As Spectre finally rolls down the window Martyr sighs in relief after getting jump-scared by the noise of the relentless city.
They were now looking at the light capital of Borealis, Phobos. The city was in complete chaos just hours before the big event was supposed to start. Phobos looked structurally identical to the dark capital, Deimos but if it were used as an actual city. Every building was intact, Every building looked lived in, every window was lit up in bright white, even through the shades the piercing light of every structure was burning through. Instead of everything being torn down and empty the city looked full of life and excitement. It looked like a futuristic utopia ripped straight out of heaven.
Although for the group there was no time to look at the city in awe. "Yo we gotta hurry up and find the Borealis girls, we gotta get to the colosseum before they stop accepting teams." Said Martyr, starting to panic now.
"Yeah hold up lemme get out of this place first." Spectre said, pulling up to the end of the opening of the light portal.
"Ain't nobody letting me through, Shit!" He started to get a little bit of road rage. The light guards weren't helping much either, they were busy directing traffic along the roundabout.
"Oh! An opening!" Samsara yelled in a bit of a panic herself.
"On it." He aggressively gets the truck onto the roundabout.
"Hey Martyr, you should get in the back of the truck." Said Samsara.
"The fuck you mean get in the back, are you talking about the trunk?"
"Yeah we gotta pick up the Borealis girls quickly and there's no room for them in here. we could barely fit your fatass in the back with all those bags."
Spectre takes a hard left out of the roundabout. "Actually yeah that's a good idea, although I'm not gonna be able to pull over, you're gonna have to head out the back window."
"Aight I'm fine with it but a few things first so I know you know what you're doing." Martyr says clearing out a way in the pile of bags.
"You're looking for a girl with the brightest white hair you've ever seen. I don't know what her friend looks like."
"Okay I think I got it. Shit we should've gone over this an hour ago." Spectre sounds stressed. "Bro I'm sorry we shouldn't have been screwing around."
"I don't really care, plus it's a little late for that right now." Martyr says now fully serious to try and take charge of the situation.
"Second, if we went into the right portal according to their letter they should be just a few blocks down from this road on your left waiting for us outside a hospital. Also we don't gotta worry about them spotting us, we're the only ones in a dirty-ass truck like this."
"Got it." Spectre says as he takes a hard left that was probably illegal.
"One more thing about the colosseum is that big-ass building over there." Martyr leans up in the front seat to point to a building towering over every other building around them.
"That's a colosseum? That thing looks like a castle."
"Yeah I know it's kind of insane, but that's where the event is being held. You got all that?"
"Yeah, I think we got this." Spectre says without enough confidence to fully reassure Martyr but he was out of time to motivate him.
"I'm counting on you, I'll try and shout into the back of the truck or I'll hit the top if I want you to pull over." Martyr says as he pops open the back window.
Noise immediately floods the car again. Martyr doesn't even know if he got a response to what he just said but it doesn't matter to him, the only thing on his mind is trying to squeeze through very tight fit out of the back window.
As his head pops out the back window he follows it with his arms that he uses to pull the rest of his body out.
He falls onto the back of the truck rolling down the back of the trunk to hit the door of it with a big slam. As he sits up in a kneeling position, grabbing the sides of the truck so the wind going by the car doesn't throw him off.
He makes eye contact with the old woman driving the car behind them who gives him a weird look.
Martyr looks around him, finally getting a good view of the insane traffic of the city.
"This one road has more cars in it than our entire block back at home." He thinks to himself as he holds back his hair from flying in his face.
Thinking about the poor area of his city he grew up in reminds him that he's thousands of miles away from it right now, on a completely separate island.
He looks up in the sky to see if he can spot Deimos on the island above. Despite the size of the dark capital, with the combination of the clouds above, the city lights and his shades he can barely make out anything at all.
Snapping back to reality, he moves to the other side of the trunk to face forward to see where they are in the city. Immediately he is able to see a building with a giant Red Cross about an eight of a mile ahead of them.
Martyr leans down to the still open window and shouts in "The building with the Red Cross, right down there." He doesn't even attempt to try and hear if he got a response or not, the noise of the city is too much.
As they get closer and closer to the hospital Martyr is able to spot the girl he's been looking for on a sidewalk that somehow doesn't already have cars parked there. She looks a little panicked herself as she looks into traffic for the truck she was told about in a letter. Martyr immediately feels relief flowing through his body as gets excited and bangs on the top of the truck.
There's only one problem.
"Why's she alone?" He thinks to himself as Spectre pulls up to the girl on the sidewalk.
She is without a doubt Blair. The pretty girl with insanely white hair, was holding a backpack along with the stuffed backpack she had on her back. The same weird purple scar on her temple. She was wearing a suit like she was going to attend a business meeting.
"Hey Blair, nice finally seeing you again."
"Hey Martyr, long time no see."
Martyr extended his hand out to her. "Ok I know this is a little weird but could you climb into the trunk?"
"Wait what?"
"Yeah there's probably not enough room for you in the back seat with those bags." Said Spectre rolling down his window.
"Yeah sorry we didn't think this through very much. I know it's a little dangerous but it might be our only choice." Martyr says scratching the back of his head.
"Don't worry about me, I'm kind of a badass." Blair says as she throws the bag she's holding in the backseat.
"Aight grab on, let's see how much of a badass you are." Martyr says as Blair grabs his hand and uses the other one to prop herself onto the truck.
She gracefully hops into the back and sits down across from Martyr. "Wasn't too hard." She says grinning.
Blair had a quiet, wispy voice but spoke with a lot of confidence. She almost sounded girly-girl but not like the type he was used to back in Deimos.
Martyr pats the top of the truck again to signal for Spec to start driving and sits down in the trunk. "So where's your friend? Was she not able to make it?"
"Oh my god..." Her expression immediately goes from having fun to stressed out from the question. "We were able to afford Gloria's element test and everything, but the doctors made some sort of discovery about her while she was getting her tested to see what element she would be most compatible with."
"Wait what? Discovery? So she's still in the hospital?"
"For right now she's staying there but… I don't really know, the situation is so confusing. The good news is she'll still be able to sign up for the contest. I got a paper from the doctors that will let her be admitted without being there."
"Ok that's good, but hold on, what did the doctors say to you exactly?"
"Well after only a few minutes in the waiting room one of the doctors came out with Gloria and they said that they have a way of securing us a spot as one of the 7 winning teams today. The problem is they are gonna need to bring her with them to the colosseum for their presentation."
Martyr puts his hands over his face out of anxiety. "Holy shit, this is a lot to take in."
"Yeah that's not even the hardest part to process though."
"According to the doctors…"
"Vanagloria is from earth."