[PXFIRE] [RP] PXFIRE Roleplay - A Game of Storms

[LKWayvern]

Laura Bette Kaye the Umbreon
Prankster Platoon
Bloodpit Arena, Lytala City
Affected RPers: @Neo Emolga @Velocity

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Aria hissed in Laura’s ear. “Because I am this close to simply abandoning you, if you can Teleport out so easily--”

“Don’t expect to do any business with the Platoon after if you do desert,” Laura said.

“I don’t anyway. I’m leaving your psychotic ways behi--”

The sound of rushing water echoed down the corridors as something barrelled into Kirrun with a Waterfall, causing both to crash into Aria. The mismagius let out a scream that was part pain, part surprise, and part frustration as she quickly went intangible.

Kirrun’s eyes glowed brilliantly as he tried throwing his oppressor off of him, but the swampert that had tackled him spat up a mud bomb over his eyes before whipping out a gun that looked like it belonged on the hood of an armored vehicle and unloading a round into Kirrun’s face. The bullet went right through the Claydol’s eye in into his brain, killing him instantly and splattering his killer with a mixture of mud, jelly, and blood.

Kirrun the Claydol(Prankster Platoon) has been eliminated.

Simultaneous to this, Burrin the accelgor pounced on Xavier, viciously slashing the luxray’s shoulder with a wickedly serrated knife. Xavier retaliated instantly, clamping down hard on Burrin’s entire hand was a Fire Fang, until it blacked so much that Xavier managed to separate it from the Bug’s body and spit it and the knife aside.

To Burrin’s credit, the Bug didn’t scream, or even make a peep. Burrin simply jerked backwards, before grabbing Xavier with his remaining hand which began glowing a soothing green color as Giga Drain was used. Xavier let out a retching sound.

Xavier allowed electricity to pulse through his claws and he used his paws to shove Burrin away, as he prepared an Iron Tail. He quickly whirled around, wildly beating his foe with his taill, not even bothering to aim. Burrin frantically let loose a Bug Buzz, and while Xavier flattened his ears in an attempt to blot out the noise, he refused to be deterred.

Xavier whirled back around, flames dancing about his fangs as he lunged at the accelgor again, pinning the insect down to the ground before making another move.

Burrin tried headbutting Xavier with a Quick Attack, but the only response that Xavier had for him was another Fire Fang, buried deeply in Burrin’s skull. Burrin jerked once, then fell limp until death.

Burrin the Accelgor(Shadow Mask) has been eliminated.

Aria Kantra rematerialized, eyes shining green as she conjured multiple Magical Leaves, sending them to plague Muno. They all scored direct hits across the swampert’s back, and he turned to glare angrily at the spectre.

However, it was not Muno who retaliated against Aria. Zill the mimikyu leaped up, a rapid Shadow Sneak striking Aria long before she could dodge. Aria scowled at the cloaked ghost, hurling a volley of Shadow Balls down on her. Zill was totally unfazed, the sickening crack! of a Disguise shattering causing Laura and Xavier to wince in mild disgust. It sounded almost exactly like a spine snapping.

Zill let forth a maniacal cackle, slapping Aria with an Astonish and following up with a punishing Wood Hammer. Aria lay stunned on the ground for a split second before coming to her senses, becoming intangible and allowing herself to sink below the Arena’s floor, mere moments before Muno’s bullets left holes where she had just been. Humiliated and badly injured, Aria Kantra fled the Bloodpit Arena.

Aria the mismagius(Prankster Platoon) has left the battlefield.

The remaining members of the Shadow Mask turned their attention to the remaining two members of the Prankster Platoon.

Zill descended upon Laura with Play Rough, only to run into a Protect created by the umbreon. Laura glared viciously at Zill, her fangs out as she obviously prepared a Toxic. The Protect dropped, and the moment it did Laura unleashed a stream of Toxic directly into Zill’s eyes.

Zill let out an annoyed shriek. “YEERGH! Kako scum!”

Laura didn’t paused a moment, she went down hard upon the cloaked sprite with an Iron Tail. Again, and again, and again, before turning around and plunging her twin knives into Zill again, just to make sure.

Zill the mimikyu(Shadow Mask) has been eliminated.

Xavier had not been faring so well.

The moment Zill had claimed Laura as her adversary, Muno had turned back to Xavier. He had punched Xavier clear into a wall with a Hammer Arm, temporarily stunning the Electric type, and there was the audible cracking of bones heard. Xavier slid the the floor, before scrambling to his feet and letting electricity blaze through his rings and claws as brightly as he could manage, blinding Muno. And Xavier was racing towards where he had been hurled from, pouncing and attacking with Giga Impact, causing Muno to slide back several inches.

Muno took out his oversized gun once more, moving to pour lead into Xavier’s head, when suddenly the tibia and fibula in his right leg were shattered by Laura’s well-timed Foul Play attack. He crumpled to the ground, falling on top of Xavier, and Laura leaped on top of him. Laura winced as she heard more ominous cracking from Xavier.

Even though Muno was badly injured, he raised up an arm, swinging wildly and managing to clout Laura on the side. She exhaled rapidly as pain exploded all along that side. She thought maybe she had cracked a rib.

Laura leaped off Muno, moving around to where she could see his throat, and quickly slit it with her knife.

Muno the swampert(Shadow Mask) has been eliminated.

Laura knew her work was not yet done.

She tapped into the powers of her Blaze Jewel once more, eyes glowing bright silver as she used telekinesis to throw Muno’s corpse off of Xavier. She sent a Heal Pulse into Xavier, and again.

“Laura?” he asked. “...Is everyone else…?”

Laura sat down. Her muscles were burning, her heart couldn’t stop pounding. She used Moonlight on herself. “The Shadow Mask ambushed us. They’re all dead. But they got Kirrun. And Aria ran.” She hung her head. “...We’re the only Pranksters left. Are you…?”

“I’m… I’ll be fine. Cracked ribs, I think. Solicc hit me hard,” Xavier said. “Are… We need to leave.”

“No. We’ve decimated two teams already. We are going to win this.”

“We’ve already qualified for the finals just by being here! You need to f***ing survive! Teleport us out!” Xavier hissed.

“No. We’ve come so far already,” Laura snapped back. “Can you stand?”

“No.”

“Liar.”

Xavier sighed, and slowly stood up. “Laura. You want to make a f***ing statement? Look around. We killed half the Thundercrash Gang. We killed all the Shadow Mask. And now there’s only us left-- and it’s going to be hard to defend ourselves with just two.”

Laura thought for a second. “...We can make it. I’ll guide you.”

Xavier shook his head. “I’m not moving unless it’s to leave.”

“Xavier, we can--”

“No. We cannot. It’s lucky that we got this far. We. Are. Leaving. I know you can be stubborn but I’m done indulging you, and if you keep trying to stay I am knocking you out and digging a tunnel out of here, and I will drag you along,” Xavier growled.

Laura thought for a moment.

“Fine,” she said.

She trotted over to Xavier, and teleported them both to Connive.

Laura the Umbreon and Xavier the Luxray(Prankster Platoon) have left the battlefield.

Laura used her Psychic Blaze Jewel one last time, to send a telepathic message. ‘Hey Jacobin, we’re back… We need better healing…’

[Noblejanobii]

Athena Pallas the Decidueye
The Gracidea Order
The Blood Pit Arena
Affected RP'ers: @Death's Spook @LKWayvern @Neo Emolga

"Clever kakó b***h, aren't you?" Phoebe snarled menacingly with a dark smile. "I hope that was worth dying for!"

"I hope stealing my son was worth dying for," Athena spat back, spreading her wings to regain her balance in the air as the brave bird attack took its toll. She kept her facade up as she grimaced on the inside from the pain, blue electricity crackling across her body as part of the recoil. That had really been a stupid move on her part, but too late to change it now. Athena felt the air around her get heavier and could instantly tell someone had put gravity into effect on the field. For now, it was isolated, but it could and would spread to ground her within minutes if the castor kept it up. Still, she had to stay close to Phoebe. Athena knew very well she could not out maneuver a rocket launcher, so it was time for close combat.

And then she heard Perceval scream. Athena's head snapped towards the ground where she saw the serperior was pinned under a constant barrage of scorching winds. Where was Axiom! Wasn't he supposed to be keeping the fire off Perceval? Why wasn't that kako doing his job? Sure it was the dragon’s first fight but they all had roles to play! Athena started to dive in to help Perceval, completely willing to leave her back open if it meant saving him. But as she started her descent, Athena turned just in time to see Perceval’s head explode. The green snake’s body collapsed as his soul escaped into the great beyond. Athena froze up, not sure how to react. Just minutes ago he had been giving her a pep talk about Marx and now he was dead. He had come to help her rescue her son and now he had paid the ultimate price. Well if she wasn't mad, before, she was now. Was that why it was so hot?

“Athena! Pay attention!” Masamune shouted from behind her as he used tailwind in an attempt to keep them in the air and to possibly smolder the flames of the coming inferno some. Athena snapped out of her thoughts and realized she was about to be struck with a close range inferno. Maybe she had not thought this close range thing through. “Athena!” Masamune grabbed onto her back and formed a tight blue protect bubble around them, spinning them so that Masamune’s armored back was towards the attack. The braviary began to pant as cracks began to spread across the protest from the brunt of the inferno. “Stay focused! Perceval knew what he was getting into. Kick their *sses and find Marx!” Then the protect shattered and Masamune took the rest of the inferno to the back. He was wearing leather armor but Athena could smell flesh burning. The inferno had ripped straight through it and burned off most of the braviary's beautiful red plumage. Masamune released Athena’s back and plummeted into the growing mist cloud below.

Athena quickly unsheathed her knife and used the remnants of the tailwind to shoot forward at Phoebe. This was for Perceval, this was for Marx. A nightmarish aura began to enshroud her black wings again as she prepared another sucker punch. This kako was going down.

Below, Jackson quickly shifting locations to follow the bullet. Powering down his ice beam, the alolan ninetales laid down close to the ground and used his tails to unpack the sniper rifle that had been tied to his side. Jackson couldn't get a clear shot at his target, so he'd have to shoot and go. And go he did. The alolan ninetales fired his ExChiller 3000 then released a heavy mist across the field to cover his retreat back to another wall of debris to hide behind. As he stirred up his mist, Jackson felt a smirk creep across his face as his bullet found its target. Slamming straight between the eyes of the ghost, the gengar never even knew what hit him. That was for Perceval.

Grec the Gengar of the Black Lotus Empite has been eliminated.

As Jackson began to retreat, Masamune crashed to the ground beside him. The braviary was alive but barely. With his light blue tails, Jackson lifted Masamune onto his back and took shelter. Using a weak ice beam, he froze over the burn wound on Masamune’s back, hoping to not hurt the bird too much more in the process. The braviary grunted and ate some of the rawst berries that the ice kitsune offered to him to numb the pain. Taking one of the pistols that Jackson carried, like the arms dealer he was, the braviary began to offer cover fire for Shiva and Saber.

Saber opened her eyes as the ground shook from a sudden explosion. An arm landed in front of her, but the lurantis did not let the dismembered claws of Axiom distract her. It seemed unlikely he had stepped on a landmine given he has been frozen there for a minute before it went off but all things were possible. As a misty fog began to envelop their side of the battlefield, Saber’s eyes glowed a bright yellow-green and she released a high powered solar beam that ripped across the battlefield towards her opponents. Shiva took that opportunity to start firing the automatic she had been carrying with her in order to provide some cover for Saber until the solar beam finished. Saber quickly ducked behind some debris before leaping over it and attempting to slice off Janos the Breloom’s head with an x-scissors. Eye for an eye, man for a man. If two Gracidea Order members fell, well then Saber was going to make sure two Black Lotus members met their untimely graves as well.

[Morzone]

(why is everyone being called Kako all of a sudden? where did this come from?)

[b]Julia
Steel Scavengers
Lytala city Slums
Affected RP'ers: @Neo Emolga

"Damn APV" Julia muttered, glancing back over her shoulder again. The sentinel corporation were still chasing her. You would have thought Julia had killed one of their members or something. Thankfully the crumbling building had slowed them down enough to put a fair amount of distance between them. The bullet fire was easier to avoid now, and she was too far away for them to use any pokemon moves. Julia took whatever turns she could, trying to shake them, but her Bulky Iron Giant was just as heavy weighted as their APV and as such their turning capacity easily matched her own. She'd already fired several blots of tar to slow them down, but they were too persistent to stop, it only maintained the good distance between them.

"Come on... I need a way to turn them around on the defense-" Julia muttered to herself, glaring out back behind her, but before the thought could finish making its way out of her mouth a thunderous crashing noise up ahead caught her attention. It was the peaceslayer, that behemoth Black Lotus monster truck exploded its way out of a building it had just finished crushing under its enormous tires. Even worse, it seemed to have set its eyes on her Iron Giant. The Weavile cursed loudly. That was some kind of bullshit final-boss entrance there.

But she wasn't being given time to think, the peaceslayer had started to move. Behind her, Julia could hear the APV still closing in as well. What were they doing? Trying to squish her? She well, she wasn't going to just sit here and get roasted by the oncoming flames. Giant armored behemoth cars were notorious for heating up quickly, if she took that fire too long, the engine would give out and she'd bake like this was the death wish event.

Grabbing the wheel in one hand and joystick 3 in another, Julia stepped on the gas and began to speed toward the oncoming monster truck. All the while she returned fire with her own flamethrower, trying as best she could to cancel out the arcanine's flames with her own mechanical ones. If only she had about 3 more arms... The Peaceslayer was obviously trying to crush her after burning her car up. If she'd been able to Julia would have used her tar cannon to blot cover the monster truck's windshield and blot out the driver's vision., but the arcanine's fire was too oppresive. The bright flames made it difficult to aim at the pokemon itself, so she couldn't shoot with her machine gun.

This only left her with trying to fend off the flames while making a counter attack. They'd be over confident, with their enormous size, and try to run her over, but that was going to be their downfall if, miraculously, things worked out in Julia's favor. Julia sped up, charging at the Peaceslayer as it charged at her, blocking the arcanine's fire as best she could with a spew of flame from her own flamethrower. Watch the timing... closer... closer... Now! A second or two before impact, Julia ranked the wheel to the right, changing course from what had been a head-on collision to utilize a much underestimated part of the iron giant: the plow on the front. The plow, shaped similar to the wedge ramp seen on older trains, was going to be her secret weapon. With the turn The Iron Giant Slammed the Side of the plow into the front left wheel of the peaceslayer, an angle at which would hopefully provide Maximum lift to the tire. But that wasn't all. As Julia yanked the wheel, she released the flamethrower and grabbed the fourth joystick, and aiming upward at the now close range underbelly of the peaceslayer, fired two rounds of of her close range shotgun shrapnel cannon into where she believed the Monster truck's gas tank should be.

All She could do now was hope the Swerve-ramp trick had given the tire enough lift not to crush the whole left side of her Car, and that the gas tank actually had been where she'd aimed. Julia couldn't worry about the APV anymore, she'd hedged all her bets on this maneuver. Arceus almighty What had she gotten herself into?

---

[b]Theo Myrsky
Steel Scavengers
Boat on Liaocrack River
Affected RP'ers: @Velocity

As if I'd be stupid enough to attack a bunch of water types on a boat in the middle of a river. Theo thought as he followed the Greninja out onto the main deck. Still... a savage feraligatr? Were these people crazy? It was common knowledge that wild pokemon -or savage pokemon- were impossible to control or reason with, but if these guys had found a way to reign in a savage pokemon... Theo shivered. This group sounded extremely dangerous.

The greninja was talking to one of its teammates... it seemed they'd kept the Infernape alive to question him. Well Theo supposed that made sense, he'd never heard of a black lotus agent kidnapping rather than killing before.

“This might be better if you handled it, though, darling. You might have a better idea of what in Liao they actually wanted from you.” Mazer spoke to Theo, which surprised the quilava slightly. He hadn't expected to be allowed to question his captor. Maybe he had the wrong idea about these people. They had saved him after all. The quilava approached the beaten and bedraggled monkey, trying to look braver than he felt. Even if his enemy was now utterly defeated, the looming presence of the feraligatr, as well as Mazer and the others, seemed to dwarf Theo's small figure. Still, he had a hunch about what this was about...

"You did this because I said his name right? Why did you kidnap me, instead of just killing like every other person in your black organization?" He demanded of the infernape.

The infernape spat at Theo's feet in reply. This didn't particularly offend Theo, compared to what he thought of this guy it was probably good manners to spit.

"Tell Me! You're already going to regret what you did to my Valkryrie, I'd highly suggest not adding this to the list." Theo warned, adding a meaningful glance toward the feraligatr. Of course Theo had no control over what the water-gator did or didn't do to the Lotus fire pokemon, but that was a minor detail the infernape didn't need to know.

"Alright! Alright! I was sent to find information on him, yes! But The queen was getting impatient, she wanted to get answers on him personally, so I was told to kidnap one of his team members for her to torture." The infernape said quickly, giving the feraligatr a fearful look, "I'm sorry ok? I was just following orders!"

Theo shook his head in exasperation at the Infernape's feeble attempt to beg for mercy. Still... for the queen to want answers personally... What had Anthony done?

[LKWayvern]

Laura Bette Kaye the Umbreon
Prankster Platoon
Connive, City Center
Affected RPers: None

It didn’t take long for Laura to get the medical aid she had requested.

Soon, a cincinno with mussed-up looking fur and a natu entered. The cincinno took one look at Xavier’s eyes, and snapped his fingers. The small Psychic leapt onto Xavier, and both teleported.

The cincinno turned to look at Laura. “Another doctor’ll be with ya. I need ta look at yer friend. Don’t go wanderin’ off.”

Laura waited about five more minutes for a wormadam in a sand cloak to enter, and squint at her. “You that Laura girl?”

“That’s me,” she confirmed.

The wormadam clucked her tongue. “Kadda. Come.”

Laura assumed that ‘Kadda’ was the wormadam’s name, and followed her down a corridor.

Once in the room, Kadda began examining Laura’s injuries. “I take it ya won, since you’re here an’ all,” she remarked.

Laura nodded.

“When ‘e gets back, Mazer’s gonna chew you out.”

“He’s not here?” Laura asked.

“Nah. Some kidnapping by the Black Lotus ‘e wanted ta check out.”

“Kidnapping?” Laura scrunched up her nose in thought. “That’s rare.”

“S’why he wanted ta check it out in the first place!” Kadda replied. “Have t’agree with him. Very, very lucky ya only walked away with this. I seen better ‘mons ‘en you get blown straight ta Yveltal’s lands!”

Laura sighed as Kadda started applying a sitrus salve to her side, the healing berry’s power seeming to seep into her skin and straight into the injury. “Yeah. Xavier wouldn’t let me forget that.”

“Lucky he likes ya. If ‘e hadn’t been there, well, things woulda been way tougher fer ya to deal with!” the bagworm pokemon cackled. “There. Ya got a day b’fore th’final round. Not nearly enough time ta heal completely, but better’n nothin’, I guess.”

Laura nodded as Kadda left the room. She sighed, glancing around before spotting an old looking television and a remote.

She whacked a button on the remote, causing the screen to come to life with an explosion of static.

She squinted. Half the screen was blotted out by television snow, but she was fairly certain that this was the Dreadmetal Destruction Derby. Wasn’t Jones in this? She couldn’t really tell what vehicle was Jones’, but there was an awful lot of fire on the screen.

She whacked another button. The channel switched to the Bloodpit Arena. Or, that’s what it claimed to be. It was a mix of blank white and static. Possibly cruddy quality, possibly someone used Blizzard.

She sighed, wondering how Xavier was. She was very certain he wouldn’t die, but he was still in way worse condition than she…

...Oh, crap, there’d only be two Pranksters in the arena in the finals. She prayed Yveltal would even out the playing field a little, to give them a better chance of not dying.

[Death's Spook]

The Grand Lady (Tsareena)
Steel Scavengers
The Blood Pit Arena
Affected RPers: @Noblejanobii @Neo Emolga

The Lady had waited for her opportunity, and paid the price for it.

She was hoping that by establishing a defensive position, she would have been able to allow her foes to whittle themselves down before going after one of her prizes in this field.

But as she had walked towards a more ideal position (some morons were shouting about obliterating her, this was really quite annoying), her posse in tow, intuition sent a little warning. She was about to warn her group to be on guard for traps when Kaytoo and Ioseph exploded before her eyes.

Rut, The Grand Lady had thought to herself, and they were the among the ones I least suspected. It’s possible it was one of them, regardless, but I doubt it. And that took one my escape routes, too.

Presently, her group is stealthily approaching the battle between the Black Lotus and the others. The Lady is quite annoyed: she has yet to accomplish any of her objectives in coming here, and all that she has to show for risking her life in this rutting insanity is a dead Vikavolt that everyone watching already forgot about. She decides to take the risk of tying her little blue scarf around her neck: she is suspicious that she is about to need mobility more than enough to compensate for the drawbacks.

The effects of Gravity lift, and The Lady holds up a hand before it can be reapplied. She notices a Ninetales-- one adapted to the harsh cold of a mountaintop, but definitely a Ninetales-- hiding behind a piece of debris, getting ready to take aim at the battlefield once more, with his back to her. A member of the Gracidea Order, not the Black Lotus, but The Lady is not the type to split hairs about which enemies present a threat to her. She throws her shield, a massive thing about as wide across as she is tall, and hits the Ninetales in question.

Dazed and surprised, he wheels around, only for the Lady’s golden sword to follow her shield. Between her prodigious strength, his inherent weakness to the steel of the blade, and the typing advantage she is keeping under wraps, subtly guiding the metal weapons, the Ninetales’s unpleasant surprise becomes his last.

Jackson the Alola Ninetales (Gracidea Order) is eliminated.

Behind her, Gloria has gotten the general idea of what The Lady is attempting to accomplish, and she fires a Draco Meteor directly at the position of the Black Lotus Ursaring, taking advantage of the surprise. The Breloom and a Lurantis from the Order are quite possibly caught in the periphery, but as the scent of a Power Herb restores Gloria to full strength, it becomes clear that the bear is the one who caught the brunt of the blast. Iolande applies an Earth Power, and as the ground erupts underneath the Ursaring, it takes his life in quite the parallel to the blast that took Kaytoo and Ioseph.

Vekker the Ursaring (Black Lotus) is eliminated.

“Now then,” the Tsareena announces, “Who wishes to try for the honor of striking down The Grand Lady?”

Come on, take the bait…

And he did.

The Lady’s scarf does its job, allowing her to move with much greater speed than she would be able to otherwise as a Moonblast from behind destroys her previous position. The knife from her hair is reflexively thrown and hits her target dead on before he has the chance to react.

Durkon the Clefable (Steel Scavengers) has been eliminated

“A pity,” says the Lady, “I owe Arlington some money. I did not think the mole was you.”

The whole time, the Grand Lady ensures that her awareness of the battlefield was undiminished. It would not do to be ambushed, after all.


Anthony Carpenter-Weaver (Mimikyu)
Steel Scavengers (Leader)
The Blood Pit Arena Stands (hidden)
Affected RPers: @The Nonexistent Tazz

Anthony scuttles about in the shadows of the stands. The Lady is putting her life on the line for opportunities such as this one, and it would not do to dishonor her by not making the most of it.

Arlington is some distance away, easy to spot but difficult to identify: Sharpedo were not common on land, but they were far from unique, and Arlington’s easygoing demeanor and seemingly constant focus on “getting some” (as the shark artlessly put it once) makes it easy to be less than guarded talking to him. Presently, no less than six other Pokemon were doing just that, and Anthony was certain that if at least some of them were polled before today, they would swear that they would never try to get into the pants of a Sharpedo.

Anthony loves his friend, really, but the Mimikyu married young and has been shamelessly head over metaphorical heels for his wife even longer than that, which makes Arlington’s lifestyle seem a little strange.

Of course, making the mistake of assuming that Arlington is a clueless idiot with only a focus on satisfying his baser urges is quite stupid, as several new wallets belonging to the shark attest. Honestly, the Scavengers have more money than they know what to do with, but when Anthony asked about the Sharpedo’s sticky fingers in spite of all of their money, Arlington grinned and retorted that liberating rich, stupid idiots of their possessions was a public good, no matter the personal profits.

Of course, Arlington’s general demeanor is just as much calculated as it is natural: Anthony realized early on in their friendship that Arlington is genuinely always sticky fingered and willing to get down and dirty, but that the Sharpedo is aware of how people perceive him and ergo how to use that perception. Anthony’s subordinate is far more intelligent than people give him credit for, and he is currently using that considerable intelligence to point out to Anthony just who is “in the business.” Between the people Arlington has personally heard of or interacted with and “the look”, the shark is able to identify more people than the number Anthony could be possible for the number of spies and assassins in the world.

In between, Anthony tries not to avert his gaze too much from the unnecessary violence of the blood pit arena. He only catches glimpses between his distaste and his position hidden in the shadows, almost impossible to see (especially from the sniper positions he noticed almost immediately upon glancing at them). But he does notice when the mole among his friend’s companions reveals himself, and the bloody price the Clefable pays for daring to cross her.

Over their earpieces, Anthony privately queries Arlington, not wishing to distract the Lady or inform Isana of his question, “I still don’t understand why The Lady decided to take all the potential moles with her into the arena. Could we not have done this in a more controlled and less risky manner?”

Arlington snorts, but keeps his voice down, “Yeah, but it also would be slower. Plus, the documents I found revealed that there was only one mole among those guys, and we already cleared one of them. We figured the Lady and her definite ally could easily remove one mole from the equation.” Pause. “As we just saw.”

“But why here, in such a sensitive circumstance?”

Arlington gives a small laugh, “Because she’s been taking notes from me.” At Anthony’s noise of confusion, Arlington continues, “Think about The Grand Lady for a moment, Anthony, from an outside perspective. To you, she’s your closest friend whose life story you probably know by heart as she tearfully but privately confessed it to you when you unabashedly extended all the sympathy you were capable of to her.” Anthony makes a small snort at the somewhat accurate comment: she certainly was not tearful when she told him about herself. “But to everyone else outside of the Knights, she’s the person egotistical enough to run around calling herself The Grand Lady but dangerous enough that what would have been a cliche to laugh at in almost anyone else’s case is now a title that inspires fear, which makes it look less like ego and more like a justified confidence in her abilities. By very publicly and personally executing her spy, she shows that she’s powerful and cunning enough that she uses her enemies’ own bloodsports to remove traitors in a public spectacle. It increases fear and wariness in her presence. On a different note, that chick is definitely in the business.”

Anthony is quite surprised when Arlington points out a Lilligant. As a species, they were quite targeted, either by idiots looking for a facsimile of Taiya to take out their anger on or by fringe Black Lotus operatives trying to ensure that no one with the temerity to look like their queen survives the circumstance.

If she’s a Lilligant, and an assassin…

Well, she certainly merits a conversation.

Anthony suspects, by the relative health of her leaves, that this Lilligant is part of the Gracidea Order. But that just meant that he had leverage on her.

Arlington gives a flirty wink at her (earning her a slew of glares from some of his hangers on). Behind her, Anthony manifests a shadowy hand, gently poking her with it before beckoning her to a place within the shadows. As one of the most wanted people alive, it would not do to be seen so publicly in the Black Lotus’s stronghold, so he makes sure his appearance is obscured by the shadows. He is hoping that using a giant hand made of shadows to merely beckon her rather than eviscerate her is enough to communicate that the conversation to follow is not optional.

OoC: For the record, I foreshadowed the Lady's Choice Scarf in quite a few places, from her SU to the post where she mentions her, quote, "blue ascot" and the advantages it gives her. Also, if someone could help me with dealing with the pain of mentioning others (which only sometimes seems to work for me), I'll give them a million dollars (not really)

[The Nonexistent Tazz]

'Nora' the Lilligant
The Gracedia Order
Lytala city, the Blood Pit Arena Stands
Affected RPers: @Death's Spook (definitely directly), possibly others. (I bolded what I did for a good reason... I think.)


Nora's eyes gazed upon the battle unfolding. The Steel Scavengers were exploiting field effects as the Grand Lady took her first kill-and at that moment Nora's memory clicked into place like ball bearings. Oh good alph. That Lady. And that would mean the Mimikyu in the stands would be that Carpenter-Weaver. The less they knew of Petrox, the better. Sadly, or maybe not so sadly for Nora, almost immediately succeeding their first kill two of their own was detonated by a landmine.

The Gracedia Order was moving in on the Black Lotus, themselves moving in onto the Sentinel Corporation team-and as first blood between Athena and Pheobe started being exchanged, as a bullet came straight through Perceval's head and eliminating him, and another Gracedia Order fellow got killed by more sudden landmines-wait.

Nora's mind buzzed-a contradiction in some earlier factoid. Something was not entirely right with that. That Gracedia Order guy-the Axiom fellow-he was... Wasn't he? No, he was-he hadn't stepped on there and immediately caused the explosion. He was holed up there for a good while doing some on-point havoc. If it was a legitimate landmine, that wouldn't have happened-it would have detonated the instant he stepped onto it, not later, right? Nora didn't think most landmines were wired up to a timer-no, no, definitely not. Traps started instantly when the game went on. Nora knew from a random factoid she picked up-and as far as Nora was concerned, a part of spywork was coalescing random factoids into actual concrete facts. In this case... There was a record for the fastest death in the arena-2 seconds in to a booby trapped cache, wired up to-you guessed it-a landmine.

Nora soundly concluded that the odds of that being a landmine-as opposed to, say, a remotely detonated explosive-were near to zero.

She wasn't the only one. Any idiot with a brain that had actually been watching would realize that was unlikely to be a landmine, at least in that one instance. Shame that the whole crowd were bloody zombies for how much they thought, though! If anyone noticed, they didn't comment-which was smart. Not yet would they speak of it, but the information had been brought to the table, and anyone who connected the dots and watched the footage over would realize there was an error in events. An unlikely thing. Doubtless all three of the major rebellion factions, and soon everyone that wasn't sticking their heads up their own hinds (or perhaps their ruts) for the Black Lotus, would realize that the death of that poor Axiom chap was not to a landmine. There had always been things like that before-there was yet another, though this was perhaps one of the most blatant yet. Nora hadn't been paying too much attention to the other factions-she had low hopes to the Steel Scavengers high-armor playstyle. She wasn't tough enough to emulate it either way, not strong enough to heave the armor around herself. Perhaps the 'landmine' that killed two of them was likewise not a landmine at all.

"Whoever detonated that bomb was out of a job," Nora snidely thought to herself.

The closest people got to speaking of the event was no less than one of the Black Lotus goons behind her commenting on how he preferred the booby traps to not just be spewed about randomly-took away from the real action, like the Gracedia Order and Black Lotus Captains fighting it out in midair. Nora had to admit that was definitely the big thing going on right now. The other was the surprisingly lethal Prankster Platoon, as the Prankster Platoon, after an impressive showing of crippling the Thundercrash gang and annihilating the Shadow Mask group, were forced to back away with only two members left in the fight, the rest phasing through or dying beforehand. So that was that team entirely out of the running, with only one elimination on a four-man team, one of which appeared to be dead-on blind after a certain attack (and that wasn't the dead one). Nora made sure to recall that the Mismagius phased through the floor, and ergo could still be lurking about elsewhere-

-and was not too pleasantly surprised about suddenly being tapped in the back by a shadowy hand, roughly the same time a rather unusual Sharpedo was giving her some flirtatious looks. The Sharpedo was unusual because he was, as they used to say, a player of the game. And lurking dangerously close to her purse.

Nora shifted her purse to Yvonne's lap after a quick check of contents (nothing was stolen). It would take a stupider soul to steal her gun where it was holstered-she'd yell, and it was near to a constant in this world that beefy men weren't going to ignore a charming young lady screaming her head off right next to them. Yvonne's glance at the Sharpedo proved that no-one was confused (except the Rotom) about what was going on here. "Uh, what's happening, and who's he?" The Rotom said.

"Err, nothing, just a meeting with someone else..." Yvonne said as Nora nodded and walked off.

"Charming little fish, aren't we?" Nora said, taking a breath of the cigar. "And charming little handymon associate, from what I've heard," she adds, as an observation. though, Nora hardly heard the claw as much as felt it on her skin.

Once behind the stands and thoroughly in the shadows... "... Let's skip the pleasantries. I don't need to know every name to know who moves around here," Nora said. "I'm ready to do both kinds of dirty dancing, preferably the rough before the pleasurable, if you get what I mean," Nora added. Innuendo meets business talk-Nora knew that business came before pleasure, but both near to each other was just the jackpot. And spywork could be said to be a kind of dirty dancing...

Nora attempted to huff out a ring of cigar smoke. It didn't work out, of course, more like a crescent moon, but that was neither here nor there. Nora's senses trembled for additional presences. She expected the Mimikyu-perhaps it was the Mismagius, though, and she was overthinking it. But why would a Mismagius know Shadow Claw? Nora didn't know if they could even learn that. Maybe it was another type of Ghost-type? Nora was fairly sure it was a Mimikyu, though... Fairly sure.

Nora respected scientists for one reason; Science relied upon theory in much the manner of a spy. Nothing was straightforwards and a simple answer typically masked a more complicated situation, and everything, in a sense, was assumption. Spywork was merely more high-risk assumption.

[LKWayvern]

Laura Bette Kaye the Umbreon
Prankster Platoon
Connive, City Center
Affected RPers: None

Laura didn’t realize that she had fallen asleep until she was awoken by the sound of yelling.

“I don’t f***ing care what you say, he’s going home with me and if you don’t like that, you can go f*** a slugma for all I care!”

“Miss, shut up, you’re--!”

“Clairia, you’re yelling louder than Raikou’s f***ing thunder! Calm the f*** down!”

“No, Xavier, I won’t calm the f*** down until I--”

“Can you just scram? You’re makin’ an arc-awful rackett!”

“Oh, I’ll leave for sure! Come on Xavier!”

“No.”

“No!?”

It was quite easy for Laura to follow the noises. The scene that Laura walked in on was… rather unexpected. There was Xavier, face and sides bandaged up as he reclined in a comfortable looking nest. There was the cincinno doctor who had been with him. The cincinno was standing between Xavier and the third occupant of the room, a shiny luxio with a Blaze Jewel dangling around her neck. The luxio’s eyes were bright green-- matching exactly the shade that Xavier’s eyes were.

“Um… The hell’s up with the shouting?” Laura spoke up.

The two occupants of the room who weren’t blind turned to look at her. The luxio glared. Xavier simply swivelled his ears in her direction.

The luxio stalked towards Laura. Laura couldn’t help but notice the agitated sparks flicking off her claws at every step.

“You’re the kako that brought my brother into that damnable arena?” the luxio hissed. “F***. You.”

“Good afternoon to you too,” Laura sighed. “You act like I forced him at gunpoint to go in.”

“Don’t be stupid, little kit. If you’d done that, he would’ve ripped your throat out. But you damn well did make him stay in that cesspit hellhole and blinded him.”

“Are you sure he’s the only one who’s blind? ‘Cause last I checked it was a swampert from Shadow Mask that nearly blinded him-- do I look like I’m either of those things?” Laura snapped. “And I’m not a kit or kid or whatever! I’m your age!”

“You’re the reason he was in there in the first place!” the luxio yelled. “It doesn’t matter what arcdamn species you are, you’re f***ing responsible!”

“That’s not how it f***ing works, solicc! Or are you so mad you’d pin blame on any ratatta, sentret, and bidoof?” Laura retorted.

“I don’t needa pin blame on them, the braindead culprit’s right here!”

“Clairia, eh-f***ing-nough!” While they had been arguing, Xavier had stalked up next to them and batted the luxio, Clairia, aside. “Clairia, you know I’m blind, not deaf. And I’m in the room. I can still think, and speak, and take care of myself. You going hysterical and trying to assign blame and arguing with my friend is not going to bring my sight back, or resurrect Kirrun. Literally all it’s doing is giving me a headache.”

“Y… You’re still coming home! With me! I don’t want you in any more stupid Tempest games!” Clairia argued.

Xavier sighed. “Fine. If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll go home with you. But only after the doctor says that I can leave.”

“I-i want you home now though!” Clairia whined. “I’m…” She sighed, letting herself slump. “Xavier, you have no idea how worried I was about you. It’s been so hard to get in contact with you-- and then suddenly I see you in the arcdamn Tempest Festival. I see you in the games famed for deaths so gory that loved ones can’t even recognize some of the bodies most of the time. And I see you getting trounced by some buff swampert and I drop everything and race to the fastest transport to Connive I can think of ‘cause you’re running with the Platoon now, and here’s their base… And all I can do is pray to Xerneas that you’ll turn up here, and not in a bodybag…”

Xavier sighed, curling his tail around his younger sister. “Clairia, I can take care of myself. Wha-- yes, I’ll sit down now, okay!” The cincinno doctor had been furiously tugging at Xavier and gesturing at the bed. Xavier sighed, padding back over to it and laying down. “Ya ruined a touching moment. Happy?”

“Very,” the cincinno responded, drily.

Laura leaned against the doorway. “I don’t suppose you’d be up for Field of Screams then, Xavier? And I’m not asking you, Clara, I know your answer.”

Laura could feel the fur on the back of her neck prickling from Clairia’s deathglare. “Clairia.”

“Clairia. Whatever.”

“Absolutely f***ing not,” the cincinno growled.

“What he said. But less aggressive,” Xavier agreed.

Laura nodded. An idea crossed her mind. She looked over to Clairia, a huge grin on her face. “Hey… Clairia…”

An irritated look crossed the luxio’s face. “No.”

“Come on, in this one not everyone has to kill everyone else to win!” Laura reasoned.

“I said no. I’m not crazy strong like my brother, and I’m not just plain crazy like you,” Clairia huffed.

Laura deflated. “Well. Xavier’s out, Aria’s gone, Kirrun’s dead… Maybe I could find someone else? Bleh.”

Clairia thought for a moment. “I… Might know someone who was considering joining you Pranksters. And is pretty fast.”

Laura grinned. “Good. Great! And I’m sure I’ll find some others who want to join in with the race. I’d say it’s been a please, Clairia, but if I’m honest being deafened is never a pleasure!”

Clairia shrugged. “I just want hellweek to be over with. If he’s interested, he’ll probably be around the city square with me tomorrow morning. I’ll go call him.”

Clairia strode straight out of the room, pushing past Laura somewhat rudely. Laura turned to Xavier. “So, that’s you’re sister?”

Xavier nodded. “She’s usually sweet. She gets nasty when she’s worried, though.”

“I can tell,” Laura responded, drily.

[Noblejanobii]

Athena Pallas the Decidueye
The Gracidea Order
The Blood Pit Arena
Affected RP'ers: @Death's Spook @Neo Emolga

Athena ducked and weaved around Phoebe, the decidueye constantly keeping on the move to avoid any oncoming attacks when she heard Masamune come over the coms.

"It's the Grand Lady. It's the Grand Burning Lady!" Athena paused in time to see Jackson get utterly destroyed by the representative from the Steel Scavengers. She winced, noticing Masamune was hiding right nearby, not moving so as to not give away his position.

"Masamune, I need you alive for later on. Shiva, Saber, and I can handle this. Get your burns treated. I'll meet you on the outside. Okay?" Athena saw Masamune look up at her and give her a really annoyed expression.

"I can handle myself, Athena. I'll be fine," he protested.

"Masamune, no, listen to the squad leader. Don't let your pride get in the way," Saber spat over the coms. The lurantis was a bit worse for wear from the attacks from the Steel Scavengers but she wasn't going to give in yet. "Let the girls have their fun. Besides, you're our best flier. We'll need you for later events."

"Saber-"

"Listen to them, Masamune!" Shiva chimed in as she charged a focus blast. "I'll provide the distraction and then get your feathered a** out of here." There was silence over the coms before Athena heard Masamune sigh.

"Fine. Stay safe. Stay alive. And give those Kakos hell for me."

"Hey Grand Lazy!" Shiva shouted. She fired a focus blast at the tsareena, purposely missing and striking the ground, sending up a large dust cloud. It mixed with the remnants of Jack's mist, creating quite the blinding view in the area.

Masamune dove to Jack's body and unclipped the alolan ninetales's bags. Dashing to Perceval's body, Masamune ripped off the serperior's necklace. The braviary managed to spot Axiom's arm nearby and grabbed the bracelet the dragon had been wearing. Holding the items in his beak, Masamune took off and using tailwind, the braviary escaped the stadium. He could hear the booing coming from behind as he fled, but it didn't phase him. Someone was going to have to deliver these belongings to their families. It was the right thing to do anyway.

Athena gave a slight sigh of relief as she saw Masamune leave. At least one person was safe. Expanding her black wings, a purple glint appeared in her eye and the sky began to rain purple arrows. She had been charging the attack for a while now, and it didn't last long, but if it struck down anyway, then it was worth it.

Several arrows struck down on the ground aimlessly, but Saber watched as two struck the weakened breloom nearby. He was immobilized. Good. Saber's blades suddenly turned white and she charged, slicing the breloom across the throat and stomach before dashing into the dust cloud. She watched from a shelter as the breloom's body split into three pieces.

Janos the Breloom has been eliminated.

The three women, now free of some of their opponents, regrouped around Saber. Staying close to the ground, they realized they had trouble. How were they supposed to confront the Black Lotus members without interruption from the Steel Scavengers?

Brunswick Pallas the Noivern
The Gracidea Order
His home in Jadebloom

((OOC: We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you, a very distraught and worried husband.))

"And it appears that one of those cowardly kakos from the Gracidea Order is fleeing the arena! Perhaps the cherubi leaves finally wore off and the sucker came to his senses. Still, that leaves only three members of the Gracidea Order in the arena."

Brunswick could barely keep from biting off his claws in worry. Liliane was currently at daycare with several other children. She didn't need to see this. Brunswick didn't care much for events like this, but he couldn't not watch his wife fight in this. Still, it all happened so fast, Brunswick was having a hard time processing it all.

Perceval had gone out first. That noble hard-headed serperior had gone all out until the end. He had been like that during police operations as well. Charge in first, figure everything else out later. Brunswick made a mental note to visit the man's family later. He'd be leaving behind a beautiful roserade wife and four children. They probably would not take the news well.

And then Axiom went down. He was the youngest of the fighters, the only newbie in the arena. He had begged to be added to the team. Brunswick had personally trained the newbie and Axiom had been due to be a police officer within a year. Brunswick would have to inform the teenager's parents and younger siblings of the news. At least he died for a noble cause.

And then Jackson went down. That hit hard. He was leaving behind an Arcanine wife with twelve kids. They had adopted some of the kids, sure, but with two large litters plus the adopted kids, it had been Jackson that had brought in the money for the family. Aria was no doubt watching. She always had in the past. Jackson had competed in these events before with Perceval. He had always been an arms dealer and weapons junkie which has always brought him out of it alive, but apparently, that wasn't true this year.

It had been Masamune that fled the arena. Brunswick couldn't help but sigh in relief there. The man was a widower after all, and if he died, it would be painful for Brunswick to organize an adoption of his three children. The man was a previous client of Athena after all, so of course, Athena would insist they take on his kids since Masamune was practically family.

Still, that left Saber and Shiva. The two wives had no children and little-extended family beyond those within the Gracidea Order. Supposedly Shiva's parents were actually members of the Steel Scavengers. Perhaps they'd like to see the Grand Lady squash their rebel daughter. Saber would not be a fan of that though. The two were known for their skill in street fights in Jadeblossom for a reason.

Brunswick took a sip of his beer, attempting to still his nerves. He hoped Athena got whatever information she needed out of that charizard. It was extremely dangerous to fight a member of the Onyx Circle in general, but one with a type advantage? Athena was doing literally everything possible to make her husband worry. The noivern sent up a silent prayer and touched the necklace with one of Athena's feathers that hung around his neck. Why had he let her go? It should be him out there, not her. It wasn't just she at stake here. There were three lives at risk the minute Athena set foot in that arena.

"Please, make it out alive, Athena."

[Neo Emolga]

DAY 1
Active Events: Blood Pit Arena (Qualifying Round), Dread Metal Destruction Derby (Qualyfing Round)

---------

BLOOD PIT ARENA SCOREBOARD
A.K.A. Who's surviving and who's dead.

BLACK LOTUS EMPIRE

Phoebe - Charizard
Vekker - Ursaring
Grec - Gengar
Vurden - Volcarona
Unloc - Luxray
Janos - Breloom
Shandal - Passimian

STEEL SCAVENGERS

Grand Lady - Tsareena
Gloria - Goodra
Kaytoo the Toxapex
Iolande - Gastrodon
Unnamed - Manectric
Ioseph - Beheeyem
Durkon - Clefable

THE GRACIDEA ORDER

Athena - Decidueye
Perceval - Serperior
Axiom - Hakamo-o
Shiva - Medicham
Saber - Lurantis
Jackson - Alolan Ninetales
Masamune - Braviary (Left)

THE PRANKSTER PLATOON

Laura - Umbreon (Left)
Xavier - Luxray (Left)
Kirrun - Claydol
Aria - Mismagius (Left)

THUNDERCRASH GANG

Dycee - Alolan Raichu
Cartaka - Sylveon
Modkus - Hydreigon
Vink - Watchog
Voris - Alakazam
Ryke - Swellow
Soland - Excadrill

SENTINEL CORPORATON

Vesh - Tyranitar
Lotec - Mawile
Marsha - Salazzle
Decca - Torracat
Swill - Glaceon
Eki - Lampent
Julver - Kommo-o

THE SHADOW MASK

Muno - Swampert
Burrin - Accelgor
Zill - Mimikyu

INDEPENDENTS

Bax - Togedemaru
Goreg - Nidoking
Zengar - Noivern
Jabis - Vikavolt

Phoebe Helsden the Charizard
Black Lotus - Onyx Circle
Blood Pit Arena, Lytala City
Affected RPers: @Death's Spook, @Noblejanobii

Never before did Phoebe have a battle go so poorly while she was in charge. Vekker, Grec, and Janos were all dead under her command. It was not a foreign thing for a Black Lotus member to die, but it was a whole other story when three casualties were taken like this. Someone wasn't doing their job right and the rest of the squad was going to pay with fewer numbers to work with.

Gravity had forced Phoebe to get out of the air and land on the ground. She couldn't see who or what had triggered it, but she decided it was better to group up with the rest of the squad and at least try to retake what they had lost. It wasn't looking good, but it was far from over. But they were not going to take the Black Lotus sweep they were originally hoping for.

"Bloody hellhole," Shandal spat, clutching her Matador shotgun. "I hope you have some kind of backup plan because I highly doubt this is what you had in mind."

"It's not," Phoebe snarled, wondering if Shandal was questioning her judgment and leadership ability. "Vekker and Grec got carried away. They always do. I didn't think it would get them killed this time around, but it just did and there's no changing that. We're smarter than those two, however."

Vurden and Unloc nodded. It wasn't the greatest of situations, but it wasn't over. There was still a strong possibility they could win this. In the meantime, Phoebe had lost sight of Athena in the process of landing, and she snarled at the fact she didn't get to finish off the Decidueye the way she wanted. She wasn't going to get careless, however. The fight was between more than just the two of them and to target her specifically was asking to get killed by someone else.

All the while, Phoebe kept a watchful eye. There were more conflicts happening around the arena, but a good number of the competitors were already dead. There were, however, other stragglers that were lurking around. Some of them had been separated from the rest of their squad and Phoebe knew they would make for easy prey. She needed to get those numbers down so she could focus on some of the other, more noteworthy targets. She was confident the one known as the Grand Lady was still out there and alive and to Phoebe, that was unacceptable.

But just when she wasn't prepared for it, Athena had charged at Phoebe. Angry but not losing her rationality, Phoebe knew she didn't have time for a counter attack if she wanted to survive the Decidueye's strike. Her whole team had hit the deck by throwing themselves down at the sandy arena floor as soon as they could, and Phoebe only narrowly jumped down out of the way before Athena flew past her like a bullet. Had she been a second later, it would have been brutal and Pheobe would have had her wings dug out from her back. But when she got back up from throwing herself into the arena sand, she couldn't catch sight of the Decidueye to fire back at her with the rocket launcher or a fie attack.

"Keep a watch out for her because she's going to do that again!" Phoebe snarled.

Stupid, psycho kakó.

"We need to keep low," Vurden advised. "Don't head back into the air. She'll only see you and try that again."

Phoebe growled a bit, not liking the idea of taking the Volcarona's advice, but decided he was right. This wasn't a hunter versus prey game. This was simply hunter versus hunter and she needed to be smart about this.

Using hand signals, Phoebe decided to go with a stealth approach rather than heavy weapons one. Her sniper was also dead and it forced her to change her tactics and go close quarters. While navigating her way through the arena, she was closely followed by Vurden, Unloc, and Shandal. Unlike many of the other teams, she was still in it.

Coming down the side of the blood pit, she and her squad made their way through a debris pile, checking to see if they could find any stragglers. One in particular, the Sylveon from the Thundercrash Gang, had become separated and was now on her own. Her team got into attack position and prepared to cut down the gang's numbers even more. While they weren't the Lotus's greatest threat, she wanted them cleaned out so they would never get the chance.

Shandal, after being given the attack signal by Phoebe, closed in from behind and cut the distance between her and the Sylveon quickly before she had the Matador ready. Once she was in range, Shandal had the shotgun to the Sylveon's head, and she only had enough time to gasp before the Matador went off, blasting the Sylveon's head off her neck in an explosion of pieces.

Cartaka the Sylveon (Thundercrash Gang) has been eliminated.

To Phoebe, it was another one down, but there were still higher value targets out there. The Grand Lady. Athena. Though Phoebe wouldn't mind if the two of them killed each other, she would have liked it more if she could have been the one to deal the deathblow. But she wasn't going to be greedy. She just wanted to win this, not get reckless just for the glory. If she failed and got killed for it, she'd spent her last seconds on this putrid world as a joke.

"All in good time," Phoebe nodded, clutching her rocket launcher.

When Phoebe felt the effects of Gravity wear off, she decided to stay grounded, at least for now. She knew whoever triggered that would be looking to spot any fliers attempting to retake the skies. It would be suicide to do it so soon after the Gravity wore off and there was no telling where Athena or the Grand Lady was either. Even though Phoebe knew she had the fire type advantage over both of them, it didn't give her leeway to be stupid and reckless. Mistakes made in the Blood Pit were usually the last ones ever made.

---

Sotka Aldaros the Weavile
Black Lotus - Onyx Circle
Concealed Technical Operations Post, Lytala City Underground
Affected RPers: @Death's Spook, @Noblejanobii

Sotka was shaking her head. Three Black Lotus members dead? It was rare something like that happen, but then again, with this many competitors, there was some more variability in the outcomes. Some.

Sotka patched herself into Phoebe's headset. Usually, she didn't like to speak in on Phoebe's party, but she knew this wasn't what she had originally intended. Vekker and Grec being dead made it clear she needed some backup.

"Stay down," Sotka advised Phoebe. "I can be your eyes in the sky. I'll warn you if that owl tramp decides to do that again."

"I don't need your help, Sotka!" Phoebe snarled. "I know what I'm doing."

"You have three dead squad members, chicka," Sotka chortled. "I don't think you do. Listen to me unless you want to eat sand again. You just need to win this, not prove any stupid points. Anyway, if you keep going down ten ticks forward, fifteen ticks to your right, and just a little upward, you should be good to flank that Tsareena kakó and her posse."

Phoebe snarled, but then she stopped. Sotka nodded. She knew Phoebe was headstrong, but not dumb. Though a bit reluctant at first, Phoebe followed Sotka's directions and though she just missed her opportunity on getting a shot at the Grand Lady, she still had a shot at killing her allies. She knew she needed to act fast, and so she took aim and fired her Death Spitter at the Manectric. The electric wolf Pokémon could only turn to see the rocket speeding down the corridor right at him before slamming right into his side, instantly turning him into a shower of blood and body parts.

Unnamed the Manectric (Steel Scavengers) has been eliminated.

Quickly, Phoebe ordered her team to fall back and dash away before they were seen in a very guerrilla tactics style of warfare. The confusion and smoke from the blast would give the Black Lotus squad enough time to break away from the disengagement until they found another good moment to ambush them again.

"See, wasn't that nice?" Sotka asked, shrugging. "You could keep doing that and the Grand Lady is toast."

"No, we need to diversify our strategy," Phoebe told her.

"That's what I meant," Sotka replied, rolling her eyes. "Obviously they'll catch on if all you do is use rockets. I mean ambushing them like that. Ambush and run. You don't need to see their ugly faces."

Phoebe wasn't entirely convinced, but she was willing to listen to Sotka for now, even though she didn't want to admit she needed help from someone else...

---

DREAD METAL DESTRUCTION DERBY SCOREBOARD

BLACK LOTUS EMPIRE

RIPFIRE [Armored Truck]

Jaze - Conkeldurr (Driver)
Jucden - Raticate (Gunner)

PEACESLAYER [Monster Truck]

Vorkot - Scrafty (Driver)
Xed - Arcanine (Gunner)

BLACKOUT [Armored Hearse]

Sevren - Dusknoir (Driver)
Mevvan - Krookodile (Gunner)

PRANKSTER PLATOON

SCREAMING TALON [Lightweight Zippy Vehicle]

Jones - Heliolisk (Driver)
Tony - Incineroar (Main Gunner)
Cheshire - Meowstic (Support Gunner)

STEEL SCAVENGERS

THE IRON GIANT [Armored Tank Car]

Julia - Weavile (Driver/Gunner)

THE HORNET [Armored Motorcycle]

Juan - Furret (Driver/Gunner)

THUNDERCRASH GANG

LIGHTNING STRIDER [Nitro Roadster]

Sorton - Eelektross (Driver)
Latchy - Pachirisu (Gunner)

ELECTRIC WILD [Assault Motorcycle]

Rash - Whimsicott (Driver/Gunner)

SENTINEL CORPORATION

THE BRIGADER [Armored Military APC]

Koya - Cacturne (Driver)
Yandali - Infernape (Main Turret Gunner)
Vunder - Delphox (Support Gunner)
Kolm - Blastoise (Support Gunner)

THE NIGHTMARCH

ENIGMA ZERO [Armored Bulldozer]

Baladax - Beartic (Driver)
Olock - Aggron (Main Gunner)
Jugnul - Tyrantrum (Support Gunner)

ZOMBIE SQUAD

THE RECKONING [Armored Junkyard Hulk]

Fazi - Cofagrigus (Driver)
Slugz - Snorlax (Main Gunner)
Vulk - Skuntank (Support Gunner)

INDEPENDENTS

SLAYER'S RIDE [Armored Buggy]

Khilter - Dragalge (Driver/Gunner)

DESTINY'S END [Speed Motorcycle]

Kikel - Pancham

LOCKDOWN [Armored Pick-up Truck]

Rudy - Rampardos (Driver)
Gile - Sandslash (Gunner)

DEVIL'S HEADHUNTER [Armored Semi Truck]

Durakan - Alolan Marowak (Driver/Gunner)

--------

Jucden Tarblack the Raticate
Black Lotus - Onyx Circle
Aboard the Ripfire, Lotus Den Slums, outside Lytala City
Affected RPers: @Velocity, @Morzone

The Peaceslayer had lost its left front tread after the impact, making the monster truck difficult to maneuver. Vorkot had also lost sight of his target, snarling in hunger to want to make Julia a fresh kill. However, two shotgun blasts later, the gas tank of the monster truck was ripped open, spilling fuel all throughout the street. The Scrafty and Arcanine, however, were unaware the fuel had been spilling all over the place.

"Find them and kill them, you freak!" Vorkot shouted to Xed. "It's your damn job!"

Xed had caught sight of The Iron Giant and impulsively launched another flamethrower at the APC. However, he hadn't anticipated stray embers being thrown in all directions and landing on the massive puddles of fuel that were around. Very quickly, an inferno wave lashed its way around the disabled monster truck and suddenly everything was on fire.

"YOU KA-" Vorkot screamed his last before getting cut off.

The Peaceslayer and everything around it suddenly erupted into flames and fire before the truck itself exploded into fiery pieces. Chunks and large metallic parts went flying into the air in flames before crashing back down like a fiery, hellish metal rain, leaving only a wrecked, burning husk of twisted metal.

Vorkot the Scrafty (Black Lotus) has been eliminated.
Xed the Arcanine (Black Lotus) has been eliminated.

Watching in the distance, Jucden had been laughing hysterically. He had always known Xed to be low on brains, but seeing it result in both of them dying just from the Arcanine's idiocy was something Jucden was convinced he could wet himself over. It was even funnier to him when The Reckoning came along and rammed its way into the flaming metal husk, further smashing it into even more twisted, flaming metal pieces.

"IDIOTS!" Jucden screamed with orgasmic laughter. "You always said that stupid dog would screw you over and LOOK! LOOK! LOOK AT YOU NOW! WHA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!"

Jaze just couldn't stop chuckling as he drove the Ripfire along.

"Dey ded," Jaze grunted with a smile. "Ded, ded, ded."

Meanwhile...

The Blackout had lost sight of the Screaming Talon during the tight road pursuit. Sevren wasn't able to maintain the same level of speed as the Talon, resulting in the armored hearse slamming into a shanty and losing the pursuit on the car as it disappeared into the distance. The only choice to get out of the mess was for Sevren to back up the hearse and then continue forward, but by now, it

"Dammit!" Mevvan shouted, slamming his claw on the side of the car's interior. "We should have had that piss maggot stuffed with a bullet breakfast! Where in Murhe did they learn to drive like that!?"

"No only truly escapes death," Sevren sneered. "Some only bribe it just enough to survive a little longer."

Mevvan knew there would be other opportunities. There was still plenty to kill out there in the slums and the massacre was far from over.

"Get to the main road and let's hunt down another victim," Mevvan told Sevren, pointing right with his claw. "We'll run into them again."

"Or what's left of them," Sevren flashed an evil grin.

"Heh heh," Mevvan snickered.

The Blackout hearse headed back to the main road, and Sevren soon caught sight of The Brigadier. Not surprisingly, Sentinel had put all their eggs into one monstrous basket. To Sevren, this would be more of a challenge, and it was going to be difficult for The Brigadier to handle the faster speed of the hearse. Plus, Mevvan had a bit of a surprise for them.

"Clock me, buddy," Mevvan sneered.

Grabbing a specialized rocket launcher with an armor-piercing round, Mevvan fired at heavily armored military APC before they even noticed the hearse was attacking. However, that didn't stop the NOX09 rocket from slamming into the back of the APC, causing the rocket to burrow through the back door. But, instead of exploding, the NOX09 released a highly potent nerve gas that caused Koya to lose control and swerve, causing The Brigadier to tumble over and land on its side. For a moment, the members of Sentinel Corporation were stuck inside, but tried to break open the back door and escape from the APC that was rapidly filling with fatal amounts of nerve gas. And Mevvan flashed a wicked grin, just waiting for them to make that mistake so he could gun them all down like helpless dogs with his machine gun as they tried to exit the vehicle.

However...

It was at that moment that Jucden had noticed the disabled APC lying on its side and as Jaze drove by at a hit and run, Jucden fired multiple grenades at the weak underside of the APC, suddenly causing the disabled military APC to explode as the fuel tank was detonated like a bomb.

Koya the Cacturne (Sentinel Corporation) was eliminated.
Yandali the Infernape (Sentinel Corporation was eliminated.
Vunder the Delphox (Sentinel Corporation) was eliminated.

"THOSE WERE MY KILLS, YOU BASTARD RATICATE!" Mevvan shouted, event shooting a few rounds at his own teammate as the Ripfire sped away with Jucden laughing hysterically once again. However, the rounds only hit uselessly off the metal before Jaze and Jucden were too far out of range.

Meanwhile, all that was left of The Brigader was a flaming husk and the signature smell of burning flesh.

"There will be others," Sevren snarled, not exactly happy to see the fruits of their labor stolen by their psychotic teammate.

[VeloJello]

Jones Sandstrider the Heliolisk
Prankster Platoon
Lotus Den Slums
Affected RPers: @Morzone (Julia).

The good news was that the Talon’s pursuer seemed to have vanished. The bad news was that the literal truck that Jones had used as cover was still going, and its driver seemed pretty annoyed.

“You neon idiot,” hissed the ghost Marowak, its phantasmal voice echoing above the roar of the engines. “Trying to throw me to the Lotus like that? I’ll end you.”

That black car had been Lotus? Jones filed that information away as she watched the Marowak take one claw off the steering wheel and place it on another set of controls. Her first instinct was to disengage, but doing so would set her careening and would give the Marowak even more freedom to unload its weapons. “Chesh, Tony! Get him off me, then hit him! One-two punch!”

Having a mind-reader in the car was helpful, since “one-two punch” wasn’t an official strategy that the Talon’s crew had ever discussed before. However, Tony and Cheshire seemed to get the gist. After a second’s pause, there was a loud noise of crackling energy and crunching metal, coupled with the unmistakable flash of a Protect barrier springing up between the Talon and the semi-truck. Jones had no time to ponder how much damage the barrier would do to the Talon itself, given the vehicles’ proximity; she was too busy righting her car’s trajectory to think about what damage it may or may not have taken.

The Protect faded in seconds, but those seconds had been enough. The semi had been pushed off of the Talon, and Tony was now taking aim at it. There was the sound of machine gun fire; Tony must have switched to the smaller weapon to finish the semi off.

“Boom!” Tony roared, laughing. A glance backward revealed that the semi was quickly receding into the distance, literal holes shredded into the tires. “Hope the ghost can phase through bullets - but even if he can, that truck’s not going anywhere!”

Durakan the Alolan Marowak (Independent) has been eliminated.

Once again, Jones was able to take the Screaming Talon up to full speed. That little kerfuffle had cost some time, but they’d been prepared for a few scrapes to slow them down. The damage that the collision with the semi had done, though…

As if he’d read her mind - ha, ha - Cheshire called out, “Right side’s functional, but we lost some armor! Tony and I are gonna be more vulnerable and I’m not sure how many more Protects I have in me!”

Jones saw someone coming up ahead, a car that spit fire out of its sides, painted with lightning decals. It was fast, maybe even faster than the Talon - but raw speed wasn’t everything. “Take out this scrap’s tire!” she called. They were close enough that she could see the Pachirisu in the vehicle ahead fiddling with something that most sensible ‘mons, and Jones, would assume was a gun. “Then get back to reflecting or deflecting or whatever it is as soon as possible!”

Mazer Pratten the Greninja
Prankster Platoon (De Facto Leader)
Liaocrack River
Affected RPers: Morzone (Theo).

At the Quilava’s threat, Krum leered at the Infernape. Mazer held up a webbed finger - you’re good doing what you’re doing, but wait. He wanted to hear the rest of this.

After all, the conversation was certainly interesting. He was curious about this ‘Valkyrie’; it was some sort of vehicle for the Tempest Festival, probably, but Mazer could only guess its kind. It definitely wasn’t in the Dreadmetal Derby; he could surmise that much. That said, though… whose name were they talking about?

The Infernape twisted slightly in Tatia’s grip, like he was trying to get away from Krum, but stopped when Mazer leaned in. “Whose name did he say, darling?” Mazer asked.

“You -” the Infernape hissed, breaking off as Tatia tightened her claws ever so slightly, “Look, I can’t tell you! Do you have any idea what the queen would do to me if she found out that I was giving out state secrets!? It’s bad enough that I failed in my mission; she’ll tear me apart if I give you Prankster freaks anything!”

Mazer nodded. When he spoke, his voice dripped with false sympathy. “I understand,” he said. “Fortunately, I can make it so that you do not have to tell the queen of this little incident.”

The Infernape was quiet for a moment. “Wha - glurk!”

An ugly grunt left the Infernape’s mouth as Mazer grabbed him by the tongue. The Infernape’s throat glowed as he tried to retaliate with a spout of flame, but Mazer raising up a spinning water shuriken right near the Infernape’s eyes put an end to that. “You’re going to tell me whose name our friend here said, love, or I’m going to saw out your tongue.”

After a few seconds, the Infernape nodded as well as he could with a webbed hand holding him by the tongue. Mazer let go, and the Infernape - after spitting again - said, “It’s Anthony. Queen Taiya is looking for information on Anthony of the Seven Knights.”

Several expletives found their way to the tip of Mazer’s tongue, but he contained them. Tatia locked eyes with Mazer, who said, “Take the Infernape back to the boat, please. You, Umber, and Mellie can keep him stunned. Krum, go with him. I’ll be along in a moment.”

Tatia looked a little concerned, and Krum a little disappointed, but they both complied - though it took a point-blank Thunder Wave to get the Infernape to stop wriggling. When they were gone, Mazer turned back to the Quilava. “I imagine,” he said, “that you’re among the Steel Scavengers. I can also imagine that you understand how this complicates things. I don't plan to harm you, darling, but this puts me in a deeply tricky position.” The Prankster Platoon and the Steel Scavengers had clashed before - and Anthony, that idiot, mud-brained, delusional kako, was at the heart of it.

But maybe this could be useful. After all, Queen Taiya wasn’t the only ruler of ‘mons who wanted Anthony Carpenter-Weaver dead.