#I need to remove it immediately but ARRGHH

[splynter]

Anger and pain and violence and murder. This is what wearing bandaids does to me

[bleep-blop-lizard-hop]

Jenny/Vastra Prompts #8

Prompt: I found myself missing Jenny and Vastra adorable little daughters Alaya and Katy so I decided to bring them back in this story. Strax, for once, uses his grenades for something that’s not destructive...and it’s really cute.

I know I’ve been slacking on these lately because real life has a funny persistent way of preventing me from writing. However, I have recently gained a new source of motivation after having the unfortunate luck of reading some really gross and hateful comments about Jenny/Vastra relationship from people who clearly have no idea what they’re saying. From now on I shall be trying to write more as I possibly can to piss off all those idiots who have their heads shoved so far up their tight asses that they can’t see the flawed but legitimate love shared between Jenny and Vastra. Fuck them all to bloody hell!

Oh and happy Femslash February everyone!

It was a particularly chilly January day when Vastra and Jenny stumbled in through the front door, wrapped in their heavy winter garb which were covered with a considerable amount of fresh snow.

“Thank the Goddess, we’re home at last,” exclaimed Vastra as an intense shiver wracked her body, causing some of the snow to fall off. “There must have been at least ten inches of snow outside!”

The cold-blooded Silurian was most relieved to finally be inside the relative warmth and comfort of their house again. All that she could think about as they commuted from Scotland Yard, trudging through the thick frozen snow, was being able to sit in front of the living room fire with a nice, soothing cup of tea and her beloved Jenny sitting on her lap. Now that they’ve reached their destination, Vastra wasted no time on removing her veil and cloak.

“Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much snow in me life,” Remarked Jenny while in the process of taking off her own hat and cloak. Then a thought occurred to her, which made her glance wistfully toward the staircase leading to the upper floor. “Our poor girls, though.....they were so looking forward to playing in the snow. It’s too bad that they both got sick before they had the chance.”

Vastra followed her wife’s line of sight and replied staunchly,“Yes, it is rather unfortunate, but their health is our main priority right now. We shall make it up to them at another time.”

A doting smile formed upon Vastra’s face and she leaned over to steal a quick, sweet kiss from Jenny’s lips, thus helping to calm her mind about their daughters.

“I just hope Strax didn’t try to regale them with one of his war stories while we were gone,” sighed Jenny when she began to climb the stairs with Vastra to go check on Alaya and Katy. 

Like everything else he did, Strax would always put 110% of energy into his storytelling, which proved to be an issue as he would often get too carried away by his enthusiasm; The last time Strax told a story to the girls he tried to perform a military demonstration with his laser gun and nearly blast the head off this one poor bloke walking past their house, though his hat wasn’t as lucky.

Halfway up the stairs, however, a strange sound reached their ears that made Jenny and Vastra stop immediately in their tracks.

The two of them then perked their ears to listen more carefully. 

Eventually, Jenny turned to Vastra with an expression of concern and said,“I think that came from the sitting room....”

A sense of anticipation arose in Jenny and Vastra as they proceeded to go in search for the source of the mysterious noises. As they got closer to the sitting room, they were able to recognize the excited childlike squealing of their daughters and Strax’s harsher authoritative voice booming like a cannon.

“Aha! Prepare to meet your doom and destruction, puny reptiles,” yelled the Sontaran, brandishing what looked like some kind of bomb.

The mere sight of the potentially dangerous weapon in the hands of the notoriously trigger-happy Sontaran was enough to make alarms go off inside Vastra and Jenny’s heads within seconds.

“Strax, no! Don’t drop that bomb!”

Panic kicked into Vastra and Jenny’s systems as soon as those words left their mouths, prompting the both of them to lunge at Strax together. They managed to tackle Strax hard onto the ground, but the sheer force of their assault caused him to let go of the bomb and it flew a short distance before exploding in midair to release a massive storm of....snow?

“What the....,” Jenny’s eyes grew wide with disbelief and she nudged Vastra, asking, “Vastra, are you seeing this?”

“It’s....snowing!” Observed Vastra, her head tilted sideways to indicate confusion. “But how is that even possible?”

Instead of the catastrophic outbreak that they had expected, what actually came out from the bomb was a white, cool, feathery substance that fell down delicately in droves all around the room. Vastra and Jenny could only watch on silently in awe, words having failed them in that moment. No matter how hard they tried, their minds just couldn’t seem to make any sense of the impossibly fantastic scene in front of them.

Although, the same wasn’t the case for their young daughters, Alaya and Katy, who gladly welcomed the snowing phenomenon with great enthusiasm.

“Mama! Mummy!”Katy called, her face raised upward and her arms spread out, as she spun around in circles among the falling snow. “Look, it’s snowing in our house! Strax made it snow for us!”

Alaya soon chimed in, saying,”Since you said we couldn’t go outside because we’re sick, he brought the snow inside to us!” She then flopped back down onto the snow gradually gathering on the floor and giggled,”Oh, isn’t it just so wonderful!”

Once they’ve recovered from their initial shock, Jenny and Vastra decided that their daughters were the least of their worries, as they were more interested in getting to the bottom of this snowy situation.

That said, they then turned their focus upon the Sontaran responsible for all of this, who was still trapped underneath the collective weight of their bodies.

“Strax, you mind telling us what is the meaning of all this?”Demanded Jenny in a clearly firm tone that left absolutely no room for funny business.

Strax was only able to respond with a muffled groan, compelling Jenny and Vastra to quickly get off before helping him to stand up on his feet again. 

“Madame, boy, I understand that you are mad at me for launching a grenade inside your residence, but I can assure you that it was not without good reason,”explained Strax calmly, even as Jenny and Vastra continued to burn holes through his head with their heated glares. “I only did this because I noticed a lack of morale among the young cadets, your offspring.” He made a suggestive gesture toward Alaya and Katy who were currently preoccupied with the snow. “It is from my  experiences that I know an army low in morale will never be able to achieve victory. Fortunately, using some of my own personal Sontaran ingenuity and various gathered resources, I was finally able to create a snow device to help restore their energies. From what I can see so far, it seems to be working most gloriously,” Strax proclaimed triumphantly, a broad indulgent smile forming across his face.

After listening to Strax’s statement, Jenny and Vastra then turned around to witness for themselves as Katy and Alaya played in the snow without a single care in the world. By that time, the snow had already accumulated to the point where not an inch of the wooden floor was left to be seen;There was nothing that the snow didn’t touch in that room. Jenny and Vastra simply couldn’t bring themselves to stay vexed at Strax now that they saw how their daughters’ faces practically beamed with utmost happiness and joy.

“Yes...so it is. Please accept our sincerest apologies for, err, tackling you, Strax,” spoke Vastra, whose expression had softened dramatically, with sincere remorse toward her Sontaran friend. “Though in our defense, it really did appear as if you were holding a bomb. Now that we know what your true intentions were, we can appreciate what you did for our Katy and Alaya. Thanks to you, they won’t have to miss out on the winter snow activities that they value so dearly.”

“Yeah, come here you lumpy, bumpy Sontaran potato,”said a smiling Jenny as she pulled Strax in to give him a vigorous, well-meaning head rub.

However, Strax just wasn’t too fond of that and told her,“I respectfully request that you refrain from noogying me, Mister Flint.”

“Mama! Mummy! What are you waiting for, all the fun is over here!”

Alaya ran over to grab both of them by the hand and began leading them to the big open space in the middle of the living room.

“I know, let us build a snowman together,”suggested Katy upon finishing her snow angel.

“Oh, that sounds very nice, darlings,”said Jenny in agreement, most pleased at being able to spend this quality time with her beloved daughters. “We’d love to make a snowman with you!”

“Then later we can make a snow lizard for Mama,” declared Alaya, which earned a hearty laugh from everyone else.

While Vastra and Jenny got settled in alongside their daughters, Strax remained standing on the sidelines since he personally had no such particular interest for this mushy wet stuff they call ‘snow’.

“Well then, it would seem that my mission here has been completed with great success! If you need me, I’ll be polishing my laser blaster and arranging my brain melting acid cluster grenades,”announced Strax before preparing to take his leave.

He was nearly out the door when something cold and hard struck against the back of his bald head.

Suddenly enraged, Strax instantly spun around and loudly demanded, “Arrghh.....which one of you fleshy primitive reptiles is responsible for this!”

The sound of girlish laughter that arose only served to further stoke his already agitated temper.

“What’s the matter, Strax, can’t handle a bit of snow?”Sang Alaya in a teasing manner while wearing a sly grin.

With a rather identical grin, Katy chorused after her sister, “Jack Frost nipping at your buttocks?”

Vastra and Jenny saw exactly what they were trying to do, and couldn’t help but snicker in amusement as the two girls continued to egg Strax on.

“You dare incite the mighty wrath of the Glorious Sontaran Empire?” Bellowed the pissed off Sontaran,who apparently can’t handle the harmless taunting of some little girls. “Mark my words, it will be the last thing you ever do, for I shall anni....!”

Four snowballs aimed at his face cut Strax’s speech short, but he was up again soon enough and advanced upon them with a furious vengeance. The girls and their mothers all scrambled away to find cover, rushing to make more snowballs in order to keep the hulking Sontaran beast at bay. This was no longer a fun innocent roll in the snow, but outright winter warfare in their very own living room.

[carterthornton]

The Third Wave | Chapter Eleven: Mark Development Class

        "Arrghh, damn..." Aiko cringed as Dr. Baxter plunged a needle into her forearm, sapping blood from her veins. "What's this for?"

       "I'm trying to determine whether you're a Productorem-type," Dr. Baxter replied, removing the needle from Aiko's flesh. "From the genetic material I've gathered from Yuko, I've identified an unknown energy in her tissue."

       "Tissue?" Yuko remarked, standing behind Dr. Baxter and watching the procedure. "I have-?"

       "Whatever energy is within you has somehow reconstructed the molecular makeup of the metal that comprises your body into a sort of synthetic tissue that acts and behaves similar to human tissue." Dr. Baxter elaborated, walking over to a very complex machine in the corner of the room. "I'm trying to determine whether it is you or Aiko that radiates said energy."

       "What's that?" Aiko inquired as she got up from her seat, traversing the equipment in Dr. Baxter's intricate, private lab to examine the large device he was tinkering with.

       Dr. Baxter unscrewed the sharpened point from his needle, taking care not to contaminate the sample, then he did the same with Yuko's syringe; it was filled with her liquid metal blood, and it was just as viscous as Aiko's. He plugged both syringes into two of four injection valves in the large machine, and it sucked the samples in immediately, processing them. Dr. Baxter moved over to the terminal attached to the machine, feeding the computer unknown algorithms through the keyboard. After finishing this, Dr. Baxter pressed a red button right beside his keyboard, activating the test. The contraption whirred and buzzed, running the samples through a series of tests, eventually slowing to a soft hum as it spat out the results onscreen.

       "Hmm... intriguing," Dr. Baxter scratched his chin at the data presented. "It seems you are in fact a Productorem after all— a new Subclass of the Energy Class."

       "Really?! So... what now?" Aiko wondered as Dr. Baxter continued to examine the results.

       "I catalogue the Mark, and then name the newly identified Subclass," Dr. Baxter replied as he grabbed the piece of paper that the machine spat out of a slot just below the keyboard. "Firstly, I shall name this newly identified Subclass. Perhaps... the Channel Subclass? Yes, that sounds like an appropriate name." Dr. Baxter nodded, writing the name down on a nearby piece of paper. "Next, I'll leave the Mark naming up to you. So, what'll you call your Mark?"

       "Um... gee..." Aiko shrugged her shoulders, deliberating over the hefty responsibility.

       Aiko wanted the name to mean something, to both her and to Yuko. Thinking back to all that Yuko has done so far, Aiko focused in on the memory of her holding the butterfly. Yuko's purity and curiosity rekindled Aiko's passion, and she was grateful for that gift, but she just couldn't extrapolate a name from any situation they've been in so far. Aiko dug deeper, eventually coming across a single, simple word. It didn't mean much to Aiko when she heard her mother say it long ago, but now it somehow felt important, like it needed to be said aloud.

       "Musubi..." Aiko muttered, envisioning her mother on the cottage balcony, breathing in the brisk morning air as the gentle wind tossed her hair about. "We'll call it the Musubi Mark."

      "And what does that mean?" Dr. Baxter raised an eyebrow at the odd name.

      "I'm not sure yet..." Aiko shrugged her shoulders, the image of her mother imprinted in her mind. "It just feels right."

       "Okay then..." Dr. Baxter tried his best to hide his skepticism, but it bled out from his expression profusely. Sighing to himself, he shooed Aiko and Yuko towards the door. "Now, off with you. I have a class to get back to."

       "I, um-... thanks for helping us, Dr. Baxter, but you didn't answer the question I had asked earlier..." Aiko reminded him.

       "Oh? What's that?" Dr. Baxter said, grabbing the mug full of coffee off a desk by the machine.

       "What is Yuko, exactly?" Aiko asked; she knew those words were on the tip of Yuko's tongue, but she didn't yet have the courage to say them aloud to anyone other than her. "And when will Yuko stop transforming?"

       "Yuko will cease her metamorphosis once the material in her body is as close to real human tissue as possible. She won't become organic, but she'll be very close." Dr. Baxter answered, taking a sip of his coffee. "Oh, and according to the test results, Yuko has a DNA structure quite similar to yours."

       "Wait, what are you saying...?" Aiko took a moment to digest his words.

       "It appears Yuko is your sister, Ms. Schmitt," Dr. Baxter clarified.

       "S-sister...?" Yuko turned to Aiko, pondering over the word for a moment. Then, suddenly, she threw herself at Aiko, hugging her with vice grip arms. "Your my sister, Aiko!"

       "What?!" Aiko's head shook violently in Yuko's grasp as they both twirled around. "My sister?"

       "I know who I am now!" Yuko giggled as she held Aiko tighter.

       "Th-thanks, sis..." Aiko wheezed as Yuko kept a firm grip on the small of her back. "Can you put me down? You're-... ugh... oxygen..." Aiko's face rapidly turned purple in the clutches of her giant metal companion.

       "Oh! Sorry!" Yuko blushed as she placed Aiko back on the ground, dusting her off politely.

       "It's okay," Aiko insisted as she caught her breath, looking up at the clock. "The period's almost over! We should head back to let Ms. Wendell know we're alright; she's probably worried sick."

       "Yeah!" Yuko nodded; her tone was fresh, bubbly, but it didn't seem as innocent and childish as before. Regardless, it warmed Aiko's heart to see her newfound sister so content.

       With Yuko by her side, Aiko opened up the door leading into the hallway, giving Dr. Baxter a wave before leaving. "Thanks, Dr. Baxter! See you next period!"

       Dr. Baxter sighed as the door closed behind them, and he slowly sipped his coffee, sitting down on a stool nearby. "Yeah."

       Aiko remained silent for quite a while as they walked through the mazelike school, turning corners and climbing stairs to reach the gymnasium; they only had five minutes left in the period, but it wouldn't have been right to just leave Ms. Wendell guessing and not inform her of their return. As they turned down the last hallway leading to the gym, Aiko slowed her pace, sighing heavily as she stared down at the floor. Yuko kept as slow a pace as Aiko, remaining beside her at all times.

       "Is something wrong, Aiko?" Yuko asked her sister, who simply glared at the ground in silence.

       "Um... yeah," Aiko nodded as she ceased walking entirely, lifting her head to meet eye to eye with Yuko. "I want to apologize, Yuko."

       "Apologize? For what?" Yuko wondered, raising an eyebrow as she moved closer to her companion.

       "Treating you like an object. I'm sure I didn't realize it before, but-... I do now," Aiko shook her head, breaking eye contact with her sister. "You aren't just some thing. You're just as human as I am."

       "Aiko, you don't-... I'm not-," Yuko cut herself off a couple times, letting her head hang as she remained silent. "Aiko, I may look like a person, but-."

       "Don't," Aiko interrupted her, sick of hearing her self-loathing attitude. "Even if you still believe that, I'll defend you anyways. You're no golem, you're my friend (and evidently my sister). And no matter what others might think of you, you'll still be the same Yuko to me."

       Yuko's body had changed dramatically within the period. Although her transformation was nearly complete by the beginning of Fitness Class, Yuko's hair hadn't been completely fibrous. In the end, her silver hair was as sleek and as realistic as a normal woman's head of hair; it was no longer tied into a pony tail, instead, it cascaded freely like a waterfall. To boot, Yuko's build had also shifted. Her proportions had evened out entirely, and she no longer appeared like a bodybuilder, but an athletic young woman. Although she still had extremely prominent muscle showing in her gym attire, she wasn't as swollen as before.

       "Aiko..." Yuko's heart tightened as Aiko's words flowed into her, and she embraced her sister, letting her curtain of metal locks fall forward over Aiko's shoulder. "Thank you."

       "Yuko... crushing me again..." Aiko coughed as Yuko squeezed tighter.

       "Oh, sorry!" Yuko blushed as she broke away, running into the nearby women's washroom. "I'll go change! Tell Ms. Wendell I'm alright!"

       "No prob," Aiko nodded as she entered the gymnasium. "Meet out here once you're done." She stopped for a moment, going over the period's events in her head; the sheer absurdity of every new dilemma baffled her. "My sister, huh...?"

****

       Aiko and Yuko followed the first-year students into the training grounds, and they lined up their neat rows in front of the main teaching staff, who stood at the other end; leading them was Northstar, who awaited the students with a wide grin on her face. Without any of the second or senior year students, Aiko's class was dwindled down to no more than forty.

       "Hello, you fine young recruits!" Northstar's voice was booming and heroic. "Welcome to Mark Development Class! Here you'll be taught by our core teachers— The Big Four! I'm sure you've already gotten to know them pretty well!" Northstar stood aside, letting Dr. Baxter, Ms. Steele, Ms. Wendell, and Ms. Fawkes bask in the applause from the students. "For all you fast-tracked newbies, Mark Development Class is a course where we help you unlock the limitless potential of your Marks! It's high-octane, action-packed, and it's all about teamwork!"

       "She should be the voiceover for action movie trailers." Carlo joked, giving Aiko a nudge.

       "Yeah, she certainly knows how to work a crowd," Aiko nodded. "I assume that comes with her job, no doubt."

       "Please, group together into your respective teams! Class shall begin shortly!" Northstar shouted as she turned to the teachers, planning with them carefully.

       "So, what's gonna happen now?" Aiko asked her fellow team members, adjusting the same uncomfortable jumpsuit from combat training as it rode up her bottom.

       "There are some options— around four: Gauntlet, Race, Dueling, or Rescue are some I can think of," Carlo answered.

       "Quiet! Northstar is about to speak!" Maeve hushed Carlo, to which he stuck his tongue out at her as she turned away.

       "She seems awful serious... more so than usual..." Aiko whispered to Yuko.

       "Maeve sort of scares me," Yuko said, feeling the heat that Maeve gave off.

       "She always gets this way during MD Class. It's best not to get in her way, or she might make a scene," Jace added to their conversation. "For all of us, don't piss her off. You seem like the type of person who doesn't roll over easy, and she hates that type of person most of all."

       "Why this class?" Aiko wondered.

       "Her father, Delvin MacDonnell, is the police chief of the Greater Victoria Detachment— the highest ranking in the country. She's got a reputation to uphold. And to add to the anxiety, footage captured in this course has the potential of being viewed by some of Canada's most elite teams," Carlo explained, directing Aiko eyes over to the two swiveling cameras on either side of the training area. "If they like what they see, they may favor a student for the recruiting process once they're out of the academy."

       "So it looks like we'll have to bring our a-game then, huh?" Aiko said as she looked over to Yuko, who gave her a smile and a thumbs up.

       "Students! We have come to a consensus! Today's training session shall be... Dueling! And not just plain old bouts between teams! In order to learn and grow as a team, you have to understand a fellow teammate's abilities and strengths, so that's why today's class will be focused around dueling amongst fellow teammates! Now, activate the rings!" Suddenly, four separate plots of the training ground— around twenty by twenty foot —rose from the ground, forming large dueling rings.

       "What the-? We never did this last semester!" Carlo began to hyperventilate. "What the hell's going on?!"

       "Relax, Carlo, there's forty-five of us first year's. There's a chance we won't get placed in a ring," Jace attempted to calm the neurotic, green-haired man, but he couldn't help it.

       Admittedly, Aiko couldn't help but feel a little on edge a well, what with all the glares from Mura and Maeve, who both seemed eager to test her mettle. In her mind Aiko prayed for mercy, but upon hearing Northstar call the names of the first teams to fight, her heart sank.

       "In ring number one, Team Number Twelve!" Northstar announced with all the gravitas and charisma of a wrestling announcer. "Please, go to your ring and hear what your judge has to say."

       "Oh no, no, no, no..." Carlo began to chew on his nails unconsciously as they made their way to the ring on their far left. "Please, have mercy."

       Luckily, their judge was Ms. Wendell, but that didn't make their situation any easier to digest. They each lined up outside the ring, waiting for Ms. Wendell's first pick of the bunch.

       "Okie dokie, artichokies! Let's have some good fights!" Ms. Wendell raised her hand, deciding which two combatants to pick first. "I'll have... Mura and Jace!"

       "Son of a..." Jace's face went totally blank as he crawled into the ring with Mura.

       As the two fighters took their place on either side of the ring, Ms. Wendell began to recite the rules of the bout. "Okay! This fight will end once the opponent is pushed out of the ring! The time limit is three minute, and if the time expires before one of you is ejected from the ring, the match will be declared a draw. Does that sound fair?"

       "Yes," Mura nodded, bowing to Jace before going down into a ready position that only a martial artist would know, a dragon stance. "Good luck."

       "You too..." Jace sighed, cursing his big mouth for being so optimistic earlier.

       "This'll be good. Mura and Jace both have Marks capable of trumping the other," Carlo began to calm down once the intensity of the fight pulled him in. "I'm excited to see what Mura can do."

       "You mean you haven't seen Mura fight before?" Aiko asked Carlo, watching as the two fighters prepared themselves.

       "Well, not exactly. She just never exerts herself too much. Mura is pretty reserved; she never uses any more power than she has to. Out of all of us, there's no doubt she's the smarter fighter." Carlo calculated.

       "Ready? I'd like a clean match, you two. No use of excessive force to the head or chest, please. I'd like to not fill Ms. Fawkes' office today." Ms Wendell stepped back to the very edge of the ring, leaving space for the fighters to spar. "Three... two... one... fight!"

       Neither fighter moved an inch once Ms Wendell began her timer; they simply stood there, waiting for the other to make a move. Eventually, Mura saw a twitch in Jace's expression, and she dashed to the side, catching him off guard. Mura formed bubbles of white energy around her feet, pushing her at incredible speeds around the area; they even allowed her to push off the air itself, ricocheting like a bullet. Jace braced up, raising his arms to guard.

      "Mura's fast, but Jace has a pretty sturdy defence when he uses his Mark; it'll be hard for Mura to press him back," Carlo commented as Mura used her energy on Jace's chest, trying to blast him away. However, this barely moved him an inch.

      "If Mura is as smart a fighter as you claim her to be, she might have something else up her sleeve," Aiko pointed out, paying close attention to Mura's face; she was running the numbers on Jace carefully before attacking again. "She's trying to figure him out."

       Jace realized what Mura was trying to do, and he charged her before she got the chance to figure out a strategy. Alas, in his heavier state, Jace lacked any measure of speed or agility, and the ring cracked beneath his hefty feet as he ran. Although surprised by Jace's initiative, Mura wasn't even grazed by Jace's offensive, and she leapt over him, countering his rush with a burst of her energy to his back. The counterattack drove Jace forward, disturbing his control over his own momentum, and he neared the edge of the ring. However, just before he fell off, Jace put extra weight into his arms, anchoring him to the ground before he could advance any further.

       Wheezing, Jace lifted his extremely heavy limbs, taking his place back in the center of the ring. He waited for Mura to make a move, but she gave him nothing; she simply glared at him with her visible eye that wasn't hidden by a wall of hair. He grimaced as he heaved his arms around with all his strength, and as he took a step, his stamina began to wane more and more.

       "That Mark of his is powerful, but it also has major drawbacks. His body may not be affected by the pressure, but he has severely hampered mobility under the weight of his limbs," Aiko pointed out to Carlo, who nodded in response.

       "You're pretty good at this. How do you know so much?" Carlo asked.

       "I'm kinda a nerd for this stuff," Aiko chuckled, her eyes still glued to the fight. "Let's see what she does."

       Mura ducked, sweeping her leg across the ground in Jace's direction. Jace avoided the white streak of energy released from the bubble around Aiko's foot, jumping over it. However, just as he lifted himself in the air, Mura went in for another blast; her first attack was just the set-up.

       "Foolish..." Maeve scoffed at Jace as she watched Mura push against his forearms with a burst of her energy, causing the weighty limbs to pull him out of the ring.

       "Arrggh!" Jace scowled as he fell onto his back, Ms. Wendell rushing over to him.

       "Jace, are you alright?" Ms. Wendell asked as Jace's ability wore off, prompting her to help him back on his feet.

       "I'm fine..." Jace coughed as Mura approached him, putting out her hand.

       "Then the winner is Mura!" Ms. Wendell proclaimed. "That was great, you two!"

       "Good fight." Mura said with a blank expression as Jace sighed, shaking her hand politely.

       "Yeah, you're pretty good..." Jace nodded, a little disappointed that he couldn't keep up with his opponent.

       "And to think she's still holding back..." Aiko muttered half to herself as she watched Mura exit the arena.

       "Okay! That was a good first fight, but we've still got a few more to go!" Ms. Wendell cheered, raising her hand once more to select the next two fighters. "And our next combatants are..."

       "Please no, please no, please no..." Carlo crossed his fingers.

       "Maeve and Aiko!" Ms. Wendell said excitedly, to which made her way into the ring immediately.

       "Maeve and-..." Aiko's face flushed white as Maeve passed by, sending a cold air her way as she locked eyes with Aiko. "Oh... oh no."