Billy watched as the two boys paraded the green mushroom through the halls. "We got the shroom and this weird backpack thingy."
"Okay, but why are we doing your housework again?"
"The ultimate prize, remember… 7 Billion in EVERY known currency?"
The two exchanged glances and sighed. "Then," Said the leader, "I hope the prize is worth it."
Mick left to find Arris.
Seconds later, Mick found himself watching Arris speedrun video games while Marco ate all of the snacks. Once the gameplay ended, Mick led the girls away.
The machine Billy had built was a single chamber with glass windows and room for one person to stand inside.
Billy grabbed the 1-up and shoved it into a smaller chamber, wired to the bigger one.
He looked to Arris and Marco. "So… who wants to die?"
Arris raised her hand, then quickly put it down.
Billy sighed and grabbed a paper bag. "So that's how we want to play, eh?"
He sat the bag between the girls and sat there. "Someone open the bag and call out two of your names."
Mick opened the bag. "...Mick and Arris."
Billy chuckled. "Alright… now, then. First name gets the gun,"
Mick pulled a revolver out of the bag. "Oh."
"Then, they shoot second name. FUN, right?"
Mick put the gun back. "You must think I'm INSANE. I'm not shooting-"
"I'll do it." Called the leader.
Billy smirked. "You sure? I mean… she'll come back… I think. But you want to risk it?"
"Sure, what's the worst that could happen?"
Billy sighed. "The machine breaking and creating a supernova, which ends up eating us all."
"You serious?"
Billy nodded. "Dead serious."
The leader sheepishly chuckled. "Maybe I'll pass… Marco can do it!"
Billy handed the gun to Marco.
"Have you got the guts to-"
Marco covered her eyes and pulled the trigger, clearly not hesitant.
All of them screamed as Arris dropped, then Marco turned into some weird crystal, on the floor.
"Well THAT happened."
Billy picked up the crystal with some tongs and sat it on the counter nearby. He looked at Arris.
"She's dead, right?"
The leader leaned in and started messing. "Yep. Dead as a doorknob."
Billy dragged her into the chamber and shut the door.
"Ok, stand back and start writing your wills."
Billy hit the button on the control panel. After a strange, uneventful few minutes, Arris blinked herself back to life and stood up. "Oi… what happened-"
"Well THAT was NOT supposed to happen."
Arris turned. "Where's Marco, eh? Why is my voice like that- WHAT IS GOING ON?!"
"You're.. Uhh… British now."
Billy laughed. "I thought the side effects included a supernova, NOPE! I was wrong, we now have… British. I guess the transfer didn't include her old accent. You're gonna have to live with British customs-"
Arris took the gun and pointed it at Billy.
"Change it back!"
"Do you want to die again?"
"NO!"
They sat in silence for a second.
"You… you gonna bring Marco back too?" Mumbled Mick.
"Uhh… I don't know how to awaken blades, that's YOUR job."
Arris had already started. After a very eventful couple of seconds of a huge lightshow, Marco stood before them again.
"That HURT…"
Billy put the gun back into the bag. "Well, I hope the bond is renewed, or whatnot… because I'd hate to have to repeat that cycle… I'm scared of black holes."
Meanwhile, Amber stared down with a seemingly-braindead 3. Neither of them moved. 3 just breathed, blinked, and occasionally twitched. Whatever those glasses did to her, it didn't do it well…
Amber sighed. "You alive over there?"
3 didn't respond.
"Hey! Respond, please!"
3 didn't respond.
Amber got up. Maybe I could wake her up a different way…
Amber walked over to 3 and firmly slapped her face.
"WAKE UP!"
3 twitched.
Billy came in. "If you're trying to wake her up, an ideal tip would be to remove the glasses. Maybe then, you'd get her to ignore you intentionally."
…way to be helpful, Billy.
Amber grabbed the tightly-bound glasses on 3's face and plucked them off.
"Will that do anyth-"
3 started sporadically twitching. She fell to the floor.
Amber sighed. "I think she's having a heart attack… you know what's happening?"
Billy turned to the cell. "Not a clue, sweetheart. Nope. Maybe you should slap her again. I stole those from Travis. He said they were hypnotic."
Amber backhanded 3's face again. 3 halted. She leaned up, looking around.
"...what the heck happened? My head feels like garbage."
Amber turned to Billy. "If she goes insane and kills herself like Janet, I'm going to kill you."
Billy chuckled. "Sweetie, I can't help that. Besides, those hypnotic glasses weren't for you girls. I was just… testing them."
3, after being helped up by Amber, leaned herself against the wall. "Did I have a stroke, or something? I'm only 30, that's not right."
Billy nearly burst into a fit of laughter, from over at his desk. "Oh, please, I wish it were a stroke. Maybe then, you'd be out of my way."
3 frowned, but didn't bother to attack or make any movements. She just held still. Completely still.
Amber waved her hand around 3's face. "Hey! What's wrong with you?!"
"...Emerald? He's... emerald. Doom comes when you see emerald-"
Amber reared back her hand and 3 gave her a stare. Not a mean one, just a curious look.
Amber felt a little weird when she caught the weird end of a steely glare, from Billy. "...Missy. I don't think she's okay… did you not hear that?"
Amber frowned. "Hear what?"
Billy grabbed the gun bag. "No, no, no, no! That's not what's supposed to happen!"
"D-dreams of emerald are all I see. A-all I see are… green…. Is… everywhere…"
Amber grabbed 3. "HEY! WAKE UP!"
Billy started running to the cell. "Whatever the heck she's whispering, it's probably summoning some huge demon to kill us!"
Amber took a step back. "What?"
"Maybe she's summoning the spirit of Travis."
Amber scurried to the other side of the room. "OH, HECK NAH! GET ME OUTTA HERE!"
Billy ran up with the keycard, but stopped. "...Hey. Squid girl… Maybe I could use this… Hey! Rebel girl! Don't get dismembered for a sec." Billy nervously chuckled, "We're probably going to both die."
Amber watched as 3 picked up again. "Hey. It's okay. You can trust me… we'll get pulled apart together!"
Billy opened the cell and injected 3 with some sedative. She halted creepily whispering and dropped to the floor.
Billy sighed. "That was close. So… yeah. Anyway, I… uhh… Well, she probably would have become a huge demon and eaten us both, so thanks for contributing to saving our rears. Also, you're still not escaping this cell."
Billy stepped out and closed the cell again.
"But'chu might wanna sleep with one eye open tonight."
Later that day…
Arris sat on the couch, with a frown. "I hate bein' Bri'ish."
Mick gave her a glance. "Maybe someone would like it. Besides, it's not THAT bad."
"Yes. It is that bad."
They all sat there in silence, for a second.
"...do… do you think it's really worth it?" Asked Marco.
"What is?"
"Killing that one guy. They seem to like him, from what we found on the cams before they found and got rid of them."
Mick sighed. "Well… one life, not the whole corporation."
"Yeah," Replied Arris, "but… doesn't he RUN the corporation?"
"Well, he does. That's the thing, doesn't he have a replacement? It won't be that bad…"
They turned to stare as Billy walked in.
"Fellas. We might need a safe place for the prisoners. You got anything? The squid is scaring me."
"What?" The whole team said, in unison.
"I know, I know, it takes a ear-raped train to startle me... but the squid girl... she seems to want something from her roommate..."
Marco leaned in. "you mean… rape?"
"NO, YOU BLASTED IDIOT!" Billy scolded, "Why would I mean THAT?! I would have just said rape if it were rape!"
Billy sighed. "I think it has something to do with my colleague of the past. Anyway, off the topic of... THAT... I have something to show you. Follow me."
Billy led them down the hall, to a little room, filled with gadgets and weird trinkets.
"So… I stole all of this… Gamma recruits normally took one and got blasted powerful from them. You guys get ONE. So pick wisely."
They searched around the room. Arris disappeared and came back with a battleaxe. "YES! I pick this baby!"
"Hey-"
Arris cupped a hand over Marco's mouth. "AH! Shaddap! I know what I want, and it's this axe."
Mick stepped in, a loud sigh signifying his feelings. "Are you guys really gonna-"
"Nobody cares, Mick."
Mick turned around and walked out, without saying anything.
"AXE. It's. Mine."
Marco finally quit resisting and Arris strutted out with a huge battleaxe.
Billy gave a disappointed look, but didn't give a crap, as it was gonna be their loss if they died in battle.
The leader walked in. He limped in, should I say. He held a fatal wound and coughed up his own blood.
"H-hey, g-guys…"
Billy went wide-eyed. "Hey! What the heck happened to you?!"
He coughed. "Well… I… Uhh… D-don't worry about it, fellas, I'm fine."
Billy shook his head. "Nope. You're NOT fine. Let's get you to-"
The leader turned, quickly. "No, no, nonono, you don't need to save me, I'll be just fine… probably."
"No, I don't think you will-"
"Trust me," He stopped to cough some, "I've had this happen before, just don't meddle in anything… I might die here. Permanently, that is…"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, PERMANENTLY-"
The leader smiled. "You'll see." He dropped to the floor.
Billy darted over to the body on the floor. "H-HEY! Don't die on us, we need you, so that I can win!"
Seconds later, Billy screamed as a person nearly identical to Leader popped into existence. The only difference between them had to be the size and voice pitch.
"I'm back."
Billy stood, dumbfounded. "D… Does everyone in your team have cool powers? I mean, weird Miku clone and her girlfriend do!"
He laughed. "Well, I… had some troubles in my old age and got myself into a pickle… Now, every time I die, I just respawn, about 10 years younger."
"That's weirdly specific. I like it. How does that happen?"
"Well, I just die and come back as a younger version of me. I've lived for god-knows how long. I think it's 67 or 68 years now? But the current me is… I was 39 before, so… I saw dim lights this time, 27 or 28, am I now."
"That's scary."
He laughed. "It's not THAT bad. Maybe I could-"
"If I killed you right now, would you die?"
Leader looked at Billy, in confusion. "Uhh… what?"
"If I shot you, would you permanently perish?"
"I have no idea."
Billy turned and smiled. "Interesting. I'm going to go and… do a something. Be right back."
20 minutes later…
3 blinked herself awake. "Urrgh… what the heck? I must have passed out. May-"
"Hey, I know we're just acquaintances, but maybe you and me should… get on good ground? I don't wanna die."
3 turned to Amber, who held a tiny metal cross and was curled in a corner, trembling.
"What are you talking about?"
"Uhh… you don't remember saying something really creepy?"
"No, not really. The last thing I remember would be that green toad shoving some weird glasses on me."
Amber chuckled. "...then who or what got into you to start creepily monologuing?"
"I thought I was dead. Now, we have to escape and I have NO idea how."
"I'm not escapin' until we get you to an exorcist."
3 sighed. "I'm not possessed."
"You sure, darling?" Billy chortled, from behind the entryway, "I think you WERE possessed. Creepy shiz. I had to knock you out. Maybe I should have taken a blood sample, or something."
"Maybe I have a weird thing going on, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to try and escape!"
"I'm NOT going with you, not until I get clearance that you're not possessed by something."
3 sighed. "What're you so scared of, I'm FINE! Besides, I've been possessed before… it wasn't fun. But not by a… whatever you called it!"
"Uh HUH... " muttered Billy, inside of the coffee mug he held.
"There's nothing inside of me! Why do you guys insist on seeing that there's something with me, there's nothing! There's nothing. I'm empty! Well… I have a soul! I think…"
"She's nuts." coughed Billy.
Amber looked to Billy. "Hey, could you, like, probe her, or something?"
Billy let out a humorous snort.
"Not like that, idiot! I meant SCAN her for something!"
Billy snorted louder. "I may have been sympathizing with you, but I truly do not care. Maybe you could probe her," taunted he, with an intense effort to not burst into hysterics, "with your hands, or something."
Amber shook off the disgust. "Well, I guess there's no pain in-"
3 backed against the wall. "I'd rather die than have you probe me."
"Have it your way. Possessed."
Meanwhile…
The captain gasped as 3's vitals spiked. "HEY! Whoa, look at that! She must be possessed, or something!"
Luigi walked in, looking extremely drowsy. "Hey, cap? Yeah, we have some sort of ventilation issue and it's really starting to become un dolore al collo, to randomly drop asleep after cutting on the AC…"
"You know I've meaning to take that up with Alpha. Haven't heard from him in a while…"
"I presume we've found some hint as to where 3 and Amber are?" Simon queried.
"Nope. It looks like 3's gotten herself possessed again, or something. You see how the neural waves collide like that? It seems like someone made her forcefully remember something, or regain something. Maybe it'll be helpful… anyway, no, we can't track ANYTHING. She's nothing to track."
Luigi sighed and turned, before falling over again.
"Also, yeah, there's something in the vents… maybe some sort of mold? I don't exactly know, but it sucks and we have to do something about it."
The captain sighed. "Doing what I can. And that's not a lot, without the whole team together."
"Maybe we'll find something tomorrow. I'm taking L to bed… and probably going to bed myself."
"Rest well, Simon."
The next day…
The captain walked in, the next morning, to Simon messing with some device he had found.
"Hey, what's THAT?"
Simon turned. "Some device I found on the floor this morning. Seems to be some sort of communications device… but it's not MVP brand… this is very complex.."
The captain grabbed the device. "This is a Gamma comms device. Does it work?"
"I've been testing it since I got up… 6 hours ago."
"I thought you went to bed, I would have stayed up with you if I'd have known that-"
Simon shushed the captain. "That means nothing now, I have gratefully and greedily devoured all of the existent caffeine in the facility to make up for 6 hours of lost sleep and am VERY remorseful due to it and I'm probably going to crash or drop to the floor soon. I need some help!"
The captain turned to the coffee mess on the nearby tray. "I can see that… you didn't bother to wake me up?"
"Nope. I was tired as crap and needed that quiet to work through Gamma channels. Did you know that this thing's hooked up to a channel strictly for Gamma porn?"
"Please, do that in your own time. Or just not at all, thank you. Do you think we could track whatever signal from this to the sender? Maybe we could bag some Gamma runaways and our mastermind at the same time…"
Simon had fallen asleep.
"Oh. Well then…"
The captain dragged Simon to bed, and hooked the comms system to the tracker. "Let's find this guy…"
He started tuning. Weird channels passed by, but it had one already saved on there. The captain winced as he heard a weird groan and quickly hit the saved channel.
"GreenRight, this is SlickEyes, do you copy? Well, I hope so, you don't have a mouth to respond to me… anyway, keep observing and giving us heads ups, okay? Don't get caught and DON'T LOSE THIS COMMS SYSTEM!"
This guy's failing at his job, it seems… Thought the captain, as he watched the screen pinpoint a spot.
"Everyone here misses you, Gary. Boss is telling us to get ready to retrieve another thing… I'll see you soon, given the plan folds out… Bye, pal. Mic- er… SlickEyes, signing off."
The captain growled as the tracking stopped. It stopped in a location that had one base in. It was well hidden, but the captain had cracked his way in and started marking locations of other bases as well.
After he had finished marking base locations, he shut off the comms and laughed. "This is gonna be a piece of cake! Gamma's finish-"
"And I'm back!" Called a half-brain dead Simon, "Did you happen to find our little… uhh… I need some sleep…"
The captain watched Simon walk away. Huh. Rest well...
About 1 or 2 hours later...
A sound came from the portal room. The captain walked in, to see Alph arrive.
"Where'd YOU go earlier? Some commotion you enjoyably missed went on."
Alph sheepishly chuckled. "Ah… well… family issues. Mostly. Mostly."
"Family issues, eh? Ok. Well, allow me to fill you in. 3's gone, Amber's gone, we have but one clue as to where they are and one named location. The signal led to a place called Tazmilly. I plan to go there sometime later, when everyone's ready… or we could go right now, just you and me…"
Simon stepped out of the room. "Ah! That's better. Now, then… I heard about ⅔ of what you said captain. I'll wake L, if you want to do this earlier…"
"I'm already here!" Luigi stepped out from the bathroom, with some toilet paper stuck to his leg, "And I am awaiting orders! That, and a new roll of toilet paper, because we are out!"
The captain looked around at everyone. "Huh. Guess we are in a fighting mood after all! Ok. We set out in 2 hours, TOPS. this gives everyone enough time to wait on the hot shower water to refill after Simon wastes it!"
"That's hurtful."
Meanwhile…
"They're going to find us." Breathed Billy. "They're coming to Tazmilly, the portal field will be found," He aggressively sipped his charcoal-colored coffee," "and we're all going to get violently put down against a wall, while Marco will get horribly raped on a daily basis because she's just that stupid!"
Marco sighed. "Ouch."
Arris turned from a magazine (of what type is not important), "So what, we go in and attempt kick them to the curb? We've already lost before, d'you think it'd be a swell idea to fight them again?"
Billy sighed. "I was gonna hold this for later. But it's crucial. All of you noticed the nano-watches I gave you earlier? Those were prototypes, the ones you're wearing now come with enhanced nano-armor. You can take several hits with that and still be standing. Now, come! We're going to prepare an ambush!"
(Character MVP bios by the captain, written in Season 1)
Name: Luigi Mario
Age: 24
Height: 5' 11'
Weight: 157 Lbs
Nickname: Agent L, L, (Simon calls him sometimes)Lu
Species: Human(?)
Gender: Male
Preferred weapons: Guns, taser, smoke bombs, snipers, guns, mostly guns.
Ranged weapon score(out of 200): 190%
Self defense score(out of 200): 40%
Blade & knife score(out of 200): 75%
Blunt weapon score(out of 200): 60%
The superstar brother himself is my first member. He was drafted for the first MVP's war against Gamma. Needless to say, for the first few weeks, he hated this job. He's good now. For someone that attractive, he's terrible among the ladies crowd. He uses mostly long range sorta stuff. It sucks to have the prankster on your team be the one with deadeye aim. The spitballs at the back of our heads agree.