Bring The Heat

4. VS Rebound! Pt 2

Wren stood in the arena, excited. Rebound stood across from her, in the same black shirt and jeans as her, except he was holding a red rubber ball. She had been showed her new room, which was honestly pretty cool, and given a change of clothes. They were told to wait until they were calibrated or something, she wasn't really listening. She was still bloodthirsty from the chess game she lost. On the shirts were big white symbols.

"New logos?" Cece asked BM, the both of them watching from a surveillance room with an intercom mic.

"Yeah. Thoughts?"

"Eh. Looks pretty cool."

Cece sipped vodka straight from the bottle, unflinchingly and quite bored.

Wren analyzed the arena. It seemed to be in a kind of plus shape, with a flat plane she and Rebound stood on, and an overpass going horizontally between them, which had a lot of shrubbery, trees, and rocks on it. She couldn't see a clear way up, though. Wren noticed Rebound doing stretches, so she copied him.

"Attagirl. This is gonna be one hell of a workout for you, newbie." he jeered cockily from across the arena.

BM buzzed over the intercom.

"Remember the rules! Rebound, hold off Wren at any cost! Wren! Stop his attack! Ok, on my mark... aaaaaaand... GO!"

Rebound shot forward, but he didn't seem to be running at Wren. She stood in a defensive position, and watched as he ran off to the corner of the overpass. She lost sight of him behind a wall, and kept her eyes fixated on his last known position. Suddenly, from up on the overpass, a ball flew at her at incredible speed!

Wren gasped and flung her hand out in front of her. A massive explosion erupted from her hand, sending the ball flying away. Her hand shot back in recoil. But, even though she had just shot it away... the rubber ball burst through the cloud of smoke, headed right back at her again! It smacked violently into the bridge of her nose, knocking her backwards with blood gushing down her face. Her nose was... broken? What the fuck! The ball bounced right from Wren's face straight back into Rebound's hand.

Wren got back up gradually, realizing that Rebound must have been the guy who could control how a thrown object bounces with his mind that BM had described before. She cradled her hand, burning hot and aching from the blast. BM buzzed over the intercom.

"If you create the blast directly from your hand, you're gonna hurt yourself a lot. Channel it through the ground like before!"

Wren grunted. It didn't matter anymore. She was injured, and super pissed! Her explosions would be huge now... She took advantage of Rebound letting his guard down as she recovers to run to a rocky outcrop. Just as she reached the cover, the ball zipped right past her head, bouncing off of the floor, the back wall, then right back to Rebound's hand. She thought about this, how he could've made the ball shoot into the rocky outcrop, and taken a chance at hitting her. He wasn't playing it carefully though, he was a cocky guy... so why not take the chance if he could just bring the ball straight back to his hand? There must be a limit to his power... maybe if he lost sight of the ball... but no, he bounced it off of Wren's face through the smoke... maybe... he had limited bounces before he lost control?

Before she could think it over any longer, she heard footsteps fast approaching. Rebound was running straight at her! Wren briefly considered channeling a blast through the ground, but with the speed of the footsteps, she knew she didn't have the time. She turned out of cover and let off an even bigger blast! ...at a pair of rocks skittering across the ground. Wren prepared another blast, waiting for the ball to burst through the cloud of smoke again. She heard rubbery bouncing on the wall to her left, and didn't have time to react before THWACK! The ball smashed into the side of her head! Wren fell to the ground, ears ringing and teeth gritted with pain.

She got up again, slowly, blood and tears streaming down her face, her hand seriously messed up now. BM buzzed over the intercom.

"Remember to channel the blasts through the ground, Wren! That'll take the stress off of your han-"

"QUIT TOYING WITH HER, ASSHOLE! GO EASY ON HER!" Cece yelled furiously to Rebound, stealing the intercom mic, and slightly tipsy.

Wren screwed her eyes shut in pain... but refused to seem weak in her first test! She looked up at Rebound, the fire in her eyes ablaze, and screamed;

"DON'T YOU DARE GO EASY ON ME!"

Rebound smirked. He knew he was going to win, quite easily as well. But Wren was undeniably resilient, and he respected that.

Wren had a plan. She had to execute it perfectly, though... she wasn't sure how many more hits she could take. She just stood there, in the open plane, watching not Rebound, but the ball in his hand. They both just waited. Silence fell over the arena. Once the last cloud of dust had settled, Rebound struck!

Now Wren had kept count of every bounce of the ball that had happened so far; Rebound had never let it bounce more than three times in one go. She assumed this was his limit. Rebound threw the ball. It flew right at Wren... and she dodged at the last second! The ball whizzed right past her head. She spun to watch it bounce, and it did so, right back at her! But she had predicted this move!

It had bounced back at her after passing her, so now Wren stood between Rebound and his ball. She slammed her fist down onto the ground, and sent a blast straight up, deflecting the ball away inches from her face! It bounced off the wall she had sent it flying to, only to come flying right back at her. Again, she slammed the ground, sending up an even taller geyser of flames that sent the ball right back at the wall! And there it was... the third bounce. Even higher up the wall. Could Wren's blasts reach that high?

This time, the ball went straight back towards Rebound - but Wren had this all planned out! She had positioned herself perfectly between the ball and Rebound! She mustered all of her strength, and slammed the ground a third and final time... the moment of truth... and it went flying back to the wall once more!

But Rebound just smirked again. It was a good effort, but she didn't know. She had no idea that there was a fourth bounce, he thought... however, Wren was smart. She didn't just understand the three bounces; no, she also reasoned that there was no way the initial throw could possibly reach her, and so accurately, from Rebound's distance - and theorized that the accurate initial shots were actually him dropping the ball on the edge of the overpass and controlling its bounce from there, which is why the other shots were much stronger and more accurate than the throw he just made. This meant that there was a fourth bounce!

Wren's hand was still sprawled out on the ground. She took a deep breath. Hold... hold... she heard the fourth bounce. And release! She channeled a blast right into the ground... and straight back up from under her! Everyone gasped in awe. She went cartwheeling up in the air, and at the peak of her jump, shot her arm up as far as she could! The muscles in her arm stretched as hard they could... she saw the ball... she saw her open hand... time seemed to move in slow motion. And then... SLAP!

Wren fell back to the ground limply, disappearing into the cloud of smoke and dust below her. Everyone was frozen, watching. Rebound's mouth hung open. BM was leaning fully forward in his chair. Cece bit her lip and tapped her foot in anticipation. The cloud cleared. Wren was lying face down on the ground. And then... there was movement! Wren slowly rose, until she was standing, looking like she was about to collapse again. She cleared her throat of mucus and blood. She lifted her head to glare at Rebound. The fire in her eyes scorched a hole right through him. She raised one arm to point at him, and the other high in the air... HOLDING THE BALL!

Everyone was shocked! Rebound was... stunned. His weapon was taken, and he had been disarmed...

Wren's yell echoed around the arena;

"I HAVE STOPPED YOUR ATTACK!"

She wheezed breathlessly, and fell to the ground, victorious.