78Chapter One: As Seen on Television
Present Day...:
"All right, I'll take those forms now. Just give me your name."
The young man exchanged glances with the security guard in front of him as the uneasy presence of twenty or so armed soldiers loomed over him. He knew this was standard practice and just another inspection station before the organizers would officially let him be allowed access and recognized as a competitor, but there was no mistaking the sinking feeling that filled the 23 year old's stomach. With a slow extension of his arm, the forms soon made their way into the guard's hands. Nervously adjusting the fingerless gloves on his hands as they withdraw back into the hopeful competitor's cargo pant pockets, he lets out an unexpectedly deep breath.
"Siro Ravness. Applying as squad leader with the support of my two associates."
Tilting his head over his right shoulder, Siro ignores the mumbling of "I guess that's one way to say 'professional ass-savers'..." from the girl behind him who was a year his junior in age, but a decade his senior in wisecracks. The guard either didn't notice or didn't care as he flipped through Siro's forms, muttering to himself about his residence, date of birth, occupation, and even about what he'd brought for self-defense. Dropping it off on the desk behind him, he took a moment to address the girl behind the applicant leader. Whether that was due to the less than impressed look she was wearing or not, Siro was kind of hoping remained unsaid.
"You're next little lady. You're...?"
"Sagiri Akamine. Of course, you could always you know, check the forms or the photo ID stuck to it if you don't believe me."
She gives off a frustrated sigh and crosses her arms, clearly just wanting to get everything over with. Siro, unable to help himself, looks over with a sly smirk across his face. At first glance, she wasn't exactly the most overly bubbly or friendly person, and even before he ponders the idea and reads the look in her eyes, it hits him that Sagiri really wasn't entirely that way no matter how well you got to know her. It'd been countless years since they first met in grade school, with a pair of stupid kids being kids trying to pick a fight with her. When Siro punched one in the face for sprouting off racial slurs at her like he'd never even heard of Japan, the young girl's first response to him was just to simply tell him "I could've taken them!" and shoot a mildly annoyed glare in his direction. Sagiri was the type who always thought the best way to solve problems was to just go do it, which kind of clashed at times with Siro's own tendency to get caught up on the minor details while missing bigger ones. Of course, her having the bluntness of a baseball bat, insistence on making him bite the bullet, or her seeming inability to be anything but sharp as a tack didn't mean she was crazy or heartless. The reality of the situation was that it meant any time she heard him out or gave him her opinion, it was going to be exactly what she thought, for better or worse.
With an unintentional snicker finding itself sneaking out from his throat and an oh-so-close attempt at hiding it from Sagiri, he catches his best friend cocking her eyebrow at him as if asking "Now what's so funny?". Yeah, she may have been snarky, upfront, and sometimes more spontaneous than Siro felt comfortable with, but at the end of the day...asking Sagiri Akamine to come with him on this whole experience was always going to be a no-brainer. That being said though, he still questioned why she thought so highly of dark purple and black that she insisted on wearing that short sleeved mini-jacket and headband of hers around. However, since the damned brown zip-up vest he was wearing over his t-shirt was her idea, he wasn't about to risk a beatdown by saying anything now.
Finally finished with the paperwork, and checking his watch as if wishing it was break time, the guard that Siro decided to creatively dub 'Guardman' lackadaisically drops Sagiri's paperwork on the desk alongside Siro's with almost a 'plop'. Letting out a sigh, he motions over to the bored-looking guy next to Siro that's fidgeting with the strings on his faded navy blue hoodie almost like he was trying way too hard to seem like he was 'just chilling out'.
"Okay wiseguy, you're last, so let's just get this over with. Name."
Lowering the hood, and looking over with a shrug and an ever so slightly cocky smirk on his face, the young man eventually decides to respond.
"Oh, you mean me, right? I'm Seth Braddox, don't get all worked up, now."
Growing increasingly exasperated, Guardman mutters unintelligibly under his breath as he flips through the pages and curses the his superior for sticking him on the same shift this 23 year old smartass decides to show up on. He didn't normally let himself be bothered by the entrants on their way in, but between the young punk in the hoodie that thought he was clever, and the girl who was just begging for the chance to call him out, he wished they'd just be something simple like some wannabe cultists or petty criminals. At this point the smelly old homeless people trying to become entrants just because they know about the food and supply deliveries inside would be an incredibly welcome alternative.
As he lets the last set of paperwork fall onto the other two to complete the set, the guard motions for the armed soldiers in the room to come closer.
"Now, you probably know we have to do this if you actually took the time to read over and watch everything you were supposed to...as surprised as I'd be by that, but we've got to take and give your weapons a final check. We can't have you going crazy and shooting things up in here. If you want to do that or start switching up who uses what, you'll get plenty of chances once you're inside. And if you try anything, then these fine gentlemen here would be more than happy to shut that right down. Since we're all on the same page here, if you could give me that rifle on your back there, Mr. Leader, that'd be just peachy."
Cautiously biting on his lower lip, the young man glances back around the room. His eyes fall on the soldiers that are busy doing their best making it clear they won't take 'no' as an answer, and then his friends that may have been a tiny bit on the crazy side for following him in. Letting out a sigh, and an accepting "Fine", he removes the sniper rifle hanging over his shoulders by its strap and passes it over. It was a little shorter than what he guessed the average was, and didn't have the 'oomph' some did on account of being a little older and semi-automatic, but he was just glad for something that would help him scout around if he needed to.
"And that hammer too". The guard still had his hand out and pointed towards Siro's belt. He'd brought the brick hammer with him to remind him of home and the time he spent through college working on more masonry projects than he could remember. Honestly, he hadn't really thought of it as a weapon, but Siro couldn't really deny it could crack somebody's skull, and he grudgingly unhooked it and passed that over as well before stepping off to the side.
Motioning over to Sagiri, with a sort of preemptive frustration, Guardman quietly groans to himself, trying to just not think about the headache he can feel building up.
"Look miss, we don't need to make this difficult, just pass over those knife-things and we can move this along."
"Kunai" Sagiri replied as she rolled her eyes and cast what was almost simultaneously an annoyed and disappointed gaze in Guardman's direction.
"...What?"
"They're not 'knife-things', they're called Kunai" she started, letting that 'I collect sharp pointy things you know' side of hers that Siro sometimes tried to forget about shine through. "I mean, with all the groups and weapons passing through here you're trying to tell me you don't even know that?"
"See, you can't be talking bad about a ninja's weapons like that, man. They get really pissed when you pull that crap." Gritting his teeth, as a sort of 'not again' response, Siro looks over to see Seth-totally-not-a-wiseass-Braddox wearing a grin that made him seem as proud of himself as a cat catching a bird. This was far from the time for Seth to be playing around like that, and nothing good ever came out of him doing it.
"Seth, don't even start with that 'ninja' shit right now or I promise you're not going to be walking straight for a month."
Sagiri's glare seemed to not just go right towards Seth, but like it was wanting to pierce right through him, stick him up against the nearest wall, and start cracking ribs like they were twigs. In what Siro though was a rather fortunate case of reading the room and situation, Seth took the time to try and back down from his statement and bow out gracefully. At least, as gracefully as those eyes of hers would let him. It was true that most of Sagiri's vitriol and outright sharpness tended to get geared at Siro, but every now and then Seth couldn't resist setting her off by calling her a 'ninja'. Yeah, she knew he was just saying it to try and set her off, but it was one of those things that really did get grating if he got carried away and overused it. There was an odd fascination Sagiri always appeared to have with knives, or other bladed objects that led to her setting aside a room just to store them all in. Siro knew her kunai always seemed to be her favourite just from the sheer quantity of both types and total she kept, as well as a long-winded explanation she gave on the way in about how she would've brought more if they wouldn't slow her down.
Sensing he was again being ignored, Guardman took the opportunity to break up the bizarre silence and his thoughts that the trio would be lucky if they even lasted two days by clearing his throat. And just like that, everybody found themselves brought back down to the equally odd world known as reality.
"Knives, Kunai, or whatever they're called, you still have to pass them over now before I let you through."
Unbuckling the sheath belt she was wearing, Siro's knife-collecting best friend passes it over, as it finds itself landing on a conveyor belt with a number of 'clank' sounds with the sniper rifle that had been passed over previously following it, after finally leaving the guard's hand. The trio's eyes followed the belt's movements as the weapons passed through a machine that seemed to be scanning them for...something as they soon disappeared around a corner.
Taking note that he was the only one who still had his weapon on him, Seth detached the holster carrying his pistol, and held it out to be passed over without giving so much as a word. Whether Seth was getting anxious, thought the soldiers looked a little on the trigger happy side and wanted to go and try to avoid any sort of trouble, or actually didn't have anything to say for once Siro couldn't be sure. It was too bad that Guardman couldn't resist trying to get some verbal jabs of his own in as the conveyor belt started taking it to join the others' weapons.
"Hold on, smartass. You were talking all sorts of shit to me earlier, and all you were bringing in was a Beretta? I would've thought you had something special, but no, just a common, boring handgun. No wonder you were trying to be witty to compensate. I hope your buddies are good at watching your back, or you're not gonna last, kid."
Seth simply just crossed his arms and slowly shook his head like he was almost bored of answering what he must have felt was an constant question.
"Not all of us get some cool rifle passed down to them, or spend 8 years hoarding pointy things, Guardy. Firearms aren't exactly cheap these days on entry-level salary, you know. I can still make someone screw off and leave me alone without shooting a million rounds a minute."
Having had his fill, the guard heads towards the next room and motions for the trio to follow. He'd been at the job for 5 years, but still there were times when he wondered if people got passed through the system because they would actually make things interesting, or just because the contestant count was starting to drop down again. Maybe they'd actually be entertaining for a while instead of getting killed off by that nut-job like everybody else seemed to. That alone would probably be interesting enough, he thinks.
Soldiers in tow, the group proceeds to make their way into the next set of doors and through a scanner. Guardman had briefly given them an explanation that it was to make sure they weren't still hiding or carrying any additional weapons on them that could lead to them trying to shoot or blow up the entire station, or anything like that. He actually could remember one instance where a rather disturbed individual quite literally pulled a concealed switchblade out of his ass and tried to go after the staff. Nobody wanted to risk having that sort of shit-show happen again, that was for sure.
Eventually they came to a smaller room with a couple of technicians and what looked to be an elevator against the back wall, with its gray doors not really doing much to paint a pleasant picture. A series of tables appeared to be covered with what ultimately looked like fancy bracelets or wristbands still getting adjusted. Siro could feel a lump starting to form in his throat as his eyes went from the wristbands to the elevator doors. Through the aid of monitors hanging from the ceiling, and what appeared to be a couple of small windows on the back wall, he could see the sunlight and an outline of what lay below them. He realizes this would likely have been the point where many an individual immediately had second thoughts and backed out. The reality was that this was proving to be more difficult than he thought even for somebody like himself who was sure and confident in his steps and of his destination. It almost made the squad leader shudder as he wondered how the people who came in alone and got stuck trying to form squads simply to get by once they were in the city limits must have felt trying to approach such a rather intimidating set of circumstances.
Looking over his shoulder, he spots Sagiri looking both focused and appearing to be not at all phased by the impending danger awaiting them. There's no way, Siro thinks to himself, that she isn't feeling just a little bit anxious or nervous about all of this. If she was though, then she was a hell of a lot better at keeping her composure than he or even Seth had ever been. For one reason or another, that thought made him uneasy and almost concerned. They weren't going to have the luxury of second guessing or taking all day trying to decide where to go once they got in. Far too many times they'd seen group after group be unable to even get their footing after getting inside, making them easy pickings for other squads, being stuck entirely at their mercy. And that was just if they got lucky.
"Almost done, just line up over here."
The guard spoke with a less than subtle hint of relief in his voice as he led the trio over to the table next to where the technicians were working. Seth had muttered something under his breath about "dirt brown being the new white coat", but honestly Siro was so occupied with trying to keep his composure, he only heard it distantly.
"You're all familiar with these wristbands, bracelets, monitors, or whatever you want to call them over here from earlier, but just in case some of you conveniently forgot to pay attention, I'll give you the run down again. These have a built in GPS tracker on them, giving you a map of the city and relaying your position back to us. They also monitor your heart rate, keep track of any money or other prizes you've picked up since entering, and it has a nice little display showing date, time, and how many are left in the squad. Yes, they're entirely waterproof and heat resistant, yes breaking them or trying to remove them gets you instantly DQ'd and voids anything you won, and yes if your squad size drops to 2 or lower, it'll sound off and trigger a timer. If you can't find anybody willing to team up with you before it hits zero, then well...you're also DQ'd, so tough luck. You also got nifty little heart monitors inserted around your neck and collarbone area just in case you piss somebody in there, say little miss crazy, off enough to get your arm chopped."
"It's more like you just stabbed us in the neck with the damn things. I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to bleed that much..." Seth retorts, surprisingly coming across as more frustrated than either of his two friends thought was normal.
Trying to avoid letting the only slightly sly remark get in the way of his job, Guardman clears his throat to finish the explanation.
"When you get down the elevator and through the first door, you can pick up your weapons, or don't, I don't really care, before carrying on. One you're through that second door though, you'll be inside the compound walls, and on your own. I should tell you guys, this is your last chance. Once the monitors are on your left wrists and you've ridden that elevator, you're in there until you try and take advantage of one of the cashing out periods. Until then, you're stuck, so if you've got last minute cold feet, now's the time to say so."
In spite of all of the tuning out he'd been doing, Siro heard those last words as clear as day. Last chance. If he went even a little bit further with things, that would be it. There would be no turning back, Siro would be committed. As he eyes over the people who are not just his friends, but his squadmates now, the thought sinks into the young leader's mind that they would be too. That would include Seth, who gives a quick wink as if to say "We got this", and as he looks over at Sagiri actually giving him a smile of reassurance, it hits him that it includes her too. It's more than that though, Siro realizes. They're ready, and they're up for it, so he has to be too.
Siro extends his arm out onto the table.
"We're good, we didn't fill out a phone book's worth of paperwork just to run away now."
Click.
The watch-sized bracelet closes around his wrist, and he makes his way over to the elevator as he both waits and tries to fight off the imaginary butterflies fluttering around his stomach.
Click.
Sagiri follows without even bothering to give Guardy so much as a second look.
Click.
Sarcastically muttering to himself about the bracelet being too tight, Seth walks over to rejoin the other two. The guard takes the moment to go just the next couple of steps past them and press the button to summon the elevator.
"Well, from here on out, the only help you'll get from us is what you can scrape up from our supply drops. Good luck in there, everybody's going to be watching."
Bing!
The noise caught the trio's attention as the elevator doors slid open and they slowly made their way inside. "This is it" Siro thinks, taking one last moment to brace himself.
"By the way..." Guardman starts as if he remembered something. "I meant to ask earlier. Since everybody's trying to do it to stand out these days, and I remember you talking about registering one, do you guys have a squad name?"
Siro smiles to himself as he recollects the discussion the three of them had earlier among themselves, as an idea works its way back into his mind.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot."
With a quick moment of pondering and Sagiri cocking an eyebrow at him as the elevator doors started to close, Siro turns back to the guard and answers him.
"Triple S."
Next Chapter...:
With their heads held high, and their resolve reaffirmed, the group finds themselves in the belly of the beast. Seeing things firsthand unfiltered without the edited touch they're oh-so-used to being provided, means agreeing on a game plan proves almost impossible. And in a place where everybody is driven by their own avarice and desires, trusting anyone may show to be even tougher.
Chapter Two: City of Greed