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| Spectrum: You know, For kids. |
Chapter 10 The Tower, Part 5
Maria quietly climbed up the central stairwell of the skyscraper, a metallic set of stairs wrapping on each wall, before turning each corner roughly every floor. The sound of her boots clanging against the metal of the stairs didn't help the dull throbbing Maria felt in her head. Even if the cuts on her lips and forehead stopped bleeding about half an hour ago, they were only just barely scabbed over and could be busted open once again. She gently rubbed her head to try and rid herself of the dizzy feeling she felt. She turned the corner to head up past the 20th floor, but she stopped only when she realized that the staircase had a massive iron plate welded to block the way.
“...Really?” She muttered to herself, slowly rearing her hand back to form the black carapace around her left arm. Maria's magic was kind of strange, once she did some research on it. She uses something called “Primal Magic.” Something that is similar to every person who has Ash tainting their bloodstream like hers. She can't use traditional elements, which means she'll always be at a disadvantage when it comes to range. Her abilities enhance her physical attributes, making her faster, stronger and more durable. But at a cost, it burns through her stamina extremely fast to use Magic. Typically in combat club, Maria can go about 25 minutes in a fight before her legs give out, but if she used her Primal magic, she can only go about 5.
She also can access various attributes of the Riftfallen who poisoned her, giving her phoenix like features such as talons, and what she could possibly assume to be wings at one point or an another. Maria quickly reared her fist back, smashing it straight through the wall as it was wet paper, before gripping onto it and slowly ripping it downward enough to get her second arm in, ripping a hole she could fit through in the metal slab welded to block her path. She took one step forward as the talons faded to smoke on both hands, dipping in only to realize at the last second the staircase was completely removed for this section, it was so clean it was almost intentional.
She crouched down, looking over the edge and grabbing a small piece of what she would assume to be rubble, tossing it over the side and watching it as it nearly careened 200 feet to the bottom of the stairwell. “...Yeah, not doing that again.” She said, standing back up and slowly backing through the hole in the metal sheet, turning and slowly pulling the door open leading into the rest of the building. As she walked through, she felt the strength fade from her legs, making her stumble forward. “I'm using this Primal thing too much...” She mused to herself, curling her fists tight and pushing them into her pockets as she stumbled until she forced herself up against the inner wall, sliding against it to help prop her weight and help her balance.
She slowly approached a door leading to a hallway, slowly pushing it open and stumbling her way through it. It was dimly lit as it didn't have any windows leading to the outside. She wasn't any closer to finding another stairwell and she knew it. She muttered quietly as Gale appeared by her side. “You really should talk to me more.” He remarked, Maria looking up at him as she turned to her side, walking backward to get a better look at him. “What, do you get off by the sound of my voice?” Maria asked him, but he just sighed in response. “No, I'm not even sure I'm capable of such a feat.” He stated as a fact Maria didn't want to imagine.
“When I'm in public I don't talk to you because I don't want to sound like I'm talking to myself... People think I'm insane enough, I don't want them to think I hear voices in my head.” She explained herself, he reached up and stroked under where his chin would be. “Fun thing to think about, what if you arejust imagining me as a coping mechanism, and really are insane?” He added, Maria just paused wide eyed in silence. “...Good point.” She admitted, continuing her backwards stride.
“Door.” He flatly stated, Maria tilting her head as she kept walking. “What?” She wondered aloud. “DOOR!” He shouted as Maria smacked her back and head into the door, as the door was slightly ajar, it popped open and she ended up falling flat on her back. “...Fuck.” She muttered to herself, a light chuckle echoing from across the room. The room was very stripped down, being just a couple of concrete pillars and concrete floors. Maria could only surmise that this room wasn't finished, or Spectrum is re-purposing it for some other option.
Standing above her and just across the room was an effeminate man. Effeminate enough to make Maria pause for a second to think about what she was looking at, he had long, somewhat styled black hair draping over his shoulders off to one side, a stripe in his hair dyed red. His black standard Spectrum armor, which was covered by a long, silver coat. And his gloves had metal that went over his fingers to form claws. Attached to his belt was oddly, an umbrella. It was a modern umbrella, not the typical wooden handled parasols you'd see in a picnic catalog, but with a more composite black grip.
His eyes were red, and his skin was somewhat dark, indicators he was also infected with Ash Syndrome at one point of his life. “Greetings.” He said softly, slowly pulling his umbrella and placing it on the ground so he could lean on it. The fabric was a simple red color with white swirls on it. “All you have to say?” Maria said, dusting herself off and trying to recompose herself from the worst door entry she's ever taken part in.
“Do you always do that?” He asked, placing the umbrella on his shoulders as Maria grumbled, looking away. “No... It was an accident.” She tried to play it off a bit, but he shook his head. He didn't have a smug look on his face... Actually, Maria had no damn idea the look on his face. “You know the rules.” He said, twisting the handle of his umbrella to reveal that inside the handle, at the press of a button, was a long sword. He drew it, spinning it in his hands and brandishing it toward her. “A fight, then..” Maria said, taking a deep breath as she slowly drew both of her blades to meet his stance with hers. He inspected her face, noticing the wounds, her lack of balance in her stance, along with her deep breaths.
“You're wounded.” He observed, showing a strange lack of using too many words. “I'll let you pass, if you wish.” He offered, lowering his blade, but Maria just growled, clenching her blades tighter. “None of that chivalrous bull crap, please.” Maria bounced his offer off, taking one or two steps forward to only realize her knees shook from her lowered stance, she had no power... That was usually her major advantage, her explosiveness. “Well, how many cards do you have on you?” He asked, Maria dug into her pocket, pulling them out and placing them between her thumb and index to show she was brandishing two.
“I have only one to wager, but are you sure you have a partner I can fight...?” He asked, somewhat concerned. It was less that he had to fight a girl and more he had to fight a wounded one that was bothering him. “I want to do this myself...” Maria muttered, scanning one of the cards to put it on the line, and he reluctantly accepted the duel with his own wager, keeping his Parasol strapped to his side, his other hand raised in the air, the metal plating on his gloves having a strange cat's paw pattern. “Uhh... Dude. Why the cat gloves?” Maria asked, dropping his guard. He just shook his head a couple of times, not using the opportunity to attack. “I like cats.” He added, before charging at Maria.
He was clearly much fresher than Maria was, his movements were sharp and on point, even if he seemingly lacked power thanks to his somewhat light 5'7 frame. Their blades clashed, Maria's faltering strength able to still match him in a clash. “You need a better battle cry...” She mentioned, since the fight hasn't really picked up yet. “Like... 'Let's do this' or 'Stabbing time,' I like cats is kind of shitty.” She criticized, but he just sighed, breaking the clash and taking a step back. “Kind of a bad time, don't you think...?” He mentioned, before launching a deep stabbing motion at her with his narrow, but sturdy blade, Maria's legs only kicked in at the last second, stumbling to the side and rolling on her shoulder. But by the time she stood up, he leaped onto one of her shoulders, his other boot kicking her square in the face. Maria gasped, falling onto her back as he spun around to strike another blow, but Maria quickly bashed it aside with one of her arms. Sparks began to fly from his blade scraping the concrete. Maria rolled away from him, quickly leaping onto her feet until one of her legs buckled, forcing her on one knee.
He responded by calmly waiting for her, hands crossed together, his blade resting on his shoulder, almost as if he was hesitating. “Come on, man...” Maria complained, shouting to him as she stood back up, pointing one of her swords directly at him. “Don't half ass this unless you want your head cut off! Don't goof around in combat...” Maria shouted at him to get him to be more serious. His eyes began to glow as he lowered his stance. “So be it.” He said, breaking into a charge at her, his rapier tucked against his chest as Maria broke into her own pulse assisted charge straight at him.
Maria crossed her blades downward in an X formation to try and force him to either dodge to the side or force him to take the hit, but he tucked his head just past it, sliding on his knees and forming his own Primal armor around one of his hands, smashing his fist right into her stomach. A dull crack echoed throughout the room as Maria felt a sharp stabbing pain in her chest. Her entire stomach and chest tightened as she bent down into the fist. “G-ggh..” She rattled in pain as she realized she couldn't speak. Blood beginning to splatter from her mouth and onto the ground as she collapsed over his fist, buckling her knees and collapsing to the floor to make another raspy gurgling sound.
“Oh no...” He winced, taking a couple of steps back in shock as he might have just shattered her ribs with his strike. He dropped down onto his knees, rolling Maria onto her back. Her mouth was open, but her tongue and mouth was red from the blood leaking from it. “I uhh... didn't know using Primal magic hit that hard!” He said, with a panic in his voice, Maria's armlet turning red and beginning to ring to state Maria was unable to continue. He ran over, twisting her arm enough to see the writing on it. “Maria...” He said to himself, trying to remember her name, before reaching into her pocket to grab one of the cards.
“I'm sorry, Maria.” He said, pocketing the card and hastily making an exit from the room they fought him. Maria rolled onto her chest, pushing off of the floor as she coughed up even more blood. “THAT ASSHOLE.” Maria shouted, the sounds echoing about the room as she propped herself against a wall. The pain in her chest was so severe she couldn't even press her hand against it without shrieking in pain, so she wasn't even going to try. “You alright?” Gale said, manifesting back to float beside her. Maria felt more of her blood leak from her mouth as she spoke, her voice raspy as she struggled for air. “No I'm fucking not, Gale.. I think... that fucker... just broke my ribs.” She said between heavy breaths.
“He knew you were hurt, it looked like he just wanted to burn though the rest of your Pulse and finish the fight early.” He explained, Maria glaring up at him. “But you might have been so low on Pulse already you couldn't take the hit.” He observed, Maria lost the strength in her legs to stand, gently taking a couple of ragged breaths before looking up at him. “Well look who just became a detective..” Maria chuckled, before leaning back onto the concrete pillar she was resting against. The sharp sting turning into a dull throb, as long as she sat still, the pain wasn't going to get any worse. “Well... What's the plan now?” Gale asked, as Maria undid the zipper to her armor, revealing her black tanktop, as she tried to relieve the pressure on her ribs. “I-I'll be fine.. I need to lay here for a minute.” Maria said, trying to get in a comfortable position.
“You're acting a bit more reckless than usual today, is something wrong?” Gale asked her, perching on her shoulder as she felt her vision began to blur. “I overestimated myself again... Shit happens.” She tried to brush it off, as she heard a chuckle come from her peripheral vision. A man with a black hat, in Spectrum gear approached her. “Damn, Julen did a number on you.” He commented, before clutching at Maria's throat, slowly lifting her up on her feet, before going even higher to make her dangle off the ground, she grabbed his arms, squeezing him tightly on his arm as he reached down to dig into her pockets. “Card should be in here somewhere.” He muttered to himself, Maria too weak to do anything about it.
He grabbed her key card, letting go of Maria to make her dump to the floor in a mess. “And that's our meal ticket...” He said with a grin, bending down and drawing his blade, slicing her across the face with one of his dual daggers, blood leaking across the bridge of her nose and cheeks as he stood up with a chuckle. “Thanks bitch, see ya!” He said, before turning his back to her. Before Maria slowly stood back up one more time. “HEY!” She shouted at him, adjusting her chest a bit before drawing her blades once again, even if she was in a bloody heap.“You leave this room and I'm going to fucking kill you.” Maria nearly hissed at him with her still ragged voice. He turned to her with a sigh, one of his hands rubbing his forehead out of annoyance “And of course I get to rob the crazy one, do you have a deathwish?” He asked, frowning as he drew his second dagger to her.
“I ain't scared of you..” Maria replied, charging her broken body at him, but he responded by just stepping aside as Maria slashed overhead at him, falling right onto her face in a pool of her own blood. The tall, auburn haired man sighed to himself, slowly walking to her to scan her card into her own armlet, before taking it for himself. He then walked into the other room to leave the girl be. Julen, the boy who previously fought Maria leaned against a pillar on the other side of the door in the room he entered, approaching him with a disgusted look on his face. “I hope you're proud of yourself, Chris.” He reprimanded, but the taller boy just gripped onto Julen's shoulder, squeezing it hard enough for it to hurt. “Oh quit bitching, I just won us a promotion.” The taller man known as Chris replied, patting him on the shoulder as they walked off together to climb up the tower.
Because of Maria's armlet going off, and Jonah not being anywhere close to her at the time, two medical staff ran into the room about 15 minutes after the whole ordeal was over. One a woman, one a man. The woman rolled Maria onto her back, looking her over as she pulled out a small satchel of medical supplies. “What happened to you?” She asked, the man behind her calling in a crew to help extract her, even telling them to unlock the elevators to make getting her to a medical tent even quicker than carrying her down the stairs.
“Got robbed..” Maria replied, coughing more blood out as the woman began to wrap her chest up and tighten on the ribs so at least she could be taken down more safely. “I'm sorry, miss. Your exam is over.” She replied, gently standing up to talk with the man as they were prepared to take Maria to get help. Maria felt her eyes began to well up with tears until the bit her bottom lip so hard it bled once again. “Not again...” She growled to herself over her own failure, this was the second time she's failed her exam, and had to rely on someone else to finish for her.
“I don't want to be overly critical, Maria, but... clearly you doing things on your own isn't working out.” Gale added, suddenly pecking at her cheek once or twice like a bird looking for rocks to put in it's gizzard. “I know.” Maria replied, crying slightly, but maintaining enough composure to not dry heave or sniffle, she reached her hands up to her face, lightly running through her own hair to cover up her own tears. “I'm a colossal fuck up, I get it.” She muttered, slightly chuckling at the whole situation. “I just... screw up everything.” She added, breaking out into a weak laugh, like someone just told her a joke. Gale frowned at that, watching at the two technicians left the room to await for more help. “You know that isn't true.” Gale replied between Maria's strange laughing. She slowly slid her hands on the smooth, hard pavement, rolling onto her chest and slowly falling asleep from being overwhelmed in pain and exhaustion.
Maria quietly climbed up the central stairwell of the skyscraper, a metallic set of stairs wrapping on each wall, before turning each corner roughly every floor. The sound of her boots clanging against the metal of the stairs didn't help the dull throbbing Maria felt in her head. Even if the cuts on her lips and forehead stopped bleeding about half an hour ago, they were only just barely scabbed over and could be busted open once again. She gently rubbed her head to try and rid herself of the dizzy feeling she felt. She turned the corner to head up past the 20th floor, but she stopped only when she realized that the staircase had a massive iron plate welded to block the way.
“...Really?” She muttered to herself, slowly rearing her hand back to form the black carapace around her left arm. Maria's magic was kind of strange, once she did some research on it. She uses something called “Primal Magic.” Something that is similar to every person who has Ash tainting their bloodstream like hers. She can't use traditional elements, which means she'll always be at a disadvantage when it comes to range. Her abilities enhance her physical attributes, making her faster, stronger and more durable. But at a cost, it burns through her stamina extremely fast to use Magic. Typically in combat club, Maria can go about 25 minutes in a fight before her legs give out, but if she used her Primal magic, she can only go about 5.
She also can access various attributes of the Riftfallen who poisoned her, giving her phoenix like features such as talons, and what she could possibly assume to be wings at one point or an another. Maria quickly reared her fist back, smashing it straight through the wall as it was wet paper, before gripping onto it and slowly ripping it downward enough to get her second arm in, ripping a hole she could fit through in the metal slab welded to block her path. She took one step forward as the talons faded to smoke on both hands, dipping in only to realize at the last second the staircase was completely removed for this section, it was so clean it was almost intentional.
She crouched down, looking over the edge and grabbing a small piece of what she would assume to be rubble, tossing it over the side and watching it as it nearly careened 200 feet to the bottom of the stairwell. “...Yeah, not doing that again.” She said, standing back up and slowly backing through the hole in the metal sheet, turning and slowly pulling the door open leading into the rest of the building. As she walked through, she felt the strength fade from her legs, making her stumble forward. “I'm using this Primal thing too much...” She mused to herself, curling her fists tight and pushing them into her pockets as she stumbled until she forced herself up against the inner wall, sliding against it to help prop her weight and help her balance.
She slowly approached a door leading to a hallway, slowly pushing it open and stumbling her way through it. It was dimly lit as it didn't have any windows leading to the outside. She wasn't any closer to finding another stairwell and she knew it. She muttered quietly as Gale appeared by her side. “You really should talk to me more.” He remarked, Maria looking up at him as she turned to her side, walking backward to get a better look at him. “What, do you get off by the sound of my voice?” Maria asked him, but he just sighed in response. “No, I'm not even sure I'm capable of such a feat.” He stated as a fact Maria didn't want to imagine.
“When I'm in public I don't talk to you because I don't want to sound like I'm talking to myself... People think I'm insane enough, I don't want them to think I hear voices in my head.” She explained herself, he reached up and stroked under where his chin would be. “Fun thing to think about, what if you arejust imagining me as a coping mechanism, and really are insane?” He added, Maria just paused wide eyed in silence. “...Good point.” She admitted, continuing her backwards stride.
“Door.” He flatly stated, Maria tilting her head as she kept walking. “What?” She wondered aloud. “DOOR!” He shouted as Maria smacked her back and head into the door, as the door was slightly ajar, it popped open and she ended up falling flat on her back. “...Fuck.” She muttered to herself, a light chuckle echoing from across the room. The room was very stripped down, being just a couple of concrete pillars and concrete floors. Maria could only surmise that this room wasn't finished, or Spectrum is re-purposing it for some other option.
Standing above her and just across the room was an effeminate man. Effeminate enough to make Maria pause for a second to think about what she was looking at, he had long, somewhat styled black hair draping over his shoulders off to one side, a stripe in his hair dyed red. His black standard Spectrum armor, which was covered by a long, silver coat. And his gloves had metal that went over his fingers to form claws. Attached to his belt was oddly, an umbrella. It was a modern umbrella, not the typical wooden handled parasols you'd see in a picnic catalog, but with a more composite black grip.
His eyes were red, and his skin was somewhat dark, indicators he was also infected with Ash Syndrome at one point of his life. “Greetings.” He said softly, slowly pulling his umbrella and placing it on the ground so he could lean on it. The fabric was a simple red color with white swirls on it. “All you have to say?” Maria said, dusting herself off and trying to recompose herself from the worst door entry she's ever taken part in.
“Do you always do that?” He asked, placing the umbrella on his shoulders as Maria grumbled, looking away. “No... It was an accident.” She tried to play it off a bit, but he shook his head. He didn't have a smug look on his face... Actually, Maria had no damn idea the look on his face. “You know the rules.” He said, twisting the handle of his umbrella to reveal that inside the handle, at the press of a button, was a long sword. He drew it, spinning it in his hands and brandishing it toward her. “A fight, then..” Maria said, taking a deep breath as she slowly drew both of her blades to meet his stance with hers. He inspected her face, noticing the wounds, her lack of balance in her stance, along with her deep breaths.
“You're wounded.” He observed, showing a strange lack of using too many words. “I'll let you pass, if you wish.” He offered, lowering his blade, but Maria just growled, clenching her blades tighter. “None of that chivalrous bull crap, please.” Maria bounced his offer off, taking one or two steps forward to only realize her knees shook from her lowered stance, she had no power... That was usually her major advantage, her explosiveness. “Well, how many cards do you have on you?” He asked, Maria dug into her pocket, pulling them out and placing them between her thumb and index to show she was brandishing two.
“I have only one to wager, but are you sure you have a partner I can fight...?” He asked, somewhat concerned. It was less that he had to fight a girl and more he had to fight a wounded one that was bothering him. “I want to do this myself...” Maria muttered, scanning one of the cards to put it on the line, and he reluctantly accepted the duel with his own wager, keeping his Parasol strapped to his side, his other hand raised in the air, the metal plating on his gloves having a strange cat's paw pattern. “Uhh... Dude. Why the cat gloves?” Maria asked, dropping his guard. He just shook his head a couple of times, not using the opportunity to attack. “I like cats.” He added, before charging at Maria.
He was clearly much fresher than Maria was, his movements were sharp and on point, even if he seemingly lacked power thanks to his somewhat light 5'7 frame. Their blades clashed, Maria's faltering strength able to still match him in a clash. “You need a better battle cry...” She mentioned, since the fight hasn't really picked up yet. “Like... 'Let's do this' or 'Stabbing time,' I like cats is kind of shitty.” She criticized, but he just sighed, breaking the clash and taking a step back. “Kind of a bad time, don't you think...?” He mentioned, before launching a deep stabbing motion at her with his narrow, but sturdy blade, Maria's legs only kicked in at the last second, stumbling to the side and rolling on her shoulder. But by the time she stood up, he leaped onto one of her shoulders, his other boot kicking her square in the face. Maria gasped, falling onto her back as he spun around to strike another blow, but Maria quickly bashed it aside with one of her arms. Sparks began to fly from his blade scraping the concrete. Maria rolled away from him, quickly leaping onto her feet until one of her legs buckled, forcing her on one knee.
He responded by calmly waiting for her, hands crossed together, his blade resting on his shoulder, almost as if he was hesitating. “Come on, man...” Maria complained, shouting to him as she stood back up, pointing one of her swords directly at him. “Don't half ass this unless you want your head cut off! Don't goof around in combat...” Maria shouted at him to get him to be more serious. His eyes began to glow as he lowered his stance. “So be it.” He said, breaking into a charge at her, his rapier tucked against his chest as Maria broke into her own pulse assisted charge straight at him.
Maria crossed her blades downward in an X formation to try and force him to either dodge to the side or force him to take the hit, but he tucked his head just past it, sliding on his knees and forming his own Primal armor around one of his hands, smashing his fist right into her stomach. A dull crack echoed throughout the room as Maria felt a sharp stabbing pain in her chest. Her entire stomach and chest tightened as she bent down into the fist. “G-ggh..” She rattled in pain as she realized she couldn't speak. Blood beginning to splatter from her mouth and onto the ground as she collapsed over his fist, buckling her knees and collapsing to the floor to make another raspy gurgling sound.
“Oh no...” He winced, taking a couple of steps back in shock as he might have just shattered her ribs with his strike. He dropped down onto his knees, rolling Maria onto her back. Her mouth was open, but her tongue and mouth was red from the blood leaking from it. “I uhh... didn't know using Primal magic hit that hard!” He said, with a panic in his voice, Maria's armlet turning red and beginning to ring to state Maria was unable to continue. He ran over, twisting her arm enough to see the writing on it. “Maria...” He said to himself, trying to remember her name, before reaching into her pocket to grab one of the cards.
“I'm sorry, Maria.” He said, pocketing the card and hastily making an exit from the room they fought him. Maria rolled onto her chest, pushing off of the floor as she coughed up even more blood. “THAT ASSHOLE.” Maria shouted, the sounds echoing about the room as she propped herself against a wall. The pain in her chest was so severe she couldn't even press her hand against it without shrieking in pain, so she wasn't even going to try. “You alright?” Gale said, manifesting back to float beside her. Maria felt more of her blood leak from her mouth as she spoke, her voice raspy as she struggled for air. “No I'm fucking not, Gale.. I think... that fucker... just broke my ribs.” She said between heavy breaths.
“He knew you were hurt, it looked like he just wanted to burn though the rest of your Pulse and finish the fight early.” He explained, Maria glaring up at him. “But you might have been so low on Pulse already you couldn't take the hit.” He observed, Maria lost the strength in her legs to stand, gently taking a couple of ragged breaths before looking up at him. “Well look who just became a detective..” Maria chuckled, before leaning back onto the concrete pillar she was resting against. The sharp sting turning into a dull throb, as long as she sat still, the pain wasn't going to get any worse. “Well... What's the plan now?” Gale asked, as Maria undid the zipper to her armor, revealing her black tanktop, as she tried to relieve the pressure on her ribs. “I-I'll be fine.. I need to lay here for a minute.” Maria said, trying to get in a comfortable position.
“You're acting a bit more reckless than usual today, is something wrong?” Gale asked her, perching on her shoulder as she felt her vision began to blur. “I overestimated myself again... Shit happens.” She tried to brush it off, as she heard a chuckle come from her peripheral vision. A man with a black hat, in Spectrum gear approached her. “Damn, Julen did a number on you.” He commented, before clutching at Maria's throat, slowly lifting her up on her feet, before going even higher to make her dangle off the ground, she grabbed his arms, squeezing him tightly on his arm as he reached down to dig into her pockets. “Card should be in here somewhere.” He muttered to himself, Maria too weak to do anything about it.
He grabbed her key card, letting go of Maria to make her dump to the floor in a mess. “And that's our meal ticket...” He said with a grin, bending down and drawing his blade, slicing her across the face with one of his dual daggers, blood leaking across the bridge of her nose and cheeks as he stood up with a chuckle. “Thanks bitch, see ya!” He said, before turning his back to her. Before Maria slowly stood back up one more time. “HEY!” She shouted at him, adjusting her chest a bit before drawing her blades once again, even if she was in a bloody heap.“You leave this room and I'm going to fucking kill you.” Maria nearly hissed at him with her still ragged voice. He turned to her with a sigh, one of his hands rubbing his forehead out of annoyance “And of course I get to rob the crazy one, do you have a deathwish?” He asked, frowning as he drew his second dagger to her.
“I ain't scared of you..” Maria replied, charging her broken body at him, but he responded by just stepping aside as Maria slashed overhead at him, falling right onto her face in a pool of her own blood. The tall, auburn haired man sighed to himself, slowly walking to her to scan her card into her own armlet, before taking it for himself. He then walked into the other room to leave the girl be. Julen, the boy who previously fought Maria leaned against a pillar on the other side of the door in the room he entered, approaching him with a disgusted look on his face. “I hope you're proud of yourself, Chris.” He reprimanded, but the taller boy just gripped onto Julen's shoulder, squeezing it hard enough for it to hurt. “Oh quit bitching, I just won us a promotion.” The taller man known as Chris replied, patting him on the shoulder as they walked off together to climb up the tower.
Because of Maria's armlet going off, and Jonah not being anywhere close to her at the time, two medical staff ran into the room about 15 minutes after the whole ordeal was over. One a woman, one a man. The woman rolled Maria onto her back, looking her over as she pulled out a small satchel of medical supplies. “What happened to you?” She asked, the man behind her calling in a crew to help extract her, even telling them to unlock the elevators to make getting her to a medical tent even quicker than carrying her down the stairs.
“Got robbed..” Maria replied, coughing more blood out as the woman began to wrap her chest up and tighten on the ribs so at least she could be taken down more safely. “I'm sorry, miss. Your exam is over.” She replied, gently standing up to talk with the man as they were prepared to take Maria to get help. Maria felt her eyes began to well up with tears until the bit her bottom lip so hard it bled once again. “Not again...” She growled to herself over her own failure, this was the second time she's failed her exam, and had to rely on someone else to finish for her.
“I don't want to be overly critical, Maria, but... clearly you doing things on your own isn't working out.” Gale added, suddenly pecking at her cheek once or twice like a bird looking for rocks to put in it's gizzard. “I know.” Maria replied, crying slightly, but maintaining enough composure to not dry heave or sniffle, she reached her hands up to her face, lightly running through her own hair to cover up her own tears. “I'm a colossal fuck up, I get it.” She muttered, slightly chuckling at the whole situation. “I just... screw up everything.” She added, breaking out into a weak laugh, like someone just told her a joke. Gale frowned at that, watching at the two technicians left the room to await for more help. “You know that isn't true.” Gale replied between Maria's strange laughing. She slowly slid her hands on the smooth, hard pavement, rolling onto her chest and slowly falling asleep from being overwhelmed in pain and exhaustion.
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