Songs of Fire and Ice
Chapter 9
Week 2
Day 1: Same Ol' Song and Dance

Max awoke in the middle of the Scramble Crossing, the same way he did precisely one week ago. He got off the ground rather groggily, and opened his eyes to almost the same scene. The newbies were running around, trying to defend themselves- alone- from the frog Noise.

He sighed, and quickly began to scan the area for his friend and band-mate, Christoph. However, after a couple of minutes of looking and avoiding Noise, Pale Horse's bassist was absolutely nowhere to be found. He began to swear at the top of his lungs, until a Noise attacked him. He managed to get it away with his guitar.

He quickly ran across the street, knocking over the kid in the black hoodie that Max and Christoph had seen before the game started. Max went back, picked him up, and began to talk fast. "You. Do you have a partner?"

"Screw you man, I'm going home." The young man said, trying to get out of Max's grip.

"No, you're not going home. You're dead, damnit." Max said. He began to grab onto the boy's hoodie a little tighter. "You don't quite understand. You're D-E-A-D. You're no longer amongst a living. Your heart stopped beating. Can I make myself any clearer?" Max said with a low growl.

"…You're an ass, let go of me." The boy said, kneeing Max in the stomach. Max let go, and grabbed the guy by the neck. "NOW YOU'VE GOT ME PISSED." The Pale Horse guitarist said. "SEE THOSE GODDAMNED FROGS HOPPING AROUND BOY? THEY DON'T APPEAR WHEN YOU'RE ALIVE, YOU FRIGGIN' GENIUS."

"This is a all a nightmare, that's all."

"….Alright then. Allow me to demonstrate that you're dead." Max said, wound up, and punched the kid in the face as hard as possible.

"CHRIST DUDE, THAT HURT-… Wait... it… hurt?" The boy wearing the hoodie said, and touched his face. It hurt. He could feel pain. This wasn't a nightmare, at least not one he could "wake up" from. "…How did this happen?"

"You died, plain and simple." Max replied, rolling up his shirt and showing his new 'friend' his gunshot wounds given to him by Joshua.

The boy sneered. "…Those are fake, but I'll play along. Name's Chris, by the way." He said, and extended his hand. Before the two knew it, a blue light enveloped them, and a Pact was formed. "Rock and roll time, bitches." Max said, and began to play Creeping Death by Metallica, and, was of course, singing along.

Chris quickly opened up his book and began to read, which caused Max to shout at him. Chris flipped him off, only to have pages fly out of the book, slashing apart the Noise at high speeds, along with Max's guitar blasts, quickly did away with the Noise.

"…Wait a minute, I know who you are." Chris said, closing the book and putting it away. "You're one of those Pale Horse jackasses." He said, sneering at Pale Horse's guitarist. "You were with your bassist, too… You goddamned headbangers make me sick. All you do is devil worship, scream lyrics into the microphone, have seizures on the drums, and play guitar solos that make people's ears bleed. It all started with goddamned Black Sabbath, carried on into a sub-section with Metallica, the devil worshipping began with Iron Maiden… then YOU GUYS showed up. You're basically a combination of everything I hate about Metal."

"Shut up, you. We make music for everyone, or at least we try." Max said, putting his hands behind his head.

"Like I said, all you metal-heads are the same." Chris mumbled.

"Come on, I gotta go find my bassist." Max said, and began to walk towards Udagawa. "We ain't got all day."

"…That's an easy one, he should be unloading your truck." Chris commented, opening his book, and taking a quick look down at Max.

Max unleashed a punch of the falcon variety on Chris's face, causing the boy in the hoodie to pass out. Max dragged his body towards Center St., grunting along the way.

Meanwhile….

Christoph awoke to the voice of a young British woman screaming into his ear for him to wake up. While in his groggy state, he patted her on the head, believing her to be his alarm clock. She began to shout more, saying not to touch her ever again. Christoph mumbled about unplugging the alarm clock, and went behind the girl, pulling out her iPod headphones. She quickly snatched them back and smacked Christoph across the face to wake him up.

"I'm up." Christoph said, and looked at the red-haired woman. "Oh hey, I remember you."

"Shaddap headbanger, and get up. Those damned frogs attacked, so I dragged your sorry hide here" She said, and began walking away.

Christoph quickly looked up to see a swarm of Frog Noise coming his way. "…We have to form a pact, now." He said, and ran over towards the girl. "Please, whatever your name is, we have to form a pact if you want to live."

"I'd rather die."

"…Are you serious, woman? You'd rather die and not see anyone you love or care about ever again? What about your entry fee?" Christoph said, trying to convince the girl to join up with him.

"Name's Rachael, and what the hell's an entry fee?" She said in reply.

"…You're playing the Reaper's Game. If you screw up, you'll no longer exist, and the thing you care about most will as well."

"…Fine." She said reluctantly, and the blue light enveloped them as well. Rachael promptly tore her hand away from his.

Sighing, Christoph turned to the Frogs. He held his hands out, and said, "Seek and Destroy. Slice them to bits!" As he said those words, swords of various kinds began forming in midair. After that, they either went to stab through the swarm of Noise, or did the other thing he commanded, slice them to bits. After a few minutes, none of the Noise were around anymore. Smirking he said, "Didn't even need my guitar."

Turning to Rachael, Christoph asked her what the mission was. Or tried to, since Rachael was now walking away from him, towards the exit of Udagawa, iPod headphones back in place. Quickly catching up with her, Christoph asked her just what the heck she thought she was doing.

He didn't get a response, since she was too into her music.

Deciding to check his phone for the mission of the day, he saw that it was simply:

Survive Day One. You have three hours. ~The Reapers

Christoph felt a familiar burning in his left hand, and heard a scream. Looking up from his phone, he saw that Rachael had grabbed her right hand, and was staring at it in horror, muttering several things at once that just jumbled together and came out as gobbledygook. "Did I look like that the first time I read my mission?" Christoph thought, putting his phone away.

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And thus, the Second Week of SoFaI begins. I and my co-author would like it very much if you reviewed this story, whether it be flames, criticism, or a simple "good chapter", anything would do.