Roberto found himself in a large, empty room, which had four pure-white walls, a floor and ceiling of the same color, and a tall, solitary metal pole, extending from the ceiling to the ground in the middle of the room. As he started to walk towards the pole, Roberto noticed that the floor and walls were made of some kind of soft material. He walked up to the metal pole, and stared at it.
"Well, this is…boring," He thought to himself. "Well, whoever yelled, he isn't in here."
Roberto turned to walk back to the door, but when he tried to open it, he noticed that he was locked-in.
"What?! No! Why can't anything GOOD happen to me?!" he screamed in frustration.
Not sure about what he should do, he walked back to the middle of the room and continued to examine the ordinary, silver pole. He had no idea what it was for, but something about it seemed strange.
"Welcome to your doom," a vague voice spoke into the room.
"What the-"
Before Roberto could even finish his sentence, the floor and ceiling suddenly started to move. First the ceiling, which sped upwards several stories at a speed so fast Roberto could barely see it moving. Then the floor, dropping at an equal speed, much faster than Roberto could fall, started to drop. To save himself from falling to his death, Roberto quickly grabbed onto the pole and stopped himself, while the floor continued to drop several stories, eventually hitting a floor of spikes that punctured the soft material the floor was made of.
"-Hell?!"
Roberto now found himself hanging onto a pole in an extremely long vertical shaft, with no way out. The walls were still covered in the soft, white material, and the shaft was still brightly illuminated by an unknown light source. When he looked up, he could tell that, like the floor below him, the ceiling had come to a halt with spikes penetrating it. He saw a shadow appear out of nowhere at the top of the shaft, and start crawling on the walls towards him.
"Enjoying yourself?" a cocky, deep voice spoke from the mouth of the thing.
"Yeah. You know, besides the whole falling part. What are-"
Before Roberto could ask his question, the shadow jumped off the wall and fell to Roberto, sticking itself back to the wall directly in front of him. Roberto was speechless.
From the waist down was the body of a Black Widow spider; a shiny black-colored body with a red hourglass shape on it's back. However, where the head would normally be on a spider, instead was a human torso, basically a really weird spider-centaur. The skin on the torso-up was dark gray colored, possibly painted, with strange insignias and symbols on its chest in black. Its face had bright red eyes, and perfectly white teeth, which could be seen in its cocky smile. It had long, messy, poofy hair, the same color as its skin, and a single bright nose ring in it's left nostril.
"What were you going to ask?" the thing asked, still fiendishly smiling.
"Erm…What are you?" Roberto barely managed out.
"What I am isn't important," the thing spoke, "You may call me Roderick."
"Okay…" Roberto said hesitantly.
"So, shall we dance?" Roderick smiled.
"Wha-"
Roderick reached behind his back and, seemingly out of nowhere, pulled out a staff, black as night, with a perfect black crystal on the top. He drew it back and, as he was about to strike, Roberto slid down the pole a couple of feet, managing to dodge the attack. As Roderick plunged his staff forward, the gem started to glow a bright white, brighter than the shaft they were both in, and a stream of light shot out from it, making a loud shocking noise as it blasted the wall behind where Roberto once was. Roberto quickly pulled out his weapon, Triptych, and shot a powerful blast of energy at Roderick, which he managed to barely dodge by jumping up a couple of feet, onto the opposite wall. Roderick looked down at Roberto.
"I think this is going to be a very fun dance," Roderick said, hugely grinning.
"That's something we both agree on," Roberto spoke back, with the same grin on his face that was on Roderick's.
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Kate found herself in a mid-sized room, which had 2 sets of counters in it, both of which formed an "L" shape in the center of the room. There were fancy-looking cabinets and drawers lining the walls, with expensive-looking dishware, cutlery, and other kitchen necessities lining shelves on the top of the room. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, and everything else in the room was colored dark-black, as though the owners of the house had hired Death himself as the interior decorator. Dim, old-looking fluorescent lights on the ceiling flickered, barely illuminating the darkness that filled the room.
"What is this supposed to be?" Kate thought to herself, as she started to walk toward a cabinet sitting near a corner. She opened the cabinet and found jars of cherries, carrots, spinach, and other fresh produce. She turned around and noticed an unlit fireplace sitting hidden in another corner of the room with a grate melded above it.
"Oh, I'm in the kitchen. Awesome. Well, I don't think whoever shouted is in here so I think I'll just go."
She walked back to the door to leave, only to find out that she had been locked in, the doorknob refusing to turn, no matter how hard she tried.
"Why am I surprised? Damnit."
She walked back to the center of the room and sat on one of the counters, as she pondered what she should do next. From what she could tell, there were no other doors, no vents, and no windows. No way out except through the locked door.
"Alright, I'll just slam down the door. How tough can it be?"
She put her back to the wall opposite the one with the door, and hunched her back, her face filled with the rage that was usually only on her face when she was arguing with Victor. She ran as fast as she could, with her right shoulder in front of the rest of her body, towards the door, slamming into it, and falling back hard onto the cold ground.
"What do you think your trying to do?" a cold voice asked from behind her.
"What the Hell?!" Kate yelled, as she turned around only to see nothing.
"What? Do you not see me?" the voice asked, almost chuckling.
"Shut up," Kate spoke back, looking around the room for the source of the voice.
Out of nowhere, a cockroach the size of a hand fell onto Kate's face, causing her to loudly shriek and swat it off her face, following up by stomping on it. Still clearly disgusted, she looked up to the ceiling to find a horrible sight: A giant mass of bugs was swarming and crawling around, as each individual one fell to the ground into another pile. Kate, who now had her back against the door, stifled another shriek as the pile of bugs, that had formed in the center of the two sets of counters, started to rise up from the ground, taking the form of a humanoid-thing. Two eyeholes, both of which glowed red, had formed on its face, and it raised both of its arms and put them behind its head in a relaxed pose.
"Do you see me now?" the thing asked.
"Oh…I'm gonna be sick," she replied.
"My name is Keller. It's a pleasure," Keller said, bowing with one arm on his stomach, the other behind his back.
"The pleasure is definitely all yours," Kate said back, trying to hold back a grin that read "Proud to be a Bastard".
Keller, whose eyes quickly turned angry at Kate's remark, launched his arm at her. It stretched from his body towards her at a barely-seeable speed, and she barely managed to get out of the way before it slammed through the wall near the door. She quickly took out her spear, Passion, and stabbed it deep into the arm, as she could hear and feel bugs being smashed by the weapon. She pulled it out, and Keller pulled his arm back towards him, obviously not at all affected by Kate's attack.
"And to think, I was going to make your death quick and painless. Oh well, you get what you deserve," Keller said, his eyes angry.
"And to think, I'm probably the only one having to fight a guy made of BUGS," Kate thought to herself.
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Aaron, after rushing through his door as fast as he could, ended up falling into a deep pit, about 20 feet deep. He landed on a large pile of straw, which saved him from being killed by the impact, and stood up, still woozy from the fall.
"Ow…I wish I hadn't done that," he complained to himself, as he brushed stray pieces of straw off his orange shirt.
"No! Please! Don't leave! Answer me!"
Aaron was silent for a moment, unsure if he had heard correctly. Maybe he was going crazy? The voice he heard was completely different from the one he had heard earlier, which was a man's voice. This was the voice of a woman.
"Please!"
That time, Aaron was sure he heard something. He drew his katana-like sword, Infinity, and held it above his head as he rushed through the darkness of the area he was in to the voice. Eventually he ran up to a woman standing by herself, with her back turned to him. She turned around to Aaron, and had a look of fear on her face upon seeing his sword drawn.
"Don't be afraid, I'm a friend," Aaron softly spoke to her, as he put his weapon away, and her face turned to a look of relief and happiness.
The woman was tall, about 18 years old, and very pretty. She had long, brown hair, which hung down to about the middle of her back, and she was wearing an open pink hooded jacket, which an equally pink T-Shirt on underneath. She was also wearing normal fitting blue jeans, purple converse shoes, and a silver necklace around her neck. Her skin was well tanned, and she had very cheerful and smiling eyes, that hinted that she was probably by-default happy.
"What's your name?" Aaron asked her.
"My name is Courtney. What's yours?" she answered, her face smiling.
"My name is Aaron. I'm guessing you're a Hero?"
"Oh, yeah, apparently. A voice was telling me about how some group of Heroes like myself would come and explain more. Are you the only one?"
"No, I'm just the only person that checked this room when we split up earlier."
"Oh. Well, I'm glad you're here to help me out. Why did you all split up?"
Aaron explained everything that had happened to him and his friends. What they had told him had happened to them, and what he had gone through on the train. And why they had all separated.
"So you're new to this too?" Courtney asked.
"Yeah, I'm still kinda convinced I'm dreaming. Though I usually can't feel pain in dreams. I can here though, trust me," he said, smiling to show that he was kidding. Sorta.
"And I'm apparently not the only Hero here?" she asked, receiving a "yes" nod from Aaron.
"So when can I summon my Hero?"
"I'm not sure exactly how, but you'll just…know. Something inside you will tell you to shout 'I need a Hero, to save me now!' It also apparently happens whenever somebody's about to get killed."
"That sounds terrible," she said, frowning.
"It is."
"Alright then!" Courtney started to say, her smile back on her face. "Let's get out of here and find our friends!"
"I'm not sure how to get out of here, though…" Aaron said.
"Don't worry, if there's a way in, there's got to be a way out. C'mon, let's search around."
As they started to search for an exit, Aaron finally started to get a bearing on his surroundings. He was in a dark, apparently very large room. There were wooden beams every couple of feet supporting the ceiling. The ceiling, floor, and walls were all made from old cobblestone and rock, with cobwebs everywhere. Torches dotted the walls, but they only made a very small area of light, so if you weren't right next to them, all you could see was darkness, making it very hard to not walk into any of the beams.
"Ugh, it's too dark, I can't see anything in here," Aaron yelled.
"Yeah, but what else can we do?" Courtney replied.
"You could die."
Aaron and Courtney both stifled shrieks, and turned to see a figure barely visible in the light of a torch in front of them.
He was a tall, tanned man, with long black hair that was put into a ponytail, and a thick beard. He was shirtless, showing off his very large and toned muscles, and was wearing steel greaves on the lower half of his body, with no shoes or boots. He had what looked like a potato sack in his left hand, sagging onto the floor.
"W-Who are you?!" Courtney and Aaron both yelled in unison.
"My name is Gregory, not that it matters. You're both about to die anyways," he responded, his voice tough and deep, but at the same cold as ice.
"What?! Why?!" Courtney yelled.
"You don't need to know."
Gregory reached into his bag and pulled out a couple of pebble-shaped things and threw them onto the ground. Aaron and Courtney looked at each other in confusion, before turning back to the items.
"What are these supposed to be?" Aaron asked, not taking his eyes off the objects.
"Your about to find out," Gregory answered.
Gregory lifted up his left leg and slammed his foot on the ground, making the room shake and dust fall from the ceiling. Suddenly, the objects exploded with enough force to send Aaron and Courtney flying into a wall a couple of yards away. The two Heroes, still dazed and confused from the big boom, looked up to see 5 blue figures standing in front of Gregory.
The figures were in the shape of humans, with two arms, two legs, a head, and a torso. However, they had no faces, no clothes, no features. Just bodies. Their bodies were a light blue, and didn't appear to be solid, but looked more like they were made of electricity. Faded, static, and almost see-through.
"Kill them," Gregory commanded, as Aaron and Courtney stumbled onto their feet.
The blue figures started to walk towards the Heroes. Aaron pulled out Infinity and shouted "Saku!" as he swung his sword, creating a strange black-colored beam that shot out like a laser and hit one of the figures, causing it to disappear into thin air.
"Wow, nice!" Courtney yelled, smiling.
"You think it's going to be that easy?" Gregory asked, almost chuckling.
He pulled out another two stones, dropped them on the ground, and stomped, causing them to explode into more blue figures. Bringing the total up to six.
"Wha-NO!" Aaron yelled, anger crippling his voice.
"This shouldn't be hard," Gregory softly said to himself, smirking.
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Not much to say this chapter, I've just prepared battles for Roberto, Kate, Aaron, and our newcomer Courtney (who, just incase you didn't know, is based on Courtney817). I should have Darkman, Axis, and Jon's battles started in the next chapter, and then I can get to some better stuff. :)
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