AN: The "press box" annotations ("[I^I]" & "[O^O]") return from the first night of TUE, starting at this point.
References used [previously]: Teen Titans, Justice League Unlimited, Final Fantasy (VII: Crisis Core, X, & XII), Marvel/X-Men, Pokémon, Kids Next Door, Dragonball Z, Capcom, Naruto, WWE, TNA Impact, Family Guy, Bleach, Code Geass, Sonic Adventure 2, Xiaolin Showdown, Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, One Piece, and Star Wars.
In this chapter: nothing new.
Chapter 14 — Last Lady Standing
The time now was 5:30 PM, and there was not a person on the streets of the Titans Metropolis. The tens of thousands of people on the island could either be found filling up every seat possible in the Aeroseum or watching from inside the Megaplex like the millions and millions of spectators around the world are watching from their own sources of media. The noise inside the arena was outrageous, as the audience was awaiting the speech of commencement from the Great Hero himself.
In the press box sits the Legendary 12, the male members of Team Z present (Thunderbolt and Dep), Gigi, and the two announcers returning to the scene from WWE—Jerry "the King" Lawler and Jim Ross (a.k.a., "J.R."). Dotty gave Sweet the signal to start the event once she had gotten everything ready. Upon that signal, Mac warped Sweet to the center of the arena and one of the multiple air-mobile Watcher cameras zoomed in on the chimpanzee.
"Thank you, Mac," Sweet began, before looking all around at the roaring fans. "Wow, I could get used to this... seeing every seat here filled up and hearing nothing but joyous noise! With that said, it gives me great pleasure in saying: welcome everyone, to TUE!"
The "joyous noise" grew even louder.
"We have an exciting night planned and I'm sure you'll love every moment of it. In fact, I believe that most of you want to get to see the UNLIMITED Tournament again." After those words, the audience cheered loudly. "Ah hah, I was right. Well now, it's a good thing that there will only be one wrestling event tonight—the Battle Royale! Now, before I get to that, remember Chris Griffin from the other night? Well he and his family couldn't be here tonight, but they did send us a video from home, which I'm sure is them telling us what they thought of their stay at Titans Tower. Take a look."
One of the Watcher cameras levitated high above the Aeroseum's arena and then acted as a projector to both big screens, playing the recorded video by the Griffin family.
(Recording)
"Good evening, Sweet... and the rest of the Bean Titans as well," greeted Lois. "On behalf of my family, I'm sorry to say that we won't be able to be there in person tonight."
"Yeah, but we'll be watching you guys do what you do best from here at home." Brian added.
Chris stood up and raised his fists happily. "We had a blast!" he exclaimed, before sitting back down.
"I'll miss getting to pick my own clothes, that's for sure. Chris's evil monkey lives in my closet now, but he hasn't come out whenever I'm in there..." Meg rambled.
"No one cares, Meg!" Chris retorted.
"I'll miss that glorious flat-screen TV that you have...!" Peter pleaded, nearly shedding a tear because of how amazing it was.
"Yes, and I for one would like to pay a visit all over again," Stewie began to say. "Until then, I'm going to make the most of my return to this hell hole by enjoying your fantastic methods of combat, very, very much... even more so than when Brian had fleas."
Brian sneered at the toddler. "You're lucky this video camera has low battery right now."
"It does?" replied Lois. "Well, I think that's all we had to say. Thank you again Sweet, for everything this week. Have fun!"
(End of Recording)
"That we will, Lois... that, we most certainly will." Sweet responded after the video ended. "All right everyone, TUE ready to get underway! Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for the 16-man, all-female Battle Royale! As Dotty brings the 8-sided wrestling ring into view, I will explain the rules. In this elimination contest, the participants must be thrown over the top rope and both feet must touch the ground in order to be knocked out of the competition. The female Bean Titan that outlasts them all will be declared the victor and will have an automatic spot in next Friday's UNLIMITED Tournament! Well come on out, ladies... let's get the show on the road!"
At that announcement, a large majority of the male audience was heard over the rest, giving out cheers and catcalls for the 16 female Bean Titans coming out of the backstage area.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
(WRESTLING EVENT: The Women's Battle Royale. Dialogue is commentated by those in the press box, listed above—mostly by King and J.R.)
In a matter of about 5 minutes, all 16 female Bean Titans participating in the match were present in the ring. Again, the girls that are in the tournament later on are not present at the moment. Those in the ring right now:
— The three female members of Team Z: Tina, Mina and Fortress (all 22 years old). The Oracle Twins were already described, as far as appearance is concerned; Fortress had a white coat with sparkly lavender hair, and a golden ring fitted on her unicorn horn. All three of them have similar styles of fighting. Mina and Tina tend to work cooperatively.
— Making her return to the Battle Royale is Valentina (age 30). She felt bad about her performance last time with her brother, and wanted to actually fight this time around.
— Also returning were Bernice and Brenaia (both age 18), the daughters related to Burn and Bruno (respectively) in Wrinkle's Syndicate, but not affiliated with them. They will again work cooperatively against a tough opponent.
— Two more returners: Hannah (age 19) and Erin (age 26). Both were eliminated last time by risk versus reward. Hannah took a dive to eliminate three additional people on the other side of ropes last time, while Erin was intercepted by someone else when she wanted to eliminate her own target. In this contest tonight, Hannah is the largest girl here.
— The first of the new entrants was actually from the UNLIMITED Tournament this past Monday. Chipper is the Bean Titan in mind, looking to get right back into the tournament scene next week.
— Pouch is also coming in from the tournament. She is the oldest member in this contest.
— Fresh on the scene is Leah (age 13, polar bear), Aurora and Mystic's daughter. Going into this, she fears that that will not be able to rise above the competition because a vast majority of them are older than her.
— To soothe Leah's fear, Gloria & Gloriana Stars (age 12, star-spangled bears) are also in this Battle Royale. Like Mina and Tina, these twin sisters use a whole lot of teamwork, and they happen to be quite good with that skill.
— Their mother, Glory (age 30), stands with the rest of the older women. Erin is one of her close friends, but she might have to eliminate her tonight.
— Putting an interesting spin on things is one of the four Angels ("special" bears)—the 25 year old angel-bear, Halo. This white bear may not do very much fighting... but she is not a pacifist.
— The last entrant, on the other hand, is quite pacifist in nature. The tie-dye Angel, Peace (age 23), is a mystery because no one knows what she can do in battle, not even the Bean Titans themselves. Hopefully she at least throws one punch in this Battle Royale.
Once everyone looked ready to go, Sweet rang the bell and backed away from the ring, still acting as the all-time referee. At the start of the fight, everyone clashed with each other except for Peace, who excused herself from the fight by jumping over the ropes and hopping down to the floor, before walking to the backstage area.
[I^I]
"Wow..." J.R. uttered, watching the tie-dye bear walk away from the Battle Royale without a fight.
"Well, I guess that's one less person everyone has to worry about," King added, trying to be a bit optimistic about that action.
"That's true. So now there is 15 ladies looking for the win. Who will be next to go over the top?"
"I have my eyes on Hannah there. She's a big girl, and after seeing her go all-out and sacrificing herself to eliminate 3 other fighters last time, I'm convinced that she's gonna do some more damage this time!" King proclaimed, smiling a lot.
Canyon chuckled. "Say what you want about size difference. My money's on Pouch the kangaroo. She might not have a whole lot of upper body strength, but all the power she has rests in those legs of hers. If she gets you in a Monkey Flip, you're probably gonna find yourself landing on your back against the outside floor.
"I guess that makes sense... but what I can't understand is why there are 4 young ladies inside the ring, that aren't even adults!" J.R. pointed out.
"Not to worry," began Aurora, "my little girl should be fine. In fact, Mystic and I are rooting for her. Chipper can hold her own with or without her powers, and the Stars twins will put on a show because they work very well together."
[O^O]
Aurora was right, as Gloria and Gloriana were taking the fight to Fortress, who thought that she could outsmart the two of them. Mina and Tina also played as a team, but up against another pair: Brenaia and Bernice.
On another end, an aforementioned confrontation came true—Pouch versus Hannah. The two of them stood in the middle of the ring having a stare down, while everyone else was fighting. They both knew that they were the toughest two to beat in the ring. After a few moments, they finally decided to throw shots at each other. Soon enough, Pouch would get the upper hand once she started using her powerful legs against the canine's body. Feeling that Hannah was groggy enough, Pouch ran back to the ropes behind her to get a running start for a dropkick... but Hannah caught on and moved out of the way, causing the kangaroo to fall flat on her back. Hannah then body splashed her three times, pressing her entire weight against her chest-first. Pouch was left immobile in the middle of the ring for awhile.
Halo was quickly eliminated by Valentina, who simply sent her over the top rope. While she was landing outside the ring, Halo flapped her angel wings enough to land on her feet instead of her body, showing that she was graceful in defeat. Meanwhile, Valentina was so happy about the elimination that she decided to hit Hannah from behind.
Bad idea.
The canine snatched Valentina and threw her into both Erin and Glory, eliminating them all as they flipped over the ropes.
[I^I]
"Oh my goodness! Hannah's on a rampage in there!" J.R. exclaimed.
"I'll say..." Spunky responded, surprised as well. "If she had done this on Monday, there would've been no other female in that ring."
"I hear ya," began King, "and at this rate, she'll be the winner in no time."
[O^O]
During those comments, Mina and Tina had eliminated Bernice and Brenaia; at the same time, the Stars twins took out Fortress. Both two teams then looked towards each other before going on the attack, which left the other four participants to battle it out.
Chipper and Leah looked first at the intimidating Hannah, and then at Pouch, who was slowly getting up from the pain of Hannah's body splashes. The kangaroo looked back at them and knew that they were thinking about what to do at this point.
Coming to an agreement, Chipper and Leah attacked Hannah with numerous shots, causing her to back up towards the ropes. She was groggy yet again, but this time, they inflicted more damage than Pouch did by herself. Leah then went up to one of the turnbuckles to prepare for a diving move, while Chipper ran to the opposite ropes for a running start on the way back to Hannah, performing a cross-body attack—by which she leaps her whole body laterally into the air and collides with the target. Unfortunately, Hannah managed to catch Chipper and toss her out of the ring. After that, Hannah pushed Leah off balance when she finally got to the top of the turnbuckle. The young polar bear fell on top of the top rope and latched herself on to it, although it was painful. Suddenly, she rolled in between both the top and middle ropes and landed on the apron, before falling to the floor afterwards.
At the same point in time, Mina and Tina were eliminated by Gloria and Gloriana.
Assuming that both of them were out of the match, Hannah turned her attention to Pouch, who suddenly jumped towards her and set her trained legs against her waist while using her momentum to pull Hannah's body towards her. Pouch made them both fall to the ground, but she used her legs to launch Hannah into the air for almost a second before landing on the mat. This was the Monkey Flip technique that Canyon talked about in the press box.
As she was getting up, Hannah experienced more pain when she was blindsided from both the left and the right, receiving a pair of roundhouse kicks to the head by the Stars twins. Now, the canine was legitimately dazed and was about to lose her footing. Before one of legs could give out, Pouch, Gloria and Gloriana pushed Hannah to the ropes and used teamwork to successfully take her out of the Battle Royale.
Immediately after, the Stars twins sent Pouch over as well, which shocked everyone.
"Well now, I guess it's down to those two... I think," Sweet thought to himself, unsure that they were the last two still in the contest. He signaled to get one of the Watcher cameras to play back past events in the match. When looking at how Leah got out of the ring, he saw that she went between the ropes and not over them.
By the time he looked back at the ring, Leah was getting back into the ring slowly, still feeling the pain from landing on her back on both the edge of the ring and the outside floor. Gloria and Gloriana, as sisters, were bickering over who would get out of the ring first. They both wanted to win, but sadly, the Battle Royale calls for one winner. That winner was decided when Leah ran up behind them and forced them over the ropes and out of the match with a strong push to their backs.
The bell rang to signal the end of the match.
"Here is your winner, Leah!" Sweet announced, getting in the ring and raising the young Titan's hand.
[I^I]
"What just happened?!" blurted out King.
"I don't know, but my little girl did it! Haha, you lose Hippity... pay up!" Aurora spoke out, making the night a little more interesting by placing bets amongst the Legendary 12. This would apply in the tournament as well.
"Aah, darn it..." the bunny muttered, reluctantly giving Aurora 20 dollars.
"One of the Watchers caught footage of how Leah was still in the match," Dotty informed everyone in the press box.
"I already knew what happened..." Mystic uttered as the video was playing back to them. "See? She slipped through the ropes instead of over them, and it wasn't a dirty move at all. Hannah threw her there and she couldn't hang on. Leah was still in the match, and I'm proud of her for winning too."
"Well," began J.R., "I think she has rightfully earned that victory and she'll be somewhere in next week's tournament. Speaking of that, Jerry and I will be watching today's tournament from our front row seats out there in the crowd. We have nothing else to do for the rest of the night, so it'll be great to see all of the amazing action in a few moments!"
"That all sounds great, J.R. Hope you two enjoy what we have for you tonight!" Fancy responded.
The two of them took their leave from the press box.
"I don't understand something though..." Dep murmured.
"What?" Mac replied.
"How did our Mina, Tina and Fortress lose to little girls?"
Mac blinked once and then looked away with a dull look. "Never ask that question again."
[O^O]
/\/\/\/\/\/\
(MAIN EVENT: The UNLIMITED Tournament)
(Background music: "Menu 2 Theme" — Super Smash Bros. Melee. Everyone could hear the music.)
"Well now," started Sweet, standing outside of the ring, "I already implied this before: we'd get here faster than you would've thought. And here we are now... Dotty, '86' this ring for us—we don't want it here because the atmosphere is about to change, and it won't feel like it's at home, ohhhhhh no! Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for the UNLIMITED Tournament! Let's bring out the sixteen lucky Bean Titans that will kick this show into high gear!"
As the combatants were coming out of the backstage area, the mass audience roared in cheers as the octagonal wrestling ring completely disappeared, leaving only the spacious platinum-tiled arena as the battleground for the Titans.
Sweet spoke out again. "As you can see, there are some new faces and some old faces here. As a matter of fact, two of them just joined the Bean Titans this week. Nonetheless, I guarantee that they all will be sure to impress everyone watching TUE tonight! So without much further ado, let's get on with the first match!"
/-/
This shall be interesting. The first round matches will cover the next two chapters.
See you then!