[Round Zero: part 1]

[utopiamods]

At noon on the rest day, every screen in the campus lights up. It's the girl from the introduction again! She's grinning fit to burst, and her voice is bright and excited.

"Good morning, everyone! Round Minus-One is now officially over, so we'd like you to all report to the lobby for a special announcement, immediately! It starts in ten minutes, so don't be late."

The screens all go blank, before simply displaying the flashing text ALL STUDENTS REPORT TO THE LOBBY FOR 12:10.

Reaching the lobby, you find it empty of the usual staff. However, the doors to the tramstation are blocked by a large stage, spanning the entire south wall. In the centre stands the girl, in the flesh and just as sickeningly cheerful as her broadcast.

"Hi, everyone!" She waves, tilting sideways as she does so, and then clasps her hands together. "Wow, it's really great to see you all in person at last! You've all tried a lot harder this week, and it shows! We're really, really impressed with everyone. Ah, even though there was a bit of cheating..." she pouts, and shakes her head lightly, "But that's okay. We forgive you! You all know better now.

"But what we've called you here to say is this! We've been working extra hard too, and we've gotten a lot done with your help. So much that we're nearly ready for Round One!

"However..."

She's still smiling. It's a little unnerving, "We have to do some maintenance first, okay? And I'm afraid it would be a problem if you were all alive for that... you could cause us a lot of problems. So we're going to get rid of you for a little while. Think of this as a final test!"

She snaps her fingers, and your shadows disappear. No, not disappear. That's the wrong word. It's more like... they're abandoning you. Nearly forty pools of darkness flow up onto the stage, and suddenly explode upwards in tendrils and globs of black. The girl laughs as they finish changing, as they take on your shapes. As they reach into themselves and pull out inky replicas of your own weapons. They all laugh with her, in the emotionless tones of the Voice from your dreams.

"You can all draw your own weapons now, okay? Fight hard!"

[mod notice: NOW EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ THIS OOC POST BEFORE THEY REPLY.]

Comments

[imperceptible]

"Get out of the way," the shadow ordered as he brought up the rifle with surprising agility and aimed straight at Edgar, hoping to get off a single shot before the man had time to close the distance between them.

[summerstars]

She'd come into the lobby five minutes before and just stared at the too-cheerful woman, but now... What... When the her shadow takes shape it doesn't look like her. Well, it does, but there's cables coming from from her head, from her spine, from the shoulders and hips, like from the girl in the nightmare---

Grenn gasped and pushed backwards, but sitting in a wheelchair you're not getting very far. Reflexively, she pulled out her two frisbees, gripping them as she stared at her shadow self, who wasn't sitting in a wheelchair, or even a hoverchair, and not using prostethics. No, instead the thing was floating in the air, the cables moving lazily about it.

It swooshed up close, but blocking isn't too hard, but there's electricity running down her arms, burning her fingers. She swore, and her shadow looked up at her, smirked... and disappeared.

What..? She needed to move.

[forthward]

"Sister Euphie-- are you all right? I... I have to stop this! It has the Damocles--" Nunnally looks back at her sister, wide eyed and desperate. "We can't let this happen!" She was so relieved to see her sister was safe... and alive.

But again Nunnally was being helpless. It didn't make things better that she was in a wheelchair. It'd never stop bothering her, how she couldn't do anything.

[womenwouldgrieve]

Well, crap. A fully-upgraded rifle versus a never-used spear? This might not end well.

In hopes of preventing the shadow from getting a chance to fire, he pulled his arm back and threw the spear. It was long and pointy; it would fly well, if nothing else.

[imperceptible]

Swearing at the suddenly projectile weapon, the shadow barely managed to dive out of the way at the last second, sending the shot completely askew. Evidently, Edgar was more intelligent than he had given him credit for.

With a dark hiss, the shadow quickly began to pick itself up, hoping to recover before the king attacked again.

[bitofafiction]

"Catch me if you can," his shadow taunts, darting backward across the open doorway. Its voice is hollow, with an echo that sounds inexplicably familiar, but what stops Sherlock dead in his tracks is the accent.

Tony's accent. Pure New York, nothing like Sherlock's.

Laughing, the shadow opens its arms to invite an attack. Sherlock stands where he is, sword held steady in front of him, and wipes at the blood on his face.

"No? All right, Sherry. Your loss."

It glances sidelong at the girls with a cold smile on its colourless face. That's all the further provocation Sherlock needs. His eyes widen and he charges forward with none of his usual finesse.

[womenwouldgrieve]

Losing his spear was a problem. But the shadow was down, which gave him a chance to make it up. The spear hadn't fallen far; Edgar rushed to grab it, and as the shadow pushed itself up he plunged the tip down into its head.

At the same moment the shadow dispersed, something sharp impaled Edgar's chest from behind. There was a rather worrying sound effect that he recognized as belonging to an Instant Death attack, and then he crumpled, and his own shadow form pulled its spear out and went to find its next victim.

[snakesonaprincess]

Tsuki remained unnervingly calm as always, assessing the situation. Everyone was panicking; it was the obvious result but not necessarily the correct one. There was no doubt that they needed to defend themselves, but what was the best way of going about doing so? What these shadows could do was unclear, though as she gazed at her own she felt a slight chill run down her spine. "Ix". Only two others present could possibly recognize it as herself, which was perhaps for the best. But it was still problematic. She knew quite well how devastating her own weapon could be, at least back home. Her doppleganger was a threat she couldn't very well ignore. She considered drawing her own weapon, but she remained slightly hesitant to do so. Her weapon had yet to be used since coming here, making her a bit wary of it.

But there was no use in hesitating for long. She a hand to her own chest, murmuring the familiar words as she pulled forth her own weapon. A lance of bright light erupted from it, before she turned to Romeo.

"Why doesn't matter. Just focus on surviving."

[allurprincess]

Like Tsuki's, Sora's sword blazed with light and the world - her friends, the shadows, everyone - was slowing; a good thing, too, because otherwise she wouldn't have been able to pull Romeo out of the way of his shadow self in time. It wasn't Romeo, she had to believe that. It was something that would kill him and everyone else if it could. Her sword struck the handle of the blackened brush, knocking him off-balance, and she pulled back for a second strike.

[myblueskies]

"Give up Himoto Sora, they are all going to die anyways!" The shadow rushed forward but his broom was hit.

The strike was aimed for his neck, "Your not going to save them this time, they're doomed!" The sword struck true and the shadow chuckled darkly before dispersing into a stream of dark smoke.

Requiring a mercy kill here plz. :|b

[imperceptible]

Thirty seconds, Kevin chanted in his head, clutching his side. Thirty seconds until the effect wore off and he could do something about the sounds of battle all around him. Thirty seconds and... was his vision clearing? Just a bit around the edges?

Fuck it, he'd take it. Bringing his head up and cursing the seconds it took his perception to clear, his eyes adjusted just in time to see Edgar die.

"... no way..." The murmur was hollow, faint even in his own ears as his entire body seemed to go numb. "This... this is a joke right?" There was no way he could have just seen someone die in front of his own eyes. Die trying to save him.

As his fingers loosened every so slightly releasing a gush of blood, Kevin gritted his teeth and tightened his hold again. He wasn't going to die like this. Wasn't going to... what... was he going to do? Could he even fight like this? As his eyes continued to linger on Edgar's still body, Kevin repeated what he said earlier, only this time in a choked mumble.

"You gotta be kidding me..."

[themerryway]

Euphie silently cheers Sherlock on, hoping he would be okay. Her heart pounds in her chest, a steady rhythmic thing amidst all of this.

"The key to--" And then, the steady rattle of gunfire. Her eyes widen and she thinks to the weapon Suzaku pulled out of her. Does one of these things have that weapon? Yes, probably. "We... let's... let's go. Out of here. I'll bring you outside somewhere safe."

PRE-DEATH POST FYI

[idkmybffxiao]

The Exaclan Lady was there in the flesh! Forget the horrible shadow dopplegangers for now. Mei realized the danger they presented, but that couldn't distract her from this opportunity. The tiny girl pulled her Exaclan glove on and put both hands to her chest, never once taking her eyes off the woman who had been tormenting them this whole time.

"Utopia!"

"Is!"

"Here!"

Light flashed as she drew all six kunai, each held between her fingers, handled the way they were meant to be. This time no amateur was fumbling with the six sharp blades. The second after they were arranged in her hands, the tiny girl took off like a freakin' arrow through the crowd. She leapt, scaling one person, then leapt again to the shoulder of a taller "student", then once more into the air, taking aim. She had shifted two kunai to the other hand, leaving just one in her dominant. The last jump had a spin on it and she put all that momentum into the throw.

One lone kunai, flying across the lobby, the black and white ribbons trailing through the air, right for that awful lady's head...

[themouthofhell]

She swipes at the shadow version of herself, knocking it on its ass with a well-aimed kick; but that wasn't good enough to end it. She's silent as she rushes over to the spot he'd pointed out, carefully keeping herself between those two and the shadows.

"Ichi... will protect this place, then." She says it with an air of coherence and certainty that isn't often seen from her; she means what she has just said, and means it with all of her being.

[utopiamods]

... and right into it. The girl staggered back one step, only to be caught by a shadowy student. She was still smiling.

"Wow," she almost chirped, "What a great throw!"

Blood dripped down her face as she yanked out the knife, the wound closing up as she settled her microphone back on her cheek. "Oh, what's this?" She looked down at it as though surprised to find herself holding it, then took the blade in her other hand, smiled, and snapped it in half. "Oops!"

[forthward]

The shadow of Nunnally is silent, but she's smiling, her face mirroring the type of face her brother probably has made on several of his manic occasions. And she's raising the Key to Damocles, pressing the button to make sudden lasers to shoot toward people.

*obliges*

[summerstars]

"Hi there..." She's hanging upside down in the air, grinning at Kevinm a discus with visibly razorsharp edges rotation quickly on one finger, not very far at all from his face.

"Game over, kid. Better luck next time!" So said, the frisbee was flung forward.

[monkeystail]

Kotarou now behind and between the two females, Huashi twirled the staff in one hand much like her shadow had done earlier.

"Anyone gets close here, and they'll go splat!" This is good. They have a wall at their back, and, Huashi looked up, yeah, there were things she could use to get up on the wall and launch herself from there if needed! They were ready for these things now.

Daddy hadn't raised her to be reckless in battle, but he'd taught her well.

[siscon]

Along the way, happy and optimistic Hiyo wasn't there. Instead, the figure who looked like her but didn't appeared - the shadow that was supposed to be "Hiyo".

The shadow had approached the group the Knight and her princesses, watching Romeo's shadow faded into nothingness. She stood there with a blank expression on her face, the ax that she wielded in her hand, standing erect by her side.

"Come, Himoto Sora." the shadow simply said, dark red eyes trained on the orange headed fighter.

[allurprincess]

Sora's shadow joins her, one dark hand resting on the top of "Hiyo"'s head. Just as expressionless, though her eyes burn as she watches the group. As Hiyo's shadow speaks, the taller shadow darts forward, sword raised to strike at Tsuki's neck.

[idkmybffxiao]

"Y--" Mei's triumphant cheer at the sight of it hitting -- should she even be feeling triumphant at putting a blade through someone's head? She's ten what is this even! -- never made it out. The sight of the woman just pulling it back out and healing left a dreadful feeling in the girl's gut.

The kunai snapped. The agony that stabbed through Mei tore a high pitched little scream out of her and blew her landing from the jump. She crashed to the floor instead and skidded, then rolled to a halt. Ouch.

[myblueskies]

Romeo watched wide eyed as Sora defeated the shadow version of himself! That was so scary but Sora was so brave! But more shadows were appearing, one looked like Sora! But it wasn't, it was a bad Sora that wanted to kill them!

Stood behind Sora still Romeo poked his broom out aiming for the closest shadow, "Leave us alone!"

[snakesonaprincess]

The sight of Sora attacking her, even if it was merely her shadow, was jarring. But she couldn't allow herself to remain shocked for long; she quickly brought up her own weapon to parry the shadow's blade, gritting her teeth with determination all the while. Even Tsuki couldn't keep up her mask of disinterest in a situation like this; she glared hatefully at the impostor and everything she signified.

"The face does not belong to you," she said coldly, gripping her lance with both hands before she quickly shifted her weight, hoping to throw the shadow off balance before spinning her entire body around, swinging her weapon around in a wide arc to strike at her side.

[siscon]

While Sora's shadow took care of Tsuki, the shadow of the younger female made it's way to face the real Sora and the boy. Her eyes narrowed, and she rushed forward, ax in a tight grip as she aimed to strike down on both of them.

[likesnothing]

The raven haired genin had put up a great battle with his own Shadow - it brought him terrible feelings to his gut whenever he had to see the face of his darker self, with the familiar dark purple markings across his skin and the familiar purple aura. Obsidian eyes were trained on the shadow as it rushed towards him. The speed was the same as his own, if not faster, though Sasuke was able to keep up with it, just barely.

"Agh - !" the boy was hit by a powerful kick to the chest from the shadow, sending him flying backward with his feet skidding against the ground. He felt himself hit a hard surface, and he landed on the ground with a thump. "Tch..." he growled, eyes narrowing as he staggered to stand up. His arm instinctively reached out to balance himself as he stood up, but he didn't realize that he had reached for someone else's arm.

And while he was beginning to stand, a large ninja star came flying towards him and whoever this person was that he had grabbed.