A/N: Thank you all for the support and reviews! I hope you will enjoy this chapter! Oh, and in the future, if any of you have any ideas for a challenge for any of my characters, don't hesitate to PM me! I'll try to see if I can add it in!
Haruka (Yeah, changed my name)
The cave was not as dark as the tunnel had let on, it seemed lit by an artificial Sun somewhere, and there were huge trees everywhere. There was a single stone path through the trees that Luka assumed she was to follow.
She walked, all senses on high alert, knowing that anything could happen in this strange, jungle-like cavern. She would not put anything below the despicable creatures that had captured them, for after all, how merciful could aliens who enjoyed human suffering get? Luka tensed when she detected a loud buzzing noise somewhere in the trees to her left, wondering what in the world could make such a racket. By loud she meant loud, loud enough to rival the roar of a jumbo jet's engines.
She turned instinctively and narrowly avoided the source of the sound that swooped at her. Her attacker landed a glancing blow on her armor, and ended up thrown back in the direction it had come. She had a good view of the creature now, a very good view.
Now, Megurine Luka was not afraid of insects, but this was just crazy. Absolutely crazy.
Hovering before her was a hornet that was about ten feet tall; its huge wings generated a draft so strong it almost blew Luka away. Its eyes were gigantic, larger than soccer balls, and its stinger gleamed with a poison she did not feel like trying out.
Where the heck did the Game Masters get a ten foot hornet? Was she seriously expected to face up with the beast and kill it? Luka gritted her teeth and tightened her grip on her katana, waiting for the hornet to strike once more.
It did not disappoint, quickly coming in for yet another swing at her, and Luka sidestepped at the last possible moment while bringing her sword in contact with the creature's huge body. The thin metal blade easily passed through the enormous hornet, splattering green slime over the ground and Luka's body. She grimaced, wiping off as much of the slime as she could, suspicious. It had been too easy; a single strike had slit the creature in half and assured her victory. It was unlikely that her captors were that merciful.
She shrugged and continued to walk, deciding not to waste any time waiting for more to be thrown at her. Another oversized hornet came within minutes, and soon enough the entire colony of those beasts were surrounding Luka, arriving in droves. The sound of their wings engulfed everything, and the draft from their wings blew everything about. The creatures tried to jab at Luka with their stingers, large black eyes boring into her furiously; they seemed not to like prey that could dodge around and attack back.
She was immensely grateful that her opponents were all huge and she was small, for she could easily dodge between them and creatures of such bulk had no stealth whatsoever. Their loud buzzing and the draft generated by their enormous wings always gave them away. The creatures' attack plan, which was basically to mob their smaller opponent, backfired as they ended up stabbing one another; they possessed extremely potent venom, evident from the fact that they killed one another upon contact.
It was not long before twelve foot spiders and eight foot mosquitoes joined in the fray, and Luka had a tough time trying to fight her way through the horde of bugs. She was relying on instinct, pure and simple, by then; in a battlefield you never lived long if you thought too much. You just responded, and the speed of those responses determined if you lived or died. Every soldier who had fought a war before would tell you that it was some gut feeling to hit the ground that saved him from a bullet or flying shrapnel, or an inner voice that warned him not to step on a certain spot that saved him from land mines.
Luka dodged under a stinger and rolled away from a spider's jaws, slashing a long hairy leg and slitting a mosquito in half; her eyes were wild and darted from enemy to enemy, her hair was a mess and her entire being splattered in green slime.
Her mind was a complete blank, she was simply fighting for her life and could not waste even a moment thinking about anything were she to keep it. Luka attacked when she saw an opening, and defended or dodged when she sensed an attack. Onward she forged, fighting relentlessly, littering the ground behind and around her with the bodies of the slain alien creatures.
She walked and fought for what seemed like hours before she spotted a huge tunnel at the other end of the pathway. That was her goal, she thought, the way to either supplies or time with her beloved girlfriend Miku.
So close… She was so close…
A huge soldier ant came barreling her way at a speed unimaginable for a creature its size and bulk, and a large killer bee came swooping by Luka, missing her completely. She dodged and fell upon them furiously, determined to be the victor, but it grew harder for Luka to imagine victory and survival as more of the huge insects arrived in droves. Scratches marked her exposed skin and she had sustained several bruises from being tossed around like a salad by her attackers. The armor did significant damage in return to her opponents, but the harm done to Luka was not ignorable. It was tough for her to continue fighting, her enemies were arriving in double-digit numbers fresh and battle-ready, while she was rapidly growing exhausted and weary.
"Shit!" Luka cursed when a huge soldier ant's heavy blow threw her sideways at a tree. The impact rattled her teeth, knocked the wind out of her lungs and literally left her seeing stars for a while. Winded, Luka scrambled onto her feet and dodged a killer bee's attack, goading it into helping her pierce the soldier ant's thick skull and killing it along with itself.
She was close to her goal now, a few meters away from the tunnel that was most probably the exit, a few meters away from a reunion with Miku, however brief it might be. The thought gave Luka hope, her love burned high and strong, and she blazed her way through the remaining oversized insects with ease. She destroyed a few of the alien creatures in a single slash of her sword, determined to quickly get the challenge over with.
Forcing her aching muscles into a run, Luka sprinted through the opening and into another set of stone tunnels that looked like the ones she had originally come from hours ago. At the far corner was the alien male in the suit she had seen standing over Miku's cage. He took one look at Luka, wild-eyed, hair matted, bruised and breathless, and laughed. It was a cruel, amused sound that made Luka grit her teeth and tighten her grip on the slime-spattered katana in her hands.
"Now, now, human," he laughed airily, still speaking in his strange language, "None of that. Remember, this girl's life is in my hands; are you willing to risk it?" He gestured toward the caged Miku, who was either unconscious or asleep as she was motionless and breathing very deeply. Noticing where Luka's attention was, the alien laughed once more, "She was too noisy, so I knocked her out." A cruel grin etched his features, "She really loves you, you know."
Luka's heart and teeth clenched, her body stiffened visibly, as the alien continued gleefully, "Though I was torturing her, she only thought of you. She begged me to hurt her as I pleased, as long as I left you alone."
Her heart ached; it sounded like her beloved Miku alright. Miku's love for Luka was equally strong as Luka's for her in return, possibly stronger, and it hurt the pink haired girl to think that her beloved girlfriend was suffering because of love. Miku had suffered enough, losing her parents and home the way she had, the judgments she constantly faced for her sexuality, the bigots that pulled her down and hurt her… the turquoise haired teenager has felt enough pain for a lifetime. She should not have to feel any more!
"Go clean up," the alien male gestured to a bathroom that had suddenly appeared in a separate cavern to the left, "I'll wake her when you are done. From the moment she is conscious, you have one hour. No more, no less."
Luka obeyed, disgusted with herself for doing so, but she had no other choice. Miku's life was at stake, and there was no hope in Hell of her ever risking something so important, even for the chance of wringing that Game Master bastard's neck.
The cool water was a welcome relief to her battered, scraped, sweaty and slime-splattered body, and Luka enjoyed it for as long as she could. Her injuries would heal with time and were not life-threatening, though they did look rather nasty against the pale backdrop of her silky skin. She wondered how much time she would get before her next challenge; she doubted she was capable of repeating her earlier feat in her current condition.
When she stepped out of the shower, clean and smelling strongly of her natural, cherry blossom scent, her body was instantly dried and dressed in her armor, cleaned, mended and fresh-smelling, and Luka exited the bathroom in surprise.
"We don't want to see dirty, sweaty, smelly female humans in combat," the alien seemed to have read her mind, unnaturally glowing ruby eyes boring into her, "So we keep you clean. Nicer to watch, you see. Don't worry; viewers can only see you when you are decent. We always cut out the cleaning, and when we talk to you. Viewers aren't here to watch that, you see." He seemed to have picked up Luka's discomfort at the thought of bathing live on some galaxy-wide television show.
The pink haired girl suppressed her string of vulgarities and watched in silence as the Game Master waved his hand, which caused the cage to open and tip over to spill Miku roughly onto the stone floor. Luka winced, glaring at the alien who took no notice of it, and rushed to her turquoise haired angel's side just as her beautiful eyes began to open.
"One hour, human," the alien said in an all too cheerful voice before disappearing into thin air. All exits from the room faded with him, leaving the two of them in a brown stone box with no chance of escape.
"Luka!" Sobbing, Miku threw her arms around her beloved, desperately inhaling the beautiful scent of the girl she loved. It pained Luka to see how hurt Miku looked, both physically and emotionally. The tortures that she had undergone were nothing to laugh at, evident from her bruised and torn skin, ragged clothes and matted twintails.
"Miku…" Luka gently untangled the length of her beloved's amazing hair, breathing in her hypnotizing scent before kissing her forehead softly, "Oh goddess, Miku, I'm so sorry…"
"It's not your fault," Miku pulled her face away from Luka's shoulder, tears still leaking from her eyes, "Luka… you have to get out of here."
"No way," the pink haired girl responded instantly, stiffening completely. Miku opened her mouth to protest, to urge her beloved to save her own life, but Luka cut her off before she could speak.
"I'm not going to leave you behind, Miku. I love you," her eyes shone with her sincerity, it melted Miku's heart, "I'm going to get us both out of here, or die trying."
The turquoise haired girl wrapped her arms around her girlfriend and sobbed, touched yet hurt by her beloved's words. She was touched that Luka loved her so much to play such a sinister game for her, and she was hurt because she felt it was entirely her fault that Luka was fighting with her life on the line and being hurt. Luka could not fathom the agony Miku was feeling deep within her small being, she could only embrace her tightly and stroke the back of her head, trying her best to enjoy the limited amount of time they had together.
"Stay strong, Miku, and don't let them break you," Luka told her beloved, "I will come for you and I will not die. I promise you, we're going home together."
Miku nodded, still crying, and choked out a shaky "I love you" as the last of their hour faded away. Aware of the rapidly lessening time, Luka whispered those three words back to Miku and then kissed her tenderly, passionately, sealing their promise with their love and their tears. This cruel game would not break them, they were the ones for each other, they were sure of it. They were each a single wing on the butterfly that was their lives, without either of them, it would die and fade away…
"Your hour is up," the Game Master returned and did not look at all surprised to see the two girls kissing. They parted reluctantly and the cage reappeared around Miku, separating her from her beloved once more. Their eyes met, burning with a heartfelt, honest love, before the Game Master disappeared along with Miku.
A single tunnel appeared, and Luka exited the room from it. The moment she did, she heard a loud booming voice, the same one as the voice she had first heard when she entered, announce, "Megurine Luka has completed her first challenge."
She wondered if the aliens watching this cruel game show were enjoying themselves, supporting such cruelty as they ate and lounged before their televisions, safe and happy. Hatred boiled within her and she cursed loudly, shouting Japanese vulgarities that the broadcasters probably would cut out of the show for the sake of younger viewers.
Luka did not particularly care about the corruption of young alien minds, in her opinion they were already corrupted anyway. Loathsome, inhumane bastards…
"Luka-san, is that you?" she heard a familiar voice and looked around her to see her ally, Akita Neru, sitting in a corner with a bandaged arm. She looked exhausted as well; it made Luka wonder what her challenge had been. "Colorful language," Neru commented, wincing slightly when she shifted her arm, "Never thought someone as ladylike as you would use such words."
Luka chuckled as she settled down gingerly next to Neru, "Thanks." They both laughed dryly before settling into silence once again; the first challenge they had faced reinforced the hopelessness of their situation and they felt terrible.
"Did you get to see your girl, Luka-san?" Neru asked suddenly, Luka nodded in response and asked if the blonde had gotten to see her girl as well. Neru nodded, "Haku was in a pretty bad way. Those bastards, how could they do this to her? F**k!" The pink haired girl repeated the vulgarity, it was indeed a good time to swear and curse. It also made them feel a little better, blowing off steam by use of colorful vocabulary.
"What was your challenge like, Neru-san?" Luka asked, curious to find out what in the world the aliens had in store for everyone in this torturous game.
"Snakes as long as a subway train, six of them," Neru shuddered, "Two non-venomous, the rest…" Luka understood, choosing not to pry any further. It really was not something one would want to remember. "I'm not scared of snakes but… I think I'll be scared of subway trains," Neru joked; it managed to make them both laugh. The wound was sustained from the fang of one of the venomous snakes, Neru explained, the venom made her blood feel like fire. When she stumbled, half-dead, through the tunnel, the Game Master had given her the antidote, but left the wound as it was. It seemed that they only wanted their game pieces alive, not in good shape.
It was not long before they heard "Sakine Meiko has completed her first challenge." Not long after that, Meiko found them and settled beside them, tired out, she too had managed to get an hour with her beloved Kaito. He had been hopping mad, he couldn't believe his beloved girlfriend was being forced into such a game, but he was as helpless as the rest of them and could only encourage her that they could make it home together.
"The first challenge seems to deal with oversized creatures," Neru had commented when they learned of Meiko's challenge, fighting a tiger the size of King Kong. It had been a tough fight and Meiko was bruised like an apple that had rolled down a hill, but she had not sustained any major injuries as she had been too small for the tiger's claws and teeth to catch properly. They had laughed, but it was short and half-hearted as they dreaded what would come for them next.
"Suzuki Reiko has failed her first challenge. Suzuki Reiko and Sasazaki Akihisa are dead." The first death of the Mind Games was announced a few hours after Meiko reunited with them, and the face of a pretty brown haired girl was beamed on the ceiling of every tunnel to mark the girl's death. The boy Akihisa, her lover, was not shown.
The news of a fellow competitor's death struck the trio hard as the reality of the Games hit them even harder than before. Someone had died, it could easily have been one of them. It could easily be one of them next. The idea of home, of safety and of their old, happy lives started to fade as the cruel reality of the Mind Games where death stalked settled in as their new, inescapable reality.
Elsewhere…
"Has anyone caught your eye yet, Dredor?" an alien male asked another, watching over the footage of every single tunnel and challenge room. The wall is filled with monitors that show many different girls, some alone and some in groups, scattered around the expanse of tunnels.
"Yes, the pink haired girl. Did you see the look she exchanged with her girlfriend? The love that burned there is real, pure, and it will not be crushed. I'm quite sure the Game's already gone to her," Dredor replied, editing the footage for the screening of the Games on prime time television that night. They only had three hours for the show and twelve times that amount of footage, so he was cutting out boring parts and shifting around from competitor to competitor to show all their exciting fight scenes. He also took all the touching scenes from the competitor's hour long reunions with their beloved and was currently editing in Luka's reunion with Miku.
"Megurine Luka, her name is, and she sure is an interesting girl. What a list of vulgarities!" the other alien chuckled, "Akita Neru too, the love between her and her girl is strong."
"Much stronger than those girls here who love boys," Dredor nodded, "Humans say love between two girls is not 'real love'. Pah, what rubbish. Girls in relationships with other girls love one another truly because there are so many risks in coming out. Who in the right mind would come out for false love?"
The other alien nodded in agreement, "Humans aren't the brightest after all, Dredor."
"You can say that again," Dredor chuckled as he continued editing the footage, "Now, let us get ready for the bets to start rolling in!"
A/N: I hope this was enjoyable…
Should I continue?
