Chapter 3: Sugar

This story, while having an abundance of OCs, will stay focused on the Pahkitew Island characters, including Chris and Chef. I just felt as though I should state that here.

The wizard's death hadn't really affected Sugar that much. She figured that since he was one he could always revive himself or something like that later on.

What really affected her was the fact that they had put the show on hiatus for now. It had been her one chance at becoming truly famous, outside of her child beauty pageant wins. Instead of killing it on camera and winning the hearts of people in America, she was stuck in an cold grey interrogation room with a rather handsome police officer, three days after Leonard's death.

"So... Sugar," the officer said, his eyes flicking to her profile for a second. "How would you describe your relationship with Leonard?"

"He was a wizard!" Sugar replied, honestly. "I don't know why my teammates voted him off." Lowering her voice to a whisper she said, "We should've voted off the varmint Ella."

"Right..." The officer hesitated. "And the giant robot?"

The island's cameras had managed to capture some of their fights against the enemy, but it was too grainy and of a low-quality to actually be used as evidence. They mostly chalked it up to Chris having some fun with special effects and using it as a deterrent against Leonard's death.

Sugar shook her head. "Never saw it," she lied smoothly.

The officer sighed. "Right." He nodded. "You may go."

She nodded, smiling despite the situation, before getting out of her seat and leaving the room, passing Dave, who was looking extremely nervous, along the way. Heading down the long corridor that led to the front desk, she stopped in front of the first room looking through a small window where she could see Chris sweating as he was asked numerous questions by his interrogator.

Shrugging, she left them joining the group of contestants huddled near the front doors. "Did you tell them?" Shawn asked, in a low voice.

She shook her head in response.

"I don't like this," Samey said, her voice quivering. "We should tell someone."

"It's a bad idea," Shawn insisted. "Trust me."

"It's not like it was our fault to begin with," Jasmine pointed out. "Chris was the one who shot him out of that cannon."

Sugar nodded vigorously. "Yeah! Besides the wizard will be fine. He's a wizard after all!"

Everyone exchanged a look that made Sugar internally frown. What had she said?

Footsteps coming from behind her, turned her attention away from them and instead towards the number of people walking towards. She easily recognized Chris and Chef who were flanked by two officers, Leonard's parents along with the two lawyers. Dave came up from the rear, looking rather tense. They stopped in front of the contestants, with no words spoken as Dave took his place behind Jasmine.

"Umm..." Rodney was the first one to break the awkward silence. "So what's going to happen to the show?"

Chris's lawyer, a brown haired man with glasses names Adams, pursued his lips. "Leonard's family is suing Chris," he said, sending a glare towards the father. "Despite the contract the states we aren't liable for any damages he receives during challenges. Including death."

The prosecutor, a younger woman with long dark black hair, glared daggers at her opposition. "Yes, but only during challenges," she pointed out, stiffly. "The cannon that killed the boy wasn't part of any elimination and it was Chris who shot him out of it. It is only natural that my client would pursue charges."

Adams sighed. "In any case, the court case will take place much later in the future. So let us save the arguing until then."

"What do you mean by that?" Leonard's father asked, a dangerous edge to his tone.

Adams sighed, once again. "It just will," he said firmly, tired of explaining himself. "This isn't some fake TV show or video game where it'll take minutes to process."

"How long?" Leonard's father asked.

"About a week."

He growled. "We're having the funeral in another four days. I would like justice before then."

"May I remind you that I still haven't received the body's autopsy," Adams countered, dryly. "Nor have I been able to actually see the body?"

Leonard's father gritted his teeth, before giving up and looking at the remaining thirteen contestants. Digging around in his pocket, he produced several cards and handed one to each of them. "You're all welcome to come to his funeral. I'm sure he'll be happy to see some of the friends he last saw be there." He turned around and guided his somber wife out of the door with their lawyer following, missing Dave and Sky's wince.

Ha! Sugar thought. Serves them right.

Adams sighed once again his thin gaze locking onto the contestants. "If you ever need a lawyer," he offered, holding out several business cards in his hand. "Just call my law firm. We mostly focus on show related things, but I'd be happy to help." He winked.

Both Jasmine and Rodney took a card, while everyone else refused politely.

He flicked the remaining cards into his sleeve. "Good day," he said, walking out of the police station. Chris walked by them, without a thought while Chef have them all a look of pity, before leaving.

It wasn't until they all left, when Sky spoke up. "Dammit!" She muttered kicking the air. "I really needed the money."

"Hoe can you say that?" Ella scolded sternly. "Someone died!"

Sky flinched, opening her mouth to say something, but Dave beat her to the punch. "Hey!" he protested. "We all wanted to win the money! It's not her fault!"

Shawn awkwardly rubbed his neck. "Well, we were the ones who voted him off."

Sugar felt as though she had to correct him. "Y'all were the ones who voted him off," she said with a triumphant smile. "I wasn't stupid enough to vote for him. You wait till he comes back from the dead as a zombie!"

"Zombie?!" Shawn shrieked, looking around wildly.

"No one turning into a zombie!" Jasmine consoled, sharply, before biting her lip. "Besides, I'm more worried about Zearth. What do we do with it?"

Beardo frowned. "What do you mean?"

"We're in way over our heads," Jasmine explained.

Topher shrugged. "I see nothing wrong with it," he said. "Besides its not like Zearth ruined my chances at fame." He scowled at a nearby officer.

"We're not thinking of this properly," Scarlett pointed. "The government will find us eventually and when they do, I'm sure they'll treat us as the enemies."

"Good." Max sniggered. "That's exactly what I want."

Sugar didn't understand and honestly didn't really care. Ruffling her hair, she said, "You people are overreacting! Who cares if the big boys find us?"

Scarlett spared her a glance. "Do you seriously not understand the destructive capabilities of that machine?" she asked, with a hint of anger.

Sugar made a face. "Detrucktive caterpillars?" She shook her head. "No idea what you mean. I didn't see any caterpillars."

Scarlett opened her mouth to retort, but paused when she saw Sky shaking her head. Scowling, she dropped the issue and closed her mouth.

Sugar wasn't quite finished, however. "Anyway what are we gonna do with this?" She held up the invitation they had received from Leonard's dad.

Dave frowned. "We're going right?"

"Of course we are!" protested Ella, before she smiled sweetly. "I'm sure Leonard would like it if we were there." Her smile seemed to waver a bit as she said her next lines "He died a hero after all."

Xxx

Four days had passed, before the day of the funeral, before Sugar realized she had no idea what to wear. "Ma!" she screamed, walking into her large living room, holding up two dresses, one was bright pink and the other blue and gold. "What do you think I should wear to the wizard's funeral?!"

Her mother, a gargantuan woman sitting on the couch, blinked at her question. "They both look good, but..." She hesitated.

"But what?" Sugar raised a brow.

Her mother shook her head. "I think silver would be a better color on you!"

Sugar beamed, immediately running back into her room, and pulling her dress out of her closet and putting it on. Another three hours later, she was left on the sidewalk in front of the church closest to Leonard's house. Luckily, their hometowns were rather close to each when compared to the rest of the cast, so she didn't have to stay in a hotel like the rest of her competitors.

Knocking on the door, she waited a few seconds before the door opened revealing a young man in a black suit. He took in her appearance, staring at her silver dress with confused eyes. "Yes?" he asked, rather hesitantly.

"I'm here for the wizard's party!" she said with a goofy smile on her face.

The man stared at her. "But the dress code...?"

Sugar was about to say something else, when she spotted the other contestants inside the house. Without a second thought, she pushed past the man and headed towards them. "Hiya, guys!" she greeted cheerfully, eliciting many strange looks in her direction.

Dave choked on his drink when he saw her. "What are you wearing?!" he cried, nearly spilling his own drink onto his crisp, dark suit.

Sugar ignored his question and instead pointed to the drink in his hand. "Is that punch?" she asked excitedly.

Dave shied the cup away from her, holding it protectively in his hands. "It's water," he answered.

"Um… You didn't answer Dave's question," Sky, who was in a plain black dress herself, pointed out, with an arched eyebrow. "Why are you wearing that? Don't you know what this it?"

Sugar rolled her eyes, and looked over at the others. They were all wearing plain black, too, even Ella looking extremely at odds with her princess-like hair. "I thought black was too plain for someone like me! Besides this is a party, right?"

Everyone exchanged a look of silence, something that confused Sugar. What had she done wrong?

Ella placed a hand on her shoulder, causing Sugar to flinch and push it away. Looking a bit hurt, she said, "This is a serious matter Sugar," she explained with a patient smile. "It seems… impolite to show up like you did."

"Aw shucks!" Sugar caused her to back away with a wave of her hand. "I'm polite. Back at home, I won the beauty pageant for being polite!" A couple more people turned to stare at the group. "Besides! The wizard would've been fine with it!" she added, confidently.

Everyone seemed to breath a collective sigh, something that Sugar didn't really understand. Maybe they were just jealous.

The "party," continued as is, the moody and downright depressing atmosphere not really bothering Sugar. Instead, she opted to be ever cheerful, annoying the various guests and such, with no discretion.

Soon enough, words of sincerity about Leonard had begun to be spoken with Leonard's father taking the stand first. "I was to one who introduced Leonard to LARPing," he said, his face betraying a small smile. "I used to cart all of his small friends and bring them to the nearby events. I even dressed up with them and played their games. Though, I guess work got in the way and I haven't been able to have fun with him recently. I just wish… that I could've spent some more time with him before this had happened…" He went silent, taking a long look at his wife, who's face was rigid with grief.

"Wooooooh!" Sugar whooped, breaking the thick silence, abruptly. "Yeah! I wanna go next!"

Leonard's father blinked. "Uh, sure?"'he moved to the side as Sugar ran up to the stand with clear glee.

"Leonard was wizard!" she declared suddenly, startling most of the guests. In the back, she could see Dave facepalm as the rest of the cast stared at her in shock. "An amazing wizard," she continued, with no signs of stopping. "If it weren't for the rest of our stupid team," she emphasized the word, causing murmurs to erupt among the crowd. "Then he would still be alive! We wouldn't have to waste a revival spell on him."

"Sugar..."

As a stunned silence fell upon he crowd, Sugar tilted her head and tapped the microphone. "Um...," she said, oblivious to the strange looks everyone were giving her. "Did someone call my name?" When no one answered she was about to ask again, when the priest tapped her shoulder.

"Excuse me, young lady." The priest gave her a strange look. "Could you please step off the podium?"

Sugar shrugged. "Sure!" She backed away, a huge grin still on her face.

"Thank you." The priest looked away, but did a double take. "Young lady. You have something on your neck." He tapped the right side of his neck. "Right here."

Sugar shrugged, and tapped her neck. "Do you know where the bathroom is?" she asked.

"In the back," he replied, before turning back to the guests.

Feeling as though she had said exactly what she had wanted to say, she headed towards the bathroom, ignoring some of the angry looks that were being sent her way.

Pushing open the flap that they called a door to the women's bathroom, she was quite surprised to find it completely empty. Feeling a bit more pleased with this fact she headed for the stall all the way at the very end, before pausing in front of the mirror because something caught her eye..

She leaned in closer and left her head up in order to get a better look at the strange line drawing that had appeared on her neck. The line drawing itself looked a little like a scorpion, but to be honest she had never seen one before. She didn't have the picture prior to coming to the party.

"Congratulations," a dry voice spoke up, causing her to jump a foot into the the air. Whirling around, she found Beetle hovering above her and looked down with a small gleam in his beady eyes. "You're the new pilot."

It took a moment for his words to register to Sugar. "Wait." She pointed to herself. "Me?"

Beetle nodded.

Sugar beamed. "You-you think I could show it off?" she asked.

Beetle blinked. "Sure. Any reason why?"

"There's going to be a beauty pageant in the city a week from now," Sugar revealed rather easily. "If I show the judges Zearth, then they've got to let me win, right?!" She smiled triumphantly at Beetle.

"Sure," Beetle repeated. "Do whatever you want. I don't care."

"Really?" Sugar frowned. She hadn't expected it to be that easy. "I thought it was supposed a secret."

"That's was something you idiot bastards decided on." Beetle rolled his eyes. "The pilot decides what to do with the robot. I'm only here as a guide." He paused thinking of an analogy. "Basically think of me as Charon guiding you down the river Styx."

Xxx

Adams rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with one hand, using the other to grip the five or so papers in his hand. Rubbing his thumb across one of the edges, he glared at Chris, who was sitting directly across from him, inside his dimly lit office. "How do you expect me to depend you with something as flimsy as this?" He waved the papers around to illustrate his point.

"I told you what I could," Chris said weakly. "We double checked everything. There's no way this would've happened. It's was perfect!"

"Well it wasn't perfect enough," Adams retorted immediately. "Mr. McLean when I agreed to take your case I did not even think that it would be this hopeless."

"Sorry," Chris said weakly.

"Your reputation precedes you," Adams drawled.

"I'm morally straight!" The host protested.

"All-Stars."

"Hey!" Chef stood up from the corner where he had been. "Lay off him. He's told you all that he knows!" He growled, clenching his teeth together.

Adams rolled his eyes, unimpressed by the display. "Tell that to the family that just lost their son and is attempting to sue him." He glanced at the clock. "Speaking of which..."

Chef, caught off guard by the sudden attitude change, frowned. "What?"

Adams threw on a jacket. "Follow me in your car. We're heading to the morgue."

Chris had copied the frown from Chef. "A morgue?"

Ten minutes later, the three of them found themselves standing in front of a small gray building with not windows anywhere to be seen. Adams strode right in, with Chris and Chef following close behind, looking wary.

A man in a white pristine lab coat sat at the front desk, snoring and sound asleep, until Adams clapped his hands together, loudly. The man sat up quickly, his hands and head flailing wildly, before his eyes focused on his three guests. Giving them a strangely chipper smile, he asked, "How may I help you? Lost a loved one? Collecting a body? Killing someone?"

As Chris let out a squeak of fear, Adams shook his head. "None of those," he replied, with a straight face. "We're here to inspect one."

"Oh?" The man took out a pamphlet and began to flip through it. "Who is it?"

"Leonard."

The man froze for a second, before putting away the pamphlet. "I can tell you that without even looking it up since I was the one who examined it," he said happily. "Though the body is gone, I'm afraid. Is that alright?"

Adams nodded, which the man took as a sign to continue. "Leonard was killed on-!"

"We already know all that," Chef grunted. "We want to know how he died."

Oh." The man hesitated. "We don't know."

Adams raised a brow. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that we-I have no idea how he could've gotten killed. Judging from what I saw of the body he died from a fall not from drowning."

"But he did fall," Chef pointed out. "Chris shot him out of a cannon."

The man shook his head. "He definitely wouldn't have died from that height. Several broken bones, like the ones we found, yes, but if he had died then it would've been from drowning." He fished out a paper from a drawer. "There wasn't any water in his lungs."

"So what does it mean?" Chris said impatiently.

The man rolled his eyes. "It means the boy died from something aside from drowning or falling. Something that I cannot pinpoint."

Xxx

About a week had passed since the disaster at Leonard's funeral. Luckily, she left quickly after finding out she was the next pilot, instead perfecting to prepare for her beauty pageant in the coming week.

It had been a while since she had participated in one. About 9 years, if she was remembering it correctly. She also had only a week to prepare but she was pretty sure she was ready. She had even picked out the perfect gown to wear!

And here she finally was, having already gone through the first three sections of the competition: makeup, gown, and swimsuit modeling. She already had a small feeling that she had aced all three given the looks the judges would always give her when she came out.

All that was left was the talent and question portion.

She walked out onto the wooden stage wearing a standard black gown that showed off her curves quite nicely (in her opinion), smiling widely and waving her hand slowly, as a polite applause rang throughout the auditorium. Her eyes gazed over to her cheering family that sat in the far corner, with her mother and little brother and sisters cheering the loudest.

Sugar's eyes soon moved to the trophy that sat on the table in front of the judges, her eyes sparkling when she laid them on the golden reward. The idea that she would get another one to add to her collection(of one), was already tempting as is, but if she could win this city pageant, then she would be able to attend the state level pageant and eventually the national pageant. And she planned to win them all.

One of the judges, an old man with a balding head, held up a couple of flash cards as Sugar took her place. She glanced back at the other girls, or rivals, who had gone before her. For some reason, they reminded her of Ella, causing her to grit her teeth unconsciously.

The judge cleared his throat. "Sugar," he started to say. "What do you think about global warming?"

"I think that global warming is bad and that the president should fix it!" she said smoothly, her grin not faltering.

The judge blinked. "And...?"

"And what?" Sugar's smile fell.

He sighed, exchanging a knowing look with the other judges. "Nothing," he replied. "Now what is your talent?"

Sugar hesitated. "Um... Well... You see..."

Suddenly, from the back of the auditorium, the doors opened loudly with two police officers on the other side. "This is an emergency evacuation!" the lead one called out. "Everyone please stay calm and exit in an orderly fashion."

Several moments of silence passed, before questions began to be thrown out at the officers.

"Is this a prank?!"

"What's going on?!"

"Shit, I left my cookies in the oven!"

"Pandas!"

The lead officer pursued his lips. "That's on a need to know basis," he said, just as his younger partner cried out, "There's giant monsters outside!"

Sugar perked up, as the lead police officer glared at his partner. "That's not important, right now!" he informed everyone. "Right now, all that matter is getting everyone to safety." He moved aside and held the door open, gesturing towards the exit.

Just before anyone could exit, Sugar held up her hands. "Wait!" she cried, causing everyone to stop and look her way. "Don't worry!" She grinned stupidly. "I can defeat the monsters."

Everyone stared at her as if she was crazy. "Young… lady," the police officer sighed. "I have no idea what you are talking about, but can you please let us do our job?"

"I still think we should just run," he partner muttered, practically quivering in his boots.

"No," Sugar insisted. "I can beat the monsters." She turned her gaze onto the three judges."This is my talent. That trophy is mine!" She gave the other girls a stare.

"Sugar!" Her mother, along with her brother, had come up to the front, completely out of breath, hanging her head down in order to intake air more easily. "What… ah… are you talking about?!" She looked up, only to find that Sugar had disappeared.

Xxx

Sugar felt her feet lightly touch the ground of the cockpit, as Beetle teleported her inside. Glancing around it, she found that the everyone else had already been teleported inside and were waiting for her in their seats, with the exception of Leonard's seat which stayed empty, as no one was willing to even touch it. "You're kidding me," Dave whined.

Beetle floated down from the ceiling and gave Sugar a look. "Well, whatcha waiting for?"

"Wait a gosh darn minute!" Sugar said angrily, pointing at a girl in Ella's seat. She had plain straight black hair and was wearing a simple cotton tee and faded jeans. "Who the heck is she?!"

The girl in question flinched. "I'm... I'm Ella?" she muttered, her voice quavering.

Sugar couldn't believe what she had just heard. "Really?" she said, doing a double take. Now that she looked more closely, the girl did remind her of Ella, except without the fancy dress.

Ella nodded, wordlessly.

Sugar would've double down in laughter if Beetle hadn't interrupted the conversation by saying, "It's coming."

Snapping her out any euphoria that she might have had, Sugar leapt into her plastic chair, much like the one the parents sat in, while watching the beauty pageant. The screens around them flickered on, showing them the view of Louisville, Kentucky, from the air. Out of the corner of her eye, Sugar could see the place where her beauty pageant was taking place. She could see the two police officers escorting everyone out and away, including her family and the trophy which the judges were carrying.

She gritted her teeth, unhappy that no one was staying to watch her. "I have to stop them," she muttered, as she began to force to move Zearth backwards, when she suddenly paused and looked to her left. "It's back?" she asked aloud.

Everyone followed her gaze, noticing that Zearth had somehow grown back the arm that it had lost in the previous fight. Rodney frowned. "How did that happen?" he asked Beetle.

Beetle rolled his eyes. "The machine regenerates itself over time," he drawled. "Wouldn't want you to go into another fight without any limbs right." He suddenly narrowed his eyes up. "Careful," he warned.

Sugar looked forward finally noticing her enemy. It was much like the first enemy that Toriel had faced; a four-legged mechanical beast with a large abdomen and small thin legs that barely seem to be holding itself up. Two appendages extended out from the front of the body, forming giant claws that looked large enough to grip Zearth. A long tail arched from behind the robot, reaching high into the air and ending in a sharp point. Fourteen lights glowed on a small "face" in the middle of the abdomen.

Sugar gulped as her hand went to her neck. It was... somewhat more scary to be in the driver's seat than just watching it.

Meanwhile the others finally noticed where they were. "Hey!" Jasmine shouted, grabbing the attention of Beetle. "Why are we here? I thought we would be near the island!"

Beetle floated around lazily. "That's where Sugar was," he droned. "The fight takes place where the pilot is at the moment. Since she was here, the fight takes place here."

"But there are people here," Sky protested. "We can't have a giant fight here!"

"It's okay." Sugar found herself speaking up, much to her surprise. "They had started evacuating people before Beetle teleported me inside."

Everyone stared at her as if she was crazy, but Beetle just looked pleased. "There. You see?" he said to Sky and Jasmine. "Everything will be fine. Now just sit yer asses on the seats and calm down." He narrowed his eyes at the mechanical beast in front of them. "The Scorpion is coming."

Clank... Clank...

The Scorpion, as dubbed by Beetle, began to crawl forward, it's long tail arching back. Sugar, in contrast, walked backwards, heading towards the building where her family were still trying to evacuate from.

Scarlett turned her head towards her, with a strange look. "What are you doing?!" she asked, with an extremely calm expression.

Amy was less so. "Are you trying to get us killed?!" she cried, her face turning red.

Sugar blinked, unsure of what everyone is talking about. "I'm just trying to-Waugh!" she started to say before being interrupted by a force that threw her back in her chair. Scorpion had scuttled forward with a surprising speed and had used its claws to grip Zearth's legs. It then slammed its tail into Zearth's chest, making it lean backwards, on the verge of falling down.

Max gripped his chair. "We're falling!" he screamed, in an absolute panic.

"Uuuuugh," Beetle groaned. "Didn't Toriel tell you idiots? The cockpit's a floating construction. Yer safe as long as you stay inside!"

"I'm too young to die!" cried Topher, apparently not hearing Beetle.

"What about the people?!" Beardo shouted suddenly, grabbing everyone's attention, as held onto the armrest of his chair.

Beetle blinked. "Oh."

Sugar glanced down, where she could see the numerous buildings below them, as Zearth collapsed on several blocks of the city. Just before the head hit the ground, Sugar saw her mother holding the trophy from the beauty pageant and her family, along with some of the judges and contestants who were left behind, on the ground near the auditorium.

Right where Zearth was falling towards.

As if in slow-motion, Sugar saw everyone try and run away from their impending death except her mother, who just stood there silently staring up at the mech, clutching the small golden trophy as if it were a lifeline.

At the second before Zearth crushed her, Sugar thought she saw her smile.

Clank… Clank…

Xxx

Sugar blinked, a haze appearing in her mind. She didn't understand what had just happened. Her mind was blank. She looked down at the rubble, seeing blood where she had seen her mother along with the small crushed trophy sitting ally on the blood puddle.

Something about that image enraged Sugar. It was her trophy. She was supposed to win that. It was hers. And now… She looked up unable to bear the sight of her destroyed trophy.

"Oh my gosh," Ella whispered, staring wide eyed at the small blood splatters that dotted the rubble around them. Sugar had already managed to get Zearth to sit up, so the fourteen teenagers had a perfect view of the destruction that they caused.

Both Max and Rodney were hyperventilating, while others were on the verge of throwing up. Sugar, for her part, ignored everyone else, instead focusing her attention on the enemy robot, which had backed off after pushing them down and was now circling around Zearth without moving in.

Sugar gritted her teeth. "Oh, now you made me angry!" she growled.

Clank… Clank…

Zearth pushed itself up using its arms and into a standing position, before Sugar maneuvered it to face Scorpion. She began to move it towards the enemy not paying attention to where her robot stepped, as it crushed other buildings that had been untouched when they fell.

Scarlett looked behind them to see the line of destruction that Sugar was leaving in her wake. "What are you doing?" she repeated, sounding extremely calm again.

Sugar gritted her teeth. "I'm going to destroy that thing."

Scarlett raised an eyebrow. "And not even look where you're going?" She narrowed her eyes. "Or come with a plan?"

"Shut up."

Scarlett sneered. "You're acting like a bitch. An idiot." She paused and smirked. "A loser."

Sugar pounded her armrest. "Shut up!"

Zearth responded to Sugar's anger, moving faster towards the enemy. Scorpion moved backwards in an effort to get away, but seemed to change its mind and instead charge Zearth again. Just before it struck them, Sugar pulled Zearth to the right, dodging the swipe made by its claw.

Clank… Clank… Clank…

"So what did you lose?" Scarlett continued, the smirk not vanishing from her face. "I'm assuming that someone crushed by us on the ground was someone you cared about?"

Sugar ignored Scarlett, focusing her full attention on the Scorpion. the enemy used its tail the strike Zearth again, pushing it back a bit, before Sugar retaliated by slamming it in the side with its arm.

"Or…" Scarlett paused for a moment, deep in thought. "Was it that trophy?"

"I said shut up!" Sugar roared. Zearth responded, letting out a shrill screech, causing most of them to cover their ears. It slammed into Scorpion using its body, sending it flying through the air, landing on its back several blocks away.

"I was right?" Scarlett said innocently. "How surprising. It's too bad you won't be getting it."

Zearth dashed towards the enemy and brought its arms up and stabbed Scorpion directly through its underside. It flailed around, bringing its tail up to strike at them again and striking Zearth's legs with its claws. However, Sugar remained steadfast and continued to pierce the body, eventually finding what she was looking for.

Using the clawed hand, she brought up a small white ball and crushed it with the hand, sending sparks and smoke to pop out of it. "There," she breathed, and out of the corner of her eye, she could've seen Scarlett giggle to herself.

The walls came back up as the room was thrust back into its dull orange glow. Sugar slowly got up from her chair and walked to the center of the cockpit holding herself and shaking.

Sugar had done it. She actually had done it. She had won. not only the fight, but the beauty pageant as well. After seeing her talent there was no way that the judges wouldn't pick her to win, right? Scarlett

As she collapsed onto the floor, the energy draining out of her body, she absently wondered if her family had seen her.

Xxx

The rest of the contestants from of Pahkitew Island stared at Sugar's body, which lay still and silent, in abject horror and complete silence. Finally, strangely enough, it was Dave who spoke up first. "Sugar?" he called out, leaping out of his chair and running over to her body. "You alright?" When she didn't answer he stood there, unsure of what exactly to do.

Jasmine and Shawn were the next to leapt out of their chairs and dash towards the body. "Let me check! I know first aid!" they shouted at the same time, before giving each other confused looks.

Scarlett rolled her eyes at the two's antics and grabbed Sugar's wrist. She frowned slightly, before switching to the other wrist. "She has no pulse," she revealed, much to the everyone else's shock.

"What?!" Max jumped out of his seat and took a few step back.

"No way," Samey whispered.

"You're kidding me," Dave begged. "Please tell me you're kidding."

"H-he was fine just a m-moment ago," Rodney stammered.

"Oh?" Beetle floated down from the ceiling of the cockpit. "Didn't I tell ya?"

Sky narrowed her eyes, while her hands shook at her side. "What are you talking about?" she growled shakily.

Beetle began to float around the cabin, carelessly, as if not paying attention to them. "This robot is powered by human life force." He flew over Max and Amy, before positioning himself in the center of the room. "Meaning that if you pilot Zearth and win…" His eyes gleamed.

"You die."

Xxx

Shawn opened the door to his small, cramped apartment and walking inside, emptying everything from his pockets and placing them on a nearby counter. He practically collapsed into his favorite chair, that was an exact replica of the one in Zearth.

He was practically ready to knock himself, when his doorbell rang. Muttering some profanities, he ran back up to his door and threw it open, only to stop and stare at the man standing in his doorway. "Dad?" he squeaked, his voice betraying his fear.

A middle aged tall man with a dark gray mustache and hair, wearing a tan suit and tie and carrying a large suitcase. He eyed Shawn carefully and peeked inside the small apartment. "Can I come in?" he asked, though his tone made it clear that he wouldn't be taking "no" as an answer.

Shawn nodded mutely, moving out of the way and letting the man. The man walked in and threw himself on a sofa with a large thump! He leaned forward the numerous zombie books on the counter catching his eye.

Shawn quickly grabbed all of his stuff and tossed them into a corner. "What are you doing here, Dad?" he asked the man. "You… You never come here, anymore."

His father seemed surprised. "You didn't hear about the incident in Louisville yet? It's all over the news."

Shawn hesitated and shook his head. "Nope," he said, coming up with an excuse. "I was with a couple of my friends again." He laughed loudly.

His father seemed to unamused, as he pulled a highly rolled stack of papers from his suitcase and placed it on the counter. Shawn looked at it curiously, finding Zearth on the front page of the stack. "One of your friends talked in the police station," he told Shawn, grimly. "We also have the witness account from the interns on the island."

Shawn eyes widened. "They did?" he gasped, before realizing he had himself had just given it away their secret.

His father nodded and folded his hands into his lap. "What can you tell me about Zearth, Shawn?"

Plot Twist.

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