They all stood in one giant circle on the back lawn, face to face. No one moved or made a single sound, barely even breathing. Instead, it was nothing but the most perfect of intense silences. It was like looking at a giant ring of statues. But then one of them, standing at the head of the circle, fired a gun straight into the air. One little movement, one big explosion, then the whole field came to life. All at once, every single body lunged with one accord, away from the giant mansion and into the even bigger forest surrounding it.
War whoops and battle cries filled the midnight air as countless bodies of all type surged through the forest, fighting and searching. Tonight was Capture the Flag night at the Sorceress' magical estate, only this time, the game was far more complicated than usual. Instead of having two teams, there were six. These were the rules that had been agreed upon for this night's match. Every lieutenant that wanted to play was going to lead their own team. The groups that wanted to play were the vampires, the spider-women, the Confederates, the Dark Army, the robots and the werewolves. Each team competed against the other five to have the most flags in their possession by the end of the night.
This time, it wasn't about who could get one or two flags away, nor was it about who could claim all six (if the game ended in a tie, a mini match would be held between the two victors using one flag). Instead, the battle was going to last from midnight until dawn, and until dawn, everything was fair game. A flag could be retaken over and over again. The only time the flags could no longer be retaken was when that first ray of sunlight would rise up over the horizon. Then the game would end. But before that time?
"Brothers! To me!" Cash's southern roar seemed to thunder across the forest as he waved an arm proudly. Running up behind him obediently was a small squadron of other gray-clad soldiers, each wielding some type of firearm. Tonight, however, the bullets were magical ones. They did not kill, only harm, and based on what bullets were being used, they could cause anything from temporary sensory deprivation to temporary paralysis to 10 seconds of what felt like being electrocuted. Cash chose the bullets that inflicted pain. He took a shot at Arlyn, leader of the Dark Army. The man went down with a cry of agony, but his righthand man (woman) was quick to avenge him, using her glowing green bow and arrow to return the favor. Like with the bullets, tonight, the arrows would do no lasting damage, but they would still hurt, as Cash could attest to when one of those green arrowheads buried itself in his chest.
"Arrrrgh!" he cried in anger and pain, trying again to shoot at his attacker, but the pain messed up his aim and he missed his shot.
In the distance, the werewolf team was busy taking on a pack of vampires.
"This will be our victory, bloodsuckers!" the leader of the wolf pack snarled. The five other wolves behind him barked and howled in agreement.
"You wish, flea bag!" the lead vampire cackled. It was Calvin. Orange hair gleaming dimly in the moonlight, he lunged at the alpha wolf and did not hesitate to bite down as hard as he could. The wolf yelped in pain and his comrades quickly came to his aid, clawing mercilessly at Calvin's exposed back as he tried to subdue the alpha wolf. Morgan came to Calvin's rescue, grabbing two of the wolves by the scruffs of their necks and slamming their skulls together. They yelped in pain and when Morgan dropped them, they simply collapsed, unconscious. He repeated this gesture twice more and then all six of the wolves had been properly knocked out.
"Thanks, man!" Calvin grinned, white fangs stained dark with werewolf blood.
"Let's go," Morgan replied, pulling Calvin to his feet and leading him deeper into the forest. "If nothing else, we lay claim to the werewolf flag!" he growled lowly and Calvin had no issue agreeing to this. On their right and left, more vampires came running.
"What's the orders, captain?" one of the vampires asked Morgan. Although Morgan was not technically the lieutenant vampire, because the real lieutenant vampire, Dorian, had opted not to play tonight, he left Morgan as his substitute.
"We send out scouts to find the werewolf flag, go in teams of two, no matter where it may be, and then one will follow the flag while the other will report back to me and we will take that flag!" he replied and the vampire who had asked gave him a wicked grin before grabbing a partner and darting away into the darkness. Although there was no real rhyme or reason to why Morgan was so fixated on obtaining the werewolf flag above all others, the other vampires were persuaded easily enough to do and had no problem heeding his command. That, and he was the captain of the vampire guard, after all. No one wanted to mess with him unless they had to.
The only one who would ever be dumb, or brave, enough to challenge him was the vampire princess, Alison, but she was nowhere near him or the other vampires. Instead, she was busy dealing with one little human inventor and her little army of robot.
"Argh!" Alison snarled in pain as an electric shock surged through her body. It was one of the robots of JPG's little army.
"Sorry Alison!" JPG replied cheerfully, not sounding sorry at all as she floated a foot above Alison's head, thanks to her jetpack. She was no more the lieutenant of the robots than Morgan was of the vampires, but because the real lieutenant had, like Dorian, chosen not to play, JPG was taking over for tonight. And because she could not be in a team all by herself, she'd built a little metal army to act as her other players.
"I thought we were friends!" Alison pouted as a second robot tried to wrap her in the metal rope that could extend from its chest cavity.
"We are!" JPG replied as a third robot, larger and heavier than the others, proceeded to push Alison over and sit on her, holding her down and immobilizing her. "But remember, my dear friend, all is fair in love and war!" then, with a playful cackle, JPG pushed a button on the strap of her jetpack and went soaring back up and into the night, leaving Alison to stare angrily after her.
"Jerkface," the vampire princess muttered to JPG's quickly-disappearing outline. But that was all she said before turning her attention elsewhere...
Instead of wasting time shouting, Alison began to dig her nails around JPG's metal rope and saw through them, back and forth. Slowly but surely, Alison managed to saw the metal rope with just her finger nails. Although the rope was metal, it was still thin and was more like a cable or cord than a real rope. For that, strong as it was, it wasn't very thick. Then, once Alison managed to get one hand free, she sank that free hand into the dirt all around her and began to throw it up at the giant metal robot that was just sitting on her. She managed to throw enough dirt inside the metal monster to mess up its internal wiring and it had the desired effect, causing the robot to loosen its hold on Alison and allow her more mobility. She managed to wriggle out from underneath the messed-up robot. Free again, the vampire princess wasted no time in sprinting after JPG. If all was fair in love and war, JPG was in for a very nasty revenge indeed.
The spider-women were busy handling a few stray werewolves (who had woken up from their run-in with Morgan) and vampires.
"Bring me the flag!" Jorogumo commanded, voice billowing and echoey as she, with her webs, tied two vampires and a werewolf up. Two other werewolves tried to flee, but one of the other spider-women, Haruko, managed to catch them by their tails.
"Ah, ah, ah! Not so fast!" she said lowly, voice almost seductive as she dragged them backwards towards herself. They yelped in pain and fear, but Haruko's grip was firm. Kira was busy flirting with one of the male vampires she had ensnared with Jorogumo.
"What a pity that I cannot eat you, for you look delicious!" she told him. Jorogumo uttered a dark laugh before dragging the vampire up a tree and leaving him tied up, dangling 20 feet off the ground. She pulled something out of a pocket hidden behind his lapel. It was Jorogumo's own flag, her picture imprinted on the cloth. That vampire had tried to take it, but as evident by right now, he had failed miserably.
"Close, but not close enough," she hissed braggingly at him as she reclaimed her team's flag before scuttling off, with Kira and Haruko in tow, to find someone else's flag. The vampire bellowed obscenities after the retreating trio, but he was ignored, left to hang.
"Back to where you came from, you freaks!" Cash's voice interrupted. This was a voice the trio responded to, but they weren't able to do much before a bullet sank into each of their chests, sending them to the ground as waves of agony flooded over them.
"Cursed man!" Jorogumo hissed through her pain, her legs curling inward as she lay upon her back, waiting for the agony to pass.
"Sorry ma'am," Cash replied with a cruel grin, leering down over the defeated woman before snagging her flag and continuing on his way. As he slid this flag into his breast pocket, he had to push over two more: the werewolves and the robots. The werewolves were still so engaged with Calvin and Morgan that Cash had been able to take their flag easily, and while the inventor's robots had been tricky, it still hadn't been too hard to shove them into one of the fountains around the garden and render them useless at once.
"There he is! GET HIM!" Morgan spotted Cash and, knowing that it must've been him who had the werewolf flag because no one else had it, the vampire captain did not hesitate to rush at Cash, dodging every bullet he fired. In what was a temporary alliance, Arlyn suddenly appeared and while he shot at Cash, forcing Cash to hide in a corner, Morgan continued to run Cash down until Morgan was literally right on top of Cash. He ripped the man's gray coat in his haste to retrieve all of Cash's flags. Cash began to shout horrible obscenities that would've made even a seaman appalled, but Morgan didn't even seem to hear him as he took Cash's flags and ran. He left one, the Jorogumo flag, behind for Arlyn, in thanks for Arlyn taking down Cash. But in time, Morgan lost his flag, and to JPG no less.
"I'll take that!" JPG sang merrily as she suddenly dove out of the sky and yanked Morgan's flag right out of his hand.
"What? NO!" the vampire captain thundered, then he sprinted after JPG, vaulting up the trees and attempting to drag her back down to earth with his bare hands. When that failed, he grabbed a large stone and continued to sprint after JPG, throwing the stone with deadly strength, speed and accuracy. It struck one of JPG's thrusters and suddenly she was flying at a very dangerous angle. Morgan uttered a hiss of success, but it was Alison who came through. Having searched for a way to get back at JPG for tricking her earlier with the robots, the moment Alison saw JPG began to fall, flying awkwardly on one side, the vampire princess wasted no time in determining a next move. She was able to see where JPG would land based on her flight angle and Alison immediately ran to the spot, waiting for JPG to land.
"Oh no!" the inventor moaned when she saw Alison waiting for her. She tried to lean the other way to fly away from Alison, but then Alison did exactly what Morgan did and sprinted up the nearest tree, vaulting into the sky and dragging JPG down slowly but surely. Alison managed to claw at JPG's one surviving thruster and cause that one to die as well. JPG was no longer flying, she was falling. But Alison landed first and she made sure to catch JPG safely in her arms before dropping her to the ground and pinning her down.
"Hey! You busted my second thruster!" JPG whined as Alison straddled her, grinning proudly down at her.
"All's fair in love and war, my dear," Alison bragged, then she made a big show about taking the flag JPG had acquired.
"Jerkface!" JPG whined again.
"At least be glad that it was me who caught you," the vampire scoffed as she hopped off of JPG. "I saw the way Morgan was looking at you. He would've slammed you into a tree without a second thought. At least I made sure you landed safely!" and JPG couldn't argue with that.
"Whatever," she began. "But can you just-?" but before she could finish Kira made her appearance on the scene. "SPIDER!" JPG panicked, then she hopped up from the ground with remarkable speed and went sprinting past Alison like a madwoman.
"What's her problem?" Kira snickered.
"Who knows?" Alison replied, tying JPG's werewolf flag around her wrist.
"Hold on there, I think that flag belongs to us!" Kira grinned dangerously at the vampire, her pincer-mouth clicking together hungrily as she began to scuttle towards Alison.
"Finder's keepers," Alison replied easily, then like JPG, she began to run. Kira scuttled after her and actually managed to catch her, but a timely bullet from the gun of a Confederate soldier froze Kira in place and allowed Alison to escape.
"Hey! STOP!" the soldier commanded of Alison and Alison could only laugh that he thought she'd actually listen. Instead, she ran on. The soldier tried to pursue Alison, even shooting at her, but a Dark Army man shot him first and he froze up, paralyzed by the magical arrow. In the distance, half of the pack of werewolves could be heard, howling in anger as they pursued one of the spider-women back through the forest.
Right before sunrise, it was counted that the spider-women and Confederate Army each had two flags while the vampires and Dark Army each had one. The contestants had 10 minutes left to either defend or change their current status.
"Just get the werewolf flag! Nothing else matters!" Morgan boomed. He knew they wouldn't win the game tonight, they only had one flag! The only way for them to win would be if they could retrieve two more in 10 minutes and even he didn't think such a feat was possible.
"Or at least see if we can keep the Confederates from winning!" Calvin agreed angrily. He had several wicked bruises all over his face and limbs from various scuffles with the fierce American soldiers. Alison and the other vampires nodded obediently. It was the only time Alison ever worked with her fellow vampires in perfect accordance anymore. It was the only time none of them had any reserves about each other. In games like this, all that mattered was victory, no matter what 'victory' was defined as.
"Alright Alison, what do you say to a temporary truce?" JPG whispered out of nowhere as Alison crept along alone through the woods, trying to find who had the werewolf flag.
"Gah!" Alison replied, whipping around in time to see JPG remove her invisibility cloak. It still had a long way to go, but it was far better than what Alison had seen upon the very first night they ever met.
"Ha, ha, scared ya!" JPG sounded pleased.
"No to both of those things," Alison replied crossly. "No truce, and you didn't scare me."
"Liar," JPG replied. "And what if I said 'pretty please' to the truce?"
"I'd still say no," Alison replied again. "Why do you even want a truce?"
"Because I want to get at least one flag in tonight's game!" JPG replied.
"You know the vampires only have one, right? It's not like I'm just going to give you our flag!" Alison reminded. "And we only have 10 minutes!"
"I know, but we could still help each other, right? We'll make those last minutes count!" JPG pleaded, putting on her best puppy face.
"We could," Alison agreed. "But we won't," she added, then she pointed over JPG's shoulder. "Now I suggest you duck."
"What?" was all JPG had time to say before something tackled her to the ground. It was Vera.
"What are you doing Alison? Quit chatting up the human! We only got like 10 minutes left!" Vera cried, hopping off of JPG.
"Calm down Vera," Alison replied, then she pushed the vampire aside to check on JPG. Vera had hit her a bit harder than Alison had predicted.
"Ouch," JPG muttered and Alison hid a smile as she lifted JPG straight off the ground before setting her back on her feet.
"There you go," she teased. "All better!" and JPG growled at her, embarrassed, but when Vera began to look at her with interested eyes, JPG quickly excused herself from the area. The truce wasn't happening. If she wanted a flag, she'd have to find one on her own. In 10 minutes...
"What are you doing all the way out here, Vera?" Alison asked as she watched JPG flee into the night.
"I came to tell you that we found the werewolf flag," Vera replied, waving a hand back the way Alison had come. Although Alison wasn't particularly fond of Vera, to hear that they had found the werewolf flag set aside Alison's distaste for Vera and she followed Vera at once, no reserves or hesitations at all. The flag was with the spider women.
"There!" Calvin was the one to point it out to Alison. Morgan was at his side the same way Vera was at Alison's.
"So what's the plan?" Alison asked Morgan.
"One of us takes it and runs, the others defend," Morgan replied.
"Ok! Sweet!" Vera lunged for the flag.
"Vera! Wait! No!" Alison cried, but it was too late. The hotheaded seductress had grabbed the werewolf flag from the spider pile and bolted.
"Go!" Morgan commanded of Alison, instantly assigning her to be Vera's personal guard while he and Calvin held off what would soon be a full out spider-swarm. Alison, literally kicked into action thanks to Morgan, hopped up and bounced right over the spider-women's base in the forest and went running after Vera. It didn't take her long to catch up. In the background, Morgan and Calvin held off the first wave of spider-women.
"Ha, ha! We got it!" Vera cackled, waving the werewolf flag triumphantly in the air.
"Not so loud! Not so high!" Alison cautioned, hushing Vera, but Vera wasn't listening.
"Lighten up, princess!" she snorted, still waving the banner high. Alison had never wanted to punch Vera so badly.
"Come on, Vera, faster!" she urged her companion.
"Hey now! Don't get bossy with me!" Vera frowned. "Princess or not, I'm the one who has the flag tonight and you are supposed to be my guard!"
"But you and I both know it should be the other way around!" Alison pleaded sincerely. "I'm the fastest of all the vampires! It would make more sense for me to run the flag back to our home base!"
"You're just jealous that I'm the one who got the flag!" Vera insisted, denying Alison's point. "You just don't want me to succeed because you don't like me!" she added, and Alison had to admit that she sort of agreed... but not entirely!
It really was the best course of action for Alison to take the flag and go. Vera was running as fast as she could, but Alison wasn't. Alison still had more speed left on her, but stubborn and prideful Vera refused to see it that way and she would not surrender the flag to Alison.
"I told you, it's mine! And that's final!" Vera insisted. "Just protect me! That's all you need to do! We haven't even seen any trouble yet!"
"Don't jinx it!" Alison warned, but right then, Jorogumo herself appeared.
"Give it back!" she screeched, then with speeds that even a vampire might envy, she went flying after Vera and Alison.
"Vera! Give me the flag!" Alison demanded as Jorogumo practically flew after them.
"NO!" Vera shouted back. "And if you try taking it, I'm telling the Sorceress that you cheated and attacked a teammate!"
"But Vera, we'll lose if you don't!" Alison cried despairingly as Jorogumo got closer and closer, all her legs scuttling like mad.
"You're just saying that because you think I'm slow!" Vera pouted, still running fast as she could.
"You're not slow, I'm just faster!" Alison replied. "Now give me the flag!" but Vera still wouldn't yield.
But fate finally seemed to be smiling down upon Alison because, at one point, the duo ran past the place where Sireen lived. Sireen knew what was going on and she had greatly enjoyed watching the game from afar, Torhil's icy body safely out of the way so that none of the competitors would accidently smash it, but when she saw Alison running by, arguing with Vera over who got to carry the flag to safety, Sireen finally intervened. She blew a soft gust of cold breath to the place where she knew Vera would step and, just as expected, Vera's foot hit the ice patch and she went flying. For a moment, Alison stopped dead in her tracks, confused, but when she caught Sireen's playful eye peeking at her from the slowly lightening trees, she understood at once and nodded her silent thanks to the kind ice witch. Sireen returned the gesture before vanishing away once more, allowing Alison to finally achieve her goal.
When Vera had slipped, though she suffered no damage from the fall at all, she dropped the flag, allowing Alison the chance to snatch it up herself after nearly eight minutes of back and forth bickering.
"HEY!" Vera shouted indignantly, lunging at Alison in attempt to reclaim the flag.
"Back off, Vera!" Alison replied, then she elbowed Vera in the throat as Vera lunged. Vera choked as her windpipe collapsed and she hit the ground once again, but because she really didn't need air to survive anyway, she only hopped back up and went sprinting after Alison, not as a protector but as a huntress. Alison had been right, though, she was faster than Vera, and even though Vera never lost sight of her, Alison was never in any danger of being caught by her.
But even if Alison didn't have to fear Vera, she did have to fear her other competitors. A mere few feet away from the vampire's base in the forest, Cash shot a paralysis bullet right at Alison and it hit. She began screaming internally as she felt her body lock up and collapse and she could only sob in her mind as Cash walked haughtily over to her and braggingly put her flag into his coat pocket.
"Sorry, sweetheart, guess it just wasn't your night!" he smiled through disgustingly white teeth. Alison would've legitimately attacked him, anger at him and Vera finally boiling over, but because she was paralyzed, she could only stare blankly up at him.
Suddenly, a gong went off in the distance and Alison's body unlocked at once. The game was over. Cash had won, already possessing two flags and then also securing the two that the vampires had. Alison didn't think it could get any worse. Until...
"Alison! You lost the game and the werewolf flag for us! I told you that I should've been the one to run it back here!" Vera complained as she finally caught up with Alison. Cash snickered at the interaction before sauntering away, intentionally waving all four of his flags over his head as he went back to regroup with his men. Alison wanted badly to scream at Vera until Vera's ears fell off, but anger and disbelief had stolen Alison's voice and all she could do was stare as the rest of the vampire team arrived onto the scene.
"Alison!" Morgan crossed his arms and glared down at the vampire princess. Though she may have outranked him, he knew full well that Dorian liked him more and that he would not be pleased to hear how his daughter had lost the game for the vampires.
"Alison!" Calvin agreed, angry and embarrassed by the defeat. He spat at the vampire princess in his anger, but since he wasn't really trying to hit her, it landed about a foot away. But the point was still received by Alison whose face was a mask of calm indifference. Underneath that mask, however, was a storm as violent and loud as Vera's accusatory shouts about Alison's little stunt were.
"-thought she could do so much better!" Vera was still ranting. "When I could've won the game for us, but no! She just had to go be the hero!"
"Yeah, and now thanks to you, we look like a bunch of idiots!" Calvin agreed with Vera, crossing his arms at Alison. "We lost because of you!"
"You don't need me to do that," Alison replied quietly, voice finally returning to her. For a moment, there was only silence. Then...
"What did you just say to me?" Calvin's voice was deadly soft, but Alison only laughed in reply, and it was a serious laugh.
"You really want to try and fight me right now?" she asked, subtly reminding him that she had never lost a direct battle with anyone before. Sure, she could lose games, but never duels. Did Calvin really want to try and "teach her a lesson" when he was sure to lose against her? The answer was no. Calvin seemed to remember Alison's superior combat skills and he backed off, though it was clear he was still mad at her. The other vampires continued to disavow Alison for her rash actions, causing them to lose to the Confederates and look weak.
"Well, thanks for leading us to victory!" Cash shouted as he and his triumphant troops returned, waving their flags high as they passed by.
"Don't thank me yet!" Alison shouted back angrily. "I'll be leading you to defeat next match!" but Cash was already out of sight, headed back to the camp where he and his men lived full-time. The Dark Army was doing the same. Everyone was heading home now that the game was done. Alison was stewing with anger, crossing her own arms as she ignored the angry words from Calvin, Morgan, Vera and the other angry vampires.
"If you had just given me the flag from the start, I could've gotten back here before he came!" Alison snarled at Vera before stalking off in a rage. The others watched her go, shouting at her to come back, but she wasn't going to listen them. Heck, no!
"Well, there's always next time," JPG shrugged as she and Alison finally walked back inside together. Everyone else was already back home. Despite being relatively bloodied up, with her jetpack in desperate need of repair, JPG didn't seem too bothered by her own team's loss.
"That's what I said," Alison replied, still steaming.
"And maybe next time, you'll take me up on that truce offering and we can wipe the floor with Cash together. I've always wanted to make that smug little sewer rat squeak!" JPG's own face twisted in anger as she thought about the cruel and grandiose general.
"I just might agree to that," Alison decided, then as she and JPG reached the doors of the mansion, about to part ways as Alison went to bed while JPG went to work, they shook hands. "We'll make a petition to have a round where everyone gets to choose a team instead of just going by group!"
"Fine, next game, you and I work together to bring Cash down. Nothing else matters," JPG said as they shook hands.
"Help me with Vera, Calvin and Morgan and you've got yourself a deal," Alison replied.
"Oooooh! A hit list!" JPG laughed. "Add Cedric in there too while you're at it!"
"He plays?" Alison replied, eyebrows furrowing.
"Of course not!" JG laughed. "He's far too old, slow and brittle! That's why I had little robots on my team instead! I was just kidding!"
"Well, if you do ever want-" Alison began.
"Nah, your vampire buddies and Cash are enough for now," JPG replied.
"Well, it sounds good to me either way," Alison grinned darkly.
"Excellent! I'll start planning on it today. Now, you go rest and we can talk more about it tonight, ok?" JPG asked.
JPG ushered Alison inside the mansion and, despite herself, Alison smiled. Though she was still angry and humiliated about the game loss, JPG never failed to comfort and cheer her up. And the idea about getting revenge against Cash and the others was equally gratifying to Alison. She went to bed that morning and reveled in dreams of triumph and vengeance. She would crush Cash underfoot, put Vera back in her place at the bottom of the proverbial food chain, sucker-punch Calvin halfway across the forest and foil all of Morgan's plans for a successful rematch. Yes, Alison would sabotage her own court for some cheap and petty vengeance, so what? Who ever said she was a graceful loser?
Cash would have to watch his back from now on because Alison did not plan upon losing against him again. Instead, next time they met, she would show him who was boss and it would remain that way from then on! They would all realize what a mistake it was to mess with her and underestimate her! And with JPG now in a secret alliance with Alison, next time the mansion played Capture the Flag, the game was going to be turned upside down by them, the dynamic duo. They would wreak havoc across the game, playing by no one's rules but their own and, this time, victory would lie not in capturing any of the flags, but in seeing how many captures they could successfully stop. This was going to be such a fun rematch next month! Alison could hardly wait...
AN: Yet another totally randomly inspired fanfic wherein the mansion members have monthly Capture the Flag games against one another. The rules differ each month to keep it interesting and this one was an "every man for himself" game.
Consider this an "AU" of my prequel that would occur some time before Riley ever appeared, but after Sireen and Sampson.
Just a weird, random little fic to give more characterization to everyone, especially the vampires. I feel like Alison could be a ruthless sports-player, and she would be petty enough to seek vengeance if she ever lost a game (hey, nobody's perfect, not even Alison).
Anyway, hope y'all enjoyed this weird little thing!