Clash The Greatest Tournament Read online

  “Ah, that must be why I haven’t seen her at the club meetings.” Max said.

  “We are going to go see that new holographic-movie in a bit. You got here just in time because we were just about to leave.”

  “I had thought that maybe I was a little late.” Max said.

  Holographic-movies had replaced regular projection movies years ago. The benefits of holographic-movies were that they projected in actual 3D. It was quite the experience. The holographic images would sometimes fly into the audience making for breathtaking scenes. When he was younger Max remembered when a plane had flown into the audience. He had freaked out the first time it had happened, but since then had gotten use to it.

  Max got a ride with Lizzy in April’s Aunt’s car to the holographic-theater. He called his parents to let them know before he left. The new holographic-movie that they were going to see was a documentary about the Jupiter space mission. Max had thought they were going to see Action Flick 10 when Lizzy had said new holographic-movie.

  “Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you that April’s family love documentaries.” Lizzy said. “I hope that you don’t mind.”

  “No, I don’t mind.” Max said. He just hoped it was not too boring of a movie.

  While they were standing in line for tickets April got away from her family and came over to talk to them. “Sorry Lizzy, I hardly got to hang with you at all today.” April said.

  “Happy birthday April.” Max said.

  “Thanks Max. I see Lizzy really did drag you here. Good luck on wining your next match tomorrow.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I trained him good this week, he better win.” Lizzy said.

  They got their tickets and went into the theater. April’s family ended up taking up a few rows. The three of them sat together in a row with Lizzy in the middle. Max had started too really like Lizzy since he started hanging out with her. He was feeling a little nervous sitting so close to her; he tried not to think about it.

  The previews before the movie started and one of them was highlights of an exclusive interview with the creator of Clash, Peter Toggle. In the interview he is asked why there are so few celestial avatars and how is it that none of them have made it to the national tournament yet. Peter responded that when they designed the process of when avatars are created; their research showed that about one in five people would be of the celestial type. Most people that would be the celestial type do not care to play Clash nor do they want to try to partake in tournaments. They hadn’t really expected that. Maybe someday the people that have celestial avatars would be more interested in tournaments. Or someone with a celestial avatar will rise up from the people to challenge at the national level.

  Peter went on to explain that celestials were supposed to be just as strong as every other type. The fact that they seem weaker than most is not built into them, the players of celestial types can bring out as many powers as all the other types. The preview ended explaining that the full interview would be released at a later time in another documentary.

  Some more information about celestials was a documentary Max could really get into.

  The feature presentation started. It was not as bad a Max had expected. It started with the building of the Jupiter shuttle. How they would have to utilize a lot of recycling on the shuttle to make it all the way out to Jupiter. The shuttle would act like a mini farm. It would grow plants, have a few chickens for eggs and a goat for milk; all to be the food supple for the astronauts. The carbon dioxide that they astronauts breathed out would be turned back into oxygen by the plants and all the water would be recycled through sunlight distillation. Any human waste was also refined into fertilizer for the plants.

  Max thought the idea of eating plants that grew in your waste was gross, but if it worked good luck to the astronauts. The round trip to Jupiter would take 6 years to complete; two and half years to get there and two and a half to get back, with a whole year at Jupiter for research.

  Half way through the movie, it changed to scenes of outer space where the giant space shuttle was being put together. They started playing a lot of classical music during those parts. Max was getting bored and so he started looking around the theater having nothing else better to do.

  Max noticed that Lizzy’s hand was inches away from his own. He suddenly really wanted to hold her hand. He kept going over in his head if it would be ok: Were they just friends or were they starting a relationship. After pondering these thoughts, he finally just came to the conclusion that if it did not work out, no big deal his life would go on.

  Not bothering to think about it any more he reached out and held her hand. For the next five minutes all he could think about was that she had not rejected him or pulled away yet. Over and over that went on in his head. After a while he got back into the movie when they started showing the moons of Jupiter and how the shuttle was set to orbit the four Galilean moons and explore the other sixty smaller moons with fly-bys and probes. Max calmed down and just enjoyed holding her hand till the end of the movie.

  After the movie Max said goodbye to April and Lizzy, and was picked up by his parents at the theater. Lizzy said she would be at the tournament to cheer for him tomorrow. After he got home Max got a message from Lizzy on his phone that had a picture of April holding his present to her. Not really knowing April too well Max had gotten her a mix of sweet dried fruits, something he figured was a simple gift. Lizzy said in the message that she had a great time and would like to see a good movie with Max the next time.

  Chapter 18

  Max takes on the first champion of Collis!

  Max showed up to the stadium ready for today’s fight. Lizzy had sent him a message saying that a lot of the Clash club members had gathered in the stands. He went and signed in for his match, the first one of the day again. He had some time before it was set to start so he went over to hang with the club. Max climbed the stairs to where everyone was assembled.

  “Max, we will be rooting for you,” TJ said, waving to Max.

  “Although you aren’t an official member of the Club yet,” Lizzy said. “You are the only one left from the middle school still in the tournament. So, pretty much the whole school is counting on you”.

  “Well, thanks, that doesn’t make me uneasy at all,” Max said.

  “Thanks for the snacks,” April said, holding up his present to her. “We are going to eat them during your match.”

  “Save me some.”

  Lizzy got up and pulled Max away from the group to talk to him. “Max you better not lose. Troo is strong. I know you have seen his fights before. He is going to have some new moves by now, so don’t get caught surprised.”

  Max smiled at her. “We already went over this. Sandalphon will win don’t worried about it.” Max had full confidence in his avatar. It was getting time for his battle to start. Lizzy smiled back and went back to her seat. Max started back down the steps stopped and looked back up at Lizzy and the rest. She waved down to him and he waved back. Max felt ready for his fight.

  “Blast off to the edge of the galaxy, Troo!” Decon said.

  “Here we have a two time returning champion Decon, with his avatar Troo,” The announcer said.

  Troo was of the robotic type. It looked like a robot out of a Japanese cartoon. It had white plates all over its body, with black connection pieces for its arm and leg joints. On its legs were six disks that jutted out to the side. Sticking out behind its elbows were two long thin spikes. Its head had a helmet of metal plates that surrounded two optic eyes, glowing blue. From the top of the helmet he had more thin spikes that pointed up and back. Troo had a booster pack built into his back. He had tiny robotic wings, that extended from his pack to the sides, with additional boosters on them. Troo would use the boosters to jump around the arena in small bursts. On his feet he had treads like those of a tank. Overall, he was relatively short, only about two thirds the height of Sandalphon.

  Sandalphon had appeared on stage before T
roo and had his golden mace, Medens, out for the start of this fight. Max was glad to have the insurance of at least one piece of gear this time. Sandalphon was still a puzzle; Max did not know what he was going to get with him at any given time.

  “Five, four, three, two, one. GET READY TO CLASH!” The announcer yelled.

  They two avatars charged at one another. Troo was fast; he looked like he was skating around the arena sliding on his treaded feet. Sparks flew out behind his treads as he took sharp turns. As he got close to Sandalphon he curved about and began making wide circles around Sandalphon. Max kept Sandalphon turning to face Troo; not allowing him to get behind Sandalphon.

  Troo unhooked the two spikes on its arms; they were hinged on its wrists and locked into place, sticking out past its hands to form blades. It cut in close to Sandalphon and took a swipe at his leg. Sandalphon raised his leg preventing himself from being cut. Troo then did a spin and brought its other blade up to slash at Sandalphon’s back before skating backwards, away from Sandalphon. The blade had cut into Sandalphon’s tunic creating a giant gash in it.

  “Too shallow,” Decon said.

  Troo came back in straight at Sandalphon. Max did not wait for him to pull a similar maneuver. Sandalphon jumped at Troo. Troo did a series of small, quick swings at Sandalphon, who used Medens to block the attacks. Troo then fired up its boosters and did a swift burst to jump up and fly high up above Sandalphon to swipe at his head. Sandalphon blocked with Medens, one swipe, and grabbed Troo’s other arm stopping a second attack. Sandalphon threw Troo back by that arm. Troo went tumbling through the air, it shot out its wings and the boosters on them slowed its fall, allowing it to stick a landing.

  “You are moving better. But what I want to see is your wings,” Decon said.

  “I’ll tell you what. If you give me a reason to bring out my wings, I will,” Max said, a little conceited. Max still did not know how he got Sandalphon’s wings to come out. He was relying on Sandalphon to always come through in a pinch.

  “Okay, we got a deal then.” Troo held is arms out to his sides. Then the blades began to glow and they burned red hot. Heat waves could be seen rising off the surface of the blades. Troo came rolling in at Sandalphon. Max did not wait for Decon to make the first move and had Sandalphon dash forward and delivered a kick into Troo’s chest. Sandalphon was much larger than Troo and the force of the kick sent Troo flying back. Troo turned on the boosters and flew back and up away from Sandalphon. Decon was looking a little bewildered, not expecting Sandalphon to have made such a fast counter attack.

  Decon recognized Sandalphon’s power and knew he would have to use the move that had won him the Championship twice. The disks on Troo’s legs detached themselves and began to hover in the air before Troo. There were 6 six disks in total and each disk linked up with another one to create a solid beam of light between them. There were 3 beams of light in total all about the same length as Sandalphon was tall. Decon sent the hovering beams of light towards Sandalphon surrounding him in a triangle of the light beams. Sandalphon swung at the beams with Medens, but his attacks bounced off, the light beams were solid to the touch.

  Troo came skating in at Sandalphon. Troo swiped out high at Sandalphon with one of its blades above a beam. The light bubble around Medens glowed as he blocked the attack. Troo then came in low below the beam with this other blade. Max tried to have Sandalphon block that as well, but the light beam prevented him from moving Medens down fast enough. Tara scored a hit across Sandalphon’s leg, leaving a dark burn mark across it.

  Max was growing worried about having Sandalphon trapped in the triangle of beams and tried to have Sandalphon climb out over the beams. Sandalphon tried to step off a beam, but when he went to do so the beam gave way under him and he stumbled, and fell down. Troo came from around the beams and stabbed at Sandalphon’s side. Sandalphon tried to make a counterattack, but Troo went skating away on its treads. Sandalphon now had a second burn mark where Troo had stabbed him.

  The three beams moved in front of Sandalphon stacking on top of each other creating a wall. Sandalphon swung at the beams again, but they did not budge. Medens was not strong enough to break the beams. Troo came skating back and from between two beams swiped at Sandalphon. Max tried to have Sandalphon attack back, but the beams narrowed not allowing Medens to fit in between them.

  Max was growing frustrated at dealing with the light beams. He had Sandalphon grab the middle beam and attacked the end of it with Medens. This caused the disked at the end to fly away, turning off the beam. Troo slashed out at Sandalphon’s hand that had held the beam burning another mark across his arm. Sandalphon swung at Troo in the new gap between the two remaining beams scoring a hit on Troo’s shoulder. The blow was not that strong and Troo simply rolled with the attack away from Sandalphon.

  Max had been expecting these kinds of attacks from Troo. He had seen them used before in the past champion matches. Max hopped that if he kept up with his own attacks like this he could beat Troo.

  The two light beams and the fifth disk, flew over to Troo. The beams disappeared, leaving the disks floating. They moved closer to Troo and snapped back into place on its legs. The disk that Sandalphon had hit was still lying motionless where it landed, leaving Troo with a blank spot on his left leg.

  Troo had been a champion in Collis for a few years now, having won the tournament two years ago and three years ago. Nearly everyone had seen all of his special attacks by now. Decon deployed tactics that were hit and run maneuvers, like the ones he was using today against Sandalphon. In last year’s tournament Troo had come in second place, losing the final battle against Femur. Troo was a favorite among a lot of people in the crowd. Nearly everyone was disappointed at his loss first loss in 3 years, but at the same time they saw that Troo had not achieved any new abilities. That loss had been a wake up call for Decon and so for the last year he has been working very hard to come up with new abilities.

  Decon did not underestimate Max, he saw the fight against Gervasee and knew the speed Sandalphon could have when he used his wings. After seeing Sandalphon’s strength from that one blow on Troo, he knew he would have to use his new ability now or suffer a loss. He had planned on using these new special attacks against his match with Gervasee. Because Sandalphon had beaten Gervasee it would be appropriate that he would unveil them today.

  “Become energized Troo,” Decon said. He held out his hand, quickly he snapped it into a fist.

  The blades on Troo’s arms swung back into their original positions. The little wings on Troo’s back shot out and pointed up into the air. The spikes on his head started to glow a bright yellow. Sparks flew off the spikes into the air. Above the avatar a yellow light began to glow. The light formed into a large vertical ring, the ring began to swirl and from inside the ring a portal to outer space opened. The portal started to suck the air out of the arena, Sandalphon’s hair and clothes could be seen blowing towards the direction of the portal. The ring of light began to move back, as it moved an object was slowly being revealed from the portal. The ring of light pasted the last of the object, revealing it to be a large set of white metallic wings, matching Troo’s own metallic body.

  The portal closed and the light that formed the ring exploded. The wings lowered onto Troo, connecting with his out reaching little boosters wings combing into a new set of wings. The new wings were large in comparison to the rest of Troo’s body. All along the bottom of the wings there were many tiny little jets. As Troo fired them up, they each had little flames shooting out of them. Troo lifted off the ground and hovered in the air. Then the jet flames grew and Troo took off flying around the arena.

  “If you don’t bring out your wings now you will never catch me,” Decon said.

  “You can fly around all day, but you won’t get Sandalphon,” Max said, back at Decon.

  From Troo’s new wings, two gun turrets unfold from the tops of the wings. As Troo flew the turrets targeted Sandalphon and fired off some b
laster bursts. Sandalphon intercepted the blasts with Medens. The light bubble that surrounded Medens flared up and deflected the attacks. Troo was flying fast around the arena, circling Sandalphonm shooting off bursts of fire continuously.

  Decon had underestimated Medens’ ability to block attacks, and had Troo change its attack routine. Once again Troo locked its blades into place and dove down at Sandalphon. Sandalphon jumped at Troo trying to score a hit as he came into range. Troo banked to the side and doing a quick loop came at Sandalphon from behind. Sandalphon turned to face Troo and meet Troo’s double blade swipe with Medens. Troo lowered his blasters at Sandalphon’s head and fired off a double burst. Sandalphon ducked under the attack, but was met with a kick from Troo to the face. Troo had the treads on its foot spinning and rode its foot across Sandalphon’s face. Troo backed away and sent another volley of blasts at Sandalphon. Max was slow to bring Medens to block the volley and a few of the shots scored hits.

  Max was growing worried about the damage Sandalphon was taking. There were now burn marks all over him. Sandalphon so far had only the one successful attack on Troo and it had been a glancing blow at best. Max tried to have Sandalphon use Medens’ ability to heal, but nothing happened. As Troo came in for another attack, light emit from Sandalphon’s body and both his wings and armor appeared on his body.

  “I guess that means you are still able to fight,” Max said, talking to his own avatar.

  Troo flew in close and layed down some more blaster fire on Sandalphon. Using Medens to block Sandalphon, flew at Troo and kicked the robot, sending him flying back mid air. Sandalphon followed up with a series of attacks with Medens. Troo took off, away from Sandalphon, picking up speed, trying to circle around Sandalphon. Sandalphon flew after him. At first Troo seemed faster, but Sandalphon was catching up. Troo was making drives and cuts in the air, but Sandalphon stayed right on him. Finally Sandalphon caught up and smashed Medens into Troo’s back sending him crashing down to the arena floor.