Somewhere near Limbo-------

Allan had seen enough. He'd asked for a stiff drink after the 2nd video and was now on his fifth. The nice receptionist lady hadn't raised an eyebrow each time he had asked for another drink. The alcohol had helped initially but now he wished he was sober. By the time he had reached the start of the video he was already pretty drunk and any buzz he hoped the drinks would have given him had been wrecked by the 4th video.

The nice receptionist lady came in once more once she had verified a video was not playing.

"So how goes it, would you like anything else?"

"Yerpp, Gimme a bucket, towel, black coffee, and all the garlic bread you can get. Ooh and a few bottles of any sports drink. Also can iI have a toilet? And a fluffy ... HIC...carpet near it, you know the type you love to let your bare feet squirm on...."

As though it was routine, she said, "Alright, come this way, the bathroom is down that way, give me 2 minutes for that carpet and 5 for the other stuff."

Looking at her in a daze, he replied, "You're amazing, will you marry me?"

"Ask me again in half an hour" as she went the other way, presumably to get the stuff. As he tottered towards the bathroom he wondered if it was alcohol or whether she had really blushed when he had asked her that last question. Then a question of greater importance washed that away as he wondered why he was climbing the floor and why the door to the bathroom was above him.

---45 minutes later---

Allan sat on the recliner again with a trolley full of food and a bucket next to him. His face was pale and he refused to meet the nice receptionist lady's eyes.

"Anything else?" she said and giggled as she saw his behavior.

"Umm... about what I said before I went to the bathroom....."

"Would you like me to forget about it?" she asked kindly.

"Actually an answer would be better........." he said as his pale face suddenly flushed.

And now she was speechless. For a moment he thought she had really lost her cool but instead she laughed out loud. "Oh dear, you're just so cute" she said to the 6'4" bouncer form Paris. "Sorry dear, already married. But it’s nice to know I still got it going."

Then she began laughing harder as she saw the disappointed look on his face. To her credit she got her laughter under control after about twenty seconds and then apologized to him.

"To be honest, you never really had a chance dear, I don't swing that way."

He sighed as he realized the issue but her next words caused his pale complexion to reach bloodless.

"Plus, my wife is the head of Sharp End. But don't tell anybody, she secretly likes it when guy call me pretty."

He desperately recalled the little he remembered from the second video and the role Sharp End played. And then he wished he had drunk enough to cause a blackout. The video had made mention of the latest head of Sharp End's code-name: Icepick.

"Well anyways, after all that you should probably re-watch the video again. The interviewer has been chosen and should be here in about 3 hours."

---2 hours later---

Allan waited nervously as he looked around the room. It was the same room he has watched the video in. but the nice receptionist had come and taken away the laptop from behind the recliner when he had told her he had seen enough.

The door burst open causing Allan to jump slightly as his head whipped towards the doorway. A guy of about average height was in the doorway holding a folding metal chair.

As he walked into the room and unfolded the chair, he stared at the big man in the recliner while rolling up his sleeves. Allan for his part was enthralled by thee pattern on the man's shirt. It was abstract splurge of red and white shirt. As he followed the line dividing the red and white, he saw that the red continued beyond the limits of the shirt and onto his neck. As he gaped at this, the receptionist came in and said to the man, “Well? You want anything or what?"

Surprised at her cold tone, Allan looked at her.

"Yeah, get me a clean blue shirt, a basin of hot water, a scotch on the rocks and the best goddamn pussy you got. Thanks very much, Rae." All the while, not even giving her a look. The receptionist, now known to Allan as Rae grew agitated and replied, "Fuck you Jay, get that shit yourself" and turned and stormed off.

Jay had not taken his eyes off Allan the entire time. They sat there silently staring at each other, the blood spattered man with a probing look and the other just curious at this vulgar interviewer.

Just as the silence was beginning to get unbearable, Rae came back with the first three items he had asked for. She slammed down the tray nearby and walked off again.

"Exes eh? What are you gonna do?" Jay finally said to Allan and walked over to the stuff. He bent down and picked up the drink and drained it in one shot. Then he set the glass down and took off his shirt. With his back to Allan, he took some water from the basin and washed off the blood on his neck. As he washed it, the water dripped down his torso causing something off white to come off with it. as he finished washing himself, Allan sat dumbfounded as he saw the entire section from his 6th rib upwards on the right side was some kind of alloy. This included his entire right arm as well all the way up to the point just before the collarbone. It looked like something had taken a big bite of him, and though it succeeded, he had still survived.

And the rest of his skin was not much better with scars and patches of shiny skin showing an astonishing amount of damage accrued. Even a few patches of his scalp were empty. He wasn’t too bulky but instead looked lean and very mean. His face was craggy and square and he spoke with an accent straight out of a South London pub.

He finally wore the blue shirt and then kicked the tray out of the room and bellowed, “REFILL!!!” Then he sat back down on the chair he had brought in said to Allan, “So, Jack brought you in eh? How’s that leprechaun doing?”

“He’s fine, I guess. Doesn't talk much”

“No he doesn't. So he got you into this, how do you feel about it.”

“This entire place is the ability of one of your people? I feel a bit uncomfortable that all of our lives are in this person's hands or dimension or whatever it is. I'm just really surprised, I had no clue something like this was going on.”

“Don't worry so much, I can guarantee that the person in charge is very stable. And not likely to fail. Having loved ones in here is a great motivator not to screw up the job you do. So, now that you do know? ”

“I guess I’ll do my part and help out.”

“Well aren’t you a trooper? And what if we decide that you’ll be your best as an assassin or as the surveillance expert or maybe the janitor?”

“I think I’d be the best judge of that.”

“You think wrong. We will be the best judge of that. Let me explain, when a person is initiated, they generate an aura. For our side it's a bright light and for the other side, it’s darkness. The intensity of either depends on the morals and the self-control you possess. So if you have strong morals but no self-control, we will most probably not place you in the field. Also there’s the fact that you’ll have to figure out your ability. Each person presents with a unique ability which needs to be trained. ”

“………”

“What?”

“How does the initiation occur?”

“Well why don’t you tell me how it first started?”

“Ship of slaves traveling to America from South Africa in the 1765 met a weird storm at sea. Characterized by colored lightning and unmoving waves.When the people on board woke up they were near an island where they seemed to be marooned. The ship was about to be washed away with the slaves still in the hold and a few of the crew jumped ship rather than stay. Some slaves joined them when they were freed from the ship's hold while several helped get the ship under control. As the ship was slowly swept away from the island, the people on board first saw the dark aura of those who had abandoned the ship and the bright aura of those who had stayed with the ship.”

“Right, but what is less known is that soon after, the families of the people involved in this began creating more other people with auras simply by being around them or starting families. They realized that people with auras had certain abilities. They passed on the knowledge of the incident to help their future generations”

“So when the two sides which had been separated met again later during the civil war they each tried to help their side win. And right now they’re winning in most of the developed countries.”

“Alright so you know it starts and what’s going on on today. So tell me which side is right? Us or them?”

“……”

“That’s correct. You noticed when we gave the slaves back their freedom. They may have been all for slavery but we were only a little better, though we have made large strides now. There are still quite a few slaves on the other side ”

“………..”

“Well, that's enough, I guess you’re in, can you see my aura? I haven’t suppressed it anymore.”

“Is it the waves of red and coming from you?”

“Hey, you got it. That’s right, you’ve already been initiated. Remember, just being around us for long periods of time when our auras aren’t suppressed and eating our food can get you initiated. That’s probably why Jack brought you in. You could see auras before you came here as well, right?”

“…….”

“It’s not a big deal, it’s probably why Jack brought you in the first place. Just remember, we may be the ‘good guys’ but we still aren’t the best of people. HEY, WHERE’S MY REFILL?” He shouted at the end.

“Well, let’s go see what you got.”

Allan followed behind him trying to figure out which section he’d be assigned to and what his power might be.

---------------

Stadium 3, Section 4

The competition for the Fulcrum section was already underway. The thirty two participants had been divided into 4 groups of 8 and set into a random environment where they had to protect their dummy bot squad from dying. The first three sections had simple enough environments where they could focus on disrupting their rivals and reach the target destination. But the last section had flesh and blood dummy bots in a poisonous environment so the primary concern was survival.

Team #26's bots were almost at death's door already with the simulated flesh sending signals to the referees regarding its status. The others were barely hanging on and moving at a snail's pace towards the destination.

---#31---

"Goddammit, why the hell did I get such a weird ass environ..... what was that?" he flinched as he heard something.

But when he turned towards the noise, he didn't notice his dummy bot squad and the stretchers they were on disappear soundlessly from right next to him.

As he stared into the gloom, the speaker suddenly crackled and announced, "#31 disqualified for loss of teammates."

As he quickly turned around to check on his bots, he was stunned to see that they were gone. Realizing what had happened; his shoulders slumped and he began walking out back to starting point. Three steps later he let out a shriek as he came across the dismembered pieces of his dummy bot squad.

As he looked around in a panic, he started running and then tripped and stumbled and continued running in his fear.

---#29---

She stood there listening carefully with the stretchers surrounding her after that last announcement. Somebody had started going after the dummy bots. After that last announcement, she knew everyone would be completely focused on letting their bots survive.

As she waited there silently, the speaker crackled once more and announced, "#25, #27, #28, #29, #32 are disqualified for loss of teammates.

"WTF?" As she quickly checked on the bots right next to her she found that they were goners and she hadn't even noticed how it had happened. She did see one of the bots still desperately trying to gulp down air and realized that they must have taken in excessive poisonous fumes while incapacitated.

"Looks like only the two of them thought to put gas masks on the bots", as she slowly made her way out of the simulated jungle.

---#31---

"Ok, so it's just me and #26. I knew filtering the atmospheric toxins was the way to go. Should I go out and get him or get to the target zone. Alright, how would this play out on a real mission?"

As he thought about it, he decided to take #26 out. "Last man standing applies and he shouldn't be doing much better than me right now."

He moved his bots into a cave and closed it off and began to search for the other remaining team.

---#26---

She watched him as he put the bot into the cave and then slink away. Quickly opening the cave he had just left, she looked in to see the 'poisoned' bots.

She thought for a moment and then smiled as she left the cave and went back into the jungle. As she followed him quietly in the canopy, she thought about how to best to achieve the requirements the offer had specified. Terrifying at least one competitor while disqualifying all the rest was something she had been looking forward to for the last three weeks. Getting second place was a moot point as she was pretty sure she had it in the bag.

As she considered what he could use, she found that the dummy bots of the disqualified participants had not been cleared away. As wicked smile graced her face, Rashida began to plan out operation 'Attack of the Undead bots'.

---#31---

He had been moving around for about 15 minutes and hadn't found anything or anyone yet. He had come across the camps of a few of the participants who had been disqualified, but the bots had disappeared. He assumed they had been cleared away.

He held onto his gun as he moved slowly trying not to make too much noise. He had a suppressed Heckler and Koch MP5 and three clips on hand.

As he reached a clearing he found another camp but this one had bots lying on stretchers. Wasting no time he shot each of the bots through the head with double taps and looked around to see if #26 had done anything in response. But nothing happened nor did any announcement sound out signaling his opponent’s failure.

Confused he began to approach the bots when one of the sat up and began crawling to him. Shocked at this, he took aim and fired once more at its head and watched in satisfaction as he saw its head get blown off. But the satisfaction was short lived, as the headless bot toppled over and then began to get up once more. In addition, the others also began to move towards him.

Frightened, he switched to full automatic and sprayed all the remaining bullets in the magazine and one more clips worth at the mangled bots. He began to run away back to the cave he left his own bots in but kept coming up against the undying bots which kept coming at him regardless of the bullets he fired at them. Once he had run out of ammo, he pulled his pistol and just pushed through any bots which approached him. What scared him more was they seemed to be calling him back.

"Bots can’t speak! WHAT THE HELL? WHAT THE HELL?" he thought fervently as he finally reached his cave and began to enter it.

Just as he got within sight of his 'teammates', a raspy voice echoed through the cave, " Whyyyy did you abandon us........" and to his horror, his bots began to get up and me towards him mumbling incoherently. As he saw them approach, he finally snapped and opened fire at them and shot each and every one of them repeatedly.

And they stopped.

"#31 has forfeited by killing squad-mates. #26 is the winner. Will participants #1, #15, #20 and #26 please prepare for final round in 2 hours."

And he sat there numb until a referee came over and took him to the infirmary.

---Rashida---

She couldn't stop giggling the entire time she had watched and made him run around. It had taken all her self-control not to burst out laughing as she watched him shoot his own bots never noticing that they were literally puppets in her play.

Her ability 'Puppet String' allowed her to freely manipulate strings of all types. She couldn't create any but it was surprisingly easy to store several different types on her person. As she skipped happily away towards a canteen, she wondered how much fun she'd have once she was done with this tournament.

---------------------

Here's chapter two of the day.

Do point out any mistakes you find and review/comment please.