Sometime later.
Sorceress leaned back in an old fashioned wooden chair borrowed from her game. It was one of many lined up against the walls of Game Central Station. She had gotten a little burnt out on social interaction, so she took a break from flying around and in general having a good time with the other party-goers.
The next event however was what she was looking forward to all night. She got up from her chair and stretched before heading to the stage area and grabbed the microphone- after turning the music off. After clearing her throat she made the announcement- with some minor nervousness, as she wasn't used to this sort of thing, "Good evening everyone, if I may have your attention?"
The room grew quieter, everyone's gaze now focused on her.
"Now, I know that everyone is waiting for the results of the costume contest- I know I am-," Sorceress cheered silently with her hands in front of her though she didn't expect to win it, judging from some of the other costumes she'd seen, "but before that, I think it's time we had our murder mystery game.. I know I didn't explain much at the beginning of the party, but it works a little something like this: One of us here.. is a murderer!" She grinned, "Not really, of course. All fun and games.." She cleared her throat, "I know many of you would likely enjoy being the killer, but unfortunately there can be only one, and the one I've chosen ahead of time has already eagerly accepted the role. Naturally, I will have to sit this one out to make it all fair.. As for how the killings will work, well, the lights will occasionally go out, and a few people will be 'killed' before the lights come back on. When the murderer tags you, you will be automatically transported to the stage where you will watch alongside the other victims. Once only about 10 people remain, the survivors each get one guess at who the killer is."
Sorceress looked at the surge protector who was standing nearby on the stage and nodded before facing the crowd once more. "Alright, so let's begin," she beamed before placing the microphone back on its stand. She sat on the broom that was an accessory to her costume and floated further up to get a better view.
There was an air of uneasiness within the crowd, which was only heightened once the lights flickered a few times before going out. The lights weren't entirely out, though little more than silhouettes could be seen by anyone.
Sonny felt a tap on his back, and he was suddenly sitting in a chair across the room. Over the course of 10 seconds, no less than 16 others were tagged and similarly transported.
The lights flickered on, with Ralph and Felix, who was in his Dr. Jekyll costume, looking around nervously.
"Still with me, brother?" Felix chuckled.
"Yeah," Ralph cleared his throat while eyeing the rest of the room.
"Best we stick together."
"Agreed," Ralph nodded, "Any ideas who it might be?"
The lights went out again, with Zangief and Satine being among the 10 other victims.
"Ouch!" Ralph groaned.
"Y-you okay, Ralph?" Felix asked worriedly as the lights came back on.
"Somebody stepped on my foot, that's all."
"I can fix it.."
"I'm fine," Ralph huffed.
"Wow, they even got Satine," Jet whistled as he walked over.
Satine could be seen casually conversing with Sonny while looking over the remaining participants.
"Well they ain't gonna get me," Turbo scoffed as he and Roxie walked over.
"They'd get you before me," Roxie smirked and poked him in the side.
"So you say," Turbo rolled his eyes as the lights went out again. A shadow flew towards him from the side and he instinctively ducked backward, pulling Roxie with him. "The heck was that?"
"Don't pull so hard, sheesh," Roxie complained as she stood back up and fixed her costume.
Set was one of the unfortunate souls to be killed that wave. He wobbled his head in frustration while mumbling to himself before levitating upwards and 'sitting' cross-legged next to Sorceress. "Well, I'm dead."
"Aww," Sorceress chuckled, "So, any idea whodunnit?"
"I have my suspicions," Set chuffed, "I'd recognize that hand anywhere."
The aerial view did lend a great deal of visibility to the couple, though it didn't help Set much when the lights went out, as his eyes needed to adjust to the darkness before he could see much of anything. At best he could see the shadow quickly making its way through the crowd.
"Not enough chairs over here," Set remarked upon making the realization.
"I know," Sorceress sighed, "I didn't expect this many people to join in, to be honest.." It was a little embarrassing, having something so seemingly obvious go wrong. Her stomach churned slightly as a feeling of impending doom started to take hold. I've got to fix this fast.
Once the lights came back on she made the microphone levitate towards her, and was thankful that the wire was long enough to reach. "We're gonna have to take a short break, sorry guys. The chairs onstage are running low so we're gonna have to fix that.
Felix straightened up, cupped his hands in front of his mouth and called out, "I can fix it!"
"Yes, you can," Sorceress chuckled, "Come on, then."
Sorceress and Felix, as well as the surge protector (and Set, who just wanted to tag along) went into the surge protector's office to do a little minor code modifications to some of the other chairs in the room, stretching them to make them wider. They also removed the legs and raised the floorboards to create bleachers between the outlets. This was only necessary on one end of the room however, as that's where all of the action was taking place.
The other end of the room remained unchanged, with non-participants (mainly skeletons and zombies) continuing their normal party uninhibited, since the lights weren't affected there. The light was blocked from interfering with the game due to an invisible barrier that was put in place for just that reason.
After everything was properly set up, the game resumed.
The lights shut off, and the crowd thinned even more quickly as the killer ran wild.
Turbo was certain that he was being specifically targeted, though his evasion skills outmatched the killer's speed.
The killer leapt at him repeatedly, incidentally taking others out of the game instead.
"Too slow," Turbo scoffed as he jumped to the side.
Seconds later the lights came back on, with 26 in the crowd remaining.
Bobby was out this round, and mumbled something about how uncool that was.
Paperboy, who was wearing a Nosferatu-inspired vampire costume, looked around shiftily. As did Charley Chuck, who was wearing a werewolf costume (though he looked more like Chewbacca).
"I think I know who the killer is now," Roxie chuckled.
"Who?" Turbo asked somewhat surprised.
"Well I'm not gonna tell you. I wanna win."
"Fine," Turbo scoffed a moment before the lights went out again. He bumped backward into Ralph, who groaned a bit, by accident in case he was being targeted again and jumped forward quickly in case Ralph was the killer. He didn't really think he was. But what if he is. "Sorry. Can't exactly see."
"You step on my foot earlier?" was all Ralph asked.
"Nope."
"Whatever, just be more care.. ful," Ralph said as the lights came back on mid-word.
Jet breathed a sigh of relief and wiped a bit of sweat off his forehead.
"You doing okay?" Turbo asked, eyeing him suspiciously.
"Oh! 9 participants remain!" Sorceress said over the microphone.
The last ones standing were Charley Chuck, Darth Vader, Felix, Jet, Neff (In his human-like form. Imagine Lord Voldemort in a purple toga.), Ralph, Roxie, Tapper, and Turbo.
Sorceress (and Set, who was now riding on the back of her broom) swooped down- without the microphone, of course. "Okay, phew," she laughed nervously, "So who wants to guess first?"
"Me," Roxie blurted out. Like I'm gonna give someone else this chance.
"Alright, so who do you think it was who was able to kill so many people?" Sorceress asked. Kinda scary if you think about it.
"Charley," Roxie said confidently, "It's gotta be him, with all that running around he does."
"Me?!" Charley said in shock, putting a hand over his chest, "It wasn't me." He laughed.
"No?" Roxie asked disappointedly and crossed her arms. Crap.
"I got this," Turbo smirked, "It's Ralph, isn't it?"
"I thought it was you," Ralph humphed.
"Wrong and wrong," Jet shook his head, "It's Tapper. He's the one nobody would suspect."
Tapper made a buzzer sound and shook his head no.
"Felix?" Charley shrugged. Turbo woulda been my guess.
Felix smirked and switched into Mr. Hyde and threateningly opened his arms wide, "Congratulations, kid. Ya got me."
Neff thought it was Jet, but kept quiet.
"No way!" Ralph bellowed, "There was no bouncing sounds!"
"Temporarily disabled since they'd have given me away too easily," Felix chuckled smugly, "Why else would I have needed to join Sorceress and the surge protector to fix a few chairs?"
"I thought you were just being helpful," Roxie scoffed.
"I knew right away as soon as that gloved hand of yours touched my back and I wound up in a chair," Set smirked.
"A lot of good it did you from there," Turbo laughed. At least I made it to the last round.
Set grumbled and crossed his arms, much to Turbo's glee.
"So what do I win?" Charley asked curiously.
"Bragging rights," Sorceress chuckled. Should I have made a trophy or something?
"Fair enough," Charley shrugged.
"And the costume contest.." the surge protector chimed in.
"Oh, right!" Sorceress smiled, somewhat embarrassed, "Can't forget about that. More bragging rights to go around."
Everyone who felt like voting wrote a name down on a piece of paper and slipped it into a box on the stage, where the surge protector then marked them down one by one on his clipboard to ensure that no cheating went on. He cleared his throat and somewhat reluctantly announced the winners. "As it turns out, instead of one winner, we've got three." No telling how that happened. "And they are.. Jet.. Felix, and.. Ralph."
Turbo and Roxie humphed.
"Mine was still better," Roxie said begrudgingly. Kinda expected Felix to win out of those three.
"Maybe a zombie was a poor choice, given how many actual zombies there are here.." Turbo mused. I should've been Jason Voorhees or something.
"Looks like we both won, brother," Felix grinned and gave Ralph a fist bump.
"I don't really feel like I earned it," Ralph chuckled and shrugged, "I'm just wearing green skin paint and a pair of purple shorts.."
"And I'm just semi-transparent and blue," Jet shrugged. I feel like this was more of a popularity contest than anything.. Except for Felix's win.
"Hey, c'mon. Smile. Smile," Sorceress gave Jet a nudge, "You won. And you did your costume from scratch, like me. No matter what you think of how it looks- It looks great, by the way- You put effort into making it yourself and people must've recognized that.."
"I guess," Jet couldn't help but smile a little.
"And Ralph," Sorceress added, "Who doesn't love the Hulk? It's one of the most beloved comics to come out of Paperboy."
"That's true," Ralph smirked and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.
"Alright, now that that's settled," Sorceress nodded in satisfaction, "We can crank the music back up."
The party continued for a number of hours after that, as Mr. Litwak was rightfully taking the day off to spend time with his Nana.
Once the party was over and everyone went home, Sorceress relaxed in one of her cozy armchairs back in her game and sighed. All things considered, the party was a success; She had no doubt about that.. But there were definitely things that could have been improved to make it even better. Maybe next year..
Author's Note: Phewww. My procrastination and writer's block really threw me through the wringer on this one. I almost didn't make it on time, and there are still a lot of parts I wish I could do better (much like how Sorceress feels at the end, I suppose, minus the successful part).
So, who did you think the "murderer" was? I'm curious, lol. And who would you have picked as the winner of the costume contest? I know some of you wouldn't have had time to vote on it, and for that I apologize.