Enter The Arena As Your Avatar -- The Spinoff!

Renderer wastes no time at all on this opportunity and delivers a KO punch using his boxing glove, launching outwards.

"You are already destroyed."

Nicole breathes a sigh of relief upon learning that Zacharie was okay, then blinks in surprise after realizing that she was looking at his unmasked face for the first time.

"Huh... he actually looks kinda like Sucre. But... where'd he get those scars from?"

Before she can say anything, continue her train of thought or even text Deut about the current situation, Cabba suddenly goes Super Saiyan 2 and attacks Enoch.

"Cabba, what the hell are you doing?!"

"Dammit, just when things couldn't get any worse..."

Enoch looks down at Cabba, appearing annoyed, but before he can voice said annoyance, he gets blasted in the face by his attack, staggering back a bit more and hitting the other side of the canyon's edge.

He struts back to the closer edge though, looking furious.

   "If that's how you're going to play it-"   

He swipes with his arm, and before any of them know it, he's gotten a hold of a now terrified Hugo, as well as the unconscious Zacharie. He grins at the group, not paying attention to Hugo right now, and as such doesn't notice just how terrified he is, the boy clinging onto Zacharie's arm for dear life.

   "I'll just have to make my retreat! Now, I advice you not to try to stop me, you might hit the merchant by mistake. Huhuhu!"   

The Judge, having just woken up, stumbles onto the battlefield, hissing.

"No! I'm too late..."

NLA Alleyway: Turf War

The Spooky Bois spray into the crowd, but the T-Dolls don't go down as easily as their comrade. Two of them rush past the skeletons and for Terlette, attempting to strike her with their tails.

Two Spooky Bois seem to be dismantled, but they quickly reform, clothes and all.

   "Come on boys, don't let up now!"   

Barb plays the same tune in a sadder tone, slowing down the T-Dolls.

The C.J. is burned, smashed, and riddled with projectile fire, and Blade Wolf snags his core (the Lawbot emblem) from the ensuing pile of debris.

Bumpy Bumblebehr leaps out of the defense stand and runs over to the team. "I had a big thank-you speech prepared, but you all seem like you have other things to do so I'll cut right to the chase. I snagged some summons papers from the C.J's desk that were meant for Cogs who couldn't make it. You saved us, you deserve 'em."

Each Combatant Has Received All of the Following:

1x Summon The Mingler (Single Cog)

1x Summon Loan Shark (Single Cog)

1x Summon Legal Eagle (Single Cog)

1x Summon Corporate Raider (Single Cog)

Anilaza bellows as it throws a punch. Its fist disappears into empty space and comes out through a portal directly behind Jiren.

Terlette calmly raises a magical barrier and then draws on her power as Keeper of the Gold Storm, dropping explosive yellow holy lightning from the sky to bombard the area around her.

Cabba seems completely distraught, but grits his teeth and continues glaring at Enoch.

Darius-X makes a beastly snarl, drumming the handle of his axe.

Edited by KiriK on Apr 6th 2019 at 8:04:45 AM

Bokuko grabs the papers and promptly hug them.

"Yay, new friends !"

"They tried to kill you."

"Yeah, but your phrase has a past -ed at the end, so its in the past !"

Dres picks her own papers, sighing. "Nice moves out there though."

"Thanks !"

"... In the stand."

Bokuko frowns.

—

Jiren turns around and goes for a Punch Clash with a fist that dwarf him by several meters.

"What power..;"

Edited by Bolded1 on Oct 10th 2018 at 10:37:48 AM

"No!"

Bolting to her feet, Nicole sends a withering, almost Vegeta-esque Death Glare Cabba's way, as if silently telling him that she will have words with him about this. She then sends a quick text message to Deut.

Dedan needs healing ASAP, bring IDK Jam or Deez along to get Hugo and Zach out of trouble!

Hooping Deut would recieve it in time, she pockets her phone and begins charging an Arcane Beam while staring down Enoch, her Draconic form's white scales beginning to appear on her arms.

Edited by IchigoMontoya on Oct 10th 2018 at 1:38:22 AM

The Judge, Dedan and Japhet glare at Enoch as well, who laughs darkly.

"I swear to the Queen's thousand faces, if you harm Hugo-"

   "I'd never harm Hugo."   , Enoch says.    "And with him by my side, the Queen will let me finish my precious Zone 3 without interference. I'll have it back, at last! My efforts will not have been for naught!"   

He then pauses when he feels something tugging on his arm. He looks and sees that Sucre has arrived, having swung and bound her candy-strings around the arm holding Zacharie and Hugo.

   "Sucre?"   , Enoch asks, his tone implying that the two know each other well.

"Release my darling, and the boy as well! :(", she angrily says. "I don't wanna, but I'll hurt you, Enoch! :("

Enoch smirks.

   "I'll give you your darling back once I'm sure I can safely get away, but Hugo's coming with me, and nobody can change my mind!"   

Then he goes silent, his evil smirk fading, a confused expression falling in its place, as he slowly turns his head to look at Hugo, having heard him.

He's shaking, and crying, and turning away from Enoch.

   "Hugo? ... No, you don't have to be scared of me. I'm your friend."   , he says worriedly, bringing him a bit closer to him and showing him a smile.

   "I'll bring you back to your mommy, and we can eat a cake together, just like old times. Doesn't that sound fun?"   

"G-go away!", Hugo sniffles, and the shock and hurt on Enoch's face is almost as surprising as Hugo's words.

   "But-"   

"You're mean... you're hurting my friends. I... sniff... I don't wanna be your friend anymore..."

Enoch stares at the boy, his expression unreadable. Is he regretful? Is he furious? Is he denying what he's hearing? There's not a single hint on his face aside from the fact that he's so shocked that he's gone speechless.

Anilaza promptly withdraws its fist. It attempts to do the same thing, this time to Saitama, from above.

Saitama stops its fist with his palms and punches its middle finger.

The sound of something breaking can be heard as Anilaza yanks its arm away and reels back with an agonized roar.

Cabba huffs and pants, still glaring at Enoch and paying no attention to Nicole's silent threat. When he sees Hugo's exchange with the titan, he gestures with one hand palm-up. "SEE?! This is all your aspirations got you! A little kid crying his eyes out!"

Edited by KiriK on Oct 10th 2018 at 3:47:06 AM

Jiren attempts to bodyslam into Anilaza's chest, trying to topple him to the ground.

"Take this !" he says !

—

Diez appears nearby, pulling herself out of a pink portal.

"Huh, that's a complicated case." she says, observing the unfolding situation.

"You heard the kid, let them both go..." Nicole remarks.

Tarboy grins wickedly as he grabs the Summon papers. Like the Big Wig from before, these should make decent armored shells in case of need. He rolls up the documents and shoves them into his body.

Konngara is significantly less enthusiastic, and shrugs. "I have little need to summon these fiends, except perhaps as target practice. Maybe that eternal reader might have some interest in them..."

"Hey, wait!!" Miles called out to Eight but it was too late. He sighed and just sat there, "Great...why do I mess up so many first impressions lately?"

"Miles, it's not your fault," Nebula patted him on the shoulder, "You can't be expected to watch every little word you say, and you can't predict how people will react."

"It's our fault for overreacting," Corona added with a sigh, "It wasn't clear to us she was just a kid and it looked like she was going to attack you, so we...panicked, I guess. Dealing with emotions can be troublesome at times..."

The human simply shook his head, "It's fine. It's over and done with. Let's just go find the Hollow Knight and enjoy the rest of our day-" Suddenly, he stopped as his senses began to pick up a disturbance. Getting up, he looked around to see streams of pure energy leaving the city and going towards a certain position...right behind him.

He turned around and gasped in horror, before gnarling his teeth, "You...!!"

"It's been a while, hasn't it, boy?" Standing before him and his alien friends was a specter of the past...the Doctor. "It's good I finally got you alone...I was hoping we could have a little talk..."

As Hugo continues to cry, clinging to Zacharie, Enoch continues to stare for a bit longer. Long enough that the Judge, Dedan, Japhet and Sucre are starting to look worried about what he might do.

   "..."   

"Hey hey, little one.", Enoch, trapped in a hole in the ground, calls out to the young child standing in front of him, awed at his size. "I'm stuck. ... can you get me out of here?"

The boy tilts his head, looking unsure. Enoch sighs.

"... I suppose not. ... If you go look for someone to help me, I'll bake you some cakes!"

Hearing this, the little boy perks up, smiling a little, and Enoch laughs happily.

"They are going to be delicious, you'll see. And we'll tell each other jokes. Go find help, I beg you."

The boy leaves for a good while. Eventually he returns, a flock of birds in tow that pull his recently mutated, enlarged body out of the hole he'd gotten stuck in.

Eventually, they meet up again in a house, where Enoch had met two other people: a tall, thin man with a mean-looking face, but a pleasant demeanor, and a small bird, the leader of the flock that had freed him. He looks at the little boy, smiling gratefully.

"Hehe, thanks boy.", he says. "I see we can count on you."

"Thanks for the book.", the bird speaks up. "In these times of misery, it is a very precious treasure."

"Hahaha, what a clever little rascal we have here.", the tall man says, ruffling the little tuft of hair on the boy's head, which he really seems to like. Seeing the boy so happy warms Enoch's heart.

"Until your mother arrives, maybe we can keep you company?"

"We can discuss about time, and the fate of the world."

"Maybe we could even dare to sketch out the maps of the countries that will soon be ours."

"What do you think, little one?"

"A future where everyone of us will be guardians of universal happiness!"

"Where every man'll have a job and actively participate to maintain harmony!"

"Where it will be allowed to dream of a happier life at any moment, and where our sons can touch our hope."

The boy... looks very confused by all this. The bird chirps in a bit of an amused manner, whereas Enoch and the man can't help but snicker, finding the boy's confusion adorable.

"Of course, you do not understand a lot of this grown-up talk. You rather should quickly forget our words, the first, bright stars in the dark of the world."

"So go on out. Have fun. Benefit from this new country, which will soon be reborn from the still warm ashes."

"You have no time to lose. No need to listen to the lyrical babble of three crazy utopists."

He softly pats the boy on his head once more, making him smile, and off he goes, back outside, the three future Guardians of the new world watching him go.

Enoch glances down a bit, his expression still looking unclear.

"What's that?", the boy asks, pointing at a machine as he's sitting on Enoch's shoulder.

"That's an oven, Hugo.", Enoch answers. In it, we bake things."

"Like cake!?"

"Yeah, like cake.", Enoch says, chuckling happily. "And the chimney it leads to will let out smoke coming from the cake, which'll make everything smell like it."

"I wanna smell like cake!", Hugo says, making Enoch chuckle again.

"It's not a good idea to sit in the smoke, you'll start coughing again. How about we move on? Don't you wanna see the rest? I haven't created a lot yet, but there's still a few things I wanna show you. Like the tram! Do you wanna see the tram?"

"Tuh-ram?"

"It's like a small train. You saw a train in Zone 1, didn't you?"

Hugo looks happy.

"I liked the train! I wanna see the tram!"

Laughing happily, Enoch gives him a soft hug.

"Anything you want, little one."

Hugo happily hugs him back.

Enoch's arms tremble for a moment, and his expression is becoming clearer. It's one of horror and regret. While he says nothing, his expression speaks for him, basically saying 'What am I doing!?'.

With said expression, he slowly lowers his arm, softly putting Hugo and Zacharie back on the ground, then pulling his arm away again to allow the others to come get the both of them without having to fear for a trap. Sucre, naturally, immediately runs over to Zacharie, while Dedan, despite his wounds, is trying his best to go to Hugo, who's still shaking and crying.

Enoch looks down at him once more, seeing him like that, because of him. ... It breaks his heart.

   "..."   

"Deez, if you brought Deut with you, let her know that Dedan still needs healing ASAP."

Nicole walks over to Hugo as well, then sits beside the boy and gently pats him on the head.

"Hey, don't worry, Hugo... it'll be alright, trust me..."

She walks up to Dedan.

"I'll warp him away to Deut and then spit him out, k ?"

Anilaza gets toppled. It swiftly rises back into the air and roars as it starts gathering a truly massive amount of energy.

Saitama chuckles. "I say let 'em try. What's the challenge otherwise?"

Cabba is still Super Saiyan 2, and he slowly approaches Enoch, cracking his knuckles. "How can we trust you not to act like this again?"

Darius-X realizes what Cabba is implying and immediately does the rational thing. He uses Apprehend, catching Cabba from behind with the hooked part of his axe and yanking him away. "CALM YOURSELF! This battle is as good as over!"

Hugo looks up at Nicole, his eyes all teary and his cheeks wet from his tears. He then softly clamps onto her arm, shaking a little.

"Is Zacharie gonna be okay?", he asks, his voice soft and fragile. Sucre, who's laid down her cheek on Zacharie's forehead for some odd reason, looks at Nicole and nods. Apparently that let her figure out that Zacharie isn't in too bad a shape.

Dedan, meanwhile, has finally made it to the small group, along with the Judge and Japhet, who's transformed back to his small self as to not intimidate Hugo. The Judge casts a strangely intense stare at Japhet for a moment, but then seems to shrug it off for the sake of helping calm Hugo down. He may have some sort of history with Japhet, it seems.

"What about you? Are you alright lad?", Dedan asks, his voice surprisingly sweet and worried. He then turns to Diez.

"What!? No, he's scared! He should stay with us, where he'll feel safe."

Japhet quickly hops around Hugo.

"He doesn't seem to be hurt.", he says, sounding incredibly relieved, which causes Dedan to calm down a little as well. The Judge nuzzles up to him a bit, knowing Hugo likes that.

"No more need to be trepidac-... scared. You're with us now."

Enoch, meanwhile, is just watching, not making a sound or movement, his expression unchanged. He eventually looks down at Cabba when the Saiyan approaches him. He watches him get yanked away, but decides he should answer his question anyway.

   "... I'm not sure."   , he says, his voice, despite Enoch's size, somehow sounding soft, almost vulnerable. He then starts to shrink down, standing near the edge of the canyon. Once he's done shrinking, he's actually smaller than he was in his office, now about double Dedan's size, which is just about Japhet's transformed self's size.

"Just bring Deut out here already, man, I'm really not in the mood to argue," Nicole replies to Deez, not even bothering to hide the weariness in her voice. "And I honestly don't care what her friggin' excuse for apparently not wanting to come here herself is."

Glancing at Cabba, she gets ready to act this time before Darius-X thankfully intervenes, much to her relief.

"Vegeta, you really oughta teach him about self-control..."

She then flashes a reassuring smile at Hugo.

"Yeah, Zach's gonna be just fine."

Edited by IchigoMontoya on Oct 10th 2018 at 3:35:36 AM

Cabba huffs, puffs... and powers down. "Fine."

"Thank you." Darius-X stands aside.

Hugo seems to show a small hint of a smile, still too shaken to show a full one. But it's better than nothing. He even gives Nicole a little hug.

Enoch closes his eyes for a moment, then suddenly points towards Noctilum.

   "Past the forests, in an abandoned base. That's where you'll find the Queen."   

He looks back at the group.

   "... in case you're trying to bring Hugo back to her."   

After that, he turns around, ready to leave.

   "... please treat him better than I did..."   

Dedan, Japhet and the Judge look at him, but they don't say anything. What can they really say right now? Sucre is outright ignoring him, looking over Zacharie.

Edited by DevilPsyco on Oct 10th 2018 at 12:51:26 PM

Nicole hugs Hugo back, then moves to pick him up. She also remains silent when Enoch reveals the Queen's location, though her lips do curl into a slight smile.

"Well... at least something good came out of today."

Once Enoch has departed from the premises, her gaze flickers to the group.

"So... I'm guessing that after everyone's had some R&R and Zach wakes up, y'all gonna search for the Queen?"

Cabba nods to Nicole. "I suppose I should join in your quest."

Darius-X looks around. "... I'll just be going." He goes.

...

Oh hey, that other half-dragon, Nik, is coming up onto the scene. She hasn't been around since... errrr... something with some Einherjar?

"I don't need no R&R, I'll walk it off like I always do.", Dedan says, trying to stand up. A rather painful-sounding crunch emits from one of his legs, and he quickly sits back down, turning his head away from everyone.

"... well, maybe a bed will help a little.", he admits, trying to not sound as embarrassed as he feels.

"It'll be a few days before the angry man is ready to walk again. :(", Sucre says.

"How'd you know?", Dedan asks, annoyed. She shrugs.

"It's what I feel. :)"

While the both of them are arguing about how long Dedan should rest, and Japhet nuzzles up to Hugo to make him smile a little more, the Judge actually strolls after the departing Enoch a little, gesturing to everyone that he'll catch up with them later. Once they're both out of sight, Enoch turns to look at him.

   "... why are you following me?"   

"I optate to ascertain you don't open up your horrible manufactory again. You simply cannot utilize the people from this world to consummate the roles the Elsen had."

   "... what am I supposed to do without Zone 3?"   

"... that's for you to discover. I can't give you the answer to that. Though if I were you, I'd endeavor to at least cerebrate of a way to apologize to Hugo. He deserves that, doesn't he?"

Enoch doesn't answer with words, just looking down at the ground, then nodding.

   "... fine. Come dismantle my machinery with me, Pablo, if it puts you at ease. ... But there's just one machine I refuse to shut down, regardless of your judgement."   

"What would that be?"

A sad smile crosses Enoch's features.

   "... the oven..."   

The two of them walk off.

"I think you've done enough already, Cabba... Don't worry, I can take it from here."

Nicole looks to Darius-X, only to notice that he'd departed from the premises.

"Wonder if Darius even knows he has a clone... or if Swain does, for that matter."

She hands Hugo over to Sucre for her to hold, then glances at Dedan.

"Now seriously ain't the time to get all prideful, Dedan, just get some friggin' rest and deal with it. You won't be much good to anyone if you're crippled or, worse, dead."

She then catches sight of Nik from out of the corner of her eye.

"Huh... now there's someone I ain't seen in a while."