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."

[Mesden]

After retracting the massive blade cocoon that was her shield, Mesden banished her gear to wherever it had came from before going into the next round, dawdling with the new S.E.A.L device alloted to her.

Before that, though, she drunk the handy restorative elixir in a few quick gulps. Refreshed, she then followed the hologram through her respective portal, hoping she didn't have to fight P-Bot ("Goddamn Robots!") in the first round.

[Long-Haired Narcissist]

Barely missing the portal to leave the spa, Narc wondered how he was going to get to the arena when Starserpent said, "Use me."
"What?"
"You can use me to teleport. Just strike a high note and hit the whammy bar."
Narc did exactly as Starserpent said and was instantly relocated to the arena. After seeing a giant crab explode, Narc heard Fenris announce something and decided to follow him.

[PyrosNine]

Pyros proceeded to eat a plate of babyback ribs and downed it with a liter of Sundrop, then headed for his portal. It sucked he was stuck with the buttsecks, as it just didn't feel...right.

Furthermore, shapeshifters did not need to cosplay. When Pyros wants to go to the Con's as Ky Kiske, he goes as Ky Kiske.

He just has to borrow one of Raiden's swords though, and he's still pestering Raiden to dress up as Sol for irony purposes.

"Wonder who it is I'm going to wreck? Wonder if it'll be Mesden? She's fought Raiden before, but she hasn't fought me yet. And I'm a whole 'nother beast than Raiden."

[Inbred Chocobo]

IC was tired, he was hurt, and needed a nap badly. Of course, after drinking his elixir, he was feeling pretty good now. A quick check even insured his package was completly okay. That was always good too. He just hoped no one was watching while IC checked himself out.

He grabbed his item and went ahead and switched it. The mod-bracelet appeared on his wrist. "Interesting. Very interesting indeed." IC said. He was smart enough to notice the energy in the bracelet already. Would have been worthless to him unless it already had some energy, so he was lucky it had some.

With that, IC stepped on through.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

From high above them all, standing on one of the remaining walls that HADN'T been destroyed yet, Hawk surveyed the various happening below, including the Chaos-Merging of Rhiya and Arhra and the final destruction of the giant enemy C.R.A.B. He watched as each competitor made their way through their respective portals (smiling inwardly when he noticed Inbred making sure the old family jewels were still intact) and noticed as the other eliminated group began heading off through a portal of their own.

He strained his ears to listen and overheard talk of the Kurosen, a device he had heard of before. Maybe this is the reason?, he wondered to himself. I need to get to the Kurosen tower, if something big's going down, then that's where it will happen.

Without waiting another moment Hawk lifted into the air and soared off towards Kurosen tower. He could of used a portal, either the one that already existed or one of his own, but he felt like flying for a change. And really, it was just as quick.

[Nikose Tyris]

Nikose snapped back into realization again. He had drifted off and was just following Fenris around, but now he spotted Hawk flying. He tested his legs gently, before deciding to test out another power that had flown through him a while ago, and he began to dance. As he moved, his feet began to glance higher off the floor, taking him upward- his footsteps, flashing gently, were lifting him upward slowly. The increase in height began to gain speed, as Nikose literally danced his way to flight, and began to rise up to Hawk's level. Nikose stopped dancing, but kept moving his legs in the gentle dance motions.

"Can we fly together?" Nikose asked, smiling softly, ready to race the cursed bird through the sky.

[Arhra]

Having undergone a bizzarre metamorphosis, two becoming mingled together to form a single, complete being, Arhiyara knew what she must do.

She found herself a reporter.

The FOX news crew was most unnerved to find themselves suddenly under intimate inspection from a giant dragon head at very close range. Really, they only had themselves to blame for being objects of curiosity. What were anthropomorphic foxes doing running this sort of thing anyway?

"Hallo." Arhiyara rumbled demurely, "We'd just like to say we're very happy to be here." Undoubtedly Mauve was outraged at not having thought of conducting post-match interviews with the contestants first, despite the fact it hadn't been her bitter rival's plan either.

"Er... right." the foxy newswoman said, recovering some of her composure. "So, what is your opinion of the competition?"

Arhiyara's other head seemed to have taken notice of the conversation, swinging over to take a look. "There is no escape. They will all be eaten." she declared.

The reporter turned to face the camera, "Big dragon considers contest to be a buffet. You heard it here, on FOX News!"

Arhiyara, looking around vaguely for this buffet the reporter spoke of, found her summoning gadget replaced and a bottle of elixir appearing. She drank the elixir, popping it in her mouth whole and gulping it down. The other head hiccoughed.

"Alright then! Follow me!" Rei's hologram declared brightly, Pedro having finished his speech.

Arhiyara waved a claw through her.

"Stop that." Rei said, slightly less cheerily. "The arena for your next fight is through the hyperlink portal."

"Maybe it's full of cake." Arhiyara mused to herself as she followed. "Or Twiddies!" the other head jumped in brightly. They paused and looked at each other for a moment, "...CAKE AND TWIDDIES!" they chorused together, surging at the portal.

Heads through, she paused, jammed rather tightly. She was still ludicrously huge, and most portals simply weren't made for that sort of thing. Squirming around in an undignified manner, she wormed her front claws and wings through, sliding through much easier once they were on the other side. Back legs still waving around, the rest of her snaked through to places unknown!

[Astral Harmony]

After listening to Fenris and Pedro's briefing, Armored Bishoujo got dressed and recovered her sword and Cosgear. Then she banished Pinnacle. She didn't know what was going on, but figured there would be too much tight quarters for the giant battle mecha to be of much use. Additionally, some of its punch was currently based on energy weapons, so those would need to be replaced or she would be relying solely on the mech's weight and its gatling guns, which were low on ammunition which was AB's biggest concern. Ready to continue, she followed Fenris to wherever he was taking all of the defeated competitors.

[Incendius]

I shall reconvene with you fellows at the location of the tower. I have hid a replacement shell near the area. Incendius sent to the collection of NPF forumites as his characteristic mask flew out from the gathering, back towards the scenes of wanton destruction. Besides, I have much requisition of resources to do before I make my way over. The situation will manage to contain itself until the majority of us arrive; thats always the case in these instances. Incendius thought inwardly.

Incendius set about his task as the rest of the forumites made their way to the Kurosen tower. The moment he sensed that they were closing in on it, he would abandon his damaged shell and move to a new pristine one. It payed being a bodiless entity.