As Kid Cobra entered, he waved to the cameras and started his snakeboarding session. He jumped onto one of the snakeboards and jumped up, causing him and the snakeboard to go up onto the vert ramp. He then proceeded to slide up and down the vert ramp three times before doing a backflip and landing with a one hand handstand. The crowd cheered as I gasped in awe. Kid Cobra then followed up by spinning himself so that his feet were back on the snakeboard. He did that that two more times. As applause filled the arena, he then spun himself on the top of the vent ramp. He then jumped down with the snakeboard and glided across a rail. As he got off the rail, he extended his ARMS and flipped over the board while sticking the perfect landing.

For his next trick, Kid Cobra then got onto a half-pipe and did a 90 degree turn in midair before landing. Then a 170 degree turn. Then 360. He then spun around on the two snakeboards on the arena. He then got his snakeboard back onto the vert ramp and as he went up for the third time, the ramp was suddenly disintegrated! The crowd gasped. I think one mega fangirl screamed, "Kid Cobra!" in terror. And I couldn't blame her. It did look like a horrifying fate was in store for the snakeboarder.

But I had seen this move before, I knew what was to happen. A mini ramp then formed and he used it to get back onto the half-pipe. The crowd went wild as he backflipped into the air, landed on the board and made his midair victory pose before landing on the snakeboard. The show had ended. The crowd cheered one last time, this time louder than ever.

"And we're clear." I heard a cameraman say from afar.

Everyone in the crowd soon began to go their separate ways. "You wanna join us for ice cream?" Abby asked.

I looked below at Kid Cobra getting his phone from one of the crew members. "Maybe next time." I looked down below at Kid Cobra taking a glass bottle. "There's something I need to do here before I go."

"Alright." Sarah handed me a slip of paper. "So we can stay in touch, here's our numbers."

The trio of girls left. As I waited for the crowd to disperse, I added their numbers into my phone. Eventually, after most of the crowd left, I approached him. He relaxed on top of the snakeboard, drinking cream soda. I tried to think of what to say to him, but then he looked up at me.

"Can I help you with something?"

"Hey Kid Cobra. I gotta admit you were pretty impressive." I began. "Although, when I saw you earlier in the cafeteria at Buster Beach Resort, you seemed to be eating breakfast all by yourself. Are you okay?"

He set down the bottle. "I appreciate the concern, but I'm fine. I always eat alone."

I looked away sadly. "Oh, well, sorry for bothering you."

"Oh, it's alright. Very rarely do I get to talk with anyone other than a mega fan."

I raised my eyebrows. "How can you tell I'm not a mega-fan?"

"Cause you're not wearing a snake hat and you're wearing a yellow and blue jumpsuit."

I chuckled, "You have a good point. You're as smart as you are talented."

He turned his neck to me. "You're very honest, aren't you?"

"I guess you could say that."

He looked at me curiously. "What's your name, girl?"

"Fighter alias or real name?"

He looked at me as if I had grown two heads. "Fighter alias? You don't look like you have extendable ARMS."

"I have an ARMS Mecha Suit that I'm going to pilot."

I showed him the image. Because of that mask, I could not see his face, but I'm guessing that his jaw dropped.

"Wow. That's pretty impressive." I couldn't tell, but I thought that he was smiling under the mask. "Well then, tell me your fighter name."

"Mechanica."

"Well then, Mechanica. Pleasure to meet ya."

I yawned. "I guess I better rest up. First match is tomorrow. I'm so nervous!"

"I think you got this. Good luck!"

"Thank you! Good luck to you as well!"

I turned and started to walk away. "Oh, and one more thing." he chirped.

He handed me a photo and sped off. It was a photo of him, signed by him, with his phone number and the words, Call or text me, written in cursive. He gave me his autograph and his phone number and I didn't even ask for them. Also, no one ever wrote in cursive anymore, except to sign their name. Why would he do this? I put his number into my contacts and went back to my room. I felt restless that night. I tossed and turned for who knows how long. Eventually, I fell asleep.

I don't remember many of my dreams from this night, but I had a few more flashbacks appear in my dreams. The first one was when I first met Karai, back in elementary school. I was five years old, and she was six. It was two weeks or so after elementary school had started that year. She moved from Kyoto to Tyoko for reasons unknown. When she entered the commons area, I was speaking to Veronica, my first, best and longest time friend since day one. I was showing Veronica one of my drones that I made, piloting it with a small remote control. It was a green dragonfly drone with its many legs on the ground.

"Wow, it's really cool!" my best friend commented.

Veronica was always a cute girl. She had long brown hair that tumbled past her shoulders (which was now half way between her waist and her knees) with green eyes to match. Back then, she wore a pink dress and red dancing shoes.

I smiled and pressed a button. "Look at this!"

The drone rose from the ground and flew upwards as I had commanded. I made it fly around in circles and made it fly to all the corners of the ceiling. Unfortunately, it started to malfunction. It's wing was slightly bent after going to upper left corner.

"Uh oh..." Veronica stated.

"That's not supposed to happen!" I exclaimed. The drone's wing got bent from hitting the wall and it crashed landed into someone. I heard a little girl scream loudly. I ran in the sound of the direction with a horrified expression on my face. I saw a girl with short black hair in a ponytail. She wore black pants with a black and blue sweater. She was extremely angry with me. "Oh no! Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!"

The girl held her hand to her cheek. "You better be sorry." She removed her hand, revealing a huge cut on her face. "Look what you did to my face! My beautiful face!"

"I really didn't mean to...!"

"You liar! You were trying to hurt me, so now I'll hurt you!"

That girl I unintentionally hurt was Karai. She raised her fist at me before a young girl (who would later become her best friend) stopped her.

"Karai, are you okay?" a young girl asked.

"No! This girl is crazy!" Karai answered. "Bringing her half-baked inventions to school to terrorize others! Just horrible!"

"My inventions are not half-baked!" I defended. "And I'm not crazy!"

"That's what all crazy people say!"

"Crazy?! I'll show you crazy!" I tried to approach her, but Veronica held me back. "Let me at em, let me at em!"

"Attention all students, please report to your homerooms for attendance, then make your way to the gym for our weekly assembly." a voice said over the speaker.

The warning bell rang, signaling we had five minutes. We went to our homerooms. I didn't remember much about the announcements or the assembly, but I did remember what happened during my third class. Third class was writing. We were all asked to write our names as they were spelled out in letters and not in symbol form. We wrote our names in alphabetical order by last name. Karai's last name was Domen, so she was towards the top on the list. Since my last name was Yamada, I was actually at the very bottom of the list. I took the pencil and wrote my last and first name on the parchment paper.

"Shouldn't you just change your name to Crazy Girl?"

And that's when I snapped. I growled and punched her right in the face. She kept dodging and trying to dodge, but eventually I got her in the face again.

"Yamada Marina! Domen Karai! What is the meaning of this?! You're going to the principal's office!"

She dragged us to Principal Mako's office. He was a very firm and harsh man. He hated troublemakers, and he absolutely hated me.

"Yamada, what happened?" he asked me.

And that's how I got my first of many detentions. Karai, somehow, got away Scott free, while I had to stay after school for an hour. Karai hated me with a burning fiery passion ever since that day. And from there, our rivalry would only continue to get worse.

I woke up to the sound of an alarm. 8:30am. I quickly ate breakfast and tried to prepare myself for the battle, but I had no more time left. The match began at 9:00. Was I really up for this? I heard a vibration on my ARMS Communicator. It was time. Ready or not, the match was about to begin.

It was time for my first match. Not only was it my first match, it was also the first match of the season to occur. My opponent? Ninjara. I'm not going to lie, I felt kinda scared. Ninjara had recently graduated from Rasen Ninjutsu University, was one of their top students, and he made it to round seven last season. No pressure. I felt like I was toast. I tried to remain calm and think of a plan. His ARMS were the Chakram, the Buff, and the Triblast, which were attributed with abilities of Stun, none and Explosion respectively. The first two ARMS were mediumweights while the last one was lightweight. Heavy ARMS were often slower but did more damage and could go through lighter ARMS.

As I walked to the teleporter, I tried to recall Ninjara's abilities. Whenever he guarded himself, he temporarily disappeared and teleported to another location. He could also teleport a short distance while dashing in the air. Oi vey. I said a quick prayer before stepping onto the portal and being teleported to Ninja College. Ninjara was already waiting at the top of the steps while I was at the bottom.

"In this corner, we have the student of stealth, the elusive ninja, Ninjara!" the announcer introduced.

The crowd cheered wildly. I looked around and saw a lot of Ninjara fans donning their hoods, and a very small percentage (like 10% or less), with Mechanica costumes.

"And in this corner, she's a new fighter who may not have the extendable ARMS Ninjara does, but just wait til you her in action! Give it up for Mechanica!"

The response after they said my name was nowhere near as loud as Ninjara. My heart sank. But what would I expect? I was a rookie. Hardly anyone knew me.

"What are your thoughts Biff?" an announcer asked.

Ninjara had already chosen his ARMS; a Chakram on the left and a Triblast on the right. "It's Mechanica versus "the student of stealth," Ninjara! Mechanica's signature ARM is the Whammer, a tool originally used for demolition! Can quickness and stealth overcome heavy-duty mechanical brawn?! We're about to find out!"

I wanted to try and slow him down, so I chose the Whammer on the left and Revolver on the right.

"Ready? Fight!"

I made the first move by dashing forward. Since there was a considerable distance from the bottom to the top of the stairs, I had to get closer to hit him. He attempted to knock me down with the Chakram, flying in curves, but I managed to block in time. Unfortunately, he grabbed me. He pulled me towards him, knocked me up into the air, disappeared for a split-second, and then knocked me down. Needless to say, ouch. I quickly got up and shot my Revolver forward- sending three electrically charged missiles in his direction. One of them got him in the face, but it wasn't enough to stun him for very long. He guarded himself and disappeared into thin air! But how was he doing it?

He's a ninja, I reminded myself. I tried to get some punches on him, but they missed most of the time. He was so fast, so elusive. Oh gods... I had to continue. There was no way I could quit now! I then punched him with the charged Whammer and then a charged Revolver. All of the bullets hit him, electrically stunning the elusive ninja. His ARMS were weighted down because they weren't even working. I then noticed that not only were his ARMS malfunctioning, but he also couldn't move. I then proceeded to grab him, but the effect had worn off and he stopped my grab by punching me with the Triblast. I shrugged it off and shot my Revolver at him, only for him to dodge. I felt the vibration, meaning the rush attack was ready for use.

I immediately activated my rush attack and started to glow with yellow energy surrounding me. I tried using my rush attack to land several punches on him, but he broke my rush with a Chakram attack right to my side. I felt slightly drained as the energy left me. He attempted to grab me, but I swiftly dashed to the side, avoiding his grasp. I looked at one of the boards, which displayed our health, rush triangles, and how much time we had left before the match ended. 68 seconds. Ninjara's got over three quarters of his health left, and I'm knocked down to almost half of my health.

Not good. I backed away from him, trying to think of a strategy, but I wasn't coming up with anything. He then started midair dashing and disappearing over and over until he reached me at the bottom of the stairs. I knocked him down with a charged Whammer and throw my Revolver towards him. He flinched, but he continued. He then knocked me down and then he used his rush attack on me, hitting me and sending me on an upward stairway of pain. Tribolts and Chakrams kept coming towards me and pretty soon, I had only a hundred or so health points left. This was not going well.

I looked around and saw a blue and green colored bomb hovering over the ground, being carried by a small drone. I decided to use it to stun Ninjara, but unfortunately, after I punched the bomb, it fell downward and Ninjara easily dodged it as he dashed up the stairs. 45 seconds. I was running out of time. He then grabbed me and slammed me down against the ground, knocking me out.

"K.O!" the announcer exclaimed.

He backflipped as he won the round. "Huhun."

"Ough..."

This fight was not turning out very well. Ninjara had won the first round. One more round and I was doomed. How could I possibly beat a near champion? I needed a plan if I was going to make it out of this ring as the victor. After a brief respite, the second round began. I replaced the Whammer with the Homie and kept my Revolver on the other. Ninjara kept his Chakram, but traded the Triblot for a Buff. The Buff was a glove Arm and could punch straight forward. I realized that Ninjara was going to corner me by using his Buff to launch straight at me, and Chakram to prevent an escape. Not gonna happen.

"Ready? Fight!"

Ninjara made the first moves by walking up the steps and attempting to punch me with the Buff. I blocked his incoming attack and once he tried to grab me, he got a Homie straight to the face. I then stunned the elusive ninja down with a charged Revolver shot, and knocked him down with a charged Homie, causing him to tumble down the stairs. He brushed it off and threw a charged Chakram at me. I hovered in midair for a few seconds to dodge his attack and then landed back on the ground. Then a health drink appeared, creating a healing circle. Ninjara immediately went towards it, since he was losing. I had to stop him!

"Oh no, you don't!" I exclaimed.

I entered the circle tried to throw him out of the ring, but he had activated his rush. He had thrown several punches towards me as I tried to dodge and get him out of there, but pretty soon, his rush attack, and the healing juice were gone. Now I had roughly half of my health left while he was close to full. There had to be a way to stop him! I shot him with a charged Revolver and then knocked him down with a charged Homie. I did this for another five seconds, but eventually Ninjara got himself out of my trap by attempting to grab me, only to find that I was too far away from him.

Our health bars were roughly equal, but there was still work to be done. Ninjara was not going to give up easily, and I had a hunch that he especially did not want to lose to a fifteen year old tinkerer. He stood at the middle of the stairway while was a few feet down below him. Up above him, there was a red and orange colored bomb. I had an idea. I deliberately punched past him to make the drone let go of the bomb and decided to punch at Ninjara. He dashed and dodged my every move. The bomb was supposed to hit him, but he dashed forward at the last second, avoiding the bomb's exploding radius. Aw, drat! I thought that he would laugh at me or brag about dodging the bomb, but he stayed silent. I then got him with some Revolver missiles, making him flinch, and then following up with a charged Homie. I did this two more times before Ninjara grabbed me again. I felt a sudden, strong vibration- but it was an unfamiliar one. I shrugged it off and knocked him to the ground with an uncharged Homie.

"K.O!" the announcer declared.

"Yahoo!" I exclaimed.

"Jara."

I had won the round, but just barely. It was time for the third and final round. Ninjara went for double Buff (why I had no idea), while I went with my no-mercy combo; two Revolvers. I breathed in deeply, closed my eyes, and as I exhaled I said to myself in my head, You've got this.

"Ready? Fight!"

The match started out with me making the first move. I shot charged Revolvers at him, electrically stunning him. I proceeded to knock him down with my right arm and he went a quarter of the way down the steps. I stunned him and threw him with my fists spinning rapidly in a circle, tossing him across the stage. I hadn't even been hit yet. Then I got thrown not once, not twice, but three times in a row, despite my best efforts to dodge or hit him. Then things started going haywire. I felt the bad vibration again. I was paralyzed for a moment, but I snapped out of it in time to stop Ninjara's grab. Then everything began to go wrong.

Oh no...

The suit began to spark with blue lightning. The lights on the front of my suit began to flicker. After I punched Ninjara with some missiles, they burned out entirely. The electricity was going haywire! My suit malfunctioned and sometimes, wasn't even working at all. This made me open to Ninjara's charged attack, followed by another two grabs. This suit was designed to withstanding several punches, but a few grabs was somehow causing it to malfunction. A circuit was blown.

This was bad, really, really bad. I had roughly half of my health left while Ninjara had maybe 600 points left. I had to finish this match and soon before my suit left me completely defenseless. I did not want to become a sitting duck. I dodged his grabs and guarded myself from his Tribolts. When he tried to grab me, I dodged and then used my rush attack on him, knocking him down several health points. Then he grabbed me again.

"Stop grabbing me, you Grabby McGrabbington!" I yelled.

For the first time this whole fight, Ninjara dropped his serious face. He raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Huh?"

I heard the audience whispering and murmuring about him and his tactics. I took the chance to grab him and then knocked him down with all the electric missiles of the Revolvers.

"K.O!" the announcer declared.

"And the winner is Mechanica!" Biff announced.

Ninjara said nothing. I was about to say a victory quote and dance, but I felt my suit malfunction even further. The bad vibration and rumbling was now happening nonstop, so I scrambled out of there, leaving a confused, beaten Ninjara in the dust. I had to get to my room and fix the suit before things went even more haywire. I went back to the teleporter and as soon as I got back to the Teleportion Room, I jumped out of my suit with my remote in hand. Another circuit blew. Running out of time to fix things, I had no choice but to run.