Winner Takes All Ch. 9

Chapter 9:  Playing Dead


'So... you're a cyborg now?'

I shrugged. 'I don't think so. The just respond to my thoughts and stuff.' It turned out the school was in break between lessons by the time I'd come around this morning, and we back in the dorm where Nicole and Lewis had waited so I'd know where to find them. Nicole had apparently awaited my return eagerly. Lewis never seemed to do anything eagerly, but nonetheless had nodded respectfully as I'd entered and said 'It's a relief to see you ok, Rob. If you had been hurt I wouldn't have forgiven myself.' When I tried to press him a little further, the Nuzleaf had simply flipped the leaf on top of his head backwards and continued to read his book. I knew by now that when Lewis didn't want to talk then Lewis would not talk - not aggressively, just that he wouldn't do it. Nicole had been right on that first day - you do just get used to it.

'Really?' Nicole's eyebrows lifted. 'Can you, I don't know, scratch your head and rub your belly?'

'Er...' I tried it. 'I think the answer is "With no more concentration required than usual", although that would be... Yeah. But I guess I'm not going to be able to do brain surgery. Or hand seals, eh, Lewis?'

'Good.' I chuckled slightly. A pretty reasonable response, and no worse than what I'd expected.

The Nidorina sat back on her haunches. 'Although that guy in Battle Class was, like... woah. I don't know what Sir was thinking, putting you two together. Talk about stretching the new students a bit, Theo almost killed you!'

'I'd prefer not to be stretched out,' I offered, attempting to lighten the mood. 'I'm kind of long when you do the full thing. I guess there's no point worrying about Theo, there's no way on earth we're ever going to have to fight again.' Something from my memory struck me as I was speaking. I guess, well, it's a bit left-field at this point and this might not be the best time for it, but...

Nicole looked at me with her head cocked. 'Something wrong, Rob? You look pensive.'

Well, she asked. 'I was just, er, when I... Um, when I was in the hospital, the doctor told me about this patient they had in a while ago. I mean, I don't know if it was, but it might, er...'

'What?'

'Well, he said it was a boy, that was turning into a Nidorina. That, er, became a girl in the process. And I thought, um... Nicole... What with you being a, um, Nidorina... Could that have been... you?...'

Nicole's glare could have burnt through my eyes, pierced the back of my skull and scorched the wall behind me. In the few seconds of silence as I writhed pitifully like an ant under a magnifying glass, there came the sound of... What was it? Lewis leaned forward so that he was leant forward next to Nicole, and yes, he was laughing. Like he had a sense of humour.

He was smiling, too. 'Heh... I think he's got you there now, "Nick"...'

I could've sworn Nicole's fist never moved. Lewis just suddenly faceplanted the floor of his own accord as she kept glaring at me with the wrath of a goddess.

'For your information,' Nicole said, her voice dripping with acid, 'that was me, yes. I was hoping I'd never have to go over this again, that I could just bury it and get on with my new position in life, but since you insist on dragging it up I suppose I have to go through the whole thing again. Yes, Rob. I used to be a man just like you are. I used to do the laddish things and get awkward testosterone feelings when talking to pretty girls. I even got as far as shaving. Then one day, I discover this little bit of blue scales on my leg, and a week later I'm a biological female. For life. For ever. Yes, that was me.' I flapped my mouth open, but just flapped it shut again. There was nothing I could say now.

The penetrating stare suddenly broke and Nicole sagged, slipping backwards until she was sat perched on the edge of her bed, her feet dangling off the edge and her hands to her eyes. 'Oh, here I go... I knew this would... I... Look, Rob, when you transformed... You had something left of your old life. I only have my memories. Nothing about my body is the way it used to be, nothing. And, I... Ah, geez, there's no way of putting it, I think like a girl too. And respond emotionally like a girl. Dammit, I can still remember being a man! The first few months afterwards were horrible! I couldn't understand my own thoughts! I had no idea how to act, or why I felt the way I did!'

I reached a hand to instinctively try and comfort her, when I saw Lewis shoot me a glare from where he was. Don't bother, it said. Yours is not to comfort here. Yours is to make peace with her afterwards. You don't know what you could say anyway. And I didn't.

Nicole smiffed deeply into her hands as they covered her eyes. Everyone I knew seemed to be breaking down into tears around me this day. 'E... Everything was so... strange, and terrifying, and my own mind scared me. It took so long for me, just to work out the way that I work now. It was so... hard. And scary. And I lost so, so much. Please, Rob, I just... I just didn't want to have to bring the whole thing back up again, because then it all comes back and I start getting... emotional. I... I...'

There was a long, tortured silence before Nicole looked up, but although the scales around her eyes were stained there was also a slight smile on her mouth. 'Heh. Getting all emotional and crying over memories like this. Is that a man thing or a girl thing?'

'That's a reasonable thing.' I was too shocked to speak anything but honestly.

Lewis, having effortlessly picked himself up with the grace of a true ninja, was nodding alongside. 'You know, Nicole, in many ways you are in fact a stronger ma- person than either Rob or myself. I'm sorry for the comment earlier. It was unhelpful.' He turned his head away. 'I shouldn't have done it.'

'Ah relax, you apologise for everything.' Nicole stood up off the the bed and stretched herself. 'I've learned to live with it. I kind of had to, after all. I've got the hang of my own thoughts now, and to be honest I think I needed or at least benefited from the kind of emotional freedoms girls get. It took a while, but it turns out there are certain advantages to my... situation.'

I wasn't sure I wanted to know, but I still said 'Oh really?' regardless.

'Sure there are. I can cry when I want to, not just when it gets overwhelming, and I have a licence to get more angry or sad about things I feel strongly about. I can chat freely with both kinds of social groups and know the relative lads/ladies conventions. I know boys find girls highly confusing and that girls find boys just as highly confusing, but I understand both of them. And when it comes to dating, well, I know what my kind of guy will be looking out for and what'll be on his mind. Worth knowing that kind of stuff, and how to make the most of it.'

'Um... You're looking to date a guy?'

Nicole gave me another look, but this one was less scorching and more 'Really, Rob, do try and keep up'. 'I already said that I think and emotionally respond in conventional female ways, Rob. Feel free to draw your own conclusions. If he's broad-minded enough to accept it, I'm willing to accept that I'm not the man I used to be.'

'I...' I didn't know what I could say. What can you say? Nothing in life had prepared me to make a discovery like this. 'I... I accept you, Nicole. I've only ever known you as a girl, but I... I accept that you used to be male. It... It's all I can do. It's also, like, unbelievably weird, but... I can take it. I'm sorry for bringing it up, Nick. But I, uh, I promise not to scream and run away. Thank you for helping me so much when I first arrived.'

Nicole looked at me, and for a minute there was softness and deep thankfulness in her expression that told a thousand words. Then she gave her usual grin, and she was back to normal. 'Heh. The last roommate nearly moved out at that point. Sharing a room with a ninja and a former man nearly did for him. I'm glad to see you're a stronger man than he was.'

'Why? What did make him move out?'

'None of your business. Anyway, guess you've cracked on the reason why they let me share a dorm room with two guys. I mean, come on, co-ed dorms for hormonal teenagers? That's a disaster waiting to happen-'

She was interrupted mid-sentence by the door to our room opening suddenly, making all of us turn in surprise. The Buizel stood on the doorstep raised his head, and in a quiet voice said 'Can I speak to Rob West, please?'

'Um, I'm Rob West,' I said, turning myself to be looking towards him.

'I know. I need to tell you something.'

'Go on then.'

The Buizel looked around, looking nervous. 'Not here. There are too many people around. It's... important.'

'Did S send you?'

The Buizel didn't answer. He just gestured through the doorway nervously for me. 'And please, Mr ninja guy... Don't follow us. I won't feel comfortable to tell him if you do.'

'I was not going to follow you,' Lewis said calmly, a response which only in restrospect of my later discoveries about him did I learn to have been a blatant lie.

'Thank you.' The Buizel gestured at the door again.

I sighed. 'Guys, if I'm not back in fifteen minutes, come looking for me ok? Mr Buizel, that's your deadline.'

The Buizel nodded, and I allowed myself to be guided from the room.


---


'So... where are we going?' I asked as the Buizel led me down the stairs, just about retaining control of myself as I slipped downwards. 'I thought you'd be going to the gym or something.'

'Why?'

'I... don't know why. It just seems to be where everything important happens.'

'I... I have to tell you something,' the Buizel said nervously as he hurried down the stairs ahead of me, leaving me to slip down behind him. We seemed to keep heading down - I think all that's on the bottom floor is maintenance and supplies and stuff. 'But I don't want people overhearing. This is important, and it's a secret. Just... follow me.' We left the staircase and began to head down a corridor to the side. There didn't seem to be many people this far down.

'Wait! Wait up! It's important?' I slithered hurriedly up to him, reaching out with a robotic hand. 'Is this anything to do with the people who've been trying to kill me?!'

The Buizel half-turned and looked up at me with shock as he kept walking. 'You- You know about them too?'

'I can hardly miss them, even if I try. How do you know about them?'

'It's been a while since I had any form of contact with them,' the Buizel said softly as he turned forward again, not answering the question. 'I believe they call themselves The Losers.'

'They what? Why would they calm themselves that? That's very, like, demoralising.' Another, considerably more serious thought struck me. 'Wait, wait, they call themselves that as a group? As in, together?! So they are connected! Is there a whole army of people out to kill me?! Why?! What did I do? Why have they banded together against me? What do you know about them, please!'

'I don't think they're really banded together very well,' the Buizel muttered. He held up a paw and we stopped, the Water type looking back and forth up the hallway and junction cautiously, listening to the air. I found myself holding my breath.

After a few seconds the Buizel said 'Ok, this should be safe,' and I breathed out. 'No-one else can hear this, you see, Rob. No-one else can know what I'm about to say.'

'What?' I leaned in closer to him. 'What is it?'

'I just wanted you to know...'

The Buizel looked up at me. 'That I've been looking forward to this.'

He suddenly shot a blast of water into my face, blinding me instantly. I yelped as I stumbled back, my robot hands up to wipe my eyes, when the Buizel leapt acrobatically up into the air and landed up my back, turning and vaulting up to my head. I choked suddenly and the Water-type's hands clamped round my throat, slowly constricting my airway. My breath was thin. He was going to kill me.

'Goodbye, Rob,' I heard the Buizel in my ear with a voice filled with hatred. 'And may the best man Win.'

Coloured spots flared across my vision. I reared my head suddenly and cracked the Buizel in the face, making him flinch back and release the firmness of his hold as he put a paw to his snout. I took a deep, thankful breath of air before the Buizel lashed out and attempted to choke me again. This time, though, the extent to which my arms can move is not restricted by my ability to move my shoulders and a robotic fist swung up and punched the Water-type in the side of the head, knocking him clean off my back and allowing me to take more thankful gulps of air. If it weren't for the hardness of my scales and the strength of my windpipe, I'd be a draught excluder right now.

It was a trap. He's here to kill me. Who can I ever trust again?

The Buizel rolled onto his feet again, a murderous expression in his eyes. He didn't bother with words, just launched himself at me with a snarl and an arm raised in what looked like an Ice Punch. I reared my head up, instinctually hissing as I did so, and as soon as he came in range launched a spray of Venoshock at him in the air. The Buizel stumbled mid-leap as the acid spray hit him and flopped down, but as I swung my Poison Tail at where I though he'd land suddenly performed a combat roll and pushed off to come upright several metres away. With a furious growl he shot a Water Pulse at me, the water wave stunning me as I attempted to recover from my attack and throwing me off my balance, making me unable to react as he suddenly threw himself at me again and this time Ice Punched me in the side of the head. This is not like a practice battle or a friendly, I was suddenly very, very aware in a moment of slow time as I felt pain bloom in my skull. If I slip up, this person will kill me. There can be no mistakes, or you may not live to make another one.

That's the idea, at least.

My head felt like it was burning from the inside. I turned my head around and Bit on his outstretched fist, ignoring the cold chill of its Icy status as he yelled out in shock and pain. I didn't know what else I could do from here, but I know I had to do something. I shook my head from side to side to see if I could swing him but nothing came of it, and suddenly the Buizel brought his other fist up at me. I managed to catch it just in time in one of my hands, decelerating it to zero instantly in my iron grip, but then wasn't ready when he twisted his lower body round and his two tails came up, smacking straight across my face with two smashing blows. I recoiled backwards, losing my bite-hold and grip, and the Buizel threw his weight on top of me. His tails began to spin together, faster and faster until they were like a blur. Like a propeller. He brough them round in front of his chest and lifted them up to grip them in his hands, and I was in that moment very much aware of all the stories of people being hit by boat and plane propellers, and being sliced to bits.

I attempted to throw a punch at him. The Buizel stamped a foot down on either side of me, pinning my arms to the floor where they flailed uselessly.

The twin tails were audibly whirring now.

The Buizel smiled like an arch-demon and began to manoeuvre the two tails together, closer to my face and throat. Of course he knew so much about 'The Losers', I understood right there. He was one.

Somewhere in the montage of my life flashing before my eyes, I thought I heard the sound of feet (feet?) click-clacking on a tiled floor nearby, and a voice shouting 'No! Stop! Don't do it! Stop this!'. Which was funny, because I didn't know anyone in my life story with a voice like that...

The Buizel on top of me, however, stopped, his tails still spinning at a rate that could quite probably shred the scales on my chest but at least were not moving any closer. He growled as he turned his head to look off to the side, no longer prioritising me. In my wide-angle snake vision, I could see it without moving my own head. An indistinct shadow running down the empty supply hallway towards us slowly came into focus, the light glinting off it as it, reflective became the image of a Skarmory, running to us with a look of distress on its metal face. 'Don't do it!' it shouted with a male voice.

'YOU!' the Buizel roared furiously at the approaching figure, as if I was now background decoration to the main scene going on.

I took my opportunity and shot another sizzling volley of Venoshock into the side of his head, this time at close range and much, much harder to avoid. The Buizel gasped in pain and anger as he put his hands to massage the painful sensation, losing the pressure from his feet and I used my chance to push him straight off me with one hand, knocking him away from me and clearing some space. I was slithering backwards long before the Water-type was responsive, not even knowing where I was going. On instinct, I crawled towards the Skarmory. After all, he had just saved my life.

The Buizel pushed upwards to a sitting position as the Skarmory took a decisive step towards him, while I scrabbled alongside. 'I know you're angry,' the metal bird was saying passionately in my defence, 'but you can't do this! Stop it all! Please, please, you can't kill Rob West!'

'Why can't I?!' the Buizel foamed madly as I attempted to slide away.

The Skarmory turned his head to me, and in an instant I saw the fires that burned in his eyes, twin expressions of evil delight that ran on generators of burning flames sustained by pure, refined, unadulterated hatred as he looked at me.

'Because I'm going to!' the Skarmory declared, and swept at me with a bladed wing out-stretched.

I yelled with fear and ducked, throwing myself to the ground so hard my extended fangs banged on the tiles and sent juddering pain all through my jaw. The wing blade swung over my head and missed me by an inch, but then another one came and nearly cut straight through my face. I did the only thing I could think to do, and Dug straight down. For a the second, I was safe. The cold soil immediately encompassed me, but it didn't feel tight or claustrophobic. More like I was wrapped in granules that fell away when I pushed at them, and flowed back in to fill the hole afterwards. My senses were all wrapped in bubble wrap. The delirious part of the back of my mind not frozen in mortal terror mused whimsically that this must be how an website mail delivery feels.

I felt the vibrations above me, and a voice saying 'Where are you...' in a low, dark tone of voice. My immediate reaction was to spring out at them, but if it was the Skarmory that would be totally wasted. But I couldn't stay down here forever-

Suddenly there was a terrible sound just to my right and a shaft of serrated metal crashed through the tiles and soil next to me, filling the ground with tile dust and nearly taking off my scales along my nine-foot-target body, two inches off stabbing straight through me. I screamed underground in terror, which is a bad idea. Soil immediately flowed into my mouth. There was nothing to breath down here. Screw the effectiveness, I've got to get out of here before I bury myself. I thrust myself straight upwards and prayed for divine assistance.

I pounced straight out of the ground, which knocked the Skarmory off his footing from sheer surprise as dust and dirt slid off one of his wings next to the hole in the ground. He recovered fast abd began to swing straight down, trying to cut straight through my chest, when there was an incoming roar and the Buizel launched onto him with a full flying tackle, knocking him to the ground and nearly sending the blade down through my skull anyway. The two teetered forward, the Buizel attempting to beat a hole in the Skarmory's metal body with his bare fists as the Skarmory swung and stabbed blindly to remove his unwanted hijacker. I stuck my head up slightly, for once not the centre of the battlefield, and attempted to crawl away as fast as I could in an attempt to leave this madhouse and find something sane as fast as humanly possible. I managed five metres before the Buizel threw himself at me and slammed my head into the ground, jumping up and banging my skull on the floor again and again and again. Pain was flourishing within me. My fangs felt like they were going to snap off. The Buizel would have done it until my skull fractured but the Skarmory suddenly shot a volley of silver-lined, steel feathers at us - and let me tell you, for tiny feathers they hurt. They were almost as razor-lined as the full wing. The Buizel gasped in pain and staggered away from, clutching his neck in pain and at once the Skarmory was on me before I could move. In my sideways eyes, I saw him begin to lower the wing blade towards my eye.

'You never deserved all this, all these privileges you got,' the Skarmory hissed above me. 'You should not get to keep things you don't deserve.'

The edge of the blade was taking up the entirety of my focus. I was dead right there.

'Razor WIND!'

The Skarmory jerked back suddenly, his wings flying backwards and upwards as a gust of wind so fierce it almost cut you immediately filled the hallway, sucking back towards the Buizel with the glowing white arms and the expression of evil triumph. My fangs hit the floor again but this time I fought past the pain and dug them into the ground as best I could, anything as anchorage against the wind pulling me towards death. My long body was flapping in the suction. This wasn't working. My two metal hands came down and gripped the floor squarely, so hard they broke the tile surface underneath them and that held me securely.

The Skarmory had no such luck. He was sucked backwards through the air towards the razor vortex the Buizel had created with a cry of frustration, bashing into my body as it waved in the air as he fell. There was a horrible grinding noise and I risked turning my head to see that my tail blade had cut a groove into his armour as they collided, an inch-long dent notched across the centre of his chestplate plainly visible. I didn't see what happened after that, because the pull was threatening to drag me off the floor if I even lifted my head. With the Skarmory's roar of frustrated defeat and hatred echoing in my ears as he was pulled into the clutches of the furious Buizel, I pressed myself into the floor as best I could and Dug straight through. The soil blanket was not comforting, but at least it didn't threaten to kill me the second I made a mistake.

I picked the direction opposite to the one behind me and shot through it like a torpedo.

I didn't pull myself out again for at least four minutes of underground travel, which is a long time when you look at it (and hold your breath for all of it) and covers a long distance when you can travel in one direction with no obstacles or resistance. I felt vibrations above me and pulled myself upwards out of the soil, not caring where I came out so long as it wasn't where I was. I greatly surprised some poor Marshtomp cleaner as I rocketed out if the ground and into the air, but I didn't care. By the time he opened his mouth to shout at me I was gone.

The stairs only came after a long time of searching. I didn't know how long. Realistic time had lost meaning. But when I got to them, I shot up them as fast as I possibly could. In all my time as a snake to that point, never had I cleared a set if stairs that smoothly. As I got further and further up, I began to get out of the basement floors up to the actual base. I nearly knocked down several students that shouted after me to watch where I was going, but I didn't care. My mind was too scrambled for coherent thought, but the only thing I wanted was to get away from that hallway. To this day I have never gone back down there.

The dormitories floor. I swerved off the stairs and raised myself up slightly into a more conventional slithering arrangement, only now beginning to reduce my speed and breath again. They couldn't be following me up here, and even if they did they couldn't kill me. Not in front of so many people. All the same, I kept moving along the balcony without slowing.

389... 390... 391... 392... 393...

394. Sanctuary.

I hit the door panel with a robotic hand and it slid open smoothly. 'Guys,' I was saying even before I entered the room, 'we're in trouble. I just nearly died out there. That kid, he was a trap, we must be in serio-'

I stopped dead at the sight of who was in my room. Lewis and Nicole looked up at me, confusion evident in their faces to see me standing there.

So did Rob.

There was a terrible silence, drawn-out like a wire. I couldn't help it. My jaw failed me and fell open, which is even further on a snake. The Seviper opposite me turned his head slightly as he looked at me. It looked exactly like- no, it was exactly like me. All the slight chips, all the marks on the scales. They were all there. It was like staring into a mirror, or a clone. Only the mirror is frowning at you, not aggressively but making it clear that he doesn't know why you're here or what you're supposed to be.

Nicole looked almost as shocked as I was, seeing the two of us stood face-to-face. Even Lewis looked uneasy, the ninja looking between the two of us to see what was going on and what clues to solving this puzzle of the two Robs there were.

There were no clues. My mind had turned into a soupy mess. This could not be happening.

Slowly, the other Seviper raised a robotic hand and pointed it at me.

'Who are you,' he said accusingly, 'and what are you doing in my room?'