Hogan and I had been walking for a few minutes. He kept glancing behind us, almost as if everything would disappear unless he keep an eye on it.
"Uuh… Do you think- Should I-"
He was pointing behind us.
"No."
I didn't care. I didn't want to know. Especially if it had something to do with those doors.
"But-"
I begrudgingly turned around to see… Nothing. The bear was gone. And suddenly without warning-
"Back off! It'll take more than some teddy bear to scare me!"
This was immediately followed by the screech of radio feedback.
Hogan and I took off in the direction of the sound until the hallway split. After briefly looking in each direction, he spoke.
"I'll go right, you go left."
I nodded and took off.
It wasn't long until I encountered the source of the noise. It was a woman pointing something at the bear, screaming at him as if her life depended on it. I shouted to get her attention.
"What's going on?!"
She spun around, now with her "something" pointed at me. My hands instinctively shot up above my head.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
It was then that I realized what it was that she was holding. She shot me a bewildered look, and spoke.
"What?! Is something wrong?"
I breathed a sigh of relief. "Your megaphone. When you pointed it at me, I thought it was something dangerous."
"Dangerous?" She looked down at the object in her hands. "Who could mistake a megaphone for a weapon?"
"It's just - When you had it pointed at the bear, I thought it could be-"
I looked behind her to see that the strange bear had disappeared once again. Frustrated, I shouted.
"Aaagh! What is that thing? And how does it move so fast?"
"That thing? I'm not sure, but it's definitely robotic."
"Robotic? That seems like a sound conclusion, but how could you be so sure?"
She held up her megaphone proudly.
"When I was shouting at him, I got feedback."
"So that's where that noise came from."
"Oh! I don't think I've introduced myself! I'm Yuuna Hirabayashi - Ultimate Rallyist Extraordinaire, but please, call me Yuu! What's your info?"
"Ah, um, do you think we should be giving out information like that? I mean, what if our captors don't know who we are? Should we really be giving them more to work with?"
Her face changed from excited, to disdainful.
"Well that's not fair, is it?
"What?"
"Well, now that this person knows about me, how is it fair that you get to stay hidden?"
"I-" I realised that this argument wasn't worth the headache. I sighed, and said " I'm Takashi, the Ultimate Crime Fiction Enthusiast."
This seemed to make her a bit less upset. It was only now that I had taken in what Yuuna looked like. She was rather pale, wearing a pink ruffled blouse with long sleeves and a white vest. Over this, she has a white sash with a pink border over her left shoulder. The most noticeable thing was the megaphone.
"Hey, if you don't mind me asking, where did you get that?"
"This? I had it when I woke up. It's pretty nifty though. Along with being a megaphone, it can also record and play back audio."
"Really?"
She pressed a button on it's side. 'It can also record and play back audio.'
"Oh, that's neat. But you woke up with it?
"Well, it definitely isn't mine."
"That's strange… I didn't have anything when I woke up. And neither did Hogan."
"Hogan?"
"Oh, he's the one that got me out of my room. When we heard you scream, we split up. I think we better go find him before he can do any more damage."
"Damage? What kind of damage?"
"I- I don't want to talk about it..."
We made our way back to where the hallway split, and went in the opposite direction. After a short walk, we came across a rather ominous metal door, nothing like the others that lined the hallway. I didn't have much to say, so Yuu spoke up.
"What's with this door? And why does it look so different?"
"Well, considering its appearance, I'm willing to bet that its contents are different than that of the other rooms."
Yuu looked at me, clearly somewhat upset.
"I kinda figured. What I meant was: What's inside that would warrant a door like that?"
The doorknob started to rattle. Violently. This was accompanied by an odd beeping noise. As the intensity of the rattling grew, the beeps got faster. Yuu and I instinctively took a few steps back, when suddenly…
*Click*
The door swung open, revealing… Hogan.
"Ah, sorry. Never was good with those electronic locks…"
"Electronic?"
I looked over to discover that he was right. There was a keypad beside the door.
"Wait. That doesn't make sense. We heard the beeping from the inside, but the keypad is on the outside."
"Is that… Not how it works?"
"No, Hogan. Typically, keypad locks are used to keep someone out. There should only be one keypad. But that raises the question: How did you get in?"
"Ah, the door was open when I got here. It closed behind me once I walked in."
"That doesn't make sense either! That door looks really heavy. What could possibly have made it close?"
"Well, I had my back to the door, so I didn't see it when it closed! I figured there was a draft or somethin'!"
Then, Yuu decided to join in on the 'fun.'
"That also doesn't make sense! All the windows are sealed! Where would a draft even have come from?!"
"I dunno! I didn't really-"
He was cut off by that disgusting laugh. It came from behind us. We turned around to see that bear peeking around the corner, chuckling like some kind of lunatic. I decided to put an end to the madness.
"Can you at least tell me if you found anything useful in there?"
A smug look shot across his face.
"Well, why don't you go in and see for yourself?"
Confused, and rather annoyed, I stormed into the room. And that's when the madness had reached its peak. In what I could now tell was a janitor's closet, I saw a man in a gas mask tied to a chair with extension cords.
"What the hell is this?!"
Hogan struts into the room and says "Found him before he came to. I thought I should do something in case he was dangerous."
The man in the chair started shouting.
"I'm not dangerous! But I will be when I get out of this chair!"
"Hogan! You can't just tie people up because you think they look suspicious!"
I rushed over to untie him and Hogan took off again, likely fearing the consequences of his actions.
"I'm sorry about my friend. He tends to shoot first and ask questions later. Much later. But his heart's in the right place. (I hope.)"
As the cords came off, I was beginning to get a better picture of who this mysterious man was. He was wearing a long sleeve black and red checkered flannel with a white shirt underneath. This was accompanied by a rather dirty pair of jeans and matching work boots. As he rose from the chair, I got a better look at his figure. Although he had horrible posture, I could still tell that he was rather tall, but abnormally thin. The moment he was free, he walked over to the corner and picked up a big metal tank, and strapped it to his back. I was beginning to see Hogans side of the story.
"Pests like him are why I'm around."
He began to approach me. A sense of dread came over me. He finally took off the mask, revealing shoulder-length purple hair. This was accompanied by patchy and uneven facial hair. But what caught my attention most was his left eye. It was completely whited out, and surrounded by what looked like a nasty burn scar.
"Name's Koro Kabutoro. You?"
"Ah… Uhm… I…"
I couldn't find the words. I tried, but not much came out. Yuu took over for me.
"I'm Yuuna Hirabayashi - The Ultimate Rallyist, and this is Takashi."
"I'd suggest staying away from a guy like me. Little guys like you don't last long in my company."
I had finally mustered up the courage to speak, but apparently not enough to think straight.
"And- Uh- What do you do?"
His gaze shot through me like a bullet.
"I'm an exterminator. The Ultimate Exterminator."
And without so much as a goodbye, he made his way out of the room.
Yuu, with a concerned look in her eyes, spoke.
"We… We should probably catch up with them and… Keep them out of trouble."
We made our way out of the small room, and back into the unknown.
Sorry this took so long. This is replacing the update I gave on 11-16-19. If you read it, you'd know there are a lot of things making a lot of other things difficult. Most of it hasn't really changed. If you didn't read it, long story short: I'm in hell. I know that you're all dying to hear about me and my personal life, but I'm going to end it here.
Edit: Re upload. I replaced the doc of the update with this a few days ago, so I am deleting the original and replacing it with this. I am doing this because my good pal told me they didn't get notified, so I suspect that nobody else did either.
Roster
Boys:
1) Takashi Ikeda - Ultimate Crime Fiction Enthusiast
2) Daniel Hogan - Ultimate Cowboy
3) Koro Kabutoro - Ultimate Exterminator (Orlando Butler)
4) OPEN
5) OPEN
6) OPEN
7) OPEN
8) OPEN
Girls:
1) Yuuna Hirabayashi - Ultimate Rallyist (cryptidren)
2) OPEN
3) OPEN
4) OPEN
5) OPEN
6) OPEN
7) OPEN
8) OPEN