We all walked onto the platform. It lowered slowly into the VR chamber, humming with sterile light. I tensed as it hit the bottom now surrounded by towering platforms and jagged walls reaching far above like a digital monolith.
The team looked around.
I watched the mage tense, fingers twitching for the signal to act.
Ace stood with his hands deep in his pockets, scanning lazily calculating beneath the surface.
Wolf bounced on his heels, grinning, utterly unfocused.
"So when do we start, boss?" Wolf chirped.
The wind picked up just slightly.
The magician's eyes widened. Ace's hands shifted readily and his brows furrowed.
Axel's words were caught in his throat as Wolf's head flew past him, severed in an instant. A clean cut.
I clicked my tongue.
"Did you think the battle would give you a heads up? Move!" I gritted out.
Despite my warning they didn't quicken the pace. It seems they were to loose and lost in the thought the that the initial test would be easy. Rookie mistake. By the time my sentence hit the air, the rest of the team was already being devoured.
A three-foot monster small, absurdly innocent in appearance gutted them one by one. Their limbs dropped to the floor with wet, organic thuds. The creature laughed, a sound far too sweet for its carnage.
I watched it approach me. I stood still knowing the ordeal about to unfold. The system crackled.
Protocol activated: Full Team Wipe.
A white light erupted from the tower core, burning my bones to ash in seconds.
------------
"Ugh, what! You guys suck!" Wilder's voice cut through the reactivation screen like a punchline.
"They gave you a dump team this time, huh, Loui?"
I detached myself from the cold floor of the safe room. My teammates were groaning around me, clearly shaken.
"What the hell was that!?" Axel barked. "I thought this was virtual reality so why the HELL did it feel like I actually died!?"
I stood, brushing myself off without expression.
"That's the reality part."
Wolf snorted.
"Now that's a "head off" a good pun huh Axel" wolf joked.
I could tell he was trying to lighten the mood a bit. His friend glared at him and shook his head.
As I walked toward the tower gate again, a hand gripped my shoulder, Wolf's.
"Hey... do we really have to go back in there? Shouldn't we talk this through or something first?"
I removed his hand and looked over my shoulder.
"We have exactly ten minutes to complete our testing sections. Failure to do so results in system wide annihilation."
The team went ghost white.
Axel grabbed my collar, lifting me easily his size overwhelming mine.
"You fuckin' kidding me!? You brought us here to die?"
His teeth clenched hard enough that I could hear the force of his rage fracturing him.
I looked him in the eye, steady.
"I did not bring you here. Your criminal records did. This facility exists to unify outlaws and the justice system under one common cause, survival."
He clicked his tongue and turned away, fuming.
Behind him, I saw Wolf reach slowly toward the base of his neck toward the nanostem.
My body went still.
"Stop! !"
It was too late. His neck glowed red in the form of three dots in the back and you could faintly see something worming in the back.
A shadowy glob snapped from the wall, swallowing him whole, then spitting him back out like rotten meat.
A familiar voice drifted from above.
"Looks like we won't be beating this system anytime soon."
Shadows slithered down the walls, whispering in airy tongues.
It could only be…
"Zero," I said. "It's about time you showed. You're late."
A man emerged from the dark long wolf-cut hair, crimson eyes, sharp ears. His body was cloaked in living tattoos, pulsing like they breathed.
"I don't remember asking anyone to wait," he replied, flat and arrogant.
"Yet you're here," I returned, just as cold.
Axel had already released me, standing off to the side, gaze locked on the newcomer.
Without a word, he charged grim determination in his stride. His grimoire flared beside him, whispering death's tongue as he prepared a lethal incantation.
Zero didn't flinch.
His shadows lunged, ejecting Wolf's limp body into Axel mid-cast. The collision knocked both into Ace, forming a groaning, confused pile of limbs and curses.
Axel scrambled up, furious, ready to retaliate until Wolf grabbed his sleeve.
"Wait Magi! He can remove the bugs!"
Axel turned to him, confused and breathless.
"What the hell are you going on about!?"
Wolf pointed to the back of his neck now smooth, the implant gone.
Axel raised a brow, then checked. His expression darkened with surprise.
Then he smacked Wolf on the back of the head.
"OW! Dammit, why!?" Wolf yelped.
"For being an idiot!," Axel snapped.