Enter The Arena As Your Avatar -- The Spinoff!

Luffy hesitates slightly. You're like land pirates huh! He gets done eating as well and look back on the nerds.

You've got more meat over there buddy?!

Fallout 2? More like Fallout 2 bad.

Vic dragged himself inside as well — with great difficulty — and flopped onto a couch that happened to be inside. He produce a phone from his pocket, punched in some numbers, and made a call...

"Hey... Vic here... Can I get some medical down here? Had a... a bit of an unplanned fight... and one of my friends might need medical attention, too."

"The Stick has sentimental value. It's like an enormous, hideous teddy bear we can kill things with." -rikalous

"You guys do know I could help get her outta there, too, right?" Nicole asks Demo and Argo. "Just thought I'd remind you of that, in case you forgot I was standing right here."

Then Katre suddenly starts laughing despite blowing her eye out, prompting the Arcane half-dragon to roll her eyes.

"Goddamn crazy-ass... Screw it, I'm calling this fight off before Argo has a full-on friggin' meltdown. C'mon, Yuno, get over here."

Green understood.

"Mhm! It's weird! Especially if you have something embarrassing in your mind, like losing!"

Without missing a beat she faces between Oca and Luffy realizing the meatman was Oca all along!

"People see differently so you could say that! And also another one if you got!"

---

Nick seems to fondly remember that loss as the event which humbled his ego, especially moreso with his twin's condition essentially confirming that going all-out would've been futile anyway. Artemis leads him somewhere to summarize what essentially happened before he returns.

Amy doesn't say a word and is glad to at least help. She's busy with the bruising on Reiss for now. Artemis returns with a concerned Nick as she leaves him be to try and console Luin.

"You're givin' up just like that? You ain't doing this for the money or anythin I feel it. Not telling you to suck it up for their sake, it's okay. Your buds died for you against that thing, it'll be for naught when you don't do anything about it. Their graves were dug shallow by him, give your fallen ones the dignified death they deserve. It's what they died for, even if it means some will join them."

Edited by BoniniBanana on Apr 17th 2022 at 10:18:04 PM

real

Oca raises his right hand at Luffy and literally shoots him with a barrage of barbeque jerky. He pointedly does not give some to Green.

"Okay, but then what's your plan for screening out what caused. That?"

/＼｡｡/＼

Ara backs off quick. It takes her a moment to get up to speed, but she's had some experience dodging enemies- a bear isn't exactly a tricky thing to avoid, though most of her experience has been with zombies and relatively weak monsters.

Whatever the situation was before, it doesn't matter much to Ara anymore. A staff made from oak wood appears in her free hand, and she gives it a wave. On the ground just in front of her, a large, angry squirrel spontaneously manifests and instantly begins to chuck acorns at the Runebear from a seemingly bottomless supply. For such a small creature throwing such a weak projectile, those acorns do pack something of a punch, though, and it's got a decent enough rate of fire, too!

While her squirrel buddy distracts the Runebear with its admittedly weak barrage of acorns, Ara switches the weapon in her hand from the Starfury to a Gleaming Dagger, which she quickly throws at the bear. Strangely, this somehow doesn't remove the dagger from her hand, letting her quickly throw more of the same dagger. Not all at once, mind you, she isn't that quick, but she manages to toss out five.

Unless the thrown daggers are somehow destroyed, which is somewhat unlikely- they're made of what is a pretty dang tough metal by Terraria logic- they will not stop upon hitting their target, no matter how effective those hits may be, instead removing themselves from anywhere they might be stuck and flying away to attack the Noble Ursaluna, this time with some light homing!

Whether they hit their mark or not, the gleaming daggers will vanish moments after hitting something on their second trip.

In the meantime, Ara smiles beneath her helmet as Dawn (attempts to) give their shared enemy a thwack.

"Yeah! Hit that sucker where it hurts!"

And it's something quite peculiar / Something shimmering and white.

Meilin looks cringed at the bite exchange... But she thinks:

Is that a friendship ritual? If I don't bite them, maybe I can't be their friend anymore, and I'll be looking as the weird girl of the place!

With that, she tries to bite Ash on her arm... In her human form, of course.

Edited by BombonBombin on Apr 17th 2022 at 10:05:49 AM

Rumors about my death were greatly exaggerated... Yet.

The Hunter stylishly unfurls a large scythe and runs at the Runebear, deeming it a bigger threat. They jump and come down with a downward slash, before rolling on the ground and getting up with a fierce upwards diagonal strike, followed by a brief twirling of the weapon to strike a third time.

Fallout 2? More like Fallout 2 bad.

Demo and Argo both pause again, this time looking speechless. Katre's not angry?

Yuno briefly turns to them (while still rubbing the top of her head) and smirks, tapping her armor with her other hand.

"I told you everything would be fine. And as long as I have this, it'll continue to be fine."

She then shakes her head at Nicole.

"You're all overreacting. Have a little faith in my judgement instead of assuming I'm being dumb."

She hops back up on her feet again.

"I dunno if it's me you don't trust or her you don't trust, or both of us, but there's nothing wrong with having a little bit of fun with the future extended family, right? I wanna get to know them, and I wanna experience fun things, so this is basically like getting two birds with one stone.", she asks, still smirking. She turns back around before a flustered Demo (considering the implications of what she just said about a 'future extended family') can respond to her. She puts her arms behind her back and kicks a pebble to the side while standing there, as if waiting patiently.

Is she pausing the fight until Katre heals her injury? Considering that Demo and Argo told Yuno about her, she should definitely know that Katre can do such a thing.

Argo, to his credit, does try to calm down more. The bit of levity that just happened seems to have helped a bit.

"... It's okay, Nicole. We'll be ready if she needs us.", Demo says. "And if she ends up not needing us, that's all the better."

In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.

"I dunno, just... keep an eye on me maybe? If you can see it if and when it happens, you might be able to tell what causes it that way."

"Oh hey can I get some meat too?"

—

"... Man, now I'm bored." Katre groans. "And still mad. I'll just find someone whose friends won't constantly breathe down our necks."

She promptly starts walking away.

---

Noctilum, Fallen Planet Mira

The blue creature from before is exploring a deep forest in the parallel Arena. "Gosh, this world feels so big... but so empty. I haven't found anyone else since that fight..."

"He's gearing up for war."

Alright then! Let's get to it!

Luffy downs the meat and runs towards the other site, using his Observation Haki to find them. He motions for the others to follow after him!

Fallout 2? More like Fallout 2 bad.

After recovering from the initial surprise of Katre leaving, Nicole gestures for Demo and Argo to follow her before making her way towards Yuno.

"Now that that's over with, I've got so many questions for ya, Yuno. First, though, I think Argo here's got more than a few things he wants to say," she says.

"Sure," he says, tossing Zeeroe like. A burlap sack filled with steak. "Actually, I want to doublecheck."

He takes out a RECORDING DEVICE and sets it up on a tripod.

"HEY KATS! Can you come back over here for a second?!"

---

cheers i'll drink to this

Tae, feeling confident now that she has apparently made eating socially acceptable, reciprocates on Ash.

Sam Starfall walks in on this impromptu cannibalism ring, stares for a moment, then 360s away.

/＼｡｡/＼

Ash recoils when everyone starts biting everyone, but begrudgingly accepts it. She doesn't do any more biting of her own, though.

"He's gearing up for war."

Meilin stops biting too, and spits out of squick.

Anyways, I'm still in Toronto? If not, how can I return?

Rumors about my death were greatly exaggerated... Yet.

"Huh? Hey!", Yuno calls out. But Katre is already gone. She now looks bummed for a few seconds before turning back to look at her brothers, not looking very happy.

"Yuno-", Argo starts, but she doesn't let him.

"The next time I feel like having a spar, I'm going out on my own."

"We were just worried-"

"It wasn't a real fight, we had things handled, we were both having fun, she isn't evil anymore, and I wasn't in any danger.", she says as she approaches them as well, meeting midway. "And I've said it plenty of times already, but as long as I'm wearing this shock-absorbing armor, I will be fine, even against Katre!"

Demo pauses.

"... wait, shock-absorbing?"

Yuno crosses her arms, sighs and looks to the side. She looks incredibly disappointed.

"All I wanted was a fun time and show off to my veteran brothers that I can hold my own too. I even made sure to ask for a spar so that you wouldn't have to worry. Instead you all chased Katre away with overexcessive worrying and a lack of trust in both of us. ... I won't lie. I'm angry. ... okay, maybe not angry, 'cause I guess you worrying so much just means you care, but I'm not in a good mood anymore."

Argo awkwardly rubs his arm.

"Can we... make it up to you?", he asks, looking like he feels guilty. Yuno glances back at him and her expression softens a bit.

"... We're gonna go get food. I get to pick the kind of food. You are paying for my share. And today, I get to eat as much as I want."

"But the amount of food you tend to eat is-"

"As much as I want.", she says, angrily booping Demo's nose to get her point across. "Or I won't answer any of those questions Nicole mentioned. Ever."

Demo and Argo look at each other. Argo seems rather desperate to make it up to his younger sister, so Demo sighs and relents.

"Fine, but if you spend too much of our money on food, we're eating nothing but store brand noodles for the rest of the month.", he says to Yuno, who seems to brighten up again.

"Yes! Okay, so there's this sushi place I've noticed in the Hub something that I've been wanting to try out for ages! Mainly because I don't know what sushi is. We should go there! I want to try it!"

"Hold on, about those questions-"

"We can talk while we're on our way!"

"... fair enough.", Demo says, after which Yuno starts walking, with Argo immediately following. Demo looks at Nicole for a moment.

"... sushi fills the stomach fast, right? Maybe it means she won't eat as much as she normally would...", he sighs before walking after his siblings too. He silently invites Nicole to come along with them, after which he keeps his eyes on Argo and Yuno. Now that the latter has cheered up again, Argo seems to happier again as well.

---

Noctilum, Fallen Planet Mira

With zero warning, a voice suddenly speaks up from behind the blue creature.

"Yeah, the Arena's either 'big and empty' or 'oh god we're all gonna die!' most of the time."

If the creature turns to look, it'll see a very different strange creature hanging upside down from a tree by his tail. And he'll be looking right at the creature.

In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.

Hubby Central

Arad shrugged the good ol' "whatever, man" shrug and made the okay gesture, emerging from within Atlas and making his way back over to the somehow unharmed coffee shop.

🐻🐻🐻

The Runebear huffed as multiple attacks converged on it. The caveman stick slap positioned him to be scythed up by the Hunter's…scythe. All this, while Ara's daggers punctured the Runebear's hide, although due to their relatively small size did not quite do much in the way of damage.

The ursid eyed its foes, deciding its next plan of attack: total evisceration.

It swatted a paw at Dawn to send her flying into the trees, and then dashed at the Hunter with the intent of colliding into him with its multiple ton healthy good boy frame, stomach full of that evening's Tendies.

Elsewhere, Seresthene raised her arm to attack again, but hesitated. Her heart had been struck by this bear's odd display of cuteness, and with her innate ability to find the good in all living things, she wished to take mercy upon the Ursaluna. If it were up to her, she'd leave it be and turn around right now. It was not, however, up to her, and though she saw the good in the enemy, the God in her mind saw something of what it perceived to be far more importance, the Rune necessary to open the Betrayed King's Tomb. As such, she was forced into the continuation of this fight, and the man in her head deemed it necessary to fight smarter, not harder-especially considering the previous attack did just about nothing.

Seresthene whipped a chain upwards, pulling herself to a thick tree branch high up in the canopy, from which she shouted at the bear.

Edited by ISZATSO on Apr 18th 2022 at 2:15:04 AM

Do you believe in 'Gravity'?

Ursaluna... shrugs off Seresthene and lumbers over to Dawn. He is slow enough to escape him easily, but if he does get close, it's bad news.

---

The blue creature turns around and 'jumps' (he is flying so it's more of a sudden dash) back. He stammers, "Th-that doesn't sound very fun..."

Edited by KiriK on Apr 18th 2022 at 4:27:34 AM

"He's gearing up for war."

Niiue smirks.

"Oh, let me tell you, it's really not. ... unless you know the right people to be around. Not everyone here is out for a fight, some people are friendly. Like me!"

He uncurls his tail, which he was using to hang onto the branch above with, and lets himself fall on the ground. ... like, he genuinely just falls flat on his face.

After that though, he just floats up again, smiling sheepishly.

"I don't think I could be intimidating if I wanted to be, haha. I'm Niiue."

In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.

"Hi, Niiue! My name's Elfilin!"

He looks around as if expecting the friendly folk Niiue mentioned to pop out of a bush or something.

When it's clear they're not around, he turns back to Niiue. "So, um, who else is friendly around here?"

Edited by KiriK on Apr 18th 2022 at 4:39:51 AM

"He's gearing up for war."

"A lot of people are. The ones I'm closest to make for a very diverse group of people. There's humans, robots, aliens like myself..."

Niiue then ponders.

"And I'm pretty sure one of them is an angry gnome.", he says, trying to sum up Wallace.

"Anyhow, it's just me here right now. They're back in the home base while I went out for a... well, not a walk, that's not the right word. ... a float?"

He holds out his hand.

"Anyway, it's nice to meet you."

If Elfilin tries to shake Niiue's hand with his little nub hands, he may be slightly surprised to find that his nub hands will phase right through Niiue's hand as if it wasn't there at all.

Edited by DevilPsyco on Apr 18th 2022 at 11:47:29 AM

In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.

Nicole follows alongside the Pawn Dolls.

"Yuno, you picked a fight with someone who was seriously pissed off and way outta your weight class. Someone you knew had rage issues that, in her current mood, could've made things go sideways real quick. Maybe she's changed and isn't as bad as she used to be, but you can't blame me and your bros for worrying that she could lose control," she points out. "And you never told us your armor was shock-absorbing, or that you could magically copy how people fight, or pretty much anything about you."

She dons her leather jacket once more.

"That said.... I am sorry for disrupting things. Tell ya what, I'll spar with you later to make up for it. Sound good?"

Edited by IchigoMontoya on Apr 18th 2022 at 3:13:11 AM

The Library, Angela's Office

Angela snaps her fingers, calling roland up to her office, saying "Roland, I need to speak to you about that stunt you pulled on the Yamato."

Roland sighs, before saying "Angela, you know I've got a duty to my paid job as well. I didn't expect vergil to catch on to me so quickly-"

Angela interrupts roland, saying "No, That's not the issue. I would be interested in knowing more about these individuals myself, however, we have much more effective and subtle means of observation, as you are aware. You didn't have to risk vergil's attention. We could have simply waited for an opportunity to send an invitation and then spied from there, without anyone knowing of our presence." She closes Kerrigan's book, as she says "I did gather some information myself, too, however. I never said I wasn't A hypocrite."

She lays down detailed sketches of Jotaro and Homura, courtesy of Netzach. "These two have shown the capability to stop time in its tracks. The male has shown the capability to override the younger girl's abilities..."

She shrugs, before saying "either way, That is all."

"And someone who was also holding back a ton even when she was angry. And yes I did, I told Argo and Demo not long after we met.", Yuno says back to Nicole as they're walking.

"You said you had 'magic armor' and didn't specify any further, how were we supposed to know that wasn't a joke?", Demo asks.

"Because I've never made any jokes before or after."

Demo just breathes in through his nose once, then drops the subject. She obviously has, considering her joke about not having a core, she has to have one in order to even be alive, but he wants to stop before things get out of hand now that they're not arguing anymore.

"Also I can't copy how people fight.", she notes.

"Maybe you're subconsciously learning things by mimicking how people move around?", Argo says. "It's how some people do it."

"You think so? That sounds kinda cool.", Yuno happily says. She looks back at Nicole one more time.

"Really? You can fight?"

Despite the wording used, her curious tone shows that she didn't mean that as an insult. She genuinely didn't seem to know that Nicole is a warrior too.

In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.

Nicole stares at Yuno as if she'd just gone completely insane, and she taps the pommel of her Zeus-forged sword.

"Dude. Just look at me. What the friggin' hell could've possibly given you the idea that I can't fight?"

She casts a glance at Demo and Argo.

"You two haven't been telling her fake stuff about me as part of some kinda weird prank, have ya?"