The top ten come up.
I frowned as I noticed I was in tenth place while Fiona was first.
I'll skip the details, but I'm pretty sure some, shall we call them Asshole, had their thumb on the scales to push down on the test scores and technical points. Looking at those about to be subjected to interpersonal combat, I spy Grasshead, Oil Stain, Tala, Naomi, one of Fiona's roadies, a lizard-like girl, a guy who looked like an elf with furry tufts on his ears, and a guy with fire for hair who had "cocky" written all over him.
The screen flashed as our positions were randomized on the chart. Through my five seconds of precognition, I saw who my opponent was well before the brackets settled.
It was Fiona's roadie.
Ugh, could it be more obvious Asshole is trying to get Fiona to break with me? Getting me to hurt one of her friends was probably the goal, forcing me to decide between forfeiting and hurting Fiona, however indirectly because it wasn't like I could, or would, actually hurt her.
Oil Stain - Mel - got paired against Tala, and her face paled as she beheld the two-meter-tall werewolf with fur like a starless night. I felt bad for her. A little. Naomi, meanwhile, got paired against Grasshead, while Fiona's opponent became Fire-Boy.
Since I was at the bottom of the bracket, I was unfortunately set to start first. After a long wait, Night Woman up to the edge of the circle, grumbling to herself.
"No freaking overtime... why the hell did I let Vamps talk me into teaching..." She put on a weak smile as she looked up at the board. "Right, uh. No fatal weapons. So will the contenders please deposit anything that can kill someone in front of me?"
"I don't have any weapons," Fiona said.
Tala whined a little. "Do claws count? I can pull them out but they'll just regenerate."
"Try not to use them then," Night Woman replied.
Grasshead deposited a thorny whip. Mel extracted a rifle from what had to be a form of hammerspace and laid it down.
Elfy lay down a bow and some very pointy arrows, both made with actual wood.
In this day and age?!
Naomi, with some reluctance, gave up everything but a pair of knuckleduster gloves which she donned with a frown.
"And you too, Aislin," Night Woman stared me down. "I saw what your railgun could do."
"Fine," I approached the pile and rotated my utility pack in front of me, exposing my back to the relatively cool air. Unclipping the railgun from its mount, I tossed it in the pile. Then the grapnel heads, because they were sharp, but I was ready to replace them with bolas for anti-personnel combat. Then I made a show of lowering the power level on my EMP arm to "Taser Mode."
"The knives too," Night Woman said as I tried to take off.
Holding back from rolling my eyes, I reached into the pack. Pulling out knives, screwdrivers, more knives, my titanium spork, even more knives, and a gun. I also unplugged my plutonium battery and set it gently on the ground away from the weapons.
"Where the hell did you get a radioactive battery?!" Night Woman gawped.
"The internet," I replied truthfully, before lifting my considerably lighter pack and tightening the straps to keep the contact surfaces on my back. The reason I had so many knives is that by putting my hands flat and together, I can improvise a weak railgun in case I got disarmed and had to fight the bots with Talents alone.
"I'm confiscating this," Night Woman said.
"Oh come on!" I yelled indignantly. Does she know how hard it is to get plutonium from corrupt military officials? I mean, granted, I knew a guy from my past life, but convincing him I was a proper villain required a voice scrambler and more money for being a "new" customer. I wasn't about to reveal The Engineer had "survived" just yet, and I had purchased all of his remaining supply of "lost" plutonium.
"I'm guessing you had your father get this for you, but don't try anything like that on school grounds or you'll be expelled," Night Woman said sternly. "Our rules strictly state 'No radioactive materials on campus without a waiver.'"
"How can I get a waiver?" I ask.
"Students aren't allowed to submit waivers for fissile materials."
"Fusion it is, I guess." Getting a fusion reactor below the size of a small building would be downright impossible... for anyone but me. Already my mind was calculating, scheming how I could push physics to its limits...
Night Woman rolled her eyes at me. Some teacher, not letting promising students handle radioactive materials. What was the world coming to these days? "Is that everything?" she asked.
"Yes ma'am," I reply a bit distantly, biting my thumb as I think through the materials I'd need. A lot of neodymium, that was for certain. And very expensive.
"Alright, students, please travel to the auditorium if you are not one of the top ten. You'll be able to watch the fight from there with free food and drinks."
She waved a hand over the pile of weapons and my precious battery and the shadows beneath them spread out, letting the objects sink into the darkness and out of reach.
Only the top ten, medics, and Night Woman stayed, the former taking shelter in a nearby concrete structure that resembled a subway entrance.
"Aislin Carver and Victoria Newage, to the center. I want a good, clean fight," Night Woman said to me and Fiona Sycophant Number One. "You'll start at five paces from each other."
As we walked up to our places, Victoria scoffed at me, speaking low enough so only we, and probably Tala, could hear. "I can see why your dad hates you," she scowled. "Relying on toys instead of your god-given Talents. Fiona deserves better than a sister like you."
She was trying to provoke me, but I was an expert while she was a neophyte. "Did your mother teach you those lines? To think, you've become a worse actress over the last five years, Tori."
"Name-calling? What are you, five?" She said, but the tension in her jaw gave away that I'd hit a nerve.
"I was speaking at a level you would understand, that's all. Or would you rather I pay you to be nice to me like you're getting for my sister?"
"I'm not getting paid!" she shouted, which only made her seem more suspicious in my eyes.
"Ah yes. Heroics Inc. only pays for successful jobs. Must be a lot of pressure on you."
She screamed bloody murder at me, her fingernails lengthening like daggers and her eyes glowing with green energy.
What she didn't notice, amidst her own screaming was Night Woman yawning as she said "Begin!"
The moment the second syllable was out, I shot Tori with a rapid set of pulsed electricity from my EMP arm. She clawed and leaped through the sparks, slashing out at me even as her legs started to convulse midair.
I saw only a look of surprise on her face when I launched both bolas at her and sent some of my own electricity along the ropes- whose control wires formed the core of their mechanisms -the moment she hit the ground. With her hands and arms bound, there was no way she could fight, and yet she struggled against them, still conscious but clearly not thinking well enough to lengthen her hag claws towards the bola at her feet.
"How does it feel to be beaten by toys?" I taunt her. "It's not over yet, you bitch! I swear I'm going to shred your face!"
"Don't threaten me with a good time," I cackle, then tilt my head at Night Woman. "If they don't surrender, is it okay to knock them out?"
Night Woman shrugged. "Sometimes that happens in battle."
That was when Fiona stepped in, "Vikky, please surrender. I don't want my friends to fight my sister." Bless your face, Fiona. Even a baby doe couldn't look that innocent.
"I can't!" Victoria yelled. "I've got to make her pay for- Agghh!"
Whatever she was about to say ended as I shot her a few times with my EMP gun, raising the level just a little with each strike until she stopped moving.
"Match to Aislin!" Night Woman declared. "Medics, to the field!
As victorious as I felt, the look on Fiona's face made my heart sag.