Chapter Twenty-One
The lone Boiler Guard returned to the base with some souls following him, belonging to the other soldiers. Inside was Bleu, who sat at her desk, trying to type up a new story. "Ah, you're back early!… Where's ze boy and his guardian?"
He tried to sound confident while talking to Bleu. "Za All-Stars stopped us along with our former master. I let zem get away… Only because I realized eet could be brought to your advantage if zat child is in zere hands for now." She thought about it, then smiled.
"C'est genial! People will easily think Noire was responsible for letting ze boy out, and they will complain about him being looked after!" She began to giggle, typing the new idea given to her. "Ah, no good deed shall go unpunished… Oui?" The Bolier Guard then jumped in place.
Saluting the woman, he stood still. "No need for zat, I am not someone to be worshipped… I'm going to promote you~ Now, you are in charge of any commands of ze guild after me and Cliora! You are top of ze Boiler Guards, free to carry out orders to zem!" Bleu took out some sort of badge from her desk, and stuck it onto the Boiler Guard like a magnet.
But he kept quiet, not wanting to interrupt her. "If this sort of good work continues and you find a perfect lead to ze 'New Game Plus', I might make you higher than Cliora maybe! She's so obsessed over zat prince anyway…"
"U-understood, Miss Bleu! I shall order za others to start an underground search for zat artifact!"
Edward remained in his cell block for most of the time. The boy was patient, as opposed to the aggressive Bulleta and his guardian, Kay. "These people here… All-Stars, they have my interest already." He smiled. "If I can convince Miss Satterwhite, maybe I could…"
Approaching the jails, Noire huffed at the boy. "I don't know what kind of trouble you were up to, but some are telling me that you actually fought against the weirdos Bleu sent… What's going on exactly?" Edward only chuckled at her.
"Bleu wanted to use me and my guardian, so she along with the strange witch princess brought us back from a sealed world. And the only 'trouble' I get into runs in my family-line. Murder is nothing but a ritual for the Barrows family… I've yet to shed any blood yet though despite me chasing around some people." Noire raised a brow at him then shook her head in disgust.
Perhaps she was afraid, but the goddess was too bold to show that. "You're lucky that unlike the girl in the hood over there, you haven't completely threatened anyone, but I won't take the chances considering how much of a demon you can be!" All the boy could do was shrug.
It was as if he could feel the truth. "You're just scared, Miss Noire. I had no plans to attack your group of All-Stars… In fact, I'm intrigued in a way after getting some inside information~" Noire cringed, wanting to retort to the boy. "My request is of course, that I come along and join in."
"What?! Edward, are you sure about this?!" Kay stammered. "I have to go with him if he does. It's my job to be around him at all times!"
Noire felt chills up her spine. "It doesn't work like that anyway, otherwise Tomba and Jeanne would've taken a spot by now! You need to find a rival, but I sincerely doubt that anyone will find a match for you." She turned around, ready to leave.
Only did Edward giggle once again. "I'm a stalker in a horror-game… Some fans wish for that 'Red Pyramid', that lost his meaning and is known only for inappropriate antics, to join… Said 'inside information' did come from someone with an amount of knowledge." Her body tensed, as Noire darted away from the prisons.
Uni was meeting up with Brave at this hour. "This could be a decent idea to gain support if Bleu continues to bother you. Me and my comrades have chosen to bury the past with this. After all, fighting may not be the only thing that could bring in a crowd."
"I don't think big sis would like that though, she still distrusts you even after all I've said… Not that I'm saying I dislike the idea! I appreciate your help. Plus I know some of the All-Stars will enjoy the concept!" Brave could understand what she meant. Noire seemed to push her younger sister a lot.
Most of the time it lead Uni to not take many ideas, or overachieve to impress the elder CPU. She managed to spot Noire right away though, and grab her attention. "Hey Noire? Uh, Brave had an idea on how we could get more shares and get advantages over Bleu—"
She was already gone however. "Not now Uni! I'm busy with something else right now! And he better not be the cause of the Scissor Man getting information!" Both Uni and Brave turned silent, the former looking depressed almost.
"Do not worry about it. We can ask some of the All-Stars themselves for an opinion on it. They're bound to pass the idea to Noire herself then. I don't want you to lose faith in yourself, Uni." The robotic knight offered her his hand, lifting Uni out of the chair.
They walked over to a group of All-Stars in a room. Uni seemed nervous, especially since an incident during the tournament lead to her being extra cautious on making decisions with them. "Uh, hey! Listen up!" She called out to them. "Brave suggested that if some of you are bored with fighting and want a change of pace to help Lastation. PaRappa, I know this might be something up your alley!"
His ears perked up along with PJ Berri. "Brave thought it would be a good idea to perhaps do music performances! We wanted to pitch the idea to Noire, but she was busy… I'll have to pitch it up to her some other time!" PaRappa instantly jumped, giving a thumbs-up to Uni.
"Already into the idea! What about you guys?"
"Sure, why not?" Spike responded, and Jimmy nodded.
"Kuro and I were involved with a music-based game before!" Toro mew'd.
"I'm great at performances!" Lilith chimed in.
Neptune then raised her hand. "Hey now, no leaving me and lil' sis out! We've been involved with this stuff before… Just not in this dimension!"
Most arched a brow at Neptune, until Sweet Tooth chuckled. "I'm in!" Everyone then proceeded to stare at him. "What? I don't plan on killing anyone!… This time at least." Mr. Grimm could only slap bony hands on his own face.
Raven scoffed at the idea. "I would rather worry about other things, like what Bleu is up to. Even more-so, if that kid running around with scissors is still in place. We can't have anything ruining our reputation because of him."
"Uh, I overheard something about him wanting to join us like Gex and Morrigan wanted to…" PJ pointed out, making some of them cringe. "Questioning that kid, I dunno what he did, but it sounds like a bad idea to do that most say…" With that, he began to zone out again.
Bentley gulped as he was reading on a laptop. "What PJ Berri says is true. Talking to Edward is a terrible idea! He is a little kid truly, but it doesn't stop him from being very clever! Apparently, his bodyguard is inseparable from him completely due to being manipulative over what she wanted…"
Kratek touched a few buttons on his own computer as well. "Edward seems to come from a line of occultists. The one who started it all praised a god called, and would abduct children within the country and use them in rituals. This included cannabilism and massacre. A curse was left on the family, from each generation forward, a demonic child would be born into the family and continue such madness." Some felt their eyes widen, Sweet Tooth was amused however.
"These cursed children became 'Scissor Man'. The first one was 'Little John', who terrorized the local children and was killed by his own father. The one on our hands seems to involve a pair of deformed twins, named Bobby and Dan. The former chased after his victims to slaughter them, while the latter seemed to remain the form of a giant infant, until someone destroyed his 'shell'.
"While Bobby and his mother were killed, Dan got away with a new form that looked relatively normal." Kratek then closed the screen. "That form is what we know as 'Edward'." Most became shocked, and quite disgusted at what they were told.
Cutter took a step back from his opponents, using a Level Two to eliminate them all at once with the Rift Bomb. Laharl, Cobar, and Jak were all promptly destroyed by it. The kill-limit match inside of the Practice Room was instantly over.
Jak got up slowly after respawning. "Man, you time that in the same way Emmett does! Good game." He shook Cutter's hand, while Laharl proceeded to grow more infuriated and Cobar clenched his fist. "Would it kill you two to be a nice sport?"
Pausing, Laharl calmly smirked. "Oh, I'm fine with it! After all, I was only going easy on your inferior humans! What fun would this be if I made this match so one-sided? I just… Uh, wasn't paying much attention to him!" Even though it was clearly a lie, they ignored it and averted their gaze to Tendon.
He gave a hiss. "An inferior human, I am not. The Helghast will prove to be victorious you disrespectful whelp!" Laharl just sneered at the colonel, starting to even laugh at him. Daxter gestured that Jak move out of the scene before it got ugly, but was ignored.
"Are you kidding me? I already know about your dumb history! Visari or whatever's own granddaughter was a traitor! Both you and those ISA characters have morality issues all around! I was willing to cooperate with an angel trainee at least!… Even if partly forced to."
Suddenly, there was a slow clap. "Hey now! Break it up Harl!" Laharl flinched, seeing the therapist from yesterday. "Cobar's dangerous after all, even if you are the Demon Pri— Uh, King…" Jak raised a brow, also surprised to see the doctor again.
"What brings you here… Rachel, wasn't it?" Jak questioned, giving a suspicious look.
"For one thing… Don't get mad at me, it was to give inside information. For that prisoner that was brought in, Edward. He was curious about the All-Stars, so I told everything I knew." They all cringed. None of them planned on attacking her oddly enough, even though Cobar was highly tempted to. "So, I'm gonna find a rival for him… I told him it would take a while because I'm kinda busy."
Daxter walked up to her, curious. "You're not on Bleu's side or anything? Just here to help the weird kid?"
"Why would I want to help Bleu? I don't have a motive for that. I'm only helping Edward because I happen to be… I guess, a fan of the game he comes from. I know well enough how that kid likes to manipulate people though, and I was able to talk him out of trying to use me in the way he does to his guardian." She seemed rather smug about it, then checked her phone. "I gotta go now, you guys keep battling like you do best, alright?" With that, Rachel walked off.
Most took note of the slight limp she had when leaving…
It was already August for the All-Stars. For their good work, Noire decided that they go to the beach again for a break. Rachel said she would take Bulleta away and perhaps set her up for a therapeutic session.
Some All-Stars willingly stayed behind for battles, others decided it was a good day for a quick vacation. "We were here two months ago before you arrived. It was on the week we first ran into that Bleu lady!" Fat Princess told Nikki, while eating a small slice of cake. Zeus and Donte were already arguing of who have a higher chance of impressing the sorceress, or having a date with her.
Neptune, Plutia, and Spyro were all lazing around on a blanket while Gex was getting a tan. "Leave it to them to avoid anything work-related…" Isaac said to Carver, who chuckled in response.
Both Big Daddies were playing with Little Sister, Sackboy, and Sophie the Sackgirl. Puni seemed completely relaxed in her surroundings, since Eternia didn't want to come along. Oddly enough, Spike seemed to be keeping his eye out, as well as Jimmy.
Fargus, the childish and quite off-center jester that was usually with Nikki, stumbled over to them. "What you two lookin' so sneaking for?" A New Yorker voice startled the two, and they stared directly at the fool. "No-no! Ova' here!" Both then looked at the puppet-stick in his hands.
((I'm really sorry for the lack of updates… I have been massively lacking in any motivation. I only play PSASBR for speedrunning purposes really now. I want to improve all my times! So far Donte is the best one, followed by Sweet Tooth and Jak surprisingly!
A time-lapse/skip will occur in this fan-fic to quicken things most likely, and to make things harder for the All-Stars… But I'll try to get more ideas for chapters!))