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Chapter 2: Hall of Legends


Troy awoke abruptly. The setting had changed; he was in an entirely different room now. Checking out his surroundings, he was now in a brightly lit room. The walls glowed softly, and were white as snow. There were no edges to the room, only smoothed corners that led into the walls, and then the ceiling.

Troy was leaned back in a body length seat, similar to a dentist's chair. It was the only piece of furniture in the small, cube-like room. His legs were strapped down in three different places, as well as his arms and torso. The only leverage he had was around his neck, where he could move his head off the seat a couple inches.

The room made Troy incredibly uneasy. He remembered discussing Gendun's interrogation, and a shiver went up his spine. Was he to be interrogated about his father's work? Troy had so many questions swirling around in his head.

Am I going to die here? He thought. He thought of all the things he'd regret if he were to die in this room. I never got to say goodbye to my parents, I never said sorry to Gendun for being so stupid, I've never had any real friends, and I've never even held hands with a girl, much less kissed one or gone out with one. Yep, this sucks.

A portion of the wall slid open, interrupting Troy's thoughts. A woman wearing all white with a stethoscope wrapped around her neck walked in. She smiled warmly at Troy.

"How are you feeling?" The woman asked.

"Fine but, where the hell am I and-"

"All will be answered shortly," The woman interrupted. "For now, I'm just here for your official medical examination."

Troy frowned, examination for what? The last time he'd had a medical examination was when he played track for his high school. The woman walked over and pulled the stethoscope out from around her neck. She abruptly lifted Troy's shirt up and stuck the cold metal piece onto Troy's chest.

Her eyes widened a small margin as she gazed upon Troy's hard muscled frame.

"Oh, you're toned," She smiled, "You'll be a favorite among the ladies."

Troy blushed visibly as she examined his heart rate.

That would be a pleasant change of things, he thought glumly.

"I don't get it, a favorite for what?" Troy asked.

"Like I told you, all will be made clear shortly. Your heart rate is looking normal, if a bit fast. Oh don't be nervous dear, you'll do fine I'm sure."

Do fine in what, lady? Troy wanted to yell at her. And why am I strapped to this table?

The woman took some other standard tests: blood pressure, allergies or ailments, gag reflex, eye and ear tests, the whole nine yards.

"We got your weight and height earlier. Sorry about that whole tranquilizer thing, some contestants tend to be a bit… tricky." The woman giggled and smiled at him weirdly.

"Wait, contestants?"

"Oh silly me, well I must be off! Good luck dear."

Troy couldn't help but think that the woman acted a bit like his mother. The woman left through the same door she came in, and left Troy alone with his thoughts. Troy was thoroughly confused; he at least knew he'd be part of some kind of competition, since she had said "contestants." Troy suddenly felt very lonely. He'd of course always felt lonely, he didn't have any friends and his only companion wasn't anywhere near his own age. However, this was different. He was now in a strange place with no bearing of time and he was alone.

That changed quickly, as four men came into the room the same way the woman had. The burly men awkwardly shouldered through the small door frame, and stood against the wall. A smaller, mousy looking man followed in after them. All of the larger men wore business attire and dark shades, while the smaller man wore flip flops and a Hawaiian style surfer button down shirt. Troy looked at them the best he could, facing perpendicular to them, and with the seat in the way.

The mouse man stepped forward. "Hello, Troy of Earth."

Of Earth… what does that mean?

"Uhh, hi." Troy answered awkwardly.

"We have come to brief you on your stay here at the S.S.B. arena."

"An aren-"

"Quiet boy, I was not done speaking yet."

Troy didn't like the smaller man's attitude, or his looks for that matter.

"As I was saying, you are in the S.S.B. arena, where champions from all over the universe come to put on a show for people and creatures everywhere."

Okay, now I'm really confused, Troy thought.

"Is this some kind of-"

"You will fight to the death in the arena with other skilled combatants." The small man said, interrupting Troy.

A look of absolute horror spread across Troy's face. To the death?

"Oh don't look at me that way boy, silly earthlings haven't even… never mind. Anyway, you will be rematerialized in your prior state of health after the battle. You will have only felt and appeared to be damaged, whereas you truly won't be."

The small man continued after musing at Troy's confusion.

"Between matches you will have free time in the facility, where you will be among other combatants. There are plenty of high quality training rooms you can use. Meal times and a curfew will be enforced, and you are not to exit the facility, not that you could anyway."

"Try not to get into any trouble with other combatants outside the arena. The punishment is solitary confinement and exclusion of meal times; the rules do not have any exceptions. Do I make myself clear?"

Troy only nodded, completely floored at what was being explained to him.

"Good, the guards will release you and take you to your quarters. Dinner is at six o'clock, S-S-B time."

Have I been out an entire day? I ate dinner before leaving the house, and it's already dinner again?

The man turned and left the room, and the 4 large men sauntered over to where Troy was laying. One of them pressed a few buttons on a screen out of Troy's view, and the straps were released.

"No funny business kid, solitary confinement is just around the corner." One of the large men said.

Two of the other men grabbed Troy roughly by his upper arms.

Troy protested loudly, "What are you doing?"

"Shut up," One of them said.

Troy struggled for a bit, to no avail. A third guard grabbed him by his legs as well, and Troy couldn't move.

The guards carried Troy through the door and down a long, narrow hallway. Troy remembered what Gendun had taught him in Tai Chi, to always be observant of your surroundings, as it might prove useful to you in the future.

Troy looked up and down the sides of the hallway. The walls were solid metal, and grey. The ceiling was half obscured by lights embedded into it. As the men carried Troy, he also noticed cameras protruding from the ceiling every 20 or so feet. They were most likely always on, and there was no possible way Troy could go anywhere unnoticed. Seconds turned into minutes, and the guards had let go of Troy; they instead pushed him along every once in a while, as he walked in between them.

On the left wall, there were now windows. The long, rounded, rectangle windows peered into empty rooms, some with the lights off. There were maybe 15 or so windows ahead of him, if he had to guess.

The rooms were large, about the size of a tennis court. Each room Troy peered into had the same interior; there was a ramp that ran parallel to the hallway, which led from the door to the lowered floor of the room. The walls were paneled, and had the same metallic look as the hallway. The floor was dark, yet reflective, and looked like glass.

Off to the side, was a raised podium. The podium was metallic, and had a glowing face on top. The podiums looked like large computers, or something similar. They each had a screen on top that lit up with different colors, and information. Each one sat maybe 5 feet from the wall. They were all so futuristic looking, like something from a movie.

In the next window ahead, Troy saw flashes of light, and heard muffled sounds coming from inside the room. As they passed the room, Troy peered inside. What he saw made his mouth swing wide open. A pink looking puff ball stood in the center of the floor, and off to the side was the same podium-console. Only this time, a man stood in front of it, looking on at the pink creature. Standing next to 'pinky' were 3 malleable looking holograms, with manikin shaped bodies, all of them had no facial features.

Whoa, this is surreal, Troy thought. The man pressed a button inside the room, and the manikins began lunging at the pink thing. Before Troy could see any more, a guard pushed Troy, and he had to keep walking.

The training rooms that man had mentioned, those must be the ones. There were no more creatures or people in any of the other training rooms, and Troy wondered just how many "contestants" there were in this "arena."

They rounded a corner and started passing by numbered doors, 201, 202 etc. Troy remembered going on vacation with Gendun a while back on mainland Japan. They didn't go on vacations often, because they hadn't had much money, so Troy remembered this especially. The rooms in their hotel were numbered by floor, the first number representing which floor you were on.

We must be on the second floor of this facility. What does the first floor have on it, are there more floors? Where am I, how did I get here, and who are these people?

Troy had so many questions but, he knew the big buffoons leading him to his room wouldn't be much help, so he stayed quiet.

"Here's your room kid." The same large man who was talking to him earlier said, "The facility is on lockdown at the moment, since you came in the ship. Only rooms and training rooms are open during lockdown."

They had stopped at a room that said 216 on the name plate outside the door. The man pressed a green button on a small console next to the door, and then he retrieved a card from his pocket, and swiped it in the console.

The door opened and a big man shoved Troy inside. The door shut behind him, and was locked from the outside with a small beep.

Troy looked around inside the room and found two beds, with space in between them, and on the far end of the room were two identical looking cabinets. Everything was a different shade of grey, and the floor was white and metallic. In the far left corner of the room there was a man sized door that led to what looked like a bathroom with a shower stall in it.

Sitting on the bed to the left of the door, staring at Troy wide eyed, was a man about Troy's age. He had blonde hair, a green tunic and hood, and long pointy ears. He also wore tan leggings, and brown boots. He had a belt and an undershirt on. The man also had large blue eyes and an intense gaze that looked over Troy with an analytic eye. Sitting on the cabinet by his bed was a blue sword, and a blue shield with some other strange looking items that Troy didn't recognize immediately.

The man stood up.

"Hi, I'm Link, nice to meet you." The man stood, smiled friendly at Troy, and extended a hand.

Troy shook his hand, "My name's Troy. I have some questions for you Link."

Link managed to answer question after question that Troy had. Troy was on a facility on a distant planet. The facility was about three miles away over land from a huge dome coliseum. The coliseum is where citizens from all over the galaxy would come to watch champions fight in glorious battle.

"What, you mean like the Roman Gladiators?" Troy asked Link. Troy had no belongings, so he had just sat down on his bed and faced the young man sitting across from him. Link sat cross legged on his bed, facing Troy.

"What?"

"Never mind, something from my home. What time is it?"

"This screen says 5:50 S.S.B."

Troy remembered dinner was supposed to be in ten minutes.

"Say Link, where are you from anyway?" Troy asked.

"A land called Hyrule; I lived in a small village a day's journey away from the royal castle. I was just on my way to visit a friend of mine when I was abducted by a large flying thing. My friend is here as well, her name is Zelda."

"Similar thing happened to me, that large flying thing captured me too. I was sitting in a park a small ways from home."

"It seems we were both away from home… perhaps in a secluded area?"

"Yeah, it was the middle of bumfuck nowhere."

"Bumfuck… is that a village where you're from?"

Troy chuckled, "No man, forget it. Dinner is in-"

"PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY OVER TO THE DINING HALL IN THE CENTER OF THE FACILITY. LOCK DOWN IS NOW OVER, THAT IS ALL."

"Err… now I suppose." Troy finished.

The door opened and streaming by the small room were a lot of strange looking "champions." There was a fox wearing clothes, a big nosed Italian man, a monkey and a gorilla, a robot, and even a large orange dragon. Many more random looking creatures and people alike made their way down the hallway to the left, going away from where Troy had come from.

Link got up and walked to the door, turning around to face Troy. "Come on, the food's pretty good here."

Troy got up and walked with Link down the long hall way. When they arrived to the large dining hall, Troy was amazed by how many people there were in the room. There were some familiar faces he had recognized from the hallway, and the large pink puff ball that he had seen training earlier. Food was being distributed in plates across the tables by small mushroom looking creatures with no arms, and small men wearing sleeveless shirts and spotted round hats.

This is bizarre as hell. I've never seen anything like this before. Troy thought.

Link started walking to a table with two… animals sitting at the table. They weren't exactly animals though, they were wearing clothes and shoes but, they had the heads of a fox and a bird.

Link motioned for him to join them and Troy sat down at the rounded, grey table.

"Guys this is Troy, he was put in my room today about half an hour ago. Troy this is Fox," Link motioned to the one that looked like a, well… fox. "And this is Falco," Link then motioned to the bird man with a large beak and red shadowed eyes.

"Hi." Troy said happily, trying to break the ice.

"Has he fought yet?" Fox asked.

"He just got here dude, half an hour ago." Falco said to his buddy.

"Ah right. Well can you fight?" Fox directed his attention to Troy.

Troy smiled, fighting was one thing he could do right, "Yeah, pretty well too." Troy answered with confidence.

"I guess we'll see then," said Fox.

A small mushroom man with one big tooth came over carrying a plate on his cone head, dropped it in front of Troy, and walked off. Similar mushroom things did the same with Fox and Falco. Hamburger and fries, with a squirt of ketchup sat on his plate. Troy was hungry and began munching on some fries while his table did the same. He looked around, taking in his surroundings. He found different creatures and people sitting at tables and eating. The mushroom men and happy looking spotty hats all began to sit down and serve themselves as well.

Link noticed Troy looking at the mushrooms and small people and said, "Goombas. The small mushrooms are Goombas, and the small men are citizens of the mushroom kingdom."

"How do you know that?" Troy asked.

"Mario told me, the big nosed guy over there, the one with the red hat."

Troy could see why Link was so specific, there were a couple big nosed Italian dudes sitting at a table on the far end of the dining hall, munching happily. Just then something caught Troy's eye. A tall woman with long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail walked into the dining hall. She looked to be about Troy's age, if not a year older or so.

There are women here? Troy thought. Looking around, Troy spotted a table with some women, that pink puff ball from earlier, and an Eskimo child eating at it. Troy returned his gaze back to the woman walking between the tables. She was gorgeous, wearing a plain white shirt and jean shorts. She wore black sneakers with a logo on them that Troy had never seen before.

"She's cute." Troy said matter-of-factly.

Fox and Falco looked up at what Troy was gazing at and just grunted.

"She's a freak," Fox said, "She sits at her own table, doesn't ever talk much, and I don't think she has any friends at all. She wears this metal suit when she fights, which I frankly see as cheating, and glares at anyone that comes near her."

A freak… Troy thought. Those words sounded all too familiar. It was one of the words the other kids commonly used to describe Troy in school. He didn't fit in at all, and had sat by himself as well.

Troy watched as a large gorilla was laughing with a small monkey and another big nosed Italian man. This one was wearing a yellow hat with a "W" written in purple on it. He had huge teeth, and was a small fat man. As the blonde haired girl walked by, the gorilla, which was wearing a red tie, said something to the attractive woman, something Troy couldn't make out due to the noise level of the room. The girl stopped in her tracks and gave the oversized chimp a murderous look, one that would have made Troy melt into a puddle. The gorilla just frowned uneasily as the woman walked away.

The blonde, true to Fox's words, sat by herself at a table as far away from everyone as you could get in the room. A "Goomba" brought her some food, and she began eating.

"What's her name?" Troy said, breaking the silence at his table.

"Don't know, don't care." Falco said.

Link gave Falco an odd look before looking at Troy, "She got here a couple of days ago, and like Fox said, doesn't talk to anyone really. None of us have had a chance to learn her name."

She must be so lonely, days without speaking to anyone at all.

"I'm gonna go talk to her." Troy said with a big smile.

Fox and Falco froze, looking at Troy wide eyed.

Link did the same, and said, "I wouldn't do that. The last guy that tried to talk to her at her table, she punched in the face. They both sat in solitary for the rest of the day."

Troy looked at them oddly. Why would she do that? He wondered. The guy was probably just rude to her; she's probably a cool girl.

Troy stood up and left the table anyway, ignoring Link's warnings.

The three guys looked at Troy with pity, Fox said, "This is gonna be great," and he leaned back in his chair.

Troy made his way straight over to the girl, a big grin on his face. I'm gonna be the first one she talks to, he thought.

As Troy approached, the blonde girl noticed him, and for an instant, there was a sad expression in her eyes, like she had just thought of something depressing. She quickly masked the face with a glare sharp enough to cut diamonds as Troy sat down at the table. She held the glare as Troy extended his hand.

"Hi, I'm Troy, what's your name?" Troy said.

The girl glared straight into Troy's eyes as he sat there, waiting for a second before his hand drooped. Back at the table where Link and the other two were at, they all burst out laughing as Troy awkwardly sat there for a few seconds. A Goomba placed another plate of food in front of Troy's new seat, then scattered when the blonde woman averted her stare to him.

Troy, unfazed, said, "So uhh, where are you from?"

The girl returned to her food, taking a very large bite of her hamburger, completely ignoring Troy, and then she stood up, walking away with her mouth full.

Troy gazed at her thin waist and sculpted back from behind as she skulked off through the doors, walking down the hall.

Damn, she must work out a lot, Troy mused.

Troy made his way back to his original seat, looking glumly at his friends. Seeing his face, they all burst out laughing again; Falco was so overcome he banged his fist on the table wildly.

"That couldn't have gone any better my man!" Fox said, still giggling madly.

Troy just glared at him before feeling infected by the laughter, and just smiled at his food. Well, at least I made an attempt to talk to her, he thought.

"Yep, and I'm gonna try again tomorrow." Troy said proudly.

"Hey Fox, remind me to bring my camera, man." Falco said, breathing heavily. Both of them just laughed some more, while Link grinned merrily.

This place isn't so bad, Troy thought to himself.


So I'll post a new chapter every 10 days! :)