(A/N Well, sorry I'm a little late to updating this; I was simply too busy this weekend to get on my computer. Anyway, read on!)
Disclaimer: 'Tis not mine. Neopets 'tis not. 'Tis-why the hell am I talking like this. I don't even-
Defenders of Neopia 2: Brotherhood chapter 9: The Exam.
Jeffory blinked. Then he blinked again. And again. Well aware he looked like rather strange, his mind was racing. He was supposed to face Tom. Tom, the powerful warrior with a freakin' katana?! There was no way... He shook his head. The odds had been stacked against him more than once in the past. He had defeated Kass, who was ten times stronger than Tom would ever be. And this time, he didn't just have Jack and Hunter for support. No, they had Kendra to help them out!
A cruel part of Jeffory's mind considered revealing revealing Kendra as a Mage. Perhaps they could cause their opponents to believe she could petrify them, or something. Then he mentally kicked himself, disgusted by his own thoughts. That too cruel. Kendra would be heart-broken if she knew her team-her friends-even considered using her in such a way.
Stupid, stupid, stupid! Jeffory berated himself in his mind. He looked around his surroundings, trying to get his mind off of the upcoming fight.
They were currently in the Student Lounge as they waited for the seperate teams to be called into the arena. The Academy's massive structure housed an arena on the bottom floor made specifically for this kind of situation. Jeffory chuckled to himself; even though this was practically his home, there was still so much he didn't know about it.
Kendra sat down next to him. "So..." she started slowly, not making eye contact. Jeffory arched a brow. "You okay?" he asked the absent-minded flotsam. "I have to fight Thomas-I mean, Tom?" she asked. Jeffory held back an exasperated sigh. Part of him wished she wasn't so worried about the arrogant techo, but the other could sort of understand how she felt. If he had to fight a friend of his, or someone who was possibly more than that, he didn't know how he would feel.
"I guess so. I swear, friggin' Larx must've rigged that thing," he responded, eyes narrowed. For one of the first times that Jeffory could remember, Kendra didn't call him out on insulting the Commander. "I agree. He's pretty good at making things worse, right?" she smirked, getting a chuckle from Jeffory. Her smile disappeared as quickly as it had come, though. Jeffory placed his hand on her shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. "Hey, this fight isn't to the death, y'know?" he reminded her, hoping to ease her mind.
She nodded hesitantly. "I know, but still..." she trailed off, glancing over at Scott and his group as they absently wandered into the lounge. Kendra never really did like fighting. Jeffory wondered if she really was prepared to be a Defender. Last year, she had told them that she joined this Academy to prove to her parents that she could take care of herself. Was that a good enough reason?
Then again, he wasn't one to talk.
"Anyway," Jeffory said, trying to eliminate the awkward silence. "just think of this as a friendly competition, all right?" Jeffory reassured her, looking her in the eye. She smiled before nodding. "Thanks, Jeff," she smiled. He nodded. "No problem. Do me a favor? Go check on Jack and Hunter, they're bein' too quiet," he said, glancing over at his friends who were indeed being rather quiet, talking in hushed tones. She chuckled and went over to them.
When she had gone, Jeffory stood up and walked over to Scott. Said scorchio gave him a cheesy grin as he walked over. It was obvious: they were both nervous about fighting the other's teams. "Hey, Jeff," Scott greeted awkwardy. "Hey..." Jeffory responded, sensing his friend's discomfort.
They both stood, shuffling their feet around and their eyes fixated on the ground. Finally, Jeffory broke the silence. "So, no hard feelings whoever wins or loses, right?" he asked nervously. Scott nodded, grinning. "Yeah. No hard feelings." In a matter of seconds, the tension surrounding the two seemed to dissipate and Jeffory released a breath he didn't know he was holding in.
Suddenly, Scott glanced around the room, as though he felt someone was watching him. Jeffory arched a brow. As he opened his mouth to ask him what his problem was, Scott held up a hand, effectively silencing him. "Seriously, Jeff, be careful around Tom. He gets sorta... weird when he's in a battle. I don't think he knows the meaning of a 'friendly competition," Scott whispered. "especially if it means he'll get to fight Jack." Before Jeffory could respond to him, Josh, who until then had been pretty quiet, caught his attention.
The shoyru was trying "I'm not touching you" with Tom. Emphasis on the "trying". The techo grabbed Josh's finger mid-almost-poke, and squeezed it hard.
Have you ever heard a chicken scream? Jeffory was sure the sound Josh made in response was something like that.
"Oi!" Scott shouted, jogging over to the two. "Don't break him yet, we need him for the match!" he pleaded, forgetting about his conversation with Jeffory completely.
Jeffory watched as Scott desperatly tried to pry Tom away from Josh who was screaming to high heaven, and wondered: how could THIS team have him so worried?
He slapped the sides of his face; he had to get it together, for his team, if nothing else. He sighed and walked over to his friends. Jack had just finished his theory on-you guessed it- the sub vs. hoagie debacle that had somehow come up in the conversation. "Still?" Jeffory asked in exsperation, sitting down next to Hunter, who was glaring at the mycni. Obviously, his thoughts on the matter had been shut down by Jack, who was grinning widely.
No wonder they were being so quiet before: That stuff is serious business.
"Still," Kendra responded with a roll of her eyes. Jeffory could only shake his head; come to think of it, why would anyone take his team seriously? They continued sitting in comfortable silence, preparing theselves for the match. They were on next, and they had to do their best to get a good standing.
They couldn't just fight to win out there. No, they had to look good as they did so. Style and finesse wre important to their scores. Jeffory thought it was impractical, to be perfectly honest. He doubted that if they were in a real, life-threatening battle, looking good was important.
Larx's drawling voice crashed his train of thought as it came over the loud speaker. "Attention, students!" the chattering in the room immediately died down at this. "The Exam will begin in exactly ten minutes! The two teams facing each other first must enter the elevator and take it to B3," he ordered. Jeffory glanced over at his friends, and they nodded before standing up and joining him.
Scott stopped arguing with his team when the announcement began and he managed to drag them both over to the elevator before Tom and Josh lunged at eachother's throats.
They piled into the elevator, and Jeffory was thankful he wasn't claustrophobic.
"Ow!" Jack yelled. "You're on my foot!" he whined at the unseen foot-stepper. "Shut up, Jack..." Hunter groaned, as someone was on his poor tail. "Someone's on everybody, so deal with it," Tom said cooly, even though it was him standing on Jack's foot. "Speak for yourself..." Josh whined; his wing was being pressed against the side of the elevator.
Jeffory managed to squeeze through the group to get to the elevator panel. As soon as he saw "B3" he pressed it and the elevator doors closed.
The ride down was not Jeffory's idea of fun. Jack and Tom kept giving eachother death glares, Kendra was eyeing Tom with a somewhat dreamy look, Hunter was spouting facts about the Academy's history like a water fountain of boredom, and Josh and Scott drowned everyone else out with their complaints about their personal space.
After what felt like forever, the elevator stopped descending, and the doors opened with a "ding!". They all stumbled out of the elevator and they were in a very large, circular room. The ceiling was high in the room, making the room not feel as confined as Jeffory thought it would be. The room wasn't lit by lights, but rather many, and I mean many candles and torches. Surrounding them were stands filled with onlookers. The audience consisted of younger students who didn't qualify for The Exam yet, but were here most likely for preperation for next year. Among them were most of their teachers.
Before Jeffory could examine the room further, Jack gained his attention by declaring "ELBOW ROOM!" while spreading his arms wide, barely missing Jeffory's face. He fell silent, remaining in his comical position when he noticed the many stares as chuckles he was receiving from the audience he hadn't known was there.
Jack chuckled nervously and waved at them, not noticing Tom's glare that was fixed on his back. "And now they think I'm associated with this idiot..." he grumbled. Hunter narrowed his eyes, and opened his mouth to tell him off.
Larx's voice cut Hunter off as he began prowling over towards Tom, who wasn't even paying attention to the advancing kougra.
"Welcome all, to The Exam!" he called among the cheers that filled the large room. "Today we see who has the makings of becoming a true Defender!" he continued, as the cheers growing even louder. Jeffory stiffened slightly, feeling a wave of... something flow through his body but he had no clue what caused it... His eyes warily scanned the crowd but he saw no one suspiscious... Wait!
He saw a blue kyrii in the stands but it was gone as soon as he saw it. Was it just his imagination? Was the stress finally getting to him? Was he just overworked? It couldn't have been: The chills that rushed down his spine were too real to be a simple trick of the mind. Jack tapped him on the shoulder, calming his rushing mind.
"...alling, Jeffory!" the mnci's cheerful voice filled his ears, making him jump slightly. "Oh."
"What's up? Pre-fight jitters?" he asked. Jeffory suddenly felt deja-vu. Jack had said something similar before their confrontation with Kass last year. Jeffory chuckled. "Something like that," he responded quietly, glancing quickly at the stands, and seeing nothing out of usual. Except for Mr. Demente poking a student in the face, that is.
Some things never change.
Jeffory looked back to Jack and forced a grin, trying to push down the sinking feeling in his gut. "Let's bring down the house, buddy," he said. Jack grinned, patting his miniature gun in his pocket. "That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!"
Please enter the center of the arena!" Larx ordered over the loud speaker. Jeffory led his group to the aforementioned destination while Scott led his group. Jeffory caught sight of the judge's corner where Larx, a skeith and a very familiar face sat.
"It's Rich!" Hunter gasped, looking at Jeffory and Jack in surprise.
The draik looked much more laid-back then when they last saw him, wearing a T-shirt with the Altador's logo on it and blue jeans. He noticed them gawking and waved at them, smiling. Jeffory and the other two waved back, dumbfounded. He wondered what the draik was doing here. Kendra looked very confused as she watched her friends reactions.
"Who's he?" she whispered in Jack's ear. The mycni gulped at feeling her breath on his skin but he composed himself. "He helped us get to Meridell last year," he told her hastily. When she nodded and moved away, he began taking rapid breaths to get his brain working correctly again (well, as correct as Jack's brain is capable of).
Larx called their attention back to him when he cleared his throat.
"In this battle, you are not fighting to the death. This is merely a sparring match, not to be taken as any less or any more, understood?" he told them all strictly. Jeffory's team as well as Scott's responded with a simultaneous "Yes sir! Larx nodded, satisfied. "Also," he added, looking each and every one of them over, stopping for a longer amount of time on Tom. "Your performance in this battle will determine your overall score, which determines your future as Defenders. While winning this battle is important, it will mean nothing if you do it sloppily," when he said this, he looked at Jeffory with a glare.
Jeffory guessed that flipping him off would count as an immediate disqualification.
"Lastly, if a member of either team is wounded severely they will surrender, or they will be forcibly removed to recieve medical attention, understood?" when he said this he gave Jeffory another pointed look.
Jeffory refused to let this jerk get to him; he was the team's leader, and it was his responsibility to keep a cool head, even if someone was ticking him off. Larx almost looked disappointed that he wasn't able to provoke the kyrii, but quickly recovered.
"Teams, move to your corners," he commanded. Jeffory and his group took up residence of the area surrounding the elevator while Scott's team occupied the adjacent side of the field.
"Now then, when I give the word, the battle will commence," he told them, giving Tom another look. "draw your weapons..." The two teams both got into battle stances. "FIGHT!" Larx commanded.
Like animals, the two teams met in the center of the arena, and the cheering was over-powered by the sounds of battle
(A/N I hope you guys are looking forward to a fight! Unfortunately, you guys are going to have to wait until nex week to see who wins. Until then, I bid you all farewell! Have a nice week, everybody, and please review!)
LaDude out.