Chapter 2 – The Tournament
The alarm blares music very loud right in Sari's ear, until she punches it, when the bot she punched, now rather offended slaps her back, and walks off in a huff.
She groans, and sits up "I keep forgetting Dad replaced my alarm clock with an alarm bot," she mutters, then the alarm bot unceremoniously dumps her clothes on her bed, then walks off to its charge point, and deactivates.
"Why did he have to install emotion chips in his robots, and then give me the prototype," she glares at 'Marvin' in the corner.
After she had her shower, and gets dressed she goes downstairs to eat breakfast, or at least that was the plan, instead she was engulfed by her father in a massive hug.
"Oh my Sari, you're going to compete in the finals today, are you excited, I am so proud of you."
"Dad, can't breathe," Sari gasps.
"Oh sorry Sari, well you should have breakfast, I'll be in my lab if you need me."
After a breakfast of toast, porridge, and bacon, Sari went for her morning jog, where she ran into (literally) Bumblebee.
"Careful Sari I was just walking over to see you."
"You walking? What you lost the car, or did the police finally get you."
"Both," he rubs the tip of his shoe on the floor, "I got caught speeding, and the car got impounded until my parents get it out, which they will wait as late as possible to do."
"I told you so."
"Yeah, still not going to change."
"Well, I'm going to continue my run," she runs off.
Bumblebee continues on to Sumdac tower, where he is waiting when Sari walks in to see him covered in soot, and spots of colours.
"Damn it Bumblebee, what did you do?"
"I saw a button, and pressed it, well the tournament is in two hours, are you ready?"
"No, I'm never ready for anything, I always wing it."
"Well, are you at least nervous."
"Nah, it's always goes my way."
"You should be nervous, a little bit of nervousness will stop you getting complacent, preventing downfall from hubris."
"You just quoted that from Mrs Peacock's lectures."
"Maybe."
"At least you were listening for once."
"I'm always listening, I just don't always hear what is being said."
"That's the same thing."
"No, there's a subtle difference."
"You're impossible."
"Nah, I'm here, so I'm definitely possible," Sari just rolls her eyes, "what's that look for?"
"You know why," Sari says as the door opens to admit Jazz.
"What did you this time Blunder Boy."
"Hey," he looks down, "oh right, I saw a button, pressed it, and now my clothes are black, and spotty, except none of the colours are yellow, so that's annoying."
"How many times has Mr Sumdac told you to stop pressing buttons?" Bumblebee just shrugs.
"Has anyone seen my joke doorbell?" Isaac says walking in, when he sees Bumblebee he starts laughing, "I'll take that as a yes, I told you to stop pressing buttons, you're worse than Sari was as a little kid."
"Dad," Sari groans, "stop embarrassing me."
"That's a Dad's job to embarrass their kids."
Jazz looks at his watch, "we gotta go now, or we're gonna be late."
"Where's Bulky?" Sari asks as they walk to the garage to get the car.
"He's going to meet us there."
Sumdac Stadium is ultra-modern, being only three years old, the room they are in is spacious, with lots of holo-displays which Sari, and Jazz are using to discuss tactics, Sari has her maroon hair tied back in a ponytail, and is wearing basic white body-armour as tournament rules dictate.
"Don't worry, I'm here," Bulky says bursting in, "the bus broke down."
"You're on time for once Bulky," Jazz says, as friends, and family Bulky, Bumblebee, and Isaac all have special front row seats, and Jazz has a ring side seat as her trainer.
"Ok some basics about the ring Sari, the ring is ten metres across, step out of it, and you lose the match, remember that, unlike in the preliminaries it is best of five bouts, rather than three, then there are the exhibition matches, you, and your opponent both fight in an exhibition match at the end against an unannounced pair. That's so there's more than just your match, before you go on there are the third place match, and performance matches, which start in about minutes."
"I knew that."
"The was really for Bulky, and Blunder Boy, they haven't been told, but reminding you can't hurt."
"Oh."
"First round of performance matches to the ring please."
"Sari's round five."
The rounds pass by with increasing nervous tension from everyone , except Sari, who is half-asleep and Jazz who is meditating.
"Fifth round to the ring please, championship round."
"That's us," Sari says jumping up, and stretching for the match, she grabs her swords, shield, and her hammer, in their storage modes (the storage mode for the swords, and the hammer is a small bar, about one foot long, as the majority of the weapon is energy, for the shield is a smaller disc, about the size of the average Frisbee), on the way out.
They walk up the gently sloping corridor, before separating, Bumblebee, Bulky, and Isaac go to the stands, whilst Jazz, and Sari continue onwards.
"Weapons please," the game supervisor says as they reach him. He is a man of about thirty, he has blue eyes, brown hair, and is wearing a black shirt, and black trousers, which is the uniform of the stadium crew. He puts Sari's weapons in a special machine which scans them, before a light above the machine glows green, saying they are set for tournament rules, "good luck," he smiles at her as she picks up her weapons belt, puts it on, and walks away.
As they near the ring they can hear the crowd cheering, as the announcer starts talking, "Ladies, and Gentlemen, and anyone unsure, now for that match that you have been waiting for, the finals of the regional tournament, in the blue corner, Sari Sumdac." Sari walks into the ring, and waves nervously at the crowd before sliding down her visor, "and in the red corner, Olver Lukoje," Sari meets her opponent for the first time, he is tall, he towers over her, he is holding the collapsed form of Ded Moroz. At this time Sari starts noticing odd little detail, like that he has silver eyes, and that his blue hair is gelled up in spikes like ice, and that he has heavily lidded eyes that make him look half-asleep, except his eyes burn intensely underneath, showing that he is more awake than he seems.
"Can their trainers please enter, and take their seats, training the blue corner is Jazz Kingston, training the red corner Fujiyama Nightbird*," both the trainers enter, and sit in their respective seats.
"Draw weapons," Olver uncollapses Ded Moroz, Sari draws the Primus Swords, "BEGIN," the announcer shouts.
As predicted Olver lunges, slashes downwards, and almost gets Sari, who jumps out the way at the last moment, she then tries to jab at his exposed side, but he gets the staff in place to intercept, turning the blade, Sari slashes downwards at his head, almost getting him, but he blocks, then tries to kick out her legs, but Sari jumps away, mindful of how close to the edge she is, he then charges at her, but Sari rolls out the way, Olver can't stop, and charges straight out the circle.
"Bout goes to Sari," the crowd cheers, "Take your positions for the second bout." Sari stands in place as Olver re-enters the ring, and gets into position, "begin."
This time Olver breaks from tradition, and does not lunge, he instead slashes in a large arc, almost getting Sari who jumps backwards out of his reach, but he is now out of her reach. He steps towards her, and swipes downwards at her head, Sari barely has time to jump to the left out of the way. Sari slashes at his side, almost getting him when he blocks it, she tries again with the other sword, but he blocks, and collapses the end of the staff hitting Sari in the back.
"Bout to Olver," the crowd cheers, "take your places," they line up, "begin."
He swings at Sari's side, she leans back from the swing, and swings overhead at him, but he blocks with the middle of the staff, and swings down at her with one end, she blocks with her swords. He suddenly steps back, causing Sari to loose balance, he swings at her hard, she blocks it with one swords, but the strike knocks away one of her swords, she jumps back, and draws the shield, activating it as she does, and strapping it on in one motion. He swings at her again, but she blocks it with the shield, causing him to stumble she then uses the shield to slide underneath his guard, and hit him across the chest.
"Bout to Sari," the crowd cheers. "Break, go talk to your trainers, have a drink, and cool down, we'll be back in five minute, so folks if you need the loo or food, and drink you have five minutes.
"Well done Sari, good use of your shield, just remember to try, and always keep your balance, never let yourself be led into a situation like that."
Yes Jazz," Sari says taking a swig of water, Jazz keeps saying words of encouragement, until they are called back.
"Time to start up for the second round of bouts, take your marks," Sari, and her opponent take their places. "Draw weapons," Sari draws one of the Primus Swords, and the Skyboom Shield, her opponent draws Ded Moroz, "begin," Sari jabs at him, hiding behind the shield, he hits her shield hard, almost making her lose it, then she realises she has not strapped it onto her wrist, she would have to disengage to strap it on, which she cannot. As she thinks this he whacks the side of it, and use the collapsibility of the staff to hook the shield, and yanks it out of Sari's grip, knocking her sword out her hand as well. She draws the other sword as it is closest to hand, she uses it to block the next swing, Sari takes up a fencing stance remembering her training for a single sword. She changes sword width with a single flick of a switch, turning it into a sword similar to a sabre, she slashes at his arm, as he blocks, then jabs at her body, she deflects the sword over to the left, she then jabs at his stomach, but he dives to the side, and almost jabs her mid-roll, but his aim is just off, but manages to disarm her.
"Damn," she draws the Hyperspace Hammer, and points it at him, "last weapon", as he lunges at her, she slides underneath, and sets the Hammer to hammer mode, before activating, pushing him away from her, and winning the bout.
"Sari wins the bout, she is the winner," the crowd erupts into screaming, and cheering, as Jazz, Bumblebee, Bulky, and Isaac run over to embrace her.
"And now to present the trophy is Professor Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs** Ozpin, wow that's a mouthful." as he says this a trapdoor slides open in the centre of the room opens, and a platform rises containing Professor Ozpin complete with cane, and coffee mug, standing next to a trolley containing the trophy. The trophy is one foot tall, silver and shaped like a sword plunged into stone carved with symbols of the four common Grimm.
Ozpin picks up the trophy, and hands it to Sari, along with a piece of paper, "well done Sari."
"Thank you Professor."
*That name is the combination of two G1 characters, Doctor Fujiyama, and the Nightbird ninja drone.
** This is the wizard of Oz's real, full name.
A/N Bulky is his real name in this, because Bulkhead is the name of the heli-planes that the White Fang, and Torchwick use, and you don't find people called 'Boeing', or 'Apache' (aside from the Apache Tracker, but he's a racist so doesn't count).