"Greetings from the Pedrodome! It's been nonstop action here, folks!" Jen began. "We've already had a hurricane and a stampede, and some rather interesting cardboard boxes. That's right, you heard me, cardboard boxes. Everything is dangerous here."
"Several contestants have been eliminated, including a young man who apparently thought this was a hat show." Jen absentmindedly adjusted her wizard's hat. "Absolutely no clue how he got that idea. One of our female contestants evidently lost interest, which is hard to understand considering you might get eye strain trying to figure out what's going on here."
"At least one of our combattents has taken some pretty serious damage. We will update you on his condition as we hear about it."
"Animals have been a very decisive factor so far. One fighter was crushed by an elephant who is evidently a fan of Magritte, and a mod has just been carried out of the ring by the bear, who has finally woken up."
"Stay tuned, there's lots more to come from the Pedrodome. We're just getting warmed up!"
As soon as the camera turned off, Jen slumped back into her seat. "Man, I need a drink. This is exhausting. And I'm just watching!"

Down came the thrashing claws
Full of fury did they fall
falling down did they seek
Demetrius' song to end

And did his life they seek to rend
Fly and fall swift they did
missing wide the head they sought
flashin red with machabre thought

Stead in his place there stood
a cat, furry wet and sodden
mewling pitiful it looked upon her
'for the dreadful claws rebt out its life

Laughing loud and broad
Demetrius found mirth, laughter in gales
As Rhiya did sweep a scourge of red
deep and through the pussy's head

"Epic Dodge Bitch", Demetrius laughed as he sprinted into the maelstrom circling the arena and dissapeared from view.

IC was cooling off in the rain. No need to fight when he could get cleaned up just standing here. The wound he got from the gunshot looked like a good one. He might have to get that looked at later on. For now, a quick cloth tied around it, and it would do. Besides, IC was use to fighting through pain. He had trained in hell after all.

Now he saw Demetrius running. Now he should know better than to run while the floor is all wet like this. You never know what could happen. So as Demetrius came running by, IC stepped out of nowhere. (Well, he more like lept from the distant side.) And tripped Demetrius up. Well, wanted to at least. Maybe Demetrius would llke, jump over it or something.

"Eek!! Dude you've got a tail!" was all Demetrius had a chance to shout before he had to leap into the air to avoid IC's trip attempt. Dice came rolling out of his pockets as he sailed by...

"Mind letting me know how those turn out?"

IC looked down at a dice. "You really need to be careful with your dice dude." IC shouted back to him. He looked down at a D20. "1. Guess that was your check to survive." IC said to himself in humor, then gave the dice a nice kick, sending it like a bullet at Demetrius. The bullet came in dead on, striking Demetrius square in the back of the head. IC thought it looked like he knocked out his brains, but instead, he knocked out a couple cat ears.

"Huh, go figure." IC said. That must have been one hell of a kick, he had caused Demetrius to grow a cattail as well. Of course, what made it real funny was it had a striking resemblence to another cat IC could think of. "Well Demetrius, it was fun, I guess I'll cya after the tournament." IC said, and disappeared.

"They didn't turn out well at all," Pedro's voice came chuckling slightly over the public address system as Demetrius landed flat on his face.

Pyros was out of the way of Rhiya's claws faster than you could say "Blammo!"

As a matter of fact, before you could even invisibly say " " ", Pyros was gone for cover, knowing that getting in the way of Rhiya was a bad thing, even if somebody had godmodded it by way of poem.

Fortunately, PyrosNine himself was so utterly awful at the art of slinging together poems, he could fail to heed their predestination attempts.

Annoyed that his attack at Cendy had been so rudely interrupted, Pyros sought to refind his target. It would be hard, as hard as it was to find a few dark wisps of cloth in a battlefield.

If anyone WAS to look back and see a dead burning cat where Pyros was previously, Demetrius claims to keep dead cats.

Phoenixbot kept low, and deftly maneuvered around the larger mecha's eye lasers. A defensive roll here, a blinding flare there... A harrying slash at AB's legs, it was all mainly a defensive charade to attempt to stay alive while IC and AB attacked her, and Rhiya rampaged in the background.

*CRACK!* Suddenly, a custom .44 magnum bullet crunched through 66% of her forehead plating, stopping only on her warship-class eternium armored skull. Positronic matrices were nigh irreplacable, and although the metal cost more than the whole prize money of this tournament, it couldn't stop the hydrostatic shock of such a powerful handgun round. The android's head snapped backward, and she reeled in a similar fashion.

Luckily, it was just a handgun round.

Critical hit, Head
Critical hit, Secondary Gyro, Standby: Recalibrating EST Repair Time: 3 minutes, 53 seconds.
Critical hit, Primary melee targeting system, Status: Negative Function EST Repair Time: 3 hours, 31 minutes, 51 seconds.

Three text-based damage readouts poured down Phoenixbot's HUD, and her ethereal blade targeting reticule fizzled and began eratically blinking. Repairing the system would take too long, so Phoenixbot resolved to resort to ranged weapons for the duration of the melee.

Slinging the blade over her back, Phoenixbot reconfigured both of her arms into a hideous-looking array of electrically crackling prongs. Two per arm, like oversized tuning forks, the trained eye would have recognized a pair of "Thor's Hammer" light lightning guns. Taking a moment to fire-link them, Phoenixbot targeted Krylo's center of mass and began alternating weapons, discharging bolts of directed lightning at him.

(RFS - Black, steaming, whistling.)
(RFS - exploding and reforming in a permanent repeated process)

"Oh, he did NOT just call me...!"
Rhiya-dragon's eyelid twitched just ever so slightly. Then her entire form exploded.

Well, not as much exploded as imploded. The sudden transformation was so... sudden that it created a temporary point of singularity that cratered the arena ground, before disappearing.

The smoke and debris cleared to reveal Wrath Manifest, Spiked arms glittering, water pelting off an invisible force field that boiled and screamed around her. She aimed the Flametongue at the heavens above, and let loose a column of white-hot fire and cleared her line of sight.

"Nobody Calls Me A Bitch Unless They Know Me Really Well." The voice raped across minds. Tore through the torrential rain and bore down on the weak-willed.

Wrath was gone, a blur of steaming air behind her as she came forward, unhindered despite her clothing style. Her spikes came down in a blur of motion, piercing through Demetrius' fallen body multiple times, all in deadly precision as they tore through each cartilage-connected tissue down his spine, sending jolts of agony through Demetrius as Wrath's Aura of Anger seared at his flesh. Finally, with a single, wicked wrench of her arm, Wrath Manifest tore out Demetrius' skull, somehow leaving his squishy organic insides intact within the skin of his now skull-less body.

"It Is Finished."

((OOC: Epic Dodged again, its been another round))

"Finished you say, Child of Wrath? You have yet to understand that which I have made my home in..." Demetrius stood in the air as though it was solid ground. Shuddering with released fury, Demetrius's ears laid back and his tail became bristly. The gem once held tightly in his hand fell to the arena floor. Slowly he raised his left hand until it faced Rhiya.

"Your fury grows to no end and the devistation you sow shall not last to the harvest, see the end which awaits you!" The arena is blanked out as a black/white light tears at the existance of Rhiya.

((You've angered an elder god... he appreciates humor and indulges those who do not seek the outright destruction of his chosen vessel, otherwise you made it angry))

((Bullshit.))

Demetrius, however immortal, wasn't immune to the unimaginable pain that Rhiya had inflicted upon him and passed out, dreaming coma dreams about epic dodging and elder gods.

Back in the world outside his exposed brain, Rei called out the results. "Bleh... Demetrius has been eliminated by KO, it seems," she stated squeamishly, "but he requires immediate medical attention. Obviously."

And so, the body vanished, though his skull inexplicably remained in Rhiya's hand.

As the lightning arced toward Krylo he charged forward, simultaneously activating his rarest ability. Eldritch runes wrapped about his body as his skin transformed, becoming a dark blue color. His hair disappeared and his eyes seemed to be covered by some sort of translucent film.

The lightning struck his body, and the blue turned to red in a few spots where the lightning struck him--drawing gasps of pain from him as the super-heated carbon burnt his normal flesh underneath, though most of it, finding him suddenly very non-conductive, arced around his body.

He snapped up his arm and released three more armor piercing rounds toward PB's central body mass.

(OOC: Using his rune power to transfigure his skin into carbon nanotubes. I ripped the idea off of FMA totally and completely.)

Noticing the sudden and quite rapid change from normal meatbag!Krylo to super carbon!Krylo, and the sudden ineffectivity of her Thor's Hammers... Phoenixbot ALMOST smiled.

Almost.

There wasn't time to revel in the sudden realization that her target was, indeed, crystalline carbon. Crunching the frequency required to shatter errant carbon nanotubes often found in mechawright laboratories, Phoenixbot rapidly recalibrated the weapon she had earlier used on Ungainus. Said speakers once again popped out of their shielding hatches in the woman's shoulders.

"PHONOMEZER!" SCREEEEEEHHHEEEEEESCREEEEHEHEEEEE!

Thus came the shout and subsequently horrible screeching sound that accompanied a tight-stream sonic disentigrator wave. Upping her secondary power, Phoenix temporarially shut down her T-hammers while preforming the attack for maximum effectiveness. Krylo's rounds DID hit her, as such a high power wave required energy from motion aswell as weapons. Fortunately for Phoenixbot, the bullets were temporarially destabilized by the high power sonic burst, tumbling and fragmenting moments before hitting her, causing light damage to the majority of her torso, making a mess of microweave uniform.

The Keyman Newbs, having narrowly avoided getting squashed by not an elephant, was startled when Red and Blue were suddenly grabbed by Mesden.

Green, still in stealth/speed form, dove for the gem dropped by Demetrius, and acted fast, pointing it at the not-elephant. The gem and headband glowed, and suddenly each Keyman Newb was holding a gem, which promptly turned into a sign saying "I am not Newb." Hopefully, this would cause sufficient confusion to allow the next step, as Not-Green dove back towards the other two Keyman Newbs to finally make use of the escape rope, and teleport to the other side of the arena where it was a lot safer.

And just in time, too, as time finally caught up and teleported the gem, and the signs, away to someplace else.

Green immediately dove under a CARDBOARD box while Red and Blue began rushing towards Arhra.

For a moment everything tingled, even tickled a bit, and then he couldn't move at all. Not even to cover his ears from the terrible screeching noice, or to wince. Krylo's entire body was quaking at a speed that seemed impossible, and it normally would have been, but his skin was vibrating extremely fast. Every molecule of his nanotube 'skin' shook violently, trying to break apart from the whole, until, finally, it did.

His skin shattered off of him, small flakes of crystalline carbon floating to the ground around him, as Krylo fell to his knees in a kind of pain he really, really, wished he could say he had never experienced before. Sometimes being immortal really sucked.

Every muscle fiber and blood vessel was completely exposed. He looked like one of those models you see in a science class room of the human musculature system, except this model was clapping his hands over his ears tightly, his forty four laying on the ground in front of him, with nothing but empty shells in its chambers.

IC saw krylo losing his skin, and it looked like he was about to lose. That mean he would lose the Wind Edge. Well, it sucked that he didn't get a chance to us it. Then a thought struck him, maybe it isn't too late.

IC reared back with it, then hurled it towards Krylo, since he was about to go out, IC thought to go ahead and give him his weapon back. He put in a lot of power with that throw too, hopefully enough to send kyrlo flying when he 'caught' it. Of course, you never knew what would happen.

Phoenixbot aimed both of her Thor's Hammers at the prone Krylo, the weapons steadily crackling back up to their former full charge. Slowly, she advanced on the fallen Mod.

"Stand down, Krylo-san." The android coldly demanded, "I will not hesitate to mutilate your internal organs if you do not immediately cease and desist."

She almost looked sad... If a killer android could look sad, that is.

Krylo's skin was already beginning to grow back, in the normal meat-bag propensity, as PB approached. However, the sound quieted, and Krylo could begin to think as the pain dulled and regeneration kicked in.

A quiet whirring sound caught his ears and he could see the wind edge flying directly toward him. He panted a bit and looked up at PB, listening to the whirr of the Wind Edge while seeming to concentrate intently on the android, waiting for the perfect moment.

"...No..." He leapt backwards, and the Thor's Hammers immediately fired, just as the Wind Edge flew between the android and immortal. Using the momentary cover Krylo drew both of his nine millimeter pistols and began unleashing as many bullets as he could toward the 'barrels' of the weapons. He knew his weapons were far too weak to do any real damage to the android proper, but he was hoping that a good shot could ruin the Thor's Hammers, at least.

Of course, the lightning still blasted him as soon as the Wind Edge had passed and his body twitched and smoked violently. Somewhere amidst the haze of pain he hoped that the bullets could take out the cannons before they took him out.

The wrath manifest had emerged, a poor guy had his skull forcibly removed (He'd be fine. Nein had been without a skull for some of his first early years.) and Krylo'd been de-skinned. He didn't count him out though. Krylo killing you without his skin was not only painful to watch, but painful to watch as he hurt you without it.

It was time for Pyros to get serious. Now, to use his items of doom.

The bladees went off, and already Pyros could feel the effects.....Nothing. Nothing could harm him! Nothing! No-
http://www.acc.umu.se/~zqad/cats/117...43100943.b.jpg
Okay....this would be a problem.

As it was, Pyro's psyche was split against himself, order versus-HEY SHUT UP! It's not bad! I"M FREE! I"M FREE!!!Huh? Whazzat? I'm your side of ORDER! And now, now I can bring about a world where everyone looks the same, and all thought is uniform! My thought! PURE ORDER! Hmm....wait. I thought I was the orderly one. I'm y'know, not typing in moose unlike certain other people.

SPORKjamarainan nictu! $see?4see? SOP dna IER! DAnier SOP! Make whirrled g0 ().

See? No. NO! I'm a PURE order. You're just some middle management compromise Lackey. Now, as a free man, I shall do what should have been done along time ago!

You didn't count on ONE thing, Order! What is that?

Pyros chucked the Edge of DAwn and burst of Twilight away, freeing himself from the massive sundering headache of earlier. That was messed up. He should have known better than to mess with any power that POS handed him. With the already tipping over balance restored to it's former self, he decided to go to plan b.

The numerous explosions had a pleasant effect for one Pyros Nine, blasting the water away and allowing his wet fur to dry. For as many would note, water not only inhibited Pyros's ability to shapeshift, but also inhibited his ability to spit fire, at least in the kitty form. Wet fur was everybody's worst enemy.

Licking the caked mud off his fur, Pyros felt as if it were time. Time...for people to die.

Pyros leapt up.

"Henshin-A-go-go, baby!" The tiny cat exploded, (Hey, everybody else's doing it! Like smoking!) and the flame that came out reshaped itself to a new form, with magically appearing armor.

Anyone who watched the shocking recreational documentary of ancient combat: "Aristigalde: The Bloody week", would find this visage familiar. It was none other than Kings who stood before them. Well, actually it was Pyros wearing King's armor, but the point was still there. Red hair, ancient armor of ass kicking, and quite possibly the show's popularity would rise again.

Assuming of course, both stations covering were legitimate, and one wasn't just running from stuff stolen from Gaia.

"Prepare for the Reign of Fire!"

*Kshing, ktweur!* Several nine milimeter rounds richocheted off the fairly sturdy barrels of the paired T-Hammers, as they blasted away with the unerring accuracy typically becoming of arc weapons. Phoenixbot began a steady right circular strafing walk to keep the pressure on while presenting Krylo with a moving target.

A bullet pinged off her torso, and another off her left arm cannon, and another, and another... And one off the right, and then, with the probability of almost one in a million, one of the 9mm bullets intersected the kyon-ray "Painter" that directed the lighting at specific targets. Subsequently, Phoenixbot's right arm cannon shorted, and began arcing at various nearby targets.

Smirking, she angled her body to use the damaged right arm cannon as a shield to protect her as she blasted away at the beleagured mod with her left arm.

Sniffing the air, the bear caught the scent of fresh meat, human meat and blood that was still alive and warm! Oh, that's one of its favorite things ever! And so, the bear started running across the arena toward the source of the odor, which was the mostly-skinless Krylo.

However, before it could reach its tasty meal, a loud trumpeting sound caught its attention, and it turned to see the elephant charging toward it. There was something around the elephant's neck with some weird symbols on it, but the bear couldn't decipher it because bears can't read!

And so, the battle of bear and elephant began!

"My god! It is a battle twixt a bear and Something that's not an elephant despite clearly being one! If I weren't trying to ruin family relations with my cousin, yet again, I would watch with glee, and make lucrid, dangerous bets! With rich people!"

Pyros stated, astonished.

"Now...wherefore art thou, Cendy?"

After a failed clench of the Red Newb's throat, Mesden was left with granulated remnants of floor in her left hand. Tearing her wrist away from the ground, she turned, scanning the arena through what was left of Demetrius' down pour, and to her luck, she didn't actually see with eyes.

She picked out glowing silhouette after glowing silhouette, looking for the hollow spaces where the soulless Newbs existed. Some were more intense, like those of the 'gods' or 'incarnations', some had their own unique marks in the Ethereal space, such as Krylo's immortality and ever planar attached spirit. Then there was the strangest one -- A hollow shell of a robot wrapped around a confined, almost sleeping body of energy. Mesden dismissed it for later before finding her three targets, the triumvirate of hollow existence the took sport in mocking her and retreating. It had apparently been the fast one that removed the other two from her guillotine-esque grip, but she was convicted to making that all but temporary.

The unknown red metal of her gauntlets clanged, a rumbling wave of sound that shook the body of anyone near her as she snapped her fingers. What could be seen as no more than a thin red streak slowed as it encircled her body -- a serpentine, translucent dragon that wore the fiercest of expressions as it bared its fangs to the general mayhem about her.

Her body emanated the familiar blue glow that the dragon adopted, seemingly being pulled into the light as Mesden clenched the air in an invisible pain. But the pain and empty blue light disappeared, replaced by a searing red glow in her eyes -- eyes the same as her departed dragon compatriot.

After finishing preparations, Mesden used her newly acquired breakneck speed to traverse the entire perimeter of half the arena, tearing a blue and debris filled trail on her way to the Newbs. As she reached for them for the third time in one evening, instead of going for a direct grapple, she stopped, drove her foot into the ground, and with the flat of her foot, she tore up a chunk of the hard floor and tossed it into the air. Before the boulder could come close to returning to the ground, Mesden had destroyed it with an ungodly flurry of strikes, tearing it into countless little pieces that hurtled towards the Newbs.

With the time she could hold the dragon in her being fading, she dashed forward within the hail of stone bullets, her gauntlet opened and poised to strike the throat of the red Newb all over again.