Chapter 3:

Hank and Jacob sat in the school's library during study hall, homework forgotten beside them, having a whispered debate.

"There's no way Chaor loses to Prince Mudeenu" Jacob hissed. "He's the ruler of the Underworld. Hundreds, no, thousands of soldiers at his command. Not to mention knowledge of the best and most powerful fire attacks in Perim"

"Mudeenu has soldiers too. AND they're invisible." Hank snapped back. "Know who else can turn invisible? Prince Mudeenu!" He smacked a hand on the table at this, immediately cringing at the outburst. No one else seemed bothered by the sudden noise, and he continued with a lower voice. "He's a master of guerilla tactics, too. He's like a VC of the desert."

"Doesn't matter. Chaor is always dealing with van Bloot trying to backstab him. You think he doesnt carry a pair of Spectral Viewers or a Song of Truesight with him at all times?" The argument kept going on for almost an hour, until the end of the period.

On the way to their lockers, Jacob finally said what had been bothering Hank all day, yet refused to admit. "You're not even mad that you lost. You're mad you got shut out."

Hank grumbled at his friend's observation, but didn't refute it. Instead he tossed a notebook in his locker and slammed the door. He had a match in Battledrome Tirasis the night before, and his team of Midpedians had lost soundly to an Underworld enthusiast. In the 6-on-6 match, he hadn't beaten one single enemy creature, losing all of his in ways that were humiliating, brutal, or both.

He had a series of brief mental flashbacks: the toadlike Toxis leaping onto Ario's chest, pinning him down and engulfing with him with it's noxious breath. The minotaur Rothar charging at Biondu with a massive axe, fury in his eyes. A living mass of magma bursting from the Lava Pond like Jaws, grabbing Zhade and dragging him into the caldera kicking and screaming.

The final blow to the burly boy was when he had tried to use the Song of Reversal to put Chaor in the path of his own Ember Swarm. The demonesque Underworlder ducked the attack as the notes finished playing, and countered with a Flame Orb, coding the Mipedian Prince. Upon demanding to know how the player predicted his move, she laughed in Hank's face and reminded him that the Song of Futuresight played earlier gave a brief glimpse of the end of the match. Ever since, he had been been in a foul mood, complaining about the beating his lizardfolk received.

"Why don't you just request a rematch?" his friend asked.

"Coach'll blow a gasket if I'm late to practice. I won't have time to go home and grab my scanner." The school has recently added cards and Code Scanners to their list of banned items, calling them "gambling paraphenalia". The two started getting into the habit of leaving their scanners at home, not sending themselves to Chaotic until after school in case something happened in Perim and needed to port back in a hurry.

"I didn't say it had to be right now. Doesn't even need to be today." Jacob leaned against his locker. "Tomorrow's Friday, take a day to get your head together, and send out the challenge tomorrow after school. That'll give you a day to make a plan, strategize, and the whole weekend to celebrate."

"Maybe." he agreed with a shrug. "I gotta go"

The team was shoving each other around and joking when he got down to the field, an activity that stopped when Coach Williams blew into his whistle and set them on warmups and stretches. He was still stewing during laps and his temper finally reached it's breaking point during tackle drills. Bad footing while driving a tackling dummy caused him to slip and, in a fit of anger, he swung a punch at it.

"Fallon!" The coach shouted, stomping over.

"Sorry, coach." Hank picked himself up and dusted the grass off his uniform, avoiding eye contact. "Bad day." Williams angry expressioned softened a small amount.

"I see that, just try not to take it out on the equipment, alright?" He took off his cap and wiped his brow. "It's one thing to be angry, but it's another to be so reckless you risk hurting yourself. Now, go take a lap and come back with a cooler head"

"Yes, sir" Hank set off at a brisk jog around the track while Coach blew his whistle and got everyone back on task.

Halfway around the track, his coach's words started to sink in. By the time he finished the lap, he was calm. When practice ended, he was smiling.

Jacob was in Chaotic, ejoying a burger, watching a match on one of the oversize monitors when Hank showed up.

"Hey, what's up?" Jacob set down his food, giving his friend a fist bump.

"I sent out the challenge. I need to be ready by tomorrow" Hank said, pulling up a seat and grabbing a french fry.

"Not waiting 'till the weekend?"

"Nope. Remember the mugic I picked up from Mommark last week when you were giving the new kid a tour? I never got around to showing it to you." Hank pulled out his orange scanner and brough it up on the screen. He slid the device over and waiting for his friend's reaction.

Jacob looked at the Mugic on display and did a double take. "Is this-?"

Hank nodded eagerly "Uh huh"

"Oh, that's too good! What else do you need?" Jacob asked with a laugh.

"I've got the creatures and mugic" Hank looked around conspiratorially and leaned over the table. "I can get the gear I need easy enough too, unless you know where I can find a Levitaar"

"Oh, yeah, I keep a flying car in my back pocket." Jacob quipped then paused. "Last time I was in Bodal's workshop, he was hiding something under a big tarp. It could've been one, but I can't get back in."

"Doesn't Ambassador Raznus have one?" Hank stole a few more fries.

Jacob pulled the plate away with a scowl. "You'd have to find him first. I dont have a scan of the Mount Pillar Embassy. And no, I'm not gonna go to get one."

The pair exchanged a dark look and Hank surpressed a shudder. Their first, last, and only expedition to the Danian tribe's home hadn't gone well, to say the least. They weren't even trying to scan anything, just explore the region. Neither one of them had any love for the tribe of giant humanoid ants since then.

"Fair enough. My match is at Tirasis in an hour" he grabed the plate and dragged it back. "What'll it take to get a Lake Ken-I-Po scan from you?"

"For starters, get your own food!"

"Feral_Ghuul, you have been challenged by Thondar-Struck to a 6-on-6 match." the mechanical voice of Battledrome Tirasis announced. "You will be the attacker. Please spin the location randomizer."

Across the arena stood a skinny girl with short green-dyed hair and punkish clothes; ripped jeans, heavy boots and a tanktop with a logo for a metal band he didn't recognize. She gave the dial a firm spin: it landed on an image of a huge hourglass-shaped column of stone supporting a massive cavern.

"Stone Pillar" the announcer continued in it's synthetic monotone. "Please choose the attacking and target creature"

"Rothar attacks Ribbian" She and Hank pressed their hands against their cards. A swirling mass of white-blue numbers and letters transformed the two from the ground up, the girl into a red minotaur in greek armor with a large axe, Hank into a muscular orange lizardman with blue shoulder, knee, and elbow pads.

A long hum and flash of light marked the transition from Battledrome to Stone Pillar, Ribbian finding himself near the ruins of a short stone building, half-collapsed from age or battle. His activated his battlegear, a circular device that spun rapidly and took off into the sky. While the Aerodrone searched for Rothar, Ribbian tapped into his Mipedian heritage, vanishing from veiw.

A crashing sound ahead made him narrow his gaze, a plume of smoke rising from a host of other outbuildings. With a bellow of fury, Rothar charged forth from the ruins, a mechanical lens attached to a skull strapped to his head. Through the invisibility-piercing of the Spectral Viewer, he looked directly at Ribbian and brought his axe crashing down with a cry of "Rock Wave!". The ground rippled where the axe struck, creating a blast of earth and stone that surged towards Ribbian.

"Wind Slash!" Thusting his hands out, Ribbian summoned a blast of air that pushed against the ground, launching him out of the way of the pile of rocks hurtling towards him. Rothar snarled at this, the eye of his battlegear whiring and focusing on the Mipedian scout.

"That's gotta go."

Back at the Port Court Jacob and the assembled onlookers watched two Mugic Counters vanish from Xelphe, one moving to a grey heptagon, the other to a red one, on Hank's side of the board.

"Chorus of Cothica! Discord of Disarming!"

A red glow engulfed Rothar's headgear as the Mugic took hold, causing it to sputter and smoke. Yanking it off, the gear exploded at the minotaur's feet and Rothar gave a grudging smile. Ribbian smiled back before vanishing again, dodging a spray of sharp stones.

"So far, so good." Hank thought, using Ribbian's claws to climb the side of a nearby building. Below, Rothar was smashing everything in sight trying to find his foe. He had just started moving into position behind him, when a low wail sounded out from behind a door at the base of the pillar. It was growing louder, or perhaps closer.

"What was that?" a bystander asked. A girl nearby supplied the answer.

"Stone Pillar is super haunted. It used to be a big Underworld Outpost until a Mugician went nuts and started attacking everyone."

"No, I heard the Mugician is protecting it after a bunch of Overworlders sacked it."

This kicked off a minor debate about the various rumors people had heard about the location. Jacob tried to shut them out and focus on the screen where Ribbian had just popped into veiw behind Rothar, alarm visible on his face.

Rothar turned at the noise coming from the pillar just in time to see the door burst open. A deep red Mugician, the spirits that allowed Mugic to be cast, made a beeline for the fighters. Ribbian leapt out of the way, but Rothar stood firm, allowing the spirit to collide with him, causing him to grunt in pain for just a moment before he turned back to the Mipedian.

"Melody of Malady!"

"Oh, crud" Ribbian muttered, watching the spirit leave Rothar's body, apparently under his control. It entered a heptagon-shaped ring of red quartz floating above Rothar, trigging a series of harsh cacophonous notes that left Ribbian's ears pounding as they reduced his energy. Rother, however, stood taller as the mugic removed dust and damge from his previous rampage.

"Now, where were we? Oh yeah: Ash Torrent!" Rothar opened his mouth and released a gout of burning ash like a dragon would breathe fire.

"Funnel Blast" Ribbian countered, spinning in place at high speed, blowing some of the ash back at Rothar, who coughed and choked.

"Thunder Shout!" the two screamed in unison. Powerful blasts of sound mixed with their yell, colliding in the air to trigger an explosion that lauched them both backwards.

Ribbian found himself back in the Battledrome while the punk girl looked equal parts amused and annoyed as he transformed back.

"Thought I had you back there." she eyed him curiously. "How'd you do it?"

Hank just winked at her in reply. Even if he lost now, at least it wasn't another shut out.

"Thondar-Struck, it is your move" the announcer reminded him.

"Right," Spinning the Location Randomizer, it landed on a picture of a small dessert settlement with a large well at it's center. "Viqtarr attacks Magmon at the Mipedian Dew Farm." Hank declared.

This transformation was a marked difference from the previous, the code enlarging his body taller and wider until Hank stood there in the form of a large bipedal grizzly bear wearing a kilt and sash with a blue eyepatch. Across from him, was a living mass of lava and obsidion in the rough shape of a human.

The sandy terrain was difficult for Viqtarr to traverse, being more comfortable in snowy forests, but it did make Magmon easier to track. All throughout the village were spots where Magmon's superheated body turned the sand into patches of glass.

"Need to draw him out" Hank thought to himself. Summoning his battlegear, a delicate harp, he strummed out a tune and declared "Song of Focus!" The notes of the Mugic echoed through the village, bathing Viqtarr in a gentle blue glue. The sound must've reached the Underworlder, since he stomped into Viqtarr's line of sight a minute later.

"Bad idea, giving away your position like that" he sneered.

"Did exactly what I meant it to" Viqtarr countered. The two stared at each other, like an Old West showdown.

"Lavalanche!" Magmon snapped, ejecting a powerful stream of molten rock from his chest. The attack struck true, coating Viqtarr and hardening around him. The bear-man simply grinned and flexed, cracks forming in the obsidion shell until it shattered, freeing him.

"Viqtarr can ignore damage from an attack if his stats are higher than his opponent's" Hank bragged in the beast's thick growl. "Good effort, though"

At this, Magmon growled furiously and fired off a salvo of attacks. Balls of fire, swarms of burning embers, and lashes with a burning whip collided with Viqtarr's blasts of icy wind and streams of water. The lava monster was so focused on attacking, blinded by steam from the combined elements that he didn't see the trick until it was too late.

With a shout of "Iron Balls!" Viqtarr's eyes shone brightly, launching a volley of heave metal orbs at Magmon, knocking the creature off balance. Staggering backwards, Magmon felt the edge of the well just before he tripped into it, sending up a gout of steam and code.

"Okay, now I know youre up to something" the girl declared once they were back in the Drome. " Even outside the Lava Pond, Magmon is no pushover."

Hank shrugged. "Guess I'm doing a better job keeping a cool head"

Another spin of the Randomizer set the battle at Underworld City, where it was decided that Chaor would attack Ribbian.

The massive capital of the the Underworld tribe was well known to most players, but Hank had few opportunities to visit, since the creatures there were mostly unfriendly to humans. Unfamiliar with the area as he was, the Areodrone was sent up once more to scout, while Ribban went invisible.

"Didn't we just do this dance a bit ago?" Chaor growled, stepping out of the shadows with a Spectral Viewer.

"I guess you're right." Moment of truth. "I hope you don't mine if I change the tune. Aria of Enragement!"

The final mugic counter vanished from Xelph, powering the Mugic targeting Chaor. Jacob perched on the edge of his seat while the people around him cheered for either side.

A yellow beam of light shot forth from the mugic to strike Chaor in the center of his forehead. His breathing started to quicken until he let out a shout that shook the surrounding buildings. With fury in his eyes, Chaor slowly advanced on the Mipedian, summoning a ball of fire in each hand. Ribbian backed away, eyes darting around for escape routes.

"You really thought you could take me!?" the leader of the Underworld roared. "All you've done is make me angry!"

"Yeah, that's kinda the point, bonehead." Ribbian leapt to the side as the the fireballs impacted where he had been standing. "I mean, you're angry, big deal." He ducked another pair of flaming spheres. "I get angry all the time. But eventually-" A fist made of green energy made him stop short, nearly taking his head off. "-you do something stupid and get hurt."

Chaor tilted his head curiously at this, the mugic still muddling his thoughts. A cracking sound made it way past his frustration and he realised what had happened. His attacks had weakened the stucture behind Ribbian, and it was starting to collapse. He turned to run.

"Oh, no. Vine Snare!" Ribban called out, summoning a tangle of thick plants to wrap around Chaor's legs while he ran from the crumbling building. Chaor fought with the vines, breaking from their hold not a moment too soon. The falling rock painfully striking his body, he rolled away from the rubble and summoned his goggles, scanning the area for the sneaky lizard.

An approaching whirring noise made Chaor spin around, striking out with his powerful tail. The appendage lengthened, wrapping around an incoming object, crushing it. Seeing the pieces of the destroyed Aerodrone lodged in his tail, Chaor struggled to force down his temper with a loud growl.

"Better, but you still shouldn't lash out like that." Ribbian was crouched atop atop a statue of the Underworlder, a memorial to one of his many achievements.

"No? How about like this? Viper Lash!" Chaor lunged forward and stretched out a hand, the nature of the attack turning his clawed fingers into venomous snakes that snapped forward to bite down on Ribbian. The blow struck hard and Ribbian yelped in pain, grabbing the head of one of the offending serpents.

"Lightning Burst!" He channeled the electricity of his attack into the snake, watching the surge of power travel down the animal's body and into Chaor, who shouted in pain before exploding into code.

"I'm on to you, now" the girl said inside the Battledrome. "You gave away your strategy when you used that Aria of Enragement." She crossed her arms over her chest and pouted a bit. "All my creatures have the Recklessness ability, they do a bit of damage to themselves when they attack, and you've been using it against them."

"But not Chaor", Hank pointed out. "Hence the Aria. Still, you got it."

She muttered something under her breath that would probably have the Codemasters banning her from the Battledromes for a week had it been any louder, and spun the Location Randomizer with a little more force than was necessary.

Barrath Beyond vs Viqtarr saw Hank's first loss of the match, the heat of the Lava Pond quickly overheating the grizzly under his thick fur coat. The robotic Underworlder had pummeled him mercilessly from atop his Viledriver, a bipedal weapons platform.

The next two rounds didn't go his way, either. Ario attacked Barrath Beyond at Mipedim Oasis where a lucky shot to Ario's Torwegg had him crash-landing only a minute into the fight. Barrath went on to attack Ribbian in the Underworld Colosseum where, with no battlegear or cover, he fell under a barrage of fire, despite disabling the Viledriver.

Prince Mudeenu's attack on Toxis broke the streak of losses when the Mipedian royal used his Cyclance to literally blow the frog away, launching him off a cliff at Ravanaugh Ridge. That victory was short-lived when Barrath Beyond attacked the Prince in the Underworld prison simply known as The Pits. Getting locked in a cell with...something resulted in nothing but a blast of code from the darkness behind the bars.

Xelphe on his Mowercycle made short work of Nauthilax, the aquatic swamp monster of an Underworlder drying out in the inhospitable desert while the Mipedian literally ran circles around him on the sawblade-esque vehicle. Barrath Beyond once again dominated the battle against Xelphe, the Viledriver's weapons easily overcoming the Mowercycle's speed in a vehicular tussle at the Passage between the Overworld and Underworld.

"I gotta say, your Barrath is getting on my nerves" Hank laughed "Seriously, you're a beast with that thing"

"You're one to talk." she said with a grin after transforming back. "You're pretty good when you're not all flustered."

Hank bit back the comment forming in his head, and instead chose to use the Location Randomizer. The result was a large building at the edge of a forest with a large tower seemingly carved from crystal.

"Yes, Castle Mommark!" Hank punched the air. "When this baby comes up, we can sacrifice a creature and return another one that was destroyed, to the board." He flipped through his list of coded creatures. "You want in?"

"I'll stick with a good thing, thanks"

"Your loss. Goodbye Najarin, hello Ribbian" He placed the wizened muge into the virtual discard pile, then pulled out the lizardman and placed it right next to Barrath Beyond.

"You know what happens next" Hank said, pressing his hand against the card.

The battle began for Ribbian in what Hank refered to as "The Zoo". No clue what Mommark called it, but it was a large room that held cages, tanks, and other enclosures the geneticist kept his creations in until he determined whether they were safe or not. Going invisible, he stealthily made his way though the building searching for Barrath.

Eventually, he found the Underworlder exiting one of Mommark's research rooms. He must've bumped something, or maybe it was a lucky guess, but Barrath rounded on him with a shout of "Power Pulse!", releasing blasts of energy from his palms. The shot knocked Ribbian down and out of his invisibility.

He countered with his latent aerokinetic powers, summoning a gust of hampering winds to slow Barrath down. Over the sound of rushing air, Ribbian shouted "You like that Aria before? Meet it's big brother: Carnivore's Keening!"

The triggering notes of the Mugic washed over Barrath, but something was different. He seemed to swell with power, standing taller and pushing back against the gale-force winds.

In the Port Court, Jacob's jaw dropped as the effect of the mugic raised Barrath Beyond's energy to a whopping 80 points! "I don't wanna know why Mommark had that, but I want one" he thought to himself.

Barrath advanced on Ribbian, treating the raging storm as little more than an inconvenient breeze. The Mipedian took a few steps back while maintaining the winds, but decided a stategic retreat was in order. He cut off the attack and dashed into a room, slamming the door.

A fireball obliterated the door frame and the spectators of the match watched as Barrath's energy went down by 20 points.

"Wait, what happened?"

"He didn't even hit back"

Jacob filled in the confused viewers. "The mugic Hank used gave Barrath a big energy boost, but it also ramped up his recklessness. Every time Barrath attacks now, he'll lose even more of his energy."

A bolt of lightning shot through the shattered door just missing Barreth and he retaliated by filling the hallway with flames shot from his hands, advancing into the room as he went. When the conflagration died down, the room was empty, save for charred bookshelves, warped metal tables, shattered glassware and a single open window.

Leaning his head out the window revealed a two story drop, no sign of the wily reptile. A blow to the top of his head changed that opinion and he had to grip the windowsill to avoid falling out. Ribbian was clinging to the wall above him and raining down blows with a clawed foot.

"Thats enough!" Barrath grabbed Ribbian by the tail and pulled, detatching him from the wall and throwing him to the ground. Ribbian reached out and shot lengths of vines from his hands to stop the fall and missed his mark, wrapping them around Barrath's torso. This started a small struggle where Barrath tried to shake him off and Ribbian held on even tighter until Barrath got fed up and simply started throwing fireballs down at him.

There was shower of code and both humans blinked at each other across the Battledrome.

"W-what just happened?" Hank asked.

"The match is a draw" the drome announcer declared.

"No way!"

"How?"

"Barrath Beyond's Flame Orb reduced Ribbian's energy to zero. Barrath Beyond's energy was reduced to zero in the same attack by its own Recklessness ability"

This statement was met with silence as they pocessed this, oblivious to the jeers of the battle's witnesses in the Port Court who were upset by the lack of a clear winner.

The pair left the drome together, neither saying anything to the other until they were outside.

"I gotta say, Feral_Ghuul, that was pretty good"

"Back at'cha, Thondar-Struck" she emphasised his screen name in a light teasing tone.

He took the hint. "Hank" he said holding out a hand. She shook it.

"Monica"

Hank paused, his mouth suddenly dry. "You wanna walk with me back to the Port Court? Maybe get a pizza?"

Monica gave him a small smile. "Sure."

Author notes: Trying to write a full 6v6 match was mentally exhausting; it's left me burnt out on fight scenes for the time being. Next week, we go back to Perim!