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BETA AND PHI GROUP

The yellow lever snapped firmly into place while the green one made a strange grating noise before slowly shifting back to original position. That left two more for Ro to try.

The floor outside began to rumble. Slowly, but surely, tiles began to drop, all around them revealing towering columns of spikes underneath. It took out exactly half the tiles in the room.

Otto let Charlotte take the gun. He felt no regret, but he wasn't proud either. It was simply something he'd had to do. Too bad it didn't work. Lawr wasn't dead. It was a useless gun if it wouldn't do that much for him.

"How?" Otto growled, "The wall had a slab that said to sacrifice one and we could pass. We lost Ami already..." he shot a cruel glare at Lawr, "And that didn't work. Killing this scumbag just seemed like the better option out of the lot of us. Why keep a killer around, anyway?"

OMEGA GROUP


The Life Hunter went down easily. Even with Stormy's goggles it was hard to tell exactly where she had cut, but then he was sinking into the floor and then his body was just gone as if the ground itself had swallowed up and eaten it.

It was still dark, and there was no visible sign of Stormy having saved anyone. A door however, swung open at the far end.

OMEGA GROUP

And it was done. At least he hadn't made a sound.

Stormy backed away with a shuddering breath, her skin prickling. No-one had to know. Or maybe they would, once they left. Maybe. For now, she needed to get out of there as soon as possible.

Gently letting the dagger down, she grabbed the first available weapon off the pile (a gun, of course it was a gun), and found the remaining three one by one. "It's me," she'd tell them, reassuring them of her presence before linking their hands, telling them who was holding whose hand.

And then she led them to the door.

DELTA

The fact that they took him with them was a good sign. They didn't know.

It was probably in his best interests to keep it that way.

Peyton's decision didn't really surprise him. The idea of another one of them dying seemed farther away somehow. Not his problem. Not his decision. It was freeing. All the same, he chose to look around more than he paid the other two attention, though he certainly shot them his fair share of glances in case they made a move he didn't like the look of. The door shut behind them, sealing the water on the other side, and they could finally trade one danger for another.

Lucky was trying to clean his wet glasses off with his wet sweatshirt when the attention fell back on him sharply. He looked up, and shook his head at Taym's question, throwing of a spray of cold water from his hair. The glasses were replaced, just as useless as they were before he tried to wipe them off. His response was succinct, and shaky, between chattered teeth. "N-n-no."

He gave a long look to the sealed door at the bottom of the stairs, then followed Peyton to the main attraction.

"A p-puzzle..." He was pointing at the row of switches, one at a time. The sign made it simple. There was something comforting about cold, hard logic. It was so much easier to talk about. Because even two sacrifices today hadn't been enough. They had to make another. "The chance to kill is one in three for each. Ve could flip them one at time, but - is the bad one hurting the one who flips, or the ones who do not?"

Even the person who flipped them alone may not be safe.

"I think... if ve each flip one at same time... then..." Then they wouldn't know who killed who when someone dropped dead. Or all of them. Absolved. And all painfully, equally at risk. But it would probably be over in an instant. It was one of the better ways to go, as a hunter. "Ve never find out."

He reached out to place his hand on the green switch, but did not move it yet.

(( quote was an error, he already made it! I just edit my posts too slow. ))

[ Omega ]

Dory, very quietly, followed Stormy through the door.

If she was very careful and took a moment, she may have noticed that he was shaking, very softly. He was also holding on to the sword.

DELTA

He hesitated, and then he barked a laugh that didn't have any humor in it.

"Like a ********' firing squad? So we don't know who had the lucky bullet?*" Another laugh, bitter and tired.

There wasn't really much to argue about, even if he wanted to. To say that their options were limited was to put the situation into extremely charitable terms.

"Stanley Milgram would be proud," he sneered, but all the same, he reached out and put his hand on the red switch. It was acquiescence enough. He didn't even look at Peyton. He apparently felt this was the only sensible approach, or at least the approach which would cause him the least amount of guilt, which was in some ways the same thing.





* c wat i did thar

DELTA AND OMEGA

The room Taym, Lucky, and Peyton were in went dark.

And then absolutely nothing happened. In fact for viewers, the screens would have also gone dark.

"Psst." It was the faintest of noises, and it was talking to the three in the room. It sounded vaguely familiar and a little annoying. "Come with me."

Before they could ask where or how, they saw the quickest flicker of light, what looked like a laser pointer aiming one direction before it went dark again. They walked for a little bit. "Have you guys seen Sam? I like- had to rig ten million things, man, don't even ask how I got- ow."

- And that is when mysterious rescuer hit group Omega, or at least Stormy leading the group. Mysterious person, also known as Mark who also had his own variation of night vision goggles on. "Wait a second, you guys are supposed to be in-" there was a long pause and what felt like several lightbulbs going on at once. "Oh my god, oh my god I am a genius. I totally get it. All the rooms are like totally - wait that was so that - which that means that like-"

- The ceiling shook a little.

- "No time!" Mark squeaked. "You guys head down and meet up with the others down that way, I'm gonna go cause distractions. Wait, hang on. I need like, security and stuff. Any of you guys wanna come and be my padawans in this super secret super mission of ultra stealth?" This was whispered conversationally.