RE: The Tournament Of A Lifetime Prelude

This prelude story will lead into a RP that should hopefully be coming soon down the line -- hopefully within the next month or so. This particular storyline isn't a direct sequel to RE: Black Ice Friendship, but does occur a bit further down that same universe's timeline, but not by much. Time permitting, other stories I write throughout the next few months will help bridge the gap between the RE: BIF story and the RE:tToaL storyline.

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“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure we were told not to leave.”

Tropic is a world of nearly unparalleled beauty, with each of its continents as varied in ecosystems as the next. The planet’s beauty does well to veil its dangers, both natural and manmade. When these dangers present themselves, the planet’s people are presented with two options -- to run and save themselves, or to confront the problem head-on.

“In my defense, I was left unsupervised.” Xanthos Ailuro replied with a smirk, his eyes trained on the figure he was currently chasing down the cobblestone streets of the Tropican city of Llayen. The communication device that was held in place by his ear gave his reply -- an exasperated sigh of resignation. “Also, if we do not handle the situation now, other civilians could fall prey to what happened on Mobius.”

“And what exactly DID happen on Mobius, Xanthos?”

“Let us not linger on the past, Luna. Look, are you in position or not?” Xanthos narrowed his eyes as he mentally judged the distance between who he was chasing and where Luna should be. Dodging passerby pedestrians, Xanthos pushed his empathic powers into the civilians, causing them to feel the emotion of fear -- a way to get them away from the battle that he was about to conduct with his target. When they were out of range, they’d return to their previous emotional states without any damage done.

His target, a teenage Mobian Chameleon, glanced back at Xanthos as if to see if she was still being chased. Upon realizing Xanthos was still on her trail, the Chameleon brandished a blade from the scabbard she had tied to her side. She quickly swished the sword’s blade several times in the air, a poor attempt to intimidate Xanthos.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be there. So, what’s your plan?”

“My plan was simply to follow your plan.” Xanthos replied as he lifted his hands into fighting position, getting into a fighting stance as he observed the weak points in the Chameleon’s own stance. He scoffed at her technique. Absolutely sloppy.

“We both know you already know what to do.”

“My queen, I must request that you refrain from taking the fun out of these missions.” With a chuckle, the Ailuro prepared himself, taking the initiative in the brawl. He lightly pressed his hands together, and his hands began to glow with light blue energy briefly before the energy flowed from his hands to the space in front of Xanthos, solidifying into three near-exact duplicates of Xanthos. The only detail the duplicates lacked were pupils, but were otherwise indistinguishable from Xanthos himself.

The Chameleon girl gasped in surprise before quickly regaining her composure and charging towards Xanthos and his clones, her blade at the ready. With a war cry, she tried to slash at the duplicates, but the skill difference between her and Xanthos was apparent nearly instantly. Her sword slashes were nowhere swift enough to strike the three clones, who responded by running towards the girl with fists cloaked in dark blue electricity. Xanthos himself hadn’t moved from the spot he had stopped running at, his eyes focused on the Chameleon.

The girl backflipped away from the charging clones and glowered at the real Xanthos, who returned her glare with a bored stare of his own. She tried to bull rush him again, only for Xanthos’ clones to block her path and box her into a corner, cutting off her path.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I see you now. Let’s wrap this up.” Luna responded. Snow began to flurry down from the skies above and Xanthos had only barely heard the last part of her response when he felt the already cold temperature of Llayen drop even further, which heralded the arrival of Luna.

And arrive she did.

Xanthos only had fractions of a second to mentally direct his clones to reach a safe distance before a barrier of ice spikes erupted into a wide circle around him, his clones, and the Chameleon. The snow flurries intensified before concentrating on a spot next to the real Xanthos, becoming a tornado of white before breaking apart to reveal a light-blue hedgehog. She examined the Chameleon girl, sizing her up. The girl looked at the new arrival, Luna, with a look of surprise before shakily trying to lift her blade. Xanthos shook his head with a smile, still not understanding how this girl couldn’t see that this “battle” was over before it even began.

“To you go the honors, your Highness.” Xanthos said with a bow towards Luna before waving a hand toward his clones, dispersing them as easily as wind disperses piles of leaves. Luna nodded wordlessly before clenching a fist, lifting the ice spikes in the circle she created into air, turning them so that the pointed ends aimed at the Chameleon. Upon seeing the icicles set to impale her, the girl screamed in response, dropping her blade out of fright.

Luna lowered her hand, urging her icicles to come raining down on the Chameleon, but not in any way to hurt her. The pillars of ice came crashing to the ground, wrenching free chunks of the road from the ground where it had been set. A cage of ice spikes had now been crafted, trapping the Chameleon within its bars. Luna relaxed, crossing her arms as she did so.

“Well… that was easy. Also, don’t call me that.” Luna said as she glanced over at Xanthos.

“Hm? Your Highness? Is that not your title?”

“Well, yes, but that doesn’t mean I want to be called tha-” Luna is cut off by the sound of sirens approaching. Both she and Xanthos looked in the direction of the sound, seeing a small patrol of law enforcement vehicles approaching from further down the road. But that wasn’t what immediately caught their eye. It was the person who was at the head of the legion of vehicles, riding a slab of rock towards Xanthos and Luna. Clad in a dark blue dress and sporting long brown hair, Rocky looked far from pleased.

“Hm… You know, I do not think Roqueta is happy we left.” Xanthos mused, causing Luna to smack her forehead in exasperation. Yawning, the Ailuro glanced back at the Chameleon girl, who now had accepted that she wasn’t going to get out of the cage. The sound of the vehicles grew louder, and Xanthos looked over to see that they were nearly within hearing distance now.

“So, what’s our excuse for ditching?” Luna asked Xanthos as Rocky lept off of her rock slab and began to approach the two other heroes.

“There was a clearance in the market.”

“On what? Ice?” Luna waved a hand around, motioning to the cold environment Llayen was situated in. The city was situated in the cradle of the Krystupolik continent, an icy sector of Tropic that had very little in the way of its own goods to trade. Xanthos simply shrugged as Rocky came close, ready for the lecture he was to receive. Now face-to-face with the others, Rocky began to open her mouth to say something, but thought better of her choice of words and took a breath.

“Look… I know political meetings can be boring, but in order for our planets to get along from here on out, these things are necessary.” Rocky said as she tried to remind the other two of why they had come to her planet. She wanted to try to see the situation from their perspective, but she couldn’t help but feel miffed in that they had left so abruptly. Having other superheroes working alongside Rocky had been an enticing prospect for the Tropican government to allow itself a greater political influence in the Mosaic Cloud Galaxy, but if she were seen as incompetent here, then all was for nothing!

“My reasoning was not in that the meeting was boring, although it admittedly very much was. Our girl here slipped up, and I gave chase when her tracker sent the signal. Now, she is off the streets, and the trade routes between Tropic and Mobius are no longer being plundered by pirates.” Xanthos replied.

“And what about the rest of the people she’s working with, Xanthos? We’ve been tailing her for months to try to discover the rest of the pirates’ have been holed up. With her now captured, we’ve lost our lead!” Rocky felt herself growing more and more frustrated by Xanthos seemingly not caring about his actions. Hacking away at a single tree branch wouldn’t make the whole tree fall over, after all.

“Must I do everything?” Xanthos said with a sigh as he turned his attention to the ice cage, walking over to it slowly and placing a hand on the Chameleon’s head. Rocky and Luna glanced at each other before returning their gazes to Xanthos, whose eyes were closed in concentration. He could feel the caged girl’s emotions, and with those emotions, he could feel memories that she associated with them.

“It’s like what he did with my mother’s claymore…” Luna spoke, realizing that Xanthos was searching the girl for “echoes” of memories she had experienced. A few seconds had gone by before he finally stood.

“On Tropic, the pirates possess a compound on the continent Garrjenea. The… southeastern swamp. There will an opening where the roots of three trees come together and form a cypress knob. The trees are marked with this symbol…” As he speaks, Xanthos uses a finger to draw an obscure symbol in the leftover snow that Luna had brought in her arrival. The symbol itself almost looked like a winged snake biting into a star. “There is a Koko pirate in charge of the operation there named Patch. A running-type, I might add.”

Rocky motioned to one of the Tropican officers who were now behind her, a signal to let them know to hunt down Patch. As the officers left with the Chameleon girl in tow, Rocky finally dropped the facade of an experienced superhero -- putting on the mask of an infallible hero took more of a toll on her than she’d like to admit.

“Look, Roqueta, I am aware that you worry for the future of our respective people. As do we all. But I can assure you, you have no reason to fear. I have no intention of jeopardizing what our forefathers fought so hard to bring about -- a chance for unity between our worlds and to mend what was broken so long ago.” Xanthos said, his usual deadpan face now more earnest and sympathetic towards Rocky’s plight. More than he wanted to admit, he was incredibly aware of the pressure Rocky constantly faced, a side effect of the emotions she tried so hard to hide. She couldn’t hide them from him.

“Alright, that’s good and all… But it doesn’t mean you’re excused from ignoring that there are cultural differences between your world and Tropic.” Luna spoke up, her heterochromatic eyes now fixated on Xanthos. “You did the same thing on my world, Iciaura, when you took my mother’s blade. You plunged in without consulting me to even see if I would be alright with what you were doing!”

Xanthos rubbed the back of his head a bit sheepishly, recalling how he had taken the sacred blade without much consent on Luna’s behalf. “Alright, alright, so I am not the most aware of cultural differences, I suppose I can admit that. But I do not believe I am entirely at fault -- in my culture, there is rarely any need to ask for consent when everyone already knows what you want consent for. It is an unspoken consent that my people live by. But, I now realize that that is a poor defense of my actions. I apologize, Roqueta. However, speaking of cultures!”

As the three begin to head towards the government building that Xanthos and Luna had previously absconded from, Xanthos retrieved a pair of paper envelopes from his pockets, then handed one to both Luna and Rocky.

“My planet, Anount, is one that venerates war and the intricacies of combat. Going by Mosaic Galactic Standard measures of time, Anount holds a tournament biannually with several other nearby worlds as a token of appreciation and respect. I have been working to try to secure both Tropic and Iciaura spots in the next tourney, and the paperwork finally went through. If you would like, your world can send four of your best warriors to the Arcana Melee. Those envelopes hold more details you might have questions about. Or you can ask me.” Xanthos beamed proudly at the two girls.

“Arcana… Is that magic related?” Luna wondered, catching the strange terminology. Rocky looked down at her envelope, also reading the tournament’s name… Would there be any restrictions on someone like her, who didn’t use magic?

“Originally, the Arcana Melee was a means for Anount to try to adjust to having Vates -- a mage is what you call them -- and so, we would use the Arcana Melee as a means to normalize users of magic into our society. Whether or not that has been successful is… hard to say, but the Melee now supports all kinds of fighters, regardless of whether you possess magical ability or not. My world is hosting the the 6th Melee this time around, so… I would very much appreciate if you would be able to come?”

His eyes were hopeful as he looked over at them to see their reactions.

“I’m all in!!” Luna said with glee as she clutched the envelope in her hands tightly. For the most part, Iciaura had still been suffering from the Daitengu attack from so long ago. Perhaps getting her planet exposure here could help bring trade back to Iciaura. “Ha, I’m so in, I’ll mail myself there if I have to!”

“Well, I’m certainly psyched!” Rocky followed up Luna’s enthusiasm. This could be Rocky’s chance to prove herself not only to the other members of the Geneforce, but to also help her homeworld of Tropic regain its honor. “I’ll be sure to make it. Oh, and I’m going to win it, too!”

Xanthos smirked in response, feeling his own excitement bubble up. “I look forward to seeing you both there, then! The current Tourney champions are from planet Pauli, but Team Anount has racked up the most consecutive wins. We shall see who comes out on top this time!”

And so begins… the tournament of a lifetime!!