NPF Avatars 5 - Capitalism Has Made It This Way

[POS Industries]

The crab battle having ended, the Round One completion sequence was finally initiated and all the assigned items and power-ups vanished from their wielders in a flash of light. For the eight remaining contenders, however, the items were replaced by a new item summoning gadget and a bottle of elixir (or a mechanical repair kit, in P-Bot's case).

Before the competitors, eight hyperlink portals burst into existence, accompanied by a holographic representation of Rei in front of each. At that point, Pedro stepped in to explain what was next. "Congratulations, all of you, and welcome to Round Two! Each of you has been randomly assigned a new item, as well as an elixir or suitable replacement to fully regenerate your health before the start of the next match. Once you have consumed them, you may follow one of the holograms into a portal to proceed to the battlefields that await each of you."

Stepping aside, Pedro moved off to confer with the other NPFers as the hologram on the far right stepped forward. "Rei Roll Call," she announced, facing her assigned combatant, "Pyros Nine!"

The Rei to her left then stepped forward and followed suit as the roll call moved down the line, "Krylo Killian!"

"Inbred Chocobo!"

"KP Morgan...'s representative!"

"Mesia Denostaya!"

"grRAHHAWRrOHAOWArrrr!"

"PX-05 PhoenixBot!"

"Rhiya Rave--er... uh, Arhiyara!"

Meanwhile, Fenris had begun rallying the troops to go defend the Kurosen. "I don't have any word on just how bad it is over there, but we still have power at the moment, so that's a good sign. Also, no massive explosions. Anyway, we could use all the help we can get, so all of you are welcome to come along..."

"...Except Raiden, of course," POS pointed out as he arrived on the scene.

"Oh, yeah, right," Fenris nodded, "Sorry, Raiden, but after the last time you got close to that thing, you're kinda forbidden from getting any sort of access to it."

"Eh," the thunder god shrugged.

"Okay, anyway, we'd better get moving. No time to waste!" Fenris announced, leading the gang off to save the day as Pedro strolled up beside him.

"Hey, I'm going to be staying here," POS stated, "I have a tournament to run and all. I'm sure Rei will be of greater assistance to you, anyway. Just as a heads up, by the way: The ambient energy field surrounding the Kurosen facility as well as the dampeners that we put in place to prevent another attack by someone like Sparky over there will make energy attacks of any kind either significantly less effective, if not completely useless. Your mod powers will be limited as a result, and I'd suggest being extremely careful with your thread moving abilities in there. The NPF depends on that facility."