Hello, this is Andrea speaking to you readers and all players hearing.

Subject Janna has been apprehended and taken to jail at an undisclosed location. She is set to spend at least seven hours there for: murdering a supporter, mistreating her teammates Brittney and Hope, and invading a starting point without permission.

Any kind of attempted jail-breaking will be punished severely.

Oh, and there's something about an intro sequence and other players, but don't ask me anything about them, that's not my problem.

Episode 9: Planning Ahead

(At the Woods)

Star and Marco walked across the woods, though they stopped once Marco realized something. "Wait, Star, I just realized something: What is the one thing we have to do in order to finish and or win this game?"

"Hunt the other players, get their wands and use them to unlock the gate to the last level." Star answered with a smile.

"And what is the one thing we haven't done since this thing started?"

"... Hunt the other players, get their wands and use them to unlock the gate to the last level?"

"Exactly! We've been wasting time all along!" Marco exclaimed in frustration. "Let's organize a plan to actually make some progress in this game before we decide to do anything else."

"Fine, if that makes you happy." Star replied.

With that said, Star put on some logs and sat on one as Marco cut a tree with his karate chops and chopped it into a board that looked like the main outline of the woods, chopping another tree into the figures of the known players shortly afterwards. Yeah, that happened.

After doing that, Marco ripped off the branch and used it to explain the plan as Star paid attention.

"Okay, this is what we know: Jackie's of ambiguous maliciousness and we can neither trust nor distrust her, Sabrina and Alfonzo are probably relaxing somewhere else, Ferguson's nowhere to be seen, Janna, Hope and Brittney are still on the loose, Andrea's also on the loose but I don't think we need to worry about her, Oskar's dead, and Jeremy's a jerk who has the shadownomicon, and to an extent Chantelle on his side since Brittney killed her."

"So, what do we do, Captain Marco?" Star asked in excitement.

Marco took a deep breath and pointed at the mentioned figures.

"Well, from what we have seen her do, Jackie's definitely stronger than us at this moment so we can't fight her. Janna, Hope and Brittney are a little more manageable, but we'll have to either retreat or change tactics when Janna activates her ex morphus form."

"Okay, that takes care of four, but can I suggest something?" Star asked before pointing at the Jeremy figure. "Let's try to attack Jeremy first and take his shadownomicon."

"That's easier said than done, specially since he has Chantelle with him." Marco replied, scratching his chin and getting an idea shortly afterwards. "However, if we do confront him, it has to be in a terrain without water, otherwise he might summon Oskar to help him with his plans."

"Okay, what do we do about Sabrina, Alfonzo and Ferguson?" Star inquired.

"Well, Alfonzo and Sabrina could help us, but we don't know where they are. And Ferguson's nowhere to be seen, we don't know if he's alive or dead, but we do know that he's most likely a friend... that is, unless he's been forced to work with the bad guys."

Upon saying that, Star and Marco felt someone sneaking nearby, but while Marco paid attention to it, Star ignored it and said, "Do we go looking for Ferguson, then?"

Marco, however, didn't respond. Instead, he paid attention to the sneaking someone and, when it attacked, he blocked it with a kick. He immediately recognized the figure as his mother, and neither was particularly to see each other.

"Mother."

"Son."

"Hi Mrs. Diaz."

The mother and son duo stopped fighting and dusted themselves before Mrs. Diaz noticed the board and the figures. "Oh, you're planning what to do next? Let me give you a suggestion."

She leaned closer to her son and whispered her idea, giving Marco a please smile when he responded with a confused look. "Okay, I'll go there to think of that suggestion, and then I'll give you my opinion."

With that said, Marco left and his mother and Star waved goodbye as he left. Then, once he was out of sight, Mrs. Diaz took a more serious tone and turned to Star. "Star, have you been working on porking with Marco?"

"Gosh darnit, I totally forgot about that!" Star exclaimed, hitting herself in the head as Mrs. Diaz giggled in response, "Don't worry, Mrs. Diaz, I'll try to work on it as soon as I can."

"No need to panic, dear, I understand."

She then looked around for a moment before leaning closer to Star and whispering, "That, and I want you to have this."

Mrs. Diaz handed Star a pink edible pill, which made Star curious as to what it did. "What is this thing?"

"An aphrodisiac." Mrs. Diaz stated, "It isn't for Marco, though, it's for you."

"Me?"

"Yeah, when you eat it, your libido will be unlocked and highly enhanced. And once Marco sees you like that, you will act like you're being affected by some supernatural magic that can only be undone by porking, and once you two pork, the pill's effects will wear off and your libido will be locked again up until you become older."

"Is that ethically sound?"

"Hey, the only one being affected is you, and once you two do it, the effects go off." Mrs. Diaz briefly explained. "Now, keep it somewhere safe, like in your pocket or something, and once you and Marco are in a comfortable location with nobody else nearby, use it. Understood, my shooting Star?"

"...Yes, but I don't think I should try this."

"Oh, don't worry, it actually tastes quite good. That is, if you like the taste of pears."

And then they heard Marco coming back.

"He's returning, put that thing on your pocket or something!"

Star panicked, looked everywhere and eventually used her wand to encase the pill in a bubble, which she hid in her pocket just as Marco arrived. "Okay, I decided to agree with you."

"Star, this is what we'll do next: We're going to see how Janna's doing, and whether Hope and Brittney are with her or not. If they are, we leave them alone, but if she's alone or only with Hope, we'll strike her and take her wand."

"Understood."

The trio started to look around for the girl, though Star stopped Mrs. Diaz to ask her a simple question, "Why did you suggested to go after Janna first?"

"Let's just say I have a little vendetta against that piece of shit, and the less you know about it, the better." Mrs. Diaz sternly stated.

Not wanting to anger her any further, Star allowed the woman to continue, and she took out the bubbled pill and glanced at it one more time before putting it in her pocket and resuming the search.

(With Jackie)

The angry girl fumed in exasperation as she went to the water, though she stopped just before she went into it. She slowly put her finger in it and, feeling no electrical charge whatsoever, concluded that the water was fine.

"Well, the water seems fine, so at least I can work with my plans without any interventions from unexpected parties."

And then she heard someone coming. "Oh for fucks sake!"

However, when she saw that the one coming was Jeremy with a pair of tired Chantelle and Brittney, she immediately got an idea and jumped into the water. Then, when Jeremy and the shadows got near it, Jackie surfaced and gave Jeremy a malicious glare, startling the boy and making the shadows ready to counterattack.

"Greetings, young child, I'm the lady of the lake."

"You honestly think I'm stupid enough to fall for that?" Jeremy responded.

"...Yes." Jackie blurted before adding, "Okay, since you're smarter than you look, I'm going to go straight to the point: I need your help."

"The answer's no." Jeremy stated before pointing at both Chantelle and Brittney. "I already have two highly powerful shadows at my disposal, I don't need to make deals with weird girls that like to come out of the water for no reason."

Having made his opinions known, Jeremy turned around and started to leave before Jackie added, "What if I told you that I have the possession of another shadow?"

The boy stopped on his tracks, turned around and stated, "I'm listening."

Having caught his interest, Jackie walked to the ground and then to Jeremy, the boy glaring angrily as she did. "You see, we both have a kind of common enemy: Marco Diaz."

Hearing his name, an image of Marco with Monster Arm appeared in Jeremy's head. "Uh, yes, the jerk from the dojo... What about him?"

"You see, my relationship with him and Star is... complicated." Jackie went closer to Jeremy as she continued. "You see, they don't really think I'm either good or bad, so they neither trust or distrust me. I need to find a way to make them think I'm on their side."

The boy thought about it for a minute, and once he figured out the next part, he turned to see Jackie staring at him. "And that's where I come in?"

"Yes, correct answer!" Jackie cheerfully responded before grabbing the boy's shoulder and pushing him forward to her breast. "This is what I want you to do: confront Star and Marco so that I can defeat you and prove to them that I'm on their side. After that is done, I'll hand you the shadow I mentioned earlier. What do you say?"

Jeremy simply responded. "I say your boobs are bothering my face."

"Don't worry, when you get older, you'll remember this moment and realize what a lucky guy you used to be." Jackie answered with a lewd tone.

"Yeah, when I get older that is." Jeremy threateningly responded. "But for now, I don't want your oversized funbags in my face!"

Jeremy bit Jackie's breast and the girl grabbed it and screamed as Jeremy backed away and Chantelle and Brittney laughed. After recovering from the hit, the girl suddenly remembered they were near a body of water and used her powers to form tentacles, which apprehended Jeremy and his shadows.

"As you can see, I can also control water, so keep that in mind when you decide to bite my tit again!" Jackie warned before extending her arm towards the boy. "Regardless, do we have a deal?"

The kid thought about it for a moment, then consulted with his shadows, who immediately shook their heads. Jackie, in response, tightened the tentacles, and Jeremy quickly sealed the deal to not anger her any further. With that done, Jackie released the trio and leaned closer to Jeremy's ear before whispering, "This is what I want you to do..."

(Meanwhile, with Hope)

Hope, having gotten bored of waiting, decided to look for the jail Janna was taken to, hiding in the bushes to make sure she wasn't caught. "Who knew waiting could be so boring?" Hope thought. "Well, at least I found the jail, now I just need to know if I can deal with it alone or-"

However, her thoughts instantly shut up when she saw the jail itself. It looked like a giant castle, surrounded by tall silver walls and a black gate which looked like it was made of vines. There were also four towers that glowed the colors of the rainbow at random times.

"Yep, that's definitely a place I cannot go in alone," Hope mused for an idea on how to get in before remembering a particular team, "I know, I'll call in Star and Marco for assistance!"

And just as she pondered how to do that, Hope spotted some fireworks just standing nearby, which gave her an idea. "Looks like I'll need to be creative with the call."