(Author's Note: Before this chapter begins, I personally would like to say that stuff like this is the reason why I pay so much attention to the spinoff source material and wiki pages in writing this. There is so many bits and pieces of individual facts that one doesn't see in the main Manga or in the anime in them that I find really interesting and can shape how an original character can act under those circumstances. It's what makes events like these carnivals - as well as Nova Clashes - very interesting for me to write, I'll admit. Anyways, hope you enjoy!)
March 13th, 2063
Less than a week after the events of the last chapter..
Less than a week after generating his peculiar volt weapon, Cameron found himself standing in the front row of the 28th Generation of West Genetics Pandora - with Elizabeth on his left and Arnett on his right, with Dolly on Arnett's right - staring up and ahead at Sister Margaret giving a speech explaining the Carnival. Abyss was nowhere in sight, simply waiting in the command center due to Sister Margaret having actually asked Abyss if the commando droid wouldn't mind watching the Carnival with her from there, to which Abyss duly accepted the offer. Cameron already knew potentially what he was in for, but listened to what the headmistress had to say, nonetheless.
"The Carnival.." Sister Margaret began. "..is a part of the curriculum where we measure a Pandora's own fighting abilities without a limiter present." Cameron simply noted that down in his head. Basic enough, he thought. A simple test to determine how strong a Pandora is in an environment where it's just them against others like them.
"It will test all of the skills you've learned thus far" Sister Margaret continued. "Participants will earn points by generating their volt weapons, engaging others, and beating others within the designated combat area, and those rendered unable to fight will be removed, making it a battle royal style in general."
Ah, so an old-fashioned free for all then, thought Cameron. I see how it is then.
"Given this is intended to be a simulation of live combat, any and all actions taken during battles are allowed. Hence, they are many wounded after each Carnival, and maybe some actually dead. Unfortunate incidents can occur as well."
If anyone in the crowd was waiting for Cameron to shudder, he didn't show any indication of it. He knew full well that it was possible for it to happen in a Carnival, which is why unless he had to change into the Cloaked Bulldozer after which all bets were off on how far Cameron would go, he would hold himself back from hurting the Pandora he fought as much as possible.
"Which is why I, as your principal, would like to ask something of you all who, with the exception of one amongst you, will now see real combat for the first time. Please, everyone here today, make it back safely!"
Cameron - and everyone else there - knew full well that exception was himself, and the blonde boy paid no mind as he, Elizabeth, Arnett, and Dolly headed towards their first carnival.
Up in the command center a few minutes later, Abyss watched from the chair he was seated in, as various personnel checked off certain parts as the combat area was put into full preparedness. Standing to his left was a colonel from Chevalier, Edward Hansen, who was at this time the current vice principal of West Genetics, with Sister Margaret on his left.
"I'm always worried and excited this time of year" Hansen said. "Probably because they've all just begun getting used to their volt weapons, whether it's something normal or.. a damn skateboard from what I've heard. I wonder what will happen at this year's Spring Carnival."
Margaret didn't say a word, only watched the screen in front as Hansen became more curious. "What's the ranking for Stigmata Compatibility look like now for this generation?" he asked.
"I'll put it up on Monitor Number 3" one of the personnel at the computers below responded, and both Abyss and Hansen looked to their right as the top seven for Stigmata compatibility appeared on the monitor to their right, where to no one's surprise, in 1st Place was Cameron himself.
"Hrm.." Hansen muttered. "These are the four a head - or in his case, head and shoulders - above the rest, huh. Two of them are from well-known families, while 3rd Place is from a regular family and first place, from what I heard, doesn't have family living on this planet. Amazing, Kannadzuki in Rank 4 has four stigmata.. less than Spears, but still.."
At this point, Margaret spoke up, drawing Hansen's attention away from the monitor. "The Carnival rankings are not determined by compatibility rates" she said. "Things beyond our wildest imaginations happen when Pandora fight. That is precisely what makes each carnival so interesting, especially this one and all those that happen after it, because of him. Cameron Spears."
Once the Carnival began, Cameron - thanks in no small part to his force abilities, and also aided by the rainy conditions - easily ditched any pursuing Pandora that immediately honed in on him, and got to a safe place, where he generated his skateboard and slung it on his back. To his surprise, he immediately felt like he had some sort of increased ability. He took a step forward. To his surprise, his body did it quicker than normal. He took another step, and the same thing happened. He did a little run, and found that he was moving at a much higher rate of speed, even though he still felt normal. He smiled. "So this thing does have some use after all, sweet.." he said, before he left his spot and went to shadow Arnett, Dolly, and Elizabeth, from the shadows, not realizing that simply the act of slinging the skateboard on him had caused his tracking beacon to remain fixed on the former location he was at, the camera observing the area to become disrupted, and for him to become invisible to the other cameras - and to the other Pandora as well.
As Cameron was discovering that his volt weapon had advantages after-all, things started to heat up.
"WE'VE GOT OUR FIRST DROPOUT!" shouted someone in the command center, barely 15 minutes after the Carnival had started.
"What?! Already?!" shouted Hansen, shocked. "In those terrible conditions, and in their first battle, they already beat an enemy?!"
Margaret refused to be rattled in contrast. "Who was the victor?" she asked.
"Checking now, ma'am" one of the personnel below them responded, and a few seconds before the technician was able to pull it up and put the victor on screen. "The first points were earned by Arnett McMilian. She seems to have increased the mass of her volt texture when she materialized her weapon, thereby increasing its attack power, allowing her to destroy her opponent's weapon."
This shocked Hansen and the other Chevalier officers in there.
"Wh..? What?!"
"But they haven't been taught that yet. Did she figure out how to use the stigmata on her own?!"
Hansen was the first to remember Margaret's words from minutes earlier, and he watched with renewed curiosity. "I guess things we never would have imagined, really do happen at the carnival" he said, not knowing what else he was about to witness.
With the powers of speed and stealth his skateboard slung over his back granted him, Cameron shadowed Elizabeth, Arnett, and Dolly each, switching from girl to girl from time to time and watching their progress. Each of them was dominating in their own separate areas of the combat zone, but as time went on, and more Pandora fell to Arnett's rampage, Elizabeth and Dolly began to move in Arnett's direction, confirming to Cameron that in order to prevent the three of them from hurting each other, he would have to get involved.
Eventually, both Elizabeth and Dolly reached where Arnett was, with Cameron not far behind while still staying stealthy, making sure he wasn't close enough to be detected. He still had no idea about his tracking beacon still making it look to the Chevalier like he was where he was when he slung his skateboard over his back, when in fact he actually wasn't. Arnett was about to slice off Attia Simmons' head when Dolly and Elizabeth reached her.
"I think that's far enough" Elizabeth spoke up, and Dolly nodded in agreement. Arnett turned, and although surprised by Dolly being there, quickly turned back to her sadistic attitude after noticing Elizabeth. "Oh.. it's you, huh.. thanks, now I don't have to go hunt you down, Elizabeth Mably!"
Arnett paused for a few seconds before continuing, even as Cameron watched from a nearby trash pile. "You've got a lot of guts, showing your face in front of me~ Not bad for a prissy little rich girl~"
Cameron facepalmed himself, knowing full well that Elizabeth was anything but that.
"Still, why's your uniform so damn clean?" Arnett asked, noticing that in contrast to Dolly who looked a little bit worse for west than Arnett was, the Mably girl was practically clean with not a trace of blood or dirt on her uniform, and Elizabeth just didn't respond. "What? You've been hiding and taking it easy this whole time?"
"I suppose you could say that" Elizabeth replied. "I did certainly choose a slightly easier path to avoid dirtying myself. I simply chose to target and defeat those worth a lot of points.. it's the simplest and most efficient way to reach first place."
Arnett started laughing. "Pretty damn smart idea you got there, huh! You do get a lot of bonus points for beating people with lots of points.. you upper class ladies sure do come up with some amazing stuff! But.. do you get what that means?" she said. "It's incredibly obvious, but.. people with lots of points are going to be that much harder to beat, ya with me?"
"I am aware of that fact" Elizabeth replied. "Thus far everything's gone according to plan." Dolly didn't say anything, she just waited for the fight to start. "And if I might add.." Elizabeth continued. "After Dolly and I beat up a certain someone who's been going around racking up a lot of points, I'll be almost guaranteed to finish in first place and Dolly will certainly be in the top five."
Arnett realized that Elizabeth was talking about her. "Oh, you think so, huh?" she asked, before she put her blade at Attia's throat again. "Alright, but do you both mind giving me a second? I gotta chop off this midget's head real quick before we start."
"Arnett, don't" Dolly said, looking very stoic. "There's no reason to do that."
"I just won't feel satisfied, until I've slaughtered the conceited little bitch.." Arnett continued.
"Please stop, there is no point in doing that" Elizabeth said back. "It's clear you've already beaten her. Any more fighting would be senseless violence. You've done enough, leave her be."
Arnett simply let the blade cut Attia a little, drawing a little blood and making the short girl cry out in pain. Cameron winced, being reminded of so many similar scenes from what he had witnessed so far in the Clone Wars, some of them from fellow Separatist commanders and their troops that he fought alongside with, while some of the others were from Republic forces.
"Sorry.." Arnett stated. "But I ain't got no reason to listen to the two of you. I want to crush all you conceited, condescending ***** so much that it hurts. I'm not going to stop not matter what either of you say!" (A/N: There will be limited censoring of swears and slurs in this from time to time if I think a word a character says is just too over the line for me to type it unblurred, so yeah.)
Elizabeth was silent for a few seconds, even as Dolly readied her weapon. Cameron sensed that it was almost time. "I say this not for her sake.." Elizabeth spoke. "But for yours.. knock it off and fix that attitude of yours right this instant!"
"Bitch.." Arnett replied. "You've got another thing coming if you think you can boss me around.."
But before Dolly, Elizabeth, and Arnett could tear into each other, they were all interrupted by someone very familiar to them.
Cameron knew it was time. Taking off his skateboard from being slung around his shoulders, he put it on the ground a short distance behind the ramp he used for cover and took off forward, and made the leap off of it, surprising all four girls below him.
"Sorry for having to do this to you girls, but.." he said.
Everybody in the command center, except Margaret and Abyss, exploded into a frenzy of chatter and activity the moment Cameron burst into view on his skateboard above the four girls.
"Wait, hold on.. Where the fuck did Spears come from?! I thought he was still all the way up at the other end of the combat zone!"
"I'm checking that camera now! It should have cleared up from the disruption to the feed by now and.. NO WAY! HE WASN'T THERE AT ALL!"
"Are you serious?! How's that even possible?!"
But in the time it took for them to discover that Cameron was in fact not where his tracking beacon said he was, the victor of the Spring Carnival was decided.
Using the force technique of hitting someone's pressure points with a quick strike using the force so that they can fall unconscious with little pain or repercussions, Cameron used it on Elizabeth, Dolly and Arnett all at the same time, causing all three Pandora to collapse to the ground knocked out cold and with little injuries to themselves, leaving Attia speechless. She was expecting Elizabeth and Dolly to fight Arnett, thereby saving her, not for Cameron to just show up out of nowhere and take down all three of them with just one move. As Cameron landed his skateboard, stopped it and then walked back over after de-materializing it, she could only ask in wonder and amazement.
"H-How.. How did you do that?" she asked the blonde teen while still wincing in pain from her cut fingers, while Cameron merely just looked at her with a sympathetic look. "The force is merely a pathway to a plethora of abilities you humans would consider unnatural." He then, with a single wave of his hand, cast a wave of force healing on Attia, regrowing her cut fingers in the process. "Case in point right here.." he said, as she stared in shock and awe, flexing her regrown fingers. "Thank you so much!" she exclaimed.
"Believe me.." he said, as the helicopters and other aircraft began to land to pick up everyone there. "..you're totally welcome."
It was over. While Dolly had finished 5th, Arnett had finished 3rd, and Elizabeth had finished 2nd, Cameron Spears had become the strongest of this year's generation of Pandora at West Genetics, unaware of what lay in store for him at the next carnival.
