In the Valley Of the Kings [Pharohs 1]

T-shirts, jeans, a few pairs of shoes, lots of hoodies and jackets.

Brandon only wanted his leather jacket, so he pulled it down and slid into it easily. The smell of leather and axe was comforting. It seemed as if the metal zipper had been replaced by a shitty plastic one, but it was still functional. Unthinkingly he glanced around the room, eyes passing over Jazz hurriedly, followed by him shaking the image out of his head.

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Candice examined the contents of the boxes. Lots of her airy, flowing shirts. Some jeans, some leggings, a bunch of her flats, her only pair of work boots (for snowy days, which happened a lot where she came from)...To her dismay, no guitar. She kind of figured it wouldn't be there though.

Now then, how to get some privacy. She wasn't about to strip down in a room full of teenage boys and one very little teenage boy. An idea seemed to dawn on her.

"Does anyone have some sheets?" She asked the room in general, but it was the orb that responded.
"Request for sheets..." Silence. "Accepted."

A small silver box slid up directly next to the bed with one set of fitted and one set of non-fitted sheets. Candice grabbed the non-fitted sheets and made a sort of curtain between the boxes on either side of her, holding down the edges of the sheet with her work boots.

A semi-comfortable place to change into a light blue v-neck shirt, a pair of black leggings, and one pair of darker blue flats.

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Ryan just grabbed a less grungy t-shirt and switched out his current crinkled hat for a trucker hat, which he put on backwards.

"Cool. Can we do something else now?"

The orb whirred. "Prepare for briefing." it said.

Leon looked perplexed. "Briefing?" He asked.

"Yes." responded the orb

"Oh." Leon said, suddenly feeling a little stupid.

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Jazz looked over at the orb. "Briefing? Im afraid i do not wear briefs so i willhave to decline."

The orb whirred. "Participation is not optional."

Jazz looked at it grumpilly. "You are a gigantic fucking pile of bullshit you know that?"

The orb did not respond.

-------

Clavin looked a bit concerned. "Briefing? That is entirely too ambiguous."

Brandon raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to give us some actually useful information?"

"Debatable."

His face fell into the perfect visual example of the phrase "Are you fucking serious" and he turned to Jazz. "Osiris. Temporary truce while we agree that this thing needs to be slowly tortured and brutally slaughtered?"

========

Candice poked her head out of the makeshift curtain and gave the orb a confused look. Briefing didn't sound...enjoyable. But participation was apparently not optional. She snorted as Brandon received, yet another, unhelpful response.

"You should just stop asking it questions, Khepri."
"I am dangerously close to sewing my mouth shut."
"Eh, don't go THAT far." She ducked back into her changing room to straighten out her shirt and pull on a half-sweater to cover up the deep cut of her shirt.

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

Ryan was just glad he didn't have to stay in this room and sulk.

Jazz nodded sagely. "I will agree to this with no reservation." He said, pulling on a set of thin fingerless gloves. "I think that it deserves that and more."

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Leon, having pulled on a blue hoodie with a wierd smiley face design on it Grinned happily. "It probably won't be a big deal...it usually just means they are going to tell us things, at least in the movies." he said with a shrug. It seemed that leon had been a bit of a sheltered kid.

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Calvin looked unimpressed. "Well...i guess that we might as well do what it says for now.

All of the boxes slid away with a quiet whirring noise. Candice jumped and looked with slight dismay at the sheets that were no trip-wire stretched at the foot of her bed.

Suddenly, the orb let out a short claxon wail.

The orb whirred and spoke. "Pharaohs, you will now be escorted to your first briefing session. Proceed in the designated direction untill prompted to stop or turn. Failure to do so will result in diciplinary action. When you reach your destination, you will sit on the seats provided for you, and we will begin. Failure to sit, attempts to go somewhere not directed, and failure to comply with any and all personell will result in diciplinary action."

A pneumatic hiss sounded, and a door slid open in the far end of the room.

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Candice stepped out into the wider area of the room. "I guess we go then?"

Brandon nodded slowly and rose suspiciously. "I guess we do."

Ryan was up and already leaning against the wall next to the door.
"Well then let's fucking get this over with."
"Sulk and stew all you want, kid. We're still here and we're still fucking stuck. Just walk the line." Brandon hadn't even seen the blue line in the hallway yet.
"Dude, you keep ragging on me and I swear I'll break your jaw."
"Save it for the show, dick."
Ryan looked enraged and started to say something, but Brandon snapped his fingers to cut him off. He looked confused...He didn't feel all aggressive anymore. Ryan and Brandon both exchanged looks of surprise, and then uncomfortably looked everywhere but at each other.

Leon followed Candice, looking around at the hallways. "Jeez." he muttered. "This is like, sci-fi levels of wierd." He seemed intruiged by the metal walls.

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Jazz blew out his cheeks as they went down the hall. "Bitches need an interior designer." He said.

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Calvin rolled his eyes at jazz, but continued on behind him, wondering mildly just how long he was going to keep making stupid jokes. He was worried that the answer was, forever.

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Eventually, they all managed to get into the room they were directed to and into their seats.

Brandon was still pondering why the fight between him and Ryan had just sort of...poofed away. He felt responsible for it somehow. As he walked through the hall he kept his hands in his pockets and his head down.

As he took his seat in the room, he glanced over at Ryan, hoping to see the same discomfort. What he saw was agitation and anxiety.

----

Candice was happy to be seated next to Leon. She ruffled his hair lightly as they sat down and smiled at him. She hoped the look she gave him conveyed the encouragement she wanted to give him.

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"Welcome Pharaoh pod, to the arena primaries. Here your base skill levels and whatever aspects of your abilities you have managed to figure out in this short span of time, will be tested in a no holds match against another pod. There are no rules, but these fights need not be to the death, though that is entirely the decision of the participant. Fights will go on until one participant is unable to fight, or is judged to have won by other means."

Brandon's eyebrow raised. Fight to the death, or near death if your opponent wasn't too pissed about the damage you inflicted.

Ryan seemed to perk up a bit. "This is more like it."

Candice looked completely and utterly dismayed. She glanced down at Leon and forced a smile. "Alrighty Mr. Incredible Hulk! Superhero training test!" She hoped that turning it into a game would ease the fear.

Leon looked at candice. For a moment he lookedextremely uncomfortable but then he forced a smile. "Yeah." he said. "I guess so..." he swallowed his nervousness and decided, if he was going to have to deal with these things, he might as well pretend in could be fun. The factthat he had never so much as watched an R rated movie flitted through his mind, but he quashed it with the image of him becoming the hulk.

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Jazz raised an eyebrow. "Oh....well fucking shitballs. Guess i'm a' have to fuck someone up so I do not get fucked up in return....still hoping for that wakeup call..."

He decided to leave it at that.

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Calvin's brow was furrowed. He didn't dislike violence, but neither was he really all that interested in testing his quite limited knowledge of combat.

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The screen whirred.

"The first two combatants will be.... Apophis, and...Khepri.

Leon was a bit wide eyed, but gulped and nodded. He semed to be shaking a bit, but was trying to keep it together.

Candice patted Leon's shoulder. "You'll do great. I'm rooting for ya!" She smiled wider than he'd seen her smile ever before.

====

Brandon shrugged off the instinctive anxiety he felt. Fear wouldn't be of use to him now. As he walked past Ryan, he felt a tug on his sleeve. Ryan looked up at him grudgingly as he paused.

"Hey, good luck bro."
Brandon thought this was highly unusual, but he simply nodded his thanks and entered the elevator.

============================

Candice looked distraught as Leon disappeared from the screen, tearing through the wall. She had a feeling that if someone would have just huggled him and presented that skank's severed head to him, he would have been just fine.

To ease her nerves she looked at Brandon's screen. His opponent was...interesting. She sighed, hoping that he wouldn't prove to be too much of a challenge. As the fight progressed she giggled. Then she laughed. Then she doubled over.

Ryan had already fallen out of his chair. This was the best karma ever.

Jazz had been snickering from the start, but after the rainbow tool comment, he was straight up hysterical. "Oh my god! I want him as a fucking pet, holy shit!"

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Calvin was smiling a bit, but was really more concerned with the kid that had ripped through a wall.

Candice squealed and turned away from the screen. "Oh my CHRIST he didn't just do that, did he?"

Ryan looked at the screen in horror. Then his expression changed. He was...impressed. "Not...bad...."

"He can't honestly heal from that, can he?"
"Oh fuck no."
"Tell me when it's gone."
"It's not going to be gone, shithead. This is a battle arena."
Candice glared at him and went back to worrying about Leon, ignoring the screen as best she could.

As the match ended Jazz looked critically at the screen. "Well, i don't even fucking know if that's considered winning....but, on the other hand, not bad. Going fucking Etzio on that shit."

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

Calvin was looking appraisingly at the screen. So....it seemed that the relative control of lifeforce was looking more and more reasonable by the second. Calvin rubbed his temples. Just when he was sure the laws of physics were concrete....

Candice whimpered slightly as the boy's neck cracked.

"Oh my god. They're going to make us all do that, aren't they?"
"Hopefully." Ryan mused. He was nodding at the screen, seemingly impressed.

Candice chose to ignore the tinge of joy in Ryan's voice. Instead, she shifted her worry to Leon. She really hoped he was ok...He had torn through that wall like it was nothing, and thrown the girl like she was a cheap frisbee. Biting her lip, she looked up at the screen anxiously, hoping they would show him again.

----

Ryan smacked Jazz's shoulder to get his attention.

"You better start watching your ass, buddy. That motherfucker would put you down in a heartbeat."
Candice shot him a look of disgust. "And you think your sorry self is any safer?"
"Well...he...fuck you."
"Thought so."

Jazz shrugged. "Hey man, the way i see it, anyone could kick anyone's ass, we don't even know....i mean, i bring up fucking exhibit A, small child ripping through arena..."

Calvin nodded slightly at this. "I cant help but agtree with that." he said softly. Jazz looked amazed. "Well godamn, i got the silent ddude to actually say something. Do i get a fucking medal?"

Calvin raised an eyebrow and looked like he was going to say something before the door opened.

Six people walked through, carrying a seventh beween them. It was the unconcious form of leon...he appeared to be completely unharmed, but the quick glance into the hallway that the open door showed would reveal a tall boy with a number of piercings, and a badly broken arm. He looked unphased, but it was still a bit unsettling.

The suited individuals placed leon in the chair next to Candice, and exited the room, the door sealing once again behind them.

Candice immediately threw her arms around Leon's unconscious form, spouting off a million questions and statements of motherly concern. She seemed to remember about halfway through the 4th "Are you ok, are you hurt?" that Brandon had also been walked back into the room and shoved into a seat behind her.

"Are you ok?" She asked tentatively. He had just broken someone's neck, she wasn't sure if she actually wanted him to be totally ok.

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"Dicks!" Brandon glared at the men as they left the room. He didn't appreciate being shoved around like that. "And yeah, I'm fine. Make sure the kid's okay."

"Dude, you wrecked that guy." Ryan clapped a hand on his shoulder, pulling a chair around and sitting in it backwards.
"I don't know if 'wrecked' is quite the term, but thanks."
"Wrecked is definitely the term. You ripped his arm off and broke his neck."
"Yeah, but he grew a new arm and I don't even know what to say about his neck. He just sort of...Convulsed in mock agony like I told him to. Poorly, yes, but he did it."

"I say you did great." Ryan shrugged, folding his hands behind his head and stretching. He wanted to get in there and do that himself.

Brandon suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to agree with him. Yeah, he had been pretty great. A second later he felt a distinct sense of confusion, because he couldn't think of a single reason that he'd done great, but he agreed.

Leon blearily opened his eyes. "I...feel really weird. I'm....Floaty..." His words were slightly slurred. It appeared that he was under the effects of an absolutely colossal dose of sedatives. "Am I OK?" he asked, blearily running a hand over his head, checking for bumps, or missing sections of skull. After a few seconds he nestled closer to Candice, apparently deciding that the extended hug was a great place to take a nap.

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"Note to self, don't fuck with the small child..." Jazz said with a chuckle. "Anyway, uh, what is it...uh, Isis, that's it. Isis, he all good over there?" he shrugged "I mean, if he can plow through a wall I figure the little dude is fine but, yeah. If he's-"

"The next combatants will now proceed into the elevators. The combatants are as follows; Osiris, Hu."

Jazz looked around, before apparently realizing that he was Osiris. "Oh, well fuck."

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

Calvin blinked. Well, he supposed, that meant he was next, if the pattern of twos continued. "Good luck" he said nodding to Jazz.

Candice made a quiet noise of endearment as Leon cuddled into her. She nodded "yes" to Jazz's question and rested her chin on Leon's head. This was no place for a child, even a super-mutated freakishly powerful child. Even worse: Both Khepri and Hu had been called now. It would be her next.

I don't trust that Brandon kid...That other guy doesn't seem great either. Maybe...The quiet one?

She would continue to be concerned over who would watch the child while she was gone until she no longer had time to be concerned.

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"Hu, eh?" Branded glanced up at the screen and then turned to Ryan. "Good luck out there. Hopefully your match won't be as...stalemate-ish."

----

Ryan had to admit that he was kind of nervous now that it was his turn. He figured one of two things could happen: He could turn out to be a super-badass fighter and shock everyone...or he could get totally screwed over. Either way, he made the executive decision that he was gonna look cool as hell while he did it.

"Yeah, hopefully." Ryan muttered, rising to his feet and striding forward. "You ready to fuck shit up, Osi?"

As Jazz stepped into the elevator, he flashed Ryan a grin. "Let's do this shit." he said, as the elevator door closed.

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Leon seemed to regain consciousness again for a moment. "Have fun at the mall...." he slurred, before relaxing back into a stupor.

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Calvin seemed to be brooding.

Candice watched the screen with very little interest. At this point it was just something to watch while Leon napped. The last round had been kind of awful and she would change the channel if she were at home. Somehow she didn't think that was an option here.

When she saw the child that Osiris had to face, she became very concerned and very upset. "Don't you dare!" she muttered under her breath. However the child seemed to be handling fine, and she laughed quietly as she struck him.

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Brandon cocked his head to the side. That kid was going to get screw- Oh. Maybe not. He was actually fairly impressed. On the other screen, Hu seemed likely to win. Hell, he was at perfect groin punching level.

Calvin murmured an uncharacteristic explicative. Jazz had barely touched his opponent, and... He stored this information away. It hadn't looked intentional, but there was something about the way the girl had jest collapsed that felt diametrically 'wrong' to Calvin.

Candice gasped as the girl fell back and began to...began to...Oh she didn't even want to think about it. She looked away quickly, muttering words of surprise and displeasure. Tentatively she looked up at the other screen, hoping to see less...awful.

Hu was being circled, but his opponent didn't look too threatening at least. Then again, neither did either of the children that had proven themselves terrifying.

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

Brandon sucked in a sharp breath. That girl...That wasn't natural. That wasn't right. Perhaps he should stay on Jazz's good side.

A couple minutes later, a pale, and somewhat queezy-looking Jazz was led back into the room. "Hi." He said monosyllabic.

He sat down in the seat he had occupied before, rubbing his temples, he had a wicked headache.

"Welp, I'm gonna need therapy for the rest of fucking eternity." He said after a few moments. "I just got beaten up by a little girl, apparently goddamned Kamehameha'd her or some shit, and now my shoulder feels fine and i cant remember how i got back to this room." He shook his head, looking at the floor. "I've had better days."

"I think we've all had better days, dude." Brandon offered. "To be fair, she wasn't exactly a typical kid. She was one hell of a freak of nature. It was you or her and you did what you had to. Right, Isis?"
"I have absolutely nothing to say to either of you." She hissed, clutching the child in her arms protectively.

Brandon raised his hands defensively and turned his attention back to the screen, hoping to strike up some other conversation and not get punched by his team mate.

"Shit, he missed." He muttered.

Leon stirred and slowly sat up, blinking the remaining grogginess from his eyes. "Wha..." he started still slurring very slightly "What happened?" He glanced at the screen and looked a bit concerned. "Is everyone still OK?" he asked.

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Jazz gave a forced smile. "Yeah, I'm all good little dude, just a little, uh... tired." He said. He avoided looking at Candice, apparently not all that thrilled with himself either.

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Calvin glanced over at jazz. He still seemed about the same, but now, Calvin had to wonder what sort of power he had? What on earth could randomly cause someone's bones to shatter?

"Everything's fine, dear." Candice said soothingly. She was glad he didn't have to see that last bit of fighting. "That rude blond boy is in the ring now."

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"I'm alright." Brandon muttered. He was still watching the screen. Even if he was a bit of a dick, Brandon wanted his team mate to do well. Laughing at the thought of him having "team pride" already, he glanced over at the quiet boy. God he was fucking creepy...He was always sizing people up.