Charlie approached them alongside their instructor. Sofia clung onto him like koala.
Danny was less than pleased with this.
"Come on! Why did they have to give up so soon? They should have fought to the last man. How am I supposed to impress the ladies now. There's no point in such..." Danny paused, his mouth wide open, prompting the rest of the team to look in the same direction as him.
Fawn blinked as if she was in pain. "Please, tell me those boys aren't our next opponents?'
The Instructor nodded and said; "Yup! Those are your next opponents."
"Damn! How could someone be this ugly in this current age?" Charlie was surprised.
Dash hurriedly closed her Sofia's eyes. He could not bear to have his sister's eyes tainted by such horrific sights.
"And I thought Danny was ugly." Fawn quipped.
Her comment did not sit well with Danny.
"What?"
"Ignore her. She doesn't mean it." Dash said in Fawn's defense.
"Don't give me that crap." Danny said. He glared at Fawn. He opened his mouth to say something but Dash beat him to it.
"Come on, Fawn. You know he's better looking than me." Now Dash was defending Danny.
Wilson shook his head. He had a very good idea where this was going. Danny didn't.
"Haha! I'm glad you know." He beamed.
Fawn quickly shut him up.
"Shut up! That he said so doesn't make it true."
Wilson and Dash laughed.
"They truly are ugly." Wilson could not help but say.
This new set of opponents consisted of a group of short fifteen year old boys whose faces seemed to look twisted in a 'hard to explain' fashion. Their noses were too big for their faces and their eyes were grossly disproportionate.
They approached Wilson and the remaining Trainwrecks rather confidently and stood right in front of them, not minding the towering height difference at all.
Dash looked at the shorty right in front of him and unconsciously shuddered. A part of him got scared that if he looked too long, his features might change as well. He hurriedly looked away.
At the back, Charlie stood beside the Instructor. He held Sofia tight but let her look. To his surprise, Sofia wasn't spooked like most other kids were at the sight. She looked at them the way she looked at every other person. Charlie was impressed.
"Damn! Genetics did them dirty." Charlie whispered to the instructor.
Sofia and Instructor nodded.
"What do you think will happen?" He asked, as the staredown continued between both teams.
"I think they will handle it alright. They know what's at stake so they will be careful and go all in."
"What do you think that gang of weirdos is planning?"
"I know that if they win, the balance of power will instantly shift in their favor. Already, they've successfully threatened most of the other gangs into quitting the competition. We are the only ones standing between peace and a bloody inter-gang war. We have to win."
At this point, Fawn and Dash and Danny had looked away. They had failed themselves and the team in the stare contest. It was just really hard to maintain focus. Those eyes looked more and more deformed the more they stared into them.
Only Wilson was left standing, sorry, staring. He stared on, seemingly unaffected, at the leader.
"Yeah. You can do it Wilson." Dash yelled in support.
Fawn shut him up with a slap to the back of his head.
"Let him concentrate." She whispered.
The intensive staring went on until the announcer broke the stalemate.
"Ladies and Gentlemen! It is time for the finals!"
That immediately broke Wilson's focus. He looked up at the announcer in the ring. The opposing team walked away muttering among themselves.
"Finals?" He asked Charlie. "It's finals already? We only beat up one team!"
Dash and Danny were not any less surprised.
"Those disgusting things got to the finals?" Danny asked. "How did they do it? By staring down their opponent till they foamed in the mouth?"
"Yes." Their instructor replied. She continued; "Avoid staring into their eyes. Beat them down as quickly as you can. Don't waste any time, Danny. The longer the fight takes, the heavier your mind gets. Anything longer than five minutes and you would break down. Wilson, how many do you think you can take down at once?"
"All of them!" Wilson answered.
"Go up!" Charlie ordered.
As Wilson walked up to the ring amidst sparse cheers, Charlie whispered into his ears.
"Slow down!"
Wilson slowed down. Charlie went straight to the point.
"Regardless of who you fight, beat them silly. Don't give them the slightest chance. It doesn't matter how many come up to face you at once, beat them all up very quickly like they are those bastards coming after your life. They are mentally strong but physically average. In a fight against mental ability users, it's better to boost the team's morale and have momentum on our side and you're the only one we can trust to do that."
"Why?"
"Fawn will not take it serious enough, Danny cannot make much of an impact and Dash, well Dash was the first to look away."
Wilson stopped in front of the ring.
"You got it?" Charlie asked.
Wilson nodded.
"Yeah!"
Then, he jumped right over the ropes into the ring.
*Boom*
The ring shook almost throwing the ref off balance. A gust of wind hit Charlie who stood close to the ring. The referee signalled for him to leave.
Wilson watched Charlie walk away. He looked at the referee and looked at his opponents' stands. They were conversing among themselves as if they were completely detached from whatever was happening.
"Come on. Who's coming up?"
No one budged.
Then a kid who looked about Sofia's age entered the ring. Wilson did not know what to make of it. Was this a tactic to get him angry? Were they already messing with his head?
He looked at the referee.
"This isn't legal right?"
"According to research, your opponent is twenty years old today." the ref answered.
Wilson almost puked blood.
"Twenty? This cute little thing?"
"Hey! Who are you calling cute?" The twenty year old kid asked in his high pitched voice. It irked him to be referred to as cute.
"What? You mad?" Wilson looked to the gremlins conversing. "Hey! Uglies! Let's make a deal. If I beat this cute little thing in the next forty seconds, I want to face your leader."
The group of uglies froze for a few seconds and then burst out laughing.
"Deal!" The one Wilson had an unfinished staring contest with, said.
"Deal!" Wilson repeated and abruptly rushed towards his current cutie of an opponent.
"Stupid!" The cute boy-sized man mocked and stretched his hand.
*tok*
Wilson felt something land in his head lightly. But not the exterior, it was internal. He could not particularly hear it, but it was there. Somehow, something tangible entered his head and wriggled right above his brain. It slowed him down.
He did not stop to understand it though. It was the best choice. Too bad it didn't change a thing in his opponent's opinion.
Just as Wilson grabbed the adult that looked like a child, he felt pain like he had never felt before.
"Ahhhhhh!"