Hands pressed tightly against the cool glass of the room, Tori strained her eyes to make out the silhouettes of the glowing figures beyond the glass wall. But despite the glow of all their suits, she could not make out Sam's face.
Then she heard it.
"Victoria!"
It was faint but she could clearly identify the low bartone voice as her best friend.
"Sam! Where are you?" She cried out with relief as she pressed her forehead against the window with her hands cupping around her eyes.
"I think I'm next to you!" He muffled back from her right. However before she could respond, the compartments they were in rose up into the air.
Now what?
There weren't any words she could have said that would have adequately described what she saw next.
"All combatants, prepare for Disc Wars."
Cheers rose and echoed all around them as they ascended above the ground. Turning around, foreign faces surrounded them in the thousands in a ring formation. Tori's view of the crowd was distorted as floating glass compartments came over the gaping entrance opposite form the glass wall. Looking around she noticed that the compartments they were housed in had separated and scattered uniformly around her.
She faltered in her steps for a moment as her compartment came to a halt. Blinking, she walked forward onto the floating glass room. Looking up she barely caught a familiar face as another glass compartment glided right a top hers.
Victoria moved to call for Sam but was interrupted once again but by the sound of footsteps.
Heading whipping back forward, Tori barely dodged a glowing disc-like projectile that followed with a long black-clothed arm. Stumbling to the side, she could barely get in a word before the combatant moved to slice her stomach.
Sam fell back startled as his opponent's identity disc careened straight past his shoulder. Shuffling to his hands and knees, he stared at the life-sized version of his action figure.
"You definitely didn't do that," He got out as he made his way back onto his feet. Turning to his right, Sam caught sight of another player promptly exploding into hundreds of little pieces by the same disc his opponent was holding. Not bothering to hide his shock, the young genius turned back to barely dodge another attack.
"W-wait!" Victoria tried to reason for the fourth time as she ran straight across the jointed compartments to the other side. Skidding to make a half turn, she glared and leaned back to move out of the way of the thrown disc. Luckily for her, her opponent did not seem to have any tact except throwing straight forward. Turning away, Tori watched as the disc bounced off the wall directly behind her toward the wall to her right.
Like a shark was after her, Tori shot after the disc as it made it's second bounce off the wall. Snatching the disc from the air, she ignored the slight friction against the fabric as the disc pushed against the fabric of her gloves harshly. Twisting her entire body, the female user flung the disc forcefully straight at it's owner with faster speed.
With a smirk, Tori relished in the shocked look of the player's face with both his out frozen to catch his disc. But what she didn't expect, was the disc to fly straight through the fingers and head of the player.
Tori's jaw dropped just as fast as the data cubes of her former opponent. Shock and fear filled her entirely.
"Player 4, deresolution."
What had she done?
Sam slid on his legs toward the opening on the floor, using his disc to block the opposing disc heading right toward him. He did not spare a glance as the deflected disc shot right through his second opponent.
Legs dangling in the air, Sam held on tightly with his fingers until he spotted the long black hair of his friend. Sam let go and pulled out his disc to crash through the glass panel of the roof to the compartment below.
"Combatant 6, deresolution."
"Combatant 3, violation."
Flying down, Sam quickly made way to crush through Victoria's surprised opponent. Placing his disc back into his back piece, he ran forward, jumping over the gaping hole in the middle straight toward Victoria.
"Combatant 3, violation."
"Come on!"
Not knowing what he was planning, Victoria just held tightly onto his hand as he positioned them at the one of the open walls.
"What are we waiting for?"
"That!"
Sam pulled them both out to fall onto the diagonal wall of a sailing compartment below them. A shriek left Victoria as she lost hold of Sam's hand as they landed smack onto the wall. Once again, she could not help but hate being a girl at times.
"Combatant 3, 7, violation"
There was no time to reprimand Sam as they began sliding down.
They both clawed fruitlessly against the smooth wall before they dropped like flies straight into another compartment.
"Initiating final round."
"Final round?" Victoria whispered frantically as they both watched as the walls of the final compartment distorted and lit up. All around them dimmed, the lights of their suits seemed to glow even more brightly.
"Combatant 3 versus Combatant 7 versus Rinzler."
Cheers for Rinzler rose all around them in a hum but it only seemed to dim as an eery…growl echoed the room.
"You've got to be kidding me," Sam and Victoria echoed together as they eyed the single figure across the room incredulously.
They both tensed as they watched the man, she assumed, pull his disc and split it into two! He surveyed his weapons before turning back to watch them in a mocking fashion.
Gulping, Victoria quickly made to pull her own disc for the first time. A surprised gasp left her as a helmet formed on her head.
Sam slipped his fingers into the grove framing his disc but could not pull them apart into two.
"Oh, come on. Is that even legal?" Sam said as he edged backwards as he tried to split his disc again.
Rinzler quickly set the game as he twisted and jumped to create momentum to throw his first disc. Immediately, both sets of eyes were focused onto the first disc as it made it's way from wall to wall toward them at amazing speed.
Victoria only shuffled to the side as the first disc ran straight through between the two. But the sound of another disc behind her had Tori sprawling onto the ground as she leaned back far too back to dodge it.
Breath still, she could have sworn her heart jumped from her ears as she watched the disc illuminate through her visor to sail past her head. But what had her truly frightened was the fact that she could literally feel the heat vibrating off the disc, her own disc dimmed in comparison to the power Rinzler's discs had.
Shit.
From her spot on the floor, she barely caught sight of Rinzler flipping sideways in the air to dodge Sam's disc before dropping to the ground to dodge the ricocheted object. Wasting no time, Victoria scrambled to her feet to send her own disc flying toward the crouched warrior.
Feet scramling in front of her to stop her leaning body, Tori's body barely held up from the force of her throw.
Sam caught his disc easily as he watched Tori's disc follow his same path only from a different angle with a bated breath.
Rinzler quickly jumped out from his position on the ground into a back flip, seemingly last minute. As he began descending head down, Victoria's disc glided straight below him before hitting low on the wall behind him, deflecting back toward it's owner at a slower speed.
"Why do I feel like we just got dunked on." Sam stated with a flat look as his best friend caught her disc. A frustrated sigh left Victoria as she agreed with Sam. An alarm filled the air around them but Sam did not seem to take heed as he began goading the player.
'What a guy, he's enjoying this,' Victoria thought as she glared at Sam before looking toward the rotating icon on the wall. Not understanding the meaning, she looked toward the Rinzler guy to try and get a hint. She seemed to catch his gaze, not that she could tell with his darkened helmet before he began sprinting toward the wall.
"Huh?" Sam voiced before a grunt was forced from him. A gasp left Victoria as she shot straight away from the ground below them and up toward the ceiling.
What was happening!
Back slamming straight onto the ceiling…ground, a strangled moan left her. The pain only seemed dismal as she quickly realized wriggling on the ground in pain would only get her killed. Looking to her side, Sam had already seemed to realize that and was quick to disintegrate the glass panel in front of him as Rinzler sailed down toward him with discs in hand.
Rolling onto her knees, Victoria quickly grabbed onto her fallen disc and ran toward the crouched pair as they both shot their heads toward each other to hold a steady stare. Victoria quickly sent her disc flying toward Rinzler as Sam grabbed onto his arm in shock.
Her disc seemed closer toward hitting her target as Rinzler quickly moved to dodge her disc, thankfully away from Sam. Despite being distracted by Sam, he was still quick to counter her attack.
Despite the lack of her only weapon in hand, Victoria used her momentum to sail right in front of Rinzler just as he landed back onto his feet. But he seemed more than ready for her as he shot a disc right toward her head.
"Tori!"
Ducking her head as she crouched onto her knees, Victoria slammed her elbow into Rinzler's stomach before sliding right between his legs. Her quick act to escape did not prove to be soon enough as his second disc quickly followed his brother to slash at her neck.
Twisting onto her knees, she reached out to catch her disc. With her free hand, Victoria touched her neck lightly and winced as a painful spark hit. Pulling her fingers in front of her, she looked in shock as blood dotted her ungloved fingers. She could still bleed in this world.
Damn, and her elbow throbbed like hell. What the hell were these programs made of?
The attack only seemed to stun Rinzler rather than actually hurt him, which did a jab at her pride. Rinzler moved to whip the legs from right under Sam before turning to jump in the air toward her.
Unfortunately, her body froze as she fell onto her back as her legs gave away. A shakey breath left her lips as she could not even bring her arms up to defend her as two legs slammed down on either side of her hips trapping her. She could only stare with wide eyes as Rinzler leaned down slowly to bring down one disc toward her. The fact that she could only see her illuminated terrified face reflecting off his helmet frightened her even more.
Time almost seemed to halt as deep rumbling vibrations rattled her body. They were coming from…him? Her harsh breathing quickened as Rinzler bent down his upper body even more. Slowly, his head tilted to the side and down almost as if he was examining her, no her neck.
Clamping his second disc onto his other hand, he moved his free hand to touch her neck.
"Get away from her!"
Sam broke the trance with an angered voice.
Victoria took in a large breath, almost as if trying to breath the moment away as Rinzler jumped away from her to dodge Sam's disc.
Rolling onto her stomach, Victoria looked at Sam in relief. The look on Sam's face reflected her relief before darkening once more. With a snarled look, he shot forward to attack Rinzler with new vigor.
"Wh-" Victoria paused as she felt something roll down her cheeks. Blinking, she looked down and saw her reflection. She was crying.
Then her world flipped upside down.
Again.
Fuck it all.
"Augh," Sam groaned out as he fell flat face first onto the glass wall again.
He had been running toward the masked fighter in calculated rage. Seeing his figure caving over Victoria had him in blinding rage in a split second. But what had him yelling out was the bastard's attempt to touch her, he did not have the right to even be near her. However half way through his sprint toward Rinzler, the gravity had shifted again.
The anger that filled him quickly washed his pain away as he made his way back onto his feet again. Looking around frantically, he caught sight of the sprawled Victoria a few feet away. He immediately began walking toward her but was stopped as a black blur slammed down on him sending both figures skidding across the ground.
Sam lost his grip on his disc as they came to a screeching stop, teeth grinding in pain, he glared up at the figure.
"Sam!" Victoria yelled out in panic as she raised her disc despite her person still sprawled on the ground. But she hesitated as Rinzler paused and stared at Sam.
What was happening?
"User…"
With wide eyes, her grip on her disc slacked enough to let the object slip and clatter on the ground.
Joining his discs, Rinzler quickly moved it back onto it's place on his back plate before hauling the bleeding boy onto his feet. Without missing a beat, he dragged Sam toward a shaking Victoria. His free hand shot out to grasp her upper arm to drag her onto her feet to his side.
"Hey, let her go!" Sam grint out as he tried to loosen his assailant's grip on his arm. Shaking to the core, her adrenaline rush began dissipating as the past events began hitting her. From Sam's look, she knew she was still crying, if not more. Turning her gaze, she froze as Rinzler's helmet faced her full out in a stare before slowly turning back forward. But despite the move, Victoria still felt very uncomfortable, almost as if he was still staring.
His fingers held onto her in an iron grasp but almost seemed to relax the slightest during his stare.
Rinzler pulled both users toward the middle of the platform to face a single tower.
Seconds passed before a voice echoed out and the only sound they heard was the disagreement of the crowd.
"Identify yourselves, programs."
"I'm not a program," Sam responded as he stared up at the tower with heaving shoulders. He was beyond tired but his heart beat at a fast rate, this wasn't over yet.
"Identify."
It was another voice, much more distorted than the first but clearly different.
Sam almost seemed to pause before responding once more.
"My name is Sam Flynn," Sam paused before continuing, "and this is Tori." He deliberately withheld her real name. He knew his name was more valuable in this world and knew it was enough to divert the attention toward him but did not want to give the chance to the ominous leader. They did not need to know about Victoria, and he would keep it that way.
Victoria had turned to stare at the still Rinzler with a strange look as she felt his fingers flex and almost massage at her arm before returning to their stiff position when her name had been called.
It was probably her imagination.
"Her full name."
The voice continued without missing a beat.
"Tori Stevens."
Victoria glanced at Sam in sorrow.
Even now, with both their lives in danger, he still sought to protect her despite his own safety.
'Oh Sam…'
Her train of thought was halted as Rinzler pushed them forward as the compartment housing them began lowering to the ground.
Fear began ebbing at her burning eyes once more encouraging her to look toward Sam in comfort. Sam looked back toward her with a strong look but reassuring smile.
'I will always protect you.'
