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Fun for the whole family, two months late! Hooray for punctuality!

1. This will be judged by three people and have sixteen combatants. All round battles are in ONE TOPIC. For example, “First Round” will be for the first set, “Second Round” for the second set, etc. This matches the most recent and also the most classic form for the NLBFT.

2. You should try to take this a bit more seriously than a typical battle. I won’t restrict who joins and who doesn’t, but use your brain, it's pretty easy to figure out if you're ready for this or not. This event typically attracts the best our forum has to offer, so if you're new, don't expect special treatment. But you probably knew that already, so on to the less snobby rules.

3. There is a strict time limit. I've reset this to 2 days before a full point is lost, and one more before you're up for either another deduction or possible elimination. I'll make exceptions where due, but we need to make this a little quicker than last few times around. Remember this, as it is standard, and complaints will only be considered if they are not simply whining. Also, reasons to have been absent are to be discussed by the judges as acceptable or not. If your computer explodes and you had no access to another, fine, but if you were too lazy to try, it's elimination.

4. The judge's word is final. I want to see good sportsmanship from the loser, and likewise from the winner.

5. The first to post has battlefield choice in their specific battle. Make it something interesting. That's all we ask of you here. :P

Battle rules:

The rules of engagement here follow the basic rules of the Gunjin. No transforming/switching characters, no healing, no cheapness/god-moding, etc. All violations, as viewed by the judges, will be considered for possible deduction of points.

Alpha division:
7. Trickster-kun vs. 2. Metal Man

Beta division:
7. Vapor vs. 4. Acradius

Judges:
Seat 1: t3hDarkness
Seat 2: Tazy
Seat 3: Saria Dragon

This will end next Wednesday at 4:00 PM Central time.

WRITE.

It was an eerie time, warping down those subway tunnels. Other travelers had seen rivers, and still others thought it was a flight through outer space. But whatever they said, it had always been subway tunnels to Metal Man.

Hurtling through time and space took its toll on the mind. Unable to comprehend this, one's mind would compensate. The mind would project familiar concepts in place of the abstract confusion that was inter-dimensional travel. In Metal's case it had been subway tunnels. For he had memories of walking through them all the time in his home plane. By projecting familiar thoughts, the mind turned a frightening experience into a mundane one.

But despite this, Metal Man felt disturbed. It was not a simple 'bad day' feeling. No, he felt as if there was a flaw with the entire world. Some sort of crack, some sort of splinter that was undermining everything. If he did not address it immediately, perhaps he would vanish into the tunnels soon... and never return to the sane world again. He looked about nervously. A distant flapping noise disturbed him.

What... is that my mind breaking? Is someone following me? Fear turned to anger, and anger turned to hatred. Metal Man felt his stomach become an acid pit. He clenched his teeth and nervously looked behind himself--but nothing was there. His hatred for traveling here grew yet some more. For He had been hearing phantom noises in here for quite a while now, and it only kept getting worse.

"This is ridiculous." His voice was bent by the Doppler effect and became a hilariously stretched pitch. His gravelly intonation was turned into a wacky groan, as it echoed down the halls of his path. He shook his head, and looked down at his legs. As usual, they floated about a foot off the ground. He was just hurtling through the air, down the subway tracks. A convenient fork in the road presented itself to him, and as usual, he went to take it. He didn't like the normal road for some reason.

Then he suddenly clenched his right fist. That odd feeling gripped him again. ...I have been derailing myself every time. But... that is the way to g--NO... I have been hiding from my true fate. Now... now I must go and face my fears, and end this madness that plagues my mind today!

He swerved back to the main fork. There he saw a foreboding blue portal down a dark walled tunnel. The portal rippled strangely. Metal stared at it in confusion, for until now he had taken every detour and never actually arrived at his intended destination directly. Metal narrowed his eyes as his pulse quickened. His hands nimbly fumbled for his left-arm mounted dimensional LED clock. Wait... maybe I made a mistake? ...Gonnadiegonnadiegonnadie--AHHHHHHHH--

His frightened thoughts vanished as he flew through the portal... ...and appeared out the other end along with him.

There were five uniformed men in a gray bunker room. The men there were holding automatic rifles. A sign explained where the wayward traveler had arrived... Area 51. And Metal had just exited... a Stargate. The Stargate was a ring with seven chevrons, or points, which were used to pick locations. Somehow, Metal's bizarre dimension-warping clock had picked this Stargate as his destination today.--perhaps it could connect to them just as it could idly rip holes in time and space. Either way, he had been told in his training as a Time Cop NEVER to enter these portals, and it didn't help he had remembered this JUST as it was too late to avoid the portal. No wonder he had been feeling worried!

The uniformed men, on the other hand, were confused. They were guards hired to protect this Stargate, which had been taken from another planet. A very... strange planet. The Stargate had never worked properly, and no one wanted to take care of it... so these men and their base wound up with it. After all, it was just a mundane broken object. Nothing to worry about, right?

Well, it wasn't much of a problem until they wound up with a massive man of steel from another place and another time before them! The man of steel leered violently at them with rage and confusion in his mottled blue eyes.

The Captain of the guards pointed his gun at the Metal Man's visor and adjusted his tan uniform. "STAND DOWN AND SURRENDER! YOU ARE AN UNAUTHORIZED TRAVELER!" His iron voice of command surely would convince Metal Man.

But the 6'4" man of steel did not budge. The nasty fluorescent light played off his surfaces, just like it would a sinisterly chromed car. His pronounced shoulder pads and Time Cop badge didn't work to allay the Captain's suspicions, either. All those did was indicate his warlike tendencies to the unknowing guards. Metal Man shrugged and then stared the "Captain" in the eyes. Metal's right hand twitched in anticipation. ...So what. A bunch of men with guns. I've dealt with worse. Like demons. And vampires. And Saiyan world destroyers.

He idly took out his pistol. He then spoke in a laconic voice. "Your weapons are too pathetic to pierce my armor. I give you three seconds to run. Five if you drop your weapons. One..."

He was interrupted by the five guards opening fire on him. But it was for nothing. Metal Man's armor did not take much, if any, damage from the entirely conventional ammunition. It may have poked Metal a lot and caused him some bruises. It may have even cracked his visor a little. But in the end, Metal didn't care.


He lifted his identifiably Soviet TT-33 pistol and pointed it at the foolish guards. Then he muttered some lethal words.

"...Three."

BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM. The dull thudding blast of each shot pierced the bulletproof vests. With ease, the man of steel disabled 3 of the men of flesh. The other guards fled, as the alarm went off and the area was sealed off. Metal Man walked over to the disabled men, and looked them over. The Captain had escaped!

He reloaded calmly, looking at the Stargate with disdain. Okay... so what? May as well go back. He went to dial his arm to move on to another destination that might bring him home... as a shiny object that wasn't his caught his eye.

...He realized he was in a massive hangar, filled with stolen alien weapons. There was even a wrecked flying saucer. He lowered his arm and stared in awe. "...What... is this?" He shook his head and blinked twice, so as to make sure he wasn't dreaming. But there it was: blue alien pistols, red alien rocket launchers... and a silver flying saucer which looked like it had been pierced by a giant hole puncher.

Metal walked towards the pile, thinking out loud. "I could create the mother of all booby traps with this... then the Time Cops could be stopped! At last, fortune is in my favor!"

Then the Stargate lit up yet again and Metal Man froze half-step facing the wreckage and the gate. He moaned. "...Dammit. Just my luck!"

The Man of Steel nearly crushed the handle of his pistol. Metal flakes fell to the ground as he pointed the strangely obsolete silver Soviet death weapon at the Stargate.

"Perhaps whoever this is is why this place was marked off limits..."

"Approaching target. Prepare for dimensional rift transfer."

He had heard the stories, of course: during his training, during his travels, during his countless adventures throughout galaxies, time periods and even universes. And yet, there was not one time when Amrick Ukihara didn't think that the one method of traveling he was allowed to use was best left for either crude, novice magicians or masochists. The irritating feeling of being pulled from the stomach out and then sucked into the trademark silver portal that he had seen so many times throughout his career as a High Magic Knight of the Time and Space Administration Bureau was as sickening as usual-- he just gritted his teeth and shut his eyes, waiting for the motion to finish and his body to arrive at the next destination.

But this time, something was definitely amiss.

He felt a wrack in his body, one that was definitely not related to his violent traveling and he shuddered involuntarily. 'Now what?' he thought irritably at the anomaly. He hated these kind of delays: sometimes, shakeups such as these would propel the silver-haired man to as far as another universe entirely, where he would have to spend a couple of hours to open up another portal to get back into the 'flow', or the paths that united the worlds. Not that he couldn't just jump back into the portal he came from in the first place, but more often than not, his landing spots were points where conflict, in one form or another, was rather... rife. Not to mention they all seemed to target him at the worst possible moment, so he naturally had to spend some time defending himself. Or slaughtering the battleground, depending on the case.

Thus, he was extremely irritated as his body was being jerked toward *another* unknown destination, as if the 'flow' determined where he went as opposed to simply direct him from point A to point B. Such irregularities in time and space travel always got the best out of Amrick every single time: how long had he been appealing for a renewal in the system, to use a free-roaming system much like the Time Cops he had heard about in another universe? He figured that, well, maybe the Bureau was just being cheap.

Today, however, that cheapness by the Bureau's part would cost the magic knight dearly, as the 'flow' landed him rather forcefully through a massive gate, and straight into the vicinity where a certain steel giant stood. The magic knight's legs buckled under the sudden pull of gravity, but he regained his composure rather quickly, silver eyes open and alert as he gasped and looked around. Usually, Amrick could handle forceful landings such as these with relative ease, yet today there was... something. He didn't know what it was, or perhaps he wasn't even aware of it yet, but in the back of his head, there was a feeling... a certain something. Maybe he was confused by the place where he was, or how he got there, or maybe...

Maybe he was just shocked at how there was a steel humanoid beast pointing a gun straight to his face.

"What the--" was Amrick's first verbal reaction as he blinked, then tried to talk to this... metallic drone. The shake-up form his travel lingered still in his eyes, preventing him from taking in the finer details in the metal man, such as his Time Cop badge or the full length of his gun, but still he tried to talk: "Hey, where is this place?"

It was a pretty basic (and somewhat stupid) question, sure, but under the current situation, Amrick wasn't finding much sense by his own. Asking for some help wasn't that crazy... or was it?

The silver sentinel pointed his gun at the newcomer's face. Metal stared with a hateful glare. He spat his words at this new person. "What do you mean where is this? It's Area 51, doofus!" Then he helpfully pointed at a nearby sign with his free hand. His deep grumbling could be heard buzzing from his mouthpiece.

It's one of those fancy-pants Knight people I've been hearing about. Too good to just warp from place to place, they insist upon 'respecting' the flow of time. Hmph. I guess it's my lucky day. If I kill him, the Dread Coachman might just give me amnesty.

Amrick the Time Knight tried to avert an immediate fight, but Metal Man squeezed his gun and fed a bullet into the chamber. The old pistol was now ready it for use. Amrick backed off, slowly raising his hands. He was trying to keep the Man of Steel from shooting him. At least, before he could hit the Man of Steel first.

But Metal Man was in no mood for diplomacy. "You made almost as big a mistake as I did by coming here. I'm sure your fancy little system brought you here, and I'm just as sure your superiors will be horrified to know that THE TIME BANDIT killed you, but that's enough t--" Mid-sentence, the metallic madman clicked his trigger. Then there was a sound of thunder.

Of course, Amrick was no fool; he ducked away. The bullet only grazed his shoulder. He saw Metal Man eject the clip onto the floor with a CLUNK, and took cover. But Metal Man's in-visor systems deftly tracked Amrick with laser-guided precision. The Man of Steel stood and thought angrily to himself. Those fancy little s#$%s... thinking they're better than everybody else. Just wait until the news gets out about little old me taking one down! He chuckled to himself and slammed in a new, special clip. So special, the clip had a nice skull and crossbones warning on it. No sane people used these ones, apparently.

But Metal Man wasn't going to play any blasphemous heavy metal music with this gun. No... he aimed to the left of Amrick and fired a more progressive instrument.

The Time Knight saw this shot. He knew immediately Metal was trying to lead him into the bullet's path. So instead he leaped aside in the opposite direction.

But... much to his surprise, the bullet was not a bullet! It hit some sort of alien coffee table and, instead of making a dull thud, it created a massive explosion. The Time Knight froze with horror as he saw the explosion propel the fancy table sideways into the air. It was with such force it smashed into Amrick with a satisfying CRACK and threw him into the wall, then it shattered on Amrick, piercing him with shrapnel and making a hideous mess.

"How d'ya like that one, Mr. I'm-better-than-you?" Metal Man's face took on a sort of hateful glare, one he hadn't used often. It wasn't madness this time; just annoyance, RAGE at those who had put down his 'pedestrian' organization. The small fires from the explosion eerily reflected on his visor, making him seem even more creepy... and consumed by an unseen fire.

But Amrick had no clue why this wacko was so mad at him. He also had no clue what those blue spinny alarm things going off were, or why people with guns were manning the door to the room they were both in. Indeed, when the PA went off about 'intruders in Bay 5' he realized... it was as if he had been warped into the middle of a battle. A battle between this metallic man and the base's security. He tried to ask another question to sate his curiosity. "Who are you, and wh--"

But all he got was a wheezy response. "I don't tell TIME PRESERVATIONISTS that kind of info!" The Metal Man let the other bullets in his cartridge loose, causing seven more giant explosions. Although Amrick dodged most of them, the shots reduced the area around the Time Knight to rubble. This left him a bit more vulnerable to Metal Man's close-range whims. It also turned the otherwise boring gray bunker-warehouse into a cool-looking burning debris field.

The Man of Steel began lumbering towards Amrick, slowly, as he put away his gun. A look of raging hatred, perhaps mixed with some envy, had plastered itself onto his face... and it only looked worse when Amrick compared the man's pock-marked face with his reflection in the man's visor. There was no more time for reasoning with this man. If he gave him even an inch more, he might just rip his head off and play pachinko with it. The Time Knight stiffened, readying for battle.

Metal's blue eyes searched the area like ghostly search lights. He was calculating... yes. Amrick... would be his pachinko ball to bounce around the room.

But he hadn't planned for what Amrick was going to do next.

'This guy... he has the totally wrong idea!'

Amrick's reactions were purely on instinct as he ran away from the Metal Man, analyzing the suddenly hostile encounter and trying to establish a plan of action, or a counter strategy-- something. This is why he hated being deviated from his original destination: it always thrust him into situations like this! Every. Single. Time.

"Oh crud... looks like I'll have to clear up a path again." the magic knight muttered to himself, bringing his right hand in front of his and extending it, as if attempting to grasp something. "Prepare for battle, Concierto!" he said in a low voice, and out of the nothing, a bright white spark erupted in his fist, which caused the metallic giant to stop, if only for a short moment: like clockwork, a bright ruby red orb appeared in Amrick's palm, instantly developing into a long, golden metal staff. The tip of the staff's shape was that of a crescent moon, with the ruby orb as its center core, and right below it, a most peculiar feature: a round, revolver-like chamber, about half a feet long. The shimmering artifact took less than a second to materialize in the magic knight's hand, and as he swung it, as to show it off, white words formed into the orb's center: Big Bang Accelerando. Metal Man was pushed back by the motion, but only for a few feet-- nothing significant.

What was going to be significant, though, was what was going to happen after.

"Intruders spotted in restricted area! Open fire!" he heard the humans yell from a distance, aiming their weapons at both Amrick and Metal Man and firing without a moment's pause. Bang! Bang! Ping! New words flashed in the crimson staff's core as the shots landed, first on the steel giant, and steadily moving on to the magic knight: Starlight Guard. A reddish white shield formed unconsciously a foot or so from Amrick's body, deflecting the mundane material. Completely ignoring the bullets now, the silver-haired knight pointed the crescent tip at the steel mammoth in front of him-- even though the difference in height wasn't that great between them, the armor and the equipment granted Metal Man a significant advantage in mass, making him look, well... bigger than he actually was.

"I don't know why you attack me so suddenly, but... I got a job to do. Get out of my way!" Amrick exclaimed in the midst of the gunfire and the metallic clanks of bullets bouncing off Metal Man's heavy armor. Pushing the staff forward, new words formed in the core of the staff again: Rapture's Prelude. Several small orbs of bright red energy circled around Amrick's staff, and at his push, they propelled forward: two of them were aimed straight at Metal Man's chest, which would explode in a fierce burst upon contact, and the rest traveled straight to the human soldiers behind his iron hide, eliminating the distractions with the same energy bursts.

Though he knew this wasn't going to be enough to bring such a hulking mass of metal down, for sure.

The man of steel stood there, watching the twin bolts of red energy fly straight at him. Their violent essence reflected in his visor. And they smashed straight into his chest. Twin clouds of blood filled the air before Metal Man. But the Man stood there... unmoved.

The guards, on the other hand, were clearly prepared for Amrick. Those Metal had shot down began to stand up. Metal Man looked back at them, his shiny red chest wound bleeding. He had few words for them. "...What the hell?"

The Captain of the guards stood up. On his uniform, a strangely shaped disc could be seen. Probably, it was a prototype technology stolen from an alien culture. And, to Metal and Amrick's chagrin, this device was clipped to his uniform. This son of a gun smirked, showing his teeth almost like a wild baboon. In this man's unnaturally white and even smile, there was a golden replacement front left tooth, which served primarily to intimidate easily frightened soldiers. He spat a small bit of blood at Amrick and Metal Man, thinking it would make these two interdimensional intruders shake in their boots. "This is the most secure place in the base. We deal with all kinds of threats... you're not going to--"

But mid-plot speech, the man's mouth met with Metal Man's right fist. The inconvenient shield flickered and spazzed out as the starstruck Captain fell down as fast as he had stood up. The other guards backed away slowly as Metal Man turned to Amrick. He spoke again, this time with an indignant, grating tone. "Are you not intelligent? This is not your job. It's not mine either! It's clear this is some sort of trap, and I wound up in it probably because of you! So as long as we're here, I may as well kill you, as then perhaps those idiots chasing me will give me amnesty. Doesn't it make sense to you?"

Amrick just tightened his lips. Instead of agreeing, he pointed his Time Knight staff and prepared to fire yet another volley of Rapture's Prelude, which would probably soon be followed by something else flowery like Rapturous Doomsday Beam or Ultimate Apocalypse Noogie. Whatever it was, Metal Man had already had enough of it. And it had only been about five minutes into the battle--a new record!

The Man of Steel moved fluidly. Five more Rapture Blasts of Ominously Bolded Doom were thrown at him, but he didn't plan to become a bloody fountain THAT easily. Instead he grabbed that nasty Captain Annoying Tooth Man and his Right-Hand Mook with his vice-like metal hands. Then he ran directly at the furious red magic, screaming "FINE, BE THAT WAY! I'LL JUST BEAT YOU UNTIL YOU STOP GIVING ALL THOSE SPELLS YOU USE GIRLY NAMES! RAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Clearly, he had everything under control.

The blasts impacted Metal Man and his 'guests', splattering them all with vaguely explosive crimson fury. Amrick saw nothing but the smoke of a violent explosion, and for a moment, he felt safe. He rested his staff. Then he went to do his work, glancing behind him to the treasure trove. Why, to his eye, he saw see many magical artifacts. Some of which were even related to the Time Kni--he heard a noise and turned around. Wait why is that blood-covered shiny metal thing doing no one can survive that many Rapture Preludes I am not going to just stand here and be hit--

Amrick yelled at the top of his lungs. "BIG BANG--"

"BUTTASTIC BURRITO BONGO HEAD ATTACK COUNTER!" All that came out from Amrick was a gasp, as the insidious screeching of Metal Man smashed his precious concentration to bits. It also didn't help that the Metal tyrant had somehow taken the vaguely-shielded Captain and chucked all 200 lbs of pure American tough guy right at Amrick's mouth mid-spell. *SMAAASH!* Amrick became reacquainted with backwards momentum for a moment. Then he annoyedly shoved the Captain aside...

"ULTIMATE UGLY-TASTIC UKULELE ASININE FLYING MOOK DOOM RAID ASSAULT!!!" ...And ducked a flying right-hand man while he was at it. Amrick muttered a curse at this vulgar man of steel and prepared another fancy spell. This time, he would counter Metal Man's obvious non-spells. He raised the staff, as Metal Man grew dangerously close.

"Why do you persist in this, man of steel? You don't kno--"

Metal Man had given up on words. Taking a page out of his previous playbook, he punched the mage straight in the staff. *SMASH!* Whether or not he broke the staff, he certainly knocked the Time Knight backwards. The Knight's muscles tightened and he reflexively swung the staff at Metal Man. But the Shiny Man viciously headbutted the staff right back. His attack was so furious so hard it smashed his own visor! But then it sent the staff flying out of Amrick's hands. The staff clattered uselessly to the ground as Metal Man kneed the distracted Knight in the crotch with a metal knee. *SMACK!* Amrick wished this impudent annoyance had died already... but it was STILL just the beginning. The pained Knight bit back, going for Metal's left hand--but the metal hand made Amrick yell in pain instead. Metal wound up a punch with his right, aiming to pummel this guy to death. Amrick, interested in living more than a few more minutes, thought with his head and kicked Metal straight in the painful hole-in-the-chestplate that earlier magic spell had made.

Metal stumbled back, growling at the suffering that little smack caused him. Both combatants were on their knees now, breathing and bleeding hard. Time Knight vs. Time Bandit--they were well matched, and both knew it. But both thought they had a trick which would bring this deadly battle to an end.

Unfortunately for the guards, both of them were probably wrong.

Metal inexplicably ran to the left, his feet cracking the concrete and making an infernal metal racket. Meanwhile, Amrick got his staff and prepared a giant spell to get rid of this insane annoyance.

Metal Man stood at the pedestal where the Stargate was, sizing up Amrick again. I bet he thinks he's better than me... with his fancy little annoying prissy dumbspells. Who the f#$k gives their attacks a name like STARLIGHT BONGO WALL? He shook his head. Then he realized that a faintly visible barrier had protected Amrick from serious injury. He narrowed his sweaty, blood-tainted brow at Amrick in frustration, peering from behind the broken glass of his visor. It was on now.

As blood still flowed from the charred hole in the center of Metal's chestplate, Amrick powered up a new spell--he had his staff, after all. He was going to show this idiotic terrorist what a Time Knight could do--and how this annoyance had misunderstood everything. Then he swung his staff and--*SNAAAAP*--heard a loud metallic snapping noise?

...The Stargate lurched, now floating off the ground. Its semi-reflective surfaces almost glowed in the flourescent light. Clearly, it had gained a mind of its own... No! It was METAL MAN who held it... and he was turning it around in his hands like it weighed nothing. Amrick's eyes went wide as he realized what the Man of Steel was doing--he was... trying to use it as a chakram? Amrick had but seconds to spare before the massive object would come for him. He yelled out a spell hoarsely as Metal Man swung the massive ring into the smoke-filled air. It spun like a Xena-shaped giant had thrown it herself... and Amrick hurled his might at it. But they did no good as its immense mass sliced through them all. Then smashed into Amrick's still somewhat active barrier!

A loud shattering noise filled the room as the active barrier became the million fragments of a barrier. Amrick was knocked back by the force, but by some luck, he had not been decapitated OR crushed--the ring landed with him in the middle.

"Beginner's luck, as always." Metal shook his head and then calmly lifted a silver pistol to the heavens. *BANG! BANG!* *BOOOOOM BOOOOOOM!*

...The mage heard an explosion and saw above--Metal Man had shot out the rafters. And why, look, from there came two explosion-propelled fluorescent lights and their shrapnel! Oh, what an interesting physics experiment that was going to be...

...And from the looks of it, the man had more where that came from!

Between the blaring sirens, the sickening explosions, the crunch of debris and shrapnel, the futile yet annoying gunfire, and the massive destruction caused by the Time Cop's tremendous yet compact rage, Amrick Ukihara wasn't finding a lot of chances to think or focus-- or to counterattack properly, for that matter. The magic knight's shiny red vest, which doubles as his artifact's Barrier Jacket, was torn and ripped in so many places already, he might have as well become a homeless magic knight. The relentless assault of the Metal Man was a level of challenge Amrick had not dealt with in quite a while: being reduced and stuck to simply swing his golden space metal staff like a retard wasn't exactly a part of his general strategy. He was already finding it... quite ridiculous.

And here this superpowered chunk of metal for a man was making such blatant fun of his Lost Logia artifact, swinging mundane people as weapons, and ripping apart dimensional gates to toss them like toys at the magic knight. 'This guy-- doesn't know when to stop!' he thought as he stood, wobbly and beat, in the middle of the incoming wreckage. He wouldn't have it. Not anymore.

"Concierto! Forma de Hacha!" the silver-haired youth exclaimed, and like clockwork, the staff's revolver chamber resonated with a loud *CLA-CHAK* noise, spewing out burnt golden-black shells and replacing them with new ones. The compressed magic cartridges fueled the system with a low hum, and at once, the crescent-tipped staff violently snapped back and front, shape-shifting the whole thing into a double-bladed energy axe, crackling with coils of white energy. The blood red system core, cracked and a bit dented from the last exchange, took front and center in the swift metamorphosis-- not even a second later, Amrick swung the thing effortlessly into a vertical arc, muttering the words "Crippling Rain Rhapsody". At his command, countless tiny energy orbs popped up like a rainbow behind the axe's arc, shooting straight up to meet the falling light fragments: *Boom! Bam! Boom! Blam!* Though the orbs were no larger than lemons by comparison, their ephemeral blasts radiantly expanded to the size of basketballs-- an attack designed to distract more than doing harm, the boost of the staff's axe transformation was enough that such solid matter was reduced to harmless bits.

There wasn't even smoke being left behind the raw magics-- just mild banging noise, amplified by the enclosed space of the bay, yet mildly drowned by the still-blaring alarms around them. Using the same one motion from the high arc, Amrick swung the axe all the way forward, repeating the same spell to blast away the debris and bodies into a clear path leading straight to Metal Man. But the energy orbs never touched the opponent: they all died out a couple of feet from the steel giant, not harming him in any way. Surely he was thinking by now how much of a fool the magic knight was, missing a chance to show off power like that, but Amrick stared into the broken visor, smirking as he shouldered the crackling axe effortlessly.

"So you would kill me, a High Magic Knight? Just because *you* want amnesty?" he spoke, loud enough to be heard over the ruckus of the base and the distance between them. "Don't be so selfish. I didn't even--"

At the back of his head as he spoke, the ruby orb silently materialized the white words Unrestricted Verse in its vibrant display, followed by Accelerando Integration. The humming of the staff as a result was, of course, hidden within the background noise, but then, as Amrick paused mid-sentence, the revolver chamber began to spin with a menacing whirl, and the knight brandished the axe with both hands and leaped forward, finishing his sentence in midair: "--want to COME HERE!"

He aimed to hit the giant squarely in the middle of his helmet with the boost of his magic, which would cause a shockwave within impact, and the enhanced boost of having completely sacrificed chanted spells for physical strength for a while, but before the impact came, Amrick's expression hardened for an instant-- not because of the current situation, but rather because, in that moment, he felt the strongest, weirdest sense of deja-vu, like he had done the exact same thing before... elsewhere...

OOC: This one took a while to think up, but here you go.

CRA-AAAACK! The blast konked Metal Man directly in the noggin. Already bleeding heavily, the iron giant just fell right on over with a metallic thud. His chest was riddled with dents. He had a small crater in the middle of his collarbone. And his face was filled with glass pieces. The brow of his helmet had been deformed into an inverted side of a football. The one tall and shiny warrior seemed to be... no more. All that remained was his blood, pooling all over the floor.

The soldiers watched from a safe distance, assured by Metal Man's last insane act that if they got too close again, they might not live to tell the tale. The room became unnaturally silent, as everyone tuned out the sound of the sirens to hear the slow footsteps of Amrick. The Time Knight wasn't quite sure if that did it, but he knew it was probably a trap. No way could he really be dead. If he is... well... I will be prepared! He flexed his arms, strengthened by UNRESTRICTED BOOGALO and moved in for the kill.

"What did you think I was here for? To fight you? No! I wasn't supposed to be here. And I doubt you were, either. But that doesn't matter much right now." He flexed his staff and pointed it at Metal M--

The still figure on the floor launched a hand to intercept the staff. It was a movement without paralell, except perhaps to lightning. Amrick was caught off guard. But it wasn't because of his own foolishness. He just thought, like any logical person, that a massive man in a suit couldn't move that fast. Before Amrick's added strength could get in the way, Metal Man grabbed the staff and made a MASSIVE throwing arc. The throw was so extreme that Metal Man's own arm servos sparked; but the damage had been done. Amrick was now hurtling through the air. And his destination happened to be a rather un-soft and uncomfortable looking steel bulkhead.

The soldiers leaped out of the way, although one of them got clocked in the head by a far-reaching appendage from Amrick. Then the damaged Captain spoke. "GET THAT METAL SONUVAB*TCH NOW!!!" The soldiers who had not been nearly decapitated opened fire on Metal Man, who twitched about on the floor. The bullets were like stinging needles. Even the greatest armor could not block everything, after all.

But it didn't matter for long. Amrick's body slammed into the bulkhead with such force it knocked the soldiers near it over. Bits of metal and Amrick's flesh flew in the air like sparks, unnerving even the battle-hardened captain. In the confusion, Metal Man rolled over and coughed out a bullet or two, before leaning his red and wet carcass over. A hideous metallic shriek was heard as Amrick kept on going--amplified by his little spell and Metal Man's throw, he had gained the kinetic energy to literally burrow through steel--and he had now flown entirely through the door. It was in such a way the whole bulkhead just fell apart... a large chunk single-handedly crushing one of the soldiers to death.

The Captain called for the remaining men to regroup. As they ran around like ants, Metal Man stood up and began fleeing towards the open bulkhead. The smooth air conditioned air of the base rushed into meet him. And for a moment, it seemed he had hit the jackpot. The new room was a massive, downwards-slanting passage equipped with open diagonal elevators. The room he had been in was connected to another area by a single precarious metal bridge. And there was Amrick, bleeding and struggling to get up. Right in the middle of the bridge.

But it was never that simple. The painful pinpricks resumed in Metal's back. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the good Captain and his men doing their damnedest to shoot him to death. It didn't help that the harsh florescent lights of the area made him light up like a Christmas tree. He turned to duck and instead was knocked over by a very familiar staff. Once on the floor, he became acquainted with one very angry Time Knight's face. It seemed Mr. Fancy Mouth did NOT like being hurled through walls...

Boy, do I ever know how to make enemies. This one's gonna be a doozy...

He had to act now, before both enemies could make mincemeat out of his weakened frame. Summoning all his power reserves, Metal grabbed Amrick. The Time Knight had other ideas and struggled right back. The two stood up and were both hit by bullets, as the guards advanced. That bruised and battered Captain wasn't going to let them break the facility on HIS watch, after all! ...But Metal Man took advantage of a split-second gap in Amrick's strength and wheeled around, bringing the Time Knight's back to bear on the soldiers. Then, as Amrick's back began to eat bullets, Metal Man took out his last skeleton-endorsed ammunition cache, pressed a heretofore unseen red button, and chucked it at the soldiers and their precious military might.

BA-BOOOMF! The bridge was severed by a sudden blast. The fiery inferno embedded shrapnel in both the soldiers and Amrick's back, and then sent the entire platform everyone was on falling. Metal thought fast. Real fast. He got punched in the face by Amrick, too. That didn't feel so good. After shaking the stars out of his vision, Metal shoved himself and Amrick off the bridge... like only a madman would. The two were now rolling down the seemingly endless diagonal slope, with nary an elevator or track to ride on.

But Metal Man didn't need any stinkin' elevator. He just grabbed Amrick and got his feet onto the Time Knight's back. Now, Metal Man was using Amrick... to surf down the elevator... with his face and front-side embedded into the electrified center rail.

Metal put on some preppy WIPEOUT music while Amrick screamed and thrashed in pain. Metal's suit reported alarming levels of electricity, but he ignored it. He felt victory should always sting like hell. He spoke, as Amrick sputtered and thrashed. "The truth is, I've just been waiting for a way out of this entire battle mayhem. And I was thinking, maybe you could help me." Amrick yelled some more, and Metal smacked the back of his head. While that just caused more damage, somehow it also made Amrick a bit numb to the horrendous electrified friction-burns he was getting now. "Now, listen to me. Is there any way to get those Time Cops off of me? Tell me... TELL ME!" The Time Knight was silent.

Then an elevator conveniently showed up behind Metal Man. The man of Steel's face narrowed as a bullet flew over his shoulder. He turned around, causing even more excruciating pain for Amrick, while taking out a normal set of bullets. "Why don't you give up? You don't have anything to gain from me!"

The Captain on the elevator shook his head. "YOU WILL BE APPREHENDED FOR INTRUDING AND DAMAGING THIS BASE! FIRE AT WILL, MEN!"

Metal Man pointed at him with the gun. "FINE! BE THAT WAY! I DIDN'T WANT TO BE YOUR FRIEND ANYWAY!" The two sides began firing at one another. Occasionally, a soldier would fall, or Metal Man would curse as he took yet another 'flesh wound.' After a few minutes, both sides were out of ammunition. The Captain was down to one soldier, and Metal Man was oozing with blood. Yes. Even more blood than before.

The Man of Steel shook his head. "C'mon, man. This will never end. Just stop before you make a fool of yourself." ...Amrick, meanwhile, had been plotting a way to get the giant ogre of a man off of his back. Just as Metal Man said that silly line... Amrick yelled and rolled over with all his might.

...And then the Captain saw the end of the corridor was coming up entirely too fast for him to slow down.

Reality went white for all involved for a few moments, as all the momentum from everyone's bodies and platforms smashed violently into the single-doored terminus of the diagonal elevator. All that could be heard...

...was a certain singer glitchily crooning "Hahahaha... WIPEOUUUUUUUT" from Metal Man's broken speakers.

Out of all the realities, timelines, alternaties, what-ifs, and worlds in general that Acradius Journeyman had visited, there was much in his life that he had seen. Yet, every once in a great while, he would stumble upon something that he had yet to experience. Many people thought him so well-traveled that he had seen and done it all once or twice. Far from it. While on his various, self-assigned quests, be they for hope, or immortality, or sometimes even for blood lust, sometimes it was just good for the weary Time Warrior to be able to stop and smell the roses.

It was a figure of speech, of course. There were no roses out here. In fact, there really wasn't much of anything that was alive. The occasional bird would sail overhead, curious as to when he would make a less dangerous target. Patience, my friend. There will be meat here soon enough, he thought. Let us just hope it is not mine. The bird's call, as if in answer, echoed strangely among the landscape. Indeed, all sounds, from the metallic clanking of his shining half-plate armor, to the eerie, haunting harmony of the wind, fell somewhat warped and twisted upon this almost-alien place.

As he approached another rise, Acradius stopped to study another wave. It, like the very surface he walked on, had frozen solid, in mid-crest, forming quite a beautiful pattern of coral-like rock on the curved tip. It sloped down in the kind of imperfect perfection that only nature can achieve, and joined the rest of the Jade ocean that the blond man stood upon. Jade was not simply the color of the hardened substance, but the nature of the stone itself. Apperantly, two hundred years ago, on the closest continent, some great calamity happened. It was a magical release of intense power, and had varied effects on the geography of the area. For one, the ocean had turned to Jade. Looking to the west, in the direction of the mainland, the lone figure could see the towering black trees far beyond the beaches.

They were also a result of what had come to be known as "The Jade Wind". The arbor had grown to immense sizes, and in an act of instantaneous aging, petrified right then and there. Slowly, the people that lived in the forests were trying to reverse the process, and at the same time harvesting the valuable and prolific amber which was the result of the trees' sap. At the same time, the people that made their living upon the Jade Sea were mining the valuable mineral out of it, and excavating skeletons and ships that were trapped in it. It was a slow process, and the groups fought what could only be called a holy war against each other, but eventually this planet would return to normal.

He took a deep breath, and prepared himself for the fight to come. Shielding his eyes, he looked up at the glaring sun that would have made a man unused to his armor bake like a tinfoil-wrapped potato. Noon. I wonder who my opponent will be this time...

"*Cough* Dammi'-- *Khack!* ... "

The scene was without comparison. The broken bodies of the persistent (and possibly well-paid) soldiers of Area 51 formed a tangled carpet of blood, gore, clothes, broken weapons, severed limbs, destroyed fragments of indescribable metal, and on top of them all, two prominent figures: a giant piece of humanoid steel, and a certain red-clothed magic knight. Recognizing whoever was in the worst shape was, undoubtedly, a great challenge to any bystander who happened to be present and alive in the scene: while Metal Man had his entire armor pierced, dented and generally blown up in places, Amrick Ukihara, who only had the strength and protection of his Barrier Jacket and his close-range magic protection, would've taken the award for 'most graphically worst shape' for sure.

Struck by bullets, shrapnel, debris, and even being used as a living skateboard down electric metal rails, Amrick's red vest and jacket were only feeble links of cloth tied from one piece to the other, soiled with sweat, blood and tears. His pants were in somewhat better shape than his torso, head or arms, but huge gashes in his thighs prevented the body parts to be called 'unharmed'. His left arm was bent in an odd shape, muscles and tissue ripped apart by the rails' friction and the electric burns that cauterized the raw skin as it came off, almost instantly. His back was riddled with holes of all shapes and sizes-- some produced by the bullets that made it through the barrier, one ugly crack in the skin made by his little bulkhead diving episode, and several small scratches and bruises caused by such other dangerous things that Amrick had faced so far.

His right arm wasn't in much better shape-- however, he could still retain a manner of control over it as he grasped the golden staff-axe for dear life. Dented and cracked with some pieces missing entirely, the artifact's crimson core flashed white with the words WARNING blinking in a rich, deep black color, as opposed to the white font it used before for its spell verses. The menacing crackles of electricity in the staff-axe were now only sparks flying off a broken system, with the revolver chamber loosely held in its hinges and the precious condensed magic cartridges losing their charge little by little with every malfunction in the artifact. The ruby orb tried to vocalize its thoughts to its master, flashing white with every word emitted: MasTER, STilL FiGhT... RdeRs... rom... adQUArt... rs...

The magic knight looked at his weapon indifferently. His face was a disaster of peeled skin, spurting blood and burnt tissue, emphasized by the particularly notable fact that his left eye was forced shut by how swollen it had become. It was a miracle he had not snapped a limb in the violence he had just endured, and it was an even more amazing thing that he could even stand in that condition. But the power of his previously released magic cartridges flowed through his body still, giving him just enough energy to accomplish basic movement like he was. It was also keeping the intense pain that coursed through his body at check, but... this wasn't going to last forever. Not after all the energy he had spent in this battle so far, and certainly not after his staff's system had become almost completely broken down. And he was expected to keep fighting like this?

Amrick Ukihara grinned, a mess of broken teeth and blue veins showing in his mouth, and he winced as his face muscles moved, which also caused his broken ribs to protest as he tried to chuckle, forcing him to stop. He was already dreading the pain he was going to feel when his spell ran out... he only hoped it didn't finish before either the Metal Man finished him off, or he could escape from that place. He faced the diagonal slope in which they all came down, staring at his own blood's trail leading all the way from the top and here. A buzzing filled his chipped ears, and he turned his distorted vision to the source of the noise: Metal Man himself.

Hahahaha... WIPEOUUUUUUUT *Crackle*

His silver right eye looked down upon his opponent, collapsed on the ground and mixed with all the remains of his bullets and weapons, coupled with the bodies of the damn Captain who chased them and the others that were with him. He found the scene repulsive, sure, but he couldn't afford to become nauseous, or turning his head away from the steel giant one more time. Not after the little stunt that had lead them all here, to this ruin. He lifted his axe-- or rather, he tried to lift it, but the muscles in his right arm all denied his wishes, merely budging in response to his nerve signal. His one right eye glinted in the sparks of both Metal Man's circuits and his own broken staff, and a strange rush filled through his body. He had never been so close to death before-- his magic had always protected him, even at the expense of his bodily functions. It was the second strongest magic in the entire Time and Space Administration Bureau, an agency that spanned entire realities and universes. If there was something in existence that could overpower that magic... if there was something that could cause *him*, a High Magic Knight, such trouble...

Amrick's resolve lifted the axe for him, a bicep ripping in the flexing motion, causing him to wince again. But it wasn't hurting as much as before. Only a couple of seconds, or even a minute before, his pain was the worst sensation ever. And yet, now it was slightly tolerable-- his left arm was still out of commission, and his legs buckled and trembled with every few seconds he was standing, but... what was this feeling? He couldn't describe it. Was it the 'inner peace' of coming so close to the end of life? He was afraid. He was nervous. He was excited. He was feeling many things. He encompassed all of his thoughts into his arm, and the staff-axe responded to his will, the energy blades of the axe widening a few centimeters--

And then, he struck.

But he missed. His fallen axe lay next to the Metal Man's dented head, and he mumbled with what little vocals he could muster: "I' you had 'old me 'at... be'ore... I could've helped you... wi'h 'he power of 'he Bureau... *cough* Shame we can' con'inue... or can we?" Amrick dragged and lifted the axe behind him, mustering what little strength his magic was giving him, looking straight at Metal Man and just-- waiting for something.

Anything outside of the broken Wipeout track. Of course, if nothing happened, he would use his remaining strength to open a portal back home.

Through the red filtered gaze of the smashed man lay a cathedral to carnage. All around was death, and all the man of steel could feel was pain. The elevator platform had shattered like a cheap mirror, embedding metal fragments in everything. The Area 51 men were unconscious. And blood, pneumatic fluids, and Metal's mechanical grease had coated the floor quite thoroughly. Sparkled through this wonderland of horror was the occasional fire. And for the icing on the top, there was a heavily battered Time Knight, drunkenly stumbling around. His no-longer shiny axe had missed Metal's unaware face by inches.

Then Metal Man felt a bolt of lightning through him. The scattered bits of speaker rumbled no more; and his cracked visor lit up. Dire premonitions coated the cracked pieces.

* TOTAL S ST M F IL R
* SE E R E D # M G E
* S S T M T M
* #)@%%@#(@#^)@^
* SYSTEM MALFo01NCTKZ$#^(^#$46F5A35B9C?!
* 0xDEEDBAD

The visor threw a fistful of sparks. Then Metal Man began to stand up. Like a wounded spider, he twitched his limbs erratically. After a few moments of flopping about uselessly, his legs found the ground. But then, to his surprise, so did his arms... even though they were by his side. He peered down at his arms and saw they had been impaled. His left arm had a pole stuck through it, coated red. At full height, the pole touched the ground and extended 2 feet from his arm, forcing it up and out at shoulder height, like a scarecrow. On the right arm a maze of grills and boilerplate had become embedded. It stuck out at a 45 degree angle and twitched despite his attempts to shut it down.

His servos in his feet had stopped responding due to all the electrical zapping. Much to his annoyance, they continually hopped about, giving him the appearance of some arcade fighter character. Of course this was only the beginning of the damage he had taken--his helmet was encrusted with broken glass and pieces of the metal floor, giving it a sort of crown-like appearance, while also revealing random patches of Metal's bloodstained and lacerated scalp. His face was burnt and blackened, and sparks flew in his eyes all the time.

But more than that malfunctioned. It only got worse as his vision split into three color layers. The layers danced as he felt like a power drill had gone off in his brain. Then, suddenly, he saw the Saiyan world-destroyer standing next to Amrick. He lunged, and Amrick tiredly sidestepped. The Saiyan vanished. But then he saw the Coachman... no, three of them! He growled and cursed, foaming at the mouth. "You.. you... all of you... you're ganging up on me... you... everyone wants me dead! No one wants to help me! NO ONE!!! I'LL KILL YOU AAAALLLLL!!! ARRRRGHHH$#^$##$^...." He slumped down as visions of death and destruction flooded his vision. There it was... Joker! Darth Bowser! Bozo the Clown! They were all there... and they wanted him DEAD!

Amrick backed away in confusion. Indeed, the one poor soldier who woke up also reflexively crawled away. It was like some sort of deranged madman... only instead of being in a hospital gown, he had partially functional war armor equipped! He drunkenly lurched at Amrick, dripping various fluids, as his gooey mouth exhaled wetly. "HEYloooooo MISTER Tim! Yeeeessss... yes... how aaaareeee YOU?" He swung his left arm erratically, nearly clipping the top of Amrick's head with the pole stuck in it. "I am heeer too tell you... yoo can't hurt meee! I am ALREADY DeAAAD! Ah... and... and... AND." He fell forward, but caught himself, using the half-stuck arms alone. The pole slid a little bit and he coughed incoherently. "All of you... all you took away my freedom... all of you... you hate me... you hate human beings... you hate sanity... so you made me this... all of you..."

The voice slid down into a deep whisper as his body began to shake uncontrollably. "You must lie... you... cannot... want to help me!" His head lashed backwards for a moment, and a powerful memory hit him. He saw... his life before all of this had happened. That man who had given him this suit and said if he held on, he would find freedom. Of course, Amrick couldn't see it, so his outburst in response meant nothing to him. "NO! YOU LIEEEeeeeeD to me! This suit... IS DEATH! All... DEAD! My family... my life... you... look what happens? Look what... look..." As Amrick was about to swing another slow, desperate attack, the man of mangled steel began moving again.

The Time Knight shook with pain and, perhaps, sorrow. This man had ruined his life with his behavior, and now it came out... now that all the defenses the suit had against mental pain had, most likely, been disabled in the crash. But he couldn't bring himself to kill someone who could have just as easily been him, had the world been a bit different. Of course, to the left, the injured Area 51 man had no sympathies. He raised his gun and pointed it at the back of the metal monstrosity. His hand also shook, but it was with rage. This alien has compromised the facility... he must die for the good of AMERICA! Cheesy sentiments aside, he fired... and fired... and fired again.

The bullets hit Metal Man again and again and again. The echoes hit the hall like a fistfull of raindrops. The man of steel screeched like an old screen door and turned to the soldier in rage. His hideous glowing face contorted in wordless hatred. And from there, events fell down their own elevator. The speaker on Metal's left shoulder crackled loudly.

Immediately, the man of steel's body began dancing out of control. Leaping up and down constantly, he blindly crashed towards the soldier, who was quickly and brutally smashed into a pancake by the mad mechanical man's hideous dance. He then spun about to face Amrick, who was now trembling quite horribly. The smell of death wafted from the Man of Steel as his last remaining chunk of visor projected a very visible targeting reticule on Amrick's forehead.

The melodic stomping grew closer. Amrick lifted his axe up to block the blow, but that pole came up and knocked it aside. The pole on Metal's left arm also clocked him right in the head. As Amrick stumbled back, Metal flew forward, spastically pirouette-kicking the Time Knight across the face with his right foot. Then he just as abruptly reversed the movement, getting in another hit. Already wounded as it was, the Time Knight stumbled back, trying to get help from this broken demon. He saw through a windowed door... more military men were coming. There was light there. And behind him... was death, bathed in the glow of red emergency lights.

But Metal Man gave no mercy. As Amrick stumbled away, he found Metal Man to have caught up already. A solid metal foot implanted itself into Amrick's back, then reversed so as to send the Time Knight into the air. The man of Steel then hopped up and spun in a circle, slamming his right, jaggedly damaged metal knee into various parts of Amrick over and over again. The hapless Time Knight was thrown and bounced off a wall into the ground, near the door. Well, at least I'm near the door... Or so he thought.

The man's brutal fury would not allow those men behind the door to interfere! "N...Nnnnnn... NO... NO ONE... no one... no... LIFE... FOR ANYONE." He collapsed on the floor, then leaped up higher than before, such that his leaping boots finally broke, spraying the area with pneumatic oil. But it was too late; the Metallic monster had grabbed the pipes in the ceiling. "B...BRING THE WHOLE HOUSE DOWN... BEDONE WITH YOU!" He summoned so much fury he glowed blood red, and ripped major pipes and structural supports out of the ceiling, climbing around as he did. Finally he got near Amrick, and his arm joints also gave out. Something ELSE broke, too, as his speech had changed. "Wait... ...you said you could help me? But--"

Like a newly stringless puppet, Metal fell to the ground. Amrick clutched the door and went to open it...

...And then the ceiling and a huge pile of metal fell from above, threatening to smash him to bits. As for Metal Man, it was too late; he was buried... and the sparks from his telltale visor had lit all the fluid on fire.

It would no longer be an exaggeration to say he had sent the place to hell now. But would Amrick be spared the tragically misplaced fury? Or would the hatred of a million time-traveled years be his undoing?

((I'd like to announce my intention of stopping my fight right here and then. I don't feel that, by posting, we can get anywhere, as Metal Man, I feel, has done a nice job wrapping up for a good finale. So I would 'submit' the whole battle for judging, as is. Is that okay? >: ))

OOC: Well, if you want to call it an end there, I'd like to see what reaction ol' Amrick had to that attack. Then, I would have a final bit of data on Metal Man, as... yeah.

Metal Man wrote:OOC: Well, if you want to call it an end there, I'd like to see what reaction ol' Amrick had to that attack. Then, I would have a final bit of data on Metal Man, as... yeah.

((I was thinking of doing that final bit of posting after judging was done, though-- that way, I could portray the results a bit more accurately instead of just leaving things kinda blank and undecided. Get what I mean? o: I wanted to write something decisive about the both of them and how things developed after.))

OOC: Well, the quality of the battling is usually judged rather than the actual winner--case in point, the battle where Metal Man was soundly beaten ICly but I won the round--but I can do that if you wish.

Metal Man wrote:OOC: Well, the quality of the battling is usually judged rather than the actual winner--case in point, the battle where Metal Man was soundly beaten ICly but I won the round--but I can do that if you wish.

((Sorry, I'm not trying to make you do something you wouldn't want to do. >: My only reasoning is, I had more to post about Amrick and the battle, but right now, what I had in mind depends solely on whether he 'lives' or 'dies', and those are actually two different versions of the whole 'what if' situation. That's why I wanted to wait until the judging was done first, and then post.

Unless you also have something to add if I do post beforehand. o.o;; ))

OOC: The style I am alluding to is alien to you; I will just leave the battle here then, rather than unfairly ask you use a mindset alien to yours and have it damage your roleplaying. Had I known I would have been slower paced... for as you may have seen, most of the people I fought earlier didn't seem to take damage, and so this woulda just been a half-way marker. Oh well.

TIME, then, I guess. Both matches are technically through. Vapor seems AWOL and Trickster's called an end, so thereitis.

I actually tried PMing Vapor to let him know this round had started, but I guess he hasn't been available.

School and life in general have been taking over my Gunjintimes. I'm very sorry I can't continue, but I hope I can do better in the future. :(