Ulrich woke up on a carpeted floor, turning over and hitting his head against something soft. He felt himself drifting off again, before an alarm blared the noises of literal human screams to wake him up fully. Whether they were Leonie's or not, he had no idea. But he was up. He stood up, and three other people were in the room with him. Amber was there, but he had to check his watch for the other two. Akemi Mizuno and Micah Fleischer. He looked around the room, seemingly some kind of TV watching room judging by the giant TV mounted on the wall covered in dust, alongside a pink velvet couch. He went over to the door. Locked. Seemed electronic, anyway, so it would probably open when Leonie says so.
"We all okay?" Amber yawned. Akemi silently nodded.
"Oh, hey." Micah said, walking up to Amber "Nice to see you again."
"Uh…hey?" Amber replied.
"Oh, do you not remember me?" Micah chuckled, scratching the back of his head. "I worked at Weeza medicine, I got coffee at your place."
"Oh, cool." Amber nodded. "But anyway, what do we do about this door?"
"You think we should break it?" Micah asked, folding his arms and tilting his head at the door.
"I mean...worth a shot." Ulrich exclaimed calmly. He shooed them to the back of the room, before channelling the heat from his left arm into a ball of flame. He threw it at the wall, and it exploded into a ball of smoke on impact. Once the smoke cleared, it looked the exact same, only slightly smokier. He looked back at the other three. Akemi looked amazed at him, while the other two just sighed.
"Alright, alright, we'll start the challenge!" The voice from the now on television yelled. It was a slightly annoyed Leonie. Because who else would it be?
"The floor you are currently on should be displaying on the TV in your room, alongside how many codes are on that floor. And that's pretty much all the explanation you're getting. Doors should be open now, so good luck. Or bad luck. Whichever you want, I guess."
Ulrich looked at the numbers on the TV. Floor number four, and two codes were there.
The door opened by itself, and the four of them made their way through, into the pitch-black hallway.
"Oh, what the hell?" Micah sighed.
"Listen, Micah. We can't let Amber have all the fun." Leonie yelled out from his watch.
"Hey, fire guy. Can you do the fire thing?" Akemi's voice yelled out, echoing through the hallway.
"Sure." Ulrich replied. He put the heat from his middle and ring fingers into his index finger, letting it flow into a decently sized flame.
"Oooohhhhh." Akemi whispered to herself.
"Great, great." Micah replied. "Now, where's the light switch?" He whispered, treading his fingers along the wall.
"You think the lights work?" Amber asked.
"Probably. Everything else here seems to." Micah replied. Amber put her hands on the other wall, feeling a block jutting out slightly. She pressed it, and the room lit up, revealing a giant room with white ribbons on the walls, and a few circular tables to the side, along with a chandelier, though it wasn't as big as the one by the entrance. Alongside an entrance to a few other rooms, and an elevator directly across the hallway.
"Is this a wedding reception?" Ulrich asked, extinguishing the flame.
"I'd guess so?" Micah nodded in agreement.
"So where would the codes be?" Amber asked.
"If I were to guess, that hallway we just passed and probably somewhere in this room." Micah replied, heading towards the table.
"Oh, thanks." Amber gave a thumbs up, before looking at Ulrich and Akemi, and sighing.
"Good luck."
"What do you mean by-" Ulrich started, but he was on the floor before he could finish being confused. His shadows were being collected by Amber, turning into a mass of black tendrils. The tendrils made their way across the room, searching every part of it. One found a code on top of the chandelier, and the rest shot across the room. Searching the cabinets and drawers at a breakneck pace. When that didn't work, they looked behind and underneath them, and the second code was obtained. Amber took both, shoving them both in her pocket, and then covered it in a layer of black shadows.
"Well, good luck guys." She said, turning her back to them and running towards the elevator.
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Ulrich channelled the heat from his right arm into a fireball, which Amber shielded with some shadows coming out of her shoes. Micah ran after her, forming a blood crystal by scraping his sharpened left pinky against his right pinky. She made it into the elevator, slamming her fist against the buttons, and it closed just as Micah tried slashing her, the elevator breaking the crystal.
"What the hell was that?" Micah screamed.
"Well, this isn't good." Akemi sighed. "We making our way to the next floor?"
Micah pressed the call button by the elevator rapidly, and Akemi and Ulrich followed him in when it finally arrived. They went down to the next floor, not saying a word to each other, aside from Akemi staring at Ulrich's hands.
Once they got to floor four, they were alone in an empty hallway. Just a row of doors, presumably with rooms behind them. And presumably there were codes behind some of those doors. Micah entered the first room, and Ulrich entered the third, checking underneath the bed, inside the coffee machine, and inside the cabinets. While he was doing that, an idea hit him, and he checked his watch.
"Uh…hey, Leonie?"
"Yes, Ulrich?" Leonie's voice sprang from his watch.
"Can I ask a question?"
"Sure thing! This challenge allows for two questions, so ask away! But make it count."
"Are the codes flammable?"
"Nope! Our keycodes can withstand any nature of attacks, so feel free to find them in any way you wish!"
"Okay, thanks."
Ulrich tapped the watch until Leonie's voice was cut off, which took longer than he wanted, and he stepped out of the room. He took the heat out of his chest, putting the heat out of his arms and setting the room ablaze. He went in not feeling any issues with the smoke, but he opened a window regardless. The mattress was completely disintegrated, and there wasn't a code anywhere near it. The wooden dresser was flipped over with the drawers removed completely, and there weren't any codes. On to the next room. Same idea, launch a fireball and see how that goes. He was feeling a chill across his legs with every step, but he could soothe that out later in his room. Alive. He looked through the room, opening the window. When through the smoke, he made out a small silver sheen. He reached out for it, and…6759403863! A code! He ran through the hallway with the code, and ran into Micah, both of them falling on their backs. Ulrich's grip loosened, and he felt the code fall to the ground.
"What was that?" Micah demanded.
"What was what?" Ulrich replied, his eyes darting across the room.
"The thing that fell out of your hand." Micah yelled back, stumbling on his feet. Ulrich tried getting back on his feet, but the body heat hasn't fully returned to his body, and he fell on his ass. Micah grabbed the code, letting out an elated sigh. He got up, turning around, and immediately tripped, falling face first onto a quite nice small wooden table, with a nicer blue vase on top. But tragically, the vase broke.
His nose was bleeding, and the blood was crystalizing, but that didn't matter. Micah had a code, he just needed to find it through some hazy vision.
"So, I can just have it?"
"You found it first."
Micah turned around, and through his one now working eye, he could see two people standing by Ulrich. A giant man in a tank top and a short man in a baseball cap.
Ulrich ran towards the elevator, and Micah leaped out at him, but shifting his weight to get out of the way of the hardened white substance coming towards him. He stood up, and Ulrich was in the elevator, presumably being taken to the door. He stood up again, stumbling over to the two of them, checking his watch. Cyrus and Andrei.
"What was your deal?" He screamed. "Why did you give him the code?!"
"It was his code. He found it." Andrei shrugged.
"What, and you found your codes?"
"Nope." Cyrus replied, shaking his head, and then adjusting his cap. "Should be six of us here, and three codes left."
"Thanks." Micah replied bitterly, making his way through the soulless rows of doors.
"We've left marks on doors with no keys!" Andrei yelled from the hallway.
"Good for you!" Micah snapped back.
Micah walked through the hallway, grumbling as he went. He glanced at the doors through his one working eye, walking past all the ones that had giant X's marked on them, until he finally found one that was untouched. He made his way in, checking underneath the bed, as well as inside the coffee machine and the cabinets. Nothing there. He looked into the bathroom, and nothing in the bath, but a part of the shower was looking shinier than usual. He quickly unscrewed the shower head, letting it fall to the floor with a decent banging noise, and…6684027481. A code, finally! He ran out, flinging the door open…and there was somebody else there.
"Yun-Yeong, correct?" He asked.
"Yeah. Mikey?" She asked in return, soothing her wrist.
"Micah."
Yun-Yeong's gaze slowly shifted to the code he was holding. "So…that a code?"
"Yes, it is." Micah replied, putting it safely inside his pocket.
"So this room is empty?"
"Presumably." Micah nodded.
"Well…I know that there's only one code left on this floor, Seeta took the other one."
"So what, you need me to help?"
"Nah, you've already done enough."
She landed a full force knee into Micah's groin, and the pain hit instantly. He felt his breath leave him, and then a girls hand in his pocket, and then…a codeless pocket. He stepped forward and fell to the floor, clutching his groin.
"She-she stole my code!"
Cyrus got out of a room, seeing Yun-Yeong sprinting towards the elevator, and letting the white substance spurt out of his wrist. Yun-Yeong attempted to dodge, but her wrist was once again exposed, barely scraping off it. She fell to the floor in a heap, but got up pretty quickly, not seeming too worried about anything. To Cyrus, she looked cold, and her posture made it clear she didn't want to fight.
"If you could return the code to it's owner, that would be great." Cyrus asked politely, but firmly.
"That…isn't going to happen." She replied.
Yun-Yeong ran two fingers across her freshly exposed wrist wound. Doing so spread shivers around her body, but whatever. She flung a few droplets of fresh blood at Cyrus legs, and they seized up slightly. He lost his footing, and Yun-Yeong threw herself at the elevator, and it's doors closed just as Cyrus stood up.
"Are you kidding me?" Micah screamed. "I was so goddamn close!"
"That was very unfortunate." Cyrus sighed, dusting off his cap. "If it doesn't bother you, I'll be going to the next floor."
He went down to the next floor on the elevator, leaving Micah alone. Whatever, he thought, standing up. A chance to explore an empty hallway for the last code, just what he needed.
"Hey, a code." He heard Andrei's voice echo through the hallway.
Goddammit.