A Battle of Wills

[Will Stanton]

Will kept backing up--and then ran for the crowd, shrinking down and diving into the crowd, trying to lose Will among the feet and legs of the spectators.

He looked around for somewhere he could hide; something he could do to stay out of Will's way.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Haley squawked, and scampered to one side, trying to get out of the way of Tereza's ice blast. Concentrating, she tried to knock Tereza down with her telekenetic powers, trying to send her sprawling to the floor.

The first blast knocks her onto her back on the mat and she rolls away from the second blast, somehow collecting ice as she goes. When she pulls back up to her feet, her legs and torso are encased in ice and it's starting to spread down her arms. She charges at Haley, skipping slightly as she adjusts her momentum and baseball slides towards Haley, trying to take her legs out.

[Basil Benson]

When Will ducked into the crowd, Basil reacted.

He didn't fully understand the purpose of this exercise and when it seemed one of the participants no longer wanted to be involved, he stood up from his seat and began moving towards the other student quickly.

He didn't know why or what he intended to do at the moment.

[Will Stanton]

The small Will quickly headed for Basil, using the much larger student as a distraction and scurrying behind one of his legs.

[Null]

The bigger Will started peering down the aisles, trying to find where the smaller Will had gone to.

"You're really violating the spirit of the rules here, pal."

[Haley Crusek]

The first blast knocks her onto her back on the mat and she rolls away from the second blast, somehow collecting ice as she goes. When she pulls back up to her feet, her legs and torso are encased in ice and it's starting to spread down her arms. She charges at Haley, skipping slightly as she adjusts her momentum and baseball slides towards Haley, trying to take her legs out.

Haley jumped into the air, propelling herself upwards and out of the way of the slide with a blast of TK that she kept in place long enough to hopefully give Tereza something nice and hard and brick wall-like to slide into. She was overly focused on Tereza while up in the air and trying to keep up the mental static that Will'd requested, and was probably not paying enough attention to anyone else around her.

[Basil Benson]

Basil allowed it and out of fear, instinct, or probably both, Basil reached down and hugged the nicer of the two Wills closely against him to shield him from whatever the aggressor was intending on.

When he did, both of them became invisible to the naked eye, and Will could no longer see Basil or his own body. He only knew the boy was there by the pressure of the hug maneuver he was being held in.

[Samantha McManus]

For the moment Sam looks like she's drowning there where Nailah knocked her. Just writhing, her eyes unfocused.

Sean on the other hand can feel pressure building against the spell, picking up momentum.

[Null]

Will growled, unable to find his counterpart.

"OK, fine, be that way. I'll get you last," he grumbled, rumbling back down the stairs and increasing his size again, barreling towards the ring proper.

[Sean Hall]

"The binding is barely holding her," Sean said before reinforcing the spell against Sam's struggles. A syllable is changed, a word switched out, as Sean grabs a flask from his belt knowing the spell will fail eventually. The adjustments allow the liquid that makes the prison to bleb off to carry away excess pressure. Smaller prisons carrying away portions of Sam's struggles in an attempt to control the pressure.

[Will Stanton]

"Thank you," Will whispered to Basil.

[Vivienne Chinnoir]

The flashing scent of anise worked on Vivienne, her eyes locking onto her own Will, as the smaller fled she took off after barreling through anyone and everyone. Even a certain wizard trying to contain a certain Goddess.

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette had a look of worry when one of the green-haired fighters left the ring, which only grew more worrisome when the second followed them, and them even more so when Basil got up to meet them. As tempted as she was to call out and try to stop him, Colette remembered how Basil had felt after the whole Holly-Dale incident. As much as she wanted to help him she had to let him do this, but that didn't mean she wasn't poised and ready to leap out of her chair at a moment's notice.

Of course, seeing Basil make someone else invisible, even a teeny person, was something new.

You are just full of surprises, aren't you? She thought to herself, settling down when the more aggressive and looming Will turned and stomped back toward the ring. Somewhere a Canadian boy felt fate was very unfair at that moment.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza slams into the TK wall, her armor deforming as she adjusts it up into ramp, launching her out of it and up a bit with the momentum. She drops one hand back as she falls, throwing it forward as a long, impossibly flexible line of ice lashes out towards Haley's ankle, trying to whip snag her and slam her back into the mat.

[Haley Crusek]

Haley had no chance of dodging the lash, distracted as she was trying to blare the most ear-wormy bits of country songs into her opponents heads telepathically. The music was cut off abruptly as she let out a yelp of surprise and went flying through the air, unfortunately directly towards Tereza.

It would take some physics-defying acrobatics (or better-aimed-than-Haley-could-currently manage TK) to prevent them from colliding in mid air and landing in a tangled heap on the mat.

[Basil Benson]

Basil too was surprised, but thankfully his shock didn't cause him to let go.

All he was thinking when he threw himself on Will was that superheroes couldn't hurt civilians, especially in a scenario that seemed to be an ill-advised contest. He didn't expect that to happen.

"Ssshhh."

[Nailah Weaver]

With Sam writhing on the ground from who knows what, Nailah takes the opportunity to throw herself on top of the red-head and tries to pin her to the ground by twisting Sam's arms behind her back.

[Samantha McManus]

Sean's tactic is working for the moment but he definitely gets the feeling he's stretching the working in ways it wasn't intended. And he might be alarmed by the steady warming of the ring he'd engraved it on.

In Nailah's case, while Sam is thrashing she doesn't seem to see the sphinx, and thus it isn't hard to get the redhead's flailing limbs into a pin for a three-count.

But that's when Nailah gets a flash of Sam's body erupting in a pecking, clawing mass of birds.

[Sean Hall]

Sean's tactic wasn't working and as he was thinking through modifications a wolf barrelled through him. It didnt disrupt the spell as it existed that was engraved im a ring. It prevented him from well, making changes to the spell in order to maintain it's tenuous hold on Sam.

Sean recovered from his tumble but lifting himself onto a knee. Other enchantments readying themselves at Sean's increased agitation. Reality groaned and creaked as Sean channeled a mortal-defying amount of energy to himself.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Ah beans!" she 'curses' and jumps up without letting go of Sam's arms, wrenching them back and her up in the process and she beating her wings to lift both of them into the air enough for Nailah to swing Sam by the arms and hurl her towards the ropes. "Heads up for Birds!" she shouts at the top of her lungs to warn her teammates of the imminent Birdemic.

[Null]

Will, returning from the outside of the ring, launched himself up in the air to try to slam Sam back down to the canvas, in suitably dramatic fashion.

[Samantha McManus]

Will finds himself rather suddenly with not much to grab onto, as Sam bursts into a flock of ravens, pecking at him.

Sean's ring is no longer just warm but uncomfortably hot, spider-cracks appearing in the sigil.

[Null]

Will grabbed at a couple of the Ravens with his massive hands, even as the flock found flesh more often than not as they pecked, bloodying the shifter.

"Stop fucking around, or I'll sing a song of sixpence," he spat out between pecks, as he fell to the canvas.

[Sean Hall]

Sean feels the enchantment break on the ring and the ring itself shatters into several pieces in a flash of rainbow light. The pieces make a sound much louder than they should as they hit the ground. Sean watches the flock peck at their teams Will and raises a burned and bloody hand palm facing toward the flock and shouts out a new spell.

Dozens of tendrils of energy reach from Sean to try and pull down parts of the flock.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Haley had no chance of dodging the lash, distracted as she was trying to blare the most ear-wormy bits of country songs into her opponents heads telepathically. The music was cut off abruptly as she let out a yelp of surprise and went flying through the air, unfortunately directly towards Tereza.

It would take some physics-defying acrobatics (or better-aimed-than-Haley-could-currently manage TK) to prevent them from colliding in mid air and landing in a tangled heap on the mat.

With the wolf still being a bit distracted, physics-defying acrobatics were even further out of the question and Tereza collides with Haley with a Danger Room safeties-approved thump. They hit the mat hard in a tangled heap, Tereza scrambling to use all her limbs to try to put Haley into a hold. "I can't believe you're siding with the asshole," she growls-coughs as the yellow irises click back into place.

[Haley Crusek]

"What's so wrong with mine?" she grunted as she wrestled against the girl, "He's been through hell...he's strong...and he's the one that asked me...doesn't just see me as a dumb blonde with a temper..."

She was clearly losing this fight on a physical level, as Tereza had size and a wolf inside her on the tiny Texan. She grit her teeth and supplemented her muscles with TK, pushing back against the holds and slowly building up pressure to hopefully, if she could break any actual grip on her, fling the icy girl across the room.

[Nailah Weaver]

With Sam handed over to her Will Nailah has a moment to look around. One way to end this quickly and fairly decisively she'd seen was to simply get the two Wills into physical contact. It seemed the other one was well aware of that, because she couldn't spot him anywhere. Hiding. Dangit. At this rate he might win just by waiting things out. But that means...

She turns her attention away from the chaos down below and towards the future. A future in which Team Morrigan stands triumphant and... there! Will carefully coming into view out of seemingly nowhere in the stands and the goo girl is running up to him. No, the empty space next to him. The invisible boy! She wobbles a little in the air as the premonition settles into her mind with a searing thump, ghostly cracks of red swimming in her vision. But she saw what she needed to. Eyes slowly focusing back on the here and now she let's them roam across the stands until she finds what she's looking for. A suspiciously empty spot. She descends like a bird of prey that has zeroed in on a rabbit, legs first landing on the 'empty' spot with all her weight and momentum, hoping she's right and she isn't just going to land outside the ring and disqualify herself.

[Basil Benson]

When Nailah got close enough to 'spook the rabbit', a peculiar feeling hit her. To a precog it might be alien, but to a regular person it was the sensation of moving into a room and promptly forgetting why you'd entered that room to begin with.

In a weird way her tactic worked. While 'confuse skill' may have been effective on her momentarily, it certainly wasn't to anyone else with a keen eye and outside of a certain range of Basil.

Basil's empty suit and Will became visible at the scare, and Basil began dragging the other Will.

"C'mon mate!"

[Will Stanton]

Will panicked as Basil grabbed him by the hand.

"Gogogogogogogo!"

[Nailah Weaver]

Mid-descent Nailah suddenly finds herself wondering what she's doing. It's a disturbingly familiar feeling of having forgotten and while she's gotten pretty good at piecing things together, the fact that it hit her so suddenly in the middle of a fight scares the heck out of her. Her momentum keeps carrying her on, but she's no longer bracing for impact or really aiming for anything, instead simply crashing into Basil at Will in a chaotic crash-landing that rattles her as much as her targets.

[Will Stanton]

Will tumbled to the ground along with Basil.

He then reached up, snaking himself around Nailah's legs and turning into heavy iron, to try to cause her to fall all the way to the floor.

[Basil Benson]

Basil indeed went tumbling to the floor, now outside of Colette's line of sight.

[Colette Rosenhof]

"Basil!" Colette roughly pushed her way through the students between herself and where Basil had fallen in her efforts to see if he was alright.

[Nailah Weaver]

Nailah scrambles out of the scuffle by beating her wings, only to find herself anchored to the ground by Will weighing her down.

"You sneaky little... butt. Let go of me!" she shouts, still beating her wings to try and stay airborne at least, though she's not sure how long she can keep herself flapping in place before getting tired.

[Will Stanton]

Will responded by reaching shooting an arm out and wrapping it around one of the chairs for the spectators, trying to anchor Nailah to the ground like some kind of Chain Chomp or something.

"Please land, Nailah; I don't want to hurt you..."

[Basil Benson]

Basil was up on his feet rather quickly, brushing himself clean indignantly.

"This chap clearly doesn't want a fight. Why are you all acting like this?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"Cause! If he doesn't wanna fight then he can just let the other one have the name or tap out!" Nailah says as she rummages through her utility belt until she finds her taser. "Ahah!" she declares before trying to reach down to where Will is wrapped around her legs and zap him.

[Will Stanton]

"Aaararggg!" Will shouted, as the electricity coursed through him, causing him to rapidly (and randomly) change shape and mass, letting Nailah slip free.

Interestingly, it also caused the green computer lights running up and down his side to flash faster and faster...

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette was on Basil almost as soon as he was to his feet, her hands on his invisible face.

"Oh Basil, are you hurt?" She glared back at Nailah.

"All zis... is over a name?!"

[Nailah Weaver]

"What? Wasn't my idea and if you're helping then you're clearly not just a spectator!"

Nailah yanks her hand back and tosses the taser aside to avoid getting zapped herself as she reaches for the shifting mass and lifting it into the air, beating her wings to rapidly gain height.