Clash, the greatest tournament
By: Shawn Stack
Copyright 2011 Shawn Stack
ISBN: 978-1-4581-1897-4
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - Max meets Sandalphon!
Chapter 2 - Sandalphon’s first battle!
Chapter 3 - Max’s first tournament battle against the top ranked opponent!
Chapter 4 - Before the tournament started!
Chapter 5 - Introduction to the tournament!
Chapter 6 - Start of the tournament!
Chapter 7 - Conclusion to the first tournament fight!
Chapter 8 - The champions notice Max!
Chapter 9 - Big man on campus!
Chapter 10 - The Clash club!
Chapter 11 - Fight between the two avatars with the most muscle!
Chapter 12 - Lizzy: the strongest middle school Clash player!
Chapter 13 - The surprising conversation!
Chapter 14 - Field trip to the power station!
Chapter 15 - Battle for title of the strongest middle school Clash player!
Chapter 16 - From foe to friend!
Chapter 17 - Max and Lizzy: more then just friends?
Chapter 18 - Max takes on the first champion of Collis!
Chapter 19 - Gervasee’s revenge!
Chapter 20 - Lunch with girlfriend and Davis maybe coming home!
Chapter 21 - Secret of the Clash arm bands!
Chapter 22 - Max fights to make it to the finals!
Chapter 23 - Degoth shows his power!
Chapter 24 - Being popular is nice!
Chapter 25 - Worse than a Clash fight, Max’s first big date!
Chapter 26 - Showdown before the showdown!
Chapter 27 - Final training!
Chapter 28 - Pre-game confrontment!
Chapter 29 - Fight for the Champion title!
Chapter 30 - Trophy time!
Chapter 31 - To be continued!
Dedicated to my family, the Stacks.
Chapter 1
Max meets Sandalphon!
Max entered the Clash Center, feeling excited. He saw a friend of his from school at a game station, and went over to talk to him. Max’s parents entered Clash Center store behind him. They went to the reception desk to get Max’s new Clash arm band.
The Clash arm bands are used for the holographic fighting game known as Clash. The game is played by two people battling with 3D holographic avatars. The two players control the avatars using the arm bands. Controlling an avatar takes some mental concentration, but is a moderately simple thing to do. Players can make their avatars do anything they want them to do, as long as the avatars are able to do it.
“Hey Jonathan, what’s up?” Max said. Jonathan was watching a Clash duel between two players at a holographic game station. The fight was between an elemental fire-man and a mutant monkey cyborg.
Hearing someone familiar calling him Jonathan turned and was surprised to see his friend Max. “Oh, hey Max. Here to watch some Clash matches?” Jonathan said.
“No, today I’m here to pick up my Clash armband; my brother Davis bought me one for my birthday. Today I should be seeing what my avatar is!”
“Awesome, you have finally gotten one. You must be the last person in our class to get a Clash band. You should play me first I’ve haven’t won a match in forever and would love to pick on a nub like you.”
“Yeah, I’ll do that.”
“Max come here, they need to scan you,” Max’s dad called.
“Be back in a bit Jonathan.”
“Alright, I’ll be right here,” Jonathan said, as Max went to join his family.
Max walked over to the reception desk where his parents were. The clerk at the reception desk, opened a box and pulled out a brand new Clash band. The clerk said, “okay, sir, if you will put on this band, stand in our scanner over here, then we can see what your avatar is and save it to your band.”
Max slipped on the band, it stretched over his hand and fit snugly onto his wrist. There were 4 holographic-emitters spaced evenly around band that would be used to project the avatar’s hologram with. The bands were set up so that unless you completely covered them, your avatar should always have sight with the holographic-emitters and have a clear unbroken image.
Max stepped over into the scanning machine. The scanner reminded him of the metal detectors in airports. The thing slowly hummed on and Max could hear the machine moving the scanners around him.
Avatars are created based off each person’s bio-signature that the scanner reads. A person’s bio-signature never changes and so a person’s avatar never changes.
“In just a second your avatar should be materializing in a hologram right in front of you,” the clerk said. The avatar began to take form before Max. “It says here your avatar’s name is Sandalphon”.
Sandalphon’s hologram solidified and he appeared as an angel dressed in golden steel plate armor with white angelic wings. He was holding two golden maces. A holographic data screen popped up that explained the maces were called Medens and Caliber. Max thought it was the coolest avatar he had ever seen.
“Alright the scan here is done. Your avatar is of the celestial type. Using the band you should be able to make your avatar appear anywhere you want up to forty meters from the armband. Also, if you link your band to a holographic-station you can use it to project your avatar onto specialized fields. If you lose your band all you have to do is buy a new one, get re-scanned and the same avatar will be loaded. That band will only work for you so you can not share it with your friends.” The clerk said.
“Thanks.” Max said to the clerk. “Hey mom and dad, I’m going to go play Jonathan in a match.” Max said.
“Alright Max, let’s see how you do” Max’s mom said.
Chapter 2
Sandalphon’s first battle!
Max and his parents walked over to where Jonathan was. They met up, then went over to one of the holographic gaming stations. The stations in the Clash Center were free to use for all Clash players. Max and Jonathan sat on either side of the station. Their bands sent out a signal that linked up to the station and then they materialized their avatars onto the station’s arena battle field.
“Get ready to Clash, Telatron!” Jonathan said, as his avatar’s hologram solidified first. Telatron was a blocky shaped robot warrior. His center body was a made of a solid cubic metal frame. Extending from either side were his robotic arms, each ended in two big clamps. He had two large treads instead of legs, to move he would roll around on them. He had a laser bazooka weapon mounted on his shoulder. For a head it had a rectangular metal box with two giant red glass eyes. Telatron’s mouth was just a little speaker box.
“Eh, Get ready to Clash, Sandalphon!” Max said, as his avatar took form on the arena battle floor. Max stared at his avatar with surprise “Wait, something is wrong, that isn’t Sandalphon.” What stood on his side of the arena looked like Sandalphon, but did not have the golden plate armor, either of the two maces, or white angelic wings. Sandalphon wore a pair of sandals, bronze arm bands and a white fighting tunic belted on with a yellow sash.
“Aw, dude,” Jonathan said. “You got a celestial type. Those are the rarest ones. They are also the weakest fighters. Your guy doesn’t even have any weapons.”
“Well, he had weapons a minute ago and armor and white glowing wings.”
“My cousin has a celestial type and she is a terrible fighter, she said that celestials can make their weapons appear if they want them. Maybe it will come out during the fight. Let’s get started.” Jonathan pushed a button on his band to start the battle.
“Wait,” Max said, stalling.
The station announce
d the start of the fight with a count down,“five, four, three, two, one. Clash!”
Max tried to make Sandalphon move around the arena, Sandalphon took one step and fell to the floor, the avatar was unable to keep its balance.
Telatron rolled over, closed his clamps around Sandalphon, picked him up, and then tossed him back to the floor.
Jonathan started laughing.
“Come on,” Max said. “Give me a break here. I’m still trying to figure out how to get him to move, I don’t need you beating me down.” Max Struggled to get Sandalphon to stand up once again. “This is frustrating, I focus on keeping his legs under him and his whole body goes limp and he topples over.”
“You can’t just focus on one part,” Jonathan said. “You have to move him like it was your own body. The best way to do it, is to imagine what you want him to do and he should do it.”
Instead of focusing on the legs, Max just imagined Sandalphon’s whole body standing errect, and to his amazement, Sandalphon stood up the exact way he imagined. “Oh, okay, I think I am getting it. Hey, what are you doing?” Max said, as Telatron pushed over Sandalphon again.
“Ha-ha, sorry, couldn’t help myself. Stand up again and try to catch Telatron.” Telatron drove away from Sandalphon, waiting for him to chase.
Max had Sandalphon standing again and tried to make him walk. Max never realized how little thought he put into walking when he did it himself. It was like being a baby all over again. The steps Sandalphon took looked like he was carrying a tremendous weight; every step was over exaggerated and looked unnatural. Telatron drove up close and started making circles around Sandalphon.
“Jonathan you aren’t very funny,” Max said, taking his gaze off the arena floor to look his friend in the eyes.
“I told you,” Jonathan said. “You are thinking too much about the little things.” Jonathan looked back at Max. “You need to stand up and walk around for a second and then visualize Sandalphon walking like that. Don’t make Sandalphon take one step at a time. Try to ignore the little details for now.”
Max stood up and walked around the game station once. He imagined Sandalphon doing a similar thing. Sandalphon walked perfectly. Max held up his right hand and Sandalphon did as well. Jonathan was laughing pretty hard.
“All the nubs do that when they first learn,” Jonathan said, while Max and Sandalphon continued to mimic one another.
Max sat back down and tried making Sandalphon move while he remained still.
“What is a nub?” Max’s mom asked.
“It means noob, it is short for newbie,” Max said, with his brows scrunched in concentration and frustration. He stopped Sandalphon. Then took a deep breath and thought back when he had ran the hardest, fastest he had ever run before. He remembered pumping his arms and springing forward with every step of his legs. He channeled that thought to Sandalphon; the avatar started sprinting towards Telatron.
“Whoa, you mad? Oh no,” Jonathan said, as Sandalphon crashed into Telatron. Sandalphon was much larger and easily knocked the smaller Telatron over.
“Yes, I got you,” Max said. Sandalphon grabbed Telatron by the arm and lifted the robot over his head. Sandalphon spun around while holding him, then slammed Telatron onto the floor of the holographic arena with a metal bending, crunching blow. Telatron’s head was smashed from the attack. Sandalphon put one foot onto the prone body of Telatron looking like a conquering hero. Cracks started to form all around Telatron’s hologram, and finally it broke apart, turning into glowing holographic shards. Max was looking pleased with the turn of events.
“What? I lost to a celestial type? Oh man, Sandalphon is really strong. One hit and you flattened Telatron.” Jonathan paused for a second thinking. “You got to enter into the Collis tournament.” Jonathan’s face was dead serious.
“You think I’m that good?” Max said. He turned off Sandalphon’s image inside the arena. He used his band to create one on the Clash Center’s floor, that he could make walk around.
“The tournament starts this weekend right?” Max’s dad asked.
“Yeah,” Jonathan said. “I entered the last one and got stomped. They do tests and rank you on how good you are. I was really low ranked and had to fight a high rank. They make all the low ranks fight the high ranks in the beginning rounds. The guy I fought went all the way to the semifinals. They do it this way so the final battles are usually between the highest ranks; the guys with the strongest avatars.”
“Davis was telling me about that,” Max said. “He says the rankings are a sham and it is just to way to let the returning champions make it to the final battles of the tournament. It is a way to boost ratings for the TV programs that cover Clash. It is not so bad in the local tournaments, but at the state and national tournaments they set up a lot of the fights in the champion’s favor.”
“You should join the tournament anyway. As long as you don’t score in the bottom of the rankings you might win your first match. Just sign up!” Jonathan pleaded.
“Where does he sign up?” Max’s dad asked.
“You can do it online or here in the store, the front desk should have all the information. They hold the battles every Saturday at the Collis stadium. You will also need your war cry; no one uses the standard ‘Get ready to Clash.’ in the tournaments. Coming up with your own war cry is like the best part. Mine was ‘Telatron, reporting for duty.’ in last year’s tournament.”
Max was getting excited again. He had finally gotten his avatar and it is a really strong and cool one. Strong enough to win a tournament match… maybe. Sandalphon stumbled across the floor. He was going to need more practice controlling Sandalphon though. He was also going to have to find a way to bring out Sandalphon’s armor and weapons during a fight. Most of the people in the tournament had been playing for years. He was way under-experienced by comparison.
Chapter 3
Max’s first tournament battle against the number one top ranked opponent!
“Appearing first is the number one ranked contender, Jason, with his avatar, Gervasee” the announcer said to the crowd.
Jason screamed his war cry, “Night has fallen! Become unleashed Gervasee!”
Jason turned on his band and his avatar that appeared was a black furred beast, Gervasee, a werewolf hailing from the necro type. He had venomous claws on his fingertips and pearly white fangs that could be seen through the ever present snarl on his face. The werewolf wore a tattered, brown, leather tunic and pants, over its black oily fur. Around his ankles were broken manacles giving the impression as if it had escaped imprisonment. Gervasee’s muscles could be seen in spasms every once and a while as he stood there on the arena floor waiting for the fight to start.
It was Max’s turn. “Iew,” Max’s voiced cracked. He saw Jason let out a chuckle and some of the crowd laughed. Max did not care what they thought; he was going to show them that being last ranked meant nothing. So what if he had the lowest chances of winning. He was going to prove his avatar is strong enough. He cleared his throat, activated his band and in the loudest voice he could muster, “I GOT THE WILL, YOU GOT THE POWER SANDALPHON!” His avatar materialized on the arena floor.
Something was different about Sandalphon, but Max could not figure out what it was. The announcer was starting the countdown.
“Five, four, three, two, one. LET THE CLASH BEGIN!” The announcer yelled.
Gervasee sprinted at Sandalphon, its claws leading the charge. Sandalphon widened his stance and as soon as Gervasee came into range let fly a huge right punch; that came no where near Gervasee. The werewolf ducked under the wide stroke and hooked its right arm around Sandalphon’s shoulder. Sandalphon’s right arm was then locked in a hold by Gervasee. Using its left Gervasee stabbed Sandalphon in the back through the white tunic with its claws, letting its venom enter into Sandalphon.
Sandalphon was much larger than Gervasee and so Max tried to have Sandalphon whip Gervasee off and get out of the hold. Gervasee was too
strong and agile, managing to hold on. Until without reason Gervasee let go voluntarily and backed away from Sandalphon.
“In less than a minute that poison should sap all the power out of Sandalphon. Unless you can catch and defeat Gervasee within that time, you won’t win this match,” Jason said, taunting from the other side of the arena. “My Gervasee is much faster than your Sandalphon, so that won’t be happening anytime soon.” Jason was smiling.
Max would not believe it. He forced Sandalphon to move towards Gervasee, but Sandalphon stumbled and fell to the floor.
“Oh, wow, the poison is working faster than ever; I guess this match will be over after just a few seconds rather than in a minute.” Jason said teasing Max.
Chapter 4
Before the tournament started!
Max,’s parents dropped him off at the Collis Stadium. He knew his way around having had been there a before. When he entered the stadium he saw people were having avatar battles all around, while they waited for the tournament to start. One of the biggest reasons Clash was so popular was it could be played anywhere, using the Clash armband’s built in hologram projectors.
The Collis tournament was named after the town Max was from. Collis was a small town, on an island, just off the North American coast, in the Atlantic Ocean. Like most mainstream fads, it had taken time for Clash to make its way into the culture of the island. A Clash stadium had been built a few years back and was when the Collis tournament had been started. The stadium offered people a chance to see the avatars full-human-sized, for premium viewing. The stadium housed some of the best holographic projectors available. The tournament was one of the many local level Clash tournaments located across the country. The winners of the local tournaments would go on to fight in the state tournaments, and the winners of the state tournaments would go on to the final national tournament.
The national tournament finals were some of the most viewed events in the country. Although the Clash game was played mostly by younger people, the tournament finals were popular among everyone. They rivaled most major sports in their popularity.