Colleen Wing (warriorcoded) wrote in oh_marvelous, @ 2015-04-28 01:36:00 |
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So what if nothing is safe? So what if no one is saved?
Characters: Colleen, Misty, Danny, OT Avengers?
Setting: Planet Terror
Content: Violence
Summary: Time to get the hell out of here.
There was little surprise anymore. The fighting, the bloodshed, the cheering and booing; it was all routine. Colleen worked out that the days ran shorter on this planet than on Earth, though they seemed long and unending, and blurred together with repetition. Some, beaten to resignation, accepted this life. Others wanted out of the cycle and desperately welcomed death. The rest were too far gone to care one way or another. But the hope that had been stripped away and defiled began to quietly find its way through the cracks, back into the hearts of the forsaken. Word spread, whispered from cell to cell, passed along while the guard's backs were turned and covered up by the crowd's jeering, undetected by the unwanted. There was a plan to escape, and slowly but surely faith began to revive in the hearts and minds of the hopeless and the cynical.
The last time Colleen, Danny, and Misty had spoken, it was to refine what they and their allies had established as a very solid scheme. All that they needed now was an opportunity. Now, Colleen sat in her bunk, silent and thoughtful. For most of the day she'd been that way, meditating away her restlessness. She felt a vague and indecipherable uneasiness that she couldn't explain to Danny, but hoped that maybe she wasn't alone in feeling that way. Surely not. All she could do was clear her mind, block out her environment until the door slid open and alerted her to step into the customary line with her cellmates. As usual, the champions were accounted for and led down to the mess hall. Nothing happened out of the ordinary until the siren dictated that they were finished, and instead of the guards taking them back to their respective cages, they were taken outside and pushed along to the outskirt of the structure.
Each prisoner was put in restraints, connected to each other by the ones on their ankles, and commanded to walk. The cuffs didn't allow for a comfortable stride. One miscalculated step and a prisoner could cause the whole train to trip up. The march started off rocky until they reached the start of the hill where the real trek began. No one wanted to fall off the ledge and thus treaded carefully in uniform, heads down and eyes down at their feet. No one was talking, not even the escorts who wouldn't give even the slightest hint of where they were headed, but reveled in the power that they had of knowing. The alien-made path took them along the rocky mound that the prison was built into, out and around into openness with the occasional dark cave with hot walls and spiked mineral ceilings. They traveled upward for a long while against gusts of warm sandy wind before they reached leveled ground. Colleen looked up, eyes wandered curiously of their own accord at the liveliness of the alien town they'd stepped into.
It looked as any major city one might step into. Markets, vendors, shops. Most of its alien inhabitants often turned their heads to watch the champions parade through, to holler and even throw things at them. Colleen bowed her head again and let her mind go idle for the rest of the walk, until the group was away from all the activity and finally at their destination.
Colleen shot Danny a glance, and then Misty, who was in another row nearby. They stood in front of a wall with a thick, rough surface, dusted with crystallized specks. The height seemed insignificant compared to the superstructure the wall protected; a castle that looked straight out of a science fiction novel stood magnificent before them, architecturally different from anything Colleen had ever seen before. Not much time was given to absorb the view, the champions were told to follow the escorts leading them to a cave-like entrance that revealed itself in the wall. Spoken curiosities among the captives were immediately shut down. Nothing much gave way of where they were until they entered a hall with silvery walls and a smooth, glistening floor that was so clear that it gave the illusion that you might fall right through into nothingness. The guards who brought them there went up to a door blocked by another pair of wardens, clearly of higher rank given the garb they wore and the weapons they held. They nodded and let the prisoners through.
Inside, the group was separated and taken to different rooms where a team of royal slaves stripped them and wiped them with cloth. They were then divided again by size and each champion was fitted for armor. Clearly meant for show, Colleen thought, as her attire didn't seem to cover anything particularly vital. Each was given an embroidered mask that took on the face of individual beasts, some of which were recognizable from those they'd faced in the arena. Once everyone was equipped, the smaller groups were reunited with the rest of the champions on either side in a palace hall, standing in clean, unified rows. Before them, tall, slender aliens stood on each end of the grand room by the entrances. On the other side were, undoubtedly the royals who sat on marble steps, others on embellished chairs. It was incredibly picturesque, especially with the ruler sat in the middle, arms wide open as the grin on his face as he made a show of the champion's entrance and got his guests to smile and applaud.
It was more than clear what was happening here. Colleen watched through her mask, as the middle space between them and the audience began to shift. Like a moving puzzle, pieces began to lift and move, revealing in patches an opaque body of water beneath. The very center worked itself out into a circular stage and rose higher above the trench. The ruler stood up, speaking his alien language, but with his gestures, what he was saying could not be mistaken, not with that grin. They were to put on a show, of course. A fight to the death. A treat for his special guests. The champions to start had already been selected, and with their weapons stepped down from their posts on each end of the hall and began their walk down the runway that cut through the water and led to the arena. The hall filled with silence and anticipation, as the champions posed in place. With the thud of the ruler's staff, the tournament began.