User blog comment:Goldencahill/OC Contest of Champions - Round 1/@comment-24335505-20161006003945

"Ooof".

Aaron was tired. Tired of nothing to do, tired of no missions to go on, and most of all tired of these endless training matches with Michael Warren.

"Get up Aaron".

Aaron climbed slowly to his feet. It wasn't even really fair, was it? After all, he wasn't permitted to use his abilities, but you couldn't exactly ask Michael to 'turn off' his willpower, now could you? Just once, he'd like something real to deal with, a chance to go all out. That's why he'd decided to sign up for the Contest of Champions a while back. His team may have found it idiotic, but they didn't understand his desire for a challenge. Of course, even that had turned out to be a sham, as he'd heard nothing back from the 'contest ' people since his submission. They'd just told him to be 'ready for anything'. Well, here he was, but there didn't seem to be anything to be ready for.

Or was there?

The sudden blaring of an alarm jolted him to his senses. That was the proximity alarm, which meant something, or someone, was coming. Looking up, he saw a shape hurtling through the sky, directly at the training facility. It only took him a second to realize that it was going to smash through the glass roof, and he didn’t have time to reinforce it.

“Michael, you need to leave” Aaron remarked.

“What? Why?” he responded angrily.

“Don’t worry about it, ok?” Aaron replied. “Just get out now and we’ll finish our training session later. I have some business to attend to”.

Moments later, the shape impacted the glass, sending spiderweb fractures through the beautiful dome and flying straight into the ground. Aaron slowly approached it, and was surprised to see that it was a girl, dressed in elegant armor and seemingly unscathed from her impact. Perhaps this was the Contest of Champions he’d been looking forward to.

“Who the hell are you, and what are you doing on Unity Manor?” he asked.

“My name is Lady Liberty” she declared, standing and assuming a fighting position, “and I have been ordered to kill you”.

Aaron laughed. “Very nice of you to try, but I don’t think I’d much like to die”.

Hardening his fist into organic steel, he advanced quickly upon the girl and smashed his fist directly into her face. She let out a brief “oomph” and went down.

“As I said, I don’t really plan on dying”.

He solidified his other fist and went for another punch, landing it as… skin? But no, his fist was still steel. Why then didn’t it hurt? The girl looked up, smiling.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I don’t plan on dying either.”

<p class="MsoNormal">Lightening her body density, she took off, flying across the room to the large shipping crates they kept the new supplies in. Lifting one above her head, she flung it towards Aaron. It initially floated up, lighter than air, but soon hardened and loomed menacingly above him.

<p class="MsoNormal">“OH COME ON” he shouted, hardening his body to steel and rolling out of the way. The shipping crate crashed harmlessly behind him, and he broke into a sprint across the room. Lady Liberty was facing the other direction, working on lifting another shipping container, and noticed just a little too late that her competition was moving. Grabbing a wooden bo staff from the floor, she flung it at him like a spear, intending to slow him down. Aaron ducked, dodging the staff, and made to continue, but then decided to slow down and grab the staff. Solidifying the wood to hardened iron, he crashed into Lady Liberty, madly swinging the staff and smashing it into her arm. She gave a shout of pain and waved her arm at the staff, making it suddenly weigh nothing in Aaron’s hand. Determined to end the fight, he swung again, but the property alterations made it snap across her arms and left him exposed for a counter attack. Her leg flew out, tripping him and slamming him into the ground.

<p class="MsoNormal">Dammit, now he was on the ground again.

<p class="MsoNormal">Lady Liberty stood triumphantly over him, reveling in her victory. Focusing on his body, she lightened the density, making him hover high in the air, and then hardened it, slamming him into the ground. Aaron felt his ribs break, and quickly focused on transforming them to steel so that they wouldn’t bother him in the fight to come.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Honestly, I expected better” Lady Liberty gloated, kicking him again in the stomach.

<p class="MsoNormal">He let out a grunt of pain, feeling it even through the metal. Leaving him on the ground, she turned, and picked up an iron medieval mace. Of course it would be the mace he thought, the one thing that Victoria made me buy so she’d feel like she was in Game of Thrones. Wait, Victoria. What would she have him do? Predict, analyze and counter, just like she always did. Maybe he wasn’t a psychic, but anyone could tell what Lady Liberty planned to do with the mace. Lady Liberty walked back over to him, raising the mace above her head.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Any last words?” she asked him.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Yeah” he commented, “say hello to my grandfather for me”.

<p class="MsoNormal">He dove for her leg, giving her no time to react to his actions. Grabbing onto her leg, he focused all his energy upon it, and transformed it into a spreading organic steel, one that would consume her entire body. This was the end for her, he thought, as he felt the mace slam into his back. There was nothing she could do to stop this.

<p class="MsoNormal">He staggered to his feet, watching as she slowly became encased by the metal. First her legs, then her torso, all ceasing to move as they became solid steel.

<p class="MsoNormal">“What did you?” she exclaimed, looking at him in terror.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I won” he grunted.

<p class="MsoNormal">Letting out a last desperate scream, she glared at Aaron, but there was nothing she could do. Moments later, the steel covered her head, fixing her glare permanently into her face. Aaron hobbled over to the statue and tapped it. The lack of an echo meant that it was solid, which meant that she was very dead.

<p class="MsoNormal">Aaron sighed. Typical that the challenge he was faced with would both be a prime candidate for Unity and beat the crap out of him. Now he’d just get teased even more by Michael, for not only almost losing, but almost losing to a female version of himself. Even his Contest of Champions, supposed to give him a chance to have some fun and use his powers, was going to end up making him look bad again. Perhaps his next fight would go a little better.

<p class="MsoNormal">Maybe he’d at least he’d get some sympathy from Victoria, he thought to himself. And the thought of that was enough to make him smile.