One Year Later...

One year. A year had passed since the events of the Criminal's gauntlet, and the next event was starting, right on level 5. The first round was already over, and the twenty new contestants were already picked out. Wendy had read up on all of them. Only about three she felt came close to deserving death, and the rest were a bunch of scared kids.

Scared kids she was ready to save.

The first event of the new season was the city being put on lockdown, and the contestants being left inside to fend for themselves. The big thing this time around was audience participation, with weapons being left around to take the contestants out. However, killing someone in the city spelled instant death.

She casually hopped over the city fences surrounded by guards, none of them so much as glancing in their direction. In the middle of the city were twenty contestants standing perfectly still, with a dozen people eyeing them up. She went next to the one holding a weapon, a shotgun of some kind. She went up to him and watched as the two hosts explained the challenge to them. A man with short brown hair missing an eye, and a girl with neon green hair holding some paper, looking completely uninterested in the concept.

"And, with that out of the way…begin!" The man announced.

The contestants all scattered in several directions, and Wendy let a shock into the man holding a shotgun, knocking him out cold. She began to run past the contestants, scanning the area for someone to save. She found one. Chelsea Sharp. Fifteen years old. Astral Dagger user. From level two, in for stealing art supplies.

"Hey, Chelsea!" Wendy yelled out. "You wanna get out of here?

Chelsea turned around, her unkempt brown hair getting in the way.

"Aren't you a winner from last year?" She asked.

"Yeah, let's go!"

Chelsea looked around to make sure there weren't any guards. She got her on her back, and started making her way through the city, looking for anyone else she could find. She didn't run into anyone on the way, dashing straight past the guards out of the city. Wendy kept running with her on her back.

"You okay?" She asked.

"Yeah." Chelsea replied, hopping off her back.

Wendy looked towards the city, seeing three guards approaching her. Two of them were the standard, but one wasn't wearing the helmet.

"Heyyy there!" He announced excitedly. "Can't help but notice you have a contestant there!"

"Chelsea, run!" Wendy yelled. Chelsea ran, and with a snap of the leaders fingers, the two helmet wearing guards ran after her.

"Heyyy, you're Cyrus friend, right?" He asked. "I'm his brother! Name's William, nice to meetcha!"

Wendy shot a bolt of electricity at William, and he casually put a hand up. The hand quickly covered in bone and reflected the lightning bolt into the sky. A sly grin made it's appearance onto William, and he leapt forward, slamming Wendy's face into the ground. Once she was there, he covered her in a blanket of bone so that she couldn't move.

"Alrighty, let's see what you've been up to." William said while taking a phone out of his pocket, lightly tapping it against his forehead before unlocking it.

"Wendy…Moon. Huh, what do you know, clean record! Seems you've been behaving. So hey, gotta let you off the hook this time. But just be aware that once you mess up one too many times, I get to put something through your skull!"

He tapped Wendy's prison, and the bones came undone. The guards appeared behind her, dragging Chelsea back into the city.

"Anyway, laters! Tell Cyrus I said hi, he isn't returning my calls!"

"Okay, you guys ready?"

Cyrus and Odebode looked over the small group of houses on level one, over a crowd of roughly a dozen men and a half-dozen women.

"The mayor of Shapersville is coming to oversee the new protection sniper rifle. Now, if this gets built, anyone and everyone could end up killed for the most minor things. So, let's go!"

He raised a fist into the air, and the people facing him did the same. Some were holding weapons; some were summoning astral weapons or practising throwing out a fireball.

The crowd made their way to the train dropping off the materials, where the old man in a suit was talking to a man holding a microphone. It was an open area behind the small town. Nothing for a while besides the walls and the single metal shack used to bring in materials, which barely happened. The train creaked into the station on the rusty tracks. When it was last used was anyone's guess.

"Yes, yes. I'm assured many people will have concerns about this, but rest assured that regular citizens will face no troubles with the new system. It's made to detect fear or malicious energy, so if there is nothing to hide, the average citizen will have nothing to fear."

"Are you certain of that?"

Cyrus walked over to the cameraman, casually putting a hand on his shoulder.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll leave." He said calmly. He looked the cameraman in the eyes, clenching his fists to make a jagged bone blade appear from his hands. The cameraman immediately dropped the camera and ran into the crowd.

"He's just another worker, everybody! Leave him alone!"

The group of people all came from behind, with Odebode in the lead.

"You two, where have I seen you before?" The man asked, taking a small cloth from his breast pocket to wipe the sweat off his forehead. "Ah yes, I…I remember. You two won the criminal gauntlet, correct? What brings you here, anyway?"

"It has come to our attention that you have been cutting funding and reducing pay for the workers of the area in a promise to increase industry. This was roughly a year ago, yet nothing has come from this experiment. Despite this, the people in your town have continued to suffer under your leadership. And if my statistics are correct, this area had one of the highest recruitments into the gauntlet."

"Listen here, sir!" The man replied, the small ocean of sweat gathering on the floor with every word he said. "Attracting industry takes time! You wouldn't know, just being a pair of kids with no idea of foresight!"

"And did you not have the foresight to prepare extra resources for your own people?" Odebode asked, taking his sword out.

"Look, it's just impossible to care for everyone! There's always going to be a few people who get left behind, that's what progress is!"

"Oh, I'm aware."

Odebode summoned his sword and gave a single horizontal swing. With a single cut, he was cut in two.

"Right, now that that's out of the way, I take it we can leave the dismantling to you?"

The crowd jumped in instantly, taking the boxes out of the train and stomping on them, with several starting to use their abilities.

"Okay, that's roughly three towns on level one complete." Cyrus said calmly. "Hopefully the idea will spread in the coming months, and we won't have to go individually. I've already heard about a few people rising on the first two levels. Heard about an attempt on level three, as well. But that was crushed."

"Heck yeah, man!" Odebode yelled. "So…what's happening next?"

"We keep going. I was talking to Wendy, and she's going to follow the gauntlet from level three upwards and try to save anyone she can."

"Anything from the others?" Odebode asked.

"Vanessa said she was more focused on her group, and that we shouldn't stay with her. She's scared it'll give them an excuse to raid the Ishtarites. And as for Silvia, haven't been able to get anything off her."

"Ah, got it." Odebode nodded. "So what now?"

"Same as we've been doing for a while now. The people are waking up, and we need to give them a push. And before long, it'll be them pushing us."

Vanessa entered her apartment above the Ishtarites building. That day was nothing special, just some basic couples counselling. Nothing major that required the other elders to get involved, just a young couple not feeling as in love as they used to. She entered Huang's old apartment, or her apartment. The fact it was hers still felt off. Calming yellow walls, a grey rug above a metal floor with a bed and a small wooden desk. A relic from before the city, apparently. And it would be pretty expensive if she sold it.

Mentally pushing those thoughts aside, she opened the laptop resting on her deck and began working on her novel. Forty thousand words about two young women finding themselves and each other, and her line of work gave her plenty of inspiration to work with. She began typing, using something from that days counselling to get over a roadblock she reached.

"Hmm, looks interesting."

There was a voice around her. A voice she recognised. She considered screaming out to Ross, but whether or not he would even stand a chance against him was a different question.

"Mersache?" She whispered softly, not turning around.

"The very same." The voice replied calmly. "Do you mind turning around?"

Vanessa slowly left her chair and turned to face him. He was right in front of her, casually observing her with his piercing red eyes.

"Now, Vanessa." He started casually. "I've noticed that you've still been taking part in this cult of yours. Now, I feel the need to mention that you only get to commit five more crimes once the game ends. But you've spent a year with these people, so I feel I have ample reason to take this further. Especially when you consider what you've been up to. This year alone, there have been sixteen missing persons cases linked to this place."

"Yes, but…they were abusers! They took advantage of innocent people!"

"Now now, that is for the state to decide."

Mersache felt the parasites crawl up on top of him. He quickly dissolved into a puddle of blood, creating a small group of solid spikes to kill them.

"Interesting technique." He said calmly upon reforming. "But anyway, I'm not here to kill you. The opposite, in fact. I'm here to offer you and your group permanent legal immunity."

"You…are?" Vanessa asked. There was a trick. There had to be.

"All you have to do is become my assistant."

There it was.

"It's a simple job, really." Mersache continued. "Answering calls, dealing with sponsors. Making sure the game runs smoothly. You won't be taking part in the game, either. And should you do well enough, I'll make sure nobody from your group ends up there either."

"And if I do this, you promise not to take us out?"

"I am many things, but a breaker of promises isn't one of them."

Vanessa looked over at him. He didn't seem to be hiding anything. And if his goal was to just kill her, he would have already done it.

"I'll…I'll tell the elders." She replied.

"Excellent." Mersache said with a calm smile. "You'll be housed on level five. Put to work in about four days, should everything go as planned. I look forward to working with you."

"Okay, and what seems to be the problem?" Silvia asked. The device seemed to be a simple clamshell designed game system. Pretty old, too. Even level two had them. "Not turning on?"

"It's not turning on." The short haired man replied. "Could be water damage, since I dropped it in the toilet."

"Great." Silvia sighed. "I'm guessing you washed it since?"

"Oh, I probably should have done that." He replied calmly.

"Okay." Silvia sighed, trying desperately to supress her own rage. "I'll check what the issue is, and if I can salvage it, I'll give you a call. If I can have your contact information, that'd be great."

The man did as she asked, leaving the store afterwards.

"Hey boss, I'm going on break." Silvia replied. "You need anything from the store?"

"I'll take a tuna sandwich from the deli." Her boss replied in his usual thick accent. "Actually, fuck it. Today's been more idiots than usual, I'll join you."

Danny Lucas. Another gauntlet survivor from level two. Ran an electronic repair shop. When she got out, she needed something to pass the time while her brother was in college. She was hired to work there pretty easily. Work was pretty simple outside of the occasional idiot.

"So, you been keeping up with the news?" He asked, lighting a cigarette.

"Nah, shit's depressing." Silvia replied with a weary sigh.

"Eh, this'd interest you. Apparently those two guys who survived have been pulling some wild shit off."

"Damn, for real?" Silvia asked.

"On level one, yeah. Two have them have been inspiring a bunch of revolutions. Last time I checked a couple big names down there got killed."

"Well, if it's anything like level two then they probably deserved it." Silvia shrugged.

"You said it, not me." Danny chuckled. "And the little kid. Heard she ran into a challenge site and tried getting one of the kids out. She failed, but it's something."

"Yeah, sounds like her." Silvia nodded. "Any news on Vanessa?"

"She was the parasite lady, right? Nothing on her, anyway."

"Ah, I see." The two entered the shop, and Silvia got the usual. Chicken roll and a bag of Gold Munch.

"Yo, gonna spend my lunch at the park." Silvia told Danny. "So if I'm a few minutes late, you know why."

"Sure thing." Danny replied.

Silvia went into the park with her food. The trees in the area were still breath-taking, so matter how many times she looked at them. All green and full of life. The place was just calming.

She took out her phone, immediately typing 'Cyrus Holden' into the search bar. Article upon article and opinion upon opinion about what he managed to pull off. Level one was practically on the warpath with everything going on there. Couple articles about Wendy, too. But not as many.

She looked up to see more trees. A few kids running about. Some young couples walking through the park. But she knew what it was all built on. A foundation of lies and abuse that could collapse at any moment. And Cyrus seemed to be helping to speed that process up. She could very well be watching the world as she knew it crumble.

She looked up at the sky. The glass layer over it. Inspecting it a little more, it could be breakable. The concept fascinated her. Getting out of the city. Touching the sky, even. Was that even possible? Considering all the amazing people around here, it almost certainly was.

And it was barely a matter of if. It was a matter of when.