The Ranch

Team Troublemakers (2)

"It's time for what you've all been waiting for. As of tradition, I'll announce the name of the game and number of participants and the teams will have a minute to choose. With that, let's get started."

The holographic screens show the teams as they look toward the announcers," The game is called...Rock n' Roll. Pick four players. Begin!"

"Music related? Like the genre?"

"Or is it in the literal sense?"

Teams discuss their thoughts among themselves. Trying to find any clues that will help them pick the most effective team of four.

Tih's team, Poseidon, decides to go with the literal meaning. The physical object, rocks, and the action of rolling. With less than a minute to choose, they quickly tap on a holographic screen to lock in their choices.

"Will the chosen player please step forward and follow our staff." One staff member per team ushers the players inside the colosseum. Tih, Basile, Theo, and Victor follow along the interior of the arena with the other teams.

"Tih!" A familiar voice enters Tih's ears. They speed walk up to Tih's team and rests his arm on Tih's shoulder," Hey why didn't you tell me you were participating? I got a shock when I saw you." He pokes Tih's side in a playful manner.

"Phillip, get back here!" Another familiar face walks over.

"Chill, I was just intimidating the competition, right?" He winks at Tih. "And who made you leader anyways?"

"I'm the oldest." Casanova comes up with an answer thinking this usually works with children.

Phillip stops leaning on Tih and faces Casanova, puffing out his chest, "By what, two years? Well, then I'm taller, does that qualify me for the position?"

"Well you had to compensate for your maturity with something." Casanova mumbles while rolling his eyes.

"You suck at mumbling." Phillip snorts.

"That's the point, idiot." Casanova has a fed-up smile plastered on his face. "I'll be taking this dimwit back now, sorry for bothering you all." He bows before grabbing Phillip's ear and yanking him away.

Phillip wanted to use Tih to grab onto, but didn't want to hurt the boy and didn't have a tight enough hold on him. Phillip is sadly dragged back to his own group and the teams proceed forward.

Outside, the announcer continues once all the participating teams leave," Now I bet you're all wondering what Rock n Roll entails! Well, then I'll show you!" By now, he's no longer standing in the center of the amphitheater, but has nestled into a separate balcony. He snaps his fingers in front of the camera and the dirt ground glitches before changing completely.

The floor is maybe ten feet lower now. The arena is split into two evenly spaced lanes. Giant boulders twice the height of an adult man sit at one end. At the other end of the lanes, circular impressions lay in the dirt ground, three inches deep. The lanes are separated by three foot tall borders with the thickness of a foot.

Between the beginning and end are multiple obstacles like small hills and dips in the ground, or rocky areas, or a trench filled with water, or a steep decline with a sharp sideways wedge at the bottom. Right before the tip of the wedge, a pulley system to lift the boulder above the wedge.

But most important of all, before each obstacle, a single plank of metal sticks out of the ground, enough to trap the Boulder from moving any further. On it, a blank screen.

"That's right! It was a hologram all along. All of this was thanks to our sponsors-" Simon D goes into depth about the hologram that was covering the game and the designers and implementers of the course.

The screen shows a close up image of the metal plank with the panel," At each stopping point, contestants will be given a trivia question. If they answer incorrectly, they'll have to wait ten seconds before the barrier lowers." The announcer explains.

Sherlock smacks his forehead.

"Oy vey." Kai speaks for Sherlock's expression.

Sherlock looks towards the others," Does Victor, Pierre, or Theodore know much about trivia?"

Abel shrugs. Basile shakes his head," Vic doesnt." That's all he knows.

"We're doomed," A mirage of wavy dark lines appear on the depressed Sherlock's forehead.

"...a side character?" Abel mumbles a conversation with the air. The hazy black figure in his eyes explains why they'd be considered the "side characters".

After finishing, the announcer switches topics and the screens show names," The first game will be Jörmungandr vs Kratos. Let them enter!"

Stone grates against stone as two passageways slide up. Out come two groups of four. They rush into their lanes and spot the boulder. The teams quickly figure out its purpose and start rolling at the rate of a man pushing a couch across carpet, but with four athletic men rolling a boulder.

Team Kratos reaches the metal stopgap. The boulder hits the sturdy plank, preventing them from pushing forward long enough for the other team to catch up.

One of Jörmungandr's members was watching the opposition and saw exactly what they ran into. He stops his team and dashed around the boulder to see the panel with a question.

The question: [What is an eighth of a foot?] is shown on the audience screens. There are four options below and the spectators speculate over the correct answer, creating a buzz of distraction for the players.

"Commentators, what do you think about the question?" Simon D asks.

"Four in one chance. Just guess." Major Jax looks disinterested.

"...What riveting commentary." Simon D's eye twitches.

"I'd have to guess as well. Such worthless info, who'd bother remembering it." Scott tries to help.

Kai mumbles," You're worthless information, your whole family's worthless information."

Unfortunately for Kai, this was picked up by a camera, and was met with Private Scott's odd gaze," Apologies if I offended anyone."

The crowd got a small chuckle out of the interaction while the competition down below continues.

By now, the other team has also come out of their confusion. One person randomly clicked on an answer and the panel turned red. On it appeared a ten second countdown. The man looks sheepishly at his teammates. They look annoyed but let it go, knowing they wouldn't have been able to answer it anyways.

The other team also ends up guessing. Luck was on neither teams' side, but because Team Jörmungandr's side was slower, Kratos gained the lead.

They struggle up and down the small mounds reaching the next question. Once again, Kai mumbles the answer, but this time it happened before the teams submitted their response. They tried to discern Kai's almost inaudible mumbles through the speakers and noise of the loud crowd, using the picked up sounds to answer. Sometimes they were right, sometimes not. This made the race evenly matched and interesting.

Kai continues mumbling the answers along with," Isn't that obvious...even a child would know...how do you not know something as simple as that." Not only offending the teams below, but the audience for feeling embarrassed for not knowing those trivial answers. Kai can feel the gazes but doesn't mind them, looking at Scott with a gloating pout. Private Scott returns his glare with a confused look. All Kai's proven is his ability to court death.

Author's note: I mixed some references in Tehe~