Mamoritai 4 - A Llorumi story

13. Dance-Off

Notes: I'm kinda going through writer's block again with this story, as exams take over my mind... But I'll probably be able to focus more after my break! But enjoy the chapter!

Words: 1568

"1200! Wow..." I said, stunned. "Okay, let's pool our money. I've got 160." Lloyd answered. "I've got 198." Nya answered. "153." Cole said. "160." Jay replied. "85..." I said, with a little embarrassment in my voice. "12..." Kai said slowly. "Twelve? How do you only have twelve!?" Jay questioned. At least I'm not the one with the least credits... "What did you spend your credits on?" Cole asked. "This sick new avatar!" Kai said excitedly, as he switched to it. It was Kai, but with blonde hair, a red wrestling uniform looking thing and red paint that went across his eyes. "Eh? Eh?" He said, flexing his muscles and turning around, making sure that we saw every angle. "What do you think?" He said with a proud smile. "That looks awesome!" Jay yelped with excitement on his face. "But not 'worth of all our money' - awesome..." He added, looking at Kai accusingly. "Look guys, we're 432 credits short. We gotta find a way to come up with that money before- Oh no!" Nya explained, until she cut herself off and stared at something behind us. I turned around to find none other than our dear friends; Red Visors...

They surrounded us from all directions. So, I put on my hood and took out my Kunai knives. The Visors started shooting at us, and we kept blocking all their lasers. Suddenly, my knives started to glitch! Shit they're not working anymore. "We can't afford to upgrade our weapons! We need every credit we've got" I yelled out. I kept on blocking the Visors' attacks. I then baited two of them to follow me and threw my two knives at them, destroying them. Phew, where are the others? I looked around to see that Jay was surrounded by five Red Visors and his weapon just broke! Shit! "Sorry guys, gotta upgrade! Better to be poor and alive!" Jay said as he upgraded his weapon for 100 credits! Jay destroyed all the five after that but now we needed 100 more credits... "Great, now we need 532 credits..." Lloyd said as we walked over to Jay. "Where are we supposed to get that kind of money!" I whined. "Way to go, Jay!" Kai said with a very accusing tone. "Hey, you're the one with the fancy new avatar!" Jay yelled back. "There's gotta be a way!" Lloyd said, interrupting the two's argument. Lloyd opened his player menu and started searching around in there. I looked around for any new quests.

Then my gaze shifted to the large screen that showed clips from the Speedway Five Billion. Gosh that looks harsh. "Enter the Terra Technica Dance-Off!" The screen suddenly switched to an ad. "One night only! Winners receive admiration, acclaim and six hundred credits!" The announcer said as the ad showed clips of a dance competition. "Guys." I said as I turned around to face them. They had completely missed the ad. I ran over to them. "Hey, here's one where we can fight an ogre!" Jay said, as he had apparently found a side quest for us. "But it's only 20 credits." Cole said. "And a good chance of getting crushed." Lloyd added. "Hey guys!" I said more loudly now. They turned to look at me. "What if there was a side quest that we could earn 600 in and it would have no risk of dying!" I said. "Well that's the dream, isn't it?" Kai said. "You really didn't see it?" I said. "What?" Lloyd asked. "Competitive dancing! It's fun and you can't get hurt!" The ad said again in the background. "Oohhh." Cole said. "C'mon guys, let's go!" I said, urging us to leave.

Nya and Jay decided to compete as a pair. There were four other pairs to beat. Me, Lloyd, Kai and Cole were standing in the audience. The dance competition was held at a club, which had a big stage, tables and a bar. All of the competitors were stretching and warming up. "Oh, this is gonna be a disaster! Jay couldn't dance for the sake of his life!" Cole whined. "Ugh! I can't watch!" Kai joined Cole's whining. "C'mon have a little faith in Nya! I'm sure she's great!" I said. "May I have your attention, please everyone! Welcome to Terra Technicas Dance-Off!" The announcer said, and a leaderboard appeared with icons representing each participant. The contestants were now standing in a line. "Five teams competing for admiration, acclaim and six hundred credits! Let the Dance-Off begin!" The announcer yelled and the crowd went wild. I, myself, also cheered. "Go Jay and Nya!" I cheered. Nya winked at me.

The competition began. Nya and Jay spun around and began to dance... incredibly! I knew that Nya was probably a good dancer, but Jay!? "What in the hell!" Cole yelled out as we all watched the pair in amazement. "What? What's happening!?" Kai yelled, as he was still covering his eyes. "Since when can Jay dance?!" Lloyd questioned out loud. Then something clicked in my head. I remember Nya telling me he and Jay were taking dance lessons together as a new hobby! "They've been practicing! For weeks! It's their six month anniversary today!" I yelled out as the pieces connected in my mind. "They look good!" Kai yelled out as he removed his hands from over his eyes. "They look great!" Cole corrected. "Keep those shoulders back! Find your center!" Cole started yelling instructions to Nya and Jay. They were in second place now! "And now the Tango!" The announcer yelled. Nya and Jay started spinning around and dancing Tango. The first pair was dropped, now there were only four to beat. "Lead with your hips! Kai come here!" Cole said as he grabbed Kai, without his consent. "And slow, quick, quick, slow." Cole counted as he spun Kai around. "Cole let me down!" Kai yelled. Me and Lloyd laughed like crazy.

Then the next pair got eliminated, and the next. Now there were only two pairs left. Nya and Jay and some blue haired boy and girl. Apparently, if the pair made even one mistake, they got eliminated. Cole was still dancing and spinning around, but now he had released Kai. "Uh-oh." Cole said suddenly. "What?" I asked as I turned around to see what Cole was looking at. "Red Visors are here." Lloyd said. As I tried to look around, I saw them. "They're too late to enter the competition, so I think they're here for us." Kai said. "Nya and Jay have three minutes left." I said, glancing at the leaderboard. "We've gotta keep those Red Visors from ruining the competition." Cole said. We all nodded and put on our hoods. We weaved around the crowd and made our way to the Red Visors. I took out my knives and when we were close enough, we attacked. They started shooting lasers at us, again. I attacked one of them, jumping on top of its chest and slamming my knife into its head. After that another Visor grabbed me by my hood and threw me against the wall! That hurt! I fell down onto the floor, but quickly tried to recover my stance and block the lasers. "Thirty seconds on the clock!" The announcer said.

The visor closed up on me and shot lasers at me. I kept blocking them, but once he was close enough, I grabbed his free arm, spun him around and threw him on the wall. "Yeah, it doesn't feel that nice, does it?!" I yelled at it. I looked around and saw no more Red Visors. "We have our winners! Earning admiration, acclaim and, of course, six hundred credits!" The announcer yelled. I quickly made my way in front of the stage to see who had won. C'mon Nya and Jay, c'mon! Then the crowd suddenly started running towards the stage and I saw that Jay and Nya were being carried away, with cheers. They won! We won! The crowd carried the two away and I found Lloyd, Cole and Kai. I ran over to Lloyd with a big smile under my hood. "We won!" I celebrated as I jumped into Lloyd's arms. He spun me around and looked at me in the eyes, even though they were covered with my hood.

We all transferred our money to Nya and walked back to the signing in robot. "Six entries for the Speedway Five Billion, please." Nya said and tapped her credits. Which left her with 68 credits. "Congratulations. You're in the race. What's your team name?" He asked. "Oh, oh, I know! I've got the perfect name!" Cole yelped excitedly. "The Fast Chickens." He said proudly. "The Fast Chickens? Really?" Jay said, rolling his eyes. "What! Chicken's are fast and dangerous!" Cole defended his ridiculous team name. "Fine. Fast Chickens. Have your vehicles at the starting line at dawn." The robot answered as it wrote something down. "Um. You mean vehicles aren't included?" I asked. Oh shit. Is this the part where we fail? After all that! "Included? Ha-ha-ha!" The robot laughed mechanically. "What kind of race do you think this is? You bring your own vehicles." The robot answered calmly. "This isn't over yet! Come on!" Jay said, his voice filled with determination. "Where are we going?" Nya asked. "I know a place where we might be able to get some wheels." Jay said and started running