Golden Gate Empire: Dreams of Grandeur [IC | PG-16]

[Hälō]

Lace XIII

 

"I dunno. Do you?" 

 

"Well, you wouldn't really know until you try it yourself, right?" 

 

The sounds of two familiar voices caused Lace to suddenly rip her gaze from the ferris wheel. Met with two of the other contestants at either flank, Lace silently cursed her tendency to be lost in her own thoughts. How long had they been watching her? 

 

There was a moment of silence as Lace analyzed the theirs forms like she had been trained to do. Though girl with blue hair appeared normal for the most part, something definitely set her aside from the rest of the humans that glided past them. "She's not breathing..." Lace silently confirmed this herself. However that was the only indication that something was off. "And not a single ounce of killer intent." Having been exposed to countless people and creatures that were intent on destroying her, Lace and developed a talent for judging the intents of other entities.

 

"I'm Angelica by the way. Why don't we take a ride on this together, Lace?" Her voice was warm and genuine, causing Lace's expression to soften slightly. The tug of her childhood memories manifested as a subtle wave of excitement at the prospect of actually getting on the ferris wheel, and though Lace knew that she may be fighting Angelica in the near future, she saw no harm in getting on the ride with with her.

 

"God damn it! Why the hell does everyone care about this place all of a sudden?! It's just a dumb theme pa-...! Alright, fine. For your information, I was hoping to have some privacy so I could reflect on s*** in peace. But apparently I'm gonna have to give that a miss. The name's Kai, by the way." Kai, also seemed frighteningly normal. Though her personality was quite bizarre, something about it was almost charming.  

 

"I've an idea; let's race to that roller-coaster all the way over there, first one there gets to decide who rides on what."

 

"Wait, that's not something you can decide-"

 

"Aaaaannnnnnnnnnnd go!"

 

Silently listening to Kai and Angelica's banter, Lace watched with mild amusement as Kai sprouted wings of energy before suddenly bolting off towards one of the park's massive roller coasters. Though her competitive genes urged her to join Kai in the race, XIII managed halt herself from closing the distance with her monstrous speed. It was unwise to give away her skills... 

 

"I wonder if she did that intentionally..." Lace pondered the young girl's motives in her head.

 

Stifling a rare laugh, she cuffed her hands around her mouth and called out to Kai before she managed to leave earshot. "We'll be heading to the ferris wheel! I'm sure you'll have no problem getting up there with those..." 

 

"You know, there are a lot of odd people in this tournament. As much as at times they dumbfounded me with their eccentricities or unpromising appearance, this would still be pretty fun, wouldn't it? I'll still be going to the ferris wheel. If you want to ride it with me, be my guest."

 

Lace turned to see Angelica staring up at the sky. She knew the look the other girl had in her eyes all too well. It was suddenly apparent that the two might be more similar than Lace thought. Though never once in any of her lives did XIII remember having a smile on her face when she had that look...

 

"Yea," Lace nodded in response before following Angelica towards the ferris wheel. "I suppose this would be fun, huh?"  She said whilst the two walked side by side. She would be sure to save a spot of Kai, should she decide to join them.

 

 

"And following them, Bethany Cunningham and Lace XIII will be having a heated ladies bout in the Sahill Cathedral," 

 

"So it's you then?" Lace mumbled to the picture of Bethany as she gently flipped through the information in the folder that had been slid under her door. After her night with Kai and Angelica, Lace was a little relieved that she didn't have to face off against either one of them just yet. Though a small part of her wanted to fight Angelica, it wasn't in the same way that she wanted to meet Jack. There was something about the girl that... bothered Lace, and she wanted understand her more before testing herself against her.

 

"Bethany Cunningham..." Lace let her opponent's name roll off her tongue as she skillfully twirled Beowulf in her hand whilst moving towards the door. It was sort of ironic that she'd now be pitted against the same girl she had stepped in for yesterday, but that didn't mean anything right now. This was business. "Time to see if you can fight as well as you can take a joke." She steeled her gaze before slamming Beowulf into it's scabbard and stepping into the hallway. "Next stop, Sahill Cathedral."

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

 

Bethany groaned and swung her body over in order to smack the snooze button on her alarm. As her hand passed through empty air she remembered several things.

One. She wasn't in her home.

Two. Her alarm was not in the usual location.

Three. She had just put her weight on a patch of open air with no where to land.

 

Adding these three factors together resulted in Bethany falling off the bed and going face-first into the floor. Grumbling she took a moment to adjust and get into a more reasonable sitting position. Rubbing the now red spot on her cheek she scolded herself. "Good work Bethany. Real smooth. Leave it to you to be the first contestant to lose to the floor instead of their opponent."

Glancing at the clock she realized that she had set the alarm for 5 AM. She was far too used to having to wake up that early to get food prepared for the kids and completely forgot to set it a bit later.

Add to it that she had spent longer than expected with two rather unusual people the other night...and Bethany was quite groggy.

 

Deciding that a shower would be a good idea she went into the bathroom and cranked on the heat to high. Stepping out for a moment to take in the room in the morning she felt a bit guilty. It was so lavish. Right now, at this very moment, while she was waking up to this, so many kids were.... "But I'm doing it for them? Does that make it right? Should I have tried to get some of them here too somehow? But I doubt I'd be able to bring them all...Ugh too early for this." She turned around and went to the shower. She discarded her clothing, less than she had last night but more than most slept in, and stepped into the steaming shower.

The hot water hit against her cold skin, causing quite the contrast, and Bethany relaxed as she felt one of the rare bits of warmth she was able to get. Usually she had to take cold showers so this was...quite something.

She only realized that she had been in the shower too long when she heard her alarm still going off and remembered "Crackers I didn't turn it off."

Bethany hopped out of the shower, hissing as cold crept back in instantaneously. She went to the alarm and slammed her hand down on it in her haste to shut it off.

 

"God it's good I'm alone in here I must look ridiculous." She glanced down at herself and shook her head. Toweling off and throwing on her clothing she checked the time again. 6 AM. So now what?

 

She settled for randomly flipping through TV channels while she waited. There was coffee to be had and some leftover pizza she had brought back from their "magical adventure of shoving greasy food in the old man's mouth". Seriously the way the guy had looked at the food made Bethany wonder if he'd ever eaten before. So she brought it upon herself to get him to try as much as possible.

She had leftovers because, despite the hotel staff's insistence that it wasn't necessary, Bethany refused to waste any food.
As she finished off the pizza and her third cup of coffee "Maybe I should slow down...but I don't want to fall asleep in the middle of a match" the TV switched itself to a sort of news channel.

 

Pausing mid-bite, Bethany put her focus on what was on the screen. Most of it didn't really matter to her except...

"And following them, Bethany Cunningham and Lace XIII will be having a heated ladies bout in the Sahill Cathedral,"

Lace...what kind of last name was that? Was she some kind of agent? Like James Bond? 007? Great. In any case she was somewhat relieved. She didn't have to fight the kids, nor the pair she had hung out with, that would have been beyond awkward. But still, she wasn't exactly thrilled to fight someone who had been kind to her. But, maybe that was good? She might not have to worry about a fight to the death.

 

Lace...she had a sword, Bethany remembered. She glanced over at the gloves she had yet to put on. Hopefully they could withstand a couple blows from that. If she was able to catch the girl off guard by grabbing the sword even once she might be able to pull this off.

 

With a groan, Bethany stood and stretched. She pulled the gloves on and put on her boots. Guess it was time. Bethany made her way to the roof. She glanced at the information of her arena wistfully. "What a creepy place." She muttered. At the very least it looked like she might be able to get away without using her magic against Lace. With such an arena, it might be best to try and trap her and force a surrender using the arena itself. She'd have to be careful, though, not to put the other girl in a position to be killed by these cultists and....freaking zombies. Like what in the world?

 

She was having her doubts about this host man. There had been some pretty weird places she fought in earlier but now this? Zombies? Some kind of dark magic stuff? How was this place even existing in this age let alone being used by someone for their own devices? No, Bethany, no. It wasn't important. Go in. Get money. Leave. That's all. She cracked her knuckles and continued to the roof.

[Admiral_Stalfos19]

 

That previous night, Kai looked behind herself as she flew, only see that the one called Lace had just stopped herself from committing to the race, and that Ms. Killjoy Dollface didn't even bother to lift a foot. So much for seeing how fast they could run. And then Kai realized something very wrong with her plan.

 

'Wait...Did I just reveal the fact that I could fly?' seeing the two go back to whatever conversation they had prior to her noticing them there, Kai pondered her blundering momentarily, before realizing just how terrible a mistake she made, 'I think I just revealed the fact that I could fly. Rip me.'

 

Her plan backfired, Kai left the both of them there and went on ahead to the roller-coaster that she'd wanted to race to.

 

...

 

The next morning, Kai got out of bed, although she was still roaming around in her underwear. After all, it was only her that was in the room, and one would think not to barge in when there was a "Do Not Disturb" sign present. In any case, Kai flicked on the TV.

 

"Good morning Golden Gate Residents, and welcome to the Golden Gate News Morning Hour," came a sound from the TV, which seemed to be broadcasting the typical news show, "I'm your host Victor Skye, and with me as always is my co-host Yasmine Janine."

"Thank you, Victor, and good morning residents," the co-host took over from the host, "Today, as you all know, is the first day of a lengthy series of battles. Today is day one of the Secret Cup finals. And our contestants look promising."

"And this morning, we've already received the official match-ups for each contestant, along with the..."

 

"funk!!" having completely forgotten about who'd exactly be matched up with who, Kai shot upright and looked any package that might've been slipped underneath the door while she'd been sleeping. Thankfully, a manila folder could be found in the passageway; so Kai immediately bolted for it and rushed back to her seat on the bed. She'd have to look at the contents at a later time, but for now...

 

"And now, your official match-ups for the day," as she thought, the show seemed to give a better run of the fights to come than the contents of the folder would.

"And we've got quite a few interesting fights coming. From the top down, it looks like Kai Alvarado and Rowal Torai will be taking each other on in 'the Fallen Church of Jubilee'," Kai breathed a momentary sigh of relief. At least it wasn't Lace or Angelica. Kai kept listening regardless

"And following them, Bethany Cunningham and Lace XIII will be having a heated ladies bout in the Sahill Cathedral,"

"Up next, Louis Ebon will be dueling Mango. Their selected arena looks to be the Cursed Battleground of the Xiang War. In the mountains of Japan. Interesting!"

"And finally, T-EN4 Seraph, or Angelica, will be facing Jack. Another 'ladies' match. This battle will take place in the A-W Underground Network."

 

"T-EN four?" Kai repeated in confusion, 'That sounds more like... never mind, I better focus on how to beat down that geezer first. Then I'll worry about the others,'

 

With that, Kai flicked the TV back off and looked through the contents of the manila folder that she had in hand. Turns out there was quite a bit of information to be had on this... Fallen Church of Jubilee. Unfortunately it didn't give Kai a specific piece of info that she was after.

 

"...no traps?! Seriously?!" Kai muttered aloud, "It's in funking Mexico! You'd think the whole thing would be a trap just waiting to cave in on itself! Ugh, whatever!"

 

Throwing the contents to one side, Kai rushed to prepare herself for the day ahead. She started by having a quick shower and getting dressed, as one did. Then she immediately went for the refrigerator that was there and grabbing one of the emptier 10-gallon bottles of the milk that she'd extracted from her mother prior to entering. She filled two water bottles with this milk and holstered them on each hip, before skulling the rest of it. There wasn't much left by the time she'd finished filling up both bottles anyway, and she could potentially use that burst of speed in order to get to the rooftops in time. Finally, she slapped on a load-bearing vest, loaded it up with as many shotgun shells as could fit on it, reloaded the shotgun itself so it was at full capacity and slung it over her shoulder, before opening her window, sprouting her wings so she wouldn't fall, closing it from the other side and soaring up to the rooftops.

 

...

 

Even then, Kai could see that she was the last to arrive. Her opponent, Rawal, would already be there with... whatever that was supposed to be, beside him as he waited for the helicopter to arrive to pick both him and Kai up. The nephilim had also noticed the presence of Angelica, who she immediately recognized from the park the night before. There was also a fourth person wearing what looked to be a power suit of sorts. Kai presumed that this was Angelica's opponent, but could only deduce such though that wonderful process called elimination... a feat made easier since Kai was given a photo of Rawal for reference.

 

"Hey, hey, you must be Jack, right?" Kai whispered to the... woman, she guessed was in the power suit, before looking over to Angelica and back to her, "Kick her ass for me,"

 

Kai left the two of them and scurried over towards who she was supposed to be fighting against, waiting for the helicopter to arrive so it could drop the two off at their respective arena and they could fight already. However, since she would be standing a bit close to that thing, Kai decided she'd best gauge if it was capable of probing into her mind. She'd dealt with mind readers before, and although they pissed her off on a personal level, she triumphed over them nonetheless.

 

'Hmm... I wonder what this guy's favorite color is,' Kai randomly thought, 'Maybe it's pink. Or purple. Ooh, I know! Beige! Geezers love beige!'

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

The ferris wheel ride was nice. Angelica wasn't able to fully gauge Lace's enjoyment to it, but perhaps she too was having fun. Angelica would've asked her to try out the other rides even just so she wasn't as stiff as she looked now, but at the last moment, she decided not to, and thus she withdrew to explore the available facilities thanks to the access given to her. It was a long night, and she made sure to try out to visit anywhere she could in the night just so she could figure out something better to do the next days.

 

Assuming she would win in her next match tho, but hey, she's sure that it'd be a piece of cake.

 

"And finally, T-EN4 Seraph, or Angelica, will be facing Jack.  Another 'ladies' match.  This battle will take place in the A-W Underground Network."

 

Listening to her codename on the broadcast made her frown. Perhaps it's a mistake in filling that in on her application, since it both revealed her nature and it's so unpleasant to hear. But Angelica wasn't a dishonest person. She's not the type to keep secrets that way. And well...if her sister tuned in to this broadcast, having her codename mentioned would hopefully make Angela sure that she really was her sister. Ah, if only fixing their bond could be easier...

 

Jack was the cyan-haired masked girl from yesterday if her memory served her well. She didn't look like a magic user, and the mask gave Angelica the impression that she's going to mainly rely on tech and gadgets to defeat her. The arena made Angelica smile though. She had been given a brief summary of each arena, and the Underground Network was something that was practically made for her. But perhaps...Angelica was concerned on the possibility of Jack somehow being able to utilize it well too. The match ups so far didn't feel like it was fully randomized...although, in a way she was concerned on just how the organizers ever gotten ahold of these esoteric, far-off arenas for the tournament's purpose. It's been bugging her for a bit.

 

But that's not important.

 

---

[Dad]

"Houston . . . "

 

The helicopters were arriving en masse.  The roof top of the Golden Gate Hotel's East and West each had four helipads, expanding in an octagon shape of ovals supported by the hotel beneath them.  This excluded the North Tower, which only had a single helipad in its center.  The contestants looked back to one another as they boarded, wondering what lie in wait for them.  With the exception of Louis and Mango, the contestants would remain in their helicopters until they had reached their respective landing zones.  Mango and Louis, however, had to be escorted to two different private jets, which would fly them the rest of the way to their arena in Japan.  

 

Each contestant would be dropped on complete opposite sides of their arenas, at the maximum possible distance from which they could be apart from one another.  This meant that contestants would be divided, and be forced to navigate the arena and its obstacles--should their be any--before they were to do combat.  

 

Helicopters of course took different flight paths, resulting in delayed landing times of a maximum of twenty minutes between contestants.  For Louis and Mango, they would be boarding helicopters once more upon arriving in Japan.  After which time, they would be flown into the mountainside, and cross the Xiang Battlefield.  

 

", . . we have a problem."

 

 

Kai Alvarado v.s. Rowal Torai.

 

 

Bethany Cunningham v.s. Lace XIII

 

 

Louis Ebon v.s. Mango

 

 

T-EN4 Seraph Angelica v.s. "Jack"

 

Round one had begun.

[Tesability Black]

~Rawal's POV~

Even with the strange straps designed to keep him from falling out during flight, he was not paying any attention what so ever to his would-be opponent and what she was possibly doing. In fact, before that strange vessel landed upon his homeworld, Rawal had never taken to the skies before.

While he didn't visibly change in how he was acting until he was dropped off after his opposition, a wave of calming finally washed over him from an outside source, from the Eyebeast flying after the helicopter...

~~~

~Talis-Eye's POV~

This is fast, the creation thought to themselves as they flew after the aerial machination, unable to resist acknowedging the creativity needed to create what the Shapers never managed. The Shapers never managed to take to the skies, but these humans have without any inkling of magic to it.

Hmm... I wonder what this guy's favorite color is, the false Beholder suddenly heard in their head, lips pursing together under the guise of invisibility. Maybe it's pink. Or purple. Ooh, I know! Beige! Geezers love beige!

That girl's doing this on purpose, they realized after a cursory sweep of Kai's mind, taking advantage of the purposeful projections to glance at the intention without accidentally dealing with the more...painful parts of the partial angel's mind. Wait, what is an angel?

A muted groan of aggravation bubbling from the circular beast while taking advantage of the fact that it would remain unheard due to distance, Talis-Eye sent to Rawal a flood of calming so that they would not continue hearing the undercurrent of panic that their creator was dealing with. Done so much and yet this is what sends him into a panic. Tch.

~Rawal's POV~

As soon as Rawal left the helicopter, eager to get his feet back on the firm ground once more, the Shaper found himself surrounded by the cloak of invisibility, which he knew was being provided by Talis-Eye. Relieved that he would not be seen by the opposition for a while, he decided to focus on something other than the hunt for the opponent.

Lamenting the long-ago loss of architecture that reminded him of home to nature. "If this place had been upheld, it would have been a worthy place to reside should I lose this tournament...maybe even train a new generation of Shapers and disallow the loss of the art to time." Shaking his head, he rose it for a moment, looking out for the opponent that was likely to hunt him out. Thinking for a moment, his hands began to glow with a greenish light as what appeared to be a growing embryo between them as he held the in front of him. It started as one embryo but soon split into two before he slowly lowered them onto the ground.

The two embryos broke, revealing faded-blue worm-like creatures with thickened hides that were broken into segments to allow for movement, a pair of Plated Artila. Without a word from Rawal, they immediately buried underground, ready to strike at a moment's notice.

It was far easier for him to allow the prey to come to him, let them reveal what they will about themselves and pounce upon that information.

"Come to me, little fly on the wall..."

[VCR_CAT]

Jack

 

Jack wasn't very successful in spotting her opponent before stepping on the helicopter; there were already quite a few other people on the rooftop, as well as some filming crew documenting their arrival. Of course, it seemed that one of the other contestants recognized Jack first.

 

"Hey, hey, you must be Jack, right?" 

 

Jack turned to face who was whispering at her. She couldn't recognize the girl for the life of her, but didn't quite care.

 

"Yeah, I am," Jack responded, her voice much more heavily and obviously filtered and distorted through her helmet's speakers.
 

 "Kick her ass for me," the girl added in. Jack paused while boarding the helicopter and let out a short laugh.

 

"Oh don't worry about that," Jack fired back, taking another step up onto the helicopter. "I'm going to ruin her."

 

The helicopter's doors slid closed as Jack took a seat and strapped in; the vehicle lifting off the ground and flying off towards their next destination.

 

Jack spent the duration of her trip mulling over the information on the A-W underground network, doing her best to form a map in her suit's system based on the pictures provided; however there was only so much information she could glean from these.

 

I can't make enough arrows to take over the entire station, Jack thought as she flipped through different pages of the report. Not that I'd be able to control that much technology at once anyways. Most of the defenses used are stationary or more mostly stationary traps; nothing that roves the station for me to take advantage of, so I'll need to take control of different tech as I see them. My priorities should be the missiles and the control room. The control room is ideal, but those missiles... if they have enough guidance tech built in, then I should be good to go.

 

Jack hadn't been paying much attention to where the helicopter was going outside, but she felt enough pops of pressure in her ears to know where they might be going. The helicopter touched down on the exterior of the installation, giving Jack enough time to step out and take a look around. The cavern she was in was vast; enough so that its ceiling may as well have been the sky. If Jack didn't know any better, she also would've sworn that the large station covered in metal structures was some futuristic city before she guessed that this was a doomsday device waiting to happen.

 

Regardless, her opponent was going to be somewhere out there. Jack only spent so much time walking towards the structures, before she aimed her arm at a high wall and three tethers shot out from her forearm; sticking themselves to the station's wall. Jack's body flew from the ground, and very soon she was leaning against the wall with her feet, scanning the horizon.

 

Hack, Slash, Jack let the command broadcast from her suit to her two robots, who zipped out and floated in front of Jack. Patrol this place; keep an eye out for my opponent or any traps, and stay out of sight. The robots projected little, red, transparent arms in front of them that performed salute gestures before disappearing and flying out. Now, where are those missiles...

[Mr. Hyde]

 

When Louis made it to the roof, he noticed that his ride wasn't like the others.  Instead, he would be taking a jet to his locale.  

 

"Japan is pretty far away huh?  Guess it would take to long to get there by helicopter huh?"  He sighed as he boarded the plane and finding a comfortable seat.  He sat in a thinking position, running scenarios in his head.  This fight wouldn't take long...if half of the scenarios that played out were to take effect.  Could that thing even be killed if it's head was severed from it's body?  Probably not...it looked to be able to regenerate...or at least that's what he could assume from a toxic sludge monster.  It could probably just put herself back together, encompassed by squishy sounds.  Louis shivered.  

 

In the chair opposite Louis, Basabth sat with his legs extended, and his back slumping into the bottom of the chair.  Every now and again he looked out the window, or peaked at the pilot.  Louis could tell, Basabth was excited.  Whether it was because they were flying, or wanting to kill something so odd, Louis wasn't sure.  

 

"Hey!  Hey!  Louis!  You think that place is gonna be covered in the shadows or what?!  I'm so excited."  

 

Louis smiled.  So that's what he was excited about.  

 

"I imagine...a defiled battleground?  That place must be overrun with places for us to have fun...no doubt."  The shadow of war must've still lingered there as well.  

 

When they touched down on their battlefield, it was a terribly dreary sight.  Louis and Basabth both breathed harmoniously.  

 

"It's Beautiful..." They said in unison.  The ground was moist, and the air was filled with dread.  Soon it would be filled with even more.  A glint could be seen in Basabth's eye, as he secluded himself back into Louis' shadow.  There was no sense of direction about this place...so Louis would do the thing he was best at.  Find a shadow, and lie in wait.  

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"I wonder...would I be able to treat this as a vacation?"

 

Dusting herself a little bit after she landed on her spot on the arena, the first thing on Angelica's mind afterwards was to remove any feelings of pressures from her shoulders. She disliked going in this tournament with the thought that she had to win no matter what. It's not a matter of her winning anyway, but more importantly, for Angelica, she believed that she would win. A completely baseless claim for the time being, but by believing on that baseless claim as the future ahead of her, she created that possibility that her victory was guaranteed, and the only thing she would do now would be to take steps in ensuring it. That way, she would only fill the blanks, connecting the dots to reach an already pre-determined destination. And all of this without putting any pressure from the thought of how she had to win to continue to the next round. Or to even stay alive.

 

With that winning image already made with her flawless and foolproof train of logic, Angelica proceeded to actually think of a plan. She considered of just setting a base of operation and draining the facility completely out of energy could work, but something like this would operate on some sort of inexhaustible power source - even her maximum draining output perhaps would not be enough to outpace the energy production. The next thought was disabling the control system. She was still in the dark about Jack's capabilities, but any chance that she might be capable of utilizing anything from this network should be eliminated. Control room would be the easiest way to deal with that possibility, and it had the bonus of also dealing with the facility's own security system. The roads were quite forked and confusing.

 

No, that wouldn't do.

 

Several wires detached themselves from her body, and connecting itself with the running circuitry around her. She aimed her palm to face at the walls before her, and Angelica did her best attempt to simulate someone taking a deep breath. Energy built up on the open palm in seconds, and almost like a flash, a grand beam of energy powered by the network's own circuit flared from the focal point of her palm, blazing through the walls she was aiming for. The attack heated her body up slightly, and as she was stabilizing herself, she took two of her rainbow tassels from her body, and ordered them to merge with some of the metals and circuits around her to form two crude dog-like creatures that went off towards different directions as scouts while she was recovering.

 

It's a bit crude as a method, but hey, as long as it worked. And if this took the attention of Jack or whoever lurked inside of this network, then it's even better.

 

---

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

This is incredible. Bethany had never flown before. Heck she's never been this close to a helicopter before.

This is incredible. She's experiencing something she never thought would be possible in a million years.

This is incredible. She's about to fight some mystery super-strong person in a place right out of a fantasy novel.

This is...Halloween.

 

"Gosh, spooky much?" Bethany said to the pilot as they landed. She waved him goodbye and hopped out of the helicopter to make her way to the cathedral. She had been deposited right at the front door and she planned on going in as soon as possible. Getting caught in the open was the last thing she wanted to do. If she were to win this fight she was going to have to get crafty.

 

Upon entering the building she couldn't help but notice how much more spooky it looked on the inside. It seemed to be crumbling, but, also had a feeling of power. Bethany had experienced such a thing before, rarely, and had come to realize that it was her own magic reacting to another's.

This place was magical. But it sure was no Disney Land. "God this 'possessed' guy really needs to fire his interior decorator." She said, wincing at how loud her voice felt to her in this dismal place.

Her words, or perhaps her entrance, seemed to stir something up and she noticed a small figure swooping down on her from the ceiling. She batted at it with the back of her hand and made contact, feeling the small, but solid, something against her hand.

 

She looked over, preparing for a fight, to see what it was and noticed...a bat. With a sigh and a chuckle Bethany up-righted herself and got ready to walk away.

But then the bat regained its composure and took off again, going straight for her. With a, mostly reactionary, swing Bethany punched the bat directly to its face and it squeaked and fell to the ground, unconscious. "Oh, good show, Bethany. Knocking the living daylights out of a bat. I'm sure everyone is super impressed." She said, shaking her head.

 

Looking back at the room around her she noticed a doorway that led to the left. Figuring she had to start somewhere Bethany headed that way. She knew there were all kinds of traps here. And knew that she should use them if she wanted to win. But she didn't particularly feel like drop-kicking some girl down stairs or letting cultists do their...cultist-y thing to her. So she thought her best bet would be the chandeliers. It seemed there weren't any in the entrance room, at least, so she'd have to go farther. "Now if I were a chandelier in a spooky mansion, where would I hide..."

[Admiral_Stalfos19]

 
"Oh don't worry about that, I'm going to ruin her," ...well, at least Jack was confident with her match-up; unlike Kai, who quite literally had no reason to hold such confidence. After all, this guy was a mind reader. Though it would be more correct to say that once of those creatures Rawal always had on deck was the mind reader. That meant staying far back as possible should she ever need to think of a play, so that she'd be out of range, which in turn arose another problem; the SPAS-12 Shotgun that she had on and was only truly effect the closer she got to an enemy that she needed to open fire on, and that would leave her open for her mind to be read.

 

For the first time in her tournament career, Kai's confidence was at an all-time low.

 

Kai said nothing through the whole ride to the arena where she and Rawal were to be fighting. And she said nothing once she got off the helicopter either. She only had one thing in mind as the battle finally began; survival. And then she had to think of everything else as well.

 

'OK, remember the golden rule this half-brother said dealing with mind readers; think of everything except what you're doing and where you are at that point of time,' Kai kept a mental reminder, while she was far enough away from Rawal, 'And he meant everything except those two things. Cause otherwise that's how you lose...'

 

With that, she inched further into the heart of the battlefield, always watching her six and pressing herself against all the walls she could find. Walls were her friends right now; they'd be able to prevent the enemy from seeing her until they turned the corner, in which case she'd be able to make a decisive blow and scamper again so she could make the next surprise shot. That was the plan. After a minute or two of continuous wall hugging, Kai finally managed to lay eyes on... a couple of holes that would lead underground. Kai ducked around the corner again, and immediately mouthed what the funk.

 

That changed everything. The fact that he could summon monsters on a whim had immediately made Rawal more of a threat than he already was, as that meant he could potentially camp until he'd amassed a large enough army to completely overthrow Kai, and the longer she waited, the more time he'd have to amass said army. This was bad. With no time to formulate a decent plan, Kai felt as though she had no choice but to wing it, and hope that it would ultimately pay off. So, as she picked up a fallen piece of brick that she just happened to find along the way towards Rawal, that's exactly what she did.

 

"Alright, let's try this, then" with that, Kai passed through the gap and lobbed the brick down one of the holes, before soaring off to the corner of the wall on the other side. She'd have to see what would happen from there... and where exactly that brick would end up as well for that matter.

[VCR_CAT]

Jack

 

Jack had spent quite a bit of time working at getting herself to the proper high ground, and get as much of a look of the installation as she can. Firing out another set of tethers and swinging from building to building, Jack eventually found herself on one of the higher rooftops. Both Hack and Slash had flown off to search around the facility, but neither had found anything of interest yet. Jack reached to her back, just above her waist where her bow had been folded up and stored, powering up the weapon as it unfolded and the bowstring stretch to fit its full form. Jack removed a scope from one of her utility kits and installed it to the bow itself, with not too long before an extra screen pinged up on her Heads-Up Display showing the scope's zoomed, point of view.

 

That was when she received a ping, and an additional screen popped up displaying Hack's view. Jack glanced over and saw one of the alleys between the buildings and mechanical dog-like creature running through the facility. A second ping and Slash's display popped up, showing a similar creature but on a different part of the facility. Jack quickly flitted through the arena's details once more and found nothing that mentioned robotic dogs.

 

"Interesting," Jack muttered, moving over to another side of the rooftop and aiming her bow. After scanning the alleys, she spotted one of those dog-lock creatures moving about. It wasn't large, and the tech involved didn't look particularly complex. A single arrow should do it. Jack reached her hand down to her arrow forged and removed from it a dull, dark-gray shaft with sharp point. A bow made the most sense for this kind of weapon. It was ranged, and having no additional propellants meant the arrows could be made of one thing: the nano machines she intended.

 

Knocking the bow, Jack took aim. Closing Hack and Slash's displays as they continued to search, she paid attention to her scope's cam, locking on the dog creature. Her suit took a moment, calculating the lack of wind with the target's distance, and soon an indicator showed up, displaying where she needed to aim to land the shot as well as her arrow's trajectory. "Thank you for the gift," Jack muttered, loosing the arrow as it fired towards one of the dog-like creatures.

[Dova]

---

Several different screens flickered on a wall-mounted monitor, illuminating the otherwise dark room. Normally only the occasional change of perspective betrayed that they were feeds rather than still images, but today there was movement. A figure in an angled red suit had been nimbly leaping from building via the aid of some tethers, a seemingly female humanoid with a halo present above their head, and 2 red drones that appeared to be surveying the rest of the Network.

His Network.

Watching the armored figure climb higher and higher, the Administrator was suddenly distracted by a flashing red light on the top right corner of the monitor. A flick of a palm, and then the screen which had just been watching the second humanoid changed angles. His still slightly raised hand clenched as he watched her dismantle a section of the nearby wall with some strange appendages and reform the parts into some crude automatons. There was obviously more to her than meets the eyes, and so the Administrator would have to be all the more careful when dealing with her. Of course, this didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy it, but staying on guard was a must.

The two beings had arrived at around the same time, on opposite sides of the huge cavern he resided in, but that had not been what piqued his curiosity. Most of the previous vermin who had entered had done so with some sort of obvious goal, whether it was trying to collect information or making a poor attempt to secure the place, but the Administrator didn’t observe any clear objective from the newcomers. They seemed to be watching and waiting for something, and one of them had damaged the facility, but that had been a once-off...so far. Their true intentions were hard to determine.

The Administrator stood up briskly, resizing the five active screens to fill up the whole monitor, then performed a more complicated gesture than what had previously been performed. A board of holographic keys each marked with a symbol clear to him but unreadable to anyone else partially phased in, twitched briefly, then completely solidified. The Administrator’s hands skimmed over the glowing projection, making familiar keystrokes which he had not had the opportunity to use for quite some time.

A flash of movement caught the Administrator’s eye, and so he took a step back, re-examining the the two intruders. The red one was now at a high vantage point, and had taken out what appeared to be a crude ranged weapon. Upon closer examination, machinery was easily visible all over the device. Interesting. Rotating the camera from the now poised bow, the Administrator could clearly see the figure’s target. One of those robots created by the other individual was exploring the facility lower down, probably fulfilling the same task as the small red droids he had spotted earlier, and didn’t seem to have noticed the attacker from above.

After confirming that the weapon was definitely not aimed at a system, he returned to his commands, pressing a few more keys before a loud beep informed him that his commands had been accepted. Several words crossed the monitor, again in that alien script, before giving way to two more camera feeds. One was viewing a slowly opening blockade, accompanied by a loud hum as the dark room behind it became more and more visible. The other was a slightly more distant view of the female. A small hiss was heard followed by the expulsion of some gas closer to the ground, and a nearby large threatening-looking device swiveled steadily towards her. The Administrator stood back from the console, and a slight smile formed on his face.

It was time to inflict some pain.

---

[Tesability Black]

(...bleugh, I don't care if it is canon, telekinesis and telepathy are both abilities that can easily be used for powerplaying and metagaming, even on accident...

I apologize now for any acts that are potentially considered as either/or.)

~General POV~

To Kai's probable surprise, the brick stopped in mid-air...much higher than it should have. It was possible that Rawal couldn't reach that high, either. Instead, without moving from its spot in the air first, it was sent flying back, but not towards where the half-angel had been, but where she was going.

 

It's hard to hide your ideas from those already in your mind, little nephilim.

~Rawal's POV~

Rawal had his eyes closed under the invisibility, his focus upon the two plated worms burrowing underground and making their paths for the future. For the moment, he was taking direct control of them instead of allowing them to act on their own while aided by verbal instruction. He couldn't afford unneeded noise. Thankfully, under the dirt, they were speedy buggers, much faster than they are above the surface.

That and the expedient decomposition of the dirt into more acidic forms allowed for more dangerous toxins and acids to be made for use in a fight.

 

"Alright, let's try this, then." The voice reached his ears, prompting him to open his eyes and temporarily break concentration to look towards where he thought it was coming from, just to catch sight of...

...wait, is she flying like an Eyebeast?! If the invisibility had not been present, a shocked look would have been seen on the elder's face, slightly taken aback by the sight. Aerial enemies were a rare thing back home, so figuring out how to deal with them took some serious quick-thinking on his part during the cage fights.

It would seem that she can also fly, an aerial battle would actually be interesting, Talis-Eye responded in his mind before something of a faded color flew towards the angel's direction.

Which means the Ur-Ghlaak would be useless against her. Hm. Like with the Artila twins, Rawal repeated the process from earlier, this being split into two as well. Keep her off me while I make some Vlish to keep her in your range.

~Talis-Eye's POV~

One of Talis-Eye's eyestalks were tracking her movements as the halfbreed tried to hide from their collective gaze, the main eye shaking side to side at the attempt.

Under the invisibility, another eyestalk moved towards the incoming brick before moving up and down slightly...

...causing it to stop in midair instead just before it could connect to the back of Rawal's head. If it had continued, it would have clocked the Shaper in the back of the noggin. If this was any other situation, the Eyebeast wouldn't have bothered, but since their existence currently depends on the Shaper...

...wait, is she flying like an Eyebeast?!

 

Another eyestalk pointed towards Rawal under the cloak of invisibility, clearly seeing him through no one else could.

It would seem that she can also fly, an aerial battle would indeed be interesting.

Which means the Ur-Ghlaak would be useless against her. Hm.

Keeping their thoughts to themselves for the moment, they could still feel the girl trying to actively hide her thoughts from them.

Problem is, thoughts often flicker through areas such as the language centers of the brain, intentional or not. And they put an anchor point in each of the organic brains at such locations for easier infiltration during the meeting of the contestants.

 

Keep her off me while I make some Vlish to keep her in your range.

 

A toothy grin appeared on the Eyebeast's face, though only Rawal would see it for now.

 

It's hard to hide your ideas from those already in your mind, little nephilim. Immediately after this did they brace for mental impact, expecting some form of mental feedback for that.

[Dad]

Holy Grounds

 

For as long as he could remember, since the fall of the heaven's and the destruction of the Four Great Ones, he had resided on these holy grounds.  There were many places he could have chosen, around the world.  The Lost Arc.  The Temple of Cithadre.  The Valley of Anum Ra.  The Garden of Eden.  But the Church of Jubilee was important to him, more so than any other Holy Ground.  It became vastly more important shortly after the corruption took it, and attempted to erase the very earth it stood on.  Had he not interfered, the Church of Jubilee and its city would not have been the only victims.  Thankfully, he was punctual.  Always punctual.

 

Lately, magic force had been drawn back to the land, as though it was trying to return to its original state.  He could feel the power welling up inside of it.  Perched high in a great oak tree, he stood precariously on its highest branch.  He could see the energies of the earth moving beneath the soil, his emerald eyes carefully following the energies to the church grounds, where they dispersed among the rock, soil, and vegetation that had begun to return.  For years now, the land was attempting to rebuild itself.  The cursed ground had been purified by his efforts.  Now, the holy light that once fell upon this place, was no longer scarce.

 

He breathed deeply.  Despite the slow pace of the land's holy properties, he was satisfied.  And when the time was right, he would leave this place, to guard another.  But for now, this holy land had to be protected.  And with the sudden occurrence of strange men examining the church's remains, he grew nervous.

 

What were they here for?  What did they want?  How did they find this place?

 

They were clad in heavy armor, outfitted with human weapons.  Who did they work for?  He observed carefully from afar, but they did not take much action.  A sample of soil, a few pictures, and some large measurements were all he noticed.  But that was ten weeks ago.

 

Now, more humans had returned.  He could sense a presence, but it was hidden beneath some kind of magical device.

 

Then, he felt another.  This one familiar.  Too familiar.  "No.  She should not be here," he said softly to himself.  Leaning forwards on the branch, he braced himself, as he got a better look.  Unfortunately, his fears had been realized.  It was Kai he felt the second time.

 

He clenched his fist, shaking his head.  "This does not bode well."

 

He leaped from the top of the tree silently, rocketing up into the air.  Kai threw a brick, but it was suspended in mid air.  How?  No matter.  He plummeted to the earth at jet like speeds, vanishing in mid air.  When he reappeared, he was standing directly beside Kai, and he gently placed his left hand on her right shoulder.

 

As Kai turned around, she would be staring--for the first time--directly into the face of her brother.  An angel, six feet and six inches tall.  His hair was cut short on all sides, and it was curly and blonde.  His eyes were an emerald green, and they glowed even beneath the brown cloak he was wearing.  His chest was bare, but on both of his wrists were shackles, made of an unidentified metal, stronger than any earth metal that existed.  He was wearing a brown robe around his waist, and two more shackles on his pale feet.  As Kai looked into his eyes, she could see a sparkle of lightning behind his eyes, crackling across his iris like a reflection of a storm.  

 

This was Choros.  And he had but one mission now.  To get Kai, and whatever other presence had been here, to leave.

 

"Sister," he began, his voice soft and compassionate.  "I know not what your business is here.  However, I must ask you to cease activity immediately.  The balance in this place is delicate.  I cannot allow you to upset it."

 

His hand tightened on Kai's shoulder just slightly.  It wasn't enough to hurt her, but it was enough force for Kai to understand that he was serious.  And if Kai refused?  Well.  She didn't want to find out what was going to happen.

[Hälō]

Lace XIII

 

"Thanks for the ride," Lace nodded to the pilot of the chopper before leaping out into a large opening in the massive building's forth floor. Rolling on to the dusty stone floor, she slowly brought herself to her feet and turned to watch the helicopter fly off into the distance. It was just her and Bethany now...

 

Before Lace could finish her thought, the sound of movement somewhere down the hall caused her to tense slightly before placing her hand on the straight sword that rested on her hip. Yep. Just her, Bethany, and an army of cultists and undead... 

 

"There won't be any easy way to find her in this place..." Lace thought to herself as she began to slowly advance down the corridor. She didn't know much about her opponent, and could be certain that the other girl would have already begun plotting counter measures for her blades. She had no choice but to assume she was starting at a disadvantage. Though there was no way of Bethany knowing just how strong or fast she really is...

 

"I'll play it how she thinks I'm going to... Stick to traditional swordplay, then cut her down when she thinks she has me cornered." A part of her prayed that she would be able to end to fight without killing Bethany. The girl seemed nice enough, and probably had people waiting for her back home. "Avoid vitals. Focus on disabling her, and forcing a surrender." She mumbled to herself.   

 

The most sound strategy at the moment would be to see what Bethany was capable of without revealing too much of her own abilities. Silently gliding through the hallway, Lace listened for any signs of life in the eery silence. The fact that she had Beowulf's enchantment put her mind at ease at the prospect of coming across any undead, but she still couldn't help but feel like her senses were on edge because of the strange magic that seemed to linger in the air. 

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"Those bots...they don't really feel like a proper part of this network."

 

The scans performed by her dogs as they ran through the network's areas made Angelica notice the presence of two or so objects that were observing the dogs. It wasn't enough to deter her however, and she got the automatons to continue their mapping of the place as Angelica herself was recovering after the slight overheat earlier. However, it didn't take minutes for her to lose one of the dogs. Angelica sighed a little bit as she attempted to withdraw her tassel from the probably disabled dog, but she was somewhat surprised that she was unable to. Wondering what happened, she reviewed the last results of the dog's scans, and she noticed that it was attacked by someone from above. Oddly, it was not an instant destruction, but she still lose contact of it on the next split second. There were a few possibilities for what actually happened. First would be that the initial attack triggered something that completely eradicated the dog and her tassel inside, something quite concerning, but not enough to warrant her immediate concern. Second would be that a field of interference happened. Perhaps like Minovsky Particles, some sort of jammer, or plain EMP? That would be more concerning than the first one. At least for the first one, Angelica could counteract it a lot easier once she figured out the behavior of the attack.

 

The third possibility however, was something that Angelica was banking for, perhaps simply out of personal bias. It was the possibility that the initial strike took control of the dog somehow. It's just like how she used her tassels to create and control these dogs. The technology that composed her was some form of nanomachines in a liquid metal form, allowing her to achieve her flexibility. With herself as the reference, Angelica believed that Jack was capable of using nanomachines on her attacks which had the capability to control electronics, just like herself. It would be actually worth of her utmost concern if this was the case. Her assumption so far was that Jack's still mostly an organic. So by that virtue alone, her loadout would be more dangerous to Angelica than Angelica's capabilities to her. Of course, she lacked the durability to withstand Angelica's firepower, but that applied to herself too. The best chance she would have perhaps would be if she...perhaps not now. She still kept the possibility of the other two explanation in her mind, but she banked on this third possibility mainly simply because she thought fighting someone with similar capabilities to her would be interesting.

 

Ah, memories of fighting her own sisters. Terrible memories that Angelica regretted, but the thought still somehow brought excitement to her mind. Was this perhaps just a remnant of her old programming? In that case, Angelica made a note to purge every trace of this feeling once this battle's over. Although, Jack did have that certain haircolor, which was pretty close to Angela's. That might explain the feeling of nostalgia.

 

Before she could do anything else though, gas flooded the place she was in, and it obscured her vision to some degrees. She thought of using her tassel to create another bot to scan the area for her, but she felt that for the time being it's best to conserve the tassels until she could be 100% sure about the cause of one of her dog's disappearance. Yet, because it was possible that the beams and lasers and missiles would start being aimed at her, Angelica knew that she should get away somewhere before that happened. With clear vision she could easily dodge those, but this thick gas would risk stray hits near her reactor. As she sensed the shadow of a large object moving behind the veil of gas, Angelica fired up her boosters and took off into the skies in a short burst. She would outrace the smog above, and it would also give her clearer view on the area too. Not to mention, Jack was somewhere up last time, so it would be best if Angelica was not in a position of disadvantage.

 

To conserve a bit of her energy, she turned off her boosters and latched into a wall, forming sharp claws on her limbs to allow her to scale it and go around the area that way. In the meantime, her still-active dog was still providing recon for her - mapping out the area as she attempted to find the control room. Jack having recon bots on her own was concerning, and if she had some sort of way to control that command room of this network, then Angelica might as well running on a risk of losing. Reaching that place before her opponent became Angelica's primary objective for the time being. As Angelica herself scaled the walls to explore the place and hunt for Jack, she ended up decided to use another one of her tassel to use parts of the network to form a flying bot that roamed the skies for her. This time, she had to make sure that her opponent didn't catch her off guard again.

 

---

[VCR_CAT]

Jack

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYTVJpHc0TU

 

There was no impact sound, no shattering of metal or spray of electricity as Jack's arrow disappeared into the robotic hound; simply a flash of red light. The hound stopped in its tracks, and seemed to vibrate and twitch for a few seconds before relaxing. Neon red lines traced along the robot's body like a circuit board; pulsing gently as it looked around. Jack began to flit through what the machine was capable of. It was a basic machine, but the suite of sensors it had attached to it were more than she asked for.

 

"Perfect," Jack muttered. One more spy to add to her collection. She let the nanites do their work on the robot's internals; reworking the data in the computers to listen to her now. Once that was complete, she sent it off to continue to map out the facility; but this time the information was being fed to Jack instead. She sent the beast off to collect more data on the surroundings. However, it wasn't long until there was a loud hissing noise that filled the cavern, as a gas began to fill the gaps between the structures. Jack received two more pings from Hack and Slash; one that had found the other robotic dog, while the other spotted movement on the other edge of the cavern. It was too far to tell, but the size and shape implied something humanoid moving towards one of the larger walls of the structure.

 

"That might be her," Jack muttered, sending a signal to Hack to pursue that direction, not yet aware of the aerial drone that she had already added. In the meantime, Jack fired out another tether and began to move to another rooftop, aiming her bow in on the second guard dog and knocking another arrow. Might as well begin developing her own personal army. The arena's smoke made tracking this target difficult, so Jack needed to eyeball this shot more than the others. Taking careful aim, she loosed the arrow in its direction. If her opponent was making these, then she was making a poor decision adding to Jack's arsenal.

[Admiral_Stalfos19]

 
Since she was too busy darting to relative safety behind the next wall, Kai had not seen that the brick that she lobbed earlier had been stopped in its tracks. She did see that it was lobbed back over the new wall that she hid behind, and plopped uselessly at her feet.
 
'Well that did a whole lot of nothing,' Kai rolled her eyes as this came to mind. It didn't even whack her in the head as it dropped, or knock anything off that precariously balanced enough that one hit would cause that to drop on her head instead. Whatever. It wasn't like this guy was dumb enough to brag about how...

'It's hard to hide your ideas from those already in your mind, little nephilim,' ...or maybe he was. Kai was quick to retaliate.

 

'Oh sure, tell someone that knows you can get into their head that you're in their head. Top play, actual top play,' she mentally scoffed, 'The only real way to top that would be to show yourself already and stop being a pussy ass jabroni. I know you're camping somewhere in this hellhole!'

 

With that, Kai set off to try to find this Rawal. She was sure he was just past this wall; after all, how else would be sent over to Kai direction? Then again, this invisibility that he had wasn't exactly helping Kai at all, and neither was the fact that Rawal could amass an army of summons right under her feet if she didn't find him in time. However, she didn't get much of a chance to start looking before all of a sudden, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

 

"Sister," immediately, Kai whipped around and wound up aiming her shotgun at the man that stood before her for a brief moment, before realizing this wasn't Rawal that she was looking at and consequently lowering the gun, keeping one finger on the trigger just in case the unthinkable happened. Ironically, revealing a bit more of his body structure actually threw Kai off from recognizing the man right off the bat. Then again, there was only one being in the world that really call Kai "sister".

 

"Um... 'sup, bro?" Kai replied with an evident tone of confusion. But at least she had acknowledging the presence of her half-brother. There was no denying that.

 

"I know not what your business is here.  However, I must ask you to cease activity immediately.  The balance in this place is delicate.  I cannot allow you to upset it."

 

"Hey, I'm not the one that decides what grounds get used as arenas, bro. I'm just a competitor like everyone else that ever got planted here," Kai stated in a surprisingly calm manner, considering her own half-brother had the gall to imply that she should pack up and leave, "Besides, this isn't exactly the time to tell me not to do sheet. This geezer I'm fighting is probably plotting how to catch that W off of me as we speak, and neither of us can leave until someone catches said W."

 

Hoping she gave enough of a lowdown of why she was here in this church to the angel, Kai peered around the corner to ensure that she didn't miss Rawal leaving or anything. And then she took a gander at the rest of her surroundings, including the skies above her. He didn't appear to be around, but Kai could never tell...

 

"So, um... ya mind helping a lil' sis out a bit? Maybe point me in the direction where that geezer's hiding at the very least?" Kai asked, not giving a damn about how unethical the prospect of two or more people ganging up on one may sound, "It'll ultimately get me out of here faster if I win the fight."

[Yui]

---

And thus the helicopters were off! Mango took the flight well, always looking down at the world below her. She'd only been able to enjoy this view one other time, when flying to the Golden Gate Hotel itself. She saw towering mountains, grand forests, and vast oceans as her helicopter stopped somewhere and she was required to get on another one, which actually brought her to her destination. Once there, Mango could already tell this would be a tense first round. The environment of this cursed battlefield...well, she was no expert by any means, but it certainly gave her that "cursed battlefield" vibe. Spooky.

 

However, just standing here in the spooky battlefield would do her no good. Mango had to find her opponent, and defeat them! Or convince them to surrender, not that the child seemed like the sort to do such a thing. She just hoped she didn't kill him accidentally. No time to think of what could go wrong, Mango assured herself. Let's find the kid and get this fight done! This place gives me the creeps. And so, in search of her opponent, Mango started forward, glancing around in search of the boy she now had to fight.

---

[Dad]

"Hey, I'm not the one that decides what grounds get used as arenas, bro. I'm just a competitor like everyone else that ever got planted here.  Besides, this isn't exactly the time to tell me not to do sheet. This geezer I'm fighting is probably plotting how to catch that W off of me as we speak, and neither of us can leave until someone catches said W." 

 

Clearly, she wasn't listening.

 

"So, um... ya mind helping a lil' sis out a bit? Maybe point me in the direction where that geezer's hiding at the very least?"

 

No.  She had her own intentions of going through with this.

 

"It'll ultimately get me out of here faster if I win the fight."

 

Choros flinched at Kai's words, holy energies seeping out of the ground and crawling up his spine as she spoke.  He sighed, lowering the hood on his face.  "I must apologize, Kai," he began, standing in front of Kai and blocking her path, while unknowingly blocking Rowal's view of Kai.  "I was ignorant to the conditions of the tournament in which i urged you to partake in.  I had no idea that holy grounds would be used as a place of combat.  Please allow me to explain."

 

Choros took a deep breath, as he tried to explain in the simplest of terms, why Kai should not be here.  "You see, despite your circumstances, these grounds are holy.  By Angelic Law, no man or woman may desecrate this place.  And when this place was desecrated before, the Great Four relinquished it from man kind.  As the last of our kind, it is my sworn duty to protect this place.  To allow combat here without holy cause, is forbidden."  Choros looked around carefully, still unable to detect the second entity that Kai spoke of.  "And so, I will extend to you a courtesy, sister.  And to your opponent, should they be present."

 

Choros removed the cloak from his back completely, letting it fall to the ground to expose the holy symbol on his back.  It glowed with a red and orange aura, spinning slowly clockwise as it softly pulsed every thirty seconds.  "Surrender.  end this peacefully, without blood shed.  Should one of you lay down your arms before the other, this may be a quiet resolution.  Or," he continued, the holy symbol glowing more brightly now, as the church grounds fed him energy.  "By law, I will be forced to remove you from this place.  Dead, or alive."

 

Choros took a few steps back away from Kai, allowing her to consider her position.  "Please, choose wisely sister.  I do not wish to sever our ties because of a man-made game."

[Dova]

---

The Administrator’s closed fist tightened as he observed the female easily avoid his trap. Then again, it wasn’t as if he had expected her to have been defeated this easily, considering the mobility of the other newcomer and her manipulation of the Network. He hadn’t supplied enough power for the speed required to possibly do some damage, and that was something he would probably have to remedy, especially after how easily his first target had ascended out of the danger zone.

He stopped the still-turning cannon as it neared the orientation facing the now scaling figure on the wall, and left it primed. Maybe a risk, with the hacking capabilities she had shown, but he was more than confident he could deal with it should the need arise. Brushing the feed aside, the Administrator spared a glance to the two other active screens on his monitor. The first, showing the armored intruder, had changed by little, as they were still observing the rest of the Network, with their projectile having already lodged within the lower automaton. The gate present in the latter had now been fully opened, and the room within was seemingly empty other than some ominous trails of liquid leading out of it. Perfect.

The Administrator slid the otherwise still picture away, revealing a digital map of a grid-like series of passageways. There were several dots on it, two on almost opposite sides of the Network but outside of the displayed paths, but several more were grouped together, moving slowly but surely down the main lane present on the screen. A few key presses, and the rectangles on the screen merged and split, forming an almost completely different design. There was now a clear path from the gathered dots to both of the isolated ones. They would take a while to reach their location, but that was to expected. He could adjust for that.

He bought the screens of the intruders up again, debating on a course of action. A means to an end, which would hopefully involve resulting in a lack of vermin remaining in this place. It was time for a little more violence, and what better way to accomplish that than with some more personal engagement? The Administrator made a few more selections, and observed a glow on the screen with the female. The cannon was operational, and the other one would soon have as big a problem to deal with as well.

---

Above the dissipating green fog, the now poised cannon opened fire towards the moving Angelica, rapidly shooting concentrated beams of energy.

Jack dropped soundlessly down onto a lower platform, flickered briefly as they gathered their bearings, then caught sight of Jack. Jack raised their fists, then charged heedlessly towards Jack, who was still poised with the bow in their hand. A melee was about to ensue. At least, at first.

---

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"Nice nice, the fun has only just begun."

 

From the flying bot's sensors, Angelica was able to notice the presence of a figure that climbed the structure too just like she did. That would definitely be Jack. Of course, the bot that she was using was incapable of attacking. That function would have to be something that she put into the bot during creation, but Angela couldn't fit everything into it, and she prioritized its sensors and putting a measure to combat whatever the method Jack might use to take over the machine. She was quite far away from Angelica right now, so the main choice would be to keep the bot around hugging the nearest wall while continuing to monitor Jack, and meanwhile the grounded bot continued to map the area amidst the fog released by the network.

 

Several shots were fired from beyond the fog below.

 

Like butter being sliced apart by a hot knife, the beams wrecked Angelica's body, passing through it while causing major damage. With holes throughout her body, she fell down...until wires came out from her body and bound her to the wall. Her face was damaged from the attack she forgot to dodge, and her limbs were non functional at best. She shook what remained of her head at how she was getting a bit way too over her head regarding her chance of winning, and before the cannons below was able to pinpoint her new position and start firing again, she let out several of her tassels to rain her own beams towards everything below her.

 

At the same time, she noticed Jack was being attacked by Jack. That was weird. Putting a marker on her bot's sensors to pinpoint which one was supposed to be the real Jack, Angelica then used the materials from parts of the network behind her to restore the damage done to her, which took a bit longer than she wanted it to be, but once that's done, she'd be continuing her attempt to climb the walls and reach Jack...as silently as possible, if she could help it.

 

---

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

"Well this is getting me nowhere." Bethany muttered. She had been waiting around, locating the various chandeliers, for a few minutes and all she got out of it was having to avoid a few more bats. That thing about bats getting stuck in your hair? Not true. But it still really didn't feel good when a bat flew into your face. Frigging flying rats.

 

It took her a while but she came to a realization. She came in through the front door. But her opponent wouldn't have had the same entrance. In fact, she doubted they'd be on the same floor. After all it would be pretty anti-climactic and this WAS supposed to be a show, right?

With a groan, Bethany headed for the staircase on this floor. Unless the girl burst through the ceiling, which would be kinda cool honestly, she'd need to come down through the stairway. So if Bethany kept near those, logically, she should find her opponent. Now that she knew where some of the chandeliers were, she could try and trap Lace once she discovered where she was.

 

Bethany looked at the staircase, in all its broken down glory, and sighed. "Olly olly oxen free." She said as she stepped onto the stairs.

[Mr. Hyde]

 

Louis was sitting down, invisible to the human eye in the shadow he had occupied.  All he could see was vast nothingness, as far as the eye could perceive.  It was a calm and relaxing place...he could almost fall asleep...if it wasn't for...

 

"Hey Louis...shouldn't we go out and kill that thing already?"  his shadow jumped excitedly in his lap.  Basabth was the only other thing that was visible in this void.  Louis sighed.  

 

"Listen, I've already told you, we can't go all gung-ho!  I'm a secret operative for god's sake!  We have the element of surprise...it doesn't know what to expect from us.  Although, the dramatic irony is almost to die for...that thing just lays what it's capable of right on the table.  Pity...poor pool of bile doesn't stand a chance."  

 

"All the more reason to end this faster, am I right?!"  

 

Louis bonked Basabth on the head with a light chop.  

 

"But I would prefer if you would not reveal yourself...after all, we don't know if the other contestants will be privy to our abilities after the match."  Louis heard the pouting that he was so used to by now.  Basabth wasn't used to these kinds of restrictions before.  Louis patted his head before standing up.  "If she's not gonna come to us though, guess I have no choice."  Louis top half looked to evaporate, but in actuality, he was just emerging from the shadow on the other side.  He looked around the area to see if anyone was watching, and when he decided the coast was clear, he fully materialized.  

 

"What a drag."  Ebon cracked his neck before heading off deeper into the battleground.  He'd stumble upon something sooner or later.