Hello everyone and welcome to a new chapter! Since it is the month of October and something special is being planned for the month I wanted to get a few specific chapters up for the story beforehand. Since this story has something planned, all my other stories are pretty much placed on the backburner until the end of the month, or around the next holiday, so while you all wait enjoy the chapter below.
Beta'd by: Ravena Felidae
"FFW"-Speech
'FFW'-Thought
'FFW'-Flashback
"FFW"-Attacks
Disclaimer: I do not own any reference to any anime/game/show/book, etc. that appears in this story. I own the original plot (at least I hope its original) and my own characters and OC's. All other characters and references belong to their original creators.
It was morning on the large island known as Infinity Island when Shawn slowly got out of bed yawning. He took a quick look around and was reminded that he was not in his bedroom back home; he was in a fair sized dorm room. The room had everything he basically would need, a large bed to rest in, a desk where he could do work and a closet to put his clothes in. When they all accepted Hikari Murakumo's offer of staying on the island to work with her they were taken to the large dorm-like building to live in while waiting on things like clothes and messages from their parents to arrive.
"And here I was thinking last night was a dream; well no use delaying it." Shawn said going to the closet as he wiped the remaining sand from his eyes. He gathered some items to bring with him as he tiredly made his way to the bathroom. A quick routine later and Shawn was now more awake; wearing a blue open short-sleeved jacket, white shirt, black slacks and shoes.
"It wasn't long where I was asleep in my room back in a small house in Charleston, and now I'm awake walking around a dorm on an island." Shawn said to himself as he began walking around. After everyone had settled in they were given a brief tour and had a map of the place placed inside their PT's. After a few trials Shawn managed to find the kitchen where he picked up an apple from a fruit bowl.
"Where is everyone? I know I'm not a morning person." Said Shawn after taking a bite of the apple.
"Morning Shads…."
Shawn then turned to a half dead Bella make her way into the kitchen, opening a cabinet to pull out some cereal. He noticed that her hair was a bit unruly and her sleep outfit was a bit ruffled up.
"You know my real name Bella, you don't have to call me Shads out here." Shawn said.
"Force of habit…sorry, it's just I accidently set this PT alarm doohickey and it had me up most of the night." Bella yawned as she then got herself a large bowl and then went to the fridge. "I usually have my mom getting me up each morning."
'I know that feeling' Shawn thought before noticing what she had pulled out from the fridge. "You may want to pay attention to what you're doing Bella."
"Huh, what for?" Bella asked after pouring her flakes into the bowl; before she could add anything else Shawn reached and grabbed the carton from her hands.
"You almost poured orange juice on your cereal Bella." Shawn said, putting the OJ away and bringing out the milk for the sleepy girl.
"Whoops…my bad," Bella chuckled a bit. "At least it wasn't fruit punch." She said as she now poured the right liquid onto her cereal.
"Do I want to know why you said that?" Shawn asked.
"Thought I try and experiment a bit." Bella said as she now had a spoon to start eating.
"Riiight~, if you need just call me on my PT." Shawn said, turning to leave the room.
"Huh, you off somewhere?" Bella asked.
"Thought I get a better view of the island, later." Shawn said after tossing the apple remains in the trash before he left. Once he was gone, Bella just shrugged her shoulders and continued back to her breakfast.
(Scene Change)
"Does the place have to be this big?" Shawn asked making his way to where he thought was an elevator. The dorm itself was a four-story building, but the building was so large it was easy to lose one's way if they didn't have a guide (or at least a map). He continued walking until he finally spotted the elevator doors.
'Finally," Shawn then pushed the call button for the elevator. Soon the doors open and he could see Leon was in the elevator as he stepped out.
"Hey Shawn, heading somewhere?" Leon asked.
"Just heading back up, you just now waking up Leon?" Shawn asked back.
"I was up for a bit; I'm just now leaving my room. My friends back home don't believe where I am so I'm heading out to take a few pictures of the island." Leon explained, showing his phone. Shawn nodded as he got in; waiting as the doors closed and the elevator went down a floor. "Sure you don't mind waiting out the ride?"
"It's either this or finding the stairs and it's too early for that option." Shawn explained his reasons as he didn't mind the small detour before he made his way back up. The floors were divided into the entrance floor, boys and girls dorms respectively, and a meeting floor. They didn't know all about what the place had, but they figured they would find out the longer they stayed there. "Looks like we reached your stop." Shawn said hearing the ding of the elevator before the doors opened.
"Looks like it is, I'll be seeing you amigo." Leon said as he left the elevator, ready to gather proof for those back home. After the doors closed Shawn pressed the button for the fourth floor and rode the small metal device back up. While waiting he thought back to his family's reactions to this. His mother was originally against it, but conceded when she saw how big the opportunity was and he made sure he would finish his college work online; not to mention his sister and brother were more than happy to have him out of the house. It was easy for work, since it was the same company though he did had to deal with the usual from his boss. All and all he had an easier time 'moving in' than some of the others without Hikari's help.
'I know it's been a day, but you think she would have some work for us to do.' Shawn thought as he pulled out his PT from his pocket. He looked through the messages and saw none of them were from Hikari. 'Guess I have to be patient.' A ding soon interrupted his train of thought as realized he had reached the fourth floor.
Shawn then made his way out and up another flight of stairs towards the roof of the large dormitory. As he opened the door to the top he was instantly greeted by the sunlight, he shielded his eyes as he made his way out to view the whole island. Despite how much land this building and the Dome area took up, a lot of the island's natural beauty was still there. Behind the industrial area was a trail leading towards the jungle of the island. He took a moment to enjoy the scene as he took a quick snapshot.
"At least I have this to look forward to every morning, guess I have a reason to try and wake up. Huh?" Shawn said looking outwards. He then turned his focus to the ground where he saw a few colorful specks gathered around in the distance.
"I wonder what those are?" Shawn asked himself before turning around to find out.
(Scene Change)
"Abby-chan, are you sure they'll be well behaved? I can tell some of them are feeling nervous." Kohaku asked as she dealt with calming down a flock of birds that had perched and landed around her. Sitting beside her was Abby who had a group of cats around her feet and a kitten in her lap that she was petting.
"Don't worry your pretty little head, as long as I have this…" said Abby shaking up a packet of catnip treats causing a couple of cats to meow excitedly as they rubbed against her legs. "I have their undivided attention…"
Kohaku smiled a little as she stroked the breast of a lovely canary that had landed on her finger while Abby scratched the ears of a black cat that had rubbed against her hand.
"Morning Ladies, I see you have acquainted yourselves with the local wildlife," greeted a new voice jokingly.
"Good Morning, Mikey," greeted both girls cheerfully at the newcomer.
Mike smiled as he whistled at the hoard of cats and birds surrounding the two girls. "Wow…you two are like Animal Whisperers or something!"
Kohaku smiled at Mike. "Arigatou~!" she replied when the three heard some gravel shift calling their attention behind them.
Shawn looked a bit surprised when he found the party. "Woah…." He said, surprised at the large amount of animals beside the girls.
"Don't tell me that one of these cats has your tongue." Abby said with a small smile. "You act as though you never seen a cat before."
"I've seen cats and I've seen birds but I never seen so many at one time and not around each other without witnessing the Circle of Life happen." Shawn said. "I saw the mass all the way from the roof and just came to see what it was."
"Well these birds won't harm you, besides if they were spooked they would have just gone back to their nests in the jungle." Kohaku said as she brushed the feathers of some of the more tropical birds. "This island is beautiful, even the Dome doesn't take much away from it."
"This island was an empty island when Murakumo Industries bought it, but they wanted to make an example of not devastating the ecosystem too much. That's why the jungle and other parts have pretty much been left untouched except for where we are." Shawn said.
"You sure known a lot about Murakumo, I mean I know Leon was a Beta so he was actually tested for them before. Though, I swore Ms. Murakumo called you an intern, is it true?" Michael asked.
Shawn nodded. "Yeah, I work in an office close to where I live. It was my way of getting some experience and I sort of hear some of the gossip and works around the building. I mostly spent my time helping my Supervisor and making sure he doesn't sleep too much on the job." He said with a sigh.
"Sounds rough, I would think working for a company like this would be a dream. And now here we are." Michael smiled.
Shawn then laughed a bit. "Yeah I thought that too when I started, hope you still feel that way when we do start working Michael." He said, "I just don't want to deal with another Takahiro again."
"Takahiro?" Kohaku asked with interest.
"My boss's name, he likes to keep things informal with me." Shawn said, "I just hope he can actually get his work done without his assistant waking him up even so often, but I'm sure he'll survive."
"Sounds like a really lazy boss, he must really know what he's doing if he still in charge." Abby said with the others agreeing.
"He's lazy, but the man is a genius. He makes the stiffs at meetings slack jawed when he brings in his work fully prepared before heading back to sleep. I got into the habit of taping some of their reaction." Shawn said. "Still Michael, we probably won't get any work for some time, it is the first day."
"I know, but think we have a whole Gravity Dome to ourselves to use when we're not testing. And not to mention some of the things we actually do get to test, I can't exactly hide my excitement." Michael said happily.
"Well we'll just have to direct that excitement somewhere else." Shawn said.
"Are you suggesting that, maybe we should play FFW together today?" Kohaku asked, wondering if that was what Shawn meant. "I think it would be more fun for all of us to play side by side than in other parts of the world."
"I can see that" Abby said as she stood up; Kohaku then whistled a small tone causing the flock to fly off while Abby clicked her fingers prompting the wild cats to return to their homes. "So when do you plan that we all get online?"
"Anytime really since we don't have anything to do, we can just wait and message Leon and Bella since they are both occupied at the time." Shawn said. "Join whenever you want, I'll be online when I get back inside." Shawn then turned around and walked back to the direction of the dorms. The rest soon gathered their things and decided to split up and do their own things before they too got online. Two messages were sent informing Bella and Leon as everyone went through their own plan.
(Scene Change)
It didn't take very long for everyone to gather in the Gravity Room with their Visors in tow.
"Ready guys?" asked Shawn.
"Ready!" came the answer prompting Shawn to nod as everyone took out their PTs and placed them into their slots and put on their Visors.
Everyone began to activate their gadgets as the Gravity Room began to work its magic.
"Shadowlight0982! Dive In!"
Diving In Sequence Activated…. The words began flashing as Shawn felt himself falling into FFW.
Shawn began falling through a data tunnel as a cyber-shadow of his Avatar appeared before him.
Shawn closed his eyes as his Avatar began to merge with him causing his entire body to glow to begin the transformation into Shadowlight.
The light began dissipating as his arm transformed into the BlazBlue along with his fingerless gloves appearing on his hands seconds before his signature shirt appeared followed up quickly by the appearance of his jacket. His Pants and shoes also began to appear in sequence.
A blue data stream scanned Shawn prompting him to finally open his eyes to show his left eye fading into the white Byakugan.
The player known as Shadowlight0982 was ready.
"Keybladedude, Dive in!"
Like Shadow, Leon fell through the data tunnel with his Avatar shadow appearing before him and merging with his form.
Leon glowed as his shirt, gloves, pants and shoes appeared in sequence ending with his signature Organization coat appearing and flapping in the wind.
A silver data stream began scanning Leon's head as his hair flared up briefly and transitioned into his silver hair before Leon, now as Key opened his eyes which had lightened a bit to complete the transformation.
"DrummerBoy4Life, Dive in!"
Michael threw himself wide open as his Avatar shadow appeared before him and began merging.
Layers of his Avatar's clothing began to appear in sequence to replace his own.
A black data stream swirled and scanned past Michael's head, causing his skin to pale slightly, his teeth to sharpen and elongate slightly while his eyes became swirled with red and blue completing the transformation to DrummerBoy.
"GeneralHyna, Dive in!"
Bella whooped happily as her hair flailed about wildly before as her Avatar shadow appeared and merged with her.
Her clothes glowed before being replaced by her game clothes, piece by piece. A green and yellow data stream began twisting and swirling towards her and suddenly split into two. The green stream twisted itself around Bella's wrist before glowing and forming the Omnitrix while the yellow stream scanned through Bella's hair accenting her highlights as it bundled itself into a pony-tail causing a big smile to appear on Bella's face as her transformation was complete.
"IllusionistOwl, Dive in!"
Kohaku closed her and hugged herself as her hair bellowed gracefully about her as her Avatar shadow materialized before her. The girl then gracefully opened her arms, prompting the merging and the transformation to begin.
The girl's inner shirt appeared first followed by her skirt and boots before getting covered by her lavender jacket. Her signature red scarf soon materialized and wrapped itself around Illu's neck.
A lavender stream swirled about Illu's head, transitioning her red hair to purple as her fringe fluttered up to show her seal glowing briefly as it appeared before Illu opened her green eyes which instantly changed to red with a single blink. Illu's hair tamed down as the girl finally completed her transformation.
"Ravena Felidae, Dive in!"
Abby relaxed her body as she calmly let herself fall. Her shadow materialized before her and merged to begin the change.
Her red top, belt, pants, boots materialized on her body ending with her coat fluttering in the wind.
A bright red data stream swirled up to her, coiling and scanning her entire body as her extra feature began to appear.
First came her nails that began to elongate and sharpen slightly. Next, a glowing stream of light came snaking out from the base of Abby's spine before thickening. The light broke away with a pop revealing her long bushy tail, which split apart into two and waved about. Abby curled her body forward slightly as her glowing wings grew out of her back and flapped, getting rid of the light.
Abby's ears glowed and transformed into cat ears that twitched slightly as she opened her eyes that transitioned and transformed into cat eyes while her lips curled into a big smile revealing her fangs.
Ravena Felidae's transformation was complete as she and the others fell through a glowing portal to FFW at the same time.
(Scene Change)
"Whoohoo! I never get tired of that Dive in Sequence!" Bella said stretching herself as all of Kurotsubasa were now online and standing outside their Guild. "So what's the plan guys, are we going to take on any jobs? Go hunting for some treasure?" The toon girl began asking.
"I think if you look around you'll see why we can't do that Hy-Nya." Ravena said with Punnya resting on her shoulder. She then pointed a finger up and the rest of Kurotsubasa followed it as they could see forms of battles taking place all around Tokyo City.
"I didn't think so many guilds would be in Tokyo City, and that they would have already begun to have battles." Illu said in awe at the displays of the battles held by the other guilds. "Usually there are hardly any actions in small towns like this on the first day."
Mukurowl hooted in agreement while Nyoka stuck her head out and nodded.
"That's because so many of them are interested in taking out the competition." Shadow said. "The fewer guilds there are in an area, the more easier it is for some guilds to keep and maintain their territory. It's better to have to deal with two enemies that might challenge you than have twenty guilds all after your head."
"U-Pyon!" squeaked Amaya in amazement poking her head out from Shadow's hood.
"Basically it's going to become a battle to see who is going to remain to keep going, there are about as many new guilds setting up as there are veteran guilds fighting to maintain what they have." Key said. "My only surprise is that none of them have even tried our area yet."
"Maybe they're just cautious; we did make a big impression in the Eclipse Tournament as well as in the Kick-Off yesterday. I wouldn't want to be the Guild to challenge us right out of the gate either." DB said. "Though, can't they issue a challenge online?"
"They can, but if they do it like that then we can decline the challenge." Key answered the question. "We might not have that much territory, but it is advantageous for us since we pretty much have the whole Market district."
"Sugoi, the whole district, usually any guild would try and stake claim on things like that. Is Kurotsubasa such a high ranked Guild that we can control that much area?" Illu asked curiously.
"Not really, we're just able to send any guild packing that even wants a chance to get any part of the area." Shadow answered. "Tokyo City never really had that many guilds in it to begin with, the only one I see sticking around until the end would be Aetherion and they don't seem interesting in challenging us yet."
"It's usually that way every year, but then again we could never official do Guild Wars until now." DB said.
"Huh and why is that nya?" Ravena asked.
"The rules of the Guild Wars say that the minimum number a Guild has to have to participate is five and since Bella's powers didn't really count all we've done really is observe." Key said. "Though since rarely anyone comes here, we were able to basically scoop up as much area as we could."
"Not like there was anyone around to offer a challenge anyway." Shadow said.
"Well, I don't know whether to take that as a surprise or maybe an insult!" A voice said from out of nowhere.
At that moment all of Kurotsubasa looked up at a nearby roof to see the last person they would expect. Striker, from the All-Stars, was standing up there addressing them and behind him was four others players who they all assumed were the members they met the other day. "It's been a while Kurotsubasa, hope you haven't forgotten our faces just yet." Striker said cheerfully.
"Didn't expect to hear from you so soon; what do you want Striker?" Shadow asked.
"Ouch, that's cold, just thought we come around and says hi before we get to what I want." Striker said as he made his way down with the others. "Guess it's time for introductions, we already know about you guys but you probably haven't heard of us."
Walking up next to Striker was an almost feminine looking man wearing a fighting gi that was white on the top but black was the color of his hakama pants. He wore traditional sandals with his clothes along with black and gold gloved armguards; he wore his long black hair in a top knot.
"I apologize if our Idiot-of-a-Guild-Leader came off as rude, but this is a meeting we all agreed to. I'm a member of All-Stars too…Akisame, at your service." Akisame said in a gentlemanly way of introducing himself before bowing in greeting.
"The way you cover for the guy makes me think you might actually be the leader. Hey, aren't you that 'Aki-Boo' that he was cheering on about the other day?" DB asked.
"Don't remind me," Akisame said with another member of their guild snickering while he blushed in annoyance. "We might as well continue with introductions…Pitch?"
"Right," The guy that was chuckling earlier said to the bishounen. Like the leader, Pitch was just as tall and looked a bit more muscular than both guys on the All-Stars. He wore a traditional white baseball uniform along with the undershirt and field shoes. Pitch wore a white baseball cap backwards where three spikes of hair poked out the front of the hat and strapped to his back was a large blue baseball bat. "The name's Pitch, nice to meet you guys in the game this time." He said.
'I'm Valley-Belle.' A tall woman with an expressionless face on the All-Stars held up a sign with those words. She was almost as tall as Striker but fell short a few inches. She had a lean body, wearing a red and white jacket and red shorts. She had on white wristbands, knee guards and shoes along with violet short hair.
"Wow, I've never met a sign speaker yet! This day just gets better and better." Bella said as she leaned closer to Valley-Belle and proceeded to poke the wooden sign until she was dragged back towards the others in Kurotsubasa.
After the spot of randomness died down the last member of the All-Stars cleared her throat as she walked up a bit, along with a white Usa-Manju on her shoulder. She was shorter than the rest of her guild-mates but she had fair skin, long pink hair, and sticking out of it where two long white rabbit ears. She wore a white sleeveless leotard with magenta swirling pattern with long white gloves with pink circular gems on the back of each hand. She also wears a magenta miniskirt with a white belt and white mid-thigh boots.
"And saving the best for last is I, Prima Diva, FFW's Number #1 Cutie Pie!" She announced confidently with a flourish of her arms.
"Chi-Pyon~!" The Usa-Manju on her shoulder squeaked who copied her master's flourish with her ears. Both then gave a wink of their red sparkly eyes that literally had star-shaped pupils.
"ANYWAY! I guess you have a pretty good idea on why we're here!" said Striker cheerfully popping in front of Prima and her manju much to their annoyance.
"HEY! I was shining my beauty here! Vous Imbecile!" snapped Prima in annoyance at Striker who purposely gave a cheeky grin.
"And now it's my turn to shine!" he said casually with a flourish that mimicked Prima before.
"Aller au diable!"
Prima growled furiously prompting Striker to begin dodging her punches as she chased him around the two groups.
"WAH! AKI-MAMA! Primmy is trying to kill me!" yelled Striker out dramatically as he pranced about with long strides while Prima clearly had to run after him.
Akisame rubbed the bridge of his nose in irritation while a tick mark pulsed on his temple. "HORA! You two behave yourselves right now!"
"She/He started it!" accused the two childishly pointing at each other.
"I don't care who started it, I want you both to end it! Don't make me reduce your allowances!" snapped Akisame with such intensity that the two quickly stopped.
"Yes Aki…." They both said meekly like scolded children.
The whole of Kurotsubasa sweat-dropped heavily at the trio.
"Are they always like that?" whispered Key to Pitch who gave a simple shrug.
"Yup, pretty much…." Answered Pitch with a sigh.
'When Aki goes into Mama mode, nobody dares to fight against him…' said the sign Val held up.
Punnya in the meantime had hopped off Ravena's shoulder and bounced up to the white Usa-Manju smiling with Amaya following behind her.
"Pun-nya~!" greeted Punnya cheerfully holding out her tail.
"U-Pyon~!" greeted Amaya as well holding out an ear, copying Punnya.
The white Usa-Manju looked at the two a bit with an indifferent look before turning her nose up at them. "Chi!" she said haughtily as she smacked the offered ear and tail away before hopping back to her master much to the shock of Punnya and Amaya.
Punnya frowned heavily until she heard sniffling and looked down to see tears welling up in Amaya's eyes; who being still a baby, evidently had her feelings hurt a lot more easily.
"U-PYOOOOOOOOOON!" Amaya began to wail loudly at the top of her voice holding her ears to her eyes as tears began to flow like a fountain while everyone quickly covered their ears.
"Pun! Pun-nya! Pun-Nya nya! Pun-nya!" Punnya said quickly in comfort as she wrapped Amaya up in her tail and began rocking her gently like how a mother would to a crying baby as she nuzzled her face against Amaya, bringing her cries down to a silent whimper as the baby Usa sniffed a bit and nuzzled into Punnya's fur.
Punnya hissed threateningly at the other Manju before flying to Shadow and placing her back in his hood.
"Chi! Chi, Pyon!" Huffed the other Manju with indifference not looking the least bit sorry.
"Well that was rude, ever think of teaching her manners?" Ravena asked seeing as the white manju not only just snuff both Punnya and Amaya away, but also caused the latter baby manju to cry and she did look apologetic in any way, shape, or form. Punnya seemed to agree as she continued to glare at the manju as she returned to Ravena's arms.
"And what makes you think that it is Yuki-Chi's problem, your pets were the ones who thought of themselves as worthy of being in her presence. Yuki-Chi just showed them where they are in terms of status." Prima Diva brushed off Ravena's comment almost the same way that Yuki-Chi did with the others. She then felt something and frightened jumped back as the blade of a scythe was held out to her neck.
"I don't care what she did; all I know is that it was uncalled for, making Amaya cry." Shadow said as he hand gripped the scythe as he free hand went to sooth Amaya, who was still hidden in his hood. Before anything could escalate and anyone else could pull out a weapon Striker placed a hand on the scythe and pushed away from Prima's throat.
"Now now, I think it was uncalled for pressing that against Prima's neck." Striker said with a bit of humor in his voice. Both sides could tell it wasn't serious for the way he could just leisurely point the scythe away with no trouble. Striker's reward for his laughter was dodging another angry punch from Prima.
"You weren't the one nearly chopped into stem, though I see you did hesitate. Were you scared at the possibility of damaging the number one cutie in FFW?" Prima asked as her fear from before seemed to have vanished.
"Not really, between you and me I've met prettier girls." Shadow said causing the rabbit girl to falter a bit. He then placed his scythe away as he then turned to Striker. "Back to what you guys are here for, what do you want? I highly doubt it's here for a favor."
Striker's smirk then grew a bit more. "Well you can call it a favor, a favor that you can't say no too."
"Oh and why is that?" Shadow asked curiously, though a part of him knew what he was going to ask.
"Well you see our battle during the Kick-Off was one memorable battle I will tell you that, but I felt that it was unfair to actually call that our first official battle since we only did it for the event." Striker began to explain. "Besides, a part of me felt bad that it was only limited to just us two. It isn't fair to leave our guild-mates out."
"Now that you mention it, it wasn't fair for the only part that actually had FFW in it not have us be a part of it." Bella thought out loud as she pondered.
"Now's kind of too late to complain about that Bell, we did end up winning didn't we?" DB said.
"And you figured you wanted to fix that along with us having an official battle?" Shadow said, ignoring the conversation the two were having. He knew what Striker was planning on doing, by now he was just waiting for the man to just say it.
"Well if you're going to be blunt about it." Striker said silently to himself as Akisame then began to speak.
"Going straight to the point, we want to challenge your guild to a Guild War battle." Akisame said as he was done skating around the issue. He then threw something forward which Kurotsubasa's eyes followed as they now saw a new addition to the shop's sign. A large white star was planted over their Guild's emblem; the universal form of challenge for the Guild Wars. All eyes then went back to Akisame. "I believe that's all that needed to be said and done."
"Geez Aki, no need for us to get so serious right when we're just here to offer a challenge." Striker said as he then focused back on Kurotsubasa. "But he's right, if words didn't go through than placing that on your emblem will. We challenge you…Kurotsubasa!" He said triumphantly as he and the rest of the All-Stars stood waiting for a response.
Everyone was silent as Kurotsubasa began to talk amongst themselves. Each one of them had an idea what they wanted to do; however, the one who could make the final decision was the leader.
"What do you think Shadow, we can't exactly ignore this since they came up with a direct challenge and they did just place their mark." Key said as he weighed the options for all of them. "They sure must have planned this out since the battle yesterday."
"Yeah like attracting a crowd." DB said as he got everyone's attention on the streets that while a moment ago had only a few people passing through was now crowded with those looking at the two groups and talking about what was going on.
"All of that talk must have attracted them here, it may be just as DB said." Illu said as she recognized the technique. "The decision is on us, but they baited into bringing an audience as witnesses. Plus like Key said, they placed their mark on ours. We have to either accept the challenge or surrender." She explained.
"Stakes are really that high nya? Of course this is my first time actually being a part of one of these instead of just watching" Ravena said. "So what do we do?"
"Well surrendering isn't an option, especially after tagging another team's emblem." Shadow said. "So there is only one thing to do…" With that Kurotsubasa separated from their huddle as Shadow walked forward to Striker. He was aware of all the whispers going on around on whether or not they would accept the challenge. "Challenge accepted Striker…though you know with the rules you only get to choose the venue. We get to pick the actual game." Shadow informed him.
"Right, right" Striker said, happy that they accepted. "That is fine with us, though we may have a challenge in mind that you may want to reconsider. The battle will take place back in our town, Animetropolis; you know where the Sports Coliseum is right?"
"It's one of the bigger buildings there, we'll find it." Shadow answered.
"Right, we figured we would have the battle two days from now in the Coliseum, can't wait to see you there Kurotsubasa." Striker said as he and the others then turned and made their way down the street.
With All-Stars heading off, Shadow then gathered everyone else back into the base so that they could discuss in privacy. They all went upstairs in the meeting room where they could talk about what had happened.
"Offering a challenge right at our front door and baiting a crowd, and as a part of that, despite the Guild War's rules they want to propose a type of battle to us?" Key said as he was now at the Terminal. "There has to be something up about that."
"What do you mean, they challenged us right, so doesn't that mean they get to choose how we battle nya?" Ravena asked confused at the Beta's words.
"It's the opposite Ravena-chan, during confrontation it is the Guild that is getting challenged who gets to pick the game. That way it gives overall fairness." Illu explained briefly. "Say a very strong fighting guild challenges a weaker guild who couldn't win a straight forward battle. They can suggest a battle where the fields will be even or give them an edge."
"And because of edges like that it's usually why the challengers get to pick the field so that it at least evens things out for both Guilds." Shadow said. "Though there must be a reason why they would suggest a game; granted they seemed off but they didn't come off as having that bad of a motive."
"Well they challenged us and picked a Sports Coliseum right? Maybe they have some big extreme game that we can all play where it could be fair, or maybe they want to put on a performance. Those guys are athletes!" Bella suggested her ideas.
"Did Bella say something that made sense?" DB asked in surprised, only to dodge a stream of water from the transformed girl. "Whoa, hold the water pressure! Usually Bella you aren't the one thinking of why people want to fight you usually go in Omnitrix blazing!"
"That doesn't mean even I can't come up with ideas!" Water Hazard spoke before changing back into a pouting Bella. "Besides they don't seem like bad guys like Shads says and I doubt that Striker guy wants revenge for the Dome thing. He was having as much fun as anyone could."
"Still appearance or not, I still have to keep in mind they may be after the Wings. Since; in competitions like this, it would be easier for anyone to try and challenge me for it." Shadow said.
"That's right, if a Guild refuses a direct challenge not only do they lose territory but it reflects badly on that Guild. Especially in a public setting like what Striker did." Illu said. "Should we really go with their idea for a game? We do have a lot at risk?"
"Let's just see if Hy-Nya's idea holds some truth to it; find anything Ani-Key?" Ravena asked as she saw Key was searching through the Terminal for something.
"I think I do…check this out." Key the put up a visual of a large sports Stadium. "That is where they set the location. Coincidentally this is also their base; unlike others who want their locations secret they are practically advertised everywhere. An accomplishment considering what Animetropolis is." The Beta said.
"I've never actually been to Animetropolis. Could it be something like Akihabara?" Illu asked with eyes sparkling.
"Never had a chance to visit the real place Illu-tan?" Ravena smirked as Illu then remembered where she was and got embarrassed.
"W-well, Chocobo and the others would sometimes save money to go there during summer break. They always get me souvenirs but I've never been there myself." Illu explained. "And I always heard Animetropolis is supposed to be FFW's version. I definitely want to see it!"
"We'll have some time to sightsee, maybe after the challenge." Shadow said. "What's happening with the stadium Key?"
"A big sports event in two days…and guess who're on the roster for it." With a push of a button Key then pulled up the schedule for the location and saw that Kurotsubasa was scheduled to duel the All-Stars. "Either FFW updates really quickly…or they planned this all ahead." He informed them. "Even the game has been scheduled."
"And what kind of game is that?" DB asked his fellow guildmate. "Come on, out with it man, the suspense is killing me here."
Key looked at his guildmates before taking in a deep breath and exhaling. "They want us to partake in a Roller-Jam…"
Bella looked at the beta incredulously. "You're kidding right? They want us to skate?"
"Ano…What's a Roller-Jam?" asked Illu, a bit confused.
"It's like a race but on roller-skates," Ravena began to explain. "The goal is to grab the opposing team's emblem while trying to knock your opponents out of the race. Basically it's literally a rough and tumble sport to participate in."
"Sounds like my kind of sport!" said DB eagerly.
"Ditto!" cheered Bella.
"Skating! B-b-but I've never skated before!" stammered Illu nervously prompting Mukurowl to pat the girl's head comfortingly.
"Don't worry about it. Remember, here in FFW, as long as you can picture yourself doing it in your head, you can definitely pull it off," said Shadow encouragingly with a small smile, which placed the owl girl at ease a bit.
"Well what are we waiting for Nya?! Come Punnya! To the K-Cave!" declared Ravena prompting a swirling portal with two black poles to suddenly appear as the two ran towards the poles, jumped on them and slid down.
"Oh no you don't! I'm getting front seat this time!" declared Bella as she slid down the pole after them with the portal closing up after her.
The remaining members exchanged incredulous looks and sweat-dropped.
"I'm starting to think Bella's been rubbing off on Ravena and Punnya…."stated Key bluntly prompting the others to nod solemnly in unison.
(At the Van)
"Took you guys long enough," huffed Bella looking grouchy considering Ravena had beaten her to the seat once again.
"Not everyone can summon a portal as a short-cut Bella," argued DB while Ravena gave a peace sign and grinned.
"Come on kids, buckle up, it's time to go!" joked Key as he buckled himself into the driver's seat while everyone took their places while Shads jumped onto his bike and slipped on his helmet while Amaya hopped over to Punnya who wrapped the baby up in her tail for safety.
"To Animetropolis!" cheered Ravena, DB and Bella as engines began revving as the both van and motorcycle sped out and off.
(Animetropolis)
"Well, here we are guys." Shadow said as they were now walking through the large city. Compared to a small town like Tokyo City, Animetropolis was easily twice the size with many tall buildings and skyscrapers against Tokyo's small buildings.
"So this is Animetropolis, its much bigger than I thought I would be." Illu said in wonder as she began looking around. Her moving then caused Nyoka to wake up and look around for herself.
"Illu-sama, I don't see the big deal about this place. It's simply a much bigger settlement than the one we were just in." Nyoka said, uninterested.
"That's because we only just got here, we really have to see what this city has to offer nya." Ravena said eagerly. "One of the biggest areas in the Server, full of things like malls and shops; it would be a crime if we didn't enjoy everything it has to offer. I can't wait to see the magic shops!"
"Punnya!" Punnya reminded her.
"Right, we'll check out the snack shops too Punnya." Ravena said.
"Punnya!"
"Hey if the girls get to explore, then can I at least get to go off and at least find a pub!" DB argued seeing the two were already making plans.
"Before anyone goes and gets lost in the big city, we are here for a reason. We have to find a place to stay and at the same time find the stadium." Key informed them. "We're here a day early, but that doesn't mean we have time to go sightseeing."
"It's that we do find a place to stay as fast as possible before anyone notices us in town." Shadow said.
Bella then laughed at that notion as she began to walk further ahead. "Come on, that's just silly even by my standards. It's not like anyone would care if I yelled, 'KUROTSUBASA IS STANDING RIGHT HERE IN TOWN!' right? " The toon girl said.
Just as that was said, it was like all sound seized, they all stopped as the guild wondered what was going on around them. Before they could hear the whispering, they caught the wide eyed looks some of the people in the crowd were giving them as Kurotsubasa stood still, watching the players talk.
"It's them, that's Kurotsubasa."
"I thought the challenge must have been a joke, but if they're in town then it must be true."
"I've only heard talks about these guys on forums; you mean they're the guild that showed up out of nowhere?"
"So…No one would care, huh?" Shadow said as he sternly looked at Bella.
"Then again, I could be wrong…" Bella chuckled nervously as they could all hear the talking now elevate. None of the onlookers seemed to even care for whispering now.
"Well that just made our job a lot harder." Key sighed.
"Guess this must be how some web celebrities feel, though I won't lie and say that this is getting a little awkward having them talk about us like we aren't here." DB said with a bit of irritation in his tone.
"I-I'm sure they don't mean anything about it. Its harmless curiosity…but they don't have to stare so much." Illu said as she lightly pulled up her scarf to try and hide more of her face.
"Why don't we just find a hotel and lay low for a while until this event blows over." Ravena gave out her idea.
"Good idea, the faster we find one the better." Key agreed.
"It's irritating as hell but it's just gossip, I mean what's the worst that can possibly happen?" DB asked curiously as they all began to try and move out the spotlight. Suddenly they all stopped as they felt a rumbling of the ground. "Sorry I asked!"
"Not yet you're not." Shadow grimaced at the rumbling the ground was given.
"What is this? A tremor? An earthquake?" Illu asked startled a bit from the sound slightly increasing.
"No, something a lot more worse nya, it's something we have DB-chan and Hy-Nya to thank." Ravena said as Punnya then flew to her arms, having felt what was heading their way.
"I said I was sorry!" DB yelled back.
"I regret nothing." Bella chimed along with the vampire. "But seriously, what in toon's name is that if it's not an earthquake?" She asked as they now saw the crowd parting as the beginning of a dust cloud seemed to have formed and head towards them.
"The worst thing to hit FFW ever." Shadow said.
"Come on, now you're just exaggerating."
"Does it look like I'm exaggerating?"
"Ugh guys now might be a good of chance as any to run." Key said gathering all their attention as he then pointed back the other way. The dust cloud was now bigger, only now they could see what was actually causing it along with the vibrations.
It was a large mass of people, all running towards them. Men and women made the group, but the only thing they had in common were a few signs and banners, maybe a T-Shirt or two. Signs and banners with Kurotsubasa's Guild Symbol.
DB widened his eyes."Oh Fu-"
"FAN MOB!" yelled Key cutting DB off while prompting everyone to take off like a rocket down the street.
Kurotsubasa ran like crazy as they began to hear their fans' cheering coming closer.
"SHADOW-SAMA!" squealed majority of the fangirls in the mob.
"KEY-CHAN! COME BACK! WE JUST WANT TO KISS YOU!" Another group of girls called out.
"DB WE LOVE YOU!" cried DB's fans. "Sign my Boob!" one particular girl shouted.
Even the girls were not spared as their own mobs began adding on to the numbers.
"ILLU-CHWAN~! KAWAII~!" cried one group.
"RAVENA-TAN! NEKO-CHAN! POSE FOR US!"
"HYNA-SAMA!" yelled a group of girls excitedly.
Bella looked over her shoulder and frowned.
"Hey, how comes I don't have any guy fans?!" she lamented only to get looks from the others. "Never mind, don't answer that."
Suddenly out of no-where the group spotted another Fan Mob coming at them from the other direction causing Kurotsubasa to come to a screeching halt.
"Great! Now what nya?!" asked Ravena whipping her head back and forth.
"GUYS! Scatter!" commanded Shadow. The Guild did not need to be told twice as they broke off into different groups.
DB immediately darted down an alleyway with Amaya grabbing onto his head while Shadow and Bella ducked into the nearest mall.
Illu quickly transformed with Mukurowl, while at the same-time Ravena grew out her wings as the two girls took to the skies.
Just as Punnya was about to follow behind them she felt someone grab her tail.
"WAIT! TAKE ME WITH YOU!" cried out Key in fear considering the time he was kidnapped by TPB and Rina.
"PUNNYA!" mewed Punnya as she immediately transformed into her Nekomata form, grabbed Key by the collar of his coat and hoisted him into the sky, tossing him on her back in the process.
Key grabbed on tight as Punnya flapped her wings hard and flew off in another direction.
(Play K2G by PuffyAmiYumi)
Background music began playing in the air as the chase of the Kurotsubasa gang began underway.
(Key and Punnya)
Nagare nagare te kita mon da
Key and Punnya quickly took a turn around a tall building….
Kita kara nishi e kake nuke te kite
Tadori tsuita koko wa ittai doko
Only to suddenly appear again zooming in the opposite direction as a hoard of fangirls who had flying powers or flying items like magic brooms, clay birds, skyboards and the like came after them.
(DB and Amaya)
Karada wa yake ni karu kunaru
DB's fangirls stood in the middle of a street as they panned about for their target. Unbeknownst to them, DB and Amaya poked their heads out from around a corner and to see the fangirls had their backs to them. Carefully, DB tiptoed out slowly.
Too kude minna tema neki shiteru….
Hata mata koko wa tengoku ka chi no hate ka
Suddenly the fangirls turned their heads and noticed him, causing DB to freak out as he dashed off in the opposite direction while Amaya wrapped her ears around his forehead and clung on for dear life.
(Ravena and Illu)
So kawaii hito yo kocchi e kite o kure
Back in the sky, Ravena and Illu flew as fast as they could away from their flying fanboys who were catching up them as they quickly flew into the clouds for cover. Their mob quickly followed suit after them.
The two girls and the fanboys occasionally poked their out of the clouds at random like gophers trying to catch sight of either party. Suddenly all the fan-boys poked their heads up at the same time and looked at each other when they heard a whistle calling to them.
Maa boku no hanashi o kikanai ka
The group turned their heads to see Illu and Ravena in front of a large cloud smiling and beckoning to them , the boys eagerly flew at them…only to phase through the girls causing them to smack face first into the hard surface of a force-field. The illusion instantly disappeared as the real girls high fived each other before taking off.
(Bella and Shadow)
Mata kawaii hito ga waraatte kureru nara
Saa itte miyo oka yume no kuni
Back in the mall, it seems no matter where Shadow and Bella hid, their fans always happened to find them.
As the two turned a corner, the fangirls followed suit, running past a mannequin display, not noticing that the two very people they were chasing were posing among them.
Suddenly Bella sneezed, alerting the fangirls as they about faced and pursued them once more. Shadow quickly grabbed Bella, and dashed into the furniture department where they quickly dove into a closet.
"How do they keep finding us?!" Hissed Bella in a loud whisper.
Shadow gave her a look. "Gee I don't know, we might be able to hide properly if you'd just Kill the Damn Chase Music!" he growled.
"Ooh!" Bella's eyes widened in realization as she then pulled out a pocket radio from her satchel.
Sakura mai chi- Click!Went the radio as Bella quickly pressed the stop button, effectively shutting off the music.
"Sorry….I thought the moment needed something!"
Shadow rolled his eyes in exasperation when the two suddenly tensed up when they sensed the fangirls were nearby.
The two quickly held their breath and covered each other's mouths and stayed very still as they waited for the impending danger to pass.
(Scene Change)
"Well we managed to avoid that disaster somehow." Shadow said, mostly to himself, as he was now walking out the mall with his hood up so that no one would instantly recognize him in the streets.
"Seriously, why wasn't there a single guy calling my name in the crowd? I don't mind but I would have appreciated it." Bella thought out loud as she walked. Her disguise happened to be a large green overcoat and a fedora to match. The girl got many suspicious looks but so far no one seemed to pay too much attention to her.
"Maybe you just scared them all away, or maybe there were some in the crowd." Shadow said. "We can find that out later but right now we need to group back up with the others."
"Group up where, first we need to find a…" Bella then stopped as she noticed something ahead and walked away just as Shadow opened his menu to send a message to try and find the others. After a minute of waiting, and inwardly praying, he got several responses.
'Me and Amaya managed to shake them off, right now we're ducked around a market. You owe me 100 munny for the carrots I had to buy her Shads.' DB's reply read.
'I'm right now in the park with Punnya, no sign of the mob.' Key called in.
'Illu-tan and I lost the guys at a billboard, right now we're hiding ourselves inside the cosplay crowd…did you know they had cosplay of some of the guilds? They even had all of us!' Ravena sent.
'That explains where they got some of their looks.' Shadow thought as he recalled some of the fans wearing things like replicas of their clothes. 'Good news, we weren't robbed. Bad news…I won't go there.' Shadow then began to type out his response to send to them.
'Bella and I lost them and are looking for a spot to rendezvous. No luck so…' Before he could finish he was then grabbed by his arm by Bella.
"Hey Shads, I found a place that we could stay at!" Bella said as she presented the building to him. Outwardly it was a normal building, a town story building that was a soft pink color and looked very spacious. The problem came with a few of the signs placed on the building…
"Bella that hotel is…"
"I know, really cheap isn't it?! One whole night just 2000 munny is a steal." Bella said proudly cutting him off.
"Sometimes I question your sanity Bella." Shadow said as he held back and turned away from the building. "We're not staying there, come on we can find better places to stay for the day." Shadow then turned and walked away from the building while finishing his message.
"Wait, what's wrong with this place?!"
"Read all the signs and you'll know why!"
Bella blinked a few times and checked the building again. She didn't see anything wrong until she got close and read all the small print on the signs and posters hanging around it. "L-O-V-E, H-O….Oh….OH! So that's what he meant." Bella said softly before realizing she was falling behind and caught up to Shadow. "We can forget about that place."
"Yeah let's" Shadow said as they both then got a message from Illu.
"It's from Owlgirl; you think they might have found a place?" Bella said.
"After the running we did, I'm just about ready to leave this crazy town and camp for the night." Shadow grumbled as he then opened the message to read.
'Everyone, Ravena-chan and I found an Inn we could stay at that's a bit outside of the main city. It's a historic style Inn that you can find outside of the stores. We can all meet there, at the Serene Garden Inn.'
"Looks like they came through, let's go it would be faster if we just flew there." Shadow said as he began to hover and then float off to the eastern part of the city.
"Hey wait for me!" Bella said as she transformed into Jetray, leaving her coat and hat behind as she traveled after the guild leader.
(Time skip)
"I take back what I said guys, I rather have people talking about us then have them actually chase us." DB said as all of Kurotsubasa were gathered at the Inn. The Guild was able to get a room big enough for all of them and was now resting after their near brush with death. "I mean, seriously, where did they all come from?"
"People from the forums, I was just looking around and I found this on the boards." Key said as he pulled out his small terminal. All of them then came in close and looked at the title of the forum page.
"Kurotsubasa…fan…club?" Illu said.
"From the pictures they must have been following since the Eclipse Tournament nya, or maybe sometime before." Ravena said as she continued to look around. "Hey, what is under the thing that says art?"
"I rather not find out." Key said as he put the terminal away. "That chase alone is going to give me nightmares; I don't need to see anymore images with the event tomorrow." The Beta said as he slumped in his chair.
"Speaking of which, we found a place to crash for the night. Why not go out to the All-Stars base and check the place out?" Bella asked as she was now fully laid out on the nearest couch. "We came this early to check out the competition right, why not journey to their own turf?"
"That reminds me, how much territory do the All-Stars own?" Illu asked.
"Not much; it's really just all around their stadium, though they've become something like icons to this place that they have high influence all over the town. Most of the guilds here just run small businesses to attract and entertain crowds." Shadow answered. "The All-Stars just happen to be the most famous one of them all, which is why they were able to turn our Guild War into a spectacle and spread the word fast that we were coming." Shadow then stood up from his seat and stretched his limbs.
"Well it would be a good time to check the place out now." With that said he allowed Amaya to hop back on his shoulder.
"We're going right now?! We just finally found safe haven and you're throwing us back out there?" DB asked. "Are you mad?!"
"How about this, I'm going to check their stadium out. You guys can do whatever you want, rest here, go have a snack, visit some shops, but I'll at least check out the stadium." Shadow said.
"I rather check the place out, there's always time to see the sights later." Illu said.
"Count me out, I want to rest here and catch my breath." DB said.
"I think I'll stay here too, I'll check out the stadium on my own later." Key said. "Besides, I think Punnya's all out of gas…."
"Pun…" sighed Punnya in agreement lying almost deflated in DB's arms.
"Well I got a new town to discover and new pranks to try. I'll see you guys later." Bella said as she left the room.
"As much as I want to go and try and stop Hy-Nya, I think I'll just go with you guys and see the arena first before going after her." Ravena said. "Hopefully Hy-Nya doesn't get into too much trouble."
"Just as long as she doesn't level the place." Stated Shadow as he reached for the door when Ravena quickly put a hand on his and Illu's shoulder.
"Hold on, I think we should disguise ourselves if we want to avoid any more fiasco-nya," suggested Ravena.
"Ok, what do you have in mind?" asked Shadow quirking an eyebrow earning himself a grin from the cat-girl.
"A new spell I just learnt…." Replied Ravena as her eyes began to glow and her hands began to cover with magical energy.
"Beau Glamoras~!" called out Ravena as her magic flew from her hands and enveloped the trio briefly before disappearing revealing them to have new appearances.
"Wow!" exclaimed Illu in awe as she looked in the mirror to see her hair had turned white while the colors on her jacket were reversed and her eyes became blue.
"Nice…" said Shadow when saw that a pair of sunglasses had appeared covered his eyes while his hair had become long and in a pony-tail. His hoodie remained the same but the emblem on his shirt was gone while his BlazBlue appeared like an ordinary arm.
Ravena's cat features had disappeared making her look like an ordinary girl while her jacket had disappeared while her hair became straight. "Glamour Spell, it's only an illusion but it will keep others from recognizing us."
"Good job, Rave, let's go," said Shadow as the trio made their leave.
After those words; Kurotsubasa separated again, this time with more in mind than avoiding hostile fans.
(Scene Change)
"So this is the Battle Coliseum….Sugoi ne…." commented Illu as she looked up at gigantic size of the place.
The stage followed the theme of the guild perfectly as it was a large open air arena with plenty of seats in the rafters for fans and many banner portraying various sports. The biggest banner was right above one of the openings on the field, a large red banner with a large white star and many smaller stars circling around it. It was the emblem of the 'home team'…the All-Stars. "Tou-san and Chocobo never took me places like these and I've seen them on TV, but being inside of one is a completely different feel. Even in FFW."
"Sports stadiums tend to do that, an extra way to pep up the fans by bringing them front row seats to the action." Shadow said as he began to examine the banners. "It pays well, since it probably helps pay for the place. Whether they live here or not."
"I guess that's where they're going to hang our banner huh?" Ravena said as she saw the large blank white banner on the opposite entrance of the stadium. "To think this place is going to be full of people, cheering fans from all over nya." The neko said in wonder.
"And all of them rooting for the home team." Shadow said as he continued his observations.
"I'm sure they'll be people cheering for us too." Illu said optimistically. The tide of fans that they had avoided also showed that they were known and liked by some people in the community. "Chocobo and the rest of Aetherion may be able to come if they haven't had a challenge yet, maybe Rose-san and Grim-san. Naenia-san would possibly be there to support DB."
"Who knows, days get busy and I'm not expecting much from the visitors side other than seats for other home fans to take." Shadow said. "There are banners for soccer, volleyball, baseball, and what looks like gymnastics and martial arts."
"Didn't Striker use soccer-balls against you during the last battle, maybe this must be their banners if the different colors mean anything." Ravena thought as she too took a second to look at the banners along with Illu.
"It must be their way of individualizing each member, Aetherion does the same thing but with our Guild's symbol. Each element represented each member, including me since one of the kanji reads off poison." Illu said.
"Hey how comes we don't have something like that for Kurotsubasa nya?"
"Our symbol stays how it is, though I've been meaning to update the shop but too many distractions keep popping up." Shadow answered.
"Now what's a bunch o' stragglers doin' way up in the stands? Don't you know that the stadium is closed for the day?!"
They all then looked down to see Pitch, Prima-Diva, Yuki-Chi, and Valley-Belle as they were all standing down in the center of the arena's floor. Pitch was the one who addressed them as he stood with one hand gripping the large bat.
"I know it must be hard to part with us, but the rules are clear. We need to have the place cleared and ready for the competition tomorrow. I know it must be a tragédie to be away from mon cuteness, but you'll be sure to see plenty 'till then." Prima-Diva said, causing the other two to have sweat drop behind them.
'Or maybe they are from another guild, hoping to leave their emblem here.' Valley-Belle rationally suggested with her sign as while Prima's idea was too extreme, she was right about the stadium being closed.
Shadow then held his hands up in mock surrender. "Ok, you caught us, we're new to town and we found a door that was open and just worked our way in." He said, trying to hide his sarcasm.
"We didn't see any signs, so we thought we have a look around." Ravena added with a fake smile.
Illu then gave a small bow. "We're sorry for intruding, now that we know we'll just leave out the way we came."
"I don't believe so."
The three All-Stars were surprised as Akisame then appeared out of thin air and in front of them staring at the intruding guests. There was a small smile on the bishounen's face, although the veins along his eyes and the milk white of the Byakugan's pupils threw off the cheerful look.
"I didn't think any of you would arrive soon, but after hearing the commotion through town I guess the rumors are true. You can all drop your disguises now." Akisame said as he deactivated his Byakugan. "You can put the bat away Pitch, we have to show Kurotsubasa some of our hospitality."
"Kurotsubasa?!" The three said as they looked back up.
Shadow then placed his hands down and then sat in one of the empty seats. "Looks like you caught us, but I didn't really expect to see any of you here. I may be right about you guys living here." Shadow then turned to Ravena. "You can drop the disguises now Rave."
"Roger," Ravena then snapped her fingers and instantly their image faded back to what they originally were, startling the All-Stars even more that the visitors were their opponents. Amaya then emerged from her hiding spot and went to her owner.
"Half of the team, and the leader to boot. What are ya'll doing up there anyway, trying to cheat a win out of us?" Pitch accused as he pointed his bat to them.
"We would never do that, we only came to see the stadium since we never been to Animetropolis before." Illu explained as to try and quell any flames before they could start.
"New to time, I see, that explains why you never heard of us nor were any of your men even captivated by my beauty. No way could anyone resist being mesmerized by me when they have only seen me once." Prima-Diva began her rant, causing a groan from the other members.
"Actually the others have girls in their lives and I just flat out not care." Shadow said popping her bubble. "In fact, in a cuteness contest I'd vote for Illu and Ravena anytime." He nonchalantly said, not noticing Ravena's tails puff up and Illu's face flare up or Prima visibly stiffen.
"U-Pyon!" Amaya also agreed as she bounced on his head and sticking her tongue out at her, loving the two more than she did the owner of the white Usa-Manju.
"No need for flatter Shads, though I think you might have broken Illu-tan." Ravena said pointing out the beet red girl.
"Ravena-chan!" Illu said in embarrassment while her face almost made a cherry envious of the shades of red she produced.
"QUOI?! I am so much cuter than those two. I bet that mangy feline only looks that way because she still has another spell cast on her!" Prima said in frustration.
"NYANI?! First Off, I don't need magic to beat you at Cuteness and Secondly, who cares about your stupid Cutie Pie title?!" Ravena retorted.
The two girls seemed to glare at each other as the others watched, some of them out of fear of getting involved. In the end, Akisame placed a hand in front of Prima startling her while Illu rested her hand on Ravena's shoulder getting her attention.
"Save animosity like that for tomorrow Prima. You'll have plenty of opportunity to present your title for the people tomorrow." Akisame said using a stern look to stop her from speaking again before turning back to Kurotsubasa. "You've gotten a good look at the stadium I hope; hopefully you didn't mind our idea for the challenge."
"You could have at least sent word ahead that our battle was going to become an event for the people here. That peer pressure crap only worked because of the large crowd, why didn't you try flying a large blimp over town for the challenge?" Shadow asked, not hiding his sarcasm this time.
"Well that was Striker's plan, but thank god they turned his idea down." Akisame said. "However the details are, you've arrived and the match is going off none the less. This stadium we've agreed to have as our challenge site, this will be a public match with Roller Jam as the challenge. Are these conditions acceptable" He formally asked them.
"Usually that's something that the Guild Leader proposes, I thought Striker was the leader?" Illu said as she now lost her full blush.
"That is true, but Striker is away dealing with some final paperwork for the Guild War. So in events like this I'm the next in charge." Akisame explained. In a blur, Shadow vanished from his seat and appeared in front of the All-Stars.
"Yeah those conditions are fine…we'll see you guys here tomorrow." Shadow said as he then looked back to Ravena and Illu. "Come on let's go, we've done what we came for."
Ravena and Illu looked a bit confused but nodded their heads as they made their way down to the field to join him as they all the left out one of the halls leading to the exit. Once Kurotsubasa was gone that left the All-Stars with themselves to speak too.
"What do you think that means, you think that someone like Kurotsubasa only came here just to see the sights? This wouldn't be the first time another Guild has tried to lay a trap for us in these competitions." Pitch said.
'They didn't seem to be lying and those disguises might have been for themselves rather than us.' Valley-Belle wrote on her sign. 'What do you think?' She turned to the other two.
"I think I'm going to enjoy facing that cat in the Roller Jam tomorrow. That will show them who the Number #1 Cutie-Pie in FFW is." Prima said, lost in her own world.
"Ignoring that; I think that was all they came for, well the girls I mean." Akisame said getting their attention. "I think Shadow came here to do just a little more. He wanted to make this match truly an official Guild War battle for both sides."
"By getting the conditions from us" Prima asked.
"No, something more…obvious." Akisame said as he looked up. The others followed his gaze and their eyes widened on the change to a part of their stadium. Placed firmly on top the large white star on their banner was the emblem of Kurotsubasa.
(Scene Change)
"Well, we were able to see the stadium, if we just have to do a run around it that would be fine." Illu said as they made their way out, in new disguises thanks to Ravena's new spell.
"Nah that would be too easy." Shadow said. "Illu, how many Guild War challenges did Aeon actually let you participate in?"
"None…Chocobo was really protective. All I pretty much served as was medic for the Guild; he wouldn't even allow me to fight in the competition even though I'm technically a member. Most of those challenges were fights so I rarely seen ones like a Roller Jam." Illu answered.
"Yeah, most of the Guild Wars they even archive on the site were just full Guild on Guild battles. Not many really play the creative challenge route." Ravena said.
"Well, all that can be said is we're in for a surprise tomorrow when we get the real rules." Shadow said leaving them confused, he then noticed that they were walking around the area of shops featuring cosplay. "Isn't this place where you guys hid from the crowd, how'd you guys hide?"
"We did what anyone else would do and just fit in, the Glamour spell worked out well with the costumes we hid in." Ravena answered.
"Really, what costumes did you pick out?" He asked.
"Well…"
"L-let's not get into details Ravena-chan; we used what we needed to shake the crowd. That's all that matters." Illu cut her friend off.
"Nya, why not, I think you made a great Noelle!" Ravena said with a smile, only to take off as the beet red Illu chased after her. The girls chased after each other, leaving a confused Shadow.
"Noelle…Noelle, oh!" Shadow thought aloud as he got the reference, though the realized look was quickly replaced with a small blush. Sensing the change, Amaya looked down to see if something was wrong only for Shadow to dismiss the blush and rub the small bunny's ears. "Good thing those two were in disguise, no need to give their fans more of a reason to stalk them." Shadow thought aloud as he buried the images of the cosplay from his head and followed the girls.
(Time Skip)
"So you guys were able to get a look around?" Key asked as now everyone was gathered back in the living room.
"Yeah we did and we got a conformation from them about the game and everything. All that we need to do now is just show up." Shadow answered. "I don't think you'll be able to scope the place out now though."
"I won't need to, the stadium seems ordinary enough so I just decided to just research on the guild members instead." Key said. "Things like their powers, abilities, things like that. Just because it's a race on skates doesn't mean none of us can use our powers."
"Key's been slaving on his terminal trying to find answers, I've helped by going out and see if I could dig up some dirt myself. The people here have a lot to say about the All-Stars." DB also added.
"What did you get?" Bella asked from her spot. After her latest prank, which mostly involved a large paint bomb to go in the city's park, the toon girl decided to lay low in the Inn since she didn't have her usual hiding spots like she did in Tokyo City.
"When we pulled together all we had, several things, the one we all probably guessed, that their abilities are based around different sports." Key said.
"One way or another" Illu nodded with the others.
"But they have abilities that help that don't directly tie into their sport." Key then began to explain. "Such as Striker represents soccer but he uses things like super speed and wind/lightning based magic of some sort. Pitch has the ability to become a Pyronite, and other things like that. Like anything we shouldn't judge them by appearance."
"Speaking of which, Shads what did you mean by real rules nya?" Ravena asked.
"Just wait until tomorrow, we know it's a race but we don't know restrictions, what's the goal, etc." Shadow said. "We'll find that all out tomorrow, in the meantime let's all get some sleep." With that everyone separated into the two bedrooms for the males and females.
(The next day)
When day came to Animetropolis all the resident players instantly signed on to try and be the first to get seats in the large Sports Stadium. As people found seats and bought various things to enjoy the battle the Guild Wars soon got underway with everything set up in the arena.
Big screens had materialized above the stadium for everyone to see.
"Hey yo everyone! Welcome to the Sports Coliseum in the wonderful city of Animetropolis! This city is big, crazy big! It give plenty of options for how to enjoy your time, only now all you got to be thinking about if the Guild War taking place right now! That's right it's your favorite host, DJ Plugman, hired just to commentate on this fight! So let's get things underway-"
"Not so fast!" Masukomi said as she appeared on the large screen as well bumping Plugman out of the shot. "Don't think you can get away with not introducing me when I'm in the middle of a scoop!" She replied as she adjusted her glasses for emphasis. "HEY EVERYONE~! IT'S YOUR FAVORITE REPORTER MASUKOMI HERE~! And CAM~!"
"Puu~~~~!" CAM appeared as it hovered next to Masukomi.
"That's right CAM~! Time to call in the players for this battle!"
"PU~PUUU~!"
Plugman re-appeared on screen as he dusted himself off before regaining himself. "ALRIGHT YO! Let's call in the Home Team! Taking Risks, And Facing Forward; Give it up for the ALL STAAAAAARS!"
Fireworks exploded everywhere as the crowd began cheering like crazy.
A blast could be heard, turning everyone's attention to the sky.
"Here comes the first member! The Player known for her Divine Hand; VALLEY-BELL!"
A pinkish purple streak could be seen streaking through the sky as a figure came flying downwards spelling her name out in the process as Valley-Bell landed in the middle of the arena and bowed.
Suddenly Flames erupted around the field as a Pyronite shot up in a pillar of fire.
"Turning up the heat, we have the major Baseball Ace, holler out for the 'Fiery Slugger' PITCH!"
No sooner the introduction came out, the alien landed next to Val and transformed back into Pitch who grabbed his bat and formed a fireball in his other hand which he tossed up and socked it hard, sending it rocketing into the air which exploded, spelling his name in the sky.
The crowd screamed in awe when a rumble could be felt that shook the whole stadium.
Boulders began flying into the sky in an elaborate formation as a girl was spotted flipping from one to another with amazing skill and agility while manipulating a white ball around her limbs.
"Ladies, hang on to your Men, And Men to your Hearts! She calls herself 'FFW's No.1 Cutie Pie'! PRIIIIIMAAAA-DIVAAAAA~!"
Prima took a graceful leap off a boulder with the white ball as she did a double flip somersault before landing daintily on her two feet. The ball came spinning towards her as Prima stuck out a hand and let the ball roll down her arm, manipulating it so that it rolled around her neck and down her torso before hip-bumping the ball into the air as it landed on her shoulder and sprung a pair of ears as the ball was revealed to be Yuki-Chi.
Prima and the Manju smiled as the bunny girl caused the boulders in the sky to explode in a shimmering formation of her name as she tossed her hair and struck a pose with Yuki-Chi.
"Prima-CHWAAAAAAAN~!" cried out her fans in the audience.
Prima and Yuki smiled as they blew kisses to the crowd. Suddenly, the lights in the stadium began to dim down as glowing balls of energy materialized and floated about the arena. Loud echoes of oohs and aahs can be heard from the crowd as the energy came spiraling down towards the center of the arena as they began swirling faster and faster into a sphere.
"Up next is a Martial Artist re-known for his deadly skills and his healing abilities. He is the 'Healing Hand' AKISAME!"
Suddenly there was a flash and a slicing sound was heard as the sphere broke apart to reveal Akisame as his name formed above him illuminating the stadium.
The crowd grew louder at the spectacular display when suddenly thunder clapped followed by flashes of lightning.
"Oh Yeah! Appearing like a storm, with deadly kicking force, Let's make some noise for the 'Devil's Foot' STRIIIIIIIKEEEEERRRRR!"
Screams of excitement escalated as seven colored streaks on which a close up on the screens revealed to be flying penguins came speeding out from the clouds while Striker was shown to be surfing down on them. The penguins did a nose-dive as towards the ground prompting Striker down jump off before directing the penguins to shoot back into the sky and write out Striker's name before disappearing.
"Everybody! The All Stars!" announced DJ Plugman enthusiastically as colored smoke exploded around the arena.
"Well they know how to make an entrance." DB said as Kurotsubasa watched the All-Stars' display as they arrived on the field. "If we're going to try an appearance how are we going to top that?" The vampire asked looking to the others.
"It's just something they do to appease the people in the stand; I don't think we need to worry about an entrance." Key said as he continued watching the footage from the stadium. "Then again, if we just walk it after that…it would be a massive blow to our guild's pride."
"Entrances don't make the guild, but it does establish them visually." Illu said. "More so for Guilds people don't know about."
"And that would be us." Shadow said.
"Well we defiantly need to blow these guys out of the water! Now just have to come up with a plan fast." Bella said as she sorted through her Omnitrix as she tried to come up with a plan for their entrance.
"I don't think we'll have much time nya, any thoughts everyone?" Ravena asked.
"Well I do have an idea; it requires us to all work together and some valuable time to plan." Shadow said as he looked to Bella. "First thing we need is time, Bella do you have something that can freeze time outside of this room?"
"I think I got something like that." Bella said as she then transformed into a large bulky mechanical creature. A flash of green light and they heard all sound stop except for the gears moving in the alien's body. "Will this buy us enough time?" Clockwork asked as he made sure all time was frozen around them.
"Yeah this is just fine Bella." Shadow said as he wanted everyone to gather close into a huddle as he began to discuss his plan. "We all have to be in perfect sync for this to work. Rave, can your magic work with all the elements?"
"Of course nya, though darkness works the best I can handle using any of the elements." Ravena said confidently.
"That's all I need to hear, darkness will work fine. Bella, you can pick any alien you want it just hast to not be too destructive to everyone in the building."
"Come on, have some faith in me. Tell you what; I'll stick with a classic."
"Ok then." Shadow then turned to Illu. "Do you have any illusions that can affect cameras Illu?"
"My illusions should work out fine, and I'm sure it will be able to affect everyone in the stands and the cameras." Illu said.
"I can definitely add the sparks to the entrance; I'm sure from the reaction the crowd likes fire." DB chimed in.
Shadow nodded and turned to Key. "Your keyblades will play a part as well as your twilight element. Are you good at separating them Key?"
"Do you even have to ask?" Key said. "So what do you have in mind Shads?"
Shadow then smirked. "Well they did have their big display but they did it just by having it all by themselves. We're going to make a big team entrance that will show them who Kurotsubasa is. Now first, Bella, do you mind if I borrow the Book of the Moon?"
(Scene Change)
"Well everyone that was a spectacular opening from the All-Stars. Really you can't expect anything less from the hometown heroes." Masukomi said as the cheering for the All-Stars died down. "However; we still have another guild to introduce."
"That's right, now it's time for the challengers! If you've never heard of them then you better crawl out that rock you live under; they're the ones steadily making a name for themselves all around FFW. Let's give a welcome to our dark horse guild…KUROTSUBASAAAAAAAAAAA!"
After Plugman's announcement everyone turned their heads to the other entrance where Kurotsubasa's banner hung expecting them to walk out to the field as the opposing teams often do. Hardly any other guilds prepare entrances, they usually didn't have time or knowledge to plan ahead and none of them could live up to the All-Stars entrance every time. What they got out of the dark, shadowy entrance were two large peering red eyes startling them.
The whole stadium then darkened as they all noticed the sky. The day was gone and was replaced with a night sky with a large crescent moon. The eyes then vanished and a mass of darkness came pouring from the entrance and to the sky forming a large black bird that flapped its wings wide causing gusts of wind to flow all over the arena.
"What the hell is going on?! Day suddenly changed to night and not this huge black bird suddenly took over the sky!" Plugman then examined it closely. "Wait that bird can't be…"
"It is...it's forming what seems to be Kurotsubasa's emblem! Could they possibly be involved with this?" Masukomi asked as CAM took the footage.
The bird then screeched as a portion of its shadow rose and formed a twin-tailed cat. The Nekomata roared causing the whole stadium to shake as an illusion showing Ravena and Punnya in action played as the two magically stepped out of the picture, gracefully taking a stand with Ravena's name spelling out above her before fading back into the bird. Punnya circled around Ravena as she pulled out her whips and snapped them a few times before smiling as Punnya landed on her shoulder.
The bird began to sing mystically as it continued to hold its wings wide as multiple feathers began to fall. A new image of Illu and Mukurowl in action began to play as Illu's name formed while the black feathers slowly faded to lavender as they began coming together to form Illu who spun her glaive around her torso as Mukurowl flew around her before landing on her shoulder as wind bellowed fiercely about her.
A keyhole soon appeared from the bird's chest and out of it two balls of light and darkness spiraled out and formed two blades.
Key was illusion sequence played out as well as said Beta appeared in the center of the spiral and grabbed his keyblades, showing off a bit of swordplay while letting the swirl fade out.
The bird then lowered its beak and allowed a torrent of fire to be released and as images of DB fighting could be seen appearing from the fire, from which the flamed DB stood and with a snap of his fingers the flames gathered around him and vanished as he twirled his guns and fired a few times into the sky.
The bird now landed and curled its wings gathered what seemed like green sparks of energy that began showing flashes of Bella shape-shifting while her name appeared. It released the ball from its wings that released currents of energy; from out of it Feedback sparked and stood proudly before changing into Bella who flourished out her arms with a big smile.
Finally, the bird let out a final cry as it flew back towards the moon. It held its black wings, creating the symbol once more, before it began to shrink. The moon also phased out and became full as the smaller darkness landed on the ground. An action sequence of Shadow played as the curtains of darkness faded showing Shadow and Amaya with a blue book in hand.
"Sorry for the wait, we wanted to make this perfect." Shadow then closed the book and the moon and night were soon replaced once again by the bright daytime as the Guild members took their places by Shadow as a close up of each member began showing up on the screens.
"To everybody here in this stadium…" Shadow began to announce as his scythe materialized as he began expertly spinning it about.
"We Are the Black Wing Guild: KUROTSUBASA!" announced the entire Guild in tandem as they all pulled their fighting stances with their weapons ending it with an explosion which formed their symbol in the sky.
That spectacular display left the stadium and even Plugman and Masukomi briefly speechless before suddenly exploding into deafening applause for the Guild.
"WHOO-HOO! AN AMAZING ENTRANCE KUROTSUBASA!" cheered Masukomi bouncing up and down while clapping excitedly.
"HEY YO! COOL MAN! I HAVEN'T SEEN SOMEONE MATCH UP THE ALL-STARS IN ALL THE YEARS I'VE BEEN IN THIS JOB!" cheered Plugman as he and Masukomi high fived each other.
Meanwhile the All-Stars stared open mouthed while Pitch absent-mindedly dropped his bat while Val held up a sign that simply said 'Wow…'
Striker was the only one who was laughing in enjoyment as he applauded enthusiastically. "Haha! Incríveis!I like this Guild!" laughed Striker earning him a punch in the arm.
"Taisez-vous Striker! Don't cheer for the enemy!" snapped Prima whose nose began twitching.
"Aww~ you're little nose twitches so cutely when your angry~!" cooed Striker bending to Prima's height and petting the shorter girl on the head who growled audibly.
WHAM! "AIEK!" cried Striker in pain as he hopped around the group holding a throbbing red foot while Prima tossed her hair as the others sighed and shook their heads.
(Scene Change)
A few minutes later it was finally down to the main point of the event as Kurotsubasa and the All-Stars stood facing each other as Masukomi materialized down to the field with CAM floating around her.
"Well you both certainly put on a show for us, but let's get to the reason why we're all here." Masukomi said. "All the conditions have been properly set, but for the crowd we shall have Striker explain the rules of the challenge."
"Gladly" Striker said as he and Shadow walked forward. "Well I guess we start by making this official." He then reached into the pockets of his shorts and pulled out a small silver pin shaped to look like the All-Star's symbol. "We're not playing for munny or territory; we're putting our emblems on the line."
"Gutsy choice, but what's the point of actually challenging us?" Shadow asked as he then pulled his own guild's emblem out as it was pinned to the inside of his jacket. "Really there are other people who need less reason to call us out, so why'd you do it?"
"I told you before; the fight during the Kick-Off was one of the best I ever had. However; the fact that it was so short and we couldn't fight to the best of our abilities left a bad taste. Plus the fact that not all of our guild got to participate." Striker began explaining. "You were right when you said other people need less reason, but I need to make sure you would accept our challenge."
"Hence the upfront confrontation." Shadow guessed.
"That and this, I needed the best way to get you fighting at one-hundred, and this was the best way." Striker said. "From all the things people say about you, the higher the stakes the more serious you are."
"Well this is a serious challenge you just put up. If we end up losing you could choose to disband us." Shadow said to a few surprises.
"Nya, disband?!" Ravena asked.
Illu nodded her head. "That's why betting emblems are the highest stakes a guild could make. Not only does the losing guild give up munny and some territory, they also have to follow one order from the winning guild."
"And the most common one would be to disband that guild permanently." Key said.
"That's right, course that would be too harsh for this competition." Striker chuckled. "Let's say this, if we win our request would be…"
"Let me cut you off right there…because I don't even see us losing." Shadow said, cutting Striker off.
"My, you seem to be very arrogant, thinking your guild has a chance of winning." Prima said.
"Right back at'cha, name the game." Shadow said.
Striker wasn't even shocked or surprised but he just kept a grin as he acknowledged Shadow's words. "Gladly, the game is Roller Jam. On skates, we all race our way through Animetropolis to get to the emblems." As he spoke both emblems floated up and close to each other forming a ball of light around them. "First person on any side to grab it wins."
"Sounds simple enough, we accept." Shadow said straight and to the point. "Not like we can back down now after all the work we did on that opening."
"I just hope you guys didn't wear yourselves out." With that both leaders walked back to their guilds. "Ok, we're ready to start!"
"All right you heard the man! For those of you still star struck, here's the name of the game…a Roller Jam Race throughout the Anime-skyscape. First person to grab both emblems win, this might not be a battle but don't expect this just to be a simple race." Plugman said.
"That's right, especially with the return of a fan favorite! Ladies and Gentleman let me be the first to announce that the GW phase system is now back in FFW!" Masukomi said causing several cheers and roars from the stands.
"GW phase, that's something I've never heard." DB said.
"Just stand tight and watch, the phases were what really made these Guild Wars fun. I'm glad their back." Shadow said. "Now all I'm to tell you is stay calm and don't lose your cool."
"Why's that?" Bella asked.
"You're going to find out, ready to start?" Shadow asked Striker.
"That's my line, let's do this thing." The soccer player said back with a grin.
"There we go folks, now it's time to start this battle up! All-Stars vs. Kurotsubasa; 3…!"
"2!"
"1!"
"Guild War, Let's Go!"
After the two leaders called out to the other they all began to feel the rumbling of the ground. A bright light soon enveloped everything before they all soon felt themselves shoot up into the air as the floor raised high into the sky. As the guilds looked out they can also see several other skyscrapers in the city rise up along with them, making what almost seemed like platforms.
"Nani, nothing like this ever happens when Aetherion begins a battle." Illu said as the platforms still rises into the skies.
"Because two years ago they took it out when the guilds became too numerous and it began to slow the game's progress down. I'm getting more excited now that I get to feel all this again." Shadow said as they all felt the floor come to a halt. Soon Kurotsubasa's outfits then glowed before they changed into something new.
For the boys, their outfits became sleeveless blue shirts with Kurotsubasa's symbol on the front, black pants and skates. They had padding on their elbows and shoulder while a helmet rested on their heads.
"This part was something I'm not always fond of." Shadow said as he felt his helmet move as Amaya popped out his head wearing her own smaller version of the helmet. "Feeling safe up there girl?"
"U-Pyon!"
"All right that's good." Shadow said as he saw DB and Key both take off their helmets.
"Kyaa!"
They all then turned their heads to why they heard the shriek from one of the females and got a clue why she screamed. The girl's roller jam outfit was of the same design but a more form-fitting dress with a more purplish hue than the guys.
Illu was blushing furiously as she wrapped her arms around herself in an unsuccessful attempt to cover up while Ravena on the other hand twirled around excitedly checking herself out.
"New outfits? Loooooove it~! Nya~!" exclaimed Ravena excitedly as her popped out of her helmet.
"Punnya~!" mewed Punnya with the same enthusiasm as she hovered next to Ravena with a matching helmet.
Mukurowl and Nyoka also appeared sporting similar helmets as they patted a still blushing Illu comfortingly.
Bella groaned as she looked at her outfit. "Seriously?! I don't do dresses!"
"I think you look kinda good nya."
"Shut up, Kitty…."
"Well I guess I can assume you guys are ready?" asked Striker adjusting his helmet.
Like Kurotsubasa, The All-Stars also wore their own uniforms. The guys wore red and white sports jackets with a white shirt inside a white version of the All-Stars symbol to left of the jacket along with long white pants with a red stripe running down either leg while the helmet was white and bore a red version of the All-Stars helmet.
The girls wore the same helmet and a long-sleeved sports shirt designed similarly but with a slightly magenta hue. Instead of long pants, Valley-Belle had mini shorts designed with a similar fashion to the boys but with a visible white belt. Prima on the other hand sported her magenta skirt over the mini-shorts. Naturally, all basic skating gear was in place except the All-Stars sported red and white ones.
"Chi-Pyon!" squeaked Yuki-chi as she hopped onto Prima's shoulder sporting the team helmet.
Soon they all noticed a light source from a distance and saw the prize miles away on top one of the taller skyscrapers. Before any of them could start they were greeted with an image of Masukomi before them.
"Not so fast, first we have to add two bonuses to this challenge." Masukomi said. "The first addition is no abilities that go outside of the skating, so no flying will be allowed for the remainder of the challenge. Also powers such as levitating and super speed will be limited to short bursts; have to make this long enough for the crowd to enjoy it."
"Fine, what's the next little addition?" Pitch asked getting impatient.
"The final would be the assignment of ride classes. Those would be Speed, Flight, and Power respectively; each one has their perks to get you around this large obstacle course. A class has been assigned to all of you base on your stats, be sure to check your skates to know what's what!"
Following her advice, everyone took a second to check out their skates and saw that some of them were different. Shadow, Key, Striker, and Valley-Belle all had a small blue gear representing speed, Ravena, Illu, and Prima all had yellow wings representing flight, and finally Bella, DB, Akisame, and Pitch all had red comets symbolizing power.
"It's up for you guys to find out what each one does, with all of that said." CAM then floated by her with its eyes glowing red. "On your mark…"
Everybody began finally adjusting their gear and bracing themselves.
"Get set…"
The Pets all got comfortable hanging on to their respective masters.
"GO!" announced Masukomi with CAM's eyes now shining green as the hologram vanished. Both guilds instantly raced off from the start point to the many skyscrapers below.
"Aaaand they're off with Kurotsubasa taking the lead!" began the play-by-play by Plugman.
"That's right Plugman! But will they stay that way for long?" added Masukomi.
(With Kurotsubasa)
"So what's the plan besides just heading straight for the goal, it can't be as easy as just going a straight line." DB said as Kurotsubasa stayed group together, a small distance ahead of the All-Stars. "I say instead of worrying about finishing we try and at least distract the All-Stars."
"Shouldn't we stay focused on the goal; we'll have to deal with them eventually." Key said.
"Yeah, eventually, which is why we have to watch out," warned Shadow. "All we know about them are their original powers and whatever Key was able to dig out."
"Don't forget, this is FFW we're talking about, nya! Who knows what this race might throw at us!"
Bella nodded in agreement. "Kitty's right. We have to expect everything!"
"Not to mention the possibility of them trying to knock us out of the race," pointed out Illu as she glanced over her shoulder with Mukurowl flying next to her.
At that moment she caught Striker's eye, who winked at her causing her to blush as the All-Stars all exchanged knowing and began to smile deviously.
"Let's show these Black Wings what the All-Stars are all about!" commanded Striker suddenly. "All-Stars, Move out!"
Suddenly as if a button was pressed, the entire Guild shot forward towards Kurotsubasa.
"See ya at finish line~!" said Striker as he, Akisame and Pitch easily weaved through the group.
"WHOO-HOO~!" whooped Prima as she and Val double-flipped over the group and landed perfectly skating backwards.
'Excuse Us!' Val's sign said as she turned and skated away while Prima and Yuki-Chi teasingly blew a kiss at them and sped off.
Punnya and Ravena growled audibly in annoyance. "That's it, she's going down…." Hissed Ravena while Punnya hissed in agreement.
"And the All-Stars have now taken the lead as they are approaching the Rider Lanes!" Plugman pointed out.
Sure enough, up ahead the track suddenly split into three separate winding tracks all marked with their specific Rider Class symbols.
Naturally, the All-Stars broke apart into their respective lanes, all well ahead of Kurotsubasa.
"Guys, we have to close the gap! We're losing ground!" exclaimed Bella as they were fast approaching the three lanes.
"Any ideas?" asked Key.
"Kurotsubasa!" called out Shadow catching their attention as their leader smirked. "Show em' what you got!"
"YEAH!" cheered the others as they split into their separate lanes.
(Flight Lane)
Even though Prima and Yuki-Chi were well ahead up the Lane, she was surprised to look over her shoulder and see Illu and Ravena catching up with her already.
"Not bad mon ami, I see you actually made it," said Prima with a mocking smirk.
Ravena narrowed her eyes before exchanging glances with Illu. The owl girl took one look at her friend and nodded as she quickly grabbed Ravena's hand. Ravena's eyes flashed a bit as the girl spun Illu around once before using her demon strength to fling the girl forward.
"You might as well give up if you are gonna challenge-"
WHOOSH! Illu and her pets then shot past the bunny-girl at an incredible speed.
"Me? What just happened?!" exclaimed Prima in shock.
"I gave her a head start nya! See if you can keep up!" said Ravena as she skated past Prima but not before she and Punnya both pulled an eyelid down and blew raspberries at Prima and Yuki before speeding off to catch up with Illu.
Prima's and Yuki's noses began twitching visibly in annoyance.
(Power Lane)
After the lanes divided; DB and Bella found themselves behind Pitch and Akisame as they all skated along the building's surface. While not far behind, the two All-Stars weren't leaving much room for the two to pass.
"They got us in a blockade; we can't even really get as much speed as the others." DB pointed out. The power skates couldn't reach the speeds the others were going for but compared to them, their skates were the most balanced as they made their runs and hops off buildings with better ease. "There has to be a way to get past them!"
"I would try something but most of them would involve either flying or breaking the course." Bella said as she tried to way her options. "I do have one plan though…"
"Does this involve destroying property in some way?" DB asked.
"Nope, it involves us pulling ahead! Follow my lead Dee!" Bella said as she quickly shifted through her selections and began her plan right as she was engulfed in the Omnitrix's light.
"What do you think they're up to Aki?" Pitch asked as he looked back for a bit, confident of their lead. "You think they have somethin' planned?"
"Even if they did, it would be wasting their time. We could have already found a course to the finish line and go there but our jobs is to be walls when necessary." Akisame said as he too looked back. "Those two are easily the ones to focus on for right now, let's keep them back here and out of the others hair."
"If you say soo-whoaaa!" Pitch stammered as he almost lost his balanced. "What the hell's happening with the ground?"
"The ground?" Akisame asked as it started getting harder to control his movements. His eyes then widened when he saw a layer of ice slowly spread across the building they were riding on. "They're trying to wipe us out!"
"How can they, they're way behind…"
The sound of flames interrupted Pitch as DB soared over them and landed beyond the ice before taking off. After that they saw Bella who was literally sliding on the ice as she waved at them before taking off after her teammate.
"Of course they do realize…this means war." Pitch said as his form was engulfed in flames as he assumed his Pyronite form. He then exhaled a row of fire that completely melted the ice. "Hey Aki, how about we show 'em a little heat of our own?"
"You do know we'll have to stop to make that combination work." Akisame reminded him.
"Hey even if we stop, it will put 'em dead in their tracks and out of the other's way right?" Pitch then caught site of something up ahead. "If we time this right, we can keep 'em out of the race long enough for the others to win." Pitch then stopped and waited as Akisame decelerated.
"Then we have no choice then, this really doesn't work will without Striker here but we can improvise." Akisame stopped and then shifted himself into a stance, soon the Byakugan became more pronounced as he focused his chakra. "Here we go!"
"Hakke Kusho!" With a strong thrust of Akisame's hand sent out a large blast of pressurized air that was aimed directly at their opponent's backs.
Pitch then inhaled deeply and this time added his flaming exhale to the wind creating a large funnel of flame spiraling towards Kurotsubasa.
Bella and DB were still going until just before their jump another skyscraper launched up and blocked their way up, before either of them could think of a way around it they then saw the reflection and turned around to see the blaze heading towards them. DB and Bella, after transforming, braced themselves as they were blasted into the building that had just appeared. Pitch then turned back to normal as he and Akisame inspecting the hole in the wall.
"Think we took them out?" Pitch asked, as Akisame searched for them with his Byakugan.
"Not likely" Akisame said.
"Hey where do you get off?" Both of them saw Bella as Heatblast walk out of the burning rubble. "I'm the one who gets to throw balls of fire at people, I'm not about to let you steal my thunder-um…Fire!" The pyronite said pointing at Pitch.
"Save that ranting for later Bella." DB said as he walked out after Heatblast, still brushing the debris off his shoulders. "You guys must not know us, because if you did you know that killing us with fire is next to impossible."
"Oh we weren't planning to kill you. Then plan was to keep you two away so that you won't cause trouble for our team." Akisame explained as he shifted back to his Jyuuken stance. Pitch followed his example by pulling out his large bat.
"Well you got our attention, we'll just make sure you don't regret it." DB said as he pulled out his guns.
"If you're back here keeping us from helping our friends out that leaves you guys stuck here too!" In another flash Bella changed directly from the burning Pyronite to a Necrofriggian. "Maybe I should leave you guys as icebergs and we'll join back up with the rest of the gang." Big Chill suggested.
"Please, don't think of us as pushovers." Pitch said eagerly while gripping his bat. "You guys won't be going anywhere for a while and that's if we feel generous enough to not end this thing quickly."
"Then by all means…" DB then aimed his guns at the two. "Let's start this thing!"
(Speed Lane)
"You two enjoying the view from back there?!" Striker called back as he and Valley-Belle kept pace and maintained the gap between them and Kurotsubasa. "Would it help if we go a tad bit slower?!"
'I don't think you should pester them.' Valley said with her sign as she was mostly silent as her leader threw taunts at the ones trailing behind them.
"Oh don't be like that Val, there's no way those guys can pass us. The only one on this lane who can possibly fly is Shadow and flying is forbidden in the race. Plus I don't see any of us slowing down anytime soon!" Striker said as they began to gain speed. "Better start flapping them wings Kurotsubasa!"
"Wow, so this is how it feels from the other side. Guess this is one reason why most of the people I fight get pissed off." Shadow said as he calmly skated holding a hand to Amaya to keep her secured. "Still I usually don't keep going like he does."
"Really, you think your words are the only thing that pisses some people off?" Key asked sarcastically.
"Hey, Words hurt, especially online, but let's focus on the task at hand." Shadow said as he tried to formulate a plan. It was true they couldn't use their powers to fly, but that didn't mean they couldn't use their powers at all. "Hey Key, think any of your magic can slow them down enough for us to pass them?"
"It would take some concentration for me to try and set a spell up and that would give them too much of a lead. These skates seem to build up speed and maintain it easily but if I stop for a second it would take forever to build up speed again." Key answered back. "Got any ideas?"
"Maybe, but it involves being reckless."
"Regular Reckless or Bella Reckless?"
"A bit in-between but this should work; I just need to ask you something."
"You already did but shoot."
"How good's your throwing arm?"
(With Striker and Valley-Belle)
"They're whispering something back there; maybe they finally have something in mind. I like winning and all but it would be too easy if it ended without us getting into some kind of battle." Striker said.
'Careful what you wish for.' Valley replied as she wanted them to remain focused on the goal. She then looked back and wide-eyed as she and Striker separated to avoid a spinning black blur.
"What the hell?!" Striker called out at the projectile flew passed them missing them entirely, it was moving too fast for them to process what it was, and all they did hear was the shaking of chains. What got their attention next was the shadow as it grew large and out of it burst Shadow who then grabbed the object in his hand.
"Great throw Key." Shadow said as the Infinity keyblade vanished from his hand. "Now to take care of you two." A snap of his fingers and the two All-Star members soon felt the force of gravity slam down on them, unprepared they came to a dead stop as the floor cracked under them. Shadow then continued on as Key circled around the gravity around the All-Stars to join him.
"I'll admit I didn't see that coming." Striker chuckled as he slowly got to his feet, struggling against the increased gravity. "Oh come on, don't give me that look." He said as he saw the large frowning face of Valley-Belle.
'You were the one who didn't want it easy.' Her sign replied.
"Yeah because I didn't want a dull race, but if you want to finish this so badly…" Striker then helped her up to her feet. "I'll get a few friends to give us a push." Taking a gulp of air he then placed two fingers in his mouth and blew a loud calling whistle.
"KOTEI PENGUIN 7!"
(Shadow and Key)
"Looks like there are two paths that we can take." Key said as they kept going to the next building. They both spotted a long blue strip that seemed to lead further to another part of the halfway point. "How do they expect us to skate on that small railing?"
"Maybe we're supposed to grind it; we might as well try it." Shadow then focused behind him. "Here's the plan, Key grind on the rail and go on ahead."
"What, we don't even know if grinding will work and what are you going to do?" Key asked.
"Greet our company." Shadow said as he stopped at the edge of the building he was on. Amaya adjusted herself from under the large helmet and she two spotted the rainbow streaks quickly making their way towards.
"U-Pyon?"
"How will I stop it? No clue Amaya." Shadow answered back as he readied his scythe. "I'm all ears if you have a suggestion."
"U-Pyon, Pyon!" Amaya hastily jumped up and down.
"Try that trick; we haven't tried anything like that yet. If you're willing to try then go ahead," Shadow said. "First, a diversion…"
"U-Pyon!" Amaya's eyes then glowed soft white as Shadow focused his soul's energy to his scythe. Shadow then flung the full arc of Witch Hunter towards the two All-Stars.
"Pulling out the big guns huh? Val go up!" Striker said as he mentally had one of his penguins fly a bit up in front of Valley Belle.
Valley nodded and jumped, she then landed on the yellow penguin and used it as a platform to flip and land behind Shadow and continue with the race. Striker then stopped seeing as the other penguins couldn't fly past a semi-transparent barrier in front of Shadow.
"I expected that scythe swing, but barriers are a new trick for you." Striker said referring to the trench Shadow's Witch Hunter left on the ground. The Kotei Penguins all stopped their flight and landed beside him before vanishing.
"You can think this special girl for that." Shadow gestured to Amaya as the glow then left her eyes and with it the barrier also vanished. "I thought I could stop you both though, guess I was mistaken."
"If anything I was able to keep Valley going after your friend and the girls seemed to be busy with their little fight." An explosion later and they turned back to see some of the skyscrapers now had smoke trailing from their rooms. "And it looks like Aki's plan is working too; I should do my part as well…"
"And that part is?" Shadow asked curiously.
"Keep you occupied; that gravity power of yours is too big of a factor." Striker said. "So I figured I should knock you out of the race."
"Well good luck with that, I'd love to see how you accomplish that but I got a race to get back to! Gravity Control!" Shadow then focused gravity down on Striker again, this time instead of seeing Striker fall he held up on his feet. The leader of Kurotsubasa didn't waste time turning around and leaving Striker under the crushing darkness.
"Didn't I tell you my job now is to keep you occupied?" Shadow suddenly heard followed by a snap.
"Decoy Release!"
Shadow didn't even see the punch that landed against his cheek sending him down and rolling against the roof. He got up after checking on Amaya's safety to see Striker was now standing before him.
"See you may have that gravity of yours, but I think my speed makes up for that fact. Plus you're not the only one who can use a little magic." Striker then gestured to the clone that Shadow hit that then vanished in thin air.
"Now no hard feelings, but I'd like to have you out the way for a while." Striker then raised his leg and slammed it hard shaking the whole building. Cracks formed under Shadow as he now saw the ceiling give way and once it collapsed he immediately was falling along with other large chunks of rubble. Striker quickly moved from the collapsing building to another and gave it one more look before heading forward with the race.
While Shadow was falling he noticed Amaya's trying to save them both. "Amaya, if you try to fly us out you'll get us both disqualified." He told her as he studied the pieces of the skyscraper falling along with him.
"Good thing I have another plan, hold tight!" Quickly Shadow-stepping on one of the pieces, he then lightened gravity around himself to make larger leaps and used the rubble as platforms. He then leaped higher and higher until Shadow and Amaya both jumped safely out and on another building.
"That was close." Shadow said as he noticed he was falling behind. "Amaya, are you ok."
"U-Pyon!" The manju called from under the helmet.
"That's good, off we go." Shadow then sped off to rejoin the pursuit.
(On the Flight Lane)
"BUNNY KICK!"
Illu and Ravena quickly jumped into the air just barely avoiding Prima's attack as the lane that they were on began to crumble.
Prima's eyes began to glow as she began picking up large chunks of boulders and formed a new path for her to skate on that around the falling girls and to the next path.
"Au Revoir, Cheries~!" mocked Prima when Yuki suddenly widened her eyes in fear.
"CHIIIIIIII!" the Usa-Manju squeaked/screamed alerting Prima to turn around and scream too as a long white hissing snake lunged at them and wrapped her body around Prima's waist.
"NON! A SNAKE! EW! EW! GET IT OFF ME!" squealed Prima as she screeched to a stop and tried to pull the snake off.
"How rude, insolent child! Illu-sama! Ravena-san!" called the enlarged Nyoka as she tugged on her tail that was shown to be wrapped around the two as she pulled them on to the new path before releasing a slightly traumatized Prima and recoiling back to Illu.
"Good job Nyoka!" praised Illu as Nyoka shrunk back and coiled around Illu's waist.
"Thank you."
"HEY GIRLS!" BOOM! The two suddenly heard followed by a loud explosion from one of the lower lanes as a smoke cloud arose while two blurs blasting out from it.
"WHEEEEE-HOOOOOOOO!" cheered Bella as she and a burnt out Pitch who got blasted into the sky came down and tumbled on the lane before Ravena and Illu who screeched to a stop.
"THAT WAS NUTS~!" cheered an overly excited Bella as she sat up with her helmet crumbling to dust while her hair stuck out in various directions before she shook her head and smoothed it down.
Illu, Ravena and the pets all exchanged incredulous looks with each other before smiling and shaking their heads.
All of a sudden, a pink plasma blast hit the ground behind them just barely missing them as they quickly turned around to see a fuming mad Prima speeding up from a distance with a look that screamed murder.
"I got it!" volunteered Bella as she grabbed Pitch's smoking form and threw it at Prima who simply punched Pitch out of the way and charged full speed ahead as the baseball player disappeared in a flash signifying his retirement from the race.
"Uh-oh….STEP ON THE GAS GIRLS!" yelled Bella as the girls took off.
"Wow….in an unexpected turn of events, it looks like the All-Stars has lost one player in this race as Pitch gets booted by his own team-mate!" noted Masukomi as the announcers sweat-dropped watching the Kurotsubasa girls fleeing from an enraged Prima.
"Prima! We're supposed to knock THEM out the race! Not one of our own!" yelled Aki while blocking DB's katana with his own chakra katana as the Strength and Flight Lanes converge back into one.
"Butt out Pretty Boy!" snarled Prima making Akisame frown while DB whistled.
"Girls, huh?" stated the vampire as he struck below only to blocked by Akisame who sighed as he shook his head.
"Tell me about it…" sighed Aki deflecting DB's blade before slashing at the boy who was narrowly able to avoid it.
"AKI-BO-BAKI~!" called another cheerful voice that created an audible groan from the said martial artist as he and DB looked overhead to see Striker on a lane above them waving enthusiastically with Shadow and Amaya visibly in hot pursuit.
"GUYS!" called out Key from up ahead who jumped down to join the group followed shortly by Val. "HEADS UP!"
Val suddenly up a sign that read 'Caution: Ramp Up Ahead' in bold red letters.
Sure enough, everyone gasped as the lanes suddenly steeply curled upwards causing everyone to involuntarily get unexpected hang-time as they all shot into the sky.
Being of the Flight class, Prima, Illu and Ravena all shot up higher than the rest as they screamed.
"YOU GIRLS ARE GOING DOWN!" screamed Prima.
"BRING IT-NYA!" retorted Ravena while Illu sighed and shook her head.
"AKI-DARLING!" called Striker happily as he literally swam in the air towards Aki and glomped him happily.
"B-BAKA! LET GO!" as the two began to involuntarily spin.
Meanwhile Val, Key and Shadow were sitting cross-legged in the air while they sailed through the air as she pulled out a packet of gum and offered one to the Beta.
'Gum? It's Spearmint.' Her sign read as she unwrapped one and popped it into her mouth.
"Please and thank you," said Key politely as he took one and did the same while Shadow politely put a hand up and declined.
"YAHOOO~!" cheered DB as he spiraled in the air past them.
"I LOVE THIS PLACE!" cheered Bella spiraling by as well.
After a bit of hang-time, gravity finally took over as the group all began their descent back to the ground where a large half pipe with big random boulder and pillars scattered around awaited them.
Bella, DB and Akisame landed first being of the Strength Class followed quickly by Striker, Shadow, Key, and Val as they all began jumping, weaving around and punching through the obstacles.
Illu landed neatly and went ahead before Ravena and Prima who were having a heated exchange of insults.
"CHEAP HUSSY!" spat Prima.
"PLAYBOY BUNNY!" shot Ravena back.
"WITCH-BITCH!"
"HOOCHIE-MAMA!"
"CHESTY!"
"Ara-nya, Jealous much, Mole-hills?" retorted Ravena with a smirk making an offended Prima gasp as she felt her own chest before growling.
"BRÛLER EN ENFER' VOUS CHAT SALOPE!" snarled the Bunny-Girlwith her fists a blazing with pink plasma energy. (Trans: Burn in Hell you Slutty Cat!)
Ravena smirked as her fists began glowing with magical energy. "De même salope!" (Likewise, Bitch.)
Yuki-Chi glared and squeaked in anger while Punnya growled and hissed in return.
"Whoa, you can sense the tension right here folks and I, along with most of my male viewers, can't wait to see those two go at it!" Plugman stood up out his seat while Masukomi just shook her head at her fellow commentator.
"Need I remind you this is a race, not a chance for perverts like you to view female players." Masukomi said disapprovingly as she adjusted her glasses.
"Hey I'm a hot-blooded male and if there are two things that will get me excited, its blood and some skin! And not enough blood has fallen in this battle for my taste!" Plugman said.
"Sometimes I want to just rip that tube off your head just to see the true you under there…." Masukomi muttered as she turned her attention back to the action. "Ooh! CAM you may want to stay sharp for this one!"
"Pu-Puu-PUU~!"
(Race)
"Think we should get in the middle of that?" Key asked Shadow as they both saw pink plasma and shadow magic be thrown around the track at the two females still continued their bout. Amaya has since hidden herself more under Shadow's helmet as to not watch the violent scene.
"By all means Key go ahead," Shadow said. Even if the two were tearing up the course around them with their stray blasts, trying to tear the two apart would be suicidal.
"Yeah I think I'll pass." Key said.
"I don't blame you." Shadow then looked out and could see the final stretch coming which first started with two tunnels. "Right now let's focus on ending the race; we can pull them apart later." Seeing everyone go through the right one, he decided to take a chance with the left one.
"Don't think I didn't see that one sneak!" Striker was about to pursue until Akisame grabbed his wrist.
"Leave him, that path is the longer of the two and the walls are two thick for him to interfere now. You can have your fight later, but we finish this race now." Akisame lectured him.
"Man, you never let me have any fun." Striker pouted.
Akisame clicked his teeth in irritation before kicking Striker into the correct tunnel. He gave a final glance at the left tunnel before racing off; following the trail of destruction the girls were leading.
"It seems that Kurotsubasa's Shadow seems to have split from the path in favor of the left path, but all that does is add a few more extra miles to his ride. Bad choice to make coming into the end and too late to fix that mistake!" Plugman said.
"For once we're at an agreement, in this final length where every small thing determines whether you succeed or fail it's a terrible time to make rash choices." Masukomi said. "He'll have to hope the others in Kurotsubasa can reach the end goal."
"Provided those girls don't tear the place apart." The TV-headed man muttered.
(Scene Change)
"Did Shadow really go down the wrong tunnel?" Illu asked Key as she looked back past Ravena's and Prima's stalemate to see that Shadow and Amaya was no longer on the same path as theirs.
"That would be a yes, but if I know Shadow, he's got something planned I just know it,' reassured Key with a smile.
"Yeah! Have a little faith Owl-girl!" chimed Bella.
Illu looked at her friends and smiled.
DB grinned as he looked back at his group, when suddenly his skate hit a small piece of rubble that rolled on to his path, sending the vampire into an unwanted stumble.
"Hey-Wo-WOAH!"CRASH! Went DB as he collided with Valley-Belle causing the two to tumble over each other with DB ending up getting his face cushioned by something soft.
The vampire's eyes popped open as he quickly sat up upon realization as he looked down to see Val all red in the face with a crazy flustered look on her face.
"Oh god! I'm so sorry! I'm Re-!"
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAA…!" screamed Val shrilly as she quickly raised a glowing hand.
WHA-POW!
The All-Stars flinched while the Kurotsubasa members quickly ducked as DB was sent spinning off into the distance in the opposite direction with blood streaming from his nose as Val gave the vampire a powerful slap across his face in her panicked state.
Val stood up shakily with an arm across her chest panting hard and her face still red as she put down her outstretched hand.
Striker whistled as he placed a hand over his eyes to gauge the distance of which DB flew. "I think that's a new record, Aki-Bi~!"
"As expected of 'Divine Hand' Belle…." Sighed Akisame.
Meanwhile, Plugman and Masukomi sweat-dropped to see DB flew across their view before he flashed and disappeared to show that he was out of the race.
"W-well! I guess now we know why they call her the 'Divine Hand', huh Komi-chan?" asked Plugman to break the awkwardness.
"No kidding….." replied Masukomi bluntly. "Well I guess that evens out the field a bit as now Kurotsubasa is down by one player as well!"
(Race)
"Yuki! SUPERBALL MODE!" commanded Prima turning to her Usa-Manju.
"PUNNYA!" called Ravena to her pet.
"CHI!/ PUN!" both responded at the same time as they both bounced up with Yuki folding her ears over herself into a tight ball while Punnya became the Punnya Cannon as both girls aimed at each other.
Yuki's form began glowing with pink energy while magic began gathering around the mouth of the cannon. "Yuki-Chi…/Punnyanko Echo…."
Ahead, The All-Stars and Kurotsubasa widened their eyes when they noticed what their respective teammates were going to do.
"BAKA! Prima don't!" yelled Akisame in warning.
"NO RAVENA! STOP!" yelled Key as well but their warnings came too late.
"METEOR!/ MYSTIC CANNON!" cried both girls as they launched their attacks at each other.
A loud explosion rang out as both attacks hit each other dead on. Prima, Ravena and their pets cried out as they both got blasted out the race.
Meanwhile, the collision of the attacks was so strong it resulted in creating an explosive shockwave that began destroying the racing track heading straight for the others.
"Uh-OH! It looks the resulting impact of that last attack is starting to destroy the race course! The Players better pick up the pace if they want to stay in the game!" pointed out Masukomi excitedly.
"RUN!" cried Bella as everyone began skating for their lives to get away from the oncoming shockwave. Bella quickly transformed into XLR8 and sped ahead with Key trailing behind by hanging on to her tail while Mukurowl pulled Illu forward as fast as he could by hanging on to Nyoka who in turn had her tail wrapped around Illu's waist.
"KOTEI PENGUIN 7!" called Striker as he whistled loudly, summoning the penguins once more as they pushed Aki, Val and Striker forward as fast as they could.
(Elsewhere on the track)
At that moment, Shadow who had taken a separate track that lead down a different route felt the strong rumble of the explosion.
"What the heck was that?" he asked out loud when Amaya suddenly sensed oncoming danger.
"U-PYON!" she squeaked loudly in warning alerting Shadow to turn.
At that moment the rumblings increased immensely as Shadow saw in the distance that the lane he was on was slowly crumbling away.
"Shit….HANG ON AMAYA!" commanded the boy as he too began picking up the pace.
(Back to the others…)
"KYAAAAAAA!" screamed Illu as she unfortunately was not quick enough to escape the destruction as the ground beneath her gave way causing her, Muku and Nyoka to fall.
"ILLU! /OWL-GIRL!" Cried Key and Bella as they watched another team-mate fall out of the race.
"VAL!" cried out Striker and Akisame simultaneously as they too lost said player who fell off the track just seconds after Illu did.
Unfortunately, the crumbling ground was still following them giving them little time think as the remaining members tried to pick up the space as both teams ended up almost at the same pace.
"There's the finish line!" pointed out Key.
Sure enough, in the far distance, the glowing sphere that contained the Guild Emblems could be seen.
Bella and Akisame were trying to speed up but due to them possessing the Power Skates made the feat nearly impossible. With the cracks almost grazing their heels Bella and Aki exchanged looks and nodded in agreement.
"Key, you're gonna have to make us proud!" said Bella transforming back to her original form as she grabbed Key's arm.
"Win this Striker!" said Aki as he began gathering energy into his palms.
"HIYA!" went Bella as she flung Key forward.
"HAKKE KUSHO!" yelled Aki fiercely sending his Guild Leader into a crazy speed off as with a powerful palm thrust.
The two did it just in time as the ground gave way causing the two to fall and get zapped out the race.
(Elsewhere)
"And both Guilds loses more members in quick succession as we are down to Shadow and Key from Kurotsubasa and Striker from the All-Stars!" announced Masukomi.
"But who will win this race?! Is it the Unbeatable All-Stars?! Or Underdog guild Kurotsubasa?!" added Plugman.
"WOAH-OOF!" went Bella as she was suddenly teleported and landed on a seat in a private spectator box. The muffled screams of the spectators could be heard penetrating a large glass window.
"Welcome to the party," greeted DB cheerfully.
Bella looked up in surprise to see DB, Raven, Illu, and the pets all back in their normal attire as she broke into a huge smile. "YOU'RE ALL ALRIGHT!" she cheered as she happily pulled them all into a group hug.
"RIBS-NYA!"
"BELLA-CHAN! AIR!"
"OK! There go my Vertebrae!"
Bella smiled sheepishly as she let them go. "Sorry! Where is this place?"
"This is our special Spectator Stand where we can wait out the rest of this race," explained Aki who also appeared in his regular attire as he smiled and bowed in greeting. Next to him was Val who bowed and smiled while Pitch gave a two-finger salute to them. Meanwhile, a pouty Prima sat in her seat as she flipped her hair at them while Yuki who was on her lap did the same.
Just then, the audience screams were getting louder calling both guilds' attention quickly to the window as a projection of a close-up of Key and Striker racing nose to nose with each other was broadcasted on it like a large TV screen.
"It looks Kurotsubasa's Key and the All-Stars' Striker are matching up at the same pace as they can be seen visibly coming within distance of the goal!" exclaimed Plugman loudly.
"Oh god this is getting intense! Everyone's on the edge of their seats!" followed Masukomi excitedly.
"Come on Key! You can do it!" cheered on Bella.
"Ooooh! I can't watch!" said Illu nervously as she covered her eyes.
"Show 'em watcha got Captain!" cheered Pitch loudly while Val nodded and waved pom-poms.
(On the race track)
"Not bad for keeping up this far in the race, though I can't say the same for your fearless leader!" said Striker as the two boys turned a curve.
"Well, see you at the finish line!" he chirped cheerfully as he suddenly bolted off way ahead off the Beta.
Key frowned a bit at first when and was about to follow suit when he suddenly sensed something as a small smirk played on his lips.
"Hey Striker!" called Key suddenly, alerting Striker to turn around.
"Don't under estimate Shadow!"
Before Striker could contemplate what Key said, a figure jumped high over the Beta prompting surprise gasps from everybody watching except for the Kurotsubasa members who smiled.
"With a giant leap, it looks like Shadow has finally appeared!" cried out Plugman.
"Yeah but it looks like he's a bit too late as Striker is now a few meters away from the goal!" added Masukomi.
(With Shadow and Amaya)
Shadow looked down from the air as he allowed his gravity abilities to give him a little more hang-time.
"Are you sure about this Amaya?" he asked, turning to look at his pet who sat on his shoulder.
Amaya looked at Shadow. "U-Pyon!" she squeaked with a determined look as her whole body began to glow.
"Then go for it."
(Back on the ground.)
Striker grinned as he stretched his hand out beginning to reach for the emblems as the distance grew smaller when suddenly at the last second, he felt a rush of wind graze the left off his face as out of the corner of his eye a black blur shot out. In a blink, the sphere containing the emblems disappeared much to the shock of everyone.
In a flash, the entire race track disappeared and all the members found themselves on back in the arena just as confused as everyone else watching.
"What the-?! What just happened?!" exclaimed Plugman in shock and confusion. "I don't get it, who won?!"
The All-Stars and the members of Kurotsubasa all exchanged confused looks with each other as the confusion spread out throughout the stadium when suddenly Masukomi appeared on the field with CAM.
"Everybody calm down! CAM will give us the final shot!" announced Masukomi into her mic as the stadium quieted down as CAM's Gem began to glow as the final freeze-frame was broadcasted on to all the floating screens. What everyone saw resulted in loud gasps.
There, clear as day, was a close-up of Striker's hand and a small black Usa-Manju grabbing the emblems in her mouth.
"Amaya?!" exclaimed the rest of Kurotsubasa save for Shadow who smiled proudly as Amaya hopped back on his shoulder as she opened her mouth and rolled out her tongue to reveal the emblems resting on the tip.
Everybody's jaw dropped while Masukomi quickly readjusted her glasses.
"Well…I guess this means….WINNER: KUROTSUBASA~!" cried out Masukomi happily.
There was a brief silence before the entire stadium exploded in huge cheers as Kurotsubasa's emblem was projected in the sky with the words WINNER written underneath it as fireworks and confetti began exploding everywhere.
The girls all bounced up and down happily squealing in excitement while hugging the guys who were also cheering loudly as they all group hugged around Shadow and Amaya both who blushed and smiled awkwardly.
"PUNNYA~!" cheered Punnya proudly as she scooped the Usa up in her tail and planted multiple loving kisses on Amaya's head before tossing her up and down in cheer with Mukurowl fluttering next to Punnya as Nyoka who had shrunk down to ride on the owl's head smiled as she rubbed Amaya's head with her tail.
"Hold on, how any of that counts?!" Prima then stormed over sharing her angry look with Yuki. "The rules were that the first person from either team to reach the emblems wins, a manju being thrown into them shouldn't count!"
"Nya, way to be a sore loser Hussy." Ravena said with a smirk.
"You want to start again Slutty Cat?!" Prima then turned her attention on Ravena. Before the two could go at it again they were then interrupted.
"Yes the rule was that the first member of either team to reach the emblem would be named the winner…" Masukomi said while adjusting her glasses. "However, as you saw, pets were allowed during the entirety of the race and they are a part of the team as much as their owners are."
"If they weren't, you and the cat would have been disqualified for destroying the final lap of the race." Plugman added causing both girls to look embarrassed and turn away.
Prima looked like she had more on her mind but a hand then landed on her shoulder and she turned to see it was Pitch. "Come on Prima it wasn't all bad! Besides, they won fair and square in the end. Besides we've got bigger things to worry about."
"Huh?" Prima asked confused.
"This was an emblem battle…so like, the future of our guild is on the line." They both heard the silent voice of Valley for the first time, who still had a tinged of pink on her cheeks from the incident before.
"Val is right," Akisame said as they all saw Striker walk up to Shadow who had both emblems in hand. "Whatever happens now depends on the decision Shadow makes. He could be holding a grudge for how you and Yuki have treated his manju." He said as he saw the two rabbits' ears rise up in alarm.
Striker, meanwhile; had already handed the bag of munny over to Kurotsubasa. "Well there's your munny, and the Admin might have already taken care of rankings now. So what's your judgment?" He asked seriously, Striker was always serious about his guild. "Though before you say yours, I've got something to say…"
Shadow nodded as he waited for Striker to continue; what surprised him was the large grin that overtook Striker's face.
"Man, that race was close to the wire, I seriously thought I was going to take it until that little blur you got there went flying past me!" Striker said with as he had his arms behind his head with a smile. "Though a win's a win, no matter what, I already told you the emblems was only so you could be serious in something outside of a fight but I was never going to disband you guys."
"Then, what would've been your judgment?" Illu asked confused.
"Oh that... I would've just made you guys walk out the city wearing our emblem and colors. You know, home team stuff like that." Striker explained causing Shadow to sweatdrop. "I mean no offense really."
"Hard not to take offense to that." Shadow then sighed and tossed something to Striker. The Guild Leader laughed a bit before catching the object and saw that it was his guild's emblem.
"Hold on, you still have to pass…"
"I was getting to that." Shadow said as he began to explain. "You weren't the only ones to have fun. It was a good match and it's nice to know that there is a guild out there where their idea of a battle isn't an all-out slugfest. However; I would actually want to challenge you in an actual fight. So my judgment is, for your guild to stick around so that we can have that battle."
Striker then smirked and nodded his head as his grip tightened around the emblem in his hand. "Sounds good…until that time then." He then offered his free hand out. Shadow then accepted it and shook his hand. "You know, all the things people said about you…I didn't expect you to let our guild walk away."
"Like I said, better a guild like the All-Stars to have around, than to have some battle hungry maniacs tear this city apart making their way to us. I think I can rest easy if you guys stayed the strongest guild here." Shadow said.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!"
"Exactly what I said."
"Were still in arena, we can have that fight now!"
"Eager to lose again, and stop goddamn shouting when I'm right here!"
"Looks like those two are starting to get along." Key said as he watched the two square off.
"At least your leader is more levelheaded; it's going to take me forever to get Striker calmed down enough to get back to our headquarters." Akisame sighed as he held the bridge of his nose.
"Well, I guess this is a happy ending eh?" Bella smiled.
"Speak for yourselves, I completely wiped out first! I hope Naenia wasn't watching that somehow." DB said sadly.
"I-I'm sure Naenia-san will know it's an accident." Illu tried to reassure him.
"At least you didn't wipe out completely first. I got incinerated earlier." Pitch said.
"Hey don't hate the Hyna, hate the game!"
"Can I hate both since the Hyna includes everything in that small watch of yours?" Pitch then calmed down. "It's fine, all I know is try Heatblast again in my game and you won't stand a chance." He said confidently.
"A little blazing baseball action, I'm game." Bella smiled.
'Like, is she always this crazy?' Valley raised her question against the two pyromaniacs.
"Hy-Nya actually was pretty mellow today nya." Ravena answered her question. "Though can I ask if a certain rabbit has always been so…obnoxious?" The cat asked.
"Why don't you just admit the truth, the whole battle you've been jealous of me and my beauty. There is a reason I'm the number #1 Cutie-Pie." Prima said smugly.
"You may want to think that over, yesterday we were being chased around by a whole bunch of fans and I think some of yours jump ship nya." Ravena said causing the bunny-girl to stumble a bit.
"Oui, you're jealousy knows no bounds if you think you can take my cutie-pie title!"
"The way those guys were acting, you can have them."
"Well, I guess everything works out in the end." Illu sweatdropped seeing some of the conversations go on.
'We should really break this up soon.' Valley offered her suggestion.
"Good idea."
(Scene Change)
"See, I told you guys it would pay off to sneak inside." A voice spoke, hidden amongst the crowd of people.
"Our first time watching a Guild War and it turn out to be Kurotsubasa; I'll be the first to say it works out even though we had to run past a troop of Guards to get here." Another voice spoke as replays of the final stretch of the race still played out.
"…"
"Yeah we did see the building Bella blew up, it's on the highlight reel." This time a female voice answered. "Still I didn't know Illu had a giant snake with her, I wonder where it came from?" The person asked.
"Who cares, that last beam attack Ravena did was amazing! I didn't know magic could be used like that, and with manjus too!" A second female voice shouted in excitement.
"Mi-Nya!"
"I know, I can't wait either!"
"Then are we still going on with the plan?"
"Of course we are! We'll meet back at Tokyo City to get everything ready, man I'm so excited I could just…!"
"…?"
"Where would I even find sparkles and pop rocks in FFW?"
"All right you two, let's just all agree to meet at the base tomorrow ok."
"Fine, let's go, I don't want to run into those Admin guys again on the way back."
(Scene Change)
"Whoo, am I glad that Cast decided to post us here for this Guild War~!" exclaimed Rina cheerfully as she leaned on the railing of her private Admin stand. "Not bad for Kurotsubasa's first war~!"
Rina smile as she turned to her left to look at a player dressed as Taokaka from BlazBlue but with a slightly longer coat who was applauding.
"Oh come on, why are you still wearing that mask, Cheshi? You're off duty aren't you?"
The Taokaka looked at Rina with her trademark grinning mask. "Sorry, Ms. Rina, force of habit," apologized the player sheepishly as she removed her mask although her hood obscured the top half of her face. "But can we at least stick with my codename until we're back at HQ?"
"Fair Enough, ICDD Agent Ter- I mean Cheshire Cat," chuckled Rina.
The Agent smiled and shook her head as she looked at a certain cat-girl in the Guild. 'You've really haven't changed Abby…..' she sighed internally with a smile.
(Scene Change)
Meanwhile, in the lower part of the city, a beautiful black horse stood waiting impatiently outside a hostess club. Inside, a young man wearing a mask and a black Don Juan outfit smiled as he watched the conclusion of the Live Battle on a TV screen with a couple of gorgeous women hanging on to his arms. When the shot suddenly focused on to Kurotsubasa, his eyes widened when he laid eyes on a certain feline smiling with her Guild Mates.
"Hmm…she looks familiar….maybe I should pay this 'Kurotsubasa' a visit…."he contemplated to himself as he stood up much to the disappointment of his 'escorts'.
"Oh…Are you leaving already Prey-sama~?" pouted the two woman. Lovely gifts appear
The man smiled charmingly as he held up both palms facing upward. "Ylevol stfig raeppa," he chanted as two velvet jewelry boxes appeared in his hands. "Alas, I must leave fair ladies, but please enjoy these gifts as a token of my apology~!"
The women gasps as they took the boxes and opened them to find they each got a beautiful jeweled necklace with matching earrings.
"Lovely gifts for even more lovely women~" said the man blowing a kiss to the girls as he made his leave.
"KYA~! PREY-SAMA~!" squealed both girls in swooning as they passed out happily.
Outside, the horse snorted irritably as she saw the man emerge.
"About time you Lobox…" said the mare in a Scottish accent obviously not pleased as the man mounted her.
"Temper, temper Fraulein," said the man playfully as he stroked her mane. "We're heading to Tokyo City."
"Any particular reason?"
"Just to sights~"
The horse huffed as she rolled her eyes. "Aye Laddie…I've heard that before…." She muttered as she took off galloping.
(Scene Change)
"Well, well, didn't they exceed my expectations." A woman said as she stood in the higher sections of the stadium. "The way they were playing, it was almost like their first time in a Guild War. Though, I suppose, they did make it out in the end. I wouldn't want anything to happen to Kurotsubasa…yet." From behind her, she felt a presence hidden within the shadows of the walls.
"You were supposed to be running surveillance on this town." A voice spoke to her.
"I am, though I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see the area's guild; especially after I learned of their opponent." The woman smiled.
"It's been four years since you saw him, so I'll give you leeway this once. Also, since; the All Stars just lost a competition they aren't allowed to be challenged for two days."
"Not that it matters; wouldn't we just crush them all the same in a Guild War battle? Though, this city is a bit too…bright and open. I doubt we could make movements here without drawing attention."
"Is that how you feel?"
"Yes, a small outpost to gather some gossip and information is all that really needs to be here, and even that's pushing it slightly." The woman explained, though her eyes never left the guilds down in the arena.
"Very well, then I'll task you with that. Having some of your members stationed here would make gathering information quicker. Especially, branching out and planning spots in the nearby areas."
"I understand." She said. "But I still want to have the freedom to scout Tokyo City solo."
"Four years and you've been waiting; now that you've found him you look ready to go charging in the stadium after him." The voice ended and she presumed that the owner left only to be met with a small chuckle. "All right…though you'll have to go through Kaoru first, and even then she'll probably send you with backup."
"Not that clown again, I could cover more and gather less attention on my own."
"Somehow I doubt that."
"Hmm, it's not my fault the guys can't keep their eyes off me."
"I meant the massive bundle you carry will cause heads to turn."
"And a large grinning black and orange court fool won't?"
"Touché"
"Still you'll have to follow procedure and get permission from Kaoru before you run off on your own."
"Fine, the match is over so I'll just go."
"I'll see you back at the base." With that, she felt the presence fade and the only thing she could feel were small wisps of smoke. She casted a final look down to a member of Kurotsubasa before she vanished in a scarlet light.
(Time Skip)
"Well, our first Guild War of the year and I say it was a success." Bella said triumphantly as Kurotsubasa was packing their things to head back to Tokyo City. "Maybe we should visit again sometime. Those All-Stars really know how to have a fun challenge."
"I rather not, I feel comfortable in the normal chaos our small town has than the crazy fanmobs that this city has." Shadow said before letting out a sneeze.
"Are you sure you're ok Shadow-kun, you've been sneezing since we left the stadium." Illu asked.
"I'm fine, maybe there's someone out there talking about me." Shadow said. "Anyways, let's go. Who knows what other crazy guild will come for us after that fiasco."
"Well besides a few things this place was actually pretty fun. I wouldn't mind coming back now that fans aren't an issue with my Glamour spell." Ravena said.
"Yeah, one day was not enough to see everything. I haven't even been able to check out any the pubs in town because of that mob." DB offered.
"Sounds like things to do on our free time. There are some interesting shops that I'll need to come back and check out." Key agreed.
"You guys have fun with that." Shadow said.
"Oh come on sourpuss. You're telling me you didn't see one thing interesting our whole time here?" Bella asked.
"Nope, too busy surviving to browse through anything." Shadow answered. "But when we were on our way to the stadium the first time I was able to pick up something for Amaya." The baby's ears perked up as Shadow pulled something out of his jacket pocket. From a bag, Shadow held out a white pastry ball.
"U-Pyon?" Amaya took a sniff of the treat and nibbled on it. The manju's eyes then widened as she continued to finish off the pastry with renewed vigor.
"Wow, what was that you fed Amaya-chan?" Illu asked.
"A pastry they sell here called creampuffs. It's a sweet snack that people and manju seem to like; I bought a bag for Amaya to see if she would like it. Guess I know she does." He then petted Amaya as he pulled out a second creampuff.
"Punnya~!" Punnya's eyes pleaded to Shadow.
"Sure, there's plenty for you too Punnya." Shadow said as he fished out a creampuff for the neko manju to eat.
"You don't know how Punnya is with sweets; she's almost like a black hole nya." Ravena said.
"Punnya!" Punnya hissed at the taunt before she took the creampuff and swallowed it whole. "Nya~." She called out as she clearly enjoyed the treat as shown by the sparkles in her eyes.
"Guess I'll probably have to find that store and buy some creampuffs soon. With the way Punnya eats, I hope it isn't expensive." Ravena said.
"Don't worry, I'm sure they must sell these in Tokyo City and if they don't I'll point out the shop for you." Shadow then turned and helped pack the final supplies into the van. Before any of them could get inside they were greeted with the site of the All-Stars walking towards them.
"Skipping town so soon and here I thought we might get the chance to show you guys around before you took off." Striker said nonchalantly.
"Actually, Striker had something to say before you left so he wanted to catch you guys beforehand." Akisame clarified.
"Aki-Bou, why did you have to do that; I had my whole idea planned and everything!" Striker was then hit in the gut by an angry Prima.
"Just hurry and get this over with." The girl said.
"Fine, here…" Striker then sent a message straight to Kurotsubasa. Soon they all heard a small ring as they checked and saw the additions to their mail.
"What are these for?" Key asked as he read through the message. They were all given five new contacts in their list.
"So we have an easier time keeping in touch. I want to be able to reach you guys when we're ready for another challenge." Striker said.
"Persistent aren't you?" Shadow said sarcastically.
"Oui, I rather not give out my information so willingly. Though I would want that rematch, especially to prove my title." Prima said.
"I already said you could have it nya." Ravena said. "It's such a tacky title anyway."
"You take that back!" Prima screamed as she was held back by Pitch and Akisame.
'Prima's mood aside, we would like to challenge you again in the future.' Valley's sign read.
"What Val said" Pitch said as he struggled to keep Prima in place.
"So think of it as a gift. Don't be strangers; you know where we live and vice-versa." Striker said as the All-Stars left.
"See, didn't I say those guys were friendly?" Bella said.
"Let's just go home before more surprises show up." Shadow said as they all began to board for their ride back home.
(Elsewhere…)
On a nearby building rooftop, Whisk grinned as he watched the entire race projected live. Excited giggling and clapping could be heard as girl wearing eccentric harlequin inspired Lolita clothing bounced a bit on her seat on the building edge.
"Uwah~! So this is the Guild Luci-Mina's Queen is so interested in~!" chirped the girl excitedly as she twirled the umbrella she was holding.
"How dare they steal all of Lu-Mi's Queen's attention for themselves!" she suddenly growled menacingly as her cheerful demeanor instantly turned dark and murderous.
"Calm down Lu-Mi, you'll get your chance with them," said Whisk patting the girl's head.
Just as fast she had switched to a dark personality, the girl instantly reverted back to her cheerful demeanor as she curled her hands before like paws and barked. "Hai~ Whisk-sama~! Arf~! Arf~! Lu-Mi is a good girl~! Arf~!" yapped Lu-Mi excitedly.
With that, Whisk placed his hands into his pockets as he turned and walked off. "Come on…Let's go."
"Arf~!" yipped the girl happily as she trotted after the boy obediently.
TBC…
Got to see a lot of action and seems a lot is popping off behind the scenes. If you're wondering what the cliffhanger means then I guess you better be wait for the next chapter to be released. Until next time everyone.
-Shadowlight0982 out.
