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DragonierMan smiled inwardly as he was given a weapon and told to use it for a hunt. Springing into action at the bell, he immediately went for the woman who wasn't protected by Capo's remark, the one known as Kindle. He chased her with the ShadowBolt, aiming for her waist and blazer, seeing if the magnet would work on buckles and buttons.

Then he switched targets to the fedora-wearing Kindle. He aimed for the same locations as he did on Kindle, her waist and suit top. Drago wondered how powerful the chip was and whether it could pull a belt off one's waist, or the top off one's chest.

Then, with time running out, he turned the ShadowBolt on their leader, VoiceMan. Drago ran after VoiceMan, channeling his own energies into the magnet. He wanted to see if he could overcharge the device and increase its magnetic pull.

Then after he was done, he deposited the ShadowBolt and its cargo on Showbizz' podium.

Kindle was an easy target to start with, being one of the least quick on her feet. DragonierMan made no attempt to pursue his targets; he simply pointed the ShowBolt and let it do its work. Luckily, the weapon was within range... soon, DragonierMan noticed the zipper poking out of the fold of her miniskirt. Running proved to be a bad ideas the zipper pulled the opposite way, flying out towards her adversary along with the skirt it lined. Her aforementioned sienna panties, rounded with delicate white frills, were put on display. Embarrassed, she turned and crossed both hands over her front, giving DragonierMan the chance to pull every button messily from her blazer. For a moment, he and the audience caught a glimpse of her highly impressive bosom, clad in similar undergarments to the bottom.

"Ah! I'm not trying to start something, but why does this happen every time I go on TV?!" she bawled, hugging the ruined blazer closer to her chest.

Seeing that there was nothing left to pull, the Neo-Shogun subordinate turned his eyes on Capo. She'd already made it some distance away, so the magnetism wasn't quite as powerful when he got around to using it. Even focusing all of his powers, his only gratification was to snap her leather belt and pull it to him like some sort of airbound snake.

By the time he focused on VoiceMan, the three had made it to the other side of the set. "Whew, thanks for saving me, girls! If I'd known all this was going to happen, I'd have worn my fancy underwear," he joked.

"Not too bad... But if I were grading, I'd give you a C! My craving for ratings is not yet satisfied!" she announced, brazenly giving away her motivation to the viewing audience. "On that note, let's continue to the next challenge! In this competition, each team member will receive a card. Written on that card is an item! Without speaking, each of the team's two members try to demonstrate through pantomime what the item on their card is, while the leader must guess!"

"Oh, I know that game! Cliches...? No, it was Char... Chara.. Chardes!" Lee exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "That's it, right?"

"Hahaha! No, my friend, this is no simple game of chard- er, charades. The catch is that both of you must pantomime together simultaneously..."

"Really? That's it?" the general asked, looking vaguely disappointed.

"And must keep physical contact with your team leader at all times! The team with the leader who first correctly guesses both of his partner's items will be the victor!" the host concluded, grinning and crossing both arms proudly.

It doesn't seem very challenging... So long as I hold DragonierMan's wrist with one hand," Arch mused, setting her slender fingers around the thick circumference of her ally's forearm, "I'll be fine?"

"Sure... If you can play charades alright with one hand, that is! Teehehehe!" Showbizz cackled, as if foreseeing a problem much greater than the golden-armored general anticipated. "Cards are out! Girls, memorize your items..." the host announced, spreading both arms. "And go!"

----------------------

Arch raised one eyebrow as she inspected her card. Lee, on the other hand, nodded and began enthusiastically, even before the data vanished. To start, she got down on her hands and knees, then pressed both hands onto the toe of DragonierMan's boot. Expectantly, she smiled confidently up towards DragonierMan, as if it was now obvious what he ought to guess.

After hesitating a while, Arch clasped one hand to DragonierMan's wrist, as she'd said she would. With her free hand, she first clenched DragonierMan's hand into a fist, then brought her index finger towards the opening in the center of the circle formed by his fingers. Slowly, she traced a spiral upwards from that point like a pyramid. She repeated the motion a few more times, mostly watching what she was doing, but occasionally allowing her eyes to drift up to DragonierMan's face, to see if he was catching on.

In the mean time, the other team seemed to have fallen on hard times. The girl in black had taken Arch's approach, holding onto VoiceMan's sleeve while doing... something with her free hand, trailing it first up her groin, then across the seat of her pants, then sliding it again across the front horizontally. Kindle, on the other hand, was trying to keep one toe touched to her boss's, while extending both arms out horizontally. The action gave her no ability to hold closed her blazer, and the boss was clearly taking advantage of that fact, as his eyes stayed rooted on her breasts. "B-B-Boss!" she blubbered, clutching her clothing back around herself defensively. Losing her pose, she hopped momentarily, only to step on his foot and illicit a horrible yelp. So as not to lose, she grasped hold to him, pressing her chest against his own. He quieted down, evidently soothed.

"What is Team VoiceMan doing over there? I'll let you off with a warning this time, but remember: no talking, no breaking contact! You girls have to be silent and keep touching your leaders!" Showbizz barked.

"DragonierMan... for the sake of sportsmanship, I'll let you go first," VoiceMan murmured, clearly having difficulty thinking of what either of his compatriots might be trying to convey.

"I am going to say 'boot' for Lee's item." DragonierMan promptly replied to the charades question. "As for Arch's item..." Drago hesitated. He was having trouble understanding exactly what her fellow subordinate was trying to convey. Something held that spiraled up into a pyramid shape...

"... an 'ice cream cone?'" he guessed, looking a little dubious. Although he might have gotten one or both of them wrong, he was fairly confident that his competition wouldn't fair any better. Though what would Showbizz do to them if they tied again was something he did not want to think about.

The red-armored general pouted and shook her head, indicating that DragonierMan had guessed incorrectly. Arch, on the other hand, brightened up and nodded enthusiastically. "Wow! Fantastic! DragonierMan guessed ice cream cone on his very first guess, with so little suggestion! One would have thought it'd take him a bit longer," Showbizz half-hissed from her podium. She wasn't doing a very good job of hiding her feelings towards DragonierMan's anticlimactic display of charades skill. "Let's see if VoiceMan can catch up!"

"Er, I'm going to guess... Kindle, your item is crane and Capo, yours is thermal underwear. Is that right?" DragonierMan's opponent laughed awkwardly, only to be met by disappointed sighs from his teammates. "I-It's not easy! Can't you give me some more hints, girls?" Kindle seemed uncertain of anything extra she could do to make hers clear. Capo knit her eyebrows with an irritable frown, then rolled her eyes and started over. Keeping one hand gripped where it was, she placed her thumb into her mouth and started sucking on it. VoiceMan struggled not to laugh. "Er... herhrm... is it a baby?" Fortunately, it appeared he was off the mark again.

In the mean time, Lee tried to revise her position to make her own term more obvious. Keeping her hands were they were, she stuck out her tongue and began enthusiastically licking DragonierMan's boot, completely disregarding the icky metallic taste. Her minikskirt armor swayed back and forth provocatively as she continued; the trail of her brown eyes continued to stay root onto his face as she ran her tongue up and down the boot.

Arch almost said something, then remembered she wasn't allowed to. Hushing up, she gulped and tried to decipher the charade herself.

Drago looked uncomfortable for a moment, standing as still as a statue while one of his superiors acted like a dog... Wait.

"Could it be a 'dog?' Though that doesn't sound like an item... Perhaps a 'buffer?'" Drago asked as he took a wild guess.

Lee nodded happily at DragonierMan's first guess; Showbizz gritted her teeth, obviously not so pleased. "Alright Voice group, break it up! Team Neoshoguns already got their two. Yours were tree and diaper, if you were curious," the host barked. Capo opened her mouth to complain that diaper was much harder to guess than any of the other items, but Showbizz's microphone made it useless to try to talk around her. "Let's have a good punishment round to make up for that massacre, okay? VoiceMan, your team's on the chopping block again!"

"Darn... Maybe I should have looked into hiring on a professional for this like I did with that premiere! I didn't think the three of us could be ruined while we're not even broadcasting our own show," he groaned, pulling out a handkerchief from his coat pocket and wiping his forehead frustratedly. "What is it this time?"

"Let's have a good punishment round to make up for that massacre, okay? VoiceMan, your team's on the chopping block again!" Showbizz warned VoiceMan, grinning evilly to create some tension. "It's fun seeing people forced to behave in silly ways, isn't it? Let's let DragonierMan play the King's game this time! Each other person here gets a number, one through six... Six? Yeah, I guess that's right. Drago here's going to pick a number from the viewscreen in front of him. Whoever's number is picked has to do whatever he says for a minute... and, when he picks the number, he has to say what he wants them to do before he learns who it is!"

"Wait, this punishment game doesn't make sense! Why are we included even though we're on the winning team?!" Arch demanded. A-And furthermore, I think you miscounted! There's only-!"

"Boo-hoo! You deserve to be involved for pantomiming an ice-cream cone in such a boring way!" Showbizz replied, sticking her tongue out at the unfortunate NS Subordinate. "Now, pick a number, DragonierMan!"

Six? DragonierMan pondered as Showbizz laid out the ground rules for the punishment game. I wonder if that means if I'm included. It would be strange for himself to order himself to do something... but then Showbizz stated that he would have to say what his kingly command was before finding out who he ended up picking. So there was an element of risk involved on what he would say would backfire on him. But at the same time, Showbizz seemed bored. The contestants were not enough entertainment for her, and perhaps the audience, thus far. As such he would need to spice things up.

"Very well," Drago stated as he stood up as proudly as he could make himself seen. "Before I choose I will state my command. The chosen individual must do..." He paused for dramatic effect, then reached his arms into the air dramatically. "... A strip tease!"

Lowering his hands, "I chose Number 4," he said before anyone could react.

"Strip tease, huh? A little generic, but unnecessarily bold! That'll do just fine," Showbizz giggled, grinning from ear to ear. "Come on, Number 4! You heard the man!"

"Oh! Right, I'm number four," Lee laughed, realizing after a brief silence during which nobody spoke up that she must have forgotten her own number. "Gee, that's going to be kind of embarrassing... B-But I guess we do need to get a chance to know each other better, right? We'll look at this as bonding time between a general and a subordinate!" she explained, grinning even as she began to blush red. "Still, one who tones their body has nothing to hide!"

The other contestants watched with a mixture of awe at her bravery and gratitude for their own exemption as Lee began the punishment she'd been assigned, despite successfully completing the last round. "Come to think of it, have I seen someone do something like this before? I guess I'll use what I know from those videos the soldiers are watching some times!" she exclaimed, then suddenly summoned her spear. For an alarming moment, it looked like she was raising it to slam it down upon DragonierMan's head. Instead, she stuck it point first into the floor with a noisy crack, causing it to stick straight up out of the set.

At some point, Showbizz had taken the initiative to set on some music. Putting on a carefree smile, Lee circled the spear with a cheesy cat-walk strut while keeping one hand around the shaft. After making it once around, she faced DragonierMan and crossed both hands behind her head and the spear. She squatted slowly with both legs spread angled beneath her, removing her gloves discretely as she did. While the measure showed some finesse, the gloves weren't really made for a strip tease and fell to the ground with a noisy clatter once slipped off.

She stood back up, then made another once round. At about 270 degrees back around, she paused and dipped her curve of her buttocks against the staff. Dipping her upper body down, she skillfully unlatched the straps of her boots, then kicked them off with two simple motions, sending them clanking across the stage as the gloves had moments ago. Both her hands and her feet were bare now.

"Is that enough yet?" the gold-armored general asked Showbizz. The host smiled and shook her head, saying "not nearly." Arch sighed, then turned her head back to watch.

After a few more struts, Lee paused again to raise one leg up against the spear, then tilt her head back. She worked with her upper armor as she did, managing to get it off a little more gracefully than the other segments. With how skimpy the armor already was, it was easy to imagine that something raunchy would be on underneath. As it turned out, there was little stimulating about it: beneath it, she wore a strapless black wrap-around, covering her breasts about as fully as the armor had. Her chest was nicely sized, easily more than that of the little ninja DragonierMan had seen at the summit, but not nearly so much so as that of Dee, whose bust the knight had become intimately familiar with.

With a few more quick circles finished, Lee stopped again, grasping one hand mid-way onto the spear's shaft and leaning her rear end backwards towards DragonierMan. In a simple motion, she unlatched the buckle holding her armored skirt on as a belt, then pulled at the loop with teasing slowness. Eventually, the whole article came off as a belt, revealing a pair of close-fitting black shorts. While the undergarment was unremarkable, the general did have a butt worth noticing.

Now stripped to her undergarments (yet still wearing her samurai helmet), the general made a few more easy circles around the embedded weapon. The crowd was cheering now, evidently liking the pace. "What do you think? I'll bet you thought Dee was the sexiest general out of the four of us, huh? Maybe you're changing your mind about it now!" she joked, giving him a playful wink. Her body looked a good bit younger than Dee's, as well as more athletic and slender, but without nearly the same baggage, for better or worse. Although her catwalk was unpracticed, there was still enjoyment to be derived from watching her move her hips. "That was a pretty good strip tease, wasn't it?"

Lee finished her unpracticed, but still sexy striptease, and asked for an opinion. Drago looked over to Arch for a moment, seemingly to weigh his next comment against any reaction she had. Arch was reacting similarly to what he expected from his time spent with her, shy and bashful, still unused to the more daring antics of her colleagues. Or perhaps she saw those actions as unladylike. Whatever the reason, he replied as the crowd's reaction died down, "You're right to think you're sexy. Seems like the crowd agrees."

"Although I don't think our beautiful, talented host is truly satisfied yet," he continued. "This was supposed to be a punishment game after all. Why not have the two lovely ladies of VoiceMan's team also perform their own striptease? Together." Drago ended with a sly smile, brushing his obsidian hair back a little with his hand. He winked at the audience afterward.

The last bat of his eye caught Aya's attention, as Drago's wink was aimed squarely at her. He made a slight motion with his head toward Capo and Kindle. Aya's eyes narrowed in a squint, concentrating on trying to figure out what her master was attempting to convey. Drago then made a cyclonic, twisting motion upward with his index finger, like a twister. At the top of the arc he closed his fist, and then opened it just as quickly, like an explosion.

Aya brightened suddenly with an idea. She turned to her sister and whispered in her ear. Suzume's eyes bulged outward for a moment, then she grinned. They ducked down in their seats and put their hands on the floor and waited. Ready to send their shadows out. The intention was to provide a clone of both Capo and Kindle that would mimic the strip tease they preformed, then explode at the finale to add a little more flare. Assuming Showbizz went for the idea of a second striptease.

"I knew it! I didn't become a general for nothing, after all," Lee boasted, placing her hands on her hips and feeling proud to have had her sex appeal affirmed. "Er, not that I was hired on for being hot! I'm better at fighting than I am this, you know!"

"Woah woah, you don't get to just make up rules willy nilly, capiche?! You got your stupid little game already!" the mobster-looking woman complained, waving her gun threateningly. "What'samatta with you, anyways? You got a death wish or somethin'?"

The host, however, was already rubbing her hands together deviously and nearly drooling. "I think he has a good point: we haven't properly punished you yet! However, we entrusted the game to a random draw," she explained, using the term "we" rather liberally, "and the decision is final! But that doesn't mean we can't stack up the next punishment! Let's make the final challenge especially interesting..."

"Oh boy... I think you may have just dug our graves, Capo!"[font=Bodoni MT][/font] VoiceMan sighed.

"I'm diggin' somebody's grave, alright!" the girl growled, gritting her teeth irritably.

"Since DragonierMan's team has the most points and they didn't really get to complete their punishment they earned, we'll balance it out this way: if they lose, their remaining general has to do a strip-tease," Showbizz recommended. "VoiceMan, if your team loses, both of your girls have to strip AND complete the original penalty planned for this final game!"

"I don't want to start something, but aren't you going to make it easy for DragonierMan to win so that we have to do the punishment and you get higher ratings?"[font=Bodoni MT][/font] Kindle whimpered, smelling a conspiracy.

"Wait, you! Are you saying that me having to strip isn't a good enough prize for you?" Arch questioned indignantly. "I'll have you know that's a big deal to me! I don't just do it lightly..."

The orange-haired reporter seemed slightly surprised, unable to hide the doubt from her face. "Huh? Really? But you NS girls wear scandalous clothes and do perverted things all the time, don't you? I've heard rumors..."[font=Bodoni MT][/font]

"... It's on! We accept their challenge! Once we beat you, you'll see who's scandalous and perverted when you're stripped naked!" Arch challenged them, raising one fist. Lee clapped along, even though the gold-armored general's words weren't making a lot of sense.

"That's the spirit! Now let me present to you... the final challenge!" the host announced, holding one palm outward. The stage floor began to rumble, then split, carrying her podium and stand upward while the two halves spread to the left and right. Amazingly, a swimming pool with a water depth of about 4'0" had been concealed beneath the stage. "It's the game of Chicken! Each team will form a pyramid and-!"

"Wait! I don't mean to rub you the wrong way, b-but two of us are fire navis, right? We shouldn't be playing in water!"[font=Bodoni MT][/font] Kindle interjected, causing the host to break into a scowl. Apparently, Showbizz hadn't foreseen that complication.

"Good point! Alright, then, Lee and Kindle are just going to have to sit this one out. The competitors will be Capo and VoiceMan versus DragonierMan and Arch! We've prepared some swimsuits for you guys, so please, direct yourselves to the curtained rooms from earlier and change quickly! While you change, here's a quick rundown of the way this game works, for those unfamiliar: in each team, one member sits on another's shoulders. Then, the two teams meet at the center of the pool and try to wrestle the enemy's top off!"

"I-I don't think that's how it works! Toplessness is not part of chicken!" Arch protested.

"Geez, keep your top on! I meant you try to get the member on top to fall off! The first team to dethrone the other team's top wins!" she explained. "Now, go ahead and change, alright?!" the host griped, stomping her feet angrily.

Arch disappeared back behind her curtain; Lee gave her a pat on the back as she wandered off. Inside DragonierMan's own booth, he would find a gold-colored pair of swim trunks with a white star pattern, intended for his use in the event.

Disappointed at not getting another striptease right away, Drago motioned for Suzume and Aya to stand down. At least for the moment, as they might get another chance after beating VoiceMan's team again. The girls sat up in their seats as DragonierMan went behind his curtain. He began removing his armor step by step. Draping his large cloak on the nearby hook and then piling the parts of his armor underneath. The design of his armor had modified over time to be less cumbersome than before, and easier to remove. But it still took him a few minutes to go through the motions of unclasping and unbelting to remove the layers of plate, chain, and leather that covered him from neck to toe.

Finally stripped naked, it did not take him long to don the golden swim trunks with white stars. He pushed the curtain open and felt a chill run over his skin as the studio's air conditioning wafted over him, causing the fine hairs to stand up. His shirtless body was muscled, but not as excessively toned as Lee, and much wider of shoulder. And he was covered with a few scars, but he didn't look that bad otherwise. He rubbed his arms to warm up a little as he waited for his partner, Arch, to come out of her dressing room. He looked over at the pool and wondered why "fire-navis" would be so scared of the water. It looked harmless enough. It's not like it was infested with sea-living creatures. Though Drago admitted to himself that he would rather be fighting viruses right then, then doing a game show.

By the time DragonierMan came out, VoiceMan had already taken up the other side. Like his adversary, VoiceMan wore star-spangled shorts, only blue instead of yellow. Neither Arch nor Capo had taken the stage yet. A few girls swooned as the boys came out, but it was pretty clear that the Showbizz events came with audiences packed full of guys, so the response wasn't outstanding. "I'm sure Capo's thankful you helped her out of her belt earlier,"[font=Bodoni MT][/font] the celebrity joked, shouting from across the pool. Capo seemed to bark a response, but DragonierMan could not make it out.

A little while later, the mafia girl stepped out. It soon became clear that Showbizz had ratings in mind yet again, as the bikini the girl wore was nothing more than some blue star shapes and a little bit of black nylon. For the most part, it was wasted on VoiceMan's bodyguard, as she didn't have the breasts to fill it out, but her bottom was pretty round and cute. One might imagine that the suit would look pretty good from the back. VoiceMan stared in surprise for a while, before turning back to the host and raising his eyebrows. Capo, of course, was not so silent. "Hey, I'd like to change the terms! If we win, I'm making you strip, see?!" she complained. The host only laughed in response.

Much more hesitantly than the previous contestant, Arch pulled back her own curtain and came out, apparently still on her quest to prove that the other team was perverted and not her. With her helmet removed, her blond hair now fell slightly over one eye and to the nape of her neck. Red spread across her face, owing to her bikini, which was a gold-and-black version of Capo's own. Unlike Capo's, it was far more strained to hold together its assets. With how differently the outfits fit the two, it was a little surprising that both could fit and yet still be the same design... that was a little evident in how Arch's stood off her body, taut between the shoulders and chest. Her body was nicely toned as well, due to the results of her training, although again, not nearly so obsessively as Yasu's.

She quickly informed everyone around to stop staring, which they, of course, did not. Even VoiceMan was having a hard time averting his gaze. "I wonder if we should just give up..."[font=Bodoni MT][/font]

"Shut up! Her body doesn't have anything to do with whether she'll win or not. She's gonna be swimmin' with the fishes," Capo cackled, flexing her fingers readily. VoiceMan plopped on into the water, then cordially allowed her onto his shoulders.

Arch watched DragonierMan, waiting for him to step into the water while crossing both arms across vertically across her body, so that her hands rested at her lap. DragonierMan got the strange feeling that she wouldn't climb onto his shoulders as easily as Capo did VoiceMan's...

Drago saw Arch's hesitation. In response he sidled up to Arch nonchalantly. "You look good. Though I prefer a little more cloth myself," he started. His eyes didn't linger too much on the subordinate's assets before turning back to watch the competition. "Well... the faster we beat them, the faster we'll be able to get back to normal." He shifted his feet and tried to slide behind Arch as he was talking. "So let's finish this."

With that, Drago reached out to grab Arch around the waist and hoist her into the air. Ducking down slightly he moved forward and butted his head between her legs, sitting her down on his shoulders. Then he held her thighs tightly with his hands as he dropped into the water, landing hard on the pool's floor. He took a moment to stabilize her, moving his hands up to her waist and butt to readjust her position, before going back to her upper thighs. Then he turned his attention to VoiceMan and Capo, "The Neo-Shogunate will sweep this competition and show everyone our strength." He paused to squeeze Arch's leg, "Ready to crush them again, partner?"

Arch smiled awkwardly, apparently unsure if she was supposed to take DragonierMan's statement as a compliment or sympathy. "Come on, dude! You know you're not supposed to tell a girl she should wear more clothes," Lee scolded DragonierMan, smacking him on the back with one hand. "Don't lie just cause you're trying to look like a good guy!" Apparently, the general thought that the subordinate must be lumping on chivalry to try to appeal to Arch.

"It's fine, Lee. He's got a good point: the sooner we finish this up, the sooner we can dress back up and they can dress down!" Arch affirmed, although she'd half forgotten why she was so adamant about winning to begin with. All the same, she wailed with surprise as DragonierMan grabbed her up and swung her around his body, positioning her himself using his hands and grabbing at areas Neo-Shogun soldiers had often fantasized about grabbing at. "I can hang on fine myself, thanks!" she protested, shifting further against his neck as if to prove her point.

"Boy, Capo... you're a bit heavier than I expected!"[font=Bodoni MT][/font] VoiceMan murmured at the other side of the pool. "And your calves and thighs are uh... I mean, er... The slacks always made you look pretty slim!"[font=Bodoni MT][/font]

"Hey, Boss, there's only so much you can say before I start feeling like I've got a mind to whack you, no matter who you are!" she warned him, kicking one foot into his chest to shut him up. "Hope you're ready to rumble, Goldilocks!" VoiceMan turned his head up to her, causing her to sigh deeply. "Not you, her!"

"C'mon, Arch! Give them your battle cry!" Lee demanded, pounding at her chest with one fist. "Uwoooooh!"

Arch closed her eyes and shook her head, regretful that she'd ever agreed to appear on the broadcast. With that, Showbizz gave the signal for the two teams to begin by clapping her hands together loudly. "Remember, your objective is to make the other team drop their top! No violence! No staying near the sides of the pool! Those are the only rules; anything else goes!" she announced. "Now, get to it!"

((Use your actions to move and interact with the enemies! Any movement or interaction requires one action. You can only physically interact with the enemy when you're next to them. Don't knock the enemy off towards the edge of the pool, or you're disqualified!))

_ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ x _ _ _ o _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _

x = VoiceMan team
o = DragonierMan team

--POOL FIGHT 1, START!--

DragonierMan planted his feet firmly on the pool floor and gave his own battle roar in response to Lee's cry. Then he charged forward to meet his opponents. He held tight to Arch's legs as he pushed through the water. The drag and slosh of the water around him slowed him down a little. But eventually he came to the middle of the pool and braced himself for the push, placing one bent leg in front of the other and turning a little sideways.

He then dipped slightly down and forward to throw his weight into his partner's strike. Pushing himself off his back foot. He attempted to collide his upper arm with VoiceMan's chest, trying to turn him to the side, to throw him off balance. Trying to give Arch an extra edge in tossing off Capo. As his foot hit the pool's ground again he leaned back on it, redistributing his weight for the counter blow. He gripped Arch's legs and attempted to redistribute her weight on his shoulders.

DragonierMan moved, carrying his precious cargo of one Neo-Shogun subordinate, to take the center of the pool. It seemed one advantage he had over VoiceMan was his lack of hesitation; witnessing this, Capo elbowed her leader in the head and whispered to him. With a sigh, VoiceMan followed her instructions, maneuvering around DragonierMan while Capo and Arch locked arms. Seemingly, Arch had the most favorable position, because DragonierMan was holding her in one spot and using his efforts to keep her balanced. Arch also had the advantage of reach, so while her height and weight ought to be greater, it gave her easier access when it came to grappling.

Still, rather than take up a safe position, VoiceMan continued to maneuver around to the side of the Neo-Shogun subordinates; DragonierMan was forced to turn along with him. The danger created, he noticed, was that Capo's back was now facing towards the rim of the pool, which would mean disqualification for the Neo-Shogun team if they tried to push her back onto it. Apparently, that was part of the strategy Capo had been whispering to him.

"I saw Drago there hit my boss with his arm! That's DQ, right?" the mobster navi spoke up.

"It's going to be a pretty lame contest if I count something like that as a disqualification, isn't it?" the host retorted. "Kind of fun watching the men dance around, though! You girls aren't pulling your weight in this contest!"

DragonierMan could feel the momentum changing as Arch tried to figure out an alternate way to take care of Capo without throwing her onto the poolside. It'd almost certainly require coordinating with Arch, to make sure that they weren't trying two different strategies.

_ _ _ x _ _ _
_ _ _ o _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _

x = VoiceMan team (poor balance)
o = DragonierMan team (great balance)

The Neo-Shogun team had to get VoiceMan's team away from the side of the pool. "Pull towards the center," DragonierMan suggested as he scuttled sideways to his right and then turned to his left, facing back towards the center of the pool. He moved slow enough to keep a solid balance for Arch to attempt the pullover. He also shifted his weight towards VoiceMan and then away from VoiceMan, attempting to lend more weight to Arch's pull.

If they were successful in luring VoiceMan and Capo into the middle of the pool, Drago attempted a gamble. He moved up close to VoiceMan, chest to chest. Shifting his weight to his left leg, he then swept his right leg around VoiceMan's left. "Push!" Drago called out as he leaned HARD into VoiceMan, trying to trip him as he fell backwards. His legs strained to apply pressure under the molasses of the water and keep him stable enough that he himself didn't trip. Hopefully Arch's advantage over Capo was enough to push Capo back and destabilize VoiceMan even more by having all that weight hanging behind him.

Drago's left leg then shot wide, attempting to stabilize himself and Arch from tumbling forward with them, had they succeeded.

DragonierMan moved to the right, but this time, VoiceMan didn't move along with him. This made it so that both girls had to lean forward somewhat just to stay grappled with one another, straining the balance of each participant; still, neither girl wanted to relieve that position. Grunting, Arch attempted to toss VoiceMan's load off and into the center of the pool; apparently, though, Capo had the same idea. "Her arm strength's sort of surprising!" Arch murmured under her breath.

"Just be happy I don't have my brass knuckles right now, Blondie!" the mafia girl growled back.

Although he wasn't as close as he'd hoped to be, there was still room for DragonierMan to execute his maneuver. Leaning forward far, he rammed Arch's knees into VoiceMan's body. While he groaned, Capo pulled Arch in further so that she hung across the gap like a bridge, hugging her legs tightly around DragonierMan's head to stay on. VoiceMan coughed, having lost his wind due to the disguised attack, while Capo pulled harder and ever to try to get Arch off.

DragonierMan could see that VoiceMan was having a hard time supporting Capo. At the same time, Capo was doing her darndest to pull Arch straight off of DragonierMan to the point where if he let go of her legs or dipped his head a little, she'd probably slide right off. "Oh yeeeah, the climax! Pull her so hard she falls right on top of you! Pull her by her bra straps, that'd be even better!" Showbizz coached from her throne. "Oh, dragon guy, let her slip a little further and then hold bite her thong with her teeth to hold her! Well, it'd probably snap so you'd lose, but that's fine too!"

"We'd both lose a little more than a contest if he did that!" Arch protested.

_ _ _ x _ _ _
_ _ _ _ o _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _

x = VoiceMan team (very poor balance)
o = DragonierMan team (poor balance)

His plan foiled by his opponents' stubbornness, DragonierMan had to move forward to stabilize his teammate. Now both teams were at the edge of the pool, facing one another. He reached up to Arch's upper thighs and wrapped his arms around her waist like a seat belt. He braced himself by his knees and attempted to pull her back to a sitting position on his shoulders.

"Don't give up. Show them the power of the Shogunate!" He said as he tried to inspire his teammate as he pulled and tugged, lending his strength to Arch as he tried to pull her back with Capo in tow. Threading his arms around each of Arch's legs to pull back and down with more force.

Closing the gap allowed Arch the opportunity to try to scoot back, but Capo doggedly pulled back to keep DragonierMan's ally stretched. DragonierMan raised his arms to provide further support; the position made it impossible for her to regain her old seating, but kept her held where she was. "You can do it! Shogun Power!" Lee called out from the sidelines.

Sweating, Arch tried hard to shift Capo's weight and throw her off to the free side. "All of that arm training really ought to be good for something!" she heaved. While Arch may not have been strong enough to get Capo off herself, she did have the advantage that DragonierMan was helping her tug as well, while VoiceMan was more or less debilitated and likely didn't have the relative strength of the others regardless.

With the other team thus hampered, it was only a matter of time before Arch's pull became strong enough that VoiceMan could no longer sustain his load. His head dipped forward and he crashed into the water, while Capo roared in indignation and tumbled forward into Arch and DragonierMan. DragonierMan's vision became blocked as his head became sandwiched between the crashing Capo and the backwards falling Arch. Thankfully, they were in a fairly deep pool so there wasn't as much impact falling backwards as there might have been. Regretfully, DragonierMan's vision and hearing (and probably speaking capability) were all completely blocked, so it was impossible to tell if he and Arch hit the water or Capo.

DragonierMan was vaguely aware that whatever was happening, Showbizz was announcing something. His vision was completely blocked by shuffling bodies, however, so he was unable to tell what. He didn't seem to be surrounded by liquid, so he'd either been moved somewhere else or the water had been drained. While DragonierMan struggled to get his bearings, Destin was able to listen to Showbizz and figure out what had proceeded.

Arch had ended up behind DragonierMan, still with her legs wrapped around his head. At the time where she fell, Capo had attempted to latch on with her own legs and arms so that she could stay up, such that her stomach was pressed over his face and her legs tucked under his arms, making it difficult for him to move or get up. VoiceMan stumbled around haplessly on the other side of the pool while the host used her slow motion video to show who the winner of the contest was...

"As you can clearly see, Capo hit the water first! That means that Capo and Kindle both endure the original penalty, but ALSO have to perform a strip tease!" she announced.

"I don't mean to rub you the wrong way, but how can it get worse than having to strip?!" Kindle inquired from outside the pool.

"You see, girls," Showbizz started, crossing her arms across her chest knowingly as she walked down to join them, "before this started, I cut a deal with the leader of each of your organizations! They agreed that the penalty for the final game would be a work trade program; that is, whichever side loses has to loan the other side their workers for a small frame of time. What this means is that you girls are now honorary Neo-Shogun subordinates!"

"... Boss, you...! Geeeez! I can't work for those guys! I'll be totally outta my element!" Capo complained.

"Oh ho! The Neo-Shogun's Army expands? Good to have you aboard!" Lee welcomed the girls, giving a thumbs up from her place, seated at the edge of the drained pool.

"Wait, so we would have had to be reporters if we failed this?! You know... actually, that really doesn't sound like much of a punishment to me. Almost like a vacation, compared to this job," Arch admitted.

Showbizz beamed and held her hands up for applause, while the audience gave varied reactions.