[01] Mountain Sector

[DA 2009]

MOUNTAIN SECTOR

Time Of Day: Morning

Bunker: Active

Starting Players: REM-13, Xenia, Shou, Ashe

[Ashe]

It was the sound of the birds that first reached her ears. The morning sunlight was bathing over her while she lay still, unmoving except for the faint breeze that passed over her clothing. A faint gasp expelled from her mouth as her chest began to move, the simulation having incorporated her entirely into the program by now without her knowledge.

Stirring weakly, Ashe rolled over from her back to her side, her eyes fluttering open in the steam. "Help..." she called weakly without understanding why, pushing herself up to a sitting position while holding her head. The air was slightly warm for a morning and the rocky ground was rigid and unmoving. Her right arm bumped against something, causing her to snatch her arm back before realizing that it was just her bag.

She quickly ripped it open, digging out the contents to spread around her in hopes of something that she could use to call for help. Her books had been replaced with other items, but a few items remained from her original bag. Her cell phone found its way into her hands, cracked screen and all, and she grimaced as her fingertips awoke it only to find that all attempts to call anyone off the island resulted in a busy tone, despite having a full signal.

Her phone dropped to the top of a stack of paperwork as she picked up her mp3 player and checked it over. "I guess this works, at least," she mumbled halfheartedly. "Just what's up with my phone?"

Browsing through the random paperwork that had been stuffed into her bag revealed a set of documents containing information regarding the event of which she had been inserted, a tournament known to many as Dante's Abyss. She turned it over in her hands and tried to get a grasp for exactly what was going on. "Is this what Sage had started trying to explain to me when those guards interrupted?" she asked nobody in particular.

Looking over the map she saw that it seemed to work as a digital display, despite being able to be rolled up like a paper or plastic map. "Some kind of plastic laminated screen display?" It had a small red blinking dot on it to show her where her current position was as well as a listing of various bunkers and sectors. At the dead center was some kind of battle arena. Judging by the blinking dot, she realized that she was in the Mountain Sector.

"Because all the rocky walls didn't quite give it away," she spoke faintly, looking around as another wave of steam seemed to pass by overhead. "I guess all this steam is a result of the volcanoes that are shown on the map," she mused, looking at the canyon walls that she had been laying within. The tall, rough cliffs rose high above her on both sides, leaving her looking as far down both sets of passages as she could before looking skyward. "If these were carved by volcanoes, I'm not going to wait around."

Stuffing all of her belongings back into her bag, she took a deep breath and placed a hand onto a slab of rock that was sticking out. She loved to climb things, but she could already tell that the wall was going to leave her hands cut to pieces if she tried it. The girl took a moment more to look back through her bag again, shifting the contents around to reveal small amounts of food and a bottle of water. "Oh yay," she deadpanned. "Please don't tell me that every crazy television guy is too cheap to use some of their earnings to get us decent food." Thankfully, she came across a pair of gloves inside of the bag as well as a few other tools.

Slipping the gloves on, she pulled out a length or rope with a hook on the end of it. Her eyes widened. "What the heck am I going to do with a grappling hook?" she expressed. Climbing back to her feet with the rope in her hands, she took a look back at the cliff wall. "Though I guess they knew in advance that they were tossing my ass into the mountains."

The metal claws took flight, seeking the top of the cliffwall to bite in for its soiled meal.

---

It took over a dozen throws, each requiring her to overextend her right arm until it seemed that she would jerk it out of its socket. At some point, the sharp metal had seemed to snag a good place but one pull on it left it to snatch loose, showering her with small rocks as her rear struck the ground beneath her, barely rolling out of the way as the instrument slammed into the rock next to her. A few attempts later and she found herself halfway up the rock wall, holding tightly onto the thick rope with protective gloves on, sweating profusely in the steam that she had entered. She was thankful for the gloves, given the sweat, but her bag was beginning to cut deep into her shoulders while she climbed.

It seemed as if it had taken at least four and a half hours before her straining fingers dig deep into the ridge at the top, throwing her bag up over the edge before managing to pull herself up after it. She rolled over and breathed a heavy sigh of relief, having not believed that she would succeed after the last bit of time had passed. If it wasn't for her coming up with the idea of wrapping the lower half of the rope around her waste and tying it, stopping to adjust it every ten feet or so, she was sure that she would have been so exhausted that the cleaning crew would have to gather her shattered remains from the floor.

Still, she didn't have enough geographical knowledge to tell her if the canyon floor had been the result of molten lava or even a steaming river just waiting to reenter. It wasn't worth the risk. What might even live down there? For all she knew, there could be minotaurs down in that pit. But then again, there could be dragons flying overhead, she supposed.

Pulling out her map while she leaned against her bag for rest, she realized that she was actually very close to the center of the map. "I'm nowhere near the bunker in this area," she realized, looking around. Not even understanding what the bunker was for, she turned her eyes skyward until she saw a large island just floating in the air above her, the massive arena resting high above its heavenly structure.

In the distance, she realized that a translucent wall separated her from what seemed to be a wall of pure whiteness, unable to see through it for unknown reasons. Even closer was another wall that crossed paths with it, another translucent field that seemed as if it were the entryway to a jungle. She decided that it made perfect sense, according to the map, to assume that the City Sector was directly across from the corner that she was facing.

She took some time to read over the information regarding the competition before filing it into her bag with the climbing gear and taking a few swallows of water from her bottle. "Yeah..." she sighed. "I'm out of here. Maybe the city will have something to do other than rock climbing or tournament fighting. If anything, I might run into someone else that can help me figure this thing out. Someone..." she whispered to herself, talking a look around before shivering in the steam. "Someone who didn't join this thing for the thrill of killing people, hopefully."

Ashe moves from Mountain Sector to City Sector

[Shou]

Shou chuckled to himself, his homebrewed cackle bouncing off the tiles around him in an acoustic manner. It was at Corey's expense, of course. Both hands had their turn at the levers and stopped the flow of the cool water. Something didn't quite sit right, however... Something he neglected or completely forgot to do. So he gave it some consideration.

Kill Knucklehead? Work in progress.. Favor for Greyhound and Donny, check. Wasn't their Mr. Big though.. Uhmm, Samantha Button.. Got off of Mercy.. What am I forgetting?

The paramilitary prodigy hadn't given much thought to the escort or why he woke here, drunken and unsure of himself. Instead he jumped into some clean underwear and started throwing on layers of soiled clothing: wraps for his hands and feet first, then the lavender kimono and trousers—secured both at the shins, forearms, and middle with more wraps. He fastened his utility belt and harness, and stepped into his tabi.

As he opened his door and sought to return to one of his favored pastimes, it seemed two musclebound men had other ideas. Shou sized them up and decided that it wasn't the best idea to get into a scuffle then and there.

"Kid, Mr. Dukes would like to meet with you..." the bigger musclehead grunted, patting his rifle and giving Shou a once over.

Guess they found out that I'm not who they think I am... Shou toyed around with the idea in his head.

"C'mon, short stuff, we don't got all day..." the other piped in, his barotone much like that of the burlier man beside him.

Shou surrendered to their will, escorted through an unfamiliar labyrinth of corridors. As they walked through the lobby and past the bar he noted several others being escorted —two musclebounds to a person— as he was. He caught wind of familiar faces from his trip to the forsaken planet and couldn't help but cock a brow and nudge the black shirt nearest to him.

"How do they choose, invites an' all, who makes it here?" Shou asked, recalling what it was that he neglected to do. He reached down the breast of his kimono and removed the envelope, opting to confirm his suspicions.

As expected, the goon shrugged. "Dukes has a system, it works. I mean you're here."

Shou didn't know how he could overlook the fact that the letter was addressed to him, personally. It deeply regretted to inform him that he was swindled into believing he hoodwinked into this years Dante's Abyss. It all went downhill from there; that was to be as expected as the fumes that made Shou consider buying a rebreather as-soon-as-it-was-possible.

"Winter!" Shou awoke with a headstart. The emerald hue of his right eye met the jagged landscape that stretched out, against the horizon. It was obvious dawn had broken not too long ago, but Shou felt as though he had the most restful slumber he'd had in weeks. He noticed something else.

"Why am I.. floating?" he was sitting, cross-legged, on the wind with a rifle (much like the ones that ushered him down here) in his grasp. Giving no thought to the impulsive preservation of his identity, he wrenched his scarf and the 'kerchief he wore beneath that free. Oxygen devoid of industrialized pollutions flooded his lungs and gave his head a light buzz.

On his cue his psychokinetic hold released him and he caught himself on the gravel-coated incline and considered a career in sales. It was just a thought, given circumstances he found due to the nature of his work.

He tried to remember much of what went on before the ol' reverse-ventilation setup, only it was to no avail. Instead his memories wandered much further back to a time just before he wore these pairs of scars on his face —one running from the corner of his jaw to stop somewhere beneath his brown eye, the other faint with age and extended downside his right eye. Neither stretched high enough to be seen when he donned his disguise, but his thumbs brushed against the older groove and the fresher upraise as it had been some time since he'd given them much notice. He'd been carefree and innocent back then.

A scratching sound caught him off guard, prompting him to conceal his more notable feature. No one really connnected with his eyes long enough to notice the heterochromia, they were more concerned with his scarf or their perception of his image. But there it was again! It jumped up and looked for something to grasp, a grappling hook, time and time again until he decided to lower his gun and direct it somewhere where it would hold sturdy. Shou didn't know who was on the other side nor their intention, but he knew he wasn't sticking around anyway.

Looking around for an anchor point he found a noteworthy cliff in the distance and shifted over a hundred-and-say-fifty yards in the blink of an eye. Instead of the killer migraine there was nothing, just fresh air. The young saiyan overlooked a valley from this vantage point and could see a building in the distance, hidden by trees on one side with its roof low and seeping into the earth around it.

"Maybe there's food." he rationalized. His stomach grumbled in agreement.

Shou enters the Mountain Sector bunker

[Rem-13]

REM-13 moved swiftly, couched and low. His right hand was raised halfway to the straight-sword slung over his back, the other skimmed the ground with his DA issued gun, held loose but ready at any moment to fire.

“Win.” Zero had said, and so he would not fail. It was simple fact. There was a flutter to his left, then the sound of an energy shot erupting from a gun. Feathers pirouetted gently to the earth, nothing left to tell of their previous owner but spots of blood and and a few bits of singed down. REM lowered his pistol and stood up to his full height. Just a bird. An emotion flooded him. Disappointment? It was still hard to tell what he was feeling, and even harder to figure out whether that feeling was appropriate. “Kill.” Zero had whispered to him. He would. It would be, there was no more appropriate word for it, a pleasure. The issue remained at hand, however, as too how. His eye scanned the rock strewn landscape. Ten foot tall cousins to the pebbles that crunched underfoot with each step adorned the base of the mountain. It would make a good place to fight, had he an opponent. His eye trailed up. The peak would be an optimal place to get the lay of the land. It would be a simple matter to find someone to kill that way. With the ease of a mountain goat he jumped cliff to to outcropping, making his swift and steady accent. The words of Egg came back to him as he did so,

“You don't have to REM. You don't have to kill for him. You are you're own now, you are free if you choose it.” REM said the response to himself as he found a foot hold on the mountainside the same as he did back then.

“I do not have to. I want to.”

[Celena]

After Damon Dukes' farewell, Xenia knew exactly what was going to happen the moment the guards had placed the white cloths over their mouths. The gas would come and it would be inevitable for anyone to escape it, so rather than panic like the rest of them as the gas had come out of every hole in the room, she had closed her eyes and inhaled it. She would have come to the island willingly knowing that she was set to compete, so she could argue that the gas procedure was not necessary, but she could understand why Damon had used gas for those who were reluctant to come to the island.

She did not get a chance to ask her sister her reason for participating. Before she had had a chance to make contact with Sage, they were separated by syntax security guards. She did not imagine that Sage willingly agreed to join. She suspected that Dukes had manipulated her into joining; after all, Xenia had gotten a taste of how manipulative the host could be due to the letter he had written to her. Wherever Sage was though, she would have no choice but to fight, because if she did not, she would die very quickly. This was not any party; this was Dante’s Abyss, where some of the participants would show no remorse towards anyone, and also a competition where only the strongest person would survive.

Dante’s Abyss was similar to Friend or Foe in the sense that it was a game show with a host of course. The most recognisable difference between Damon Dukes and Kai Demolic was that Damon had the courtesy to tell her what she would be getting herself into, even if he had manipulated her into entering. As for those who had been outright deceived, Xenia actually felt sympathetic towards them. Some of them had no idea what they would have to experience, while the ones who did (like her sister), knew they had no choice but to survive, kill or be kilt; after all, that was the name of the game by definition. She could not imagine Sage would have the gore to kill anyone, regardless of the fact that the deaths were not real, but given the situation with her back to the wall, even Xenia could not predict what her sibling would do, or how she would bear with the consequences of her actions. That was something only Sage would have to deal with. Xenia could not hold her hand, but she hoped to find her twin on the island before someone with a killing instinct would.

At the mountain sector bunker, Xenia had found food and water, well she would not classify a loaf of bread as proper food, and she was not pleased with the fact that bread would be her only source of food, but living on bread with water was better than nothing. She also grabbed a flashlight which would be useful for when darkness fell upon the large island of planet Dante. She squeezed two loafs of bread and two bottles of water into a blue ‘Dante’s Abyss 2009’ rucksack she had found in the bunker. Due to her natural glutton as a saiyan, she would have packed more bread and water had there been enough space in the rucksack. They should have provided a sports bag at the bunker so she could go nuts. She threw the rucksack over her left shoulder, picked up her AK-47, deciding that it was time to leave the bunker. She felt she had overstayed her welcome there. The last thing she wanted was to encounter a foe inside the bunker and get into a physical encounter, not when she had not eaten for hours. ‘A saiyan needs their strength’. That was a phrase she had heard time and time again.

There was one last thing Xenia had almost forgotten to do and that was reset the timer on her explosion collar, the main reason she had even come to the bunker. She gazed at the explosion collar attached to her ankle. A handful of her family members had worn one at some point in their lives; she just never imagined that she would be wearing one. She never believed she would ever compete in a Dante’s Abyss competition, but it was amazing the things you could do given the motivation.

As for the reason why she had agreed to accept Damon’s invitation; she was satisfied with the outcome of her second confrontation with the full-blooded saiyan Orio (at least that was what she remembered his name to be). Even though the fight had ended without a conclusion, she had discovered that her power was greater than his. The realisation of that alone provided her with the sense that she had achieved a measure of redemption. If she were to encounter him again, she was sure she would defeat him, and as a result, would have undisputedly gained a measure of revenge; however, if she were not to encounter him on the island, then no problem; she would just move on with her life knowing she was the better of the two.

In all honesty, she still was not keen on the tournament. The adrenaline Damon said she would gain in order to give her the urge to compete, had failed to come due to the fact that her battle with Orion had failed to even get into a second gear all thanks to the abrupt interruption. There was fortune though and it came from the fact that she was an assassin, trained to be a hunter. She was a silent and patient one. Although she would never willingly take away the life of an innocent person, this was Dante’s Abyss where every death was fake. That was an added factor of the game which presented her with a license to kill. To her understanding, there were only a handful of people on the island that she could trust not to have the motivation to kill her, like the girl who had saved her from being transported to Kai Demolic during Friend or Foe three, and also, her blonde haired male companion, and then the pink haired girl named Ashe who was friends with her sister. Simply because she did not know anything at all about the others in order to trust their motives, she would have to kill them without hesitation.

Although she had no desire to win the competition, she would do whatever it took to survive, even if meant being the last one left.

Her next course of action was to leave the mountain region in order to explore new territory. She decided she would head to the forest region.

Xenia enters the bunker sector

Xenia moves from mountain sector to forest sector