Chapter Four: The Entertainer
Today I am your champion; I may have won your hearts, but I know the game,
You'll forget my name. I won't be here in another year if I don't stay on the charts.
The island was very large, but that could have been an illusion caused by the fact that it was very mountainous. It rose up from the sea like a towering, blunted spire, and almost every inch of it was covered in green.
Every single contestant was standing on the deck now, though nobody was talking. All of them were watching the island grow closer with a sense of both awe and apprehension.
Jay just wanted to be there already.
He'd tried lots of things to distract himself: first he counted to one hundred, and then two hundred, but he eventually gave up counting somewhere before four hundred and started drumming his fingers on the ship's railings. Once he was no longer satisfied with that, he walked over and leaned against the wall to drum his fingers on the wood behind his back.
"Nervous?"
"Yeah," Jay sighed. He turned his back to the island to look at Cole. "Just... I don't know. Forget I said anything."
"Tell me," Cole said. "We can't fix it if you don't tell us what's wrong."
Jay rocked back on his heels and pushed away from the wall. The momentum carried him over to the boat's railing where he stood and gazed out at sea away from the island.
Cole came up next to him a few seconds later. "Come on, what is it?"
"It's just…" Jay said, trying to find the right word. He gave up and breathed out instead. "What if something bad happens?"
"We'd call Nya and wait for her to pick us up," Cole answered without hesitation. "Did you forget already? I'm not very shocked."
"You stop that! The lightning puns are my thing!"
Cole's grin only became wider. Jay slapped his arm in retaliation.
"But, seriously though," Jay said. He felt nervous energy building in his fingers again, and tried to dispel it by tapping the railing. "What if something… really bad happens? I mean, we've always gone on our little 'adventures' with at least a general idea of the risks we're taking, but here…" he paused, scrambling for words again, "…We're completely in the dark, about everything. We barely know who Chen is, we know nothing about his island, we know nothing about any of these other competitors, we know nothing about the challenges and what happens if we lose them –"
"Jay."
He almost jumped when Cole said his name – he hadn't expected it. He turned to face Cole again. "What?"
"You're right," Cole said. "We don't know a lot of stuff. About this whole tournament – something's off," he continued. He reached out and grabbed Jay's hand where it was still nervously tapping on the railing. "But we've known less! Lloyd released the Serpentine, and then they overthrew him and tried to release the Great Devourer… and, heck, the Overlord blind-sided us both times he decided to pick a fight!"
"But, like, what if –"
"'What if" nothing," Cole said forcefully. "You've just got to trust me. Nothing is going to happen, and if anything does, we'll just call Nya. Okay?"
Jay took a deep breath. "…Okay."
"Good," Cole said, smiling. "Let's find Kai and Lloyd – it looks like we're about ready to land."
Everything was finally ready, and Chen was very satisfied.
He called two servants to his sides to prepare for his grand entrance. Clouse would announce him from the other side of the door, in the Great Entrance Hall, and then he would burst through the door and explain the little tournament.
Or… most of it, anyway. Most of the purpose, most of the rules, most of the consequences. Considering that it was disrespectful to rig a bet with Arcturus, Turner had forced Chen's hand and left him unable to explain some of the fun things.
Of course, if he told them the true purpose, they would all rebel like wasps fleeing a destroyed nest and attack him instead of each other. He had already decided that he wouldn't tell them what they were competing for.
Voices started in the other room: whispering, mostly, though Clouse's voice began to filter on top of the background noise soon enough. Chen adjusted his headdress slightly in preparation for his opening act.
"May I introduce the very Wise and Powerful –"
Chen raised his right foot and, turning on his other leg, side-kicked the double doors open with a sharp jab. He spun his grounded heel back toward the doorway and walked in slowly while the doors bounced off the wall and slowly closed behind him.
The entire room went deathly quiet instantly to the point that the two servants taking their positions – one in front of the door he'd come from, and one in front of the main entrance – were almost ruining the atmosphere with their quiet footsteps.
Chen grinned widely at the crowd. "Welcome, welcome, one and all, to my Tournament of Elements!" he announced to begin his speech, opening his arms to recognize the group as a whole. "It seems that not all of my invitations found their targets, but we can adjust the schedule to accommodate fewer events."
He dismissed Clouse with a small wave of his fingertips: they would talk later, but Chen was not angry. Not wanting to let down the dramatic tension, he continued with the next section of his little monologue.
"I have designed this tournament to test every competitor equally: to judge you based not only on your powers, but on your wits," Chen said, slowly walking toward the circle of competitors. "One step in the wrong direction could be fatal. One use of your powers at the wrong instant could turn a battle against you. One mistaken strategy could leave you with nothing."
He was standing behind one end of the circle now; he began to circle around the room just behind their backs, staring intensely at anyone who dared to meet his eyes. Very few of them turned and looked at him.
"So I've also set some simple rules," he said as he paced around behind them. "One: Inside the challenges themselves, there are no rules. However: Any non-accidental death of any competitor will be investigated, and the competitor that caused it will be punished severely."
Chen paused for a moment before continuing. "Two: Outside of the competitions, competitors are not allowed within the arenas. Competitors are never allowed inside restricted areas unless I authorize it." He had almost reached the end of the circle. "Three: Any competitor caught within a restricted area at any time other than during a competition will be punished severely."
He passed the last competitor and began pacing back toward the center. "Four: Any competitor who is suspected of being within a restricted area at any point in time will be questioned, and if found ambiguously guilty, will be punished severely."
Finally, he reached the center of the room. He stopped and spread his arms again to acknowledge all of them, and grinned. "Five: Breakfast is not served in the cafeteria after eleven, and anyone found asking for it will be punished severely."
The group laughed, and Chen's grin only grew wider. The last rule was an invitation for a laugh, to not take him seriously, to lessen the meaning of 'punished severely' and replace it with a wonderful feeling, one that he liked to call what-could-possibly-go-wrong?
He clapped twice to summon more of his servants. They filed in in a clean line and took their places behind each of the competitors. "My servants will lead you to your rooms," Chen announced. "But before you leave, I will provide one last closing remark."
He held their gazes on a single fingertip that he held out in front of him. "I suggest that we turn to ancient wisdom to guide us. An ancient Serpentine Tribe, the Anacondrai, once had a motto: only one can remain. So it is in this Tournament: out of all of you, only one will last until the final round. Only one gets the prize and it cannot be shared. Alliances can only help you so much for so long – in the end, everyone will be the same."
He dismissed them with a wave of his hand and returned through the double doors to find Clouse.
And it wasn't very hard – Clouse was right inside the entrance.
"There you are," Chen said. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to look for you."
"I understood your little signal," Clouse answered dismissively. "You didn't take very long, anyway."
"Fair enough," Chen said. He frowned. "How many of them are there? I didn't want to waste time counting them."
"Sixteen, Master," Clouse said. "The brackets won't quite be even, but you will still be able to use the setup you devised."
"Good, good," Chen replied. "Have you determined how many extra days we'll have to add to accommodate the scheduling?"
"I've already fixed the schedule."
Chen gave Clouse a devilish grin.
"Excellent."
The first two days in Chen's 'palace' of sorts passed quickly and easily. The four of them had used the time to explore, see each other's rooms, and, in general, try to familiarize themselves with the place, with varying degrees of success.
It was on the morning of the third day when an unexpected announcement came over the loudspeaker.
"Everyone, please assemble in the entrance hall," Chen's voice said, crackling with static. "The Tournament is about to begin!"
"Jeez, it's about time," Jay said, and Cole couldn't help but agree. "It's been boring just waiting like this."
The four of them shuffled off to where Chen had talked to them on the first day. This time, Chen was waiting for them, standing next to an elaborate golden statue.
"Welcome, welcome," Chen said, smiling as they entered with the other contestants. "Today, the Tournament will finally begin!"
Some of the other contestants started clapping. Cole decided to play along, and nudged Lloyd when he saw that he wasn't.
After the spontaneous applause died, Chen acknowledged the strange statue. "This is the first challenge," he explained. "Around this complex and the courtyards outside, I have hidden fifteen blades that look like this one."
Chen grabbed something behind the statue, and Cole struggled to see it until Chen held it up.
It was a decorative blade. The handle was a simple golden cylinder, but the blade looked like it had been delicately hand-carved with some sort of scene. He wasn't able to make out the image before Chen put the blade back where he had stored it.
"There are only fifteen of these Jade Blades," Chen announced. "There are sixteen competitors. Whoever returns here without a Jade Blade will be eliminated from the Tournament."
"Better find them fast, then," Kai mumbled next to Cole.
"On your marks," Chen began.
"Find one as fast as possible and run right back here," Cole said quietly. "We can't be eliminated in the first round."
"Get set…"
"Found one," Lloyd whispered, grinning.
"GO!" Chen shouted.
In an instant, the room was a sea of running, jumping bodies. Lloyd darted off in the direction of the Jade Blade he thought he saw; Jay and Kai ran to search other areas.
Cole, on the other hand, followed the crowd.
Most of them were heading up either set of stairs; he took the slightly-emptier ones and barreled up the steps like a high-speed train. A group of them were already fighting over one hidden in a pot on the landing, so he continued running up the stairs.
His room was on this floor, but he didn't really care at the moment. Cole stopped at the top of the stairs and scanned the area, looking for the distinctive green color.
And then he saw one sitting under a table, leaning against one of its legs. He started running to the table when someone jumped on him from behind and he fell on his face.
When he looked up, Cole saw his attacker: a strange-looking man with a strange-looking black-and-white hairstyle. He grabbed the man's ankle and yanked on it, pulling him down for revenge.
While the man struggled to get up, he spotted another Jade Blade across the room hiding inside a decorative plant.
"Look, there's no one else here!" the strange man suddenly spat. "You get that one, I'll get this one, and we both get to move on!"
Cole let go of the man's ankle in shock, and he scrambled to the table to grab the Jade Blade. Cole got up and ran to collect the other one he saw from the potted plant, but he had no idea how the man could have seen it from where he was.
"Master of Mind," the strange man said again. Cole jumped and found him standing at the top of the stairs. "And if that's actually the Tournament's prize, then I'm not sure if I'm interested anymore – I might just drop out of this silly Tournament if it's really your friend we're fighting over. But I suppose I'll have to find that out from Chen. See you downstairs."
Cole smuggled his Jade Blade back down the stairs to where Chen was waiting. He handed his blade to Chen, who placed it in one of the holes on the statue – the handle fit perfectly inside. He turned around and found Jay and Lloyd.
"Good, you're back," Jay said. "Where's Kai, though? He doesn't have much time…"
"Probably about to do something stupid," Lloyd said smugly.
Cole facepalmed.
The drums pounded with a frenzied rhythm and filled the tiled courtyard with echoes.
Kai thought that the noise was going to be extremely annoying.
Something brushed the back of his leg, and he almost jumped. He turned to look – it was only a plant, twisting up out of the cracks in the tile. A painful itch began to spread through his leg where the leaves had brushed it. More vines began spiraling out of the ground and sprouting along the walls of the courtyard. His first thought was that it was the strange nature elementalist who was attacking him, but he wasn't sure.
Chen's dark voice suddenly hissed through a loudspeaker. "A challenger approaches the Master of Fire!"
The drums immediately stopped, replaced by a high whistling. Kai glanced up and barely had time to jump back as an emerald-green blade embedded itself into the space between the cracks at his feet.
He sensed that someone was watching him, and heard the competitor rasping for breath somewhere behind him. Slowly, he drew fiery energy and held it ready to ignite under his palms.
He turned around suddenly, expecting to see an elderly man with a thick beard and a bamboo staff. Instead, he saw a woman dressed entirely in a sickly shade of yellowish-green, with jade lipstick and bright green hair. She was holding a glass vial of something glowing a vivid emerald green.
Was it… Venomari venom? Kai was not messing with that stuff again.
The green woman threw the vial over his head. The glass shattered and let the liquid inside run down the wall, which began to erode the stone and release noxious fumes. Pulling his hood over his nose and mouth, Kai lunged forwards, shooting tiny flames out of his fingertips. The woman lunged backwards, stinging plants intertwining in front of her to create a shield. The plants barely bothered him as he burned through the barrier, jumping through to the other side.
The green woman had vanished. Slowly, he circled around. A faint swish of fabric out of the corner of his eye revealed his opponent was leaping towards him, but he turned too slowly to evade her. As her long fingers latched onto his shoulder, he felt his skin begin to burn again. As her other hand swung up towards his throat, Kai twisted backwards, allowing the crimson flames to blaze outwards around him.
Screaming, the poison elementalist let go of his shoulder. Through the brilliant flames, Kai could see her cradling her scorched hands. The poison-glow in her eyes was fading, and she looked at him in fear.
She was afraid.
Enemies weren't supposed to look afraid like this. They were supposed to be snarling warriors of stone, faces with scales and sunken eyes, mindless drones wearing black. Easy to hurt. Easy to burn.
Easy to kill.
He let the fire around him die, and his feet alighted back on the now significantly warmer tiles. The vine-like plants were dead – some were burned, and others were simply withering away. He couldn't move for a moment, but then he stepped over to the blade and wrapped his hand around the handle.
The blade was polished, silky smooth, and very cold. Kai pulled backwards on it, ripping it out of the ground. The drums were sounding again, beating a slow, steady time. Underneath the drums, Kai heard the green woman's rasping breaths getting louder behind him.
He twisted around quickly and managed to knock the woman away, sending her sprawling across the courtyard. Baring teeth that were almost fangs, she whipped another vial of acid at him. Lunging into the throw, Kai brought up the blade and blocked the vial, which exploded violently in a blast of sizzling green steam.
He had to make her stay down if he was ever going to get back through the door with the blade. There were two more bottles of poison that did something bad strapped to the woman's belt, and some of the plants were beginning to grow back. Racing across the courtyard, Kai scaled the wall and grabbed one of the drummers, throwing the tattooed man towards the cliffs below.
"Time's almost up, Master of Fire," the loudspeaker boomed. One more vial shattered on the rooftop, forming a dark cloud that enveloped one of the drummers. Screaming, the man lunged backwards as his skin boiled. Grabbing the abandoned drum, Kai jumped from the roof and smashed the metal side on the green woman's head. She slumped to the ground, unconscious, and Kai picked up the blade and ran to the door.
As soon as he stepped inside, Chen's voice boomed, "The Master of Toxins has been eliminated! The challenge is over!"
The other competitors started to leave the room. Jay, Lloyd and Cole found Kai and started to head upstairs.
"This doesn't feel right," was the only thing Kai said.
(A/N): Hello hello hello again my wonderful readers! :D
This chapter is really really super long, as you can probably tell. It's over 1000 words longer than the minimum chapter length I've set for myself (2000 words, to make sure that you guys have stuff that'll take longer than a few minutes to read :D).
This chapter's music is The Entertainer by Billy Joel, and the next chapter will be I'll Hold My Breath by Ellie Goulding. I actually know all of the songs that I'm using for the first eight chapters, but you'll just have to wait and see...
...or you could hop on over to my writing Tumblr and find:
1. The full list of chapter songs that I know I'm going to use, in an on-site SCM Player;
2. Various news items, writing-process posts, statistics, and other fun things;
3. Spoilers for future chapters (though you have to look for them... ;D); and
4. New chapters published whenever I finish them (FFN will continue to update every other Friday; I'm just trying to set up a little 'backlog' on Tumblr for my own peace of mind)
Speaking of my writing Tumblr (which you can find a link to on my profile), a good friend of mine, froststrix, wrote the vast majority of Kai's POV in this chapter (like, everything except the last three sentences XD), and I edited it to suit my purposes here. You can read the original on my writing Tumblr!
Also, as you probably realized, the Bruiseshipping teases are invading. A little bit of that tension is going to remain for the rest of the fic, and it's going to get especially intense near the end of Chapter Seven and remain potent through Act 2. Chapter Seven is going to introduce Plasmashipping and possibly Greenflame teases (come to think of it, Greenflame teases would give Lloyd a reason to do something other than nothing - lolwow).
Neuro bby is a very precious child but unfortunately I don't have very much room in this story for the contestants D:
I'll see you all in two weeks! The next chapter is going to be especially fun... :)