[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

[princesspowerful]

Molly dodges the arrow by mere luck, she saw someone who could maybe use her help, but the arrow sure caught her attention. She turned to see who shot that, ready to face her attacker, but soon faltered. It was Fletcher. Molly couldn't imagine that even Shadow Fletcher would hurt someone.

"Fletcher! Stop!"

[chainedbyred]

He was glad it went down so easily. He didn't know how long he could deal with that. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself. He clenched his fists, one around the bow. As long as he had that in his hand, Fletcher was okay. He could keep fighting. Even against himself if he had to.

He ran off, toward the fights. He was going to do whatever he could to eliminate these things. The less of them there were, the better odds Fletcher had.

[greennotgold]

The shadow smiled at her and aimed again. He didn't say anything; he just let loose another bolt of energy.

Yep, for now he's the creepy silent child. He doesn't have anything demoralizing to say to Molly, so he'll just be all disturbing and quiet.

[princesspowerful]

Molly wishes that he would speak, because maybe she could talk sense into him, because they were friends and even if he was shadow that had to count for something, right? She chose not to look around, she knew that it would prove her wrong and she didn't want to see friends fighting.

It was horrible, the arrow that pierced her left arm didn't help. The pain was tremendous, she couldn't remember feeling that much pain ever, and she's stopped trucks with her foot.

She clenched her right fist and her brass knuckles glistened. She hated this, but she wasn't going to die. So, she charged him.

[greennotgold]

Fletcher's shadow wasn't about to die either; as she charged, it took aim again, focused evilly, and let one more bolt go.

[princesspowerful]

Molly wasn't a long distance fighter. She also wasn't one for defense. With her strength she could handle short distance and she could protect herself enough to not need it. Unfortunately, she didn't have her strength, and her small twelve year old body was not much of a match for an arrow.

As the second arrow pierced her, in her stomach this time, she collapsed to the ground. Tears filled her eyes, both of pain and sadness, as she looked at her soon to be killer. But still she could only think that it was just Fletcher...

[isur2ndprincess]

Her first reaction may have been to stiffen up, but she soon relaxed her body, getting tense wouldn't help her position at all so she had to keep calm. But it was hard to keep calm when you knew that this battle would end with one of you dying. Yuki kept reminding herself that this wasn't Grenn. Grenn wouldn't do this to her, she liked her, and Yuki liked her back.

This isn't Grenn. This isn't Grenn. This isn't Grenn.

Yuki didn't respond to her taunting, just waited for an opportunity.

[isur2ndprincess]

"Hello Grenn, shall I put you out of your misery?" Dark Yuki raised her Katana, poised to strike. The shadow didn't care who she was, or the fact that her other side cared about this girl, it was pure wrath.

[princesspowerful]

Next to Dark Rapunzel was Dark Molly, hair dark and eyes shining again. This shine was different from the kind back home, it no longer signified the use of her powers, not it just showed her inner evilness. The brass knuckles she held had fresh blood on them and she was just waiting for someone else to show up.

[leftthesafetyon]

....

Wait, what?

Meryl didn't even have time to think before bullets started flying past her head. She didn't even think to see who it was before pulling her gun and trying to shoot.

"Utopia is-"

Too slow, apparently. She was shot through the heart before she had a chance to think.

"Hehehe... Idiot. Maybe you should have spent less time gawking."

[dancingflames]

There was still fighting going on around them, but at least the immediate threat was gone. Mai relaxed just a tiny bit and turned to her roommate, though keeping her eyes ready to watch for any approaching shadows.

"I think so. These things though..." she responded, trailing off before changing thoughts. She quickly glanced over Koharu concernedly for any obvious wounds. "You didn't get hurt did you?" She would feel somewhat responsible, seeing as that thing looked like her.

[summerstars]

"Aww, come on now, Yuki... All of this is only as real as what's in your head. It's a game after all, isn't it? Live a little!" Then the shadow breaks out in laughter and it's indeed not Grenn. Or even remotely human. There's even the sound of static, faint beneath it.

The cables shift slightly, becomes somewhat more... familiar, with Yuki's body.
"How long do you think you can go on? Can you kill yourself? Isn't it fun, testing your mettle?" Another bout of metallic-laced giggles.
"She's so afraid you know. Afraid to remember that this is the truth. Will she dare to wake up, you think?" This time there's mocking amusement, shadow!Grenn's other hand running down Yuki's chest, but not exactly touching.

[summerstars]

"Who is miserable here, anyway..." Grenn muttered, to herself as much as the shadow, setting one disc spinning on her fingers. That was not Yuki. The expression helped a lot, really. But on the whole, the conviction doesn't exactly help and she makes no move.

Something about what their announcer said bothered her, but she can't figure it out, her mind, her whole body, oriented towards the threat in front of her... Still, it's niggling.

[swordofzero]

The pilot wasn't alone because her shadow double was with her. Suzaku slowed only enough to bring his sword in front of him in a ready stance. He had to be careful; even as his brain was screaming at him to be reckless, kill all these shadows that had massacred his friends. But this one was close to her real self, and though Suzaku knew she was perfectly capable of looking after herself he had also fought her a lot of times. He knew how capable she was with a weapon.

These shadows were even better than those they took the shape of, the pilot was among the best fighters in the room, she was better than Suzaku- not that he would admit it to her, but she would be pressed to win alone against herself.

Suzaku reached her and faced her shadow, all who he had promised to protect were dead, but he would continue a little longer, Kallen deserved to live; he would help her to do so.

[swordofzero]

As Suzaku reached Kallen's side his shadow version approached her other side and gave her a small twisted grin before standing to attention, even shadow Suzaku managed to look formal. "Do you want me to take him out Kallen?" And it might be assumed he was talking to the shadow of Kallen, but no he was looking at the real thing.

"You know, save you the trouble of killing him for the second time," he chuckled darkly and moved to stand by the shadowy Kallen, his sword ready.

[queenscheckmate]

Kallen closed her eyes and mentally cursed. This was bad, real bad and she didn't want to admit defeat here. And hearing the other shadow's words meant that Suzaku was near by.

"You should have left me," the teenager said to Suzaku, opening her eyes, the male finally in her line of sight. There was no way she was getting out this situation... not without her dying first.



"Now, that wouldn't be any fun at all Kallen." The shadow taunted the other girl before looking over at Dark Suzaku. "He's all yours. I wouldn't want to dirty my hands again."

[swordofzero]

Suzaku shook his head slightly; he might be a murdering, traitorous, failure but he would not leave an aly in danger. "We're taking them down," he muttered, sounding much more confident then he was feeling. But it didn't matter they would fight; they were on the same side for once. They would defeat their shadows, or more likely be killed by them. But he would never think of leaving her.

[swordofzero]

"You're both pathetic." The shadow of Suzaku told them before sweeping over towards Suzaku, sword up and ready to strike.

"Failed again Suzaku? There all dead, Lelouch, Euphy, Nunnally, Rolo," he grinned back at Kallen, "Sulu, and it's because you both are failures."

More dark chuckling, a twisted version of the laugh that Suzaku so rarely gave anymore. "But don't worry, you aren't going to live long enough to feel too guilty!" He went to strike.

[letsdownherhair]

The shadow's plan was slightly flawed, but Rapunzel's tug on the hair made it easy to follow. Inky hair slide over the gold as she stalked over to the girl. Rapunzel pressed against the wall, holding out her whip in barely trembling hands.

"S-Stay back!"

[queenscheckmate]

So that confirmed it. Lelouch was dead. "I'm weaponless," Kallen said to Suzaku, eying her gun on the floor. She was a fighter, but she wasn't insane. There was no way she could fight off a machine gun at close range...

Or could she...?

"Sulu... his death and his blood is on my hands cause I should have saved him. But I won't let his death blind me in rage and regret." She closed her eyes and sighed. She whipsered out Sulu's name. Once she gathered herself, she opened her eyes once more.

"Suzaku..." she started, "I'm going to tell you this and you and you're going to have to trust me on this. You know we can't take down our own shadows. But you and I... we're each other worst enemies. I'm sure you know what that means."

Kallen was going to have to make this count. She ducked down to slide in between her double's legs, grabbing her gun on the way, quick to aim and shoot at Dark Suzaku. Although Dark Kallen's gun fired, missing Kallen, now bullets were going towards both Suzakus.

[queenscheckmate]

"I could say the same for you." Kallen didn't even give the shadow a chance to see who the voice belonged to. She fired her gin, destroying the shadow.

Once the evil one was gone, she bent down next to Meryl's corpse. "I'm sorry."

[princesspowerful]

Molly stalked closer to her prey, cracking her knuckles threateningly as she did. The shadow cackled, "Are you afraid?"

[warpwhatsir]

Kallen, Kallen, Kallen. A bullet? Really? Whether it was to slow him down or not, it certainly didn't get the job done. He just swerved a bit to the side and with that he's running, smooth and deadly and serious. He'd keep chasing you, Kallen, until you tired, so you'd best come up with a better option.

[queenscheckmate]

Okay he's not even slowing down. This is bad, this is bad. Okay forget trying to delay his movements, she focuses on running. She doesn't want to strike down Sulu but she has to get it through her head that it's not him. Her double already took care of that.

She reaches a pillar and hides behind it.

[leftthesafetyon]

The shadow dispelled instantly, leaving next to no evidence that there was anything at all. Upon closer inspection, it looked like a pretty large bullet went right through her chest, and she tried to move in the few seconds she had. Apart from the obvious, she seemed to just be resting peacefully.