Fipp: A bit soon for an update? Nope, wrote all of this stuff before hand because I wanted to get this all out in a short period of time.
Doubles II: Match Up
"Dude, we're totally doing to lose."
The crowds around them cheered, eager to see the next match, thousands of people sitting in the stands, while millions more watched across the planet.
"AND THE TEAMS FOR THE NEXT MATCH HAVE BEEN SELECTED!" came Professor Port's voice, resonating through the entire arena. "AND THIS IS CERTAINLY GOING TO BE INTERESTING AS BOTH TEAMS ARE FROM HAVEN ACADEMY!"
"C'mon, don't worry about it Neptune," Sun said, slapping the distressed Neptune on the shoulder. "It's just another fight, so come one! Get excited!"
"FIRST UP, WE HAVE SUN WUKONG AND NEPTUNE VASILIAS REPRESENTING TEAM SSSN OF HAVEN!"
"YEAH!" Sun cheered, throwing his arms into the air, turning around on his feet to greet the audience. "I know I am!"
"Yeah, I see you are," Neptune growled. "How come you're not too worried? You do know who you're fighting, right?"
"AGAINST TIAMAT KAMPF AND ONRAC KRAKEN OF TEAM KAOS, ALSO FROM HAVEN!"
Neptune looked across the arena, to the two opponents they were slated to fight against, fellow students from their own school, who had done nothing but torment them from the moment they had entered their first year.
The boy was tall, with thick muscles, with chain mail clinging tightly to his chest, and a dark-blue long coat draped across his shoulders, as well as a large red pendant clasping it together at the base of his neck. He glared at the members of SSSN with an amused gleam in his red eyes and a matching grin, while cluster of thick blue dreadlocks flowed down his back, going past his shoulders. This was Onrac Kraken.
The second, the girl, stood there were her arms across her armored chest, dark green in color with a scale-like pattern covering it, matching thick leathers on her arms and legs, down to the winged helm she wore. Unlike her partner, her amber-colored eyes seemed bored and contempt, while her long dark green hair, fitted through the back of her helm, swayed slightly in the breeze. This was Tiamat Kampf, the leader of Team KAOS.
"Oh, them?" Sun pointed a thumb in the opponents' general direction. "Yeah, so? We can totally take them on."
"We've never taken them on and win, Sun!" Neptune yelled, arms waving about. "Seriously, how are you so nonchalant about this?"
"The Bluetard's right, you should be shaking in your boots," jeered Onrac, before he laughed loudly. "You losers don't stand a chance against us, so why don't you do us all a favor and just throw in the towel. Though, considering how well you did in your last match, I'm sure everyone is looking for more comedy."
"Bluetard?" Neptune narrowed his eyes, looking at Onrac's head in confusion. "Your hair's blue too!"
"Ignore him," said Sun. "He's just trying to get under your skin."
"And knowing your friend, it's working, Monkey," Kampf spoke up, her voice calm and collected.
Sun gave her a nasty glare. "Looks like you finally decided to speak up, huh Tiamat? Want to throw a few more insults my way? Come on, I know you have plenty of things up your sleeves! Or did you hit your head too hard on a ceiling or something?"
"How about I shut that mouth up for you if you're going to do nothing but talk?" Onrac snapped, taking a single step forward, but Kampf merely raised on arm in front of his chest.
"Words can only get you so far, Onrac, it's actions that end up meaning more, and considering that we are in a tournament match, this seems like the perfect place to settle any bad blood between us. Whatever the case, it seems like they're deciding the stage biomes now." She gestured up, to the holographic screen, pictures of the biomes flying by in random order before they were selected, almost too fast before they suddenly stopped. Around the circular platform they stood on, the out regions of the arena sunk into the floor, before they were replaced with the four new environments.
First was the cityscape, covered in concrete and metal railings, rubble strewn across it and the remains of a single building. The second was the anti-grav stage, a dozen platforms floating in circles, up and down, left and right, each one of varying sizes, and already several platform have begun a circuit around the arena. The third was a canyon dipping into the stage, with stones pillars rising above the ground levels, with a large number of crystals sticking out of the rock walls and floors. Then there was the fourth biome...
"Oh..." Neptune's entire face went pale and he felt his stomach drop to the floor. The fourth biome was the wetlands stages, a mostly bogged down area with tall grasses, and several muddy islands laid across the waters. Behind them, Ornac laughed loudly at the sight, even slapping his knees as he doubled over.
"Don't worry about it, Neptune." Sun placed a hand on Neptune's shoulder, giving it a tight squeeze. "It's only a quarter of the stage this time, so you have a lot more room to work with."
"Might as well be the whole stage though," Onrac chuckled out loud. "You're not going to last too long, Bluetard."
"God, do you ever shut up?" Sun sneered, turning around to face Onrac. "What about you?" he said to Kampf. "Any funny little lines you want to try out?"
"No," she said, turning away from the screen and back to him. "It's like I said, actions speak louder than words, so why would I waste my time speaking with you when I can simply defeat you?"
"You know what? You're right, enough talk." Reaching behind his back, he drew out his staff, quickly snapping in half, to the nun-chucks, and lazily spinning them around. "Right, Neptune?"
"Huh? Uh, yeah..." Neptune shook his head, putting his attention away from the swampland and to his opponents, bringing out his halberd, electricity zapping down the prongs. "You got it."
"You two won't last very long," Onrac said with a laugh, taking out his weapons, two swords with curved, jaded blades, one held in each hand.
Kampf chose to say nothing as she stood her weapon out, a spear longer than she was tall, deep grooves embedded into the thick blade which narrowed to a point.
"NOW RUMOR HAS IT THAT THESE TEAMS HAVE SOMETHING OF A RIVIALLY GOING ON BACK HOME IN HAVEN ACADEMY!" Port announced loudly. "SEEMS ALMOST LIKE FATE THAT THEY ENDED UP FIGHTING HERE NOW."
"IT ALMOST DOES, BUT WHO WILL COME OUT OF THIS THE WINNER, AND WHO WILL BE THE LOSER? CERTATINLY WHATEVER DIFFERENCES THEY HAVE COULD BE RESOLVED THROUGH BATTLE RIGHT HERE AND RIGHT NOW!" Oobleck's voiced raced through.
The four combatants tensed as the announcers spoke, each second drawing them close to the official start of the match, each moment, and despite the cheers of the audience, they could only focus on one another.
"AND THE MATCH BEGINS IN 3... 2... 1... START!"
The four charged at each other instantly, Sun and Kampf taking the leads in front of their partners. Kampf slid to a stop, standing her ground as she held her lance in front of her, ready to skewer Sun when he had gotten close enough to her, but instead of rushing her, he jumped to the right, leaving an opening for Neptune to fire off a charged blast at her. Seeing this she jumped into the air, clear over Sun and Neptune's head before landing behind the latter, and spun around, stabbing forward, but Neptune was able to raise his rifle in time to block the blow, crashing to the ground before rolling back up into a crouch and fired several more rounds. She was able to dodged to the side, before running forward, and Neptune quickly jumped up, changing the rifle into its trident form, and their weapons clashed.
Seeing this, Sun began to rush towards them, he heard the rattling of chains and rolled to the side, just as Onrac's sword came down where he had been, just to retract to where the wielder was, leaving enough slack to form a pair of decently-sized whips. Giving a wicked grin, Onrac raised his arms and swung again, slamming the chains to slam to the ground with a weighty crash, the hits become quicker with each succeeding hit. Sun's response to the taunting was to connect with weapons into a staff and charge at him, and Onrac pulled his weapons back, swinging in wide arcs, but Sun was able to leap over the blades and managed to close the distance between him and Onrac, but his blows with his staff were blocked as Onrac pulled back the chains, before crashing an elbow into Sun's face, sending him back. He managed to recover however, controlling the way he landed by spinning on his leg and swung again, landing a hit on Onrac's head, almost knocking him off his feet, but as he fell backwards he fired off his blade downwards, ricocheting it off the ground and upwards before he retracted it, getting itself caught around Sun's leg.
Sun cried out as Onrac pulled his weapon, sending Sun to the ground, before he heaved him up and began to spin him around, and soon Onrac was spinning around on like a top, Sun screaming out as he flew around, and with a shake to the weapon, the chain was let loose and Sun went flying into the air.
"KAMPF! NOW!" Onrac cried out as he ran towards where Kampf and Neptune were dueling.
Neptune spun his trident in his hands, electricity arcing from the blades, before swinging down at Kampf, who deflected the blow, leaving Neptune open, but instead of striking at him, she ran past, him, jumping into the air, and before Neptune could even wonder what had happened, Onrac was on him, swinging his swords down on him.
Kampf saw Sun fly through the air, and jumped straight at him, rearing her lance back in one hand, aiming carefully, and Sun, having regained some control, raised his weapon in front of him to defend himself as her lance struck him. Steam exploded from the top of the lance's handle, and the blade shot out, extending in length, and Sun was struck with the force of a jackhammer and sent flying back the way he came.
The world spun out of control as Sun desperately tried to find something that could help him, but then something caught his eyes, and putting a lot of hope on chance, he reached out his hand, just in time to grab a thick length of metal. He spun around the object several times before he came to a stop, landing on top of it, careful to keep his balance despite his dizzy state, before realizing that he was in the city biome, and that he had grabbed hold of the streetlight. From the edge of the biome he saw Kampf standing there, her weapon pulling itself back to its original length, and he gave her a wink. Collapsing his weapon to a compact form and attaching it to his belt, he leaped from the streetlight and grabbed hold of a ledge on the building and hoisted himself up, scaling up the wall swiftly and quickly until he had jumped up onto the roof.
"Hey Tiamat!" he called out, waving her down. "Nice view from up here!"
Kampf didn't respond, instead she ran up to the building, stopping in front of it before crouching down to her knees and one hand, then jumped straight up into the air, clearing the building and landed on the edge of the roof, causing Sun to jump back.
"THAT WOULD BE AN EXCELLENT DISPLAY OF KAMPF'S OWN SEMBLANCE," Oobleck rattled on. "THE ABILITY TO LEAP GREAT HEIGHTS AND DISTANCES! AN EXTRAORDINARY ABILITY!"
"YES IT IS, IN FACT IF BEING A HUNTRESS ENDS UP NOT WORKING FOR HER, SHE CAN ALWAYS TRY HER HAND AT BASKETBALL!" continued Port.
"You were saying, Monkey?" Kampf asked, pointing her weapon at Sun.
Sun's shoulders slumped. "Yeah, I kind of forgot you could do that." Kampf then attacked him barely giving him a moment to defend himself.
000
Neptune grunted as he hit the ground hard, and quickly rolled out of the way as Onrac's boot came down on him, using the end of his weapon to pivot himself to his feet, and with it still embedded into the ground he jumped forward, using his weapon to pole vault and deliver a kick to Onrac's face. Instead of falling backwards however, Onrac braced himself and pushed forward, catching Neptune off guard and sending him forward, crashing to the ground. Standing up, he braced himself for another attack, but instead the two sword ends flew by either side of him, sticking into the ground, and he used the retraction speed of the weapons to send himself flying forward and slamming his entire body into Neptune, causing him to soar into the air.
He landed with a wet thud, and her felt something sticking at his face, and as he pushed himself up he felt something thick and wet between his fingers.
"Wha-?" Neptune looked down to his hands, to see them covered in mud, and upon further inspection he that it was smeared across his jacket and pants. "Oh, come on!" he yelled in disgust, trying not to touch the mud. "Do you realize how long it takes me to get my gear cleaned up! Seriously dude! It's pretty expensive too!" Turning around he intended up continue with his rant when he stopped, his blood freezing in his veins.
He was standing in the middle of wetlands, alone on one of the few islands dotted around the murky waters.
"AND IT SEEMS LIKE NEPTUNE HERE IS IN TROUBLE," Port's voice boomed. "IF YOU RECALL BARTY, IN HIS TEAM MATCH AGAINST NDGO, THE WATER IN THE ARENA GAVE HIM SOME TROUBLE, BUT WILL HE BE ABLE TO OVERCOME THIS FEAR THIS TIME AROUND?"
Oobleck continued on . "I WOULD HOPE THAT HE IS ABLE TO DO THAT SOON, AS HIS OPPONENT ONRAC HERE HAS A SEMBLANCE HERE THAT IS TAILOR MADE FOR THIS KIND OF SITUATION!"
Shaking, Neptune looked to the edge of the biome, to see Onrac standing at the water's edge, and he didn't like the predatory look in his eyes, and the feeling only worsened as he stepped into the water, flopping in front first, and vanishing beneath the dark waters completely.
"YES, WITH THE ABILITY TO CONTROL THE WATER THAT IS DIRECTLY TOUCHING HIS BODY, THIS WILL CERTAINLY NOT BE AN EASY THING TO OVER COME."
Neptune gripped his weapon tightly in shaky hands, his heart beating so loudly he could hear it between his eyes as he tried to keep his eyes on the waters, feeling fear at every small wave. Suddenly the water in front of him exploded and Onrac breached the surface and shot forward at him, skidding along the water's surface until he reached the small island, and swung his weapons, knocking Neptune back into the mud, his head being submerged for a mere moment. He cried out as he pulled his head out and scrambled backwards, trying to breathe, to fill his lungs with lungs but each attempt at a breath became more difficult. Somewhere, Onrac created a giant splash and Neptune found himself soaked and freezing, and everything started to get fuzzy for him.
He looked up at the end of his weapon, using the pole to stand himself up, and wondered what he could do, there was no way he could zap the water, not with him soaked. He could fight in the water, he knew, on an intellectual level that the water would be thigh-deep at best, but every time he looked at the water he could only freeze up. Even if he could ignore this fear, that didn't change the fact that Onrac had a massive advantage in the water.
Really, this whole thing was just miserable for him.
000
Sun was having the time of his life.
Blocking a blow from her spear, Sun knocked it out of the way and aimed the end of his bow towards her head, only for her to spin the lance around, knocking it out of the way, only for him to retaliate in kind, and they banged both of their weapons together, sending sparks into the air. He swung his staff, intending to swipe Kampf's legs out from under her, but she had stabbed her lance down, catching the staff before turning it up to strike at him, but he rolled out of the way, breaking his staff into the gun-chucks and fired them at her. Her response to this was to fire her weapon, launching her into the air, and landing a safe distance from him.
He couldn't help himself from grinning, this was a tough fight, and he was loving it.
Then from the corner of his eye, he saw across the arena, and saw Neptune's position on the small island.
"Neptune..." Sun gave a worried grunt. "Gotta get over there-"
That was when Kampf rushed him, stabbing at him with her lance, and using the power thrust to send him back into the air.
He screamed aloud, tumbling in the air, and would have crashed into the ground far below, if it had not been for the floating platform that had happened to be floating by.
"Dammit," he growled to himself, pushing himself to his feet. He looked to the platform, floating away from Kampf's position on the building, before turning around and looking back down to where Neptune was, glad to see that the platform was moving to the overhead space above him, but he still didn't know how to help from up here.
Suddenly, and idea came to mind. It was a stupid idea, but it might work, he thought.
"Hey Kampf!" he cried out loud. "You really need to start charging for your services as air travel! I gotta say, I've ridden airplanes with bumpier flights then that!"
From her spot on the building, Kampf jumped from the ledge and onto a platform that was passing by, then onto another, before landing on the same one he was on.
"Hey, think if you wind that thing up just tight enough, you can send me back to Haven when this is all done? Save me the time?" Sun the laughed. "Then again, I think that might be a little difficult since you're heading home before us, hell, you'll probably end up watching us in the final match from some cheap cabin!"
"You really need to learn when to stop talking, Monkey," Kampf strained out. She dashed forward, and stabbed at Sun, forcing him to flip backward and try and block the next stab with an upward swing of his staff, causing the end of her spear to fly upward and over her shoulder, stabbing in the floor. Seeing a moment to strike, Sun made his move, but Kampf fired off her spear against the platform, sending her flying forward into Sun, knocking him over as she sailed over him, skidding against the ground, aimed to strike him, but he rolled out of the way, and to her surprise, he wrapped his tail around the shaft of the weapon, pulled it towards him, throwing her off balance, leaving her open to to being shot in the side by a shotgun blast
Sun released her weapon as she went tumbling, but she was able to control her fall and jabbed the end into the platform, firing it off again, launching herself into Sun with a quick kick that send him flying near the edge of the platform. By the time her lance had retracted, Sun had already jumped to his feet. He looked from her, and to the edge of the platform to the ground below him and gave a grin as he turned back to her, making her wonder what it was he was planning, he then charged her, keeping his body low, as she held her land up in both hands charged him. They were closing in on each other, but Sun suddenly swung his staff down, the end exploding on contract and sent himself vaulting over Kampf, forcing her to slide to a stop and follow him as he did so.
He then crashed unceremoniously to the ground in a heap and didn't get back up. For a moment, Kampf stood confused, wondering what this was, before instinct took over and she jumped into the air towards him, arm pulling back her lance, then firing it. She rocketed downwards, aiming for him, but at the last moment he jumped up and dodged out of the way, and Kampf's lance pierced through the platform, and the entire structure bucked and shook.
"OH MY," Port's voiced boomed. "IT WOULD SEEM THAT KAMPF'S ATTACK WAS ABLE TO CAUSE ENOUGH DAMAGE TO THE ENGINES ON THE UNDERSIDE OF THE PLATFORM, AND NOW IT LOOKS LIKE ITS LOSING AIR!"
"WELL PETER I HAVE TO SAY THAT IS GOING TO BE A VERY COSTLY MOVE. I MEAN IN ACTUAL MONEY, SINCE THOSE THINGS ARE NOT VERY CHEAP TO BEGIN WITH."
Keeping her footing as best she could, Kampf pulled her lance out from the floor, sparks coming out from out of the whole she left behind, the whole thing shaking and rocking as it descended.
"Monkey," she growled, watching over as she saw Sun leap onto a passing platform. Smoke had already began to pour from underneath it as she ran towards the edge, jumping into the air.
000
Neptune slammed into the mud, cursing under his breath as he pushed himself up, trying his best to not look at the water around him, but still trying to keep an eye on Onrac as he breached the water to get in attacks. He was playing with him, Neptune realized, and he really hated them.
"Wait," he said to himself, looking around, not noticing Onrac slowly rise from the water behind him. "What did the announcers just say?"
This was when the platform crashed into the water, creating a massive wave that quickly covered the biome.
Neptune's eye widened at the sight of the wave, about to crash down on him. "I'm going to kill Sun."
The wave hit, and Neptune found himself tumbling in the water as he washed out of the wetlands before he was flooded downwards and into canyon, before finally coming to a stop as his back slammed against a wall.
He chocked, coughing the water out of his lungs as he struggled to stand up, pushing himself up against the stone wall, though he recoiled when he felt something stab into his palm. Grunting, he pulled his hand away and looked back down to the wall, to see a sharp clear crystal sticking out of it, and looking around, he cold see numerous crystals, all of varying sizes and textures, sticking out from the columns and wall, each one giving off a small dull light.
"AND IT LOOKS LIKE NEPTUNE AND ONRAC HAVE BEEN FLUSHED INTO THE DUST CRYSTAL CANYON!" boomed Oobleck's voice.
"THIS COULD CERTATINLY BE INTERESTING, SINCE THE DUST CRYSTALS THAT LITTER THIS ENVIROMENT WILL GENERATE AN EXPLOSIVE FIELD IF THEY ARE EXPOSED TO ANY SORT OF ENERGY SOURCE BASED ON REFINED DUST!' Port's voice continued.
"Great," Neptune groaned, looking down to his halberd, the electrical attribute shut down for the time. "Explosive crystals all around, and I'm soaked too, just great." He shook his arms trying to get as much water off himself as he possibly could, though at the very least he felt better since he had to deal with much less water, only an inch or so at his feet. It was then he noticed that the water was flowing away from him, and curiously he looked to the side just in time to see Onrac flowing around the corner, his body coated in water, coming right for him.
"What's up Bluetard?" Onrac laughed, swinging one of his chainswords down on him, him bringing his weapon up to shield himself from the blow, and while he managed to block the blow, Onrac gave a kick, sending a pulse of water right towards him that struck him in the chest, sending him flying back into a pillar. With him against the wall, Onrac flowed right towards him, swords retracted to finish him off personally, and had been right on top of him when Neptune pulled up his rifle, pointing it right at him. Onrac stopped, the rifle pointed right at his chest, and looked down at Neptune. "Gonna shoot me?" he asked, grinding his teeth. "We're both soaked, so you'll just end up hurting yourself too, and it wouldn't even be worth it since one shot from that won't have enough juice to take me out, you'll need a fully charged melee shot." He grinned. "What are you planning, Bluetard?"
"Oh, I have a plan, a really good one too.," Neptune lied, breathing heavily. "I just need a few more things to happen before I put them into motion." He gave a shrug. "Then you'll lose."
Leaning forward, Onrac hissed. "You're lying, I can tell. You don't have anything planned, I can just end you right now."
"Are you sure? Don't even want to see what I have cooked up? Is it because you know you'll lose?" Neptune gave a smirk.
"Me? Lose to you? Oh my god, you really think that you can do anything to beat me?" Onrac mocked.
"What? Scared that I can actually do it? If you think you have me beat, no matter what I do, then give me thirty seconds to set it up, and then we'll see what happens. You know, unless you're a coward? I mean, you can't possibly lose to me, right?"
It was a tense moment, and he thought that Onrac would end this right right here, but to his surprise, Onranc retreated, pulling his weapons away and gave him a hard stare. "Thirty seconds starts now, Bluetard."
After he had stood up, Neptune ran, and Onrac started with one.
000
"Dammit dammit dammit!" Neptune swore to himself, jumping behind a pillar. He had no idea what he was doing. "Gotta think, gotta think fast." He dropped to one knee and pulled out his rifle and gave it a quick look over, before deciding to reload, taking the nearly empty cartridge out before replacing it with a full one. "What can I do, what can I do...?" He looked around the area, hoping to see something that could help him, but all he could see was rock, and explosive dust crystals. Nothing around that could help him at-
He then had an idea. Looking down the nearly empty cartridge, he turned it over in his hand before looking to the rock wall next to him, and weighted the pros and cons of this idea. It would require a great sacrifice on his part, but he saw that he had no choice.
Standing up, he shifted his rifle to it halberd formed and swung at the wall.
000
Onrac counted to thirty and began to flow forward, quickly floating along the narrow passageways, trying to locate Neptune and to finish him off, but the he just couldn't find the coward. Then something caught his eye, a shade or red, hiding behind a corner, and with a wide grin, Onrac quickly descended on the idiot.
But there was no one there, it was just Neptune's jacket, draped over a rock. Cautiously, Onrac used one of his swords to pick up the garment to examine it carefully, when he heard a small crackling noise, and upon further look he saw something sticking out of the side pocket; an energy cartridge with a rock jammed into the side of it, and a large chunk of Crystal Dust wedged in there as well. A spark of energy arced from the damaged cartridge and to the crystal, causing an explosion or electricity.
Onrac yelled back as he was thrown back by the blast, sending him into a wall hard, the water falling away from his body. He tried to push himself but he found his whole body stiff, his muscles nearly paralyzed, taking an explosion from that close, through the watery protection around his body had not been an easy thing for him to take, and while he knew it would take him for his aura to heal his injuries.
Suddenly the air was pierced by a sharp whistle, and looking up he saw Neptune standing on the lip of the canyon, goggles over his eyes and his jacket gone, leaving him in his white dress shirt. "Even though I have back ups of that jacket, I'm still billing you!" he called out. "Oh, by the way, I've got you beat!"
"What did you say, Bluetard?" Onrac screamed, pushing himself to his feet, the water flowing back up his legs. "It's not over yet!"
"Yeah, it kind of is, just look where you are idiot!"
"Huh?" Onrac looked up and around himself, and to his horror he saw that the wall he was standing next to had dozens of large crystals sticking out of it.
Neptune raised his rifle. "Suck it Bluetard!" He then fired several shots, not at Onrac, but at the crystals around him.
"Son of a bit-" Onrac groaned, not having a chance to finish his statement.
The explosion was large, filling the whole canyon with a electrical haze that and a cloud that reached into the air.
"UNBELIEVABLE!" Port laughed. "THAT HAS TO BE THE LARGEST EXPLOSION WE'VE SEEN IN THIS YEAR'S MATCHES."
"AND WITH THAT, WE HAVE TO SAY THAT ONRAC KRAKEN'S AURA HAD REACHED INTO THE RED, SO HE IS NOW NO LONGER TO CONTINUE!" Oobleck continued.
The crowed cheered as Neptune released the breath he didn't know he was holding, their applause filling the air. It was being aimed at him, he knew it, so he spread his arms and bathed in the praise.
"Thank you, thank you so very much ladies in gentleman! Ladies especially!" he said, enjoying the attention. "It's so very nice to finally get the-Sun!" He broke out into a sprint, running to the middle of the area, eyes cast high to the floating platforms, trying to figure out where Sun was fighting. "How am I supposed to even get up there?!"
000
Sun found himself leaping from one platform to the next, landing into a roll, only for Kampf to land in front of him.
"Hey," Sun nonchalantly, gesturing to the board. "Looks like my partner just beat your partner." He then gave an over-exaggerated shrug. "Now, who would have thought that could have possibly happen?"
"To a degree, I'm not surprised, Monkey," Kampf answered coolly. "Onrac was always a bit arrogant, so him losing to someone weaker is not much of a surprise."
"Geez, what's with the past tense? He's just knocked out, not dead. You know, you really are a cheery kind of girl."
"And after I beat you, I'll just take care of him next." She raised her lance, pointing it directly at him. "It honestly won't take too long."
"Now who's sounding a bit arro-WHOA!" Sun barely had to to block the stab from Kampf's lance before she pulled away and spun in a circle, catching Sun by his legs, knocking him to the ground. As she completed the spin, she ended up swing the lance in an upward arc, aiming for him on the downswing, but Sun pushed himself up by his arms, back flipping out of the way and swung his staff down, pinning the lance to the ground, but Kampf was able to forced her weapon up, almost knocking Sun's out of his grip and mad for another attack. It was interrupted however as Sun broke his staff in half, changing it back into the gun-chuck and blocked the blow, before going in on his own series attacks. Sun swung Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang around, but Kampf was able to block each blow, resulting in a shower of sparks and gunfire, before Kampf stabbed the end of her lance into the ground and fired her, rocketing her into the ground. As Sun looked up, he saw that Kampf had launched herself onto the under surface of a platform that had floated above them, hanging upside-down for a mere moment, before she jumped down, lance aiming right at him. He swung upwards, both ends of his nun-chucks hitting the blade, creating an explosion of fire, but he was still knocked down, though this had resulted in Kampf being thrown back as well.
Kampf was quick to recover, jumping to her feet to see the sight before her; Sun pinned to the ground, the lance going through the collar of his shirt, sticking him to the ground as he tried to struggle to pull it out.
"As I said, this didn't take long, Monkey." Kampf crouched down, one hand on the ground, then leaped high into the air, and as she came down she aimed for Sun, the distance between them rapidly decreasing.
Her feet came down, landing with enough force to dent the platform deeply, but Sun was not there.
"Damn, that was real close."
Grunting to herself, Kampf looked over to the side and saw Sun pushing himself up from the ground, his weapons clutched in his hands, and his torso bare.
The crowd let out a wild applause and cheers.
"Such a slippery little one you are, Monkey," Kampf hissed, taking her lance out of the platform, removing the white shirt tatters from the blade.
Sun merely laughed, a wide grin on his face. "Oh man, this is great! You almost got me there! Seriously, if I didn't rip out of my shirt just then, I think I'd be toast!"
She rushed him again, and they continued with their brief exchange of blows and parries, leaving no room for the other one to attack, until they both locked their weapons with one another, neither one giving way before Sun fired off the end of his staff, giving him enough time to rear his head back and headbutting Kampf in the forehead, sending her reeling for a moment, dislodging her helm, and sending it flying over the end of the platform.
She was quick to turn this around however as she stabbed the lance at Sun's feet, firing it off, the force sending him into the air. As he flew over her she jumped, right into him, digging the end of her lance into his raised arm guards, their altitude rising with each moment.
"It ends, Monkey!" she shouted, firing off her lance, but then something tugged at her leg, throwing her aim off as it pulled at her, and instead of sending Sun higher into the air, it merely glanced off his armor, and they both went spinning. Looking down she saw something long and yellow coiled around her leg.
His tail! It was wrapped around her leg! Before she could think of anything to do, Sun swung a nun-chuck at her lance-wielding arm, forcing her to drop her weapon, and she tumbled away from Sun.
As she tried to right herself in the air, to try and gain some control over the situation, she caught sight of Sun, her lance in his hand, aiming it right at her. There was no time for her to act as he struck her in the abdomen, firing off the weapon and blasting her down with the force of a truck. With a shout she crashed to the ground, breaking the tiles of the neutral stage and sending shards of debris into the air. Grunting, Kampf pushed herself up to her feet, struggling to stand up, her aura flaring up as she tried to assess the situation, trying to figure out a proper counter move for when Sun landed back on the ground, picking up her fallen weapon on the ground, but the opportunity to think never came.
Neptune then jumped into view, swinging his trident downwards on her, sending a blast of lighting through her body, though she managed to stand her ground, withstanding the current burning through her body. She tried to attack him, but he was quick, able to jump out of the way of her attack, and before she was able to get in another there was a sharp pain going through her skull.
Sun had fallen to the ground, and grabbing his staff in both hands he had struck her on the crown of her head, shattering her aura with a shot from the end of his staff, collapsing her to the ground as he landed behind her.
"Hey, Tiamat?" he called out, spinning on one foot to see the leader of Team KAOS, struggling to get to her feet. "You were right when you said this was over, and you should know something." Looking over her shoulder, Kampf gave him a hateful glare. "I'm not just any monkey, I'm Sun Wukong!" he proudly declared, slamming a fist into his bare chest. "And I'm the goddamn Monkey King!"
Kampf then collapsed to the ground, and the buzzer sounded, declaring her defeat.
"AND TIAMAT KAMPF IS DOWN FOR THE COUNT, TAKING TEAM KAOS OUT OF THE TOURNAMENT, AND WITH THAT TEAM SSSN MOVE ONTO THE SINGLES ROUNDS!"
"HAHAHA! Yes!" Sun cried out, pumping his arms into the air as the crowd cheered and roared through the stadium.
"Dude, we won!" Neptune cheered, running up to Sun before coming to a stop. "Our team got into the singles!"
"I know!" he laughed. "Hey, you think anyone would mind if I did backflip."
"I think you've earned a backflip or two."
000
"Told you they'd win," said Sage, arms crossed over his chest, having arrived a few minutes earlier with Scarlet, Weiss and Blake.
"Oh, I knew they'd do it, never doubted them for a moment," Scarlet said with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"It was touch and go there for a few moments there, but they pulled it off. They earned that," Weiss said, a slight smile on her face. "How many backflips has he done so far?"
"Why's his shirt off?" Scarlet asked, tilting his head to the side.
"Honestly, I'm not surprised," Sage added, simply.
"Does he have no decency?" Weiss groaned in frustration. "Blake, can you please talk to him about-Blake?"
"..."
"Blake? BLAKE!"
"What!" Blake suddenly snapped to attention, taking her eyes away from the arena. "I was-uh, just admiring their victory dances..."
"You are shameless," Weiss sneered. "You were even leering!"
"Was not."
"Come on," Sage said, walking away from the group. "Let's go and congratulate them on this."
He walked away, and the others followed.
000
"I can't believe they actually won," Emerald said in utter disbelief.
Mercury continued eating away at his popcorn. "Neither can I, but I have to say, that was a pretty good fight." He then turned to his side to their much small companion, who was giving her own round of applause. "What about you? What'd you think about it?"
'Nestle Mint' gave an enthusiastic smile and nod, before she returned to her 96 oz soda.
"But they were supposed to lose!" Emerald hissed.
"Don't make a scene Emerald," Cinder said, fingers taping away at her scroll.
"Sorry, Cinder," Emerald said despondently.
"Yeah, Emerald, wouldn't want to attract any unwanted attention, would you?" Mercury said with a smirk, while from behind him, Nestle leaned out with her own wink.
Emerald was left to seethe where she sat.
Cinder chose to ignore them. "While it's true they were put in a match they had a high chance of losing, their victory here means nothing to us." Her fingers swiped on the scroll's screen, and several profile pictures came into view. "But there's only one match left, and I've saved the best for last. I hope that it's something that the audience will love, since this will be the last legitimate fight in the tournament before things start to go oh so terribly wrong."