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Soul Arena ®
Volume 2
Tearing Up the Stars
Soul Arena and all it's characters and concepts are the property of wolfsilver and wolfsilver alone.  Any references to real culture, however, belong to the people who created them.
Chapter 9:  To England We Will fight!

“Er…Toshiro?”
“Yes?”
“He hasn’t woken up since we called him 1 hour ago, and we’ve tried every possible method to wake up him up!  What makes you think that you can?”
Exactly as Katie had said, Ken had assembled everyone to the table for an important discussion, but by the time they had assembled, they realized that Lance wasn’t there.  Upon looking at his bed, they had found that he was still asleep.  Then, they had proceeded to try every possible method of waking someone up, including the ice-cold water.  So far, nothing had worked.
“Well, I’ve been living with him for about two years so I know, unfortunately, the only way to wake him up.”
Oh?”, asked Roy, who was having a really bad case of bed head.  “And whut would tha’t be?”
Reaching into his duffel bag, Toshiro pulled out an airhorn.
“We’ve already tried that!”, stated Alice, a vein appearing on her head as she leaned forward and put her hands on her hips, as if she was lecturing someone.  “It didn’t wor-!”
Toshiro had pulled out a megaphone as well.
Everyone’s eyes widened a little.
“…You all might want to cover you ears.”, said Toshiro somewhat nervously.
Exchanging glances, everyone immediately shoved their fingers in their ears and closed their eyes tightly, as well as took a few steps back
Toshiro activated the megaphone and pulled the trigger for the airhorn in the speaker.
The result?
All the windows in the RV/Bus shattered or were blown clean off.  The exact same thing happened to Toshiro’s glasses, as well as practically every car within a 5-meter radius of the RV.  Several car alarms went of as well.  Inside the RV/Bus, everyone was literally blown back, their hair like they had gelled every last strand back.
When they opened their eyes, they immediately looked at Lance to see whether he had woken up or not.  Lance had been the most effected of all, his entire body having slammed into the wall beside his bed, Silver too.  The wall that Lance had slammed into had several cracks forming, needless to say.
“…Gee, thanks!  I didn’t think I could be in this much pain in this matter of seconds!”, mumbled Lance, his face still imprinted into the wall.  Taking out a crow bar, Roy stated, “ (sigh) I’ll peel im’ off.”
(20 minutes later)
“Alright, then!   Now that EVERYONE’s assembled,” stated Ken, sending Lance an irritated look.  “We can begin the announcements!”
“So, what’s the big news?” Asked Katie.
“Well, as you all know, the World-Wide tournament has officially begun.  Because of that, we will be having our first official match in 2 days!”
Excitedly, Lance asked, “So you’ve already-?
“Yep.  I have scheduled our first match with on of the opposing teams captains.”
Grinning, Alice said, “Sweet!  So, who are we against anyway?”
Inhaling and smiling, Ken exclaimed, “Everyone, we’re going to England!”
“Sweet!” Exclaimed Lance.  “I’ve always wanted to go to England and see the Eiffel tower!”
“…”
Toshiro smacked his forehead.
“…That’s in France, Lance.  That’s in France.”
“…Oh.”
Deciding to end the awkward conversation, Ken said, “I’m gonna go talk to the driver, alright?”
“Why?”, asked Lance.  “Are we going to hold the match there?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
Sighing, Ken began to explain.
“Look, here’s how teams decide where the matches are held.  The team that is challenged decides where they want to hold the matches, and if it’s an okay situation for both teams, then the matches are held there.”
“Match’s?”
“Yeah, matches.  You see, all, or most, of individual members of a team must fight in every battle.  Now, stay here.  I got to go tell your uncle where we should go.  I’ll have Alice explain the rest.  That okay with you, Alice?”
Grinning, Alice replied, “Course not!  I got some spare time on my hands.”
Nodding, Ken got up and went over to the front of the bus and began talking to Henry.
Turning around, Alice grinned at the brothers and their partners.
“Alright, I’ll keep going where Kenny left off!  Now, the matches ain’t chosen at random, as you might be thinkin’.  Both teams looks at the stats of the other, decide who would be best matched against who, and the match is settled!”
“What happens when one team has more members than the other?” asked Silver.
“When that happens, and believe me, it happens all the time, they still do the compatibility thing, but some of the members don’t get to fight.
Now, given the fact that we have a full team, it’s pretty likely that some of us won’t get to fight all the time.”
Now, grinning at them mischievously, with a glisten of danger in eyes, she asked, “Anymore questions?”
Not wanting to see how she intended to answer them next time, the gang rapidly shook their heads ‘no’.
“Good!”
Getting up, Alice quickly ruffled Lance and Toshiro’s hair and went upstairs, whistling a happy, and at the same time scary, tune.  The four exchanged glances, one thought racing through there minds.
‘She scares me!’
“Oiy!  Flea-brain!” shouted Roy from one end of the bus.
“What!?” exclaimed Lance, turning his head in Roy’s direction, only to receive a water balloon in the face.
A vein appearing on his head, Lances head seemed to increase (comically) in size as he yelled at Roy, “You’re dead!  When we start moving you are dead!”
Grin widening, Roy said, “Oh, did I forget ta mention?  That ain’t water!”
Confused, Lance noticed Warren standing next to Roy, chewing on something, with drool coming out.  Strangely enough, he was grinning too.
Then it clicked.
“…YOU’RE A DEAD MAN WALKING!!”
Lance proceeded to chase Roy throughout the entire RV, face red with anger.
“…I don’t want to know.” Said Toshiro after a moment of silence.
Just then, Ken walked over to them and sat down.
“It’s all set!  We’ll be leaving shortly.”
“For the airport?” asked Toshiro.
“Nope.”
“Then how are we going to get to England?  The only way to get there is by flight!”
Smiling, Ken said, “Just wait and see.”
“About time!”
Turning around, Ken saw Lance standing there with part of his sleeve ripped off.
“…@#$%...Lousy goats.”, mumbled Lance as he sat down.  Soon enough, everyone assembled at the lower part of the RV.
“So when are we leaving?”
“Buckle up, kids!  We’re going!”
Soon the car started up, with everyone excited, and in the brothers and their partner’s case, confused, about the trip.  Soon enough, the Pacific Ocean came into view.
“Wait.”  Said Niko.  “Why aren’t we headed toward the airport?”
“Like I said,” stated Ken, “We’re not taking a plane.”
Then, Lance noticed that the highway road they were taking was headed straight towards the ocean.
“Here we go!”  Exclaimed Henry as he put on more gas.
Everyone but the Lance, Niko, Silver, and Toshiro relaxed.
Quickly realizing where they were heading, the brothers latched onto the seats, fear quickly mounting in their eyes.
Then, the car zoomed off the highway, and Henry activated a button on the RV.
They were 5 feet from the ocean.
4 feet.
2 feet.
Nothing happened.
“Woah!  Toshiro, check this out!” exclaimed Lance in awe.  Opening one eye, Toshiro looked out the window and gaped in amazement.  The RV was hovering!
Mouth still open, Toshiro stared as they cruised/hovered along the ocean, smooth as silk.
“I told you we weren’t flying.”
Turning around, Toshiro was surprised at the relaxed way Ken was handling it.
“How on earth could you afford this?”, questioned Niko, an eyebrow raised.
Giving Niko a look, Ken said, “…This is how ALL the teams travel.  It’s not like it’s unique to this vehicle.”
“R-right.”  Toshiro said, sweat-dropping.  Then, he realized something.
“Hey, where’s Lance and Silver.”
Sighing in embarrassment, Ken pointed next to him.  Lance and Silver had their heads out the window.
“This is awesome!!” exclaimed Lance, his eyes wide with excitement.  Silver had his tongue hanging out.
Spying something out in the ocean, Lance shouted “Yo, Patrick!  What’s up, man?”
Looking out the window, Toshiro saw a guy riding a huge seal, and wearing a life vest, waved back at Lance, surprise all over his face.
Grinning, Lance to retract his head in time to avoid getting hit.
BLAM!
Immediately recoiling, Lance stumbled backwards and began to wave his arms around frantically, for is face was covered by a seagull, which had slammed right into Lances face.
“GET THIS @#$% BIRD OFF ME!!”  Lance exclaimed, his voice somewhat obscured by the seagull.
Sighing at the sight, Toshiro helped Lance with the bird.
(20 minutes, and 34 feathers later)
“Well, I think we got most of the feathers out.”
Lance gave Toshiro and annoyed look and spat out a few feathers.
“Yeah, MOST!”
“Will you two get over here? We’ve got some things to discuss!”
Deadpanning with an eyebrow twitching, Lance walked over t the table, soon followed by Silver, Niko and Toshiro.
Seeing everyone at the table Ken said, “Alright, it’s time we learned a little about our opponents.  Roy, if you please.”
“I’m on it.”
Pulling out a laptop, Roy put it on the table in view of everyone, quickly entered his password and pulled up a file.
“Mind if I take over from hei’re?”
“Go right ahead, Roy.”
“Alright then.”
The official Soul Clash symbol appeared on the screen, soon beginning to display the various teams.
“Alright, here’s who we’re up against.”
Pulling up the Team England file, Roy pointed to the competitors that came up.
“This,” he said, pointing to the top person, “is the leader of the English team, Harold Wickerson.”  Wickerson looked rather like an extremely old-fashioned Brit, right down to the monocle on his eye.  However, he lacked several typical Britain things.  For one, he had no extremely long turtleneck, nor did he have a mustache.   He also didn’t have puffy pants; rather, they were straight, formal.  He also had an iTap sticking out of his pocket
“He looks ancient!” exclaimed Silver.
“He is.    He’s the team’s oldest member, about ready to retire in 10 years or so.  And this…is his partner.”
A rather small horse appeared on the screen.
“His names Charles.”
“Wait, Charles like in char-“
“Yeah, yeah.  Charles like in Charlie-horse.  Har har, you’re as funny as a woodpecker that’s just realized it’s pecking on steel.”  He responded in a monotone.
“…Well, soooorrrryyy!”
“Anyway, it don’t say what their moves are, it just gives their stats.”
Looking closely at the screen, Roy said, “Okay, their speed seems to be fairly decent, although they seem to lack a good amount of defense.  Their attack seems to be their strongest point, though.”
“What about their endurance?”
“Huh?  Oh, yeah.  (Ahem), their endurance is surprisingly average.”
“What about their strike type?”
Turning his head, Lance gave Alice a confused look.
“I thought it didn’t give their spirit strikes.”
“Not the list of strikes they have, it just lists what kind of strike it is!”
“Oh!”
“Hmmm, their strike type…is stone manipulation.”
“That’s it?  That’s kind of unoriginal.” (It was the best I could think of)
“Meh, what cha’ gonna do bout’ it?  Anyway, which one of us should go against him?”
“Oh!  Oh! Pick me!” stated Lance, rapidly waving his hand and jumping in the air.
Ken said, “It would have to be someone who could shatter, or at least pierce, solid stone.”
“ME, ME!!!” exclaimed Lance, now holding up an arrow that pointed down toward him.
“Well, they would have to be able to pierce all kinds of stone.  There’s more than 10 kinds of rock, you know.”, stated Katie, arms crossed.
“Helloooo?  I’m right here!”
“I’ll take him on!” stated Alice.  “It looks like my kind of fight!”
“Very well.   Alice and Laura, your against him.”
“Aw, come on!” exclaimed Lance, anime tears streaming down his eyes.
“Before we continue, how many members does this team have?”,  asked Niko.
“About…six.”
“So one pair in our group can’t fight?”
“Yep.”
“Please let me fight!  Please let me fight!” prayed Lance, the tears still streaming down his eyes.  (Note:  The author of this story is an atheist.  Kind of, as he doesn’t ‘do religion’ or go to church)
“Let’s see, who’s next?”
Scrolling down a little, Roy spotted the next pair of opponents.
“Hmm.  Danielle Thandling and Amelia the swallow.”
Danielle wore a pilots goggles and her dyed bright green hair was braided in a single ponytail.   She had a cheerful look on her face, complete with a smile.  She seemed to wear a jumpsuit, that is until you looked closer and realized she was, in fact, wearing a long sleeve shirt and pants that were white with red stripes.  She also wore brown fingerless gloves.  Sitting on Danielle’s head was a barn swallow, with its wings spread out.
“Their particularly known for their endurance.  They even have a nickname in London, where they’re called “The pepper pair”, due to their endurance.  Attacks pretty decent, although the speeds pretty average.  Defense is relatively low, although not all that low.”
“Strike type?”
“…Feathers.”
“Hmm, better be careful.”
After rereading her stats, Ken said “Roy, you and Warren are probably the best match against her.”
Grinning with anticipation, Roy eagerly nodded.
In the background, Lance and Silver were mumbling in their little corner of anger, pissed that they hadn’t been chosen to fight yet.
“Next is Carol “The Claw” Swerp and her partner, Samantha “Sneak” the gardner snake.  Say’s here that they’re particularly strong in attack and speed, but they are really lackin’ in defense.  Endurance is kinda normal…” Roy said, pondering who would be a good match.
Carol Swerp wore rather punk clothing, wearing leather gloves.  She also wore a rather short skirt, and a white T-shirt, with the words ‘Bite me!’ labeled on it.  She wore a dark red jacket over it, unzipped.  A lollipop was in her mouth and she was on a motorcycle. Her hair was bright red, swirled, and she had one or two earrings in her ears, with one piercing in her nose as well. Samantha looked fairly average for a snake, although she had three piercing in her head, none of which looked harmful.
“Strike types are currently unknown, but they have beaten their teammates, according to records.”
“Records?”
“Yeah.  Sometimes, the leader forgets to record what kind of strikes their teammates have.  It’s actually a common occurrence.”
Mumbling, Lance said, “Lemme guess, Ken’s gonna fight his one?”
“No, actually, I was thinking of you for this match.”
Anger almost instantly forgotten, Lance exclaimed, “Really?!”
“Yes, really.  You wanted a match, here’s your chance.  You can fight a real opponent.  Besides, I want to see if you really live up to the hype that these guy’s told me about.”
As Lance proceeded to do his happy dance, Roy continued.
“Let’s see here.  Katie, I think we got a match up for ya!”
Taking a look a the screen, Katie said, “Alright, I’ll take him.”
“We’re down to the final pair, now.”
Both Toshiro and Ken leaned forward, curious to see who their opponents might be.
“Names, Fred Portlon and Reggie, the Pill bug.  Attack, high.  Defense, very high.  Speed, a little slow.  Endurance…’Unknown.’”
“Hmm, Fred kinda looks rather odd.”
Indeed he did, for he didn’t wear a shirt and he wore a long pair of pants.  What made it odd, however, was that his entire chest was covered with a strange, purple tattoo.  He obviously worked out, as he was about half way to a six-pack.  The pill bug was barely visible, looking like a small dot on his forehead.
“Alice, you’re blushing.”
Blinking, Alice then grinned with a combination of sheepishness and mischief.
“Ya think Ken saw?”
“Yes, he did.  And he is quite ticked.”
Turning around, Alice saw Ken standing there, flames of jealousy in the background.
Sweat dropping, Alice said, “Sorry bout that, moment of weakness.  But, hey, I see you looking at other women in magazines sometimes.  Consider this a little payback.” right before giving him a quick peck on the lips, as well as a seductive wink as she went upstairs.  (Lances sound of disgust could be heard in the background)  (Lance’s not gay, but you will hear an explanation eventually)
“Toshiro.”  Ken said.
“Hai?”
“I want you to take these guy’s on, as I don’t know what I’ll do to them if I face them.”
Nodding his head nervously, Toshiro replied “Sure, Ken.”
“So!” interrupted Lance, “When are we gonna arrive in England?”
Addressing Lance, Roy said “Well, dependin’ on how fast we’re going-by the way, Ken, I’ve already submitted the data to the other team, so it’s all set- it could take up to 5 days.”
“Five days?!  Aw, man!  I wanted to fight sooner!” complained Lance, tears once again streaming down his eyes.
“Relax!  It won’t literally take five days!  It might only take two!” exclaimed Roy impatiently.
“By the way.“  Asked Toshiro.  “What kind of strike does my opponent have?”
Pulling out his laptop to access the data, Roy soon said “It isn’t on here, so the leader of the team might have forgotten to enter it.”
“(Sigh).“
“But don’t sweat it!  I think you’ll fair pretty well, regardless! I mean, you and Niko, Lance and Silver only have one strike!  Ya need at least two to tell what kind of strike ya’ll have!”
Nodding, Toshiro asked, “So what do we do until then?”
Grinning widely, Roy uttered one word.
“Training!”
Next time:  Training commences in the middle of the Atlantic ocean!  And soon, Lance, Silver, Toshiro and Niko discover that power is never unlimited, no matter how it seems! And Roy shows us just what kind of punch he and Warren pack!  Catch the next chapter of Soul Arena, soon!