Faster Faster~!
/=+=/
"Dang, seriously?"
"Yeah, that's how it was! You were kinda threatening, Ivan!"
"I know that much~" Ivan laughed.
"He's always threatening, dude!" Alfred laughed as they ran up. "You didn't know that, Charice?"
"He's ALWAYS threatening!" She stated.
"Really? He's not that scary." Rizal blinked, following Francis.
"You serious?" Alfred stared at him.
"He's more childish than anything else." Rizal answered. "Besides, he's right there."
"I'm not annoyed by it." Ivan ran next to him. "Fear runs the world, doesn't it?"
"All right…" He sighed.
"Where the heck are we going now?" Magnus looked up. "You know where this goes?"
"…the top of the staircase?" Francis grinned.
Magnus mumbled something to himself as Rizal looked at the rather worried look on his sister's face. He took a glance at her for a few minutes as they finally stopped on another level for Francis and Arthur to look for traps. He tapped her shoulder, and she looked up with fear.
"..what's wrong?"
"My watch." She pointed at it. "Look at the second hand."
"…" Rizal blinked. "It's…moving faster."
"Time is moving faster in this place…and I was watching this when we were moving up, and it turns out that…" Charice looked up. "It's moving a second faster for each level that we're going up."
"So…that would mean that soon the sides are going to start switching faster…" He looked up as well. "Did you tell anyone?"
"I just discovered this when we stopped."
"…interesting…"
"The level's free." Arthur retracted his snake. "Let's go."
"I move first!" Peter waved his toy hammer.
He skipped freely, motioning for the others to follow him. The others dashed after him and ascended the staircase. Rizal turned his head and noticed Natalya was running to his side, trying to catch up with Ivan. He decided that if he was going to tell someone, he might as well start here…
"Natalya."
"Something wrong?" She actually sounded reasonable.
"Charice was watching her watch as we headed up…" He stated. "Time's moving faster the more we head up."
"…that would mean that we'll be your enemies faster than before."
"Yeah…" Rizal nodded. "I don't know if I can tell the others fast enough, so…"
"I'll be sure to tell the others during the next level."
Rizal nodded as he passed her and headed toward Francis' level as he went to the third level. He looked outside and saw just how high this tower was going. It was freaking him out, to say the least. This time, it was Matthew and Lukas that searched the room for any traps. They turned around to signal the all clear button.
"We can go forward." Charice sighed.
"We should hurry before the clock rings." Kumajiro noted.
"Yeah…" Yao pushed Rizal forward. "Let's go."
Rizal and Charice went first, running through the room before hearing a familiar beep. She looked at her watch before turning to the others behind them in shock. Arthur heard the beeping and stopped the others from heading on with them.
"Go!" He called to them. "Before the clock rings!"
The two of them dashed ahead, knowing full well that they were close to ending this entire messed-up whatever-the-hell was going on. Fifteen steps later the clock began to ring, shaking the ground and freaking the two of them out. Charice looked at her watch for a second and froze.
"What the heck?" She looked at it, turning to Rizal. "The clock says it's eight o' five…eight o' six?"
"A minute a second?" Rizal pushed her forward. "All right, whatever's running this place is getting desperate. Let's go!"
They ran ahead, noticing that they were running faster in this realm. Every thirty seconds, they could literally hear Charice's watch beeping and the clock ringing faster and faster. The both of them were seriously getting worried, and Rizal's lungs were burning from just how fast they were running. He really wanted his nation status back.
"…WHOA!"
The both of them felt like they ran into a cotton wall, and saw with surprise that everything was surrounded by a strange cushioned purple aura. Charice looked at her watch and gasped, gesturing Rizal to look at it as well.
"Look…the watch is going slower…!" She blinked. "…what the heck is this?"
"…a break place, I think…" Rizal took a deep breath. "Which is definitely what we need right now."
"I know…I need a long breath and a cup of water…" Charice shook her head. "And some time to sort this all out…"
"…this didn't sink in yet?"
"Not all of it, no." She answered. "I only understand people switching sides every half hour."
"That's…all you need to know, ate."
"Not really…I'm trying to figure out why their knowledge changes every half hour."
"Huh?"
"I mean…everything we tell our allies, they will always know…even when the sides switch. Our allies and foes switch but their minds stay the same…" Charice turned her head.
"It's there to save our tongues, I guess." Rizal sighed. "Save us some time and let us run farther."
"Yeah…I guess…" Charice sighed. "Maaaan…and I was so looking forward to the party."
"Why?"
"Well…okay, I didn't want to tell you this on the off chance you might flip over yourself, but…I got a call from Feli-chan the week before."
"You did? What did he want?"
"I don't know. He just called, asking if I was going or not. I said yes, and…then it got weird."
"Like what?"
"He started…stammering and stuff…" Charice leaned forward. "I think he was possessed or something."
"…Stammering."
"Yeah! Like he didn't know how to say anything correctly!" She sighed. "Even though I know he can…"
Rizal stared at her as started pondering about the whole thing in the break time that they had. She started walking back and forth, muttering to herself, tapped on the floor for a few minutes…
"OH COME ON!"
"GAH!"
"You don't see it. You really can't see it, can you?"
"…see what?"
"Geez…and here I thought you girls were EXPERTS at this…" Rizal sighed. "Have you seen Feliciano up to this point?"
"All the time!"
"Riiiight…well, I have. Have you noticed that he's gotten shyer around you?"
"No. He's perfectly fine around me now!"
"…yes, now. I mean before now. Like yesterday, back when there was such thing as NORMAL."
"…no."
"…oh, true. You were too busy breaking every bone in his body to notice." Rizal rubbed his forehead. "You know he asked me a strange question a few days ago."
"And you didn't tell me this because…?"
"He asked me not to. Besides, the question was rather typical of him."
"What was it?"
"Um…what were the exact words…right. 'What do you think would go well with a romantic dinner and a beautiful moonrise?'"
"Um…w-what did you answer with?"
"Easy. I said salt."
…
"What, it made sense to me. Most Italian dishes taste better with salt."
"That's not what I mean! Why didn't you tell me about this?"
"Because I've seen him hit on chicks before, and according to what I've been hearing he's brought them on dates before." He looked up. "Look, the only reason why I think it's associated with you is because you mentioned that he called you and that he's been a little quieter."
"…uh…y-you don't think it's because he hates me, right?"
"…is that the conclusion that you're seriously coming up with?"
"Well…I have another conclusion, but…there's no way that can be right!"
"Since when?"
"Since forever! I mean, he's definitely playing for the other team, if you get what I'm saying! So my other conclusion can't be right at all!"
"Since when was he playing for the other team?"
"Eh?"
"You do realize that the majority of the nations here are possibly straight, right?"
"…bull crap. We all know what France is!"
"France is something?"
"…you know what I mean."
"Whatever. Look, just because a guy is clingy onto another doesn't make them a couple, all right? Take Antonio and Lovino, for instance."
"Antonio is totally gay for Lovino."
"Lovino's straight."
…
…
…
…
…
…
"What."
"Yeah. He told me that."
"And you bought it?"
"Well, he said he was interested in a girl he met, so I took his word with gold, but really. Is that so surprising?"
"…"
"Besides, many of them can be like me, right? Liking both girls and boys?"
Was he seriously talking about something like this at a moment like this? Here they were, in the middle of a tower that is somehow out for some Filipino blood, and yet for some reason he was talking about relationships with his older sister who should clearly have more knowledge then he should have at this point.
"…no way."
"I'm pretty sure Feliciano wouldn't hit on girls if he didn't have a sense of liking to them."
"But…he's Italian…"
"Both guys and girls, Charice. I'm pretty sure the religious roots are the reasons why he doesn't hit on men."
"…noooo…"
"Fine. Don't believe me. We'll argue about this later." He stood up. "This break is over. What's the time?"
"Um…" She looked at the clock. "Holy crap! How in the world did we get to ten ten?"
"Duh, the time is faster. Which means we better hurry up." Rizal pushed her forward. "Before the others get here."
Charice was twitching as they ran through the time area, feeling the rather cushiony restraint free them and the aura vanish around their bodies. She looked down and realized that time was speeding up again (like a bad movie take) and dashed up the tower side again. The minute they reached the top of the staircase, the bell on Charice's watch was ringing out again.
"Holy crap…" She looked at her watch. "Time's moving normally now…ten fifty nine."
"Which gives us an hour to look for what we need to look for here…" Rizal looked around. "So high over the city…"
"Uh…is it just me, or is this higher than the tower that we've been seeing half the time?" She looked out the window. "Jesus Christ, we're at the same level as with the mountain side!"
"Well that totally sucks." He turned around. "Just stay away from the windows and look at the walls or something."
"WHERE ARE THE WALLS? THERE'RE ONLY ARCHWAYS AND PILLARS DICTATING THIS! Besides, where the heck is the damn BELL?"
He froze, turning back to a rather confused Charice. He looked around for a few minutes before looking upwards, finally noticing something strange: a huge light blue crystal in the middle of the room above them. Charice quickly took note of that as Rizal turned back to her level.
"You want to try destroying it, or should I?"
"Whatever floats your boat."
He sighed as his fingers lightly skimmed the deck in his pocket when suddenly he felt a bullet barely graze between them. They looked up as they saw a rather murderous Antonio aiming a really huge gun at them, ready to shoot at a moment's notice. She, of course, started to panic.
"Oh freaking crap! Why did the enemy have to show up now? Please tell me that the allies are nearby…"
Rizal turned around just as he saw a snake slither up the side of the building toward their direction. At the head was Arthur, holding a lightly glowing arrow aimed right for Rizal's face. Above them, the crystal was pounding with aura. Rizal could feel the energy flowing through the room.
"…Charice…I don't think we have a back-up plan he-"
Another click of the gun caught his attention. Slowly, he turned his head and realized that she was aiming one of her guns right into his temple, the same murderous look on her face as the rest of them. From the corner of his eyes, he could see everyone from all sides of the playing field rushing up around them, ready to slit his throat at a moment's notice. His gaze kept itself at his sister, not worrying about the others.
"…ate…"
"Let us play with destiny…" She grinned. "Besides, hasn't your life been horrible enough already?"
"…you're too predictable."
He quickly flipped her over to the ground, rendering her helpless as the others began to draw their blades and weapons. He took a long sigh and looked at his sister as she slowly drifted off to unconsciousness.
"…seriously? That alone knocks you out? You're worse than me." He laughed with a sigh. "At least I don't have to worry about personally hurting you."
He stood up and pulled out his yo-yos, judging all of the people in the room. Rizal never really understood why big groups of people would wait until their target was ready to strike in order to attack themselves, but today he was surprisingly grateful for that. A flash of red streaked his golden eyes.
"So…who's first?"
/=+=/
Hopefully, the ending comes tomorrow…and doesn't suck.