“A Trio, a Mascot Character, and a Killing Game Walk Into a Bar” (68.11) (Lillia)

We reached the furthest point from the blast from the devils that opened a very long pathway for us. By my count we had gone through at least thirteen rooms, finding nothing but empty space, so it was clear we were likely in some kind of structure in the void. Oka and Zeta rejoined the group just in time for us to reach what looked like a door to a submarine, with three wheels on it. Without even saying anything, the devils attempted the same joint blast as before, but it did nothing to the door.

"Cani power proof, damn," Charmaine said.

Myles started looking around it immediately, though she almost burned herself touching it too quickly after it had been blasted. "I can hotwire it, maybe?"

"Or we could solve it," I said. "Look."

There were arrows painted past each wheel, one yellow, one red, and one blue. Two pointed clockwise, and one counter clockwise. Once I was certain I wouldn't get burned, I tried turning them. A buzzer sounded for just a second when I tried the yellow one.

"This isn't going to explode or something scary, is it?" Zeta asked. "There might be a monster past it..."

"It's the only way forward," Anastasia said. "Cower here if you want, the rest of us can't rest."

I thought about it before trying again. This time, I had a hunch which combination would work. After turning the third wheel without a buzzer, something clicked in the door, and it slowly began to open.

"Wait, really?" Sai said. "You got it?"

"It was just rather simple," I said. "I surmised that the colors were the order, alphabetically. First is blue, then red, then yellow."

The devils had me move to the back with Oka, Zeta, and Raytris, checking in first to make sure it was safe. Two boys from Falling Shards waited inside. I prepared for another round of idiocy, but this duo seemed different. Oka recognized them right away.

"Sandwich! Not-Sandwich!" Oka said.

The boy called "Sandwich" was recognizable by his hoodie that had graphics on it entirely of sandwiches, and "Not-Sandwich" was deemed such by Oka because he did not have a sandwich themed hoodie on.

"Sup," Sandwich said. "Are you the rescue crew?"

"I dunno, we're trying to get out of here," Oka said.

"I see," Not-Sandwich said.

There wasn't an immediate way out of this room, so Myles started looking around for a way to trigger some kind of escape.

"We should just punch another hole in the wall now that we're through that barrier," Anastasia said.

"Let her try first, then we can explode things again," Esther said.

"I'm usually team destroy for anything like this, but we should at least let Myles try," Charmaine said.

While Myles worked, I tried to analyze the room, but didn't find anything notable in it.

"What do you fellas make of this Seth and Lucian and whoever thing?" Oka asked.

"Honestly?" Sandwich said.

"Yeah, honestly!" Oka said.

"You're not gonna get mad if we make fun of them?" Sandwich asked.

"No way, they suck!" Oka said.

"Phew, I thought I was losing it," Sandwich said. "Those guys showed up like a month ago and acted like they ran the place the second they got here."

"No, seriously, they talk about this school like they've been here forever," Not-Sandwich said. "They're not like the rest of us at all, terminal main character syndrome for all of em."

"We're just, quiet!" Sandwich said.

"Not that quiet." Not-Sandwich said.

"Well, we're chill!" Sandwich said.

"Chill is a better word for it," Not-Sandwich said.

"We just do epic pranks and stunts and junk," Sandwich said. "And hang out."

"And make out!" Not-Sandwich said.

"Yeah, and make out!" Sandwich said. "Which we should be doing right now instead of this stupid game. Ugh, and they brought all those townies with them."

"Townies?" Zeta asked.

"Yeah, the groupies from Staverius, so annoying," Not-Sandwich said.

This seemed to be a major clue about this whole situation, but I wasn't sure exactly what it meant yet.

"Are you going with to Falling Shards?" Oka asked.

"I guess," Sandwich said. "I mean, we could stay here, but I dunno if we'd fit in. No offense."

"Oh! Have you considered!" Zeta excitedly reached into her bag. "Ah dang, I left the book somewhere...but I still got pamphlets." She handed two of her gender identity pamphlets to the boys.

"Right on," Sandwich said, skimming through it. "Thanks, girliepop."

"No problem!" Zeta said. "I have a whole spiel, too, but...I'm more impressed I got this far without screwing it up."

Anastasia's nose scrunched up as she watched Zeta. Just as she started to say something about Zeta screwing things up, the monitor in the room lit up. Reed's obnoxious face appeared.

"Howdy readers, I hope you're having a wonderful killing game," Reed said. "We're down to one room of importance, with a runner up likely to be eliminated soon."

He showed two feeds, the runner up screen only for a moment. I saw Kalei, Aira, and Marmalade on it for just a second, fighting Shelv, that bookshelf being Oka and I fought in training.

"Kalei!" Oka said. "Was she alright?"

We didn't get to find out, as Reed covered that up with the other feed, the one of the room with Seth Kerres, Lucian, Achilles, Gwen, and a bunch of boys cheering for them.

"Is their fanclub new too?" Oka asked, pointing to the students cheering at every move Seth and Achilles made.

"Yeppers," Not-Sandwich said. "A mix of the townies that came with the whole Seth Kerres trio package and some other transfers none of us knew before."

"You see, boys, one of you is a traitor," Reed said. "But that's great for me! Because of your pact, we can really get this show started."

Seth Kerres gripped his baseball cap, tears streaming down his face. "N-no! That's impossible! My friends would never betray me. Even Achilles would never form a pact with you!"

Lucian pushed his glasses up, expression blank.

"Here we go," Oka said.

"He did it," I said.

"Big speech coming," Zeta said.

"I'm sorry, Seth Kerres," Lucian said as his expression turned to a mad grin.

"What did we say?" Oka said. "He totally did it!"

We tuned out almost immediately as Lucian began to explain his pact. Partially because it was a speech we'd heard a million times in shows, games, movies, and books, but also because a tall wolf Kanibari woman interrupted by dropping down from the vent above.

"Oh, hey," Kara said. "You ended up in this mess too, huh?"