Choose your destiny! Flawless victory! [Inevitable Tournament Arc]

[meat_mooks]

No sooner did the Obs Deck descend to Arena Planet LXIII, and the crew allowed to disembark, than they were met by a veritable cloud swarm of cameras. Sleek, elegant things that might have been living, might have been machines, maybe were even magical... but were definitely nuisances as the swooped around to capture video of the crew at all conceivable angles, close up and far away. Their every move from this point on would be on camera.

In front of a small crowd of retainers stood what appeared to be a great circular orb whose only distinguishing features were a nose, and what appeared to be the most overblown mustache ever, which actually appeared to be supporting that two-foot-diameter orb at shoulder height to a tall man. Then the orb took a couple of steps forward,revealing that no, those were actually just really, really hairy legs. A seam cracked open on the creature, and in a voice loud enough to echo across the broad open plains without any need for amplification, it bellowed, "AND NOW! STRAIGHT FROM THE TRANSMIGRATION NINE VESSEL! OUR NEWEST COMPETITORS! FRESH TO THE STAGE OF BATTLE, BUT NO STRANGERS TO WAR--"

It went on like this for some time.

Under cover of this introduction, a small man that to all appearances seemed to be the love child of Richard Nixon and a particularly aggressive Furby stepped forward, and in a bored businesslike tone recited, "Welcome to the tournament. There will be one battle per day. The arena in which you battle will be determined by random draw. Our medical crew will perform all healing necessary and ensure no deaths so feel free to not hold back. Please refrain from accepting any bribes or favors from on-planet spectators--"

"--ARE YOU READY?!" the orb bellowed even louder than before, completely swamping the smaller man's recitation. "THEN STEP THIS WAY!"

And so saying, the orb and its procession began a clearly well-choreographed procession towards a large, medieval-looking fortress that hung dramatically just on the edge of clear vision. (Conveniently, this procession passed several large advertisements.)

Comments

[swordofdorn]

"No, sorcerer. You are MINE."

Erhart charges, his bolt pistol already cracking off shots, feeling the foul brush of the ague starting to infest him, his body fights against it, posthuman organs straining to fight the infection as he closes towards Heigan, raining bolts from his ancient mark II bolt pistol.

[electricman]

An old rage awakened in Cole.

But he hid it at the moment.

"Who do you represent?"

The Daligig, they saved him and probably billions of others to help fight the Ohm, to save creation. And this guy had entered the tournament just to get some help for his people.

Why the hell were they fighting each other?

[hit_girl_mindy]

Whatever. So much for asking questions.

She held out her hand.

Re: [Mingling]

[dragonspooker]

Man, all these people in the crew being suspicious. They had good reasons to be, but Lina still thought them a bunch of spoilsports. After all, if the people running this fight were offering the bit of luxury, they might as well enjoy it while they can, right? Being uneasy with all this could wait until there was an actual reason to be uneasy.

Lina can be found taking advantage of this place offering actual food, and is surrounded by stacks of plates on each side.

[meat_mooks]

"Our world is named Ishuary. You have probably never heard of it," he said.

[nize_hat]

Maxim jerked his head slightly--barely enough for that fist to miss his face, and then turned, sinking all those fangs into the gauntlet. It wasn't easy. But his fangs had a good chance of growing back--and there was no way to win if he got his face mashed in with a fist like a freight train.

He shoved the axe handle back at the orc's face. One more attempt to distract his opponent, before he lifted his knee to smash it into the Deathbringer's side, before shaking his head back and forth, ripping his maw away from Saurfang's fist.

Maxim's grin was bloody, and he spat a fang to one side. "Nize try, sveethot, but my kind dun just fight to vin!"

Even if he had to hold back here.

[meat_mooks]

He placed his hand atop hers -- no, that was incorrect. He placed his hand into hers, his fingers passing quite alarmingly into her flesh as if it was liquid. The old man spent a moment fidgeting within her, fingers swimming disturbingly through her wrist, before he released the nugget of power.

Abruptly, all sensation changed. Her hand exploded outwards into a writhing, seething mess of that same biomass that was her opponent, before settling back into a normal hand shape... but it wasn't a normal hand. It had no bones, flesh, sinew, skin. It was simply one big hunk of indeterminate tissue sitting on the end of her hand. Tissue that could be extended to plunge through the ground and burst upwards beneath a foe, if she so chose, but otherwise as functional as her hand had been.

[meat_mooks]

The death knight staggered backwards, rocked by that blow to his side, but never releasing his weapon. In raw fury, he yanked backwards hard on his axe, lifting a foot to slam his plated boot into Maxim's gut as the sudden pull brought him closer.

[electricman]

Ishuary.
He would remember that.

Cole knew what had to happen.

"If I wanted to", he asked the old man, "would there be any way to giving something of mine to him, without losing it completely?"

He did know if The Alchemist had anyone with him here, but if he didin't, he would not go home empty handed.

[thewunderkind]

Well wasn't this bringing back beautiful of Blue Moon and all of its dumb glory. Lash could only recall the last time she'd been in this type of environment when Olaf had used his CO powers to summon a blizzard. Pffft. She could sooo do this.

Whoever the other guy was, he was as good as defeated.

[meat_mooks]

The bolts thudded into the plaguemancer's flesh with wet thumps, but they seemed to slow him down not at all. Heigan was long dead, after all; an animate corpse could not be harmed so easily. He struck at Erhart with his staff as he drew close... which was not the mightiest blow.

[meat_mooks]

The old man couldn't quite glare at Cole -- his eyebrows were too bushy. But the effect was still there. "No. That which I remove is gone. And I will not transfer powers to a loser. That would defeat the entire purpose, as well as spell my own end."

Re: Shoutarou vs. Naoto

[thedetectiveprince]

Take care of where you move. That was her first thought upon arriving at the area. Since the beginning she hadn't been quite a fan of this entire tournament idea - it sounded more like something a resident of the TV world would set up than anything else.

Thankfully, the pair of glasses on her face gave Naoto some protecting from the winds. Her hat, usually on her head, was removed in precaution that she might loose it. The teen expected to be pitted against someone who was a resident of the planet, not one of her own, and was already mentally analyzing the entire stage for maximum usability - the piece of metal that seemed unstable, the times the wind would pick up...anything that might give her a bit of an advantage.

[electricman]

"What do you mean, spell your own end?"

[meat_mooks]

Her foe loomed large ahead of her, a solid mass of what appeared to be armor consisting entirely of outward-facing razor blades. She held a massive sword in one hand, and a wickedly-edged shield in the other.

"This is who I'm fighting?" she sneered to the wind. "An unarmed, unarmored girl? I might as well have napped through this and still claimed the victory!"

[youretooslow]

And lo, did her opponent appear in all his tiny little hedgehog glory and blueness. Sonic was already tapping the ground in his impatience, Caliburn clasped in his hand.

"Sir Sonic, please give this lady proper respect. We may be fighting her, but she is a teammate."

"Yeah, yeah I was getting to that." He grinned at her and gave a salute by pointing to his forehead then outwards. "Yo! You ready for this? Cause I ain't gonna make it easy, ha ha!"

[meat_mooks]

"If you believe the tournament's organizers are kind and sympathetic people, you're a fool," the old man snapped.

[dragonspooker]

"A bridge..." Lina murmurs to herself, looking over the edge. "This'll be interesting, to say the least." She folds her arms, then walks back to the center. Just where was her opponent...?

[thewunderkind]

Lash burst out laughing when she stopped speaking.

"Tee hee hee! Wow that is one BUTT UGLY suit of armor! You look like Flak if I put a bunch of razor blades on him...but a girl! At least I think you're a girl. I can't tell from your large mustache!"

The insulting was deliberate. The first step in getting your foes disoriented was insulting them. If it made them angry, she'd take their rage easier. If they ended up being nothing but big crybabies...then this fight would end up pretty easily. Regardless, she wasn't just laughing, but mentally checking the area around to see what she could use against her, in terms of terrain. She was the specialist in this, after all. And if she did try to charge at her in anger, Lash was more than ready to step away, even if her body seemed to say otherwise.

So please, continue to underestimate her.

[meat_mooks]

Her opponent was right in front of her. Though until he moved, he might have been easy enough to mistake for a statue.

"Welcome, friend! You have the distinct honor of testing out my latest and greatest creation! Now before you change your mind, remember that your participation in this battle is a binding contract!"

Two segments of the bridge swiveled open, and from the gap in-between, a platform rose up, bearing on it the Leviathan Mark II. The mechagnome leaped up onto its top, dove into the hatch... and then the might machine roared to life.

[meat_mooks]

Little did Lash know that the apparent underestimating was deliberate as well, as was the anger Ex feigned at Lash's furious comments. "I'll make you eat those words and watch them spill from your own intestines as they lie cooling in the snow!" she bellowed, advancing forward through the light snowpack that had accumulated down here.

[electricman]

Cole didn't think he would run into hypocritical assholes this soon.

"When did this all start?"

He wanted to get himself involved sooner, rather than later.

He may have just gotten his wish.

Re: Jisho vs. Simon

[punchedoutdestiny]

A small robot clomps through said Graveyard, and periodically stumbles into a tombstone with a small yelp and a muttering of "dammit".

"Man, it's dark and creepy here..."

[nize_hat]

"Hyu bet! Hy'll look forvard to it." Maxim tipped his hat to Hit Girl and waved, before ducking back out the door.

[meat_mooks]

"The tournament's been going on for several years now. Perhaps twenty? Once every two years or so."