A white flash of light hit all three of the arenas, so bright that no one could see. In that instant, all five remaining people in the arena were teleported back to the house. All of their packs had mysteriously moved back to their chests
The moment Anthony saw Ian, he made a beeline straight to Ian, ready to tell him all that happened. Jovenshire saw Mari, her eyes heavy and red from crying, her face paler than snow. He straightaway began trying to talk to her too. But it was Lasercorn who noticed what was wrong first. "Where's Sohinki?" he asked, a cheerful voice tinted with dread.
This got the whole rooms attention, and under everyones mumbling of "Yeah, where is he?", Mari attempted to silently back away from the group, and possibly hide herself behind a table. But as she approached it, she knocked her foot on the table leg, causing everyone to turn around to face her. "Hey Mari, you were with Sohinki, what happened to him?" asked Anthony.
Mari looked straight into Anthony's eyes, and then burst into tears. The guys exchanged a worried look, but Lasercorn emerged from them and went up to Mari. Calmly, he asked "Did something happen to Sohinki?" Mari nodded in responce. It was obvious that getting words out of her would be hard.
But Lasercorn continued, "Did he... Uh... D..." He couldn't bring himself to say 'die', so he only mouthed it. Mari saw, and then burst into more tears. "Hey hey Mari, calm down. He's not dead, he only lost a life."
"Didn't have one from playing DOTA anyway." muttered Ian, and Joven and Anthony gave him the evil eye.
Mari finally stopped crying and turned to Lasercorn. "So he's not really..." she said, skipping the word too. Lasercorn nodded, "Remember, it happened to me too, it's okay!"
As if on cue, The corner of the room lit up in green light. Green shapes flew around the green light, and as it dimmed, a figure emerged from it. Sohinki.
"Oh hey guys!" said Sohinki.
"Wow you suck at Super Smash Bros" said Anthony. It was his turn to receive the evil eye.
Against everyones expectations, Mari didn't run to Sohinki. She was thinking deeply, and realised something. Did something happen with them in the arena? Why was she crying so much? It's just Sohinki after all, but there was something about him. Still, she just lingered at the back as everyone said hi to Sohinki.
When everyone but Mari had finished their greetings, Anthony spoke up. "What should we do next? We should prepare for the next game, it could be something stupid like COD for all we know." Lasercorn and Sohinki were about to argue, but Anthony gave them a look. It wasn't the time to argue about FPS's.
"But the guns aren't there!" interjected Ian. Somehow, no one had noticed this.
"But still, what if we get out old guns back?" asked Anthony. It was a valid point.
"How do you think we train then? We have nothing to shoot, and nothing to shoot with." said Joven.
"We could at least practise fighting or something? Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat would be so freaking bad." said Lasercorn. Everyone thought back to the time they played Mortal Kombat, and the reactions on their faces were all the same: fear and dread.
"What do we punch on then?" asked Ian. Anthony punched him hard in the stomach, and looked up at Ian's face. "Each other?" he said, a grin in his voice.
"You are such a dick sometimes." said Ian, clutching his stomach. Anthony just laughed, putting his arm around Ian's shoulder and squeezing it.
"Seriously guys." said Lasercorn, his voice dripping with annoyance. Ian and Anthony immediately looked straight at him. "Okay, now we only have some tables in here. Assuming a new game doesn't spawn until we leave this house thingie, we can practise fighting here for a bit by turning the tables to the side and kicking them or something."
No one had any better ideas, so they each went to the two tables on either side of the room, and turned them so they were resting on two legs, with the top of the table facing towards the group.
"Does anyone have a marker or something to draw targets?" asked Sohinki. Everyone shrugged, except Mari, who absentmindedly said "I do!"
Now she would have to face Sohinki. Just to give him a damn pen, she thought angrily. What if he said something? Was he expecting something to happen? Her few steps towards him felt like walking a few miles. She looked up at his face to be greeted by shining eyes and a bright smile. Damn him damn him damn him and his cute face.
She handed the pen to him, another gesture that felt like it took more time than it actually did.
"Thankyou Mari!" he said with a smile. She could only blush as she stepped back to where she was standing, streams of damn him still flowing through her head.
Sohinki began drawing targets on the tables, and everyone started gathering at their own target. As he drew the last target, everyone had taken their places.
"Let's all kick them at the same time!" said Ian excitedly. "Biggest hole wins!"
"That's what she said." Joven retorted. More evil looks.
"Ok, three... two... one... GO!" yelled Ian. Everyone sprinted at their targets, but it was that moment when the ground began to shake. Everyone either slid or fell over into the table, a scene that could've been very successful on America's Funniest Home Videos.