Roleplay:The Leo Tournament

This Roleplay is Closed!

Overview
The Leo tournament is a huge festival dedicated to the heroes of mobius, celebrated in the form of competetive battling. It is a world wide tournament held in Station Square, every year where teams from all across the globe come to battle one another for a grand prize. However, darkness lies under all of this as traitors Zero and Apollo have both betrayed the group and have "unleashed Foxtrot" a powerful war machine based off the Echo Project. Now the group will have to play doubles, with one team in the tourny and another scouting for danger, looks like things are about to get hectic!

Participants
NeoExlucky

MaverickHunterSigma

Timesmashaperil

Involved Characters
Neo Tranquil (Neo)

Fey Wayward (Neo)

Leah Dubio (Neo)

Celia Takashi (Neo)

Kala the Genie (Neo)

Echo Radon (Neo)

Fate Serene (Neo)

Red (Neo)

Era Tranquil (Neo)

Tournament Announcers (Neo)

Tournament Teams (Neo)

Zero Evol (Neo)

Apollo Radon (Neo)

Dr. Radon (Neo)

Zapor the Hedgehog

Lexi the Hedgehog

Zak the Kirby

Wheelman (Z888)

Saren Arcturias (Saren)

Masako Haruno (MHS)

Monica DeLouise (MHS)

Ciel Mackenzie Fay (MHS)

Yuhi Saisei (MHS)

Rose Hellsing (MHS)

Argent Hellsing (MHS)

??? (MHS)

??? (Time)

Part 1: Post Preliminaries
The Mythic Knights and Remnents all sat in a large plush room inside the Colloseum, both Neo and Kala wearing the purple suit assigned to the members of the tournament team. It had only been 24 hours since they won the tournament and a total of 3 weeks before they were betrayed. The room was silent except for Celia's electronic voice, that came from the temporary implant she had given to everyone. "Mercury and I are working on curing Trinity as fast as we can." She reported. "Her power level has grown exponentially since she was first with us. Once she's cured, she's gonna be a powerhouse."

"What's going on outside?" Neo asked.

"No activity yet." Celia told them. "A lot of energy in the air though. Fire, Water, Chaotic, you name it, it's up there. Foxtrot's probably eating like a king wherever he is."

"Anything on Zero or Apollo?" Neo pressed.

"You could lighten up, you know." Celia told him. "No, neither of them seem to be in the area right now."

"I don't sense either of their aura's in the area." Kala noted. "But, I feel like something really big is about to happen, that or I ate too much..."

Zapor, also in a purple suit, sighed. "You think there's a suit in blue? Purple really isn't..flattering."

"I don't know what your talking about, kid." Eclipse said, looking at Kala. "Purple is goood." Eclipse got a questioned look from Leo, but ignored it.

"The money's gonna be all mine~ MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!" Saren cackled out, he's been like this ever since he heard about the reward.

"You realize the reward isn't money." Kala said. "He just said it was something really valuable. I hope it's a rocket!"

"I...doubt that." Leah told the genie.

"Either way.. It will be mine!~"

"Maybe its a tiny floating whale." Zapor said enthusiastically, which caused Lexi to scream.

"Lex, are you still afraid of whales?" Leo asked, which Lexi answered by punching him in the face.

Rose seemed to be looking around. "Hey soldier girl, didn't you say you were bringing some friends of yours along? Where are they?"

Masako shook her head. "They're here, but for all intents and purposes they aren't in the same room with us right now. Something else came up recently involving the tournament. I missed the briefing, so I'm sort of in the dark while they're off investigating the area."

"Hey." A man in a black suit called, while opening the door. "The matches is about to begin soon." He told them. "Your team will need to be out there, with everyone present. Good luck in the quarter finals."

"Expect to find them after the final match." Celia told them. "Remember that the Leo tournament will be changing the group dynamic when you get out there, it's the only thing that makes the Leo tournament different from the Aries tournament."

Neo rose. "I'm ready." He approached the door and walked out.

"Master doesn't seem to be very happy with Zero and Apollo." Kala noted sadly. "We should hurry and follow him." She left far Neo.

"We have a box near the top of the stadium." Fey noted. "Everyone else will come with me, Leah, and Echo."

"And me." Era inputted. "I'm here too, not that anyone cares about the best thing you have against Zero."

"Don't argue." Red told her.

Moros looked at Era. 'Still here as well..'

Saren went to follow Neo.

Zapor ran to follow Neo as well.

The team exited where they found one of the announcers, a pink wolf girl in a dress designed to look like the Lwo constellation awaiting. "There you guys are!" She said. "My name is Ursa I'll be the announcer for the competition!" She looked over the group. "Alright, well as you know we have a new rule every year for the tournament. This years rule adds and person to your team!"

"That's it?" Kala asked. "That's the new rule?"

"Yes!" Ursa told them. "It changes the group dynamic and adds another person to battle with when you go up against another team. Your new member should be coming soon, and if you have any questions, I can answer them!"

Saren shrugged. "Well, that might make things less boring... Oh well."

(You guys can talk, and interact and basically do whatever, but we can't start the tournament until MHS posts. -Neo)

A gray-quilled echidna walked into the room. She wore a cloak, which seemed to shift between the colors of the rainbow, "This looks like the place."

"Hold on... are you here by invitation, by any chance?" Masako asked the echidna.

"Why, yes. Yes I am!" she replied, grinning, "The name's Plat- er, no. The name's, uh, hmm.... Could you give me a moment to think about this?"

"You need to think about you name?" Neo asked.

"I like her!" Kala asked.

"Yep, this girl is now apart of the Mythic Knights team!" Ursa announced. "Now that everyone is here, we can start the tournament!"

"Um, my name is... Uisu! Yes, that's right. Uisu~Hyper's the name, but you can just call me Uisu!" the echidna, apparently named Uisu, replied.

"How does Hyper drop the nickname Usiu?..Meh." Zapor muttered.

Saren looked at Uisu.

"Wait... A team means I have to share..." Saren muttered.

Masako was obviously suspicious about the echidna... but then again, what's new?

"Just start the battles." Neo told her.

"There are still a couple of rules to go over." Ursa said.

"Like what?" Kala asked.

"First rule; you cannot kill each other!" Ursa told them. "Second Rule; you cannot step out of bounds, that means you cannot go anywhere past the first row of chairs. Third Rule; in the case of a knock-out, you cannot make a replacement, so do not get knocked out!" She pointed over to sign with all the teams on a bracket. "You will battle in two matches, and then the finals.If  you triumph over all of those you will earn the valuable reward!"

"Which is a rocket?" Kala asked hopefully.

"It's something you can't even imagine!" Ursa told them. "It could be anything, except money."

"So it could be a rocket?" Kala's eyes sparked.

"Maybe!" Ursa excitedly announced. "Now let's start the tournament!"

Part 2: The Quarter Finals; Mythic Knights vs Dungeon
"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Ursa called out from the middle of the tournament. "Welcome to the 76th Leo Tournament!" The crowd roared in excitement, nearly deafening anyone in the area. "Today we'll be handling the quaters, semis and final matches of the tournament, and have we got some special teams for you tonight!"

"Yes we do." Called a high-pitched woman over the intercom. "My name is Minor and I will be handling any commentary from up here."

"And my name is Major." Another voice, this time male, said. "My name is Major and I'll be working with Ursa and Minor to give you all the report of what is happening."

"So, any thoughts on the tournament teams?" Minor asked.

"As always, we have Team Battle, a returning champion looking to defend their title, which I think will make for an interesting match, but we also have a lot of new teams appearing as well, I think that it might be a little early to say that Team Battle is going to successfully defend their title, but they do have a really good chance." Major told them.

"Well, on that note, let's begin the first match of the day!" Minor called. "Our first match will consist of the Mythic Knights vs Team Dungeon!"

Neo and his team walked out into the center of the tournament opening. Across from them were several interesting individuals. One wore heavy white chainmail, another wore a green and white pirate outfit, one was covered in blue robes with a giant yellow hat, another was in a red outfit complete with a cap and luxerious hat, one had on white robes with a hood, and another wore a taditional ki.

"Neo, Saren, Zapor, Masako, Kala, and Uisu vs Knight, Rogue, Black, White, Red, and Shaman!" Ursa called out. "Live and let die, fight!"

(Quater finals vs theme!)

Kala quickly jumped backwards and began dancing, putting a ward of magic on everyone. Neo quickly jumped at Rogue, easily locking the man in combat.

White jumped back and prepared to cast magic. Knight went straight for Masako, Black fired flames at Saren, Red quickly took his light sword and tried to hack at Zapor, and Shaman tried to punch Uisu.

Zapor rolled back and tossed a large fireball at Red.

Uisu caught the punch, and kicked him in the stomach.

Masako formed a glacier in front of her to intercept Knight, which exploded into a cloud of frost, obscuring vision.

Knight quickly flipped back, took his sword and went around, trying to flank Masako.

Shaman, doubled over, before punching the ground, causing the earth under Uisu to open under her.

Red quickly took his blade and stabbed Zapor's flame, covering the sword with fire and continuted to slash at the red hedgehog.

Rogue went for Neo's shoulder, but the green fox wasn't having any of that. He dug his claws into Rogue's arms, and jumped off of him. Then took a metallic round object, and kicked it towards the boy, who didn't stand a chance against the explosion that the roundel grenade caused. Rogue, got back up and once again locked himself in combat.

White managed to heal Rogue for most of the damage he took.

Uisu's robes changed to a light green, and she began to slightly hover. "Heh. Nice try. But I can do this!" She then pointed her had at him, and began to charge up an attack.

"Funny that you mention that." Shaman said, standing up, charging his own attack.

"Funny that you mention me mentioning that!" Uisu replied, firing a beam of white energy.

Saren just focused on interconnecting all of team dungeon's shadows with his own without them noticing.

Zapor jumped, dodging the fire slash and tackled Red in the form of a fireball.

The white beam fired, and went directly for shaman, only for it to be met with a barrier that White had put up. Which gave Shaman enough time to fire a blast of water at Uisu.

Black continuted to fire flames at Saren, unknowingly causing their shadows to get larger.

"I'm still capable, aren't I...?" Uisu muttered to herself. Her quills began to glow, and then turned blue. "Perhaps they won't recognize my talent yet..." She absorbed the blast of water, and reflected a slightly larger wave.

Shaman slid underneath it, covering his feet in sharp air, and going to kick towards Uisu's feet.

Saren snickered at black before sinking into one of the shadows, however, a good portion of his fur was singed along with the majority of his coat.

"Come on~" He muttered before Black's shadow spawned tendrils that attempted to wrap around his feet.

"Let's get this show on the road.."

Black, being the incompetent mage that he was, had no idea what to do and was taken by the tendrils.

Saren willed the tendrils to start squeezing after they continued on to his ankles, intending to shatter the bones in Black's feet and ankles so Black would otherwise be incapable of walking.

"I got you, pearl!" White called out, casting a pearl spell which caused a large orb of holy mage to cut through the tendril, which caused Black to flop onto the floor.

"Try not to hurt them too much..." Kala told Saren in concern. "They aren't bad guys..."

"Whop." Uisu's robes became a slightly more intense green, and she hovered above the ground even further. "Kerpew." She pointed her arm at him once more, and fired a small red sphere, that would explode on contact.

The sphere hit him square on the chest, he didn't even have time to stand up, but there was one problem in that calculation. Shaman was really close to Uisu, so the explosion would have been in range of both her and him, and the explosion managed to knock him out.

Seeing as Knight's vision was obscured, Masako was nowhere to be found where he tried to "flank" her. Instead, there was a blade of ice flying toward him.

"I'm not Kala, well.. Alright fine.." Saren whined.

Knight quickly was slammed with the blade of ice, his armor held, but it still hit like a truck. Knight doubled over, before trying to look for Masako.

Knight didn't have to look very far for Masako. She was already just steps away, opening up with a series of weak, rapid slashes. Her movements were controlled, and her strikes were focused on his abdomen. Her plan was to weaken his armor's defenses so that her next attack would penetrate. She finished by blink-dashing through with a glorious slash... one could swear there were cherry blossom petals in the wind.

Knight was knocked onto the floor, the strike took his breath, and he fell, helpless onto the ground.

Black quickly tried another trick, he charged a large fireball in his hands.

(Um, not to be hasty or whatnot, but what happened to Red?)

"Whoops." Realizing her mistake, Uisu could only just attempt to throw her arms in front of her in a pointless attempt to soften the blow. She got hit by the explosion, got sent flying a few feet, and fell over.

(Whoops)

Shaman was knocked out, bringing Team Dungeon down to five people.

Red was knocked down by the fireball, quickly trying to stand up and strike Zapor with his blade.

Masako turned and knocked Knight's weapon away, sheathing her blade. "Sorry."

Zapor got hit with e strike, getting a cut on his arm. Zapor then exhaled smoke from his mouth, which would cover Red's vision.

knight could not get up, he was defeated, leaving Tema Dungeon down to four people.

Red, with his vision all kinds of messed up now, looked around desperatly trying to find Zapor.

Zapor ran from behind Red, coming at him with a fiery spin kick.

Between the smoke, and the fact that he couldn't see behind him, was hit by the kick, knocked out, and leaving only three members of Tema Dungeon left.

Masako didn't mean to disgrace Knight by defeating him so quickly, but she couldn't risk a drawn-out battle in the arena. The less power that Foxtrot gains from the tournament, the better.

Saren willed the tendrils to raise up, taking black with them by the ankles in an attempt to repeatedly smash black into the arena floor hard enough to give him a moderate concussion.

"Pearl!" White called, sending the tendrils back.

"We need someone to take out White!" Kala called.

Neo threw a roundel grenade onto Rogue, causing him to be blown onto his back, knocking him out, and leaving Team Dungeon down to 2 members.

Saren sighed in the shadows, he was getting aggravated. "Someone wants to play fire with fire? Fine.. I'll give them something to think about.." He muttered as he took out a small scalpel from one of his coat pockets before lunging out of black's shadow, intending on severing one of his achilles heels.

Kala quickly through a fire ball toward's Saren's hands, and also Black's feet, causing him to trip and fall on his head, leaving him unconscious.

"If you hurt him too bad, we'll be kicked out!" Kala warned him. "I want my rocket!"

Zapor looked at Kala with a confused look. "I'm pretty sure it would be more classy. It probably be a bounce house!"

Neo looked over to White. "Well..." He told her. "Let's get this over wi-"

"Surrender!" White called out.

(Victory! theme)

"And our winners are, The Mythic Knights!" Ursa called out.

"Oh man, you guys are good!" Shaman exclaimed.

"My sword..." Knight moaned, in a nearly crying voice.

"I say, that was certainly an interesting battle." Red agreed. "I don't have a doubt that you all will make it to the finals."

"I lost 'cause I tripped? Man..." Black sighed.

"Do good guys!" Rogue told them. "We'll be rooting for you."

"Celia." Neo said. "Got anything?"

"Yeah, I think so." Celia said. "It's weird, I'm getting...something coming from outside the arena, pretty far away..."

"Zero's around." Kala noted in a hushed tone. "I can sense his aura. Apollo's not though."

"I'll have some of the others check out the weird signal I'm getting." Celia told the group. "It's not Zero, but my computer doesn't really know how to handle it."

"How's Trinity?" Kala asked.

"Stirring." Celia said. "Besides the fact that she's constantly gaining power, she's also beginning to wake up, and we don't have a cure yet."

"That was an amazing battle!" Ursa told the fighters. "If you take a quick rest, we'll be ready to begin the semi-finals battle!"

"Ok!" Zapor said. "Someone wake me up when we're called!"

 'Phew.' Uisu thought to herself, getting up an walking over to her team. '' 'That quick change wasn't enough to give me away, thank goodness. I'm surprised, though. I've been all over the news and stuff. Well, not Uisu-me, but Platinum-me. Ugh. I better just stop worrying.'''

Part 2 (A): The Semi-Finals; The Mythic Knights vs Team Battle
"What do you think about the battles?" Minor asked.

"Well, we have a lot of very nice teams here. Team Battle's all aggressive strategy has seemed to work for them so far, but surprisingly these other three teams are doing quite nicely despite being all newcomers. The Mythic Knights did well in their battle, as did Resonance's 'battle' if you could even call it that. What strikes me as interesting is Cardinal, the team from Shamar, they're battles are going by fairly quick, and not in the normal way. I think, in the end, it will all come down to who can best utilize their team in the most...creative way."

"Speaking of Creative," Ursa announced. "We have the underdog team, The Mythic Knights vs the reigning champions Team Battle. Neo, Saren, Zapor, Masako, Kala, and Uisu vs Rumble, Flash, Dipity, Arc, Zenex, and Visor. Ready, Set, KILL EACH OTHER!"

(Semi final theme )

Rumble, a man in a leather jacket and jeans, quickly went to punch towards Zapor, sending a fist full of frost at him.

Flash, a woman wearing a large pair of headphones, a hoodie, and torn up pants blasted a large wave of light at Uisu, not to damage, but to blind.

Dipity, in a full red almost super hero-like outfit took her two sai, and tryed to jab them towards Saren's right arm.

Arc quickly unsheathed his sword and swung over at Neo, doing his best to make Neo fall.

Visor stared at Masako with a giant two-handed zweihander, covered in runes and etchings, he pointed his sword at her and stared maliciously.

Kala quickly stepped out of range and tried to start dancing, to make sure her team stayed healed, only for Zenex to quickly follow her, trying to plunge his clawed gloves into her skin, making her unable to dance, and since she didn't have any combat magic, she was forced to dodge as much as she could.

Saren moved to the left to dodge before attempting to slash Dipity with the blade of scythe.

Zapor leaped to dodge the punch, the breathed out a large fire ball that split into 6 other slightly smaller fireballs, coming directly toward Rumble.

Dipity jumped back a couple of feet and began to try a very fast assault on Saren.

Rumble quickly froze the fireball, oddly enough being able to put it out and sent a wall of frost at Zapor.

Neo jumped back several times only to be struck once by Arc, causing him to double over.

"Master!" Kala called out, still trying to find time to start healing, but with Zenex's assault, she would never be able to find time.

Saren snarled, trying his best to block but receiving a few small cuts. "That.. Money.. Is.. Mine!" He shouted before he grabbed a vial from his pocket before tossing it at Dipity.

Zapor tried to block the wall of frost, but was blown back.

Masako simply nodded to accept Visor's challenge.

Dipity was smashed with the vial.

Rumble quickly ran behind Zapor, and tried to punch him again with a fist of frost.

Visor continuted to hold his sword at Masako, nodding back at her, his eyes deadlocked onto hers.

Masako drew her blade. She knew he wasn't going to let her move after him... so she had to strike first. She struck the ground, turning the terrain in front of her into a field of jagged stones.

Uisu simply stared at her. "Seriously? My entire theme is, like, colours 'n stuff. Did you actually think I was gonna get affected by my own element? (I mean, sure, I'm mostly colours, but white is a colour too.) Anyway, I'm just gonna stand here and charge up my attack, if that's okay. Please don't interfere." Uisu took on a semi-meditative stance. It seemed like she wasn't paying attention to Flash anymore, but an expert would realize that she was actually quite aware of her surroundings.

Zapor quickly engulfed himself in flames, trying to get some space Rumble.

Visor quickly jumped into the air, a part of his sword began to glow, and he jabbed it into the ground. Several rocks came up and were thrown towards Masako.

Flash stood in front of Uisu. "I was hoping for that." He told her and did nothing.

Rumble froze the ground skated his way with Zapor. "Going somewhere?"

Arc took the sword and beat Neo down with it, forcing him into the ground, he then conjured some lightning and electrocuted Neo.

Kala bobbed and weaved through Zenex's attacks until his claws caught upon her skin, leaving a large cut on her arm. "Ow!" She called out. "That really hurt."

Zapor slipped and slid on the ground. However, he was skatingin an uncontrollable direction,which would make it hard for Rumble to hit him.

"Well, okay then." Uisu just sat there. Her dress turned a darkish orange.

Flash mirrored Uisu, and his clothes also started to turn darkish orange.

The vial released its contents when it shattered, with glass shards leaving a few cuts on her face, a concentrated dose of rattle snake venom that a small portion went into her blood stream thanks to the cuts.

Saren snickered, he had paid a rattlesnake he knew quite a fair bit of money to inject the poison she naturally creates thanks to her species into a few vials and paid a chemist to replicate the venom in a more concentrated form. Now he would see the result.

"Soooo... You just gonna stand here?" Uisu said, staring at Flash.

"You asked for me to not disturb you," Flash sat down, then said in a hushed tone. "Platinum, why are you here? There are people who are...concerned about your well-being." His tone was simple, almost something you'd expect from teacher. "Not bad people mind you, just one who is concerned."

The poison certainly burned, and that was what Dipity was hoping for. She looked up at Saren and smiled. "Thanks, hun." And with that, she began to channel the poison, recreating it within her veins, after all she did have control of the element of poison.

Arc lifted Neo's battered head up. "Did you honestly think you could beat us?" He asked. "Look, kid, you got skill, there's no doubt about it, but you don't have talent. You see everyone else in your team, they're somethin' special, they got gifts, and powers you can't understand. Training, immortality, darkness prodigy, even the genie girl, and amnesia over there are both more talented than you. The point is kid, your normal. The fact that you made it to the semi-finals is proof that you got something, but it doesn't make you any different than any other mobian in high school. A normal person like you could never stand to defeat us."

Saren looked at Dipity in mild shock before facepalming and letting out one long and loud expletive starting with the letter 'F'.

Now might be an excellent opportunity for attack since Saren was seemingly off guard while dropping the F-bomb.

Uisu tensed up. "Tell me, where did you get that name from? Me, Platinum, the multi-murderer? What are you, crazy!? I'm just a traveller, stopping by." Her robes reverted to a pure white.

"Are you trying to trick me?" Flash whispered to her. "Yes, Platinum, the girl who was convicted and found guilty for murder, escaped jail and decided it would be a good idea become Uisu-Hyper. Not to mention with your robes changing color it's pretty obvious it's you. Luckily most of these people either aren't from around here or have had so much on their plate they don't recognize you." He looked around at the battle. "Platinum, the guy I know can help you, but so can your team, do you trust them?" He smiled a little bit. "Clock-watch worked with them."

Dipity charged up all the poison she could, focusing it all into a large ball of toxic liquid that she hoped would be so corrosive it would melt through Saren's armor, but something was wrong. As she charged up she used so much energy, more than normal, and she couldn't stop. It felt like something was draining her energy, something bad. It took her a while but eventually she had run out, and passed out onto the ground.

"Uh..." Ursa announced. "Major...Minor...you guys know what just...happened?"

"Looks like Dipity overclocked her poison charge!" Major called back, even though it was obvious to anyone in the arena that overclocking was not what just happened. In any case, Saren was now free to aid any of his companions, and considering the state of Neo and Kala, they could use it.

"Three things. First thing, it's not Uisu-Hyper, it's Uisu~Hyper. You need to pronounce the tilde, it adds panache. Second, I didn't think that the robes were that obvious. I've never been seen wearing them. And third, DO NOT mention this to anybody. I can't just magically get un-convicted, believe me," she said, pulling out a spell book, "I've tried. I'm building a new me now. I've moved away from where the incident happened, building up a name for myself here. I don't want to have to deal with this. But sure, I guess I might consider telling someone on my team the truth. Anyways," She said, standing up, now surrounded in a faint, white-ish aura, "we're here to fight, are we not?"

Saren looked at Kala, Neo and their opponents before deciding to aid Neo first. He figured Kala would be able to last a bit longer while he helped Neo. So with that in mind, he tossed his scythe at Arc. Making sure to hold it in a way so the blunt end would smack Arc in the back of the head while he was busy holding Neo's head in a vice grip and monologuing.

Arc was knocked by the scythe, his head was thrown forward, and he rolled with it's momentum, over Neo and opposite of Saren. "Now this is interesting."

Neo stood up, wiping blood off of his face, his claws scuffed up and dirty, for the first time ever, they looked dirty and worn. He took a deep breath, and looked to Saren. "Help Kala." He told him. There was a look in his eyes that reflected how he felt, a feeling he was sure Saren had felt at some point in his life, not the battle lust, or the want to crush an enemy, but the need to completely destroy an enemy, the need to recover his pride, the need to prove himself to everyone, including himself.

Flash smirked. "Why is he always right." He stood up and set another flash of light around himself and Uisu. With the light all around the two of them, he very quickly started to fade out of his old clothes, into his new black chainmail, and hood, with a strange mask on. His height got smaller, and it was obvious now that he was carrying a large mettallic case with him. The rest of Uisu's team would recognize him as Aero, but since they had not met, Uisu would not know him. "You need friends right now Platinum, if you can't find friends, you won't be able to find Safety." He pulled a red katana out of his large metal case. "By the way, you may be here to fight, but I'm here to help a friend, that's all."

In the meantime, Masako was hopping from stone to stone to reach Visor. When it appeared she was going for a midair strike, she quickly dropped to the ground and attempted to strike his weapon out of his hand.

Saren looked at Neo and nodded. "Welp, looks like Neo's ready for round two.. Have fun~"

Saren said as he mocked Arc, recalling his scythe and trying the same tactic he used on Arc on Zenex.

Another rune on Visor's blade began to glow, and he sent a large gusts of wind at Masako.

Zenex was hit with the scythe, he quickly looked up and turned to face who he was fighting now.

And that was when Kala, who had no idea what to and had never performed an offensive action in her life, raised her leg and kicked Zenex forward, her shoes charged in a yellow, electrifying aura, almost like a stun gun.

Neo faced off against Arc, his claws ready for anything that was about to come after him. "You're right, I am normal." Neo told him. "I don't have any magic, or special training, or even any rare powers. I am an average mobian, who goes to an average high school, that just so happens to give average training in combat but there is more to it than that."

Saren looked at Kala. "Damn." He whistled as he walked up to her while recalling his scythe back to his hands.

Masako wielded her scabbard-sword as her off-hand weapon, and began twirling in the air with both blades. She commanded Visor's gusts as her own, enveloping herself in a whirlwind. The whirlwind also picked up stones from the battlefield, hurling them at Visor.

The rocks began ot be hurled at Visor, one going straight for his blade, which chipped it, revealing it's weakness; the blade was weak.

"I'm more than just the sum of my parts." Neo told Arc. "I am more than a simple mobian, living his everyday life, and I'm here fighting for something much bigger than that." The wind in the area began to blow much more strongly.

Saren walked closer to Zenex.

"How do you know this? How did you find me? This place is quite a ways away from the incident, and it wasn't that obvious. Who... are you?" Plat- er, Uisu said, the powerful glow intensifying.

Masako dispelled the whirlwind with great force, sheathing her scabbard-sword to cast spells with her left hand instead. She cast a simple, non-elemental attack at Visor, which travelled to his location and exploded.

Zapor breathed a large amount of fire out of his mouth, aiming towards Rumble.

"Someone walking through time." Aero told her. "You'll learn my name soon." He slashed in the air, and a portal of red flowing sand appeared. He stepped through it and turned around. "Good bye Platinum. Watch out for Zero." The portal disappeared and along with it, Aero.

The attack shattered Visor's sword, and knocked him down with it.

Zenex turned around, and seemed almost scared by Saren's precence. Kala raised her powerful leg, and launched it down, her entire leg glowing yellow with stunning energy, knocking Zenex out.

Rumble was hit square in the face by the fire, knocking him down and out.

Neo pulled the wind to his hands. "My name is Neo Tranquil, son of Markus and Kari Tranquil." He launched Arc up with the air. "Brother to Ages and Era Tranquil." A large tornago appeared under Arc, throwing him around. "Friend of Lightstone, and thief extrodinaire." He pulled the wind, like a whip and smashed Arc on the ground, defeating him. "I am Neo Tranquil, leader of the Mythic Knights."

"Amazing!" Ursa announced. "The Mythic Knights have defetaed the long time champions of the Leo Tournament! How do you all feel?"

"Like getting pizza!" Zapor cheered.

"I'm supposed to feel something?" Masako asked.

"Wonder why the guy was afraid of me.." Saren said, he noted the look Zenex gave him before Kala knocked him out.

"Oh well, the prize is mine!!" Saren cheered.

"..." Not noticing anything happened, Uisu stared at where Aero just was. The glow of power disappeared. "...What?"

"The crowd roared as Team Battle was defeated and as the Mythic Knights appeared victorious. It wasn't over yet though, there was still one more battle left.

Part 2 (B): Investigation
(Only one character per person in this section, if you please! -Neo)

Era walked through the subway system of Station Square in the oddly quiet city, the farther they got from the arena, the quieter it got, which only made it more errie. "I don't see anything." Era said on her radio.

"My computer is picking up something." Celia announced. "There's got to be something down there."

Lexi followed Era through the subway system, after she told Leo (more like forced him) to stay back with the others.

"Look around." Era commanded. "If there's something here we need to kill it."

The sound of something crawling, like rats, echoed through the tunnel.

"Find it." Era drew her swords. "This is going to be a great birthday."

'You're telling me.. It's like a really early christmas for me.' Moros mouthed as he conjured an ethereal blade.

"''Jeez, is everyone in a murder mood?" ''Lexi thought to herself, getting her spikes ready.

"Wait, it's Neo's birthday?" Celia asked.

"More importantly it's mine." Era smirked. "But yes, I suppose it's his too. Now if we're all done with that..." Era bashed the side of her blade on the wall, causing a very loud sound to echo throughout the tunnel. "Come out!" She demanded.

A sound of scuttering followed as an abomination of a creature entered the room. It was large, and smelled awful. It's scent was akin to that of rotting meat in 90 degree weather. It had five, slanted and mutilated eyes on it's face, and no mouth to speak of. It's body was obviously composed of tanned flesh, all stretched and pulled to fit over a pile of meat. It's claws were made of bone, and even though it was humanoid, it did not resemble anything mobian or human.

The worst part, was it's scream.

With no mouth to speak of, this beast screamed out, but it didn't sound like one beast. It sounded like thousands of people, women, men, children, it was perfectly able to replicate it all, not every voice said the same thing, some called out for other people, or 'mom' or were just screams of terror. It gave a blood curdling scream that even made Era flinch, it gave off an aura of unease and almost made Era sick. In fact, it's aura of fear resonated to everyone within the group.

"W-what is that...?" Era stuttered, stunned to move.

The abomination roared again.

"What is what?" Celia asked. "Did you find anything?"

"C-C-C-C-C-Celia..." Era moaned. "It's...a monster..."

"What do you mean?" Celia called again through the radio.

Era didn't get a chance to say anything, the beast, in an almost inhuman speed, forced it's giant stump of a hand onto Era, smashing her into the ground. The sound of flesh meeting concrete, the concrete breaking, and bones being snapped in half all blended together into a chorus of pain as Era was defeated in a single blow.

"What do you mean?" Celia asked, talking to someone outside of hearing from the radio team. "Guys, if that is Foxtrot, do not engage! There is no way we can take him on yet!"

Ciel, being at the back of the group, said nothing up until now. She opened a portal underneath Era and transported her into her arms. "Right, I'm convinced. Move! Now!"

"Oh my..." Lexi started to say, but then tried to take off running.

Foxtrot roared once more at the group and began to charge with inhuman speed, it was going to catch up and quickly too.

Being chased by Foxtrot was bringing a bad memory for Lexi. Reminding her of a baddream, being chased by killer whales, which would usually end in her getting eaten. "Crud, crud, crud."

Moros fired his ethereal blade at foxtrot while running, his aim being erratic since he was running and all.

Moros's ethereal blade was very interesting to Foxtrot, so much so that is began to replicate it and fired the same blade back at Moros.

Moros ducked under the blade, somewhat surprised, but he guessed that foxtrot's replication ethereal blade followed the same principals and limitations of the ones he can create with the key difference of the replication being slightly weaker than the original.

"We can't outrun it... if we hide somewhere, it might buy us some time! What about the utility tunnels?" Ciel asked.

Era moaned, and the radio played static, it seemed that Foxtrot was able to cut communications with anyone else.

And then there was a large surprise. A strange looking man, who looked mostly like a mobian, but you could not tell what kind exactly. He wore a grey jacket, with matching grey pants. His eyes were deep blue, and seemed to beam with knowledge. His fur was silver and unlike most mobians, whose fur and hair seemed to be the same color, his hair was brown. He carried a rapier, with a strange looking rovolver on the hilt which held four different colors on it; red, blue, yellow, and green. He spun the rovolver, having it land on blue and quickly stuck it into the ground, creating a wall of frost.

"Vitality." He said with a hint of an accent (I imagine gypsy) in his voice. "We got a girl here who is really hurt, she need some help, now."

"Got it." A girl in a red cloth suit, that looked sort of like a ninja's quickly ran to the group. "This way." She said. "I can heal her."

Lexi wondered who these people were and was about to ask l, but figured she should ask later and followed the girl in red.

Moros followed the one named Vitality.

Part 3; Final Battle; The Mythic Knights vs Cardinal
Neo was still hurting pretty bad after that match, even though Kala did her best to heal him. The final match was about to begin and the group was already waiting on their side of the tournament.

"Where are the others?" Neo asked.

"I lost contact with them." Celia sighed. "I have no idea where they are or what's going on with them."

"So they could already be dead?" Kala asked in a small voice.

"...The idea is possible..." Celia said. "I can't pick them up anywhere, can you sense their aura?"

"...I don't know..." Kala told them. "I can feel hundreds of people outside of town, I can't pick them apart."

"Once we're out of here, we need to be ready to go looking for them. Can you send another team to look for them?" Neo asked.

"I can't." Celia said. "If they're coming after Echo, which is their main target, then they'll be coming here. Who we have left is meant to defend her, the fact that I sent both Era and Moros out was big enough, but having Lexi and Ciel go with them, I shouldn't have let them all go."

"What's done is done." Neo told her. "Focus on what's going on now."

"Right." Celia agreed.

The other team, Cardinal entered the stadium as well. Ursa stood at the center of the arena. "Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, fighters and fight-lovers from all over the world who have their eyes glued to The Leo Tournament. Let the final round between Neo, Zapor, Saren, Masako, Kala, and Uisu of the Mythic Knights vs Sky, Dove, Chester, Russel, Thrush, and Bronzewing of Cardinal, begin!"

(Intensity of the Net Kings - Final's theme)

Sky, a girl in light blue armor, set her swords on Masako, focusing on trying to disarm her.

Dove went straight for Zapor, using a combination of lightning and earth in his axe.

Chester took a large spear and tried his best to jab Saren with it.

Russel took on Uisu, using an assault rifle to start shooting at her.

Thrush started on Neo, using a bow to fire at Neo, who was forced into dodging all of them before he could advance.

Kala and Bronzewing both rushed into the fight, and began fighting each other. Kala manage to stay light on her feet and get out of any attacks that Bronzewing did, which were mainly martial Arts.

Saren ducked to avoid the spear. "Whoa now, I don't swing that way. Now if you were a girl.." Saren said with a glib smile as a way to infuriate chester

Zapor quickly darted to the left to dodge the axe, thenrushed at Dpve with two fire punches.

"Sorry, your just not my type." Chester told Saren. "I prefer my men to be a bit more mature than you." He spun the spear, rather than thrust it forward, going for Saren's chin, to knock his head up.

Dove grabbed for both of Zapor's hands before they hit him, though he knew that if he missed, Zapor would get a clear shot to his face.

"...Huh? Ack!" Caught off guard, Uisu barely had enough time to create a blue wall to protect herself.

Saren snickered as he moved backwards to get out of range for the spear. "Like I said, I don't swing like that."

He then tossed his scythe at Chester.

Zapor's hands got caught by Doves hands. His head then lit on fire and Zapor went for a fire headbutt.

"You don't have to." Chester told him, grabbing the scythe in mid air with his mind.

Dove did not expect that, and was smashed in the head by the flaming child.

"Telekinesis?" Saren muttered as he sank into Chester's shadow.

Masako dashed away from Sky, shifting her katana to its gun form and firing several energy blasts at her opponent.

Sky quickly dashed to the side, dodging most of the blasts, but being hit by two of them.

Chester snickered. "Nope." He quickly sank into the shadows as well.

Saren blinked inside the shadow. "Well, this is peachy.. Might as well play a round of poker."

Zapor's hand were now free from Dove's grip. Zapor took this time to put in a conversation. "Dove, do you play games?"

"Can't exactly do much in here." Chester noted. "We could go back out and fight, not really all that fun if we're in here and no one can see us."

"What? No! This is an international finals tournament battle and you're trying to make small talk?" Dove asked, a bit distracted by Zapor's question.

Saren grabbed a deck of cards and the two played poker in the shadows.

"Well, it's just that this tournament reminds me of a move from that game. It was...uh..Shin...Shinry..um.." Zapor thought about what it was.

"Um, could you please stop shooting me?" Uisu said, still holding back gunfire with her wall.

"This is a tournament. I can't really." Russel told Uisu., still shooting at her.

"Stop screwing around and fight me!" Dove shouted at Zapor.

Masako flipped her gunblade back into its katana form, enveloping the blade in a roaring blaze. She thrust the blade toward Sky, unleashing a pyroblast in the shape of a large dragon.

"Hold up, yo. I'll fight you in a second. Now, me and Neo played it last week....it was like tilt up, tilt up, kick. What was it called?..." Zapor had to think, totally ignoring what Dove was saying.

"Oh well... Pachew!" Uisu used the defensive wall like a projectile, flinging it directly at Russel. Not only would it hurt, it would still block the bullets.

Dove took his axe and swung down, causing a wave of earth to be launched over at Zapor.

Sky was burned by the flames harshly, the agonizing burn hurt but it helped launch her next series of strikes on her swords, setting a large amount of presurre on Masako's own blade.

Russel, only realized a few seconds in that the barrier was coming at him, not growing bigger. Whoops. He dodge rolled to the side, and sat back up in a kneeling position, firing more rounds off.

Zapor was knocked down by the earth shockwave, but rolled back onto his feet. "Hitting a guy when he's thinking is not cool, dude!....Wait a minute....That's what it was!" Zapor finally remembered what the move was.

Masako held fast, blocking the strikes to the best of her abilities, all the while sidestepping to complicate the use of both blades.

"Finally! Now fight!" Dove told Zapor angrily.

Sky's blade work was diligent but adding the complications to it did not help her focus on hitting Masako causing her to miss a lot.

Zapor was about to use a move, but stopped. "Wait....did I forget to pay the butler? Hmm."

Masako made her move when she caused Sky's attack to whiff, striking her other blade to open her up to attack and striking her in the chest with her elbow.

Uisu started running to dodge the bullets, trying to work her way towards Russel. She pulled out a book while she was running, and flipped to a random page.

"Are you...reading?" Russel asked as he continuted to fire.

"Oh come on!" Dove said. "I just want to a have a fair fight in this tournament, can't you just fight me?"

Sky was knocked down, the wind knocked out of her as she fell to the ground. "Ow..." She moaned

"Baka da na." Masako responded, sheathing her blade.

"Yes. Shabloop!" Uisu fired a pillow shaped like a frog at Russel. "Wow. That was pretty useless." She continued to read, getting closer.

"Ok, ok. If i fight you, no jokes or anything, will that make you happy?" Zapor asked with a grin.

"That really was." Russel noted, shooting the frog-shaped pillow, then resumed shooting at Uisu.

"Yes!" Dove groaned, obviously annoyed.

"Ok. But i somehow manage to win using a cheeseball move, and there is a really low chance of that happening, you have to promise not to get mad." Zapor told him.

"Well." Chester said as he had finished another round of cards with Saren. "I fold."

Neo managed to get to Thrush and grabbed his bow, breaking it in half.

"Bro!" Thrush said. "That was my weapon!"

"Bro," Neo mocked. "I don't care." He kicked Thrush in the face, knocking him down, and then kicked a roundel grenade on him which exploded in electricity.

"Fine!" Dove moaned. "I won't get-" He couldn't finish the sentence as he was smacked on the back of the head with a large metal object, knocking him out and making his skull bleed.

Bronzewing and Russel both looked over and saw the hooded figure continute his onslaught as he threw his weapon at Russel, knocked the poor kid down and out, the rushed to pick it up bashed Bronzewing with it, throwing her to the wall of the arena, knocking her out. The figure flipped his metal weapon and it unfolded into a red mechanincal scythe, then pulled his hood down.

It was Zero.

Part 3: Retreat
Vitality took the group into an empty office building where a girl in light bronze armor was standing, holding a large shield and spear in her hands. What was odd wasn't her weapons or armor, or even why she was here, it was her race. She appeared mobian, but not like Time Spinner, she looked very similar to a dragon, a species of Mobian that was unheard of. Upon seeing the group, her eyes widened. "How bad is it?"

"Every bone in her body, except her neck is broken." Vitality told her. "We have five minutes before she runs out of life energy."

"Where's Aselia?" The bronze armored girl asked.

"Probably helping Time." Vitality said. "Thanks for standing guard Vellum, it's good he foresaw this path." She took Era onto the ground and quickly covered her hands in a pink aura, focusing on putting it over the girl.

"My name is Vellnorzmairozmi, but you can call me Vellum." The dragon girl introduced herself. "What the hell were you thinking fighting that...thing? Do you not know what that is?"

"Well, we didn't until 5 seconds after it attacked us." Lexi told her, slightly still scared of whatever that thing exactly was.

"You should have ran." Vellum said, obviously concerned. "Your...friend...she might not make it through this..."

"I'm the best damn healer in the multi-verse, I'll heal her just fine!" Vitality shouted back.

"Time Spinner said-" Vellum started.

"Time Spinner said that 45% of the time I heal her and she's fine."Vitality told the girl. "I can do this."

"Are any of you hurt?" Vellum asked. "I'm not a healer, but I could find our friend, she's really good at that kind of stuff."

"We're fine, as far as I know. I want nothing but to help." Ciel said.

"Unless any of you are healers, which you aren't, I don't think any of you can help." Vitality said. "Your healer is back at the tournament, probably in the last match by now."

"We were looking for the kid who could stop that thing when we ran into you guys." Vellum said. "His name's like...Zapping or something."

As she said that another strange looking mobian-ish person entered the room. Her fur was red, and her hair was long and braided. She had a simple saber on her very standard outfit of a grey shirt and black pants. "We need them to get moving." She said. "We have ten minutes until that match ends, and we all know what happens then."

"She's dying, she can't go!" Vellum protested, obviously talking about Era.

"Apprentice, this is not the time." The woman answered.

"You are not my master..." Vellum grumbled.

"She isn't wrong Aselia, this woman is not going anywhere." Vitality told her.

"Sod it all..." Aselia muttered. "You know what happens if Era Tranquil is not in that Arena when it happens."

"When what happens? And who the heck is Zapping?" Lexiasked, twice as concerned.

Moros stared at Vitality, being her partner there was a sense of loyalty between the two.

'Heal her... Please..?' Moros mouthed, he may not have shown anything in regards to facial expression or by the tone of his nonexistent voice but his eyes showed it all.

"Zapping?" Aselia asked.

"The kid who can stop that thing." Vellum shrugged.

"Zapor." Aselia said. "It's Echo and Zapor."

"I'll do what I can." Vitality told him, keeping the pink aura on Era's broken body.

"Anyway, if Era Tranquil isn't in the arena by the time the final match finishes, Echo Radon will be taken." Vellum told the group. "And only 12% of the pathways after that lead to Foxtrot and Dr. Radon being stopped."

"Well, how long do you have left to heal her?" Lexi asked.

"Not enough." Vitality said.

"Then let's send everyone else back to the tournament." Aselia said.

Moros sighed but nodded.

"...Just focus on nursing her back to health." Ciel said. "Take all the time you need to. I just want her to make it out of this alive... for Neo's sake..."

"You all will need to get going though." Aselia told them.

"Right." Vellum nodded. "I can get them back to the tournament."

Part 4A: Sub Finals; Mythic Knights vs Zero Evol
"Zero!" Neo called.

"Hello everyone." Zero noted, his eyes still tinted a different color. He smashed his scythe on the ground and created a large glass-like wall around the border of the arena, making sure that no one from the stands could get in.

"Looks like I'm winning the tournament." Zero grinned.

"Zero how could you betray us?" Kala asked. "We were your friends!"

"Friends? I don't have any friends, you were all just puppets in Radon's play and I'm finally here to cut the strings." He cut his arm and black blood spewed onto the ground in a collective heap, slowly sinking into the ground, and around to the back of the group where it took shape in the form of Fey.

"If he wants to play that way then fine." Celia said on the radio. "Mercury and I have been running contingency plans in case this happens, you guys will be able to take on that black blood thing and Zero if you listen to me."

"Than what do we do?" Neo asked.

"Everyone focus on Zero, Kala start charging a Dispel, when I tell one of you to take on the blood person, you switch out with who ever is there." Celia noted. "Let's get this done so you can check on the box group, I can't get a signal from them."

Zero slammed his scythe down again, and a large box of black blood covered the area the group was in, except Kala who jumped out of it and started dancing. It darkened the battlefield, but it worked like a 2 way mirror, allowing everyone to watch what was going on inside.

(Vs Zero Evol theme )

Neo rushed headlong into the fight, getting his claws parried by Zero's large scythe.

"Saren," Celia called. "Drown Fey in darkness."

Zapor shot at Zero with bullets that would clamp down on contact.

Zero sent forward a wave of black blood which turned solid and broke the arrows on hit.

"Who the heck are you?" Uisu said, staring at Zero.

"Tōga Hyōjin!" Masako slashed forward, sending a wave of permafrost at Zero.

Zero cut through the wall with his scythe, trudging closer. "Are you my replacement?" He asked Uisu.

"Zero used to be a member of our team, until he betrayed us." Neo spat.

"Nice to see you too, Neo." Zero mocked. "Now if your done talking..." He took his scythe, pulled back and launched a large number of purple waves towards the group.

Neo jumped over the wave sent at him.

Celia crackeld in from the radio. "Right now Zero is hardening the black blood in his body to make him about as tough as cement. Do not let him hit you with any physical attack. Also try not to hit him either, both of those are going to hurt really bad."

Zapor got hit with the purple wave on his side, but quickly recovered. He then blew a large firethrower at Zero.

Saren played the smart guy and tossed his last two remaining vials of nitroglycerin at Zero, hoping they'd hit at the same time as zapor's firethrower.

"Oi! Zapor! Let's get some explosions up in this jackwheat's grill!!"

The explosions hit right at Zero, only for Zero to swing his scythe and blow the smoke away. "That was fun." Zero said sarcastically.

The black blood of fey jumped into the fight, swinging her swords down at at Neo, who knocked her back. "Saren, take care of Fey!" He noted.

Saren turned towards black blood Fey with a grin, he lunged at her while holding his scythe in a reverse grip like he was going for an upward cleaving strike.

Black blood fey fires a ray of dim light at Saren, that didn't really seem to do anything, with time wasted she was sliced right through the middle.

Saren was not finished, he pivoted on the heel of his left foot and went for a slash through the middle.

Zapor blew a large cloud of smoke at Zero.

"Oh yeah! That guy said- er, I don't quite know what you mean." Uisu said, surrounding herself in a white glow again.

Once again Zero cut through the smoke. "Hey yeah that's right!" He mocked Uisu and threw his in a spinning arc at Uisu.

"Really man? Mocking the girl tht may or may not invoke a certain trope? That's just sad coming from the guy who probably couldn't even touch me if I was standing still!" Saren mocked Zero.

"I don't have to." Zero said as Fey came and tried to slash through Saren once more.

Saren grinned and turned to Fey, trying to connect his shadow with Fey's to try and stop her from moving. "You were saying?"

Masako dashed to Uisu's aid, deflecting the scythe back with a well-timed blade strike. Looks like she was just going to let Saren do his thing for now.

"Well you see, your not the only umbrakinetic here." Zero said, sending a tidal wave of black blood at Saren when he grabbed the scythe back from Masako's hit.

Fey dropped into he ground in a pool of blood, then rose again, this time taking Saren's appearance.

"Zapor, take on Blood Saren!" Celia called.

Saren kept moving to his right to try and avoid the black blood, if he managed to clear it he'd throw his own scythe at Zero. Oddly enough Saren didn't say anything sarcastic or snide this time.

"Listen, you. I don't appreciate being mocked!" Uisu's quills turned to red, along with the robes she wore. The obsidian pendant she wore began to glow. She now more closely resembled Platinum, though she didn't notice. "I didn't come all this way for this!"

"You don't have to appreciate it, all you have to do is die." Zero sent another wave of Black Blood at Uisu, and turned to focus on Saren, whom he threw another wave of Black Blood towards, trapping him between the two tidal waves, and Zero himself.

Saren tossed his scythe at Zero. "Y'know.. Your rather weak... You sure this was a good idea?"

Zero raised his hand and grabbed Saren's scythe, now dual wielding both weapons. "I'm the weak one? You can't even stand being called a nice guy. You try so hard to make everyone think of you as this cold hearted ruthless monster of a being, when if that was the case you'd be gone by now, with all of us dead. You've had several moments to kill us Saren, we are the good guys, why haven't you? Because you thought we'd bring money? The Mythic Knights don't take bribes or cash. To kill people? Besides me, none of the others believe in killing people. What, was it Fey? Do you honestly believe that she would choose to actually love you? She's a member of the Order of the Scythe like me, we're trained to lie to people all the time. Answer me this question Saren Arcturias. Why do you stay with them?" Zero asked.

Zapor fired a fire blast from his guns, propelling him like a missile toward Blood Saren.

Uisu jumped over the wave. "All right, now. Better calm myself..." her quills returned to a greyish silver. "Here goes!" she pointed her hands at Zero, and fired a small laser. "Whop-" The recoil, however, knocked her over.

"You know, I never really thought about that.." Saren started to say as he entered a stance with his knees bent, body to the side and hands hands closed.

"Love, its a strange emotion.. Yet I can't really say I'm heartbroken... Money? I have plenty and I do take bribes sometimes... To kill you, yeah I had plenty of chances.. But then what?.. I might be going soft.. But can you say that whomever your working with won't just dispose of you later on?" He asked.

Zero held Saren's scythe to the laser and had it go through the blade, leaving a hole that, oddly enough, looked kind of cool. "Perhaps I'll die." Zero said sadly. "But at this point, that's an inevitable, isn't it? We all die at some point."

"Yes.. We do... But a life mired in regrets and falsehoods is not a life well spent.." Saren said. "If your gonna do something.. Look within yourself and make sure you have no regrets now or in the future."

Saren spoke as he waited for Zero to make a move.

"Perhaps it is." Zero nodded. "Perhaps I do have regrets, but all of them stem from working with the wrong people, for the first time in my life, I don't feel anything, except power." As he talked he lowered both the scythes, leaving a large weak spot right in front of him.

Blood Saren was lit aflame, like he was made of oil or something, the only problem was that now it was a flaming blood Saren and not a normal blood Saren, who was already pretty bad. So now the flaming blood Saren swiped up with his black blood scythe, trying to uppercut Zapor.

Zapor got hit with the uppercut. "Ow..." Zapor the fired another round of bullets at the Blood Saren.

The bullets piereced Blood Saren's chest, causing him to melt into a puddle and rise again, this time as a version of Neo. "Masako," Celia called from the radio. "You need to be quicker than Blood Neo."

The blood version of Neo, quickly pulled what looked like a roundel grenade from it's non-existant pocket and kicked it to Masako's area, causing it to explode in a pool of the black filth.

"Why do you stay Zapor?" Zero asked. "You're immortal, you could do anything you want for the rest of the world's life. You could travel, you could create things, you could save lives, but instead you run with the Mythic Knights? I understand that you stay for Echo and to do the right thing, but in the end you will have to pick one."

"What are you talking about?" Neo asked.

"Echo is not actually Fate's sister, I'm sure you've pieced that together in that small head of yours." Zero scoffed at Neo. "Echo was used by Radon to do all sorts of things. The destruction of Terra Town and the massacre of Requim Valley were both her doing, thousands of people dead because of her blood lust."

"You're lying." Neo said. "You can't be telling the truth."

"Hey Celia." Zero shouted. "Tell them about it."

"Both the Massacre and Destruction events..." Celia noted. "They were said to have been caused by a glowing grey cat-like mobian, but Echo isn't grey, nor can her cards cause that much damage."

"Interesting." Zero called, as if he heard Celia's words. "Zapor, you've seen Echo in her true potential state, tell us about, hm? Her fur is grey in that form and it just so happens that she doesn't use her cards in that state either. Are you all just going to let a murderer like her go around like that?"

"Echo is our friend." Neo said.

"So you'd let someone as dangerous as her live because of a selfish emotion?" Zero asked. "Are you really that kind of person, Neo, Leader of the Mythic Knights?"

"I..." Neo started.

"You know I'm right. Someone with that power who is as unstable as her cannot live, none of the problems that you all faced would have happened had it not been for her. There would have been no werewolves, no traitors, no one would have died. My sister would be alive, the cybord population would not have been threatened and you could have just gone on with your normal life." Zero shouted to the fox. "You know what must be done."

Neo didn't answer, but there was a silence he gave that let everyone know he was thinking about killing Echo.

"If she had transformed like that in a school..." Celia started. "Maybe...Echo can't live."

"You would kill a child?" Mercury could be heard in the background.

"If it helps save other lives than yes, I would kill Echo." Celia breathed.

Masako's eyes widened... she quickly dodged the black blood heading straight toward her, unleashing a wave of permafrost to freeze it solid. But she couldn't afford to waste time fighting... she had to say something.

"Wait, what?! You can actually be considering doing that! Sure, there's that 2% chance of all that bad stuff happening on a really bad day, but there's a 81% chance of me going hog wild and killing dudes on an absolutley normal day." Zapor told her.

"Zapor, I lost my family to the Echo Project." Celia told him. "If killing Echo means no one else has to go through that Hell, then I'll gladly pay it."

"We...can't risk anyone else suffering from the Echo Project." Neo started.

"Now hold on, we're in a real problem when I start playing good cop!" Mercury called. "You cannot be telling me that you are going to just kill Echo!"

"She's our friend, I don't want to..." Neo muttered.

Uisu was watching the conversation, and began to catch on to what they were implying. She was somewhat defensive about people being killed due to being 'too dangerous' already, for reasons that would become apparent soon enough. "Are you guys seriously contemplating killing someone because of the POTENTIAL to be dangerous? Is the fact that one has the potential for bad enough for you to just justify slaughtering them?"

"It's not just the potential to be the dangerous it's the fact that she already is dangerous." Zero noted. "She destroyed all of Terra Town and Requim Valley, killing all of those people in those towns. Every. Single. One. I saw all the bodies, so did Fate, if she could remember correctly or wasn't lying unconscious above us at this moment."

"Yes, I suppose I am contemplating it." Neo told her. "This isn't like Saren or Trinity, this is a girl who can change at any moment, with no way of fixing it permenently or for her to be in complete control."

"..You dudes can't be serious.." Zapor muttered.

"But-" Uisu was alarmed by the striking similarities between the current situation and the one she had so desperately tried to put behind her. "How do you know that there's no permanent fix? Are there any options left?"

"There aren't any. We've checked." Zero nodded, a bit of triumph in his smile.

"We can't let her kill more people, it's better this way." Celia said in the radio.

"Better to do it now." Zero started. "Then to do it later, years from now when she could have a family. It honestly should have been done years ago..."

"WILL YOU BOTH JUST SHUT UP!" Neo shouted. "I just...I don't know...I'm just a 16 year old kid from Station Square...I don't know what to do..."

"We kill her." Celia suggested.

"We make sure she can't hurt anyone ever again." Zero noted. "It's the right thing to do."

"Maybe we try to help her?" Kala suggested from outside the black blood room. "We can't just abandon our friends."

"This isn't some little story book, Kala." Celia said. "This is reality, we can't save everyone."

"I-i just don't want someone too go through what I went through... People can change. I know they can..." Uisu dejectedly said. She was on her knees now. "Please. Don't kill someone for things they can't control... It's not just."

Zapor was shocked that most of the team would actaully consider doing it. More suprised that Neo had thoughts about it.

"..... You know, I'm a greedy b**ch the majority of the time.. But even I have my limits, and killing one just because of a possibility that they might do harm is one of them.." Saren said, walking over to Zapor.

"Now, if this is going to result in a stand off..? Then I hope you can live with no regrets about what may or may not happen.."

"I can't believe we're even having this discussion..." Masako hissed. "This is Echo we're talking about killing, not Foxtrot. We know Foxtrot is a threat, but how much do you know about Echo? There are people who care for her, even accept her as part of their family. Do you really think that she's mentally capable of destroying the people she cares about?" She shook her head. "You people disgust me. None of you could look her in the face and say that she needs to die. I refuse to stand by your half-hearted plots of murder. If you still stand against me, then I refuse to look at you any longer... and I have no trouble killing someone I can't see."

Part 4B: Kidnapped
Vellum led the group back to the tournament where there was a large amount of people panicing. Most of them were trying to break thorugh what looked like an invisible barrier that kept them away from the fight down below, which everyone could clearly see. "Oh no..." Vellum said. "We're late." She quickly ran towards the box where the rest of The Mythic Knights and company were staying to see a horrible sight.

The box was in ruins, the comfortable chouches, bar, and the seats were all destroyed. Fate and Leah were knocked unconcious on the floor. Fey was kneeling in the corner breathing heavily, her sword and  where'd Leo, Eclipse, and Wheelie go?"

Vellum looked from the box to the arena. "If we're going to intervene we need to do it now." She said.

There was a blue hedgehog blasting away at the barrier. Masako already explained whstaff both at her side. She was bleeding, a lot, and it was clear that she had been taking most of the hits.

Red currently was fighting in the center against Apollo, who parried all of her umbrella strikes, and was not letting her land a single blow.

Echo was no where to be seen, and it was clear what happened. She had been taken.

"Dammit!" Vellum muttered.

Lexi looked around frantically, seeing Zak. She ran to him and shook him awake. "Nnggh...Lexi? What happened?" Zak asked, the cut on his face covered by a bandaid.

"Don't what happened me! What happened to everyone?" Lexi looked around. "Ando this was: Monica DeLouise, her revolver-wielding comrade from OmegaCorp.

Ciel looked distressed... "I... I don't know what to do... does it look like teleportation can bypass the barrier?"

"I think Leo managed to get away.." Zak told Lexi.

Vellem looked the box over. "If I was stronger in my meta powers maybe, but right now, I don't think that barrier is coming down. If Time Spinner or Aselia..." She looked back to Apollo. "Your other friend is really hurt." She noted about Fey. "Not like the other ones, it's like she was purposfully made to bleed, the others aren't though..." She shook her head. "We have to fight Alpha. If we can save Echo, there is still a chance that Station Square can be changed."

'... I relish the chance for battle, I answer the call of war...' Moros mouthed.

'Perhaps by yourself its not coming down.. But what if you were to have assistance from us in taking down the barrier?' Moros asked Vellem.

"There is no way that thing can come down with a bunch of mortals..." She noted but paused as if to think about it for a moment. "Then again..." She looked over the group. "Oh for the love of fairy, let's try."

Moros nods. 'Yes...'

Lexi looked at the barrier. "So you want us to hit it repeatedly?....I like it!"

"What do you think I've been doing this whole time?" Rose yelled out.

"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!" The Reaper was beating down the barrier with everything she had, and then some.

"Hit it with everything you've got." Vellum told them and began channeling something, an orange glow beginning to glow over her.

Moros started to glow in a violet haze as he entered True Void Ascendance and started to generate quite a lot of void magic in the form of six black orbs surrounded by a violet haze.

'You said to give it everything I have... While I can't fully comply with that, I can help you out with something that might be overkill!!' Moros mouthed as he launched the six orbs at the barrier.

Vellum charged up and created what appeared to be a large orange projection of a battering ram, which smashed into the wall, which created a couple of cracks that instantly fixed itself afterwards. "Keep trying!" She called.

Lexi hit the barrier with spiked punches, while Zak split into 10 copies of himself and slashed at the barrier.

The barrier obviously wasn't budging, or breaking. That thing was stuck here, and it looks like the people on the inside were on their own.

Moros tried to open a rift between the barrier, he figured that if this worked the barrier would have to compensate for the unexpected open space forming through the barrier and expend power to fill in the empty space.

Ciel went with her previous suggestion, attempting to open a rift from one side of the barrier to the other.

The barrier flashed and covered both portals instantly, trying to occupt all the space that Zero had told it to.

The sound of flesh meeting metal rang out as Apollo smashed Red with his shield, and knocked the poor girl all the way against the barrier.

Moros blinked. 'Ooh, that must not've felt good..'