Hexagon
Chapter 25: Into the Place of No Stars
Wow...it feels really nice NOT to procrastinate on updating. Maybe I'll finally be a few chapters ahead for once!
Hollyleaf: ::coughs:: Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
This is one of my longest chapters and it's all in a single person's POV. That's a first for me. Anyway, thank you to the following fabulous people for reviewing:
-Star Speckled Sky
-Azureflower
-cocolily
-Lulurocks01 (x3)
-ThoughtfulWizardOfTime
-Guest
Let's get on with the chapter, shall we?
Poppyfrost's POV:
The first meeting was a lot sooner than I anticipated. The paper had been unceremoniously crushed into my fingers by a brutal looking Wind who had been walking by me. In passing, he had hissed in my ears, "Destroy after reading, dipshit."
I glared after him, withdrew to a quiet corner where I was more or less alone, and smoothed out the paper.
W46:
2300 hours. Attendance mandatory.
2300 hours? So basically 11 pm? I wasn't completely sure what W46 meant and I didn't particularly care. Dread was breeding ice in my stomach, and I felt the first traces of terror settling in. I shredded the paper and put the scraps in my mouth like I had seen people in spy movies do, and tried force the substance down.
It was nasty. Having a mouthful of what was essentially wood pulp looked a lot easier when James Bond was doing it. I swallowed. With difficulty. After rinsing my mouth out at the nearest water fountain, I hurried into my dorm room and rummaged through my closet. I settled on simple clothing: black ripped skinny jeans, combat boots, and a dark turtleneck.
The time passed way too fast. One second I was despairing over a mountain of trigonometry homework, the next, I was glaring at my wristwatch, which now read 10:23 pm.
The dorm doors automatically slid open, and I slipped into the dark hall. It was deathly quiet, like a dark omen. Normally, the school is buzzing with energy well after midnight. The strange silence made my hair stand up and goosebumps to crawl down my skin.
"Oh, look. It's the noob." I spun. Standing behind me were two Shadow seniors. One carried a baseball bat over his shoulder. The other was twirling a kunai knife on his index finger. The one with the kunai knife leaned forward, grinning. "Poppyfrost, was it?" I nodded shyly. "Walk with us."
The tone in his voice left no room for argument. So, I found myself awkwardly walking between two leering seniors who looked like they could tear telephone directories in half with their bare hands.
...yeah.
Less than comfortable.
Kunai Knife eventually introduced himself as Crowfrost, and Baseball Bat as Ratscar. "So", Ratscar rumbled. "Why did you join?" I kept my eyes firmly pinned to the floor. "What do you mean?", I ventured. My voice only wavered a little bit, I noted proudly. Crowfrost laughed. A deep, loud, mocking laugh that echoed off walls and made me want to sink into the floor.
"Come now girlie, everyone joins for one reason or the other. Some feel rejected or overshadowed, others are bitter about things that happened in their lives. But most.." His voice got very quiet, as if trying to increase the suspense. "Are jealous." He grinned wide. "I'm sure you can relate with that, huh girlie?"
I glared. "Don't call me girlie."
Crowfrost ignored me and continued on. "So, what was it? Grades? Looks? Social status? Or maybe...a boy?" I shot him the darkest death glare I could muster, and he laughed again. "Or a girl, I don't judge."
I spun. "That", I hissed. "Is none of your business."
The second those word left my mouth, his eyes went from mocking, to dark and ice cold. "You're going to want to watch how you speak to me, girlie. Because in the Dark Forest, it's nothing like out here. The strong prevail and the weak die. There's no room for runts." He seized me by the front of my turtleneck. I struggled, panic beginning to set in. "And you, girlie." His voice was dangerously soft. "Are a runt."
He dropped me on the floor, and I scrambled back up, shaken. I was very much beginning to regret my decision. The doors at the end of the hallway automatically slid to the sides, and we stepped into a larger, open area filled with windows. The night outside was still, the clouds moving slowly past underneath the sector buildings, barely disturbed by the hum of the engines. The stars twinkled coldly.
Only the room wasn't empty. Waiting impatiently by the entrance to the Dark Sector were maybe a dozen people, dressed in dark clothing and holding a variety of weapons. One girl had shurikens strapped to her belt, another was fondling a set of throwing knives. There was a boy who had a silver mace slung over his shoulder.
"Finally", Mace snapped, pointing his spiked weapon in our general direction. "Next time, we're going in without you. See how Brokenstar reacts when you get stuck outside the light barrier."
Ratscar didn't look particularly concerned as he shoved Mace out of the way. "I'm sorry, Owlclaw", he rumbled. "Did you say something?" Mace, whose name was apparently Owlclaw, just glared and unlocked the light barrier.
I stared in disbelief as the glowing blue wall slowly faded into nothingness. "I..", I whispered. "I...thought those were impenetrable." Crowfrost walked past and seized my arm, dragging me across the hall and into the Dark Sector. "You thought wrong", he said flatly. "And...another thing. Tell anyone how we open the light barriers and Brokenstar will have you murdered in your sleep."
With that very convincing argument in mind, I followed the group silently. I glanced at my watch. 10:56 pm. Right on time.
A pair of soundproof doors was opened, and I was herded into a large room I hadn't seen before. The last time I was in the Dark Sector, I hadn't even actually gone past the light barrier. Now, here I was, in the heart of the most forbidden place at Hexagon.
The room was already full, a sea of students, many of which I recognized, standing at the front of the room where they received their match ups from several Dark Forest members. There were SO MANY PEOPLE. People in classes with me, people in my homeroom, hell, even the occasional person I sat with during break. I had no idea just how many people were in the Dark Forest. Their sheer numbers were terrifying.
Just as I was about to venture into the mass of people, Brokenstar seemed to glide in out of nowhere and took me aside.
"Noobs always get a pass on the first matches", he intoned. "Come. It's time to pick out your weapon." He led me into a side room with a heavy steel plated door and plexiglass windows. The doors slowly slid open to reveal the dimly lit area. But what really caught my attention: weapons after weapons, a dozen maces piled into crates, spears and staffs neatly bundled into a wicker basket, blades like throwing knives, sais, kunai knives, shurikens, swords and axes hanging from various hooks on the wall.
I stared, impressed. Until I realized something very crucial: there wasn't a single long distance weapon in the entire lot. Not a single firearm. Not even a longbow or crossbow. Which was extremely unusual, considering that in this day and age, practically all warfare was done using mass-murder long distance weapons, and here I was, surrounded by weapons that only required medieval technology at best.
Bewildered, I voiced my observations to Brokenstar. "Why aren't there any firearms?", I asked. "It's 2064, no one uses this kind of weaponry anymore." Brokenstar's eyes suddenly seemed to ice over, and I noticed that he rested his hand on a gun-shaped bulge at his hip.
"Because", he said, his voice sugary sweet. "We can't have students running around with guns, can we now?" I opened my mouth and was about to point out that having students run around with knives wasn't a very good idea either when I saw the look on Brokenstar's face and promptly clamped my mouth shut. I heard about what happened with Beetlewhisker, I know Brokenstar doesn't mind killing his followers.
Brokenstar stepped back, with his painfully wide smile plastered back on his face. "Let's hurry this along. The battle stimulation starts soon, and you don't want to miss your first fight, now do you?" Actually, I would be more than happy to miss my first fight and not get beat up, but that didn't seem like an option. So, I strode through the room, running my fingers over weapon after weapon, and eventually settled on a katana in a metallic black sheath. Attached to the sheath was a length of red fabric.
Being mindful of the blade, I carefully fastened the red fabric to a loop in my belt, and nearly toppled over. The katana was heavy. The sheath alone weighed what seemed like a ton. Brokenstar, at seeing my predicament, waved his hand dismissively. "You get used to it pretty quickly", he informed me. "Especially in the heat of battle."
Fear shot through me for what seemed like the millionth time today alone, having just been reminded that I would soon be thrown in a bloody fight to possible death with no experience whatsoever.
The battle scarred brunette practically shoved me out the door and back into the main room. Most of the fights were over by now. Low ranking Dark Forest members were scurrying onto the battlefields and dragging the unconscious off into a sideroom. The people who had just finished their fights were heading to a large sandy battlefield in the center of the room. The losers were easy to tell apart. All of them were bleeding badly from somewhere. At least half were limping. And then there were several that looked practically dead on their feet.
Brokenstar stood in the center of the battle worn mass and was making an announcement. "We will now begin the battle stimulation. Thunder and Wind, go with Tigerstar. River and Shadow, you're with me." The mass peeled off into two roughly equal groups. Tigerstar walked among us, passing out red armbands. I fastened mine onto my right bicep when I saw the people around me doing the same. Across the field, River and Shadow students were wearing blue armbands.
I was standing on the bloodstained battlefield before I knew what was happening. All around me, students looked tense, gripping their weapons. Everyone had their eyes fixed on the opposing group across the field. It occurred to me that I should probably unsheathe my katana.
The yell that came from Tigerstar's mouth echoed throughout the room in a horrible crescendo. "Thunder, Wind! ATTACK!" And so we did. Red and blue met in bloody chaos. The clash of weapons, screams of pain. My head pounded, stars swam before my eyes. What's happening? What am I doing here?
Suddenly, I found myself on my back, pinned to the floor by a hulking shadow with a baseball bat. Ratscar had his knees on my arms, keeping me firmly pressed to the ground. I looked around me. The fight kept going, despite the fact I was about to die, here, on this dirty bloodstained sand. There were so many people I knew. Birchfall had some scrawny River in a chokehold. I saw a flash of reddish blonde hair, it's owner fighting off a bulky redhead. Ratscar was still pinning me down, and I let myself flop onto the sand in defeat. He was grinning maniacally, raising the bat, about to crack it over my head..
And then he went tumbling off of me. I saw the flash of metal, the glint of light in dark gray hair. Mousewhisker..?
He was staring at me in horror as he pulled me up. "WHAT are you doing here?!", he hissed. "It'd better not be because of my moron of a brother." I just stared. "Listen. You need to GO. Brokenstar usually cuts noobs some slack because they don't know any of the major secrets yet. If you leave RIGHT NOW then you might have a chance." I saw someone coming at me through the corner of my eye. Mousewhisker fended them off.
Was he….protecting me?
I heard Crowfrost's voice echoing in my ears. "The strong prevail and the weak die. There's no room for runts." I saw Brokenstar watching from the other side of the room, his mouth set in a grim line. I took a deep breath. I couldn't let Mousewhisker get in trouble on my behalf. Hell, if I didn't get my ass in gear right now, we'd both be fucked. I shoved him off of me, gripping my katana tight. "You don't need to protect me. I can do this." With that, I plunged back into the fray.
If only I was as confident as I sounded.
End Chapter 25
Wow. Poor Poppyfrost. Hmmmmm I'm kinda starting to see Mousewhisker and Poppyfrost together...I'm starting to think this might become a thing…what do you guys think?
Reviews plz? :3
Azra out!