Truth of a fighter
Alex was sitting on a bench while the others trained, “whatcha thinking about?” Dawg asked, “X, and how she wanted this knife so badly... I don’t understand why she lied about it, she clearly made it, and when I first got it she knew where it was, it was in a trash can with this box thing that we can’t open, I remember what she first said about the knife, something about ‘like how there’s a knife in that trash can from a murder I totally wasn’t involved in’ I didn’t think of it much at the time, but looking back after listening to these tapes, that last one... You don’t think she actually did anything right?” Alex asked in a worried tone, “you’re looking way too much into it, she’s a cool gal, she’s just crazy and like evil, but we’ve all been there.” Alex brushed off all of these thoughts, his mind got the better of him, he only had a few more fights before the championship, and he heard that Lucy and Abigail were kicked out for medical reasons, apparently Abigail had some disease that flared up recently, and they didn’t know about it before, I don’t know why they’d ban someone for that. He just wanted to find this artifact and move on, he was sick of these fights and already exhausted from these people, just 3 more fights...
After a long day of fighting and perseverance they won the championship, but when they received that special belt, it sadly wasn’t the artifact, they knew because they couldn’t feel the energy radiating off of it like the others, what a waste of time all of this was, after this discovery, the trio walked into Larry’s office, “whatcha need friends? Congrats on that championship by the by!” Alex felt off about the conversation, Donna intervened and said “we have to go, we’ve been looking for a treasure and we were hoping it was the belt, but it isn’t so we’re out of here I guess” she said ignorantly, “treasure eh? I’ll have you know that belt is quite the treasure indeed! None like it! Now what kinda treasure’s better than that?” Larry asked, “well we still have to leave,” Alex said, “no... I don’t think you understand kids, you see, in life you don’t get many opportunities, y’all are good fighters, real young, real strong, y’all got lots of potential to do great things... But since you want to leave so badly, I ought to give you a goodbye you deserve for your fans, don’t you think that’s what they deserve?” he said, “alright then...” Alex said uneasily, Larry guided them out to the stage, this room was oddly eerie with how empty it was “what are we doing here?” Dawg asked, “heh, you kids think y’all can do whatever you want when you want, if you’re searching for a treasure, I bet I know just what you’re looking for” he said as he began to sparkle, the lights came on and shined on him, electricity circulated around him, “You’re looking for the easy way to get strong ain’t ya?” his body formed into a tall, dapper man, who looked absolutely beautiful and full of youth, he donned fighting bracers that definitely gave him this power, the heroes were a little uneasy, he lunged forward at an inhumane speed, Donna caught his punch and asked what he was doing, “observe” he held her hand tightly and the energy from her body was absorbed, everything she had was drained and his body exploded with power, he twisted her around easily and threw her across the room, she slammed into the wall and passed out, “wanna know what happened to the others?” he said with a wicked smile, Larry lunged forward again, to be blocked by a floral shield, “I recognize that strength boy, those little earrings, that little necklace, that’s the only reason you made it this far, strength from those gods! Those artifacts give you all the power you need to make it big! Without them you’re nothing! Alex used his vines to slow him down, but he just ripped them off with pure strength, he unleashed a roar of power, it gave everyone a rush of slight power, but it made him burst like an ember with immense strength, he slammed into the ground and a wave of energy pulsed with it, Dawg barked to knock him down, but he was too strong for it to have any kind of real effect, Donna came out of nowhere and slammed him into the ground with her signature move, when getting up, Larry said, “you are pretty strong but that’s nothing” energy flowed around him and healed his wounds, making her attacks useless, they all knew he was too strong for any of their attacks, Donna came up with an idea though, she picked up Alex and asked him to launch them into the air with a bubble, he did as asked and she waited briefly before saying, “now make it rain with bubbles and toss me a shield!” she commanded, Alex defied gravity with the amount he shot, she dived into the ground, and she was caught by a resisting bark to slow her fast descent, she took cover behind the shield with Dawg and held it stable, with a flurry of attacks like that there’s no way he’d still stand, Alex fell down and caught himself, Larry was laying on the ground, “pathetic!” he said, before he healed the damage once again, he ran towards the group and tried his attacks once again, but he was slower and easy to counter, Donna easily hit him each time, she probably broke a few of his bones, the team ganged up on him and creamed him! He attempted to heal again, but his strength was gone, “what?! My power? How?!” he asked, “that’s called a crash, there’s no easy way to get strong, you need perseverance, determination, everything that you lack!” His body began to dissipate, leaving behind a small belt with stars on it, it shined a bright light and it projected out onto the stage, every fighter that had went missing formed out of nowhere, still weak, Donna went up to the belt, and put it on, she unleashed a roar and everyone felt a surge of energy awaken inside of them, each of the fighters looked confused, Janice looked up at Donna and reluctantly approached her, “hey... thanks for the help Demmie... none of us were strong enough for that guy... he’s been draining our energy over time with that stupid belt, he trapped us in there so he could keep our power, he’s been doing it for years apparently, ever hear of the legendary Heroic Henry? He didn’t quit... but thanks for the help, and uh... good luck finding the rest of those things hon, in the wrong hands those things ain’t safe, but you guys seem pretty alright to me, you guys should come back when you finish all that and then we’ll *really* have that rematch” she said sincerely, Donna hugged her and waved goodbye to all of the returned fighters.
From the doors of the grand stadium came that angry flamingo, it charged at Donna, she was ready to fight it, but instead, it stopped in its tracks and it banged its head against one of the stars, it transformed from a flamingo into a man, he hugged Donna and said “oh thanks miss, you don’t know how long I’ve waited for this!” he jumped away in excitement. What a weirdo. With the artifact in hand, they could finally leave, almost never wanting to return, the heroes packed into the car, and drove back to the seal, “I wonder what’s next” Said Dawg, “I bet it’s gonna be the moon, because these things are just in the most tedious places, and that would just top it off” Alex joked, Donna stepped onto the stage awkwardly and jumped at the lights, it was all the same, but this time a strange mirror appeared on the opposite side of the seal, “uh is that supposed to be there?” Donna asked, the heroes approached it, and the mysterious night man appeared from thin air, “ah heroes, 3 down eh? Not bad for a couple of fools, as you may have noticed the obvious mirror over here, well lucky for you, you don’t have to go far for the next artifact” Alex sighed a breath of relief, interrupting the old man, “oh... Okay then, well anyway as I was saying you’re going into the mirror now, rude boy, I remember you asked who I was a while before... I didn’t answer you because well... I’m kinda not real! I’m actually just a manifestation of energy crafted by the power of the next artifact, you’ll be entering the spirit realm, and you’ll come find me to take the artifact, because well... I’m a little stuck here with just this one, with those other 3 you’ll be able to break the walls between our dimensions, freeing our spirits, and uh, you can have the stupid artifact, I’m sick of it!” the heroes all approached the mirror, “so like, how do we go through it?” Dawg said, “like this!” the man said, he rose his arms up and the room exploded with a blinding white flash.