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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

Champions of Battle: The Very Best – Opportunity #7

After the after party, The BigBad Crew went to a cafe in another corner of the hotel to relax and recover.  Of all of them, Neely was the one that needed to recover the most.  He loved fruit drinks especially the sweet ones.  He had no idea what the clear liquid was they added, but it gave the drink an extra kick.  After more kicks than he remembered, he was quite finished.

He sat in the booth with them.  However, the way that he stared passed Liana on the other side of the booth, they were uncertain he was with them at the moment.  He had a large black coffee in one hand and an empty plastic bag in the other, just in case.

They each had a coffee of their own.  Most of them were infused with chocolate.  Liana and Catlin, wealthier from their casino exploit, happily paid for the drinks.  As they sit Jaquan tells them about the visit from Justice.  Justice had offered him a chance to fight better warriors.  In turn, Jaquan could become better than he ever was.  It was very tempting, but he had time to think since then.

After an hour, the thought of throwing away everything for a chance at a possibility sat very wrong with him.  This was a life changing decision.  Something like this required the honest opinion of the people he trusted the most.  “So, what do you think?”

After a brief period of silence Catlin was the first to speak up.  “The fans won’t like it,” she said seriously, “They’ll think you’re running from Chuan and forget about you,” she said looking at him knowingly.  “They’ll be hard to win back,” she sung pointing at him knowing she was right.  Though he ignored most of the public and treated news crews like garbage, he did enjoy being famous.  “Chuan will use this as a platform to claim you’re scared to fight him too.”

“Orien Chuan,” Jaquan almost spit out his name with venom.  “Gettin’ tired of him.  Oh and five and still claims he’s better.  Need to shut him up for good.”  Jaquan was stared into his coffee, elbow on the table holding his head in his hand.  How could anyone get through to a fighter so full of himself?

Liana decided to use the pause to step in.  “This… Justice, what do we really know about him?” she said deciding to change the subject, “He just pops in out of nowhere and tells you all this stuff.  How’d he get into the party anyway?”

“He’s always been a tricky,” Jaquan chuckled to himself.

“What if he changed while he was gone?  He could be trying to trick you now,” Liana continued.  “Are you sure we can trust him?”

“If you’re going to shut Orien up for good,” Catlin entered, “we’ll have to train harder than ever.  You’ll have to humiliate him repeatedly for the whole match.”

“We tried that once,” Jaquan said pointing at her to accent his point.  “He stuck me with that lucky shot.”

“What about a quick fight,” Liana suggested, “make everyone think he wasted his time talking to himself.”

Jaquan lifted his head looked at Liana and smiled.  Now there was a good idea.  Shut up his hype by sending him home early.  Everyone would laugh at him the next time he opens his mouth.

“BAMP!” There was a sudden slam against the table.  The sound of the silverware and empty cups bouncing off the table got the attention of everyone in the cafe.  They looked and saw that Neely, though still intoxicated, had heard and understood everything.  “I can’t believe what I’m hearing,” everything about him rung of someone insulted by pure witlessness, “Your friend uses the Holy Talents.  The Holy Talents!”  He paused between the words making sure they understood him.  “How could you doubt him?  Do you doubt me?”  It took a little while for him to continue but they all waited.  “If he says this will help, it will help.”

They listened on knowing that arguing with him was useless at this point.  “You can be the greatest!  The very best!  What you trained for!” Neely was reeling but his argument made real sense.  “Those promoters don’t give two Silicon coins ’bout you.  The crowds would just as well see you broken.  They’ll find someone else.  They always have another fight.

“This is about You.  You can be the greatest, the very Best!  Why you care ‘bout what Orien says?”  He said the name with disdain.  Orien Quan had proven to be a nuisance, but that was all he was.  “Let him talk.  He’s a publicity hog.  He wants to be the champ.  Let’s see how long he can keep it.”  Neely leaned forward holding himself as steady as he could.  With no small amount of concentration he lifted his hand.  Pointing at Jaquan staring at him he said, “You want to be the best, in the world?  You have to travel the world and become the best.”  He leaned back into his seat lowering his hand.  “It sure ain’t coming here.  Now if you excuse me,” Neely said turning to his right, still reeling, “I have to go to the toilet.”

Catlin got up from the booth to let Neely out.  He rose slowly and shambled his way to the toilet; bag in hand, just in case.

#1 – Opportunity #6 – Opportunity #8