Apex Predator

Margay V

Beta: TaintedLetter

(≧ڡ≦*)

Ding-ding-ding.

"I apologize for the delay, everyone. The airship will soon arrive at its destination."

Miwa rubbed at her eyes, and Killua slowly lifted his head off her shoulders, yawning. They had been sharing body heat, and their blanket, for the past few hours. The airship wasn't terribly cold, but it had enough of a chill for the two children to huddle together.

Miwa rolled her shoulder where Killua had been sleeping on it. She mumbled a small good morning and he returned it.

It didn't take too much time for the participants of the exam to be shuffled off the airship and onto the stage of the Third Phase.

The airship had docked itself on a ridiculously tall brown-stoned tower that stood dead center in a forest near the ocean. It was high enough that there was a constant stream of wind, blowing everyone's hair about and making Miwa firmly believe this would be a great place to parachute from.

Bean cleared his throat. "Everyone, the Third Phase of the exam will begin here, at the top of Trick Tower. To pass this phase, you must reach the tower's base alive. The time limit is seventy two hours. With that, the Third Phase will now begin. I wish you all luck."

'I don't think we're supposed to just jump off, or use chakra to walk straight down?' Miwa guessed.

No one else had a way of walking down, anyway, so that must mean...

'There's got to be a door or something to get inside the tower then stairs to go down,' Miwa concluded, grabbing Gon and Killua's hands. She pulled them over to her and explained what they were looking for.

"A hidden door that leads below?" Gon saluted. "Got it, let's look around."

As Killua and Gon began to tap around, the other contestants followed suit. Eventually they were able to find about five trap doors all close to one another.

"It looks like there's only room for about one person to go down each door," Killua observed, tapping on one of the doors. He looked up a Gon. "Since there's so many, at least one of them is bound to be a trap."

God, I hope so. Make this a teeny-tiny bit more interesting. I hope you get the trap door.

Miwa thought she'd be able to handle the trap door a bit better than her new friends, so she hoped so too. She smiled at them. "Only one way to find out, though."

"No hard feelings for those who don't get the trap, then?" Gon offered.

"'Course not," Killua dismissed.

"There's still two more doors, though... I'll go get Kurapika and Leorio," Gon said, hurrying away. By the time Gon had returned with Kurapika and Leorio, he had also already explained the trap doors to them.

"I see," Kurapika remarked. "Then this might mean a temporary farewell. I'm sure I'll see you all at the bottom of the tower, though."

"Yep!" Gon nodded firmly. "Let's all hop down one of the doors now."

They five of them then stood by the trap doors, said some dramatic farewells, and hopped on the doors.

Miwa stepped on her trap door, and down she slid into darkness. The fall was only about ten feet, and she landed lightly in an all stone room... with the four others who had come down with her.