PSIonic Gladiators part 15
"A Game of Cards,"
"Sounds like the fights are about to start," Ninten said absentmindedly staring up at the ceiling from his bed. He spoke the obvious since the activity within the arena was starting to pick up again. It wasn't a surprise since they had been expecting this. "How long do we have to wait?"
"Just a few minutes," Lucas answered as he was playing cards with Ness. Well more like Ness was trying to teach Lucas how to play tycoon. Ninten had joined in but felt it was unfair since he could read their minds, so he removed himself from the game.
"Surprised MC gave us a deck of cards. Seeing as we can't really do much today since we don't have matches," Ness says.
"Glad you enjoyed your little game, now can we get to work?" Ninten asks.
"You heard Lucas, we have to wait a few minutes, so why not join us. You can turn off your mind reading powers for a second right?"
"Ugh, you are way to relax when it comes to this stuff…" Ninten mutters as he does move to join them at their small table. Ness quickly deals him in.
"You got the rules right Lucas?" Ness asks.
"Yeah, though I am in agreement with Ninten you do tend to be too relaxed," Lucas says placing down a 7 numbered card on the table.
"Well, all fun and no play makes jake a dull boy," Ness says placing down a 9 card.
"Well, dull is better than being dead," Ninten says placing a ten down.
"Geez, you guys know you have to put low numbers first, pass." Ness says.
"Well that is one strategy," Ninten says placing down a jack. Ness and Lucas pass so the round starts again with Ninten starting. He places down a five before saying, "We probably shouldn't be this relaxed."
"I agree," Lucas says placing a six down.
"Better than listening to limbs being torn apart. I've always been a fan of wrestling, but this is a bit much," Ness says placing down an 8 which ends the round and resets it to his turn. He places a four down.
"You like wrestling?" Ninten asks as he places down a queen. Lucas and Ness pass so the round goes to Ninten.
"I saw a guy exploding through a table on fire, objectively that is just entertainment!" Ness chuckled.
"Wrestling?" Lucas questions twisting his face in confusion while staring at his cards.
"There's no way you don't know what wrestling is Luke," Ness questions glancing up from his cards.
"That's just fighting right?" Lucas asks placing down a card.
"Not the word, the event dude. Ya know wrestling matches and the like."
"I've never heard of anything like that…" Lucas says shaking his head.
"Okay Lucas, where are you from. Because if you don't know about wrestling I feel very bad for you…" Ness says.
"I wouldn't, it's mostly fake," Ninten remarks passing on his turn.
"Excuse me sir, but it is not mostly fake!" Ness responds indignantly. "It may not be a death match, but it is awesome!"
"Guess grotesque violence is entertaining no matter what culture it's in," Lucas says passing on his turn.
"Oh, come on, I am not the bad guy here! It's fun to watch and its nothing like these games! The fans actually care about the wrestlers and would rather not see them get murdered. A lot of my moves come from wrestling too."
"And where do the rest come from?" Ninten asks.
"I'm a Smasher," he responds.
"The hell does that mean?" Ninten questions.
"If ya don't know then it's a secret!" replies with a smirk as he slaps down a joker card. "Ha, looks like I'm winning this round!"
Ninten had to pass, but Lucas smirks as he places down a three which is the only thing that beats a joker. With that, the round ended with Lucas starting. He places down his last two cards which are two 2's.
"That makes me the tycoon, right?" Lucas asks.
Ness sucks his teeth, "Yeah…"
"I feel like he's cheating, but I can't prove it…" Ninten mutters.
"Well can't you read minds?" Ness asks.
"Not Lucas', steel trap remember? Nothing getting in or out of his mind without his permission."
Lucas stands to his feet and move closer to Ness and Ninten. He places his hands over their collars for sparks of psionic energy to spark around his fingers covering the collars before he retracts his hand to nod to them both. The boys had decided that they shouldn't keep silencing all three of their collars too often. It may catch MC's attention if it happens too often and with all three at the same time. Ness moves over to the door to extend his right hand out. He reaches out with his other hand toward Lucas. He tries summoning PSI Magnet which is only a slight glow of his hand. Lucas grabs his hand in order to feed some of his PSI into Ness. This gives Ness a bit of extra energy at his disposal as he works his magic around the energy field. The energy begins swirling in a circular fashion as a hole slowly appears. At first the size of a grape, then the size of Ness' palm, and he begins working to make it larger. Ninten now moves over creating a small barrier around Ness' arm. Ness has sweat beating on his brow now as he nervously looks at the small hole trying to make it a little larger, however he's at his limit. He couldn't do more and he knew the barrier Ninten could create would add maybe a few seconds at best to protect his arm against the energy. Ninten extends a hand toward Lucas with his own PSI magnet active. Lucas was prepared to reach out as soon as Ness pushed his hand through to add a few extra precious seconds to the barrier. The three boys all look at each other as if sensing the trepidation in the room.
"Nothing to it, but to do it…" Ness thought. He pushes his arm through. As he does Lucas lets his hand go to grab Ninten's The energy field collapses on the barrier created. If Ness wasn't quick enough he knew he could kiss his arm goodbye. Also, if the code Lucas copied wasn't exactly accurate the door wouldn't go away and he'd say goodbye to the arm in that scenario as well. He resists the urge to flail his arm as he focuses on staying calm. He finds the keypad and focuses on the numbers. He needs a moment to rub his fingers over to get a feel for each key and begins typing it in by feel alone. It was a slow process and he could see the barrier around his arm weakening rapidly. He made sure to keep his back to Ninten and Lucas. If he saw their pained faces he would try to rush this and thus increase the chance of him making a mistake. He types in the first three numbers when he begins to feel the heat of the energy press against his arm, just 4 more numbers.
Ness' finger slips hitting two keys at the same time. His heart races realizing the mistake.
He wasn't sure if the keypad registered both presses since he couldn't see. He had no choice but to hope and continue with the code. He enters two more numbers before he feels the energy start to tear into his skin. He mashes his teeth to keep from screaming out as he focuses on the last number praying that this would work and that he wouldn't be down an arm. He presses the last key. There is a beep.
The barrier vanishes.
Pure relief runs through all of them as they each collapse to the floor. They each take big sighs of relief. Ness looks at his arm seeing a circular scorch mark around his arm. He's lucky. He looks to Ninten and Lucas to see the two red faced and sweating. They look back at him in relief. It was a huge relief for everyone that they had to take a moment to reveal in their success for a moment. It was a close call so they savored the few seconds they had. When they calmed down enough they remember that the mission isn't over yet. Ness stands to his feet to step out and just as Lucas predicted the door was out of sight. Ness could see Jojo's cage just above them. Since he could come and go as he pleased Jojo had his own code. Ness moves forward looking back at his friends. They get back on their feet ready to give Ness the boost he needed. Once he was ready he pushes off the ground pressing forward with his telekinesis. He was aided by Lucas and Ninten pushing him forward and the odd gravity helped as he was propelled into the air to grab a foot hold on the jagged edge of the cage. He quickly climbs his way around. He gets to the door and enters the code to Jojo's cage. Once inside he sees a large computer. There wasn't much anything in the cage, if anything it was smaller than the boys'. Only a bed, a table, and a computer. Despite Jojo's reputation and time here he has a relatively small cage.
Suddenly the computer scans him surprising Ness greatly. The computer boots up and shows a recorded message of Jojo.
"If you're hearing this, that means I'm dead. If this is that bastard MC, fuck you. If it's not, then I recognize you as a warrior capable of ending MC's life. In the chance of my death my computer downloads all my intel into the compartment drive, grab it and go. The longer you're here the faster MC will know something is up. Good luck," and with that the message ends. Ness quickly searches for the object he knows nothing about. He just started pulling and random pieces on the computer. He wasn't a computer expert, he was even more out of his element with alien technology. Luckily, it was made easier by a blinking red light object inserted into the side of the monitor.
"Hurry Ness, the door is about to face front again!" Ninten messages him.
Ness snatches the object and suddenly the whole entire computer begins sparking in a very concerning way. Ness wastes no time running to the door as he jumps back to his cage below. Ninten and Lucas were waiting for him. Ninten snatches him from the air by his arm. He pulls him in, while Lucas quickly enters the code again on the door. He quickly pulls his arm back as the door closes.
"I'm a tycoon!" Ness exclaims from his place on the floor and punching the air. Ninten sighs shaking his head before he looks at Lucas. Lucas is cradling his arm a bit. Ninten looks at him a bit concerned but Lucas waves him off as he moves to reactivate the collars. After this the three boys sigh in relief as they move back to their table and sit, clearly a bit exhausted from the whole ordeal. Operating with a quarter of their powers and it took a large amount of effort to do something as simple as open a door. Ness smirks at his friends as he places the device on the table. They lit up at it as they look at the strange device. It was simply a triangle like metallic object with a fluorescent type screen on the top of the object. They had no idea how to operate it but they each knew of its great importance.
"Well guys wanna go another round?" Ness says picking up the cards.