"...I...I-I see trees of green, red roses too~"

Moments after the music began to play overhead, the eyes of Nolan Porfirio (Male Student No. 18) slowly flickered open with a groan. He rubbed the side of his head with an open palm while pushing himself up from whatever wood he had been laying his face on. After a moment, he chuckled to himself absentmindedly at the sounds of rain. He must have fallen asleep on the bus.

Blinking rapidly, his glazed eyes slowly began to form a clear image of what was in front of him. And as soon as he could make it out, he couldn't help but do a double-take.

He was...In a classroom. An old one at that. The walls were chipped and cracked, and the window along the left wall was actually covered by a series of thin, metal trays on the outside, making the rain that pattered against it sound more like hail against a trashcan than anything. And the chalkboard at the front of the room had clearly not aged well, having faded and gotten scratched up with time. In fact, it seemed the only thing in the room that didn't look at least a few decades old was the metal door at the front of the class, and the desk he was sitting at...Along with the rest of the class.

As he looked over the room, his eyes slowly widened at the sight before him; the entire class going on the field trip, each of them seated at their own desk pointed toward the front of the room. From what he could tell, he was close to the back of the room, with only one desk behind him, which sat a sleeping and drooling Russel Thrush (Male Student No. 7). Meanwhile, sitting in the seat to his right was none other than Mercury Black (Male Student No. 5), who seemed to have been awake for quite a while now, as he was currently staring down the front of the classroom as if expecting something to happen.

For a moment, Nolan almost considered asking what was going on, but quickly cast that thought aside. Even if he wanted to know, no way was he asking Mercury of all people. This was the same guy who busted a kid's nose for correcting him during a math quiz. The last thing he wanted to do was piss the guy off.

Instead, Nolan continued to look around for a moment, before his eyes settled on a tan girl, with hair comparable to a pale crimson. "May...May!" With a jump, he threw himself up from his seat and ran over to May Zedong (Female Student No. 10), his girlfriend of just over three-years, as he began to shake her arm, "May, May!"

After a moment, the girl began to stir with a grumble, mumbling, "C-Come on, Nolan, just a few...F-Few more minutes." He couldn't help but roll his eyes at her words, as he continued to shake her.

"Don't bother doing that, just let the girl sleep," he rose a brow at the voice, looking to the side, where none other than Coco Adel (Female Student No. 15) was sitting, her legs up on the desk as she nonchalantly sat in boredom, "even if she knew where we were, wouldn't change that we're stuck here, hon."

"Stuck here?" Nolan asked, a confused look set firmly on his place, which hadn't really gone away since he woke up in the first place.

As he asked this though, a scream echoed throughout the classroom, as a voice called out, "Outta my way!"

Running at the doorway, none other than Brawnz Ni (Male Student No. 21) was running at the door, having picked up his desk like it was a battle axe, as he rose it high with a toothy grin. He smashed it down against the door...And instantly, it bounced right off the door, in the process smashing against the boy's face and throwing him to the floor. He screamed out in pain, covering his face moments later as he twitched and cringed on the floor.

Within a few moments, the rest of the class had found themselves awake, and similar to Brawnz, were practically tearing the classroom apart to find a way out. The door? Didn't react to anything you throw at it. Windows? Locked shut and seemingly even stronger than the door. Other exits? None in sight.

There was no way out. And soon, screams echoed throughout the class, questions getting spewed out at rapid speeds.

"Where the Hell are we?!"

"Is this a prank?"

"Where the fuck is my wallet?! Did someone take my shit?!"

"Wait...What are these collars?"

And this last question seemed to catch everyone's attention. The class turned toward who had asked the question, Reese Chloris (Female Student No. 7), one of Nolan's closest friends, and a bit of a weird sight thanks to her dyed blue hair. And just as she had said, around her neck was some kind of weird, metal collar, with a single red light in the center of it.

She fiddled with it for a second, a confused look on her face, and after a moment, was about to pull on it-

"I'd recommend not doing that, little lady."

The classroom froze at the voice, turning back to the door, which to their shock had just been opened, with a man walking through into the room. He was a ginger man, with rough pale skin and bright orange hair, along with what appeared to be greying eyes. He wore an all-white business suit and was walking with a cane, and just behind him, two large, imposing men wearing full-body armor followed, a large machine gun tucked up both their arms.

After a moment, the three came to a stop at the front of the room, the ginger giving the class a wide smile as he opened up his arms, "Glad to see you've all awaken. It certainly makes my job a bit easier." Nobody in class responded to this, as he cleared his voice, "Anyways...I am Mister Torchwick, and I'm happy to say that for I'll be your teacher for this evening."

Nolan could swear, he saw the man's smile morph into a grin upon noticing the confusion on all their ways. "So, how about giving me a proper greeting. Say 'hello, Mister Torchwick'!" He paused as if genuinely expecting a response...Only to get nothing in return. "Well...That simply won't do. That won't do at all. How can I be expected to teach a class if they lack even basic manners? So, let's try this again…" His eyes narrowed into a dismissive, condescending look, "Say...Hello, Mister Torchwick…"

After a moment of the class exchanging looks and the like, they eventually mumbled out an uncertain, "Hello, Mister Torchwick." Nolan found himself also saying it, if a bit more delayed-

"Nolan?" He paled at the voice, looking down and seeing that a certain girl had finally risen from the desk, her beanie covering a majority of her drowsy looking face. "What's going on?"

"Ah, splendid!" The man, now identified as Torchwick exclaimed, "This girl is way ahead of the rest of you, she's already taken her seat!" He then mumbled, "Don't appreciate the talking, but hey, beggars can't be choosers." Letting out a laugh, he then said, "Anyways, everyone back to your seats now," he looked down at the mostly shattered desk of Brawnz Ni, before giving the boy a patronizing smirk, "or at least, back to whatever's left of them."

Brawnz let out a vocal growl at this, though quickly shut up and took a seat in his open chair, not even bothering with the desk. Meanwhile, the rest of the class did exactly as Torchwick said, each going back to their desk. Nolan lingered for a moment going back to his, exchanging glances with the still confused May Zedong, though after giving her a nod, went back to his own desk without much of a fight.

"Great to see such a respectful bunch of students," Torchwick cheered, though Nolan could swear his voice was laced with contempt and distaste, "certainly much better than our first batch." He then pointed to someone in the crowd, "She knows what I'm talking about, I'm betting."

Nolan instinctively followed his finger, turning attention to where it was aimed…

Pyrrha Nikos (Female Student No. 11). Pretty sure she only moved here like...Two-years ago? In that time though, she had made quite the impression, becoming class president that year, and prior to that signing up for just about every major club she could, from fencing to art to even theatre production, and while he would never admit it, especially in front of May...He couldn't lie, she was a hottie. Honestly, Nolan had no idea how she managed to have any free time at all if he was being honest.

Though he couldn't really explain why she was being used as an example. Or more importantly...Why she was so stone-faced and pale, barely reacting to anything happening around her. He couldn't lie...It was kinda scary to look at.

"Anyways," Torchwick muttered, moving on from the subject and turning toward the chalkboard, "let's get a move on with this."

Picking up a piece of chalk, he began to scribble out some kind of logo on the board. He...Couldn't exactly tell what it was at first, though eventually, he began to realize he was simply writing something out, albeit with pretty messy handwriting. Moments later, he placed the chalk down, and moved to the side, revealing what he had written.

The BR Act.

"I don't expect many of you know what this is just yet," Torchwick promptly said, scratching the top of his boredly, "after all it's only our second attempt at it and it hasn't been made public just yet. Think of it as you guys being our lab rats. But just so you know, it stands for 'Battle Royale', or my preferred name for it...The Program."

Nolan could make out in the corner of his vision Pyrrha flinching and lowering her head, as Torchwick continued, "Last time we held it was...Two-and-a-half years ago, maybe?" He shivered, "It was a disaster. We made so many mistakes; too many guns, no time incentive, a lot of starving to death, and don't even get me started on all those pointless peace protests we couldn't do anything about without sending in guards, which interrupted the flow of the damned game!"

"It was awful is my point here," he simply stated, "which is why we took some time to refine the whole process a bit before we tried again. We sent the winner home with a new identity and some money, forced her to write an NDA with threat of things I can't state out loud, blah blah blah."

"Wait, hold up dude, what?"

Torchwick turned his attention toward the person who spoke up, which just so happened to be Roy Stallion (Male Student No. 14). One of the more popular kids in the class to Nolan's knowledge. Basically every day at lunch the guy would be hanging with his friends or dancing in the middle of a crowd. He was pretty cool, and while Nolan wasn't especially close to him, he at least considered him someone to talk to.

"What do you mean?" Torchwick hissed out, seemingly already fed up with the interference.

"W-Well...What do you mean by guns?" Roy asked, his voice far quieter than you were used to. "And people starved last time?! Where are we?! Why are we here?! We didn't get a choice in this, man! I just wanted to go on a field trip!"

A few resounding voices seemed to agree with Roy, as Torchwick let out a groan and rubbed the temple of his head. "I would have explained that...Had you not decided to interrupt me!" Roy flinched at this, as the man growled out a stern, "Now sit down, please, so I can get this over with and we can wrap this up as soon as possible."

After a moment, Roy reluctantly did as he said, sitting down in his seat with wide eyes, as he clasped his hands over his head. Poor guy...Clearly wasn't taking this all that well if he had to guess. Honestly, Nolan himself wasn't even all that sure why he wasn't freaking out...Maybe it's just that, at the very least, he had May here. Meanwhile, he couldn't really see anyone Roy usually hung out with in class, besides maybe Flynt Coal (Male Student No. 2), and he was pretty sure that was more an association of status than the two actually being friends.

"Anyways...To explain," Torchwick continued, "to shut you all up and make sure I don't get interrupted again, I'll make this as clear as physically possible...The forty-two of you will soon be released from this room." He then gave them a bright smile, his teeth practically shining from the lights in the room. "And then...You will kill each other until only one of you is left standing."

And just like that...Silence. Everyone in class became as stiff as a statue and as pale as ghosts, as they just...Stared on in silence. Nobody dared to move, or speak up, or...Anything really. It was as if all of them had died on the spot…Until Roy threw himself out of his seat and started screaming his head off-

As he did so, a loud, booming crackle fired through the air, practically deafening to a degree. Roy shivered in place, his face wide in horrified fear, and just a few inches from where he was standing, a bullet had entered the wall. And as soon as it had begun, the screaming was gone, and anyone else was about to have begun shut their mouths just as fast.

"That was a warning shot," Torchwick bellowed, a smoking luger pistol in his hands, "now sit down and shut up! I prefer to not hinder the experiment by killing one of you myself...At least, not again." This last part seemed to shake Roy to his very core, and without a fight sat down into his seat. "...Now...Any actual questions? And please don't scream them out, I already have a headache."

"...Why us?"

The entire room turned to Nolan in silence, as he blinked in complete confusion as to why he just said that. Though after a moment, he cleared his throat and stood up a bit. "Why us? Just...Why are we here?"

Unlike with Roy, Torchwick didn't seem to mind Nolan's words, as he let out a sigh and lowered his gun. "It was random selection, simple as that. Your school just got unlucky...And on why you forty or so kids were chosen?" He snickered a bit, before shrugging, "If I had to guess...They probably thought you'd be the most amusing group." The class as a whole seemed to deflate at this. "That's just how the cookie crumbles. Any more questions?"

Nolan sat back down in his seat with a lowered head, scanning the room for a moment, before eventually, he saw none other than Weiss Schnee (Female Student No. 2), the rich bitch of Beacon, stand up, "W-What about our parents? Or our teachers! There's no way they would have allowed this, and they'll come looking for us!"

"That's correct, Miss Schnee," Torchwick replied without even thinking, "most of your parents and especially your teachers Oobleck and Port were against this game...But we're the government!" These words alone struck fear in the class, "We have power over whether this happens or not. It doesn't matter how many people didn't want this to happen if they were too much of a thorn in our side, we simply silenced them, just like we did last time."

Weiss' face paled even more than her usual complexion. "So...You're saying-"

"It doesn't matter who you are, because we have far more power," Torchwick gave her a bright smile, "sorry to say hon, but the second your school got chosen, you were screwed regardless. At least your teachers were smart enough to shut up when we took all of you, even if they were thorns in our sides all the way up until that point. Anything else?"

"Yes."

Torchwick turned toward the last student...Who oddly, had spoken calmly and respectfully. They were a dark-skinned girl, with neatly combed hair, and blank eyes. Ciel Soleil (Female Student No. 8)...To be honest, Nolan couldn't name a single time where he had actually seen her smile or really much of any emotion. He could still remember the nickname Sky Lark (Male Student No. 13) spread around for her. "Robot Girl".

"What is the point of the experiment?" Ciel simply asked.

Torchwick stared at her for a few minutes...Before shrugging. "Eh, I don't know," the class seemed confused at this, "I'm not the guy who came up with the idea. I'm the guy who handles the job. I don't give a flying fuck about the why as long as I'm getting the big bucks, and let me tell you, this job pays well."

With a laugh, he looked around the room. "Now, does anyone else have any more bullshit they want to spew at me that I can promptly shut down?" No response. "...Okay, good. Now, time to move on to far more important manners beyond the rest of your petty responses…" He smashed his cane down against the ground, "Neo!"

In an instant, the door was kicked open again, and within seconds, a short girl and close to over a dozen armed men walked inside the room, the men in particular wheeling in large carts filled to the brim with camouflaged duffel bags. The short girl however was...A weird sight. Her eyes were both different colors, her fashion style was more comparable to a French model than a government worker, and honestly, she was shorter than basically everyone else in the class by quite a lot.

After a minute, the people stopped coming in, though the last group actually rolled in a large, flatscreen television, which they placed just to the left of the teacher. Soon after, Torchwick turned to the girl with a surprisingly genuine smile. "Thank you, Neo." The girl simply smiled back in response. "Now...Time to explain how this game works!" He pulled out a remote from his jacket, and clicked on of the buttons.

Instantly, the TV lit up and projected what appeared to be a large, 3D image of an island. "You're here, located roughly fifty miles off the coast of Puerto Rico. The island itself is about ten miles long in both width and height, so there's plenty of room to run around in without giving us extended periods of no encounters."

He then pointed to the TV as the island suddenly got divided up into sections. "The area has been divided into roughly just over a hundred different zones, each designated by a letter between 'A' and 'J', and then followed by a number between '1' and '10'. The zone we are currently in is G7. The main purpose of this is to make it a bit easier for navigation's sake...And also because of a little system we have in place."

He gestured toward the class, "As you've noticed, each of you has a collar around your neck," the kids appropriately touched the collars at this, "they have two purposes. One is to keep you all in check...And the other is to keep you all moving." Moments later, he snapped his fingers, and one of the armed men handed him a thick, black metal collar, similar to the ones around all their necks.

"In a way...They're life insurance. You see, once you've all left the school, it officially becomes 'no man's land'. Every six hours, I will report to all of you who has died, and the more important thing...Where other 'no man's land' will be popping up, and when. Walk into any of these areas after they've been assigned as such," he placed the collar on the desk behind him, and pointed the remote at it, "this happens."

Torchwick pressed down on the button...And the collar began to beep. And after just ten beeps, it exploded. Now, it wasn't a very big explosion from what Nolan saw, but he could tell it was certainly big enough to be about half as effective as a grenade. And soon...His mind wandered to places. Specifically, ones where he imagined what would happen if that went off around his throat.

"Rest assured, we can and will trigger these at any time you're somewhere you shouldn't, or you start doing something we really don't like...So don't bother escaping. It'll only get you killed." He seemed to sneer a bit at this last one. "Nobody likes a boring death, especially not my supervisors. And speaking of, just to add incentive, I should say this..." He narrowed his eyes, "If no deaths occur across twenty-four straight hours...All your collars will be detonated. So stay active!"

The class by this point was more in a trance than anything else, just...Listening, and hoping the situation would somehow get better for them. But Nolan more than got the point...They had to play the game.

"And on that note, they're both water and shock-proof, so while some of you may have thought about it, trust me, it's not a good idea to try it, cause we'll know," Torchwick explained, "but now, let's get away from the collars a moment. How exactly are you going to kill each other? Well...We have an answer for that."

He snapped his fingers again, and one of the bags, this one comparatively paler, was dropped onto the desk. "Each of you will be given a bag before you leave. All of them hold pretty similar items; about half a dozen water bottles, nine MREs of differing flavors, a compass, a map of the island, a black pen, a wristwatch fit for all sizes, bandages and disinfectant, a flashlight, and anything you brought in your backpacks on the way over. And of course...Your weapon!"

With a loud, dramatic laugh, he gave the class a smile as he pulled something out of the backpack...A fucking rocket launcher.

Hefting it onto his shoulder, Torchwick than explained, "Sure, none of you will get something like this, but my point here is instead a pretty simple one; each of you has been given a randomly assigned weapon! These can range in usefulness, anywhere between your standard handgun, to a sword, to a fork, they're all over the place. So some of you will get lucky, others won't, and boohoo for them!"

With a laugh, he slammed down the rocket launcher onto the desk, visibly making everyone in the room flinch, including the armed men, with the exception of the girl named Neo. "Well...I think that's about everything important, right?" He turned to the armed men, who simply shrugged in response. "I'll take that as a yes, so, no reason to delay this game any further I say-"

He paused for a moment, before facepalming, "Oh, of course...I forgot to mention...There is a time limit for this game." Torchwick turned to the class, before holding up three fingers. "Three days...You have three days to win. Seventy-two full hours...If a winner is not decided by then, you will all die. No survivors, and a failed experiment...I'd call that a lose-lose scenario for everyone involved...Okay, time to get this show on the road!"

And just like that, the class of Beacon High just...Stared on in silence, their minds in endless thought as they realized the situation before them. Nolan rubbed the palm of his head with a heavy breath...As he went over the details in his head again…

Seventy-two hours...Forty-two students...One survivor...

Like it or not...Nolan was gonna be fighting for his right to live.