Chapter Eleven: Mary Sue Battle
"We got to stop this Truth or Dare game," Malcolm said, running towards the cabin door.
"Don't be stupid," said Nicole, grabbing the back of Malcolm's T-shirt before he could take another step, "Those Sues have the entire camp on their side. It's suicide to just charge at them in the open."
"Oh yeah, right," Malcolm muttered, internally kicking himself for his idiot moment.
"Okay, so we need a battle plan," Matt said, a hand placed thoughtfully on his chin, "I personally think we need a tank and a few machine guns."
"Matt, those are too destructive," Nicole argued, "Our targets are the Mary Sues, not the brainwashed canon characters."
"I was just kidding," replied Matt, shrugging.
As the two Mary Sue Slayers continued to argue, Malcolm shook his head and turned his attention to Jessica D. Nird who was nosing through Annabeth's things. Rolling his eyes, he was thinking whether or not he should tell her off when Jessica put on Annabeth's Yankee cap. Suddenly, she wasn't there.
"Jessica?" he asked, "Where did you go?"
"I'm still here," replied her voice from the spot she had been standing in before disappearing, "I just turned invisible."
"That's rather convenient," Malcolm heard Nicole mutter behind him.
He turned. "What do you mean?"
"Well, I was thinking of a sneak attack to catch them off guard," answered Nicole with a shrug, "I didn't have a good idea how to execute it though until now."
"Now the question is who's going to use the cap for the initial strike," added Matt.
They all turned to Jessica who quickly took off the cap and became visible again.
"Don't look at me. I don't even know how to fight," she said, holding her hands up.
"Might as well," scoffed Malcolm, "If you die, I doubt we can wrest control from Maria."
"So that just leaves the three of us," said Matt, "You wanna flip for it, you guys?"
"Sure," answered both Nicole and Malcolm simultaneously.
Matt took out three coins from his pocket and handed two of them to Nicole and Malcolm while keeping one for himself.
"Heads, you're out of the running for wearing the cap," explained Matt as he placed his coin on his thumb, "Tails, tough luck."
At the same time, all three of them flipped their coins and let them fall to the floor. Both Matt's and Malcolm's coins came up tails, but Nicole got heads.
"Lucky duck," muttered Malcolm.
Surprisingly, Nicole gave him an ironic smile. "If you know me, luck is always on my side."
"Just you and me then, Malcolm," said Matt, picking up his coin.
Another coin flip and Matt's came up tails while Malcolm's came up heads to his relief.
From the Arts and Crafts building, Malcolm and Nicole watched as Matt quickly but silently sneaked into the volleyball courts, close to the Truth or Dare circle. In the courts, Matt turned in their direction, flashed a quick grin, and turned invisible as he put Annabeth's cap on.
"Hmm, I think he's aiming for the Poseidon Sue," murmured Nicole, reading Jessica's Sue list, which Jessica gave her before Nicole, Matt, and Malcolm left the Athena cabin.
Both of them continued to watch the Truth or Dare game. A blond boy, Malcolm presumed to be Will Solace, was kissing Andromeda on the lips until the Sue pushed him away. Suddenly, Andromeda disintegrated into a hundred sea anemones with a surprised look on her face. As she died, the other campers shouted in horror and were going to scatter when the two remaining Sues screamed for blood. Immediately, the campers lined up in straight rows like they were in an army and began marching towards the Arts and Crafts building.
"Damn, Matt better get here soon," Nicole cursed.
"You looking for me?" Matt's voice said behind Malcolm.
"Why didn't you just use your speed to kill the other two Sues?" asked Malcolm without turning around.
"The emo one wasn't fooled by my invisibility," explained Matt, "It's like she has X-ray vision or something."
"So are we going to run or fight?" Nicole said, turning her head to Malcolm.
"Why are you asking me?"
"You're the strategist, remember?"
Malcolm looked back at the mob heading for them and saw that Rose was in the front, her kaleidoscope eyes glinting evilly in the sun. He remembered Drew's death and subconsciously raised his sword.
His gesture was not missed by Nicole who immediately rolled her eyes.
"Suicide it is then," Nicole said, taking out her pistol.
The mob was now at the outskirts of the Arts and Crafts building and forced the three demigods to back up into the insides of the building. Well, at least until Malcolm heard the rush of the wind behind him and turned his head around for a millisecond to see that Matt was gone.
"Where did Matt go?"
"What do you-" Nicole began but stopped in mid-phrase when she turned around too. "That idiot!"
"Looks like it's just you and me then against a small army of demigods," Malcolm muttered as he looked around the art building for anything useful.
An arrow suddenly stuck to a table next to him and Malcolm immediately rolled behind a chair for cover. Nicole was no longer next to him, but was on the opposite side of the room, grabbing and throwing various small sculptures from the tables at the attackers.
"Yah!"
Malcolm turned around and was knocked to the ground by the brown-haired Travis Stoll.
"You're mincemeat!" he shouted in his face.
Malcolm used his free hand to punch Travis in the face, causing his grip to slacken and giving Malcolm time to get up and retreat near a ceiling-high shelf filled with various art sculptures.
"Are there any other exits to this building?" Nicole shouted as she stood at Malcolm's side, carefully firing to injure rather than kill the attacking campers.
"Nope, the way we came in is the only exit," answered Malcolm.
"Great, you tell me just when I have only one bullet left," Nicole growled.
Malcolm looked around as the mob of campers filled up the room, surrounding the two demigods and covering the only exit of the building. He was about to curse himself for his stupidity when he felt the shelf behind him shake. Looking up, Malcolm quickly caught a heavy bronze, beach ball-like object before it hit his head. Confused, he brought the metal ball to chest height and wiped off the dust that still clung to it. On the sphere, read the words "Deus Ex Machina by Charles Beckendorf". He had no idea what the metal ball's title meant, but he doubted such information could help him in the situation he was currently in.
Suddenly, a brain wave came to him, and he shouted to Nicole, "Fire at the ball in my hands!"
"What!? Are you out of your mind!"
"Just do it!"
"I hope you know what you're doing," muttered Nicole as she reluctantly pointed her gun at the object in Malcolm's hands.
Bang!
A hole appeared at the side of the bronze object, but otherwise, nothing happened. Malcolm stared at the ball in disbelief and shock as the mob around him got closer and closer.
"That sure did something," remarked Nicole as she narrowed her eyes at Malcolm.
Malcolm was about to toss the thing in his hands away when it floated up from his hands and flew into the middle of the room. As it flew, the attacking campers turned their attention towards it and watched the bronze ball's movements with interest. When it stopped moving, its bronze plating cracked and fell apart, revealing a white and reflective surface underneath.
Disco music began to play and the floating disco ball began to spin with colorful lights bouncing off its surface, causing the watchful mob to start dancing, 80's style.
"Really?" Nicole said with a face-palm after watching Nico do the worm on the floor.
"Come on," Malcolm urged, pulling Nicole by the arm as the two of them ran for the exit.
"Okay, we need to find Matt," Nicole informed Malcolm when they were finally outside the Arts and Crafts, "I still can't believe he ditched us."
"Well, maybe you should have followed your friend," snarked a voice behind them.
The duo quickly turned around and found Rose and Shadow behind them and armed with swords. The two groups stared down at the other like it was some kind of western showdown, waiting for the other side to make the first move. Then, at an unspoken command, the two groups charged at each other.
Malcolm charged for Rose while Nicole went for Shadow. The son of Athena raised his blade to strike Rose, but the Sue simply pointed to the ground and made vines pop out of the ground to entangle Malcolm's legs. Distracted, Malcolm had to use his sword to cut himself loose and allow Rose to gain some ground.
"Eye lasers!" shouted Rose, shooting rainbow beams at Malcolm but missing by a large margin.
Malcolm quickly threw his sword at Rose's eyes, but the beams hit it before it reached its destination, disintegrating the blade into a dust pile. He tried for a tactical retreat but found more vines trapping his legs and traveling upwards to his arms. Malcolm could only watch helplessly as Rose slowly walked up to him, her eyes turning green.
"Ready to join your girlfriend in Hades?" she cooed as she brought her sword up to his neck.
"You really should turn around."
"Please, son of Athena, I'm not that-gah!"
A bronze sword poked out of Rose's stomach, rainbow clouds spitting out of the wound. Malcolm watched with satisfaction at Rose's enraged face, which then disintegrated into rainbow mist. The vines that covered Malcolm slowly sank back to the ground
"Thanks," he said to Nicole who had a grim expression on her face.
"No prob-" A huge mound of rock hit Nicole in mid-sentence, sending her flying twenty feet away. Shocked, Malcolm quickly veered his head to the direction that the projectile flew from and saw Shadow, who had her hands raised and out as if she was pushing someone. Not sure what to do, Malcolm picked up Rose's celestial bronze blade in preparation for Shadow's next attack.
Shadow made punching-like gestures with her arms, causing mounds of earth around her to fly up and into Malcolm's direction. Malcolm dodged and parried the earth piles with his blade, but he was quickly tiring as he was already exhausted from his fight with Rose.
Malcolm struggled to get into close enough range to his sword. He got hit by a few hard rocks, but he continued to brave through Shadow's storm of dirt. As he got within ten feet of the Sue, the shower of earth that Shadow brought onto to him began to fly faster and hit harder than before. Ignoring the pain, he spun his body to avoid a particularly large rock and then counter with a strike to the emo Sue's gut as he turned back around.
To his disbelief, his sword instantly shattered into two when it made contact with Shadow's body. The next thing he knew, Shadow had him in a death grip (no pun intended) and was choking the life out of him.
"You and those damn Sue Slayers may have killed many of my sister Sues, but I'm the second strongest Sue here," growled Shadow, "I have bathed in the River Styx and I am in-"
She lost her grip on Malcolm's neck as Nicole slashed at her back with her sword. Unfazed, Shadow turned around and stamped the ground hard with her foot. Before Malcolm can shout a warning to the Sue Slayer, two skeleton men in army fatigues popped out of the ground behind Nicole and knocked her down on her stomach, pinning her arms and body to the ground.
Shadow looked at Malcolm and Nicole with a frown as a small rock flew near her and sharpened itself into a knife-like form.
"See you in Hades," she said angrily, "To be frank though, I hate that Hermes Sue Slayer more than you guys since he killed my favorite sister, Andromeda."
"HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW!"
Shadow turned to the sound of the voice and Malcolm followed her gaze to see a M1-Abrams battle tank from ten yards away fire an artillery shell at he, Nicole, and the Sue. Malcolm, still too weak to stand, quickly hit the ground in a prone position.
Boom!
Malcolm lift his head up and turned in the direction of the Big House. There was a massive hole at the old structure's side in which he could see the living room, and he yelped a bit when two more shells bombarded the house.
Boom! Boom!
When the dust finally cleared, Malcolm saw that what was once the Big House was now pieces of wood and stone, which probably wasn't going to please Mr. D. He then remembered about Nicole and swerved his head to her. Nicole was on her knees now; the skeleton men pinning her were now shambles of bones.
"We got lucky there," he remarked as he and Nicole slowly stood up.
"Well, I am a daughter of Tyche," said Nicole.
"Yeah, I kind of figured that out earlier," Malcolm said as he looked at the tank. From the corner of his eye, he saw Nicole tap her sword which then shrunk into a small good-luck charm in the shape of a horseshoe. Typical Tyche kid, he thought.
Matt stood on top of the tank, his arms crossed and his face grinning. In three seconds, the Hermes kid jumped off the tank and reached Nicole and Malcolm.
"Was I awesome or what?" he asked.
"Yeah, except for the part that you could have killed us too," Malcolm reminded him with Nicole also nodding in agreement.
"Well, sorry about that," Matt said sheepishly while scratching the back of his head.
"Where did you even get the tank?"
"Oh, I got Jessica D. Nird to help me with that," Matt answered, turning his body and pointing at the tank. Malcolm watched as a short-looking figure climbed out of the tank.
"Wow, she's actually useful," said Nicole, "And I thought she would be dead weight."
Then, before Malcolm's eyes, a dark shadow swooped behind Jessica and held a knife to her neck.
"Way to jinx it, Nicole," Malcolm found his mouth saying.
He didn't wait to hear Nicole's response but he heard something that sounded like some curses to Nemesis, goddess of balance. Malcolm quickly ran to the tank with Nicole and Matt on his heels.
"Hello there," Maria Susana said with a British accent as Malcolm and the Sue Slayers approached her, "Nice evening for a death, isn't it?"
"Let go of her," growled Nicole behind Malcolm.
"Oh, ho ho ho ho," laughed Maria as she dug her knife more deeply into Jessica's neck, "Do you really want this writer to live? I mean, she wrote this Truth or Dare story for crying out loud."
"Wait, is this what it's all about?" asked Malcolm, "You're mad that Jessica created a Truth or Dare story?"
"Yes, that's why I invaded the real world and threw her into the fictional world to torture her," answered Maria.
"If you hated this story this much, why didn't you just delete it when you had the chance?" interjected Matt.
"Well, I just wanted to torture Jess-" stammered Maria.
"You didn't need to put everyone else's life in danger with those Sue sisters of yours running around, you know," said Nicole,"And it's kind of disgusting that you want to torture the writer in the first place, even if she's rather naive."
"Hey! I'm fourteen and definitely not naive!" shouted Jessica.
"You don't understand me!" Maria screamed loudly, "I'm the good guy. Jessica's the bad guy."
"Okay, then release Jessica, take her back to the real world, and delete the story," replied Malcolm coolly, "That way, everything here goes back to normal and the story you hate is gone. I mean, I hate this story too, so why don't you just help by deleting the story instead of torturing the damn writer."
"NO! I WANT JUSTICE!" screamed Maria.
"How about we compromise?" suggested Malcolm.
"What do you mean?" Maria looked at him with suspicion.
"We will play a Truth or Dare game for Jessica," Malcolm said, thinking quickly, "If you win, you keep Jessica and we'll let you torture her or whatever. However, if our team wins, you will release Jessica and give Jessica back all her writer powers. Oh, and you can't interfere with her story either if you lose."
"That sounds unfair," replied Maria, "I mean, I'm a daughter of Chaos. I can beat you guys at anything, even in a game I highly detest."
"And that's why you're going to give us a fourth person," said Malcolm, ignoring the weird looks he was getting from Matt and Nicole.
"Fine, who do you want?"
"Annabeth, but make her lose the OOCness."
Maria snapped her fingers and Annabeth appeared between Malcolm and the tank. She had a confused look on her face when she looked at Malcolm.
"What just happened?" she asked, "Why am I here? And why was I beating up Rachel?"
"You were OOC," replied Malcolm, doing his best to hide his happiness, "You were doing some stupid things."
"Oh gods, that must have been embarrassing," Annabeth remarked as she blushed.
She then cocked her head to get a better look at the Sue Slayers behind Malcolm. "Who are they?"
"Oh, that's Matt, son of Hermes, and Nicole, daughter of Tyche," said Malcolm as he pointed them out, "Both of them were helping me with the Mary Sues."
"Mary Sues?"
"It's a long story, Annabeth."
"Are you two done with your reunion yet?" growled Maria.
"Who's that?" Annabeth inquired as she turned around to face Maria.
"That's Maria Susana," explained Malcolm, "She's a Mary Sue who took over this story and now we have to fight her to free Jessica D. Nird."
"Why the Hades are we helping Jessica!?"
"I can hear, you know," Jessica grumbled from the top of the tank. Annabeth ignored her.
"Maria is sadistic," countered Malcolm, "She wants to torture Jessica."
Malcolm looked at Annabeth's face and saw that his half-sister was a bit conflicted. After a few minutes though, she finally muttered, "Fine, I'll help."
"Good, good," said Maria Susana, "Let's start the game."
The Sue snapped her fingers and the scenery around them changed to that of Mount Olympus.
"Now, let's state the rules," Maria announced, "You must answer every truth question without lying and extreme dares are legal. You cannot chicken out on both truths and dares and if you break the rules, you die. Everyone clear on that?"
"You got me back to normal just to play a stupid party game!?" Annabeth glared accusingly at Malcolm.
"Well, I wouldn't be able to beat Maria without your intelligence helping mine," Malcolm responded with a reluctant grin.
Annabeth returned his grin with a grudging smile and slugged him in the shoulder. Meanwhile, Maria snapped her fingers again and created a giant orb around Jessica, trapping her.
"Now let's all swear we'll follow the rules," Maria commanded.
After some River Styx swearing, Maria continued, "Now, we need to swear on the victory conditions. If I win and therefore survive this game, Jessica is mine and I can do as I see fit in torturing her. But if you guys win, I'll release Jessica and give her back her writer powers, and I cannot interfere with her story afterwards even from beyond the grave. Swear on the Styx, everyone."
Everybody swore again and Maria began an evil laugh. Lightning and rain began to pound on the Truth or Dare group.
"Now," guffawed Maria, "Let the Ultimate Truth or Dare begin!"
A/N: The next chapter is the finale. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, followed, or favorited this story.