Team Mikey vs Bronx Squad, Part 2

"Mikey seems…pretty difficult to work with, doesn't he?" Ella asks with an awkward chuckle.

"Tell me about it," I grumble.

"Mikey isn't listening to Jamie or Austin in the slightest!" Grover snaps.

***

When the explosion subsides, Jamie kneels down besides Austin to check on him, who's busy coughing and waving away the smoke from his face, before slipping on his unscathed high-tech goggles so that he can see.

"Well not everyone has your heat proof," Austin spits at Mikey as Jamie helps him to his feet.

"Why the Hell do these planes explode?!" Jamie cries. "Is it another effect of Rokku's Lock-On? We didn't see that in any of the footage on this squad."

"It must be a trump card they were saving until the competition, or an ability only developed recently," Austin answers. "Either way, we need to find the other squad, and fast."

Another round of paper airplanes comes flying towards Team Mikey. "Oh, I know!" Jamie exclaims as she jumps in front of Austin and Mikey. "Adaptability: Rubber Cloak!" Jamie turns her arms into rubber, wrapping them around Mikey and Austin and squeezing tightly, before turning her back into iron for defense. 

"EH?!" Mikey cringes.

Unable to locate their targets through Jamie's rubbery arms, the paper airplanes explode against Jamie's back in a rush of flames, causing Jamie to crumble to the ground.

"Jamie, stop that!" Austin cries once the smoke subsides.

"The explosions don't hurt my iron skin nearly as much as they do yours, it's our best bet for victory," Jamie replies as she struggles to stand up.

"Just leave me alone, alright?!" Mikey shouts as she shoves Jamie away.

"What gives?! Jamie protects you and that's how you thank her?!" Austin snaps as he grabs Mikey by the shirt collar, hosting him up. The two glare at one another dead in the eyes.

"I'm going to win this competition with my own strength to prove that I'm strong enough to kill War for killing my parents. I don't need anyone's help," Mikey growls. "Relying on others instead of your own strength, it's just…pathetic."

Austin opens his mouth to reply, but no words come out. Instead, Mikey knocks Austin's hand away and turns to face the next volley of paper airplanes to come flying his way.

 "Exploding Flame Bullets: Flamethrower!" Mikey shoots as he draws his dual pistols and begins spewing out a rush of flames. Mikey gave no warning to Jamie and Austin, so the two are forced to duck under Mikey's flames.

"Try not to hit us please, thank you!" Austin snaps.

Mikey then begins spinning around, causing his flames to circle around him until they envelop his entire body, forming a column of spiraling flames around Mikey. "Heat Vortex!"

"Hey, like Luis' Tornado Shield!" Jamie comments.

"Don't compare me to him!" Mikey snaps.

The paper airplanes then continue flying towards Mikey, but with Mikey's flames wrapped completely around his body, the paper airplanes aren't able to make contact with him, and are burnt completely to a crisp by Mikey's flames. "It seems your weak-ass paper airplanes can't hit their target when I do this!" Mikey roars.

"Well that's one way to defend," Jamie comments.

Mikey's flames continue to fly outwards until they spark some of the nearby shrubbery, igniting it in flames, which then begin to rapidly spread.

"Ow, hot!" A voice yelps from the shrubbery.

"Over there!" Austin exclaims as his Cursed Power shotgun morphs into a sniper rifle, which Austin brings the scope of up to his eye and aims at the nearby shrubbery.

"Already on it," Mikey says as he aims his dual pistols behind him, and using the still-spewing flames, bolts forwards to where they heard the voice. Mikey then brings his right fist up and engulfs it in fire, before launching it forwards and using his flames as an exhaust. "Exploding Flame Bullets: Fire Fist!"

What can only be explained as a gigantified hand then shoots out from the shrubbery and grabs Mikey's fist, extinguishing his flames instantly.

"Annoying…" Mikey grunts upon seeing that his flames are useless. "Exploding Flame Bullets: Embers!" With his free hand, Mikey then aims his second pistol at the hand, shooting a volley of flaming bullets its way, who counters by bringing a second gigantified hand up, completely soaking up the hits.

"That's Haruku's Swole Growth!" Austin exclaims. "He can increase the size of his muscles!"

Mikey's flames then begin to spread even further.

"You're going to burn the whole arena down!" Jamie cries.

"Sacrifices had to be made, weaklings!" Mikey snaps, directed to no one in particular.

Another volley of paper airplanes comes flying Mikey's way, and Austin motions to aim his shotgun at them in response, but is interrupted when Mikey shouts: "Stand back! I don't need help for these three!"

"Why you-" Jamie growls as she punches her fists together, but is interrupted when Austin puts a hand on her shoulder.

"Leave him be. If we let Mikey take those three on alone and loses, it'll bump his ego down a notch," Austin smirks.

"Screw these ranged battles, I'm all Attacker, baby!" Haruku shouts as he leaps out of the underbush, charging Mikey. "Swole Growth!" Haruku's arms and hands then swell and beef up with muscle, tripling in size.

"Attackers…Shooters…Supporters…" Mikey growls. "You Slayers are so annoying with your classifications!" Mikey fires off a volley of bullets towards Haruku, who brings his beefed-up arms up in defense, absorbing the the impact from Mikey's bullets.

"Tch…" Mikey grunts.

Haruku raises his arms above his head, before swinging them downwards, attempting to deliver dual hammer strikes down onto Mikey, but Mikey uses his Exhaust Pipe to dodge the attack, jumping back. Haruku's beefed-up arms slam into the ground, the ground begins to quake, as large cracks spread across the ground from Haruku's impact, headed towards Mikey, who uses his Exhaust Pipe to fly into the air, dodging the attack. But Haruku's cracks in the ground sends chunks of stone flying towards Mikey, who's able to maneuver out of the way by using his flames.

Meanwhile, another volley of paper airplanes come flying towards Mikey, who's able to use his Heat Vortex mid-air to burn them to a crisp.

"I'll end this here!" Mikey roars as he presses the barrels of his dual pistols together. The meters on the sides of the barrels of Mikey's dual pistols begin to charge up as a fireball forms in between the barrels of the pistols. "Exploding Flame Bullets: Earth-Core Cannon!"

Mikey fires off his Earth Core Cannon towards Haruku, who brings up his gigantified hands in order to stop Mikey's attack. Haruku's beefed-up hands are able to hold Mikey's fireball back for a few moments, until Mikey's Earth-Core Cannon eventually overpowers Haruku, pushing past his defenses and exploding into him. When the smoke clears, Haruku's muscular hands and arms have shrunk back to their regular size. Haruku was defeated.

"One down, two more to go," Mikey smirks.

"There's no way Mikey can actually beat all three of them on his own, right?" Jamie asks Austin.

"Nah, no way," Austin replies.

"Fly, my planes!" A voice cries as another volley of paper airplanes are sent flying through the underbrush towards Mikey, which are powerless against his Heat Vortex.

"Over there!" Mikey roars as he aims his dual pistols at the direction from which the paper airplanes came from, causing a yelp to echo from behind the shrubbery, assumed to be from Ronbun.

Mikey fixes his wild gaze towards where he heard the cry of pain. "Over there!" Mikey cackles as Mikey aims his dual pistols behind him, using the flame exhaust from his dual pistols to fly over to the shrubbery. Once Mikey zips past the bushes and trees of the forest, he finds Ronbun, who's in the midst of preparing even more paper airplanes. Before she has the chance to react, Mikey slams his flaming fist straight into Ronbun's gut, causing the girl to limply slump over, defeated.

"Two down! Where's the last one, you sneaky bastard?!" Mikey shouts as he furiously spins around, searching the forest for Rokku.

"Wait, can we talk about this-" Rokku begins to beg as she leaps out of the forest to face Mikey, but before she can continue, Rokku is interrupted when Mikey aims the barrel of one of his pistols at her, firing off a single bullet.

"No."

Mikey's bullet shoots Rokku straight in the head, exploding against her forehead. Rokku's eyes roll into the back of her head from shock before doubling over as well, defeated.

***

The crowd is silent, even the announcer is appalled.

"Did-did you witness that, audience?" The announcer stammars. "Slayer Kaen, he…HE JUST DEFEATED THE ENTIRETY OF SLAYER IANDAM'S SQUAD ALL ALONE!" The announcer booms, and this time, the audience goes wild, everyone is cheering and clapping, even everyone who was rooting for Slayer landam's Squad, all just for Mikey.

But looking down at the arena, Mikey, he just looks…so, so unaffected by the cheering. He doesn't care, not in the slightest. Mikey stands in the center of the jungle, the unconscious bodies and raging flames laying around him, just panting heavily, saying nothing.

Ella, Grover, and I remain motionless in our seats, dumbfounded.

"Wow…" Ella softly says, her voice even smaller and weaker than usual.

"Mikey took out that entire team on his own? It's just...not fair!" Grover cries.

"It looks like Slayer Kaen is the number one competitor that the New York Interborough Competition needs to look out for!" The announcer booms, causing the crowd to go wild again.

My entire body tenses up as I begin to sweat. Noticing this, Ella puts a hand on top of my clenched fist.

"What's the matter, Luis?" She asks me.

"Nothing," I mutter. Nothing that Ella should have to worry about, at least. It's just…I don't know whether to feel proud of Mikey for growing stronger, or to be fearful of him.

Fearful of the strength to slay me.