(Outdated) The King of Elements (part 2)

Chapter 7

After the rest of the group bought their weapons, they made their way next door to the Emblem of Valor gym. It was a much wider building than the chip shop, and it had a row of windows across the front of it. The glass double doors slid open with a whir as they filed in.

Inside, there were three circles of tube-like beds surrounding a circular table. Dre figured it was for the person operating the arena since there was a computer resting on it. Two of the circles had a group of people already operating in it, so Ichi led them to the circle on the far left. The people in the beds had wires attached to their heads by small suction cups. Their eyes were closed as if they were sleeping.

"It doesn't matter where you all sit," Ichi said as he began clacking away at the computer. "After I send you into the arena, I'll install your weapons and whatnot. Just sit tight." They all laid in the pod; the suction cups automatically latched onto Dre's head. "Is everyone ready? Because this is going to hurt like hell."

"What?!" Dre cried out before he felt the world suddenly drop from him.

His eyes immediately shot open; he found himself in a completely different area. A blue grid stretched across a white, seemingly endless room. He attempted to turn to his head towards his team, but felt as if he were paralyzed.

"Can everyone see alright?" Dre heard Ichi's voice call to him in his ear, almost as if he had a communicator in it. He didn't wait for anyone to speak. "I've disabled your ability to move for the moment-" He paused. "There, you should be able to move now." 

A bombardment of voices broke out once the Apprentices were able to move. Almost as soon as the voices began, they were silenced and immobile once again. "I see now that that was a mistake. I'll explain what's going to happen first. In order to ensure that you all can properly experience the arena, I first have to calibrate your body specifications into the system, which means that you will have to have a little skirmish, but I'll save that until after I get you all in sync.

"Now, I'll remove the movement restrictions so we can begin to program you into the system. I will assume that you will keep quiet, calm, and focused, otherwise I'll end the simulation immediately, and will only have to hope the system can recognize you all." After a second, Dre felt himself free from the restrictions. "I will first test your eyes to ensure they are in sync with the system, starting with Michael. Follow the orb, please." After a moment of silence, Ichi asked, "Does everything feel normal?"

"Yes," Michael said; Dre imagined that he would have nodded as he answered.

"Excellent. On to Kim." Another pause. "Everything ok?"

"Yes sir."

"Splendid." Pause. "Keiko?"

"Yes, Mr. Itchy-nose?"

"This girl, I swear to God," Ichi mumbled. "Do you feel any lag?"

"No, sir."

"Great," he said, sounding as if he forced himself to say it.

A glowing, blue orb hovered into Dre's vision. It slowly moved around; Dre tried to follow it with his eyes, but it felt strange, as if it took his mind a second to grasp what was going on. "That's weird. How'd you do that?"

"Do what?" Ichi asked.

"For some reason, my eyes take a quick second to move. Pretty sure that's not natural."

"Just a little lag. Hang on, I'll fix it in a moment." The ball remained suspended in front of him. Before long, it slowly began moving again. This time, when Dre followed it, his eyes surveyed it normally.

"Rockin'. That's much better."

"Excellent." It zoomed to his right towards Ian, who stood just right of him.

The first test finished soon after, with only Dre, Rose, and Megumi lagging. Before he was able to speak, Megumi pounded her fists together, saying, "This is boring. When do we get to kick ass?"

"Don't worry. You will be able to deliver your foot against posterior soon enough." With this, a blue, transparent version of Ichi appeared in front of the group. Sneering in his usual way, he placed his hands behind his back. "For this exercise, I'll need you all to follow me to ensure that there is no lag with your body. But first-" he turned away from the group and held his hands out towards the vast emptiness. At once, a bright light circled the group, panning outwards. As it moved, a green scenery took the place of the seemingly endless blue grid, and before long they were surrounded in a deep, bright forest. Beams of sunlight sliced through the trees, looking as if it were creating a wall of light. Somewhere to Dre's immediate right were sounds of a stream gently running through the forest.

Turning back to the group once the forest finished materializing, Ichi began. "This is the Serenity Forest reserve, based solely on our very own reserve of the same name. The only difference is that the version of the forest you're in now is dated back a few years before the King of Element's war, so it's grown quite a bit. Now, before we do begin the fighting, we've got to make sure that there are no delays in your movements. I must warn you: Do not do anything in here that you can't do in real life. You could end up seriously hurting yourself, or worse."

Dre gulped.

"Wait," Ian interrupted. "So what you're saying, is that we can die here? Like die die?"

"Permanently? Oh, goodness no." The hologram Ichi chuckled. "If you die here, or get hurt in any way, you'd be perfectly fine in the real world. Though you would feel a simulation of the pain due to small electric shocks in that place. Just a quick heads up," he added as he turned away from the group. "First, we'll start at a slow walk. Follow me, if you will." He limped away.

Megumi groaned as she followed the hologram. "Do we really have to take a quiet stroll through the forest? I wanna try out my new guns, not take my leisurely time here. And why haven't we even gotten our weapons yet?"

"We've got to take things one step at a time, my impatient little niece," Hologram Ichi said without turning to her.

Kim walked next to her, smiling gently as she said, "It's not that bad, Megumi. Besides, I'd figure that a gamer like you would've appreciated the amount of detail in this place."

Sighing, Megumi said, "I suppose so. It does look more detailed than any game that I've ever seen. It must've used a lot of data to make this."

"'A lot' of data doesn't even come close to how much this arena uses. We're talking petabytes here. Easily." Ichi stopped and turned to the group. "Everyone okay back there?" The group nodded.

"Excellent. Then I will now install these chips. You'll need them." The hologram vanished after he finished speaking, and almost instantly their equipment flashed into their hands.

"Oh, dude. This is so sweet," Megumi chuckled excitedly, pointing her submachine guns towards the forest.

Michael scanned his sniper rifle. "It feels almost perfect. But now I'm wondering why he decided to give us these now."

"Ain't it obvious?" Ian asked as he sheathed his large zweihander on his back. "Why else would we get them?"

"To fight, I suppose," Rose answered, holding a coiled whip in her hand. "That or defend ourselves."

Keiko placed her pistols in the holsters on her hips and nodded.

The question is: defend us from what? Dre sheathed the broadsword on his hip and adjusted the knife holster across his chest. "Are you ready, Kimmy?"

Kimmy nodded as she retracted her claws. Three tomahawks were attached to both of her legs, as well as a small shield and sword strapped to her back.