NPF Avatars 5 - Jane! Stop This Crazy Thing!

[POS Industries]

Meanwhile, off in a shadowy place filled with shadowy figures, one such figure was watching two giant screens intently. One screen was tuned to Mauve's coverage of the first round of the Arena Tournament. The second was tuned to Jen's, as it provided a slightly different viewing angle. He chuckled to himself as his robotic automatons worked quickly behind him, assembling the monstrous mechanical minions made from his malevolent mind.

"Yes, good," he chuckled, "They'll all tire themselves out soon and we will strike! The NPF's net worth will be ours for the taking!"

And then he laughed and laughed and laughed. That is one happy man.

[Astral Harmony]

AB (Bunny Girl) had nearly been impaled when the hurricane lifted a katana from the ground and launched it at her. Her hair was a mess thanks to the hurricane winds. She quickly retrieved the sword from against the wall and got ready. Let the really tough competition defeat themselves. Then she would have her fair chance of walking out of this with something intact.

[Red Mage Black]

"Well well well..." Black said flying above the arena, spotting Flare in the process. "Looks like she has something planned. Lets go check it out." He hung in the air a few seconds before moving towards her. "Hey Flare, take your best shot at me." Black dangled in front of her, crossing his arms tauntingly.

[Ugainius]

"I might as well attack someone, before this thing ends." He looked at the girl in a bunny costume. "Might as well" he said, before charging her.

[TheBlindMime]

TBM sat upon the sleeping bear, deep in thought yet with no consideration to what he was on. But if I got powers, what kind of powers would I want. His mind had begun to wander after the fight began, nothing was directly happening to him other then a lot of rain and wind and mimes took that in stride. After all peoples randomly punch mimes in the face, more so when they're blind, a little rain and wind never hurt anyone.

Except everyone who died from pneumonia, maybe immortality, The heart glowed brightly then flickered and faded as TBM's mind quickly floated down the line of powers, each time it flared with energy when he thought of something new only to snuff itself out as he reached the next. Super strength, flight, indestructibility, telekinesis, teleportation, blue hair, control over space and time, laser vision, to always win at monopoly...

The list went on and on, had he any idea that the epic battles around him could cause collateral damage to himself and quite possibly the bear he was sitting on he might have focused a little harder or maybe if he'd known the device in his hands had the power to grant a power he desired for the battle could have been given he might have thought harder.

But he knew neither fact, he was blind and pretty dumb.

Then he got it, Transformation powers! Like a kitsune! That'd be the stuff I want, I wish I had the powers of a spirit fox! He stood boldly atop the bear now, the heart of sundered chaos streaking light across the battlefield. Now if only I could actually wish for that pow- TBM was silenced by the power that emanated from his hand, it would either grant him the power he wanted or send him to his doom.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

"What in the crap?!" Hawk cried out as a ceiling formed close overhead. It seemed someone was trying to limit flight in this battle.

"Ok, you want me grounded, you got it!"

While still hanging in the air, Hawk suddenly grew to full size, flipped over and fell while stylishly spinning to the ground. He landed in a crouch, with enough impact to shatter a lesser mans kneecaps, but Hawk never flinched. Instead, he slowly climbed to his feet, withdrew the Boomerhammer from his back and took up a fighting stance.

Now all he needed was someone to fight.

[Inbred Chocobo]

"You look like you want to fight someone." IC said towards Hawk. IC was sitting down, giant sword stuck in the ground. "I could really use a warm up before I start striking and taking out people." IC stood up, and with a yank, ripped the sword of the ground. Then he stuck it on his back. "Now, you want to start this or should I?" IC asked as he pulled the gloves tightly on his hands.

[Bailey]

One of the boxes began moving across the floor and bumped into IC's shins. It backed up and moved forward, bumping into his shins a few more times.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Hawk looked over his challenger. "IC, I am honored. Yes, you will make a fine opponent." He paused a moment, noticing the Damascus sword. "Looks heavy, you sure you can handle such a weapon?" He asked mockingly.

Before giving him a chance to reply, Hawk closed in and swung at IC, wanting to test out the other birdmans reflexs'.

[PhoenixFlame]

Noting that hawk had began a full windstorm assault right at the beginning of the battle, Phoenixbot cleverly smiled at her choice of weapon. Given that the hawkman had buisied himself concentrating intently on his tornado while the android had rooted herself to the ground via a pair of clamps attached to her feet, primarially designed for clinging to ships in space.

Having spent the last five to ten minutes aiming at him with her remarkably accurate HL-7 Xaser, Phoenixbot waited until he upped the windstorm's power before unleashing a hail of excellently aimed, arrow-thin bolts of xaser death. While her hair and even parts of her body whipped and swayed in the formidible windstorm, the energy bolts were unaffected. Tens upon tens of the constant stream of bolts darted maleviolently through the concealing mass of death and rain.

Timewarp DX!

Of course, all of this happened so long ago that it's not really relevant anymore! So we can assume that Phoenixbot wasn't just standing around, and rather leaped atop Fenris's happily-summoned thread and shot at Hawk from her new sniper's perch.

[Inbred Chocobo]

IC put a foot on the edge of the box, and flipped it up off the contents. IC casually stepped back, the swing going past in front of him. "You got some strength in those muscles." IC reached back with one hand to grab the handle of the sword. "Now let me show you some true muscle." IC yanked the sword off with one hand, swinging it hard, and straight down on Hawk, and whatever happened to be in the box.

[Fenris]

Fenris decided to make the sprinklers right above Raiden go off, for giggles and shits.

He watched to see what would happen.

[Bailey]

In this case, the box contained an RC car.

[Krylo]

Just before Phoenix fired off the stream of xaser energy, Krylo let loose with his...boomerang...thing, sending it shearing directly through the thread that she was perched upon. The attack had two effects; firstly, the phoenix-bot found that she no longer had solid footing--though it was (purposely) too late to stop the rain of fire, and, secondly, the whatchamacallit-that-I-can't-be-bothered-to-look-up-but-is-named-after-one-of-Locke's-weapons-from-FF6 was now heading directly toward IC.

Without even bothering to wait and see if the attack would impact with IC, Krylo noticed Ugainus moving to assault AB, and drew his Remington Longbarrel, firing off three armor piercing rounds in quick succession toward the distracted Dark Knight's kneecaps, while simultaneously drawing one of his two nine-milimeters to fire at the falling Phoenix-bot. He didn't expect it to do much damage, but she seemed as good a target as anyone, being as destroying her wouldn't actually kill anyone.

As the bullets sped toward her, Krylo himself took off in a run toward Wizzle, intending to appropriate her cannon. 'And besides,' he thought to himself as he glanced back toward Phoenix-bot, while spinning his 44, still with the armor piercing rounds, toward her as well, 'If IC doesn't catch his godforsaken weapon, the return trip should pass right through her landing... that is if she doesn't like... start flying or something... damn robots.'

[Nikose Tyris]

Nikose stepped out from his hiding place, and stood, looking around. He dropped into a calm battle stance, and Drew nenyel and shoved her through his arm for safekeeping and easy reach. He then began charging to the top of the dome.

[PhoenixFlame]

Warning. Launch. A small alarm went off on Phoenixbot's HUD, giving her a .5 second forewarning of Krylo's incoming projectile. As the boomerang clipped through the thread she was standing on, it was all too obvious that she would begin to fall. Krylo, being the sly bastard he was, had obviously anticipated this.

Tossing her dramaboard box of vitamin C from altitude, and, specifically, atop Fenris... The android engaged her left leg maneuvering thruster to vector her descent away from the boomerang's return path, and into Krylo's path. She landed in a smooth and rapid side-roll, smoothing unsheathing the Ethereal blade with her right arm.

"Krylo-San!" Phoenixbot hailed him, activating her Samurai subroutine, (A funny joke played on the combatants by Phoenix proper) "Defend yourself!"

With that, she lunged at the Mod, rapidly firing her left arm beam rifle as she approached, and finishing the lunge with a suprisingly rapid sweep of her soul-sundering sword.

[Fenris]

Fenris looked up at the box of fruit. He waved his sword, slicing the box cleanly in two. However, the fruit inside was not so cleanly cut in two. The citrus spilled soaking him with an orangey scent.

"God damn Phoenixbot, throwing a box of fruit at me from across the ring!" Fenris cursed. He set off the sprinklers above him to give himself a quick shower, and turned them off.

Fenris took the sword and headed towards the Phoenixbot. "This means some sort of war."

[Bailey]

TEN continued to munch on popcorn. "You really have to admire technique like that. I mean, you just don't get that same fluidity of motion that Krylo is showing now from most people nowadays. I mean, sure, you still get some cool flashy stuff, but nothing like this whole multi-weapon swap dealy that Krylo is boasting. Incidentally, Amalgam, I'd be interested to see where you think Keyman is right now."

Amalgam pointed into the ring, and TEN chuckled. "I see that you're not stupid. I really ought to get somebody to remove that curse from your speech at some point, hadn't I? Then you can show off your intelligence without making others cringe."

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

"You got some strength in those muscles. Now let me show you some true muscle."

With that, the almighty Damascus blade swung downwards. At the last second, Hawk side-stepped it, nearly getting himself cleaved in two in the proccess. Well, he had wanted to know how fast the guy was, now he knew.

Hawk quickly stepped back out of range, in case a second blow was forthcoming and switched the hammer to his other hand. "True power is nothing to do with strength or muscle, it's about skill."

As he spoke, a long hilt slipped from a secret holster hidden up Hawks right sleeve (I told you I had something hidden up there!). The moment he finished speaking, the hilt unfolded from itself and a huge crescent blade formed from it, blood red in color. Hoping the sudden appearance of the weapon had distracted IC, Hawk threw the Boomer at him.

It was then that xaser fire screamed towards Hawk. Acting on instinct Hawk ran after the weapon he had just launched, raising the Ascalon high in his right hand as he angled the weapon towards the ground. With a metalic shink, the weapon transformed into a long halberd and Hawk stabbed it into the ground, throwing all of his weight into it and leapt over IC and thus avoiding the incoming shots.

He landed behind IC, as the Ascalon shifted instantly back into it's crescent form.

"See what I mean?"

[Inbred Chocobo]

IC spun in place. He wasn't listening to Hawk anymore, he was starting to focus on the fight. He yanked the blade out of the ground (and the RC car completly obliterated by the way) and spun with it. With the blade, he caught the Wind Edge at the tip, and with his free hand, he caught the hammer.

Now IC was scary because he was spinning in place with a giant sword, probably about to cleave Hawk in half if he didn't move. Not only that, but he was putting speed back into the Wind Edge. It wasn't his weapon, it would return to the guy that got it, that was true. But IC was going to put some power into it anyway.

After a rotation and a half IC twisted his wrist, sending the Wind Edge flying at Fenris surprisingly. In truth, IC kept the Wind Edge close to the path it seemed on, and that was going towards PF. He was just giving it a curve. Though his other hand released the hammer, sending it towards Hawk. It wasn't nice to give, so of course IC would throw it back towards him. Of course, he threw it back rather hard, so it might take off his hand if he caught it, but that was besides the point.

[Raiden]

Raiden had been quiet. He had been trying his best to avoid a clump of the fighting. He'd let them throw fruit and RC Cars around, then he'd go in and work over those that had been whittled down.

That is, until the Sprinklers went off.

With a powerful push of his legs he dove to the side, just barely avoided the jets of water intended for the Thunder God. His boots scraped along the ground as he landed, his electric eyes slowly turning to the person that had set the water off.

"FENRIS!!!!!!"

The Thunder God's fists clenched tightly, his fingers digging into his palm as the electric energy deep inside himself began to fill his body. Sparks and zaps popped and jumped from his flesh, his entire form charging with the electrical fury.

"YOU KNOW I DON'T LIKE TO GET WET!!!"

[Ugainius]

"Son of a..." Ugainius shouted as three bullets whizzed past his legs. He turned towards Krylo and charged him, swinging his sword towards his neck. He followed with a stap through the chest.

AB would have to wait till later.

[Nikose Tyris]

"Okay, that's enough of this shit." Nikose thought as he ran.

Nikose reached the top and leapt over the bear, and over the blind mime. He kept going, tucking and rolling, and landed running on the other side. He kept sprinting past Hawk and IC. he kept sprinting as he leaped over the shattered thread.

With his target in sight, he pulled Nenyel from his arm, spun her around so that she went liquid and coated his hand like a glove- which he pulled off, and proceeded to slap directly across Krylo's face, as with his arm extended one way, he leapt and put his knee into Krylo's chest, attempting to stun him and knock him out of the ring.

[Fenris]

Fenris dropped to the ground, the loud "WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" that the wind edge gave as it flew through the air being an obvious notification to its heading right at him. Of course, his panic was added to the very angry thunder god yelling at him. Fenris instinctively moved a thread around Raiden, hoping to slow him down, not even taking notice of the fact that it was unlocked.

Fenris watched the wind edge fly into Nikose now, as Nikose had taken the spot of Krylo.

Fenris heard the gunfire, and reacted. He moved a thread inbetween Flare and RMB, and promptly moved it back, blocking the gunfire, leaving RMB unharmed.

(EDIT OOC: If you're gonna stop charging a spell in favor of a gun, say so, Flare. Don't just go "Oh no since you're somebody different I switch all of the sudden!")

Fenris then resumed his hunt of the Phoenixbot.

[Krylo]

Krylo merely grinned as Ugainus attacked him. He made no effort to defend.

However, it'd be of interesting note that Krylo's head never actually left his shoulders, the flesh reattaching immediately upon the blade moving past. Instead, as Ugainus's sword pierced Krylo's chest, Krylo jerked to the side, using him as a human shield from the Phoenix-bot's ranged attacks, while simultaneously pressing the barrel of his 44 to Ugainus's chest plate and firing, before pulling back and falling to the ground to avoid the ethereal sword and unstab himself... which, would swing right through Ugainus if he didn't move. Of course, as Nikose popped in behind Ugainus, it ended up not really mattering whether he used the dark knight as a shield, Nikose getting peppered by the plasma-bolts instead... and finding a chunk of steel and flesh between himself and hitting Krylo.

Then again, even then it may not matter, as the Wind Edge was spinning directly toward him and the phoenixbot, its owner having dropped below its flight path, now.

(OOC: Never run through the immortal guy with a gun. It's not smart.

P.S. Christ people, don't run into the middle of a storm of plasma bolts.)

[PhoenixFlame]

"You dare?!" Phoenixbot electronically yelled at Ungainus as he attempted to charge her target. Now in samurai mode, it was a violation of the honorable dueling rules for her to simply let a third party attack her chosen foe. Reangling her ethereal blade, she made a powerful low horizontal slash at the dark knight's legs, the unreal blade hungrily seeking to pass through his armor and into the flesh beneath.

Yanking the near-weightless impelement of war upward, Phoenixbot made ready to bisect the dark knight with a sweeping vertical rising-cut. At the very least, it'd launch him into the air.

A red target box fell over the Wind Edge as it flew over Krylo's head, and Phoenixbot took a single shot at it in missile-intercept mode, knocking the boomerang slightly off course and toward Fenris, who was closing in on her.

[Raiden]

Raiden's energy-laden eyes canned the thread he had been boxed in.

"FENRIS, WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE, I'M PULLING THE HOBO BITS RIGHT OUT OF YOUR BODY!!!"

Of course, that's when Raiden got to thinking. He had a modded Mod bracelet. He could do damn near anything with it, even ban people, though that would take too much of his energy. Of course, there were other things he could do...

He raised up his hand, pressing the palm against the thread surrounding him.

"Lock."

The encasing thread locked itself tight. The others could see Raiden. They could even hear him. But no one could interact with him. Granted, he couldn't interact with them now, either, but that was besides the point. He was still in the fight, and no one could touch him.

He sat down on the ground of the locked thread, relaxing as he waited for the free-for-all to end, and for he and the other winners to go on to the next round.

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

K36 made his way to the dome in the center of the arena, He stretched his arms, sat down, and started watching the fights going on around him.

[Bailey]

Behind Mesden, one of the CARDBOARD boxes overturned as a dark figure with a green outline moved out from under it and towards her, quietly... carefully... quickly... almost unnoticabley.

If anybody DID somehow notice it, and had an eye attuned to magic, they'd see that the individual had inflicted several wounds on themselves with the large curved blade thingy they were holding, healed themselves with magic (which seemed to consist of summoning really good bandaids), and then changed forms into that of some super-sneaky, super-fast, shadow demon.

Keyman Green slung the Keyblade onto his back, and silently moved forwards with a rope in his hands, preparing to garrotte Mesden with it.

[Nikose Tyris]

Nikose, grunting, healed, and continued with his continuued actions, exactly as he planned, Leaping between both Phoenixbot and Uganius, anticipating and accepting the plasmabolts since they weren't going to do shit anyway- his regeneration ability was so peaked it was like the wounds healed before he felt them, leaving a ghostwhisper of pain.

With a leap, he arced over Phoenixbot and and Uganious, glancing through the ethereal blade on his side and feeling his soul twinge slightly, before landing on Krylo's chest hard with his knee. he tucked himself forward, attempting to lift as much as he could, trying for a forced ring out.

Nenyel, in his off hand, had shifted back to belt buckle form.

((OOC: I'm completely anticpating and hoping that Uganius and Phoenixbot attack me here. otherwise I wouldn't have rushed over and jumped in the way of their fight. And to be honest, I'd be happier if you'd just throw me out of the god damned ring.))

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Hawk hit the deck as IC spun and lay flat beneath the huge blade as it swung. As it made the first pass over him, he rolled to the side and quickly got back on his feet, just in time to see the Boomer being thrown at him.

"Please", he said with a sigh as he raised his free hand and seemed to grip thin air. The Boomer promptly vanished and re-appeared in his hand.

"Automatic return," he told IC, who didn't look like he cared.

He raised both weapons into a defensive stance, already a pro at wielding two very different weapons at once. And just to make them even more differnt, he switched the Ascalon to scythe form, for a bit of extra range. Strangely, he was still able to wield it with just one arm.

"Your move."

[PyrosNine]

"Whee!! Isn't this fun Rhiya!? There's so much violence and mayhem that, if I just had a sandwich, I'd be in kitty heaven!" the Fiery kitty meowed in relative safety, untargeted by any man of violence just yet. Pyros had perhaps one of the greatest defenses of all time, this being everyone else's reluctance to attack Rhiya. Pyros himself had great reluctance to attacking Rhiya, Dragon or no.

"I mean, there was even a riff off of "Mary had a little lamb", not too long ago, and it has only succeeded in raising my enjoyment of this day ten-fold! I even got my drumming on! We should do this again!"

[Red Mage Black]

Black scoffed at the gun, but thanked his lucky stars Fenris jumped out in front. "I owe you one." He said holding out one hand. The jade pendant around his neck turned into a liquid and slithered up his shoulder and into his right hand. "Time for action." He said to Latis who transformed into a long staff.

Black gripped Latis in both hands and lifted her over his head. With all his strength he brought the staff down in a firm motion towards Flare's skull.

[The Kneumatic Pnight]

Raven caught the, quote, “thundergod-happenstance” out of the corner of her eye, and though she had only been vaguely briefed on the subject, this seemed, certainly, like a quote, “bad thing”. Also, her mind seemed to be misusing the word, “quote,” a lot, so she might have to look into that. All this aside, it was as good a time as any to get moving, especially away from things that seemed... not-nice.

So, Raven spread her silver wings wide and leapt. She took off with almost explosive force, bursting from the ground like a crimson bolt with a dozen sanguine copies shadowing her like an over-exaggerated image ghost.

She looked around: the ceiling didn’t really seem too inviting, so she hung as close to the floor as possible, glancing around for an opportunity.

There! A trio, an attack, and another man. That would be the approximate nexus of the next confrontation, so that would be the point to destabilize.

Of course, Raven didn’t think of it in so many terms. What she thought was, “Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

She pointed the Über-Longknife at the ground somewhere between Krylo and Fenris and whoever else, and let it extend, a good way across the battlefield, until it skittered into the ground at an oblique angle. Then, she poured a burst of her divine reverse-chaos into the blade, and its form changed, thickened out into a massive, metallic serpent—at which, Raven released its tail. Lord only knew how long it would last, but perhaps it would last long enough to make things fun.

And... it appeared to be growing... Well, that was unexpected, and all the more reason to get out of there. She made a quick turn, nearly back the way she had come, moving to cut behind Raiden’s thread to safety.

Meanwhile, the slowly growing metallic serpent reared, eyeing around for its meal.

Apparently, it hadn’t eaten in a very long time.

[Fenris]

Fenris dodged the Wing Edge again, via grabbing it and flinging it at Flare, letting it hit her after Black smacked her across the head with Latis, and walked slowly over to Incendius. Sure, Incendius knew he was coming, and knew his intent, but it was relatively easy to get near him. Stepping over the Über-longsnake, Fenris got within attacking distance of Incendius.

"Yo."

Fenris raised the sword, and was suddenly propelled as is wont of Halo swords. "HOW THE HELL DO I STOP THIS THING?!" Fenris yelled, as he rocketed extremely quickly at Incendius, slashing him across the chest.

[Ugainius]

Ugainius was thought he was about to be cut to pieces, but Nikose knock him away from the two pronged attack from Phoenix bot and Krylo.

"Right" he shouted as he swung his sword through the trio in front of him. If nothing else it would knock them off their feet.

He unleashed a flurry of stabs towards the falling three, not caring whether he hit them or not. All that mattered was doing as much damage to the general area they inhabited and causing as much pain as possible.

[Krylo]

(OOC: Well alright then)

As Nikose came down toward him, Krylo rolled his feet up, knees bent, and caught Nikose in the stomach while momentarily dropping his guns to the ground to grab the mage's shirt. Rolling backwards, he released Nikose's shirt while shooting out his legs, sending the man hurtling away. Krylo, in the meanwhile, used the momentum to continue rolling, picking up both of his guns once more in the process of a hand spring that sent him over the Dark Knight's attack.

He spun in the air, training both of his guns on Ugainus's head, and letting loose a rain of lead, that continued even after he landed. The 44 ran out of ammo quickly, and he was flipping it open to expel the empty rounds by the time he hit the ground, but the smaller rounds from his nine milimeter were blasting away at Ugainus.

[Nikose Tyris]

Nikose landed hard OUTSIDE the ring, completely rung out, clear as Day. "Well, looks like I'm first out," he said, replacing Nenyel as his Cloak brooch, and watching Pedro for what he's supposed to do now.

[PhoenixFlame]

*THUNG* Ungainus' blade contacted Phoenixbot's torso in the way that slightly-better-than-normal swords do when they contact advanced personal armor. Dark knights may be strong, but slicing through Krylo and Nikose before hitting her severely reduced the power of his attack.

Transforming her left nanoarm from it's xaser form into a claw of blades, two wicked blade talons dorsal, and one ventral, she seized the weapon after it struck her, in an attempt to prevent the dark knight from recovering for another attack.

With her right arm, she made pair of horizontal strikes at the man's head with the ethereal blade, threshing the weapon back and forth as if to try again should he dodge.

[Ugainius]

Ugainius felt the claws scrape against his helmet. The sound was incredible, an unbelievably loud mixture of scraping and ringing.

He swung his down in an attempt to hit the cursed android but was disappointed to find he had hit nothing but air. He took a few steps back, mindful not to step out of the ring, and went into a defensive stance. "Your move" he mouthed.

[Mesden]

Mesden had been spending her time vaguely watching the fight -- most amused by Raiden getting his ass kicked by a hobo. After a few moments of flicking her wrist in the air in seeming irrelevance, a second ethereal blade arose from a blue light surrounded her hand. After a few test swings she was content with her newly forged weapon. This was all during the beginning of the fight, though, so since then, she had just been paying attention.

It's hard to sneak up on someone who's sole action in a fight had been paying attention.

The golden blade seared across the floor panels, a trail of blue and gold billows swaying from the blade contacts to the ground, all the while Mesden had been stepping backwards and turning, meeting the 'green' (Dark turqoise at best!) key wielder head on as her massive blade arced into the air, a mysterious energy burning around the edges, and was poised to strike her aggressor.

If any would take notice, her left hand was still extended from her body and glowing the same way as her sword.

[PhoenixFlame]

Safely secured behind a synthetic flesh faceplate covering a ferro-fibrous armor mesh secured to the android's eternium alloy skull, Phoenixbot's quantum computer took a long milisecond to examine her target.

He was a dark knight, wearing the typical dark knight fare, with plate armor and a well-secured helm protecting his vital head. Naturally, a strike to the head on such a meatbag would be lethal to most members of said meatbag's species. Additionally, Ungainus had positioned himself between Phoenixbot and the edge of the ring. His helm was both a blessing... and a curse.

The Dark Knight waited for her attack, holding a defensive stance, and Phoenixbot... waited too. Long enough to prepare for the attack he had offered her to take. Deep within her shoulders, a pair of systems rolled into place and extended through a pair of hatches above her shoulders. Speakers. Affixed to a new-type Sound Blaster[TM] card, of course!

"Very well then, PHONOMEZER!" *SCREEEEEEEEHEEEESCREEEEHHHHEEEEE!*

A directed wide-angle sonic burst enveloped the Dark Knight, in a manner that would generally only damage crystalline or mechanical targets. To a human, ESPECIALLY one in armor, the vibrations would be hideously disorienting, not to mention distracting as all get-out. She didn't stop there though, such a suprise attack needed a follow up.

Stepping forward, not leaping, as that would allow an extremely talented martial artist the ability to use her momentum to ring her out, Phoenixbot rose both her ethereal blade and claw arm in a inward scissors-strike at torso level. The knockback fare, naturally.

[Ugainius]

SCREEEEEEEEHEEEESCREEEEHHHHEEEEE!* Ugainius almost fainted. The noise was the most disorienting thing he had ever heard. He was doomed, a simple push could take him out. Unless...

Without a seconds hesitation he threw his whole body towards the android, hoping that seven feet of muscle and armour would knock her to the ground and he would roll safely towards the center of the ring. "Please let this work" he thought.

(OOC: Sorry I won't be here for the rest of the day/night but I'm gone, see you in the morning!)

[Flarecobra]

(Sorry, but I've got to drop out. This isn't holding my intrest like I thought it would.)

[Bailey]

Keyman Green grinned as the blade passed harmlessly through him. He was currently in a stance that didn't allow real attacks, and he was out of MP from the boxes and the healing... but he was able to stick his tongue out at Mesden as he dove back under the box. The box rolled a couple times and came to a rest face-up some distance away, with Keyman Green nowhere to be seen.

[Fenris]

Okay onto RMB.

Black thwacked Flare in the side of the head again, this time allowing Latis to launch a powerful water spell as he swung. He and Latis gave chase. As Black flew, Latis began to roll down his arm, and a jade body armor began to form around him. Soon, all that was left of Black was his face, as Latis took control of the duo. The morphous Jade covered Black's face and a blank, expressionless face was in its wake.

Watery tentacles flew out and battered Flare again.

Do not worry, Black. I have this battle.

(OOC: These were instructions left to me by RMB)

EDIT: Apparently Flare ignored the Wing Edge and the staff-to-the-face given to her. Read posts, please.

[Inbred Chocobo]

"This fight is leading no where." IC said to Hawk as he took up his defensive position. "I think hitting those that are opening themselves up in other fights is a much better use of my time." And with that, IC bolted, leaving Hawk standing there in his dust.

IC stopped in a somewhat opened area, and watched the others fight. He was waiting for an opportune moment to move... then he saw it. He moved in fast, trying to keep somewhat quiet, but then again with the sonic attack his opponent just used, it shouldn't be too hard to hide his sound.

He timed his hit with PheonixBot's swing, so that hopefully she couldn't react fast enough. He swung his giant sword, but strangly enough, blunt side. He was aiming to send both Phenoix and Ugainius flying. Course, you never know what a robot has in store.

[PhoenixFlame]

Ungainus lept and pushed right into Phoenix's attack sweep. His armor might protect him from her claw, but the ethereal blade, well... That was another story.

Fortunately for the Dark Knight, his gambit paid off, in that same way that getting two "BAR" in a casino slot machine pays off. Not that much. But hey, it was better than losing the match. The seven foot and quite heavy dark knight collided with the five and a half foot and equally heavy android, throwing her balance long enough for her to fail to knock him out of the ring.

She staggered, but managed to keep her footing, almost using a timed thruster burst to do so, when a warning flashed across her HUD.

"Collision Warning! Damage Warning!"

Phoenixbot was violently shunted forward, INTO Ungainus, by a massive sword strike to her back. Damage was minor, but it hurt a lot more than Ungainus' weapon. Someone had a very large blade. Within miliseconds, she was forced to respond or face iminent failure of her primary objective. Ungainus was a bulky and very heavy man, this was sure, but even contacting him failed to slow her down. Knocking Ungainus forward and past her, Phoenixbot ground to a stop mere inches from the ring's edge, courtesy of her leg anchoring systems she had used in Hawk's earlier hurricane. A loud screech of metal agaisnt marble accompanied her stop.

Wasting no time, she immediately unlocked herself and rolled left, turning around to face this unsuspected assailant.

((Looks like IC helped me body-slam Ungainus out of the ring... Er, thanks?))

[Mesden]

"Now what's this...soulless doll of a fighter apparently." Mesden mused to herself, clenching the portal of light in her hand into nothingness, the clanking red metal of her gauntlets emanating a powerful bass noise around her.

The blade entered its invisible sheathe at her side, giving the illusion of it floating in her about her waist. With both hands free she kneeled down, took the box in her hands and began to squeeze it, an unearthly strength rising in her forearms as her body began to light up with a similar soft blue hum.

Meanwhile, out of the sapphire aura around her, a figure crept out, almost slid out of her. Some strange red dragon, translucent and several feet long, which then began to coil itself around her right armor and adopt the energy Mesden put off and push with her.

Her favorite pet was with her now. That poor box.

[Inbred Chocobo]

IC came in closer to PheonixBot, he started his assault on her, he wanted to finish it too. Quickly as well, he didn't like all these people around while he focused his attention. He decided that judging the etheral blade in the robot's hands, he would have to use the blade's reach to his advantage. Then again, he was basing his strength against a robot. He might could come out on top, but you didn't know what other weaponry she had. This would be a dangerous match for sure.

He swung low this time around. Since his opponent was near the edge, cutting the feet out from below her seemed like a good idea. Of course, IC was trying to cut through metal with a sword. Probably not the best idea, but hey, he has nothing better to do.

[Bailey]

The box, the result of insane ramblings by a drunken wizard, a stage magician who specialized in "whatever looks the coolest", a teleporter by the name of Bob, and a Q who had nothing better to do, was not something which was entirely stable during the best of moments, which was what enabled there to be such things as fish and money in them in the first place.

When one takes something already under pressure and one squeezes...

Well, you normally get an explosion, but this was stage magic of an operatic level.

It was for this reason that Mesden suddenly found herself hugging an exceedingly confused bull, which thrashed out of her grip and immediately charged the bear.

It didn't know quite what was going on, but it DID know that if there was a slope of any sort near bulls and bears, then the two definitely had to fight.

It just stood to reason, right?

[mauve]

((OCC: Bulls and Bears? They're both Chicagoans! They can't fight each other!))

Mauve was watching from the arena seating, occasionally calling out possible camera shots to Ecurt as the battle raged on below them.

She was currently wondering whether lobbing a fireball into the arena would get her kicked out of the building.

"Well NPF, things are getting incredibly violent here at the Pedrodome!" Mauve said cheerfully when the camera returned to her. "Not that we expected anything else! That's right: The death match is well under way and the contestants aren't holding anything back. Fire, lightning, gunfire, cardboard boxes-- The arena is practically filled with flying hazardous material."

The enchanted switchboard on the hijacked broadcast van (Yes. This van has a switchboard. Look, are you telling the story or am I?) responded to Mauve's unspoken call for b-roll and began to play video clips of the fight while she spoke.

"As you can see, the fighters show no sign of stopping yet! Well, except maybe the bear, who hasn't shown any interest in the fight whatsoever. This may change, however, as a newcomer to the arena seems bent on giving our hibernating friend a rude awakening." The switchboard cued footage of the sleeping bear, who was oblivious to the bull rushing towards it.

"However, it seems as though we have just lost one contestant. Oh no, Nikose Tyris has just been thrown out of the ring! That means... Yes, that means the number of fighters has been brought down to 23. Fifteen more people have to be disqualified before the next round can begin, ladies and gentlemen."

She walked down to Nikose, who was staring up at Pedro expectantly.

"Mr. Tyris," Mauve said. "That was one tough fight. Any comments for our viewers?"

[Nikose Tyris]

"Yeah- Is there still a hat show going on?" He asked Mauve, completely seriously.

[Astral Harmony]

Finally, Armored Bishoujo saw some direction. Krylo pretty much saved her from defeat before she could even do anything with the katana. It was only right to return the favor. And the favor should be to eliminate the toughest of Krylo's opponents, which seemed to be Phoenixbot.

Armored Bishoujo sprinted to get Phoenixbot sandwiched between herself and Inbred Chocobo. "Chocobo, I'm with you. Robots don't have much place in the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny. Remembered how early Optimus Prime got taken out?"

AB raised the katana to head level and directed the blade toward's Phoenixbot's head, edge up, and charged to skewer the robot.

[PhoenixFlame]

As Phoenixbot lept atop Inbred's low swing to run up the large damascus blade in an attempt to remove her assailant... Armored Bishoujo appeared, right in time to ruin her plans.

"I prefer the term artificial person, myself." Phoenixbot spat back, accepting a glancing katana strike from AB, seeking to hit her in a sort of karmic strike. Quickly parsing her myriad weapon styles, she fell upon an obscure oriental sword technique involving ethereal weapons.

"KILLING HEAVEN BLADE!" Phoenixbot yelled, swinging her sword down with both hands at (and through her Katana, as the weapon is ethereal), AB's torso. She genuinely looked angry, as the large gash on her left cheek began to dribble a blue fluid, which quickly began to coagulate and seal the breach.

[Fenris]

Back to Fenris:

Fenris hit the ground behind Incendius hard and rolled. "This thing... is... awesome."

Fenris turned around and saw an opportunity for humor. He moved the dome in the middle of the ring back to Creativity Convention, leaving any foreign objects that may have been left there from the various boxes (because hell you never know). This also served to make the Bear and the Bull fall straight to the ground.

It made a loud noise.

"GROWR?" the bear asked.

"Hrgneh," the bull replied.

"Grawr?"

"Hrg."

Both the bear and the bull proceeded to chase Fenris around the ring as Fenris screamed at the top of his lungs, slashing all the cardboard boxes that got in his way with the sword.

[Bailey]

As the dome vanished, the three Keyman Newbs were left exposed. They looked at each other, and proceeded to join the bull and the bear in chasing Fenris around the ring, brandishing their keyblades.

As Fenris slashed the boxes, their contents spilled out.

Fish, fish, wheat, shoes, wheat, fish, porn, lacey underwear, wheat, elephant, apples, horse...

Waitasecond...

ELEPHANT!?

HORSE!?

Indeed, there had been a full sized elephant in one of the boxes, and a full sized horse in another.


Of course, whether or not there was in fact an elephant was questionable, as around the neck of the elephant hung a sign which was quite emphatic. "THERE IS NO ELEPHANT."

The horse and not-elephant proceeded to join the chase as well.

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

K36 had been watching the fighting for quite a while, and had actually begun to fall asleep.
Until Fenris made the dome vanish into thin air, causing K36 to fall backwords into the ground.
Rising from the dirt he dusted himself off, pulled out his shotgun and joined in the chase With a shout of "Fenris! You ruined my nap!"

[Astral Harmony]

"Aw, hell." AB swore and tried to bounce back, using the powerful legs that came with the bunny girl cosplay to avoid the attack. She succeeded for the most part, feeling weak from when the blade touched her. It was a little difficult to stay focused and her body felt somewhat sluggish, like her life force wasn't strong enough to keep it up.

AB fell on her butt and scrambled to her feet, already transforming. It was clearly for the best to take on Phoenixbot from long range. So AB took on the Mecha Girl cosplay. The armor felt heavier than before. Clenching her teeth to bear the added weight, AB raised her left knee and-

"Left Knee Missile, FIRE!!"

The armored kneepad flipped up and launched one of the four missiles stocked inside, aimed for Phoenixbot's torso.

[Bailey]

TEN smirked and glanced over at Amalgam.

"You have a stereo?"

Amalgam nodded and took it out of his chest.

TEN flipped through the music until he found the Benny Hill chase theme.

[PhoenixFlame]

Phoenixbot kicked off IC's blade and midair cartwheeled to her left away from Armored Bishoujo, landing with the Chocobo-Man between herself and the missile. Of course, that wasn't all she did. Reconfiguring her left arm into a flare gun, Phoenixbot activated her ECM in addition to launching a trio of countermeasure flares during her flip, confusing the missile and breaking it's lock.

Hooking her right index finger around the ethereal blade's handguard, Phoenixbot spun violently clockwise, flinging the armor-ignoring weapon in a wide, semicircular arc toward Mecha!AB, connected to her right hand by a thin, endo-steel chain where said finger had been moments before. The chain retracted at the completion of the attack, recovering the weapon.

[Fenris]

Fenris did a quick mental recap. He now had:


A Bear
A Bull
A Keyman
A Keyman
A Keyman
A Not-Elephant
A Horse
A Shotgun-toting SPARTAN
chasing after him. He ran faster, pulling out the banstick, waving it madly as he pulled a thread in front of him, and ran up the side, the whole bunch of creatures following him as he ran. He pulled more and more threads in front of him, until it looked like he was running around in an M.C. Escher painting, being chased by said entities the whole way.

That is, until he heard this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S53K8lF3PUI&mode=related&search=) booming out of the stands. He laughed at himself and his crazy antics, moving threads back to their original location as to not muck up the battlefield too much as he ran, still moving more in front of him, taking care not to kill anybody with the threads.

He ran over Inbred and the rest, and decided that there would be the best spot to deposit his followers. He removed the thread that they were on, and let them fall into the battle below.

He breathed deep, listening to Benny Hill wail on his sax.

[Inbred Chocobo]

IC turned to block the missle with his sword. Then a bull fell in front of him, and exploded. Then the Non-Elephant fell on him. Of course, IC wasn't going to take that lying down. So as those that looked at the not Elephant rise, they first must have thought it was holy. Then they saw IC lifting it up, and he wasn't looking to happy, considering where the Elephant landed.

IC looked around, and saw the 3 keyman, a horse, the SPARTAN, PheonixBot, and AB. IC decided that since the SPARTAN and 3 keyman pretty muched landed together since they were running together, they deserved the Elephant. So IC hurled the Elephant at them. Well, not Elephant. It was big, grey, and had a huge trunk, and could crush them easily. Thats all they needed to know.

[Astral Harmony]

Mecha Girl Bishoujo tried a half-hearted laser eye beam attack but the ethereal weapon wasn't giving any ground. So she turned her back quickly and kicked off of the ground, vaulting backwards over the massive weapon, she landed on her hands, rolled forward and turned back to face Phoenixbot, eyes glowing for the next laser eye beam attack. The missiles weren't going to get her unless she fired at her point blank, so MGB would need to go for a much faster attack, and lasers were much faster than missiles. She just needed an opening that wouldn't harm Inbred Chocobo.

[Incendius]

In the backdrop of his mind, Incendius felt impending and direct danger from one of the opponents in the field. With a plodding, non fearing, not rushing attitude, Incendius sent his attention down the strands of thought that had alerted him to the danger. The strand wove its way back the the somewhat newly appointed mod, Fenris. Not even bothering to turn his mask in the mods direction, for it made no difference to Incendius, he reached out and greatly strengthened his link to Fenris. He also sent his mind to focus on the general area between Fenris and himself, though making sure not to abandon his other thought threads.

The danger he felt suddenly became vastly more imminent, as Fenris activated his sword and began his almost instantaneous rush towards Incendius. However such an attack was ill precipitated against one of Incendius' nature. His abilities granted him a certain degree of for knowledge, especially when focused on an individual. However this was not the major deciding factor in why Fenris missed Incendius, though in other circumstances it could have been. The simple explanation was that the mod was unused to the abilities of the sword, and thus has miscalculated his entry. Incendius barely had to move as Fenris rushed only millimeters by him.

As Fenris thoughts turned in a new direction away from Incendius, the thought being broadened his mind's range, to again cover the entire field of battle as a blanket assurance. Calmly watching the chaos, Incendius however felt that something was wrong. Searching his own being, he found a flaw in his form that was not present before. His robe has been slightly burnt by the passing of the energy sword. A pity, ah well, I didn't expect my attire to come away immaculate in such an environ. However, this does provide an interesting opportunity to influence the minds of my foes in a more conventional way. He thought.

As Fenris unraveled the thread containing several of the NPF members, Incendius projected a thought transmigration centered on Fenris, meaning the words would be less received by those farther away. "You damaged my form. No one does this and escapes from my wrath! Was the context of the thought migration. As he transmitted this, two gloves shot out from under Incendius' robes and flew with great speed towards Fenris. When the gloves were halfway through the air, both activated, one protruding claws of chaos, and the other protruding claws of order. The twin claws would go to hound Fenris for the time being.

For those that received my thought transmigration, let them think I am ruled by baser emotions such as vanity and anger. Let them think they can influence the way I fight. When I set myself up to be believed as one way, it will become vastly easier to place myself into their minds, and influence some of their actions to my benefit, or to simply predict with greater accuracy what they will do, and what I should do to cement that image. From there, victory becomes infinitely attainable.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

(RFS - 0)
Rhiya was happily ignorant to the rest of the fighting, sitting cross legged on the ground and playing with Pyros and a ball of yarn that she somehow had on her person at that point.

Bullets and missiles whizzed past her head. An Ubersnake slithered up to her, opened its mouth, then cocked its head and slithered away, slightly confused. A banned thread crash-landed close nearby, while others threw themselves past her. A sudden wind tore at her hair, ruffling her feathers.

Rhiya seemed to be immune from it all.

Then Fenris rushed past her.

Rhiya looked up, went 'Oh, SHIT', and managed to crawl-launch herself out of the way as a herd of... THINGS rampaged through her previous position. Rhiya stood up, brushing herself off and looked around.

Pyros wasn't in her arms.

(RFS - 76 and rising)
"WHO TOOK MY PYROS?!?!" Rhiya roared, spinning around, eyes glowing dangerously. She threw her head back - as is the fashion when somebody's about to let rip a terrifying roar, or transform in some sort of gruesome fashion - and roared, clothes and body shape writhing and reshaping, growing. Growing. Growing. Spikes erupted from her body, and a tail blossomed from her pretty derriere. Her wings wept dark, shadowy feathers as they became draconic and back, and glowy with red. Claws replaced her hands, and her head and neck elongated until it became fully serpentine/draconic in appearance.

Truly a horrific metamorphosis to witness.

Rhiya-dragon turned baleful, glowy red eyes down towards the earth, her colossal size granting her full view of the arena.
"WHO TOOK PEE-NINE?!?!?"

And thus, Rhiya-dragon began her most memorable rampage ever. Right across the arena the chaos-diamond dragon charged, roaring in fury, taking a swipe at anybody that got in her way, or just trampling them underfoot, or even trying to eat them.

The terrifying effect was perhaps spoiled only by the fact there was still a small thermometer whizzing around her head.

(RFS - 81)

[Fenris]

Fenris ran again. He got out of Rhiya's path immediately. However, he forgot to take into account five things.

Thing number 1: He was on a floating platform that ended before he stopped running.

Thing number 2: He was also close to the edge of the arena.

Thing number 3: There was a bear nearby.

Thing number 4: A panicking bear nearby.

Thing number 5: Things at rest tend to stay at rest, things in motion tend to stay in motion.


Fenris landed on top of the bear and grabbed onto his neck. The bear also ran away from Rhiya and her monstrosity. The bear skidded to a stop at the edge of the arena narrowly avoiding a ringout. Fenris still latched onto his neck, and was nearly flung off the bear, his lower body going out of the ring, dragging along the black markings.

Fenris either had to lose or find a way to climb onto a panicking bear.

He didn't know if he could do either at the moment.

-----

The wing edge flew back down from the skies, and hit the not-elephant in the back, bouncing off towards AB.

[PyrosNine]

"Rhiya! Rhiya!" A tiny red voice mewed, lost and scared in the world.

He had been removed, and all he knew now was that bears and bulls stunk like high heavens, and wanted people to become family men.

Pyros knew there was only one thing to do in times of seperation anxiety like these. Set someone on fire.

In this case, it was Cendy.

"Cousin! How could you do something that I am unaware of and separate me from Rhiya? And don't say you didn't , because you can't lie your way out of me lying to myself!" The fire kitty charged at Cendy. "Kitty blast!" A bolt of heat shot at the strange, dark embodiment of his cousin.

Apparently the previously white knight and then embodied flame had gone through a "Dark" phase, like when Raiden changed all the lightbulbs in his house for Darklights. Or did Pyros do that to Raiden?

[Fenris]

The sprinkler systems went off in a preventative measure at the sound of Pryos's voice. Fenris silently thanked himself that he had thought to include that.

Everybody but Raiden got all wet. This made the bear hard to grab onto. Fenris thought quickly, and wrapped the bear around with one arm, waving the banstick with another.

Nothing happened. Until, out of nowhere...

A thread came barreling through the wall of the arena, hitting Fenris and the Bear closer to the center of the ring. Fenris had just been run over by a small building. And he was happy for it. He climbed back up, apologized to the bear, and watched Rhiya kill and maim across the arena and hoped that Rhiya didn't head his way.

[Mesden]

"Ah, target." Mesden mumbled to herself, spotting the 'Newbs' in the heard. With a confident stride she paced towards a point where she could intercept the enigmatic trio. Some bulbous, gray animal flew towards the position too, causing her to hasten her intentions, her legs pounding the ground at a breakneck speed while her poor sword skidded against the ground, leaving its blue trail as an obvious indicator of Mesden's target.

One gauntleted hand struck out to grab the red one by the cuff of his neck while her other hand grasped for the torso of another, she didn't care to which other color she was grasping. She wanted the red one eliminated first, because he was red like her and that just won't do. Meanwhile, her friendly dragon snuck away from her body and sped many times faster than Mesden had been charging towards the third and final target.

"Stick your tongue out at me..."

[Arhra]

Arhra had not been doing very much in the battle so far, feeling bummed out by the fact she'd gotten a useless cloak instead of something kickass like the Genocide Breaker Stick. Fortunately, the section of arena she was in seemed to be deserted, save for her which had given her the time to work out of her fugue and decide if she wasn't going to get a super-weapon, she'd have to make one.

Calling on Chaos, Arhra started a spell.

"I'd like a sniper rifle." Arhra declared, speaking to the world at large, "It has to come loaded and ready for use and it should be be reasonably portable. It would be nice if it was the kind of gun that can double as an anti-tank weapon. Could you get that to me as soon as possible?" Arhra asked, finishing up the spell.

She held out her hands hopefully. No kickass sniper rifle appeared. Arhra sighed - it had been worth a try. She would have to find another way to commit criminal acts of awesome.

Heading closer to the center to scope out the situation more, Arhra suddenly tripped. Grumbling about this making her look bad, she looked at the impediment that had foolishly decided to trip her.

It appeared to be a brightly wrapped present. She was certain it hadn't been there a moment before. It was suspiciously long and gun-like. Arhra pounced, kneeling beside it and tearing off the wrapping paper in an excited frenzy.

The last of it came clear, revealing the weapon beneath. It was of futuristic appearance and large and unwieldy appearance, longer than Arhra was tall. The words 'Arhratech KSR 9000' were etched onto it's side. Arhra hugged the gun to her, cradling in it her arms. "This... this is the happiest day of my life!"she cried, blinking back tears of joy.

Hefting the bulky weapon, Arhra immediately decided to put it into action. Her will was strong, her cause was true and her gun could shoot phasing bullets that create blazing kill-balls surrounded by gravity anomalies.

"I see you." Arhra murmured, sighting one of the Newbs through the targeting auspex.

As she traced his motion, three wedges of glowing light closed around him, trapping his image in a cycling triangular shape of ominous red.

Primary Lock Accquired. The message flashed up on screen, another message on the status screen flashing up, Reconfiguring ammunition payload.

A second set of targeting wedges appeared, this time a double set of green ones. "Ooo, multiple lock-ons." Arhra muttered, "I'm guessing that's good. It even adapts the bullets to its target!" They closed into towards one another, centering around the previously targetted Keyman as Arhra nudged the gun around, making the reticule pair converge. Rhiya, thankfully seemed to be staying near the center.

[PyrosNine]

"How MEAN!" Kitty Pyros hissed. He was wet, and wouldn't be able to become any of his other selves until he found a nice way to dry himself. Now he was but a poor kitten in the madness! THE MADNESS! And he was also wet...

WEll, maybe Cendy couldn't survive some cat claws?

"Kitty scratch!" It wasn't an attack name, but if Pyros was reduced to scratching his cousin to death with a kitten's claws, then he might as well yell something.

[Krylo]

Krylo took a moment when the fighting had moved away from him to catch a breather and reload his 44 with more armor piercing rounds. He slowly took stock of the battles going on about him and quickly focused his attention back toward the phoenixbot, and its two aggressors.

Snapping the gun back up he fired three bullets in quick succession, each one with pin-point accuracy. Of them two were aimed, one each, at the lower torsos of AB and Inbred. The armor piercing rounds would merely pass through their bodies and pop holes through their intestinal tracts. It'd hurt like a motherfucker, and make movement right hard--maybe even make them pass out--but it wouldn't kill them unless they were left for hours without medical attention.

The third bullet was aimed to striked directly phoenixbot's head, hopefully destroying the running copy of her AI--Krylo had no doubts that phoenix had her backed up about fifty times--or at least her sensory 'organs', if robot parts could be called that.

[POS Industries]

Several things happened during the course of this fight that went unnoticed by many:

Flare was caught off guard by RMB's assault, as the blow to the head disoriented her enough for the water attack to hurl her out of the ring and onto the floor outside before she could counter it. At around the same time, Nikose was launched out by Krylo.

A flash of light consumed their assigned weapons as Rei called out from overhead, "Nikose Tyris! Flare Cobra! Both are eliminated! Thanks for playing and enjoy our spa facilities! Toodle-loo!"

Both vanished simultaneously in a flash of light and they both suddenly found themselves in the most luxurious resort spa you could imagine. The boobtastic eye-candy provided by the spa's staff had them both drooling immediately.

Things didn't go so well for Ugainius, however. Two of Krylo's armor piercing rounds tore through his brain, and he slumped to the ground very shortly thereafter. "Ugainius has been eliminated," Rei called out as she looked glumly at the body and the pool of blood that was growing from it, "He requires immediate medical attention and possible disposal."

And with that, Ugainius and his assigned weapon flashed away to places unknown.

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

K36 stared into the sky, He couldn't help but think "That was a really good toss..."
Focusing his shields to cover his arms in an attempt to avoid broken bones, he raised his hands and braced for not an elephant impact.

[Inbred Chocobo]

IC started running. When Rhiya came a-coming, IC went a-runnin. Then IC was being shot at. Well, one shot anyway. Luckily for him, since he was already in the process of running, the shot merely grazed him, and not went through his intestines. Still though, that hurt. "Ow, freaking piece of crap." IC shouted to himself when he took it. But he kept on running.

Though he did run past the not elephant, and when the Wind Edge bounced of it, he caught it with a free hand, and went on. With a second weapon, IC had much better chances of winning. However he probably won't throw the Wind Edge now, considering it would boomerang to Krylo, and not him. But then again, that did have its advantages.

[POS Industries]

And so the elephant that wasn't landed squarely on top of K36. It seemed to be happy where it was at, and felt even more comfortable when the human-shaped hunk of metal under its butt vanished in a flash of light.

"K36 has been eliminated!"

The elephant let out a happy trumpet and enjoyed its place in the world.

[Fenris]

EDIT: The sprinkler systems went off in a preventative measure at the sound of Pryos's voice. Fenris silently thanked himself that he had thought to include that.

Everybody but Raiden got all wet. This made the bear hard to grab onto. Fenris thought quickly, and wrapped the bear around with one arm, waving the banstick with another.

Nothing happened. Until, out of nowhere...

A thread came barreling through the wall of the arena, hitting Fenris and the Bear closer to the center of the ring. Fenris had just been run over by a small building. And he was happy for it. He climbed back up, apologized to the bear, and watched Rhiya kill and maim across the arena and hoped that Rhiya didn't head his way.

Unfortunately, the bear did not apologize to Fenris. The bear reared back and gave Fenris a hefty slap across the face with its paw. Fenris was in a daze, and swung his sword wildly, accomplishing nothing.

The bear proceeded to pick Fenris up and carried him out into the black ring, and set him down, resulting in a ring out, before returning to the arena.

Meanwhile, Yakety Sax still boomed from the stands. A moderator had just been defeated by a bear.

That seemed about right. Fenris vanished to wherever Pedro deemed it.

[Demetrius]

Demetrius watched as the mayhem around him unfolded, there were suprisingly few fires considering how many people seemsed to thrive on the stuff. Still siting and considering how to piss off some cats, Demetrius began to hum a tune. It was off key and hurt anyone with an ear for music, but had its desired effect. Storm clouds began to churn over the arena and lightning flashed, quickly followed by a downpour that was so heavy it hindered any view beyond 25 feet.

"Much better," Demetrius laughed as he pointed his Gem at Raiden's immobilized form, "I think you've sat out enough, Boy"

The Gem turned into a copy of Raiden's bracelet and unlocked him from the thread he was hiding in.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

High above the camera's view,
Sees the arena in a mess.
A dragon's rampaging through and through,
Ignorant of non-violent finesse.

With a roar the dragon rose,
Upon haunches of black red,
Her eyes narrows and glows,
Glaring at the scene ahead.

"Who knocked him out of my hands?"
The great dragon rumbled.
"WHO?" she once again demands,
A thrash of tail and a thread tumbled.

Her tail, so spiky and frightful,
Swept behind her back.
Fury burned, and made her spiteful,
As she spun around to attack.

Her teeth found splintered wood,
Her claws lusted for punctured speen,
Her raging mind never withstood,
Her need for carnage keen.

The dragon turned by and by,
Looking for new prey.
And so, Demetrius she did spy,
And bore down on him amidst combat's disarray.

Her serpentine neck snapped down
In a lightning fast attack.
Her jaws sought for Demetrius' gown,
Past it, to the flesh on his back.

Claws came down slashing,
In full fury she roared.
Rhiya begins her thrashing,
Of Demetrius' vocal cord.

[Jeneralissimo]

"Greetings from the Pedrodome! It's been nonstop action here, folks!" Jen began. "We've already had a hurricane and a stampede, and some rather interesting cardboard boxes. That's right, you heard me, cardboard boxes. Everything is dangerous here."
"Several contestants have been eliminated, including a young man who apparently thought this was a hat show." Jen absentmindedly adjusted her wizard's hat. "Absolutely no clue how he got that idea. One of our female contestants evidently lost interest, which is hard to understand considering you might get eye strain trying to figure out what's going on here."
"At least one of our combattents has taken some pretty serious damage. We will update you on his condition as we hear about it."
"Animals have been a very decisive factor so far. One fighter was crushed by an elephant who is evidently a fan of Magritte, and a mod has just been carried out of the ring by the bear, who has finally woken up."
"Stay tuned, there's lots more to come from the Pedrodome. We're just getting warmed up!"
As soon as the camera turned off, Jen slumped back into her seat. "Man, I need a drink. This is exhausting. And I'm just watching!"

[Demetrius]

Down came the thrashing claws
Full of fury did they fall
falling down did they seek
Demetrius' song to end

And did his life they seek to rend
Fly and fall swift they did
missing wide the head they sought
flashin red with machabre thought

Stead in his place there stood
a cat, furry wet and sodden
mewling pitiful it looked upon her
'for the dreadful claws rebt out its life

Laughing loud and broad
Demetrius found mirth, laughter in gales
As Rhiya did sweep a scourge of red
deep and through the pussy's head

"Epic Dodge Bitch", Demetrius laughed as he sprinted into the maelstrom circling the arena and dissapeared from view.

[Inbred Chocobo]

IC was cooling off in the rain. No need to fight when he could get cleaned up just standing here. The wound he got from the gunshot looked like a good one. He might have to get that looked at later on. For now, a quick cloth tied around it, and it would do. Besides, IC was use to fighting through pain. He had trained in hell after all.

Now he saw Demetrius running. Now he should know better than to run while the floor is all wet like this. You never know what could happen. So as Demetrius came running by, IC stepped out of nowhere. (Well, he more like lept from the distant side.) And tripped Demetrius up. Well, wanted to at least. Maybe Demetrius would llke, jump over it or something.

[Demetrius]

"Eek!! Dude you've got a tail!" was all Demetrius had a chance to shout before he had to leap into the air to avoid IC's trip attempt. Dice came rolling out of his pockets as he sailed by...

"Mind letting me know how those turn out?"

[Inbred Chocobo]

IC looked down at a dice. "You really need to be careful with your dice dude." IC shouted back to him. He looked down at a D20. "1. Guess that was your check to survive." IC said to himself in humor, then gave the dice a nice kick, sending it like a bullet at Demetrius. The bullet came in dead on, striking Demetrius square in the back of the head. IC thought it looked like he knocked out his brains, but instead, he knocked out a couple cat ears.

"Huh, go figure." IC said. That must have been one hell of a kick, he had caused Demetrius to grow a cattail as well. Of course, what made it real funny was it had a striking resemblence to another cat IC could think of. "Well Demetrius, it was fun, I guess I'll cya after the tournament." IC said, and disappeared.

[POS Industries]

"They didn't turn out well at all," Pedro's voice came chuckling slightly over the public address system as Demetrius landed flat on his face.

[PyrosNine]

Pyros was out of the way of Rhiya's claws faster than you could say "Blammo!"

As a matter of fact, before you could even invisibly say " " ", Pyros was gone for cover, knowing that getting in the way of Rhiya was a bad thing, even if somebody had godmodded it by way of poem.

Fortunately, PyrosNine himself was so utterly awful at the art of slinging together poems, he could fail to heed their predestination attempts.

Annoyed that his attack at Cendy had been so rudely interrupted, Pyros sought to refind his target. It would be hard, as hard as it was to find a few dark wisps of cloth in a battlefield.

If anyone WAS to look back and see a dead burning cat where Pyros was previously, Demetrius claims to keep dead cats.

[PhoenixFlame]

Phoenixbot kept low, and deftly maneuvered around the larger mecha's eye lasers. A defensive roll here, a blinding flare there... A harrying slash at AB's legs, it was all mainly a defensive charade to attempt to stay alive while IC and AB attacked her, and Rhiya rampaged in the background.

*CRACK!* Suddenly, a custom .44 magnum bullet crunched through 66% of her forehead plating, stopping only on her warship-class eternium armored skull. Positronic matrices were nigh irreplacable, and although the metal cost more than the whole prize money of this tournament, it couldn't stop the hydrostatic shock of such a powerful handgun round. The android's head snapped backward, and she reeled in a similar fashion.

Luckily, it was just a handgun round.

Critical hit, Head
Critical hit, Secondary Gyro, Standby: Recalibrating EST Repair Time: 3 minutes, 53 seconds.
Critical hit, Primary melee targeting system, Status: Negative Function EST Repair Time: 3 hours, 31 minutes, 51 seconds.

Three text-based damage readouts poured down Phoenixbot's HUD, and her ethereal blade targeting reticule fizzled and began eratically blinking. Repairing the system would take too long, so Phoenixbot resolved to resort to ranged weapons for the duration of the melee.

Slinging the blade over her back, Phoenixbot reconfigured both of her arms into a hideous-looking array of electrically crackling prongs. Two per arm, like oversized tuning forks, the trained eye would have recognized a pair of "Thor's Hammer" light lightning guns. Taking a moment to fire-link them, Phoenixbot targeted Krylo's center of mass and began alternating weapons, discharging bolts of directed lightning at him.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

(RFS - Black, steaming, whistling.)
(RFS - exploding and reforming in a permanent repeated process)

"Oh, he did NOT just call me...!"
Rhiya-dragon's eyelid twitched just ever so slightly. Then her entire form exploded.

Well, not as much exploded as imploded. The sudden transformation was so... sudden that it created a temporary point of singularity that cratered the arena ground, before disappearing.

The smoke and debris cleared to reveal Wrath Manifest (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/56458574/?qo=1&q=by%3Asilent-murmer+in%3Ascraps&qh=sort%3Atime), Spiked arms glittering, water pelting off an invisible force field that boiled and screamed around her. She aimed the Flametongue at the heavens above, and let loose a column of white-hot fire and cleared her line of sight.

"Nobody Calls Me A Bitch Unless They Know Me Really Well." The voice raped across minds. Tore through the torrential rain and bore down on the weak-willed.

Wrath was gone, a blur of steaming air behind her as she came forward, unhindered despite her clothing style. Her spikes came down in a blur of motion, piercing through Demetrius' fallen body multiple times, all in deadly precision as they tore through each cartilage-connected tissue down his spine, sending jolts of agony through Demetrius as Wrath's Aura of Anger seared at his flesh. Finally, with a single, wicked wrench of her arm, Wrath Manifest tore out Demetrius' skull, somehow leaving his squishy organic insides intact within the skin of his now skull-less body.

"It Is Finished."

[Demetrius]

((OOC: Epic Dodged again, its been another round))

"Finished you say, Child of Wrath? You have yet to understand that which I have made my home in..." Demetrius stood in the air as though it was solid ground. Shuddering with released fury, Demetrius's ears laid back and his tail became bristly. The gem once held tightly in his hand fell to the arena floor. Slowly he raised his left hand until it faced Rhiya.

"Your fury grows to no end and the devistation you sow shall not last to the harvest, see the end which awaits you!" The arena is blanked out as a black/white light tears at the existance of Rhiya.

((You've angered an elder god... he appreciates humor and indulges those who do not seek the outright destruction of his chosen vessel, otherwise you made it angry))

[POS Industries]

((Bullshit.))

Demetrius, however immortal, wasn't immune to the unimaginable pain that Rhiya had inflicted upon him and passed out, dreaming coma dreams about epic dodging and elder gods.

Back in the world outside his exposed brain, Rei called out the results. "Bleh... Demetrius has been eliminated by KO, it seems," she stated squeamishly, "but he requires immediate medical attention. Obviously."

And so, the body vanished, though his skull inexplicably remained in Rhiya's hand.

[Krylo]

As the lightning arced toward Krylo he charged forward, simultaneously activating his rarest ability. Eldritch runes wrapped about his body as his skin transformed, becoming a dark blue color. His hair disappeared and his eyes seemed to be covered by some sort of translucent film.

The lightning struck his body, and the blue turned to red in a few spots where the lightning struck him--drawing gasps of pain from him as the super-heated carbon burnt his normal flesh underneath, though most of it, finding him suddenly very non-conductive, arced around his body.

He snapped up his arm and released three more armor piercing rounds toward PB's central body mass.

(OOC: Using his rune power to transfigure his skin into carbon nanotubes. I ripped the idea off of FMA totally and completely.)

[PhoenixFlame]

Noticing the sudden and quite rapid change from normal meatbag!Krylo to super carbon!Krylo, and the sudden ineffectivity of her Thor's Hammers... Phoenixbot ALMOST smiled.

Almost.

There wasn't time to revel in the sudden realization that her target was, indeed, crystalline carbon. Crunching the frequency required to shatter errant carbon nanotubes often found in mechawright laboratories, Phoenixbot rapidly recalibrated the weapon she had earlier used on Ungainus. Said speakers once again popped out of their shielding hatches in the woman's shoulders.

"PHONOMEZER!" SCREEEEEEHHHEEEEEESCREEEEHEHEEEEE!

Thus came the shout and subsequently horrible screeching sound that accompanied a tight-stream sonic disentigrator wave. Upping her secondary power, Phoenix temporarially shut down her T-hammers while preforming the attack for maximum effectiveness. Krylo's rounds DID hit her, as such a high power wave required energy from motion aswell as weapons. Fortunately for Phoenixbot, the bullets were temporarially destabilized by the high power sonic burst, tumbling and fragmenting moments before hitting her, causing light damage to the majority of her torso, making a mess of microweave uniform.

[Bailey]

The Keyman Newbs, having narrowly avoided getting squashed by not an elephant, was startled when Red and Blue were suddenly grabbed by Mesden.

Green, still in stealth/speed form, dove for the gem dropped by Demetrius, and acted fast, pointing it at the not-elephant. The gem and headband glowed, and suddenly each Keyman Newb was holding a gem, which promptly turned into a sign saying "I am not Newb." Hopefully, this would cause sufficient confusion to allow the next step, as Not-Green dove back towards the other two Keyman Newbs to finally make use of the escape rope, and teleport to the other side of the arena where it was a lot safer.

And just in time, too, as time finally caught up and teleported the gem, and the signs, away to someplace else.

Green immediately dove under a CARDBOARD box while Red and Blue began rushing towards Arhra.

[Krylo]

For a moment everything tingled, even tickled a bit, and then he couldn't move at all. Not even to cover his ears from the terrible screeching noice, or to wince. Krylo's entire body was quaking at a speed that seemed impossible, and it normally would have been, but his skin was vibrating extremely fast. Every molecule of his nanotube 'skin' shook violently, trying to break apart from the whole, until, finally, it did.

His skin shattered off of him, small flakes of crystalline carbon floating to the ground around him, as Krylo fell to his knees in a kind of pain he really, really, wished he could say he had never experienced before. Sometimes being immortal really sucked.

Every muscle fiber and blood vessel was completely exposed. He looked like one of those models you see in a science class room of the human musculature system, except this model was clapping his hands over his ears tightly, his forty four laying on the ground in front of him, with nothing but empty shells in its chambers.

[Inbred Chocobo]

IC saw krylo losing his skin, and it looked like he was about to lose. That mean he would lose the Wind Edge. Well, it sucked that he didn't get a chance to us it. Then a thought struck him, maybe it isn't too late.

IC reared back with it, then hurled it towards Krylo, since he was about to go out, IC thought to go ahead and give him his weapon back. He put in a lot of power with that throw too, hopefully enough to send kyrlo flying when he 'caught' it. Of course, you never knew what would happen.

[PhoenixFlame]

Phoenixbot aimed both of her Thor's Hammers at the prone Krylo, the weapons steadily crackling back up to their former full charge. Slowly, she advanced on the fallen Mod.

"Stand down, Krylo-san." The android coldly demanded, "I will not hesitate to mutilate your internal organs if you do not immediately cease and desist."

She almost looked sad... If a killer android could look sad, that is.

[Krylo]

Krylo's skin was already beginning to grow back, in the normal meat-bag propensity, as PB approached. However, the sound quieted, and Krylo could begin to think as the pain dulled and regeneration kicked in.

A quiet whirring sound caught his ears and he could see the wind edge flying directly toward him. He panted a bit and looked up at PB, listening to the whirr of the Wind Edge while seeming to concentrate intently on the android, waiting for the perfect moment.

"...No..." He leapt backwards, and the Thor's Hammers immediately fired, just as the Wind Edge flew between the android and immortal. Using the momentary cover Krylo drew both of his nine millimeter pistols and began unleashing as many bullets as he could toward the 'barrels' of the weapons. He knew his weapons were far too weak to do any real damage to the android proper, but he was hoping that a good shot could ruin the Thor's Hammers, at least.

Of course, the lightning still blasted him as soon as the Wind Edge had passed and his body twitched and smoked violently. Somewhere amidst the haze of pain he hoped that the bullets could take out the cannons before they took him out.

[PyrosNine]

The wrath manifest had emerged, a poor guy had his skull forcibly removed (He'd be fine. Nein had been without a skull for some of his first early years.) and Krylo'd been de-skinned. He didn't count him out though. Krylo killing you without his skin was not only painful to watch, but painful to watch as he hurt you without it.

It was time for Pyros to get serious. Now, to use his items of doom.

The bladees went off, and already Pyros could feel the effects.....Nothing. Nothing could harm him! Nothing! No-
http://www.acc.umu.se/~zqad/cats/1173277999-1172943100943.b.jpg
Okay....this would be a problem.

As it was, Pyro's psyche was split against himself, order versus-HEY SHUT UP! It's not bad! I"M FREE! I"M FREE!!!Huh? Whazzat? I'm your side of ORDER! And now, now I can bring about a world where everyone looks the same, and all thought is uniform! My thought! PURE ORDER! Hmm....wait. I thought I was the orderly one. I'm y'know, not typing in moose unlike certain other people.

SPORKjamarainan nictu! $see?4see? SOP dna IER! DAnier SOP! Make whirrled g0 ().

See? No. NO! I'm a PURE order. You're just some middle management compromise Lackey. Now, as a free man, I shall do what should have been done along time ago!

You didn't count on ONE thing, Order! What is that?

Pyros chucked the Edge of DAwn and burst of Twilight away, freeing himself from the massive sundering headache of earlier. That was messed up. He should have known better than to mess with any power that POS handed him. With the already tipping over balance restored to it's former self, he decided to go to plan b.

The numerous explosions had a pleasant effect for one Pyros Nine, blasting the water away and allowing his wet fur to dry. For as many would note, water not only inhibited Pyros's ability to shapeshift, but also inhibited his ability to spit fire, at least in the kitty form. Wet fur was everybody's worst enemy.

Licking the caked mud off his fur, Pyros felt as if it were time. Time...for people to die.

Pyros leapt up.

"Henshin-A-go-go, baby!" The tiny cat exploded, (Hey, everybody else's doing it! Like smoking!) and the flame that came out reshaped itself to a new form, with magically appearing armor.

Anyone who watched the shocking recreational documentary of ancient combat: "Aristigalde: The Bloody week", would find this visage familiar. It was none other than Kings who stood before them. Well, actually it was Pyros wearing King's armor, but the point was still there. Red hair, ancient armor of ass kicking, and quite possibly the show's popularity would rise again.

Assuming of course, both stations covering were legitimate, and one wasn't just running from stuff stolen from Gaia.

"Prepare for the Reign of Fire!"

[PhoenixFlame]

*Kshing, ktweur!* Several nine milimeter rounds richocheted off the fairly sturdy barrels of the paired T-Hammers, as they blasted away with the unerring accuracy typically becoming of arc weapons. Phoenixbot began a steady right circular strafing walk to keep the pressure on while presenting Krylo with a moving target.

A bullet pinged off her torso, and another off her left arm cannon, and another, and another... And one off the right, and then, with the probability of almost one in a million, one of the 9mm bullets intersected the kyon-ray "Painter" that directed the lighting at specific targets. Subsequently, Phoenixbot's right arm cannon shorted, and began arcing at various nearby targets.

Smirking, she angled her body to use the damaged right arm cannon as a shield to protect her as she blasted away at the beleagured mod with her left arm.

[POS Industries]

Sniffing the air, the bear caught the scent of fresh meat, human meat and blood that was still alive and warm! Oh, that's one of its favorite things ever! And so, the bear started running across the arena toward the source of the odor, which was the mostly-skinless Krylo.

However, before it could reach its tasty meal, a loud trumpeting sound caught its attention, and it turned to see the elephant charging toward it. There was something around the elephant's neck with some weird symbols on it, but the bear couldn't decipher it because bears can't read!

And so, the battle of bear and elephant began!

[PyrosNine]

"My god! It is a battle twixt a bear and Something that's not an elephant despite clearly being one! If I weren't trying to ruin family relations with my cousin, yet again, I would watch with glee, and make lucrid, dangerous bets! With rich people!"

Pyros stated, astonished.

"Now...wherefore art thou, Cendy?"

[Mesden]

After a failed clench of the Red Newb's throat, Mesden was left with granulated remnants of floor in her left hand. Tearing her wrist away from the ground, she turned, scanning the arena through what was left of Demetrius' down pour, and to her luck, she didn't actually see with eyes.

She picked out glowing silhouette after glowing silhouette, looking for the hollow spaces where the soulless Newbs existed. Some were more intense, like those of the 'gods' or 'incarnations', some had their own unique marks in the Ethereal space, such as Krylo's immortality and ever planar attached spirit. Then there was the strangest one -- A hollow shell of a robot wrapped around a confined, almost sleeping body of energy. Mesden dismissed it for later before finding her three targets, the triumvirate of hollow existence the took sport in mocking her and retreating. It had apparently been the fast one that removed the other two from her guillotine-esque grip, but she was convicted to making that all but temporary.

The unknown red metal of her gauntlets clanged, a rumbling wave of sound that shook the body of anyone near her as she snapped her fingers. What could be seen as no more than a thin red streak slowed as it encircled her body -- a serpentine, translucent dragon that wore the fiercest of expressions as it bared its fangs to the general mayhem about her.

Her body emanated the familiar blue glow that the dragon adopted, seemingly being pulled into the light as Mesden clenched the air in an invisible pain. But the pain and empty blue light disappeared, replaced by a searing red glow in her eyes -- eyes the same as her departed dragon compatriot.

After finishing preparations, Mesden used her newly acquired breakneck speed to traverse the entire perimeter of half the arena, tearing a blue and debris filled trail on her way to the Newbs. As she reached for them for the third time in one evening, instead of going for a direct grapple, she stopped, drove her foot into the ground, and with the flat of her foot, she tore up a chunk of the hard floor and tossed it into the air. Before the boulder could come close to returning to the ground, Mesden had destroyed it with an ungodly flurry of strikes, tearing it into countless little pieces that hurtled towards the Newbs.

With the time she could hold the dragon in her being fading, she dashed forward within the hail of stone bullets, her gauntlet opened and poised to strike the throat of the red Newb all over again.