Binded Hearts

The First Day

There was the sound of a repeated ringing noise, and Zion rolled over on his side, and pulled the pillow over his head in an effort to block it out. It didn't work, he could practically hear the ringing in his head. With an angry sigh, he rolled out of bed and stopped the alarm clock. For some odd reason, it was 4:30 AM; he swore that he had set it to 6:30 AM.

Zion was an average height Asian (which, to say, wasn't extremely tall), with unnaturally spikey black hair. The tips of his bangs were dyed light blue, and his bangs covered his right eye. Despite this, he still somehow had perfect vision.

...CEL, I FREAKING HATE YOU! Zion thought, feeling extremely cranky from the lack of sleep. He brushed his blue tipped, jet black hair out of his forehead before drowsily walking to the bathroom. Just as he opened the door, he heard a very familiar female voice that was the last thing he wanted to hear at this moment.

"Had a good night's sleep Bro?" His sister, Celica asked. She was around the same height as him, except with mid-back length pink hair. She was still wearing her nightgown. If anyone had looked at them, they would not be able to see that they were siblings, aside from their very sibling-like arguments.

The voice of the devil, I swear...

"Yup, absolutely..." He replied sarcastically before slamming the bathroom door.
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Zion returned to his bedroom, and took a glance at the neatly ironed, and neatly folded school uniform that his dad had neatly cleaned up for him. One glance at it caused Zi to feel like crying. The uniform did not fit his clothing style in the slightest.

"Nope, this ain't gonna work." He said, shaking his head. He opened up the other side of his closet, and quickly began working.

I guess I should be thankful Cel woke me up early...nah. He said, rolling his eyes.
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Zion slowly tip toed down the stairs, doing his best to make as little noise as possible. When he got down the stairs, he saw freshly made breakfast sitting on the table for him. He forced himself to ignore the temptation and stuck around the table. He finally reached the front door, and slowly turned the knob...

"AWWW! You just look so adorable!" He heard his mother practically scream from the top of the stairs.

Damnit...

He couldn't believe it. Rather than wear the normal school uniform, he chose to put on a short sleeved white dress shirt, tucked into his black, slim fitting slacks, completed with a belt. He had tried to make his hair more pricklier in an attempt to make himself look less formal, but it didn't work. His mom liked the way he was dress, which was very NOT okay.

"You're not going to eat breakfast?" She shouted right before he left.

"No Mom." He replied flatly, clearly still under the effects of morning grumpiness. As he closed the door behind him, he turned and there was his sister, swing her car keys around her index finger.

"Mom and Dad told me to drive you to school..." She said, an evil smile beginning to form.

"NONONONO! I can walk!" He shouted frantically as he started to run. Suddenly, he felt a tingling feeling in his body as he fell to the ground, paralyzed. Before he fell to the ground, he swore he saw his sister's finger spark with electricity.

"Not anymore you can't." She said, picking up his body potatoe-sack style. She tossed him into the back seat of the car, and stuck her keys into the ignition.

"I've got to be a good sister and give my little bro a tour of his school..." She said, looking over the seat and staring right at her immobilized brother.

I feel like crying so bad right now... Zion thought.
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Altea Military Academy
Celica pulled to a stop, looking up at the humongous school. Despite being very early, there was a long line of people anxiously waiting for their class schedules. She thought for a moment where the best place to embarrass her brother would be.

"Okay~ Let's start at the girl's locke-" She turned and somehow, Zion was no longer in the backseat, or anywhere in the car.

"Where the heck did you go?" She said aloud, confused. She saw something in her rear view mirror, what looked like a black haired Asian teen running away from the car at top speed. This was too much for her, and she burst out laughing. Still laughing, she reached into the glove compartment, looking for her Twix chocolate bars. They weren't there. Her eyes widened, and it almost seemed like her eyes had turned red.

"ZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" She screamed in his direction. In the distance, it looked like Zi raised his right hand and flipped her off before disappearing inside the school building.
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"I am such a badass!" Zi choked out, laughing as he reached into his backpack, pulling out several Twix bars. "I know you can't function at work without these! Hell yeah, payback! Mwuahahahaha!"

A group of students walking together look at Zion, a puzzled expression on their face

"...uhm uh...." Zion quickly walked away from them, stuffing the Twix bars back into his backpack. He then went to go obtain his class schedule.
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"Sweet! I think this just might be a good year!" Zion said happily as he looked at the schedule. "Biology first, then Military second?! Alright! Hm, P.E is third and....WHAT THE ****?!" Zion stared at his schedule a second time. Something was VERY wrong. And he had a suspicion on who did this. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't Celica that he had in mind.

"LUCX!!!!"
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Counselor's Office
A thin, pale, blonde haired male was sitting at his desk, his eyes completely glued on the computer screen. He was dressed quite differently from the other faculty members; a white long sleeved dress shirt and regular fitting slacks. He looked so young, he probably could've passed for a student.

The door bursts open, and Zion runs in

"Lucx!? Did you mess with my class schedule?!" Zion shouted frantically. He didn't receive a spoken response, but he swore Lucx smirked a little bit, but he was unsure if it was because of what he was looking at, or Zion's complaint.

"LUCX! STOP LOOKING AT YAOI AND ANSWER ME!" There was the sound of a mouse click and Lucx turned his head to look at Zion.

"What's the problem?" He said calmly.

"What do you mean what's the problem?! I have Student Council class!"

"Oh uh right. Celica and I were talking about it and-"

"Oooooh! You just had to get involved didn't you?" He said aloud, thinking of Celica.

"Well, we chose to do it because...you'd be a great poster boy for our school!" He said, excitedly. Zion was absolutely speechless.

"You know that I don't do well in crowds..."

"Buuuuut! If you get nominated for president, think of all the women that will enroll here! Think about the women!!!" Lucx said, a smile escaping his face.

"...So that's your reason!" Zion suddenly replied, completely shocked. "You're using me as bait for money!"

Suddenly, a new person walked into the office. She was a tan, brunette who was shorter than Zion, but clearly older. She wasn't dressed formally at all; on the contrary, she was wearing a sleeveless top and shorts. It was Liah, Zion's "aunt" (how he suddenly became related to them was a mystery). She was also one of the P.E teachers at his school.

"What's going on here?" Liah asked, looking curiously at the two boys.

"Lucx stuck me in the student council! I might become PRESIDENT because of him!" Despite his choice of words, it definitely sounded like he was panicking.

"Oh my god! Congratulations!" Liah shouted, clearly excited. Zion jaw dropped. "I'm so proud of you!"

"...WHAT THE ****?!" Zion said, his eyes wide. At that moment, the school bell rang. He immediately turned tail, and ran out of the office, without looking at either of the two.
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The first few periods were very uneventful. Like most schools, the first few teachers just explained some very elementary rules. Zion just chose to sleep discreetly in the back of the class, and thankfully, wasn't caught. Then, P.E class came...

Zion walked to the gymnasium in his P.E clothes, finally at full energy thanks to his frequent naps. His class was the largest there, containing around 50 other students in the same class. The bell to start class rang, and sure enough, his aunt stepped in. There was quite a large amount of whispering among the boys when they saw her.

"...She is such a MILF..." One of the boys whispered to his friend.

"She can't be a MILF...she doesn't even have kids..."

"Shoot really? Then in that case, she's just a girl I'd like to-" The boy didn't have a chance to finish as Zion casually walked by and kicked him in the ankle before disappearing into the crowd of students.

"Morning class! I'm your P.E teacher, Liah, and I'll be teaching you for the entire year. Even though this is technically called "Physical Education", it's actually..." She paused. "A combat class."

Several of the students eyes widened, but they kept their mouths shut, eager to hear more.

"As you all know, the world isn't the same anymore. You can't just be some random person carrying a gun to be considered safe. Now, you need more, and that's what I plan to teach you...at some point." She finished, a smile on her face. It was obvious that everyone was very interested in this.

"Now, I guess I can start with some basics. First we'll-" Suddenly, the bell rang, and there was a huge groan of annoyance, mostly from the boys. "Er, well I guess we're out of time. We'll pick things up tomorrow."

As Zion started to leave, Liah stopped him, putting a hand on his shoulder (although she had to reach up to do so lololololololol...okay, anyway, back to being serious).

"You're not mad are you? About uhm, the class change?" She asked sincerely.

"Nah, not really." Zion said looking back at her. "I mean, I think I'll be fine. What are the chances of me being nominated for some hotshot position like President?" He shrugged and waved to his aunt before he went back to the locker room. "Later Tia." Zion then returned to the boy's locker room to change, now with a new determination to figure out exactly what he was going to learn in this "combat class".
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Lunchtime
Oh man finally, I can get some time to rela- Zion's peaceful thoughts were interrupted when three people suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and sat at the same lunch table he was at. He blinked as he slowly returned to reality, now paying attention to the three "guests".

The first was a short, black haired kid, only slightly younger than Zion. He had eyes that practically screamed out "innocent", even though Zion knew him too well to be fooled. Just like Zion, he had slightly altered his uniform: his jacket was worn in an open manner, his dress shirt was unbuttoned, his tie was tied on loosely, and rather than wear dress shoes, he wore tennis shoes, as opposed to Zion's sneakers. It was Kaoru, a friend of Zion...if you called someone who tried to get into your pants even though you're heterosexual a friend.

The second was a girl, roughly the same age as Kaoru. She was a blonde, and was dressed in a much less rebellious style than Kaoru, but she didn't follow the uniform precisely either; she wore a short sleeve shirt, her skirt was at knee length, but she did wear the high socks as was common. Her name was Kooh, and she was also a friend of Zion's...if you considered someone who continued to call you a fried piece of pork a friend.

The last person was a male, older than all three of them. He was much taller than all of them, and had hair that was a dark shade of gray. Unlike the others, he wore his uniform precisely according to the dress code, his jacket buttoned, his dress shirt completely buttoned, his tie worn correctly, his pants at perfect hip level, and dress shoes. His name was Kaza, and he was a friend of Zion's...if you could call an extremely horny Furry fan that tried to grope you at every chance a friend.

"Sup Kao, Kooh, and Kaz?" Zion said looking up at them, nibbling his cafeteria pizza slowly. Eventually, he realized that he couldn't eat it; it felt way too much like rubber.

"Oh my god, did you check out combat class?" Kazaa suddenly asked, his eyes shining. "We have a combat class!"

"Hm...I need a sparring partner... wherever my tuna lands will be my spar partner..." Kooh said, suddenly looking at Zion. He immediately pulled up lunch tray to block his face, but suddenly, he was hit in the chest with a bowling ball, apparently spawned out of thin air, knocking him off of his chair. "Our lucky winner!"

Why is it that all the worst people in the world unlock their magic potential so early?... Zion thought, still dazed from being knocked off of his chair.
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At Home
Zion opened the door to his house, and stepped inside, leaving his shoes on the mat. He couldn't believe how tired he was from just one day of school. He dropped his backpack on the floor, not even bothering to bring it up stairs with him. He started to walk up the stairs until he was suddenly stopped by one of the most terrifying things he had ever seen!

"ZIIIIII!" Celica screamed, standing in his way. It seemed like she had just gotten out of the shower, because her hair was completely wrapped up in a towel, so much, that it made the top of her head look cone shaped. That, and coupled with the fact that she had some strange white cream covering her face like a mask, Zion thought something completely different than what Celica was going to tell him.

"...Did you die because I took your Twix bars?"

"No! Well er, close. I got fired from my job because of you!"

"You're kidding! What?!" Zion wasn't expecting that.

"It's all because I didn't eat my 3 Twix bars every morning! I blame it on YOU!"

"I...uhm...uh, I don't...know what to say..." Zion was WAY too confused, and astounded by the impact of his actions to properly respond.

"Just wait, I'm getting you for this..." She said, a wicked smile appearing on her face before stomping away to her room.

"...I've got a bad feeling about this..." Zion said aloud, still standing at the foot of the stairs. He knew that she meant EXACTLY what she said.

Triple Payback

Zion had a bit of trouble sleeping that night. When someone as wicked as Celica promised revenge on you, you'd be on guard 24/7. Every time he heard the floor boards creak, he would quickly shake himself awake and put himself on guard. However, nothing happened. But that didn't stop his paranoia.

The next morning...

Zion followed his normal routine as usual, brushing his teeth, packing whatever he may need for school, skip breakfast, etc. But surprisingly enough, Celica was nowhere in the house, and her car was not in the street either. This made Zion uneasy.

...wait, maybe she's gonna wait till I start walking to school, and then start chasing after me with her car! Zion thought, a bit scared. There was no other way to get to school, so he decided to push his luck.

Surprisingly, nothing happened to him on the way to school. Now he was REALLY worried. He thought that Celica was going to get revenge on him when he was weakest; in the early morning. The fact that she was waiting so long threw Zi's predictions all out of wack.

He finally arrived at school, wary of every single dark spot on campus, any possible places to hide, and on the lookout for anyone that he didn't remember seeing before. Nothing was out of the ordinary. Still tense and on guard, he walked into the building. Almost as though someone was watching him, he heard something come in on the intercom.

"Zion, please report to my office." It was Lucx's voice.

"Dude, you're getting called into the counselor's office on only your second day here? What did you do?" One of his classmates from P.E, Zane, asked. He was the same height as Zion, and Japanese. His clothes were almost identical to Zion's except he wore his school I.D card on his chest pocket. His hair was a lighter shade of black than Zion's and was trimmed short.

"Beats me...I haven't done anything too bad...I think." Zion replied.

"Alright well...just be careful. When I was passing by his office, I swore I heard a guy in Japanese saying: "No please stop! It hurts!" and another one saying: "It won't hurt for much longer..."

"...OH GOD!" Zion shouted. He knew EXACTLY what Zane was talking about.

"Well either way...good luck." Zane said, clapping his hand on Zion's shoulder. With that, he walked away.
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In Lucxene's office

"So...er...you...needed something?" Zion asked hesitantly, still a bit scarred from what Zane had told him.

"Yeah, I need you to deliver this letter to the Nurse's office." Lucx said, passing Zion a white envelope. Zion looked down at it, a bit confused.

"Isn't that the job of someone else?" Zion asked hesitantly.

"Oh come on, don't tell me you're going to refuse one of my requests." Lucx replied, glaring at him. "I control your class schedule you know...I can put you in two semesters of sex ed..."

"Okay okay! Fine!" Zion cried out, quickly standing up and taking the letter. Without another word, he left the office. Once the door had closed, Lucx immediately burst ouf laughing.
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Outside of the nurse's office

"Kay, found it, class is about to start soon, so I'd better just drop it in and head out." Zion said aloud, looking at the large, metallic door. He pulled the door open and looked inside; none of the lights were on, and as far as he knew, there wasn't a light switch near the door he had just entered.

"Uhm hello? I have a letter from Mr. Lucxene..." Zion called out. He didn't receive a response. "Er...I'll just leave it in the delivery box."

Zion entered the room, and reached out, feeling the walls in an attempt to find the switch to turn on the lights, so he could find out where he could leave the letter. He felt a cold, wooden table, something that felt like glass...and then suddenly, his hand brushed against something very warm, that felt like... Jello...

"EEEEEK HOLY ****!" An EXTREMELY familiar female voice shrieked.

Oh god....NONONONONONONO! Zion's mind screamed he quickly drew back his hand as the lights turned on. It was Celica, and she was dressed just like a military nurse!

"NOOOOOO! FIRST MY MIND HAS BEEN SCARRED BY LUCX! NOW MY HANDS ARE TOO!!!" Zion screamed, dashing over to the sink and washing his hands, adding massive amounts of soap.

Damnit! I was supposed to scare him by holding the scalpel and syringe...oh well, looks like I already got him pretty bad... Celica thought, putting down the scalpel that she was going to originally use to scare him.

"I'll take that." Celica said, grabbing the letter that Zi had set aside from the sink.

"...did Lucx help you out with this?..." Zion asked, completely drained from shock.

"Not on purpose, he wanted you to come here so that you could see that I work here now. He didn't think that I would plan this..." She replied, trying her best to hold back her laughter at Zion's frantic attempts to scrub his hands.

"...YOU WORK HERE NOW!?" Zion cried out. This was without a doubt, the worst day of his life.

"Yes...because you got me FIRED from my other one!" Celica retaliated. Thankfully, the school bell rang.

"Oh man...I guess I'm just going to make sure I NEVER get hurt in P.E." Zion said quickly before dashing out of the nurse's office, or should we say "Celica's Torture Room Specifically Designed for Zion".
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During passing period...

Zion was quickly rushing to his combat class, hoping that maybe, just maybe, he would learn something "badass and amazing". But just before he turned the corner to get to the gym, something caught his eye. It was a tall, spikey black haired man. His jacket was worn open, and rather than wearing slacks, he wore a pair of dark jeans. His eyes practically screamed out: "I will kick your ass just for fun because I like it". It was none other than Celica's boyfriend, Axel.

Aww jeez, what's HE doing here? I'd better hurry...or I could casually spill my water on him...naw, maybe not. Zion thought. He was about leave when he saw someone else with him, someone that he had hoped he would never see again.

The person was a woman, somewhat short, with dyed red hair. She wore her uniform in a very...unmodest way, her short sleeved dress shirt unbuttoned in as much as it was permitted on campus, and a skirt that went down to the top of her knees. Her name was Linda and she was Zion's...ex.

God...what's that slore doing here? Zion thought, keeping himself hidden. Officially worst day that I will EVER HAVE...Wait a minute... Zion narrowed his eyes at the two.

For a moment, nothing major happened between them, they were just together, along with other students that formed a big group with them. But suddenly, he saw Axel wrap his arm around Linda's waist, and pull her closer to him. She laughed, and wrapped her own arms around his chest.

..oh **** no... He thought, feeling his blood boil a little.
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Afterschool

Zion rushed on home, knowing that Celica left the school much earlier than he did (although the reason why a nurse in charge of treating people's wounds would leave early is still unknown). He was still debating on if he should tell her; it wasn't the fact that he wanted to keep it hidden from her, it was just he didn't know how to precisely say it in the least painful way possible. He arrived at home, his thoughts racing.

When he opened the door, he found Celica sitting at a chair at the dinner table, looking unusually...drained of energy. Zion started thinking of a wisecrack joke, but after looking at her for a bit longer, he realized that this was serious?

"Something happen?" Zion asked, his voice even.

"...Axel...it turns out he was...cheating on me..." Celica said, her voice hoarse. Zion rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"Ah yeah..." Zion said quietly, but not quietly enough. Celica suddenly looked up, looking very angry, a much different type of angry than from their sibling arguments.

"You knew!?" She shouted.

"I didn't find out until today!" Zion replied back quickly. "I wanted to tell you, but I couldn't! Classes kept me locked down, and when it was lunch, I tried to find you, but you were gone!"

"I can't believe you. I know, I like to push you around a bit too but...you went to far..."

"You're blaming ME?! I didn't do anything wrong!" Zion retaliated. There was a humongous amount of silence after that; he was thankful that their parents worked late most of the time.

"Alright, I'm not going to sit around and let you blame me for this. I'm not completely innocent, but I don't deserve it either." Zion said quietly, grabbing his backpack and standing up. He looked at the key rack on the wall, and grabbed his dad's key, the one for his spare car.

"Wait, what are you doing?!" Celica shouted, suddenly standing up.

"Maybe you can sit around and do nothing, knowing that your boyfriend cheated on you, but I'm not gonna just stand here and let keep happening!" Zion shouted.

"...wait a minute! But you DIDN'T do anything!" Celica replied. Zion's "badass" momentum skidded to a stop at that moment.

"Er...well...I'm doing something about it!" Zion shouted. "This is a problem for me too. He's cheating on you with Linda!"

"What?...I...didn't know that." Celica said, a bit shocked. Zion suddenly quickly started walking out the door, and Celica followed him. "What are you going to do?!"

"You'll see. Stay home." Zion replied flatly.

"You can't drive." Celica responded back.

"...oh yeah... Er uhm, mind driving me somewhere?" Zion said, a bit embarassed.

"...alright." Celica said.
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At Vien Hyung supermarket

Zion came walking out of the store, carrying a white plastic bag that seemed to be...moving. He tossed the bag into the trunk of the car and climbed into the passenger seat of the car.

"Alright, go to Axel's apartment." Zion said. Celica looked back at him, speechless. "Trust me." Celica sighed before starting up the engine and moving.

"You're not...going to use some Vietnamese voodoo trick on him or anything right?..." Celica asked, clearly talking about the bag that Zion brought into the back of the car.

"What?! No! Vietnamese people don't even use voodoo, sheesh." Zion responded. The two looked at each other for a moment, and suddenly, they both burst out laughing.

"Vietnamese voodoo? What the hell?! Hahahahaha!

"You've just been acting weird even since that argument..." Celica managed to gasp out, still laughing.

"Eh well, all the badasses keep their darker side hidden." Zion said, grinning. Finally, the car stopped moving, and they were now outside Axel's apartment.

"Okay, stay in the car, seriously." Zion said to her. "You'll understand in a moment." Before Celica could reply, Zi ran into the the apartment.

"...I'll get the tombstone ready for you Bro..." Celica said, a bit uneasy.
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In the apartment check-in lobby

Zion stopped, and looked at a sign in sheet on the counter, near the clerk. Tracing his finger down the page, he found what he was looking for; Axel had already signed in, telling him that he was here right now.

"You need an apartment kid?" The clerk asked.

"No, just visiting someone." Zion said flatly. "Thanks though."
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Finally, after climbing up two flights of stairs, he found the hallway where Axel's room was located. Conveniently, at the very end of the hallway, right outside Axel's room, was Axel himself, and Linda, apparently...trying to suck each others' face off a.k.a making out.

Alright that's it... Zion thought, stomping his way toward them. Axel heard his footsteps, and turned to him.

"I already broke up with your sis kid. Don't get so ticked." He replied, staring down at him.

"What are YOU, doing here loser?" Linda said, looking at Zion, narrowing her eyes at him.

"You think you can just do that to my sister and walk off scot-free? You think wrong asshole." Zion said coldly. Now, Axel started to narrow his eyes at Zion.

"I dare you to say that again punk."

"You deaf or something? I said you're an asshole!" Zion shouted. A second later, he felt Axel punch him across the face. For a moment, it looked like Zion was about to collapse. Suddenly, he turned his head back, glaring straight at Axel.

"That all?"

He was punched again in the side of his head, but he just turned his head back again. "You sure are tough, beating a kid who isn't going to fight back." He was hit again in the face, and this time, he felt the skin underneath his eye tear, and blood began to flow out. But he still glared back at his sister's ex. Axel just stared back at him incredulously.

Suddenly, quicker than the blink of an eye, Zion raised his leg and kicked Axel across the side of the face, much faster and stronger than Axel had punched him. Axel was knocked to the ground, his nose bleeding as a result of landing on it in the fall. Linda just stared at Zion, shocked, then looked at Axel.

"Not so tough when someone fights back huh?" Zion said coldly. The cut underneath his eye was starting to sting, but he wasn't going to let the two of them know that.

"Come on Axel, that piece of trash isn't worth it..." Linda said quietly, pulling up Axel by the arm. Axel stood up, glared one final time at Zion, and walked away, Linda by his side. When the two had disappeared from sight, Zion suddenly twitched a little.

"...AGH SON OF A ***** THAT HURT! AGH!!!!"
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Celica was sitting in the car, frequently staring at the digital clock on the dashboard. It had to have been almost half an hour since Zion told her to wait.

...If mom and dad make me pay for your funeral, I am going to tear apart your grave. Celica thought, annoyed. Suddenly, she saw Axel, limping out of the door of the building, accompanied by Linda. The two didn't look once at the car.

"What the-?..." Celica whispered to herself quietly. Suddenly, her cellphone rang. The caller I.D said it was Zion.

"Hello?"

"Bring the bag that I got from the supermarket."

"...Uhm, what do you have in there?"

"You'll see...Love ya!" Zion said cheerfully before hanging up.

Sighing, Celica popped the trunk in the car, and exited the driver's seat, walked to the trunk, and just stared at the slowly moving white bag.

"It can't be too bad..." Celica reassured herself reaching toward the bag. Suddenly, the bag jerked in the direction of her hand!

"Ack!!!" She screamed pulling her hand back. The bag suddenly went still again. "...Uhm okay..." She reached out again, and it jerked suddenly again!

"Ack!!!"
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Fifteen minutes later...

What is taking Cel so DAMN long!? Zion thought, a bit annoyed. Finally, he saw his sister come up the stairs, carrying the moving white bag. He almost burst out laughing; she was holding the bag as far away from herself as possible.

"Awright, thanks Sis." Zion said cheerfully, taking the bag from her. She just glared at him back. "Anyway, if I'm right, Axel must've been too upset too..."

"You're bleeding!" Celica cried out, staring at the cut underneath Zion's eye. "Your plan was to get your bum kicked!?"

"Heyheyhey! I wasn't the one who ran away!" Zion said, glaring at her. "I took him down! Hell yeah!" Celica just rolled her eyes at him.

"Anyway, what's the plan?" Celica asked. Zion glanced toward the door to Axel's room.

He reached for the door to Axel's room, and miraculously, the door was unlocked...

"Sweeeet." Zion said, a devilish grin appearing on his face.

"NOW will you tell me what you're planning to do!?" Celica asked angrily.

"Follow me..." Zion said, the dark smirk on his face still there. Celica hesitated before following him. Zion paced around the room for a second until he found what he was looking for: Axel's bedroom.

"Alright...I'm just gonna be as quiet and discreet as possible..." Zion whispered, entering the room, heading for the queen sized bed, still carrying the bag. He slowly reached toward the blanket when suddenly, he seized it and threw it off of the bed, and simultaneously, opened the white bag and began pouring the contents onto it!

"YAAAARRRRGH!" Celica screamed. He was pouring CRABS onto Axel's bed!

"HAHAHAHAHA! REVENGE B*TCH! REVENGE B*TCH!" Zion shouted as he shook the bag, sounding COMPLETELY insane. Finally, after he emptied the bag out, he calmed down.

"Phew...that felt amazing!" Zion said, grinning from ear to ear.

"THAT WAS YOUR PLAN?!" Celica screamed at her brother.

"Hehehe, just wait, I predicted their actions..." Zion said. He motioned to her to follow him. "C'mon, let's wait in the car again."
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"...there they are!" Zion whispered. Linda and Axel had returned, and just as he had planned, they were returning for "coffee".

"Ugh, for some reason, I feel disgusted just looking at him now." Celica said quietly, glaring at Axel. She knew the reason: Axel had hurt her brother. But she wasn't going to admit that.

"Just wait for it..." Zion said, his evil grin starting to form again. Fifteen minutes later, there was a humongous scream, from two people, one man, and one woman!

"Hahahahaha! Yes yes! Drive drive gogogogo!" Zion shouted at Celica, laughing his entire heart out. Celica reacted the same way, almost falling out of the seat laughing as she started up the ignition.
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"Where were the two of you!? Who's idea was it to stay out at this late hour!?" Celica and Zion's dad shouted, staring down his son and daughter with a cold, unrelenting stare.

"...Him!" Celica said quickly pointing at Zion.

"WHAT THE-?"

"Alright that's it, you're grounded for a month! Now get in your room!" Zion's dad shouted, pushing his son in the direction of the stairs. Zion's head drooped, and he clenched his fist.

Man, this is how you repay me?... Zion thought, sighing a bit sadly.

"Oh Bro." Celica said, calling out to Zion before he disappeared from sight on the stairs.

"What?" Zion responded flatly.

"...thanks." Celica said extremely quietly. She quickly walked away, disappearing from sight. Zion blinked for a moment, a bit confused before laughing and heading to his room.

The Girl Next Door

It was Sunday, the first Sunday of Zion's school year and to put it simply, he was psyched. Not only was he free to sleep in, play video games obsessively, go shopping, etc, today, he was finally getting something that he had ordered from overseas. For once, he chose to wake up early intentionally. The moment he opened his eyes, he jumped out of bed, quickly brushed his teeth and scarfed down his breakfast (much to his mother's disapproval) and ran outside, his fingers crossed. Waiting in the driveway in front of the garage, was a long crate, slightly less tall than Zion. He practically looked like a kid who had just heard that Christmas would be all week long.

"OH EM GEE! IT'S HERE!" Zion shouted, rushing over to the box, and quickly pulling apart the nails with his bare hands, ignoring the splinters that were entering his skin. Finally, he grabbed the lid and yanked it off. Inside, was a shiny, black motorcycle, the chrome exhaust pipe shining in the sunlight.

"AGGGHHHHH! Oh man! I gotta get changed again..." Zion said, walking back up stairs.

He reemerged through the front door, and looked inside the box. His motorcycle was still inside, but this time, he noticed that the key was in the ignition.

"Oh man oh man!" Zion couldn't contain his excitement. He kicked the side of the crate, breaking down the wooden barrier, and dragged his motorcycle out of the crate. He climbed into the seat of the motorcycle, and revved up the handle. He moved forward slowly, at what seemed to be a snail's pace.

"WHOOOOOAAAA!" Zion shouted, apparently not aware of the fact that he was moving at the minimum speed on the motorcycle.

Finally, he had gotten his motorcycle into the open garage.

"That was SO amazing!" Zion shouted again, panting heavily. He turned off the engine, laying his head down on the head of the bike. He remained there, unmoving.

"You know what? I know we're finished, but I think I'll stay on top of you..." Zion whispered to his bike, possibly unaware of how much of an innuendo that was. He rubbed his face on the head of the bike in an almost obsessive manner.

"Uhm...excuse me?"

"HUH!? What the-?!" Zion quickly jumped off of his motorcycle and turned around. A girl slightly shorter than him was standing in the driveway. The sun shining down on her caused her to look like a shadow, but when she stepped into the garage, Zion was able to get a better look at her.

Her reddish orange hair was long and layered, and she was wearing a light blue slim fitting T-shirt, denim shorts that stopped just above her knees, and light green (almost hilighter colored) sandals. Her eyes were also green, and seemed to convey a sense of purity. She seemed to be trying her best to not laugh.

"I'm not interrupting anything am I?" She asked, a smile slowly escaping her face.

Wow. Talk about embarrassing... Zion thought, turning a bit red. "Uh well, no, did you uh, need something?"

"Yeah, my mom and I just recently moved in, and we're kinda having trouble carrying all our stuff inside. We were wondering if you could help us since we saw you tear apart that wooden crate a few minutes ago." She said, still laughing quietly.

"Oh...you saw that huh...sure. Lead the way." Zion said, using every ounce of willpower he had to keep from blushing. "By the way, what can I call you?"

"I'm Lily Collins." She said, turning back to look at him. "And you are?..."

"Zion..." Zion hesitated. "Zion...Hazard." He quickly looked away, a bit embarrassed. Lily's eyes widened.

"Wow...I've never heard of anyone with that name!" She said, her eyes wide. Before Zion could respond they had had arrived near several huge piles of cardboard boxes, where a woman stood waiting. She waved to the two.

"I'm so glad you could help, I'm Lily's mother." She said, smiling gently at Zion and reaching out her hand.

"I'm Zion. Nice to meet you Ms. Collins." Zion replied, smiling politely back at her, and shaking her hand. He knelt down and picked up the the closest box to him. Surprisingly, it was very heavy, and sounded like it contained several metallic objects.

"Oh could you be careful with that? It's my jewelry." Lily's mother said.

Good grief, how much jewelry is enough for a WOMAN?! Zion thought. "Okay, I'll do my best..." Lily picked up a box and followed Zion into currently empty house.

"Ergh...you going to school here Lily?" Zion grunted as he climbed up the stairs.

"Yeah, I'll be going to Altea Military Academy. I'm planning to be a field medic and all..." She said.

"Seriously?! Then we may just end up seeing each other there!" Zion said, looking back at her. "I go there too you see."

"Awesome! At least I know someone there now..." She said, smiling back at Zion. Their gaze held for a moment before Zion quickly turned and pulled open the door.

"It goes here right?" He asked.

"Uhm yeah." Lily responded, blinking.
---------------------------
The next morning...

Zion pulled on his clothes as quickly as possible, but once again, he skipped breakfast, rushing as quickly as he could to hop on his motorcycle.

"Don't forget to wear your helmet!" His mother shouted as he ran out the door.

"I won't need one!" He shouted over his shoulder, grinning. He heard a "Tsk." before the front door shut.

He suspected that Celica might have done something to tarnish his motorcycle, but oddly enough, it was left the same exact way he had left it the day before. He breathed a sigh of relief.

Hm...I think I'll take this thing for a cruise for...maybe a half hour? Nah, let's make it an hour! Zion thought, a dangerous grin beginning to form on his face.
--------------------
Finally, Zion had arrived at the academy, after repetitively driving around the same area, enjoying the morning breeze. The chills that he felt down his spine during the drive was something that was giving him a rush of energy, even as he approached another long day of school. When he passed by the gate of the school, he heard a female voice call his name.

"Zion!" It was Lily.

She ran up to his side and they began walking together. "I was worried that you weren't coming today. I saw you leave your house early, so I was surprised when you weren't here yet."

"Oh well uh...I was...uhm...nevermind that's not important!" Zion said, stumbling through his words. "Do you need a tour of this place?"

"Oh, yeah! That'd be great!" She said, a bit confused from Zion's inability to confess that he was going on a "joyride".

"Let's start at uhm, the counselor's office. My uncle works here." Zion said, walking with Lily to Lucxene's office. However, when they had moved close to the door, they suddenly heard heavy breathing sounds from inside of the room, and several groaning voices in Japanese.

"..." Zion had no idea what to say.

"..." And neither did Lily. "That sounds a lot...like..."

Finally, Zion decided to break the awkward silence.

"...Lucx! Turn off that Yaoi! We're coming in!" Zion said, sighing. Just as he opened the door, the noises had stopped. Lucxene was sitting at his desk, now staring over the computer screen, glaring at Zion.

"You better have a good reason for interrupting." Lucx said, glaring at his nephew. At that moment, Lily walked into the room. Lucx's eyes widened. "I guess it is a good reason!"

"Lily, this is my uncle, Lucxene. He's the school counselor. He pretty much calls the shots around here." Zion said. "Lucx, this is Lily, she just moved in next to Cel and I."

"Hm..." Lucx simply stared straight at Lily, sizing her up. Lily looked back, looking very confused.

"...yep, she'll bear pretty good grand-neeses and grand-nephews!" Lucx said, clapping his hands together. In the blink of the eye, Zion had jumped out of his seat. Thankfully, it didn't sound like Lily had heard.

"LUCX! IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!" Zion shouted, flustered. "Oh! We should probably check out the other sites on here! Let's go Lily!" Zion, in his rush to escape the office, had grabbed Lily by the hand and practically dragged her out.
-----------------------
"Alright, here's a much better place." Zion said, stopping as he looked at the gymnasium. Aunty Liah definitely won't make things bad!"

"Zion?" Lily suddenly interjected. She held up the hand that Zion had wrapped his own hand around.

"AH! Sorry!" Zion quickly let go. "It's uh, I don't think about what I do, I just move on instinct and all and-!"

"It's okay." Lily said, giggling. "So who are we meeting here?"

"My aunt, and most likely, your P.E teacher." He said, stepping inside the gym. There he saw his aunt, tying up her shoes on one of the bleachers. She looked up as she heard the door open and waved to Zion. Zion waved back, and in turn so did Lily. Liah quickly walked over to the two of them.

"Who's this?" Liah asked curiously.

"This is Lily, she's my new neighbor." Zion said simply, praying in his heart that Liah wouldn't embarrass him.

"Oooooh I see! He hasn't been getting in too much trouble since getting his motorcycle right?" Liah said, asking Lily.

"Nope, not really." Lily replied, having a bit of trouble thinking about what she was going to say. She didn't need to, as Liah suddenly started talking again.

"Keep an eye on him will you? If you look away for even a second, he'll be off either getting hurt, or getting chased by girls. You have to make sure they know who's man they're messing with!" Liah said, holding her fist in the air.

"Huh? I didn't hear what you-" Lily began to say before Zion grabbed her hand and ran out again.

You've gotta be kidding me! Zion thought, tilting his face away so that Lily wouldn't see the blood rushing to his face.
-----------------------
"....uh...." Zion stared blankly at the door labeled "Nurse's Office". He was having a humongous debate in his mind right now.

"Oh! Maybe I can talk to the nurse about stuff I need to be a field medic!" Lily said, her eyes widening with eagerness.

"WHAT?! NOOOOOOOOO!" Zion screamed, but Lily had already opened the door and stepped in.

"I heard my Bro scream~!" A voice suddenly said. From the back room, Celica stepped out. Zion now was having another debate in his mind; ditch Lily and run as far as he could, or try to convince Celica with body language to not embarrass him.

"You are?..."

"Lily, I'm studying to be a field medic." Lily said smiling politely back at Celica. "Zion's taking me on a tour of the school."

"OH! Really?!..." Celica said, suddenly looking at Zion and smiling darkly. Zion shook his head frantically and mouthed the words: "DON'T DO THIS TO ME"

"Well, I could give you some advice, just stop by during lunch or before school. There's a lot I can...tell you you know." Celica said, looking back at Zion. He looked like he was about to faint. Thankfully, the bell rang.

"OH LOOK AT THE TIME, WE'VE GOTTA GO!" Zion said, feeling extremely hot under the collar. "HAVE A NICE DAY SIS!"
---------------------------
P.E/Combat Class, in the P.E grounds

"Alright class, today, we're going to be teaching you all about activating your latent abilities. Before, people had no idea of what kind of power they had deep inside themselves. The truth is, we humans have a hidden power, some unique, and some common. For instance, the school nurse, Celica, actually has the power to use lightning." Liah said, looking around at her class.

"You don't need to remind me..." Zion said aloud grimly.

"There's no special time that's the same for everyone when that power will come to life. Some people never unlock their potential. But when that time comes, you'll know." Everyone, particular the boys, began to whisper excitedly.

"There's also another phenomenon that was just recently discovered..." Liah began again. Everyone immediately stopped talking and began listening.

"Do you all know that rush of relief and understanding that comes when we overcome a problem? That's the result of something in our souls that's quietly helping us from behind the scenes...they've been classified as sentinels." Liah said, a serious look on her face. "Biologically, humans become tense from danger because of their body. But Sentinels are another story, since they exist within your soul. You'll understand in a moment."

Liah took a deep breath and the expression in her eyes became one of concentration.

"Aww man, I'm getting all hot and excited...and it isn't because of this Sentinel crap." The same boy that had called Liah a MILF, said. A baseball came flying from out of nowhere, and pelted the boy precisely in the back of the head. "Ow!"

Zion whistles quietly, putting his hand back down

Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, something dropped from seemingly thin air and landed on the ground, making a "thud" noise. Everyone inched closer, trying to get a look at what had happened.

"This is my Sentinel, Atlus." Liah said, a pleased look on her face.

Atlus was...a rabbit. His ears were long enough to be the same distance from his tail to the top of his head. His eyes were a golden color, and it looked completely innocent. The most notable part of Sentinel however, was that it looked like it was completely created from rock.

"AWWWW!" All of the girls squealed, practically swooning over the Sentinel. Zion just looked at it, a bit...confused.

"Is there any reason why a Sentinel takes a certain form?" Zion asked, looking up at his aunt.

"Well...there's no particular proof, but Sentinel's tend to look a certain way based on their master or mistress's personality." Liah answered. "Which is why mine is, of course, a smexy bunny.~"

"Hot, talented, and powerful? Oh my god, I don't know if I can hold back any longer..." The boy that Zion had thrown a baseball at said, staring obsessively at Liah. This time, a basketball came flying in and hit the boy square in the temple.

"Hm...Sentinels huh?..." Zion said aloud, retrieving the basketball he had thrown. "Looks like things are finally picking up!"

First Mission

His thoughts filled with what his own Sentinel looked like and what it could do, Zion arrived home, his backpack filled up with a staggering amount of homework. He made a mental note to call Kao and beg him for help with it. Pulling out the key from his chest pocket, he slid the key into the slot and opened the front door. On the dinner table was the day's mail. He saw something with his name on it, and he slowly moved forward and tore apart the seal with his finger. It read:

Dear Mr. Hazard:
You have been selected to participate in a recovery mission, along with a select few others. The ability to decline this mission can be made.

Oh well that's good. Zion thought. He kept reading.

Successful completion of this mission will provide you with class credit, and can be used to graduate early.

"WHAT?!"

However, this mission is very real, and although the risk is low, casualties are very possible. Please treat this mission seriously if you choose to accept it. Report to the faculty room on the enclosed date to receive a briefing.

Sincerely,
Altea Military Academy Board



"Hm..." Zion began pondering. "I might as well give it a shot, it's just one step closer to being a total BADASS!" At that moment, he heard Celica's car drive up to the driveway.

"Ack, gotta hide." Zion said aloud quickly sitting up. But then he stopped, remembering something else about today.

"She better not have made things worse with Lily..." Zion said anxiously. He heard the door open, and Celica stepped inside, setting her purse on the counter.

"You didn't...say anything weird right?" Zion asked nervously.

"? What do you mean?" Celica asked. It seemed as though she had no idea what Zion was talking about.

"Uh nothing. Btw, tomorrow, I'm going to be going on a mission, so I may not be back for a while." Zion said in a matter of factly tone.

"What?! But Liah's going on a mission tomorrow too! She's supposed to go to the faculty room tomorrow morning." Celica said, her eyes widening.

"...that's...where I'm supposed to go..." Zion said, realizing something. "Chances are, we got assigned to the same mission."

"No fair...I wanted to go..." Celica said, her head drooping.

"Trust me, it's a LOT better this way. Now, you have me out of your hair." Zion said, sounding somewhat bitter. Celica looked back at him confused.

"What're you-" Celica started to say, but Zion had already climbed up the stairs.
------------------------
Altea Military Academy

Zion opened up the door to the faculty room and took a quick look inside; he always got nervous if there was a large amount of people looking at him at the same time, so he checked to make sure there wasn't too many people in there yet. He did see his Aunt in there however.

"Tia!" Zion shouted, waving at Liah from doorway. Liah waved back at him, smiling.

"You're here for the mission too?" Liah asked, surprised. Zion nodded. As Zion walked toward his aunt, the door opened up again behind him. To both of their surprise, Lily walked in, a similar look of surprise on her face when she saw them.

"You...guys got a letter too?" Lily asked, appalled. Liah and Zion nodded. A sudden sound of static started to fill the room, and everyone looked around in confusion.

"Oh, projector's starting to light up." Liah said, seeing the projector on the dining table start to light up. It was faced upward, toward the ceiling for some reason. The three just stared at it, and suddenly, light shone out of it, nearly blinding all three of them. When their vision returned, they saw a huge head shining out of the projector. The head was much larger than any of them; it appeared to be a hologram.

"...Mjrn?" Liah asked, her jaw open.

"G-Ma!?" Zion shouted, shocked.

"Mee...urn?" Lily said, confused.

"She's the principal of this school." Zion whispered.

"Ah."

Mjrn's head was the only part that was visible, but it was easy to tell that she was very beautiful, despite all of her blown up features. Her hair was red and silky, and she had a strong look in her eyes, and practically flawless skin.

"Hey kiddos." Mjrn's head said, smiling. However, Zion started to twitch a little bit, but he smiled back. Mjrn narrowed her eyes at Zion; she knew from experience that whenever he did that, it meant that he was holding back a funny comment.

"Spit it out already Zi." Mjrn's head said, rolling her eyes.

"Could you....do me a favor?..." Zion asked, choking as his laughter almost escaped.

"What?" Mjrn snapped.

"Could you say: "Alpha! Rita's escaped! Recruit a team of teenagers with attitude!"?" Zion gasped out, practically falling on the floor laughing. Liah tried her best to bite her lip, but she bursted out laughing too. Lily understood the joke perfectly, and she put her head down on the table, but it was easy to tell she was giggling from the way her back shook. Mjrn just stared blankly at the laughing trio, but she couldn't help herself either, and she started laughing too, her booming voice filling the room. When everyone had managed to get over it, Mjrn cleared her throat.

"Er, anyway, before I was rudely interrupted...Your mission is to infiltrate and capture a suspected arms dealer by the name of Ryze. We believe that he's selling some arms to several terrorist factions." Mjrn said. "Liah, since you have the most combat experience, and you have full access to your powers and Sentinel, you'll be leading the team. Lily and Zion will be providing backup, and at the same time, observing things first hand."

"Aww man, so Liah's the Tommy of the group..." Zion said sadly. Liah forced herself to keep a straight face.

"Any questions?" Mjrn said, ignoring Zion's remark.

"Nope." Liah said.

"None whatsoever ma'am." Lily said, doing her best to look professional.

"I have just one if you'll let me Zordon." Zion said until he burst out laughing again. Everyone else snickered, but did their best to hold in their laughter.

"Yes?" Mjrn asked, her face completely composed. Zion could tell she was one poke away from bursting out into hysterical laughter though.

"Do we get Megazords on this mission?" Zion asked. And that did it: everyone stopped trying to hold their breath and started laughing. Zion could tell that this wasn't going to end for a while.
---------------------------
Inside a helicopter

"Hm..." Liah pondered as she read through the vanilla folder containing the briefing. "Apparently, this Ryze guy lives in California."

"My hometown huh?..." Zion said aloud. "What city?"

"Some city called "Hillcrest"." Liah said. Zion turned pale.

"Zi? Is something wrong?" Lily asked, surprised at the loss of color from Zion's face.

"Is there something bad about Hillcrest?" Liah asked, confused.

"Hillcrest is...Hillcrest is where...the uhm..." Zion struggled with his words. "It's the er..."colorful" part of town."

"...I don't get it." Lily said, completely confused.

"Oooooh." Liah said, a look of understanding on her face.

"It's the gay part of town alright!?" Zion finally said, sighing.

"Well...looks like this is going to be an interesting mission." Lily said, laughing.
------------------------------
Hillcrest

"Zi...what are you hiding for?" Liah said to the wall. From around the corner, Zion peeked out cautiously.

"I just think that if we walk out like the way we are now, we miiiight be in danger." Zion said apprehensively. "Okay, let me rephrase: I'LL BE IN DANGER!"

"Ah." Liah said, understanding Zion's worry.

"Why don't we go in disguise then?" Lily suggested.

"You want me to go in as a gay guy!? Are you TRYING to get me violated?!" Zion shouted, his eyes wide.

"Nonono, I mean uhm, we dress up in a way that won't reveal our identities. Then, we don't have to worry about anyone recognizing us, since we'll be in disguise." Lily said. Zion didn't say anything at first, but then he nodded.

"That's...a pretty swell idea actually." Zion said. "Hm...what could we do?..."

"Maybe we can dress up as members of a BDSM club but wear masks!" Liah said.

"Uh no. I've got a better idea..." Zion said. "Just don't ask how I'm about to get our disguises..." He suddenly slipped away. Liah and Lily turned and looked at each other, even more confused than they had been before.
-----------------------
"Alright, I'm back. Promise you guys won't laugh." Zion voice came out from around the corner. It sounded a bit muffled.

"Um...okay?" Liah said, scratching her head. Slowly, they saw a light blue paw come out from around the wall. Suddenly, a huge, furry, blue bear stepped out from behind the wall. It looked just like someone was in a school mascot's outfit...if there was such thing as a school mascot that had a blue bear. On the bear costume's stomach was crescent moon with a face on it. Zion was wearing a Care Bear costume.

"Zi...?..." Lily asked, completely weirded out. The bear nodded.

"Can you guys hurry? It's really...hot in here..." Zion voice came out from inside the bear.

Liah and Lily said nothing for a second before they bursted out laughing.

"Hey!!! You told me you weren't going to laugh!" Zion shouted from inside the costume.

"Why did you pick a Care Bear as a disguise?!" Liah managed to choke out as she was laughing.

"I didn't know what gays' mascot was! So I took a wild guess okay?!" Zion shouted. Zion stomped the ground angrily, and that just made the two laugh even more; a bear stomping the ground with it's feet just looked ridiculously funny to them. "And Bedtime Bear was the only bear that looked pretty manly!"

"Can't...breath..." Lily gasped out, continuing to laugh.

"Alright! That's it! Put on YOUR GUY'S costumes right now!" Zion shouted, throwing two boxes at the two of them. The two suddenly stopped laughing, and stared at the two boxes, shocked.

"Wait, we're girls, we're perfectly safe here!" Liah protested.

"Hey! We're in this together! Besides, you don't want your identities being known right?" Zion said, smirking from the inside of the bear's head.

"Ah! ....Fine..." Lily said quietly, picking up the box and heading to the closest restroom to change. Liah looked back at Zion.

"Come on...it's actually kind of...fun." Zion said, his voice reverberating from inside the Care Bear's head. But it turns out that Liah was not looking at Zion, but at the person behind him.

"Mind explaining what's going on Liah?" A female voice said. Zion quickly turned around in horror.

"SIS?!" Zion practically screamed. Standing there was his sister, Celica. She apparently had just recovered from laughing as well, since she seemed out of breath and a bit red.

"What are you doing here?!"

"I was talking to Mjrn, and she told me where you guys went. So I came...to help." Celica said, finishing with a wicked smile when she said "to help".

"If you mean help as in "to torture my brother even more", then you're right, you're helping a LOT!" Zion said sarcastically. "Well, since you want to HELP so much, let me go grab you your own outfit." Zion walked away from the two girls.

"What's he talking about?" Celica asked, actually looking apprehensive.

"You'll see..."
-----------------------
After Lily was filled in on why Celica was now here, the group began to walk to where Ryze was supposed to live. Celica was a purple bear outfit, "Grumpy Bear" (as chosen by Zion) which had rain clouds on the stomach, Liah was wearing an orange bear outfit, "Friend Bear", which had two sunflowers on the stomach and Lily was wearing the pink bear outfit, "Love-A-Lot" Bear, which had a red heart and a white heart on the stomach. Celica obviously didn't like the choice.

"Lily, wanna trade?" Celica said from underneath the bear's head. Even though no one could tell, she was scowling right now.

"I would...but this thing is hard to take off..." Lily said embarrassed. They had finally reached their destination, but it wasn't a house they were looking at...

"...Two of a Kind?! This is ****ing gay bar!" Zion shouted from inside the costume.

"We already got this far, might as well go all out right?" Liah said laughing as she pushed the doors open and walked in. Celica followed and just as Lily was about to enter, she turned and looked at the large blue bear that was Zion.

"You coming Bedtime Bear?" Lily asked, giggling before stepping inside. Grumbling, Zion followed.
--------------------------
"Whoa! It's sooooo furry!"

"That is soooo cute! I wanna cuddle with THIS at night!"

"Guys....help..." Zion gasped out, talking on the headset that he was wearing underneath the bear outfit. It was necessary because of the very loud rave music.

"Good idea Zi! You distract them and we'll slip in to Ryze's room!" He heard Celica's voice come in through his headset.

"Noooooo! Waaaaaiiiit!" Zion shouted but he didn't hear a response. Several more men pushed through and began reaching out, stroking Zion's "fur".

"Agggghhhhhh!"
------------------
Thanks to Zion's "distraction", the three girls had managed to sneak into the backroom and had found Ryze's office very easily. The door was already open, and the three could see a man inside, counting several huge stacks of money.

"All right, let me take care of this." Liah said over the communications headset. Atlus, her stone bunny suddenly appeared on the ground. The bunny turned and looked at the three tall bears, and looked...scared. The bunny slowly stepped back, and hid in it's own fur.

Atlus, don't worry, it's just me. Liah sent her thoughts into the rabbit. Atlus looked up, it's ears perking up. Mommy needs you to do something for her...

Atlus slowly hopped through the door, making sure to stay as quiet as possible, It looked up at the large man, who at the moment, was sifting through his twenty dollar bills. For a moment Atlus crouched, but suddenly, the bunny jumped a nearly impossible six feet and dropkicked Ryze right in the face!

"Ack!" The man flew into the wall and slid down the wall, unconscious.

"Wow..." Lily said over the communications headset.

"Alright, let's take him to the extraction point." Liah said, picking up Ryze's unconscious body with her paws (which, obviously, wasn't so easy). Lily moved over to help, and she grabbed Ryze's legs. As they were slowly carrying Ryze out of the room, Liah noticed that Celica was not following them.

"Celi? Where are-?" Liah turned and saw Celica, the bear head off of her costume, grabbing all the stacks of money she could and dropping them inside of her costume.

"Celi..."

"What?! He doesn't deserve it anyway..." Celica said looking the other way. She put on her helmet. "Okay, let's move."

"Uh, what about Zion?" Lily suddenly brought up. The other two suddenly went quiet.

"Uh oh..."

"Bedtime Bear! Are you okay?!" Lily shouted. She snickered a bit when she said it, and Celica looked at her, her eyes wide.

"Uh oh, Bro left an impression on her...this is bad..."

"...chill, I'm already at the extraction point..." A male voice said over the headset.

"Zi! Are you okay?!" Liah asked. "I mean uhm, Friend Bear to Bedtime Bear! Are you okay?!" She started laughing.

"Grumpy Bear, Friend Bear, and Love-A-Lot Bear to Bedtime Bear! What happened?!" Celica called over the headset, making it sound urgent at first until she burst out laughing too.

"...I...don't want to talk about it....let's go home..."

And so, the three, or should I say, four completed their first mission. This was Zion's first impression of "voluntary" military assignments, and from what he saw...He swore that he would never volunteer on "special operations" ever again.

The Otaku Pirates Part 1

Due to a bit of generosity and a bit of sympathy from Mjrn because of the previous "undercover mission", Zion was able to take a day off of school, which he thankfully needed; his mind was a bit scarred from being felt up by several gay men...simultaneously. He was in his room, laying down on his bed and watching T.V when his phone suddenly vibrated next to him. He looked to the side and hit the "View Message" button.

Love-A-Lot Bear has some homework to deliver to Bedtime Bear rofl =P. Come open the door.

It was from Lily. Zion just stared blankly at the message before sighing and walking downstairs. He pulled open the door and Lily was there, holding a small stack of papers.

"Here ya go." She said handing him his homework. "Why'd you take time off school today?"

"Mjrn felt bad for me and let today go." Zion said, exasperated. "Did you hear anything about Ryze?"

"Well, after interrogating him, we found out that he was the one delivering the weapons to the terrorists, and we also found where the weapons were being stored. Liah and Celica took care of them." Lily said.

"...I bet Cel's gonna bring one of them home and use it on me while I'm sleeping..." Zion said, a sweatdrop running down the side of his head. "Well uh, anyway, thanks for bringing my stuff to me."

"No problem um..." Lily began to say, but she suddenly hesitated.

"Huh?" Zion asked.

"That last mission...was pretty fun. We should try getting paired up more often in the future." Lily admitted, smiling as she remembered the events of the previous day.

"Alright, as long as I'm not the bait again!" Zion said, laughing. He meant what he said seriously however. She laughed too, and the both of them just stood their, at the doorway laughing like idiots.

"Okay, well I'll talk to you later..." She said waving goodbye to him and walking back across the street.

"See you later." Zion said. He didn't close the door yet, and just watched Lily walking away. Finally he turned and closed the door.

"She's a nice girl." He suddenly heard his mom's voice come from the side.

"Yeah, she really is." Zion said simply.

"Does this mean I'm going to be expecting a girl coming over for dinner now?" His mom said, teasing him. Zion immediately turned his head so quickly that his neck cracked.

"It's not like that!" Zion quickly said, rushing up the stairs. He caught a glimpse of his mom smiling in the way that a parent does after embarrassing their child, before he walked back into his room.

Sighing, Zion laid back down onto his bed and looked at the T.V. For some odd reason, there was an emergency broadcast.

"There has been reportings of several young teenage boys missing. There has been no confirmed suspects at this moment." The news reporter said. She was standing in what looked like a harbor. Zion looked up, curious.

"All the victims were last seen at this harbor before they were reported missing. Any information regarding the case may be reported to this number..."
--------------------------
The next day

"Needed something Lucx?" Zion asked. For some reason, Lucx had texted him, telling him to come to his office immediately.

"Yep. Say...did you watch that news report last night?" Lucx asked.

"Uhm, yeah. The one where all the teenage boys went missing?"

"Yeah. Apparently, Mjrn had just written up a new mission, and we just got assigned it." Lucx said. Zion's eyes widened.

"Wait what?! I just got assigned a mission two days ago!" Zion said indignantly.

"She had the feeling you'd say that. In case you did, she wanted me to tell you that you were getting a new one because of your "spectacular" performance on the last mission." Lucx said, laughing. Zion's jaw dropped. Almost perfectly on cue, Kao and Kazaa entered the room.

"We got a mission!" Kao said excitedly. Kazaa didn't say anything, but it was obvious that he was excited about being assigned to the mission.

"Hold on a second..." Zion looked at the other people; Lucx, Kao, and Kaz. He then recalled that Lucx had mentioned the news report from yesterday.

"What exactly are we going to be doing in this mission...?"
------------------------
At Port Saren

"We're going to let ourselves get KIDNAPPED?" Zion shouted in shock.

"Well we can't really catch the kidnappers any other way..." Kazaa said, doing his best not to laugh at Zion's shock. "Who knows? Maybe the kidnappers will be...big, strong gay men..." Kazaa's eyes practically shone with excitement.

"Mm..." Kao eyes lit up as well.

"Well if that's the case...I get first choice!" Lucx said happily. Zion pinched the sides of his head with his hand.

"I can't believe I'm the only straight one on this mission!" Zion said sighing.

"Hey, if you had just joined us while we were trying to turn you, this wouldn't be happening." Lucx said smirking at him.

"Wait...YOU WERE TRYING TO TURN ME!?"

Before anyone could respond, the light poles around the pier suddenly died, leaving the dock in complete and total darkness. No one said anything.

"Zi, where are you?" Kao's voice said out of the darkness.

"Ziiiii, I need someone to hold onto so that I don't fall off the pier." Kazaa's voice said teasingly.

"Kaz, no. Just no. I don't want to think about what part of me you might grab in this damn darkness. Kao, I'll make an exception, just because you're a Uke and you won't make the first move on me." Zion said. Even though no one could see it, Kao pumped his fist in victory.

"I cannot see a thing here! Maybe we can try turning on the power..." Lucx's voice said. "Let's see...Ack!"

"Lucx?" Zion asked apprehensively. There was suddenly two THUMP sounds, and sound of something being dragged on the floor.

"Guys?..." Zion felt a massive sharp pain in the back of his head and he fell to the ground, dazed. He thought he saw a pair of heels before his vision went dark.
------------------------
???

Zion woke up, his vision blurry at first until he regained full consciousness. He seemed to be in some kind of cell, but the floor was wooden, and the bars were made out of iron. He turned his head and he saw Kazaa staring straight down at him; he could feel Kaz's hot breath on his face.

"AGH!!! WTF DUDE!?" Zion shouted jumping away from him.

"Haha, sorry, I couldn't resist." Kazaa said, grinning.

"Keep your hormones under control! I am not "turning" on my first day in jail!" Zion said, glaring at him. Looking around, he saw Kao still passed out in the corner of the same cell, and Lucx, who had just woken up do to his shouting.

"What's with all the noise?" Lucx said, glaring at Zion. He suddenly noticed the place he was in. "What is this place?..." The entire room suddenly shook; Zion grabbed the nearby iron bar to keep his balance.

"Wait a minute...I think we're either in some kind of plane, or some kind of boat..." Zion said aloud.

"Probably..." Kazaa said. Lucx, in the meantime, walked over to the cell's iron bars and looked across the hallway.

"Hey! There are MEN in this place!" Lucx said excitedly. However, his head suddenly drooped in disappointment. "But they're all too young...I'd go to prison if I already took one of them..."

"You ARE in prison!" Zion shouted. "And jeez of all the places to be! First, I'm the only straight guy on a mission. NOW, I'm the only straight guy in a CELL full of men!"
----------------------------
None of the four boys had any of their weapons or any of their electronics with them; they were most likely confiscated from them by their abductors. Needless to say, this left them with very little options. As the four of them tried to brainstorm some ideas, they suddenly saw a burst of light come from ahead of them; a trapdoor had been opened and a figure in a dress made their way toward them. When the figure had gotten close enough, Zion was able to examine her.

She was only about 12 or so years, but she was dressed like a maid. There wasn't much to say about her, besides the fact that her eyes were as cold as ice, and that she was even shorter than Kao.

"Don't tell me...we got owned by a middle schooler?..." Zion said, his head dropping and his confidence going down the drain. The girl suddenly reached into her pocket (there was a pocket on the skirt of her dress) and she inserted a key into the group's cell door. The four waited with anticipation; all of them had the same idea: wait until she opened the door, then they would all simultaneously rush her and escape.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't be that easy. The moment the door slid open, there was a flash of light and suddenly, all of them were binded around the legs and wrists by chains.

"Huuuuuh?" Kao gasped, confused. All of the boys looked at the girl, and they saw a fairy creature flapping it's wings right above the girl's shoulder. It had steel wings, and was emitting some kind of glowing light at the boys.

"A Sentinel?!" Lucx said, his eyes widening. The girl turned, and by some kind of invisible force, the four were yanked toward the girl, and they were forced to follow her.
-----------------------
Above Deck

Zion, Lucx, Kao, and Kaz were all lined up side to side, and faced towards the captain's quarters. All of them looked very uncomfortable and took frequent glances around the ship. For some very odd reason, all of the crew members were...women, all of them in their teens except for the small girl that had bound them. Even more strange, they were all dressed as anime characters that Zion had either seen in video games, or in animes. They were in the middle of the ocean, and the sun was shining very brightly. It would've been a great day to spend outside, if they weren't chained up and forced to stand in the hot sun.

"Stay right there. The captain will be out in a moment." The maid girl said in a cold voice that matched her cold eyes.

"Oh great, she's the stereotypical mean, little girl that has all the boys in love with her from all the animes. Greeeeaaat." Zion said sighing. At that moment, the captain's cabin opened, and a girl around Zion and Kaz's age stepped out. Her hair was tied in a ponytail, and she was wearing a kimono, fitting in with all of her crew members. However, parts of her kimono were ripped and torn, although Zi wasn't sure whether or not it was done by her or something else.

"And...she must be the stereotypical scantily clad girl in the animes." Zion said quietly to himself. "I CANNOT believe that she's the captain..."

"Alright!" The girl in the kimono said cheerfully, her voice so high pitched and cute that it shocked all of the prisoners. "The reason all of you boys are here today...is so that I can see who's worthy of being my...BOYFRIEND!" There was a sudden complete and utter silence.

"...wait a minute, she's been kidnapping boys for THAT?! Why couldn't she just have done the very vague and hard to read "signs" that all the girls do to get a guy to ask her out?" Zion said skeptically, but any answer to that was drowned out by the noise from the other prisoners.

"You know...she's actually kind of cute..."

"I don't mind being enslaved by her, haha!"

"Wow you guys really are...slores..." Zion said, shaking his head.

"Er, I only like men, and even if I didn't, she's too young for me." Lucx said, looking the other way.

"Same here, except for the young part." Kaz said, laughing.

"Me three!" Kao piped in.

"Uh, I just want to get off this boat..." Zion said sighing.

"So, there's only one way to see who has the most undying love for me, and that is by...a no holds barred deathmatch!" She shouted excitedly. It almost looked like a heart appeared out of no where when she posed.

"...This is sounding more like an anime every second..." Lucx said sighing.

"Well anywaaaaay! The deathmatch starts...now!" She said cheerfully.

At first there was no movement at all. The chains on all of the prisoners suddenly disappeared, and they all looked around in confusion. The ship captain just stared down at the deck, waiting. When the prisoners just looked around in confusion, she spoke again.

"Oh by the way! Whoever lasts through all of this gets a trip back to the mainland for a first date with meeee <3~" She said, another heart appearing out of nowhere. "And also, whoever doesn't make it dies, that's all!~"

Suddenly, there was a humongous surge of moment and all of the prisoners started fighting, punching and kicking the nearest person next to them.

"WHOA!" Zion shouted, surprised by the eruption of fighting. One of the boys next to him caught sight of Zion and suddenly grabbed him by the collar and raised his fist to punch him. In one quick movement, Zion brought his elbow down on the top of the boy's head, immediately knocking him unconscious. He was able to earn himself a brief respite from the insanity until several more boys rushed in to attack him at once. Zion jumped over one boy as he attempted to tackle Zion, and while still in midair, kicked the boy coming at him from the side. He ducked as another boy threw a punch aimed at Zion's face, the punch instead, hitting the boy that Zion had just jumped over.

"You guys doing okay over there?!" Zion shouted over his shoulder.

"These guys are nothin." Kazaa said simply, a devilish grin appearing on his face. "Go get em Fenrir!" As if on command, a seal appeared on the ground, and a cobalt colored wolf stepped out of the portal that the seal had made.

"You can call your Sentinel Kaz?!" Zion shouted, kicking one of the boys back.

"Yup. Let me show you what it can do." Kaz said. He looked at Fenrir for a moment, and suddenly the wolf reared up, it's fur standing on end. Without warning, it's fur began to glisten, and each chunk of fur hardened and became almost exactly like ice.

"Careful Kaz. We're not here to kill anyone..." Lucx said anxiously.

"I know. Just gonna scare some people, that's all." Kaz said. Without warning, Fenrir howled, and the jagged ice spikes that had grown on it's body shot out, embedding itself into the floor. Several of the boys that were nearby the spikes immediately retreated in fear, their will to fight, gone.

"Guys! Try to scare them off instead of beating them if you can!" Zion shouted. Despite what he had just said, he ducked and rose up, punching another boy right in the chin.

"Uhm...that's not so easy for me..." Kao said breathing heavily as he continued stepping backwards to avoid the punches that a nearby boy was throwing at him.

"Fine, let me handle it." Lucx said. He drew a circle in the air with his finger and suddenly, a symbol appeared in midair. A few seconds later, the symbol shattered, and out of it several flower petals floated out of the portal that had just been created. A samurai figure slowly stepped out of the portal, carrying a naginata. The Sentinel was wearing all white clothing, and in regards to his armor, he was wearing a variation of light armor that allowed him to move quickly.

"Lucx?! You too?!" Zion shouted, gasping.

"Naoe, get these boys off of Zion and Kao Kao." Lucx commanded the samurai. Naoe gripped his naginata and slashed at the boys that were surrounding Zion, hitting them with the flat side of the blade to prevent cutting them. He did the same to the boy that was advancing on Kao, sending him flying into the corner, unconscious.

"Damn! Your Sentinel's pretty beast Lucx!" Zion said, his eyes wide. He took a look around at the remaining people; the other boys had either become to exhausted to keep going, or they had been beaten unconscious by someone else; the only people left now were the four boys: Zion, Lucx, Kao, and Kaz.

"Aww man, how are we gonna do this?..." Zion asked hesitantly. Kazaa didn't say anything for a moment but then suddenly, he grinned at Zion.

"I give up." He said simply walking away from Zion and to the spot where the exhausted boys had sat down. Fenrir followed him, but soon, it disappeared from sight, returning to wherever it is Sentinels live.

"Like I said before, I'm gay so..." Lucx said walking away and joining Kaz at the sidelines. This left Kao and Zion.

"...I already know what you're gonna say Kao..." Zion said sighing. Kao laughed before he looked straight at Zion.

"Don't let things move too fast Zi Zi!" He said before joining the other three boys. The girl in the kimono clapped her hands happily.

"Wow! I guess you're the lucky boy!" The girl said happily to Zion. "Hm, not bad at all!" From a distance, she looked up and down, examining his features. In the blink of the eye, she had wrapped both of her arms around his neck and was slowly dragging him away from the others.

"Huh?! What the-?" Zion choked out, completely caught off guard. And oh jeez, she's pretty strong...

"Remember Zion! All of us are counting on you!" Lucx shouted waving to him.

"Where are you taking me?..." Zion asked hesitantly to the captain. Although to be completely frank, he was a bit scared to find out the answer.

"We're going back to my room silly!~" She said happily. "You're actually pretty cute, so I decided I'd make an exception and let you stay in my room.~"

"First of all, I am NOT CUTE. Second of all, don't you think you're taking things a bit too fast?!" Zion choked out each word; her grip around his neck was pretty tight.

"Aww no need to be modest! We're going to be getting to know each other really well when we get married, so let's start early okay?!"

"MARRIED?! WHAAAAAT?!"

"Of course!~ You marry people that you love after all <3~"

"YOU JUST MET ME! YOU CAN'T LOVE ME YET!"

And so Zion...sort of won the competition on the ship. Although now, he was completely unsure whether or not he was in a better position than he was before, or in a worst position. Either way, he had won his ticket back to the mainland, but what about the others? What will his friends and family say when he returns home with the airheaded captain of the Otaku pirates? Tune in next time to find out!

The Otaku Pirates part 2

"Ooooh! So this is where you live!" The pirate captain squealed.

"...you've been here before already. Kidnapping people!" Zion scowled. Either the girl didn't hear him, or she just was too caught up in her own thoughts to answer.

"Hm, what would a good place to go be?...I know! Let's go to the most busiest part so that everyone can see that we're a couple!~" She said, pulling her arms around Zion's arm. He willed himself to not knock her unconscious right now.

"Er uh no...wait...how about I...introduce you to my family?" Zion thought, an idea suddenly forming in his mind. The girl looked up happily and gripped his arm tighter, causing Zion to wince: where this girl's strength was coming from, he had no clue.

"Great idea! Hm...I still don't know your name...Wow! I can't believe I never asked for you name!~" She said in that same sickeningly sweet voice that could've made Zion's head explode.

And I can't believe you don't know the name of the guy you're gonna "marry". Zion thought, so mentally exhausted that he couldn't even feel angry.

"Z." He said, omitting his complete name...for several very good reasons.

"Ooooh! My name's Kristy!~" She said, even though Zion didn't even ask. It didn't look like he cared either.

"Anyway...let's get...going." Zion said, praying that his plan would work out just fine. Kristy pulled herself closer, and had practically locked her arms around his arm.
-----------------------
Altea Military Academy

"Zi? You're back?" Liah said, squinting as a rush of light entered the gymnasium. It was already afterschool, so she was just cleaning up. Her eyes fell on the girl that was with her, and she tried her best to keep a straight face.

"This is my...aunt....Liah..." Zion said, forcing himself to keep his voice even. Liah knew right away that he was in trouble: He only talked that way when he was under a lot of pressure.

"And who's this?" Liah asked.

"Kristy!~" She said happily. Liah and Zion just both stared at her, unsure what to say.

"Um, Kristy? Do you mind if I talk to Zi for a bit?..." Liah asked cautiously. Kristy nodded cheerfully before finally releasing her grip on Zion and taking a look around. Liah moved closer to Zion and began whispering to him.

What's the situation? She said.

She's the leader of the group Mjrn assigned me to capture. I'd turn her in right now but...they've got Lucx, Kaz, and Kao locked down in their ship, so I can't risk anything right now. He replied.

Ah, I see...but why'd you choose to bring her here?

I have a plan... Zion quickly whispered his plan to her as Kristy started making her way back to them.

Okay, got it. Liah said nodding. "Well, I'll leave you two lovebirds to introduce yourself to the others." She said, doing her best not to laugh at Zion's aghast expression.

"...right, we should go see Cel..." Zion said. Please be merciful today...
------------------
Nurse's Room

"Cel?! You here?!" Zion shouted as he stepped into the room. Kristy was practically putting all of her weight onto his back, and he struggled to maintain his balance; what made things worse was...something else was also being squeezed onto his back...and they belonged to Kristy...

"Bro?! Are you injured?! Because I can-" Celica said, rushing out of the backroom, a VERY long syringe in hand, but she stopped and looked at Kristy, puzzled.

"Huh? But I thought you had a thing for-" She started to say until Kristy interrupted her.

"Hi! I'm Kristy and I'm marrying your brother!~" She said happily. Celica's jaw practically dropped.

"Yeah...uh..." Zion tried to think of a subtle way to send a distress signal to his sister. "Right now I'm trying to introduce her to my FAMILY because I need HELP...getting the wedding together. Lucx, Kao, and Kaz are TAKEN...on the day of the marriage, so I need HELP from my FAMILY." Zion said, putting as much stress on the keywords as he could. Celica just looked at him, completely confused.

"...you know what? Can I just have a minute Kristy?" Zion asked sighing. Once again, Kristy instantly left, but not without leaving a kiss on Zion's cheek. He almost fainted, but not because of happiness.

When she was out of range, Celica turned to her brother.

"What about Lily? I didn't know you were into ditzes." She said teasing her brother.

"What about Lily?!" Zion shot back.

"Oh I just think she might be a little...upset by this." She replied.

"...what do you mean?" Zion asked, suddenly puzzled.

"Wow you are so slow...anyway, where are the others?"

"They're back on her ship. They're in the harbor right now."

"Okay...well normally, I'd let you squirm a bit more...but it's killing me just watching you two." Celica said, smirking at him.

"...thanks." Zion said doing his best to smile even just a little. At that moment, the door opened just behind Zion, causing him to jump. His heart sank when he saw who it was.

"Zi? You already finished your mission?" Lily asked, her eyes wide.

Crap! I forgot she comes here afterschool!

"Pst Lily, come closer..." Zion said, suddenly advancing towards her.

"H-huh?!" Lily gasped when Zion cleared the gap between the two in a quick second. He moved towards the side of her face and quickly whispered.

Lily, whatever you're about to see right now is all NOT REAL. She's holding hostages, and I have to play along or else things might be bad for them...

What? Who? Lily whispered back, still a bit flustered by Zion's sudden forwardness. But she didn't need to get an answer because Kristy suddenly appeared to the side of her in the blink of an eye.

"Ziiiiii?! You didn't tell me you had any other women!~" She said, somehow still cheerfully, but with her eyes wide.

"Whaaaat?!" Lily shouted in shock, her face becoming hot.

"Ergh, uh..." Zion stammered, unsure of whether or not to take advantage of this "opportunity" or not.

"Hm, maybe not.~" Kristy said, examining Lily carefully. "I don't think Zi would choose someone so timid...and so...lacking." She looked directly at Lily's chest when she said this.

"WHAT?!" Lily shouted, her jaw dropping, staring straight down at her chest. "But but, they're not..."

"Let's go back to the ship Zi~" Kristy said, dragging Zion by the arm, causing him to stumble after her. Before he completely disappeared from sight, he looked back at the two with an expression in his eyes practically screaming "Help me!"
--------------------
"Hm, say Kaz...why do you think Zion's RESCUE is taking so long?!" Lucx complained, sitting down their cell.

"I don't know...maybe he ended up falling for her after all." Kaz said, chuckling.

"No way. Zion would never fall for an airhead like her." Lucx snapped. "Besides, he's already got a good thing going with Lily right now!"

"I have WHAT going on with Lily!?" A disgruntled male voice shouted from the other end of the hallway.

"Are you here to break us out now?" Kao asked excitedly.

"Uhm no, but if my plan goes well, you guys will be out by tomorrow." Zion said, rubbing the back of his head nervously.

"Tomorrow?! I am not spending another night in this disgusting place! You realize that the execution is tomorrow?!" Lucx complained.

Zion's eyes widened; he forgot that Kristy was going to execute whoever did not win the deathmatch. He didn't know that the date was tomorrow. "Crap..."

"And Kaz moves waaaaay to close to Kao Kao and I at night! We can practically feel his dog breath on us while we sleep!" Lucx groaned.

"Don't act like you don't enjoy it." Kazaa said grinning.

"It's not an act!" Lucx said angrily. Kao couldn't even respond because he was on the floor, laughing from the argument right now.

"Right well...hopefully, I'll see you guys tomorrow. Hang in there." Zion said, saluting them overdramatically before smiling and walking away.
----------------------------------
The Next Day...

"Okay! I think today, we can go meet MY parents!~" Kristy said, jumping excitedly. Zion quickly responded, a sweat drop running down the side of his head.

"Huh?! Oh uh, I already told Liah and Cel that I'd go shopping with them today!" Zion said quickly.

"Huuuuuh? But my dad reeeaaally wants to see you.~" She said, exaggerating her syllables.

"Um..." Zion's thoughts quickly raced. "There's...a Hello Kitty store in the place we're going to!"

"..." There was complete silence until...

"Why didn't you say so!? Let's go!"
----------------------
In the Shopping District

C'mon guys...where are you?... Zion thought distressed. I can't stand any more of this...

"Oooooh?! This doll is only fifty dollars?! Zi! Gimme your wallet!" Kristy said, oggling a life sized "Hello Kitty" doll.

"Ah..." Zion stared at the doll. It's actually...pretty cute hm.

At that moment, he saw a shadow fly over him and he looked up, hoping that his own rescue had finally come. His heart practically leaped with joy when he saw Liah, her fingerless gloved hand raised, ready to punch Kristy straight into the ground. She was wearing a light armor variant of the Altea Military Combat Uniform, which contained a light armored top, and a battle skirt. Her outfit was slightly different than most others because she had the sleeves removed from the top, revealing her arms. On the side of her arm, was the Altea Emblem (a torch and a pair of wings), and the letters A.E.S.F, which stood for "Altea Elite Strike Force".

But somehow, Kristy sensed the impending danger, and with a quick burst of light, a frilly, pink umbrella appeared in her hand. With a quick twist, she deflected Liah's attacking, causing Zion's aunt to fly backwards. Liah landed on her feet, shaking her hand that had gotten hit by the umbrella.

"Careful guys. She's tougher than she looks." Liah said. Almost immediately, Celica stepped out from the other side of Kristy, and behind her, was Lily. They were both dressed in field medic uniforms, although there were a few key differences. Celica's outfit had no armor plating anywhere whatsoever, and was a long, short sleeved, pink and white combat dress that fitted with her body shape, and ended in a skirt just at below her knees. It didn't seem like she was armed.

Lily's uniform was similar, but the colors were much less consistent. Her long sleeved top was primarily light, washed out, blue, and covered by a small amount of thin defensive plating. She also wore pink bracers, and white gloves. On the bottom, she wore black shorts, but she wore over it a thin, white, pink and blue combat skirt. Along with it, she was wearing dark purple stockings that were covered in defensive plating at the areas below her knees. Last, she was wearing a necklace with a pendant of an arrow attached to a pair of wings.

"Whyyyyyy are you attacking meeeeee?!" Kristy whined, puzzled.

"There is no way we're letting you enslave Zi like that!" Celica shouted. "That's Lily's job!"

"Yeah!....WHAAAT?!" Lily screamed quickly looking at Zion. But he had already started running before Celica had said her second sentence.

"Hold her off!" Zi shouted, rushing to the military academy as quickly as he could.

"Waaaaiiiiit Zi!!!! We can talk about this can't w-!" Kristy didn't get the chance to finish as Liah immediately rushed in and fired a punch at her. Kristy ducked and with a quick hop, leaped into the air, slowly hovering back to the ground with her open umbrella.

Liah turned her head and looked at Celica and Lily. Without even needing to say any words, the two understood Liah's plan. Celica's hand started to crackle, and electricity began to emit itself from her hand. She raised that hand in a defensive position, ready to attack at any moment.

"Lily, try to attack from a distance. Zion would be pretty ticked if he found out you got hurt." Liah said, smiling back at Lily.

"Huh?...Okay then..." Lily said, forcing herself to contain her embarrassment. By now, the once crowded shopping district was empty; the people that had been shopping or selling merchandise had immediately ran away the moment the fighting had started.

"Grr...none of you understand at all! Why are you trying to step in the way of our love!" Kristy cried out, the air around her beginning to blur; the area around her was beginning to heat up.

"Careful, she has a Sentinel." Liah said, staying on guard. Kristy's seal appeared immediately below her, and as soon as the symbol had cracked, a tall, pale woman burst out of it, wearing a pure white toga. She was slim, and when she opened her eyes, her eyes were a dark green color.

"Aphrodite! Teach them not to get in the way of love!" Kristy shouted angrily, the first time she had been angry since she had arrived on the mainland.
------------------------
Altea Weapon Storage Room

After returning to the military academy and explaining the situation to Mjrn, she gave him permission to enter the weapons storage room. He now stood there, looking at the numerous shelves containing several different types of weapons, from spears to gunpowder powered crossbows. Zion paced back and forth deep in thought.

"Damnit! Soooo maaaanny badass weapons! Argh I can't decide!" Zion shouted, his voice echoing in empty room. "This isn't fair!..."

Finally, after having a quiet argument with himself, he picked out two weapons; the first, was a long, thin, nodachi, that he wore at the side of his waist, rather than on his back like most people would. His second weapon was a G36C submachine gun, which he could use for quick maneuvering, which he would most likely need if he was going to help the others escape from the boat. Truth be told, he had actually never used any of these weapons before.

"Eh it won't matter; they're badass, so it's okay." Zion said aloud, convincing himself. Next, he chose his combat uniform. After selecting from the assortment of outfits that were offered to him, he modified some of his own clothing and put on parts of the armored clothes.

Like Liah, he wore a pair of fingerless gloves, except his were black. On his left arm, he wore bracers, but no actual arm armor was worn, leaving the area between his wrist and his shoulder unarmored. He chose not to wear bracers on his right arm, or any kind of armor; his belief was that since his right arm was the primary part of his body he was going to use for combat, he would need to have it as unburdened as possible. He had tied a tourniquet around that arm at first, in an effort to bandage that arm because it had been cut during the "deathmatch" back on the ship, but he eventually decided it helped make him look more "badass". He wore his casual black sleeveless shirt, and had disassembled some of the normal combat armor and wore the upper part of the light, thin chestplate, but left out the bottom part, the part that was supposed to protect his stomach and ribs. For the lower part of his body, he just wore a portion of the combat greaves above his ankles and below his knee, wearing them over his black, slim cargo pants.

"Time to go kick some Otaku ass!!!" Zion shouted, his "risktaking time" smile on his face, keeping his hand on the handle of the nodachi as he ran out of the room, preparing to get to the ship. He thought of his friends waiting back on the ship and he closed his eyes.

You guys better hang in there...
-------------------------------
The three ladies had already been trying to land an attack on Kristy, but her sentinel, Aphrodite, continued to move into their way and block the attacks. Even Liah's incredible brute force was stopped short by Aphrodite's defense.

"Ugh, none of this is working..." Celica grunted, raising her hand in the air as though she were reaching for the sun. She suddenly brought her hand down, and a huge lightning bolt crashed from the sky directly onto where Kristy was...or at least, where she was supposed to be. Kristy had somehow moved from that spot, and in her place, was Aphrodite, a shining transparent shield enveloping her.

"Well it is Aphrodite, the god of lust and love. She must have experience being on the receiving end all the time!" Liah joked, unable to help from laughing. "Well, I guess I'm going to need Atlas' help on this one..." A large glowing seal appeared underneath her, and after it had finished growing to its full size, Liah clenched her fist and pounded the center of the seal, cracking it. There was a large pillar of light, out of it, Atlas, the rock bunny landed on the ground, his ears pointed straight up in the air.

"We're going to need you in humanoid form Atlas!" Liah commanded the bunny. In response, Atlus leaped high into the air, performed one flip and disappeared for a moment in the light of the shining sun. A moment later, a shirtless, muscular teenage boy landed on the ground, looking almost completely human.

His brown hair had the same naturally spiky style to it as Zion's did, but it didn't appear to be fluffy, and it didn't cover his eyes the same way Zion's did either. In contrast, all of his hair was spiked upwards. He was wearing no shirt, revealing his well toned six pack and pectorals, and on the bottom, he wore a pair of black jeans. Most notable however, were two things: Atlas had human ears, but at the back of the top of his head, he had grey bunny ears poking about, which seemed to move naturally. The second thing was that his muscular, toned right arm was entirely encased in stone.

Without warning, Atlas launched himself at Aphrodite, his stone arm raised, and aimed a punch at Aphrodite's face. Just as Liah expected, the sentinel's barrier went up and blocked Atlas' attack. Celica at that moment, figured out exactly what the plan was. Liah and Celica both looked at each other for a moment before nodding at each other, and dashing in two separate directions: Liah headed toward Aphrodite, and Celica launched herself at Kristy.

Celica reached her right arm over her left shoulder, electricity beginning to crackle in her hand. With a quick swing of her arm, a ball of high voltage electricity descended downward towards Kristy. Almost immediately, Aphrodite began to move to intercept the attack, however...

At that moment, Atlas and Liah dove in from the side, and crashed into Aphrodite, sending her spiraling into the ground. Liah dropped to the ground and pinned Aphrodite to the ground, and quickly looked up, hoping that Celica's attack would work.

Just as the ball of electricity was going to collide with her, Kristy quickly opened her umbrella. By some unknown invisible phenomenon, the ball of electricity collided with the frilly pink umbrella, and dissipated after it had struggled to break past the umbrella.

"Ugh..." Celica remarked, scowling. "Alright, no more playing nice!" She jumped into the air and pointed directly in front of herself. At that moment, a seal began to form just in front of her, parallel to the ground. With a quick twist, she swung her hand down again, causing a bolt of electricity to fall from the sky and collide with the seal, cracking it. The seal immediately burst open.

Out of the seal, emerged a very thin, pale woman, wearing a sparkling midnight dress and heels. Her blonde hair was tied in the back and held together with hair sticks, leaving some of the rest of her silky hair to hang freely. She also wore an ornament of a crescent moon on the clump of hair that was being held together by the hair sticks. She had calm, gentle brown eyes, and wore heeled shoes. However, she did not stand on the ground; she floated just a few inches above the ground, her feet hanging freely.

"Let's get her Selene!" Celica shouted to her Sentinel, a dangerous smile forming on her face. The two moved in together and dashed toward Kristy, who was starting to look more and more frustrated by the second...

Kristy and her Sentinel, Aphrodite, seem to be giving Celica, Liah, and Lily more trouble than anyone had believed. In addition, Zion has just left the Academy to help liberate the prisoners of the Otaku pirates. But can he make it in time before the schedule execution starts? Can Liah, Celica, and Lily overcome the psychotic Otaku captain in time to help Zion free his friends? Stay tuned to find out!!!

The Otaku Pirates: Finale

Liah quickly dashed forward, shoulder checking Aphrodite as the Sentinel tried to rush in and absorb the attacks that were about to hit Kristy. Aphrodite rebounded off Liah's hard shoulder, looking a bit dazed from the sudden whiplash. At that moment, Atlas quickly moved in, leaped into the air, then began to descend, his stone arm raised. His heavy body quickly allowed him to gain momentum, and within seconds, Atlas was already directly above Aphrodite. With all the force the Sentinel could muster, Atlas punched straight down, sending Aphrodite straight into the ground, causing several cracks to form in the ground underneath her. For a moment Aphrodite didn't move.

"Phew, good job At-." Liah said, wiping her forehead, but at that moment, Aphrodite slowly stood up, trembling from the struggle, but still standing nonetheless. Liah's eyes widened, but she clenched her fist and tensed up, ready to keep fighting.

What's it going to take? Liah thought.
----------------------
Meanwhile...

"Selene, block her vision!" Celica commanded. Selene quickly raised one hand and suddenly, a thick gray fog began to gather in the town square, forming itself around Kristy.

"Wha whaaat?...~" Kristy gasped, unable to see. She swung her umbrella around randomly, hoping that she could hit something. But there was no one in the fog with her because...

"Shattering Bolt!" Celica shouted, reaching out with both of her hands. Suddenly, an arcane symbol began to trace itself on the ground within the area covered by Selene's mist. After the seal had finished drawing itself, it began to shine, and a pillar of light burst out of it. For a moment, nothing appeared to have happened. Then suddenly, several bolts of lightning struck the target area in rapid succession, like artillery fire. For nearly an entire minute, lightning collided with that spot constantly. When it had finally ended, Selene began to dissipate the fog, and Celica examined the remains. Miraculously, Kristy was still there, completely battered and covered in dust. Her frilly pink umbrella had been burn up, and now looked like a few pieces of broken metal.

"Ack...ungh..." Kristy coughed out, struggling to stand up. In the distance, Aphrodite suddenly stopped, completely still like a rock, until she began to dissolve, leaving behind only fading green particles until those finally disappeared.

"No-no, I can still...Aphrodite?...~" Kristy said exhaustively, searching for her Sentinel. When she couldn't find it, she let out a groan and fell back on her knees.

"Kristy?" Lily suddenly said, breaking the tense mood. Liah and Celica jumped: they had forgotten that she had come with them. During the entire fight, it seemed as though she stayed back.

"There's a reason you can't be with Zi..." Lily said, biting her lip. Kristy looked up.

"It doesn't matter...we're...perfect for each other...~" She said indignantly.

"Uhm...you can't be with him because..." Lily swallowed. Liah and Celica both said nothing, but inched closer and closer, the suspense killing them.

"B-because uh...he...I..." Lily stuttered.

"JUST SAY IT OKAY?!" Celica suddenly shouted, grabbing Lily by the shoulders and shaking her.

"A-ack!" Lily gasped out, her head being shaken by Celica.

"Just say the truth." Liah said, smiling and laughing as she watched Celica relentless shake Lily. Finally, Celica stopped, and Lily took a deep breath again.

"You...can't be with him because...I'M PREGNANT WITH HIS CHILD!" Lily shouted. There was complete and utter silence: If there could be any way to describe Celica and Liah's expression right now, this would probably be the best comparison:




------------------------------
Back on the Otaku Pirates Ship

All of the prisoners were once again, lined up in an orderly fashion, but this time, all of them were blindfolded, as well as chained together. They were being poked in the back by three girls wearing Japanese schoolgirl outfits, holding dull iron swords and were slowly being led to a long wooden plank, leading directly into the ocean. The small little girl with the fairy sentinel that had first chained up the four boys was looking at her wristwatch, dully watching the seconds hand move up. It was almost noon.

"Zion had better come...I swear I can hear sharks close by us..." Lucx said. "And Kazaa! Let go of MY LEG!"

"If I'm gonna die...I'm gonna die happy..." Kazaa said smirking.

"Hold me..." Kao said in a scared voice, grabbing the closest thing to him. In this case, it was Kazaa's...

"Who just grabbed my butt?"

"It's time." The little girl in the maid outfit said in an expressionless voice. She looked at the girls with the dull swords and nodded. The girls started leading the prisoners toward the wooden plank, the wooden floorboards creaking because of all the prisoners' combined weight. Just when the lead prisoner in the long line took the first step onto the wooden plank, there was the sudden sound of gunfire, and the line abruptly froze.

"Aww yeah! That was so badass! Everyone stopped when I fired and just just...WHOA!" Zion shouted, his eyes wide, and his gun raised in the air.

"Zi Zi!" Kao shouted, hearing the familiar male voice.

"Hurry up and get us free Zion!" Lucx shouted, annoyed. "We can't call out Sentinels with these things on!"

"For reals? Then in that case..." Zion said grinning his "badass" grin and aiming his gun directly at the three. It was a reckless move, and if he ended missing, he could've hurt his friends. But years of practice had paid off. He fired six times, two bullets hitting each of the three boys chains. The three boys quickly pulled off their bindings and scrambled away from the line of prisoners, who, after hearing the sounds of the boys freeing themselves, began to walk back, away from the plank.

"Naoe!" Lucx shouted, tracing a symbol in midair.

"Fenrir!" Kazaa shouted, a seal opening up just above.

In just a few seconds, a white clothed samurai and a cobalt colored wolf had appeared, all of them ready to fight. The little girl wearing the maid outfit narrowed her eyes at the four boys and growled and order.

"Get rid of them." She said coldly. With that, the women on board suddenly armed themselves in a flash, pulling weapons out of their...breasts.

"...I thought that only happened in the animes...where ALL the females hide weapons in their BREASTS..." Zion said sighing, clipping his G36C to his hip and gripping his nodachi.

"Well, they ARE the Otaku pirates..." Lucx said, rolling his eyes.

In a flash, the battle had started. Unwilling to kill any of the pirate crew, Zion simply held the nodachi with the scabbard still covering it, so it functioned more as a blunt weapon than a cutting weapon. All the others felt the same; Kazaa and Lucx ordered their Sentinels to only incapacitate them, while Kao suddenly stepped back.

"I think I can help you guys now." Kao said smiling cheerfully as he traced a circle around himself. The circle began to glow, and another arcane symbol traced itself, before growing wide and disappearing. However, the moment the symbol disappeared, Zion suddenly felt a huge rush of energy fill his body. He realized that Kao had performed some kind of enhancement spell. It looked like the others felt the boost in strength as well; the Sentinels were attacking much more quickly and dodging attacks more quickly than they were before.

Being reinforced by Kao's support magic, the three were unbeatable. Wave after wave of pirates rushed them, only to be tackled by Fenrir, knocked unconscious by Naoe, or paralyzed by Zion's "badass" skills. Finally, there didn't seem to be anymore enemies.

"Agh..." The little girl growled angrily. She was about to order her Sentinel to attack when suddenly, she caught sight of a very battered, but still very alive, Kristy, being supported by Lily as she helped her walk to she ship.

"Ziiii! Why didn't you tell me?" Kristy said exhaustively but still cheerfully. Zion at first looked confused, but he immediately got ready to start acting: he didn't care what it took anymore, he'd go along with anything to get out of her grip.

"Uh, you never gave me the chance..." Zion said slowly, hoping that what he was saying would fit whatever Lily had told her.

"I mean, if it was just her, I wouldn't let that stop me. But a child?! I can't get in the way of that!~" Kristy said, almost a bit sadly.

"WHAT?! I mean uh...you....took...the test?" Zion said even more slowly, forcing himself not to blush right now.

"Y-yeah, it came out...positive." Lily said, her face turning red. Zion choked before he was able to respond.

"G-great, we should uhm, go home so we could figure out...a name for Zi Jr..." Zion said, unable to help from blushing.

"Aww! You guys are going to be soooo good for each other! But not better than what Zi and I could've been though! Oh well.~" Kristy said cheerfully. "Hm...where did all the prisoners go?" Zion turned back; it didn't look like Lucx, Kaz, Kao, or any of the prisoners were on the ship anymore. If he had to guess, they had escaped.

"I guess they've...already been drowned..." Zion said, trying his best not to stutter. Doing his best to play his role, he walked over to Lily and held her hand, walking her off the boat. Lily let out a "Meep!" sound, but forced herself to stay composed.

"Hm, o-kay, well, I'm going to need to search for another lucky man! Good look you two!~" Kristy shouted from the boat, waving and blowing kisses at the two. Zion and Lily kept their hands clamped together until Kristy was out of range; when she finally was, Zion quickly jumped back from her, his eyes wide.

"You told her I got you PREGNANT?!" Zion shouted, shocked.

"She would've kept going after you if I didn't!" Lily said, still blushing.

"Ack well...okay." Zion said, giving up. He knew that the only reason he was standing here right now was because of Lily. "Man, guess this counts as my first failed mission on my badass record..."

"There will be more missions." Lily insisted. "By the way, nothing happened to you while you were imprisoned right? Kristy looked like she really had a thing for you, so I was worried that she might've taken advantage of your helpless state."

"Huh?! No! Of course not!" Zion quickly said.

"But she mentioned that she made you sleep in her room for two nights..." Lily said, raising her eyebrows.

"...Sis and Tia must be back at the academy, we should hurry..."

"Zi! Why aren't you answering the question!?"...

The King of Legends

Altea Military Academy

Surprisingly enough, Mjrn took the boys' inability to capture the Otaku pirates pretty well. She seemed just relieved to have them back, and the prisoners free. However, still a bit disappointed at his lack of ability, Zion focused his entire time on talking to himself, hoping that somehow, his Sentinel could hear him.

It was during passing period that Zion decided that he would give summoning his Sentinel another shot.

Hi! Anyone there?! I'm Zion, and I reaaalllly need you to come out and kick some ass right now! Zion thought in his mind, a bit desperate now. He knew that calling a Sentinel would take a very long time, but that didn't stop him from trying, even if his methods were a bit...foolish.

"What...are you doing?" Celica suddenly appeared next to him, poking him in the ribs. Zion yelped and quickly turned around, breathing heavily from the shock.

"Oh, uh...nothing. Wait, shouldn't you be in your office?!" Zion said, poking Celica back in the ribs, causing her to jump.

"Am I not allowed to step out for a walk or something?" Celica said, rolling her eyes. "Mom wanted me to bring you your lunch but I guess you don't want it..."

"Wait what?! What is it?! Hey!" Zion shouted, jumping for his lunch bag as Celica raised it above her head laughing. "Not funny! You already turned me into a toothpick because of your "cookies", even though that crap shouldn't even be compared to cookies!" Seriously, give it!"

A few people passing by slowly turned their heads, watching the two siblings struggle against each other. Apparently, a student and someone dressed as a nurse fighting over a bag of lunch was something worth watching. However, at that moment, the bell rang, signaling that there was only a moment left in the passing period.

"Ack, gotta go. Don't give Liah too much trouble kay?" Celica said, quickly pulling her head away from underneath Zion's elbow and dropping the bag of lunch into his chest. Zion didn't even have time to make a comment; the moment he caught his lunch, he quickly dashed to his P.E class.
---------------------------

Zion looked around blankly at all the "new members" of his P.E class. Everyone was running around with some kind of creature, either human or animal. Nearby him, a girl was squealing happily as a fairy creature followed her around, sending sparkling pixie dust around her whenever she flapped her wings.

Am I seriously the only one who can't call my Sentinel. What. The. Hell! Zion thought angrily, his back against the wall, and sitting down. Almost as if she was alerted by his negative emotions, Liah walked over to him, looking a bit concerned.

"Don't feel too left out. I'm sure that once yours emerges, it'll be the most badass out of all of them." Liah said, smiling. Zion shook his head.

"That's IF I have a Sentinel. I remember you mentioned that some people can't unlock their Sentinels." Zion said.

"That's true...hm...Well, some Sentinels' first appearance is usually because of something important, like...if your life were to be in danger and stuff like that." Liah said, trying to think of ways to help Zion.

"So...I should do something extremely dangerous and life threatening?" Zion asked, his eyes widening. "I can do that."

"No! I mean uh, well, it might help but..." Liah stumbled through her words. "Let's just try to take baby steps with it, without jumping right in to the worst option okay?"

"Okay okay, I was just kidding." Zion said, laughing. "Thanks Tia."
----------------------
Lunchtime

Zion, Kooh, and Kazaa were sitting at the same table, all of them trying to talk just loud enough to be heard, seeing as the cafeteria was practically exploding with noise right now. While Zion was munching his sandwich, he and Kazaa were exchanging Chuck Norris jokes.

"Chuck *munch* Norris didn't need to charge a spirit bomb for 3 days *munch* to kill someone." Zion said, biting into his sandwich after ever few seconds.

"When Chuck Norris was first born, his doctor was the one crying; no one slaps Chuck Norris in the ass." Kazaa said, laughing.

"Oh yeah!? Chuck Norris is the reason that Waldo's hiding!"

"Hahaha! Good one!" Kooh said, laughing.

"Nonono! Wait! Here's a good one!" Zion said, choking as he fought to control his laughter. "The handicap parking is actually Chuck Norris' private parking; it shows what happens to you if you park there!" He burst out laughing and Kooh and Kazaa struggled to keep themselves composed.

"Wait wait! I got one more! Brokeback Mountain isn't just a movie; it's what Chuck Norris call the pile of dead bodies in his front yard!" Zion gasped out, and all of them started cracking up.

"Zi?" Lily's voice suddenly came from behind Zion. Quickly composing himself, Zion turned around.

"I'm not interrupting anything am I?" Lily asked him, giggling. Apparently, she had heard his "discussion".

"Huh? Nah, why do you ask?" Zion asked, looking up from his seat.

"There was something that I saw that I think you'd be interested in." Lily said. Zion widened his eyes curiously.

"Uhm alright, well, I'll catch you guys later." Zion said, standing up and waving to the two.

"I hope you didn't eat too much!" Kooh shouted at Zion as he walked away. With a quick and subtle movement, he flashed Kooh a "single finger" salute.
--------------------------

Surprisingly, there was a large crowd of students, mostly boys, all packed into the hallway, staring at something on the bulletin board. Zion looked, standing on his toes in an attempt to get a good view. Finally, a few of the boys left, allowing him and Lily to squeeze in and get a glimpse of what everyone was looking at. On the board was a large poster:

King of Legends Tournament!

Zion at first, felt a rush of excitement as he read the poster. However, he noticed the picture on the poster: A boy around his age, in midair, while a lizard Sentinel looked like it was diving down from above him, it's sharp teeth bared. Zion sighed, causing Lily to look at him.

"I thought you might be interested and all, seeing as you love "Badass" stuff like this." Lily said giggling. However, she started to notice his downcast eyes, and she was suddenly puzzled; she thought he would be excited about this.

"So...are you going to compete?" Lily asked.

"Uh...nah, I probably shouldn't." Zion said slowly, rubbing the back of his head nervously and looking away.

"Huh?! But I've seen the way you fight! Sure, maybe you do take some REALLY dangerous risks, but I know that you can hold your own in there." Lily said sincerely.

"Ah well...the problem is, most of the major competitors will be using Sentinels and or magic. I can't use either of those..." Zion explained. He paused for a moment, a question in his mind, until he finally decided not to hesitate.

"Can you call your Sentinel Lily?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah! Let's head outside for a bit. I can show you there." Lily said, doing her best to squeeze out of the crowd that had compacted them together.

Academy Rooftop

No one else was on the rooftop, much to Lily's relief; she didn't do very well when she felt the presence of strangers watching her.

"Okay, hang on..." Lily closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Zion took a deep breath himself, although for a different reason.

Suddenly, a seal, the same seal that always appeared when a Sentinel was about to be summoned appeared directly in front of her. She reached out her hand towards the seal, and gently brushed her fingers against it, causing the seal to crack and fade. Several purple light particles started to appear in the air, and after, combining themselves, began to shine, and out of the light, a bronze haired woman wearing a yukata appeared. Her hair was tied into two long pig tails and on top of her head was a priestess' headdress. Her yukata was light blue, but was decorated with several dark purple clouds. The Sentinel blinked, her bright golden shining for a moment in the sun before bowing her head to Zion.

"Her name's Kichijoten." Lily said, smiling at her Sentinel. She looked eagerly at Zion, hoping that he would be impressed by her summoning; truthfully, she had melodramatically summoned her Sentinel to make it look more appealing. But Zion had the same blank stare he had when he was in his P.E class.

"Oh cool." Zion said, biting his lip. "Uh, lunch is about to end so...let's go."

"Oh....alright." Lily said, sounding a bit disappointed. She followed Zion down the stairs as the bell for lunch's end conveniently rung.
-----------------------

Afterschool

Zion had brightened up a bit since lunchtime, thanks to some conversation with Kao in music class and a bit of time to cool off. Zion reached into his pocket, searching for his motorcycle keys as he slowly walked toward his bike. Suddenly however, he heard the sound of some sort of commotion, and it sounded like it was headed his way.

"You Zion Hazard?" A male voice said. Zion turned his head, confused; he had never heard that voice before. It was a boy, around the same height and age as Zion. The front of his black hair was spiked upwards in the front, but the rest was untouched, and sank downwards, barely touching the top of his ears. He was dressed in a uniform that was similar to Zion's school, however, his had the emblem of an infinity symbol, and his jacket and slacks were blue. He was a student from Forem Military Academy, the rival school of Altea Military Academy.

"Who's asking?" Zion said.

"I heard quite a few stories about you from my headmaster. You're still a student, but you're taking missions already. They may be low rank and accomplish-able by even toddlers, but it's still something." The boy said, ignoring Zion's question.

"Who's asking?..." Zion asked again sighing. "Please don't ignore me, it hurts my confidence..."

"...Rein." The boy said, sighing. "For someone that wants to be in the military...you sure aren't very...tough."

"Hey! Don't bring that up! I'm sensitive about that!" Zion shouted, a bit taken aback.

"...you sure this is the guy?" Rein asked his companion. She wore almost the same thing that Rein did, except that her skirt was blue, and her shoes were obviously different. She had short blonde hair that fell to her shoulders.

"Yep. He fits the description. Fluffy black hair that defies gravity, thin, soft hearted brown eyes, gets agitated when bringing up masculine traits..." She started saying.

"Stooooop!" Zion shouted, his eyes widening.

"...anyway, let's cut to the chase, I don't have much time wasting here. I want to go one round with you." Rein said, staring Zion straight in the eyes.

"....Uh, sorry, I don't swing that way...although I do know a boy that is very vulnerable and will let you do ANYTHING to him..." Zion said, smirking, thinking of Kao in his mind.

"Damnit! Take this seriously!" Rein shouted angrily. "Fine! Let me put this so that someone without a brain can understand! I. Want. To. Fight. You! Simple enough?!"

"Okay jeez...you don't have to get so angry about it..." Zion said sighing. He pulled off his jacket and set it on the handlebars of his motorcycle. "Everyone, back up please?" The students that had come over to watch the commotion slowly stepped back, creating a large circle around Rein and Zion.

"Let's rock." Zion said, grinning back at Rein. But the words were barely out of his mouth when Rein suddenly disappeared, and reappeared directly in front of Zion. Before Zion could even think "Holy ****!", he was punched hard in the gut, causing him to stumble backwards. Coughing, Zion quickly pushed himself back up, keeping his arms in front of him.

Heh, guess he isn't all talk. Zion thought. Rein reacted quickly and leaped into the air, winding his right leg back, ready to swing his leg at the side of Zion's head. But this time, Zion was prepared; just as Rein's leg shot out to slap the side of Zion's face, Zion quickly performed his own jump into the air and twisted his entire body, and swung his own leg down, colliding with Rein's temple. Rein was shot toward the concrete floor, his body bouncing off the ground from the impact. He quickly shoved himself upward, gritting his teeth and glaring angrily at Zion.

"Don't get too caught up in the moment." Zion said grinning; it was ironic that he was saying that statement.

In almost the blink of an eye, Rein returned on the offensive, swinging punches furiously. Zion's eyes widened, but he had no time to be panicked, and forced himself to sway back and forth to avoid each punch. One of the punches came so close, that he felt the tips of both of their skin make contact. He noticed that one of Rein's punches was being wound up for a slightly longer time than his other quicker ones, and he took his opportunity to attack.

Just as Rein swung his punch, Zion immediately threw his own entire body to the floor. Rein's eyes widened as his punch shot too far outward, and he immediately struggled to regain his balance. In this short window of time, Zion pushed his arm out to shove himself into the air, and with another quick twist of his body, brought his knee into the side of Rein's face. Rein was knocked backwards by the impact, causing his side to slide on the ground as he skidded backwards. Standing up slowly, his eyes seemed to darken.

Uh....oh.... Zion thought, a bead of sweat running down the side of his forehead. In the blink of an eye, Zion felt a huge burning feeling in his chest. He slowly looked down, and he saw a few strips of bloody cloth rocking back and forth as they made their way to the ground; Zion had been slashed across the chest.

"Agh...." Zion exhaled slowly. Normally, he would've been screaming from the pain. But for some reason, his mind was too panicked to even give him enough energy to scream.

"No one makes a fool of me..." Rein said coldly, slowly stepping towards Zion. Somehow, he had materialized a katana from seemingly nowhere. His eyes had almost completely changed expression, and it was difficult to believe that this was the same cool Rein that had challenged Zion to a duel. The crowd gasped as they saw Zion's blood, but they just watched, apparently too scared to get involved. Rein winded up his arm so that his hand wielding the katana was behind his neck. With cold, calculating precision, he swung the blade directly at Zion's face...

Zion felt an explosion of heat as he brought up his hands to protect his face even though he knew it wouldn't do any good. He felt hot, metallic tasting liquid splatter over his face and chest and he opened his eyes. The first thing he saw, was Lily's weak face, and a large amount of blood running down her sides; she had dove in to block Rein's attack, and as a result, had been cut in the back.

"Lily!" Zion shouted, reaching out and holding her sides, his pain temporarily forgotten. Even Rein seemed a bit confused, as he blinked and looked at the two.

"...we should get going Rein..." His female companion said firmly. Rein slowly nodded and started walking towards her. "Sorry for his behavior, he has some problems that we're still working out..." She said this to Zion.

"Hold it." Zion said quietly. The two stopped, and turned at the same time, looking at Zion. "...I won't forget this." Was all Zion said. But the look in his face was nothing like anyone had seen before. The easy going slacker of the school suddenly looked like a whole new person, his eyes narrowed, and his teeth gritted together. The two looked at each other, as if communicating some kind of invisible thought before they both left.

New Motivation

Zion had to carry Lily back to the Nurse's Office despite his wounds, but he didn't feel the pain as much; he couldn't afford to waste any time. His mind constantly kept jumping back to the fight, and right now, he absolutely hated himself for being weak. Finally, he had made it to the Nurse's, although it wasn't easy. He looked back at the droplets of his and Lily's blood that had dripped in the hallway on his way to the Nurse's Office.

I hope we've got a good janitor here. Zion thought, staying true to his comedic self. He stretched on his arm from underneath Lily's unconscious body, wincing in pain from stretching his wound before opening the doorknob with his bloody hand.

"Oh Bro there-" Celica's voice started to say, but the moment she saw the bloody pair, she immediately became serious. "Set her down on the bed over there."

Zion nodded and laid Lily on the nearby bed. Meanwhile, Celica took a deep breath and started to focus. Her hands started to glow with a warm bright blue light, and she started to move her hands above and over Lily's body, her wounds slowly beginning to close up. Meanwhile, Zion walked over to the nearby medical cabinet and pulled out the first aid kit. He unclipped the box and pulled out a roll of white bandages, a bottle of rubbing alcohol, some pain relief ointment, and a clean, soft, white cloth. Zion reached down, grabbed the bottom of his shirt, and grunted in pain, pulling off his shirt and inspecting the damage. He had a gash from the left of the top of his ribs, that stretched diagonally to the bottom of the right of his ribs. Turning a bit pale from the sight, he poured a small amount of alcohol on the white cloth and pressed it against his cut. He felt a sharp, cold pain in his ribs, but he gritted his teeth and held back a gasp of pain. He looked over at his sister, a worried look on his face.

"She's going to be okay right?"

"Thankfully, yes. What happened?...Lily's not the kind of person to get knee deep in danger like you." Celica asked, a small smirk on her face in an attempt to keep the mood from dropping too much.

"I know." Zion said, rolling his eyes. "Er, a kid from Forem Academy came over and suddenly challenged me to a fight. I guess he has some defeat issues, because he pulled a katana on me in the middle of the fight. Lily jumped in the way when he was about to finish me off...Then he and his friend just ran off."

"I see..." Celica said quietly. She didn't say anything else, which surprised Zion. Zion had now finished applying the pain relief ointment and had begun wrapping the bandage around his chest.

"You sure you don't want me to take care of that?" Celica asked, looking back and seeing the white bandage already beginning to darken from the remains of Zion's blood.

"I'll be fine...hey, you know about the King of Legends tournament right?" Zion asked.

"Yeah, I'm in it!" Celica said, a pleased smile on her face as she finished up healing Lily's wounds. Lily's face eased up slightly, her pain a bit more relieved.

"Of course...well, at least it won't be me being shocked to half to death..." Zion said, scowling at his painful childhood memories of being electrocuted. "Do you know when the sign up date ends?"

"Today." Celica said.

"...I guess I'd better fill out a form then." Zion said, a dangerous smile beginning to form on his face.
-----------------------

The two had thought it would be best to leave Lily in the infirmary, since they were unsure if it was safe to transport her anywhere yet.

"Hey, I'm heading to the book store." Zion said as he started walking into the direction of his motorcycle while Celica started in the direction of her car. "You wanna come?"

"Uh, sure." Celica replied, a bit confused. "What do you need to go there for?"

"Er well...you'll see when I get there." Zion said, swing his leg over the side of his bike, and putting the key in ignition.
---------------------
Bookworms Book Store

"Let's see..." Zion said, looking at the shelf and thumbing through several books, some of which included "Losing Weight in 2 Weeks", "Revealing Your Inner Abs", and "Body Sculpting in Seconds".

"...what are you looking for?!" Celica asked, causing Zion to jump and almost ram his head into the ceiling.

"I was uh...just looking for a book that would...help me get ready to kick that guy's ASS!" Zion admitted, raising his fist into the air. Suddenly, something caught his attention. "How to Be Badass in One Month?! This is exactly what I need!"

"Uh, you realize that's a dating manual right...?" Celica brought up. Zion quickly returned the book to it's previous location.

"Hey hold on a second..." Zion's eye caught something in the distant corner. "Video game novels huh? I'm just gonna take a quick glance over here..." Celica followed him.

"...What the hell is this?! A Romantic Night with the Master Chief and Cortana?! Cloud and Barret's Secret Life?! That was only one scene in the game! They can't make a story out of that!" Zion quickly flipped open the book, skimming through it's contents, his eyes wide with shock.

"And suddenly, all the strength left Cloud's arms as he felt the Tonberry hit him with Karma. Just before he fainted, he saw Barett's glimmering eyes, and felt his strong, muscular arms catch him before he heard him whisper: "You're gonna be okay fool!"

"WHAT THE HELL?! This is horrible!" Zion tossed away the book disgustedly. "What kind of people would read this anyway?!" Zion quickly walked away from the section and started to leave the store.

Celica looked at the crumpled book on the ground and slowly picked it up, reading the back of the book for the summary. She quickly opened the book and flipped through it's contents, her eyes wide. Almost in the blink of the eye, she was at the cashier.

"Hi uh, I was wondering, are there any other books in this series?...Really?! In that case, I'll take all of them!"
-----------------------
Zion and Celica's backyard

It was already night time, but Zion could hardly get any sleep. His mind kept returning to the moment of his fight with Rein, and he would just get filled with so much anger that he would become restless. The burning feeling in his entire body became so great, he decided to do the unthinkable: Ask Celica to help train him for the tournament. If he was in his normal frame of mind, he wouldn't ask such a ridiculous request. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

"Okay Bro! I know you just patched yourself up, but we're gonna get started...RIGHT NOW! We don't have much time until the tournament, so I decided to go all out! Which is why I called Liah and Lucx!" Celica said triumphantly. Zion blinked slowly and turned even more slowly behind him. And sure enough, there was his aunt, and uncle, waving to him, grinning.

"We're here to help Zion!" Lucx shouted.

"Whoa wait, what exactly is going to be happening here?" Zion asked nervously.

"Oh, we're all gonna teach you a different thing each day." Celica said simply, a twisted smile beginning to form on her face.

"....I kind of don't want to know this but...what are you going to be teaching me...?" Zion asked Cel, doing his best to ignore the dread starting to fill his chest.

"I'm gonna teach you...HOW TO AVOID ATTACKS! Mwuahahahaha!" Celica said, laughing. Suddenly, there was a small flash of light, and Celica now had a weapon. It was a sledgehammer, but a much less manlier version than the normal type. Instead, Celica's hammer had a long yellow handle, and the head was pink. At the very top, there was a missing chunk of it, but in the middle of that gap were two iron rods; Zion suspected they were for electricity. However, it was not the two lightning rods that Zion was thinking about...

"...What the ****?! Are you going to rape me with that thing or something?!" Zion shouted, his eyes wide, and slowly stepping back.

"What?! What are you talking about!" Celica yelled back, a bit confused.

"That thing...it...well...it's kinda....it...looks...."

"SPIT IT OUT!"

"It looks like a damn SEX TOY!" Zion finally shouted, unable to help himself from laughing. Just behind him, he heard Lucx and Liah burst out into laughter, both of them holding their sides.

"What?! It does not-!" Celica suddenly took a closer look at her hammer, a bit speechless. She had a blank expression for a moment, realizing that Zion's comparison was indeed, very true. "I'm not changing it alright!"

"Well, I did hear that weapons reflect the personality of the user. It fits Cel perfectly!" Liah gasped out laughing even harder. Zion and Lucx at that moment, fell over on their sides, laughing so hard their faces turned red. Celica turned red as well, but for a completely different reason.

"Argh Zi! You're gonna pay for this!" Suddenly, Celica rushed Zion, her hammer raised above her head. In almost no time at all, Zion's eyes widened and he quickly moved out of the way, narrowly avoiding her hammer. The spot where he used to be suddenly exploded, dirt, chunks of rock, and grass bursting out from that area.

"Holy s-!" Zion started to say, forcing himself to the ground as Celica swung her hammer horizontally at him this time. "W-wait, I can't fight back!?"

"No! Not this time!" Celica shouted, laughing like she was psychotic as she chased Zion around her backyard, while Liah and Lucx just watched, forcing themselves to keep themselves from laughing at the two.

"Oh I think Zion's going to be plenty ready for when the tournament comes..." Lucx said, laughing as Zion pushed over a wooden table and dove behind it, cowering as Celica repeatedly bashed the table into splinters.

"He's going to have a bit more trouble than everyone else, since he can't call his Sentinel, and he can't use magic." Liah said, smiling as she forced herself not to laugh as Zion quickly set up a ladder on the side of the house and quickly began scurrying up it in an attempt to reach the roof. However, Celica had begun beating the ladder, causing the legs to break and Zion to slowly slip down from the ladder.

"But if there's anything he's good at, it's being unpredictable!" Liah said laughing.

"Yep, he's definitely the wild card in this one..." Lucx replied, standing on his toes as he watched Zion slowly back away to the corner.

"C-Cel, wait, we can talk about this right?!" Zion said, his eyes wide with terror.

"Nope, this is for your own good!" Celica said, smiling evilly as she raised her hammer.

"Nooooooooo! Lucx! Liah! Heeeellllpppppp-!"



The road to getting stronger isn't gonna be easy for Zion. But the events of the fight had triggered something inside of him, and his lack of Sentinel summoning ability was forgotten by him. Even with the help of his family, can he get strong enough to settle the score with Rein at the tournament? Tune in for the next part...of Zion's training session!

Training Day

After a tear filled week of "training", (although by Zion's standards, it was more like hide and go seek with a sex toy hammer), Celica had supposedly taught Zion what he could, and she had felt quite accomplished. Zion, on the other hand, had only learned one thing: "Don't stop running." In the entire week of Zion's training, he constantly was required to head straight home after school to get immediately to what Celica had called "boot camp". Ever since the incident with Rein however, he had not seen Lily at all, even at school. But knowing that she was in stable condition eased his mind enough to stay motivated and persistent in his training. Today, Lucxene was supposed to be training him.

Zion and Celica's Backyard

The remains of the previous week's training session still lingered; several broken ladders, tables, chairs, shards of glass, and broken T.Vs were scattered all over the ground and some even on the walls.

"Alright, Zion, you ready?" Lucx said, taking a glance over at Zion. Celica's "intensive" training had taken a toll on the young man; his head was a bit bandaged, almost all of his fingers were covered in sticky band aids, and he seemed to be standing...crookedly.

"No, but I know you don't really care either way..." Zion said, blinking slowly. His training usually lasted from the immediate end of school, all the way into the middle of the night. Exhaustion had crept it's way slowly into Zion's body, and he was practically running only on willpower right now.

"Haha. Don't worry. I won't purposely try to handicap you like Celica did." Lucx said, laughing. "Well, what I'm about to teach you is, defense against Sentinels and magic."

"...so you're going to keep attacking me while I run away...again?..." Zion asked, his head drooping.

"Oh no, you can attack. You can actually do whatever to keep the attacks from hitting you." Lucx said. Zion looked, a slight glimmer of hope in his eyes.

"...awesome." He said, hit once more by another exhaustion attack. His comedic capacity had been greatly reduced as a result.

"Let's get started." Lucx said, drawing a circle in the air, and creating a seal. In just a few seconds, Naoe emerged out of the portal.

"Okay, we're both going to attack you at the same time. Since that's most likely going to be what ends up happening in the tournament. You being Sentinel-less and all." Lucx said, holding his arm back. There was a quick burst of pink light, and in his hand was a long scythe with a thin, pink tinted blade. Almost in response to Lucx's drawing of his weapon, Naoe shifted position, holding his naginata behind his shoulder.

Zion nodded slowly, and rubbed his eyes, yawning. Lucx took this as a confirmation, and immediately rushed at Zion. Zion's eyes widened and he quickly jumped back as Lucx swung his scythe directly at his face.

"W-whoa wait! What if you end up killing me!?" Zion asked frantically as he back pedaled as fast as he could.

"Don't be silly, you know I wouldn't kill you." Lucx said, laughing light heartedly as he swung his scythe again. The fact that Lucx could be so good natured while swinging such a dangerous weapon sort of scared Zion.

Zion started hearing the sound of wind blowing against metal just behind him, and he quickly jumped to the side. He wasn't a moment too soon; Naoe had just swung his naginata, driving it into the spot where Zion had used to be, causing a burst of flower petals to shoot into the air.

"Uhm, what about Naoe?" Zion asked anxiously.

"Er, I'm not responsible for any of that." Lucx said.

"...come again?" Zion didn't get time to receive a response as he forced himself on his stomach to dodge Naoe's attack. At that moment, Lucx stepped in, and swung his scythe, leaving a huge gash in the ground where Zion's legs used to be.

Oh yes, not trying to kill me at all. Zion thought, sighing.

At that moment, Lucx and Naoe rushed in together at the same time, both of them swinging in unison at Zion's legs. His only method of escape was to repeatedly crawl away as fast as he could as Lucx and Naoe swung their weapons at the same time, creating several cuts in the ground. This didn't get him very far, as his back became literally backed against the wall. Sighing, Zion quickly formulated a plan in his mind. Lucx and Naoe began slowly stepping toward him, their weapons raised. But the attacks didn't come.

"Uh, Zion. This is the part where you...pull a counter attack on us..." Lucx said, rolling his eyes.

"...I know. Just go for the strike." Zion said. Lucx raised his eyebrow, although Naoe remained as motionless as a statue.

"So what you're saying is, you want me to "finish you off?" Lucx asked, his eyes wide.

"Yup, just go for it." Zion said, his voice even. Looking a bit confused, Lucx raised his weapon, and Naoe tensed up his arms as he got ready to strike.

"Lucx! YOUR YAOI COLLECTION IS BURNING!" Zion suddenly shouted, pointing directly behind Lucx. Lucx at first, widened his eyes in shock, but then, he narrowed them.

"It's not gonna be that easy." Lucx said, rolling his eyes and then chuckling softly.

"It...wasn't a joke Lucx. I am dead serious. Your Yaoi collection is burning. Right now." Zion said, staring directly over Lucx's shoulder. And it was true, he wasn't joking; Lucx's house, which was just across the street from Zion's, had caught fire on the outside, which was near the room where Lucx's computer and his manga was kept.

"..." Lucx's face was in complete shock. "SOMEONE HELP! MY HOUSE IS CATCHING ON FIRE!!!" Lucx shouted out completely panicked. "My Yaoi! My precious Yaoi!!! Oh no! My cat's in there too!!!"

"Gotcha!" Zion's voice shouted triumphantly. Lucx slowly turned around, and he saw Zion both his fingers and his thumb outstretched while the rest were curled inward, forming the shape of a gun. His hand was already pressed against the back of Lucx's head when he had begun to turn around.

"Ha! Yes! Admit it! I could've taken you down! YEEESSSS!" Zion shouted triumphantly, jumping for joy. However Lucx was more concerned about the condition of his house, which of course, made perfect sense.

"Okay! I lost! Now help me put out the fire!" Lucx shouted, yanking Zion by the arm. Naoe shuffled after the two. Zion quickly grabbed his garden hose as they passed through front yard, but what Lucx didn't see, was Zion's crooked smile.

Ha! I knew that remote detonated firecracker would help! I mean, okay sure, it started out as a failure when I launched it and it zipped around, crashing into the side of Lucx's house without exploding...but it helped me WIN later on! Yeah! That was a BADASS victory right there! Zion's thoughts were racing around like a Nascar meet. During the training session, Zion had forgotten to remove the fireworks detonator from out of his pocket. When he was crawling away from Lucx and Naoe, he had accidentally pressed it, but he realized that he could formulate a plan around this "accident".
---------------------------------

After the two had put out the fire, Lucx quickly ran into his room, checking to see if the fire had reached it's way to the inside of his house. Thankfully, Zion's plan had worked quite well according to his philosophy: Cause enough damage to create panic, but little enough to prevent any permanent consequences. However, Zion still didn't feel that Lucx needed to know who caused the fire now...or ever. Lucx was too stressed out from the fire to continue with the training, so Zion had gotten himself out early.

After quickly showering and rubbing his hair dry with a towel, he walked to his room and sank into bed, his first thoughts going towards sleeping as quickly as possible. But he remembered something else that he needed to do. He reached for his night stand, grabbing his phone and quickly accessing the contacts list. He selected the name "Lily" from the list, and pressed the "Write Message" button. He was taken to a screen with a constantly blinking cursor and a huge white box for him to write in. Without even needing to think, Zion's thumbs started moving, quickly typing a message:

"I'm sorry about what happened at school. I shouldn't have jumped into that fight, and I had no idea you would have taken an attack for me like that. I'm really sorry D=. Reply back as soon as you can, you're getting me worried like hell ><;"

After Zion had punched in his message, he laid back on his back, setting his phone away. He blinked a bit as his eyelids started to feel like they were getting heavier. In just a few minutes, he had fallen completely asleep, his bandaged left arm hanging off the bed.

Last Minute Prep

Sadly, that was the only time Zion ever "won" against Lucx. The other six days that he trained under Lucx were usually like this:

"Phew I barely avoided that scythe attack..."

"Zion! Behind you!"

"WAAAAGGHH!"

"Zion! Nooooooo! Wake up!!!"

And thus, his lessons went pretty much the same as his training with Celica. Finally, a week had passed and his training begun with his next teacher...
-------------------------
The Backyard

Adding on to the wreckage from the last two weeks, the lessons with Lucx added a whole new set of carnage; the broken T.Vs were now sliced neatly in half, half of the grass looked like it had been mowed, and some of the trees had mysteriously been reduced to...stumps. Liah was waiting outside, her arms crossed as she waited for Zion to come stumbling out of the door any second now.

"Ziiiii, come on!" Liah shouted as Zion slowly stumbled out of the door. It was getting a bit too difficult to even make jokes now for our dedicated badass.

"What are you going to teach me?..." Zion said groggily.

"I am going to build up your stamina." Liah said proudly.

"..." Zion felt the innuendo flash through his mind, but he was just too damn tired to say a word.

"Anyway, we're going to start by having you chase Atlus around." Liah said, a seal opening and cracking underneath her, revealing Atlus. This time, he was in his rock skinned bunny for.

"Ready?" Liah asked. Zion slowly nodded, his eyes a bit glazed over. In just a few seconds, Atlus began running the opposite direction from Zion...but Zion didn't run after him, he just slowly started walking toward the direction the rabbit had run.

"Zi..." Liah said, sighing. Her nephew didn't respond, and only continued trudging forward. Liah thought for a second about how far she was willing to go to let Zion get stronger, until she finally made a decision.

"Okay, maybe you need some motivation." Liah said, suddenly sprinting at her nephew at full speed, raising her fist.

"H-huh?" Zion heard footsteps behind him and slowly turned around. He was greeted by the terrifying sight of his aunt in midair, her fist raised.

"Aggghhhh!" Zion gasped out, a burst of fear filling him up from the inside. This sight jolted him into action and he began full out sprinting after Atlus. Liah always seemed to maintain a four foot distance behind Zion, so he didn't really have the option to stop. He ran as fast as he could, despite the huge pinching pain in his rib and his brain constantly screaming at him: "You're gonna die if you keep going!"

"Atlus please! Cut a brother some slack!" Zion coughed out as the bunny casually kept hopping across streets and across the front of many people's houses. It didn't look like he felt like stopping any time either.

"Ack...oh jeez, don't feel good..." Zion said, suddenly losing the feeling in his legs. He wobbled forward for a moment before he started to lean far to the side. Liah's eyes widened as she skidded to a stop and caught her nephew before his head banged against the cement.

"Uh oh." Liah said, her eyes wide.
--------------------------
Fifteen minutes later...at the Backyard

Zion felt a cold splash of water all over his body and he slowly blinked. The first thing he saw was the night sky, as well as the blurry outline of his bangs stabbing him in the eye. He turned his head so that he could see a bit better and slowly stood up. His entire body felt like cardboard.

"Are you okay?" Liah asked, a look of concern on her face.

"Oh no, I mean, I only just collapsed from exhaustion." Zion said simply, managing to pull of a joking remark and grinning.

"Well, if you're cracking jokes again, I guess we can continue...if you want." Liah added. As much as she wanted Zion to get ready for the tournament, she cared more about his physical condition than anything.

"Uh...what's next... on the training schedule?" Zion said in a monotone. Liah looked at him, surprised.

"Sure?" She asked.

"I care... more about kicking that guy's ass than my own health,... of course I'm sure!..." Zion said, slipping through each of his words as he struggled to keep the earth from spinning.

"Zi...you look like you're about to die." Liah said seriously as she watched Zion stagger a bit. But it looked like he was ready to go through with the training.

"Okay, come over here, and start doing push-ups." Liah said, keeping a careful eye on Zion to make sure he wasn't about to drop dead on her. The determined kid then got on his stomach and slowly began to force himself up using his arms. At first, it felt like the world had caught on fire to Zion. But slowly...the exhaustion vanished almost magically, whether it be because of the staggering amount of his motivation, or because of "runner's high". He was still doing push ups when he heard the sound of footsteps amid the sound of his heartbeat that felt like it was inside of his head.

"Hey Lily!" He heard Liah's voice say surprised. "How do you feel?"

"A lot better than how Zi must feel right now." He heard Lily, sounding both concerned yet still maintaining her good natured attitude.

"Well I'm glad you could make it." Liah said smiling, but suddenly beginning to hold back a laugh. "Question."

"Huh" Lily asked, confused.

"Do you like your boys muscular?" Liah asked.

"Y-...yeah?" Lily responded, slightly turning red. Just as she responded, Liah turned around and looked down at Zion.

"Ya hear that?! Do more push-ups!" Liah shouted in a good natured voice. Lily turned even more red, while Zion, despite not saying anything, slowly began to increase his pace. But now, his arms were beginning to tremble a little bit.

"Uh oh." Liah said, her eyes wide. "Lily, you should stand by him right now."

"Huh? Why?" Lily asked, puzzled.

"First, Zi would get more motivated if he knew you were watching. Second, he may need mouth to mouth if he faints." Liah said, bursting out laughing. Lily was about as red as a beet right now, but the blood pumping in Zion's head did not allow him to hear any of that. Suddenly, Zion's arms gave out, and he collapsed face first into the grass, unmoving.

"...okay, how far would you go to save Zi's life?" Liah's laughing voice was the last thing Zion heard before losing consciousness.

Advent

Zion forced his eyes open and took a look around. He was in his own bed in his own room, and the sunlight was already pouring in through his window, suggesting that it was the later part of the morning. He wondered what had happened after he had passed out during the exercise training, but his questions would soon be answered the moment Celica pushed open the door and walked in.

"Finally, I've been waiting for you to wake up." Celica said, looking a bit enervated. However, Zion's eyes widened before Celica could have a chance to speak.

"You...were worried about me?!" Zion said forcing his voice to become high pitched to imitate a child that was about to buy an expensive toy.

"No I wasn't!" Celica argued, looking the other way.

"I knew you cared! I just knew it! I LOVE you too!!!" Zion shouted again, his voice like a little kid's. Celica didn't say anything, but she looked a bit disgruntled.

"I promise, I'll remember this day FOREVER!" Zion said with exaggerated happiness, causing Celica to grumble under her breath. "Er, what did you want to tell me?"

"Well, for starters, the tournament's today." Celica said as though that fact wasn't important. However, this statement caused Zion to toss the blanket off his bed and jump out.

"Whoa wait, hang on! The day I collapsed and the day of the tournament are three days apart! Are you telling me I passed out for three days?!" Zion asked, his eyes wide.

"Uh, I hate to break it to you, but yeah." Celica said. Zion said nothing for a moment, before sighing heavily and falling back down on his bed.

"Ack..." Finally, after he had gotten over the shock, Zion stood up, a somewhat serious look on his face.

"I didn't miss anything at school right?" He asked.

"Nope, you get the entire week off since you signed up." Celica said, reassuring her brother.

"Alright...I guess I'd better get ready." Zion said, winding up his arm to test it for any injuries sustained during his training. Surprisingly enough, he was in just perfect condition.

"Thanks...by the way." Zion said quietly. Although those weeks of training had made him more exhausted and put him in more pain than any other time of his life, he couldn't deny that past Celica's unnatural desire to see her brother in pain, she really did want to help him get stronger.

"No problem." Celica said, sounding surprisingly sincere. "Anyway, hurry up, let's not be late." Celica quickly reverted back to her sisterly self, while Zion rolled his eyes and laughed, looking back at her and nodding.
-----------------------
Altea Military Academy

Zion parked his motorcycle into one of the open parking spots, while Celica did the same with her white car. The academy looked much less school-like now, and resembled a sports stadium. A large electric screen said "King of Legends Tournament Preliminary", while several multicolored balloons stretched into the sky, attached to the ground by string. Several people were walking into the building, and several snack and food stands had even been set up outside for the spectators.

Zion took a deep breath and took the keys out of his motorcycle. He started to put them in his pocket, but he fumbled with them before he was able to keep his hand steady and slip them into his pocket. His sister could obviously tell he was nervous.

"You'll be fine." Celica said reassuringly. Zion was too nervous to even take an opportunity to mention "You do care!", and instead, started walking toward his school, his thoughts completely focused on the tournament.
---------------------
P.E Grounds

The P.E blacktop was no longer the same when Celica and Zion made it to the P.E area. Nets that had been set up for soccer in the inside soccer stadium had been taken down, and in the middle of the stadium was a large group of white tiles that had been glued together and stacked together in order to create an elevated white platform. Positioned all around the platforms were the bleachers that were normally used to view soccer games. A man was in the middle and seemed to be giving orders to the nearby working crew that were busy assembling wires to the large speakers that had been placed all around the area. The screen that normally told the score during games had been replaced by a large electric screen that captured footage from the video cameras that were going to be used for the tournament.

"Oh man...they're going to record this?..." Zion asked nervously. He didn't do well in crowds, especially when it involved concentration like in fighting.

"Zion!" Lily's voice came from just behind Zion. He turned around and was greeted to the site of Lily quickly running over to him, dodging nearby spectators as she made her way to him.

"Are you alright?! You were asleep for three days!" Lily asked frantically.

"Oh uh yeah, I'm alright..." Zion replied a bit flustered by Lily's panic over his physical condition. Seeing Lily again reminded Zion the exact reason why he joined the tournament, and he began to slowly calm his anxiety down.

"But more importantly, I am so READY to kick Rein's ASS! I actually don't really care much about winning the whole thing...but it'd be nice to win though!" Zion said, pumping his fist in the air. At that moment, he saw three familiar figures in the distance making their way toward him. One of them appeared to look normal, but the other two had brought large signs with them, some of them saying his name on them. Zion squinted, very confused about what was going on.

"Zion! Celi!" Liah shouted as she made her way over to them. She was wearing a purple tank top and jeans, and she had her gloves in her right hand.

"You're joining the tourney too?" Zion asked, surprised; he was uninformed of this.

"Yeah, sorry I couldn't mention it to you. We had kinda focused on training you so much that I couldn't find the time to tell you." Liah said apologetically.

"Oh it's fine! I was just surprised, that's all." Zion said quickly. The two other figures had finally made their way to the group; it was Kao, and Kooh.

"Huh? Don't tell me you guys joined secretly too..." Zion said, his eyes wide.

"Nope, we're just here to cheerlead for you!" Kooh said happily. She put down her stack of signs and reached into her bag, pulling out three separate T-shirts. All of them contained a hand drawn cartoon picture of Liah, Zion, and Celica respectively. She quickly folded the shirts up and held up her signs. Two of them said "Liah" and "Celi", but the third one said "Bacon", and had a cartoon image of Zion's face.

"Whoa whoa hey! That's not cool at all..." Zion said, his head drooping when he saw his sign. Liah, Celica, and Lily laughed quietly to themselves while Kao waved his own signs happily.

"I'm gonna find seats." Kao piped up as he began walking toward the bleachers, while Kooh followed. Zion was about to ask where they were supposed to be at when Zion spotted a red haired woman walking towards them. Zion practically jumped and started dashing toward the person, his eyes wide.

"Naiiiiiii!" Zion shouted. The red haired woman stopped upon seeing the sight of Zion dashing at her at full speed, and her eyes widened even more in shock. When Zion had gotten close enough, he wrapped his arms around her side and quickly lifted her up, pulling her into a hug.

"U-urg, easy kiddo..." Mjrn choked out, laughing. "I couldn't miss something so important."

"Awright!" Zion shouted happily, letting Mjrn down onto the ground gently so that he could jump into the air and pump his fist at the same time.

"Blazes, you got stronger..." Mjrn said quietly, holding her ribs. But she didn't get much time to react when Celica and Liah both ran over and wrapped their arms around her too.

"Mjrrrrn!" Celica said happily.

"Hi Mjrn, it's nice to see you in person..." Lily said nervously and politely as she watched the two hug her.

"Oh Lily, I've been wanting to meet you." Mjrn said, moving so that she could find a way out of Liah and Celica's embrace lock. Mjrn slowly looked up and down Lily, and nodded.

"Oh I see now..." Mjrn said quietly to herself.

"Huh?" Lily asked.

"You were right Liah, they'll turn out just-" Mjrn began to say, but Zion quickly realized what was about to happen and interjected.

"So! What's so important that Zordon herself needs to see in person!?" Zion asked frantically. Mjrn laughed at Zion's uneasiness before answering his question.

"Well, first reason is, all the principals of all the academies are meeting up there." Mjrn pointed at a large room positioned next to the large screen where footage would be displayed. "But the main reason is to watch you all pound the other academy kids to dust." She finished smiling.

"That...was poetic." Zion said, rubbing his eyes in an overdramatic fashion, making it look like he had just teared up. At that moment, a loud broadcast came from around the school; the closest speaker next to the group immediately flared to life.

"All contestants in the King of Legends tournament, please meet in the preparation room located south of the P.E grounds. Failure to attend on time will result in an immediate disqualification." A professional sounding female voice said on the intercom.

"Guess that's our cue." Zion said, starting to turn and walk to the prep room, but he suddenly stopped, realizing that someone was missing. "Hold on a second, where's Lucx?!" He asked, his eyes wide.

"Good question..." Liah said, pondering where he could be. However, it looked like Celica had an answer for them.

"Um, you see..." Celica began to say. Mjrn, Lily, Liah, and Zion all leaned in closer, curious to hear the reason. "Lucx recently developed a new game and is now testing it in the-"

"OKAY! I think I've heard enough!" Zion quickly interrupted. Liah and Lily both choked back their laughter while Mjrn just shook her head, smiling.

"He mentioned that he'd come by once he's finished." Celica said. "So he should be here a bit late."

"Alrighty then." Zion said. "We'll just have to save the badassness for when he's here to witness it. We should get moving so...later Boss. We'll teach those other kids who's the top academy!"

Mjrn smiled and nodded. "Alright. Don't let me down." She said before waving to them and making her way toward the special room where the principals all watched from. Liah, Celica, and Zion began walking to the preparation room, all of them feeling a bit nervous and jumpy from the realization that the tournament was just about time to start.

Preliminaries

There wasn't much to say about the Waiting Room that Liah, Celica, and Zion had to go to, aside from the fact that it looked like a fancy hotel lobby, and that it was filled with mostly students Zion's age, and some that were slightly older than Liah and Celica, all of them either stretching, or doing quick pushups to warm themselves up. Thankfully, despite the huge amount of competitors, there was some empty space that Zion, Celica, and Liah decided to take. All of them felt tense and jumpy; they couldn't wait for the tournament to begin. Finally, a middle aged woman at the front desk cleared her throat and said in a loud voice "Okay, I think that's everyone. My name is Terri, and I will be giving you a rundown of how things work."

"First and foremost, all of you won't have to worry about fighting against your classmates, or co-workers, because all of the competitors have been sorted by academy, and will only compete against other competitors from other academies. That being said, let me explain how combat will work." She took a deep breath before continuing. "Now we don't want any fatalities here so if we see that someone is the clear winner, we'll immediately step in and end the fight. However, that does not mean we will be able to save your life every time. That is why if you know for sure that you cannot win, just please, surrender and sacrifice some of that pride. Also, remember: Foreign objects, whether it be a good luck charm, a knife, or even a piece of jewelry is not allowed to be brought in with you when you begin your fight. Which brings me to my next point." Terri stopped for a while to catch her breath.

"There are four ways to win a round. The first, is to incapicitate your opponent, meaning knock them out. The second is if they choose to forfeit. The third is if you're clearly going to win against him or her. And the fourth...is by causing your opponent to be knocked off the platform. The moment his or her feet touch the ground is when they lose. Any questions?" No one said anything, but everyone looked tense and excited. "Good, in five minutes, the first competitors will be announced. Just relax until then."
---------------------------

Five minutes seemed to last an eternity for Zion and the others. Zion paced rapidly in the same place over and over, not even bothering to stretch or warm up. His mind was completely focused on the tournament, and for once, he didn't even try to come up with a joke or prank to help pass the time. Finally, there was a sound on the intercom that was played through the speakers in the waiting room.

"Oh jeez, finally. I was about to die from suspense..." Zion said, anxious.

"Shhh, I think the announcement is about to begin..." Liah whispered, looking up at the large speakerbox just above them. The noise coming out of the speakerbox sounded like an excited crowd cheering.

"Now for the first round of our preliminaries, we're going to start things off wiiiiiiiith!...." A man sounding like an announcer said, his voice booming through the speaker. There was suddenly a drumroll, and everyone in the waiting room simultaneously tensed up, their palms sweaty from their anxiety.

"Zion Hazard of Altea Academy! Aaaaaand Renault Slater, of Forem Academy! Please step outside to the arena!"

Zion jumped up from the shock, his eyes wide as some of the people in the waiting room breathed a sigh of relief, some a bit disappointed, while the others cheering and patting Zion and another boy in the distance on the back.

"Oh man, so soon?" Zion said aloud, doing his best to stop himself from shaking. However, Liah patted him on the back while Celica ruffled his hair (much to his anger).

"Don't worry Bro, you'll be fine. All you have to do is unleash the badass within!" Celica said simply, laughing as she finished her last statement.

"You can do it Zi! Make the fight as badass as you can!" Liah exclaimed.

"...y-you're right... I'm a total BADASS! I will not get punked in the first around of the tournament! YEAH! Because I have a mission damnit! And that's to kick. Rein's. ASS!" Zion shouted, quickly gaining confidence and grinning that dangerous grin he always had before doing something reckless. Feeling energized, Zion quickly dashed out of the waiting room and into the arena, staring directly into a huge light as the door opened outside, the warm sunlight pouring onto his face.
-----------------------------------

There was an eruption of cheering from the crowd all around the two the moment they came into view. Airhorns flared, people were screaming, and even amid the loud noise, Zion was still able to hear Kooh and Kao's tiny voices screaming for him. He grinned, searching for the two among the huge crowd. When he found them, he jumped up and waved to them, just like a little kid watching his mom leave on an airplane, minus the crying of course. He and the other boy, Renault both walked side by side, probably too busy basking in the glory right now to realize that in a moment, they were about to fight in front of hundreds of people. They both stepped onto the white, elevated platform facing each other. If Renault was scared or nervous, he hid it well.

"Good luck." Zion said to his opponent, doing his best to be polite, and ignoring the sinking feeling in his chest.

"Same to you." Renault said, nodding. Zion was glad to see that not all the Forem Academy kids were as stubborn and prone to violence as Rein.

Suddenly, the white platform that the two were standing on began to vibrate, and it began to start to rise into the air. Zion let out a gasp of shock as he quickly turned from side to side, wondering what was happening. Unlike Zion, the crowd loved the spectacle; they started cheering even louder.

Damn! Oh damn! What is going on!? Zion thought, a bit on edge. Actually, to be completely honest, he was EXTREMELY on edge.

"Chiiiiill, this is just how the fighting part is." Renault suddenly shouted from the other side of the platform. "They're raising the platform so that if we summon our Sentinels, we won't tear up the crowd with collateral damage."

...maybe it would be bad to mention that I can't summon one. Zion thought, a bit restless. Finally, the platform stopped moving, and Zion took a deep breath before looking down from the side, his hands starting to sweat. He felt his heart sink when he saw how high up he was: he must've have been six stories high into the air. Even though some safety nets were being set up in case they fell, it did not help Zion feel any better.

Okay...gotta relax...I just won't fall, that's it... Zion thought, attempting to reassure himself.

"Are both competitors ready?!" The announcer's booming amplified voice echoed from the bottom.

"Yes!" Zion shouted over the edge of the platform.

"Yep!" Renault shouted as well over his side.

"...are both competitors ready?!" The announcer repeated.

"Oh jeez, I don't think he can hear us from up here..." Zion said to Renault, actually finding the situation a bit humorous.

"Hold on, I'll tell him." Renaul said, suddenly beginning to step back and tense up, as though he were ready to run and jump. Which was exactly what he did, because he suddenly dashed toward the edge of the platform and jumped off!

"Holy-!" Zion gasped out as he watched Renault disappear off the side. Zion quickly dashed over and looked down, searching for his opponent. Renault was diving straight toward the nets at first, but out of nowhere, he quickly readjusted his position, and a seal appeared just below him, moving with him as he fell. With a quick kick, his seal broke, and a small bat-like Sentinel appeared, flapping it's wings as it attempted to follow him. Suddenly, the bat sentinel began to melt and start to enlarge, it's body beginning to take the shape of a long oval board. After it had finished morphing, it looked exactly like a pitch black skateboard with bat wings attached to the back. The crowd gasped out in amazement as Renault grabbed the board and planted his feet on it, suddenly beginning to glide to the ground.

What?! Is that even possible?! Zion thought, completely stunned by what he had just seen.

Renault floated slowly to the ground on his board, landing gently next to the announcer.

"We're both ready." Renault said simply. "It would probably be a good idea to put some microphones or something up there so you can here us."

"I-I see, thank you." The announcer managed to say, he himself a bit amazed at Renault's fearless dive through the air. Without another word, Renault hopped back onto his board and he began to float upward, the bat wings on his board flapping. After some time, he had finally made it back to the platform, where he nonchalantly hopped off his board, his sentinel fading away.

"Problem solved." Renault said. "We should be good."

"Alright..." Zion said uneasily, feeling his heartbeat starting to accelerate. He already knew that this was going to be a tough fight. His first test as a normal human being against a Sentinel user was about to begin.

Preliminaries Round 1

"Reeeaaaadyyyyyyyy....GO!" The announcer shouted.

At first, the two didn't even try to go on the offensive. Zion and Renault simply stayed facing each other, slowly strafing around the platform, waiting for the other to make his first move. Finally, feeling just too restless, Zion made the first attack. First, he dashed forward, his eyes focused on Renault's left side. His first plan was to find out which side Renault was more vulnerable to attack from. Zion suddenly feinted, dropping to the floor as he saw Renault prepare to block his supposed attack from the left. Zion quickly pushed his elbow into his side, and planted his hand onto the floor, pushing his entire body up as he threw out a kick at the peak of his hop. Renault seemed to have a sluggish reaction time as he brought his left arm out to block the kick; that meant it must have been his weaker side.

With this knowledge in mind, Zion started to pull off several combinations of attacks, occasionally changing his angle of attack in order to throw Renault's predictions off. The Forem Academy student hadn't even managed to get a successful attack on our hero yet.

Why isn't he using magic? Renault wondered, wincing as he brought up his arm to block Zion's punch, feeling a jolt of pain and numbness move through his arm.

Strangely enough, Zion still didn't feel much exhaustion or any need to let up the assault to catch his breath; it seemed like Celica's training plan really did work wonders for him (although he hated to admit it). Finally, Renault ducked underneath one of Zion's kicks, and quickly backed away, holding his injured side.

"Sorry Dhampir, but I can't do this one without you..." Renault muttered, stomping on the seal on the ground beneath him the moment it had finished forming. The same bat Sentinel that Zion had seen before quickly materialized and morphed into the same skateboard Zion had seen just before the match.

Aww jeez... Zion thought. He was hoping he could incapacitate Renault before he could call his Sentinel, but it looked like he was too late. The first thing Renault did after hopping onto his board...was dive off the platform.

"You're kidding me..." Zion said aloud, realizing what was about to happen. Zion ran over to the edge of the platform and looked down, despite the intense feeling of anxiety he felt when he saw how far the ground was. He started to hear a crackling noise get closer to him, and he quickly jumped back from the side. A burst of energy shot upwards from the side; it would've hit Zion in the face if he hadn't backed away.

Zion didn't get much time to rest, as several more bolts of energy came colliding down onto the platform. Zion had to run, stumble, come to an abrupt stop, and constantly leap in order to dodge all the projectiles. When he felt a slight delay in the attack, he looked upwards in the direction the previous attack had come from. He saw Renault, his feet planted on his board as he levitated in the distance, the wings on his board flapping to keep him afloat. However, Zion noticed that Renault seemed to be sweating profusely and his eyes seemed to be a bit more cloudier than before. He realized that Renault was overexhausting himself with his energy blasts.

Well, I can be thankful for that... Zion thought. But how am I supposed to land an attack on him from all the way over THERE?!

Renault, realizing that Zion now had a bead on his location, leaned forward and flew dove downwards with his board, flying in between the steel beams that were holding the platform up. He waited for a moment before quickly shooting upward, his right hand crackling with energy as he prepared to unleash another flurry of projectiles. But as the top of the platform came into view, he saw Zion's leg come flying in from his left side. He didn't have time to react as he felt a humongous force slap him aside the face, causing him to lose concentration and randomly fire his bolt, and struggle to balance himself onto his board. Unfortunately for Zion, the bolt landed directly behind him, exploding, the force of it propelling him forward...and off the platform!

The feeling of his stomach jumping was enough to distract him from screaming out in shock. Zion quickly turned his head and threw out his arm in an attempt to grab onto something. He felt the tips of his fingers brush against the smooth white platform and as his sweaty hands began to slip on the surface, he quickly reached out with his other hand, gripping the very edge, his feet dangling. Convincing himself that it would be a bad idea to look down, Zion quickly pulled himself up, breathing out a sigh of relief; to lose the first round of the tournament would've been the fatal blow to his self confidence. He was starting to feel very worn out, but it looked like Renault looked the same way; he had just landed on the platform, and his Sentinel had just faded away.

It didn't look like the two had much more to put into the fight; Zion could practically hear his heart beating inside of his head, and Renault's vision had begun to blur as a result of his exhaustion from using his Sentinel so much. Renault's hand started to crackle with energy, but Zion was already dashing toward Renault. Time seemed to move in slow motion as Renault swung his hand and Zion jumped into the air, his leg flying outward. Zion's foot collided with Renault's fist and Zion felt the sensation of being electrocuted for a moment, struggling to keep his limbs still. But Zion adjusted his position and threw all of his weight onto the top of Renault's fist, throwing down his foot, his heel colliding with the top of Renault's head. In the few seconds that Zion was able to lean on Renault's arm, he had thrown out a quick kick. Zion quickly hopped away as Renault fell to the ground like a ragdoll, unmoving. There was a moment of tense silence as Zion stared at Renault's motionless body, half expecting him to stand back up and have another fight break out; it never happened.

The crowd suddenly erupted into cheering, causing Zion to gasp out in surprise and jump; he had forgotten that he was being watched by an audience. After managing to get his heart rate to slow down, he grinned and performed an overdramatic bow.

"Aww jeez...that was intense..." Zion said exhaustively as he sat down on the ground, smiling in spite of the weakness he was feeling in his limbs. He felt the platform shake, and it began to lower back to the ground.

"Aaaand the winner is....Zion Hazard of Altea Academy! Wow, what a battle! The kid didn't even use magic OR a sentinel in that battle!" The announcer shouted with a high amount of energy. Zion shrugged to himself, but bit his lip at the same time; now everyone was going to think that he had the power to use magic and call a sentinel, but he just chose not to. He heard Kooh and Kao crying out his name; he turned his head and saw Kooh's sign of a piece of bacon, and Kao's sign spelling his name and he grinned and laughed, waving to them. When the platform had reached the ground, he quickly hopped off and started heading to the waiting room, feeling the exhaustion starting to weight heavily down on him.

Preliminaries Round 2

The moment Zion stepped into the waiting room, he was greeted to the piercing gazes of several of the other competitors, and the roar of congratulations from his fellow Altea competitors. He was too tired to even reply to any of the people that were telling him how great of a job he did. He made his way to where Celica and Liah were sitting and slumped down on a chair nearby them.

"Great job Zi! We knew you could do it!" Liah said cheerfully.

"I knew my fitness plan would be a success! Now, I just need to market it and I'll make MILLIONS!" Celica said triumphantly. Zion just nodded to the two of them, his eyes slowly closing. In a few seconds, his head drooped to the side, and he was asleep.

"Wow, he must have really been worn out." Liah remarked, adjusting Zion's head so that he wouldn't wake up with a neck cramp.

"Well, he did have a harder time than mostly everyone else." Celica said, commenting on her brother's lack of abilities. Suddenly, the nearby speaker sparked to life, and the announcer's voice echoed through it again.

"...Mr. Hazard sure opened up the tournament by storm, but now, it's time for our next match! Please report to the platform...Miss Katelyn Lahn of Spero Academy, and...what the heck?..."

Everyone stayed quiet and stared at the huge speaker, confused at why the announcer was hesitant. Liah's head drooped however, realizing what was about to happen.

"...er sorry about that ladies and gentlemen. Miss Lahn's oppenent is...Miss...Liah...Luz de Luna...Morales of Altea Academy." The announcer said, taking a deep breath before saying Liah's name, and catching his breath after.

Celica looked at Liah, her eyes wide. "THAT'S your last name?"

"Uh yeah..." Liah said looking somewhat embarrassed. "Well, I guess I'm up." Liah stood up, readjusting Zion's sleeping head before slipping on her gloves.

"Good luck Liah! Remember! Liah SMASH!" Celica shouted to Liah as she left the room. Liah grinned and gave Celica a thumbs up before leaving the room.
--------------------------------

The crowd cheered once again, the same way they had cheered for Zion and Renault as Katelyn and Liah came into view. Liah squinted as the full force of the sun hit her, causing colored spots to appear in her vision. But in the distance, she saw two kids jumping up and down in the audience. Kooh was holding a sign that said "SMASH!" and Kao was holding a sign that said "LIAH". However, what they did not realize was that based on their positioning, it said "SMASH! LIAH" rather than "LIAH SMASH!"...which would've given the idea that they wanted Liah to get hurt (even though she actually thought it was very funny).

Katelynn and Liah stepped onto the two opposite sides of the white platform, and they faced each other as the platform vibrated gently and began to rise. Doing her best to not think about how high up she was going to be fighting at, she focused on her opponent. Katelynn was short...even shorter than Liah, despite it only being an inch or two less. She was wearing an army green colored skirt with socks that went up to underneath her knees, but she wore a blue and white striped sweater as a top, which was ridiculous considering the heat. Because of her height, it was difficult to tell how old she was. But Liah assumed she was slightly older than Kooh.

"Good luck." Was all Liah could think of as she said it to her opponent in a sincere but cheerful voice. Katelyn however, looked away, her arms crossed. She looked a little red in the face. However, she did nod to Liah's comment.

Maybe...she's just shy? Liah wondered. The platform came to an abrupt stop, but Liah chose not to do an altitude check. Taking a breath, Liah turned her body to the side, entering a combat stance. Katelyn, likewise, reached out her hand and it began to slowly glow with a warm, golden light.

"Are both competitors ready?! Please shout into the microphones that have been placed at the very edge of the platform!" The announcer's voice said, coming from the bottom.

Liah held her breath as she bent over the side, and found what looked like a microphone that was ducktaped to the side of the platform. It may've been just her, but to force competitors to lean over the side of a platform elevated six stories up in order to confirm that they were ready was quite...dangerous.

"R-ready!" Liah said, her stomach sinking when she saw how far the ground was. The moment she finished talking, she jumped back from the side and moved as close to the middle of the platform as she could.

"...ready..." Katelyn said quietly. It seemed like she didn't fare too well with heights as well.

"All right! Let the battle commence!" The announcer shouted energetically.


Liah had just started moving when Katelyn begun the offensive. With a quick wave of her hand, several dark blue gems and sharp diamonds materialized into the air and began to throw themselves at Liah. Liah reacted quickly, punching aside some of the crystals and and catching and tossing some of the others ones that came close to her. Liah was simply overpowering all of Katelyn's attacks. Having no more pieces of crystal in her way, Liah had a clear shot for attack.

Liah clenched her right fist and began sprinting at full speed at Katelyn, her right arm tense. She came to an abrupt stop when she reached the front of Katelyn and slid to a stop just behind her, her entire body winded up to throw out her punch. However, Liah felt an explosive force hit her in the stomach and her attack was interrupted. The force of the surprise attack caused Liah to stumble backwards, but she recovered just in time; her right foot had literally stepped on nothing but air. When she realized that she was close to falling off, the first thing Liah did was dash back to the middle of the platform; even though she knew there was safety nets, she simply hated heights. Her second reason behind her behavior was that she would lose the fight if she fell. Yes, that is the second reason.

It's a good thing I didn't look down... Liah thought, recovering from the shock that she felt.

Katelyn's crystals slowly began to hover back around her. Some of them stayed near her, forming some kind of shield, and the others moved out to attack Liah. It wasn't going to be easy defeating someone who could attack and defend at the same time. What's more was that Liah did not even have any idea what had hit her when she was about to land a strike on Katelyn. She decided that her best option would be to figure out all of the ways Katelyn could attack, so that she wouldn't get caught off guard again.

Liah dashed toward Katelyn again with her fist raised, doing her best to make it seem like she was going to throw an attack at the little girl. But as Liah swung her fist directly at Katelyn, she kept her eyes peeled for anything around her. She saw one of her crystals glint in the sunlight, as well Katelyn pointing her glowing finger at it. A beam of light shot out, hit the crystal, and rebounded, the beam heading directly for Liah. Liah quickly ducked underneath the ray, and threw a quick uppercut directly at Katelyn's barrier. Despite the crystals that had shifted to the front of Katelyn to block the attack, the force from Liah's punch shook the crystals, causing them to ram into Katelyn, knocking her backwards and onto her back, her head banging on the white platform. For a moment, Katelyn didn't move. But slowly, she stood back up, rubbing the back of her head, her eyes squinted in pain. Looking a bit annoyed, she made a quick hand motion, and a seal began to trace itself to the side of her. With one quick, smooth movement, she rammed her small elbow into the center of the seal, bursting it wide open.

A young, pale, boy with short blonde hair stepped out of it, squinting at the sun light, and looking around in confusion at the area he was in. He was wearing dark blue shorts that stopped just above his knees, and a hooded, orange zip up jacket. It isn't every day that you wake up on a white platform six stories high in the air, and watched by a humongous crowd, which would explain his anxiety. He probably would've made a shy comment, but Sentinels couldn't talk...in any normal way at least.

"Apollo, help me." Katelyn said quietly to the cowering, little boy sentinel. Liah honestly thought that the little boy was quite adorable...aside from the fact that he was one of the weapons in the arsenal of her opponent. Apollo slowly stood up and held his arms out, a large burning orb of light beginning to grow above his head. Liah was too transfixed on the orb to move at first, until the orb began to rapidly beams of light at all of Katelyn's crystals, causing them to rebound and bombard nearly every inch of the platform. Once this happened, Liah was jolted into action and started moving at full speed, dashing close to the edge of the platform several times (even though it made her stomach jump) in order to dodge each blast. There was no way Liah could even stop to think about attacking if things continued like this.


With a quick crack of her knuckles, Liah raised her fist into the air and prepared to punch the ground. But she wasn't even able to let her fist descend before several bursts of light were fired at her. It wasn't an easy situation to get out of; Liah was getting getting pummeled by so many attacks at once that she couldn't even get an opportunity to call Atlas, and she couldn't even attack Katelyn for the very same reason. As she ducked and weaved through each of the relentless attacks, she started to feel her heartbeat start to ache in her chest; the constant attacks being thrown at her was really testing her stamina. Finally, she just couldn't stand it anymore. With no plan in mind, she rushed straight toward Katelyn, ignoring the pulsing pain she felt in her lungs. Katelyn and Apollo didn't expect this turn of events, and as a result, their aiming became a bit more erratic and rushed, which turned out perfectly for Liah. The rays of light landed close enough to Liah for her to feel the heat, but never did any of the beams collide directly with her. When she had gotten close enough, Liah clenched her fist so hard that she could feel every muscle in her arm tighten. She twisted her entire body and swung as hard as she possibly could, her fist colliding with Katelyn's wall of crystals. She felt a jolting pain in her hand, but it Katelyn was the one who was worse off in this case; Katelyn was thrown backwards by the force of Liah's strike and collided with Apollo, landing directly on top of the poor Sentinel.


Liah knew an opportunity when she saw one, and before she could let exhaustion take hold of her, she thrust out her hand, and at the same time, a Sentinel seal appeared below her. The moment the final glowing lines had connected themselves, Liah punched the center of the seal, causing it to shatter. A tall figure burst out from the portal the broken seal had created and leaped high into the air, his body blocking the Liah's view of the sun for a moment. When he had landed, Atlas quickly winded up his arm, and entered a ready stance, not even bothering to look confused about where he was.


"Atlas! Let's finish this!" Liah shouted. But she had to jump backwards the moment she had finished her sentence.


Apollo and Katelyn had already recovered with almost lightning quick speed, and had once again, set up the crystals in their near-perfect position, the one in which they could attack from all directions.


"Uh oh." Liah said, her eyes widening. At that moment, dozens of beams were fired simultaneously, all of the bouncing off one crystal or the other, ricocheting off another and picking up speed as it did so. All of the beams end destination...was where Liah and Atlas was standing. For what seemed like to be an eternity, golden beams of light bounced around in erratic patterns striking Liah's position with such intensity that smoke was beginning to form around that area. Finally, Katelyn stopped her attack, panting heavily, the sweat from her head causing her hair to clump together on her forehead. She just stared directly into the smoke, seeing a blurry figure collapsed on their knees. But when the smoke cleared, it wasn't Liah that she saw; it was Atlas, and he slowly stood back up as though he weren't even injured.


Before Katelyn could even get a chance to panic, she heard a noise behind her. She didn't get a chance to turn around; Liah had already completely winded up a full punch with her uninjured hand and let it fly when Katelyn had begun to turn. Liah felt her fist collide directly with the back of Katelyn's head. The young girl flew forward from the impact, her face hitting the ground so hard that her head bounced back up again before she slid to a complete stop. Apollo clenched his teeth together as though he were in pain, and he begun to slowly fade away. He smiled a bit sadly before he completely disappeared.


"And the winner is....Ms...oh forget it! The winner is Liah of Altea Academy! What a nerve wracking battle!!! This makes two victories for Altea! Now I bet Ms. Mjrn is just delighted right now!" The announcer's voice echoed throughout the stadium. Liah felt the platform begin to descend as she pulled off the glove from her right hand and began blowing on her knuckles. It felt like they had been bruised when she had punched Katelyn's crystal barrier. But the pain didn't stop her from feeling an immense feeling of giddiness from winning her battle.


As Zi would say... That was a badass battle! Liah thought to herself, laughing. She hopped off the platform once it had reached the ground and quickly dashed into the waiting room, her exhaustion from the battle temporarily forgotten. The moment she pushed open the doors, she saw two familiar people waiting for her.

"THAT was a badass battle!" The now awake Zion said, grinning, hopping for a fist bump with his aunt. Laughing, Liah reached out with her fist and their knuckles bumped together gently.

This psychic connection is really scaring me... Liah thought good naturedly.

"We knew you could do it Liah! The smexy bunny and almost smexier bunny man team is unstoppable!" Celica shouted, laughing. The three laughed together, enjoying the glory of their recent two victories. The upbeat atmosphere had made Zion forget completely about his exhaustion and pain from his last match, and Liah couldn't even feel the ache in her lungs or knuckles anymore.

Preliminaries Round 3 (for the important people)

The trio was able to relax as they watched the other contestants compete via the large television screen in the waiting room. This was valuable time for Zion and Liah to recuperate and lick their wounds (in a figurative sense of course). But Celica was tense as she waited for her turn. Unlike Liah and Zion, she didn't feel so nervous at the moment...for now. After what seemed like a countless number of contenders' matches, Celica was just plain out getting impatient, and guess who her target was?


"OWWW!" Zion shouted, jumping out of his chair. The other participants in the room all simultaneously looked at Zion as he waved his hands in the air.

"Nothing important! Please don't pay attention to me!" Zion shouted. Some of the people in the room turned away, however, others kept staring at him, confused at his sudden outbursts; it wasn't the first time he randomly shouted.

"Sis...please! I understand your boredom, but don't use me as a TEST SUBJECT!" Zion whispered angrily to Celica. She just laughed of course. The way that only truly good friends could laugh about something like this.

"Wow what a match!" The announcer's voice suddenly poured into the room. Zion looked up at the screen, his eyes widened as he saw Rein stepping off the white platform, a motionless opponent just behind him.

"Nooooo! I missed the finishing striiiike!" Zion shouted, aghast. "I could've analyzed that and figured out a countermeasure..."

"We're heading close to our deadline, so it's time to speed things up folks! Our next fighters are..." The announcer suddenly said, causing the audience to immediately clam up, and all the competitors in the waiting room to stop talking simultaneously, aside from Zion who was still ranting about how angry he was about missing the conclusive move in Rein's match.

"Shhhhh!" Celica said, pushing Zion's face onto the arm of the sofa he was sitting on, immediately silencing whatever else he was saying, save for some muffled noises of anger.

"...Celica of Altea Academy and Natasha Kensington of Spero Academy! Please report to the arena!" The announcer called out triumphantly.

"Finally!" Celica shouted triumphantly, releasing the pressure on the back of Zion's head. Her brother let out a gasp before rubbing the back of his head and wincing. "It's my turn now!"

"Ouch... " Zion said, shifting a bit uncomfortably. "Well er, got get em Tiger! Shock her the same way you shock me, and you've got this in the bag!"

"Good luck Celiiiiii!" Liah shouted to Celica as she was about to leave the room. Celica turned back, her pink hair blowing as the wind from the outside surged in and waved to Zion and Liah, giving them a thumbs up before disappearing.
-----------------------------------------------------

Once she was outside, Celica took a deep breath as she started striding over to the white platform, her heart racing. She saw a three foot long pink sign with gold glittery letters spelling her name out. Kao and Kooh were holding the sign jumping up and down excitedly once Celica came into view. Celica almost burst out laughing when she saw what they were wearing; they both had pink shirts on that had what looked like Kooh's drawing of a cartoon Celica shooting lightning out of her fingers at...a black haired boy with spikey hair that looked almost precisely like Zion.

Celica stepped onto the white platform, and she was able to get the first good look at her opponent, Natasha. Natasha looked like she was only a year or two older than Zion, but that wasn't saying much seeing as Zion looked a bit younger than his age. She was wearing a slim fitting, purple tank top and a white skirt, all of which was most likely geared toward dealing with the heat. Her blonde hair stopped just at the top of her shoulders.

"Good luck!" Celica said to her opponent, in a good natured tone. However, Natasha just rolled her eyes at the pink haired girl.

"Who needs luck?" Natasha said flatly, in a very unfriendly tone. Celica didn't say anything as the platform hummed to life and began moving upwards, but she did shoot a glare back at the other girl.
-----------------------------------------
Back in the Waiting Room

"Wow Cel's opponent looks so...mean." Zion said, his eyes glued on the television screen that was broadcasting the fight outside. "Like one of those rich girls that have that "I'm better than you, don't try." looks."

"I don't like to judge but...I can see it too." Liah said, laughing a little as she took a closer look at Natasha's face. "Hang on..."

"What's up?...Don't tell me she's secretly a badass femme fatale assassin that rigged the competition that she could assassinate Cel..." Zion said his eyes wide. Liah looked back at him, her eyes wide too, but with a different expression that read: "WTF?"

"Um, no. But I think her parents are the owners of Kensington Real Estate...and I bought a house from them..." Liah said. Zion's eyes widened.

"Wait, so she is one of those rich girls? Oh jeez, Cel, you gotta beat her down! Show her who's the MAN!" Zion shouted at the screen, meaning more than one thing with his last statement. "Wait a minute...I think our house was sold to us by them too...oh jeez, it's a no win situation! If Cel wins, we get evicted! If she loses...oh, I guess nothing that bad happens..."

"I don't know...she'll be pretty angry...and you know what she does when she's angry..." Liah said in a suspenseful tone. Zion blinked a few times before sighing.

"Yes I know... I will never know the meaning of peace every again."
----------------------------------------------------------

Back outside in the arena, the platform had finally stopped moving upwards, and the match was about to begin. As Celica waited for the announcer to tell them to begin, she began sifting through several different plans in her mind; she knew that she could win in several different ways, but she didn't know anything about Natasha's fighting style yet.

"Are both of you ladies ready!?" The announcer shouted, his voice coming out of the sides of the platform.

"Yup!" Celica shouted over the side of the platform. She caught a glimpse of how far the grounds was, and she felt her hands start to sweat a bit.

"Been ready." Natasha said, sighing impatiently.

"Alrighty then! Ready....GO!" The announcer called out.

The beginning of the battle was similar to Zion and Renault's battle; Celica simply walked slowly to the side, her eyes locked on Natasha as neither of them tried to attack each other. For almost an entire minute, the two kept their eyes glued onto each other as they walked around the platform, waiting for the other two begin some kind of offensive. Finally, Natasha was overcome by impatience and frustration and quickly raised her hand by her face. The wind in the air suddenly began to intensify, so much that Celica could hear the trees outside the arena rustling, which was saying much considering how far in the air she was, and how far the trees were outside. In the blink of an eye, Natasha swung her hand. Celica searched for some kind of projectile, but she saw nothing; however, that didn't stop the invisible force from hitting her square in the stomach and causing her to stumble backwards.

Ugh, it's wind. Of course I can't see it... Celica thought, annoyed.

Natasha had already begun charging another attack when Celica had just regained her balance. Not ready to let up the assault, Natasha fired several bursts of wind out of her right hand while suddenly pushing forward with her left hand. Celica had already begun moving to the side; she wasn't going to risk trying to block something that she couldn't see. She felt several gusts of wind blow past her hair, but aside from that, she wasn't touched by any of those blasts. However, she suddenly felt a humongous explosion of wind blow against her, causing all of her hair to blow backwards, as though a giant fan was on maximum power and facing Celica. She took a slow, shaky step forward as she tried to maintain her balance, confused about what was happening. She felt her shoes beginning to skid backwards as the force of the wind began to slowly push her back. Suddenly realizing what Natasha was trying to do, Celica quickly channeled her energy into her hand and fired a bolt of lightning directly at Natasha. The blonde haired girl quickly leaped out of the way, and suddenly, Celica was able to regain her balance quickly, the wind blowing against her gone.

Celica didn't let this chance slip her by; with three quick strides, she had already reached Natasha, and swung her fist directly into her stomach. Natasha choked and coughed as her feet left the ground and she was thrown into the air from the impact of Celica's punch. Celica quickly leaped into the air, her fist crackling with golden lightning and swung her fist directly downward, colliding with Natasha's stomach once again. Like rock being launched from a slingshot, Natasha was shot back down toward the platform like a bullet, hitting the platform so hard that she bounced off of it and skidded to a stop near the edge. For a moment, Celica thought she had won.

But Natasha slowly stood back up, coughing as she tried to breath the air back into her lungs. She suddenly clenched her fist so tightly that her knuckles turned white as she looked up, her teeth gritted in frustration and her eyes wide with hate. The electricity from Celica's attack had burnt some of the fabric off of her clothes, as well as causing the tips of her hair to smoke slightly. She brought her leg up and shoved her foot through the seal the moment it had finished forming.

Some kind of creature burst out of the seal, resembling what one would assume would be a demon. It had black and purple scales, and instead of human hands, it had talons, like a bird. It had two , white curved horns on top of its head that were partially covered by its long white hair, and eyes that were the exact color of human blood. It slowly tilted its head to both sides, cracking its neck before gazing straight at Celica, a wicked smile forming on its face, its shining, shark-like teeth being exposed.

"Why do I have to fight the Sentinel straight out of a horror film?..." Celica said aloud, sounding a bit exasperated.

Loki, rip her apart! Make sure no one will be able to recognize her once this ends!!! Natasha thought, sending her thoughts straight to her Sentinel.

Loki cracked its knuckles once before slamming the palm of his hand into the center of the platform. Starting from the spot that it had planted its hand at, ice began to slowly expand and spread across the platform slowly making its way toward Celica. Unsure how to deal with this new unexpected assault, Celica backed away from the ice, but soon realized her mistake; the only spot left on the platform that wasn't covered in ice was where she was standing...however, that spot was the very edge of the platform. The moment Celica saw Natasha's eyes flash with an evil delight, she immediately leaped away from the spot she was standing at. She was lucky; the place she was standing at a second before suddenly exploded, chunks of ice and gusts of wind collided with the spot, shredding chunks out of the platform. There was nowhere else to land for Celica except the ice covered parts of the platform. The moment her feet hit the ground, she suddenly felt her feet slide out from underneath her. As she struggled to push herself back on to her feet, Natasha glanced at her and pointed her left hand directly at Celica. The all around the area suddenly picked up in speed, and Celica found herself being pushed helplessly backwards, the ice on the platform assisting the wind in pushing Celica straight off the platform. The gust of wind intensified so much that Celica wasn't anywhere near the edge of the platform when she had been pushed off; therefore, she had nothing to grab onto. Just before sheer panic hit our pink haired heroine, she threw out her hand as she began to quickly descend downward, towards the safety nets of doom.

Laughing coldly, Natasha walked across the ice covered platform, unaffected by the slippery terrain that Loki had created. Arrogance taking complete control for a moment, she walked casually over to the edge of the platform and peered down the side, looking for Celica's body that should've been sprawled on the safety net below. She saw nothing. Confused, Natasha began to walk around the edge of the platform, searching every safety net at every angle, trying to find Celica. She couldn't find her anywhere.

Suddenly, Natasha's head whiplashed backwards, her entire body thrown into the air again. Emerging from the side of the platform was a pale, blonde haired woman in a midnight dress, that was reaching downwards, as though she were carrying something with one arm. A few seconds later, what she was holding came into view; a pink haired girl. Celica's left arm was outstretched, and Selene was reaching downwards, holding Celica by the wrist as she slowly floated upwards. During Celica's fall, she had managed to summon enough concentration to call her Sentinel, and save herself from falling out of bounds.

Both of Celica's hands were crackling with golden lightning as she rose upwards, carried by Selene. With a dangerous smile that seemed to run in her and Zion's family, she started flinging several bolts of lightning onto the platform. The lightning pounded the entire platform like missiles, drowning Loki and Natasha in high voltage energy. Shielding herself from the intense light, she shouted at her Sentinel.

"Loki! Do something!" She shouted, frustrated. Loki let down one o fits arms as it searched for the direction the attacks were coming from.

A pink blur entered the corner of its vision; it was then that it launched its attack. Raising its claw, it pounded the platform, causing a large spike of ice to burst out of the icy platform, the sharp tip shooting directly toward Selene. Just as the tip was about to impale Selene, the blonde Sentinel quickly pushed her hand out, and a black mist quickly formed, melding itself together to create what looked like a wall of black fog, stopping the spike moments from impaling her. Suddenly, Selene swung her left arm, the arm that was holding Celica, and let go, causing Celica to come flying down toward the edge of the platform. It looked like she was going to grab onto the edge and pull herself up...but she was too far from the edge to grab on once again. Celica disappeared from view as the crowd let out a huge echoing gasp.

"Ha, what an amateur." Natasha said, laughing. But Loki however, didn't look pleased. Instead, the Sentinel suddenly tensed up, looking quite anxious for the first time. And the reason why it became scared was soon revealed.

Out of nowhere, currents of electricity began to flow from the bottom of the platform and surge onto the top of the platform, electrocuting both Loki and Natasha. As Loki grabbed Natasha and tried to move, Selene suddenly floated into view, and held out her hand, a dark purple barrier suddenly forming around Loki and Natasha, trapping them in the electricity's current. Below the platform, Celica was standing on one of the steel beams holding up the platform, her hands planted on the beam. She was channeling lightning through the metal, straight into the platform where Natasha was. She was not out of bounds; according to the rules, she would only be out of bounds when she had landed on the safety nets. For what seemed like an eternity, Loki and Natasha were being electrocuted as long snake-like coils of electricity poured onto the platform. Finally, when the electricity stopped, both master and Sentinel alike collapsed to the ground. Loki slowly dissolved into black particles, while Natasha lay there, unmoving. Selene floated downwards slowly, disappearing for a moment before appearing again with Celica, dropping her onto the top of the platform again.

"And the winner is Celica! Wow! Unleashing an attack from UNDERNEATH the platform?! I have never seen that done! That makes another glorious victory for Altea!!!" The announcer shouted as the crowd erupted into cheers. Grinning, Celica bowed dramatically, too busy basking in the glory to even feel any exhaustion. She wasted no time hopping off the platform and running to the waiting room, the cheers of the crowd following her into the room.

"Yay Celi! That was just...that fight was just plain awesome!" Liah said, smiling and laughing. Zion however, said nothing, which greatly surprised Celica. Celica stared straight at Zion, as though she were expecting something from him. Cracking a bit under his sister's gaze, Zion sighed and grinned.

"Alright fiiiine, I'll say it...THAT WAS BADASS SIS!" Zion exclaimed, laughing.

A Brief Respite?

"Phew! We went through a lot of combatants today ladies and gentlemen! It's only the preliminaries but our fighters have shocked us with their pure talent! As sad as I am to say this, today marks the end of the preliminary rounds. But don't fear everyone! The real battles start next week! Until then!" The announcer triumphantly finished, stepping off the platform, cheers and screams following him as he left. Zion, Celica, and Liah were already outside and they could hear how excited the spectators were; the entire area was alive with excited chatter. Even as the three were leaving, they received many pats on the backs, praise, and even...

"Oh my gawd! Zion! Waaaiiit!" A high pitched female voice shouted as Zion slowly turned around. A young girl, most likely an early highschooler, approached him, holding a notepad and pen.

"You're my new hero! Please?!" The girl asked desperately. Taken a bit aback, Zion laughed cheerfully and started signing. The moment others saw that he was "giving out" autographs, other people of all ages, mostly girls but the rest boys, started charging him.

"Ack agh!" Zion gasped out as the crowd practically consumed him.

"Should we go rescue him?" Liah asked Celica, laughing; the crowd looked like a huge school of piranhas attacking their prey.

"Hm...well-" Celica started to say, wondering what Zion would NOT want them to do until she was interrupted by a cute, elementary school girl, holding out a notebook.

"Can you pwease give me your autograft?" The girl said in a cute voice, the kind that was difficult to say no to, despite the bad pronunciation. Celica blinked for a moment before picking up the pen and paper.

Oh my god, too cute... Celica thought laughing as she signed the notebook for the girl. The little girl jumped up in delight crying out "Yaaaay!" as she ran off. Celica smiled for a moment at the little girl and looked back ahead of her; a humongous line of men was lined up right in front of her. Starting to slowly step backward, Celica quickly looked at Liah; it didn't look like she was faring any better.

"I love you Ms. Luna! Marry meeeee!" One of Liah's fanboys shouted.

"Hell no! She's mine!" Another man said.

"Um, I think it's time to go." Liah said anxiously, quickly dashing away from her pursuers, and dragging Celica with her. The two didn't look back: They had already sprinted completely out of the hall and back to the parking lot. Thankfully, it looked like not many people had left the stadium yet.

"Phew, that was close..." Celica said, catching her breath. "...why do I feel like it's a lot quieter?"

"Zion!!!" Liah suddenly gasped out, realizing exactly what, or rather, who, they had forgotten about.

Celica put her hands together in prayer for a moment and closed her eyes. "Although you may be gone, you will forever remain in our hearts....Okay let's go." Celica said cheerfully, immediately turning around and heading to her white car.

"Noooooo we have to get him!" Liah said her eyes wide, although she couldn't help but laugh.

Suddenly, next to Celica's car, Zion's motorcycle engine suddenly flared on. The two girls jumped; it wasn't everyday where a motorcycle would suddenly rev up without someone top of it. The glossy black motorcycle suddenly shot out of the parking spot quickly, performing a quick U-turn before jetting off in the direction of the stadium.

"...whoa." Liah was all she said when she recovered from the surprise.

"Why do I detect a "special" entrance coming?" Celica said, sighing at first before laughing.
---------------------------------

Lily was running through the packed blacktop, desperately searching for Zion; she hadn't even had the chance to tell him "Congratulations". She squeezed her way through several crowds of people, hopping up in an attempt to look for Zion's trademark hair.

"Zion!!!" She called out, looking around in case someone turned their head to look.

"Come on come on where the heck are you?" Zion said to himself as he quickly pocketed what looked like some kind of remote. He was doing his best to not get completely devoured by his fans.

"H-hey! No touching the hair! No! Argh ack! Calm down, there's enough badass to go around! Okay! I don't care if you're a guy or girl; you don't touch me there!"

In the distance, a black blur shot toward the direction of the stadium. Many people gasped out in shock, quickly hopping out of the way as the relentless motorcycle shot toward Zion's direction. Hearing the sound of something shooting towards them, the crowd quickly dispersed as Zion's motorcycle slowly decelerated, stopping right in front of him. A grin on his face, Zion jumped and swung his leg of the motorcycle, twisting the handle once as he revved the engine. He turned back at the crowd and smiled, holding one thumb up at them.

"My adoring fans! I love you all...although probably a lot less than how some of you feel for me. Anyway! I hope to see you all next week! Peace!" Zion revved the engine to his motorcycle once more, this time doing a complete donut before pulling back on the handle bars, going into a full wheelie. The sound of the crowd screaming in delight followed Zion as he left the stadium.

There he is! Lily thought, quickly turning around and entering the academy building, hoping that she could catch up with him by cutting through the hallways.
---------------------

"Aww dang it, I mean...hey Bro!" Celica said waving as Zion stopped beside her and Liah. Zion rolled his eyes before staring blankly back at his sister.

"Hey, I was going to go back for you." Liah said quickly as Zion slowly turned his gaze to look at her.

"I'll forgive you guys this time..." Zion said, sounding a bit good natured despite his words. In almost no time at all, he was back to his energetic self. "Let's throw a party when we get back!"

"Oh my god yes!" Liah said, heartily agreeing with him. "We should pick up some stuff then!"

"Yes! I'll bring the Mountain Dew...and most likely the girls by accident." Zion said, laughing.

"I'll bring the frijoles!" Celica said, bursting out in laughter after she said that. Liah and Zion both choked, laughing their heads off. Finally, after they had had their fill of humor, the three left.

In the distance, Lily had just ran out of the stadium, and caught a glimpse of the three leaving. At first, she was considering running after them; however, she realized how silly it would be to run after someone on foot just to congratulate them. Sighing a bit sadly, she sat on the pavement.

I guess he forgot about me...
--------------------------------------
Half an hour later

Zion had hung his grocery bag on the handle bars as he turned around the corner and started heading home. Following closely behind him was Celica in her white car, Liah in the passenger seat (she had taken the subway to get to the tournament, and therefore, didn't have to worry about leaving a car in the parking lot). The day had been going so perfectly; not only had the three of them won their matches, they had also gained a multitude of fans (although they all had mixed feelings about that). Zion was close to his house when he felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket. Hitting the brakes quickly, he reached into his pocket and flipped up his phone:

Zion. DO NOT GO TO YOUR HOUSE!

The ominous message was from Lucx. Confused, Zion was about to reply Kinda too late for that, before he suddenly heard...the most horrible voice he had ever heard in his entire life.

"ZIOOON!~"

...N-no...please...don't tell me it's... Zion thought, closing his eyes tightly. Taking a deep breath, Zion slowly opened one eye; a short, brunette haired girl was standing directly in front of him, leaning on the head of his motorcycle, wearing a pink yukata.

"How've you been?!~" Kristy exclaimed, quickly wrapping her arms around his neck, cutting off his air supply.

...now this is why I don't believe there's a god... Zion thought, choking as he slid his fingers underneath Kristy's arm in an attempt to get some air.

"Oh no, I was too late..." Lucx said slowly peeking out from behind the bush to the side of his house. Even at this distance, he could tell that Zion's face was starting to turn blue.

"Um...hey Kristy?" Celica said a bit uneasily as she stepped out of her car; she wasn't sure how to address someone that she had almost electrocuted to death.

"Hi!~" Kristy said, releasing her grip from Zion's neck; he gasped out in relief and doubled over, taking in as much air as he could. For someone who was staring at the person that had fired thousands of volts of electricity through her, she looked quite cheerful.
------------------------

Inside the car, Liah was debating in her mind whether or not to leave the car or not. In deep thought, Liah weighed her love for her nephew against her simple dislike of Kristy. As she weighed the options, a thought suddenly crossed her mind: If Kristy had returned, wouldn't she wonder about Lily's "baby"? Quickly yanking out her phone, she began to text a message to Lily at lightning fast speed.

-------------------------

Despite her gloom earlier, Lily had finally decided that she would just congratulate Zion and the others at his own house, since they lived so close anyway. She wondered to herself why she was so determined just to talk to Zion for just a few seconds, but whatever answer she had found was not something she would say aloud. Taking a deep breath, she started to slowly walk across the street and head directly for Zion and Celica's house.

In the distance, Lucx saw Lily and his eyes shot wide open. He was motionless for a moment before he burst out of hiding, screaming.

"Nooooooooo!" He shouted.

From inside Celica's car, Liah heard Lucx's voice fill the air. Jumping up in surprise, Liah quickly looked in Lucx's direction before looking at what his gaze was fixated on. Through the side window, she saw Lily pass by, headed in the direction of where Zion was.

"Liiiiilllyyy! Waaaait!" Liah shouted, quickly shoving the car door open, her arm reached out; it looked very...dramatic.

To anyone watching, it seemed like the whole scene was in slow motion; it probably would've been very funny to watch. Zion slowly turned his head, his eyes wide when he saw Lily approach. Kristy, surprised by the commotion turned her head and caught a glimpse of Lily as she came into view. Celica turned around, completely confused as to why everyone was screaming.

"Oh...it's you." Kristy said, the cuteness in her voice suddenly absent.

"O-oh...hello..." Lily said, completely shocked; she was not expecting to see Kristy here.

"Hm...you're in good shape for someone who's pregnant..." Kristy said coldly, staring straight at Lily. Doing her best to control her sweat, Lily swallowed, but she was unable to think of a response.

"So you lied...I should've expected you to play dirty in this game of love!~" Kristy's voice suddenly returned to the same pitch that could give Zion a migraine. "Well then it's a good thing I came back, because now, I can finally take back what's mine!~"

"...don't look at me like that!" Zion shouted as Kristy turned her head to look at him. He could almost see the hearts forming in her eyes. "What part of "I don't like you." do you not understand?!"

"Aww no need to play so hard to get Ziiii, we're already a couple anyway! I'll just consider my absence a temporary break!~" Kristy said triumphantly.

"WE WERE NEVER TOGETHER!" Zion shouted, a vein beginning to pop out of his forehead.

"Hmph, I'll leave for now, but as of tomorrow, this is WAR!~" Kristy said, apparently partially deaf since she didn't hear, or listen to Zion's words. She turned around and happily strode off into the distance. Everyone was at a loss for words; it seemed like everyone felt too much pity for Lily and Zion to even talk about what just happened.

"...er well...we've still got our stuff right? We can still party..." Zion said, finally breaking the silence.

"Yeah." Celica piped in, helping her brother break the tense atmosphere. "Let's forget about her for now."

"Oooh a party? Was someone in charge of bringing men?" Lucx asked eagerly. Laughing, Liah, Celica, Lucx, and Zion began to start heading into the house. Lily was about to follow them in before she stopped, looking a bit hesitant. Frowning slightly, she started to turn around and took a step forward in the direction of her house; she felt a bit too glum about what just happened to stride into a party.

"Heeeeey, you're not gonna attend my congratulatory party?" Zion said from the doorway, his body leaned on the door frame.

"Um, I guess I'm just not in the mood..." Lily said, starting to walk in the direction of her house; Zion quickly dashed out of the doorway, reached out, and grabbed her hand in an attempt to stop her. Lily gasped out in surprise but it looked like she had stopped.

"Come on, I didn't even get a chance to hang out with you at all today because of that tournament. This party is happening right now because you showed me that tournament flyer, so let me pay you back." Zion said, grinning at her.

At first, Lily was a bit surprised by Zion's words. When she had recovered, she slowly smiled and laughed. "Okay okay, fine..."

"Sweet, let's go." Zion said happily, letting go of Lily's hand and heading into his house, closely followed by Lily.