Battle Universe

The First Fight

"Welcome Battle Universe to the first round of Battle Between Universes!" An unseen voice boomed when the white light finally dissipated around the group allowing them to see their surroundings as the voice reverberated around them in the large arena.

It looked exactly like their training arena, only much bigger and surrounded by people cheering.

Except they weren't really people.

All of them looked like aliens with either multiple eyes, brightly colored skin, antennae, or in some cases all three.

"This round will be Trouble in Terrorist Town." The voice continued.

"What the heck is going on?" Matt whispered to J-Fred. He shrugged in response, equally confused.

"The other contesting teams are the Glabodons from the planet Glab, the Florps from planet Florpius, and Battle Universe from the planet Earth." The voice announced.

The Glabadons were green skinned with three eyes and two mouths, dressed in black jumpsuits and webbed hands and feet.

The Florps had vibrant purple fur and was wearing black jumpsuits as well, their one eye on their eye stalk glaring at Battle Universe as they made a menacing clicking sound.

Battle Universe looked down to see that their regular clothes were replaced with black jumpsuits as well.

"The rules are simple-there are four Traitors and two Healers, the rest are Civilians. If the Traitors win, someone from each team gets eliminated and the audience gets to vote for one person per team. If the Citizens win, then everyone is safe, except for the dead Traitors of course. Now, let's begin!" The voice declared, earning excited cheers from the anxious crowd.

The same guy Battle Universe had seen with the referee shirt was standing in the center of the arena, in front of him a small white table surrounded by white chairs that looked like the ones from the office. A black laser gun was placed onto the table once everyone sat down.

"Everyone close your eyes." The referee instructed.

They all did as they were told, bowing their heads as they closed their eyes.

"Traitors, open your eyes." The referee's gaze scanned the group of sitting people.

Four people opened their eyes.

They each pointed at who they wanted to kill before they closed their eyes, the Healer opening their eyes next.

Once their eyes were closed, they heard the laser gun fire four times, followed by silence.

Everyone opened their eyes to see that four of the twenty-four people were dead.

And one of them was Bryan.

"No!" Kevin cried, starting to get up.

"Sit down!" The referee barked, whipping a golden pistol out of his pocket and aimed it at Kevin until he reluctantly slumped back in his seat, his eyes filled with tears as he glanced over at Bryan's body.

He had a single black scorch mark on his chest where his heart was, his head lolling back and his eyes staring lifelessly at the ceiling.

People dressed in all black removed their bodies before the game continued.

"Vote for those you think are the Traitors." The referee gestured around him at the others.

All of the Florps accusingly pointed at one of the Glabadons, eliciting angry chatters and clicks from both sides until the referee fired a shot at the ceiling to silence them.

"You have been eliminated." The referee aimed the black gun at the accused Glabadon and fired at its head.

It squealed in pain before going silent.

"That was one of the Traitors." He held up the Glabadon's card.

"Three more to go." He stated with a gleam in his eye as everyone closed their eyes once more, dreading the start of the next round.

The vicious cycle continued until only one Traitor was left. Thankfully no one else from Battle Universe was killed, although the same couldn't be said for the other two teams. They had started turning on their teammates, leaving the Glabadons with only five members left and the Florps with four members.

Once everyone's eyes opened for what would hopefully be the last round, Matt noticed that Chad was sweating profusely, avoiding everyone's gazes as he wiped his clammy palms on his lap while one of his legs bounced up and down.

Matt shot him an inquisitive look, only to briefly see a flash of what Chad's card was.

He was the last Traitor.

Matt swallowed hard, unsure of what to do as the group started voting. Matt felt his breath catch in his chest when he realized who was the most voted for.

Him.

"You have been eliminated." The referee pointed the barrel of his gun at Matt's head, his expression neutral. Matt squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself for what would come next.

I'm sorry I can't be there for you Amanda and Luna, Matt thought solemnly.

The laser fired, then there was silence once more.

Matt waited a beat before cracking his eyes open, relief flooding him when he realized he was still alive. It quickly changed to remorse when he saw Chad's body lying on the ground in front of him, scorch mark on his chest.

"No, leave him alone!" Matt cried when the black suited people started dragging him away.

Connor held him back by wrapping his arms around Matt until he finally gave up, tears freely trailing Dow his cheeks as he watched his friend's body dragged out of sight.

"Looks like the citizens won. The next match starts tomorrow." The referee pressed the same button on his whistle, causing the familiar white light to engulf everyone and send them back to their training arena.