A/N: So I've had Homestuck, in my head for the past two weeks, it's so… AAAAAHHHHHH HOMESTUCK! SO ADDICTIVE, but you fuck with my head. But I've thought up story for quite a ways ahead and the plot of this story is solidifying in my mind. I know at this point I'm essentially talking to like 5 people, but whatever I enjoy writing this.

Anyway also if you want to see some artwork of Ntasha you can head over to my Deviant Art page, there's a link in my profile, because links in a chapter don't work, but she's on there.

Without further ado on with the show.

Chapter 4: Recovery and Reward

Be Ntasha.

Although Kanaya seems to have miraculously recovered from her wound you must still support her as you return to camp. Deciding to quickly get out of the town for the time being, even though supplies are still scarce. Vriska seems to be alright, all things considered, but as soon as you get back to camp, where Kanaya immediately passes out asleep, you make her eat something and then send her to sleep as well.

As the only un-injured team member it's up to you to cover for them while they recover. So you go about camouflaging the base, the house is built into the side of a hillside so the sides and rear are partially underground already, and you pile snow around the front and sides to try and hide the house even more. You then somewhat awkwardly use your halberd to chop up some firewood, you tear some linen sheets that were in the house into long strips and boil them to use as bandages later hanging them to dry in the kitchen, you take the time to clean the graze on your cheek as well scrubbing off the dried blood. Finally you eat something yourself and sit down for a long lonely night on watch.

Be Kanaya.

You slowly awake. Pushing yourself off the ground you look around, Ntasha is sitting a little ways away, you can't tell if her eyes are bloodshot because they are still all black, but the dark circles beneath her eyes give it away.

"Did you stay up all night?" You ask.

She smiles tiredly at you. "Someone had to watch you two."

You go over and push her towards her bedroll, she puts up some resistance but she's too tired to do anything and she falls asleep as soon as her head hits the pillow. Your shirt is soaked with blood and it's dried and is becoming annoying, so you fill the kitchen sink with melted snow and throw your shirts and Ntasha's scarf in to soak in the water. Looking around you notice Ntasha's been busy, firewood, bandages, and the house camouflaged. You don't waste her efforts however and clean your wound carefully, a jagged x shape marks where the bullet punched through, it's sore to the touch and you don't want to bother it too much lest it start bleeding again, so you just clean it and wrap yourself in bandages. Luckily your coat isn't bloody but without your two shirts it's still cold so you wrap yourself in a blanket as you sit down to heat up some food, hoping Vriska wakes up before it's done.

She does, groggily starting to get up she tries to lean on her missing arm and falls over, cursing she pushes herself back up, and looks around.

"What's up with her?" She asks motioning to Ntasha.

"She stayed up all night on watch while we slept." You reply divvying up the food.

Vriska doesn't say anything to that but you catch her giving a fond look to the sleeping mutant.

"Here, eat up this just about the last of our food." You say handing over her meager portion.

"We're kind of in the shit here aren't we?"

"At least we don't have to worry about 'qualifying' anymore." You reply somewhat darkly.

"I guess there is that, we just have to survive now, wonder how long we'll be stuck here."

"I don't know."

A little later you are outside gathering firewood, you dare not use your chainsaw even though it would greatly expedite the process, for fear of attracting unwanted attention to your wounded team. As you work it begins to snow, softly at first but quickly whipping into a blizzard at about midday, you retreat inside the building for shelter. As you come back indoors you find Ntasha still asleep and Vriska is madly scrubbing at her blood soaked clothes, you deposit your firewood and head into the kitchen with Vriska to make some pine tea.

"If the snow keeps up like this well soon be buried." You say.

"Good maybe we could get some rest then." Vriska replies dismissively whilst angrily glaring at the large blue stain on her coat.

"That's actually not a bad idea; perhaps we won't need someone on watch tonight." You say thoughtfully.

"Whuzzat now?" Ntasha says groggily walking into the kitchen and plopping down at the table.

"What are you doing awake?" You ask.

"Had to take a piss." She replies tiredly rubbing her face. "And then I smelled tea so I came in here."

There is suddenly noise from outside, muffled talking.

"Did you hear that?" You ask quietly.

Ntasha doesn't respond slowly getting out of her chair, her halberd materializes in her hand with a puff of smoke, you pull your chainsaw out of its card as Vriska readies her sword as well. You slowly move into the main room waiting for the door to open, your hand poised to start the chainsaw.

Be Ntasha.

You stand with your halberd leveled at the door, ready to strike if necessary. You here some angry yelling and manic giggles before the door bursts open and a girl with red glasses barges into the room, very nearly spearing herself on your weapon, she stops very suddenly not moving. You hold your weapon steady looking around the girl to the door where a boy with nubby little horns is standing with a shocked expression on his face, beyond him is another boy with red and blue glasses, who looks rather disaffected by the situation.

Nobody moves for a moment, then the nubby horned boy steps forward holding his hands up slightly.

"Look, we already qualified so we have no beef with you, just my teammate being a fucking retard, look we can give you some supplies, just let us go." His voice is scratchy but fairly confident, given the situation.

You slowly lower your halberd but do not put it away. "We're qualified as well."

The girl backs up several feet to the doorway after you lower your weapon.

"Great, we've got a few supplies I'm sure you could use, we'll be on our way as soon as you pick what you want." The boy says.

"But Karkat we need somewhere to stay, we can't go back out into the storm." The girl says quietly, but not quietly enough.

"We're lucky you're not fucking dead, we'll do what we have to." He replies a little less quietly and then turns back to you.

"Look, we're low on food, we're both qualified, if you want you could stay here for the night, granted your share your supplies with us, safety in numbers right?" You say stepping forward a little and holding out your hand.

The boy observes you carefully, and your team, no doubt taking in the multiple injuries, and baggy eyes.

"No funny business?" He asks.

"We're just trying to survive this crazy tournament." You reply.

He steps forward and shakes your hand. "Name's Karkat."

"Ntasha, this is Kanaya, and Vriska." You reply motioning to the two respectively.

"Terezi, and Sollux." Karkat replies motioning to his companions.

Be Karkat. About half an hour later.

Terezi is in the Kitchen with Kanaya and Vriska talking to them while Kanaya cleans Vriska's wounds with some medical supplies from your team. Sollux is asleep in a chair in the common room, Ntasha is sitting next to the fire with a cup of the pine tea that Kanaya made. You have a cup yourself, it's bitter and unpleasant but, fuck, it's warm. You sit down next to the fire as well, Ntasha briefly regards you before turning her attention back to the fire.

"Your team is pretty beat up." You say.

"We got ambushed." She replies without turning her gaze from the flames.

"Fairly impressive you're alive at all then."

"We got lucky I guess, what about you guys, you seem to be in good shape."

"It might look that way, but we haven't got much in the way of rest or good food, we haven't slept more than a dozen hours between us, and we've not had a fire to warm food with, this." You say gesturing your cup of tea. "Is a fucking god send."

You take a large gulp of the tea, it's bitter but you shudder a little as it warms you.

"What do you think of all this? This test, and the ruins?" She asks.

"I dunno, normally I'd call bullshit that this is some government shit and we're fucking test subjects, but it doesn't seem right, with the Specibus, and teleporters n' shit."

"Mmmm, I feel the same, but then what is this stuff? Why is it here?"

"Some kind of cosmic joke, just to fuck with us clueless assholes?"

"Likely enough I guess." She replies with a smirk.

With the intense storm outside it is decided no one needs to be on look out and that everyone should get some rest.

Be Kanaya.

"Do you really think we should trust them?" You ask quietly to Natasha as you get ready to sleep.

"I talked with Karkat, he seems like a good person, you talked with Terezi right?"

"Yes, a bit strange but not threatening."

"I don't think Sollux is going to pull anything either, and right now I'd rather have allies than enemies."

"Fair enough." You reply settling into your blankets. You expect that you will have a paranoid night waiting to see if anything happens, but you are far too tired and fall asleep quickly.

Morning comes and you wake to a beam of sunlight streaming through a window. You get up slowly stretching with a contented sigh. Looking around everyone else is still asleep, you quietly stoke the embers of the fire back to life and start heating water for tea.

You feel much better after a full nights rest. As you wait for the water to heat some of the others start getting up, Karkat is the first awake after you.

He comes over to where you are sitting by the fire and sits down across from you.

"It's Kanaya right?" He asks.

"Yes."

He nods. "Making more of that pine tea?"

"Yes."

"You know it tastes like shit right?"

"I am aware."

He nods again. "Just making sure."

"Karkat?"

"Hmm?"

"Have any of your team had… strange powers?" You ask feeling somewhat foolish.

"Yeah actually, Sollux can fire fucking lasers out of his eyes, and I guess Terezi's blind sight shit, because that isn't normal, why? Have you guys had anything like that?"

"Yes, Vriska was able to control another's mind, Ntasha can summon fireballs, and I healed myself by drinking blood."

"That's fucked up."

"I know right? I'm some kind of freak."

"Well… yeah, we're all freaks here, mutants, don't worry about it, it's par for the course so far."

You chuckle slightly. "That's true I suppose."

"Alright, looks like we should start getting food ready." He says getting up and moving to his teams packs.

He starts sifting through them pulling out a few cans of food and bringing them over to you.

"We've got… Ravioli, canned corn, instant ramen, and tomato soup, well this will be a breakfast for the fucking records."

Everyone else wakes up as you heat up the food, and gather around when it's done.

Be Ntasha.

You tiredly start eating the food Kanaya handed to you, after a few bites you look down to actually see what it is. Ravioli. You shrug to yourself and keep eating.

"So, what do we do next?" Kanaya asks looking to you.

"Hmm, well we'll need more supplies, I feel safer with Karkat's team around, maybe we'll try another run into the town today." You reply. "What do you think Karkat?"

"I can't think of anything better to do." He replies.

"Alright it's settled then get your shit together and get ready to head out." You say standing.

You grab your pack and head outside, a bit surprised by the temperature difference inside and out you rub your hands together and breathe into them, you go to pull up your facemask only to find it missing, right, you gave it to Kanaya as a bandage. Speaking of Kanaya she comes out next, with your scarf tied around her waist with a large bow in the back. You can't help but smile slightly at her, she walks up next to you.

"What's with the smile?" She asks.

"I think we're going to be ok." You reply.

The others filter out of the house soon after and just before you're about to set off the synthetic voice of the arena comes on again.

"Three teams have qualified, two remain un-qualified, the first two qualifying teams to make it through this teleporter will receive a boon upon exiting." A light shot straight into the sky some ways away.

"You know those un-qualified teams are going to be waiting over there to try and ambush anyone who comes close." Karkat says standing next to you staring up at the light.

"True, but they'll be expecting three people, not six, I think if we hurry and stick together, we can be those two teams."

He stops and thinks hard for a moment. "The sooner we get out of this hellhole the better." He turns to the rest of the group. "Alright you fucks we're getting out of here, let's move!"

With that he starts jogging off towards the light followed behind by you and the rest of your teams.

You close to within half a mile of the teleporter without incident, you and your team now sit at the edge of the forest, before you a stretch of field, the teleporter itself is atop a hill with a cliff on the side nearest you, the only way up is through a narrow stretch of forest up the slope of the hill off to your left a little, the sound of clashing weapons can be heard from that direction. Directly a head of you however is a structure, a grain elevator of some sort, a large metal building with a walkway leading from its second floor to a small tower near the cliff face. You can see two mutants out in front of the building as well as one leaning on the walkway up above. Karkat is crouched in the snow next to you.

"Well what do you think?" He asks.

"I think we can go through this building." You reply.

"How?"

"NTASHA!" Vriska comes running up to you from where she had been on lookout behind you. "There is another team coming up behind us we need to move!"

"FUCK!" Karkat says loudly.

You whistle loudly, the signal to the scouts to regroup. You have now alerted the mutants in the building and they are looking cautiously towards your position. Everyone quickly returns from their positions.

"Alright come on we're leaving right now!" You say jumping from cover and sprinting out into the field towards the building.

You sprint straight towards the mutants at the building, a woman and two men, the woman who has curling ram's horns shouts at the other two and then faces you. She picks up a large container without touching it, and hurls it at you, your halberd flashes to existence in your hands and alights with flame, you jump and swing the weapon as hard as you can slicing through the container with a gout of flame, the woman unprepared for this is to stunned to react when you smash the handle of your weapon into the side of her head, knocking her out cold.

Kanaya runs past you as you return to running.

"I've got his one." She says.

The next mutant is guarding the staircase to the upper floor, he's large and has a broken horn and a pair of strange sunglasses. Kanaya doesn't flinch; she pulls out her chainsaw revving it loudly before raising it above her head and charging strait at him screaming bloody murder. The large mutant seems to lose his resolve at the sight and dives out of the way as Kan brings the chainsaw crashing down, she seems to have anticipated his move though because the chain locks and she tosses the weapon into the air where it spins once before she catches it by the blade and swings the handle end catching the mutant in the side of the head, another one down.

Vriska is the first on the stairs charging up with her sword out, she turns the corner heading for the walkway to the tower where the last mutant is. He stands in the middle of the walkway with this odd shortened lance, he seems more frozen in fear than determination merely gawking at the charging form of Vriska.

"FLY OR DIE PUPA PAN!" She shouts at him.

He doesn't move clearly rooted in fear, Vriska knocks the tip of his lance out of the way with her sword and shoulder tackles him to the side with her good arm, he stumbles and falls over the edge of the railing, you don't pay him anymore attention more focused on the next part of your plan.

"VRISKA DUCK!" You shout summoning a fireball in your hand.

She drops into a slide as you hurl the flaming projectile into the tower impacting the far wall and blowing a hole in the side of the tower. You look back seeing Karkat and his team following close behind.

"GET READY TO JUMP!" You shout back as Vriska reaches the hole.

Be Vriska.

You leap through the smoldering hole in the tower leaping the six or so feet from the tower to the top of the hill, you land stumble and roll then look back as Natasha jumps, then Kanaya. Kanaya jumps a little short and teeters on the edge of the cliff you and Natasha quickly grab her and pull her forward.

"We did it!" Kanaya says excitedly getting to her feet.

A gunshot cracks the air and a bullet ricochets of the ground near you.

"Not yet we haven't RUN!" Ntasha says running towards the teleporter pad.

Be Ntasha.

You sprint towards the teleporter as fast as you can with Vriska and Kanaya right next to you, a bullet whizzes past you, you can tell it's the same rifle from you encounter in the town, although why he is here firing at you when his team is disqualified is unclear.

"I am going to MUREDER whoever that asshole is!" Kanaya pants out between breaths.

You don't reply diving the last meter into the teleporter, and with a wisp of energy you and your team are gone, as another bullet ricochets off the inside of the teleporter.

You and your teammates land in an ungraceful heap, appearing rom thin air onto another teleportation pad. Looking up you see nothing, all around you is just black, besides the pad and a small pedestal with the same marking that is on the teleporter pad.

You push yourself off the ground as Vriska and Kanaya do as well.

"Now we made it." Vriska says.

"Yeah, yeah we did." You reply.

"Claim your reward." The synthetic voice speaks up, as the marking on the pedestal glows.

You look to your companions who both nod and you step forward and place you hand on the pad, the emblem glows brightly, then the pedestal sinks into the ground.

"Assigning bonus strife card" Another of the green cards materializes in front of you, this one reading 'shotkind' the card disappears and an 870 combat pump shotgun replaces it, falling into your hands.

"Cool."

The voice speaks again. "Granting bonus weapon"

A redish card appears in front of Kanaya reading 'chain-rapier' the card disappears and is replaced by a long slender chainsaw with a sword handle.

Kanaya grasps it and poses like a fencer. "What do you think?"

"Badass." You and Vriska say at the same time, Kan just smiles a light green blush on her cheeks.

The voices speaks again. "Repairing battle damage."

Vriska perks up at that, the bandages on her arm suddenly strip off disintegrating as strips of green energy wrap themselves around what was left of her left arm, forming a new arm. As the green glow dissipates it revealed her arm to be mechanical, hundreds of intricate interlocking parts move and shift around each other as she moves her new arm around experimentally.

"Awesome, I don't suppose you're going to fix my eye?"

The only response was the subtle sound of the teleporter transporting them back to the ruined towers inside the covert mountain base.

Officer Hackett is there at the entrance.

"Welcome back." He says curiously looking at the state of them.

"Yeah, thanks, where are the showers?"

A/N: Well now that that part is out of the way the real fun can begin. So what do you guys think, comments? Questions?

Thanks for reading.