NPF Avatars 5 - Capitalism Has Made It This Way

[TheBlindMime]

TBM rapped his fingers against the counter anxiously as one of the many incantations of Rei beamed at him. He couldn't see her beaming, but the thought that she was beaming sent him up the wall. "Can I just have my sword back or what?"

Rei dipped her head to the left with a cutsiepoo smile upon her face as she did, TBM hated cutsiepoo faces. Yet another good reason for him to not be able to see. As she transmitted the transaction to one of the many Rei's to relay visually to Pedro, TBM only grew more anxious.

Normally that katana was his only means of defense, normally he lived on the edge of a keen blade, in a life divided by pleasant buffoonery for the masses and killing those who were too troublesome for the mime-yakuza. TBM had joined the mime-yakuza as a helpless child, ironically orphaned by the group which later took him in and raised him to be one of the best. So normally that katana was the only thing that protected him from the kind of death he so readily inflicted.

Unfortunately when you go into most places these days they make you check your samurai blades and what TBM believed to be a weapons locker turned out to be the participant item submission locker. Now he had to wait for word on high to get it back.

Pedro eyed the projection with a half-hearted sigh, "I was hoping for more groveling, people aren't groveling enough to me. Whatever he can have it."

The bubbly Rei handed over the weapon, stiffly tapping TBM on the chest. "Here you go dummy." Somewhere Pedro was laughing.

"Many gracious thanks." TBM bowed low and respectfully before marching out of the room striking just about everything on his way out at shin level with his walking stick/katana. One of the many shin's he struck belonged to an old friend.

"Augh, Mr. Mime!" The man angrily cried, in no way speaking to a pokemon of the same name.

TBM paused to consider the voice, which he recognized to be an old acquaintance. "Why Mister Takeshiro what are you doing here?"

"Why indeed Mr. Mime!" Still not talking pokemon, "Why would I be forced to come out here on one of the many private jets our family graciously provides to meet you here in NPF city?"

TBM paused before realizing it was a question directed to him. "Perhaps to congratulate me upon my performance in the tournament, I was only out in the first round by two!" He held out two fingers to prove his point.

"No, Mr. Mime, I'm afraid that no one in our family approves of your actions here in NPF city. Especially your flagrant disregard for the most sacred of rules, no mimes are allowed to speak!" TBM could tell by his tone that Mr. Takeshiro was more then a little peeved about him breaking the super number 1 ultimate rule of mime-ing while in a mime-yakuza. You know, the one about not talking.

TBM shifted back a single step as he heard the shuffling feet of the four mime assassin's around him. "Well..." TBM said as he slid his foot back and took a defensive stance his hand atop the hilt, prepared to draw at the slightest move. "Perhaps it is time I admitted that I am more then just a mime."

"I feared as much." Was Mr. Takeshiro's only reply before turning his back, the four mime assassin's dashed in. There was a sudden burst of smoke that concealed TBM, the sound of a single sword unsheathing and the clang of metal blades ringing against each other was all most could hear of the battle. While it only lasted a second, the few who saw it would always recall it as one of the funniest things they had seen that day, this act losing very closely to IC taking a hammer to the gonads.

As white cane's scattered everywhere a triumphant TBMoichi slid his sword back into its sheath carefully, as it locked back into place the four mime's around him exploded in a flurry of over-pressurized anime blood. TBMoichi was dressed as a low ranking masseuse now and though he was a little overweight he seemed somehow agile. As TBMoichi stepped away from the splatter he could hear Mr. Takeshiro hyperventilating, TBMoichi stopped just beside him and leaned a bit closer. "Do not look for me ever again," he whispered, "I will see you before you see me."

TBMoichi smirked at the wordplay as he walked away from the man he had once called father and the life that had bathed him in blood. He was humming an easy going tune just before he stepped in line behind Fenris.

[The Kneumatic Pnight]

A slightly singed, but quickly healing Raven Rhiyawing descended at the call of her... name?

No, that’s not right.

But, anyway, descended from her flight of boring noninterference. Saving a possible competitor’s assets was not high on KP Morgan’s list of goals.

But, regardless, now that the round was over, he should be appraised of circumstances. Shifting smoothly back into her original, less absurdly-frenetic eyesore of a form, Raven pulled a small, black cellular phone from her pocket and opened it.

“Damnit, Jane, stop calling me!”

“No, it’s Raven... the first round is over.”

“Who are we up against?”

“Not sure...” She listed off the mass of misfits it could possibly have been, and in a flash of white light, Reneé appeared, decked out in black and grey armor and carrying her oversized grenade launcher in one hand—a strap securing it over her shoulder.

“I’ll take it from here,” Reneé said, and with a nod, Raven ascended on a SepT beam of her own.

Lowering the clear visor on her helmet, Reneé followed the hologram into her respective portal.

[PhoenixFlame]

And thus, as Phoenixbot recieved her new item-summoning device, she drank her repair kit, steeled herself, and walked through the Rei!Portal. It was a little known fact that POS Industries manufactured liquid repair-kits in the form of small elixer bottles. Certainly, it showed that they cared for their competetors. At least... After a fashion.

Flexing her newly revitalized arms, PX-05 prepared for the next battle.

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Meanwhile, at the Kurosen Tower.

"Ah, so you've arrived." Phoenix greeted the Kurosen response group from outside the tower's main blast door. She looked relaxed, legs crossed, sitting at a small LYNX pickup bench outside the facility, poking a 3-d projection of the tower's interior.

"Before the lot of you enter, I'll take it upon myself to brief you." she poked the tower, and it enlarged slightly, for the group to see. "We have an unidentified number of hostiles inside the facility. As of now, the central core has not been breached, but we can only guess when they'll manage that. All automated interior systems are currently offline."

The entire tower highlighted red. Thousands of interior systems blinked a shade of "offline grey".

"We can only assume an outside hacker has taken control of them. Consider the entire facility to be, until further notice, hostile." She nodded, with a small grin, "Of course, the tower has an extreme dollar-value associated with it. Do not destroy anything. Yes, that's right. The tower might be hostile, but under no circumstances may you do it any serious damage. Understood?"

She tapped her foot idly on the ground.

"Nothing goes in, nothing comes out. I'll seal the door once you enter, and make sure you don't mess up."

[Bailey]

While Phoenix briefed the group, the Keymen each cast their pants spell on themselves.

Finally, their floral underwear was covered.

This accomplished, they stood in front of the door looking important.

[POS Industries]

Emerging from their respective hyperlink portals, PhoenixBot and Pyros found themselves on a path in the middle of what appeared to be a large plantation. The area seemed to be fairly well lit, despite the sky being obscured by the ceiling of a massive cave above them. From the trees surrounding them, bizarre fruit grew, smelling of bacon and covered in a greasy substance as an army of trolls set to work harvesting them.

The portals quickly closing behind them, a Rei hologram suddenly appeared and addressed the competitors, standing before a large mansion of in the style of the antebellum period of the American south. A mailbox out front bore the name "The Capitalist".

"Round Two: Pyros Neinian Nine versus PX-05 PhoenixBot! Ready.... FIGHT!!"

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Now sporting a new pendant around its neck, the bear shook the sleep from its eyes as it found itself in a strange, technologically advanced compound. Main power was offline, the primary light source being flashing red emergency lights running along the corridors. In several areas, archaic runes marked the walls, and the matter within the building appears to have been manipulated into new and unexpected forms. A malevolent aura, almost electrical in nature, made the bear's fur stand on end as it caught the scent of Inbred Chocobo in the air.

As IC and the Bear sought each other out, the digitized voice of Rei came over the intercom, echoing through the darkened halls of the old Mashirosen Tower.

"Round Two: Inbred Chocobo versus a bear! Ready.... FIGHT!!"

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A couple terrified elves shrieked and ran off into the shadows as the two hyperlink portals burst into existence, then vanishing as quickly after Mesden and Krylo stepped out. All around them were abandoned work benches, toys strewn about broken and half finished. The air felt more than a bit cold, and monstrous roars, howls, and growls echoed through the candy cane and gumdrop adorned halls.

"Boy, it looks like somebody's sure getting on the naughty list for this," Rei remarked as she stepped into the workshop of Santa's Castle, before addressing the competitors before her and making the required announcement.

"Round Two: Krylo Killian versus Mesia Denostaya! Ready.... FIGHT!!"

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Finding themselves in a grand, gold-laden hallway, Reneé Revenu and Arhiyara looked about to see the ornate palace surrounding them, enclosed magically within a gigantic bubble of breathable air far beneath the surface of the ocean. A feeling of shifting momentum was more than apparent, as if the ground beneath them was in a constant state of motion. To either side, a gathering of various sea creatures stood, stationed along the walkway, which itself ended with a tiny figure, wearing a comically oversized crown, eyeing them from atop the throne of Poseidon.

"Well, well, dood," William grinned, "It looks like the entertainment has arrived."

"It sure has," Rei commented, the hologram appearing next to the throne as she made proceeded to make her announcement, "Round Two: Arhiyara versus the representative of KP Morgan! Ready.... FIGHT!!"

[PyrosNine]

"Huh. Where the heck am I?" Pyros scratched his head. He'd certainly never been here before, which was to be expected for an arena POS shoved him in, but something about this environment was completely foreign to him.

The only thing he knew was that he had to blow up that manor in the distance, and that he held a dislike for anyone who said he couldn't stop a concussive based weapon through simple control of fire.

Ignoring past wrongs for now, Pyros checked the device he had been given then popped his knuckles.

"Alright then, Ka-jillion dollar woman, I don't know where we are, but I do know I am still capable of wailing on your mechanical ass."

Pyros waited for her to make the first move.

[Mesden]

Upon seeing Krylo in the same ring as her, Mesden quickly resummoned her shield to her left hand. Damn gunslinging immortal... The blades began to fire out again until the blue of the shield was no longer visible to Krylo, and behind the hail of blades and barricade, she had lifted her sword up and began pushing forward. Defensive positions like these made her glad she saw through immaterial things right towards her target.

[Inbred Chocobo]

"The old Mashirosen Tower. What an interesting place to do battle." IC said, looking around the hallways. He recognized this place from the last time he was in here. Raiden had caused the morph to happen, unleashing the powers within the Kurosen. Which made IC smile. The bracelet on his wrist was charged, but there was still some of the energy released from Raiden floating in this tower. That energy could be tapped as well with the bracelet.

Of course, he now had to find his opponent. With the mess Raiden caused, it could take forever. "No time like the present." IC mumbled, and walked out, and started looking for his opponent.

[mauve]

"No destruction?" echoed Mauve at Phoenix's briefing. "Well, that makes things significantly less news-worthy. And fun."

She shoved her hands into her pockets and sulked, kicking a rock across the sidewalk and into the street.

"Well, at least surviving a tower built to destroy us might be interesting. What's PhoenixCorp/POS Industries' rule on filming in the facility?" she asked Phoenix, gesturing with one hand towards her trusty cameraman.

[Astral Harmony]

"Won't you just film what you want to, anyways?" Armored asked Mauve.

I mean, who actually watches the footage to begin with, she thought to herself. I figure they'll just get Bill Madden to do commentary to make the insanity of the competition even more amusing before they hand the videos over to us as souveniers or something.

Armored turned to face the Kurosen Tower. "I wonder what's inside? When she says not to destroy anything that belongs to this place, does he also mean that we should avoid damaging any independantly functioning security drones and turrets and stuff, or does this tower not have that?"