Survival Of The Fittest

Tully locked eyes with Alex, and realized early on that he wasn't buying it. Either he knew Tully was bluffing about being suicidally crazy, or he knew the 'grenade' was only a smoke nade. Either way, he didn't buy it, and Alex was raring to send Tully out to meet his maker.


He'd heard the blast long before he felt it. This was it, this was how he died. Shieet, he wasn't stoned enough for this. At least he didn't feel a thing-



There was movement in his peripherals. Then there was that sound. That quiet gasp that should've been a scream, just barely audible over the ringing in his ears. Of course Tully didn't feel it. He wasn't shot. His eyes glanced over to Tenshi. She got got, right in the arm, bullet just about blew the damn thing off-

For a second, Tenshi wasn't Tenshi. She was Mildred.

Tully dropped the smoke grenade, it harmlessly rolling for about a second before the whoosh of purple haze poured out. His eyes turned to Alex. Smiling, smug little Alex. He thinks he's the one.

You enjoyed that? You like hurting people like that? Think it's fun? Think you're hard? Makes you feel big? Think you're gonna go home, and all you gotta do is kill the people you knew your whole life? Think it's easy?


I hope so. I really, really do.


Tully stepped forward, his face a serene smile. Even though the room was steadily becoming purple, all he could see was red.

Many years ago, Dawn Montogomery had almost died.

Back then she had been a middle schooler without a care in the world. A girl with good grades and many friends. A girl who actually looked forward to arrive at school each morning.

A girl who at one such morning almost got run over by a truck because she didn't pay attention to her surroundings.

Ethan had been her life-saver, stopping her from stepping on the road. It was the way he cried out her name that she would never forget. As well as the gust of wind, as the truck missed her by merely a few inches.

---

The bullet flying right past her felt awkwardly familiar.

For a moment, Dawn relaxed. "He missed," was her first thought.

Then she heard someone falling down right next to her.

All of a sudden, the spell of cowardice broke, returning Dawn's ability to move. She turned around and saw the other girl with a bit of her arm missing.

Shit! Shitshitshitshitshit!

"Tenshi!"

She definitely wasn't too slow to feel the hit. Like an uninvited guest to still water, flesh rippled. In real time Cedar processed the thrum through her body. Followed the signal to its source, in the arm she had wrapped around her best friend.

She felt the splatter, warm and sticky, heavy enough to impress both adjectives through two layers of jackets. An intrusive memory blossomed. RC on a summer day, a bottle split between herself and five other siblings. It dripped through her fingers.

"Tenshi. Tenshi. Tenshi?"

If she screamed it'd be too late.

Cedar's mind moved slower than her body. She called Dawn to her side. She pulled out the medkits- two seemed insufficient, not when her friend was broken so cleanly that the bone snapped clean like lego brick. No time to process.

If she said another word it'd be Tenshi's last.

Fitz had only been able to stare when Tully pulled out a grenade of all things. A strangled squeak left his throat, eyes wide, right before Alex fired and the situation became chaotic.

He’d instinctively ducked at the noise of the shot, clamping his hands over his head, even though the gun hadn’t been aimed in his direction. It was an eternity – three seconds – before he raised his head again. His eyes went to where the bullet had gone – darting to Cedar before they even shifted to the bloody mess that was Tenshi’s arm. To the purple smoke quickly obscuring them--

Eyes wide, face even paler than normal. Hands shaking violently now.

Alex still had his gun. No ammo.

(As far as Fitz was aware, which had proven to be a fallible amount.)

Fitz’s teeth clenched and his hands moved like he thought he was close enough to grab the gun. But his feet didn’t move, so his hands only hovered uselessly.

The rifle jerked backwards in Alex's arm, sending him staggering back a step or two. Eagerly, his eyes locked on Tully's chest, waiting to see the hole of ragged flesh, the crimson seeping through his shirt, the collapse and the first kill of many. But, the girl behind him took the bullet instead. Snapping to the impact of the bullet, Alex drank in all the details. Ragged flesh, shattered bone, a flood of crimson like a burst dam. The cameras, the feeds they relayed back to the viewers at home, they were good. But you could never get the same... impact as you would if you were seeing it with your own two eyes. There's the disconnect between camera, computer screen and eyes, like you're watching a horror movie. Here on the island, it was all too real.

But Alex couldn't let himself get distracted. No kill on the biggest threat. The grenade had clattered to the floor, releasing a purple miasma that was starting to bathe the room in its choking embrace. The two girls behind the wounded girl were attending to her, so that left Tully and Fitz. Two on one. But Alex had the power, the killing instinct that so many people here lacked.

At Tully stepping forwards, the corners of Alex's mouth twitched up, a far cry from his common demeanor, the stuttering and shy nerd. Now he was in his element, in the bloodbath that he himself had studied over and over again. Tully had repeated the year, so he'd never studied shit, let alone how to live in Survival of the Fittest.

Let's go, number one.

Alex flipped the rifle around to hold it by the wooden underside of the barrel — this was a big rifle, clunky to hold — and leaped forwards to swing at Tully.

Tully smiled. Alex smiled.






Tully smiled wider.



He watched the little geek walk towards him, twirling his gun around like a bat, like he was going to hit him! Alex really believed it didn't he? He was the one? Alex swung for the fences, and Tully had taken the brunt with his wrist, before wrapping his arm around the butt of the gun, pinning it to his ribs. He yanked back, and the gun clattered to the ground behind him. Tully had seen Alex's face change then, he weren't smiling no more.



Tully was. He smiled even bigger. He reeled his fist back and caught Alex in the jaw. His head hadn't even felt the full whiplash of jerking back before his left arm shot forward and caught him right in the nose, sending him stumbling back into the desk behind him. By the time Alex tried to reorient himself, Tully grabbed him by the throat, and chokeslammed him backwards into the desk, sending his fist into his nose again. He'd let go of Alex's neck and swung into him, then swung into him again. This was different. Weren't like no boxing ring, or even a fight at school. This was fighting for your life, for the lives of the people around you.

Left, right, left, right, left, right-

Alex bled. Not as much as Tenshi though, he had a long way to go before he reached that.

Left, right, left, right, left-

No it wasn't- who was he kidding? This wasn't fighting for his life. This was a slaughter-

Right, left, right-

There was a high pitched shrieking noise- it was coming from Tully.

Left, right-

He weren't no better than Alex. This killing shit felt pretty good- Tully started cackling;

"ARE WE HAVIN' FUN YET?!"

Tully gripped Alex by the bloodstained collar of his shirt and yanked him up, throwing him across the room into one of the cabinets on the wall. He wondered what Alex was feeling right now? Before he thought he was alpha, right? Some sort of predator feeding on the prey around him. Something about a wolf dressed like a sheep? How'd he feel dealing with a real wolf?

"AWWOOOOOOOOO-" Tully howled, as he punched Alex's head right through the cabinet door. He'd grabbed him again and slammed him face first into the counter opposite. Gripped him by the hair and yanked him up again. Whatever Alex was feeling before, Tully didn't want him feeling it now. He wanted him to realize just what he really was, he wanted him to know just how weak he really was, just how fucked he really was; just how much he fucked up.

Tully was grinning ear to ear as he battered Alex around. Blood coated both of their faces, Tully's hands, the ground and desks around them. He wanted the last thing Alex to see was his face; to see what a real monster looked like. "HOW'S IT FEEL, HUH? STILL FUN! STILL LIKE PUNCHIN' DOWN, SHOOTIN' THE HELPLESS, LIKE YOUR LIFE MEANS MORE?! YOU FUCKIN' LIKE THAT SHIT!? YOU STILL THINK YOU'RE GONNA WIN, HUH?! SO FUCKIN' SMART- LOOKIT YOU!"

"SO FUCKIN' SMART!" Tully shrieked, his voice way to high pitched to match his body, as his fist collided with the red mess's jaw like a train, ejecting it's little white passengers all across the floor. Tully continued to laugh, anything he'd tried to say came out as nothing more than high pitched warbled ramblings. He'd fully lost his own ability to speak and became nothing more than a raving, howling, lunatic with one goal in mind.

Send Alex to hell screaming and crying.

The first punch hit Alex like a train. So did the second one. And so did the third. And so did the fourth. And so on.

He really fucking wished he'd hit Tully with the shot now, because all he could do now is figure out a way to get out of this alive. Head through a cabinet. Face into a desk - Alex thought he'd broken his nose, or the cartillage or something - and then a good punch to the jaw that knocked out a few teeth. Alex ran his tongue over while he still could, tasting the blood, the absent gap. His glasses had flown off at some point, probably shattered. It was a good thing he had another pair in the bag.

But right now, he was fighting blind. Literally.

Groping around on the nearby desk for something to grab, Alex's hand seized around something. A flask. Something shaped like a flask, anyway. It wouldn't kill him, but if Alex could just get enough time to grab the spear he could rip into Tully and show him what it really meant to be a player. He had the rage, the aggression, but it wouldn't get you too far if you didn't have the brains to back it up.

Bringing the mystery item up, eyes clouded in blood and purple haze, he smashed it on Tully's head, screaming. Alex didn't know whether it was in fear, rage or elation.

The glass had shattered on Tully's head, leaving cuts and imbedded shards along the side of his shaved head. He was silent, unmoving, as he stared at the red mass below him, with the audacity to write his little body didn't have the cash to check. Tully smiled again, a silent wheeze of a laugh escaping him for a moment or two. Look at him; still trying to fight back. Tully continued to wheeze, just a few short cackles of his laughter escaping him as the purple haze began to envelop the two. Before his face disappeared from Alex's view- he screamed "YOU DON'T FUCKIN' GET IT, YET?"

He gripped Alex by the hair and slammed him into the desk again. And again.


And again-


Before once again the human equivalent of a pitbull maiming a toddler with bad vibes continued.

Left, right, left, right-

"DON'T YOU FUCKIN' UNDERSTAND!?"

Left, right, left-

"YOU'RE NOT GETTING OUTTA THIS!"

Right, left, right, left, right-

"I WANNA HEAR YOU SCREAM! I WANT YOU TO BEG FOR YOUR FUCKIN' LIFE!"

Left, right, left, right, left-

"NO WAY OUTTA THIS NOW YOU SICK MOTHERFUCKER; YOU CHOSE THIS-"

Right, left, right-

"YOU'RE FUCKIN' DEEEAD! I'M GONNA SHOW YOU A REAL KILLER NOW, YOU SUMBITCH!"

Left, right-

"I'M GONNA MAKE YOU SCREAM! GONNA MAKE YOU BEG ME FOR YOUR FUCKIN' LIFE!"

Left-

"THEN I'M GONNA MAKE YOU BEG ME TO KILL YOU-"

Right-

"THEN I'M 'ONNA RIP OFF YOUR FUCKIN' HEEEAAAAAD!"

Tully had took his own hands and smacked himself in the forehead twice, leaving two red handprints going down his face.

"AWOOOOOOOOOOO-" He howled at the moon once more as he raised both his arms.

Then he brought both fists down on Alex's head.

Even when the gun clattered to the floor, Fitz remained frozen where he was. Hands still hovering awkwardly, all the gun dropping initially did was make Fitz find his voice again.

“Hey… hey, uh...”

That’s all that came out, so quiet that Fitz could barely hear it himself. There wasn’t a chance of the two screaming, cackling, howling combatants hearing anything, yet alone a mumble that tailed off before it went anywhere relevant.

Fitz’s fingers twitched inwards, then his hands closed.

He moved one foot, then the other. The smoke that was clouding up the room had blocked the other girls from his sight, and he could barely see the gun.

One foot, then the other.

Teeth scattered nearby, and one of them rolled where he was going to put his foot. Fitz’s foot froze for a second before he moved the foot a little further to step over it.

He knelt, and he picked up the gun. One hand went into his jacket, where the unloaded clip rested in his pocket. The hand that had gotten smeared with foul-smelling fish, the smell of which still lingered faintly in the air alongside smoke and copper.

It took several tries to steady his hand enough to load the clip back in.

Well, if this went on any further he was going to be beaten to death without even a kill to his name.

Screaming. Cracking of whatever was left of his nose. A faint ringing in his ears from all of Tully's fucking screaming — god, if only he could have hit that perfect shot and brought him down, but that's why you don't hip fire sniper rifles like it's COD — and then a sudden, brief reprieve. Tully smacked himself straight in the face and howled like a wolf or some kind of rabid animal, raising his fists high to bring them down into Alex's face.

So Alex rolled to the side. letting Tully bring down his fists onto bare wood and metal, flasks and test tubes clattering off the desk with a racket as the shockwave of Tully's attack hit them. Shit, if that had hit him he'd probably be unconscious, soon to be dead. If this was gonna happen every time he got into direct contact, playing an ambush game seemed to be the better path.

Grabbing a couple more flasks off the ground, Alex threw them with a desperate strength, at Tully's side, face, head, anywhere, just trying to slow him down so he could pull out the spear and finish this off. A BKA would probably dull the pain spreading throughout his entire body.

Tully laughed as Alex rolled away, his wrists and fists pounding. He didn’t need to look at his hands to know how badly he’d messed them up, but that was a problem for later. The problem for now was this little shit; he was retreating instead of fighting back.

He was learning.

Too little, too late though, he’d already signed his death warrant. Tully smiled as he followed Alex’s silhouette through the smoke, before a glass bottle broke on his forehead. And then another. And another. Picking that shit out of his face was gonna be such a bitch-

Another flask bounced off the padding of his jacket before shattering on the deck. Tully laughed, and reached through the fog, grabbing Alex by the throat. He was done playing.

He pulled him close, throttling the life out of him, staring into his eyes. Tully wanted to drag him over to Tenshi, make him look at what he’d done to her, but he figured Alex would try to be spiteful and kick the wound or something worse. He just settled for Tully being the last thing he’d ever see.

“Look at me when I’m killing you, lil bitch. You fuckin’ look at me.”

He grabbed Alex by the hair with one hand, bending him backwards over the desk as he stared into his eyes. His other hand left his throat and moved up to the side of his skull.

“I told you what would happen you piece of shit!” Tully almost whispered, eyelid twitching. “You’re gonna be begging me to kill you.” He said, as he decided that he was gonna be the last thing Alex ever saw. He wouldn’t kill him. He wasn’t worth it.

But he’d make sure Alex would never get the chance to try again, either.

Tully hovered his thumbs over Alex’s eyes. He began to press dow-

His hands slipped again on the clip and he dropped it. Fitz's hand scrsbbled over the floor for it as glass shattered nearby. He jerked his head away as shards flew in every direction, feeling a few get buried in his jacket, and one slicing through the shin of his galaxy rights.

He found the clip.

He snapped it into place.

He couldn't have even attempted to aim. The scope was at such a position that even using the gun as he should have, propped up on its built-in support, he would have had to smush his head down a little to look through the rigid scope.

But he would have been too close to see anything meaningful. Purple smoke and two boys doing their brutal, horrific best.

He couldn't aim. He pointed the gun and fired anyway.

Tully felt the fires of hell hot on his ass and let out a short yelp before he crumpled and folded backwards. He clawed at Alex’s face on the way down and gripped the collar of his shirt, tearing it as he fell to the floor.

What fucking hit him?! Where’s his fuckin legs at?

He tried to speak but a torrent of blood jettisoned from his mouth.

The second gunshot echoed through the room, and Dawn found herself kneeling on the ground, pressing some bandages against Tenshi's arm.

Between screaming the girl's name and that, there was a blank spot in her memory. Maybe that was what panic did to her. Dawn had barely encountered any physical threats in her life before, so she wouldn't know how she reacted in such situation apart from freezing at first.

Whatever, her auto-mode had done a decent job trying to stop the bleeding. Until now.

The bandages would not be enough. If Tenshi was to stabilize, she would need to lessen the new blood flowing into the arm with a tourniquet. The first aid kit had no such thing, but a belt should do the job.

Dawn looked up in the direction she last saw the person closest to her in the room.

"Cedar, I need-"

Smoke started rolling in and everything was kind of a blur. It was a dreamy purple... oh yeah, now she could make sense of it.

They were doing the pyrotechnics trick where they shone coloured light through the smoke that filled the stage. Tenshi always liked that effect. Purple, purple. A colour she really liked. Not as much as her classic reds, but it had a dignified and royal air to it. Expensive looking, like the Romeo And Cinderella dress. But she couldn't be singing Romeo And Cinderella, she hadn't recorded that yet... felt wrong to record it before she turned 18. Actually, did she want to record it even after that? It was nice as a song, but she just wasn't sure if she could sing about Romeo and mean it.

People were fussing over her, probably worrying about makeup and costuming. Oh, and her arm, which was... broken. Yeah, she fell down the stairs and broke a bone. Sure, it hurt and stung and all that. But it wouldn't stop her from singing, nothing short of ripping out her vocal chords would, so onto the stage she'd go. She'd go out and stand under the blinding floodlights. Soon.

Soon, because there as a low rumbling that would probably be pretty loud if she were wearing her hearing aids. It must be coming from... the mosh pit. The front. The fans. They had all come to see her. They stomped their feet and cheered, and it made the whole world rumble.

For some reason, purple made her think of Luka and Meiko, the two lower-voiced vocaloid girls. Those were always a sore point for Tenshi, even though Luka wasn't that low. If she had to go out and do one of their songs, hm. She'd have to work extra hard. She didn't want to go out and disappoint everyone.

But, Cedar could do their parts. And Cedar was, as always, right there with her. She wouldn't be in the crowd holding up a camera, at least not at first, because she was right here, and Tenshi was gently grasping her hand, even though she'd never needed it before.

There was an explosion, of... maybe it was the...? No, the bass didn't sound like... no, no, it was fireworks...

She took a deep breath in, but it shook. Felt shallower than she intended. More like a gasp. Maybe it was because it was already kind of cold, but she felt shivery all of a sudden.

Tenshi couldn't remember ever having stage fright.