Unconcious.  That’s what happened to Eight.  He got unconscious.

This is what happened right after Maurice and Eight got into the Byako Evil District.

FLASHBACK

”Okay, Eight, how are you doing?” Maurice asked the little kitten on his back.

“Frin… ceam… grace…” Eight said.

“Great.  We’re almost there.  All we have to do…” Maurice began before he heard a stampede.  “What on Earth…?”

Maurice’s head turned towards a vegetable stampede, and on top of that stampede were boys wearing feather boas and holding fireworks.  Maurice’s eyes widened.  “Eight, I think the fanboys found us!”

Not too far off in the distance, he heard a sound.  “YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!  VEGGIES!”

Damien smiled as he filmed the stampede.  “THIS IS AMAZING, FOLKS!  Apparently, the amazing green kitten and the star are about to get hit by bottles of water!”

Maurice turned his head towards the entrance of the restaurant.  “We gotta get out of here before…”

It was too late.  The fan-boy vegetable stampede had collided with the bull and kitten.  Maurice tried to fight himself out of it, and Eight tried to hang on, but one of the fan-boys grabbed the kitten before Maurice got out of the stampede.  Damien followed the fanboys excitedely.  “After getting captured by the bottles of water, the amazing kitten is off on another adventure!”

It was a few minutes before Eight got dropped off somewhere.  He looked around.  He seemed to be in some fan station.  It was fine that he found a new place, but now there was a problem.  Without Maurice to guide him, Eight was completely lost.

It was not long before Eight heard voices.  Eight then went closer to see what was going on.  Eight’s eyes widened in shock as he saw that it was his next opponent, the Ecokerit.  Apparently, he had been captured by the fanboys too.  Eight tried to listen in on the conversation, but he had not been paying attention.  He was worried about Maurice.  Was he okay?  Did he get out of the stampede?  Where is he?

“And, uh… my opponent?” The Ecokerit asked.

Eight jumped up immediately, and walked up to the Ecokerit.  Damien, the cameraman that was following Eight, also got closer, but the Ecokerit didn’t understand, he thought the cameraman was his next opponent.

The fan-boy nodded as he jumped off on a vegetable and galloped off.

The Ecokerit then went up to Damien, saying, “You must be my opponent.”

Damien looked up and smiled.  “AMAZING, FOLKS!  Apparently, a large tank is talking to the wall!”

The Ecokerit sweatdropped.  “Uh, what?”

“The large tank is confused as he looks around the room!” Damien smiled.

The Ecokerit frowned.  “What the heck are you talking about?”

Eight, then tapped the Ecokerit’s foot.  The Ecokerit looked down.  “Huh?”

Eight then looked up at the Ecokerit, and pointed to a starting line.

The Ecokerit blinked in surprise, and growled.  “You gotta be effin kidding me!  This kitten is my next opponent?  Why can’t it be him?”

The Ecokerit then pointed to Damien who smiled.

The Ecokerit sighed as he went to the starting line.  Eight followed closely behind.
The race then began as the Ecokerit and Eight started to race.  Along the way, the Ecokerit managed to get oncoming fan-boys with vines and Eight jumped up on tables and chairs (turning these inanimate objects into moss) to avoid the fan-boys, rather than attacking the fan-boys (Because they were living creatures, not inanimate objects).

Along the way, he heard the Ecokerit mumbling something about his brother and how he wanted to enter this to avenge him or something.  He didn’t hear all of it, but Eight felt sorry for the Ecokerit.  If there was a way to help him out…

It was not until Eight and the Ecokerit reached the finish line that the fan-boys combined together to make a big monster.  The Ecokerit threw Eight at the monster, thinking that his moss touch would freeze that fan boy, but it didn’t work, seeing as how the monster is a living creature!  Seeing as how it didn’t work, the Ecokerit tried a different approach.  The Ecokerit then used a vine, and threw the monster fan-boy up in the sky, squashing two cameramen who were ready to shoot everyone’s lives.  (They got out of it okay.)  The Ecokerit and Eight then continued towards the finish line, with the Ecokerit holding Eight.  However, the Ecokerit tripped on a rock, causing him and the kitten to fly over.  The Ecokerit crossed the finish line first, and Eight traveled second.  The Ecokerit landed safely on the floor, but Eight rammed into the wall… and went… unconscious.

END FLASHBACK

“Eight… Eight… Eight…” A voice called to the green kitten.

Eight woke up to see Maurice sitting near bedside.

“You okay, Eight?” Maurice asked.

Damien, not too far from here, smiled as he reeled his camera.  “The amazing green kitten woke up later, coming out of a coma.”

Eight purred.  “Frin… ceam…”

Maurice sighed in relief.  “Whew.  Glad you’re okay.  I got to that fan station as soon as I heard you and the Ecokerit were racing.  And it looks like you lost.”

Eight sighed as he put his head down.

“Don’t worry, little buddy.  It’s just one loss.  Cheer up, though.  You got two wins already.” Maurice said.  “A lot has been happening while you were unconscious.”

Eight looked up.

“First off, there was nothing on your owner.  I already asked the Ecokerit about it, and he said he hasn’t seen her.”

Eight’s ears drooped.

“That, and Rhea dropped out of the tournament.” Maurice sighed.

Eight looked up in surprise.  Rhea, his helper on getting Eight back on his feet and helping him recognize his owner’s face, gone?  He couldn’t believe it.

“I know, I feel saddened by it too.  There was a replacement fighter that took over for Rhea.  I don’t think you’re going to fight him, but it’s better if you recognize his face anyway.  Here’s the new branch paper, improved.”

Maurice handed Eight a new paper with all the members on Eight’s branch.  There was a W on Mon and Shin’s faces on the middle right, and an L on the Ecokerit’s face on the bottom right.  On the bottom of Eight’s picture was a sentence marked ‘W for win against old member of the branch, Rhea’.  And what replaced Rhea’s picture on the top left was a picture of a howler monkey.  The picture was entitled, ‘Mafisto’.

Eight looked up at Maurice, as if asking about Mafisto.

“Mafisto?  Not much… just a howler monkey from a jungle somewhere.  And I wouldn’t bother asking him about your owner, I doubt he even knows her.  In fact, he can’t even talk, so it’ll be a waste of time talking to him.” Maurice said.  “Anyway, you’re in the hospital until you’re fit to go.”

Eight looked around the place, as he was indeed, in the hospital.

“Until you’re fit and ready to go, you might as well check out where to go next.” Maurice said as he handed Eight his next round information.

Eight looked at it.

On the left was a picture of Eight, and on the right was a picture of a woman with a black tank top, white hair, purple eyes, and white dress slacks.  The picture entitled her as Yoru.

Eight then read the next round’s random event.

“In order to boost ratings, BTV is hosting a numerous number of game shows!  So the next round’s event is participate with your opponent on a game show, hosted by many of the Byako residents!” is what was said.

Eight nodded as he rested his head.

It wasn’t until a couple of hours until Eight was fit and ready to go.  When Eight got the signal, Eight nodded as he jumped off the bed an d into Maurice’s back.

“So, where to, Eight?” Maurice asked.

Eight pointed to the picture of Yoru.  Maurice recognized the girl.

“That was who Rhea was up against before she quit.  Yoru’s a woman who has a personality of a wolf… she’s a bit of a loner, in other words.” Maurice explained.  “But maybe she’s seen your owner, Eight.  All we got to do is find her!”

Eight nodded as Maurice galloped off, carrying Eight with him.

Damien followed, not too far behind.  “The amazing kitten is off on another exciting adventure as the star carries him off!”
Meanwhile, nearby a game show set…

“HOW DARE YOU KIDNAP ME!  I AM EVIL!  EVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIL!”

That was the sound of a woman in a bag, being dragged by a certain grinning green haired man with a top hat named Jasae.

“Oh, shut it.  It’ll be fun!”  Jasae smiled.

“NO IT WILL NOT BE FUN!  BECAUSE I AM EVIL AUDREY!  EVIL!  SHUT UP!  YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO BAG ME!” The woman, known as Evil Audrey, said from the bag.

“The winner of my game show will have unlimted access to Byako’s Food District!” Jasae smiled.

“I DON’T CARE!  SHUT UP!” The woman in the bag shouted.

“The winner receives an ice cream sundae for free!”  Jasae smiled.

“I DON’T CARE!  SHUT UP!” Evil Audrey in the bag shouted.

“The winner also gets a grenade launcher!” Jasae smiled.

“I DON’T…” Evil Audrey paused, then her head  popped out of the bag, revealing her blond hair and green eyes.  “Did you say… grenade launcher?”

Jasae smiled.  “Yep!  The grenade launcher will help people out in many cases.”

All of a sudden, the woman jumped out of the bag, revealing her yellow ‘Psycho’ shirt and green pants, and said evilly, “If I had that grenade launcher, I will… RULE THE WORLD!”

“Of course!” Jasae said, impersonating M.Bison from the Street Fighter movie.  Jasae then smirked.  There was no grenade launcher.  Jasae just said that to see if Evil Audrey was paying attention, but she didn’t know that.

Instead, Audrey just gloated.  “YES!  I WILL WIN THE CHALLENGE!  I WILL WIN THE GRENADE LAUNCHER!  AND THEN… I WILL RULE THE WORLD!”

“Of course!” Jasae once again impersonated M.Bison from the Street Fighter movie.

NOW SHUT UP ALL OF YOU!  YOU ARE ANNOYING!” Evil Audrey said one of her catchphrases.  “Take me to the game show set!”

“Right this way!” Jasae smiled.

Meanwhile, in another sector of the Byako district, a cat girl-like creature named Kiki was leading a white haired girl named Yoru into a game show set.

“So, you say I have to win a game show in order to move on to Round 5?” Yoru asked as she looked at the game show set up.
Kiki smiled, half-heartedely.  “You betcha!  Now we just got to wait for the players!  One of them is your opponent, and the other is a girl that was randomly picked out of the outside of Byako.”

“So, wait, I have to battle my real opponent, and someone Byako barely knows… on a game show?  That can’t be good for the city…” Yoru frowned.

“It’s Byako, what did you expect?” Kiki smiled.  “I’ll be seeing you later!”

Over at the other side of the game show entrance…

“Why?  Where are you going?” Audrey asked, curiously as Jasae Plushie was going another separate way.

“Didn’t you know?” Jasae Plushie asked.

A split-screen then came on as Audrey on the left side and Yoru from the other side shook their heads.

Jasae and Kiki from both side of the screens then said at the exact same time.  “I’m the only host of the whole entire game show!”