Both groups were pissed. They faced each other as they stood in front of the stage, screaming and waving their signs and weapons in rage. The mayor was trying to get their attention, to calm them down, to help in any way she could.

"Please, everyone, we need to calm down before this gets out of hand!"

Cartman's skin crawled. He knew a riot when it was starting. Hell, you had to be blind not to see it about to happen. He quickly started to make his way to the podium, in hopes that he could stop it himself, but before he could, it happened.

-.-.-.-.-.

If Stan had to describe how it felt when the mob suddenly went psycho, he really wouldn't know where to begin. It felt almost surreal, like it wasn't really happening to him. However, he immediately was reminded of how he felt when he went to Imaginationland. There had been blood flying, screaming, and just general mass slaughter. He felt exactly the same way as he did then.

It was hard to hear. It was hard to move. It was just hard to really do anything at this point. Nothing made sense.

-.-.-.-.-.

Kenny's immediate reaction to the snap in tension was to duck. Luckily he did so, because Stan's group had begun shooting their guns, and he heard a bullet whiz by where his head had just been. Butters was screaming in terror, as were many people around him. He wasn't fazed much by the blood, though. After all, he was used to seeing his own.

-.-.-.-.-.

Kyle stared in shock at first, watching the citizens begin to slaughter each other without much of a second thought. They had lived there all their lives, seen each other at the grocery store, hell, they lived next to each other. How could they even think about doing something so obscene?

But his shock only lasted a moment, because someone began shooting up at the stage. They had to get off of there, since they were easy targets. Kyle grabbed Wendy's arm. He glanced over where Cartman had been, but he didn't see him. He jumped off the stage, rolling with Wendy in the snow.

-.-.-.-.-.

It was utter chaos. The only good thing about the situation was that it was easy to tell who was in your group and who was about to kill you. He weaved through the crowd, dodging strikes as he went. He had gotten almost immediately separated from Butters and the others, and his only plan now was to get out of danger.

-.-.-.-.-.

Cartman cursed to himself. He had thrown himself and the mayor off the left side of the stage once the bullets started flying toward them, but now he was far away from the microphone. The mayor was panicking, of course, which didn't help. He needed to think.

-.-.-.-.-.

Kyle searched the crowd, trying desperately to find Kenny or Stan. He had pulled Wendy underneath the stage. They could see into the crowd still, but the crowd didn't really notice them under there.

Suddenly, Kenny flung himself under the stage, panting slightly.

"Kenny!" Kyle hissed, crawling over to him quickly. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah," he breathed, clutching his stomach. "Where are Cartman and Stan?"

Kyle shrugged. "I lost track of Cartman, and I haven't seen Stan." Kyle moved away to get a better look into the crowd. He had a sinking feeling in his stomach that Stan was currently panicking.

"Fuck," he finally cursed. "I'll be right back."

"Kyle! Don't!" Kenny yelled, but it was too late. Kyle had already made a break for the mob.

-.-.-.-.-.

Kenny groaned. "That stupid fuck…" He winced.

Wendy noticed right away. "Kenny, are you alright?" she asked, moving closer. "Here, let me look."

Kenny didn't want to show her, but he knew that he should. He pulled his hand away from his stomach. He hated the site of his own blood. "It's not that bad," he tried to convince them both.

-.-.-.-.-.

Cartman slapped the mayor across the face. She gasped, looking shocked. "Snap out of it, bitch!" he screamed. "We have to figure something out, and your panic isn't helping the situation. Now are you going to help me or what?"

She stared for a moment, and then nodded. "You're right, Eric."

"Good. Now, I need to find my friends…"

-.-.-.-.-.

He found Randy Marsh before he found his son.

"Kyle? What are you doing here?" Mr. Marsh demanded.

Kyle glared. "Mr. Marsh, what the fuck do you think you're doing? Your son is on the other side, and could be seriously hurt!"

"Stan's here?"

"Yeah, and just about everyone else's children, if you open your eyes!"

He had no time to waste on Stan's dad. He had to find Stan. If Stan got hurt, it would be his entire fault. He quickly turned away, dodging fists and, miraculously, bullets, as he searched desperately.

-.-.-.-.-.

"Kenny?"

Cartman rushed forward. He had found Kenny and Wendy hiding under the stage, way on the opposite corner of where Cartman had been.

"I'm fine," Kenny hissed. "Kyle went to look for Stan."

"WHAT? That's exactly what I told that stupid Jew NOT to do!"

"We tried to stop him, but you know him," Kenny grinned weakly.

"Goddamnit Kenny, I swear that if you die again, I'm going to be super pissed!"

Cartman took off his jacket. He had worn a shirt and tie to the meeting with the mayor, and had also been wearing a nice suit jacket that he insisted his mom buy for him. He covered Kenny with it, to keep him warm.

-.-.-.-.-.

Stan could faintly hear someone calling his name, but it was still hard to focus on anything. Suddenly, he registered a burst of pain across his cheek, and he was finally able to focus on what was in front of him.

Kyle was clutching onto his jacket, his eyes more intense than he had seen them in a long time.

"Stan!" he yelled again. "Snap out of it, we have to go!"

Wow, this really WAS just like Imaginationland.

-.-.-.-.-.

Kyle pulled Stan along, his heart racing and his blood boiling. He was now calling more attention to himself now that he was dragging Stan, who obviously belonged with the anti-change group, along. People yelled at him, but luckily, no one tried to hurt him…

Until Skeeter stepped in front of him.

Kyle let go of Stan, taking a step back away from the man in the pink shirt. Kyle had always avoided interacting with him. Skeeter glared at them both, gun in his hand. Kyle recalled that he had been the leader of the pro-war supporters way back when. He also knew Skeeter probably wouldn't hesitate to pull that trigger, especially since he looked drunk.

"We don't take kindly to your kind!" Skeeter yelled, his finger pressing onto the trigger.

"AH!" Kyle yelled involuntarily, but before the other man could shoot, Skeeter suddenly yelled himself, falling to the ground. Kyle gaped at Stan, who had used his stun gun against the large man.

"Let's get out of here!" Stan cried. They both bolted for the stage.

-.-.-.-.-.

"That's it, I'm going after him."

"Don't. Wait another minute," Kenny ground out. God, Cartman could be so annoying sometimes.

"What if we wait too long? What if something happens to them? What if – Kyle!"

Kenny looked up, and sure enough, Kyle and Stan had just thrown themselves under the stage. Suddenly, Kyle started laughing, rolling onto his back.

"Oh my god, Stan, did you see his face? That was the most fucking hilarious thing I've ever seen!"

Apparently the laugh was infectious, because Stan started laughing too. "Yeah, that was pretty sweet."

"Kahl!" Cartman yelled, looking pissed. "I told you not to go into the mob and you did it anyway!"

Kyle paused, looking over. Wendy had already crawled over to Stan and was hugging him fiercely.

"Cartman," Kyle said calmly. "It's Stan. I couldn't just leave him."

Cartman looked like he was going to argue, but didn't.

-.-.-.-.-.

They all gathered by Kenny to assess the situation further. After making sure that Kenny was ok, Kyle remained quiet as they discussed. Stan found it rather odd, but figured his friend was just lost in thought.

"Look," Cartman said. "We have to stop these idiots, so what do you all propose we do?"

"You mean you ran out of ideas?" Kenny asked.

"No… it's just that we can't get to that microphone. The moment any one of us going up there, we're going to be shot at."

"Maybe we should just let them kill each other off," Stan suggested miserably. They all knew that he wasn't being serious.

"I'm not opposed to that idea," Cartman admitted, "but we should really come up with another plan."

"Well, even if we COULD get to the microphone," Wendy pointed out, "they'd probably still shoot at us, so it would be pointless to really try for the microphone at this point."

"Not unless it was someone neutral," Stan hoped.

"But none of us are neutral," Kenny sighed. "I mean, they all think we either belong to them or the other group, or in the case of you guys," he jerked his head toward Cartman and Wendy, "they know that you are against BOTH of them." He suddenly got a strange look on his face.

"We could get the mayor to go up again," Wendy proposed.

"Um, guys?"

"They won't listen to her," Cartman growled. "They barely acknowledged her before all hell broke loose."

"Guys," Kenny tried again. "… Where's Kyle?"

-.-.-.-.-.

Kyle knew what he had to do. He was the one who started this whole mess. It might not have been on purpose, and he definitely shouldn't be blamed for the way the others reacted. However, he was still the instigator. Therefore, he had to be the one to fix all of this.

He had easily crawled away from the others, since they were so preoccupied with trying to figure out a solution. He looked grimly up at the stage.

He knew it was probably suicide. He knew that it was one of the most stupid things he could have come up with. But he also knew that it was the only way. It was his responsibility to fix this.

He narrowed his eyes in determination. He took a deep breath, and slowly climbed onto the stage.