I do not own Sword Art Online or any of the characters.

Preliminaries

When the light faded, Michael looked around, finding himself standing on top of an old aztec-style pyramid. He hated the area already. He was exposed. And there was no one around. He leapt off the pyramid, running down the steps. As he reached the bottom, several red lines reached out of the trees at him. He jumped to the side, firing at the player. A barrier appeared, blocking the shots. The player sprinted out of the trees, laughing, firing at Michael again. Michael began to avoid bullets while firing. The barrier continued to block Michael's shots, but after a few more, the barrier shattered. Then, a fresh one started. Michael growled in annoyance and sprinted into the trees. After about three minutes, he leapt into the air, grabbing a branch and pulling himself up, pulling out his knife while slinging his rifle. The other player slowed to a stop a short distance away. He began to slowly make his way toward Michael, scanning the area along the ground for Michael. Finally, he was under Michael. Michael dropped, driving his knife into his head as he landed. The player dropped dead and Michael's vision flared again.

When Michael could see again, he was back in the waiting area. He looked around but didn't see Kirito or Sinon. He looked up at the screens and his jaw dropped Sinon was in a sniping position, waiting for her target, as he would expect, but Kirito was using his Photon Sword to deflect bullets. He wasn't blocking them all, a few kept scratching him, but he was deflecting most. He was also shooting at the player but was not even coming close to hitting him. Finally, he stabbed the player and the point of impact began to glow, violet energy flying off of the blade. Then, the player Kirito stabbed exploded and Kirito was teleported back.

"You," a familiar distorted voice said from behind Kirito. "With that name and that skill, are you him?"

"What?" Kirito blinked.

"Well, whether you're him or not, it doesn't matter," Death Gun stated, closing the window displaying Kirito's name, allowing Kirito to see the Laughing Coffin tattoo on the inside of his right wrist.

Kirito staggered back a step just as Michael stepped in front of Death Gun, slashing at him. Death Gun leapt back from the blade and grinned, smoke billowing around him before he vanished.

"Was that..." Kirito began but stopped, knowing the answer.

"Death Gun," Michael said.

"He had a Laughing Coffin tattoo," Kirito said.

"Explains his skill," Michael said. "He'll be harder to stop than I thought. You okay?"

"Yeah," Kirito nodded. "Just thinking about..."

"The Laughing Coffin raid?" Michael guessed. "That was your first time taking a life wasn't it? I'm not going to lie. I can understand that. It was a bad day. But you did what you had to to save everyone. That's all. That doesn't make you a bad person."

Kirito nodded, smiling slightly.

"Thanks," he smirked.

Michael nodded, turning around as Sinon arrived back at the waiting area.

"He was never here," Michael whispered and Kirito nodded.

Sinon walked over and smiled at Michael.

"How'd you do?" Sinon asked.

Before he could answer, he was transported to his next fight. He was standing in a destroyed city when he was able to see again. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and he felt uneasy. He knew why. The destroyed city highly resembled the area where his family died, just after the apocalypse.

Michael began to walk, rifle out. Just before he reached an intersection, he stopped. His instincts were screaming sniper. He put his rifle away and crouched pulling out a small mirror, looking around the corner with it. There was a bridge between two buildings off to one side, exactly where he would expect Sinon to set up with her rifle. He put the mirror away and drew his knife and sprinted up the wall beside him and into a window.

Inside, there was a hole in the floor above him. He leapt up to it, pulling himself up. Then, he ran through the building to a stairwell. He sprinted up the stairs, takkng them two at a time. Finally, he exited it on the bridge's level. He silently crept through the building until he reached the bridge. He peeked out and sure enough, there was his target, armed with a sniper rifle. Michael backed away, then climbed out a window, onto the side of the building then up above the bridge. He climbed down onto the top of the bridge, moving over to where he could drop down behind the sniper. Then, he dropped down with his knife. The sniper didn't move, and didn't know he was there until Michael drove his knife into his skull. Then, he was transported back again.

This time, Sinon and Kirito were waiting.

"What's next?" Michael asked.

"We'll have a little bit of a break before the semi-finals," Sinon said. "That's the next fight. So, no matter what, we'll all be in the finals."

"See you there," Michael smirked. "So, how long do we get?"

"A minute left," Sinon said. "You shouldn't have dragged yours out."

"Figures," Michael sighed. "Well, how'd you do?"

"The usual," Sinon said. "He never knew where I was."

She grinned as they all began to glow.

"Here we go," Sinon grinned. "By the way. Good job with that sniper. You might actually be able to challenge me some day."

Then, they were all teleported away.

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