Team Fugishima vs. Team TianLung Feng
Team Kaleo vs. Team Reform
Team Hitokiri vs. Team Ukishima
Team TC vs. Team Kono
A/N: Hey, sorry for the EXTREMELY long wait. So I realize that my character, Viper, is very much so a pain in the ass to read the dialougue for. And I apologize. Oh, and if you're a member of Team Kaleo, I'd like some more information on your characters simply for the next chapter...because guess what...I have the TIME to write now! HOLY SHIT!
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Thomas stood by the sidelines of the underground arena. It was quite different then the stage overhead. This arena had a raised black rectangular platform, anchored to the ceiling by heavy chain links. Thick spikes rose and faced inward from each corner of the stage, looming ominously. The lighting overhead was dimmer, with a greenish hue to it, casting a creepy feeling over the entire stadium. He had been waiting for almost a half an hour now, looking for Toki's sister Raquel Ukiya, the alternate fighter to Team TianLung Feng.
Finally a woman with copper hair glided into view. She stood with the same arrogant and defiant air as her sister Toki, and walked with a confidence that told Thomas that this fight was in the bag. She strode right up to him, long black trench coat flapping around her.
"Thomas?" she asked, golden eyes wide. He nodded, breath taken by her beauty. Unlike her sister Toki, who you knew on sight was nothing more than a reanimated corpse, Raquel shone with a life that simply wasn't possible for her wraith counterparts. She radiated life, beauty, and everything Toki didn't.
"Yeah," he answered after a pause. "Yeah, I'm Thomas. You're Raquel?"
She nodded, and took off her large coat, pushing it into his arms. "Take care of that," she ordered him in the same bitchy tone that belonged to her sister. Yes, they were definitely related. "We need to get onto the stage before the announcer chick comes out and calls us up there. It looks better on our team's part if we get up there before we're forced, and we'll get a chance to glimpse where we'll be fighting." She turned, walking towards the stairs that led up to the raised platform where they would be fighting.
Thomas stared after Raquel, closing his mouth, which had been slightly agape. Raquel was a tanned, well toned demoness, where her sister, well, looked like a dead chick. How they were sisters, he didn't know. They were completely opposite in appearance.
"Catch up, shortie," Raquel called behind her. "I have no problem leaving you down there, but you might want to get your ass up here if you ever want a shot at the king."
Thomas sighed, jogging after her. He took the stairs two at a time, reaching the platform fairly quickly. Once he was there, he stood beside the gorgeous Raquel to survey the surroundings they would be fighting in. The spikes that seemed large before towered even higher now, reaching almost to the ceiling where the chains were melded into the floor of the stadium above.
"We still have time," Thomas told her, "we don't have to be up here just yet."
Raquel hit him in the arm. "Shut up," she snapped. She nudged him, pointing him to their left. "Look. I think that's the announcer."
A young girl reached the top of the stairs where Raquel had just pointed. She was gasping for breath, and collapsed on the ground as soon as she reached the top step. "JESSSUSSS CHRISSST!" she screamed out. "Why do the damn ssstairs have to be ssso time consssuming?!"
Thomas quirked an eyebrow. She couldn't be any more than 16. How was she the new announcer?
The girl stood, brushing herself off. She ran a hand quickly through her short, fluffy black hair, random tufts of bright red placed sporadically about her head. She hissed loudly, a light pink, thin tongue flicking out between two very pointy eye teeth. She pursed her lips, which she had glossed over with deep red lipstick.
"Are you the announcer?" Thomas asked incredulously.
"Yesss," she answered, tongue flicking out. She moved closer, and began twirling a microphone around by the string attached to the bottom. "I'm the announther for the underground tournament. Why?"
Raquel stifled a snort. The little demon girl turned, her slitted pupils opening wide in anger. "You making fun of me? You got a problem? WELL?!"
"You have a slight lisp, darling," she informed her.
The short demon twitched. "I DO NOT HAVE A MOTHERFUCKING LISSSP!" she screeched loudly. Her little body was heaving in rage, practically falling on the ground from her sudden spastic spurts of anger. Thomas laid a hand on her shoulder. "What?" she snapped, glaring evilly at his hand.
"Chill out," he advised. "Look, it's time to start. Call the other team, and we'll get this over with. Then you can fight with Raquel all you want about your lisp."
"I do not have a lisssp," she growled, but whipped her microphone out and marched to center stage. A spotlight came down on the tiny ball of boiling rage, illuminating her entire body. She was a nothing more than a young teenage demon. She looked like an enraged gothic snake, body curling, slick snake scales covering her body, receding only into the smooth ivory skin of her face. She was dressed in plain black clothes-- T-shirt, jeans with red stitching, and a pair of lace-up leather boots. "Ladiesss and gentlemen," she said in a surprisingly loud voice. "I'm Venice, your underground announther. The king hasss employed me to determine the outcome of each below the sssurface fight as I sssee fit. Ssso if you want to win," she looked at Raquel pointedly, "don't pisssss off the announther! The rulesss for these fightsss are sssimple. Each team hasss a maximum of two fightersss. Each fight will consssissst of both members, if both are presssent, fighting a member of the other team, asssssuming both opposssing membersss are presssent asss well. The pairsss are chosssen at random, and each fighter that fallsss for a total of ten sssecondsss sssustains a losssss, for a maximum total of two losssssesss per team. Whichever team hasss the mossst amount of losssssesss will be disssqualified. Now that we've got all that out of the way, let's introduthe our fightersss!"
The opposing team had seemingly climbed the other set of stairs unnoticed, and now stood on the opposite end of the platform. "Introduthing Kageryu and Kane, from Team Fugissshima, and Thomasss and Raquel, from Team TianLung Feng! Each team had both a regissstered alternate fighter, and thusss the match will be two on two! The fights that have been selected are Thomas vs. Kageryu, and Raquel vs. Kane!" Venice looked to both teams. "FIGHT!" she backed out of the way, taking an observant stance on the side of the platform.
Kane moved forward, Kageryu by his side. The two faced Thomas and Raquel head on, mere feet away now.
Raquel smirked. "Don't worry, Thomas. This fight is all ours."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Kageryu countered. "I spent the longest time down here, and I think I know it better than the two of you do. Besides," she snickered. "you're just a bunch of losers that are gonna eat shit in the end."
Kane darted forward, grabbing Raquel by the arm and flipping her over onto her back. He stamped his foot down on his chest, and she let out a ragged cough.
"Kane hasss Raquel pinned!" Venice observed, tapping her finger on her chin thoughtfully. "Thisss fight may be over before it even ssstartsss!"
"It isn't over yet," muttered Thomas. He ran up behind Kane, kicking him hard in the back of the knee. Kane's knee buckled, weakening his hold on Raquel. She grabbed his leg, throwing him over her head and sending him face first into the concrete floor. Thomas yelped-- suddenly an arrow pulsing with a dark energy was protruding angrily from his shoulder.
Kageryu looked over her bow triumphantly. "You'll never be able to catch Kane," she bragged. "And you'll never reach me." she took off in the direction of the nearest spike rising from the floor. Thomas took off running after her. The short jaganshi demoness clambered her way up the spike the moment she was close enough, making her way higher and higher.
"And Kageryu ssseemsss to have pulled a ssspiderman, ssshimmying up the sssickeled ssspike like a tree in the backyard!"
"You'll never make it up here," Kageryu laughed down at the struggling Thomas. "I'm the only one who can make it up here-- the surface is far too slick for anyone else!" she strung her bow again, the arrow inflaming with demonic energy. "It's time to die, Thomas Maximillian!" she cackled. The arrow flew, a steady stream following after.
"Holy shit!" Thomas yelped, squirming to dodge the barrage of demonic fire and raining arrows. He hit the ground as his sleeve caught fire, slapping senselessly at his good shoulder to put the fire out.
"Demon fire can't be put out!" Kageryu informed him, laughing hysterically. "And your friend doesn't look like she's having much luck either!"
Thomas chanced a look in Raquel's direction. The beautiful woman had been practically beat to shit in a manner of minutes-- her face was bruised, her body battered and broken. Kane was tossing her around like a rag doll. "Fuck," he uttered, still making an effort to put out the worst of the black flames. "'In the bag!' she said. OK. Whatever you say."
"And now I'm gonna finish you too," Kageryu said lightheartedly. "Shadow dragon!"she thrust her arm out, her sleeve evaporating. Violet flames shot from her fingertips, five vicious dragons searching for the heat signature of their next meal. Twisting and writhing, the flaming dragons glided along the stadium, singeing the floor as they made their way towards Thomas.
The bard's eyes widened in fear, dragging him to his feet and sending him flying in the other direction towards Kane and Raquel. He felt the heat of the dragons gaining on him, his heels blistering and his ears splitting from the deafening roar of Kageryu's attacking beasties. He dropped to the ground, rolling dangerously close to the edge of the platform. But the dragons were so close now he would have to jump off the platform or be obliterated.
Kane looked up in time to see Kageryu's attack running rampant, violently swarming and searching for the prey they seemed to have lost. They turned their attention to Kane and Raquel, plunging forward for the kill.
Kageryu continued to laugh as her attack ravaged her own teammate. The dragons screeched wildly, stripping Kane down until he was nothing more than a smoking skeleton. Raquel's own corpse lay next to him, charred flesh.
Venice lay in a heap on the floor, her arms covering her head. She opened an eye, looking out into the crowd. Seeing that the fight was over, she stood, attempting to compose herself. "Well then," she coughed into the mike. "Ladiesss and gentlemen, I think we have a winner!" she turned to Kageryu, who had since come back down to the floor from her airborne post. "Kageryu is the only sssurvivor of the firssst underground fight, so Team Fugissshi--"
"Hold it!" came a voice. Venice twirled on one heel to find Thomas crawling up from the ledge of the platform, the lower half of his body still hanging off. "It's not over yet."
"Well, if you don't get your asssss in the ring in the next eight sssecondsss, it WILL be over!" Venice informed him, eyeing the redhead suspiciously.
"No!" Kageryu protested, elbowing Venice out of the way. "This fight is mine! I finished you!" she stomped towards Thomas, shadows wrapping around her fists as her temper flared. Venice fell onto the ground, mike rolling out of her hand.
Thomas saw the angry little jaganshi headed for him, and swung one leg up. He had almost made it fully onto the platform when Kageryu reached him and kicked him in the abdomen, sending him back over the edge. Clinging by his fingertips, he looked up in time to see Kageryu stamp her foot down on his fingers, which cracked loudly. He let go, shrieking.
"Thomasss is only hanging on by a sssingle hand now!" Venice yelled, retrieving her mike.
"It's OVER!" Kageryu shrieked, bringing her foot down one last time. Her boot hit Thomas's fingers, but his cry was drowned out by a deafening shriek from behind Kageryu. Thomas dropped out of view, and Kageryu turned in time to see a huge, smoking black cloud rise up and billow to enormous proportions.
"What the fuck?" Kageryu breathed, voice filled with fear. She tried backing away, but her heels reached the edge, and there was nowhere to go. The cloud swooped down low, less than a foot from her face. Ferocious scarlet eyes sparkling with bloodlust pierced her, sending waves of cold through her entire body. An angry mouth with rows of gnashing, snarling razor blade teeth smiled, before opening wide and shrieking in her face. Her hair whipped wildly in the wind, and she shut her eyes tight. She could feel the rancid spittle flying, landing on her face and arms. The acid saliva burned, eating away at her flesh. She opened her eyes to see a blackened abyss, the belly of hell, within the monster's mouth.
She didn't even have the time to react before the wraith had swallowed her whole, a roar resounding from the shock wave it sent into the crowd. The wraith screamed, blood pouring from its wide open mouth. It turned its blood-happy gaze towards Venice, but the black shadows began to dissipate, a thick cloud of black smoke clearing and thinning out into the air, revealing the beautiful Raquel beneath its grotesque smoky body. She stood tall, her straight copper hair blowing softly in the wind.
Venice cocked her head. "Holy ssshit," her pink tongue hissed. "Well, ladiesss and gentlemen, it looksss like Raquel isss the only one ssstanding now. We'll go to a ten count jussst to be sssure." A large silver screen lit up above the crowd. A countdown began, flashing brilliantly in bright red numbers.
"And that'sss a ten! Raquel'sss team, Team TianLung Feng, is the firssst victor of the underground fightsss! Team TianLung Feng hasss acquired a sssingle losssss, while Team Fugissshima has sssussstained two losssssesss-- which meansss their team isss automatically disssqualified!"
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Fyrea and LanLan stared in disbelief at the silver screen. The entire Fugishima team had assembled to watch their fighters go at it underground, and they ended up being disqualified!
"What the fuck?" Fyrea pouted. "You mean our shot at Yusuke is over? We're done?"
"Yes, unfortunately," LanLan growled, her mood quickly growing pissy. "We've been disqualified. This is bullshit. We haven't even gotten a real chance to fight." she looked to Akira, who sat with a stern look of concentration on his face. "Can't you do something about this? Isn't there someone you can talk to? I mean, come on-- this isn't fair!"
Akira shook his head. "I'm afraid there's really nothing I can do now. That was it. That's the end for us."
"You can't be serious," Nikoji started, sitting up to face everyone. He had been laying back in his seat, lounging like the lazy cat he was.
LanLan threw her hands up in exasperation. "You mean all the fights are determined like this?"
"No," Akira shook his head, his thick grey wolf ears pinned back, "if you were listening to the little snake demoness, she said that if you suffer both losses in the underground fights, you're disqualified. It's one on one fights. Technically, there should be two victors per fight. However, in cases like this, there seem to be exceptions. Kageryu killed Kane on accident because he was simply in the way, and Raquel killed Kageryu because she is a wraith who will consume every living thing in sight. Which left us with two losses, and TianLung Feng with one. Which means their team will move on to a further surface fight, and Raquel will move on to the second round of underground fights."
"I still don't think it's fair," said Fyrea, sticking out her lower lip.
"So what now?" Nikoji asked, his cat eyes closing sleepily. "Do we just go home?"
"I kind of want to stay to see the turnout," Akira mused, his ears swiveling to their normal position. "Besides, I don't think there really is any way to get home before the boat goes back. I'd like to see the king fight. So I think I'm going to stick around, but the rest of you are free to go. We've been disqualified, so there's no point in us wandering around as a team any more."
"Kitten, you'll stay with me, won't you?" Fyrea turned her sad face to Nikoji, batting her lashes at him. He shrugged. She grinned, flopping down onto his lap. "Come now, kitten, let's go find some fun people and we'll go stay with them for a bit." Nikoji glared at her through half open eyes, but didn't protest too much as she jumped up and dragged him through the crowd.
"What about you?" Akira asked LanLan. "What will you do?"
LanLan stared out at the screen, fury still scrawled across her face. "I don't know. I'll probably go underground and watch the fights there, if that's all right." She didn't wait for his response, but shoved her way past him and disappeared in the sea of demons.
"All right, ladies and gentlemen," said Koto, drawing everyone's attention. "The first underground victor has been determined. Thank you, Venice, for your amazing commentary." Venice was displayed on the screen, and she nodded to Koto. "Of course, the fights on the surface will continue as normal. So our next fight will be Team Kaleo vs. Team Reform! Fighters, you have ten minutes to get to the arena and fight out this battle!"
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Always, S-chan