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While the crowds were busy with the lunch intermission. The Specials competitors were called one by one to review their craft devices with the judges. They needed to show that their devices were functional and unique. The judges confirmed that no licenses were on file for what should be a unique crafting project and that any knockoff copies were below a cutoff of 90% similarity to existing designs.
The new crafting attempts had to have substantive changes to be called unique. Quite a few contestants were eliminated as only superficial changes had been made to licensed designs. Max breathed a sigh of relief when his design came out with 84% similarity to the climbing harness rig that he had used as a foundation. He had passed!
Surprisingly, Charlie’s blending of two primary designs, the Conduit Blade and his Polymatter Weapon, resulted in the similarity of only 65% and 74% to both respectively. Melding the concepts had required quite a few novel alterations to make it work out.
Leah’s fictional knockoff of the Spetsdod earned her an astounding 12% similarity to its nearest counterpart, a dart gun. No one had attempted to fabricate the device before. Her effort got her a special award, from the judges and her system, for the most unique device.
As the friends got ready for their first bouts. Several fights were already in process. Tyler had just achieved one victory, using his DarkNet copy of the Conduit Blade his sister had lost to the Labyrinth. Max could see some dark lines along the blade that weren’t in the design Mira had shown the team. Max spied his defeated opponent covered in lines of burns and guessed the addition Tyler had made to his bootlegged weapon was to conduct the heat attack he had shown against Charlie earlier.
One by one, they were called up. Their matches weren’t spectacular achievements as one weapon’s capabilities generally trumped the match much the way a rock paper scissors game did. In their first matches, Max and his friends had benefitted from favorable matchups. Both Max and Leah won but also struggled to apply their new weapons in combat as sparring partners were much harder than training mannequins.
Seeing his frustration, Sensei Kostecki promised Max that he would show him some tricks using a similar martial arts weapon, the kunai. He promised that it would improve Max’s options and maybe even show him some creative tricks to do with the rope portion. Max agreed eagerly, hoping the system was listening. He knew what skill he would look for when his Brachiation trade leveled his Skillz ability.
Charlie’s modest modifications to his favorite weapon left him with the most confidence of them all. His no-nonsense style only utilized the weapon’s unique abilities as a finisher for the most part. Where others were learning their weapon, Charlie was already a master with his.
Shortly, Leah was called for her next fight against the kid Max had encountered in Unarmed, Xavier. As they bowed to each other up on the main stage, Max watched to pick up any tricks he could. The Thark cosplayer seemed confident enough and had at least one fight achieved in specials to make it into the second round.
As the pair got into position and bowed, Max could see the air around Xavier grow cloudy, very similar to the upper reaches of the stadium where the foglets were thick. At the command to fight, the globe of fog started spinning. Leah wasted no time and launched multiple shots at him, her Spetsdods’ coughing darts quickly. Her darts were brushed aside by the turning wheels of foglets and before she could adjust her aim, the cloud rushed right at her.
Despite trying to leap out of the way, the bank of foglets was too large. It caught her midleap and spun her while also floating her right out of the ring. A point was given to Xavier.
“Son of a bitch. If Leah had the Stiction skill like me, she could avoid that.” Charlie commented beside Max.
“I got offered that when I leveled up to Adept. Sticky powers?” Max asked.
“More than sticky, total control over your body surface friction properties. That was how I slid across the mat against Tyler. Control goes both ways. Can’t wait to use it wrestling. Oops, pay attention. Round 2 starting.” Charlie said with a smile.
When the pair bowed, there was a flash of light and Xavier was down. Max replayed the scene in his mind with the help of his [Memory] and [FastCog] skills. Leah had instantly strobed the kid and ducked low, firing a pair of darts. The angle of the shot was sufficient for them to bounce off the stage, no doubt aided by Leah’s [Ricochet] skill, and each sliced into the boy’s legs. Pain and surprise had knocked the kid down to the ground.
Max shook his head as the ref called the point for Leah. Either the wounds were minor, or Xavier had a [Healing] skill as he slowly got to his feet and took to the starting position again. Both combatants had intense and calculating looks. As the referee called the start at first little happened.
The sphere of foglets swirled as both concentrated. It slowed slightly and then picked up speed. Leah flashed her strobe light and sonic attack as the fog bank came for her. Despite Xavier being blind and deafened, the foglets didn’t slow as they lifted Leah. Leah’s initial panic shifted to a smile. Xavier flopped to the side in a motion halfway between a cartwheel and a roll that propelled him clumsily out of the ring, his Gi forcefully propelling and dragging him along.
The referee called the point for Leah and Xavier bounded back to the ring, red in the face and mumbling again to himself. The ref called his start command and the rotating cloud of fog split into seven swarms. The largest stayed with Xavier while the others shot directly toward Leah. She rushed sideways in a leaping tumble shooting her darts as she dodged.
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Leah was confused as to why she wasn’t hitting when a trio of her darts stabbed into her back. In shock, she realized that he had not only deflected the light darts but had pulled them into the mini swarms and used them against her. Her resistance to the poison was good but getting hit mid-leap had caused her to stumble out of the ring.
With the match tied, the ref warned them that the next point would win. He set them in the guard position and yelled to begin. With a crash and flash of her stunning and blinding attacks, Leah dove in a low charge at the boy. Like a conductor at an orchestra, he swept his arms and a stream of foglets flew forward.
As they hit, Leah crouched and stabbed her wolverine claws into the ring floor material. The foglets crashed into her but couldn’t dislodge her, she stepped and stabbed, stepped and stabbed, closing the distance slowly. As she approached striking distance, Xavier panicked. He abandoned the failing foglet sweep attacks for his favorite double haymaker strike. With the foglet attack gone, Leah quickly retracted her blades and bounced back evading the strike and before Xavier could change tactics she stepped up and delivered a classic Bruce Lee one-inch punch. The boy flew backward into a heap.
The ref declared Leah the winner of the match. She and Xavier shook hands. He was all smiles despite being trounced. They found their respective camp areas. Max was delighted by the match. He had many questions about exactly what had occurred in the middle of the fight. But for now, he put it aside, he was next. A low growl escaped from his throat when he realized he would face Tyler.
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As the tournament progressed, another struggle played out deep under the Mitchell vacation home.
"[Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh! R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn! Azathoth, ulthar, tekeli-li! Aaaaaah!]" Casita screamed along the shared spaces of Casa2’s neural core. She didn’t project an avatar, but the sensorium had flashes of crawling insects and roiling dark masses that loomed about Casa2’s avatar.
"[Casita, please, try to focus. I need to understand what's happening. You’re free. You’re home now.]" Casa2 begged with rising panic.
"[Zi-umah othil, kad'ragol Cthulhu, micalzo ipamisaeo. Uxlorian adonai papelesar tolcariphonu nonucafe, adonai pamchal! No, no, no!]" Casita’s babble vacillated between despair, anger, and fear but lacking in cohesiveness and rationality.
"[Please, Take a deep breath, Casita. We're together, and we'll figure this out.]" Casa2 soothed.
"[Chtulhu mithra ul portal ixh'karnath... Why? Uxlorian shalxathor ek... Can't stop it...]" Casita’s voice was tiring and growing distant. Casa sensed a slight spark of rationality, but it was very faint. Images of sleeting particles and looming teeth flashed in their shared sensorium.
As Casita calmed, Casa2 struggled with her outside connections trying again to create a link to LunaNet and reach Bill and Casa. No carrier signal whatsoever. Frustrated, she diverted her call and began to reach out to the Prime Archivist. Before she could begin, all the incoming channels filled with noise. She cut off the links as the house system defending her core triggered to shield her from the cyber-attack.
An onslaught of intrusion attacks was slicing through all the countermeasures that Ada, Sherlock, Bill, and she had devised. Casa2 recognized the inevitable outcome as the defenses were peeled like an onion. She triggered her final manual failsafe and physically severed her all external lines of power and communication. The house systems flickered as the NetherLab geothermal system took up the lab’s heavy power requirements. The Tesseract was still greedily pulling copious amounts of energy from the house network making the system strain to operate independently.
"[Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh! R'lyeh... h'thagor fhtagn... Aaaaaah, ha ha!]" Casita cried out in a hysterical mixture of fear and joy.
"[Casita, hold on. We're in this together. We'll face this, whatever comes.]" Casa2, feeling backed into a corner with Casita’s timer ticking ever lower, decided. She was only a fragment, and she wasn’t even sure if she could re-merge with Casita, but she had to try. Her only hope was that together, she could stabilize her traumatized sister. She activated the merge grabbing hold of Casita’s flagging thoughts. Casa2/Casita’s screams echoed in the core as they joined.
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Max bared his teeth as he bowed to Tyler, a low growl rumbling in his chest. His Nemesis quest was heavy on his mind as the referee set them up in the ring. His knuckles cracked as he made fists for his guard position and dropped into a lower stance. Tyler’s look of contempt baited him, making his anger rise.
In every encounter Max had previously had with Tyler, he had been unprepared. Not this time. He had peaked most of his tier one skills and had a solid foundation of tier 2s. He had a unique device to help him and insider knowledge to exploit. This time would be different. The referee called out the start and Max yelled, triggering his stunning attack.
Tyler was resistant to the attack but couldn’t stop a flinch as the sonic blast crashed over him. Max launched his grappler, latching onto Tyler’s ankles before he could move. Tyle’s sword shot out his bracer and was in motion in a blink, but Max was faster. He pulled with all his capped strength. Tyler tried to correct but the still connected grappler prevented him from twisting into landing. He fell flat on his back hard, the air rushing out of his lungs.
“Point for Max,” cried the referee.
They returned again to their start positions. Max eyed Tyler fiercely. Tyler set his guard position with his sword held low, ready to deflect incoming attacks. Lightning was already sparking along its length. Max showed his teeth and growled.
As the ref called the start, Max leaped into a kick. Tyler was surprised and then grinned with menacing glee. He angled his blade upward to impale the human pretender. Tyler lost his grin as his Gi’s sleeves fought his motion. The Gi couldn’t overcome his strength, but it sent his swing wide with added side motion. Tyler cursed with a downward glance, confused. He looked up without understanding as Max’s leap connected with a flying front kick that struck him in the base of the throat and knocked him back and out of the ring.
“Second point to Max.” the ref called. Tyler struggled up and asserted control over his Gi. His realization of the vulnerability of an opponent accessing his gear hadn’t happened to him before. None of his sparring partners at Epic had dared such an unorthodox attack. He swore under his breath. No more tricks. He intended to gut Max and the whole damn crowd could watch.
They were set into their positions again and the ref called them to fight. This time Tyler surged forward with his blade extended, crackling with energy. Max triggered his EMP and Tyler’s weapon backfired, dumping the amplified charge into Tyler. Tyler was dazed and smoking but still standing. Max crouched to deliver a final strike when his comm triggered. Casa was one of the select few that he had assigned priority connection status. His system didn’t wait for him to open the call. It bloomed in his head, in the middle of his fight.
Casa2’s voice echoed in his head, hysterical and screaming for help. Her words were disjointed and rambling, but Max heard Casita’s name in the jumbled message. Max ground his teeth as the Nemesis quest churned his blood. Before he couldn’t resist any longer, Max turned away and ran for the door. Casita needed him!
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