North America Trials

[dakota]

"I thought you could." Khris smiled. " Just remember that anything your opponent can do, you can do better, so the more you make them defend themselves, the more you see how they do it and find a way through their defenses.Throw a few kicks and punches like Marv and Tigger taught you, because You can't always be on the defensive." He glanced back towards the others. " We better get back before they start thinking I brought you over hear for a tongue lashing or worse."

[albatross]

Dancer and Kris return. White is talking weapons with Heckle and glancing at Jeckle's work occassionally.

Tiger smiles at Kris and Dancer and waves the girl over. "The next match is going to involve some tricky opponents." Tiger makes sure Rock and Peacemaker. "The most dangerous is a poison user, and the one that will be toughest to beat is a dragon hatchling."

Rock, "You didn't brief us on the other opponents."

Tiger raises an eyebrow, "I didn't. Because I didn't have any information on them. In fact, I didn't even know who you would be facing the first two rounds. It is a seeded tournament. Now that two rounds are over I can predict the matchups based on the remaining teams."

"Keep your armor on. It will prevent you from being poisoned. The hatchling will have supernatural strength, endurance, intelligence and speed. It may also have psychic, magic or fire breathing powers. They can learn inside the egg, so it may know more than you'd think. All the same, the hatchling should be vulnerable to advanced tactics, things that only experience teaches. They tend to be egomanics and underestimate human knowledge. Got it?"

The three kids nod. Marv says, "The round three strategy should work great."

[dakota]

Khris returned the smile before taking a seat off to the side. The place brimming with so many metahumans was still overwhelming, but the kids were familiar enough they didn't add to the affect anymore. With Jackle and her brother doing their own thing, he decided to try to stay out of Tiger and Marv's way coaching, except when he saw they needed a little help.

[albatross]

Tiger mentions the third person they will face. "She is a bioroid. She can mimic combat styles because she is a natural brawler. But she can only mimic one style at a time." Tiger turns to Dancer.

"If you can get her to mimic Ch'in-na or Tiger Claw then she'll be vulnerable to Aikido moves from Rock and Peacemaker. If not, she'll use moves in an Aikido style."

"She's like me?" Dancer asks.

"Not really," Tiger says. "She won't be able to copy everything she sees. If you mix up your styles she may get confused and not copy anything."

"What is a bioroid?" Rock asks.

"An artificial organism, only created with flesh instead of robotics." Tiger answers.

Marv clears his throat. Tiger looks over. "Eh. Getting Zee to copy Tiger Claw or Ch'in-na is a mistake. Let her copy Aikido. Take out the poison user and the dragon first. They are the most dangerous. Zee is a natural fighter, not a... a... well she'll just fight like an Aikido student. She won't be as good as Rock or Dancer. Maybe not even as good as Peacemaker in the Aikido style. The dragon is stronger, and the poison user is not the kind of person you want to leave unchecked. Zee is strong and fast like Dancer, but she won't be able to fight Rock or Peacemaker even if she could copy Aikido moves perfectly."

After this long winded speech, Marv looks at the floor. Rock looks at Tiger. She nods. "Do what Marv says."

"But you said-"

"Rock." Tiger cuts him off. "Do exactly what Marv says. That's an order. If you are in a fight, follow Marv's instructions exactly. Always." Rock looks conflicted about this, he really liked Tiger's idea, but he bites his tongue and nods.

Tiger turns to Peacemaker and Dancer. "We do it Marv's way." Peacemaker nods. Dancer glances at Marv. Tiger reaches out and grabs Marv by the shoulder. He looks up, his eyes glinting with mischief.

"Round three. The gloves come off."

[shiivster]

Jeckle stands up and moves over to White after tidying up her immediate mess. 'need the legs power pack soon. need to wire in and make a bracket for a second pack. maybe in 30. i wanna relax in the sunshine first . . '

*she then moves a little ways off and once the coat is off, settles on it, belly down and arms fold under the head. and unlike before, zonks out in seconds and more at peace than before her brother was found. its clear that the worry prevented her from relaxing

[albatross]

White sets the exoskeleton legs where Jeckle can find them and goes to watch the match. Heckle and Roan stay around, 'talking.'

The next match is the one right before the finals. All of the coaches of the defeated teams are there watching. Tiger, Marv and White ignore them. Bel takes up her medic position.

A small dragon in dragon form, and two women in armor. Rock, Dancer, and Peacemaker's stance is completely different from the last time. They enter the arena moving in their form. Rock and Peacemaker in an Aikido stance, and Dancer in a Taido stance.

When the match begins, Peacemaker jumps at the dragon, Rock jumps at Foxglove, and Dancer spins forward and catches them both - with a fast spin she hurls Rock at the Dragon's leg and Peacemaker at Foxglove's head.

The dragon tries to kick Rock and Rock grabs its leg and hurls it to the ground. The creature is shocked by Rock's power.

A puff of dust is in front of Foxglove's face, but it does not stop Peacemaker, who hits Foxglove with a football player's tackle.

Dancer spins and fends off Zee's attack, then moves over towards Rock and the Dragon. Zee follows and Rock lets her attack him from behind, but he whirls and grabs her arm. The Dragon is up now, but approaches Dancer warily.

Zee and the Dragon see Peacemaker pounding Foxglove and try to assist. Dancer moves to block the Dragon. The creature could muscle past her easily, but doesn't know that so it tries to go around.

The bioroid twists in Rock's grip and realizes her arm is locked. She turns and tries to attack Rock, who dodges while holding her arm. Finally, Rock chucks Zee into the Dragon's back, who turns to see what is going on. Being twelve feet tall is an intimidating look, but it also makes the dragon an easy target....

[dakota]

Khris sat at the competition, but his attention wasn't on the fight. It was on the other coaches. He tried to figure out if they were simply there as spectators, or if there were other motives behind their presence. He made no attempt to be discreet either, staring directly at them while holding his sandlaes in his hands, just in case.

[albatross]

Marv is sweating bullets. His eyes focused like lasers on the action, taking in everything. His craggy face barely cracked in a smirk. His strategy depended on the other coaches underestimating the Omega Team. If not for the dragon maybe they could have dogged it through one more round, pretending not to know martial arts, pretending not to have teamwork. But the scheme is played out now. Maybe a clever coach or two will know how to stop three coordinated martial artists, maybe not.

Kris can tell the other coaches are stressed. Some take notes, others look on stone faced, taking in the competition. Rock is a pure brawler, more than twice as strong as the bioroid and with agility like Tiger and Akane. Peacemaker is not quite as powerful as Rock but is still a handful for anyone else at the trials. Dancer is the weak link, but her parries are perfect in all directions and she moves like the wind. And now they know Marv's last secret, the three kids fight with a level of teamwork and coordination only found in skilled athletes and martial artists.

The other coaches glance at Marv and each other. None of the other teams fight like this. As they watch, Rock slides between the dragon and Zee, avoiding their attacks. He skids over to where Peacemaker has Foxglove pinned. The dragon and Zee try to pursue but Dancer is in their way. They attack her, but she spins and parries them both. "Oh, sh-" Foxglove says as Rock raises a hand, she never finishes, he brings a knife hand to her neck and knocks her out through her armor.

The dragon spits fire at him, but he and Peacemaker push off each other and the fire hits Foxglove instead. Peacemaker and Rock move in opposite directions of the dragon and Zee, Dancer spinning out of their range until they make a trangle surrounding the two remaining opponents who stand back to back.

The other coaches watch in anticipation to see what happens next.

[albatross]

The third match takes a long time. Time and again Rock or Peacemaker separates Zee from the dragon and the other goes toe to toe with the creature. Occassionally, they try to get the dragon to fight Dancer while Zee faces both Rock and Peacemaker, but the dragon is too crafty to fall for that.

But in the end, the dragon's arrogance gets the better of it. It tries to face down Rock and Peacemaker while Zee attacks Dancer. Rock locks the dragon's arm to the floor and Peacemaker kicks its neck until Zee breaks away from Dancer to free it.

The time expires and the judges signal that Omega team has won in a 3-0 decision.

[shiivster]

*it is the buzzer that gives Jeckle a start and she wakes up and is fully foggy headed as she blinks 3 times and tries to remember just where she is. she sits up and has her mini tazer in hand as she looks about. she sits and stares at a few people before her brain wakes up to have her recall WHO the team members are.

*she rubs the eyes with one hand and slips the tazer away and out of sight. her power nap was too short, but she can do more work now. but first she simply asks groggily to any team members near her ' . . uhh . . what was that noise? sounded like an alarm'

[dakota]

" Maybe you should be paying attention and sleep at night instead." Khris chuckled at Jeckle's reaction

[albatross]

"I beat a dragon!" Rock says to Jeckle excitedly. Peacemaker makes a face pushes him lightly. "Er, we beat a dragon!" The kids are excited from their win. Even Dancer is smiling, Marv is beaming at her, though he still has a touch of concern in his massive face.

Tiger hangs back initially, but after she checks in with Lt. White and Heckle, she comes forward and claps the three kids on the back. She holds onto Rock's shoulder, smiling. "The three of you did well."

[shiivster]

' . . whatever Irish. i'll make sure to get more sleep when i get the next construction job that could save the earth' *it's clear her attitude is still suffering from poor sleep or maybe its just him.

*with her mind waking up now she studies the kids. 'i'm glad that teamwork is paying off. there ain't any I's in Team though Rocky. remember that . . otherwise, good work. excuse me, i'm gonna get lost in my work again'

*she glances at her brother and gives a half smile that shows her worry for his immediate safety, has now faded. she moves to grab the leg unit and then settles and resumes working and knows she'll need to make an arm and back support for hte full exo skeleton, but its time to get the wiring measure out for what she'll be needing, as her mind kicks over a few possible back brace materials

[dakota]

"Jeckle's right. The team comes first." Khris said, even though it sounded funny coming from him. "So, any idea who's next?"

[albatross]

Marv tenses at Kris' question, and Tiger looks over at Kris with an inscrutable expression, "Vessel, Veil and Merrow. The Gates Foundation team. Merrow has water based powers and is an expert pilot, but she is a fish out of water in this type of contest. We've met Veil, she increases her teammates power, but she doesn't do much else." Tiger's expression changes to one of disgust when mentioning Veil.

"Vessel is an unknown. I've heard he is a mimic, but I doubt that. Also heard he has the ability to drain others of their powers, but none of the fight reports mention that. He might just be an extremely powerful mega, with complimentary powers, who is also boosted by Veil's abilities." Tiger appears thoughtful, trying to think of precisely he might be.

"Whatever he is, he has been winning all the fights all by himself." Tiger looks to Marv.

Marv scratches his head. "Because he is alone, we can team up on him. But not like before. Ignore the other two. Even if you knock them both out, he'll knock out all three of you and win. Be cautious, he can use distance attacks, so if you are distracted by the other two as bait he'll take you out. Don't bring any metal into the ring. Tiger has been over your armor, its all um plastic? Kevlar, right. But he has magnetic powers. His energy attacks normally hit two of three people at once and take them all out. Get close to Veil and Merrow and then get to him quick. You won't get more than one or two shots at this guy." Marv looks at Dancer, concern written on his face, but she smiles back with a confidence she doesn't really feel.

Tiger nods, "Don't dance around. Get close and hit hard right away. If you are alone in a corner you will be taken down, and if the three of you are in front of him he'll take all three of you down at once."