Mira tilted her head upwards and put a finger to her chin, thinking silently to herself for a few moments.<br/>"Hmm... I don't really get out much, any good restaurants nearby?"<br/><br/>(Works for me. I suppose we'll pick this up tomorrow, after everybody's had a chance to read... And it gives me time to work on Alister's battle.)<br/><br/>....................................<br/><br/><em>Meanwhile, at the MBF combat arena.</em><br/><br/>The other Malrain sibling couldn't stop himself from smirking as his orange mech stepped out onto the field of battle. The setting was a ruined city, debris was all too commonplace, massive sky scrapers toppled over to make for decent cover, devastated streets made the otherwise level terrain extremely rugged, and stable ground for artillery fire was very scarce, good thing for Alister, his fighting style involved him staying mobile, and hardly spending any amount of dedicated time on the ground, so this wouldn't be too much of an issue unless his wings were clipped.<br/><br/>His opponent was a bit of an interesting individual, the man wore a complete super hero costume, and his  golden mech (http://www.mahq.net/mecha/codegeass/geass-r2/rpi-212.jpg) shimmered in the artificial light that radiated from the lights overhead. At the present time, the man was standing on the shoulder of his MW, pandering to the cameras for the people so dedicated to the MBF that they actually purchased preliminary tickets. While the prelims weren't aired publicly, for a fee, anybody could sit at home and enjoy the action. It actually proved to be a pretty respectable source of revenue for the league, and the officials were ALL about that.<br/>"Ladies and Gentlemen! Are you ready for the<strong>sword of justice</strong>to strike again!?"<br/><br/>Alister had to roll his eyes at the performance, he heard that the guy was a bit of a ham, but he didn't imagine anything like this. Some people were willing to do anything to get their shining chance in the limelight, it was almost sad. He silently spoke under his breath while he waited for his opponent's little display to end so that they could start the battle. He didn't even fully understand why he acted like this, they were only in the preliminaries, it wasn't like there was any kind of live audience yet or anything. Some people were just confusing, Alister realized, and there was really no point in trying to put logic behind their actions.<br/>"Jason Northingway and his golden mech... the truthinator, what a joke."<br/><br/>Jason's act didn't stop as he jabbed a finger at Zero, speaking in a stern voice.<br/>"You there! Prepare to face the justice of my wrath! Fight honorably and you shall be spared my<strong>ultimate attack!</strong>"<br/>"You have got to be kidding me..."<br/><br/>Alister simply shook his head as the guy in hero garb jumped down into the cockpit of the truthinator and closed the hatch, his voice roaring over netcom.<br/>"Strike!<strong>Sword of justice</strong>! show my enemies the meaning of<strong>true courage</strong>and<strong>virtue</strong>on the battlefield!"<br/>"... He's still not done yet?"<br/><br/>The alarm went off to indicate the start of the match, and the gold mech came out of the gate hard and fast, bearing a claymore as large as the mech itself and swinging it at Zero. Alister had decided to stand still in the middle of the battlefield until he was within strike range, just to see how idiotic his opponent was.<br/><strong>"Virtue!"</strong><br/><br/>Alister had little trouble dodging such a heavily broadcasted attack, as his mech spun to the side and fired it's double beam rifle at the heavily exposed side of the opposing machine. What Alister didn't expect, however, was that Jason would simply put truthinator's claymore in the path of the beams, and that the sword would actually absorb the plasma and start glowing with energy.<br/>"You fool! Your trickery only adds power to the<strong>sword of justice!</strong>"<br/><br/>Alister let out a smirk, even though he had to retreat backwards in order to avoid getting sliced in half by the red claymore.<br/>"A sword that absorbs plasma and, in turn, uses it to fuel the blade's secondary features... I have to admit, that's quite a weapon he's got"<br/><br/>Zero transformed into jet mode and took off into the air, the opposing mech pointed it's glowing claymore at the jet while it boosted upwards.<br/>"Coward! I knew that you would not be able to handle a straight fight. You see? He had no choice but to retreat from my almighty sword!"<br/><br/>Alister's eyes narrowed as his get snapped around and stopped in mid air.<br/>"Okay, the act was funny at first, but now it's just getting sad and annoying."<br/><br/>While in mid air, Alister began to dive back down towards the truthinator. Once he reached ideal speeds, he transformed back into mech mode and aimed a high speed kick at the mech who was standing firm. This was one of Alister's favorite maneuvers, and his fans had taken to calling it the 'lethal swoop'. Typically, he had to do something to stun or weaken his opponent, or he could seize an opportunity while a teammate had an opponent distracted. However, this guy was so focused on putting on the hammiest performance he could, that he wasn't focused on what he should have been, the battle.<br/><br/>Jason just barely put up truthinator's claymore in time to block the kick, and with a bit of a momentum shift Alister had little difficulty wedging the massive blade out of the hands of the gold mech. However, with both hands free, the truthinator suddenly pulled out a vibroblade, and attempted to slice off Zero's outstretched leg while it was still in the motion of wedging the claymore from his hands. Alister was able to counter by kicking off truthinator's shoulder and boosting his way backwards to stable ground, but still, Alister had to admit that he was rather impressed by the actions. Were Jason fighting anybody less reflexive and quick then Alister, and that leg would surely have been gone.<br/>"Looks like the hero has some moves after all... interesting."<br/><br/>After the first clash had ended, Jason seemed to realize that he was vulnerable to Alister's rifle fire without his claymore, because the instant that Alister put his rifle back out in front of him, the truthinator was running at full speed to try and get back to it's primary weapon. Alister opened fire, and with a few controlled shots, was able to put a plasma round through the back of each of truthinator's kneecaps, sending the gold mech tumbling to the ground. Truthinator was now immobile, and it was time for Alister to have just a little bit of fun before the match ended.<br/><br/>Even with both of the knees blown out, truthinator crawled towards it's beloved claymore on it's hands. However, it was intercepted by a swiftly boosting Zero, which was firing several plasma rounds into the claymore. Before the gold mech could lay hands on it's sword of justice, Zero grabbed the massive weapon with both hands collected it from the ground, and boosted back towards Truthinator, once he was over the truthinator, Alister sent the searing red blade diving down towards his opponent. Over netcom, Alister could hear Jason scream out as the blade descended.<br/>"No,<strong>NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!</strong>"<br/><br/>There was dead silence in the arena for a few seconds, as it took everybody a few seconds to register what happened next. The blade sunk into the ground, just barely two inches away from the lower stomach of the truthinator. It was close, but the gold mech was left entirely unharmed by the attack. Inside the cockpit of Zero, Alister smirked, and spoke over Netcom for the first time since the battle began. "you expected something a bit more... destructive?"<br/><br/>With the blade stabbed into the ground in place, Zero began to walk away from the damaged truthinator.<br/>"I've already claimed my win, to do any more damage would be pointless."<br/><br/>With that, Alister was gone, and a recovery team was dispatched to pick up the incapacitated truthinator, the only damage done during the battle was two blown kneecaps and some irreparable damage to Jason's ego.