Kell says, "Introduce yourselves."
Court took a puff from his cigarette, and replied, "Listen kid, I've been appointed the leader of this little team we got goin' here. Don't talk in a way in which it defeats the purpose of me being the boss of you."
Kell blinked, looked left and right, and started pulling out his katana, replying, "You wanna say that again, scum?"
Macch sighed, "Oi, we don't have time to be arguing with each other."
Telli added, "Exactly."
Court blew smoke out into the air, and said, "Pfft. I'm Court. Leader of this group, oldest between all my siblings, and I'm a class A Fighter. Next person, go."
Grey raised his hand slightly with no expression on his face, "I am called Grey. Class B Fighter. Highly determined. Will win at all costs."
Kell thought, 'He's an emotionless one. I hate those damn types.'
Everyone looked at Emma, and Emma had an angry look, saying, "My name is Emma, class B Fighter, it's nice to meet you, Kell. I've heard good things about you, your name is pretty well known around here. Please, let's have a great time searching for our brother!"
Emma stuck her hand out to Kell, and Kell looked down at her hand.
Kell closed his eyes, looking away, and he shook Emma's hand.
Kell looked at the family of three, thinking, 'Court, he's the type of lazy bastard with an 'I'm the oldest so I should be respected' type of guy; I bet he likes to drink as well as he smokes. My mother and father were the same in ways, but never drank anything, mostly because they wanted to to savor the feeling and excitement from a mercenary mission. Grey, he's the young adult who keeps an emotionless face, it doesn't look like he'll be annoying. And then lastly is Emma. Emma has an angry face, but is super nice. What a weird bunch of scum. But..if these are the people I'm gonna be working with, I don't care. I'm getting May back.'
Kell said, "I'm pretty sure you all know who I am, who doesn't? I'm the boy with the katana, a katana that will slice you in half if any of you tend to mess up or jeopardize May's safety. This is important, my family is involved."
Court yawned, "Our family is involved too, brat. Our little brother is only but a mere child, why the hell did he have to be taken and not us? This is all too weird, we'll do whatever it takes to find him."
"Ha? I don't care."
Carter leaned against the table, interrupting, "-Alright. After a heavy amount of research done since people started disappearing, we only know of a few Fighters who have the ability to do something like making people disappear in the blink of an eye."
Emma asked nicely with an angry face, "Who are the other Fighters, may I ask?"
Two pictures showed up on the screen behind them.
The two pictures were of the two Fighters who had an ability to somewhat make people disappear really fast.
Telli informed the group, "This is Diablo and Kit. Two best friend Fighters who were once in this guild. Both of them had a unique set of skills and powers, abilities that could kill people in the snap of a finger and to never leave a trace of blood or anything of evidence. They were really good assets for this guild, they always stayed to themselves, and did their jobs."
Kell asked, "You're not telling me that May is dead are you?"
Carter responded, "We are not saying that at all, but it could be a possibility. The best thing you can do is not to get worked up or something you haven't even seen or know yet, that just defeats the purpose of having faith in something."
"Tch. So what do you want us to do? Find them and ask them politely where they are holding all the Fighters they snatched?"
Macch answered, "We are not implying that they are the true culprits of taking Fighters, it could be someone in the shadows doing it, or someone with a very high power level. We are just asking that once we truly locate Diablo and Kit, you all can talk to them."
Court asked, "There's something deeper going on here, isn't it? I can feel it."
Carter replied, "Everything has a deeper meaning to it. Who knows, maybe this situation isn't what we think it is."
Grey was slightly poking Emma's ear over and over, getting on her nerves.
Emma made the same angry look, "Oi, that's very very veryyy irritating, big brother! Please be nice."
Grey tilted his head, "No."
Grey kept tapping Emma, until Emma stood up and started to stand up, her teeth got sharp, and her nails got sharp, and her mouth was drooling with foam, saying to Grey with a deep voice, "I said be nice!"
Grey continued to stare at Emma, and he tapped her again in her nose.
"Nose."
Emma started to laugh, and she was going back to normal, sitting down in the chair.
Kell thought, 'I take back what I said. This team is crazy and horrendous.'
Court asked Kell, "What's the issue over there? You're ego sending voices to your head or sumthin'?"
"Who are you?"
"Hah?"
Carter interrupted again, "We will contact all of you when we have located Diablo and Kit."
Kell asked, "What is the Division guild going to be doing in the meantime."
Macch answered, "Although we don't think Diablo and Kit are the culprits behind this event, it's good to just be sure. We'll still be trying our hardest to get to the bottom of this incident."
"I see. I think the Division guild are the culprits behind this. You guys talk funny."
Carter answered, "With all this supernatural stuff going on, it could be us, we could be mind controlled or something or had our memory wiped before."
"I can't tell if you're being serious or joking. But, I'm outta here, take my number down, all of you."
"I have a few jokes up my sleeve. Ugh, I sounded like Rudy right there."
Tell and Macch replied to Carter at the same time, "You did."
Court stood up out of his chair, stretching, and saying, "I'm tired as hell. Nap time when we get back to the safe house. And maybe a few drinks to help soothe my soul."
Emma responded with an angry face, "Yay! Nap time!"
Grey nodded an emotionless expression, "I'm doing raids."
Kell watched them again, thinking, 'I knew he was a drunk head. Is this really going to be okay? May..I'll be on the way soon..don't worry, Wherever you are. I don't want a repeat of our childhood..at all.'
Carter asked Kell, "Kell?"
Kell turned to him, "Huh? What do you want?"
"If you happen to run into Kaiju and Stacen again, please inform them of the job offer I stated to you earlier."
"Yeah, yeah, I'll keep an eye out, old man. And know this one thing..I'm giving this my all. Not for any of you, but for May. Just wanted to state that to make things clear. I don't want to be held responsible if I leave you guys behind to save my sister."
Court walked to Kell, replying, "By all means, I understand well enough, brat. I do. Me, Grey, and Emma are in the same boat. We're giving this our all, for our brother. I hope we can have a mutual understanding on both of our ends."
Court stuck his hand out to shake Kell's hand, and Kell answered, "Tch. Yep. As long as you guys understand I help no one but May, then you have earned 1% of my respect."
Emma cheered with her fists balled up and teeth gritting, "Mutual agreements!"
Grey added, "This is a good team."
Carter, Telli, and Macch just looked at them, not having a single concern.
(Minutes later)
Carter and Macch were walking through the guild base together, walking in the courtyard and passing by guild members.
Carter and Macch eventually started to walk past a garden, with Passive Fighters harvesting magic rubies, planting them in the ground.
*Magic rubies - rubies that are found in exotic locations that if harvested in the ground, can give Fighters temporary video-game like perks.*
Macch said to Carter, "I'm still impressed by what you've done with the place. Creating one of the largest factions in the tower and doing some great work alongside it, even having strong Fighters work for us to help us on our mission.
"I don't care about climbing the Tower of Valhalla like everyone else, so I used all the Fighter points I gained from raids and Fighter events to buy this guild base."
"Truly impressive. You're really determined.."
"Of course I am. I'm always serious about what I do. And ever since we've been here, I've wondered what state earth is in."
"I've wondered that at times as well. Especially by how chaotic things were when we had left."
"Right. But I feel like we're getting close to knowing everything, though it does seem pretty far, I still feel like it's close. The Tower of Valhalla expects Fighters to train their asses off and perform dangerous life threatening raids to get stronger, to never give up. That's how it is with us, we won't give up on this at all."
"Yes, sir. But what if we die here?"
"We won't. But it's gonna take a good couple of knocks to take us down."
Macch thought, 'So inspirational..'
Macch asked, "So…you've been wanting to invite Kaiju and Stacen to this party, what about Sho Takahashi?"
Carter stopped walking, and Macch stopped walking as well.
Macch continued, "Carter..?"
"Sho..is a strange one. A boy that I know will become extremely dangerous if he gets stronger. He is indeed talented with a lot of fire in him, but he's too much of a loose cannon. He won't take orders from us. And plus..not to mention he's only a class C Fighter. He's just not there yet. If I brought him to this team, I hate to say that he would just drag them down. And there's still a mystery floating above his head, how he and his grandmother are related to this Tower."
"Have you ever got the feeling that this incident with people disappearing all over the place is related to him and the tower?"
"Plenty of times. I know for a fact Sho has seen or heard something we don't know yet. Things always seem to be connected even if they don't correlate within each other's regions. Possibles are endless."
[City 7]
[Electronics store]
Sho was inside of the electronics store, where he saw a bunch of electronics on shelves; things such as game systems, televisions, headphones, speakers, etc.
There were other Fighters and Passive Fighters within the store, taking and carrying on with their shopping.
Sho walked around looking, thinking, '2,000 Fighter points, it's making me feel like I just got 2,000 dollars. It still doesn't feel real at all. I don't feel hungry since I can gain Fighter points easily to get food, and I can afford most of the stuff within this store.'
Sho stepped up in front of a game system with four controllers, called the "Switch-Blade X."
Sho thought, 'The Switch-Blade X. This is from earth, the newest gen console. Back when I was a child, they made the Switch-Blade Z, A, B, and now X. I remember walking in the stores with my parents, pointing and begging to get one, but I could never get it, mostly because dad thought it would fuck up my mentality, screw my head up like his head was. Mom thought I should have the game, since she wanted me to experience the joys of being a kid. Yeah, what a fucking childhood I had. The price on this is 100 Fighter points, something I can actually afford. That'll leave me with 1900 Fighter points. I still don't know how many Fighter points I need to ascend to the next floor, so..yeah. I mean, I figured that I should at least reach class S on this first floor first, and then save my Fighter points to ascend. Mostly due to the fact that I don't know what awaits me on the next floor, so I want to be fully prepared. Even though each floor is similar with raids and stuff, I could still encounter anything. I really do want to buy this, since I've never played a video game before. It feels good to finally be able to buy something on my own, I feel like I actually worked for it.'
Sho bought the console that came along with controllers, leaving him with 1900 Fighter points.
[The Inn]
Sho was standing near his TV, trying to set up his console. Sho had an instruction manual, and he was reading it closely.
He murmured to himself, "So I plug this in here, and plug that in, and boom. Wait, fuck I messed up! Fuck! Dammit!"
Sho was about to stomp on his console, but he held himself back. Sho sighed, and continued to work on plugging the game in.
Sho finally finished, and he sat on the bed in front of the television.
Sho was holding the controller, looking at the screen, watching the game start up. The game was a fighting game, called "Brawl-Brawl!!!"
Sho said, "Hmph. What a dumbass name. Why is it taking so long to start?"
The game had a dozen fighters sitting on the screen in fighting stances, and they had a moving background, with epic music playing in the background.
Sho yelled, "Start the match! Come on!"
Someone in the inn room next door yelled at Sho through the wall, "Oi, shut up!"
Sho yelled back, "You shut the hell up, I'll kill you!"
Sho went back to the game, and then the main menu started up, looking like:
-Single Player Story Mode
-Single player vs CPU
-Multiplayer mode (Local play, PVP)
-Offline Multiplayer
-Custom room
-Online play
-Options
Sho said, "Hoh? I have an idea of what these things are with common sense. I need to warm up, I'll choose the first one."
Sho looked down at his controller, and pressed a button to start.
Sho then had to choose a character out of the dozens of characters, and Sho scrolled through them, saying each time he saw a character, "Ugly. Too big. I don't like that stance. Definitely not being an animal. Cool outfit, I'll choose this one."
Sho chose a character that had on a red hoodie with street jeans and white shoes with boxing gloves.
Seconds later, the match started, and Sho was constantly smashing buttons, but his character was getting the shit beaten out of him by an alligator character.
Sho gritted his teeth, leaning forward mashing buttons, and he was already sweating.
"Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! This game is cheating! He's spamming the same moves! Cheater! I'll kill him!"
(2 hours later)
Sho had won but only one of the 54 games he played, and he was still playing with a grin on his face.
'I never knew playing a game would be this fun. Imagine if I had played this when I was a kid.'
Sho was getting serious now, and he was standing up on the bed playing.
"Come on!"
Suddenly, Sho's door was kicked open, by..Kell.
Kell stood there, saying, "What in the hell are you doing?"
Sho looked at Kell, replying, "You! Grab a controller and play against me! I'm good! I'm the best! How did you find my fucking stronghold anyway?!"
"I saw you walk into this inn awhile ago back at the cafe. I kicked every door down until I found you. I have questions for you, fool!"
"Die or play against me in this game!"
"Game?"
[A Beach on the outskirts of city 6]
[Beach, Class C Raid]
At the edge of a beach, was a large circle grey concrete platform in the middle of a platform, with a concrete bridge touching the water leading to the platform.
On that low bridge, we're large dead fish-men, with their weapons all around them.
Standing on the platform were 30 class C Fighters.
They were prepared to fight the raid boss, who was a humanoid with pitch black eyes, brown skin, white hair in a braided ponytail with a few long and loose braids, with the sides of his head shaved. He was wearing a tight blue shirt, black baggy jeans, with no shoes. His name was Kamui.
Kamui was sitting cross crossed, holding a sword on his shoulder.
The Fighters said to each other:
"Kamui…is our raid target."
"This raid will give us the maximum limit of Fighter points a class C raid can offer…5,000 points."
"We can do this."
"78 Fighter guilds with class C Fighters have tried to win this raid..they all were killed by Kamui..no one has won this raid at all..not one fucking guild! Not one Fighter!"
"I don't wanna do this anymore!"
"Get yourself together!"
"Damn you! I'm running!"
Kamui stood up, and the Fighters panicked.
Kamui looked at all the Fighters, saying, "Fear only cover's those who are afraid of death. All things should humble themselves, not because they are told to, but to gain enlightenment within the seasons of hardships and distraught regions. You men, your fear and humbleness will not save you, since your fear overrides your humbleness, I will give you what you are afraid of, since you have already manifested it. None of you are worthy, none of you have a heart of stone; stone, in which the platform is stone that I stand on, that keeps my feet above the waters, so I won't drown."
Some Fighters instantly tried to run, but some went to attack, with their colorful powers and weapons blasting all over the place.
They yelled:
"Get him!"
"Don't hold back!"
"Watch your surroundings!"
Kamui sighed, "None of you are worthy. Fear, pride, and weakness is destroying you all. It is not me who will be killing you, but it will be by the hands of yourselves."
Kamui closed his eyes, and clones of him with swords popped up behind the Fighters, and started slaughtering them with great speed, the Fighters could barely see them.
"Where?! Where?!"
"Behind you-! ACK!"
"AGHH!"
Kamui stood there, watching the weapons and the powers of the Fighters blast upon the clones.
Kamui sat back down on the platform, and turned around, saying, "None of you were worthy to face me, but had to face my clones instead. Which shows how much you all have fallen within your fears and pride…"