[center][b][u]MEGA COLLAB: III EDITION[/b][/u] - [i]"The Ultimate Crucible"[/i] [b]Summary:[/b] Some people throw some balloons and some people get hit by said balloons.[/center] Seven looked up to Mr. Lion as he asked he hated water very much, he gave a nod and sort of a pathetic mewl. [i] "Yes...its like awful and cruel...I alwaya hated water,plus I can't swim so might not survive..." [/i] Seven grumbled out as he watched the waves of the ocea splash down on the shore. [i] "I can't trust it, I can't trust alot of things...but I can trust you guys!" [/i] Seven luaghed a bit but stayed underneath Mr. lion until the water ballon fight ends soon. he licked his paw and scratch his ear until the time comes... Laughing, Kathy replied to Crash, “Don’t worry. We’ll be the ones to win this game.” With Alex on her shoulder, she began to move to join the other girls on their side of the court. Even though they were on opposite sides, it was very easy to spot Crash with his red hair and bright swimming trunks. Her face turned red when she saw him suddenly toss his shirt aside. [i]‘Was that really necessary..?’[/i] She wondered. It should’ve been quite… Normal though. There were already plenty of other guys around that already had their shirts off because they had been enjoying their time at the beach before the event already started. [i]‘Ugh… Normal, everything’s normal.’[/i] She chanted inside her head as she shook her head, hoping to clear away the redness on her face. Though she had been trying not to look, her eyes were drawn towards the scar she could see. She frowned a bit, but decided to put it out of her mind for now. Luckily, Alex was helping her with that. Listening to him, she smiled warmly and replied, “Alright! I’ll be relying on you then Alex.” Actually, Kathy planned on protecting [i]him[/i] from any of the incoming water balloons but she could at least appreciate the sweet gesture. Besides, it was quite adorable to have a small ‘knight’ on her shoulder. [b]"Yes!"[/b] Alex shouted, sitting up and soluting in a mock gesture. He giggled at himself and then turned to watch the action. Meanwhile, Ara was waiting impatiently on the men's side of the court. He briefly checked to see where the red-haired girl (Kathy) was, though he probably had to search for her again when all the chaos started. Crash seemed quite a bit further down the line than he was. Well, he wasn't too worried about that. No one could possibly be too dense to notice that someone was deliberately aiming all the balloons they had at the girl (Kathy) even if there were closer and easier targets around. ... And why not. He'd try to shoot a few at Carmen too. What better way to celebrate a new friendly acquaintance than to start chucking water balloons at her? Chris stood, a sour expression on her face. She glanced around, looking at the other guys around her. She walked over to the red head(Crash) and waved with a smile. [b]"'Sup! Name's Chris."[/b] She said, holding out her hand to shake his. Lily sat on one of the lawnchairs, watching everything. Even the principal messing with that one kid. She had to admit, it suprised her how relaxed the woman was. Then again, at her old school there were no teachers nor higher uppers. Just the students for some reason. She sighed and shook her head. When she noticed more people getting ready for the game, she stood up and walked over, making her way over to Kathy. She blinked when she noticed the small boy on her shoulder. A pixie? That was what his energy told her but... It was muddled. She shrugged and stood next to the girl. After a few moments of silence, she looked over and smiled at the girl. [b]"Hey... I'm Lily."[/b] She began. Hopefully she wouldn't be ignored... Again. Andromeda flashed Ryuu a smile, as she took up a position on the sidelines to basically be his cheerleader. Oona looked around at the competition, there were a few large men over there, but size wasn't everything, she was rather sure her team could win, they were actually quite a few people on both sides, they appeared to have a reasonably even chance of winning. -------------------------------- Waterballoon Dodgeball. The ultimate crucible of competition. At least, that’s how Carmen’s mind saw it. She had a fierce competitive streak that she had completely forgotten about until just now (the martini from earlier certainly didn’t help) and for her it was like the beginning of an internationally televised and dramatized sporting event. Winners would be exalted. Losers shamed. But, of course, even her competitiveness couldn’t trump her need to look [i]fashionable[/i] at all times. Luckily her gigantic sun hat came with a neck strap, which she presently tightened as she looked down at her dress. [i]Yeah, this will work fine,[/i] she thought. [i]It’s a beach dress, after all. What’s a little water? …and besides, I don’t plan on getting hit anyway,[/i] she thought, smiling. She was stood in the middle of her team which was generally milling about (as well as the other team) and not noticing her, in the middle of the “court”. Like a scene from a sports movie, she slowly brought her head up to face the other team as the lady she didn’t recognize announced that the game was about to begin. With her game face on, she picked targets, but truthfully they all were wonderful targets, and she certainly didn’t want to be picky. Mercy waited for a moment longer as she watched with the exchange between Maria Cross and Ryuu, an amused smile apparent on her face as she chuckled at the pair. Without further ado however she felt it was time to get this blood bath...water bath going. “Alright everyone, on your marks” She called out, as Koop came up next to her pulling an egg timer out of his messenger bag he twisted it and waited for a moment. “Ready...set...” Mercy started leaving a small pause as she was sure they were all pretty tense, coiled up like springs. She placed the whistle between her lips before blowing it sharply, allowing the sharp sound to pierce the air. At the same time Koop released the timer...let the game begin! Chris wasted no time, she rushed to the line, grabbing as much as should could and booked it back to the back of their little area. She yelled at her team mates, telling them to get the move on as she went back for more. Carmen immediately bolted to the line like a runner after the gun was fired. Quickly grabbing several balloons, she ran backwards back to the rest of her team who were also prepared for the initial onslaught. Picking out targets, she quickly fired some of the balloons she had at basically everyone she could see, not even looking to see if they hit as she reached down to grab some more of her initial ammunition. Breaking off into an instant sprint, Kathy ran to the starting line and managed to grab a few water balloons before she quickly jumped back, hoping no one could take aim at her that quickly. She glanced over at Alex on her shoulder momentarily, hoping that he wouldn't fall. She quickly took aim and launched a few water balloons at anyone she saw near the center line. Alex held on for dear life. Ryuu began to run- WHEN SUDDENLY.... A bunch of Hilly Balboas began to fly and entered bullet-time, letting Ryuu see every single watermelon being thrown into the air by a bunch of farmers. [quote=Ryuu Yamauchi][i]"Dear Mom; today, I stand before so many watermelons."[/i][/quote] "[b]OH MY GOD[/b]," Ryuu screamed, instantly having two spiralling waterfalls of blood shooting out of his nose. Much to his surprise, the women were extremely fast, but he had been expecting this. With a mighty lunge, the otaku quickly snatched several water balloons off of the ground before backing off with surprisingly far-jumping back flips. He eventually stopped, landing on his feet, as he put down three balloons, carrying one with two hands. He failed to get a bucket, but he sure as heck got some ammunition. Maria ran up to the line, eyeing Ryuu with curious eyes. [b]"Prepare yourselves."[/b] She said, aiming her words at the boys. She took a bucket in her hands and ran back with the other girls. As soon as the whistle went Crash propelled himself forward practically diving for the nearest bucket , whether that was because he tripped over his own feet was questionable as he lurched into the bucket pulling the bucket back with him, balloons already flying he barely missed one as it soared over his head another landed harmlessly in his bucket strike! He managed to backpeddle at an impressive speed and without incident! Once it was safely back he scooped a balloon out of the bucket , now he was ready! Crash tossed the balloon to his over hand before pulling his arm back and sending the balloon into the sky spinning as one would a football, it made a perfect arc and headed towards the back portion of the girls court by now he'd already scooped up two more balloons. Using a few nearby guys as meat shields, surprisingly enough Ara actually took his time to get to the center line. Whistling to himself, he hid behind his teammates as they got hit by the first splashes of water, keeping himself safely dry for the moment. Noticing that Crash had actually managed to bring a bucket safely back away from the area of chaos, he decided to back track as he continued to weave around behind his teammates. "Thank you." Chuckling, he took an armful of balloons out of the bucket after giving Crash just a brief bit of appreciation for his efforts. Looking for his pre-determined target, he quickly launched one balloon after another at the girl (Kathy). Chris felt a water balloon hit her back and she looked back to see one single redheaded female standing as if ready to throw. Chris' eyes narrowed and she grabbed a balloon with a smirk. She pulled her arm back and sent the balloon headed straight for the girl's face. Lily blinked. Yeah, ignored. Though, not really her fault. She stood as balloons whizzed by her, her arms folded. Why was she even here? She sighed and walked over to a nearby bucket her team had gotten and haphazardly threw it over at the boys. This was... boring. Launching the last of her initial plunder, Carmen looked up to see balloons coming at her team from the other side...many balloons. Running to avoid them, she managed to survive the opening onslaught. However, she was out of balloons, and her teammates seemed to be totally occupied with theirs, so she initiated a suicide run to attempt to grab a bucket for the team to use as ammunition. Running up to the line from the side of the court and then running across ducking to grab the bucket, she had to jump a few times to avoid some thrown at her feet. Meraculously, she survived the front line and brought the bucket full of balloons back to her teammates alive. "HEY! I grabbed more ammo for us!" she yelled at her teammates, already grabbing a couple to lob at the other team. Her luck with avoiding everything would surely run out eventually... Ryuu eyed the other side of the court... ...But he just could not look at it for long amounts of times. He was thankful to have sunglasses partially censoring the women's "imported goods." And all of a sudden, a man appeared on the other side of the court. "[b][i]DAFUQ?![/I][/B]" Ryuu shouted silently. "Why the hell is there a [u]man[/u] over there?!" [i]But Andromeda is watching me. And I frickin' TOLD her to cheer for me, so I need to at least survive...[/i] Determined to stay in the game, Ryuu held a water balloon up in the air. He heard the woman supporting him cheer for him, which made him take the game more seriously. His hands briefly crackled plasma energy and, with a mighty swing, he jumped and flung his body around in the air a dozen times before throwing the balloon at a particular woman. She admittedly looked pretty, but he still needed to do [i]something[/i], right? The balloon charged toward the target (Kathy) with an incredibly fast speed. At this point, Alex had moved away. "H-Huh?!!" Kathy had expected balloons to come flying at her, but the sheer number of them was very unexpected. Crash noted where Kathy was almost instantly among the chaos but he deliberately steered clear of her instead he aimed a balloon at a rather bored looking girl (Lily) lobbing it at her before darting away again, hit and run! Momentarily distracted as he noticed Alex grew to adult size, he skidded to a halt watching in a half amused half perplexed manner leaving himself vulnerable to aerial attacks. He clocked where most of the projectile's were coming from, he narrowed his eyes briefly at Ara before swooping back to the bucket, moving over to Ara he couldn't help but be drawn to Carmen'S 'Larger than life' hat unable to resist he sent multiple balloons in her direction before grabbing more, the bucket was going to run out soon... Alex blinked as balloons came flying at Kathy. It was too many. He glanced around quickly and noticed none of the girls were being hit with such fervour. Without much thought, Alex jumped down from Kathy's shoulder and landed in front of her, growing to his adult size. With swift hands, he knocked balloons out of the way, as they came towards Kathy. However, one manged to hit him on the shoulder. He glanced down at his now soaked shoulder and with a blank expression looked up at where the balloons had been coming from. His eyes narrowed as he sent a glare at the boy (Ara). He turned back around with a bright smile and aimed it at Kathy. He was still being pelted with balloons but he didn't care. [b]"See!"[/b] He told her, a toothy grin on his face. His voice was much deeper now and he was much taller than her, nearly towering over her. Kathy had expected to be hit by at least one of the rain of balloons coming down on her, but to her surprise... Alex suddenly became even taller than she was and shielded her from all of it. "A-Alex?" Apparently he had not been joking about protecting her. Blinking up at him in surprise, her mouth hung open for a moment. But a second later she quickly snapped out of her daze and began, "I... Um... Thank you but..." Kathy looked up at him, feeling apologetic. "I think... That probably counts as breaking the rules Alex. And... You can't stay here shielding me like this, you've already lost and I don't want to cheat..." Everything went so fast, it was just like a bullet that was just shot. Garden was at dazed, everything happened so fast, she ran trying to get a water balloon yet she was a bit to slow and couldn't quite understand what was happening. Luckily enough Garden was able to grabbed one water balloon and pathetically threw it, but she closed her eyes so without knowing were she threw the balloon. Soon enough she began to dodge again, ducking a bit from the up coming flying water balloons. but she tripped and landed on the sand were she could be easily hit. Andromeda clapped "you can do it Ryuu!" Oona had been weaving in and out of the way of balloons for awhile, being unable to get one until she finally got one and aimed straight at the biggest guy on the other team. After throwing the two balloons that she had picked up from the bucket, she noticed an abnormally large amount of balloons coming from one location all converging on...her hat? [i]I wonder if hitting my hat counts as hitting me,[/i] she thought. Before she could think anything else she had to avoid the onslaught of hat-bound balloons and basically jumped onto the ground into a prone position to let the balloons sail over her. It worked...but now she was a sitting duck until she could get back up. Koop timed his entrance perfectly, flying over to Kathy and Alex blowing a whistle at the pair. "Power usage prohibited! Kupo-po!" The little Moogle commented. "First warning...also you're on the side...kupo" The creature pointed out, he looked a little apologetic as he glanced at Kathy. "Rules, Koop didn't mean to be mean...Kupo-po" He murmured to her, the little creature was also rather fond of her but then again if anyone was nice he was fond of them. He quickly dipped away avoiding balloons as he whizzed across the field. Crash ducked avoising another balloon watching Carmen hit the floor, a grin spread across his face as he jumped towards the line skidding to a stop he sent two more balloons at her before scrabbling his way back onto his feet laughing as he dove behind another team mate avoising a balloon and nabbing one from his team mates hand, his eyes travelling to rest on Ara he shifted before lobbing his balloon accidently at the back of his head... Alex looked up at the... thing blowing a whistle at him. [b]"Yeah. Then tell that guy to stop pelting her with balloons. She'll get hurt."[/b] He growled, his eyes narrowed. He stole a glance at the guy (Ara) before walking off and sitting down on the sidelines. His eyes never left the guy (Ara), piercing holes in the guy's skull. Catching sight of Carmen as probably the easiest target now of the lot, he was about the launch a balloon at her when he felt something suddenly hit his head. Feeling water suddenly soak into his hair and fall down to his shoulders, he glanced around with an icy look. He didn't have to look very far. In the first place, he had already had a prime suspect from the fact he had been attacked from the back instead of the front where the enemy team was. Well. Screw the game and winning now. Taking the last two balloons he had in his hands, Ara hurled one directly at Crash and threw the next one after a slight time lag a little more to the side in the case he tried to dodge. "It's fine. Both of you." Glancing from Koop to Alex for a moment, she quickly waved off their concerns. Especially Alex's. The whole point of the game was to aim at each other so of course there would be balloons coming at her. Although... For some reason a lot of them seemed to be aimed at her more than anyone else. And speaking of which, another one was coming at her already. "?!!" Out of reflex, she held her hand out in front of her to try to catch the object. And she did, though it still exploded on impact and the water spread out on her arms. If it had been any normal game of dodgeball she would've gotten the other person out, but that's obviously not how this one worked. Carmen's eyes widened as she saw two more balloons volleyed at her by the redhead from the bar earlier. Desperate, she did the equivalent of a barrel roll on the ground, quickly rolling to the left multiple times in a desperate attempt to avoid it. Luck was on her side again as she narrowly avoided them. However...she was now covered in sand and realized that if she wanted to compete with this guy, she'd have to do the unthinkable. So she took off her hat and put it on the sideline (:O), revealing her long fiery blonde hair that was, admittedly, hidden by the hat. It was her only regret, but now the island would get to see her hair, which was no problem. It was now an all out brawl: Carmen vs. Crash. She needed to pay him back for making her take off her [i]EXTREMELY FASHIONABLE[/i] gigantic sun hat. And with that, she picked up four balloons from the bucket and hurled them at Crash as he jumped and flipped around the court. Crash lifted his hands apologetically at Ara. "Sorry dude, slippery little buggers" He smirked at Ara, jumping to the side avoiding the first balloon as he had expected it the second however exploded against his hip drenching the right side of his shorts. He jumped forward doing a rather fancy flip over the balloon bucket hand diving in and grabbing another balloon which he lobbed at Ara as he landed, momentarily dsitracted by Carmen barrel rolling across the court he barely stopped himself from laughing as he armed himself with more balloons. Now aware he had an enemy on his own side...He gulped as he saw Carmen take her hat off something told him he was in trouble now! He yelped as she threw the first few balloons at him, abadoning half of his own bar one the young shapeshifter decided free running was possible on this sand it just involved a dive through this team mates legs, a flash of guilt as Carmen's balloon belted him in the stomach as he got back up he felt another balloon collide with his shoulder spraying water over him as he took a flying leap knowing the next to balloons would hit him he randomly lobbed his last balloon...straight at Kathy as it seemed to completely miss Carmen, he hit the ground and rolled to his feet hand in another bucket as he tried to locate both Carmen and Ara quickly at the same time noticing where his projectile was headed...oops Garden stood up from the sand, she dusted a bit of the sand off eventhough it was like a war zone. "Wah!" She tried to dodge yet she wasn't really that graceful with dodging more of dancing. Soon enough she ended up bumping with one of her team mates (Carmen) a lady with blonde hair and who had a sun hat but removed it. "S-Sorry!" She said as she tried to avoid everything but pretty badly. Ryuu blinked when he saw a man splash away another dude. He blinked again when he realized he actually got someone. "...But... that's nice and all, but..." ... ... ... ... ... [i]...[B]WHY WOULD YOU DO THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?!?[/B][/i] As two of his teammates began to fight each other, however, a woman just took off a hat. The otaku actually recognized her just by her looks, but he remembered her even more now that she took off that "EXTREMELY FASHIONABLE gigantic sun hat." She was beautiful. And deadly. The woman aimed at Crash, a particular student Ryuu did not get to know much about. This guy, however, was the same dude being attacked by his own teammate. Rolling his eyes at the spectacle before him, the otaku focused extremely hard, so much to the point where his eyes blanked out. After selecting [i]two targets[/i], the physically powerful student chucked another of his balloon off of the ground. He spun around wildly before flinging one of his balloons at a balloon Crash completely failed to aim at Carmen. The angle he threw the balloon at caused Crash's balloon to suddenly head straight towards Carmen, while Ryuu's balloon headed to Kathy yet again. Ryuu's other balloon was thrown at Ara with a power intentionally high enough to cause a hit target to become dizzy. Knowing where the enemy was now, Ara didn't have much trouble dodging the next balloon Crash fired at him. Not all the concerned about the other side now, he grabbed more balloons out of another bucket and chucked them at Crash. A few of them ended up hitting some other guys that were unfortunate enough to be close by, but about 2 more were still headed in the right course. Having made a blunder, Kathy quickly shook herself out of it. She was still a lot more dry than most since the water only hit her on the arms. It wasn't even that obvious since her clothes had managed to remain dry. Another balloon was lobbed at her, but this one wasn't very quick and she jumped out of the way as it hit the ground. Surprisingly enough, it didn't pop. Seeing her chance, Kathy grabbed the balloon and aimed it at a guy with dark hair (Ryuu) that seemed oddly distracted on the other side with something. Having seen the balloon coming her way because she had been looking in that direction, she ducked out of the way... Only to be hit by a different stray balloon on the shoulder. It was really difficult to keep track of everything with so many people around. The whole game couldn't go by without Carmen raising one eyebrow, could it? Of course not. And it happened when she looked over to see Ara, the guy she had chatted with up until this point, throwing balloons at his teammates. [i]Well...that's something...[/i] she thought to herself. She noticed a potential problem when she saw a menacing looking guy take note of her existence. [i]Uh oh,[/i] she thought. [i]I can handle just the redhead, but two guys? Uhhh...[/i] She ran over to the bucket once again, rapid firing another volley of balloons to the other side - two aimed at the tall guy, and two aimed at the redhead. Feeling the collision with Garden, Carmen smiled at her apology. "It's fine!" she said quickly as she ran to pick up more balloons. She barely picked some up when she suddenly noticed a balloon coming straight towards her. She was able to avoid all of the balloons so far, but a sudden change in trajectory at the last second would not be avoidable in the slightest by a normal person, and so it was that Carmen was hit with a balloon. But it wasn't any old hit. The entire world went in slow motion as Ryuu's/Crash's balloon hit Carmen square in the sternum, right above one of Ryuu's melon farms. It was a violent hit, one fraught with a massive balloon explosion, causing Carmen to nearly fall down. And before she could compose herself, the redhead's second balloon came screaming in, hitting her in the same place and causing her to completely fall on her back, vanquished.