Round 2: Taylor / Hazelton vs. Dalton / Richardson

Oh. Neato.

Poppy slouched against one of the shrine beams, running her thumb over the ridge of an old bottle cap. When she'd first heard about this, she'd scrawled her name in and tossed it in a box without thinking too much about it, or really, without reading the thing to begin with. It could've been a Smash Bros tournament for all she knew, and she'd been kinda running on that assumption up until the first round. Then her next thought had been, "Oh, crap, wait, stop." And she'd seen her name here and there as one of the contestants, but they hadn't called her up for the first round or anything, so she'd thought that maybe they'd forgotten her, or tossed her name out, or she'd somehow slept in for some important orientation and got disqualified because of it. But no. Here she was. They gave her a freebie, she guessed? Why her, she wasn't exactly sure. Maybe they liked her winning smile.

She pinched the cap between her fingers like you'd hold a cigarette, or, she didn't know, a Yu-Gi-Oh! card or something? Whatever looked cooler, as far as she was concerned. Poppy let her gaze drift over the elaborate arena they'd thrown together for them, delicately carved cherry wood and a meticulously landscaped garden. It kinda reminded her of one of her neighbors' backyard. Whenever she'd get bored of the ghetto treehouse behind her place, she'd just hop the Nakamura fence and, she didn't really know, play around? That became a lot less frequent after Ms. Nakamura came out and found her in her koi pond, trying to catch her fish with just her teeth like she was a shark (she just got a lot of green water in her mouth that made her sick), and then she had to sneak around from then on, but that was okay because it was basically just like being a ninja.

So they wouldn't get mad at her when she smashed this all to pieces, right? She didn't have to worry about breaking everything? That made things a little bit simpler. This was a bit violent for a school event, but she nothing she wasn't used to. Back at her old middle school, five kids in her fourth period gym class had to go to the ER after their big dodgeball game, and only three of those had been from her. It'd been like Gettysburg, but real.

Poppy craned her neck to take a glance over at her partner, and then over to the other two mismatched goofballs, fumbling for conversation. "So," she started, just wishing she'd thought of bringing some cool leather gloves like the other guy. "Um, I'm Poppy. Nice to meet'cha?"

The shorter of the two mixed matched boys had already accessed their applications. The light haired one was Anne-Marie, tissue manipulation. Then the darker haired one was Poppy who was essentially a living suction cup--but on a much larger scale. Meaning everything could be propelled--the like. Under his breath, Chip relayed this information to Riley. Unlike the sun duo, he wasn't sure how to get though this next battle. A thoughtful frown crossed his face, fingers running down the pages of the book. What to do...?

Anne tried taking her glasses off multiple time, with the conclusion that there was no way she could aim without them, but breaking her glasses in a fight was the last thing she needed. Legs crossed, she sat on the gravel looking around. She'd never been to Japan, even with a family that loved to travel every year, the journey there just did not appeal to her parents. It was hard to imagine that actually none of this was real, and Beata had put on this show just for them. Resisting the urge to pick a drifting petal from the air, the Summer looked at her partner as she spoke.

"Anne-Marie. Let's get them." she smiled, tracing one of her fingers over the stock of her crossbow, the wood worn but of high quality. She'd practiced using it a few times, but everything would be fine as long as she didn't fire a bolt in Poppy's face. Worst case scenario she could just hurl it in the face of one of the opponents and call it a day.

They had a freebie, skipped a round ahead of the others. It wasn't as if they were particulary strong looking, or they had gifts that could wipe out small settlements in a second. She felt a bit embarrassed of all of that actually, facing opponents who'd already fought berore. The girl sighed and looked up at the clear sky. Perfect conditions for a fight at least - too bad they were going to wreck the place. She met eyes with one of the boys, gave him a fakely confident grin.

Riley pinched the gloves from his hands shoving the excess leather into his pockets. They were there for protection but he didn't need to fear that on the battle field. Riley nodded as Chip explained the gifts of the other two, his foot pushing the gravel below him making a crunching noise. He pursed his lips as he tried to think of a strategy; the sun duo were a pain they barely didn't take care of, now they had to deal with two new people with two completely different powers. Riley looked over Chip who stared intensely at his book, "Welcome back to death."

Would this be a bad time to mention she'd never been in a fight like this before? Not your regular old fist fight—she had a few notches on her belt—but the kind of fight with, y'know, crossbows and superpowers and all that kinda junk. With her power, her main struggle was usually trying not to kill anybody. But it was too late for all that now.

Three. Two. One.

Okay. This was happening. Poppy pressed the flat of her shoe against the shrine beam, drew in a sharp breath, and pressed off. Boing. She went rocketing up and into the air, sailing overheard like a ragdoll launched by a slingshot, twisting her body ten feet up from above Chip and Riley. The support beam almost caved from the impact, blasting splinters into the air where she'd kicked off.

The wind howled in her ears, her stomach lurching as she spun just above the midget blond. Poppy pressed her nail up flat against the bottle cap, building up pressure, and flicked. P—ching!! Her little piece of scrap metal shot back down to earth like a bullet, whistling as it fired.

Anne-Marie drew in a sharp breath and darted in the opposite direction Poppy took off towards. She watched the girl soar through the air as she dodged large pieces of the previously intact beam in an effort to get behind the pair of boys. The Summer took cover quickly behind a cherry tree, pressing against its bark with her heart racing. This was actually real and she was in a fight with some gifted kids. Shaking her head, the girl leaned to one side, the crossbow against her shoulder and aimed towards Chip's small figure, her eyes narrowed with effort before finally releasing the arrow with a whoosh. If they could get at least a small wound, it would be all easy for her to make a bloodbath out of it.

The blue eyed student watched Poppy launch herself into the air--destroying the shrine--and soaring overhead. Chip's eyes widened in realization as soon as he had to turn to keep his eyes on the girl. Spinning on his heels, the book fluttered open, ready to cast in her direction. The enhanced book lurched as it took the bullet, tearing pages and colliding with Chip's chest. He was sent skidding through the immaculately groomed bushes scrapes covering his arms and legs. Anne-Marie's arrow whizzing by--Chips mind raced as he realized that had Poppy missed--it would have hit him. The thought was brushed away by the feeling of hitting yet another bush and knocking him onto his stomach.

As soon as he stopped, Chip parted his closed eyes to evaluate his position. The boy was on the other side of the arena now. It hurt to breath, bruised ribs? His book seemed to have left a mark after it took the coin bullet for him. It took merely a moment for him to realized that the pages he had been planning on using were toast. Lips pressed together, he glanced to the side--noting that Anne-Marie was to his left. In a big 'o' with his mouth, Chip flipped to the first non damaged page and summoned the creature.

Really? The same stone golem as the last battle? There was a slight pout as Chip forced himself back onto his feet, breathing though his mouth as if it would help lessen the pain. It doesn't matter, it's better than a mermaid. That'd be useless here. As if agreeing with Chip's assessment, the monster reached to the side and grabbed a chunk of castle wall. It then proceeded to launch it at the girl with the arrows. Despite its previous failure the battle before, Chip still had assigned it with staying close to him. He couldn't take hits.

At that point, he had forgotten about his partner, Riley. But hey--if the two opponents were going after him, Riley had free reign.

Riley propped his arm up to block his face as splintered wood rocketed towards them. A small piece scrapped his arm leaving a bloody scratch that looked as if he got road burn. Riley winced as he examined his entire forearm, though his time vanished when the bottle cap exploded against Chip sending the boy and himself into the air. He landed in a roll, back on his feet. The competitor looked up, the cherry tree that his opponent resided only a few feet in front of him. Riley sprinted towards the girl, hopefully catching her off guard to avoid the potential arrows, he just needed contact.

She was flying. Now was the hard part; coming back down. Poppy spiraled, corkscrewed, straightening out her legs, channeling her gift through her arms and into her chest. It was like pulling strings taut inside her core, and all at once, all the weight sucked into the bottom of her soles and she dropped back down to earth, pinwheeling her arms. Oof. The Autumn hit the bushes rolling, flailing, cursing, twigs and leaves and blossom petals catching in her hair as she shot back to her feet.

There. Graceful as a dancer.

Oh, and there was a giant rock monster there too.

Poppy reached into her flight jacket, fumbling for the leather pouch hidden in her pockets, fishing around for the white speckled marble she knew was there. Her fingers pinched around the colored glass as she took off running in a wide circle around Chip and his new best friend, ringing around the edge of the courtyard. Ping! The marble shot off toward Chip and golem. She didn't stop moving, even for a second, leaping toward the castle wall.

She planted her foot against the stone, and then the other foot, and the arena seemed to flip as she changed orientation, running vertically along the stone, digging for another marble.

Anne cursed under her breath as the arrow hit Chip's book and sent the boy skidding backwards. At least the must've hurt him a bit. She wasn't close enough that her body would be able to pick up the injury, but it was no doubt that there was damage. The Summer was preparing to fire another bolt when the golem appeared. That was bad.

She spun on her heel to avoid the boulder heading her way like a missle, the rock whistling past her and tearing fabric off her shoulder. She could feel the stinging pain of a cut. Anne took her chances and made a run for her left, the tree now a mess after taking the boulder. She noticed Riley which only promoted her to run faster. After a few second the girl jumped onto the deck of a shrine, trying to lose the teenager. Where one shrine ended and another started, Anne ran up a flight of stairs leading to an upper balcony. She turned around, firing a bolt after Riley, hoping he was still pursuing her.

"Need a lift!" she called at Poppy, her arm stretched towards the sky. If the other girl didn't come and her arrow didn't fataly injure her enemy, Anne was toast, not to mention the pain in her arm that was still making her shots awkward. She needed time to heal and plan out a strategy.

Chip's gaze was torn away from Anne, and directed towards Poppy who was wall running like some kind of ninja. The golem followed his gaze toward the girl. A low rumble filled the air, paired with yet another chunk of wall peeled from its foundation. It hurled at Poppy, grabbing yet another chunk as well, preparing for a defensive move.

Riley sprinted after Anne, gravel being kicked up behind him. A loud thunder came from behind and furiously swished next to him towards the girl he was chasing. "Jesus fuck Chip!" That was it. His boring life just flashed before his eyes and he didn't even have a chance to say otherwise. When he regained focus Anne was out of his sight. Riley moved behind one of the cobblestone pillars, and followed the shrines leading up to a staircase. His shoes skidded against the ground and he approached the stairs, only to come to a sudden stop as an arrow whizzed by putting a clean slice into his hip area as well as tearing his jeans. "For fucks sake." He concentrated first on relieving the pain in his arm and hip, searching the stairs and above balcony for the girl. Her voice rang in his ears as she cried out to her teammate. Most of his pain diminished, though the wounds still fresh, he ran up the stairs and pursued the girl once more. Riley's tall figure jumped into the air bringing his leg down to form a kick, with his luck her teammate would come hurling in or he would just magically miss his attack.

Man.

This was kinda, sorta, pretty heckin' rad. It beat kicking rocks at trees after class, at least, or whatever she would've been doing if she hadn't signed up. Poppy climbed higher, footsteps echoing off the curved stone, running up along the wall as easily as if it was sidewalk. The blood felt like it was pinned back into her fingertips, rushing up into her head, but who cared? Her heart pumped with adrenaline, wind in her hair, the trees shaking with the golem's gyrating momentum, Anne-Marie and Riley snaking up along the staircase in their cute little game of tag, the boulder flinging through the air right toward her face—...

Oh.

She needed a lift? What did she look like, Spiderman?

There were a couple issues. One was the aforementioned boulder. Another was Anime Batman leaping after her partner in crime. So it called for some split second decision making.

Option A, scream and die.

Option B, whatever else came to her mind in the two seconds it'd take for the rock to splatter her into tomato sauce.

Poppy sprang. Her power coiled up in her knees, rubber-banded, and snapped with the release, rocketing her off the surface of the wall. Short story even shorter, she crashed into her partner, point blank, spear-tackling her off the balcony and into the open air, tossing the three of them into free-fall.

Oh. Three.

There was a secondary impact just as Riley leveled his leg down mid-leap, catching him in their semi-truck speed trajectory off the edge into nothingness. Anne's sandwiched body cushioned the collision just enough that she only kinda wanted to puke when the breath was knocked out from her lungs.

Maybe not exactly what she was asking for, but she tried her best.

A cloud of dust exploded outward as the boulder collided with where she'd been just a moment before, raining debris over the battlefield. Right now, Poppy was more focused on falling, arms wrapping around Anne's back. A few marbles slipped out of her jacket to scatter into the air around them. Poppy twisted her waist, kicking out her leg to catch a few with the crook of her foot.

P-ching!!

The marbles exploded out toward the golem like a shotgun blast, but that didn't really solve her immediate concern—y'know, the ground. Poppy yelped as they arced back down to earth.