The Elemental Contestant (Running Man Animation Fanfiction) [Book 4]

Chapter 17: Liu's Plan

The males of the Running Man Team, except for Gai, who was currently being brainwashed by Charming Gold, were sitting in the lounge in silence as they waited for their female friends. Speak of the devil, they entered the lounge at that moment. Miyo took a seat on one of the couches, while Sabriye simply stood and leaned on the side of it.

Both of them had their arms crossed and serious frowns on their faces. The second they entered, the male contestants moved to the couch Kuga was sitting, opposite and a bit far from where the female contestants were. Every one of the male contestants were glaring at them in what seemed like disappointment, in Sabriye's opinion.

She'd admit that she got a lot of those in her family back home. Miyo glared at the boys back, while Sabriye gazed down at the ground, finding it more interesting. Kuga then started the conversation, causing Miyo to soften her glare and Sabriye to look up at him, "So, there was a spy... The whole time. And none of us knew it."

Popo then continued, "Well, Miyo and Sabriye knew, and probably for awhile." He directed at Miyo, "With your ability, I'm sure you peeped into Gai's mind at some point." Miyo immediately denied his statement, "Not true. I found out when you did." Pala then asked, "Alright then, so what did you find out?"

Miyo then started explaining, "Gai was a spy that Charming Gold had planted within our team. Charming Gold gave him a codename called Man X." The male contestants were more shocked than Sabriye thought they needed to be, "What?! Man X?!" Miyo then continued, "Charming Gold had set up everything, so Man X would end up as the winner."

Popo was both shocked and angry when those words came out of her mouth, "Wait, so the games were rigged the whole time?! Ugh, we wasted all that time and effort!" Liu tried to calm him down, "Popo, stop it. That's enough!" Popo then retorted, "Enough of what?! What, am I wrong?! Huh?! Am I?! I am so MAD!"

He then noticed Gai's brothers entering the lounge, with their heads down in shame. He then approached them and told them that their brother was a traitor. One of them then feebly tried to defend their brother, "I swear, Gai didn't want to be a part of this. It was Charming Gold. He proposed the idea to our tribe. Our chief thought about it, then accepted. Gai had no choice but to follow orders."

Popo then got even angrier and blamed them for knowing about his situation as well, deeming them "just as bad". Before, Liu could jump in, Sabriye then cut in, not having spoken for awhile, "Popo, enough! They're not to blame. If anyone's to blame, it's Charming Gold!" Sabriye found the floor interesting again as she added, "And maybe me too."

Popo snapped his head towards and remembered that Sabriye was the one with the most information about the situation at hand. "Oh right! You knew too! Why did you hide it too?! Huh?! Were you trying to defend the traitor here?!"

Sabriye's fists started to subtly shake by her sides as she held herself from lashing out, "I didn't say anything because I know his reasons. It's like his brother said, Gai was being forced to hurt us. Guys, he was feeling guilty. He was blaming himself when it was actually Charming Gold's fault. He was calling himself a villain. I had to talk some sense into him. That was when he decided to quit being Man X. For all our sake."

That shocked the other contestants and Gai's brothers. Popo was even starting to feel guilty for what he said. That was when Liu noticed that her fists were starting to shake less subtly as he slowly asked, "Sabriye... Are you okay?" Sabriye took a deep breath before answering in a dull tone, "Yeah, just gimme a sec."

Hearing that dull tone from her sent shivers down everyone else's spines and caused their blood to run cold as they watched Sabriye leave her spot from the side of the couch and walk towards a nearby wall. Sabriye raised a fist and proceeded to punch the wall in rapid speed, causing the place to shake momentarily and leaving a slight dent on the wall, along with numerous, thin web-like cracks.

Everyone else in the lounge paled the amount of anger vented out on the wall as they watched her pant short breaths, trying regulate her accelerating heart rate. Little did they know that it was also a mix of guilt before she started what seemed like ranting, "I knew that this was going to happen. I knew that Gai was going to be brainwashed. I knew that he was going to be abducted."

She continued, facing them, "That's right. He was abducted last night, so after I talked to him and sent him off, I waited for the perfect chance to burst into his room and save him. But, as you can see..." Sabriye then inhaled deeply. That was when they noticed a vein popping on her forehead and immediately braced themselves.

"I WAS LATE BY A FEW SECONDS! A FEW PRECIOUS SECONDS!" Sabriye then started to pace around her spot near the wall in agitation as she continued to rant, "IT WAS A SMIPLE PLAN! A SIMPLE! PLAN! ALL I HAD TO DO WAS BE THERE IN TIME AND SAVE HIM!" Sabriye started to pant again before finally saying, rather softly, "If only I were faster."

While everyone else in the lounge were mortified by her lashing out and her punch on the wall, they still felt bad for her. She had information that they didn't and used it for good. Popo supposed that he was very wrong about her. Liu slowly approached and patted her on her back, softly saying, "I know you feel guilty for not being able to save Gai in time, and, believe me, we don't blame you, but right now, we need to come up with a plan."

Popo then jumped in, "A plan? I'm sorry, but there's no way out of this." Lonky and Pala agreed with him and even Kuga seemed rather uncertain about what Liu said. Sabriye knew she had to jump in. She said, crossing her arms, "Guys, we can fix this. Be realistic, will ya?" Lonky then sat up straight and protested, "We are being realistic! Can't you see?!"

Sabriye narrowed her eyes at him and said, "Look, there's a difference between being realistic and being pessimistic. Right now, you guys are being pessimistic. We are not too late. We can still save Gai. It's not like he's dead!" Despite the slight deadpan they felt at Sabriye's word choice at the end, they knew she had a point. However, that wasn't what was bothering them.

It seemed that Sabriye was able to read that about them, "That isn't really what's bothering you guys, is it?" The contestants nodded as Lonky said, "Yeah. Even Kuga here got his butt kicked by that Kugaman-" He was interrupted by Sabriye's rather deadpanned response, "That's because you didn't have any information about them."

The contestants looked her confused for a moment before Liu perked up in realisation, "Oh! You mean we didn't know what their strengths and weaknesses are." Sabriye nodded with a small smirk, "Precisely. And I just happen to have those. Take a look." She used Psychic's abilities and relayed the information of the DV7s, while Liu came up with a plan for each of the members.

In the morning, Popo and Pala were found in the latter's room, preparing for the next game. Popo was selecting his most powerful card combinations, while Pala was rushing to make his herbal potions. Unfortunately, Pala was so careless that he fell on top of Popo and spilled his potion all over Popo's rarest decks of cards on the floor.

That caused Popo to scream in horror and throw a tantrum by rolling and flailing his arms and legs on the floor as Pala mourned for his herbs. Apparently, Sabriye heard the screams and immediately realised what happened by just one glance at the mess on the floor. With a simple roll of her eyes, she used Fairy's Miraculous Change and cleaned up the mess into how it was before.

Noticing this, Popo and Pala hugged as a token of appreciation, causing Sabriye smile and return the hug. The next morning, the Running Man Team met up at the lounge all freshened up for the match. Liu reassured Gai's brother that they would bring him back with full confidence, causing the latter to flash a small smile at him.

Together, the contestants walked to the stadium with newfound determination and confidence that they would bring their dear friend home.
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A/N: Hey, guys. Back with another chapter. Yeah, Sabriye had to vent her frustrations out in this chapter for not being able to save Gai. Also, have you noticed the little The Umbrella Academy reference in Sabriye's rambling. 😏 It's not the exact same thing, but it's close. 😅 Anyways, thanks for reading this, I hope you guys liked this, stay tuned for more updates and I'll see you in the next chapter.