"I do like it when people work together." Allison said as she moved over to the Triad. "Let's see, something to help hold this in place should suffice..." Or perhaps something to stop powers from yanking it away? Goodness knew she'd considered teleportation...
Hoping to reduce the variables for later, Kestrel grabs a handful of marbles and starts flicking them at the magnokinetic, the tiny projectiles flying with far more force than would seem reasonable at his throat, temples, and nose.
"Sounds like a plan," Jason says with a smile, nodding in agreement with Triad's suggestion. "Here, allow me to lend a hand or two," he adds as he moves to grab hold of the feline combatant and pull her off of both the orb and what slowly but surely starts to feel like a new three-in-one friend(s).
Allison calmly waits for the next few seconds to unfold as the Triad students (that came out wrong) try to convince their fellow student they mean to cooperate, rather than dominate.
Kestral shoots out a handful of marbles, flicking them off a series of flicked fingers and rapid releases. The magnokinetic doesn't even realize what him before he's on his back, hacking, and coughing, his hands to his throat.
The magnokinetic catches his breath and is definitely more wary of you, he starts to circle the chaos, eyeing you and the orb you're closest to.
Jason moves to grab the feline, but her claws lash out forcing him back.
24 seconds left....
Orb 1: The young woman alight with fire is seemingly turning the heat up even more, but you can see her breathing heavily as the strain is on put on her body. Other students are forced back, but she won't be able to keep this up for long, and may falter in the next few "rounds"
Orb 2: The big guy has lost the orb, as the wolf/porcupine like humanoid has managed to grab it and has formed a protective ball around itself, it quills and fur matted together to form a metallic like substance. The girl with silver wings is being grounded by the big guy and a new student has joined the fray as a young african american man in a yellow and black hoodie begins blasting the reinforced ball with beams of yellow light.
Orb 3: Still no sign of the orb, but every now and then you feel a sudden rush of wind pass the field.
Orb 4: With the magnetism manipulator out of the contest, the darkness controller and psychic seem to have come to an understanding. They both begin to fly higher into the air, each with a hand on the ball. The psychic user is forcing other flyers back with the shadow controller is starting to create a field of darkness for them to hide in.
Orb 5: The feline has a look of worry on her face, but also determination. You watch her glance at the other students who seem to be ready to jump in the contest next "round." She pulls as hard as she can.
She holds it tightly to her chest, but feels cornered as the four of you (including Jason) are surrounding her.[/ooc]
Kestrel starts to give the magnokinetic a fierce grin, but it turns to a scowl as the psychic and the tenebrist make an alliance Ugh, should've left Mags up. That betrayal'd be a lot easier to fake...
Putting a pin in the flying battle, Kestrel hooks her swingline onto a passing battlesuit and swings up and over the field to get a clear look at the fracas.
Fire-Gal's still good, I don't even know what's up with the Porclupine, the speedsters probably aren't even paying attention to us slowbies... Eh, let's see what miss kitty can do.
Descending from the height of her arc, she fishes out a few needles from one of her pockets to make a try for some impromptu acupuncture!
As they come surround the kitty, they speak one at a time. "There's a lot of people here." starts Alejandra. "Going it alone means that it's all up to whoever is able to grab it last." adds Kjersti.
Derek ends up with, "Instead we can all be working together to make sure we all have a win."
Allison just grinned at the Triad's words. "Have I ever mentioned that I love it when people look for creative ways to get a better result? On a fundamental level, I feel like that's a lot of what heroics is all about." she said, flipping through her spellbook as she searched for the right option. Maybe some kind of protection so nobody could whisk it away...
"You have to admit, they do make a good point," Jason adds his own voice to Triad's. "We help each other and then we all hold onto the ball at the end. I mean, it may be a test, yes, but it doesn't have to be a contest, right? Not entirely," he continues with what he hopes is a reassuring smile and not an awkward one as he turns to take a better look at those interested in entering the fray, getting ready to defend against the first one to do so.
Kestral throws a handful of needles, each one honing in a precisely chosen section of the cat girl's body. Though the cat girl's reflexes are great, she doesn't realize she needs to move until its one second too late.
The needles land, one after another traveling up her body. In her surprise, she drops the ball which falls onto the ground.
Triad's attempts of diplomacy have a harder time breaking through the cat girl's fear of a sudden betrayal with a surprise attack from behind. But still...the assuring voices seem to break through to her and she manages a slight nod of approval.
18 seconds left....
Orb 1: The young woman looks unsteady on her feet, and as she wobbles and catches herself, you see that several students are ready to jump in the moment the fire's gone.
Orb 2: It seems that the big guy and silver wings have come to a quick alliance and all three of them are pounding on the metallic shell of the student holding the ball. It's hard to tell if they're making headway, but that is a lot of force coming at the thing.
Orb 3: Suddenly, a young girl from out of nowhere trips and the orb she was carrying flies out of her hands and right into the hands of someone intercepts it, and disappears. Three other students suddenly arrive either through gates, teleportation, and seemingly superspeed, and all disappear equally as quick to search.
Orb 4: It seems this pair may have a lock on this orb, as they efforts combine seem to discourage anyone going after them specifically, at least, if they were alone.
Orb 5: The orb that had fallen to the ground, as you all make a move to grab it, it drifts slowly and then shoots off like a pinball out of your group! It slams into the hand of the magnokinetic who smiles, and then, with one vein pulsing in his head, sends a shockwave of magnetic repulsion at all of you, but especially Kestral.
Kestrel lashes her hook into the turf and hangs on until the magnetic wave passes over her.
As the line goes slack, her hand dips into one of her pockets again and comes up with an overly fancy bottle opener with a hawk's head pressed into the metal.
It's a small thing, but she adds its trajectory to her mental checklist, Hope no one melts this or something, don't know when I'd get off campus to get a replacement...
As the not particularly aerodynamic doohickey spirals through the air she smirks. ... but damnit if I didn't tell him a non-magnetic bottle opener would be a good present!
Allison hadn't had a very good grip on the orb to begin with, and had no real chance of hanging onto it. As the clock ticked down, though, she finally opened her book and began scanning through the spells, intending to find something interesting to try and wrap this up with. Maybe a little more chaos was exactly what was needed...
Allejandra and Kjersti rush over to grab the sphere from the kinetic while Derek struggles against the field. If Jason isn't impaired, they'll tell him t go high while they go low.
His attention on those ready to pounce on the sphere Triad is trying to grab hold of, Jason is caught by surprise by the magnetokinetic's attack and proves too unprepared and too slow to dodge it.
The mass field lockdown catch Jason and one-third of Triad, the rest of you begin to rush forward to make a play for the orb. But shooting past all of you is a strange bottle opener of sorts.
The hawk shaped bottle opener lands squarely on the middle finger of the magnokinetic who recoils in pain.
The two mobile members of Triad try to get a grab on the magnokinetic.
While Kjersti misses with her leap to grab hold of him, Alejandra leap takes her a bit farther and she manages to grab a fistful of his shirt.
It seems like you're making decent progress on retrieving the orb, but with seconds left on the clock, it seems the patient ones have finally made their move.
A young man in a black costume that seems to cover the entirety of his muscular body appears right beside the orb held by the magnokinetic. He attempts to take out the magnokinetic with an unarmed strike.
But instead of making contact, surprisingly, the magnokinetic whips his head to look at the guy wreathed in black clothing and his quick-strike seemingly stops mid-air, the arm shaking as if trying to press further down to finish the blow.
Other students have decided other orbs might be easier due to their skill sets, though some might be considering your orb a nice second should their first choice prove too much.
12 seconds left....
Orb 1: The young woman finally collapses, the orb she holds rolling out of her hands, it is still glowing orange with heat, a detail a few students fail to catch and their now burned forearms scream at them for. Eventually, the Orb drops into a hole that students start looking down.
Orb 2: With one swift combo attack, the metal shell opens to the combined force of the other students. though the shell is still strong, the force has rattled the student within enough. The large youth grabs the orb and begins running off to the other end of the field, the flier behind him providing support from the air with silver blasts.
Orb 3: As MIA as ever.
Orb 4: This orb seems locked down.
Orb 5: Orb is still held by the Magnokinetic, though the earlier attack took a lot of power out of him, though you can feel his body getting stronger and it seems that if the orb will be snatched away, he has an assuredness on his face that he doesn't consider it a problem. The new combatant is rattling behind him, desperately trying to power through the magnetic hold he's caught in.
As the seconds pass and the test moves ever closer to its end, Jason appears incapacitated still.
Alejandra keeps hold of the magnetokinetic, while the other two hold onto the orb for dear life. "Come on Jason, you need to focus."
(teamwork)
Allison's grimoire flipped open, and she smiled slightly as she looked down on the page it had opened to - of its own will, apparently. Then she gestured at the second orb, intending to teleport it over to Kestrel. "Let's see how well this works in practice..." she mused. The clock was ticking down quick, but she wanted to be sure this would work before she tried something else.
Kestrel continues to swing above the battlefield, with one hand constantly adjusting the line or latching her hook onto a new flyer for a much needed boost, while the other continues to rain down assorted non-metallic debris on Triad's target
Jason struggles against the bonds of magnetism, his veins throbbing as his muscles exert to push past the force with pure effort.
So a hit on both of team Triad's grabs.
In a burst of effort, Triad manages to wrench the orb away from the holder.
It seems the big man has some decent reflexes as he manages a large sweep of him arms as he notices something is amiss.
This time the magnokinetic manages to move out of the way before getting pelted again.
6 seconds left....
Orb 1: The students over here, realizing that someone underground has absconded with the orb, begin to panic and start moving for any orb they can see.
Orb 2: The flyer is still blasting those oncoming, while the big guy has leapt onto the football end goal and is starting to climb it to make some distance.
Orb 3: As MIA as ever.
Orb 4: This orb seems locked down.
Orb 5: The Magnokinetic, realizing he needs to get that orb back, releases his affliction ability and refocuses his power and moves to re-grab the orb.
The three hold on with all of their might, calling out, "Anybody who's willing to play nice can share this one." They focus on keeping it in one place for the others.
Orb 5: The Magnokinetic, realizing he needs to get that orb back, releases his affliction ability and refocuses his power and moves to re-grab the orb.
Kestrel drops seemingly from nowhere to land lightly on Derek's back. Doubled over in a low crouch, she keeps one hand on the orb while readying a fistful of assorted projectiles for whoever tries to take it!
For her part, Allison hopped over to share the orb with the Triad. She was quite willing to go with a simple plan when it would work - there was no need to over-complicate things, and quite frankly, she felt that being greedy was unbecoming of a hero.
Taking but a moment to stretch his limbs and test to see that he is indeed free, Jason quickly moves to place his hand on the orb claimed by Triad.
There's a loud sound off of an even-pitched signal buzzer as the game comes to an end. The ending situation follows as such.
Orb 1: It seems the tunneling teen is the sole winner of this orb. The other students are covered in dirt from trying to go after them, but to no avail. The student who burned so brightly, in the beginning, is still passed out on the field, her presumed fire retardant clothing still steaming from the excess heat.
Orb 2: It seems that The flyer and the big guy kept to their word and the match ends with both holding the orb at the top of football goal post. The non-flying students had been trying to reach them, but the flyer had given them decent cover.
Orb 3: Oddly enough, it seems that this orb is still not back yet. It doesn't take long for some of the professors to track down the students gone AWOL. Distance-based powers have a tendency to warp a person's sense of distance as well. The final winner seems to not be the interceptor from that time, but a young woman who steps through a portal made of azure blue energy. She pants heavily, her brow straining to hold the portal open for the rest of the students to return.
Orb 4: Another team victory for the psychic and darkness user. The descend from their combination orb sphere, though you can tell each of them has a powerful grip on the orb mentally.
Orb 5: By far the most outstanding display of team effort, it seems that your orb has multiple successful touches. Every member of your team manages to put a hand on the orb before the buzzer goes off. The cat girl sneaks a claw onto the orb as well, and the strange teen masked and in black detaches his arm?! It flies off as he shoots it to your direction, seemingly trying to get a hand on the orb, but it seems off.
Regardless, it seems that the faculty are duly impressed, and go off to compare notes on the sidelines, also giving you all a chance to relax and catch your breath after a very intense 30 seconds.
Jason's eyes widen for a moment as he notices what appears to be an arm flying towards the sphere but not quite. Seeing the young man it belongs to he smiles at him and quickly grabs for it with his own free hand, improving its trajectory and placing it firmly on the orb. Turning to the others he simply shrugs, the smile still on his lips.
At seeing the last minute save, Alejandra gives Jason a high five. Derek cocks his head and high fives the arm.
No longer needing to balance as carefully, Kestrel just plops down on Derek's shoulders, legs dangling down his chest.
"So I get how this shows off plenty of important skills, but this wasn't really a 1-to-1 on any kind of real situation, right?"
Allison nodded as Jason put the other hand on the orb, looking quite pleased. He'd beaten her to the punch - or the grab, as it were - and that was okay. At a school like this, if you started getting jealous when other people did well, you were gonna have a bad time. "Mmm.... well, there's something to be said for heroes splitting up to help a bunch of people in a crowd, but it's true that we won't normally be competing against each other." Allison observed. "And at any rate, I think we should always try to help each other. Cooperation can accomplish more, regardless of how strong someone is on their own."
Kestrel shrugs, "Yeah, it's important to have each other's back, I do wonder what would've happened if we'd all just shared the orbs though...
"Oh! You can do teleporty things, right? There's a bottle opener at a distance of 38.46 meters, angle of 23 degrees, ground height, could you get it?"
"Well, given what I've seen of superbattles, you get something different every time." shrugs Kjersti. "And when you're trying not to damage the candidates too much, it's hard to figure out what to do."
"Yes,"Jason agrees. "One of the reasons I wasn't much help I think." Running a hand through his hair, he smiles awkwardly, his expression turning at least a little sheepish as a sigh escapes his lips. "Well, that and that magnetism-controlling guy's power. I just couldn't snap out of it..."
"Don't worry about it, magnet guys are the worst! And they're always so proud of how they've mastered a 'fundamental force of the universe.'"
Allison considered the request for a moment, then flipped through a few pages in her book and muttered under her breath.
Pop.
Bottle opener.
"It's not what you have - it's what you do with it." Allison observed as Kestrel mentioned magnetism. "A handful of dirt is as mundane as you can get, but if you throw it in someone's face at the right time, it can blind them enough to give you an advantage."
Says miss magic-pants
Kestrel nods along as though she hadn't been throwing non-magnetic materials for much of the scrimmage.
After a very much delayed meeting and comparison of notes, an announcement is sounded out that individual reports will be messaged directly to your personal terminals. For the time being, enough of a analysis has been taken that teams have been decided, and with them, room assignments.
After waving goodbye to a few friendly faces, and receiving the ire of a few less than sportsmanlike students, you all find yourselves converging to the same location.
Dormitories have become somewhat of a requirement of Claremont Academy as a matter of security and convenience. The Dorm building is a round one, with multiple floors. Each team is assigned a section with its own small common area, kitchenette, and private rooms for each member. Such comfort would likely run a ludicrous bill at a normal college, but once accepted to Claremont, all expenses are paid.
The fresh dorm air is crisp and cool, a welcome change from the warm air of August outside. Each room has a digital panel with your names coded on already, and opening the rooms you find a small bed, a small desk, and your luggage already moved in.
In the common room is a dining room table, and a tv as well, where currently an announcement is running past.
Students have the rest of the day off. There is a social event tonight in the auditorium at 9 pm. Welcome to Claremont Academy. Classes begin on Monday.
With a mischievous glint in her eye, Betsy turns to Kjersti and asks, "So how much did admissions freak when you explained how you guys preferred to bunk? I can't imagine any place that advertises a part as a 'social event' had any idea how to deal with the whole three-in-one deal."
"Social event." Allison said, considering this. She hadn't been to very many parties during her training, but perhaps this would be a good chance to get to know each other? She had no intention of being some kind of wallflower, after all...
"Yep, and I'm calling it now, no matter what the grown ups say - this is mandatory! Plus, if it sucks, I bet someone would be able to teleport us somewhere better."