Both Heroes and Villains positioned themselves on opposite ends of the arena, 30 seconds appeared on the timer. A countdown to Play Time.

Lily and Max huddled beside Emerson and hurriedly whispered.

"Ok so what's the game plan?" Asked Max.

"Well near as I can tell the Villains are just as inexperienced as we are", started Emerson, "The one thing we have over them is we know our powers better than they do so we separate and hit them fast and hard and hope someone breaks through to save our citizen".

"No offense, but that isn't much of a plan", stated Lily.

"None taken, I'm not much of a leader".

Across the Gym the Villains had a similar huddle.

"Alright", started Fiona taking immediate control of the group, "Monica, I remember from Power Placement that you hold charges of electricity that you can shoot as lightning. How many bolts have you got in you?"

"Oh um well I can hold five bolts", Monica answered," but I used one for my Placement so . . four".

"Ok, that should be plenty just listen to me and we'll be fine", Fiona reassured both of her teammates. "Jared, I want you to stay hidden as often as possible. Sneak close to Lily, from what I remember during Power Placement she needs that paper with the 'spell', her sack of magic dust and time to concentrate. See what you can do about that, Jared, keep her from being able to focus, take the paper or sack from her anything to neutralize her. Monica, I want you focused on Max. As soon as he goes ghost I want you to hit him with a bolt".

Monica looked confused, "But won't it just go through?"

The countdown was nearly down to zero so Fiona replied short and sweet.

"Just trust me".

The buzzer rang out as the counter hit zero and the match began. Both teams rushed to get to the citizen at the center of the arena. All six student paired up and the matches happened simultaneously.

Max's sprint turned into a light jog as he approached the center and was intercepted by Monica.

"Heya, Villain", Max bantered, "I'll be saving that citizen now".

Then just as he did during Placement he began to fade until he was a ghost of himself (pardon the pun). He leisurely began walking towards the citizen platform when he saw Monica's hand crack with electricity. He didn't stop knowing that he couldn't be touched. Then Monica shot a bolt of lightning from her index and middle fingertips, the bolt struck Max and he stiffened as his muscles contracted and he shot backwards half way back to the starting zone. Monica looked at her hand, "Wow".

Lily made her way to the platform with no one greeting her, quickly she fished out her spell and dust and began calling the same tornado that she had summoned before. Just as she was about to finish the last syllable of the spell Jared blinked in existence right in front of her.

"Ah! What the hell, Jared", Lily yelled.

"Sorry, Lily, just doing my job", replied as he reached for her spell paper, only Lily's hand caught his and before Jared could even think about a "hand holding" joke he suddenly found himself flipping forwards and landing flat on his face.

"And I'm just doing mine, sorry", said Lily with little sincerity.

Quickly she repeated the spell, but once again as she neared the end Jared sprang up and snatched the dust from her and before she could reach to break his arm in 5 different ways he launched the sack back towards the starting zone only a feet or two from where Max lay.

"Jared, you are so dead!"

"Please don't kill me", pleaded Jared with his hands up.

After a second of indecision Lily decided that finishing her spell was more important than righteous vengeance. Lily sprinted back to her dust.

"You are lucky you're cute!"

Jared let out a sigh of relief as she left.
As his allies started to regroup Emerson faced Fiona. When he met her near the platform he smiled at his luck at having such a beautiful opponent.

"Step aside, Fiona, I don't want to hurt you". As if to prove his point his eyes began to glow blue.

"Confidence", Fiona started, "I like that in a boy".

With her left hand lightly resting on her temple Fiona raised her right hand and swiped it through the air. Instantly Emerson was flung into the air and slid to a stop beside where Max and Lily were.

Monica and Fiona settled back in front of the platform.

"Should we go after them?" Asked Monica.

"No", answered Fiona, "The mission is running out the clock".

Emerson and Max slowly climbed up to their feet with Lily supporting both of them.

"How did she hit me?" Asked Max mostly to himself.

"I don't know", replied Emerson.

"That plan didn't turn out so well," Lily pointed out.

"Yeah", retorted Emerson," I got that. Ok, maybe if Max and I change dance partners? I might be able to match Monica with my energy blast and I'm pretty sure Fiona can't touch Max once he's powered on".

Max nodded his head, "We should hurry, Guys, the clock is down to 2 minutes already".

Without another word the Heroes ran back for a second round.
Just before they got to a fight-able distance Emerson and Max side jumped across to quickly engage their new opponents. And once again, they did battle.

Lily ran down between both pairs only to collide with an unseen force, as she tumbled onto the floor Jared came into view. During the fall Lily found herself laying on her back with Jared on top holding himself up with his hands.

"Jeez, Jared you didn't think to move?"

"Oww, sorry, if I'd moved you would've seen me".

That's when they both noticed that during the accident Lily's dust had land a few steps away from them, their struggle was immediate. Jared and Lily struggled to reach the sack first. Then, it didn't matter, the sack seemed to lift up into the air slowly. A look to their right showed Fiona with her fingers on her temple and her right hand in the air, a flick of her hand flipped the sack upside down spilling the dust all over the floor.

"No!" Yelled Lily.

Jared felt guilt course through him, he wanted to prove himself but he didn't want to lose a friend.

With Fiona focusing on the sack Max had ghosted and started walking towards the citizen just as before only this time Monica was too busy fighting Emerson to stop him.

Monica shot out a bolt at Emerson but he jumped to the side rolling off evading her attack, she tried once more but he jump back, just out of reach. Emerson's eyes began to glow blue and he fired his energy blast straight at Monica.

But just before the beam reached her it stopped, held by back by some invisible force. Fiona was once again focusing her telekinesis to protect her teammate but Max was mere breath away from the citizen.

Just when victory seemed assured Fiona focused her power once again redirecting the target of Emerson's blast and released the energy. The attack closed in on its target, only this time the target was Maxwell.
Max was blown back by the blast and sent flying off hitting the safety guard surrounding the arena.

Just then Monica landed her penultimate bolt square to Emerson's chest sending him back to the starting zone once again. Lily quickly ran to help Max and herself regroup with Emerson.

"Any more bright ideas, Fearless Leader, cause we are down to the wire here", reminded Lily as she gestured to the timer with less than a minute left.

"Ok, um Lily, how much of that spell dust have you got left?" Asked Emerson.

"None, but the dust is only half the magic, its mostly there to help me focus and contain how I manipulate the wind", Answered Lily.

"Ok, well, what can you do without the dust?"

"Maybe a burst of high speed wind but I'll only be able to focus on a small target, one person maximum".

Seconds ticked by as Emerson thought. "I have a plan", he Exclaimed finally, "Max go out and draw as much attention as you can. Lily is going to use that wind spell of hers".

"But on who?" Asked Lily.

"On me", he replied with a smile.

With 30 seconds left on the clock the Heroes got to work. Max sprinted straight towards the platform alone, Monica and Jared both assumed defensive positions and waited for him to either fight or ghost through them.
But as Jared and Monica focused on Max, Lily focused on her spell. Without Jared around to distract her she was able to summon a high velocity gust of wind.

Paper in hand she read her spell, "Surge, et vento certamen!"

A surge of wind tore through the gym and launched Emerson directly towards the citizen platform.
As Emerson sailed through the air he aimed his eyes at Monica and Jared, Fiona nowhere in sight. His eyes shot out two quick bursts of energy which hit both his targets perfectly. Then he returned his attention to the fastly approaching citizen, in his peripheral vision Emerson registered that the countdown clock was down to five seconds and he smiled knowing he would reach his victory in less than two.

But as Emerson neared his destination his speed began to decrease and by the time his outstretched hand was inches away from the citizen, he had stopped altogether. In mid air. Then Emerson saw why, Fiona stood just behind the platform barely out of sight. She had reached out and grabbed him with her mind, stopping him in mid air.

With his sudden stop he could hear clearly, and he heard the class chanted.
"Four. Three. Two. One."

The buzzer rang out once more and the citizen lowered into the metal jaws of death.

"Winners", the Coach boomed, "VILLAINS!"