Are You Not Entertained?

Posted on Sat Aug 27th, 2022 @ 3:04pm by Shinobi Shaw & Patrick Manco

1,948 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 2: Northern X-Posure
Location: The Arena (unknown region of North America)
Timeline: August 1990

Blaring lights and voices were everywhere. Speech was difficult to understand due to the extreme volume and the way it echoed off chrome colored walls.

"REPEAT: ALL STAFF ARE TO EXIT THE ARENA IMMEDIATELY. LIVE TRIALS ARE COMMENCING."

It was a large octagon of sorts of metallic alloy plating which left granite bedrock exposed at joints and corners. Recessed lighting cast sharp cones of illumination around a handful of people who were trussed up against poles in an irregular pattern. The floor displayed faded bloodstains that obvious signs of chemical pressure-washing had failed to completely removed.

"Can anybody move?" Patrick groaned. "I... I can barely move." And, clearly, he could barely think since he'd not yet realized he was bound at the wrists to a pole along with the other half dozen.

"Well...," answered Jace slowly. He'd woken up about five minutes before Patrick, but was still groggy. "We can move our fingers and toes. Once this fog clears my mind, I'll try to ghost out of these things." He paused and looked around, not really getting a feel for the room yet. "But they just said something about live trials starting. I don't like the sound of that at all."

Patrick gave his wrists a tug and groaned. "You'd think they'd learn by now. Stupid humans and their--"

A gut-curdling roar echoed from up a dark corridor and bounced around the octagon. Stadium lighting came to life overhead which brought everyone into full view, yet it somehow made the far passageway even darker. Nevertheless, a pair of red luminescent pinpoints sprang into view.

"You said live trials?" Patrick tried not to gulp. Instead his eyes began surveying their surroundings in hopes of finding something--anything--that could be leveraged in their favor. Save for the posts to which they were all restrained, the solid metal environment was empty. "We're going to have to get creative."

Vibrations from pounding footfalls rippled up the post and added to the chill that was already shivering up Patrick's spine. Springing into view was an off-white bestial monstrosity that was all claws, fur, and teeth. It tore into the nearest victim without warning, even snapping the metal post in full.

"Come on, come on, come on!" Patrick yelled as he screamed at his wrist restraints. At last his mind cleared enough to force a mechanical release of the stored energy within the tumblers and his hands fell free. He dropped to a crouch before extending his right hand toward the spotlights overhead.

The monster ended its quick work of devouring its hapless victim by shouting a singular word that cut to the quick as uttering a magical curse. "WEN-DI-GO!"

But Maestro wasn't about to be food for anything. "Close your eyes, Brothers!"

And then the lights exploded in electrical surges and glass shards. The Wendigo howled in pain and rubbed its glowing red eyes which seemed to be momentarily blinded.

Jace closed his eyes and heard the pops, crackles, and sizzles of exploding lights. He took these few seconds to concentrate and ghost out of the restraints. He quickly found the wall, out of the way, and slowly opened his eyes so they could adjust to the new environment. And to try to hide from that beast.

While the other mutants fended for themselves, Maestro was circling the walls of the octagonal room in search of anything that would be invisible to the naked eye. "Bingo!" He furrowed his brow and gesticulated his hands as if turning invisible dials. In short order, a panel slid aside to reveal a hidden passageway similar to the one that had ushered in the Wendigo.

Jace thought that if he could make it around behind the monster, he could slip up the hallway from which it exited. He looked around the dimly lit room to where the other mutants were held to see if any of them were still shackled. He could hear the restraints still jangling as some of them were possibly still locked in place...a fine buffet for a hungry Wendigo. And a fine distraction for him to slip along the wall and behind the creature. Street rules were prevailing once again and it was every man for himself.

The hidden compartment slid closed behind Patrick, leaving the others to fend for themselves as best they were able. But the superhuman agility, strength, and tenacity of the Wendigo made short work of the other mutants. Before Jace got far, the Wendigo caught his scent and looked back the way it had come.

"WENDIGO!"

Glowing red eyes locked onto Jace who had run straight into a dead end. The bloodstained claws on hands and feet of the white behemoth dug into the steel floor as it charged on all fours.

"Well sonofa..." Jace sighed, this was either going to be the end of him or that freakin' Wendigo. Despite having used it a lot lately, the young boy was not as adept at changing his density for ghosting. He didn't even know where a Wendigo's heart was to rip it out. He was better and more practiced at increasing his density and decided to go that route in the short amount of time that he had. So he quickly took a defensive stance, dug in his feet, made a fist, and extended his arm to the closing behemoth's head. Jace then increased the density of his entire body as much as he could, bringing the heightened durability, increased weight, and amplified strength. Even he couldn't break the Wendigo's skull, maybe he could break it's teeth. And then sit on it while smashing it's claws.

The Wendigo got knocked back onto its haunches by Jace's punch, but it didn't slow down much. Letting out another roar, the Wendigo cracked its neck to one side and pounced. But with Jace's high density, the Wendigo couldn't tackle him as it had done with the others. Its sharp claws, however, did manage to break skin.

"Get away from it, you idiot!" Patrick called out from a narrow grate along the floor that would presumably be used to drain out the gore once the live trial had ended. How he had gotten down there after escaping through a hidden wall panel was a mystery. "Do that and I'll open a panel."

The broken skin could only get worse the longer he stayed there. Jace wished he'd noticed the blood drain earlier... At any rate, there he was, bleeding a little and probably about to be bleeding worse. The kid counted the seconds between the next two strikes from the Wendigo and then used the time to quickly change and phase through the grate. Unfortunately, the blood from the cuts started flowing a little more free until he increased his density enough to slow it down.

He looked at Patrick. "Must be nice to have some training, hotshot. So pop open another panel and get us the hell away from this arena."

"If you survive this, I might have a spot for you," Patrick said. "Unfortunately..."

Before he could finish, the Wendigo had ripped off the grate cover and began swiping at them with its claws. Patrick managed to activate another panel at the far end of the drain pit. It revealed another arena nearly identical to the one they had just left, save for a different hue of stainless steel.

"WEN-DI-GO!"

"... you can see escape will be easier said than done. Come on!"

At that, Maestro led the way into the open arena with the Wendigo brute-forcing its way through the drain behind them.

"I bet it can smell the blood," Patrick said as he trotted. "Got any way to staunch it?"

"I can try to increase the density of just my skin without affecting anything else," Jace answered. "But I've only done it once or twice to cut off a blood trail from the cops." He listened in fear as the Wendigo continued it's forceful forward movement. "This is an arena, right? Maybe we find a way into the observation booth?"

"Maybe," said Patrick. "I haven't run the perimeter yet, but I suspect we're in some kind of labyrinth. Shift the adjoining modules around and you have a complex hamster wheel to run your subjects to exhaustion. And we're the hamsters."

The Wendigo ripped the walls into shreds, squeezing through the twisted shards without regard for the fur and flesh chunks it left behind. By the time it cleared the passage, though, there was no sign of blood on it.

Maestro stomped one foot on the floor, then raised his hands together and stretched them apart. The central floor split apart like an ice-rink cover and gave way into what appeared to be a gigantic meat grinder. When the beast fell through it, rather than be consumed, it merely jammed up the gears. An ear-splitting howl drowned out the whining motors. The Wendigo fought against the grinding buzz-saws.

"WENDIGO!"

"How does it heal so fast?" Maestro mused aloud. "It must have a superior density not unlike your own, but it cannot modulate into intangibility. Fascinating..."

"Labyrinth, hamster wheels, Wendigo...these people are out of their minds." He watched the events transpire and was thankful that he was with someone who could seemingly sense these mechanical things. That feeling was short-lived though as he watched the beast fight against the grinding and listened to it yell. "Fascinating? I might as well just go ghost, walk through the damn thing, and grab it's brain as I leave it's body. Let it heal from that. And to hell with my blood loss."

Patrick shrugged. "Worth a shot, I guess. Do it. That will make getting the hell out of here profoundly simpler."

"Whatever works. Let's roll." As Jace made himself intangible, the cuts from the Wendigo began to bleed. He knew that would draw the beast straight to him. He stared at it as it bolted towards him and roared. Jace held his arms up at the level of the Wendigo's head and walked towards it. What seemed like minutes was only a few seconds as Jace grabbed the squishy brain and walked out of the creature's back. He looked down at the blood and tissue covered mass and dropped it immediately on the floor. The young man threw up a little in his mouth.

With a resounding thud that vibrated the floor below them, the fell beast was slain. The vibrations didn't stop, though. Shifting panels along the floor, walls, and ceiling retracted like a vanishing Rubik's Cube until Flux and Maestro were left atop a narrow spire in a vast space akin to a hangar or warehouse.

"Enough tricks!" shouted Patrick into the empty expanse. "Show yourself!"

The outcry was met with slow clapping, a polite golf clap at first that soon escalated into full applause.

"Well done," uttered a voice which seemed to echo from everywhere. Before them a shifty hologram over 40 feet tall showed the same bureaucrat in sunglasses who had ordered them captured during their ill-fated escape attempt from the cargo container. "Bravo and well done! It is a rare day when the Wendigo is slain, but never with such ruthless exploitation of an equally unprecedented advantage. To say that I am impressed would be an understatement."

Jace looked around, stunned. A tall hologram...for real. "We're not here to impress you! You freakin' maniac! Let us go!"

"Tomorrow is another day," the man said. "For now, sleeeeep...."

Hissing filled the naked Arena as gas was pumped into it at over 1,000 PSI. Unconsciousness took the victorious mutants.

END

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