Winter Olympiad Fan-Fiction: "Five for Five"

 by Madam Marvelous
#26130

I'd started my hero's journey just before the Summer Heroic Olympiad. I even managed to compete and place in a couple of the events. Third place in one of the Magic Challenges, after some training by Krystal Fae in countering opponents using magic against my shapeshifting abilities. Third place in the ping pong challenge. I felt pretty good about my efforts as my friend Angelus and I competed. But I also discovered that competing in tournaments like that lit a fire in my belly like I'd never known before.

I liked to compete. More than that, I wanted to win.

But as a student at the Sagan Academy, a probationary BADGE field agent, frightening occurrences around Halloween, collecting food stuffs for Thanksgiving, two league wars with the Star Force Junior League, and two fights with Father Time, I found that my days were pretty busy. I didn't see much of Angelus anymore, which was sad, but he was busy with his own life as well. The most frequent people in my life were Astra, her best friend Doug, and Eggie, my electric grandmother who was designed to look and act like Mrs. Doubtfire.

This might all sound pretty strange, but when you are a Morphon-gifted individual working with BADGE, I guess strange is the new normal.

When the Winter Olympiad was announced just after Frostuary, I got excited. What events would there be? Would I be good at any of the challenges?

With the Star Force Junior League, we competed hard during the wars, but we frequently had competitors who were better than us. Leagues that had been around since the dawn of time, or in this dimension, I guess the right term is dawn of Heroes Rising. PAIN. Suffering. Then there were two newer leagues, Bomb Squads 1 and Bomb Squad 2, who were growing in capability. I tried my best, as did some of my teammates, but as a group, we'd only managed to earn silver and bronze awards since I'd joined. 

My disappointment was that the war before I joined, they had placed gold. Was it my fault they fell in the ranks? My mind tells me no, but there is still a tiny voice inside me that says yes.

Eventually, the Winter Olympiad finally arrived and the events were announced. Most Wins. Arm Wrestling. Elemental Battles. Contest of Skills. Cross Country. I'd been practicing my ping pong techniques, so I was sad I wouldn't be able to test them against others again, but despite that change, I started to plot my strategy. I wanted to try my hand at every single challenge. As Eggie would often tell me after my training sessions against Midgardsormr, "The only way you really lose is if you don't try. If you try and don't succeed, you didn't lose, you hopefully LEARNED, which in the end, is more valuable than winning."

Day One: Most Wins:

For this event, I needed to fight and win as often as possible. Now, typically, I would want a fair fight, or a fight against an equal. It never feels good to me to beat up someone who can't defend themselves well. For one day, I put that mindset aside. I needed wins.

I knew that there were lots of BADGE heroes out there that weren't active combatants. They pretty much had given up on their heroic life and didn't do much of anything outside living their ordinary lives. I got their addresses and went out and proceeded to beat them up. 

(Sorry, but I know I wasn't the only one who stepped down to Level One and pummeled a bunch of quitters. Actually, its their fault for giving up. They could have spent some time and gotten better... Right?)

As a shapeshifter, there is a knack to my power as Madam Marvelous. When I get tired, I can shapeshift into a different form and become fully refreshed. I do need to use some boosts to keep it up, like a More-Fun Bar, a bottle of Hatoraide, some candy I got during my Trick-or-Treating efforts, and an occasional Stimpack. (Shhh. Don't tell my parents. Eggie gives me the shots in carefully regulated doses). Using these sanctioned enhancers, I was doing great in the overall event. Nearly top of the leaderboard for my division for most of the game.

Then I met Captain Planet. He was what I thought was any other competitor at first, but then for hours we went toe to toe as we fought for first place. Captain Planet worked out, and worked out hard. 

He was a great competitor. I did my thing. He did his. We both added win after win, but in the end, he managed to trump my efforts. I wasn't disappointed at all. I took second and was only defeated by a competitor who wanted it as badly as I did. We shook hands at the end of the day as friends. Very tired friends.

Day Two: Arm-Wrestling

Let's start out with the obvious. Arm-wrestling, really? At first, it may seem that the beefcakes have the advantage in this challenge. Brawlers who have more muscles than mind. When you are a hero, though, you can't get trapped in the box, so to say. A gifted individual needs to know how best to apply their gifts to every challenge. A person who uses ice powers can freeze a portion of the table beneath their opponent's elbow. A telekinetic can add their mental force to their strength. A talented magic-using hero might cast a hex on their foe.

And a shapeshifter can alter their mass. One of the strongest heroes I know is Gar, and fortunately, he hasn't taken offense at my 'borrowing' and 'copying' his body, and being made of stone definitely gave me an advantage. I managed to defeat many, many, MANY opponents, slamming their hands to the table's surface as a grappled them. I wasn't the most skilled arm wrestler when the day started, but by the end, I'd improved significantly. 

Not as significantly as El Toro Rojo. He really was the Red Bull when he and I faced off. Nothing was going to stop him from winning, I could see it in his eyes, and I was the person holding the red cape in his way to first place. I gave it my all, but he won, fair and square.

A second second. Better than I did in the Summer Olympiad, and I still had three events to go. Things were looking good, because for me in Division 3 in the next event, I was going to be on fire!!!

Day Four: Elemental Battles

I was ready for today. Ever since League War Avalanche and my discovery of my ability to change into pure energy, I'd been practicing shifting into earth, wind, water, and, of course, FIRE. I stepped into this challenge knowing that I was going to be the one to beat.

Once noon arrived, I OWNED that arena. Of the 26 potential opponents that entered alongside me, I went nearly unchallenged in my commanding the top position.

One Gold, two silver down, two more challenges to go. I was less certain about the next event. I would have to think long and hard on what battlefield I wanted to fight upon...

Day Three: Skill Challenges

Fencing. Cooking. Dodgeball. Chess. Dancing. Which was I going to chose?

Well, it didn't take long to realize that dancing wasn't going to be for me. For anyone, to be honest. It turned out there was a bit of a hiccup in the planning for the event and a fear of sexual harassment suits from excessive groping by one of the judges. Not only that, but I also hear that the soundtrack to the event was going to be one song. The Bunny Hop. In the end, it was the right choice.

That left me four choices, but the decision was far easier than I expected. If my triumph in the Elemental battle taught me anything, it was that I was hot and while not the traditional use of the word, I knew how to season AGGRESSIVELY. My volunteer time in the homeless shelter making spicy meals was going to pay off. I entered the cooking challenge. Surprisingly, many people opted for the more physical events, so not only did I place first in this challenge, the league leader of the Star Force Junior League, Arcane Ace, took second and another acquaintance of mine, The Cheese Wiz (ha-ha, how appropriate of him to place in a cooking challenge), came in third.

Had more people taken the chance on this new skill event, things may have been different, but as it was, I had the best dish of the night, a succulent roast duck confit. (No actual duck was harmed in the making of this dish. It was already dead when I started cooking it.)

Two Silver Medals, Two Gold. One to go.

Day Five: Cross-Country

I had an advantage in this event for sure. The ability to become an animal, such as a cheetah, gazelle, or antelope would make handling a ground course much easier. Then when I arrived, I found heroes on rocket ski's, snowmobiles, and any number of other vehicles. It was going to be more challenging than I expected. 

Division 2 had some impressive miles traveled in the beginning rounds. I expected that Division 3 would as well, especially after Hanzo's advice plan for rapid energy gains. There were some who traveled a more than respectable distance, but nothing I couldn't outdo. Then Unearthly Mitch the Lich used some voodoo magic and took first place, traveling over 700 miles. 

I wanted to push myself to see if I could place in all five of the events, but I wasn't sure if I could. I decided to wait until the last possible hour of the competition to enter. That way I knew if I should dare to risk it or if should accept my four medals and get some sleep. Nobody had surpassed Unearthly Mitch. I decided to position myself wisely and go for the gold.

My race started and I hit the slopes running. I made use of several boosts I had available. A can of Energy Drink, some candy corn from my Trick-or-Treating candy bag, a functional MightGlove, and a Spooky Pumpkinegg all gave me enough energy in my system to act like EB without any shapeshifting. I practically bounced down the course.

Unfortunately, not enough to beat Mitch the Lich, but close. I wasn't upset at all. Complaining when I reached first or second place in all of the five events would make me look like a real Karen, and I did my best to not be a Karen.

In the end, I ended up having an outstanding time during the Winter Olympiad, but I felt a tiny bit sad when I realized that all the activity and success of my efforts advanced me to the point I would be in Division 2 next Olympiad. No more being in the lowest tier. I'd be going up against some really big names next time.

Well, good! To be the best, I needed to face the best. Right?!

I hope that what I've done is an example of what can be accomplished if you put your mind to something. While it might have been nice to place Gold in everything and have it all, I didn't. But I did do my best and tried, giving each event I took part in solid effort, and earned rewards for it. Participation is key. 

For those who are interested, Madam Marvelous is a free toon. I've never bought MP on her behalf. She has earned MP rewards from the articles, stories, and challenges presented in game. She has been in a group buy with Villains Inc. as her prize for their contest, won Strange Quark's Kaiju contest around Halloween, and entered into the Heroes Rising Halloween Costume contest. She did donate $20 in real life cash to the Thanksgiving fundraiser, which merited her with one card. She has also been a part of multiple Fiction Forum stories and earned a few Strange Fiction awards for those collaborative efforts.

I'm saying this because I hope more people take part in the multiple opportunities in the community to benefit their characters. A few extra minutes of effort and contribution can make a difference, and more importantly, is fun. I've heard many people say "that's not for me" or "I'm not good at that", but here is the T(ruth). You won't get any better if you don't try.

Keep playing. Keep trying. Take part in the extra-curricular challenges. If you do so, I hope you will find you can get more out of this game, have more fun, and become a bigger part of the community.