Cats And Sharks

Night Two Hundred And Fifteen

Age 1991

Gladious City...

The Arena...

"Your match is up next is it not..." A sly voice asked.

Wave Long, who had been walking down the halls of the stadium came to a stop. "What?" He turned finding a girl standing behind him. Or at least he thought it was a girl. She wore a hood, as well as a glass clown mask. Her body was nearly naked save for the bandages that covered her up. Though a small portion of her chest could be seen where a 'C' shaped scar rested.

The woman wasn't looking at him. Instead she stood on a railing looking down to where the Squad Six box was her eyes fixed onto a boy with hair as white as snow.

"Who are you?" Wave asked alarmed.

"Me? I'm nobody. I just came to watch my son."

"Your son?"

"Yes... Well... Sort of. He's asleep right now. I had been scared at first when I saw that power but now I see he was just lashing out. Row... My precious baby boy... Mama will bring you out and get rid of that damn Hero who's stolen your body."

"Okay lady you're freaking weird." Wave said turning around.

"Alfred Lancelot a member of one of the Twenty Sacred Branches burned and killed most of the city you used to live in when he was testing out a new Seraphin weapon did he not."

"What?" Wave turned back towards the woman stumbling back.

"I had something I thought you'd want Mr. Long." The Jester said reaching into her bandaged cleavage and pulling out a red letter and a small blue gem. "I want Hero Law to suffer. And this... This will let you hurt one of his friends."

"Why the hell would I do that?"

"Because. You hate members of the Lancelot family." She grinned from under her mask tossing the letter and necklace over to him.

Meanwhile...

Hero landed back down onto the wall the unconscious body of Thorn in his arms. "So just wait. We'll have our fight. No need to rush things."

"Father is so cool!"

Davi gave off a scowl. "Trying to go and put on a show."

"Of course not. I'm not that shallow. I just couldn't resist the urge to hold a beautiful naked girl." Hero announced.

"What kind of Hero are you pervert!" Shelly yelled smacking Hero over the head.

Olf gave a confused look. "I guess by the rules Thorn no last name of Squad Two is now out due to being caught by Hero Law of Squad Six, as that is outside intervention. The winner of this match goes to Hella of Squad Two! We'll be going on a short five minute break to allow the arena time to reform for the next match!"

Hella let out a small hiss of pain trying to sit up. Her orb was out of power and her doll vanished. "D... Damn it..."

"Need a hand."

Hella looked up finding Fate Williams from her Squad standing over here. "Just take me back to our Box... It'll take me all day to recharge..." She groaned.

"Right." Fate said picking the girl up. "Brave's getting Thorn."

"Hmm..."

Speaking of Brave.

"So can I have my teammate back?" Brave asked suddenly in the Squad Six box.

"No she's mine now-"

Shelly slapped Hero over the head. "Just take her and please for the love of God give her some clothes..."

"Yeah sorry about that." Brave said sheepishly. "Thorn's healing leaves her exposed." Brave shrugged taking her Enforcer jacket off and covering the girl in it as she took Thorn into her arms. "It also drains her so she'll be asleep for a while."

"Not that I'm complaining about the state it left her in, but what's the deal with that move?" Kitsune asked. "I mean... She changed appearances and seemed to act a little differently."

"Her healing was sort of like Ken's..." Light hummed.

"Nah. Hers was... Way different." Ken said shaking her head.

Brave frowned for a moment. "Well Thorn lost so it's not like you guys can use this against her I guess... Thorn is... She's not human. She's a Doll... Sort of..."

"Helpful." Kitsune noted sarcastically.

"It's complicated okay! Hella did something weird with Thorn... Instead of making a body like she normal does, she had a body build out of roots, wood, stone, and grass. And she then tried to use her power to create a personality and life placing them into the body... That later became Thorn. That wood form you guys saw is what she usually looks like. She was over flowing with so much life energy she somehow developed her own power. Not an Equation though. Hella called it something else. She called it-"

"An Attribute?" Hero asked.

"Yeah? How'd you know?"

"Lucky guess. Keep going."

"Oh. That's really it. Thorn came into existence and had the power to produce pure life energy and control plant life. However she developed another skill as well... Rebirth Leads to Blooming. This power... Well it takes a lot of energy making it a trump card but it basically allows her to fully heal her body and regrow it into a new form. When she does that she gains this human form. Should she be injured once more and she uses it again, she'll turn into a tree and regain her doll form. It's sort of like a switching mode. She lives as a doll and dies coming back as a human. If she dies as a human she comes back as a Doll. Each form is also a little different. In her Doll form she doesn't need to eat, sleep, or drink, as she can live off of just the Sun, she also is made of wood and can heal in that state and sprout flowers and roots off of her body. In this state she can't. She can't heal either. And she needs to sleep and do other human things. But its made up for in the fact that her power sky rockets and she can produce so much life energy she can coat wooden blades in them and turn them into deadly weapons..."

"I see..." Hero hummed. "I'll need to ask Hella some questions about this..."

There was a small groan as Thorn's eyes slowly opened. The girl slowly set up getting out of Brave's arms and looked around. Her face was pretty blank and she didn't show signs of emotions. Sort of like with Lucy.

"How are you feeling Thorn?" Brave asked gently.

Thorn cocked her head to the side for a moment and stared at the girl. "...Hungry."

"Okay. Let's get you something to eat then." Brave said helping Thorn out of the box.

They watched the two girls leave in silence.

"...Dibs on catching the next girl." Kitsune said.

"I hate all of you." Shelly sighed.

There was a loud static sound Olf raised his microphone to his lips once more. "And it would seem we are once again ready to see these next few matches! We have a pretty good one coming up I think! It's Ken Red from Squad Six Versus Wave Long from Squad Eleven!" He announced.

"Yes! I don't have to wait to go up next!" Ken announced. "...How do I get to the arena?" Hero held his right arm out placing it on Ken's head. "...Hero?" His arm began to glow. "...Oh no."

His arm awakened as he shifted it into his 100% form. The final stage of his Equation finally allowing everyone to see it now that it was in its true form. His clawed arm looked the same as it always did only it now had a large pipe coming out of the elbow, and instead of a faded gray metal it was a dark and slick black. Instead of green flames coming out of the fingers it was a dark ruby red that matched his eyes. The arm looked darker and slicked back and just from looking at it one could tell it had power. This was the arm of a Hero. A Hero of Justice. This was the power of a superhero.

Hero raised Ken up and without saying a word threw her at the planet.

"GOD DAMN IT HERO-"

Ken slammed into the planet with a loud boom as it shook. She slowly pulled herself out of the mini crater her eye twitching.

"Well that's one way to get in..." Wave muttered. He stood down below in the Squad Eleven base. He slowly placed his hands on the ground as a wave of water formed into a large shark which he set on using it to ride up to the planet as the shark flew. He landed above the planet and dropped down on the other side so he could face Ken. He finally got a good look at her. Shoulder length black hair with a silver streak in it, and a set of bright silver eyes. She was pretty he would admit. She was also short and had an annoyed look on her face as she tapped her foot up and down. A sort of tom boy. Wave himself had short messy brown hair and a set of bright ocean blue eyes. His Enforcer uniform was more aquatic based. Like something you'd wear on a large sea vessel rather than the snow.

"So you're who I'm fighting." Ken asked.

"Yep. I saw your match. You're pretty strong."

"I... Don't recall your match."

"Good."

"Good?"

Wave gave a small smile. "It means I know all your tricks and you know none of mine."

"I guess I'm handicapped then." Ken grinned. "Good."

"Good?"

"It'll be better when I beat you."

Down below the group rested. "I don't recall Wave's match either?" Hero said sheepishly as him and Daughter both shrugged.

Shelly bit her lip folding her arms. "Figures you guys didn't pay attention... He's strong... He took down his guy in one attack. Ken will have to be careful if she wants to win..."

"Anyone else find it funny a cat and fish are about to fight!" Kitsune asked leaning forward and getting a deadpanned look from Light, Hero, Shelly, and Daughter. "...What? It's funny. Fish and Cat? Screw you guys."

Up on the planet Ken and Wave eyed each other up. "Okay Mr. Long. I'll be nice and let you get a free attack in-"

A massive water tail in the shape of a shark formed out of Wave's waist giving him a water shark tail. He fired forward at a high speed and swung his body around the tail coming out at a high speed and slamming across Ken's face as he back hand slapped her, but with a tail. Ken stumbled back as Wave turned his back to her entering into a cool pose for a moment as his tail grew larger and something began to form out of the end of the tail.

"It really pisses me off you know." He said a scowl on his face. "All of you lot in Squad Six just make me so mad. It's like the world revolves around you all. You lot always seem to have something to do with whatever is going on at the time, and you guys always seem to jump up in power so quick. It's unfair how strong all of you are and it pisses me off. Not the power... No. I could care less how strong you all are. What makes me truly mad is the way you all act so cocky and over confident. You're all fools and I'm sick and tired of seeing you brats at the top!" The tails formed into what looked like a large squid tentacle but with a shark head on the end. Its jaws opened wide as it bit down around Ken and slammed her into the ground.

Ken let out a loud yell of pain as the head whipped around and she was dragged across the grass floor. She dug her nails into it though as a burst of red formed around her body forming her red barrier and blowing the water away. She was back on her feet and held her right arm out as a large black spike jutted out of her wrist and traveled down her arm. The spike seemed to curve and thin out as it formed a sleek curved blade on her arm. She jumped at the man slicing out with her blade and slicing through his water and his shoulder in one quick motion spraying water and blood out.

Leo let out a sigh as Olf used him as a shield causing all the blood and water to splash onto him.

Wave stumbled back grabbing his badly bleeding shoulder as blood sprayed out. "D... Damn it-"

"So you're mad we don't take things to seriously?" Ken asked turning to look back at him her silver eyes now gone and replaced with a pair of sickly yellow glowing orbs making Wave stumble back with fear. "Trust me when I say. You don't want to see any of us when we're serious. When we're suffering. When the world is fighting back against us. When we have to do things we don't want to in order to win. Rather it be sacrificing a finger, knocking sense into a friend, turning into an old version of yourself, becoming a monster, or risking your very life and waking someone up. We joke around sure. But that's because it's easier sometimes. And if that's your only issue with us then I'd say we're doing a good job." Ken smirked as her eyes went back to silver and her blade sunk back into her arm.

Wave stumbled back letting out a growl. "You... Bitch!"

"Now you're just being rude." Ken frowned. She held her hand up as it glowed. "I don't like rude people." A beam of red energy fired out slamming into the man.

Wave gritted his teeth as the water wrapped around his body. He fired through the beam catching Ken off guard as his water formed a layer of armor around him. A sword of water also formed which he rammed into the girls gut. "I dislike more than your attitude damn brat. You didn't think I'd recognize the sight of a Lancelot." He growled as he pulled the girl closer to him and whispered into her ear so only she could hear. "Ken Lancelot is who you are right. Your the child of one of the most hated men in the Nation."

For a moment flashes of a man in armor went through Ken's mind as her eyes filled with fear. "Y... You know my father?"

"I didn't want to have to use this damn thing... That woman gave it to me but..." He gave a grin as he held up a small blue gem which began to glow. "How about we show everyone the kind of monster you're hiding deep within yourself?"