In the late stages of the Gauntlet, Dropdead was removed from her management position and replaced with someone by the name of Vile. As their name would imply, Vile would run things very differently from Dropdead. In Dropdead's challenges, players had a reasonable amount of success and could consistently make it through relatively unscathed. Vile's were... different. These challenges were specifically tailored to the physical and psychological weaknesses of each team, and the hazards became much, much deadlier. By the time the first team had completed their final challenge, there wasn't much left of the first team to tell the tale, and the survivors were inconsolable for days after. Cobalt and his team were the second to enter the Gauntlet.

Each team consisted of four members, and Team Two was no exception. Cobalt was a large blue armor type with a condition known as Ravenous, which severely altered his body if he went too long without consuming food-type material. Finnley was a small brown mushroom type, the cheerful optimist of the group. Rex was a hydra/tumor type hybrid, and spoke through many heads at once. Rounding out the group was a TCP known as Provolone Fatlord, a bear trap type with a fiery modifier.

It was tense to say the least. No one had anything to say as they stepped into the elevator. The previous challenges all had a catchy title and a cool logo of some sort, like FLATLINE GENERAL or AVANT GARDEN- something that gave a vague indicator as to what lay ahead. But the challenge Team 1 had just finished was simply called TEAM 1 FINALE. Plain white letters on a plain black background. Apparently Vile let some of the graphic designers go along with Dropdead. Team 2's challenge was similarly named, and so no one had any idea what to expect as the elevator dropped down into the unknown depths below.

Cobalt broke the silence. "Do we want to go over the plan again?"
"Wouldn't hurt." Provolone muttered.
"If we have to fight, me and Provo in the middle with Cobalt and Rex on either side. If it's some kind of obstacle course, me and Provo first and Rex stays in the back to help Cobalt through. If it's anything else, we take things slow and figure out what's going on." Finnley recited nervously.
"Seems about right to me." Rex confirmed.







"Did Team 1's elevator ride take this long?" Finnley asked.
"Maybe?"
"I don't remember."
"I wasn't paying attention." Three voices rang out all at once.
















"Okay, it definitely didn't take this long." Finnley spoke again.
"Weird. Maybe it's taking us somewhere further away?" Provolone mused.
"I thought these things were using some kind of interdimensional gateway thingy." Cobalt turned to examine the elevator walls. They didn't seem out of the ordinary- it was a largish elevator, the kind typically used for carrying cargo. It was more than big enough to fit the four of them comfortably.
"It could be broken..." suggested Rex.







Cobalt tapped gently on the wall with his tail. Like most armor types, he lacked arms- but he could more than make do with his feet or tail.
"Hello? Anybody there?"

No response.



Rex sat down. "I guess we wait here until they get their shit fixed."
Over the next few minutes, the rest of the team joined Rex, each taking a corner and sitting one by one.



"So... Does anyone want to play a game or something?"
"I Spy?"
"That would get boring real quick. It's basically just us in here."
"I've got some playing cards in my pack, we could play Go Fish or something!"
"You brought playing cards, Finnley?"
"Yeah! Or, well, I mostly just forgot to take them back out after the last challenge."
"Why did you have them then?"
"...I thought maybe they would be helpful with the casino theme?"
"They really didn't end up doing much with that, did they? It was more just a backdrop for the zombie sock puppets."
"Ugh, don't remind me. I've still got chew marks in my left neck."
"The giant spinny wheel with the ball was kind of fun."
"For you, maybe. Try being made of solid metal and not having any arms."

The four of them chuckled lightly. The banter helped ease the tension in the room.
"So... Go Fish?" Finnley asked. Everyone else responded with agreement, and Finnley produced a set of cards and quickly dealt them out, setting aside a hand for Cobalt. Without looking, Finnley showed Cobalt his hand and placed it face-down on the floor in front of him.
"Let me know if you need to see that again."
"Thanks, I've got a pretty good memory though."







"Got any fives?"
"Go Fish."
"Card, please?"
"Yup." Finnley hopped up and took a card off the top of the deck, showing it to Cobalt briefly before placing it down in front of him.









"Four, five, six sets."
"Yeah, we can all see you won, Rex, no need to bother counting."
"I just like doing it!" Rex retorted playfully.
"Jeez, how many rounds has that been now?"
"I want to say at least a dozen."
"At least. Do we want to try something else for a while?"
"One more round of Go Fish, maybe. I'm on a winning streak." boasted Rex. Everyone else groaned.















"So that's, what, three of a kind?"
"Full house, actually. You've got the wild card in the middle."
"Dang, Provo, for someone who's never played poker before, you sure are good at it."
"Just lucky, I guess."

















"Hmm, stay."
"Cobalt stays! Rex?"
"Draw!"
"The six of hearts! Rex busts with a 24!" Finnley chimed in a theatrical voice.
"Provolone, it's all down to you now..!"
"I will... draw."
"And the final card is..." Finnley dramatically turns over the eight of clubs.
"OHH NO! And Cobalt takes it with a score of 19!"
"Told you patience pays off in the end."
"Yeah, yeah, you just got lucky."















"Whoa, steady!" Finnley teetered nervously on Cobalt's head.
"I am being steady, just put the card down already!" Finnley grunted with effort before losing their balance and crashing into the house of cards. Everyone cursed and groaned.
"Come on, dude, I held perfectly still, what is your deal?" Cobalt yelled. Finnley looked up from the card pile in shock.
"You okay? You seem a bit, uh..."
"Yeah, I know. Sorry."
"You want a granola bar? I've got two more in here."
"...I'll wait, thanks. There's no telling how long we're going to be in he-" Cobalt stopped abruptly. He froze, staring straight at the wall.

"Cobalt?" Finnley stood up, concerned.
"This is the challenge." Cobalt droned, his voice completely flat.
"What?"
"This is the challenge. We're in it right now. You FUCKER!" Cobalt suddenly turned and slammed the elevator doors with his tail. Everyone jumped at the loud clang that echoed through the walls.

"Cobalt, calm down. What do you mean we're in the challenge?" Provo asked, wincing as Cobalt continued banging on the doors and cursing incomprehensibly.
"...He's going to starve Cobalt." Finnley realized. "That's the challenge. Vile's just going to keep us locked up in here until..."
"Until I lose it." Cobalt leaned his head on the wall. He hadn't made so much as a dent.
"How, uh..." Provolone stuttered, trying to phrase the question politely.
"How long do the rest of you have? I don't know. The longest I've gone without food is a day, and that was shortly before I got kicked out of my village for eating someone. But that was a long time ago, and none of you guys are food-types, so I don't know. But I guess we're going to fucking sit here and find out." Cobalt sat down in his corner.
"Alright, guys, let's all just calm down. Finnley has two granola bars left in their backpack, right? Let's give Cobalt one now and save the next one for a few hours from now. As long as Cobalt can go while still feeling safe." Rex suggested.
"Sure." Cobalt mumbled.
"And after that... We can think of something. Clothes, nonessential items-"
"Non-food items don't work as well. Our stuff wouldn't last an hour."
"Okay, well, that's still time. Vile has to let us out eventually, right? So all we have to do is hold out until then."
"Easy for you to say." Cobalt gave Rex a glare.
"O-okay, so let's go ahead and give you this now..." Finnley hastily retrieved one of the two granola bars in their backpack, beginning to unwrap it.
"Don't bother, just toss it here." Finnley obliged, and Cobalt snapped it out of the air with frightening speed. In the blink of an eye, it was gone- wrapper and all.










Eventually, the four of them went back to playing card games, but no one seemed to be enjoying them- least of all Cobalt. The friendly banter was gone, and all four took their turns with no extra commentary or chatter. Occasionally Rex would try to make a joke, or Finnley would make a comment about the game, but Cobalt just kept staring at the floor. With no real timekeeping device, there was no way to keep track of how much time had passed. The second granola bar disappeared at some point, and more halfhearted games were played afterwards.


After a few games, Cobalt stopped playing entirely, instead electing to sit in the corner facing the wall.



















"...You could eat me." Rex chimed after what must've been hours of awkward silence.
"Stop it. Don't say shit like that." Cobalt snapped.
"No, I'm serious. I'm a hydra type, right? So if you're careful enough to just bite off one of my heads, I could regenerate it. No harm done."
"Wouldn't that hurt?" Finnley asked. Rex just shrugged in response.
"Probably. It's better than anyone else having to get eaten."
"How many times can you do that?" Cobalt asked.
"Suppose we'll have to find out." Rex stood up and stepped towards Cobalt. Cobalt shook his head. Ever since his incident, he found that eating any living thing was unbearable. There was a sensation to it that shook him to his core. He wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but Cobalt could swear he could actually feel things dying somewhere inside him. It was horrible and he hated it. He avoided it at all costs. But now, he had no other choice.

Rex took off one of his hats and extended a head forward, carefully moving some other heads out of the way. "Just try not to nip the jacket, I'm quite fond of th- OWWWWWW"
Before Rex even had a chance to finish his sentence, his head had already been torn off. Cobalt chewed a few times, looking more like a wild animal than a TCP, before tilting his head back and swallowing the bits. He promptly turned and took his spot in the corner, swearing to himself. Meanwhile, two new heads slowly emerged from Rex's stump, albeit smaller than the original one.
"You guys okay?" Provolone asked.
"Yeah, I'm f-"
"No, I'm not okay." Cobalt cut Rex off.
"I fucking enjoyed that. That was the most horrible, disgusting thing I've ever done in my life. You're my friend and I just bit your fucking head off. And I fucking ENJOYED IT!"
"I don't want to be like this. I don't want to be this fucked-up monster that eats people. I want to be a person, goddamn it. I want to have a life and friends without constantly worrying about tearing it all apart. I thought this would be a way to finally get rid of it, but nope!" Cobalt slammed his head into the wall.
"Just locked in a box by some sick fuck and broadcast on live television."
"Fuck you, Vile. I mean it. I hope you die in a fucking hole. I hope you end up in a ditch on the side of the goddamn road and thrown away like garbage. I hope no one remembers you, except for when they breathe a sigh of relief that such a twisted, fucked-up asshole no longer exists in this world. I'd say I want to spit on your grave, but I don't want you to have one in the first place. I hope every ounce of pain and suffering you've caused comes back to bite you in the dick. I hope you fucking- you don't- you-"

Cobalt's stuttering turned into incomprehensible screaming as he continued to writhe and slam against the metal walls. For a few tense minutes, everyone else remained silent, flattened into the opposite corner. Slowly, eventually, Cobalt slowed down and stopped. The only noise coming from him now was a soft metallic scraping sound, barely understandable as crying. Finnley was the first to move, gently putting a hand on Cobalt's tail. As Finnley began to speak, the group was interrupted by the sensation of the elevator coming to a halt. A soft ding was heard as everyone turned to the door.

Before them was a long hallway. The hallway was lined with stone tiles on all sides, and was illuminated by the occasional bulb in the ceiling. At the very end of the hallway, the team could faintly make out a pair of doors lit by a familiar green "EXIT" sign.

"...That's it?" Provolone muttered. "A hallway?"
"Let's just... Take it slowly. There's no telling what's in this thing. You good, Cobalt?" Rex asked.
"Let's get this over with." Cobalt's voice was low and ragged. Without being prompted, he strode past the rest of the team and took his position in the front of the group. Rex took the rear, and Finnley and Provolone moved between them. As soon as the group was in formation, they walked forward.






The hallway was dimly lit, with the occasional flickering light. No one said a word as their footsteps echoed through the hallway. The team checked every tile they passed for some sort of booby trap or hidden monster, but never found any. Eventually, they opted to just walk at a slow pace. As the team reached the halfway point of the hallway, the floor tiles rose up right in the middle of the group. Provolone was toppled backwards as a row of tiles shifted upwards, creating a barrier between the team. Cobalt immediately realized what was happening.
"No no no NO NO! FUCK!"

Before Cobalt could do anything, the wall sealed in front of him, and Rex and Provolone were no longer visible. Cobalt smashed his tail into the tiles as hard as he could. Cracks were starting to form in the stone- but more and more tiles rose, pushing the two down the hallway and towards the elevator. As the hallway filled with columns of solid stone, Cobalt and Finnley were forced backwards into the exit doors.
"No! No..." Cobalt protested as the doors closed behind them and the elevator began moving up. Slowly, Cobalt took his position in the corner of the elevator, facing the wall.

Finnley was the first to speak.
"They're going to be okay. I don't think they-"
"It's not them I'm worried about." Cobalt cut Finnley off.
"Don't you get it? The elevator on the way down was moving the entire time. It's going to take just as long to go back up."
"Is... is there any way I can-"
"Don't speak, don't make noise, don't do anything. Just sit there and let me ignore you. And get your taser out."
"Cobalt-"
"Shut up and do it!"

Finnley just stared at Cobalt, who was trembling in the corner. Slowly, they unholstered their taser from its spot and extended the handle, wielding it like a spear. They backed into the opposite corner and waited.












Silence.















Every second was agony for Cobalt. He had no idea how long it had been, or how long he had left to wait. He wasn't even entirely certain Vile was going to let them out of here at all. He sat and stared at the wall. It was like the elevator had been specifically designed to be as boring as possible- there were no tiles to count, no deformations in the metal to stare at, no features at all except for the doors, the screen, and the button. There wasn't so much as a strand of hair on the floor for Cobalt to distract himself with.

He tried playing games in his mind. First he went on adventures with the roleplaying group that had formed in the Gauntlet lobby, but that reminded him too much of his friends. He took his character on adventures by himself, but that felt too lonely. He tried thinking of a book he'd read or a TV show he'd watched, but he couldn't remember any. He thought about all the ways he was going to get revenge on Vile- how he would break out of the Gauntlet facility, stride right up to his office- and what? Bite his face off? That's the kind of person he didn't want to be. He could turn Vile in to the authorities- but what authorities? Cobalt didn't even know enough law to be sure if Vile had broken any.

Every thought he had eventually led back to the issue at hand- the growing pain spreading throughout his entire body. He felt his head widening and elongating, stretching to make room for larger and larger teeth. He felt his thoughts growing more and more cloudy as it became impossible to think about anything except his hunger and the one thing in this room that would make it all stop. He twitched and tossed his head, forcing himself not to look. If he saw Finnley, it was over. Just keep staring at the corner. There was nothing else to do.

A desperate thought crossed his mind. Did he get physically stronger when he was like this? His idea might work, but it might just as easily make it impossible for Finnley to defend themself if he...

It was better than nothing. It was a chance, at least.








Finnley jumped slightly as metallic creaking began to emanate from Cobalt's corner of the room. At first, they thought Cobalt was speaking, but the noise was actual metal moving. Was Cobalt that big a second ago? As another burst of metallic creaking began, Finnley realized what was happening. Cobalt was using his ability to add layers of armor onto himself. But why? Was Cobalt about to attack? Finnley clutched their spear nervously. A third layer of armor appeared, the metal straining and creaking.

Another layer. What was Cobalt doing?

Five layers. Could he even move at this point?

Six. That was it. That had to be it.

Seven. He was going to immobilize himself to keep Finnley safe.











It happened all at once. Cobalt's thoughts drifted for a split second, and before he knew it, he was gone. The huge blue mass of metal began writhing wildly, attempting to turn itself around. The noise from Cobalt slamming into things before was nothing compared to the cacophony of metal against metal as the giant wormlike creature Cobalt had become thrashed around the room in a desperate attempt to reorient itself. Cobalt's legs were basically useless at this point as he relied solely on his tail to get his body to turn. His tail caught the wall and Cobalt shot across the room, slamming into the wall next to Finnley. Finnley dove out of the way as Cobalt rotated in place, finally coming face-to-face with Finnley.

Each new layer of armor had also inadvertently resulted in a new layer of teeth, so staring down Cobalt's throat was like staring into a giant blue garbage disposal. Eight sets of metal jaws gnashed together, narrowly avoiding Finnley as he bounced around the room. Finnley leapt left, then right, then over Cobalt's back, but Cobalt was adapting to his new form, turning to face Finnley again every time. Finnley jabbed their spear into Cobalt's side, and for a brief moment, Cobalt's movement slowed- but Finnley only had a few moments' rest before Cobalt started up again. Around and around the room they went until Finnley was backed into a corner. They thrust their spear forward, only to have it bitten in half as the electricity connected. Finnley scrambled out of the corner before Cobalt could recover, throwing the broken handle of their spear aside.

Several minutes of near misses later, and the two were interrupted by a soft ding and the elevator slowing to a halt once more.



















Cobalt lay exhausted in his bed. The lobby was in shambles, with broken pieces of furniture everywhere. Every room had been thoroughly destroyed in the massive effort to get Cobalt subdued. It took the combined efforts of every TCP present, but eventually Cobalt was sated enough to calm down. Several requests to the Gauntlet's delivery system later, Cobalt was back to his normal self- but not before injuring several TCPs and severely traumatizing just about everyone else.

There was a knock at the door.
"Can I come in?" Finnley asked.
"...Sure." Cobalt sighed.
Finnley stepped into the room. A half-hearted attempt had been made to clean it up, but it was still clear where Cobalt had been confined to for the past several hours. Sand from Cobalt's sandbox was everywhere, his furniture was in pieces, and his belongings were strewn all over the place. The only thing that survived was his bed, simply by virtue of it being a giant beanbag chair.
"Everyone's recovering, Rex is using his doctor skills to patch people up. We're supposed to get some folding chairs and card tables delivered in an hour or so, since they weren't really prepared to re-furnish the entire lobby area. The cafeteria's supposed to be restocked a little after that."
"Rex is using his doctor skills? They're doomed." Cobalt chuckled dryly.
"Heh, yeah. Are you doing alright? Do you need anything else?"
"No, I... just need some time to process everything. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm alright. That was... really scary."
"I'm sorry."
"No, it's not your fault-"
"It kind of was, though. I shouldn't have come here in the first place. I thought about not signing up for this what with how many people would be there, but they teased me with that stupid reward, and I just- I thought I could finally fix this. I put everyone in danger."
"You deserve not to be like this, Cobalt. Coming here was your best chance."
"Yeah, and look where that got me. I'd probably get lynched if I step foot outside this room."
"A lot of people are worried about you, actually."
Cobalt turned away.
"Really, you've been so nice to everyone here, they- I mean, we all know this isn't something you can control. We don't blame you for it. Vile put you in a bad spot, and you did your best to deal with it. I wouldn't have thought of using your ability to slow yourself down like that."
"You're not safe around me."
"No one's safe around anyone. People get upset sometimes. I mean, maybe in your case, it's a bit more extreme, but that's what having friends is about, right? Friends stay with each other, even on the bad days, because they know the good days will make it all worth it. You're a really good friend, and I'd gladly put myself in danger to make sure you were safe. I kind of did, like, several times."
Cobalt chuckled a bit.
"And needing help with a condition doesn't make you a monster. If anything, it makes you even more of a person. Think of all the other armor types who need help to do things, or the TCPs without legs that need a friend to haul them in and out of bed every morning. People struggle with things, and then those who care about them help them out. That's just how things go. Even if you can't get your condition worked out, I'm still happy to know you."
"Thank you, Finnley. That means a lot."
"Anytime."

Finnley stepped out of the room, softly closing the door behind them.