[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

[greennotgold]

The instant the shadows coalesced into animate forms, Fletcher gasped in worry and stepped behind his brother, clinging to his sleeve. "Brother!"

[chainedbyred]

But Russel didn't miss a beat. "Fletcher, take my shield and hide. Don't come out until everything is over." At least it would be useful for once.

[greennotgold]

Fletcher nodded in hesitation. He pulled out his bow and, dazed from the process, handed it over; Russel would need something to fight with.

[greennotgold]

Meanwhile, Fletcher's shadow had noticed its counterpart and decided to give chase, bow at the ready. If someone didn't stop it, it might just get a lucky shot in.

[chainedbyred]

"Go! Run!" Russel told his brother, accepting the bow, and watching the shadow version catch up to them. Once Fletcher was clear, his movements became only lightly more relaxed. If he was going to protect Fletcher, the real one, he had to do this.

He raised the bow, and pulled back the string. An arrow of green energy appeared where the normal arrow would go. He took a long moment to take proper aim. But he couldn't get over the fact that it was Fletcher's face on that creature. He closed his eyes, still standing ready to fire.

No. He would protect Fletcher. At all costs.

He reached deep within himself. Pulled out, kicking and screaming, the cold, ruthless scientist he'd been a long time ago. The person that pushed himself single-mindedly to a single goal.

He opened his eyes. Retook his aim. Released the string.

[greennotgold]

Fletcher's shadow noticed the older boy focusing on him, though, and in that brief moment when Russel closed his eyes and struggled with himself, it darted out to one side so that it was moving when Russel re-aimed and shot. It only stopped once the bolt of energy had flown past it, aimed its own bow at the human, and let a shot of red energy fly.

"You're going to shoot me, Brother?"

[chainedbyred]

"You're not my brother," he snarled as he pulled the bowstring back again. "And I'm not going to let you kill him." He fired again, and a few more times in quick succession, shifting aim slightly with each shot.

[greennotgold]

"But, Brother--!" It flailed and jumped aside, trying its best to dodge, but it couldn't avoid them all. Eventually one of them grazed its side, and with one last big-eyed, betrayed-looking glance at Russel, it vanished in a poof of smoke.

[chainedbyred]

He was glad it went down so easily. He didn't know how long he could deal with that. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself. He clenched his fists, one around the bow. As long as he had that in his hand, Fletcher was okay. He could keep fighting. Even against himself if he had to.

He ran off, toward the fights. He was going to do whatever he could to eliminate these things. The less of them there were, the better odds Fletcher had.