Enter The Arena As Your Avatar -- The Spinoff!

The Nightbringer laughed, a cackle that was leagues louder than the crackle of the bolt.

   "You underestimate me MORTAL!"   

The Nightbringer slashed into the ground, bringing up a wall made out of solid wind and fire. The wind and the lightning collided with such brutal force that the air itself seemed to brunt the impact. The wall was failing, shards of lightning going through it as it struggled to contain the sheer force.

The Nightbringer's cocky smile was gone, and he looked legitimately worried. A blur could be seen behind the wall. And then the wall broke, the lightning hitting whatever lied behind it with such ferocity that things were turned to plasma. No sign of the Nightbringer.

The VP is rooted in place by Krampus' ice, and his undercarriage is frozen shut.

The CFO panics before being smacked so hard he actually falls over, totally unable to get back up. He hurls a barrage of projectile gears at the monstrous creation of Tarboy.

   "Order in the court!"    The CJ uses his own version of the VP's jump attack, conjuring a gavel into his hand with which he smashes the ground, sending out a room-filling shockwave that destroys the icy floor.

The CEO is sent spinning out of control, skidding to a stop. While Krampus slows his ability to move, he begins spinning, and spinning...    "Fore!"    He launches golf balls in precise barrages at all of his enemies at once.

Shulk evades the shockwave and Fore thanks to his vision, and he promptly seizes the opportunity. "Time for a Chain Attack!" he yells. He lunges at the CFO and delivers the powerful strike of Monado Buster.

Scaramouche smirks at the inception of this Mecha-Gogmazios. As soon as Shulk finishes his attack, the robot assassin leaps in after him, striking the toppled CFO with his tuning-fork sword, which doesn't seem very damaging but causes the area he struck to begin trembling and emitting a high-pitched whine. He jumps away, being hit by a golf ball or two, but evading the shockwave.

Blade Wolf lunges in as well, contributing an aerial diving slash with his HF Chainsaw.

Galleom, still in Tank Mode, activates some kind of rocket thruster and rams into the CFO at full speed.

Bloody Bunny ignores the Chain Attack, opting to stare at Targog in awe. She diverts her attention to slice apart incoming golf balls and hop over the shockwave.

Mr. Pew Pew also does his own thing, but it's nevertheless a powerful move. He brandishes a Wedding Cake, complete with church bells, and hurls it at the VP.

Edited by KiriK on Sep 27th 2019 at 7:30:50 AM

Krampus conjures a sword of ice, strikingly similar to his own blade. Leaving his blade in the center of the room, still spraying ice at each of the bosses. As the golf balls approach the demon, he conjures another wall of ice. Although the golf ball cracks through it, slamming Krampus into a nearby wall. Krampus stands, shaking his head. He thinks he's fine only for the shockwave to disrupt his balance temporarily. After regaining balance and composure, Krampus creates his own ball of ice. With his free hand, he creates a chain of ice attaching it to the battle. The demon swings the ball over his head, stepping forward towards the C.E.O. He releases it from the chain with a loud crack, heading for the face of the C.E.O. at incredible speed. If it landed it would shatter immediately.

Boyero falls to his knees after it appeared he had won. His arms burned black from the lightning blast, grunting in pain

   "I knew I shouldn't have done that..."   

The Nightbringer was nothing defeated yet. Boyero could feel a presence behind him, the shadow of the Nightbringer took form behind and sent three jabs in his direction.

   “Weak.”   

Shadow smirks.

   "I've gotta do some exploring when I've got the time. After all, I patrol the metamorphic part of the Arena, anyway. Now that there's more of it, I've gotta' expand my area."   

He looks thoughtful, taking a glance over the bridge that leads to Tamriel.

   "Come to think of it, now that there's a stable hub here, I should track down where my static creations ended up, and move them here. It'd be more respectful to my monument to the previous incarnation of the Arena, as well as Dead Master's tomb, if they weren't thrown every which way by the Arena's whims."   

He then blinks, and looks back to Botar, frowning.

   "Aw, really? Well, I get that you're a very busy agent. Yeah, I recall what happened...sorry again about the whole Vezon thing, by the way. I still feel kinda' trashy about that. Regardless, yeah, I hope you and your fellow compatriots can relax here before having to work on your new world. I wish you the best of luck on that, by the way. I can tell you firsthand that it's not exactly easy, but it really pays off if you do it well, and it's extremely uplifting to see it succeed."   

He nods in response to Botar's comments on his discussion with Tahn, smiling, but he then jumps when he hears the roar, fanning his wings.

   "Gah!"   

He looks over with Botar, but the light given off by the Dragon seems to bother his eyes, so he puts on the pair of sunglasses he had tucked into his pocket...before immediately taking them off again once it's clear what he's looking at, revealing a look of shock in his eyes.

   "...ah."   

He pockets his sunglasses again, and straightens out his coat, giving Botar a serious look.

   "Well, Botar, my friend, what you see here is an incarnation of the Winged Dragon of Ra, who is an Egyptian God from his world, but this one is an imperfect clone of the original. So, basically an ever-so-slightly-less-powerful-than-the-real-deal Godly avatar on a leash. Or, in this case, a card. And something's made him - and his likely master - mad. Hopefully, though, he can only affect others who are participating in the game that he's bound to, but, then again, this is the Arena, so I'd still stay on your guard. Being a God, myself, I should probably go see what's got Ra so agitated, unless you have any ideas for me?"   

He deploys a blade and runs into battle.

"A good move, as long as you're careful. The Assassins have kept their promise to not attack so far, but if they find you on your own, I wouldn't be surprised if they took the chance to try to take you out.", Botar says. He then tilts his head.

"We haven't been able to determine whether or not this city is more stable than the rest of this world. For all we know, it'll disappear along with everything else again when the world changes."

He sighs.

"Nobody is to blame for that criminal's actions but he himself. He is dead now, but if he ever returns, I will not hesitate to tear his cackling head from his body. As a jailer, I can say that imprisonment is too good for him."

He then shows a small smile again.

"It will be difficult, especially since we'll need a way to keep the Makuta and the Dark Hunters in check, but I believe in our chances. Helryx has already been discussing the matter over with the Shadowed One for a while now. Teridax, on the other hand, is impossible to get a hold on ever since he learned about Mutran's demise against Tuyet, refusing to negotiate unless we kill the traitorous Toa."

Then, after listening to Shadow's explanation of Ra, he shakes his head.

"Such things are out of my expertise, nor part of my job. It would be best for you to go look, since you run far less risk of death than me. And while I don't particularly like my job here as much as being a jailer, I cannot deny that I have much more to do now, which I prefer, as well as that I am a necessity. Pseudo cannot afford to let me die. So I cannot take the risk of going with you. ... Speaking of which, I must get going. I wish you luck in your endeavors."

Botar teleports away. Then, all of a sudden, Ra roars once more, but the roar actually sounds pained, and if Shadow looks, he'll see the giant, golden god burst into flames and in the midst of collapsing.

Someone just defeated The Winged Dragon of Ra.

Edited by DevilPsyco on Sep 29th 2019 at 4:13:22 PM

What few gears the CFO manages to land against Tarboy are mostly neutralized by the mass of tar engulfing the construct. The oily dragon makes an improbable takeoff, flying over the CJ's shockwave, as the glow in its throat intensifies. It follows up on the others' Chain Attack by exhaling a torrent of lava-like superheated and explosive substance upon the CFO, a mix of tar, light from the projector, and Konngara's fire, in an effort to reduce the CFO to rubble.

In the process, the tar dragon turns its back to the CEO, and gets hit by the Fore attack head-on. Earlier on, this would have destroyed the construct. Now, the excess tar makes it far sturdier, but some chunks of black-stained metal are still blown off and it's still clear that it won't take many more attacks of this magnitude.

Konngara and Tokiko collectively decide that the CEO's area of effect attacks wrecking one of their biggest guns might become a bit of a problem.

"Red unicorn. You have some attacks that deal damage based on the weight of someone's sins, right?"

"Never call me that again, but I do."

"Good. I've learned in my last foray that this one of them, at the very least, is quite unrepentant. He also happens to be the biggest threat among them. So on my mark, use one of your strongest karma-based attacks and let's blast this monstrosity to kingdom come. Three. Two. One!"

[Nōmaku sanmanda bazaradan sendamakaroshada sowataya un tarata kan man]

Testament of Abraham [Puriel's Pitiless Judgment]!

"Now die, for all the debts you've accumulated!"

A chain of fire surges like a snake from Konngara's hand, ensnaring the CEO in an inescapable grasp while simultaneously scorching his very soul, turning from red, to orange, to white before violently exploding. Simultaneously, a glowing winged silhouette of engulfed in flames appears behind Tokiko as a whirling column of fire and light engulfs the CEO. Both these attacks deal damage based on the impurity of a target's soul.

The VP is sent skidding back, pressing him up against a wall. He spins his whole upper body, scattering a shower of damaging gears over the area in front of himself.

The CFO is battered heavily by the Chain Attack, then flattened by Galleom in a similar manner to the train that dispatched the previous CFO before Targog's attack melts his unflattened undercarriage. However, his half-pancaked body continues to emit a high-pitched whine... and then the area that Scaramouche struck explodes in a fireball, reacting with the burning tar to cause a chain reaction of explosions all over his body that completely destroy him.

   "Tarboy, you are held in contempt of court!"    The CJ releases another shockwave through the air around him to push away anyone near him, then his floating gavels begin pursuing the Targog.

The CEO takes Krampus' attack head-on, barely even fazed by the looks of it. However, then Tokiko and Konngara's combined attack hits, and he goes fucking flying, turning his health-indicator light red. In retaliation, he goes rolling across the room, trying to flatten anyone in his path in a cartoonishly survivable manner: Core, Mr. Pew Pew, Shulk, Scaramouche, and Tokiko.

Galleom reverts to bipedal form and starts stomping the floor angrily, turning red with burning fury.

Shulk is knocked back by the VP's gears. He receives a vision of the CEO's incoming squash-down, but he can't get up in time to avert the future, and gets squashed down.

Scaramouche dodges sideways as the CEO advances on him, but his foot gets squished, downing him anyway.

Blade Wolf starts chucking Heat Knives at the VP from afar.

Mr. Pew Pew tries to run from the CEO, but ends up walking into the VP's gear shower, taking significant damage.

Bloody Bunny rushes the CJ, only to be knocked back by his shockwave. Undeterred, she lands on her feet and hurls her sword like a javelin at him.

Targog, too large to avoid this once again, attempts to literally crunch down on one of the gavels and destroy it, even as the other connects. Whether this succeeds or fails, he proceeds to land in front of the CJ, rear up on his hind legs and violently slam half of his entire body - legs, head and all - into the CJ.

"No, I don't think so. [Shattered Image]." It seems like nothing happens, but the truth is that Tokiko has teleported out of the way, turning momentarily invisible, while leaving an illusory clone in her spot that will explode in a discharge of arcane power.

If the CEO takes the blast and presumably reels from it a little, Konngara will attempt to jump on top of his head and cleave through the mess of wires and tubes that make up his head in a single strike, probably killing him instantly if she succeeds.

Edited by Arachnos on Sep 28th 2019 at 4:41:39 AM

Krampus changes his focus towards the C.J. He starts running up the wall, coating the surface of the wall he walks on in ice. The demon extends his free hand, pulling his blade from the center of the room to himself.

Boyero was sent flying by the jabs

Edited by KrampusTheTherapist on Sep 28th 2019 at 3:53:58 AM

   “I was surprised by the strength of your blow. But you shall now pay for your insolence... Pay with your life.”   

The Nightbringer stood above Boyero and laughed, holding the tip of his blade right in front of Boyero’s face.

The VP performs another jump attack.

The CJ is rather feeble physically, despite being just as huge as the other bosses. After the disorienting stab of Bloody Bunny's sword, Targog easily pins him against the wall behind him.

The CEO does not reel back from Tokiko's trap, but it makes him stop nonetheless. His arms begin to spin... and then Konngara cleaves through his head, finishing him.

Mr. Pew Pew jumps over the floorquake, running head-on at the VP.

Shulk and Scaramouche are both dropped by the quake.

Shulk silently slumps over as a sad wah-wah-wah plays.

Scaramouche's expression saddens. "Well, babes, I guess this is the closing curtain for me. Looks like you'll have to carry the performance from here..."

"Not on my life! Toons of the World, Toon-Up!"

At the last second, the two are restored to health, enabling them to continue the fight. Scaramouche feels his neck... his vocal chords are repaired!

Blade Wolf jumps over the quake, clings to the nearest wall, and performs a diving tackle at the VP.

BB jumps on top of Targog's back and pokes him, trying to get him to give her her sword since he's closer.

Galleom jumps over the VP's head and comes down feet-first, trying to crush him under his titanic girth.

Krampus clasps both his blades together, combining the two into a thicker blade. Krampus's hands glow white, and the blade starts to get larger, and larger, coated in a white ice. Eventually the blade is as large as the boss cog's head. Krampus launches off of the wall directly towards the C.J, caving in part of the wall from the sheer force of his trajectory. Krampus spins with the absolutely massive blade in his arms, swinging it likes it weighs nothing directly at the C.J's neck. If the blade connected, it would aim to decapitate its opponent. The excess ice coated around the blade would shatter, sending the large shards all across the room. His voice booms,

   "Die you horrendous MACHINE!"   

Boyero's charred hands are suddenly coated with ice, as he moves to grab the blade that lay at his throat. If we has successful, ice would spread forth across the blade aiming to freeze its user.

Targog's tail whips to grab Bunny's sword lodged in the Cog's body and hand it back to her, all the while continuing to savage the foe with claws and teeth, hopefully leaving it open for Krampus to finish the job. He is unfortunately nailed by the quake and his construct's frame is bent significantly, some tar comes flying off. Mr. Pew-Pew's Toon-Up repairs most of the heavier damage, though.

Tokiko, seeing that the fight is well and truly in their favor now, decides to wind down a little, as the many powerful spells she has performed in succession are starting to take a toll on her. Still in the air to avoid the quakes, she fires four simple blasts of force at the VP, though their potency should not be underestimated. Konngara, meanwhile, attempts to destroy any remaining flying gavels with precise fireballs to prevent the CJ from blindsiding his assailants from behind with them.

Edited by Arachnos on Sep 28th 2019 at 6:52:22 AM

Krampus' blade stops against the CJ's neck, dug slightly into it. There's a grinding of metal and ice in a flurry of sparks before the blade finally cuts through, slicing the CJ's head off. It flies high into the air before exploding, followed by the rest of his body.

The VP doesn't even try to attack, he just covers himself with his hands. As his imminent destruction closes in, his head spins around to the 'smiling' face and he shouts,    "Can we make a deal?!"   

"NO!"

Galleom's fist punches clean through the VP's chest. BB takes her sword, jumps off of Targog, and slices a deep gash into the VP's shoulder. Finally, Blade Wolf climbs up and finishes the job with his HF Chainsaw, bisecting the Senior Vice President of Sales diagonally.

As the last remains of the bosses explode, Mr. Pew Pew does a victory dance.

"Now, where's the CEO's core?"

"Why does it still matter?"

"Because I still want to believe taking those things made some kind of difference!" the Toon shouts back.

The table rises up from within the floor.

"Investigate!"

Edited by KiriK on Sep 28th 2019 at 6:18:40 AM

With the battle reaching a close, the Targog collapses in a heap of scrap metal and excess tar as Tarboy assumes his regular humanoid form. He searches around the room, having spent enough time inside Cogs to know the feeling that emanates from their power cells. He cannot seem to find anything relevant on or inside the table though. Tokiko, on the other hand, whispers "Sense Energy"... and strangely, begins flying towards the high ceiling.

Konngara, on the other hand, is gutting the inert CJ with her sword, trying to see if he has a replacement core, since the original one was looted.

Edited by Arachnos on Sep 28th 2019 at 7:28:38 AM

Krampus's blade disappears in a cloud of snow. He steps forward the table, surprised at how massive it is.

   "These cogs were colossal, but quite.... disappointingly weak. I expected more."   

The demon looks at each of the heroes, having noted some of the abilities used during the fight. Although Tokiko in particular catches his attention. The demon creates wings of ice upon his back, flying up to the woman

   "Find something?"   

He exhales, a cold cloud forming in front of his mouth.

There is no core to be found among the CJ's remains.

Bloody Bunny climbs over Galleom to get onto the table... but she finds nothing.

Blade Wolf runs a scan of the area. He looks up, in the direction of Tokiko and Krampus, but he cannot fly up to join them. He readies a heat knife.

Mr. Pew Pew runs the back of his head. "I mean... to be fair, we've never had a team of more than eight fighters with which to take them on until now."

Shulk attempts to manually induce a vision, but he fails.

Scaramouche begins beatboxing and levitates off the ground, rising up to meet the other two flyers. He doesn't say anything, because if he stops making music, he'll fall.

Blade Wolf's knife goes flying between them and stabs into a piece of ceiling art depicting the four Cog emblems as cornerstones of a square building. Suspiciously, the Bossbot emblem is sticking out somewhat, while the other three are clearly flat images.

"Aha~ There it is. Crafty wretches." Tokiko plucks at the Bossbot emblem with her long claws to remove it from the ceiling.

"These ones don't seem to have one," Konngara says as she continues looking through the remains. "If it's not needed to power them, what are these cores even for?"

   "Hmph. If you were smart, then, you would have used huge numbers to begin with."   

The emblem, which is actually a core, pops out and falls to the floor. Blade Wolf catches it.

"I have two hypotheses. Either these cores are decoys, or they provide a direct link to whatever sits above the bosses."

"The Chairman... That second one makes sense. The bosses were so busy at their own HQs, we never encountered one outside his own facility. Maybe since we took those cores, the new bosses could no longer communicate with each other, their subordinates, or the Chairman remotely, so they had to meet in person for the first time in forever. It wasn't a trap, it was just coincidence."

The tower starts to rumble.

"Ummm..."

Looming Danger (Dark Rebirth - JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders)

A loud, booming voice emanates throughout the room from everywhere at once. It is completely unfamiliar, yet distinctly that of a Cog.

   "An accurate assumption. You have genuinely angered me... Tarboy. Tokiko. Konngara. Blade Wolf. Skippy Wildgrin."   

"H-how do you-?!"

   "I have eyes everywhere. You trespassed on MY property, ruined MY greatest efforts, and you expected me not to go out of my way to learn about you?"   

Edited by KiriK on Feb 11th 2020 at 1:43:00 PM

"So you're the one we can blame for the existence of this disgusting crawling anthill," Tokiko says with scorn. "Except even ants at least work for the prosperity of their hive. And while I admittedly don't know as much about business as I do about magic, even I know that even the most predatory companies have some kind of pragmatic goal. Your work here, though? It has no purpose other than ensuring the misery of everyone around you. You are a disgrace to the good name of business. Worse than a parasite. Please do everyone a favor and just die already."

Neither Konngara nor Tarboy have anything much to add to this tirade (not that the latter even could) - there seems to be little need. A question mark made of tar appears above Tarboy's head once he hears the name "Skippy Wildgrin" though.

Edited by Arachnos on Sep 28th 2019 at 9:36:11 AM

The Chairman's disembodied voice simply laughs.

   "No. I don't need to entertain your pointless argument about ethics. You will come to understand my ways eventually. You may even see things from my perspective some day."   

Krampus scoffs.    "Unlikely. I am a ruler in my own right, and though I judge those beneath me harshly, I at least give them the chances they may deserve. I have two goals - conquest and revenge. You just want to make a mess."   

Shulk grips the Monado. "We will never join the likes of you!"

Mr. Pew Pew looks over at Tarboy and whispers, "My real name. I had reasons not to make it open knowledge... until now."

   *sigh...* "Enough."   

Suddenly, just like that, they're outside the building.

"Wh-what...?" The dog Toon appears distraught.

The Executive Office Tower starts to collapse.

"Wait, no-!"

KTHOOMCRSH

   "Until we meet again..."   

"But... where even... where is he?"

Bloody Bunny walks up and puts a comforting hand on him.

   "I'm not staying around for whatever you decide to do next. My mission here is complete."    Krampus vanishes in a column of frost.

"That should not be too much trouble to find anymore. Now that we have established that these objects are connected to him, we should be able to track him down. No doubt he will take measures to prevent this from happening. But he is not likely to know anything about magic. A few basic divination spells, and we should learn his location... now getting there may be more of an issue. This, of course, is a double-edged sword, as there is a good chance he can track us through these cores in return."

Skippy does a sharp inhale through gritted teeth. "I think the other cores were... dismantled and added as decorations to the Silly Meter, after Loony Labs failed to figure out what they did."

"If I know anything from my experience, he would not make it clear you are going to meet again if he was not planning to invite you personally."

"You're sure...?"

"Well, I'm afraid I'm not gonna sit here and wait until further notice. Au revoir, babes." Scaramouche takes off for the portable hole back at the entrance to the HQ.

"I should probably be going too. Erm, sorry I couldn't do more." Shulk departs for the portable hole.

After watching them leave, Blade Wolf looks back at Skippy and Tokiko. "Still, we should learn where it is we are likely to be invited to. Hopefully, just the one core will be enough for your magic to work? Or perhaps you will have to visit this 'Silly Meter' in person."

Edited by KiriK on Sep 28th 2019 at 9:05:53 AM