XSYS Arena

Because balance is overrated.

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• Preshow Nov. '24: A Wyvern is a Kind of Bird - 2024-11-22

  Open on the arena floor. The whole place is blanketed in nearly knee-deep snow. In the back of the shot, Loa is carrying sensitive equipment out of the arena and off underneath awnings and tarps. Magus walks out into the snow, hands on his hips… and starts laughing. The otherwise-untouched nature of the snow implies no one else is around.

  • MAGUS: Holy hell, it really snows here! I guess I shoulda built a roof.
  • LOA: [clearly stretching to understand the concept] Does it not, where you’re from?
  • MAGUS: …You’ve really never been outside the city, have you?
  • LOA: Sure, I’ve been a few kilometers out.
  • MAGUS: Bah, that doesn’t mean anything. We should change that, sometime.
  • LOA: …I don’t think Marlow would approve of that.
  • MAGUS: [claps Loa on the shoulder] You’re right. Which is why we should do it anyway.

  Loa seems concerned (through body language, since they only have a camera for a face), but is kinda going along with it.

  • LOA: Actually, I was going to ask you about a different kind of project…
  • MAGUS: Oh?
  • LOA: Well, Unification Day was a month ago, but they had to delay the combat festival, and submissions are due soon! …Exime always beats me, she always comes up with something cooler to fight.

  Magus’s eyes sparkle.

  • MAGUS: Don’t worry, buddy. I got your back. What’re you thinkin’…?
  • LOA: Well, the winner last year was this big gecko with an inverse-kinematic joint system so it could dynamically crawl over uneven terrain…
  • MAGUS: Perfect! You want a big lizard? I know exactly where we can get you a nice, big lizard. We’ll run a test fight against it in the arena, even!
  • LOA: Oh! That’d be perfect!
  • MAGUS: Great! Now, go run out and get me some floodlight fluid, would ya? I gotta refill ‘em before this big fight.
  • LOA: Sure thing, boss!

  Loa jets off using their natural thrusters. Magus waits for the shutter to clang shut, looks around suspiciously for surveillance, then swings his wrist out– his forearm-mounted RCP snaps open and lights up.

  • MAGUS [to himself, quietly]: Someday, kiddo, you’re gonna have to learn how to look your mom straight in the eye and say “no, you’re wrong.” …Your parent? Does Marlow even have a gender under all those bandages-or-whatever…?

  Magus shrugs and holds out the hand wearing the RCP. With a sound rather like a massive, weighty hole-punch, something tears a ragged-edged hole in spacetime, to a distant tropical forest… and he hops through, letting it flutter shut behind him.

  ---

  Loa returns to the now-empty snow-filled arena, carrying a large jug labeled ‘floodlight fluid.’

  • LOA: You want regular or diet, Magus? …Magus…?

  ---

  Hey everybody! I’m gonna be gone for a bit, but I left this note on how to start the battle. This month’s fight is going to be a celebration of Thanksgiving– a holiday from back home where we kill and carve birds, and eat their delicious flesh!

  And when carving comes up, only one thing comes to my mind… That’s right, this month you’ll be fighting the king of the skies, Rathalos!

  This one’s got a tricky gimmick to it– he’s so huge I think we’re gonna have a hard time fitting him in the arena. Make sure to check out the class Blazing Wyvern to see what you’re up against– then Scorching Wing Left/Right and Searing Tail, too!

  Our festive barbecue begins at 7 PM!

• Interlude: Strawberry Crumble - 2024-08-15

  Previously: Marlow agreed to help repair Doctor Okazaki’s ship, in exchange for removing the world-jumping device from it. After all, in the wrong hands, such a device could wreak havoc. Magus expressed doubt at her strategy– after all, if both he and Doctor Okazaki had independently created devices, couldn’t someone else?

  ---

  Open on the docks, in the afternoon. Doctor Okazaki’s massive brass-and-gears ship looks out of place bobbing in the waves. Okazaki’s technician, in an oil-stained jumpsuit, is directing several other humanoids and synths in lifting a large armillary-sphere-esque assembly out of the back of the ship.

  • OIL-STAINED TECHNICIAN [shouting, distantly from the camera]: Okay, careful, steady, step, step, step, hold…

  The group carries it onto the dock, and starts moving down onto the street. Marlow is leading them towards the distant silhouette of the Polaris building, the building from which she functions as de-facto city leader.

  The technician leaps down. Doctor Okazaki is standing on the dock, her arms folded, looking understandably cross.

  • DR OKAZAKI: Well, there goes my life’s work. I expected something like this might end up happening, but I was hoping to make it more than a few jumps first.
  • OIL-STAINED TECHNICIAN [wiping their forehead]: You’re not gonna ask me to improvise a whole new core out of an extra synth-shell and half a pizza, are you?
  • DR OKAZAKI: …Is that on the table?
  • OIL-STAINED TECHNICIAN: Not unless you can accelerate it to nine-tenths the speed of light, and then get it back.
  • DR OKAZAKI: I’ll keep you posted.

  Okazaki walks offscreen.

  Cut to the arena, near dusk. The floor of the arena is partially pulled up, and Magus is walking around with half his body obscured in that pit, alternately coordinating the synth team and typing on a wrist-mounted cyberdeck-style computer. Okazaki sits on the edge of the drop floor, her lab coat splayed out a little.

  • DR OKAZAKI: Anything I can help with?
  • MAGUS: [sizing her up thoughtfully] You want to take your mind off it, or you want to blow off steam?
  • DR OKAZAKI: I’ll take the latter, if you’re offering.
  • MAGUS: Great, I still need to make sure I didn’t screw up the holoemitters. Just bonk things until they evaporate.

  Magus sounds a little like he’s telling a white lie. He types a few keystrokes, and a white doll-body sprite materializes atop the drop floor. Okazaki nods sharply and snags a length of pipe from under the exposed floor on her way to her feet– she swings it rather like a golf club, and the sprite explodes into pixels.

  • MAGUS: …I think it’s bullshit too. For whatever that’s worth.
  • DR OKAZAKI: Not worth much, if I’m honest. Words are cheap.
  • Okazaki glances over, waiting for Magus to spawn another. He does.
  • MAGUS: Believe me, I’ve pulled all the levers I have. Marlow keeps a tight, tight lid on that kinda tech. And as long as all the synths see her as their leader…
  • Okazaki kicks the next one in the chest and jabs with the pipe as a follow-up, though it’s too short for her reflexive stab to connect. It disintegrates.
  • MAGUS: …anyway, you’re welcome to hang out here as long as you want.
  • DR OKAZAKI: [catching her breath] …Is there even anything else out there?
  • MAGUS: The crash site of my last arena, a couple miles out. Nothin’ else, as far as I can tell. To hear the synths tell it, this city’s the only thing that’s ever existed, and the rest is rolling open countryside as far as anyone’s ever explored.
  • DR OKAZAKI: How can that be true? Any civilization sophisticated enough to produce synthetic life couldn’t have lived its entire history inside a few square kilometers.
  • MAGUS: Could’ve been seeded by another society that moved on.
  • DR OKAZAKI: That’s a funny thought. I wonder how long world-travel’s existed. How many people have independently invented it.
  • MAGUS: The answer to that question terrifies me.

  Magus looks up to the sky. Night has fallen, but the sky is completely starless, given the light pollution from the surrounding city.

  • MAGUS: If you look up at the sky, and you think about every star you can see, and every star you can’t… and, what. Maybe one in a trillion has people around it. And one in a trillion of those survives long enough to make something that lets them reach out and touch another world…
  • DR OKAZAKI: Then where the hell are the rest of them?
  • MAGUS: [laughing] Yeah. Where the hell is my audience, more like. …It wasn’t always like this! It used to be easy, you’d have people stumble in all the time from weird distant places.
  • DR OKAZAKI: [resting the pipe on her shoulder] Right. Six years, or so?
  • MAGUS: Closer to seven, now. [shakes head] I just hope Marlow sees reason. The tighter she crushes down on this kind of tech, the less prepared we’re going to be. Hell, there might be someone already in the city, and they’re just smart enough not to announce it.
  • DR OKAZAKI: [staring up at the sky]
  • MAGUS: …Doc?
  • DR OKAZAKI: You raise some excellent points. I’ll see you later, Magus.
  • MAGUS: Gonna get some shut-eye?
  • DR OKAZAKI: Something like that.

  She walks out of the arena. Magus, meanwhile, returns to working on the arena.

  • MAGUS: …God dammit, I needed that pipe.

• Recap 6/2024: To the Moon and Back Again - 2024-06-10

  Heroes: Herringway (Arbiter), oakandlinden (Arcanimist), Rue (Wrathguard), Dragoshi (Profaner), Amara as Aerith (Rosecutter), Misty (Decider)

  ---

  

  Wait, is this a shmup segment?

  Aeris supported the heroes with the “Seven Force” skillset, granting them a Star-Fox-style lock-on combo shot to deal with the waves of weak enemies.

  The heroes had a different strategy, however. Most of the hero party softened up the mook Weapons one by one or stacked debuffs on the boss, and some coordination between Aerith’s Target Lock and Dragoshi’s Black Hole allowed Aerith to sweep through most of the field, chain-devouring Weapons to stock up an absurd amount of materia. oakandlinden also did an excellent job keeping the damage dealers upright, burning through Anima at just the right times.

  As soon as the mid-boss of the shmup stage (Nightmare Zeromus) appeared, the entire team was able to race through it– a Marisa/Kirby callcard fusion, a few sword-smashes from Rue, a bunch of bullets from Misty, and a flurry of rushdown punches from Dragoshi, and the heroes smashed it down before it could get a turn!

  Then, Jenova appeared, from within the moon…

  

  Aaaand Aerith unleashed all those materia with a 100% L-Groove Unmake that deleted 73% of Jenova’s HP.

  …So, uh, since we still had a few hours left, I whipped together “Moon-Heart Soul OS,” a more powerful version to give even this a run for their money!

  For whatever reason, Herringway kept drawing Mr. Famous, and wound up combining two of them to make GateMan. Summoning GateMan tripled the hits of Aerith’s Stonega Shatter, chunking off a third of True Jenova’s HP, and after eating more mooks, she unleashed a hyperboosted 300% Devour that finished it off in a single blow.

  I awarded the standard 250 pyroxene, 250 tomestones, and 1000 nuyen for the victory, and an extra 50/500 for beating both the boss and the True Arena version. Thanks for playing Final Fantasy 7!

  

• Preshow 6/2024: 7 Grand Finale - 2024-06-08

  You’ve already seen the story, at the end of the last recap.

  To close out Final Fantasy 7, you’re headed to the moon, to stop whatever Sephiroth’s put into motion! But in order to get there, you’re going to need to punch through the waves of monsters falling from its surface.

  This is going to be another Rush Battle, like the train sequence all the way back on Disc 1. You’ll have some support from Aeris, but you’ll also have a lot of enemies to clear out! And once you wipe them out, you’ll still have to deal with what awaits you on the moon…

  …the eldest and most powerful of primals, Jenova.

  Time is of the essence! Be ready to break through, at 7 PM tonight!

• Recap 2/23: Aeris Runs it Back - 2024-02-23

  Heroes: Rue (Wrathguard), Herringway (Arbiter), Amon (Bouncer), Lana/Rhi (Decider), Dragoshi (Profaner), oakandlinden (Arcanimist)

  ---

  Rhi showed up on time, but the rest of us had started a little early, since I decided to let six heroes in. I was especially excited to see Amon in, since he hadn’t gotten a chance to fight in this system yet. Rhi mentioned early on that something seemed off, though– Sephiroth’s HP was going down fast.

  And she was right.

  When Sephiroth hit zero, his Last Stand activated, and he used Sin Harvest to knock everyone to 1 HP. He transformed into “Safir Sephiroth” (class: Ambassador of Jenova), but Aeris leapt onto the field with a new class: Rosecutter!

  …Well, that’s how it was supposed to go. But Dragoshi had dodged an attack with Violence Step, and was temporarily invulnerable, so he was on the field too, harassing Sephiroth and his rogue SOLDIERs Genesis and Revelation. Eventually, Sephiroth cut down a chunk of arena to cut him off from the fight, and that left Sephiroth and Aeris fighting to the finish.

  Rhi found a really good DPS option, and burnt through all Aeris’s materia with “With a Steel Chair,” a five-hit combo that deleted the last chunk of Sephiroth’s HP!

  I awarded 250 pyroxene, 250 tomestones, and 1000 nuyen for the victory. Thanks for playing Final Fantasy 7!

  …

  …

  ---

  Sephiroth stumbles back, clutching his chest. Behind him, the mako reactor at Nibelung glows bright. Both he and Aeris are bleeding; because Aeris is being played by a synth, it’s glowing cyan fluid for her. They rush each other and clash, long katana against Aeris’s quarterstaff.

  • EXIME as SEPHIROTH: Tell me… What is it you cherish, more than anything? Give me the pleasure of taking it from you.
  • DR OKAZAKI as AERIS: You’ll never extinguish justice. And you’ll never outrun the reaper.

  Aeris stops resisting the clash, making Sephiroth suddenly overshoot– and she spins around and catches his head with the back of her staff, knocking him into a window on the reactor. The glass cracks, mako starting to leak through.

  • SEPHIROTH: Hah… so your desire burns even stronger than mine… If you want to destroy Shinra so badly, then go ahead. I’ll give you exactly what your heart desires.

  The reactor glows bright white– Aeris casts Sanctuary again, and it explodes, powerful enough to form a small white bloom on the scale model. When the light recedes, Sephiroth has evaporated.

  The barrier fades, revealing that the Avalanche crew is still safe. Aeris puts a hand to her ear. Her eyes are now noticeably blue-green, like something changed in her when she called upon her true power.

  • AERIS: Come in, Earthquake Squadron. Are you there?
  • VOICE ON RADIO: We read you, Commander. But I’ve got bad news. Something’s happened to the moon.
  • AERIS: …Sorry, repeat? I couldn’t have heard that right.
  • VOICE ON RADIO: You did. Get outside and see for yourself.

  Crawling up through the wreckage of the Gold Saucer, the crew looks up– and finds the moon glowing red-black in the night sky. In the distance, monsters are starting to fall from its surface.

  • AERIS: …Could Sephiroth really be so powerful? Turk! Come in, Turk! What’s your status?
  • TURK: Turk here. We’re waist-deep in these monsters coming from the moon, but we’re doing what we can to hold them back.
  • AERIS: Arm the Juno Cannon. Aim for the moon.
  • TURK: …Commander, you can’t be serious…
  • AERIS: It’s the only way to stop this. Sephiroth started some kind of spell using the mako in the Nibelung Reactor, and we’re going to have to destroy the materia to stop it.
  • TURK: …You can’t mean…
  • AERIS: I do. I think the moon is a huge materia.
  • TURK: …Roger, Commander. I hope you’re right. Arming the Juno Cannon!

  Moments later, a giant cannon raises from the surface of the floating city, and all the lights dim across the disk as it points toward the moon…

  

  The impact scores a massive hole into the surface, shaking off the dust, and revealing the moon’s true form: a glowing blue-green orb. But despite the spiderweb of cracks across its surface, it’s still looming in the night sky…

  • AVALANCHE SOLDIER: Damn… it still wasn’t enough…
  • MASSIME as BARETT: Hang on. I think… the planet wants in on this fight?

  A giant fountain of mako is pouring off into the night sky, making their coats whip dramatically around them.

  • AERIS: …Then we’ll take the fight to this thing, whatever it is. Cloud Squadron, prepare to advance!

  Aeris leaps off the ground, and the mako current catches her, carrying her and the rest of the heroes, one by one, up towards the shattered moon…

  Coming soon… Final Fantasy 7: Disc 4!

• Preshow 02/23: FF7 Disc 3 - Stairway to the Fated Fight - 2024-02-22

  With the house full and the lights dim… a banner unfurls over the stage.

  

  Magus steps onto a balcony to the left of the stage, his face obscured by a featureless white mask. Down on the main stage, lights a scale model of the city is suspended over a mountain, with a spotlight directly on a floating gold disc chained to one of the skyscrapers.

  • MAGUS: With the Gold Saucer secured, Avalanche moved to strike at Shin-Ra’s heart. All their mako reactors depended on one piece of critical infrastructure: a refinery on the planet below, a place the floating city had to return to, to stay in the sky.

  A spotlight kicks on– Aeris is standing center stage, with her back turned to the audience, in silhouette.

  • MAGUS: Aeris knew it well: this was the first reactor Shin-Ra had ever built. Her people had given them permission, believing they would honor their agreements, that this was the promise technology come to liberate.

  Magus pauses.

  • MAGUS: Instead, it was technology come to exploit. And so the reactor at Nibelung was born.

  The Gold Saucer breaks its chain, spinning like a frisbee, and swings off the city. It flies out over the audience, a few synths reaching out to touch it, then careens back, and crashes into the mountain below the city…

  The spotlight on Aeris cuts out. The stage goes dark, and a massive crash sound effect plays, loud enough to rattle the seats.

  From the left of the stage, orange-red lights kick on, paper being blown to look like dancing roaring flames. Aeris runs onstage, with the heroes behind her.

  • DR OKAZAKI as AERIS: Looks like just the impact wasn’t enough. Move in, Cloud Squadron. I’ll need you to handle the SOLDIERs while I rig this place to blow.

  From the right of the stage, blue-green lights kick on, filtering through bubbling water tanks to make them look like mako. Exime is there, dressed in a long coat, clutching a hand over her face.

  • EXIME as ???: I’ve finally found you… the last Ancient.

  Exime starts to draw a katana.

  • DR OKAZAKI as AERIS: You… I know you. You’re the one who wiped out this city…

  Exime is still drawing her katana.

  • EXIME as ???: And devoured the souls of every last one. …Save for you.

  Exime is STILL drawing her katana. She raises one arm, an immense magic circle appearing in the sky above the arena.

  • DR OKAZAKI as AERIS: Cloud Squadron! Behind me!

  • Aeris pulls out a shining materia and holds it out.

  • DR OKAZAKI as AERIS: Pearl Materia, Sanctuary!
  • EXIME as SEPHIROTH: Gunmetal Materia, Meteor!

  Sephiroth’s massive burning meteor crashes into a dome of light– the ground beneath the heroes has turned into white-gold hexagonal tile, clearly a reused texture from Mega Man Battle Network. Fragments of rock are scattered all over the stage, still aflame.

  Sephiroth also finishes drawing their katana. Aeris forces herself to stand, then points dramatically across the arena, the Pearl Materia in her hand.

  • DR OKAZAKI as AERIS: I’ve been waiting a long, long time for this. But I didn’t even have to hunt you down– you gave yourself right to me.

  *Aeris wipes a bit of blood off her cheek.

  • DR OKAZAKI as AERIS: C’mon then, you so-called ultimate life form. Cloud Squadron! Advance!

  Two drumbeats fill the arena’s thrumming air, and the lights dissolve to battle…

  ---

  Sephiroth’s class is “Messenger of Jenova,” and his skillset is simple: the Fira, Thundara, Blizzara set you saw in the train battle, and Meteor. Good offense is going to be critical for this one.

  I’ve also added one of his abilities from his appearance in Kingdom Hearts: the infamous “Sin Harvest!” But you’ll have to show up to see what that does…

  The battle starts 2/23 at 7 PM Central! You definitely won’t want to miss this legendary rematch!

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