Nice Posture Nonsense | One Shots

The Crew (Nice Posture)

"Yes sir." Jerome said, stepping forward. As leader of the group, he was supposed to take responsibility for any deals with authorities.

"Well, you five are being invited to join our gladiator system. It's not public, all you have to do is fight to the death. You won't all be on the same team, so you may end up having to fight each other. What do you say?"

Jerome glanced at his friends. "Guys?" Everyone looked at each other, and nodded, letting out various noises of affirmation. "We'll do it."

"Okay, I'd say your goodbyes now, as I said you won't all be on the same team. None of you will be fighting in this week's competition so you may train and learn the rules. You have five minutes. If you'd like any messages to be run with the announcement of your capture, place them on my desk." The man walked out the door and shut it quietly behind him.

"God, guys, I'm gonna miss this.." Ben mumbled.

"Hey, at least we won't get on each other's nerves as much, right?" Austin said, ever the optimist. Everyone smiled bittersweetly.

"You guys got your message done?" Alex asked. "Mine is 'To the most beautiful girl in the world, I'm sorry and I love you. B, S, you guys are pretty cool.'"

"Mine's about the same." Jerome said.

"Same."

"Me too."

"Yep."

For the rest of the five minutes, they stood next to each other, savoring the presence of each other all in the same room for the last time. When the guards came in to lead them to their new groups, they all echoed out one last goodbye, not knowing who they'd see again.

When Andrew and Jerome saw each other, they hugged and began to train.

When Austin, Ben, and Alex saw each other, they did the same.

Several weeks later, Austin and Andrew prepared to fight. Whom, they didn't know. Andrew had already won a fight, but Austin hadn't been called up yet. Both knew this, and both were equally nervous for this fight.

Jerome clapped Andrew on the back as he pulled on his leather armor. Depending on how many fights you won, you were able to upgrade your armor or weapons. The fighting system was balanced, so fighters were never more than a level or two apart, especially when it was the lower levels. Therefore, Andrew would have leather armor and a sword, and Austin would only have a sword.

"Good luck, dude. You can beat this guy, whoever he is. You're a natural, even the uppers say so. See you after." Jerome grinned as Andrew walked to his entrance position.

The atmosphere was much different on the opposite side of the area, where Ben and Alex were nervously pacing around the room as Austin sat there, fiddling with his sword. "C'mon guys, I'll be fine. I'm not that bad, and they won't put me up against anyone too hard, right?" Austin said, looking up at his friends.

Ben frowned. "I hope so. Good luck out there, dude."

"Come back alive, Austin." Alex said, hugging his friend quickly. Austin simply let out a small smile, waved, and walked to his entrance position.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our weekly gladiator fight! As always, this is a fight to the death, last one standing wins! This match is between never-before-seen Austin Drippon, and Level One Andrew David! Gentlemen, enter the arena and take your positions."

Andrew and Austin were directed to enter the arena, and as soon as they saw the other across the pit, they paled. Austin froze in place, several feet from where he was supposed to stand. "C'mon kid, keep moving." A gruff voice behind Austin said, a sword poking his back lightly.

Austin forced his legs to move a few steps. The commentary of the announcer faded to a low roar in the background as Austin locked eyes with Andrew. Despite being the same age, Andrew had always been older and more responsible, keeping Austin's ADHD tendencies under control. They were twins, Andrew being older by several minutes. No doubt he was going to try and sacrifice himself so Austin could keep living, but for once, he wanted to be the one to protect his brother.

Besides, Andrew would do more good than Austin would. Andrew was a natural leader, and knowing him, would one day try and break out and save everyone. What good could Austin do? He was more of a follower than anything, halfway decent at doing what he was told.

Austin nodded to himself. That would be it. He'd die so Andrew could live.

"GO!"

Austin snapped back to attention and held up his sword, slowly approaching Andrew. They stopped a foot apart from each other, staring at each other.

"I'll do it."

They spoke at the same time. "No, Andrew, you can do so much more, I know you can. I kn-"

"Swing at me real quick, they don't like when you aren't entertaining." Andrew cut him off quickly. Austin took a half-hearted swing at Andrew, who blocked it easily. Andrew swung back, and Austin blocked it.

"I know you want to protect me, believe me when I say I appreciate it, but Andrew, you can do so much more than I ever could. Please, keep living, do great things." Austin pleaded.

A look of resignment settled on Andrew's face. "Okay.. okay, I'll do it. A few fake swipes, and it'll be over, okay?"

Austin nodded. They went back and forth a few times, grazing each other once or twice. Andrew readied his sword, a look of determination in his eyes. "Goodbye, Andrew."

"Goodbye, Austin."

With that, Andrew chopped his brother's head clean off. He staggered back in shock, before ignoring the screams and cheers of the crowd and running back inside.

Jerome was waiting where Andrew had left him. Gladiators couldn't view the fights, so when Andrew came in with tears streaming down his face he knew something was wrong. "Andrew, what's wrong? What happened?"

Andrew collapsed on the floor, head in his hands. "I just had to kill Austin, Jerome. I had to kill my own brother. He wanted me to, but having to do that messes you up, dude."

Jerome opened his mouth in shock. "God, Andrew, I'm so sorry."

Meanwhile, when Ben and Alex heard the crowd outside dispersing, they knew what had happened. By asking one of the guards, they found out Andrew had, with obvious hesitation, killed Austin.

All four grieved, but that just made them more determined to get out of the prison and take down this messed up system.

so

1782 words

idk where all this came from

i got inspired by hell's kitchen, where they were cooking and the winners would run up to the dorms while the losers would have to stay below and try and beat everyone else

so that turned into what you just read somehow, I hope it wasn't too wordy

uhh

i hope you liked it, thoughts?

have a good day, byeeee