Shonen Stars: Core of the Hero

"Er. Right!" Maggie said, taking another quick glance at the body and wincing. He did attack them first, so it the end, it was really only him to blame, right? She left the boy behind, hurrying off in one direction - then immediately turning around and hurrying in the other when she noticed Tsubasa walking off without her.

"I'm - Magnolia, by the way. Maggie. I prefer Maggie. Magnolia sounds like an old woman name. Not that - there's anything wrong with old people! I love old people. I'm just - not one."

She laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her head.

"What's your name? If you don't mind. Telling me, that is."

From ahead, the sound of raised voices echoed, and Magnolia froze.

"What was that?"

"What can I say?" The new combatant  snickered.

"Trickery is sort've my Gimmick." Ripping out another handful of strands they extended into needles; equally, those that already had been sent out submitted to the laws of physics falling down like prior. "I have the advantage, they have to come to me." A simple keep away strategy was all that was needed for these two it seemed. No mobility, nothing inherently worry-some besides that paralysis. But doing this for eight hours if they don't give up? That's boring. 


"Please, do myself a favor? Are you dumb?" The girl took a blind shot using one of the needles where she sorta had an idea where Yuuki was. "All I have to do is runaway! Or you can take your chances with Coach!"  

The plan was to split them up. Take out the paralysis girl then, bully the over confident one. Teach her to respect elders and upperclassmen! The rest of the strands were at the ready in between each finger. Ready to jump out, her plans were suddenly interrupted.


KABOOM!!!!!!


"OH CRAP!"

------

" We got er!" 


Watching Mary capitalize off of this moment was everything they needed to end this exercise! As Coach came crashing down she returned to her senses. Tucking in the bell-holding arm and shifting her way to that side. Shoulder making contact she was able to roll out of harms way narrowly avoiding Mary's axe kick. Launching herself backwards with other her arm as suspension. Julian didn't let up. Reacting to Coach's recovery he assaulted her with an array of punches. Every last blocked with her free hand or dodged effortlessly. 

"Guess I was too soft on you both hm?" Coach gleefully chuckled. After dipping her head around one of his punches she struck his abdomen with an open palm. Not enough time to react the wind had been forcibly evicted from his windpipe. A small shockwave was sent through the air as the impact sounded like a car crash. He was sent tumbling backwards onto his back.

Julian couldn't catch a breath. The imprint of her palm, firmly etched into his chest, as if it was crushing his ribcage. With a solid few attempts a single breath was able to be made.

"You guys are a little better than I thought. That was some excellent teamwork, I applaud you." She nodded.

"So let's do something different." Coach rolled her shoulder then shifted poise. Slightly bent forward, cupping the bell in both hands. With weight on one leg the ground cracked underneath."Fetch."

Her form was perfect, a professional pitcher's even. The keys were slugged, slicing between Mary and Julian like a bullet, into the forest. "I'll give you both a thirty second head start." 
----

KABOOM!


Where the girl was standing a sudden, jingling object with absurd velocity and force shot through the supporting branch. Instinctively forcing her to hop and into open air.

The shouting was, to Maggie's not-so-surprise, more students. Two more students, or maybe three? If the person with the needle-hair attacking them was a student too. Maybe - maybe this was all part of coach's big game. Bring in upperclassmen to fight them in the forest. Thinking back on the boy, she felt a bit bad for braining him with the rock - God, if that was the case, she hoped he was still alive, even if he did want to sue. Stupid, stupid, stupid. The other two, the ones she recognized from the group before, seemed to be in a pretty bad position in this fight. The one girl - with an eye on her mask, gross - was ducking for cover, while the other girl was probably moving in to attack Spikey from below. She thought so, at least. It was kinda hard to focus on her without feeling really, really uncomfortable.

KABOOM!

Something whizzed through the air above Maggie's head, and she yelped, disappearing and appearing with a pop directly between Creepy and Masky. Spikey had jumped off of a space where a tree branch had been moments before, leaping out into the open air.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Maggie shouted, walking backwards away from the fight. "This is - all part of the game thing, right like not an actual fight? Because I was attacked too but I'm not sure if I was actually attacked, and what was that that just flew through the air do one of you have a gun because if you do that doesn't seem very safe though I do guess some gimmicks aren't safe either like yours is your hair needles or something and again sorry if this is part of the whole challenge and I'm messing it all up for you guys right now because I'm very very confused!"

Gasping, she drew a deep breath, wrapping her arms around her waist - just in time for the object that had initially flown past her head to crack against the back of her skull. With a yelp, she toppled forward. A series of machine gun pops echoed through the woods as Maggie appeared in random spots, split-second scenes of her somersaulting forward through the air. Finally, she came to rest facedown in the middle of the clearing, the smoking bell laying in the dirt beside her cheek.

"Ow."

Iris slid into cover behind a large rock, just in time for the world to explode. By reflex, she activated her eye's paralysis effect, focusing hard on everything she could see near the falling hair-needle girl. That was about all she could do at the moment. She knew, intellectually, that whatever had just happened was most likely the result of something Coach had done. But all she could see, as she locked her gaze in place, was an absence. There was a hole in the world she couldn't see, and because she couldn't see it, she'd failed to see what had happened coming.

But she didn't need to plan right now. She just needed to stop the needle-girl, and then maybe get some help for the needles still stuck in her side. If she got that done, then she could maybe reorient from there.

"JULY?!" 

Julian screamed at Mary as she retreated. Her mind was made up to pursue the bell. Using the newfound energy Julian kipped up to his feet. Brushing off dirt, mud and some tenacious blades of grass."It's Julian!" By then Mary had already vanished into the forest. He quickly glanced back at Coach just incase she would try any other tricks.

"Before you go off there's something I'd like to say to you first." Coach said hastily. Halting the young boy at the startup of his sprint. 
Interest piqued he turned to face the woman.

Her face had a grin only could compare to a smug child's...
===

Shit! At the apex of her leap, her body didn't respond and it began its descent down to the forest floor. These brats really got lucky didn't they? Her advantage was stripped by some interfering variable and now she made a mockery of the upperclassmen! Just great! At her peripherals a new figure approached rapidly flanking. But a saving grace showed itself. Mary popped out of the woodwork and was paralyzed! She would be a wall for a very small opportunity.

In that instance she utilized every millimeter of time she had. Her hands joined once more to form a peculiar hand-sign. Crossing over one another she turned her gaze over to the flanking Tsubasa. A pair of small dust clouds appeared next to her. Two identical versions of herself had spawned once the clouds dispersed.

Dust Clone. Her signature ability that creates a perfect mirror image of herself with only dust and dirt particles present on her body, similar to her other technique. 

The two clones maneuvered quickly. They both grabbed strands of hair from the original as she grabbed some strands herself.

Im at my limit, anymore and I'll risk some bald spots!


An all or nothing desperate attempt to open up an escape opportunity after being surrounded.

Needle Rain!

The targets? Everyone. Some would even be sent over at the one known as Maggie. Hair needles were sent into every direction at every visible actor. These were not fatal by no means but they still would hurt quite a bit.

KLANG!

Before the facedown Maggie could be turned into a pincushion, a figure leapt through the forest shrub. Sliding like a baseball all-star across the ground propping himself over her taking the needles in to the back. They were deflected quite easily as Julian used his ability to protect himself. The dirt stained shirt was stripped off wrapped around his waist. His exposed upper body drenched in sweat and glistened in the emerald forest light.

"Whew! Made it in time!" Julian cheered.  He gave Maggie a (relative to himself) gentle shake on the shoulder. "Yo! You still alive?" 

Mary paid no mind as the needles rained on her as they all merely bounced off her skin and did absolutely no damage. Some even went into her eyes, but they too bounced off and only made her eyes tickled. 

However...

The bell, the bellllll! Noooooo

Mary internally screamed while fighting her paralyzed body as Maggie handed the winning bell to Julian. She couldn't believe she's about to lose to that metallic dude!