I next woke up in the subway. I had a figure under my arm. Turns out it was Sara. Took me a few minutes to remember that much. Then after a few seconds I remembered everything that happened earlier. Well, Sara woke up and she started explaining the whole situation to me.
We were Players in the Reapers' Game. We were on the UnderGround of Manhattan, fighting to regain two precious possessions that we lost, either to the Reapers or to Fate. For every Player, one precious possession varies. But the other is why the Players were on the UG in the first place. Though how it happened may be as variable as what the Reapers took as the "Entry Fee," the result was always the same, and thus we're all on the UG in the same way.
It was about here that my phone got another text from the Reapers.
Revive the Dead Needle. Time limit: 600 minutes
Fail and face Erasure
-The Reapers.
The Timer imprinted into my skin started up again from six hundred minutes.
"Okay…Why do we need the Timers?" I asked.
"We fail the mission we get Erased," Sara said. "The Reapers added a time limit for the sake of their entertainment. If the Timer runs to Zero and the mission isn't completed, we're Doomed"
"Fair enough I guess." I headed out of the subway, but there was a barrier blocking the path outside. "It's blocked."
"A wall," Sara said. "The Reapers must know we're here." She checked her phone. "But this Dead Needle… it has to be Cleopatra's Needle, which is just beyond here."
"Ah great…" then I looked at the only other person in the subway. He was a guy in a red hoodie, and he was dressed like a hobo with a messenger bag over one shoulder. He was looking right at us. I tried the Pin I got at Central Park.
When normally there would be at least some voices in my head, not even Sara's thoughts popped up. The hobo's mind was silent to me too. I canceled the Pin's…Whatever it's called.
"Huh?" I said.
"What is it, Ricky?" Sara asked.
"That hobo over there, I can't read him."
"You can't Scan him!?" she yelled.
"Because I'm a support Reaper." The hobo said after coming over to us.
"Gah!"
"So you're a Reaper, eh?"
"I'm here to rank up your score as players, that's why I set up the wall," The Reaper said. "My Terms for letting it down, you have to Scan to look for the Noise in the Area, and erase them."
I understood after he went back to where he was standing. I almost put my hand on the Pin again, but Sara stopped me.
"Don't you want to clear the wall?"
"Yeah, but you need to check to see if you've got more pins," Sara said. "They should've given you loads at the start of the Game, seeing as how you're a Psychomaster."
"Psychomaster? What does that mean?"
"It means that you have the ability to switch Psychs, mid-fight. I happen to be a Conjurer. My stuffed Cat, Meowmeow, happens to be my Psych, and I can't change that."
"So, Players are set into certain categories?"
"There are hundreds, half as many as there can be people in the UG."
"Wow…" I checked my pocket. There were tons of pins there that I never saw in any store, one with a slash across it, one with a small meteor, one with a hand on it, and one with a bolt of lightning. I tried each one on all the noise I found by scanning with the "Player's Pin," the pin that I got at the start of the Game. The meteor Pin let me shoot energy bullets at the noise, the slashed Pin let me slash across enemies with an invisible blade, the hand Pin let me move objects without touching them to hurt enemies, and the lightning Pin let me control electricity.
"Objective met." The Reaper said. And just like that the Wall was gone.
We left the station ending up in Central Park, and Sara was almost knocked out by a gangster dressed dude wearing a lot of Skulls.
"I know you's a Reaper, yo!" He said. "Jus' give up and I won't Erase you."
"Grey! Stop!" yelled a little girl running to catch us. She was in a sweater with a heart shaped skull on it and crossbones. Her hat almost matched this guy's and her overalls weren't on her body.
"Why, Ash!? This girl almost Erased us yesterday!" Grey turned to us. "You think you can trick me because o' the way you's dressed yo?"
I had to step in. I couldn't find a reason to trust her, but as far as I knew we were alive, and Sara still had the right to live. I did what most people would do when their Partner is tackled to the ground… I tackled Grey.
"Dammit yo, you're gettin' in the way! If you's a Player, you'd leave this to me yo!"
"Dude, I am a Player," I said. "But I can't let you kill Sara. She's my Partner!"
"Say what?"
"That's what I've been trying to tell you Grey." Ash said. "Look at the hat. She's got the Player's Pin. She's like us."
"But I couldn't Scan her!"
"You couldn't Scan me either, Right? That's the way the Pin works. It only scans the RG."
A little later everything was sorted out.
"Yo, Sorry 'bout tryin' to Erase you," Grey said. "I'm Grey. This is my Partner, Ash."
"Howdy," Ash said.
"I'm Sara, This is Ricky," Sara said. "Why do you two go by those names?"
"I don't really remember," Ash said. "But I couldn't stand to go by anything else so I go by Ash."
"Something weird happened yesterday yo," Grey almost asked us. "The mission said we needed to get to Times Square but one of the Reapers stopped us from gettin' there. She almost Erased us when the Timer reset."
"That is weird," I said. "But we made it to Times Square alright." We (And by "we" I mean "they") tossed some ideas around but we couldn't figure anything out by the time Dracula showed up again.
"Hey there Ricky," he said. "Perhaps I should explain something about how the Missions in the Game work. The Game is kinda like that book, The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. The difference is Players don't kill each other, they have to work together, if one Team clears the Mission all Players clear the Mission."
"So we don't even have to play!?" Grey exclaimed.
"Yeah, but if every Player, thought like that, you'd all get Erased the first day, which is why we keep that a secret normally."
"First…Day?" I had to query
"Oh… I forgot about your… Entry Fee. See the Game takes Place from Sunday to Saturday with one Mission per day, formulated By the Game Master, or GM for short. When one days Mission is completed Players have until ten minutes pass before they fall asleep and wake up for the next mission."
"That would explain why the date change on my phone, but how is that normal!?"
"Well you can't leave a UG when you're a Player or a Reaper. So we set Bedtimes for you."
"Um, Ricky?" Sara interrupted.
"Yeah?"
"We have half the time we had earlier; we need to get to the Needle."
"Hey Do you guys need our help?" Grey asked. "It'd be the least I can do to make it up to you guys."
I mulled it over. "Sorry but I don't need more people I don't trust trying to help, I've got my hands full with Sara."
"Why's that Beats?" Grey sounded suspicious. "You sayin' you don't trust us yo?"
"It's Okay Grey; I can see Ricky's point…" Ash said. "Offer's open." They went to figure out what The Needle in the Mission was.
"Why would you do that!?" Sara scolded.
"I didn't want to be a burden to them, and I didn't want any more burdens on me," I answered.
"I think she means deny trusting your Partner," Dracula put in.
"I wouldn't deny it if I did Trust her," I said. "But Trust develops over time and that's one thing I haven't had for this one yet."
"Well, there's your biggest mistake."
"What?"
"If you want to survive the Game, you have to trust your Partner no matter what. If your Partner's erased, you'll follow in thirteen minutes."
"Okay… I'll try." Sara and I went on to the Needle. Well turns out to "Revive" Cleopatra's Needle, we needed to make it part of the UG again. The problem is the Noise completely devoured that much of the UG. I set all the Noise on fire and Meowmeow took care of things from there.
The Timer reset once the last Noise was Erased. Then I found out what a Reaper looks like. A girl around seventeen just popped out of thin air.
"Congratulations, Beats and Kitty," she said. She had short hair like Sara's, dyed pink in one Streak and red the rest. She was wearing a red tank top with black denim shorts. Her boots went as high on her as Sara's did on Sara. The craziest thing about her was the Wings. They were basically black wing bones for an angel, only shaped more like a grave keeper made them. "But I will get those Reaper Points outta you two."
She summoned up some Noise and we erased them as quickly as she could bring them up. We were tired by the time the next wave came, so I had to take her on.
"Ricky! Don't! She's too powerful!" Sara said.
"Why'd you have to ruin the fun…How about a special mission beats, you win you're outta the game." Needless to say I accepted. Big mistake. I had to kill Sara.
"Let me give you a good reason, she's a spy." I remembered that I shouldn't trust Reapers, but… that was enough to make me attempt the deed. Here ends the Second Day.