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Tryout Fic 12: Friends and EnemiesLuca Blight was laughing. The sound had a ghost-like quality in the world of Porta Dei; it floated through the air and echoed down corridors. To some who heard it, the sound reminded them of long gone enemies. To others, it was an annoyance to be ignored. To one in particular, it was the sound of a kindred soul. In the days since their arrival, all 63 other contestants had become acquainted with the sound, and they had all learned it meant no good for somebody. “Get up, Pig!” Luca did not wait for the unfortunate member of the medical staff to respond to the command, but picked him up by the neck with one hand and pressed him against the corridor wall. “You can’t…” the medic started. “I am Lord Blight to you, fool!” and the medic was pulled across the corridor and slammed into the opposite wall. The medic gasped for air and started over. “Lord Blight, it’s against the rules to fight outside of the ring…” “And what should I care about your pitiful rules? I am Lord Luca Blight, and can do whatever I wish. Besides,” and he let loose a maniacal sneer that had frozen more than one battle hardened soldier in his tracks, “the rules say I can’t fight with other contestants.” He lowered his voice to a menacing growl, still grinning, “I don’t remember anything saying I can’t kill you.” The medic’s eyes widened in terror (or perhaps his eyes were bulging with the strain of fighting for breath, Luca wasn’t sure and didn’t care) but an unfamiliar mechanical sound interrupted his fun. CLICK CLACK. He turned around (medic still held aloft with one hand) to find a pair of opponents: a mere boy in ridiculous clothing with a sword shaped like a key in his hand (the little idiot’s play sword, no doubt); and some kind of man-like creature strikingly similar to the elves of Luca’s world, with long pointed ears, green hair, weirder clothes than the first fool, a very serious expression, and whom was pointing an odd metal stick with a large hole at Luca’s face. The weapon was not more than four inches away. He had learned in his brief stay here that this weapon was called a gun, and from what he had seen he was not impressed. His sneer stayed firmly fixed on his face. The green haired filth spoke. “Alright tin can, let him go.” “Well what do you know, a talking dog. But mongrels aren’t allowed to speak in my presence.” In one motion Blight had dropped the man and drawn his sword. The child immediately dropped into a fighting crouch, the man with the gun hadn’t even flinched. The gun was still pointed unwaveringly at Luca’s face. The medic fled unnoticed down the corridor. “Last chance.” Luca frowned. Contrary to his expectations, neither person showed any signs of fright or nervousness. The boy had a determined expression and the dog looked (there was no other word for it) bored. Both were displaying courage Blight would not have expected from such obvious imbeciles. Luca threw back his head and laughed again. The whole thing was too ridiculous. These two fools actually thought they could challenge him. He was utterly confident he could have killed them both in a matter of seconds, but despite what he had told the simpleton still running down the corridor, he did not wish to be removed from the tournament prematurely. Killing his way to victory would spill so much more blood than his current challengers could offer. He sheathed his sword and turned away, still laughing. Jak did not sheath his shotgun until the madman disappeared from view. “Well, that wasted fifty seconds of my life. Now what was it you wanted to show me?” Sora looked up at Jak and grinned. The two had met shortly after arriving, and had instantly hit it off. Sora missed his friends deeply, and the only two souls he knew before the contest that were there were Leon (Squall, he reminded himself) and Cloud, of whom the former never spoke and the latter was frequently distracted, especially right now. Jak was surprised at how lonely he had felt when he had arrived without Daxter. He had thought that his wrongful incarceration and torture in prison had toughened him to the point of not needing such things, but he had found himself feeling depressed and alone almost as soon as he had gotten to the mysterious world. Meeting the kid reminded him of himself a couple years ago. Sora constantly made him smile and was fun to hang around with. “Come on, the store is this way!” --- Jak was amazed. The store (run by two plumbers, go figure) had every kind of ammunition he could use, dozens he couldn’t, and even had dark eco containers. “Hey Jak, I don’t need anything, so I’ll see you later, okay?” Sora said from the doorway. Jak smiled, “Alright, see ya.” Jak walked down one aisle, staring at the unbelievable number of weapons and explosive devices. “This place can’t be legal.” He muttered, mostly to himself. “The prices certainly aren’t,” growled a weird looking man in a blue shirt as he stomped up to one of the plumbers clutching some kind of ammunition Jak wasn’t familiar with. “Luigi, how can you charge this much for a ****ing AK clip!? I could get it for 2/3 this much on any block in Liberty City!” “But-a Tommy, that’s-a what it says-a the price is on-a the box.” “Aw, come on!” He leaned over the counter to get a glimpse of the other plumber, who was unpacking boxes in the back. “Mario! Can’t you give an old poker buddy a break?” Meanwhile, Jak had walked up behind them, intending to buy some Vulcan ammo (He was low.) “What’s poker?” Jak asked, letting his curiosity get the better of him. Vercetti turned around, a smile on his face, imagining the amount of money he could take off this weirdo. “Poker’s a card game, and a great one,” he frowned “Say, how old are you?” “Old enough.” Tommy’s eyes slid to the weapon holstered to Jak’s back. “Yeah, I guess you are. Anyway,” the smile was back “you’ll love poker. Hey Mario, we can use another person at the nightly game, right?” “I don’t-a mind.” Mario said, not looking up from the box of Mushrooms he was unpacking. “Great. Be at the Hero’s Haunt at 10 pm.” Jak watched as Tommy walked out, the ammo clip having disappeared into his pocket. Jak couldn’t remember Tommy paying for it, nor did he think Luigi had noticed that Tommy still had it. Jak decided it wasn’t his business and paid for his own ammo. “10 o’clock.” Jak muttered. “Hey, um, Luigi, do you guys have anything on how to play that game?” Luigi thought for a minute, went into the backroom, and came back with a Yellow book entitled Poker for Dummies. “Like-a this?” “Yeah, I’ll get that too.” Jack looked at the clock above the door. “7 hours. Plenty of time.” --- Tonight was the first time poker had been played, and everyone who’d played at any point during the last contest was invited. This meant that the table was fairly crowded, with Mario, Solid Snake, Samus, Duke Nukem, Max Payne, Sam Fisher, Gordon Freeman, Master Chief, and Tommy Vercetti. The looks Jak received when he walked up, therefore, were hardly welcoming. Vercetti was way ahead of them though. “Hey, here comes our tenth player.” “Vercetti, we already have way too may as it is.” Max objected. “Nah. We just have to use a different style. Like you, said we’ve got too many for a regular game, so I figured we’d play Texas Hold’em. And full table of Hold’em is ten players.” “Does he know how to play?” asked Snake, looking at Vercetti suspiciously. “Well-“ “Just deal the cards, I know how to play the game.” Jak smiled at Vercetti’s confused look. Snake looked at him for a minute, and nodded. “All right,” he said, pulling out a fresh bought pack still in the plastic wrap “nothing wild, the game is No Limit Hold’em…” Next Entry Back |