Hello everyone and welcome back to HellFall! I really don't have anything to say this time so we'll just get right into it.
"ARE YOU READY FOR SOME ACTION?!" The announcer's voice rang out. Oddly enough, I could barely hear it where I was.
"That voice was so loud up top" I commented.
"You were in the audience?" Hail asked.
"Yeah" I replied.
"Why?" She asked, "I thought that you didn't like these tournaments"
"I never said that" I replied.
"But you never show up either"
"Right"
"Geez Gaz," Petunia started, "how stupid did you think we were?"
"In all honesty I didn't think about you guys much" I replied.
"That hurts, Gaz," Hail gasped sarcastically, "It feels like my heart just exploded"
"Right," I replied sarcastically, "'cause you know what that feels like"
"So why are you here Gaz?" Steam asked, returning to the previous topic.
"Oh," I started, "I'm here on business. I probably should be getting back to my seat"
"Business?" Petunia asked, "Since when do you work?"
We chuckled a bit.
"There's some stuff that's been happening recently. Another person and I are trying to find the best hunters out there." I replied, "We're included in that list, most likely, so I'll have to tell you about it. But not now"
"Is it super-secret?" Hail asked, leaning forward and lowering her voice.
"Sure" I replied.
"So we've already been signed up for this…thing…and you didn't call us or anything?" Petunia asked.
"I didn't decide on this." I pointed out, "Plus you're not all included, but I am, and I think that you guys would be a good addition"
Hail smiled, "Did you just think of that?" She asked.
"The idea only just popped into my head, yes" I replied.
"Well I want more details first" Petunia decided.
"Fair enough," I replied, "I'll explain it after the tournament. For now, put your all into the fights to prove yourselves to my comrade"
"Oh yeah," Hail started, "because we enter this tournament just to screw around and not put effort into our fights" She was being sarcastic of course.
I smiled, "Good" I said.
"ALRIGHT FOLKS! HERE ARE OUR FIRST FIGHTERS!" The announcer said, "ARE YOU READY?!"
Everyone cheered, but it was barely audible.
"HERE THEY COME!" He announced, "FIRST UP, WE HAVE TEAM VAIN GOING HEAD TO HEAD AGAINST TEAM ACID!"
Everyone cheered again.
"I have to get going." I told my team; "Call me when it's close to our fight" I turned to leave.
"Are you actually going to answer it this time?" Hail asked.
"I'll leave it on" I replied, pulling it out and switching it on.
Returning to the bleachers I sat down again with Thunder.
"So?" He asked.
"I'll be joining them this year," I replied, "for now I need to focus on business though"
Thunder smiled under his sunglasses and sunhat, "Good" he replied.
The announcer began to introduce each member of the teams. He was just finishing with team ACID.
"…AND IN THIS CORNER WE HAVE TEAM VAIN! LEADING THE CHARGE IS VEIL FAIRFAX, WITH HER TRUSTY TEAMMATES ANCHOR FRANCO, BARNABAS ITO, AND NICOLE ROZOVYY!"
I looked over at team VAIN, looking everyone over.
"Nicole's dressed for the occasion, eh?" Thunder commented.
I averted my eyes to who I believed to be Nicole. She wore a bright pink dress and a bright red vest over top of it. It revealed her shoulders and covering her arms were bright pink sleeves, unattached to her dress. Her bright pink hair was tied up in two ponytails protruding out of either side of her head. She held two identical brown suitcases in each hand.
"Assuming her weapon is in those cases" I said.
"Yes," Thunder replied, "I think that we can be certain of that"
"AND…BEGIN!" The announcer finally called.
Immediately weapons were drawn. Nicole wielded a long silver lance with a thick sword on the other end. I was surprised that she could even carry it, considering her size. She was very short and thin.
"I am so in love right now" someone beside me said. I understood him.
The other three held much different weapons. The leader, Veil Fairfax, held a long blue rapier. The details were hard to see from above, unfortunately. Anchor Franco held a large grey anchor in his hand, with the chain at the top wrapped around his arm. Barnabas Ito held an axe with two blades at the top, both with a triangular-shaped point at the end, instead of being round and sharp like most axes.
As the battle started the winner was obvious. Even without my eye, VAIN was the clear winner.
As the battles continued, I saw many promising teams. Some were met with defeat, others victory. I was surprised to see the team that I'd put together pull through with a victory. They called themselves team WRGE (rogue), and the members were Wintanweorth Coal, Roy Sho, Grizzlibear Karzen, and Ember Bronze.
As the announcer began to call out the next set of teams my scroll rang. Pulling it out, I saw that it was Hail.
"I'm on my way" I said, putting it up to my ear and standing to leave.
"Our fight is after these guys." Hail said, "We're giving you some extra time to prepare. Be grateful!" I could imagine her smiling on the other end.
"Yeah, yeah," I replied, making my way through the crowd to the entrants' area. Finding my team waiting for me there, I slipped in and waited. The next fight was one that I wouldn't be able to see, but whoever was the best would move on, so it wasn't particularly important to me.
"So how's your little bro doing?" Hail asked me while we waited, "Harrison, the little foxy kid"
I felt my eyes start to get wetter, like I was about to cry. "I'll tell you later" I replied, sucking back the tears.
"Did something happen?" Petunia asked.
"He died," I replied, "I'll explain it later"
The three gasped, "He died?!" Petunia exclaimed, "How?"
"We'll sit down and talk about it extensively after this." I replied, "I promise"
"We've got a lot of catching up to do" Steam remarked.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
I wiped my eyes quickly with my sleeve. I hadn't cried quite yet, but there was still some water there, and it blurred my vision.
We stood in silence for a while longer before the announcer's voice interrupted us.
"NOW, LET ME PRESENT YOU WITH THE NEXT SET OF TEAMS! FIRST UP WE HAVE TEAM CRDL (cardinal) AND TEAM PHGG!"
"That's us" Petunia said, heading to the exit gate.
"Petunia Vaughan!" Someone announced. She stepped forward and received her weapon. The rest of us did the same.
Standing at the gate we waited for it to open.
"Alright team," Petunia started, "think we should try out some of our old team combos and attack patterns?"
"They'd be too rusty." Steam said, "at least with Gazini here they would be"
I smiled, "Right," I replied, "Sorry. I'll try to go along with you guys as best I can"
"Or go solo entirely." Petunia suggested, "I hear you've been doing that recently"
"Right." I replied, "Well I'm sure that it'll all come back to me as the battle progresses"
Hail glanced at Arkynshihn, "With that thing?" She asked, "You used Risang back at Beacon. How are you going to do that?"
"I'll figure it out," I replied, "Besides; this thing isn't that heavy anymore"
"I mean in terms of range." Hail said, "You'll never reach anything with that stubby little blade"
"You may be surprised" I replied.
"Why did you get rid of Risang anyways?" Petunia asked.
"I didn't get rid of it," I replied, "I'm just, not using it anymore"
"Idiot" Hail said sarcastically.
"That's what I said when he first showed it to me" Steam said.
"You've seen that thing before?" Hail asked him.
Just then the gates opened.
"Of course," Steam replied, "we met a little while ago"
We stepped into the arena, "How far back?" Petunia asked, butting into the conversation.
"Back when I still went by Gyro," he replied, "I forgot to tell you guys. I may have been younger then, but still not young. My memory isn't what it used to be and it wasn't back then either"
"IN THIS CORNER, WE HAVE TEAM PHGG, WITH ITS FEARLESS LEADER, PETUNIA VAUGHAN," The announcer started, shaking me back into reality.
"Can we talk about this later?" I asked.
"Right." Petunia replied, turning forward, "We'll argue and catch up later"
"-WITH HER FEARLESS TEAMMATES, HAIL STROM, STEAM GYRO, AND GAZINI VOID!"
We stopped, looking across the arena at our opponents. I assumed that there was a waiting room for entrants on the other side as well.
"AND IN THE OTHER CORNER, WE HAVE TEAM CRDL(cardinal)! LEAD BY CARDIN WINCHESTER, AND ACCOMPANYING HIM ARE RUSSEL THRUSH, DOVE BRONZEWING, AND SKY LARK!"
Each of our opponents wore a suit of silver armor with a different color trim and symbol, other than Russel Thrush, who wore a dark green torn-sleeve vest and no shirt underneath, with black pants on his legs.
"ARE YOU READY?!" the announcer called, "AND, BEGIN!"
The first fight in Part 2 is happening pretty early on, which may not be surprising to most of you. However, Part 2 focuses more on the characters themselves and less on the action. There will be plenty of story to come, of course, but for now the characters are the center of attention.
Its kind of interesting to return to Crimson II now, because I'm already into the third color of Part 2, with all the colors being a decent size. With all the writing I've been doing lately it feels like this chapter is late, even though I know it isn't. I've thought about posting an extra chapter a few times, but then realized that that would mean that I would have to break schedule, and with all the lateness I've already had I couldn't possibly hurt you guys with an early and extra chapter.
So yeah, not much going on in the story for the next little while (or anything to talk about in these outros), but expect to climaxes of the colors to instead be the revealing of secrets and not an actual fight (sometimes it will be though, more around the end).
Anyways, that's about it, so as usual, favorite, follow, review, tell your friends, tell your enemies, or don't if you don't want to and I will see you all in next week's chapter.