One Shot

(Open POV)

Gamma Tech Stadium…

"Welcome everybody to GAMMA TECH STADIUM!" The announcer yelled, while there was a lot of crowd cheering. "Ladies and gentlemen! Are you ready for some Tempest?!"

(Jared's POV)

Pod…

Lamar, Masa, Tari, and I go inside a kind of pod where computers are. Masa sits down and checks his interface while Lamar sets down the bag on the floor. 

Theo pops up as cards pop up a bit, "That was really uncomfortable, Lamar. Why do you have so many cards, Lamar?"

"You never know when a fool might want to duel you!" Lamar said, excitedly.

"Only if this was Yu-Gi-Oh." I said, clutching the strap of my sling bag.

Tari walks over to see the window, "That's…. a lot of people down there."

"Tonight 100 players in squads of four will face off for the chance to win that exclusive player contract with Raptor Gaming! A lucrative AMD computer sponsorship! And a position in Silica City's Challenges League!" The announcer said, angrily.

Masa swipes through his UI as the rest of us also get ready.

"It…wouldn't be too late to back out now…would it?" Tari asked.

"This is the only private tournament that's still connected to TASCorp's servers." Masa said.

"Yep, and Sofia's had to use every resource we had to sneak us in here." Lamar said.

"I asked Yui, an artificial intelligence from my time, to help mask Sofia's MAC address." I said, looking down at the floor. "She's a good friend of mine."

"As much as I hate to admit it…This thing is happening." Lamar said, letting out a sigh.

Tari sits down and checks her UI too.

"Alright, all competitors are loaded and we are ready to go! Count it down with me folks! 10! 9!" The announcer said, keeping counting down.

"Stick to the plan! Top of the mountains, no distractions." Masa said.

"See y'all on the other side!" Lamar said, excitedly.

"Yahoo! Let's go!" Theo cheered.

I placed my AmuSphere on my head, over my face, and closed my eyes, "Link Start."

"ZERO!" The announcer yelled.

Tempest…

Tari gasps as she then starts to get a portal vision to warp into the game but the vision glitches out a bit as she wakes up in a void place. She looks at a figure who is actually Lucinia.

"Hello? Do I know you?" Tari asked, reaching out for Lucinia.

Lucinia falls down. I looked over at the cliffside where Tari is at. There is a shot of magic hitting a group of players as it shows the scene of a warlike frenzy going on in the scene. It then shows MD-5 and I huddled up in a safe place as we try to keep Tari safe. Tari then wakes up with a jolt as she sees the chaos and battles going on.

"Hurry up! We need to find some spells!" Competitor 1 cried, as a spell I launched hit him. "AAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!"

"FRAZIER!" Competitor 2 said, and he also gets hit too. "AAAAGGGGHHHHH!"

"Damn…we could not have gotten a worse spot!" Lamar said, annoyed.

"Hey guys! Tari's up!" Theo chirped.

"About time!" Masa said, worried.

"Oh, wait, what happened?" Tari asked.

"Tari, you've been knocked out since the game loaded. We had to hold up here just to keep you safe." Lamar said.

"Part of the reason why I asked for Yui's help was so I could sneak in here." I said, and an explosion happened close by in the background. "Tari, I knew you'd become MIA."

"I'm so sorry, this never happened before!" Tari said, while a spell caster shoots some ice shards in our direction.

"Look out!" I said, as Lamar puts up a forcefield as the ice shards shatter on contact.

"Save it for later. Right now we need to move out and grab some spells. Let's go!" Masa yelled.

"Stay close, Tari! This Force Shield is the only spell we've got right now!" Lamar said, terrified.

We ran amidst the chaos until luckily one guy got demolished which caused him to drop the spell book which Masa picked up. This allowed Masa to spawn knives. Two competitors show up as one starts shooting finger blasts as Masa dive rolls out of the way and aerials while also spinning to shoot the knives. The other guy with the armored legs butterfly kicks as he does a cheat 720 to take down the knives. The guy with the armored legs then starts to shoot blasts of light. Masa dodges as he backs handsprings away. 

Lamar shows up in front of the two competitors as he taunts them, "How y'all doin'?"

The two look at each other and decide to shoot lasers as Lamar then sets up a force shield which blocks their attacks.

"Damn dudes! That is obvious bait." Lamar said, annoyed.

"Seriously?" I asked, freezing the two competitors on the spot. The two competitors drop some books and a scroll. 

Lamar goes to pick up the scroll, "Ooh, where'd y'all find such rare gear?"

Theo picks up the book for the finger gun lasers.

"I…have…THE POWER, HAHAHA!" Theo said, shooting lasers wildly a bit.

Masa picks up the spell book too as his legs get armored as well. Tari picks up a spell book which then allows her to spawn a hand filled with dark ethereal energy which responds to her hand movements. A man yelling as he is running gets demolished by a magic spell as menacing footsteps could be heard. Four very menacing and ominous competitors show up as they are masked. A competitor tries to run up and attack but he gets blasted and demolished away. One of them then shoots a fireball straight at Tari as Masa flying sidekicks it away as he spawns some knives as to which he throws them by front hand springing. The mysterious person then blocks by spawning a circle.

"Second from the left has two A-tier Spells. Team, stay alerted!" Masa said, angrily.

"EAT BLOOD!" Theo said, charging in as he shoots finger lasers.

One of the four decides to spawn a pillar of earth to throw the other member high into the air by making the uppercut motion as he also throws himself up into the air too. Then the other decides to shoot and presumably the other guy as well. 

Lamar then puts up the Force Shield to block, "The shield can't take much more Masa!"

They then drop down from gravity as the guy then runs up and blasts forwards a kind of shockwave. This causes Lamar to be blown away.

"Tari! Theo! Jared! Play defense! Lamar, use your Scroll and get us out of here!" Masa said, worried.

"Way ahead of you! Next stop, wherever the hell this Scroll takes us!" Lamar said, pulling out the scroll as he kips up into action as he uses it as a sigil appears next by the mountain.

Masa, Tari, Theo, and I then come up to play defense as the other of ominous four still are on the attack as the one with the bird mask runs up as she tries to prepare to fire off a spell. However, Tari was quick and spawns the dark hand as she attacks as the one with the bird mask just dodges left and right.

"Agh! Dang it!" Tari said, annoyed.

The bird mask then shoots a spell straight at Lamar as I froze it.

"Haha!" Theo said, shooting a massive amount of finger gun lasers.

The one with the normal mask then stomps the ground as he throws the ringleader it seems up with a pillar of stone. The ringleader seems to make a spell where Dark Clouds appear. This causes us to gasp for a second as the ringleader then rains down meteors.

"Lamaarrrr, hurry up!" Theo said, worried.

"Lamar, my ghost powers work faster than you!" I said, looking down at the ground.

"Y'ALL DON'T THINK I'M GOING AS FAST AS I CAN?!" Lamar exclaimed.

As Tari braces herself, we teleport just in the nick of time before the meteors could ever hit. The ringleader looks a bit puzzled as she then decides to just go forth. We appear where the sigil was located as we have teleported there.

"Are we dead yet? Oh well, this is much better." Theo said, happily.

"You all right?" Lamar asked.

"Hm? Yeah I'm fine." Tari said, sadly.

"Sure? Seem a little off your game. Why don't you take a second and catch your breath?"

"We've got bigger problems now, Lamar. You ported us to a cliff and none of us have Mobility Spells." Masa said.

"Hey. Blame the teleport RNG, not me. I was just trying to get us out." Lamar said, scoffing.

"This is why I hate teleporting RNG." I said, letting out a sigh. "I'd rather teleport under my own free will."

"Jared, you can get away with it in the real world. Not here. Your ghost powers are the ultimate cheat code." Masa said, frowning.

"Okay. Okay. But…where do we go now?" Tari asked.

"To be honest, I don't think we should go anywhere until we figure what's going on with you." Lamar said, looking at Tari.

"What? Nothing's going on with me."

"You blacked out at the start of the game. Jared had to jump in to help us protect you. What if that happens again during a fight? Or while we're climbing?"

"I feel fine! You don't need to treat me like I'm made of glass Lamar!"

"I understand your concerns Lamar, but our priority is to get off this cliff. Otherwise, we're just easy kills." Masa said.

"Um…" I said, looking at the three competitors.

"Yeah, but…" Lamar said.

"Hey! BlueJay9, Ecchi_Emperor92, Masa, Theo. You guys!"

"What?!" MD-5 and Theo exclaimed.

"We've got company." I said, pointing in the direction behind us. 

There were three competitors up ready for a demolishing. One swings their sword, one is ready for a fight as they have sparkling fists, and the other just throws a ball of energy as they throw it at Tari. Masa and I run away as Tari gets flown back and through the cliff. She then tumbles down the cliff as she takes some damage as the screen then fades to black. Tari then wakes up as she coughs. She finds herself in some ruins as she walks around. She then finds a spell book as she picks it up and absorbs it. She then gets the ability to spawn an icicle spear. Just then she hears a sound as she finds the one wearing a coconut mask and who was part of the ominous four is there as Tari yelps and panics as she puts on her mask reflexively. Tari then throws some icicle spears as the coconut mask uses the wind burst spell to throw himself into the air as he dodges. He then spawns a few magic spells to hit Tari as Tari spawns the dark hand and grabs a slab of rock to block the projectiles. The coconut mask guy then shoots a blast of wind slamming Tari to the wall as she is on her knees. Tari is then struck by a seeming random fireball. All of the ominous four shows up as the squad leader has fire on her hands as she is ready to presumably demolish Tari. As the fire is close and ready to shoot a random laser wipes out the fire as it hits the wall. This startles the ringleader as she turns to see who did it.

"CRACKERJJJAAAAAACCKKKK!" Theo said, sliding down the hill with his coconut as he jumps off the ramp.

The ringleader then shoots some fireballs. It does not do much of anything as the coconut then bonks the ringleader on the head. Theo then lands.

"Abracadabra!" Theo said, casting a healing spell on Tari.

The one with the bird mask tries to shoot a spell but was interrupted by a laser that blew her back. 

Lamar then drops down as well, "Hey y'all, what's good?"

The ringleader tries to summon the storm of meteors again but some crows appear as Masa was up in the moonlight with me. Masa shoots some sword beams and I shoot out some ice shards at the ringleader. Masa tries to slash his sword at the ringleader but she disappears using a warp spell.

"Team! Give them hell!" Masa yelled.

"RIGHT!" The rest of MD-5, Theo, and I said, at the same time.