Chapter 5 is a go!
"So, we get to watch?"
"Apparently so. Everyone's invited."
Omega frowned at Ryder. "Really? Even us?"
"Yeah. Weird, but true."
The blond glitch ran a hand through his hair. "Does he have some ulterior motive? Or-"
Ryder clapped a hand on his shoulder. "You're thinking about it too hard!" he smiled, "He wouldn't do that kind of stuff to us! Plus, it's an observational platform-type thing. He won't be anywhere near us."
Omega raised an eyebrow at the smiling black-haired glitch. "...You really are an idiot."
Ryder chuckled. "Only sometimes!" He walked over to the door. "Are you coming?"
The other boy shrugged, standing up from his seat and stretching. "Yeah, I guess. Better than sitting around here all day."
Nothing's going to happen... he thought. So why do I still feel like something will?
xXx
Diamond felt her feet touch a smooth surface. As her vision cleared, she saw that she was standing on a field of white-stained glass. So, this is really happening...
The other eleven were scattered around the border of the arena. Sky caught her eye from the other side of the field and winked. She tried to wave back, then realized she was stuck in place, just like the start of the games when played on the computer.
"Welcome to your first game, Electric Floor!"
Dr. Zuk's voice echoed around the room, coming from invisible speakers.
"Now, most of you probably know how to play, but for those who don't, let's explain. When you touch a glass block, it will change colors. The longer you step on it, the more colors it will change. That also applies if multiple people step on the same block.
"When the block turns red, it is 'charged', so to speak. If you touch it, you are out."
Diamond shifted, ready to begin. After all, she was an experienced player and already knew all this stuff. Clearly, judging by the mutters coming from around her, others felt the same.
"And the last person standing wins! Good luck!"
A computerized voice began counting down. Diamond shuddered involuntarily, reminded of the "Project Snare" voice from the first day.
"3...
"2...
"1... GAME START."
Her body unfroze and she began running, keeping her eyes on the ground to avoid the lethal red patches that were already beginning to pop up.
She leapt over a short line, accidentally cutting someone off. A short buzz and a yelp sounded from behind her, and she risked a glance over her shoulder to see no one.
Whoever had been there was out.
"Sorry!" she called. Looking back at the playing field, Diamond realized that they were down to about five players already, and there was a lot more red on the ground then there was last time she had checked.
She skidded sharply to avoid one of the deadly squares. Looking up, she noticed there were only three le-
A small shock traveled up her body, and she was teleported into the air.
Stupid! she mentally berated herself. You should have been paying attention!
Being invisible, she floated around the room, somewhat bored.
Diamond was not really expecting to fall out of the air when the game ended. It hurt.
Now visible, she groaned and glanced at the small window that had popped up directly in her line of sight.
First Place: Crystal_Cloud47- [+3 atoms]
Second Place: WolfNeko43- [+2 atoms]
Third Place: Virtual- [+1 atom]
Diamond sighed. She would just have to try harder next time.
xXx
Marcus looked around, eyes taking in the new arena. They were standing on a long platform made of green and white clay, and blocks of wool interspaced with TNT and gold as far as his eyes could see. (Which was only about sixteen blocks, but that's still pretty far.)
He frowned, remembering that the best way to win this game was to aim for the gold blocks only. Unfortunately, he had the feeling he wasn't the only one who knew that.
"Welcome to Balloon Pop!" The annoying doctor-scientist-villager guy came over the loudspeaker again. Marcus rolled his eyes. Does anyone actually need this explained to them?
While many of the others were undoubtedly having similar thoughts, Dr. Zuk was unfortunately not telepathic, and therefore continued his speech.
"Here, the game is pretty self-explanatory! You will pop as many balloons as you can in the time limit! I must tell you, though, some balloons are worth more points than others. The three players with the most points win!"
A small timer appeared in the corner of Marcus's vision. He frowned at it, swiveling his head around experimentally to see if it would move. It did, stubbornly staying in his line of view.
"3...
"2...
"1...
"GAME START."
Marcus held up the bow that had appeared in his hand and stared at it. How would this work? He no longer had the right click button, but maybe...
He dragged the string back, grinning in triumph when an arrow appeared on the bow. Farther... Farther... Now!
He released the arrow towards a TNT block, smirking as the arrow sailed toward its target. Thank goodness it's easier to aim-
No one was prepared for the explosion that came next, or the shockwave that came with it. Some of the players shrieked, some misfired the shots they were powering up, and some dropped the bow altogether. Marcus stared at the place where the block had been, feeling a bit shell-shocked. He had never felt an explosion before, yet something was telling him that it could feel much, much worse than that.
He pulled the drawstring back again, this time aiming for a gold block. It hit it straight on, causing a small "ding" sound. He realized he was beginning to hear more of the sound effects going off, meaning that he really shouldn't be slacking off when other people were scoring more.
"Excellent!"
Someone set off another TNT. The experience wasn't as shocking anymore, and the testers all began to recover more quickly. Eventually, even the booms and the shockwaves became nothing more that a momentary distraction. Marcus began hitting more gold, getting more confident as he scored more shots.
Then the timer ran out.
The bow vanished from his hands, and the same window from last game popped up.
First: Virtual [+3 atoms]
Second: TaztheGrimm [+2 atoms]
Third: katelyn_theboss [+1 atom]
Second. Not bad.
Not bad at all.
xXx
Emma frowned to herself as she appeared onto the stands surrounding the RC Pig Racing track. She was tied with Marcus for third, and she wanted to win. Unfortunately, this minigame just so happened to be one of her worst.
Yay.
She frowned as she remembered how this particular game worked. It seemed like it would be hard, considering they didn't have inventory bars for the emerald and apple to move around in.
And the track also looked much longer, too. Was that because they didn't have a time limit?
"Welcome to your final game, RC Pig Racing!"
Emma covered her ears. Are the speakers louder in here, or is that just me?
"Let's explain the game very quickly. Each of you control a pig on the racetrack. You can tell which one is yours by matching the color you will be given to the color the pig is standing on."
Pigs appeared on the track in puffs of smoke while a window appeared in Emma's (and the other players') vision.
You are magenta.
She glanced up, searching out the pig standing on the red-pink wool.
"To make your pig move, you must hit the emerald. However, it moves around, so be careful. If you hit the apple, your pig goes back to the start.
"Now, if you were all playing on the computer, the emerald and apple would move around your inventory bar. Unfortunately, you don't currently have one, so we had to improvise.
"In front of you is an invisible grid. The emerald and the apple will move around on that. To summarize, hit the emerald, avoid the apple. Get ready!"
Emma reached out, feeling the invisible blocks in front of her. Minecraft was such a weird thing to live in, what with the minimal gravity, invisibility, potions, and whatnot.
"3...
"2...
"1...
"GAME START."
The emerald and apple appeared right next to each other in the center of the grid. She tentatively poked the green gem, and when that didn't work, slammed it with her fist. It and the red fruit vanished, appearing in different corners. She smashed the emerald again, not daring to look up at the pigs.
Eventually she got into a sort of rhythm, and started to go faster. That was a bad idea.
Her hand hit the apple, which had popped up right next to the emerald. She hissed in annoyance and looked at the pigs, seeing hers was the furthest behind and the cyan pig was in the lead.
Emma frowned and hit the emerald again. There was no chance of her winning now, seeing as the cyan pig was about to cross the finish line-
Said pig vanished and appeared at the starting line. Obscenities were shouted, most likely by the person who had that pig, along with the sound of something smacking repeatedly against the invisible grid.
Emma smiled to herself and hit the gem again. The game was on.
About thirty seconds later, the game was ended, as the green pig crossed the finish line.
First: MM-Sfall- [+3 atoms]
Second: ParadoxxFoxx- [+2 atoms]
Third: Crystal_Cloud47- [+1 atom]
Emma frowned. Better luck next time...
xXx
Sky smirked to herself as she was teleported into the first-place test tube. She looked through the blue-stained glass to see who had gotten second and third.
In the second-place tube, Virtual -wasn't his name Nel, or something?- was leaning against the glass, looking uninterested in whatever was going on. Not that much was going on, of course.
In third place, Marcus was smiling to himself. He looked pretty happy with his performance.
"Congratulations, winners!"
Dr. Zuk's voice sounded once again.
"Good job on winning the first game! Now, as I said earlier, the losers are to participate in a final game."
Sky's eyes widened. She had completely forgotten about that.
"Today's game will be a version of the survival games! It is slightly different, though, than what you are used to.
"There will be a five-minute grace period, which you can use to get and craft items. You can find armor and weapons in chests, or you can craft them yourselves.
"After the five minutes, you will be teleported back to the center in a deathmatch style. You will fight each other, of course. However, if you die, you will respawn. Therefore, the aim is to die the least. The person with the most deaths will lose, and the person with the most kills will win. Simple.
"Everyone understands? Good, let's get going, then."
Sky had never seen teleportation from an outsider's perspective before. It was... odd, really. One moment everyone was there, and then they were just gone. Poof.
But something else was wrong, too. Wait-
"Did he just leave us here?" Marcus asked.
"I believe he did," Nel sighed.
"So..." Sky frowned. "Are we stuck?"
"Most likely."
And... finished!
Thanks for reading chapter five!
Now, review replies...
DarkWolf133- Of course they do! Wouldn't be interesting without it! And wings are awesome! (::) (::) (::)
Dash master 48- Shapeshifting, nice. Have more cookies! (::) (::) (::)
Raiden the OC- Yup, the action begins! (and ends for three of them :3) Speed? Cool! (::) (::) (::)
Third Cosmic Velocity- Ahaha, thanks! And sure! *gives virtual hug* I'm so happy that I'm getting him right ^\\\^ Yeah, that does sound like a god-mode power, but still pretty awesome! (::) (::) (::)
Diamond- Ehehe, sorry 'bout that! Invisibility, that's a cool one. (And I love that you love the story, just make sure to get you studying done! [And thanks for the extra backstory!])(::) (::) (::)
Kitty lover300- Thanks for reviewing! Italy, hm? Cool! (::) (::) (::)
So, a quick explanation about what happened with the places:
Sky had 4 atoms, which put her one ahead of Nel and Richie, who had 3. The game randomly decided who would get second and chose Nel.
There was a three-way tie for third between Emma, Marcus, and Jesse, who all had two. The game randomly chose Marcus.
My answer to last week's QoTC: Hmm... I gotta go with either elemental powers for superpowers (fire, water, etc.) or wings for mutations.
New QoTC: What's your favorite anime or cartoon?
That should be it! See ya next week,
-Night :3