Endgame: Pending Cancellation
"Alright, Chris," Courtney shouted, "Come out, come out wherever you are."
"You called?" Chris asked.
"Yes, I did," Courtney said, approaching him. "The world has been in your control long enough, and now we have to get rid of you."
"Oh, you think you're going to get rid of me, Courtney," Chris said, "That's rich. You honestly think you can beat me? Well, in that case, try me. I'll be waiting for you at the other side."
"Okay, we want this fight to end with as few unnecessary casualties as possible. This means you should probably only send out the people who you deem necessary," Harold said.
"So, in other words, take out only a few people," Courtney said. "Okay, I'll do that."
Courtney took only eleven others with her. They were Harold, Duncan, Heather, Sierra, Izzy, Justin, Eva, Noah, Cody, Bridgette, and DJ.
"What a lovely group of players," Chris said, "But I don't think that you'll be able to beat me."
"You'll see about that!" Courtney said.
DJ's mother arrived on the scene. DJ rode over to greet her. "This is it, Momma," he said, "If we win this one, we'll make it out alive!"
"You sure?" she asked.
"Positive," he responded.
"Then I guess I'll have to try twice as hard," she said.
Courtney and Harold attempted to fight off large groups of men in heavy armor who thought it was hilarious to attack and surround Heather, as well as get into long, uneventful fights with Duncan. Heather and Duncan were grateful to both of them, but Heather was too proud to thank Courtney, as was Duncan too proud to thank Harold.
Six strong swordfighters found Izzy an easy target. Four of them combined to almost kill her, and two others were waiting for the opportunity to get a blow in. Eva and Noah, however, were not so easy to hurt. The former went after one of the waiting, while the latter freed Izzy from her surroundings so that she could go talk to Bridgette about her pain. Justin, attempting to curry favor from that group, killed the other waiting swordfighter.
Meanwhile, Cody and Sierra, who were upset by the fact that not only the fact that their group was smaller than usual, but also that the healer were in their group, attempted to fight cautiously. DJ noticed those two were having a bit of trouble, so he decided to offer his services to them.
The twelve had a rendezvous near Chris's location, when the four available healers did their best to make sure that the Mama Staff did not get wasted on tiny wounds when they still had yet to fight Chris.
"I see you guys are persistent little creatures," Chris said, "Well, are you prepared for my reinforcements?" Four snipers who were not as skilled as Heather but were still good enough to kill Eva quickly, three men on dragons who were not as strong as Eva, but were still dangerous to Noah, and six mages who were not as clever or powerful as Noah but were still an unavoidable threat to Heather, arrived on the scene.
Heather took down one of the riders. Harold, Courtney, and Noah did their best to beat three of the mages. Izzy knocked down a sniper, as did Justin, as did Duncan. Cody and Sierra got rid of a fourth mage and a second rider respectively. Eva got rid of the final sniper, just to protect herself. Then there were three.
The remaining rider was unintelligent and attacked Izzy. One of the remaining mages was unintelligent and attacked Noah. The other was intelligent and attacked Duncan, but unfortunately, his intelligence was not enough to make the battle worth anything, and quickly afterwards, Duncan attacked him back to kill him. Once again, the group met for the purpose of healing. Afterwards, they all went to attack Chris.
The first person to attack Chris was Heather. "This is not I even came remotely close to signing up for. I want something more suitable for me. Like a spa. Not like a war!" she shouted indignantly.
"Sorry," Chris apologized non-apologetically, "But that's the way it goes, Heather. I'm going to have to keep you here. There's something I wanted to do."
"Don't even think about it," Heather shouted. She attacked him with her bow, which was fine because he had a sword equipped at the moment.
Harold was the next person to attack him. "Gosh, Chris!" he shouted, "We've had enough of this. Just stop already!"
"I'm sorry," Chris repeated, "I'd love to, but that would require doing something someone else wanted."
"Okay," Harold said, "You've just made the death list."
"I'm surprised it took you this long…" he said. Harold was able to damage Chris significantly more.
Justin decided boldly to attempt to attack Chris. Chris was not frightened. "What are you planning to do," Chris asked, "Pretty me to death?"
"Well," Justin responded, "It's worked for me before. Besides, you probably were thinking about doing the same thing."
"Yeah, well listen," Chris negotiated, "It's pointless if we try to do that to each other. We pretty people have to stick together, ya know?"
"If I have to stick with you," Justin reasoned, "You don't get to be pretty anymore."
"You don't get to decide that!" Chris shouted, "I'm prettier than you!" Justin slashed at Chris and did some damage, although not as much as Chris did to him. Bridgette rushed over to heal him, and then rode away as quickly as she could so that Chris would not reequip and attack her.
Duncan decided to stand by, but not attack Chris. Izzy was not so cautious. "Izzy," Chris said.
"Chris," Izzy responded.
"Why don't you join my side?" Chris asked, "After all, we've always been working together. You've been my favorite the whole time, you know that?"
"I know I've been your favorite," Izzy said, "I wonder why though… and it also doesn't mean I'll do what you say!"
"Why not?" Chris asked, "We're best friends, right Izzy?"
"I have friends here," Izzy argued, "Don't hate me Chris… but, I'm siding with them."
Izzy spun around rapidly with her axe, and delivered what appeared to be the final blow to Chris. Everyone was surprised. The alleged overlord seemed far too easy to beat. But, like everything that seems too good to be true, it was.
Chris sat down on the ground. He started laughing maniacally, and his body began glowing. "You really think that was enough to kill me? I am the overlord! You're going to have to try harder than that." He equipped a lance and aimed it at Duncan.
"Duncan! My man!" Chris greeted before launching.
"Listen, Chris," Duncan said, "I ain't your man. And I will do anything to stop you."
Duncan nearly died from the blow, but thankfully DJ was around to heal him. Many people hoped to attack him, but realized that they could not do any damage to him at all. The only people who could were Sierra, who still held onto Monica's stone, and Courtney, with the CI Tome.
Sierra got the first strike in. "Why did you betray me?" she asked.
"Uh, what?" Chris asked.
"You betrayed me!" she shouted, "In my head we were always friends. And all my other friends were jealous because I had someone like you! Why would you throw that away?"
"I'm sorry, Sierra," Chris said in a way that was all too familiar, "I love having you around to stroke my ego…but apart from that, nothing was going to happen between us."
"How…how could you lie to me?" Sierra asked, starting to cry, "I won't forgive you!" She hit him with her dragon breath, which hurt, but was not nearly enough to kill him. His response did significant, albeit non-deadly damage to her.
Courtney attacked second. "Chris!" Courtney shouted, "You have taken this game way too far!"
"Sorry, Courtney," he said, once again, insincerely, "I'm just doing my job."
"No job requires this!" Courtney yelled, "This is sadistic to a new extreme!"
"Well, let's just say that if any job did require it, I would so apply for that job," Chris said.
"You're going down!" Courtney shouted, shining some light at him. Bridgette healed Courtney and was able to head away. However, Noah, who healed Sierra was unable to get out of the line of fire. Eva picked him up and planned to fly out of harm's way, but was unable to. Surprisingly, Chris moved to attack her. He said, "It's been a great game, everyone! Now, it's time for you all to be ELIMINATED!" He laughed loudly. Thankfully, he missed the first time, because even though Noah was light enough to carry, the extra weight was enough to slow Eva and the dragon down to the point where Chris could hurt her twice—which would have been enough to kill her.
Immediately afterwards, Izzy took Noah from Eva and dropped him next to Cody. Eva flew her dragon over to where Harold was, and allowed him to heal her, because Noah was still bewildered by all the people moving him. Courtney and Sierra once again tried again to kill Chris. Courtney hit Chris with a large ray of light, and Sierra hit him with her dragon breath.
Chris thought that it would be really funny to attack Noah. Chris had three quarter chances of killing him and one quarter chances of missing him completely. Noah was terrified, but irony saved him in the time he needed it the most. Sierra and Courtney did not care about Noah specifically but were angry that Chris would attack people who were not only unable to strike back but also fragile.
Sierra showed this anger by sending out a breath of flame that was three times as powerful as most. Courtney showed it by hitting Chris with a ray of light in the most lethal way possible. That was enough for Chris to die. "What… the heck?" he asked, "This wasn't supposed to happen! The show can't go on…without me…"
"Chris…" Courtney said, "You had every chance to change your ways. You never did… I'm sorry that I had to kill you… but you left me no choice…"
"Courtney," Duncan said, "Don't worry about it. It's Chris."
"I know. I know he doesn't deserve my pity. I know…" Courtney said, "It's just that…I… I just can't believe it's finally over." Courtney collapsed.
"Courtney!" Duncan shouted, concerned.
"It's okay," Harold assured, "She's only fainted."
"Well, that's still not a good thing," Duncan said, picking up Courtney. "Come on. We've gotta get out of here."
Duncan, Harold, and the others attempted to leave the room. They were stopped by a mysterious man. "Excuse me? Who are you?" he asked.
"I think we should be asking that," Duncan said, holding out his knife.
"No," the man said, "Please… I just want to know if you're the ones that killed Chris."
"We did," Duncan said. "Why?"
"We want to thank you," he said. Dozens of people walked out into the open, and applauded their efforts.
Courtney woke up from her unconscious state. "What? What's going on?"
"We're heroes!" Harold shouted, "Heroes!"
"We're… we're famous!" Heather said, "For doing something smart!"
Soon the room filled with more people. Everyone was erupting in applause. Courtney said, "They like us! They really like us!"
"Of course they do," Duncan said.
"Oh, Monica," Courtney said, "I don't think you have to worry about the network dying…"
"Oh my gosh!" shouted Josh, who appeared out of nowhere, then made his way through the crowd. "Can I get a scoop on the heroes?"
"Oh, absolutely," Courtney answered. The rest of Courtney's Resistance followed Josh out of the room, and then the large group of onlookers followed them out.
Author's Note: Goodies for this chapter include unit descriptions (Blaineley), death quotes (Blaineley), alternate battle dialogue (Blaineley arrives; Courtney talks to Blaineley; Ezekiel fights Chris; Lindsay fights Chris; Blaineley fights Chris), alternate versions of the beginning and ending dialogue (Harold died; Duncan died; Heather died; both Harold and Duncan died; all of them died; Josh was not spared), Courtney and DJ's Support (Level A), Courtney and Heather's Support (Level A), Alejandro and Bridgette's Support (Level A), Alejandro and Heather's Support (Level A), Alejandro and Owen's Support (Level B-A), Katie and Justin's Support (Level A), Sadie and Justin's Support (Level A), Bridgette and Leshawna's Support (Level A), DJ and Leshawna's Support (Level A), Geoff and Gwen's Support (Level A), Gwen and Cody's Support (Level A), Noah and Izzy's Support (Level C-A), Cody and Trent's Support (Level A), Tyler and Harold's Support (Level A), Harold and Heather's Support (Level A), Harold and Beth's Support (Level A), Leshawna and Lindsay's Support (Level A), Eva and Ezekiel's Support (Level A), Eva and Izzy's Support (Level B-A), Heather and Lindsay's Support (Level A), Heather and Beth's Support (Level A), Justin and Beth's Support (Level A), Justin and Owen's Support (Level B-A), and Owen and Izzy's Support (Level A).