Fortnite: Project Mecha

Chapter 2: Found

Drift was sat at a round table, covered in a clean white cloth in a room where there were no doors or windows. No escape. The walls were all grey. No visible material could be seen, it was like the colour grey just surrounded him.
Drift didn't have pyjamas, so he was in the clothes he was in when he went to bed - hi-tops, black cargo trousers, a simple black facemask and a white tank top with a black, silvery-gold and maroon geometric design over that top that carried up into the turtleneck-like neck. It tightly fitted around his throat, and that might have been one of the reasons that Drift felt like the air was thinning around him, but fear was also a factor.
Where was he? Had somebody captured him? If so, where were his girlfriend Lynx and his other friends? Were they safe? Had they been looped by the captors? Drift shook his head - he should've been thinking about what might be going on and grieving over a mere guess might be a bad thing to do.
Drift scrunched up his eyes as he thought. The last thing Drift remembered doing was going to bed beside Lynx beneath a statue of the leader of the faction he was in: the Seven. It was technically supposed to be a hiding place, but the statue gave it away a little. Still, how would anybody know to go there to find him?
When Drift opened his eyes, three women were stood there, their whole bodies tainted a blood red and their irises a haunting blue as they stared at him. Skye, with her shoulder length brown hair, blue denim jacket, yellow shirt and black jeans ending in brown adventuring boots. Aura, with her yellow backwards cap over her ginger plait, stood with her usual white tank top and jeans like Skye's. And Brite Bomber, her neon pink hair tied into a short ponytail accompanied by sunglasses and a purple undersuit with a unicorn crop top and indigo jeans.
There was only one thing wrong - they were all looped and them looking like that was impossible.
"Drift, how could you let this happen?" Aura hissed. Her normal voice was mingled with a serpentine sibilence.
"Drift, you failed me! What will Raz and Mothy do without me?" Skye grinned spookily, the serpent voice invading hers as well.
To complete the snaking set, Brite Bomber pouted, "I loved you, Drift. It's a shame that you didn't love me back."
"I- I-" Drift stuttered weakly.
Then they all screamed, their flesh melting into a red puddle on the floor that expanded from the puddle and rose up around the room. Drift hopped onto the table and closed his eyes, willing for his life to be ended sooner rather than later.
And then, granting his wish, the walls of the room closed in with a bang.

***

Drift woke up with a loud jolt, as he yelped and threw himself on the floor with a small thud. Lynx woke up as well, sliding on her glasses. Lynx had feline green eyes behind those glasses, topped by bubblegum pink hair. She wore a cyan and cherry hoodie around a black shirt that faded into a similarly coloured skirt above white and cyan leggings that just quite didn't reach her blue and red boots, which she was just putting on.
"Good morning." she grumbled, scratching her head. She wasn't a morning person, but neither was he.
Drift hugged her and pulled down his facemask to give her a kiss, "Hey. I swear that I heard something explode, but I think that it was just a nightmare."
"Oh, ba-"
The explosion sounded again, rumbling against the walls so that they cracked and making both Drift and Lynx gasp and jump back, holding each other close as another shockwave hit. And another. It appeared that real life wasn't much better than the dream world.
Drift and Lynx dragged each other into the hallway, made of the same clay used in their room and in Sanctuary. The doors were automatic; the one opposite Drift's room opened to reveal Raz and Mothy. Raz had naturally spiked black hair and stubble, his runic-inspired tattooed chest bare but his legs covered by baggy white trousers that Drift would trip on if he was to wear them. Mothy wore a black helmet themed after a moth, complete with beady yellow eyes. He wore an olive green jacket over a black long-sleeved shirt and puffy black trousers ending in olive boots.
Raz was the leader of the couple. He had more of a dominant personality and was more serious, but acted different around different people. As did Mothy, and more so. Sometimes, he was shy and mumbly whilst most of the time he was bubbly and naïve, particularly it seemed around Raz and himself and Lynx.
"It's so loud!" Mothy squealed.
"We're aware." Drift laughed uncomfortably, "We're trying to find the cause."
"Explosions up above. Probably IO, here to get revenge for that bounty hunter Boba Fett that we sent packing." Raz sighed. Boba Fett had been hired by IO to attack the Seven, but the Scientist had sent him back to his reality.
"Where are the others?" Lynx gulped, watching the walls crack around them.
"Here!"
It was Mothy's older brother Plague, a sheepish but clever biologist with a talent for medicine development. He wore a black plague doctor's uniform, mask with added ghostly green eyes and all, with a faded apron from his lower chest downwards. With him was Guff, what had once been the kind and friendly Skye's shape-shifting hat before she'd looped. Sometimes, Drift wondered how sad Guff was at Skye's death considering how sad he himself was but Guff always appeared happy, his puffy pink feathers and fluff still proud around his tiny little face.
"I was worried then." Lynx sighed.
Plague shook his head awkwardly, "Sorry. The Scientist will be more worried, let's go look for him."
"Guff." Guff agreed. That was all he ever said.
"Oh yeah! Here's your hat." Plague placed Guff's bright blue hat on his yellow-winged head. He always lost it.
"Guff!"
The six of them paraded carefully through the slowly crumbling hallways, once just barely leaving a hallway before it collapsed in on itself. Then, they began to pick up the pace towards the exit of the hideout; the main living room. There, the Scientist, his girlfriend Shanta and his ally the Foundation were all waiting.
The Scientist said that he used to be very funny but that the previous few months had drained his humour. The Foundation had backed up this claim, and the Scientist was beginning to make his good jokes come back. Drift had to admit that he was rooting for him.
Shanta was genuinely a good person. She had shiny black hair and yellow-gold armour that reflected every light that hit it, the armour's black underlayer like a light insulator. Leader of the Seven the Foundation was simply leader material. He wore cobalt blue armour and had made himself a special sniper known as a Rail Gun using some of the Scientist's tech. Drift found the man a bit frightening, if he was being honest.
"Roll call!" the Scientist called, "Me... Shanta... ok, let's go!"
The Scientist turned to leave but stopped and smoothly turned back.
"I really have lost my touch, haven't I?" the Scientist groaned.
"It wasn't that bad." Shanta shrugged, "Maybe you can practice when we don't die."
"See! So smooth." the Scientist made an aggressive raspberry sound, "But I do like your plan. Move it, people!"
"We're not actually doing a roll call?" Plague objected but followed.
"We're all here, Plague. Don't worry." the Foundation reassured.
"Ok."
"Guff!" Guff smiled as the ceiling began to cave in behind him. Drift could've sworn that one of his vital organs evaporated at that moment.
"RUN!" Lynx shouted.
Everyone quickly began to run faster, the feeling of Drift's turtleneck tightening returning after the nightmare. They just barely managed to escape the base before it all tumbled in, destroying everything within it. The layer upon which the large, beige stone statue of the Foundation stood remained intact just barely. The statue itself was not so luckily. Hopefully its legs weren't personally attached to their upper half, because it all came crashing down as the group ran through the saltwater to get to the main island.
Drift turned back for a second and saw the Foundation's stone head go flying towards him. He screamed before running on. Sand and water sprayed. And now it was clear that IO were barraging it on purpose. There was also another large prominent detail now clear to them.
The IO had found the Seven.

To be continued...