[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

[dancingflames]

Mai had managed to avoid fighting until now, even with her second-class status here. But this...things just became a bit different.

"What...how can you...?" she had tried to yell back at the woman on the stage, but the shiver as her shadow moved took caught the words in her throat. The pool of darkness crept creepily across the ground. Almost like an Orphan...

The figure that appeared directly in front of her was familiar, but...wrong. A face, hateful and sneering. A face that stared back at her, shadowy mockeries of her Element spinning around its wrists as it floated above the stage. It wasted no time getting started.

Mai was nearly hit by the first blast of shadowy flame, only able to half-fall, half-roll to the side to get just out of the trajectory. Although the floor was unaffected, she could feel the harsh heat against her ski.

"You always were too weak. Give up now!" the shadowy figure called out, floating closer.

Mai struggled to get up, still unarmed as the shadowy her raised her arms together, dark flames engulfing the rings once more.

Gino! You killed Gino! Now Gino you shall die!

[swordofzero]

Suzaku brought his hand up to his head wondering what the dripping was. They were inside, it couldn't be raining, he brought his hand down, it came away red...

He looked round at the sound of his name and instantly wished he hadn't, it was a shadow and it was Gino. Except it wasn't it was a dark twisted version of Gino and the real Gino was flying towards him; he was most definatly dead.

Suzaku's mind went blank, this couldn't be happening... Gino was dead... He was going to kill that monster. But that monster was wearing his dead friends face... No! This thing had killed his friend. With a snarl of pain and anger he rushed forward thrusting his sword up angrily. The shadow though was just out of reach... "No!"

[warpwhatsir]

But so is he, Kallen. And while the hit connected, he levers himself off the injured leg and jumps back, looking a bit lighter on his feet than looks natural.

lmao orz

[queenscheckmate]

Kallen stopped before the Knight of Round jumped from his location. In the heat of battle, it was hard to stay calm but her battle senses were just going haywire. She just had happened to pick up the shadow in the midst of it. Not only that, she had hear that constant dripping noise and she had a good idea it wasn't water.

And when she saw Gino's body thrown in front of them, she confirmed it.

It was blood.

She saw Suzaku lunge at Gino and she knew this was anything but good. She was emotional. Damn she felt horrible even. She couldn't do anything for him. Not just because he was out of sight when the chaos happened, but that she let her anger get in the way and she didn't even seek him out.

"Suzaku!" She yelled after him. He was being rash. She put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him back, standing in front of him.

"You're letting your emotions get the best of you. That's no good in a fight, you know that."

[queenscheckmate]

"Tch." Kallen took a couple of steps forward to close the distance between them. "You honestly don't think you can take me down with a puny little weapon like that, do you?" She stretched, her stomach now exposed.

"You see, after fighting so long..." This is a test. Just how much do you respect Kallen, Sulu? "You get hot... sweaty..." With ease, she pulled shirt off, up and over her shoulders and head. Her chest was bound, just as it had been when they sparred.

"This won't be too much of a distraction, will it?"

[tenwholeryou]

Kotarou blinked at the stream of profanities that came from Huashi. Even he didn't know what some of those meant. He wasn't too alarmed by it; after all, she still had his pendant around her neck, but they were all fighting so hard and he... wasn't. He settled for staying out of the way, and watching for anyone who got too close to their small enclave.

[allurprincess]

"And you think it belongs to you?" Sora's shadow has a cruel voice, a mockery of her normal friendliness. She gets her weapon up in time to block the lance, but can't stop its momentum. "She'll die. You'll die. You're all going to die, and it's because you don't remember!"

The lance is centimetres from her now. The shadow manages to snarl, "It's because you lie. I'll never believe in you. Ever--" before the lance pierces her side and she disappears with an anguished yell.

[warpwhatsir]

Uh.

Deep breath, closed his eyes, and when he opened them again they were clear. If there's some... upgrade-esque help here that's nothing to concern yourself over. He steps back, foil at the ready.

"Not a problem."

[queenscheckmate]

"Good. I was hoping you'd say that." She winked at him before standing calmly. "I'll give you once chance to hit me. Just one. Use it well, Hikaru."

[trollofthree]

"Yo." The third shadow is remarkably casual for someone carting around the corpse of his double; he salutes them both with a flick of his wrist. Red eyes are locked onto the shadowy Kallen, a faint smile not reaching his eyes as he watches her.

"You're missing out on the fun~."

[warpwhatsir]

That's right, Kallen. But this Sulu in particular was very much alive, and he cocked his head in an almost canine manner, looking vaguely interested. If one didn't know any better, he'd remind one of a mildly confused dog. And then he bared his teeth in a predator's grin, eyes blazing.

"Problem?" he asked, voice devoid of any sort of emotion beyond that of a hunter.

[queenscheckmate]

She nods in his direction before she approaches him. A hand reaches up to touch the side of his face. "You always had a different light of seeing things." A smirk. "I wanted to observe a bit."

[warpwhatsir]

One chance? Well, crap. He had to make it count, then. He breathed out, hard, concentrated. And with one last tiny prayer, jabbed sharply.

[queenscheckmate]

She moves slightly, the hit only lightly grazing her. In fact, she steps forward, one hand on his wrist holding the foil and she presses the cool metal of the gun under his chin, right against his neck.

"Checkmate."

Click. Click.

Boom

--

In the middle of it all, with all the fighting, somehow, she had gotten separated from Suzaku, Lelouch, and Sulu. She didn't want to yell out any names because she didn't want to make herself obvious. So she searches around for anyone. Eventually, her eyes catch Sulu during a fight. She wants to charge right in, but that could get them both killed.

She has to watch as her shadow discards the shirt it was wearing. Seriously? And then she hears that it's only giving Sulu one chance to strike. But there's no way a foil can win against a machine gun. It was completely unfair. When Sulu lunges forward, she knew it was a trap for him. Kallen found herself running in slow motion (well it felt like it) towards their battle. But it's too far away and far too late. The trigger was pulled and-- Sulu fell to the ground.

"No..." That's all she could mutter. Her counterpart looks back at her, smirks, and then goes off to find another kill. Was it not her time now?

"Sulu...?" His name is quiet as it falls from her lips.

[queenscheckmate]

Kallen doesn't even answer. What she needs right now is space, distance, a gap between the both of them. She turns and runs, firing her gun at the shadow. It's not actually to hit him, but to maybe slow him down. She needed to regroup with Suzaku and Lelouch... granted if they were still alive.

[tenwholeryou]

"Hey!" From between his appointed guardians, Kotarou cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled to the girl. He couldn't leave the safety of their section without dying for sure, but if she could just reach them... "Come over here!"

In case that failed, he picked up a chunk of smashed plant pot from one of the destroyed alcove ferns, and threw it as hard as he could at the shadow's head.

[siscon]

Nothing could stopped the dark colored Hiyo as she advanced forward, not caring if anyone (namely Reiko) got in her way. As she neared, she swung the ax from the side - in the same fashion as Tsuki, attacking from the side.

All the while, she muttered, "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you..." repeatedly.

[trollofthree]

"Oh?" He leans forward, dropping the body to the floor so he can free up at least one hand. He can always retrieve it later. "See anything good?"

[queenscheckmate]

"I do," she smirks, leaning just a little bit to have their foreheads touch. "Right in front of me." She tilts her head off a bit and moves closer to kiss him. Good thing for memories because well, wouldn't this just be awkward?

[likesnothing]

Sasuke spotted the naginata aiming for his disheveled dark form, and he immediately rushed forward to move his leg in a kick to remove the weapon from the older female's hands. No, he would not let anyone else take away his privilege of defeating his own shadow self. Never, never, never - !

He growled and watched his dark counterpart retreat back several steps. "He's mine," he glared over his shoulder to the three of them, stubbornly declaring that this was his battle and only his.

"Stay out of my way!" he yelled out, and his feet took off as he ran over to attack the shadow. The dark figure moved with a seemingly graceful step as he moved forward and knocked down Sasuke.

"A fool," shadow Sasuke murmured, red eyes gazing down at the befallen twelve year old and grinned. "You've disgraced your - our - clan." And then with a knife the shadow had handy from elsewhere, and before Sasuke could roll away (as if he could), the shadow struck down with the weapon into the heart of the boy -

Sasuke was dead. The ruby eyes of the shadow looked back to the group of three and smirked mockingly.

[queenscheckmate]

Kallen had been walking in front of the stage at the time and heard that shot go off. Watch where you're aiming, asshole. That almost hit her. Sadly, that got her attention and she makes her way over.

"What do we have here...? The mass murderer of my people and some dumb boy who thinks he can play the violin."

[myblueskies]

Romeo wanted to cover his ears; the monsters were saying such horrible things. People were dying everywhere, Romeo clutched the back of Sora's coat and looked round at the dark shadow monster that was left.

He wanted to cry and hide but he couldn't do that! He wasn't a baby and he had to protect his friends! Alfredo would never let monster shadows kill his friends! He bit his lip and decided that he was angry! How dare these monsters try and kill Miss Sora and her friends. "Go away!" He thrust the stick out again, swinging it to try and hit the shadow girl.

[trollofthree]

He laughs. "Me too."

Unbelievably awkward. Luckily, he has every memory his double lacks and more besides, so he just smiles and accepts the kiss with an answering dip of his head. If his eyes still weren't empty, he'd almost look eager.

[queenscheckmate]

You can be as eager as you want to, Gino. The shadows get to have what their light counterparts cannot. A hum resonates in the back of her throat, connect with the situation they've come to find themselves in.

[willbeurprincess]

Koharu's shadow approached them from behind, perhaps seen, but perhaps not, her eyes raised to that shock of red hair. Her smile twisted into something beyond innocence, perverted in a way Koharu, for all her fantasies, would never be.

"Sora~ Aren't you forgetting someone~?" Her taunt was low and singsong and her hands caressed the rifle in her hands, "Leaving your princesses all alone, who would believe in you."