Darkness encases the arena, but as light sheds back, we find the place transformed. We sit behind the class enclosure, watching the scenery like an electronic screen. A dim, white light washes the air. Garnet and Ivan stand idle in the bedroom of some girl. The walls are a delicate pink. Her bed is white wood with golden carved angels. Pillows encase her sleepy head and four posts go up and encircle her with a canopy. The floor is a freshly waxed wood, light in color. A woman sleepily wakes up in the bed, she squints. Her face turns red.
"The Death around started today! I'm not ready! I have to put on my makeup!" she whines. Her arms and legs flail in the covers, she starts a tantrum like a child. She pouts her bottom lip out.
"I'm ready to fight," Ivan teases.
"It's not good manners to just barge into a lady's room," she huffs, crossing her arms over her chest. She sighs and morphs a pink ball in her fingers. It explodes with delicate sparkles and champagne colored smoke. After the smoke dissipates, her face is coated with a fresh layer of makeup.
"Are you just gonna take forever getting ready?" Garnet sneers, undoing her cape and dropping it to the ground. The cigarettes stumble out of the box. She touches her mechanical one to her lips, blowing a ring of smoke into the woman's direction.
"I was just waking up," she growls, glowering her eyes and forming a yellow, raging ball of magic in her palms. Her face becomes an ugly scowl. Mona's raises her fist into the air, the magic ball balancing delicately on her knuckles, "Luminescence Burst!" The light explodes in the air, sending Ivan flying onto his back. Garnet scrambles to keep her balance.
"Smokestacked Garnets," and Garnet lifts her mechanical cigarette to her lips, sucking in a huff and billowing out a column of smoke large enough to encase her body. Then, a floor of smoke poofs into the arena, spouting out eight more copies of Garnet. "Which one of the us is real?" she teases, sticking out her tongue. The copies make stupid faces as they circle Mona, striking a small cord in her.
"Bitch!" Mona cries and materializes eight light ball bombs, cradling them in her arms. She rolls on to a random Garnet. The Garnet poofs up in a spew of smoke.
"Missed me!" they laugh in unison. Mona spends the next four balls, exploding fake Garnets and enduring her spunky teasing. Mona's face turns red, her eyebrows push together. The intensity of being teased by such a "vain and weak" looking girl infuriates Mona. Garnet presents herself as a ditsy, dumb, vain, and slutty girl. She's up with sunshine to do her makeup. She comes to jobs with a full face on. She came to the Death Round looking flawless. Her eyebrows are penciled in to a point. Her pout is painted red. Shimmery bronze eyeshadow sparkles and contoured cheeks could cut the competition. Garnet's fighting, however, is not as structured. She makes crude remarks to distract the Column. Her cheeks squeeze and crunch, making stupid faces that infuriate Mona. Mona is a Column, after all, and someone like Garnet should be an easier battle. Mona throws the fifth light bomb and hits another fake Garnet.
"Bitch!" Mona growls, losing her cool. In that moment, Mona seems to forget about pursuing Garnet and decides to strike Ivan instead. Without warning, she throws a light bomb at him. The glow explodes. Shiny fragments of light tackle Ivan's body. But, he worked quick enough to muster a shield. Using the Invisible Hand, he created something quick and large to block out a bit of Mona's attack. The sleeve on Ivan's blazer singes off. His hands are burnt.
"Yikes," he mutters.
Mona chucks another bomb at him.
"Catch!" he cheers, snatching the bomb with Invisible Hand. He proceeds to then return it back to Mona. She laughs and catches the ball with her bare hands.
"Doesn't work. I'm immune to the bombs," she brags, flipping a lock of obsidian hair. While Ivan and Mona are distracted with their bickering, Garnet stumbles around on her knees toward her cigarettes. Her decoys still stand idle. Garnet crouches to light one with the sparkling embers on a pile of a fake Garnet.
"Ugh! Please light!" Garnet complains. She eventually lets it catch. The cigarette becomes alit. She brings it to her lips and retracts it with a white trial of satisfaction.
"Oh my gods," I complain, from the bleachers, "is she seriously taking a smoke break?"
"That girl, I swear!" Azure sighs, rubbing her temples.
"Garnet!" Rave Tempest cries out, all at once. Behind Garnet, stands Mona, morphing a light in her hands.
"A Thousand Blazing Chariots!" the arena becomes a wave of yellow light. It feels like I'm looking directly into the sun. My retinas are burning. The heat of the bomb makes me sweat. A fire erupts from the bomb and an enormous fabrication of light vaporizes Garnet into a pile of stark ashes. The grey matter smokes on the ground.
"Garnet!" Ivan cries out, clasping his hand over his mouth. His cheeks quiver.
"One down, one to go!" Mona remarks, swaying herself toward Ivan.
"Missed me again!" Garnet's voice sneers.
Mona turns around, faced with the remaining Garnet decoys. One of them poofs into smoke and the real Garnet remains standing. She laughs, slapping her knee. "Ivan? Are you crying?" she wheezes, "I'm not that stupid, you know!"
"But, you just," Mona stammers, glancing at the smoke remains of a decoy.
Garnet places the mechanical cigarette to her lips, "I'll burn myself to burn you." She sighs, with some passion in her eyes. She inhales a lug of smoke and breathes out a spew of fire. The flames erupt in a arc of singeing fire. The fire encircles Garnet and Mona together. Mona prepares a light shield that pushes the fire further back into Garnet. She becomes encased in her own flames. Her follow screams fill the arena. Her pain echoes off the concrete walls. The flames die down and she drops to her knees. The chin is to her chest, but she slowly brings it up. Her skin is as red as the cherry blossoms in a newfound spring. Raw cuts and boils form across her face, caking her face in an array of burn scars. Hot,
salty tears roll down into those wounds. She clutches her arms for comfort, but those too, are covered in layers of peeling skin. They crust and flake off. The hood and sleeves of her cape lay on the arena floor, covered with terrible embers.
"Smoking is bad for your skin," Mona mutters. Garnet cries on the ground, shaking in her own unbearable and unstoppable pain. Mona glares down to her, as if she is dirt. She kicks her chest with the heel of her boots. Puncturing a small wound in the middle of her chest. Garnet sobs, like a baby, falling over to her side. I realize how strong and brutal the Columns will be. Mona raises her hands above her head and then draws then to her chest, creating a second red hot bomb to finish off Garnet. She prepares to launch it. But, within the nick of time, Ivan shoves Garnet away. He successfully rids her of harms way, but he was unable to save the last bit of himself. His hands become isolated within the core of the explosion. It burns off his hands, creating bloody and charred nubs. He groans for second, blowing on the tips to numb the pain.
"Your friendship makes me sick," Mona sighs, preparing the last blast.
"Hekatonkheires!" Ivan cries out in the pursuit of his pain. He sits on his knees, throwing his arms to the air. Ripping his lungs from his voice. The loudness erupts the inside of the arena. His voice channels hundreds of Invisible Hand to Mona. The hands weave in the air, like blue wisps circling to a fixed target. The pull Mona back. The fingers claw at her face, pulling her skin. The dig into the corner of her eyes. They wrap around her neck. They sink into her mouth and push down to her throat. They pin her to the edge of her bed posts by her ankles. The stretch her arms until she cannot physically go any further. The fingers pull into her chest, cracking her ribs open. They grab her heart and squeeze it like a grape until blood squirts all around the the clean, light colors of her bedroom. The hands crumble and Mona falls to the ground. Her face grays and the reeking scent of her body intoxicates the small enclosure of the room. Tears are left permanent on the shocked expression stuck on her countenance.
Garnet and Ivan fall to their backs. They face each other with a small grin plastered on their faces. A fist raises into the air, "we won."
