Chapter 3
Welcome to the third chapter of Hyper's Fanfic Showdown 2013... or rather 2013/2014 now! I honestly expected myself to finish this story by the end of last year - take this as a lesson as to not set goals for yourself, friends; instead, just go with the flow on your path, until you casually walk past your finish line.
Anyway, it's 2014 now, but only several minutes have passed in-story, though everybody else is aware of the date change - weird, huh?
"You really must stop making your stories so meta. Honestly, it's kinda silly don't you think?" asked Edd.
Haha, shut it, sockhead. Anyway, quick recap: ghosts, Ed dies, Meta Knight dies, and ROB died twice, but he's okay now. Today, we begin the third chapter of our battle! Before we begin, let's have a word from the losers!
Unfortunately, the losers did not give a shit about what the Narrator was saying because they were too preoccupied with talking to each other.
"...so yeah, let's check out a movie later. I want to forget this whole dumb experience." says Pikachu.
Ed, upon hearing the word 'movie', gets excitable. "Ooh! I know what we can watch!"
"Really? Know anything good?" asks Dedede, popping up some popcorn in a microwave set up on the roof.
"Perhaps he does, but I assure you, his choices are a bit… outlandish." says Meta Knight.
Edd nods. "I can verify that."
"THEY CAN'T BE BAD, CAN IT?" asks ROB.
"Quality may vary."
"If we're seeing the movie in a theater, we're bringing snacks. The stuff there is expensive, trust me." says King Dedede.
The Pokémon nods. "Good call."
"You can all keep it in my coat!" exclaims Ed.
"Oh yes, your coat looks bulky - though, I plan on buying my own food." says the honorable knight.
"Pfft, you and your honor." scoffs the Pokémon.
"Guys, I wouldn't recommend securing edible goods in Ed's coat…" says the sockheaded boy.
Ugh, look at those guys, just talking it up. Oh how their banter makes me jealous. Anyway, screw those guys, we have a deathmatch to continue with - now with Elsens!
Team All-Seeing
Urotsuki and Lucario are still just chilling around the library, leaning against the front counter, watching outside for any movement. Lucario absentmindedly looks around with his aura vision to see if there was any competition, though still not wanting to let Urotsuki onto his ability: he sees both Eddy and Sabitsuki hunkering down in a room, the latter applying bandages to herself while the former seemed lost; he also spots the Batter and Smile running around, fighting specters.
Lucario would have shrugged it all off, but upon taking one look at his partner, he gets worried; Urotsuki was tightly gripping the handle of her chainsaw, a look of frustration due to her need for blood but without having the ability to satisfy her need.
He needed to help the psycho, thought he still didn't want his powers to be exploited by her, so he says: "Hey, um, do you think that there are still people over there?"
"Hm? You really think so?" she asks, a bit interested.
"Well, the guys that killed…" Lucario gulps before saying the name, "...Meta Knight, still has to be over there, aren't they? Besides, it looks like you can only go into the residential one way, right?"
Urotsuki recalls the view from the balconies as she watched the battles in intense jealousy. "Yeeeah…" A huge grin appears on her face. "Yeah! Oh, we have to hurry! We have dudes to kill!"
Lucario had to admit: Urotsuki looked adorable when excited, though really terrifying.
Team Probable Sociopaths
The Batter is the one to lay the last hit on the last specter in the area. With one swing, specter blood splattered on the wall (nearly hitting Smile in the process).
"Hey, watch it." Smile grumbles, wiping the specter blood on his shirt; he had no problem with killing the specters, as they did not have feelings or anything. Well, as far as he knew.
The Batter doesn't apologize. What he does do, however, is make a look of astonishment.
Upon the specters defeat, pale men in business suits suddenly appeared - OFF's Elsens. They dot the place, walking around, looking at the plastic streams - some of them were wiping away the blood on the walls and floors, looking at it with disgust and terror as they were washed off.
Suddenly, an Elsen that had appeared behind them asks something, making them turn, "Are you the guys that made all this blood…?"
"Not us, just the ghost dudes we beat up." Smile boasts, smiling.
"O-oh, I see… you fought the specters? ...How terrifying. You're lucky to be alive."
Smile took that as a compliment, grinning even more.
"...However, you two have dirtied up our abodes. Blood is nauseating and citizens could slip on it, and that wouldn't be, er, great. Even just fighting here violates several rules…"
The boy's smile drops. "Your point?"
"...You all must leave. Excuse the rudeness, but we must preserve the peace in our residential."
"Wait, what?"
"You heard him. We have to go." says the Batter. Feeling that the kid will raise more objections, he grabs Smile by the arm and starts dragging him past some Elsen citizenry.
"Hey, do we really have to leave? Come on, that's fucking stupid. Your whole world is fucking stupid."
"...That's something we can both agree with, for once." states the Batter. "That is why my mission is to purify this world."
"Oh. Huh. Well, I hope you purify these jerks."
"I hope so too." the Batter says darkly as they approach the exit.
Team Awesome
Sabitsuki is still helping herself to the boxes of supplies in the dark safe house, using the bandage-like "Luck Tickets" to heal herself. She glances away from her wounds to look at Eddy, who was leaning against the door, still staring down at the floor.
She scoots herself over and leans on the wall next to him. "...Hey. Look, even though your friends are probably okay now, I understand your shock. Been through this shit."
Eddy tilts his head toward her.
"...My dreams aren't nice, ya know." she sighs. "There's just all this horrible crap in my dreams, reminding me of my past and all. ...I get all these chills… sometimes I cry, just wandering around, looking for some sorta end like some fucked-up explorer trying to look tough to everybody and everything so they don't see the fear. Every night, I have to be that explorer, Eddy - but you know what? I don't let that stop me.
She stands up, grabbing Eddy by his shoulders and propping him on his feet - she seemed to have his full attention, now. "Ignore the fucked up shit! You can cry all you want, but you have to still keep walking to find that little something! I could stop being a hikikomori, I could stop having nightmares for most of the day, I can stop crying, but I have to deal with it! I need to face it head-on, tears on my face, and damnit, I will accept my problems, even if I have to beat the shit out of it! Do you understand?"
Eddy stares at her for a bit. For a moment, Sabitsuki thought that he missed the point of her little speech, but then, Eddy simply says, "You got a little somethin'..."
The girl didn't realize she was crying. "...Thanks." She casually wipes her eyes with the back of her hand, a brave little grin on her face. "You can cry if you want too. Come on, it's just us here, pal."
Eddy turns his head. "I'm not going to cry. Ding dong, you got that wrong." he says in a gravelly voice.
"...Want to just stay in here for awhile? There's some meat in the crates."
"...Yeah, sure."
And so they stay in there, not even knowing what's going on outside of their safe sanctuary.
Team Second Banana
Luigi was holding Falco over his shoulder, dragging the unconscious avian along. He didn't want to just leave him down there, where any marauding ghost or combatant could kill him. He notices that Meta Knight's cape is wrapped around his wound - how-a kind of Meta Knight, thinks Luigi.
He heads toward the other end of the tunnel, where they were originally heading before The Great Ed-ening of 2013. The light outside calls out to him as they begin to ascend…
...Luigi's first sight upon ascending to the ground was a rollercoaster. Then, he looks straight ahead and notices an absurdly long queue of pale men trying to enter the amusement park.
"Mama-mia, it's always like-a this at every park I go to!" says Luigi, too frustrated with past experiences to even question their sudden appearance. He thinks a bit, though - if he could get inside, he and Falco could hide out in the amusement park until the game ends! He pats himself on the part of the back unoccupied by bird, because he thought it was a pretty rad idea. He walks up to the nearest pale man, a poor sap at the very end of the line who was just two yards away from the plumber. "Excuse-a me, how long does it-a take to get in?"
The pale man didn't even turn around, too focused on getting in. "...From here, it's, um, maybe an hour and a half?"
Thus, Luigi's plan deflates. No way was he waiting that long.
He sighs, turning back toward the tunnel; he feels that aside from eliminating Pikachu, he and Falco didn't accomplish very much, which further deflates his already low confidence.
Team Nincompoop
"Not today, pal!" shouts Fox, punching through an ectoplasm.
With a flurry of kicks and punches, the specter before him is felled. He was wandering through the shopping gallery for a while, fighting specters along the way. Fighting the specters made him feel more brave, more combat ready - he could definitely defend himself from the other combatants, even without King Dedede, he enthusiastically thinks.
Too bad he can't find the exit. He can't even remember which way he came in. It was just a maze of blue, crates, and plastic mannequins.
Then, fortune smiles upon him: he finds a staircase.
He scratches his chin. "Did I come in through the stairs?"
Then he shrugs and decides to go down anyway, into a passageway leading who knows where.
Team Stoic
Madotsuki wanders down the road, going past the center of the city to the east - nice and alone, like she usually is. That's right, everything is nice and dandy. Just skipping and happiness and fu… oh shit.
That's when she sees them: her devil friend and that cool Pokémon.
Urotsuki brightens upon seeing her walking toward them. "Heeeey Maddy~!"
Madotsuki brandishes her knife, holding it out in front of her with a frown - trusting Urotsuki not to do anything bad is a poor investment.
Lucario looks at her, into the sky (just in case there were any specters approaching, like the last fight) and down at Urotsuki. "Er… are we going to fight her? She has a knife but she looks so…"
"Cuddly?" finishes Urotsuki. "Yeah, girl can give good cuddles."
Madotsuki was flattered, but there's still a possible conflict to attend to. "N-now, put down the chainsaw, Urotsuki…" she says in a screechy, louder than usual voice.
"Hey, hey… I'm not killing you. Not yet, at least, Maddy." Urotsuki smiles pleasantly. "You're one of my friends.. buuuut, I'll have to kill you eventually~!"
"Not if you die first."
"Oh, you're hilarious, thinking that would happen! Do you think she's funny, Lucario?"
"...I'm not sure what to say to any of this at all." says Lucario. It kinda reminded him of the occasional inter-team banter in the Normals. Except with less murder. Which kinda disturbed him a little. Though, he was glad that he didn't have to fight a cuddly sweatered girl.
"Tsk. You're so not sure of yourself. Haven't even tried fighting a dude." sneers Urotsuki.
Lucario looks ahead and does a double take. Swiftly, he gets into a fighting stance. "I can try fighting the Batter."
Urotsuki looks forward as well and Madotsuki turns around and they see two figures heading toward them: the Batter and Smile.
"Oh no." Madotsuki says. She turns back to look at Team All-Seeing. "Allies?"
"Sure." answers Lucario, watching as the monochrome man takes out his bat while the boy takes out his hammer, innocently hiding it behind his back.
"Alright, hehe… just don't get in my way~!" Urotsuki yells, revving up her chainsaw.
Suddenly, the air starts to fill with cackles, the trumpet calls of a neutral party. Smile, upon hearing it, glares at his older partner. "Focus this time, will ya?"
"I'll try." grunts the Batter. "Let's try to bring the fight as far away from the residential as possible." He glances over his shoulder, back to the area they were recently kicked out of.
"Why?"
"It'll just create more problems."
Urotsuki eagerly starts running forward, followed by the faster Lucario; the Batter starts Running with Grace while Madotsuki and Smile starts slouching behind their respective teams/alliances…
Team Awesome
Eddy and Sabitsuki continue leaning against the wall, just taking in the silence. Tears have been spent. Some beef jerky packets lie on the floor because the two are messy slobs. Yep. Things are chill, happy.
Then they suddenly hear a banging noise inside their shelter.
The two teens stop being chill after that. "Uh… did you check this joint?" asks Eddy.
It never crossed Sabitsuki's mind that there might be any more passageways into their room.
She gets up, stretches a little, and heads to the source of the noise. Pushing aside some of the blue boxes in the room, she spots the source, gulping.
There was a hatch in the floor. With at least one person banging on it roughly, trying to get in.
"...Nooooo, I didn't check." she smacks herself in the face. "Grab your gun, we're splitting."
Eddy nods, quickly picking up his superscope. Sabitsuki, pipe in one arm, occasionally looking back at the hatch, started turning the lock on the saferoom door. After several seconds of spinning it, it opened.
The two rush into the outside world and they stop in their tracks, gaping at all the Elsens suddenly walking around. It seemed to be like an ordinary day in the neighborhood, save for some Elsens scrubbing liquids off the floor and collecting loose circuitry.
"...How long were we in there?" questions Eddy, wondering if they were transported through time.
One of the pale men take notice of them and walk over. He seemed to be a bit jittery, looking at Eddy in particular. "E-Excuse me… b-but but… what is that item in your… hhhhands?" He points a shaky finger at the Super Scope.
"Uh… I use this to fight?" asks Eddy, with a raised eyebrow.
"T-to fight? Goodness, no! W-we've already had some bat and hammer wielding fellows in here… hhhh… we c-can't let the threat level here increase any further!"
"Any further? There's murderous specters floating around this damn city." Sabitsuki points out. "There are probably still some here."
The Elsen's eyes widen and the two are presented with the uncomfortable sight of smoke escaping from his mouth. "Sp-specters? St-still… here… I… n-no! I hope with all the hopes that those two were telling the truth about vanquishing the ec-ectoplasms."
"What's your deal?" grumbles Eddy. The question seemed to be addressed to all of his kind in general, as he was taking a look around and noticed that some of the other Elsens were watching in uneasy interest.
"T-the safety of our residential must be preserved and OH MY GOODNESS!"
The Elsen, having a view of the saferoom, saw something jump out of the hatch, look around in confusion, and run toward Sabitsuki. The albino hikikomori only managed to turn in time to see Fox's boot meet her face.
"BOOYEAH!" Fox proclaims as Sabitsuki launches backward from the force of his kick. After reveling in his small victory, he notices all the eyes on him. "...Is there a party going on here?"
The Elsen that talked to Eddy and Sabitsuki had smoke escaping from his mouth rapidly. "I-I… y-you assaulted that person… I… I… I'm…."
"A goofy goober?"
"...I'm… unsafe… it-it-it's terrifYING"
The Elsen's head suddenly explodes.
The other Elsens started freaking out.
"What the Antonucci?" questions Eddy, unsure of who to point his weapon at.
"Whoa!" screams Fox, quickly jumping back.
"Everything is bullshit…" groans Sabitsuki.
The Elsen's body remains standing upright. However, a thick stream of smoke and blood suddenly erupts from his body, shooting up like a geyser as the Elsen is revitalized as…
"He's gone B-Burnt!" screams one Elsen.
"I-I don't want to be Burnt too!" another one cries.
"I… my head feels like exploding… SPLOOOOOO-" then another Elsen's head explodes and now everybody is screaming.
Fox wasn't sure what exactly happened, but he felt that he was responsible (which he kinda was). "Um, I'm sorry, pale bloody gu-"
Then the Burnt bitchslaps him, sending him flailing to the ground with surprising force.
Sabitsuki gets up, feeling her forehead. Having gotten kicked in the head twice by the guy already, she was feeling head pains. The Burnt looks over at her, prompting her to brandish her pipe. "Do you wanna go?"
The Burnt launches toward Sabitsuki, who counterattacks with a smack to the chest. Ordinarily, she would go for the head, but there clearly no longer was one. She swings a second time, dodging to the side as the Burnt attempts a punch…
...then the Burnt falls to the ground, several burns in the back. The stream suddenly stops flowing and the body fades away, leaving only a puddle of blood. Eddy, grinning, blows the barrel of the gun. "How's that for sharpshooting?"
"Nice shot." agrees Sabitsuki.
Eddy reflects on killing the Burnt… and immediately turns around and throws up. "Oh geez, I can't believe I did that… hack…"
"Hey, you killed someone already."
"Yeah, but it was a robot that killed one of my best friends!"
"True, throw up all you want… ow, I think that idiot gave me a concussion."
She was too busy rubbing her ailing forehead to notice one of the recently spawned Burnts heading for her. However, before it could reach her, Fox suddenly ran into the picture. Drawing upon his combat prowess, he combos to Burnt into submission, finishing the undead man off with a kick.
"There we go! ...Sorry for kicking you in the head and stuff." he apologizes.
"..."
"So we're friends now, right?"
"Hm… nah, that doesn't make up for it." Sabitsuki says. She stumbles toward Fox and Eddy takes aim…
Then Fox just runs into the safehouse and closes the door. "Nope!" They hear it click, locking. "Sorry, but there's creepy stuff out there!"
"...I think that guy took our escape route." observes Eddy bitterly.
Sabitsuki looks forward. She sees more smoke streams rising into the air, some of them moving toward them, screams filling what used to be an ordinary suburbia. "Yeeah, that was fucking stupid of us." She grits her teeth. "Looks like we're fighting our way out…"
Team Second Banana
Falco groans, rousing to consciousness. He looks around. He notices that he's back in the pedalo, with Luigi trying to pedal across the plastic sea with all his might (which isn't much). "Ugh… what happened?"
Luigi turns his head, delighted to see that he's awake - now he didn't have to pedal alone. "Hey! We were-a both unconscious, but everything is-a alright now!"
'Oh… what's this?" he says, looking at his wrapped up wound. His eyes brighten upon recognizing what it was. "Hey, this is Meta Knight's!"
"Yeah. I-a guess he put it on while we were-a out."
"...Gee, that's nice. He could have just killed us but… man, the dude is too soft." though Falco was very pleased and happy.
"We should-a thank him later!"
"Yeah…"
"...Can you-a help me pedal?"
"Oh, sure."
The two second-bananas start pedaling, bringing the swan boat closer and closer to shore. As they approach, they spot a figure on the platform. Before Falco could reach for his laser pistol, Luigi gasps, "Don't-a shoot! That guy is-a friendly!" Well, he thinks so, anyway.
They see an Elsen on the shore - running and screaming in circles. He didn't even seem to care about their approach, screaming: "The specters are d-descending on the residential! Our property values are going down!"
Luigi, hearing his ramblings, raises his eyebrow. "Specters?" He looks up and nearly falls over: there were ghastly forms floating about toward the east end of Bismark. "Mama mia!"
"Chill out, they're not coming toward us." observes Falco. They land the pedalo and walk past the man without questioning his existence: besides, they assume that the narrator just chalked them up (which I indeed did). "We're definitely staying the hell away from there, though."
"But… we-a need more screentime…"
"Okay, fine. Let's go over to that deathtrap."
"...Good-a point…"
Team Almost Everybody Else
The residential district was in chaos.
Outside of the residential district, there was even more chaos.
The Batter found combating Lucario to be more difficult than he realized when he first saw him. The blue-black creature was swift with his kicks and punches, the Batter barely managing to block them - for the most part, as some punches actually managed to connect. He tries to shrug off the pain. He occasionally hit a shoulder or an arm, but it seemed to just make the Pokémon stronger.
The Pokémon himself felt intimidated about fighting him. As soon as the Batter came close, bat held up high, Lucario got a close look in his eyes: the only thing he saw were merciless eyes that had no qualms about who he kills. Though a bit frightened, Lucario felt confidence rising inside of him.
"You're pretty good." Lucario admits to his opponent. Though he was too modest to think it, he was better - unlike the Batter, he can gather more power the more he was injured - though the bat swinger had unrelenting determination on his side.
"..." the Batter doesn't answer. Instead, he prepares for a swing, and then turns around and dashes toward the other battle.
"Oh no you don't!" Lucario jumps and lands, striking the ground with aura. The Batter is knocked off balance as the ground cracks.
Meanwhile, the two hikikomoris were trying to kill Smile - and were failing at that. Smile was more faster than both of them, dodging slashes while taking swings with his hammer, grinning all the while; Madotsuki wasn't fit enough to catch up and while Urotsuki was more stronger, she is of course lugging around a chainsaw.
However, Urotsuki didn't seem to be as annoyed as Madotsuki - in fact, she seemed ecstatic. "I can see what Sabs sees in you now! You're a good fighter!"
"Thanks." he casually says, jumping away as she swings the heavy weapon at him. "Don't let Sabi hear you say that - the only one who gets to beat me up is her, and she's the only girl I can beat the crap out of!"
"Aww, how sweet~! I'll be sure to cut off your head and kiss it, maybe fuck it in front of her!"
"I'll be dancing all over your corpse, lady!"
Meanwhile, Madotsuki was wondering whether she was the only one of the three hikikomoris who had a remotely normal idea of romance.
"Ah ah..."
The fighting stops for a second; the combatants hear cackling from all directions.
The Batter seems to be psychologically restraining himself. "Must not.."
Then they appear by the dozens: specters in all shapes and sizes. Many of them were surrounding the fighters, while others ignored them, floating down the path toward the residential.
Then the monochrome man chose to forget the shit out of the problem. "Purification in progress." He turns, ignoring the deadly Pokémon to smash away a specter that was hanging upside down. Lucario would have taken advantage of this if there weren't any ghosts breathing down his neck. Literally.
"Aaaah! Stop that, go away!" Lucario screams, blasting them away with some aura.
Meanwhile, the others, wondering why some of the enemies were heading toward the residential, notice the smoke rising in the air. "Oooh, what's going on there?" Urotsuki asks, genuinely interested.
"W-wait, don't leave me alone…" Madotsuki calls out, but it was too late, as her blonde fellow was skipping away, swinging her chainsaw at any specter in her path. The pink-sweatered hikikomori sighs and lunges at Smile with her knife.
Smile, who was a bit distracted by the ghosts, yelps as a cut went into his shoulder. Instead of getting frustrated, he grins, giddily lunging at Madotsuki with his hammer.
Madotsuki observes the situation. Smile is fast. Lucario is too busy getting swarmed by specters, who were curious about his aura. Urotsuki had run off back toward where the previous battles had taken place. Then she decides to turn and run away, keeping a tight grip on her knife. Yeah, fuck this noise, she's probably thinking as she hears Smile's footsteps behind her. With his speed and without any help on her side, fighting wouldn't be an option.
Meanwhile the only two adults in the situation were too tangled with ghosts. You go, guys.
Team Awesome
Team Awesome was not having so much of an awesome time.
It's complete pandemonium in the neighborhood. Elsens were running about, screaming, getting in Eddy and Sabitsuki's way as they advanced toward the exit. They spotted another safe house at one point, but the Elsens outside begging to be let in signified that there was no chance of them getting in. Meanwhile, the Burnts are swelling in numbers and…
"Oh come on!" Eddy screams, spotting the specters floating in from the sky. Briefly, he thinks of the specter that killed Ed and resists the urge to just start shooting into the sky. "Why do things have to be so hard? Why do I have to be in this stupid story?"
Sabitsuki tries to stay optimistic (or as optimistic as she could manage), ignoring the pain and looking past all the buildings, marauding monsters, and the occasional dead body, seeing the path leading outside to safety. "Calm your tits, we're almost ther- oh fuck me."
That's when somebody enters the residential area, a certain blonde devil carrying a chainsaw.
One of the running Elsens slows down around her. "U-uh… what is that you have in your h-hands…?"
Urotsuki just grins and stabs the tool into the Elsen's chest.
Eddy feels like throwing up again. "Hmf.. who is that?"
"Just call her psychobitch."
"Eh, I'll go with psycho. I'm used to the censors."
"Right, whatever. Look, we need to get out of here before- back off!" she smacks a nearing Burnt with her pipe, knocking it over.
"Oh, hey Sabs! I see you~!"
Team Awesome starts absconding in a completely different direction. They try ducking behind buildings and taking the smaller alleyways, avoiding the sound of the ever approaching, revving chainsaw. They run into an alleyway between two buildings, unoccupied by anyone else.
"Hm? Hey, get away! I'll kill you later!" They hear Urotsuki scream in frustration. The sound of metal ripping through flesh accompanied by a Burnt's screech. "Hey, stop it ghosties! Wait your turn!"
"Phew. Looks like we can get away from psycho." Eddy says, sighing out his relief.
"Yeah. Then we can stay away from this neighborhood - I swear, this place is a death trap."
"You got that right."
However, before they go back to their grand escape plan, they hear shuffling - it definitely wasn't Urotsuki coming near. They turn their heads, watching one of the alleyway ends. Then, wandering in like a zombie, a Burnt appears.
"Tsk. This is just getting stupid now." Sabitsuki would fight, but she was feeling the serious need to lay down. So instead of facing down the Burnt, she turns to head the other way…
...when she sees the specters floating at the other end, cackling, as if knowing that they ruined their escape plan.
"...This is the worst story I've ever been in." says Eddy, taking aim.
"Agreed." Sabitsuki replies, forced to brandish her steel pipe.
Eddy begins opening fire with the super scope, aiming at the specters, specifically. The monochrome spirits were banished as Eddy shot energy pellets into them.
...Then the super scope runs out of energy.
Eddy makes a frustrated look. Apparently, he forgot that it had limited ammo. "Why does this have to run out of juice now?"
Sabitsuki, who had knocked over the Burnt and was bashing his chest in, conveys a look of dismay to her partner. "Wait, seriously? It ran out?"
"Does it look like I'm joking?" Eddy says with a scowl, throwing the now useless gun at the face of an advancing Mute Specter.
Sabitsuki hits the Burnt with one last strike, making the former Elsen convulse and disappear - just in time for another one to appear around the corner. Sabitsuki takes a moment to listen to everything going around them. The specters were approaching on one end, Burnts were coming on hers, and she can hear Elsens begging to a certain girl to not end their lives: clearly, they were in a world of trouble.
However, as tough as she liked to think of herself, even Sabitsuki had to recognize that they can't escape with her steel pipe alone.
Sabitsuki looks at Eddy. The boy looked genuinely afraid, stepping away from the ectoplasms, who regarded him as prey. Tears were suddenly beginning to come out, and Sabitsuki realizes that he's thinking about his dear friends again.
She sighs. Her sympathy was growing and she didn't like it.
"Hey, short stuff." she says, though out of friendliness rather than spite. "How much do you weigh?"
"...Depends on what the cartoon wants me to be." he says quietly.
"Hm. Let's hope that you're light."
Then, she wraps her arms around his body..
Eddy was shocked by the move, blushing a little. "Hey, you gotta take me to dinner first."
"Heh. Sorry, I'm taken."
"Then what are you doi-"
Then, centering all of her strength, she tosses Eddy over the Burnts. The boy coughs as he flies through the stream of smoke and lands on his side.
He sits up. The Burnts weren't interested in him. The specters weren't interested in him.
They are all after the easy prey: Sabitsuki.
"Go on, run! Get out of here, Eddy!" Sabitsuki wheezes. The shortest member of the Eds sees Sabitsuki fumble around on the ground, searching for her pipe.
"But-" he says, dismayed.
"Just go!" she shouts, getting up, only to be punched by one of the Burnts.
Torn and panicking, Eddy turns and starts running toward the exit, along with all the other cowardly men. He looks over his shoulder and sees Sabitsuki trying to fight off Burnts and specters on both sides of her, with no possible escape…
Eddy gulps and continues running toward the exit of the area, ducking briefly to avoid a lunging specter and trying to push his way past some Elsens. For a brief moment, the screaming and the noises of a chainsaw quiets down; the noise space is taken up by a loud scream instead.
SABITSUKI HAS BEEN SLAUGHTERED!
Team Second Banana
Luigi and Falco, who were nearing the library from the west side of the Zone, stop their careful walk. The green plumber looked frightened by the announcement. "Sl-slaughtered? What-a happened to that girl?"
"I don't know." sighs Falco, trying not to keep his curiosity from tempting him to imagine what happened to the albino girl. "But she's dead now, and that's all that matters. One less contestant to fight."
"F-Falco!" screams an appalled Luigi.
"Hey, I know, it sucks and I kinda suck, but if we're getting forced into a deathmatch, we might as well try to win it."
"Get back here!" shouts an approaching voice.
"Who is-a that?"
Taking up fighting poses, they stand in place as they hear footsteps approaching from around the corner of the giant tower. Then, emerging from the southern end of the library is a pink-sweatered hikikomori, running for her life, chased by a drab looking boy who looked eager to kill her, like those Career District chaps.
The girl gives a worried look at Team Second Bananas before veering off in another direction, toward the northern part of the Zone. However her pursuer, sensing a golden opportunity, swerves from his original path and raises his hammer toward Luigi…
"Why." says Luigi, wondering why he must suffer so.
Luckily, the hammer didn't hit his head. Unluckily, it still hit the green man in the stomach (oh, his poor, poor stomach) and he doubles over and collapses, moaning in pain and a little frustration.
Before Smile could take another swing, Falco grabs his arm with his left hand.
Falco could clearly see the lust for violence in his eyes, so sparing him was no option - though he still wasn't in the mood to kill young people. "Sorry kid." Then, with a right hook, he punches Smile in the face, knocking him out immediately, leaving a bruise that is sure to turn into a black eye. The avian could finish him off right now, but morals still kept him from doing so. Besides, a specter could finish him off for him. "Hey Luigi, you okay?"
"I-a hate being in-a pain…" groans the green man, slowly getting to his feet.
Team All-Seeing
Lucario was clearing the approaching specters by the droves; the damage that he'd been accumulating from their strikes was working out in his favor.
A few minutes into the specter invasion, he started seeing Elsens streaming out of the area beyond him, running and screaming, paying him no mind, deeper into Bismark. During all the chaos, he lost sight of The Batter; unfortunately, he hadn't died yet, considering that there was no announcement for it.
As Lucario skillfully punches through another ghost, being careful not to hit a fleeing Elsen, feels something poke him. He turns to look at who poked him, growling.
He stops upon seeing that it's a short and defenseless Eddy.
"Oh. It's you." Lucario relaxes. "I'm sorry about your partner."
Eddy's face was wet., but he had a determined look on his face. He wants to face his problem.
"Animal guy, I want you to kill me."
"Wh-what?"
Eddy knows that he's not going to survive the whole thing. He'd probably die painfully at the hands of specters. Or beaten slowly by a bat. Or horribly disfigured with a chainsaw.
However, he wants to face death. He wants to face his friends. But if he was going to die, he wanted to go out on his own terms.
"You heard me. Come on, do that blue glowy thing and punch me."
"You want to die…?"
"It's going to happen anyway."
Lucario looks at his fist, a look of concern. "...Are you sure?"
"Yeah, so hurry up!" shouts Eddy impatiently.
Lucario knows what he wants: a fast and painless death.
He pulls back his hand, aura gathering in a fist.
Eddy just smiles.
And the punch connects.
EDDY HAS BEEN KILLED BY LUCARIO!
Lucario turns away from the body, flung several feet away. Even if he wanted it, the Pokémon still felt a sense of shame.
Team Nincompoop
Fox sits inside the safe room, huddled up against a wall. Fox tries to drown out all the screaming. All the death. The walls weren't thick enough to censor that. He bites on his nails, guilt filling him up.
"It was my fault that girl died…" he decides. He imagined her, getting slaughtered by ghosts and specters. All because he took her possible escape. "...Man, I don't want to be a jerk character…"
And so it was decided.
He's a good guy. A ditzy good guy, but a good one, nevertheless. And he doesn't want to kill anyone, or wanted anyone else to get killed while he hides like a coward.
He takes out his laser pistol…
Team Second Banana
"Welcome to the library of Bismark." a quiet Elsen, now standing behind the counter that Team Smartass previously hid behind, greets Falco and Luigi as they enter. The atmosphere seemed a bit more chill. Sure, there were some terrified people pacing around, but other than that, it seemed fine-
FOX KILLED HIMSELF!
Falco drops his jaw at the announcement. "What…?"
"S-Suicide?" says an equally shocked Luigi.
Falco stares at the floor in disbelief. Sure, Fox wasn't on his team, but hearing his chipper pal kill himself wasn't something he wanted to hear.
"...Falco, are you-a cryin-"
"NO." he snaps, quickly turning away. "If you 'scue me, I'll be looking for a good book to read." He runs up the stairs, hiding his face as he runs, pushing an Elsen on the way.
"...This story used to-a be funny." reflects Luigi.
Team Probable Sociopaths
The Batter had been marching his way toward the center of the city, batting away any specters he came across. He didn't want to go into the residential area - even he wouldn't do that. Only somebody completely insane would go into that death trap. So instead, he decided to purify the ectoplasms in the rest of the city.
Ignoring the NPC citizens around him, he continues his crusade.
Then, several yards away, he sees his partner, unconscious on the ground…
...and he decides that he didn't care.
Walking past the knocked-out Smile, he goes on to see if there are any specters toward the west.
Team Stoic
Madotsuki arrives at the northern shopping mall, which seemed to be unpopulated, at the moment. The girl sighs and sits on the steps, reflecting.
She didn't really know Fox, but hearing about suicide is depressing. Hearing that one of her friends were slaughtered is depressing.
She wishes that she had somebody to talk to.
Team All-Seeing
The mass screaming finally ceased. The only noises coming from the residential area are specters making spooky noises and Burnts making horrifying noises. All of the Elsens had either escaped or died like Sabitsuki. All of the competitors in the area were dead, with the exception of his own partner, still nowhere to be seen. Eddy's body had disappeared, carried off for the end of the chapter.
Then, the Pokémon hears running footsteps; one last Elsen was running past the threshold of the former haven.
The business man (of sorts) looked overjoyed. "I did it! I survive-"
"Nope~!"
Then, stepping out of the hellhole that used to be a nice neighborhood, was Urotsuki. Making good on the promise of using people as practice for her chainsaw, all the way back in the first chapter in the same area, finishes her practice session by shoving her weapon through the Elsen.
"What are you doing!" screams Lucario, watching the dying man drop. He observes her appearance: she was scratched up in several places and covered in blood - he wasn't sure what bits of red belonged to her. "You - you didn't need to kill him! You shouldn't be killing these guys at all!"
"So?" she asks, unrepentant. "If I didn't get them, those ghosts would have! Gosh, these guys are good screamers - what a turn on~."
Lucario gives her a look of disgust, not saying anything to her.
"...Weeell, we gots more people to kill! Come on, let's go before more of the ghosties show up!" she says, starting to walking away with a limp, whistling.
Chapter 3 Aftermath
Welp, all that shit went down. What do we have today…?
Three bodies lay side by side: a body that's so horribly mangled that everybody on the library's rooftop threw up upon seeing it, a short body with a horrifically smashed in face, and a body with a burn at the side of his head - all of them seem to be at peace.
Then I revive all of them and they come back to life in their normal forms.
Eddy blinks. "...Huh. Feels like waking up."
"Eddy!" screams a familar voice. Ed runs over, pulling his friend into a tight hug. "Our homie! You're okay!"
"KINDA. HE JUST DIED." points out ROB, though the boy wouldn't let that spoil his good mood.
A smiling Edd comes in and also hugs, turning it into a group hug. "Glad to see that you're stable. Don't worry, we're okay."
Suddenly, one other person joins into the group hug. "Died on your own terms?" Sabitsuki asks.
"Yep. Quick and painless."
"Good. Much better than getting ripped apart." The Eds feel the girl shivering.
Fox, in the meantime, was rushing over to his own circle of friends: Pikachu and Meta Knight. "Hey guys! What's up?"
"Fox, we should be asking you that." says Pikachu, looking disturbed. "You shot your-"
"Don't bring it up, Pikachu." warns Meta Knight. "He did it for a reason, and bringing it up might trigger those feelings he had."
"...Right. So hey, good to have you back."
"Hey, Fantastic Mr. Fox want to watch a movie with us?" asks Ed.
"Sure! What are we watching?" answers Fox.
"WE'RE STILL VOTING." answers the robot.
"And I'm still making popcorn." grunts Dedede, adding another freshly popped bag to a pile of popcorn bags.
"Hm. What about Catching Fire?" suggests Sabitsuki. "Sounds good, Eddy?"
"I don't know. Also, all of you let go of me!" he screams, as apparently everybody forgot that they were crushing him with their hug. Crushing his small, small body. "I am not small!"
"Ah, he's back to his usual personality." says Double D, smiling as he backs off.
Great, great. Everybody is happy and talking about movies and junk. With that, Team Nincompoop is completely wiped out-
"Even I knew we didn't have a chance." says Dedede, shrugging.
Right. Also, Team Awesome is out of the running, now. All that's left is Team All-Seeing, Team Second Banana, Team Probable Sociopaths - though they aren't necessarily a team - and Madotsuki. Who will die in the next chapter, and how will it happen? Find out in the next exciting chapter!
Author Notes: Originally, only Team Awesome was set to die in this chapter, but I realized that Fox wouldn't have been doing much anyway, so I might as well get rid of him while I'm at it.
Additionally, with his death, the length of the story has dropped by one chapter - heck, maybe we can see the end of this story before 2015!
Also, Little Mac is in Smash Bros, and how awesome is that? Although, to be honest, it was entirely expected. I mean, how can a guy in a Nintendo fighting game not show up in a Nintendo fighting game?
Remember to go to the askhyperstuff tumblr and ask me and the characters things, because I would appreciate that! You don't need to, but it'd be neat, I guess. So anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Remember to leave compliments and/or complaints!
