A lot of people got the point of a castle wrong. It was good for defence, but that wasn't why it was there. A castle is a place of safety. It's extremely expensive to siege it so you can go back into your castle hide away from the enemy and then leave to raid their vulnerable supply lines. Castle's biggest benefit was as a staging point.

I was in Pennywise's castle but it didn't get the reason to have a castle. It was much stronger in this location of his power, much more able to act in the world against the status quo. It could use the most powerful fear magic. Maturin had confirmed that this was how his power worked. If Sewer Clown was a smart villain, it would be using it to attack my vulnerable supply lines. Instead, it had launched a raid out of it to capture little old me.

And with Amanda? And Jigsaw? I hadn't seen that coming but that didn't change anything. Jigsaw was extremely good at capturing people and setting traps, but he also had a spirit of fairness that meant you stood a good chance of escaping his traps. None of the traps in Saw 1 or 2 were unavoidable- if the people had cooperated, there were ways they could have escaped, and his traps were just steel and plastic at the end, I could break them. Amanda might be a bit worse on her own, but I had a hard counter to her ready.

Regardless, I didn't have to survive forever. I knew I wasn't safe. I knew Pennywise could come after me at any time with overwhelming force. I was ready to destroy his supply lines, as he focused all of his attention on me and I had cavalry coming to rescue me. I was in the heart of his castle, the place of his strength, and he was gonna pay for that. I just had to keep him interested and focused on me.

I carefully shut down the emotional control aspect of Gamer's Mind.

I saw Pennywise in his white makeup, wearing an old suit, with a bow tie, with that circular cheek makeup that Jigsaw loved, with that thin dark hair hanging lose, I felt my pulse race, my fingers go sweaty. I could die here.

I checked the party interface and it was locked off except for my body's parents. Figures. All alone.

I looked around some more. I was the first up- toxin resistance or Gamer's body, one had fast healed me. Pennywise was there next to a big red series of buttons bolted into the cave wall.

So, arms. My left arm was tied up and next to the knife and a keypad- disabled, looking at the wiring. I imagined the intention was that we would get the knife and ram it into the rope at an awkward angle and cut ourselves. I had flexible bones. I dislocated my fingers, and with a bit of lost skin and effort managed to yank my hand free.

Strength check succeeded- 18/15

I grabbed the knife, and checked the lock of the handcuffs. They were too tight- painfully tight. That was- oh crap. I was getting too nonchalant about pain. There were sharp spikes coming out from them, facing inwards, now dripping with some of my blood. If I tried to yank them off, I'd slice up my arm. Might be worth it but... There was one on my wrist… two on my lower arm… two higher up. I was locked down pretty hard to the chair. It's almost like they didn't trust me. The others weren't locked down this much. Chair was steel, I couldn't rip it with raw strength.

I summoned a lockpick with Lockpick and got to work with on the top handcuff. This would be easier if I had the perk that let me cut off limbs but you couldn't have everything.

"They won't be able to hear me. It's sad eating adults. Their flesh- no fear. No imagination in them. I can kill them of course, but it's boring. The meat, ugh. No taste." Pennywise made peh sounds above me, spittle flying over me. I shivered. "This little contraption- well. It will change things." Said Pennywise to me, as he stroked his hands over my head.

"I- I-" I meant to say some witty catch phrase, but I found my hand shaking, my voice shaking I couldn't-" Pennywise leaned down, and licked my face, his slimy tongue raw on my face.

"Tasty." He said, before moving on.

Shit. I dropped the lockpick. I had 19 perk points left in the tank. I had used a lot to prep for this war. I didn't know he'd bring Jigsaw in, but I was ready for something. 6 more on the upgraded gacha perk, and I got a paper clip. I got back to work, breathing slow to keep my hand steady.

The others were starting to wake up and as they moaned and groaned and asked where they were I kept on going at freeing myself.

Georgie's mother looked up, blinking. "Where are we?" She struggled against her bonds. Sharon Denbrough. Pianist, not the most useful skill for escaping traps. But she had my clear and enlightened mind perks so she should be stable.

Pennywise licked her as well. She shrieked, and looked up. "Who- what is that?" She said looking side to side, eyes racing, pulse racing.

Pennywise spoke. "That fear- well, I could get used to this. There's a certain rigidity to it, a lack of imagination- but you'll fill me up just fine. This mechanized fear works even on adults."

I needed them as allies. I didn't know the others. Using the knife, I quickly freed Sharon, and spoke to her. "There's a knife there, be ready, I'll save you."

I turned to my side. Zack Denbrough. Georgie's papa. Electrician, he'd helped me on wiring megatron and with my party present for Jigsaw. A bit more unstable than his wife.

"Let me out! Let me out!" He said, straining against his ropes, his skin flushed.

"Zack! It's Georgie. I need you!" I said.

He focused on me. "I can't get out! I can't get out!" And kept struggling.

I opened the party interface. Maturin had given me a few upgrades.

New game

Stats

Perks

Ka-tet

Options

Mental mind click on Ka-tet. New game was still greyed out.

Khef/ Personal upgrades

Ka tel/ Party interface

Dinh/ Community upgrades

Party interface, mental mind click.

Zack Denbrough

Stat box removed, since you have bigger issues right now.

Current emotional state. Terrified.

Activate chat, voice or text, y/n?

Activate abilities

Clear thinking (1/day)

Enlightened mind (1/day)

Mark of Maturin (0 charges)

I could remotely trigger his abilities now since he was a party member. With a thought I activated Clear Thinking and Enlightened Mind giving him a moment of supreme clarity with 10 extra wisdom making him slightly, but not much more, wise than an average person.

He got a dazed look in his eyes as enlightenment struck.

Sharon spoke. "Just remember the symphony. Let it calm you- he can help."

He started humming Beethoven's fifth, as I sliced his rope and freed it. I had agile hands. I managed to slice the rope off without slicing him up.

As I did, Pennywise pushed forward a small tv stand. Everyone looked.

On it, Jigsaw, in Pennywise makeup, spoke.

"Welcome and greetings. I suspect all of you wonder where you are. You are in the sewers, but your location is unimportant. What is important is that each of you are terrible people. Alvin Marsh, you molest and beat your daughter, all while pressuring her to stay pure because you have no purity yourself. Sonia Kaspbrak, you poison your child for attention, never making anything of value. Johannas Creman, you pushed down reports of murder and corruption in this town because of bribes from the mayor, wasting them on expensive luxuries. Zack Denbrough, your anger and emotion issues make you a poor father, and a poorer electrician. Sharon Denbrough, you wasted your talent as a pianist to become a housewife, and sit at home watching drivel and make nothing of yourself.

One is not terrible. Georgie, a child with a deep fascination with the solar system, exploring, and making things. There are buttons on your chair. Each round, when you press them- one to six, counter-clockwise starting at Johannas, one of you will die. If you wait, you will die. As a child, Georgie's vote does not count. Will you sacrifice a child to save yourselves? If your vote is not enough, add weight to your tube. Whoever sacrifices most will win the vote. Make your choice. You have one minute." And the video stopped.

I finished unlocking the first handcuff. Resting the knife on my lap, I gently eased it off, put it on my lap. Center of our trap, pipes for a bit of extra weight, ready for people to slice off limbs and stick them in.

Sharon spoke up. "We can't kill a child- our son. Why not kill a rapist? Alvin Marsh. You sick fucker." She spat at him.

He spoke back. "She lied about that. Little whore. I knew I shouldn't let her out. I say we kill the kid." He had been bound like me with ropes on one hand and handcuffs on the other. He had yanked one hand free, left some skin, and was shaking his fist at me.

"He got us in this, I bet!"

I was almost done on the second handcuff. Georgie spoke to me. "You can handle this right?"

"I'm gonna need all your belief later. Luck is gonna save us." Georgie nodded in my head, and hid behind my Gamer's mind wall, while I got to deal with locks and wet pants.

We had a few seconds left. Everyone had voted and I was pretty sure I was the target.

I used my trump card. I tossed my handcuffs in my mother's glass tube. Intention was probably to sacrifice body parts, but weight traps worked with weight, not blood. They really hadn't been that creative when they saw this trap in Saw 6. Toss your clothes in at least, you idiots. The handcuffs clattered down it, as Alvin started to swear.

"Oh shit! He said. There was a pounding hydraulic sound, as his chair opened up, long with his back. He screamed, as his back was opened up, blood dripping out, tendrils of broken flesh hanging down. And he screamed.

Almost there- I felt Pennywise behind me. He grabbed the roundabout trap we were all stuck in. He was about to spin it! I activated clear thinking as his inhuman strength started to spin us all. Almost there- there. The second handcuff was about to-

Dex check faile-

I didn't read the rest, as we span around. The blades on the handcuffs dug into my flesh painfully. Blood dripped down my arm. The paperclip spun out of my hands to the floor. Clear mind, butter fingers. As we slowed though, my head wasn't swimming so I triggered my Gachaman perk on Sharon, and pulled out a hairpin from her hair, a common item of my choice, and got to work again on the third lock. 7 perk points left.

Two parents vs two voters. Weight would determine things now.

Johannas immediately got to work. He'd gotten the knife from his side, and was slicing and cutting up pieces of Alvin and tossing it into his glass tube, a bloody and slow job.

He spoke, his voice distorted. "I'm not gonna kill a kid- but the father sounds useless. No will, no focus, emotional."

Crap. I couldn't save my- his parents in time. I didn't have time.

"Trigger the perk." I told Georgie.

"It costs so much!"

"Do it anyway."

Lucky arrival. Using your base luck, twist the lines of fate so that aid arrives faster. Uses Ka-tek charges and your base luck score. Powerful foes can delay this. Current time reduction with max ka-tek charges, 35 minutes.

I urged Bill to rush closer. I'd armed him. We were currently the silly adults who needed the smart kids to save them. We still had some luck charges left. You got 1 per hour per group, and it had been a week. 100 charges burnt to rush them to us. 70 left.

I managed to get the third lock off, on my upper arm. I had a bit more flexibility now. Two more to go. I needed to stop him.

I took one of the handcuffs, and tossed it at him. He grabbed it out of the air, and tossed it in his tube.

Well, that was less effective than I'd hoped.

I glanced at the corridor exit. No one was coming. The body parts were sliding down the tube, making his vote count for more, bloody flesh sliding down. I needed an edge.

I looked over at the chairs, trying to find an out. I could start slicing at myself- cut off my hand. But I had two handcuffs off. I'd need to lose a lot of arm. I'd bleed out.

"Please, don't let my parents die!" said Georgie. Georgie's father let out a scream, and tried to shake his way out of the chair.

I didn't know- oh, yeah. "Give me the knife!" I told Sharon. She paused for a second. "I'm not gonna cut myself" I promised. "And then she handed it to me.

I had over 50 ranks in throwing. And with my upgraded luck, I could see my chance of hitting my target. A coin toss. I activated my luck perk, gaining +10 luck, tossed in 25 of my stored luck points to stack the decks, and turned on the other luck perk.

Stacked decks. When facing imminent death, you cheat and find a way to survive, once a day. A substantial increase in success in times of extreme danger. 3 perk points.

I tossed the knife at the wiring for the voting keypad for Johannas, slicing apart the wires. Million to one chance. All that blood, useless now because he hadn't voted first.

Meanwhile, I got to work on the third handcuff. I think I had this one I could do it faster.

Pennywise strolled over to me.

"You little cheat. Breaking the game." It grabbed my hair, and slammed me down against the chair's steel frame. Stars flooded my vision.

100 damage done by Pennywise's punch.

I shook my head. I had a bit left, because I had kept all my HP from my previous levels up. 10 HP left. I felt woozy.

Brain damage! 30% debuff on mental and physical stats. Partially negated by gamer's body and gamer's mind.

I activated desperate struggle, clearing the remaining debuff, and popped off the next handcuff. One to go.

Pennywise was walking to his console, on the wall.

"He told me to use this if they misbehaved, well, lets see." He grinned back at me, and pressed one of the red buttons.

A bear trap erupted around It's hand and foot. The blades stabbed into It, making his clown skin bleed.

"Betrayal! How could you- Kramer." Pennywise said, looking at Johannas.

Oh, that was them. Well that was obvious. With the name, and how he spoke- in my defense, I was distracted by being trapped by a sewer clown and a mentally ill cancer patient.

Pennywise tried to yank his way out but the trap proved more durable than it expected.

A well designed grandmaster trap is opposing a demigod level entity! You have ten seconds.

I was prompted. I got to work on my final handcuff.

Pennywise giggled, and spoke. "I guess I'll just come for you then." It reached out his free arm, and reached out for me. It's arm extended, impossibly far, getting closer, and closer, reaching for my neck… or not. Them. It grabbed my mother's neck and squeezed. I could hear the bones grind as she choked out her breath. I heard Georgie scream in my head, saw her look at me, mouthing words.

I needed out now.

I dislocated the bones in my hand, and yanked out the final handcuff. The spiked raked my hand bloody, and stuck in my arm. Fuck. I had to break my promise. With little hesitation, I took the knife, activated inhuman strength, and slammed it down on my wrist, breaking bone and flesh as I ripped off my hand. It'd grow back. I got off the chair, and leapt at Pennywise, still flush with strength.

I smacked It in the face, channeled the power of Maturin, and started the Ritual of Chud. I had burnt offerings before, doing the ritual with my new Magic User perk as it was time for me to serve as a distraction. I needed a sacrifice of my own to trigger it, and tossed in my 7 remaining luck points. The tattoo of the turtle burned, as a memory that wasn't mind flashed through my surface thoughts.

Elsewhere.

Ben, Richie, Stan, and Eddie sat together legs over the waterfall, green trees bright behind them, a big box of military hardware. They oohed and ahhed as they ate sticky sweats meant to stain teeth with sugary goodness, legs with naught but shorts waving over the edge.

A massive explosion erupted in front of them. An improvised grenade, the components bought by Bill's parents and upgraded by that strange man inside Georgie's mind exploded, sending streams of colour throughout the air.

Richie laughed. "You call that a grenade? This is a grenade." He said, doing a Paul Hogan impression. He took out a stick of dynamite, lit the end, took the controller for Megatron, and tossed the stick.

Megatron aimed their gun, and fired a burst of gunfire, aiming after the heat source. The gunfire detonated the explosive, sending a ripple of heat and shrapnel through the air. The boys whooped and cheered.

Richie thumbed his radio and spoke to Beverley on it. "What's the delay with the bigger weapons? Did a clown eat you? Over."

Beverley spoke back. "Eat a bag of dicks, over."

Richie laughed, and stuck a big sticky purple sweet in his mouth. The radio buzzed again.

"They're coming for us! The clowns are coming!" Said Ben. Everyone looked at each other, and murmured nervously.

Everyone picked up their guns, off the red white and blue Captain America themed picnic basket, and looked in every direction nervously.

Will spoke. "Do you think these guns will work? The man didn't describe the clown very well. It could be anything."

Stan shrugged "How? We don't even know what to look for. He wasn't a very good Gandalf. He got us guns, but didn't even train us well."

All of them shook their heads at this. Eddie let off a rattle of gunfire into the trees.

"I saw something! I saw something" He said. Everyone turned in that direction. Out of the trees stepped a very sick looking person. Their flesh drooped off, flies buzzed over open wounds, and an instant smell of death and decay wafted off them. They had a few bullet holes in them, dripping congealed blood.

"Steve?" Asked Eddie, stepping back- "You're- no, I remember the song Macgyver gave me. Disease makes you bleed, fire makes it recede! Die clown Steve!"

He tried to fire, judged the kick back poorly, dropped his gun, a bullet going off and bouncing into the forest. He then picked up the controller for the robot, span the robot around, and pointed them at Steve.

"Come give me a hug"

Said Steve, opening his hands, walking forward very slowly. As they moved, fire rushed out from the robot's flamethrower, engulfing and burning them. Steve screamed, and twisted and burned as the hot fire rushed over them. As though there had been a mirage, their legs vanished, replaced by eight spider like legs. They pottered around, screaming, and collapsed, the smell of burnt diseased flesh making everyone gag.

From the woods emerged another emerged. A woman, whose face looked a lot like Gard, another one of Henry Bower their bully's face, one with elongated nails and fingers, and a twisted face. Stanley stepped back, his hands shaking, letting off a nervous flurry of bullets. Elongated necks, crooked faces and empty eyes stared back at him, his horror, a terrifying painting come to life.

"Paint may be pretty, but fire burns you quickly!" he said, taking the controller. Bad art proportions were no defense against the automatic firepower of Megatron, who set her on fire. Her skin melted like oil, and she collapsed to the ground, rolling, spider legs emerging from her lower body.

Two more emerged. An Egyptian mummy, covered in bandages, and a corpse of Richie with a found picture on the front. Two more fears, both extremely vulnerable to flames. Spider legs emerged from their lower bodies as well, the illusion dispelled.

Ben spoke. "This is… weird. How do their legs even support them? The physics shouldn't work like that.

"Magic." said Richie.

Ben glared at him. "That's not an explanation!" He said.

Richie shrugged. "A wizard did it?."

As they spoke, the four monsters started to finish rolling, putting out the fire, their flesh not so damaged as to prevent movement. They got up again.

The four boys opened fire. They fired gunshots, tossed grenades, drew out weapon after weapon from the box, sending ripples of fire and death into them. Each shot hit, each blast touched, but none put them down. Their wounds faded, and they kept moving closer, and closer.

The boys backed right up to the cliff. "On three-" Said Richie

"One-"And he jumped in.

"You bastard" Said Stanly. He pressed a button on the controlled for Megatron, and jumped as well.

The other two followed shortly after. I had packed Megatron with a lot of explosives. He wasn't that maneuverable, and wasn't especially effective. I'd added some metals to make it pretty colours, some fireworks.

The vision faded, as I saw them pick up a radio. Bill had a way to get them to the clown! I had given everyone my tattoo, and we were all linked. They were coming for me. As were others. I came back to the present.

I stared into Pennywise's eyes. It'd cracked my power like a hand cracked a bubble before. Now I had the ritual on my side. I pressed my blood dripping hand against It, stemming the flow, and shoved It against the wall, as my will smashed against its. I wasn't alone any more. I had Cure, Georgie, Sharon, Zack, Eve, and Ethan with me now. We were linked with a second family of seven. We had this.

Its will cracked back into him, a toxic feedback hurting It more than me. I slammed them into the stone wall, the trap coming with them in a flow of black blood, my accelerated healing already stemming the blood flow on my wrist, slowing the dropping of my very meager health.

"I know you have the turtle backing you. It won't matter. I prepared." Said Pennywise.

And then from a side corridor, Amanda stepped, in all her horrifying glory. That was unfair. I was meant to be using pure willpower to hold back IT, he wasn't supposed to have a minion stab me in the back while we were mind dueling.

Kramer wasn't interfering at least. Pushing Pennywise against the wall with my blood soaked arm stump, I grabbed at my throat and ripped out a card. From that store I had gotten many magical items, and this one was a doozy. Picture of Elvis wrapped in an anti magic plastic wrap, Gave the viewer an addictive orgy with Elvis Presley.

"Take this, you fucking addict." I said. I slipped off the protective cover, felt the effect heighten, and tossed it at Amanda's face. She grabbed it, and instantly collapsed, spider legs coming out of her lower body.

"You're a cheap copy!" I said, and spat at her. Then I turned back to Pennywise. "I don't fear you, or any of your tricks. My friends crushed your babies. They'll crush you too. Pennywise laughed, a hacking laugh, and I felt the pressure against me increase. Where before it had been a tap against my mental barriers, now, it was a constant pressure.I felt cracks start to form.

I saw the enormity of the deadlights, began to see what he really was.

"They killed a few of my babies." I have lots more. He clicked his fingers. His head exploded in a mess of blood, as Ethan stepped forward a shotgun in hand, breaking his stealth. Behind him Eve came, and behind Eve, came a long and endless horde of corpses.

I had guessed some of Pennywise's babies might be coming. He had this massive pile of corpses ready. What for? Well, now they were zombies under my command, not baby clowns. While I was at the center of his castle, his farmlands had been razed and burnt for my army.

A child with blonde ragged hair, teeth dropped out, flesh dripping, screamed. "You killed me!" And charged at Pennywise, smashing their fist into him. It was a hard, wet thud, the sort you only get with strength beyond mortal forms.

It was my time to ambush him while having a mind duel.

I mean, Kramer obviously wasn't gonna let Pennywise go free without trapping him once at least. That's his whole thing. Pennywise is not the smartest clown in the sewer.

It is canon lore that Pennywise is a female spider with lots of babies. I decided that the way she would grow them would be inside children corpses they murdered. Now, those corpses are zombies, and they want vengeance for being murdered.

Thorison1080. Well, it's a double crossover now.

Guest. The ramming shall continue.

Watermeloninja. Pennywise just summoned Kramer, as his scene showed. Amandawise was pumped up on sewer clown magic and did a stealthy super strength ambush.

Many others. It comes. The story is back, and the new stories await. Soon.

Next time, the conclusion, and into Saw 3.