on the heroine from behind, eliciting a surprised yelp from the girl. Launching both teens backwards, Star Queen looked from the boy to the girl, taking her pick of who to go after next. She flew towards the moth, forming two more orbs in her hand to quickly finish off Cosmics’ teammate so she could focus on beating more sense into the boy.
Ash looked up and saw the Stars’ impromptu captain approaching, and scrambled to her feet, unsheathing her wrist stingers covertly to try her hand at poisoning her once more. A wild burst of energy exploded from where Cosmic had landed, and the young teen came flying out of nowhere, catching up to Star Queen and crashing into her with his body, forcibly grabbing the heroines’ elbows and driving his knee into the small of her back, ignoring the fact that he was on a collision course with his teammate.
“Mark!” She yelled briefly, instinctively putting her hands out in front to protect herself from the impact, Cosmic causing both his body and Star Queen’s to rock into Ashy’s frame with tremendous force, knocking the gal to the side and making her tumble several times through the sands as the pair skidded to a stop as well. Dazed and extremely disoriented, Ash regained consciousness rather quickly and turned to look at the fighters. Mark was blasted off of Star Queen, and Mark returned the blast as well. Focusing her eyes a bit, Ash noticed a hole on Star Queen’s thigh above the back of her knee cap. “Yes!” She said to herself, flaring her wings up a bit.
She then heard Cosmic’s deep, painful breaths, and turned her attention to him. A similar hole was bleeding slightly in his upper arm, Ash gasping that she had stuck both her teammate and her opponent. Both appeared to become weak rather quickly, as they lazily lobbed balls and beams of energy at the other from a distance, with the receiver stumbling out of the way of the opposing forces’ blast. “Fuck…” Mark stammered, his eyes becoming blurry and every coming in and out of focus.
“Shit.” Star Queen muttered under her breath, “Closer… Closer and I can hit him.” She said under her breath, running at Cosmic as she began to lose feeling in her legs, stumbling once or twice but picking herself up mid-stride, Cosmic dropping to one knee and picking himself back up for a moment, gritting his teeth at Star Queen as a string of drool ran out of the corner of his mouth. A ball of energy flashed in the heroines’ hand, coming in and out of existence until it was steady and swirling, Star Queen jutting her hand out to blast it forward at Cosmic.
Seeing the event in motion, Ashy trusted in her flight, and flew between the Stars’ temporary captain and her own teammate, grunting as she bore the brunt of the hit with her torso, careful to avoid damage to her wings, but feeling the rough burn and kinetic impact of the blast that was meant for Cosmic. Star Queen closed her eyes and opened them slowly as she staggered, Ash feeling faint as the blast hit in the exact same spot where she was kneed previously.
“Cosmic, together we can -” She felt her teammates’ hand on her shoulder, and in a move that simply broke the poor girls’ spirit, Cosmic forcibly shoved Ashy out of the way and made her fall onto the sand nearby as he ran forward. Grabbing Star Queen by the collar and yanking her up and forward with the last of his fading strength, Cosmic slammed his forehead into Star Queen’s head hard enough to tear his own skin, sending a trickle of blood racing down both sides of his face and forming a single droplet on his chin.
She slumped back in an odd position as Cosmic remained on his feet for just a moment longer, limply falling to the side, passing out completely in the warm sands as Ash clutched her stomach and brought her legs closer to her body, a sniffle escaping her nose as tears from both of her eyes joined together on her face as she lay in the sand sideways, still fully conscious, simply hurt in a far more grievous manner.
While the rest of the squad was teaming up, Roy was set to face Surge alone, climbing up the side of the pyramid in order to ascend to the top, where his foe was waiting for him. It was a crucial part of their plan, if he could find a way to win then he would be able to support whichever group needed his help. But first he needed to win, and that was easier said than done. After an arduous climb, he found his opponent standing cross-armed inside the ring at the top of the pyramid. He charged forward with his staff in hand towards Surge, determined to be on the offensive in this fight. In response, the sidekick unfolded his arms and quickly threw up a shield made of translucent blue energy, which blocked the staff blow.
“Not as talkative as your buddies, are you?” Surge remarked as he backed away, out of the staff’s range. As he did so, the barrier seemingly melted away and returned to him before coalescing around his arms, forming a pair of lion-shaped gauntlets.
Without wasting another second, the blond hero suddenly launched himself at Nightshade with astounding speed, going for a left hook.
Roy ducked under Surge’s strike, impressed by the sheer quickness of it. His duck quickly turned into a tackle as he threw all his weight at the electric hero, forcing him to the ground before flipping through the air gracefully and landing on his feet.
“We’re here to fight, not talk.” He rebutted, sending a strong vertical swing of his staff down towards Icarus.
“Fine by me.” The former vigilante spoke defiantly as he rose back to his feet, hurt by the earlier attack, but quickly healing. “Let’s get this over with.” As Roy’s staff swung downwards, instead of summoning another shield or trying to deflect it, Icarus used both hands to catch the weapon, wincing as his hands stopped the blow. Without giving the shadow hero a chance to react, he formed a small construct binding Roy’s hands to the staff, and then used it to swing him towards the ropes nearby, before sending a fist construct straight towards him.
As Roy was flung backwards he barely managed to land on his feet before the fist construct suddenly hit him. It sent him flying back, and Roy just barely managed to stay in bonds. He regained his composure before Surge could strike again. He started to absorb energy from the night sky around him, black aura surging around his right hand. Roy shot forward once more, and just as him and Surge were inches apart, he disappeared in Icarus’ shadow, only to reappear behind him as he slammed his right fist into the Star’s back.
Icarus was sent tumbling forward by the sheer force of the blow, empowered by shadows, but was quick to react and roll out of the way before the dark hero could press his advantage. There were no words exchanged as he glared at Roy, who walked forward, staff in hand, ready to deliver another blow. This time the sidekick parried the attack with a hastily formed sword construct and then changed it into a large war hammer, using it to try and knock Roy out of the arena while he was still off-balance.
Roy quickly ducked and rolled to the side out of the way of the swinging hammer, but it caught his staff which went flying a few feet to the side. He couldn’t reach for it without opening himself up to attack, so he decided to focus on offense. He instead got to his feet as quickly as he could, and charged forward once more, the closer he got to Icarus the less his weapon advantage would matter. As he closed the gap he wrapped his fists together and slammed down in a hammer like attack.
However, it turned out that the young Star was prepared to meet this sudden retaliation. Rather than try to block or attack with his hammer, Icarus allowed it to melt away and then quickly rolled out of the way of Roy’s attack. Rising to his feet, the former vigilante turned around, the energy that previously formed the hammer instead coalescing around his arms as bright blue gauntlets. More energy flowed from the batteries hanging to his sides, taking the form of two additional arms to his sides, that were joined by another pair, and then another. The crowd cheered as they saw the newest member of Los Angeles’ home team prepare his signature attack.
“HEKATONCHEIRES!” The blond hero shouted before lashing out with all eight arms against his foe, each becoming a blur as they unleashed a relentless flurry of strikes upon the Young Blood.
Roy raised his arms, struggling to keep up with the swarm of attacks released by Icarus’ many arms. He knew he only had a few moments before he would be taken out entirely. Black energy started to swirl around his hand, and he had once last chance to land a finishing hit on Surge. He slammed his powered fist upwards, smacking away the arms as he jumped up for a finishing blow.
“SHADOW STRIKE!”
Roy’s fist stopped inches before Surge’s face as he was grabbed one of the arms. Suddenly he was being spun around and sent flying towards the out of bounds.
As the dust settled, Surge slowly exhaled. The battle was over, and the roaring of the crowd indicated that this was true of the tournament match as a whole. As he caught his breath after the brief but fierce bought, two familiar figures flew up to him, one carrying the other.
“You guys don’t play, huh?” Red remarked.
“The people wanted a fight, and a fight’s what they got.” The boy replied with a shrug, before making his way out of the arena.
