Fight for Power

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

What is it, you may ask?

Right now, we are going back in tiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeee! Back during in the days before the desert arc, is an interquel arc, the Rocky Rumble!
____________
<]-Mithril-[>

Okay, I'm already bored. How long has it been since I've beaten Libera in our fight? It may be a few hours, it may be a few days, or anything in between. No need to worry about the time right now.

NOW THEN, to deal with said boredom, I've traveled on over to the Weirdo Hut, and have been looking for potential adventure hooks on the hut's bulletin board. I've found one about Shadow's Cove, but I think I'll save that adventure for later.

I rummaged through the stack of posters as I mused to myself that I probably should show the others around the Hut sometimes. The locals here would probably "like" Libera, for example. And by "like" I mean eager to try and beat up.

Hmm, nothing else really seems to be worth exploring... wait a second...

Right beneath all of the other posters, hidden in the very back, was a poster advertising an event held at Blackrock Descent: the Rocky Rumble. It was celebrating blahblahblah somethingsomething special anniversary event but the point is that it was a fighting event. A time and place for COMBAT. The winner of this fighting tournament gets a whole bunch of goodies!

I idly noted that due to the poster's location beneath all these posters... well dammit NOW I worry about the time. A closer look at the poster had confirmed my suspicions: Signups close SOON; no time to waste!

I quickly told everyone in the Squad about the Rocky Rumble even as I arranged a series of teleports to Blackrock Descent. Rocky Rumble, here we come!

COMMENCE SPACE-TIME REWIND

<Beta>

Tapping my chin and looking around the space I'd been given in Hero Squad HQ, I considered some additions to the template I'd already made.

"I'm debating on whether or not I want to have a waterfall..." I muttered to my captive audience of one. His only reply was a strangled noise of fear and agitation, still sheltered within that giant skeletal thing of his. It had been on fire, previously. Now it wasn't.

"It could have a slide and everything, it'll be great!" I prodded. Alpha Draconis shifted further back into his self-made cage, glaring for all his worth.

"Oh come on, it's not like I'm gonna bite you or anything," I promised in my best innocent voice. This did not reassure him in the slightest.

"SUP FOLKS WE'RE GOIN' ON A FIELD TRIP!" Mithril's voiced boomed throughout the entirety of HQ, loud enough to send ripples through my body. Oh, well okay.

"Hey, you heard that, field trip!" I said to Cliche Man. This did nothing to convince him to exit the skeleton cage.

"Fine, suit yourself," I pouted at him, before fiddling with the Hero Band I'd been given. This thing is supposed to have a teleport function somewhere, right...

Popping suddenly into an unfamiliar location told that hey, I'd found the button, or something. Shortly after I arrived, there was a small thud and then a big thud as Libera and then Juggernaut arrived, with Quicksilver in tow.

"So what're we up t- oh hey, Blackrock Mountain! Haven't been in this neighborhood in a while," Quicksilver chattered before yawning into his hand, "Wait, is the Rocky Rumble going down? Is it that time of year?" he muttered.

"I did say that, yes," Mithril drawled at him in response, leading the way towards the door, "Did you not hear me explain that part?"

"Might not have paid attention," Quicksilver admitted, yawning again. He, and everyone else, were promptly startled into perfect wakefulness when something slammed into Libera, sending him skidding away with a Spiral Shield up.

"Oh, you wanna go right here, bro?" Libera grinned towards a collection of bizarre, ephemeral shapes that slowly faded out to reveal Anti.

"I feel it would be... appreciated," Anti retorted, even as Libera rocketed at him drills first.

"Oi, did you not hear the part about sign-ups... oh forget it," Mithril sighed in exasperation as the two opposed Spiral Warriors went at it, explosions drowning out any attempt to get their attention. The gate guards watched the back and forth with some amusement.

"I thought the Rumble always happened inside," one of the guards grunted as we continued on.

"Oh, they're not part of that. Just think of it as... your own personal show!" I explained, which seemed to be good enough for them.

"Wake me up when you find the signups, assuming you can find them," Quicksilver muttered. His meaning was quickly revealed when we found a map of the Descent.

"Holy s***. Who the f*** designed this place?!" Mithril balked at the completely insane map, a layout that followed no rhyme or reason.

"A succession of total madmen with a seething hatred of the particular flavor of madness held by their predecessor," Quicksilver muttered again, eliciting a few knowing chuckles from passersby within earshot. Mithril groaned

"Grand. Well, we've got teleporters, this can't take that long," Mithril declared, inspecting the map for a moment before leading the way once more.

<]-Mithril-[>

First things first, you know the fight that Libera is having against Anti right now? That might be fun to watch later, so I'll just DVR that s*** and save it for another time. Finding signups is an urgent priority right now.

Yeah, the layout of this place is completely insane. It would take a normal person ages to look through all of this. That said, I am better than normal. Much better, in fact. I have clone powers, so I can just search everything at once. CLONE SPAM, GO!

You know there are some interesting... "design choices" here, and some even more interesting contraptions here. There is a pool of lava located just above some walkways in some of the middle floors, flowing upwards, downwards, and in directions I thought only Chi could move in. There is a bizarrely large tower of soap on one of the floors. There is a humongous, broken-looking apparatus, probably a damaged superweapon or something. There is a juggling... robot/golem... thing that is holding a lot of bomb-rocks.

There is also a gigantic dining hall, the walls adorned with masterful artwork chiseled directly into the stone, as well as the trophy room, an almost equally large room housing statues of the fortress's many conquests.

I also came across a fancy-looking trap door made of an odd blue metal. I say the metal is odd because there was no "sense" to said metal at all, like it wasn't even there. Every now and then, thin wisps of purple smoke were rising up from it... something's telling me that it's a good idea to keep that door shut.

Additionally, there is a bizarre limestone statue that contains 73 depictions of itself, amongst which is chiseled depictions of about the entire history of the planet. According to this piece of stone beside said statue, the statue is called Planepacked. Also, I found Chi on said statue! There are several fractal images of Chi on Planepacked. The number seems oddly inconsistent, in fact... it appears to change every time I view it. Also I found a few depictions of Glowy on it. Who is Glowy you might ask? Well that is a story for another TIME.

Enough sightseeing for now; we can just do that and shop around after the Rumble is over. For now it is time for SIGNUPS! And I have found it just in time.

To sign up you need to chisel your name into a bigass stone tablet. They scratch your name out when you're out. Most people would need to use a tool to carve your name in this huge tablet, but not me! I can just sign in using my hands. Several strokes of my finger later, and MITHRIL was signed into the tablet in ALL CAPS.

Beta used a water jet to carve her name in. They gave Juggernaut an itty bitty hammer and chisel to gingerly tap his name in in very small letters. And Quicksilver... turns out he had already signed up, before I did, in fact.

Bit of trivia: There was this one neurotic Pikmin off to the side that also wrote these signups all down on paper. According to a few of the Blackrock denizens nearby, he was doing this just to be contrary.

Anyways, signups are about to close... and there was a rather noticeable absence in said signups.

...

... are you really going to let Anti distract you from missing this event, Libera?

<Quicksilver>

Been a while since I've been to Blackrock Mountain. To the surprise of precisely no one, the layout has only gotten more insane since last time I was here. I suppose that's only natural when you hire crazy people to design your fortress.

Taking this time to scope out the arena, I can note that they've changed it since last time I was here. Last time it was sunk into the floor; now the arena itself is raised, with a small, empty moat surrounding it. And hey, it's plenty big enough for Jugg to fit on it, score. The stands surrounding the arena are already about half-full as well, seems like people are pretty fired up for this. Another new addition is the big throne situated prominently to one side of the arena, made of some black stone. Looks heavy.

My attention was then grabbed by some commotion from behind, underscored by a loud whirling noise. That'd be Libera then. With a mighty shout, he was diving for the sign-up board, a massive drill extending from his arm. With the tip of the drill scant inches away, though, a large brown Pikmin grabbed hold of it from the side.

"Sign-ups are closed, outsider. You're too late," the Brown grunted, stepping around the rapidly withdrawing drill. Libera stood stock still in total shock for a moment before rattling his head.

"DAMMIIIIIIIT! ANTIIIIIII!" Libera bellowed, vanishing in a whirl of Spiral Power. The Brown Pikmin continued forward, heedless of Libera's complaints. He continued past the stands, drawing hushed whispers and a few reverent bows, and that was when I realized this dude must be the one in charge now. That was confirmed when he reached the throne and sat down with a mighty thud.

"Attention, all you hopefuls. The annual Rocky Rumble will begin shortly. Make your way to the arena," Tectus's voice boomed through the arena room and echoed out throughout the mountain. Hell of a set of lungs this guy's got. Being as I was already here, I didn't have to do much movement, but a swell of other Pikmin shortly piled into the room, spectators and participants alike.

"As has been tradition, the Rocky Rumble will consist of 4-way, free for all fights. The last one standing in the arena will be victorious, and move on to the next round. Should you be knocked unconscious or be ejected from the arena, you are disqualified," he continued once everyone had settled in.

"After last year's little... debacle... there are some new rules going into effect. Calling allies into the arena by any means will result in immediate disqualification. That explicitly includes creating clones of yourself. Flight is strictly prohibited and will similarly result in expulsion. Invisibility is also prohibited; if I cannot see you, I will assume you are no longer in the arena. Injuring your opponents is acceptable, but killing them is not; we are not Bloodseeds. Leave your bloodlust for Hybras," he growled with some distaste. "Lastly, undue damage to the arena itself will result in a hefty fine; we want to keep this going at a smooth pace, rather than having to pause to fix things after every match."

"When your name is called, you will report to the arena for combat. Failure to do so in a timely manner will result in disqualification," Tectus concluded, before turning his gaze to the sign-up slab. After a moment, he barked out four names, seemingly at random, and four Pikmin hopped into the arena. Well, far be it from me to take a moment to scope out the competition...

<]-Mithril-[>

No clones/allies in general, no flight, no invisibility/sneaky-sneaky. Got it. I don't kill people unless they're evil, so that should be everything covered. NOW THEN, onto the 4-way, free for all fights.

Guess what: I won the first few rounds. Details on those rounds? I was stronger than my opponents. Details perhaps some other time.

Anyways now onto what is perhaps the first notable round: I am facing off against Juggernaut, a fellow Hero Squad member. He's humongous, has a rocket hammer, and can't feel pain. That just about sums him up. I am immune to physical damage, so out of the known things to look out for, I just need to watch out for the rocket flames. However in regards to unknown things to look out for, he might have secret techniques or powers or something, so I should still be on my guard.

Also there are two other people in the arena other than me and Juggernaut. Neither of those other two people were Beta or Quicksilver, so me and Jugg are the only two Hero Squad members this round. The other two combatants this round: An armored Brown Pikmin with spiked gauntlets, and a Red Pikmin with a pair of knives made of that strange blue metal I saw previously.

"Haha, man I have dropped an assload of cash on these sweet knives! Can't wait to try these bad boys out!" exclaimed the Red Pikmin, brandishing his knives made of that light blue metal.

Okay so the armored Brown Pikmin tried to punch me with those aforementioned spiked gauntlets... however that attack did absolutely nothing to me. Those gauntlets aren't special at all. His armor isn't anything special either, just ordinary steel. The Red Pikmin ran in to try and slash at me and the Brown Pikmin with those fancy knives of his, but before he could reach either of us, Juggernaut swung his rocket hammer at the three of us.

I deftly evaded the entirely of that rocket hammer swing, flames and all. The Red wasn't as fast or as agile as I was, so he didn't actually avoid the flames portion of the swing, but that obviously doesn't matter to a Red Pikmin. He managed to avoid the hammer blow itself, which was what mattered for him. The armored Brown Pikmin received a direct hit from the rocket hammer, which damaged the armor with an audible crunch, and caused the Brown Pikmin to be hurtled out of the arena, and out of the Rumble.

I noticed some clean cuts in the ground area where the Red Pikmin rolled to dodge. Those knives seem sharp. Speaking of the Red Pikmin, he tried slashing at me again. A quick leg sweep from me and he fell flat on his ass, dropping the knives from that. The knives sunk straight into the arena floor, blade-first, like they were stabbing through air. Yeah those are some sharp knives.

The Red was scrambling to grab his knives. I grabbed him first, one of my hands to his stalk. One simple, leisurely (by my standards) throw later, and the Red Pikmin was out of the arena and out of the Rumble.

It's just me and Juggernaut remaining this round, and I evaded his second hammer swing and the accompanying flames. As an opening move, I simply generated several motorcycles and began throwing them at the giant Purple Pikmin.

<Juggernaut>

SMASH.

Juggernaut's first swing, a large horizontal one, obliterated the set of motorcycles Mithril had sent at him. He then allowed the momentum of the swing to spin him around into a massive overhead swing, activated the engine on his hammer, and brought it down where Mithril was standing. She managed to get out of the way just in time, then skidded across the platform when the hammer came down, releasing a massive blast of air pressure. Juggernaut huffed and pulled his hammer back up into a ready position, slowly swiveling it about in his grip.

'He's got a lot of power in that swing... a horizontal hit would probably carry me straight out of the arena before I could recover,' Mithril considered, 'but aside from the weapon, it seems like he hasn't got much in the way of surprises... keep an eye on the hammer, then.'

Juggernaut proceeded to interrupt any further thought with a one-handed overhead swing that Mithril dodged aside from, throwing out a wave of small, bomb-carrying carts as she did. Juggernaut, however, simply plowed through two of them before scooping up another and throwing it back at her before it could explode, dragging his hammer into a whirling swing as he did. For this one, Mithril threw up a sheet of metal to slow the impact enough for her to charge inside the hammer's reach, too close for the head to hit her.

It did, however, place her squarely in reach of Juggernaut's fist, which promptly found her even as she launched a large ball bearing into the massive Purple Pikmin's chest. The force of the respective blows shoved them away from each other, Juggernaut releasing a huge breath of air as he stumbled backwards with the metal ball. Mithril, on the other hand, took a moment to shake her head out from the impact. Wow, he hit hard.

Mithril was slightly faster to recover, putting together a large truck as Juggernaut finally hefted the ball bearing and chucked it out of the arena, resulting in a heavy clong as it impacted in the moat. Lacking his hammer, he simply set himself as Mithril sent the truck at him, caught it as it drove into him, and skidded back a few feet before lifting the truck over his head and throwing it back.

<]-Mithril-[>

Oh hey, Juggernaut doesn't have his hammer right now. I sense an opportunity. If I can knock said hammer out of the arena, that would significantly decrease his threat level.

By the way, remember that truck that Juggernaut threw back at me? A flick of my wrist, and the truck split into two halves, straight down the middle. I rushed through the center, a circular sweep from one of my arms peeling off lots of metal from the truck halves and hollowing them out. I then launched the mass at Juggernaut's hammer, intending to force it out of the arena.

The humongous Purple Pikmin made a leap towards the hammer, managing to grab the handle of it before it flew out. Since he's in midair now, I can probably take this chance to try and force him out of the ring. Specifically, by stomping my foot and growing a giant spring right where Juggernaut is about to land.

Jugg stomped his foot as well, right on the spring intended to boot him out of the arena. That caused him to launch up quite a bit... however with a press of a button, he activated the jet on his hammer. The enormous Purple Pikmin rode that thrust for a huge overhead swing, slamming down near the spring with a tremendous THUD.

The pressure wave from that swing blew the spring clear out of the arena, the platform shaking something fierce. This immediately elicited a complaint from Tectus, who reiterated that we weren't supposed to damage the arena, and that significant damage to said platform would result in a sizable fine.

As the dust settled from that swing, it was apparent that I was still in the ring, having braced myself. That swing and pressure wave was strong; it was powerful enough to blow me back some. However... I had noted the threat of a ring-out and had prepared for that. I anchored myself here with... you guessed it.

"Alloy Anchor!" I roared, pulling up this superdense, superheavy anchor by the chains. Said anchor has more mass and weight than the trucks, and it even creates an explosive blast on impact!

As Juggernaut readied himself in a batting stance, I rushed forward, dividing said anchor into several more. Though these anchors all look identical on the outside, a lot of them are actually hollow.

I threw a few of those anchors towards the gigantic Purple Pikmin as I continued forward, growing multiple arms. I then unleashed a multi-armed, multi-anchored swing towards Juggernaut, my massive weapons imbued with explosive might.

<Juggernaut>

Planting his feet and readying his hammer, Juggernaut took a mighty swing at the incoming swarm of anchors. The first few caved in, what with being hollow, but then the hammer met one of the actual anchors, which released a thunderous blast on impact. His hammer was pushed back by the explosion, leaving an opening where more anchors rushed in. His only recourse was to reach out and grab them, and by chance he got a hold of one of the actual anchors rather than a fake.

The explosion singed his hand and the impact pushed him back, but he powered through, ignoring the impacts from the fake anchors and huffing lightly when one of the real ones impacted his chest. He grabbed hold of that one as well, then turned and pulled. What with the anchors being attached to her, Mithril was pulled along with them, sliding around and towards the edge of the arena. She yelped and produced a large number of extra limbs to grab the floor with, bringing herself to a halt.

A curious exchange happened here, of both fighters attempting to out-muscle the other while staying planted themselves.

"Do it Jugg!" Quicksilver's voice echoed out over them. The massive Purple Pikmin only grunted in response, then shifted directions, pulling Mithril toward him rather than trying to shove her away. Though momentarily caught off guard, she recovered before she got in range, releasing her many extra limbs in favor of turning her momentum into a flying tackle to Juggernaut's midsection. Juggernaut released a big 'oof' at the impact, but nonetheless immediately brought both his hands in to punch at her. The heavy impacts hardly bothered him, after all.

Mithril, however, stayed glued to his chest like a leech, then abruptly grew her legs out as soon as she had an opening to do so. Now with her feet firmly on the ground, she lifted, causing Juggernaut to let out a grunt of abject confusion as he was suddenly no longer on the ground.

"Strontium Suplex!" Mithril bellowed, performing perhaps the world's longest, strangest suplex, her legs growing as she lifted Juggernaut overhead, pushing her far enough back to dump the massive Purple off the side of the arena with a thunderous thud.

"Winner: Mithril," Tectus announced, to hooting and hollering from the crowd. Quicksilver jumped down from the stands and zipped over to the prone Purple, who was laying on his back.

"Jugg! Buddy! Speak to me!" Quicksilver hollered melodramatically. Juggernaut grunted in response.

"Alas, my poor friend, you are slain!" Quicksilver continued. "I shall have VENGEANCE!" he declared, pointing up at Mithril, who rolled her eyes. Juggernaut poked him a few times.

"Not now, buddy, I'm swearing vengeance for you," Quicksilver announced in a stage whisper, shooing off the Purple's finger. Juggernaut grunted again and simply stood up, bringing Quicksilver with him as he climbed out of the pit. Mithril hopped out of the arena, passing by Beta on her way.

"Are they all this melodramatic?" Mithril questioned as she walked by. Beta laughed lightly.

"Only mostly," she replied, before Tectus clapped his hands for attention.

"A short recess while the arena is inspected for damage. You have thirty minutes of free time before we resume," Tectus announced, before getting up from his seat and walking out of sight.

<]-Mithril-[>

It's been several rounds since my fight against Juggernaut. In this current round, I face off against the team of Quicksilver and two other combatants. Yes, I mentioned the word "team" because in this round, Quicksilver and the other two fighters have decided to join forces against me. Onto the description of the other two people in the arena.

First other fighter is a female Blue Pikmin named Tetra. She has these bunches of little cubes on a chain, which she calls a "block chain", and she can make a bunch of those chains to make a bunch of blocks. It kind of reminds me of that Tetris game that Chi showed me a while back, to be honest.

Second other fighter is a male Red Pikmin who hadn't bothered to tell me his name. He has a flame at the end of his stalk. His power is to create some sort of wax and mold said wax into whatever he wants.

Anyhow, action time. Initial attack for me is simply to throw motorcycles at the other fighters. Quicksilver obviously dodged that, wax guy blocked it with a wall of wax, Tetra blocked it with those blocks of hers.

Tetra and the wax guy then returned fire by sending blocks and wax my way, so I just had those motorcycles I threw earlier explode, then I simply rushed up to the wax guy, polevaulted over the wax wall, and then kicked him with a heavy anvil kick + explosion on impact. Wax guy attempted to stop himself from being hurled out of the arena with a wax wall behind him, which worked up until I uppercutted him in the chin with the aforementioned metal pole, aiming to knock him right out of the arena.

That was when Quicksilver ran up the metal pole, snagged wax guy before he got out of range, and then swung him downwards, riding the momentum away from the pole.

Meanwhile, Tetra seemed like she was try to prep something, so I, staff in hand, quickly darted towards her, throwing a multitude of explosive boomerangs around her block walls.

<Quicksilver>

Mithril sure seems to get picked a lot... more than anyone else here, really. Guess that's just what happens when the guy in charge gets to pick whoever.

I've gotten my share of fights, mostly just let the others wear themselves out before taking them out more easily. Was kinda hoping somebody would miraculously take Mithril out before I had to fight her, but hey, I did call vengeance. Guess I have to own up to it now. Doesn't mean I have to do it the hard way, though. Getting the other two to team up against the tournament's current big shot wasn't particularly difficult, everyone had seen what she could do thus far.

Which brings me to where we are now, which is Mithril opening up on the Tetris girl, who blocked one boomerang before being hit by the other. Naturally, I booked it across the arena to pull her out of the way before it could carry her off the side, and she took the opportunity to snag the boomerang with her chain and swing it into her line of blocks.

"Line Clear!" she called out as the blocks and boomerang burst into light, which then flowed into her. No time to sit and watch that, though, wax guy had renewed his attack on Mithril, having built up a set of defenses before slinging balls of molten wax at her. With her focus set on him, Tetris girl began preparing an attack of her own while I zig-zagged across the arena to help the wax dude deal with Mithril's counterattack, which came in the form of a spray of ball bearings. Ball bearings that grew spikes after a few bounces. Which then exploded, because of course they explode.

Wax guy dealt with it admirably, though, producing a wall around himself. When the explosions started up, it flung little globs of molten wax everywhere, which I don't think Mithril had quite accounted for given the panicked dodging that ensued and that was when Tetris girl resumed attacking, launching a spray of little gray blocks that Mithril then had to turn her attention to, producing a number of little fans to deflect them while firing a variety of metallic projectiles in return.

The fight continued pretty much in that manner, one of my impromptu teammates would fire an attack at Mithril that got her attention, Mithril would retaliate, I'd keep them in the arena, and the other would attack, cycling back and forth over and over. Eventually Mithril got tired of it, and after firing a quick attack at one of them, abruptly turned her attention to me as I moved across the arena.

"Ball and Chain!" Mithril growled, launching several of said item at me, apparently with the intent of making sure I stayed still. Bad idea. I weaved immaculately through the swarm of metal and chains, zipped straight up under her guard, and delivered an upward palm thrust to her lower jaw before moving behind her for a roundhouse kick to the head, then very quickly disengaging as she produced an array of spikes from her body, precluding any more close range attacks on my part. As I retreated, said spikes launched off, scattering about the arena and sticking in Tetris Girl and Wax Guy's defenses. No chance of any of them hitting me, but I don't think I like them being scattered all about the arena, probably gonna have to deal with that before she uses them for who-knows-what.