CARNIVAL (The Spark Form Chronicles Book 2) (22 page)

              "The champ is really bringin' his A Game here Dirk, keepin' this one a lot closer to one sided than his last two clashes with Fahrn."

              "A kick to the leg sends S down, he sits up ... And Carnival dives down with a hard strike. You think Fahrn's gonna go down early Sam?"

              "It's lookin' that way, but ya can't rule her out. I mean, she took a Helluva beatin' from Slade yesterday too."

              "Carnival now pulling S to his feet, gripping that arm again. Here comes another dislocation ... no! S snaps Carnival’s head around with a hard swipe, spraying blood across the arena floor."

              "Is that a tooth?"

              "I think it is Sam!"

              "S knocked a damn tooth out! An' now he moves in ... heavy tail whip stumbles Carnival back but she's still, no, she trips, but she scrambles back up as S darts in with another Heavy Slash, sendin' her flyin' back!"

              "S now just about on top health wise as he goes to work with stomps and strikes, wearing his opponent down. Carnival slowly working up to her feet as S grabs her, claws bared ..."

              "Shotai! Rock solid palm heel strike to S's jaw an' the Drakalia is straight back on the defensive. Carnival goes for a roundhouse, S barely gets outta the way, leaping slash, S weaves around an' leaps with a slash of his own ... Carnival guides him down, scissors the arm an' she locks in the facelock!"

              "So now dropping health once, twice, thre-no! S hauls himself to his knees, rolls Carnival over and lands a good hard strike to the face. Carnival now pushes him away and comes up to her feet. She tries to grab another facelock but S jabs her in the stomach and fires off a tail whip, following up with a ... Diving Lunge!"

              "S now rainin' down some heavy snaps at Carnival's face an' throat!"

              "This version of Carnival should be better equipped to reverse this though Sam."

              "Doesn't matter Dirk! That's some heavy damage right there! Carnival's fading!"

              "Not enough though! Carnival catches S's snout in her mouth and bites down hard! The bloody Drakalia now reels back, letting Carnival up to her feet. She goes for a kick but S darts in close and jabs, jabs again, and winds up the Leaping Slash ..."

              "DATA FRAGMENT ACTIVATE: GINGA," says the electronic announcer, and Carnival steps her way out of reach of the attack.

              "It didn't look pretty, but it got the champ outta there an' now ... Leaping Slash by Carnival rips a big ol' gash down S's chest an' he falls heavily to the floor! Carnival now steps in, bringing her claws up ... S clamps his jaws into her throat!"

              "He rose just quick enough to grab her Sam, but he's not quite to his feet yet!"

              "Carnival breaks it up with a knee to the stomach, an' S rolls away, slowly forcin' his way to his feet ... Meia Lua De Compasso finds its mark, an' S is all but done now Dirk!"

              "Carnival goes in for the kill, pulling S to his feet and throwing off a punch, S blocks, but Carnival keeps pushing, throwing out a backfist, S ducks under, slides, comes up into a Leaping Slash ..."

              "DATA FRAGMENT ACTIVATE: GINGA."

              "Carnival Gingas on outta there an' ..."

              "DATA FRAGMENT ACTIVATE: THE PHOENIX RITE."

              "Carnival, already airborne when the Data Fragment activated, comes down now with a Leaping Slash, decimating S's remaining health points."

              S drops to his knees, then onto all fours, and his body bursts into flames. The Drakalia screeches in pain as his body slowly burns away, leaving nothing behind but a pile of ashes. For a moment, nothing happens. Carnival steps forward to inspect the remains of her fallen adversary, confusion on her face. The crowd start to murmur. Then, a single blast of flame engulfs the ashes and Carnival steps back, shielding her eyes from the bright white light.

              Out of the light steps a renewed S, his body glowing beneath the arena lights.

              Silently, he dashes forward and fires off a heavy, clawed uppercut that launches Carnival into the air and sends her a clear six feet back, her body landing heavily and spraying dust into the air. S throws his arms out and hisses victoriously as the Lupine’s head drops to the side, her eyes closed.

              "She did it! She did it Dirk! We have a new champion! And
you
owe me a drink."

              "And what a finish Sam!" Dirk replies, ignoring the jibe. "For the fans at home, can you explain how The Phoenix Rite works?"

              "Sure thing man, sure thing. The card can only be used when you're takin' a knock-out blow, so it really is a last ditch effort kinda thing. Each card you dropped to the bar is worth five HP, an' the first thing you have to do is, startin' from the left, you sacrifice a number of cards equal in value to the total damage inflicted by the last attack you took plus five. Then, look at the remainin' dropped cards an' the next in line becomes your final attack, leavin' the rest of 'em to boost the attacks damage by five each. If that attack takes your opponent out, you win, if it don't, the Rite fails an' your SF falls unconscious."

              "So you really want to drop some heavy hitting cards at the end of the bar then?"

              "In a match like this, definitely. You can technically active the card with only three cards though."

              "If the last attack did five damage you mean?"

              "Yeah."

              "So when you say total damage inflicted, do you mean the total your SF took to get to zero HP, or does it include damage above that too?"

              "The whole shebang man. If you had ten HP left an' the attack clocked in at thirty after resistance, you'd need to sacrifice seven cards to cover the thirty plus five."

              "John Forrester now leaving the arena to a round of cheers from the crowd, the Connection Team helping Carnival to the back with him ..."

              "John has been a Helluva champion Dirk, an' you can bet that he'll be back, fightin' to regain the title next year. This year though belongs to that woman right there. Speakin' of which, I'm gonna get down there. I'm drinkin' champagne tonight man!"

              Dirk laughs. "OK, we're gonna discuss Fahrn's win in a lot more detail in the round-up show. Until then though, I'm being told to wrap this one up. So. Ladies and Gentlemen, this has been the forty third annual Spark Form World Championships. I'm Dirk Wylder and I'm gonna throw this one over to Sam North with the first ever Offlander World Champion in Spark Form history, Fahrn Starchaser!"

              The video cuts to Sam standing by with an exhausted Fahrn.

              "Listen to that crowd man, they're lovin' ya!"

              Fahrn smiles and acknowledges a few of the fans cheering loudly.

              "We're gonna have a lot to talk about later," Sam continues, "but until then, ya got any words to close the show?"

              Fahrn looks to the crowd again then leans into the mic and says, "To all those like me ... and those who treat us as equals. No matter what Colony or hunk of metal you call home ... this one is for all of us. Thank you."

              The video fades to black as Sam shakes Fahrn's hand, the fans cheering loudly.

              What have I done?

              I was so preoccupied with what was coming after the match that I didn't do the math right. If I'd used the lunge, it would have taken Fahrn too far past the zero to boost her attack and Carnival would have been walking out of here rather than being carried out by the fake staff. The Spinal Implant. It let me run through all the worst case scenarios as I went along and they just took over. I couldn't stop them. I knew the lunge would probably finish Fahrn, but I also knew that she could potentially reverse it after one bite so I went with the Leaping Slash, but if I'd thought about what she had as her Fragment I would have considered something like The Phoenix Rite and gone for the lunge anyway but I didn't because I was thinking about this.

              Breathe John. Breathe. Stop thinking about your parents. Stop thinking about Carnival playing dead. Stop thinking about how you're going to get her out of here. Stop thinking that it all ends now and you won't see her again because they'll change her or not let her come back.

              "Surge levels are rising," says a voice behind me.

              "Keep monitoring," replies a voice that sounds like Lana.

              Lana. We trusted her. Carnival trusts her. This is all part of the game, the pretence. We have to keep it up until we're out of sight or everyone'll know what's going on, and the deal's off. Carnival isn't really unconscious; she can still fight. I know that. We had that before. She wasn't taken down though. We don't know how far she can be pushed yet.

              "Another spike," someone mutters as we turn the corner.

              Someone clicks their fingers in front of my face and I turn to look at Lana. "John," she says, "we're going to the secondary interview block. The inner walls in there are fake, so we took them down and opened the four rooms out into one. The outer walls are already sound proofed so that'll help us make sure that no one drops in unexpected. Just in case though, we're gonna post some guys at the entrances and cordon the area off for cleaning."

              I nod, but I'm only half listening and my eyes keep darting back to Carnival.

              "There are a lot of things happening right now John, and I can't even begin to go into them yet. I'm
not
an enemy though. I need you to try to believe that."

              Up ahead, Finn McCourt is waiting. When he spots us, he opens the door to the interview room and leads us through. It's bigger than it should be. Did Lana mention that? Lana's still here, isn't she? We're supposed to trust her.  She's next to me. And Finn's behind us at the door, I can hear him. Is that Hong Chan? Yes. Hong Chan is standing at the opposite end of the room, his Spinal Implants hooked up to something. A generator maybe? Is he fighting Carnival? Did Lana tell us that too? I can't remember. There are two Data Wicks in the middle of the room though. A spare?

              The door shuts and I hear two sets of steps walking towards us. Carnival. One set is Carnival. She's OK.

              Carnival walks passed me and comes to a stop a couple of steps ahead, the battle damage still visible. Up ahead, two screens flicker into life in front of Hong Chan and both Data Wicks rise up, their projection loading quickly and without fanfare, leaving two mannequins, both plain white apart from a blue number one on the forehead of one and a pink number two on the other.

              "Training dummies," Lana says beside me. "They're set with averaged stats so that any damage is limited, but they have their strengths and weaknesses the same as any Spark Form."

              Carnival isn't healing herself. She's just standing there, breathing heavily. "Heal," I murmur.

              "It's OK," Lana says. "She asked for this herself. She wants to test her limits a little. She'll be allowed to heal after that."

              "His heart rate is rising," Finn states. "The Surge hasn't died down yet."

              Lana looks at me and sighs. "Finn, please restrain Mr Forrester."

              I feel one of Finn's arms wrap around me, the other covering my mouth as I try to cry out in protest. I try to struggle free, but the arm he has pinning my arms to my sides tightens.

              Carnival turns, her eyes blazing, and looks right at me. She softens, looks to Lana and nods.

              "Just the one to begin with," Lana shouts across to Hong Chan and he taps one of his screens, sending the Spark Form with the blue number one forward. Carnival steps towards it, her body tense.

              She agrees with them holding me like this. Am I that useless to her right now?

              Yes. Yes, I am. I'm not thinking straight. I'm not calming down. I can still feel The Surge flooding me and it's stopping me from finding coherent thought. If they leave me alone, I'll run out there and then Carnival will get hurt trying to stop me getting hurt while trying to stop her getting hurt. Being held like this is suffocating and that's pushing The Surge up too, which means that they can't let me go. It's going to keep building and Finn will keep me held in place. Unless I calm down. Breathe. Try to concentrate John.

              Carnival and the mannequin start to circle each other, and I see how focused Carnival is. She's wants to win, but she's scared and unsure how to proceed.

              She's got to fight this one on her own.

              She's going to get hurt.

              I feel Finn tighten his grip, but it doesn't feel any tighter than it was a moment ago. Did he loosen it when I tried calming down? And why is he covering my mouth? No, that's obvious. I'd distract Carnival. There's no way Finn is going to let go now. The moment Carnival starts fighting that thing, The Surge is going to kick in again. I can feel it.

              Carnival dashes forward.