Kitty reaches the cafeteria first—right after Tina, that is. It'd taken a while for her to catch on to her friend's shenanigans, but she mostly goes with her gut reaction when it comes to shifting shadows. She reads the environment right this time; Tina pops out from behind some trees, her super-long scarf fluttering to a rest behind her.

"Kitty," Tina greets tersely, then points at towards the cafeteria. "Reality distortions."

Kitty's already seen them. If the cafeteria courtyard had been painted onto a canvas, and then somebody had gone to the other side and tried to poke a hole through the canvas… then that's pretty much what this situation looks like. As if somebody's trying to tear their way through the fabric of the universe to land in their world.

"Ready for this, girl?" Kitty says as she pulls her two Beretta pistols out of their concealed holsters on her back, underneath her black sweater vest.

Tina only nods in affirmation as Brittany pulls up next to them. Even standing in one spot, Brittany is constantly flowing from one position to another, spinning and twirling one moment, then suddenly diving into a random martial arts move like a leg sweep that knocks Kitty onto her butt, or a backflip for no reason other than the fact that she can pull it off in her sleep.

"Dammit, Brittany," swears Kitty as she jumps back to her feet.

"When you're lying in your sleep, when you're lying in your bed/ And you wake from your dreams to go dancing with the dead," Brittany comments offhandedly.

The fabric of the universe bulges, a large distortion that seems to send ripples through the cafeteria. Kitty briefly wonders what the interior of the cafeteria feels like. All the non-playable characters inside probably don't feel a thing; they're just background noise in the fabric of this strange high school afterlife.

And then it's over so fast that Kitty doesn't have a chance to see what a tear in the universe looks like, or what's on the other side. One moment, the cafeteria just looks like it's been all twisted up into knots; the next moment, the cafeteria is right back to normal, except there's spontaneously a small figure in a black hooded coat standing right in front of them, one hand on a sheathed sword.

"Hi," Brittany waves shyly.

Hesitantly, the Reaper waves back.

"Die," snarls Kitty, firing point blank.

The Reaper is moving before Kitty has depressed the trigger fully. His path is cut off by an equally fast Tina, her torso twisting in mid-flight to throw out a fan of tiny needles; the Reaper knocks her tiny metal slivers out of the air with a swing of his sword, still within the sheath.

Why doesn't he pull it out of the sheath? Is he playing with them?

Tina's needles may have just as well served as a distraction for Brittany to come up behind with a roundhouse kick. It connects, but the Reaper lessens the blow by tossing himself into an aerial cartwheel, partially propelled by the kick to his shoulder. This move clears him of Brittany, allowing Kitty to start shooting all over again.

Kill the Reaper. That's all she has to do. That black-hooded bastard doesn't actually belong in this universe, so the moment he unravels, the fabric of the universe shoves him out. Unfortunately, the universe shoving Reapers out means that they don't actually die, and eventually, they come back. But it's the only solution they have for now, and besides, Reapers take much longer to heal than they of the afterlife universe do.

Ha, even Brody's never managed to stay dead for longer than an hour, and see just how many times he's not-died a horrible death.

The Reaper has already slid into attack position, but Brittany's already within his personal space, lashing out with a quick snap-kick followed by a punch. He dodges, the rippling black coat concealing his form and making it hard for Brittany to land a blow. Still, she keeps lashing out, constantly flowing from one attack to the next, forcing the Reaper back towards Kitty.

There's a click, followed quickly by a flash of light as the Reaper quick-draws out his weapon. Kitty doesn't even get a chance to see the blade, but she does see Tina flying backwards, blood gushing from a nick in her gut. Kitty quickly moves to cover her as Tina drops the ninjato that she blocked with and tears off a section of her scarf to bind the cut.

The Reaper's sword has gone back in his sheath, who is now using it as a blunt weapon to combat Brittany's physical strikes. It riles Kitty's nerves—he is playing with them! He isn't taking them seriously, using a weapon that can't do much more than break bones.

"Surprise attack!" Sam yells, coming up from behind. The Reaper doesn't even look backwards; he simply slips the sheath off the sword and swings it behind his back, thumping Sam soundly in the head.

"It's not a surprise attack if you publicly announce it," Kitty chastises as Blaine rushes in from the side, using a tri-bladed sai to lock the club-like sheath in place.

"It gave Blaine a chance, didn't it?" Sam whines, rubbing the three-inch tall bump on his forehead.

Blaine twists his sai blade, using the prong-like side guards to try to snap the Reaper's club out of his grasp. The opponent's grip is firm, however, and when Brittany takes a step back, the sword comes in so fast that Blaine barely has time to block the whizzing katana with his second sai. It's a half-second stalemate that the Reaper quickly ends by headbutting Blaine, forcing him back a step and breaking the hold. The Reaper finishes with a flying butterfly kick that sends Blaine flying into Sam.

The move leaves the Reaper open. That's a chance.

CLANG.

The Reaper stumbles back from Kitty's cast-iron frying pan, right into Brittany's hook kick. Brittany's blow in the back pushes him forward towards Jake's axe, and only by swiveling his body does the Reaper avoid little more than a slash across his torso with the axe blade. Somehow, though, he manages to twist his body around the halberd's handle and backward-somersaults his way up to Jake's chest, using that as a push-off platform to launch himself high into the air.

"Throw me," Brittany yells, jumping onto the blade of Jake's axe. The guy's still slightly off balance from being used as a springboard, but he anchors his feet long enough to catapult Brittany slightly above the Reaper. The blonde turns her momentum into a somersault and brings her heel down hard in spinning frontflip kick.

The Reaper smashes into the ground so hard that he bounces, sword and sheath flying away from him. "Finish him off!" Kitty yells as they sprint towards the prone figure. Tina gets a shot first with a flying kunai that hurtles straight for the Reaper's chest—

A flash of light momentarily blinds Kitty as the Reaper's sword unexpectedly melts into the form of a curly-haired figure. The sword-turned-person streaks towards the prone body on the ground, snatching up the airborne sheath on his way. He lands in a poof of dust in front of the Reaper and brings the sheath up just in time to knock Tina's knife out of the air.

Just to their luck, the universe contorts again. Twice.

Tina's spinning knife falls into one and seems to bounce around excitedly for a moment before flying out, perfectly straight, right towards Jake. Fortunately, the guy has plenty of experience knocking Kitty's bullets out of the air, and it's no problem for him to bring his axe in to block.

Brittany hits the second twisted reality knot and bounces off what seems to her to be empty air. The disturbance catches onto her leg and twists it upwards in an impossible angle; a second too late, Brittany's screaming as her irregular pattern is warped along with the rest of the universe.

Yet another way that one of them can die, Kitty realizes, but she's too far away to help. She can still damn try, though, and as she sprints towards the other blonde, she watches in horrified amazement as Brittany's leg splinters and her arm is pulled into the twisting mess of another Reaper trying to push his way into their afterlife.

It's too late; Brittany's going to die.