Hi, folks. I'm a latecomer to Avatarjk137's tournament A Winner is Two, so when Blood Lord Dark Kiva dropped out, I stole his character, Robotnik of Sonic fame. As our story begins, Robotnik has just been badly beaten up by a bunch of demons, a demon summoner, and some bees. For details, visit Reaper's Shadow and Blood Lord Dark Kiva's respective chapters. Enjoy, folks, and may the best author win! Bane the Druid is from the Legacy of Kain game series, which I'd recommend to everyone who enjoys a good story combined with bloody combat.

Robotnik (continuation.)

Bees eluded for the present, Robotnik found himself nursing some considerable stings as he made his way back to the clearing (well, now, it was a clearing) in which his first duel had taken place. Looking around at the devastation, he considered his options. That had not been an auspicious beginning to his tournament. Those demons had knocked most of his little creations aside instantly. He'd never expected to go up against anything so powerful. And now, here he was, forced to run from a mere beehive. Returning to the place said hive had fallen, now vacant, he pillaged it for whatever honey was left. The sugar restored some of the energy he'd lost running, and returned him to his senses.

Dr. Ivo Robotnik had always been a thinker, rather than a fighter. He had never even attempted to go up against Sonic fighting hand to hand, preferring to rely on his mechanical creations and various minions. They had been wiped out in his first little encounter. That didn't bode well for his future. He knew he'd never defeat some of those creatures hand to hand. So all he could do was salvage what he could from the devastated gap in the forest and hope he could find something useful.

After some time of sifting through fragments of toppled trees and mines, he hadn't found much. His laser pistols were shredded, and only a few of his mines had survived. He would need to use them sparingly from this point onwards. His toolkit-welding irons, screwdrivers, etcetera, had survived, but without much materials to use them on, there was little he could do. One of the larger mine fragments was just big enough to allow him to wedge it between two trees to use as a rudimentary shelter from the elements should any storm arrive on the island, while another of his mines which had not exploded on inspection turned out to be faulty, and swift dismantling provided him with a little convex shield, to which a moment's welding of another debris fragment added a curved handle on the inside. Plenty of mine fragments were jagged, and he found several for which a few minutes work would turn a broken piece of shrapnel into a crude but hopefully serviceable knife or sword by the use of a few stones to remove any jagged edges on the section which would serve as the handle. Returning periodically to the now abandoned hive to renew his strength, he continued his salvaging, turning up a few noteworthy items or potential tools he could make given time, but little he could create quickly. As he was testing his knives on the multiple downed trees, a metallic squawk caught his attention, and he looked up.

"Klunk!"

The robotic bird alighted on his shoulder, leaving Robotnik overjoyed to see his pet.

"You followed me!" Klunk, an early experiment, had been with Robotnik from the very beginning, and had apparently followed the helicopter bringing him here. He would be very useful for gathering information on his opponents, but also would need regular servicing.

Robotnik looked around at his pitiful collection of weapons. He'd never been an especially good hand to hand fighter, and he'd been too wasteful with his resources during that first combat. The Domino Effect, while useful, had used a lot of his mines, and he would have little remaining for the next battle, when it came. If Raidou was any indication, some of the other competitors were very experienced fighters in their own right, without any of his tricks. He wouldn't have much hope in a knife fight.

When he'd come to this island, he'd thought it a game, a way to gain power, especially now that King K Rool was beginning to muscle in on his empire back home. He'd never thought that by coming here he might die. Even Sonic, at his worst, stamping on the Plexiglass bubble of all his various creations, had never actually tried to cut him in half, unlike Raidou. The demon summoner had just harshly disabused him of the notion that this tournament would be anything but easy to survive.

So...the question remained. What was he to do...he needed to gain more tools and equipment so he could build something to aid his defence...the only way he could do that was by challenging other contestants and looting them...but who could he survive a battle with? He could attempt to avoid conflict, but if he remembered the rules correctly, he'd eventually be hunted down. And, unfortunately, a large egg shaped man in gauntlets and armour with a lurid orange moustache could not hide easily. He would be challenged...and he'd have to be ready to fight outside his comfort zone, in a hand to hand combat he was unfamiliar with, until he could find other materials.

He practiced with his new knives long into the night, and began to recover his composure.

I am Dr. Ivo Robotnik! I will survive!

He drifted off to sleep under his corrugated iron sheet, listening to the soothing sound of explosions and falling trees across the island as other competitors showcased their talents elsewhere.

Bane the Druid, Chief Adviser to the BORED board of directors regarding vegetation, burst into tears as yet another tree fell. He'd spent quite a while caring for the Island's trees, and already a sizeable fraction of them had been obliterated. Taking out a notepad from his headdress, he wrote a memo to his superiors, recommending that any future tournament venues should include Ents, or failing that, genetically modified homicidal squirrels, to protect the landscape.