Chapter 2: Welcome Part 2

7:10 P.M. Day One

First Floor

Foyer

"Um, what?" Victoria asked, confused and more than a little concerned.

"You heard me, toots," the young man - Kinsei, apparently - responded, "we're about to conduct some games here, and the lot of you are the participants for the main event."

"Yeah, well, I didn't sign up for some game," Ryan declared, still sounding more annoyed and angry than anything. "Now how about you turn me back to normal and let me the heck out of here!"

"I'm afraid that won't be possible." A new voice called out. Entering the room from the door behind Kinsei, two figures appeared. The first - the man who spoke - was an older individual in his earlyish forties. He had purple hair with streaks of grey in it, a stern face, and a white lab coat covering most of the rest of him. The second figure was a short statured young man, with one unique feature to his look: he was half alabaster-white and half pitch-black, from his face to his clothes, all the way down. He had one bright red eye and one black-colored eye to go with it. The tall older man stepped forward.

"Greetings, and welcome to my home. I am Doctor Jibo Momota, Ultimate Biologist and head of the Artificial Ultimates Project conducted out of the now defunct Hope's Peak Academy. As such, I am the one who gave you unimportant, talentless people the Ultimate talents you now possess." He actually smirked a bit. "You're welcome, by the way."

The response was immediate.

"Excuse you?! I didn't ask for this!?" Ryan roared out.

"This isn't what I fucking had in mind when I wanted to get better!" Shawn called out from the din.

"Th-this is na to my liking, I hafta say." Kelley spoke up, timidly.

"I didn't ask for any talent at all, why have I been brought here?!" Sabishī questioned (though her words were lost to everyone except the still-nearby cryptozoologist amongst everything else being said).

"Honestly this seems just fine, thank you." Alexis calmly stated, words nearly lost in the cacophony.

"SHUT UP, YA BASTARDS!" the dual-toned boy yelled, quieting down everyone (though Harris fell over from surprise, landing on his head).

"Such ingratitude from so many," Dr. Momota commented, shaking his head. "I raise you above the rest of the rabble, and some of you choose only to complain after the fact. Though the genuine gratitude from some is welcome."

He gestured to the other two with him. "The Ultimate Alchemist at my side here is my son, Kinsei Momota. He helps manage the day-to-day of keeping everything running smoothly. You'll have to pardon his manners or lack thereof, he can be a bit … impulsive at times."

"Love ya too, dad." Kinsei said, sounding actually sincere in that statement.

"And the other one here is my son's creation, Kuuma, the Ultimate Homunculus. He serves as my personal assistant here."

"Pleasure ta meet ya, losers." the Homunculus said, a sadistic smile on his face (though, oddly, it had faltered slightly when he'd been mentioned as Kinsei's creation).

"As to why you are all here," Jibo continued, gaze raking over the sixteen before him, "you all shall be the test subjects of my next social experiment. How many of you are familiar with, the Killing Game?"

This actually produced a shudder from some members of the group.

"Wait," Harris asked, looking ill, "that thing from Japan where a bunch of Ultimates … were forced to k-kill each other?!"

"Precisely, and now you all shall be partaking of a new game of that sort." Jibo declared, actually looking somewhat satisfied. "The rules, such as they are, are quite simple: whomever kills another participant and avoids detection at the subsequent trial to suss them out, will be allowed to leave. The remaining participants will be executed for failing to find the culprit."

"This game in particular, however, has a few extra caveats," Kinsei said, picking up the explanation from his father, "One: any staff members, like me, Dad, or the ex-bear here," (the last was directed at Kuuma, who again looked oddly angry at the description) "are off-limits; no killing any of us, otherwise we will know, and you'll … not enjoy the end results. Two: if the escaping murderer would, for whatever reason, like their talent removed before going home, they are free to ask after they dodge the trial."

Kuuma butted in on the following point. "And finally, number Three: something of an active motive for the entire game." He smirked as he continued. "Man vs Monster: whichever side a culprit belongs to, if they escape at the trial, their entire side - either the people with more normal talents, or those with abnormal talents - will be allowed to go free as well, with the option of talent removal open to them too. The other side, however, will still get axed off. Possibly literally."

Kinsei spoke up again. "That also applies if all members of one side get killed off outside of a failed trial. So, if all of group A is wiped out with only members of group B left, they get to graduate automatically. So, yeah, that's basically it. Fun, right?" He gave the group a thumbs up, smiling widely.

"Th-tha's horrible!" Kelley called out, aghast at the things their captors had divulged. "We-we canna just kill each other, why would ya even tink we would? W-what's wrong wi' ya?!" She hugged herself again, looking like she was close to crying.

"Well, you're entitled to your own opinion, little miss potato," Kinsei said, vaguely insulting choice of description missed by no one, "but that doesn't change the facts. So shape up, or you might just be the first to get brutally and horrifically murdered, how's that sound?" He actually laughed while Kelley ducked her head further down, seemingly a few steps away from stress-vomiting or curling into a tiny ball.

"ENOUGH!" Victoria strode forward, anger and determination clear on her face. "Stop this sick madness at once! We will not be playing this disgusting game of yours, and no one's going to die."

"y-YEAH." Brooke called out as well, moving up to the right of Victoria and putting on a brave face. "Now unless you think you could take on all sixteen of us at once, how about you turn the, uh, less then pleased people back to normal and let us out of this mansion. o-Or else."

"Really?" Kinsei asked, feigning a look of surprise. "Because I honestly would've thought you two out of everyone would've been the most interested in getting 'cured' through the game. 'Specially considering what happens at sundown."

"Wh-?" Brooke hesitated, confused. She turned to Victoria, who seemed equally as confused (wait, had Victoria even read her journal? Brooke hadn't seen if she had). They turned back to the trio above them. "What are you talking abou-"

The nearby clock struck 7:15pm. If they could've seen outside, they'd've seen that the sun had just finished going down.

Immediately, Brooke and Victoria felt themselves lock up. They each felt something stir across their bodies, just beneath the surface.

Then, came the pain.

Dropping to their knees, the two girls let out agonized shrieks as changes suddenly erupted across their bodies. For Victoria, strange linen wrappings seemed to spring up from somewhere(from the feel of things, they were coming from her back it seemed), wrapping around her arms, her legs, her torso, her head, everywhere. It was constricting, feeling the wrappings lash themselves around her. Even though her clothes the bandages felt oddly coarse, just adding to the pain. The worse of it though, was her skin; she could feel it start to decompose, feel as her face and limbs started to rot while she was still alive. It was honestly torture.

Brooke, however, might've actually had it worse. Darkened-green scales exploded out of her body, tearing through her clothes as they went on their way. She felt her torso warp, her limbs change and seemingly elongate slightly. Her boots ripped apart as her feet, suddenly wider and webbed, erupted from within them. Her hair and ears seemed to phase away from the surface of her head, leaving a bald surface for more scales to grow over. Finally, as her mouth grew wider and sharp spiked teeth tore themselves outwards, and as her neck rippled from the sensation of the scales - and … gills? - growing from them, she watched as the skin between her fingers slowly grew upward, leaving them matching her feet in strange webbed appearance, and as claws sprouted from her fingertips. Every second feeling like tiny blades going through her body.

Throughout it all, neither girl stopped screaming. Neither did most of the individuals in the room, for that matter.

Finally, the transformations ended, and the pain subsided with it. As Brooke struggled to maintain her balance on her hands and knees, her mind registered the small pool of blood that had collected around her. She could vaguely make out her reflection in the crimson surface. As she had guessed by what parts of her transforming body she could see, she looked like some sort of knock-off Creature from the Black Lagoon. Turning to Victoria, she saw the girl completely covered from head to toe in pale yellowed bandages, the only openings being where her eyes - now glowing blue orbs surrounded by purpled, rotted flesh - and her now-rotted mouth were.

Kuuma piped up. "Yeah, that. Heh heh."

"W-" Victoria coughed, trying to actually speak despite the change. After several more coughs, she managed to force out amid rasping breaths, "w-what, did you do, to us?!"

It was Kinsei who answered. "Well, you specifically have become the Ultimate Mummy. Didn't you read your journal missy? As for the Floridian gal, well, we don't have a black lagoon here (I think), and 'Gill-woman' seems so overspecific, so we had to make a stupid scientific name for you instead."

"'Gillanoid' is a perfectly acceptable scientific, unisex term for what she has become." His father interrupted, annoyed at his son's remarks. He redirected his attention back to the girls. "I feel I should inform you that you will return to your normal forms when the sun rises tomorrow. However, you will make this change again, every night without fail, from now until your ultimate demise." A smirk grew over his mouth. "Unless, of course, one of you decides to kill."

"T-this is fucked up. All kinds of fucked up." Elle said, holding John's arm for comfort. Shawn and Harris were currently flattened against the walls, trying to avert their eyes from what had transpired. Ryan just glared at their captors while Logan hid his face in his hands. Adrien averted his gaze outright, a hand upon his mask. Clarisse glared at the group's captors, a hand on her knives. Alexis had looked mildly surprised at what had become of Victoria and Brooke, but was currently just inspecting her nails in the back while no one was looking. So was Teresa, though the state of her nails-turned-claws made that less seemingly-callous to anyone who noticed. Sabishī, Eric, Kelley, and Gary, meanwhile, continued to look upon the tableau in horror. In Eric's case though, that horror was also punctuated by a degree of anger towards their captor, for daring to do this to innocent people.

Jibo pulled out and checked a golden pocket watch, then continued, "Well, if there are no other questions, and no current intents to murder at the moment, I believe it would be best to retire for the evening."

Kinsei slammed the tip of his cane down on the floor, creating a loud noise. In response, a well-built man in a butler's uniform stepped out of a side door on the same floor as the participants. "This is the Ultimate Butler, Sebastian Cornelez," Jibo introduced, putting his watch away, "he will give you a tour of the ground floor before showing you to your rooms. Ask him if you have any needs that require addressing. The upper floors and basement are currently out of bounds for non-staff, and we're not currently hiring." The doctor started to turn around, before turning back to the participants. "Oh, and something else for consideration. Once one killing/trial cycle has passed, the doors to the outside will be unlocked, and you'll be allowed to exit the mansion as you please." He smirked. "Good evening." He turned back and strode away into the double doors he entered from. Kumma followed after him, giggling to himself.

Kinsei started to follow, before turning to look back down at the transformed girls, smiling. "You might find you don't have much need to sleep, but feel free to try anyways once you get to your rooms. Oh, and don't worry about all that blood, the butler will handle it later. It'll be up to you to handle things if your time of the month hits, though." Chuckling at his insensitive comments, the Alchemist turned and strode away after the Biologist and Homunculus.

The room was left in silence, everyone still working to process all that had occurred. Eventually, the Ultimate Butler chose to clear his throat and speak up. "As they said, just ask if you have any requests of me - within reason - and if you would prefer, I'll be giving a tour of the ground floor before showing you all to your rooms. If you'd follow me, please." Turning, he led the way out of the foyer. Some of the room's occupants - like Alexis, Teresa, and Adrien - followed him without any hesitations, while others - like the prehistoric couple, the scarecrow, and the bad luck boy - were more hesitant before following after the Butler (with Harris nearly tripping on the way out).

Victoria and Brooke remained kneeling on the hardwood floor, still reeling from what had occurred to them. Kelley, still afraid but concerned all the same, cautiously stepped forward and knelt down between the two (keeping her knees raised off the ground, making sure to avoid getting near any of the blood). Looking between them, she asked, "Um, excuse me, do either of ya need a hand gettin' up?" She held a hand out to both of them.

Brooke, though honestly grateful (and actually slightly surprised/touched) that someone would even get near her right now, shook her head. "I … I think I can manage on my own." Her voice was coarse and raspy, but at least she could still speak in this state. "Besides, I doubt my strength's what it was before ... this; between that and the, uh," she paused, raising a hand up to eye level, "... the claws, I wouldn't want to risk hurting you just because I grabbed your hand too hard."

"W-What she said," Victoria agreed, slowly getting her feet under her. She rose up unsteadily, experimentally moving her arms, hands, and fingers. "I, I seem to still be able to move everything just fine, even after the uh … rotting." The last word was little more than a hoarse whisper. Those still in earshot noticed her accent seemed to have disappeared following the … change.

Sabishī, Eric, and Gary had opted to remain in the foyer as well while everyone else had followed Sebastian. Eric, after a moment, spoke up. "So, I checked, and I don't think those doors are going to budge anytime soon. Maybe we should follow that butler, see where the beds are. We should probably try to get some sleep before working out how to get out of here. k-Keep the mind fresh and all that."

"I-I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep tonight, honestly." Sabishī confessed, feeling somewhat out of place in this mad mansion (being the shortest person in the building probably wasn't helping much).

With some difficulty, Brooke got to her feet, sighing slightly as she at least tried to move onward despite what had happened. "Same," she commented, "but, still," she turned toward Sabishī while holding out a (closed and facing downward) hand in Kelley's direction, "I think we should see what else is in this building, if there's nothing else we can do right now."

Kelley, smiling slightly, gently grabbed the offered fist before hoisting herself up. "I tink I agree. A-and maybe we should stick toge'er, yeah? Less chance o' accidentally get'n lost or hurt if anyting's roamin' around in this place."

"Yeah, this would be the place for that to happen, wouldn't it?" Gary commented, hands behind his head as he looked around the foyer. "Well, if we're gonna join the 'tour group', we should probably hurry."

With nothing more to be said, the group went on their way out of the Foyer.

[16 participants remain]

A/N: Added the Mastermind and his assistant to the roster. The rest of the staff will come next chapter.