Jill carefully considered all of Oh-One’s capabilities as Auri listed them off, comparing them to what she knew about what she could do, what SHINING could do… Never heard of these factories, but I suppose if they’re an issue it’ll be quite the scuffle…

Come to think of it, she’d never bothered to look too closely into what Auri or Justin could do either…

"And what the hell can we do about that?"

"We can steal the Power Stone first."

The sheer audacity sent Jill swerving right off her train of thought. She did indeed look at Auri with a good degree of shock. Even if it was a joke, she could hardly tell what that lady was thinking sometimes. She laughed half-heartedly before going back to trying to size up the situation. If it was really a 30% chance of success, they were pretty outmatched…

Unless!

Yeah, that was it! She idly ran her thumb over the EX-System sitting in her pocket. The form she used in the last match was only a small fraction of what it was really capable of, and not even Auri knew what it could do… Well, Jill didn’t either, but if it had so many safety locks on it, it was probably worth the hype. She looked back up to the pair, finally confident in her plan.

“Well, I think if I-”

”JUSTY!!!!!”

"... Please don’t call me that,” Justin groaned.

”I think it’s cute…” Auri giggled with her hand on her lips. ”... Justy.”

"... See what you started?”

”Auri Auclair, former assistant to the genius Gerard Delacroix,“ She introduced herself with a little flair.

Florian’s entrance prompted only an instant’s shocked pause from Jill, the urge to groan having been trained out of her years ago. Any awkwardness in an awkward smile was long gone. She tipped her hat in response to his bow, and politely sat through his little spiel while having to try extra hard to suppress the grimace the moment he mentioned his superior genetics. She never really got used to that. She managed to shake it off, and leaned over to the bar.

“Hey, can ya just get me a glass of water? Thanks!” Jill was a determined teetotaler, and wasn’t going to leave an inch of room to start drinking in this particular moment. She decided that Florian was about as out of his depth in this crisis as a deep sea anglerfish on a commercial airliner… best to leave him out of the loop for now.

“Well as I was saying,” Jill smiled. “I’ve got a new form that the world ain’t seen yet, do ya think I should see if I can use it in the next match? Or should I hold off on it?” Jill winked at Auri and Justin.

Auri smiled,

“Could your new form help you win your next match? If not, I recommend saving it for later.” She said.

Florian's eyes darted back and forth, as though watching some sort of table tennis match rather than a conversation. He chuckled good naturedly at Auri's suggestion.

"You simply must utilize all your tools if you are to continue, Jillian!" He said, chuckling again and shaking his head. "No matter what form your next match may take, it's imperative to give it your all!"

He added extra emphasis to the words "next match" as though it were merely a custom he'd just learned instead of a system deliberately designed to keep him out of the loop. Even lightly nudging Justy in the arm (and getting a somber look in return), as he'd seen friends do on many situational comedies shown on television.

Jill nodded thoughtfully. It was, surprisingly, good advice.

“Well, everything I’ve done with the EX-System so far is only a fraction of what it can really do,” She frowned, still turning everything over in her head. “Judging by how much I’ve gotten out of it so far, if I can handle it at full capacity, well… I’d say the next match would be a piece of cake!”

Auri paused for a second, before she replied,

“... And if you cannot?”

Jill’s gaze turned sideways.

“I’m not sure…” She said. It wasn’t hard to tell that she thought it certainly wasn’t anything good. To which Auri put her hand on top of Jill’s and said,

“Then I wouldn’t risk it, regardless of the stakes,” She started, ”... If we put our hearts and minds together, we can win this.”

Florian gave a little nod. ”Ms. Auclair.” He started. ”How thought provoking.” He meant it too, though with how his ilk tended to socialize it would’ve been easy to read it as backhanded.

”Pray tell, how is the EX system treating you, Ms. Breicen?” There was genuine curiosity in his tone, not just the kind he always added out of politeness to make his conversational sparring partner feel seen and heard. He knew a little of how the EX system functioned as his Basilisk system employed similar technology and capabilities, but the EX-System was practically a MINERVA black project with how tight lipped the higher ups had been.

”Having seen it in action, it’s difficult to fathom that we’ve still yet to see it at its full capability. Are you concerned about damaging the machinery?” His head tilted. ”If so, please do not worry, I’d be happy to do everything in my power to expedite repairs and get it returned to you in tip top condition before the event has concluded! I would hate to see you or anyone forced to compete with a handicapped performance!” Again, sincere, and again, anyone who didn’t know Florian intimately well could very easily see it as a thinly veiled dig.

Jill frowned, but she was pretty distracted by now. She stared at the glass of water now sat in front of her.

“... It looks very appetizing, doesn’t it?” Auri said with a smile. “I think it wants you to, you know, drink it.”

“Well, can’t say I’m worried about breaking it…” She said, before drifting back to Florian’s first question. “The thing’s exhilaratin’, to be honest. When it’s on, I feel so full of life that I could burst, but once it’s off I feel pretty out of it. Hits like a truck if you’ve been goin’ too wild with it. Izzy said I should be careful with it, but I’ve been gettin’ better with it the more I used it… Back when I started, I couldn’t even keep up the form I used against Aaron just now.” She sat in silence for a few moments, then downed her glass and set it back down on the bar.

“Weird as it is,” Jill started up again, her usual confidence starting to swell back up again. “I agree with Florian. I didn’t sign up for this line of work to be a coward.” She looked to her new cyborg friend with a smile.

“What do you think, ‘Justy?’”

"... I’m hoping no one else picks up on that nickname,” “Justy” groaned with a roll of his eyes. Then he shrugged and responded to Jill, "I’m just listening… just do whatever it takes to win the next match - and remember, there’s always the next tournament if this doesn’t go well, so don’t shoot your bolt too early.”

Florian nodded. ”Well said, my friend.” He added, not picking up on Justin’s barely disguised contempt. ”Nevertheless, keep at it, Ms. Breicen. I have no doubt you’ll have complete mastery over the system very soon!” He said, turning back towards Jill. In truth, he wasn’t entirely sure that’d be the case. Jill’s system was similar in technology and theory but very different in execution. Florian’s Basilisk System could, in laymen’s terms, alter reality. Allowing him to form and use constructs from thin air, but the EX-System… It almost appeared to alter the “self”.

The Star of MINERVA shook his head, he was getting too serious and introspective in front of his compatriots and that was simply rude. ”As said however, my friend Justy is accurate, there will always be the next tournament to try again!” A brilliant Wessington smile and thumbs up towards the three, a light drizzling of sparkles falling from his grin. ”I will, gladly, let you all inspect the power stone should you really wish it of course! Provided you submit the appropriate forms and documentation to the MINERVA head office!”

He bowed slightly, once for Jill, once for Auri and once for his best friend. ”It was a genuine pleasure to reconvene with you Ms. Breicen and Justin, my friend. As well as making your acquaintance, Ms. Auclair. But, sadly, I must cut my time with you all short, I have a very regimented training schedule that I must adhere to before the following matches. That said:” He reached into his jacket pocket and produced three crisp business cards, deftly placing one each in the hands of his very dear friends.

”Please. Do get in contact if my wealth of experience or vast array of connections can be of use to you. Day or night, I rarely sleep.” Another bow, another smile. Though a smaller and slightly more open one than normal. Despite not being entirely sure what the hell the conversation was about, he enjoyed a rare moment of affability that he rarely received from those, supposedly, of the same social class as himself.

“Adieu.” Florian turned and sauntered off. The bartender returned over to the groups corner of the bar, holding three “electrolyte heavy” drinks and a single glass of water. “Is that guy still taking his drink?” he asked in a practically soul dead tone of voice.

When Florian left, Justin was quiet for a second before he spoke to Jill and Oh-Seven,

"Great call, l don’t think he’s friends with tincan, but I don't see him keeping his mouth shut.

“Yeah,” Jill nodded. “He was makin’ a lot more sense than he usually does, at least. Nice meetin’ you, Justin. I think I’ll link back up with izzy and-” Massive speakers suddenly sprang to life as if determined to cut her off.

---

Interactions: Each other.

---

Finally getting away from the two weirdos, Yoko let out a sigh... that was definitely odd. Not that it was any of Yoko's concern, maybe she was going to wait until the tournament was over before she gave that robotic nuisance a piece of her mind. And maybe a stick swiftly up his exhaust port, too. They found a nice quiet corner... that was full of all the other brooding Nomads who had the same idea. Well, they weren't talking, so Yoko thought that was private enough for her! Yoko turned around and firmly planted her staff onto the ground.

"What was that all about? Why was that man holding you by a stick?"

"Oi! That idiot bumped into me while I was walking up the stairs to get here and I was trying to get his attention by tapping him a few times..." Yoko trailed off before she grabbed her staff and strongly tapped it onto the ground, as she proudly said, "... And this is no 'stick', this is one of the Hatanaka family's weapons that they used to protect Japan."

Then she placed a hand on her hip as she said,

"... The weapon, I'm going to use to protect Japan."

”...I see… So what are you doing in Brazil if you intend to protect Japan?” She would’ve asked who the flying fuck the Hatanaka family was, but she didn’t give that many flying fucks.

"I’m here looking for a ninja… an American that has my family’s sword… the legendary Murakumo. Yoko proudly answered. "Jaden Raldo… calls himself a rapper. Yoko damn near gagged.

Selena thinks for a moment. ”Is he from Gold City? I may have heard of him before.”

"I have no idea, but I know he’s here."

”Well, why did he steal your sword, then? What, did you steal his magic stick or something?”

”He didn’t steal it from my family…” Yoko trailed off, "When I was a baby, my family’s compound was raided and my father, Hatanaka Kenji… was defeated and killed by a group of mercenaries and the sword was stolen from him by a man named Jotaro. And that idiot stole it from him.”

”So… He doesn’t fully understand the importance of this sword,” Selena assumed. ”Does he use this sword to fight with, like a proper Nomad? Or does it simply collect dust?”

”... He better not be touching my sword, Yoko sharply hissed, ”It’s my family’s treasure, but there’s a powerful Oni’s soul sealed inside of it… look, if you’re not of Hatanaka or Royal Oni blood, the Oni inside it will possess you.”

Selena blinked. ”...Possession. That I understand, as a sorcerer myself. Though, if this Jaden Raldo is neither of those, do you believe he’s already possessed?”

”Of course not, Yoko replied, ”From the ancient texts my ancestors left behind, the possessed would go on a rampage and kill as many humans as possible… The only things that he killed so far are probably the people he made listen to his music! Ha!”

”…Right. Then is there some sort of trigger to the possession? A condition that has to be met first? How has he not been possessed yet if he’s wielding this sword?”

”Oi, you gotta hold the sword for a bit for it to possess you… enough time to say, cut someone with it and put it away.

”That’s awfully specific. So I assume he knows about the curse but chooses to use the sword regardless. Why?”

”He’s an American, he probably doesn’t even care about the danger he is putting himself and other people in.”

”You’d be surprised how often people in America worry about themselves… Though, he does sound reckless. What would happen if the Oni possessed him? What would the Oni do with a body?”

Yoko placed her staff over her shoulders, holding it with both hands as she said, ”Beats me, probably continue his….” She then raised her fist and dramatically spoke, ”Crusade against mankind! Then she laughed.

Her eyes narrowed at Yoko. ”You don’t sound particularly afraid of this Oni. But that does sound rather dangerous. How do you intend to take the sword away from him?”

Yoko grabbed her staff with both hands and primed it as if she were a cop ready to bash down someone’s door as she proudly announced,

”... I’m going to ram this up his ass, then take the sword from him! Easy!”

Selena looked at this bitch like she was out of her damn kind. ”…How very convincing. I’m quaking in my boots. And if that doesn’t work?”

”... I’m going to do it again!”

…Wow.

Selena doubted this woman could actually take anyone in a fight. Was she serious? Or was she simply downplaying her own abilities? That was the more likely option, Selena would be doing that herself if it was prevalent.

”You have a talent for keeping your plans simple.”

Firmly laying one end of her staff on the ground, Yoko raised a finger as she said, “Oi! And you have one for asking a lot of questions!”



The Announcer shouted.

“Oi! It seems like it’s time for me to go… keep an eye out for the ninja for me!” Yoko spoke to Selena.

”I’ll… Try to do that. Good luck with that.”

Yoko turned to walk away, but then she gave Selena one final glance as she said, ”Oi! It was great meeting you…”

Then she smiled as she added on,

”... Friend.”

---

The family call was lots of screaming, yelling, and a few ‘I told you so’s’ on her father’s part. Though Beatriz had to remind him not to take credit for her hard earned victory, world-class encouragement be damned. Well, that’s all a part of being a parent, she supposed.

Beatriz was still in her fighter’s outfit, and she was raiding the buffet line. She was so eager to eat she nearly forgot to take out her tooth guard. Singing and rapping to herself, she bounced down the line, bobbing her head around. No one had interviewed her, but she hadn’t sought one out; the thought of interviewing hadn’t really crossed her mind. If she had been paying attention this was probably proof that she didn’t really care about fame. But she wasn’t really paying attention to much at all- she was still riding her victory high. So when she turned she bumped into someone who was much more likely to both receive and participate in an interview.

”Shit, s-sorry-” Bea said moving her plate to prevent most of her food from falling off.

Fortunately the five second rule meant that Bea was quick enough to put her chicken wing back on her plate after brushing it off. Phew!

“… Awww you nasty as fuck,” None other than Jaden Raldo spoke. He teleport in a puff of smoke and appeared to the side as he continued, “Know the five-second rule is bullshit, right? There’s dookie on the flo’.”

Beatriz jumped, her face flushing red. ”Huh, what?” She moved her plate away from Jaden so he couldn’t see it anymore. She looked at him and worse, recognized him. Eyes wide, she froze and then laughed uncomfortably. ”M-me?”

Jaden looked to the left, then to the right, before focusing on Beatriz, “Yeah, who els-” He paused when he finally realized something. “... You’re a fuckin’ kid! Oh lord, they let everyone in this tournament, don’t they?”

Beatriz quickly turned and slid her chicken wing into a nearby trash can. ”U-um, I- y-yeah, it's an open bracket.” She replied, still too shocked about the food situation and Jaden’s general force of personality to reply to him in anything other than the most literal way.

“... And you expect to win? Bruh, some of the Nomads here,” He spread his arms out, turning his torso from the left and to the right. “They been training they whole lives just for this tournament.

One could almost hear the gears shifting back into motion in Bea’s head. ”So? Me, too.” She said, the first signs of defensiveness in her voice.

“All fourteen years?”

”All seventeen!” Beatriz protested, and then realized how childish that sounded. ”Fuck man, whatever! You’re not that much older than me.” She said. She wanted to cross her arms or gesture in some way, but she was still just holding this plate of food.

“What do you think will happen if you somehow… lord lemme stop. Somehow, by some miracle, get the Power Stone? Err’body gonna be on yo ass!”

”What? I- I dunno. It’s just a stupid rock, who gives a shit?” Bea asked defensively, turning away slightly. She took a bite of one of her remaining chicken wings in protest.

“Not just any stupid rock, but one of THE most saught after artifact in the whole world.”

”Then I’ll put it in a fuckin’ museum- or better yet go chuck it in the landfill. What do you think about that?” Beatriz said as she chewed, raising her eyebrows

Jaden shrugged.

“Hey, if you’re gonna do all that, might as well give it to ol’ dude!”

”Huh?” Bea squinted. ”Old dude? Meu pai?”

Jaden facepalmed.

”I’m talking about me, ya’ di-”

“Jaden.”

He heard a voice behind him, and looked over his shoulder to see Captain Cole, with his number two Violet next to him. Her robotic hands dangling down.

“Don’t you have better things to do than harass kids? God, I can see why I threw you off my ship.” Captain Cole facepalmed.

“I didn’t want to be apart of yo’ little ass pirates anyway,” Jaden responded to Cole.

“You see a child, I see potential…” Captain Cole walked past Jaden and walked over to Beatriz and he extended a hand to her.

“Hello, I am Captain Cole, leader of the Cole pirates, and I’ll have you know you don’t want to be associating with riff-raff like him.” He spot a sharp gaze to Jaden.

“Riff-raff? Ninja please,” Jaden threw his hands down as he added on, “Don’t you got a million dollar bounty on yo’ head? Surprised they ain’t tried to cut ya’ down the second ya’ walked through the door!”

Beatriz was feeling smaller by the second, as she was dwarfed by two more larger-than-life personalities. It didn’t help that she was also physically the shortest. Captain Cole- the Captain Cole, of (nearly) moon-theft fame, walked up to her and offered to shake her hand. Her mouth open, she reached out and shook his hand. Her eyes flitted over to Violet, looked away, flitted back, and then made extra sure not to look back a third time.

“You can look, sweetie,” Violet laughed, “It’s only natural, you’re in awe of this much woman.”

”... Or crazy.” Jaden added.

”Uhhh…h-hi…I’m Beatriz.” She responded to Captain Cole, star struck. Again. Jaden might not have noticed but Beatriz definitely recognized him from his career as a musician as well. She wiped the crumbs off her lips.

“Beatriz… it’s great to meet you,” Captain Cole softly spoke as he firmly shook her hand. “Yes, the Power Stone is just a rock, but one that many eyes are on… primarily because currently it’s the only Power Stone in play.”

Beatriz shook her head, electing to focus on Captain Cole and not the scary pretty lady behind him. ”Y-yeah, great to meet you, too.” There was no way, of course, that it was great to meet her. It was nice, at best.
”Look, man, uh, sir, I don’t know nothin’ about no power stone. I’m just here for the tournament.” Beatriz explained, rubbing the back of her head, giggling sheepishly.

“You’re a fighter I see… and just a fighter,” Captain Cole said, “There’s a lot of your types in the tournament.”

”Shit, I’d hope so. It’s a fighting tournament, after all. I thought there’d be more just fighters. If I’m being honest.” She said.

”I didn’t even know there was more than one. Can a rock really make you more powerful? Just a plain old rock?” She asked. He was here, talking to her about it. She felt compelled to try and participate in the conversation, somehow. Though she realized she might just be making herself look stupid by asking basic questions. ”Seems like cheating.” She said, still with a nervous smile.

“It’s less of a rock and more of a gem… nobody knows how it works, it just output extreme amounts of ki, mad scientists fight over them so they can power their doomsday weapons,” Captain Cole shrugged, “And there were nine of them… but hundreds of years ago; two Nomads gathered four of the Power Stones each and they couldn’t decide who the last Power Stone went to….”

He placed a hand on his chin as he continued, “So, on a place known as Dinosaur Island, the two battled for the final stone… unfortunately, nobody told those idiots to be careful: they accidentally destroyed each other’s Power Stones and here we are: fighting over one.”

Beatriz took in the tale. ”D-dinosaur Island…y-yeah that seems like a pretty bad call on their part.” She laughed.

”They say Dinosaur Island is an island… of Dinosaurs. And treasures. Riches far as the eye can see, yo!“ Jaden injected. ”Dinosaur island is just a myth, no one has ever found it!

”So after all that, it just ends up as a prize in an annual fighting tournament? After all that doomsday shit?” She scratched the back of her head.

Captain Cole shrugged.

“The Power Stone changes hands a lot, it’s always been that way…”

”This dickhead tried to use it to steal the moon with it one time! Jaden laughed. ”He got stopped by MAVERICK, and I think the Justice Riders, too!”

Captain Cole groaned,

“But, how about this, Beat - mind if I call you that? - I seen your fight with Brenda…” Captain Cole started, “... I see a place for you on my ship.”

”Don’t do it, bro! Jaden started off with a smile, ”They gon’ put a price on yo’ head!”

”Oh-” Bea was startled by the offer, glancing over at Jaden before looking back at Cole. ”Oh, no, no fucking way, dude!” She exclaimed, in a tone that was only half-humorous.

”My mom would kill me!” She shook her head rapidly. ”B-but thank you?” She added, still quite flattered by the offer and what it said about how he perceived her combat skills. Bea let out a little laugh.

“HAHAHAHA!” Violet vociferously laughed as she clutched her stomach and wiped a tear away. “You’re still worried about mommy?”

Violet raised both of her claws, “You have to carve your own path, sweetie. You won’t be hanging off her teat forever!”

Bea was startled by the laugh, but the follow-up comments caused her eyes to narrow. ”Did I ask? No. Was I even talkin’ to you? No.” She held her plate in one hand.

”Definitely not joining.” She said to Cole, like Violet’s existence just confirmed it for her.

Violet stepped forward to say something else but Captain Cole raised his hand to silence her. Only to point towards the stage, which the Announcer was already on.



“… we have more important matters to attend to,” Captain Cole said as he adjusted his suit. “Such as acquiring the Power Stone.”

Captain Cole took a step away, but gave Bea a look as he said, “… My offer still stands.”

Then they walked away. Which left Jaden shrugging with that cocky grin on his face,
”Duty calls! But it’s great ta’ see that ya’ got pluck!” Jaden started,, ”Maybe one day, when ya’ grow up, you’ll be close to the mighty Jaden, Raldo! Ha!””

Then he teleported in a cloud of smoke.

Bea blinked and let out a breath. ”Man, what the fuck. Just trying to eat.”

---

Interactions: Subject Olivia (@Ponn)

---

“I’m competing to win the Power Stone so I can help him find his lost soulmate, so of course I’d be more than happy to help you, too! So, like, how did you leave the game?! Was there, like, a freak electrical storm?! Or maybe a portal?! Oh! And are from the game itself, or an alternate universe that’s just like it?!”

The being stared at Xoly as long as he could, as if he was scanning him. When Olivia asked her next bout of questions, 'Necroid 99' quickly answered, "I am from the videogame itself, Tsubotica, The Moonoid Maiden, pulled everyone out of the game to serve in her army to take over the material world, and she's planning to steal the Power Stone. She has successfully replaced all the security staff and management with androids, and I need your help to stop them."



'Necroid 99' looked over towards the announcer at the announcer before he looked back to Olivia, "Win or lose, after your next match; come find me here in the Reception Room." He briefly said as he began to saunter towards his second match.



Captain Cole and Violet were walking alongside each other, as they usually did in this tournament, however, the phone in the pocket of Violet's jacket started ringing and she grabbed it. She pressed answer and she raised the phone to her ear... (and if you're wondering how she did it with those big ass claws? Shut up, it's ki). She heard some chattering as Captain Cole came to a stop, narrowing his eyes as he looked at her.

Then she presented the phone to him with a smile, as she said, "... It's for you,"

"And I think I know who it is..." Captain Cole said as he put the phone up to his ear.

"Update." He heard a deep, digitally altered, voice get straight to the point.

"We're still working on getting the Power Stone," Captain Cole informed him, "But some of the fighters you put in the tournament are getting jobbed left and right, heh." Captain Cole laughed.

"That is not relevant," The voice answered, "The plan was to flood the tournament with our fighters so that we have a marginally higher chance of getting the Power Stone. However, we are not the only interested party after the Stone."

"You got the Justice Riders here," Captain Cole responded.

"And our spies say that Horizon Frontiers has a fighter," The Voice said.

"Only one?!" Captain Cole laughed, "It sounds like they are more confident in their organization than you are in yours!"

"Captain Cole," The voice flatly said, "I understand you are using humor to soften the situation, but you have to understand the gravity of the situation you got yourself into."

The voice was silent for a moment.

"You stole the stone from us for your little moon-stealing stunt, only to get made a fool out of by MAVERICK and the Justice Riders. The only thing that kept you alive was - despite your flash of incompetence - your skillset. If it wasn't for that, you would have personally died by my hand. However, you call yourself a master thief right?"

Captain Cole was silent.

"Steal it, win it, I do not care what you do just make that stone ends up in my hand - even if I have to pry it from your corpse."

"... You gave me this speech a thousand times already. Is that all you called me for? To prattle on about the same thing over and over again?!" Captain Cole finally spoke up with a hiss.

"No," The Voice answered, "We have been getting some strange readings in the Rio De Janeiro area... we are not fully sure just what these readings are but they seem mechanical. Something's up. Keep your eyes peeled."

The voice was silent before he spoke again, "And make sure you live up to those promises, heh."

The phone hung up, and Captain Cole looked at Violet, who was smiling like a madwoman as she said,

"... Sounds like we got work to do."

---

Interactions: Everyone Present at the Tournament

---

The Announcer danced her way back onto the stage, swaying her hips from left to right as that worm was still trying to steal her microphone. She then stopped and absolutely screamed,

".... FIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHTERS!"

She continued dancing, before she continued, except at a much lower volume,

".... YOU ALL DID AMAZING, BUT YOU ALL HAVE A LONG WAYS BEFORE YOU REACH THE POWER STONE! HERE AT THE NEXT MATCH UPS!"

She then pointed to the screen above herself as it illumined with names,

1. Jill Brecian vs. Horizon Rider.
2. Isabella Levai vs. Lucas Miller.
3. Beatriz Barro vs. Selena Phoenix.
4. Skyler Belsky vs. Florian Wessington I.
5. Aiko of the Oni Clan vs. Rui Ninjima.
6. Justin vs. Olivia and Xolys.
7. Jaden Raldo vs. Sean Callaghan.
8. Rosier Levai vs. Auri Auclair.

---

---

The face of Jasmine Breicen emerged from the crowds like a particularly spiky torpedo, having eventually deduced that she could probably find Lucas in one of the room’s four corners.

Lucas' eyes widened before darting directly to the floor. Despite his "grand" victory, he was still more than flustered being around this girl - not helped by his graceless exit of their last conversation where he basically fleed like she were another tournament competitor.

“Sooo…” Jasmine’s tone was particularly awkward, scrambling for a way to brush past the awkward end to their last conversation. “Congrats on the last-”

".... FIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHTERS!"

The rest of the announcer’s words blurred as Jasmine glanced towards the screen, her face going blank with shock as she saw the results.

2. Isabella Levai vs. Lucas Miller.

“Uhhhhhhhh…” The witch glanced between the perpetually scared looking kid and the menacing old bishonen taking the stage.

“Yeesh,” Beelzebub’s grin was, for once, downright forced. “Good luck out there, kid…”

That her expression was devoid of any support and filled with concern signaled alarm bells in Lucas' head that he didn't even know he had. He would've been terrified of just about any opponent placed before him, but the strained reactions of Jasmine and Beelzebub made him nervous beyond compare. Even still, he wanted to project some kind of confidence and regain a little bit of credibility.

"I- I'm sure it's fine." He said with a weak smile. "It's just another fi-..." Lucas trailed off as his eyes wondered toward the stage. He wasn't facing another "fighter", he was facing some kind of hard nosed military type who looked like he'd killed people for looking at him funny.

It was moments before Lucas realised - in his terror induced waking coma - he was walking towards the stage. As if his body went on auto-pilot and only remembered the fact that girls were watching. Before he could turn tail and dart out the nearest exit to live another day, he was on the stage and facing down the white haired dragon.

Hands shaking, Lucas raised his arm outwards towards Isabella. "Hel-hello, L-L-Lew-Lewis- L-Lucas. I-I'm Luc-Lucas..." What was intended to be a self-confident shake of respect from one fighter to another instead looked more like a man on death row trying to face his executioner with some shred of dignity. A small pool of sweat formed beneath Lucas as his knees valiantly kept him upright despite shaking violently.

Isabella shook Lucas’ hand, if only for the fact that someone might complain if he didn’t. He glared at what could generously be called a Nomad with nothing but seething disdain. After relishing the chance to fight Horizon’s newest pet, he got stuck with the kind of embarrassment that should have been filtered out at the front counter, let alone round one. Not that he ever gave a fuck about these tournaments, but this year’s “fighting carnival” might as well be a circus.

“What a joke…” The would-be executioner muttered under his breath. “Either stand up and fight or save us both a couple minutes’ worth of dignity and step out of the ring.” He stepped back and pulled the Infernal Gear out of his trench coat, black steel glistening in the light of the arena as its dark gears spinned - Lucas, wisely, began backing up the second the old antique gun appeared from Isabella's coat. Was that even legal?. Chains burst out and wrapped around his waist as he held it close. A shadowy black bullet appeared in his hand, and he loaded it into the device. His finger sat next to the trigger as he spoke a word he already loathed, but held exceeding contempt for in this very moment:





A loud bang rang out across the arena as Justice Rider Sombra’s body became silhouetted by shadow, only for the slightest of moments, before reappearing in dark platemail that was dreaded long before the Justice Riders first walked the earth. His visor, managing to project malice even through its opaque surface, stared Lucas down as he advanced. He swung his blade down at the boy; his heart wasn’t in it, but it was a solid strike all the same.

His eyes closed involuntarily at the sheer power casually tossed around with a single word. Both alien and yet comfortingly familiar. When he looked up he realised why. The spiky haired old man had shed his skin and became a Justice Rider. Albeit one that looked plain wrong, or at least like some teenager had drawn an edgier version of the classic look.

Then the sword came down.

If there is one thing to be said about Lucas Miller, he was slippery. Isabella's swing of the sword was deceptively quick for a blade so unwieldy-looking yet, all the same, Lucas' finely tuned flight or flight instinct had him throw himself to the side in the nick of time. Saving him from a knock out or, more likely, being cleaved in half live on pay per view.

Lucas stood. The one thing he had going for him was his opponent's clear disinterest. Now was the time a Nomad would counter attack! Lucas raised his fists.

And began running in the opposite direction, as much distance as he possibly could between him and the nightmare from hell.

A long, annoyed, tired sigh resonated through Isabella’s armor as he continued walking towards his… opponent? Quarry? Punching bag? Embarrassment? Either way, it was as much the terrifying, unflinching advance of a murderous half-devil as it was the tired stroll of someone taking out the trash at the end of their shift. He stopped for a moment, held his blade sideways, then threw it towards Lucas, the sword spinning like a saw blade as it sailed forwards.

It was instinctual, a finely tuned sense of an animal of prey that constantly and correctly suspected danger. Lucas could practically feel the air being sliced through as the sword spun like a tornado towards him. He used his momentum from running to throw himself forward stomach first to the floor, narrowly avoiding becoming half the man he was - but not quite escaping without a new cut on his shirt and a nick on his back that was already dripping blood.

Adrenaline and fear intertwined as Lucas' shot back up to his feet in a flash. "T-that should NOT be a t-tournament legal manuever!" It sounded like a challenge but was really a desperate plea as Lucas breathed in heavily - shirt sticking to his sweat laden chest. He reared back his hand as it began glowing blue. Again, like an animal of prey, trapped in a corner meant needing to defend or perish. Isabella held his cloak in front of him…



An explosion of colour as pure burning energy erupted from Lucas' palm and hurled towards Isabella!

…for roughly five inches before pettering out and dissolving into nothing.

Lucas looked on, expression a mixture of resignation and terror. His eyes glanced back at Isabella.

"...M-my bad?" He chuckled nervously.

“Why do you even bother trying?” Isabella asked. He didn’t bother waiting for an answer, continuing to walk forward the moment it was clear even his ki techniques were nothing more than a paper tiger. He snapped his finger, and his blade returned to his hand. It began to shift, transforming in ways that seemed mechanically plausible yet subconsciously unsettling to anyone who looked at it. It had become an axe, looking sharp, mean, and ready to execute. He kept up the pressure, slowly but surely cornering the kid at the edge of the ring. He raised his weapon.

“Let’s finish this.” The Dark Rider said. And then he brought the axe down.

But then… He froze. Weapon suspended mid-swing.

He felt a certain energy, looking into Lucas’ eyes. It was familiar and valued and despised all at once. And the realization of what that meant? Mind-shattering. So unexpected and completely stupid that it just stopped him right then and there.

Lucas' spirit was broken, his terror peaked, his back killing him. All he could do against the raised axe was close his eyes and fruitlessly shield himself with his hands.

But the final blow never came.

Cautiously, one eye peeked open, had his resiliency touched the heart of this grizzled old soldier? Instead of a look of respect he found a look of trepidation, fear and disgust - like some unknown force had intervened and suspended Isabella in place. Lucas felt it somewhat himself, a dull iron-like taste in the back of his throat, both hollow and filling that soothed and harmed in equal measure. But it also felt a little like indigestion, nevertheless it effected Lucas nowhere near as hard as it seemed to with Isabella.

"Uhh... dude?" He asked. Eyes glancing over to the equally confused crowd. For a second, nothing happened.

Then, Lucas, scared little Lucas, used one of the most basic defensive techniques in his repertoire. The old re-position. He suddenly grabbed the lapels of Izzy's coat and spun him to where Lucas had once stood before giving him a weaker-than-average-yet-still-forceful two-handed shove to the chest. Immediately cocooning into another "not the face!" defensive position as his self-preservation leaked back out of him.

The sudden pressure brought Isabella back to reality, fighting instincts honed by decades of battle kicking back in instantaneously. He put his foot behind him, stabilizing himself so he could finish the match for good.

Except he failed to register one small, very crucial detail:

He was at the edge of the ring.

The Rider’s foot was only off by a couple inches. Enough for the realization to sink in, as he lost his balance and fell off the raised surface of the arena, tumbling off the edge in what he felt could only be the most undignified fashion possible.

Silence filled the air. Everyone from the fighters to the crowd once again frozen in disbelief.

None were more silent or disbelieving of events than Lucas himself, staring wide-eyed as his opponent went from inflicting violent reprisal to falling off the edge of the stage for a technical knock out in a matter of seconds.

His eyes glanced around. Unlike the last fight, the crowd's silence was more shock than anything else - even the announcer in their booth was too stunned to make the call that Lucas. Lucas Miller had just technically won.

Lucas slowly, unsurely, raised both his arms...

...And the crowd promptly went nuts.



Lucas, if anything, looked more perturbed and shy at the crowd response than anything else, arms still raised out of pure reflex and adrenaline. An interviewer rushed onto the stage and shook the hand of his still raised arm.

"Mr. Miller! Mr. Miller! An incredible upset! Defeating a Justice Rider in your third ever professional bout! Do you have anything to say to the millions watching around the world!?"

She stuck the microphone inches away from Lucas. The Tiger fucking panicked, arms still held above his head as he stared like a dear in headlights at the camera, he squeaked out the first thing that popped in his head.

"I- I'm goin' to Bizbyland!"

The crowd erupted into yet another raucous cheer.

It wasn’t long before a particular set of noises managed to rise above the din. A rapid duet of “Holy shit!” and “I told ya!” on a repeating loop, rapidly drawing closer. Jasmine Breicen and Beelzebub the Glutton dashed onto the stage, shoving the interviewer aside and practically tackling Lucas as they filled the air with joyous laughter.

“Dude!” The witch said. “I thought you were gonna die!”

“See!” The devil cried. “Wuninamillion!” Jasmine threw her arm around Lucas’ shoulders and managed to steady her phone enough to snap a selfie of the trio, holding up two of her fingers as she captured the joy of the moment. She smiled and wrote a quick post before the phone disappeared again.

THE BIZBYLAND SWEEP

Jasmine chuckled and sighed, stepping away to give Lucas a bit of breathing room. Where was Izzy anyways? It looked like he managed to sneak away while everyone was caught up in the hype.

Lucas, overwhelmed by the win much less the response to it, could only give a surprised little smile and thumbs up as Jasmine snapped a picture of them. It felt like a dream, he was half-expecting it to devolve into one of the ones where he embarrassed himself by wetting his pants on live T.V or something.

"It's weird, he just stopped. Like, he knew me or somethin'?" Despite his confusion, the smile remained on his face. Even his stutter faltered for a moment, suppressed by his bewilderment and joy.

"Oh! I almost forgot! I gotta call my dad!" Lucas turned up the volume on his Bluetooth as the trio were ushered away from the stage so the next fight could begin.

"Luke! What happened!? The website streaming this pay per view for free is on a MASSIVE delay! I'm like half an hour behind!"

"Uh, well, I- I actually won, dad!" Lucas said, smile remaining as he pressed the device against his ear to hear his response amidst the crowd's continued cheering.

He quickly had to remove it as Perry's delighted shrieking pierced everything else in the arena, Lucas' eardrum included.

---

Bea was still in her fighting gear from the last bout. She was nervous, and not doing a very good job of hiding it. Her face was stern but her breathing was elevated and she was nearly bouncing on her feet. Doubt had crept into her and she was doing everything to hold it at bay. Logically speaking she knew this opponent would be much more difficult than her previous one, and she had barely won that fight. On the other hand, she was probably stronger than she was before, right? She had to tell herself that. She let out a breath, sighing, and stood in the arena, making sure her gloves were secure.

Selena was the very definition of confidence when she walked out into the arena. Her head was held high, she walked with perfect serenity, and she could not help but look at the cute, scruffy opponent as though she had already won the match. Most of Selena’s body was concealed by a long, dark blue cloak. This would be easy. Everything was easy for Selena, after all the hard work she had put in.

She approached Bea curiously, feeling unbothered by all the spectators on them. Selena fixed her otherworldly eyes upon Bea. ”Beatriz Barro, yes? I saw your last match. You are quite talented.” It wasn’t a particularly warm or friendly greeting, so much as an observation made by Selena.

Selena made Beatriz feel a little underdressed.”Yeah, that’s me.” She said. ”Sorry, uh, I missed yours. Thanks! Thank you, though.” She smiled and nodded.

”Selena Phoenix.” Selena’s expression was neither smiley nor downtrodden. She seemed to be very businesslike, and respectful of her opponent’s capabilities. Selena might’ve said that it made her appear more competent, but she was just being passive aggressive in reality.

”Hi, Selena.” Bea waved. ”So, uh. Good luck, have fun, right?” She said with a smile and shrug.

”Perhaps I will.”

"FIIIIIGHTERS! GET RRRREADY FOR ROUND TWO!"

"THE SCRAPPY BEATRIZ BARRO, VERSUS THE WHIIIMSICAL SELENA PHOENIX!!"

The bell sounded, signaling that the fight had begun, and Selena instantly sprung backwards, making two fists which erupted into a pale, milky glow. Selena flung both of the glowing orbs at Beatriz, and they shot forth like a pair of fireballs.
Immediately, Beatriz got a sense of how this fight was going to go. Basically the exact opposite of her fight against Brenda. ”Ah, filho de puta.” Bea said as the glowing orbs surged towards her. She dashed to the right and caught herself by putting all her weight on her right leg and then springing forward on it, sprinting towards Selena.

The orbs went clean over Beatriz’s head, and Selena quickly conjured up another ball of magic, energy, but this one was thrown at the ground in front of Beatriz, which then became a wall of jagged, crystalline rocks blocking the girl’s dash. Either she’d run face-first into them or go around. Just to be sure, Selena ran towards the wall, using it as cover, and readied another spell to surprise the girl.

Bea watched the ball hit the ground in front of her and really had no idea what to expect. It could be an explosion, a spike, it could bounce right at her, it could do nothing at all, it could flash and blind her. She crossed her arms in front of her and lowered her center of gravity, squeezing one eye shut and just preparing to take the brunt of whatever it was Selena was doing. When the wall formed, she looked up at it and blinked, not sure what to make of it.

Selena crept around the wall, and caught Beatriz while she was distracted. She thrusted her hand out in front of her, and the magic energy in her hand exploded outwards like a shotgun blast, sending Beatriz flying back.

Bea managed a sloppy block, her arms absorbing some of the blow. ”Bwah!” Nonetheless, she went flying backwards and landed with a thud. She converted her tumble into a roll and popped back to her feet, right back where she started. Trying to keep a cool head, Beatriz changed up her approach. Performing toe tap, she summoned a green flaming ball of energy and then launched it towards Selena and her wall where it would create a small explosion on impact. That was just cover for Beatriz to start running forward again, which she did.

Selena quickly ducked behind the wall again, only to find it shattering into a million, slowly-dissolving shards of hardened energy. In an “oh shit” moment, Selena looked up past Beatriz, and exploded into a flash of white light. When the light faded, Selena was no longer in front of her, but roughly 20 feet behind Beatriz.

She quickly readied another shooting star, and fired it.

Bea stopped running when she saw the wall had fallen but Selena wasn’t behind it. ”Huh?” She looked side to side and the shooting star thumped into her back. With a grunt Bea turned around, seeing Selena behind her. Bea grit her teeth and began sprinting at Selena again.

Suddenly, there was not one Selena, but two. Magic distorted the air, and an imposter of the magician appeared beside the real deal. They spaced out, and began hurling shooting stars at Bea once again.
Bea tilted her head. ”What the- how many fucking-” She cut herself off and got into a defensive position. She used Quick Step to avoid the first barrage of shooting stars, and when she instinctively swatted one away with her hands she discovered it was possible. Still, from two different sources? It wasn’t great. Beatriz jumped a clean ten feet into the air over and forward the shooting stars, and ran towards one of the Selena’s. Quick-Step offered her quick, short-range bursts of mobility, leaving behind a faint, shimmering trail of after-images that lasted only as long as the half-second of speed she acquired from the move.

Both Selenas followed Beatriz into the sky, keeping track of her as she fell back down. The clone readied another arcane pulse, while the real one threw another rock wall down in front of them. The clone blasted the wall, causing rocks and splinters to fly forward like a shotgun blast.

Bea ran forward as the wall appeared, not going to be intimidated by it anymore. She leapt forward and clean over the wall, a choice that also protected her from the shotgun blast. ”Yaaah!” She landed on the other side with a roll and glanced between the two Selenas. Taking a blind guess, she lashed out with a long-ranged Sidewinder kick, a trail of dangerous ki whipping out from her bare foot to knock into one of the mages.

One of the Selenas is hit, but rather than being ragdolled, the clone explodes into a shower of glittering light. The other Selena backpedaled, and hurled a pair of shooting stars at Beatriz immediately after.

”Shit!” Beatriz shouted in frustration. She pivoted on her heel and swung her foot again into another Sidewinder kick in the opposite direction, nullifying the shooting stars. Bea began running forward again, failing to come up with an alternate strategy quick enough to do anything else.

Selena quickly made another orb, one in each hand. She tossed one straight up, and then disappeared into a burst of light once again. The orb hit the ground just as she vanished, turning into a rock wall.

Selena was behind her now, and about to shove the second orb straight into her shoulders.

Bea was getting ready to jump over this next wall when there was a pulse behind her. ”Wah!” She flew forward with all her speed and slammed face first into the wall, splatting against it. Momentum pinned her there before she began to fall backwards.

Selena didn’t give her time to get to her feet. Instead, she brought both hands together, and conjured a much larger variation of the shooter star spell: The falling comet. It was the size of a basketball, and Selena flung it at the girl while she was dazed.

Beatriz was blasted from behind and flew through the wall, shattering it. Eyes squeezed shut she tumbled like a ragdoll across the arena floor before managing to bring her arms up to defend her head from the ground.

As if to kick someone while they were lying down (literally), Selena summoned more shooting stars, and started blasting with one hand. In the other she prepared a spell she hadn’t used just yet. The moonlight spell. When she officially cast the spell, her next attack would hit harder. To Beatriz, it could’ve been anything else she had thrown at her so far.

The blasts struck into Bea before she finished tumbling. ”Urk-” With a strained grunt she managed to get onto her hands and knees, raising one arm as a shield as the stars battered against it. It was painful, and of course some bursts hit her in the side or the legs. Breathing heavily and sweating, Bea glared at Selena as kept casting spells. This wasn’t working. There was a hot spike of anger digging into Bea’s spine that she would have to swallow down if she was to think clearly.

Bea used Quick-Step on the ground, suddenly rolling to the side to get out from under the projectiles and rose to her feet. Parts of her body were scuffed and red, signs that the ki that made her body strong had faltered under the magic pressure. But she was still strong enough to fight.

Selena used her moonlight spell. She then tossed a crystal wall down at her feet like a softball. It was much larger now, and at an angle. Selena ran up the side of it, and stared down at Beatriz.

”Still able to fight?” Selena didn’t look like she was even winded.

Call her naive, but Bea assumed this was Selena genuinely asking if she was hurt or ready to give up as a courtesy. ”N-no, I’m good! Don’t hold back!” She insisted, holding her fists and looking ready to run.

”…As you wish.”

Selena raised her hands into the air, and… The sky fell apart. Dozens upon dozens of circular shapes manifested high above the stadium, and they spilled open like portals. What fell out was the meteor shower spell. Like a hailstorm, crystalline orbs rained down, littering the battlefield and turning it into a glorified maze of walls, rocks and jagged magic. Every inch of the arena was under fire. If any of these orbs struck Beatriz directly, they would simply explode.

”Holy shit!” Beatriz shouted in alarm. She glanced up and stared in shock, dodging away from where she saw them get near her, but there were too many to keep track off. Walls erupted and spikes did too, and she fell over and one landed on her shoulder and sent her spinning to the floor. ”Oof!”

Thumping up against a wall, she kicked its bottom and cracked it, causing it to fall over onto her. She rolled over and got into a squat. She caught the wall wholesale and then lifted it over her head with a strained grunt, planning to use the chunk like an umbrella. What would happen if the magic touched itself? Probably nothing, right!

Selena couldn’t help but feel slightly impressed. No one had ever tried to use her spell against her in such a way yet. More rocks fell from the sky, slowly and steadily boxing Beatriz’s surroundings in. One landed over her head, and her umbrella grew extra magical… Stone? Over it, growing a bit heavier.

Perhaps out of curiosity first and tactical soundness second, Selena generated another falling comet, and lobbed it over the battlefield into Beatriz’s general direction.direction.

”Phew, agh, shit!” Bea strained as her ceiling got heavier and heavier and a box formed around her. Bea heard the big spell come in- the one that had blasted her through a wall. Muscles flexing, she tossed the wall shield in front of her, almost creating a rocky ramp as it landed against the environment. She Quick-Stepped backwards, letting the comet explode between her and her ramp. Then she sprinted up the ramp, clambering over the uneven surface like it was nothing, and jumped from the top. From the myriad maze and falling projectiles nad erupting walls, Beatriz shot up like a bat out of hell.

In mid air she flipped, spun, turned upside down and away, and brought her leg in a full vertical 360 kick to send a riotous blazing green fireball towards Selena. ”YAAAAH!” It was her Bicycle Kick super. The ball would blow through any falling projectiles in its way.

Selena watched the glittering hailstorm explode all around the girl while she fell from the sky. And she had absolutely no idea how the girl launched herself that high up. Momentarily, it caught Selena off guard. She didn’t choose to teleport away, since that would’ve gotten her stuck in the wall maze below. Instead, she tried to leap backwards. This worked, enough she could make some distance between herself and Beatriz, but ultimately, she was caught up with.

Selena was slammed clean off her platform by Beatriz’s fireball, down into the dirt below.

Beatriz landed unsteadily, extending her hands out to catch her fall and landing on all fours. ”Phew! God fucking damn!” She let out a breath. Super moves took a lot out of her, but she still had plenty in the tank. With the barrage stopped for now she jumped over a wall, saw Selena in the dirt, and began to run over to her to keep up the pressure. Beatriz was looking to hit Selena as fast as possible before she had a chance to get her bearings.

The fireball had dazed Selena. It hurt like shit and left her staggering. She saw Beatriz running towards her, and knew she had to start playing more conservatively. Simply teleporting around the arena wouldn’t be enough, since then it would just be attrition. But the spell she cast earlier turned the arena into a game of corner camping, and so Selena did just that. She sprung to her feet, and ducked down low behind a crystal, reading a shooting star.

She waited until Beatriz would round the corner, and proceeded to shove the shooting star straight into the girl’s face.

But the girl was fast. She was already looking in Selena’s direction when she rounded the corner, her lips parted, gaze focused. Beatriz Barro tilted her head to the side, the shooting star blowing her hair back and nearly catching her ear, casting shadows across her face and making manifest the fire in her eyes.

The moment passed, the shooting star missed, and Bea shot a snap kick towards Selena’s knee and threw a jab into her nose.

Selena wasn’t prepared for that, and the kick blasts her leg out from underneath her. As a result of this, the nose jab knocks her flat on her back… And blood begins to run out.

Bea grinned, breathless, her heart racing. The witch was made of tissue paper! Desperately, she descended upon Selena, falling on top of her in a full mount. She began to punch down towards her chest and head, swinging her fists in from the side to get around any warding hands.

Thud, thud, thud.

The hits just kept coming, and Selena tried to get up. But Beatriz had a mean swing, and so blood was spat up instead. It was hard to really do anything in this situation. Two orbs of light appeared in her hands, but quickly dissipated into nothing. Was that a spell that just failed?
Beatriz wasn’t going to hold back- Selena had proved herself too dangerous. Beatriz aimed to grab Selena’s wrists, pull them out, and then slam her head into Selena’s in a vicious back alley headbutt.

Alas, Selena didn’t need her hands to cast magic.

Something behind Beatriz lit up, like a floodlight. She made a clone with one of the orbs she just consumed, and that clone was about to shove a falling comet straight into the back of Beatriz’ skull.

The other one went towards the second falling comet, which appeared between Selena’s trapped wrists. Blood went everywhere upon being slammed by her head, but Selena knew what she was intent on doing. Weakly, she flicked her hand up towards Beatriz, in time with the clone’s attack. Beatriz was caught between two explosions.

Bea’s eyes widened as the light was cast upon her. She used Quick-Step, leaving a faint after image behind her as she tried to dive out of the way. The noise and light was blinding.

Crystal walls shattered around them in clouds of glittering dust.

Bea opened her eyes, blood trickling down her face. Some of it was hers, some of it was Selena’s. ”...Crazy bitch..!” She muttered, coughing. Beatriz had been flung into a tumble in the resulting explosion. But she clambered into a crouch, supporting herself by pushing against one knee. Going by the look on her face, she was genuinely worried Selena might have killed herself. She searched the cloud dust for any sign of her wizard opponent.

It was stupid to think she could walk away from an explosion at point blank. Beatriz seemed to half walked it off just fine. Selena, however, was done for. The blood that dripped from her face now dropped from several other places. Bits of shrapnel cluttered down, and didn’t help. She wasted everything she just did.

She could’ve pushed Beatriz off with a pulse. She could’ve strained to blink away again and hope she had enough left. But instead, Selena got careless, and panicked. And so she thought she could risk that.

She would no doubt be dreaming about her failure in her sleep. Selena was unconscious now, taken out by her own attack.

Beatriz has won.

"THAT’S IT! IT’S OVER! BEATRIZ BARROOOOO!"

The crowd erupted into cheers after the explosion had shocked them into silence.

Beatriz was happy about it, really really happy, but she was also a bit angry and fearful for Selena. ”Heeey!” She shouted, and then grunted, holding her side where the explosion had gone off. Beatriz spit some blood out onto the arena floor.

”Gonna need a medic over here! Urk.” After waving her hand she sat back down on the ground. What the hell was that? Beatriz was really worried about Selena getting away or getting her off. But she didn’t expect her to do a slow-ass move that would blow herself up. Even if it had hit Bea directly, wouldn’t the outcome have been the same?

Well, whatever personal hangups Selena might have had, as the medic attended to Selena, Bea lowered her face into her hands and grinned, exhausted and beaten up but thrilled beyond measure.

”WOOHOO!” Throwing her hands up she landed on the arena floor like a starfish, her chest rising and falling with each labored breath. The blue sky of Brazil met her stare, and Bea was happy.

… A giant explosion of smoke appeared on the far end of the stage and Jaden Raldo came sliding out of it, leaving behind a trail of smoke. He came to a stop as he reached behind him to grab one of his katanas and grinned… with that joint in his mouth.

“... Oh, lawd,” Jaden chuckled as he stood tall and shrugged, “Just anotha’ nobody! Get ready to get jobbed.”

The entrance on the other side of the stage was much more subdued. His black robes fluttered around him as Sean, hood drawn, took his position opposite of his opponent, shillelagh in hand. He pulled his hood down, revealing a head of fiery red hair and an easy smile.

”You seem awfully confident,” he responded. He tapped the narrow end of his shillelagh on the ground and violet energy crackled along its length as the ground it struck cracked. With an impish smirk, he added, ”This might actually be rather fun.”

“Confident?! Jaden parroted, “You’re looking at the greatest Nomad to eva’ be born! Course’ I’m “confident”.”

Sean’s smirk spread into an open grin. ”Ah, is that so?” he asked. More energy sparked around his shillelagh as he added, ”If that’s the case, I won’t hold back.”

“Heh, Jaden did a spin and both of his blades were in his hands, he was swirling them around in his hands as he said, “Let’s give ‘im a show, then!”



The Announcer shouted.

Sean raised his crackling shillelagh and brought it down, increasing its weight as he did. The heavy end of his weapon slammed into the stone floor, throwing up numerous shards. Sean held his free hand out and the shards, sparking with that same energy as Sean shifted gravity around them, suddenly flew out toward Jaden. He grinned as ran towards them, teleporting in a cloud of smoke and appearing above Sean with both blades ready. He slashed diagonally toward Sean, intending to give him just a little haircut.

Taken by surprise, Sean reacted instinctively. He felt his body jerk to the side as his gravity shifted, forcing him to fall parallel to the ground he left behind a small tuft of red hair. He twisted in mid-air as he returned his gravity to normal, crouching as he skidded to a stop. ”Teleportin’? That’s gotta be against the rules,” he joked with a grin.

“... Somebody brought a fuckin’ tank in, you know,” Jaden noted as he reached for his belt, “There ain’t no rules in the Fightin’ Carnival, baby!”

That was when he threw a CD at Sean like a shuriken. ”Fair point,” Sean replied. He held his shillelagh out in front of him and created a gravitational field, offset slightly from the path of the CD. Once it came close enough, the CD’s path suddenly reversed as it rounded the field Sean had created, sending it right back at Jaden. It was a simple attack, and easily counterable, as far as Sean was concerned, though he wanted to gauge his opponent’s reaction all the same.

“... Maaaaaaaan what the fuck? Jaden said as he simply grabbed the CD when it got close and then pointed at it, “This is art in ‘ere!”

Sean’s eyebrows arched at Jaden’s reply, which didn’t exactly line up with anything he had been expecting. ”O-oh, sorry ‘bout that. But if that’s how you feel, then why are you goin’ around, throwin’ it like that?”

Jaden was dead quiet for a second.

“... Uhhhhhhh… shut up, nerd!” Jaden said as he teleported in Sean’s face and swung the CD at him, intending to pimp slap him with it.

Sean was ready for the teleport, this time. It took a moment for him to charge it up, during which he felt the CD make contact with his cheek, but just as he started to feel the pain, he held out his free hand. Violet energy once again erupted around his body, more intense this time around, as a powerful, inverted gravitational field formed around his body, launching Jaden backward.

“…AAAAAAAAH!” Jaden came to a roll… then rolled and hopped up to his feet. He saw his blunt on the floor, destroyed by the attack, and walked over to it… cradling it in his hands with a tear. “… You killed my baby.”

Sean lowered his still-sparking arm, a confused look on his face, not for the first time in this fight, he realized. The look on Jaden’s face was as if Sean had killed his baby, but the object in his hands was a broken blunt. Keeping his distance and a ready stance, unwilling to let himself be fooled by the sudden change in emotion, Sean still asked, ”You, uh…you alright, mate?”

“Y-yeah,” Jaden said as he stood up, grabbing some more CDs. “… That tells me I just got to ante up!” He threw three CDs at Sean and then teleported behind him.

Time seemed to slow for Sean as his mind raced to come up with a way to react. On the one hand, those CDs might do some pretty serious damage if they hit, but on the other, Jaden was right behind him. While Sean blocked the CDs, Jaden could hit him from behind. It would be easy if he could use his Radial Push, but as he was currently working on something else, charging that up was out of the question.

He made his decision. He pivoted on his foot as he spun around. One of the CDs flew past him, the second grazed his upper arm, but he felt the third dig into the back of his leg as he swung his shillelagh at Jaden, using the momentum of his spin and his powers to increase the weight and force of the strike. Jaden tried to block it with his swords but all that happened was that he pushed the flat ends of his swords against him, and he still got hit with the attack. He was sent flying, but he flipped mid-air, landed on his hand, and hopped back on his feet. He aimed one blade at Sean and he quickly reached for his microphone… then started rapping.

“Yo, Sean the wizard, you think you're so fly, with your wand and spells, reaching for the sky. You wave your staff, and you mumble some chants, but my words hit harder, like a lightning lance. You're a one-trick pony, I'm the whole damn show, so step aside, Sean, it's time for you to go!” As he rapped, he was surrounded by an aura of fire.

Sean lifted himself into the air, hovering a few inches off the ground to keep weight off of his injured leg. He thought about pulling it out, but he remembered being told by one of his teachers, Siobhán, that pulling something out of an injury was usually worse than keeping it in. He turned his attention from his injuries to Jaden as his opponent began to rap and, despite himself, he couldn’t help but chuckle. ” That’s not half-bad, actually,” he said, though the fact that Jaden now seemed enveloped in flames wasn’t lost on him. He let out a breath and added, ” But, I suppose if you’re gettin’ serious, then it’s only fair I do, too.”

His left arm began to spark again as he charged his attack, though he didn’t plan on using it, yet. Instead, he focused his power on the arena beneath him. The ground trembled and cracked around him as he pulled up three large stones, each about twice the size of his head (which was already huge) before he shot toward Jaden. He swung his shillelagh once he was within reach while one of the stones flew at him from the opposite side and a second came from above.

Jaden cracked a smirk as he looked at the absolute barrage heading his way, so he waited, and right before everything hit… he vanished into a cloud of smoke. It was absolutely quiet for a blessed few moments that probably felt far longer. Sean scanned the arena, his eyes darting left to right as he waited for Jaden to reappear.

…

…

…

“... HOUDINI, NINJAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Then Jaden soared at Sean from above and behind, flying to give him a flying dive kick straight to his ass. The moment he heard Jaden’s voice, Sean spun around as the third stone moved between the two of them to stop Jaden. The other two flew around and came at his opponent from opposite sides, intending to catch Jaden in a pincer attack. ”Not a great idea, shoutin’ at me if you’re going for a sneak attack,” Sean responded.

They both hit Jaden, turning him into a… Jaden Sandwich. He yelped as both rocks crushed him in mid-air, however, he teleported out of it. Appearing on the ceiling of the arena, he held himself there for a few moments as he stared at Sean. He quickly launched himself off the wall at Sean at blinding speeds, with both blades cocked at his right side. Ready to slash Sean and finish this fight.

Sean locked eyes with Jaden as he stood on the ceiling. The fact that his usually chatty opponent wasn’t throwing any more barbs at him told Sean that he was aiming to finish this. As Jaden flew at him, he waited until the last moment, to make it as difficult as possible for Jaden to react and dodge, and held his hand out toward his opponent.

”Sliocht Dé!”

An invisible projectile of pure gravitational force, wreathed in crackling violet energy, shot from his palm toward Jaden. It was a gamble for Sean; if Jaden were able to dodge it, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to react fast enough to a counterattack.

“Ohshitwhatmuthafucka!” Jaden yelled as he was launched towards the ceiling by the fuck beam that was sent his way. He was launched directly into the ceiling which created cracks and pinned him… and when the energy faded, he fell and flopped to the ground.

”... AAAAAAAAAAAAAND JADE-”

“... Shut up.” Jaden said as he climbed to his feet, with a devious grin on his face. “You thought the song was over, muthafucka’, but…”

He grabbed onto the hilt of Murakumo, his hand was radiating with a ghostly green energy…

”... We just got to the chorus.”

In a quick motion, he swung Murakumo at Sean, creating a massive wave of green energy that destroyed all in its path. Sean’s eyes widened as the green wave hurtled toward him. He quickly ascended to dodge the wave, but one of the stones he had been using got caught in the wave. He watched as the stone was smashed to smoldering bits and said, ”Right, then. I shouldn’t touch that.”

He held his hand out toward the burning stone fragments, then sent them hurtling toward Jaden, the glowing shards like a swarm of angry, burning bees, before firing off several more low-power gravity projectiles from the tip of his shillelagh. While the low-power projectiles wouldn’t do much, since he barely charged them, he hoped they would at least keep Jaden preoccupied. Jaden grinned as he slashed each of them to little bits, spinning the swords at his sides as he deflected each rock.

Sean watched as Jaden deflected each fragment and an idea came to him. He clenched his fist, crushing one of his two remaining stones, and sent the shards flying at Jaden, this time without really aiming. While some fragments flew right at him, the rest flew past, where Sean would then stop them in mid-air, the idea being to surround Jaden. ”Saw this move in an old show I used to watch,” he said. He held his hand out toward Jaden and closed it, collapsing the loose hemisphere of the remaining shards he had created.

Jaden raised an eyebrow mid-slash… he felt the stone shards hit him from all directions and he hissed as he awkwardly teleported out of it. He landed on his back, staring at the ceiling, wondering just how he got in this mess. Before he teleported again, this time, he ended up back on his feet. He narrowed his eyes as he teleported again, this time directly in Sean’s face. He didn’t give him much time to react before he began slashing horizontally, left and right.

Sean tried to backstep, but he already knew he’d be too slow. He instinctively raised his shillelagh, reinforcing it with his ki to keep it from being sliced in two, but Jaden was much better at close combat. For every attack Sean was just barely able to block, he felt Jaden’s blades slice somewhere else. It was all he could do to prevent any of his opponent’s attacks from going too deep and he knew he had to get some distance. He waited for an opening, no matter how brief, and lashed out with a gravity-enhanced left hook toward Jaden’s cheek. Which sent him stumbling backward, but he quickly caught his footing and that grin crept back up on his face. With both katanas in hand, Jaden swung horizontally towards Sean.

Seeing the grin on Jaden’s face, Sean couldn’t help but feel one spread across his, as well. Even though he’s normally easy-going and laid-back, at the end of the day, he was still a Nomad. Now knowing that putting distance between himself and Jaden was easier said than done, he decided to fall back on what Siobhán taught him. He weakened the reinforcement on his shillelagh just enough to let the blades bite into the wood, then used his magic in an attempt to push Jaden’s swords back while he stepped closer. His right fist wreathed in violet energy, and he lashed out, scoring a body blow on Jaden. Detaching him from his swords, he was launched backward but he flipped mid-air and landed back on his feet.

He grinned and teleported back to Sean to catch him off guard and give him no room to think. He launched a kick directly at Sean’s face. Sean threw up his arms at the last second, barely blocking the kick, and let the force of the kick throw him backward, aided by decreasing his gravity. His shillelagh, Jaden’s swords still embedded, trailed after him as he tried to keep them out of his opponent’s hands.

Sean stopped himself in midair and pulled up several large stones, then shattered them. The fragments orbited at high speeds around him as he launched them at Jaden like a machine gun. Both arms began to spark with violet energy as he started to charge up his next big attack, which he hoped would end things. Jaden broke off into a sprint while the stones flew behind him. He eventually started running on the walls around the arena.

Sean continued to fire the stones at Jaden, careful to not hit the spectators, as the floor of the arena crumbled and cratered beneath his feet. He glanced over at his shillelagh, Jaden’s swords still embedded inside the wood, and pulled them free before sending them after his opponent, both swords spinning at high speeds as they flew toward him. The energy arcing off of his arms and between the fragments floating around him continued to intensify.

Jaden was running on the walls, dodging the rocks, he grinned when he saw his swords flying towards him. With a second to react, he hopped off the walls, and when the swords went flying towards him - he grabbed them in mid-air and flew towards Sean. He grinned as he shouted,

”... LET’S END THE SONG, BABY!! He flew towards Sean, intending to deliver the finishing blow.

”Couldn’t agree more.”

Sean closed his eyes and held out his hands. The energy arcing from his body intensified, reaching out farther away from him. Wherever the bolts struck the ground, stone fragments rose into the air. The air began to shimmer around him as he opened his eyes and lifted his hands above his head.

”Casúr Dé!

Sean’s eyes flashed violet as he poured every last bit of strength he had into this final attack. All around him, gravity increased several times over. The ground cratered and the arena rumbled under the sudden force as it spread outward, a wave of crushing destruction with Sean at its center.

”Casur-what - OH SHIT!” While soaring through the air, Jaden was hit with a sudden burst of downward gravity that slammed him into the ground as hard as possible. He was pinned as he tried to use all of his strength to get up, but he was at his limits… He looked up at Sean, and couldn’t help but grin… ”Hehe, not bad.” Then he plopped on the ground and went limp.

“Okay, now I can say it-

... AAAAAAAAAAAAAND JADEN RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALDO HAS BEEN BESTED BY SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAN THE WIZARD!”

The moment Sean heard the announcement, he called his shillelagh over to him and finally set himself down on the ground, staggering slightly as he used his shillelagh for support.

The announcer shouted as the crowd went wild, and Jaden teleported next to Sean, leaning on him with a grin. ”Not bad, playa! You might have some skill but I wasn’t even using 10% of my power level! He chuckled. ”Maybe you should join me! You can be a rapping wizard. Possibilities are endless, my guy!”

Sean chuckled and replied, ”Not sure about rappin’, but I appreciate it all the same. For now, though, think I’ll settle for some rest…maybe a pint, too.”

”Heh,” Jaden threw Sean the peace sign, ”Hit me up, playa’! I’ll be around, peace!” That was when Jaden exploded into a cloud of smoke, disappearing, leaving Sean to enjoy his victory.

---

---

In the short time Horizon Rider had been unveiled to the public, they had generated massive amounts of hype and intrigue regarding the new, mysterious figure. Every ringside reporter was desperate to try and earn a quick interview with them, brushed off by their stoic disinterest. A few who even tried to step in front of their path were only knocked down and casually stepped over by Horizon Rider as they barely broke stride. Now, the false rider had even less patience for the crowds and media circuit than before; It was time to face off and defeat the one they had been based on.

Before SYM-24 was even built and attained sentience, they had false memories that stewed in their cybernetic mind endlessly. Recordings of nearly all the Justice Riders in their countless adventures and exploits were hardcoded into their brain. Despite how short SYM-24’s existence truly was, the insurmountable archive of data had to be experienced in real time from their perspective when they were activated. In the long instances they had been deactivated between training, they were truly hibernating, reliving their past exploits as a surreal, sleepless dream.

They hated every second of it.

The gratuitous explosions, the cheeky attitude, the unending snark, the obsession with celebrity, constantly treating each monster as a disproportionate threat for the sake of stardom as opposed to pouncing on and eviscerating it instantly with their absurd technological power. SYM-24 was a beast by nature, and the constant bombardment of sensation and color, even as they lay dormant, antagonized them endlessly. Their only solace was the opportunity to utterly and completely destroy them in front of the cameras and televisions they so worshiped. To expose them as frauds playing cowboy and crush them into the dust.

They had looked forward to being able to defeat the Black Knight in the ring. Just as Horizon Rider had earlier been forced into the same repeating dreams, he had the audacity to step into their territory, as if mocking them. Had the scientists holding him in a cage not put them under to recalibrate their behavior, they would have killed them right then and there. Instead, they could only glare as they sauntered off.

Now, however, he was given a far more enticing opportunity to defeat Justice Rider Blaze. Jill Breicen. The face of this damned nightmare. SYM-24 wasted not a second as they stepped into the ring, surrounded by the deafening roars and cheers of the crowd. Their only movement before the carnage proper was to crack the ligaments in their neck, and reflexively stretch their fingers as a tiger would it’s claws.

Jill, on the other hand, knew none of this. She’d received a short text from Izzy the moment the matchups were revealed:

”Watch yourself around that one.”

She didn’t know what he meant, exactly, but she decided it was no reason to be rude. Even if she had no idea what this guy was thinking, and she could usually get a decent read on people. The blank, dark dome of its helmet was like a creepy imitation of the Riders’ typical glowing visors. Completely expressionless, and it gave her the impression that anything could be hiding under it. Still, he was probably a normal guy, right? Maybe he just had a crippling injury or something and this was supposed to be demoing some cool new prosthetic system?

Yeah, that’s probably it. Would make a nice PR stunt…

“It’s kinda funny,” Jill said, stepping on her bike as she spun her keys around her finger. “I like to keep up with what Horizon’s up to, but… I never heard much of anything about you, stranger. Been hopin’ that we can fix that today.” She stuck the key in her belt and struck her pose.

”Henshin!”

The moment her transformation finished, Jill charged forwards like a racer who just heard the starting gun. The moment she was in range, though, she gracefully slid her legs off the bike. In an impossible feat of coordination and leg strength, she held it by the handle and transferred that momentum into a powerful swing, wielding her bike like a massive hammer.

As she swung the bike directly at him, Horizon Rider was forced onto the backfoot, lunging backwards to avoid getting struck by a devastating blow. As he retreated, however, his long, corded tail extended from his lower back, immediately curving around to his front as it ejected at rapid speeds. Just as Jill had finished the swing of her first attack, the point of the tail had darted forward and stabbed into her shoulder, delivering a brief yet powerful shock that into her arm, causing the massive weight she had been carrying to suddenly drag and pull her along with it, causing her to stumble and struggle to regain balance, lest she fall to the ground.

As her guard was down, Horizon Rider leapt high into the air towards her direction. Doing a brief spin, he muttered one simple word aloud:

“Rider Stomp.”

His leg was coated in red energy as he descended at high speeds with a high jumping kick, aimed directly for the off-balance and guardless Justice Rider.

Jill was recovering, but the moment she heard those words she knew what was coming. She didn’t even bother trying to recover her balance; she just let the momentum flow, dropped her bike and spun to the ground, just barely managing to avoid a literal earth-shaking blow as she rolled to the side. She didn’t waste any time getting up, and rose into a graceful cartwheel to gain some distance. Pit Stop wasn’t nearly as graceful, and a hydraulic hiss sounded off near the bike as the drone attempted to push it up again.

Guess I can’t expect another friendly chat…

She held in her hand one of her bike’s handlebars; Pit Stop must have detached it for her when she fell. She channeled her ki and flicked her wrist, then swung her arm towards Horizon Rider. A whip rapidly formed and followed her movements, capped off by a sharp-looking spark-shaped head.

Horizon Rider quickly manifested and swung his Bioblade at the whip, his own caustic and violent energy cutting straight through the prolonged chain, severing it and causing both ends to fizzle into sparks.

He came to the conclusion that fighting at a longer distance may be more beneficial. He extended his right arm, which quickly resculpted itself from a monstrous hand and into a pointed cannon. Directing the point of it directly at Jill, He fired a barrage of four bursts, with minor alteration for each shot, intended to throw off her footwork and trick her into getting hit.

Jill went on the defensive, in a way flashy enough to draw excitement from the crowd. The first burst was deflected by what was left of her whip. The second and third were dodged with a series of graceful flips and cartwheels. The fourth? One long, beautifully executed jump. The Justice Rider smirked…

And promptly got hit in the chest with one last shot. Her armor held, but it still had the impact of a solid punch. She began to laugh as she caught her breath, as if she’d been fooled in a particularly funny joke. She flicked her whip again, the weapon quickly reforming, and charged the EX-System. The sounds of Cloud Nine’s engine started back up again as the bike sailed away from danger, having managed to right itself again.

The uncoiling of the whip struck Horizon Rider directly in the chest, sending waves of electrified Ki throughout his entire body. His best ranged option, despite landing squarely, barely slowed Jill down. As much as he loathed to admit it, she had superior speed and mobility alone, and her accursed bike getting itself back on it’s wheels would only give her an even greater advantage. It was time for desperate measures if he was going to intercept and defeat her…

“Berserker Mode, Engage.”



As the last mote of crackling energy wore off, SYM-24 turned downwards for a brief moment, holding completely still, arms outstretched. Then, slowly and gradually, every tiny little scale and fibre of his organic armor began to twitch and vibrate wildly, like a chaotic goosebump. Slowly but surely, his body began to glow with bright, vibrant red veins coursing across his body from his torso. SYM-24 themselves also began to twitch, with much more agitation, before turning it’s head skyward and letting out a monstrous, animalistic scream.

Then, in a single flash of motion, SYM-24 was gone from Jill’s view, having vanished with little more than a blur.

Then, his black helmet was mere inches from her face, he delivered a powerful punch directly to her face, the overwhelming impact sending her flying straight into her bike, crashing against it and knocking it over. As soon as the bike fell over once again, SYM-24 turns it’s attention back to Jill, and broke into a mad, violent dash towards her, his fingers held wide open like claws.

Jill rolled to her feet, her muscles feeling like electrified gelatin. After a hit like that, her body wanted to rest, but her mind and the EX-system wouldn’t let it, as if they both knew she couldn’t. Pit Stop had managed to latch on to her during the crash, and her instincts had managed to piece things together faster than her mind could: This guy had gone from 0 to 100 fast, and if she didn’t bring out the big guns right this literal second then this would be a very short match.

The Justice Rider released another limiter on the EX-System, her new armor beginning to appear before she even spoke the words:

”DAI HENSHIN!”

She held her hand forward, a glowing blue eye staring out from her shattered visor as she prepared to take another nasty hit.

As SYM-24 closed in he delivered another devastating blow directly to the face, the impact once again sending her flying. While her defensive brace managed to reduce the impact of the attack, in the brief moment she flew through the air, she noticed him immediately close the distance again to the free-flying Justice rider, then delivering another powerful kick to her stomach, sending her flying even faster and into the ground.

Jill rolled to her feet almost instantly after she hit the ground, the extra armor and power doing wonders to help mitigate the blow. She released the limiter on her arm.

“My turn.”

There was a subtle filtered quality to her voice, as if the damage to her helmet had somehow made it less clear. Her eyes emitted a fiery blue glow that once again obscured anything inside the armor. She swung her whip, not towards her opponent, but towards her bike. Putting all her body into one solid pull, she swung the machine back towards her like a flail, knocking aside Horizon Rider and bringing the machine back into her hand. She stepped on and, with a turn of the wrist, disappeared herself, leaving behind a blue blur of her own and a mighty crack that sounded across the stage as she charged toward her opponent at impossible speed.

Still blinded with nauseating rage, SYM-24 could think of little more countermeasure than to get back up onto his feet and charge straight into their charging, empowered opponent, crackling red energy trailing behind him as he charged straight into her charge of blue. The most he could do was channel all of his energy into his left arm, and punch her rapidly approaching bike head-on. The impact of the two energies caused a large explosion of white that for the briefest moment lit up the entire colosseum and left behind a cloud of smoke.

As the smoke of the destructive charge began to fade, SYM-24 still stood on his feet… With only a slight few crackles of his berserk energy fading away, before they quickly collapsed to the floor, completely spent. Jill stood completely still for a moment, struggling to process the events coming to such a sudden stop as her heart pounded on and on. Eventually, she caught up, and re-engaged her limiter.

“... You alright?” The Justice Rider asked, tilting her head to the side. She only had a second to wonder before the crowd erupted into applause.



Jill smiled, relieved, and powered down her suit, waving back to the excited crowd.

SYM-24 could only limply twitch, desperately trying to struggle back to their feet, rage pulsating through every fiber of their broken and exhausted form. They were NOT going to let themselves be defeated in such a humiliating method. But regardless, their flesh and will had reached their limits. Their body forcibly relaxed and fell again to the floor below. His will had been suppressed by the accursed device in his head, as a small team approached to extract him and return him to the cold lab below.

---

---

The crowd roared with anticipation, patrons hurrying back to their seats as the Announcer's voice blared from every speaker in the arena.



A cheer from the audience (and squeal of adoring fangirls) similar to his last rang Our as Florian walked towards the stage, good naturedly waving and smat the audience like a dignified upper classman ought to do.

Roses gently rained down upon him once more, which he took the opportunity to pluck one from the air and give it a light inhale followed by a gracious bow. Delighting his enraptured audience even further.



While Florian received a loud response it was nothing compared to Skyler's. The Justice Riders were hot commodities in Brazil and seeing them live, much less getting to see them fight, was quite a treat.

And as opposed to Florian’s dignified regal entrance, Skyler bounded in bouncing on their heels and shadow-boxing like a rough and tumble prizefighter, a leather coat draped across their shoulders as the crowd chanted their name. Holding their arms wide as they stepped into the arena, Skyler shrugged off the coat and tossed it into the crowd, where a pack of screaming teenagers frantically tussled over the garment like a holy relic, before going directly to the nearest camera.

“Representing nothing honey, I might be helping out the Riders,” Skyler smirked, lowering his shades to look directly at the home audience. “But Lancer…” They spun around and whipped off their shades. “...fights for Lancer. Don’t forget it.” Tucking the shades into the front pocket of the camera man, they finally stepped out onto the main stage, smacking their fists together to produce crackles of electricity as they stretched their neck out.

“Hope you’re ready for the surge, Florida,” they taunted, drawing themselves into fighting stance.

Florian laughed and applauded at the display, even he could find himself being drawn in by the Rider's "larger than life" presence.

He responded to Skyler with a confident smile. "Ah! This must be the infamous pre-fight "trash talk" I have heard much about!" He pointed dramatically towards Skyler. The Rider seemed a bit taken aback by this maneuver, giving a look and a comedic shrug to the camera as if to say ‘get a load of this dude’.

"Then it is my solemn duty to inform you that your surge will not be able to withstand my impeccable technique!" His smile grew wider, he was beginning to understand why engaging in this tradition was so popular. "En garde!"

Without warning, Florian screamed forward like a bolt of light, green spear in hand.





“Whoa!”

Skyler had always intended for this first enemy to throw the first punch, but they hadn’t expected such a dramatic move. A second too late and that spear would have stuck them like a pig. It didn’t though, and with a tiny flash of electricity Skyler crouched and slid under the attack to come up behind Florian.

“Nice move, fancy pants!” Skyler grinned, shuffling their fists. “Love the name too! How about one of mine…let’s amp it up!” Opening one fist with a crackle of energy and staying on their toes, the cocky fighter send an electrical charge into the ground to pop up the fancy fighter.

Florian's eyes widened for a moment as the wave of electricity rumbled towards him. Two green angel-like wings protruded from the nobleman's back and darted him upwards at the last second.



He smiled down at Skyler as the heat of the electrical charge shuffled harmlessly below him.

"Impressive yourself! I expect nothing less from the legendary Justice Riders!"

His wings disappeared, dropping Florian back towards the ground. A green bow appeared in his hand as he descended, aiming and firing a shot towards Skyler before he'd even hit the floor.



The green bolt flew with a whistle towards Skyler, accompanied by the delighted laugh of Florian. At last a worthy adversary!

The second dodge wasn’t any easier than the first, and Skyler knew that second one was coming. He’s quick, and he’s airborne. Gotta watch for that, he thought to himself. Getting up close and personal outta do it. Bait out another heavy callout attack, then hit him with a grab.

“Good shot, I’ll give ya that one,” Skyler grinned, closing in and aiming a flurry of punches and light jabs, flashing a grin as he ducked and weaved. “Now let’s show ‘em a little footwork!” Come on, Florida, big attack, let’s go, you can do it.

Florian landed gracefully and almost immediately was forced into a defensive position as Skyler charged at him with a flurry of offense. Admittedly, they were providing a much different challenge than Florian would have expected from a Justice Rider as they traded blows. Florian recognised their style however, Muay Thai with sprinklings of Monkey Kung Fu. He needed to break Skyler's streak and create an opening for himself.

"Footwork is one of many areas I excel! But tell me, how is your fencing, mon ami?" With a smile, Florian's Basilisk system began to glow and a green rapier materialized in his hand mid-swing! Up close and personal was Florian's preference, all he needed was to break Skyler's flow. He slashed at the Rider, trying to create a little distance for himself to get the crucial first blow and begin mounting a string of combos.

“Woo! Dunno, haven’t fought with a weapon since the last season!” Skyler admitted. “But what can I say-”

Dodging a precise jab that brushed the hairs on their head, Skyler charged a fist and aimed for an electric uppercut.
“Everyone loves an UNDERdog!”

With seamless precision, Florian’s green rapier evaporated mid-swing, moving into an elegant overhead swing to break through Skyler’s defense and chalk up another victory for the Stardust Genius! His fist bathed in a green glow as it flashed towards Skyler.

”But you must first get OVER th-!”

Florian’s rebuttal was cut short as their fists collided in an explosion of emerald lightning. Sending both fighters rocketing violently in opposite directions. The crowd erupted in shock and cheered wildly at the chaos as Skyler skidded to a halt at the edge of the fighting area, their hair wild and unkempt as electricity arced across their body. Skyler took a moment to inhale, then leapt to their feet in a graceful motion before ripping off their jacket and shirt, revealing a tank top and making a few girls and guys in the audience squeal.

“Oooh, what a rush...now you got me amped up!” Skyler taunted, grinning as they bounded back into range, almost leaping around the arena floor. “You wanna dance? Let’s fucking dance, handsome!” With an apelike screech, they dove low and under Florian, intending to come up with a debilitating grapple behind them!

As opposed to Skyler’s dramatic removal of their shirt, Florian instead opted for a more restrained removal of his gloves (though in his mind the intent was the same). ”Quite the thrill…” he half-muttered in both awe and determination as he dusted himself off and regained his composure. Not a second too soon either as Skyler charged towards him. Florian once more summoned a green spear to meet the rider but narrowly missed them as they slid beneath his swing.

The crowd went nuts as Skyler quickly leapt up onto Florian’s back, taking the chance to give him a noogie as he grappled the foppish swordsman. “Too slow, Florida!”

Florian’s eyes bugged out of his face, should he be enraged? Surprised? ”T- the IMPUDENCE!?” Suddenly his arms wrapped around Skyler’s leg…



…And sent them both shooting up into the air, using the momentum and hold to flip Skyler over so their head was barreling straight back towards the floor as Florian released their leg.

*WHAM!*

Skyler sure hoped that was the floor they heard cracking as stars popped in front of their eyes from that nasty blow. For a moment it looked like the great Lancer was knocked out cold, before they flopped over and stumbled to their feet again, twitching slightly.

“A-alright, I’m a little upset now…” Skyler said, their voice cracking slightly, one eye not quite closing all the way as they beckoned Florian to keep going. “Come on Florida, you think you got what it takes? Let’s end this show!”

Florian landed gracefully - coat blowing behind him from the impact. Extending himself fully and summoning a green spear in his hand, twirling it with finesse before pointing back towards Skyler. They were on their last legs, naturally! An excellent showing but he really shouldn’t have overestimated the rider too much. After all, a victory in this tournament was his destiny!

”In the name of MINERVA, The Wessington lineage and the upstanding people of Brazil!” The mention of the country’s name elicited a loud - if slightly cheap - cheer from the audience. ”Your performance concludes here! After all, heh-” A fiery smile, sparkles all around him, perhaps even a single tear as the audience - and Florian himself - got swept up in his monologue. ”It was my destiny!”

With a mighty yell, Florian charged forward, leaping up into the air for the finishing blow. Time slowed as his swing began its arc and his movements shone under the arena spotlights. He couldn’t help but feel slightly envious of the fans in attendance witnessing peak perfect physical form before them. The God-Shattering Star brought down the spear towards Skyler.

And it hit empty air.

“Oooh, did you forget the third act twist?” a voice in Florian’s ear said. “Let’s give you a crash course!”

It was like a bolt of lightning surged through the crowd and Skyler alike as the Justice Rider ally grappled Florian from behind and somersaulted across the arena in an electric whirl, almost as disorienting to watch as it was to be hit by. Finally, the monkey like brawler ended with a devastating drop kick, sending him sailing back to Earth, Skyler descending after a barrage of sparks to knock Florian down.

There was a hushed silence as Skyler landed, then with a flourish, they slicked their hair back and pulled a pair of sunglasses from a back pocket, placing them on.

“And…scene.”

The crowd went absolutely nuts and Skyler took the chance to wince a little from the admittedly damn good beating they just got from Florian, though they kept their smarmy grin on.

---

As “Necroid 99” gave his response, Olivia’s eyes and mouth seemed to open even wider with each passing second. “Oh my gosh!” the astonished bluenette exclaimed once the strange robot had finished. “Really?! That’s incredible! And also really dangerous!” she added, adjusting her glasses as her visage took on a serious expression. “Tsubotica’s super powerful and super insidious! Her Lagomorphoids can take the appearance of anyone, so they totally could have replaced all those people, and no one would know the difference! So, yeah!” she declared voice filled with determination. “You can totally count on us! Oh, but, like, if she’s taken control of all the game’s other characters by infecting them with her corrupted Gearless Arcanetech Code, then how did you manage to escape?” she asked a moment later. However, by this point the announcer’s voice had drowned out her inquiry, and when the announcement of the next round of matches had concluded, “Necroid 99” was already departing, while telling her to come find him after her next match, regardless of the results. “O-Okay!” she called after him. “See you then! Oh, and good luck!” she added with a wave.

“Wow, this is so exciting!” Olivia gushed as she and Xolys made their way to their assigned arena.

“It is certainly intriguing,” Xolys agreed from where he was nestled in Olivia’s backpack. “But it is also rather suspicious,” he added. “Thus, I believe we should proceed with caution.”

“S-Suspicious?” Olivia echoed, her tone one of confusion. “What do you mean?”

“I do not know for certain, but I have a feeling that ‘Necroid 99’ is not being entirely truthful with us,” Xolys replied.

“Okay, well, you know I trust you more than anyone, so if you think we need to be careful, then that’s just what we’ll do!” Olivia declared as they entered the arena. “Anyways,” she added as she set Xolys down and activated his combat mode. “I wonder who we’ll be going up against next! Oh my gosh! I just thought of something! What if some of the other characters from Gearmantic Hearts are competing in the tournament?! Going up against the real Finnegan Fabricant or Penny Pinnacle would be so amazing, don’t you think?!” 

However, before Xolys could respond, a massive blue explosion appeared on the opposite side of the arena. Walking out of it with his hoodie up and his hands in his pockets was Justin Haggar. He walked to where his line in the tournament was, before he raised his head to look at the opponent. In a swift motion Justin threw his hoodie up and dropped into stance. He looked at Xolys.

”I get to fight an alien…” Justin flatly said as he rolled his eyes. ”Oh joy. Let’s get this over with.”

“Oh, um, Xolys isn’t an alien,” Olivia corrected, raising a finger for emphasis. “He’s actually a non-corporeal, extradimensional entity who inhabits a robot I made! Xolys is also a character in a really cool video game called Gearmantic Hearts, and that character was based off the Xolys in my robot, ‘cause in the universe he’s from, the events of that game really happened! Isn’t that awesome?!”

”You know what an ‘extra dimensional entity is’, right? Justin added, ”A fancy way of saying an alien.”

“Oh, um, well, I thought you meant alien as in ‘extra terrestrial’, a being from a different planet, star system, or galaxy, but still from this universe,” Olivia replied. “But if by alien you just meant otherworldly, then I guess Xolys could be called one!” she added with a smile and a giggle/snort.

”Hehe… yeah,” Justin said with a chuckle…



Justin maintained his stance and did nothing, waiting to see what Xolys could do.

“Oh, um, I should probably head to the stands now,” Olivia noted. “I don’t want to be mistaken for a combatant again…”

”Yeah, you do that,” Justin said as the cybernetics on his arms started glowing, blowing steam. He grabbed his forearm with one hand and slid the sleeves of his hoodie up, showing his cybernetics to the world. Then he did the same thing to the other side. Then the palms of his hands started glowing as he quickly pointed them at Xolys, and then a beam of blue energy went straight for his face as Justin shouted. ”Chord!”

Olivia got to her position in the stands just in time to see Justin reveal his cybernetic nature, causing the bluenette’s eyes to sparkle. “Oh wow! You’re a cyborg?! That’s so cool!” Olivia gushed, but her enthusiasm swiftly shifted to panic when he promptly fired off his first attack. “Oh crap!” Olivia yelped, even as her fingers rapidly tapped the button combination that activated Xolys’s head-mounted Unreality Beam. A swirling cylinder of crackling, constantly-shifting energy shot forth to impact Justin’s own beam, hopefully before it was able to strike the technomantic terror’s head.

The two beams clashed. Justin’s Chord gaining leeway for a moment then the unreality beam. He quickly pumped more power into it in an attempt to gain leeway.

At Olivia’s instruction, Xolys did the same, the churning cylinder glowing brighter and growing more warped with each passing second. But that wasn’t all. The technomantic terror’s glowing energy wings had begun to reposition themselves around Xolys’s central eye, the same eye that was emitting the Unreality Beam. As they did so, they began to spin, causing the beam to surge with exponentially increased power.

“Let’s see if you can handle an APEX Unreality Beam!” Olivia called with a fierce grin.

The beam quickly overpowered Justin, sending him sliding backward, dragging alongside the ground. Supers, already!? He thought to himself as he realized that he was going to get overpowered… and was launched backward but quickly rolled onto his feet. ”Don’t blow your load just yet, alien-man,” Justin said with a smarmy grin as he pointed both hands at Xolys and unleashed a barrage of Beat/Pulses, each the size of basketballs and hit like a truck.

Xolys was forced back by the Beat Pulse barrage, sustaining light damage in the process. “Your durability is most impressive,” Xolys commended, even as Olivia instructed him to lash out with his technomantic tentacles to ensnare Justin and then reel him in closer. “Withstanding the power of my APEX Unreality Beam is no small feat.”

”... Or maybe its just weakshit,” Justin said as he stuck both of his hands out as the tentacles approached him. They glowed a blue color as he shouted, ”BASS-DROP!” A blast of blue energy came out of his hands that slid him backward quite a distance while also getting the tentacles off of him. He slammed his fist on the ground to decelerate, then he looked up at Xolys.

“Perhaps,” Xolys conceded, even as he sent several more tendrils darting out with lightning speed to coil around the cyborg. Which wrapped him… with surprisingly little resistance. 

”Lemme guess, you’re reeling me in to hit me with some melee attack….” Justin said as he was dragged across the ground. ”Well… RECORD SPIN!

Justin spun so fast that he appeared like a blue tornado, hoping to knot Xoly’s tendrils.
While Justin did indeed succeed in knotting the technomantic tendrils, he did not break their hold on him, nor did he stop their retraction. Yet, even before the cyborg was brought into range of Xolys’s myriad trans-phasic energy scythes, he had a more immediate problem to contend with.

“Now we’ve really got you!” Olivia declared, even as the tendrils wrapped around Justin began to glow brightly, before sending over a dozen crackling arcs of lightning shooting into his captive body… He convulsed as electricity was the one thing he was explicitly weak against. He loudly yelled before he stopped and grit his teeth… he had one ace in the hole, and both hands started glowing.

Gosh, I hope that didn’t hurt him too badly… Olivia couldn’t help but worry as she watched Justin cry out in pain. Still, that pain didn’t seem to be keeping him from charging up another attack… Well, if he’s still in the fight, then I guess we’re just gonna need to use a bit more power!

Even as Justin’s hands continued to glow, so too did Xolys’s central eye, before yet another crackling Unreality Beam lanced out towards the restrained cyborg.

Well, here goes nothing!

Fighting through the pain and his circuits were getting fried (That can NOT be tournament legal!), he got enough slack to point both hands forward. He gritted his teeth, letting out a Bass-Drop that reverberated through the arena and launched him away - just in time to dodge the Unreality Beam. However, he was still restrained, which was what the former MAVERICK Hunter hoped for. He fired another Bass-Drop, trying to launch himself around Xolys to wrap the robot in his tendrils. 

Olivia gasped as Justin put on a burst of impressive speed, which not only allowed him to dodge Xolys’s attack, but also to begin wrapping the technomantic terror up in his own tendrils. The cyborg was moving far too quickly to be shot at, and, by this point, he had already ensnared most of Xolys’s scythe-tipped limbs, meaning there was only one real option left. Fortunately, it seemed to be an effective one. Pressing a well-known key combo, Olivia instructed Xolys to hit Justin with another pulse of Eldritch Electricity.

Hopefully this time it’ll KO him…

“Son of a bi-” Justin convulsed in electricity; he wouldn’t be able to take much more even if he wrapped up the robot. He had one last card up his sleeve… He went limp, and the lights illuminating his cybernetics had gone dark.

Not wanting to cause permanent harm to the cyborg, Olivia instructed Xolys to halt the attack.

“Nice work, Xolys!” she called out with a grin. “Uh, I’m pretty sure he’s KO’d,” she added, turning to look up at where the announcer was standing nearby, while pointing her thumb at Justin’s limp form. “That means we win, right?”

In hopes of catching the two off guard, Justin raised his hands and slammed them. Creating an explosion of blue energy that would hopefully break him free.

With both Olivia and Xolys believing the cyborg to be fully out of action, Justin’s escape attempt was an unopposed success.

“W-What?!” Olivia stammered. “B-But I thought…!”

Justin hopped to his feet,

”... You’re new at this, aren’t you?” Justin said as his hands started glowing brighter and brighter… the ground shook violently as rocks began floating. He continued, ”You know that you can’t beat everyone with just one strategy… you gotta think outside the box or else this will keep happening….”

He shot his hands forward, as he shouted,

CRESECENDO!
CRESECENDO!

A massive blue beam of energy came out of his hands that went directly towards Xolys.

Olivia barely had time to comprehend what Justin was saying, before the cyborg blasted Xolys with a mighty energy beam. While the technomantic terror had a few means of dealing with such an attack, they all required a bit of charge up time, and it was just that time that he didn’t have…

Slamming into Xolys with the force of twenty bullet trains, the beam sent the techno horror flying into the arena’s far wall, where his battered and badly-sparking form collapsed onto the floor.

“XOLYS!!!” Olivia cried out, her voice filled with panic and her wide eyes filling with tears.

The light faded, and Justin was frozen… he stood there for several moments before he stood straight up. He looked at Olivia and then at his fists. 

”... AAAAAAAAAAAND THE FORMER MAVERICK HUNTER HAS DEFEATED THE MAIDEN AND THE MARVEL!”

Justin sighed, thinking to himself: ... This is my revenge? He sighed yet again, as he turned his head to Olivia and said,

”... Look, I should have eased up just a little. Is there anything I can do to help?”

Olivia, who by this point had leapt out of the stands and raced over to where Xolys had fallen, turned to look at Justin, her eyes red and cheeks streaked with tears. “H-He’ll be fine,” she sniffed, before returning her gaze to her partner. “H-He’ll just have to be in repair mode for a while,” the bluenette added, before giving voice to a sullen sigh. “I-I just… I just can’t help but feel I let him down…”

“You did nothing of the kind,” Xolys replied, the myriad lights scattered across his massive form flickering with each syllable. “You did your best, as you always do, and that is all that I could ever ask for.”

“Oh, Xolys!” Olivia cried, wrapping her arms around the techno horror in a hug. “I-I don’t deserve a friend as wonderful as you…”

Justin crossed his arms.

”... Can I at least help untangle his tentacles?

---

---

DANGER. DANGER. DANGER.

Flashed upon Oh-Seven's HUD as she lay on the ground, with Rosie standing over her holding her paintbrush... Oh-Seven's body was carved to pieces, and the inner machinery was exposed as sparks popped. Her nanomachines (son) kicked into overdrive as they pieced her body together before she could fall apart. However, it was not enough to save her from losing the match.

".... AAAAAAAAND ROSIE THE DEVIL PAINTER HAS CONQUERED AURRRRRRRRRI AUCLAIR!"

"... How... could I have lost?" Oh-Seven pondered as she remained lying on the ground.

---

---

".... FIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHTERS!"

The Announcer shouted, waving her hand in the air.

"YOU ALL DID AN AMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZING JOB! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVEN THE LOSERS!"

The Announcer held up her index finger and thumb in an L shape and stuck out her tongue, and then she continued.

"EVEN IF YOU LOST, YOU CAN STILL WATCH THE FIGHTS! WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, HERE IS THE NEXT ROUND OF FIGHTS!"

The announcer pointed at the screen above her;

1. Jill Brecian vs. Beatriz Barro.
2. Skyler Belsky vs. Yoko Hatanaka.
3. Justin Haggar vs. Lucas Miller.
4. Rosier Levai vs. Sean Callaghan.

"GOOOOOOOD LUCK FIGHTERS!"

---

---

The stranger, calling itself "Necroid 99," intentionally threw its fight with Subject Yoko Hatanaka, then returned to the Reception Room. Where it ominously stood there, by its estimations, a majority of the fighters had been eliminated, and the number of people in the stadium was acceptable. A bump appeared out of its back and went down its leg, and out through a pants leg was a diminutive spider automaton... before it turned invisible to the naked eye. The invisible spider zipped out of the room at lightning speeds and jetted off into the halls of the World Fighting Carnival's stadium. It was seemingly traveling to the very upper floors of the building, where all the office buildings were... Eventually, it reached the primary office; two armed guards flanked each side of the door. Two darts flew out of the spider's body, cut through the air, and embedded into their throats. They convulsed and fell to the ground then the spider robot hopped onto the door and turned the knob using its legs and then fell to the ground. The door loudly creaked as it proceeded in...

On the other side of the door was the tournament organization, Sílvio Santana Pinto, a man who insisted on always wearing a checkered suit. He was sitting in his fancy office with his feet on the desk and counted all the money he made from the tournament, chuckling to himself. He came to an abrupt stop when he heard his door open... but nobody was there.

"Huh? Who's there?" Silvio tilted his head as he placed his money on the desk on the table. He looked to the left, then the right... "Ehhhh, must be noth-"

That was when the Spider-Drone lunged at him. He could only scream as it landed on his face - Silvio fell backward, grabbing onto the drone attached to his face - however, it quickly wormed its way onto his back, and he heard a drilling sound as he felt something drilling itself onto the nape of his neck. The Spider-Drone hopped off, leaping onto Silvio's desk as the man got up and stared at the thing in shock.

"If you wish to continue your existence; you will follow my instructions to the letter," The Spider-Drone said.

"W-wha-"

"There is a bomb surgically implanted in your spine; if you disobey my instructions in any manner, it will detonate and kill you."

"I... what do you want?!" Silvio asked as he reached for his nape and felt a metal device and then he tried pulling at it.

"The Power Stone," The Spider said. "You are going to open the vault and give it to me."

"I can't just walk in there! You know-"

"Comply." The Spider-Drone flatly said. "Or else I will be the last being you will ever see."

"Fine," Silvio stood straight up - however, the Spider-Drone quickly lept on him and climbed under his shirt until it ended up on his back. With haste, Silvio marched his way through the halls of his stadium - at the mercy of the Spider-Drone - giving his employees awkward hellos as he tried to keep his composure. He reached the basement stairs and walked down into the grimy, bricked halls, which mainly comprised of utility rooms and other storage rooms. However, the deeper into the halls he went, the more cameras, sentry guns, and other security measures were found...

... And as he walked through, he saw them instantly depower and go limp. Eventually, he reached a giant room with a vault entrance and a terminal on the side...

"... Alright, you've come far enough!" A massive man in a green armor with an Axe fell from the sky and landed before Silvio. "Turn back now or... boss?" The man tilted his head.

"Maaaaaaan, I practiced that entrance for hours," The bull-armored man said as another person, a woman wearing dim armor with two batons walked up. Silvio recognized her as Sarah Cineheart, the head of the Wasps, the mercenary team that oversees the security detail for the Power Stone.

"Silvio?" Sarah asked, "What are you doing down here?"

"I need to get the Power Stone," Silvio said.

"But, we're not even close to finishing the tournament," Sarah answered, raising an eyebrow.

"Just trust me," He replied as he walked to the terminal and typed away at it.

Then he heard a loud thud behind him, paused briefly, and glanced over his shoulder to see the rest of Wasp assembled behind him. There was Iron Bull, the green fellow in the armor with the axe, to his right was Testament a robot with a sniper rifle, to his right was Killer Bee, and last but not least was Siren who was adjusting her mask.

Sarah stood in front of them and aimed her baton at Silvio. "Something's not right here; step away from the terminal."

"Please, I'm begging you..."

"Step. Away. From. The. Terminal."

---

“I’m sorry, Xolys,” Olivia apologized as she entered the reception room. “I know how important getting the Power Stone was…”

“It is quite all right, Olivia,” Xolys reassured her from where he poked out of her backpack. “There will be other opportunities in the future. For now, I believe we have more pressing matters to focus on.”

“Oh gosh! You’re right!” Olivia exclaimed. “Necroid 99 said to meet him here after our match!”

“Indeed,” Xolys affirmed. “But remember, Olivia, we must be cautious,” he advised. “This situation may not be entirely as it appears.”

“Right!” Olivia acknowledged with a determined nod. “Oh, look! There he is!” the bluenette exclaimed as she hurried over to where the skeletal robot was standing.

However, “Necroid 99” remained standing in the Reception Room while the Spider Drone did its work. They were waiting for the return of Subject: Olivia and Xolys… who had lost their battle with Subject: Justin Haggar. Unfortunately for them, but fortunate for Necroid 99 because they could dedicate their entire attention to his plan. Speak of the devil, the two had approached them.

“It is unfortunate that you lost your bout with Subject: Justin Haggar,” “Necroid 99” started, “However, I have word that Tsubotica’s forces are forcing the organizer of this event, ”

“Oh gosh! Forcing them to do what?!” Olivia asked.

“To open the vault to retrieve the Power Stone for them,” Necroid 99 answered. “We must make haste.”

Without further ado, Necroid 99 led Olivia through the halls of the Stadium until they made it to the basement. They marched through the halls, eventually reaching all the security measures that were disabled - except the cameras mysteriously came back to life as they walked through. Finally, reaching the vault where Sarah had drawn a baton on Silvio, Necroid 99 pointed at the scene and turned its head towards Olivia.

“Observe. Tsubotica’s minions. We must stop them.”

“But, um, they don’t look like characters from the game…” Olivia whispered. “Did Tsubotica use her corrupted Gearless Arcanetech Code to take over other Nomads, too?!”

“Correct,” Necroid 99 answered.

“O-Okay…” Olivia exhaled as she removed Xolys from her backpack and set him on the floor. “Then we’ll just have to incapacitate them,” she added, pressing the sequence of buttons that activated Xolys’s combat mode.

No sooner had the transformation completed then a swarm of technomantic tendrils shot out with lightning swiftness to coil around each of the Nomads and the event organizer… and they all recoiled in pain. Necroid 99 lunged forward and grabbed onto Olivia’s shoulder as he said,

“Not. The. Organizer.”

“O-Oh!” Olivia gasped when she felt the skeletal robot grab her. “B-But, didn’t you say he was being controlled by Tsubotica too?” she asked, her nasally voice filled with confusion.

Necroid 99’s hand transformed into a long, super-rifle-like cannon, which he aimed directly at Olivia’s head. “That was not a request, Olivia Bell. Comply, or I will be the last being you will ever see.”

“W-W-Wha…?” Olivia stammered, her body trembling as the powerful-looking hand cannon was aimed at her forehead.

Her mind spun. What was going on? Did she have it all wrong? Was Necroid 99 the one working for Tsubotica? If he was, what could she do to stop him? If she tried anything, he would surely kill her, and yet…

However, before the bewildered bluenette even realized what was happening, she found herself wrapped up in several of Xolys’s tendrils, while sounds of metal being violently rent apart filled her ears. Peering through a small gap in the technomantic tentacles, she could see the remnants of “Necroid 99” fall to the ground after having been sliced asunder by Xolys’s glowing Trans-Phasic Energy Scythes.

“Do not worry, Olivia,” Xolys reassured her. “I shall allow no harm to come to you.”

“T-Thanks, Xolys,” Olivia replied once she’d caught her breath. “I-I guess you were right about not trusting him,” she added. “B-But did you have to kill him? I-I mean, if he was just being mind controlled…”

“My apologies, but I had no other choice,” the technomantic terror explained. “Furthermore, I do not believe that was actually Necroid 99…”

The Wasps were rolling around on the ground in pain, and the electric attack killed the organizer. Far behind Olivia and the remains of “Necroid 99”, the dust and debris began to shift as if there was a gentle breeze… a red stream of electricity appeared out of nowhere. The debris and dust began to turn more and more violently as if there was a violent wind storm—more bolts of red lightning appeared and violently clashed against whatever they hit. An orb of red energy appeared, as small as a golf ball that grew to be the size of a dump truck. Lightning raged and struck everything as it was almost like a tornado was in the room. Then, it faded away, all the trash hit the ground, and the electricity disappeared. All that remained was a silvery figure that knelt.

“...Online.”



All the red lights activated on it, and it stood tall, its body shining, revealed to the world. It turned its head towards Olivia and the vault and calmly walked past it all towards the terminal.

"Thank you for your assistance, first name: Olivia. Last name: Bell... your cooperation is no longer required.”

The machine raised his hand at the Wasps, who were still recovering from the electric barrage, and it began glowing with a red light, and with a single bright red beam, he vaporized all five of them. Their screams echoed throughout the halls of the vault before… nothing. The light faded as steam came out of the palm of its hands, as it turned its head to look over its shoulder at Olivia and then spoke in a deep, droning, robotic monotone.

"If you impede my mission…” The red lights on its body flashed brightly for a moment, “...I will be forced to kill you.”

Olivia was silent, her body frozen in fear. A part of her couldn’t believe what she had just witnessed, couldn’t accept that five people had just been vaporized in front of her eyes. A part of her desperately wanted to believe it was all just some elaborate illusion, but deep down, she knew it was all real, and that knowledge chilled her to the very core of her being. Thankfully, Xolys was not as easily shaken. An instant after the crimson-hued robot finished speaking, Xolys’s glowing, azure energy wings formed a halo above him and began rapidly spinning. Over the next few seconds, a whirlwind of eldritch energy was generated, which continued to grow in intensity as it spun around the technomantic titan and his bespectacled partner, the space surrounding the pair warping and shifting in a series of mind-bending geometric patterns. Soon enough, the Tesseractic Teleportation was fully charged. There was a blinding flash of light, and, when it faded, the pair had vanished without a trace.

The machine simply kept marching towards the terminal and placed its hand on the interface… the blue light it gave off quickly turned red as it hacked into its systems. Behind the machine, three copies of the “Necroid 99” model teleported into the tunnels in the same manner that it did. Each of them had a glowing red light coming out of their hands.

The plan is going well.

---

The small woman in a jacket leaned backwards, facing upwards at the roof, covering her face in her hands as she let out a loud exhalation. The giant butcher loomed over their failed gladiator, once again face-down and under multiple straps binding it to a chair. Not just the back of their head, most of their plates of armor were removed and placed on a neat, clean table right next to them in the filthy garage room. All along SYM-24's exposed back muscles were abrasions and steaming flesh, still undoing the brutal exertion it underwent in their second and final match. The butcher worked with various tools, casually pulling, tweezing, and picking at various parts of the creature's disgusting anatomy. His expression was still much more cheerful than his partner's, casually humming to the tune of 'Mr Sandman' through grit, smiling teeth. All the other auxiliary staff were absent.

"One Job, Daren. One job and we blew it." the girl groaned, muffled through the sleeves of her jacket.

"I mean, technically not? All we had to do was observe him and collect data, right? If anything it's Ulric's fault." The man countered, not breaking pace with his delicate work.

"What're we supposed to tell Ivory?"

"She'll understand. Cmon Ari, we screwed up on worse. Right now we just have to fix up Fido. I'm sure Ivory thought of some sort of backup plan. Who knows, maybe there'll be another chance at getting it?"

As if divine intervention, Arianna's jacket suddenly began to loudly chirp mechanically. A notification from one of the drones. Immediately she pulled the hood up, quickly erecting a metallic bird mask covering her face. Inside the mask, several holographic images were generated; Data charts, status metrics, and surveillance footage of over a dozen or so robotic, birdlike drones. Most of which were watching the ongoing fights above, a few hung around in high-interest locations watching the crowds. One in particular had been assigned to watching a certain particular figure, resembling a robotic skeleton. They observed the mysterious figure constantly, sometimes X-raying through thick stone walls, thermal readings, and even echolocation, making sure it was always on top of where they were and what they were doing.

After throwing the most recent match, Arianna witnessed them with one of the other competitors -- Olivia and Xolys, she noted. Though the drone was unable to properly capture audio of their conversation, the two of them walked down, first into the maintenance tunnels -- Giving Arianna a brief chill up her spine at the thought of how close they would've come to them -- And then into the security vault, which had been mysteriously opened and disabled. Every other security measure was disabled as well, letting them walk through unbothered...

Arianna immediately sprang to her feet, and started violently shaking Daren's shoulder, causing him to nearly drop a scalpel into his "patient". His smile faltered for a brief second in surprise and indignity.

"Daren! DAREN DAREN! Cmon!" She anxiously stumbled over her own words, trying to communicate the sudden opportunity God had just dropped into their laps.

"Wha? Ari slow down I'm--"

"COME ON! Now's our chance! The Vault! It's open!" She excitedly exclaimed, excitement and desperation completely overwhelming her. Despite being smaller than his hulking frame she managed to pull him up onto his feet as well and started running out the door. He briefly looked down at the still restrained and armorless SYM-24, then the open door. He shrugged and started rushing after Arianna, grabbing his cleaver with one hand as he charged out and down the maintenance tunnel halls. Probably should be leaving their contest-losing squash all alone, but he knew a chance at swiping the Power Stone was infinitely more important. Plus he was egging for a good fight.

Meanwhile, Arianna was microtasking all of her drones, recalling them to her position. Setting them to assault mode. All across the stadium, those with keen eyes noticed black birds flying down from the rafters, around corners, and even one out of a popcorn machine, flying stealthily yet hurriedly through the doors and halls of the stadium until they caught up with their operator.



Not even a moment after they had left, SYM-24 had begun to twitch and writhe, before freeing their bound right-hand. When Arianna had suddenly shoved Daren, his scalpel had made an ever-so-small incision in one of the creature's restraints. With that small freedom, they suddenly began to violently twitch their upper arm, until all the restraints on their arm had broken free. They easily snipped apart the rest of their restraints using their clawed fingers, and they struggled back to their feet, despite both overexerting themselves much earlier and now having their entire back exposed for surgery. The beast was now free.

Did they rush along with their compatriots, helping them to complete the sole objective they were created for?

No.

They had a score to settle.

---

---

That went well.

After fighting bravely in the tournament, Oh-Seven was defeated by Rosie... getting trounced due to her lack of melee options, and their zoning strategy did not work. The work was not over yet, as Oh-One was still around, and Oh-Seven would not be surprised if the mechanical menace was plotting something. Instead of returning to the reception room and keeping watch, Oh-Seven detoured after her loss. The automaton approached the office and approached... she saw the two guards sprawled on the ground. She quickly activated scan mode - doing her best not to hover in the event someone saw. From scans of their nervous system, they were hit with... nanomachines, and they killed them near-instantly by shutting off their organs.

Such a horrible way to go.

Breaking her previous rule about not approaching them, Oh-Seven knelt. She stuck out her finger, and a little needle came out, and she pricked one of the deceased guards with it. She took a sample of the inert nanomachines and deduced something horrible. Something terrible from the traces of information that she could gather from the nanoscopic machine.

Oh-One made it.

This meant he was likely already in the building and implementing his plan. Further scans deduced that the office was entirely devoid of life... the other office workers had suffered the same fate as the guards. She wanted to interface with the systems, but Oh-Seven could not risk someone coming in and believing she was responsible. Oh-Seven quickly deduced that the cameras were still working from a quick scan, which meant he was watching. It was unlikely that Oh-One would do anything except beeline for the exit once he got the Power Stone, but Oh-Seven knew he had a robotic army at his beck and call. Oh-Seven had faith in her capabilities, but not enough to fend off an entire army... or do any more than escape from Oh-One. However...

Oh-Seven quickly went back to the Reception Room with a renewed mission... there were some of the losers floating around. She activated scan mode to land eyes on Isabelle Levai quickly... the Black Knight of SHINING, they called him. Jill mentioned him in a previous conversation, and boy, was he edgy - just sitting at the bar, brooding. His exploits under SHINING and accomplishments were astonishing! Which made Oh-Seven wonder how in the world he lost his fight with... a quick internet search determined Lucas Miller? There was little to no information on that subject, so he was a nobody (or perhaps a future superstar in the Nomad world). That was irrelevant, as Oh-Seven figured he was one of the best bets to stop Oh-One (or allow her to get the Power Stone from him).

So, Oh-Seven stood before him, utterly motionless, with a smile and her hands held together in front of her (so he would not believe she was here to do something outrageous like assassinate him). Up until he acknowledged her, and she waved at him and said,

"Hello! I am Auri Auclair, a friend of Jill's," "Auri" started, "I am not certain if Ms. Breicen told you about me, but I am certain she has already informed you about Oh-One. I have rea- hold on just a moment."

That was when she detected Florian Wessington I in her scanners... and she reached over towards the bar, grabbed a couple of napkins, balled them up, and then threw them at Florian. Hitting him in the back of the head - and when he turned around, Oh-Seven gestured for him to come close.

"... Now where was I? Ah, yes; I have reason to believe that Oh-One is making his attempt to steal the Power Stone... I require your assistance to prevent that from occurring."

---

Interactions: Oh-Seven, Florian.

---

---

Isabella sat perched at the bar, indeed brooding as he nursed a glass full of cheap alcohol. After his last match, there was a lot to talk about, but his genderfluid parent had managed to attract (in multiple senses of the word) so many reporters and assorted admirers that none of them were even bothering to hound him. Getting through to her discreetly was going to be absolute hell, but there was little else to do but wait for the next chance.

His thoughts were disrupted by the distinct feeling of presence. He glanced at the woman, from the corner of his eye for a short moment, and went back to ignoring her, hoping that she would leave.

She did not leave.

He sighed, and turned towards her.

"Hello! I am Auri Auclair, a friend of Jill's. I am not certain if Ms. Breicen told you about me, but I am certain she has already informed you about Oh-One. I have rea- hold on just a moment."

Isabella froze as he saw Auri deliberately try to catch the attention of Florian Wessington. If there was one person in all the world, above all the manipulators and murderers he knew, that he did not want to work with in the slightest capacity, it was Florian Wessington. The kind of utterly clueless corporate heir that should have gone extinct in the feudal age. The kind of person he intensely wanted to strangle, but had to settle with avoiding at all costs. The half-devil finished his drink, and took a long sip from the flask in his coat for good measure.

"... Now where was I? Ah, yes; I have reason to believe that Oh-One is making his attempt to steal the Power Stone... I require your assistance to prevent that from occurring."

“Sure,” The Rider said, completely deadpan. “I’d better get to it.” He stood up and trudged towards the direction of the vault. Horizon hadn’t bothered updating him on their little hunch, which meant that either they were up to some sort of scheme or the girl was lying. Either way, it was probably best to not let them know he was coming. He pulled out his phone, clicked on one of his contacts.

“... Hello?” Jasmine’s voice was barely audible over the sounds of the audience around her.

“It’s Isabella.” His tone was colder than usual. More focused. “If you’re not ready to go, start making a plan to get the hell out of here. If shit hasn’t hit the fan already, it will soon.”

“Wait, what? What’s going on? Will Jill be ok-”

“I don’t have a lot of time. Jill can handle herself. Can you?”

“I… I think so, yeah.”

“Good. I’ll see you soon.”

As soon as Isabella had hung up, he was already dialing up one more contact. An old friend.

“Hey, I’m gonna need the plane off the ground ASAP. Looks like I’m gonna need the big guns today…”

---

---

---

Seshat trudged silently through the drainage system lying under the Fighting Carnival’s innards. She had been observing, carefully, from a safehouse of sorts near the building, but she dared not draw close until now. Offering up an artifact as dangerous as a Power Stone was so irresponsible that it… Well frankly, it was perhaps one of the most utterly stupid things she had seen in all her years. Not one of the tournament’s organizers or competitors could be trusted with it, but it was too fiercely guarded to risk a direct assault.

Now, according to her divinations, the guards were all dead. So it was now or never. She focused her wings and charged upwards, bursting through a grate in the middle of a junction in the tunnels that led to her prize, and her quarry. There was no telling who or what awaited her in the vault. But she was ready.

---

---

---

Florian stumbled in a daze. The physical shock of being knocked out had long since worn off (thanks to his peerless durability, no doubt). What had him disoriented and muddled was grappling mentally with the fact that he'd lost.

It wasn't that cut and dry, of course. He had won, his opponent, a Justice Rider no less, had merely fought without honor and snatched victory from the jaws of certain defeat. The fact he could hardly stand after the fact was proof enough of the devastation his patented Wessington style had inflicted upon him.

But then, a smile. Florian was being silly! Naturally, he'd won! He just hadn't been declared the victor! He had been upset by an underdog and in the process had left the fight with much more knowledge than when he'd started. By next year he would sweep all the participants like they were… something you swept… dust?

Florian was roused from his intellectual musings by the pat of a napkin bundle bouncing off the back of his brilliant cranium. He picked it up from the ground with keen interest.

”Incredible! Who threw this thing at me?” He mused, head darting around like a surprised (and noble) dog.

He spotted his best friend Justy's paramour (or perhaps partner? General lady friend? He would need to inquire later.) Oh-Seven, gesturing at him to join her and a rather large fellow with spiky hair. Florian recognised him after a moment - from some media scrum or another - as a fellow Justice Rider, one who hadn't quite the same level of courtesy and manners as his student, Jill.

Nonetheless, Florian brushed the napkin residue out of his radiant hair and walked towards the duo.

"... Now where was I? Ah, yes; I have reason to believe that Oh-One is making his attempt to steal the Power Stone... I require your assistance to prevent that from occurring."

Of course! It was his solemn duty as a fighter, upperclassman and author to lend his considerable talents wherever requested.

”Of course, Miss. Auclair!” He said, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. ”I merely have one inquiry.” He spoke with gravitas, looking sternly into Oh-Seven's eyes.

”Who is Oh-One?” He asked, tone shifting to one of pure confusion.

---

---

---

"Still don't see how some League trash is worth all this, Sir."

"Your opinion’s been noted, rookie. I'd advise you keep it to yourself. The payment is considerable, the employer's a weasel but he checks out and, if intel's correct, then this guy isn't just some thug with a gun. He's legit."

Two filtered voices exchange words as they march down the halls of an empty office building. Their footsteps and speech enhanced in intimidation by their full bodies of armour.

"Legit enough for our entire outfit?" The younger, more skeptical of the two Mercenaries, gestured as they walked. Sandbags, waist-high turrets and fellow mercs dressed in the same high quality gear dotted the hallways of the once bustling office.

"Legit enough for the client to pay for our entire outfit, yes. I don't anticipate he can stop us, rookie. But when we have an opportunity to double our company in under a day, you can rest assured I'm taking the situation with complete seriousness."

They stop at an ornate door at the end of the hall. The aspiring soldier of fortune looks at his senior with a doubtful expression that could be felt even beneath his face-concealing helmet.

"He wears a cowboy hat, Sir."

A buzz. A light blinking rapidly from the wrist of the senior merc erased any semblance of informality, replacing it with stoic professionalism. The mercenary company begin moving into positions like a well-honed machine, silently drawing their weapons as their tech whirred to life. The two Mercenaries at the ornate door exchange a nod, the younger drawing his rifle and beginning to jog toward his post, the senior bringing his fingers against a button on his helmet.

“We’re live.” He states to his team, voice shifting from affable mentor to that of a man who'd lived a life of nothing save conflict.

Beneath the inch thick layer covering his face, the Mercenary squints his eyes and readies his weapon.

---

---

He was running. It felt foreign and bitter, beneath the fear. Even when things had been at their worst, he'd never run. But there he was, carrying the blood of comrades and his own newly acquired wounds on his once pristine white armour. A chunk of his faceplate broken - revealing a glimpse of his thousand yard stare to the world.

Behind him was that calm rhythm. The thudding of a boot followed by the clacking of a metal spur as it hit the ground. Infrequently, the clacking would stop and a gunshot would follow, illuminating the building in a flash of orange no matter where it came from. The Mercenary finally arrived at the ornate doors, barging it open with the strongest collision of his shoulder he had ever thrown in his life.

Before the Mercenary sits a dishevelled man, filled with enough mortal terror to jump in fright yet resigned enough to have his hands already up in surrender. He lowers them shakily upon seeing the leader of his hired protection and gives him a hopeful look.

“You need to leave.” the Mercenary flatly states, deflating the optimism of his client. The Mercenary steps forward, grit returning to his voice as he regains his nerve. “I’ll be with you all the way. We circle back around the building, give him the slip and reconvene at the nearest safehouse.” He tightens the grip on his rifle and silently beckons the man to stand up.

A plan is forming within him, the quickest routes, who still owes him a favour now that he is a company of one. He is no longer a frightened soldier. He is no longer the leader of a building full of dead men. He is a warrior. He is a survivor.

He is gone.

A flash of orange and a jacketed hollow point arrow pierces through the Mercenary’s exposed eye in a geyser of blood. He collapses to the floor immediately. Death comes before the realisation.



"Mr. Welles." The murderer says calmly, stepping over the corpse and towards his frightened target.

"You were told by our mutual friends that I'd be sent over here to discuss the next phase of the plan. The one you agreed to take part in. Your response is to go hire a mercenary company while sitting in your office shredding documents." He holstered his weapons as he began to explore the office. Stopping in front of a shelf of personal effects. "Mind filling in the leap between those two events?"

"I know who you are." Welles said, shakily. "Voyt The Gunslinger."

"Then you'd think you'd know better than to go do something like this. You got these folks killed. Not me." Voyt picked up a picture frame and looked at it. Expression cold. "This your family?"

Silence. They both knew it wasn't really a question.

Voyt dropped the picture back onto the shelf. "You were given this role because your employers and my employers wanted another foothold in the area and needed someone who’d do what they're told. You played that part because your greed made you believe the good times were gonna last forever." Voyt placed his hands on the desk, masked visage looming over the cowering Welles.

"Now, your part's been played and you've been told to pull the plug, hand over the profits and ride off into the sunset. You wanna hold on a little longer." Annoyance slipped into Voyt's previously matter-of-fact tone. He glared down at Welles. "First of all. Where's the money?"

"I- I don't have it..."

"Why?"

"The company, I-I've had to do a lot of financial manoeuvring to fulfil your people's requests."

"Then sell the company."

"We're already in debt for more than it's worth!

"Then sell your family!" Voyt growled, knocking over the last few documents from the desk. Welles offered nothing beyond a whimper.

"Somethin'!" Voyt slowly paced back and forth. Merely looking back towards Welles' caused the man to flinch.

"How were you plannin’ on payin’ our friends here?” He asked, gesturing towards the dead mercenary and the ever-growing circle of blood pooling around his temple.

”It was payment on completion! I- I was hoping to just by myself some time t-”

”You lie, Welles.” Voyt interjected. ”You might have the greed for a scheme like that but you damn sure wouldn't have the spine. You've got a little something for yourself stashed away, don’t you?” A pause. ”Don't you?” Voyt asked again, differing only by a slight raise in his delivery.

Welles didn't have the heart to vocalise aloud that he was still hiding things with a man who'd cut through his one and only line of defense. He meekly nodded.

”Chin up, Welles.” Welles let out a sharp yelp of pain as Voyt, fast as a whip, reached over and slapped a small device into the side of his neck. ”Now you get to make it right.”

”What did you do!?” Welles sobbed, hands frantically swiping at his neck. Outside, a bird let out a cry as it flew by the window. Free.

”Tracker.” Voyt replied, bluntly. Swaying Welles fears only slightly. ”You're gonna go out, drain your accounts, check under your couches and empty any stashes in your kids’ bedrooms. Whatever it takes for you to make up the difference. If, for any reason, I see that you're trying to skip town or if I even suspect you're trying to play me again. I will make sure to put a bullet in your lap first.”

”M-my family…”

”Will be safe an’ sound; s'long as you don't do anythin’ else stupid.” Voyt replied, taking a scrap of paper and writing down a sequence of numbers. ”These're GPS coordinates. Meet me here, preferably with the money, by sundown; ‘less you want your family to see their patriarch get his head opened up on the sidewalk.”

A pause. As customary during an awkward interaction where one party isn't sure how to end things after narrowly keeping their life.

”That'll be all, Mr. Welles.” Voyt said flatly, eyes never leaving Welles as the man shot up from his desk and sprinted out the door - doing his best to ignore the pile of corpses littering the building.

”Your orders were to eliminate him if he didn’t comply.”

A voice reverberated throughout Voyt’s mind. Like a mechanical hand holding his spine in a vice grip. Cold and clinical. Voyt pressed his middle and forefinger against his left ear.

”Want your money back, don’t you?” He asked, knowing the answer. The voice did not respond.

”He’s out of friends and out of hiding places. If he doesn’t come through then I’ll deal with him, otherwise I’ve given you a chance to get what you’re owed.” The gunslinger added, removing his mask and looking out the window. The hot sun filtered into the office through cracks in the blinds.

”You’re needed at the arena.” The voice finally responded, filtering away its employee’s insubordination for a later time.

”Thought you had people on it.”

”Yes. You’re to assist them. Intel suggests trouble.”

”Wasn’t part of our contract.”

”As I understand, you’ll have some time until sundown.”

Voyt’s brow furrowed. ”Think we oughta discuss my rates.”

Silence.

”Hello?”

Voyt removed his hand from his ear and walked over to the window, pressing down the blinds to see the light soaked arena glowing off in the distance. A hum travelled even here, the noise and music as the Fighting Carnival raged on. His eyes narrowed.

”Hrn.”

---

---

“Sure,”

Excellent.

While Izzy was uncomfortable working with Florian, Oh-Seven looked at the bigger picture. If Oh-One won, it was game over for all of them, and she would like to continue her existence as more than one of Oh-One's subroutines. Thankfully, Jill did her job and didn't have to explain Oh-One to him...

”Who is Oh-One?”

... but Florian was a different discussion.

Oh-Seven didn't have time to explain things to this clueless rich guy, as they wasted more time. Every second they wasted was another second that Oh-One needed to put his plans into action. A supremely logical being like Oh-One would prioritize every second and make them as valuable as possible. Thankfully, Florian was probably as clueless as they got, so she could give him the most basic explanation she could come up with, and he'd (probably) fall for it.

"Time is of the essence, so I will be concise;" Oh-Seven started, "Big evil robot. He is trying to steal the Power Stone. He's likely here now. We have to be quick-"

That was when a cloud of smoke appeared in the middle of the group... out of reflex, Oh-Seven was about to deploy her machine gun, but her scanners indicated that it was none other than...

"... Jaden Raldo," Oh-Seven tilted her head and put on the most artificial smile she could. The smoke faded, and it revealed Jaden with his fists on his hips, grinning with that damn joint in between his teeth. It was evident that he overheard - likely using some ninja technique. Maybe there was an upside to one of the most obnoxious Nomads out there. According to Oh-Seven's calculations, at the very worst, Jaden will be another thing for Oh-One to laser that isn't one of them!

"In the flesh, baby!" Jaden proudly said as he grabbed his joint with his fingers and looked at Auri, Izzy, and Florian. Then continued, "I just overheard your conversation, and heard that ya'lls got a robot problem. And I'm here to say..."

He grabbed and unsheathed one of his swords, making a loud clinking sound.

"And I'm here to say I'm here to help! Free of charge."

Oh-Seven looked over to Izzy... who already seemed less than pleased and wondered if this group of misfits was more of a threat to each other than Oh-One was a threat to them. Fortunately, all they had to do was go underground, punch Oh-one, and then they could all go their separate ways...

"Excellent! Time is of the essence; we have to head down now!" Oh-Seven said in the most excited tone she could...

... Even though, deep down in that hardware and subroutines, she was screaming.

---

Thankfully, the doors to the tunnels underneath the World Fighting Carnival were still open... and Oh-Seven led her merry bunch there. By her scans, all the security systems were disabled, which wasn't a good thing, as it meant that Oh-One had already interfaced with them and was likely in a position to turn them back on. She made big, flagrant steps similar to big ol' kicks as she marched through the tunnel halls.

"So, Auri," Jaden spoke to her.

"Yes?" Oh-Seven answered.

"What's your deal? Like, I get you got a bone to pick with roboman... but something about you..." He looked at her with his eyes narrowed. "... is off."

"I am a normal flesh and blood human, just like you. Nothing of note and nothing abnormal,"

"... Sounds like something a robot would say! Right boys?!" Jaden looked around as if he was hoping to get "hahas" and "hehes," but everyone was dead silent!

ALERT!

Oh-Seven came to a dead stop as her sensors detected something... the Necroid 99 from earlier, simply walking through the halls with what seemed to be the Power Stone. When Oh-Seven attempted to scan... it scrambled her scanners. Damn it! Oh-One installed these machines with special ^bullshit technology!

With no time to waste, Oh-Seven's right hand turned into a rocket launcher, and she shot "Necroid 99" on his side with the rocket... which caused it to stumble, but it didn't drop the Power Stone.

---

---

---

Interface complete, breaking firewalls and accessing internal systems.

Oh-One held his hand against the terminal, interfacing with its inner systems.

Firewall one of twenty, broken. Time elapsed: two minutes. Twenty minutes are estimated before all firewalls and security systems are disabled. Cameras are active and have been interfaced with. All other security systems have been disabled. Will remain disabled for the duration of the Power Stone retrieval. Combatants, security, and spectators are unaware of their presence. The tournament is still ongoing...

However, the cameras detected two groups of individuals heading down into the vaults.

ALERT. ALERT. ALERT. SUBJECTS ENTERING THE TUNNELS: ISABELLA LEVAI, FLORIAN WESSINGTON I, MODEL-SEVEN, JADEN RALDO, DAREN METZGER, AND ARIANNA LEGOSE.

ACTIVATING DECOY MODELS.

The three robotic copies of the machine that Olivia Bell referred to as "Necroid 99" stirred to life. They were merely decoys for Oh-One's plan, and each held an artificial copy of the Power Stone that glowed brightly in their hands. Suddenly, the three minions walked into the tunnels, going in directions so that they would absolutely be seen by the intruders.

Calculating the odds of the plan needing adjustment... minimal.

Calculating the odds of the security system requiring reactivating... minimal.

Calculating the odds of personal involvement being required... minimal.

Calculating odds of success... extremely high.

Even as she and Xolys rematerialized in the center of the reception hall, Olivia still found herself frozen with shock. It took the sound of her partner’s voice to finally shatter her paralysis.

“Olivia, are you all right?” the techno horror asked, his voice filled with concern.

“Oh Xolys!” Olivia cried, clinging to the technomantic terror in a tight embrace. “A-All those poor people!” the bluenette sobbed, tears streaming down her cheeks. “H-He killed them all!”

“I know,” Xolys replied in a somber tone, even as a technomantic tendril gently stroked Olivia’s hair. “I only wish I had been swift enough to protect them,” he added. “As it was, it took all my power to ensure that you escaped unharmed.”

“B-But what do we do now?!” Olivia asked, her eyes wide with panic. “I-If Necroid 99 is really working with Tsubotica, then he’s about to steal the Power Stone! We need to warn everybody! Oh! B-But, how do we know who’s been taken over by Tsubotica and who hasn’t?! A-Anybody could be a potential enemy!”

“True,” Xolys conceded. “Yet, we must at least make an attempt to sound the alarm. In addition, I highly doubt that Tsubotica, or any other character from Gearmantic Hearts, has anything to do with the current crisis,” he added. “Whoever was masquerading as Necroid 99 almost certainly fabricated that story in order to enlist our aid in his nefarious scheme.”

“And I fell for it completely…” Olivia muttered through gritted teeth. “We’ve gotta make things right!” she declared a moment later, her voice filled with renewed determination as she raised two clenched fists. “Come on! Let’s go tell security!”

Shrinking down to travel mode, Xolys allowed Olivia to return him to her backpack, before the pair set off to find a member of the event’s security staff. The eldritch robot only hoped that whoever they found would believe their story…

---

One of the Necroids walked down the tunnels alone, holding the fake power stone copy in it's skeletal hand. As soon as it turned one of the dozens of corners of now-defenseless corners, though, it was immediately brutalized by Daren's cleaver in one, single hew, spraying the walls of the tunnel in oil, sparks, and mechanical viscera. The Cleaver was barely stopped by the machine's physique either, slamming into the ground and creating a small crater from the intense impact, cutting the very edge of the blade into the ground. Daren himself and unfortunately poor Arianna were also showered in artificial gore, covering their clothing in black gunk.

"Really Daren?" Arianna asked.

"Sorry, sorry. I was just really thirsty for some gore, even if it was from a machine," Daren apologized. He reached into the Necroid's brutalized remains and pulled out the glowing red orb it held with very little of a fight.

"But look! We finally got the--"

"That's a fake" Arianna immediately deduced.

"... Wha--"

"If they extracted the power stone already, through an airtight security system that would've taken us hours to crack, why would they trust one single robot to carry it out safely completely without any sort of unmarked or protective container? A robot you destroyed in just one swing. Carrying a stone that would've supposedly given it a colossal boost in power. A stone that probably would've exploded your entire arm the second you touched it."

Daren looked at Arianna with a rare frown, then back at the fake Stone in his hand, then back to her, repeatedly.

"I mean it looks like the real stone."

Arianna just gave Daren a glare.

"Alright, alright. I'm not complaining though," Daren defended. He stuffed the fake Power Stone into the pocket of his coat. Might come in handy later.

Suddenly they both turned their heads in the direction of a loud but distant explosion. Sounds of further conflict. Arianna engaged her drones and saw through one of them an entire party of Nomads was now down in the tunnels, also fighting another Necroid model. Likely also a fake, but Arianna counted four heads among them. Heads she had on file: Auri Auclair, robotic wanderer (currently sans her cyborg companion); Jaden Raldo, wannabe ninja/rapper; Florian Wessington, heir to MDL (high priority); and... Izzy. Very good chance they were there for the exact same reason Ari and Daren were. Arianna decided they could be useful...

She turned back to the butcher.

"Daren, you keep going ahead. I'm gonna take a brief detour," She instructed.

"What? But-- Eh whatever. Okay," Daren shrugged. He continued heading towards the vault.

---

---

The second Necroid was already being harried by Oh-Seven's assault. Given how easily Daren had brutalized another one, the entire small group of Nomads probably could've handled the Necroid they attacked all by themselves with little effort. But still, to support the illusion of goodwill, Arianna ordered a small handful of her drones to mob and assault the Necroid model, pecking and scratching them and bombarding them with modulated robotic screeches. And then they exploded, enveloping the robot in a blob of fire and shrapnel, leaving nothing but scorched remains.

Arianna then "conveniently" made her appearance, dropping down from the rafters above, her mask erect and concealing her face.

"That stone's a fake, no time to explain. You guys going after Oh-One too?! Cmon! He's already at the vault, he's just up ahead!" She introduced herself briefly to these "complete" strangers. She gave Isabella a quick and knowing glance. A subtle gesture to keep their little deal a secret for the time being. She then turned around and started running, expecting the rest of them to follow her.

---

---

It wasn't too long of a jog to the main vault in the tunnels. Daren was pretty sure he saw another Necroid sulking around, but knew that they were just a distraction and decided to make it someone else's problem. Ari seemed of the opinion that everyone and they're grandma knew what was going on in the tunnel's just below and were going to be making a beeline towards the vault, so he decided to not waste time and to make it someone else's problem. Two birds, one stone!

Daren finally reached the main vault, and saw a silver mechanical figure standing before the large console. Despite being a robot they seemed to be handling the security system by hand, and looked completely distracted by it.

Daren smirked and raised his cleaver. This seemed like an easy victory...

---

Interactions: Tunnel Snakes

---

---

”Henshin.”

The sound of a gunshot far louder than anything Auri could produce rang throughout the tunnels as Isabella transformed. He strode forwards at a determined pace; urgent, but not rushing into danger. However, his foe was already destroyed before he could reach it. Arianna was out in the field, which meant that Daren likely was, too. Whatever happened to their pet, he couldn’t say, but it was clear that Horizon was playing their hand. The black knight returned the raven’s gaze, faces hidden behind their respective masks. It was obvious that he couldn’t spill any secrets, here. If both their benefactors had any reason to turn on him he likely wouldn’t survive the night, not for lack of trying. Still, Arianna likely wasn’t doing this out of the goodness of her heart. It could be a trap, but there wasn’t time to hesitate, and he was better forewarned to deal with it than anyone else.

Isabella nodded.

“Let’s go,” He said, voice stern and controlled. “Be careful.” He broke off into a run, his hair and cloak of shadow trailing behind him.

---

Interactions: Daren, Oh-One

---

---

The gaunt figure snaked its way through the tunnels, senses mundane and magical expanding through their depths. There were many presences here already. Some bore an approximation of the stone, but any diviner worth their salt could deduce they were fakes. The vault was still her target, and she would not be distracted by petty diversions.

Seshat could confirm for herself what her magic could not when she reached the vault. One figure she did not recognize, the other she most certainly did. She had accrued a handful of run-ins with the man with the cleaver, and his cast of occasional companions. She had no doubt that they sought to tear her apart with that cleaver, in the hopes of reclaiming secrets that mankind had lost. They were not the first to hope for this, and they would not be the last.

Regardless, he was untrustworthy. The others heading towards this position were wild cards as well. While she would have loved to have had the opportunity to take the stone for herself, and either hide it away or simply fling it into space and destroy it, it was clear this would not be possible. Instead, she would have to settle for the vault remaining sealed.

A bomb appeared in her hand, carefully drawn glyphs stretching across the surface of the parcel. She tossed it in between the two, close enough to destroy the console. She commanded it to detonate.

“Boom.”

And the room was lit by a blast of green flame.