It was hitting the glass covered floor, that triggered something in Jackie. She shot up—not in reaction to the pain, but her very body sharing the likeminded, simple desire.

They refuse to keep on falling down.

Although, her arms buckled trying to get up all the same. A clear sign of limitation starting to weigh her and the others down. She cursed everything, she cursed the world, she cursed herself—due to this situation.

But she lifted her head up, fuming all the while. Despite her rage keeping her from staying still due to the twitching, she needed to.

Due to being so used to River’s Slipstream, only the girls knew the trick of peering through it. Exposure Or their enlightenment working it out after repeated viewing? She wasn’t sure and didn’t care at the moment.

Her immediate vicinity, she saw an unconscious girl in an elaborate pilgrim outfit. The glass practically surrounded her, but oddly none on or in her, creating a perfect outline.

Jackie’s instant thought was that her ability must’ve dealt with glass somehow. Knocked out before doing massive damage or after? Either way, despite fully knowing that she’s a part of the problem, Jackie couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. She had a theme and everything: along with a very powerful advantage.

After waiting and getting a better look at the scene, Jackie finally noticed that each glass shard had a coloration to them. One different from the other.

She groaned and let her head dangle a bit when it hit her.

This Glass User must’ve ruined the new stain-glass window mural, a tribute to the N’atural-Mayhem Event—the victims that had their lives twisted, and the total death of Contemporary times. There was work put into this—multiple countries adding their touches and art techniques to it.

She wanted to fucking see it. Something like that would’ve eased her a bit, the weight of the world lifted off her shoulders—even for a measly shitty second.

Her eyes trained back onto the Glass User. If she was low enough to spit on her, she would’ve.

She grabbed her head and lashed at herself mentally for thinking something like that.

This horrible nightmare is changing her.

She shot her head back up, and focused. She needed to.

Despite getting mangled by this. Despite seeing all this weird shit first-hand. Despite being a part of this.

It was so surreal, seeing what insanity looked like in an expressed form.

It was just a Mall. It was supposed to be just a Mall.

It had the shops and fast foods chains on the sides, the lobby having simple, white flooring to welcome people in. Directory in the middle. Ads everywhere. A small, fancy bridge from the second floor above everything, creating some flourish. That’s all.

All of it turned into a gray, worn bowl.

Every object, right down into the very foundations of the building itself, was warped and mangled by the various abilities used and by the crazy people using them. Thus, creating this impromptu crater where they can aim their reality warping powers at each other.

But the revelation she gained was much greater, and much more anger inducing.

As every homing coin was tossed, every section of ceiling made into jungle-gyms, and riding air geysers—it was reckless. Rampant power use, getting to point A to point B—no matter how unstable and winding the line will get. “People” crashed into whatever was left standing was normal—thus warping it upon contact. It was less about getting direct hits on others—more how out of control the ability got and slamming into another, causing wanton destruction in their wake.

The girls crawled, clawed their way here—nearly died four times over; and these clowns are just throwing their own shit on the wall, watch it stick and run off like they were fourteen years old?

The fact that most of them probably were made Jackie somehow more hateful. And dreadful.

This is just a fad to them. People with siVis either become reclusive or become Trend-lite, there’s no middle ground. Fuck, Jackie and the rest are FIGHTING for a damn middle ground. And these overgrown toddlers traded their sanity and their humanity, just for a kick? For a chance to be like the Urban Legends? They were nowhere near.

And as her sight focused further for the final time, she was completely right.

In the middle of the crater, N’atural and Mayhem dueled each other, surfing and shifting through the air. Every action, every movement, left a trail of pale green, red and blue—as they raked across and tore their away at reality itself.

That’s what a Trend does—it’s the reason why they gained the title. Unfathomable use of siVis, pushing the boundaries and showing how useless it was to subscribe that notion to an enlightened being.

They moved at their own pace, at their own set physics. Even with siVis, the eye can barely grasp whatever they were doing before it was too late, making movement that caused one to bend their mind so they can simply understand it. It wasn’t about speed, or some perception filter that can only be overcome by X amount of training; one had to consider things moving differently in a dimension that no modern human shouldn’t have to understand.

N’atural was the girl in white, wearing a supremely warped and tattered sundress with the spaghetti straps holding onto her shoulders for dear life. Jackie could only guess there was a floral pattern, but all she could gleam was deformed flower petals, scattered around the dress. What tied the look together, was a comically large beige sunhat, the brim covering her eyes as she smiled manically—her blonde locks tangled.

She at least looked better than her Trend nemesis.

Mayhem was a hot mess. His hair was matted but dreaded, each dread corked to various directions. He wore eyeliner that he was sweating off, his skin was calmy to the sight—let alone who dared to touch it…

But it was clear, under that rambly and self-important bravado, he was the most aware of how terrible he looked.

The rest of his body was under, rather coated, in the oil-y substance his ability was. With this living coat of oil, he made himself look bigger, made himself seem like he was really made of the stuff. A being of darkness.

But considering that Jackie and co. tangled with a man that made himself into a tree; the effect was lost on her if it wasn’t already.

They were surfing about, trading blows. Even having a conversation as they do it. THIS was the pinnacle, the fact that all of this became second nature to them. Everyone else was a flopping fish compared to them.

There were five people, all thrusted forward with their reckless siVis use.

The duo just stopped fighting each other, and causally used aerobatics to slam every and everyone out of the air.

They then resumed fighting.

Jackie slammed her fists into the ground, knowing that they’re shards still there, as she screamed out in anger. It wasn’t because of the pain.

“Fucking idiots!” Jackie yelled. “If I had your fucking abilities--!”

One of them, which had some sort of depth charge ability, groggily got up, slipped on one of the charges that fell out of his hands, and promptly caused an explosion all around him, causing the floor to rumble.

“Fucking hell!” Jackie winced. “He fucking blew up one of his fucking buddies!”

It was anger, that forced Jackie onto her feet. She raised her glass-covered fists.

“Get up, everyone!” Jackie ordered. “We’ll show these fools! That even some people like us are better than them and deserve to be here--!”

Once more, a flurry of abilities pelted the poor girl.

Arms—covered in terrible pimples and were a pale purple, manifested into the air and sailed towards Jackie. They got in multiple hits, all in the face, causing the tall girl’s head to sway side to side constantly.

Jackie knew that she wasn’t looking at a head—or knew where the “head” was. But she stared back with fire in her eyes.

She punched the hands away, yanked them off as they grabbed onto her body, just wailing her arms around bluntly.

She was bombarded with a bright, aquamarine glare at her side—forcing her to cover her eyes to avoid being put under again.

Without a second passing—she felt something punt her neck at blinding speeds.

Jackie was choked sailing through the air, her back banging against the wall she was pinned onto.

She grabbed the metal band instinctively, wrapping her trembling fingers over the smooth texture that was being heated up by her raising temperature. Whoever did this, had this ability, must have the sensibility of a sniper—and like the light-based user, is hidden somewhere. So even if Jackie pries herself down, who’s to say if she gets hit again? And if she stays up here, either loses oxygen or gets another limp stapled to the wall.

Amidst her panicking eyesight, she caught a guy celebrating the fact that he landed a hit. And his deer-in-headlights stare confirmed what Jackie needed to know.

It was the rage that he was nothing Jackie feared, that gave her the strength to clasp the band, used siVis on her hands, and peeled the object off while landing on her feet. Fuming. Seething.

She started to prowl forward, until she was tackled not a second later by a small blur yelling out garbled noise.

Skidding towards a ruined shop, the entire structure bending in on itself, it took a second to realize that it was Maddie who did the deed.

“Had to think fast—and I always wanted to do this,” she explained tersely.

Jackie looked up, seeing the rest of the girls running towards her, with River using Slipstream to cover their tracks.

Maddie got off Jackie, and ran into the store, as with everyone else.

“Goood work, girls,” Jackie said in a whisper—her still being winded helped. “Acting like you’re fighting me and using this space to hide is a pretty good plan…”

The tall girl held her side, stumbling into the store as the rest where huddled together.

“There’s a joke in there, but considering we’re about to die or something in a minute, holding off on that,” Maddie snipped. Causing Jackie to squint, fully knowing what it was.

“What are we doing, Jackie?” River asked.

Jackie looked at the steam, knowing what’s out there.

“River, you’re smart—” Jackie begun.

She heard an uneasy whine, which snapped her head towards the one who made it.

“River. You are smart. We’ve been through this—”

“okay sure,” she meekly coughed out.

“Do you have any idea how this many people are able to pull off moves like these so quick…?” Jackie answered. “Is it really as simple as watching some video on the ‘net?”

“I mean,” River responded, not making eye contact—looking down. “Even in my neck of the woods, there’s analysis threads on what N’atural did in a whole second and only able to track five or so moves. I don’t think it’s… Y’know, tutorial channels for siVis on the rise. Everyone’s been looking at the same footage over and over just to make sense of what happened. What they saw.”

Jackie pressed her thumb under her bottom lip.

“Maybe we should’ve done that…” Tracy brought up. “But—well I don’t know about you all—but we do have that day replaying in our heads for months on end, so I don’t think we need it… Oh well! Let’s just hide here, let things settle for a tad until we feel lucky and they kill each other. Like the Nulgarrt of the Megaplex we were trapped in--!”

Jackie snapped repeatedly, causing Tracy to jump. “That’s it. We take cover and do hit and run. Use Tracy’s ability to hide in pockets on the ground and just hit people midair, causing them to fuck themselves over!”

“…I think it says something that—that plan is above marginally better than our usual ones and somehow more fucking risky—” Tracy sounded defeated.

“These people have no idea what they’re doing—like us. It’s just that they don’t have useless powers—powers so good, they have to be handled with care. We know just as well as everyone how one slip up at the end can RUIN everything. We don’t even have to use our abilities—we save them for trouble that comes with it!”

“This is actually kinda thought out—I’m pretty proud of you, Jackson,” Maddie nodded. “Of siVisPride—”

“can you not—” Jackie stressed. “Make fun of me, sure—but stop reminding me of that…”

The sampler dick rushed in, with one of the ammo raised in his hand. It was a silver-y boomerang with rough, sharp edges.

He immediately stopped, the sweat instantly forming on his brow.

With a smirk, Jackie rose up and signaled to the girls to follow her lead.

They rushed forward, knocking the boy away as they returned to the battlefield.

Jackie then dived, landing and scooting away on her belly, and heard the others do the same, with varying results.

“Tracy!” Jackie looked up but eyes still trained on the floor. “I have sights!”

“Same!” River shouted.

“I think I got something here--!” Maddie added in.

PERSPECTIVE FLIP!

Jackie heard the grumbling, whimpering moans behind her.

And lo, various bumps sprouted from the ground—creating small barriers with small indents from where they rose across the space.

The three girls ran towards their respective space, looking above their cover so Tracy could create more along with Aiko glancing over to a place where none were erected. Soon, they were.

With an exhausted Tracy crawling towards and nestling within her cover and Aiko eagerly settling into hers—it was finally time for a win.

Jackie looked up, letting her eyes train on the many things whizzing by her head.

She searched for flesh, instead of flash. Limbs extended forward so she can aim for them.

She’s waited for this shot. She’s been waiting a long time for this chance.

Jackie saw a glint, jumping towards it in the air, knocking the sailing user out of the air—causing them to tumble into the ground.

As she fell down, she glanced about, seeing the others following her lead—three people wailing out of the sky and five people landing back into the ground.

Landing, Jackie and everyone found themselves within smoke. River was reliable and in her element, using her ability and her seemingly disappearing—ordinary presence and it’d be too late to stop her. Glancing at the ruined store, the smoke lingered around there—giving them extra cover with the illusion that it’s coming out of there.

They continued to hop out of cover, taking few people out of their stride, and plunging back into the steam. A user that could produce wire slammed into the wall and became entangled. Someone who could become a human rocket went spinning after getting clipped, crashing from afar. Over and over, hubris being dealt out periodically.

Here they were. Controlling the very battlefield. Not only going back to their earlier victory, but doing so much more with it. They were doing it. They were finally doing something.

“I don’t mean to be a Paranoid Peter…” a shrill, overly squeaky voice rung out.

Jackie turned and ended up laying on her back. Looking up within the haze.

She wore black pleather platform boots, black tights smothered in pink roses up and down. A long, white skirt near her knees, wearing a puffy pink coat that was off her shoulders, her exposed fashionable black tank-top arms as they were on her side.

Her face, framed with a sugary bubble-gum bob with a white headdress, the new challenger looked down with her heavily make-upped, blue eyes.

“…But I think you're ruining a lot of people's chances to be a big shot... That's really bad. Because this is supposed to be my night.”