It felt silent this morning, normally Chris would go outside and do a little fake recap to the audience... but he was no longer with us to do said recap. Eventually, however, someone did come outside, and it was none other than Captain Edwards, "Last time, was a fairly simple endeavor. The prisoners were given the task of carrying a box of contraband out into Cellblock C, Rival and Jade ended up stuck with George, while Deena got to be chased by the loon's beast. However, things didn't end so well for our 'dear friend' Relinda, as she failed to complete the task and was sent back to prison for it. I will give her some credit, though, she did at least put up some form of a fight back, much better than that coward Romeo. But this isn't important, after all, I believe I have a gift for Salem after all of his hard work." Edwards gave a very slight grin...
Intro Start
The intro started off with a shot of the prison, but instead of cameras popping out, the shot just went to static and cut over to the prison library.
"..." Inside the prison library, Aztaroth was reading a book but was interrupted when a loud crash came from behind him.
"..." The crash was revealed to have come from Romeo, who accidentally knocked over a bookshelf with his strength.
"..." After another static cut, Jade was seen picking up bits of litter in the courtyard, with a guard threatening to hit her if she didn't.
"..." Off in the distance, Picollo was washing off his makeup, suggesting that he didn't wanna wear it here.
"..." With the screen again turning to static, the shot was now of inside the cafeteria where Deena was eating breakfast for the day.
"..." Also in the cafeteria was Edna, who was eating god knows what.
"..." The shot stayed on Deena and Edna for a bit, before suddenly jumping to George who was looking outside from an old watchtower.
"..." George turned around, to see that a grinning Clover was behind him, causing the athlete to jump in surprise.
"..." With yet another static cut, we now got a shot of Relinda desperately trying to call someone on the prison phone, to no avail.
"..." Also in the phone room was Quinn, who had a chart of all the other contestants in her hand.
"..." Suddenly, the screen changed over to Davy and Rival, who were trying to avoid Edwards in the main cell block.
"..." Off to the left side of the cellblock, Jacque and Monica were trying to talk, but for some reason couldn't remember their conversation.
"..." Finally, on the right side of the cellblock was Salem, with the demon's eyes glowing with evil as he tapped his fingers together.
"...There is no escape…" Instead of the final shot of the intro being of the campers around some sort of campfire, it was of Abigor grinning manically, while holding the same blade he used to end Chris.
"...Indeed..." The camera zoomed in and pulled back to reveal Truthteller and Lyre, with the latter putting his hands in his face while the former was going over the plan to bomb the prison.
Intro End
Edwards had just finished setting up the candles and mat for the ritual required to summon Salem. With that step out of the way, Edwards lit the candles and screamed the phrase that summons Salem,
"QUI HABITANT IN TENEBRIS ANIMAM MEAM POSSIDENT
PROFER CREATURAM PURAE DESPERATIONIS ET ODII
PRAECIDE COMPEDES CONTINENTES EAS ET AD REGNUM MORTALE REDIRE PERMITTAS
CONIURO ENIM SALEM, FILIUM ASMODEI, UT ITERUM VIVAT!"
Edwards wasn't surprised when the phrase ended up working and he was lifted up into the air by a demonic force and two claws came out from his chest. Not too long later, Salem was back, and just as menacing as ever. "Welcome back my loyal friend." Edwards greeted the demon who stretched his arms out.
"Yes, hell is so... bland." Salem complained, "The suffering one can cause in the human world is much more entertaining to than the damned."
"Speaking of suffering." Edwards held his hand and suddenly shot out a miniature black hole from his hand, "I still go on without the enhanced intelligence I so crave."
Salem titled his head, "What about that sniper guy, Hawkeye? Did he have it?"
Edwards shook his head and lowered his arm as the black hole disappeared, "No, his ability was some sort of ice manipulation. I've just now realized my error in slaying those soldiers, I should've kept them alive to see if they had it."
Salem shrugged, "Oh well, waiting has never been a problem in the past, but if you're so upset about it... why don't you just let me enact it myself? No humans can stop me, after all."
A look of rage flashed on Edwards' face, "No!" Edwards snapped before calming down, "I want to personally act it out, not for it to all finish in a few minutes."
Salem sighed, "Humans are too selfish sometimes."
"Oh do calm down, I've a gift for you." Edwards replied, "You can bring other demons here, right?"
"Yes, but only very temporarily, like all of my curses, it's about three hours maximum," Salem answered.
Edwards smirked, "That'll do just fine because I have an idea for today's little game..."
Rival was sleeping on his bed after the events that happened yesterday, for the first time since being here, he was actually having a peaceful night sleep, although, that peaceful sleep was interrupted suddenly when one of the lights yelled 'Rival! Wake up!"
Rival shot out of his bed in a panic and fell to the floor, "What!? What happened?"
"Something horrid... but it hasn't happened yet." The light, being revealed to be the green one, replied, "The demonic presence here is going to increase tenfold. An army... they're going to be here to attack you all for that horrid man's amusement... You have to be very careful Rival... Salem and the person who runs this game may act like they have control over them... but demons are incredibly unpredictable... please, you have to be safe, and you must make sure the journal and book don't get destroyed..."
Rival nodded nervously, "Got it, but my page... is that today?"
"I cannot tell you that Rival." The green light responded, "You'll know when it will come as long as you don't try to do anything prematurely."
Rival sighed in an understanding way, "Sorry, I'm just getting anxious about this, I really just want to go out and save the others now."
The green light passed by Rival, "We know Rival, we want to do that too... but... we have to let this play out, we can't risk something horrible happening."
"I understand..." Rival got up and stretched, "I'll try to stay patient..."
The rest of the prisoners were busy eating breakfast in the cafeteria, albeit the mood was very awkward due to what happened yesterday. Something interesting did happen for once, however, as Jacque got up and purposefully sat next to George.
"Is this taken?" Jacque asked the cheater.
"Noooo..." George suspiciously eyed Jacque.
Jacque sat down as George kept his eyes on him, he wouldn't fall to any tricks, "So I was think-"
"No." George replied, not even humoring Jacque's idea, "You said that you didn't want to be in my alliance, so if you're approaching me for one now, obviously you're just using me to get ahead."
"Not necessarily." Jacque replied, "I want you to think of it this way. Look around at the other prisoners for a moment. Two of them are batshit insane, and the other four are split into their own duos. We're fucked with a capital F if we don't do something."
George looked around the room at his competition, "Ok and? I'll have a much easier time working with Clover and Edna than the guy who'll throw me under the bus the first chance he gets."
Jacque sighed, "Come on already, work with me on this. Do you really think working with them is any better? They're completely unpredictable. Yeah, you could probably get Clover to do whatever you want with some malarky about despair, but eventually, she'll go after you, and I know how crazy people are, when they get you back, they will do anything to do it. You literally have no other choice."
George begrudgingly accepted the offer, "Fine." George held his hand out and Jacque shook it in return.
Confessional: George
George sighed with his arms crossed, "I'm gonna watch him like a hawk, nobody denies an alliance offer and randomly just comes back to it."
Confessional Over
Confessional: Jacque
"Believe it or not, this alliance offer I gave George is somewhat genuine, I'm pretty sure I'd have the best chances of beating him in finale, so I need him to stay safe so I can win."
Confessional Over
After Rival finally arrived at the cafeteria, Edwards followed him not too long after. "Hello, prisoners." Edwards greeted, causing some of the prisoners to back away in surprise at a new host.
"What the?" Jacque let out.
"Who are you!?" Jade clenched her fist.
"Where's the bald man!?" Edna growled.
"Is he one of the demons the angel told me about?" Rival thought as he began to sweat, "Can they disguise themselves as humans? That does sound likely..."
Edwards held his arms out, "Relax everyone, I'm just another person helping run the show you're all participating in. I'll be assuming control from now on."
"Where's Chris?" George asked, "What, did the old man keel over and die?"
Edwards shook his head, "Not quite, unfortunately for Chris, he passed on yesterday after an intern went crazy and began to shoot up the place... you are very lucky that he was detained before anyone else could be shot, but six people, including Chris, lost their lives that day." [1]
"That would... There's no way that was just an intern!" Jade yelled out, "Something else is going on to cover it up, what are you trying to hide from us?"
"Nothing." Edwards held his arms up, "The end all be all is that Chris McLean, Jimmy Gios, Howard Pattinson, Nicolas Roberto, John Tylors, Robbie Heimin, and Zachary Loe all lost their lives yesterday, and I'm your replacement host. If you don't believe me, I can take you to their graves that are outside."
Nobody said anything in response, causing Edwards to shrug, "I suppose we'll just move on with what the challenge is now."
Confessional: Jade
"That feels too... convenient?" Jade shook her head, "Chris isn't dead, he has to be hiding for some reason... but why?"
Confessional Over
Confessional: Clover
"Chris died on the same show he oh so loved!" Clover smiled happily, "A despairingly fitting end for him..."
Confessional Over
Confessional: Jacque
"Hell no I don't believe him, Chris is definitely alive... I feel like I should try reading his mind, but if he has a power that allows him to detect me being in there, I'll basically have hung up my own noose. I'm keeping this shit to myself." Jacque crossed his arms.
Confessional Over
Confessional: Edna
"Is this man a new chew toy for Edna?" Edna happily bit at the confessional.
Confessional: Edwards
"This body is much more preferable than Chris'," Edwards cracked his neck, "Not as many health problems as that host."
Confessional Over
"Well, firstly, I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Peter Edwards, but I prefer to go by just my last name." Edwards introduced himself, "And your challenge today will be to fight off a horde of demons, nothing more, nothing less" Edwards blankly stated as he looked at a few notes he held up, "If you believe that that's too much of a daunting task to take on, the co-host Salem will curse you with new albeit temporary powers." Edwards looked up, "Now, you're most likely wondering what a-"
"Curse is?" Salem suddenly appeared in front of Edwards, causing him to jump back in 'surprise', "I can take it from here Edwards, after all, I outrank you as a host." Salem stated.
"Yeah, alright, just don't get anyone killed, we need the prisoners to stay alive." Edwards shook his head, "This seems to be a challenge you're qualified to host on your own, so I suppose I'll leave you with it." Edwards added before leaving the room.
"Thank you for that new guy." Salem grinned, "Like he said before I'm going to do a little thing we demons like to call cursing. It's not that useful of an ability since it's limited, plus the powers are really only combat applicative, barring like one or two, and they share the same weakness all of your powers do." [2]
"So we spend a bit of time training and we fight some of your lackeys or whatever? That's not that hard." George confidently smirked.
Salem shook his head, "Oh no... there will be no time to get ready and to learn your new powers, you'll just have to make it up as you go... all you get is five minutes to get out of here unless you wanna get pounced on by the forces of hell." Salem told the prisoners before snapping his fingers, causing a branding to appear on everyone's forehead, "Oh, and before I forget... here you are... hope you have a fun time using them." Salem joked.
"Let's get out of here before it's too late." Jade grabbed Rival by the arm and rushed out of the room with him.
"Yeah..." Rival rushed out with her, "That was the warning... so Edwards must be either another person working on this show or..." Rival thought back to what the Angels told him about Abigor's power 'he has power over body and mind', "He's possessed..."
"Alright, George let's..." Jacque looked around for George, only to find he was nowhere to be found, "...Why am I not surprised?"
But George didn't abandon Jacque on purpose, instead, the all-star quarterback was busy figuring out what his power was, and he sure did, as he was uncontrollably teleporting through different realms. "Ahh! How do I turn this shit off!?" George struggled with his new power.
Salem sat patiently in the cafeteria as a portal opened up in the middle of the room, Salem watched on as a bunch of horrifying creatures poured out from the portal, imps, demons, skeletons, spirits, whatever horrific thing you could think of, it was there. The monsters immediately surrounded Salem in pure anticipation. "Welcome to the human world." Salem smirked, "We will begin the fun in five minutes, but I must say I'm excited for this show..."
"Screw that! Let's go now!" A demon screamed out, causing other monsters to yell out in agreement.
Salem sighed as he got up and walked over to the demon who spoke up, "Insolence." Salem grabbed the demon by the head and lifted it into the air, "Will not be." Salem crushed the demon's head in his hand and watched it fall to the ground, causing the other monsters to back away from him in fear, "Tolerated. If any of you kill any of the prisoners here... you'll wish you could be as lucky as this demon right here." Salem threatened as he pointed over at the clock, "You may leave when the time comes, anyone who leaves earlier than that will be killed." Salem ordered, with none of the demons daring to fight back against him.
"I can't wait for this!" Clover gleefully stated as she ran around the library and watched the clock carefully, only one minute remained on the clock...
"Yeah! Edna's gonna get so many playmates! Maybe when she returns home she can show them to Father, Edna is sure they'd love each other!" Edna panted as the clock ticked... it felt like it was going on forever...
"We will share our despair with these demons!" Clover grinned at the thought of using her powers on the demons.
Thirty seconds...
Deena took a deep breath of anticipation as the clock ticked down, she stayed hidden in the morgue with Davy, with the Rockstar looking out through a crack in the door to see if anyone was there.
"Davy's not ready for this..." Davy whispered while he slightly shook, "Davy's no fool, he knows demons are definitely out of his league."
"They are..." Deena nodded, "We have to figure out our powers if we want to survive this."
Fifteen seconds...
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Jade asked as Rival stayed with her in the Chapel.
Rival nodded in response to the question, "Not entirely, but if they're demons then going to the only 'holy' place in the prison is the best bet. Maybe they can't enter here."
"Let's hope you're right..." Jade walked around the room, "I'm terrified of what's gonna happen to be honest."
Rival looked down, "Me too..."
Jade went closer and hugged Rival, "Maybe one last kiss in case the worst scenario happens?" Jade leaned closer but was stopped by Rival putting his hand over her mouth.
"Don't say that... we're gonna make it through..." Rival assured the modern-day robin hood.
Times up!
The creatures wasted no time rushing out of the cafeteria, some of them sniffed the air for traces of the prisoners, while others moaned and groaned as they crawled through the prison to see who they could find in the prison. Some of them ran down into the basement while others rushed upstairs to find their next victims.
Rival's ears perked up as he heard the hoard approaching, he didn't say anything, rather he gave a look to Jade that said 'Get ready' to which Jade responded by nodding.
Not even a second later, they were met with a demon slamming itself into the door to break itself into the room, "Found on-" The demon couldn't even finish the sentence before Rival shot a large bolt of lightning at it, causing it to be temporarily stunned.
Jade subconsciously formed a heavy set of armor on top of her body and a hammer to protect herself with as Rival got his electric guitar ready and flew into the air, "Let's go!" Rival rushed forward and grabbed the knocked-down demon and threw him to Jade, who crushed the demon's head under her hammer. More beasts rushed into the room, causing Rival and Jade to go to the back of the room so Jade could build a barrier while Rival held the demons back.
"There's so many of them!" Jade let out as Rival completely destroyed a skeleton that tried to grab her.
"We just need to keep them aw-" Rival was cut off by an imp jumping up and pulling him to the ground, the imp scratched Rival across the face multiple times and kept hitting him repeatedly, while Jade began to be overpowered by the sheer quantity of monsters attacking her. "Get..." Rival grabbed the imp, "OFF OF ME!" Rival let out a screech that made the imp explode just from its sheer power, while Jade and the other monsters hunched over in pain. The guitarist didn't take any time to celebrate his new power, instead using it to help Jade out with some of the monsters in front of her.
Jade smacked an imp away with her hammer, "How are you holding out now Rival?"
Rival screamed at a skeleton, "Good enough..."
"Jesus Christ." George felt like he was gonna vomit as he was cycling through random worlds, "Cool power... would love to be able to use it..." George complained until he suddenly stopped teleporting, and ended up back in Hope's Lament, specifically in the mail room, "Finally!" George's excitement came to a screeching halt when he felt the saliva of a demon fall onto his face, George looked up to see the demon try and pounce on him from the ceiling.
George moved himself out of the way with his tendrils and stabbed the demon with his tendrils, "Fuck you man!" George threw the demon straight at the door, causing it to make a loud crash. "C...rap..." George let out when he began to hear the sounds of footsteps drawing closer, "Ok... take me out of here!" George panicked, causing him to suddenly teleport away into another world.
George let out a sigh of relief, "Oh thank jesus..." George opened his eyes when he realized where he was, George then let out an evil smirk as he walked forward, "Oh... this'll do."
"Damn." Deena struggled to fight off the demons by herself, as Davy's fire was ineffective on them, "There's too many of them."
"Davy's got an idea!" Davy prepared his explosion attack as demon swiped him across the arm, "FUCK!" Davy let out in pain as he gripped the explosion in his hand, Davy turned around and threw the explosive at the demons, the heat didn't affect them much, but the blast sent them away from Deena. "You alright?" Davy went over to Deena only for the demon that swiped him to run back and slice him in the leg, causing him to fall to the ground. The demon jumped over the rocker to go attack Deena as Davy reached out for her, but was stopped by an unknown force. For some reason, everything around the creature felt heavy... so heavy that it crashed to the floor of the morgue.
"What...?" The demon coughed out as its body was slowly crushed into the floor as Davy and Deena watched. After a little while, all that remained of the demon was a red paste on the floor.
"Woah." Davy looked over at his hands and realized that his new power had included him being able to control gravity, "That's gonna help..."
"Is your arm alright?" Deena asked as she turned over to face Davy, "We should try bandaging it." As Deena said that, a roll of bandages appeared in her hand, "What the?" Deena asked as she looked at the roll, with her eventually figuring out she created it, "Um... a healing gun?" Sure enough, a little gun that looked like a red and white pistol appeared in Deena's hands, she aimed the gun at Davy's arm and fired out more bandages, "Oh... worth a shot I suppose." Deena shrugged as she went over to Davy and helped him bandage his wounds.
"That's good enough." Davy flinched as Deena finished wrapping his arm and put the bandage around his leg, "Davy thanks you for your help." Davy got up and limped on his leg as more creatures rushed into the room. "Get ready." Davy made the gravity in the room lower than normal so the demons couldn't rush them, while Deena created an assault rifle for herself to fight off the demons with. "Bring it demons!" Davy grinned as the two began to fight off more monsters.
"Dammit, it smells awful down here." Jacque gripped his nose as he stayed down in the sewers, the conman had rolled around the floor of the sewers to stop any demons from catching his scent, "This had better work, I swear to god." Jacque spoke as he felt like he was going to vomit.
Surprisingly for Jacque however, the longer he stayed down in the sewers, the easier the smell came to deal with until it eventually disappeared entirely. "What the?" Jacque looked around and tried smelling the horrible smell again, but the smell of the sewers was now no different than the smell of the prison itself. Jacque assumed that the change was the result of a demon somehow messing with him. Jacque gained a defensive pose as he looked around for any sense of life in the sewers, but there was nothing there...
"What's going on?" Jacque whispered as he noticed something, his skin had begun to change into a light green color, not too different than the color of the dirty water in the sewers, his power was causing him to adapt to the area, though, he didn't know that just yet. "What the hell?!" Jacque shouted out in surprise at his new look. Jacque again looked around the prison's sewers but there was nothing there. "This has to be a trick of some kind..." Jacque mumbled, but it wasn't a trick, it was very much just his own power activating.
Jacque became a lot more cautious as he walked through the wet labyrinth of the sewers, with him making sure that nobody was following him the whole time. In addition to that caution, Jacque would sometimes stop dead in his tracks to see if he could hear anyone walking down here... but for the moment, he was completely alone and safe.
Unlike the other pairs that were nervously fighting off monsters, and unlike George and Jacque who had managed to escape the demons, Clover and Edna were actually enjoying the demons invading the prison, with Clover fighting one of them off by using her power to control a gargoyle, and with Edna clawing through hordes of imps and zombies.
"YES YES YES!" Edna laughed with pure insanity, "Edna's having so much fun!" Edna clawed the head off of a skeleton.
While Edna was dealing with a horde all on her own, Clover sat back as the gargoyle she took over ripped its fellow demons to shreds, thanks to its extreme physical power it was able to take down many demons with ease... well, until another gargoyle rushed in and punched a hole through its head, leaving clover defenseless. "Oh no... my loyal defender... how... despairing..." Lugosi jumped out from Clover and grabbed onto the gargoyle.
The gargoyle simply threw the monster off of it, with Lugosi not having any effect because... well obviously not every creature from hell was gonna be worrying about despair anytime soon. "Oh." Clover let out with a smile on her face, as the despair of the scenario slowly set in, "How... unfortunate." Clover shrugged when a spear suddenly appeared via a portal and impaled the gargoyle through the head. "Oh my... these feel familiar..." Clover glanced at the spear. [3]
Edna was panting heavily as she ripped shreds out from whatever monster got in her way, not that she could tell anymore, yeah she was taking them out quickly, but he body was covered in scratches and bruises. "Edna has never felt joy like this before!" Edna's joy was cut short when an imp managed to sneak behind her and stab her through the back, "Uh..." Edna spat out as she fell to the ground, and her crazier eyes began to roll back to normal. Edna looked up to see that same man she saw when Aztaroth beat her for the first time, a tall and muscled man with neat blonde hair who wore a pristine white suit, she was clearly hallucinating, but that didn't bother her.
"Bella. Why are you stopping now? You're a prince." The man kept his arms behind his back, "So act like one and win already."
Edna's eye's widened, "Brother King...?" Edna stepped forward as her brother 'disappeared', "Brother King is right... Edna... will..." Edna went back into the same form she used to fight Aztaroth for the second time, although this time, the spilled blood of the demons she fought was now beginning to float above her head, "WIN!" Edna snapped out as the blood turned into a bunch of spears and stabbed the monsters that surrounded her. "EDNA WILL SHOW THOSE THINGS!" Edna cut the head off a zombie that tried scratching at her, she was now more determined to win than ever...
While all of the chaos was going on the prison, the body of one person laid in Salem's office that was just across the hall from the chapel. They were set on top of all the other corpses Salem had yet to dispose of, with a furnace made of a dark metallic-like material placed behind him. This man, however, wasn't dead like everyone else in the room. Abigor had tried to slit his throat when it was apparent he was of no use, but by some miracle, this man managed to cling onto life. Whether it was Abigor not slicing the right part of the throat, or the knife being too old to cut deep enough, it didn't matter, he was alive.
The room was as still as ever when one bit of movement suddenly broke out... a finger twitched... Not too long after, the man opened his eyes, and was met with a new situation he wasn't used to...
...
...
...
...
...
...
Hawkeye lifted his head up to get a better look at his surroundings, Salem's office was relatively clean and orderly, outside of the pile of corpses that Hawkeye was currently sitting on top of. The smell of the room, however, that was horrid, not just the smell of the corpses, but there was one already in the furnace. It was strange though, why would Salem only put one person in the furnace at a time? It very clearly could hold multiple people, the only reason he would put one in at a time would be if he enjoyed the smell of the corpses.
The sharp pain in his neck suddenly hit as Hawkeye gripped his neck, he pulled his hand back to take a look at it... yeah, it was covered in blood, albeit somewhat dry blood. Hawkeye's survival instincts immediately struck, however, as he pushed his neck onto the furnace to cauterize his wound, Hawkeye winced in pain as he covered his mouth with his hand as to not let out any screams, he couldn't be spotted.
Hawkeye kicked himself backward as he fell to the ground with his now cauterized neck slice, he then looked forward to see who some of the corpses were, and he immediately recognized them once he saw them... it was his squad... everyone except for Edwards. Hawkeye's hands shook as he teared up and he looked away from the prison, he knew he didn't have time to mourn his lost friends, but he couldn't help but cry silently for the people he worked with.
"Damn the people here... but I can't go and fight them," Hawkeye noticed that his and all of his squadmate's guns were gone, "I need to get back to the agency... I can tell them just how awful this place actually i- Is that?" Hawkeye walked forward to get a better looked at one of the corpses, he pulled the body out slightly to see that it was... Chris McLean, "What the? Isn't that the reality host who got arrested for messing with radioactive substances? What is he doing here?" Hawkeye questioned, though he kept the thought in the back of his mind as he realized he had to get out of here first, he could solve what was going on later.
Luckily for Hawkeye, they never took away his backpack or the climbing gear inside, so he now had a way out without going through the prison, he just needed to make his way to one of the two windows in the office. Hawkeye crept across the floor when he noticed a door leading to another room, this one being labeled 'warden's office'. Hawkeye was going to ignore it so he could continue making his way to the window, but what kept him dead in his tracks was him hearing two voices speaking in the office.
"Look at Edna go!" Salem laughed, "God this is so much fun to watch!"
"Indeed, watching them struggle for survival is entertaining," Edwards replied, causing Hawkeye's eyes to widen when he heard it, to him, all he now knew was Edwards was working with the enemy... how could he betray them?
Hawkeye gritted his teeth as he continued to creep across the floor and he made it to the window, the soldier looked out to see if there was anyone keeping watch, which, luckily for him, there wasn't. Hawkeye set down his bag silently and pulled out his climbing gear. The soldier slowly set up his gear as to not make any loud noises. After that was done, the soldier began to slowly make his way down the walls of the prison. Slowly and steadily he inched down the wall, until he made it three-fourths the way down, in the chapel Rival had used a powerful electric attack that shook the old prison ever so slightly, but just enough to knock Hawkeye off balance. Hawkeye tried to grab his rope but it was no use, the soldier fell to the ground and landed straight on his back. Hawkeye winced in extreme pain as he managed to pull himself off the ground and he pulled his rope down to him.
"Just a little further." Hawkeye thought as he painfully ran across the prison's outer courtyard, he had to run as fast as he could, he couldn't take the risk of someone coming outside and finding him. Hawkeye looked up at the same wall he and the others had climbed up the other side of not too long ago. Hawkeye grabbed his grappling hook and twirled it around, he just had to get it right... He threw the hook and missed, so he tried again... miss. Tried again... miss. Tried again... CLUNK! The hook stuck itself into the wall of the prison, now it was just a matter of chance. Hawkeye was hoping that they hadn't gotten rid of the boat that he and his squad used to get to the island.
Hawkeye finished scaling up the wall of the prison and... there it was, the squad's boat, luckily Salem didn't bother disposing of it yet, which gave Hawkeye his escape off this island. "I need to tell the others of Edward's betrayal." Hawkeye gripped at his broken radio, "He has to pay."
Back in the library, Edna was effortlessly fighting off whatever came her way, while the pressure of the monsters was finally starting to catch up to Clover, due to them being from hell, Lugosi wouldn't work on all of them, and she couldn't summon spears fast enough to keep them off of her. "I'm going to be beaten by a mob... I've always wanted to experience that..." Clover moaned, "Too bad Deena isn't here, I'd take that whore down with me!" Clover complained as she stabbed a demon through the head with her spear. There was one demon that had an idea to take down Clover, however, as right behind her, a demon that could shapeshift turned into what it believed was her one weakness.
"Clover!" The demon yelled out as Clover turned around, it took on the form of none other than Picollo.
"Picollo..." Clover's eyes widened as she slowly walked towards the demon, "Come to give me more despair?"
'Picollo' grinned, "Oh... it'll be worse than despair."
"Really?" Clover asked.
"Absolutely." 'Picollo' slowly walked towards Clover, ready to ambush her, "It'll be unlike anything you've ever felt."
Clover simply smiled and looked at 'Picollo', "Sorry Picollo... but lying isn't despair-inducing enough for me." Clover grinned as a spear impaled 'Picollo' through the back of the head. Clover than ripped the head of the demon off of the spear and it's body, "But I will take this as a fun toy!" Clover laughed as more and more demons surrounded her. She didn't even try to fight back, she just laughed as she gripped 'Picollo's head in her arms.
"Edna thinks she has issues sometimes." Edna tilted her head at the sight as the demon next to her just gave a confused shrug.
"How are you doing, Jade?" Rival asked Jade as he fought off whatever he could hit.
Jade had switched to using a sword made of crystals this time, and used said sword to slice off a skeleton's upper torso, "Not great... I don't know how much longer I can go on... I just need help." As soon as Jade finished speaking, a symbol appeared below her and a hawk made of ice flew out of it. The hawk went on to freeze the demons around Jade as she caught her breath, "Cool..." Jade coughed, "That's what I can do..."
Rival struggled to scream and electrocute the monsters away, "Dammit, I'm getting overwhelmed!" Rival was backed into a wall as the horde surrounded him.
Jade turned over to Rival and panicked, "Help him!" She ordered the hawk, who flew over to Rival to help fight off the demons, but it was too late, Rival was beaten and clawed to the point of unconsciousness, and the guitarist fell to the floor as the demons turned their attention to Jade. Jade panted as she pushed herself up, "This can't be it..." Jade watched as her hawk was defeated and turned into dust, "Please..." The symbol reappeared underneath Jade, "Give me someone..." A giant spider came out from the symbol and shot webbing at the monsters, but that still wasn't enough as they were able to overwhelm Jade and her spider.
But not all hope was lost, as mysterious energy began to appear in the middle of the room, catching the horde's attention. The energy suddenly stopped as a man in a suit of armor stepped out, a very bulky and heavy-looking suit too. The man pulled out a small object and held it out, revealing it to be some kind of sword. "Rip and tear." The man spoke, but Jade knew that voice... it was George.
Confessional: George
"And they said playing video games would get me nowhere in life, well guess who's about to tear demons a new one?" George pointed to himself, "This guy!"
Confessional Over
Confessional: Jade
"I can't believe I'm happy to see him for once." Jade sighed in relief.
Confessional Over
"Shotgun!" Deena created a shotgun and immediately used it to blow apart a demon, the guns were very effective on the weaker demons, and they allowed Davy and Deena to keep the room under control.
Davy grinned as he raised the gravity in half the room, causing it to crush anything that dared step there, "This is so much easier than what Davy was expecting-" Davy was suddenly knocked to the floor by something that just zoomed by him, "What the?" Davy and Deena looked over to see a demon that cracked it's neck, this one was much faster than the others.
Deena turned over to the demon, "Assault Rifle!" Deena grabbed the weapon and fired at the demon, but not even that was fast enough to catch the demon, plus the fact that Deena didn't want to hit Davy either caught her, so she too was knocked to the floor by the demon. "Bucket of oil!" Deena yelled out, immediately, she poured the oil onto the ground, but obviously, the demon just jumped over it and struck Deena across the face for her troubles.
Davy got up to face the demon, but he didn't even get a chance to look at his foe when he was sucker punched in the stomach and tossed to the ground. The demon lifted Davy off the ground and headbutted him, before throwing him straight to the ground again. Davy rolled over only to get clawed across the chest as Deena herself got up. The demon turned it's attention to Deena, but that was his biggest mistake as Davy took advantage of the distraction to grab it by the leg, "Gotcha!" Davy grinned through broken teeth.
"Stupid meddling humans!" The demon kicked Davy off of it, but was shot in the back by Deena thanks to Davy's distraction. The demon yelled out in pain as Deena bit straight into it's neck and ripped out a chunk of it's throat.
Deena gagged and coughed out the piece as the demon fell to the ground and died. Deena panted in relief as Davy got back on his feet and looked over at her. "Thanks for the kill Deen." Davy let out a smile as he put his arm over his chest to stop his bleeding.
"Let's celebrate after we BARRICADE, the doors." Deena made sure to emphasize barricade, and sure enough a barricade appeared over the doors, obviously it wouldn't last forever, but it would give them some time to breathe.
Davy looked around for the 'healing' gun as Deena sighed in relief, "Hey do you know where that bandage thingy was, Davy really needs it right now."
Deena pointed over to where the gun was, "Oh yeah, it's right over th-" Deena was cut off by a demon walking up behind her and stabbing her straight through the back of the chest.
"You forgot someone human." The demon grinned as Deena fell straight to the floor and Davy watched, "Your next... you've spilled to much of our blood to be allowed to continue." The demon pointed at Davy.
Davy didn't hear anything, nor could he see anything that was happening, he just focused solely on Deena's unconscious body. Davy panted with increasing rage as the demon slowly walked towards him. Davy shook his head and looked straight at the demon, "You're dead." Davy muttered with intense anger, before running straight toward the demon.
The demon tried to stab Davy through the side, and it was successful in doing that, but Davy was too angry to notice it happening. Before the demon could react, Davy grabbed it by the throat and began to weigh down the gravity between his fist and the demon's neck.
The demon choked as it pounded on Davy's face, but Davy didn't react or say anything, he just gave a stare directly into the demon's eyes as it choked to death in front of him, not too long after, the gravity was so heavy that the demon's head popped straight off it's body. The demon's head and body fell to the ground as Davy looked over at Deena. Davy panted as the pain finally set in and he too fell to the ground...
"Take this you bastards!" George cockily laughed out as he tore through entire groups of demons, clearly he picked a good weapon to fight these creatures with. A demon tried sneaking up on George but it was killed by Jade's sword, with the robin hood helping out the cheater. The duo fought off anything that got close, to the point where the number of demons in the room slowly dwindled down.
"Retreat!" A gargoyle ordered the demons as they fled from the chapel, obviously, so they could regroup and focus on a better ambush towards the two, but George and Jade refused to give them the chance, George ran to the front of the crowd while Jade summoned every animal she could, whether it be a giant bear with super strength, or a group of hornets proficient in poisoning. "Don't let them leave!" Jade yelled out as George stomped on an imp.
"What do you think I'm doing!?" George replied in annoyance as the monsters attacked his armor, George swatted away the creatures as Jade's summons made short work of them. But it wasn't a complete victory for Jade and George, as a demon with fire abilities blasted George in the back, knocking him straight to the ground. "Augh!" George let out as a few imps jumped onto his armor and began pounding on it to reach the boy inside.
The demon grinned as it approached George, only to be stopped by Jade jumping over to attack him with her sword. Jade slashed at the demon's face and left a severe cut on its face. The demon turned around and blasted Jade with fire, which melted straight through her armor. "Eugh." Jade backed up to see her armor fall to the ground, but she wasn't completely done fighting, as her animals rushed in to protect her from the demon. The demon blasted away her bear with ease, but a cheetah she had summoned and her hornets were getting good hits on it.
"I got you." Jade smirked as she created a small step with her crystals and grabbed her blade, while the summons kept the demon busy, Jade began to run away from the step, only for her to immediately turn around and run back towards it. Jade yelled out in anger as she jumped off the step and sunk her blade straight into the demon's head, cutting it in half.
George tossed the imps off of him as he looked at Jade, "Well I didn't expect that from you of all people, guess you're a little more ruthless for demons." George laughed as Jade rolled her eyes.
"Let's just get this challenge over with, it can't take much longer." Jade looked around at the demons in the room, only around thirty actually remained there, "Let's just take care of them-" Jade stopped dead in her tracks when she saw an imp keep a claw close to Rival's neck. Jade stepped forward only for the imp to poke Rival's neck with its claw, "Uh uh uh. One wrong move and your friend here dies..." The imp grinned.
Jade stayed still in complete fear for Rival, "Jade it's a trick!" George yelled out as a skeleton snuck behind Jade and knocked her right over the head, causing her to fall unconscious. "Shit." George groaned in annoyance as more creatures surrounded him, "Well I didn't want to do this but desperate times call for desperate measures!" George wait till the demons got as close as possible when he suddenly teleported to another realm, taking the demons with him.
Jacque clicked his tongue as he waited for something to happen, "Goddamn I didn't think waiting out the challenge would be so boring." Jacque deadpanned as he waited for something, literally anything, to happen. Jacque tapped his hand on the wall impatiently before groaning. "I should just find something for entertainment down here." Jacque rolled his eyes as he walked forward.
Unfortunately for Jacque, no demons had noticed that he was even down there, so he was left bored and wandering through the sewers of Hope's Lament, so he was left bored and wandering through the labyrinth that was underneath the prison.
"Starting to think maybe I should go up there and fight some demons." Jacque laughed after saying that, "Like hell I'm gonna do that, I'd rather be bored to hell than go and fight off an army. The coward way out is the right way sometimes." Jacque chuckled as he continued walking down the halls.
"Edna..." Edna heavily panted as she stood in the center of the border that was after her, her arms had been clawed heavily, and she could hardly use them anymore, "Hasn't felt this joyful since Masteroth left..." Edna fell to the ground and began to hallucinate again, this time of Aztaroth.
"Edna." Aztaroth approached the broken girl and lifted her head up, "Don't fall now that you're winning! Use everything you have to show how you're better than those sick beasts, you're supposed to be a masochist right?"
"..right..." Edna grinned.
"Then go and power through your pain and win already, why are you wasting time?" Aztaroth ordered, "Win!"
Edna got up, "Anything for you Masteroth!" Edna chuckled before kicking away the monsters, "Edna won't fail Masteroth!" Edna yelled out as she began to use her teeth and legs to take out the monsters that got close to her. "Edna's gonna destroy you all!" Edna's eyes widened as she bit through a skeleton's neck and managed to swing her arms at a zombie near her, cutting it's stomach open.
"That's it Edna!" Aztaroth cheered her on, "You show every uncivilized creature here why you're the greatest!"
Edna laughed as she kicked a demon to the ground and bit off an imp's head before spitting it out, "Of course Masteroth!" Edna was beginning to be overpowered by monsters, though, and it was obvious she wasn't gonna last much longer. Edna panted as a zombie cut open her leg and she fell to the ground. Edna returned the favor by kicking the zombie's head off with her other leg, though she was now stuck in one place by the zombie's attack. "Edna... won't fail... Masteroth!" Edna yelled out as she jumped onto a hellhound and bit into it's neck. But Edna would fail her Masteroth, as the creatures overpowered and her and left her bloodied on the floor of the library. The monsters stood over her before running out of the room to find whoever else was left.
"Edna..." Edna gagged out, "Failed Masteroth." Edna looked on as Aztaroth stood over her.
"No, you showed them just how much it took to get rid of you Edna." Aztaroth corrected, "It took damn near everyone they had to even stand a chance against you. I'm... proud..." Aztaroth gagged out the words, "of you."
"Masteroth is proud..." Edna formed a smile on her face, "Edna... did... good..." Edna closed her eyes before she passed out.
"Where are we?" An imp looked out in confusion before getting it's head crushed under George's foot, before the other imp could react, George finished it off by cutting it in half with his sword. "Kinda panic teleported, but this ain't a bad place to be." George looked around to see he was in a very colorful world, with green pipes and brown bricks everywhere. "How much longer is this challenge anyways? It's gotta finish eventually." George asked as he began to hunt down the demons that were in the realm, that's right, George was the one ambushing demons now.
One demon tried sneaking up on George, but every time something got close to him, he'd just teleport them and himself to another realm to keep the ball in his court. Now, they were in a medieval world, where giant undead monsters roamed around. The demon turned around to see George's blade stab straight through it's torso, after that, George lifted his blade up and cut the demon mostly in half. "God this is so much more fun than I thought it'd be, I'm so glad I didn't just hide away from these guys!" George laughed as he went back to the previous world to hunt down more demons. He spotted a skeleton looking around for him and wasted no time jumping down and cutting its head off.
"I should really have more fun with my kills." George spoke to himself as he noticed a zombie about to hit him, "He swings!" George grabbed the zombie with his tendril and threw it into the air, "And he hits!" George cleaved his sword clean through the zombie, leaving blood and guts everywhere. "Not quite the thrill I wanted." George stated as he walked past the zombie's now-dead corpse. George whistled to himself as he teleported back to Hope's Lament after noticing there were no more monsters in his current universe.
George skipped into the hallways of Hope's Lament's top floor, completely catching some of the monsters there off guard, George casually tore through the monsters due to his advantage of catching them off guard. Now that the monsters were alerted, more and more of them showed up to the hallway George stood in, with him simply raising his sword in a challenging gesture. This turned out to be a huge mistake on George's part, as the demon's number and power advantage began to become apparent when it was just him vs the rest of them.
"Ok, maybe I shouldn't have done this!" George teleported himself and three other monsters to a universe with a bunch of slimes everywhere. George quickly dispatched the monsters before collapsing to the floor in relief, "Maybe I should just wait things out..." George then suddenly shot up, "Oh, who am I kidding? I can take em!" George teleported back to Hope's Lament, "Hey! We're not done yet!" George yelled at a demon before stabbing it through the head and shooting another demon with his tendrils.
While George was still confident in his victory, he made sure to use hit-and-run tactics on his foes, by teleporting away whenever he got overwhelmed and then teleporting back to get in a cheap hit. It was definitely playing dirty, but George didn't care as he just wanted to whatever it took to win. George carved off the head of the final demon and looked around the blood-soaked hallway he stood in, "Ha! I win!" George laughed in celebration as he armor and sword suddenly disappeared, time was up. "Aw." George complained, "I liked that stuff!"
"Congratulations George!" Salem suddenly appeared in front of the cheater, "You and Jacque both made it to the end of the challenge today, so you both will have to choose someone to vote off together!" Salem sarcastically clapped his hands, "I can't wait to see who you vote for..." Salem grinned before teleporting away.
George stood up tall surrounded by the corpses of a lot of demons, "Oh yeah! I'm the best!"
Jacque nearly vomited when the smell of the sewer returned to him as Salem teleported in front of him, "Congratulations Jacque." Salem again clapped sarcastically, "You and George both won, so you'll have to agree on who to vote out." Salem explained before teleporting away, not even bothering to take Jacque out of the sewers.
"Well that's helpful." Jacque stated, "I've already got an idea of who needs to go anyways." Jacque stretched his arms as he walked forward, "I just gotta get George to go along with it, but that shouldn't be too hard, I'm his only ally at this point."
"Are you sure about this?" George asked Jacque as they both went into the voting confessional, "How is this gonna help us?"
"If we wanna make it to the finale, we gotta distract the big targets first... this'll work out just fine." Jacque replied.
George rolled his eyes, "If you say so."
"Well congratulations on your victory together George and Jacque." Edwards congratulated the two on their victory, "Now it's time to see who you two voted out together." Edwards paced around the room, "Obviously, both of you are safe,"
"I live for another day!" George laughed.
Jacque didn't say anything, instead choosing to roll his eyes in response.
"...Jade."
Jade let out a small sigh of relief.
"...Davy."
"Hell yeah!" Davy yelled out.
"...Clover."
"I hope this elimination will be despair-inducing..." Clover grinned mischievously.
"Are you three feeling nervous yet?" Edwards asked the remaining three, Rival had his arms crossed patiently, Deena had a small look of worry, and Edna was chewing on her arm, "Well, the next person safe is... Rival."
Rival said nothing as he got up and left the room.
"Now here we have you two ladies, on one hand, Edna, you're completely insane and someone may want you gone just because of that, add onto the fact that it's said you like to harm the other prisoners here..." Edwards stated.
Edna panted, "Edna isn't insane, she's crazy!" Edna laughed.
"As for you Deena, you've apparently won two challenges in a row, and you talk to Davy all the time, making it seem like you have a small alliance going on with him..."
Deena crossed her arms, "Just get this over with!"
"Very well then, the person going back to jail tonight is..."
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...Deena kept her arms crossed while trying to look confident.
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...Edna continued to look around obliviously.
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..."Edna, congratulations Deena, you're safe for now."
Deena let out a small sigh of relief as Edna blinked twice.
"Awww... did Edna already lose?" Edna whined, "That's not fair!"
"That's just the game Edna," Edwards shrugged as Salem took her away, "Anyone else have any questions?" Edwards waited for someone to say something, but got no response, "Very well then. I'll see you next challenge. Hopefully, for your sake, it will be much easier for you to deal with."
The prisoners were now down to seven left, and now they were split into four groups... whether or not they'll work with or against each other has yet to be seen...
Salem sat in the same dark room that Abigor usually resided in while Edward's unconscious body lay on the floor. Abigor's body kept fading in out of consciousness as well, showing off how he was using his power.
"Something wrong Abigor?" Salem asked, "You're usually not this focused with your power."
"Salem," Abigor gave a dead stare, "Something's wrong with one of the prisoners..."
Not really much to add here lmao, just another action-packed challenge for Halloween.
Reasoning For Elimination:
I don't think anyone is too surprised that Edna ended up going here. While she was probably one of the most fun characters to write here just because of her gimmick of being doggo girl, she lost any chance at getting far without Aztaroth to interact with. She was at least dark enough to keep in the game longer than Quinn, who I had also eliminated for her personality not mixing well with the fic. Also I guess this is a little fun fact, but if Aztaroth had never found the idol and got eliminated, I think he and Edna would at least make final 5 together tbh.
[1] Six people did die, but only Chris was one of them
[2] Sorry Abigor, no shortcuts to your goal
[3] SPEARS OF GUNGNIR
Voting Confessionals:
"George doesn't get how simple this is." Jacque shrugged, "You vote out one of the crazy bitches to make the lovebirds and best friends stop paying attention to you, and then you betray them when they let their guards down or when they aim for eachother. Besides, I'm not spending any more time with both Edna and Clover, so the less manipulable one has gotta go."
George groaned in annoyance, "Jacque, this plan had better work out or I am going to slaughter you after this."
Remaining Prisoners: Clover, Davy, Deena, George, Jacque, Jade, Rival
Elimination Order:
14th ~ Romeo Darnell McFarland - The Toxic Farmer (BigBadBrad)
13th ~ Quinn Potter - The Pyromaniac Matchmaker (GirlPower54)
12th ~ Giuseppe "Picollo" Bilancia - The Clown (lordgemini) [ESCAPED]
11th ~ Monica Rosette Lee - Little Miss Perfect (xxPrincsxx)
10th ~ Matthew Matthews 'Aztaroth' - The Underground Gambler (MorbidGinger) [FREED]
9th ~ Relinda Temple - The Clumsy Waitress (BaseballCapClyde)
8th ~ Bella Prince/Edna Cullen - The Crazy Sadomasochist (BadLuckAE)