The Wanderer wrote:

Brian Randall wrote:

	Round Two, winner: Adrian Tymes.

Eh? By my count, a round ends when all particicipants have had a go, 
which means that Round Two is at most half over - depending on whether 
or not anyone else wants to join in. Either that, or what you called 
Round One was in fact Round Two and this would be Round Three. Or 
something like that. Is this relevant? I'm not sure. But I'm a precisionist.

Well, there's also the view that the challenge did not even start until
all parties were aware that a challenge existed, thus what Brian called
Round Two was in fact the conclusion of Round One.  (Yeah, I know:
always assume you could be challenged and never ever let your guard
down - but letting your guard down works often enough to make it
worthwhile.  ^_-)  Or one could believe that Brian had waited long
enough that he believed no other participants were willing to take a go.
Or, perhaps, each pair of fics forms a Round, even if that means each
Round overlaps with the next and previous.

---

Yuri and Kei nodded to each other.  Their enemy had imprisoned 30 bounty
hunters who had sought the million credit bounty on his head.  An extra
pair of 3WA agents in his clutches had inspired his latest amusement:
make his prisoners battle each other to the death, with the promise that
the winner would get to face the criminal.  Of course, this was a crook
renowned for going back on his word, but as he was all too eager to
point out, trusting him was their only hope of escaping alive.

Yeah, right.

Almost as soon as the announcement was made, Yuri and Kei were at each
others' throats.  Robotic guards held them apart long enough for a
makeshift arena to be set up around them, quick official pronouncements
to be made, and the combat officially begun with the Dirty Pair facing
each other in the very first combat.  The guards even gave them back
their weapons before releasing them.

This was, in fact, literally a textbook scenario.  Variants of it were
among the 3WA cadet training material, and the solution was just as Kei
and Yuri practiced it - to the point where an observing pair of
prisoners, formerly of the 3WA themselves, were narrating the action to
each other, calling the steps just before they happened.

Less than five minutes later, all pretense of mutual hostility shredded
like the scrap metal that had recently been the guards, the Lovely
Angels had boarded the mastermind's poorly defended box seat, pinning
him to his throne.

"End simulation."

The villain, the arena, and the former guards vanished, leaving only
Kei, Yuri, 29 cadets, and 1 instructor who was very pleased to have such
a famous 3WA team demonstrate a textbook situation...though he feared
they might have made the "pretend to fight each other" step look a
little too real.  But, no - surely they were the best of friends in real
life, and merely good actors, weren't they?


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