Disclaimer: I don't own MAR. I'm nothing but a penniless pauper, so it's no use trying to sue me.
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Chapter Six: Destiny is Overrated
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Using binoculars, Rolan peered down at the prospective War Game players. "Who do you think looks the strongest?" He asked anxiously.
"Don't worry about it," Peta said dismissively. "None of them are worth much compared to us. The preliminary round will quickly sort out the weaklings, then we'll mop up the rest."
"I think the short spiky haired boy will be the toughest one," Phantom mused.
"Really? He's just a kid," Rolan said hesitantly.
"A kid?" Peta shuddered visibly. "Please Phantom, I beg you, if you can find a small shred of mercy in your soul for your most devoted servant, don't bring him back home with you!"
"I only meant that he'll make a good opponent. Especially once he's a little more trained."
"Let's finish him off before then," Peta growled.
Phantom laughed. "What would be the fun in that?"
Below, the mysterious final member of the MAR team, the one who had been communicating with them from the shadows revealed himself to be- Alviss!
"Gee, I never would have guessed," Peta said sarcastically.
"Things will certainly get interesting," Phantom declared.
Rolan gasped with shock. "Alviss?! How could he join Team MAR? I can't believe it!"
Peta stared at Rolan. "You know, sometimes I really wonder about you."
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To summarize the War Games:
Ginta was made team captain because of his strength and courage. He and Babbo fought a number of difficult battles together and overcame all obstacles.
Snow fought to the best of her ability until the enemy accidently discovered that she had a panic attack every time someone mentioned Phantom's name. After that, she was forced to withdraw since she could no longer win any battles. She put herself through intensive training to overcome her weakness. By the time she had overcome her phobia the tournament was over, but everyone agreed it was a valuable moral victory.
Jack smashed his way through his opponents with a sheer brutality that won him many fangirls- even among the Chess Pieces. He was almost seduced over to the other side by a particularly lovely one named Pano. Ginta managed to stop him with a speech about friendship, and Pano was charmed over to their side instead. But after learning the identity of his father's killer, Jack dropped off the team to pursue his vengeance.
In addition to losing two members, things weren't very well with the others. After the first time Nanashi "lost" to a cute girl, Alan threatened to give a portion of his pay to Dorothy every time he lost a fight. The conflict between his two greatest loves, women and money, put poor Nanashi under deep emotional strain.
Meanwhile, Dorothy saw a prime opportunity to capitalize on the situation and began trying to rig Nanashi's fights against him. After he found out, he retaliated by sabotaging her. Eventually this deteriorated to the point where the two MAR members began dueling each other in the middle of what was supposed to be a fight with the Chess.
In disgust, Alan refused to pay either of them anything. Actually, once the money was out to the picture they managed to make up and become friends. The whole situation was really Alan's fault to begin with, not that he would ever admit it.
Alan showed himself to be a tad lacking in professionalism as well when in the middle of his match to Chaton he abruptly proposed marriage to her. Apparently he had a soft-spot for cat-girls. She agreed under the condition that he forfeit. Alan didn't even have the grace to be embarrassed afterwards, and was disgustingly happy for the rest of the tournament.
Fortunately, all of his teammates' blunders were made up for by Alviss' winning streak. In fact, every single one of his opponents forfeited before even facing him.
This was partly because many of the Chess Pieces had tried to fight Alviss before and now wanted nothing to do with him. Of course, not all of the Chess were so cowardly. Some were itching for a rematch against their constant tormentor.
But their enthusiasm had been dampened when Rolan had privately spoken to every single Chess Piece and threatened to do horrible things to them with a rusty spoon if they harmed a single hair on Alviss' head.
Rapunzel, being her psychotically insane self, had openly declared her intention of decorating the castle with Alviss' entrails. But before Rolan had even heard about this, several other people (namely Ashe, Candice, and to the amazement of everyone Chimera too) had expressed some objections. After that it was impossible for Rapunzel to fight in the War Games, even if she ever recovered her ability to walk. There were no further objectioners, and Alviss continued to win all his battles by default.
The MAR-Team decided to take advantage of this by having Alviss fight as many battles as possible, against all the strongest opponents. This was of great satisfaction to everyone but Alviss himself, who was boiling with fury. (He knew who was responsible for his winning streak and found being treated like a kid by Rolan to be very humiliating.)
He finally got a chance to take his revenge when he faced Rolan in the Games. Unfortunately, the Chess Knight managed to defeat him by unfairly distracting him with embarrassing anecdotes from his childhood.
Alviss eventually got a rematch, and this time turned the table on Rolan by taking advantage of the other's affection for cute and fuzzy things.
Both sides agreed that this match was an embarrassment that they wanted to forget as quickly as possible. In fact, the finals overall were an extreme disappointment.
First, one of the Phantom's chosen line-up was found dead in his bed before the round even started.
Jack had found his father's killer among the Chess Pieces. (Big surprise. He really should have looked there in the first place, instead of hanging around bars with Pano.) Unwilling to wait even a few hours, he had challenged the plant-using knight on the spot and ripped him to pieces.
After completing his personal vendetta, Jack returned to Team MAR just in time to witness Alviss' victory in the first final match. Unfortunately, now that Jack was back an argument arose over which of the five MAR members would fight the remaining four Chess Pieces.
It was eventually decided that Jack would have to sit out the finals since he was the one who had run off. This did not sit well with the bloodthirsty teenager.
When Dorothy faced off against Chimera, Jack took action. He leaped into the ring and thrust himself into the battle. (He claimed that he was trying to save Dorothy from certain death, but since the witch had just gotten the upper hand this was obviously a lie.)
Infuriated both at the interference and at the slight of her skills, Dorothy turned her ARMS on Jack. Ginta was forced to intervene and pull them apart. Chimera left in disgust.
The fight was declared a win for the Chess Pieces by default (since it was MAR team members who had interfered.) Fortunately for MAR Heaven, there were still three matches left.
Nanashi was victorious over Peta. This was much to his relief, since between his weakness for the female opponents and Dorothy's interference his win-loss record was dismal. If he didn't at least win in the finals, he'd never live it down. At least now he could say with pride that he had defeated the third-strongest Chess Knight.
While Nanashi was gloating, an injured Peta crawled away. Nanashi let him go- it wasn't like he had a personal grudge against the guy or anything.
Since Nanashi's fight had actually resembled something like what the War Games should look like, the crowd's spirit was revived. They quickly lost their enthusiasm after the next battle. Having discovered Halloween's weakness, Alan ruthlessly pelted him with rocks. The Chess Knight ran away crying. He was so pathetic that most of the audience felt sorry for him.
But the final match at least promised to be exciting. In the moment the entire War Games had been leading up to, the team leaders Ginta and Phantom faced off.
This match, at least, lived up to everyone's expectations. There was drama and danger and many close calls for both fighters. But in the end, Ginta emerged victorious.
Going beyond all expectations, Ginta even successfully defeated the true source of the evil, the Orb, and won back his father.
In the midst of all this excitement, Phantom vanished.
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In Phantom's throne room, Peta angrily paced back and forth. How could this have happened a second time?
"In retrospect, maybe we shouldn't have tried the stupid War Games again," he muttered. "One-on-one matches really favored our opponents. We could have beaten them with numbers if we all attacked at once. Next time we should just go for an all-out melee."
"I'm not sure there will be a next time," Phantom said sadly. "I'm getting rather tired."
"Don't talk like that, Phantom," Candice said anxiously. "You're still number one to me!"
Rolan spoke more quietly, but with equal passion. "You can't give up, Phantom. I don't think I could go on without you."
The heartwarming moment was interrupted when Alviss stormed into the room. "Phantom, your reign of terror is over! I'm going to put an end to you for once and for all!"
"Alviss, this really isn't the time," Peta said wearily. "Why don't you go play with your friends?"
"My friends are finishing off the rest of the Chess Pieces right now!"
"Yes, and you should go help them, okay?"
Surprised, Alviss asked, "Don't you care if the Queen and whoever your shadowy mastermind is get defeated?"
Peta shrugged. "Not particularly, no. I'm only loyal to Phantom."
"I never liked Diana anyway," Candice added randomly.
"Those people had the nerve to throw Phantom away just because of one measly little defeat! Let's clobber them together, Alviss!" Rolan declared.
Trying to regain his balance, Alviss said, "Stop trying to distract me! I'm here to put an end to Phantom with this!" He pulled out the Purific Ave.
"Maybe it really is my time to die," Phantom sighed. Everyone completely ignored him.
"What's that funny looking key thing?" Candice asked.
Completely oblivious, Peta began to scratch out potential battle plans for the future conquest of MAR Heaven on the floor.
"Alviss, I think your joke is going too far. Phantom is very depressed right now," Rolan said sternly.
"What are you planning to do with that wimpy little ARM? Poke him?" Candice snickered.
Frustrated, Alviss screamed, "Get this through your head! I'm about to kill Phantom! As in murder, exhume, assassinate, execute, dispatch, exterminate, snuff out, extirpate, slay, and do away with him!"
Rolan frowned. "I don't recall teaching you to speak to adults like that, Alviss. Go to your room!"
Alviss threw up his hands in the air. "What do I have to do to get taken seriously around here? I'm tired of being treated like a kid!"
"Now is not the time to make a play for attention, Alviss," Rolan said.
"That's not what this is about! Read my lips: I'm your enemy, and I'm out to kill your leader!"
"If you insist on being immature about this, I'm going to have to respond accordingly. Do you want to be grounded?"
"That's telling him, Rolan," Candice said cheerfully.
Furious, Alviss started towards Phantom, Purific Ave in hand. On the way, he accidentally stepped on one of the drawings on the floor. Annoyed, Peta reached out and tripped him.
Alviss tumbled to the floor, losing his grip on the key-shaped ARM. Rolan snatched it out of the air, then tossed it into the fireplace.
Alviss watched in despair as the Purific Ave, key to Phantom's destruction and the antidote to the Zombie Tattoo, melted into a pile of metallic mush.
"I hate you all!" He shouted, and fled the room.
"Don't forget to come back home in time for dinner!" Rolan called after him.
Seated on his throne, Phantom was grinning from ear to ear. On second thought, how could he even think about dying when the world was still so entertaining?
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Author's Note: Sorry this update took so long. As a reward, here's two chapters at once! Turn to the next one and enjoy!