Okay everybody, first off I want to say I'm SO SORRY!!! I haven't updated
for nearly two months! But my computer's been having issues, so it's been
tough trying to finish this chapter. And just so nobody is too mad at me,
I've made this chapter a bit longer than usual. Oh and before I forget,
thank you all so much for your patience! Anyway, my time is limited, so on
with the thank yous:
LI'AIN: Nicole is a great character and quite unmanageable! I have a hard time writing her parts because of that! And the tournament begins this chapter, so go ahead and read!
JASON Q: Thank you and thanks for telling me who Sookie is. hope I'll remember that. *sweatdrops*
SANA JISUSHI: Thank you so much! I haven't seen the entire Digimon Tamers series, only the first three episodes, but wasn't Matsuda Takato's last name?
LUINTHORON (MAREK): It was? I can't wait either! This is an impulsive work of fan fiction: I have no plans, just ideas and outlines!
MUGEN: It's okay, I haven't updated, so no sweat. Thank you! And the tournament begins here!
WANDERING KITSUNE: You're right! Madison's character is molded after me. And here's more!
MIDNIGHT FAIRY: HA! I'm still here! And just so you can shut up, here's a longer chapter. So you better review or else I'll sick Jaelyn on you! *cackles maniacally*
JAMFASE: All right, all right! Can I have some air while you read? Here's more! And as soon as I can, I will finish reading your story and leave some nice, longish reviews okay? *throws water on the fainted Jamfase* Ano, are you okay now? I've updated!
THE INSANE OTAKU AKA CATERFREE: Yay! You were right! About what escapes me, but I'm happy for ya anyhow! The tournament initially begins here, but it won't officially start for another chapter or so. I hope you like the way I've laid it out; it's a bit different from standard Angelic Layer Tournaments as we know them. And thank you, I will go the Chan because he's the man, and Jet Lee will let them all see. um, so yeah. *sweatdrops* Read!
SPOOTASIA TOMOE: Thank you! Me neither. It's been uphill work for me, I mean Ryoko to plan this tournament. *winks* I hope they do too! Keep your fingers crossed!
DR. THINKER: Thank you! =^_^=
ANA DIAZ: You're back! *huggles*And to think that I thought you'd forgotten about me! *pouts* I can't wait either, so guess what? You don't have to! The Nationals begin right here!
MILLENIUM MUTANT: Awww. thank you! *huggles* That's so nice of you to say! Let me know when you get your fic up ok? Then I can go read it! *claps giddily* And I love my Angels so I try to do them justice. Wait no more, here it is!
JASON Q: Okay, here it is!
Okay I think that's all the thank yous for now. And I want to give a big thank you to all of my new reviewers *huggles all newcomers extra tight* So now since I don't have a lot of time, I don't own the concept of Angelic Layer, Icchan or Ogata, but Madison, Tia, Celeste, Ryoko, Shota, Sam, Heather and any other OC's belong to me, okay? So please don't use them! On to Battle 8!
*CHAPTER 8*
In the next two weeks, school was let out for the summer, and naturally all talk turned right to the Nationals. The identities of the chosen deuces were know all over and already bets were being placed on the winner of the entire tournament. Nicole St. James was a popular favorite to win among some of the others.
Madison and Tia were aware of the speculation about the participants in the Nationals, but neither was too worried. Instead, they practiced everyday, sometimes together, sometimes alone, but always supporting each other.
The day before the Nationals started found the girls at the beach. The afternoon sun had been too tempting to resist, so Tia had suggested that they rollerblade down the boardwalk. Madison agreed happily and now they sat on the edge of the walk, musing about the Nationals.
"It seems as if the Nationals came so quickly," Tia said, twirling a dark curl around one index finger.
"Tell me about it," Madison agreed. "To me it's like only yesterday that we got our Angel Invites."
Closing her eyes against the soft sea breeze, Tia sighed.
"Do you think we're ready?" she asked.
Madison's gray eyes flew open. "Of course we are, silly!" she replied, poking her best friend in the side with her elbow a little too roughly. With a muffled shriek, Tia fell over sideways.
"Oops, sorry! Are you okay?" Madison took her friend by the arm and hoisted her up. Then she knotted her hands in her lap, her legs stuck straight out.
"Yeah. But then again, I'm used to it by now," Tia said, rubbing her arm lightly. They smiled and were silent until Madison spoke.
"Tia, we've practiced a lot. You know that." Madison stopped and peered at her friend through black bangs. "The only thing we need to do now is believe. In our Angels and ourselves. We have to believe that Celeste and Destiny will see us through this tournament."
"I guess you're right. But what about the other Deuces? What if..."
"It doesn't matter. If you truly believe, you and your Angel can do anything."
Tia smiled. "Anything?" she asked.
"Anything." Madison smiled and stood up. "Besides," she said with a twinkle in her eye, "I've watched so many gymnastics tournaments and Jackie Chan movies that I can't lose!"
She pumped a fist in the air, lost her balance, and fell on her butt. Tia laughed as she got up to help her friend.
"How can you expect to win if you can't keep your balance, Twinkle Toes?" she teased.
Madison grinned sheepishly. "Nobody's perfect," she retorted. "I know, let's go get ice cream, okay?" Black hair flying behind her, Madison took off down the boardwalk.
For a moment, Tia stood still. I wish I were as confident as you, Madison, she thought. Then she shook off her sober expression, and took off to catch up with her overzealous friend.
~*^*^*~
"This whole Tournament is going to be quite a task," Shota said to Ryoko as they checked out last minute details before the Nationals began the next day.
"I know that, but the most difficult part of the process is finished. We have the top 20 deuces in the entire country. If you recall, it wasn't an easy process," Ryoko said, her shoulders heaving as she sighed. Then she perked right back up.
"But now the fun begins," she said mischievously, grinning a slightly sinister grin that would have creeped almost anyone else out, but not Shota. He was somewhat used to her theatrics and merely smiled at them.
For as long as he'd known Ryoko, Shota had seen many sides of her and no matter how strange her newest quirk was, he was forever loyal to her, according to their long-standing agreement. Truth was, Shota was very fond of Ryoko, quirky as she was. He knew that she wasn't really as addlepated as she made herself out to be. A brilliant marketing genius with quite a few very favorable recommendations under her belt at the young age of twenty-four, Ryoko was definitely someone to be reckoned with.
It was she who suggested the import of Angelic Layer to America and had spearheaded the entire process, from start to initial finish, tirelessly working around the clock to do so. The American launch of Angelic Layer was headed by Ryoko, who had only to answer to the creator of the game, known to all as Chief Icchan. Otherwise, she had leave to do exactly as she wished.
For a moment, Ryoko was totally silent for once. Then she burst out.
"I'm so excited! I almost can't wait to see how our little American Deuces fare in the tournament," she said clapping her hands giddily.
"The whole system is a bit different than the Tournament proceedings in Japan," Shota said without looking up from the papers he was sifting through.
"I know. From what I gather, these deuces are used to the way things work in the Japanese tournaments."
"But it won't be exactly the same, right?"
"Nope. For one thing, we'll be using the regular Angel Layers in the preliminaries. They won't know that we're using the 'special' Layers in the Finals Blocks until they're actually going to fight."
"Well then, is Chief Icchan going to show up for the preliminaries?"
Ryoko shook her head. "Nope. He's going to be at the actual Finals Blocks. And by then all of the remaining Deuces will be the ones truly worthy of really battling, heart and soul."
Shota chuckled. "You're not going to let them relax, are you Ryoko?" he asked good-naturedly.
Shaking her head vigorously, Ryoko answered, "No way! They've got to work. Angelic Layer isn't just a game; it's believing in yourself to go as far as you want to."
Instead of doing something offbeat, Ryoko merely sighed again and shut off her computer. Shota was surprised to see that her last comment had been a serious one, but then again, you just never could tell with Ryoko.
"Do me a favor, Shota. Please close up after you've finished filing, okay?" she said, turning back to look at her assistant, her ponytail swishing over her shoulders saucily. Then she was gone.
Shota smiled to himself and continued his work.
~*^*^*~
The first morning of the Nationals, Madison was actually up early for once. After brushing her teeth, she stood in front of her closet in her baggy blue celestial patterned pajama pants and a white t-shirt, deciding what to wear.
Finally she decided on baggy white 3/4 length cargo pants and layered a tie-dyed blue and purple spaghetti strap tank top over a turquoise blue one. She got dressed and slipped her feet into a pair of blue and purple beaded flip-flops and dashed downstairs... only to knock into Sam.
"Watch it, shrimp!" she snapped in a nasty voice. Madison opened her mouth to tell her older stepsibling a thing or two, but her mother intervened quickly.
"That's enough Samantha," said Reese Williams, " I don't want to hear you speaking to your sister like that."
Sam snarled, "She's not my real sister."
Madison and Heather, who had just entered the kitchen by way of the back stairs, held their breath unconsciously. Both knew from experience never, ever to cross their mother at any cost. Reese was a kind and gentle woman, but she had a bit of a temper and wouldn't hesitate to deliver justice wherever and whenever she felt it was due
Reese's head snapped up and she stared hard at her stepdaughter. "Young lady, do you want to discuss this any further?" she asked Sam in a calm, venomous tone that spelled trouble for anyone on the receiving end of it.
Sam narrowed her eyes and locked stares with her stepmother for a moment. Then she looked away, tossing her long, shiny hair over her shoulder in an annoyed gesture.
"No," she replied shortly.
"Good." Reese turned back to her laptop and continued her work as Sam flounced huffily upstairs.
"What a pain," Madison muttered. She reached into the warming drawer below the oven and pulled out a plate of thick, steaming, golden Belgian waffles. Forking two onto her plate, Madison took a seat at the kitchen table, which was more like a booth in a restaurant, where bottles of milk, orange juice, and maple syrup were set up.
Heather soon followed suit and sat opposite Madison. "Don't be so hard on her, Madison," she said as she took a bite of waffle drenched in syrup.
"Who? Sam?" Madison raised an eyebrow and a stormy expression darkened her grey eyes.
"Yes, Sam. She's having a hard time."
"You mean she's giving the rest of us a hard time," Madison retorted, spearing the last piece of her first waffle with her fork, shoving it into her mouth and starting in on the second one as she chewed viciously, wishing it was Sam she was tearing to bits instead of the poor innocent waffle.
"True," Heather said. The sisters ate in silence for a few minutes. Then Heather finished her one particularly thick waffle and stood up from the table.
"Never mind," she said, smiling at Madison. "Don't worry about Sam. You've got enough to think about what with the Nationals."
Dropping her fork, Madison's eyes grew huge as she choked on her food and immediately began coughing. "AHHHHH!!! What time is it?! Why didn't you guys tell me?! I'll be late!" she ranted, miraculously recovered from her coughing fit in a few moments, as she hastily swallowed what was left of her waffle and dashed to the sink.
"It's nearly 9:30," Reese said calmly, eyeing her daughter over the screen of her laptop.
"9:30?! THE NATIONALS START AT 10:15! THAT'S IT! I AM LATE!!!" Madison wailed.
"Calm down, squirt," Heather laughed. "You go ahead and I'll fix the dishes, ok?"
"Oh thank you so much! You rock!" Madison hugged Heather from behind and rushed upstairs. She grabbed a turquoise blue zip-up hoodie, pounced on her small lavender messenger bag and put it over her shoulder, picked up Celeste and ran back downstairs and out the door.
"Bye everybody! I'll be back. um whenever!" she shouted.
"Just call before you come back! And good luck Madison!" Reese called.
~*^*^*~
Madison barely made it to Piffle Princess by 10:00. Tia was waiting for her with Destiny perched on her arm. Dressed in a blue flowered minidress with a white orchid in her loose curly hair, she looked pretty as usual and ready for anything the day or the tournament threw at her.
"Took you long enough," Tia admonished giving her best friend a hug.
"Sorry. I forgot about the time," Madison placed Celeste on her shoulder and took Tia's arm.
Tia giggled. "I take it that you're ready to go then?" she said as the girls headed off to the Piffle Princess U.S.A. entrance.
"You bet! Let's show everyone how we do Angelic Layer!" The girls entered the lobby, which teemed with eighteen other deuces, almost all of whom were talking a mile a minute, each with a unique Angel perched on either a shoulder or an arm.
"Wow this place is like a madhouse," Tia said as she and Madison navigated their way to the sign in counter. Madison nodded, carefully making sure that the crowd did not knock Celeste off of her shoulder.
"Hello ladies, and welcome to the Preliminaries for the Angelic Layer National American Tournament," a lady clerk in a variation of the usual nurse costume of Piffle Princess employees said pleasantly.
"I'll need to see your Angel Invites please," the lady continued. Tia and Madison pulled out their Invites and showed them to the clerk. She typed some information into her computer and turned back to the girls.
"Tia Adams and Madison Williams, right?" The girls nodded.
"Yup, that's us!" Madison chirped. The clerk smiled.
"Okay and your Angels are Destiny and Celeste? I'll need to see them and check the authenticity." The Angels were handed over and scanned through the tiny barcode located on the back of each Angel's neck.
"That's it! You girls are all set," the clerk said carefully handing the Angels back to their respective Deus.
"Thank you!" Madison and Tia chorused. As they walked away from the counter, Madison just happened to run into Ryoko.
"Madison! You made it," Ryoko exclaimed, hugging the grey-eyed girl.
"I sure did! Oh and before I forget, this is my very best friend, Tia Adams. Tia this is Ryoko," Madison introduced.
"It's nice to meet you Ryoko," Tia said extending a hand which Ryoko grasped warmly.
"Same here," she laughed. "But listen girls, I have to go ahead and get things started here, so I'll talk to you later." Ryoko winked at the girls before dashing off.
"Attention, all Deuces." Everyone in the lobby stopped talking and focused on the voice coming from the loud speaker.
"Welcome to the Angelic Layer National American Tournament! Congratulations on being selected as the elite Deuces in the country. But your journey is far from over in this Tournament.
"Your first challenge will be an elimination round, known as the preliminaries. Only half of you will be able to continue on to the Nationals. The preliminaries will consist of ten battles between matched deuces. Each of you will only have one battle, meaning that you will be eliminated if you lose your preliminary match.
"Please look to the information screen nearest you in order to find out who your opponent will be, then head to the minor tournament arena on the third level. On behalf of Piffle Princess U.S.A., I would like to wish you all good luck. And please give this battle your very best effort."
The speaker clicked off and everyone headed to the screens and began filtering out of the lobby and up to the arena.
Tia peered at the screen. "I'm battling Deus Maria Alcantar and Angel Marguerite," she told Madison who had to squint at the screen in order to read it since she didn't feel like digging around in her bag for her glasses.
"I've battled Marguerite before. She's a power type, so be careful," Madison warned, finally finding her name on the screen.
"Let's see. Deus Camden Weiss and Angel Sara," she said to Tia.
"Then the next thing to do is go," said the curly-haired girl practically.
~*^*^*~
When the girls were upstairs, they found out that the preliminary matches were held in alphabetical order by the last name of each Deus. There were two Layers so that there could be two battles taking place at once.
Tia was the first match due to her name. "Oi, wish me luck Madison," she said taking a deep breath and stepping up to the Layer.
"Good luck Tia! Hi Maria!" Madison shrieked. Both girls gave her a quick salute and took their places at opposite ends of the Layer.
The referee, wearing a white uniform with the Piffle Princess logo on the breast pocket stood by one edge of the Layer that was regular but much larger than the practice ones, about five feet long and four feet wide, making it an almost perfect circle.
"Angels to the Layer," the referee said. Maria and Tia put on their visors, switched them on, and prepared to toss their Angels in the Layer.
"Marguerite let the grace of the peacock be your wings! Angel fall in!" said Maria as she tossed her Angel into the Layer. Marguerite leaped into the Layer, gracefully landing on her feet, her blue-green eyes snapping open alertly.
"Destiny let your graceful dancing steal their hearts! Angel fall in!" Tia tossed her Angel towards the Layer. Destiny catapulted forward and pirouetted into the Layer landing perfectly en Pointe on the tips of her toes, then moved into the second position with her arms arched gracefully over her head. Her light green eyes fluttered open and a sweet expression crossed the Angel's face.
"Angelic FIGHT!!!" True to her style, Marguerite rushed Destiny, who deftly leapt out of harm's way. Countering more quickly than she should have, Marguerite spun around and aimed a kick at Destiny's side. Throwing her arms up as a guard, Destiny succeeded in blocking the kick, but skidded back. Quickly using her knees to stop herself, Destiny managed to stay in the Layer.
Marguerite attacked again and charged at full speed. Initially caught off guard with no time to counter, Destiny took a massive hit as her opponent threw a punch that connected with her stomach. Each Deus had a different expression: Maria's was slightly smug as Marguerite continued to charge; Tia set her teeth in concentration on Destiny's fallen form, willing her Angel to get up and shake off the damage.
Barely able to find time to recuperate, Destiny managed to leap up and continuously maneuver herself out of the way of the onslaught until she was ready to attack.
The ballet Angel rose on her toes and sidestepped another punch from Marguerite, leaping into the air and spin kicking her opponent in the neck. The peacock angel went flying, but not too far and was able to recover. Twisting her body out of the descent, Marguerite landed like a cat on its haunches, using her fist to grind herself to a halt.
Both Angels stood on opposite ends of the Layer, staring at each other for a moment. In a split second, Tia and Maria sent their Angels streaking to the center of the Layer. Tricking Destiny into thinking that she was going to try another punch, Marguerite drop kicked her opponent and grabbed a hold of her ankle once Destiny had lost her balance.
Tia knew that if she let Marguerite keep her hold on Destiny's ankle, her Angel would be thrown out of the Layer easily, since Destiny was much lighter and smaller than Marguerite.
In order to save herself, Destiny quickly bent her knee, stretched her leg and pointed her toes, scoring a kick to Marguerite's chin, causing the peacock angel to lose her grip on the captured limb. Destiny double back flipped away from Marguerite, and landed perfectly on her toes. With a series of lightning fast spin kicks delivered en pointe, Destiny gave her opponent no chance of escaping her attack.
A final backwards kick was enough to force Marguerite out of the Layer.
"Layer out! Destiny wins!" the referee called. Maria and Tia pulled off their visors and picked up their Angels from the Layer.
"Congratulations on winning," Maria said, shaking hands with Tia.
"Thanks. You and Marguerite scared me for a while there, though. You were great too," Tia said warmly. Maria chuckled and ducked her head in an odd gesture and when she looked back up, Tia could see tears in the other girl's eyes.
"Hey, what's wrong?" said the curly haired girl.
Maria shook her head and blinked rapidly. "I'm okay," she said, her voice a bit shaky. "It's normal to feel bad when you lose, so please don't worry. Just do your best in the Nationals."
Tia's brows knitted themselves, then she smiled brightly. "Tell, you what Maria," she said, eyes shining in sympathy, "I'll do just that. Not only for my sake, but for yours too."
Then it was Maria's turn to smile. "Then I'll be rooting for you in the Nationals. You too Madison!" she exclaimed, acknowledging her previous opponent who had come over to them during the short conversation.
"We'll look for you!" Madison and Tia chorused. Maria waved and walked off, while Madison bounced around, congratulating Tia on her victory.
"I told you that you could do it!" said the grey-eyed girl said, grabbing her best friend in a stifling bear hug.
"Can't. breathe." Tia gasped as her face turned slightly blue. Madison immediately let go of her and shrieked.
"Are you okay? I'm SO sorry!" she said patting Tia on her back worriedly.
"Like I've told you, I'm used to it so don't sweat it," Tia replied, straightening her glasses and smiling at Madison.
Grinning back, Madison folded her hands behind her and shook her lavender bangs out of her eyes.
"I can't wait until it's my turn to fight," she muttered, already impatient to get to the Layer and face her opponent.
I won't lose this early in the tournament, she thought. Just wait and see.
*END BATTLE 8*
So the Nationals have begun with the preliminary round and Tia has secured her place in the top ten, but will Madison fare the same? And where does Nicole come in? Tune in to the next battle to find out! Don't forget to review! Oh and if you know anybody who loves Angelic Layer, tell them about this fic! Ja ne minna-san until next battle!
LI'AIN: Nicole is a great character and quite unmanageable! I have a hard time writing her parts because of that! And the tournament begins this chapter, so go ahead and read!
JASON Q: Thank you and thanks for telling me who Sookie is. hope I'll remember that. *sweatdrops*
SANA JISUSHI: Thank you so much! I haven't seen the entire Digimon Tamers series, only the first three episodes, but wasn't Matsuda Takato's last name?
LUINTHORON (MAREK): It was? I can't wait either! This is an impulsive work of fan fiction: I have no plans, just ideas and outlines!
MUGEN: It's okay, I haven't updated, so no sweat. Thank you! And the tournament begins here!
WANDERING KITSUNE: You're right! Madison's character is molded after me. And here's more!
MIDNIGHT FAIRY: HA! I'm still here! And just so you can shut up, here's a longer chapter. So you better review or else I'll sick Jaelyn on you! *cackles maniacally*
JAMFASE: All right, all right! Can I have some air while you read? Here's more! And as soon as I can, I will finish reading your story and leave some nice, longish reviews okay? *throws water on the fainted Jamfase* Ano, are you okay now? I've updated!
THE INSANE OTAKU AKA CATERFREE: Yay! You were right! About what escapes me, but I'm happy for ya anyhow! The tournament initially begins here, but it won't officially start for another chapter or so. I hope you like the way I've laid it out; it's a bit different from standard Angelic Layer Tournaments as we know them. And thank you, I will go the Chan because he's the man, and Jet Lee will let them all see. um, so yeah. *sweatdrops* Read!
SPOOTASIA TOMOE: Thank you! Me neither. It's been uphill work for me, I mean Ryoko to plan this tournament. *winks* I hope they do too! Keep your fingers crossed!
DR. THINKER: Thank you! =^_^=
ANA DIAZ: You're back! *huggles*And to think that I thought you'd forgotten about me! *pouts* I can't wait either, so guess what? You don't have to! The Nationals begin right here!
MILLENIUM MUTANT: Awww. thank you! *huggles* That's so nice of you to say! Let me know when you get your fic up ok? Then I can go read it! *claps giddily* And I love my Angels so I try to do them justice. Wait no more, here it is!
JASON Q: Okay, here it is!
Okay I think that's all the thank yous for now. And I want to give a big thank you to all of my new reviewers *huggles all newcomers extra tight* So now since I don't have a lot of time, I don't own the concept of Angelic Layer, Icchan or Ogata, but Madison, Tia, Celeste, Ryoko, Shota, Sam, Heather and any other OC's belong to me, okay? So please don't use them! On to Battle 8!
*CHAPTER 8*
In the next two weeks, school was let out for the summer, and naturally all talk turned right to the Nationals. The identities of the chosen deuces were know all over and already bets were being placed on the winner of the entire tournament. Nicole St. James was a popular favorite to win among some of the others.
Madison and Tia were aware of the speculation about the participants in the Nationals, but neither was too worried. Instead, they practiced everyday, sometimes together, sometimes alone, but always supporting each other.
The day before the Nationals started found the girls at the beach. The afternoon sun had been too tempting to resist, so Tia had suggested that they rollerblade down the boardwalk. Madison agreed happily and now they sat on the edge of the walk, musing about the Nationals.
"It seems as if the Nationals came so quickly," Tia said, twirling a dark curl around one index finger.
"Tell me about it," Madison agreed. "To me it's like only yesterday that we got our Angel Invites."
Closing her eyes against the soft sea breeze, Tia sighed.
"Do you think we're ready?" she asked.
Madison's gray eyes flew open. "Of course we are, silly!" she replied, poking her best friend in the side with her elbow a little too roughly. With a muffled shriek, Tia fell over sideways.
"Oops, sorry! Are you okay?" Madison took her friend by the arm and hoisted her up. Then she knotted her hands in her lap, her legs stuck straight out.
"Yeah. But then again, I'm used to it by now," Tia said, rubbing her arm lightly. They smiled and were silent until Madison spoke.
"Tia, we've practiced a lot. You know that." Madison stopped and peered at her friend through black bangs. "The only thing we need to do now is believe. In our Angels and ourselves. We have to believe that Celeste and Destiny will see us through this tournament."
"I guess you're right. But what about the other Deuces? What if..."
"It doesn't matter. If you truly believe, you and your Angel can do anything."
Tia smiled. "Anything?" she asked.
"Anything." Madison smiled and stood up. "Besides," she said with a twinkle in her eye, "I've watched so many gymnastics tournaments and Jackie Chan movies that I can't lose!"
She pumped a fist in the air, lost her balance, and fell on her butt. Tia laughed as she got up to help her friend.
"How can you expect to win if you can't keep your balance, Twinkle Toes?" she teased.
Madison grinned sheepishly. "Nobody's perfect," she retorted. "I know, let's go get ice cream, okay?" Black hair flying behind her, Madison took off down the boardwalk.
For a moment, Tia stood still. I wish I were as confident as you, Madison, she thought. Then she shook off her sober expression, and took off to catch up with her overzealous friend.
~*^*^*~
"This whole Tournament is going to be quite a task," Shota said to Ryoko as they checked out last minute details before the Nationals began the next day.
"I know that, but the most difficult part of the process is finished. We have the top 20 deuces in the entire country. If you recall, it wasn't an easy process," Ryoko said, her shoulders heaving as she sighed. Then she perked right back up.
"But now the fun begins," she said mischievously, grinning a slightly sinister grin that would have creeped almost anyone else out, but not Shota. He was somewhat used to her theatrics and merely smiled at them.
For as long as he'd known Ryoko, Shota had seen many sides of her and no matter how strange her newest quirk was, he was forever loyal to her, according to their long-standing agreement. Truth was, Shota was very fond of Ryoko, quirky as she was. He knew that she wasn't really as addlepated as she made herself out to be. A brilliant marketing genius with quite a few very favorable recommendations under her belt at the young age of twenty-four, Ryoko was definitely someone to be reckoned with.
It was she who suggested the import of Angelic Layer to America and had spearheaded the entire process, from start to initial finish, tirelessly working around the clock to do so. The American launch of Angelic Layer was headed by Ryoko, who had only to answer to the creator of the game, known to all as Chief Icchan. Otherwise, she had leave to do exactly as she wished.
For a moment, Ryoko was totally silent for once. Then she burst out.
"I'm so excited! I almost can't wait to see how our little American Deuces fare in the tournament," she said clapping her hands giddily.
"The whole system is a bit different than the Tournament proceedings in Japan," Shota said without looking up from the papers he was sifting through.
"I know. From what I gather, these deuces are used to the way things work in the Japanese tournaments."
"But it won't be exactly the same, right?"
"Nope. For one thing, we'll be using the regular Angel Layers in the preliminaries. They won't know that we're using the 'special' Layers in the Finals Blocks until they're actually going to fight."
"Well then, is Chief Icchan going to show up for the preliminaries?"
Ryoko shook her head. "Nope. He's going to be at the actual Finals Blocks. And by then all of the remaining Deuces will be the ones truly worthy of really battling, heart and soul."
Shota chuckled. "You're not going to let them relax, are you Ryoko?" he asked good-naturedly.
Shaking her head vigorously, Ryoko answered, "No way! They've got to work. Angelic Layer isn't just a game; it's believing in yourself to go as far as you want to."
Instead of doing something offbeat, Ryoko merely sighed again and shut off her computer. Shota was surprised to see that her last comment had been a serious one, but then again, you just never could tell with Ryoko.
"Do me a favor, Shota. Please close up after you've finished filing, okay?" she said, turning back to look at her assistant, her ponytail swishing over her shoulders saucily. Then she was gone.
Shota smiled to himself and continued his work.
~*^*^*~
The first morning of the Nationals, Madison was actually up early for once. After brushing her teeth, she stood in front of her closet in her baggy blue celestial patterned pajama pants and a white t-shirt, deciding what to wear.
Finally she decided on baggy white 3/4 length cargo pants and layered a tie-dyed blue and purple spaghetti strap tank top over a turquoise blue one. She got dressed and slipped her feet into a pair of blue and purple beaded flip-flops and dashed downstairs... only to knock into Sam.
"Watch it, shrimp!" she snapped in a nasty voice. Madison opened her mouth to tell her older stepsibling a thing or two, but her mother intervened quickly.
"That's enough Samantha," said Reese Williams, " I don't want to hear you speaking to your sister like that."
Sam snarled, "She's not my real sister."
Madison and Heather, who had just entered the kitchen by way of the back stairs, held their breath unconsciously. Both knew from experience never, ever to cross their mother at any cost. Reese was a kind and gentle woman, but she had a bit of a temper and wouldn't hesitate to deliver justice wherever and whenever she felt it was due
Reese's head snapped up and she stared hard at her stepdaughter. "Young lady, do you want to discuss this any further?" she asked Sam in a calm, venomous tone that spelled trouble for anyone on the receiving end of it.
Sam narrowed her eyes and locked stares with her stepmother for a moment. Then she looked away, tossing her long, shiny hair over her shoulder in an annoyed gesture.
"No," she replied shortly.
"Good." Reese turned back to her laptop and continued her work as Sam flounced huffily upstairs.
"What a pain," Madison muttered. She reached into the warming drawer below the oven and pulled out a plate of thick, steaming, golden Belgian waffles. Forking two onto her plate, Madison took a seat at the kitchen table, which was more like a booth in a restaurant, where bottles of milk, orange juice, and maple syrup were set up.
Heather soon followed suit and sat opposite Madison. "Don't be so hard on her, Madison," she said as she took a bite of waffle drenched in syrup.
"Who? Sam?" Madison raised an eyebrow and a stormy expression darkened her grey eyes.
"Yes, Sam. She's having a hard time."
"You mean she's giving the rest of us a hard time," Madison retorted, spearing the last piece of her first waffle with her fork, shoving it into her mouth and starting in on the second one as she chewed viciously, wishing it was Sam she was tearing to bits instead of the poor innocent waffle.
"True," Heather said. The sisters ate in silence for a few minutes. Then Heather finished her one particularly thick waffle and stood up from the table.
"Never mind," she said, smiling at Madison. "Don't worry about Sam. You've got enough to think about what with the Nationals."
Dropping her fork, Madison's eyes grew huge as she choked on her food and immediately began coughing. "AHHHHH!!! What time is it?! Why didn't you guys tell me?! I'll be late!" she ranted, miraculously recovered from her coughing fit in a few moments, as she hastily swallowed what was left of her waffle and dashed to the sink.
"It's nearly 9:30," Reese said calmly, eyeing her daughter over the screen of her laptop.
"9:30?! THE NATIONALS START AT 10:15! THAT'S IT! I AM LATE!!!" Madison wailed.
"Calm down, squirt," Heather laughed. "You go ahead and I'll fix the dishes, ok?"
"Oh thank you so much! You rock!" Madison hugged Heather from behind and rushed upstairs. She grabbed a turquoise blue zip-up hoodie, pounced on her small lavender messenger bag and put it over her shoulder, picked up Celeste and ran back downstairs and out the door.
"Bye everybody! I'll be back. um whenever!" she shouted.
"Just call before you come back! And good luck Madison!" Reese called.
~*^*^*~
Madison barely made it to Piffle Princess by 10:00. Tia was waiting for her with Destiny perched on her arm. Dressed in a blue flowered minidress with a white orchid in her loose curly hair, she looked pretty as usual and ready for anything the day or the tournament threw at her.
"Took you long enough," Tia admonished giving her best friend a hug.
"Sorry. I forgot about the time," Madison placed Celeste on her shoulder and took Tia's arm.
Tia giggled. "I take it that you're ready to go then?" she said as the girls headed off to the Piffle Princess U.S.A. entrance.
"You bet! Let's show everyone how we do Angelic Layer!" The girls entered the lobby, which teemed with eighteen other deuces, almost all of whom were talking a mile a minute, each with a unique Angel perched on either a shoulder or an arm.
"Wow this place is like a madhouse," Tia said as she and Madison navigated their way to the sign in counter. Madison nodded, carefully making sure that the crowd did not knock Celeste off of her shoulder.
"Hello ladies, and welcome to the Preliminaries for the Angelic Layer National American Tournament," a lady clerk in a variation of the usual nurse costume of Piffle Princess employees said pleasantly.
"I'll need to see your Angel Invites please," the lady continued. Tia and Madison pulled out their Invites and showed them to the clerk. She typed some information into her computer and turned back to the girls.
"Tia Adams and Madison Williams, right?" The girls nodded.
"Yup, that's us!" Madison chirped. The clerk smiled.
"Okay and your Angels are Destiny and Celeste? I'll need to see them and check the authenticity." The Angels were handed over and scanned through the tiny barcode located on the back of each Angel's neck.
"That's it! You girls are all set," the clerk said carefully handing the Angels back to their respective Deus.
"Thank you!" Madison and Tia chorused. As they walked away from the counter, Madison just happened to run into Ryoko.
"Madison! You made it," Ryoko exclaimed, hugging the grey-eyed girl.
"I sure did! Oh and before I forget, this is my very best friend, Tia Adams. Tia this is Ryoko," Madison introduced.
"It's nice to meet you Ryoko," Tia said extending a hand which Ryoko grasped warmly.
"Same here," she laughed. "But listen girls, I have to go ahead and get things started here, so I'll talk to you later." Ryoko winked at the girls before dashing off.
"Attention, all Deuces." Everyone in the lobby stopped talking and focused on the voice coming from the loud speaker.
"Welcome to the Angelic Layer National American Tournament! Congratulations on being selected as the elite Deuces in the country. But your journey is far from over in this Tournament.
"Your first challenge will be an elimination round, known as the preliminaries. Only half of you will be able to continue on to the Nationals. The preliminaries will consist of ten battles between matched deuces. Each of you will only have one battle, meaning that you will be eliminated if you lose your preliminary match.
"Please look to the information screen nearest you in order to find out who your opponent will be, then head to the minor tournament arena on the third level. On behalf of Piffle Princess U.S.A., I would like to wish you all good luck. And please give this battle your very best effort."
The speaker clicked off and everyone headed to the screens and began filtering out of the lobby and up to the arena.
Tia peered at the screen. "I'm battling Deus Maria Alcantar and Angel Marguerite," she told Madison who had to squint at the screen in order to read it since she didn't feel like digging around in her bag for her glasses.
"I've battled Marguerite before. She's a power type, so be careful," Madison warned, finally finding her name on the screen.
"Let's see. Deus Camden Weiss and Angel Sara," she said to Tia.
"Then the next thing to do is go," said the curly-haired girl practically.
~*^*^*~
When the girls were upstairs, they found out that the preliminary matches were held in alphabetical order by the last name of each Deus. There were two Layers so that there could be two battles taking place at once.
Tia was the first match due to her name. "Oi, wish me luck Madison," she said taking a deep breath and stepping up to the Layer.
"Good luck Tia! Hi Maria!" Madison shrieked. Both girls gave her a quick salute and took their places at opposite ends of the Layer.
The referee, wearing a white uniform with the Piffle Princess logo on the breast pocket stood by one edge of the Layer that was regular but much larger than the practice ones, about five feet long and four feet wide, making it an almost perfect circle.
"Angels to the Layer," the referee said. Maria and Tia put on their visors, switched them on, and prepared to toss their Angels in the Layer.
"Marguerite let the grace of the peacock be your wings! Angel fall in!" said Maria as she tossed her Angel into the Layer. Marguerite leaped into the Layer, gracefully landing on her feet, her blue-green eyes snapping open alertly.
"Destiny let your graceful dancing steal their hearts! Angel fall in!" Tia tossed her Angel towards the Layer. Destiny catapulted forward and pirouetted into the Layer landing perfectly en Pointe on the tips of her toes, then moved into the second position with her arms arched gracefully over her head. Her light green eyes fluttered open and a sweet expression crossed the Angel's face.
"Angelic FIGHT!!!" True to her style, Marguerite rushed Destiny, who deftly leapt out of harm's way. Countering more quickly than she should have, Marguerite spun around and aimed a kick at Destiny's side. Throwing her arms up as a guard, Destiny succeeded in blocking the kick, but skidded back. Quickly using her knees to stop herself, Destiny managed to stay in the Layer.
Marguerite attacked again and charged at full speed. Initially caught off guard with no time to counter, Destiny took a massive hit as her opponent threw a punch that connected with her stomach. Each Deus had a different expression: Maria's was slightly smug as Marguerite continued to charge; Tia set her teeth in concentration on Destiny's fallen form, willing her Angel to get up and shake off the damage.
Barely able to find time to recuperate, Destiny managed to leap up and continuously maneuver herself out of the way of the onslaught until she was ready to attack.
The ballet Angel rose on her toes and sidestepped another punch from Marguerite, leaping into the air and spin kicking her opponent in the neck. The peacock angel went flying, but not too far and was able to recover. Twisting her body out of the descent, Marguerite landed like a cat on its haunches, using her fist to grind herself to a halt.
Both Angels stood on opposite ends of the Layer, staring at each other for a moment. In a split second, Tia and Maria sent their Angels streaking to the center of the Layer. Tricking Destiny into thinking that she was going to try another punch, Marguerite drop kicked her opponent and grabbed a hold of her ankle once Destiny had lost her balance.
Tia knew that if she let Marguerite keep her hold on Destiny's ankle, her Angel would be thrown out of the Layer easily, since Destiny was much lighter and smaller than Marguerite.
In order to save herself, Destiny quickly bent her knee, stretched her leg and pointed her toes, scoring a kick to Marguerite's chin, causing the peacock angel to lose her grip on the captured limb. Destiny double back flipped away from Marguerite, and landed perfectly on her toes. With a series of lightning fast spin kicks delivered en pointe, Destiny gave her opponent no chance of escaping her attack.
A final backwards kick was enough to force Marguerite out of the Layer.
"Layer out! Destiny wins!" the referee called. Maria and Tia pulled off their visors and picked up their Angels from the Layer.
"Congratulations on winning," Maria said, shaking hands with Tia.
"Thanks. You and Marguerite scared me for a while there, though. You were great too," Tia said warmly. Maria chuckled and ducked her head in an odd gesture and when she looked back up, Tia could see tears in the other girl's eyes.
"Hey, what's wrong?" said the curly haired girl.
Maria shook her head and blinked rapidly. "I'm okay," she said, her voice a bit shaky. "It's normal to feel bad when you lose, so please don't worry. Just do your best in the Nationals."
Tia's brows knitted themselves, then she smiled brightly. "Tell, you what Maria," she said, eyes shining in sympathy, "I'll do just that. Not only for my sake, but for yours too."
Then it was Maria's turn to smile. "Then I'll be rooting for you in the Nationals. You too Madison!" she exclaimed, acknowledging her previous opponent who had come over to them during the short conversation.
"We'll look for you!" Madison and Tia chorused. Maria waved and walked off, while Madison bounced around, congratulating Tia on her victory.
"I told you that you could do it!" said the grey-eyed girl said, grabbing her best friend in a stifling bear hug.
"Can't. breathe." Tia gasped as her face turned slightly blue. Madison immediately let go of her and shrieked.
"Are you okay? I'm SO sorry!" she said patting Tia on her back worriedly.
"Like I've told you, I'm used to it so don't sweat it," Tia replied, straightening her glasses and smiling at Madison.
Grinning back, Madison folded her hands behind her and shook her lavender bangs out of her eyes.
"I can't wait until it's my turn to fight," she muttered, already impatient to get to the Layer and face her opponent.
I won't lose this early in the tournament, she thought. Just wait and see.
*END BATTLE 8*
So the Nationals have begun with the preliminary round and Tia has secured her place in the top ten, but will Madison fare the same? And where does Nicole come in? Tune in to the next battle to find out! Don't forget to review! Oh and if you know anybody who loves Angelic Layer, tell them about this fic! Ja ne minna-san until next battle!