The group stood still, awaiting the next move. Parappa had closed his eyes tight, hoping this was all a nightmare.

'Any attacks will trigger them' No wonder why was that sentence bothering poor old John Marston so much. He had already died once, so he didn't fancy his chances of cheating death twice. But that wasn't the only thought racing through his head. He knew that Edgar Ross was dead. He just knew, Edgar Ross was dead, long dead too.

Johnny wasn't facing the end. Whether this was the work of Shang Tsung, Shao Kahn, or Quan Chi, or maybe even someone completely different, this couldn't be the end.

Sweet Tooth surveyed the faces lined up to kill him. The Twisted Metal contestants, obviously, were more recognisable. He had killed them all, but that didn't bother him. He was going to enjoy killing them again. Dollface, Mr. Grimm, Buckethead, Carl Roberts, Raven, No-Face, Agent Stone, a never ending list it seemed. That Calypso, though. He never failed to prepare.

"Y'all ready?!" One of the rogue government agents called out. No response. "Load yer rifles boys!" A resonating sound of dozens of rifles cocking all at once reverberated around the now silent Black Rock Stadium. "Five, Four, Three, Tw-" The sound of a loud horn honking caught the attention of everyone in the stadium. Out of one of the many tunnels, shone two bright lights. Accompanied by a loud engine, a truck charged into the stadium. "Open fire!" One of the agents yelled, as the truck picked up pace. The truck didn't even slow down when it ploughed through the contestants and those on foot. "Now!" Johnny yelled signalling for everyone to move. Sweet Tooth ran away. "Where the hell-" Johnny was cut off mid-sentence as a bullet struck his skull. "Shit!" Drake yelled, dragging the body by the arm. The group hid behind the wreck of a police car. "Is he gonna make it?" John asked. Drake sighed. "I've checked for a pulse" "Well?"

"Johnny's dead"

Off to a perfect start already. Just five of them left now, with one casualty and one missing. Not that they all weren't capable. The Hunter examined the area. It was an elaborate death trap, lined with giant maces, electric traps and...that was when it occurred to him. This was a Slaughterhouse. For people. The people in the audience. They weren't there because they wanted to be. They weren't cheering. They were screaming in terror. They were there to be killed. The drivers were no safe people either. Spiked car compactors, and lava pits, with the above mentioned traps. Who would design such a thing? That man, Calypso?

"What the hell are you doing?!" John yelled. "Get your ass into gear!" He whistled. A horse appeared in the stadium, majestic and graceful. Black as the ace of spades, emanating a strange aura. "'Hope y'all are ready to pay for your crimes!" John yelled riding off on the horse. It did look frightfully out of place, but so did Nathan. Parappa was the only other person waiting with Drake, still scared out of his life. "Do ya think we'll get out?" He asked. "Think?" Drake laughed. "I know we'll get out.". Drake really wanted to believe himself. But that was becoming increasingly difficult. He threw a grenade at a police car, watching as the car spiraled out of control and fell of the bridge it was driving on.

Death was a horse to be reckoned with, killing those who tried to shoot it by tapping them with it's hooves. John wasn't letting Edgar Ross get away though, and so tried to kill as many men as possible. That would lure Edgar Ross out of hiding. The coward would have to face John himself. "Keep up that killing cowboy! You could be my apprentice!" John looked to his left. Sweet Tooth had busted out his faithful ice cream truck. This didn't look like it was offering refreshments to the audience though. It had a plough on the front, lined with spikes. There was also miniguns on either door. On the roof, there was a poorly made replica of Sweet Tooth's head. It doubled as an R.C. missile. As it drove by John, he saw a bumper sticker on the back. 'STOP FOR CHILDREN' It read. John laughed at that. He wondered if the demented killer actually followed through on that promise. The Bandicoot had busted out some ridiculous looking go-kart in attempt not to be killed, while the dog had a skateboard which also prevented him from dying. Hopefully.

Calypso looked down from above. The All Stars had formed quite the team, working together even though they hardly knew each other. But that truck. That was the crown jewel. Who was driving that?. Anyway, time to let those sorry souls in the audience away from the carnage, as it was all over. They poured out so fast, they didn't even stay to see the end of the competition. The truck driver had won, and so was the winner. Oh? There was still one more. The driver stepped out. Wearing red tinted glasses, an oversized hat, a black trench coat and a red scarf, with grey hair tied back in a ponytail. "Jebediah" Calypso muttered. He ran over to the driver of the truck as he stepped out. It was impossible to tell what he looked like. He was wearing so much over his face,one might suggest he didn't want to be seen without knowing better.

"My Good Sir!" Jebediah shook the driver by the hand. "Please, I beg of you. Wish for Calypso to suffer great misfortune, in the name of God!". John scratched his head. "Hold on there now, let the man wish for what he wants." John tried to escort the estranged man away. "Nononono, you don't understand! Calypso is the beast! He must be stopped!". "I actually agree." Nathan Drake had made his way over. "We should take this guy down. Just wait for the others to come back." The Hunter, Sweet Tooth, Parrapa and Crash were there within a minute. "Okay, I don't like this Calypso guy. We need to get rid of him. Everyone nodded. Drake went over to speak with the winner of the Twisted Metal 2016 tournament. But he was beaten there. Calypso was already there. The two chose to disappear before the very eyes of Drake, along with the insane person.

"Well" Drake threw his arms up in the air. "We're out of ideas." Sweet Tooth had climbed into the back of his truck and was handing out ice-cream. The dog and the Marsupial had one each, with the latter managing to get it all over his face, and Sweet Tooth's. Drake smiled. Maybe this clown wasn't so bad. Drake decided along with John and The Hunter to get one. "So what do we do now?". "Split" Sweet Tooth smiled. Drake ignored the joke. "That's a terrible idea." The Hunter countered. "Don't worry, I won't dessert you." Sweet Tooth continued. "Anyway, where are we gonna go?" John asked. "I suggest we ask around. We can then find out where we are." The Hunter suggested. "Cool idea." Sweet Tooth started to put away his ice cream. "The first time wasn't funny." Drake told him. "Alright, alright. But you should all go in my truck. Wanna know why?".

"If this is another-" "CAUSE IT'S GONNA BE A ROCKY ROAD!". Drake threw his ice cream at Sweet Tooth. It missed and broke off the side of the truck. "Time to chill out". Sweet Tooth was really starting to get annoying. "That's the last one, I swear." Drake sighed. "I hope so- Hey, what did we do with Johnny's body?". They all shrugged. "Can't be that important." Sweet Tooth said, starting the truck.

"Goodbye, Jebediah". Calypso smiled as he threw the demented Preacher through the portal, watching through his office window as another soul entered his nightmare. "Come in!" Calypso called, setting the window to show New York. The man walked in. Calypso sat with his legs up on his desk. "Now, what is your wish?". The man started laughing as he removed his scarf, then Balaclava, and then taking the hat off his head. He stood there with short, jet black hair, with a leather jacket and and jeans, he looked like an ordinary Joe. But this was enough to make Calypso's once sinister and eerie demeanour change to one of unbridled hatred.

"I think you know exactly what I want, Calypso." Calypso stood up. "And you can piss off if you think I'll give it to you, Ash!". Mr. Ash smiled. "Those are the rules, are they not?". "Yes. But you have yet to kill all of the Twisted Metal contestants." Calypso folded his arms. "Bullshit! Ash slammed his fist into the desk. The Desk shattered in two. "I saw you kill that Preacher!". Calypso smiled. "But those are the rules, are they not?". Ash had no answered. "I-Well-Oh Damn you Calypso!" Ash walked right up to the man himself, who just returned the scowl. "One day. One day Calypso. I'll take back everything that was rightfully mine, and watch you suffer". "Oh, I'm very scared. Tell me this, who's on your side? No one, that's who. I've got an entire army capable of destroying you one million times over. Good fucking luck to you." Ash walked out, but not before flipping the bird at Calypso. "I'll get my army Calypso. Then it will destroy yours, and all others who oppose it!"

Johnny woke up. He found himself at the end of a long was a door at the end of the hall, with a bright red carpet leading up to it. The last thing he remembered was being...shot in the head. He felt around for the wound, but it was not there. Oh well, better start looking around. Johnny walked up to the door and opened it.

Dr. Hill turned in his seat to greet the newcomer. "Mr. Carlton, please have a seat." Johnny sat down. "I know that, you probably have a lot of questions, but first things first. He handed Johnny a book. "I'm going to ask of you, a few questions. I value honesty above all else, and you will not be judged based on your answers.". "Okay.".

It was a quick psychology test. Johnny wasn't quite sure what it did, or who ran the organisation, or what they wanted with him, but est go where he was told for now. "Let's see, deck 1, subsection A, room 2... Here." Johnny looked up. There was the room. He went inside. It was like a lounge. Being situated on the same level as the runway on the air carrier, There were two other people there, one young girl and a robot. "Hey" Johnny waved. "Hey" The two of them answered. The girl was reading a comic and the robot was using a laptop. Johnny didn't have anything else to do. But there was a massive shelf chocked to the brim with movies. So he went over to the shelf to pick out a movie. (A Johnny Cage film, of course.). He settled on Dragon Fist 2. Neither the girl nor the robot paid any attention to the film until about halfway through. But neither of them recognised him.

"Pretty cheesy" The girl commented. Johnny said nothing. Maybe it was time to check out his room. The sleeping quarters were all on the second deck. Johnny was used to military life, part of being a defender of earthrealm, but when he opened the door to his quarters, it was...nice? It was better than nice. There was a tv, with four consoles hooked up to it. Another two lay on his bedside locker. But they were handhelds. It seemed like his entire room had been personalised to his liking. His trophies were on a table in the far corner of his room. Next to his tv, there were shelves of movies, all Johnny Cage movies. There were games thrown on the shelves, not that johnny cared, for all six consoles. Johnny smiled. "I could get used to this."

The Six all exited the vehicle. "Why have we stopped?" Parrapa asked. "I thought I saw someone" Nate got out of the passenger seat. There was a leaflet stapled to a telephone pole. It was strange. Even though the were in Paris, the leaflet was in english.

50 Blessings Recruitment

16/5/2016

All are welcome

Admission is free

For more information,

visit www.

Drake took the leaflet. "What was it?" John asked. "I think we know where we're going." Nate handed John the leaflet. "where's 'www. '?" John asked. "Huh?" Nate asked. Then he remembered, John was from the time of cowboys. He didn't know what a tv was and was still dumbfounded by 'automobiles'. "Oh, nevermind that. Let me take care of that.".

Nathan found a computer to use where he looked up the website. He found a euro to put in the computer, and so took down the address and time of the meeting. "Okay. Time to get the others. He reached for his phone, to find it wasn't there. "Hey. wha-Get back here!" He yelled when he spotted the raccoon. He quickly caught up to him. "Alright buddy, give me my phone!" Drake reached out for it. "Alright, it was just a joke" The Raccoon handed him his phone back. "Talking Raccoons, huh, seemed kinda familiar though." Drake thought as he called the others.

That was how the found themselves at the 50 Blessings Paris HQ. They were mostly American, strangely enough. They were then shown to seats as the feature presentation began. It was safe to say that they looked out of place, but no one seemed to care. A man who appeared to be the leader stepped onto the stage. "My friends, I gather you here today to talk about our wonderful organisation, 50 Blessings. We have helped arrest criminals and uncover conspiracies across the globe, and today we ask you to-" He was cut off when the doors slammed open and there was a man at the door. He had brutally slaughtered the guards with a chainsaw, evident from the blood on his letterman jacket and jeans. "Everyone out!" He ordered, causing everyone to run in terror from the 'called off' meeting. "Gun him down!" The leader yelled, making a mad dash for the exit. The soldiers trained their guns on him. But he just laughed and took out two Uzis. "Bring it." He spun around in a circle with the Uzi's, with every bullet finding it's target. Then they started to run at him. He gunned down three before throwing his guns at the fourth. He then picked up a knife and sliced through his jugular, finishing him off two. The last one just stood back. He had witnessed, 15 or so murders in ten seconds. "Please" He begged. "Don't hurt me!". The man dropped the knife. He reached inside his jacket, and pulled out an audio recorder. He pressed play. "Do you know what time it is?" The voice asked. The man picked up a hammer. "No, no! Please God no!" It was too late. He was bludgeoned to death. None of the six had noticed until now, but he was wearing a mask. Not just any old mask, but a chicken mask.

He removed the chicken mask to reveal the blond short hair on the back of his head. He took out a cigarette and lighter. "Bastard got away" He grumbled, lighting the cigarette. Another American. He took a seat and sat down. None of them pretended not to be shocked by what they saw. It defied description. He didn't know they were there, but they sure as hell knew he was there.

"I'm gonna go talk to him" Sweet Tooth said.

Author's Note

I don't know what it was, but I really enjoyed Hotline Miami, even though it did everything I hated. It was incredibly hard, I didn't understand the story until after the tenth playthrough and it was mindless. But I loved it anyway, probably my favourite game of 2012. But Mr. Ash is going to have to find someone to be on his team if it's anything like Calypso says it is. But, maybe he's bluffing. Ellie and X are not dead! And they're with Johnny! Why? Find out!