1. The Arena
A/N: Dialog in italics mean they’re speaking in Korean, and listen to “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne when reading the actual fight. It makes it more epic, in my opinion. Hope you enjoy the series.
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Darkness was all that surrounded them. No windows, no sunlight, nothing. They had no idea where they were. One minute they were figuring out a mission they were to complete, and the next minute they were inhaling silvery-white smoke, which caused them all to black out.
Seunghwan was the first to open his eyes after what felt like hours of a deep slumber. However, he knew he and his team were in danger, and he wasn’t about to waste any time by just sitting around.
“Kangmin,” he called to the youngest member. “Howl if you’re awake.”
He did so. It wasn’t one of his loud ones, but it was one that said he was in the same area as his leader.
“Couldn’t you have just done Marco Polo?” Minsung groaned, his voice groggy from waking up.
“Why is it so dark in here?” Milo asked.
From where their voices were echoing off of, it sounded as if they were in some confined space. Despite the pitch-blackness surrounding them, they seemed to be in some large room of some sort. Seunghwan felt around the space until his hand felt something hard and cold. There’s one wall, he thought. Placing his ear on it, he could barely make out what sounded like a large crowd cheering.
“Hyung, where are we?” Hyunkyung asked.
“I’m not sure,” the leader replied. “But I hear what sounds like cheering.”
“Ladies and gentleman!” a voice boomed over a muffled speaker. “Welcome to the arena!”
“ARENA?!?!” the team repeated.
“Just this morning, we received not one, not two, but seven new challengers to compete against all seven of our champions!” The crowd roared in excitement.
“What are we competing for?” Kyle finally spoke up.
Seunghwan didn’t answer but kept listening to what he figured was the emcee of whatever was going on. However, a low rumbling sounded from the wall he pressed against, and he quickly moved back. Bright light began to fill the dark room, and the boys shielded their eyes. Once they had adjusted, the other side of the wall, or doors, reveal a large stadium-like structure with thousands of people sitting in the stands.
“And here are your challengers!” the emcee’s voiced announced.
“Is that us?” Milo asked just before all seven of the boys were pushed into the arena.
The arena was a spherical structure with wood and metal railings. Dirt covered the ground, and scraps of old car parts littered the surrounding area. The air was thick with tension and excitement as the audience kept cheering.
Each of the boys looked at each other in confusion as to what was happening.
“We’re fighting someone,” Hyunkyung spoke up.
“Challengers, meet your opponents and our champions!”
The crowd roared even louder as double doors on the opposite side of the arena opened up. Seven young women emerged from the darkness, each of them very beautiful but also walked with a sort of confidence with each step they took. The look in each of their eyes told the boys they weren’t damsels in distress.
Three of them were Caucasian with red hair, but all three had different shades of red: strawberry-blonde, auburn, and fiery. The strawberry-blonde was the tallest out of all of them; standing at about what Minsung could guess was around five feet and six inches in height. She was dressed in different shades of pink, her crop top and shorts a reddish pink hue and thigh high bubblegum pink boots. Kangmin took note of the auburn girl, who looked like she was some tiger humanoid with stripes on her face and feline eyes. The fiery girl was dressed in a dark shirt and maroon jeans with dark brown boots covering her feet. A long dark coat covered her body, and she made eye contact with Kyle, smirking as she eyed him up and down.
The other four were Asian decent. The second to the smallest one had angel wings that framed her small figure. The smallest girl wore an indigo cape and dark makeup, giving her a mysterious aura and sending chills down Milo’s spine. One of them had purple streaks in her hair and kept eye contact with Yunsung, and the fourth girl caught Seunghwan’s eye as she had her jet-black hair tied up into a bun and wore a white cape. He immediately noticed her artificial left leg. It was white and covered with diamond-like jewels, giving it an icy look.
“Champions and challengers,” said the emcee, “this is not a fight to the death. This is only a test of strength. Use your abilities well, but whatever you do, do not kill your opponent. To the audience, let’s start the countdown!”
The crowd shouted, “3! 2! 1!”
A bell sounded.
All contestants simultaneously began to fight.
Kangmin howled and began to run towards the tiger girl, and she immediately growled loudly as her sharp canines flashed before him. The wolf boy ran the opposite direction, eventually jumping behind a bumper and yelling, “Nice kitty!”
“Woah! Looks like we have one of our challengers, Fang, already surrendering to Tora.”
Yunsung made himself disappear and began to run, but the dirt on the ground became his enemy. The girl with the purple streaks began to chase him, following his footsteps that appeared on the ground. He quickly learned what her abilities were when she began shooting lightning bolts at him. Yunsung ducked behind a desolated truck. The lightning bolts suddenly stopped. He peeked out of the corner and breathed a sigh of relief as he made himself visible again.
Suddenly, his body felt hot and pinpricks all over, and he shook uncontrollably as if he had a seizure. Falling to the ground, Yunsung couldn’t move, but still felt electric shocks running through his veins.
“And a sneak attack from Glitch has brought the Phantom down!” the emcee announced as the audience roared again.
Glitch waved to the crowd, and then knelt down by Yunsung. “Sorry about that,” she apologized in a calm voice,“but you’ll be okay in about two hours. Just try not to move. I’ll stay by you until the fight’s over.”
Milo used his super speed to try to outsmart the mysterious girl, but no matter how many times he ran around the arena her eyes remained locked on him. She stood still for quite awhile, before she did something unexpected. While everything seemed to be still as he ran up towards her in an attempt to knock her down, her head unfroze and followed him. Wrapping herself in her cape, she disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
“Uh-oh, looks like Indigo is up to something,” said the emcee, his voice sounding almost amused by her actions.
Milo stopped in his tracks. He looked around himself, but couldn’t see her anywhere. He ran again. Not a trace of her. Once more he ran. This time he felt a pair of hands gently turn him in another direction. Before he could process what had happened, his face met the wooden wall, causing him to fall to the ground.
“And Turbo just got outsmarted by Indigo,” the emcee chuckled. The crowd cheered again as Milo’s head felt as if a ton of bricks were weighing it down.
Kyle attempted to battle the fiery haired girl. He tried to conjure water from the air, but it was to no avail. To his horror, he realized what climate they were in. It was dry. And she was approaching him with a fireball ablaze in her hand.
“Oh dear!” he panicked.
She stood in front of him, her blue eyes meeting his. He couldn’t help but notice the dark red lines that pointed down from her eyes, but they didn’t hide how pretty she looked. They seemed to almost mimic pained tears.
“What are you looking at?” she asked, her tone sharp. She spoke in Korean.
Kyle decided not to answer and make her mad, so he got on his knees and his hands up in surrender.
“Well, this is a first,” the girl said before waving her hand up, diffusing the flame.
“And Triton has surrendered to Flamethrower,” the emcee commented. “Fear was the only power she’s inflicted on the challenger.”
Flamethrower looked disgusted at the comment. Kyle wasn’t afraid of her, he just felt empathy for whatever pain she was probably feeling.
Seunghwan and the girl in the white robe had been battling for quite awhile. He wasn’t willing to hurt her; he just wanted to see what she was made of. Something about her fascinated him. Was it how she moved around so well with her artificial leg? Her ice powers? Her beauty? He couldn’t tell. Using his telekinesis, he levitated the car parts one by one and tossed them at her, and she either dodged or froze them. Seunghwan also dodged or redirected the ice blasts.
However, she got the best of him. Once more, he directed three car doors towards the girl. She staircase ran top of each one with ease, and Seunghwan began to run. An ice blast fell in front of him and he ran right through it and fell face first with a thud. His body was now covered in ice. His body temperature began to drop.
“Snowflake has now frozen the Guardian,” the emcee called out. More cheers from the crowd.
Seunghwan felt hands turn him over until he was staring up at the girl known as Snowflake.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “You’ll be unfrozen soon.”
“Th-Thank you,” he replied with a shiver. He couldn’t move his body, but he could move his eyes and mouth and he could breathe. Snowflake had beaten him, but she had gone easy on him.
Hyunkyung was another member to surrender easily. He had tried to use his energy blasts, but his opponent’s wings were titanium deceiving the eye with a soft and feathery appearance. No matter how many times he tried to penetrate her, she kept strolling towards him gracefully, each wing protecting her from harm.
You’re quite strong, Hyunkyung, she spoke to him in his mind.
The same could be said about you, he replied.
“What else can you do?” she verbally asked.
“That’s it,” he shrugged.
“Do you want to continue fighting?”
“Not really.” Hyunkyung held up his hands in surrender.
“Fauna and Neuroblast have made a truce,” the emcee commentated. “However, we have to declare Fauna the winner since the challenger surrendered.”
Minsung and the strawberry-blonde girl just stared at each other for a solid minute until he decided to draw his sword and approach her. Once she was right up to him, the tip of her index finger lightly pressed the tip of his double-edged weapon down.
“Put it down,” she commanded, her voice sweetly high-pitched. “I only work in hand-to-hand combat.”
Following suit, he placed his sword on the ground and posed in a beginning fight stance.
“I’ll go easy on you,” he promised.
“Aren’t you a gentleman!” the girl smiled, her curled locks bouncing as she chuckled.
Her hands quickly met his chest, and he was pushed with barely any force. Minsung went flying and landed halfway across the arena. It took him a few seconds to catch his breath after having the wind knocked out of him.
“I’m not going to go easy on you, honey,” she stated.
Minsung chuckled as he stood. As angelic as this girl appeared to be, she wasn’t afraid of some competition. She was a tough one, but a cutie.
Not the time, he scolded himself.
He didn’t want to hurt her. Although, she revealed to have super strength, he wasn’t going to allow himself to cause her any harm with any moves he made.
The two began their spar. Punches were thrown, some wrestling moves were thrown, and the girl even roundhouse kicked him at one point. Both were equal in strength and self-defense, but Minsung secretly hated it.
It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy putting his skills up for a challenge; it was the fact that he was using it on a woman. Even more so now that it was on one he was beginning to like, despite having met her just seconds ago. Yes, she had a beautiful face and a model’s figure, but she was more than that. Minsung could tell she was a sweetheart; she just had extra physical strength.
A punch to his face made him stumble backwards. He felt a rush of urgency to finish the job, but he was done. He couldn’t fight her anymore. However, he knew the other girls had taken out his entire team. They were counting on him to try to defeat the champions.
“Give up yet?” the girl joked as she held a hand out.
Minsung straightened himself as the emcee announced, “I think Cherry Bomb’s about to call a truce. Will Warrior surrender?”
Taking her hand, he grinned and pulled her into him close. “You wish,” he whispered into her ear.
In swift move, his free went to her waist, and his foot kicked hers out from underneath her. She began to plummet, but just before she could hit the ground, Minsung caught her.
“Oh my goodness!” exclaimed the emcee. “Warrior just pulled a fast one on our strongest champion! Has he just become the new champion?”
“I honestly thought you were going to throw me for a second,” Cherry Bomb giggled as she stared into Minsung’s eyes.
“I was tempted,” he admitted as he set her down gently. “No more fighting. I don’t want you hurt.”
Cherry Bomb said nothing but gave him a soft smile. She left go his hands and held up her arms in surrender.
“LADIE AND GENTLEMAN!!” the emcee shouted in excitement. “MEET YOUR NEW CHAMPIONS!!!”
The crowd went nuts as Minsung helped the girl up and waved.
“What’s your real name?” he asked as they began walking out of the arena, his arm around her waist to help her walk in case she was injured.
“I’m Kelly,” she answered.
