All for Naught
"Are you sure you don't want any, Yagami-kun?"
"What? Er..No thanks. Look stop eating. Shouldn't we get this thing started?"
"Ah. Yes, you're right. It is about time that we got things started." L and Raito Yagami sat at a large desk in a small cut-off room. The room was located behind a reinforced two-way mirror. Beyond their room, which seemed to be a main control room, was a much larger room which ranged over the size of a football field in both height and width. The room was what appeared to be a large arena. The floors were made up of a series of pale tiles specifically designed to withstand massive force. This was to insure that they couldn't be unearthed or damaged under any harsh circumstances. Before this massive arena resided twelve circles with its own respective spiral within it. Each spiral held within it a rotating red light which was slowly making rounds within the spiral, going back and forth as it made its way to the ends of the spiral.
L pushed his chair back, the wheels of the chair making small squeaks against the marble floor as he did so. He maneuvered his way to his left and pushed the button on the intercom beside him, "Alright, Watari. You may start. Yagami-san and I shall summon the group leaders. Please start the device."
"Very well, sir." Responded the voice of Watari from the small intercom. With this, the ten spiral lights began to emit a loud noise, as if machinery activity was taking place somewhere in the area. The red lights began to move more rapidly as the sounds began to grow softer.
"Alright. So, who's coming in first? Should we start summoning the lea-" Raito began as he maneuvered himself over to L in his own chair, reaching out for a keyboard to L's left. The keyboard had the basic make up of a normal computer with the addition of twelve red buttons going vertically along the side.
Before Raito could push a single key, L swatted his hand away, "Just a minute, Yagami-kun. We haven't had all of our necessary guests." As he finished speaking he pointed out of the two-way mirror and out towards the arena they were overlooking. Beyond the arena was a second two-way mirror on the opposite side of L and Raito's.
"Guests?" Raito repeated, as he stared out of the mirror off into the second one. He could make out two other people making their way into the room parallel from them. His eyes
widened as he saw who they were, two adolescent males, one with pale white hair fashioned in a set of curly locks and the other with brilliant blonde hair that fell down just above his shoulders; Near and Mello.
The voice of both Near and Mello came through the intercom, "We're ready."
L turned around in his chair and grinned at Raito, his left thumb pushing his upper lip up into an even more twisted grin, "Well then, I guess we may start." Raito proceeded once again to go push the button on the keyboard, but was cut off once again by L as he pushed the top-most red button himself. L turned to Raito, bearing a false look of ignorance on his face, "Oh, I'm sorry, did you want to go first?"
Reacting to this button, the first of the twelve circles began to glow, giving off a violent red light that illuminated half of the arena. The light focused off into a cylinder radiating off from the circle upwards, and then finally breaking off into a series of thin rings. After a moment of the rings bypassing each other, each going up and then back down in a repetitive pattern, a figure began to appear within the rings. It was now clear that this was some sort of teleportation device.
A boy wearing leather pants and a large red jacket with the medical symbol, a cross with two snakes coiling themselves around to the top, printed on the back stumbled out of the spiral circle as the red light dispersed. His golden blonde hair rested forward in a set of large bangs whilst the back was braided down into a ponytail, a silver pocket watch hanging down at an attachment from his pocket. He quickly looked around, his eyes scanning the area, "Al?! Al?! Where am I?! Al, can you hear me?! Answer me, Alphonse! Damnit!"
The intercom screeched with static briefly before the voice of L rang out, "Attention, Edward Elric, you are within our large arena. This place as well as the Rift Disrupter you came out of was created by a very special inventor, Watari. He graced this vicinity with the brilliance of knowledge and creativity, which allows the two of us to summon members of other dimensions into our own. I'm sure you are wondering why you are here and I'm positive that you are worried about the whereabouts of your brother. Do not despair, when this is over you will be returned to your own dimension during the exact time you were removed. This means that it will appear as though you had never left. You are the first leader chosen out of your group which will consist of four members. There shall be a total of three groups and a leader among each. The three teams will compete in a series of competitions in which the stage you are on will undergo a specific transformation to meet the requirements of the task. The team that scores the best will then be able to vote a member of the team that did the worst off. The final player who lasts at the very end will be awarded the prize, of which is your reason for being summoned, the Null Skill. "L pointed to the Near and Mello's window as Near held up a small wooden trinket that was attached to a chain.
"Why is it with them?" Raito asked as he turned in his chair to look at L.
L grinned as he removed a donut from the sweets filled counter before him and dunked it in a plate of what appeared to be chocolate syrup, "Surely, you didn't believe I would leave something such as the Null Skill within the grasp of Kira?" He smiled whilst biting into the donut, licking the chocolate from his lips in-between chews.
Raito glared, "Hey, look our anime is over can we just focus here?! Yeah, I was Kira and I used the Deathnote. That doesn't mean I'm going to use the Null Skill to kill people."
"Not innocent people, but those who have done crimes. That is your loophole isn't it?" L mocked as he licked the lingering chocolate from his fingers.
Raito's chair flew back as he leaped from his chair and gripped L by the collar of his shirt, his right arm poised to throw a punch, "You..."
L smirked as his hair hung down as he was suddenly jerked forward by Raito which hid his eyes from view, "Surely we're not going to go through this again. It is as I stated before, once is once." Without trying to break free, he continued his explanation to the still lost Edward, "I know that you're wondering what the Null Skill is. In fact, I would say that I am about 98 percent sure that you are curious…Or perhaps so far as 99 percent? The Null Skill is a device I stumbled upon whilst using Watari's Rift Distortion device. It allows its user to gain any skill or ability that they write on the tablet Near is holding. Yes, that includes you being able to save your brother."
"Wait. You mean I can save Al?! How will this Null Skill help me save my brother?! Tell me!" Edward called up to the two-way mirror.
Raito released L and spoke into the intercom, "Well, it's simple really. Say you won the competition and gained the Null Skill. You could then write something along the lines of, "Alchemist Skill" and be able to come up with an array that could help fix your brother."
"Why wouldn't he simple write, "Philosopher Stone Creator" so that he would then gain the knowledge needed to create his own version of the stone to save his brother as well as preventing the death of countless others?" L added in.
"That would work as well, but I was just giving an example." Raito replied.
"And what happens if I don't win?" Edward asked.
"You die!" Mello spat out from his intercom.
"What?! That ins't tru-" Raito started.
"Yes, you die. The arena will send you off to a separate dimension with a lack of air and you will suffocate until you die. Are you still willing to participate?" Interrupted L.
Edward looked down at the floor, "Yeah...I'm in. If it'll help me save Al."
"Very well then. Also you should know, you will not die if you do not succeed. It was merely a test to see how determined you truly were. If you fail you will simple be forced back to your dimension and your memory of this event will be wiped away as if it never happened. You will return at the exact moment you left and all will return to normal. You will not have an alternative to saving your brother and your trip here will have been all for naught." L replied in a rather satisfied tone.
"You tricked me to see if I was willing to die for this game you're making me play?" Asked Edward who couldn't tell if he was angry or just really confused.
"Exactly. Now that everything is settled, welcome to the game 'All for Naught: Dimensional Survivor'. Here are the rest of the contestants." L said as he pushed the remaining red buttons after quickly typing in eleven new names.
The circles re-illuminated as the teleportation took its course. Soon eleven more people stood in the room. Near read off their names from his window as they appeared, "Kagome Higurashi-Group Leader of Kurama, Ichimaru Gin, and Mokuba Kaiba. Ichigo Kurosaki- Group Leader of Sesshomaru, Sakura Hirono and Wrath. And the remaining three will be within the group of Edward Elric, Koga of the Wolf Tribe, Orihime Inoue and Kon. The final group is the only group that we have accepted members of the same dimension to ally the same team. Each member has been informed of everything Edward Elric has been during their trip to this dimension so that we are all up to date. Now, the first challenge shall star-"
"Begin!" Mello shouted as he hit the barrel of his gun against a large green button in their room. Mello and Near where in charge of all terrain and environment changes for the challenges. The arena began to shift and warp, becoming rather distorted. When the room had returned to a stable state it was now in the form of a vast forest and appeared to have grown in size. It was unmistakable, the room had somehow gotten several times larger as there were now thousands of trees and a river flowing for what seemed to be miles.
L's voice echoed from the intercom that was no longer in sight, "Your first task is to make it from this side of the river to the other side. Here are the rules: Each member of a team must make it to the other side. Each team must create a raft or canoe to travel from one side to the
other. Teams may fight each other or do whatever they need to do to ensure that they are first to make it to the other side. Death is not possible here; however you are still able to become extremely injured even to the point of losing consciousness. Any injuries will be healed over after each competition. Any member of a team that touches or falls into the water, this does not include being splashed, will instantly be transported back to the starting line and will have to make it to the other side alone. If any member of a team cannot get to the other side then the entire team fails. You may start."