The crab battle having ended, the Round One completion sequence was finally initiated and all the assigned items and power-ups vanished from their wielders in a flash of light. For the eight remaining contenders, however, the items were replaced by a new item summoning gadget and a bottle of elixir (or a mechanical repair kit, in P-Bot's case).

Before the competitors, eight hyperlink portals burst into existence, accompanied by a holographic representation of Rei in front of each. At that point, Pedro stepped in to explain what was next. "Congratulations, all of you, and welcome to Round Two! Each of you has been randomly assigned a new item, as well as an elixir or suitable replacement to fully regenerate your health before the start of the next match. Once you have consumed them, you may follow one of the holograms into a portal to proceed to the battlefields that await each of you."

Stepping aside, Pedro moved off to confer with the other NPFers as the hologram on the far right stepped forward. "Rei Roll Call," she announced, facing her assigned combatant, "Pyros Nine!"

The Rei to her left then stepped forward and followed suit as the roll call moved down the line, "Krylo Killian!"

"Inbred Chocobo!"

"KP Morgan...'s representative!"

"Mesia Denostaya!"

"grRAHHAWRrOHAOWArrrr!"

"PX-05 PhoenixBot!"

"Rhiya Rave--er... uh, Arhiyara!"

Meanwhile, Fenris had begun rallying the troops to go defend the Kurosen. "I don't have any word on just how bad it is over there, but we still have power at the moment, so that's a good sign. Also, no massive explosions. Anyway, we could use all the help we can get, so all of you are welcome to come along..."

"...Except Raiden, of course," POS pointed out as he arrived on the scene.

"Oh, yeah, right," Fenris nodded, "Sorry, Raiden, but after the last time you got close to that thing, you're kinda forbidden from getting any sort of access to it."

"Eh," the thunder god shrugged.

"Okay, anyway, we'd better get moving. No time to waste!" Fenris announced, leading the gang off to save the day as Pedro strolled up beside him.

"Hey, I'm going to be staying here," POS stated, "I have a tournament to run and all. I'm sure Rei will be of greater assistance to you, anyway. Just as a heads up, by the way: The ambient energy field surrounding the Kurosen facility as well as the dampeners that we put in place to prevent another attack by someone like Sparky over there will make energy attacks of any kind either significantly less effective, if not completely useless. Your mod powers will be limited as a result, and I'd suggest being extremely careful with your thread moving abilities in there. The NPF depends on that facility."

After retracting the massive blade cocoon that was her shield, Mesden banished her gear to wherever it had came from before going into the next round, dawdling with the new S.E.A.L device alloted to her.

Before that, though, she drunk the handy restorative elixir in a few quick gulps. Refreshed, she then followed the hologram through her respective portal, hoping she didn't have to fight P-Bot ("Goddamn Robots!") in the first round.

Barely missing the portal to leave the spa, Narc wondered how he was going to get to the arena when Starserpent said, "Use me."
"What?"
"You can use me to teleport. Just strike a high note and hit the whammy bar."
Narc did exactly as Starserpent said and was instantly relocated to the arena. After seeing a giant crab explode, Narc heard Fenris announce something and decided to follow him.

Pyros proceeded to eat a plate of babyback ribs and downed it with a liter of Sundrop, then headed for his portal. It sucked he was stuck with the buttsecks, as it just didn't feel...right.

Furthermore, shapeshifters did not need to cosplay. When Pyros wants to go to the Con's as Ky Kiske, he goes as Ky Kiske.

He just has to borrow one of Raiden's swords though, and he's still pestering Raiden to dress up as Sol for irony purposes.

"Wonder who it is I'm going to wreck? Wonder if it'll be Mesden? She's fought Raiden before, but she hasn't fought me yet. And I'm a whole 'nother beast than Raiden."

IC was tired, he was hurt, and needed a nap badly. Of course, after drinking his elixir, he was feeling pretty good now. A quick check even insured his package was completly okay. That was always good too. He just hoped no one was watching while IC checked himself out.

He grabbed his item and went ahead and switched it. The mod-bracelet appeared on his wrist. "Interesting. Very interesting indeed." IC said. He was smart enough to notice the energy in the bracelet already. Would have been worthless to him unless it already had some energy, so he was lucky it had some.

With that, IC stepped on through.

From high above them all, standing on one of the remaining walls that HADN'T been destroyed yet, Hawk surveyed the various happening below, including the Chaos-Merging of Rhiya and Arhra and the final destruction of the giant enemy C.R.A.B. He watched as each competitor made their way through their respective portals (smiling inwardly when he noticed Inbred making sure the old family jewels were still intact) and noticed as the other eliminated group began heading off through a portal of their own.

He strained his ears to listen and overheard talk of the Kurosen, a device he had heard of before. Maybe this is the reason?, he wondered to himself. I need to get to the Kurosen tower, if something big's going down, then that's where it will happen.

Without waiting another moment Hawk lifted into the air and soared off towards Kurosen tower. He could of used a portal, either the one that already existed or one of his own, but he felt like flying for a change. And really, it was just as quick.

Nikose snapped back into realization again. He had drifted off and was just following Fenris around, but now he spotted Hawk flying. He tested his legs gently, before deciding to test out another power that had flown through him a while ago, and he began to dance. As he moved, his feet began to glance higher off the floor, taking him upward- his footsteps, flashing gently, were lifting him upward slowly. The increase in height began to gain speed, as Nikose literally danced his way to flight, and began to rise up to Hawk's level. Nikose stopped dancing, but kept moving his legs in the gentle dance motions.

"Can we fly together?" Nikose asked, smiling softly, ready to race the cursed bird through the sky.

Having undergone a bizzarre metamorphosis, two becoming mingled together to form a single, complete being, Arhiyara knew what she must do.

She found herself a reporter.

The FOX news crew was most unnerved to find themselves suddenly under intimate inspection from a giant dragon head at very close range. Really, they only had themselves to blame for being objects of curiosity. What were anthropomorphic foxes doing running this sort of thing anyway?

"Hallo." Arhiyara rumbled demurely, "We'd just like to say we're very happy to be here." Undoubtedly Mauve was outraged at not having thought of conducting post-match interviews with the contestants first, despite the fact it hadn't been her bitter rival's plan either.

"Er... right." the foxy newswoman said, recovering some of her composure. "So, what is your opinion of the competition?"

Arhiyara's other head seemed to have taken notice of the conversation, swinging over to take a look. "There is no escape. They will all be eaten." she declared.

The reporter turned to face the camera, "Big dragon considers contest to be a buffet. You heard it here, on FOX News!"

Arhiyara, looking around vaguely for this buffet the reporter spoke of, found her summoning gadget replaced and a bottle of elixir appearing. She drank the elixir, popping it in her mouth whole and gulping it down. The other head hiccoughed.

"Alright then! Follow me!" Rei's hologram declared brightly, Pedro having finished his speech.

Arhiyara waved a claw through her.

"Stop that." Rei said, slightly less cheerily. "The arena for your next fight is through the hyperlink portal."

"Maybe it's full of cake." Arhiyara mused to herself as she followed. "Or Twiddies!" the other head jumped in brightly. They paused and looked at each other for a moment, "...CAKE AND TWIDDIES!" they chorused together, surging at the portal.

Heads through, she paused, jammed rather tightly. She was still ludicrously huge, and most portals simply weren't made for that sort of thing. Squirming around in an undignified manner, she wormed her front claws and wings through, sliding through much easier once they were on the other side. Back legs still waving around, the rest of her snaked through to places unknown!

After listening to Fenris and Pedro's briefing, Armored Bishoujo got dressed and recovered her sword and Cosgear. Then she banished Pinnacle. She didn't know what was going on, but figured there would be too much tight quarters for the giant battle mecha to be of much use. Additionally, some of its punch was currently based on energy weapons, so those would need to be replaced or she would be relying solely on the mech's weight and its gatling guns, which were low on ammunition which was AB's biggest concern. Ready to continue, she followed Fenris to wherever he was taking all of the defeated competitors.

I shall reconvene with you fellows at the location of the tower. I have hid a replacement shell near the area. Incendius sent to the collection of NPF forumites as his characteristic mask flew out from the gathering, back towards the scenes of wanton destruction. Besides, I have much requisition of resources to do before I make my way over. The situation will manage to contain itself until the majority of us arrive; thats always the case in these instances. Incendius thought inwardly.

Incendius set about his task as the rest of the forumites made their way to the Kurosen tower. The moment he sensed that they were closing in on it, he would abandon his damaged shell and move to a new pristine one. It payed being a bodiless entity.

TBM rapped his fingers against the counter anxiously as one of the many incantations of Rei beamed at him. He couldn't see her beaming, but the thought that she was beaming sent him up the wall. "Can I just have my sword back or what?"

Rei dipped her head to the left with a cutsiepoo smile upon her face as she did, TBM hated cutsiepoo faces. Yet another good reason for him to not be able to see. As she transmitted the transaction to one of the many Rei's to relay visually to Pedro, TBM only grew more anxious.

Normally that katana was his only means of defense, normally he lived on the edge of a keen blade, in a life divided by pleasant buffoonery for the masses and killing those who were too troublesome for the mime-yakuza. TBM had joined the mime-yakuza as a helpless child, ironically orphaned by the group which later took him in and raised him to be one of the best. So normally that katana was the only thing that protected him from the kind of death he so readily inflicted.

Unfortunately when you go into most places these days they make you check your samurai blades and what TBM believed to be a weapons locker turned out to be the participant item submission locker. Now he had to wait for word on high to get it back.

Pedro eyed the projection with a half-hearted sigh, "I was hoping for more groveling, people aren't groveling enough to me. Whatever he can have it."

The bubbly Rei handed over the weapon, stiffly tapping TBM on the chest. "Here you go dummy." Somewhere Pedro was laughing.

"Many gracious thanks." TBM bowed low and respectfully before marching out of the room striking just about everything on his way out at shin level with his walking stick/katana. One of the many shin's he struck belonged to an old friend.

"Augh, Mr. Mime!" The man angrily cried, in no way speaking to a pokemon of the same name.

TBM paused to consider the voice, which he recognized to be an old acquaintance. "Why Mister Takeshiro what are you doing here?"

"Why indeed Mr. Mime!" Still not talking pokemon, "Why would I be forced to come out here on one of the many private jets our family graciously provides to meet you here in NPF city?"

TBM paused before realizing it was a question directed to him. "Perhaps to congratulate me upon my performance in the tournament, I was only out in the first round by two!" He held out two fingers to prove his point.

"No, Mr. Mime, I'm afraid that no one in our family approves of your actions here in NPF city. Especially your flagrant disregard for the most sacred of rules, no mimes are allowed to speak!" TBM could tell by his tone that Mr. Takeshiro was more then a little peeved about him breaking the super number 1 ultimate rule of mime-ing while in a mime-yakuza. You know, the one about not talking.

TBM shifted back a single step as he heard the shuffling feet of the four mime assassin's around him. "Well..." TBM said as he slid his foot back and took a defensive stance his hand atop the hilt, prepared to draw at the slightest move. "Perhaps it is time I admitted that I am more then just a mime."

"I feared as much." Was Mr. Takeshiro's only reply before turning his back, the four mime assassin's dashed in. There was a sudden burst of smoke that concealed TBM, the sound of a single sword unsheathing and the clang of metal blades ringing against each other was all most could hear of the battle. While it only lasted a second, the few who saw it would always recall it as one of the funniest things they had seen that day, this act losing very closely to IC taking a hammer to the gonads.

As white cane's scattered everywhere a triumphant TBMoichi slid his sword back into its sheath carefully, as it locked back into place the four mime's around him exploded in a flurry of over-pressurized anime blood. TBMoichi was dressed as a low ranking masseuse now and though he was a little overweight he seemed somehow agile. As TBMoichi stepped away from the splatter he could hear Mr. Takeshiro hyperventilating, TBMoichi stopped just beside him and leaned a bit closer. "Do not look for me ever again," he whispered, "I will see you before you see me."

TBMoichi smirked at the wordplay as he walked away from the man he had once called father and the life that had bathed him in blood. He was humming an easy going tune just before he stepped in line behind Fenris.

A slightly singed, but quickly healing Raven Rhiyawing descended at the call of her... name?

No, that’s not right.

But, anyway, descended from her flight of boring noninterference. Saving a possible competitor’s assets was not high on KP Morgan’s list of goals.

But, regardless, now that the round was over, he should be appraised of circumstances. Shifting smoothly back into her original, less absurdly-frenetic eyesore of a form, Raven pulled a small, black cellular phone from her pocket and opened it.

“Damnit, Jane, stop calling me!”

“No, it’s Raven... the first round is over.”

“Who are we up against?”

“Not sure...” She listed off the mass of misfits it could possibly have been, and in a flash of white light, Reneé appeared, decked out in black and grey armor and carrying her oversized grenade launcher in one hand—a strap securing it over her shoulder.

“I’ll take it from here,” Reneé said, and with a nod, Raven ascended on a SepT beam of her own.

Lowering the clear visor on her helmet, Reneé followed the hologram into her respective portal.

And thus, as Phoenixbot recieved her new item-summoning device, she drank her repair kit, steeled herself, and walked through the Rei!Portal. It was a little known fact that POS Industries manufactured liquid repair-kits in the form of small elixer bottles. Certainly, it showed that they cared for their competetors. At least... After a fashion.

Flexing her newly revitalized arms, PX-05 prepared for the next battle.

------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, at the Kurosen Tower.

"Ah, so you've arrived." Phoenix greeted the Kurosen response group from outside the tower's main blast door. She looked relaxed, legs crossed, sitting at a small LYNX pickup bench outside the facility, poking a 3-d projection of the tower's interior.

"Before the lot of you enter, I'll take it upon myself to brief you." she poked the tower, and it enlarged slightly, for the group to see. "We have an unidentified number of hostiles inside the facility. As of now, the central core has not been breached, but we can only guess when they'll manage that. All automated interior systems are currently offline."

The entire tower highlighted red. Thousands of interior systems blinked a shade of "offline grey".

"We can only assume an outside hacker has taken control of them. Consider the entire facility to be, until further notice, hostile." She nodded, with a small grin, "Of course, the tower has an extreme dollar-value associated with it. Do not destroy anything. Yes, that's right. The tower might be hostile, but under no circumstances may you do it any serious damage. Understood?"

She tapped her foot idly on the ground.

"Nothing goes in, nothing comes out. I'll seal the door once you enter, and make sure you don't mess up."

While Phoenix briefed the group, the Keymen each cast their pants spell on themselves.

Finally, their floral underwear was covered.

This accomplished, they stood in front of the door looking important.

Emerging from their respective hyperlink portals, PhoenixBot and Pyros found themselves on a path in the middle of what appeared to be a large plantation. The area seemed to be fairly well lit, despite the sky being obscured by the ceiling of a massive cave above them. From the trees surrounding them, bizarre fruit grew, smelling of bacon and covered in a greasy substance as an army of trolls set to work harvesting them.

The portals quickly closing behind them, a Rei hologram suddenly appeared and addressed the competitors, standing before a large mansion of in the style of the antebellum period of the American south. A mailbox out front bore the name "The Capitalist".

"Round Two: Pyros Neinian Nine versus PX-05 PhoenixBot! Ready.... FIGHT!!"


Now sporting a new pendant around its neck, the bear shook the sleep from its eyes as it found itself in a strange, technologically advanced compound. Main power was offline, the primary light source being flashing red emergency lights running along the corridors. In several areas, archaic runes marked the walls, and the matter within the building appears to have been manipulated into new and unexpected forms. A malevolent aura, almost electrical in nature, made the bear's fur stand on end as it caught the scent of Inbred Chocobo in the air.

As IC and the Bear sought each other out, the digitized voice of Rei came over the intercom, echoing through the darkened halls of the old Mashirosen Tower.

"Round Two: Inbred Chocobo versus a bear! Ready.... FIGHT!!"


A couple terrified elves shrieked and ran off into the shadows as the two hyperlink portals burst into existence, then vanishing as quickly after Mesden and Krylo stepped out. All around them were abandoned work benches, toys strewn about broken and half finished. The air felt more than a bit cold, and monstrous roars, howls, and growls echoed through the candy cane and gumdrop adorned halls.

"Boy, it looks like somebody's sure getting on the naughty list for this," Rei remarked as she stepped into the workshop of Santa's Castle, before addressing the competitors before her and making the required announcement.

"Round Two: Krylo Killian versus Mesia Denostaya! Ready.... FIGHT!!"


Finding themselves in a grand, gold-laden hallway, Reneé Revenu and Arhiyara looked about to see the ornate palace surrounding them, enclosed magically within a gigantic bubble of breathable air far beneath the surface of the ocean. A feeling of shifting momentum was more than apparent, as if the ground beneath them was in a constant state of motion. To either side, a gathering of various sea creatures stood, stationed along the walkway, which itself ended with a tiny figure, wearing a comically oversized crown, eyeing them from atop the throne of Poseidon.

"Well, well, dood," William grinned, "It looks like the entertainment has arrived."

"It sure has," Rei commented, the hologram appearing next to the throne as she made proceeded to make her announcement, "Round Two: Arhiyara versus the representative of KP Morgan! Ready.... FIGHT!!"

"Huh. Where the heck am I?" Pyros scratched his head. He'd certainly never been here before, which was to be expected for an arena POS shoved him in, but something about this environment was completely foreign to him.

The only thing he knew was that he had to blow up that manor in the distance, and that he held a dislike for anyone who said he couldn't stop a concussive based weapon through simple control of fire.

Ignoring past wrongs for now, Pyros checked the device he had been given then popped his knuckles.

"Alright then, Ka-jillion dollar woman, I don't know where we are, but I do know I am still capable of wailing on your mechanical ass."

Pyros waited for her to make the first move.

Upon seeing Krylo in the same ring as her, Mesden quickly resummoned her shield to her left hand. Damn gunslinging immortal... The blades began to fire out again until the blue of the shield was no longer visible to Krylo, and behind the hail of blades and barricade, she had lifted her sword up and began pushing forward. Defensive positions like these made her glad she saw through immaterial things right towards her target.

"The old Mashirosen Tower. What an interesting place to do battle." IC said, looking around the hallways. He recognized this place from the last time he was in here. Raiden had caused the morph to happen, unleashing the powers within the Kurosen. Which made IC smile. The bracelet on his wrist was charged, but there was still some of the energy released from Raiden floating in this tower. That energy could be tapped as well with the bracelet.

Of course, he now had to find his opponent. With the mess Raiden caused, it could take forever. "No time like the present." IC mumbled, and walked out, and started looking for his opponent.

"No destruction?" echoed Mauve at Phoenix's briefing. "Well, that makes things significantly less news-worthy. And fun."

She shoved her hands into her pockets and sulked, kicking a rock across the sidewalk and into the street.

"Well, at least surviving a tower built to destroy us might be interesting. What's PhoenixCorp/POS Industries' rule on filming in the facility?" she asked Phoenix, gesturing with one hand towards her trusty cameraman.

"Won't you just film what you want to, anyways?" Armored asked Mauve.

I mean, who actually watches the footage to begin with, she thought to herself. I figure they'll just get Bill Madden to do commentary to make the insanity of the competition even more amusing before they hand the videos over to us as souveniers or something.

Armored turned to face the Kurosen Tower. "I wonder what's inside? When she says not to destroy anything that belongs to this place, does he also mean that we should avoid damaging any independantly functioning security drones and turrets and stuff, or does this tower not have that?"