Wave 1 - A battle of the minds.

[Mani4c]

Mani4c glared at the copy, taking the strikes without even flinching, his flesh split open, his 'blood' spilling down his torso as he grabbed the copy's wrists, squeezing down hard enough to splinter the bones in her forearms. "Haha...you hate me? I'm a freak? Is is this supposed to scare me? To make me cry and blubber like an idiot!?" Mani4c's viral aura flared out violently, a blazing corona of bright purple light flaring out from his body as his anger built higher and higher.

"You have some nerve you little parasite...taking her form, using HER VOICE to try and torment me...and to use her fears against her..." Mani4c's body became shrouded in viral energy before exploding in a flash of light, his Viral CAS having been triggered by his rage, his eyes burning with hate as he gazed at the viral copy. "You wanted fear? ooh, you'll get it...but not from me you little quim, no...I'm going to show you exactly how much of a 'freak' I can be..." Mani4c's hand crackled with viral energy. "Now...Hecate told us to despair, and you look so much like Baretta...so despair for me." With that, Mani4c sent a searing blast of energy through the doppelganger's form, making sure to inflict as much pain as possible without knocking her out or killing her.

Amaterasu struggled in Katana's grip, trying to wriggle free as fear overtook her. "No! Please, don't kill me! I'm sorry!!!" Claymore just stood there, trying to figure out what to do, when a bolt of energy shot out and hit Amaterasu in the back of the head, knocking her out instantly. "What the!?" A familiar voice came from above, along with the sound of small jet engines. "She'll be alright, I had to use a low power repulsor burst to knock her out before she hurt herself."

Forge landed next to Katana and her now unconscious mother, raising his right hand and placing it on Amaterasu's head, his hand glowing green and sending healing code into the matriarch. "This is an anti-virus program, it should clear the sensory alteration infection that's causing these hallucinations..." Claymore looked at Forge, a confused frown marking his face behind his helmet. "How are you unaffected?" Forge chuckled. "I'm not...JARVIS detected the virus and forced an emergency shutdown of my sensory recognition data...he's acting as a sort of "seeing eye dog" while this field is active." <Thankfully, the field only MAINTAINS the infection, if a person is unaffected, it isn't capable of making them see things...or RE infecting someone if they've conquered what's plaguing them. The spell is powerful, but the petabytes of code needed to activate it are incredibly restricting. It's likely that without sacrificing those viruses, Hecate wouldn't have been able to even trigger it.>

Noxus kept hammering away at halberd, firing A double Barreled shot right at the despot's sword and hammering the blade with his fist. "I will break that blade, and then I'll break YOU!!!"

Sylux spoke to Seras, hacking her communications code to enter a private conversation. "I'm not getting any sentient viral code on my scanners Miss, I'd recommend that you keep watch in case one of those fucking Generals shows up, but before then, I need you to locate any active NPD officers for me. We're going to mount up and storm the castle, all of us at once. and I'll give you the honor of putting a bullet in their heads. Sound good?"

[Grufurion]

"Actually, stay outside of the Arena for now. I've got a bad feeling that whatever is going on, we might end up affected by it. Also, you're under arrest later for hacking an official NPD com line, but only once this is over," Seras replied. As the ship rose higher, she managed to get a good look at the on going mayhem. Priming her weapon, she fired off three sniper rounds towards Halberd, and one more at Gat in an attempt to level the playing field a little. "Sir, I'm not quite sure what happened after that red explosion from one of the enemy avatars, but the Arena was changed to isolate our forces, just as we thought. I'm laying down suppressing fire while outside of the Arena, and being careful about picking my targets," she said.

[Saber]

The corrupt Baretta started to roar in pain, her body distorting from the viral surges, before shreds of her viral limbs began to splinter out and fly towards Mani4c as shrapnel, regenerating and flying at Mani4c relentlessly in response to the violent assault from the viral avatar.

"Mom!" Katana held Amaterasu tightly, panicking when the matron was struck from behind, but relaxed slightly when Forge was the one to respond to the surprise attack from his repulsor blast. When he said he was going to isolate and cure the virus, she held Amaterasu tightly "That's so much of a relief, thank you!"

Baretta had to back herself into a corner, blocking most of the oncoming barrage of bullets with her shield and using the added cover to take aim with her pistol, a spray of homing scatter bullets flying at Gat, who promptly dodged out of the way, but not without some damage to one of his thruster boots "You little bitch! I'll kill you slowly for that! The twin spammer guns shifted to a shotgun and a blade disk launcher, firing the disks at Baretta's shield and causing her to rear back when one of the blades embedded itself into the surface of the shield "...Mani4c...Please hurry..." Just as Gat was going to fire at Baretta with another disk, a bullet connected with his armor from behind, causing him to stagger forward "What the fuck?!" Looking up at the one who shot at him, the blade launcher shifted into a rocket launcher, and a small rocket headed towards the hovering craft, at roughly 60 mph "Piss of, fucknuggets!"

Halberd continued to stride forward, getting closer to the gunfire while his hand was glowing brightly "...You will never break me, weakling. I've taken everything from you but your existence...Something I intend to rectify..." Lifting his hand up, he fired a fully charged blast of energy at Noxus. But before he fired, three bullet rounds struck his back, and forced his aim to shift to the side, scorching off half of Noxus' arm. The blast proceeded to destroy one of the walls leading outside, and struck the bleachers of the arena, shaking the entire structure.

D!Saber grit his teeth and unleashed his limit break as well, but something happened in mid transformation. the form only stuck partially, the sword more of a longsword than a large breaker blade, and the doppelganger's muscle tone was somewhat more emaciated compared to Saber's "Wh-How?! Why can't I finish my transformation?!"

Saber started to walk toward his dark double, sword hefted over his shoulder, and his free hand balled up into a fist "Data mining can only go so far on a broad scale, it seems. You can't transform because you're a viral parasite, coded to look like me, talk like me, and act on my fears. Your code isn't suited to be compatible with the complexity and memory consumption that this form takes on...I feared every day that I may become like you someday...But no more...Today, I strike my fears down forever!"

Swinging horizontally, another breaker wave flew forth at D!Saber, who barely dodged with his somewhat larger form. But Saber quickly closed the gap, his Flash blade making him too quick for the viral copy to react. Before he even knew what had happened, Saber had delivered 7 solid strikes with his sword, crippling him, but not close enough to delete him.

"I think it's time I put one of my new blades to use here. I'm feeling a little ballistic..." His sword shifted into a gaint gun-blade, and Saber aimed it at the copy's head before firing a powerful slug from the barrel. There was nothign at first, but a shocked look in the dark copy's eyes, before it began to dissolve in a red mist of code.

Saber then looked around, noticing his confined box, his sword shifting into it's Burst blade "...Now to get out of here..."

Saber's search didn't go for long, as the arena shook from the impact of what felt like a massive blast. Noticing where the blast came from, he knew that whatever this 'spell' did, it wasn't in conjuction with the arena's pocket battle function "Time to make my exit..." Rushing for the nearest wall, he leapt forth and swung his glowing blade at the solid surface, the explosion breaking a hole big enough for him to walk out of.

Rift sighed as Seras responded with some rather upsetting news about the arena "...confirmed, Seras...Only engage on confirmed hostiles!" Looking to Shepard, it was clear to her that he was worried about the situation "...We have no inside intel on what's going on. I can't contact Dagger or Huntress on their status...This whole thing is going out of control."

[Mani4c]

Mani4c shrugged off the shrapnel, roaring as he lifted The viral duplicate up and hucked her into the wall that separated him from the real Baretta. "Now...DIE!" Mani4c blasted forwards, grabbing the fake's face and barreling through the wall, using her as a battering ram.

The wall exploded behind Gat, the duplicate Baretta's savaged body skidding across the ground before being finished off by Mani4c, who darted forward and smashed her head into a thick, bloody paste with his fist. He looked up at Gat as the Baretta clone dissolved into code, and saw him terrorizing Baretta. With a vicious, animalistic snarl, Mani4c loosed a powerful blast at Gat, striking him square in the back and sending him crashing into the dirt. Mani4c stormed forward. His eyes blazing with brutal malice as he tore his cloak away and tossed it over his shoulder. "GET AWAY FROM HER YOU FUCKING BETA! SHE BELONGS TO ME!!!" 

Noxus staggered back from the blast of energy, looking at his melted arm before looking at Halberd angrily, he raised his path blaster, and simply blew the Despot's legs out, dropping him to the ground. "I knew you were fake, you know...Integrate has been out of your hands for at least a few months now...I honestly wish I could see your pathetic true form...raging like a child with his toy taken from you." Noxus walked forward shifting his arm into a long, slender blade from the elbow down. "I used to fear you...but now, I see you for what you are...a pathetic child trying to get back at the people who made you." Noxus used his spearlegs program to pin Halberd's arms to the ground, stopping once he was within arm's reach of the criminal. "You aren't even worth torturing..."

Noxus stabbed Halberd through the face, an almost disinterested look on his own as he withdrew the blade and walked away from the rapidly crumbling corpse. "You will fall, and I will be there to see you rage against your fate..disgusting creature."

(Eis' speech will be in italics for this post, he's going to be speaking with Justicar a lot here.)

Justicar dashed forward, his battle against his past self had raged for what seemed like hours, his blade clashing with his opponents, never able to get a hit in...and now here he stood, his opponent's blade buried to the hilt in his chest. "You cannot kill me Justicar, surely you've been seeing them, the ghosts of our past." Justicar growled angrily. "The weight of our sin! So many killed because you couldn't see past your antiquated morality!" "OUR morality! You ARE ME Justicar...and I am you. And guilt you feel is of your own making, not mine!"

Justicar tried to pull the blade free, only for it to freeze his hand to the grip and drive sharp ice deeper into his wound. "Ugh!" Eis chuckled, "Even Yukianesa agrees with me...she will not give her power to someone without the stomach to do what is right!" Justicar grunted in pain as he tried to pull the blade free, only for a massive shard of ice to erupt from his neck. "HARGH! G-gaagh..." Justicar's vision began to dim, his sword slipping from his grip as his fingers went slack. 'I-is this the end?"

Justicar's body began to go limp, only for a soft voice to speak inside of his head. "He's wrong...there is more to doing the right thing than being ruthless...you must make peace...please Eis...no, Justicar...own your past and make right through the future!" Justicar's breathing became shallow, 'I...I can't...the memories, the shame...it hurts to remember, let alone fight...' "I know that it hurts, but you must! You are a proud man, a noble man...to remember your crimes is a pain most harsh, I know this...because I fought along side you...when you commited those crimes." '...Yukianesa...w-why do you want to save me? I'm not your wielder any more." "Because...I am the one who sealed you inside that shell, and now it is time to come out and fight for justice...TRUE justice." 

Justicar was silent for a moment, his memories flooding back as he neared death. He had been ruthless, the "Cold wind of the Mountains", a warrior who butchered anyone who broke the law...even out of necessity. Remembering what he was, what he had BECOME in the underground, and in the PariahTech server...it was pain beyond any wound. But then, he thought of Noxus, of Forge...and of Amplify. "Yes! Remember WHO you fight for, not just WHY! Use that as your power, not vengence, not anger! Justicar...let your shame go...walk into the future with the people you love."

Justicar's head snapped up, his other hand gripping his frozen one as he began to pull, the ice in his chest cracking and shattering as he slowly began to extract Yukianesa from his chest. "You forgot one thing Eis...We ARE the same man..." Justicar let out a pained groan, grabbing as hard as he could and yanking the blade, ripping it free from his chest with a spray of blood and glittering ice. "Which means...I have strength far beyond what others expect of me!" Justicar sprinted forward as Eis lunged, dodging the flurry of ice spikes sent his way as he dashed Past Eis...his blade slashing clean through his torso.

The phantom swordsman dropped to the ground, a glowing line separating his upper body from his legs. "Now vanish...and rot in the rivers of time...your anger and sins shackle me no longer Eis." Eis collapsed forward, flashing a blinding white and exploding in a blast of ice and snow as Justicar stood, his first blade clutched in his fist. "I am my own master now..."

Chakram rolled to the side to avoid a blast from his doppelganger, who was now sporting several holes in his body, courtesy of Chakram's Metsu Hadoken and Dagger's Shuriken shredder, as well as a blood red aura as his anger consumed him. "I WILL RIP YOU ALL APART!" Chakram smirked, "Sure you will, and then Dagger and Merge will have 10 children and live in a castle made of gumdrops and ice cr-UGH!" All it took was one misstep, and Chakram was blown across the room by his dark half, his 'ribs' caving in from the force of a vicious haymaker. "Gugh, f-fuck..." Chakram spit a wad of blood onto the floor, wiping his mouth. "Alright...no more messing around...got it." Chakram looked at Dagger. "Brother...I have a contingency plan, I don't think your or my attacks are enough...we need to turn his own hatred against him, force him to unleash a massive attack using all of his might, and then redirect it at him before moving in for the kill. But I need time to access what I need to do this, give me five minutes, please."

Sylux rolled his eyes, "Yeah, Yeah...I'm under arrest. If you knew who I rolled with before I turned face, you'd probably have blown my fucking head off honey. Just focus on providing fire support." Sylux activated his ships scanners, trying to see what the viral flare was actually DOING to the people inside the Arena.

[Saber]

Gat was sent flying into a wall from the blast of viral energy. The helmet-clad head facing Mani4c, then the broken in wall "...Huh...Mistakes were made..." Aiming his arm at Mani4c, a strange launcher replaced the useless rocket launcher, and fired a condensed black mass at Mani4c. As it got closer, the back, ball-like mass exploded into a large net, flying at Mani4c.

But the net only got so close before an explosive round forced it to change its path, striking Mani4c's arm before falling to the floor, useless "...I'm not going to let that happen again!" Baretta had her gun aimed at exactly where the net was when the explosion went off, her barrel smoking "It's over...Take your lumps like a man..."

Saber exited his prison through the forced open wall, noticing the entire area was still red. Hefting his sword over his shoulder, he scanned around, until he saw what looked to be another prison in the distance. Deciding to head in that direction, he prepared his sword for another explosive strike.

Dagger nodded, looking at Vermin and Widow, who didn't seem too happy about the thought of going against Chakram's dark double "...We're all gonna die..." Dagger rushed at D!Chakram, vanishing with his cloaking field before leaping silently over the dark copy and hurling his shuriken shredder from behind. Widow and Vermin both split up, surveying the situation from different angles.

[Mani4c]

Mani4c hooked his finger around the net, shredding it open with a flick of his wrist. He didn't even acknowledge Baretta, all of his attention focused on Gat as he stalked towards the doppelganger. Mani4c's posture was unusual, a sort of half hunched walk that made him seem larger than he was, though the burning corona of viral code that ate away at the ground beneath him did MORE than enough to make him pants crappingly terrifying to anything with a sensible mind. "I'm going to enjoy this~~~~" Mani4c's voice was a low, acidic hiss, his eyes filled with homicidalglee as he approached Gat. "I'm going to take you apart...and eat your still screaming body alive!~" 

Gat just raised his spammers, shifting them into a fully automatic form before unleashing a spray of bullets at Mani4c, who just stormed through the bullets, sprinting right at Gat before leaping into the air. The viral avatar roared at his quarry, tackling Gat to the ground. "Now....DIE!" Mani4c raised his arms and began to pound and pummel Gat with vicious blows, cracking his armor and denting his helmet until Mani4c finally decided to sink his fingers into the criminal's armor, ripping it off with an earsplitting squeal of torn metal. "DIE...."

Mani4c began to pummel and slash at Gat, the criminal not even able to scream past the animalistic pounding that he was on the receiving end of. Mani4c finally stood up, Gat half dead from his brutal assault, the viral officer grabbed Gat's skull, his fingers digging slowly into the savaged man's skull, until with a sickening CRUNCH, Gat's head imploded in a spray of bone and grey matter. Mani4c dropped the doppelganger's corpse, absorbing it's code as it disintegrated. He gazed at his hands, his body crackling with purple arcs of energy as he reared his head back, bellowing in rage as a blast of viral code erupted around him.

Justicar looked at the blade, it's light shimmering in the void he was...still trapped in. "I thought that this damn illusion would've been broken by now!" Vapour walked up to him, "This isn't an illusion, the virus was supposed to drive you mad with fear, but the damage to your psyche forced you into a deep sleep state." Justicar sighed, "So...I'm stuck here then?" 

Spectre and Lupo, walked up to join Vapour, Spectre shaking his head when Justicar said that they were stuck. "No...there is a way out. A strong enough burst of energy would kickstart your systems, but it would come at a cost..." "There isn't any way for you to produce the energy on your own, the wolf spirit could do it, but the energy surge would be uncontrolled, you would need a SENTIENT spirit to kickstart the process, and control the energy surge...or, in this case, THREE spirits." Justicar's eyes widened, "No...no goddamned way! I refuse to let you do such a thing!" 

Vapour sighed, "There isn't any choice Justicar! We have lived long lives, far longer than we were supposed to have existed. We cheated death, joined you, and though our time together was short, we ALL wouldn't have traded the chance to live again through you for anything." Lupo nodded, a small smile on his face. "You're outvoted here kid, it's better for us to go than you. You got a lady waiting for you, and friends who need your help."

Justicar clenched his fist. "I would lose your abilities, and you...for nothing but to wake up!?" Spectre chuckled, "No, the wolf spirit would unlock your past form, giving you new power, and freeing up your memory for more abilities." Lupo stepped forward, placing a hand on Justicar's shoulder as he and the others began to glow white, a large azure wolf appearing behind them as well. "You aren't losing us kid...just taking the next step alongside us...now, get back out there and kick some ass for us!" The white clad samurai was silent for a moment, looking at his companions before nodding. "Thank you...all of you, for everything." The spirits just smirked at Justicar, giving him a final nod before they, along with the wolf spirit, vanished in a burst of blinding light.

Justicar's body was laying on the ground in the arena, having been unresponsive for almost 20 minutes, when it suddenly became consumed by a pale blue light. A bitter cold wind filled the air, and the Samurai was encased in solid ice. his processors began to speed up, his energy consumption levels shooting to an almost unbelievable degree, even as his core temperature dropped like a stone.

Chakram brought his hand to his face, white lightning crackling around his body as he began to compile his "surprise". "I need about 5 minutes! Hold him off until then!" The doppelganger just snarled when Dagger vanished, sweeping his hand out and creating a blast of energy that completely shrouded him, blasting the shuriken shredder away from him. The projectile shot through an open window and sailed across the Arena, Mani4c following it's path as it struck a nearby wall. (Chakram's "surprise" will be ready by next post.)

Sylux's suit let out a low beeping sound, signaling that his ship's energy scans were complete. "Hey, police girl, the scans are in...it says that it's safe to enter the hot zone. Seems like the virus is set to maintain itself once it's deployed." Sylux flew into the virus field, his ship's scanners already pinging multiple contacts. "Hmm....Police Girl, I'm getting multiple contacts, tell me if you recognize this one." Sylux sent Seras the scan data, the contact Sylux was referring to would be instantly recognizable to Seras as Noxus' NPD IFF code.

[Grufurion]

Seras managed to prime her rifle, and unload a shot at the rocket Gat had shot at the gunship, making the explosive prematurely detonate before it could do any real damage. The explosion was high enough from the Arena that it was out of range of doing anything harmful.

Seras looked away from her scope, trying her best to figure out what was going on. There was far too much carnage going to properly get any real idea what was happening, if what Mani4c was doing was any sort of base to go on.

When next she got a transmission from the avatar she hitched a ride from, she took a look at the data. "Belongs to NPD, and one I know well enough. Remain outside of the Arena. I don't want another speeding rocket coming towards us without some time to react," she replied.

[Saber]

Baretta noticed the flying projectile, following it to the opposite side of the arena "That looks like one of Dagger's shuriken attacks."

Saber noticed the interior of the stone prison glowing, and smashed it down with an explosive strike from his blade. When the rubble cleared, he had to shield his eyes from the blinding light coming from within.

Dagger dodged the deflected projectile, narrowing his eyes at the aura surrounding Chakram's doppelgänger. Aiming both pistols at the clone, he started to fire a peppering assault of silenced blasts at the dark double, keeping it distracted as he leapt from wall to wall, keeping his location obscured. Vermin and Widow were pooling their resources together, Widow hurling a bolas of explosive charges at D!Chakram.

[Mani4c]

Mani4c watched as the shuriken shredder smashed into the wall and detonated, ripping apart the wall and revealing that Hecate had been taking cover inside to cast the spell. "Hecate..." Mani4c's eyes flared purple, his body slowly floating upwards before blasting off towards Hecate, his body cloaked in viral code. "HECATE!!!" Mani4c's voice was laced with hatred, almost sounding insane.

Claymore looked up and Saw the explosion, as well as Mani4c streaking towards Hecate. "It would seem we've found the source of our troubles..." Forge scoffed, "Good, maybe we'll be luck and she'll get deleted for good."

Justicar's icy prison suddenly began to crack and splinter, a harsh white-blue light shining through the glacier, the ambient energy around him spiking so high that anyone near by would easily be able to detect it, even without extra equipment. ((If you want Saber to find him, feel free.))

Chakram's body began to glow as his new program finished loading, "Samuel, authorize the program!" <You got it mate! Authorizing White Fang CAS!> Chakram's body exploded in a bright flash, his form changing slowly until finally, his new CAS was revealed with a sweep of his arm. Chakram grasped his wrist, rolling it to see how his joints were working in his new body. "Hmm, good, no movement errors, even at version .05 I'm doing pretty good, power consumption aside."

The Chakram Doppelganger looked at his counterpart, deflecting the bolas and bullets with a blast of energy as he fixed his eyes on Chakram his gaze angry. "Pathetic! You refuse to use a power that could crush your foes, instead relying on cheap tricks!" Chakram chuckled, "Cheap tricks? Well, if you're so sure, hit me with all you've got...unless you're scared.~" D!Chakram roared, his hands crackling with energy. "I'LL FUCKING OBLITERATE YOU!!!" Chakram sent a silent message to Chakram, Vermin, and Widow. <Stay back, I've got a plan.>

Sylux checked his scanners, noticing Hecate was the source of the virus. "Well Police Girl, that woman that the viral cop is shooting towards? That's the source of this virus, try popping some shots off at her!"

[Grufurion]

Seras tried to get a clear shot in, but Mani4c had suddenly filled the vision of her scope, making shooting at the viral impossible without injuring him in the process. "That's a no go. He's in the way, and I can't get a clear shot in. Are we still unable to contact everyone in the Arena?"

[Saber]

Dagger glared at Chakram's dark double, leaping back behind the double and launching his next attack. His explosive shuriken overload came down at Chakram like a hailstorm, explosive throwing stars hurtling down and exploding around dark Chakram, causing a deafening explosion just outside of the barrier's reach that dulled the copy's audio sensors, the smoke from the explosions obscuring his visual sensors "Now!"

Saber could sense the overexertion of power coming from further inside of the walls, shielding his eyes enough to keep from being blinded from the bright light. When he came upon a large ice sculpture, he could sense whatever was inside was letting out the power output, and was cracking the ice open. Speeding the process along, Saber sheathed the sword on his back, his hands radiating a pulsing aura. Thrusting forward, he connected with both fists and delivered two explosive punches to key areas of the sculpture, splintering the entire thing and making the structure too brittle to contain whatever was inside.

Baretta noticed how furious Mani4c had become, chasing after the viral avatar, and barely able to keep up with him as he pursued the viral witch. "This is Baretta reaching out to all channels! Does anyone copy?!" <Baretta! Thank the creator! What happened down there?!> "I'll explain in my debriefing report. Mani4c and I are pursuing one of the viral generals! Have you heard anything from any of the other officers?" <Nothing yet I'm afraid. Deputy officer Seras has acquired some additional assistance from an unknown acquaintance, everyone else has been too unresponsive to report in to HQ.>

[Mani4c]

Mani4c lunged, grabbing Hecate's head and savagely beating her face in as he roared in anger, smashing her in the face several times before throwing her out of the new hole in the wall. "Aagh...w-wha!?" Mani4c flew towards the sorceress again, thrusting his right hand forward and firing a concentrated beam of viral code that burned a dinner plate sized hole through Hecate's belly, her body weak from using all of her power to summon the fear virus.

Hecate hit the ground, Mani4c landing nearby and storming up to her. He grabbed her by her chest plate, bringing his hand back as he began to claw, punch and pummel Hecate, ripping tracks in her face with his nails and cracking her skull with every punch. "FUCKING DIE YOU WORM! YOU FILTHY PIECE OF GARBAGE!"

The miniature glacier that had formed in the arena exploded in a hail of ice shards, most of the ice shooting high into the sky as two figures dropped to the ground. One was Justicar, who seemed half conscious, like he had just woken from a deep sleep. The second looked like a more heavily armored version of Saber's original body, and was getting to his feet unsteadily. "I'm...separated from Justicar!? I thought that I would have been destroyed with the others..." 

The man patted his arms and chest, looking at his body to see if everything was in their proper place. "It seems that things are in their right place..." The man looked at Saber, tilting his head inquisitively. "Hmm, I wondered when I would meet you...I was made to copy your powers after all." The man nodded at Saber, a wry grin on his face. "Name's Alpha...and I'm a real boy now."

The Chakram Doppelganger growled and drew his hands back. "METSU HADOKEN!!!" The doppelganger fired a large blast of energy at Dagger, only for Chakram to seemingly appear from nowhere right in front of his brother. "Hmph, I'm far faster in this form...do you really think that I'd let you harm him?" Chakram lifted his left hand, bringing it to the armored headband that covered his left eye and grasping the cloth strip.

"Let me show you a special trick, designed specifically for enemies who like to "beam spam" as Mani4c would say..." Chakram pulled the headband up, revealing a red and black eye, his pupil shaped like a bladed pinwheel. "KAMUI!" A pitch black rift in space suddenly opened in front of Chakram, sucking in the Metsu Hadoken before sealing shut. "Now for part 2!" 

Chakram looked behind his doppelganger, his eye becoming bloodshot as he spoke. "K-Kamui!" The portal opened again, the previously absorbed Metsu Hadoken flying from the rift and blasting the Doppelganger from behind. "GRAAAH!" The Doppelganger was flung from the corridor, crashing into the Arena below as Chakram looked at Dagger. "P-prepare another Shuriken Shredder, but don't throw it...I have a plan."

Sylux looked below as Mani4c savaged Hecate, only for the massive explosion to grab his attention as the doppelganger flew through the air. "Things are going fucking crazy down there!" Slyux looked further down, a large, armored figure grabbing his attention. "T-that's impossible! Brigadier is fucking dead!"

There were several yellow-orange blasts of code flying through the air, Brigadier trying to hit something...or someone. "Shit! Hold on Police Girl, Huntress is in trouble!" Sylux gunned the throttle, setting the ship to linger above the center of the Arena as he unhooked himself from the controls of the Ship, running down the rear ramp, past Seras, and LEAPED from the ship, his arm glowing bright blue as a cyan energy blade extended from an angular protrusion attached his Armor's right arm. "I'm coming Huntress!"

[Grufurion]

"Oh for the love of..." Seras muttered under her breath while fiddling with her belt. Unlatching one of the magnetic anchors from the ship deck, she casually walked over the side, and hung horizontal with the ship. She now had a clear view of most of the arena. With her feet planted in the hull, she retook her aim on the viral Mani4c was currently assaulting. "Damn..."

She tapped her earpiece once, and spoke, "Shepard, this is Seras. Mani4c's going ballistic on a viral avatar, possibly the one that caused the disturbance in the Arena. I believe it matches the profile for a criminal viral known as Hecate. Requesting a shoot to kill, sir. Mani4c doesn't look like he is going to let up."

[Saber]

Baretta finally caught up with Mani4c...just in time to see him going savage on Hecate, tearing her to shreds. It took every ounce of willpower in her to run to Mani4c and grab his shoulders, trying to pry him off of her mangled body "That's enough Mani4c! She's beaten!"

Saber looked quizzically at this strange double, his eyes narrowed as memories of recent events put him on edge, to the point where he reached for his sword handle. But when this copy, introducing himself at Alpha, began to act polite and calm towards Saber, he began to relax. He looked down at the unconscious form of Justicar, then to Alpha "...So, you came from his code then?"

Dagger was about to dodge out of the way of the blast, but Chakram's timely appearance and counter-attack on his dark copy made his act otherwise, surprised that his younger brother was capable of such a technique. When instructed to form another shuriken shredder, he nodded "Distract him until I can form it. I'll need about 5 minutes before I'm ready." Looking over at Vermin and Widow, he signalled for them to run interference as well, and they started preparing traps around the area at surprising speeds, explosive web traps that could be used to Chakram's advantage.

Rift was looking at Shepard, knowing full well what decision she was going to make. Before he could agree with her, they were cut off <Do not engage! I repeat! Do not engage! I am attempting to subdue Mani4c, the situation is too erratic for a clear kill shot!> Rift looked over at Shepard again as Baretta spoke"...It's your call, Shepard..." While Shepard was making her decision, Rift reached out once again to Huntress, attempting to get in touch with her and find out her status "Huntress, come in. What is your sit-rep?"

[Mani4c]

Mani4c stopped, if only for a moment, shoving Baretta away from him with a decent amount of force, his expression showing that if it'd been anyone else who'd done that, he'd have killed them. "No...she dies here and fucking now!" Mani4c began pummeling Hecate even harder, His fingers wrapping around her throat as he began to throttle her. Hecate's vision was swimming, half delirious with pain and lack of energy, Mani4c's face morphing into a familiar visage. Hecate's lips pulled into a mad, loving smile, "A-Abra-xaas..." Mani4c's eyes widened, dropping Hecate to the ground as she looked at him with that sickening look. "W-what?"

Mani4c looked up, noticing that a few of the troopers, including Delta Squad, were awake and staring at him. One of the troopers raised his rifle hesitantly, "S-step back sir!" Boss stormed up and grabbed the trooper's rifle, shoving it towards the ground. "You stand down officer! That's your commanding officer you'r aiming that rifle at, not the psycho who led this invasion!" Sev stepped in front of Mani4c, leveling his rifle at the assembled troops. "If you all want to be shot for attempted murder of a superior officer, go ahead, I'd be happy to indulge you." Mani4c took a single step back, his eyes flicking to Baretta for a moment before suddenly taking off in a flash of purple energy, streaking across the sky before vanishing from sight.

Omega shrugged, "Yes and no, Noxus created me from scratch, I was based off of a programming pheomenon called  "Souls". Basically, think of it as a lingering remnant of a deleted avatar's "will", I was made without a stable body, more of as sentient CAS mod than anything...at least until the others sacrificed their energy to kickstart Justicar's systems after that psychotic bitch put him in a coma with that spell."

Chakram nodded, leaping down and landing on the ground below before rushing at his doppelganger, throwing his arm to the side. "Blade!" A black bladed sword appeared in Chakram's hand in a burst of light, the young Cyberblade holding it out in front of him as he charged forward. "Vermin, Widow, you're on backup! Harass him and give Dagger time to create another shredder!"

Sylux hit the ground, breaking into a run almost instantly, ready to strike out at the Brigadier clone and save Huntress...only for the Armored copy's head to explode in a blast of smoke and smoldering embers. "The fuck!?" The copy collapsed onto the ground, shattering like a mirror and revealing Huntress. "I'm fine Rift! I couldn't talk cause I was breaking my foot off in Brigadier's asshole!" She then looked up at Sylux, pointing at him and shouting. "Who the fuck're you!?"

Schatten and Kaizer were still locked in battle, their blades flashing in the darkness and clashing against each other again and again, sparks leaping through the air as they battled. "Hmph, I expected more from you Kaizer, I'm hardly pushing myself." Kaizer scowled behind his helmet, using his telekinesis to huck a chunk of concrete through the air at Schatten, giving himself a bit of room to back up and create a more stable defense. "And yet I still live."

Shepard sighed when she heard Huntress' voice. "Thank god...Huntress, once this is over, we need to look for Mani4c, he had a bit of an...episode, and flew off to the northeast." Huntress nodded, "You got it Shep, thanks for the heads up...and tell Rift to relax, I'm fine.~"

[Grufurion]

Seras blocked out the fact Mani4c suddenly zoomed away after whatever scare he was given, and lined up her shot. With nothing in the way, she squeezed the trigger without hesitating, and the bullet flew out of the end of her rifle towards her target. She didn't feel any hesitation as she watched the bullet travel down towards Hecate, anticipating a direct hit with the viral's head.

[Saber]

Baretta's look of shock didn't help Mani4c's case any, as he suddenly took off. And Baretta had to sprint on foot to the exit to try and catch him "Mani4c! wait!"

Saber crossed his arms as he looked down at Alpha, listening to his creation at the hands of Justicar's souls "...So...They're gone then..." He sighed softly, scratching his neck "Can't say I liked all of them...But they'll be missed, for sure." He looked down at the unconscious Justicar, before reaching out to Rift and Shepard "Saber to HQ, reporting in. I was separated from the rest of the group and had to face some manifestation of myself." He chose to leave out what sparked the manifestation, moving on to bigger issues "I have reunited with Justicar, he's unconscious, and there's a manifestation of one of his remaining souls here with us. Please advise next plan of action?"

Once rift received a response from Huntress, he sighed in relief. He was grateful that she was okay. When Shepard mentioned that they needed to hunt for Mani4c, almost on queue, another officer reported in, one that was all too familiar <Shepard! This is Baretta, I need your help! I've lost Mani4c, but I think I know where he might be heading. Please, I need flight tech to chase him down asap!"

Just as the bullet was traveling toward Hecate, in almost an instant, a blur of a figure flew into the path of the bullet and smashed it out of its current flight path, smashing into a wall close to the section where Delta squad and the others had Hecate in their custody. The distraction of the huge bullet crashing into the wall gave just enough time for Ripper's wolf doppelganger to weave through everyone and snatch Hecate, shifting to human form before leaping silently over everyone and running along the wall to the exits.

Ripper was hanging against the wall of the arena, watching his doppelganger carry Hecate away. Thorn had already taken to the skies, but not before firing a massive dark ball at the wall where the officers were no doubt chasing after the doppelganger.

"Say no more kid! One distraction comin' up!" Vermin lobbed several det-packs at Chakram's dark copy, firing at them with his gun to cause explosions just outside of the copy's barrier's reach, kicking up a lot of dust and smoke once more and obscuring his vision. Widow rushed forward and started to weave a web in the room around dark chakram, keeping just out of the barrier's range and forming an orb web all around it. When the barrier finally dissipated, Widow yanked on one strand of webbing and the entire web collapsed in on itself and formed a cocoon of sorts. Vermin then tossed another couple of det packs at dark chakram, the packs connecting with the webbing and exploding powerfully against the webbing, and dark chakram with it.

Dagger had one hand in front of him, the other gripping his wrist and focusing. He was trying to rush rebooting the program, because it was still cooling down, but he was making some progress and could feel the program booting up again "Almost there..."

[Mani4c]

Shepard sighed when Baretta told her about Mani4c running off. <We're aware Baretta, when the situation stabilizes, I'm having Huntress go after him-> Huntress suddenly cut Shepard off, her voice coming in over Baretta's head communications channel as well. <Actually Shepard, I don't think Mani4c would respond to anyone besides Baretta at this point. Let's get things under control, and once we're done here, I can give Baretta my gunship's access codes, that way we've still got a heavy hitter if shit goes bad.> Shepard was silent for a moment before answering. <Fine, just be careful Baretta, we've lost enough fucking officers for the last decade or so.>

"I suggest killing Hecate and the Generals, but then again, I have a personal reason for wanting to kill her." Alpha looked and saw Justicar getting to his feet, his hand clutching his helmeted head. "How're you feeling?" "Like hammered shit, thanks for asking though."

The Doppelganger stood up from the rubble, portions of his framework exposed by the blast as he roared in a rage, firing blast after blast at the trio of NPD officers. "Both of you, break off!" Chakram leaped into the air, avoiding a blast of energy that would've vaporized him had he not dodged. <Dagger, status report!>

Schatten slashed the piece of debris in half before firing a kinetic blast at Kaizer and whipping his blades at Kaizer simultaniously. The blast knocked Kaizer back, stunning him and leaving him wide open to his blades. The blades scythed through the air, cutting off his right arm and shredding his left shoulder, making the despot drop his blade. "UGH!" Schatten caught his blades, charging a blast of energy in his hands before dashing towards Kaizer and firing the burst at point blank range and sending him crashing through a concrete wall, slamming against ANOTHER wall, and then tumbling to the ground.

Delta Squad immediately opened fire at Ripper and Thorn, Sev switching his rifle to sniper form and popping a few rounds off at Thorn's wings in an attempt to bring her down. "Open fire Deltas! Don't let them get away without a few new orifices!"

[Grufurion]

Seras looked up from her as she watched the bullet be completely redirected at the last possible second, gritting her teeth at how ridiculous it was to have her bullet practically backhanded away. She then watched as a doppelganger carry the viral away before anyone could capture her. "Oh no you don't!" she yelled, slinging her rifle behind her. She was halfway into her yell as she loaded up her Harkonnen into her hands, holding it tightly as she aimed for the nearest exit the wolf was traveling towards. Squeezing the triggers, an explosive round was fired at the exit, destroying it completely before an escape could be made. She was thankful the descent of the round increased the speed it traveled.

"No way am I letting that one get away!" With the round used up, her anti-tank cannon became numbers as it was reabsorbed into her code once more. She was quick to release the magnet keeping her anchored to the gunship, and feel into a free fall as she dropped down into the arena. To be sure the wolf didn't turn back, she brought her rifle up, and fired rounds towards the ground behind it, close enough to cause some alarm. Each managed to make her flip or spin, the recoil acting as a force since she no longer could keep herself from moving. Reloading her weapon, she used this to her advantage as she fired off a few rounds to move herself through the air as she dropped, even firing some up into the air to further increase her descent speed.

[Saber]

Baretta stopped just outside of the arena, practically in tears with no one there to see her. Mani4c was AWOL, but they said that they needed her here, in case they needed a heavy hitter. She merely hung her head in shame and disconnected the audio link with Shepard and Huntress. They didn't know what happened in that red mist, they didn't know the truth "...I'm no heavy hitter...I'm an outdated combat officer who can't overcome her own fears..."

Saber walked over and helped Justicar stabilize himself until he could keep upright "I'm not going to ask what happened. Given what I went through, I don't want to know what you had to deal with. But we still have some mop up duty to finish here, think you're up for it?"

Vermin and Widow broke away from the rampaging dark copy, Vermin letting out a goofy cry of fear in the process. Dabber was in the back corner of the area, stealth mode activated and still concentrating on getting the attack ready. <Almost...Ready...Got it! Make your move when you're ready.>

((The wolf is in human form btw)) The doppelganger was being pushed back at every turn, trying to find another escape route. With Seras' Harkonnen stopping it in its tracks, it did the only thing that was an option at that point. It dropped Hecate's mangled frame and with a swift motion, drew and decapitated the witch, deleting her. The unnecessary baggage dropped, the doppleganger's speed wasn't limited anymore, and it was much faster in responding to Seras' attacks more effectively now as it began heading back into the arena, keeping her attention at ground level.

With no one minding him, ripper watched the scene unfold with Hecate and his clone, a mild smirk on his face "...Nothin personal..." His focus back on escaping in one piece, he ran along the audience benches, leaping up row upon row until he was at the top of the arena's round external wall. Noticing the gunfire coming at Thorn, he sprinted along the wall before kicking off and using his impressive speed to deflect bullets just long enough for Thorn to dive and get out of view. By then, Thorn had used the momentum of the dive to gain far more distance than before, and Ripper was already on foot, in wolf form and sprinting away. Once out of range, the doppelganger simply burst into data, just as a bullet crashed into its body.

The mind controlled administrator had altered the isolated location of the pocket battle arena Schatten and Kaizer were in, placing the respawn location somewhere outside of the arena's interior. Thorn made sure to brief Schatten via a silent message [Schatten, Hecate's little mind games were a failure, and we've lost the arena nest. Hurry and finish Kaizer off, before they regain access to the arena controls! I've had the admin readjust your respawn location to outside of the arena before killing him, to give you a head start on escaping.]