Rift Arena Round 2 Part 2

"AND WE ARE READY FOR THE FIRST FIGHT OF THE DAY! AMY TOLSON VERSUS DUST! AMY ARMED WITH THE CROSSBOW AND DUST ARMED WITH THE ZAT'NIK'TEL! LET'S GET THIS STARTED!" ARi shouted over the loudspeakers. The audience, if there was one behind the solid glass, roared in approval.

Amy looked around at the arena and muttered to herself, "Oh you have to be kidding me."

The large fighting area had been turned into some sort of crazy sliding block puzzle, with random giant cubes of sand shifting left, right, up, down, diagonally, into the air and down into the ground. It looked like Salvador Dali made an M.C. Escher-style painting.

What all of this did for Amy, however, was make her dizzy from the frequent and rapid changes in which way she was facing and what height she was at. Focus, Amy. FOCUS. Keep the head straight, look only in one direction. Quick changes in how the head is positioned. You can do this. Just find where that weirdo scarecrow is.

Of course, Amy had no idea what Dust was doing. He could be just as confused and disoriented as her, but for all she knew, he could have adapted to this like a fish to water. She had absolutely no idea what his gun skills would be like. For all she knew, he could be a crack shot that made her look like a rank amateur.



"You have no idea what you're doing, do you?"

"Carbo, I think I can handle a simple handgun."

"It's pointing the wrong way!"

"And how do you know that?"

"How ELSE is it supposed to point?"

Dust grumbled and decided to let Carbo have this argument, switching the way that the gun was pointed. It looked right to HIM, at least.



"And both competitors are off! Each trying to find the other before they themselves are found! It's a tense cat-and-mouse game! Let's see how the two are able to cope with the 'adjustments' that were made to the arena!"

ARi, just what are you trying to do? Fred thought as he rode one of the robots towards the room that ARi had gathered all of the competitors. What in the world had that idiotic electronic bitch been THINKING? Did she not seem to realize that he was Fred, while she was nothing more than a few wires he could purchase in literally any other universe? That he controlled everything in this dimension he himself had created from literally nothing? That he was her GOD?

When he had arrived, he kicked down the doors to the room. The other six competitors were watching the fight between Amy and Dust on a giant screen that had been provided for them by ARi. Fred's violent intrusion caused everyone inside to immediately turn to him. Everyone was confused with what he was doing here.

He angrily walked over to the table and asked aloud, "Where was Amy Tolson eating?"

Lydia stopped chewing on some of the food that Amy had left behind and slowly carried it under the table with her. Fred used his time field to instantly appear next to her, hit her with a few choice nerve pinches to make her collapse, and appear where he had been standing in less than a second. He sniffed at the plate of food, licked the turkey, and then shoved it into the robot. "Analyze this. Now. Have it done three minutes ago then send it to me." Fred then materialized out of the room, leaving everyone inside confused about what exactly he had been doing.




Amy climbed up yet another cube, hoping that she might somehow be able to go four steps without stepping on a cube that sank into the earth. She needed to have height if she wanted to make the best use of her weapon, but it seemed like luck just wasn't on her side; the whole arena seemed out against her.

Once or twice she saw Dust in the distance attempting to get close enough to hit her with his weapon. Strangely, he seemed to have absolutely none of the problems that Amy was having. He was actually able to have a smooth running surface that ended up being several feet above her, with the only jumps and turns he had to make being easy to predict and do. He had all the luck, while she didn't.

Amy did not believe in luck. Especially when it was as clearly imbalanced as it was right now.

Fortunately for her, Dust was a horrible shot. He tried to make some hits, but most of them were wide, and those that weren't were still not close enough to worry over. The only problem was that Amy seemed to be equally unprepared with shooting a crossbow. She was further surprised by the effects that the arrows had when they were fired. The fire arrows did turn out to create large bursts of flame that nearly burnt Dust to cinders, the lightning arrows did almost shock him, the darkness bolts did…something, she wasn't sure what. But almost all of them kept missing. The only time that Dust seemed to be hit was when Amy fired two water bolts at him. He looked like he had been dragged from a pool for the rest of the time he was chasing her.

Dust had, however, decided to make up his lack of overall skill with a gun by utilizing the "spray and pray" strategy. He was firing so many shots off in Amy's area that she was angry that the gun didn't eventually run out of ammunition or overheat or whatever it was that guns like that did.

Amy tripped, falling face first on a block that had risen up to the level of her ankles. The crossbow skidded away from Amy, and the quiver of arrows that she had strapped to her back spilled out everywhere. Dust jumped down to Amy's level, ran towards her and jumped up on top of her back, stunning her for a quick second.

"Well, this ended quickly, didn't it?" Dust said.

"Please…please no, please," Amy begged. She wasn't going out like this. She COULDN'T go out like this. Her mind scrambled, attempting to think of anyway that she could eliminate this dripping wet scarecrow.

"Dust, are you going to end this or not?" Carbo asked impatiently. "The longer stay your hand, the more time-"

"I know what I'm doing," Dust replied to Carbo. He looked down at Amy. "Look, this might shock you, but I'm not going to kill you. I just need to knock you out, and I'll win." He leveled his weapon at Amy. "You can thank me later."

If Amy thought she had the time, she would have used some sort of pun. The moment just seemed to scream for it. But Dust had, unfortunately, given her an idea. She quickly reached for a yellow-tinted bolt and stabbed Dust in the leg with it as hard as she could. The jolt her hand received involuntarily caused it to fly back. For Dust though, whose clothes were dripping wet from the arrows she had fired earlier, the effect was less pleasant. He let out a scream, a loud howl of pain, surprise, and confusion. His body shook several times before finally collapsing to Amy's side.

Amy slowly backed away from the twitching Dust, grabbing her crossbow bolt and loading it with another arrow just to be safe. After several seconds, Fred's voice cried out. "Your winner, Amy Tolson." There was no inflection in his voice, no mood. He said it like he was reading it from a book he didn't particularly enjoy. A giant beam of light appeared to collect Dust, and then one more for her.



"I guess you were wrong, Ian," Summer said. As the screen above them faded to black.

"She got lucky. He had her dead to rights there!" Ian countered.

" 'Had' isn't 'has', though."

Ian waved her off dismissively. Dev, however, pondered the screen carefully. "Did anyone else notice ARi?"

"What?" Summer asked. "No, I didn't. Why?"

"Neither did I," Dev replied. "And doesn't that seem odd?"




When Amy arrived back from her disorientating travel, she heard the tormented screams of ARi, with Fred standing over her hologram. "I would have THOUGHT you would be more CAREFUL! If you don't want me to have something, you should TELL ME!"

"But…but Master Fred, you---you hate when-"

"YES! YES I DO! AND YOU DON'T SEEM TO KNOW THAT!" He pressed the button again, and ARi's screams somehow became even louder.

"Will you cut that out?" Amy shouted over the noise. "What are you even doing???"

Fred simply glared at her and activated his time field. He hit 50% of the major points on her body, well more than enough to temporarily paralyze her for a few minutes. Amy fell instantly, landing directly on top of Dust's still immobile, but breathing, body. "In the FIRST PLACE, Tolson, don't you EVER think you can question me. EVER."

Amy tried to say something, but her mouth refused to move. "Oh, oh, oh dear. I am so DREADFULLY sorry," Fred said in the sincerest voice in the world. "Please, allow me a moment." He snapped his fingers and a beanbag chair was summoned. He gingerly carried Amy over to the large sack and gently placed her down. "There, are we comfy? Feeling better?" Amy could only move her eyes as Fred tilted his head and waited for a response. "Yes? Very well then."

"Now, as I was saying, what I am doing is doing a bit of enforcement. You see, if there's one thing I hate, it's people who just can not accomplish their sneaky goals SUBTLY. And if they can't, especially if they're against me, I decide a bit of punishment is in order. You understand, don't you?" Fred looked at Amy as though he were seeking her personal approval. Amy only let out a trapped moan. "So, when I found out how sloppy ARi here had been with trying to rig your match, well, I couldn't help but be slightly…overzealous."

Amy seemed to have enough ability to move her lips. "R-----ri------g?"

"Oh, of course! Obviously! Your opponent there, Dust? He was supposed to face you in some sort of extreme close-quarters combat weapons match-up! He was determined to be the most likely person to defeat you! And ARi personally rigged it so that you would fight him! And the turkey you were surved? Filled…oh my goodness," Fred began to giggle, "filled…with diazepam! Enough of the stuff to make a cow sleepy! But…oh wow, this is the funny part…she didn't check to make SURE you'd eaten it! She was so confident that….oh, excuse me." Fred continued to laugh.

He soon stopped, however, and leaned in very close. "I just thought that it was important that you know this, because I will never stack the deck against you. At least, not in such a boring way. Maybe chop off your legs, have you fight someone who has no arms, that I can get behind. But something like that…pathetic." He snapped his fingers again, bringing forth another ray of light that transported Amy back to her room. When she could finally fully regain control of her limbs, she screamed in frustration and shouted "ARi!!!!"

When ARi appeared, Amy simply glared a hole into her. "You. Talk. Now."