Chapter Fifteen: First Round Completed

Alpha glistened brightly as it launched out into space. Stephen was the last one out of his friends to have a match and the lucky one to start off the Section ‘I’ First round. Stephen sat in the cockpit calmly; he had no worries about his match. Tyler Accido was an Ensign in the TA, no one was certain as to why Tyler entered the tournament; he had only been a pilot for about 2 months now and didn’t have much combat experience. Tyler’s MF, Grievance was a lightly armored unit holding onto dual machine guns and a massive grenade cannon resting on its shoulders in between an ERM launcher. Tons of debris floated lifelessly throughout the area, mostly left over MF armor from the previous matches; the maintenance crews didn’t get a chance to clean up. As Alpha launched from the hanger its boosters ignited and Stephen eloquently flew through the stars. Inside Grievance Tyler’s entire body was shaking fluidly, of all his luck he had to face the Crimson Knight in the first round. He knew he was going to lose, there was no possible way he could out match Stephen. That’s what he thought, along with the other several pilots on Prosperity. Even though the match wasn’t expected to have a climatic draw people still crowded into the dome to get a chance to watch the Crimson Knight in action.

“*YAAAWWNNN*” The loud soft sound echoed outwards from Adam’s mouth as he stretched his limbs. Sharon was already awake and fully dressed while Adam was just getting up. While Sharon fidgeted with her earrings she glared back at Adam who was falling back into bed with each passing ‘yawn’.

“You know this is your brother’s match. Shouldn’t you have the least amount of dignity and get up?”

“*Yawn*, why? I already know he’s going to win. So…*yawn* why don’t I just stay here and get the extra hours of sleep?”

As the thin crystalline earring finally stayed in place Sharon ran over to Adam’s bed. Her fingers clutched firmly into the blanket and with one clean swoop the blanket fell to the carpet. Adam just glared back into her eyes, his eyelids thinning, and the serious expression soon faded as he yawned yet again. 

“Seriously get your ass up. We’re going to miss it.” Sharon said as she became fed up. Adam sighed and nodded finally giving into her demands. Yet he was still tired, his body slowly moved upwards. Suddenly everything went dark as his face was covered by a blue shirt thrown by Sharon.

“Hurry up already!” Sharon continued to yell.

“Alright…alright. Damn.” Adam replied as he finally began to get dressed.

A soft tap sounded, Sharon opened the door to reveal Mario, Michelle, Ashley and Heather smiling.

“So you two ready?” Mario asked.

“Ugh…I am.” Sharon replied as she exited the room approaching Ashley and Heather.

“Bro hurry up! Stephen’s match starts in less than five minutes. I’d like to at least catch some of it!” Mario screamed.

“I’m coming I’m coming.” Adam said as he walked out of the room throwing on his jacket. Everyone just stared at him awkwardly, his long hair outstretched in all directions, it was messy and just an eye sore.

“Wow…bro, might want to throw on a hat, a beanie, something.” Mario replied as he clutched his chest laughing.
Adam just stared back. “Fine.” Adam replied. He quickly grabbed his black beanie that was resting on the table near the door. As the cotton beanie covered his head they were finally ready to head out.

The crowd all sat in their seats as the match prepared to begin. There wasn’t much excitement brooding around this match as it was expected that Stephen Novus would be the victor. Alpha was a much better rounded MF in comparison to Grievance. Stephen sat in the back of his chair, he was the least bit antsy, his arms wrapped around his chest while he dazed off. It was hard not to just sit and enjoy the view, the stars burning brightly in the distance while the Earth continued to emanate a serene soothing glow. Tyler couldn’t manage to shake off his nerves, his fingers couldn’t even wrap around the throttles without slipping off from the mass excess of sweat that drenched his skin. His vision began to blur, his mental state was slipping. Just as he joined the military he got the opportunity to take part in the Azure Cup, this was his first live MF experience aside from the entrance exam. Suddenly the clock began to sound as the seconds began to dwindle. The match was about to start, Tyler then burst in an uproar of panic. He tried to hold onto the throttles but his hands continued to fall off.

            READY? GO!

Neither MF moved an inch. Stephen’s arms moved away from his chest and fell to the throttles. He prepared to engage his enemy but he had a feeling Tyler wasn’t prepared to do the same. As Tyler struggled with the throttles and Stephen waited for his opponent to move the crowd quickly became restless. They would blurt out phrases “What the hell?! Let’s get this started!” with every instant that neither MF moved. Adam and Mario glanced back at each other in confusion. They couldn’t understand why Stephen wasn’t moving.

“You think he’s alright?” Mario asked.

“I’m sure he’s fine. But knowing Stephen he probably doesn’t want to overwhelm Tyler.”

“Overwhelm him? What are you talking about?”

“Oh, you don’t know? This is Tyler’s first ever combat situation.” Adam replied.

“Oh…poor kid.” Mario mumbled.

“So Stephen isn’t going to do anything that isn’t necessary?” Ashley interrupted glaring back at Adam. Adam just sneered, he knew what she was trying to do, and he wouldn’t give her that satisfaction.

Something snapped in Tyler’s mind, his fingers jerked outwards in a perfect line. His body shook a bit for a few seconds, and then his mind was clear. His head which was lowered raised and his pupils became dilated. Stephen was forced back into his seat as he was shocked to see Grievance burst out in a blaze of fury. Apparently the crowd was taken by surprise as well. Both the right and left arms raised and began to fire torrents of chrome shells. The streams of shells fluttered forward at great speeds but Alpha was still too fast. The crimson boosters flared as the MF flew towards Grievance in a circular motion around both jet lines of shells. Tyler remained void of emotion and continued his berserk onslaught. Alpha then soared past Grievance in a spinning motion with the dual energy saber ignited. As he past the left arm flew off its joint singed from the attack. Tyler paid no attention to the damage and forced his MF around continuing to fire. With each shot the ammo was expended and continued to dwindle close to zero. Still none of the shells came even close to touching Alpha. The eloquence displayed by Alpha wasn’t any surprise to the crowd, they all expected this match to be one sided. As the last remaining shells flew out of the machine gun the ERM’s abruptly fired. The missiles zoomed towards Alpha and quickly exploded unleashing a rain of energy beams. Stephen remained calm, his breathing un-altered, his hands slightly moved the throttles and his feet touched down on the accelerator.

“This is odd…just a minute ago he was frozen in fear and now he’s coming at me with all this unfiltered rage…” Stephen mumbled as he maneuvered Alpha through the torrent of energy beams. Alpha once again sped past Grievance and sliced off the right arm. Grievance tumbled a bit through space from the force of the attack. Alpha then turned around and headed towards Grievance to end the match. Suddenly the grenade cannon spun around and fired a shell towards Alpha. Stephen sighed; Alpha’s right arm swung downwards slicing through the grenade shell causing a delayed explosion. As the shell exploded Alpha sped around the blinding sphere of energy and headed straight for Grievance. Tyler suddenly realized that his attack missed and turned to the side, but it was too late. Alpha slashed through the lower torso without stopping.  A small explosion rocked Grievance and its cockpit. Tyler’s head flung hard against the side display causing his helmet to crack. Stephen then let his feet up off the accelerators causing Alpha to calm down. The match was over, Grievance could no longer fight. The crowd went nuts even though they weren’t surprised in the least. Adam smirked and patted Mario on the back.

“Well that’s it for me. There aren’t any other matches I wish to watch. I’m heading back to my room to get the sleep I didn’t get last night.” Adam replied.

“Alright bro. You get that sleep, because we’re hitting the mini-bars in the lounge tonight! The first round is over bro! Things are going to get serious soon!” Mario yelled as Adam walked out of the dome.

As Alpha docked back into Prosperity’s hanger Stephen continued to stare out into the void of space. There was a lot on his mind now; Tyler was the third pilot to abruptly break out in a berserk state of piloting. Both Reine and Zach went berserk in their match when they were cornered. He had a feeling something was amiss although he wasn’t sure what.

            The day quickly passed putting a close on the first round of the Azure Cup tournament. At one of the many Martian military bases the pilots of Red Fury sat around the table playing cards as the new played in the background.

“This is Stephanie Star, and I’m proud to say that the first round of the Azure Cup has come to an exciting close. Please tune in next week as we bring you the live coverage of the second round!”

Anthony sighed as he folded pocket 2’s when nothing that he liked showed up on the flop.

“Damn, I’m out.” Anthony mumbled.

“Heh, I raise 15.” Eric said firmly as he glared at Carlos who didn’t even bother to look at his two cards.

“All in.” Carlos replied in a calm tone like he wasn’t even fazed by Eric’s raise. Both Eric and Anthony stared wide eyed as they looked back at the flop. It was ‘King’ ‘Queen’

‘10’ all in diamonds; there was a possible flush on the board.

“I call!” Eric replied laughing. Just before he showed his cards Anthony looked over his friend’s shoulder to see the ‘3’ and ‘8’ of diamonds. Eric had a flush. Carlos shrugged his shoulders; his eyes were focusing on the television screen and the results of section ‘H’.

“Hey? Are you even paying attention bro? I got a flush!” Eric yelled as he waved his two cards in front of Carlos’ eyes.

Carlos shrugged his shoulders once again and tossed his two cards onto the table; ‘Ace’ and ‘Jack’ of diamonds, he had a royal flush. Both Eric and Anthony just stared blankly at the table as Eric just lost all of his chips in one swoop.

“Heh, look at that. The first round is done.” Carlos mumbled under his breath.

As Carlos mentioned the end of the first round, the screen was filled with the results of section ‘H’.

Section I-1

            1-Tyler
Stephen
2-Stephen

            3-Trish
Lance
4-Lance

            5-Landon
Landon
6-Mark

            7-Trey
Alex
8-Alex

Section I-2

            1-Andrew
Tony
2-Tony

            3-Cold Steel
Syrus
4-Syrus

            5-Lucifer
Lucifer
6-Eve

            7-George
Seriph
8-Seriph

           
As Eric cried with his head resting on the table Anthony glanced at his commanding officier.

“The Azure Cup? Why are you even paying attention to that crap? It’s their fault that this war has gotten uglier. If those stupid MF pilots just stayed then we wouldn’t have to send out soldiers on foot to fight the battles against ATs and BXTs!” Anthony yelled.

“That maybe true…” He paused to take a sip of his coffee. “But it’s because they went to that tournament that we got a job again. Or did you prefer to play pretend soldier?” Carlos muttered.

“I…umm…no. I’m happy that the USAF is back in active duty in all, but I’d prefer this pointless war to just be over with already. I mean, why are we still fighting with the EAP? I mean, we don’t even go near the South Western Territory anymore.”

“I don’t know…we fight when we’re told to fight. And we fight who we’re told to fight, that’s just how it is.” Carlos replied.

“I know…but Mars was supposed to be a sign of hope! Not misery!” Anthony continued to scream.

“We’ll protect Mars and its future by ending this war quickly.” Carlos replied.

“I know…”

Suddenly an alarm began to blare loudly in the basement of the military facility at Evo. Carlos quickly stood up from his chair as did Anthony, Eric sullenly rose.

“Looks like those bastards couldn’t wait until day break. Suit up men! Let’s teach those EAP bastards what happens when they cross Red Fury of the 3rd Air Division!” Carlos screamed.