A/N: Well this is a bit of an experiment while reading The Saltwater Room by Natural selection, this idea popped into my head, and I'll be damned but this is an addicting fandom. So I had to at least try something out. Now if you've read The Saltwater Room and you should its great, you'll notice this is kind of similar to the beginning of that fic, and I admit it is fairly similar, I'm using a similar Hunger Games type entry sequence here, but after that I take a completely different direction. I promise that I'm not just copying, I will gladly give all credit for the inspiration for these first couple chapters to natural selection.
Anywho yeah my first foray into the Homestuck fandom, I hope you enjoy, and I hope to hear what you think about it.
DISCLAIMER: I do not pretend to own any of the characters or concepts related to Homestuck, they belong to Andrew Hussie, The only thing I own is my original character Natasha.
Dead Sessions
Chapter 1: A Strange new Adventure?
Your NAME isn't important.
You are a PERSON, and have a variety of interests that are also UNIMPORTANT although it is safe to assume one of them is playing GAMES.
You are currently in the process of picking out a WEAPON for the upcoming RAID on a popular EXTREME ROLE PLAYING GAME; the player next to you has chosen a CHAINSAW.
…
You decide to be her in hopes of being MORE IMPORTANT.
Your name is KANYA MARYAM.
You describe yourself as one of many things such as a LUMBER JACK, ETREME ROLEPLAYER, or a TREETRIMMER, but really you are fine describing yourself as anything that often uses a CHAINSAW.
Although most simply call you a MUTANT, you personally prefer the term EVOLVED in any case you are DIFFERENT than most people. You suppose you are OK with that, most other people are not very INTERESTING anyway.
As was previously mentioned she is a mutant, although no radiation or the like has caused this, it was merely natural mutation of genes during reproduction. This mutation has caused her to have tough light grey skin, yellow eyes, and orange-yellow horns, while she thinks she looks pretty awesome, her parents are less than thrilled at her look especially being of jade green blood. While they have slightly different shades of green Kanaya's blood is a perfect jade green which would normally place her in a position of significant comfort in society due to its rarity, however the fact she is a mutant has reduced this benefit, something her parents were sorely disappointed to find out, it does however give her a few nice little bonuses. A prime example being the millions of tiny nanites flowing through her veins, while their primary function is to act as maintenance fixing and keeping the body healthy, they also allow for an in depth connection to technology, such as games, that cannot be experienced any other way.
This is how she is able to literally feel the intensity of combat with the hordes of evil trees; her chainsaw seems more and more practical as time goes on. These online roleplaying games take up a fair amount of her time, as well as designing, and reading, all things that can be comfortably accomplished in her room away from the eyes of the public, exactly the way her parent prefer it.
Her younger sister garners that attention as she is not a mutant and has jade green blood, as soon as she was born Kanaya's parents set to making the human child's life as good as possible as her blood brought in money and influence. But as was also previously mentioned Kanaya is not interested in meeting all the uninteresting people her sister is paraded before.
However today is a strange day. "Kanaya, turn that off there are people here to see you."
The terse tone and simple clear meaning are the norm of her parent's conversations with her. Although maybe 'Conversation' isn't the right word for 'as little contact as possible'. She is however used to this, so getting up and closing her game she briefly catches her reflection in a mirror surface. Hair sticking up in a strange display that cannot quite be named, a long sleeve grey shirt covered by a black T-shirt with a Virgo symbol on it, and a long dark red skirt.
Walking upstairs from her basement room she sees two large bald men in suits standing rigidly in her living room.
"Kanaya Maryam?" One of them asked.
"Yeah, that's me." She replies.
"You've been chosen as a study subject by the Order of Outcasts, we're here to collect you."
"Wait a minute, I've been what?"
"Chosen as a subject of study, you'll have to come live at the Outcast compound in Switzerland."
"Is this voluntary or am I being volunteered?" she asks with a subtle look to where her mother was standing.
"Subjects such as yourself are fairly rare, so we have authority to remove you unless you are otherwise employed in an important position." Kanaya frowned at this. "As you are not you'll be coming with us but I assure you it is not as bad as it sounds." When the man said this it seemed that he was trying to impart some hidden meaning to Kanaya.
"Hmmm…" Could it truly be any worse than the stagnation of my current life? "You're not going to run weird medical experiments on me are you?"
"Only if you allow it." The agent said with a small smile. "Scans, exams, that sort of thing, nothing invasive."
"Can I pack some things?"
"As long as it's a reasonable amount you may, but we must be off in no less than 45 minutes, start packing, and don't try and bring anything dodgy." He replies seriously.
With that she turns thinking of what to bring on this strange new adventure.
Your name is NATASHA KVATCH, and your online username is ARKNIGHT.
You live in a large house on the outskirts of a medium sized town in SIBERIA. It is ALWAYS COLD here so you spend much of your free time INSIDE, doing things like READING, PLAYING GAMES, and DRAWING; you do however enjoy EXPLORING THE WILDERNESS when the weather is not TERRIFYINGLY COLD.
You are a MUTANT, but most people try not to think about you, you don't PARTICULARLY CARE. You are not only a MUTANT in the previously mentioned fashion but also by the fact that your blood is BLACK; this COMPLICATES some things because that blood class doesn't technically EXSIST.
Natasha's family is made up of cerulean-bloods, who have a fair amount of influence in this half of Russia, not that it means much because this half of Russian is mostly Wilderness. It has however allowed her to live in decent comfort; however her black blood and mutation complicate things for her family. Her parents have never explicitly expressed dislike for her but she has always felt they would rather her be gone.
They give very little but she only asks for very little, the largest thing being the nanite implants she utilizes to play online games, this implant is be common amongst cerulean bloods so it wasn't a big deal, she and her parents have an understanding: Natasha does not make a public and embarrassing spectacle of her black blood and mutation, and her parents supply her with the few things she asks for. It is simple and effective but does not promote a strong social life, and she tends to be quiet, tactical, and sarcastic.
A girl chainsaws the trunk of an evil tree in half with a swing of her chainsaw.
GA: Another One Down, Excellent.
AK: There are only a few more left, we've done well.
GA: Oh Hang On I've Got To Go, I'll See You Later.
AK: Da, do svidaniya.
A knocking at the door draws Natasha's attention, her mother steps into the room. "Could you come down to the living room, there are some people here to talk to you."
"Talk to me?"
"Yes, they have a proposal for you."
She gets up and follows her mother down to the parlor where two men stand in governmental winter gear.
"Natasha Kvatch?"
She just nods in response.
"You have been chosen as a study subject by the Order of Outcasts, we're here to collect you."
Looking immediately suspicious, she asks. "What kind of study?"
"Study of the unique mutation you exhibit." Cutting off the obvious next question the man speaks again. "No we aren't going to experiment on you, believe me the program is not what you would expect."
"I think I'd rather not."
"That's unfortunate because we have the authority to take you forcefully if need be, I think you should reconsider our offer."
A grimace crosses her face at this news. "So what exactly does this 'study' entail?"
"You'll come with us to live at the Outcast compound in Switzerland; there your mutation will be examined."
"Need to know basis only huh? Well it doesn't appear I have much choice, can I at least pack some things?"
"You've got 45 minutes, and don't try and sneak in anything suspicious."
Walking back to her room she digs out her backpack and a duffle bag and begins packing things into them. Standing at one point she examines herself in the mirror.
Shoulder length black hair with a few deep red highlights that tumbled down around her face, the whites of her eyes were yellow with a few black veins and deep red irises, atop her head were two orange-yellow horns that went up about three inches before cutting sharply back for two inches at nearly a 90 degree angle, slightly on the tall side with a moderate-build her baggy clothing hid a moderately shapely body that belied more strength than one would think at first glance. A black long sleeve shirt, with a gray-blue fleece lined military style jacket over it, emblazoned across the left breast of the jacket and right shoulder was the anarchy A symbol in black, around her neck was a cloth facemask that could be pulled up to stave off the cold, and lastly a pair of white black and gray winter camouflage cargoes. She also put on a black and red beanie with holes in it for her horns, and lacing up a pair of black winter combat boots she headed back out into the living room.
"Alright lead the way."
Your name is VRISKA SERKET and you're kind of a bitch.
You've TONED IT DOWN some though. You had to when you MOVED into an area full of INDIGO AND PURPLE bloods. You hadn't realized how HORRIBLE it was to be LOWER ON THE FOOD chain before when you were the highest blood caste in the area. You don't necessarily REGRET what you did to the lower blood castes, but you don't think you have it in you TO DO IT ANYMORE.
You are a MUTANT, and those POMPOUS ASSHOLES never forget to REMIND you of it. Your cerulean blood allows you to live with SIGNIFICANT COMFORT but it is the LOWEST caste in the area you now live in.
The raid finishes and a bored Vriska thinks of what to do next.
"Vriska dear there are some people here who want to see you." Her mothers' voice drifts up the stairway to her room.
Her parents were always rather loving regardless of the mutation, they were not the best role models when it came to caste toleration, but they cared for their own. So Vriska got up and headed downstairs to find two bald men in suits.
"Vriska Serket?"
"Maybe, who's askin?"
"The Order of Outcasts, we're here to collect you as part of study of mutations of the same nature as yours."
"I think I'll pass on being a guinea pig, thank you." She replied with a smirk turning away.
"Then we have permission to take you by force if you don't comply." The agent replied lowly.
"You can't do that!" Her mother spoke up.
The other agent pulled a document out from in his coat bearing the royal seal, embossed with a deep purple.
"Actually we can."
"Uh…"
"If you come nicely we'll give you 45 minutes to pack your things, if not you'll have those clothes and that's it."
"I'll… go start packing I guess."
Be the MAIN CHARACTER again!
…
Which one was that?
The NEW one Pooplord! Get it together!
You are NATASHA again.
After being shoved into the back of an "inconspicuous" black van that just screamed 'government secret' she sat in back for several hours as they drove to the nearest place that could be identified as airfield AKA a long strip of dirt with a few small garages at one end. A very out of place private jet sat at the end of the runway, obviously too large for the small garages. After being ushered onto the plane she was placed in a room with a few seats and heavy doors at both ends. The agents closed the doors and left her alone with her thoughts, a few minutes later she could hear the engines starting up. Steeling herself for a long flight she slouched over the two seat bench and promptly fell asleep.
A sudden jolt flipped her out of the seats into an ungraceful heap on the floor.
"Ouch"
The sound of squealing tires could be heard and a quick glance out the window confirmed that the plain had touched down; an agent opened the door as she was picking herself up off the floor.
"What happened?" He asked.
"The 'Fasten seatbelt' sign didn't turn on." She replied a little peeved.
The agent frowned. "Those chairs don't have seatbelts."
"Wow"
"We've touched down to refuel and pick up another subject do you need anything?"
"Yes I'm starving."
"Alright, we're getting McDonalds, what do you want?"
"Uh…"
"What never been to McDonalds before?"
"Dude, I lived in SIBERIA, not exactly common out there."
"Right we'll just get you a burger then." And with that he closed the door.
After about twenty minutes another mutant was led into the room holding two paper bags.
"Uhm. Hi, I assume one of these is yours?" The new mutant girls said.
"Yeah should be, my name's Natasha by the way."
The girl came over and sat down placing the food on the seat between them.
"I'm Kanaya, do you know anything more about what we're in for?"
"No."
"Damn"
With that Natasha dug into one of the bags and started eating. Kanaya did the same with her food and they ate in silence.
"Say are you from around here? Because I actually don't know where we've landed." Natasha asked after a while.
"This is the main airfield for Juno Alaska, I lived here in Juno."
"Mmm, didn't feel like that long of a flight that explains it."
"Where are you from?"
"Siberia, lived just outside a town, surrounded by a thousand miles of nothing in every direction."
"Interesting."
"No. not really."
Kanaya chuckled slightly at that.
One of the agents poked their head into the room. "We'll be taking off shortly."
Natasha vaulted over the back of the seat into the row behind it and lay across the bench seats.
"I dunno about you but I'm going back to sleep."
"That seems like a reasonable course of action." Kanaya replied.
The jet engines wound up and the small jet screamed off into the air once again.
This time she woke up before landing, sitting upright in her seat and stretching she looked out the window. Vast rolling green plains could be seen obscured by the occasional cloud, doing a mental world map in her head she deduced they were likely over the Great Plains of the US.
Looking back to the inside of the plane she could see two feet sticking out into the isle from the bench in front of her, Kanaya must still be asleep.
For lack of anything better to do she turns to stare morosely out the window.
It is some indiscriminate but large amount of time later before an agent pokes through the door and informs her that they will be landing in the next twenty minutes, waking Kanaya in the process.
A sleepy eyed Kanaya pokes over the back of the seat in front of her.
"Have a nice nap?" Natasha asks.
"YAAAAAAAWWN"
"I'll take that as a 'damn skippy'." She gives her a sleepy thumbs up.
"Any idea where we are?"
"Eastern united States if I had to guess."
"Hmm, wonder who we'll be picking up."
About fifty minutes later a girl with long black hair and sharp fangs is lead into the room.
"Privet."
"What?"
"Means 'hi' in Russian."
"I don't speak Russian."
"Da but I do, it slips in here and there."
"So you're from Russia then?"
"Da, my name is Natasha, you?"
"Vriska." She replies walking to the seat across the aisle.
"I'm Kanaya."
"Awesome, now that we're all friends does anyone know what the fuck these weirdoes want with us?"
"No"
Natasha just shrugs.
"So where have we landed this time?" Natasha asks.
"This is New York city, why? where are you two from?"
"Juno Alaska."
"The middle of Siberia."
"Not what I was expecting, neither of you are idiot low bloods are you?" Vriska asks with a scrutinizing gaze.
"Jade green." Kanaya replies. "Although I personally could care less what color your blood is."
"What about you?" She asks Nat.
"Black"
"Bullshit, what are you some rust blood or something?"
Natasha bites her thumb with one of her larger than normal canines and shows the small prick of onyx blood to her companions.
"Holy shit you do have black blood."
"That's… interesting." Kanaya replies.
Natasha just shrugs. "Works just the same as any other blood."
"That's freaky." Vriska said.
Nat just shrugged again.
The plane screamed off into the air again bound for Switzerland, Vriska went to sleep in her row of seats while Kanaya and Natasha conversed quietly for a while. The plane eventually set down at a military airbase in Switzerland, stepping off the plane the three saw several military type personnel standing around next to an APC and two military Jeeps. They were led into the back of the APC along with two of the soldiers.
Now that she had a better look at the soldiers Natasha could tell they weren't Swiss military, they had no Swiss flag on their grey camouflage uniforms, but instead had what she assumed to be the Outcast emblem on their sleeves.
She didn't understand what the symbol meant or how it related to the name Outcasts but she knew they were not Swiss military.
The APC thundered off, there were no windows on the APC so the occupants couldn't see where they were going. They sat in silence for the whole trip of about two hours; the silence was mainly from the I-take-no-shit glare the two soldiers wore for the duration of the trip. But the APC finally rolled to a stop and someone outside banged twice on the door and then it opened.
Stepping out into the light Natasha looked around, the sky was overcast so the light was dimmed, they were partway up the slope of a large mountain and all that could be seen in any direction was a forest of pine trees save one long road, the ground was covered in snow and the air was cold, their breath frosted in the air. In front of them was the entrance to a large tunnel that the road continued into, a large blast door was poking out of the ceiling, just inside the tunnel was a doorway that the soldier began ushering them towards, as the APC and Jeeps drove off into the tunnel. Before they were completely inside Nat saw another small convoy coming down the road.
Inside the hallways were very military, Spartan and devoid of decoration not even painted just bare concrete. They walked a short ways down the hall to a larger room with more soldiers in it and several rows of folding chairs in front of a raised podium, several other hallways branched off from this room.
"Sit with your team." One of the soldiers instructed.
Looking around slightly confused Nat asked. "Our team is?"
"Whoever you arrived with." The soldier replied curtly.
"Right"
With that the three sat down and waited, after about ten minutes another three mutants were led into the room, soon after two more groups, and another, and another until there were eight groups total. Once they had all arrived an officer stepped up to the podium, he was muscular, tall and had a buzz cut with a gruff beard, he stood strait at the podium.
"Now I'm sure you're all wondering why you're here." He said, his voice was deep and gravely.
Murmurs of assent rose from the assembled mutants.
"You're not here to be studied."
Angry murmurs, as well as unsurprised.
"You're all here under rather strange circumstances actually." He started manipulating something on the podium.
The lights dimmed and a projector in the ceiling turned on displaying a large picture on the wall next to the officer. The picture was of a very strange structure a large steep pyramid with an empty pedestal on top of it surrounded by several partially collapsed towers that had large spheres on them.
"There are four of these structures within this mountain, there origin and purpose is as of yet unknown, this is why you are here."
"What? we're thuppothed to figure it out becauthe you guys can't?" One of the other mutants spoke up with a lisp, wearing some weird 3D glasses.
"Yes, because it would seem the towers only function properly when presented with mutants like yourselves."
Silence.
"Eight of the smaller towers contain teleportation pads, when all eight pads have a team of three standing on them they activate, starting 'The choosing phase'."
"We were able to do this with humans, the choosing phase is a survival scenario, and the teams must fight it out on terms mitigated by the towers systems."
"Wait we have to fight?" a mutant spoke up.
"Unfortunately yes." The man had a truly regretful face at this, his upright military demeanor slumping for a moment. "The choosing phase cannot be completed without the elimination of at least four teams, now a team is eliminated when one or more of its members are killed, the surviving members are disqualified and must leave via the teleportation pads."
"Disqualified members will go into the next round of mutants we bring in, as you are our first group there are no disqualified members here."
"Each team must eliminate another team in order to be chosen. You were collected in your teams that were pre-determined based on your profiles."
"In a few moments you will go through these doors where another officer will answer any questions you have and brief you on the details of the scenario. Dismissed."
The small groups began shuffling towards doors to get some answers from these officers; Nat just sat there waiting for the commotion to settle down. After most of the groups had left the original officer walked over to them.
"Come on you three are with me."
They got up and followed the officer down one of the corridors to a smaller room with three chairs and their belongings.
"Sit down; I'm sure you have plenty of questions."
They sat down as the officer moved over to a chair next to a desk with a computer on it.
"Now then, my name is Commander Hackett, ask away."
Vriska spoke up first. "What kind of a sick joke is this?"
"No joke, unfortunately when we first set off the choosing phase with human teams we had no idea what we were doing, those soldiers had to do the same thing, the session only lasts as long as necessary, and it knows if the players are… unwilling to fight, it gives a 24 hour warning before all contestants are eliminated… by death, and after that the surviving teams couldn't move on because the next phase rejected their DNA, that was one of the few answers these ruins have provided us, your mutant DNA will be accepted."
"Why are you doing this though, what are these ruins hiding?" Kanaya asked.
"We aren't quite sure, but the technology in them is incredible, when the teams are teleported into the scenario they leave earth, it teleports them somewhere else, we don't know how it does this, or even where it gets the power to do this, we've never been able to locate any sort of power source around any of the ruins. But that kind of technology could change lives, and honestly we're giving you kids a better chance then you had."
"What do you mean?" Nat asked.
"I'll let you in on a secret since you won't be leaving here, but before we stepped in with the request to collect you mutants, the government was planning on starting death camps."
Shocked silence, sure the mutants had always been outcast and ridiculed but death camps seemed extreme.
"That can't be right." Vriska said.
"It is, the Condesce saw the mutants as a blight on the human race." The crazy bitch.
"My only advice to you is to fight, don't screw around, steel yourselves and get it over with quick, then go and hide you only have to kill one player to eliminate another team, then as long as none of you die, you'll come out all right."
"Now the brief, the battle area is a large mountain valley, similar to the surrounding area, it's cold so get warm clothing from your belongings, there are several buildings throughout the area as well as a small town in the center, supplies are scattered throughout as well as natural resources, one of the more interesting things the ruins do is assigning a strife Specibus."
"A what?"
"Strife Specibus, you're weapon category, upon entering the arena you will each be assigned a Strife Specibus and a basic weapon from that category, based on the readings the ruins take on each individual, the variety of weapons varies greatly so be prepared for anything."
"Now then I'll leave you alone until it's time you can go through your things for clothing but you can't take any weapons or supplies with you."
"Will we be searched?" Vriska asked innocently.
"No but anything that falls outside of the ruins guidelines will disintegrate during teleportation."
"oh…" Her face fell.
With that he left the room.
The room fell into silence.
Natasha suddenly got up and started looking through her bags pulling out the rest of her winter gear.
"What are you doing?" Kanaya asked.
"Fighting."
A/N: BE THE READER!
You are now the reader and have decided that you totally enjoyed that writing, and have decided to write an awesome review! You totally had that thought all on your own with that amazing free will and self-choice that you possess!
Hehe I couldn't resist.
Well thanks for reading, I read and reply to any and all reviews, and I'm plenty willing to answer questions or chat with people about the story, so don't be afraid to review or shoot me a PM.
Thanks for Reading Jknight out.