288 275: A Plague of Phantoms: Dueling Competence V

"The fuck are they doing up here?" Beaufort snarled as he pushed me out of the way and stomped off.

The top tier was set up differently than the other tiers; apart from being encased glass; there were a lot less seats that were sparsely placed in small clusters ranging from ten seats to twenty-five seats. The number depended on the size of a country's entourage and security detail, and usually two or three countries sat in one cluster. The cluster that Beaufort was stomping towards was the one for the American, Egyptian, and Japanese leaders. Seated inside the cluster was the Egyptian Pharoah and multiple members of Sho'lajah Artifact Company, identifiable by their uniforms. There were no members of the Japanese delegation in the spot but as a host country that was to be expected.

"Well now! What do we have here?!" Beaufort exclaimed.

'Oh fuck!' I thought then rushed to Beaufort's side. The others surrounded the president immediately. The Pharaoh, who had been talking to a young boy, frowned then turned to face Beaufort.

"Is there a problem, President Justice?" The Pharaoh asked, the annoyance in his tone and his face was apparent. Beaufort bristled at that tone and motioned to the member of Sho'lajah Artifact Company seated around the Pharaoh.

"I'll say there's a problem! These…people should be down in the middle tier!" Beaufort proclaimed. The Pharaoh huffed and patted the head of the young boy that he'd been talking to.

"You'd have me send my nephew away when I rarely get to see him?" The Pharaoh asked sarcastically. A woman that was seated on the Pharaoh's other side shot the Pharaoh a glare.

"Never mind the daughter that you rarely see…" The woman that I now recognized as the Egyptian princess Jane, said snidely. The Pharaoh looked back at his daughter and smirked.

"Well I tried to talk and all you wanted to talk about was matters concerning the company. It's not my fault that conversation with a ten year old is more stimulating." The Pharaoh teased. The princess frowned and blushed at her father's words.

"That doesn't explain why they aren't where they are supposed to be!" Beaufort snapped, interrupting the touching moment. The Pharaoh arched a brow at Beaufort then looked to his daughter. Princess Jane stood up and tuned to Beaufort.

"We were gifted the Shogun's seats for the combat demonstrations by the Shogun since he would not be able to attend." Princess Jane announced. Beaufort frowned at this and Dad walked over to the president and placed a hand on Beaufort's shoulder to calm him.

"We can't afford to cause a scene right now." Dad told Beaufort in a low tone so the splicers couldn't hear.

"After what happened today you expect me to just sit down near these bastards!" Beaufort hissed.

"HEY! FATTY! YOU GONNA SIT DOWN OR WHAT?!" The young splicer boy, who I now remembered hearing being called Bo, shouted. Beaufort's heard turned sharply and glared at the boy.

"THE FUCK YOU…" Beaufort started only to have my Dad grab Beaufort's mouth then glared at the president. They both shared a silent conversation with their eyes where Beaufort relented and sighed. When I looked back over in the direction of the boy I heard two loud smacks simultaneously and saw the boy's head suddenly snap downwards and a adult man and woman standing behind him.

'The boy's parents.' I thought.

"How many times have I told you to mind your manners!" The boy's father snapped.

"Say something like that again Bo and you're heading back to the King's glaive!" The boy's mother snapped.

"OW! Not like I said anything that was a lie…" Bo grumbled earning himself two more smacks from each parent. The last one made me wince as I swore I saw his eyes bulge out of his head from the force of the impact. "OK! OK! I'LL SHUT UP!"

"Nice to see someone knows how to discipline a child." Beaufort said then walked over to his seat.

I quickly walked behind the seat Beaufort took and stood at attention while dad took the seat beside Beaufort, that seat was next to the Princess. The rest of my squad followed my lead and stood at attention near or behind Beaufort. Cross stood next to me, unfortunately, while Oliver stood near us buy towards the stairwell that would lead back downstairs.

Once Beaufort and my dad were seated I allowed myself to look at the others from Sho'lajah Artifact Company. Apart from the princess and the young splicer boy and his parents there were several others here. A Egyptian man that was larger than everyone else here was seated in the midst of the group with a young boy in his lap, younger than that Bo brat. The family that we sent Reagan and Anders to attack was seated on the other side of the Egyptian guy. Seated next to the family was another Egyptian woman with a crystal under her eye, another woman who looked English, and the two splicers that had accompanied Chase to the sea dock were seated next to her.

"Well, none of you look worse for wear, Thomas." A voice suddenly said to dad. I looked and saw it was the father of the family that got Reagan killed. Dad looked at the man and frowned.

"Why wouldn't we be, Louie?" Dad asked. Louie smirked and reached over to pat the head of his son who was fast asleep in his wife's arms.

"Based off the report Damon and Alberto gave us I expected all of you to skip the demonstration." Louie said. Dad frowned and narrowed his eyes at Louie.

"You knew what he had planned." Dad said. The accusation made Louie huff and look at Dad with a serious glower.

"You knew what they were going go do to KC, didn't you." Louie replied, his tone was steel and venom. I noticed that everyone in Sho'lajah was staring at Dad, their expressions serious. Dad didn't respond, instead Beaufort chuckled.

"You all are surprisingly relaxed considering everything your Boss could lose." Beaufort said. All eyes turned to Beaufort and suddenly a loud laugh came from Cross.

"Mr. President, I don't believe that the queen can beat that guy. She's a woman! What use is she in a fight!" Cross exclaimed. I shot him a glare as a warning.

"I have to agree with Lieutenant Cross." Alex added.

"No offense but a woman's placs isn't the battlefield." Private Oliver added as well.

All of the splicers stated at us with blank expressions when that boy Bo threw his head back and started laughing uncontrollably. Which caused The princess and the Egyptian woman to laugh as well. Pretty soon all of the splicers and Sho'lajah Artifact Company employees were laughing, even the Pharaoh joined in. It wasn't a blustering type a laughter but rip, roaring, gut busting laughter.

"Did my guard say something funny?" Beaufort asked. The Pharaoh collected himself and wiped some tears from his eyes.

"Yes unfortunately, funny and stupid." The Pharaoh said. Cross growled and I stepped slightly in front of him.

"What exactly?" Beaufort asked.

"That a woman's place isn't on the battlefield. While I can admit that my wife doesn't give off the appearance of a soldier but she can wipe the floor with anyone in our military." Turak'Kahn replied with pride.

"Well it sounds to me like you've got nothing but a bunch of weak, soft jaws for soldiers." Beaufort chuckled, earning a laugh from everyone in my squad, me included. Dad sat stone faced and shot all of us death glares the quickly added.

"What the president means is that while he doesn't doubt your wife has powerful evos at her disposal once those are dealt with she's basically powerless." Dad said.

The Pharaoh and the members of Sho'lajah Artifact Company didn't laugh or say anything. Instead the Pharaoh just looked at all of us with a bewildered gaze, then his eyes lit up with a light of understanding and he threw his head back and laughed again. Something about that laugh unsettled me, the look on dad and Beaufort's face told me it unsettled them too.

"I understand now….why you Americans seem to have this air of superiority about you. You're ignorant." The Pharaoh said with a chuckle. Beaufort sneered at the Pharaoh.

"Ignorant! I will not stand here and have my people insulted!" Beaufort snapped and jumped to his feet. That only made the Pharaoh laugh again, which had Beaufort's face turning red with anger.

"This display only goes to prove my point President Justice." The Pharaoh said then motioned to several of the other seat clusters near us. "You are a singular country, with an open hatred for splicers that is only tolerated for the evos that your companies are able to produce. You've faced centuries of peace save a few minor skirmishes and that has seemed to allow your country the time to delude yourselves into thinking that your country actually has the ability to stand toe to toe against anyone here."

"YOU THINK WE CAN'T!" Cross snarled. I grabbed Cross and pulled him a few steps back from the Pharaoh in case he did something stupid and tried to swing at him, even though I wanted to swing at him as well. The Pharaoh chuckled and shook his head.

"I know you can't, yes your country might have the most advanced technology and most soldiers but we're splicers, such things are irrelevant to us." The Pharaoh said with a kind of smugness that could only come from a pampered pansy that's never known hard work or struggles.

"My country has beaten splicers before! And with less!" Beaufort exclaimed.

"Yes! The great victories of the Americans, the one war they fought over three hundred years ago against the Great British empire, never mind the fact that the bulk of their army was fighting Germans and all you American's fought were the dregs they could spare." The Pharaoh taunted.

"Dregs!" Cross growled. I could feel my blood boil with every word the Pharaoh spoke. Belittling the achievements of our forefathers to our face. I didn't know how Beaufort was standing it. How none of us hadn't jumped the Pharaoh by now.

"You Americans have never fought a war against splicers. Not a true war, and not against a real army....Don't believe me? Then sit and watch. Watch a fight between two splicers and afterwards tell me if you think you can win." The Pharaoh said and motioned to our seats.

"You mean sit and watch a couple of cowards send their evos to fight! That's all you splicers can do!" Cross snapped. The Pharaoh chuckled again and the sound made me want to punch him in the jaw until the Pharaoh looked back at us and leveled Cross and I with a look that could freeze the sun.

"You have no idea what a splicer can do." The Pharaoh said.

"Father, enough please!" The princess, Jane, exclaimed. "You already know how bad one pissed off Kingston is. Let's not see how bad two are."

"Do not put me and Chase in the same category! We are nothing alike." I snapped. Princess Jane looked at me and huffed.

"Obviously. People actually care what he thinks." She said snidely. I saw red and was glad I was still holding Cross back or else I would have lunged at the girl.

"What was that about pissing off Kingston's, Bug?" The Pharaoh teased his daughter.

"Hmph!" Jane said as she turned away from her father.

"Jane, your majesty, it looks like it's starting!" The Egyptian woman near Jane said sternly.

Everyone turned to look out towards the center of the lagoon where three figures were floating on the back of sky skimmer towards the platform that would serve as their battlefield. I squinted and saw Chase, dressed in another one of those African outfits only this one was missing a sleeve entirely and seemed more tribal in origin. The queen was beside him, dressed in a rather odd looking pantsuit, with a freaking enormous necklace that had a jewel the size of my freaking head attacked to the center.

"Why does Mother have the eye of Ammunset?!" Jane exclaimed then looked at her father.

"Because she plans to use it." The Pharaoh said. The princess eyes widened in horror.

"USE IT! THAT'S OVERKILL!" Princess Jane bellowed.

"DON'T forget Chase can also use Crystal Genesis as well. Her having the eye is more her leveling the playing field." The Pharaoh said.

'What's so important about an eye?' I thought. My thoughts were interrupted by a loud booming voice that reverberated through all the tiers.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! We have gathered here today for two events, the combat demonstration and a noble duel! I am Captain Hideyoshi Ascred of the JDF's navy and I will be acting as mediator for The duel, which will commence shortly."

"Gods my ears!" Cross and I snapped. The voice was booming right above us and we had to move or lose our hearing.

"This is a duel between Viola Solomon, Queen of Egypt and Chase Kingston, The Revolutionary Paragon of Sho'lajah Artifact Company. The queen has challenged Master Kingston to the duel with the rules being of mixed combat where each splicer will fight along side one evo of their choosing. The condition to win is either surrender or render your opponent incapacitated!" Captain Hideyoshi announced. "Queen Viola summon your evo!"

"Summon?" I muttered as I watched the queen. The crystal in her body started to glow but I was too far away to see why.

"HAPI!" The queen bellowed and threw something in the air. A odd structure exploded in the air and a liger shark unlike anything I've seen before emerged and landed on the platform next to the queen, letting out a ferocious roar.

"THE FUCK?!" Every American exclaimed.

"Where did that evo come from!" Dad exclaimed. The Pharaoh chuckled along with the princess.

"Her Farm Crystal. All splicers can store evos in them." Princess Jane announced.

"What?!" Cross exclaimed.

"Master Kingston Summon you evo!" Captain Hideyoshi commanded. The crystal on Chase's hand glowed and he threw his hand up in the air.

"BONE-LASHER!" He bellowed as a structure shot from his crystal and exploded in mid-air. That armored two legged Liger shark emerged and let out a demonic roar, releasing bolts of lightning that danced across the water like the lagoon before he landed on the platform beside Chase.

'Wait…does that mean Chase has had those evos on him…this entire time?' I thought, suddenly feeling all the color drain from my face.

"Both duelist have summoned their evos…!" Hideyoshi exclaimed then stepped back and off the platform and onto the sky skimmer. "…BEGIN!"

I expected to see lightning spark off Chase's evo and run at these unnatural speeds towards the queen and her evo. Slashing it to ribbons and then stand behind the queen menacingly like it had with the Scottish king and his guards.

Instead a huge tree broke through platform near the queen and their branches reached out and grabbed Chase and his evo. Chase's evo tore through the branches and jumped down from the tree and charged at the queen and her evo once again. The Queens evo's body sparked with lightning and charged to intercept Chase's evo, knocking him back

The tree that held Chads suddenly erupted into flames that incinerated the tree to a crisp and left not even ash. Chase fell flat on his ass then jumped to his feet as blue flames covered his hands then shot at the queen in a azure stream.

A trio of trees erupted from under the platform and blocked the flames, burning to a crisp. Lightning sparked off Chase's body and he disappeared in a flash of electricity that headed towards the queen. Lightning sparked off her at the same time and she too disappeared in a flash. Large electrical explosion rang out. One after another all over the makeshift arena before one massive explosion sent two objects skidding across the platform. The two objects turned out to be the queen and Chase. Their evos rushed to their sides and growled at the opposing side.

"WHOOOO! Now that's a duel!" A royal from a nearby cluster exclaimed. I blinked several times then looked to my dad. He had the same look that everyone in my squad had. Disbelief, denial.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!" Beaufort bellowed. The Pharaoh threw his head back and laughed.

"What's wrong? This is standard in a duel between splicers of my wife and Chase's caliber." The Pharaoh said to Beaufort then added and smirked.

"Don't be too shocked. Neither of them have gotten serious yet." Princess Jane said.

"W-What?" I muttered. The princess smiled and looked to me with cold eyes.

"My father said it earlier: you have no idea what Splicers can do."