CHAPTER NINE: Breaking Point
After the revelation of who the anarchist was, and texting Jessica and Emily that she needed to talk to the both of them, Beca flew back to Casa Bella. When she arrived, she got into the van, and put on her regular clothing, ditching the outfit into a bag in the trunk. Then, as she made her way up the steps, she noticed an envelope on the front door. She grabbed it off, and opened the door.
When she walked in, what she saw made her unsure whether to feel uncomfortable, aroused, or both. All of the Bellas were in their pajamas, or their pajama tops, hitting each other with pillows. "You know, this is… disturbing, to say the least." Beca said, unsure of what else to say. "Disturbing, yet wonderful! I forgot what it was like to have a pillow war. Emily came up with the idea, as a means of relieving stress." Chloe said, cheerfully, as Emily blushed. "Well, while you guys were doing whatever-the-Hell this is, I was at work. And when I got back, this is what I found on the front door." Beca responded, handing the envelope to Chloe.
When Chloe was about to open it, all of the Bellas surrounded her. When she did open the envelope, she read the letter out loud, saying, "Barden Bellas, you are very cordially invited to a party." The rest of the letter was just giving instructions on how to dress, what would be going on at the party, and where and when it would be taking place. "Sounds fun!" Fat Amy said. "I'm game." Stacie chimed in, as the others nodded in agreement. "Then it's settled." Chloe said. "Suit up, aca-badasses. We're going to a party!" Beca finished.
As the girls readied themselves for the party, which was a few hours, Jessica and Emily made a gesture to Beca that said 'we need to talk to you'. Beca followed them into Emily's room, and, after closing the door, Jessica sat on the bed, and said, "So, what the Hell happened with the masked guy? Did you find out who he was?" Beca frowned, and her heart began to sink again. "Yeah, I did. Jess, it's Tom." Beca said, sadly. Jessica's eyes widened. "Tom?! As in, Tom Matthews?!" She questioned, as Beca nodded her head. "Who the Hell is Tom Matthews?" Emily asked. "Chloe's ex-boyfriend." Jessica stated, bluntly.
"Holy shit. Well, that could be a problem." Emily responded. "Yeah. Chloe broke up with Tom because she realized that she wasn't attracted to guys, and that their relationship didn't really go anywhere beyond sex. It's weird, though. Tom never really showed any signs of being an asshole, let alone a borderline psychopath. And that isn't just my perspective. Chloe went on and on about how nice he was, during and not during sex." Beca said. "Maybe it was all an act. Maybe it was just a cover for his real personality." Jessica responded.
"Damn. Well, at least the dick isn't our problem anymore, right? I mean, he is behind bars." Emily questioned. "That doesn't make him any less dangerous. There's still the risk that he could escape. That, and…" Beca stopped at that point, biting her lip. "What? Did he do something?" Jessica asked. "No, but he said, right before you ran him over, that he knows what I am, and what all of my powers are, and that he knows me." Beca said, and she sighed after she did so.
"Holy shit. Does that mean he knows who you are?" Emily asked, nervously. "I'm not sure. He could. I mean, you guys found out pretty easily, remember?" Beca said. "Yeah, but those were on accident. Look, Becs, let's try and put this out of our minds for a while. If we keep worrying about it now, we'll all lose a ton of sleep and free time. Now, let's get ready to just hang out, and have a good time." Jessica said. Beca sighed, and responded with, "Fine. But I wanna tell Chloe about this. I think she deserves to know." Jessica nodded her head in agreement. "I think she does, too. Go tell her, and we'll get ready."
As Beca got up to leave, Emily grabbed her arm, saying, "Wait!" Beca turned around. "What?" She asked. "Now that we're all in on this, we should have some kind of secret handshake, right?" Emily proposed her idea. Beca gave a look on her face that said, "Really?" But Emily gave Beca the thing she hated the most: the puppy-dog face. "Dammit, Jessica, why did you tell her my weakness was the puppy-dog face?" Beca asked, making Jessica burst out laughing. "Fine. When one of us comes up with a secret handshake, we'll tell each other, mmkay?" Beca said to the two girls. Both nodded their heads in agreement, before Beca left the room.
Beca made her way to Chloe's room, and knocked on the door. "Chlo? You in there?" She asked. "Yeah! Come in!" The redhead said, through the door. Beca did as instructed, and saw Chloe wearing a blue skirt, and a bright orange shirt, making Beca's heart skip a few beats. "Damn. She has a good taste in clothing." Then, she mentally slapped herself, as she remembered that it wasn't the time to start questioning who she was attracted to.
"So, what's up?" Chloe asked, smiling. Beca sighed, and began to talk. "I was at work today, and when the news came on, a broadcast said that the police had captured the guy who attacked the car show. They pulled off his mask, and… well, Chloe, it was Tom." Chloe's eye began twitching after Beca said that. "W-what? What did you just say?" She questioned. "The guy who attacked the car show was Tom. I'm really sorry, Chlo." Beca said, sincerely apologetic, and unsure of how much of a hard blow this had to be for Chloe. "Oh. It's just that… wow. I just never saw him as a bad guy, or somebody who would threaten hundreds of lives, or… something." She said. Beca pulled her friend into her arms, and gave her a hug, which Chloe returned by wrapping her own arms around Beca.
After a few seconds, Chloe opened up her arms, and put them at her side. "Well, thank you for telling me this. I think you should go and get ready." Chloe said, looking at the ground, with no emotion in her voice. Beca nodded her head, and said, "Yeah. Will do, Chlo. And, if you need anyone to talk to, about anything, I'm a few doors away." She then left the room, but, as she closed the door, she heard sobbing behind Chloe's doors.
A few hours later, the group left in the van, and headed for the place where they were instructed to go, which, as it turned out, was a mansion. The girls got out of the van, walked up to the door, rang the doorbell, and heard someone with a slight southern drawl ask, from the other side of the door, "What's the password?" Beca responded with what she was told to say on the card, which was, "Iron Man sucks!" Then, the door was opened, and a short, bald man riding a scooter was revealed. "Bellas! Come in, come in!" He said, riding his scooter into another room.
The Bellas, in spite of being a little perplexed by who appeared to be the host, followed him into his kitchen. "Welcome to my humble abode! Now, since you've all read the rules, I just wanna say-HEY!" He began to suddenly shout at Fat Amy, who was touching some sort of Golden Goose statue, only to suddenly stop. "Never touch another man's goose. Now, where was I? Oh, right! Enjoy the party, and follow me." He continued, as he pulled on a bottle of wine, which opened a secret door in the kitchen, revealing a path which he began to ride down.
When the pathway ended, it revealed a gigantic party room, with a disco ball and a music player, as well as other guests. As the girls began to explore the room, Beca was tapped on the shoulder. When she turned around, she saw her ex-boyfriend, Jesse, smiling awkwardly at her. "Hey, Becs." After making Beca swallow her gum, she said, "Jesse?! What are you doing-" She was then interrupted by the host talking into a microphone, saying, "Welcome, ladies and gentleman, to the Laser Ninja Dragon Riff-Off!"
As soon as the host said this, multiple guests started cheering, and other groups began to walk into the center of the room. Said groups included, but weren't limited to, the Treblemakers, the former bad boys of Barden, until Jesse and Benji 'converted' them, the Tone Hangers, the Frank Miller Batmen of Acapella, the Green Bay Packers, who were there 'just because', and Das Sound Machine, or, as Beca called them, Discount Hydra, despite the fact that she was not a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or superhero movies in general, or Cinemasins.
Beca saw Kommissar, the tall, blonde leader of 'Discount Hydra', smirking at her. She gave Kommissar a death glare that would scare you into bending to her every whim. As the rules were explained, which mentioned a reward about a $42000 gift card to Dave and Buster's, Beca mostly thought about something she had been debating for quite some time: leaving for New York to find Hancock. Her distraction was interrupted when she heard the host say something along the lines of, "And, coming here all the way from New York as my good friend, please welcome, the guest of honor, Mr. John Hancock!" Before the man himself stepped into the spotlight, smiling as he did so.
Beca's heart began to race, and her mind went somewhere else, somewhere indescribable, until the first category was selected. "Ooh, songs about butts!" The host exclaimed. As the other Bellas began making a 'plan of attack', as Chloe called it, Beca was still in a trance, until Jessica and Emily called out to her. "Beca!" Emily said. "Get your head in the game, Becs!" Jessica continued.
Beca immediately snapped out of her phase, and got into the game. "I'm ready. Let's go to work, soldiers." She said, as DSM started them off by singing 'The Thong Song', until they were interrupted by the Tone Hangers, who sang 'Shake Your Booty', until they were cut off by Stacie getting the Bellas off to a good start with 'Apple Bottom Jeans', until they were cut off by the Packers putting up a good fight with 'Bootylicious', until the Treblemakers stumbled and fell with 'Baby Got Back', mostly because Benji, Jesse's best friend and roommate, got distracted by Emily. They were, indefinitely, disqualified.
The next category was 'Country Love', which the Tone Hangers started off with 'Live Like You Were Dying', which the Bellas cut off with 'Before He Cheats', until the Packers struggled to sing anything, mostly due to Clay Matthews becoming distracted, getting the Packers disqualified.
The next category was 'I Dated John Mayer', which Discount Hydra started off with 'A Thousand Miles', which the Bellas interrupted with 'We Are Never Getting Back Together', until the Tone Hangers crashed and burned with 'What's Love Got To Do With It'. They too were disqualified, only on account of implying that John Mayer and Tina Turner were having sex.
That left the Bellas and DSM against one another. The next category was '90s Hip Hop Jamz'. DSM started off with 'This Is How We Do It', which the Bellas came at with 'That Thing'. They were doing fairly well, until Discount Hydra fought back with 'Poison', which included a not so subtle insult directed toward Fat Amy. Not taking any bullshit from the German team, Fat Amy responded by starting the Bellas off with 'Scenario', which Das Sound Machine combatted with 'Insane In The Membrane'. And, all things could have gone well, and what happened afterwards may not have happened had Emily not panicked, and sang her own original song. They were not only disqualified, they were humiliated and mocked by Das Sound Machine, the Tone Hangers, even by the Treblemakers, sans Jesse and Benji.
Afterwards, Beca and Jessica went over to console Emily. "Hey, don't sweat it." Jessica said, sympathetically. "Did you write that?" Beca asked. Before Emily had the chance to respond, Chloe came over, looking furious. "Great work, Emily. We had the opportunity to prove ourselves, and you-" She began, until Beca stood up in front of Chloe. "CHLO! Lay off." She said. "Well, well." Beca's facial expression turned to one of annoyance, as she turned to face Kommissar and her Hydra Agents, grinning.
"You can turn around, asshole. We didn't come to pick a bone with you. You won, fair and square." Beca said. "Yes, we did. And all we wanted to say was, what an incompetent group of individuals you are. Especially this one." Kommissar smirked, eyeing Emily. "Back off, German Hugo Weaving. She didn't mean to screw up." Beca said, as she began to walk away. "Like you, when you ran off to save your own skin? Back at the car show, remember?" Kommissar shouted at Beca, making Beca stop in her tracks. She turned around. "You better stop yourself there, or else." She threatened, looking the other woman directly in the eye. "Or what? You'll run away, again? Because you can't stand to face the humiliation your 'group' has? Because you are a cowering-' What happened next took Kommissar by surprise. What happened was that Beca calmly went up to her, grabbed her by the wrist, and slammed her to the ground, turning everyone's heads.
As Kommissar laid on the ground, looking at Beca in shock, Beca began to smash her fists into the woman's face. "SAY THAT AGAIN! COME ON, YOU BITCH! SAY. THAT. AGAIN! YOU THINK YOU'RE GONNA TALK SHIT AND GET AWAY WITH IT? WELL, COME ON!" Beca screamed, before smacking the woman in the face multiple times, and then pulling Kommissar's bloodied, bruised face up to hers. "If you think you can talk to me, or her, or any of us, that way, you're nuts. You have no idea what I have been through, you have no idea what I have done! DO YOU?!" She yelled, raising her arm in preparation to land another blow, before it was unexpectedly grabbed by someone. "Whoa, whoa! What the Hell is going on over here?" The person grabbing her arm asked. Beca gritted her teeth, growled, and turned her head to face the man grabbing her arm. When she did, her facial expression turned into one of visible shock.
The man grabbing her arm was John Hancock, and he was looking just as shocked as Beca and Kommissar were.
Author's Note: And that's Chapter Nine! Not gonna lie, this one was hard to write, because, well, you guys deserve to know this: I fucking hate Pitch Perfect 2. But, I wanted to improve on it, because I thought I could tell a better, more focused story that delves into these characters more. So, I had to rewatch the entire film to get the Riff-Off done exactly right. On the bright side, Hancock made an appearance! Not only that, but Beca got to meet Hancock for the first time! And, on an even brighter note, Pitch Perfect 2 is not as bad as I remember it being! It's still not good, but it's fun. To the Guest, thank you for posting the second review! I'm glad that you love the story, and that you want me to update it more often, which I will try to do! On the Bechloe or Femslash thing, I have decided that this will definitely be Bechloe, with more interactions between the two in the future. However, I do still want this to be Beca's story. Anyway, you know what to do, so why bother saying it? Oh, what the Hell, I'll say it! Thank you all for reading, leave a review if you wish to, and, as always, take care, and I'll see you next time!
P.S, Adam West, the man who played Batman in the 60's show, and Mayor West in Family Guy, died yesterday at the age of 88, after battling with Leukemia for many years. The sheer amount of joy and humor that this man brought to my childhood hero Batman will never be forgotten about, and all the times he made me laugh on Family Guy will always be remembered. This chapter is dedicated to his memory, and I'm quite certain he will be missed by many, including me. Thank you, Adam West.