#his first appearance vs him after he regained his consciousness floored me

[immortal-gege]

[saeranlover]

Angel vs the Unknown: Chapter 1

Unknown x MC Rival Gangs AU

-On AO3-

“Angel, be careful! Mint Eye subordinates have been spotted around the apartment rendezvous by 707, we believe they’re being led by ‘Saviour’.” The sudden hushed voice belonging to Star – also known as Yoosung Kim – going down your earpiece made you flinch due to how out of the blue it was.

The plan was supposedly quite simple, you were a new member of the gang known as ‘RFA’, which was the main rival of the gang ‘Mint Eye’. The fights between the two gangs dominated the city at times, with Mint Eye seeking destruction for what they called ‘paradise’, whilst RFA longed for peace for the city without the influence of drugs and violence.

Also, everyone in the RFA gang had a codename. You were Angel, given by 707 due to how you saved RFA from falling apart with your sudden appearance. 707’s actual name was Saeyoung Choi, but he hesitated whenever it came to being called that. Yoosung Kim was ‘Star’, Hyun Ryu was ‘Zen’ (the same as his stage name, which made him one of the more public figures of the gang), Jaehee Kang was ‘Tactician’, Jumin Han was ‘Heir’, and V was ‘Moon’. There used to be another member called Rika, who went by ‘Sun’… But she was killed at the hands of Mint Eye a few years earlier.

Thinking about the message you had initially passed on, you grew worried about the task you were in the middle of. Mint Eye relied upon a drug known as ‘Salvation’ or something along those lines… And you stole it. All for the sake of the RFA becoming dominant in the city, and stop your enemies in their tracks. You were meant to meet up with Jumin and Jaehee at the apartment belonging to Rika in order to pass the drug over to them so they could remove it with their high levels of security. “Hey, Star? Does Moon think that we should change the meet up point? I can’t meet up with Heir and Tactician here if Mint Eye is here…”

“Uh… Let me ask Seven…” A few quiet mumbles were heard down the line, just as you noticed the door handle be messed with. “We’ve got no contact with Moon! Typical… U- Um… Seven says to stay put!” Yoosung panicked for a moment, just as there was a loud screech down your ear, followed by a frustrating static noise.

“Star? Star?!” You yelled out for a response just as the door handle fell off, and the door slowly creaked open. In a slight panic, you reached into your bag, and took hold of a weapon which was in there. Well… A fake weapon. 707 gave it to you as a way to ‘make the enemies scared when you’re in danger so you can escape’. It was a gun, which had no bullets… It was a mere toy.

As you pointed it wat the door, a quiet laugh echoed through the room. It sounded almost like… “S- Seven…?”

“Wrong~ Surprise, Angel.” You froze when a figure casually paced into the room, chuckling to himself almost triumphantly. The first thing which stood out to you from his appearance was his hair… White, but dyed pink at the tips. It was quite striking… And then, your eyes widened and you dropped the toy gun at the sight of the tattoo on his arm.

An eye… Mint Eye-!

“Now… I have a reason why I’m here. Don’t you think so too?” He laughed, his eyes fixating upon a box resting upon a counter by the wall. “Somebody in here was a little thief. Stole something important…” He walked towards you as you fell down onto the floor, trying to recover your ‘gun’. His foot rested on it just before you grabbed it, and that was followed by a loud cracking sound and him kicking it behind him. “A little RFA member trying to make a big name for herself, by taking our Elixir… Well, I’m here to take it back, and bring back a little more too…”

Before you could even react, you felt his hand at the back of your neck, and he made you get up to your feet. “Now, if you don’t resist, we won’t kill the RFA members at the entrance of the building… Jumin Han and Jaehee Kang, yeah?” He then pointed over to the box you had stolen. “Go over there.”

In a slight panic, you obeyed what he said. Mint Eye were known for being quite violent in their ways, and this guy had many pockets and such where he could have weapons hidden…

When you reached the box, his grasp of the back of your neck tightened somewhat, and it seemed to force you to stand up straighter and tilt your head back just to relieve some of the aching. He opened the box, and sighed with relief over all of the vials of the Elixir being intact. Afterwards… He pulled out one vial, and used his thumb to remove the cork keeping it sealed. “Good… Just as the Saviour left it.” And then, he suddenly downed half of it. It was scary at how he could just swallow that weird, blue-ish substance which smelled so vile so quickly… But you never expected what happened next. He released his grasp of your neck, but took hold of your chin instead. “Open wide, RFA’s Angel… You’re coming to Mint Eye now.”

That set you off panicking. No way were you swallowing that stuff! And so, you elbowed him in the crotch to give yourself a few moments to escape. You fell down to the floor, before quickly trying to scramble to your feet and run to the apartment door to get away.

He was quicker though.

You were suddenly pinned down onto the ground face up, and there was an almost scary darkness in his eyes. He was towering over you, with the vial still in his hands. “Stupid woman… You do realise that you can’t escape from me now, do you? Because if you run, Jaehee Kang and Jumin Han are dead.” He then took hold of your chin once more, and forced your mouth open. You had to close your eyes, because you did not want to see yourself be forced into drinking that… That stuff.

A disgusting taste filled your mouth moments later, and you couldn’t help but wretch at it. After that, weird colours filled your vision despite your eyes being closed, and you could feel an odd, light-headed feeling in your head. However… Your head began to fill up with weird thoughts… it was making you lose your emotions and your judgement of the situation. You were quick to fall unconscious afterwards.

Once he was absolutely sure that you were unconscious, he pulled a device out of his pocket and pressed a button on it. “And there… No more interference in her earpiece… Let’s see how the RFA react to this then…” He reached to behind your ear, and then removed the device you had been contacting your companions with. Following that, he brought it up to his own ear, and turned it on.

“Angel! Finally, Seven’s been worried!”

“I apologise, kid… But I have a message for you RFA people. I am Unknown, second-in-command of Mint Eye. Angel has been taken hostage, and I am afraid that you will not be seeing her again for the time being. Goodbye.” Once he had finished speaking, he crushed the earpiece. He knew the tactics of 707 quite well, and he knew for a fact that he would be tracing you.

And then… he reached into his pocket, and laughed loudly as he pulled out a pair of handcuffs and trapped your wrists within them. “Right… Now that is done…” He went and wrapped his arm around you, and hoisted you up onto his shoulder. With a smirk, he left the room, and stopped when he bumped into a few Mint Eye underlings. “… The package is intact. Return it to the Saviour. I have this RFA prisoner to deal with.”

  On the ground floor of the building, things were tense. “Assistant Kang… Is there any way out of this situation?” Jumin was stood with a frown on his face, casting a frosty glare at the Mint Eye members pointing guns at both him and Jaehee. He tugged at his sleeve, before he heard a noise in his earpiece.

“Heir! Tactician! It’s Star here, we’ve got a problem! We’ve lost contact with Angel, and we think that somebody important in Mint Eye has her… Somebody called… ‘Unknown’.” At the message, Jaehee’s hands flew up to her mouth as she began shaking.

“The plan… 707 and I thought out the details completely… And it failed…? And- And we’ve lost her…?”

“Calm down, Assistant Kang. We can’t show weakness. They may feel as though they can take advantage of us if we show any vulnerabilities.”

“Y- Yes, Mr Han…”

They remained stood still, looking for any form of weaknesses in Mint Eye’s members for another few moments… until a few near the elevator moved away as it reached the ground floor. Both Jumin and Jaehee’s faces filled up with horror at the sight they bore witness to… You, unconscious in the arms of a mysterious masked man… And a few other Mint Eye members following him, one of which holding the very box which they had been sent to retrieve.

“Release Kang and Han. They’re of no interest to us. Make sure they can’t follow though.” Your kidnapper huffed, before making his way over to the door. “Better yet… Knock them out.”

  You found yourself regaining consciousness as you felt your body jerk suddenly, and that was when you realised that you were inside a vehicle. The windows were dark, meaning that you couldn’t look out, but there were lights inside the vehicle. Sat directly opposite to you… Was him. The one who forced you to take that horrible drug.

“Nice to see you awake, Angel… Or should I say… MC? It’s a pretty name… It’s a shame that things worked out this way, isn’t it?” You tensed up at him saying your name, so you attempted to lash out on him, and attack him. You were stopped by a seatbelt and also by the fact that your wrists and ankles were all cuffed. “Cute. You think you can hurt me… But I can’t risk it. You’re a precious hostage to Mint Eye. You hurt me… I hurt the RFA back, tenfold.”

And that brought a sudden realisation into your head.

“Wh- What have you done to Jaehee and Jumin?!”

“Oh… Those two. They’re… Let’s just say they’re having a little nap in the entrance hall of the apartment building. They’ll wake up soon enough... Maybe they’re awake now. However… It’s not like we can check. We’re already at our destination.” You felt your blood run cold when the vehicle suddenly ground to a halt, before he unbuckled himself and went over to you. “And we can’t let you know where we are. So be a good girl and don’t resist, or your friends will never see you again. By the way… I haven’t told you my name, have I? I’m Unknown. Mint Eye’s second-in-command behind the Saviour… But you have no right to call me by my name. You’re my prisoner… So you can call me… Master. That’s fitting.”

Afterwards, Unknown removed your seatbelt… Before he pulled a roll of tape out of his pocket. All that you could do was gulp as he covered both your mouth and eyes so that you couldn’t see or speak.

A wave of cold air hit you as you heard the car door open, before you were dragged out. The floor underneath you was somewhat uneven, as though it was cracked, but still felt smooth… A broken pavement, perhaps? You felt that you had to concentrate on your surroundings rather than panic, because all it would take is a moment of panic for this gang war to be over… Mint Eye knew how important you were to the RFA in keeping the gang running, so all it would take is something like a city-wide broadcast of them injuring or even killing you to make the RFA surrender.

The RFA needed to keep running… There needed to be peace in the city, and Mint Eye needed to be run out!

Eventually, you felt yourself enter a building, as the temperature rose once more. A door was opened, as you heard a loud, deep creaking… A metal door. Oh god.

You found yourself tripping up moments later, as you were being dragged down a set of stairs. It was a small relief to reach the bottom, but your anxiety levels rose again when you heard Unknown speaking.

“Strap her down. We’ll have to interrogate her before we use the Elixir again.” And your body felt cold at those words. Interrogate… Use the Elixir again…

It was painful as the pieces of tape on your face were removed, and you looked at your surroundings. There was a metal chair which you were being led towards… And there was a dim blue light flooding the room from a set of computers which Unknown had seated himself at.

“Oh… Before we interrogate though… Let’s give the RFA a bit of a fright,” Unknown smirked, before he typed something in on the keyboard, and started looking at one of the screens with amusement covering his face. Your face was the opposite, completely filled with horror as a picture emerged on the screen. Had he… Connected directly to 707’s computers from here?! Because on the screen were… The main RFA members.

V, with Jumin’s arm slung over his shoulders as he tried to support his friend. Zen, his arms around Jaehee in order to keep her stood upright. Saeyoung, sat at the front trying to type something. Yoosung, looking between everyone anxiously…

“Hello there, RFA! It’s nice to see you all! You can’t see me, but I can see allllllll of you,” Unknown began, before laughing loudly. “It’s Unknown here, just dropping by to let you have one last little message from your Angel.”

Everyone looked between each other on the screen, and you could see Jumin and Jaehee turn pale because of them being the last RFA members to see you. But… ‘One last little message’…?

“So, Angel… Don’t you love it here with me? At Mint Eye?” He stood up and walked over to you, looking… menacing. But you shook your head.

Then you realised what he meant about the message.

He pinched at your arm, right where you had a bruise from trying to struggle away from him at the apartment. You let out a loud whimper and a slight scream, before giving a panicked “S- Stop it, it hurts!”

“… Wrong answer.”

Unknown then left you alone as your eyes filled with tears, before he cut off the connection with the RFA. He just wanted them… to hear you scream…

All that you could do after that was look down at the floor in shame, giving in to the fact that you were restrained to this uncomfortable chair, a prisoner of Mint Eye, that you were going to be interrogated and forced to take the drug, and that… You probably weren’t going to see the RFA or have freedom again.

As tears began to slip down your face, Unknown returned to you and crouched down on his knees. He did his best to make eye contact with you, giving you the most innocent look he could muster. “Hey… Don’t cry, Angel… You’re Mint Eye’s Angel now, okay? It’s safer for you here than in the RFA…” He took hold of your chin, and made you lift your head slightly. “I have a story to tell you, before I ask you some questions. Saeyoung Choi… That bastard is my twin brother,” he began, bitterness beginning to fill his voice. Your eyes widened at what he said though… 707… His brother… “He abandoned me with our abusive, alcoholic mother just to go with that horrible V guy. Didn’t come back for me. It was our Saviour who saved me… She gave me a home. A sanctuary. That’s what this place is… What Mint Eye is… A sanctuary. A place where people can feel safe… Away from the hell of a cruel society. Capitalism, the lies of the media… Everything. That’s what we aim to give people…”

“Liar! Saeyoung doesn’t have a brother, and Mint Eye is just a gang borderline turning into a drug-fuelled cult trying to destroy the city! Well guess what, sunshine? We’re going to destroy you. Even if it means I sacrifice myself for-!!!”

A sharp pain hit your face, before a sudden impact sent the chair falling backwards. You hit the back of your head on the metal of the chair, but your attention was quickly diverted to the sudden force being applied to your stomach with his foot.

“Shut up, pain in the ass… Trust me when I say that I know some pretty fucking painful ways to torture you without killing you…”

Once Unknown had backed off, you were left where you were on the floor, heavily breathing as you tried to wrap your head around the situation. You wished more than anything that this was just a bad dream – that you’d wake up in the apartment with Jaehee and Jumin, ready to get the vials of that ‘Elixir’ away to be analysed and destroyed…

But god, were you not ready for when you were pulled back up from the ground, for Unknown’s interrogation…

[aj22writes]

Chapter four...

...is gonna be the last one for a couple of days. I want to maintain a little bit of a buffer. In this chapter, we learn about how Sol energy can be used to affect someone’s body. And there’s more fighting. So two cool things.

Chapter Four

Team Beatdown

Vs.

Team Dueling Hearts

This time it was Jen’s turn to be surprised by her opponent’s movements. As soon as the stout man announced the start of the match, Mike seemed to disappear. Despite the fact that Jen routinely trained against the Dueling Hearts, who could move so fast as to appear invisible for a second or so, she was unable to follow Mike’s initial rush. As soon as he flickered out of the range of her vision, he flickered back into it again just in front of her, in time to score a solid right jab to her jaw.

Jen reeled from the hit. There had been a good amount of momentum behind it, and it had left her ears ringing, but it hadn’t had the strength behind it that she’d expected. It had served, however, to allow Mike to once again move out of Jen’s field of vision. This time he could be anywhere in the arena. She didn’t bother looking for him. She knew she wouldn’t find him. Instead she began tracing a shape in the floor again with her foot. However, just as she did, she felt the air stirring to her left. Her feet became wrapped in soft purple light in the same instant that she jumped, sailing several feet into the air, clear over the reaching form of Mike, his fist outstretched. Jen frowned. Her opponent wasn’t going to give her time to draw a sigil this time. She’d have to fight this one the old fashioned way.

Jen reversed the energy in her feet, increasing gravity’s pull on them, and dropped like a stone. Mike, still beneath her, seemed genuinely surprised, but he was able to compartmentalize his surprise and still use his incredible speed to change direction in time to avoid Jen’s attack. Jen’s move had been risky. She’d dropped too fast, and wasn’t able to reverse her energy again in time to soften her landing. She rolled upon impact with the ground, but the fall had still been heavy enough that her left knee now throbbed dully with pain. She could manage it, of course, but it would still serve to slow her down and increase the gap between her opponent’s speed and her own even further.

From the sidelines, Sara, in her usually hostile way, demanded, “How is he doing that? How is he moving so fast? His legs are scrawnier than mine.”

Jo didn’t answer. She’d been wondering the same thing, and just as Sara asked her question, Mike made another high speed lunge at Jen. As soon as he was within reach of her, he wound up and threw his heaviest punch in a downward arch in Jen’s direction. That’s when Jo saw it. Energy crackled along Mike’s body, from his legs to his arms. Jen managed to avoid the strike by a hair, and Mike struck the floor where she’d been standing. The entire arena shook. Then, as Jen spun in place, trying to counter Mike with a kick, he shuffled back, and energy crackled along his body once again, from his arms to his legs, and suddenly he was gone, leaving Jen attacking only air.

“That’s how,” Jo told her sister, her eyes glimmering, impressed. “He’s using Sol energy to augment his speed and power, but he’s using all of it at once for each. So if he wants to move fast, he needs to move all of his Sol energy to his legs, but if he wants to hit hard at all, he has to move it to his arms.”

“That’s crazy,” Tucker said. “I mean, yeah, I use Sol energy to make my attacks stronger too, or to buff up my defense and take more hits, but you gotta commit to one or the other for the whole fight. No one can just shift their Sol around that fast.”

“I’ve known of people who can,” Jo told him. “No wonder Mike seems so undertrained. He’s never needed to improve his physique. He’s trained his Sol so well that he can more than make up for any physical weaknesses with Sol energy alone.”

Jen had noticed this, too. Despite how impossible it must have seemed to her, she’d internalized it and moved on. Immediately, she refocused all of her efforts into staying just ahead of Mike, trying to assess his movements. She wasn’t even trying yet to counterattack. It was remarkable that she was able to keep ahead of him at all, even with her power to decrease the pull of gravity on herself, but despite how impressive she was currently proving herself to be, she was going to slip up eventually.

That’s about when Jen misstepped, just a little, and came down too hard again on her injured knee. It wasn’t enough to take her out of the fight, but it was enough to give her a second’s pause. Mike saw his opening, and moved all of his energy to his arms, just as he threw an uppercut to Jen’s gut. Jen tried to grab onto Mike’s arm, but she was still thrown upward, and gasped as the air left her lungs. Mike moved the energy back to his legs and jumped up to match Jen’s height. He flipped in mid air, and brought his heel downward like an axe. Jen raised her hands to block as much of the impact as she could, but she was still thrown back to the ground, where she bounced hard, her head spinning.

Mike landed, and then sprung back, putting some distance between himself and his opponent, as the stout man began the count. Jen almost stayed down. What little semblance of a plan she had didn’t have much chance of working anyway, but she had a stubborn streak just like her cousins. So at the count of five, she drew herself back up to her feet, took a deep breath, and moved her aching body into a readied stance again. Energy once again wrapped her feet, making her body lighter in preparation for her next attempt at keeping pace with her foe.

“You’re tough,” said Mike, showing genuine appreciation for Jen’s skills.

“And you’re infuriating,” Jen told him, in a tone that said that her words were ones of appreciation as well, “but I think that you’ll be surprised by just how much fight I have left in me, and how infuriating I can be, too.”

Mike smiled, and he rushed Jen again. She dodged, and dodged again. It wasn’t by much, but her teammates noticed that she avoided his attack by more than she had last time, and that Mike’s advance hadn’t been as fast. More surprisingly, though, was that, in that moment, Jen chose to strike back. She threw a roundhouse kick right at Mike’s torso. Mike, as surprised as all who were watching, was too slow, and wasn’t able to change direction in time to avoid it. He was slammed hard in the gut, just as Jen had been moments before, and thrown back, though even now, he didn’t move as far or as fast as he should have.

“What did you do to me?” Mike asked Jen through ragged breaths.

Jen, smirking, replied, “When I grabbed your arm, and again when I reached up and blocked your kick, I passed a little of my energy to you, and then, the moment you moved to attack me again just now, I activated that energy, making the pull of gravity a bit stronger on you. Not as much as I could have with another of the sigils, like I used on your friend, but enough to bring your speed down to my level.”

Mike nodded, “You’re tougher than I expected. You’re the kind of fighter who treats a fight like a puzzle to solve, and with those gravity powers of yours, bringing a faster or stronger opponent down to your level is the first step in beating them.”

Then he smiled in a knowing way and declared, “The only problem is, I’m not on your level.”

The air became charged with energy, and every experienced Sol user in the room knew immediately what Mike was doing. They could feel as he forced the Sol energy and the life energy at the core of his being to mix. His Sol energy exploded. Where the best that the average fighter could do at this point was channel such energy into a quick boost to one attribute, Mike was no average fighter. He was able to hold onto that energy, and his entire body became wrapped in it. Suddenly his entire body was surrounded by a churning white aura. The crowd cheered. Jen took an apprehensive step back, ready to defend against her opponent’s next strike, if she could.

“I don’t get it,” Jo said from the sidelines, considering Mike’s latest choice critically, “from what I can feel, all his aura did was allow him to boost his strength and speed at the same time without having to move his energy around. But that won’t make it any easier for him to hit Jen.”

However, before either Sara or Tucker could respond, there was a surge of static, and the air shifted, as Mike disappeared once again, flickering back into view in the same place that he’d started. Every spectator, save for the other members of Mike’s team, sucked in a collective gasp of air as Jen doubled over, unconscious. The stout man began his count.

“H-he moved even faster than before,” Sara said, fumbling over her words in disbelief.

“A lot faster,” said Tucker, “I-I couldn’t even see when he hit her.” He was trying, and failing, to hide how worried he was. After all, he was the one who had to fight Mike next.

While the two of them wondered how Mike had managed to increase his speed so much again, Jo didn’t have to wonder. She’d managed to follow Mike’s move, if only barely. As the count reached ten, and Jen, just regaining consciousness, was being helped from the arena by one of the Megadojo employees, Jo turned to Tucker and said, absolutely seriously, “Tuck, he can move his entire aura into his legs or his arms. The entire thing.”

“What!?” Tucker exclaimed. He looked again at Mike like he was seeing him for the first time.

“Don’t hold back at all,” Jo told him. “Hit him with everything you have right from the start.”

Tucker, his eyes wide, nodded, and collected himself. He jumped the short distance to the arena, and walked forward, facing off with Mike in the arena center. Mike’s aura was still active, and he didn’t seem to have any problem maintaining it.

Alright, Tucker thought, no holding back. I can live with that.

He smiled his nervousness away, and he concentrated on his energies. The air became charged with even greater quantities of energy, and static flew between Tucker and his opponent. Just as the stout man called for the fight to start, and Mike shot forward at his insane levels of speed, aiming to end this fight as quickly as he had eventually ended the last, heat and light erupted from Tucker’s body. He’d done the same thing that Mike had done. He’d mixed his Sol and life energy, but just like Mike, he wasn’t satisfied with a temporary boost. He’d seized that energy with his entire will. As Mike struck, Tucker actually reacted quickly enough to catch his opponent’s fist. The two warriors were blasted apart by their clashing energies, sliding to a stop forty feet apart. Cheers erupted from the crowd again.

Mike gasped, and suddenly he looked upon Tucker with newfound respect, and a healthy level of concern. He hadn’t been sure that it would work, but Tucker had given it his all, and now he was, himself wrapped in an aura. A fiery aura of swirling red and orange light. It was wilder than Mike’s, and unlike Mike, Tucker was struggling a bit to keep his aura going, and he couldn’t move the energy from his aura around the way Mike could, but Tucker’s aura was bigger.

Tucker grinned at Mike, his eyes flashing with pride, “How do you like that? This is the aura from my fire Sol.”

Mike tilted his head and took a deep, controlled breath, “Should be interesting.”

The two fighters circled each other. Tucker had to push himself as hard as he had ever pushed himself, and then even harder, just to keep pace. The arena floor where his feet touched the ground was left scorched and smoking behind him. Then, finally, after ten seconds or so of sizing each other up, they rushed at each other. They traded blow after blow. Mike fired his fists faster than Tucker was able to, but he wasn’t able to put the full energy of his Sol behind them and still keep up with Tucker as the two of them darted around the allotted space. Still, Tucker felt his stamina decreasing with each punch he threw, and each hit he took. The strain of maintaining his aura was wearing him down. He had to do something quick, or even putting out the full energy of his Sol, Mike was still going to take him apart.

So Tucker amped up his energy again, renewing his aura. It was hard, and he almost lost his aura completely, but it gave him an extra boost of speed, just enough to pull back from Mike and swerve around beside him. Then he sprung up, and threw a heavy kick right at Mike’s head. Mike, using his enhanced speed, sprung to the side, and then forward, slamming both of his fists into Tucker’s torso.

Tucker gasped, but this is what he’d expected to happen. Before Mike had even finished attacking, before he had time to shuffle back out of Tucker’s reach, even with his great speed, Tucker brought his elbow down on Mike’s left shoulder. He put everything he had into that strike, planning to take out one of Mike’s arms, but just because Mike couldn’t move fast enough, that didn’t mean that he couldn’t defend. His aura sprung from his arms, and enveloped his entire body, shielding it. Tucker still hit, and his attack still hurt, but it didn’t do nearly as much damage as he had hoped.

Mike made his move without missing a beat. He lowered his body, and spun in place, sweeping Tucker’s legs out from under him. Then he flickered out of view again. Tucker had no idea where he was, or what he was planning to do, but he dropped into a roll, rather than fall to the ground. He sprung to his feet. Before he could even regain his footing, though, he was knocked forward suddenly. It only took him a second to realize that Mike had gotten behind him and scored a solid kick. Tucker felt the air stir as Mike circled him, preparing to strike again.

It was a long shot. Tucker wasn’t even sure where Mike would attack him from, but his instincts told him that Mike would plan to attack where the kick would send him. So, acting on impulse, he flared up his aura, and stopped mid-air. That same moment, Mike flickered into view just ahead of him, his arm outstretched, wrapped in white light. If Tucker had not stopped, Mike’s attack would have caught him square in the side of his head. He likely would have been knocked out in an instant.

Tucker dropped to the ground, and leaped back up in the same instant. He threw a kick at Mike’s extended torso. He expected Mike to avoid him again, but he didn’t. He kept his aura in his arms, and he deflected Tucker’s kick, with effort, and then stepped in close, catching Tucker by surprise and hitting him square in the center of his chest.

Tucker was knocked backwards. The air flew from his lungs. He huffed, gulping down new air to replace it. He held on to his aura, but only barely. Mike lunged at him again. Tucker was too slow to react this time, and he took one of Mike’s full power hits right to the jaw. Even with his aura up, helping to defend him, Tucker saw stars. Worst of all, though, that was that. He lost his concentration, and as he sailed through the air, his aura disappeared. He landed hard, and the stout man started counting.

Tucker shook his head, trying to clear it. Mike stood in a ready stance several feet away, in case Tucker got back up again, even after everything. Tucker moaned. His entire body hurt. Some of the pain was new. Some of it was old pain from past fights reignited. He almost didn’t get up. He’d fought hard, after all. Mike was just stronger. There was no shame in that. Then, at the count of seven, he looked over, and he saw that Mike was actually breathing hard. Even if he couldn’t win, Tucker was making progress. He shook his head again. Maybe some of that good old Sieger family stubbornness was rubbing off on him, but at the count of nine, he stood up. It drained almost all of the stamina that he had left, but he forced his Sol energy and his life energy to mix a third time, and his fiery aura flickered into existence around him.

He charged forward. His aura flared out behind him, forcing him forward, boosting his speed. At the same moment, Mike charged forward as well. He put all of his aura into his legs for a second at the start of his advance, and then shifted it all into his right arm. Tucker raised his right arm, and, with a moment of concentration, his aura flared brighter. The two threw their punches at the same time. Their fists sailed past each other, and each struck true the other’s jaw. Mike and Tucker sailed apart. Mike managed to keep his footing, though his breathing had become even faster and heavier. His aura flickered. He wiped a trickle of blood from his lip.

Tucker also managed to stay on his feet, though that didn’t last too long. His arms hung heavy at his sides. His eyes were glassy. His aura disappeared again, and he fell heavily to the floor. This time, he stayed down, at least until the count of ten.

Sara was up next. Even with Mike two fights in, and clearly fatigued, the spectators all murmured collectively, wondering what she might be able to do. She was small, and didn’t look very fast or strong. The other Dueling Hearts, however, knew better. Tucker never would have made the choice to stay down if he didn’t know that Sara was more than strong enough to pick up where he had left off. Jo had been on the receiving end of her sister’s cornered badger rage more than once. Jen was convinced that Sara was one of only a handful of people alive that it was always a bad idea for her to piss off. So as Sara made the short trip into the arena, moving with clear purpose, and harsh eyes trained upon her opponent, in the end, the only person whose opinion of Sara actually mattered who wasn’t sure that she would win was Mike himself, and that attitude didn’t do him any favors.

The stout man called for the fight to start. Mike immediately moved to attack Sara. He moved at the closest that he could muster anymore to his full speed, but Sara was ready for him. She felt for the shifting air that signified his movements. She wasn’t entirely sure where he would attack from, but she knew that the attack would come from somewhere on her left. So she shifted in place, and twisted subtly, spinning, acting on instinct to dance around Mike’s incoming strike. In the same motion, she ducked beneath Mike’s outstretched arms, twisted inside his guard, and delivered a tiny elbow right into Mike’s celiac plexus with the force of a sledge hammer.

Mike doubled back, but before he could even recover, Sara pressed her attack. She launched a series of swift jabs in Mike’s direction. Huffing from loss of air, Mike managed to deflect only the first two. He nearly toppled, lashing out one more time with all of his remaining strength. Sara danced gracefully around the attack, spun once on her heel, drawing on the energy of her Sol to kick Mike in the side of the head with everything she had. He tried to defend with his aura, but it wasn’t enough. His aura dissipated, and he fell to the ground. He wasn’t able to stand before the count resolved. Meanwhile, Sara moved to stand ready on her team’s side of the arena, still completely unwinded.

“The score is now tied,” the stout man announced, sounding surprised, “two to two. Will the Dueling Hearts be able to keep up their incredible pace, or will they lose out to the regional champions? Only time will tell!”

Sara smirked, remembering the stout man’s speech outside less than an hour ago, and how he had mentioned Team Beatdown by name, and had not mentioned the name Team Dueling Hearts at all. Now it was the opposite. So as the third Beatdown, the blonde young man, Jason, stepped up to fight her, Sara decided that, stupid name or not, she was not going to let Team Dueling Hearts down. She was going to make sure that they won this thing.

Onward to Chapter Five