All 12.0 - Wizard Battle

It was the 3rd of Adar; Shinobi had come to Asanon a few days earlier. The day of the Cohen job was quickly approaching, and the ninja had wanted some time to investigate Asanon and get a feel for its workings, having never been there before. Deciding that there was no sense in wasting time, he looked over the wanted postings: though he found, to some displeasure, that Asanon had a strict 'no killing' policy on bounty hunting, and their thoughts on rewarding vigilante justice were prudish at best, he found a few targets that he might be able to collect in short order. He selected one in particular: Darin Hargrave, a shady businessman with known ties to the Riptide Gang. After some investigation, he learned that the man would almost certainly be at the Wizard Battle, some sort of annual sporting event in this country. Using the LT, he went to Losanti, where the event was to be held, and took on a job as a waiter, hoping to catch Hargrave in some sort of compromising position at a party to be held at the stadium that night.
That night, as he wandered about the party serving beef skewers to wizards, members of the press and sponsers, he noticed two people whom he recognized: Caitlyn and Ryuji, the two he had met while taking down Ushio. He wandered over to them and introduced himself. They had apparently only come to the party as an outing, Caitlyn having received tickets from the Grand Evoker. They chatted for a few minutes, sharing information about Hargrave and discovering that Tidal Arms was a sponsor of the event, before Shinobi wandered off to press party-goers for information regarding Hargrave; the other two said they would keep their eyes open.
A small gathering of people drew Shinobi towards the presence of a particularly striking man: a body builder who was showing off to a group of swooning ladies. His display included the conjuration of magical bubbles, making it readily apparent that this was one of the competing wizards. Shinobi tried asking the man, who introduced himself as Atlas, about Hargrave, but found that the man knew nothing of interest, and frankly seemed to not know of Hargrave at all. Frustrated, Shinobi went to move on, targeting a nearby woman who seemed to be wearing an octopus on her head.
The woman appeared bored, and seemed to be scanning the room for someone. When offered a skewer, she denied, though her octopus began to grab several of the appetizers in its tentacles and put them in its mouth, throwing back the sticks. Shinobi asked if he could help her find someone, as she was obviously looking, and she replied that yes: she was looking for a woman who had checked a bright red coat, and if he could see if she had arrived, it would be appreciated.
As he walked towards the coat check, he noticed Caitlyn and Ryuji be approached from behind by an old man with a long beard. The pair had been minding their own business, and hadn't noticed the man until he was already upon them, smiling and calling Caitlyn 'Princess'. As the man sidled up to Caitlyn, talking in altogether too friendly a fashion, his familiar, a strange black-and-white ground bird with a dumpy shape and flippers for wings, sidled up to Ryuji and began nestling against his leg. Despite his attempts to shake it off gently, the bird was adamant. Caitlyn, with all of the politeness she could muster despite the wizard's awkward and off-putting demeanour, talked with the Grand Evoker, who apparently was a participant in the competition and going by the name 'G.Evo.'. Wanting to keep him as a powerful contact, she entertained his advances and introduced Ryuji as her gay friend. Noticing the discomfort displayed by the two, Shinobi approached the Grand Evoker and told him sternly that he was needed in the prep room and should go there immediately. A bit dismayed at leaving Princess, he nonetheless called for Barnabus, the penguin sadly left Ryuji's leg, and the pair wandered away. The ninja explained that he had been talking to a woman with an octopus on her head; Ryuji mentioned that he happened to recognize her as Aries, a conjuration specialist and another one of the contestants. Thinking that she might have an idea of Hargrave's whereabouts, he left to go speak to her again.
When he approached her, she asked if the woman had checked in. Suddenly remembering his original task, he made his way to the coat check. Speaking with the attendant, he made up a story about needing a woman's red coat, as he was to bring it to the owner who needed something from its pocket. With this excuse and a bit of cash, Shinobi took possession of a woman's bright red trench coat, which he proceeded to return to Aries. She gave him a funny look when he offered it to her, as she had wanted the woman and not her coat, before she said that it was irrelevant, as she had spotted her anyway. With a swish of dismissal, the wizard walked off. Wondering what she was doing, he quickly brought the coat back to the check, turned invisible, and snuck up on the woman, now seated at a table in a far corner of the room. 
Seated with Aries were two others: another woman in a jaunty red hat, and a man that Shinobi recognized as Mr. Hargrave. He listened as they spoke in muted tones about a delivery and payments, and agreed to meet in the main stadium in half an hour to make an exchange. Looking at the mystery woman, Shinobi found that he recognized her from the wanted lists: Cherise, a master thief and known leader of the Riptide Gang. The three took their leave: Aries left the party, and Hargrave and Cherise went into a private room guarded by two large, humourless men. 
Returning to Ryuji and Caitlyn, Shinobi recounted what he had heard. The pair agreed to help capture Cherise, and decided that the best plan was to go to the stadium early and hide, listen to their meeting, and to strike when an opportunity presented itself. Ryuji mentioned that this could bode very poorly: if the wizard Aries was a member of the Council of Arcana, like the Grand Evoker, than she would know about their strike on Cohen in a little more than a day, and if she was involved with the Riptide Gang, she might have warned them of the whole plan. Knowing that they needed that information, Caitlyn left and began scouring the halls. She eventually found the Evoker wandering around, looking for the prep room where he was supposedly needed. When she returned she reported that "Conrad isn't a woman", meaning that Aries wasn't likely to be the Grand Conjurer, and they were probably safe. Heading out to the stadium, they took up hiding spots among the seats, waiting for their target.
A few minutes before the meeting time, a figure in red walked out into the stands on the opposite side of the pitch. Stealthily making their way around, they tried to see what they were doing. Shinobi was much more skilled at moving quietly, and so approached her long before the other two could make their way. He watched from the cover of invisibility as she set up a series of tall, thin boxes in a semi-circle around the chairs, forming a perimeter around a strange, oblong metal machine that sat in the center on a stand. A curious chain of metal objects lay strung from its side, as though they would feed into it somehow, but for what purpose Shinobi couldn't gather. 
As Caitlyn and Ryuji were about half-way towards Shinobi, another figure entered the field: Aries, followed by a large griffon that took to circling the sky above. Obviously displeased, Cherise walked towards her, questioning the meaning of this. Aries shrugged it off, saying she was allowed to bring her pet. Cherise's eyes darkened as she looked at the griffon and scanned the arena. Suddenly, she accused Aries of being a traitor, bringing friends and pointing towards where Caitlyn crouched. Before the shocked wizard could explain herself, Cherise brought her knee viciously to her stomach, knocking the wind from her and laying her out. Pulling a device out from her pocket and aiming it towards a hanging fixture, Cherise pulled its trigger and a grappling hook launched forth, wrapping around the light and letting the woman swing back towards the boxes she had set up. Before anyone had time to react, she had lifted the machine and, aiming it at the wizard, pulled its trigger. Several loud bangs uttered forth from it and Aries yelled out in pain: the machine had wound in some of the chain and had apparently launched projectiles faster than the eye could follow at the defenseless woman. Caitlyn and Ryuji kept to their cover as Aries teleported away, bleeding and crying. Shinobi, on the other hand, saw this as his chance: sneaking up towards her as she turned the machine towards where she had spotted Caitlyn, he climbed up on the boxes and sliced at her with his kursarigama. With lighting speed, she turned on her assailant and fired upon him, a series of the metal projectiles shooting painfully into his arms and torso. Falling back, he hid as Caitlyn and Ryuji ran to his assistance.
As she ran forward, Caitlyn cast Confusion upon Cherise, causing her to begin acting erratically, yelling in tongues and shooting wildly. Caitlyn took a bullet to her shoulder, but Ryuji healed the wound as they ran. Covering the rest of the distance quickly, Ryuji ran towards Cherise in an effort to make her surrender. The confusion had settled in however, and she continued to yell and flail, clubbing herself with the machine. Using the power of his faith, Ryuji made his katana blunt, and began to strike Cherise, hoping to subdue her if she wouldn't surrender. Shinobi popped up and threw a shuriken, but his wounds were serious and he didn't wish to risk death at the hands of this strange machine. 
Suddenly, and largely unnoticed by the combatants, three wizards teleported into the center of the field: Aries, joined by the Grand Evoker and yet another woman, dressed smartly and surveying the scene with a harsh eye. The griffon, who had been scared by the commotion, flew over to its master. The three moved towards the fight; the serious woman waved her hands and a glowing cage with walls of spikes began closing in around the group in the stands. A loudspeaker announced that they were to all stop and surrender: Caitlyn complied, Shinobi continued to hide invisibly, and Cherise, confused, continued striking at herself and Ryuji. Caitlyn tried explaining what was going on, while Aries told a story of her walking in on the fighting and getting injured by the one in red. The woman, who the other two wizards referred to as Bastion, seemed displeased by the whole ordeal. Coming to her senses, Cherise held up her hands, weapon still in them, signalling surrender. With a vicious kick, she sent the boxes falling like dominoes; as they crashed, they made loud noises as they broke and sent their contents spilling. They had been rigged to self-destruct: small explosives had destroyed whatever had been stored inside the sand that had filled the crates, chunks of glass the only thing suggesting that they had ever contained anything but sand to begin with. One by one, they all surrendered, walking to the edge of the cage which was eventually proved entirely illusory. First came Caitlyn, who the Grand Evoker swore up and down was a victim and wouldn't ever do something bad, followed by Cherise, Shinobi and finally Ryuji, who looked panicked and guilty as he trudged towards the wizards, hand covering a wound on his face that neither bled nor was within his power to heal. The wizard Bastion looked at him with suspicion as she put all of them in handcuffs and began leading them out, except for Caitlyn who was accosted by the Grand Evoker. They were all taken from the scene, and led elsewhere into the complex.
----
It was early on the 4th when an obnoxious knock brought Victor to the door. Outside was an elf with red hair nearly as offensive as his knock, who gave him a short good morning and a question as to Lucca's whereabouts. With only some slight confusion, Victor pointed Cress towards the back door, where he proceeded immediately, leaving a trail of snow through the house for the man to clean.
Sitting in the snow conducting his morning rituals was the druid, fully engrossed in his task. Cress came up behind him and shouted, startling the druid and earning him a flailed smack in the nose that immediately began to bleed. The pair yelled at each other, mostly in good spirits. The elf revealed his intent: he had two tickets to the Wizard Battle that day, and wanted Lucca to come with him. After some additional shouting, Cress let Lucca complete his rituals by returning inside and raiding Victor's pantry. Lucca eventually returned indoors and, after a snack, made to head out, though not before berating Cress for the mess he left on the floor and making a rough-shod attempt to clean it by running a towel along the wood.
The pair used the LT to go to Losanti, where the stadium was already set for the main event. Spectators flocked about the various stands selling commemorative merchandise, which the two young men bought in excess. Eventually deciding to find their seats, they followed Cress' tickets to gate 20, which they discovered to be an uncrowded back entrance. At this point, Cress examined them and discovered that they were 'access passes' rather than standard tickets. Lucca berated him some more, to which Cress defensively replied that he had gotten them from his brother and knew they were legit, so he hadn't bothered looking at them closely. Confused but undeterred, the pair strode in. 
Inside was a flurry of activity, but it wasn't spectators crowding about. Rather, the atheletes and their attendants, as well as various staff members, rushed about, preparing for the event. Cress and Lucca wandered about, looking rather out of place, peering around corners and into dressing rooms. They quickly came upon a room marked "Ezekiel Beck", which Cress recognized as one of his brother's personas. Figuring that he wouldn't mind the intrusion, the pair entered, only to find the room dark and empty. They poked around, helping themselves to refreshments and nosing about the drawers and costume racks. After a while, they got bored and made to leave. Abandoning a large portion of their souvenirs in the dressing room to collect later, they stepped back out into the hall, where they were almost immediately stopped by a man with a clipboard. He demanded to know where Beck was, to which they replied that they had no idea. When asked, they admitted to being on Beck's staff; the man said it fell to them to take Beck's place. Lucca panicked at this prospect, staunchly refusing the idea, but amid his protestations, Cress cheerily signed a waiver for both him and the druid. Lucca was livid as the man directed them to a waiting platform and told them to be there in 15 minutes. The druid took what little time he had to prepare spells before the two headed to the viewing platform.
The crowd was gigantic in the stadium as the pair looked out over it; it wasn't long before the announcer began his spiel, starting the event to the crowd's excitement. Lucca fretted as Cress cheered along with the mob, as the reigning champion, Bastion, was announced. She stepped into the center, holding a huge decorative belt adorned with a massive gem. Her challengers, G.Evo and Atlas, were announced as well, and began stage bantering. It was eventually decided that the match would be a 'cage match', though neither Lucca nor Cress knew what that was. Two large, electrified cages, each holding a person, were brought up through the floor into two corners of the field: in one stood Aries, in the other was Caitlyn. The two starting wizards, G.Evo and Atlas, made their declarations of victory as it was explained that the two combatants would have to get past their opponent to save their beloved, who was trapped and guarded by terrible monsters. At that, a chimera was released to guard Aries, and none other than Ryuji was sent to stand by Caitlyn. The appearance of their acquaintences was confused the pair as they watched the battle begin. 
The two wizards began to fight one another, G.Evo favouring ice-based spells while Atlas prefered physical attacks. Atlas was quickly frozen solid, and G.Evo went towards Caitlyn's cage, only to be repelled by Ryuji's sword, once again magically dulled. G.Evo's ice magic bounced harmlessly off of the Yetoman; suddenly, a purple, glittery mist covered the field. When it cleared, the announcer declared that the fog denoted that the rules had changed: weapons were banned, except for chairs. Meanwhile the chimera, rather than attack its intended opponent, rubbed up against Atlas and helped him thaw. Aries, with a look of disdain, summoned a griffon from her cage that took to the field. The referee blew his whistle: an unintented combatant meant that another wizard could join the fight. The spotlight whirled around until it landed on a petrified and furious Lucca, being called out by Cress. Much to his unwillingness, Lucca was brought down by Cress to the field, where the elf took the ref's voice enhancer and yelled out a rather impressive introduction for Lucca, the Surly Wizard. As Lucca entered the field near Ryuji, Atlas grabbed a metal folding chair from the audience and used it to club G.Evo. Lucca was at a loss; Cress threw him a chair and told him to hit people with it. The druid turned to Ryuji and asked, flustered, if they were supposed to fight. Ryuji barely responded yes, they had to make it look good, before taking a chair across his face. Upset and barred from using his sword, he levelled a brutal punch at Lucca that not only hit quite painfully, but also appeared to give him frostbite.
The fight continued for a while, the griffon engaging Lucca and Ryuji as Atlas made for Aries' cage. G.Evo stopped him with a powerful ice spell that hit everyone, including the referee. Another layer of purple mist fell over the field, but the referee was too stunned by the ice to explain what the new rule was. Cress, taking the opportunity, jumped over to where the referee was and yelled 'grappling only' to the combatants. After a few seconds, the announcer declared that the judges ruled that, though the real rule was 'no magic', they would uphold the grappling rule suggested by the new ref. Pumping his fist in victory, Cress took the ref's whistle and tried to figure out what he should be doing.
As an anti-magic field had now dropped over the arena, the two summoned creatures, the griffon and the chimera, both disappeared. Suddenly, there was a flash of fireworks as two more combatants appeared in the ring, announcing themselves as the Dark Brothers, despite one of them clearly being a woman. They fell into combat as well, the woman running over to engage Lucca while the man went after Atlas. Unfortunately for him, the man tripped, and another purple fog rolled in. When it cleared, the floor had become flaming lava, which Cress gleefully yelled out. This panicked Ryuji terribly, and he grabbed onto Lucca only to be shoved violently back with a shout. The wizards all ran to the edges of the field and lept up onto the guardrails, avoiding the burning ground. Lucca, for his part, pulled out his halo and began to fly on glowing wings of light. Still miffed at having been grabbed at, Lucca nonetheless let Ryuji hold on and avoid the lava. The wizards still attempted to battle while balancing on the guardrail, but it didn't take long for the Dark Brother to slip and fall again, prompting another mist-heralded rule change. The fog lifted to reveal a large square platform had appeared in the center, with a ladder on each of its sides. A violent wind whipped about, preventing flight and prompting Lucca to land on the now-solid floor. Hanging from the ceiling, suspended above the platform, was the title belt that Bastion had held aloft earlier. As the announcer called out that the end was coming, Bastion herself entered the ring. With a wave of her hand, an illusion of fifty belts surrounded the original, obscuring its location. Atlas, G.Evo and Bastion all ran towards the platform; Lucca ran as well, goaded on by Cress, though Ryuji gave him another parting shot for show that once again brought freezing pain. The four of them began to each climb the ladders, while the Dark Brother tried to pull down G.Evo and the Dark Sister attacked Ryuji, who had finally gone and reclaimed his sword from where he had dropped it when weapons had been disallowed. With some subtility, he channeled energy, healing Lucca some of the damage he had dealt him earlier.
The four struggled up the ladder through the swirling winds. As Lucca neared the top, quite injured and done with this whole idea, cast a spell that summoned a swarm of obnoxious, screaming monkeys that climbed over everyone, including himself. Deafened and nauseated by the mass of screeching mammals that covered them, the wizards still continued climbing as best they could. Another purple fog rolled in, leaving behind it two large, drawstring bags on opposite ends of the arena. Shrugging, Ryuji went to the one near him, while the Dark Brother ran to the other. When Ryuji pulled the string, a hole suddenly appeared in the ground; the Dark Brother's bag contained a backpack. The significance of this was lost on the Yetoman, the druid and the elf, but Caitlyn knew what happened if you put an extradimensional hole in extradimensional storage space. Yelling it over to Ryuji, he hurredly rolled up the portable hole that he had unleashed and passed it through the bars to Caitlyn for her to hold, albeit unwillingly. 
Meanwhile, Lucca had reached the top of the pillar and had begun sifting through the illusions for the real belt, hoping beyond hope that finding it would end the madness. Bumping into something solid, he grabbed the belt, only to find it firmly attached to something. He yelled and pulled, but to no avail. Atlas made it to the top, covered in monkeys, and made for the belt as well. Putting all of his weight on the belt and its tether, Lucca jumped off of the platform and began to fall, slowed by whatever was holding the belt up. As he hit the ground, he saw that it had been suspended with some sort of elastic goo that had stretched even all the way to the bottom. Wanting to finish this before the Dark Brother could manage to reach the portable hole with his bag of holding, Ryuji stepped over, and with his sword, sliced through the goo. With a cheer and applause, the announcer declared the Wizard Battle to be over, with the mysterious newcomer taking the title.
As Lucca was swarmed with reporters and fans, aided by an elated Cress, Ryuji and Caitlyn slipped out unnoticed. A beleaguered Lucca spent the rest of the day, evening and some of the night dealing with sports press, fans, Wonderful Wizard Entertainment representatives and Cress. Ryuji and Caitlyn went back to Caitlyn's apartment, trying not to think about what they were about to do the next day.
Category:Advent of the All