Once again, it was time to get busy.  Hiro knew what he had to do.  He picked up the mike, fully prepared to get back the crowd's attention any way he could.

Of course, drasticness and Hiro never made a good mix.  He *yelled* through the microphone, causing whoever didn't simply go *deaf* to start holding their ears painfully.

"HELLOOOOOOOOOO, CLASHDOME!  AND WELCOME BACK TO ANOTHER SUPER MEGA-AWESOME HYPER-EXCTING, TREMENDOUS, STUPENDOUS, EXPLOSIVE, CORROSIVE--"

Seeing the audience's predicament, Dai promptly smacked Hiro on the back of the head, causing his partner to recoil much like a scratched record player--as well as finally finish "Darkfighter Tournament Matchup!  Whoo!  Thanks, Dai.  I needed that."

Dai nodded.  "Anytime.  This is the Match Number Two of D-Block... which means this is the FINAL fight of Round Two!  I'd like to give the audience a big hand for sticking with us thus far.  We've had some amazing battles tonight, haven't wel, Hiro?

"That's right, Dai!  As well as some amazing competitors... and these two are definitely no exception!  This final matchup is between two of Darkfighter's femme fatale favorites!  Now presenting the first to enter the ring, the second half of the formidable Shadoloo DOLL asssassin team... JULI!"

"If you remember, Juni lost her fight to... well, a dog," Dai quipped. "Will her so-called 'better half' have better luck?"

--Meanwhile, at a mini-version of a well-known bar in the concession stands...--

"Gimme another one."

King, the androgynous yet still beautiful purple-suited bartender woman, looked at the disheveled nurse at the counter who had just made the request.  The customer's face was flushed, her hair was ruffled, muffled, and just plain out of order, and a stain or two adorned the collar of her coat.

"You know, it's bad for business, so I usually don't say this.  But I really think you've had enough for one night.  'Kyoko', is it?  Didn't you win your last match?  Doesn't this mean you have another one coming up?"

"Yeah.  It's *because* of that last match that I'm like this.  You try chasing some scootering kid down in a car, then surviving a match with the fastest mech out there.  I've seen way too much today, lady.  I just want to forget it all."

King could only blink.  "Ooookaaaay.  Fine.  *One* more glass of sake. But after that, I want you to go to your room."

"Thanks."  Kyoko nearly snatched the sake as the bartender held it out, and downed it in one gulp.

King blinked again.  This was no woman.  This was an alcohol disposal...

Back at the arena, there was another girl waving to the cheering crowd, who slowly began to have a shocked revelation, herself.

"Wait..."  The brunette, Juli, slowly muttered to herself as she recalled the words in Dai's announcement.  "Better half?  Isn't that term supposed to be for married couples?  Erm... maybe I should pretend I didn't hear that."

Looking around for her foe, Juli brushed one of her two long bangs to the side, but only managed to spot her short-haired blonde partner standing there next to her.

Juli frowned.  "Juni?  Why are you here?  You realize that they're not going to fall for that 'accidentally got stuck in the ring' trick forever..."

"I got Janet to pull some strings!"  Her partner beamed in reply.  "Now I'm your pre-fight advice coach!"

"You're... my coach."

"Yea!"  Juni beamed again.

The agent wasn't very impressed.  "Erm, no offense, but usually I'm the one giving you advice in most situations."

Shrugging, Juni began to explain as the crowd continued to make random noises.  "This one's different.  I had to memorize the entire official strategy guide for this!  And now I'm going to have to teach it to you within the span of five minutes!  Yay!"

This... was highly unorthodox.

"There's a strategy guide for fighting in tournaments?"  Juli blinked, then shook her head.  "Erm... nevermind.  I don't think I want to know..."

It was just her partner being herself, again.  Impatiently, Juli crossed her arms and tapped her foot a little while she waited for her opponent to be introduced.

Hiro wasted no time in doing so.  "And her opponent--"

The shouts of the fanboys interrupted him.  "WE WANT KYOKO!  WE WANT KYOKO!..."

"Calmness, calmness, please," Hiro addressed them.  "And her opponent, fresh from her victory over Yang, let's welcome back Justice High's favorite (and only) nurse, KYOKO!"

Silence ruled the arena.

In fact, it continued to reign, for *much* longer than anybody expected it to.  and Kyoko wasn't showing.  Hiro cleared his throat.  "Um... Kyoko? Kyoko Minzauki?  Your match?"

--King's Bar--

King shook Kyoko, who was lying face down on the counter.  "Hey.  Hey!  They're calling your name."

"Whuzza...?" Kyoko stirred, but only a bit.

King began talking louder, trying to get through. "Your match is now, girl!  I'd get out there before they disqualify you!"

That seemed to perk Kyoko up, and as she looked at the nearby viewscreen, she could indeed see Juli in the ring.  "Oh my gosh!  Thanks for the heads up!"

Fueled by adrenaline, Kyoko bolted of,albeit with quite a... wobble in her step.  King watched her "run" off, then picked up the phone and dialed a number.

"Yeah, Hal?  Get rid of my bets on Kyoko.   Yeah, you heard me.   Just do it.  ...look, we went over this, okay?  I am *never* telling you what color my bra is!  Now just kill the bets, please.  THANK you."

Back the ring, Kyoko made her way down the aisle as best she could.

"And there she is!" Hiro cried, pointing.

Dai scratched her head.  "I don't know.  Does she look... not quite well to you?"

Hiro stared at his now female announcing partner.  "...how do you *do* that?"

Juli... was stunned.  Even through the long silence.  She wasn't really stunned at the... odd site of her opponent, though.  In fact, she hadn't even noticed Kyoko drunkenly stumbling into the vicinity, yet.

"This Kyoko person beat YANG!?"  The brunette exasperatedly exclaimed.  "What!?  How did that go?"

Juni shrugged.  "I heard that Kyoko beat him in an S&M session that Makoto was watching, and that there was a lot of pain and suffering there."

A lot of pain and suffering?  On poor Yang!?  Juli was astounded.

"Huh?  But... why would anyone want to hurt Yang so badly?  He's like... too nice for that."  Frowning, Juli slowly crossed her arms, a hint of anger building up in her voice.  "Hmph.  Wow, to do that, I imagine this Kyoko must be one extremely evil bitch or something..."

"Oh, there she is!"  Her partner was fast to point out the other lady in the ring.

It didn't take Juli a long time to size her up, considering how extreme her condition was, to say the least.

"Or... maybe not."  The brunette corrected herself.  "Um... what's with her?"

Finally, Kyoko made it down to the ring.  Once she did, she leered at Juli, making it quite clear that something was *definitely* wrong.   "Hnnnrrh... yer my comp, huh?" she uttered in a slurred voice.  "Well, come on, let's make this quick..."

In his room, Hideo Minazuki watched, his mouth agape.  The bottle of water he had been drinking now emptied its contents on the bed, as he had accidentaly let it drop a second earlier.

It was... it was impossible.  But no, he was seeing it right now.

"She didn't.... please tell me she didn't..."

It was... quite the sight.  Juli wasn't used to staring at drunken people very much.  The exception being Avelle sometimes, but even Avelle had a way of keeping composure and had a more lofty drunken state as opposed to the slurred one she was looking at, now.  Her partner... was even less apt to handling the sight of the woman in front of them.

"AAAAAAH!!!"  Juni screamed.  "Yai!  She's scary!"

The girl quickly hid behind the brunette.  Yes, Juni had seen Darkstalkers, had saw the aftermath of walking holocausts, and was one of the top elite Shadowlaw assassins, but apparently a lady who happened to indulge on just a little too much sake was something new to the girl.

Juli figured it was because Juni was used to mostly seeing drunken men from her hunter side-job that she had, not women.  No matter.  This was kinda ridiculous, which Juli was quick to point out, if indirectly.  "Um... are we allowed to delay this match?  She... doesn't seem to be in fighting condition."

The reply came from the safety of behind the brunette.  "Nope.  Tournament deadline is coming up very soon."

"Hmm.  Well, guess it's my gain then."  Juli remarked after hearing her partner's reply, before looking at Kyoko again.  "Erm... I hope."

"Scaaaaaaary..."  Juni muttered.

"As per our competitors' former agreement," Dai said,  "they shall compete in a true test of strength and skill--a deathmatch in the node of GoldenEye!   The first one to get the most kills in the space of five minutes wins it all!"

"Year!  Gimme mah gun!  I'll waste all of ya' in one shot!" Kyoko swayed from side to side as she stood, still leering at the two younger girls.

Hearing the announcement, Juli blinked.  She would be doing that a lot, today.  "Goldenwha...?  Competitor's agreement?  When did I agree to..."

"The manager made the agreement!  And in this case, the manager is the same as the coach!"  Juni beamed, before noticing her partner's glare.  "Aaaaa... something wrong?"

"What on earth is Golden..."  The glare was stopped so Juli could pause for a moment and figure things out.  "Oh yea, that videogame where everyone runs around with guns killing each other multiple times.  That was another one of Bremare's favorite... wait a minute  Why do *I* always get to be the one that gets put into situations where I'm going to get shot a lot!?  I thought you were supposed to be the human shield, not me!"

Juni laughed a little playfully.  "Hey, don't worry about it, Juli!!  Thanks to my mad memorization skills, I've memorized the strategy guide by heart so I can teach it to you!"

"What if I myself don't have the memorization skills to memorize what you teach me?"  The brunette remarked.

Her partner suddenly had a stumped look on her face.  "...um, hmm... erm... wow, didn't think about that.  Erm... well, at least by now, you're used to getting shot?"

........great.  This... was not going to be Juli's day.

In the halls, a very distraught language teacher ran his fastest.

His "fastest" was actually what a normal person would call a "brisk stride", but hey, *you* try surviving near-mortal combat with a claw-carrying psychopath sometime.

<I know that look she's got!>  Hideo thought frantically as he ran.  <I've *got* to get down there!  She's not *fit* to do *anything* in that condition!  Who gave her sake anyway?   I'll *break* them, I swear!"

Finally, Hideo reached the arena doors. He slammed them open, fully prepared to sacrifice his well-being for the sake of being able to run at full speed... only to see the contestants get warped out.

"...damn it."

Heaven help his wife... not to mention, whoever she was up against...

This is the Labyrinth stage.  Multiple stone columns and pillars adorn the larger rooms, but the stage itself was mainly most notable for its many winding corridors, as was to be expected from a stage called the Labyrinth.

It was not in one of these corridors, but in one of the rooms, where two young girls in the full-bodysuit doll ensemble appeared with a small flash out of no where.

Juli glanced around, then stared at the pistol in her hand.  "Eh?  Match is starting already?"

"Hmm... oops.  I guess my five minutes to brief you are ticking down, then."  Her partner remarked.

Staring at her incredulously, Juli replied. "Wow, so they teleported you into here, too, just for that?  They're trying to be really efficient, huh?"

"Yep!"  Juni beamed.  "Don't worry.  I remember this level!  You should head straight for the body armour, first.  It's in the corridor to the left pass the second level where..."

SHZIIIIIIIT!

Before she could finish, a bullet slamed into one side of Juni's head and flew out the other, along with a lot of blood.  Juli stared aghast as her partner stared into space, completely shocked at what happened.

"Ow.  That hurt."  Juni remarked, before closing her eyes and falling, to be caught in Juli's arms.  The brunette shook her a little, but there was no response.

"Juni!  JUNI!!!"  Tears welded up in Juli's eyes as she realized what just happened.  "...NOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

While she was crying, another quick flash occured and Juni appeared behind the brunette, who proceeded to look at her own corpse with a very confused expression on her face.  "Eh?  What the?  Aren't corpses supposed to disappear instantly after hitting the ground?"

"Eh?"  Looking at her [new] partner [sorta new], Juli blinked while trying to figure out what was going on, but before she could think further, she got shot in the arm.  "OW!!!"

"CRAP!!!!"  Juni yelled, before the two girls immediately split up and dashed in two completely different directions in an attempt to get away from the mad woman that was shooting at them.

Back in the announcer booth, Hiro was making some yells of his own.  "OH!  And Kyoko has already gotten the first kill, already!  Even if... she targetted the wrong person.  What's Juni doing there, anyway?"

"Well, she was supposed to have been teleported out after giving Juli a couple coaching tips, but Kyoko killed her before we could activate the teleporters, and after a kill, the teleporters won't lock onto their target anymore."  Dai explained.

Obviously, two vs one was unfair.  And Juli and Juni had to be penalized for cheating a little, even if it was just an accident.  The solution wasn't very hard to come up with, though.

As she was running away to she didn't know where, Juni heard some beeping noise from her ear phone.  "Huh?  Incoming system message?  Any kills I get doesn't count towards Juli's score but any kills Kyoko gets on me counts?  ...dagnabbit!"

<Thanks, you guys!>  No sooner had Kyoko thought those words than she hiccuped.  Three times.   Not good.

Now her cover was blown.  And all she had was this stupid pistol right now.  And she could hear the voice of some stupid bubbly girl whispering "Over here!  I heard something! Come *on*, Juli, move it!  I don't *wanna* get shot in the head again!  It hurts!"

Looks like her time of free kills was over.  Ducking behind another corner, she reloaded her weapon--or at least tried to. That gun, she swore, it must have had a mind of its own, because every time she tried to put a bullet in--

--it would somehow instantly teleport to her other hand.

Oh, this was *not* fun*.

Kyoko thought she saw some bullets fly over her head, and she was probably right, as a quick look to the side revealed five different Julis trying to shoot her with a mini-gun.

"Any idea why she's looking at me like that?"  Juli asked as she tried to get her mini-gun to aim properly.  "And GOD DAMMIT!  She's ducking!  How do I aim this thing downward?"

Juni slapped herself in the forehead.  Newbies to GoldenEye never were able to figure out how to get the cross-hairs to work properly in the game.

"Look!  Here!"  Grabbing Juli's arm, Juni forced it downwards a bit.  The equivalent of grabbing her controller, really, but Juli was able to get the idea soon enough.  Unfortunately, before the two girls had Kyoko in their trajectory of the gun, a clicking sound was heard.

"Out of bullets already?"  Juli stared at the mini-gun, then sighed and quickly switched it over to the stupid hand gun again, then promptly aimed it at Kyoko's head.  "This is for shooting my partner and beating up Yang, bit... oh forget it.  Calling someone who's clearly drunk a bitch is just stupid."

She pulled the trigger.

And after a blinding pain, Kyoko instantly found herself somewhere else.

The heck just happened there?...

...

...

...

Ohhhhh.  She must have just been killed.  And--what had they just called her before she'd gotten shot...?

Oh, that *did* it.  Why was it that impertinent little *kids* always thought they could screw with her and get away with it.

Kyoko could feel some of her alertness returning, but she was still woozy as all hell.  This feeling was compounded by the fact that she wasn't able to run two steps without tripping over something.

Oooooooh.  It was a submachine gun.

Submachine gun goooooooood.

Yeeeeeeees.

Little kids deeeeeeead.

Yeeeeeeees.

Head still spinning.

Damn.

"Okay, why was Kyoko's corpse staying there?"  Juni snapped at no one in particular.  "This game's buggy."

"Yea, well, just keep your eyes peeled.  And try to stay out of the way of gunfire.  Any kills Kyoko gets on you counts against me, after all."  Juli remarked as she tripped over her partner's corpse that was still there from the beginning of the match.  "Dammit!  What the hell..."

Looking around for Kyoko, the brunette aimed the sniper rifle she managed to pick up, but found herself locked on Kyoko's first body, instead.

She put the sniper rifle away.  "Hmm... nope, she's not around.  Erm, you're not allowed to play dead in this game, right?"

"Nope!  There's no command that would let you lie down on your back like that, I believe.  They might have added one for lying down on your front though but even that looks significantly different from the death animation."

The blonde was wearing a blue vest.  The two girls managed to get to the body armour power up, and ended up agreeing that Juni should get it since she couldn't defend herself much really, since any kills she got on Kyoko wouldn't count towards Juli's score, anyway.

The two traversed one of the more narrow corridors, looking for their prey, until they came to a turn that led to another big room.

"Here, Juni.  YOU'RE supposed to be the human shield.  And you have body armour, anyway.  Check that out, okay?"

With a quick shove, Juli's partner found herself around the bend before she could even reply.

"Oh wow."  Juni's voice sounded from around the bend.  "Is that a sub-machine gun power-up?"

"Really?"  Juli asked.

"Yea.  It's one of the most powerful weapons in the game and you don't have to worry about blowing yourself up unlike with the rocket launcher."

"Excellent!"  Juli grinned.  "Well, I'll go pick it up, then."

"Erm... I don't really think you can do that."  Juni replied.  "In fact, I'd run if I were you.  Heck, I think I'll run, anyway."

"Why?"

Juli wasn't able to finish her question completely before Juni had already ran back and dashed past the brunette...

She sighed.  "*Now* what's eating her," she muttered as she advanced toward the powerup.  She was just close enough to touch it... when a procession of bullets whizzed by *directly* in front of her.

It had been a trap.  A stinking trap!  Juli soon found herself following her partner, in the same direction, at the same speed.

Kyoko cursed.  She thought she'd heard something that sounded like Sailor Moon, and, on instinct, waited for it to come close to shoot at it.  Now she heard it running away.

Stupid magical girls.  Well, they wouldn't live long.  Heck, they might even be worth some bonus points.  She followed, really wishing that she had some more sake at this point...

Note to self.  When Psycho Drunken Lady is around the bend, tell Juni to just spell it out loud instead of hinting towards it.  She could have said "Oh!  You can't pick it up because it's in Kyoko's hands!" or "If you get near it, Kyoko will use it to riddle you with bullets!" but noooooo.

Well, the score was one for one so far.  Besides, now Juli found a rocket launcher and if Kyoko assaulted her again, it'd be time for a little payback.  Hearing footsteps, Juli ducked and prepared to fire, but took her hand off the trigger when she saw it was her partner coming from around the bend.

"Ah, Juni, there you are.  What happened to the body armour?"

"Erm... the drunken rampaging girl behind me blew it all to shreds with her submachine gun."  The blonde replied, just as Kyoko came dashing around the bend with her gun blazing in toe.

Well, damn!  Juli didn't even have time to aim the rocket launcher among the storm of bullets, and there wasn't any place to dodge in the narrow corridors!  And if she died, she'd lose the rocket launcher in the first place, too!  Fortunately, the brunette was able to quickly come up with a plan.

"Juni!  Human Shield!"

"WHAT?  But I don't wanna!!!"

Juni didn't have much choice though because she soon found herself being shoved in front of Juli as the brunette ran off to find a more strategetic situation for which she could blast Kyoko.  As she got out of dodge, she noticed that the score now read Kyoko having two points to Juli's one, which was annoying.  She figured she'd catch up, though.  Juli just needed to make sure she stayed out of the drunken rampage's way.  And the new weapon she just found on the ground should do the trick just nicely.

Proximity mines.  They blow up whoever walks close to them.  Considering that Kyoko was still drunk, Juli figured that if she place these around the level randomly, Kyoko would probably stumble right into them.  It should work.  Knowing that, Juli placed a couple within a few rooms than ran out of the near vicinity.  Only a few moments later, there was a loud explosion from where Juli used to be.

The brunette glanced at her score indicator and saw it go up, making the score two to two.  Success.

"YES!"  Juli grinned as she clenched her fist.  "I got her!"

Running over to check on her kill, she was soon standing over another corpse of... Juni!?

Her blonde partner, respawned and alive again, quickly ran up to the agent.  "ACK!  Juli!  Watch out!  Kyoko's using proximity mines and it caught me by surprise because she seems to be placing them randomly thinking we'll just stumble into them for some reason."

Dammit!!!  How the heck was Juli supposed to blow up Kyoko if her partner was blindingly stumbling into Juli's own proximity mines!?

Wait...  If she just blew up Juni, then why did her score...?

"Hmm..."  Juli pointed rocket launcher at Juni.

Staring at the barrel of the gun as Juli backed up a little, Juni blinked.  "Um... Juli?  What are you doing?"

"Sorry, Juni.  This is going to sting a bit."  Juli commented as she fired.  The direct hit and explosion sent Juni slamming directly into the wall as Juli's score went up to three, and inwardly Juli remarked that she was glad GoldenEye wasn't a mutilation type game so she didn't have to deal with having her partner be blown up into a variety of pieces.

Unfortunately, it apparently stinged too much.

"WAAAAAAAAH!!!"  Juni screamed as she ran for her life (her new one) from the brunette.

"Juni!  Hold still!"

"NO!  THOSE ROCKET MISSILE THINGIES HURT!!!!"

The blonde girl wasn't able to run for long before she ran right into Kyoko, still armed with the submachine gun.

It actually took a full second for Kyoko to *realize* that she had a new target, but as soon as she did, she grinned toothily.  "Hi there."

Juni gulped.  "Oh.  Crap--"

*ratatatatatatat*

Juni was turned into Swiss Agent in mid-run.  Good.  Now they were tied again.  But Kyoko needed to win this. The sooner she did, the sooner she could get back to bed... boy, was she tired.  Now, where was that partner of hers?

An explosive blast to the side of her answered that question quickly.  Kyoko broke into a run after her prey, fully intending to *pay it back*.

Juli panted as she heard machine gun blasts behind her.

Okay.

The Crazy Bitch Nurse was drunk.  Right? Right.

...RIGHT?

If so, then why did she seem to be able to avoid *every single rocket blast sent her way*?  Those things had almost as much punch and blast range range as those proximity mines!  Yet evey time it looked as if Kyoko would get blown to bits, she'd just barely... stumble out of the way.  It was almost like watching one of those drunken master kung fu type video things... if they'd made a martial art out of dodging rocket blasts, at any rate..

Uh oh.  More gunfire.  Lots more gunfire.  Okay, Juli, stick, move, stick and move--ow.

Ow ow ow ow ow.

"And that's for what you called me before!" Kyoko's slurred voice wafted towards the special agent as she lay on the floor, bleeding.

"B-but," Juli said weakly, "I didn't call you a bitch!  Not *really*!   I mean, okay, sure, I thought about it.  But I decided NOT TO--"

*blam*

Oh no!  That evil Kyoko person must have gotten Juli.  See?  This is what happens when one leaves the great Juni behind.  Where *would* Juli be without her?

Juni immediately ran towards the source of the shot noises to help out her partner.  Because now she had a paintball-shooter!  Yes!  Her fearless awesome... well, okay, it was damn crappy, but it'd shove Kyoko around and screw up her aim without killing her so Juli could get the kill, at least.  Hmm... the paintball gun must have been a new addition or something because she didn't remember hearing about it in the game, before.

She arrived just in time to see Juli pinned under a hail of gunfire.  She had to hurry!!!  Taking aim right for Kyoko's head, Juni fired.

Unfortunately, she was too late.  Well, too late to save Juli, that is.  Kyoko's score went up to four, though that didn't stop Juni's shot that she already fired.  Oops.

The paintball slammed right into Kyoko's head.  It didn't kill her.  Or even do much damage.  What with it being a paintball and all.  But it did probably hurt like hell to be shot with it to the head like that.  And paint all over Kyoko's eyeglasses seemed... funny!

Behind the paint, Juni couldn't see Kyoko's death glare as the blonde snickered at the sight.  She was laughing for a while and didn't notice Juli, who had found another rocket launcher, standing right next to Kyoko with her hand on her hip, and didn't realize that to the brunette, it seemed like she was laughing at how Juli just got riddled with a bunch of painful submachine gun bullets.

Wiping the paint off of her glasses, Kyoko regained her vision just in time to see another rocket explode ahead of her.  A little too far ahead of her.  After which, she heard a girls' scream--the same girl who had just been laughing a second ago.  She turned around, and saw Juli, holding her smoking launcher.

"Look," Juli said, "If you want I'll leave you alone for a while, and you do the same.  I've got a traitorous partner who needs an ass-kicking."  With that, Juli ran off, and Kyoko oculd hear another Juni-scream of "Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap!" before long.

Shrugging, Kyoko followed.

"OH!!!!"  Hiro's shout rang across the stadium.  "And Juli scores another kill!  And Kyoko kills Juni again by being lucky to be at the place right where Juni respawned!  Corpses are everywhere!!!  The place is starting to look like a necrophiliac's dream!"

All three ladies, upon hearing Kyoko's comment, turned to give the camera and thus Hiro the GLARE OF DEATH.

"Erm... nevermind."  Hiro quickly corrected himself.

Dai sighed.  "Okay, that's just really REALLY sick, Hiro.  Can someone get the corpse clean up code working, here?"

Somewhere from the audience, an audience's cheer of joy could be heard amongst the other members' cheers.

"YES!!!  Zee audience cheers at zee women zat are shooting each other!!!"

ACK ACK ACK!!  This sucked!  A LOT!!  Everyone was shooting her!  EVIL EVIL EVIL!!!!

Juni glanced down at the scores.  Both Kyoko and Juli had ten points.  Whoa!  She was really getting slaughtered.  No fair!  Double-team-ups are MEAN!!!

"JUUUUUNI!!  Where are you?  Come on!  I'm sorry!  Now get back here!"  Juli's voice rang across the labyrinth.

Oh please.

"I'm not falling for that one again..." Juni muttered as she recalled how Juli got her fifth kill on the blonde.

This really really sucked, indeed.  What was she supposed to do?

And then... she saw it.

The light... glimmering... shining....

Shiny...

Her saviour...

A touch of gold.

The Golden Gun...

Yes!  Studying that strategy guide really paid off.  The blonde beamed as she loaded up the ultimate one hit kill weapon.  It was time to fight back!

Nine kills on Juni on her part.  Kyoko got nine total by now, too.  The score was ten to ten.  Right now, Juli mainly wanted to just get a little revenge.  Maybe vent a little anger.  Either that or she wanted to win and killing Juni more than Kyoko did would net more points.  It didn't really matter because she'd score both goals at once... at least, she would if her partner would just come out of hiding and let Juli shoot her, finally.

"Juni?  Juni, where are you?  Come on, it's only virtual pain, anyway."

Juli was expecting another shout of "NO!" from her partner, but to her surprise, her partner eagerly stepped out from around the corner.

"Hi!"  Juni beamed.

Ah!

"About time you came to your senses.  Thanks, Juni."  Seeing her partner was finally being cooperative, Juli pointed her rocket launcher at the cheerful blonde.  This was met by the cheerful blonde pointing her own gun back at her.

At the site of the pathetic little golden colored pistol, Juli lowered the rocket launcher.  "You're trying to fight back?  Dagnabbit, Juni.  What do you think you can do with a small gun like that, anyway?"

"Yoshi!"  Juni replied as she fired.

There was a black flash and Juli found herself in another room blinking as Juni's score indicator went from zero to one.  What the hell was that!?!?!  She only shot Juli in her arm, for crying out loud!  Was that gun's bullets tipped with an instant killing poison or something!?

Before Juli could think more on it, she felt the butt of said gun get jammed into her back.

"Roar."  Juni remarked as all turned black for the brunette again.

Eagerly hopping over her partner's corpse and one of her own that was still lying around, Juni reloaded her golden gun.  This was too easy!  Now to go kill Kyoko a couple of times.

Through her mental haze, Kyoko sensed that something was wrong.  Her surroundings were quiet.   Too quiet.  Well, except for this damn constant ringing in her ears.

And the constant screams of what *used* to be her opponent before they decided  to get that blonde idiot.

"Hey now!"  *BLAM*

"Come on!" *BLAM*

"I'm sorry, Juni! Seriously!  *BLAM*

The sounds were getting closer. Damn this fuzzy vision. Damn it!  Wait... she'd found them!  Okay, new plan.  Hide around the corner, then stick hand out and pump little blond girl full of lead.  Perfect!

*BLAM*

Damn. Well, it was only an arm wound, right?

The world quickly went dark, and she reappeared, looking down at Juni... who shot again.

Now she was at the other side of the room.

*BLAM*

Okay.  What was going *on* here?  Kyoko growled in frustration... which allowed Juni to discover her new respawning spot.

"Hee hee.  Got you again!"

Oh no.

*BLAM*

Kyoko was getting dizzy.  And angry.  But more dizzy.

"And Juni's making an insane comeback!"  Hiro's announcement boomed as Juni's kill count continued racking up, though a puzzled look gradualy appeared on his face.  "...wait, why are we keeping score for her, too?"

Dai sighed.  S/he had given up long ago.  "Who knows?"

"AH HAHAHAHA!!!"  Juni shouted as she blasted Juli again, then turned around to face Kyoko who was trying to run past and shot Kyoko's knee, which instantly killed her.

"Does that gun run out of ammo?"  Hiro asked his co-announcer.

Apparently not.  Looked like corpse clean up wasn't the only thing that was bugged.  By now, Juni's score had reached a whopping thirty or so points while Juli and Kyoko still only had ten.  Angrily looking for a way to at least get a little payback over Juni before time ran out and the match was over, Juli finally managed to find another rocket launcher, though unfortunately her partner found her at the same time.

"Juuuuuli!!!!"  Juni chimed as she fired again.  Juli froze as the bullet came soaring after her, but it just barely missed, leaving a small bullet hole in the wall right behind the brunette.  The brunette stared in shock, and fully expected Juni to fire again and finish her off, especially since Juni seemed to have unlimited bullets, but that shot wasn't coming.  At least... not for a while.

"Arrrgh... stupid golden gun corrollary."  Juni remarked as she began reloading her gun.

The brunette blinked.

"You can only hold one bullet in that thing at a time?"

"Yea.  You didn't know?"  Juni asked as she finished reloading.  Juli didn't bother to answer her and took what few split-seconds she had left before the blonde could aim again to run off and think of a plan.  Fortunately, that plan apparently came running up to her.

"Kyoko!"  Juli shouted.  "Ah!  Time is almost up and the match is almost over!  I say we just use what few seconds we have left to at least TRY to kill her before the match ends."

Normally, Kyoko might have suspected something, but she had a really nasty ringing headache and the fact that there was only about ten more seconds left before the match was over and the scores were tallied up didn't give her much time to think.  The two girls quickly aimed their weapons at Juni as the blonde caught up to them, but Juni, being armed with a quick-to-fire pistol, was able to fire first.

"OH!!!"  Hiro shouted.  "Who will be the last to die before the match ends!?  Juli or Kyoko!?  Which one is Juni aiming for!!?!?!!?!?!?"

Dai sighed about how Hiro used way too many exclamation and question marks for his own good.  At anyrate, whoever she was aiming for didn't really matter, since Juli quickly stopped aiming back and dashed behind Kyoko before the bullet could reach.

As Kyoko fell to the ground, Juni saw herself staring right at a rocket launcher pointed at her from behind where Kyoko used to be.  Which didn't last long before she got hit by a direct rocket just as the clock hit zero.

There was just enough time for Juni to feel the pain of the attack as Juli's score went one above Kyoko's before all contestants were teleported out of the labyrinth.

"And the winner of the match is Juli, with the deciding shot at the last split-second!" Dai announced.

Finally!  Amidst the cheers of the audience, Hideo went up to the ring, and picked up Kyoko--who had fainted as soon as she made the trip back--in his arms, carrying her off.

Her opponent was ecstatic.  Or as ecstatic as Juli could get.

"Yes!"  Juli remarked as she clenched her fist.  "I won, AND I got revenge for what Kyoko did to Yang and you!"

"You won by attacking ME!"  Juni snapped, still feeling a bit nauseous from that final rocket launcher hit.  "And I'm pretty sure that match was more painful for me than it was for Kyoko.  And for the times Kyoko DID get hurt, I was the one that shot her!  You know, if avenging me was going to be that painful for ME, I would have preferred you not have done it..."

The defense the brunette gave wasn't good, but that was probably because she wasn't trying very hard.  "Those are just technicalities, Juni.  You're too logical when you're angry."

"......"  Juni sighed, before a random epiphany hit her.   "Eh?  Wierd..."

"What?"

"I just had this revelation that maybe I misinterpreted the meaning of the S&M contest that Yang and Kyoko had for their match.  ...nah."

Shrugging, Juni watched as Juli waved to the crowd.  She made a mental note to include in her contract for the next match coming up that the advising coach had to be counted as on the same side as the one she's advising.

Once the husband and wife were near the concession area n the way back to the hotel, Kyoko began to stir.

"Aaaah... honey?  I... I just had the strangest dream.  These two magical teenage girls... one was a bubblehead, I remember. I hate those. And they were running around and shooting at me.  I could shoot back, of course, but they apparently put some stipulation on me, because.  I had a headache that just woulnd't quit... when's dinner going to be ready?"

Kyoko fainted again.

Hideo made a note to take his wife to a self-help group one of these days.