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| The infodump. |
Act 2, Chapter 8: The Tower, Part
3
Maria and her team turned a corner onto the street of the biggest skyscraper in the city. It was roughly 800 feet in height, and since Maria was bored, she counted the floors as she approached. She counted about 80, but admittedly because the outer walls of the skyscraper were simmering with windows upon windows to give it a dark mirror effect along the whole thing. It was wider at the bottom than it was at the top, and had a spire jutting out about 100 feet into the air on top of the already tall building. Earlier, the sun was constantly glinting off the extremely reflective building glass curtains they called walls, forcing Maria to walk half of the way with her hands over her face so she wasn't blinded by the lights which have thankfully subsided.
As they got closer, they noticed a group of people nearing 50 in size standing shoulder to shoulder, including the familiar long black hair draping over her shoulders, along with her huge claymore strapped to the back of Morgan, along with the tight golden colored bun and spear of Robin standing somewhere in the group. They were standing shoulder to shoulder and looking at a stage, which had a banner made of metal draped over it with. “Welcome, students!” Written in some boring new age font they probably got some schmuck to laboriously make and plaster it onto the sign.
Maria's team were about to enter the crowd, as a man appearing in his thirties, wearing Spectrum colors on his beret and jacket walked up to them whilst looking at his watch. “You're about 15 minutes before the cut off point, go stand in the group and wait for the announcement.” He said, Lily nodding for Maria as she walked right past him as he spoke in a very rude manner. Maria scooted ahead in the pack, dipping between the teenagers and young adults to stand beside Morgan. “When you'd get here?” Maria asked her, looking up and down at her and noticing the cuts on Morgan's face, along with a couple of wooden splinters left over on her black, long sleeved jacket.
“10 minutes ago, Maria.” She responded, not in the greatest of moods, but Maria wasn't the problem.. for once. “Did you have a fist fight with a tree?” Maria asked, Morgan lightly sighing and crossing her arms together as she looked at the redhead. “A door, actually.” She retorted, Maria blinked a couple of times, raising a brow. “...You won, right?” Maria asked flatly, Morgan stifling a light chuckle as her lips curled back for a light smile. “Didn't stand a chance.” She replied jokingly, Maria chuckling a bit as Lily approached from behind, patting Maria on the shoulder as she walked past. “Let's get closer to the front.” She said as she passed by, Morgan nodded to Maria for her to go, as Maria turned to follow her teammate.
They waited as the group awkwardly shuffled for space as a man climbed up the stairs and onto the platform to place a microphone, checking the cables and speakers just to make sure it worked. A woman climbed up onto the platform as well, with a short bob cut of black hair and a pair of glasses underneath a red beret. She was wearing a long, white dress down slightly past her knees and shoes instead of high heels. She cleared her throat, patting her finger against the mic. “...This thing on?” She asked, but only got loud feedback. She covered her ears until it settled down, folding her arms and scooting the microphone stand closer to her so she could speak.
“I would like to greet all of the first year students who do not know exactly know who I am.” She started, her voice was low and commanding, even if she was clearly not comfortable in the dress they gave her for this ceremony. “I am High Councilor Andrea Lakewood, I am the current head of all instances of Spectrum and will be overseeing this entire promotion event.” She introduced herself formally, Maria quickly looking up from being distracted to get a good look at her. “I want to congratulate all of you for getting to the point where you can potentially upgrade to an E rank or higher.” She continued, crossing her arms over each other, rolling her neck and shoulders to make them pop slightly. “We've designed this tower for the exclusive purpose of testing our students in a controlled environment. Using Riftfallen or holding this in public are both bad ideas, so we will be using this facility from now on. And you're the first bunch we're going to test this on.” She said, gesturing out to the crowd of 48 students. She was expecting at least some applause, but every single one was just staring at her like someone waved a feather wand in front of the cat. “I'm assuming you want to know how this works.” She got back onto the main point of her speech, reaching her hand out. As one of the men handed her what appeared to be a small, black credit card sized card. “We want to filter out the very highest candidates from the inexperienced, but because using real Riftfallen is both dangerous and stupid, you will be fighting your own kin.” She continued, holding the card up in front of her.
“As you may have noticed as you all arrived in Silverton, Your instructors handed your team two pairs of small, black, cards.” She stated, slowly spinning it between her fingers as she paced, unhooking the mic from the stand and pulling it with her as it was wireless. “The reason why all four of you didn't receive a card is complementary to what this exam is trying to do, filter you down to the very best, the ones we can be confident about taking on more difficult missions.” She added, the students showing reactions from pulling out their cards to inspect them, all the way to not giving a damn. “There are 24 cards, and 48 students, you will be separated into teams of 2 after you distribute the cards between your team however you may wish. Your goal is to get to the very top of the tower with 2 cards between the two members of your team.” She stated, turning to the crowd once again.
“Once you distribute the cards, you will have until 6 PM to gather the right amount of cards and make it to the top of the tower. How do you win these cards, you ask?” She said, as another technician slid an armlet over her left arm. She quickly scanned the card over it and an audible chirping sound was heard. “You must register your cards to be wagered in a one on one fight, if you lose, they can scan your card to indicate that they have won the wager.” She said, sliding the armlet off and continuing to hold the card between her index and thumb.
“How do we prevent theft? Any card that is registered must be scanned twice, one by the owner, and one by the victor. One to wipe the memory, and one to rewrite it. Your bio-signals are in the armlet and will be able to tell if you're scanning it under your own will. Anyone caught stealing a card without winning it in a wager will be disbarred from taking this test for another year, we have over 200 security cameras inside of this tower... We know when you steal them.” She added to try and dissuade people from committing theft.
“Once you split into teams of two, any team you see will be a team you have to challenge. Be it your friends, or family. A wager is a wager and this rule must be respected.” She continued, Maria glancing over at the rest of her team as Andrea continued her overly long announcement. “If you were wondering about why your weapons were acquired by your instructors, modified and handed back to you can easily be explained as well.” She mentioned, reaching down to grab a man's sword in the front row, sliding her finger along the blade as she spoke.
“Typically, Pulse is able to protect you from harm, but if it ever drops unexpectedly, this could cause grievous harm to our test takers, and we're not here to kill any of you. You may be roughed up, but you didn't come here to die, nor lose a limb.” She said, handing the sword back to the boy in front. “Along with this, your Armlet has been altered to signal the fight to stop if your Pulse fails, or you receive a minor injury, instead of your life being in danger. That being said, anyone who is willing to fight past the signal on the Armlet to stop, will be sent to prison and barred from Spectrum forever.” She warned sternly of the consequences of intentionally harming another in this sterile test environment. “This test will begin at 10PM, which will be in roughly one hour. You will need to collect a minimum of 2 cards before you get to the top, if you only are able to get one, you will not be promoted, and if you do not have any at all? You will be sent back to basic training. If you're wondering why you have 8 hours to get to the top of a nearly 900 foot building...? You'll need it.” She said, turning away and walking back down the stairs off the platform and over to the side, as an awkward looking technician walked up to the speaker. “You will spend this hour talking strategy with your team, by the way.” He said, clearly nervous in front of this small crowd. “We also have free waffles for anyone who had to skip breakfast thanks to how early this test was going to take part, enjoy!” He said, before attempting, but failing turning off the mic and running off, the microphone smacking onto the ground with MASSIVE feedback.
“Why does everyone have to be so grandiose?” Robin muttered to herself, but Morgan turned away and slowly walked off. “I don't know about you, but I want waffles.” She said, ignoring what Robin had to say. Slowly, the students funneled to a small truck set up with a small team of cooks, making waffles in a storm in little cardboard treys, a small cup of syrup to dip or pour onto them. An arrangement of benches on other side of the building offered a place to sit. Maria smacked both her hands against the table to get her teams attention before she spoke.
“Alright guys, let's plan this shit.” Maria stated, her three companions looking at her, when the two cards they owned were place on the table. “So the rule is both teams of two have to get to the top of the tower with two of these cards.” She continued, Caleb looking at them, taking one into his hand to look at the front and back. “Well that gives me two ideas, actually.” Caleb stated, placing the cards back next to each other on the table, pointing to both of them with his gloved fingers. “Each of us can take one card, meaning we both have the same chance to win a couple of fights and be a cinch for the promotion.” He said, before sliding the cards ontop of each other. “Or we could hedge our bets, give one team two cards and a safe ticket to success, while the other team tries to win two cards.” He explained, Lily raising her brow a bit at the second option. “Why would we do the second option?” She asked him.
Maria scooted up a bit, waffle hanging from her mouth as she was mid bite. “I'm assuming if we can get more than the 2 required keys, we'll probably receive some kind of award for it.” Maria mentioned. “And you have to be a pretty confident person to try and start from 0 keys, even if giving one team two means we're pretty likely to succeed at least marginally.” He added to her deduction quickly, Maria looked across the table at Jonah, turning her head to look at Lily as well. “So how confident are we?” She asked, Jonah raising his hand and awkwardly rubbing his shoulder. “I'm not.” He muttered, Caleb thumping his fist on the table. “I wouldn't mind having to win two fights, it would even help Jonah and whoever he's with out.” He said with a smile, Lily leaned up and scratched her chin as she was finished with her food. “So who wants to go with Jonah?” She asked, as Maria slid the two cards over to him. “I think you should go with Jonah, Lily.” Maria ordered, Lily raising her brow some at that statement.
“Why?” Lily asked, wanting to know why Maria thinks she needs both cards. “Well, think about it.” Maria said, finishing her own waffle and quickly taking a shot of syrup from the little plastic cup. “You have two keys so all you need to do is make it up this building, Jonah is smart, he can plan out routes for you two to take and avoid combat. You're agile, so you could easily make the slip on anyone you fight.” Maria explained, but Lily clenched her fist. “Why do you think I need to run away?” She asked, clearly annoyed. “Well... Caleb and I were a team, getting two cards would be pretty easy, we're both pretty tough fighters.” Maria said, trying to explain herself, Lily, now frustrated just slammed her fists on the table as she stood up.
“Don't underestimate me, damn it.” She complained, Maria furrowed her brow and stood up as well. “I wasn't saying th-” Maria tried to explain, but Lily cut her off. “No, that's EXACTLY what you're doing. You're saying I can't hold my own compared to you, and you want to give me a handicap to make sure I succeed.” Lily argued, Maria frowning a bit and sighing. Lily grabbed a card, throwing it in her face, taking one for herself as she stormed off. “I'm not a joke like you think I am, Maria. See you at the tower.” She stated, pocketing one as Caleb and Jonah just looked awkwardly at her as she walked off. Maria sighed, dropping back into her chair and crossing her arms. “What the fuck was that?” Maria asked, Jonah sighing a bit. “I don't know, should I go get her?” He asked, Maria sighed a bit, raising her hand to him. “Just... don't.” Maria mentioned, still confused.
Caleb stood out from his seat. “I'll join her team, I guess.” He mentioned, since he might as well pick a side. Walking off as Jonah pocketed the other card. “I hope she'll be alright.” Jonah mentioned, standing up and strapping his shield on. “She'll get over it.” Maria replied as she picked up the remaining card and put it into one of the front pockets of her coat, then grabbing her swords and sliding them into the sheathes on her back. They went to the front of the tower and head inside the double doors, where a technician met them both. “Follow me, you two.” He said in a friendly tone, turning and gesturing with a hand. They listened to his orders as he lead them into the elevator, the old timey type with bars instead of the metallic double doors.
“The test will begin soon, If either of you had any questions, you better ask them now.” He mentioned, walking up and pressing a button to make the elevator begin to move. Jonah looked up and saw a monitor, counting down to the beginning of the test, currently counting just over three minutes. “Can you run the rules by us again?” He asked, hoping for another explanation since he didn't get the specifics from Captain Lakewood. “Alright, but I'm only going to run this by you one time,” He replied, before explaining.
“You will be placed in a random floor between 1 and 6, meaning that on each floor will be 4 teams, each one for the cardinal directions of the elevators have been placed. You two are currently in the east elevator on floor three.” He mentioned, pointing to the fact the elevator has stopped climbing a couple of floors up. “Any team you come across, and come into eye contact with, you will come into a confrontation. You may choose to accept or decline a fight, but if you accept, you will both wager 1 of your cards by scanning it with your armlet.” He mentioned, raising his arm and pointing to the very armlet.
Maria and her team turned a corner onto the street of the biggest skyscraper in the city. It was roughly 800 feet in height, and since Maria was bored, she counted the floors as she approached. She counted about 80, but admittedly because the outer walls of the skyscraper were simmering with windows upon windows to give it a dark mirror effect along the whole thing. It was wider at the bottom than it was at the top, and had a spire jutting out about 100 feet into the air on top of the already tall building. Earlier, the sun was constantly glinting off the extremely reflective building glass curtains they called walls, forcing Maria to walk half of the way with her hands over her face so she wasn't blinded by the lights which have thankfully subsided.
As they got closer, they noticed a group of people nearing 50 in size standing shoulder to shoulder, including the familiar long black hair draping over her shoulders, along with her huge claymore strapped to the back of Morgan, along with the tight golden colored bun and spear of Robin standing somewhere in the group. They were standing shoulder to shoulder and looking at a stage, which had a banner made of metal draped over it with. “Welcome, students!” Written in some boring new age font they probably got some schmuck to laboriously make and plaster it onto the sign.
Maria's team were about to enter the crowd, as a man appearing in his thirties, wearing Spectrum colors on his beret and jacket walked up to them whilst looking at his watch. “You're about 15 minutes before the cut off point, go stand in the group and wait for the announcement.” He said, Lily nodding for Maria as she walked right past him as he spoke in a very rude manner. Maria scooted ahead in the pack, dipping between the teenagers and young adults to stand beside Morgan. “When you'd get here?” Maria asked her, looking up and down at her and noticing the cuts on Morgan's face, along with a couple of wooden splinters left over on her black, long sleeved jacket.
“10 minutes ago, Maria.” She responded, not in the greatest of moods, but Maria wasn't the problem.. for once. “Did you have a fist fight with a tree?” Maria asked, Morgan lightly sighing and crossing her arms together as she looked at the redhead. “A door, actually.” She retorted, Maria blinked a couple of times, raising a brow. “...You won, right?” Maria asked flatly, Morgan stifling a light chuckle as her lips curled back for a light smile. “Didn't stand a chance.” She replied jokingly, Maria chuckling a bit as Lily approached from behind, patting Maria on the shoulder as she walked past. “Let's get closer to the front.” She said as she passed by, Morgan nodded to Maria for her to go, as Maria turned to follow her teammate.
They waited as the group awkwardly shuffled for space as a man climbed up the stairs and onto the platform to place a microphone, checking the cables and speakers just to make sure it worked. A woman climbed up onto the platform as well, with a short bob cut of black hair and a pair of glasses underneath a red beret. She was wearing a long, white dress down slightly past her knees and shoes instead of high heels. She cleared her throat, patting her finger against the mic. “...This thing on?” She asked, but only got loud feedback. She covered her ears until it settled down, folding her arms and scooting the microphone stand closer to her so she could speak.
“I would like to greet all of the first year students who do not know exactly know who I am.” She started, her voice was low and commanding, even if she was clearly not comfortable in the dress they gave her for this ceremony. “I am High Councilor Andrea Lakewood, I am the current head of all instances of Spectrum and will be overseeing this entire promotion event.” She introduced herself formally, Maria quickly looking up from being distracted to get a good look at her. “I want to congratulate all of you for getting to the point where you can potentially upgrade to an E rank or higher.” She continued, crossing her arms over each other, rolling her neck and shoulders to make them pop slightly. “We've designed this tower for the exclusive purpose of testing our students in a controlled environment. Using Riftfallen or holding this in public are both bad ideas, so we will be using this facility from now on. And you're the first bunch we're going to test this on.” She said, gesturing out to the crowd of 48 students. She was expecting at least some applause, but every single one was just staring at her like someone waved a feather wand in front of the cat. “I'm assuming you want to know how this works.” She got back onto the main point of her speech, reaching her hand out. As one of the men handed her what appeared to be a small, black credit card sized card. “We want to filter out the very highest candidates from the inexperienced, but because using real Riftfallen is both dangerous and stupid, you will be fighting your own kin.” She continued, holding the card up in front of her.
“As you may have noticed as you all arrived in Silverton, Your instructors handed your team two pairs of small, black, cards.” She stated, slowly spinning it between her fingers as she paced, unhooking the mic from the stand and pulling it with her as it was wireless. “The reason why all four of you didn't receive a card is complementary to what this exam is trying to do, filter you down to the very best, the ones we can be confident about taking on more difficult missions.” She added, the students showing reactions from pulling out their cards to inspect them, all the way to not giving a damn. “There are 24 cards, and 48 students, you will be separated into teams of 2 after you distribute the cards between your team however you may wish. Your goal is to get to the very top of the tower with 2 cards between the two members of your team.” She stated, turning to the crowd once again.
“Once you distribute the cards, you will have until 6 PM to gather the right amount of cards and make it to the top of the tower. How do you win these cards, you ask?” She said, as another technician slid an armlet over her left arm. She quickly scanned the card over it and an audible chirping sound was heard. “You must register your cards to be wagered in a one on one fight, if you lose, they can scan your card to indicate that they have won the wager.” She said, sliding the armlet off and continuing to hold the card between her index and thumb.
“How do we prevent theft? Any card that is registered must be scanned twice, one by the owner, and one by the victor. One to wipe the memory, and one to rewrite it. Your bio-signals are in the armlet and will be able to tell if you're scanning it under your own will. Anyone caught stealing a card without winning it in a wager will be disbarred from taking this test for another year, we have over 200 security cameras inside of this tower... We know when you steal them.” She added to try and dissuade people from committing theft.
“Once you split into teams of two, any team you see will be a team you have to challenge. Be it your friends, or family. A wager is a wager and this rule must be respected.” She continued, Maria glancing over at the rest of her team as Andrea continued her overly long announcement. “If you were wondering about why your weapons were acquired by your instructors, modified and handed back to you can easily be explained as well.” She mentioned, reaching down to grab a man's sword in the front row, sliding her finger along the blade as she spoke.
“Typically, Pulse is able to protect you from harm, but if it ever drops unexpectedly, this could cause grievous harm to our test takers, and we're not here to kill any of you. You may be roughed up, but you didn't come here to die, nor lose a limb.” She said, handing the sword back to the boy in front. “Along with this, your Armlet has been altered to signal the fight to stop if your Pulse fails, or you receive a minor injury, instead of your life being in danger. That being said, anyone who is willing to fight past the signal on the Armlet to stop, will be sent to prison and barred from Spectrum forever.” She warned sternly of the consequences of intentionally harming another in this sterile test environment. “This test will begin at 10PM, which will be in roughly one hour. You will need to collect a minimum of 2 cards before you get to the top, if you only are able to get one, you will not be promoted, and if you do not have any at all? You will be sent back to basic training. If you're wondering why you have 8 hours to get to the top of a nearly 900 foot building...? You'll need it.” She said, turning away and walking back down the stairs off the platform and over to the side, as an awkward looking technician walked up to the speaker. “You will spend this hour talking strategy with your team, by the way.” He said, clearly nervous in front of this small crowd. “We also have free waffles for anyone who had to skip breakfast thanks to how early this test was going to take part, enjoy!” He said, before attempting, but failing turning off the mic and running off, the microphone smacking onto the ground with MASSIVE feedback.
“Why does everyone have to be so grandiose?” Robin muttered to herself, but Morgan turned away and slowly walked off. “I don't know about you, but I want waffles.” She said, ignoring what Robin had to say. Slowly, the students funneled to a small truck set up with a small team of cooks, making waffles in a storm in little cardboard treys, a small cup of syrup to dip or pour onto them. An arrangement of benches on other side of the building offered a place to sit. Maria smacked both her hands against the table to get her teams attention before she spoke.
“Alright guys, let's plan this shit.” Maria stated, her three companions looking at her, when the two cards they owned were place on the table. “So the rule is both teams of two have to get to the top of the tower with two of these cards.” She continued, Caleb looking at them, taking one into his hand to look at the front and back. “Well that gives me two ideas, actually.” Caleb stated, placing the cards back next to each other on the table, pointing to both of them with his gloved fingers. “Each of us can take one card, meaning we both have the same chance to win a couple of fights and be a cinch for the promotion.” He said, before sliding the cards ontop of each other. “Or we could hedge our bets, give one team two cards and a safe ticket to success, while the other team tries to win two cards.” He explained, Lily raising her brow a bit at the second option. “Why would we do the second option?” She asked him.
Maria scooted up a bit, waffle hanging from her mouth as she was mid bite. “I'm assuming if we can get more than the 2 required keys, we'll probably receive some kind of award for it.” Maria mentioned. “And you have to be a pretty confident person to try and start from 0 keys, even if giving one team two means we're pretty likely to succeed at least marginally.” He added to her deduction quickly, Maria looked across the table at Jonah, turning her head to look at Lily as well. “So how confident are we?” She asked, Jonah raising his hand and awkwardly rubbing his shoulder. “I'm not.” He muttered, Caleb thumping his fist on the table. “I wouldn't mind having to win two fights, it would even help Jonah and whoever he's with out.” He said with a smile, Lily leaned up and scratched her chin as she was finished with her food. “So who wants to go with Jonah?” She asked, as Maria slid the two cards over to him. “I think you should go with Jonah, Lily.” Maria ordered, Lily raising her brow some at that statement.
“Why?” Lily asked, wanting to know why Maria thinks she needs both cards. “Well, think about it.” Maria said, finishing her own waffle and quickly taking a shot of syrup from the little plastic cup. “You have two keys so all you need to do is make it up this building, Jonah is smart, he can plan out routes for you two to take and avoid combat. You're agile, so you could easily make the slip on anyone you fight.” Maria explained, but Lily clenched her fist. “Why do you think I need to run away?” She asked, clearly annoyed. “Well... Caleb and I were a team, getting two cards would be pretty easy, we're both pretty tough fighters.” Maria said, trying to explain herself, Lily, now frustrated just slammed her fists on the table as she stood up.
“Don't underestimate me, damn it.” She complained, Maria furrowed her brow and stood up as well. “I wasn't saying th-” Maria tried to explain, but Lily cut her off. “No, that's EXACTLY what you're doing. You're saying I can't hold my own compared to you, and you want to give me a handicap to make sure I succeed.” Lily argued, Maria frowning a bit and sighing. Lily grabbed a card, throwing it in her face, taking one for herself as she stormed off. “I'm not a joke like you think I am, Maria. See you at the tower.” She stated, pocketing one as Caleb and Jonah just looked awkwardly at her as she walked off. Maria sighed, dropping back into her chair and crossing her arms. “What the fuck was that?” Maria asked, Jonah sighing a bit. “I don't know, should I go get her?” He asked, Maria sighed a bit, raising her hand to him. “Just... don't.” Maria mentioned, still confused.
Caleb stood out from his seat. “I'll join her team, I guess.” He mentioned, since he might as well pick a side. Walking off as Jonah pocketed the other card. “I hope she'll be alright.” Jonah mentioned, standing up and strapping his shield on. “She'll get over it.” Maria replied as she picked up the remaining card and put it into one of the front pockets of her coat, then grabbing her swords and sliding them into the sheathes on her back. They went to the front of the tower and head inside the double doors, where a technician met them both. “Follow me, you two.” He said in a friendly tone, turning and gesturing with a hand. They listened to his orders as he lead them into the elevator, the old timey type with bars instead of the metallic double doors.
“The test will begin soon, If either of you had any questions, you better ask them now.” He mentioned, walking up and pressing a button to make the elevator begin to move. Jonah looked up and saw a monitor, counting down to the beginning of the test, currently counting just over three minutes. “Can you run the rules by us again?” He asked, hoping for another explanation since he didn't get the specifics from Captain Lakewood. “Alright, but I'm only going to run this by you one time,” He replied, before explaining.
“You will be placed in a random floor between 1 and 6, meaning that on each floor will be 4 teams, each one for the cardinal directions of the elevators have been placed. You two are currently in the east elevator on floor three.” He mentioned, pointing to the fact the elevator has stopped climbing a couple of floors up. “Any team you come across, and come into eye contact with, you will come into a confrontation. You may choose to accept or decline a fight, but if you accept, you will both wager 1 of your cards by scanning it with your armlet.” He mentioned, raising his arm and pointing to the very armlet.
“The fight ends when you hear the signal on the Armlet telling you to stop, any strikes or attacks after this will send agents to stop and remove you from this test, if you reach the top with 0 cards, or if you cannot reach the top after 8 hours, you will be sent back to basic training.” He said, a chill going down Jonah's spine as he realized how frustrating it would be to go back to basic training. He would get his pay cut once again, and would lose all progress he's made so far. “If you only get one card, you will not be promoted, but can take this test again next semester. If you get two cards, you will be promoted 1 rank, and if you collect more than 2, you will be promoted 2 instead of one.” He finally explained, Maria's eyes going wide as she realized she could potentially over achieve and get a pay raise if she did well enough.
“Let's get started, then!” Maria shouted out of excitement, the man subtly rubbing an ear as her rough voice echoed in the small elevator and into the hallway just outside the room. The beeping began on the monitor as it counted down from three. When it hit zero, the doors opened, Maria and Jonah walking out into the gaudy carpeted hallways of the big office building. “We're gonna have a lot of stairs to climb.” Jonah muttered to himself, Maria scouting ahead as she turned the corner. He realized he was getting left behind and quickly ran up to stand shoulder to shoulder with her.
“They said there are 6 other people on this floor, right?” He asked Maria, who just gently nodded, hands in her pockets as she looked around. There were doors upon doors of offices, it was getting almost hypnotic. But they needed to find a staircase to quickly make their way up to the next floor. “Well, what about it?” Maria asked, noticing he didn't continue what he was saying. “Well... how likely do you think it's going to be that we're going to run into someone else?” He asked her, She only shrugged her shoulders, she didn't know. “ELEVATOR!” Maria shouted, running up to it and pressing her hands against the barred doors, looking for the button to actually open the damn thing.
“The wiring to the elevator door was removed.” Said a familiar voice to Maria's right side, a girl with roughly cut platinum blonde hair, a slight scowl on her typically pretty face, hand on the hilt of her blade. “Lily?” Maria asked, confused as she turned to her teammate. “How did you find us so fast?” Jonah asked as Maria's hands hooked into the rusted metal of the non-functioning elevator. “One out of six floors means that statistically I had roughly a 17 percent chance to come across you on the same floor, I got lucky... and you also happen to be very loud. As soon as I heard your voice, I knew you would be close by.” She said, with a light smile. Maria turned to her, lightly stretching her shoulder out in a typical Maria-esque gesture.
“You know the rules, right? If we make contact, we have to fight, unless both parties opt out.” Jonah asked Lily, Lily drew her sword from her sheathe with a light ringing as the metal dragged against the edge, holding it on her side as she spoke. “I know, and I want to fight one of you.” Lily mentioned, Maria lowered her brow, stepping forward and grabbing Lily by the wrist. “Wait, are you serious?” She asked, out of confusion. “I know what I want.” Lily replied, tugging her wrist away from Maria to force her to let go. “Why? Wouldn't it make more sense to just ignore each other and take out the competition?” Maria asked Lily, though Lily just looked away from Maria for a second before turning to glare at her again.
“I need to do this.” She replied, before slowly walking past both Maria and Jonah, looking at a door to make sure no one would interrupt. She heard the clanging of blades echo throughout the halls as a fight was already happening on the same floor. “Ever since the leader of Silent Fall had his goons beat me up and lob off my hair... I felt weak.” She explained, looking at the ground as her hand ran along the dull edge of her rapier. “Like I wasn't in control, like I don't deserve to be here.” She said, before turning to face Maria and Jonah. “I felt jealous of you, even if I never told anyone, I let it seethe... and boil deep down, because I felt like you considered me your equal, and you were there to support me.” She continued, spinning to face Maria, pointing her blade at her.
“But the very conversation made me realize... You're coddling me, you're treating me like a child... You feel like you have to.. -protect- me.” She said, bitterly, Maria frowned, not drawing her weapons. “Lily... This was over one conversation, and I misspoke. Aren't you overreacting?” Maria said to try and get her to calm down. “No, I'm sorry.” She said, lowering her brow to glare at Maria. “I want you to respect me, Maria, and if beating you in a fight is the only way to do that...? I'll fight you 100 times.” She said, revealing her intentions, Maria sighed, putting her hand on her hip. “I have zero idea where the fuck this is coming from, you have NEVER said any of this to me.” Maria replied out of confusion, though Jonah quietly sighed from behind her.
“You have the bad habit of not really looking into how other people feel, Maria. She's told me this about a couple of weeks ago.. I was just afraid to bring it up.” He explained, Maria groaning and glaring back at him. “Good fucking job.” Maria admonished briefly before turning back to Lily, who was pretty adamant on starting a fight. “I'm not letting you leave this room until we fight, Maria.” Lily firmly stated, as Caleb slowly approached through a door just behind Lily. “Jeeze, can you slow down A LITTLE bit? We're not in a hurry or anyth-” He said, before he realized he walked into a confrontation between Lily and Maria. “Well shit, this is awkward.” He said, Jonah sighing a bit. “I don't want you two to hurt each other over this.” Jonah said softly, patting Maria on the shoulder.
“Look, if you want a fight... Fine.” Maria said, drawing her blades, she wasn't really too into the concept of fighting a friend, but if Lily is going to act like an asshole for no good reason, Maria might at least humor her. “Don't you fucking dare hold back on me, Maria. I want to prove to you I CAN do this.” She said, entering her fighting stance. Maria sighed, the blades slack in her hands as she looked up with a rare, somber face. “Or you could just forfeit, and we both go on our merry fuckin' way and fight people who actually matter.” Maria replied, grabbing her card in one of her sword hands.
“No.” Lily briefly shot down Maria's suggestion, as she scanned her own card to activate the battle wager. “Well shit... Stand back guys.” Maria warned, scanning her own card and sliding into her front pocket as Jonah and Caleb both backed up to make room for them to fight. Lily slowly backed up and opened the door to another room, gesturing for them to head inside. “We'll fight in here, by the way.” she mentioned, gesturing to the door. Everyone walking inside... It was some kind of gymnasium. If this were a building where people held various corporate meetings, this might have been the recreation room. All four walked inside, Caleb closing the door and gesturing for him and Jonah to sit at a bench as Maria and Lily were preparing to fight.
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