Festival de Fortune

"Aha, I knew it!" Dare exclaimed. "For a sharp and focused mind, a way forward will always present itself. So basically, I'll just throw all this junk in a pan, crank up the heat, and before you know it the magic of cooking chemistry will-"

"Slooow down there," Bruce interjected, sensing a catastrophe. "I might not be much of a stove-cooking guy, but I at least know you melt the butter in the pan first. All that sugary mess probably makes something like syrup, right? You don't want to just chunk a solid stick of butter in that if you're trying to make anything halfway edible."

Dare frowned, trying to decide whether the proper dignity recovery measures were a bluff or an argument. "Yeah, 'throw it all in' is just a figure of speech! Of course I know at least that much," Dare scoffed, deciding on the former. She didn't waste any more time whipping out an additional pan, setting it up on an eye next to Ante, and dropping the butter in. "You know, Ante, I'm beginning to feel like we might be able to pull this off. With just one or two of us it might be an issue, but with all four of us working together..."

"Uh, keep in mind we have no idea at all how hotshot the operators of the others are at cooking," Bruce added, scratching the back of the head. "Not all guys are fast food connoisseurs like me. For all we know, one of them could be head chef at a five star resort."

"Pfft, probability! Most of 'em are probably losers like you," Dare responded light-heartedly, stirring the pan on the eye less to try and keep the heat even and more because she didn't like the looks of it just stupidly sitting there. Confirming that the butter was melted enough, she tossed in the rest. First pouring in some water, she then reached for sugar and cinnamon, pausing partway. "Uh, say, Chez Bruce, no chance you have any remarkable insight on how much of this is enough?"

"Uh... you've already got a lot of water, so... I think..." Bruce said, rubbing his chin.

"Too slow, I'll just deal with it," she interrupted, taking the two and shaking a fair bit into the water. "Syrupy sweetness, here we come! How's it going over there, Ante?"

Mr. Silver and Mr. Bronze idly sat by their table, watching over the contestant's efforts through the various video feeds that showed everything in different angles. "They s-sure are trying hard, aren't they, Mr. Silver?" said Mr. Bronze as he was patting his forehead with his handkerchief. "As hard as they may try, the final result is all that matters. Let's continue observing..."

While the two judges kept a strong, professional vibe, Mr. Gold on the other hand was much more obnoxious than he was before. With whatever magic he had beneath his sleeves, the casino owner was hovering and flying from table to table to observe everyone's progress, rather than sitting down like the other two judges. "Things are starting to smell tasty! Lets see how the lover birds are doing!" He flew towards Advant and Love's tables and landed right behind the two, giving them a gentle tap on their shoulders.

"K-kiyyaaa!"

"Hey, what's the big deal! Don't go around scaring my honey like that!"

Even when the two was still startled by Mr. Gold's sudden appearance, the judge peeked over their complaints and stared right at the ingredients they were preparing.

"...A Gumbo? My, what a bold choice. I'll be looking forward to it~" Without a proper apology of any sort, Mr. Gold simply flew away and moved onto the next contestant again. "G-geez...He almost made my heart skip a beat..." Love was still shaken up, but Advant suddenly went ahead and gave his lover a big hug. "Oh darling, you make my heart skip a beat everytime I s--Oww!" He quickly drew back when a whisk bashed into his head.

"I'm sorry, honey, but now's really not the time for this. Chop-chop, let's get cooking!"

Mr. Gold flew towards Crystal Roy and tried the startle him like he did with the two before, but just as he was about to tap the crystalline navi's back, he was instead met with a sharp, stern stare that stopped him in track. "Ahaha...How are you doing so far with your dish?" Roy's stare persisted even as he turned around, holding a bowl that was filled with the honey he hunted down. "Hmph...You'll see. While you're bothering everyone around, make yourself useful and bring me some red wine." Though Crystal Roy's was being quite disrespectful towards Mr. Gold, the judge replied with an obliging bow. "Only the finest for our friend, Crystal Roy~"

With a clap of his hands, a Mr. Prog suddenly appeared holding a bottle of wine...On top of its head. Roy only inspected the wine for a second before he opened it up, taking in its smell and poured some into a conveniently placed wine glass. "...This will do." After taking a sip, he poured the wine into the bowl of honey and began to put few other things into it as well, quickly mixing them all into a glaze.

"...Moving on!!"

Mr. Gold took off into the sky with both hands stretched towards the air, only to shortly land right beside NekketsuMan and his burning pan. "My, that looks quite hot. You sure you're not gonna burn it to a crisp?" Even though Gold asked a very valid question, NekketsuMan only had a big grin on his face, all the while he kept his eye tightly locked onto the meat. "A true man knows his meat! I'll never do something so unthinkable as to waste a meat!" As his metal hands slowly began to turn orange from the heat, the navi finally gave the meat a flip and killed off the flame, revealing that the meat was simply seared rather than burnt up. "You, judge! Keep a close eye on the meat for me!"

NekketsuMan moved on with the mushrooms he found and began to chop them up into big chunks, throwing them into another pan and began to saute it with no oils or anything else. Mr. Gold only took a peek at NekketsuMan's flank and nodded his head before he flew off once more. "Well, you don't really need me to do your job, manly-man. Good luck~"

Finally, the judge made his way to Ante and Dare's table, standing just across them as he inspected their progress. "Lambchop and...Sauteed apples? I'd say, I never tried a dish like this before." He took a quick sniff at things before he backed off, giving the two ladies a bow before he flew towards the center table. "It looks like everyone is making great progress! I honestly can't see who's gonna be the winner for this game!"


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

"It feels a little ridiculous, trying to compete with dishes like that. I've been to enough banquets to know that when wine is involved in cooking, you're generally dealing with a high class dish," Ante murmured, losing some of her fire.

"Woah, banquets! I want to know more about your old life, Ante! Quit teasing!" her operator huffed. "I can't remember the last time I went to a banquet or drank fancy wine! Well, I don't drink wine because I've got to only drink really particular things, and most banquets wouldn't serve anything I'd eat, but..."

Ignoring her operator, Ante went ahead and finished up the lamb to the best of her ability. "It feels a little silly, but... I suppose the only step now is to serve them, apples atop lamb," she reasoned, keeping her grip on the pot's handle. It felt as though doing so signified that she wasn't done cooking yet, but despite how she tried, she couldn't think of much more to add.

"No! Just serve apples, just apples! The judges don't need something fatty like lamb!" Teruko assured her navi, having a fit. "Geez, if the judges are smart, they're going to know that eating meat's not good for their figure and scold you all for making such carnivorous dishes! Then you all are going to feel pretty silly!"

"I'm feeling pretty silly listening to the suggestion that the judges would give us the prize for a dish of only sauteed apples," Ante sighed. "I-I guess perhaps we shall win with presentation. We're both ladies of some class, I should say. We have superior etiquette compared to the other challengers," she reassured herself.

Dare followed Mr. Gold's progress around the kitchen arena with her eyes, letting the heat do its thing and finish up the syrup. "Well, look at it this way, Ante. You know all those 'dinner and a show' setups, right? Do you think people go there for the food?"

"Yeah," Bruce responded flatly, interrupting Dare mid-speech. "I know where you're going with this, but this is a food competition. In those things, the entertainment is obviously backseat to the food..."

"Well, that's just because the entertainment's not exciting enough! Think of it this way: if you order a steak and there's a band playing, the music is just a flourish to the dining experience. But," Dare added, clenching her fist, "If you order a steak and then there's a motorcyclist jumping through flaming hoops, the main attraction is the show! Right?"

"What, are you just saying your daredevil stunt theme is better than music? I don't get it at all," her operator complained.

"Well, you don't need to... only Ante does, and luckily she's a little sharper. She already gets it: our goal isn't to try and compete with the high-quality dishes here." Deciding the syrup was probably ready, Dare sliced the apples in with a kitchen knife as she talked. After heating a bit, they'd be soft and ready to put over the main course. "Ante understands the main advantage we have over the rest: presentation. What the crowd wants isn't a couple on a permanent honeymoon, a chauvinistic musclehead, or... Crystal Roy! They key to our victory that only ladies like us have... is here." Dare finished, placing her hand over Ante's heart dramatically.

"Huh, I'm a bit surprised at that. You're going to try to win with etiquette or uh... the heart of a lady, or something?" Bruce inquired. "I mean, that's okay, I just figured you were the type to go for a more concrete advantage, but hey, if you have a plan..."

"No, not the heart! The boobs!" Dare hissed under her breath, removing her hand and pointing more indicatively. Talking about it hadn't bothered her before, but having to point it out so plainly was embarrassing. "I mean our feminine charm. We can give them 'service with a smile,' right, Ante?"

"Breasts again?" Ante thought to herself, trying to hold her smile to avoid revealing her agitation to her friend. "It feels like everything revolves around breasts lately."

"Well, Ante? What do you think? Do you think you can win with your boobs?" Teruko asked, tensing her eyebrows seriously. "It's a little funny to think, since I was just talking about avoiding anything fatty, but..."

"There's nothing fatty about them!" Ante protested, her gray face taking on a bit of red as she snapped.

"Well, not to brag, but I've got Brucey melting like butter using mine," Teruko whispered with a confident grin. "Guys love boobs! Maybe you can trick the judges into thinking you're a good cook just because you've got a nice rack?"

Ante lowered her eyebrows critically, keeping her eyes focused on her food rather than looking at either of her teammates. Unfortunately for her, the dish was likely just as worthy of criticism in the face of her competition as were her companions. "There is no way something like that would work. Listen: gender has no place on the battlefield and what is this if not a battlefield? The judges would not be swayed by something as trivial as a woman's cleavage," she sighed.

"I dunno. The audience really bought it earlier," Teruko pouted. "Besides, what are you going to do, try to beat the Crystal Chef? No way, he's too good! Look at all of the context clues you have going against you! You said the wine thing yourself! You can't outclass him!"

"You're going to draw unwanted attention to yourself if you continue shouting," Ante retorted. "But perhaps you are right. My inability to cook is my failure as a lady, but for the good of my mission, I can't let the contest end with just that. I suppose I'll try anything that might give us an edge," she admitted. "Let's not be hasty, though. If we spring our plan too early, it will lose its impact."

NekketsuMan's mushrooms began to simmer slowly as the water trapped within began to seep out, turning the diced pieces into what looked like a soup. "My dear, hotblooded contestant. Just what are you making for us?" said Mr. Gold as he was hovering over the metallic navi once more.

"What every man needs for their food! Meat and protein and everything that goes with it! Seared flank with hard-sauteed mushroom with eggs! That's how you eat!" The metal navi went on to prepare a second frying pan and began to prepare bunches of sunny side ups, filling his side of the kitchen with "pleasant" sizzling.

On Crystal Roy's side of the kitchen, he was slowly brushing on the honey-wine glaze on the meat, with grace and composure as if he was painting than cooking. However, he seemed to be focused on the cooking more so than any other games he participated so far, staying completely silent with his eyes locked dead on the mark.

Advant and Love, on the other hand, had finally prepared all of their ingredients and began to pack them inside a giant pot. With broths and everything else needed, all they needed to do now was to let it boil and cook by itself...But that was the biggest problem they would face so far. "Now we need to turn up the heat...and wait..."

"And wait..."

"..."

"...Darling, I don't think this is going to work out too well..."

Dead silence hung over the couples for few seconds till an idea came over both of their heads...at the same time, not-so-surprisingly. "I know what we can do!" Advant screamed with excitement. "Me too! Let's start already!" The two began to back away from one another till they had good distance from one another...and the cooking pot between!

They began to stretch and prepare their racquets, readying themselves to do something with their tennis skills...


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

"Huh, I might have misjudged Ante... it seems like she has a lot of pride for herself as a warrior rather than as a woman, and doesn't want to engage in actions that compromise her values..." Dare gave the thought some serious consideration, somehow seeming to be considering it for the first time. "I've got a lot of respect for that, but... but we've got to do what it takes to win! I can't stand to lose after coming this far, and the three-round victors taking it all in the fourth is just too great of an upset to pass up. Ante's got the body, but she hasn't got the spirit..."

"Spirit... spirit..." Dare muttered to herself. "... Spirits!" she suddenly shouted.

Bruce wanted to make some comment on his Navi's apparent decision to call upon ethereal powers to aid her, but she looked like she was in her place of focus. Reluctantly, he kept his quip to himself and watched to see what she'd thought up.

"I understand what you're saying. You want to act as a responsible and model woman, and I can respect that... so all we need is for you not to be responsible for your actions! If you have something to blame it on, it's okay, right?! Watch the food for a second, I have a great idea!"

With speed unusual even for herself, Dare began rummaging through the wine cabinet, as though suddenly deciding late in the game that she was going to try and match Crystal Roy's technique. Too quickly to have given the specific brand more than a glance, Dare withdrew a pair of bottles. Without giving Ante, Bruce, Teruko, or the hosts of the show (who had so graciously provided the wine for the purpose of cooking) time to protest, she sped to retrieve a wine cork, opened the bottle in a flash, and began chugging it down straight from the bottle.

Letting out a gasp and wiping her lips as she lowered the considerably emptied bottle, Dare began preemptively uncorking the second. "Whaddya think, Ante? This is probably the best idea I've had since the start of the competition! Drinks are on Gold, so let's lose some of those inhibitions, huh?" Already looking red in the face, the Navi grinned and thrust the bottle of bubbly towards her ally.

Bruce had to admit he was interested to see where this went... if it went anywhere at all, and the host didn't simply throw Dare out on her drunk butt. "Although, now that I think about it... they said something about Ante being a fancy lady who ate at banquettes, right? I bet she's the type that can hold her wine easily," he murmured, rubbing the stubble on his chin.

Ante smiled a smile that contradicted all of her actual emotions. Not only were they going to look like, by far, the least refined ladies in the competition, but they were doubling up on vices as well. As if trying to win using their bodies wasn't enough, they were going to get super drunk first so that they could blame it on that! She wanted to protest, but as a firm believer in completing a mission to one's fullest capability, she knew that she couldn't unless she could think of something better.

Still, she couldn't help but notice that her partner had failed to even mention whether or not the bottle contained drinking or cooking wine. If they were going to try to get drunk off of cooking wine, they were going to have to overcome two obstacles: 1) the high salt content, and 2) the complete lack of actual alcohol present. Thankfully, she assumed the product would be real wine rather than commercial cooking alcohol, due to the high standards that Crystal Roy had previously complimented Mr. Gold on keeping.

"Yes, well, this will be rather difficult. My honed mental faculties, carried over both from the discipline of my previous lifestyle and the focus that I must maintain during battle, make it very difficult for me to become inebriated," Ante explained to Dare, accepting the bottle.

Teruko turned to Bruce and shook her head slowly but silently, indicating that she'd already seen evidence proving the falsehood of her navi's words.

Sure enough, just a little bit of the drink was enough to get Ante buzzed. Before Dare had even begun to feel the first tingle, she was finding her speech slurred and her judgment shoddy. "We're in thish to win it, right, Mish Dare? That being the case," she explained groggily, halfway through her bottle and hiccuping amidst her sentences, "we ought to jush go over and... and grab alla Crysh'll Boy's juice and just drink it all. Drink him out of housh and home! That way he can't ush it to cook and we'll get drunker. Becaush I don't think there was any alcohol at all in what you jush gave me," Dare's partner elaborated. "And there's probably a lot in hish."

"I think that's a pretty bad-ass plan! Emphasis on the bad...!" Teruko exclaimed. "Let's not do that for now... they're probably about ready to judge anyways."

"Hmmm?! What's this, what's this??"

Mr. Gold's attention was caught by both Advant/Love and Ante/Dare, constantly looking side to side to keep up with what was going on. "Those girls... I honestly have no idea why they're getting drunk in the middle of the competition!" The audiences seemed to have a positive reaction to the two navi's strange plan, along with few... "Ungentlemanly" comments thrown towards them here and there. "Maybe they're already going forth with their celebration party, or maybe it's something else. But lets turn our attention towards the two lovers!"

As people diverted their eye towards the tennis couple, Advant surprised the audience by holding something with his bare hand. "A-are You ready, darling? Hot hot hot!" He was holding a burning ball of magma the size of a tennis ball passing it back and forth his hands like hot potato. "Whenever you are, honey~" Advant served the ball with a powerful serve, causing a giant BOOM to ring out through the Arena like it did before in the first game.

The ball whizzed almost inches away from the pot of Gumbo they had prepared, leaving behind a small streak of heated metal behind. Love was able to hit the Lavaball back with her racquet, which surprisingly didn't melt off the strings, and sent the ball close to the pot once more. The amazing show of their tennis skills was a spectacle to all as they constantly kept the ball just edge away from the pot every single time, keeping the pot constantly heated at the same time.

"Cooking and having a show? They certainly out did themselves this time!"

On the side line, Crystal Roy was still working on his dish in complete silence, not having any sort of "show" of presentation going on with his cooking.

NekketsuMan, on the other hand, was done with his cooking! He slid off the meat off the frying pan and onto the dishes, then proceeded to do the same with the egg and the mushrooms. "DONE!" He exclaimed as he pumped his fists from his sides. But before he went off to serve it to the judges, the navi stared at the dish for few seconds...

"Maybe...Maybe this does need some more flare!"


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

"Mmm, I can see you hold your wine like a pro," Dare told her ally, struggling to keep a straight face. "But hell yeah, why don't we go ahead and celebrate, like Mr. Gold said? We already won the competition!" Dare took another large swig from a newly opened bottle, placing it hard on the counter. "I mean, we already won! We went through the earlier stuff, we knocked em all out... and we won, right? So it's done! Let's celebrate!"

Loosened up by the alcohol, Dare's mood was less veiled behind her attention to the public appearance of a winner. "I mean, what's the deal with the special points round, anyway, huuuh? That's a dumb rule. We've shown we're the best and now it's like... the tiiiniest slip is gonna knock us out?" Dare drew her thumb and forefinger together in a gesture that probably underestimated the degree by which the duo would lose. "It's hard to win when the cards are stacked against you, Ante. We're the finest competitors here, and the finest women too, and yet where are the men..."

"Off-topic," Bruce said with a hand wave, getting a little fed up that he and Teruko were stuck atop the cart until the competition ended and Dare and Ante didn't seem to be drawing towards a reasonable conclusion.

"Anyway, imagine how happy those guys must have been when the final competition wasn't a... I dunno, fight, or dance-off, or swimsuit contest! I bet Swoondle is behind this, too... he probably researched like 'What do Ante and Dare suck at? What one thing?'" The Navi's perceived confidence in their cooking seemed to have taken a dip with her consumption and the resulting mood swing. "And now we'll lose because the rest of that food smells so good... although ours smells fine too. I bet we could win if the competition was a bit thinner..."

"Four guys is too much?" Bruce asked, trying to press her competitive spirit and get her back on track. He hadn't ever seen her (virtually) drunk before, so he was really just guessing-and-testing. "Too bad these guys seem so good... if they don't produce an edible dish, they're disqualified. If they would just slip up, you two really could have this. But it's not like you can do anything about their dishes..."

"Why not?!" Dare shouted in frustration. "That's a dumb rule... Wait" she said, shooting a hand into the air as if actually commanding someone. "Is that a rule? I don't remember..."

"Well no, but what, are you going to go over and spill it on their laps or gobble it all up or something? That doesn't seem like a sportsmanly way to go about it. I thought you wanted to win fair and square."

"No, I've generally been going with a liberal approach to the rules," Dare said, speaking slowly as she mulled the idea over in her head. "I mean, if they don't say it's against the rules, what's the problem? Then again, they did suddenly imply a time limit... but agh, who cares! Rules are rules and not-rules are not-rules!"

"I dunno, I think they could actually plead 'common sense' on that one. I'm a little surprised they haven't thrown you out of the competition for the booze-swiping..." Bruce was starting to become aware of the fact that the competition they were in seemed fairly up-scale. It was getting to the point where it might ultimately be a bit embarrassing if Dare did win. He began to have visions of being approached for interviews about being the operator of "that crazy drunk biker chick that won the Festival."

"Hey, I'm not getting a conduct lecture from Bruce 'Freaky Sex on Top of a Kid's Ride in a Theme Park' Shiner," Dare replied sulkily. "All right Ante, we're doing it! Our dish is done, right? I'll just..." the Navi tapered off as she picked up the handle of their dish, lifting it from the stove. Obviously, in her state of inebriation she didn't bother turning off the heat. "I'll carry this around and keep it safe, because people are going to start gunning for it after you do your part."

"What part? You haven't told her anything! Don't you think you could think this through...?" Bruce hissed through his teeth, upset at the development. He was already distancing his Navi's inevitable embarrassing loss in this final round from his own operating. "Hey, Ante's pretty level-headed, right? Get her to talk them out of it..."

Dare wasn't really listening. Instead, she began to survey the battlefield (kitchen) for any challengers (cooks going about their own business) that might have already begun to put their fool-proof plan into action themselves (gotten drunk on wine and begun to attack other contestants because of inadequacies regarding their own cooking), preparing to sidestep any oncoming danger. "Remember to save some energy for the 'show' afterwards, Ante!" Dare told her ally with a conspiratorial wink that would probably go unnoticed behind her shades.

Summary:
- Dodge
- Dodge
- Dodge
(High Gear. Reduces accuracy from enemy attacks targeting the Navi by 10%, and increases dodge efficiency by 10%.)

"Ish downright unshportshmanly to conduct a contesh like that! Playing against our weaknesshes," Ante slurred, waving one finger in agreement of Dare's righteous reprimand. In her mind, everything that was being suggested as possibility was skewed into the truth, meaning that some combination of the participants, the host, and the mysterious "Swoondle" were all conspiring against them. She pressed both hands to the black cloth at her chest, then continued indignantly. "We're the besht at everything exshept this one thing!"

"And holding your liquor," Teruko posited, but went unheard. All the same, whatever misgivings she had were beginning to fall away as easily as her NetVegas Poker tournament t-shirt had moments ago. She could never resist a gamble and darn if sabotaging other people's cooking while protecting their one meager dish didn't sound like one. "I think this is the right idea though! Better to have a chance at winning this than to resign yourself to failure! And you know you'd fail, throwing them an awful meat dish like that!"

"Right! Above all, we must not feed them meat!" Ante confirmed, slapping her fist into her palm.

Teruko nodded enthusiastically, then considered what she was doing. Quickly, she swapped motions to a fervent shake. "No, that grave's already been dug!"

"Right! Above all, we must shabotage," her navi agreed. Looking around, however, it looked like NekketsuMan and the dynamic duo were already having their own cooking hazards (Teruko hoped that they'd be ones that would match the foolishness of both navis getting punch-drunk during the final stretch of the competition). "I'll go pay a visit to Chrish'll Chrish over there! You protect our meat, Mish Dare! Shave our bacon!"

"Don't you say the 'b' word in my presence, Ante!" Teruko gasped, unable to avoid a brief pang of craving for the greatest of all meats.


As Ante wrapped her hands tightly around her staff in a battle charge forward, her hat exploded into poker chips. That was just fine; as much as she liked her hat, it liberated her and spur her towards her goal. She yanked her hood down and flipped her orange hair free, then leaped into the air dramatically, holding her arm out as if she intended to strike Crystal Roy down with her staff, using it as a javelin.

Instead, she allowed the spade tip to stick into the floor nearby the big crystalline man, then parked her shapely caboose up on top of his workstation. She'd forgotten what she'd come over to do halfway in and ended up stranded, sitting on the counter and kicking one leg idly. The gray-skinned navi tilted her head slightly to look into his pot, as if mystified by what he was creating. "Hey, Chryshalro," she asked, still unable to keep her speech together. "How'd you get sho good at cooking, anywaysh? Is it becaush you're a bash'lur? I heard bash'lursh appreeshate their mealsh more and thash why they cook better," she asked, tilting her head to an uncomfortable angle. She leaned more or less over his pot, trying to lock his eyes with her own red ones in an inquisitive stare, as if the question really interested her... which perhaps it did, thanks to her state of inebriation.

Through pure instinct, Crystal Roy detected the club flying towards him and quickly turned around with his knife at hand. However, he certainly couldn't expect the lovely lady suddenly landing beside him on the kitchen counter.

"...What are you doing here." The navi, surprisingly after all this time, seemed to be taken by surprise as he tried to get Ante off of him. "Ba...Ah, Bachelor. No, that has nothing to do with my cooking skill. Focus on your own dish and stop bothering me, girl." Crystal Roy tried to break off the alluring stare the drunken navi was trying to give off, proceeding to cook the meat onto the pan.

The honey glaze from the tenderloin gave off a sweet aroma as it sizzled in the heat, but Crystal Roy didn't even bat an eye on his culinary piece, and certainly not towards Ante anymore.

"DEKITA!!!! Everything is finished!"

On the other side of things, NekketsuMan had finally finished the "decoration" of his dishes, which didn't look all that different in the end. However, the navi seemed content with the result and gathered the three dishes on top of his giant hands. "First to finish, that has to give me some extra points!"

The navi quickly caught up besides Dare with a big grin on his steel face, looking down at Ante and Dare's own dishes with scoff...Even without getting a proper look at it. "I may be losing to you girls, but this dish will get me to the top! This dish is tokubetsu!" With a hearty laughter, NekketsuMan walked ahead Dare...

"Fooore!"

Out of nowhere, the lavaball Advant and Love was rallying with was flying straight towards NekketsuMan at an alarming rate. The steel navi turned to see what it was about, but the ball had smacked straight into his chest! "H-Honey! What did you do? Are you alright? Did you get hurt?" Advant seemed to forget who was hurt exactly. "Darling, I'm fine, I'm fine!...T-though my wrist got hurt because of that last hit..." Love replied as if she was the victim of all of this. "Here, let me give you a kiss to make it feel all better~"

On the "real" world, NekketsuMan stood silently as the lavaball embedded in his chest was starting to cool off into magma. Amazingly, he was still holding up his dishes as if he had turned into a statue all of a sudden. "...Hah...HAH HAH HAH!" The navi broke off the silence with his big, cocky laughter, cross his arms over his burning chest to top things off. "AS IF SOME BURNING BALL WOULD STAND IN MY WAY OF VICTORY! NOTHING CAN STOP NEKKETSUMAN!"

"NekketsuMan is disqualified!!"

"..."

Looking down, NekketsuMan had found that he spilled his dishes all over the floor when he was making his statement. Completely shocked by his own misdeed, the navi fell on his knees and turned silent once more...

On the other hand, Dare made it safely to the judge table with her food safe at hand.

"Hmm, what shall we expect from tonight's leading team?" said Mr. Silver as he tapped his finger on his cane. "I'm so hungry, I want to eat something now!" said Mr. Bronze as he voraciously stared at the lambchop. "So...Shall we begin with our first judging?"


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

"Hey, are you trying to race me? Don't get ahead of yourself, Smoky... I'll just..." Dare muttered, trying to fire up her pipes and recklessly move ahead of NekketsuMan. That could have been a bad call, as the the outcome of her work in the cooking competition literally rested in her hands. Fortunately for her, the wine had screwed up her functions pretty badly. Her attempts to rev up only caused an embarrassing plume of smoke to belch from the pipes on her feet. "Good thing this isn't combat,"" she thought with some bemusement, deciding to keep quiet and try to play it as if she'd intended to just calmly walk all along.

"Woah!" Dare exclaimed, glancing at a projectile that went blazing past her. Maybe she was too early in assuming they weren't in a combat situation... But what luck! While she hadn't been able to follow the projectile with her eyes, she could clearly see where it had ended up as it remained blazing against Nekketsuman's chest. "But... he's not even phased?!" Dare grinned, once again thankful this wasn't a fight. Maybe she'd been a bit overconfident earlier...

While Dare was momentarily caught up trying to think about how she'd take this opponent in a straight match, Nekketsuman quickly demonstrated the weakness of his wits. Dare's shaded eyes fell to his floored dish and then rose back to his stunned face. "Pfft... buahahaha!" she exploded, almost dropping her own dish as she buckled with laughter before luckily adjusting her grip. "Looks like if the judges want any of your tokubetsu they'll be eating it off the floor! This competition's ours!" she irrationally exclaimed, now sprinting up the stage to face the judges while carefully balancing the dish on one hand.

"Here we are... it's all come down to this," she thought, slowing her pace at the top of the stairs and moving to set down her dish. "This is the reason we came here... this is what we worked for! We'll be number one...! Or, uh... two number ones!" she reasoned, confidently setting the plate before the judges. Of course, in reality, this didn't really have much to do with the reason the two had come here, but the immediate victory took priority in her thoughts.

Remembering what she'd planned, Dare calmed herself and began fitting into her character. She was feeling confident, as she'd already managed to pull that off in one of the earlier events... Of course, that character was barely any different from her normal personality, but she didn't have to think about that right now. She started by removing her shades so that she could make proper eye contact. Figuring that was a subtle tease, she decided she'd make the next advance more obvious. Dare sat onto the judge's table, making sure her dish was safely out of the way before turning and raising each of her legs individually alongside her.

Getting onto her knees, she leaned in towards Mr. Bronze, brazenly reaching to caress the side of his face before cutting his meat. "How about it, big boy?" she cooed in the most sultry voice she could manage. "You want the first bite? I can see you're practically drooling..." She cut a bit of it, holding her hand to catch any sauce that dripped and attempting to get it in his mouth before he could protest.

"How about you, Silver? Can I get some of my meat on your bones...?" Dare turned her head to Silver, licking the glaze that had dripped onto her fingers off. She cut another bite, then carefully attempted to face towards him on a hand and both knees. "Say 'aaaaah...'" the Navi requested, showing the judge her own tongue and a fair bit of cleavage while giving Mr. Bronze a nice view of the profile of her hips. As Dare continued to lay it on, she was clearly attempting to leave a third of the table for Ante to work on Mr. Gold.

Bruce, meanwhile rubbed his stubble as he watched with some interest... carefully turning a bit away from Teruko as he did. He thought Dare was doing a pretty good job, but the way she'd switched character like that and was laying it on so thick made him have his doubts. He was a man who liked his meat and liked his dirty-talking sexy chicks, but he wasn't necessarily sure if he'd want them both at the same time... and definitely not sure he'd want them at the same time as the respected judge of a public competition. "I guess we're about to see what kind of men these guys are," he shrugged. This was only Dare's half, though. He was curious to see how Ante stepped up to the plate...

Even in her inebriated state, Ante couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for NekketsuMan. "What folly... and all of that good food wasted! In another competition, I'd stop and console him, but here, the outcome of justice is more important. We have to win this competition and find Swoondle," she reaffirmed to herself, using Dare's messed up nomenclature yet again. "But her approach to this is so direct... I'm not sure if I can do something like that. Well, actually, I did basically do that earlier, didn't I? I was spanked in front of a live studio audience... and worse, I still don't know what I did when I was drunk with ZephyrMan and KaijuMan earlier."

At any rate, the slur was going down, and that might help a bit; it would be very hard to be sexy while talking that way. It was still feeling a little difficult... she didn't have much to go off of, and Crystal Roy had shrugged her off pretty easily. Then again, she hadn't really been trying to arouse him there. What had she been doing? She couldn't seem to clear her head and think...

Of all of the times for her bug not to strip her, why was it happening now? If it would just take off a bit of the bodysuit here and there and that would leave her well poised to do this without having to do much on her own part. But Dare was putting so much into the routine that it really felt like it would be shirking her duties to go in half-assed. Indeed, this situation called for full-assedness.

On that note, Teruko was not at all enjoying the way Dare was pulling Bruce in like that... or was it the meat he was looking at? Neither option made her very happy to think about. Regardless, he had a perfectly good, three-dimensional girl who'd worked very hard to keep her physique the way it is rather than using net-magic for it, and he was ignoring her in favor of a navi. At this point, though, she was beginning to sort of envy Mr. Silver and Bronze. Even if they were eating disgusting and inedible fatty meat, they were eating something. Of course, Teruko hadn't been up top on the cart for all that long, but in her mind it felt a lot longer.

Ante tried to think of what exactly to do... she couldn't just copy Dare's pose. That would be uninspired, degrading, and all around boring. She figured she ought to make a change... and just like that, the bug was kicking in...! With its usual ineffective tickle of suggestion...



Tired of waiting, Ante decided to take the perogative herself. Wasn't Dare already doing something pretty embarrassing and Teruko too, for that matter? She could live with the consequences, whatever may happen. Hesitating no longer, she made her way to Mr. Gold's table trying to put on her best smile as she did. It was a mature, experienced-looking expression that revealed none of her actual ineptitude at the subject. Startling Teruko, she yanked the black cloth suit down from her neck to her breasts, then shrugged her shoulders out. With some effort, she managed to pull it down to her waist, so that her breasts bounced out in a bawdy way.

The top Ante wore underneath was red with layered frills, almost like a cabaret dancer's dress, except in a bikini form. The bright color provided a stark contrast to the gray of her skin that was now on display. Blushing, she wiggled the suit just a little bit further down to her hips, showing off the frilly straps of her panties, but no further. She slid her caboose up to join Dare and nearly across the table, into the lap of Mr. Gold. She stopped at the edge of the table, smiling and doing her best not to look like a super drunk virgin, which she was.

The princess/contestant/stripper nestled one bare shoulder against him and cradled her own head against his neck, her messy orange hair brushing against his flesh or navi armor or whatever he had as she did. "Let's not talk about the contest right now... We can share a simple-" she started, grabbing a small piece of the apple-cooked lamb up with a dainty fork and raising it to his mouth. As she did, she messed up, momentarily adopting a look of stupid surprise as the lamb slipped off of the fork and onto the exposed swell of her breasts, right atop her cleavage. The sauce and apples continued to drip down, smearing her navel and heading down to the stretched hem of her navi suit.

"Woah, that's bold! Don't try too hard, Ante! I know Bruce and I have been pretty freaky up here, but you don't have to be just to make us feel better!" Teruko warned her navi. "I've been down the road of sharing mutual embarrassment to try to make a friend feel better, and trust me, it's not a good idea!"

Ante's smile widened and her face reddened; she wasn't really sure where to go with this any more, nor could she even remember what she'd been saying.

The three judges had different response to Dare and Ante's "approach" for their food's judgement. As expected, Mr. Bronze was all for the sexy serving of his food, breathing hard and fidgeting with excitement. "I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait!" With his mouth wide open as well as his tongue rolled out (rather disgustingly), Mr. Bronze was the first to take a bite into the special lamb. Each time he chewed, the wider his mouth got. However, whether it was because of how delicious the food was or simply because he was finally getting something to eat, the girls and the audience would not know any time soon.

"...That won't be necessary, Miss Dare."

Mr. Silver, on the other hand, didn't seem so willing to participate in Dare's little sexy act, picking off the lamb off Dare's fork and placing them on his own dish. "Let us judge your food on our own accord." said the co-owner with a smile that almost looked like he was irritated. It seemed like he didn't like the extra effort the girls were giving and just wanted to taste the food. He even went on and took a slice from the lambchop without permission and began to examine the meat like a gemstone before taking the bite. Once again, Ante and Dare received silence as Mr. Silver continued to examine and taste the dish...

At the very least, Mr. Bronze was certainly enjoying the view he was getting...

Ante was going so over-the-top with her sexual appearance that it almost overshadowed everything Dare was doing so far. The crowds didn't go wild; rather, they turned almost dead silent as they closely "watched" the judging...Excluding the few female navis who became somewhat frustrated. Mr. Gold was enjoying the surprise company of Ante as his mouth was stretching from ear to ear. "Ohoho! Just what did I do to deserve such fine service~." He opened his mouth as Ante tried to feed him a cut of her dish, but ended in a beneficial mistake that came with a synchronized gasping from the crowds.

"..." Mr. Gold fell into silence, staring longingly into Ante's meat (both of them). With his slender arm, he easily raised Ante off his lap and gently placed it on the table, standing on his feet with his chest confidently sticking out. "...PRESENTATION!!" the judge suddenly yelled out at the top of his lung.

"T-Ten points!" stated Mr. Bronze without giving too much thought, sneaking a peak at Dare here and there.

"The balance between the meat and the sauce in terms of its appearance was off. With only two colors on the place, it didn't look too appetizing even by the standard of homecooking." Mr. Silver was more head on with judging the food, holding up the dish and staring at the food in every possible degree. "Then again, the ingredients were cooked with just the right way that it can almost stand out in its own way, especially the app-OKAY, GET TO THE POINT!-...Seven points."

"And I think this dish deserves...Nine points! Averaging to 8.6 points in presentation!" As Mr. Gold pointed his cane up at the screen above, a large "8.5" showed up and kept the tally of points so far. "And what about the techniques these girls have shown? What is your judgment?" Once more, the judges had already decided how to grade in short notice. "Ten points again!" said Mr. Bronze. "For the sake of keeping things short...Eight points." said Mr. Silver as he crossed his arms. "As of me, I'll give the girls nine points in their use of unlikely ingredients! Averaging 9 points!!"

The scoreboard totaled to 17.6 points, and the crowds began to grow uneasy. "They already won the game already, the other two don't have a snowball chance in hell!" said one of the spectators. "Crystal Roy still may have a chance!"..."Yeah, if he gets a perfect score, but I seriously doubt that."..."Damnit, who are these girls, show up all of a sudden and sweeping up the games!" The atmosphere turned tense for Ante and Dare, but Mr. Gold kept a sly smile on his face while all this happened. "And finally...The Taste!"

"G-Good enough for me! Ten points!"

"Though it was surprising to see apples and lambchop blend together so well, they don't reach the point where it achieves greatness. Some sort of zest like lemon, or some other sort of seasonings like pepper would have accentuated the flavor of the two to result in a better, solid dish in the end. So I regret to give this dish a score of seven, since it could have been something so much more!"

"Mr. Silver. Did have ever thought about leaving the casino business and becoming a food critic?" said Mr. Gold with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "...Just make your decision, Gold." Mr. Silver retorted back with a sharp glare under his large hat. "Excuseeee meee for not having such a sophisticated tongue programmed into me!" With a quick cough to clear his throat, Mr. Gold turned his attention down to Ante's chest and tipped his hat all of a sudden and smiled. "Sorry for the brashness, missy~"

He grabbed the meat on Ante, but even went on to slowly slide the meat across the juice over the shy navi's body to scrape it up. Due to this, few of the crowds just went nuts as they screamed out loud. With a small nod of his head, Mr. Gold popped the meat into his mouth and finally tasted the dish. His usual smile became bigger, but as he chewed more, it slowly began to diminish away. "I will now announce the final score for Ante and Dare's dish." With both hands firmly placed on his cane, Mr. Gold looked up at the crowd with a serious expression on his face, the first time he appeared as such.

"8.6 points from presentation...9 points from technique...and finally, for its taste, I'll give them eight out of ten, averaging to 8.3 points! And in grand total, Ante and Dare has gotten 26 points out of 30 in their dish!!"

The scoreboard totaled the girls' point to 33 points, giving themselves a huge advantage over their already-winning streak. However, everyone still knew that Crystal Roy was still around and still had that small chance of winning the game...If he manages to get a perfect score in his dish. "Hmph...That ain't bad." The crystalline navi went over the finishing touch over his dish and took off his apron, holding up his dish over the bottom with his fingers. The honey-glazed tenderloin literally radiated in a golden light, and its smell was definitely getting to the judges as Mr. Bronze simply couldn't hold back his own saliva (and his poor table manners) and Mr. Silver actually seemed interested in what the dish had to offer.

"Well well, Crystal Roy. Do you think you have what it takes to beat those girls?" said the owner with his usual smile. "...You think all those time I won the previous games were nothing but flukes?" The gentleman navi looked down at Mr. Gold and, for the first time, smiled back. "Taste it for yourselves..."

With his brimming confidence, Crystal Roy was ready to serve his dish to the judges...Until...

"W-wait! This isn't fair! Not fair at all!" Love, along with Advant, got in between Roy and the judges. "Yeah, the game is already over for us, we can't win at all now!" They began to plead with the judges, but all but Mr. Bronze actually had some reaction to it while Silver only gave them a stern glare and Gold kept his devilish smile. "W-we made last minute change to the game's rule so you guys could would have a chance! You still m-may have a chance of taking 2nd place if your food is ma-"

"No! No no no no!!"

Love snapped back at Mr. Bronze all the while gnashing her teeth. "Do you want me to believe that those girls just happen to come out of nowhere and win all the games without any trouble?! I know that you have money behind these games, and you're trying to rig it by adding in professionals and tipping the scale, that's what you're trying to pull, isn't it!!" There was a moment of silence as everyone (except NekketsuMan, who was still "dead" on the side) was surprised by the sudden change in Love's personality, including Advant, who seemed to be shocked by this the most. "D-d-darling, are you okay? C'mon, it's just a game we decided to join for fun! Lighten up, we had a blast, didn't we?" He placed his arms over his girlfriend's shoulder, but she shrugged it away and continued to go after the judges.

"Listen, this game was nothing but UN-FRIGGIN —FAIR. What the hell are you gonna do about this, huh?!" Even going as far as to grab the poor Mr. Bronze by his collar, Love was holding up her racquet in a threatening manner...But as all of this was going on, the other two judges almost seemed unfazed by all of this. "Make another game, yea, another game should do it so that those girls finally gets to lose after all this time!!" While Mr. Bronze was at the verge of bursting into tears, Crystal Roy finally intervened by pulling away Love's hand over Mr. Bronze...All the while still holding up his dish. "Hmph...You have some problematic anger issues, Schwindle. At the very least, you could've waited till the game was over."

Once more, silence fell over the arena, but the only one who seemed clueless of the situation was Advant. "Schwindle? Who?!...A-anyhow, please let go of Love!" As he tried to pry Roy's grip over Love, the crystalline navi stared down at the poor, confused navi with his blank, clear eye. "Stand down, boy. This here girl isn't who you think it is." Advant shook his head while nervously smiling, thinking that this was all but a joke. "You got to be kidding me. That's Love, that's my girlfriend you're hurting, so let her go!" Before this could go on any further, Love let out a large sigh shook her hand free from Roy. "Uggh! Just stop that already, you're puppy-dog affection is just...Blegh!"

"...L-Love?"

In a bright flash of light, "Love" had turned off her GMO to reveal a completely different navi. A female navi with long brown hair with a lean, sharp blonde eye. She was certainly taller than what Love was, and her curves were more "developed". She wore a black, skin tight suit with white stripes running vertically, along with white cuffs and collars to make it seem like she was wearing a suit in a way. The front of her suit was zipped down to reveal part of her black, laced bra along with a mole placed on her left chest and she also wore what looked like some sort of high-tech high heels with neon white lights traced over it. The navi whipped out a cigarette and quickly lit it from her lips, taking in a big drag that burned the cig by half.

"...Wheeeeeew...Damn, I really needed that."

"Wha...Where...Where's Love! And who are you!?" Advant spoke out while clenching his fist. After taking one more puff of smoke, Schwindle responded with a rather indifferent look. "She's just locked up somewhere...But seriously, all I had to was tail you guys for one day to nail down how you interact with one another. darling-this, honey-that, I swear you guys are just UNREAL!" The poor boyfriend was utterly speechless, and defeated in a way, to the point that he was exactly like NekketsuMan at this point.

Nonetheless, Crystal Roy grabbed Schwindle by her write once more and took out a cuff to lock her up with his own wrist. "Schwindle, you're under arrest for fraud, identify theft, and many more." Schwindle didn't seem too panicked about the fact that she was arrested, rather, more annoyed about something other than that. She turned towards Ante and Dare, who simply stood by and watched as everything unfolded so quickly, and took one last drag in her cigarette before she spat it away. "Next time...Next time..."

And in a bright flash, Crystal Roy disappeared along with Schwindle...along with his dish.

There was nothing but silence in the arena until Mr. Gold suddenly bursted into laughter. "Bwahaha! I can't believe all of that just happened in my casino!! HA!" The owner was enjoying all of this for some odd reason...Or there was no reason at all, but he was already on the floor, clapping his feet together and rolling in laughter. "Oh, this is great, this is great I tell you! Two girls who came out of nowhere to sweep the game, a criminal is caught out of the blue, and the Festival is now canceled! AHAHAH!!"

As Gold was going absolutely crazy on the side, Mr. Silver approached Ante and Dare. "I'm sure you're very confused at what happened just now...As you saw, Schwindle was a criminal the casino was keeping an eye out for. We weren't out searching for hi...I mean her for some time, until we heard that she was going to participate in the Festival. But by some chance, Crystal Roy, our regular in the Festival, was also a registered NetPolice and just happened to apprehend her at the right timing..."

Mr. Gold's laughter continued on, and at the same time, the crowds began to exit the arena one by one..."And because we couldn't properly judge Crystal Roy's dish...The game is canceled after all of this, so there is no real winner to the Festival. I am truly sorry." As Silver took his bow and ran off without giving any more detailed, half-ass explanation to everything that had happened., Gold appeared before the two while holding two boxes on his hands. "But that doesn't mean you can leave empty handed~ I've taken a liking to you two girls, and I hope to see you sometime later...Both of these boxes are the same, so you know I'm not playing favorites~~" Without question, Gold shoved the box at Ante and Dare. "Now...If you would excuse me, a Casino needs an owner to keep it in track!"

As flashy as he appeared, Mr. Gold exploded into gold confetti and disappeared from Ante and Dare's sight...While Mr. Bronze and Mr. Silver simply walked out of the Arena. The case was solved, in a way, and Ante and Dare was the victor of the Festival de Fortune...In a way. The two earned a good rest, and a powerful bond with one another!!

-Scores-
NekketsuMan: 3 pts
Advant / Love: 1 pts
Crystal Roy: 4 pts
Ante / Dare: 33 pts

WINNERS (kinda)
* ANTE & DARE *

Consolation Prizes: 5,000z + [FullCust] Battlechip + 50 FXP

Dare withdrew the fork with a pout, eating the bite she'd offered Mr. Silver herself. "Huh... not half bad," she decided. Really, she had worked up an appetite... "Feels like a bit of a waste to give this stuff to Silver and the rest, not like they aren't about to get to wolf down on Roy's gourmet chef chow..." She noted that she hadn't fed the entire thing to either of them, so she'd just have to hope there was something left over after Mr. Bronze's voracious appetite, and that Ante wasn't going overboard with Gold's portions.

Remembering her ally, Dare turned her head to Ante and saw an entirely different type of "going overboard." Even as the judges were announcing the scores she'd been fretting over up until now, Dare's eyes were locked onto Ante. "I... I feel like I just lost a competition, somehow..." Dare opened a channel with Bruce as discretely as possible. "Bruce, do you see what a sexual dynamo Ante is? I'd taken her for this shy, petite thing..."

"Yeah, that's pretty spicy," Bruce said, happily watching the developments now that the judging was underway and his Navi didn't seem to be in danger of being arrested. "I guess you can't judge a boob by its cover."

"..." Dare decided to ignore that and leave Bruce to his ogling. Her ally was really something, all right. Dare honestly hadn't thought Ante had it in her, but their combined score sounded nearly perfect. "What do you think, Ante?" Dare asked her, moving over to help her with her dress. Masqueraded as kindness or respect, the Navi really just thought she'd never get the spotlight back with Ante's goods on display. "Do we have a shot of beating Dismal Roy?"

So focused on making Ante presentable again, Dare was already a page behind when she realized Love was throwing a serious temper tantrum. "Now we know who has the pants in that relationship, eh? Love looked so proper, but it's always those proper wifey types that turn out to be the real headaches... Not that you're a headache, I mean, I can't imagine you giving a guy a hard time," Dare corrected herself, clearly forgetting she'd had Ante play a sadist earlier in the competition.

From there, things seemed to develop pretty fast. Dare was practically shocked into silence as Schwindle appeared, as she'd completely forgotten their goal by this point. And Crystal Roy was an officer looking to take Schwindle in? It seemed like the culprit had been caught completely without their help, but Schwindle seemed like she was taking it personally... "Sorry you're such a sore loser, Scwhinedle, but hit us up whenever you're out of prison! We've already shown we trump you in any competition there is!" Dare was pointing at Schwindle dramatically for this last point, but she had to let the tension taper off in a decidedly undramatic fashion. After all, she hadn't even known they'd been facing Schwindle until a second ago...

The daredevil Navi nodded her way blankly through most of Mr. Silver's explanation and gave a brief "thanks" to Mr. Gold for his present, which was almost certainly understated for the value of what he'd just handed over. Not even a real win? Somehow, this thing seemed to have turned into a real headache... Actually... "Bruce, I don't feel right..."

"Yeah, that twist sure came out of nowhere, right? It kinda feels like there must be more to it," Bruce said, once again capable of making normal conversation. "Nevermind that, though, did you see what we got-?!"

"No, no, I mean, it feels like something's stirring inside me...!" Dare proclaimed, clutching her stomach and clenching her teeth.

"Yeah, that's what I was about to get to!" Bruce shouted, seeming pretty excited. "I don't really know how it works, but it seems like you two have gained some kind of new ability by being tight gal-pals or somethin'. I have to figure it out, but-"

"I'm coming back to the PET," Dare said seriously, giving Ante a nod, a thumbs up, and a decidedly brief and strained smile before disappearing in an engine roar and a crash of flame.

Bruce's face on the viewscreen momentarily floated by Ante, as he'd opened the channel to her as well. He gave her a kind of stupid grin and thumbs up as well before Dare's voice came up, making a truly nasty sound. "Don't worry, I can purge her in the PET!" Bruce apologized. "She'll be good as new in a sec... Freakin' wine-o!" Ante could see him wincing and quickly fiddling with his PET to drown out the sound before disappearing.

Ante was about the only one in the arena who hadn't interpreted her mistake as offering the judge the opportunity to use her body as a sauce plate, so she was genuinely surprised when he took the opportunity to do so. "No, no! That's unsanitary, I can cut you off another-!" she begged, but Mr. Gold had already eaten it, damaging her self-image as a clean woman far more than himself through any concern of hygiene. She slapped both hands over her face in embarrassment and waited for the event to end...

"Woah, Ante! They really liked it! Your score was huge!" Teruko informed her navi, but Ante just kept covering her face.

"All of the audience must think I'm a tramp now, if they didn't already... What if any of my old acquaintances are out there? I could never show my face to them again..."

"Ante, look, looook! Love was Swindle all along! Can you believe it!?"

"I never should have tried to use sex appeal to win the competition... I've discarded my integrity, but it was all for the sake of the mission! If only everyone could see that,then I could dismiss the issue from my mind..."

"Ante, Ante! Look at the stuff we got! I got a ton of money and we got a really rare chip and I traded it for another even better chip, look look loooooook!"

No matter what Teruko tried, and couldn't snap Ante out of her funk. Dare helped things along by pulling back up her bodysuit, which was a snug fit around the cleavage and a little tricky to yank back into place. "Thank you, Miss Dare, I-" she started, only to realize that Dare was suddenly taking off. "My, that was brief."

"Dare took in too much sauce and now she's gonna yak it up big time," Teruko explained. "How bout you? Are you gonna toss your waffles?"

"Toss my...? Oh, no, I'm fine now," the navi assured her operator, while securing her hood back over her hair and straightening the club-tail in the back. "I suppose we're finished, then."

"Yeah, me and Bruce are pretty much finished too. We kinda hit a dead end and somehow nobody has found either of us yet so I guess our game is a draw... But we gotta get off this thing soon or we'll starve to death!" the operator panicked, putting both hands on her exposed belly.

"You have had your own adventures," Ante chuckled, closing her eyes with a thoughtful smile. "But both of our ordeals were for the sake of the mission. By sacrificing your integrity, you gained his friendship and he used his navi to aid us. A shrewd strategy, indeed."

"... Wha...? No, I was just having fun. I thought you were too?"

"..."

"..."

"Regardless, the mission was a success. I will take my leave," the navi announced to the others with a brief curtsey, before realizing she had no skirt to hold. Instead, she gave a short bow, then disappeared off the net.

((Jacking out))