"Hey there, dreamers…you been sleeping good ever since that little nightmare came to its conclusion? It was a rough night for all our folks in the city, that's for sure, though some more than others. Not me, though. C.K. don't ever succumb to no nightmares, doesn't matter how scary or screwed up they might be, they just don't hit me like that." C.K. laughed to himself as he swirled a glass of some liquid in his hand. His fire was burning nice and bright, but all of the flames looked to be pixelated or something. Not only that, but he had a little TV on in the room that had some retro video game currently shown on it. "Don't mind me here…just enjoying some old games. They just don't make 'em like they used to…l-l-layust time on Total Drama: Neon City– the unfortunate partygoers of the city were all called right to the zone of their next challenge, a little spread of streets in the infamous Nightmare District! HAILEY was all decked out with a new body, which our poor Eliza was just terrified of! Speaking of Eliza, she held a little team meeting with Elward and 3V to talk about the strategy if their team lost: voting out Eli. Eli didn't like that, though, not one bit, and he sure made some plans to get everything handled! Chef had to go and announce the challenge for our team, as Chris went and got himself injured! Speaking of which, I believe he's still injured now…bah, who cares? The challenge was facing fears, and there was Gwendolyn on standby to ensure that nobody died! Though that doctor definitely got herself in a whole heap of trouble with Bailey, when she tried to prevent the ice cube from partaking in her challenge! The two had a big fight, and I highly doubt they'll be coming back from it anytime soon! Some fears were definitely worse to face than others, with Jhin being trapped in a cave where her voice kept screaming back at her, Garfield having to go toe to toe with a whole ass cryptid, and Morgan being forced to return to the orphanage from her childhood! It turned out that the partygoers had all been drugged the previous night, and because of that, they were hallucinating up the entire thing with their fears, but they all still felt quite real. But one was actually real! Eli tipped HAILEY off that Eliza was trying to get in between her and Elward, and she trapped her in a FNAF like nightmare that she just couldn't overcome! Eliza ranted about HAILEY later, but it fell on deaf ears, as her team all voted together to have her eliminated from the game. And, you know what else, dreamers? We officially had our second ship set sail from the port! That's right, Amandrry…er…Cherranda…whatever the hell you wanna call 'em, they're an official item! I do love a good romance story, and I hope you all do too. Now, if you'll just excuse me dreamers…I'm gonna pull out my crumbled paper with my old cheat codes on it and enjoy myself."
The neon moon started scratching itself like a record, eventually spinning wildly out of control while the sound meter around it went wild. A beam of neon light shot down into the ground below, bringing the view past a rooftop that had Chris and Chef standing atop it, as well as the cloaked figure of C.K.. The trio were laughing to themselves as the beam passed them by, and they soon disappeared from sight.
"B-b-break it down, dear mom and dad, I'm doing fine," a car burst from where the beam of light had landed, revealing Atlas driving while Bec was in the passenger seat with him. The duo grinned the same grin at the camera as they passed it by, with another car following behind in their wake.
"The highlife's been on my mind," the second car was veering off the road wildly, being that of Jhin, who was too busy eating a tree branch that she had found to be focused on the road she was driving on. She ended up crashing through the wall of a building, revealing a nightclub full of people.
"You asked me where I wanted to be, and now I'm right here, can't you see?" Leo stood near the now open hole in the wall, his jaw practically dropped to the floor, but he was soon shoved aside to safety as Jhin drove right back through it. He looked to see that Gwendolyn had saved him, and looked about ready to tear him a new one.
"I wanna be famous!" Over at the bar, Cherry was downing a shot of liquor and proudly heading off to the dance floor while Amanda just stared at her own shot glass, turning her nose up at the very scent of it.
"I wanna live away from the sun," the camera panned up from the nightclub to the next floor, which was much more of a lounge that had a couple contestants sitting on couches. Eli had himself posted on one of them, sitting back and covering his ears while Suzie started explaining the entire lore of Among Us to him.
"So pack your bags, 'cause the party's begun!" On one of the other couches, 3V was downing an entire flask of some sort of liquor while Elward watched her in some sort of dumbfounded trance, eventually pulling out his own futuristic looking flask but accidentally pouring his drink all over his one working eye.
"Daylife's no way to live with nothing to gain, it ain't no claim to fame," far back in the corner of the room, Henry and Heath were hiding themselves from everybody else, but Heath's hand slowly raised up with Jean-Paul rattling his wooden jaw, startling the two of them so much so that they got up and ran right into each other, falling to the ground with a joint thud.
"I wanna be famous!" Giselle popped out of a closet from the same corner of the room, wearing a playboy bunny suit and putting on a flashy display, but when she saw that the two boys were unconscious, she fell to her knees and started screaming at the sky.
"Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na!" The next floor up from the lounge seemed to look like a sort of laser tag arena, where Gerald was frantically running away from Morgan, who was firing her laser gun at him. Her shots entirely missed, but one must've struck Allan, as Gerald stopped running and started to cry, holding the invisible friend's body in his arms.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" Marshmallow ecstatically ran right through where the two of them were, flailing her arms and screaming in delight while a confused Edward followed after her, shrugging his shoulders when he looked at the camera.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" At the upper ground of the laser tag arena, Bailey and Eliza were firing at each other, but the lasers stopped coming at Bailey after some time, and she looked up to notice that Eliza had completely passed out on the floor. The cold girl looked at the camera helplessly before tossing her laser gun up into the air. As it came sinking back down, it fell into the neon fire on top of the tallest skyscraper, directly in between Garfield and Zayden, who were having a stand-off while the other contestants sat around them and whistled. Chris, Chef, and C.K. stood over at a podium near the hyperspace tube and snapped in unison for a neon sign to flash on the screen with the words "Total Drama: Neon City."
"A-Amanda?" Leo stood outside of Amanda's room, politely knocking on the door before he pulled his hand back. He had been up for a while now, but despite having looked all over for any of his friends, well, he just couldn't find them. Cherry was out, probably with Amanda, considering they just started officially dating. Eli and Edward…he wasn't super close with them, but he still liked to check on them when he could. It wasn't like Garfield or Morgan, who he actively didn't want to talk with at all.
He gave it a few moments before he sighed and gave up on Amanda answering. He stepped away from the door and started to head down to his own room. The only room on his floor that he hadn't checked was Zayden's. He didn't have any issues with him, of course, but he certainly had the problem of being an awkward mess whenever he tried talking to him. And after last time with Zayden's…wardrobe malfunction…that awkwardness was just more of an issue than ever. He got back to his door, but just as he was about to open it, he could feel a hand against his shoulder, and he glanced behind him.
"Leo, I haven't seen you all night so far! I was starting to get worried that you were avoiding me!" Of course, it just had to be Zayden, standing there with that big, genuine smile of his. Although…he was a bit different than how he normally was. Zayden was always the guy that everyone knew for dressing like he didn't know how to, but he actually looked somewhat coherent. He didn't have a cone on his head, a potato sack for a shirt, or a skirt on. He instead wore a gray tee, an open black vest, gray dress shorts, and black dress shoes. Leo couldn't help but blush at the sight of him all done up like that.
"Z-Zayden? Y-you look, um…you look good!" Leo admitted bashfully, trying to hide his blush while he looked to the side. He had been falling deeper and deeper into love with him every single time that he saw them, and seeing him dressed all presentable? It was sort of the icing on the cake for him. He turned to face him, holding his own hands behind his back while twiddling his fingers in secrecy. Zayden smirked softly at the sight of Leo all flustered like that.
"Yeah, I had to go and get myself looking good for tonight…managed to clear off the entire floor, too." Leo tilted his head slightly, he wasn't too sure what Zayden meant by that. "The hardest part really was convincing Garfield and Morgan to beat it for a bit, but I managed to handle it." Zayden slowly sat down on the hotel hall floor, patting the spot right next to him. Leo was certainly hesitant at first, but he eventually sat down next to him, keeping about a foot between them.
"...I-it's, um…it's a pretty nice night. There are a lot of stars out, and everyth-"
"Leo, you know why I cleared off the floor, right?" Leo hadn't expected to be cut off before he could even speak, but that got him blushing like crazy. Truthfully, he wasn't sure, though he had some hopes for why it was. He shook his head a little, and Zayden threw his arm over his shoulder, pulling him in closer to close the gap between them so they sat hip to hip. "I know you can tell and I can tell that there's a lot of…well…feelings between us. And I think it's great and all, but-"
"B-but I'm not good enough for you, I know…" Leo was the one doing the cutting off this time. He stared down at the floor in front of him, "I-I know that I'm shy and wimpy and pathetic and…p-probably a whole slew of other words anyone could use to describe me. I-I'm sorry that I started feeling that way about you…b-but even though you don't feel the same, can we at least still be friends? I don't wanna…lose any of you guys as friends. You all make me feel like I actually matter, and I…I…" It was hard for him to actually speak his mind at this point, as the thought of rejection was getting him all teary-eyed.
"Leo…" Zayden frowned, seeing the babysitter all miserable-looking like that. He wiped some of the tears from his face with his hand, and rubbed his cheek gently with his thumb. "You're jumping right to conclusions about how I feel about you. Instead of worrying about what I'm gonna say to you…why don't you just let me say it?" Leo nodded his head slowly, although he couldn't look Zayden in the eyes or anything like that.
Zayden stood from the floor, pulling Leo up by his hand and walking along with him down the empty hallway as the soft notes of a piano melody started to play around them. Leo was familiar with what this meant, everybody was at this point…but getting rejected by song would certainly be worse for him than just being told that it wasn't gonna happen. It seemed that the two men managed to walk outside together, and were sitting in a car now, with Zayden driving. Leo looked around a bit, confused about how all of that even happened. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, Zayden started up.
"It was just two lovers…sittin' in the car, listenin' to Blonde– fallin' for each other. Pink and orange skies, feelin' super childish– no Donald Glover." Zayden reached over with his right hand to place it atop Leo's lap as he took a turn down the scenic route of the city, which gave them both a great view of the sky and all its stars. Leo flushed red, but still kept his eyes turned away from Zayden, trying not to get his own hopes too high.
"Missed call from my mother…she's like, 'Where you at tonight?' I got no alibi…" The two parked in front of some large building in the Heart District, with Zayden getting out of the car first so he could open the door and pull Leo out with him by his hand, leading him to the building in question. "I was all alone with the love of my life! He's got glitter for skin, my radiant beam in the night…I don't need no light…" Zayden suddenly wrapped his arm around Leo's waist, dipping him down and pressing his nose against his.
"...To see you shine! It's your golden hour! Oh-oo-ohhhh…" Zayden picked Leo back up, having that one arm still around his waist while his other arm gestured to the city…everything seemed to be still other than them in that moment. "You slow down time! In your golden hour! Oh-oo-ohhhh oh…" Leo's heart was racing fifty miles a minute, practically about to jump right out of his chest, as Zayden kept leading him into the building. When they went through the door, they could see that it was some old type of ballroom, completely empty with no lights on whatsoever.
"Yeah, we were just two lovers…our feet up on the dash, drivin' nowhere fast– burnin' through the summer. Radio on blast, we make the moment last– he's got solar power! The minutes feel like hours! If he knew he was the baddest, could you even imagine fallin' like I did for the love…of my life? He's got glow on his face, a glorious look in his eyes…" Zayden noticed that Leo was looking down at the floor instead of at him, and he lifted his chin up so they were eye to eye. Leo's eyes twinkled a little, and Zayden's smile softened at the sight of him.
"...My angel of light…yeah, I was all alone with the love…of my life! He's got glitter for skin, my radiant beam in the night…I don't need no light…to see you…" Zayden slowly raised his hand up, only to snap his fingers with spotlights from all around the ballroom shining down onto Leo. "Shine! It's your golden hour! Oh-oo-ohhh, you slow down time! In your golden hour…" The spotlights started to fade after a few seconds, but even as they had left, Leo was still twinkling like he was covered in the brightest of glitters.
As the piano music started to slow down, Leo reached his hands up to Zayden's shoulders, holding them as the taller man began leading them in a slow dance. Their eyes were locked the entire time, with plenty of tears dropping down from Leo's, though he had the brightest smile on his face. Seeing that smile got Zayden smiling even wider than he already was, and slowly, but surely, he leaned down to kiss him softly on the lips. The camera slowly began to pan up, revealing that all of the spotlights in the area were being controlled by Amanda, who looked like she was about to pass out from all the running around she had to do to turn them all on and fade them off.
Confessional - Leo
"HAHA! YES!" Leo threw his arms up into the air while he screamed out a victory screech that could be heard almost back in the hotel from his car. "L-Look at me now, Marty, I finally managed to do something before you for once! O-oh, I don't mean to rub it in, I'm just so excited! I-I mean, I never ever thought I was gonna be able to get my first kiss…and from someone that hot? I must be dreaming!"
Confessional - Zayden
"I was half worried that Leo was gonna end up being too scared of that grand gesture, but everything ended up working out pretty well though." Zayden had his arms cross and his chin turned up with a proud smirk on his face. "He's a lot more of an excited kisser than one would think, though. I think I still might have some of his saliva on my face."
"My man Zayden's out here living the dream life! Seriously, how come his potato sack wearing behind gets to make out with Leo?"
"Man, this bum ass competition's really gettin' on my last nerve! Seriously, how long do I gotta wait for all these lame bitches to go and get eliminated? They should just be giving my fine ass the money already." Morgan grumbled to herself as she was heading out from the bar in the lobby of the hotel. She didn't drink anything while she was there, but only because 3V had apparently knocked over a few bottles and caused a big mess…everything was being cleaned up now, so there wasn't any way for her to get anything.
"Damn that half robo-bitch, if she was on my team, she would be the first to go." Morgan continued to gripe as she was walking around the lobby, but in her walking, she saw somebody else in the lobby. At first, the person in question looked familiar…but then, she had no idea who it could've been. It was a shorter woman with dark skin and dyed white hair with some brown in the hair. She was wearing a brown beanie on her head, a brown jacket that was clearly very puffy, but also still a crop jacket, a white tank top that was only visible because the jacket was unzipped, black shorts that went halfway down her thighs, and purple sneakers. She seemed to be taking a whole bunch of selfies.
"Huh, didn't know there was another bitch in this whole city who knew how to dress herself that stylish." Morgan grinned a bit while she walked closer to the mystery woman. The way she had picked her friends in the past was always fairly simple. She really only looked at or cared about three traits: attractiveness, stylishness, and popularity. If you were winning in those departments, then you were all good in her book. And clearly this mystery lady was winning in both attractiveness and in stylishness. "Ayo, beanie baby!"
"Hm?" The mystery woman looked around for a moment, trying to see who it was that had called for her, and when she saw that it was Morgan, she sort of got a weird look on her face. It was something like confusion, but also somewhat startled at the same time. Morgan didn't know why she'd be making a face like that, and just kept approaching her until she was right up to her. "...Oh, uh, hey?"
"Girl, why you gotta be acting so awkward? Taken aback by my looks?" Morgan teased while she leaned down towards the shorter woman, both of her hands on her hips. The woman didn't blush or anything from this, she just kept on staring at her with that confused face. "I'm sorta the top bitch in this whole city, so when I see another girl that looks like she could get down with me, I gotta go chat her up."
"...You don't remember me…?" The shorter woman mumbled under her breath before she shook her head and backed away a little bit, now fully confusing Morgan herself. "Ah, sorry…I would stick around and chat, but I'm supposed to be meeting with someone for something pretty important. Kinda got distracted taking pics for my cats and kittens, you know how it is with fans, nyah!" The woman covered her mouth after she made that sound. "M-my bad…I uh, I'll see ya around?" Before Morgan could even get a word out, the mysterious woman ran off at top speeds, like she was having some sort of sugar rush or something.
Confessional - Morgan
"Bitch, what in the fuck was all that nonsense about? I guess it serves my ass right for trying to make a friend while I'm here…but damn! A girl can't go out looking that good and end up being an awkward, babblin' mess! It ain't a good sound for that look!" Morgan nodded her head at the camera, but turned away and looked down in thought. "That 'nyah' noise, though…that really reminded me of someone. Can't really put my finger on it, so I guess they just wasn't important or nothin'."
"Attention, contestants," a voice suddenly called out to all of the contestants, regardless of where they currently were. Though, it wasn't Chef, it wasn't Chris, it wasn't even C.K. The voice instead sounded like that of a rather plain woman, no hint of any emotion in her tone at all. A few of the contestants looked at their radios in their cars skeptically, wondering who that could've been. "It's time for our next challenge to ensue…all of you come to the elevator in the lobby of the hotel. Once you arrive, press the button to go to the basement floor. That is all for
now."
"Who the hell was that?" Elward glared at the radio on his motorcycle, but couldn't really focus too much on it, as he felt the cold, metallic arms of HAILEY wrapping around his torso to hold him from behind. Her robotic face had the most blissful smile on it, though her master just looked back at her with a look of confusion. "HAILEY, this better not be an attempt to murder me with those vice grip arms of yours…I don't wanna have to work out any more kinks of you."
"Murder? Master, my mind would never wander to such a thing! …At least murdering you wouldn't," she murmured that last part a little too soft for Elward to hear what she said, and he just started to drive back to the hotel while she was rubbing her hands up and down his chest. He groaned annoyedly, getting a frown out of her. "Master, you seem so tense, yet whenever I try to give you a massage, you get upset with me? I can't process why that is."
"It's not like it's your fault, but now everytime I think about massages, I think about that hot lady that Jhin and Bailey pulled me away from…totally unfair." Elward pouted, with HAILEY deadpanning as they turned a corner.
Confessional - HAILEY
"Remind me to add Bailey and Jhin to a list of woman that I don't have to keep away from my master! Oh, wait…I can just leave a note in my system!" HAILEY giggled while she swayed those metal hips of hers from side to side. "Any lady that tries to prevent some harlot from molesting my master is good in my book! Everybody else just needs to back off!"
Confessional - Elward
"Gah, HAILEY is a lot more annoying than I wanted her to be…maybe sometime I'll figure out how to tone that down, but taking her apart to do so would be real time-consuming." Elward rubbed the back of his neck, "She's been really happy since Eliza went home, too…I guess it makes sense, since Eliza attacked her or whatever, but I don't know. It almost seems like she's maybe a little bit too happy about it."
Back at the hotel, the contestants had only just barely managed to contain themselves within the confines of that small elevator, though they were all pressed up against each other pretty tightly. Edward was currently being squished between Garfield and Edward, and Cherry was basically being shoved against the back wall. Jhin was the closest to the control panel, but even her trying to reach for it proved to be quite difficult. Luckily, she managed to hit the button for the basement, which was quickly followed by the elevator dropping at breakneck speeds. Everybody immediately started to scream and holler at the top of their lungs, all certain that they were going to end up dead, but then, the elevator stopped moving, and the doors opened.
The contestants basically all fell from the elevator rather than being able to just walk out, and 3V ended up barfing all over the back of Bec's head. There was a choir of "ew"s and "that's nasty"s, but the drunkard just got up and dusted herself off like nothing had happened at all. This left Bec to shudder as he stood, shaking his hair out to try and get it to be at least a little cleaner. All the while, there was a woman standing before them…with a large, cylinder-like chamber behind her. The chamber was lit up by a massive blue light in the center of it, and the walls were made with a mix of metal and glass. Aside from this, there were also a lot of computer screens displayed around the chamber, each showing nothing but static.
"It's about time that you've all arrived…I thought you were going to have me waiting all day." The woman mumbled softly, her voice sounded exactly as emotionless as it had originally. She wasn't so tall, and seemed to be pretty thin and pale as well. Her hair was a calm, dark greenish color, though it was quite a mess, like she had been doing a lot of work and messed her hair up in the middle of that. Her bright yellow eyes were underlined by bags from a clear lack of sleep. She was dressed rather plainly, wearing a sleeveless, black, turtleneck sweaters, dark brown slacks, and black dress shoes.
"I hate to be the one to ask what everyone is thinking right now, but who even are you, lady?" Garfield had his arms crossed while he stared down at the woman, who just blinked a few times at him in response.
"Right, I suppose that…we haven't had anything like a formal introduction." She cleared her throat, stepping a bit closer to the group of people with a slight bow. "It's a...pleasure...to meet all of you contestants. As I'm sure you're aware, your host is still unwell...and thus, I've been placed in charge of you for the time being. My name is Chara Campbell...and tonight, we will be experiencing a revolutionary invention together. We'll call it a...Virtual Reality Matrix. Would that suffice to you all as an introduction?"
"This lady is even more dull than you," Eli grinned as he nudged Edward with his elbow, but before the shortie could even respond, Chara stamped her foot down against the ground, with a loud stomping noise echoing throughout the room.
"I'd rather not waste more of my time with all of your chit chatting. Allow me to further explain the matrix…I've been working tirelessly to piece this invention together. Theoretically, it should be able to simulate other dimensions in the most realistic manner possible. Now that my work has been completed, I need to have some test monkeys go in to make sure that it works." Chara slowly stepped back to the door of the chamber, pressing a few buttons on the panel by it. This caused the light in the middle of the chamber to display a view of the city itself.
"What's this supposed to be? A party in a box?" Cherry walked closer, bending down while she stared into the view of the city. It was almost uncanny how similar it was, she couldn't even find a single difference while looking at it.
"The dimension we'll first be simulating is going to be akin to your own…only you'll find that you all have mystical powers, which you'll be using against each other. The rules are very simple: you can fire neon blasts from your hands, and also dodge away in a flash, though those will both consume your energy. You can drain neon from signs to refill your energy. If you're blasted three times, your avatar will disintegrate and you will be kicked out of the matrix. The first team to lose all four teammates will lose the challenge, and therefore have to eliminate someone. I'll be having someone in the simulator to make sure things are running smoothly, she's already in there right now, actually. Any questions?" Chara looked around at the group, all of which were mostly silent.
"...So, we aren't going to die or anything if we go in there, right?" Bailey raised an eyebrow at the makeshift host.
"...If there are no questions, you can all step into the chamber," Chara smirked slightly as she fully ignored Bailey's question. It took a moment, but the contestants reluctantly started to enter the chamber one by one until they were all packed inside of it.
Confessional - Edward
"Virtual reality…I've never been able to afford such a thing, but I've heard that it can be quite headache inducing. Perhaps this will be somewhat different, as it's not a helmet and instead something that we stand in?" Edward slowly rubbed his chin in silent thought, "Whatever the case, I'll have to ensure that my team doesn't lose. I know I'll be their fall in the event of a loss."
After all of the contestants were inside of the chamber, Chara slammed the door shut behind them and ran over to one of the computers around it. She quickly started to type something into it, and everyone inside could see that the view of the city was getting brighter and brighter until they couldn't see anything other than that. Then, a few seconds passed…and they ultimately found themselves standing outside in the city streets, each separated into their own teams. They each looked around a bit until they noticed somebody floating above them all, high in the sky…the woman that Morgan was talking to earlier!
"Hey, is that…?" Eli was taken aback at first as he squinted his eyes at the woman, but then he was absolutely certain it was who he thought it was. "...Marshmallow!?"
"Nyah, nyah! Welcome back to my stream, cats and kittens! Looks like I'm not gonna be playing a game today...but moderating it!" Marshmallow giggled, her voice booming throughout the city loud enough for anyone to hear her. "For the viewers at home, you already know me as the Lovely Miss Marsha LeMew, but for all you contestants down there who don't know, now you do! That scientist lady has put me in charge of making sure you guys don't cheat, or break anything, or spontaneously combust! But it looks like you're all fairly spaced out right now, so without further adieu…let's get this party started!"
Marsha clapped her hands, and a neon rain came down upon the city. Every contestant was just astonished at first, but when that rain touched their skin, they all felt completely revitalized. Bec looked down at his hands, waving them around a little bit before he looked at a nearby car. It seemed to be a pretty close replica to Garfield's. He pulled his hands back like he was about to throw a football and then did the motion of throwing, with a bright ball of neon light flying from his hands and crashing into the car, causing it to explode.
"Yo, this is totally awesome! It's way more realistic than those games I got back home, right Morgan?" Bec grinned at Morgan, who just stared at him like he was speaking a different language. "Pfft, come on, I know your memory isn't amazing or anything, but you at least gotta remember the game room! You know, you always wander in when I'm playing to yell at me about something?"
"Bitch, I dunno what the fuck you's on, but you better cut that shit out," Morgan snapped back at Bec, who raised both of his hands up defensively and backed away. Shortly after that, she started to run on ahead, with Garfield following closely behind her. The sight of this made Bec sick to his stomach, so he trailed behind them at a safe distance. The cheerleader grumbled under her breath, "That lame ass, good for nothing friend of my brother's is really pissin' me off with how he's been actin' lately."
"It is pretty weird, isn't it? I get idolizing people, but acting like you're them? That's a whole different level of creepy." Garfield shook his head while he and Morgan headed into a part of the city that had incredibly tall buildings all around. As they were walking, they could see that Zayden and Leo were walking together, both of them holding each other's hand while Jhin was walking ahead of them on all fours. A devious grin popped up onto the politician's face while he stepped closer to them, but not close enough to be seen. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"That this challenge is lame and I'd rather be taking a bubble bath?" Morgan answered in that naturally snarky voice of hers.
"Well, yeah, but not that…we've basically got the advantage on a whole team right now. They don't see us coming, and those two are holding hands. Makes them easy targets for us," Garfield held up a finger pistol, aiming it towards both Zayden and Leo with his fingertip flashing in neon light. Morgan rolled her eyes, but soon did the same. "On my count…one…two…go!" Both Garfield and Morgan quickly snapped their hands up like they were actually firing a gun, and the blasts of neon came out through their fingers, one pelting Zayden in the back and one hitting Leo, both of them falling down to the ground.
"A-ah! T-t-this is supposed to be a simulation, why did that actually hurt?" Leo whimpered while he rolled over to the side, only barely dodging the next blast that was coming his way. Zayden on the other hand, hopped up to his feet, quickly turning around just in time for a second blast to pelt him right in the face, completely dazing him. "Z-Zayden, look out!" Zayden was completely unresponsive as two more blasts were coming his way, and Leo quickly lunged towards him, causing his body to disappear for a moment, only to reappear in a blink of light so he could tackle Zayden out of the way. The two blasts ended up flying on ahead, getting the attention of Jhin when they crashed into a building.
"Thanks for the save," Zayden groaned as he pulled himself up again, with Leo standing at his side. Jhin was pretty far ahead, but she had started running back on all fours to try and help them out. Zayden pulled his arm up, reeling back to fire a blast, but his blast crashed mid air with Morgan's, causing both to disintegrate, though Garfield's still came through and ended up hitting Leo square in the stomach. The femboy stumbled back with a groan, and Zayden glared at the two aggressors, quickly pulling both arms back to throw more blasts of neon. This time, he actually managed to hit Garfield against his left arm, but Morgan dodged forward, passing over the blast that was coming to her and throwing one of her own at Leo.
"U-uh oh…" Leo saw the blast coming on and immediately winced, fearing that it was going to hit him, but Zayden stepped in front of him. The blast hit him head on in the chest and, in the blink of an eye, his entire body suddenly disappeared like dust in the wind. Leo was so shocked from the sight that he forgot to move, and another quick blast from Garfield hit him in the leg, sending him to that same disappearing fate just as Jhin had shown up again.
"Wow, you wasn't kiddin' about having an easy advantage on them…just one more now!" Morgan cracked her knuckles while she stared down Jhin, who was softly growling from where she stood. Garfield slowly walked up to approach Morgan so they were both together again, and Jhin stood up straight, assembling some weird sort of battle stance.
Confessional - Jhin
"Agh! My team fails me almost immediately and leaves me to carry!? And knowing them...if we lose, I'll take the fall for it! Not today...I'm going to destroy this challenge!" Jhin punched her two fists together to pump herself up before suddenly jumping right out through her car's window.
"Easiest challenge win of all time!" Garfield mused as he raised up his finger pistol again, firing towards Jhin, though she quickly vanished, although neither him or Morgan saw where she went. Then, out of nowhere, she reappeared in the sky, falling down on top of Morgan so that she had her legs pressed down on her arms so she couldn't move them. The cheerleader opened her mouth to say something, but the deranged woman dragged her neon-laced claws across her face three times, causing her to completely disappear.
"You're next, funny comic cat!" Jhin hissed just as Garfield went to fire another blast at her. This time, she dodged straight forward, passing by the blast and tackling him down to the ground. He gritted his teeth and raised his hand to fire a close ranged blast at her, but she was quick to grab his hand and turn it so it was aimed at himself when the blast went off right in his face, stunning him. With him unable to move, she only had to swipe him with her claws once before he faded into nothing, leaving her as the only player still in that area, though she was heaving heavily from all the energy she had used.
"Ugh…feel so loopy…need to sleep…" Jhin got up from the ground, wobbling a bit back and forth until she inevitably fell over by some storefront. She saw the bright neon sign right outside of the door, and reached her hand up to grab it, draining the neon from it and suddenly filling with energy all over again. From a very safe distance, Bec watched her as she ran off into the city, looking for either her next victim or a place to hide. The copycat couldn't help but smirk while he started to follow after her.
Confessional - Bec
"I could've perhaps helped out my team in that little squabble, and sure, I feel a bit bad about my sister…but, man, watching Garfield get his ass handed to him like that? I could watch that over and over again!" Bec laughed loud and proud, "But it's just me and Edward on the team now…I'll have to at least attempt to take care of that mongrel so we don't end up losing."
Cherry, Bailey, and Amanda were all together in an area of the city that had an incredible amount of tall buildings all throughout it. It seemed like they were all alone, which was at least good so they knew nobody was coming after them at that moment. Bailey looked a little puzzled while she walked, like she was trying to figure something out in her mind. Cherry walked on ahead of her, leaving Amanda in the backline for the team.
"So, sticking together is probably the way to go, right? There are three of us…we should be more than able to cover all of our backs with no trouble." Bailey looked towards Cherry, who was looking at all of the Neon signs around her, looking like she was trying to assess them or something. Amanda, naturally, wasn't looking at any of the signs, but was keeping a lookout around them. "...You see something important up there, or…?"
"Oh, love, I just had an idea come to my mind…but who knows if it'll actually work unless I try it out?" Cherry chuckled before she suddenly dodged towards one of the signs that was high up on a building. Rather than only dodging the few feet that everyone else was, she seemed to fully dodge the distance to the sign, and ended up standing on top of it, though the sign was completely drained of all its neon now. She jumped back from the sign, landing on top of the big building while she looked down at her two teammates. "Got ourselves a ticket to the high ground…might as well keep safe up here."
"Being that high seems a little dangerous…it probably is really dangerous…" Amanda mumbled, clearly unsure of whether or not she should actually go up there. She looked up at Cherry, who blew a kiss down to her, and that was all the convincing she needed to suddenly dodge up at another sign. She looked like she was going to stumble and fall at first, but she managed to land on her feet on the building.
"Not a bad idea, Cherry," Bailey smirked, dodging up to another sign so she could join the two at the top of the building. With the three now all up there together, they walked closer to the side of the building to look down at the city. It was quite expansive, and they could see all of the others in the streets below, though they were clearly a bit out of range for them. Bailey noticed that Jhin was running around all alone and frowned at the sight, "Where's the rest of her team?"
"If we're lucky, she's all that's left of her team." Bailey looked at Cherry, who gave her a little pat on the back, "Chin up, Bailey…I'm aware that you two are romantically intertwined, but the competition has to come first. Amanda and I are both aware that one of us is going to have to be eliminated soon enough…can't dwell on it."
"I guess you're right, it just feels a bit bad to see her all on her own already…but yeah, I'll focus on the challenge. It looks like the closest to us is…the Fox Family." Bailey pointed off into the distance, where Eli, Elward, and 3V were all moving together in a troop. The three women on the rooftops nodded to each other and quickly started to jump from rooftop to rooftop, moving in hot pursuit of the other team.
Confessional - Bailey
"Cherry is right, I need to just stay focused on the game. I'm sure Jhin probably understands if she gets eliminated it's not because of any hard feelings or anything." Bailey deeply sighed, leaning back in the seat of her truck. As she sat there, she got a bit of a frown on her face. "...Every single time I end up alone, I keep thinking about what happened with Gwendolyn. It always makes me feel like a bit of an asshole, but I was just standing my ground…so…it should be fine."
Confessional - Cherry
"Between you and me, if it comes to an elimination ceremony for my team, my vote will actually be for Amanda. Don't take it the wrong way or anything, but I'm able to focus on the competitive aspect in this game…the longer she lasts, the easier it'll be for me to get distracted by her. That and, well, Bailey's a bit better at most aspects of challenges." Cherry giggled a bit, kicking her feet up on her steering wheel.
"Nyah, already so much action happening down there and the challenge has only just started!" Marsha was floating on a little neon cloud, moving through the city so she could get a good look at everything that was happening. In her travels, she noticed that there was one contestant that wasn't moving at all: Edward. He was just sitting by the zone that he spawned at, which was surrounded by a lot of alleyways and cut throughs. She raised an eyebrow and shrugged, quickly floating down to the area with her cloud hovering above him. "Yoyo, Edward! I said the challenge had started, you know?"
"I'm more than aware…and this is my way of doing the challenge." Marsha looked a little confused while Edward gestured to all of the alleys around him. "The rest of my team ran off, I'm almost certain that they'll get themselves in trouble that way. I'm in a pretty safe area though…I'll simply focus on escaping rather than fighting head on, and the other teams will assuredly get bored of chasing after me and go for something else. That is, if they even wander over here at all."
"You're sure right of getting bored of that," Marsha yawned while holding her hand in front of her mouth to show Edward that his idea was lame. He just smiled faintly at her, and she smiled back. "You really haven't changed a bit since I last saw you, nyah nyah. Still the same Edward…oh, but I've been watching all the challenges! I saw you face your fears that last challenge…it was pretty heavy."
"Well…yeah. I did mention before that I wasn't too keen on talking about my family, and now, I suppose you know why. It's alright though…I've been feeling quite a bit confident since that. Well, that and…" Edward looked down at the ground, smiling more noticeably as well as blushing a little bit. "...The other thing's not that important, I guess. But it's nice to see you again, Marsh…a. That oughta take a bloke some time to get used to…"
"It's obviously a much more mature name than Marshmallow is! That way people can take me seriously now! Since I was having a huge problem with that in the past." Marsha laughed awkwardly before she heard the sounds of blasts going off in the distance. "Ah, I should probably get back to spectating the game! I don't wanna miss the moment that someone gets blasted away, plus Chara would probably drop an anvil on my head if I wasn't paying attention like I'm supposed to be!"
"Right, certainly don't want you getting smushed by any anvils," Edward chuckled and waved softly while Marsha flew back up high with her cloud, leaving him to keep blushing to himself.
Confessional - Edward
"Having Marsh…a back makes it almost feel like we never lost her…could you imagine how things would've been if Morgan lost that tiebreaker instead of her? We'd still have me, her, and…" Edward started to blush again, slowly turning to hide his face from the camera, "...Eli."
Confessional - Marsha
"I should probably go chat with Eli when I get the chance, but I don't think I'll be able to while the challenge is still going on. I really don't wanna get in trouble, especially since Chara said I could stay as her assistant if I did a good job today! And if I stay her assistant, it means I can stay in the city! And staying in the city means I get to stay with my friends!" Marsha giggled excitedly, almost sounding like her old self for a moment, but when she noticed that, she slapped herself against the face. "No! Y-you, just…keep acting mature and stop being so childish. I mean it, brain, you better listen to me!"
3V, Elward, and Eli were all walking together through an area of the city that was a park with a lot of trees, bushes, flowers, and it had a decent-sized pond in the middle of it. As the trio passed by a bunch of roses localized in one spot, 3V knelt down towards them, rubbing her cheek against them to feel them. Sure enough, they felt like flowers, and while she looked absolutely boggled by this, her two teammates were silently glancing between each other with annoyed expressions.
"Man, this shit is so freaky real…it feels like a lucid dream almost. I'm not dreaming, right?" The drunkard stood up from the flowers, turning around towards Eli so she could reach up to his cheek and pinch it in her rough, metal fingers. Almost immediately, he let out a shrill cry of pain from the pinch, which got both 3V and Elward giggling like schoolgirls. "Nope, totally not a dream after all!"
"You're supposed to ask somebody to pinch you to check if you're dreaming, not the other way around!" Eli rubbed his cheek after that drunken idiot had finally let go of it. He had a pretty big red spot where she had pinched it, and was glaring at her while she started to walk ahead of him and Elward. He leaned down towards Elward to whisper to him. "I really can't understand how you've been able to handle being on a team with her for the entire season, I would've gone insane by now."
"Her being an imbecile really just makes me look better by comparison, so I see having her around as a capital win for me!" Eli just rolled his eyes at the less than satisfying answer that he got from Elward, who snickered before the two hurried to catch up with their drunkard teammate, who was currently crossing a wooden bridge over the pond. Everything was pretty quiet, and considering that there was a lot of noise from fighting going on just a few minutes ago, it was a relief to the trio.
As they all passed over the bridge, something started to feel off, or at least it started to feel off to Eli, who glanced around as if he was looking for something. Neither Elward nor 3V stopped moving ahead on the bridge, though Eli was now at a full stop, looking up at a building that was fairly close to the park. On the top of it, it almost looked like there were silhouettes. He narrowed his eyes at the sight, and just as he did, three bright neon lights flashed on the roof of the building. His eyes then shot wide open as he realized that the lights were three blasts that were coming down towards the bridge.
"Guys, look out!" Eli quickly hopped over the edge of the bridge to land in the water below, with 3V and Elward turning around to see the incoming bullets. They both screamed out in horror, but before Elward had the chance to start running, 3V picked him up and used him to block the oncoming blasts from hitting her. He was first hit in the face, completely dizzying him, then once in the stomach, and finally once in the chest. After the third blast connected, he completely faded away in 3V's grasp, leaving her as the only one still on the bridge.
"Missed me!" 3V taunted the people on top of the building in the distance, but her mouth quickly shut when she realized that they were firing again. Looking around, she tried to find some way to escape, which is when she noticed that a drenched Eli was currently huddled behind a tree. She used the little amount of sober brain that she had to get herself running towards another tree towards him, and she was able to duck behind it with the three blasts passing right by her. "Phew…that was a close one."
"Did you really have to use Elward as a human shield there?" Eli deadpanned, getting a shrug out of her. He sighed and took a look out past the tree, seeing that the three figures were still up on the rooftop, all of them seeming to be looking around for wherever he and 3V went. "Crap…why didn't I come up with that idea? Well…we're gonna have to figure out some way to get them off of our tails. You got anything, Drunky?"
"I got a hankering for some chips, but other than that, diddly squat." 3V rubbed her belly while licking her lips, with Eli facepalming back at her. "Hey, I'm a hungry girl after all this running around, you can't blame me for having food on my mind."
"It would just be nice if you would focus a little bit on something actually important," Eli grumbled back at her, to which she stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry at him. He watched silently as the trio on the rooftops moved onto another rooftop, like they were trying to find a way to get closer to the park or get around it. "Hm…they're trying to circle around to take us out that way…I see, I see…"
"Wouldn't it be really funny if they were like, coming around like that, and then when they got to their new spot, we were already there? Like, hiding to ambush em…boom!" 3V made an explosion sound effect while also making some big "kaboom" gesture with her hands. Eli raised an eyebrow on her as a grin slowly started to creep up onto his face.
"You know, I think you just gave me a great idea! We're gonna have to be really sneaky and quiet, though, so no more explosion noises." Eli knelt down and began to move from tree to tree as quietly as he could, hiding himself from the sight of the three attackers that were just going after him. 3V groaned and started to follow after him.
"Man, I love making sound effects, though…" The drunkard continued to quietly whine while she moved in suit with Eli, and the two headed out of the park to move back towards the city streets.
Confessional - Eli
"3V is a real nuisance to have on a team with me, but there are two things she's pretty good for: having random moments of genius in her drunken ideas and being easy to appeal to. I could probably get her to vote Elward off in a sticky situation just by offering her my drink ticket for the night." Eli grinned with his arms crossed firmly over his chest. "Honestly, it would be pretty easy to get an ally out of both of them…they aren't really smart or anything. And that's saying something…I mean, Elward made a robot, but he's basically as dumb as a bag of rocks."
Confessional - 3V
"I almost feel like I miss having Eliza around, but then again, both her and Eli are pretty bossy and yappy. I guess Eli's better because he doesn't look like he's about to fall asleep at any given moment, but he's a real big boy so I gotta make sure he doesn't bust into my snack stash." 3V slammed her fist down against the back of her motorcycle, causing a secret door to open up, revealing a bunch of different sorts of snacks underneath. She wiggled her eyebrow at the camera a bit before she shut the compartment again.
"Girl, how do you even fit all those snacks in that tiny bike of yours? It's like she's replaced key parts to getting a motorcycle moving with munchies! I guess the drunk mind has its ways, doesn't it, dreamers?"
Back outside of the VR chamber, the contestants that had gotten out already were sitting and waiting. Leo and Zayden sat next to each other, with Leo resting his head against Zayden's shoulder while the latter wrapped his arm around the femboy's waist. Morgan was annoyedly leaning up against a pole, with Garfield standing right nearby her. Just at that moment, Elward stumbled out of the chamber, tumbling onto the ground and landing on his hands and knees, looking entirely dazed and confused.
"A-ah! Why did that have to feel so real!?" Elward groaned, rubbing his forehead, then his stomach, and finally his chest before he pulled himself up to his feet. Seeing the rest of the contestants around him, he at least took solace in seeing that one team was down to one member. That, and the fact that neither of his own teammates were out of the chamber was good at least. He cracked his neck a little bit, and walked over to Chara, who was monitoring everything that was happening on her many monitors. "I gotta say, lady, this whole thing is pretty impressive! Almost as impressive as my HAILEY!"
"I don't quite know what a 'HAILEY' is, but thank you, I suppose. The matrix was primarily my invention, at least in the way of piecing it together." Chara didn't even look back at Elward while she stared at the screens. She had a pen in her hand, which she was pressing against her lips. "The initial idea and a good deal of the schematics came from a partner of mine, but I had to modify it to actually get it to work. I'm well aware that its complexity will impress all who are able to witness it firsthand."
"Uh…yeah, firsthand, right." Elward just nodded his head like he knew what Chara was talking about, though it was certainly clear that he hadn't the faintest clue. Either way, she still didn't look at him at all, and he ended up slowly sneaking away from her to go sit down. At the same time, Garfield's phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out to see that he had a new message from Henry. He glanced around to make sure that nobody was looking before he started to sneak away, though last second, Morgan noticed his disappearance.
"What does he want this time?" Garfield grumbled to himself while he was off in the corner of the basement area, safely away from the others. He checked the message on his phone, and it seemed that it was about the plans to go after the mayor that were coming up. Just simple things about how he'd have to get up earlier than the others so he could make sure that none of them actually leave the hotel or anything. He rolled his eyes and started to text back to him, completely oblivious to Morgan standing right behind him now.
"Frosted tips, what in the hell are you doin'?" Garfield gasped and suddenly threw his phone against the wall, causing it to shatter into pieces before he turned around to face Morgan with a big smile, trying to seem unsuspicious but failing horribly. She stared at him, completely dumbfounded by what he had just done. Then she looked at the phone…it was clearly broken beyond repair with how hard he had just thrown in. "...Bitch, what the fuck?"
"Ah, it was just some scam call that I got, but they mentioned hacking into my phone and started listing off my IP address so I had to destroy the phone so they wouldn't get any more information than they already had, you know how it is with those doxxers." Garfield tried to wave off her suspicion, but she just seemed more suspicious than ever, causing a bead of sweat to slowly drop down from his forehead. "U-uh…something wrong?"
"...Yeah, you wasn't on a phone call at all, you was just texting someone." Garfield stumbled over his own words as he tried to find an answer for her. She groaned in annoyance, "Listen, I don't really give a fuck who you're texting or whatevah, it's just that you're being weird as hell sneaking around like that." She crossed her arms and mumbled for a moment before sighing, "You and I know each other fairly well, I guess, so if you got something you need to talk about, you can come to me about it if you want."
"...Eh?" Garfield just looked confused by the offer, and that look of confusion clearly got Morgan all red in the face.
"Bitch, I'm saying that you can confide in me, I'm trying to be nice! Don't look at me like I'm some alien from another planet!" Morgan snapped at the politician before she turned and walked away, leaving him to stand there, completely confused still. Once she was out of sight, he looked back at the remnants of his phone, frowning as he picked up the pieces and held them in his hands.
Confessional - Garfield
"I guess that this takes out my communication line with Henry…but it's not like it really matters too much. If something happens to the mayor, it'll definitely be in the news…I just gotta make sure that no one gets to city hall during the next challenge." Garfield ran his hands through his hair, sighing a bit while checking his reflection in the mirror. He clearly looked a lot more nervous and on edge than ever before, with his eyes even having bags under them. He tugged at the bags, "Maybe this is why Morgan thinks something is wrong with me…eh, I'm sure I'll be all better soon enough. Though, I have had this sinking feeling that something is coming to get me…I can't really explain it, but it's definitely freaking me out a bit."
Confessional - Morgan
"L-lame ass frosted tips…I extend a shoulder to him and he just ignores it and plays dumb. This is exactly why I don't bother getting too involved with people, they take my kindness for granted!" Morgan was kicking her feet against the floor of her car over and over again. Like Garfield, she looked pretty different than her usual confident self. She looked incredibly frustrated through and through, and soon enough, that frustration turned into her full-on crying. She held herself curled up in a ball so the camera couldn't see her face while she was crying. "...I-I miss my dumb ass brother, man."
Back inside of the matrix, Jhin was currently sprinting through the streets while blast after blast was being fired at her. She was only being chased by Bec, but he was using the cover provided by the cars around him to make sure that she wasn't able to hit him at all. He reeled his hand back and chucked another neon blast at her, striking her right in the ankle and causing her to fall forward. She let out a loud screech of pain and quickly grabbed at her ankle to hold it, as if it had actually ended up breaking from that.
"Finally got a hit off…huff, you really make it difficult to get you, you know that?" Bec was breathing pretty heavily. After all, he had been running after Jhin for quite a few minutes at that point without stopping at all. That was just the first time that he actually managed to get a shot off on her. He pulled himself out from behind the car to take aim at her again, though she was completely gone from where she was just laying.
"Eh? Come on, Jhin, don't make this be any more difficult than it has to be…I already feel bad having to hit you in the first place." Bec sighed while he walked around, tossing his neon blast from hand to hand to take advantage of its football shape. As he was walking around and looking for her, Jhin had managed to crawl into a sewer access that was perfectly hidden below a car so no one could see it. She kept her breathing hushed, only peeking out a little bit to keep tabs on him. She saw that his feet were stopped in front of the car and covered her mouth with her hands to really make sure she was quiet.
"...Found you!" Bec grinned before hopping back and chucking the neon football right at the car and causing it to blow up in a huge explosion. Lucky enough for her, she already started descending further into the sewer when he said "found you," so the explosion just barely missed her. She landed in the mucky water under the street with a huge splash, and soon came up for air after, though she could hear Bec descending the ladder from above.
Jhin looked all around the sewer, trying to see if there was a good spot for her to hide, but it seemed that it was a pretty open space. She was running out of time, too, as Bec was getting further and further down the ladder by the second. Taking in a deep breath, she dove under the water, using that as her cover. Bec touched down on the walkway along the sewer water, and looked around to try and find her. He walked a bit as he did, tossing another neon football from hand to hand.
"You know, Jhin, I'm the star quarterback of my football team…I can chuck these things wayyyyy further than you'll be able to run, I can guarantee you that. It would be easier for both of us if you just showed your face." Bec taunted Jhin, who glared underneath the water. Since the water was so murky, it provided good cover for her, but she also couldn't see so well above the water. She was deliberating what she should do, as she was essentially stuck between a rock and a hard place.
"You're not hiding in the crap water, are you? That's just so gross…I do wonder how these blasts work on the water, though." Bec slowly started to grin more and more as he reeled back with his football. He soon let it fly, but just as Jhin heard the sound of him firing the blast, she pounced out of the water, leaping up towards him on the walkway. The blast wasn't aimed anywhere near her, but when it hit the water, the entirety of the water lit up in bright neon colors, like an electric reaction or something.
Bec was astounded by the bright flash of light, and this gave Jhin the chance to lunge at him, pushing him up against the rocky wall of the sewer tunnel, dazing him enough to get a good neon slash off on his chest. He bit his lip to hold in the scream of pain, and quickly headbutted Jhin, knocking her back from him so that he was free from her grasp. She stumbled back, and he lit up both of his fists with that bright neon light, taking two swings at her. She managed to catch her balance just in time, and backed up so that Bec completely missed his hits.
"Just hold still!" Bec whined as he tumbled forward, and Jhin zipped past him to hit him with another slash against his back, knocking him down to the ground. She tried to pounce on him while he was down, but he quickly rolled to the side, causing her to just end up striking the ground with her claws. She growled, turning to face him just before he delivered a strong, neon punch right to her face.
The strike was so hard that it knocked her right back off of the platform and into the water below. As the water splashed up from Jhin hitting it and sinking into it, Bec had to take a good few breaths. His outfit was shredded up a bit from her claws, but he didn't seem to mind that all too much. He cracked his neck and stood up straight, rolling his shoulder a bit before he started to form another neon football in his hands.
"I gotta hand it to you, you have been nothing but a nuisance this entire time. If you're lucky, your team might at least recognize how great you did and not eliminate you, but I wouldn't really count on that." Bec chuckled a bit while shaking his head at the water. He could see that there were bubbles coming up, so she was still very clearly under the water. He pulled his arm back though, getting himself ready to throw the football into the water. "Alright, enough of the chit chat…sorry, Jhin, but you're done."
Bec quickly let the football go, tossing it right into the water with a huge grin on his face. Though, just as it was about to touch the water's surface, Jhin suddenly dodged straight up towards him. His eyes shot open wide, and he tried to form another neon football, but before he could, he felt something jab against his gut. He looked down slowly to see the bright neon claws from Jhin's hands poking into him. He looked back up at her, seeing that she was panting and heaving just as he had been.
"...Lucky…shot…" With those two words, Bec suddenly disintegrated into nothing, leaving nothing in the sewer other than the neon-illuminated waters and an absolutely drenched Jhin. She took a deep breath and sat down on the walkway, looking up at the sewer access that she and Bec had come down from. After sitting for just a little bit, she begrudgingly pulled herself back to her feet, and started to wobble towards the ladder, knowing that she had to go back up and take care of one more before she was truly in the clear.
Confessional - Jhin
"Ugh…that Bec is something else! I didn't have any trouble at all when it came to Morgan and Garfield, but he was different! He reacted way faster than everybody else, like he was superhuman or something!" Jhin scratched at her ear with her foot just like a dog would, she clearly looked annoyed. "He hit me twice, so by my count…I just have one hit left before I go kablooey. All I have to do is take care of that tiny tot on their team, though! And he's like, pretty insignificant, so it should be easy!"
Confessional - Bec
"..." Bec sat in his car, his eye twitching while he held something in his hands. It looked like a clay diorama of Jhin, but before the camera could really get a good look at it, he crushed it in his hands. It was hardened clay, so it left little clay shards poking into his hands while he looked at the camera with an unnerving grin. "Jhin bested me this time around…I'll need to make sure that no one bests me ever again. I really hate losing when I clearly had a shot at winning…it's just like when Eli beat me in that racing challenge."
Back on the rooftops, Cherry was leading her pack of girlboss warriors along like the true warrior goddess she was born to be. She had that sexy strut in each of her steps, and Amanda couldn't help but watch with a huge smile on her face while she followed along. Bailey giggled a bit at the silly expression on Amanda's face, but she really just thought it was cute. She had seen Jhin make some similar faces at her before, so it was just a fun sight.
"Haven't seen one bit of those two since we ambushed them before…they're playing the sneaking game quite good, I have to admit." Cherry scoffed while she hopped from one rooftop to another. The gap was a decent bit wide, but she still ended up making it to the other side just fine. Bailey was the next one to jump the gap, doing it with clear ease. Then came Amanda, who went ahead to take the jump, but ended up landing right on the ledge. She wobbled a bit backwards at first, but Cherry grabbed her by the tie to keep her from falling. "You alright, love?"
"I underestimated the width of the gap…thank you for catching me, Cherry." Amanda smiled at Cherry, who smiled right back at her. Bailey stood off to the side, bearing a smile of her own from the cute scene, but then her ear twitched slightly. She turned around, having sensed something out of the ordinary, only to see a neon blast fire right past her. It didn't hit her, but it hit Cherry right on the hand, causing her to lose her grip on Amanda's tie. Amanda gasped and fell down through the gap between the buildings.
"A-ambush!?" Bailey saw another blast coming her way, and quickly dodged to take cover behind the roof access of the building. She heard the blast crash against the bricks of the structure, and looked around frantically, only to find that Cherry was no longer on the rooftop either. "Where did she go!?" The ice cube groaned before blindly firing a blast back towards the attackers, trying to hit somebody, but missing terribly.
Meanwhile, Amanda was still falling through the air, her entire body in a silent state of shock as she watched window by window pass her by. She was pretty sure that she'd be out just from falling off of the roof like that, but she was a bit more worried about how badly it was going to hurt. She knew the ground was coming soon, and she shut her eyes tight, bracing for impact…only to suddenly be caught by someone. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes again to see that Cherry was down there, holding her in her arms.
"Sorry 'bout that, love…nothing a quick dash down here couldn't fix. Although, I figure Bailey's probably quite pissed at me now." Cherry couldn't help but chuckle as she set Amanda back down on her feet, looking up to see that there were still plenty of blasts firing about around the rooftop. "Guess that's a good sign that she's still up there, then…now, how do we get up there without just getting caught right away?"
"Maybe…we don't have to?" Amanda suggested to a clearly confused Cherry. The stock mistress quickly reached into the pocket of Cherry's jacket, pulling out a small makeup mirror. She held it open and turned around, using the reflection to look up at the building behind them. Of course, she couldn't just see the roof at that close distance, so she started to move further and further away, moving far enough until she finally got some sight, although a bit blurry, of what was going on up there. She could see someone hiding behind a brick structure, and two others poked up above a ventilation system. She held her hand up behind her body, aiming with the use of the mirror before she fired a blast of her own.
"Hey, Drunky! You didn't see where Cherry went after we shot her hand, did you?" Eli asked 3V in between firing blasts at the still hiding Bailey. 3V stopped shooting for a moment to think, but Eli could at least understand from that that she clearly had no idea. Bailey's shots kept missing the two of them, so he wasn't so worried about those, but all of the sudden, some other blast came over the rooftop, knocking 3V right against the head and dazing her. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me…stop outsmarting my outsmarting!"
"Huh?" Bailey raised an eyebrow as she heard Eli shouting, and she noticed a sudden stop in the blasts that were being fired at her. Being as quick as she could, she rolled out from her hiding spot, taking aim and throwing a blast off at 3V while she was still all dazed. The drunkard stumbled back a bit, which gave Bailey another clear shot. She fired at her, managing to hit her the third time right in the face and banishing her from the game, but in doing so, she ended up taking a shot from Eli. It was a chest shot, so it didn't daze her, but it did knock her back a few good feet. She raised her hand to try and fire another blast off, but she was hit by another blast from him, pushing her even further back. She saw him charging up another blast, and all she could do was quickly dodge back behind her hiding spot, taking a few deep breaths.
"Dammit! That worked out so much better in my head…" Eli slapped himself against the forehead before ducking behind the ventilation system. Cherry and Amanda were both firing at him from the ground, and Bailey was throwing the occasional blast from her hiding spot, not giving him much wiggle room at all. "I gotta just make a break for it, I can't fight all three of them…of course, we had to go up against the one coherent team in the game."
He groaned before dodging off the side of a building, landing on another one nearby. Though, when he got to that rooftop, he could feel his body growing weaker and weaker. He looked down at his hands, and they showed he was clearly out of energy to fire more blasts. He looked behind him to see that Amanda and Cherry had just gotten back up to that rooftop from before, and were regrouping with Bailey. He started to get nervous, looking for some way to escape, which is when he noticed the fire escape at the side of the building. He jumped down to it as quick as he could, running back down to the streets where he was at least in a much less open area that he could hide in.
Confessional - Eli
"I really should've known better than to rely on 3V for assistance…she just can't multitask to save her life, and thinking takes a whole lot of energy for her." Eli groaned miserably, slamming his head against the steering wheel of his motorcycle. "I just have to hide out the rest of the challenge, I'm not dumb enough to try and go back at those girls again. I'll just hope that one of the other teams takes each other out."
Confessional - Cherry
"Now, I know I said that we should focus more on the game than our significant others, but…ah…but…well, I don't think I've got much of an excuse for that. Wouldn't be much fun to see Amanda stressing out from falling like that." Cherry rubbed her temple and sighed, "I really do need to get myself under control…"
With all the chaos going on with Eli and the Redevon family, Jhin was left to wander the streets of the city. She had replenished her energy after her fight with Bec, but still, she only had one more hit she could take before it was lights out for her. She tried to stay away from the noises of the action on the rooftops, knowing that that was probably too much for her to handle, and just stuck to the streets, running about in the quieter places. All by herself, she took out Bec, Garfield, and Morgan, so she just needed to ambush Edward really well.
"That munchkin's gotta be around here somewhere, I just gotta go wherever I smell misery…" Jhin took a deep sniff of the air, and sure enough, she could smell the misery that she was looking for. It was fairly close to where she already was…all she had to do was go through an alleyway and she'd be right there. Naturally, though, she kept quiet while she stalked through the shadows, being wary that Edward could very well be waiting for her.
As far as Edward himself…he was just sitting where he was before, not having moved an inch from where he was at the start of the game. He had his eyes on some of the nearby alleyways, but there were so many of them that it was just impossible for him to watch all of them. He kept watching in silence, humming faintly to himself before Jhin suddenly lunged out of the shadows, slashing him with those bright, neon claws of hers and diving back into the shadows. Naturally, he fell to the ground, but he quickly bounced back up to his feet.
"So…someone's here, then…" He noted in his dull tone, not sounding or even looking more worried or even nervous. He raised both of his hands up, lighting them up with neon energy and getting ready to strike. He saw Jhin's eyes twinkle in one of the alleyways, and he fired a blast at her, but she dodged past it and towards him with her readied claws. This time, though, he had picked up on that pattern of hers, and he dodged to the side, staying safe from all danger. She growled at him from where she stood, and he had both of his hands aimed at her still.
"Jhin…you move so erratically…" Edward noted to himself, but suddenly, something happened to catch his eye in the alleys. He gasped softly, but was quick to hide his look of shock, and just started to slowly back away from Jhin, still aiming his hands at her. "You know…if you take me down, I'm going to be eliminated."
"And if anyone knocks me out, I'm gonna be eliminated! So, no hard feelings or anything, but I gotta beat you!" Jhin smirked a bit at Edward, though her smirk faded the moment that she noticed a smirk on his own face. "W…why are you smiling like that? You never smile!"
"Oh, I'm just happy to hear there won't be any hard feelings, that's all." Edward nodded his head softly, and Jhin rolled her eyes, about to lunge, but before she could, she felt something pelt her right in the spine. She stopped dead in her tracks, feeling her body growing weaker and weaker in that moment. She very slowly glanced behind her to find that Eli had come out from one of the alleyways, and had his hand aimed right at her.
"I…" Jhin could feel her body starting to pixelate at the moment, just as Cherry, Amanda, and Bailey all ran up to the scene from a nearby rooftop. Bailey gasped at the sight, and Jhin looked up at her. At first, the look on the deranged woman's face was that of pure sadness and nothing else, but being able to see Bailey up there…it made her smile. Even as her in-game body was starting to fade away and disappear, she just felt happy. "...Lost…"
With that, the last of her body faded away, and the simulation of the city came to an end, showing that the six contestants were all still standing in the now dormant chamber. They each gasped when they came back to reality, all falling to their knees one by one. They could see that the other contestants were all watching from outside of the chamber, as well as Chara. Behind them, Marsha stood, patting Eli and Edward both on the back before walking past them to join the scientist.
"...I must say, this challenge was really quite incredible for my research involving this project. For that, I do have to thank you all…I know there are some tweaks that need to be made, but it worked a lot better than I anticipated." Chara noted something down on a clipboard before standing over Jhin, who was clearly a bit embarrassed about losing. "That was quite the fight…like an animal backed into a corner…but you still ended up losing. For that, you and the rest of your team will have to eliminate someone tonight."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it, lady…" Jhin grumbled and pulled herself up to her feet, looking at both Leo and Zayden. The two tried to avoid eye contact with her, as they could tell that she was scowling at them.
Confessional - Jhin
"Gah…I took down three people all by myself and still ended up losing in the end…totally unfair." Jhin tugged on her hair a little bit, her eyes looking like they were about to bug out of her head. "This is just such a stinky situation…do all the work and you're still stuck with a couple as the rest of your team."
Confessional - Leo
"I-I feel pretty awful for Jhin…and I know that, w-well, if it weren't for the fact that me and Zayden just got together, I would've been p-paying more attention to what was going on around me." Leo twiddled his thumbs while he stared down at his lap, not really wanting to look at the camera at all. "S-she definitely worked really hard during the challenge…b-but…you know…Zayden and I…ohhhh, I wish I could just…not vote."
Confessional - Zayden
"Well, that was…something. That beginning part was definitely my fault, I can admit that much…and I know Jhin tried her hardest and all, but, well…I can't just vote for Leo." Zayden nodded his head as he marked down his vote, "It was a fun time, even if a pretty short one, but somebody's definitely gotta go at the end of the day."
At the rooftop of the hotel, it was just Jhin, Leo, and Zayden all sitting together. Well, Jhin was spaced out from the two, sitting with her legs and arms crossed while grumbling and grunting like some kind of wild boar or something. Leo was sitting right in Zayden's lap, still looking entirely distraught about what had happened in the challenge and all. Zayden himself was just giving Leo some pats on the back, trying to comfort him at least a little bit, since that challenge was definitely pretty rough for them. Standing at the podium was just Chef and no one else…he only had two drink tickets with him.
"Well, well, maggots…how'd you like gettin' to spend your time with that mad scientist in the basement? A pretty fun time from the looks of it…especially for a group of losers like yourselves!" Chef grinned and stepped towards the team of three, dangling the two drink tickets in front of all of them like some sort of grand prize. "You know the rules…you voted, someone's gotta go! Whoever doesn't get their name called, doesn't get a drink ticket, and then they'll have to take the Hyperspace Tube of Losers on out of here! Leo, you're the only one who didn't receive a vote, so you're safe!"
"T-thanks, Chef…" Leo smiled, but it was clearly a forced smile. He took his drink ticket and immediately went back to sulking and frowning in Zayden's lap. Jhin didn't look any less annoyed than she already was, but Zayden was at least smiling.
"Zayden, you were the first one to get out on your team in the challenge, and you let yourself, and Leo, get way too distracted by everything that was going on around you! Jhin, you were the last one standing on your team, but you lost your guard and ended up fumbling the win at the very end! Only one of you is gonna be safe tonight, and that person is…" Chef held the ticket up high above the two of them, grinning in a mocking manner.
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"...Jhin!" Chef announced the name of the deranged girl out loud, dropping the drink ticket onto her lap. This was followed by a moment of silence that all three of the contestants shared, like they were each buffering in that moment. "...You know, that means Zayden was eliminated. He got two votes, Jhin got one vote, he's going home, she's staying."
"...W…what?" Zayden softly muttered in his utterly confused state. He was weakly smiling, "S-so…when you say that, Chef, I mean, you're obviously joking, right? I-I didn't vote for myself this time around, I voted for Jhin. S-so, wouldn't she be the one that's getting eliminated tonight?"
"Yeah, that doesn't make any sense! I voted for Zayden, but the two of them very obviously voted for me, even my crazy brain knows that much! That war you were in must've really banged up your brain good if you're messing up reading the votes!" Jhin grinned at Chef, who glared at her in turn.
"I got two votes for Zayden, one vote for Jhin, it ain't that hard to recount 'em." Chef held up all three votes, showing them to the team. There was another moment of silence before Jhin and Zayden both turned their attention to Leo, who had been entirely silent the entire time. He shriveled up in Zayden's lap when he felt their gazes upon him.
"I-I-I…um…i-it's just that, well…I…I couldn't vote for Jhin, okay!? I couldn't do it, I know that she was working overtime during the challenge a-and it would feel just wrong to vote her out when she didn't do anything wrong!" Jhin and Zayden remained silent while Leo shouted out his explanation with teary eyes. "A-and I loved having my first kiss with you, Zayden, but we…w-we just very clearly distract each other. It was easy enough to see that today…and neither of us is going to win if we let ourselves just get distracted by each other…I-I'm sorry, I just…"
"H-hey, it's…it's all cool. I completely understand." Zayden smiled down at Leo, pulling him up from his lap and into a hug. "The competition comes before the romance, I should've been thinking like you were. Besides, just because I'm out of the game now doesn't mean I'm gonna think about you any differently…we would've had to eliminate one or the other later on anyways. You sorta just ripped the band-aid right off now."
"Y-yeah…I'm really sorry, Zayden…" Leo tried to apologize even more, but he was quickly silenced by Zayden tilting his head to the side and leaning in to kiss him right on the lips. Jhin was still fairly quiet in the entire interaction, and soon enough, the two broke off the kiss, both smiling at each other.
"That was a tough decision you just made, but you did it because you knew it was the right call…that's definitely gonna help you get far in this game, Leo." Zayden ruffled Leo's hair a little bit before he finally got up from his seat, walking off towards the tube, which was lit up with it's bright neon lights.
"...Damn, Leo…I actually kinda respect you for that," Jhin grumbled quietly, though Leo could still hear what she said. He blushed from the praise, looking over to see that she was holding her fist up towards him. He slowly bumped his own fist against hers, and the two watched together in silence as Zayden walked into the tube, quickly being sucked up into it and disappearing from sight.
C.K. Swing Songs: golden hour - JVKE
Votes: Zayden - Jhin, Leo; Jhin - Zayden
22nd: Henry Yates, the Socially Awkward Kid
21st: Gwendolyn Linelife, the Harsh Doctor
20th: Heath Alghieri, the Puppet Master
19th: Giselle Gingersnap, the Wannabe MILF
18th: Suzie Venta, the Reference Queen
17th: Marshmallow Fulloff, the Connoisseur of Sweets
16th: Gerald Piscurr, Mr. Talks to Himself (and Allan Heiver, the Imaginary? Friend)
15th: Atlas McCarthy, the World's Big Brother
14th: Eliza Fox, the Tired Delivery Girl
13th: Zayden Morgan, the Walking Target
Fox Family: Eli, Elward, 3V
Morgan Family: Jhin, Leo
Quatch Family: Bec, Edward, Garfield, Morgan
Redevon Family: Amanda, Bailey, Cherry