NPF Avatars 5 - Getting Smaller

[POS Industries]

http://www.geocities.com/spaztronaut/smokey.jpg

[mauve]

Jen wandered over to Mauve and her cameraman. "Maybe I wasn't on the ball with raining pie, but I know about the Seaking." She whispered. "And while we're at it, I know about the stolen van and equipment as well. I can shut you down any time I want. And then this poor young man will be out of a job." She continued, looking at Ecurt. "If you ever want a real job, you know where to find me." And with that, she stalked off to her side of the press box. ((XD Ouch.))

Mauve was filled with BLIND MURDEROUS RAGE at the moment.

"Trying to blackmail us with all of our evil secrets! The nerve! Something that wicked belongs at NewsCorp!!" she ranted to nobody in particular.

Sure, she was angry, but she wasn't going to do anything she'd regret later. She was supposed to be a reporter, a professional. Sure she didn't have a big fancy studio, but stealing Gaia's van and broadcasting on their freqency in the pirate radio version of television was half the fun! But she was an adult, and she would handle this like a mature person.

"I'm so gonna slash her car's tires when this is all over," she declared. "Then I'll blame it on the FOX News girl." That anthropomorphic fox girl already had an unnatural fear of women in pink now, and Mauve didn't plan on letting her recover any time soon.

[PyrosNine]

"Damn! Damn you, SMOKEY THE BEAR! I'll see you dead yet!" Pyros was seething with rage at his nemesis standing before him.

Even so, he held onto Mime's head like a Ninja realizing his Genjutsu doesn't work on Pirate Zombies, and he left his exploding tags in his other pair of black tights.

"Hey, uh, Mime old buddy? Mind turning into something incredibly convenient that will both save our asses and vaguely follow the lines of a lame pun?"

[Red Mage Black]

'Latis, brace for impact!' "As you wish. But before do that I'll correct our path to keep us within the ring." Latis responded with before sending out a jet of water which worked much like the rocket boots idea. The landing wasn't soft but it wasn't anything he wasn't use to.

Black followed Krylo up only to jump and use the fire boots idea once more. Taking a few seconds to get up towards Rhiya's neck, Black looked at Arhra carefully.

"Krylo isn't the one you should be worried about." Instead of trying to get in close, Black transformed Latis into a giant hammer. Black lifted the humongous weapon and sent it crashing down upon Arhra.

[TheBlindMime]

A lame pun eh? Now the ball was in TBM's court, What always defeats Smokey, no matter how much Smokey prepares or plans for him..... And somewhere between the line of genius and stupidity (where TBM owned a condo) an idea appeared.

"I've got the answer snowman!!" TBM surprisingly answered up, despite being a dinosaur. But before anyone could question it he had changed again, Pyros fell helplessly into the smoke having to hand over complete trust into his mime companion.... which was a bad idea.

And yet, it wasn't. As the smoke cleared it left behind the one thing Smokey could never defeat, evah. It was a black trans am. Nearly identical as the one in the movie except this one had a Knightrider-esque console. "Hello Michael, please infer that our opponent is heavy set and short." KnighTBM asked politely.

Pyros was quick to answer the call from the driver's seat, "Oh I love your suits. It must be a bitch finding a 64 Extra Fat, and a 12 Dwarf."

"Good work Michael!" The wheels screeched to a start and the car sprang forward looking to mow the two bears down in one vehicular manslaughter.

[The Kneumatic Pnight]

The flaming thread collided powerfully into the back of Monty’s head and it snapped forward, throbbing with pain and heat. He whipped his head around, with a glare, to see who had done this, when he heard a snap behind him.

He turned his steely gaze towards Rhiya in time to see her swallow his claim. Rage boiled within him. First the one, and now the other... this was unfathomable. This could not be allowed!

“No one steals from Jörmungandr!” Monty roared, too angry to be bothered with serpentongue. At this, Monty dove quickly, sliding his hooded head under the diamond dragon and lifting up with all his strength. The Über-Longsnake lifted her longwise until she seemed to stand in the center of the Arena, flailing her wings uselessly until he pushed her over the edge of balance, and sent her reeling backwards.

“Now then...” he hissed, as he slithered back towards Pyros, intent on his next revenge.

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Raven watched Black’s transformation, dead set against stopping. Though, this might hurt a bit. She closed her eyes and waited... and waited some more...

Well, that wasn’t right. She opened her eyes just as she was about to hurtle into the stands. She maneuvered herself around in midair and began flapping her wings as fast as she could... which was pretty damned fast, if you wanted to get all technical, but it wasn't quite enough to stop her.

Fortunately, it was into this scene that Jane was about to 'respawn', as it were.

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Jane was just coming out of the bathroom. She couldn’t remember when she had gone in there, but that was pretty normal, right?

Right?

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Bjorn, who had been watching the fight silently for a while, rooting in particular for the death of that Raiden fellow, felt his ears perk up a bit. A mischievous smile formed on his face as he leaned over to whisper to the Murdochbot 9000.

He too smiled, and stood, rushing off with super-human speed.

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“Hay guyz!” Jane called down the stairs, waving as she descended.

She only made it down one-third steps when Raven slammed head-on into her, stopping Raven's flight. Jane flew backwards, against the stone steps, and Raven bounced forward and into the air, barely avoiding the ground.

Here, she caught herself and looked around in shock.

“Monty can talk?!”

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“Hi, Jane,” the Murdochbot 9000 yelled as he ducked quickly, under Raven and ran carelessly over the splattered remains of the woman he was greeting, and turned towards the press box.

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Raven watched Monty turn and make a mad dash, or, at least, as much a dash as a snake could make—though mad was assuredly correct—towards Pyros. Determined to help, Raven rose higher, and dove towards the flaming jerk.

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“Then I'll blame it on the FOX News girl.” Mauve’s words came just as the Murdochbot 9000, with his high speed and relative proximity, entered the doorway.

“Is that so?” he asked in an amused tone, determined to, if not accomplish anything, at least accomplish nothing.

[PyrosNine]

"Heh, seems like we've more than just a few things to bear for a while, huh KnighTBM?" Pyros pointed to the giant friggin snake and the angry girl who looked a bit like Rhiya, but didn't.

"Put her in gear and let's lead them on a wild ride! Also, don't call me Micheal. I'm not wearing a black leather jacket!"

Pyros stuck two fingers out of each of his hands and raised his thumbs out as well, to make them look like two guns.

Shooting out of the open window, he made potshots at the Bear, Smokey, Raven, and that damned snakey bastard child of Loki.*


*Facts about Pyros Nine: Aside from his hatred of Smokey the bear, Pyros also holds a deep grudge against Loki and his ilk, which Jörmungandr happened to be a part of due to a union of Loki and the giantess Angrboða. Pyros also dislikes Fenrir, and once nearly attacked Fenris for the similarity of their names. However, he didn't cause Fenris was a hobo and not a wolf, whom Pyros now calls affectionately "Fen-Fen."

[POS Industries]

...Bearing in his right paw the Shovel that digs to the truth beneath appearances; cuts the roots of useless attachments, and flings damp sand on the fires of greed and war;

His left paw is the Mudra of Comradely Display — indicating that all creatures have the full right to live to their limits and that deer, rabbits, chipmunks, snakes, dandelions, and lizards all grow in the realm of the Dharma...

- The Sutra of Smokey the Bear


Readying the shovel in his right paw, Smokey negated the destructive shots fired at him and the bear behind him by Pyros with his left and waited for KnighTBM to get just close enough before swinging the shovel at the car's hood, revealing the truth of TBM's identity and cracking against the mime's skull, sending him flying.

The shape-change spell broken, Pyros was thrown by his own momentum at the anthropomorphic fire prevention icon as Smokey prepared to dig his shovel directly into the fire angel's gut.

------------------------------

"Hey Pedro, want our help getting through this mob? We'll help if you give us our pants back."

Pedro continued to drag Jimmy the Scientist through the fembot masses, swing his costume cane about as he cleared a path. However, the deeper he got, the less room remained for him to swing. "Pants? I don't care about your pants.... Just bloody do something alre--"

"Pedro! Catch!"

Turning around to see what was coming his way, the brief distraction was enough for one of the fembots to land a solid tab to his chin, disorienting him enough for another droid to step between him and the airborne Irium, deflecting the projectile.

"I'm on it, boss!" Jimmy yelled as he dived after Irium, himself getting cut off from Pedro's protection.

"Oh... Fuck in a Ford Taurus!" Pedro groaned as he regained his senses and started beating his way back through the fembots to meet back up with Jimmy.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

Rhiya suddenly felt a breeze on her draconic belly, and, flailing madly to gain any purchase or balance, toppled backwards, taking Krylo, Phoenixbot, Black, and whoever the fuck else was on her back down with her in a shuddering heap, either squashing them relatively flat or otherwise impaling them into the earth.

The force of the flip sent Rhiya's body skidding, sliding just to a halt near the edge of the ring.

Rhiya let loose a howl of anger. Blasting the nearby stands with chaotic breath energy (half the pews became melted jelly, while two seats were teleported instantly onto the moon. The others just turned into a dozen rainbow doves that exploded in bloody sprays), before rolling to her feet (and taking anybody gummed up beneath her with her). She'd just had her Pie feast interrupted by that strange, monstrous animate snake. But it wasn't that that pissed her off most. It was the fact that Black was probably still around, despite the fact that she may or may not have squashed him right into the ground and then some in her toppling. She didn't care.

Rhiya was going to find the damned mage and eat him again, this time taking care to chew.

The gigantic chaos-diamond dragon thundered across the arena, in search of her prey.

[Red Mage Black]

Having to delay again, Black jetted upwards and watched the chaos dragon fall to the ground. What was amazing to him was the breath spewed across the stands taking out whoever was in its path.

Black tried keeping above Rhiya as she rampaged around the arena, most likely looking for him.

'Plan of attack?'
"Not just yet but I'll figure one out."
'It won't take her too long to find you.'
"I know that. A minute is all I need."
'Your fire probably won't work, she is made of diamond.'
"I wonder if I can cause it to get hot enough to possibly melt or weaken it hard enough to shatter."
'Is that your plan?'
"After heating up the skin enough it should be weak enough for me to shatter it."
'Good luck.'

Black positioned himself over Rhiya and dispelled the fire. He enveloped his body in flames and came crashing do towards her like a meteor. On his way down Black rained fire on a concentrated area around Rhiya. He hoped to land straight on her head.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

The fire splashed harmlessly around Rhiya, creating a cloud of fiery haze. The cloud of fire momentarily obscured Rhiya's massive bulk, despite the fact that she filled slightly more than a quarter of the arena at this point.

And through the cloud of flames, Rhiya's head came snaking upwards, jaws open, snatching Black out of the sky from his cometary collision.

With a mouthful of Mage, Rhiya gracefully, artfully brought her head about in an overhead swing, aiming to slam him hard into the ground, before repeating the process until Black was as limp as a ragdoll.

[Red Mage Black]

'Well that was graceful.'
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Think you can hold in morph again?"
'As you wish.'

Once again, Black was covered in a large jade blob, suspended in the liquid inside. As Rhiya hit the ground Black gently bobbed up and down inside his liquid armor. Tentacles lashed to and fro inside her mouth smacking the top and bottom violently. 'Release me you oversized lizard.' Black shouted in his mind.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

After hopefully knocking IC back into the air and away from himself, Hawk had gone back to avoidance tactics, which wasn't easy considering that over-sized chaos dragons were being tossed around before once again going on the rampage and various animals were still running loose all over the place.

Needless to say, Hawk was doing some quite impressive off-screen dodging and weaving until he could find a good target. And then, unfortunately, he noticed the sudden loss of weight from the hammer on his back. What the hell?! He reached over his back and realised the weapon was gone. Either Fenris wants me to lose, or for some reason he suddenly needs it. Neither thought gave him much comfort really, but when Hawk checked to see if the auto return function still worked for him, he found that it did.

Whether the dissapearing weapon would prove problematic for Fenris or not was of no concern to Hawk.

Dodging on oncoming Rhiya once again, Hawk ran into one of those various animals that everyone seemed to have forgotten about, namely, the horse. Seeing the benefits that a mount provided he quickly swung himself up onto its back and readied his halberd. And so it was that Hawk began charging around the arena on horseback, ready to skewer anything that got in his way... and right now, what was in his way was a stationary Raiden.

[PhoenixFlame]

"Very well, then." Phoenixbot responded to Arhra, from atop the chaos-dragon the three (four?) were riding, moments before it capsized. The physics behind a massive dragon requires that it fall over in a similarly massive fashion, allowing it's comparatively massive crew the massive amount of time to masterfully execute a massive escape plan.

Or, in Phoenixbot's case, continue rocketing across it's bulk, propelled by the unholy fusion of a chainsaw and a zipline. Rocketing past Rhiya's neck in a clearly vertical arc, Phoenixbot fired her maneuvering thrusters at Apogee to land squarely on Monty's the Uber!Longsnake's head.

"Target Lock." She said to no-one in particular, leveling her PPC at point blank range with the Uber!Longsnake's skull.

"Hasta la vista, baby!" Was the pre-programmed rhetoric for such a situation, right before the discharge of a point blank energy cannon into the snake's cranium.

[Demetrius]

"You know who was much more pleasant than these annoying robots? Raggy. She'd probably be helpful... Hmmm. I think you should try to be more like her, yup!" Demetrius was hovering toward Pedro and looking slightly piffed as fembots began to swarm him under. Snagging one of the fembots Demetrius kissed her square on the mouth, and - *Whammo* A furious copy of Raggy stood there, gun in hand and brasier full of bullets.

"Care to share your love and give us a hand?" asked Demetrius, who laughed, snagged another bot and repeated the proceedure, several times (recieving several full armed slaps as well).

"Fun and productive!"

The Raggetts began to scythe through the fembots in a hail of hot lead and deadly beauty, clearing an area around the NPFer's, even Newb.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

Rhiya didn't stop. Her head rose again, and she whipped around and slammed Black into the ground again. The tentacles pounded feebly at her oversized maw, trying ineffectually to stop her from what she was doing best - trying to get a meal.

Slam. The earth cracked beneath her onslaught.

Slam. There were dents in the arena floor.

Slam. The ground shook and shuddered from the force of each impact.

Slam.

Slam.

Something went *pop* in Rhiya's brain. Huh. Food in mouth. Black's a contestant, right? I just need to slam him into the ground outside the ring and he's out.

No wait. That means you lose your meal. KEEP AT IT GAL!

With renewed vigor, Rhiya brought up her onslaught on Black's protective little bubble-tentacle... thing, quickening her pace.

[Red Mage Black]

'She's not giving up.'
"Gee, you think?"
'What are you going to do?'
"Remember when this happened last time? That time she swallowed us but I'm hoping for the same result."
'Need me to do anything?'
"Not yet I'll give you the cue when to transform."
'Standing by.'

Since it wasn't getting him anywhere, Black decided on a bold move. He moved towards Rhiya's throat and looked down at the abyss. "Somehow, this isn't as easy as it was before." He jumped down hoping for the same result as before.

[TheBlindMime]

As TBM slid painfully across the stage he remembered something he had long forgot. Hey, didn't Smokey the bear use to be my god or something?

TBM ran down the stairs of his suburban home, it was so many years ago now. He wasn't even a mime in training yet, just a boy looking for faith. "Hey mom, dad! I believe in Smokey the Bear!"

Mother and Father Mime: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

As TBM tried to figure out why his proudest memories of his parents always had them scream 'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!' like when he mentioned he wanted to be a mime. He was probably just mistaken about what happened.... yeah.... mistaken thats it.

Just then memory of being struck in the hood of his... head in car form came shuddering back. Oh he did not diss the bandit car! TBM was onto his feet before he realized there were four of them. I'm going to kill you smokey the bear, then I'm going to light your favorite forest on fire for kicks! You hear me! Do you!

Smokey while not completely avoiding the sight of TBM seemed to give no care to his threats. Hey! Can you hear me or not you stupid bear?... Why doesn't it sound like I'm talking? TBM looked down reflexively to check on himself, first and foremost like most men he needed to make sure his genitals were still there. He then saw two orange furry paws in front of him. Oh... cwap.

He was a small orange fox now, Smokey had indeed cut to the truth of TBM with his mighty magic shovel. Even TBM had no idea he had to be a spirit fox to have the foxes powers. "FUCK YOU SMOKEY THE BEAR! FUCK YOU!"

TBM willed these words to be screamed at the top of his lungs, but they did not come out at all the way he expected, they were accompanied by a shimmering blue light that was a bastard mix of fire and lighting, I can fox fire? bitchen! TBM hoped that at least this might do something to that damn Bear, his religions barely a religion. Some days TBM wondered if it wasn't just a money making scheme, Lord Xenu fire god in space was a hard pill to swallow.

[Fenris]

Fenris was just about to receive his hammer, when it suddenly vanished. "Oh shit." Fenris spun his sword around and pulled out his banstick.

"Don't. These. Things. Ever. Stop. Coming?!" Fenris shouted, having easily destroyed over 300 of them by now. Fenris waved his banstick and another thread barreled through, clearing out debris and killing several of the fembots.

Fenris had to fight his way closer to Pedro, if he was going to be of any use at all. The other fembots, however, did not seem to want Fenris to help Pedro shut down the auto replicators. Fenris cracked one across the head with his banstick, causing her to explode.

"That's new. Me likes."

[Arhra]

OOC: Since I already had this mostly written when RMB posted... screw it! I'm doing it anyway!

As Arhra wheeled and dealed with Phoenixbot and Krylo, RMB followed Krylo's path up Rhiya's tail, activating his fire boots trick again and then jetting at Arhra, swinging a giant hammer-Latis at her.

"Can you not take a hint?!" Arhra exclaimed, dodging to one side, hand raking out and sliding over the hammer as it passed by, touch siphoning energy from Latis.

It was then that Monty headbutted Rhiya in the belly, forcing her up and toppling backwards. Feeling the reasonably horizontal surface beneath her, suddenly changing to vertical, Arhra turned and got moving. Running practically on all fours as she scampered spider-like up the shifting slope, Arhra got over the shoulders. Essentially trying to remain on what was closest to horizontal at that moment in time, Arhra finished up on Rhiya's chest when the excessively proportioned dragon hit the ground.

She grabbed a convenient spiky bit and hung on for dear life, using the almost forgotten wisp of chaotic magic she'd called up before to simply wrap around another protrusion as Rhiya skidded along the ground. If the arena wasn't so open and empty, surely that sort of impact would have caused some impressive damage to the place.

"This is somehow your fault. I am going to shoot you now. With bullets." she told Black grimly, despite him not being near. It was more for her benefit. With Rhiya breathing chaos over some of the stands in a tantrum as she slowly clambered back to her feet, Arhra quickly repositioned herself back on Rhiya's back, where the neck began.

A spot of rampaging later, Black tried to attack again, this time opening with a cloud of flames over much of Rhiya's body. Arhra sat in the middle of it, looking angry and concentrating. Flame that touched her simply was snuffed, Arhra draining the energy from it, fortunate she was strong against more diffused attacks like this.

Black made like a meteor and Rhiya swallowed him, then trying to slam him against the floor, like a thrush trying to crack open a snail when Latis encased him again.

"Uh, Rhiya? Let me try something." Arhra said, "I have a... uh... nutcracker here." She unslung the KSR 9000 from her back, pointing it up at Rhiya's large head, sighting through the scope, "Hold very still."

She could see through Rhiya, inside her mouth to where Latis was tethered into place by ropes of her jade green substance, the central blob they all tied to still swaying about from Rhiya's attempts to dislodge and crack it. Black had probably been shaken silly by it. A tweak to the auspex and she could see inside that too, a cocoon filled with (presumably breathable) fluid, Black suspended within.

The muzzle of the KSR 9000 swayed side to side, in imitation of the motion, making the primary target lock neatly bracket him. She was shooting at a person enclosed in a tight space that, itself, was inside another confined space. It would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Arhra worked out the equivalencies as roughly being this:

Black - Fish
Latis - Barrel
Rhiya - Truck the barrel is being stored on?

"You should know, I don't have to lock on three times to fire this thing." Arhra politely informed her target, precisely one fraction of a second after pulling the trigger.

Another pale streak of flame that vanished to nothing within a meter, payload sent on its cross-dimensional trip to Black shooting. Inside Rhiya's mouth, right inside the protective cocoon Latis had created for Black - if Arhra had gotten her aim right - said payload unphased.

The bullet travelled the further few inches it had to, then detonated on reaching the target space. Rhiya's mouth was now home to a shortlived ball of destructive energy, surrounded by an violet field designed to pull unfortunates into the center.

Unfortunately for Arhra, RMB chose this approximate moment to try and put his own plan into action. The timing was so close, it was difficult to see what would get him first - killy energy or Rhiya's throat.

This time though, Arhra hadn't thought of the practicalities of bracing against the recoil of one's oversized weapon, being aimed upwards at a high angle, while standing on the unstable footing of the back of an oversized dragon she had just created a reasonably violent gravity effect inside the mouth of.

"Curse you gravity!" Arhra cried, feeling herself begin to fall backwards, "You win this round!"

[Nikose Tyris]

Nikose, after his initial electrical wave subsided, and his senses had returned, shook himself vigorously. "Right, okay. Nenyel, Monofillament Whip." And there was a whip in his hands.

"WH-CRACK!"

all 6 that had been near him fell in half, twitching and sparking. Nikose grinned, then flicked his whip upwards, taking out the light that was above him- and suddenly, he vanished entirely.

[Inbred Chocobo]

IC had used Hawk's attack as another kickoff point. He was liking these aerial attacks, so instead of pushing enough power to possibly break Hawk's weapon, he pulled back, and used Hawk's swing as a kick off point to go back into the air. This time though, he saw his target, and hopefully he would be able to do something about it.

He started falling towards Smokey. Of course, he made himself fall a little slower, but it was because he had a plan. He had caught sight of Raven falling towards Smokey and the bear, and was aiming to take him out. IC thought that following up her attack and striking them both would be a good manuever, even if it resembled his attack.

So IC fell, slowly at first, allowing Raven to gain some distance, then he came in right behind her, sword ready to strike just a split-second after Raven had made hers. And hopefully, it would take her out, along with that bear.

[Red Mage Black]

Black reached a point he liked in Rhiya's throat before enacting his plan.

'Latis activate!'

'As you wish.'

Thy suddenly stopped, Black suspended once more in his liquid armor. Spikes sprouted from Latis sticking to the walls and blocking the colossal dragon's throat.

"Choke on this!" Black shouted looking down through the water and to the blackness of her throat.


'Lets hope this plan actually works.'
'Who do you think trained me?'

[The Kneumatic Pnight]

Where Monty had once stood, there was a flash of white, blue, and an explosion. But something was wrong... a bit askew. Queer if you will.

Monty was gone. Just vanished. The Über-Longknife, however, sat motionlessly on the arena floor.

Once the flash died down, the culprit was clear. A SepT confinement beam, an obscenely large one, filled a mass of the arena and a slew of white, sparkling ‘particles’ were milling pointlessly around the beam before it thinned and vanished, like a closing spotlight.

“Incidentally, Roboflop, you shouldn’t speechify before you shoot. It gives the faster of us time to react,” KP Morgan corrected in a smug voice, before saluting PX-05 and vanishing in a SepT-Beam of his own.

Unfortunately, Pyros’s fiery potshots were still heading for where Monty’s head had once been.

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Somewhere up in the Etemenanki, a confused, newly-separated Monty looked around in confusion.

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Raven threw her hands in front of her face to block Pyros’s potshots. She thanked the goddess silently for the Fire Shield that was still protecting her.

She pulled up in midair and came to a stop, glaring down at Pyros, watching as his car—and he himself—were accosted by a shovel-wielding bear.

Daymn that was weirder than her.

Still, that wasn’t enough punishment for him, but her attacks were divine. She’d have a hard time affecting him. So she hovered, watching and thinking.

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Jane woke up in a scene she had not been in before. To her, however, she was just walking through a door. The fact that she couldn’t remember what or where was hardly unusual to her.

The room seemed to be some sort of spa. A particularly fun spa, from the look of it.

Jane kicked a robot. Not for any particular reason, she just enjoyed kicking robots.

And it exploded too. “Yaaaaaaaaaay!”

It was about then that Jane caught a whiff of the thoughts floating around the room. These weren’t funny.

Okay, they were a little funny.

She pulled a cell phone out of her camouflage pants and used a speed dial.

“Boss, I think you need to come see this.”

“Not now!” KP snapped back, “I’m examining my snake.”

“Eww!”

“Oh, for God’s sake! Leave me alone!”

Jane shrugged and put the phone away. More for her then.

She kicked another fembot. It exploded, too.

[Melfice]

Melfice had been pounding on more and more fembots.
He was currently taking abuse of a bottleneck situation, in which he had used Indori and had changed him into a sort of moving shield.

It involved a large rotating spike of sorts with ridges. It was an idea of Indori's and was being been very effective in "disembowelling" the fembots.

"I grow slightly tired of this. Pedro, sir? Where is this power switch? I am sure Indori can dig us a way there, using this shield. You will find it is quite effective."

He decided to change the shard into a rapier and proceeded to cause more onslaught, fighting his way towards their host.

[Demetrius]

Demetrius strode toward Pedro in a cocoon of Raggies, converting the odd fembot that managed to make it through to him.

"As much fun as this is, I am having fun mind you, and for the entertainment I do humbly thank you, which way is the power switch and what does it look like, I would like to finish my massage." A Raggie hearing this broke off from the others and began to massage Demetrius' shoulders...MMmmmm...

[Fenris]

Fenris did a juggling act that likely should not have worked. He switched the banstick into his right hand, and the sword into his left. He hit more fembots in the skull, causing more explosions, which took out other Fembots. He put away the sword, and willed his boomerhammer back to him again. He threw it, taking out more fembots, and slammed the banstick on another bot that was behind him.

He was starting to get a little singed, but it was all in good fun. He threw the hammer again, decapitating several of the fembots. He started to use three weapons at once, putting the sword away when he was about to catch the hammer.

It was amazing how the Halo multi-weapon system worked.

[PyrosNine]

(before the fox fire incident)
Pyros took the shovel in hand, and proceeded to do a 9.9 vault, then dismounted with a spinning flip that landed perfectly, winning adoration in the hearts of millions. Then, he proceeded to take the only logical course of action. Grab mime-

"Run awaaaaay!"

And bolt!

Hopefully, the raging chaos that was following Pyros in Giant Snake form would keep Smokey busy while Pyros formulated a new plan....

(during fox fire incident)
"Okay darlin, mes pattes ah goin’ back there, so I can sacrifice m'self to appease the bear's anger, and become his bride. Maybe even have a slowly diminishing lovelife that favors neither of us, and we both end up killin' each other with large fashionable, ceremonial Japanese knives!"

Putting her hand to her forehead and her other hand over Mime's mouth, she continued her drama. "No! Don't you speak! Don't try and argue, telling me not to throw my life away so! Do you remember that time...in Rio? Of course darlin, I only told you it was Rio, you being blind and all, and now that ah'm thinkin' bout it, it may have been Reno....but as we watched that man bleed ta death, I swore that I would never, NEVER! let chu die by getting mauled to death by bears! Even them, antypro-morphin time ones."

Asheth stood up, away from the possibly sleeping, unconscious, or fully awake mime (She could never tell. Kitsune's eyes were always closed) and turned to face her destiny and walk towards it.

Then she turned around and sat down again.

"I s'pose, after much recollection, that ah'm really not in ta gettin' married just yet. Specially to bears. Couldn't have matchin' rings or anythin', cuz he gots big paws and I've got sweet lil fingers. Reckon we need another plan?"

Asheth looked over her shoulder and cackled in a way that could kill small animals and dark alternate futures if the volume were turned up higher.

"P'raps, a dee-version is necessary, eh darlin?"


In a move of his own fox magic, a trio of spectres emerged from the smoke of the battlefield, lurching slowly towards the Bear duo. Mostly Smokey.

Smokey the bear could only watch with horror as Hoppy the rabbit, Dam the beaver, and Up the woodchuck lurched before him, each moaning with every sickening step. Their bodies were hideously warped, their fur had been burned off (Hoppy suffered the most fur loss) and their eyes were white with death. Bones and muscles were visible through what remained of their flesh, and showed signs of char and soot.

"Smokeeeeeeyyyyy!" "SMOOOOoooookeeeeeeey!" "Why didn't you save us....SMOOOoookeeeyyeeeyy!?"

They lurched closer and closer to the fire fighting bear and the non fire fighting bear, the smell of burnt flesh becoming more and more odious.

"You swooooore to protect us from forest fires! But you couuuullldn't stop them all, Smoookeeeeey! While you were busy telling some kids to stop forest fires, you failed to stop the forest fire....THAT claiiiimmmed US!"

"Why.....smokey? Whyyyyyyyy? Didn't you care for ussssss?"

[TheBlindMime]

Every word she spoke was true, TBM was never sure if it was Reno or Rio but they had watched that man die together. Asheth etching his final moments in perfect clarity with her wondrous lips. And though it pained TBM to even let the thought cross his mind, deep down he knew there love could never be. Reaching deep to the depths of his unknown power TBM pulled forth everything he had to strengthen his attack. His hatred, love and sorrow all combined in his heart and the fox fire showed all of this. The flames burned hotter, the lightning grew brighter and all of it burned with the passion TBM held for the women he could never have.

I <3 you Asheth...

Smokey could feel the impending wrath of a Kyuubi scorned as the magicked flames reached him.

[POS Industries]

AB was able to put her rifle up just in time to avoid being cleaved in half by Mesden's attack, but the force of the soul goddess' blow was enough to send the fanservice battler tumbling backward out of the ring, onto the black outer area and vanishing in a flash of teleporter light.

"Armored Bishoujo has been eliminated by ring out! And has been sent to the spa where I assure everyone the isn't a deadly horde of zombie-like supermodel robots attempting to kill everything in sight! That would be silly, of course.... Hey look, the arrow's slowing down again!" Rei announced to everyone.

----------------------------

Meanwhile, Smokey stared horrified at the summon spectres of his lost forest friends. Shaking, he glared past them at Pyros, dragging his shovel along the ground as he moved toward the rather self-satisfied fire deity.

"How dare you?" Smokey growled, "I never thought you could sink so low. Yes, I remember leaving the forest to go teach human children the basics of fire prevention. They were safe and warm in their little woodland dwellings. They were happy..."

http://media.bluedistortion.com/smokey-the-bear.jpg

"...When I returned, however, they weren't so happy. A massive blaze had torn through the forest and ended them all. I couldn't believe... how could a forest fire move so fast? I'd never quite seen anything like it..."

http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/bear.jpg

"...I buried my fallen friends and vowed never to rest until I found the one responsible for that inferno. I searched and I searched, looking over ever charred bit of ash in that forest, and then I finally pieced it together. I finally found the culprit. And it was you!"

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o159/posindustries/smokey2.png

As Smokey continued moving toward them, the rage seemed to dramatically increase his fire suppression powers, to the point where it seemed like all the heat in the area was being suppressed. As he began to charge toward Pyros, an icy rain began to fall over the arena.

"ONLY I CAN PREVENT YOU, PYROS!!!"

----------------------------

Elsewhere, the roulette finally came to a stop over Raiden, who looked up from his tea just long enough to see it before flashing away to the spa of death. The red arrow started moving again, but suddenly a blue arrow also appeared, moving about over the heads of the other contestants.

"Raiden has been randomly eliminated!" Rei called out, "And with four elimination left before the end of the match, it looks like the second phase of the lightning round has begun! This blue roulette arrow will occasionally stop over the head of one of the combatants and issue a random power up to the lucky target! Enjoy!"

[PyrosNine]

"What? That is a damned lie! Yet another time I'm innocent of such charges, yet my demeanor and previous offenses immediately makes everyone assume it was me!" Pyros fumed, while actually still in his Asheth form. To anyone seeing the male red voice coming from the normally hotpink speaking body, it was awkward. But it was a sign that PYros was flustered enough to be honest for once.

"I'll have you know, it was some boy named Billy! Who, like me, enjoyed setting fire to things. Fireworks even. And on that fateful night, he lit up the infamous 'Diablo Grande' firework, which promptly exploded, blew off his arm and leg, and set fire to the forest!"

"I even have an alibi! I was with Raiden at the time, killing things indiscriminately on Zimbabwe, because we'd done Antartica not too long before! You can just ask him! He's right over.....well, fark."

Asheth/Pyros then decided to go to plan B.

"Hey look! Mime's attacking you, and you didn't notice it!"

[TheBlindMime]

(OOC: how am I supposed to follow the most hilarious use of Smokey the bear pictures ever. How I ask you. By taking a crap load of liberties thats how!)

TBM’s last attack had been snuffed out by Smokey, just as the sutra’s foretold. Pyros was in danger now, real danger, not that lame fake danger that’s highly reminiscent of an army of fembots. Actual forestry danger. In all the time TBM had studied the sutra of Smokey the bear when he was a Smokeyst, he never found one psalm nor verse upon forgiveness. Only tales of wrath and vengeance, when Smokey confronted an enemy he would do one thing in response.

HE WILL PUT THEM OUT.

TBM couldn’t let that happen, he had to do something… anything. Could he take Pyros’ place in battle? No, despite his rage Smokey would be to astute to fall for that trick. What of turning into armor and covering Pyros, that would assuredly be defeated after the first strike. Then what? A devilish glare came into his cloudy and unseeing eye.

The orange blur that was TBM shot across the field and onto the aoe’d icy field, his movements deft and quick like a ninja on crack. Not just any crack though, super ninja crack. Skidding side to side just before Smokey he drew a quick attack from his opponents trusty shovel. Dodging effortlessly the tiny fox sprinted up the shovel and leapt past Smokey snapping savagely at his hip along the way. TBM even fluttered his tail behind him as Smokey made a casual swing with his mighty claw.

Smokey would have moved for a second swing as TBM hadn’t continued his run, it was obvious he wanted Smokey to attack him instead. Smokey don’t play that, he moved back on his attack path towards Pyros, just as TBM desired. Sprinting across the icy path with the silvery string of his yo-yo dragging behind him as he gripped the metal object in his mouth he made his way to the one who started his troubles with Smokey. The BEAR.

Finding the BEAR doing his usual munching on blueberry pie thing, TBM let out a vicious snarl from his throat being careful not to lose grip on the yo-yo in his mouth. The BEAR rose to his feet in anger, TBM leapt towards him with the obvious intent of hitting his chest. The BEAR reached his paw back to swipe and TBM transformed before the bear into his yukata wearing form. Leaping above the BEAR’s massive swing from the sudden smoke which bizarrely acted as a platform TBM let loose a quick spool of line from the yo-yo. Three loops of the silver thread surrounded the BEAR’s unprotected head then fell to his neck, as he landed behind the BEAR and with all his strength yanked back on the cord.

The resulting yank drew the BEAR’s leg up, TBM was quick to take this opportunity as well quickly transforming into a giant ball and rolling under the BEAR’s legs. “SMOKEY! YOUR VENGEANCE OR YOUR WOODLAND CREATURES!!!” TBM was really surprised he could speak, transformation powers rocked.

TBM was living on a prayer now, garroting a bear, let alone the BEAR was never plan A and rarely if ever did it make the plan B cut. TBM had to hope the protective necklace didn’t activate and further hope that Smokey did indeed value the lives of all woodland creatures, even over vengeance for the ones who’d moved on.

As Smokey turned to eye the threat he would see the silver thread beginning at his belt and leading to the BEAR. "I'LL REMOVE HIS HEAD BEFORE YOU CAN REMOVE THE LINE!" It was the move of a desperate man and all the women TBM had dated could confirm, he was a desperate man.

(ooc: to summarize, BEAR is now on a balancing ball with a very threatening garrote wire around his neck. TAKE THAT SIR! with your hilarious picture usage. seriously I'm at work and I almost got in trouble for that one. Good work.)

[PhoenixFlame]

"Piff!" A few poorly aimed firey potshots grazed Phoenixbot as she descended from the now-missing Monty's head. It'd taken her mildly addled processor a few moments to decipher what had actually happened, but it was apparrent someone had teleported the snake out of the arena. Mmmh, tastes like fishy.

She didn't bother leaving KP Morgan any going away presents, as she'd never met him before, and didn't care to. The battle, like the snake she was earlier firing at, was far too chaotic for first impressions.

Primary Objective Complete, Prevent Operation Supersize from Continuing

Now with Monty gone, it would take Rhiya far longer to fill the arena to a critical level, giving Phoenixbot time to select a new target. Taking several moments away from the battle to repair her PPC arm to full capacity, the combat android slid the targetting reticule over the hovering Raven. After all, she was the most likely of KP Morgan's goons.

"Beep! KZRT!" And so, from beneath Raven streaked a supersonic packet of superheated particles.

[Bailey]

"Fine, but you better give us our pants back later."

The three pieces of Keyman slashed their way easily through the hordes until they were in position, surrounding Jimmy.

"You two ready to try for a tripletech?" "It's not a tripletech when we're all the same person using the same spell. It's a tricast." "But the spell is in a fundamentally different form from how it is when we cast it individually..." "Oh, who cares what it's called? Let's just get on with it." "Right then."

The three pieces each began to glow in their respective colors, and then the colors began to blur together in some sort of fearsome aura of magical power. For a few instants, it seemed as though there were far more than three of Keyman; one for every conceivable color.

"Penultimatum SHOCKWAVE!"

Every Keyman strucl their keyblade against the ground at the same moment, and a boiling wave of prismatic energy flared up around them, rolling away and clearing away Fembots with ruthless efficiency.

Then the wave struck Pedro.

Given that the Keyman Newbs were currently super-attuned to fighting Fembots, as evidenced by the fact that mere numbers could not contain the amount of damage inflicted to them and Keyman had to resort to letters as well, the amount of damage dealt to Pedro was barely noticeable, but it DID mean that their chain counter was reset, meaning that even though the wave continued until it met the wall, it was dealing barely any damage to the Fembots after that.

It would have caught back up to the amount of damage it had been doing previously, if not for the fact that there were several other NPFers interspersed among the crowd.

The Keyman Newbs had cleared a sizeable area around Jimmy and opened the path for Pedro... at the cost of nearly all their MP and most of the momentum they had built up.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Barely inches away from stabbing the god of thunder through the chest, Hawk watched in great dissapointment as he suddenly vanished. Curses, foiled again! I always wanted to spill the blood of a god, and I would've gotten away with it to, if it hadn't been for that meddling arrow!

Bringing the horse up short, Hawk scanned the room for new targets as well as doing a quick head count on the remaining npfers. Just 12 of us now, well, let's cut that number down some more shall we?

It was then that a localised icey shower drew his attention and the site of Pyros being accosted by a seemingly fire-proof Smokey the Bear, as well as a mime trying to throttle the BEAR.

Seeing the chance for an ambush that might just turn the tide of this battle, Hawk slid away his sword and leapt from his horse, transforming as he went.

"Mesden," a single private telepathic message went to the goddess, "I believe we have some unfinished business with Mime, and I see an opening, care to assist?"

That was all the time he had for a message and he had no time to wait for a response as he quickly willed himself back into human form and hit the deck running, the Ascalon flashing out as he came up behind Mime at an ultra-quick pace. The blade in his hand swivelled around as Hawk altered his grip accordingly for his immenent attack, both hands clenched upon the hilt and the weapon itself slung low, aiming upwards at a steep angle.

He came with in range and struck, thrusting forwards and slightly upwards. If Mime didn't move, he would be impaled through his lower back and with any luck the BEAR would suffer a blade through the chest, leaving Pyros to deal with the overpowered Smokey alone. And if the BEAR became a problem or if Mime somehow miraculously survived, then hopefully Mes would provide the assitance needed to eliminate them at last.

[PhoenixFlame]

Meanwhile, as all of the NPFers fought for their lives, Phoenix walked in the steady swathe of devestation following behind Pedro, like a small ship caught in a much larger's engine wash. She looked almost serene as she began to take on the role of the party support mage.

"Saner!" Phoenix yelled, raising her hand device once more, and every nearby NPFer was engulfed with a rapidly rising, flicking blue/white fire that enhanced their alacrity.

"Party's AGL sharply rose! Flickered across the ticker-tape running across the spa and the ajoining corridors. Carefully hopping over a fallen fembot with her newly-enhanced speed, Phoenix immediately began her second spell.

"Deban!" A series of blue energy shields suddenly materialized in front of each NPFer, signalling their defense had been increased. Well, if she couldn't get a space to shoot, she might as well help out, right?

[TheBlindMime]

TBM had expected something like this, the rumor in NPF City had always been 'join in the Avvy Tourney and you'll get stabbed in the back'. So when he put himself into the shape of a defenseless ball he'd expected this rather quickly. But from war incarnate? War incarnate isn't supposed to stab you in the back while your prone, cowards and villains do.

Though cowards and villains also garrote people so TBM had very little ground to roll on here. Just before the strike reached him he pulled out the final ditch effort he could in this position, he transformed again. Bet you didn't see that one coming, total surprise! I keed, I keed, it wasn't so much the flaring of rank smoke appearing was a surprise it was the fact when the smoke cleared the BEAR was still standing on a ball.

Hawk struck hard and true, but was rewarded with no death rattle or scream of agony from TBM. Only the shuddering of Ascalon in his hands, TBM had turned into a solid ball of that near mythic material; Adamantine. TBM knew of its properties due to a very bitchy high school teacher. It turned out he was right, science is fun. It seemed Hawk had not the abilities of Smokey, TBM's illusion held true.

Unfortunately while he was defended ably by being in a sphere and made from Adamantine, Hawk's strike had caused the ball to roll back, tightening the line from both ends. Hawk! You've killed us all! TBM thought dejectedly as he felt the line go beyond taut.

I hope Smokey kills you first so I can watch.

[Inbred Chocobo]

IC saw Raven stop in mid-air, when she was just moving to strike. He swung at her as he went by, but at best he could hope for a graze. It didn't matter though, after IC had cleared past her, he saw PF taking some shots at her, hopefully that will keep her down.

Instead, IC focused on the bear & co. group. Then he saw a big pillar of adamantine. It would make a decent club, so why not! IC thought to himself, and adjusted his fall pattern to slam into it. When IC would strike it, he planned on swinging around on it, pivoting on the ground was his feet were down, then swinging the massive pillar in a circle, taking out the bear, the horse, and Hawk all at the same time. Of course, IC had to grab the TBM first, and who knows if that will work.

[Krylo]

As the massive dragon tipped backwards Krylo cursed out an, "Oh fuck," under his breath, and began running sideways toward the edge of Rhiya's back, leaping off just before she impacted the ground, the shockwave of her impact following after his body in a dramatic move like something straight out of an action movie. An action movie with giant chaos diamond dragons, that is.

As he hit the ground, barely staying within the ring, he rolled and came to his feet, slowly taking stock of the new situation. Rhiya had barely avoided a ring-out, which was good for the spa people, but bad for him. However, the giant snake thing was taken out by PhoenixBot and that meant he wouldn't have to worry about Rhiya so much anymore. He really wasn't entirely certain how he was going to beat her, anyway, he just figured his abilities made him rather resistant to her chaos breath so he'd have the better time of it.

Either way, he no longer needed to fight her, and so he looked about for another target, as he caught Wind Edge once more.

It was about then that he noticed PhoenixBot taking aim at the being called Raven.

He went down on one knee and began aiming. He took slow deep breaths, calming himself and blocking out the battles raging about him, and then, as Phoenix fired, so did he, releasing his breath as he did so.

Bang. One perfectly aimed hollow point flew forward toward Raven's chest.

Bang. Another bullet moved through space toward her chest, for the double tap.

Bang. Yet another projectile moved toward the thing's forehead.

Then Krylo spun his torso, aiming toward the distracted smokey, firing off his last three hollow point rounds in a similar pattern before ejecting the empty shells and quickly reloading with armor piercing rounds.

The forty four slid back into its sheath and Krylo drew his nines, but didn't move yet, waiting to be attacked.

[POS Industries]

Smokey was unswayed by Pyros' claims through the mouth of Asheth, and began charging whatever body contained the alleged arsonist's spirit, only to be distracted by TBM's charging past and sudden hostage-taking of the bear, itself cut short by Hawk's attack.

As the ball-formed TBM began rolling out of control, the bear fell to the ground in front of him, bringing the ball to a stop and cutting the yo-yo line with its claws. Quickly, the bear got up and put its front paws on top of the ball, pushing forward and rolling TBM toward the edge of the arena.

Seeing that his woodland kin had the situation under control, Smokey continued charging at Asheth, ready to bring down his shovel on the magical girl's head.

-----------------------------

As Keyman's spell cleared the area, Jimmy found the small paper airplane thing that Fenris had thrown. Lunging for it, the poor scientist was yanked backward by the collar before he could grab Irium.

"All right you, let's go," Pedro growled, dragging Jimmy back through the crowd of fembots to the shut down control.

-----------------------------

As the battle royale raged on, the blue roulette arrow slowed to a stop and transformed into a number of icons, including a star, a flower, a leaf and a hammer before stopping on a red and white spotted mushroom that appeared and dropped down onto Phoenixbot, causing the battle droid to grow to gargantuan proportions.

[Bailey]

Keyman Green picked up the paper airplane thing and followed along behind Pedro, handing it to Jimmy when they caught up, and then moving ahead to start smacking fembots to build up the chain counter again.

"Any idea what that thing is?"

[Fenris]

"My name is Irium! Fenry sent me over to Pedry, because he said Pedry would need my help cleaning out those Fembots!" Irium announced.

"But... I suppose if you stay close to Pedry, then I can help him without tying up his hands or neck... I'm a psion, I'll help clear the path for Pedry!"

[POS Industries]

"Any idea what that thing is?"

"Well, let's see," Jimmy said, taking the object from Keyman, "It sorta looks like--"

"My name is Irium! Fenry sent me over to Pedry, because he said Pedry would need my help cleaning out those Fembots! But... I suppose if you stay close to Pedry, then I can help him without tying up his hands or neck... I'm a psion, I'll help clear the path for Pedry!"

This bit of dialogue was interrupted as Pedro grabbed Irium out of Jimmy's hands and tossed it back toward Fenris. "Look, I'm not paying you to get talking love notes from the hobo!" Pedro stated as he returned to his violence, "Now keep moving, we're nearly.... here!"

Before them stood a closed door with a keypad to the right. Punching in his authorization code, the door hissed open and they continued into the darkened corridor beyond.

"The manual shut down should be just down this hall," Pedro informed them, "And I can't say for sure what might be waiting for us down there, either..."

[Nikose Tyris]

Nikose proceeded to pop out of FenrisWolf's shadow, and electrical uppercut a nearby Fembot.

"So, where's that hat show, Fenris?" Nikose asked, before firing a bolt over Fenris's shoulder at a nearby fembot. "I got my hat back from Karesh, see..." He parried away someone with Sword-Nenyel, then Whipped one into the rest with Whip-Nenyel. "...And I think I stand a chance..." Nikose picked up the upper half of a broken one and hurled it at a small cluster. "...OF WINNING!" He then wiped sweat from his brow, giggled, and fell over, vanishing into his own shadow and disappearing again.

[Bailey]

"Are you certain that hurling psions about is the best of options?" Keyman Red asked, eying Irium's flight path.

"Don't know, don't care, don't have the time to deal with talking love notes," came Pedro's response.

Red shrugged and headed down the hallway. Blue spoke up. "I suggest you folks stay behind us. At this particular moment, our max mp is reduced, so us getting killed will actually be vaguely helpful. The rest of you might find it inconvenient."

The Keyman Newbs moved to the front of the group and made certain that the path stayed clear of fembots.

[PyrosNine]

Pyros sighed. Oh well, it was going down like this. No superpowered magic spells, no long drawn out battles.

In the moments before Smokey came and Pyros met his maker, Pyros suddenly saw before him his mother. "Use the force, Peer!"

The force...the sporks?

"The force! No sporks involved!"

A plan was formed. Who had been in this tournament with a weapon Pyros needed, and who still had theirs? The blade of chaos and order were still lying around, but Pyros didn't trust them as they had created this mess. However, Rhiya had his Flametongue, and she certainly wasn't using it at the moment.

The flametongue's flame would be useless....but it was still sharp as hell. It would have to do for now. Hope Rhiya didn't mind. She was kinda picky about things she wasn't using being used by others.

Pyros snapped his fingers, and the flametongue burst into the air to his right, Pyros's magic managing to port it by fire with enough effort to break through Smokey's null-flame.

The bear was charging, full of unforgiving wrath, but eh, fork it. Pyros would be unforgiving as well. He adopted the stance of his creation, Kings, half lanky and half serious, and pulled is arm back for one mighty swing. He closed his eyes. He didn't need to see his opponent this time, for it was so cold now that the bear exhumed the only amount of heat visible to Pyros for the moment, and he could smell him as well.

Silly bear. It all counted on this. Mime's safety, the world's fire supply, and whether or not Pyros would have that sing-off with Mesden in the second round.

Pyros waited for the bear to get into striking distance, waited for him to get so close Pyros's own life was eclipsed, waited for him to get so close the bear need only swing back his shovel, and Pyros would be done for.

The three spectres emerged, having followed smokey, and pounced upon the bear, each holding onto the bear. The bunny covered his eyes, the beaver held his arm, and the woodchuck was missing some motion in his arms and legs and just made up for it by gnawing at the back of Smokey's leg.

Kings/Pyros smiled. Even he didn't plan on this happening. In the next moment, Pyros proceeded to cut through Smokey's breath. (Breath = Being, in mystical swordsman terms.)

"SMoooooOOOOOOooooKEEEEEEEEEEEEyYYYy!" The spectres wailed venomously as Pyros swung his blade.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/PyrosNine/smokey2.png

[PhoenixFlame]

And 'Lo, the manual shutdown control was indeed just around the corner. As the group of NPFers made their way into view, they were met with a remarkably disconcerting and perhaps surreal scene.

Behind a shoulder-height counter stood a happily smiling, peppy, cheery receptionist droid, her sparkling blonde hair clashing terribly with her glowing red eyes. She smiled blankly at the oncoming horde of the NPF, as if completely oblivious of the damaged piping running across the ceiling, flooding most of the room with ankle deep water. To each side of the room lay several series of human-sized tubes, which, on a disturbingly regular occassion, would discharge additional fembots before once again closing their doors to recieve another shipment.

Behind the countertop, one could see the manual shutdown control...

But all was not well in the world. ((It rarely is))

No less than six fembots, weilding all manners of crude impromptu tools, including, but not limited to... Crowbars, Hammers, Shovels, and Pool brushes, were proceeding to assail the manual shutdown control panel with their formidible ability to smash things. The panel sparked, jolted for a moment, and then exploded, showering fembot parts all over the receptionist's counter, whom merely smiled and remained staring. Electricity arced from the broken panel into the water from time to time...

"Greetings, Mr. O'Sullivan and friends!" her peppy, blonde voice boomed throughout the hallway, "I'm afraid I do not have a reservation for a party of ten or more. Please register at arenaspa dot com to see our available listings, thank you!" she continued, finishing her pre-programmed response with a snap of her fingers and a trademark kawaii pose.

Meanwhile, tens of fembots poured out of the replicator tubes, swarming the NPFers as they attempted to move through the small, shockingly wet hallway. The receptionist giggled a smug "Kekeke, fembot rush!"

[POS Industries]

Slowed down by the nightmarish ghosts, Smokey continued to lurch forward. Though his vision was obscured by spooky skeletal bunny paws, his attunement to nature allowed him to hone in on Pyros, using his free left defensive paw to hold back the sword wielded against him.

The trail of bear blood dripping into a pool on the arena floor, however, showed that it was not without consequence.

Using the metal of the Flametongue as a conductor, Smokey began slowing the vibration of molecules through the blade and within Pyros, suppressing all heat within, roaring as he struggled, "I... will.... put.... you..... OUT!!"

Breaking free of the ghosts' grasp momentarily, Smokey pushed against the sword and shoved Pyros backward toward the edge of the ring.

-----------------------------

Cursing as he saw the destroyed override console, Pedro summoned all the strength available from this Negative Kamen cosplay form and leaped into the air above the fembot swarm, hurling the only projectile he had available at the Receptionist.

Jimmy the Scientist's life began flashing before his eyes as he flew screaming through the air at Pedro's target.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

Rhiya gagged slightly as a small explosion went off in her mouth and something became lodged in her throat. She shook her head a little, slightly confused that Black was so suicidal and actually WANTED to get eaten.

But the slight discomfort and the fact that her mouth was briefly glued shut by the sucking power of the killy ball of energy was counterweighted by the fact that there was another shower of pie, and the ground was littered with yummy goods.

"...!" She tried to roar again as she scooped up another large mouthful of Pie. Then her mind clicked into another smart thought. Huh, Black's still lodged in my throat... THAT'S not good!

The pie also became lodged behind Black, creating a large, effective plug, and before either of them knew what was happening...

The black hole that was her stomach inverted, pouring incandescent, nuclear-force energy up and outwards, filling her entire stomach cavity and roaring up her throat like an inevitable volcanic eruption, absorbing the chaotic influxes of Rhiya's draconic form and transforming into liquid destructive chaos on the way up.

Straight towards the trapped RMB, who was, in essence, trapped between a rock (the pie plug) and a hard place (the inevitable destruction of everything-in-its-path coming up from Rhiya's stomach)

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

TBM was right about one thing; hitting a solid ball of Adamantium with a sword wasn't neccesarily easy on the hands. The vibrations reverberated up the Ascalon, nearly shaking the sword from his hands as Hawk stumbled backwards from the attack. But his grip was firm and he just managed to keep a hold of the weapon.

Ok, that one fucking hurt! Time to end this!

Seeing the BEAR now trying to roll TBM towards the arena edge, Hawk decided to lend a hand.

"Here, allow ME!"

As he shouted out the "ME", Hawk slid the blade in between the BEAR and the ball and in a single fluid motion scooped it up and onto his sword, like an ice hockey player with a puck and flung TBM at a much quicker pace in the direction of a ring-out.

"And STAY out!", he shouted after him, whilst making a hasty retreat lest he become mauled by a BEAR. The whole operation took mere seconds, just giving himself ample time to turn towards the once again fast descending IC.

Doesn't this guy EVER learn?!, Hawk asked himself in mild disbelief. It looked like Mime wasn't the only one Hawk wanted finished right now as he moved to intercept Inbred.

"Batter up", he said to himself, taking his stance, "Strike THREE, you're outta here!!" (What's with all the sporting manoeuvres in this post?)

Of course Hawk would strike true, just like he had twice before, only for the first (and hopefully last) time, IC was sent sailing towards "The Edge".

[Incendius]

Ah, finally found my crystal. Now I should be able to affect the battle. Incendius thought with satisfaction, as he activated the beacon that brought his focusing crystal too him. Bringing the focusing crystal to the back of his mask, Incendius pushed it into a furrow, until a smart click was heard. This focusing crystal increases my power exponentially, the only reason I needed it so much. First it increases my ability to take in energy, then subsequently it increases my power when dealing out that energy. Its a perfect set up. Too bad I didn't have it in the ring.

I shall test this out. Incendius thought. Flexing his mental muscle, Incendius pulled at one of the Ten rushing fembot's feet, tripping it. Simaltaneously he jerked another of the fembot's arms, one that was holding a weapon towards the falling fembot. One impaled the other. Perfect. Exerting his energies again Incendius snatched the weapon off of the fallen fembot and sent it sailing towards the secretary.

[The Kneumatic Pnight]

Raven was somewhat lost in thought when she felt the heat from the PPC reaching her before it hit. Not long before, but in her sped-up state it was enough to make her flinch. Then the burst hit.

The blast was friggin’ HOT. The Fire Shield could helped it, but it didn’t seem to make it hurt less.

Raven recoiled from it and two bullets slammed into her shoulder: they shattered, dispersing their force until it wasn’t enough to break her diamond skin. The third bullet whizzed past her head, barely missing.

But this time, she wasn’t near the stands, and didn’t have to worry about hurting anyone (who mattered). She sped away with a resounding crack, riding on a jet stream of reverse-chaos. Near the other side of the arena, Raven slowed and looked herself over.

She was aching and scorched, so she drew upon her divine powers to heal herself with the healing power of healing.

[Inbred Chocobo]

IC smiled. He had himself a little halberd to lay on, take a minute from all the fighting. Just sleep around a bit. IC had been fighting for a while, he could take a couple seconds to lay around. Of course, he probably could pick better spots than Hawk's weapon. Hawk had swung true of course, but then again, IC came in ready to grab something, and since Hawk put that in front of him, that was what he grabbed.

"Quit moving it around!" IC shouted from his position at Hawk, which was totally unnecessary, but then proceeded to kick Hawk in the face and arm and chest, since it was all right there anyway. Hey, it was his fault for holding his weapon.

[PhoenixFlame]

*Bloo-Bloo-Bloo!* A super mushroom fell from the blue powerup arrow, causing Phoenixbot to swiftly double, and then triple in size. Such an experience was unexpected, and most disconcerting, though in the end it felt entirely natural. Now far larger, and possessing a far more capable powerplant, Phoenixbot dropped her three targeting crosshairs over the now-healing Raven.

Her now-much-larger PPC gave a thunderous "KRAK-KOOM!" instead of a comparitively wussier "Kzrt!" moments ago. Ah, if only I had my beam-scythe, she thought.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Pedro and Incendius both executed their plans with lightning efficiency, although, the latter was slightly more delayed in this, given his excessive-compulsive love of focusing crystals. Jimmy the Scientist streaked toward the receptionist like a Tomahawk Cruise Missile being intercepted by a Phalanx defense turret.

Wait, he was?

Aye, he was. The receptionist dove under the counter just long enough to produce a rotary-drum repeating crossbow system, peppering the former intern with a staggering number of tiny, hallucinogenic darts. Poor Jimmy managed to knock her over, and look up just soon enough to see the giant purple elephant that was Incendius' pool-brush strike him in the forehead, knocking the competent man out.

"I'm sorry sir, but you cannot sleep here!" came a muffled receptionist as she pushed Jimmy off, stood up, and began pouring poisoned darts into the NPF from over her fembot-screen.

More and more fembots poured from the tubes, and those unable to mash their way into the fight began re-assembling the parts of their fallen sisters into hideous conglomerations of broken fembot parts.

"Oh dear..." gasped Phoenixflame from behind the mass of NPFers, "Are those fembot ZOMBIES?!"

((New Enemy! Fembot Zombie: hastily rewired and welded-together from pieces of fembots, these androids lose the majority of their "sane" programming and their beauty, exchanging these for raw difficulty in being killed. While they move slow due to various mistakes (feet on backwards, legs move sideways), they have higher melee damage and hp.))

[TheBlindMime]

Stupid Hawk, ring outs are for kids! With a sudden transformation at the edge of the arena's stage and a shifting of his new form, a bald eagle, TBM shot up alongside the giant dome's rim. Well that was damnably close, I really pissed Hawk off when I.... HEY he started this! TBM remarked to himself as he climbed ever higher in the air, It is quite fortunate that Hawk hadn't watched me to make sure of his victory with the ring out. He could of used one of his many wind attacks to push my eagle form right into the wall. Still TBM was pretty surprised he hadn't been killed yet, was Mesden still in? He chose to push the thought of her out of his mind as a man can never escape his fate, especially when a goddess wishes to deliver it.

It looked as though Hawk had many fish to fry, unfortunately if he wasn't careful those fish would fight back and win. But TBM had little time for metaphors now, Pyros was still in trouble. Turning into a straight dive for all it was worth TBM shot down towards the two gods; one of flame, the second of snuffing fire.

He clamped his jaw shut his body naturally desiring to let out a proud screech to strike fear in his enemies, but TBM knew, Smokey knew no fear. As he passed through the Ice laden clouds a few feathers were pulled from his back in the resistance or maybe it was just the feeling of them freezing on contact, TBM wouldn't have been able to tell had he noticed it at all. He was so focused on his next move, on his next transformation. His timing had to be perfect, so that he would not miss his target.

As he cleared the wave of obstructive clouds and moved into the Smokey created storm he peered through the rain and sleet to spy his target, he changed his angle slightly. Bringing Smokey's heart in line with the tip of his nose.

Transforming again TBM did the best he could to keep the momentum in his transformation, a single steel arrow screeched out of the rapidly dispersing cloud. It was odd to be an arrow, the world seemed to be ill defined. All TBM could do is hope he hit his target. And in another moment he would find out of if he did.

[Red Mage Black]

'Something wicked this way comes.'
"It's not exactly a mystery what it is."
'Do you have a plan?'
"Of course, but you have to promise me something."
'What?'
"That if it doesn't work we'll go out with a bang."
'Lets hope it doesn't come to that.'
"Lets cut our way out!"

As Black gave the order, Latis shot blades every which direction going into Rhiya's throat and and everything else around including the pies. The blades spun round and round. Only the gods knew what would happen next.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Hawk swung hard at the fast approaching target, aiming to either knock him clean out of the ring, or cleave him in two. He hadn't expected what happened next. Inbred had somehow managed to safely avoid the incoming blow, swing around the razor sharp bit and lay himself flat on the other side.

Needless to say, even Hawk was stunned. So much so that when Inbred kicked out one, twice, and thrice he was caught completely unawares.

The first kick caught him square in the chin, drawing a spot of blood, the shoulder blow knocked the sword from his hands, dropping IC to the ground (but not before his final strike hit home) and began to knock Hawk backwards. The kick to the chest knocked him flat on his arse, the Ascalon clattering to the ground.

Now Hawk was mad. From his place on the floor he wiped at his chin and examined the damage. It wasn't much, but it had annoyed him greatly.

"Alright, now you've pissed me off!!" Hawk yelled at the top of his voice as he sprang back on his feet, his eyes murderous. He snatched up the Ascalon and began to open up a rage fueled multi-strike bombardment upon IC.

"Hawkwind BLITZ!!", he yelled uneccesarily as his procceeded to attack with everything at his disposal. He became a human blur of red and blue as his sword/halberd/scythe flashed through every available attackable direction and in every single way possible. Then the Boomer joined the mix, reappearing from wherever it had vanished to again, flying out into the maelstrom only to instantly reappear in Hawks hands a moment later, not even given half the chance to do its usual boomeranging trick.

For a moment it looked like there were three or even four Hawks in there he moved so fast, striking at everything within range, everything within range being IC, whom he now circled and danced around with incredible speed, slashing, stabbing, thrusting, whacking, sweeping, pounding and doing just about anything he possibly could to tear him to shreds.

[Inbred Chocobo]

Hawk had gotten shitloads faster, and caught IC offguard himself. The swings were coming in faster than IC had been prepared for, so he was being caught off guard when the first blows were dealt. A decent slash in the leg, a good kick in the gut, he even took a blow to the face with Hawk's own punch. Finally, IC caught on the ball, and dodge the next few blows that came in, narrowly dodging getting decapitated.

This guy was fast, and he was sick of it now. He thought he was good with his fast speed and blows, maybe he should show him speed wasn't everything either. He may not have regeneration, so he would definitly need medical treatment, but then again IC had taken shitloads worse and still went on. He caught the glimpse of the sword as it came at him, he turned and with a sickening slice.

IC had caught Hawk by the arm. Hawk's blade now sticking almost all the way through him. The blade was close to the shoulder, but surprisingly, IC still seemed to have his strength. What might have worried Hawk was the determination that he saw on IC's face. IC's grip on Hawk's arm turned into a death grip, as the pain from the strike increased, so did he squeeze just as hard. With his free hand, IC yanked the giant sword off his back, and went to cut Hawk in half.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

The red mist had descended and it had consumed Hawk entirely. He now had a single goal; killing IC! And for a while it seemed he was going to win, until disaster struck. From out of nowhere IC managed to grab Hawks arm and clamped down with a vice like grip, and if there's one thing IC had on Hawk, it was above human strength.

His fury was replaced in an instant with a burning pain along his arm, Hawk suspected IC may have even drawn more blood. Hawks face became contorted with pain as his arm was vertually crushed. Try as he might, Hawk simply couldn't shake the hold and was focusing as much strength as he could muster just to not let go of Ascalon. That was his lifeline, if he dropped it he would be dead for certain.

But is was no good, Hawk couldn't throw IC off him and as the great Damascus blade was swung towards him it looked like it was all over. But then, just as he was about to be sliced in two, Hawk collapsed in front of Inbred allowing the great sword to pass barely above his head. He had survived death, but he still had an Inbred hanging on to his arm. Hawk sighted the only target he had available to him and he swung hard and fast, pain still etched accross his face.

What did he swing? Where did he swing it? Why it was the Boomer of course, the other lifeline he had in this battle and he swung it in an uppercut motion in-between ICs legs, aiming for that place where no man should ever be struck, especially with large, blunt, hammers!

[POS Industries]

Just as Hawk began swinging the Boomerhammer, the blue arrow came to a rest above his head and went through its regular sequence, completing as a golden star with a smiling face dropped down upon him.

Now sparkling and flashing a wide variety of colors, Hawk suddenly found himself invincible and quite a bit more powerful. For the next fifteen seconds, at least. Regardless, it was enough time to add to his swing at IC, sending the target reeling through the air.

-----------------------------------

Back in the spa's manual shutdown control room, Pedro began to come down after his leap, but the space below him was now occupied by a number of fembots. Left with no other recourse, he did his best to nimbly land on top of them, stabbing the tip of cane downward on their heads and shoulders, doing his best to fight off their grasps at his legs before they ripped him apart.

...probably don't want to be up here...

A voice echoing weakly in his head barely registered to Pedro as he looked around in a desperate attempt to assess the situation from his precarious position. Noting the three incarnations of Keyman, he yelled out to the blue one, "You! Find Jimmy! The other two with me, we gotta try to take out the Receptionist!"

-----------------------------------

In the spa itself, Black suddenly found himself a couple feet underwater in a swimming pool. Red-eyed fembots swam toward him, knowing the makings of a feeding frenzy when they saw it.

-----------------------------------

"Black has been eliminated by... well... that," Rei announced, "I'm honestly not even going to try to guess what happened there, but he certainly didn't get through it okay..."

At the same time, the red roulette arrow came to a stop above Arhra, teleporting her off to the fembot swarm.

"Arhra has been randomly eliminated! Two more eliminations until the end of Round One!"

[Red Mage Black]

'That ended well.'
"Shut up."
'I wonder what happened to Rhiya.'
"I hope it cut open her damn neck."
'We'll be seeing her soon then.'
"Hopefully."
'Now we have robots to deal with.'
"Fun."


Black moved out the pool, Latis absorbing the water from his clothes. A fembot charged at him, its red eyes staring at him with murderous intent. He simply yawned and heated up the air intensely. Latis transformed back into a pendant before the heat could evaporate her. The fembots around him slowed down and started to melt. Soon they were nothing but piles of liquid metal.

Black yawned again and walked out of the room and changed the air temperature back to normal. "Oh Nikose, where art thou?"

[PyrosNine]

Pyros found himself being pushed back, and unable to swing his blade as the big bear held it by the paw. He was bleeding though, which was good, but not fast enough to cause him to pass out anytime soon. Stupid bears and their large amounts of blood!

Ooh, and BOY it was cold! It's was just like a freezer! Or one of those cold Northern resorts Asheth frequents. Likely the bear was to blame. Fortunately, cold for bears also meant that they instinctively started to hibernate! Pyros had no further worries about the other bear, for if the stadium had truely begun to freeze, and the bear was satisfied with the amount of pie it had eaten, it would fall asleep, and wake up in a few months.

But Smokey was still going strong, and it was up to Pyros to not get a ring out. He knew only one thing to do....the herculean gambit!

It is said that once, Hercules fought a monster so ferocious he could not kill it, but he was told to bring it's body to some bossy guy. So, despite the incredibly deadly nature of the beast, he continually avoided it's efforts to kill him and dragged it on his back all the way home. Sadly, he then had to carry it back when the old guy said it wasn't what he wanted, but this would work just the same!

Pyros relaxed his grip on the blade and as it moved askew from Smokey's pushing, Pyros slipped under smokey and his claws and his shovel, and gave him a punch in the stomach. But that was only a light tap considering the large, fatty belly of bears, Pyros merely following the steps for what he was about to do next.

With a grunt, Pyros grabbed the thick of Smokey and kicked at the bear's feet, leveraging the massive girth into Pyros's strong grasp, effectively holding the bear above his head. Of course, the bear still had free paws to swing and claw at him, But Pyros made sure to at least hold him higher, so as to not get a direct shot at Nein's head.

"Smo-key! You can not put me out! You can not drown my butt, you can not crush my butt, to reiterate, can't crush my butt, can not drown my butt! As the ever burning flame of freedom and mankind, I, I shall throw YOU OUT!"

Pyros took pained steps forward, hoping to end this menace once and for all!

[POS Industries]

Hefting Smokey above his head, Pyros suddenly found himself standing directly in the spot that had been previously occupied by the target of TBM's arrow attack.

Now with an arrow through his chest and an anthropomorphic bear above his head, Pyros' predicament couldn't go unnoticed by Smokey.

"That was real smooth, Pyros," the forest protector chuckled.

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

K36 rounded another corner, still being chased by more fembots then he felt like counting.
Spotting RMB ahead he stopped "You might want to run." Looking back he could see the first of the fembots coming after him "Really fast."

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

The incredible pain Hawk had been in was suddenly gone, as was IC. All he felt now was power. Pure indescribable power! He somehow knew that nothing could hurt him, he just KNEW he was unstoppable.

And without wasting a second (well ok, maybe just the one) Hawk shot off with superhuman speed, even more than he had shown before. If ever there was a time to put the smackdown on anyone, now was that time. He was a blur as he circled the arena, now significantly more devoid of life than previously, looking for new targets, his excellent speed allowing him to get to them in record speed.

He saw Pyros, Smokey above his head, his back to the arena as he took a few slow steps forwards in an attempt to throw his former foe from the ring. Perfect. In an instant Hawk was behind Pyros, throwing his considerable speed into his attack,which consisted of a powerful shoulder barge to the back. With any luck, P9 would himself be thrown from the ring. Either that or he would be crushed by a falling bear.

Not waiting around lest this power fail, Hawk shot off again, quickly coming accross Krylo still kneeling close to the arena edge. A deft roundhouse followed, in the direction of the arena edge once again.

His last act as Super-Hawk was to charge Mesden, who was also still near the edge, from where she had last cast AB from. The Ascalon became the halberd as he approached. Hmm, maybe I will get to spill the blood of a god today after all...

[Red Mage Black]

"Run? Nah, I'll just take care of what I see." Black pushed past K36 and let the fembots approach. "Latis, action time." 'As you wish.' Latis slithered up Black's arm into his right hand, transforming this time into a sword he hadn't used in a long time. But this time it was lighter but more powerful.

Black took a mighty swing cleaving the fembots in half from the waist. Those that had crawled towards him were clobbered by the giant hammer that came down upon them. "Why run? It's too much fun destroying them."

Black pushed past K36 again. "Now to find that crazy sensei of mine. Oh Nikose, where are you?"

[TheBlindMime]

There was a sudden burst of smoke out of Pyros' chest, TBM hadn't taken great care to remove himself gently as he believed he had just struck into the back of Smokey the bear. The look of shock on the young kyuubi's face revealed his terror, it was amplified tenfold when the glowing visage of Hawk appeared behind the fire god. As the hammer struck into Pyros' back there was nothing TBM could do but watch as the two figures, flew over him.

The shock of striking his friend wore off quickly and TBM began sprinting under the flying Pyros and Smokey tandem, they would reach the end of the stage quickly, TBM had one option. Be someone big, someone strong, someone who could catch well. "GYAH!" TBM cried out as he burst into a giant smoke, a pair of massive hands shot out from the cloud. The hands reached out for Pyros falling just short, a cry of determination followed the brief failure as a second set of hands pierced the smoke and caught the flame gods ankles just at the edge of the arena.

Before the smoke could clear to reveal TBM's chosen form (Goro from mortal combat), TBM was bellowing at the top of his new and mighty lungs. "DROP HIM NOWWW!!!!"

TBM sounded intense now. He liked being Goro.

[Nikose Tyris]

Nikose popped up behind Black, direct from Black's shadow into a standing position. "Right here, 'prentice." He then grabbed Black by the shoulder and yanked him down into the shadows with him, giving no explaination except, "Hold on." He pulled Black downward into the inky blackness, which enveloped them both and pulled them towards Nikose's Next Destination, which brought them up by FenrisWolf, and Nikose pushed Black. "Stay here, fight the bad guys." Nikose then dropped into the shadow again to pop up near Pedro. "Do you need any help?" He asked with a smile.

[PyrosNine]

"Feh! Tis only a scratch! And don't try me, I've watched more than enough monty python to kill you alone with just singing the "Camelot song."

It was then that some guy....umm, what was his name? Rock? Rawk? Rork?, well, some guy with neoncolors and a familiar soundtrack playing decided to give Pyros a shoulder bash in the back...and it was a really strong one, even for the bleeding Fire god, enough to send him in the air.

Fortunately, he still held onto the heavy girth of the bear, diminishing the effects Hork's shoulder bash would have in making Pyros' body fight against gravity. Of course Pyros was getting pretty close to the ring out, and holding onto the bear while midair proved tricky. So, he let go.

At this moment, Mime seemed to appear and grab him by the ankles. Heh. Mime. When did he get out of Pyros's chest? Probably when Pyros was blinded by the EXCRUCIATING PAIN. But it was in the past. And in the present and the upcoming future, Smokey was soaring for a "ring out."

"Hope you can fly, damnable ursa major!!"

Pyros swung downward by his ankles and soon hung upside down from Mime's grip.

"I...I got 'em.....don't....don't cry....for me....Argentina!" He said, in faux deathtones.

He was mostly just disturbed by the fact he got too good a look under TBMoro's loincloth. Ewww!

[TheBlindMime]

TBMoro hastily threw Pyros further into the ring before holding down the loincloth in the sudden breeze, much like a disturbed version of a Marilyn Monroe picture. "Don't you judge me!" Was his only panicked reply.

TBMoro dissipated and then only TBM in yukata form remained, he took a knee and began gasping heavily as beads of sweat poured down his head. This constant transformation crap was beginning to take its toll on the inexperienced mime. With only two remaining eliminations however he had to keep his guard up.

Suddenly a steak of paranoia entered his heart and he turned towards Smokey, hoping to only see a fraction of the beast before he teleported away. Then TBM remembered he was blind.

[POS Industries]

Smokey landed on the black floor outside the ring and, supporting himself with his shovel, rose to his feet. Turning to face Pyros and TBMoro, Smokey laughed briefly before he charged back toward the ring, readying his shovel for another attack.

Noting the situation, Rei dropped to the ground next to the obviously disappointed duo and, patting them on the back supportively, informed them of the flaw in their plan.

"He's, um... He's not a contestant."

[Bailey]

Blue nodded and began searching for the scientist while Red and Green began smacking ineffectually at the receptionist. As they continued striking, though, the power of their strikes began to grow.

****************

TEN glanced sideways at Amalgam, and then vaulted over the bars which were probably intended to keep spectators from entering the arena, and Amalgam followed after him. "Non-contestants can enter the fray, then, is what you are saying?" The Mesden look-alike and the disturbed triplet began advancing menacingly on the real Mesden.

[POS Industries]

TEN and Amalgam suddenly found themselves hurtling through the stratosphere with rocket boots strapped tightly to their feet. Had they not jetted off so fast, they might have caught Rei explaining that Smokey's presense was the result of a summoning spell, which is acceptable as opposed to people just leaping from the stands and accosting the competitors.

[PhoenixFlame]

Raven, the ECS Isparlian's avatar AI gave a "idle script" yawn as she gazed out the viewscreen of a very empty bridge. Most of the crew were going about their daily lives as Phoenixcorp employees, but it came to her attention that two target beacons had recently lit up in low orbit over the Pedrodome.

"Ah, our little rocket boots have found their victims..." Fleet-Command Raven (not to be confused with KP's Raven) yawned, bringing "herself", if a large corporate dreadnaught-class vessel could be considered a body, into position.

Meanwhile, outside...

Amalgam and TEN floated blissfully in the sea of stars, only to be met with a colossal lumbering form of Phoenix's capital ship "above" them. Paired points of bright red light appeared over the hull, as a pair of anti-fighter beam cannons powered up to vaporize their remains.

[Bailey]

Amalgam's golem form, indestructible as always, opened his chest compartment and began digging through, looking for a specific item... ah, yes, an item which embodied the total absence of rocket boots. Putting the not-rocket-boots on, the rocket boots ceased to be on his feet.

TEN, meanwhile, having already died from atmospheric friction, seemed to be trying to be three different people at once; Pedro, Rei, and PF. He finally settled on PF.

The two Newbs slowed, no longer being propelled, and then Amalgam pulled out an escape pipe, looped his arm around TEN, and activated it, teleporting the two of them to the ground outside of the stadium just as the Isparlian's weaponry fired through the space that they would have been occupying.

"Well," TEN said, blinking, "THAT went well. What say we go get some donuts and come back later?"

[PyrosNine]

Pyros got back up. He was ticked. He was pissed. He'd been attacked in the back by some guy named "Rork" or something. They would pay. They would all pay. Not even Smokey's anti-flame abilities would keep him from burning in hell.

Pyros started scratching at himself it was as if his skin alone was another hindrance to him. He scratched, and peeled, and then finally, ripped off his skin to reveal something so horrid, so hideous, so elongated and snake like that it wa..wait a tick! I was promised something worse! Pure Chaos pyros! I was expecting that....that over there...It's just Asheth in a bunny girl costume holding a microphone!

"Check it!"

Outside of the arena, encircling the tower, a dozen enormous Speakers erupted from the ground. They were outside so they were not weapons or tools summoned into the arena, but the sound from them was so audible it could be heard within the arena, and then some.

Asheth is now totally here,
Asheth's gonna make it clear,
Asheth's gonna sing a song for you,
Specially if you're feeling bluuuuuueee!

To all those watching, it would seem as though Pyros/Asheth had merely lost his mind, and was singing as a show of defeat.

But to those who knew and feared it, (Mesden, Raiden, Incendius, ...Krylo (who didn't fear it all that much)) it was obvious and terrible what was happening. Pyros himself only used it as a last resort. Using the great scope of his madness and chaos, Pyros shifted the very scope of reality dangerously, with the power of funk! or Country. Sometimes Rap. Never Techno (unless there's a strong lyrical track)

To put it plain, whatever Asheth sang, would effect the very nature of the world around her with the chaos powers. It couldn't summon anything into the arena (despite what the bear did), but it could create a phantom universe where those things existed temporarily and were able to interact with the real universe.

For instance, if Asheth sang a tragic song about how it was so dark and cloudy, and the rain was almost as tragic as the heavy rain pouring in her heart, then the weather would become pouring rain. Also if she sang that you were gonna be eaten up like as if by a hungry hungry hippo, you'd be mauled by a chaos created phantom hippo.

It was truly terrible, and it had happened only a few (http://forum.nuklearpower.com/showpost.php?p=481733&postcount=1153) times (http://forum.nuklearpower.com/showpost.php?p=483393&postcount=1155) before....

"Now, for my first song, a lively school fight song!"


"Oh, we've reached summer, It's summer!
With nothing to do We can just lie in bed!
Bears working for the man are a bummer!
If they boss us, we'll punch them in the head!"

A horde of unruly sophomores charged towards Smokey, who now seemed to be wearing a mix of a police officer's uniform and a generic teacher's outfit.

[POS Industries]

As the schoolchildren mobbed toward him, Smokey had no other alternative but to begin strumming on his shovel, somehow producing the sound of an acoustic guitar as he began to sing his song (http://www.vom.com/wesford/SBHA/SONG/SmokeySONG_ga.shtml)...

"With a Ranger's hat and shovel
and a pair of dungarees,
you will find him in the forest
always sniffin' at the breeze.
People stop and pay attention
when he tells 'em to beware,
'cause ev'rybody knows that
he's the Fire Prevention Bear."

Mesmerized by his tune, the sophomores began to join Smokey in a sing along...

"Smokey the Bear, Smokey the Bear.
Prowlin' and a growlin' and a sniffin' the air.
He can find a fire before it starts to flame.
That's why they call him Smokey,
That was how he got his name..."

As the song continued, the children fell further under his thrall, learning the basics of fire prevention and promising that they would do whatever they could to help their new friend Smokey fight forest fires.

Starting with the total obliteration of Pyros Nine.

[PyrosNine]

"I see your song, and raise you fifty decibels!" Asheth wowed, as an awesome out of control electric went along.

"PUBERTY!"
*insane guitar riff*
"CHANGES EVERYTHING!"
*insane guitar riff*
"Don't trust anything, ANY MOooooooooooooooooooooooRE!"
*long heavy metal guitar screech!*
"I just wanna break, I Just wanna break! I just want..... aaaAAAOOOOOOHWWW! EXPLOOOOOOOOORE!
*Madness fueled Guitar Solo!*

The students proceeded to discover the strange awkward changes that came when you were midway on your way to adults, which led to much wildness and fraternisation.

The majority started smoking, drinking, and breaking beer bottles dangerously close to the bear they stood by, while others started exploring each other's bodies on the ground. A few even joined groups and wore black because the world didn't understand them.

Only two still remained with Smokey, vowing to fight fires, but one of those two was also interested IN smokey, and was seductively rubbing his back.

Asheth sniffed and rubbed her eyes. "They grow up so fast....oh, and aaaaaaaAAAAAOOOOOOOHWha!"
Damn, she thought, the power screech was so cool!

[TheBlindMime]

TBM decided to start backing away slowly when Pyros changed into Asheth in one of the most disturbing and potentially messy ways possible. He started running away when the dance magic began. Fortunately though he had the time he needed to regain his breath but now who to attack.

Rhiya looked to in trouble... but attacking her now would be dishonorable, also kinda mean. IC seemed to be sailing high into the sky to face his destiny of KO or ring out also dishonorable, Pheonixbot was a giant now. Then he saw his rival for this match, a man nay, a beast with unrivaled fighting abilities. Re-tying the end of his yo-yo thanks to it being cut previously TBM now had to deal with a much shorter attack radius. He'll have the advantage again, just like always.

"Hey BEAR!" TBM called out, pulling the bear away from his pie yet again. TBM then did a few Michael Jackson-esque pelvic thrusts, high pitched laughs and kicks, before grabbing his crouch and demanding, "Com-On-Uh! Lets dance!" His strategy obviously more then a little inspired by the battle many yards behind him.

No music started, no lights fell upon him, it was almost as if that kinda stuff didn't happen normally when you called out a dance battle. As the BEAR drew a confused look upon his face TBM sighed, "Screw it." He threw his yo-yo straight towards the BEAR's face hoping to strike his ugly mug in the nose.

[POS Industries]

And so, the kids had grown mostly into apathetic teenagers, and thus ceased to care about anything because, psh, whatever. Seeing the path before him altogether cleared, Smokey took a running charge and, striking his shovel upon the ground in front of him, vaulted through the air toward Asheth, swinging the shovel back around over his head to strike down the girl once and for all!

Elsewhere, the BEAR swatted away TBM's yoyo attack and raised onto its hind legs, roaring in answer to the challenge presented before him. A funky beat echoing from nowhere in particular, the electric boogaloo began...

http://images.tribe.net/tribe/upload/photo/0a5/656/0a56562d-0429-488e-8e45-4a4185b33548

If getting served was grounds for elimination, TBM would be off fighting fembots right about now.

--------------------------------

Meanwhile, Pedro was off fighting fembots right about now. Using fallen droids as shielding, he had managed to avoid the hallucinogenic darts fired by the receptionist. However, the sheer number of fembots and the new cannibalized zombie variations was creating too much of an impediment for him and the red and green Keymen to push through.

"Rei!" he called out into the air, "Find the hobo! Tell him we need to punch a hole through the floor in here, pronto!"

"You got it, Pe-chan!" the voice answered happily from wherever.

Suddenly, Pedro noticed a couple zombie fembots coming for him and tried to dodge their attack, getting cracked across the jaw by another fembot to his left.

...looks like you zigged when you should've zagged...

"What...?" Pedro muttered as he stumbled backward, quickly trying to regain his balance.

--------------------------------

Back in the spa itself, a holographic image of Rei appeared next to Fenris as he continued his own battle. "Mr. Hobo, Pe-chan says he needs you to come down to the control room and punch a hole through the floor, if you have a moment..."

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

*Plnk Plnk Plnk Plnk*

The blades of Black's Latis bent as they tried to cut through... solid... diamond.

Then Black was insta-transported away from the rising volcano of DOOM.

Rhiya...

Vomited liquid chaos everywhere.

Well... ALMOST everywhere. It atomized the pie plug in her mouth and jetted out in a spray of chaos that splattered a good section of the arena. The chaotic liquid sizzled and ate into the arena floor, creating pockmarks of doom and strange, dangerous pathways between.

With her throatway cleared, Rhiya's stomach reverted back to its hungry state, and Rhiya the dragon shook her head, trying to get rid of the yucky regurgitated chaos taste in her mouth.

"Ugh... never going to do THAT again."

Rhiya looked around some more, before sinking to her haunches and giving a wide-mouthed yawn. She scratched herself, causing sparks to fly everywhere as she did so, then looked around again. Her mind slowly came to the realization that there were surprisingly very few people left.

Her stomach rumbled, and Rhiya looked down, realization crossing her draconic visage.

Rhiya got up and lumbered forward again, looking for more tasty morsels to feed on.

[TheBlindMime]

TBM didn't even bother drawing in the line on his yo-yo as he watched the BEAR suddenly get up and then get down. He sullenly lowered his head, everyone had dance magic but him....

The song 'no dogs allowed' could be heard in TBM's general area, this only worsened his demeaned state. He just started to walk away from the BEAR to leave him in peace with his pie and his jamz.

[Fenris]

"Which way is he?" Fenris asked, catching Irium. Rei pointed.

Fenris pulled a thread and stepped in. Suddenly, Nikose popped out of his shadow.

"Fenris, if you do that, there's a chance that you'll land on Pedro. Just come with me," Nikose said. Nikose grabbed Fenris's arm and dove into his shadow, re-emerging out of Pedro's shadow.

"Okay, that was one hell of a ride," Fenris said, emerging, and rebalancing Pedro. Fenris shook his head and smacked a few of the surrounding fembots with his banstick, applying the explosion to their front, causing the bits to fly away from him and his allies. "You rang?" he asked. "Where's the hole go?"

Pedro pointed directly down. Fenris nodded, pulling a thread around Pedro, Himself, Nikose, and R.E.I., and locking it in the way where things can't touch the things inside. "Showtime," Fenris said, grinning. He pointed straight up, and pulled his banstick down in a jerky motion. A thread locomoted through Fenris and pals, causing them to feel quite disconcerted as their matter was forcibly penetrated by other matter, which passed harmlessly through, smashing the floor below the thread they were standing in, and going through the floor below that. Fenris raised the banstick, and the thread that just flew through lifted up, and the roof of that thread became the new floor of the corridor below. Fenris opened the lock and removed the floor of the thread they were currently standing in, and the group descended into the corridor.

"You guys go on ahead, I'll hold off these guys. Nikose should probably help too, just in case I'm underestimating things here."

[Nikose Tyris]

Rather then stick around for that damned ride, Nikose instead vanished into the darkness of the thread and poofed again- and appeared next to Fenris at the bottom. "I got your back, Fen- I just fucking HATE being forcibly Penetrated. See, I have a very tight rear..." he droned a bit, before realising that Fembots were diving down the hole after them. "Oh, my."

[Inbred Chocobo]

IC landed hard. Of course, this time he aimed for an open area of the arena. He didn't dare talk right now, his voice would be way too high pitched. He had almost faded out on the strike, but he knew he couldn't fade out, else he might be out for a KO, so he somehow held it together. Of course, IC's packaging was quite red and purple right now, but a quick check off camera insured thaat the package was still intact. Thank God.

However IC needed a second. He was just kind of sitting there breathing. After all, once that had happened, IC's rage kind of left him. Oh, there was one other good thing about this. IC had completly forgotten about all his other injuries. Of course, you could lose all your limbs, and take a blow like that and you would forget it.

[POS Industries]

Pedro nodded at Fenris as he and the holographic Rei took off down the corridor beneath the control room, calling out behind him, "Thanks bunches, Hobo. Just make sure to hold these guys off while I try to cut the power!"

--------------------------------

Having properly served TBM, the bear began baring his fangs as he charged roaring toward his challenger. The bear had plenty of pie to eat, but it still wasn't quite as tasty as raw meaty flesh!

Elsewhere, the blue arrow came to a stop again, dropping a leaf down onto it's target. After a puff of smoke, Krylo suddenly found himself with a pair of fuzzy ears sticking out of the top of his head and a large raccoon tail protruding from his lower back, which magically kept him in the air as it wagged. Seemed like swinging it at an opponent would make it a pretty decent weapon, too...

[PhoenixFlame]

"Oh fine!" Phoenix yelled after Fenris, as the mod took the majority of Pedro's strike team downward toward the main powerplant.

"Just leave me here to... deal with..." Phoenix trailed off, looking at the near hundreds of fembots and fembot zombies now surrounding whoever remained. A very smiley receptionist grinned maniacally, brandishing her crossbow.

Phoenix thought fast[tm].

"Threadjack!"

Pointing her left palm at the "ceiling" of Fenris' thread, Phoenix momentarially hacked into it, allowing herself to pass through the ceiling. And the floor, and... Onto the ground behind Pedro's party. Sideways.

"ARGH!" She whined, standing up and brushing herself off. "Owwie... ._."

"Anyway, anyone need a heal? I do. Sar!" With this, a cool blue stabilizing field emitted from PF's hand device, reconfiguring every "human" party member's life essences in a positive manner, healing their wounds.

[PyrosNine]

Asheth leapt up and backwards, finding foothold on a stage that appeared out of nowhere, complete with spotlights and a strange "Wiggin-ometer" that was slowly filling up with the music.

10%

Asheth pointed at her opponent.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/PyrosNine/denbovsmokey.png

However, contradicting her bad ass singer attitude, the music that played now was almost babyish, coming from a xylophone and kids-play piano.

When Smokey landed, he found himself in a forest.

Asheth sang, with one of her fingers on her cheek.

"Smo-okey bear. Smo-okey bear.
Walking through the forest!
Walking through the forest!
Suddenly the Aliens came down,

Suddenly a horde of Illegal Mexican immigrants leapt down from the trees, looking vicious, and armed to the teeth.

They shot at him with their lazer guns
Poor Smokey bear. Poor Smokey bear.

As you can guess, It was bear season.

[POS Industries]

Smokey moved quickly, trying to deflect their blasts with his shovel and wounded defensive paw, before turning to face them and roaring with bestial rage...

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o159/posindustries/smokey3.png

[TheBlindMime]

TBM was ashamed, he had no dance or music magic. As the impending doom of being mauled by the number one threat on the threatdown came eerily close to him, a thought occurred. He was trying to fight this stupid bear like he was a human fighting a bear, there was only one thing on this earth that could threaten a bear. As TBM's warning bell let out its ring he was ready, turning to face his opponent his arm already in motion for his attack.

The simultaneous explosion that signaled his transformation was nearly beautiful before it was torn asunder by the beast within its concealing smoke. A North American Grizzly Bear, TBEARM as he would be now referred until later notice, already had his massive paw headed for his opponents face with a blood thirsty growl echoing from his lips.

Fight bears with bears.

[POS Industries]

As the bear charged toward TBM, his prey suddenly changed shape and he was now faced with a new problem...

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o159/posindustries/bear_TBM2.png

...And so the battle began. For those of you who have never seen two bears fight, it's a lot like a sumo wrestling match. Except with big razor sharp claws and a lot more biting.

[Long-Haired Narcissist]

Narc woke up in a dumpster in the RaiRO forums to the sound of some rats digging in his trenchcoat eating the leftover sushi he picked up earlier. The last thing he remembered was a shot to the head. It was a good thing that all that pot Narc used to smoke had decayed his brain, otherwise the shot would've hit it and killed him. Narc got up and dusted off his singed clothes, while scaring off the rats of course. "At least I may be able to make it back in time to watch Round Two of the tournament.", Narc said as he started his journey back to the arena, but in his mind he didn't know why he kept coming back to NPFCity. Everytime he paid a visit, he always ended up set on fire, electrocuted, shot at, raped, de-nippled, exploited by a contract, mentally scarred, or something else horrible. "Oh well, I guess I could get some armor and a weapon before I come back, and it wouldn't hurt so bad."

Narc walked for a few blocks and eventually entered a slightly better part of town where he found Akbar's Armor (Not Shiny Scrap Metal). He entered the store and began haggling with the clerk, the man he assumed to be named Akbar, over the price of a nice chainmail vest. Eventually the pair settled on a price, and Narc walked out of the store with the chainmail vest and an empty wallet. He found an alley nearby to put the mail on under his shirt.

As he was taking off his trenchcoat and shirt to put the piece of armor on, he saw something glimmer from a nearby trash can. After putting his clothes back on, Narc examined the dumpster and found the sweetest looking guitar he'd ever seen. The guitar looked like something forged in the pits of hell, terrible yet beautiful at the same time. Narc picked up the guitar and played a riff. "Wow, built in amp! This is more than just any ordinary guitar!", Narc said as he noticed how loud the sound was on it. Narc then played the intro to "Stairway to Heaven". As soon as he played it, the guitar began to glow and rumble. Narc dropped the guitar in fear of what would happen next.

A voice thundered loudly, "WHO SUMMONS THE MIGHTY STARSERPENT, THE GUITAR OF THE GODS?"

Nearly wetting himself in fear, Narc weakly responded "I did."

"DO YOU HAVE THE DESIRE AND THE DETERMINATION TO BECOME ONE OF THE GREATS?"

Becoming more confident, Narc replied, "Yes, I am worthy."

"VERY WELL THEN, I BESTOW UPON YOU MY POWERS AND MY FRIENDSHIP."

Narc was nearly brought to his knees by the power that was suddenly flooding his body. After getting used to the power, Narc continued his walk toward the arena, playing Starserpent and conversating with him the whole time. After walking a few blocks, Narc saw a large disturbance at the spa and entered through a large hole in the wall to investigate. Several fembots immediately attempted to attack Narc, but he fended them off by swinging Starserpent at them.

"The perfect opportunity to see what you can do, little buddy."

"I'm with you all the way."

[PyrosNine]

The Guerrero clan was unafraid. They had dared to cross America's borders and defy it's military might, and so they were not going to be afraid of an anthropomorphic bear! They would fight for their right to remain here!

To cheer them on, Asheth spoke into a megaphone before she spoke into her microphone, singing almost nonsensically in spanish, whilst drums and electric piano played in harmony with a strong latin vibe.

"¡Luche porque la vida es una danza y mis libras del corazón para ti!"

The Guerrero clan unleashed their passion upon the bear, firing with their hearts! (Metaphorically. Really, they just shot at him with lazers.)

20%

[TheBlindMime]

TBEARM raised back on his legs, BEAR did the same in kind. This was the first time TBEARM had assumed the form of his opponent to fight them. He had no idea what to expect, and little of what to do. He stared into the dangerous wells of hate that were his opponents eyes, he could only assume that his opponent felt the same way about his fearsome gaze.

They both swung their right paws at each other, mutually defending the attacks. They repeated this with their left paws. Double paw strikes defended and retreated. Then TBEARM had an idea, he clapped his mighty paws together, as did BEAR. They both knew what they must do now.

The most dangerous form of Pattycake known to bears, every failure would mean a success for your opponent. How many cuts could the two bears take, how long before one would fall? The sun would set on one of these bears here today on AVVY V!

[Mesden]

As Hawk belted forth in his impunity to 'spill the blood of a god', Mesden had of course been watching the fight and not participating at the moment for whatever reason she had, so she did see him coming, but decided any strafing or blocking at this part of the Arena would be too risky with the dreaded ring out still looming.

So, with what was probably the most suicidal move of the match, she opened her arms and charged torso first into whatever bladed form the ascalon was in. Hawk, while most likely having a considerable reaction speed, was unable to even attempt to avoid after Mesden threw her relative 'superspeed' into the weapon.

With a terrible slice, the blade tore through her 'flesh', but no blood spilt. To the contrary, Mesden seemed primarily unphased by the attack, even moreso when she tossed her two weapons to the side as her body rushed towards the hilt of the weapon, and into easy melee range of Hawk.

Her left hand gauntlet disappeared in a red vapor, revealing a luminescent blue figure that resembled a hand, but glowed too brightly to be sure. It was Mesden's real hand, the one she used to govern all things spiritual at a touch, and with this hand she grasped somewhere inside of Hawk, completely ignoring any physical defense his body may have (And taking granted in the fact that his 15 seconds had more or less ended from attacking 3 other people and moving across the ring at such lengths).

What Hawk could feel next was a cold chill at first as her hand plunged into his very being, and then suddenly a pain all new to anyone -- a one of a kind sensation that only Mesden herself could truly incite. Somewhere deep inside him, he felt life begin to flow away from him, shutting down all of his strength, speed, thought and more and also letting Mesden understand his very being as well, learning his entire life and history in a mere second of time.

This was, by far, the most devastating thing Mesden could manage to most any living being on the planet. There was nothing quite more effective than plunging unadulterated soul destroying power into one's soul. "Sorry, Hawk, but I grow wary of this battle and I owed you a fair fight at high strength." For however calming her voice may be, nothing could mask the sheer emptiness and pain she was inflicting.

[PhoenixFlame]

Because Raven was taking so long to respond to being shot, Giant Phoenixbot turned her attention to the next available target, cycling her targeting options with the [T] key. That is, if she was using keys, it'd probably be bound to T.

Fortunately, another T person was one one [T]argeted, this person being TBEARM.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a314/Phoenixflamer/bear_TBM3.jpg

Bang.

With a giant PPC bolt, TBEARM was soon to find itself in a world of hurt.

[TheBlindMime]

As the two bears, one a BEAR and the other a TBEARM clasped their claws together a giant PPC bolt tore through mime like a machete through something fragile. He screamed in absolute agony, the single moment of pain stretched on for forever. His vision faded in and out, no wait, still blind. The electric force shattered his form and caused his muscles to spasm uncontrollably.

A defeated burst of smoke fell around him changing him back into his usual self, he stumbled back a few steps, away from the BEAR. He had no idea, or could form no coherent thoughts upon what had happened to his opponent. As his feet fell out from under him however, he spotted the obvious attacker. Pain and confusion quickly turned into pain and anger.

As he fell towards the arena floor, as he had done many times that day (once as a fish!), a burst of smoke surrounded him again revealing what appeared to be his true form. Landing roughly his kitsune body cast prone across the arena floor, he raised his head weakly and muttered, "Stupid bear..." His head fell limply to the stage and his eyes closed.

The feint had been perfect, to the outside observer it gave the perfect appearance of a KO. For TBM however it was a chance to regain some footing and perhaps survive the onslaught of this battle. I don't need my eyes to see, so closing them isn't going to hurt. Not like the rest of his body, which still spasmed in random bursts from the shock I can't believe how I can hardly move still, even in this form. It was apparent the damage had been done to his muscles in all his forms, even now when beneath his fur his body was entirely rubber. I can only hope she fell for the ruse. Even this rubber wont be completely protected, one more hit like that and its over. TBM was having trouble keeping conscious as it was now, but he forced himself to focus and strategize.

Then a second and much more irksome thought occurred, Or that the judges eliminate me for my 'fake-out' thinking me truly unconscious. It seemed there might be no winning this one.

[POS Industries]

With the building's internal sensors monitoring the vital signs of all the competitors, Rei could tell that TBM had not yet lost consciousness from the lack of change in his brainwave pattern. The bear, however, could tell from the smell of burnt fur, flesh, and rubber that TBM was mostly done for and had decided to dispose of his perpetual assailant in a manner which he had learned from observation of the various fights.

Moving over to the kisune, the bear took advantage of TBM's mostly immobilized state and, taking him in his jaws by the neck, dragged the fox mime to the edge of the ring and dropped him over the side onto the floor below.

"The Blind Mime has been eliminated by ring out!" Rei announced as TBM vanished, "Only one more to go!"

--------------------------------

Meanwhile, Smokey's defenses began to fall and so did he, the laser blasts being too much for him to handle at this point. Using his shovel to pull himself toward Asheth, he addressed the other spirit that inhabited that body.

"You may have beaten me back this time, Pyros," he wheezed, "But I am connected to nature and the spirit of its forests. I will be back, and I will bring you to justice!"

And with that, Smokey the Bear perished.

[TheBlindMime]

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" TBM's parents screamed in the crowd, just another memory of them to add to the pile. As TBM was whisked away to the doom spa he wished he could have flipped hawk the bird once, just for the humor in that sentence.

As he took the bearings of his surroundings however he realized something more terrible had occurred then he could have ever believed. "OH MY GAWD!" He cried in agony, "Theres no snacks left! Also the fembots are evil." As they drew closer he tried his best to get away.

However he was still made of rubber and immobile, he hoped they were all made of glue and would stick to someone else. Then TBM felt it against his paw, the Sundered Heart of Chaos, when he flailed in his landing he'd triggered the summoning of the item once again. It was brushing against him, it could feel his desires, his wants, his needs. It called to him to utter one of them, any of them. As the bell hanging around his neck rang for danger and he felt the fembots hands upon him he squeezed his eyes tight and wished with all his might.

Risking damnation for salvation he called out to the heart, "HEAL PLZ!!!!"

[Krylo]

Krylo was about to land out of the ring when the blue arrow had landed on him. Beating his tail quickly he stopped and hovered, still outside of the ring and popped open his revolver, emptying the spent shells and replacing them with more hollowpoint rounds.


Hawk had almost rung him out, there, and so Krylo quickly found him with a scan of the battlefield, his invincibility star having run out just before reaching Mesden. There was a bit of pity in Krylo's heart as he remembered all the times one of his invincibility stars had run out just before charging through that last goomba.

"Stupid stars..." Krylo muttered, remembering all the deaths they had caused him in his days playing Super Mario Brothers.

However, that didn't change the fact that Hawk needed to be removed, and so Krylo did something that would probably feel like mercy, but was more like revenge.

Floating back into the ring quickly, he lined himself up with the back of Hawk's head so that Mesden's head would be directly past it. He then took careful aim and fired two hollowpoint bullets, meaning to wipe the both of them from the competition within seconds of each other.

Granted, he only needed to take one out, and the second one hit probably wouldn't even be disqualified... but someone needed to shoot Mesden in the face, and why not him?

[PyrosNine]

"Bwahaha! Fire conquers all.. We did it mime! We did...."

Pyros turned to see mime, blasted by Phoenixbot's cannon and then rung out by that damned bear....

"Noooooo!!!! Miiime! I was even temporarily going to drop my standards for you!"

Asheth looked up at Phoenixbot and growled in hotpink.

However, for her attacks to work, she return to her previous demeanor, intent upon getting revenge for the mime yet still in a cute and sugary sweet manor.

Phoe-fenix bot, Phoe-fenixbot
"Walking through the field,
Walking through the field,

A large amount of stalks rose up, with giant flowers everywhere, making the arena look like a giant field perfectly proportional to Phoenixbot. However, by far, the large amount of plants seemed strangely exotic...yet familiar, and didn't seem to grow normally in a field.

It was a field of hemp it was,
Got busted by the feds She was,

A team of Sentinals working for the police rose up out of the cannabis in a sting operation, hoping to seize Phoenixbot's erroneously assumed ownership of a chain of illegal mary jane selling at the source. They were of course, armed with rocket launchers.

Poor Phoenixbot. Poor Phoenixbot."