Wicked Game;
ardenbrandt:
Fight back! Arden knew that he couldn’t exactly keep the defense position up for long. The injection felt different than the normal adrenaline that is given to the mutants before the fights, it felt more like what they would pump into him when they bring him to the medical room. His chest started to cover with ash underneath his shirt as his heartbeat made the burning feel stronger throughout his body. As she made her moves, he moved away. The temperature drop caused the ash to heat up and emit smoke. Arden wanted to plead to Khione to calm down, he was afraid of recreating the events of the white room back when he was nine. He didn’t want her to be the charred body.
Both of them have had trouble controlling their powers, but it was different for him than her. Khione was able to control a substance that was readily available, whereas Arden had to create it and with that it wasn’t as easily manipulated. His body started to convulse, bits of fire flaring out from his arms and through his shirt.
Arden narrowly dodged the disks as they were thrown, he nearly trips as he does, bringing his arms up to protect his torso. The heat begins melts the disk as it comes closer, he allows his flames loose to melt the rest and as it travels across the room it produces steam. In his thoughts he tries to create a plan to satisfy the energy. The scientists had been having him run different methods of ash control, among them is the creation of objects through hardening ash. The objects wouldn’t be durable, not like they would want it to be. Arden manipulates the ash that appeared on his body to form a large hammer-like shape.
He runs over to her, swinging the hammer to have it miss but not hit the ground. When he turns to swing it again at her, he is relieved to have her grab the handle before it hits her. “Khione, I need you to finish the fight soon, please.” Arden whispers quickly. “I’ll be okay if I lose. I need you to finish it.”
Arden lets go of the hammer and it dissolves back into fragile ash. He backs up and starts to create a smaller weapon in his hand, his eyes focused on her, waiting.
Khione’s urging must have lit something from under him, because instead of struggling to keep up his defense Arden managed to charge at her, creating an object from ash--a new development since their last fight, one that had surprised her. She had just barely missed the swing of his hammer, grabbing the handle the second time and nodding at his request. If she unleased her full power, she’d surely kill him--he knew he wouldn’t use his to hurt her, he never could. And even though Khione didn’t hold back against her other opponents, Arden was different.
Arden was someone she actually cared about. And a large part of her feared that he wouldn’t be okay if he lost. Khione forgot her disks, allowing them to dissipate among the steam--she could claim Arden’s heat had done away with them later. Drawing water from the steam she created an icicle, clutching it in her hands, and charging at him. When she did she allowed it to dissipate as well, attempting to look puzzled, matching the expression of the scientists behind the glass. She then resolved only to fighting with her fists, each time she made contact with Arden hissing, as his body temperature was too high. She was giving him just enough of an opening to pin her and call the match, saving the both of them.













