Tag Archives: Champions of Battle

Champions of Battle: The Very Best – Opportunity #9

Close to early evening, they were all packed and ready to go.  The sky began its cycle of twilight shades as the sun prepared to set.  Before long the blue sky would fade to indigo.

Bome City’s defensive turrets scanned grass and the skies just as they always have looking for the slightest hint of danger.  A grid of massive turrets throughout the city perched on the tallest buildings and also set on towering pillars.  Not all of the pillars held the powerful cannons.  As large as the wildlife was, many times a simple bright light or loud noise could scare them off back into the wild.

The Bome’s Prime Minister insisted they be placed all around his kingdom evenly to protect all the people from any wild life that would approach as well as any raiders that would try their luck.  The turrets were everywhere, threatening to tarnish the city’s beautiful skyline.  A tower was even present at the shuttle station where Justice met with Jaquan’s team.

They all looked different now, dressed in traveling gear.  Liana was in her metal mech suit complete with a mask that covered her face.  Jaquan and Neely repeatedly told her it was a horrible idea for her to wear the helmet, but Liana insisted on being able to protect them and herself from whatever may come.

Neely had a heavy looking bag slung over his shoulder.  He stood apart from them with Catlin who wore normal clothing and brass knuckles.  They all had various Hanja on their clothing to enhance certain aspects of their strengths.

Justice was telling Jaquan and Liana about the city they were going to stay and the further steps they would have to take to get to the town that held the tournament.  It seemed like it could become a dangerous trek, only one suitable for someone used to fighting wild beasts.  Liana was quite unhappy about the trek.  Jaquan seemed only a little more welcoming to the thought.

“Getting there is half the fun,” Justice reassured them.

This did not gain any reassurance points with Liana, but a decision was a decision.  They were going.  Neely’s drunken rage set them all strait.  He reminded them why they started in the fight game in the first place.

Neely was the only one still foggy on the details of how they got to this point.  He had asked Liana but she insisted that Catlin knew best about what happened.  As he spoke to Catlin, she enjoyed giving tiny bits of information.

“Why would I ask for poison?”

“The drink I think is designed to have it.”

“So I asked for the drink,” he said riddling out the situation.  “And I knew the poison was added to the drink?”

“Yes it is quite popular with ladies.  The fruit juice usually…” Catlin’s eyes suddenly changed to an unfriendly gaze.  Her mannerisms changed along with her gaze.  No longer was she a silly child teasing her brother about the secret he may never know.  She was the alert warrior that knew something was misplaced, invisible but certain.  Having seen this gaze many times, Neely picked up on the change and translated it correctly.

“Empowerment aura and light please,” she whispered.  Her eyes quickly faded black her irises turning a brilliant red.  She pointed with them to the pillar about a meter behind her.

Neely activated his empowerment aura signified by a dim silver sphere extending about four and a half centimeters from him in all directions.  Along with it, a bright outline of gold closely surrounded his body.  Standing close to him, Catlin was completely engulfed by the aura.

Neely took a simple looking handle from his pocket and held it inside the pack he was carrying.  Gears and machines whirled and within four seconds he was holding a fully functional and strung compound bow, small but really strong.

He pulled an arrow from the pack.  It caught fire as he shot it at the pillar.  Just as it would have hit the pillar, Catlin motioned with her hand for it to go around the pillar.  The arrow obeyed perfectly and landed on the other side of the pillar with a flash bright enough to be visible in the daylight.  Along with the flash: The shadow of a very surprised person with a handheld.

With anger in her mind and hands encircled with dark red flames, she performed a gripping motion in the spy’s direction and performed a pulling motion in the air towards her chest.  In that split second motion, the spy was delivered from behind the pillar directly in front of them.

By now they had the attention of the whole team as well as a few onlookers.  Her cover blown, hanging in the air at Catlin’s thinning mercy, the spy had only one thing to say.

“Um… Hello,” she started nervously, “I’m Brisa Gan with the Champion’s Chronicle.”

#1 – Opportunity #8 – Opportunity #10

 

Champions of Battle: AD7 – Awakening #9

It took next to no time to load the equipment.  Not only were the pieces designed to be portable, she brought a few mechanical workers with her.  Three headless long-armed machines with wheeled legs stood ready to assist with any project.  With the push of a button and a few directions they raced out of her ship and toward in all directions.

Next to no time was still too long for Adrianne.  The Mech War changed everything about the life she knew.  The one responsible for that war was at the research lab showing signs of life though she was not quite alive anymore.  Adrianne wanted to be the first person to speak with her.

She went into her ship, Silent Blur, knowing that her workers would finish faster without her help.  She spent the time instead on a brisk walk back to her ship to prepare for launch.

Reaching Silent Blur, she immediately turned off the radio.  There seemed to be a very underhanded move played by one of the racers to gain a lead.  However exciting a development it was, getting back to the research lab was too important to make any mistakes.

Walking towards the forward control station, she sat and gave a quick salute to a small sailboat floating in purple liquid encased in a clear globe.  “Aye Captain,” she said almost jokingly.  The small device, Captain Bubbles, had many purposes.  Several devices in the ship told her about the direction, acceleration, and gravity forces working on the Silent Blur.  Though well and good, a quick look to the good captain told her all those things and more.  It also doubled as an amazing air freshener.  Black Cherry Blast was the current scent.  Not her favorite, but still quite good.

With the a few flips of switches, Silent Blur came to life.  A few seconds later, her equipment, workers, and defensive droids were all secured into her ship.  With a quick leap and activated wing thrusters, she launched into the sky.  In no time, she was well on her way back to Rubin’s Trail at full speed.

Like the vehicles in the E-Ville Racing tournament, Silent Blur uses retractable wings to fly or a retractable weighted tail run like a squirrel.  Flying over the tree canopy was by far the fastest route back to Rubin’s Trail.

In a way, AD7 was her hero as well as a warning.  From looking at AD7, Adrianne was encouraged to look at the Mech Talents with new respect.  She even decided to discard her Gunner Talents for the Mech Talents.  Machines held incredible power, but the search for such great power without self-discipline could cause one to go mad.  Something about AD7’s story told her that it was possible to bring AD7 back to humanity.  Adrianne would be the first to speak with her, but she had to get back as fast as possible.

In her rush to get back to the castle, she almost missed the blip on her radar.  As a courtesy, she sank closer to the canopy to allow a potentially larger ship by.  However, a quick glance in her rear monitor revealed no ship following her.

Slightly alarmed, she quickly shot a ping of her surroundings checking for a half second of relative motion.  Everything was a blur except three ships.  Every ship was moving in her direction.

She knew full well that she was well outside any transport lanes.  Even if she was inside their lanes, there would not be three transports obviously following her.

This was exactly what she could do without right now.

“Gankers.”

#1 – Awakening #8 – Awakening #10

Champions of Battle: The Very Best – Opportunity #8

The next thing Neely remembers is waking up in a soft bed, softer than most, almost difficult to move in.  In the struggle to get up, he shifts his shoulders.  Immediately, a torturous pain shoots strait to his head.  He fights to get up but the pain resurges with each heartbeat.  Defeated by the pain, he falls back into bed grasping his head as though it would help.

It did not.

Laying there he tried to remember the previous night.  Something big happened.  It could explain why his head was pounding.  He remembered saying … something.  It was a very important something to … somebody.  Did something change?  The chronic pain robbed his concentration and his desire to remember.  Whatever it was will come back to him later, maybe.

He scanned the room moving his head and shoulders as little as possible.  His vision was a little blurred but he could tell that he was in a room, a hotel room.  The place was very empty except a small green figure in the corner.  It had to be a person.  He lifted his shoulders again to see exactly who it was.  He was hit with even more pain than before.

“Ow.  Wha?”  The only thing he remembered clearly from yesterday was drinking a delicious mixture of orange and grape juice.  He also remembered this particular feeling after battles with Chemist Talent users.  “Somebody put poison in my drink?”

Catlin, ecstatic, stood to great him.  “Neely!  You’re awake!”  She shouted in her naturally high pitched voice.

She was across the room; but to Neely, it seemed like she shouted directly into his ear.  Raising the hand that was not holding his head, he motioned for her to stop talking, “Not… so loud please.”

Catlin couldn’t help but giggle at Neely’s situation and remembered that he had asked a question.  “The simple answer would be ‘yes’,” she said in a much softer tone.

“Yes what?”

“Someone put poison in your drink.”

His head was filled with questions but lacked the constitution to sort them out.  It must have been a weak poison if he was still alive.  He remembered no fight.  He remembered no imprisonment or rescue.  How could that be true if he woke up in the safety of her hotel room?

“I… I think you asked them to put it in,” Catlin said giggling even more.

Now that’s just stupid.  Was she playing a trick on him?  Nah. Catlin’s Unholy Talent Set changed her.  Much like his Holy Talent Set changed him.  Regardless of their changes, they were still very good friends.  It was very unlikely that he would ask to drink poison, but she was giggling and smiling too much to lie convincingly right now.  Not that she lied much anyway.

Catlin’s smiling continued as she reached around to the one thing on the dresser, a simple glass of water.  “Here,” she says handing him the glass, “We made this for you.  It should put some of the edge on.”

He took the water and smiled at it, noting the dry humor.  He took a sip and felt better.  Then he drank as though he had not seen water for days.  The enchanted water was amazing.  By the time he finished drinking, he felt almost like his old self.

Still, pieces of the previous night eluded him.  He remembered that Jaquan defended the championship and they had a party to celebrate.  He went to the bar.  The rest of the night was still fuzzy.  “What happened?”

“We’ll tell you about it on the way.”

“Where are we going?”

“No idea.”

#1 – Opportunity #7 – Opportunity #9