RP Smash [IC/Conditional Acceptance/PG-16]

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Xia and Cyanthrax

 

The two found themselves standing opposite on a large basketball court. They were flanked on both sides by exceptionally tall people who seemed absolutely confident on the field. Though they both had gotten their fair share of fanboying from both sides while they were being introduced to the team.

 

They would've gotten a brief rundown of the rules, even if they looked it up themselves, and it was explained to them that it would be just like a regular game except there would only be two fifteen minute rounds. Any concern about the abruptness of the match would be washed away instantly. The stadium was filled, news crews were watching, and the teams were ready to play. The pinstriped suit man explained that hype for Arena Fighters was so high that it was easy to get publicity going fast. "You are your own advertisement."

 

And now the two would face off against each other. They would be given the first jump ball. They had been warned that overuse of their various powers was disallowed and reminded that the other players were normal people. The ref tossed the ball up.

And the game began.

---

Gavin and Aurora

 

As the two entered the hospital they would notice it oddly empty. There were people milling about as normal but, given the news story that had dropped earlier, it seemed like there should be more.

However there was one person in particular that stood out. The staff member that had spoken to the reporter. He stood out simply because, as the two entered the hospital, he headed straight for them. Specifically Aurora. "Hey, you, you're uh...you're that one who wanted to go to the basement yesterday aren't you? You know I thought it was really weird someone wanted to go to the basement but then I found that body down there. Really weird coincidence right?" He paused and then his eyes widened as he added. "Unless it wasn't a coincidence..." A hint of fear flashed in his eyes.

---

Tesability

 

"Uhh photo? I dunno much about that." Leif scratched his nose as he thought about it. "I guess maybe at the news station or something. Sometimes photographers are around the parks and stuff....You could try the art gallery, I guess." It was clear the boy was out of his element. "I could try and take some but uh...last time I took a photo I blew up the fountain..."

[Super Chaos Sonic]

 

 

"I'd love some help! The last time I came here to do some investigating, I guess I wound up sounding suspicious or something. I'm not really good with diplomacy and stuff, so I'm counting on you to talk to the staff here so we can get to the basement."

 

"I see, I see." Gavin nodded. Diplomacy was not something he was 100% good at, but trying to calm someone down and just talk to was something he could do. Probably the exact same type of thing in this scenario. "Me and VEX won't let you down."

 

Oddly enough, though, when they got to the hospital it was...empty. This was something curious to Gavin. After all, it was televised plus it seemed like it was being quite the big deal. So why weren't there a lot more hustle and bustle in this hospital than there already was? Someone just died and it doesn't seem like many people cared...then again, someone died in a hospital...probably not as effective.

 

"Hey, you, you're uh...you're that one who wanted to go to the basement yesterday aren't you? You know I thought it was really weird someone wanted to go to the basement but then I found that body down there. Really weird coincidence right? Unless it wasn't a coincidence..."

 

He noticed immediately the sudden change in the man's demeanor when he said this last part. Stepping in, Gavin clear his throat and looked at the young man. "Easy there. Slow your roll, buddy." he started. "Whatever your thinking is probably out in left field. We're just here to talk is all, alright? So c'mon, take a deep breath and let it out." Gavin put his hand gently on the guy's shoulder and smiled. "Name's Gavin Shepherd...and you are?"

[👀 REP 👀]

With that ball being tossed into the air, the two players jumped after it. Though their jumps were far above the average person’s, in term of explosiveness and height, the dragon girl managed to beat out the demon, as she reached up and grabbed the ball. Gripping onto it with one hand, the girl’s expression brightened up as she looked at the ball, and then back to Cyan saying, “hey look! I got it!”

Cyan was uncharacteristically silent as Xia happily had the ball. He would of been surprised if she had even gotten close to getting the ball, but to have gotten it before he did? It took him a bit to process what had just happened, before a grin stretched on his face. “Oh, this is gonna be fun.” He said, rushing towards the dragon girl in an attempt to get the ball for himself.

As the girl hadn’t really been paying attention to holding onto the ball, her expression only brightened more as she said, “I’m sure it’ll be tons of fun!” The girl, only using one hand to hold onto the ball, was then not ready for the demon to knock it out of her hand and claim it.

“I’ll be taking that!” Cyan smuggly said as he swiped the ball off of Xia’s hand. He almost broke into a sprint towards the hoop before remembering the rules they went over. “Right right… traveling...” He muttered, awkwardly dribbling the ball. The ball would bounce higher than he’d want to, but slowly it started to get around the height he wanted. His focus was completely on the ball, and mastering this skill.

“Okay!” Xia exclaimed as the demon boy took it, starting to dribble across the court.

While the girl seemed content with what had happened, one of the players on her team shouted, “Xia, the ball! Get it back.”

With a look of realization the girl nodded saying, “right!” With that, she began to make her way towards Cyan. While normally the other players probably would’ve gone to stop Cyan, they seemed to leave him open for Xia as he seemed to clumsily get the hang of dribbling. Being able to catch up with him as a result, the girl reached out her hand, going to grab the ball from Cyan from the side.

“Hey!” Cyan barked as the dragon girl swiped the ball out of his hands. Angrily, he stuck out his arm, ready to summon his sword. However, he caught a rather dirty look from the ref, reminding him about the agreement they had before the game started. “Fu‌ck.” He shook his head, before chasing after the girl. “Get back here!”

“I don’t think I should!” The girl shouted back towards the demon. Trying to awkwardly dribble the ball herself, it constantly going up to her head in height as she tried to slam it back to the floor, things were not going well for her.

Seeing this, one of her teammates shouted out, “Xia, pass here.”

Looking to him with a smile on her face, the girl said, “okay!” The man soon learned that this was a bit of mistake, as she threw the ball at high speeds towards the basketball player. Not prepared for this force, the ball bounced off the man’s arms as he exclaimed in pain. “Sorry!” The ball was now freely bouncing on the court.

One of Cyan’s teammates picked up the bouncing ball, dribbling it as he made his way towards the hoop. However, he was intercepted by the enemy team. “Hey you!” Cyan barked from behind the man, extending his arms out towards the man. “Give me that sh‌it!” Reluctantly, his teammates passing him the ball, the demon prepared to catch the pass.

However, from the corner of his eye he saw one of the other players trying to intercept it. “Oh no you don’t” Cyan said, diving towards the ball and getting to it before the other player could. However, now he found himself in a different predicament - while his dribbling had improved very quickly, it was still a tad awkward, especially since he had just dived for the ball. Still, he was making good speed towards the hoop.

As Cyan nearly made it within shooting range of the hoop, Xia had run in front of him, stretching both of her arms out to the side saying, “I’m supposed to stop you!”

“Move!” He shouted, ready to push the girl out of the way. To his surprise, she barely budged as he slammed into her, sending the ball flying into the court. “What the fu‌ck!?” He shouted in disbelief, dusting himself off. “What are you?”

The girl cocked her head to the side, a bit confused saying, “I’m Xia! No wait, that’s who. Right! I’m a human! And a dragon! What are you?” As she asked, the ref blew his whistle, as the ball had bounced out of the court, motioning for someone from Xia’s team to throw it back in.

“A demon.” He said, shaking his head when he heard the whistle. “This would be much more fun as a blood sport, just sayin’.” He glanced at the person with the ball, before returning his glance back at the girl. A dragon, huh? The other dragon he had seen was… well, an actual dragon. She didn’t sound like she was lying though…

“Ooooh, a demon? Sounds cool!” The girl didn’t really know what a demon was, but it sounded neat enough. While one of her teammates had picked up the ball, he looked to the girl, passing it to her.

As one of Cyan’s teammates was explaining to him that he should probably be in front of Xia to intercept the pass, he saw the girl pass the ball to the dragon. “Noted.” He told his teammates, running towards Xia to try and take the ball from her.

Grabbing onto the ball, the girl started to try and dribble again, only to see Cyan make his way back to stop her. Stopping in her tracks, the girl remembered that she couldn’t actually run with the ball. She also didn’t want to hurt another of her teammates again by passing to him again. So, with only one option left, the girl leaned back away from Cyan, before launching the ball in a straight line towards the basket... from halfway down the court.

As Cyan watched the ball go flying into the air, he turned away from Xia and turned towards where the ball had been launched. He watched as the ball slammed onto the backboard of the hoop, swearing he could hear the sound of metal bending. He jumped up into the air, trying to catch the ball as it rebounded from the backboard. Instead, however, due to how fast the ball was flying, he instead had to hit the ball towards one of his teammates.

His teammate tried his best to catch the ball, but was not successful as the ball slammed into his chest, sending the ball bouncing towards the center of the court. While he had the breath knocked out of him, he was fine; not that Cyan cared. His attention was focused on the ball as he landed on the ground. “Someone get that!” He shouted.

With the ball bouncing around, one Xia’s teammates had picked the ball up and started dribbling forward with it, clearly far better than either Xia or Cyan had been doing so, so far. Looking back, he called out to the dragon girl, who was trailing a bit behind him, shouting, “Xia!” With that, he tossed the ball to the ground, causing it to bounce up towards the girl.

[Alaina]

 Cyan was close behind when Xia’s teammate passed her the ball. He grit his teeth, before suddenly shifting into a grin, an idea coming to his mind. Suddenly, Cyan was gone, only a trail of smoke left in his wake that seemed to be heading right in front of Xia. Just as sudden as he had disappeared, he reappeared in front of the dragon, almost immediately trying to swipe the ball from her. He glanced over to the ref, noting that he wasn’t doing anything to stop him. 
 
As Cyan had managed to catch the ball, appearing in front of Xia, she backed up a bit saying, “whoa!” Her expression of surprise was then replaced with a excitement as she said, “man Cyan, that was sooo cool! Is that a thing “demons can do?””
 
Cyan grinned as he heard the girl. “What can I say?” He passed the ball to seemingly no one, before disappearing into smoke again, appearing where he had thrown the ball. “I’m just that badass!” He said, catching and dribbling the ball in place. Starting to cackle, however, he let his guard down as one of Xia’s teammates managed to steal the ball from him. “Hey! I was showing off!” He barked, chasing after him.
 
As the man tossed the ball back to Xia, she caught it with ease as she began to dribble back towards the opposing team’s basket. As she was stopped by three of Cyan’s teammates, surrounding the girl, she decided to try her hand at tossing the ball towards the basket. However, before the ball left her hand, one of Cyan’s teammates had managed to slap the ball out of her hand. With the three of them breaking off towards the ball, one Xia’s teammates made their way over to her. “Hey Xia, in order to score you don’t need to throw the ball into the hoop. Just as long as it gets through it, you can drop it into it. Got it?” The girl seemed to be processing this advice, before cheerily nodding at the man. 

One of the three caught up to the ball, starting to dribble it as the three of them headed towards the hoop. However, Xia’s team was ready for them as they managed to intercept the one with the ball. It didn’t take long for Cyan to make his way to where all of the action was going, blinking his way towards a girl that had managed to take the ball from his teammates, quickly taking the ball back. Right in front of him, however, was another player who was making it rather difficult for Cyan to go for a shot. Cyan turned to one of his teammates. “Catch!” He shouted, bouncing the ball off of the ground and towards his teammates. The girl barely managed to catch the ball, her dribbles being a bit off due to the speed of the ball. She seemed like she was ready to make a shot.
 
As the girl went to shoot the ball, there was suddenly a half dragon girl in front of her, jumping high into the air. While the girl had moved to block the ball, her arms were exactly in the position to do so. However, because of how high she had jumped, the ball ended up hitting Xia in the face, as it then made its way back towards the ground. 
 
With one of her teammates at the ready, they had managed to grab the ball and start dribbling it back down court. While one of Cyan’s teammates had moved to stop him, the man passed it back to another of his teammate’s who in turn passed it to Xia who started moving down the center of the court. 
 
“Gotta do everything myself… some things never change!” He said, making his way towards Xia. With another puff of smoke, Cyan found himself right next to the dragon girl. “Gonna make the shot?” He taunted, swiping at the ball in an attempt to get it back.
 
“Nope!” The girl exclaimed, holding onto the ball as she tried to take one step to past Cyan, before leaping into the air. 
 
“H-Hey! Get back ‘ere!” Cyan shouted, running towards his hoop. He jumped into the air, teleporting to give him more air as he appeared in front of the hoop, ready to block any attempt of slam dunking.
 
Without caring for Cyan’s attempt to block her attempt at scoring, the girl slammed the ball into Cyan’s guard, pushing the ball against him as she went to dunk it. 
 
Cyan was not ready to take on the full force of the girl’s dunk, fully expecting her to pass it onto her teammates. Instead of the ball going into the hoop, Cyan was the one that ended up getting dunked while the ball went flying from bouncing off of the demon’s arms. He got stuck inside the hoop, although it didn’t take much for him to get out as he faded into smoke, appearing right underneath the hoop. “Holy sheet you are strong.” He remarked, cracking his back that had slammed against the rim.
 
As the girl landed back on the ground, the whistle blew yet again as the ball had gone out of bounds. The ref seemed unsure if what had just happened was a foul or not, but didn’t make any more note of it as he motioned for one of Xia’s team members to get the ball. 
 
Xia, meanwhile, looked incredibly jovial as she said, “thanks! I’ve been told that in many ways before! But man, you must be pretty strong too!” As the ball was getting ready to be passed she said, “man that was really fun. Maybe I’ll do it again!” After saying that, her teammate then tossed the ball back to her. 
 
Cyan chuckled. “Flattery will get you nowhere.” He stood up straight, stretching his arms. “But it is appreciated!” He watched as Xia’s teammate got ready to pass the ball. As soon as Xia got the ball, Cyan was already in her face, swiping at the ball to get it from her “Let’s see you try!”
 
As Cyan swiped the ball out of the air from her, Xia didn’t seem all that bothered, instead going to mark the demon by spreading her arms out to the side again as if to stop him from going anywhere. 
 
Cyan grinned as the dragon tried to stop him, before tossing the ball between her legs. As the ball left his hands, he suddenly disappeared in a trail of smoke, appearing behind the girl and ready to continue the dribble of the ball. “You’re gonna have to do better to stop me!” He mocked as he dribbled forward.
 
While the girl started to run after him, her teammates were a bit faster on the draw. Though they would go to block Cyan from moving forward, the would also seem generally at a loss as to what to do against Cyan’s teleporting drive. 
 
As Cyan went on forward, he felt the glare of the ref aimed directly at him. He’d have to tone down the teleporting, at least against the non-competitors, less he wanted to lose the game for his team. Speaking of which, Xia’s teammates managed to block his advance forward. Instead of blinking, he swiftly tossed the ball to the side and towards one of his teammates. While she struggled a bit, she did manage to successfully receive the ball as she continued onward, prepared to shoot as she had before.
 
Xia had managed to catch up to the team member that Cyan passed it to, and so jumped to block the ball from being shot again. However, the girl was anticipating Xia’s jump this time, and so she just held onto the ball, shooting it when Xia began to descend. While it was not the cleanest of shots, it still managed to reach past the dragon girl’s arms and swish through the hoop, netting a score for Cyan’s team.  
 
The demon pumped his fist as the girl managed to land her shot, the sound of the whistle bringing great joy to him. His celebration was cut short, however - after all, the game itself wasn’t over, and the shot itself was only worth 2 points.
 
Both teams got ready for another tip off. Just like before, despite Cyanthrax’s best effort, he wasn’t able to beat out Xia, as she managed to get the ball for her team.
 
As Xia grabbed onto the ball, one of her teammates had gotten an idea. Sprinting to the other side of the court, the man shout out, “Xia, Pass!”As the girl landed back on the ground, with great velocity and force that she had displayed the last time she passed, she managed to toss it all the way to the man on the other side. Bracing himself for it, he would be able to catch it and then immediately go for a shot.  
 
Cyan and the rest of his team made a mad dash towards the man with the ball, but no one was able to get there fast enough to stop him; the ball had been passed way too fast for anyone to react properly to it. The player managed to get a relatively clean shot, easily scoring for Xia’s team. “funk!” Cyan shouted, shaking his head.

[👀 REP 👀]

The demon turned to the score and timer. The man had managed to make a three pointed, and there wasn’t much time left on the clock. Cyan’s team would have to score, and do so quickly. He grit his teeth, although he was grinning. He always did love a good challenge.

With the man running back, the girl exclaimed, “nice job!” Before going for a congratulatory high five with the person who just scored. While he seemed pumped as well, he winced a bit after the two hands met, shaking his stinging hand a bit before the team recollected themselves, getting ready for what was likely the final tip off. As the ball was tossed in the air once again, Xia leaped into the air, making her way to grab at it again.

This time, however, things were a bit different. With a puff of smoke, Cyan had teleported upward, giving him the height advantage and getting the ball before Xia could. Determination filled his eyes as they locked onto the hoop. He had one goal in mind - he was going to slam this ball into that hoop. As he landed back onto the ground, he passed the ball to a teammate before making his way forward.

While Cyan had passed the ball, Xia still seemed to be the one marking him, trying to keep pace with him as he moved down the court. Meanwhile, one of her other teammates had gone to block the person who had caught the ball, trying to bar their path from going any further.

Cyan tried to run past Xia, to no avail - the dragon girl was doing a very good job at keeping him at bay. The demon let out a sigh. “I’d love to do this song and dance, but I’ve got a game to win.” As before, the demon disappeared into smoke, appearing behind the dragon girl. “Pass it ‘ere!” Cyan shouted to his teammate, who was on the other side of the court and currently locked herself. As she tried to pass the ball to Cyan, one of Xia’s teammates managed to swat at the ball, sending it back towards the other hoop.

As Cyan teleported away from the girl she shouted to him, “singing and dancing is fun, though! You want to do karaoke after this?” After asking that, one of her teammates had managed to pick up the ball, and Xia’s head got back in the game as she started to run down the court. Being passed to, Xia caught the ball, and began to dribble down the court. While one of Cyan’s teammates had moved to stop her, as the girl looked ready to bowl him over, he flinched and backed away before the point of impact.

Cyan made a mad dash towards where Xia was, eyes burning with rage. As he ran, smoke started spewing from his mouth, his hands literally catching on fire. Unlike with Cyan’s teammates, no one dared try and get in the demon’s way as he closed in on her.

As the dragon girl made her way towards the basket, she once again had her path barred by Cyan’s teammates. While two of them seemed ready to stop her, Xia had a big smile on her face as she figured what she’d do to get past them. Dribbling up to them, the girl practically spiked the basketball into the ground, causing it to gain far more height than normal and sail over the heads of Cyan’s teammates. Taken aback by this, the players were to slow to react to it, as Xia ran past them, grabbing the ball as she went to jump for one more dunk.

Cyan was hot on her trail, almost literally as a trail of fire followed him. He was getting close, and his teammates were slowing her down. As he got close, he jumped off of the ground, a stream of fire from both his hands and legs propelling him towards his target. He managed to launch himself higher than the girl, ready to pounce and stop the dunk from happening.

However, he was too late. By the time that he dropped onto his target, the girl had already slammed the ball into the hoop, sending a shockwave around her and nearly shattering the entire hoop with the sheer force of the slam. Cyan dropped onto Xia, although his flame had been extinguished at this point.

As the two landed onto the ground, Cyan fell onto the ground, hearing the buzzer echo in the stadium and the roars of the audience. He took a glance at the scoreboard.

 

2 - 5

TIME

[Alaina]

 

With the game finishing and the buzzer ringing, Xia understood that this was similar to what happened in the arena when a match ended. What was different, however, was the roar of applause that came from the audience. Surprised at the sudden uproar of noise, the girl looked around curiously at first, only for her teammates to come over and start congratulating her for a job well done. Shaking hands and high fiving her team in celebration, to the dismay of her team's hands, the ref eventually blew the whistle, calling for all the players to line up. 

 

As they did, all the players were to thank each other for the game as they walked up to each other, shaking hands. Walking up to shake Cyan's hand the girl smiled at him saying, "man that was a super fun game, and you're like, really really strong too! I'd love to play another game of basketball with you some time later! And maybe tennis, that's also fun!" After the post game pleasantries were done, the girl and the demon would then be approached by the man with the suit that had brought them to this game, coming to collect them. 

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

The next shift, and Angela found herself marching in with the rest of workers towards the mine. The workers all looked at her weirdly however, as if seeing an alien being, and in the end Angela decided to use her Invisible Air to hide herself as she marched. The guards were all scary-looking and fully armed, but thankfully, they didn't detect her and let her pass the first barrier without much hitch. Which led to a corridor that ended in the final checkpoint.

 

It was a door on the wall where the workers must pass through. Mounted on it was a scanner that counted the amount of people that passed through it. It was not something that Angela could fool using optical invisibility. The workers had lined up to enter it one by one, and Angelica knew that if she ended up being dead last, she would not be able to get in. The guards would come, and then she would get dragged back to Mauvache. Angelica shuddered at the thought.

 

Instead, she waited on the side as she had been told about the behavior of the scanner. She waited until there were roughly half of the workers entering, then she rushed forward to push one of the worker away and walked towards the scanner. Her invisibility turned off at this point, and despite her wearing the worker outfit, the alarm went off. The door was closing really fast and Angela without thinking about it much used her wind magic to push herself inside in a burst as the sound of the guards' footsteps went closer.

 

And then, she found herself in a strange land, the mine complex itself. She took the moment to hide and charge herself back with Heaven's Fort, waiting until the remaining half of workers were finally allowed to go through the door. Once she noticed them, she reactivated Invisible Air and walked on their side as they went towards one of the segmented buildings ahead.

 

Angela was aware of the danger, but the closer she was to this mine, the more she was excited. The danger only made it better.

 

---

[Yui]

---

Day 3, 3:00, Hospital

Points: 182

W/L Record: 2/1

"Hey, you, you're uh...you're that one who wanted to go to the basement yesterday aren't you? You know I thought it was really weird someone wanted to go to the basement but then I found that body down there. Really weird coincidence right? Unless it wasn't a coincidence..."

 

"Woah woah, easy there! I'm trying to find whoever's behind this."

 

"Easy there. Slow your roll, buddy. Whatever your thinking is probably out in left field. We're just here to talk is all, alright? So c'mon, take a deep breath and let it out. Name's Gavin Shepherd...and you are?"

 

You smooth talk 'em, Gavin! "And I'm Aurora Burns. Sorry if I came off the wrong way yesterday." Investigation was never Aurora's strong suit. It didn't help that it wasn't really something Mar-Vell courses covered. Hers wasn't the kind of world where you won against the bad guys by playing glorified chess in a bat costume; it was one where you fought them and brought them to the cops when you won. Or maybe there were some heroes that did the whole "master planning" routine? She hadn't heard of any, at least.

 

I'm getting off-track! Aurora snapped her attention back to the here and now. This guy probably thought she had something to do with Officer Kate's murder, and what was super-first-priority-important was assuring him that this was in fact not the case, and perhaps seeing if she could get any leads as to what happened or any possible clues about anything that could point her to the killer.

---

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Gavin and Aurora

 

The young man glanced nervously between the two, as if he only just realized he was standing between two people, and swallowed as they spoke to him. "My name..." He glanced down at his nametag, which marked him as Mark. "If you're not part of this then why'd you wanna go to the basement yesterday?" He glanced over at the reception desk, eyeing up the phone that was visible from where they stood.

 

"What's going on here?" A young doctor came up to the trio. "Mark you should be on your way home, shouldn't you? Ah, visitors?" He looked between the two and nodded. "So what brings Arena Fighters to the hospital? You're not injured are you? I already had to treat one of you recently and I'd rather not make this a habit." He flashed a smile at the two, calmly waiting for their response.

---

Xia and Cyanthrax

 

"Well done, well done indeed." The pinstriped suit man said as he came onto the court, slipping slightly on the floors but righting himself with an awkward laugh. "You both did splendidly, perhaps I should try and convince you to leave the Arena." He laughed nervously as he said this and quickly glanced around, as if looking for something or someone.

"Of course I wouldn't want to try and take anything from Mauvache....Well, if you will, come with me and you can tell me your thoughts of this event." He gestured for them to follow him out into the lobby once more. If they wished they could leave after telling the man what he had asked.

 

It seemed more people recognized the pair then before, though they gave Xia a much warmer reaction than they did Cyanthrax.

[👀 REP 👀]

 

---

 

Cyan glared at the scoreboard, although he had a grin on his face. He had to admit, for a bloodless sport this basketball was pretty fun. He glanced over to his team, who seemed more than wary about how Cyan would react to his loss. He turned to his teammates, who seemed confused to see him smiling instead of seething in rage. "We'll get 'em next time!" He said confidently, raising his fist into the air. They seemed confused at first, but with a collective shrug, they soon followed suit in cheering alongside him. He gave his teammates high fives and fist bumps, before being called over to line up.

 

As the players lined up to shake each other's hand, Xia spoke to him. "man that was a super fun game, and you're like, really really strong too! I'd love to play another game of basketball with you some time later! And maybe tennis, that's also fun!" Cyan grinned wickedly, shaking the girl's hand.

 

"Ha! You're on! Don't expect to win again, though!" He laughed, making a mental note to study up on what a tennis was. As the two shook, the man in the striped shirt came up to them. He congratulated the two, making a joke about them joining the stadium instead, although he got nervous and took it back almost immediately. The man told them to follow. "More talkin', eh? Better get it over with." He shrugged, following the man.

[Alaina]

 

Xia seemed pumped up as Cyan agreed to have a rematch against her, however, before saying anything, the man who brought them to the court in the first place took them back. As the duo followed him, one of the crew who had worked under the man had eventually walked over to Xia, returning Snowball to her. Placing the cat squarely on her head, Xia said, "hey Snowball, did you see me out there? It was super fun, and awesome and I won! You should join us next time we play." The cat cocked its head to the side before giving a "mrow," towards Xia. The girl seemed to nod with a content expression on her face as the group continued to walk with the man. 

 

Once they had arrived at their destination, the man merely asked their thoughts on the event. Raising her hand up, the girl said, "oh oh oh! Right. I thought it was like a super great event! I got to meet all new kinds of people and play a game with them that I had never heard of before! I got to go all like pow!" She motioned her hands rising to the air, "and then like swish!" She then shoved her hand down in a dunking motion."Oh and I got to play with someone also super strong too! I'd love to play more of these sport things in the future!" With her piece down, Cyan was left to give his and after he was done they would be free to exit the building and do as they see fit. 

 

As they exited the building, Xia waved to all the people who flashed smiles at her or wave in her direction. Once outside, the girl turned to Cyan and said once again, "so are you busy? Because there are a lot of fun things to do around the city! Like Karaoke! Oh, do you want to go to do some karaoke?" The girl looked quite enthusiastic and once again pumped up. 

[Super Chaos Sonic]

 

 

"My name... If you're not part of this then why'd you wanna go to the basement yesterday?"

 

Gavin noticed that Mark pointed at his nametag and he nodded. "Nice to meet you, Mark." he said with a chuckle, noticing a bit that he was glancing over at the phone that was over on the desk. It was obvious that he was really antsy as all get out. "Well, that seems more like a question for the lady, so I can't exactly answer for her. However, I'm certain that it wasn't at all malicious. She doesn't seem like the type to do anything like that."

 

"What's going on here? Mark you should be on your way home, shouldn't you? Ah, visitors? So what brings Arena Fighters to the hospital? You're not injured are you? I already had to treat one of you recently and I'd rather not make this a habit."

 

He looked over at the young doctor that approached them, as he smiled and waved his hand in a dismissive manner. "Worry not, doctor. We aren't injured at all." Gavin said, extending his hand out to the doctor. "Gavin Shepherd. Nice to meet you, sir. Now while we aren't here in regards to being injured, we are actually here in regards to the event that occurred not too long ago."

[👀 REP 👀]

---

Luckily, there wasn't much talking they had to do. All they really had to do was say what they thought about the match. "That was loadsa fun!" He said a bit too excitedly, before noticing and turning his head. "I-I mean it was alright, I guess. Would be better as a bloodsport though." He said begrudgingly.
 
Once he made his way outside, he caught up with Xia. As the two walked, Xia waved at the people who flashed smiles at her. Cyan simple scoffed, catching the eyes of some on the crowd. Most of them seemed fixated on smiling at Xia, although some of them locked eyes with the demon and smiled. Most of them seemed hesitant and confused when their eyes locked with the demon; Cyan glared at these people. His staring was interrupted by Xia. "so are you busy? Because there are a lot of fun things to do around the city! Like Karaoke! Oh, do you want to go to do some karaoke?"
 
"Kara... oke?" Cyanthrax said, not sure what she was talking about. He was tempted to shut the girl down, however, he was interest in this one. Her strength was something to behold, fighting her would be fun. Plus, maybe this was a bloodsport. "I'm not sure what that is, but sure. Why the fuc​k not."

[Yui]

---

Day 3, 3:00, Hospital

Points: 182

W/L Record: 2/1

"If you're not part of this then why'd you wanna go to the basement yesterday?"

 

"I was supposed to investigate see, and look for clues about whoever it is the police were looking for, and my first thought was--"

 

"What's going on here? Mark you should be on your way home, shouldn't you? Ah, visitors? So what brings Arena Fighters to the hospital? You're not injured are you? I already had to treat one of you recently and I'd rather not make this a habit."

 

"Worry not, doctor. We aren't injured at all. Gavin Shepherd. Nice to meet you, sir. Now while we aren't here in regards to being injured, we are actually here in regards to the event that occurred not too long ago."

 

"Aurora Burns. Nice to meet you, doctor. We're both perfectly fine like Gavin said, but we're here to look into what happened with Officer Kate. But the thing is, we have to get into the basement for that, and I probably seem really suspicious right now since I was asking about the basement yesterday too..." That was definitely her fault though. Not that she'd say it out loud as easily as she'd accept it in her mind. "I never was down there though, I'm sure a hospital has security cameras you can check out if you don't believe me. But now with what happened to Officer Kate I really really need to find out who's behind this. So could you please help us get down there and check it out?"

---

[Alaina]

 

As Cyan agreed to the fun excursion of Karaoke, Xia leaped into the air with joy. "Yippe! Don't worry, I didn't know what it was at first either, but then Aria and Angela helped teach me and it's super easy and fun. Come on! Follow me!" With that, Xia pointed forward and began walking in that direction. The trip to the Karaoke place was likely far longer and far more eventful than Cyan would've been expecting, for Xia was their guide and navigator. She was loosely aware of where the building was and even when they had been going the correct direction, she was prone to getting distracted by something else and easily getting side tracked from her destination. Eventually, though, the trio did manage to find the karaoke place.

 

Entering the building, Xia gave a wave to the two people at the front desk, who were arguing over some other musical topic once again before the dragon girl asked for a karaoke room. After paying the points, the trio then found themselves in a small room with only a TV, a microphone, a couch, a table and a machine to select music from. Looking over to the demon she said, "here we are, karaoke! Basically, you pick a song and then words appear on the screen and you use this thing," she handed him the microphone, "and sing into it. I don't know all the rules to it but I'm pretty sure you're supposed to sing as loudly and with as much passion as possible! It's super fun, so why don't you go first!"

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"Alright, I'm ready now."

 

Angela so far had managed to blend into the workers' group so far. They usually cast her a suspicious glare, but didn't seem to care since she was an extra person to help around. She just got herself her equipment, a backpack, laser, as well as a helmet. Right now she was following the other workers going down an elevator. There was around 15 with her in the elevator right now. Soon, she would find herself finding the opening to a mine shaft, which looked significantly less advanced than the rest of the complex, aside from the rare lighting above. The tunnel was narrow at points, and wide at other points. Angela theorized that it was due to these places having been mined before. Soon it would lead to a large shaft complex with many numbered tunnels. Angela didn't understand the numbers and what did they mean, so she simply followed some of the workers and went to one of the tunnels.

 

The other workers chatted a bit but Angela didn't understand what they said. They thus then started mining using the laser device to break  through the rock. Angela tried to follow their example at first, but after a while, she realized that she had no idea on what she was doing. Grumbling, Angela opted to activate her invisibility once again, and left to do what she was supposed to do here in the first place.

 

Exploring the mine complex.

 

---

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Gavin and Aurora

 

The doctor shook Gavin's hand and the young man would notice that it felt somewhat cold to the touch. He frowned as the two revealed their reasons for being here. "One of your fellow Fighters already had some questions involving an incident, do you really think putting yourself in the middle of another, especially after there's already some suspicion, is wise?" He shook his head. "I may be overstepping but have you talked to Mauvache about this? I don't think even she could get you out of trouble if...well, in any case, I don't think I can just let you investigate like that. I'm sure the police are doing as much as they can. After all Officer Kate is one of their own..." Though he didn't seem entirely confident in the last part of the statement.

 

"If you really want to help you'd be best trying to ask around for information elsewhere and not somewhere so...suspicious."

---

Angela

 

The girl ended up going down a path that seemed less traveled than others, away from the other groups of workers, which had less lighting than the rest. As she got deeper this seemed like it could become a problem, without light she struggled to find her way, but eventually there would be some glowing up ahead.

 

Which seemed to be coming from veins of Aetherstone. Bluish in color, and glowing, they seemed to pulse slightly as she looked at them. She could sense the raw magic coming off of them and, after a bit of time, would feel slightly nauseous.

 

As she continued down the path she would hear a scrapping noise and, looking up, she'd notice a rather unusual creature.

 

It was the size of a large dog and the color of grayish flesh. It had four spindly limbs which seemed to be double-jointed. It was unclear if they were legs or arms as, from the way it crawled across the ceiling, it seemed to be something of both.

There were three clawed toes (fingers?) at the end of each limb and the limbs converged around a vein-covered lump of flesh, over two feet in diameter.

In the middle of said lump Angela could see something glowing and pulsing, similar to the Aetherstone, inside of it.

On the lump were two protrusions. One at what could be assumed to be its back and one at the front. The one on the back seemed to be something like a stinger, six inches in length, which wobbled up and down and showed some freedom of movement.

The other was attached to what could only be described as a neck. It was black and seemed to be a pair of long, oval-shaped, jaws with teeth disturbingly human-like. The ends of the jaws narrowed down to a point and looked scoop-like.

 

As Angela watched the creature shot out a greenish goop at the wall, near an Aetherstone vein, which appeared to start to dissolve the stone. The creature then craned its neck to scoop out the stone and chewing noises could be heard.

 

It took several seconds but, if Angela waited long enough, the creature would seem to notice her and, when it did, dove down at her.

 

[spoiler=OOC]Mine Crawler: The most common monster found in the mines. Nimble and with a strong bite (picture Mawile's second mouth), the creatures have an uncertain way of detecting that doesn't use vision, smell, nor sound.

HP: 80 Difficulty Rating: 2/5.

The difficulty basically is equal, for Angela, to a starting RPG group against the first dungeon's monsters. Basically can't kill her unless she doesn't fight back but requires some effort to bring down. And multiple foes are more dangerous when by oneself.

 

[Yui]

---

Day 3, 3:00, Hospital

Points: 182

W/L Record: 2/1

"One of your fellow Fighters already had some questions involving an incident, do you really think putting yourself in the middle of another, especially after there's already some suspicion, is wise? I may be overstepping but have you talked to Mauvache about this? I don't think even she could get you out of trouble if...well, in any case, I don't think I can just let you investigate like that. I'm sure the police are doing as much as they can. After all Officer Kate is one of their own..."

 

"It isn't wise, but it's right." That was what mattered most. If people only did what was wise, would there even be heroes to begin with? That said, the idea of not being able to investigate right at the heart of the incident didn't sit well with Aurora. She'd heard the conversations Officer Kate had in the police office just yesterday. The other officers probably didn't like her that much, and even if she was still an officer of the law in the end, Aurora couldn't exactly imagine the other police doing their best to get to the bottom of this particular crime.

 

"If you really want to help you'd be best trying to ask around for information elsewhere and not somewhere so...suspicious."

 

"Somewhere else..." Aurora thought about it for a bit. The only other place she knew of that was connected to all this was the police station, but that didn't seem like a place where she'd get any information. Where else was there to even investigate??? Or maybe she was tackling this the wrong way? Perhaps she had to think less about the what and more about the who. People who did these kinds of horrible crimes usually lived in...

 

"Are there any seedy neighborhoods around here? Or other places where lowlives would probably gather up in?"

 

"Right to that is it? The slums a level down I suppose, there's some bars down there too, but careful. That's where Angela got in trouble the other day."

 

"Got it. Thanks, doc!" If these slums were where Angela got into trouble, it only made more sense that it would be a good spot to investigate the Officer Kate case. Everything was working out better than expected! Turning her attention to Gavin, the cryomancer said "A level down. It sounds a bit dangerous, but we should be fine. Come on, let's go!" With that, Aurora took Gavin's hand, and started for the hospital doors. There were slums to investigate. And hopefully, bad guys to catch.

---

[👀 REP 👀]

 

---

 

As they walked around the city, Cyan was quickly aware that Xia was almost as bad as he was in navigating the city, although she seemed less loss and more distracted by everything. The demon rolled his eyes as he followed the dragon girl, ready to simply call it quits and leave. However, as soon as he was about to curse her out, they made it to their destination.

 

Cyanthrax took a look around at the building as they walked in, although he didn't have much time to appreciate the view as they quickly found themselves moving into a small room with a variety of gadgets he didn't recognize. "here we are, karaoke!" Xia said, before explaining how karaoke actually worked. It seemed like it wasn't a blood sport after all, instead some kind of singing competition or something of that sort. Cyan shifted his glance from the instrument Xia was handing to him to around the room, noticing the lack of any bards. He turned his attention to the strange machine - maybe that was the bard?

Either way, he was still trying to process what exactly everything did. He turned back to Xia, pushing the rod back at her. "How 'bout you start us off? This technology sh​​it is too much..." He said, before shooting a glare back at her. "Not that I can't figure it out on my own, or anything! It'd just be quicker if you went first, is all."

[Super Chaos Sonic]

 

 

"One of your fellow Fighters already had some questions involving an incident, do you really think putting yourself in the middle of another, especially after there's already some suspicion, is wise? I may be overstepping but have you talked to Mauvache about this? I don't think even she could get you out of trouble if...well, in any case, I don't think I can just let you investigate like that. I'm sure the police are doing as much as they can. After all Officer Kate is one of their own...If you really want to help you'd be best trying to ask around for information elsewhere and not somewhere so...suspicious."

 

This made Gavin feel like this doctor was up to something right now. He was about to make a retort to the man, but was stopped when Aurora spoke up.

 

"Are there any seedy neighborhoods around here? Or other places where lowlives would probably gather up in?"

"Right to that is it? The slums a level down I suppose, there's some bars down there too, but careful. That's where Angela got in trouble the other day."

"Got it. Thanks, doc! A level down. It sounds a bit dangerous, but we should be fine. Come on, let's go!"

 

"Sure..." he spoke, turning around and giving a nod to the doctor and Mark. "Pleasure to meet you both." As he walked off with Aurora who grabbed his hand, Gavin brought up his MOVA up in front of him. He debated to activate and send out his surveillance-bots out to spy on the doctor. However, with a heavy sigh, Gavin decided against this course of action.

 

I still have the feeling he's hiding something... he thought, as he was pretty much drug out of the hospital by Aurora. If my gut happens to be right...I'll come back and get out some answers. Otherwise...

 

"Won't lie, Snow Angel...I'm actually glad you stepped in back there." Gavin started with a chuckle. "I probably would've confronted him right there. Honestly feel like he's hiding something. Not to mention, his hand felt...cold to the touch."

[Alaina]

 

As Cyan left the first go to her, she nodded, saying, "don't worry. I'll show you just how to use this awesome Karaoke machine thingy. Oh wait! Snowball, do you want to go first?" The girl looked to her feline companion, who merely cocked its head to the side with a, "mrow?" "Gotcha! I'll teach you too!" Looking at the machine, the girl gestured to it saying, "well, you see, first you gotta pick out a song." Going over to the machine, she started fiddling with it before continuing her explanation. "See, there are a lot of songs. A loooooooot, of songs. And they have these things called Genners," genres,"that I don't know what they mean. So, I just like to pick songs based on things that I like. Like," the girl input the word, "dragon" into her search, bringing up a plethora of results either to deal with songs or bands that had the word "dragon" somewhere in them.

 

"And, there you are. You just pick one of these. Then, you take this little weird ball stick thingy," she grabbed the mic from Cyan's hand. "And sing into it! And like, words appear on this cool screen and you gotta sing those words that appear. I think you're also supposed to sing them in a certain way, but I don't know." After shrugging the girl then went to press play on the song she selected, and said, "alright just watch." 

 

As soon as the song started, the girl seemed to be a bit surprised and excited as her tail started to swing to the rhythm of the song. While she looked comfortable and into it, that changed the moment the lyrics began. Xia was not the greatest of singers. To make it matters worse her singing was completely off beat and she tended to, verbally, trip over herself as she tried to match the rhythm of the song, causing her to either miss or slur through some of the words. All the same, she seemed to be enjoying herself and did the best that she could to sing the song to its completion. Once the song was done, the girl let out a hearty sigh of relief, as the karaoke machine spat out a very unsatisfactory score at her. 

 

The girl didn't seem any bit bothered by it before handing the microphone back to Cyan, "see, it's super simple. So now it's your turn!"

[Tesability Black]

She completely lost track of time as she zipped about the city, asking seemingly random people about where the 'photo-persons' for the Arena was and moving on to the next person as each one said 'no'. A grumble left her muzzle as she finally landed upon one of the buildings, plopping paws onto the roofing before looking around at all the flying pieces of metal above her head.

 

"Dey getsh tu fwaish an' Ai can'ts...unfaiw," she whined to herself before taking to the sky once more and diving back towards the ground to ask more people about the Arena photos, annoyance beginning to get the best of her.

 

"Whewe ISH dish pewshons," Tesability found herself belting out in frustration, having no luck at all in her search...

[👀 REP 👀]

 

---

 

Cyan watched as Xia showed him how everything in this 'karaoke' worked, nodding along as she explained what everything was. He talked about the song's 'Genners'? Maybe she meant gender? Although it would be weird for a song to have a gender... maybe it refereed to the singer? Still it seemed he was partially right about the machine being the bard; actually he was familiar with this form of singing over someone else's music. "I see..." He muttered. While her explanation helped, it did leave him with more questions.  

 

He watched as the girl sang her song, rather clumsily. Even he could tell she wasn't doing a good job, although his attention was more onto the song itself. What type of instruments were they using? None of them sounded like lutes or flutes, and the lyrics had a lot less rhyming. And yet they repeated themselves a lot, or at least one specific set of sentences. It was all very confusing to him. 

 

After Xia had finished, it was his turn. He gave the girl a confident scoff, before turning to the mechanical bard. He hesitated a bit, overwhelmed by the options in front of him. "Well, here goes nothing..." Cyan said, typing in random words into the machine. Truth be told, he had never been much of a singer, which added to the banter between his fellow sins. After putting in a few words and looking at the images with the pictures, one of the pictures caught his eye. "Indestructible, huh? Sure why not..." He said, pressing on the picture and his song.

 

As the song started, he was confused by the sound. It didn't sound much like a song at all, more like an alarm. Had he made a mistake? Suddenly, the actual song kicked in, causing Cyan to step back a bit by the sudden blast of sound. It was definitely not a lute, although he felt himself getting into it. And then the lyrics popped up. Having no idea how the song was before hand, he stumbled on himself constantly while singing; at some point he stopped singing and trying to keep with the tune and started simply shouting the words that appeared on the screen with ferocity. It honestly felt kind of good, in a primal sort of way. 

After the song ended, the demon flipped off the screen as it gave him his rather unsatisfactory score. He let out a yell, dropping the mic on the floor. "Holy SH​IT that felt good!" He let out, letting out a 'woo!'. "Whatever the hell they use as instruments, it's WAY better than those fuc​king lutes back home!" 

 

 

 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Aurora and Gavin

 

After Aurora responded to Gavin the pair made their way towards the lower level. Which meant going to one of the four shrines at the edge of the city in each cardinal direction. Inside the shrine was a hallway, with several rooms branching off seemingly for some form of worship, but their destination was at the opposite end of the building. Teleporters that can transport people to the various levels of the city.

 

If they asked the priest, a man in white robes, how to get to their destination he'd give them a slightly confused look but direct them to the middle level of the city. A large area of land in the western portion would be where they were heading.

 

Once there they'd see a large amount of tightly packed, barely enough room for two lane roads, houses inter-spaced with gas stations and bars. There were literally hundreds of buildings, at least, in this area but they'd eventually find people to direct them where they needed. Though some of them seemed rather nervous due to the events that occurred recently. It seemed they were especially wary once they recognized Aurora as an Arena Fighter.

---

Tesability

 

The pseudo-dragon would eventually find their way to the art gallery, one of the places that Leif had suggested she try out. It was a large, three-story, building which had the shape of a pyramid of all things. Though it was clearly constructed of more modern material. If she were to ask for information about the building she'd learn the owner himself lives on the top floor, the tip of the pyramid, and that the second floor contained sculptures and the first photos, paintings, and drawings mostly. 

 

Upon entering the place the first thing she'd notice is the rather comfortable temperature and the pleasant background music. It had a relaxed atmosphere and, as she roamed about, she'd see various people oohing and ahhing over the works of art. The most noticeable person in the room, which seemed to be largely open concept with several walls for more area for the art to hang, was a young man with a peacock's tail and beak, who was scoffing at a painting of cats playing blackjack. "Absolutely amateurish." He said, scoffing several more times, and glancing around to see if anyone was listening. "I could do better in my sleep, why my uncle keeps this trash here is beyond me."

[Alaina]

 

Xia gave a hearty applause as Cyan finished his interesting choice of song, clearly not really minding how well the demon sung and instead saying, "I know right! Karaoke is sooo great!" Xia hadn't any idea what a "lute" was, but she was certainly in agreement these instruments were awesome. "So, let's go onto the next one!" With that, Xia made her way over to the Karaoke machine, continuing to scroll through song after song. She would then continue to sing song after song, only to hand off the mic to Cyan whenever she was finished. She had even handed the mic to Snowball at one point who, despite being incredibly confused and saying only variations of "mrow" and "meow" managed to score higher than either the dragon or the demon in Karaoke. 

 

Once it was all finished and their time in the booth was up, Xia still seemed fired up to hang out and said, "so, Cyan. What do you do for fun? In like, the time you're not doing fun bloody sport things, at least." The girl seemed to look at Cyan expectantly.