Blacklight glanced back at the rest of the Council. This must not have been a question that had come up before. Turning back to the microphone, he cleared his throat. “Gargoyle, as her opponent, you may choose to accept or deny this request.”
Gargoyle held his hands wide. His arm span was as long as a car. “Why not? It ain’t gonna make a difference.”
“What do you want?” yelled Frostbite. “I’ll make it myself.”
Nova rolled her shoulders, then her wrists, working out the pops in her joints. “A knife.”
Frostbite smirked. “That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
Pinching her fingers in the air, Frostbite drew them downward. A crystal-clear dagger appeared, eight inches long, handle and blade cut from glistening ice. She laughed as she tossed it at Nova, who caught it without flinching. The ice was so cold it burned. Nova tossed it from hand to hand, giving her skin time to adjust.
“That was a poor choice,” said Frostbite, lowering herself into her seat between her teammates and throwing her feet up onto the table. “It won’t even penetrate his skin.”
Nova returned the smile and twirled the blade in her fingers as she went to take her place. Opposite her, Gargoyle was intimidating as hell, muscles continuously turning into rock and rock turning back into muscles. Even his teeth, when he grinned, seemed to be cut from jagged gray stone.
The horn blared, thundering over the din of the crowd.
Gargoyle charged forward. The ground beneath him split and cracked from the pressure of his steps and clouds of dust stirred in his wake. He pulled one arm back and Nova watched as his elbow down to his fat knuckles hardened into black-speckled stone.
Nova feigned left. He took the bait and swung, while she turned and dived into a roll beneath his other arm. She sprang back to her feet and was turning back to face him when a battering ram crashed into the side of her skull.
She was momentarily weightless.
Her body struck the solid dirt with a reverberation that jolted her entire skeleton. Stars flecked before her eyes. Groaning, Nova blinked up at the paper banner fluttering overhead and listened to the cheers of the crowd and the thuds of Gargoyle’s footsteps ambling toward her.
“Okay,” she muttered, once her head stopped ringing like a bronze bell. “Won’t make that mistake again.”
A shadow eclipsed the blazing lights of the arena. She smiled sweetly up at Gargoyle and lifted a hand. “Help a lady up?”
Snarling, Gargoyle bent and gathered the front of her shirt in his stone fist, hauling her off the ground.
“Every superhero wishes they could fly, right?” he said, lips peeling back to reveal a series of chipped teeth. “Well, darling, you’re about to have the pleasure.” He pulled his arm back, preparing to hurl her body out of the ring.
Before he had the chance, Nova swung her feet up, wrapping her ankles tightly around his bicep and locking her legs in place. When Gargoyle tried to throw her off, she clung tight. He growled and started to shake his arm, like attempting to knock off a stubborn spider.
The audience exploded in laughter.
He reached his other hand over to pry her legs away, and Nova swung forward, driving the tip of the ice blade into his palm.
The ice shattered, leaving a hilt with a short, broken shard.
He smirked. “Did you really think—”
Nova released her ankles, dropped to the ground, and sliced the uneven edge of the blade deep across his leg—a patch of skin that hadn’t yet been transformed into stone.
Gargoyle bellowed and kicked out on instinct, clobbering Nova in the chest. She landed on her back, just inside the edge of the ring.
Rubbing her chest with her free hand, she rolled onto her side and climbed back to her feet. She took stock of her options as Gargoyle, huffing with renewed anger, and maybe embarrassment, prepared to charge again.
She licked her lips. Flexed her fingers once around the knife handle, then tucked it into her waistband, ignoring how the ice burned against her skin.
She braced herself—again.
The Gargoyle stampeded.
Nova stampeded back. Racing headlong, straight for her opponent.
A moment before they collided, Nova sprang upward. She landed with both feet on Gargoyle’s shoulders and used the momentum to launch herself at one of the pillars that stood just within the circle. Her arms and legs locked around the pole and she started to shimmy upward.
Below, she heard Gargoyle’s taunting, thick voice, saying something about the little girl running away, but she didn’t much care what he thought she was doing.