Chapter 6: Scenario

Silas walked up to the strangest thing he would have seen inside an academy, a replica apartment complex. 4 stories high, and about 3 rooms across. Coated in cheap concrete plaster making it a shade of rather boring beige. The fire exit was removed, making the only way up the building probably being the staircase inside. Silas walked up to it, when two technicians grabbed both of his arms. "Uhh… Hello?" He asked, confused as to why they were holding him in place.

"The technique test requires a very specific set up, so just shut up and let us put on the apparatus." A technician spoke, his face covered in a generic face mask. Placing a gauntlet with a screen display projected onto it. The other technician placing a band up along the base of his spine.

"Please proceed to the front room, where the rest of the instructions will be told to you." The first instructor spoke again, backing off of Silas as he looked at his gauntlet. In the socket near his wrist was a display for a Scroll, currently blank except for his current Aura displayed, 92/100. Silas just assumed he's not 100% recovered yet, but it's good enough to do this test.

Silas walked to the front door of the apartment complex, turning the doorknob to realize… it was unlocked. Slowly walking into the room and closing the door behind him. The room was dark, and his eyes didn't adjust so he couldn't even see the other side of the room. Suddenly, bright lights flashed on, revealing a short hallway and a single door on the other side. The voice spoke on the intercom speaker just above the first door.

"Technique isn't about how fast you can fight, technique is your ability to adapt to unexpected circumstances, your ability to maintain your composure under stress, and your ability to improvise a solution." Instructor Wolfe explained. "Silas, each room will test your ability to adapt to various situations and handicaps. Each room you pass in the next 10 minutes, will be added to your total technique score. If you don't manage to complete all rooms in the 10 minutes, the last room you're in when the buzzer hits will be your final score." He concluded, the buzzer ringing as the next room's door opened automatically.

"Let's start things out simple with room one." Wolfe spoke, Silas walked through the front door and closed it behind him. There was a masked instructor standing before him on the other side the room, standing in front of the locked door. "This guy has the key to the next room. Figure out how to get the key off of him, or fight him until his scroll considers him defeated to advance." He finished, the instructor getting into a fighting stance.

"Wanna go, kid?" The masked man asked, Silas smiled a little bit, when he suddenly disappeared from view. "W-what the...?" He stammered out, when suddenly the belt to his pants was undone, making it fall to the floor. A key floated out of his pocket, before turning invisible just like Silas did. Silas appeared back where he originally was, spinning the key between his fingers. "So… I won't tell anyone I did that, can I go to the next room now?" Silas asked with a little smirk on his face. The instructor sighed, gently grabbing his pants to cover up the heart print boxers he was wearing.

"I guess I didn't expect you could do that." He muttered, still somewhat embarrassed from being pantsed. Silas walked past him, putting the key in the door, twisting it to the side and opening it to the next room. This one didn't have an enemy, initially. "And now we get to introduce my favorite feature! Handicap roulette!" Wolfe said with gusto. "Check your Scroll and see the cool thing that happens." He said, sounding much less mature than Silas thought he was.

A roulette interface appeared, spinning a little too fast for Silas to actually read. It began to slow down, each wedge of the circle listing various effects that all sounded less than ideal. It slowed to a stop, the one blinking said blindness. "Blindness?" Silas asked, before his vision began to fade to black, which made him panic. "H-hey! I can't see!? I can't see! What's happening?" He asked, panicked somewhat from the fact he didn't expect they could do that to him.

"So yeah, that interface they strapped to your back? It's tied to your nervous system now. Any handicap you get will be them manipulating your nervous system for different effects. This is supposed to replicate the nature of injuries in battle, when you can't rely on your typical tricks." He concluded, Silas crossed his arms, still nervous about being blind. "Sadly, this isn't a fight. In this room there is another key, and you're going to have to find it while blind. Have fun!" He said with a jovial tone.

"...You guys are jerks." Silas muttered in response. Slowly walking around the room with his hands in front of him, before he felt his hips bump into something hard. Stumbling forward and planting both hands onto a smooth, wooden surface in front of him. "Okay, this is either a table, or…" He said, patting his hand down both sides until he felt a handle. Gripping it and opening it. "It's a drawer!" He exclaimed with excitement, reaching his hand into the drawer, sliding it along the surface to see if he could feel a key.

"Empty, damn it." He complained, shoving the drawer back into place. Sliding his hand further down to see if there was another drawer. "Second drawer! Aww yeah." He chided with a smile, grabbing the key on that desk and slowly trying to feel his way across the room, until he tripped over a small coffee table, spilling to the floor with a thud. "Okay, I am seriously not happy about this being blind thing…" Silas spoke with a sigh, dusting himself off and walking over to the door, sticking the key in and trying to open it, only then realizing that they key didn't fit in the door.

"Okay, so the handicap you got is random… So we didn't really intend this room to be managed while being blind. I might as well give you a hint, there are 5 locks, and 5 keys. Each key unlocks a different lock, and the last lock unlocks the door. Good luck with that, kiddo." Wolfe explained to Silas, who got an annoyed look on his face. "There are FIVE OF THEM!?" He shouted in annoyance. Slowly bending down and trying to feel for another lock.

"Wait, maybe what I tripped over had a couple of locks on it!" He said, turning around, running back to the center, before tripping over the exact same table again. "This is awful!" He shouted, slamming a hand onto the floor, before turning around to look back at the table, or attempt to since he couldn't see. Scrambling to his knees, leaning over the table and feeling his hands across the top of it until he felt a small clamshell shaped box. "Lockbox!" He shouted with excitement, pushing his key into the lock and twisting, hearing the satisfying click sound.

He hurriedly opened the box, pulling the new key out of the box. Spinning the key between his fingers and tossing it into the air to celebrate, but.. He then immediately missed catching it, hearing the key land on the floor. "Goddamn it…" He muttered, sliding back to his knees and searching for the key yet again. He found it again, slowly scooting along the floor until he felt a large, metal box that felt almost impossible to move thanks to the weight. "This must be a safe." Silas muttered, slowly searching for a keyhole and placing the key inside, but it didn't unlock. "Okay, this might be like… the fourth one. I need to find the third one." He thought to himself, trying to make an image of the room in his head, placing the dresser on the right back of the room near the entrance door, the safe on the left side in the center of the room, and the coffee table in the middle.

"There should be a blank space on the exit door, big enough for the next lockbox. If it isn't over there, then I have no ideas." He mused to himself, slowly walking back across the room, then tripping over the coffee table a third time. "WHOEVER PUT THIS COFFEE TABLE HERE IS DEAD, GOT IT!?" Silas shouted in a temper tantrum. But the loudspeaker just responded with laughter amongst several instructors. "Oops, left the mic on." Wolfe said, the audio abruptly cutting out as Silas bit his lower lip to contain some of his outburst.

"Okay, Okay. Okay okay okay." Silas said, slapping both hands against his own face to get himself focused back on the task at hand. Slowly walking across the room and realizing there was nothing there. "What, no lockbox? Are you serious right now?" He complained to himself, pushing his hands against the wall and sliding down. Maybe there was a lock on the wall, or on the floor or something.

When his hands hit the floor, he noticed there was a small gap between the floorboards. "Well I'll be damned…" Silas said sliding his fingers along the outline of the strange gap along the floor until he felt hinges. Gasping with surprise, meeting his hands to the center of the hinges to find a keyhole. "I win! Take that, stupid exam." Silas celebrated, putting the key in the hole and unlocking it, revealing a shallow cavity in the floor with a key in the center. Taking it out and turning to walk back over to the safe. Silas made a wide berth around where he thought the coffee table was, but almost ends up stubbing his toes on the safe.

"Okay… Lock. Key. Turn. To open the thing." He said in a half song, half mantra. Opening the safe door before the madness he felt himself slowly falling under in a blind haze took over his mind. Taking the last key, and running to the exit door to open it. As soon as he walked through the door, Instructor Wolfe spoke yet again.

"Alright, now look at your… Wait, you're still blind. My bad." He said, the roulette hitting the next handicap for the room. Slowly Silas' eyes focused again, reading the Scroll that stated "Fun with Paralysis." currently selected on the wheel. "Oh god, what's this one do?" Silas asked aloud, looking up to see the room he was in.

It was the stairwell, but the entire staircase was removed, leaving a gap between the first and second floor about 12 feet high, with nothing but a wall and the outline of where the railing used to be. Silas waited for a response, when suddenly he felt the strength in his legs completely cut out, sending him onto the floor in a heap. Panicking somewhat, he began to gasp for air.

"That effect is a doozy, you kind of have crap luck." Wolfe said with a chuckle, but Silas was too scared to be annoyed by that. "Every 5 seconds, you will be paralyzed for another 5 seconds. You have to figure out how to get to the next room without your body giving out." He explained, Silas getting the motion back into his limbs again and standing back to his feet. "5 seconds isn't too bad." He said, breaking into a run and leaping against one wall, leaping against the other wall to get enough momentum to leap over the gap.. When he felt his legs cut out again.

He fell down from the wall, slamming into the top of the stairs ribcage first, slowly peeling off the wall and landing onto his back. "Who the hell invented this?" Silas complained, still unable to move for a few more seconds. "It was Ms. Perdix who invented this a few months back." Silas grumbled, as he felt his body return to normal.

"I am giving her SUCH A TALKING TO." He stated with annoyance, leaping onto the wall again, catching himself onto the ledge and pulling himself up before his body gave out again for the last time before the handicap ended. He took a couple of deep breaths, his back against the wall flat. Giving a little sigh of relief as he took a breather.

"I understand you want a breather, Silas… but remember you have a 10 minute time limit, okay?" Wolfe announced to him, but he just looked up at the intercom and waving a hand to gesture to leave him be. "Look, taking a breather isn't slacking off. I just needed to collect myself." He responded, heading to the front door of the second floor, taking a deep breath and opening it for his next challenge. This time, two instructors were standing before him, their arms crossed patiently.

"This is like the first room, actually." Wolfe explained, Silas looking down at his scroll to see the next handicap he was going to get. "Floppy arms." The handicap roulette revealed, when suddenly Silas' arms lost all function. "One of these guys has a key, you're gonna have to fight them and get the key… without using your arms, it seems." He said with a bemused chuckle. Silas sighed, looking at the two instructors.

"Is it too much to ask you guys fight me one at a time?" Silas pleaded with the two instructors, one of them shrugging at him before getting into a fighting stance. "Welp, I tried." Silas gave into the fate of having to fight two of them at once. Getting into an improvised fighting stance of standing on one leg in a flamingo stance, one knee up to his chest to both block and kick.

The first instructor threw a hammer blow, Silas stepped backward to dodge, before switching legs and landing three snapping kicks to his chest and side to make him stumble back. The other one shoved the first instructor aside, slamming Silas in the chest with a heavy kick sending him back. Silas flipped back, before realizing he couldn't use his arms. So he landed on his back. Curling both of his legs back to his chest and attempting to spring back up, only to meet a kick in the face.

Silas gasped, landing back on the floor and taking a quick glance at his Aura, which was hovering around 60. He looked back to see the other instructor lifting his leg for an axe kick, which Silas dodged by rolling away from him. He got back onto one knee, noticing one was wearing blue armor, and the other was wearing grey armor. The blue one missed the kick, so they grey one ran up to try and strike Silas.

Silas dodged, bobbing his head side to side so each punch would miss, eventually countering with a 1-2 kick to Grey's chest, then his face, making him stumble back. Blue stayed back for now as Grey got composed. They now attacked together, each taking a flank and both swinging a hooking strike. Silas twirled gracefully between the two strikes, spinning backward and hitting a hard kick to the back of Blue's head, crashing him to the floor face first. Silas threw another kick, this time a sweep at Grey, but he caught Silas' leg between his two legs, catching it in place. Silas fell to the floor, swinging wild kicks with his free leg to try and get him to let go.

"Let's spin." Grey said, grabbing Silas by his other leg and spinning, sending him crashing into the wall hard enough to crack the plaster. Silas groaned, Grey stamping to his chest to pin him down as Silas writhed against the slightly stronger instructor. This guy must be a huntsman, even if he wasn't a named instructor like Wolfe or Momoko. Silas spun a leg, hitting his knee into the knee pit of Grey, making him stumble down onto one leg and gave him a chance to slip out.

He got back to his feet. "I kind of miss my arms already…" Silas complained, gently stepping back and swinging a wild series of kicks to Blue, as Grey began to stand back up to swing another haymaker at Silas, which hit him on the back of his head. Silas stumbled forward slightly, before Grey dropped an elbow at him. Silas slipped his head out, before running to the side of the room. The instructors chased Silas, as he planted a foot on the wall, jumping off of it and spinning in mid air, splitting his legs and kicking Grey with his lead foot, while grazing Blue with his back foot. This was enough for Grey's aura monitor to go off

Grey dropped to one knee, as Blue gently wiped off some of the rubber marking of Silas' slip on shoes from his chin. He charged him, before Silas kicked him in the chest with a knee lift, jumping into the air and headbutting him with the side of his head to make him stumble back without breaking the bandage on his forehead still. Blue threw a kick, which Silas countered by striking his own kick, blocking his and smacking his foot hard into his chest, making him stumble back to the wall. Silas ducked down, leaping over Grey and spinning for a back roundhouse to blue, knocking him onto the floor and sending his Aura down past the level that made him stop fighting.

"Wow, you're better than I thought." Instructor Wolfe announced with pride, Silas took a deep breath and looked at his limp arm, his Aura was currently in the mid 40's. It matched his tired, but not completely exhausted state, since it felt like his legs were starting to feel heavy. "Looks like you won, kid." Grey said, digging into his pocket and pulling out the key to the next room, handing it to Silas as a show of respect. Silas proudly walked up and tried to grab it, before realizing that until he left that room, his arms still wouldn't work.

"Uhh… could you tuck that behind my ear or something?" Silas asked, which got a chuckle from the instructor in blue. Grey tucked the key behind Silas' ear, which Silas walked back to the door and got on his knees. "How the hell am I supposed to open a door without my hands?" Silas asked, looking at the camera that he knew the instructor was watching from.

"Hope they wiped that doorknob down, kid." He joked, but Silas sighed, leaning his head forward so the key dropped onto the ground. He bent down, picking up the key between his teeth and straightening his back, slowly leaning his mouth to the keyhole, having to kiss the key into the knob, before opening his jaw as wide as he could around the knob, twisting it so that the door would unlock. After embarrassing himself, the door opened, and he felt the feeling going back to both of his hands.

But the problem he had, was the taste of dirty brass doorknob in his mouth. So he started spitting, sputtering and wiping his tongue on one of the detached sleeves on the arms of his outfits. "That was gross!" Silas complained, spitting a few more times as he looked up to see what the next room entailed. It looked like a normal room, except for the strange boxes strewn about everywhere.

"This one's a fun one, are you ready for a word puzzle?" Wolfe asked, but Silas' expression said it all, he looked up in wide eyed annoyance. "What the hell does word puzzles have to do with fighting Grimm!?" Silas shouted, but Wolfe just gave a hearty laugh in response. "When you're Dorothy, this test involves a word puzzle. There are hidden slips of paper around this room, each one contains a word. You must put the words in the right order to figure out where to get the key to the next room. Good luck, kiddo." He announced, before the intercom turned off. Silas bit his lower lip in anger, looking around the room and running to the first box on a counter.

He lifted the lid, pulling out a small piece of paper like the ones he sees in the fortune cookies he would buy at A Simple Wok. "Hands." He read out, before slowly scanning the room that looked like a hand. Seeing nothing, he sighed and went to the other box on the same counter, opening it and looking at that paper as well. "And. Well that's a big help." He said, frustratedly deadpan of the whole situation.

"Hand… And. That's not really enough to make a sentence." Silas thought, walking over to open a box sitting next to a potted plant, pulling out that paper and reading it. "What." The note said, Silas setting them on a counter to check if he could get a clue. "What… and.. Hand. I am not any closer to solving this. This is so dumb." He ranted, eventually scanning around the room, opening every box he could see, and setting all the words in front of him.

"What. And. Hands. Age. Legs. But. Face. Has. Arms. Or. A. No. Wood. Has. Violet. Rose." Silas read out all the words he found, before putting down the final piece of the puzzle. "Speak." He thought to himself, slowly shuffling the words around to see if he could find an order. "Okay, let's try this… 'What rose has violet legs, but a face has arms legs an-'… Okay, this sentence doesn't make any damn sense."

"This is either some kind of riddle, or a cipher. W. A. H. A. L. B. F. H. A. O. N. W. H. V. R. S." Silas thought for a second. "None of those even come close to a good word, unless the answer is 'No.' He thought, throwing out the idea that it was a cipher right away. "Fine, it's a riddle. But… how is this sentence supposed to go?" He asked, shuffling the words around until he had a bunch of scrambled words and 'What has a.' Silas narrowed his glare a bit.

"It would have to be a sentence that makes sense… But some of these words are just random nouns, they wouldn't fit anywhere." He said, sliding out some of the words he thought didn't make sense. "What has … and a… but no…" He muttered to himself, sliding Violet, Rose, Speak, age, and Wood. "What has hands and a face, but no arms or legs." He muttered out, before looking around the room.

"Okay, it has to be something in this room, if I'm looking for the right answer. First it was a potted plant, which he discarded almost immediately. "Wall.. Desk… Tv… Clock." He said, before glancing back at the clock. "A clock has hands.. And it's called a clock face. Oh my god this is so stupid, but I friggin got it!" He said, running up to the clock, taking it off the wall and grabbing the key hanging from the nail it was hung off of.

Running to the door, putting the key inside and running to the next room, right when the buzzer went off. "You've completed five rooms! Not bad." Wolfe spoke with a hint of joy in his voice. "Look, the rest of the students will be back soon, so we're gonna take some of these down and you can help move some of the futons into the room so the students can sleep for tonight.

"Moving beds? Is that my welcome into the academy?" Silas sighed to himself, putting his hands in his pocket as he turned around, slowly walking back to the entrance. "Your total STAR rating is 21, it's not the best but you've passed the bar. Congratulations." Instructor Wolfe congratulated, as Silas went to go do more meaningless chores.