Chapter 1: Eyes Awake for the B Team
Sunlight flickers through the window of the inn room, tiny peeks of the world outside the lightly furnaced, rustic room. In the room’s single bed is a mess of blonde hair emerging from the hood of a thin, grey hoodie. The figure under the hair starts to stir, suddenly sitting up and moving the hair to one side to reveal the left side of their face. Reign spins around, legs thrown over the side of the bed, before getting onto their feet with a gentle thud then another few thuds as they stumble forwards before getting steady.
“Need more sleep” they mumble to themselves, “…Later…” Grabbing into their backpack, they get a replacement set of clothes, including a hoodie and regular fit jeans, before stumbling their way to the ensuite. The ensuite is much more modern, though a wooden shower unit probably wouldn’t be too useful, with the basics for a fresh morning all supplied and ready to use, the room like stepping from a fantasy style inn to a small, sanitary home bedroom. Reign puts their things to one side and looks in the full length mirror, taking the time to remember how they ended up in the inn in the first place.
It all started when they woke up the day before and couldn’t find their milk, so they looked around Hometown and all the milk had been taken! They’ve partially taken any clue and wandered in the clue’s direction, ending up in this inn. Their left arm holds a tattered sleeve, the arm itself covered in lightly covered bandages. They carefully remove the bandages, cringing at the small stings of movement, they sigh as they see the splattering of cuts, still open, “… No more panicking” they unceremoniously reapply the bandages. Next bit of patching themselves up was a healthy helping of burn cream to their waist, while much more painful to touch, the memory of this one is a bit better, a very small smile on their lips between pained cringes of actually applying the cream. Final thing to check was the hidden side of their face, moving their hair to the side to inspect a peppering of pinprick cuts on their cheek, thankful that this one doesn’t need any covering.
After the beating they clearly took yesterday, they’ve ended up in a rather new town, forming within the last 20 years, though they don’t remember the details too well, they were only a toddler at the time, and they’ve had no reason to leave their hometown in their life, all they know is that the town is almost completely occupied by space aliens! After bumping into the leader of the (assumed) human group, Rainbow Bright, they were informed that they won’t be through without completing a trial, but before even describing the trial, he got them a free room for the night to rest up first.
Completely rushing the shower, Reign used their own shampoo but outside of that, was happy to use the supplied toiletries. They emerge from the ensuite freshened up with their blonde hair exploding out of the front of their hoodie, covering the right side of their face, emerald eye taking in the room one last time before they pack their damaged and dirty clothes and make their exit. The door to their room faces the top of the stairs down, they take a moment to look at the door of the room next to theirs, the door is open. They nod to themselves and take the first step down. A voice unsubtly runs up the stairs.
“A TRAIL!!! From THE Rainbow Bright!” That young adult losing his mind is Brodee, Reign’s best (and totally only) friend, one quick look at him sitting at a table quickly confirms it, messy hair, loose sports clothes, basketball Reign thinks, but they actually have no idea. “I really hope this trial is a bit less tough than your robots though” he beams with a glint in his eye, bruised from a sucker punch. His fork wielding hand bruised around the knuckles where he tried to punch out a robot… it didn’t work, for the record.
“Yeah, he’s pretty cool, I mean, I do know him… remember?” sitting opposite him is Del, the head engineer of the local robotics R&D site, her hair obscuring her face as she appears to be making repairs on some form of controller. “Always good for testing stuff too” a bit of oil from the controller drips onto her button up shirt and slim jeans, she appears completely unbothered by this and continues to tinker with the controller. Luckily for her, she has only just joined the group so she is free of battle damage for now, minus the fresh drop of oil, at least her plate is already empty.
“Hey guys,” a rather unemotive tone from Reign as they take casual steps towards the duo, taking a seat at the table and looking at the food menu behind the bar, the chalkboard menu mostly features parts of a full English breakfast. After mulling it over for a minute, they’re back on their feet and towards the bar, behind the bar was a professional looking man in casual clothing, on his chest a name badge reads ‘J.K.’, when Reign approaches, he stops cleaning glasses and diverts his attention to the hooded person. “Bacon egg muffin” they look to the man behind the counter for a moment, “… Please.” J.K. nods and gives a thumbs up, firing up the hot top and preparing to make some food without a second delay with Reign nodding and returning to their seat.
“You sleep well?” Brodee finishes up the last of his food, looking to Reign brightly
“Yeah, burn still…” Reign gestures to the area of the burn mark, “… Hurts though”
“Sorry about that!” both Brodee and Del reply in unison
“Don’t worry” Reign smiles softly as they look between the duo, “it’s all good”
“Good to hear” Brodee gives a thumbs up, “I got some practice in this morning so that shouldn’t happen again” a small fire brewing behind his eyes, a promise behind his words.
“Yeah, and I’ve got a stealth drone overhead to throw down some bots” Del clicks her controller back into one piece, “Should be a good bit of help”
“Good to hear” Reign slumps into their seat a bit, letting themselves relax as they see J.K. approach the table, putting a double bacon and egg muffin down. “Thanks” they take no time in chomping it down, devouring the food before J.K. makes it back to the bar.
—
Stepping out the inn into the heat of the sun, the trio make one step before a voice calls out to them.
“I hope you rested up well,” a figure they’ve all seen already approaches, its Rainbow Bright, sporting a casual T-shirt and shorts.
“Oh yeah, thanks again for setting us up for the night” Brodee beams, “So what was the trial we gotta do? Not to rush, but I’m ready for it!”
“I do have one question first” Rainbow looks the group up and down a couple of times with a judging expression, “Have you ever encountered individuals with powers? Like beyond basic science type stuff”
Del quickly steps forward before Brodee can think of a response, “Well I think I can spill the beans on that when it comes up, isn’t the point to keep everyone on their toes?”
“… Sure, why not?” Rainbow provides a casual shrug, “Since Del knows so much on the area, I’m sure she can guide you around as well. The first trial is in the small basement lab” he then gives an overdramatic bow, “And with that, I’ll be off, Del has my number if you need any assistance and I think there was a robbery a block away I need to chase down!” With those words, he runs off, turning a corner out of view.
“Soooooo Del….” Brodee looks to Del with a harsh judging expression, “If you knew these guys, you could have said yesterday instead of me going in front for first contact”
Del returns the eyes on her with a look of pure confusion, “Wait… did we talk to him yesterday? All I remember is walking and working on my new controller” the eyes on her quickly grow more judging “Really! If I saw any of the team, I would have said hi!” The eyes on her get more harsh, “I was working on a controller to help out, I very much doubt how well I can throw a punch but you both know how well my machines can!”
“……………….. Alright” Brodee is clearly not convinced but drops the matter. “Well either way, we gotta get to the basement lab, so lead the way” he over dramatically throws his arm out to let Del walk ahead, before Del walks the other direction, seemingly completely obvious of what just happened.
One short, boring, annoying, uneventful walk later, they stop outside a suspiciously bland building, so bland that within the block of normal buildings, it’s the blandest of them all. Reign takes stopping as a sign that this is the building they need and buzzes the electric doorbell/speaker that offices all seem to have, waiting for a response.
“‘ello ‘ello, this is Alex, what can I help ya with?” The speaker speaks out with the extremely compressed voice of a woman, sounds cheerful at least.
Brodee steps in, “Hey, we’re here for a trial? Rainbow Bright sent us here” after a second pause, the door unlocks, after another second of the trio looking at each other with no words, they walk in and head down the set of stairs at the entrance. The entry was, again, plain office style, a couple of signs showing companies upstairs but all of the companies have either rainbow or general colour theming. Down the stairs and past a keycard door Del has the key for, they enter the underground lab.
The lab is more plain, more sterile, tiles line the walls and floor, the only thing interrupting the look of the room is a young, casually dressed woman under a stack of boxes, reaching for a computer terminal before seeing that people are already in the room. She starts to speak but before any words come out, she locks eyes with Reign.
Like lightning she slips out from under the boxes, a catlike hiss coming from her mouth, picking a bulky sniper rifle from the floor and flicking a couple of switches on it. The sides of the rifle explode out, forming a barricade that spans the width of the room, the only hole at the centre around where the sniper scope pokes out. By this point, Reign has pulled their small crossbow from their waist, pointing it dead ahead, an uncharacteristic look of angured determination on their face.
Brodee makes the closest sound to a bunch of question marks possible, Del looking over the scene for a moment before speaking up, “You said Reign is a developer, right? Well they’re both similar but not compatible maybe, I mean, if you had a new guy come in that’s chatty and sporty, you’re probably gonna hit on him or something, so that’s all good. I think myself and Alex have seen… the way Reign looks at other people, it’s not bad, but they give an aura of not wanting to flirt or anything like that, and if it’s not a flirt, it’s a fight” this does not stop Brodee’s confused noises but he trusts the explanation given Del’s knowledge on artificial intelligence, there has to be some overlap… right?
Reign fires the first shot, hitting the barrier, the bolt gives a weak bounce off before falling to the floor, the barrier not even getting a paint scratch. Retaliation, only a split second of aiming before a shot, as fast as sound, launched towards Reign, it aimed towards the side of their face hidden by hair, while aiming to hit where Reign has a harder time seeing, it presented its own problem. The shot bolted through their hair… and right though the back of their hoodie’s hood, missing the head entirely. Taking a second to inspect the damage, they were able to gleam that the shots are non lethal by the damage to their hood tearing the fabric much more than a straight up bullet would have.
Reign only mumbled one word in response “… Trickshot” they aim their bow to the floor, taking a moment to line up, before firing, the bolt starts bouncing off the walls in a spiral, getting over the barrier! The bolt continues its path until it hits the back wall, rebounding towards the back of the barrier. One moment later, a pained noise is heard from behind the barrier followed by a barrage of shots.
All of the shots missed, not even a mistake like the precious shot, none of the shots are even close to hitting. Reign rolls their eye(s?), taking their sight to the scope of the rifle, possibly the perfect size for a perfect shot. The rifle still aimed in their direction, Reign focuses their eyes, takes a deep breath, steadying their body. Next was the aim, focus fully on the aim of the crossbow, lining up a shot with an unsteady target. Finally, time to fire.
The bolt fires, even with an unsteady target, the bolt enters the rifle’s barrel, scraping the insides and getting quickly jammed with part of the bolt sticking out. A hesitant moment, she could be hearing to see if the bolt hits the floor or even that the bolt didn’t make it through the small gap around the barrel. But in the end, another shot can be heard, this time no bullet escapes, a loud bang like a PSU breaking ring out throughout the room.
Soon after that, the barrier comes down, reverting to a bulky sniper rifle form, Alex available to see once again. Her eyes are much more tired than before, her arm heavily bleeding with a bolt sticking out of it. “… You pass… I’m going to hospital” her voice is completely deadpan, a far cry from her cheerful tone before entry. She doesn’t look towards anyone, walking towards the exit and leaving the room without another word.
A moment passes as the trio look at each other, “We win?” Brodee offers an over the top shrug. Reign pitches in with what sounds to be a very deadpan JRPG victory tune made of ‘do’ noises before checking their hair, adjusting it to hide the hole made in the fight, their hoodie damage, not as easily hidden. Del quickly gets behind them and like lightning, she had the hole patched, not invisible but better than a hole.
She then pulled out her phone, tapping away at it for a moment, “Alright, got the next location, you good to go?” She looks to Reign who plainly nods in response, they stretch a bit, Del leading the group outside and to their next destination. On the way they pass many stores, Del occasionally veering towards one and looking through the window to take a look before getting back on track, mostly electronics and tech related but a disappointed sigh from the tech head.
Brodee stops for a moment, “So… what’s the game plan here? Like I’m gonna be honest, I just almost saw my bestie get shot in the head, why are we not freaking out about this?!” Reign just gives a halfhearted shrug in response, Del fiddles with her remote a bit having not listened at all. Brodee just sighs, “You two are crazy, I don’t understand how the hell you’re so calm” he simply sighs in defeat.
One step forward, Reign’s hair on the back of their neck stands up, they fire ahead, their bolt hitting something and pinging off to the side. A katana clatters to the ground in front of Brodee, “This is it” Reign mumbles, keeping an eye on the katana to see if its owner shows up. Before the mystery person makes the move to the katana, something is rolled to the group, rapidly spewing out smoke that covers a small area. It only lasts a few moments, a figure standing just outside of the smoke, katana in hand.
“You’re really pulling out the stops, aren’t ya, Chi?” Del speaks up with a smile, another friend to her. The figure wears a brown hoodie and loose trousers that hide their figure, spiked up brown hair on the top of their head. From their head and hands, they appear to be slim and their skin is tan in colour. “My guy, you don’t have to be like that with it, you don’t gotta try and be that cool, it’s just me and these two people that got me out of the lab” Del beams.
Chi rolls his eyes, “Sorry, Del, you guys have got a test and I’m not going to hold back” he sounds lightly hesitant, his voice also sounding a bit put on, forced a little lower. He grasps the katana with both hands, pointing it towards the group in a fighting stance, “So, we gonna see if you got the metal?” He takes a great leap into the middle of the group, spinning his blade around, the group jumping away.
A moment of respite, Reign pulls an item out from their hoodie pocket and gets a good spray on their opponent with it, ecstatic spray, known as e-spray, good for friend or foe alike. Chi stops for a moment, looking at the sprayer with pure bewilderment for a few moments of stillness before he bursts out laughing, moving in a zigzag, his steps faster, his katana hungry. His sword barely misses Reign, who uses another spray, this time tough spray, known as t-spray, his downswing slows down but the force of the swing lodges the sword into the ground, without pause he effortlessly pulls it out.
Chi looks to his target’s somehow unscathed body, “D-did she not tell you? I take either spray so I guess now you gotta pick your poison. Wanna keep me strong or want me even faster?” The look in his eye was one of pure confidence, he has full control of the situation and has practically pinned down the leader of the group, if there’s a time to be confident, it’s now.
As he moves his sword to land a surefire blow, he instantly turns around, slashing at a small rock that was thrown at him, he takes a step towards Brodee, throwing his sword in the air, letting it twirl and catching the handle without looking away from his new target before suddenly stopping, putting his hand to his chin as if in thought. After apparently thinking something through, he turns back around, sights back on the leader. Brodee rolls his eyes, pulling Del in and making some silent gestures, ending with a worried thumbs up, getting a nod in response.
“Hey, Chi, wanna try out my new toys?!” Del shouts out, multiple small flying drones shooting from her sleeves, hovering behind Chi for a simple moment before rapid firing small pellets. The noise of the firing combined with the angle of the attack allows Brodee to game legally dribble his basketball around the side, a leap in the air to full force slam dunk the ball right onto Chi’s dumb, distracted head, the movement, the timing, the placement of all of the pieces was perfect!
“Del, you have to not agree to plans I can see through, sets a bad scene for the party” Chi turns around, the handle of his blade launching into Brodee’s gut, he was completely defenceless with how surefire he believed the plan to be. “So now that this basic distraction won’t work and what looks like the most sporty of the group is gasping for air, what will you do no-” the sound of one of the drones being hit rings out, quickly followed by a squelch. Chi looks down, seemingly not too phased by the crossbow bolt currently in his leg, “… this is probably why they don’t let me on the A team” he lets out a sigh, keeping more of an eye on Reign and their crossbow now.
“Del… more power” Reign calls out, firing out multiple crossbow bolts as Del calls back her drones, soon sending out bigger ones. The bolts are near misses, the threat of them being enough for the drones to set up and get a few shots, Chi having to put his focus into blocking the drone shots lest he get pelted by actually harmful pellets. Seeing the opening, Reign takes a direct shot at Chi’s other leg, him blocking the bolt but letting his guard down, the drones focusing fire on his sword wielding arm to stop him getting his defence back up. A couple more near miss bolts divert his attention before he sees the endgame but it was too late, too much happening at once to do anything about it, Brodee had the slam dunk inches from landing.
One major head impact with a sports ball later and Chi was down for the count, he was still awake but dazed, on the floor, and with one leg being completely spiked through. Del quickly makes a call “Hey, Rainbow… yeah it’s pretty good… no we’re not having trouble… Just saying that you might wanna pick up Chi, he’s kinda pretty badly beaten… concussion, probably some bruising, and he’s got a bolt through the leg… yeah I think it’s about the same spot he got shot… great, thanks” and like that the phone was put away, “He’ll get picked up in a moment, so want to move onto the next one?” There were shrugs between the rest of the party before Reign gives a thumbs up and Del leads the way, completely unphased by her first major fight involvement, humming a little song and tinkering with her small remote as the group moves ahead. “I think Fiona’s in the local inn, from the sounds of it, she got put on the boring jobs recently so she might be itching for a fight”
In the next chapter!
“…3 years ago…”
“I am Fiona Colour, protege of the Rainbow Stripes and leader of the B team…”
A bat swings, a loud grunt can be heard
“I am the zeon prince…”
Reign bends their arm across their body, a circular black shield attached
“…you should better know that I love a good twist”
Next Time in Chapter 2: Third Fight of Fiona!
Credits
- Colour Printer – Writing & Art
- ObliterationEgg – Giving pointers for the start of the story
Thanks
- Molrcore – Giving the push to see this through