The Freaks of the Ring

Four : Rayne

In all honesty, I'm not really all that impressed at first glance. This supposed Ring place isn't exactly what anyone would call high-class, but it is better than anything my old safebase had to offer. Levi must see the mildly disappointed look on my face because they choose right then to pipe up. "Trust me, this isn't all to see. This is just the dorms hallway."

Sure enough, every twenty yards or so there's a sign hung on the wall obviously salvaged from wreckages, from things like 'TOXIC WASTE - HANDLE WITH CAUTION'  and 'DANGER - HIGHLY FLAMMABLE.' The door were we just exited slides shut, revealing the 'CAUTION WET FLOOR' sign hanging from the invisible entrance. Every single wall is a soft grey color, as though they were painted with ashes. It would actually make a bit of sense since the rest of the hallway reeks of burning wood and old embers.

"You can only enter your own room, unless permitted by another member of the team to do otherwise." Ventus speaks up at some point in our seemingly endless walk down the hall. "When you wanna go back in, just pick up the bottom of the sign and let it fall back. The sensors on it should pick up that you're supposed to be in there and let you right back in, so if there's any trouble, just let either of us know. Or really anyone that's not Rem or Kannie. We'll have you meet them later." She shrugs her shoulders and continues to do her little weightless skip down the hall. Her feet never do fully touch the floor.

After a few more minutes, we're back where we started right in front of my room. Did we just go in a circle or..? "Yes, Rayne. We did in fact go in a full circle. We just wanted to show you why exactly this place is called the Ring." Ventus grins up at me, having literally read my mind. I really hope she didn't go any further than that single thought. "Now for the serious part of the tour." There's another sign labeled 'EXIT,' which she pulls back by the bottom and lets fall back to the wall. Another invisible door opens when the plastic, which appears melted in more than a few places, hits.

At least this next room doesn't appear so confusing. There's a few people in there, including a girl with bright purple hair, who's talking to a boy with equally as vibrant blue hair. It's the guy that I saw...when had that been? I have next to no concept of time in here, seeing how I have no clue how long I've been asleep in my personal aquarium. But the guy seems to recognize me when he glances up, since his face gets a bit red and I can hear him say something about meeting the new guy to her.  Ventus doesn't even bother with introductions. She just runs, err...floats quickly over to the girl and hops up right into her grasp.

Levi just shakes their head a little and pulls on the blue-haired guy's arm so he'll come closer. "Blitz, I know he's the new water guy and everything, but I swear he won't go all shark on you."

A little hesitantly, Blitz stretches out a hand crackling with little electric currents and smiles. "Hey, sorry about the other day. I'm Blitz, electrical controller around here if you couldn't tell." His voice is edged with a heavy accent, though I can't figure out what. I never have been good with other languages, after all.

I have to pass on the handshake, but I cautiously take his wrist between two of my fingers and shake that a little. I don't exactly feel like being electrocuted on my first day here, after all. Levi even shoots him what I think would be a venomous look under their mop of hair. "Hi, I'm Rayne and I think I'm Aquaman."

The girl happens to walk over right as I say that, now with Ventus hanging onto her back. The little girl doesn't even seem to be a challenge for her to lift. "That's crazy. Aquaman is lame, and everyone is pretty damn awesome if I say so myself." She holds out her own hand, which is covered in a fine layer of dirt and plant matter. "Tierra's the name, playing in the mud is the game." At least she doesn't seem to be interesting in harming me two seconds after meeting me. "I'm the resident earth elemental. I promise not to send you into shock within five minutes." Even she gives Blitz a dirty look.

Blitz just holds up his hands in the surrender pose and grins. "Is it really my fault that I have an electric personality?" Queue the exaggerated groan from everyone else. I can already hear Levi muttering something under their breath about needing to quit it with that stupid joke already.

"Just curious, but where exactly /is/ everyone else? Please don't tell me we're the only people here?" I glance from person to person, but only Tierra seems interested in giving me any form of an answer whatsoever at the moment.

"No, we're just the only ones not training or in the infirmary," she sighs as Ventus hops down from her back. "And it's probably not the best idea to interrupt training, so to the infirmary to meet our not-exactly-sick-but-not-well-either members." Taking the air elemental's hand, she leads us to the infirmary, which is just through a normal doorway a few yards away. It's the first normal thing I've seen in this place, honestly.

Levi's the one that takes us in though, forcing everyone but me to stay behind outside. "I'm supposed to be on duty taking care of these idiots at the moment, but our leader let me off the hook for the day to lead you around here."

A few more doors and little halls later and we get to a fairly large room filled with cots, though only are occupied at the moment. One I recognize as the person Blitz had been watching over when we first encountered, the other the weird robot guy that basically kidnapped me and stuck me in this place. Robot guy decides to ignore us for the time being, so over to the still unconscious one we go.

"Over there's Tony, genius cyborg that really doesn't like to use his head all that often." Levi sighs and points to the dark corner where Tony's sitting. "But this little guy is Doku. He might look a little scary at first, but I swear he'd basically harmless if he likes you." They take Doku's hand from under the blanket that's been wrapped around him and press their lips to his knuckles.

Almost instantaneously, his acidic green eyes pop open and he lets out what I think is the world's loudest gasp. Fangs slide out from his gums and curl over his lip after he gets in all the air his lungs need. He seems to look right past me at first as Levi helps him to sit up and gather his surroundings. The poor guy looks even helpless right now than I feel. I'm just about to say something when he beats me to it. "I see we've got a new guy." His voice is surprisingly quiet, though he slurs his 's's together.

"I'm Rayne. Water power is you couldn't tell by the name." I smile and take one of his leather-clad hands. He smiles back and actually tries to be pleasant. It's probably the closest thing I get to receiving a real grin so far in the day.

I don't know why, but just being around him makes me want to stick around. At least he isn't hesitant to actually get into a real conversation with me, unlike a certain electric personality I met earlier. Maybe I really could get used to this.