[2] Fighting Scorpions in the Sandtrap

[Friend or Foe]

Wizard
Juno
Sophia
Sage
Tempo


"Move!" Wizard shouted as he felt the sand start to shift under his feet. Whatever it was, was moving very fast and had killed a man right in front of him in less then 30 seconds. "Go! Go! Go!"

The five people ran through the sand, hunted by something underneath them. The desert was seeming to stretch further and further as they tried to get off of it. "It's no use!" Juno said behind him, "There's nowhere to go!"

"That way!" Tempo said aloud, the first thing he said since arrival. "I see a rock formation! I think it's a cave!"

Wizard immediately turned on his heels, guiding the group towards where Tempo was pointing. A cave didn't exactly sound appealing, but it was better then running from something they never escape.

Just as they changed course, whatever it was that ambushed Rod Hardwood lept out of the sand, sending the grains everywhere. It was actually quite small, shaped like a scorpion. It's tail was the largest part of it's body, actually even longer then it's whole frame put together. Another popped up near it, and another by that one.

"Not good," Sophia said.

"What now, oh great leader?" Juno asked Wizard sarcastically.

He had an answer, though. Oh, yea, he did. "Fight, or die," he told them. "Just how I like it."

[Tempo]

Tempo had been in the “game” for only a moment and had already witnessed a death. He didn’t know the man that met his brutal demise, but the shock still affected him the same. The same creature that killed him was now surrounding the rest of the group and if they didn’t act accordingly they would soon meet the same fate. Three sand scorpions shifted there way toward the startled group. The warriors had the number advantage, but this was the arachnid’s turf. Tempo took a few steps back and readied himself for a fight, though still visibly shaken.

He peered up at the cave in the distance and knew it was their only hope because there may be infinitely more insects hiding in wait. He then turned his attention to his other teammates who were readying themselves for battle just the same. Without warning, one of the creatures launched its stinger toward Tempo. The orange haired student was caught completely off guard and flailed himself backwards just to avoid the fatal attack. The other scorpions followed suit and jumped at different sections of the group making everyone split up. The arachnid slammed its tail down again sending Tempo and an explosion of sand flying through the air.

“We need to regroup! We have to fight them as a unit!” Someone barked from the crowd. Tempo didn’t really know anyone enough to know who laid out the command, but he believed it to be that Juno kid. Whoever it was, he was right.

Tempo regained his footing and quickly reached down into his pocket. Emptiness was all he felt. “Where is it? Oh know WHERE IS IT?!” His music player was gone probably from the second tail attack.

Trying to avoid an oversized scorpion trying to kill you is hard enough, but trying to find an MP3 while doing so is damn near impossible. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted the rectangular device sticking straight up in the ground, but it was in between the other groups battles. Tempo darted towards his most prized possession leaping and ducking the deadly stinger along the way.

“What are you doing kid? You’re getting get killed!” The scarred “leader” yelled from amidst his battle.

“We will have much more than scorpions to deal with if I DON’T GET IT BACK!” Tempo was frantic now. Taking his eyes completely off the task at hand, he was wailed in the side of the body by the large tail. If it was the stinger it would have been curtains for the young lad, but it was only the side.

The groups began to spread further apart each dealing with there own scorpion problem. The MP3 sat idly in the middle of the three battles. A red aura was beginning to glow around the distraught Tempo. He could feel the power beginning to take over. There wasn’t much time, he couldn’t control it. He looked back to find that his music device was gone. He could only think that the shifting sands of the desert swallowed it whole never to be seen again. The scorpion charged his tail for another attack this time with its stinger pointed outward. Tempo closed his eyes hoping maybe if he died, the other innocent people wouldn’t be hurt by him.

He was suddenly tackled from the side right before the stinger could tear through his body. He looked up and saw Juno. The saiyan boy pulled his MP3 played from his pocket and handed it to him.

“Ok. You good now?” He asked helping Tempo to his feet.

“Yeah....im ok.” Tempo said hesitantly not knowing what to say.

“We need to regroup.” The saiyan added.

“Right behind ya.”

And with that Tempo raced back into the battle field to the sweet melodies of “Rock you like a Hurricane”.

[Sage]

Their trek was a long, arduous one. The miserable, intolerable heat had slowed the pace of the group considerably since they had started. Juno and the old man could have likely kept on marching at their original pace, but the other four held them back. Oliver’s sense of strategy forced him to give up the advantage of fast movement for the safety in numbers, though he was ill-convinced that the stragglers he slowed down for could make that much of a difference.

They stopped, then, very sharply. Juno and Nash were talking about something, Sage wasn’t sure what, exactly. They were too quiet.

“Uh...” Sophia began, close enough to the blue haired girl for her to hear. “Okay,” her voice hinted at disbelief, but Sage still had no idea what was going on. And then, the ground before them heaved, and a bulge rolled beneath the sand, traveling across the path they had originally been taking.

“What is it?” inquired Rod, whose name had yet to be revealed to the diminutive quarter saiyan. Nash and he exchanged banter but it went over Sage’s head. She lost sight of whatever that... thing was, and she couldn’t figure out where it went.

“Very clever,” she heard, and turned to face Rod, just in time to watch as a razor-sharp pole tore out from beneath the sand, impaling the dark haired man. The appendage tore out through his abdomen, blood glistening on the end of the spike.

Sage’s strangled scream came out as little more than a whimper, while a man next to her stumbled onto the ground in shock. The girl couldn’t... she couldn’t move. She could only stare at that horrible scene.

Blood stained the nearly-white sand, and Rod convulsed uncontrollably, his feet dangling above the terrain. Suddenly, his body was sharply pulled to the ground, and he disappeared beneath the sand. And still, Sage could only stare, paralyzed with fear.

“Move!” Nash growled, the only one with enough sense to react in the situation. “Go! Go! Go!”

The group bolted as one, save Sage. Sophia paused, turning to the girl, but Juno had already doubled back. He sharply grasped the hybrid’s wrist and violently jerked her away from the site they’d been ambushed at.

At first, the girl stumbled, but soon she was running full-tilt, her eyes wide with panic. Her feet pounded down on the sand, kicking up puffs of it under each footfall. She did surprisingly well on this terrain; it felt like snow, and she had always been more at home in the cold.

“It’s no use!” Juno suddenly exclaimed. “There’s nowhere to go!”

Sage’s heart sank. Absolute fear drove her to keep running but all she could see in her mind was herself suspended from one of those vicious spikes.

“That way!” exclaimed the light haired boy. “I see a rock formation! I think it’s a cave!”

Nobody had to tell her twice. She ran as hard as she could, but she could feel the fire burning in her chest. Her breath was being cut short. Soon she wouldn’t be able to even walk. Wincing at the thought, she pushed herself. Every breath hurt like hell, but she had to keep going. Her desperation gave way to despair, though, as she saw the group begin to pull away from her.

However, in front of the group, their subterranean assailants burst up out of the ground, revealing themselves to be misshapen scorpions. Sage stumbled and fell onto all fours, coughing and hacking violently, unable to focus on anything around her.

She felt an arm wrap around her, and could just barely make out Sophia pulling her up to her feet. “Come on, we have to keep moving,” she insisted. Sage knew she was right, but it hurt so much.

She stumbled onward the whole time oblivious to the incredible danger Tempo put himself in for chasing after his MP3 player, and Juno for chasing after him. Had she known, she would have simply offered her own music player to him.

The two women joined with Nash just as Tempo and Juno did, and the three scorpions rapidly surrounded them as best they could. A stinger first lashed out at Oliver, who deftly hopped aside, his arms up in the air, surprised at how fast these abominations could strike.

Another stinger lunged into the crowd, this one aimed at Juno, who ducked under it, narrowly evading the pointed tip, which pierced the clothing on his shoulder, tearing the fabric with ease. To Sage, it looked like the scorpions were trying to dispose of the stronger warriors first.

That is, until Tempo tackled the hapless girl to the dusty ground. Sage saw the deadly appendage sail over her head, while the fiery haired youth rolled off of her and onto his feet.

Okay, they don’t care who they attack, she reasoned, clutching at her chest as another wave of pain stabbed at her lungs. Her breath was coming in horribly short, now. She would need to find cover soon, to treat herself, or she would die, regardless of the scorpions who sought to kill her and the others.

Explosions rang out as ki waves were loosed upon their adversaries, and sand was hurled into the air from beneath the shockwaves. Sage climbed to her feet, dismayed to see that the scorpions seemed unharmed by the assault.

Desperately, she leveled a hand against one of the scorpions, this one occupied with Juno. She did her best to focus, trying to drag her cryokinetic energy up from whatever depths it resided in. You know how to do this! she internally shrieked, but nothing came. The effort was for nothing.

“What the hell are you doing!?” someone roared at her, breaking her concentration. But not before she gazed down at her hand. It was wet. She didn't have time to ponder at this, however, as one of those damnable tails swooped in at her, nearly taking off her head.

[Juno]

The picture was immediately painted cherry as a stinger knifed Rod Hardwood directly through his abdomen. Juno recoiled, stepping back in utter shock, but quickly pulled himself together and took off running behind Nash’s calls to action. Suddenly, he looked back to see the group’s damsel-in-distress frozen in place. “Sage,” he mumbled.

He spun on his heel, and raced towards the blue-haired statue. Sophia started, but Juno beat her—he took her by the wrist and then ripped her from her spot in the sand, racing towards the rest of the group in a frantic attempt to escape utter demise. “It’s no use! There’s nowhere to go!” he called.

Suddenly, the voice of Tempo, a young, lanky boy with ferocious red hair, piped up. “That way!” the boy yelled, shooting a long finger towards a blur in the distance. “I see a rock formation! I think it’s a cave!” Juno’s eyes focused on the dark-brown image. He began to consider the idea that Tempo was actually right—there might be shelter ahead. He wasn’t exactly a fan of backing into a corner willingly, but what other choice was there?

And with a crash, their course changed once more: the scorpion, though not giant, was about as tall as he, and once it burst through the sand, the quintet would agree it was the most intimidating sight they’d ever seen in their lives.

“Not good,” Sophia said from the back of the pack, now clutching Sage, who had fallen slightly behind after Juno let go. The scorpion blinked what they assumed was its eyes as it surveyed the group, looking for its first victim. Juno’s tail twitched. He could feel it coming, but he didn’t say anything. Not quite yet, that is.

He did have time to smart off, though. “What now, oh great leader?” Juno asked, whipped his head towards Nash.

The sarcasm entertained the silver-haired ex-cop. He chuckled under his breath, and then turned to look the halfling in the eye. “Fight, or die,” he said simply, “Just how I like it.”

“Oh, by the way,” Juno remarked, “I would step slightly to the left if I were you.” Wizard looked up in confusion, but didn’t argue, as the two warriors simultaneously flipped through the air in opposite directions, just barely evading two stingers that lunged through the air, threatening to end their lives just as quickly as they’d ended Rod’s.

Juno scoffed, but now they had three enemies to deal with, and the fight was already in full swing—Sage and Sophia had taken off running again, and that left Nash, Tempo, and Juno to fight the monsters. Not that Juno minded having the limelight, of course. Especially when it gave him the opportunity to impress two very beautiful women.

Unfortunately, his solo battle would be limited as he noticed Tempo scrambling around, searching for his dear MP3 player. Juno had noticed that it had been plastered to his ears throughout most of the show.

He leapt out from his scorpion’s target path and dove straight into Tempo’s. Rolling through the sand, he picked up the shiny machine with utmost speed and dragged Tempo out of harm’s way.

When Tempo looked up, Juno held out the music player. The thin boy stood, looking at Juno with the utmost gratitude. Juno hoped that this wouldn’t turn into a sobfest. Tempo looked at his music player with pride. “Okay. You good now?” Juno asked.

“Yeah,” Tempo sighed, “I’m okay.” Juno smirked, then pulled a hand back and slapped Tempo across the face. Hard.

“Good. That was for putting us all in danger. Now, I don’t think you’re stupid, but keep yourself under control,” he scolded, and then added, “We need to regroup.” Tempo nodded and replied in kind, and then the pair turned and ran after Sage and Sophia, who were edging closer to the cave with every step.

Suddenly, one of the scorpions burst from the sand in front of the women, and arched its stinger as far back as it could go, preparing to kill. Sage reached up with her hand, but it just stood there, doing nothing. Tengo screamed at her, wondering what in God’s name she could be doing.

Juno, however, knew that now was the time to act. His eyes glazed over and he stopped moving, frozen in place, despite Tempo’s urgings to keep running.

But with Juno, the scorpion froze, as well. Juno brought his index finger down and pressed it into his chest. And like a puppet, the scorpion stabbed itself, violet blood squirting out in a storm over the sand. It sunk to the ground, dead, and the two women huddled close together as Juno came to his senses and ran to them.

“You’re welcome,” he smiled.

“T-thank you, Juno,” Sage mumbled quietly. Juno glanced over at her, and smiled; he was quite surprised she’d taken time to speak to him. It satisfied him… for now. But the fight was not over, and then Juno grabbed both the women by the hand and leapt over the crumpled form of the scorpion.

Life sure was getting harder by the second, but it also seemed to be getting more hopeful as the cavern they raced for looked clearer and clearer.

[Kappa]

‘Odd,’ Oliver had thought to himself as Rod Hardwood was taken away from the travelling party. That ruled out the possibility of their deceased bodies were immortal. What happened when the fallen fell again? Perhaps dying out here was cyclic; a never-ending game that would be relived, over and over and over; until it was conquered. It didn’t seem like too much of a stretch, considering the nature of this “Friend or Foe”. If it was an exemplar of the devil’s intentions, these monsters were but the beginning of their troubles. ‘And even if we make it out...’ But Oliver cut off his internal dialogue, unwilling to succumb to hopelessness. Even if he had to smash through the gates with his bare fists, he would escape this place.

Despite his critical thinking, Oliver gave most—if not all—of his attention to the task at hand, which started with keeping the group alive. "Run," Wizard whispered, "Turn and start moving, NOW!" The others unanimously agreed, even if the decision was unspoken. Together, they darted away from the mutated beasts. There was a rock formation up ahead and it was their chance to get some cover, so he continued to bark orders to keep the group on the move. “Fight or die, just how I like it.” It was now survival of the fittest. But one could only expect so much from this Brady Bunch. Tempo was the first to slip, leaping into the death pits for a god damned toy. It could have been the end of him—hell, it should have been—but Juno had been his saving grace. Narrowly, they had avoided a quick death, but the sandtrap would not spare them again. Oliver made a mental note to ream out the musically-inclined Neanderthal, but now was not the time or place.

Sand splashed about each step and they found themselves at a disadvantage. “How can we beat them in their element?” cried Sophia, as if anyone had the right answer. It just so happened that the Wizard did. “Easy,” he grunted, speaking between evasive maneuvers, “We make it our own!” After this was said, the pointed barb of a scorpion’s tail came soaring over the young Sage. Thankfully, she ducked, sparing herself decapitation. All the while, Oliver moved in behind her.

Not quite finished, the arachnid propelled itself at the cryokinetic hybrid and this time Juno pulled out of the way completely. For a second, the hard-shelled critter had caught some airtime right before, “Eat this, demon!” and a—Crack!—uppercut, that struck below the prosoma. A stream of blood from the shattered skull arced toward the girl, painting her attire a deep purple. She gazed at the beast, horrified, as it was launched onto its back by the elderly man. It twitched before shriveling into a ball. Oliver stepped back, cracking a grin.

Unfortunately, the prisoner didn’t have time to boast his one-punch victory, and the next threat jumped into his peripherals. “Son of a b—!” Oliver’s explicit-deleted was cut short when his new demon, three times larger than the last, literally gored him. His back arced as the distorted carnivore speared him across the sands, taking him at least thirty feet away from the main skirmish. Immediately, Oliver noticed that this one was different. It had mutated above and beyond the norms of the species, sporting four vices instead of two. ‘Just my luck,’ he thought.

The claw quartet closed in around him to hold him still, while the segmented tail whipped forward. Oliver may have been old but he wasn’t about to have his head popped like a water balloon. With milliseconds to spare, both his neck and torso shifted, and the poisonous dagger missed its mark. Taking hold of opportunity, the Wizard slammed his head down onto the scorpion’s own, despite the exoskeleton’s superior defenses. Despite splitting his own forehead Oliver had without a doubt dazzled the beast and its grip loosened.

Slipping from its grasp, he planted a sharp knee in its belly. The demon crashed into the sand at a distance but quickly regained its composure. Leering at the Wizard hungrily, it snapped its claws.

“They get creepy crawlers and I get the Scorpion King. Gotta love this place…”

The relic of a man spat at the sight of the dire arachnid. Oliver had grown to despise such creatures and he had his college roommate to thank for that. Ian Fisher had an affinity for smaller life forms and these vermin were no exception. One might identify him as a collector and his co-existence with Oliver ended the day he brought his hordes into their flat. But from his time with Fisher, the Wizard had gathered that the scorpion was a vile creature; and in some families, a cannibal.

“If only they would eat each-other,” he wheezed, staring down the unholy predator. “Bring it on, bug-eyes.”

[Kappa]

With the grace of a lightning bolt the Scorpion King crossed the gap between them—in mere seconds. Oliver met the four-armed menace in the middle with his two arms thrown out much like he was kung fu fighting. They were supported by aging bones, but strong bones nevertheless. With his toe pointing up he once again targeted the beast’s weak point as he sent ninety degrees of KICK right for the scorpion’s underside. This time though the surprisingly intelligent arachnid knew what to expect. The Wizard’s foot might have hit its mark but he wasn’t left untouched. With cat-like reflexes, the creature jabbed at the fighter, slashing into his left shoulder. The open wound bled profusely as the two combatants: man and beast; were again divided.

And like before, their departure was short-lived. It seemed the pair just couldn’t get enough of each other.

A charge brought them together the second time. One on two legs, the other on eight, and it wasn’t too surprising which one of them was faster. The multi-limbed monster took advantage of its superior momentum and leapt at the ex-con, hoping to silence Oliver Nash once and for all. But alas, the demon should not have underestimated someone who had been MVP of college softball for three consecutive years. Abruptly, his body shifted into an angle that would be familiar to any fans of the sport: a baseball slide.

The old and beaten player found himself gliding beneath the vermin king. ‘The timing has to be perfect,’ the human told himself. And it was. Right when he was beneath the metasoma, Wizard threw both arms up where they wrapped around the base segment. With the might of an Ox and a feral grin, he twisted. Snap! The tail broke off from its host. A fine payback for what it did to his arm. The insect squirmed as a fountain of violet liquid emerged from where a limb had once been.

Like a barbarian after catching fresh game, the white-haired man let out a guttural battle cry. Taking advantage of the Scorpion King’s state of shock, he tossed the appendage and pounced into the air. With his feet pressed together, he came crashing down on the beast—right through the cephalothorax. That’s when the demon stopped squirming. It was over.

He picked up the loose stinger and stored it in his wasteband.

***

Oliver found himself at a crossroads of sorts. The attention had fallen away from the old warrior as young souls fought for their lives. If he sprinted, he could make it to the cave. Leave them to die in the sandtrap … but something was stopping him.

[Jesper]

Somewhere along the line, Sophia lost it.

She didn’t lose it in the typical sense of the phrase. Although she hadn’t gone the foaming-at-the-mouth, eat-your-children kind of crazy, she could feel parts of herself slipping away as she found herself on the wrong end of a life-threatening chase. She couldn’t allow herself to show any outward signs of insanity, due large in part to Sage. The priestess gave into the temptation to look behind her shoulder to spot the azure-haired girl as they ran, and when she started to fall behind, she stopped to put an arm around her. It was the least she could do; the very least.

Her driving factor was fear; fear in several facets. The priestess obviously was afraid for her own life—wasn’t that the point of this game? Hundreds of thousands of people, if not more, were watching purely for the fact to see the panic-stricken faces of the contestants, but that wasn’t everything. She was naturally afraid for Sage’s well-being; as a priestess, she learned to spot out the people who need help the most. And between her frightful demeanor and wheezy gasps for air, she wasn’t hard to notice.

“Come on, we have to keep moving,” she tried her best to reassure her, but it seemed as though she was having a difficult time. Odd—Sophia herself was starting to feel a little bit closed-in and panicked just by touching her.

Sage nodded, and managed to stumble onward without the assistance of the priestess. Still, Sophia thought it best to trail the frightened girl while keeping up a fast pace of her own. The earth below shook with every step they took, and sand exploded into the air as the crawlers surfaced, jabbing at them menacingly with their vices. Sophia never did well with bugs or anything of that sort, so when three scorpions cropped up and surrounded her and Sage as soon as they reached the young tailed man, she let out a small yelp. Luckily, nobody seemed to notice.

They struck out, but surprisingly not at the priestess or the hybrid girl. Sophia allowed just a moment of hope that the scorpions had some sort of problem attacking women—as unrealistic a hope as that was—before one of them swiped at her. Although she had recently undergone some battle training (a rather informal type, when she thought about it), a spar against a not-so-bright monk like Jonathon and a real-life fight against a scorpion whose kin just speared one of her allies through the chest are two completely different things. Sadly bearing that in mind, she stumbled backwards onto the sand instead of drawing something—anything—from her training.

She was under the opinion that her luck could only take her so far, but in the now, her luck allowed a scorpion’s tail to sail harmlessly above her head as she dizzily sat on the ground, all in a blink of an eye. When she opened her eyes, they were met with the scorpion’s own. Those menacingly, beady, gross-looking eyes just started death into her face. Slime and saliva dripped off of its face—or what she thought was its face—as it gurgled at her. Time seemed to slow as the hairs on the back of her neck stood straight and a quiet scream formed from her throat.

She soon came to a realization that her immediate reaction when faced with potential death was to punch it in the face. It was an odd reaction for a priestess, but it first surfaced when she found the bandit locked inside a linen closet at the temple, and again during her first spar. Violet blood spewed from this ensuing punch, and although the blow didn’t kill it by any means, it dazed it long enough for Sophia to scramble to her feet and put up a reasonable defense. That defense was, obviously, a well-placed ki orb right in between the eyes. Surprisingly to everyone in the group—most notably Sophia herself—she had just killed one of those ungracious bastards.

Shaking her head furiously, she looked around for Sage. For some reason, despite all the men practically tripping over themselves to impress her, the priestess feared that something may have happened to the poor woman. Sophia spotted her soon after and ran to her instinctively. The timid girl and the priestess exchanged glances and made a mad dash towards the cave. You’d think that Sophia would have at least a little bit of confidence after slaying one of her tailed adversaries, but the slightest glimpse at her potential salvation was enough to have her running away like…well, a girl.

However, just like any good example of irony, a gigantic scorpion erupted from the sand just as the cave actually seemed within reach. To Sophia’s great surprise, Sage was the first to react. She held out a trembling hand and placed it against the scorpion, as if to summon or conjure something up. Nothing immediately came, however, and the sudden voice of Tempo sounded behind them. “What the hell are you doing!?”

You risked our lives for an iPod, Sophia thought. No talking.

She wanted to say it out loud, but the priestess thought it best to not antagonize herself, not when death was on the line. Regardless, the kid’s comment noticeably altered Sage’s thought process and she withdrew. Luckily for both of them, however, Juno intervened, though Sophia wasn’t paying enough attention to know how.

“We have to keep mov—ahh!” Sophia began to speak, but was halted when Juno grabbed her and Sage by the hand and kept them moving towards the cave. She was a bit slower than the tailed boy, but she hated being treated like a helpless damsel in distress. It didn’t matter if she was helpless, or happened to be a damsel that happened to be in distress—she liked doing things based off of her own merit. She wrestled her arm away from his grasp and ran alongside the pair. Juno glanced backwards with an arched eyebrow, but he kept running. He was apparently more interested in Sage, which was fine by her.

She stopped to turn around, somewhat against her own instincts. Wizard was just finished ripping off the tail of a rather large scorpion, and she couldn’t spot Tempo—maybe he had gone ahead. She had just turned around to enter the cave herself when she heard the old man speaking behind her. He was screaming his defiance into the thick desert air, talking of things like redemption and atonement, as if he had already died. It was a curious thing to the priestess; he most definitely was crazy, but acting like he was dead made him less afraid in the face of danger. It was a strange philosophy indeed, one that she could only ponder on for so long before she made a break for the cave once more.

[Sage]

Pulled along by her wrist across the desert, Sage fought a losing battle to keep pace with the much more athletic Juno, who incessantly forced her onward, despite her own body’s now-constant protest. Her sight was fading as her breaths were cut shorter and shorter. Her muscles faltered, too. She could hardly feel her extremities; the only reason she knew Juno was still pulling her was because of the force in her shoulder. She couldn’t actually feel his hand around her wrist.

The earth shook beneath them, causing the dark haired halfling to stumble, losing his grip on the smaller hybrid, who crashed hard onto her shoulder as two scorpions burst from the sand right before Juno, shrieking in a horrific, warbling tone.

A pair of tails lashed out at the young fortuneteller, who easily sidestepped the hasty attacks, retorting with a blast of ki, which did very little except upset the creature whose forehead was now badly scorched. It hissed in rage, and charged Juno, lunging with its claws.

Sage shuddered violently, and barely managed to roll over onto her back. She could no longer breathe, and was involuntarily heaving for air that simply would not arrive at her lungs. Fumbling desperately with her pockets, she missed a few times before finally her hand disappeared in the fabric.

Retrieving her inhaler, she tried to put it in her mouth, but dropped it. Her hands trembled violently now, and her vision was going dark. No longer able to fight, she began to convulse. The world around her slowed to a crawl, and she suddenly felt... strange.

It was unlikely she would ever know she was feeling cold.

Then, she was propped up by someone. She felt the taste of plastic in her mouth, and weakly tried to turn her head away from it, fighting against this unseen force.

“Sage!” came a voice. “Breathe!”

The girl did as she was told, and felt the familiar, cool burst of vapor wash down her throat. Pulling back, she drew in a huge, gasping breath, and began to violently cough. Tears from the horrible pain in her chest flowed, and her sight refocused enough for her to see Sophia bent over her.

Unable to speak, the azure haired girl motioned for her inhaler once again, taking it from the priestess. Biting down on it, she depressed the trigger again, and took in a second large breath. Finally, the strain on her breathing loosened, and she could respire more easily.

The girl just stared straight out for a moment, forgetting they were surrounded by gigantic, mutant scorpions trying to kill all of them. Sophia got up sharply, in the corner of Sage’s eye, and darted off. She could hear the sounds of fighting, and her focus returned just in time to see Juno hurled into the sand.

The priestess was close, too, fighting her own battle. All the while, Sage was just lying there in the sand. She frowned. None of this would be happening if not for her. They’d have made it by now. Why? she wondered. Why are they risking their lives... why for me?

A man was dead and more were risking their lives to keep her alive. Even now, fighting was happening all around her. The girl climbed to her feet and returned her inhaler to her pocket, and immediately whirled around in a panic.

Four scorpions were surrounding them now, with Juno and Sophia combating two, each. And there was Sage, in the middle of the other’s defensive lines, doing absolutely nothing.

The priestess suddenly found herself surrounded by the two scorpions, unable to outmaneuver them. One readied its menacing stinger, and propelled it at the svelte warrior, who narrowly evaded the deadly weapon. The scorpion behind her, though, had no such luck. The deadly appendage of the first creature tunneled deep into the face of the second, killing it instantly.

Unfortunately, the first was not content with the outcome, and pounced on Sophia, pinning her to the ground. Sage gasped, helplessly, and turned to Juno, who was still fighting both of his enemies. He wouldn’t be able to help the light haired girl.

The abomination seemed to be almost taunting Sophia, whose arms were immobile beneath the crushing weight of the armored insect. It held its stinger just over her head, wiggling it as she twisted away from it. Sage continued to watch, transfixed in horror.

“I won’t be able to look after you forever. Bad things are always going to happen, and someday you’ll have to deal with them yourself. If you don't take action, you'll lose everything.”

Her sister had said that. Sure enough, bad things were happening, and she wasn’t anywhere to be found. Here was Sage, watching a perfect stranger. She had no reason to risk her life over Sophia. But then, the priestess had saved her a few times without knowing who she was.

With what passed for resolve for Sage, she pulled a capsule out of her back pocket and clicked it. With a burst of smoke, her white medkit appeared in the palm of her hand. The girl set it down on the sand, and from it she took a small bottle of isopropyl alcohol, and unscrewed the cap, tossing it onto the desert floor.

She kept her nervous eyes fixed on the hulking monstrosity as she took hesitant steps toward it, fitfully trembling as she approached. Her breath caught in her throat, but this time it wasn't asthma. Suddenly, the monster raised its stinger up, high in the air, preparing to drive it down onto Sophia, prompting Sage to break into a run.

Her sudden movement attracted the attention of the beast, who kept its weapon at the ready, in preparation for this new threat. The blue haired girl meekly approached, though her intense trepidation screamed at her to turn back. To run. Flee. Get away from the gigantic monster-scorpion!

Still, she pressed on, though her heart beat wildly and she worried she would collapse from fear. Edging ever closer, the girl was now well within the reach of the scorpion's deadly tail, and yet it hesitated, seemingly curious about the hybrid.

Curiosity gave way to a hunter's instinct, however, and it quickly drew its tail back, poised to strike, this time at her. With a surprised yelp, she aimed the opening of the alcohol bottle at the creature and squeezed the plastic bottle with all her might.

The clear liquid leapt from the bottle, and splattered all over the monstrosity's face. It howled an unearthly howl and immediately recoiled, and began wildly thrashing about, releasing Sophia from its grasp. The priestess clambered to her feet and rushed to Sage, who had, once again, collapsed to her knees.

The scorpion threw its stinger up into the air, and sent it crashing down on its own head, causing it to shriek even more horribly. The stinger went up, and came down again on the creature's own head.

“What was that stuff!?” Sophia asked, a tinge of horror in her voice.

“Al-Alcohol...” the fearful girl hardly mustered a whisper in reply. “I... read once... that, um, sc-scorpions... go mad and, um... sting themselves...”

The creature brought its tail down upon itself again, this time bursting through its own carapace and killing itself. Sophia shifted her gaze to Juno, who had successfully brought down one of the two creatures assailing him.

“Well, we'd better get to that cave,” the priestess decided, extending her arm to Sage. “We have to go before we get ambushed again. Come on!”

[Juno]

The seer readied once more for battle, looking down upon the monster he had slain. He glanced at the girls—they seemed to have somehow defeated their adversary, as it was writhing in pain in the sand. Juno looked back to his own assailant.

It crowed some hideous battle-cry as it held its stinger above its head, then lunged forth. “Stop,” Juno commanded, and it froze in mid-attack. The psychic smiled, invading the mind of his enemy.

Suddenly, however, he felt a jerk, and was tossed to the sand, left to thrash about in the tiny rocks. He was pulled into a spread-eagle formation, trapped on an invisible crucifix in the desert as the scorpion ominously approached, gazing down at its prey. Confused, he squirmed, attempting to escape this—but nothing worked.

He felt himself being sucked into the mind of the creature, and then, there he was: standing in an obsidian chamber, facing off against a scorpion the size of him. The creature lunged, and Juno maneuvered away from its stinger; then, he raised his hands and shot a beam of violet ki at the monster, which ripped through its’ thorax.

Once again, he was back out in the world again, but with a new knowledge in mind: these scorpions could fight telepathically just like he could. Knowing this, he did what every good fighter would’ve done.

He turned and ran.

He could hear the crashing sound of the scorpion on his tail as it burrowed into the sand, following him from underneath, attempting to undermine his escape. But Juno just ran faster. He barely escaped it as it emerged just behind him, and then shot forward, his feet moving faster than they had ever moved before.

Without warning, his feet touched down on something slicker than sand, and he looked up to find that he was finally reaching the cavern. He raced into it, leaping off a small cliff into the depths. He could hear the scorpion slithering in behind him, but he turned a corner, and was gone.

“Juno!” Sophia whispered from a small alcove. The fortuneteller slipped in with the two women, who had arrived just before, and attempted to squeeze into the tight space. He could feel Sage recoil slightly as he brushed her, but he quickly apologized. It wasn’t his fault.

But those thoughts were averted by an unexpected crash as the monster squeezed into the cavern they had hidden in. The trio looked at one another, and Juno felt like he had to out and protect the ladies, so he shuffled, attempting to be bold and stand up to the monster—but upon doing so, he noticed it was too late; Sage was already walking into the creature’s view, the hand with the alcohol shaking ferociously.

The scorpion eyed her voraciously, and she looked up at it with an utter fear—and a feeling of regret. It raised its stinger, and Sage cowered; Juno knew that she couldn’t go through with it, no matter how much she wished to. So he took initiative, and leaped out into the scorpion’s path. He felt the stinger slice into his ribs, and screeched in pain as everything seemed to move in slow motion.

“Oh, no!” Sophia screamed, leaping out and dragging Juno out of the way of another attack. Paralyzed, Sage looked at the injured Juno, who had just practically given his life for her. A stranger. She felt Sophia jerk the bottle out of her hand and watched as she sprayed it in the face of the scorpion. It sunk to the floor, dead.

The women corralled Juno (just what he wanted) and Sophia felt his pulse. He opened his eyes weakly; he could feel the scorpion’s poison escaping into his veins. But it was worth it. If he died impressing these women, why, nothing would beat it.

However, it seemed that whatever power was above had other plans for him, as he suddenly felt a sharp pain in the ribs. He looked down, and just near the wound, Sage had stabbed a syringe into him. He blinked hard, feeling some other sensation besides poison rush through him. And then suddenly, he coughed fiercely, leaping up and then collapsing to his knees, panting. Sage leaned over him.

“Are you alright?” she asked. Juno noticed that she seemed much calmer than before—but she still had an air of caution.

“Yes,” he panted. “What was that?” he asked, but she had already seemed to reserve herself. She sat beside him, looking at his wound briefly; she saw it get less and less red, and felt satisfied, silently standing and then collapsing into a wall. Sophia caught her, holding her up. Now she was the one panting.

Juno stood up and brushed himself off. He looked down at the gradually closing wound; it barely hurt anymore. Whatever that stuff was, it was a miracle. This girl had some skills.

He looked towards whence they had come; he heard the crash of scorpions facing off against their two partners outside, and stepped towards the entrance.

“Thanks, Sage,” he said, turning to her. “But we aren’t done yet.”

[Jesper]

The men of the group had done many things to help the two women survive. Juno practically threw himself in the face of danger in obvious attempts to impress them, and had saved Sophia’s life on several occasions already, and saved Sage even more times. Wizard and Tempo helped in less obvious ways—they held off as many of those abominations as they could to help secure an escape route for the rest of them. Sophia marveled as they fought—Wizard seemed a more polished fighter than the priestess had seen so far, and Tempo casually fought as his head bobbed to the music playing through those gigantic headphones of his.

Regardless, they all seemed to be retreating to the cave now.

It felt as though they had been running towards the cave for forever. While forever certainly is a longer time than could be fit into such a short time frame, the constant running, stopping, fighting, and hiding made it seem as though seconds were minutes--when the cave was only a few more steps within reach, the priestess could hardly believe it. Of course, within that very same time frame, the thought of the cave became so synonymous with salvation that she barely knew what she would do once she got there. Other than the very vague notion that she would hide from the swarms of scorpions, she had nothing.

The first few steps inside the cave were elating. Inspired hope filled every crevice of her being as she looked around to see something than sand and a distant horizon. Such feelings of bliss were cut short by a sudden wheeze by Sage, who was still latched onto her arm. The priestess sighed; the poor girl was having such a hard time, but Sophia was impressed by the hybrid’s resilience and, at times, resourcefulness. Somehow, she had a feeling that they would both come out of this situation alive.

Sophia looked around more carefully. The cave, though still a decent size, looked significantly larger from the outside. She supposed that maybe that was a good thing—a larger place meant for more places to hide, but a smaller place made it easier. While looking for a narrow passage or crevice in which she could hide, for some reason, she allowed herself a look behind. Her eyes were met with the image of her comrades, and past them, four rather large scorpions. They had destroyed many scorpions, and in some cases, larger scorpions, but they knew they couldn’t hold out forever. At that moment, all of her emotions that had been scattered about now rang in her mind with one collective thought: RUN!

Barely even realizing that she was still holding onto Sage, Sophia obliged. She ran along the entrance tunnel and into a larger room inside. To her left, there was a small opening that they could crawl into, and just based on her quick glance, it seemed to lead to a smaller compartment. It was rather odd the way the cave was laid-out—maybe it was a man-made cave. Regardless, Sophia had learned through a lifetime of working with and around clergymen not to question such miracles. After helping Sage up and into the narrow passage, she followed her into the compartment.

“There, we’ll be safe here for a little bit,” Sophia let out a small sigh, patting the young woman on the back softly as she breathed into her inhaler. Although the room was as dimly lit as caved were prone to be, she could still see enough of Sage to note the panic in her eyes. The priestess tried speaking in order to calm her down. “It’s okay to be scared, you know.”

“Um…uhh…” she fished for words, her breathing more calm now that she had a moment to sit. “Th-thank…you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she smiled warmly. “I promise that we’ll get out of this situation alive. I’ll do everything within my ability to make it so.”

“…wh-why?”

“Why? I don’t know. We girls have to stick together,” she laughed, but felt compelled to go on after noticing Sage’s dissatisfied look. “I guess it’s because I want to help. I’ve seen the worst that mankind has to offer during my tenure as a priestess. I’ve seen murderers, thieves, liars, and rapists come through my temple, and none of them would give you the light of day if they didn’t want something. Humanity shouldn’t be like that.”

She broke off her speech momentarily as a small scorpion crawled inside. Gasping slightly, the priestess formed as small a ki orb as possible without losing the energy needed to fry the little bugger. The small creature went up in smoke, and Sophia flicked it away before she continued. “I can’t allow myself to be like that. What would it say about me if I did? I would be on the same level as their hypocrisy. So…I guess it doesn’t matter if you don’t trust me—I guess I’ll do everything in my power to earn that, as well. I’m still going to try to help you, because not everyone is living purely for themselves.”

Sage still looked dubious, which was more or less along the lines of what Sophia had expected. Whatever Sage had been through in the past, it must have been something awful—no amount of words could correct the mindset that she had tempered her mind with for so long a time. The priestess was still glad that she got it out there—maybe it would serve to at least ease her mind a little bit.

Their little moment of silence was broken by Sage’s stifled scream. Tiny scorpions similar to the one the priestess had just killed crawled through the cracks behind them, forcing them to retreat through the tunnel that led them there. Turning around, Sophia formed another ki ball—this one significantly larger than the last—and threw it into the hole, collapsing it.

“Oh, there you guys are,” Juno’s voice sounded from behind them. The pair of women turned around to see a large pair of headphones, with Tempo under them; Juno and Wizard stood beside.

“Glad to see that you’re still safe…more or less.” Tempo scratched his head.

“There's another wave coming, so if either of you have an enraged killing spree in you, now would be a good time to use it,” Wizard joked grimly. “No? Didn’t think so. Let’s go, then.”

[Kappa]

Blood was gushing from his shoulder, sand was blowing into his eyes, the guts of these creatures smelled like shit—so then, what was it about the maelstrom in the sandtrap that exhilarated him? It was possible that Oliver was tapping into a part of himself that never had the chance to really expose itself, a feral instinct to execute justice. Sure, he had put crooks away as a detective but that game was of the brain, not quite the fist-throwing, pistol-shooting frenzy that movies and novels had made it out to be. But this…

Oliver cracked open sand-crusted lips as his jaw unhinged to let out another guttural roar. This lion’s call was complimented by a double axe-handle that was sent to the side of a scorpion. Its shell burst open and fragments of exoskeleton floated out on a river of blood. He punched, ripped, and kicked his way through the foul demons of Hell, dealing his own flavor of justice as if the Kais had christened his fists. And yet, they kept coming. What had first emerged as triplets, now developed into literal hordes.

The Wizard dodged, dipped, and dived around the soaring spearheads of the scorpions; even one hit from a stinger and he would be done for. While narrowly preserving his life, he was taken away by his memory; away from Friend or Foe, away from his personal abyss, back to the past.

32 Years Ago

Tap, tap, tap.

A young version of Wizard with a full head of hair—it was blonde—smudged his face against the color-tinted glass of the makeshift habitat and his grin spelled out malicious intent. He stared through the transparent barrier into the beady eyes of a pair of creatures vastly smaller than him. They were scorpions and he was trying to get their attention when a figure phased into visibility behind him.

“Stop that!” Fisher begged, his voice floating along a variety of tones like a teenager breaking through puberty. “Oli, how many times do I have to tell you? That drives them nuts! Arachnids often use v—,”

“Vibrational communication, blah, blah, blah…” retorted a twenty-something Oliver Nash, “And how many times do I have to tell you that I’m going to kick yer ass if I see any more of your ‘friends’ around my flat?”

Back to the Present

Ding! An idea. It was crazy, but so far crazy had served him well here. With that settled, he put his plan into motion. Quickly, with a moment to breathe between attacks, he looked for a fallen arachnid. 'There.' Up ahead, twenty-five paces. He leapt toward the deceased creature and kicked it once for good measure. Sure that the demon had passed on to ... wherever demons ended up when they died, he plunged a fist deep inside the beast and from it he tore off a large strip of exoskeleton.

It might have been vomit-invoking to an outsider, but to him it was brilliant. He grunted in disgust as he ripped all the excess from the diamond-shaped piece of insect marrow. The Wizard did this dexterously until it was hallow. Afterwards he tore a limb from the corpse. It all came together when Oliver Nash, the crazed ex-con, started strumming the skeletal shard with the scorpion's barb. Over and over again, he did this, in a persistent rhythm and something was happening. Something ... strange.

"Hey, kid! Listen to me you son of a bitch." he bellowed at the top of his lungs. But it was to no avail, a fact made clear by Tempo's ritualistic dance of ignorance. Oliver's face when red with frustration. It was imperative that the child listen. "You, boy!"

Looking a bit caught off guard, the music-driven fighter spun around to face Oliver. Click. He paused, if only for a moment, and the shock of what he saw next left him paralyzed. The scorpions had left him alone and moved their attention to the old man. A dozen or so armored instectoids converged on the grey-haired warrior, but Oliver's gaze was still locked with Tempo's own. That was when the sound-sensitive boy caught something. A strange rhythm in the atmosphere. Vibrations.

Oliver admitted that his experiences with Ian Fisher weren't the most memorable in his life, but he vowed to offer the bloke a pint when he one day returned to the world of the living.

"God damnit kid, go! Go to the cave!"

Tempo's eyes had widened into white globes and a proper response abandoned him, but he did as he was told. Another click reactivated the soundtrack to his escape and he dashed toward the rock formation.

Meanwhile, Oliver was left with nothing less than insurmountable odds. Perhaps it was the end for him and the curtains were set to close right there, right then. The Wizard wondered what had happened to him along the way. Where he had slipped so far as to defend that group of nobodies. Why were they worth fighting for? He shook his head. It wasn't important anymore. "Heh," chucked the Wizard, "I bet you saw this coming, you son of a bitch." You, of course was a reference to the unholy one, master of evil, and ruler of this world: Satan. He had played right into the Demon King's hands. "But if you think I'd go without a fight, then you..." started Oliver, spitting into the face of death.

"...must...be..." Words escaped with heaving breaths. He tossed aside his improvised tools. While his open wound pressed him to leave the arm be, he thrust it out alongside the other, in a battle-ready stance. The wave of demons launched themselves at him. Some attacked from the surface and others made air-born assaults. Regardless of where they came from, their black shells blotted out the sun and they all were projecting the same message: 'You, Mr. Nash, are fucked.'

It was inside that instance, that a God came to him. It was the man in white, He who had brought him here. An ominous smirk was the only thing detail that escaped his shrouded face. With a snap of the wrist, he rolled a pair of dice.

The first die fell, 5. And the second, 2.

A bellowing voice invaded the doomed soldier of justice. "Ah. You are quite lucky, Oliver Nash. You will be given a second chance to beat this game. Do not fail me." After that, he was gone.

Suddenly, beams of light emerged from the eyes of the broken man. Energy flowed into him like a river. There was too much and he felt like he was about to overflow. If his body was a dam, it was about to break. His jaw unhinged and he howled at the beasts before him, while his body twisting in anguish. All at once, this newborn spirit ripped out of his mark—no, his Godmark—and assaulted the enclosing hordes. With explosive force, the demons were thrown back by spontaneous rays of white light, showering them like the scattered fragments of a shotgun shell, post-fire.

The light retracted back into his eyes, leaving only a subtle radiance, and the Wizard walked out of the onslaught; not dead, but alive. Steam emerged from the scar and the glow disappeared. He could feel the 'magic' pulse through his veins, super-charging his body to press on. Where it came from, he could only guess. It was just one enigma of many in this place ... this Friend or Foe.

The event had given him a temporary power trip, but it only took a few seconds for the old man to gather his wits again. Once awakened from his miraculous state, he moved his pace from a walk to a run. The Wizard caught a second wave of beasts in his peripherals and he made haste. He may have been lucky the first time, but lightning rarely struck more than twice, and so he caught up with the others.

“There's another wave coming, so if either of you have an enraged killing spree in you, now would be a good time to use it,” Wizard joked grimly. His words were caked with an underlying curiosity as to whether anyone or not they had witnessed his escape. He received a few blank stares and a scowl from Sophia. “No? Didn’t think so. Let’s go, then.”

[Tempo]

Tempo stared into the fierce eyes of Wizard and obeyed his command. As much as he wanted to help the stranger, he seemed hell bent on doing everything himself so he let him. The teen sprinted toward the cavern entrance all while dodging the beasts that charged the elderly Wizard. A scorpion poked its head from the sand right in front of him. Tempo quickly charged an energy sphere in his hands and placed it between the beasts eyes. That would be one less insect the grey haired man would have to deal with. He slid into the dampened floor of the cave almost losing his footing.

The two girls and Juno were already there and seemed fine for the most part. Tempo approached the group timidly. Being home schooled his whole life made it tough for him to interact with strangers, especially those of the opposite sex. He could feel his hands clam up as he stepped closer to the two women. He cleared his throat with a high pitched squeak and gulp. The blonde haired woman named Sophia turned around catching Tempo off guard.

“Glad to see that you’re still safe…more or less.” Having the only real experience of women being stories from an elderly karate sensei didn’t exactly make Tempo “Casanova”. He gave an awkward smile after the sentence finally finished sputtering from his mouth.

Wizard suddenly barreled through the cave entrance relieving the orange haired teen of his social awkwardness. Blood spatters littered his clothes, but it wasn’t his own. The purple tinge of the liquid meant it belonged to the horde of Scorpions he had slain moments before hand.

“There's another wave coming, so if either of you have an enraged killing spree in you, now would be a good time to use it,” Wizard joked grimly.

Tempo let the words pass through his mind for a moment. Enraged Killing spree. Even if it was intended as some sort of joke, the teen actually did have an uncontrollable power
locked deep within his body. He pulled his MP3 played from his pocket and nestled his thumb just over the power switch. Tempo had only seen his inner strength as a curse that needed remedy never as a gift. His fist tightened and he bit his lip in indecision. Beads of sweat slowly careened down his pale forehead and dripped off the tip of his nose.

“No? Didn’t think so. Let’s go, then.” Wizard spat as he raised his fists for battle.

“Wait. I do.” Tempo spoke up in almost a whisper.

The confused looks he got in return were normal to him. “I don’t have time to explain. You guys go on ahead. I can stall the wave for a little while.” Tempo turned his attention toward Wizard. “Can you hit me a few times? Don’t hold back.”

A smirk grew across the scarred visage. Without even the slightest bit of questioning he cocked his fist back and prepared to deliver the blow. Before he could fulfill Tempo’s plea Juno stepped in.

“Nobodies hitting anyone.” The saiyan yelled while waving his hands out in front of Wizard.
“Listen I know how crazy this sounds, but I can stall them. At the rate where going we will all stay and fight these guys and right when we finally finish another wave of them is just gonna spring up. Go on ahead I will catch up.”

Juno didn’t look to happy about it, but knew the kid had a point. He put his hands down giving the elderly warrior the ok. Wizard suddenly came down with a hard jab to the young man and quickly followed up with a hard knee to the gut. Tempo dropped to his knees in a gasp of air. He huddled over himself clenching his stomach in pain. When he peered back up his eyes were a cloudy white.

“LEAVE!” Tempo screamed in his possessed-like state.

The group didn’t waste anytime and proceeded to sprint in the opposite direction. Tempo stood up with a ki spheres glowing in both palms. It was nothing but him and the shuffling sounds of the rapidly approaching horde.

[Sage]

Snuff films. That’s what they called them. The whole point was to kill people on camera. And the odds were always stacked so high against the victims that survival was impossible. The fact there was a market for something so horrible repulsed the blue haired girl.

What remained of their group had taken a break in a dank alcove, and Sage found a nice, quiet corner to rest in. Her eyes were closed but images still played in her mind, despite her attempts to shut them out.

A snuff film. The clean-cut man impaled on a scorpion’s stinger, convulsing and bleeding, unable to scream for help. So suddenly, so gratuitously cut down. Before today, Sage had only ever seen one man killed in front of her. Of course, death existed in the hospitals, but it was different. It was sterile and clean and... distant. And none of her patients had ever died.

And the man she’d seen die before her eyes those years ago. That was different. Sage bared her teeth at the wall like an angry dog, her entire body trembling as she recalled the scene. The man in the desert died for nothing. The man of Sage’s memories had taken everything from her. Her future, her present. EVERYTHING!!

Suddenly, a cadence of ‘whats’ and ‘whats going ons’ floated toward her. Juno was the first to arrive. “What’s wrong?” he demanded. Sage found herself suddenly crowded by he and the detective. The cave walls were closing in.

“I... what?”

“You were screaming,” the dark haired saiyan pressed. The princess could do little more than blink at him. “‘Everything,’”

“What?”

“You screamed ‘everything,’”

“Oh... sorry,”

“Why, is kinda what we’re getting at, kid,” Oliver cut in, tiring of the nowhere-headed conversation.

“...I didn’t,” Sage paused, unsure now. “I, um, I didn’t think I was... actually talking,”

The look the old detective gave her couldn’t have been more uncomfortable. An immense, skeptical frown carved its across his aged facade. “You didn’t think you were shrieking ‘everything’ at the top of your lungs? The hell does that even mean, anyway!?”

“I... I...” frustrated, she stammered. There was nowhere to run, and she was already backed as far into her corner as she could go. Why don’t you just go away and leave me alone!?

“Okay... that was weird,” Juno declared. “How did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Kid, you just spoke without opening your mouth. You a ventriloquist or something?” Oliver inquired.

“I didn’t say anything!” Sage protested, shaking more violently now.

“You just told us to go away and leave you alone,” Oliver retorted. The azure haired girl suddenly went pale, her rose colored eyes staring at the older man for an eternity. “What!?”

“...I didn’t... say that. I... was just...” she didn’t know what the hell to say. “I... thought that,”

“You what?”

“So you’re a telepath?”

“No!” Sage squirmed under the intense scrutiny. They were staring at her, and they wouldn’t stop pushing the subject. Was it not enough to say you didn’t know what was going on!? They were regarding her like some kind of freak. An oddity. She had gotten enough of that kind of treatment back home.

“Think something at me,” Juno decided. “We can test it. Say... ‘watermelon’ in your head. Maybe we’ll hear it.”

“Oh... Okay...” Sage halfheartedly agreed, hoping that at least it would get them to stop staring at her. She did as she was told, first picturing a big green, striped watermelon in her mind, and then repeated the word. There was no reaction, so she imagined herself yelling the word. Watermelon! she chanted.

“Whoa!” Juno exclaimed. Sure enough, a feminine voice occupied his thoughts, and the name of his chosen fruit repeated in a careful, timid, and altogether Sage-like style. “That’s... awesome!”

“You can hear it?” the girl inquired.

“Yeah, I did, too,” Oliver confirmed, scratching his head. “That’s an interesting talent you got there.”

No kidding, Sage thought, thankfully going unheard. Finally, they turned away, and the girl sank into her corner, a hand to her head. She was scared. That much was obvious to anybody. Scared of her situation here, of those scorpions outside, of the people she wound up surrounded by, and now she was scared of this new... mental outburst of hers. What did it mean? How did it happen? What the hell reason did fate have to bestow upon her such a power!? Where did she learn it!?

Her breath was out of control again. Not asthma this time, she knew. Fumbling in her pocket, she withdrew her unmarked plastic bottle. She frowned, and the shameful vesicle just stared back at her. With a sigh, she popped off the top and tapped a pill into her palm, before sealing the container and stuffing it back into her pocket. Out of sight, but try as she might, not out of mind.

The girl slipped the white pill into her mouth and choked it down. Once again, she was hit with the instant, placebo effect, but it would be several minutes before the Valium actually set to work. The girl stared at the ground, as though she had done something horribly wrong, and finally she closed her eyes. In minutes, she was asleep.

- - - -

The door opened into the girls’ room, and was suddenly thrown open. Stepping into the doorframe was a familiar, handsome blond man, hunched over with his hands up over his head, mimicking claws. “I’m gooonna fiiiind you!!” he growled, in a mock-monster tone, creeping over to the nearest bed. “And I’m goooonna...” he quickly dropped to all fours and lifted up the skirt of the bed, throwing an arm inside and grasping the frail little arm of the girl hiding beneath it. “Getcha!” he roared. The child shrieked in surprise as he dragged her out. A little blond girl, no older than eight or nine. She was giggling as the man, who tickled her for a moment. “Oookay,” he continued in his monster voice. “Where’s yooouuur sister!”

“I’m not telling you, monster!” the blond girl shouted in playful protest. The ‘monster’ tromped around for a moment, checking the other bed, then the closet. After a few minutes he couldn’t find what he was looking for, so he paused.

Where are you, Sage? he reached out with his thoughts, but got nothing in reply. I caught Zena already. So where are you? he knew it wasn’t going to work so he tried a different approach. Mom’s got ice cream cake.

The curtains suddenly billowed violently, and out burst a little, blue haired girl, only to be ‘caught’ in the arms of the monster. “Aha! Tricked yooouuu!!” he roared.

“Daaad!” little Sage protested. “No fair! You cheated!!”

“Nuh uh,” Kirano retorted.

“Yeah huh! You used your... your...”

“Telepathy,”

“You used tell-pathy to lie!” Sage glared at him as only an eight-year-old could.

“I didn't lie,”

“You did, too!”

“No, I didn't. Let's go get some ice cream cake,” Kirano grinned as his daughters suddenly lit up. “Come on,”

[Jesper]

I’m still going to try to help, because not everyone is living purely for themselves.

The priestess had said that only minutes before, and she had been wondering how much she actually believed that. On one hand, the headphones with a body had made it a point to hold off the hordes of scorpions all by himself with no thoughts of himself or his own well-being that she noticed. Then, on the other, Sophia herself was running in the opposite direction, worried about her own safety. No matter how much she tried to justify it—after all, the azure-haired woman running next to her needed someone to keep an eye on her— knew that she was scared, and that she didn’t want to die.

The priestess stopped running. She knew that if there was to be any merit to her words, she would have to use action to those ends, as well. Although it scared her, she knew that she couldn’t allow herself to leave the boy behind. As she turned to run back, it took a while for anyone to notice that she wasn’t at their side anymore. The hybrid was the first, and it was her sudden halt that stopped the rest of the group.

“So—Sophia…” Although Sophia didn’t see it, Sage tried to call out to her, but her timid nature choked the words in the throat. Luckily, Wizard helped her out.

“Don’t be an idiot, kid!” the older man shouted after the priestess. “Headphones is keeping the lines busy so we have more time to escape!”

Sophia didn’t even stop to answer. They probably wouldn’t have even accepted whatever answer she would have given anyway. No, she was much more involved with what she would do when she actually got there. The distant explosions grew louder as she neared, and what she saw confirmed what she heard; Tempo had lost it. He no longer had the look of confidence and serenity on his face as his ki bolts tore through their scorpion foes. Explosions rang throughout the hollowed cave; explosions that got a little too close to Sophia for comfort.

But every time the boy turned his head towards her, his blank eyes would stare right past her. He seemed to no longer see things in terms friend or foe, ally or adversary. He saw things in black and white; in terms of who threatened him and who didn’t. The beam of blazing energy that sailed past her head and collided with a large scorpion that somehow got behind her informed her that she wasn’t so much of a threat. Despite all of this, she still wanted to stay and help him, if only to save herself the miserable dash of shame back to the rest of the group. However, something exploded to her left that made her think otherwise.

It was the wall. Pieces from it crumbled to the ground as cracked stretched from the hole from top to bottom. Sophia took a few cautious steps backwards as the cracks began to spread to the ceiling. Pebbles starting falling to the ground as the walls of the cave began to shake violently. The overwhelmed Tempo ignored it though, slicing through the scorpions with amounts of ki that Sophia had only seen come from Kaden. Shaking her head, she knew that only bad things would come from the situation; she knew that she somehow had to get close to the rampaging boy if she was to save him. The other alternative was to turn and leave him behind; an option that Sophia knew that she couldn’t pursue.

The priestess didn’t hesitate. Deep breaths calmed her down as she progressed towards Tempo, striking down a scorpion in her way by driving down a glowing orb of power. The exoskeleton of the bugger cracked open with a sickening sound, and the energy friend whatever was left as the priestess hurdled over the fresh corpse. Adrenaline pumped in her veins—she had never had a goal, a time limit like this. She kicked another one out of her way, and it landed in front of the dazed Tempo.

They say that a sleepwalker should never, under any circumstances, be jolted awake while in that state. While Sophia had no idea who “they” were, or if Tempo’s power-induced craze was comparable to sleepwalking, she knew immediately that any disruption was probably not the most desirable as he whipped his head around and threw an excess of ki at—or more like around, in his haste—at her. The priestess had a split moment to react, jumping out of its way and onto the ground. The ball hit the interior of the cave once more, shaking it as though it rocked its very foundation.

Sensing a disaster in the entrance of the cave, Sophia lanced onto her feet and dashed at the kid. She grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him to the ground, wrapping her body around as they fell and landing on top of him. A few rocks fell where he stood, followed by the sound of rocks that were sure to ensue. When they landed, Sophia’s knee bumped into something; she heard a click, followed by the sound of stifled music. She looked up at Tempo—his breathing had slowed, and his eyes seemed clearer. While the priestess was relieved that she probably didn’t have to deal with his rampaging, the cave-in was still sure to happen, so she dragged the boy to his feet, and pushed him ever-so-slightly as if to tell him “Move your ass.”

Sophia could only think of divine intervention as she noticed that the structural integrity of the cave was still intact past the entrance tunnel, meaning that they were at least safe from getting crushed—unless something happened to Tempo’s iPod again. Once they cleared the tunnel, they collapsed, letting the dust and sand fly out over them as what was left of the tunnel had caved in. The pair coughed as they stood on their feet once again, an awkward silence ensuing.

“…are you okay?” Sophia eventually asked, brushing dust off of her clothing.

“…yeah, I’m alright,” the boy looked at the ground, bobbing his head to the music playing slightly. “Hey, listen…uhh…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Sophia shrugged. “Let’s try to find the rest of the group. We’re far from out of danger.”

It was hard to tell where they had gone—it wasn’t as though there was an obvious choice to go, as there were multiple tunnels that all looked relatively the same. The faint sound of voices, however, guided them, and within a few minutes they were reunited with the rest of the Friend or Foe victims. Sage was resting silently in the corner; the other two hardly looked as though they knew what to do with themselves.

“What was that noise we heard a while ago?” Nash inquired. He shot an annoyed glance at the sleeping beauty, but honored her by keeping quiet regardless.

“Well…let’s just say that the entrance is no longer an option,” Tempo explained with a sense of irony.

“So…what does that mean, exactly?” Juno glared at the pair.

“It means that we’ll have to try and find another way out,” Sophia sighed. “And we’ll have to do it soon. Who knows how long it’ll take for the tinier scorpions to find their way inside.”

[Friend or Foe]

The tunnel system was riddled with cameras. Some obvious, some hidden, but plenty so that Kai Demolic could get every camera angle possible. He was watching the fivesome move closer towards where he assumed would be their destination. He reached for the microphone. "Rose," he asked, "Are you in place?"

"Yes," the feminine voice said.

"Then be ready."

He clicked cameras to zoom in on the two people in the back of the group. The two women, Sage and Sophia. He was very interested in them, mainly because of the popularity they had gotten. Of course, most fans interested in them were wanting to see upskirt shots or waiting for some kind of rape scene. He wasn't going to encourage any of that. He liked the violence, but there was a line even Kai Demolic wouldn't cross.

"So run this by me again," Sebastian said behind Kai. "What's happening, now? Trisha is MIA, Balrog is on the field, and Rose is in those tunnels. What's going on in there?"

Kai directed the camera on screen to show a shot of Oliver Nash and Tempo, and then Sage, Juno and Sophia behind them. "So far, this group has effectively gotten through as a team, only losing one person. But that can only go so far. So I'll need to create a new dynamic by splitting them up."

"How are you splitting them?" Sebastian asked, curious.

"I'll use a rock formation, like so," he pressed a button, though nothing immediate happened. "Those who wind up on the left side of the separation will deal with Rose. Those on the right...will be forced to press on."

Sebastian chuckled. "Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Why Rose, though? Surely Jackson is a better choice."

"Maybe," Kai admitted. "He'd be a better choice if I wanted a brawl. But Rosemary will put on a show. Less fighting, more social interaction. They will be put to the rest, for sure."

Sebastian nodded again. Made sense.

Suddenly, without warning, surprising even Sebastian as he watched on camera, the tunnel collapsed on itself. If you blinked, you missed it.

















(Sage wins a Ki Gun to be used in his saga. It can be any kind of gun she wants, if she even chooses to use it.)