"Mornin', Toxic!"
Flash stood near her door, smiling at her in a friendly manner as she walked out. She smiled at him in return, then immediately grew reclusive when she noted her friend's sweatdropping expression at her bedhead. She quickly tried to straighten out her hair, acting professionally but failing.
"M-morning, Flashy-kun!" She grinned sheepishly, putting on her scarf. "…you didn't have to wait for me, you know…"
"May as well," Flash chuckled in response, shrugging.
"Please don't in the future. I feel bad for burdening you…" Toxic looked down impishly.
"It's no burden!" he replied cheerily. "Now, hows about we go get G and Fox and head for breakfast?"
"Yeah!" the female agreed happily.
The pair turned, walking up the stairs towards the entrance to the vault.
"So… umm… Flash… did you sleep well…?" the girl asked, glancing at him with a friendly face.
"I've slept better… but I slept alright," Flash responded, not seeming too bothered about last night's sleep. "How about you, Toxic?"
"…" She was silent for a second, glancing away with a frown. "I've slept better too…" she muttered cautiously. "…I was up for a while… not even for constructive reasons…"
Flash looked at her with concern. "What kept you up?"
"…Darky," she muttered hesitantly.
"Toxic, really. You don't have to wo—"
"I still do," Toxic interrupted, seemingly wanting to get off the topic. She looked like she was trying to avoid it completely, and Flash wasn't against that. He hated seeing the pained expressions on her face again and again…
The two ascended the stairs, stopping at the top. They walked through a set of automatic, metal doors, and then stopped at seeing G, already up and 'at 'em'.
"Hi, G!" Toxic chirped immediately, walking over to him with Flash behind her.
"Hey, guys," G greeted with a wave, not fully looking at them.
"…something wrong?" Toxic asked, blinking at his current fascination with the controls.
"Yeah… having some technical issues with the door."
"Technical issues…?" Flash questioned, tilting his head with a frown.
"Shouldn't be long before we can get moving though," G told them in reassurance. He shrugged casually, then looked at them with questionable expression. "What's up?"
"Well… we were kinda hoping to have breakfast with everyone," Toxic explained sheepishly, tenting her fingers nervously.
"…I see," G replied, then smirked slightly. "Why'd you come up for me first?"
"We could get Fox on the way down," Flash told him, looking over his shoulder. "He's a floor down… everywhere else was locked."
G blinked. "Every room on your floor, except yours and Toxic's, was locked?" he asked sceptically.
"Yeah… I guess this place must be malfunctioning or something…?" the girl asked sheepishly.
"…they weren't locked when I checked the place."
"What?!" Flash and Toxic both shouted in unison, then looked at each other before staring at G in bafflement.
"Why would they lock like that?" Flash asked, looking worried.
"I don't know… but I have a feeling that we need to find Fox. This is way too coincidental." G scowled, finishing what he was doing before turning towards the stairs.
"But, G… you cleared out the place, right?" Toxic asked anxiously, following the boy as he walked towards the stairway.
"I thought I did…" G muttered.
The girl looked worried.
"Hopefully it's nothing too scary…" Flash walked next to Toxic in a form of physical reassurance.
"Yeah… hopefully…" the author muttered, looking to the side as they descended the stairs. "Geez, you stay in a place for one night and suddenly bad things happen…"
"Kinda the norm in horror games," Flash commented, grinning slightly. "This isn't scary so far, though…"
Toxic elbowed him gently.
"Oi, don't jynx it… I dun want it to get scary…"
G walked ahead as the two conversed, and reached the bottom of the stairs. As he passed the locked doors with the group, he squinted in suspicion, wondering why they all could be locked.
If someone was responsible for it, it was obviously to single out one of the people out who DIDN'T get one of the rooms… and that made G all the more apprehensive.
Toxic looked at the locked doors with a new perspective; at first, she'd been curious, but now… she felt… unnerved that it might've been some sort of trick…
Flash was just as anxious about the whole scenario, but ultimately hoped for the best regardless… Fox had to be alright, right?
The group approached the second set of stairs, and continued down them, wary of their surroundings. Their footsteps emphasized the emptiness in this new area… no one talked; all they could hear was the sound of the monitors, all whirring in a technical orchestra, and their own breaths.
Once reaching the bottom, they looked around. The group went about inspecting the doors. A lot of them were open, but a few of them were locked…
"…Fox was in this one."
G was stood inside a bedroom, sided by living quarters, looking at the bed side table. There was a 9mm revolver there, in its holster.
Flash poked his head in. "Guess he was paranoid enough about this place to know to leave his weapon close by…"
"But he didn't take it with him…" Toxic mumbled with worry behind him. "Which means, if he's in trouble now…"
"…yeah…"
"Come on." G made his way out of the room briskly.
The two remaining glanced at each other, frowning deeply, before following after their comrade.
"…hang on." He stopped, then turned to Toxic, holding out something. "Here."
"…h-huh?" Toxic blinked at him in uneasy confusion. "Wh-why're you giving this to me?"
It was Fox's 9mm revolver.
"Because I trust you not to do anything stupid with it," G responded, grinning slightly.
Flash narrowed his eyes. "And not me?"
"No offence, Flash."
Hesitantly taking the gun, Toxic accepted the responsibility of holding it, though didn't feel happy doing so…
The group quickly passed a windowed room; it was shut off from the rest of the world, and the blinds were down… it was inaccessible. No one could find reason to check there from this observation, and none could look inside if they tried…
Fox wasn't getting out any time soon, and no one would help him. He'd tried yelling hours ago; no one came. And he certainly couldn't hear anything outside the room… soundproof walls…
Due to being an observation room, it warranted that, unluckily for Fox. But from his stance he could do no observing, nor be observed; it was only his captor that could keep such a watchful eye on him in the room from the camera… and he knew they were perfectly content with keeping it that way.
"Great…" he hissed under his breath, leaned against the wall in a fit of unrest.
"…hey. Heyyyyyy. It's gonna' start soon… are you ready?"
Fox stiffened and looked up at the camera in horror; anger soon overtook his features, however.
"Of course not, you little—!"
There was a long, shrill microphone sound which almost deafened him.
As the group descended a set of stairs, their investigation was interrupted by a calm, soothing voice. All stopped at the bottom of the stairway, their gazes searching every inch of the corridor…
"Inhabitants of this lovely vault…"
"…that fucking scrub is kidding," G growled, his eyes wide.
"It's a pleasure to have you here!"
"Nuuuu! It's the demon child!" Toxic freaked, then turned around, trying to ascend the stairs.
"I'm so sorry for not welcoming you earlier…"
She couldn't, though… the door slammed down in front of her before she could do so.
"Eeeek! NOOOOO! P-please, no, please no!"
"…y'see, it's really important that you knew what you were getting yourselves into…"
"Who?" Flash looked at them in confusion.
"Monaca," G answered, glaring up at the nearest security camera. "She—"
"…follows in the steps of Big Sis Junko? Heehee. Oooh, I do WONDER… How'd you guess right? Then again, Monaca was hoping people would know not just Big Sis Junko, but her too!"
"What's she doing h-here?" Toxic whispered, her voice a tiny squeak.
"I don't know; I didn't see her… just…" G growled. "Doesn't matter…"
"Oh, Monaca's been here a while. Way before all you people came back…" The voice hummed, pondering something. "Yeah, ummm… I was waiting for you to come back… G."
"…h-huh…?" Toxic glanced at him with a confused expression.
"G, what the heck is she—?" Flash started, then his expression moved to G.
G looked… annoyed, shocked, all at the same time.
"Heehee, did you REALLY think I was going to be silent about it? Geez, you hafta think harder than that!" the voice cheerfully chirped.
"G…what's she talking about?" Toxic asked firmly, narrowing her eyes at G. Her eyes were hurt and betrayed.
"What, did you think he WASN'T affiliated with despair, having some robot like THAT?"
"P-please… tell me she's lying… tell me it's a trick…" Toxic pleaded through a sob.
Flash's fists tensed, and he glared at G.
"G…"
"…" G was silent; his teeth were gritted, and he was looking away. "…I'm sorry…. I… I h-had to…"
"You had to what?!" Toxic spat, tears in her eyes. "H-hand us over to despair?! To… to… mutual killing?!"
"Awww, looky… she actually thought about this!"
"Shut it, Monaca," G growled, his expression shadowed. He turned around slowly, looking at her. His tone was stable again. "Toxic… you have to understand…"
"Understand?! Understand what?!" she yelled in response, her fist tensing.
"I'm not doing a whole lot of understanding either…" Flash muttered, eyeing him suspiciously.
"…I didn't intend to…" G started, then sighed, looking at the floor.
"If you didn't intend to bring us here, why did you?" Flash asked, folding his arms and looking at him in confusion.
"I…"
Toxic started, heartbroken and crying, "To think I worried…!"
"…worried he was going to die?" Monaca asked chirpily. "Oh, don't worry, Toxikku… there's plenty of time left for that!"
"W-what?" G looked up slowly.
"…" Toxic looked to the side with a bitter expression.
"When she came to visit you last night? What kept her up?" Monaca giggled. "It wasn't Darky… It was you."
"T-Toxic, what is—?"
"You should've heard her. She was calling out to you in her sleep, and she'd woken up, sobbing, begging… then she realized it was a dream. THAT'S why she came to you last night… She realized she could still stop it, that she could check on you… but, oh well. It doesn't matter now, right? If anything, it just makes the betrayal a whole lot worse! Heehee!"
G looked at Toxic for some explanation, but she didn't seem intent on giving one. Not now…
She clenched something in her hand; it was the revolver that G had given her…
G eyed her carefully. "Toxic…?"
Her hands were trembling; she was a nervous wreck; she was angry, upset…
"…huh. You have a gun… why don't you go ahead and use it, Toxikku? He's made you so angry… right? You just want to… kill him, right?"
…she glared at the ceiling.
"Y-you… shut up, meanie! Y-you don't know anything, y-you…" She gave G a betrayed expression, then turned heel and ran down the corridor, clutching the weapon and sobbing.
"…" G frowned after her. "…Toxic…"
She was looking for them too…?
"Geh, such a coward… so scared and all alone…"
"I said shut it, Monaca…" G glowered.
"You sure are cocky… don't forget our deal, G-kun~"
"Deal…?" Flash looked at G angrily.
"Oh, yeah! Your poor friend… she better not run into the OTHER guys… especially with a gun… that'd be despair-inducingly horrible, wouldn't it?"
"…?!" Flash looked up in shock. "Other guys?!"
"You'll get around to it… in the mean time…"
"Upupupupu…"
G turned around, then his eyes focused and widened on a chubby black and white bear, over three feet tall…
"…you don't mind… at all… G… if I use your little helper…?"
Flash took a step back.
"You have got to be kidding me…" he grumbled, glaring.
"Heehee. This is so exciting… You remember the rules, right? No hurting your headmaster! Any ouchies and you'll be horrifically executed! That includes you, G-kun~! No mercy, not from Monaca or the Monokuma!"
G took a step back, cautious.
The unit's red eye glowed.
"Y-yeah… and what about you…? You have rules, right?" Flash asked nervously.
"…huhhhh? Monaca? Rules?" She giggled. "I don't think you get it… Monaca ALWAYS gets what she wants. If Monaca wants, you two could crash and burn and crash and burn and crash and BURN BURN BURN! You wouldn't be able to do anything! So… d'ya' think Monaca needs rules… baka?"
Flash's eyes lit up in realization. "…wait… so…"
"This is MY game. And I propose a temporary challenge… TAG!"
The unit lifted a paw, and brandished a set of claws as it leered menacingly at the pair.
"You better run, ya' bastards!"