With the first round of Heaven or Hell concluded, half of the eight entering teams have been eliminated from the tournament, leaving many of this year's eager contenders stung with defeat. Some would walk away satisfied with their efforts, while others would think back bitterly on the outcome of their fights, left sorely unfulfilled. Many would find themselves lost in their reason, that there was now nothing left for them upon the Ark...
...until now.
As the eliminated competitors returned to their team suites to get their things together and ship off back to Latent, they would find a flyer posted on the door leading to their rooms. Obviously a simple piece of paper was far too easy to overlook, so if that wasn't enough, their FIGHTERs would suddenly spring to life as soon as they were in proximity of their rooms, beeping loudly with a new alert that more or less read the message of the flyer itself.
Quote:** Wrote:ATTENTION ALL ELIMINATED ROUND 1 PARTICIPANTS!
We hope you are not discouraged by your loss this year and wish you the best of luck in next year's tournament. However, for those of you whose thirst for combat has not yet been quenched, all is not lost!
The Foundation welcomes any and all participants that lost in Round 1 that are interested to partake in a special one-time event! This event has been designed as a test of strength worthy of a champion and is sure to give any competitor the thrill and excitement that they so desperately seek from Heaven or Hell.
The teams who decide to partake in this event shall receive 100,000 gold for their participation, and each of them has the chance to win...
ANEWCAR!!!
So if you still feel you have some more fight left in you and you want to show the world what you're made of, head down to the Restricted Area aboard the Ark so that our staff may direct you to the Research and Development Department.
Don't miss out on this one-time offer!
While not exactly a second chance at the tournament, this was certainly a second chance to show the world what got these teams into the tournament to begin with and feel the thrill of battle that many competitors had yearned for. Plus there was some money and potential ANEWCAR to go with it, so even competitors with the basest of desires would have at least some motivation.
What could go wrong?
Restricted Area - Foundation R&D
In spite of the high praise given in the message and talk of "showing the world what they were made of", the Restricted Area looked about as unwelcoming as it always did. One would think there would at least have been some sort of decorum to signify the event and prepare them for the glory that was about to come, but there was nothing. Not even a crummy banner made of newsprint and magic marker. There was only the blast door leading into the public section of the Restricted Area, the corridors leading down to the not-so-aptly named "hospital". Upon arrival, the team would be approached by Foundation staff members and Judges, those who would have originally led them down said corridor and into the "infirmary" to meet with the two luchador doctors that "tended" to the wounded. This time, however, the escort made a detour, heading down a branching set of corridors that led to a small, windowless room at the end of a hallway. There were four, simple-looking chairs sitting in the middle of the room, facing a single, undecorated steel wall.
"Please have a seat while we initiate the event," said one of the suited staff members, before departing with the Judges and closing the door behind him. There would be an audible metallic clank as the door was bolted shut, locking the participants inside. Not exactly the most friendly of atmospheres, but it wasn't like they were being strapped into their seats. Hell, they weren't even required to sit down.
There was a faint twitch and hum of energy in the air that only those with the most acute of supernatural senses would have been able to notice, but there was no way to decipher what it was, exactly. Whatever it was, it didn't seem to be overtly threatening and was gone in moments. Perhaps it was nothing at all?
Suddenly, the flat, empty wall before them would start to rise like a hangar door, revealing the venue of the event to be, as it would seem, a theater of science.
Wrong theater.
Yeah, that's the ticket.
Or at least it was close to that. The competitors would find themselves in a large, empty arena that looked somewhat like a coliseum with high walls and a glossy floor, spanning 90 feet in diameter. It looked like one of those theaters where professors of biology and other sciences would display their experiments and surgeries for their students to observe above. As was to be expected, there were indeed people sitting up in the balcony, shielded by high-density reinforced fiberglass screens so that they could safely observe the event that would soon take place below. None of them appeared to be your run-of-the-mill spectator, not with how virtually all of them were dressed in lab coats, constantly scribbling away at their notes. They were observers, scientists from the Foundation's R&D Department, eying each competitor from high above as if they were lab rats in a maze.
There was no operating table in the middle of the arena for the scientists to observe an operation, no delicate machinery to be demonstrated. The only thing there that looked like any sort of outlandish device was a strange-looking contraption at the very top of the dome above them that almost looked like some sort of ornate light fixture, although there was no light coming from it. Clearly it was not meant to light up the room, especially since there were enough fluorescent light fixtures in the arena to keep the whole place nicely lit.
Suddenly, a door much like the one that led the competitors into the arena opened up on the other side, with a figure emerging from the shadows of the adjacent room. It was the man that many would remember from the opening ceremonies at the Crimson Hawk, the mysterious white-haired doctor with glasses reflected the light like two shining silver circles over his eyes. His mouth was still locked in that wide, scheming grin that he had on his face since the beginning of the tournament, walking with his hands casually folded behind his back. He certainly didn't look like much of a fighter, so he must've had quite a set of stones to approach a bunch of mostly disgruntled HoH competitors so calmly.
He stopped just a few yards short of the center of the arena before addressing the competitors.
"Welcome, welcome," he said, extending his arms to them in a deceptively warm greeting. "So nice of you all to join me here...at least, those of you who decided to attend. I am Dr. Minoru Aramaki, head of the Foundation's Research and Development Department. I must assume you are here because you find yourself somewhat...wanting after the conclusion of your Round 1 matches. Although I am afraid you will not be advancing further in the tournament from here on out, perhaps you can help me to advance something far more...fulfilling?"
Dr. Aramaki slowly began to pace about, gesturing to the room behind the competitors as the wall shut once more behind them, sealing them inside the demonstration theater. "I don't suppose either of you noticed that little change in atmosphere back in that room there. Quite a interesting explanation, really. You see, I specialize in applied sciences regarding metaphysics, the oh-so-unexplained world of what you plebeians refer to as "magic". This world is full of so many strange and fascinating occurrences, but in the end they're really nothing more than simple facets of reality yet to be explained. That little 'hum' of energy you felt back there was a temporal shift generated by one of my Space-Time Partition devices. It allows me to split the flow of the space-time continuum into separate 'instances' and have them converge back together in a seamless flow of temporal progression."
Dr. Aramaki adjusted the large, round glasses on his face."To put it in the simplest of terms, I've managed to capture the so-called 'time-paradox' phenomenon for practical use. Impressive, is it not?"
"Oh, but you didn't come here for that, did you? No, no, I must be foolish to think that any of you would be able to appreciate the ingenuity that went into the construction of such a device. You didn't come here to bask in the glory of scientific discovery. No...you came here looking to satisfy a much baser need, to beat your breasts and shake your fists in a display of strength like the very beasts left choking in the dust of natural selection. You came here to participate in the cathartic release that comes from mindlessly beating your opposition into submission. You came here to fight...and you will not be disappointed."
Dr. Aramaki snapped his fingers and the device attached to the ceiling steadily came to life. The black, unlit orbs attached to the device lit up like plasma balls, arcing with electricity until they glowed blue-white with the massive amount of power it drew from its generator. Suddenly, everything but the floor of the demonstration theater disappeared into blackness, reforming and reshaping into a vast expanse full of stars and nebulae, as if the entire floor was simply a platform drifting through space.
"You see," continued the doctor, "The Foundation has tasked me with creating a device that would alter the fabric of reality itself. I have studied many various instances of realspace alteration...reality marbles, psychic territories, pocket dimensions. Mages seem to make it look so easy, don't they?" As Aramaki continued to speak, something rather peculiar happened. His voice slowly began to change, deepening ever so slightly. His tone became smoother, his meter almost melodic. "But mages are nothing but children playing with a light switch. A chillld knows nothing about what causes a cirrrrcuit to function, they simply know what happens if they flllip the switch. All those rrrridiculous incantations and rrrrreagents are nothing more than user-frrrriendllly interfaces for the ignorant, superrrstitious masses of the worrrrlld. But I willlll not settle for such simplistic understanding! I will not settle for simply being 'gifted' by the gods with the 'traditions' passed down from one bllllind fool to another! I will take the flames of Prometheus, and thrrrough science, I will trrrrruuully achieve masterrry of the univerrrse!"
Aramaki threw his arms out wide in a gesture of triumphant glory as he shouted atop of his lungs in a voice that could not possibly have been his to begin with. Between the mesmerizing smoothness of his tone and the rolling of his r's and l's, the doctor had clearly become something much, much more than he was before.
With his grandiose speech ended, Dr. Aramaki let his left hand rest at his side while casually extending his right out to the combatants standing before him, as if he wanted them to step forward.
"Saaa, kakugo wa dekita ka na? Omae no chikara wo misete morau zo." (Now, are you prepared? Show me your power.)
Mr Crawley Wrote:
Naota Takun Wrote:
Silver Alexander Wrote:
Silver Bullet – A strong, quick moving, forward-dashing fist attack, augmented by flames and 'explosive momentum'.
