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

[meat_mooks]

Seeing his clear advantage, the Alchemist hurled another vial at the train car just above where Cole had gone over -- this one simply raw explosive potential, designed to rip the car apart and force Cole to fall to the wayside. The vial hit just as Cole launched a blast of electricity off -- which the Alchemist, utterly unprepared for, took straight to the chest.

[electricman]

And BOOM! Cole got thrown back by the explosion off the train and onto the ground.

Everything went black for a second, and then he woke up to see the car that guy was on rapidly pulling away.

Thinking quickly, Cole summoned electricity to his arm and threw a Lightning Tether.

Or at least tried to.

He didn't feel a pull or a connection or anything leaving his arm. So he tried again. Nothing. A third time. Nothing.

And for a moment, Cole was blank. "What the hell happened to my powers?", he thought.

Then he snapped back. "Win first, questions later. Time for Plan B.", he thought.

The Alchemist will probably see him running towards the tracks, thinking that he has won. Then he'll probably see Cole, jumping onto one of the rails, and GRINDING quickly toward the train.

You may have knocked him off, but the battle's only begun buddy.

[meat_mooks]

"...Now that hardly seems fair," the Alchemist said. Reaching into his coat, he produced a pair of flasks, these each smoking openly. Then he set off at a run down the train cars to reach the end of the train... though it quickly became obvious that running wasn't his strong point.

[electricman]

"Closer...closer...NOW!" He jumped at the end of the car and grabbed on to the ledge, pulling himself to the top of the car.

Cole took a moment to focus himself, and then started running for the guy.

Parkour + dealing with thugs and conduits = great shape, and Cole catching up with you.

[meat_mooks]

Speaking dark curses under his breath, the Alchemist swiftly adapted his plans. He hurled one of those ominous flasks to the train car between himself and Cole. Rather than shattering, though, it clattered to an upright position as if weighted. The shock of the landing triggered some sort of reaction within it, and abruptly it belched forth a massive cloud of noxious, roiling green-yellow vapors. In the wind from the train's motion, these rolled back along the car towards Cole.

[electricman]

Cole had no idea what those vapors were meant to do (OOC: neither do I), but as precaution summoned a polarity wall to his left hand in front of him and charged in.

Unless the fumes have any effects, Cole's closing in.

[meat_mooks]

How would he know till he charged in? As it happened, they were noxious to the point of being corrosive -- but the polarity wall shredded cut through them, stripping spare ions from the fumes to neutralize them. Cole might find himself coughing a bit, but certainly not debilitated or obstructed the way the Alchemist had intended.

Seeing his barrier so expediently neutralized, the Alchemist hurriedly tossed down his other flask. This one burst open immediately, its contents expanding outwards into an ooze creature describing about a two-foot hemisphere, which surged towards Cole with slavering jaws open.

OOC: Real fight awesome!!

[electricman]

Cole dropped his wall as he charged out of the clouds, only to see that black ooze creature charging at him.

Good news, thing was only two feet tall. Better news, Cole grabbed the Amp off his back (OOC: how, hammerspace, kept his backpack?), and used his momentum to jump onto it, jump off it, and slammed the Amp onto its back, hopefully taking it out of commission.

[meat_mooks]

Take it out of commission? In a sense. Specifically, in the sense that the thing exploded violently into a burst of acid that erupted in all directions. Judging his moment carefully, the Alchemist popped another of his exploding vials out of his sleeve, and hurled it at Cole.

[electricman]

"Damnit!".

That probably would've critically wounded a normal person, but considering Cole had to deal with getting hit by bullets, rockets, grenades, high velocity punches, cars getting thrown at him, and getting caught in the epicenter of blasts, he could handle it.

That said, MAN did that sting like a bitch.

And then Cole got hit by another exploding vial. It pushed him back a bit, but otherwise...

"ALRIGHT! THAT IS IT!" Guess who you just pissed off, and guess who's now summoning a massive Lightning Storm to blast you and the car you're on. (OOC: It's the version from the first game because a. Cole's powers have been reset to the end of the first game and b. I haven't played the second one and haven't seen it in action.)

[meat_mooks]

Well. The Alchemist had certainly not foreseen that. If he hadn't been wearing that mask, his expression would have been satisfyingly shocked.

The massive blast from above hammered down into the train cars, electrifying the entire vehicle for a brief, glorious moment. When the bolt faded, the Alchemist had falled to his knees in the midst of the molten slag that had been the train roof.

He held up one hand, though it trembled as he drew out a flask from his sleeve.

[electricman]

As soon as the storm had abated, Cole rushed right over to where his opponent had been.

He saw the guy on his knees, desperately trying to hold out his hand to... what? Attack? Call for help?

Maybe Cole had unleashed a bit of overkill.

So, he closed in on the guy intending to just Arc Restraint the guy and end the fight now.

(OOC: Should he succeed?)

[meat_mooks]

The Alchemist saw Cole approach, and hurriedly lifted the flask to his lips. No sooner did he drink it than the burns on his body faded, replaced with new pink flesh.

He had thought if he just regained his strength, he could use a vial to insulate himself from further attacks. Indeed, even as Cole reached him he had drawn out a brilliant yellow potion from his coat. But he hadn't expected Cole to seize him, nor to nail his wrists and legs to the ground with electricity.

He struggled against the restraints with all his strength, but quickly realized what was already obvious: he couldn't escape.

OOC: Does that mean I win?

[electricman]

Well, at least the guy looked a bit better.

But it looked like the battle was over.

"Uhh...", how do you apologize to someone you brought a massive lightning bolt down on?

"Nice job. Didn't like the fact you threw acid at me. Or that you tried to blow me up. But... you did good."

"Hope you feel better."

Yeah, it was a tournament. And yeah, they were probably supposed to go all out. But still...

"No hard feelings?" As a gesture of peace.

[meat_mooks]

Before the Alchemist could properly answer, the roofs on the train cars to either side popped open, and a volley of fireworks burst upwards to celebrate Cole's victory.

His opponent regarded this impassively, then coughed a little before saying, "It was a good fight. Your power is impressive."

(OOC: Yays! BTW, what show does your character come from?)

[electricman]

"Thanks."
Huh, he won. He was pretty sure this would be minor in the long run, but it felt good to be congratulated.

...But what the heck had happened to his powers?

This one was an original character!

[meat_mooks]

As swiftly as they had been brought there, they vanished -- reappearing in a small, narrow room, each of them on a narrow bed. The Arc Restraint had vanished from around the Alchemist's limbs, and he sat up.

An old man, hideously blackened and burned, leaned heavily on a staff as he faced Cole. "Choose your spoils," he said. At this, the Alchemist bowed his head somberly.

[electricman]

Well, that would take a bit getting used to. He noticed the Alchemist's bow, what was up with him?

"You ok?"

He'd get to the spoils soon.

[meat_mooks]

The Alchemist looked back up. "I knew the price of entry, and am prepared to pay it. I only wish I had not underestimated my strength."

[electricman]

"Wait, what price?"

He knew the crew had put up some supplies as part of the wager for this thing, but what exactly about this guy?

[meat_mooks]

The old man snorted. "Not paying attention, are we? You won. You may choose one of his items, powers, or abilities to claim as the spoils of victory."

[electricman]

Cole's eyes widened at this. Anyone could lose their power?

"What made you enter this?"

Because Cole suddenly felt like this was about to take a turn for the worst.

[meat_mooks]

"The same war that brought you here, I'm sure," the Alchemist said. "We lost many... too many of our aethervessels to the enemy. We haven't the resources to build more. If we had won..."

But he sadly shook his head. "Well, I did not."

[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?

[meat_mooks]

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