An Offer

Everyone looked back at the entrance as the dust was settling, revealing a man with a goofy fox mask. The goofiness in the mask paired with his suffocating aura petrified you, so much so some would even piss their pants. 

His aura was the kind that made your hairs stand up, the kind that set off your survival instinct telling you to run as fast as you can, paired with his mask gave off a very sinister killer clown vibe. 

Everyone in the living room rushed to their weapons, drawing them and pointing them at the man who was lowering his leg after delivering that car crash of a kick. Only to notice this was the same mysterious man from the cave. 

When they noticed him, they couldn't help but be confused. 

This man had helped them and saved their life, yet they wanted to run as far away as possible, not looking back. While they were in deep thought the mysterious man started to walk into the house. 

He ran his fingers through the wooden door he had just destroyed while he was entering the home. He let his fingers guide him as he aimlessly trotted around the house, eventually stumbling upon a small stand with a vase of flowers. 

He looked at them as though he was looking at a menu in a restaurant deciding what to eat. After a small soundless minute, he took his hands off the wall and lightly slapped the vase making it fall off the stand, hitting the floor and breaking into a hundred pieces. 

Because of the intense silence, this smash of the vase sounded like gunfire and made everyone jump out of their thoughts and confront the man. 

"WHO ARE YOU!!!!!!" Screamed Aaron, trying not to look frightened in front of his peers.

After the man stared at him for a couple of seconds, he spoke. 

"Where is he?" His voice was quite normal, except for the fact that he sounded like he didn't want to be here. 

The other looked at him in confusion, until everyone heard "I'm right here." As they looked at the stairs in the corner of the room, they saw a weak, pale Luca, struggling to stand up. 

"Luca!" Shouted Stacy, running to help him to his feet. The mysterious man began to make his way toward Luca. 

"HEY, STO…" Before Aaron could try to assert his dominance, holding his tiny bow, he was interrupted by Luca.

"Wait." He said not even sparing him a glance. As the mysterious man stood in front of him, he started to talk. "You shouldn't be up." Stated the mysterious man. 

"Nah this is nothing, I've had worse." To this, the mysterious man just gave a sarcastic look saying 'Sure you have buddy'. 

The mysterious man started to look around the room. "Tsk. Look at you all. You're all pitiful." He said as he looked at everyone. "Cowards, hiding behind others." He said as he looked at Sophie and a couple of others, looking like they were about to run at any second. 

"Morons who can't think for themselves." He said, looking at Colt and Noa specifically. "And idiots, who can't even use their weapons properly." He said, this time looking straight at Aaron. 

"Hey, who do you think…'' to this, Aaron was outraged, he couldn't let this go on. To Aaron, this guy was outright challenging his authority. However, before he could even finish his sentence, the mysterious man carried on. 

"You're all the same as a year ago. Nothing has changed. There's no difference between you right now, and you from earth." To this, everyone widened their eyes and lowered their weapons in shock.

Even Luca couldn't help but ask. 

"Who are you?" After giving a slight pause, he answered.

"Haven't you guys always thought someone was missing, someone who in the biscord server, was quite popular? Who wouldn't stop causing problems for the mods?"

They all racked their heads, except for Aaron. He was rarely active on the server, for the most part, he used it to push his merchandise and promote his channel. Other than that he didn't care about it. 

"Really? Not even you Lucille?" He said speaking to Luca playfully, which was completely out of character for him. Luca was bewildered. There was only one person on biscord who ever used to make fun of him using that nickname.

"MIRAGE!" Luca exclaimed. That was this man's name in the biscord server. He went by Mirage. Only then did the others finally realise they'd been missing someone this whole time. 

"But how?" Luca asked the question they were all wondering. "I was separated from you all when we were brought to this world. Since then I've done all I can to get stronger and find you guys. Only, it was a waste of time for me to even come here." They all lowered their heads in shame after hearing this.

They were all thinking the same thing. 

This guy who had been brought here the same time as them, with probably even fewer resources, had become so powerful, and yet they were still here, in the same place, living off the smallest of scraps they could scavenge.

"However…" He continued. "I can't do this by myself. You heard Order, it's going to take all of it to take these guys down. After that, we can all go home. You may be pathetic now, but with my help, I can mould you into warriors." As he was saying this he heard something. 

"What makes you so much better than us, all we've seen you do is throw a knee and a kick. How do we know you're not all talk?" Aaron said, trying to control the situation. Truth be told he was gritting his teeth when he saw how this guy treated him, he was ignored, insulted and humiliated. He couldn't take it anymore.

"1 minute." Said the man, with one finger in the air. "If any of you can even touch me in one minute, I'll do what you want. If you wish me to leave, I'll go. If you want respect, I'll give it to you. All you have to do is touch me."

Everyone just stared at him. It sounded crazy for someone to think they could dodge more than 10 people in a small room for one minute. It was impossible. 

However, they seemed to see this as an opportunity. "Alright then." Aaron shrugged, as he dropped his bow and tried to tackle him. Except when he got to where the man was standing, his arms were met with nothing but air. He stumbled a bit and came to a stop, only to see the man he was aiming for 3 feet to the side of where he was originally.

Aaron thought he was going mad. He must've missed the guy because he was sure as hell he didn't dodge that. He tried again, but the same thing happened. Before he could ask himself what had happened, he saw a familiar ginger-haired guy jump off the living room table into the air, about to fall right onto the man. 

This was Colt, who had tried to catch the man by surprise. Only to end up kissing the floor, as the mysterious man, again, somehow ended up 3 feet off to the side. After seeing this everyone tried their best to get close to him. But the same thing kept repeating itself. Someone would attack the man and he would disappear, leaving them to wonder if they were blind.

As he kept dodging them, the man ended up In the middle of everyone, without thinking about their surroundings, they all lunged at him. The same thing happened, except this time they all crashed into each other, leaving them in pain on the ground. 

"Times up." He stated. Looking down at them while they groaned and struggled to get up, he continued. "You're all worthless. You didn't even get close to touching me. How do you expect to save the world and vanquish Chaos?"

"At this point, you guys might as well get comfortable, cause you aren't going home." 

This hit them like a ton of bricks, especially Stacy, who had a really big family. She loved them dearly and wanted to go home as soon as possible. However, after hearing this, she couldn't help but break down.

"Are you guys OK with being at the bottom of the barrel? Hoping to find the tiniest of scraps to live off of."

"If you are then please, carry on, 'cause you're doing a great job. Or do you wanna rise, become stronger, more powerful? Powerful enough to slay Chaos and finally go back home."

"If you do, I'll be waiting outside at sunrise. If none of you chooses to come out, I'll assume you've declined my help and I'll leave." He said finally turning around and walking out what was left of the front door.

Everyone looked back at him, they couldn't help but feel a mix of emotions. Humiliation, anger, helplessness, fear and most of all, hope. Hope that they might have a chance to finally leave this hell and go back home. They watched him as he disappeared into the darkness.

Mirage POV:

I walked out of the front door as I tried to avoid the wood sticking out from the busted door frame. I walked into the darkness until I was sure they couldn't see me anymore. Then I looked up. I looked at the sky I fell from. I was sure she was watching. "I'm coming for you," I said as I walked away.