Turns out, things kind of work out well. I mean they don’t work out in the same way I expected, but it turns out that my life has a long term of relaxation after a very busy period. Considering Gabbie and Walter go to school and Kai is always busy, we’re not usually requested to do any more jobs with Janus’ team. As for Janus, he still pays a regular visit to me and Kai so we can talk with him, but he seems to enjoy having short conversations with me. I’m not entirely sure why.

As for learning everything. Over three weeks I’m taught so much that I feel like my head will explode. Kai finished the robot that Gabbie so lovingly named Thing and I keep it like that because it seems to roughly relate to my understanding of Thing. Basically, what Kai said is that Thing is designed to assist me with learning the computer, I ask it a question and it shows me how to get to a certain point on the computer. It’s a very slow learning process, but I can’t say that the existence of Thing isn’t helpful.

Then there’s the problem with my nightmares, it seems there is a correlation with using magic, but there’s no way to be completely certain until I use more magic. I’ll have to discover whether that is true later.

All in all, besides the feeling like my head's about to explode, everything over the past three weeks has been incredibly productive, even if it doesn’t seem like we’ve done much. Though there are a few things I’m surprised at, such as the absence of Gates, considering she’s supposed to help me with the Warlock stuff I figure she’d be around more. Even still, I don’t ask Janus as I don’t like her and I don’t want to use magic where I can. Also, cell phones. Janus got me one, but no-one has taught me how to use it and Thing hasn’t exactly got the ability to teach me how to use it. So I’m stuck on my own and I have absolutely no clue how to use it.

I still don’t even know how to turn the thing on. Much like the computer screen, it has a smaller screen, though from what I’ve seen from Janus you’re supposed to touch it. 3 weeks and I haven’t figured it out, I mean I could ask but I kinda want to learn by myself with some things. I don’t want to be reliant on everyone for everything.

There’s a knock at the door while I’m messing around with the phone, I place it face down on the desk in front of the computer and I stand up, approaching the door. I pull it open, rubbing my eyes. Walter's waiting there, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. “What’s going on?” I ask him. I spot an earpiece running from his ear to the back of his jeans. Something I learned about briefly when considering how the training exercise would go.

“We’re about to head out. Are you ready?” I nod in response, straightening out my shirt and standing. I’m lying, of course, I’m in no way ready, but inevitably I will have to help them or else I won’t be able to keep a roof over my head. This whole hero thing has some expectations of me and the others that need to be fulfilled. As much as I dislike the whole idea. I join him out in the living room, finding the others waiting with Gates leaning against the wall in her a red coat.

Kai is standing nearby with a coat of his own, with a small surface of different monitors wrapped around his thigh with a long black strap around his neck. He’s wearing jeans, just like Walter and I and he’s got a white t-shirt, with a few metal chains wrapped around his upper arms. They’re sparking with energy and I know them as one of his few weapons.

As for Gabbie, she’s a little more prepared, she has a rapier sheathed at her hip and she’s wearing close-fitting black leather pants and a sort of thin fabric shirt that reminds me of hemp, but seemingly stronger. She has a serious look on her face, which is the only indication of how nervous she is.

Gates stands up from her place at the wall and she gives me a harsh glare and she raises a finger, motioning to us to follow her. Kai’s robots follow us, some trailing across the floor, others flying. We leave the room and we bundle into the elevator where Gabbie ends up behind me. “Don’t let any of those… Things touch me,” she mutters into my ear.

I see Kai smile a little. Small enough for it to be discarded as someone’s imagination, but large enough for one to do a double-take. For some reason, I think he’s been making his robots like this to torment Gabbie.

We stop on the main floor and Gates leads the way out with confident strides, I, on the other hand, am not so confident. I can’t hide my horns or growing tail anymore and I haven't gone out as much in the past few weeks, instead taking to pacing the apartment. I duck my head, but I know I’m getting looks. I can feel them staring holes into the back of my head.

Gates seems to meet their glares with glares of her own and they immediately back down. It seems that no-one wants to butt heads with Gates, which I can understand very well. I’m actually annoyed she’s here. We walk through the cafeteria and out into the reserve through the forest. It’s completely silent except for the whirring of robots and the sounds of birds. No-one feels comfortable talking.

We end up out the front of the Training Zone after not talking a word and we find ourselves face to face with a few new faces as well as one old face. Director Tagert is standing there, looking impatient. He’s wearing a black suit, with a red tie and to his right side is a tall, thin man with wire-frame spectacles and a golden mane of hair.

To the right of that man are four teenagers, likely Junior team Expedition. There are two boys and two girls. The boys seem to be identical both with brown hair and brown eyes and wearing the same green shirt and jeans, they seem very confident and they grin at us. Then there are the girls, one very vivacious looking dark skinned woman with brown eyes and a diminutive build. She might be a child if not for the breasts. Lastly, there’s one more woman, the tallest out of the four of them with a red jacket and shocking red hair. Her jacket has books chained to it by hooks, each is very well detailed with bookmarks.

Laid out in front of them is four dark vests, replicated on the other side, which Kai looks at with simple curiosity. “You’re late,” Director Tagert grumbles. “We’ll get directly into talking about the task I have for you.” He immediately follows up his first statement so Gates can’t get a word in. “Your job is search and rescue. Inside the Training Zone, there are thirteen hostages. Your job is to retrieve the most hostages. However, at the same time you are fighting the other team.”

He whistles and someone approaches from one of the buildings, a large woman with a double chin and tied back blonde hair. She has a red string wrapped around her arm. She clears her throat. “Each hostage has a red string attached to something. Severing the string will award your team with two points. However, be aware this is a search and rescue, not a search and eliminate. While you can take out the enemy team, they are only worth 1 point. So if the other team get 8 hostages and then you beat them all, you’ve already lost.”

“Thank you,” Tagert mutters. “As Diane said, this is a search and rescue, save the hostages but try to stay safe. You need to know that sacrificing yourself is not worth saving another. Anyway, as for fighting against each other.” He leans down and lifts one of the vests. “Inside this vest is a set of electronics that will measure blows and dangers. When it reaches a certain area, it will set off an alarm and you will be out of the exercise. Please aim for the vest. I’d prefer zero injuries. Gates, understand? Salvo?”

“Gotcha,” The tall bespectacled man says.

“Mhm,” Gates murmurs.

“Good. I’ll go over powers now, as we’re going under the assumptions that you know each other’s powers,” Tagert continues. “Team Hindsight: Leader is Gabbie, she’s a projector, she can project any attacks toward anything around her. Vice-leader Walter, he’s a carbonizer. He can change the carbon atoms in his body or the items around him. Communications is Kaiden, he’s a robotics expert, he can communicate with machines and has his own armada of robots. Lastly, Elmira, she’s a channeler warlock, she has all seven of the sin's powers available to her.”

Salvo clears his throat. “Perhaps it’s unfair that they have a robotic expert.”

“It’s never fair,” Tagert growls. “Next team is Team Expedition. The leader and communications is David, he’s a wall hacker. He can see and move through walls. Vice leader is his brother James, he’s a mover. A low-level telekinesis, but don’t let the low level get to you, he can move things as large as wardrobes.” He points at the short girl. “She’s Rita, she’s a blitzer, she moves fast and hits hard, she’s their scout. Last and not least, there’s their magician, Hannah, she’s a book magus. She can summon words in a book into the world.”

Gabbie looks miffed, as if she’s angry at having to face these guys. “Got it,” she says.

“Same,” the guy I guess is David responds.

“Good. Everyone take a vest and then we’ll get into positions. When your vest goes off, return here to await the conclusion of the round. Your parent team leaders know the place you will start. While you’re walking into position you will be allowed to discuss strategy. Salvo, Gates, you can now lead them into position.”

We all collect the vest, pulling them on before zipping them up and then following Gates. We walk around the border of the training zone. Gabbie clears her throat. “So plans, Kai?” She asks.

Kai withdraws something from his pocket and extends it to me. A small earpiece, which I take and push into my ear. “Split up,” he mumbles. “We don’t have any particular skills that suit each other, but we’d excel apart. Cover more ground and deal with them as they come.”

“That makes sense. We’re a bit new together, not like Expedition, we haven’t found anything we can combo together. Maybe Kai can help with his robots, but right now our individual skills far outstrip our skills as a group. I think if we stick together we’ll just get in each others’ way. We’ll split up and try to get as many hostages as possible. Try not to go searching for fights and if you’re forced to fight, try to win.”

Gates stops and she points at the Training Zone. “You’re starting here. Your vests will beep when you’re meant to start.”

We turn to look at where she’s pointing. As far as I know, it looks to be the main street, or as main as it will get in the mess of incredibly close buildings. This means that the widest it seems is nothing more than a simple alleyway. There are easy entrances into the buildings, but it’s hard to tell if there're any more entrances that I just can’t see.

I lean forward as if trying to see into a broken window, but all it allows me is a slight look at the dusty, web covered concrete interior. There’s a long, low beep coming from our vests and I nearly fall forward as the others move into the Training Zone. I cough, righting myself and then I make my own way in. We immediately split up. Kai takes the first right, while Gabbie takes the first left, Walter keeps walking and I take a building further down the street on the right.

Each of us is accompanied by a single hovering robot, which keeps watch over each of our shoulders. I step through the doorway of the building, ducking beneath the collapsed door frame. The floor immediately drops off at an angle at the lower part of the building and I can see a door both at the bottom of the decline and just above it. I grab the side of the door, easing myself down onto the ground, then slide myself down the decline through the door below.

I’m nearly flung over my feet when I hit the bottom and I’m forced to slow down by breaking into a jog to right myself. I stop, looking around. It’s pitch black in here. “Kai, can’t see-” I mutter. Suddenly the room is brightened, the robot shedding light in the basement. It smells musty and wet, a large puddle of water pools in a hole at the right side of the room, but there’s a set of wooden stairs at the furthest point.

I approach the stairs then stop, finding a new light source coming from a doorway near the stairs. I stop and peer into the room finding an amusing, makeshift place of worship. Long lines of pews with an altar at the end. A cross is upturned striking an amusing place for demon worship. Clearly whoever made this place knows nothing of demon worship. An upturned cross is not sacred to us at all. A man is tied to the altar by a red string, he smiles and waves with his free hand at me.

He seems friendly enough, at least he has a friendly character at first. He also doesn’t look bad, bit older than me. Perhaps in his thirties. He has brown hair and a growing beard with small wrinkles at his eyes and mouth showing that he smiles a lot. I approach him, drawing closer to him.

“Hey,” he greets me. I wonder if anyone else found them. I guess they should be pretty easy to find unless they're deliberately hidden, which I doubt otherwise we might be here for hours. I wrap both my hands around the red string and pull hard. The string snaps and I rescue a hostage. “Thanks. Good luck.” He stands, walking past me and then leaves without saying anything further. I guess that’s how it will work, I doubt they’d help us.

I clear my throat. “Found one.”

“Good job. Gabbie also got one, but she’s hiding out, she’s busy dealing with Rita, it’s not looking great, but I’m confident Gabbie can outmaneuver her. It doesn’t look like there’s anymore with Rita, so just be careful.”

I grunt in response, returning to the stairs and climbing them. I find myself outside right up next to an overgrown fountain that no longer spits out water. I climb over the bowl toward the shattered glass windows of another building. This building looks larger and could just as well have more than one hostage inside.

I enter, treading across the shredded linoleum floor. There are large, warped metal shelves with a wooden desk, upturned and singed by flames. It smells musty and I walk into a spiderweb which I brush away with a hand before turning my attention to the stairs. One up, one down. I raise my finger, considering which way I should go. Down or up. Up, I’m more confident with dealing with heights than I am with underground stuff. I am more adept at using Lucifer’s powers than I am with utilizing Belphegor’s powers.

I proceed up the stairs, my shoes clicking against the stone. I’m feeling nervous like something will jump out and strike me at each landing. The second floor bears no fruit, most of the walls are gone and all the desks are nothing but a wreckage of what used to be perfectly good wood, so I proceed up one more set of stairs.

I do find some fruit on this floor, fruit that I just nearly miss out on. There’s that one girl with all the books attached to her jacket here. Hannah, the book magus. She’s standing over that large woman I saw earlier and she’s about to sever the red string I clear my throat and the girl snaps to look at me, then she stands up without severing the red string. “Oh, hey, you’re the warlock, Elmira, wasn’t it?” She asks.

“Uh,” I whisper. “I don’t think we’re meant to be talking.” My voice comes out very soft and the idea of talking to anyone other than those I know well is terrifying. In fact, I’m more excited to get the fight done than I am of actually talking to her. It sounds easier to fight her. Her mouth splits open in a smile and she nods as if saying oh, yeah. She pulls a book off her jacket. I really shouldn’t let her be doing this. “Brother, tear the book from her hand,” I whisper under my breath, I’m not entirely sure what will happen, but I’m kind of hoping that I’ll just burn it away.

There’s a strong wind that blows through the room and the pages of the book start flapping in the breeze. Hannah covers her face, shrieking and I see the book leave her grasp. There’s the sound of clinking chains and the book stops mid air before snapping back to her body with a thud. She quickly pulls the book open, flipping the page. “Come out, lion!” She yells.

The book shines with golden light and I watch as a massive lion explodes out of the book toward me, almost like it’s following a bridge of words out to me and I’m at the end of the bridge. “Brother, freeze,” I hiss. The entire room goes cold and the lion slams to the ground in front of me, getting ready to make another jump but it’s muscles seem to contract and ice crawls across its skin. “Brother, remove its footing.” The ground below the lion explodes and it drops down to the floor below. Seemingly as it's about to hit the ground it disintegrates into a bunch of words where it settles on the ground as if someone threw a newspaper at the ground and the printing remained when they picked it up.

Hannah wasn’t still while her lion was attacking, her book is a flurry of activity as she leafs through it. She stops and she raises her hand. “Come forth, lightning!” Lightning explodes from the book, just like the lion, I raise my hands as if it will protect me, but I watch as the lightning arcs and then catches the robot in the air. The robot seems to hover for a second as the stream flickers and then it drops to the ground unmoving.

I stand still, shock registering. I take action before I forget what’s going on, she’s already turning the page to something else. “Brother, protect me!” I yell. It doesn’t work in the same way I expected, instead of a wall coming up, Hannah suddenly turns to the side. It’s not that she moved, but instead that the ground beneath her did.

She seems panicked and she stops on a page. “Charge forth!” She yells. The entire book flashes and I watch her skin glow golden for a second, then she squeaks and she explodes forth like a stone out of a slingshot and she hits a wall on the other side of the room hard. She bounces off the wall and hits the ground where her vest starts shrieking a few times.

I run over to her, to see if she’s unhurt, but she doesn’t seem to hurt besides a bloodied nose shattered pride. “Panicked,” she grunts. “That and I didn’t look where I was going.” She hauls herself up. “You’re pretty good," she mutters. "But you won’t be so lucky next time.”

“Uh- thanks?” I say. I’m asking her because she both complimented and insulted me. I’m not sure what the right reaction is. “Sorry about-” I wave my hands, trying to explain the nose.

She shrugs. “I’m dead now. I’ll see you later.” She starts walking out, raising her hands and groaning loudly. “Brains…” she mutters, a little comically. Supposedly, a desire for brains is a fairly common thing for teenagers of this plane. Perhaps their lacking a few and desire someone else's, or perhaps it has to do with this zombie thing that Walter and Gabbie talk about.

I approach the woman who seems to be concealing a smirk with her free hand. “That was- interesting,” she giggles. “Didn’t expect to have two girls fighting over me. I’m honored.” She’s joking. I get the joke, it’s just I don’t find it funny. I pull apart the string, freeing the woman and she stands up. “Thank you, I’ll see you at the finish line.”

“Mm,” I grumble. I walk away from her, not wanting to talk to her any further, lest she try and joke with me more. As soon as I exit the building through a fire exit that puts me on a set of steel stairs, I raise my hand to my ear to check if the earpiece is still there. “You there, Kai?”

“Yeah. Walter got another one and Gabbie got one herself, but she’s out and Walter is now being chased down by the other three. What about you? Hannah took out my bot, did you beat her?”

“Mhm,” I respond. “I beat her and managed to receive the points for the hostages. I don’t have the robot anymore, though, so I’ll have to deal with that myself.”

“Right. Just, those other three are running around in a hunting party. I think they thought Hannah would work as either a distraction or that she was fine on her own. Either way, if you see them, you might do better if you run.”

For a moment, an idea forms in my head. It’s not the brightest, nor the stupidest, it relies too much on the fact that their following Walter without paying attention to their surroundings. “Ah, can you lead Walter over to where I am?” I ask.

“Yeah, but why?”

“Just do it.” I start descending the stairs, raising my hand outward and cupping it. Thin claws grow out of my fingers, a similar effect to that which I did when I first arrived here. It shows my proficiency with Lucifer’s magic, rather than that of my many other brothers. A large golden orb of light forms in my hand.

“Alright then- he’s on the way over. I’ve got your position anyway.”

Hopefully, he can last long enough. I lower myself down onto the lowest part of the metal stairs, concealing myself behind a set of metal bars. This place isn’t big and I understand that he’ll reach me in mere moments, but the speed at which he actually does surprises me. There’s a lot of running and loud panting. There’s a loud whoosh which shoots beneath me and I hear Walter yelp. I clatter around in my spot before jumping down the set of stairs. “Tell him to close his eyes,” I hiss into my headset.

There must be some communication because Walter jams his eyes close as I launch myself off the fire escape toward the ground below. I throw the light orb at the ground and it explodes in a massive burst of light. Of course, I too have my eyes closed, but I can feel the light get seared into the lids of my eyes.

I open my eyes, finding myself next to the two twins, with Walter at my side. I hit Walter on the back. “Run,” I tell him. He immediately breaks into a jog and I walk toward the twins. They are rubbing their eyes a lot, trying to get their sight back. I grab the one on my right side wrapping my hand around his neck. He tries to struggle, but instead I knee him in the gut. He croaks and drops to his knees, his vest starts shrieking. I turn around to grab the other one, but he’s blindly backed up, finally stopping with his back against the wall.

I jog toward him raising my fist. Hopefully, I took out the one with the wall powers. I punch out toward him and my fist strikes brick. I yell out in pain, withdrawing my hand immediately and cradling it in my other hand. It hurts like hell, it’s throbbing and there’s a small amount of blood seeping out beneath my nails. “Argh!” I yell, verbally releasing the feeling of pain. “Fuckedy fuck, fuck, fuck!” I bounce around on the balls of my feet, trying to distract myself. Never have I been so angry at finding out that they weren’t who I was looking for. It probably would have worked out if I had Valor, my weapon, but considering it’s in my Father’s possession, I couldn’t very well steal it from him before I fled to the Mortal Plane.

I turn back toward the other twin, the telekinetic and potentially the blitzer, but I find the blitzer nowhere. The other guy is still rubbing his eyes, but he’s looking at me which means he’s got most of his sight back. “You deserve that,” he growls at me. “In fact, I’d say that you probably deserve way worse.”

“Wha-?” I stammer. Pain is still in my voice as well as a little bit of confusion at what he’s saying.

“You’re sick. Trying to be like us, with those horns, the only place you deserve to be is in a cell with the rest of those demons.”

“I’m different,” I respond, my voice is shaking, faced with the thing I was afraid of since the beginning. “I’m helping.”

“Helping by kicking me in the gut and trying to punch my brother in the face. I’m sure that’s helping.”

“But that’s- that’s how this all works.”

“Trying to kill us isn’t how this works!”

“I wasn’t trying to kill you!” I yell, my voice cracking at the mere mention that I’m trying to harm anyone. I haven’t hurt anyone yet without it being self-defense. He’s immediately assuming, ignorantly claiming that I’m here to harm everyone. “I’m on your side,” I mutter.

“Not my side.” He stands up and starts stalking away, throwing his head back in my direction. All of a sudden a large stone flicks toward me and I just manage to duck as it collides into the wall behind me. A few stray fragments of the rock hit me in the face and I rub my cheek, shivering a little at the dust that comes off of it. He- he tried to hurt me.

There’s a complex range of emotions I’m feeling. On one hand, I want him to apologize, but I know that he won’t but I also don’t want to force him to apologize. I also feel fear, that’s the thing that prevents me from rushing after him and forcing him to apologize to me. The vigor I felt not long ago, the desire to rebel against those that are helping me is no longer there, shivering in the back of my mind convincing me to sit down and cower right here.

Something heavy lands on my shoulder and I almost shriek out in surprise, but I cover my mouth with my hand. I look over at my shoulder to find one of the small metal dragonflies sitting there. “Are you okay, Elmira.” The voice comes through my earpiece and I tap it and stand up, dusting myself off.

I don’t feel right on my feet, but otherwise, I force myself to keep moving. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I mutter. I don’t look forward to encountering that guy again. I’m not even looking forward to being in his air space. It’s something I worried about in the first place and while I expected direct rage toward me to come earlier, it still stuns me when it did eventually come.

“I’ve got two more hostages marked. I’ll lead you to them while I work on finding at least two more.” The robot flies off my shoulder, hovering toward one of the side streets. I follow and duck beneath a pillar that’s been knocked over the street. When we reach a building that’s submerged slightly into the ground, Kai talks up again. “Walt’s gone. He got taken by their blitzer. I’m going to start moving so they can’t find me, but you need to be careful yourself.”

“Right,” I mutter under my breath. I’m forced to crawl into the building through a small opening that probably used to be a doorway. I end up sliding down a small sand pile and then dropping on onto a tiled floor at the bottom. I sneeze, the dust and sand getting into my nose. The light on the small robot comes on, lighting up the area. This place looks just as shitty as everywhere else, just more dingy. It has some chandeliers and a bar with cupboards behind it. There are a few tables and chairs with some seats with wrecked upholstery.

I walk over to the bar, vaulting it and landing on the other side. There’s a man with gray hair tied to a small tap on one of the walls. He’s a bit red faced and as I bend down he sneezes in my face. I recoil, wiping the spit off my face. “Ugh.” That’s disgusting. I’m usually not bad with dirt, but sneezes and coughs, that’s bad.

“Sorry,” he laughs. “Can’t cover my mouth with my hands, plus I don’t do great with dust. Just my luck sticking me here.”

“You have your other hand,” I point out. He has another hand free, clearly just in case no-one else can find him. I pull him free and move away from him, just in case he decides to sneeze on my one more time.

“I’m not that bad am I?”

“Trust me, you are.”

“That hurts.” He actually looks like he feels bad, but he doesn’t stick around. “Anyway, we’re not exactly supposed to talk except for a few moments. Something about distracting you guys. It’s stupid, I know, but we’re not supposed to give any clues.” He climbs over the bar and he turns back. “Good luck and caoi.” He walks toward the edge of the room.

“The next one is very close. Just down the hatch. They’re underground, I managed to confirm them for a moment, but my signals won’t reach the robots down there unless I get closer, which right now-” he transitions to a whisper. “Probably isn’t a good idea.”

“Are they nearby?” I ask.

“Mhm.”

They’ve been tracking us down instead of the hostages. I thought this was a search and rescue, not a search and eliminate. Why have they been trying to track us down? Maybe that’s why they didn’t split up. They’re looking for a fight and not a fair one at that. As Kai suggested, there is indeed a trapdoor here. I grab hold of a metal handle and pull upward. There’s a loud clank and the handle breaks free in my grasp and I slam back against the cabinets which break at the same time. I fall to the ground surrounded by a sizable amount of wood and an unhappy look glued to my face. “The trapdoor broke, what now?”

“I don’t know, you’re the one with the magic,” he hisses.

“Yeah, but the only magic that can blast through that is-” I cut myself short. Sure I could try to use my normal magic to break open the door, but I don’t think any of it will work as well as I think they would. They would simply take too long, which leaves me with one choice. I guess I need to ruin another jacket.

My back grows hot and the entire room lights up with white light that overpowers even the robots light. The jacket I’m wearing tears and wings explode out from behind it and I grow, looming over the trapdoor. I raise my now, claw-like hands toward the trapdoor and light starts pooling in front of me. There’s a loud bang as it hits the trapdoor and wood blows out the bottom. The wings contract back into my back as I retract the power of the septagram. The likelihood of me using this power again anytime soon is very low. I’ll probably never use it unless there’s an absolute threat or unless I’m alone. The problem being that I don’t plan on making my appearance that much more demonic. I’ve already struggled to find a place as I am now, it might be harder when people consider me akin to the monsters of the Demon Plane.

I lower myself into the newly opened hole by a metal ladder into the depths of the cellar. I reach the bottom soon after, placing my feet onto the concrete stone. There’s a lot of damage here, the concrete is cracked in multiple places and there’s a massive hole in the wall amongst a set of barrels. I duck behind the barrels and peer down the corridor. I can’t see anything and I’m forced to summon a golden orb of light to grant me the light I need.

It’s almost like a tunnel with chunks of wood holding up the tunnel. I make a cursory movement through it, walking slowly and making sure I’m on my guard. My earpiece is conveying a small grinding sound that sounds like someone is rubbing two rocks together. It seems that the tunnel ends at a brick wall with a few sad bricks removed making for a very small opening I can just barely crawl through.

I curse the fact that I have to get down on the ground once again and I drop to my knees and shuffle beneath the wall, coming out in a second cellar. I think after all this I’m going to need a shower with bleach or something. Luckily for me, it’s met with some reward. Waiting, tied to a rather suspect set of chains with a threadbare bed in the corner is a young woman with long red hair and a somewhat plump build.

I approach hair and tear the red string off. She stands up, rubbing her wrists. “This place creeps me the hell out,” she murmurs. “Uh, thanks. I guess,” she finally thanks me.

It strikes me how awkward this whole hostage thing seems to be. It’s like it’s all a game, in this case, it is, but the whole conversation feels like we should talk, but I really don’t want to. I don’t want to talk to anyone I don’t know. There’s a set of stairs which she walks toward and I follow her for a way out. There’s a wrecked metal door waiting at the top of the stairs and we both step through it, sharing no words. So, all I need to do is find one more hostage and I can guarantee our team’s victory. I clear my throat. “Kai? Do you know if there’s anymore?”

I’m greeted by an uncomfortable silence. Absolute silence. Either he’s pinned down or he’s been eliminated, which isn’t exactly comforting. This building seems like a simple house, the furniture, of course, like all the other buildings is upturned and torn to pieces. The girl climbs through a broken window, leaving me behind. I search the building for anymore else and find myself coming short. I’m trying to avoid going out into the open, even though I know even staying here won’t help me. They’re hunting me with a guy that can see and move through walls.

Each area is seemingly the same, bearing similarities to the room of a normal building. A kitchen, some bedrooms, and a bathroom, though they're all in disrepair. Shattered porcelain with watermarks on the ground.

After a good search, after convincing myself that going outside it’s no different to staying inside, I finally make my way outside. The silence seems all the more disconcerting now. I’m on my own and while there might only be two of them, I don’t like the idea that it’s two verse one, even though I’m very capable fighting myself.

I slowly, while keeping my head on swivel walk towards the second building. I hear a loud bang and I nearly jump out of my skin. A trash can rolls over to me, it’s badly rusted and it strikes me how unlikely it is that a trash can would move by itself. It could be an animal, but I can’t trust it. There’s another bang from behind me and I spin around and then caught square in the back by an unseen assailant.

I’m kicked on the inside of my leg and I fall to my knee. I groan, why is it that they attacked me outside? Why didn’t I trust my instincts on this one? I pull myself back up to my feet, across from me is the diminutive girl, the blitzer, Rita. She has a scowl on her face as if she doesn’t like looking at me. “Be careful Rita, she’s already proven to be capable. We’re down to two and it’s not like she has the same combat capabilities as Kaiden.” I turn back to see David approaching slowly.

My leg is aching, unlike before where I took a car and wound up with some heavy bruising, this girl hits like a building. I grit my teeth, raising my hands in front of me. I face myself toward her, choosing her as the greater threat. David can move and see through walls, he’s not the biggest problem.

She charges and I’m hit, again on my knee. I lash out, catching her on her shoulder, but it means little, as she ends up on the other side. My knee is in agony right now and I lean forward, teetering on falling forward onto my face. “Brother, give me a strong upwind, force her to work for it,” I mutter, somehow making it through my pain.

She charges at me and then the entire area is filled with loud, howling wind. She slows to a crawl, her face is screwed up in concentration and she walks at the speed of a tortoise by my shoulder. I immediately spin, slamming a right-handed punch toward her upper body. She raises a hand, clutching her forearm with her other hand and she gets punched in her upper arm.

She yelps, but it isn’t a good trade-off for the pain I feel. I yell, withdrawing my hand, still torn apart from my punch to the wall. She grins, the wind ceases and she strikes me on the knee again as recourse. I slump forward and I feel her strike me in the shoulder. I nearly make a full rotation and find her knee in my face. I fall back on the ground, spitting out blood.

I cough, struggling on the ground, turning back onto my hands and knees. Everything hurts and I cough, trying to clear my airway. My nose is filled with blood and my mouth isn’t much better. “Jesus, Rita! What the fuck are you doing?” I hear David yell. My ears are thumping as if they too are bleeding.

“Making sure she can’t fight back!” Rita responds her voice seems to carry a hint of antagonism and I feel something grab my hair. She forces my head back and I cough again, groaning in pain.

“If you wanted to do that, you could have hit her vest! Jesus, what are you trying to do, kill her?”

“No. I’m teaching her a lesson for messing with us.”

“It’s a competition! She didn’t hurt any of us more than doing what the task was. This isn’t fucking teaching her a lesson, this is bullying! Just tag her vest and leave her alone!” I can hear a little bit of desperation in his voice as if he’s pleading with her. He doesn’t strike me as a leader in this scenario.

My hair is released and she turns back to the other guy. “Are you on her side?”

“What the fuck? I’m not on her side, but I’m also most certainly not on your side right now. Leave her alone or I’ll surrender. That should lose us the game, right? And you’ve forgotten that we’re probably being monitored right now. Leave her alone.”

She sighs and she kicks me in the back, forcing me down to the ground. It knocks the wind out of me, but the vest starts going off. I didn’t think about it earlier, but my transformation could have triggered it, must be sure not to trigger when the damage comes from the inside. What a thing to consider now. “Happy?” She growls.

“No.”

“Then what can I do to make you happy?”

Both their vests start screeching, signaling the end of the game. “I’ll tell you what. You can go back to the front. We’ll talk about what more you can do later in the apartment.”

She harrumphs and I hear loud retreating footsteps. The other guy sighs and I hear him approach me. I can’t move, my body won’t let me move and now I’m alone. Even if she did hate me, even if she did hurt me, I would have at least liked more than one person here with me. I swallow something that brings the horrifying taste of blood down my throat. I’m nervous, scared, and very ready to transform to fight to the death if I must.