Festival de Fortune

"Yeah, way to go, Ante! You got all of them AND destroyed the data packet thing! That means you get the data, right?" Teruko cheered, thinking it must work like a video game where you can collect items just by hitting their containers. "So, what was in it, anyways?"

"... Whatever was in it, it's gone now," Ante sighed deeply, pressing her hat down over her face. Etiquette would demand that she apologize to her teammate and her opponent for destroying their prize, but then again, there are some times where manners can't dictate everything one does. It took all of her social grace to avoid throwing a hissyfit in front of Dare and NekketsuMan. "A tactical error on my part! Let us move on, Miss Dare, to our next prize," she coughed, turning her back and quickly running towards the lamb, hopefully in a direction that did not follow NekketsuMan's own path.

"... W-Well, look at it this way! NekketsuMan really wanted that steak, right? Maybe by destroying it, you kept him from making a really good dish! That's strategically sound, right?" Teruko laughed, trying to cheer up her navi.

"Yes; while blindly aggressive and directly opposed to our goal, my actions were also rather underhandedly effective in the respect of sabotage," Ante responded dryly, frowning in a dark and remorseful way.

"Sometimes the best things happen as a direct result of stupid, painful accidents! Trust me! Or if you don't, just ask Bruce Stupid-And-Painful Shiner!" her operator guffawed, casting the blame for her day's events on her new friend.

Nodding, Ante decided to try to make the best of the situation. "Lamb is something of a more refined dish anyways, perhaps. The flavor is a little more subtle and the texture less chewy... Perhaps this will work out in the end," she conjectured with a small smile. Teruko interjected something about how they should make an all vegetable dish, but Ante dismissed it out of hand.

((Heading for Lambchop))

"Fine. That sounds like a deal. I'm a man, and a man always abide to his promise!" NekketsuMan, even after losing his chance of getting the sirloin...for good, had no problem accepting Dare's proposition about the next ingredient. "Konaide, woman. Things happen and you just gotta move on despite your errors!" The steel man even went off to cheer Ante up for the accident, giving her a quick tap on the shoulder before he walked off into other direction of the jungle...

As Ante and Dare made their way towards their next ingredient, they crossed their fingers that no more obstacles would come their way. Before they could cross over the layers of leafs and vines, the two navis could see the three Moloko viruses protecting a data crystal like the Spikeys did before. However, before they could make their way and fight over the ingredient, all three of the viruses was deleted in an instant, only leaving behind fluttering fragments of the virus data in the air.

What the two navis saw was Crystal Roy walking up to the data packet with his arm in the form of a vibrant colorful sword, holding up the crystal as he held it up against the roof lights. "...Hmph." His stoic face showed a sign of disappointment as he gently placed the crystal down to the ground, turning his arm back to normal as he began to walk away. "Gold certainly has eyes for ingredients." said Crystal Roy as he began to speak to himself. "Even something small as a "two-star" has that much quality...Too bad it isn't what I was looking for...Too tender."

The crystalline navi was quick on his feet as he moved into the forest once more, leaving the ingredient for the duo hassle-free!

-Ingredient Not-Guardians-
MolokoA: DELETED
MolokoB: DELETED
MolokoC: DELETED
PacketData: 30 HP

Terrain: 100% Grass

-Lucky Pair-
Ante.EXE: 170 HP
Dare.EXE: 150 HP

-INGREDIENT HUNTING...SUCCESS?"-
Ante & Dare GET: [Fluffy Lambchop] Ingredient


-Scores-
NekketsuMan: 3 pts
Advant / Love: 1 pts
Crystal Roy: 4 pts
Ante / Dare: 7 pts

Dare smirked as she watched NekketsuMan walk off. "Huh, Hot Head's more of a gentleman than I expected!" she remarked to Ante, not really caring if the gentleman in question heard or not. "Maybe I misjudged him and he's just got a fiery spirit for competition that makes him act out, like me... Then again, maybe he's just trying to show off for Ante," she reasoned, not considering herself as a factor he'd bother showing off for.

The daredevil Navi was happy that it looked like the two of them wouldn't have to race their rival for the next ingredient, but that didn't mean she was going to take it easy. The pair could already be at a disadvantage, and there was no telling if the ingredients they wanted would still be up for grabs. If there was another conflict, would she give up on her choice and end up trying to scrape together a dish of whatever was left? Or would she risk trying to take the fresh ingredients from the Navis who'd harvested them? Dare wasn't willing to rule out the latter possibility, although she preferred not to resort to that kind of a blunt-force approach if she didn't have to...

At that point, Dare and Ante ran across their ingredient, already a prize for Crystal Roy. Just as she was thinking she'd have to put that shiny sword Roy seemed so proud of to the test, he left the clearing without even acknowledging them. "Did he not even see us? Or is every Navi we meet trying to put on the cool-guy act for some reason...?"

Regardless of the reason, the lamb chop was uncontested and up for grabs... still, Dare hesitated. She just couldn't psyche herself up about the idea of using what wasn't good enough for another Navi as ingredients for her amazing premiere as a gourmet chef. On one hand, she wanted to think that it was not the ingredients but the hands working with them that mattered. Then again, being honest with herself, could she trust her untested skills against an opponent who was flat-out refusing an ingredient he earned because he didn't deem it perfect?

Dare was still crouching behind the foliage where she'd started, unable to make up her mind. If Ante and Dare didn't come up with something soon, they'd be passing up more ingredients they might need and, perhaps worse, end up looking like a couple of slowpokes. "Mmm, Ante, what should we do? Are you okay with using this?"

"That was rather gentlemanly of him. Well played, NekketsuMan. Well played," Ante applauded their mutual opponent, trying to rid herself of her mood and, perhaps unconsciously, trying to cover up her previous mistake with a new topic of conversation. "Let's head directly for our new target..."

She camped out with Ante until Crystal Roy finished inspecting the lamb, then held one hand to her chin thoughtfully, pondering the situation. Ante had a sense of competition similar to Dare's own; it hardly seemed appropriate to pick up anything that an opponent had labeled unfit for use and utilize it as one's own. On the other hand, meat was getting scarce; if they continued to pass up or destroy cuts, they'd eventually find themselves making a meatless meal that Teruko would approve of, which would simply underwhelm the average judge's palette.

"I know your honor is telling you not to accept it, but we have to think long-term here," Ante whispered into her partner's ear. "We took on this mission to find Swindle. If we're going to find him, we have to stand out, and standing out is going to be very difficult if we can't prepare a dish that impresses our judges. Honor dictates that we must have meat for our meal," she explained, then dashed to her feet, grabbing up the lamb chop with no further debate.

"Lamb choooop?! Noooo, that's meat!" Teruko whined, kicking her bare legs up and down on the cart's roof. "The judges aren't going to want to eat that crap! Meat's for losers!"

Sighing, Ante chose to ignore her operator's outburst and look up the next ingredient. "I'd suggest we head for apples next, if that suits you. I've received a tip that says that fried apples and butter will do well with fried lamb. We ought to be able to manage it, so long as we can get the proper ingredients. Ready, Miss Dare?" she inquired, although she was already on the move towards their next objective.

((Grab the lamb chop, head for apples))

"Yeah, and I don't want to be out here all day looking for meat when there's other fish to fry, anyhow," Dare responded. "And by fish to fry, I mean the actual cooking to do! Not, uh, actually frying fish. So it's important that we get everything ready quickly... not that I could run out of fire, you understand, but having to wait too long could put a bad taste in the mouths of the judges."

Dare followed along with Ante, surprisingly matching her pace instead of running ahead. It seemed to be easier to do if Ante took the lead to start with. "Yeah, that dish sounds delish, but I dunno if we're going to be able to pull it off. I don't know a saute from a flambe, if you catch my drift. Still, though, anything's possible if we just put all we've got into it! We'll make Crystal 'Doi!' sorry he left this behind when he sees what we can do with it."

With the change in their plan, Ante and Dare quickly followed their navigator towards the next ingredient. (Oh, the irony) As usual, three Applesamus stood guard over the ingredient, patiently waiting for their inevitable challenger. When the two navis appeared before the viruses, one of the three quickly retreated into its hard, red shell while the other two bravely faced Ante and Dare!

-Stubborn Guardians-
AppleSamuA: 70 HP [Revealed]
AppleSamuB: 70 HP [Hidden]
AppleSamuC: 70 HP [Revealed]
PacketData: 30 HP

Terrain: 100% Grass

-Desperate Pair-
Ante.EXE: 170 HP
Dare.EXE: 150 HP


-Scores-
NekketsuMan: 3 pts
Advant / Love: 1 pts
Crystal Roy: 4 pts
Ante / Dare: 7 pts

"What a surprise! Three apples right here, one for each judge," Dare said with a grin, gesturing with a finger at each one as if counting them off.

"Uh, looking at the green guys inside them, pretty sure those are like the guardians for the actual ingredient," Bruce pointed out, unsure of whether his Navi was being serious or not. She hadn't really seen a lot of viruses up until now.

"Aha, of course, I'm joking!" Dare told him, waving off his concern without giving away whether it had been well-founded or not. "Now what would be the best way to fry those apples..."

"Well, we've got plenty of firepower," Bruce replied, shuffling through his chips. "I could just give you that knife again, or-"

"Wait, since when do we have 'plenty of firepower?'" his Navi interrupted, raising an eyebrow. "I thought you were a netbattling newbie! You haven't been getting into Teruko's pants, have you?" Seeing her operator looking taken aback, Dare clarified, "I mean, reaching into her pockets and stealing her chips while you two were roughhousing?"

"What? Hell no! Bruce 'True Blue' Shiner doesn't steal the chips of chicks he's just met!" While defending his honor, the stuntman was keeping his voice low enough so that Teruko wouldn't hear him and raise any unnecessary questions. "I'm not that bad of an operator, though. I've been doing my part to get us stocked up."

"What? What have you been doing on top of that cart to get us new chips?" Dare asked, genuinely curious.

"Uh..." Bruce looked off to the side and grinned. "Well, I entered some raffle contests earlier..."

"Ahaha! Well, that's Mr. Dumb Luck for you! 'Doing my part' my tail," she mocked, doing her imitation drawl that she seemed to think worked as a quick-and-dirty Bruce Shiner impression. "Well, just send me something! The Fireknife worked pretty well before, why not that?"

"Well, I think it would be a good idea for you to try fighting at a range, too," Bruce told her, still trying to play up his 'thoughtful operator' image. "We've got a number of chips to try for it."

"Hey, when I get a flashy signature move I can use at a distance, we'll talk about hanging back like a pansy," Dare retorted.

"Big talk from a loser who needs me to program her to even do those moves," Bruce joked, omitting the fact that he rarely did any of the programming himself. "Anyway, just try it, okay? I'll send this, uh... one with the meteors, and the one with the flames-"

"'The one with the flames?'" Dare laughed, unable to stop poking fun at Bruce once she got started. "Can't you take a sec to even look at its registry?" Seeing that Bruce was getting bored of her teasing and probably going to focus his attention back to Teruko, the Navi shrugged and turned back to the task at hand. "All I know is, after this competition's over, I need to get some custom graphics for my moves." She punctuated that thought by summoning a strange staff that was apparently tied to the meteor chip Bruce had sent. "Case in point," Dare added with a frown, speaking mostly to herself.

The Navi accepted her next chip as another replacement of her chrome buster gun, although it only looked like a red modification of the same model. "Hey, Bruce, no indication of how this thing is supposed to work?"

"Gimme a sec... It's called a 'Heat-V,' apparently," Bruce answered, checking a chip registry for the first time. "Dunno what that entails, but I'll let you use your imagination."

Dare shook the gun on her arm as if willing a more interesting one to fall from the barrel. "Well, I'll give it a shot. Hey, Apple Jack! Come out of there and face us like a weird green apple man!" As Dare taunted her target, she also lined up her shot with the middle AppleSamu. She didn't know what the trajectory on the supposed "V" this weapon employed was, but she figured she had the best chance of doing some extra damage that way. She fired off the shot, heedless of whether the virus was still in its shell or not.

As soon as the gun was fired, Dare began moving in for her finishing move. After using two default graphic chip attacks, she was itching to inject a bit of her own style into the job. "Ready or not..." she shouted, already zipping towards her target, banking from side to side as she moved. "Here I... come!" she shouted, punctuating her sentence with a short flip from the ground that would slam her super-heated boots into the foe if it hadn't gotten out of the way.

Summary:
*) High gear: Reduce enemy accuracy by 10%
Meteor9 [Place 100 HP object: 30 FIRE to 3 for 3 turns, D accuracy]
Heat-V to AppleSamuB, Spread to AppleSamuA and AppleSamuC [70 FIRE, A accuracy, Spread 2]
Trail Blazer towards / to AppleSamuB [20x2 FIRE, B accuracy, 2 movements]

"That's the spirit," Ante replied, glad that her partner was enthusiastic and that she didn't have any unrealistic preconceptions about the cooking capabilities of either herself or her partner. "Properly preparing the dish would be the real miracle in this scenario," she reminded herself with a sigh. "At any rate, it looks like we've found our ingredients and they are, once again, guarded by viruses. The use of viruses for recreational purposes such as this does not seem wholly savory..."

"Pfft! Who cares about how savory it is? Gold never made any promises to do things savory," Teruko reminded her navi. "The only thing that needs to be savory is those apples! Fried apples make a tasty dish even by their lonesome, you know!"

"Yes, well, let's not leave Dare alone against those viruses. Please transfer me a firehit, if you would, as well as-" Ante started, only to stop halfway. In the previous battle, she'd made a serious miscalculation that had cost them their ingredient. She decided to be more careful in this one... perhaps she could even shield the data from enemy attacks, if she fought wisely. "My top priority will be defending the data while we fight. Even if we exercise caution, there's the possibility that the viruses have no investment in it and will themselves destroy it. Send me the SolarShield!"

Ante backed up her statement by taking off towards the data behind the viruses, heedless of their attacks. Rather than defend herself or attack the viruses, she grabbed up a glimmering, heart-shaped red shield and threw it out to block the data, embedding it in the ground with a sharp jab of her elbow. "There! Now I can focus on those viruses," she commented, putting both hands back onto her scepter.

Dare had taken on a scepter of her own, curiously enough. Ante chuckled to herself, thinking that it didn't fit her ally's image terribly well, but said nothing about it. With a swing of her staff, she released two burning, bouncing club heads towards the enemies on either side. "Let's hope this does effort does not run afoul," she murmured, bracing her scepter horizontally in a very last minute and likely useless defense against enemy attacks.


1) Move towards data
2) Place SolarShield between enemies and data [1-hit shield, Counter Fire/Elec (50 Fire Shot, A accuracy + Piercing + Solar Boost): On-Hit]
3) FireHit1 @ AppleSamuA [60 fire, A accuracy + impact]
4) FireHit1 Double Hit @ AppleSamuC [60 fire, A accuracy + impact]

While Dare went all out on the three guardians, Ante went ahead and applied precautionary steps to prevent any more accidents. The Meteor had brought down three meteors from the sky...Strangely within the closed, glass dome, and it had only managed to crash into the sole AppleSamu at the center, not even putting a dent on its hardshell.

However, the rest of the attacks seamlessly connected and deleted the other two viruses even before they had a chance to fight back. When the middle AppleSamu came out of the shell, it was dumbfounded by how two of its comrade was simply no more, but quick to redirect his confusion into anger as it fired it seeds towards Ante (Literally...Thank God) and wound up hurting the navi!

-Stubborn Guardians-
AppleSamuA: DELETED
AppleSamuB: 70 HP
AppleSamuC: DELETED
PacketData: 30 HP [SolarShield]

Terrain:
75% Grass
25% Soil

-Desperate Pair-
Ante.EXE: 140 HP
Dare.EXE: 150 HP
Meteor9: 2 Turns


-Scores-
NekketsuMan: 3 pts
Advant / Love: 1 pts
Crystal Roy: 4 pts
Ante / Dare: 7 pts

"Some operator you are, Bruce," Dare complained, witnessing her ally's attacks. "Instead of programming me some cool attack graphics like Ante has, you waste all your time giving me chips that can't even penetrate that apple's skin?"

"Hey, it's not like your flashy signature move did any better," Bruce pointed out. "I think the hard shell must protect the squishy green guy inside."

Dare had to admit that seemed like a fair point. The only enemy who'd survived their simultaneous onslaught was the one who'd been fully encased at the start. "All right, I'll give you that one. But we're good to go on the knife now, right?"

"Sure, just get it before it hides again. I'll also send you another chip to try out."

The Navi was at optimal range now, and after receiving the data of the flaming blade tip at her limb's end, she didn't hold back. Dare thrust her knife towards the opening in the apple shell, pulling back again at the end for a second stab. Unless it went into hiding again, she couldn't imagine it would have a second stroke of luck.

Dare finally activated the barrier, and was again disappointed in the standard graphic. "Blue really isn't my color... but hey, this thing is like a force field, right? I guess that's handy, but sitting around and waiting to get hit isn't really my style," she said to herself. Even as she kept her eyes on the only target left to dodge, Dare was keeping a ready, twitchy stance to see if she could avoid any last-ditch efforts the virus made. The only thing better than a victory was a clean victory.

"Hey, Ante, Bruce gave me a force field, so you don't need to worry about collateral damage! Hit it with your big crater thing if you want," she called out. Really, she just wanted to see what Ante had done to cause such a flashy impact that she'd missed earlier.

Summary:
*) High gear: Reduce enemy accuracy by 10%
Fireknife to AppleSamuB [60 FIRE, B accuracy, Slashing]
Fireknife to AppleSamuB [60 FIRE, B accuracy, Slashing]
Barrier [10 HP Barrier, Status Guard]

Ante tipped up her hat and frowned at the one remaining enemy; how sloppy, to allow one of only three viruses to escape deletion, especially with Dare aiding her. "Don't fret, Miss Dare! This time, I will prepare an attack that no fruit shell can withstand," she informed her ally, clenching both hands at the midpoint of her scepter. "Teruko, the Wrecker, if you would."

"One order of apple sauce, coming right up!" the operator joked, slotting through the chip her navi had requested.

"... Apple sauce?" Ante murmured in response, trying to think of how a wrecker chip could equate to any sort of mushy, nutritious foodstuff. "I don't follow."

"You know, you smash the guy and then he's sauce, right?" Teruko huffed in response, pouting at the need to explain a simple one-liner.

"Oh! The virus is the apple sauce, of course. I'm sorry, this competition must be making me fatigued," the navi sighed, giving herself a moment to try to remember why she was there in the first place. The apples were needed to make a dish... the dish was needed to please the judges... pleasing the judges was needed to win the competition... winning the competition was needed to draw out Shwindle... drawing out Shwindle was needed to...

As her thought process went on and on, Ante prepared a few Queens of Spades and flung them out towards her target. She then raised the staff into the air, elevating its giant club head. With a powerful heave, she lunged her arms forward, lobbing the metal club off in an overhead arc towards the final virus almost unconsciously. At this point, she felt that staying focused was becoming hard to do, and even if she wanted to it was becoming difficult not to question how they'd come so far without picking up even a scent of the eccentric criminal they were looking for.


To Ante, any final evasive action would come just as intuitively as the wrecker's usage had.

*) Mulligan @ self [15 heal, passive]
*) Deal Hand @ AppleSamuB [15 (strengthen) debuff]
1) Wrecker @ AppleSamuB [80, C accuracy + break + panel break]
2) Dodge
3) Dodge

The last AppleSamu...Simply had no chance of living when two navis focused their attacks. As the last virus was deleted, the data crystal opened up to reveal a basket full of the biggest, shiniest apples that anyone has ever laid eyes on.

"Tick-tock, folks! Times passing by and the judges, including moi, are starting to get a little hungry! I think it's best if you take advantage right now, contestants!" Mr. Gold's all-familar voice boomed through the dome as it notified everyone inside, especially Ante and Dare...

-Stubborn Guardians-
AppleSamuA: DELETED
AppleSamuB: DELETED
AppleSamuC: DELETED
PacketData: 30 HP [SolarShield]

Terrain:
75% Grass
25% Soil

-Desperate Pair-
Ante.EXE: 155 HP
Dare.EXE: 150 HP
Meteor9: 2 Turns

-INGREDIENT HUNTING, SUCCESS!-
Ante & Dare GET: [Quality Apples] Ingredient


-Scores-
NekketsuMan: 3 pts
Advant / Love: 1 pts
Crystal Roy: 4 pts
Ante / Dare: 7 pts

"Geez, we really pulped that thing, huh?" Dare observed, dismissing her blade in a shower of sparks. "I'm not really sure which of us got the final hit," she said, turning her blade hand over in front of her face as if inspecting it for apple sauce. She lowered her hand again and dashed towards their reward, happy that it looked they would successfully obtain at least one ingredient from their own efforts. "The fruits of our labor!" she exclaimed, raising the fruits in question to the heavens in celebration of victory.

"How do you like them apples?" Bruce joined in, speaking in the loud voice of someone who wants a joke heard over others in a crowd.

"Lame, Bruce," the Navi proclaimed, lowering the apples as though her operator's pun had defiled them. Dare rolled her eyes to Ante, a gesture barely visible behind her reflective shades. "Well now that Bruce Hi-Hat Shiner and I have had our pun, it sounds like we'd better get moving..."

In spite of her words, Dare began the trek back at an unusually reasonable pace, a sure sign that she had something on her mind. "'No time limit' my tailpipes, it looks like we only get until the judges hear their first tummy rumble. It just doesn't feel right. All these other ingredients have been claimed, and by people who we feel like already have an edge in the cooking. I can't stand to think we might have already lost this battle in the preparation phase." When Dare turned her face back to Ante, it was dead serious. "What about you, partner?"

Two things were simultaneously clear: Dare was dead-set on walking away from this the winner, and Dare had most likely completely forgotten about Shwindle again.

Ante was pleased with the apples, but even further pleased that she'd managed to get through without smashing them into sauce. "A little merriment might be well placed at such a time," she chuckled. "Although I can still only wonder if we will be able to outperform those others when it comes to cooking. After all, think of our competition. NekketsuMan clearly cares a lot about his food, given how passionate he was over the meat. He won't let it go to waste. As for the duo, we all know that married couples hold each other to a higher standard when it comes to cooking; they have to prepare to cook for a family, after all. Crystal Roy..."

The same sort of image, involving Crystal Roy wearing a chef's hat and apron while turning meat skewers over an open flame, came into her head, as it had Dare's earlier. She managed to shake it out again, then pressed her hat to her head. "Yes, it sounds like there's no further time to waste. Timeliness may be an important part of the criteria as well. Still, when you say 'this battle,' it's important to remember what our true battle here is... you remember?"

"Booooooy, Bruce just made the lamest pun! Did you hear it, Ante?!" Teruko groaned, rolling backwards on her butt.

"Yes, I heard it," Ante sighed, beginning to think that she was the only one of the four that was still focused on the mission. Along with Dare, she moved back towards the starting area.

As the watch directed the pair back out side the dome, they found themselves back to the entrance from which they came in from. When they finally came out, Mr. Gold's voice began to ring throughout the stadium as the stadium screen showed the flamboyant casino owner on the very top of the dome.

"Ladies and Gentleman! It looks like our dynamic duo is the first to get out from the Forest Dome!" The audience replied with a mix of cheers and heckles. "Oh...It looks like they're just the FIRST one out. NekketsuMan, along with Advant and Love are out from the dome as well!" The screen showed all 5 contestants, all dirtied and scratched up from trying to find the ingredients, and then back to Mr. Gold. "Well folks! It's time to get cooking! Make your way to the center kitchen and show us your cooking skills!"

Just like before, a series of arrows pointed all the contestants towards a separate location away from the dome. They found four large kitchens, all facing the center where Mr. Silver and Mr. Bronze silently waited, was already prepared with an assortment of utensils, seasonings, side-ingredients, and much much more. NekketsuMan and the two lover-birds quickly took one of the kitchens, scurrying through whatever they could find for their dishes. "Fryingpanfryingpanfryingpan!" The hulking metal navi was busy digging through many of the drawers, completely ignoring the clear labels that was placed on each one of them. "Look darling! Look at these spices! This would go perfectly with the food I'm making~" Love squealed after finding a tower of assorted seasonings and spices. "Oh what's the point, Love...When I'm already a perfect match with you~"

But before anyone had a proper chance to start their cooking, the stadium screen focused on Mr. Gold once more...Hovering off the dome and landing right at the center besides the other two judges. "BEFORE WE START!...I will go over the three factors that will decide your dish's score! First is...Flavor!"

"Second is...Presentation!"

"And third is...Method!"

"With that in mind...GET COOKING!!"


-Scores-
NekketsuMan: 3 pts
Advant / Love: 1 pts
Crystal Roy: 4 pts
Ante / Dare: 7 pts

Dare returned the audience's mixed reception with raised and waving hands while keeping her eyes moving behind the shades, trying to spot the other contestants. She was all for being fast, but she didn't want to come off as sloppy. Had she significantly underestimated the amount of preparation time they had left?

Fortunately, the other contestants showed themselves quickly enough. Crystal Roy was conspicuously absent, and Dare realized that events were stacking up to give him a very strong presence in this competition. Seeing this as a position of danger, she kept all her senses tuned to pick up anything that might still give her an edge.

Continuing on to the kitchen, Dare took a look around at the facilities that were provided. As much as she was hoping Ante would prove handy in the preparation, it wasn't her style to let someone else take the lead... when she could avoid it anyway. Picking up on NekketsuMan's cue, but having the necessary focus to try and use provided labels, she began to look for a frying pan to start. She listened to the scoring qualifications while pulling the pan from its storage cabinet.

At Silver's words, her ears perked up. "Presentation," she whispered under her breath, her lips beginning to curve into a grin.

"Hey, Ante," she called, rising to her feet from the kneeling position she'd taken to get the pan from a low drawer. "I think I just had a good idea, but I'll tell you about it as we get cooking. Let's see, uh... we start by heating this on the stovetop?" Dare started by immediately turning an eye's heat all the way up, setting the pan on top while keeping her grip on the handle. More heat'll get it done faster, right? she reasoned, lightly touching a finger to the stovetop and quickly pulling it back to avoid a burn. "Have at it, Chef Ante!" she said, willing her partner into action without any real idea of what the next step was.

Presentation sounded easy with Dare on her side, but Ante had to wonder if they'd have anything left to present if Dare got her hands on the cooking portion. "Chef Ante? Ah... W-Well, a lady must know a bit about cooking," Ante responded, trying to look like she was busy preparing items they'd need for cooking. In reality, regardless of what she said, she'd never learned a thing about cooking. "Teruko, can you-?"

"Don't look at me! I've been eating veggies since I was living on my own," Teruko explained, crossing her arms proudly across her bra. "Not knowing how to prepare meat means I'm less likely to ever eat it! The judges ought to be eating vegetarian too! They'll thank you for excluding meat altogether, I wager!"

"Fine! I've gotten through spanking, battles, and exhibitionism already! There's no way I'm going to let apples and lamb stand in the way of success!" she exclaimed, grabbing a spatula. Carefully, she opened up her data packets and spilled each of them onto a different pan atop the stove. "Fried apples and fried lambchops! Fried food can't be that hard," she reassured herself, remembering the recipe she'd received over the BBS. "Frying's only a matter of heating these things until they look right... right?"

She'd turned her head to Dare for advice, but quickly looked back to her food, not wanting to give her friend the idea of stepping in. "Dare makes flambes; I remember her saying that. We don't need lamb and apples flambe," she thought to herself with a gulp. Unable to rest, she elevated the meat from the bottom of the pan obsessively with one spatula and turned the apples with another. Her orange bangs began to mat against her forehead as she sweat with the combined tension of the situation and heat of the stove.

As Ante did most of the cooking while Dare sat by, the other three contestants were also starting off with their own dishes. NekketsuMan, finally finding the utensils he needed, immediately began to pan fry his meat with an absurd amount of fire. "I'll prepare a dish fit enough for a true otoko!" Though it looked as if the fire would burn the meat to crisp, the metallic navi stood vigilant as he watched his meat meticulously.

"Is this enough honey?" said Advant, as loud as ever. "We cooked this dish before plenty of time, Advant. You should know how to cook this like the back of your hand!" Love replied, busy preparing a bowl full of spices and seasonings. "I know...But I just wanted you to look at me right now." The whole lovey-dovey thing was starting to get out of hand when the audiences began to feel sick over the two. However, they had an assortment of seafood ingredients prepared while Advant was carefully handling each one of them.

The time was ticking, and everyone was so concentrated on their dishes that the audiences fell silent as they watched the contestant's cook. It wasn't till a familiar voice echoed through the stage that broke the silence.

"...Hmph."

Crystal Roy finally got out of the dome, bruised with tattered clothes, going against the clean, gentlemanly look he kept all throughout the Festival. "That was quiet a virus you save up, Gold." said the navi as he began to wipe his face with his pristine handkerchief. "I'll take that as a compliment, thank you~"

The crystalline navi finally took his spot at his own kitchen and quickly looked over all the other contestant's progress. With no sign of his usual smugness and cockiness, Crystal Roy dressed himself with an apron and began to lay out his ingredients. "...Lets begin." With calmness and grace, the navi took a knife and began to cut into the meat...


-Scores-
NekketsuMan: 3 pts
Advant / Love: 1 pts
Crystal Roy: 4 pts
Ante / Dare: 7 pts

Dare frowned, upset that all she could think of to do so far was turn on the stove. The thought of not only going down in the final match while sitting on the sidelines was too much for her. Sitting still behind the counter was also not her thing, so she took some time to glance around at the competition. The prospects did not look good to her... Advant and Love were clearly bringing out some fancy results, and at least to Dare, a roaring fire didn't necessarily mean NekketsuMan had botched his dish.

Just then, Roy came in, ready to start on his dish. "Geez, did Roy have to wrestle a bear for honey or something?" Dare remembered Roy leaving the cut-rate ingredients behind earlier... witnessing the state he was in now, he'd probably found something more than adequate. The Navi grew more tense as it seemed like all of her fears were beginning to fall into place. She had to remind herself she did have their trump card to fall back on in the future. The presentation, however, would be one half food and one half service. If the food was garbage, they still wouldn't have a shot.

"Is there any experience I can fall back on...? I don't know what makes food taste good! Dare fretted, tugging at her hair. Dare watched Ante at the stove, seeing the heat shimmer around their dish. "If only our dish could be as hot as me! It's got the heat, but something's missing." The Navi tried to seize on any line of thought she could. "If I consider a comparison of me and HotHead over there, we've both got fire... but I'm more awesome because of my style. My routine has more style... so the cooking equivalent is..."

"Spice!" she suddenly shouted, whirling back to Ante as though she'd remembered a detail of fatal importance. "Hey, Ante, did that BBS post say anything about spices? Something that can make the apples fancier?"

Ante felt increasingly worried, as she and her partner seemed to be the only group that was facing any particular trouble coming up with a proper dish. "Oh, right! The BBS post did mention some things," she replied, turning her head to face Dare for a moment before realizing that her eyes needed to stay on the dish. Staring hard at the apples, she realized that sliced apples alone would not be enough to pull the dish together. "Yes, the BBS post mentioned melted butter, sugar, cinnamon, and water as important components of the apples we'll be saucing over the lamb. Please prepare them if you ca- er, would," she requested, rephrasing her words at the last second so as not to draw attention to their relative cooking incompetence.

"Mmm... It's like I can smell the scent of those apples coming out from the PET! What if I starve up here?!" Teruko exclaimed, acting as if she was stranded on some desert island rather than on the top of a cart in an amusement park. "Ante, is there any way we can transfer apples from in there to out here? Just one or two?!"

"No, Teruko, I'm afraid we... need them for our current dish," Ante chuckled. "Still, it's the apples you think you smell and not the lamb? You must really be desensitized from meat..."

"Of course! The first step to giving up meat is disowning the smell. That way, when that funny scent comes up, you won't think 'time to chow down on a burger!' You'll dismiss it and move on to the salad bar. You can take that one to the bank!" the operator assured her navi, crossing her arms confidently across her breasts.

"I see," the navi replied in a noncommittal way. She lifted her hat from her head slightly so that she could wipe away the sweat forming at her brow.