The artificial sky gave off a purplish tint as twilight approached nighttime. It was one of the most breath-taking sights on a regular day but to Red and his group, it was something they could only remember in their faintest memories. They could remember normal things but they were never sure of it since they haven't seen it post-waking up. An example would be how trees look like, or how nighttime looks like.
To them, it was one of the insubstantial things that they could look back to again.
"Yo Red! How's the flag-hunting?" Blond greeted as they finally arrived.
"It went well." Red waved his hand to return the greeting. "Have you set up camp?"
"Yes, it turned out way better than expected. Good thing we got Blond overlooking things." Freckles chimed in.
"Here's our haul for the day." Gadge waved the three flags in front of everyone in what seemed like a victory dance. "It's all thanks to me and Curl's electrocuting skills."
"You mean, unnecessary taser skills. There was no need to electrocute them to death, you know." Red joked with a smirk on his face. "Knocking them unconscious was way better than zapping them."
"But... zapping them was faster, and it worked out well!" Curl lightheartedly spoke. "Besides, they didn't even know what hit them so the chances of them targeting us is near zero."
"Hey, has anyone seen Cat?" Blond worriedly asked. "I mean, I'm confident with her reconnaissance skills but she went alone so there won't be anyone coming for help if she gets into a bad situation."
"You underestimate her too much, Blond," Red reassured him. "She probably got too many supplies on her end and is having a hard time carrying them all the way here."
"Sounds about right. Still, we can't predict everything that's going to happen." Blond muttered. Although he was convinced by what Red told him, he still had that uneasy feeling for her.
Red came up to him and whispered. "You like her, don't you?"
"W-w-what are you talking about?!" Blond denied but his face showed the exact opposite of his words. "T-t-there's no wa... "
"I'm b-back! What d-did I miss?" Someone behind Blond softly spoke.
Blond's shoulder's shot up as he flinched. "Ah! Cat, you're back. You didn't *ehrmm* miss anything."
Cat's head drooped as she was greeted by Blond's sudden rejection. "W-wait... what were y-you talking about?" She muttered in an unhappy tone.
"We were just talking about the base, you really didn't miss anything!" Blond assured her. "Anyways, we'd better head back. I'm getting hungry." Blond changed the subject since anymore of it would probably reveal his hidden emotions.
Red grinned towards him. "Lead the way."
"Um, s-speaking of food... I got a f-few cooked p-pieces of meat here." Cat ruffled the plastic bag she was carrying. "I-I already ate a p-piece. If a-anyone wants s-some, we c-can eat them on t-the way."
"Sweet! I was getting hungry!" Scar energetically whooped before getting a piece of meat from the bag.
Cat made sure to separate the cooked and uncooked ones just in case so she didn't get worried about accidentally giving raw meat to her peers. Seeing Scar eat it so happily inclined the others to eat a piece as well. Of course, who would pass on eating premium meat?
The weary group traversed as they headed back to the base that Blond's group created. Since it's Blond's group we're talking about, they expected a lot from their so-called 'safe house'. As for Blond, he was confident that the base would turn out better than the others expected.
A chilly, spine-tingling, breeze blew towards the group as they continued under Blond's lead. It was already nighttime in the Inside and the artificial sky projected it. The breeze was probably not natural as well but they didn't take the time to think about it unnecessarily. Whether the artificial sky is a projection from the sky outside or man-made, they could only wonder. But, that didn't stop the group from admiring the night-sky view that filled them with nostalgia.
"Blond, how many minutes en route to the base?" Red asked in curiosity. "We've been walking for twenty minutes now."
"Twenty-five to thirty minutes tops, assuming that we wouldn't run into a humanoid," Blond answered. "There's also the possibility of running into unfriendly blocks. We didn't really run into some of them awhile ago, but it's already nighttime... and predators usually hunt at nighttime."
*Clank* *clank!*
Hearing an almost imperceptible noise, Red put his hand in front of Blond, signaling everyone to stop. The sound was similar to metals clanking but it was so faint that Red was the only one to barely hear it.
Suddenly, a humanoid appeared from the corner of the street. It was the same humanoid that Red had a hard time before.
An Outclass Humanoid.
The outclass humanoid's eyes glinted as it saw Red and his party, standing still a few meters from him. Meanwhile, Red had a hard time gauging the distance between him and the humanoid due to the area's darkness. Red looked beside him, seeing Scar and the others putting up a defensive stance. "There's only one of them. Outclass humanoid or whatever, we can take it on." Scar spurred everyone on. "Leave the defense to me."
The others followed suit, bracing themselves for possible combat.
"Scar."
"Yeah?"
"Can you hold him off for like twenty seconds? It might be hard to spot him in this dimly lit space but I know you could do it. I just need twenty seconds." Red asked him as the humanoid started charging towards their direction. "Blond, you help Scar hold him off."
"You got it." Scar asserted.
Scar and Blond nodded as they stopped the humanoid in its tracks. The outclass humanoid was surprised that his full-speed momentum was immediately cut off by two teenagers. "Urngh! You're not going anywhere." Scar mustered his strength as he pushed the humanoid.
When it comes to defensive strength, no one was on par with Scar...
... well, except for Red of course.
"Nice, you can let go now." Blond patted Scar on the back as he went in front of him. Now, the humanoid was facing Blond.
The humanoid lashed out its foot with a sidekick to Blond's hips but Blond dodged it by jumping sideways. Before Blond could land on his arms, he swept the humanoid's right foot with his leg. However, his attack didn't even make the humanoid flinch the slightest.
"I never thought I was this weak." Blond's lips tightened.
Blond let the momentum roll him forward so he could stand up faster. Now, the humanoid's attention finally fully focused on Blond, which was their ideal tactic of holding it off. For the remaining ten seconds, Blond evaded the humanoid's attacks with ease, making it all the more frustrated.
"Cat, I need to borrow your contact lens," Red whispered at Cat. "You know, the one from your... "
"H-how did you know about that?" Cat did the same and whispered at Red's ear. The result was different from what she expected since she was the one that got bashful in the process.
"I'll tell you later." Red looked to the side, seeing Cat's face a few centimeters from his. He immediately retracted his head. "In any case, I need it for a few seconds. Just one is enough, I don't need a pair."
"What are you talking about?" Curl put her hands on her hips after catching Red and Cat whispering at each other's ears. "Are you two hiding something?"
"N-nothing, I just need to borrow Cat's lockpick for something," Red responded.
"Mhmm... " Curl's eyes narrowed.
"RED! TIME'S UP! Hah~!" Blond panted. The humanoid's attacks have gotten faster and Blond could feel that he's running out of stamina and air.
"H-here. P-please take care of my lens. We can't a-afford to break it, okay?" Cat whispered.
"Thanks," Red replied as he propped the contact on his right eye. "I'll return it to you in the same state when I borrowed it."
"You'd b-better!" Cat pouted but she was still whispering.
Blond stepped back after seeing Red launch himself towards the humanoid. He swerved and did a right hook on the humanoid's face. The humanoid's face almost snapped sideways but it got its bearings back and aimed a jab on Red's solar plexus.
... ...
*bzzzt* *bzzzzzzzzzzzt*
Before Red could land another blow on the outclass humanoid, it suddenly powered down and fell on the ground like a pile of metallic bones. It didn't even have any after-death spasms, it just fell and remained motionless as electricity run on its surface.
"Short-circuit?" Red wondered.
That's when he saw Gadge standing right behind where the humanoid was a second ago. "I wanted to bring one down so I decided to zap it on the neck with the electrical discharger that they gave us. Sorry about that, Red, but we can't have you injuring yourself during this mock battle."
"Gadge," Red sighed in relief. "I'm just glad it worked out alright. Otherwise, the humanoid might've attacked you and I'd have been too late to notice it."
"I did study the outclass humanoid's model after your fight with it. I was ninety-percent sure that it would work so I took a risk." Gadge responded as he sat down on the ground, the adrenaline finally leaving him. "Jarxen also foreshadowed that it's the most powerful humanoid ever produced, so it would take a huge burden off your shoulders if we could at least hold one of them off."
Red offered his hand to Gadge, pulling him up. "That's a relief. You should teach the others where the weak-spot of that outclass humanoid is. That would greatly help. And also, thanks for taking that humanoid down. I actually felt my ribs hurting again."
"That's right Red, don't push yourself too hard." Scar added. "With Gadge's help, we might be of assistance during combat."
"Trust me, you're already of assistance when it comes to combat," Blond assured him. "Now let's go, before more of those outclasses show up."