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Chapter 8:  Some things are better left SAID

(Global Soul Association (GSA) headquarters, Spirit Clash Information division, News room (News for the TV), Ganren Island)
‘Why, oh, why did the tournament have to start today?’
This sentence had been on Walter Rodriez’s mind for the past 2 hours, from the second he had arrived at work up to now.
‘First, my wife divorces, then, I find out Jim’s getting married without inviting me, and to top it all off, my kid’s in Juvey!  Juvey!  I ask, what else could go %$#ing wrong today??’
“Oiy, Señior Rodriez!”, shouted his assistant, Pedro, running over to him.
“(Sigh) Yes, Pedro?”
“Señior Rodriez, I’ve got those reports you wanted on the current stats of the Brazilian team!”
Skimming through it, Walter asked, “Anything interesting?  (Cough!)  And please, stop calling me Seynior, or whatever it was.   It’s been 5 months now!”
“Well, Se-Sir, from the recent data we received this afternoon, Team West USA has finally gotten it’s two new pairs.”
“Bout’ time.”, muttered Walter, finishing reading the data.
“Umm, sir?”
“Yeah?”
“There’s more to it than that.”
“Well, spill!  I ain’t waiting all day!”
“Well, in addition to Team West USA getting it’s two final pairs, the remaining teams have reported in and confirmed their places, members, and entries.”
Feeling as though a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, Walter said, “Well, what do ya know!  We can make the announcement about the tournament staring.  Finally!”
Walking fast past Pedro, Walter shouted to him, “Thanks!  You’re getting a raise for this!”
Then, opening a door and entering the newsroom, Walter went over to his fellow anchorman and told him about it.
“About time!”, his partner exclaimed.
After hearing it, the studio quickly got things ready for the newsbreak.
“We go live in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!!!
Turning to smile his fake smile at the Camera, Walter said “Hello, and good morning World!  This is American Walter Rodriez, and Britain Thomas Yasher coming to you with breaking news!”  Subtitles appeared on the bottom on the bottom of the camera, sending translation in all languages to every corner of the earth.
“Yes, Walter, it seems that it’s once again time for the World-Wide Soul Clash!  Where teams from all over the world compete to determine who is the cream of the crop, the top-dog, the finest there is!  Let’s go to the map!”
On screen, a map, roughly the size of the screen, appeared, displaying the entire world and indicating the various teams competing.
“It seems like the entire worlds competing this time!”, said Thomas
“Yeah, I haven’t seen this many countries battling for supremacy since 2211!”
“Let’s take a gander at some of the competition this year, eh folks?”
“Let’s not be too hasty there, Thomas.  For all any of us know, none of them could come even close to beating the Champion.”
“True, true, Walter old boy.  The Champion has been undefeated for the past 6 or 8 years, quite a feat for one as young as him.”
“Yes, but let’s not get to pessimistic, shall we?”
“Quite.  Anyway, This year, we’ve got a good number of rookies, roughly making up 30-40% of this years teams.”
“Well, I hope these rookies were ripe for the picking!”
Both laughing at the joke, they continued the report.
“Good one, Walter old boy!  You kill me sometimes.  Anyway, Folks, what’s most surprising, like we said, is the amount of fresh meat we’ve got this year!”
“Exactly.  Is it a new generation of power?”
“Or a massacre in the making?”
“To be honest, I think we’re going to have some good fights this year.  My gut’s are telling me so.”
“We’ll see, Walter old chap, we’ll see.”
“Anyway, back to the map.”
The camera zoomed in on the map, as two points on it blinked in red and blue.
“And it looks like we’ve got the first math of the tournament!  Usually a crowd enticer, those first matches.”
“Yes, and this year, the first match appears to be between Canada and Portugal.”
“Ah, Portugal.  This country is known for its passive tactics, primarily along the line of evasion.”
(back at the RV)
Katie had just explained about how with their entry, Team West USA was officially in the tournament, and the international spirit clash had officially began.
“Wow,” said Lance.  “All that was keeping the tournament from starting was some indecisive nations.”
“Pretty much.” Said Ken.
“Yes, yes, that’s all fine and dandy, but I think it’s time we discussed each other.”  Interrupted Niko.
“How?”  Asked Alice.
“Well, you all obviously know what kind of strikes we have.”
“Wait.” Said Lance.  “What do you mean ‘kinds of strikes’?”
“You mean you don’t know?”
Seeing Lance shake his head, Katie sighed and went over to a wall next to the table.  Reaching up, she pulled down a chart, with multiple images stacked on top of each other.
Opening a pointer, Katie said “Alright, I’m only going to explain this once, got it?”
Lance, Silver, and Toshiro sat down, curious as to what she was going to show them.  Niko just watched, a little distraught that his own counter-part didn’t know what he was talking about.
Pointing to the first chart, Katie said, “Okay then.  Here’s how it works:
No matter how unusual a strike is, it can be categorized into one of 3 or 4 types of attack.  The first type, ‘or element’, is the Energy type.  The Energy type is divided into three categories, the first of which is the Burn element.  The Burn element is divided into thee primary kinds of attacks:  Fire, Sun, and, more rarely, Lava or magma.  The next category in the Energy Types is the ‘Shock’ element, more commonly known as electricity.  That is put into two separate categories, the ‘Lighting’ category, and the magnetic category, which has the sub-type, the ‘Wave’ type.  The next and final type of the Energy element is the Rush element, which has two categories, liquid, things like water, venom, etc, and gas, which has air or anything that you can think of that can be in vapor form, like poison.  The second Element is the Form type, which is divided into two categories, the Shift category, which is Transformation, Growth, and Shape, and the Boost category, which enhances certain abilities, such as enhancing speed or strength.  The Third and final element is Planet element which has two or three categories.  There’s the gravel category, divided into things like sand, rocks, earth, minerals and steel.  The next category is the tempest category, which has things like Air, Wind and Ice. The last category, period, is the Depth category, named so for the depth, metaphorically, it covers, which are things like sound, light, shadows, etc.  Now, from what we’ve seen, Toshiro and niko might have either the Earth or Boost element.  Lance might have the Planet element.  End of lesson!”
Walking away, Katie took a seat back at the table, forgetting to put the charts back in its former position.  Roy, noticing this, rolled his eyes and went over to the charts to roll them back into place.  He pulled the string.  Nothing happened, and he tried thee more times.  A twitch mark appeared on Roy’s head and he pulled incredibly hard.
THWIP!
“Uh, Roy?”
“I KNOW, YA TWIT!!”
He was hanging sideways, completely curled up on the charts. (Think to that one time Garfield got stuck in the house blinds, end everyone eventually got stuck.)
As Roy thrashed about trying to get out of the charts/blinds (I don’t really know what those things are called.  Does anyone?), the others continued explaining things to Lance, Niko, Toshiro and Silver.
“So, when you said that we weren’t equal in terms of our strength, what did you mean exactly?”  Asked Toshiro.
“What do you mean?” replied Ken.
“Well, just where do we stand in terms of strength?”
“Well, given certain events, you four are most likely sort of advanced rookies.”
“Advanced rookies?”
“Yeah.  I mean, everyone’s at one stage or another in this tournament, in terms of levels.  There are three, maybe four stages, with rookie being the lowest and expert being the highest, second only to the enlightened stage, of course.”
Excitedly, Lance asked, enlightened stage?”
“Yeah, the Enlightened stage, also known as the master stage.   You see, only a handful in the world have ever achieved that stage.  It’s that hard.”
“Wait, then where does the champion stand?”
“The Champion?”
“Yeah, just how powerful is he?”
Biting his lip, Ken said “Truth be told, no one quite knows what level he’s at.  Some say he is beyond the level of the enlightened, while others claim he is between expert and enlightened.”
“So, where do all of us stand in stage terms?”
“Well, you four are most likely at the ‘Advanced rookie stage, as no ordinary rookie could get on this team.  Sis here is at the experienced intermediate stage, most likely anyway.”
“Experienced intermediate stage?” questioned Silver
“Yes, the experienced intermediate stage.  You see, in every stage there is a ‘sub-stage’, from ‘novice’, which is reserved for those who have just entered, or are still in, that stage, experienced, which is the middle sub stage, and the advanced, which means that they are very close to entering the next stage, r that they are very skilled, for that stage.  Now, I am probably at the experienced intermediate stage.”
“Wait, “ said Toshiro “If you’ve been in this tournament for quite a while now, shouldn’t you be at least at the Expert level?”
Glancing sadly, and fearfully, at Jack, Ken said “I would be, if things weren’t so…hard at the moment.”
Understanding almost immediately, Toshiro nodded his head.
“Yeah, I guess, that would make things…difficult.”
“Anyway, Alice is at about my level, possibly higher.”
“Possibly higher?” asked Alice, smirking, and crossing her arms over her chest.  “Are you being honest, or are you just being sweet?”
Smiling sheepishly, Ken said, “Well, maybe a little bit of both.”
Grinning, Alice said, “Keep talking like that, and it just might get you something.” before wrapping her arms around Ken, and kissing him on the cheek.
Seeing the newest members of the team’s confused expressions, Ken said, embarrassed, “I guess I might have forgot to mention.  Alice and I are sort of a couple.”  (I sincerely hope he doesn’t seem like a gary-stu)
Toshiro, surprised, said, “That’s a little unexpected, but I’m, how does Lance say it…’Cool’ with it.”
Lance, however, had a different opinion.
As he and Silver made gagging sounds indicating their dislike of ‘romance, Niko asked, “Well, that’s nice and all but can you finish where you left off?”
Turning himself away from Alice, Ken continued, “Roy and Warren are at the intermediate stage as well, around the same as my sister.  Do you have anymore questions?”
“For now, no.”  Replied Niko.
“Wait!” exclaimed Lance “You’ve seen our strikes, but what is everyone else’s strikes?”
Having finally gotten out of the Blind/Chart, Roy, while grinning wide, said, “Ya’ll just have to wait an’ see for the answer to tha’t question!”
The rest of the day passed without any real events, save for Lance and Roy engaging in an arm wrestling contest, each of them muttering something about showing the other a thing or two, lightning streaming from their eyes.  (I smell a rivalry. )
(Later that night)
As everyone went to bed to get ready for the next day, which Ken had said was the day that they would NEED the rest for, , Toshiro and Lance went to their new room, where they found Roy, Warren, Jack and Ken sleeping, each in a small bed (Or in Roy’s case, a hammock).  They found two available beds and a small cupboard for their clothes.
Niko hoped onto Toshiro’s bed and curled up in such a peaceful way, that even a hardened criminal would soften up a bit.  Silver curled into one side of the room, where a small dog bed was waiting for him courtesy of Lance.
Yawning, Lance plopped onto his bed and almost immediately fell asleep, muttering a ‘Night’, in the process.  Pulling out a piece of paper while in bed, Toshiro began to write.
‘Quite a few things happened in the last couple of days, mom.’ Toshiro thought, as he wrote his letter to his step-mother.  ‘It’s kind of hard to believe it’s actually happening.  I mean, any second now, I expect to wake up, and be sleeping in the hotel room, or in my room back at the house.  It’s really a lot to take in.  First, Lance and I are on Team West USA, officially!  Apparently, their scout, Katie, had been watching our matches, seeing how we fared and stuff.  The team itself is, well, interesting to say the least.  Two of the members, Ken, the leader, and Alice are a couple, which is quite surprising, given their individual appearances.  I think that Lance and Roy, one of the other members, have stricken up a rivalry, one of those ‘You tick me off to no end’, type of rivalries with each other.  Or at the very least, they just hate each other’s guts.  What’s even more surprising is the fact that *Great uncle* Henry is the driver!  I’m surprised he still has his license, considering my birthday party last year.  Anyway, I hope I don’t wind up screwing things up for everyone.  I’m already a ‘worry-wart’, as Lance has said.  We’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?  Well, goodnight!’
“Mmmmm…Brownies.”  Lance said in his sleep, a small amount of drool coming from his mouth.
Sweat-dropping, Toshiro concluded ‘ Oh…and Lance says hi.’
Folding the letter and putting it in his pants pocket, Toshiro leaned back and fell asleep.
End of Volume one

Wink/Razz — Description
Chapter 8:  Some things are better left SAID

(Global Soul Association (GSA) headquarters, Spirit Clash Information division, News room (News for the TV), Ganren Island)
‘Why, oh, why did the tournament have to start today?’
This sentence had been on Walter Rodriez’s mind for the past 2 hours, from the second he had arrived at work up to now.
‘First, my wife divorces, then, I find out Jim’s getting married without inviting me, and to top it all off, my kid’s in Juvey!  Juvey!  I ask, what else could go %$#ing wrong today??’
“Oiy, Señior Rodriez!”, shouted his assistant, Pedro, running over to him.
“(Sigh) Yes, Pedro?”
“Señior Rodriez, I’ve got those reports you wanted on the current stats of the Brazilian team!”
Skimming through it, Walter asked, “Anything interesting?  (Cough!)  And please, stop calling me Seynior, or whatever it was.   It’s been 5 months now!”
“Well, Se-Sir, from the recent data we received this afternoon, Team West USA has finally gotten it’s two new pairs.”
“Bout’ time.”, muttered Walter, finishing reading the data.
“Umm, sir?”
“Yeah?”
“There’s more to it than that.”
“Well, spill!  I ain’t waiting all day!”
“Well, in addition to Team West USA getting it’s two final pairs, the remaining teams have reported in and confirmed their places, members, and entries.”
Feeling as though a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, Walter said, “Well, what do ya know!  We can make the announcement about the tournament staring.  Finally!”
Walking fast past Pedro, Walter shouted to him, “Thanks!  You’re getting a raise for this!”
Then, opening a door and entering the newsroom, Walter went over to his fellow anchorman and told him about it.
“About time!”, his partner exclaimed.
After hearing it, the studio quickly got things ready for the newsbreak.
“We go live in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!!!
Turning to smile his fake smile at the Camera, Walter said “Hello, and good morning World!  This is American Walter Rodriez, and Britain Thomas Yasher coming to you with breaking news!”  Subtitles appeared on the bottom on the bottom of the camera, sending translation in all languages to every corner of the earth.
“Yes, Walter, it seems that it’s once again time for the World-Wide Soul Clash!  Where teams from all over the world compete to determine who is the cream of the crop, the top-dog, the finest there is!  Let’s go to the map!”
On screen, a map, roughly the size of the screen, appeared, displaying the entire world and indicating the various teams competing.
“It seems like the entire worlds competing this time!”, said Thomas
“Yeah, I haven’t seen this many countries battling for supremacy since 2211!”
“Let’s take a gander at some of the competition this year, eh folks?”
“Let’s not be too hasty there, Thomas.  For all any of us know, none of them could come even close to beating the Champion.”
“True, true, Walter old boy.  The Champion has been undefeated for the past 6 or 8 years, quite a feat for one as young as him.”
“Yes, but let’s not get to pessimistic, shall we?”
“Quite.  Anyway, This year, we’ve got a good number of rookies, roughly making up 30-40% of this years teams.”
“Well, I hope these rookies were ripe for the picking!”
Both laughing at the joke, they continued the report.
“Good one, Walter old boy!  You kill me sometimes.  Anyway, Folks, what’s most surprising, like we said, is the amount of fresh meat we’ve got this year!”
“Exactly.  Is it a new generation of power?”
“Or a massacre in the making?”
“To be honest, I think we’re going to have some good fights this year.  My gut’s are telling me so.”
“We’ll see, Walter old chap, we’ll see.”
“Anyway, back to the map.”
The camera zoomed in on the map, as two points on it blinked in red and blue.
“And it looks like we’ve got the first math of the tournament!  Usually a crowd enticer, those first matches.”
“Yes, and this year, the first match appears to be between Canada and Portugal.”
“Ah, Portugal.  This country is known for its passive tactics, primarily along the line of evasion.”
(back at the RV)
Katie had just explained about how with their entry, Team West USA was officially in the tournament, and the international spirit clash had officially began.
“Wow,” said Lance.  “All that was keeping the tournament from starting was some indecisive nations.”
“Pretty much.” Said Ken.
“Yes, yes, that’s all fine and dandy, but I think it’s time we discussed each other.”  Interrupted Niko.
“How?”  Asked Alice.
“Well, you all obviously know what kind of strikes we have.”
“Wait.” Said Lance.  “What do you mean ‘kinds of strikes’?”
“You mean you don’t know?”
Seeing Lance shake his head, Katie sighed and went over to a wall next to the table.  Reaching up, she pulled down a chart, with multiple images stacked on top of each other.
Opening a pointer, Katie said “Alright, I’m only going to explain this once, got it?”
Lance, Silver, and Toshiro sat down, curious as to what she was going to show them.  Niko just watched, a little distraught that his own counter-part didn’t know what he was talking about.
Pointing to the first chart, Katie said, “Okay then.  Here’s how it works:
No matter how unusual a strike is, it can be categorized into one of 3 or 4 types of attack.  The first type, ‘or element’, is the Energy type.  The Energy type is divided into three categories, the first of which is the Burn element.  The Burn element is divided into thee primary kinds of attacks:  Fire, Sun, and, more rarely, Lava or magma.  The next category in the Energy Types is the ‘Shock’ element, more commonly known as electricity.  That is put into two separate categories, the ‘Lighting’ category, and the magnetic category, which has the sub-type, the ‘Wave’ type.  The next and final type of the Energy element is the Rush element, which has two categories, liquid, things like water, venom, etc, and gas, which has air or anything that you can think of that can be in vapor form, like poison.  The second Element is the Form type, which is divided into two categories, the Shift category, which is Transformation, Growth, and Shape, and the Boost category, which enhances certain abilities, such as enhancing speed or strength.  The Third and final element is Planet element which has two or three categories.  There’s the gravel category, divided into things like sand, rocks, earth, minerals and steel.  The next category is the tempest category, which has things like Air, Wind and Ice. The last category, period, is the Depth category, named so for the depth, metaphorically, it covers, which are things like sound, light, shadows, etc.  Now, from what we’ve seen, Toshiro and niko might have either the Earth or Boost element.  Lance might have the Planet element.  End of lesson!”
Walking away, Katie took a seat back at the table, forgetting to put the charts back in its former position.  Roy, noticing this, rolled his eyes and went over to the charts to roll them back into place.  He pulled the string.  Nothing happened, and he tried thee more times.  A twitch mark appeared on Roy’s head and he pulled incredibly hard.
THWIP!
“Uh, Roy?”
“I KNOW, YA TWIT!!”
He was hanging sideways, completely curled up on the charts. (Think to that one time Garfield got stuck in the house blinds, end everyone eventually got stuck.)
As Roy thrashed about trying to get out of the charts/blinds (I don’t really know what those things are called.  Does anyone?), the others continued explaining things to Lance, Niko, Toshiro and Silver.
“So, when you said that we weren’t equal in terms of our strength, what did you mean exactly?”  Asked Toshiro.
“What do you mean?” replied Ken.
“Well, just where do we stand in terms of strength?”
“Well, given certain events, you four are most likely sort of advanced rookies.”
“Advanced rookies?”
“Yeah.  I mean, everyone’s at one stage or another in this tournament, in terms of levels.  There are three, maybe four stages, with rookie being the lowest and expert being the highest, second only to the enlightened stage, of course.”
Excitedly, Lance asked, enlightened stage?”
“Yeah, the Enlightened stage, also known as the master stage.   You see, only a handful in the world have ever achieved that stage.  It’s that hard.”
“Wait, then where does the champion stand?”
“The Champion?”
“Yeah, just how powerful is he?”
Biting his lip, Ken said “Truth be told, no one quite knows what level he’s at.  Some say he is beyond the level of the enlightened, while others claim he is between expert and enlightened.”
“So, where do all of us stand in stage terms?”
“Well, you four are most likely at the ‘Advanced rookie stage, as no ordinary rookie could get on this team.  Sis here is at the experienced intermediate stage, most likely anyway.”
“Experienced intermediate stage?” questioned Silver
“Yes, the experienced intermediate stage.  You see, in every stage there is a ‘sub-stage’, from ‘novice’, which is reserved for those who have just entered, or are still in, that stage, experienced, which is the middle sub stage, and the advanced, which means that they are very close to entering the next stage, r that they are very skilled, for that stage.  Now, I am probably at the experienced intermediate stage.”
“Wait, “ said Toshiro “If you’ve been in this tournament for quite a while now, shouldn’t you be at least at the Expert level?”
Glancing sadly, and fearfully, at Jack, Ken said “I would be, if things weren’t so…hard at the moment.”
Understanding almost immediately, Toshiro nodded his head.
“Yeah, I guess, that would make things…difficult.”
“Anyway, Alice is at about my level, possibly higher.”
“Possibly higher?” asked Alice, smirking, and crossing her arms over her chest.  “Are you being honest, or are you just being sweet?”
Smiling sheepishly, Ken said, “Well, maybe a little bit of both.”
Grinning, Alice said, “Keep talking like that, and it just might get you something.” before wrapping her arms around Ken, and kissing him on the cheek.
Seeing the newest members of the team’s confused expressions, Ken said, embarrassed, “I guess I might have forgot to mention.  Alice and I are sort of a couple.”  (I sincerely hope he doesn’t seem like a gary-stu)
Toshiro, surprised, said, “That’s a little unexpected, but I’m, how does Lance say it…’Cool’ with it.”
Lance, however, had a different opinion.
As he and Silver made gagging sounds indicating their dislike of ‘romance, Niko asked, “Well, that’s nice and all but can you finish where you left off?”
Turning himself away from Alice, Ken continued, “Roy and Warren are at the intermediate stage as well, around the same as my sister.  Do you have anymore questions?”
“For now, no.”  Replied Niko.
“Wait!” exclaimed Lance “You’ve seen our strikes, but what is everyone else’s strikes?”
Having finally gotten out of the Blind/Chart, Roy, while grinning wide, said, “Ya’ll just have to wait an’ see for the answer to tha’t question!”
The rest of the day passed without any real events, save for Lance and Roy engaging in an arm wrestling contest, each of them muttering something about showing the other a thing or two, lightning streaming from their eyes.  (I smell a rivalry. )
(Later that night)
As everyone went to bed to get ready for the next day, which Ken had said was the day that they would NEED the rest for, , Toshiro and Lance went to their new room, where they found Roy, Warren, Jack and Ken sleeping, each in a small bed (Or in Roy’s case, a hammock).  They found two available beds and a small cupboard for their clothes.
Niko hoped onto Toshiro’s bed and curled up in such a peaceful way, that even a hardened criminal would soften up a bit.  Silver curled into one side of the room, where a small dog bed was waiting for him courtesy of Lance.
Yawning, Lance plopped onto his bed and almost immediately fell asleep, muttering a ‘Night’, in the process.  Pulling out a piece of paper while in bed, Toshiro began to write.
‘Quite a few things happened in the last couple of days, mom.’ Toshiro thought, as he wrote his letter to his step-mother.  ‘It’s kind of hard to believe it’s actually happening.  I mean, any second now, I expect to wake up, and be sleeping in the hotel room, or in my room back at the house.  It’s really a lot to take in.  First, Lance and I are on Team West USA, officially!  Apparently, their scout, Katie, had been watching our matches, seeing how we fared and stuff.  The team itself is, well, interesting to say the least.  Two of the members, Ken, the leader, and Alice are a couple, which is quite surprising, given their individual appearances.  I think that Lance and Roy, one of the other members, have stricken up a rivalry, one of those ‘You tick me off to no end’, type of rivalries with each other.  Or at the very least, they just hate each other’s guts.  What’s even more surprising is the fact that *Great uncle* Henry is the driver!  I’m surprised he still has his license, considering my birthday party last year.  Anyway, I hope I don’t wind up screwing things up for everyone.  I’m already a ‘worry-wart’, as Lance has said.  We’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?  Well, goodnight!’
“Mmmmm…Brownies.”  Lance said in his sleep, a small amount of drool coming from his mouth.
Sweat-dropping, Toshiro concluded ‘ Oh…and Lance says hi.’
Folding the letter and putting it in his pants pocket, Toshiro leaned back and fell asleep.
End of Volume one