Interborough Competition, Part 3

"As I figured," boasts the snake girl with a devious smirk as she taps her long dyed fingernails together. "Just keep listening to me, Mercury, and I can win this competition. And once I win, I'll become the greatest Pro Slayer around! Imagine all the sexy stone slaves I can create without any repercussions…"

"Y-yes, sister…" replies the silver haired girl as she timidly stares at her feet, quivering softly.

The snake girl brushes the silver haired girl's hair away from her ear as she leans in and whispers something to her. I can't make out what she says, but it must be bad considering the silver haired girl's reaction, who's eyes gloss over as her entire body goes stiff. I notice Jamie raises an eyebrow at the interaction.

"Alright!" Cheers the muscley dude. "My buff body won us second place!"

"In your dreams," hisses the snake girl as she leers at the dude, and I can swear I see a forked tongue flick out of her mouth like a snake.

"And finally, in first place-" the Chairman begins to say. "Is Slayer Hachi's squad from Staten Island!"

"YEAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!" The six of us scream out, only to be met with a dead awkward silence. The six of us then look around, nervous and embarrassed. Well… except for Grover. He keeps cheering.

"Uhh…why are they silent?" Jamie asks.

"Remember what Nick said," Austin answers. "The other squads all know each other. We're outsiders here."

Of course, the entire crowd remains silent. That is, until Nick steps into the arena and begins strolling over to us, clapping slowly yet loudly as he does so.

"Great job, you guys!" Nick exclaims. "I knew you had it in you!"

"THANK YOU, LORD NICK!" Grover shouts as he furiously bows to our Squad Captain.

But before Nick can reach us, the Squad Captain from Brooklyn's Squad with that snake-like girl jumps in the way.

"Hold up, what's the meaning behind this, Hachi?!" She shouts. "My squad is supposed to be the number one squad, what are the nobodies from Staten Island doing here?!"

"I know, quite a shocker, isn't it?" Nick laughs. "Let's just say…that everyone underestimated our six rookies here."

But before Nick can continue, a single audience member begins booing, which eventually interrupts into a cascade of booing and slurs being thrown towards us.

Ella looks visibly disturbed as she stares down at her feet, so I gave her a hearty pat on the shoulder and a small smirk, causing Ella to glance up at me with a shy smile.

"I should kill 'em…" Mikey growls as he reaches for his pistols.

"Don't bother," Austin replies. "Let them hate us. it'll make our victory all the more satisfying."

"I can't become the Chairman of the Slayer Organization if I don't face adversary head on!" Grover cheers.

"Why does everyone hate us?" Ella asks as she peers up at Nick.

"Yeah, and especially Brooklyn's Squad," Jamie adds.

"Well, it's because, uhh…you six are nobodies compared to the other four squads here," Nick begins to explain. "They've all been working together for at least a year, our squad -other than Bronx's- is the youngest squad here, so no one really knows who you are yet, competitors, staff, and audience alike. On top of that, our squad isn't really special. Renzu's squad is made up of Demon Kins, and Brooklyn is an experimental squad."

"No wonder their Captain was so judgemental," Austin says.

"What's our thing?" Mikey asks.

"Being a forgotten Borough separated for the rest with six members," Nick apathetically answers.

"Oh, and there's one more reason why everybody hates you," Nick adds.

"Why?" Jamie asks.

"Because I'm your captain."

Of course, the booing continues, causing Nick to close his eyes and sigh. When he opens the, Nick's entire body begins crackling with electricity. In the blink of an eye, Nick zips over to the Chairman, snatching the microphone out of his hands instantly as a look of bewilderment washes over his face, while a satisfying smirk and a wink washes over Nick's. Equally as fast, Nick then reappears in the center of the six of us.

"Ahem," Nick coughs into the mic, and instantly, the entire stadium goes silent.

"That's the kind of respect that I'll Have once I'm Chairman," Grover giggles in excitement.

"Perks of being top dog, eh?" Mikey says in response to Nick.

"I know how you feel," Nick begins to say. "Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan have all been fighting alongside one another for at least a year now. Bronx's squad is still only a few months old, but they've been fighting alongside the other Boroughs as well, for the short time that they've been operational. But then…Staten Island, my Squad, comes along and claims the number one position in the competition. We're a fairly new squad, only older than the Bronx, and on top of that, we don't fight alongside you guys aside from one mission in Queens, unlike the other squads. It's frustrating, I know."

"BUT!" Nick then loudly booms into his mic as he points to the six of us. "My six kids have gone through Hell. Hell that none of your kids can even dream of!" Nick continues as he spins in a small circle. Pointing out each one of the other Squad Captains. "The Cards of the King…a half-demon assault…one of the Four Horsemen…MY SQUAD HAS GONE THROUGH THICK AND THIN TO GET TO WHERE THEY ARE NOW!"

"And of course-" Nick winks. "-I'm their captain."

The squad looks around nervously as they exchange horrified glances.

"A member of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse…?"

"What's a half-demon…?"

"The Cards of the King…that terrifying cult…?"

"Uhh…should Nick really have said that?" Jamie asks.

"No clue!" I answer.

The Chairman sighs as he reaches into the folds of his suit jacket and pulls out a small walkie. "Please escort Hachi out of the arena," he says.

All of a sudden, the field erupts in a cloud of smoke around all of us. We begin coughing as he waves the smoke away, and once it finally settles, we see Nick kneeling on the ground, restrained by five men in black. Two guys hold onto each of Nick's arms, same for his legs, and ones get their arms wrapped tightly around Nick's throat. The five dudes are wearing all black robes, like a martial arts gi, with black Ninja masks covering their faces, and black lightweight body armor across their chests, wrists, ankles, hands, feet, and joints.

"N-NINJAS?!" I cry.

"What are you so worked up about?" Austin asks.

"Are you crazy?!" I cry as I stare into Austin's eyes. "NINJAS ARE THE COOLEST THINGS EVER!"

Austin sighs.

"Come on now!" Nick laughs, even whale benign choked out by one of the ninjas. "You know I'm just kidding! I don't want to cause a ruckus!"

Nick then smirks.

"Besides, Solomon, you know that these five couldn't possibly restrain me…"

The Chairman closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose, sighs, then turns away from Nick and flicks his wrist in the air. "Just…get him out of my sight…" he groans.

Without a word, the five ninjas begin dragging Nick away, who just lets them take him.

"The Hell was that?" Mikey asks.

"The Slayer Secret Services…!" Ella marvels.

"Now, let us proceed-" the Chairman begins to say, then pauses, once he realizes his mic is gone. "Let us proceed-" the Chairman continues, but he pauses yet again once his voice cracks due to his attempt to shout to the crowd. Another -much smaller- cloud of smoke appears next to the Chairman, and once the smoke settles, we see a sith ninja hand the Chairman a spare microphone. The ninja then reaches into their utility belt, pulling out a small gray pellet, which they throw to the ground. The pellet erupts in a cloud of smoke,and once it settles, the Ninja is gone.

"Woah…" I marvel. "Smoke bombs!"

"Let us proceed with the popularity contest!" The Chairman shouts at last as he motions towards the score board, attracting all of our attention there. One by one, each audience member takes out their phones and does a little tapping it around, before putting it away. Then, some names begin to appear on screen.

"In first place, the squad that the audience voted to do the best in this competition and steal the show, is Brooklyn's squad!" The Chairman announces, and the audience cheers.

The Chairman then proceeds to go through the rankings, which are exactly the same as our squads' rankings in our amount of prestige. Except for -surprise surprise- rather than being benign at first, this time, we're dead last.

"Great…" I sigh. "I didn't come here to make enemies…"

"Then you shouldn't have come here at all," sneers the pink haired girl, causing me to raise an eyebrow at her

"Her huge Cursed Power peaked your attention, eh?" Nick whispers as he leans in close to me.

"Nah, it's her huge boo-she just has a cute face," I reply.

"Well look out for that one, she's a tough cookie," Nick comments.

"How so?" I ask.

"That girl -Slayer Mirai, Astra Vidomir- is the number one rookie in this competition," Nick explains.

"No kiddin'..." I mutter to myself under my breath as I peer back at the pink haired girl.