Hades Cup: Team Two Ladies and a Tramp VS No Sleep 'Till Man

Hades Cup: Team Two Ladies and a Tramp VS No Sleep 'Till Man
Date of Scene:	06 February 2013
Location:	Traverse Town - Coliseum
Synopsis:	The members of the TDA have it out in the Hades Cup to determine who gets to be the MAIN CHARACTERS! WHO WILL WIN?! HOBO OR DETECTIVE?! JUDGE DREADETTE OR LASOR MAGE?! THE SWARM OR whatever Avira is?!
Cast of Characters:	Will Sherman, Mercade Alexander, Avira, Cirra Constantine, Emi Dennou, Isaac Hanlon, Tigger
Tinyplot:	Manhattan Restoration

---

Will Sherman has posed:
Welcome to...THE FIRST MATCH OF THE HADES CUP!

Yes, seriously, we're the first match. Like herding cats, I swear...

The stands are full of cheering fans, many have already taken sides! A lot of Manhattaners have come, all of them cheering for their hometown favorites...knowning that they fight for their hope...of course many murmor that Hades set this up, to try and limit the number of actual Manhattanites.

Will walks into the arena, stepping onto the fighting arena. He waves to the crowd, kind of self concious...this is sort of a first time that he had done something so public. He scratches the back of his head and turns towards the other end...he'll be fighting his friends soon...this is...

Man this is going to suck.

Avira has posed:
Avira seems to be stumbling on the fact that she actually has some fans. Fans! People thankful for VALKYRI helping them she could understand, but straight up sports fans? Then again, their participation was mostly because they all wanted to win that Shard.

There is no doubt in Avira's mind that this matchup is intentional, especially to weed out some of the other Manhattan-based combatants. It really wasn't that widly known that Avira could be counted in their numbers, but her teammates, Mercade most famously, certainly were.

Decked out in her full gear and carrying a shiny new buckler shield, Avira's all ready to roll. Grinning, she gives the crowd a wave as she strolls into the arena. She's certainly smiling, even though she knows she's going to have to fight people she'd call friends.

"Well..." she calls out to Will, "At least whoever wins will have some Manhattan going forward....right?" Avira doesn't sound all that enthusiastic about that though.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Emi is on Will's team! Only one member of team Dennou can go per event because otherwise it's super cheating instead of just 'being sketchy', ie: being more than one person is fine so long as she's only one body. Emi was GOING to be the one on the field today but Umi DEMANDED that she get to fight alongside Will which, really, makes sense since she has the most experience working with him. Emi acquiesced and the other Dennous have decided to stay in the stands.

"That's right, it's like any tournament saga!" She bobs her head a few times. "We have to do our best so that the best chance for Manhattan moves forward, The Network explains after having read too much of the japanese mangas."

She looks towards the screen for a few moments.

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra Cosntantine has reservations about being on this team. A lot of reservations, most of them are named Max, some of them are named her superior officers.

THe Judge of Wrath stands in full armor near Will and Umi, she's kept the helemet on the whole time she's been here and has hardly spoken a word. She gently flips her scythe around in one hand as she observes the other team, but pauses to ask a question.

"What is a manga?"

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Mercade Alexander is here to represent for... THE OTHER MANHATTAN TEAM.

He strides out into the sandy grounds of the Coliseum, being cheered on by the locals! Yay! Mercade looks around, giving the people a goofy wave (not a Goofy Wave). There's something about this that buoys his spirit. The edge of adrenaline, the soul of competition...

And maybe just a little roughousing with his friends. Mercade isn always up for a little game. The Detective claps his hands, rubbing them in anticipation as he looks over the opposition. "Hey guys!" Mercade greets the others (and gives Avira a highfive). "Are you ready to rumble?"

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
The first match is the hardest to organize, 'tis truth.

Isaac is in the coliseum! It's not terribly surprising. He's dressed totally normally. There is no crazy coat, crazy hair, or crazy music. He's got his hands in his coat pockets, and appears to be pretty much unconcerned about the fight. It may not be the first time he's had to fight people he liked. This time they've even got magic healing waiting in the wings!

"'Sup," Isaac calls. He jerks his head upwards slightly in the standard city-dwelling American form of greeting. "Everyone set for this?"

Will Sherman has posed:
Will looks towards Cirra, "Comic book but written in reverse and japanese. All the people are drawn with large chests and BIG ROUND EYES and small mouths."

AND THE MATCH STARTS! OOCly sense Team No Sleep Till Brooklyn Won the throw, they get to go first! This is just a initilize combat pose and a explain something to Cirra pose! IGNORE THIS!

Mercade Alexander has posed:
"LET'S GO EVERYONE! PLAN ALPHA!"

This would be impressive, except since Mercade never actually defined what 'Plan Alpha' is, he assumes everyone else is just going to do what they're going to do normally. COORDINATION AT ITS FINEST. Mercade backflips, getting some range as he pulls his gun with a practiced flick of the hand. He sights down the barrel in preparation to start raining down ballistic pain!

Avira has posed:
Funny, Isaac seems totally okay with fighting friends! Same with Mercade. It's as if they both have done this before... "Plan Alpha?! What's plan-" pause, "OH RIGHT PLAN ALPHA OF COURSE!!"

There's a faint shimmer across her left palm, which happens to be the hand Avira has /not/ pulled out the Spine with. The shield she carries remains attached to her back, unaccessed as of yet. Briefly, she taps that hand to Isaac, giving him a conspiratory wink before running off...after Umi?! Poor little Umi?!

There are strange blue 'caps' along each serrated edge of the spine. It appears to be some kind of foam, meant to blunt the blade for the fight.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Isaac doesn't wait for a response, largely because it's time for, "RIGHT! PLAN ALPHA!" He sounds like he totally knows what Plan Alpha is.

(He's a better liar than Avira, clearly.)

Avira taps Isaac. He feels a little bit lighter on his feet. He shoots her a sunny smile and coughs out something vaguely arcane, then pats her on the forearm, fingertips abuzz with glimmering cyan energy. Isaac steps to the side and moves to /the back row/, a wall of fire springing up around him. It does not scorch the ground, but it makes for excellent SFX.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will pauses...

"Plan Alpha? Really? I thought we were going to take it easy on you? Well, IF THAT IS HOW YOU WANT TO PLAY MERCADE!" Will reaches up, grabbing the strings of Cirra, himself, and Emi...they are going to need a bit of luck to help them through this match, and Will does LOVE stacking the deck...it's sort of what he does!

"Alright Well, you have activated my TRAP card! HA! What about that! I can sound like I have plans too!" Mutter fancy plans..

Emi Dennou has posed:
Umi is also probably the one least conflicted about fighting Mercade, Isaac, and Avira. She likes them just fine, but the others would be more likely to just let them win. Dennous can be pretty lazy and, really, it's their home not hers. Then again, maybe it could be her home someday. Just like they told--

Umi figured she better go after Isaac, but before she can go on the offensive, Avira is TAKING THE INITIATIVE and charging her. Girls--they take initiative.

"Plan Alpha?!" Umi NEVER RETREATS NEVER SURRENDERS!! But she does advance backwards while facing Avira a few feet. "The Network is ready for your Plan Alpha...and counters... With Plan Beta!!"

She snaps her fingers--her assault actually taking the form of... an assault! Namely, it's an electric pulse that fans out from her fingers, threatening to crash into Avira--and Isaac Hanlon besides! Not only that, but electricity ripples out of her legs, leaving little charged volts shimmering around the two, keeping the arena a bit...tingly.

This is of course ignoring the strategy that Emi had formulated for this which was basically 'everybody on Isaac before he destroys everyone' but well helping with tactical advice isn't something Emi can do, that's cheating, so she is basically just keeping Umi from her thoughts at the moment.

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra does not understand why you would read anything backwards, it sounds very silly.

Nobody has a plan, everyone acts like they do. This makes Cirra sigh, "Is this a fight or a posing contest?"


Running forward, She holds one hand plam flat against the pike blade of her scythe and chants under her breath. Runs glow, burning into the flat of the blade and Cirra swings the weapon around in her hand so she can thrust it out at a single target, hte energy lancing off like a hammer to shatter magical effects surrounding Issac. She quickly ducks down and sweeping her legs under his before spinning back up swing the (thankfully blunted weapon) across the technomage's torso.

Yeah she remebers him from the sandbag contest.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
"You don't have a plan, Will! You're allergic to planning! We had it diagnosed medically and everything!" Mercade yells back. He is, however, more intimidated by Umi. "PLAN BETA!? Is that the one where you beat up on defenseless mages?" This is more than ten lies because Isaac can blow everyone up at once. He levels his guns, and points them at Cirra and Umi, unleashing a bunch of bullets! These bullets are, however, tipped with special mythril inlays that mess with magic. Cid gave him a guarantee* on it!

* - Not actually a guarantee.

Avira has posed:
In a way, Avira should have anticipated this outcome. Not the outcome of getting zapped by Umi-that's pretty much a given when facing the Dennous. However, given Isaac's performance in the strength contest, that he's being singled out by the big bad judge is definitely something that should have been forseen.

Friendly contest or no, Avira's always kind of worried about getting between a Judge and their target. Too bad she has no choice. With a sudden twist, Avira whirls around and sticks the Spine into the ground.

Her hands lift and along the length of her arm, a shaft of ice appears. Her hands draw back much like a bow, 'firing' the shard at the Judge. Shortly afterwards, she's taking up her weapon in hand and closing the distance. "Oh, I can give you a fight, alright."

Blue light envelopes the Spine, shining much more intensely than Avira's seen before, mostly thanks to Isaac's intervention. Mightily, she swings the now ice-imbued weapon at Cirra repeatedly.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Isaac may in fact be able to blow everyone up at once. Maybe he should've settled for bronze in the strength competition or something.

Cirra's energy lance hammers into Isaac's barrier. He spots it before it hits him, pulling both hands out of his pockets. One goes right out in front of him, palm forward, a faint, mercurial glow gathering in it. The other is, of course, holding onto a very mundane-looking tablet PC.

The energy hits the mercurial spot, rippling through the enchantment and scattering it. The dispelling magic definitely worked, but it looked... directed. Maybe spelling down a wizard is not the best plan.

Hitting him with a big stick? Definitely a better plan. Isaac jumps straight up, trying to get above Umi's electrical pulse, but gets knocked straight down by the Judge's total bias. He hits the dirt hard, dropping to a kneel and interposing the fire-wall between himself and her (fortunately padded) weapon. It takes most of the impact, leaving him not wheezing.

"Okay, that was a little hasty. I think you should work on that; I think you're being a little --"

Isaac winds up, flicking a scattering of what looks like blue sparks up in a manner that is intended to be distracting. He springs up into the air again and hurls a pulse of vaguely ring-shaped violet light downward at Cirra, local gravity rapidly increasing around her. A follow-up gesture brings out a burst of sound like an ear-splitting guitar riff, the noise bursting out of the ground and accompanied by a brief tremor.

"-- /judgemental/!"

Yeah, he went there.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will winces as Cirra cuts into Isaac...and then they all respond by blowing the /<GOOSEHONK>/ out of her. "Ouch. HEY! I do plan, what the heck do you think I was doing...like..." he pauses, "Nevermind...that's not something I wana get into right now." UGH...bitterness tastes so bad. He suddenly dashes, aiming to get in close and personal with Avira, "Hi." he says, before aiming to strike her with his palm, before trying to flip off of her and RIGHT towards Mercade. His fist collides, or attempts to collide with him, before he falls back to the ground...each hand trying to tear through the strings of both of them. He stands up, "So...we're still getting icecream after the game if we beat your mercilessly?"

Emi Dennou has posed:
The Traverse Town Coliseum is presently hosting an event. Or rather--a PART of an event. THE HADES CUP, in fact, of which the PRIZE is a World Shard--a piece of Manhattan that needs to be collected in order to draw that world back out of the Darkness. They've actually been going on for some time now! The preliminaries have ended and this is the first COMBAT BATTLE between CHAMPIONS. Two teams of three do battle with one another, one gets to move on--the other fails forever and has to drown their sorrows in sea salt ice cream.

The stands are populated by enthusiastic audience goers--despite a recent battle against a Hydra here, people generally cope pretty well with giant monster attacks here and have come to see the match. Among those individuals are three identical 'twins', who seem to be looking down and watching a fourth identical 'twin' participate in the fight.

Tigger senses indicate they are prime pouncing targets, though the one on the field has more room for pouncing provided a pouncer does not mind risking friendly fire for the purposes of a pounce. We will call that one on the field Umi Dennou. Yes they have this naming scheme.

Umi is probably the best duelist out of the hivemind. As Mercade unleashes BULLETS--she bats them away with electromagnetism, sending them spinning into the ground rather than accidentally sending them flying into the audience or something. That'd be awkward!

She swings a hand back, not wanting to pick on Isaac, but she does want to get folks off her judgemental back. Even if she totally broke poor Max's heart. The jerk.

She swings both arms forward, guiding one towards Isaac and the other Avira---but in truth she's actually just firing a bolt for Avira, the other being a feint--the assault takes the form of a couple hefty bursts of electricity and a tiny one that lands near Avira's feet.

"Will! Give Cirra a hand huh?"

The other members of the Network watch, deadpan as ever.

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra aggresses, and is aggressed apon for her efforts. The ice blade smashes into her armor and the mithrilo bullets cause some kind of magical short circuit that depletes her defenses.

Its the earthquake causing gravity thats a real problem though. Slamed down to her knees and the ear shattering noise slams her back across the arena floor, sliding to a stop on her back.

And her hand slaps the ground, wellsprings of energy flowing up from the arena floor to cascade around Will and Umi in protective forces.

Tigger has posed:
You can no more will the Pounce than you can command the sea. To be so arrowgant to try is to risk ant-hillation. So says the Tigger.

TIGGER IS UPON YOU but is not as yet involved in the proceedings. He has bounced into the stands from somewhere, bouncing across the empty seats by using each one as a springboard. He wiggles and bobbles as he leaps from chair to chair, exulting in the simple act of bouncing. He may not even be aware there is a fight going on, the bright light show washing over him without leaving an impression on his childlike mind.

"Boy it's noisy," Tigger says to himself, springing parallel to the fight in the stands. "Guess I just need to jump higher!"

Tigger escalates his bouncing, rocketing over the crowd. This may be solely for the benefit of flash photography, as flashbulbs bloom across the opposite set of stands. The sudden surge of light briefly blinds Tigger.

"Oh! Who turned on the lights?!" Tigger wails, bouncing with even less direction than usual. He ends up flying into a hot dog vendor, causing a terrific crash! Foil wrapped devil dogs and adult beverages go flying!!

Tigger surfaces a few moments later. There is a foil-wrapped hot dog in his ear. He doesn't seem to notice it. He staggers down the stairs, eyes spotty from the flashbulbs.

"This sitcheration is intollyable!" he shouts, waving his hands around. The hot dog keeps bobbing in his ear. "It's a good thing Tiggers are the best at navygating in the dark."

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Mercade grimaces as Will punches him with Fate. Itchy. Tasty. Mercade skids backwards from the hit, and looks over the battlefield. Umi's trick with the electromagnets is going to be trouble, he can tell. It's like everyone is resistant to gun, what the hell. He keeps trying to run around the edges, watching the barriers raise around Umi and Will. He shifts targets, focusing on shooting them with the same bullets!

Tiggers are in the stands! He's sure it'll be a thing later, but right now he's too focused on trying to win. "You keep saying that, Will, but you have to actually follow through!" Mercade says. "That said, yes, we are totally getting ice cream. And maybe steak. I'm getting hungry."

Avira has posed:
Will smacks Avira across the face and in response, Avira gives him a look, reaching out suddenly with her free hand to grab him by the collar and drag him in close before he gets away. "Hey. If you're gonna hit me, at least do me the honor of closing your fist! Jeeze!" she lets him go and starts to sidestep, apparently quite focused on the Judge.

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Umi charging up. Believing that she's entirely out to target Isaac, she quickly darts in to push the wizard aside. So while the blasts do hit her, quite painfully in fact, she does it believing that she just spared Isaac from a /terrible fate/.

"Get behind me." she mutters to him, lifting the Spine. "I'll keep 'em off you."

Staying where she is, Avira seems to give the air in front of her a good, hard, slash. Somehow this allows a windy force to extend beyond the length of her blade, this aimed at the distracted Cirra. For a few seconds, she does take a step away from Issac so she can swing the Spine upward in a two-handed grip. What was wind before once again becomes the ice from earlier, which twists and shapes itself into a much larger wintery blast. That magic looks vaguely beast-like, though it's far larger and a lot less refined-looking than usual.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
There's a feint!! Isaac gets ready to defend himself, and--!!

Nope. Feint. He looks almost disappointed. By this point, he's hovering maybe two feet off the ground, standing on mid-air as easily as solid ground. He doesn't so much fly as he does just kind of hang out, making a point to ascend to keep out of immediate melee range. Especially for someone who uses a scythe, which is not a weapon particularly known for its excellent reach.

He does however leave himself open to Avira being /a hero/. Isaac tumbles, bouncing along the two foot mark like it was solid ground with an undignified, "Ack!" He rolls back to his feet, mostly by the grace of magic than his own dexterity. "Uh, sure!" Thumbs-up!

Isaac doesn't do the fancy magic thing, with the ice wolf. He thinks the ice wolf is kind of awesome, but doesn't really grok it. He glances around for something to use -- and spots the flash photography, courtesy of excessive bouncing. Isaac shouts a quick incantation, sweeping his hands up and making an 'o' with the fingers on his left hand. The light continues to flash and flicker inside it -- and then there's a brighter FLASH, warm and brilliant and ultimately blinding. It may be enough to instantly provide a tan to anyone struck by it.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will blinks as Avira catches his collar?!
"Wait what? Seriously, it's...this is what I do! It's /martial arts/! God..." he says, and brushes his hobo rags off. Before he jumps back, as Mercade attempts to give him the buisness. Will wiggles a finger at him, before Isaac unleashses SO MUCH FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY at them! He looks burning slightly, and looks back at him...He frowns... He is sure Cirra is about to murder someone...

So he dives towards Avira.

"YOUR WISH IS MY COMMAND!" he says, before aiming to uppercut her, moves around and aims to repeatedly give her a one two combo by punching at soft points, aiming to tear at her fate strings, and curse her with BAD LUCK...

Not that she needs his help with that.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Mercade manages to plow Umi in the arm with a bullet as she counters with another quick bolt of electricity. It's not much--but the timing on Mercade's shot was JUST SO that it slipped past her defense while she was shifting to an offensive state. EIther that, or she's saving up energy and decided taking a bullet as just fine and dandy. Isaac also goes to the trouble of unleashing a flash, burning Umi's skin faintly, but it doesn't seem to blind her in the slightest. Woop!

The air is positively thick, particularly around Isaac, with ionized air, the ground shimmering consistently with small electric bolts.

"Sorry about that Avira! The Network apologizes also to Isaac Hanlon." This is a bit of a headsup on his behalf, but they don't want to seriously hurt him and want him to be able to at least brace himself for what is about to happen. Umi likes to win as much as anybody else, in fact she's kind of hyper competitive even in activities she has no skin in.

A small leap into the air through a sudden reverse of magnetic forces and she draws out a coin.

This is pretty obvious what she's aiming for here. She points the coin towards Isaac and says, "Special Technique! Actually Emi invented this thing!"

She flicks the coin with her finger, propelling it forward magnetically at super charged speeds!

MEANWHILE

Tigger bounces into a hot dog vender. The other Dennous are nearby and end up splattered with hot dogs. Emi manages to quickly snag one out of the air and shove it under her shirt. Hey, free food. The others are more clobbered due to the unsuspecting nature of the Tigger. Emi's hording nature is only what protected her.

She gets clobbered in the face with a Hellweiser Beverage a moment later. She turns slowly towards Tigger and approaches him.

"Tiggers...? The Network inquires as to what a 'Tigger' is."

She may be doing this, in part, because she wants to grab that hot dog in his ear and eat that one too.

Tigger has posed:
A dramatic battle is going on in the arena. Tigger is almost entirely oblivious to it, still flash-blinded. He can hear banging around and shouting, but that's all the time. He has more pertinent problems, like stumbling around in the stands. He has his mitteny hands in front of him to help navigate, waving them around in arcs to try to figure out if anything is in front of him. This leaves him vulnerable to inspection!! His hot dog is totally undefended, and seems almost perfectly intact.

"The nets work?!" Tigger asks the phantom voice. "Tiggers don't go in nets! Tiggers are the best there is!"

Tigger thinks he can see well enough to bounce. He flings himself onto his rear end and sproings into the air, sailing back up onto the edge of a railing. He bobs along on it unsteadily, tilting toward the side with the hot dog in his ear. He spins a little bit to keep himself upright. "Oh-oh-oh-oh ... theee wonderful thing about Tiggers, is Tiggers are wonderful things! Their tops are made of rubber, their bottoms are made out of springs! They're bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!"

Tigger sproings off the railing, hopping back toward the voice. "But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers is I'm the only one!"

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra is in armor, but the flash is bright enough to daze her and as she covers her face, the widny icy slash from Avira smashes into her and freezes her right arm, incasing it in a soid block of ice. "Tch..."

Cirra takes her scythe one handed and leaps, descending on the person causing her the biggest problems right now: Avira.

THe blunted scythe comes down, tryign to harangue Avira by the neck as the Judge spins around, sling her to the side and jumping after her to try and plant the butt end of the shaft in Avira's stomach before another rune infused blade tries to tear down the woman's defenses.

Avira has posed:
"I'll get over it!" Avira calls back to Umi, her muscles twitching every now and then.

"Yeah but...open palm and all..!" Avira's a little adverse to getting pimpsmacked around, especially by friends. With her back still facing Isaac, she seems nonetheless with her attention divided between Will and Cirra. When it comes down to it, she might be able to evade one of them, but not both. Will dives at her.

The shield on her back is finally torn free as she leans backwards out of range of the incoming uppercut. The shield slips around, used to fend off the fists with one loud thunk after the other.

She can't evade having her fate strings messed with though. If Will wanted to mess with the brightly glowing strands, he could go right ahead.

The effects are seen immediately afterwards as Cirra leaps in and Avira misjudges her angle of attack. The smaller woman is yanked sideways by the neck, away from protecting Isaac, and flung through the air. Though she manages to uneasily land on her feet, Cirra's quick follow-up has her falling backwards with the butt of the scythe jammed into her stomach. As she hits the ground, the final blow descends, too fast for her to roll out of the way.

Avira wiggles and flips herself over on the ground the first opportunity she gets. The Spine is unexpectedly abandoned as Avira shoots in low and tries to take out Cirra's legs by wrapping it up. The weight difference might not work out in her favor but Avira is damn determined.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Isaac appears to be surrounded by /ions/. He's not sure what's up with that. Is Umi going to do something crazy like set the entire air on lightning, hitting him with a huge bug-zapper?! Actually, that would be kind of cool. He quickly jots that down as a brief note on his tablet, making sure to figure out how to do that later. There's bound to be giant insects somewhere.

"Sorry for whaaaAAH!" Isaac figures out what's about to happen just before it does. He spreads his fingers and shouts something vaguely Latin, shoving the air to the right. Another purplish pulse shoots forward, then abruptly turns into a pulsing cone that goes in a different direction altogether. The magically-created railgun projectile in the form of a coin flies off to the side -- which happens to roughly coincide to where Mercade is.

"Uh, whoops." Isaac winces. "So, that was actually really cool; could you show me how you do that when we're done here?" The benefit of fighting friends is that when you're all done, you can see if they'll share their combat technique with you. It's really an excellent side-benefit. He wiggle-waggles his fingers and mumbles words that mean nothing at all, splitting his concentration some.

Then, Isaac points at Cirra and Will with two extended fingers. There's a surge of cyan light, swirling about his hands like tamed fire. He cuts across the ground beneath the two of them with violet GRAVITY BEAMS, the blue fire racing along them, slicing neat circles out of the coliseum where they're standing. Local gravity abruptly reverses for about three seconds and then normalizes, and the curious magical flame does its level best to cling to them like tingly napalm. It doesn't really hurt so much as it does exhaust.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Isaac is faced with a terrible situation! He does what he can to solve the problem, which is to divert the hellishly powerful shot straight at Mercade.

Don't worry, he's GOOD FOR IT. Mercade's been preparing for this!

The coin promptly makes a THWONG sound as it hits something under Mercade's shirt, and Mercade himself is sent flying to the ground.

He blinks, and looks under the shirt, where TWO pans were. And they have holes in them, only to be barely stopped by the bulletproof vest under that. Ugh. He's going to be feeling that one in the morning. He rolls, getting to his feet and rushing to one side, cartwheeling through the air dramatically as he unleashes GUN-FU on Emi, trying to launch and juggle her in a flashy and dramatic fashion! But it doesn't quite work out that way.... OR DOES IT?

Will Sherman has posed:
The fight between the TDA members is getting...interesting.

Avira's shield gets in the way of his strikes, causing his brow to furrow a little, "For the love of! It's a PALM strike not a slap! Seriously! EDUCATE YOURSELF! Ugh...if Han were here he'd have a fit right now!" Will mini rants at Avira...

Then a hotdog, which was thrown into the air by Tigger's bouncing earlier finally lands in his hand. Bun, with the approprate condiments, and the dog itself. Will blinks, and starts eating. "Huh. Not ba-..." And then he is already leaping backwards, the gravity BEAMU just narrowly avoiding the hobo lad. "Ouch! Brutal Emi!" Will hasn't started digging deep yet...and he wonders if he should...

Instead, he moves quickly upwards, aiming to bring himself closer to Mercade and Isaac. His hands ripping out towards Isaac's strings, aiming to focus on him. "HEY! NO HIDY! FIGHT LIKE A MAN!"

Emi Dennou has posed:
Emi is shocked to see Mercade dive in the way of that strike. So is Umi for that matter. Such wondrous teamwork! She's surprised, for that matter, that Mercade is still standing. Umi unleashes a zap from her hand, but misses Mercade entirely, blasted away from Mercade by his GUN FU. Hopefully it wasn't actually Emi who is in the stands, anyway! That would have been awwwkward. That's her second and third bullets of the night, her electricity powers protecting her from getting seriously wounded but the blast impact is still significant.

"Sure..." Umi wheezes." Actually we were hoping to ask you uh--" She is in enough pain she forgets to respond to Avira.

MEANWHILE

Emi has difficulty understanding Tigger. THE NETS WORK? That's not what she said. Right? Right. She says, "Uh." The hivemind is flummoxed. Eventually she says, "...But we are not tiggers, The Network repeats that you are the only Tigger, apparently." She looks towards the other two Dennous in the stand as Tigger sings and spins and...that hot dog. So close. Yet so far out of reach. Even if it's hard to think about hot dogs when a tigger is singing and pouncing.

Emi secretly thinks this is the most amazing thing ever. She does not vocalize this. Instead she says, "Therefore, we can...go in nets." She nods firmly.

It's like another language, but Emi tries to speak it anywat despite not being fluent in Tigger. She may or may not have tapped her foot along with the song. The ability to prance about like that while blinded is truly the mark of skill and pizazz.

"There is a hot dog in your ear." Emi tries to broach this subject.

Umi is still a-hurtin' but she tries to get herself up and back into the fight! She does this via--

--hefting up her assault rifle and firing several shots for Avira--charging a few electric bolts off at her as well, but nothing too major. She must still be a bit winded after unleashing ZA RAILGUN.

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Avira's attempt to tackle Cirra doesn't work, she jumps back, sliding along the arena floor until she is intercepted by Isaac's beams which send her flying upwards with a interrupted "Ooph-!" cirra swivels her head and looks at Isaac and flings the scythe from her one mobile hand to go sailing through the air hit the mage. The thingly fairy fire is swatted at but it's mostly an annoyance.

The gravity reversal releases and fals back to the ground, kicing her feet overhead to control her fall into a swan dive as she reaches out her hands, slaming itno Isaac as she lands with both arms on his shoulders. TThen she does something regretabble.

She tears off her helmet and kisses him right on the mouth.

And you know does the energy drainy thing.

Tigger has posed:
Meanwhile, Tigger continues to confuse people who are even passingly literate.

Tigger blindly reaches up for the wrong ear when Emi tells him he has something in his ear. "What?" he says. "I can't hear you very well! I think there is light in my ears."

Tigger continues to hop about through the stands, working up more momentum. "The wonderful things about Tiggers is Tiggers are marvelous chaps! They're loaded with vim and vigor, they love to leap in your laps! They're jumpy, bumpy, clumpy, thumpy fun, fun, fun, fun, fun! But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers is that I'm the only one!"

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Mercade was ignored! Awesome. When Umi does her lighting thing, Mercade takes the opportunity to toss the now-useless pans in the way to take the electric zappy doom for him. He's allergic to zappy doom.

"WILL, STOP CHASING US AROUND! GET BACK IN THE CORNER!" He yells at the Hobo King, but he doesn't shoot at Will! Instead, he settles for shooting a lot of bullets at Cirra (who is engaging in Doom Makeout with Isaac) and Umi (who continues to be all zappy and electromagnetic). "Hey Cirra! What would Max think?!" He calls. Yes, he plays dirty.

Avira has posed:
Making out can be regrettable when poisonous lips are involved, right?

"Then why don't you go palm strike Mercade!!" Avira calls after Will during that brief ranting exchange. Some guys..!

Rolling to her feet, Avira's quick to scoop up her weapon in her right hand as she does so. It's not a moment too soon either, her forward momentum enabling her to keep moving, preventing Umi from getting a decent target lock on her. Rifle shots bury into the coliseum ground in her wake, followed by several short blasts of electricity.

"C'mon guys! We can do this! I know we can!" Avira calls out, "And even if we don't, we're going to have someone from Manhattan going forward! Then we'll be one step closer to bringing that world back!"

In Will's sight, Avira may be a bit harder to look at for a few moments as she speaks. It's not Jasmine bright but he'll wish he had shades.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
"Who's hiding?!" Isaac calls. "I'm standing like four feet above the ground! Jump, gypsy!!"

Will does something funky. Isaac feels a little tingly. He sniffs, as if considering an odd odor that has wafted into the air. Then, reflexively, he checks his shoes. Yep; laces tied together. Must be that weird luck stuff Will likes to play with. "Will, could you possibly take this a little bit s--"

Isaac gets beaned by a scythe. The haft glances off his head, sending him stumbling, throwing his arms out to steady himself as he sees stars. He feels something heavily armored slam into him, and he drops right for the ground, reflexively gathering up as much power as he can to fuel his shield. The thing hasn't been working out for him. Maybe he needs to recast it.

Cirra puts a damper on that. He is about as confused as one might expect, given that he's suddenly getting kissed by the crazy woman with the scythe who, just a moment ago, was trying to beat the crap out of him. He's perhaps somewhat relieved when he feels his stamina get drained in that fashion. That's something that he can deal with. It is /way/ less confusing than a rather overt come-on from the Judge in the middle of a fight.

Isaac, perhaps unexpectedly, kisses her back. A second later, he feels uncomfortably warm to the touch; a second after that, her energy draining technique gets turned around on her. The effect is not unlike trying to put way too much current through a low-voltage wire, or maybe like sticking a fork in an electric socket. Isaac is the electric socket.

/Then/ he breaks away, trying to get some distance between them before she breaks his jaw or something. He promptly falls on his ass, because Will's /mere presence/ tied them together comically. He thinks he may have bruised himself in the fall. "Wow, that wasn't what I was expecting," he gasps. He rolls over, pulling his feet underneath him and clearing his throat, hastily, well, wiggling back into the air. It is not terribly graceful. He wishes it was, considering the broadcast venue.

Isaac takes a second to reestablish his focus and catch his breath. That took it out of him. He's not certain if it's because Cirra was attempting to suck out his soul, because she was actually a good kisser, or a combination of the two. He throws Avira another thumbs-up while he puts his hands to his knees and focuses on breathing. He takes a second to snap his fingers in the direction of some of the sound system components he made sure were around this time.

YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS.

BGM CHANGE: http://youtu.be/WlBiLNN1NhQ

Will Sherman has posed:
"Sorry Guys." Will says suddenly.

He is avoided like the plague this round, and he SEES what Isaac is about to do.

Well...this are about to get rough, Will clenches a hand...if they aren't going to hold back...why should he. He digs down, reaching into himself, as his eyes flash. There is a moment as he see's everything...the strings of fate are lay before him as he dives right towards Mercade, aiming to smack into him head first, before he punches him right across the chest with an OPEN palm...before he flies from him to try and Goomba stomp Isaac!

However, bouncing off of him, he has a hold of both of their fate strands...or should!

Something DARK travels through his hands, before aiming to surge painfully down towards Isaac and Mercade, trying to rend their fate completely in a single horrible attack!

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra always has impeccable technique. Though she doesn't let Isaac maintain the reverse flow long enough to put her out of the fight, she does lurch back from it and wipe her mouth with the back of her hand.

Then Mercade decides to play dirty, not that he needs to. The bullets spang off her heavy armor and she flinches, rolling right off Isaac.

She then stands up and clamly walks over to Mercade, and slaps him just hard enough for it to be felt.

Then she walks off the field and sits down on the bunch, having been eliminated.

Emi Dennou has posed:
ALL THE DENNOUS GASP AT ISAAC'S CHICANERY. Well except for Emi who is really more concerned with Tigger here. She reaches out, trying to get at that ear-hotdog but she can't seem to catch Tigger with her hands. He's just too flouncy! What is a Dennou to do??

"Tigger perhaps--ah...that is...The Network..." Emi begins, flailing her arms up and down but Tigger just keeps on singing. She can't help but tap her foot along and have a little bounce in her step too, but Tigger is just all over the place. And singing. It's good Riku's not here--singing seems to drive him into a dark place. Perhaps a musician stole his lunch money once.

She tries calling out, a bit louder, "There is a hot dog in your ear, The Network explains and cannot believe she just said that?"

MEANWHILE UMI.

Mercade unleashes more bullet. It manages to take down (so to speak) Cirra but Umi manages to propel the bullets awya from her body once more. "Oof!" She says, stumbling back and away from Mercade. Her vision's a bit cloudy, no way she's going to hit Mercade in THAT condition. She shakes her head quickly to try and recombulate herself before spinning on a heel and unleashing another wave of electrical power for Isaac! "ALWAYS LOOK ON THE ELECTRIFIED SIDE OF THE FENCE!" Umi says, depsite this making almost no sense whatsoever. She gathers up some charges into her hands, forming an ELECTROBLADE that is really just a thick crackle of electricity rippling out of her hand as she dives in, lashing out at Isaac with it.

"We were wondering, The Network adds," Umi says as she fights. "If you could teach us?"

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Mercade DUCKS AND ROLLS and gets the hell out of the way of Will Sherman rampaging around the area. "NO TOUCHIE!" He calls to Will, and puts some distance on. As much as he'd like to beat up on Will, he's decided that Hobo Lad is going to be the last one. Cirra counterstrikes, slapping him in the face, and Mercade frowns, then asides to Avira, "Man, everyone teases us, why the hell does no one else deal with it? I swear, double standards everywhere." The rousing speech from Avira helps boost him further, pushing him to bring his A-game. After all, if he doesn't do his best here, how will he expect to deal with the /others/?

He rolls and tumbles out of the way of more of Umi's ZAPPY DOOM, helping him to get his groove on. He grabs up a spear from the sand, and pole vaults his way into the path of Isaac when Umi fires MORE ELECTRICAL DESTRUCTION, just in time for Mercade to plant the spear... And get blasted away from it, sending him flying! He lands on the ground, smoking. "Ugh... That's shocking..."

Horrible pun delivered, Mercade begins to move again. With a spinning gesture with the pearl-handled stage revolver, he points it at Umi, sparing a moment to reload. "It's your turn!" He calls out, and unleashes a secret weapon: a hail of rubber bullets! Electromagnetic THIS!

Avira has posed:
"Sorry to say, Mercade, buuuut I think you earned that." Avira remarks with a faint grin after the Judge slaps him for the Max comment.

Between Will and Umi, it's actually a bit of a challenge to decide who to go after next. Will's fate-altering powers were dangerous...but so were Umi's electro powers. Umi's been taking some pretty hard shots at her all throughout the fight too...so maybe it was time to do something about that at last-HOMG SHE JUST FORMED AN ELETROBLADE /priority threat/! PRIORITY THREAT! She's nowhere close enough to intervene between Emi and Isaac like Mercade is, so she must close the gap first.

This is accomplised quickly. While Emi is busy dancing around Mercade's bullets, Avira's getting in close. She doesn't unleash her magic this time, sticking to pure swordsmanship consisting of sweeping strokes. The edges of her weapon are, of course, temporarily blunted but it is still a heavy object. It'll sting a little!

Tigger has posed:
Tigger is too flouncy, bouncy, clumpy and thumpy for Emi. He is also terribly confused by the things Emi is saying. "You mean you want me to teach you how to be a Tigger?" he asks, springing up on top of a chair with a flourish. The hot dog finally pops out when he throws out his arms, falling into his other mitt. He looks at the hot dog perplexedly. He seems about to unwrap it when he notices Emi's interest.

Tigger looks at Emi. He looks back at the hot dog and feels what seems to be intense guilt. His face sags. He looks back to Emi, marshalling up his deep Tiggery reserves, and tears the hot dog in half. He keeps the part that was in his ear. That's how you know he's a gentleman.

"If you want to be a Tigger, you should know," and he starts back up, "Tiggers are cuddly fellas, Tiggers are awfully sweet! Ev'ryone el-us is jealous -- that's why I repeat, and I re-peeeaaattttt..."

Tigger takes off at a rollicking bounce around the arena. "The wonderful thing about Tiggers, is Tiggers are wonderful things! Their tops are made of rubber, their bottoms are made out of springs! They're bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun! But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers, the most wonderful thing about Tiggers, the most won-der-ful thing about Tiiiiiiggggggggggeeeerrrrrsss..."

Tigger does an aerial somersault, smacking into the ground hard enough to nearly accordion himself. He drives deep down before rocketing up and out of the arena entirely. "Is I'm the only one!!"

Emi Dennou has posed:
Emi grabs and grabs but nope Tigger is just too powerful. She then lowers her hand, giving up. Tigger is even more agile than Cronus. She thinks about Tiggers and then decides that, yes, she is curious about this aspect of life. The song explained things, sort of, but it really explained traits that seemed to be a result of being a Tigger rather than traits that compose a Tigger.

"If it is possible, we are curious--" Emi begins, but then Tigger does something terrifying. He looks sad. Emi swallows faintly, suddenly feeling quite guilty herself. She is about to raise her hand up and say okay no she doesn't need a hot dog after all but she is shocked by Tigger's display of strength that she is stunned speechless.

She takes the half hot dog when proferred and says, "Thank you." sincerely. She can't get much else out before Tigger starts bouncing around again. He did not actually let go of the half hot dog and Emi ends up bouncing around with him, her eyes bouncing along in her head before finally he bounces out of the arena altogether.

Emi manages to return to a deadpan expression (comically) as she flies out of the arena with her new pal who really is a sweetiepie. She thinks. He's also pretty bizarre.

"Good luuuuuuuuckkWillsherman (talk)*ding*" She manages. This is what happens when you grab a tigger's hot dog.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Will plays incredibly dirty. He tries some more fate chichanery, and it just kind of... sucks. Isaac isn't terribly certain how to describe it. He feels vaguely like he'd been set on fire, except at a lower intensity and from no readily-available source. His willpower keeps him from doubling over and doing little more than crying, and the immediate chemical aid of a double-dose of potion makes the pain almost entirely go away.

"Okay. You need to learn a new way to fight, 'cuz I'm getting really tired of you screwing around with the things that tie me to other people and the world." Isaac wobbles slightly, gesturing. The music increases in volume, mana focused through the sound system and distorting the air around Will in response to him goomba stomping and then rending Isaac's fate or something. He can't perceive it, so he can't really truly understand it.

Umi throws a surge of electricity and then comes at him with an ELECTRO BLADE. Mercade leaps in the way, tanking it like a bro. Isaac's hair stands on end for a brief second, the ambient charge getting kind of out of control. "Teach you?" he echoes questioningly. It's hard to tell if he's asking for clarification or talking to himself in a musing sort of manner.

Isaac gestures grandly again. The ground ripples and surges, a roll of dirt and sand suddenly surging up from the ground like a wave. It goes up, and then down, clearly trying to bury Umi to ground her out and dump a truck full of soil onto Will to... well, mostly to annoy him, he supposes.

Will Sherman has posed:
Yeah...

Will knew this was coming. He dives down, quickly throwing himself towards his teammate...if they can both survive...

He shoves Umi out of the way, before...

A large amount of earth lands right on Will, smashing him into the arena like he were a bug. This is followed by a second wave of dirt.

Will twitches, digging out of the massive mount of crap that was just dropped on him...at least he's no worse for ware clean wise than before...

Then Will launches back into the air.

No. <GOOSEHONK> YOU!

Will flies right at Isaac, aiming to slap the CRAP out of him.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Umi doesn't electromagnetic the bullets. She swings her assault rifle and flat out blocks them with the rifle. THe force still stuns her enough that she's not quite capable of doing the same from Avira's PRIORITY SUPER TECHNIQUE. She's sliced in the side--as blunted as it is, it still managed to cut open a wound, probably hit a place where she was grazed by a bullet, and drops down in a crouch, holding her wound. Once the fight became a 3v2 vs a 3v3, it became a lot more difficult to fight off this group.

She breathes out a ragged breath, too hurt to avoid Isaac's own super technique. As it stands, she says, "I'll clarify later..." She raises her arms to brace herself--

--But Will shoves her out of the way. She hits the dirt roughly and opens her eyes to see Will--well, he looks pretty beat the hell up.

It seems like it's basically over. Unless...Unless she can...

"Once...once more."

She draws out a small coin and grabs it tightly within her hands. She stumbles away, leaking blood from her sword injury. Emi is lost forevers.

But Umi flips the coin once and says, "Trying...once more."

And she unleashes a second railgun shot, this time crying out, "LOOOOOOOVERS(?) LAAAAAAAAAAAAMEEEEEEEEEEEENT(?)!" as she the super sonic wave is unleashed!

Avira has posed:
EMI NOOOOOO

When Avira pulls away, she notices that Umi is holding her sides. Avira squints at this and suddenly feels a little guilty. She didn't mean to draw blood! She thought the sword had been blunted enough! Or maybe a CERTAIN SOMEONE came in and messed with her gear while she wasn't looking to make it more lethal. Who on earth would do THAT?

(Where's the Greek Choir when you need them?!)

Anticipating the sonic attack, Avira takes 'cover' behind her shield. Despite its small size, the range of protection somehow extends farther past the shield and deflects the blow completely. How this happened, she wasn't sure, but she's amazed that such an obviously strong attack didn't hit her.

Avira sticks the Spine down into the dirt and charges, leading with the shield, aiming to tackle and subdue Umi, rather than bludgeoning her down.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Isaac gets SLAP'd. He is suitably chastized, and kind of agitated by this turn of events. He promptly JAB PUNCHES Will with the power of MIND BULLETS.

(That's telekinesis, Isaac.)

Umi lets out her super sonic wave and her /terrible shout/. Isaac seems a little surprised. "When did you start shouting attack names?" he asks. He slowly backs up, brushing dust off his shoulder and preparing his next /terrible onslaught/.

Isaac says something weird. He throws a ball of yellowish light underhanded, tossing it lightly towards Umi. What he intends for it to do is glue her to the ground in some kind of ridiculous carbonite-esque thing, except transparent. It's like Hold Person, but way cooler. It's about all he could do to emulate his big giant attack. The ball descends...

...and passes by Will, where it promptly unravels from /the center of the spell/ instead of the edge, like a sensible sort of countermagic. Isaac's eyes begin to widen in SLOW MOTION, and the ball pops like a soap bubble over Umi's head instead of actually striking her. Nothing appears to happen. He looks kind of disappointed, and maybe a little tired.

Then it starts to rain fluffy pillows. There is no explaination.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Mercade isn't doing anything at the moment. Umi's ability to make SUPER SONIC SHOCK WAVE RAILGUN SHOTS has knocked him flat on his ass and he's a little insensate right now. "Uuuuuuuuuugh.... Ice creaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam..."

Emi Dennou has posed:
It seems that there was a grazing wound that opened up upon being struck. It was not too obvious. Maybe Hades is a jerk and mucked with it?! But in any event, in a battle--even amongst friends--chances of these things happening is always non-zero no matter how much care you take. Umi is clearly not holding back in any event--but that's not too surprising either, she's seen all these people fight and knows she has to fight her hardest if she even wants to threaten them.

"Woah..." Umi says as Avira deflects something that usually punches through tanks. She is impressed. Avira knocks her onto the ground--she electrifies her own body, shocking Avira THROUGH the shield--but it's not much. She's running out of power. Even if they are batteries, they have to eventually.

"By zh way--" A punchdrunk Umi says. "--Shida is toooollly crushin' on you Izaac."

IN THE STANDS

"UMI!!" Shida yells from the stands. "Shida of the Network--" She pauses and then ducks down behind the stand barrier. "...hides herself cowardly."

A pillow lands on Umi's face. "Shnkk."

"..zzhhh...k."