Time for some setup for the next round of fights. Of course, things aren't always as they seem…
"So, you want to have a loser's party?" Soren asked as he, Logan, and Adam wandered the backrooms of the stadium.
"No, I want us to have a training session," Logan corrected. "The three of us are really strong, but we still lost in the end. I figured, if we trained together, we could get stronger for whenever another tournament happens!"
"According to the official website, this tournament is a special event," Adam said, pulling up his holographic display. "After this, tournaments will be on a smaller scale, with maybe a yearly event to get a free wish."
"Aw man, I'd have to wait a year to fight Gabriel?" Logan sighed.
"Why do you want to fight him so badly?" Soren questioned.
Logan smiled. "Because he's so cool and powerful, and I want to be like him someday. You know, maybe we could be Co-Dream Keepers or something? It's why I'm still coming up with new ways to use my sketchbook, so I can be on the same level as his Fantasia magic."
"It's not just Gabriel himself that's powerful," Adam noted. "His faith in his friends has pulled him through a lot as well. The four of them know each other to a degree that they can plan independently from Gabriel himself."
"I guess having strong leaders is a good thing," Soren nodded. "I mean, think about it: Gabriel is basically our leader whenever we all hang out, Jasiri is Queen of the Outlands, and Brooklyn is the Second in command of his gargoyle clan. That's three people to lead if anything goes wrong. Plus, Lena has her shadow magic, which contrasts nicely with Kairi's more light-focused fighting style."
"They really are balanced," Adam nodded. "However, don't count Rachel out just yet. Her skills as a Swordmage are second to none."
"Don't remind me," Logan sighed. "Whenever we trained under Yen Sid, I lost count of the number of times she kicked my butt during sparring sessions."
Adam nodded. "Her team may not have as much synergy at first glance, but Rachel always has a plan ready. Marcy helps her plan against their opponents, with Ashoka acting as the secondary leader of things go wrong. Amity has strong magic and summons, while Violet can give support with her shields."
"So even if Gabriel's team works well together, Rachel still may have a plan to counter them," Soren said. "Wow, they are a good match-up with each other."
Logan nodded. "It's like in an anime where the two rivals face-off in the match before the finals. What do you guys think about Aria facing Aline, though?"
"I hope that Aria wins," Soren said.
"Agreed," Adam hummed. "That Aline girl has been gunning it for Gabriel since the start. And we still don't know why, either. Hopefully facing another user of song magic will finally end her reign. Then we can have a fun music battle between Aria and Gabriel!"
"Yeah!" The other two cheered, doing a high five.
As they went down the hallway, Gabriel walked up to them with a smile. "Hey guys, how's it going?"
"About to do some training," Logan replied.
"Well, good luck with that," Gabriel said. He then stopped and snapped his fingers. "Oh, I forgot! I left my headphones back in the room I was just in. can you guys get them for me? I really need to get back to my team and don't want to walk all the way back."
Soren looked at Gabriel funny. "But you're already wearing your headphones."
The raven looked down, saw his headphones, then quickly put on a smile and laughed. "Oh, these ones got broken when Metalbeak shot me with that mind control ray. I left my new ones in that room."
"You mean Steelbeak," Logan corrected.
"Yeah him, whatever," Gabriel said, his smiled breaking for a moment. "Anyway, I think I need to go talk to Shenzi and the others to get us ready for our match." The raven then ran off around the corner, leaving his three friends confused.
"Okay, that was weird," Soren said.
"Yeah, Gabriel is, like, the master of Disney trivia," Logan said. "And he forgot his girlfriend's name as well?"
"Guys, he's obviously just stressed out for his match with Rachel," Adam assured them. "I'll go get his headphones, while you two go do some training."
The two boys nodded and left down one way, while Adam went to the room that Gabriel and indicated. Once he got there, the cyborg found nothing but a dark, empty room. Scanning it, Adam went over to an object covered by a tarp, removing it to reveal that Berry was trapped inside of a containment tube!
"Adam, help me out of this!" Berry shouted.
"Berry?" Adam said in shock. He placed his robot hand on the tube and started hacking. "Don't worry, I'll get you out. Who put you in here, anyway?"
"It was Gabriel, or at least someone that looked like him," Berry said. "Ugh, this tube cut off my magic so I can't just summon a bomb to get out."
"But that would blow yourself up as well," Adam noted. "Now that you mention it, didn't Gabriel face someone that looked like him at the start of the tournament?"
"Ditto is the name," said 'Gabriel,' appearing behind Adam. Ditto then turned into a copy of Adam and shocked him with his own robot arm, knocking him out. "I was hoping to get all three of you, but just the one is fine. Your form is going to be much more useful going forward. Now then, how about I pay the Sword Mage a visit?"
Berry cried out as Adam was put in a tube next to her, powerless to stop the shapeshifter or his mysterious plans.
[***]
Gabriel and Aria were in the lounge area, discussing with their teams how to best handle Aline. They all had various suggestions, but the main idea seemed to be to either counter her sleep magic with a more powerful song, or to block out to song and take out each of her cats in some way.
"I mean, in all honestly, the song route seems like the best option," Aria admitted. "I mean, that's what I'm best at, and who knows, maybe I can put her to sleep instead."
"Those cats have some surprisingly good abilities as well," Gabriel added. "I won't want to hit a cute cat in the first place, but Marie outright negating Logan's ultimate attack was pretty overpowered."
"It's not nice to talk about someone behind their backs, you know," Aline said, sauntering into the room with her cats. "Only one more battle to go until our fated duel, Gabriel."
"Okay, I've gotta know, why do you want to fight Gabriel so much?" Lena asked.
"He owes me a battle to see who's better," Aline said.
"Newsflash, we've never even heard of you until this tournament," Brooklyn frowned.
"Yeah, I think I'd remember a person with your personality," Gabriel agreed.
Aline scowled. "Seriously? I was there training with you and Yen Sid! For the Dream Keeper position?"
"I got this position after helping Scout with the Noise," Gabriel said, confused.
"No, before that," Aline rolled her eyes. "We were in the same group for the internship to the Magical World under Yen Sid, at the Next Sorcerer's Apprentice contest?"
"Still not ringing a bell," the raven shook his head.
Now Aline was really mad. "You stole the position that was rightfully mine, okay!? I was clearly the best choice, but you had to come in with your song and dance and take it from me!"
Jasiri laughed. "You, an apprentice to Yen Sid? I don't think you'd last very long under him."
"Clearly, you don't realize who you're dealing with," Aline said. She clapped her hands and the lights in the room went out, only to turn back on a spotlight soon after. The girl was now at a piano, playing a song as her cats sat on the lid. "I was the perfect candidate, and I'll show you why in a language you understand: song!"
Aline:
Girl, we've got work to do
Pass me the paint and glue
Perfect isn't easy
But it's me
Aline smiled as Marie and Oliver played the piano with her.
When one knows the world is watching
One does what one must
Some minor adjustments, darling
Not for my vanity, but for humanity
Aline fluffed her hair as she stood up, Dinah perching on her shoulder as she did so.
Each little step a pose
See how the training shows!
Sometimes it's too much
For even me!
Aline did a twirl as Figaro hopped onto her other shoulder, the two cats posing before going back to the piano.
But when all the world says, "Yes"
Then who am I to say "No"?
Don't ask a lass to pose like a show girl
No, girl, you need a pro
Aline did some magic, a Broadway sign of her name suddenly appearing over her head.
Not a spot or a flaw
Take a peek, close your jaw
La dee da da
Perfection becomes me, n'est-ce pas?
Aline caught the Brooklyn giving her a weird look and forcefully shut his mouth, the gargoyle glaring at her as she touched him.
Unrivaled, unruffled
I'm beauty unleashed, yeah
Jaws drop, hearts stop
So classic and classy; we're not talking Lassie
"She's Feline fantastic!" the cats cheered as Aline did a singer pose.
Though many covet my poise and role
They're barking up the wrong tree
You pretty boys all over the city
I have your hearts and you have my pity
Aline winked at Gabriel, the raven rolling his eyes unimpressed as Jasiri growled at the girl.
Pretty is nice, but still
It's just pretty
Perfect, my dears
Is me!
Aline gave a big pose as the song ended, then bowed and walked to the door. "I'll crush anyone that gets in my way to you, Gabriel. Then, I'll impress Yen Sid that he'll be begging to have me replace you. This is my final declaration against you."
Aria turned to Gabriel with a smile as Aline left. "Don't worry about her. Team Princess Power and I will pull through so that we can meet in the final battle!"
"Right," Gabriel nodded, the two shaking hands. "And if I don't win, I wish you luck against Rachel."
"HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO ME!" a voice shouted from the hallway. Gabriel and Aria quickly left the room to see Adam shouting at Rachel, the older girl looking confused.
"It was a battle, Adam. You know I don't hold back," Rachel defended herself.
"I could have died from that," Adam said. "I'm part robot, you don't know what sending millions of volts of electricity could do to me!"
"Adam, where is this all coming from?" Gabriel said, getting between the two.
"Stay out of this, Gabriel!" Adam growled.
"He's acting more like the other Adam I know. The beastly one," Aria commented.
"Look, I don't know what you're going through, but we have matches to get to," Rachel said. "Go see Melanie and let her calm you down."
"Hey, I'm talking to you! Don't turn your back to me!" Adam said. He charged up his robot arm to fire an electric blast at Rachel, only for Jasiri to jump in the way and take the shot! The hyena yelped as lightning ripped through her, making her fur singe as she fell to the ground.
"Jasiri!" Gabriel said, quickly picking up his girlfriend. He looked at Adam with distain. "Why… Why would you do this!?"
"She was in the way," Adam said casually. He then ran off as Rachel drew her sword.
"Save your energy," Brooklyn said to her. "We've got bigger issues to deal with."
"Yeah, Jasiri needs help, now," Gabriel said.
"I can go case Adam, and I'll get some help as well," Aria said, going after the cyborg.
Gabriel, Team Dream Keepers, and Rachel all took Jasiri to the medical bay, where Baymax was prepared to help heal anyone that got injured in a fight. The robot made it clear that Jasiri would be fine, but she was unconscious and wouldn't be able to compete in the next round of fights.
"Then we have to call of the match," Rachel said. "It wouldn't be fair to face a team with one member down."
"That's not possible," Gabriel shook his head. He then sighed. "I don't want to leave Jasiri here, but the rules say that if a team member is incapacitated to the point of not being able to compete in the next round, a substitute must be put in place."
"But who could replace Jasiri?" Kairi questioned.
"Yeah, it would feel wrong not to have the whole team together," Lena added.
"I can stay out of the fight," Marcy offered.
"Marcy, we need you as much as they need Jasiri," Rachel argued.
"Rachel, we've already gone over our plans for this fight," Marcy said. "Besides, if you look at our team composition, I best align with Jasiri as second in command. You and Gabriel are the leaders, Brooklyn and Ashoka are the swordfighters, Violet and Kairi are the defensive magic users, and Amity and Lena are offensive magic users."
"I sense that there's something else going on as well," Rachel said.
Marcy laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her head. "Well, the season finale of Amphibia just happened, and I need time to… process that."
Everyone in the room sucked in a breath. "Yeah, that's understandable," Amity noted.
"Then let's make it a fair fight," Rachel said to Gabriel.
The raven took one last look at Jasiri, then stood up with determination on his face and shook Rachel's hand. "Yeah. For Jasiri."
Author's Note
We have drama! Ditto is doing his thing and now has Adam captured! What is his endgame? And what is his true form because he keeps looking like everyone else. Logan and Soren are suspicious at least, with how he didn't know what Gabriel would know.
And we have Aline's motivation: she feels slighted by Gabriel and wants his position as Dream Keeper for herself. Her song this time was her own version of "Perfect Isn't Easy" from Oliver & Company, and thus completes her singing a villain song from each of her partner's movies. Well, Georgette isn't a villain in the movie, but she is against Oliver for a good part of the movie, plus that movie doesn't have a villain song. Either way, Aline will do anything to get to her goal, and that is why she keeps being cheap and sending people into dreamland instead of actually fighting them.
And that twist at the end! Ditto, under the disguise of Adam, was trying to take out Rachel to replace her, but Jasiri took the hit. Gabriel is distraught by this, but Marcy is a nice enough girl to sit this fight out to keep the teams fair. With emotions high on both sides, the semi-final fights are sure to be something else!