30 Day Trial

PROLOGUE

Cold. Bitter, electrifying cold.

That's the first thing Relic noticed after being jolted awake by the terrible feeling of pins and needles being pushed into his arms.

"G-Gah..."

Upon opening his eyes, he found that his arms weren't being attacked, but his vision was blurry, and his ears were ringing. He could only smell the cutting scent of metal. The only sense he could truly rely on to figure out where he was, was his touch. So, he felt around the room to figure out.

He could feel the floor beneath him wildly vibrate and jolt around. Its texture was smooth and even colder than the air attacking him. As the nerves in his arms continued to betray him, his vision began to clear up. So, he tried to find out everything he could about the room.

It was very small, no larger than an elevator suited for one person. The floor, the walls, and the ceiling were all made of some sort of very old metal, probably iron. Hanging above him was a small light, covered with some sort of rusty iron grate. All of the walls looked the same, except for the wall behind him. It had an opening with a steel gate covering it that looked like it was supposed to move. Behind the opening was a concrete wall with metal wires that seemed to be moving up.

Or, wait, was he moving down?

"It's... an elevator?" he asked to himself. "How the hell did I get in an elevator?"

Relic's muscles could barely move under the extreme cold, so he was content to just lay back down and wait for wherever this elevator's destination may be. 

Which turned out to arrive much sooner than he expected.

He, even in this dazed and exhausted state, noticed the temperature increase. The biting cold vanished almost as suddenly as the elevator screeched to a halt, and exterior light came flooding in through the opening.

"What... is this place?"

Almost on cue, the gate collapsed into the side of the elevator and waited for him to exit. Still a little bit dizzy, he walked out cautiously. As soon as he was fully out, the gate to the elevator where he used to be closed rapidly, and it began ascending again. Behind him, another gate closed to block off the elevator shaft.

Where he ended up landing was even more strange. The room had an oval shape to it, and there was what seemed like a schoolhouse cafeteria, with a stage at the back of the room. The walls were a pastel yellow, while the floors were vibrant white. Everything seemed to be made of some sort of ceramic, but only the floor was tiled. The area with the tables was a little lower than where he got off the elevators, with a small platform where he was standing and a short set of stairs to get down to the tabled area. To his left and right were taller ascending staircases, supposedly to go up to a second floor, but they were blocked off. He decided to go out into the area with the tables to explore.

When he looked up, he saw that the ascending stairs he found earlier led up to a catwalk that stretched around the circumference of the room, but cut off a little ways before the stage. The stage itself was a standard theatre stage, just high enough so that he couldn't jump on. What struck him as odd was the fact that there were no stairs that he could see to get on the stage. There was a door slightly to the right of the stage, but when he tried to open it...

"...Locked."

He sighed, then went off to explore some more. But he didn't get far before the sound of the elevator interrupted his thought. He looked over to the place where he came, and a few moments later both gates opened, revealing another person who had come to join him. She walked out of the elevator with as much confusion as he had prior. He cautiously approached her.

"And just who are you...?" she asked. She seemed confident, yet wary of her surroundings. He didn't exactly blame her for that much.

"I'm Relic. And you are...?"

"Confused. But if you want to know my name, it's Cranberry." She smirked.

But just as Cranberry stepped out, the gates slammed closed, and the elevator moved back up.

"Is there anyone else here?" she inquired.

"Not that I know of. I feel like if there was, I would've seen them already."

"Woah... this place is cool." She started walking around, absentmindedly exploring her surroundings.

One by one, more people began arriving. Cranberry quickly noticed a pattern; everyone that came down always came down 5 minutes apart. There was a small analog clock above the elevator that neither Relic nor she had noticed before, but Bismuth, the one who came third, pointed it out almost right away when Relic asked for the time.

One by one, everyone came down.

After Bismuth, it was Octo.

Then Fang.

Then Aloe Vera.

One by one, as they all came down, they all introduced themselves.

The numbers began counting up. 12, 13, 14 people.

Foxball, Honey Dipper, then Compass.

At eighteen people, they noticed that after five minutes the elevator had not yet arrived.

"So is that it?" a shy voice asked from the back. It was probably Feather. She wasn't exactly the boisterous type.

"I guess so, heheheh..." Another voice, this time more hoarse and maniacal. It probably came from Microchip.

But, one minute later, the final elevator came down. But this time, instead of one person, it had two people crammed together. As the gates opened, they both fell out, a little woozy, seeming to be slightly hurt by the impact. Half of the crowd rushed to their aid.

"H-Hey... are you guys okay?" Another shy voice, but slightly deeper than Feather's. It was Carrot Top.

"Yes, we're quite alright. Thank you." The two spoke almost in unison. It was a bit creepy. They were both two stone balls with beautiful patterns on them, and little bells inside them chimed when they moved. One of them was blue, and the other was green.

"We're the Baoding Balls," the green ball began.

"I'm Blue," the blue one continued.

"...and I'm Green." his brother finished.

"So, are you guys, like, connected or something?" A girly, slightly annoying voice asked. Limestone, most likely.

"Well, it's a little hard to expla-"

Before Blue could finish his sentence, there was a low electronic beep coming from the stage area. A loudspeaker came on. A feminine voice spoke:

"I know you're very busy getting acquainted and all, but now's no time for that. Please have a seat in the Dining Area. I'm sure you're smart enough to figure out where that is."

The voice sent chills down everyone's spine. There was something very off about it. It seemed so... calm. Suspicious.

Was this the person who brought them all here?