It wasn’t going to be the good kind of awesome though. It was kind of awesome you get when all the people who hate you go into one corner and you wonder what they’re going to do when they come out.
To be fair, it wasn’t everyone who hated me. Jody wasn’t on their team.
Not yet anyway.
Over the loudspeaker, Lee said, “Blue Mask. Group 1.”
That was interesting, I thought as a guy who could almost have passed for Zorro walked up to their group. “Almost passed” because he had a blue mask. The inside of his cape was lined with blue as well—upping the number of capes I’d met who actually had a cape to two.
He carried a rapier.
I barely had time to process that when Lee said, “Slugger, Group 1.”
“Slugger” turned out to be a guy wearing a baseball uniform and carrying a baseball bat—a big, big guy, easily Travis’ size. He had a little bit of a gut, but the muscles dramatically upped his intimidation value.
As strange as he seemed in the middle a crowd of superheroes, he fit the scenery (an athletic field) better than the rest of us.
Something nagged at me about him. I’d heard of him somewhere. It took a moment, but then the memory came. A few years ago some guy calling himself “The New Jersey Batman” had gotten in huge trouble with DC comics when he’d started to sell merchandise. He’d been a big guy who went after supervillains with a baseball bat, and he’d had a sidekick.
As completely absurd as his costume seemed, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be hit by the bat.
Next to me, Amy looked him up and down. “They’re both magic. With the first guy it’s the mask and the sword. With Slugger, I don’t know. Magic seems to permeate him.”
Samita had pulled a mirror out of her pocket and had angled it toward them. “I haven’t seen anything like it either.”
“Huh,” I let myself trail off, but then continued, “Okay. So they’ve got three area effect people, two of whom are flyers, and a couple magic hand to hand combat guys. We’ve got two uh… wizards—“
Samita shook her head. “I’m not a wizard. I will be someday. Currently I’m an apprentice with some skill in creating enchanted objects, and a few spells.”
“Okay, anyway. We’ve got two people who are skilled in using magic—“ Samita began to open her mouth again, but I continued on, “—one magic based hand to hand guy, one tech guy, and a super-soldier.”
Group 3 stood about ten feet to our left, and I’d missed hearing most of their group announced, partly because we’d been talking.
A tall woman in a red costume that had stylized red and yellow flames running up her sides talked with Jaclyn. I knew that her speed powers were linked to flame, but I wasn’t sure how.
Next to the tall woman’s red, and Jaclyn’s purple Accelerando costume, Rachel’s white stood out—as did the two pistols at her waist.
As I began to look toward group four, Lee called out two more names. “Night Wolf and Mist. Both to group 3.”
Travis walked up, huge as ever, but with a predator’s smooth gait. A girl who appeared to be made of mist followed him up.
Past them stood group four. I didn’t recognize any of them except for Patriot Jr., who was easy to distinguish in his red, white, and blue costume. Next to him stood a woman in gray powered armor, a short guy who was covered in a glowing force shield, and a man in off-white and brown body armor who carried a bow.
I wondered who would be their fifth member, but then Lee announced, “Blue. Group 4.”
Izzy flew over the crowd to join them.
When she’d landed, Lee held the microphone to his mouth again. “And that’s it. Those of you who aren’t part of the exhibition fighting groups will now be led through the obstacle courses. Those of you who will be fighting should huddle up in the front.”
We did. I tried not to get too close to anybody. A lot of us were in no danger, but it would be easy to hurt anyone who was physically normal. By the time Lee jumped off the podium and walked over to us, I found myself standing next to Amy, Jaclyn, Travis, and Izzy—any of whom could have had similar thoughts about accidentally hurting people.
Lee’s eyes ran across the group. “Over this next week, all of your groups will fight each other at least once, most likely more than that. You’ll discover, if you haven’t already, that I’ve given each of your group’s strengths against each other and distinct weaknesses. You’ll learn to exploit them during the week, and fight during the weekend when they’ll be much harder to handle.”
Is Izzy still ‘Blue’? She really, really needs to pick a codename already.
Tournament arc!
I guess Nick should be glad Haley isn’t on another team. Fighting his sister will be awkward enough.
I want to see Nick come out on top, but I think that it’ll be a close fight between them all, so any group could win.
We have at least two sibling vs. sibling set-ups here: Nick vs. Rachel and Travis vs. Haley.
Nick and Rachel are different enough that there’s no built-in excitement, but Night Wolf vs. Night Cat? That’s going to be something else altogether.
Hg
I’m of 2 minds on the ‘tournaments as training’ thing. On the one hand, it’s good to get hands on and learn how to adapt on the fly. On the otherhand, it can cause bad habits to develop, namely pulling your punches so that you don’t really hurt your classmates.
Quick and dirty takedowns are good for the field, but can cause permanent damage that you wouldn’t want to inflict on teammates.
Heh Hydrargentium,
I suspect that we’ll see a little fur flying as Haley shows fast she is, and Travis shows that he’s strong enough to make that speed not as useful as she’d like it to be 🙂
Izzy vs. Jaclyn could be very interesting, if it happens.
Rodolfo and Samita have worked with one another before. I think that’s likely to ruin someone’s day.
Is it just me or does anyone else get a very Shrek feel about Rodolfo? I know, I know, troll, but ?
I’m excited to see how Nick and Tara come up with a way to fight Izzy.
@Hydrargentium
@Farmerbob1
Both of you reference Haley being in the tournament. I read through twice and I can’t find a single passage indicating that Haley was selected to be one of the fighters. Are you just assumed she was, or am I missing.
Haley’s not in it. You’re right.
Hrm,
Odd, I’m normally better at taking good ideas and running away with them.
Clearly, Hg was laying a trap, and I fell right into it!
Can someone remind who Tara is and what she does? Preferably with a link to where I can read her first being introduced.
She first appears in the the Rachel in Infinity City arc–on the first or second page. She’s the product of a “Romeo and Juliet” type of situation between two rival groups of genetically engineered supersoldiers (who destroyed humanity or tried to on their respective worlds).
Beyond being “stronger, faster, better” than a normal human, she can also change her thought processes, allowing her to consciously use all her relevant memories to a situation to see patterns, and predict what will happen next.
It’s very useful in tactical situations.
Also her dad was Ronin, the leader of the heroes who died in St Louis.
That said, you don’t have to remember any of this. I planned to reintroduce her in this arc anyway.
Thanks. I remember her now.
Btw Jody is he the one that also has super speed?
I have vague recollections of the names when I see them, but having a guide would really help plus more details you know.
Anyway Thanks again.
Yep. Jody’s one of Sean’s friends, and has super speed, but one that works differently than Jaclyn’s–it’s speed only.
“Is Izzy still ‘Blue’? She really, really needs to pick a codename already.”
I’m blue, ahbundeed, ahbundied… (or whatever the lyrics are)
And Bart, I was unaware of the existence of this video. It is awesome in a cutesy weird sort of way.
Nice setup chapter Jim! I eagerly await the battle-y action.
Typo: “It was kind of awesome you get when all the people who hate you go into one corner and you wonder what they’re going to do when they come out.” – I think you meant “the kind of awesome”
I believe I have a good idea for a name for Izzy. She’s probably sick and tired of people bothering her about it, and she clearly doesn’t object to being called Blue.
Azul
It’s a short, easy to remember name, and it would let her subtly tweak people’s noses forever for bothering her about ‘Blue.’
It would also throw off anyone thinking about her relationship with Dixie Superman, who, from what I’ve read, would be extremely unhappy for a relative of his to take a Spanish cape name.
It might even be enough to bring him out of hiding/retirement, if he is still alive somewhere.
Then, there’s Bluebelle. Which would probably have people asking her to go back to using just ‘Blue’ again.
To be honest though, I really just wish she would claim Blue. Make it official, since she doesn’t seem to care, and people are starting to use it anyway.
Azul is a good idea. I may steal it.
Feel free. It’s yours if you want it 🙂