Mini-Grand 5110 <Round 2: Chrome City>

Originally posted on MSPA by Ixcalibur.

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“You make the fact that you are a bunch of brain dead buffoons perfectly transparent.” Scarlet replied. “A quick lesson; someone with any sense asks questions first and makes threats later. Okay so I take it you’re not buying that I’m from a branch of Team Unity from out of town. Well that’s sort of a relief, there was only so long I could fake intelligence on Team Unity’s operations before it tripped me up. Ignore the fact that I’m here without authorisation, I’m still here for a reason and it would be in your best interests to see what that reason is. As it happens you are looking at the only woman in the entire world who knows what the hell your recent acquisitions are; and what kind of a welcome am I given? I’m met with a Neanderthal, a broken man in a metal chair and his pet pig. From what I’d heard about you guys in the limited time I’d been here, well I was expecting better than this.” Scarlet looked down at the burnt scrap of paper upon the floor. “So you can burn things with your eyes. Good for you. Please find me a competent human being to speak to or I will do something worse. I’ll turn and I’ll walk out of that door and you’ll never see me again and while that would be very very painful to anyone who tried to get in my way it would be especially painful to Team Unity as a whole. Do I make myself clear?” There was a long silence.

“How about you shut up or I’ll burn you alive?” Jewelia sneered.

“Fine.” Lady Jaska replied. Jewelia had called her bluff; of course she was not going to leave while her opponents were elsewhere in this complex. It was rather unfortunate that the course of action Jaska was forced to pursue was significantly less pleasant than that which Scarlet might have taken. In one fluid movement she had drawn a blade that she had sheathed in her belt...

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The pair of unidentified battlemonsters had been ordered down to one of the empty research labs, Thomice had been ordered to escort them down. It seemed likely that he would be required to stick around as they worked out what these battlemonsters were. Sure it was only grunt work, maintaining the temperature of the frozen specimens, refreezing them should they become a handful, but it was better than being out on the streets waiting for his big break. Thomice was ambitious, one day he hoped to be a major player in Team Unity. By then he would have more than the one enhancement under his belt of course. In fact if he had his way he would see to it that he had whatever part of that butterfly that gave it such impressive wind powers implanted into him. He just knew that one day he was going to change the world. He could almost taste it.

The laboratory in question consisted of a pair of adjoined rooms, one of which empty save for the padded surfaces and the heavily locked doors while the other was filled with consoles and equipment designed to measure that what happened in the other room. The observation room had a bank of monitors which displayed images from various tiny cameras embedded into the walls of the testing room. The ice blocks had been placed into the testing room and the heat had been turned up from one of the consoles. Thomice’s role here seemed to be extremely limited; a pair of resentful technicians was working around him to get things ready to see what these battlemonsters could do.

As the test was about to begin Doctor Elm and his lumbering assistant Sherman arrived. The doctor had opted to forestall visiting his father for the moment so as to witness the test. He wanted to know what all this fuss was over and ultimately if it had been worth potentially compromising the headquarters for these unusual battlemonsters.

PLEASE PROCEED
JUST CARRY ON AS IF I’M NOT EVEN HERE

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In the testing room the contestants and their battlemonsters were waking up...