(Jared's POV)
Tempest / Pod…
We are facing off against the ominous four right in front of us. It is a tense stare off as of right now as we are waiting to do a move.
Lamar then talks to Masa outside of the game, "So, what's the play Masa?"
"You're on point. Get an early pick on their flank, then sweep in with the others." Masa said.
"And what about the boss lady?" Lamar asked.
"Leave her… to me." Masa said, in game, charging forward to make the first move.
"What's the plan, Lamar?" I asked, clutching the strap of my sling bag.
"Focus on the one on the left!" Lamar yelled.
Lamar, Theo, Tari, and I then shoot our respective projectiles. The one with the bird mask dodges by dashing incredibly fast as the one with the normal mask sets up some kind of orbiters.
"Damn it! How do they always get the best spells?!" Lamar exclaimed, while the one with the normal mask readies his orbiters. "Aw crap! Get OUTTA there!"
The normal mask man then shoots his orbiters as they dodge the devastating orbiters. Tari then runs elsewhere where she stops dead in her tracks since the coconut mask was there waiting for her. The coconut mask then slowly starts walking as Tari then decide to hold him in place with her dark hand as she shoots some icicle spears. The icicle spears then disappear due to a spell coconut mask activated which spawned a dark portal to consume them. The dark hand loses grip as he menacingly drops down as he does a scoot to a gainer to fire some wind blasts. Tari tries to hide behind the wall but the wind just blasts right through. Lamar starts shooting some laser blasts at the bird mask as she dodges with incredible dash speed as she then fires a spell which hits Lamar directly as he is flown back. The one with the normal mask then tries to hit with his orbiters.
"AlakaZAM!" Theo said, spawning a wall of ice which blocks the orbiters.
"Theo, I think it's time we do it, little man." Lamar said, getting a bit up, panting.
"You mean..?" Theo asked.
"The Orochi Formation…" Lamar said, smirking. "And Jared, it's time you do an Ice Flower."
"Ice Flower without Ruby and Weiss." I said, as part of the ice wall recedes. "Is that even possible?"
"Yeah." Lamar said, walking out with Theo riding by his head.
"WHO'S READY TO DIE?!" Theo exclaimed.
The normal mask and bird mask look at each other confused. Lamar then equips some boots as he runs very fast dodging the spells, as Theo starts shooting lasers while laughing maniacally as both of them start dodging where the normal mask throws himself up with the pillar and the bird mask dashes away. I took out a N-Zap '85 out of my sling bag and tossed up an ice spell for the ink to turn into ice bullets. I began shooting iced bullets at the normal mask and bird mask. Lamar then jumps as it allows Theo to get the head shot on the normal mask which demolished him in an instant. Lamar lands nicely while Theo face plants as he gets up.
"Yeah! Orochi Formation! Ice Flower!" Theo said, excitedly.
Tari yelps in fear as Coconut Mask is closing in on her.
"TAAARRRIIIII!" Lamar cried, getting hit by the spell by bird mask as Theo and I walked over to Tari. "AAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!"
Coconut Mask charges up the spell as he is about to blast it.
"Tari!" Theo said, worried.
"Look out!" I said, angrily.
Coconut Mask takes the shot as Theo and I take the hit.
"ACK!" Theo said, and I grabbed his hand.
"THEO! JARED!" Tari said, while Theo and I lay in front of her. "Theo…Jared…"
"Go….Go get him…. Tari…" Theo said, sadly.
"You got this, Tari." I said, frowning.
Pod…
Theo spawns in the real world and I removed the AmuSphere off my head.
"We believe in you!" Theo chirped.
"Theo, we're back in the real world." I said, placing my AmuSphere inside my sling bag.
"Oh." Theo said, looking over at me. "Jared, do you have that frozen drink?"
"Do you mean a piña colada?" I asked, taking out a piña colada virgin. "I do."
"Thank you!" Theo said, grabbing the piña colada from me and we walked over to a monitor. "Is there alcohol?"
"Nope. Virgin."
Tari picks up the spell book for the finger gun lasers as she absorbs it. She then turns on her Meta Runner vision as she calculates the best path to take as she then rushes forward as she does a touchdown raiz into a corkscrew to shoot some icicle spears. The coconut mask uses the dark portal to absorb it. Tari then jumps to the side as she prepares the dark hand on the other side as she throws the boulder at coconut mask which does massive damage to him as he flops to the ground. Tari throws some icicle spears at him as he back handsprings into a wind burst jump into the air. Tari then follows him by jumping onto a boulder as she uses her dark hand spell to throw herself upwards as she is riding the platform. She starts shooting icicles at the coconut mask as he is in the air. He wind bursts sideways to avoid it as Tari decides to jump into the clouds as well. Coconut Mask is trying to see where Tari is but it was too late as Tari was already behind him as he looked and reacted too late.
"Crackerjack." Tari said, demolishing coconut mask with a finger gun laser headshot.
Coconut Mask falls down with a splat as he disappears as Tari lands gracefully as she picks up the Wind Burst Spell Book and absorbs it.
"Yeah! Tari! You're the finger gun master! Pew pew!" Theo said, spectating.
"She really is." I said, sitting down next to Theo. "Tari is amazing."
"Thank you, Theo, Jared…" Tari said, smiling.
"AAAGGGGHHH!" Lamar said, getting thrown by bird mask as he struggles to get up as the bird mask stomps on him as she is about to throw a spell but then gets blasted by the wind burst. Lamar then star kips up. "Awww yeah…!"
He then dashes as he knees her into oblivion causing her to get demolished as Lamar is panting a bit.
"You know, you can rest for a second if you need to catch your breath." Tari said, happily.
"Haha, save your jokes for after the fight." Lamar said, scoffing.
Masa and the ringleader are facing off. Masa readies his sword as Tari and Lamar join his side. The ringleader then starts to disappear as she walks off.
"Oh man, I have no idea how we got through that." Tari said, annoyed.
"Whaaat? You were amazing though! You were kicking ass all over the place!" Lamar said, excitedly.
"Hey! I killed people too." Theo said, drinking the piña colada.
"Haha. Yes, you did, little man."
"I also killed people." I said, taking out some macaroons to eat them.
"Jared, you and Theo were amazing."
"Thanks."
"Thanks Lamar, but I did need you guys to save me." Tari said, looking at Lamar.
"That's what a team does, Tari. Look out for each other, you know, make sure everyone's okay." Lamar said.
"There are no weaklings in MD-5 Tari. You're here because you belong here. Never forget that… Okay?" Masa asked.
"Thanks Masa. Well guys, what do you say we finish climbing that mountain, huh?" Tari asked, running off to climb the mountain as the rest of MD-5 does too.
As Tari wind bursts, Lamar jumps high and Masa swings his sword to blast himself up. Out in the distance the ringleader was watching and it turns out Belle was the ringleader the whole time.
"You really haven't lost your touch have you, Masa?" Belle asked.
(Open POV)
Pod / Van…
Belle gets a call as she picks it up.
"Belle, would you care to explain why your targets are currently alive and climbing the mountain?" Lucks asked, in a van, outside the stadium.
"Hey, it's not my fault. Blame the three anchors you made me carry!" Belle said, angrily.
Lucks turns around to see the three gamers being frustrated heavily as he turns back, "I asked for explanations, not excuses Belle. Maybe I should send some supervision…up there."
"I work better alone, Lucks. You know that. If anything it'll be easier now for me to get my hands on that lucky scrub." Belle said.
"Focus Belle. Too much is at stake for any distractions. Your priority is elimination! Anything you have to say to Tari and Jared can wait until after that." Lucks said, as Belle contemplates a bit. "Belle!"
"Yeah! Eliminate Tari! Like how I eliminated Jared! Team wipe! I understand. Jeez."
"I'll be watching…" Lucks said.
Belle hangs up on the call as Lucks watches from her screen.
Tempest…
Tari, Lamar, and Masa all appear high up on the mountain.
"We made it!" Tari cheered.
"You know, I've climbed this mountain a thousand times, but… man… this view still gets to me." Lamar said, at a loss for words.
"Focus up, team. The mission's not over yet. Are you ready to do the glitch, Tari?" Masa asked.
"As I'll ever be." Tari said, taking a deep breath as her Meta Runner vision suddenly detects a threat.
As Tari sees the fireball headed towards her, she dodges out of the way as she yells, it suddenly hits Lamar as he yelps.
Lamar gets demolished as the game says he has been eliminated.
Pod / Tempest…
"NANI?!" Lamar exclaimed, outside the game. "WHERE'D THAT COME FROM?!"
Lamar gets up to walk over and look at Masa's screen.
"Crap. It came from Belle." Jared said, snacking on a green tea macaron.
"You REALLY must be desperate, Masa." Belle said, in game, as she reveals that the ringleader was her all along. "Teaming up with these rookie league Runners."
Belle absorbs a spell book for herself.
"BELLE?!" Masa exclaimed.
"No no no no no no! She's here. That means TASCorp's onto us! I'm pulling her out man. We need to bolt!" Lamar said, terrified.
"No! We are not giving up here! Tari, execute the glitch now!" Masa said, worried.
"Tari, we don't have much time." Jared said, sadly.
"R-Right!" Tari said, going to run off to execute the glitch as she wind bursts but Belle blocks her as she spawns a block slab wall that made the blue haired girl hit it and fall down. "AAAACK!"
"Uh uh, you're not going anywhere." Belle said, smirking.
"Damn it Belle! Stand down right now!" Masa yelled.
"No! You don't get to tell me what to do anymore Masa! You're not TASCorp Team Captain anymore!" Belle said, angrily.
"Wait. What?" Tari asked.
"Oh you didn't tell her? What too ashamed of being decommissioned?"
"Ashamed? No, I stand by my choice. I just wish you had done the same for me!" Masa said, looking at Belle.
"How dare you?! I tried to talk you out of it damn it! Hacking Lucks private server, what did you think would happen?! You're lucky that decommissioning you was all that Lucks did!" Belle said.
"Do you even hear yourself?! How do you still not understand?! LUCKS KILLED LUCINIA!"
"Lucinia was the purple haired girl in the TASCorp promos." Jared said, letting out a sigh. "She was Belle's best friend, Tari."
"Lucinia?" Tari asked, getting a flashback to when she saw Lucinia as she gasps and pants.
"Ugh! Still on the Lucks conspiracy theory. You sound just as crazy now as you did a year ago. Why would he kill one of his best Meta Runners?!" Belle exclaimed.
"I don't know, but the answer is on Lucks' private server. I'd bet my life on it. So are you going to let me through? Or are you going to stand in my way again?" Masa asked.
"You always were stubborn Masa…only problem is…SO AM I!"
Both get into their fighting stance as Belle shoots her fireball and Masa swings his blade to shoot a sword beam. Belle roundhouse kicks as she does a jacknife to shoot some fireballs. Masa kicks and does a tornado kick as he deflects some of the fire as he runs up the wall as he jumps to create a sword beam slash against Belle. Belle avoids it by creating a pillar of Earth as the sword slices through the pillar. Belle lands after doing a back layout as she punches the cut off pillar with another pillar as to which Masa guards as the pillar lands. Tari then goes over to spawn a dark hand as she uses it as a springboard to do a jacknife to roundhouse shooting a few icicle spears. Belle blocks by summoning a sigil as she shoots a light blast at Tari. Masa spawns an ice wall to protect Tari as he shoots some sword beams. Belle dodges by corkscrews and back fulls as she then spawns the sigil again to block a shot. She then proceeds to axe kick Masa where he blocks with using the sword. Masa knocks her off by swinging the sword and flinging her away. Belle is on the ground as both Tari and Masa try to attack her as she then shoots light blasts at them. The first one misses as they dodge, the second one hits the pillar as they dodge. Both Tari and Masa slowly walk over to her confident that they have got the upper hand.
Masa spawns a knife, "It's over Belle."
"Heh…" Belle said, happily. "You always liked calling 'game' early."
Tari gasps as she then pushes Masa away as the pillar collapses. The pillar then drops on Tari as she is then stuck.
"TARI!" Masa cried, running over to Tari.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Belle yelled, summoning the meteors once again.
Masa barely dodges a few of them as he then takes out his sword to slice the meteor. He points his sword at Belle as she smirks and aims at Tari forcing him to take her side as Belle spawns a massive rain of fire as Masa keeps on cutting them down furiously. His Meta Runner arm overloads as he keeps on cutting them down and eventually he gets hit and gets combed by the pillar where he is at Belle's mercy where she has her hand behind Masa's head.
"Well, what are you waiting for Belle? You wouldn't want to disappoint Lucks, would you?" Masa asked.
Belle then explodes the flame at Masa's head as he gets demolished. Belle then walks over to Tari as she kicks her hand as she tries to spawn some icicles but Belle stomps on her hand.
"Excellent work, Belle…" Lucks said, on private comms. "…now eliminate her." Belle is still contemplating. "Belle, do you hear me?! Eliminate her!" Belle turns off comms. "BELLE!"
"No one left to save you now…" Belle said, looking at Tari. "Let's talk."