2398/Legendary Fight: Fight King

Legendary Fight: Fight King
Date of Scene:	07 June 2015
Location:	Mushroom War Earth <MWE>
Synopsis:	While exploring the desolate wilderness of Ohio, various people come across a weird colisseum...
Cast of Characters:	Tomoe, Staren, 622, 678, 756, 760, 768

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Simon Petrikov (622) has posed:
    The last time people came to this Earth trying to fix things, they had to fight The Entire Ocean (Only Evil). It didn't go terribly well, but they did discover why attempts to fix it weren't working, which is definite progress! Now, they are nowhere near the ocean, just exploring this crazy messed up Earth and trying to figure out if there's anything slightly easier to fix. Because srsly, whole ocean. Totally evil. Not happening any time soon.

    Where are Simon and crew now but the exotic and dangerous wilderness of... OHIO!

    While passing by Lake Eerie, with Simon having to fight the habit of checking dirty tin cans found lying around or rooting through trash for anything useful, the antiquarian-turned scientist looks up from checking his map to see if they're getting close to Niagra Falls or not (because a functioning hydroelectric plant would be really useful for getting civilization up and running again), to find there's a huge coliseum sitting across a small land bridge out over Eerie's waters. He turns his head to look over his shoulder as if expecting to find an explanation of why the the coliseum is there behind him. When he finds nothing of the sort, he looks over to the coliseum and says, "Heh. I wonder what coliseum THAT is! It's like old as garlic balls!" Then, smiling, he starts ticking off on his fingers and muttering under his breath. "Richfield Coliseum... Taft Coliseum... .... ...." The smile slips away and his eyebrows come down as everything clicks into place.

    "...Hey, that's no Ohio Expo Center! And it sure doesn't belong out in the middle of a lake even if it was! What gives!?"

Shin Tokuyama (756) has posed:
    Shin's here! There's no actual reason for Shin being here, beyond simple tourism and his desire to see strange new places. He rides along across the country-side on an asian-style motorcycle that moves pretty fast and pretty agile against the terrain despite its small size and the unusual world.
    He does have a passenger with him, having kidnapped a wayward maiden from a life of boredom and scientists (at least for a day). He brings the bike to a stop at one of the hills and looks over the area, "Oh wow! That place looks pretty cool! We should try there!" Shin says, spotting the colosseum as he moves over the top of a hill.
    He almost immediately guns the engine to head off that way.

Allenby Beardsley (760) has posed:
    If this is a kidnapping, Allenby's going to have to do it way more often.

    Seated on the back of the motorcycle, gripped onto Shin from behind, Allenby seems enamored with watching the scenery go by, which reminds her of what might be two stages down the road on her Earth someday. She's not the type to take pictures, though, especially if they could be found later as evidence that Allenby vanished off somewhere with some guy. Probably for the best-her team has started getting a little wary of her meeting all these people, especially those that aren't allied with the Confederacy.

    "Huh? Whoah, reminds me of an arena." she nudges him with an elbow, "Sure, let's go."

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
How Rock Lee figured out that various fighters from around the Multiverse were converging on one spot, that's a ninja secret! But he's here, jogging very quickly toward the colosseum. He has no idea what's in there, or if anyone else might know what's in there, or anything else. But jogging towards it seems like the best course of action for the moment.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe had to yes fight an evil ocean and it didn't go well. So if the old wya of doing things isn't going to work she may end up being able to help elsewhere right? So that's what she's thinking and it should be easier helping Simon out here hpopefully she could aid with it. Sghe hears the namd nodding for a moment. "I know both of those and humm I have no idea simon I blame the clamity here myself to be honest."

Staren has posed:
    'Garlic balls?' Staren echoes. He appears to be wearing heavy, metallic armor, painted red. In truth, he's still in his robotic body that he transferred into for yesterday's mission. Honestly, Simon's Earth is so dangerous... it seemed like he may as well stay in another day.

    "That... okay, a building in a lake? That's pretty strange... And a coliseum in the middle of nowhere? How did... how did anyone get the resources to /build/ this?" Staren starts running after the others. It's not like this body gets tired...

Cory (768) has posed:
    And where's Chikorri in this mess? Why, flying overhead. She's been sticking with Simon for a few hours of wandering, just staying nearby in case anything happened. Normally she'd be far too bored for such an event, but the random freaky creature and shiny thing getting her attention's kept that at bay.

    Were things normal she'd have dropped by Simon by now for another check-in to make sure nothing's molesting him out here, but since a few presences have appeared up nearby... "OOOOOOH!"

    SWOOOOOOOOOOP! Sure, there's Shin and Allenby over there on a joyride, but looking at them gets her frowning twitchily. Instead she drops in on... ROCK LEE!

    "Hyyaaaaaahoooooooooooooo!!" And by dropping in on, that means TACKLE FROM BEHIND in full horizontal flight. He might be carried a few hundred feet by the cheery Saiyan as a bit of a good-natured prank!...

    Towards the way he was going, anyways.

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
"Waaaaaaaaaaah!" Lee yells as he's suddenly carried into the air, flailing around until he looks up to realize who's carrying him. "Oh, it is Miss Chikkori! Do you know what that thing is over there?" he asks as he points to the building on the lake. "I heard that strong multiversal fighters were gathering for reasons that they do not understand!"

Simon Petrikov (622) has posed:
    No one here really came here to fight, actually! Because no one even knew this was here, and regardless of what group they were part of, they were mainly just exploring this ravaged, and broken world! But that probably makes no sense to Rock Lee, international ninja of mystery. He fights where he wants! On the other hand, Simon is more focused on the coliseum and the inquiries Staren made about it. "Pretty sure it wasn't there before the world ended. It looks WAY old. Older than my grandmother, even. We should be careful about approaching it... Like Tomoe pointed out, brand new ancient ruins seems..." His eyes narrow to slits. "...-Suspicious.-"

    The sound of a motorcycle in this creepily quiet wasteland can be heard for miles, and Simon turns to face it. But then there's some yelling Cory over in the distance, and that startles him into looking THAT way intead. Just in time to spot... Some... guy! Who Cory seems to know. Good, because he thought for a sec Cory was attacking a survivor of the apocalypse. As it is, he turns his attention back on the motorcycle-riding pair. Are THEY survivors!?

    He waves a hand and calls out to them, ordinarily more prone to being cautious, but with this much back-up, he should be safe, right? "Hellloooo! Are you terribly mutated monsters or anything?"

Staren has posed:
    "On my world," Staren replies, "There are ocasionally dimensional storms. Though rare, it's sometimes possible for an area of space to basically be swapped with an area from another world. So an ancient coliseum /could/ have been... well, unified, from an entirely different world."

Cory (768) has posed:
    In the air, but only a few dozen feet up! And Chikorri will let Rock Lee back down after the surprise is over with. She herself flips around in the air after doing so and lands near him and Simon and the others, still grinning like a fool. "I'd just head over and check it out. But hey Lee, how could you've heard anything? We only just got here... and they weren't invited!"

    'They' meaning the fingerwaggle she does Shin and Alennby's way. It's a bit more accusational-looking than she actually means.

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
"That is a ninja secret! There are strong people here, so I am here!" Lee says as he seems to leave it at that, slowly walking toward the Colosseum. He doesn't seem intent on waiting for the others. "Let's go see what's in there!"

Shin Tokuyama (756) has posed:
    "Don't be jealous!" Shin shouts at Cory in a bland tone as he pulls the bike to a stop and lets it idle, adjusting the sunglasses he's wearing over his eyes as he looks towards the arena ahead of them, "I think she's jealous of you," He asides to Allenby as he looks back over his shoulder at her.
    "I am not a terribly mutated monster! I'm a human! Though if I was a monster in this story, I'd tell you I was a human to get close enough, then reveal I was a monster dramatically. But I'm not a monster, that won't happen, and I'm just a human named Shin so hi!"

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe looks to Simon nodding for a moment and she ponders.

"If it's looking this good it may very well be in use at the moment. She seems to be very curious about this place and then others are coming she notices Cory arrival with a bit of a grin and she looks to STaren nodding for a moment.

"Lovely we'll find out once we stick our noses in here. Come on lets have a little adventure shall we?"

She looks at Shin for a moment and smirks.

"Don't mind me I'm just a fairy in half plate, Shin. I'm Tomoe."

Allenby Beardsley (760) has posed:
    "Jealous? What, because I'm grabbing you?" Allenby seems delightfully confused by this as she peers over her shoulder, "Oh hey, it's Lee! I wonder what he's doing here." She swings a leg over the bike as she hops off of it with Shin.

    "I'm not a mutant either! All my doctors assure me that I am perfectly human!" Allenby shouts back. She's pretty good at shouting-all Gundam Fighters are.

Simon Petrikov (622) has posed:
    Simon nods his head and strokes his beard a bit. "Hmm... All very good points." Whether he's responding to Staren's theory of dimensional transplanting of places, or Shin's assertion of how a monster would act, or Tomoe's idea it might still be in-use despite its current condition, and everyone basically seeming to be behind the idea of checking the place out, is unclear. Maybe all of those. "Well, I'm Simon, and it's nice to meet you, Shin and Allenby! Let's be careful and definitely not just charge into that arena alone or anything! We can always look at the place up-close first without actually going inside!" He shrugs and holds his hands palms as he reminds them, "We don't want to get trapped in there or anything, and were aren't necessarily looking to fight if someone lives there!"

    Then he looks over and Rock Lee is already half-way across the land bridge, running off alone. "Dag! What did I just say!?" He hurries after the ninja, sticking his map into a pocket of his backpack while he runs.

    Simon may not look very human himself, what with his blue skin, long nose, and sharp teeth, but he's in the company of... A robot, some kind of self-identified fairy, and an alien. And also That Guy who is running off. So he's probably completely normal, right?

    As Lee approaches the arena, he'll find it's pretty dilapidated. Kind of slumping over to one side in places. There's multiple arch-shaped entrances that lead into tunnel-like passages which in turn lead out onto an arena floor. While Simon is trying to catch up, if Lee goes into one of those tunnels before the others get there, he may find the arena floor is mostly a large, desolate bunch of dirt and dust, with swords and weapons scattered around, planted in the ground. Also rocks, some pillars, and a large, black stone throne in the center.

Cory (768) has posed:
    "Who are you calling jealous?!" Chikorri blurts, balling up both fists and glaring at Shin while floating a foot off the ground, both arms pointed straight at the ground. Her expression's pretty clear: NOW she's steamed!

    "This is what you get up to while ignoring my challenge?!"

    But by the time she's wasted on this, Rocck Lee's gone running off. She blinks a few times and-- "Heeeeeey, wait up!"

    Rockets off after him, engulfed in flaring white Ki!

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
Lee does indeed enter. As a ninja, his eyes are constantly open for traps and people lurking in the shadows. But once he's in the arena he simply stands there with his arms crossed. He doesn't move, he waits. For what? Who knows!

A long time ago, perhaps Might Guy taught him that if something strange doesn't seem strange, wait for it to be strange.

Shin Tokuyama (756) has posed:
    "I told you, I'll fight you when you learn restraint! We had a whole big long discussion about this one time," Shin says pretty calmly. He leaves his bike, but takes his backpack and keys with him as he goes.
    He sets off into a jog as Simon gets going, giving Tomoe a nod before he goes, "Nice to meetcha." And then over his shoulder, "Come on, Allenby! We should probably get going. Can't let the other people have all the fun, yeah?"
    And then it's a pretty casual jog as Shin keeps pace with Simon, asking, "So what's the haps here? Quest? Cartography? General Fight Vacation?"

Allenby Beardsley (760) has posed:
    "Oh, huh, she seems kind of mad at /you/ actually." Allenby says, surprised at the Saiyan's reaction. Seeing said Saiyan approach (but fortunately get waylaid by Lee a little), Allenby turns and runs after Shin, catching up easily and following with a liesurely pace.

    "Tourism?" Allenby adds to Shin's question, "'cause that's why we're here."

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe wouldn't be shocked it's an mostly intact place in a nuked out world. The means to build large building are not exactly easy to come by right? So she keeps on guard for hte moment as she sizes the other totally not a mutants like allenby. She looks to Rock Lee as he's heading off ahead. She'll look to Shin for a moment smirk flare up her wings and fly along the brindge to catch up with the others.

Staren has posed:
    After stopping to pose theories to Simon, Staren's run off too actually (this body is fast, actually, running at nearly a hundred miles an hour!), possibly to keep an eye on Rock. "Hey!" he calls, but Rock's already gone in. Staren follows -- but stops when he spies a mysterious green forcefield flickering over the entrance. Looking around for the source, he calls in, "Rock, get out here! We should wait for the others, and there's something funny about these doorways!"

Simon Petrikov (622) has posed:
    "Oh my gosh did he just run in!?" Simon yells as Rock Lee not only doesn't wait for the others to catch up but also goes inside the arena entirely. "WAIT FOR US, YOU -BUTT-!" the blue-skinned guy yells as he pants for breath, talking to the much less breathless Shin along the way. "Earth blew up! Trying to fix it! Exploring! Looking for... Power plant! See about... Getting it... Running! Restart..." he slows down his pace as he starts wheezing a bit. Dear lord how did he get this out of shape!? He used to run for his life regularly here! Must be all that easy living that comes with not struggling to survive every day! "...Civilization! *WHEEEZE*" He coughs and hacks a few times as he finally comes to a stop outside.

    He looks up at the arena, and sees some freaky slimey energy stuff engulfing the place and rising up into the sky. There are faces in it.

    Of course, probably no one else here has Wizard Eyes, so they are likely not seeing the spiritual gunk all over the place, but Simon sure as heck can! "I'm... Not going in there. This is obviously a dangerous place." he asserts, as he catches his breath. "I'll, uhh... Hang back and... Inspect the place from the outside. You know? Make sure everything's on the up-and-up."

    There are Glowing Green Barriers at the exits of the tunnels leading into the arena. They keep flickering in and out of sight, but always in the same places. Rock Lee, in his rush, may have passed through one to go inside without noticing in that moment between flickers, but thankfully, Staren has stopped short to try to convince Lee to come back.

    But there's still the problem of that throne, and who is on it. A decayed corpse or mummified body with pitch-black skin and only one eye sits upon the throne, with a crown floating over his head. He has an axe strapped to his back and a gigantic rune-inscribed sword glowing at his side. He lifts the sword and yells, "Fighters! FIGHTerrrss! Seek your glooRRRRY from the F-f-Fight KINGGG?" He bangs on an old iron bell nearby with the sword to emphasize his question.

Staren has posed:
    Okay, so Simon sees ghost gunk and Staren doesn't, but that doesn't mean it's not there. Also... there's a 'Fight King' in there asking for challengers. Well, it's clear what Rock's gonna do... and to be fair, Rock is /good/ at it, so he'll probably be fine. In the meantime, Staren examines the exterior of the coliseum, around the archway. Simon's not the only one with special eyes -- Scanners for the presence and rough power level of magic, for lifesigns, dimensional distortions, and ki are built into this body, as well as more mundane things like electric and magnetic fields, radiation, and t-ray emitters. Maybe he'll be able to find something that sheds a little more light on the situation, before he and the others take further action.

Shin Tokuyama (756) has posed:
    "Well I guess she's mad at me for hanging out with you instead of fighting her. But I totally explained why to her. So I think she's using it as an excuse to be jealous of you after that conversation we had on the broadband," Shin theorizes to Allenby, speaking pretty frankly about the whole matter. He's in great shape, so he's hardly out of breath as they arrive at the crazy arena.
    "Wow, sounds crazy about the wrecked civilization. You should take donations like on the television. Maybe people will help you set up NEW power plants so you don't have to come out here into Creepsville," He ponders, casually running along before they all reach the area.
    "Wooooooah. Whaaaaaaat?" He asks in wonder, not sure what to make out of the full situation.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe has watched Rock Lee run in like an infamous player of MMORPGs from her worldIt's too late not as she heads in after the others. She know it's dangeorus but she's well a bit on the wreckless side she's dispsable and in a way that was really liberating well until she ends up and the guy starts calling things out.

"Okay so this is a fighting pit wait what?! Who are we suposed to fight?"

Allenby Beardsley (760) has posed:
    "Oh. Huh. That's it...?" Allenby, ruining things for EVERYONE. Especially other girls. "Well if she wants to fight me about it..." she trails off, easily keeping pace with Shin. She does notice the flickering green energy up ahead, blinking on and off at the entrance to the arena.

    But alongside Shin, she passes through it as it blinks off, unimpeded and soon out facing the mummified FIGHT KING.

    "...OH! So you want a fight, then, eh? Okay. We can fight!"

Cory (768) has posed:
    If anyone was expecting Chikorri to stop, well... they'd be wrong. Like heck is she going to let Lee do all the exploring before she can! She catches up to him in no time, probably even heading past the same barrier when it flickers off. The young saiyan tucks her feet down and under to go skidding across the ground and come to a halt about twenty feet from Rock Lee... only to gaze up at the self-proclaimed Fight King.

    "Ooooooh! Wow, you picked one heck of a weird place to hold matches. But I'll take anyone on!"

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
Lee turns around in time to hear Staren call out to him. But then the other man begins speaking, about fighters.

Lee looks around in confusion when other people are mentioned, other thant he ones he justt left.

Simon Petrikov (622) has posed:
    The donations/charity-raising thing is a good idea, actually! Despite the distraction of the arena, Simon files it away. The whole jealousy thing with Allenby and Cory goes a bit over his head right now, since he isn't focused on it. But as person after person steps right through the barrier, Simon just stares in total disbelief. "Well, uh... Be safe in there. I'm not a fighter. I'm going to investigate this place on the outside and see if there's some other way inside that isn't an obvious trap--"

    The Fight King lifts his sword and the barriers solidify to a pure, opaque green. As far as Staren is able to determine, they're some kind of magical sealing barrier. Exactly what they look like. Probably powerful, but in what way is unclear. Unclear just like the force fields now, because they can't see inside anymore.

    The Fight King then raises his sword and yells, "FoooOOOOls! You have stepped forth beyond the Moonlight... SEEEEal! All exits are closed!" The sealed entrances turn from pure energy into solid stone, so now there isn't even an exit anymore. "Now you must fight my G-g-gladiator GHOSTS!"

    And just like that, there's a rumbling sound, and ghostly essence, visible even to people who are NOT Simon comes spiralling up out of the silt and soil, curling into a pair of solid phantasmal bodies. A pair of giant-sized gladiator-looking guys, one with a face-concealing helmet and one with a not-face-concealing one. They make noises of suffering and lamentation in mid-air, before dropping down to slam into the ground heavily.

    One of them raises his huge spiked mace and swings it at the challengers.

    The other is wielding a pair of ghostly daggers and yells out, "HYPERION! I'M SORRY!" mournfully before starting to slash at the fighters with his blades.

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
"Gladiator ghosts?!" Lee asks with an equal amount of drama in his tone, crouching down as he raises his arms in preparation for battle.

He reaches behind him, then out of no where pulls out a pair of nunchaku. He slips out of the way of a mortal blow, though finds his shoulder slashed into, which causes him to yell in pain and look over at the blood dripping from his arm.

It's not bad enough to disable his arm, but the blood certainly needs to be treated... "I do not understand!" he shouts, jumping at the one without the face concealing helmet to slam the nunchaku into his face after a ridiculous amount of swinging it for momentum.

Shin Tokuyama (756) has posed:
    "You're pretty tough. Try not to beat her up too badly if she winds up wanting to fight for my love or something like that. It might dishonor her, I dunno how her Saying Warrior Culture works," Shin notes as he looks around the arena and sighs a bit, taking in the wrekced area and finally the shouting Fight King.
    "Oi, you wanna fight?" He asks incredulously, reaching up to take off his sunglasses and fold them shut, "Look like you'd break your hip just throwing a kick." He comments, placing the glasses into his breast pocket and then rolling his neck. Cory may actually get to see Shin fight after all.
    Or not, because Shin then places his hands into his pockets and says, "Come get me, then, if you want a fight."
    He dashes in with a surprising show of agility and instead of throwing a punch or a kick, he tries to bump his back and shoulders into the one with twin daggers, rolling around him and then hip-checking him while keeping his hands in his pockets, "If you're sorry, then don't fight, yo."

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe looks at fight king gor a moment in confusion a nd now she hears they ahve to fight his gladiator ghosts? That seems confusing is he nuts or is he ... true? She halts for a moment as it seems there are foes comming at them. Wait are these ghosts or something more like herself? She's not sure but it looks like they are going to have to fight.

"Watch it!"

She summons Dawn Breaker to her hand and the Mourning wall. She now moves in to intercept the attacker who is calling out about someone named Hyperion.

"I'll keep thier attention! You want some of this?!"

She's going to attempt to get in the fighter's grill as best as she's able.

Allenby Beardsley (760) has posed:
    "I've fought a few Saiyans before...most on Reptillon. They're pretty tough." Allenby admits, "I get this feeling we're going to fight each other eventually-"

    The Fight King seals them all in! "Wait, I thought YOU were going to fight us! Personally!" Allenby puts her fists on her hips, pretty darned unconcerned when this mummy ghost guy decides to seal the exits on them. "Also if you think locking us in here is going to scare us-" she points a finger at the FIGHT KING, "You are /wrong/!"

    She stomps her foot dramatically and slides it behind her. "C'mon!" she specifically baits the mace-wielding one, recognizing the overhand swing, hopping backwards just enough to avoid it, then leaping over to balance on the shaft of the lowered weapon. She runs up its length and leads with a flying knee at the helmeted head.

Cory (768) has posed:
    The colosseum is sealed and GHOSTS APPEAR.

    As is typical, Chikorri's reaction to the undead is to FREAK OUT at first. Her gung-ho bravery evaporates faster than a pool in the sahara, leaving her staring at the strange giants a bit too long. She bends over backwards to duck under the mace just barely! The wind of its passage gets her clothes rippling. Then a berserker with a sword comes flying in swinging everywhere!

    THIS strikes. Although she leaps sideways the blade grazes an arm, cutting through her super-tough gi. Blood drips down the arm... and at that point... the pain overrides her childish terror.

    Saiyan instincts just brimming for a fight take over and she SLAMS both hands together, heedless of the drops of blood that fly from her arm onto the arena floor.

    "Alright. Then bring it!" She only takes a few moments to stretch her arms and legs, then...

    "Huuuuuuuuuuuuuahhhhh!" Whilst wrapping her tail around her waist, Cory adopts a deep stance for more balance and controlled breath. Ki swirls up in no time to engulf her. The ground cracks and splits, chunks of dirt and small stones being outright hurled skywards by the building aura. In a few seconds the entire display shifts <span class=" bold_bg_r fg_n ++ rimson--

    chr">"KAIOKEN TIMES EIGHT!"</span>

    The Saiyan lady's muscles briefly bulge oddly, but staring at them is bad. Faster than the eye can see she rushes straight towards the maceman, for a flying kick to the gut!

    "THISGOTWEIRDFAST!"

Staren has posed:
    Suddenly, the barrier closes, but Staren hears the 'fight king' yelling about being trapped and having to fight.

    He's not /that/ worried. Rock and Cory should be fine, at least. "Hang on!" He runs out, hands Simon a couple of potions and a rocket pistol. "Just in case. I'm gonna go help 'em." Wings manifest, and he flies over the wall -- aww, darn, there's a field in the way! Staren places his hand against it to confirm that it's solid. "Damn. How you guys doin' down there?" he calls, PUNCHing the barrier hard to confirm it won't break easily. Scans confirm that... some kind of dimensional shenanigans are going on. Hmm... this /could/ be a problem. Breaking into a closed space... he can't count on any normal method of entry working. He is, basically, stuck.

    So, he'll have to risk trying a normal way and hoping it works. First teleporting... then trying to smash the field or the wall. He glows as the teleporter charges...

    And then he's inside. "So what the heck is going on here?!" He tries to grab the screaming daggerman's leg and stop him from stabbing people. "You don't just suddenly randomly fight people! What's all this about?"

Simon Petrikov (622) has posed:
    Potions and a pistol! Great! "Be careful in there!" Simon cautions before the robo-Staren flies up to check out the barrier, and decides to attempt teleporting in. Which suceeds!

    Rock Lee knocks the helmeted ghost's head to the side with a mighty impact! No one knows what's confusing him about this situation, but he seems ready to fight despite his confusion! Though the condition of his arm is not great. Especially if there's more of these ghosts!

    Allenby runs up the mace's haft, but the gladiator ghost lets go of the ghostly weapon. When she knee strikes him in the head, making his head whip backwards and him to stagger, he swings a huge fist with surprising quickness at her! Fortunately, he can't really aim that well when he's off-balance and it may miss her entirely!

    Apparently the idea that the ghosts might not have a choice doesn't occur to Shin. But not getting stabbed sure does occur to him! Which is fortunate, because the motivations of the may be less immediately relevant than 'staying alive to figure it out later'! Living is definitely the higher priority.

    Tomoe manages to block the dagger strikes and keep the ghost from capitalizing upon its agility to try to adjust to Shin's own evasiveness, and when Staren grabs onto the ghost's leg the gladiator trips! Already off-balance from Shin's maneuvers and attacks, as the ghost tries to turn to attack the person clinging to his leg, he falls backwards and onto one of the swords lying on the ground!

    With Cory then kicking with super strength, the big mace-wielding ghost is hit hard enough to hurl him towards his companion. He is then stabbed in the back with both of his partner's daggers. The two collapse into swirls of shrieking ghostly energy again and then dive back into the ground until the time comes for them to be forced to fight once ore.

    Everything seems to be going well so far. But there's more gladiator ghosts to come. Only... The Fight King squints at all the fighters in the arena. And starts doing math. He counts on his one remaining hand, with a crossbow strapped to it, ticking off the groups on his fingers. "One... Two..." He lowers one finger half-way. When he sees Staren, he lowers the finger all the way.

    "...FoooooOOOOLS!" he suddenly declares as he waves his sword around. "Fighters in my arEEENA fight ONLY two at a t-t-timMMME! Only a lone p-p-PAIIIRR can experience my f-FIGHTING fuuuuRY! Be-GONE with youuu!" He waves his sword and it glows as the exits all open back up again. Then he vanishes in a swirl of smoke!

    That was abrupt!

    Then he pops back in with some twigs with leaves on them and throws them to the fighters. "Forr your VICtorRYYYY have these b-b-bRANCHES of PALM!" They are not branches from a palm tree, but he seems to be calling them that anyway.

    "Now... beGOOOOnnne!" Then he's out again.

    Simon is still standing outside when the immediate threat of being trapped in the arena is over. The gun is his pocket and the potions are in his other pocket. He can still see ghostly faces all over everything, and he doesn't know the others are free, so he's trying to use a ricketty, ancient wooden ladder to try to climb up to one of the boarded-up windows.

    The ladder breaks, sending him tumbling to the ground and landing on his back hard. "MOTHER!" he yells angrily.

Staren has posed:
    Staren grabs a ghost and it... falls on a sword. "Hey, wait! What did you mean you're sorry...?" Staren has so many questions! Like how a ghost can die, for instance. Or who the Fight King is and why the coliseum is here... but then the Fight King disappears.

    Then comes back.

    Then goes again.

    "Uhhhh..." Staren looks around. "...I guess we're going then. Everyone alright? Rock... I gave Simon a healing potion you can use, might help with your arm." He heads outside when he hears Simon shout. "Simon! Are you alright?!" He hurries out to see... Simon fell off a ladder. "Oh." Well, that could still be a serious injury!

Allenby Beardsley (760) has posed:
    Acrobatically, Allenby pushes off with her knee, letting the momentum of the impact carry her backwards. She twists in the air like a gymnast, the fist passing under her arched back, and lands neatly on the ground. Smiling, she lifts a hand and makes 'come at me' motions with her hand.

    "Come on! Is that all you've got?!"

    Apparently that IS all the Fight King has got because they are apparently breaking the rules of Fight King Arena. "Wait what? Only two at a time....?" she looks around, counting up the fighters. Her, Shin, Cory, Lee, Tomoe, "Aww, damnit, our party is too odd numbered." She looks decidedly put out as the exits re-open and the king vanishes (twice).

    "Maybe we should come back later, Shin." Allenby shrugs, picking up a tree branch.

Shin Tokuyama (756) has posed:
    "Yeah well! Nuts to you, guy! I'll make my own fighting arena. With way cooler rules," Shin says in a chastizing tone, hands still in his pockets. He's very good at not getting stabbed while still making it look like he's a giant slacker that isn't half as good at martial arts as he is. He brings a hand up and runs his fingers through his hair.
    "I guess we probably should come back another time, yeah," He remarks to Allenby, moving to stand next to her as the fighting is all called off and angrily cancelled, "You'd think if he was going to call himself the Fight King, he'd know that in the mangas, you even up the last fight by having someone drama-fight a shadow clone of themself."
    He taps his foot against the ground a bit and shrugs.

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
Lee stands there lookign incredibly confused at the man's actions, just sort of wrinkling his brow in complete confusion. "I do not know what is going on!" he finally decides to admit when the Fight King just seems to lose it.

Cory (768) has posed:
    The ghosts vamoose. So does the mysterious Fight King. And with it... so does Cory's furious crimson aura. She lands down next to Rock Lee, arms folded and an unhappy glare aimed at the so-called King's throne.

    As if all the air was just loosed from her balloon she sags forward, heaving a sigh... THEN claps a hand on Rock Lee's shoulder. "Do YOU have any clue what just happened?"

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is moving to deal with the attacker she's doing pretty good to keep the ghost at bay for the moment. How lkong she does not know but well there's some pretty heavy hitting power. When all is said and done they have won the fight it looks like.

"Is eveyrone all right and humm two at once? So teams only curious. It may be just the nature of the combat like a PVP set up in a computer game."

Wait the fairy lady is talking about computers.

"It's certainly an experiance."

Simon Petrikov (622) has posed:
    Simon rubs his head as he struggles to get his old body up and onto his feet. "I'm fine, I'm fine... Just some bruises, probably. So, uhh... That was fast! Let's leave as quickly as possible, and put this on the list of 'problems to deal with someday but not right now or any time soon'." Then he picks up his backpack, offers the pistol back to Staren (but not the potions because he could use one right now), and starts hiking the heck out of there. Niagra Falls can wait!

    Once everyone has left the vicinity of the Fight King's Arena, it gets sucked up into the sky in a column of light like it was never even there.