I was up Juggy’s back as he was suddenly down on one knee and leaning on his right hand to avoid falling over. My knees were just below his shoulders as I raised my hands, and cut sideways.

The bolts keeping his domed helm on were sheared right through by Versatile Strike. I promptly dug my fingers under the edge and heaved, tearing his helmet right off the remaining bolts in front and throwing it away, revealing a rather small head with a leathery mask underneath, the first time it had ever been caught on film.

“Shit!” He got his balance and reached up for me, just as I somersaulted down in front of him and put one hand on his chest, pulling back my right hand as his grasping hands froze above his head, totally out of position.

“Oh, shit,” he mumbled, his mask not about to provide him enough protection from what was about to come as he stared into my face.

Hey, I didn’t do Piston Punches, but I could totally play his head like a 300-mph punching bag with an adamantium gauntlet, my other hand holding him in place so he didn’t bounce away.

WHAMWHAMWHAMWHAMWHAMWHAMWHAM...

The concussion from the hits drove the ref back and away, and I continued for a solid fifteen seconds at ten blows a second into Juggy’s face as his head bounced around, not missing a single hit.

His huge arms fell to his sides, and I paused, ready to hit him again.

His eyes were rolled up into his head, his face a bruised and bloody mess, and I let him go.

True to his trope, he fell forward as I stepped aside, and he hit the ground, not moving.

“TKO AND MATCH TO DYNAMO!” the ref yelled out excitedly, maybe just a little impressed.

Several of the guys I was going to beat on had already lost to Juggernaut. Perhaps they’d kept their cockiness when I hammered on Hero and Wonder Man, but this was something else.

I had steamrolled Cain Marko, who most of them couldn’t even hurt.

I walked back to my place in the center ring, as we hadn’t moved all that far, while a couple Students hurried forward to carry the Juggernaut out of the ring.

I could sense the Abomination staring at me very intently, indeed. Technically, Juggernaut was currently rated higher than he was, as Juggy was even more unstoppable and had taken over his place in the main tranche, right below me. He was now wondering if I had a way to get around his invulnerability like I had Juggy’s force field, and if so, how fast I was going to take him out.

I unstuck the half-bracer and overglove adamantium Fist substitute from my forearm and hand, and flexed my fingers. The skin on my knuckles had broken after so many impacts so fast against the bones of Juggy’s skull.

I flexed my hand as the ref watched. “Need a minute, Lady Dynamo?” he asked courteously.

“Yeah. He had a pretty hard head.”

------

Six more varied unconscious aliens later...

The red and yellow outfit showing all his muscles was an eye-catcher, but his expression was ambivalent as he came out for his turn at the prize.

“Colossus?” I asked, extending my hand to the dark-haired guy. He was about my age, naturally six and a half feet tall, built both solid and athletic, close to the human ideal. Would’ve made a decent defensive lineman, or soccer goalie.

“Da!” he replied, taking my hand firmly. Just human strength at the moment. “A pleasure to meet you after seeing you in action, Dynamo! You have been very impressive!”

“Thanks! I’ve heard good things about you in the Euroforce,” I returned graciously, and he beamed. “Aren’t you supposed to be made of metal or something?” I asked him archly.

“Yes!” He grinned broadly, flexed his arms up, and there was a flash of liquid light flowing over him as he Transformed.

He grew half a head taller, but stayed proportionate. He did indeed look like bands of steel had replaced his flesh, all polished and glossy and very eye-catching.

“Nice!” I applauded politely, and he somehow managed to blush despite only showing metal skin. “What’s the alloy, if I might ask?”

“Osmium steel!” he replied immediately, flexing even bigger biceps, and I had to arch an eyebrow.

“Seriously? No way!” I took a step forward, put my hand on his chest, and lifted him off the ground before he could react. “Uh?” I tilted my head. “This is... only about five hundred pounds, Colossus.” I set him back down carefully.

“That is... about right?” he confirmed uncertainly, and I shook my head.

“Colossus, osmium steel is one of the heaviest damn alloys in the world. If you were made of osmium steel, you’d be clearing a couple tons.”

“Oh?” He seemed surprised as he looked at his hands. “All my instructors said my flesh has the properties of osmium steel when in this form.”

“Well, obviously mass isn’t one of them. One second.” I flicked up my lightning arcs, played them over his skin and body, totally harmless as he conducted it all away. “Yeah, you didn’t actually Transform anything. The reason you grow is because you brought in some additional metallic mass from somewhere and bonded it to your existing meat and bone, and you’re animating it psychically. That is definitely not a whole-body Transformation into something else, it’s closer to calling for a suit of armor at the cellular level.”

I let up on the lightning, and it swirled and condensed back to the hot arclight bands on my biceps he could not help but notice. He sighed despite himself. “Will I be able to take a beating from you?” he asked in resignation, but smiling nonetheless.

I held up my left gauntlet and tapped it with my right forefinger. “Don’t recognize the metal?” I asked him in a knowing tone.

He focused on it, and swallowed visibly. “Is that adamantium?” he asked carefully, a sinking note in his voice.

“Uh-huh.”

His metal face was just as flexible as human, and his grimace was easy to read. “This will be very painful,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Make sure you transform back to human quick when you’re done. You’ll heal much faster with the Mercy,” I advised him, lifting my hands.

“Da, da,” he nodded, also bringing his hands up. “Thank you for the advice!”

“Keep heroing,” I winked at him, and I believed he blushed again under the polish.

“FIGHT!” exclaimed the referee.

---------

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May the Ring-outs continue!!

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More unfortunate students leave the arena unconscious...

“So,” the Abomination murmured, his fin-eared, shark-toothed, wide-jawed, fish-eyed, and green-scaled head looking down at me. His clawed hands were tensing and untensing, a sign of nerves.

I had beaten down Colossus loudly, even letting him hit me a couple times, the impact of his metal fists on my adamantium gauntlet-bracers just thunderous. He had Russian Powered training, and was no slouch, with decent heavyfoot and on his way to getting his blows to superhuman speed. But his reflexes weren’t the equal of his strength, meaning he was slow to me, and at a five to one exchange, there was no way he was going to last in a fight against me.

I’d actually ‘healed up’ during the bouts with the Champion’s enthusiastic students. The hairy purple ape-like Gnort had been particularly eager to come to blows with me, turning out to be one of those grappler/thrower-types. He really had a time when I could Repulse away his grip, and Attract it when he tried to throw me, leaving me right in his arms and putting a right cross to his ridged temple.

“Hey there, Mr. Blonsky,” I greeted him cordially, rather surprising him. “Looks like you got over that infection down in Peru. I see the spines Mr. Hill mentioned aren’t there any more.”

“Fucking quacks trying to put me under their control while promising they could rid me of this,” he spat in a Yugoslavic accent, spreading his clawed and scaled hands, complete with vestigial webbing. He really did look rather horrid, although he wasn’t default slimy, thankfully.

“I think fighting the last few days has helped. Your spine is less pronounced, too,” I pointed out to him kindly.

“Yes, yes!” He lifted his arms and turned around, showing that the pronounced spinal ridge had receded. “It is, ah, I am not so much seen as a monster here...”

I nodded. “You should make an appeal for studying under the Champion. You’ve definitely got the potential. You just need to learn some control and how to really fight at a different level.”

He rubbed his jaw as he looked down at me thoughtfully. “I could do that?” He glanced quickly at the referee who shared his skin color.

“The Master accepts who he accepts,” the referee confirmed politely. “You are highly rated on the main challenge line. You have an excellent chance of being accepted as a student, if not a disciple... but those disciple guys are fanatics,” he added in a low voice.

“Hah! This is good!” Blonsky agreed, making a big green fist. “So...” he returned to his original words, “are you going to take me down as quickly as Marko or the metal kid?” he asked roughly, grinning more broadly than a human skull could.

“You gamma people share some characteristics,” I informed him calmly, looking up at him without flinching. “You’ve got very high natural armor, AND you’ve got a cellular-level force field protecting you, AND your hide is stronger than steel, all at the same time.”

I lifted my fists for him to look at, and silver sparks danced over the ends of them. “You saw me take down Juggy’s force field.” The Abomination nodded slowly. “You saw me pound Colossus’ shiny natural armor down. You’re probably very used to getting pounded on and it not really hurting unless the person is incredibly powerful.”

Meaning at least 40 points of DR and 30 points of Nat Armor, actually bouncing a lot of punches totally harmlessly. I was going to put a LOT of cracks, splits, and holes in his normally invulnerable hide.

He grimaced as he got into a fighting stance. “Can The Mountain deal with you?” he asked somewhat helplessly.

“We’ve never found out to the end, but he’s been practicing getting beaten on by me for some time. You ready, Mr. Blonsky?”

He took a big sucking breath and took a rough wrestling stance, totally the wrong way to deal with me, but it was how he knew best to start a fight.

“FIGHT!” the ref proclaimed cheerfully.

---------------

The Abomination’s green scaly hide was indeed shattered in many places as his unconscious body was carried out of the ring. The seeming-human with dark hair in white partial-armor coming in watched him going by with an assessing gaze, then turned his dark eyes on me.

I was Healing Reserving away most of the punishment I’d received, and spent a IV to take care of the Soak from a couple of his punches that had failed to move me away from pounding through his defenses and really doing a number on his chest and rib cage. All that rigid hard defense was now laying cracked and broken, and even with Mercy, it was going to be painful bringing it all back together again.

“Master Gilgamesh,” I greeted him cordially, bowing hand over fist.

He nodded once, tens of thousands of years older than I and entitled to treat me like a child... albeit a child who could and probably was going to kick his arse. “An extraordinary display of finesse and power you have been putting on, Dynamo. I don’t believe I have ever seen a combination quite like it in all my years, and I have beheld countless battles to the death.”