Expansion
I blink.
Neo reacts first, because of course he does.
"Who the hell are you?" he fires back, squaring up to the hatch.
"I literally just said. Pay attention, short stack," the voice called Chris snaps.
Luc stomps past me, chest puffed.
"OPEN THIS METAL WALL OR I'LL-"
"Kill me?" Chris finishes. "Wow, intimidating. You sound like my old man."
Isn't he s'posed to get killed for that?
The Facility apparently thinks that Chris's joke didn't mean much, because there was no head-exploding on the other side of the hatch.
"Besides," he continues. "The whole point is that you're supposed to leave us alone y'know? Didn't you read the sign outside?"
He has a point.
"We don't know who they are," Mist whispers to me. "Should we back off?"
As she says that, behind Chris, I hear quiet movement - more breathing and shuffling feet. At least five or six people.
Tavin steps up beside me, eyes narrowing slightly at the hatch.
"Identify yourselves," he says, voice steely.
"No, you identify yourselves," Chris says in the most annoying voice possible. "You're the ones standing outside a locked door."
Tavin pauses for a moment, and Elemental nods vigorously.
"He has a point."
"I hate him," Neo mutters.
"I heard that," Chris replies.
Before we can say anything else, someone behind the door whispers,
"Chris, stop antagonizing strangers please-"
"No."
Bryce walks up behind me, hands on hips, and nudges the gate with his foot.
"Soooo," he begins. "Little dude behind the wall, are you like… trapped? Or held hostage? Are you short? Why's the hatch so low?"
Chris inhales sharply, and the hatch slams shut with a bang. Luc cracks his knuckles, grinning.
"Yeah, that did it. Nice one, kid."
At that exact moment there's a heavy, metallic thunking sound on the other side of the gate as every lock inside it disengages at once. I leap back.
"Is he-" Mist gasps.
Then the entire gate explodes outwards with tremendous force. The shockwave almost blasts me off my feet, and Neo and Bryce are hit with a face full of metal, sending them flying. Dust cloud blast across the whole cave.
"Neo!" I yell for the thousandth time.
"Brace yourselves, they're coming!" Luc growls, lowering his stance.
"Don't do anything stupid!" Leon warns, but he doesn't hear him.
Six silhouettes walk through the dust.
The front one strolls through like he's showing up to a late dentist appointment, hands thrust in pockets casually. His face sports a wad of messy chocolate-brown hair and a cocky grin.
"Okay," he says. "Let's try this again. Hi. I'M Chris. Who's knocking?"
Luc, unfortunately, only hears the arrogant tone, not the words, and rushes forwards instantly.
"NO!" Krims starts, but too late.
Luc swings a full-power haymaker at Chris's skull. He dodges, but not gracefully or smoothly - but like someone who's been in too many street-fights and learned all the weird angles.
Even from my angle it just looks annoyingly slippery. Like a cat dodging a hand. Luc's fist swipes through air, and Chris hits him straight in the throat.
"Telegraphed. Try again, big guy."
Instantly, Elemental growls,
"That's dirty."
Except, Luc tanks it completely and winds up another hit.
"STOP!" Leon shouts.
"DON'T-" I yell.
"FIGHT!!" Bryce cheers, bouncing up and down with a vicious nosebleed.
Next to me, Krim facepalms hard enough to concuss himself.
Before Luc can finish the second swing, Chris's second member steps out of the dust. Tall, dark-haired with a pinkish-orange tinge, brow furrowed.
Chris backsteps and the newcomer shifts one step inside Luc's guard, planting a heavy fist deep into Luc's ribs.
"Oof," the musclehead pants, taking two steps back. "I felt that."
"Luc, you idiot!" Mist snaps, grabbing his shoulder. "Can we not try an fight everyone we see?"
The rest of the new group appears, the dust cloud finally collapsing.
There's a tall and lanky dude, almost skeletal, with close-cropped light brown hair and the slouched posture of someone who hasn't slept in three days. He looks like he was born annoyed, raised annoyed and will probably die annoyed.
The other looks like your average social outcast - hair in eyes, hands shoved deep into the pockets of ragged trousers, with a tiny lizard on his shoulder - somehow - glaring at me. It hisses aggressively at Neo, who's still lying on his back, groaning and clutching his face.
"Hey, buddy, don't intimidate them," he mutters, stroking it along the back as we stare.
The lizard hisses louder.
"Your lizard is flipping me off," Neo mumbles. "Someone call animal control…"
The last one's a girl with shoulder-length cyan hair. I recognize her -she was with us briefly at the start of the Death Game, before we entered the Null Zone.
"Celeste?" I ask under my breath.
I don't know if she recognizes us, or if she considers us friends. We were only together for a short time after all…
"Looks like a squad of quickdrops," Luc growls, cracking his knuckles and ignoring Mist's protests.
"Say that again," the guy who landed a hit on him challenges. "And I'll punch your ugly face in."
He lifts his fist, and Chris grins, sizing us up. Celeste notices me and does a little wave, then rolls her eyes at the meathead squad squaring up to each other.
Thankfully, she recognizes us.
'Help?' I mouth at her, but she shrugs and shakes her head.
"Ugggh," the skinny guy slurs, voice coarse with thirst. "Ten minutes. Ten minutes of peace. New record. Why did we open the door?"
"Shut up Buck," Chris grins, kicking a stone on the floor. "Don't ruin the mood. You guys wanna test us?"
"LET'S DO IT!!" Ronin starts, drawing both blades with an eager grin.
"Ronin DO NOT," Artee snaps, yanking him back by the collar like a misbehaving animal.
The arguing and insult-throwing intensifies, with Luc, Neo and Bryce going head to head with Chris and his right-hand man like a squad of morons.
Nyx steps closer to me, whispering, "Should we be stopping this?"
"No no," I say. "Just keep watching. It's entertaining."
"Chris," Celeste groans. "Please…"
"He swung first," Chris shrugs. He looks over at his right hand man.
"Swifty, back me up."
"Sure he did," Swifty rolls his eyes.
"You antagonized him FIRST," Neo argues folding his arms. "With your behind-the-door shenanigans. What are you, roleplaying narcotics through your little hatch?"
Chris raises an eyebrow.
"Oh? You're interesting. Maybe I'll let you off with just an eyeball."
"Your face antagonizes me," Neo snarls, pissed. "Maybe I should split it in half?"
"We should stop them," Mist says nervously.
"No no," Ronin grins, shrugging off Artee. "Let 'em keep going."
Our eyes meet and we both smile, nodding at each other knowingly.
"Who we betting on?" Diva whispers to me.
"Luc," I whisper back.
"I'll go that Chris guy then."
"Sure."
"Round two," Luc growls.
"I mean… if you want," Swifty replies, cracking his neck.
"Guys…" Celeste sighs as lizard-guy and Buck get ready too.
Jora edges behind Krim, who just looks unimpressed by all the drama. Then, about damn time, Tavin steps forwards.
"That's enough," he says calmly.
No one hears him. The excitement's gone through the roof and I can almost feel the heat against my skin.
Luc readies his stance.
Swifty braces.
Chris smirks and loosens his fingers.
Neo loads two knives, glaring at Chris.
Buck groans.
Bryce's grip tightens on his pipe.
Even the lizard is hyped.
Then they explode into motion. Luc charges Swifty who kicks off the ground to counterattack. Neo dives at Chris who backsteps, still smirking, and Buck swings forwards. Bryce spins his pipe, laughing, and Ronin runs to join in.
I wish I had popcorn, but before the fun starts Tavin moves.
I barely see it. In one fluid blur, he redirects Luc by the shoulder into Ronin, crushes Bryce flat against the ground with his foot, disarms Neo, catches Swifty by the neck, knocks down Buck and ends up with his hatchet pressed lightly against Chris's neck.
Everyone freezes.
Everyone.
Even the lizard.
"Okay… okay," Chris lifts his hands slowly, tilting his head back to avoid the hatchet. "Noted… the most irrelevant-looking guy was the scariest."
"How did you-?" Swifty demands, struggling against a vice-like grip.
"I can't move-" Bryce chokes, clawing at the ground.
Neo stares. Luc and Ronin, in a tangled mess on the ground, groan.
My heart hammers. Tavin just took down seven people who were by no means unskilled, in two seconds.
"Are you done?" he demands, voice like steel.
"Heh," Chris grins, but a lot less confidently. "Don't you wanna-"
"Are you?"
Sweat rolls down Chris and Swifty's faces.
"…yeah," he decides.
Tavin releases them both, and Swifty falls coughing. Chris exhales shakily, and Tavin steps off Bryce's back, who sucks in a deep breath gratefully.
"Note to self," Chris mumbles. "Don't piss off Big Daddy Death."
"Lose the names," Tavin says sternly. "Besides, I'm only twenty-seven."
"Whaaaat? No way."
There's a very awkward silence.
"…my bad," Chris admits eventually, looking away like a school kid that just got caught cheating.
Swifty's still coughing, massaging his throat, Buck is groaning about his ribs on the ground, and Neo's blinking like he's not sure what dimension he's in. Ronin's applauding for Tavin until Luc death stares him into silence.
"Alright so," Nyx says, clapping her hands together nervously. "Can we maybe, not kill each other?"
Mist nods vigorously, Leon prays again and Celeste pinches the bridge of her nose. Jora peeks out from behind Krim.
Chris dusts off his clothes.
"Fine, temporary truce," he sighs, then looks at Nyx like he's seeing her for the first time. "For the uh, for the pretty lady."
"What?" I blurt a little too quickly, and everyone stares at me.
"Oho, hohoho," Luc grins evilly, staring straight at me. "Interesting."
"Hmmm," Krim muses. "Interesting indeed."
What the hell was that, me.
"What the hell's going on?" Nyx asks, confused.
"Nothing," I say, heat rising in my face.
"Riiiight," Chris continues, eyeing me weirdly. "So, a truce? But just so you know I-"
"Not a truce," Tavin interrupts. "A team."
Everyone stares. A team?
Chris raises an eyebrow. "Since when do you get to decide that?"
"Since," Tavin says, looking him straight in the eye, "I'm the leader."
I flinch a little at this. I mean, I have no objections to the former soldier taking the lead but will the other side take this cleanly…?
"I back him," Elemental says, stepping forwards. "Since you're weak, I think you shouldn't-"
"Oh yeah?" Chris snorts. "Who are you then?"
It dawns on me that he doesn't know - Elemental wasn't involved in the scuffle earlier. So Chris has no clue about his skills. A plan forms in my head to knock this guy off his high horse.
Hehe.
Chris squares up to Elemental, getting in his face.
"Weak, huh?" he grins, ticked off. "You wanna me to show you weak?"
"Are we fighting again?" Luc asks, but Krim and Artee stop him.
Nyx steps towards them, clearly intending to diffuse the situation. I put out a hand to stop her.
"You guys should have a match," I announce. "Like, a proper duel, right? Since I'm sensing a lot of bad blood here."
Elemental stares at me but Chris agrees instantly.
"He's right," he grins. "Let's do it."
As the two of them get ready, Nyx grabs my wrist.
"What are you doing?" she hisses.
I grin.
"Hehe."
Then she hits me on the nose and I stop laughing.
***
Chris does fight dirty, and I suppose that's what makes him dangerous. He's the type that'll do anything to win - no, to survive - so he'll come at you with all sorts of nasty moves that you don't expect. He flicks dust at Elemental's eyes, move his feet to trip him, goes for his throat, eyes and nose.
It probably would've worked on anyone else.
004 dodges the dust, steps over his feet, knocks his hands aside and hits Chris hard in the centre of the chest with his palm, dropping him onto his ass instantly.
Neo and Luc burst out laughing, and Swifty shakes his head.
"He folded you like a paper towel…"
"Shut up," Chris snaps, red-faced. "How was I supposed to know there was another weird-ass guy besides Ponytail?"
"Okay," I announce again, clapping my hands together dramatically. "That's our team spirit! We're officially colleagues now, nice to meet you."
"Who are you?" Swifty asks, kinda miffed that I set his boss up to get humiliated. "You were irrelevant until now so…"
"Sword," I say, shaking his hand. "Call me Sword."
"That's Chris," Swifty says jabbing a finger at the sulking loser. "I'm Swifty, professional shit-shoveller. She's Celeste. The weird kid with the reptile is Jon and the one who looks like a dried shrimp is Buck."
The lizard hisses at Neo again.
"I swear," he whispers to me, "that thing has a vendetta against me."
"It's because you exude a hateful aura," I say, prodding him. "Who told you to start a fight?"
"I did not."
"I'm sorry," Jon says, approaching us, the lizard still spitting at Neo. "He's very judgemental, but he's harmless."
Neo stares at its hate-filled, beady black eyes. Yeah, I believe the harmless part considering right now it's the size of my hand but…
"That's a Rock Monitor, right?" I venture.
"It is!" Jon says brightly, suddenly perking up. "You know your stuff!"
"Well," I say, "I did study biology and the like… but that's not what I'm worried about."
"Then?"
"You realize the characteristics of a Rock Monitor right?" I say. "That things gonna grow to like, fifteen feet long and thirty tons in weight."
"What?" Neo quavers.
The lizard spits at him again.
Buck stumbles over, coughing hoarsely. When was the last time he had a drink?
"Here," I say, handing him a flask from Tavin's cave.
He inhales it instantly.
"Okay, we should all stop bonding," he says, smacking his lips gratefully. "The walls are breathing."
Tavin looks around, and I realize that they are.
"This is not good," he mutters. "The… labyrinth is going to shift."
"Labyrinth?" Chris asks.
"We just call it that because of Ellie," Ronin grins. "It sounds cool."
"Too many letters."
The tunnels give off a low groan, and dust shakes from the ceiling.
"Any ideas!?" I ask, turning to team leader.
"Chris," Tavin says calmly, turning to him. "Behind the gate. Does it not shift?"
"I don't know," he yelps. "But it hasn't changed and we've been there for like a week!"
"Good, go through the gate!" Tavin says, and we all run across the line.
"Are there no other ways?" Artee demands.
"NOPE!" comes the response.
I look behind me, and see what he's talking about. The tunnel we came from has already been sealed.
"In case we do get separated hang on to someone," Tavin continues. "If you aren't then… you'll probably die alone."
"Cheery," Chris mutters.
"Shut up and move."
"That's great and all," Celeste protests. "But, it's sealed on the other end though?"
Hahaha.
Fuck. Shit. And everything in between.