"Dio. It's about time you made it here."

The vampire knelt before the Master of Games, who nervously cast his eyes about the common hall.

"My liege, is it safe?"

"For now it is. But we don't have much time. This will be your replacement for Ryuko."

With a snap of the man's fingers, a girl wandered out of the crowd, taking a bow. Her unruly hair fell over her face as she bowed, and something glowed through the ebony strands. She straightened herself up and tucked her locks back over her shoulder, cinching up her tie and smoothing a pleat in her skirt.

"Pleased to meet you, Lord Dio," she said. Her voice was not one that betrayed any malice or evil intent.

"With all due respect, my liege, is this the best you could do?"

The girl seemed distracted, and did not seem to take offense at Dio's remark.

"Whatever do you mean?" stammered the Master of Games.

"Well, I lost a teenaged schoolgirl, and you gave me… another teenaged schoolgirl."

"Do you realize the percentage of the fighters here that are teenaged schoolgirls? If it came to a vote, I think they'd have a slight majority."

"Fine, fine. What does she do?"

"Her hair is alive."

To demonstrate, her hair immediately sprouted several long, curved strands, which began to twitch with what did seem to be life. A thin row of shining white spikes emerged where one would expect a headband, and two glittering orbs popped open along next to them, focusing burning red irises on Dio.

"Is this the guy?" growled something as the white spikes moved back and forth.

"Oh, it's a mouth. And eyes," noted Dio.

"Yes, Samson," said the girl. "Please behave."

"I'm not concerned about my behavior," grunted the girl's hair.

"Let me get this straight," said Dio to the Master of Games. "She's a schoolgirl, and she fights using a symbiotic relationship with a darkly-colored quasi-organic being bonded to her body, that happens to have red eyes and some semblance of a mouth."

The Master of Games nodded.

"Kid, what can you tell me about your mother?"

The girl blinked vacantly. "I… I can't remember anything about her."

"So what you've done here, my liege, is given me exactly the same thing as Ryuko."

The kingly figure held a finger up. "But she fights with her hair."

"You couldn't have come up with anything else?"

"You were the one who wanted a replacement."

"Lord Dio, I'll show you just what I'm capable of. I promise, I won't let you down," she said, giving another bow.

"Okay. Whatever. What's your name?"

"Call me Filia."

"Very well then, Filia," sighed Dio. "Welcome aboard."

***

Holly noticed something distinctly different about the prep room. It certainly looked the same, and it had all of her typical gear; but it had been a while since she last saw it filled with other people. All of her conspirators stood alongside her, nervously looking about while collecting their equipment.

"That's new. Or old, I suppose," she muttered, locking her utility belt into place.

Katniss picked up a clunky-looking collapsible bow, and slung it over the back of her angular black armor. "When was the last time this happened? On that first city round, right?"

"I do believe so. Now when did you get those duds? That looks like some serious fighting gear."

"It's my old Mockingjay Armor. Reinforced carbon-fiber with modular hardpoints and an electroactive polymer sub-layer, optimized for long-range engagements, freedom of movement, and close-quarters defense. Or that's what the tech guys always said."

"But not a Life Fiber in sight," chuckled Ryuko, who did not have much equipment to grab. "It can look pretty, but without that kind of power, it's a glorified Halloween costume."

"Oh yeah?" grinned Katniss, motioning for Ryuko to prove her point. Ryuko stepped forward, raising a fist. She slowly moved it along its trajectory a few times, demonstrating how she would attack. She paused for a moment, then whipped her other hand forward along a totally different route, in a low gut punch. Katniss' armored hand intercepted Ryuko's, catching it centimeters from her body.

"Not bad," scoffed the girl in the sailor suit. "But I wasn't really trying."

"I know," acknowledged Katniss. "I'd be dead if you were."

Ruby shook her head, giving an exasperated sigh. "If you guys are done having your bro-ment, do we want to figure out why we're all here?"

"Because we're on a team, obviously," said Ryuko.

"But in a majority of the previous rounds, the Master of Games had us assemble our teams in the arena," grunted Katniss, clipping a magazine of rifle rounds into a storage compartment. "So why did he switch back to the old way of doing things?"

"I am not sure," muttered Adam. "If we already have not only our equipment, but our allies, are we not at an unfair advantage?"

"Unfair advantage! That's it!" Holly shouted, finding her answer.

"Care to explain for us laymen?" groaned Ryuko.

"The Master of Games' evil team! They always were grouped together at the start of each round! It was to give them an advantage!"

"But… I don't want to be evil!" cried Ruby, throwing herself into Adam's arms.

"I do not think Holly implies that we are evil, Ruby," said the artificial man.

"No, we're certainly not evil as far as I'm aware," continued the elf. "But he may want us to accomplish our goal."

"He wants to find out whatever Twilight knows, too," whispered Katniss. Holly nodded.

"Well… should we just go ahead and do it?" asked Ryuko. "I mean, he's not exactly our friend in all of this."

Holly clipped her helmet into place. "If what she's hiding is important enough that he wants to know, I think that's all the better of a reason we need. Any other pressing questions?"

"Only one I can think of," said Ruby. "How are we supposed to find the VIWs?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," replied Holly. "But if we've got this advantage, I say we use it to cut down as many teams as possible until questions start getting answered."

Ryuko laughed. "You know what? I do enjoy you as team leader."

"Have I ever really been team leader? Or am I the person we go to for ideas? I think I like that better. I'm the idea elf."

"Yep, really smart. Full of ideas. A great leader."

Holly detected a hint of sycophancy in Ryuko's voice.

"What do you want?"

"Well…" The girl tapped her foot against the pedestal her scissor blade had been sitting on, and it slowly slid out of the way. She reached into the recess, and with minimal effort, removed an entire motorcycle. It was a simple, red affair with a short windscreen and a small fairing.

"I was wondering if I could… you know… do some reconnaissance?"

Holly blinked. "What just happened, here?"

"Ryuko pulled some sort of machine out of the floor," responded Katniss earnestly.

"You've never seen a motorcycle?" asked Ruby of Katniss. "They're really pretty common."

"I have not seen one before either," stated Adam.

"Fine. Here's what you can do," sighed Holly. "We don't want to completely lose the advantage we've got with a complete team. You can go if you take someone with you. It'll have to be someone small."

"I'm sticking with Adam," said Ruby.

"And I'm certainly not letting him on my bike," said Ryuko. "No offense," she added.

"None taken," he replied.

Holly scratched her head. "That leaves us with Katniss, then." She turned to the girl in the dark armor, who was still staring at the motorcycle as if it were some sort of dangerous animal. "What's your opinion?"

Katniss looked up from the machine. "Well… Ryuko's pretty tough, so I'm not too concerned with getting hurt. But what benefit would sending out two of us have?"

"Simple," explained Holly. "You two can find a few fighters and lure them back to us. Then we put them down as a team."

"It doesn't seem half-bad," mused Ryuko, nodding her head in approval. "But I'm down for anything as long as I get to use this sweet, sweet ride."

"Okay, then . That's the plan. Ruby and Adam will stick with me."

The empty white wall across from them split in half, retracting into the ceiling and floor to reveal their arena. It was a city, for sure; lined with low apartments and shops, and towering skyscrapers. The room had opened directly onto a street, neat with blacktop and signage. Along the sidewalks, trees were planted at regular intervals, and the sun hung just on the horizon in a brilliant orange sky. Something about it seemed different from the first city arena Holly had encountered. Everything about it seemed more… genuine.

"Let's do this," said the elf, waving her allies forward. Ryuko hopped onto her bike, motioning for Katniss to do the same. She was halfway through straddling the seat when Ryuko hit the ignition, the growl of the exhaust causing Katniss to throw herself backwards onto the floor. The girl got up and cautiously mounted the bike again, and the two roared off down the street.

"Okay. Now that they're gone, we need to establish high ground," grunted Holly, engaging her mechanical wings.

"Right," said Ruby. "So… we should go to that building over there?"

The building she indicated was of medium height, and certainly didn't seem to be of any superb architectural fortitude. It was large in size, however, and was adorned with brightly-colored neon signs.

"That's a shopping mall," said Holly flatly.

"Exactly," giggled Ruby.