I LIIIIIIIIVE! And so does this story. SO so so sorry about this taking so long, first there was moving, then there was school, then there was a trip to Michigan, ugh everything just got in my way. But I'm back! So let's get underway.
The eds stared slack jawed at the room around them. Zephyr gestured for them to step forward, to which they obliged. "Welcome my boys," he said, "you have been chosen to partake in the preliminary finals. Pass, and you will be officially indicted into the contractor program. Fail, and you will be relegated to a mere henchman…or you will die, one of the two. Simple, no?"
"So, after a week of training, you throw us to the wolves?!" Eddy shouted.
"Yep," said Seraphim, whose smile twisted to a menacing frown. "If that's a problem, I can kill you all right now. Would that be preferable?"
Two hands throw themselves over Eddy's mouth. "No, no, sir," said Double d. "W-we're completely fine. Please ignore him!" Eddy grumbled through the two hands covering him, while Ed and Double D put on their most sheepish smiles.
"Now that's the spirit," said Zephyr, whose twisted smirk returned. "Now then, there are two phases to the finals. The first is a short tourney between all of the new recruits, whoever's still conscious, will move on to the next portion of the finals. With that said, will all the recruits please enter the ring!" Two doors to the far sides of the eds opened, allowing all the other recruits to enter. The recruits all lined up beside the eds, facing seraphim.
"Odd, why would he have them all just gather in one place?" double d murmured beneath his breath. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks. By "a short tourney" Seraphim meant that everyone would be fighting everyone else at once. Double d gulped, this was going to be absolutely chaotic.
"The name of the game: survive for 5 minutes," seraphim continued. "Weapons will occasionally drop into the ring to be used at your disposal. Anyone remaining conscious gets to continue. Begin!" And it was pandemonium right from the get go, as the recruits all turned on each other. Punching, clawing, biting, kicking, anything that they could do to hurt the people around them, the agents-to-be utilized to the best of their abilities.
The eds of course scrambled away from the orgy of violence in an attempt to find each other and regroup. Once that was done, they watched the brutal display. "Okay, well, what do we do?" asked double d.
"Hey, he never said we had to get involved," said Eddy. "I say we just wait here for the clock to run its course."
"Not that bad an idea," said Seraphim, who overheard. "But of course that assumes that it's going to be that easy." He snaps his fingers, taking control of three recruits, including Royce, and pointed to our three heroes. Royce went after Eddy, leaving the remaining four to duke it out.
Someone (probably cobalt) then thought it would just be a grand idea to drop several guns into the arena, which consisted of pistols and shotguns. All loaded with rubber bullets, of course, but nonetheless, now the playing field had officially tipped in the favor of whoever got those guns. So of course everyone bolted for any guns they could get their hands on. By the first minute, five people were unconscious.
Ed stared up at the man a good 4 feet taller than him and gulped before putting up his dukes. The larger man chuckled before pointing to his chin, giving Ed the first shot. Ed took the bait, but instead of punching him in the chin, like his opponent expected, ed slammed his fists right into his gut, causing him to keel over, where Ed then uppercutted him. However, the larger man grabbed Ed's collar and gave him a staggering haymaker across his face. Ed stumbled back, clutching his head.
Meanwhile, Double d just barely managed to dodge a swipe from his opponent, who was much leaner than the one Ed was fighting. However, this made him much faster, which double d was learning the hard way as he dodged another stab by the man's hand. The hand punctured the solid wood wall where double d's head once was, making the sockhead gulp. He pulled his hand out of the hole and looked at Double d the way a wolf looks at a rabbit.
Eddy and the mind controlled Royce stared each other down 20 paces apart. Eddy lightly chewed on his lip, trying not to show his fear of the clearly physically superior man. Then, a large pistol was dropped in between them, and eddy and Royce immediately got the same idea. The two men darted for the gun at top speed, but it was clear that eddy was going to miss it by a crucial second. So, just when Royce got to the gun and was inches away from grabbing it, in the last split second, Eddy kicked the gun away from him, sending it several yards away. Before Royce could stand back up, Eddy then tackled Royce to the floor, punching and clawing at him. For this trouble, Eddy got a swift kick to his gut, sending him onto his back. Royce saw the gun and scrambled to his feet, as did Eddy.
Ed saw what the two were doing, and this caused the long rusted gears in his head to start turning. His opponent charged towards him and threw a punch at Ed's head. With every fiber of his strength, Ed grabbed the fist and used the momentum to throw his opponent over his shoulder at Royce.
Royce saw the large body flying toward him and dived out of the way. While he managed to dodge, this bought Eddy the precious seconds necessary to grab the gun. However, precious seconds were all they were, because Royce was mere inches away from him, jumping to tackle the boy. Time slowed down for Eddy as he rose up the gun. Remembering Cobalt's training, Eddy focused all of his energy into the bullet loaded into the gun. Purple and black lightning arced through the pistol and gathered at the barrel. Narrowing his eyes, Eddy shouted "Shadow Shot!" and pulled the trigger. An orb of dark purple energy erupted from the pistol and collided with Royce's gut. Since it was a rubber bullet though, it doesn't rip through his body, rather, the blast continued forward and carried Royce with it.
The muscular man stood up and shook his head to get out of the daze. However, this put him right in the path of the blast carrying Royce. Realizing what was happening too late, he was also taken up by the blast, which continued to the far wall.
Double D and his opponent were the last people in the blast's way. Thinking fast, Double d used the spell he had learned from Ritter. "Freeze!" he shouted. Under his opponent's feet, a magical circle appeared. The man suddenly found himself unable to move his feet, allowing Double d to escape the path of the blast, and for his opponent to be caught up in it. The blast collided with him, but since he was frozen to the spot, that finally proved the necessary resistance to make the bullet stop. The orb exploded, sending both Royce and the muscular man flying in different directions, while the man frozen to his spot fell unconscious standing up until the spell wore off. Eddy collapsed onto his back, the shot having taken everything out of him, though he was still conscious.
Before it could go any further, Zephyr slammed his cane on the ground, getting everyone's attention. "Time's up, ladies and gentlemen," he said. "Everyone still conscious, please step forward. If you are unable to step forward, I will order the nearest person to you to carry you." Double d and Ed lifted Eddy onto their shoulders without Zephyr having to give the order and carried him to where all the other recruits were. "Congratulations, boys and girls, you've passed the first half of the preliminaries. Now there is only the second half and you will be fully fledged contractors." The eds breathed a sigh of relief while the others just stared silently forward. "Now then, up we go!" The ground beneath them shook once again, rising up to the land above.
A large hole opened in the courtyard, allowing the arena to take its place. Zephyr gestured to the forest behind them. "For the next half of the preliminaries, you will each gather into groups of three and survive for a week in the black forest, the preliminaries ending on the 7th day where you must make it back to the castle before midnight of that day. There are supplies hidden throughout the forest, but you may not take any with you. Also, there is no penalty for killing the other teams, if they cannot survive the preliminaries, they won't last a day in the field. Now off you go, and good luck." The wooden walls of the arena collapsed, revealing the thicket to the 10 remaining recruits.
Eddy, having gotten his second wind, pointed up at Zephyr. "Hey, old man!" he shouted. "We will be back."
Zephyr gave his signature twisted smirk, this one however carrying a bit more admiration in its shape. "I'm counting on it." And so the eds were off with the other recruits, of course teaming up with each other. Zephyr watched them disappear into the thicket and chuckled.
Cobalt raised an eyebrow at her father's laugh. "Something funny, daddy?" she asked.
"Ah, it's nothing, just…It's eerie how similar they are."
See, zephyr ain't so bad…okay he is, but he has his good sides. Anyway, sorry again that this took so long, so I'll try to be quicker, I promise. See you all next time!