Backstage in the Quarter-Finals

Aamir and Bane entered the competitors' area, after their fight. They'd been fully healed by the officials once the verdict was decided. Bane was grinning like a fool but Aamir had a dark glow in his eyes...as if he was EVIL!

bane had his back to me si got my gun out put it to his head and shot 100 rounds of my super machine sniper gun

I'd realised what Aamir was doing as soon as he started to get out his gun. I dashed in, slicing off the end of Aamir's gun and at the same time, tripping Bane to make him fall out of the way. The bullets harmlessly impacted a wall. I stood up and grabbed Aamir's head, positioning my sword so it pointed at his throat. "DON'T do that again."

I looked in shock and prepaired a spell. aamir was corrupt and his position in our team should be compromised.

i had a quiet word with daniel about how i was upset about losing and i thought that bane was trying to blag to me i told him about not wanting to compromise my position on the team i asked him to talk to bane so he woulnt bully be

I listened i8n intently. I heard in complete discust at the bull s*** coming from aamir's mouth. smiley was playing Aamirs game and in it he was the victim. this was of cource far from the truth. He was one of the nights and smiley knew it.

we were to play the game for now but seen the time will come to stike

From Anatius' actions he clearly seemed to view Aamir as a threat. However, I just didn't see it happening. If that was the case why would he have worked to destroy two of the opposing Knights? If he was above them he would see no need to try to kill them.

Of course, I'm not dense. I know Aamir hasn't fully trusted Bane even from the start. I know he's hot-headed from losing. I also know Anatius is trying to defend Bane as to reinforce his position in the group. However, one thing was clear: if Bane and Aamir were equal, as they seemed to be in the tournament, then neither of them would stand a chance if they tried to fight the rest of us. That goes for Anatius and myself as well.

Anatius was keeping himself busy: he seemed to be drawing up concepts and ideas for a character change. Of course, it was all in the small-print of the tournament: "You may not use the character-altering options at any time you are an entrant, except for what is provided." By the looks of things he wanted a more humanoid appearance: presumably more serious and combat-able than his previous form.

Bane was, in typical Bane style, trying to further understand his sword. I figured I should do the same, but there wasn't the time now: my fight was up. I left the group and headed to the arena, in good faith that they wouldn't fight; or at least if they did, there would be no winner.

I wished him good look as he left and then went into the satrbucks for a frappuccino to drink while I finished my concept. After the tourniment I would ride alone to the futeristic zone to re-design myself. only after this would I reveal myself.

Having returned from my exhausting fight, despite being healed I was very tired. I took a seat in the Starbucks and ordered some coffee. Anatius still seemed to be working on the details of his character, so I gave him a quick reminder that his fight was up. Bane was now training out back. Aamir had taken his gun to the repair shop. I went over there and casually apologised for damaging it.

I looked around at the remaining contestants: Bane was training hard for his match, Anatius seemed unfazed by his impending battle, and Smiley was resting after his. Super Geek was laughing in a very creepy way so I moved on. Zero, borderline copyright infringement on the Zero from Megaman, was doing...nothing, really. Just looking cool. Madcap seemed noticeably annoyed by the outcome of the previous match, and was most likely an friend of Señor's.

As for me? I was sat up on the girders near the roof. It was calm up here, because obviously the losing contestantsa were roaming around down there as well. There was little need to do any practice- or rather, it would be detrimental to me. I don't think I've shown offany of my abilities yet, and I intend to keep it that way.

The appearance of the so-called "Knights" hadn't surprised me. After receiving word that one had attacked the tavern I figured more would come to thetournament. About 4 in 32 sounds about right: one for each of their targets. Of course, I was shocked when those four ((I mean the four member characters, smiley etc)) had appeared on my tournament ring. Perhaps I felt I owed it to them to let them see it once they'd been there?

I hopped down from the girders and headed into the bookstore. I picked up a couple of volumes of manga from a turning rack and purchased them, before leaping back up to the girders and beginning to read. I needed something to do before the next match started...

Having returned to my seat, I saw UltraZ drop down from the roof, buy some kickass manga and leap up again. I figured it'd be best not to bother him, or else he wouldn't be sat all the way up there. So I went back to my coffee. Mmm, coffee.

I finished my frafichino and tucked my dessigns neetly into on of my many inside pockets and walked off out of starbucks. I caught smiley's eye and nodle before walking out into the battle arena. I was shure to win and this woul be the perfect place to practice my magical abilities.

Only Bane's fight was left. By the sounds of things down in the arena, UltraZ had been fighting the t means that al have been defeated now. Seems Bane'll have a fairly easy next fight.

I headed out the back into the training area and began training with my sword. However I was also trying to develop new technique for use in the later rounds.

I made sure to keep an eye in the direction of Aamir and Bane in case they acted up.

i arrived back from the repair shop where i had bought a new gun that shoot my eniemies even if i hadnt noticed them unfortunatly despite my bes efforts bane was on my enemies list so i had to work hard to stop my guns from acting up.

i took them back to the shop and tthe guyy sorted them out

when i returend i realised that smiley was kepping and eye on me

i followed bane into the bathroom and apologise dfor the outburst he seemed wary of me at first but then he layed off

i decided to get a frapachino and some steroids from the shop.

It seemed Aamir liked the roids. xD

Things seemed fine between the group. I'd mostly got my new technique down so I stopped training. Instead I read the AWESOME ninja book Anatius had gotten for me a while back. It was awesome.

I sat down next to Aamir in the Starbucks and watched UltraZ on the girders. He seemed to be aware of this but not bothered by it. I downed some coffee. I went for a dump and noticed Bane in the bathroom. He wasn't doing much so I left him after my dump.

nothing much was happening so i left for the futeristic zone and returned with my new sniper the had 500% more damage and i had also got an invisibilkity cloak i showed them my gun but kept the cloak hidden

i got under my cloack and headed for smiley i jumped up infront of him almost knocking him over

As the air in front of me moved I decided to slap it. My hand felt like it hit flesh and Aamir came flying out of some sort of disguise cloth. I pointed and laughed.

i made him promise not to tell the others of my cloack and gave him a spare that i had bought i then did the same to anatius

...I sighed as I watched him prance around. I didn't have the heart to tell him the truth...looks like he should've read the instruction manual...

I walked into stabucks to see smiley reeding the poonidge ninja book I had given him. I sat at his table to see he wa out of coffee. DUN DUN DUN! I looked at the cup "white with2 milk" I then ordered 2 of them for us. I saw ultraZ in the girders reading and a bolt of inspirattion hit me.

I was thinking when smiley say "oh yeah, Aamir left this for you"
"thanks" I replied simply not knowing what it was.

I unraveled the fabric and realised it was an invisibility cloak.

I had no need for such a thing and shuved it down my pans as a quick meathod of storage.

The coffee arived. mmm

I downed the next coffee. It was gooooood.

I put the cloak away in the pack. That way I wouldn't leave it somewhere. What a problem that would be!

I was deinking my coffee whilr designing a long sword that doulbled up a a hand gun. I the notice smiley packing up.

I needed to train and so did smiley "smiley, do you eanna prctice sword tecneques agains zomies. I need to practice raising them and you need practice with the sword. so how about it?"

"Sure thing. Sounds good to me." I headed out into an open training area.

I took possition and raised 3 zombies around smiley a nice gentle warm up to ease him into things.

The zombies' strength was clearly in numbers, or else the technique wasn't fully developed: my sword cut through them like butter and one swing was enough to clear them.