A New Challenger Approaches

[sentbydpd]

He'd thought at first that it was a nightmare, a result of a bender after a particularly bad case; no matter how the people in his life that cared about him tried, the alcohol was still part of his life, a crutch and a numbing agent that he preferred over facing his problems and the people that were involved. The fog, dark and glittering with sinister red flecks, enveloping him where he'd collapsed in the stairwell of his building, making him feel as if he had slid back down them until he was lying in damp grass and staring up at stars that make him think that he's no longer in the middle of downtown Detroit.

Worse, he was sober. He wanted to die and he no longer had a drop of alcohol in his system to dull it. Miserable, cold, and aching, Connor sat up and inspected himself in case there might be some indication of what had happened to him. But there was nothing, just patches of wetness from the grass on his jeans and the outer layer of his slightly obnoxiously patterned button-up, the plain black shirt underneath untucked but otherwise pristine. He sat in the grass for a long while and puzzled quietly over it all, before pushing himself to his feet and panning around for any sign of life.

He didn't recognize what kind of trees he was surrounded by, so that told him he wasn't close to home. Concerning. He started to walk straight in the hopes of finding any indication that civilization might be nearby, trailed by that same mist that curled around his ankles until he found a bubble of blessed firelight. Nobody present that he could tell, but the presence of the bonfire and arranged logs around it told him that they couldn't have gone far, nor that they'd been gone for long. So he sat, elbows on his knees and his hands rubbing together slowly in front of his mouth as he debated on how to approach whatever was happening to him now. If he'd been kidnapped, he at least knew how to handle that.

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[sentbydpd]

Connor continued to flip the stone idly between his fingers, listening as Jake talked. To him it sounded like something that the other guy had been sitting on for some time, not really talking much about his life before now. So Connor just nodded vaguely, encouraging him silently to go on. The mention of the crows gets a soft, vague smile, tilted on one side and barely there.

"I get the impression that animals aren't really a thing here besides your crows. I didn't hear anything out there in the woods when I had to walk here besides occasional crows and some insects. If this isn't the real world it makes sense the wildlife is limited."

He finally let himself relax, stripping off the outer layer of his button-up and hanging it off the corner of the bed then kicking off his shoes and laying back with his hands atop his stomach.

"At least everyone here that I've seen seems willing to cooperate with eachother. Guess I'll see if that extends to these 'trials' too."

[calmspiritsaboteur]

"Yeah them, the rats, and some bugs...that's really it." Jake shrugged, setting his carving aside he moved to the lamps to turn them off. "I thijnk I'm gonna tuck in for the 'night'. We may not need to sleep but really...it's nice to sometimes."

Plopping down on his bed he opened the window next to it and turned to grab a small handful of what looked likes seeds in the darkness, setting them there before laying out on his own bed. "If I don't see ya before your first match, good luck."

Rolling over he let his eyes close and focused on the sounds outside the window. The birds and the bugs, the wind moving the branches, and Kate's quiet music playing by the fire.

--

When Jake felt the call it was more of a burden and annoyance than anything else. Called to the fire along with three others, and one just happened to be the new guy.

"Hey! Connor! Looks like I'll get to show you the ropes after all." He grinned, clapping the other on the shoulder before looking at the others, surprised to see Yun-Jin and Ace sitting around the fire as well. Reaching into a pocket he pulled out a bundle of pinkish violet flowers. Tossing them into the fire they release a strong floral scent.

"We have a few offerings that we can get, things that we place in the fire for various outcomes. Better luck with things, specific arenas, that sort of thing." He explained when he was sure to get a look from the new guy.

[sentbydpd]

Connor slept restlessly in the new environment with unfamiliar sounds all around. He was accustomed to the city, not wilderness. Traffic and muffled voices, not insect chirps and wind through leaves. He'd get accustomed to it in time he was sure, but for now, he would suffer through it.

When the call came, he couldn't say he was surprised. The thing that had called them, the Entity, it would want to test his mettle before giving him the chance to collect anything to augment his ability. He needed to learn what he was doing before getting fancy with it.

He stared at Jake when the man almost jovially approached him, giving him that clap on the shoulder in passing then explaining the flowers. He nodded; it sounded about right, the ritualistic nature of the offerings in a place that defied scientific explanation or logic. Connor nodded and looked around at the other two, nodding to each of them and getting a brief amusement from the finger-guns shot at him by the gangly older man in his ridiculous shades, hat, and a shirt that Connor could readily admit he wanted. He was somewhat bolstered by the confidence of the two men, and he hoped that Yun-Jin wouldn't be as much of a problem as he'd been warned about.

When the Fog started to creep in, he followed the three of them into it, only to emerge once more after a few minutes' travel in utter darkness into a forest that gently pissed rain down on their heads. He glanced around at the architecture and frowned. Unfamiliar to him from the outside, but maybe he could suss out the detail if he explored. He got the impression that it would be a terrible idea to call out for one of the others' attention, and so just eased himself up against the trunk of a tree with his eyes closed to simply listen.

[calmspiritsaboteur]

Creeping along the grass Jake tried to keep himself as quiet and as low as possible. Seeing Connor he made his way over tapping the other on the leg before raising a hand to quiet anything that he might say.

Motioning for the other to follow him, Jake made his way towards a gen. When the lights were in sight, flickering in and out like they did, he motioned up to them. A way to see where gens were without searching like a chicken with their head cut off. Making his way over he flipped down one of the panels and started pulling out wires. Looking over his shoulder to make sure Connor was looking he motioned to the small diagram on the inside and then to the wires.

"Just be careful and if it backfires, stay alert. I mean stay alert all ways but you get it. If it blows it'll give away our position and whoever it is might come here." He spoke quietly as he stood and motioned for Connor to take his place before he moved to what he considered one of the more complicated jobs on the side.

[sentbydpd]

Connor's eyes popped open at the touch at his leg, lips barely parting before he was preemptively silenced by the gesture. He nodded at Jake's gestures and followed along, keeping himself low and giving their surroundings a somewhat paranoid look.

The generator looks so much older than anything that he'd seen in his life. Detroit in his time certainly had its disparity of aesthetics, from the old houses that were yet to be torn down to the sleek metal and glass that made up the city center, to the huge, pricey houses belonging to the well-to-do. This thing was a relic of decades past. God he wished his brother was here.

Rather than responding, Connor just listened and watched intently, then crouched down in Jake's place and read over the instruction panel first, before reaching into the machine and drawing the wiring out into clearer view. The dim lighting here made this all the more difficult, and Connor licked his lips fitfully as he started to strip back the insulation around the wires to try and make them fire appropriately before twisting them together to maintain the circuit. The panel at least was helpful in letting him figure what wires wouldn't cross to make the thing backfire, and he actually seemed to get the hang of it fairly quickly. The machine was already chugging along with half its pistons going when he heard the echoing song in the distance. He put down the wires to keep himself from fucking it up as he stared out across the misty landscape.

"What the hell is that?"

[calmspiritsaboteur]

"Shit shit shit....of course it's her." Jake sighed as he moved to reach into the generator to grab something and twist it just right, glad when he didn't get a face full of sparks. Looking up over the contraption as he worked Jake squinted for a moment before completely removing himself from his work. Seeing sparks fly for a moment he cursed under his breath.

"Fucking bastards teaching each other this shit...." He seemed to go back to work almost immiediately as well as speaking to the other in hurried but low voice.

"Alright so she's known as The Huntress. She's like seven foot tall and throws hatchets. If we're hearing her singing then she's close but when you start hearing your heartbeat in your ears...that's when you know she's close. Don't run unless you have to, it leaves a weird trace that they can follow. If you can break line of sight and hide that's your best bet. There are lockers but....she checks them a lot because that is also where her hatchets are."

He finally takes a breath, narrowly misfiring with a wire as he looked up at Connor again. "Just...don't let her see you and...be mindful of falling hatchets I guess?"

[sentbydpd]

The look on Connor's face as Jake explained that they were being tracked by someone literally titled The Huntress said it all. Intrigue overshadowed by horror, coupled with the idea that they could at any moment be blindsided by a flying hatchet, had him all the more intensely on alert. He glanced briefly around them for anything that might help them out, then blinked and held up a hand before creeping away with his head below the tops of the foliage all around. He could see a little...sculpture? Something that looked like a child's craft project, if not for the inclusion of human skulls. The tealights beneath it weren't lit, and he imagined they would be difficult to keep lit in the rain.

He had to investigate. It was in his nature. It was his purpose. It had him creeping out toward the thing and his weight shifting so that he was down on one knee, looking at the totem with his hands hovering around it as it trying to discern what it was, and whether it should be left alone or not. He didn't notice the lullaby growing louder until it had gotten to the point that he realized exactly what Jake had meant by the heartbeat in his ears. Because the closer the singing grew, the quicker his pulse grew, and he looked up at the same moment that a hatchet was raised.

"Fuck," he barked before scrambling to his feet and sprinting off in a direction that was nowhere near Jake.

[calmspiritsaboteur]

Watching Connor move to examine the totem had Jake sort of smiling. He forgot to mention those, of course as soon as he went to open his mouth and say something he heard the familiar thrumming of his own heart in his ears and was forced to silence himself in favor of letting go of the gen and backing away into a hiding spot. Silently cursing he heard the woman's familiar "huh!" as she raised her hatchet and tossed mixed with Connor's curse and the sound of shoes hitting grass.

Peeking around the corner to make sure that the hulking giant of a woman had in fact chased the new comer, Jake returned to his gen.

He really hoped someone would take care of that damn hex soon...he hated when he couldn't get off a gen to save someone without the damn thing breaking down from just sitting there.

"You got this Jake, stick it and then you can go save the new guy. Just. Focus." Breathing he went back to work, ignoring the pained cries he was bound to hear.

[sentbydpd]

Connor's shoes didn't grip the grass the way he was used to when it came to trying to run down suspects. He slipped and slid, struggled to gain traction, and then he was finally off. He was tall, but able to keep a relatively low profile, and a hatchet sailed past his head close enough that he could hear the schwing! of metal before the head of it buried into a tree ahead of him. He skidded into a turn toward a shack stationed near an enormous wall of stone and wood that would be impossible to scale without fully exposing his back to the masked woman.

Connor could sprint and gain the advantage easily, if he could just break line of sight here. The little building was ideal for it, if he could only loop around it and disappear through the window that he'd spotted on one side. His foot collided with the sill on his way through it, alerting the woman to the direction he was running, and while he had gained a good amount of ground, he just couldn't be that lucky for long. He heard a generator go off far in the distance, a backfire that meant very little to him in the moment, and then a grisly thwack and searing pain just shy of his shoulderblade brought him crashing back into the moment.

His scream was truncated and hoarse as he stumbled, but maintained his momentum around a tight corner and managed to softball slide to a stop behind a peculiar free-standing wall that might have been part of an in-progress home, once. He could feel the rivulets of blood dripping from the ragged wound in his back, and his breath wheezed out of him as he waited for the Huntress to approach.

But the heartbeat stayed steady, and Connor's hands clamped over his mouth to keep the sounds down the longer it was there. He couldn't have...

The sound receded as, somewhere behind him, a sound like thunder rolled through the would-be arena. He stayed still until the pulsing in his ears started to die down, and then the sound of that repeating melody faded into echoes once more. She was just playing with him, surely. Drawing him into a false sense of security. He sat with his back against the rock for a long moment, his breath wheezing out of him at the radiating pain, until movement beside him made him start to scramble away again.

[calmspiritsaboteur]

Holding up his hands Jake moved closer.

"Easy buddy, just me. Looks like she's pissed at Ms. Lee for taking out that totem." He waved Connor over towards a more covered area with trees and bushes. "Come here, let me take a look at that shoulder."

[sentbydpd]

Connor froze, grasping the side of the rock to keep himself on his feet. He could hear the scrambling of feet and the crashing of undergrowth in the distance, that song intensifying then dying down again. He dropped his profile low again and moved to Jake's side as quickly as he could manage. His hands shook as he removed his outer shirt carefully, then used his good arm to pull the thin black t-shirt up from the wound.

The skin glistened blue, and just under his skin rested a peculiar mesh of silicon, metal, and wire.

"B'fore you freak out, I'm not an android," he muttered. "Got into an accident, got a lot of work done. It'll heal over like the real thing eventually."

[calmspiritsaboteur]

Blinking at the blue fluid that dripped from the bizarre wound Jake frowned before setting about getting it stabilized and bandaged up.

"Hey man I don't care what you are so long as you're on our side, okay?" His hands are steady as he tries his best but this stuff is different than the blood he's used to and instead of familiar muscle and bone it's silicone and metal. His hand slips and he knows it's bad as more of the blue fluid gushes over his hands.

"Shit! Sorry man! Fuck..."

[sentbydpd]

Jake slips in such a way that Connor suddenly doubles over, screaming raggedly before he can clamp his hands over his mouth. He pants and stays there, curled on himself as the blue blood pastes his shirt to his body.

"Fuck! Fucking jesus dicks, just- here, listen-" He snatches the med kit from Jake and unravels a length of bandage that he hastily presses into Jake's hands, then turns back around. "Press it there, staunch the bleeding-" and then he starts to walk Jake through the process of patching him up, at least temporarily. He doesn't like how long this is taking, with the two of them tucked behind this rock trying desperately to pretend that he hadn't just absolutely blown their cover here.

[calmspiritsaboteur]

Taking the supplies and listening to Connor, the survivalist tries to steady his hands. But it's been a while since he's heard that lullaby, it's been even longer since he's been with someone for their first encounter in a trial. And add to all that this guy with literally blue blood? To say he was shook was an understatement. The growing clarity of said lullaby and the way his heart thrums in his ears he knows what's coming.

He knows what he has to do.

"Fuck it, sorry I gotta lead her away. Take this and patch yourself up. If you need help look for Ace." Without a second thought he dodges out from the bushes and charges in the large woman's direction with a yell as he's met with an hatchet to his shoulder. Using a little trick he had learned from David to barrel through her as he held his injured side and thanked whatever deity was listening for Jocks. Unless it's the Entity...then fuck that deity in particular. All he had to do now was keep her attention and get her away from Connor. Luckily being injured made him a better target.

[sentbydpd]

When Jake had gone left, Connor had gone right, and he'd looked back in time to see the man pull a bewildering maneuver that he himself could recall having done in the past, tanking hits and just continuing forward on his mission. What throws him, though, is Jake seemingly fucking no-clipping through the killer with a mad dash that seems to take her off-guard for an instant. Just long enough for Connor to get some distance, and start on a wide search for the older man that he had yet to see at all within the trial.

He skids between the trees and manages to regain purchase rounding it, but he's still so unused to trying to maneuver in this kind of environment that he has to slow down and actually look for a place to go.

Another generator catches his eye, and Connor slinks behind it, figuring he could fight through the pain and wait to see Ace at some point. He could trust Jake to keep their killer busy for a little while, he's sure.

[calmspiritsaboteur]

Running like this was always Jake's least favorite part...well...aside from the you know, being thrown on a giant meat hook? Yeah that was up there too. Still he hated running while injured....and being chased. Especially when he also had to worry about dodging fucking hatchets! Of course in his blind running and dodging he failed to notice the older man who Jake had literally only moments ago told Connor to go find. And what was said man doing?

Jumping up from a gen to hide in a locker as they passed.

Hoping beyond hope that the woman had tunnel vision Jake powered on...only to slow when he heard an all too familiar scream. Turning in time to watch as the large woman slung Ace over her shoulder and headed straight towards a hook.

"Shit-"

"Ah!!" Jake was interrupted by the tell tale angry scream that followed the deafening crack of wood against skull before Ace was taking off in one direction and Jake was ducking into a corner.

Alright...sometimes Yun-Jin was useful.

"Shiiiit I need to find a med kit and get back on a gen." Grumbling he waited until he heard the music fade away and his heart slowed again before slinking out of his hiding spot to do just that.

[sentbydpd]

The chaos that he can hear makes Connor resentful of the situation. He felt so powerless here. He was useless to help these people and he wasn't really in any condition to help himself either. He thought that maybe it would simply be best for him to stick to this task and hopefully speed them on their way out.

Between Jake's recklessness, Yun-Jin's incredibly timed interception, and the Huntress' tunnel-vision on the woman that had prevented her from making her sacrifice, it meant that Connor was able to finally get the elderly generator to fire properly and chug to life. Of course, this came with the problem of being noticeable from anywhere in the map that wasn't clear on the other side. And so, as he tried to duck out from the trees he was obscured by, he has no time to dodge a hatchet that had initially been aimed for Yun-Jin. She had ducked fast, and he ended up taking it straight to the head, knocking him immediately to the ground with a strangled, blood-choked yelp.

He barely had time to realize what had happened to him before he was being hauled up roughly and propped over a broad, muscular shoulder, carried a short distance, and then unceremoniously dumped straight onto a meat hook that destroyed any effort they'd made to try and fix his shoulder. He struggled, then just let himself hang as the shock set in. He could still feel it, oh yes, the processors grafted into his brain telling him in great detail the trauma that was happening to his body, but he was losing the ability to properly react to it in the moment. Especially given that the rabbit masked woman was simply humming to herself as she leaned real close to him, as if examining a particularly strange and interesting specimen under glass.

[calmspiritsaboteur]

Having set about helping Ace with his own injury before the man helped him Jake winced when he heard the scream. He could never get completely used to it. Hearing fellow people screaming in pain like wounded animals as they were slung up on hooks like fresh kills left to drain.

"I'm going for him, you get to work on another generator, opposite side." He instructed as he pushed the older man away. "I don't want us getting caught in a stalemate. See if you can get Ms. Lee to help in that lower gen in the temple."

"Jake come on, there is no way we're all getting out-"

"Ace, shut up."

"Odds are against us with the new guy!"

"Shut up! Just go I'm gonna try and see if I can get him." Tossing a glare over his shoulder Jake's words were final before he was already jogging towards where he heard the scream. The closer he got of course the louder he heard her humming. Ducking around a tree he watched a familiar woman sneaking through some fallen pillars, looking down at something in her hands and all he could do was glare harder. Damn self servicing bitch...he really didn't like her. No wonder Ji-Woon hated her as much as he did.

Shaking the thoughts away he crept closer, silently cursing in his mind as he realized the Huntress was staring quite hard at poor Connor. To the point he wasn't sure if he could get the other off the hook without getting hit himself. All he could do was sit there and watch helplessly while slowly those familiar spider like legs materialized around the man.

[sentbydpd]

Connor hyperventilated on the hook, the blue blood dripping from the massive wounds in the front and back of his shoulder. He stared blearily into the mask, trying in vain to see the eyes behind it, to determine whether the massive woman was even human. A hand lifted, smearing the end of the sculpted nose with a trace of blue that the woman shied away from with a snort of disgust. Weird new man with his wrong blood, he would die like the rest. She would make sure of it.

Posting up with the woodcutter's axe in one hand and a hatchet in the other, she stands and stares around, daring any of them to approach to try and get their new teammate back.

Rescue was not in Yun-Jin's best interest here, she'd decided. Instead she headed around to another generator to try and finish it off, leaving Ace and Jake to debate on whether or not to rush her.

"C'mon, we're all still alive, luck's on our side," he murmurs at Jake, moving his shades to the top of his head and gesturing at the Entity's limbs. "We still have a little bit of time left. She can't hit us both."

[calmspiritsaboteur]

Watching the two in front of him Jake almost jumped out of his skin at the sudden voice next to him. However instead of grumbling about the man not listening he instead couldn't be happier.

"Alright, I'll fake the save and then you come in on her blind side while she's going for me and get him out of here. Got it?" Jake nodded as he looked between them and the forming limbs. "We got this, it's just like any other save."

[sentbydpd]

Connor's tunneling vision was interrupted as spidery legs crept into view around him, framing the figure still posted up in front of him. He lifted his head in time to see those insectoid spikes realing back as they materialized around him, and a split-second environment scan and injection of adrenaline made him jerk just in time to block the razor sharp point from puncturing his chest. He stares around for any sign of help when the Huntress finally leaves, apparently feeling confident that Connor had been left to his fate here. She spun a hatchet in hand then lifted it with a flourish to bury it into a tree near the brightly colored Korean woman's head, causing her to fuck up at her generator and cause a misfire as she rocketed off toward the hulking temple in the center of the arena.

It means that now he just has to hang on until one of the others can try to help him down. The leg slips through his sweating, bloodied hands and stabs into him shallowly enough that he can push it back out again as a gout of red blood is forced out of his mouth.

[calmspiritsaboteur]

"Shit-" Jake curses as he lunged forward, forgetting just going for a fake save in favor to pull the man down completely. "Come on, run. One of us will take a hit for you. Go!"

[sentbydpd]

While Jake rounds the killer to get Connor down, Ace dips under her arm when she reels back to swing on him and put him back, taking the brunt of it to his back in a spot very close to where Connor had. His scream spurs Connor into motion, stumbling away from Jake and cramming himself in between a pair of rocks nearby enough that he can still hear them, and the wrathful vocalizations of the woman as she tries to rid herself of them.

The panic is making him stupid, but how can it not, when he's so near death? He literally has a readout blinking in the corner of his eye that tells him the status of specific pars of himself, and the damage is just too much for him to recover from here without a lot of assistance. Assistance more qualified than Jake, that was for damn sure, he thinks irritably at a dull throb from deep in his chest thanks to the damage to the hardware of him.

When he makes his way over to where he could hear a generator chugging along, he gets a look from Yun-Jin, part disgust, part interest, as he settles down to help her finish this up. She clearly doesn't trust this weirdly science-fiction guy, but he's at least good with his hands and quick on the uptake. They're able to finish the generator, but rather than even offering her assistance, she runs away at top speed. It leaves him staring after her for a moment, but really, what should he have expected?

He makes his way into the temple stationed in the middle of it all, and is struck by the architecture. It's old, and beautiful, and he can still hear that lullaby in the distance so he can only take it in on the fly as he heads downstairs to try and hide and patch up the wounds in the front of his body.

"Fuck, I need a smoke," he groans, making his way down a set of stairs that looks distinctly incongruous with the architecture. At the bottom the smell of blood and viscera makes his stomach churn, and the distant wailing and general vibe of this root cellar looking place has him turning in place to leave again. Unfortunately for him, though, that lullaby is getting closer. His blood is still on the floor. She knows that he's here.

And he can't run anymore.

[calmspiritsaboteur]

The scream Jake hears when the killer finally grabs and hooks Connor again makes him wince violently. Sure most people don't survive their first go but that doesn't mean it made it any easier to hear it. He has to shake himself and set about finishing their job.

He heard the final gen finish and can't help but sigh with relief as he jogged to one of the exit gates and began to open it. He felt every nerve in his body on fire, ready to jump away and hide or take off running at the first hint of a hatchet. Luckily it seemed like Ace had her attention and it wasn't long before he heard Yun-Jin sneaking her way over.

Stepping away he nodded to her to finish opening the door while he went to find their wayward old man and lead him there, soon holding back enough to run behind Ace and taking a hatchet to the back for his troubles. But it was fine, they got out.

Stumbling to the fire Jake kneeled down and rested his elbows on the log to catch his breath, knowing it was better to just sit and wait for Claud or one of the others to help him.

[sentbydpd]

Connor took some time before he was deposited by the fog back at the fireside, a groaning heap that didn't immediately move from its place just outside the firelight. When he did, he just sat up sluggishly and stared into the fire, shoving his hair back out of his face then just letting his head fall forward. His eyes were clenched shut tight as he self-assessed and found that he was no worse for wear, save for bruising in the shoulder that hat taken the majority of the damage.

He was quiet for a long moment before pushing himself up from the ground, stumbled at the immediate weakness in his knees, and had to catch himself before he faceplanted in the dirt.

"Wh...am I..."