Flip Side of Love

Chapter 17

"Okay I'm ready," Amelia announced, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Finally, let's go to the start. I'm so pumped!" Taylor yelled.

"This is a bad idea." Geoffrey announced with a shake of his head.

"Someone's gonna break their neck." Austin agreed.

"Won't be the worst way to go." Christopher shrugged.

The five of them took their places at the start, observing the course mapped out before them. There was no going back now, no more time to second guess oneself.

"Ninjas, are we ready!?" All five friends turned their heads to face the direction where the sound had come from. "I said, are we ready!?"

Taylor being the only one truly excited for this event responded with an astounding, "YES!"

"Your mission is to get the scroll to the Imperial guards before sunrise. Make your way to the archives, find the scroll, and get it to the Gate House. Any questions?"

"NO!"

"Then go, but remember you are not the only one's after the scroll." With that ominous warning, a buzzer rang out, and each of their individual doors opened. Before any of them thought to enter, they all turned to look at Christopher, eyes clearly asking him, 'what in the world have you gotten us into?'

Christopher walked through the threshold of his own door, ready to get the whole activity over with.

"Wow, this place is really decked out." Nicky said, as she looked around the tunnel, they were currently walking through. The place she was referring to being, "Ninjastar." Christopher cringed when he saw the name, but it had the highest ratings. "Ninjastar" was a company that provided an interactive experience for their customers. Customers could select different packages and become ninjas for however long it was stipulated. The package he got was an escape room/obstacle course. Basically, together as a team they'd go through separate tunnels which had different obstacles. Obstacles included: wall climbing, tightropes, swinging arms, monkey bars and even fighting rogue ninjas. Basically, it was 'Ninja Warrior', 'Ultimate Tag' and 'Total Wipeout' all rolled into one. Once they completed those they'd end up in a room where they'd search for the scroll, and finally together complete another obstacle course to get to the Gate House.

"My, my, my. Just like my gravy, the plot thickens." Christopher looked over to Nicky to see what she was talking about. "Wow, these guys just turned this into Among Us."

Grabbing the paper Christopher quickly read through the extra instructions:

'Sleeper Agent Activate

Your mission begins now. You must swap out the scroll for this duplicate, and obtain the original for yourself, whilst your team is distracted. Once you have the scroll in your possession, leave it at Wontang Street.

Do Not Fail Us!'

"Of course, why am I not surprised?" Christopher muttered.

"You must look like a snake." Christopher gave Nicky a deadpan look, completely unimpressed by her snide comment. "Just saying," Nicky defended, putting her hands up.

Ignoring her, Christopher continued down the tunnel until he got to his first obstacle. "What could possibly go wrong."

---

"Oh no, Mei Hung has been assassinated. The imperial guards were fed the wrong information! There is a traitor among your ranks, and they succeeded in sabotaging your mission. Christopher Steelborn, the Vipers have taken over the capitol, and you have been promoted to general. As for the rest of you, you have been imprisoned, and are awaiting judgement."

Christopher ignored the betrayed looks his friends were giving him, and headed straight for the hatch that had opened.

"You're a snake!" Austin yelled after him.

"Hiss, hiss." Nicky mocked.

"How could you?" Amelia wondered.

"I got this note." Christopher explained, as he held the note up. Geoffrey quickly snatched it from his hand, and read it over, before passing it on.

"That's just cold man." Taylor tutted, shaking her head in disappointment.

"Hey, I just played the game, not my fault you were all so easy to manipulate."