~- Too Close for Comfort -~
Cheza had just been about to reach out and give the girl a hand up, when a boy beat her to it. A soft growl of frustration rumbled in Cheza's throat; she had a feeling that she needed to team up with someone to stay alive, and he'd gotten in the way. Throwing a quick glance toward Haichiko, she saw that the boy she'd turned her back on was being helped by a girl with a guitar. There was another guy and girl near the statue too, but they along with the others all seemed to have forged some kind of pact, and the monsters seemed to be leaving them alone since they'd teamed up.
Unfortunately, the frogs had all turned their attention on her now. Her nerves set on high, Cheza started backing up as the amphibians encroached on her space, coming closer and closer to her, until her back hit that store front again. As if the monsters knew she didn't have anywhere else to run, they leapt at her, and heaven help her, she closed her eyes and screamed.
"Hey, don't drop the ball now!"
Cheza felt a jolt go through her as someone grabbed her arm, hugged her close and spun her away from the frogs that had been on the verge of burying her under a massive pile of bodies. Opening her eyes, she had just enough time to see that she was being held by a boy with dark hair before he threw his hand out in front of him and - was she seeing things? - shot a freaking bolt of lightning at the frogs!
"Hah! Anyone want frog legs extra crispy? Granted, I think there might be even less meat on those things than usual, though..."
The momentary shock of her rescue over, Cheza pushed hard on his chest and broke contact with him. For a moment, she expected him to double up with a headache or, even worse, pass out and fall to the ground as her head got overloaded with images from his mind. But nothing happened; he'd touched her, skin on skin, but nothing of what she'd come to expect had happened.
Cheza's hand went into her jeans pocket, eight pins in her grip. Right on top of the pile sat a pin with a cat and a rose design. She could feel the energy buzzing in the pin, the kind that usually allowed her that strange Sight. Is that what had happened? Had her power somehow been sealed in the pin...?
"Hey, partner! Could I get a little help here? Grab one of your pins and use it!"
His voice jolting her out of her confusion, Cheza reached for the next pin, a blue one with chains on it. Turning to face him, she copied his motion from earlier, and was she ever surprised when a bunch of chains appeared out of thin air, wrapping themselves around what remained of the frogs.
As the last of the monsters disappeared in small puffs of static, he walked towards her, brushing himself off a little as he said, "Thanks for the save. I'm starting to think I got a real firecracker for my partner. My name's Adrian Noctis, though my friends usually call me Nocturne. What's your name?"
"Che... Chelsea Greene. But I usually go by Cheza. What's going on here?" she sputtered. He seemed to have some idea what was happening, so maybe he could help her out?
Turning ice blue eyes back to her, Adrian said simply, "Reaper's Game. Anyone that'll talk to you have kinda gone ghost on the rest of the world. Our ticket in is that we died, and they hold what we value most as a reward for when we're done with this game. We got a week to prove if we're worthy of a second chance at life, and the only way to survive this game is with a pact with your partner. Which, in your case, would be me."
"And those frogs that were attacking us?"
"Noise. Nasty little buggers, if you ask me. They go after the Players without a partner. Unfortunately, we're still gonna be seeing a lot of those things; while they won't attack us without provocation now, we might have to deal with them on occasion to clear a mission."
Cheza tilted her head to the side, confused. "Missions?"
In response, he held out his iPhone. On the face of it was the message Get to the 104 building. You have 60 minutes. Fail, and face erasure. The Reapers. "You get one of these texts? Have one heck of a 'stinging' sensation go across you hand, look down and see a friggin' timer sitting on your palm? It's the mission for today, and we gotta get to ten-four before we get erased."
Cheza glanced at her palm, and the numbers there that suddenly made sense. But something was bothering her. "How do you know so much?"
Tucking his phone away, Adrian looked back at her with a bit of a smile on his face. "Ran into one of the guys that run this operation. Got lucky in the fact that the Reaper was in the mood to play nice and give me a few details before they decided to sic the Noise on me. So, one last quick run through: 1. We're all dead people here. 2. The Noise like trying to chomp on us from time to time, so stay on your toes. 3. Same goes for if you run into someone with wings; they're Reapers, and they're looking to make this hard for us. 4. We gotta complete the missions, or again, we're erased. And last, but certainly not least, is 5. We get through this thing alive, we get our entry fee back and we get to go back to our lives! Sound good to you?"
Cheza gave a vigorous nod, and was about to reply when she heard someone from behind her say, "I really hate to impose on you. If you want to find another partner, I completely understand. Believe me, I'd probably think the same thing. But it looks like I'll be okay keeping those stupid frogs away, so if you could just help me get around until this game or whatever it is ends, I think I could still be of some use here. I don't want to get you killed--er, again, and I'm sorry you would have to cart me around, but I'd try to help with anything else I can to make up for it..."
Turning around, Cheza realized that it was the girl from a little while ago speaking. Catching on really quick to what she was trying to say, Cheza walked toward the girl and her partner and said gently, "Just tell him. I know it hurts to admit needing help, especially if this only happened to you recently, but you'll bruise your pride even more by trying to act like you don't need the help. In fact, I think the four of us could probably work together; we'll be able to figure the missions out faster, and well," Cheza looked away for a moment, trying to figure out how to say what came next. She didn't want to spill the girl's secret; even if she knew, it wasn't her place to say. "I've been in your position; hell, that was how my world worked until I got involved in this game. I don't know why things are different here, but I know that we need each other's help to survive. So, what do you say? Got the courage to tell him? And do you two maybe want to work with us?"
Cheza didn't know if the girl would listen or accept the offer of the four of them teaming up. But she was hoping she would.
