THE MOMENT
"Wait... so none of us have run a dungeon before?" Kirk asked. His voice wavered with concern as he focused on Emily. Out of the other five Fearleaders, she was the closest thing he had to a friend. The rest of the group looked at each other and exchanged shrugs. The six team members stood on a white derby track discussing how to set up their first floor when the subject of experience came up. They were outdoors, surrounded by other derby tracks. But, an invisible wall sealed them off from the commotion.
"Hah, guess not," Emily giggled.
"You guess not??" Kirk asked. "Shouldn't you have checked before you volunteered us to run a haunted dungeon for Halloween?" He tried to control his voice, but the last few words pitched up with his nerves as he finished the question.
"It sounded like a fun thing to do," Emily shrugged. "It's all run by nanos anyway, there's not a lot we can mess up. Besides, we've got time to practice; Halloween is like a month away." She took a moment to look around at the rest of the group.
"Though, I really should've asked. We can back out now, if you guys don't want to do it."
"No way, I'm in!" Valentine was quick to respond.
"Yeah," Frost nodded.
"Me too," Keys agreed.
"I think the school needs events like this," Mundo nodded. "I'd like to do it."
"Yeah, okay," Kirk nodded. He was outvoted and a tiny part of him did think it sounded fun.
"So, now that we're all on board officially; back to the plan. I want it to be fun; but challenging. The last boss, especially, has to put up a fight. The dungeon won't be easy; but, this battle would be a true test of mettle," Emily glanced around at her teammates. "Do we have any ideas for that?"
"Get a ringer that can't be beat but lets the challengers win?" Keys offered. Emily grinned and nodded.
"THAT's a great idea. We need a backup plan in case we can't find anyone, or they don't show; but let's work with that. How many floors in our haunted dungeon?" Emily asked.
"I think we should keep it short; maybe five or six floors. Keep it moving so everyone can get a chance to go through at least once," Valentine offered. Emily nodded.
"Good point," Emily said. She summoned her slate out of thin air by flicking her wrist up and access the track's controls. "Let's try a random one with six floors and see what that's like," she said. The rest of the team nodded. Emily dismissed her slate and the track changed around them. The white floor darkened and segmented into grey cobblestones. Stone walls, complete with lit torches, sprung up on both sides of the track to form a narrow, curving hallway. Faint moans and groans were now heard in the distance.
Along with the change in scenery, the group now wore the team uniform: red and black unitards. Emily looked down, then giggled.
"Definitely need to get rid of the Zero lap," she said. She flicked her hand up to summon her slate again. But, before she could make any changes, a black portal opened horizontally above the track. A towering woman with blood red armor and flaming red hair fell out of the portal and smiled at the group.
"Ballisea says you need some mettle tested," Flutter said.