Starr Park: A Brawl Stars Story

Spark Plug

The four other people in the room seemed to be less scared than Jessie. They were just standing there and looking at Jessie curiously. There was also a fifth one who was sitting at a corner alone.
"You must be Brawler J." Said one of them in a whiny voice. It was a teenage girl, like Jessie, who had pink short hair and was wearing a blue and white stripy t-shirt, a blue pirate beany with a skull, a pair of blue baggy pants and two big golden earring. Jessie ignored her and started to hit the door nervously, but no-one came.
"It's impossible to escape, trust me. I've tried everything, but it's pointless." Said a boy to Jessie. He was wearing a lime hoodie and looked like a chameleon. Jessie continued what she was doing for a couple of seconds and then stopped.
"My name is Jessie; not Brawler J.", she turned around and spoke to them abruptly, "...And I'll find a way to get out of here!"
"I'm Brawler L... I mean Leon. This is Penny. This is Spike", said and showed Jessie the boy next to him. It wasn't a boy actually; it was a small human-cactus that was wearing a purple cardigan, "This is my sister Nita.", it was a girl with red bear-like hoodie and a blue locket, "And this is Sandy who's sitting there." Leon introduced the boy at the corner.
"How long have you guys been here?" Asked Jessie while also checking the walls for a possible means to escape.
"I've been here for a month, I think. It's difficult to keep track of time in here." Replied Leon. Suddenly, the door opened and the man who kidnapped Jessie got in.
"The Boss is waiting for you." Said the man. Leon, Penny, Nita, Spike and Sandy started to walk out of the room when Jessie caught Penny by her wrist.
"You can't be following that man!"
"We can't escape from this place. The best we can do is to cooperate and do what he says." Said Penny in a miserable tone and let go of the girl's hand. Jessie hesitated at first, but then decided to follow the others. They walked along the corridor and got in the golden elevator. Nobody said anything in there. Everyone was silent. It wasn't the awkward or annoying silence. It wasn't the silence of having nothing to say. It was the silence of fear; it was the deafening and torturous silence of expecting something bad but not being able to do anything about it. Jessie realised that it was the first time for the others to go upstairs after they were kidnapped. The ground floor was so much brighter than the last one. The kidnapper told them to enter a room with several chairs. They sat down, without saying a single thing to each other. After some minutes, a doctor came inside. He was wearing the casual yellow suit everyone there was wearing.
"Hello Brawlers! Please, stay absolutely still." He said calmly and approached the children. He kneeled and put some gadgets in their ears.
"What's that?" Asked Jessie annoyed.
"These are starr-swabs. They... They will help you concentrate on your goal. Don't worry, it is completely harmless if you don't resist." Answered the doctor, but Jessie looked skeptically at him. When he finished, he gave Jessie a blaster and told them to get out of the hotel and go to the backyard. It was a huge circular empty yard that looked like an arena. At the side of the hotel that ovelooked the yard, there was an elevated dais protected by two layers of glass. As the children approached the yard, a voice was heard from the dais.
    "Hello dear Brawlers! Welcome to the Brawl Arena!", it was Mr. Paananen who was sitting in there. The kids were shouting at him but they couldn't be heard, due to the double-glass protection, "Please, stand at your spots on the ground and wait for me to continue." Added the penguin. The children, confused about what was happening, they obeyed and stand at their spots with their initials. After a while, Mr. Paananen pressed a button on his desk. Immediately, Jessie felt an excruciating wave of pain, as if she was tasered. They all fell down and started to scream. Fortunately, the intense pain stopped after a couple of seconds when they heard a whispering voice in their heads.

"Prepare, Brawlers! Prepare to fight with my signal. I'll count from one to three. One... Two... Three... Brawl!"

Another wave of pain pierced through their bodies. This time, it was more painful, but it ended quickly. Suddenly, Leon disappeared. Jessie didn't know why, but she had a strange desire to kill him. She took hold of her blaster tighter and approached Leon's spot.
     "Where is he?" Shouted the girl angrily. She then turned around. Sandy was creating a large sandstorm to reduce their visibility. She aimed with her gun and calculated Sandy's current position based one his velocity and direction of movement. She shot blindly and hit Sandy!  The boy fell down and the sandstorm disappeared. Nita touched her locket and stretched her arm out making a big red bear appear out of nowhere and ordered it to attack Jessie. The girl shot the bear a couple of times but she couldn't knock it down. She ran away when Spike threw a thorny grenade on her. She dodged it and continued running around the arena shooting everyone who was there. Suddenly, Leon appeared in front of her.
    "How?" Shouted Jessie. Leon put some ninja stars from his pocket and threw some of them to Jessie. "Ahh!" Jessie was hit by some of them in her shoulder. Leon approached her and was about to throw all of them to the girl, when he stopped and Mr. Paananen's voice was once again heard in their heads.

"Showdown finished. Well done Leon!"

All of the brawlers got in the hotel again and entered the same room to have their starr-swabs removed. Immediately, Jessie stopped feeling anger, instead, she was really tired. They went down to their room on last floor again. Jessie sat down thinking about what had happened. The other ones had started to fight, because of what had happened in the arena. They were shouting to each other, even though everybody attacked each other and didn't know why. It wasn't us! It was the starr-swab that made us fight with each other! Thought Jessie.
    "It wasn't us! It was the starr-swab that made us fight with each other!" Repeated out loud. The other kids stopped and looked at Jessie.
    "It makes sense." Replied Sandy who was clearly sorry about what he had done there.
    "If that's true, they will make us fight again. Or worse..." Said Leon.
    "We can't stay here, do nothing and just wait for them to mind-control us again!" Exclaimed Penny.
    "We won't. We're gonna fight back." Whispered Jessie for fear of being heard by someone else outside the room.
    "How? This room is protected. Our powers won't help." Asked Leon.
    "I've got an idea!" Exclaimed Jessie.

Next morning, all of the so-called brawlers were going to be real brawlers. They were going to fight back and save themselves. They woke up early and Jessie explained her plan.
    "This is not just a bracelet!", said the girl and showed them her green gear-bracelet, "It emits a powerful electromagnetic pulse that absorbs all the electricity up to 1.5 miles around me!" Explained Jessie in an enthusiastic tone.
    "Awesome!", exclaimed Nita, "But that door is just a simple door. It won't open with your bracelet."
    "It's not for the door. When the man who gives us food arrives, I'll immediately turn the lights off and you will attack him. Then, we're gonna get out secretly and escape!"
    "That's genius!" Exclaimed Penny.
    "There's one problem...", said Sandy pessimistically, "The elevator won't work if you use your bracelet."
    "And that's the difficult part of our escape. Although the elevator won't work, there's a secret emergency ladder in the the laboratory. We can use it."
    "It'll be full of people, though..." Replied Leon.
    "You guys are fighters! You have such incredible powers! You can beat everyone up there!" Exclaimed Jessie to embolden them, but they all looked at her reluctantly.
    "We may have all those powers, but we're not superheroes. We're just a bunch of kidnapped kids." Said Nita. Jessie wanted to say something to give them hope but couldn't come up with something efficient. To her surprise, Sandy approached her and looked at her as if he wanted her plan to take place.
    "Mr. Paananen killed my parents to kidnap me.", he burst into tears, "I can't stay here and just obey." Jessie realised that no-one there knew that. It was the first time she hadn't something to say. She just wanted her plan to work properly. When she arrived there, she didn't care about anyone else; she just wanted to escape and return home. Now, she realised in her heart that it wasn't just her. She wanted her plan to work properly for everyone there. They all got closer and hugged Sandy.

After some hours, the man who gave them food arrived. He knocked the door -just to knock it, because he opened it anyways- and got inside. Jessie was hiding in the corner and waiting for him to get in and close the door.
     "Brawlers, take your food!" He said and gave them a bag with snacks.
     "Now!" Shouted Jessie and pressed her bracelet. Immediately, all the lights turned off. Spike threw the man one of his grenades and knocked him down.
    "Let's go!" Whispered Penny. They opened the door as quietly as possible and walked along the corridor to find the laboratory. When they found it, they stayed outside and waited for Jessie signal. When ready, she told them to get in. Leon, Sandy, Nita and Spike started use their powers to hit the doctors in there and were about to leave the room when Leon shouted:
    "Wait! If we just leave, he'll continue the experiments to others. We should destroy this lab!" Said and used his daggers to break the machines of the lab.
    "Ok! Let's leave now!" Shouted Penny. The kids used the ladder and got to the ground floor. The lights were still turned off. They walked to the exit door when a man stopped them.
    "Do you, children, really think I'm an idiot?", shouted the man. It was Mr. Paananen who was waiting for them there, "Go back to your room now!" They waited for the lights to turn on again and got the elevator. Disappointment is the worst feeling, they thought. Not because their plan didn't work, but because they were expecting it to work. The more the hope, the more the disappointment after their failure. Today, they returned to their room as losers; at least, that's how they felt. However, inside their heart they knew that they had accomplished something significant. They had proved to themselves that escape wasn't impossible.