[Round Zero: part 1]

[utopiamods]

At noon on the rest day, every screen in the campus lights up. It's the girl from the introduction again! She's grinning fit to burst, and her voice is bright and excited.

"Good morning, everyone! Round Minus-One is now officially over, so we'd like you to all report to the lobby for a special announcement, immediately! It starts in ten minutes, so don't be late."

The screens all go blank, before simply displaying the flashing text ALL STUDENTS REPORT TO THE LOBBY FOR 12:10.

Reaching the lobby, you find it empty of the usual staff. However, the doors to the tramstation are blocked by a large stage, spanning the entire south wall. In the centre stands the girl, in the flesh and just as sickeningly cheerful as her broadcast.

"Hi, everyone!" She waves, tilting sideways as she does so, and then clasps her hands together. "Wow, it's really great to see you all in person at last! You've all tried a lot harder this week, and it shows! We're really, really impressed with everyone. Ah, even though there was a bit of cheating..." she pouts, and shakes her head lightly, "But that's okay. We forgive you! You all know better now.

"But what we've called you here to say is this! We've been working extra hard too, and we've gotten a lot done with your help. So much that we're nearly ready for Round One!

"However..."

She's still smiling. It's a little unnerving, "We have to do some maintenance first, okay? And I'm afraid it would be a problem if you were all alive for that... you could cause us a lot of problems. So we're going to get rid of you for a little while. Think of this as a final test!"

She snaps her fingers, and your shadows disappear. No, not disappear. That's the wrong word. It's more like... they're abandoning you. Nearly forty pools of darkness flow up onto the stage, and suddenly explode upwards in tendrils and globs of black. The girl laughs as they finish changing, as they take on your shapes. As they reach into themselves and pull out inky replicas of your own weapons. They all laugh with her, in the emotionless tones of the Voice from your dreams.

"You can all draw your own weapons now, okay? Fight hard!"

[mod notice: NOW EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ THIS OOC POST BEFORE THEY REPLY.]

Comments

[womenwouldgrieve]

A child. There were children here, and this one had just been...

Edgar wasted no time pulling out his own weapon. There wasn't much he could do for the boy bleeding out -- if only this place, whatever it was, weren't sealing his magic -- but he could protect everyone else.

A spear. He had a spear, he realized once he was holding it in his hands. Well, that would make things easier... With a shout, he lunged at the shadow holding the rifle.

[imperceptible]

"Get out of the way," the shadow ordered as he brought up the rifle with surprising agility and aimed straight at Edgar, hoping to get off a single shot before the man had time to close the distance between them.

[womenwouldgrieve]

Well, crap. A fully-upgraded rifle versus a never-used spear? This might not end well.

In hopes of preventing the shadow from getting a chance to fire, he pulled his arm back and threw the spear. It was long and pointy; it would fly well, if nothing else.

[imperceptible]

Swearing at the suddenly projectile weapon, the shadow barely managed to dive out of the way at the last second, sending the shot completely askew. Evidently, Edgar was more intelligent than he had given him credit for.

With a dark hiss, the shadow quickly began to pick itself up, hoping to recover before the king attacked again.

[womenwouldgrieve]

Losing his spear was a problem. But the shadow was down, which gave him a chance to make it up. The spear hadn't fallen far; Edgar rushed to grab it, and as the shadow pushed itself up he plunged the tip down into its head.

At the same moment the shadow dispersed, something sharp impaled Edgar's chest from behind. There was a rather worrying sound effect that he recognized as belonging to an Instant Death attack, and then he crumpled, and his own shadow form pulled its spear out and went to find its next victim.

Requiring a mercy kill here plz. :|b

[imperceptible]

Thirty seconds, Kevin chanted in his head, clutching his side. Thirty seconds until the effect wore off and he could do something about the sounds of battle all around him. Thirty seconds and... was his vision clearing? Just a bit around the edges?

Fuck it, he'd take it. Bringing his head up and cursing the seconds it took his perception to clear, his eyes adjusted just in time to see Edgar die.

"... no way..." The murmur was hollow, faint even in his own ears as his entire body seemed to go numb. "This... this is a joke right?" There was no way he could have just seen someone die in front of his own eyes. Die trying to save him.

As his fingers loosened every so slightly releasing a gush of blood, Kevin gritted his teeth and tightened his hold again. He wasn't going to die like this. Wasn't going to... what... was he going to do? Could he even fight like this? As his eyes continued to linger on Edgar's still body, Kevin repeated what he said earlier, only this time in a choked mumble.

"You gotta be kidding me..."

*obliges*

[summerstars]

"Hi there..." She's hanging upside down in the air, grinning at Kevinm a discus with visibly razorsharp edges rotation quickly on one finger, not very far at all from his face.

"Game over, kid. Better luck next time!" So said, the frisbee was flung forward.