• S E V E N •

"I was not made to be subtle."

• • •

"So, what do you say?" He asks, sticking his arm out.

Grinning, I clasp his hand. He returns the grin, his brown eyes gleaming.

"Deal."

Together, we walk into the ring that is separated from the crowd for their safety as the announcer calls, "Today we have the newcomer, Raven, and Dodge! It seems they have made a deal! Let's see what happens with this fight!"

I adopt a fighting stance and the fight starts. Dodge turns his skin to stone and cocks an eyebrow at me as if waiting for me. I smirk and tip my head back. Closing my eyes, I open my mouth. Stones fly out of my mouth and hover in the air as my skin turns to stone. Turning your skin to stone is a skill that is tricky for those with earth powers. Creating stones is almost unheard of. Dodge pales, his eyes wide.

I love it, you know. That moment when they realize that I am stronger than them. That I will win. I know that I am not the best, it just isn't a realistic thought. There will always be someone better than you. However, I do love the thrill of winning. I will fight hard to win, but I will accept it if someone truly is superior, I'm not a sore loser.

We had agreed that we would both use earth powers. Dodge realized that I had multiple powers and would win easily and came up with the idea. I agreed, knowing that I have been trained in every power that I have, except shadows, that one I had to teach myself with the knowledge I knew of the other powers and experimentation. This way, it is a closer of a match. I love to win, but I also love a challenge.

I fling my hand forward sending the stones flying at Dodge. The slam into him, but his stone skin takes most of the damage. He sprints toward me, trying to tackle me. I drop to the ground on my back just before he gets to me and drive my feet into his gut to propel him further past me. He sails past me and I scramble to my feet and get to him right as he is standing up again. Not giving him time to recover, I throw punches at, but they don't do much. His stone skin protects him from the majority of my punches and my stone skin protects my fists as they hit him. I give up trying to punch him and he does the same, hitting the same problem.

Then I screw up.

I think.

Some people do better when they think in fights. They need to plan their movements right before they execute them and keep emotions from the fight.

Others, like me, can't think. I have to rely on my instincts and training. Emotion propels me. Thinking only slows me down.

Dodge takes advantage of my mistake and snakes out a hand and grips me by the throat. He has had training as well and does not hesitate. He squeezes, trying to choke me until I pass out, just as I did with Dove in my last fight.

The stone helps protect me, but the lack of air makes it so I can't focus and can't break myself free properly. I thrash around and try to kick him as my fingers scrabble at his hold. I am not scared, though.

I am enraged.

Screaming a terrible and breathy scream, I throw everything I have into my earth power and take hold of his stone before he even notices. I soon have control of him, something that no one has ever done. No one has ever taken control of someone else's stone, and certainly not the stone of their skin. Using the earth power, I clench the stone, tightening his skin until he is gasping for air himself.

I almost don't stop.

But control is oh so important.

The last time I lost control, I killed people. Some deserved to die a thousand deaths, the others didn't. They didn't deserve to die at all.

I release the power and it floods back into me all at once. Staggering back a step, I blink at the force of the power. There seems to be more of it. No. There is more of it.

I look at Dodge whose skin is pale, not stone. His chest is rising and falling, showing me that he is alive. But he no longer has his power.

I have it.

I panic. No one has ever done anything like that. Stealing a power is impossible, yet I just stole his power. I don't even want it! I can barely control the power that I have!

The room spins around me and I do the only thing I think of. Flight. The fight is drained from me so I flee.

The shadows burst free of me, an inky sort of cloud that floats away, even as the shadows drip from it. It is a dripping black fog that surrounds me fully until I am no longer human, but shadow. I quickly disappear, becoming one with the shadows of the room. From there, it is easy to travel. Using the shadows that are everywhere, I quickly reach home and the shadows slip into me once more and I am back to normal.

But I am not normal.

I just stole someone else's power. I have an idea of what it would be like to lose my power. Awful. I might as well have just killed him. What is life without the thing that gives you life?

Besides, how on earth am I going to control this? I can't pretend to be normal when I've just grown even more powerful!

A side of me delights in the fact that I am now stronger. Stronger than they ever were. But I shake that off quickly. No.

Nothing good will come of this.

I walk into my kitchen and drink a glass of water slowly, something that has always helped me calm down. Setting the glass down, I plan. First order of business, finish the fight. I need to go back in time for the rest of my fights. Then, I will figure the rest out, I guess.

Morphing back into shadow, I am able to quickly get back to the entrance of the gym.

Gingerly, I reach up and make sure my wig is properly in place and pull open the door to the gym once more and head to find Flynn.

"Raven!" He cries. "I'm so glad you're back! Your next fight is up! It is a no powers fight in the upper ring. Everyone had been talking about your dramatic exit. Keep doing what you're doing and you'll make it to the top in no time."

I grin, relieved that I am not in trouble for running out of there.

After putting on hand wraps and taking my shoes off, I quickly stretch and bounce a little in place and then hurry into the ring where a huge man stands. He is even taller than Darkon who is about seven feet tall. In fact, he looks similar to Darkon. His hair is shaved and he has piercings, but they have similar facial features. Except for the cruel sneer that Wolfgang is wearing.

A wave of rage spreads through me.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Darkon said that his brother's name was Amadeus. He didn't say what he's done, but I can take a guess. I am positive that this is his brother.

It takes all I can to wait for the announcer to start the fight. A snarl works its way free as the announcer talks. All I see is Amadeus. And red. So much red. Anger is all I know. How dare he hurt Darkon?!

The second the fight starts, I attack.

There will be no holding back.

I will not use my powers, though.

Not only is it not allowed, I want to feel his blood on my fists.

He throws punches at me, but I am far faster. I dodge them easily, getting closer to him. He doesn't have enough room to throw a punch so he backs up. I get closer, throwing punches to his abdomen until I have him cornered. Drawing near, I get close enough to unsettle him but stay far enough away to have room. I throw a massive uppercut that knocks his head back and I see blood come out of his mouth.

A feral smile lights my face at the sight of his blood dripping out of his mouth. With a roar of pain and fury, he throws punches at me, landing each one, not holding back at all. My head snaps back as one connects with my jaw. Blood fills my own mouth and I look at him and grin, revealing bloody teeth. Fear fills his eyes as he understands.

I've been toying with him this whole time.

"You're a psychopath," He breathes, undiluted terror filling his face.

I spit my blood to the side.

"I prefer creative."

Now that he is tired and terrified, it is my turn. Going on the offensive, I throw a straight punch to his solar plexus, causing him to stagger back. I turn in a roundhouse kick that connects with his jaw. I'm pretty sure I dislocated his jaw. A mangled and tortured scream bursts out of him.

Music to my ears.

He doesn't do anything to stop me now so my jab hits his nose squarely and I hear a noise similar to a crunching or a cracking. A noise I've heard often from myself and others.

He stumbles, falls, and hits the ground with a heavy thud. Wasting no time, I straddle him and throw punches. I've done enough damage to his face. Now, I am hoping for a few broken ribs. I don't pull my punches and delight in the pain that erupts in my knuckles with each hit. He is strong and each punch hurts, but I know that they hurt him far more than they hurt me. Wolfgang doesn't lose consciousness, much to my delight. He is awake and screams with each hit. Maybe he is in too much pain to pass out, I don't know. I'm certainly not a doctor.

A solid hit to his gut causes him to throw up all over the mat and finally pass out. I stop there. I don't want to kill him. No, this will be like a present to Darkon. A payback for all the horrible things that he has done to him.

Standing up, I grin at the huge crowd that is once again silent.

I guess they didn't expect me to beat their champion. The announcer has snapped out of it yet. With a shrug, I climb out of the ring and head to the bathroom to wash his blood off of my hands. I toss the blood-soaked hand wraps in the trash can and rinse my hands off and look in the mirror.

Wolfgang got a good hit there. All the others are on my torso which will make it painful to move, but it will be easier to conceal. My jaw isn't too swollen, thankfully. Once I have at least of the majority of the blood off, I leave to go find some ice. I need to keep the swelling down so it will be healed enough by Friday to cleanly cover up with makeup.

Heading out of the bathroom, I walk into the gym and see a freezer tucked into a corner. Not really worrying about getting in trouble, I pull it open and break off a chunk of ice out of the bag of ice in there and hold it to my cheek while I stretch a little so my muscles don't stiffen up.

I stride back to find Flynn who comes running down the hall and breaks into a grin when he sees me.

"Raven!" He exclaims. "That was incredible! You just took down our undefeated champion."

"No, I'm the undefeated champion now," I correct.

"Exactly!" Flynn laughs. "Now, listen. I have one more fight lined up for tonight, but it won't be for a couple hours. I guess I should say lined up for this morning. Go ahead and do whatever, be back by two."

I nod and ask, "Elemental or no powers?"

"Elemental," He hedges. "If you are okay with it, we're going to have you go against our champion elementalist."

"Perfect," I purr.

I head out with a wide smile. One fight and I can be the champion of both the elemental and nonpowers divisions.

One fight.

• • •

Q: Hot chocolate, tea, or coffee?

A: Iced or blended coffee... I don't really like hot drinks or tea.