[center][img]http://txt-dynamic.static.1001fonts.net/txt/dHRmLjI0MC40ZWI0ZGEuSWtwbGNtVnRlU0JJWVd4MmFYUWkuMA,,/lazenby-computer.liquid.png[/img]
[b][i]VS.[/i][/b]
[img]http://txt-dynamic.static.1001fonts.net/txt/dHRmLjcyLmJiYjQxMS5USFZqWVhNZ1RXbHNiR1Z5LjAA/against-myself.regular.png[/img][/center]

"I take it you are Lucas?" He began in his fake calm voice. "I have heard much about you. I trust you will not be holding back?" 

SYM-04 took his stance, with two fists held up, and one leg stretched and extended in front of the other. 

"W-what?" was all Lucas managed to say in response before the booming voice of Andre started up on the PA

"GO!" Came Andre's voice.

The fight officially began and in one split second Lucas managed to survey the area, an industrial like arena with complicated and convoluted pieces of machinery littering the battlefield, then Lucas saw "Jeremy" opposite of him prepared to attack, Lucas began sprinting to the right hand side.

Jeremy's tail lashed out forward towards Lucas's leg as he ran, but just narrowly missed it as Lucas's leg stepped right over it. Lunging again, his tail nearly grazed Lucas's neck, but still missed by hardly an inch.

Jeremy retracted his tail to it's basic length, and sprinted towards the spot Lucas was heading. Thinking fast, he lunged down, attempting to lowsweep Lucas with his right foot.

Lucas saw the approaching Jeremy and with a yell he dived forward, disappearing down into a hole of one of the metal constructs. Suddenly faced with the darkness of his new surroundings Lucas began shuffling his way through, unsure where exactly he would end up but trying to put as much distance between himself and this... Thing, as possible

Jeremy watched as Lucas fell into a hole beneath him. Whether the fool tripped or purposely lunged, Jeremy didn't know. He did, however, heighten his senses. What would have been quiet movement, Jeremy heard as present thuds. He also felt Lucas's heartbeat, and sensed his Ki signature. Suddenly, he jabbed his tail through the floor in front of Lucas. His tail then quickly wrapped around his scrawny opponent, and lifted him upside down as the tip of his tail gently poked his back, and started draining the poor boy's Ki.

Lucas struggled under Jeremy's grasp but to Lucas' credit he hadn't been constrained by a metal tail before, feeling suddenly weaker and weaker as a small but sharp prick was felt through his back he began desperately trying to thing of a way out. Knowing that strength was not on his side Lucas, in desperation, had his hands flare up in a faint green energy, he slammed both of his hands onto Jeremy's sides, hoping to distract him enough for Lucas to wriggle out of his grip if nothing else.

Jeremy's tail loosened on Lucas, having been surprised from Lucas's sudden Ki attack. His tail was still sprawled out, and Jeremy was struggling to keep balance on one leg.

Feeling the grip around his waist loosen Lucas jerked to the side in an attempt to topple over Jeremy's balance entirely, what he could potentially do after that was anyone's guess.

Jeremy fell over in the direction Lucas jerked. His tail retracted back, and he rolled away from Lucas and rose to his feet, one of which he attempted to kick into Lucas's stomach.

Lucas flew with the force of Jeremy's kick, his back slamming with a painful thud against a metal pole, "OH GOD MY BACK!" Came Lucas' un-warrior like cry as the crowd gave a sudden cheer, whether at the kick, Lucas struggling to his feet or just at seeing someone in pain was really up for debate. Despite the bone shattering force of the kick and impact Lucas gripped onto the pole and somehow was struggling back to his feet, though certainly not out of determination.

Jeremy nodded. "I'm amazed at your perseverance. Most low-level Ki users haven't lasted this long in combat-trials. However, I find that you reaching even this second round to be mere coincidence; An absent strike of Luck. Therefore, I shall end this here and now." Jeremy slowly began sprinting towards Lucas, before jumping in the air, his left foot stretched out towards his struggling opponent. Before his foot made contact with Lucas, however, he fumbled, and hit the ground, bouncing three times before hitting a bar with a loud thud, to which most of the audience winced.

Lucas was busy trying not to throw up as Jeremy spoke to him, he looked up to see Jeremy flying towards him and instinctively braced for what was sure to be a painful impact, however when it never came Lucas looked up to see Jeremy collide with the ground in pain. Having not really been in such a situation before Lucas was unsure of what to do, cheering didn't seem very sportsmanlike nor did kicking the man whilst he was down. So, abandoning quite literally every bit of common sense in his body, Lucas hesitantly stepped over to the fallen... Machine, thingy and spoke.

"Are you o-okay man?" he asked with some trembling in his voice as he stood over Jeremy.

Jeremy started shakily thrashing, his visor flickering on and off chaotically. "I I I I I I I I I I KI I I I I I I I I I EA I I I I I I I I I AM fine..." Jeremy finally stuttered out, as he got back up to his feet. He punched his opponent in the stomach, elbowed him on top of the head, and knee'd him in the groin, before power-kicking his opponent across the arena.

In a heap, Lucas crashed into several metallic apparatuses placed haphazardly around the stage, whilst, to his credit, he still struggled to his feet it was with much less speed than his previous attempts, even the normally violence crazed crowds were feeling slightly uncomfortable at seeing this. As Lucas got to his feet and stared down Jeremy he narrowed his eyes slightly and gritted his teeth, Lucas' hands glowed with the same green energy as before, he placed them together and flung both of his hands towards Jeremy

"FIREBALL!" he cried as a the blinding green energy flew towards Jeremy.... Before fizzling out and disappearing before it even reached halfway towards him.

"....God dammit." Lucas flatly said, defeated.

Jeremy shook his head in disappointment. He shot his tail towards Lucas, wrapping around his foot and pulling him along the ground towards him. 

Lucas clawed at the ground as he was drug along, picking up a piece of scrap metal and continuously bashing against Jeremy's tail randomly and without precision.

Surprisingly, Jeremy's tail actually let go after getting hit along a certain joint, to which Jeremy tried to retract it before Lucas could rise and attack him.

Lucas scrambled to his feet and began picking up random pieces of scrap and chucking them at Jeremy, possibly in an attempt to try and replicate what happened with his tail, that said most of the pieces either missed completely or bounced harmlessly off Jeremy's body.

Jeremy grabbed one of the pieces that hit him, and tore it, bent it, and twisted it, until he made a simple bolt of metal that whistled through the air as it flew at lightning speeds straight at Lucas.

Lucas ducked as the piercing bolt whizzed past him, narrowly missing his head but not the collar of his needlessly baggy shirt. The bolt was thrown with such force that Lucas was dragged along as it impaled itself into a thick wall of metal, Lucas began desperately trying to pull at the metal with both of his hands.

Jeremy slowly walked towards the pinned Lucas. He placed one hand on Lucas's neck, and one on the missile, which he pulled from the wall with minor effort. He lifted Lucas by the neck, mere inches from his face. "I think this little charade is over. You lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo" His hand on Lucas's neck started trembling.

[hr]

The Boss stood up with both hands on his desk.

"That's twice now! I thought those fools fixed the damn chip!"

One of the engineers turned back. "Sir, even if we do fix the chip, we can't erase SYM-04, or even permanently contain it from acting out. He has an easy target, right in his grasp. If we want to win, we'd have to let SYM-04 kill the poor boy. Or, we could shut down both Ego's; He'd collapse and spare the kid, but he would lose!"

The boss sat back down, and pressed both of his hands together, in calm consideration compared to the hectic control room around him. Sighing, he asked "Is it possible to stop it at exactly the right moment of him choking the boy to fainting, but not killing him?"

The engineer turned around to face his computer and crunched some numbers, then turned back.

"We'd have a 60% chance of that... But there'd be a percentage of causing long-term damage to the kid. Plus, pardon my position, but I think that doing that wouldn't do too well with the higher ups in either of our cases."

The boss placed his fat palm on his face."If we kill him, I'm screwed. If Jeremy looses, I'm screwed. If we win but fuck the kid up, we lose... Yknow what, option three. The kid lives, SYM goes up."

"Yes sir." The engineer sighed.

[hr]

Jeremy's palm suddenly squeezed Lucas's neck even tighter for several seconds, detecting his Ki level as it dropped.

Lucas struggled under Jeremy's grip, his vision blurring and his attempts at escaping becoming more and more weak, his legs began going limp as he looked into Jeremy's "face"

[I]"If you're really that obsessed with getting in over your head, all you have to really do is fall off the stage to lose."[/I] The words of that odd looking fellow from earlier echoed in Lucas' head as his eyes wandered off to the stage, he could make it, he was sure. With some effort Lucas moved his eyes back to face Jeremy, he stopped struggling and did what he could to relax, suddenly he slammed the palm of his hand against Jeremy's visor. His hand glowed a sudden and fierce bright light, Flash Man's Sight Stopper, a fairly simple move but one that interfered with Jeremy's vision enough to release Lucas.

Collapsing to the floor Lucas clutched at his throat but without the luxury of getting his breath back Lucas charged forward underneath Jeremy's legs. He saw the approaching edge of the stage and flung himself forward, closing his eyes in a strange mixture of bliss and some shame as he began falling downwards.

The surprising moment caught the audience off guard, including Andre who was slightly taken aback by the turn of events.

"Er, YOUR WINNER, JEREMY HALVIT!!"

The audience gave a confused applause as some event personnel came to pick up Lucas.