Tru Grit’s Fight Pits: First Tourney (Pt. 4)- A Psionic Second

--- Maya Williams ---

Shoving the (idiot infidel) announcer out of mind, she readied her Hand Cannon by cycling one of them to Light, fully intent on taking advantage of the fact that her opponent’s psionic shield seemed to only affect the corporeal.

Opposite her her opponent made their own pre-fight preparations if more subtly so, because while the psychic clearly kept their hands in their pockets her inner Madness assured her that, (They’re doing something with their power.)

(How do you know?)

(There’s a subtle shift in our magnetoreception.) The more insane of her voices explained.

(Is that a real thing or…?)

(Difficult to say.) Her inner logic admitted. (Humans have an ability to pick up electromagnetic fields, but it’s also not one of our primary senses, so…)

Her inner madness cut in to elaborate, (It’s not really in a noticeable range for your conscious mind, but I can see it in your subconscious sensory stuff. Can’t tell you what it’s doing, but I can tell you something is happening.)

Given how her opponent’s psionics were invisible, (That’ll have to do.)

The moment the fight was signaled to begin she fired off a Burst() of light in front of her while closing her eyes and running forward, intent on making her opponent flinch long enough that they wouldn’t be able to- watch her run face first into an invisible wall.

She stumbled back a step as she shook her head clear. (Fuck!)

(Hey, I warned you they were doing something.) Her inner passion reminded her.

(And we did see them pull a similar stunt on their previous opponent.) Her inner reason pointed out, at the same time the announcer underlined that detail about the same trick working on two different M.A.D.s.

(Offer to kill him is still on the table~)

(Considering it.)

Deciding to try something else, she cycled one of her Hand Cannons to sound before unleashing a burst of both sound and light hoping one of them would break through her opponent’s shield.

The psychic covered their eyes to try and shield them with one hand even as they held the other up in what she figured was an attempt to maintain the shield that visibly rippled under the assault of light and sound.

A reaction that had her repeating her attack again and again in an attempt to wear her opponent out, even as her own attacks left her blind and deaf to the world around her. So many back to back blasts hurting her eyes and ears more than the stand alone blasts would.

(Note to self, build light and sound shielding into the mask…)

(Noted!) Her inner Madness yelled despite being inside of her head.

Risking a peek while she was forced to reload her hand cannons, she watched the psychic drop to their knees before sweeping their hand across the ground.

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(Why’d they-) Her thought was cut off as kinetic force hit her legs sending her crashing to the ground as she was knocked off of her feet. “Shit!‘

As Maya began to pick herself off the ground she was able to see her opponent pulling their arms back in what she assumed was a build up for an even bigger blast. (Nope!)

Giving up on getting up and her opponent was going all in on offense, she instead dropped back to the ground and quickly fired both of her freshly loaded Hand Cannons at the psychic.

The shield around the psychic visibly flared once more, only this time instead of holding firm, several cracks appeared in the brief moment her light rippled across it. An effect that was underlined as the other teen winced and stumbled back a step, even as they maintained the now visible kinetic energy building between their hands.

(Got to go all in.) She decided before firing off everything left in her Hand Cannons’ battery clip.

After the third shot her cannons gave off their reloading ping as they siphoned power from her COMP to recharge. Something that would’ve left her completely vulnerable to the psychic’s assault if the shattering of their shield didn’t force them back another step disrupting their building attack.

Refusing to let her opponent catch their breath, she quickly rolled back onto her feet before in a surge of adrenaline rushing forward and tackling the psychic to the ground.

Quickly climbing on top, she pinned her opponent to the ground and raised a freshly loaded Hand Cannon before firing it into the ground next to the psychic’s head. “Surrender?”

The psychic blinked up at her, their eyes dazed and a little out of focus as a splotch of red began to build on their mask, “Wha?”

She couldn’t help but grimace, as she realized she’d probably given the other teen a concussion in that tackle. “Do you give up?”

Her opponent slowly blinked once more before giving a brief struggle as if seeing if they could throw her off, during which she let her Hand Cannon threateningly hum.

“Fuck…” The other teen cursed as they let their head fall back. “Yeah, I give… Headaches growing too much…”

With that worrying statement, her opponent tapped the ground three times signaling to the announcer that they were forfeiting.

“And our mystery M.A.D. wins their second bout!” The announcer’s voice proclaimed as those watching gave their applause as she stood up. “This puts them in first place amongst our newcomers and sets them up for their first fight against a returning competitor next round!”

(Oh, right… That’s going to be interesting.)

(At the very least they’ll give us more of a challenge than our previous opponents.) Her inner reason agreed.

She glanced down at them as they sort of just sat there with a dazed look on their face. (Which given how much of a fight this one gave us…) She was going to have to be smarter if she wanted to win the next round.

Deciding that was something she could think about during her break she instead focused on the clearly concussed teen in front of her, “Hey, uh, you okay? You’re looking a little out of it.”

The psychic blinked up at her before nodding. “Yeah... brain damage ‘ll heal in… a few minutes…”

“Brain damage?” She frowned, thinking that was something that would take longer than a few minutes to heal.

“Uh-huh.” Her previous opponent nodded. “Psychics damage our brains with our… powers and then heal it… stronger…”

“Not sure if that’s how it works…” She admitted, eyeing as the medic made their way onto the field.

“It does.” The psychic assured her as they tried and failed to pick themselves up. “Okay, room is… spinning a bit fast…”

“Brain damage will do that.” She grimaced, a cautious look at the medic.

“I’ll take care of them from here.” The medic promised as they crouched over the psychic teen and began doing some light examinations, such as shining a light in front of the teen’s eyes. “Definitely got a concussion, but you’re a psychic so you can probably walk it off.”

(So that is a thing.)

“Told you.” The psychic smirked, having possibly read her mind.

(I don’t believe they did.)

(Yeah, it’s too cluttered in here to read anything.)

“We need to get this mask off of you. Even if you can walk the concussion off, holding the blood from your nosebleed to your face isn’t a good idea.” The medic warned the teen before giving Maya a pointed look. “And unless they say otherwise, you aren’t allowed to see their face.”

“Right, got it.” She nodded, hands raised as she turned away from the pair. (I need to figure out what I’m doing with this break anyway.)