Scramble 16 Round 3: Twister

[u/OddDirective]

EDIT: Round 3 has concluded! While there are no competitive rounds (and thus, no strict need for a voting form), we have put together a form to vote on your favorite round/who you think will win. Please check it out HERE!

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Round 3: Twister

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Hub Post

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Bracket

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DAY 5

The mission for today seems oddly easy for your Players. “Enter Tower Records. You have 8 hours. Fail, and face erasure.” They don’t wake up too far from the entrance, and the time limit is very generous. But hey, they’ve been fighting for their lives for a fair bit, so they’re glad to have something of a cakewalk to get to the next day.

That’s not what this is.

The Game Master has decided that the gloves are coming off now. They’ve set a simple task to their Reapers; eliminate every Player you can get your hands on. Not only that, but they’ve set up an ambush right in front of the one way to get to Tower Records, featuring some hand-picked assassins- the enemy team. For whatever reason, your Reaper can’t or doesn’t let your Players know- if they’re the Game Master (or even if not), they might have decided that your team has reached the end of their usefulness, or they could be trying to dodge the Game Master’s suspicion to avoid erasure themselves.

Whatever the case, as your team walks into the trap, they come across a lone Player, one who’s lost the rest of their team. Whether it’s because they’re still fighting, or because Players without a team can’t have gotten this far, your Players are tipped off- just in time for the enemy team to come in. To save their life, your Players form a pact with the solo Player, and prepare to face off in a battle for everyone’s second chance…

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Scramble Rules

Let ‘Em Know Who You Are: Every participant this season received four characters on their team, but many of them might not be a household name. To aid with readability, please give a brief introduction and summary of your characters, with enough information so the average reader can get excited for your team before starting. That includes your adopted character this time, too!

This World Ends With You: Your writeup will depict a scenario where your team succeeds. Even if your team has a one in a million chance of overcoming the odds, show what they’d need to do to come out on top against the challenge in front of them!

Everybody Has Their Own World: Writers are allowed to make changes to their characters in their narrative to fit their story, such as allowing power stealers to gain more powers, teaching martial artists new techniques, or having characters gradually grow in strength between rounds. However, you are not beholden to following what your opponent is doing. When facing another team, you are only required to write their characters as they were submitted. This is to help with ease of research, and make things more fun for both sides.

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Round Rules

Setting: This round’s original setting is Tower Records, an iconic music store that outlived its American main branch, located in the heart of Shibuya with shelves stocked with all the latest music, in CD or vinyl. The important parts of wherever the location is is that it’s recognizable by the members of the team, and it can be set up for an ambush. There’s also more than enough time for your team to mess around and do whatever their heart desires before going into the ambush, so you can include other locations as well.

Key Points: The main idea of the round is the following. The Game Master wants to eliminate a whole load of Players, and so sets up a seemingly-easy mission to keep the Players off guard. This gives your Players time to do things other than the mission, but when they do pursue the mission, they meet a lone Player, with whom they extend their pact to stay as a team. During this, they are ambushed, and have to fight against the enemy team for their lives.

Union X: Adoptions! That’s right, it’s the adoption round. We’ve decided to be pretty open about this; there are two possibilities for who you can adopt. The first is that any Player on a team that has already been eliminated is available to adopt. We have also curated a list of unpicked backups that you can choose from. All available adoptions are HERE, and be sure to look through to find someone you’ll enjoy writing.

Post Limit: For this round, writers will be limited to 8 posts, or 80k characters. While it is fine to go a little bit over, anything that far surpasses this limit will be automatically disqualified. This limit does not include intro posts, or analysis of the matchup.

Due Date: Writeups will be due at 11:59 PM CST on EDIT: Sunday, November 27th. That’s about two and a half weeks. At that point, the thread will be locked, and voting will go up for a few days afterwards.

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Flavor Suggestions

Incongruous: Your team members might be suspicious of such an easy mission. After all, the people in charge of this don’t really want you to win, do they? Would they see this as a chance to take a break, and do things casually? Alternatively, would they rush headlong into the ambush the Game Master set up?

Dancer In The Street: Whoever you’re adopting, your team is going to be meeting them in a difficult situation, either in combat or just having come from it. But you can’t just sideline them, you’ve gotta make sure they shine! What do they bring to the table in terms of synergies? How do they fight when they’re backed into a corner? And importantly, how would your team react to finding someone on their own?

[u/Kiryu2012]

An explosion of purple energy. A succession of shockwaves. A hilariously morbid one-liner.

That was the series of not so unfortunate events that went down in rapid succession as Sam and Max were in the middle of intense training. After becoming a vampire, Max had taken part in the battle against the ruler of the A-East area known as King Cold, devouring the severed tail of the alien and gaining a newfound transformation with which he utilized to emerge victorious against Cold. As a celebration of their great accomplishment, Max gave Sam a little lovebite to the neck (which Hector Huth was still lowkey holding over the freelance police’s heads) with the intent of bestowing upon him the vampiric powers he himself had obtained.

It turned out that King Cold was a mutant amongst his race, and that as such he had incredible dormant potential; he could have grown considerably in strength and efficiency in a far shorter training period than any others. And by consuming his blood and absorbing his power, Max had inherited this same potential. So not only did Sam gain vampirism of his own, but he now also had that very same mutant potentiality, and the freelance police, Max in particular, were all too eager to test out their new power.

It had only been a day or so since their battle with the ruler, and yet Sam and Max were making some noticeable gains as they trained together. In terms of raw strength, they both already improved significantly; Sam in particular was catching up to Max when the latter first fought and defeated King Cold, and both he and the lagomorph were only going to get more powerful if they kept up their training the way they were at now.

A cross counter, both police landing a hard punch to one another’s faces that created a massive shockwave. The ground beneath their feet was promptly blasted asunder as though a bomb had been set off atop it. That dirt and stone directly beneath the sparring partners was all but vaporized, with the section of ground further away for over several tens of meters being pulverized into a fine powder. And yet, neither of the training partners paid any heed as they traded blows with one another above the crater formed in their clash, the likes of which could easily have been made into an olympic swimming pool with how large it was.

Sam blocked an incoming kick from Max with his raised left arm, retaliating with a right hook that itself was countered by his little buddy. Much like what the smaller lagomorph had gained after consuming King Cold’s detached cauda, the taller carnivoran had acquired a new transformation for himself. Reminiscent of the Frost Demon’s outwards appearance, and unknowingly Frieza’s to an extent, Sam was clad in plated armor, sporting a long tail and a set of horns. Although, in Sam’s case, his armor still bore a striking similarity with his normal police attire with the addition of shoulder pads similar to that of King Cold himself. With the Freelance Police both utilizing their newfound forms in their training, they looked like the newest heirs to the Frieza Force.

“Who would have guessed that your complete and utter disregard for the numerous potential risks presented by consuming the severed bodily portions of alien lifeforms would work out so well for the both of us?” Sam cheerfully noted as he and Max engaged in a grapple, locking hands as they strained against each other. The force of their little shoving contest was tearing up the earth as they landed on the ground, forming an ever widening crater that was increasingly looking like the impact zone of a meteorite.

“I knew my hypercarnivorous physiology would be of benefit to me!” Max responded in his own upbeat demeanor, the animalistic officers resuming trading blows with one another in a flurry of melee attacks. Even with the speed and strength they were swinging their limbs at, each clash they made further tearing apart the surrounding landscape, they both kept their disconcertingly cheerful toothy grins on as their training session continued onwards. Even as they both whipped out their respective handguns (with the aid of their tails) and began opening fire upon one another in close quarters, they just kept enjoying themselves; the bullets themselves were merely swatted or deflected aside from an accurate swipe of their arm or leg all the while they continued meet each other’s strikes with their own.

“Jeez, might as well be dropping nukes here with how much they’re tearing this place up.” That was Hector Huth commenting on the power being exhibited by the Freelance Police, the wereboar himself currently in the midst of training with Zelgius. The Black Knight in question was in utter awe at the heights they both had achieved, limits only broken by their strength and pride. He never would have imagined those two becoming so powerful and gaining such strange new transformations, all because Max was crazy enough to drink a vampire’s blood. Funny how things turn out.

“I never would have imagined those two would be so powerful,” Zelgius said in consternation, and yet trepidation too, staring at how Sam and Max continued to create a succession of shockwaves with their strikes. "How can we be sure that they won't be corrupted by their own potential and turn on us? We might as well be useless compared to them."

“Now now, let’s not go putting ourselves down here,” Merlin said, approaching Hector and Zelgius. “This whole training is to ensure none of us lag behind. Everyone’s gonna be getting stronger, and even if our resident police force has some brand new transformation, we still got our own unique quirks to help out. And you won’t have to worry about their power getting to their heads, I assure you. They’re all about stopping crime however possible, and gaining a brand spanking alien form isn’t going to change that.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Zelgius replied, managing a smile even if he wasn’t fully convinced. “It’s just hard to believe that a talking dog and rabbit of all things could get this far in power. I’ve seen a lot of things in my life, but nothing like this.”

“Well, I guess that’s the afterlife for ya,” Hector noted, more willing to accept the absurdities that the team have been both witnessing and partaking in up until this point. “You’d be meeting just about every type of folk under the sun without the boundaries of time or place.”

“And yet we still never met Mel Blanc,” Merlin commented with a twinge of disappointment. “I really wanna hear his voice acting in person.” Hector sympathized with such a sentiment, while Zelgius was wondering what the hell the gay wizard was talking about.

The sounds of sparring sang through the sky still, grabbing the trio’s attention as Sam and Max were continuing on their training. Both vampire alien hybrid cops were actively trading blows with one another, blocking each other’s hits and creating a multitude of visible shockwaves. All things considered, it seemed as though the two of them were getting faster and faster the longer they sparred. The others were going to have to pick up the pace if they wanted to compare.

“Ah, no time for reminiscing on the maybes,” Merlin said with renewed eagerness. “Time to get back to training!” Before either Hector or Zelgius would have had any further comments to give (they did not), the half incubus flew off across the wartorn ground, eager to throw himself into the fray currently at play. With nothing else at hand to discuss for the time being, the wereboar and Black Knight turned to face one another once more, resuming their own personal training.

Brandishing his sword, Zelgius gave a quick downwards swipe, one which was swiftly blocked by the spirit of Hector’s brother promptly coming to his defense. The ghostly outline of the larger boar could be briefly seen as his extended foreleg tanked the slashing swing, his ethereal properties helping him withstand such an attack with no injury to his form. Hector was already in the move, charging forward to ram into Zelgius. The knight, however, was prepared for such a strategy, for he swiftly pulled his sword to his front to have the wereboar instead collide with the flat of his blade. Nevertheless, the man was launched off his feet from the force of the impact, successfully flipping through the air to land on his feet even as doing so left a pair of trenches in the ground upon landing and skidding backwards for over several meters.

Pressing his assault, Hector continued to charge, sprinting across the land at such speed as to appear as a blur. Swiftly did Zelgius swipe with his sword, going for a horizontal swing to his right, prompting the suid to leap upwards to dodge the attack. This, however, put him right at range of taking the boot from Zelgius, the knight kicking him in the abdomen and sending him flying back to where he’d just been standing. Now it was the Black Knight’s turn to come rushing in, for the swordsman was already rapidly closing the distance as he swung his weapon faster than Hector could properly react. The tusked suid could only roll over onto his stomach to let his back take the brunt of the blow. Though Zelgius' sword scored a direct strike atop Hector’s back, the blade failed to pierce his thick fur and hide, the shockwave generated by the impact cutting through the ground behind the wereboar. Hector’s brother was quick to punish Zelgius, smacking him with his left foreleg and sending him flying back, allowing the therianthrope to rush at him once more.

[u/Kiryu2012 → u/Kiryu2012]

Sam and Max had been so engrossed in their trading of blows that they almost didn’t even see Merlin flying at them like a guided missile as they kept clashing fists and feet with one another. The sparring vampire cops did, however, take note of the telltale azure glow being generated by the incubus wizard gathering energy within his staff, the light drawing their attention away from each other and to the incoming half-incubus. It was the smaller of the police duo who was first to act, Max wheeling around with a simply feverishly excited toothy grin to face his newfound training partner as he quickly raised up his arm, a ball of purple light already gathering in his paw. Sam could see plainly what was to occur, and promptly backed off to let the two have their fun.

In a flash, both sparring combatants opened fire with their respective beams of energy, Max’s being the same heliotrope hue as King Cold’s was, and Merlin’s the brilliant blue that he’d been displaying in previous battles as well. Naturally, such a clash of kinetic energy would hardly be that dissimilar to the beam clash the wizard had with the alien ruler whose potential Max had stolen for himself and Sam, and thus the ball of light generated by such a collision bore the same outcome. The orb of incandescence swiftly detonated in much the manner as would a load of tnt or a landmine, blasting apart the tortured terrain in yet another explosion of debris and energy, the shockwaves generated repelling both Max and Merlin. And yet, even as the huge crater freshly created still smoked and further gave the impression of a vicious war having been undertaken, the training teammates kept up their rigorous sparring, Max rushing in with a flurry of blows that put Merlin on the defensive as he struggled to block each incoming hit. Occasionally, the wizard would be struck by a blow that managed to circumvent his defense, prompting him to retaliate with a strike of his staff, neither he nor Max being much fazed by each other’s hits.

It was only for just a moment of the lagomorph putting the incubus on the defensive, however, for Sam was swift to rejoin the scuffle as he shot forward like a torpedo, plowing into both his teammates with a fierce clothesline that sent them crashing through the ground to form deep trenches. Promptly were all three of them engaging in a furious frenzy of fists, feet, and lasers that flew everywhere, creating a practically cartoonish dust cloud in their brawl. Even as craters were formed by their continuous clashing and projectile peppering, they only intensified their exchange of blows.

Soon it wasn't just the three of them duking it out, for Hector and Zelgius each joined the brawl as well (okay it was more like Hector eagerly rushed into the fight whilst dragging a not so eager Zelgius along for the ride but the gist was roughly the same), resulting in just further increasing the cacophony of combat that sang its war cry. This would last for at least an hour..or two…or several…okay, maybe at least half the day. Fists were flying, hooves were clopping, swords were swung, and shots were fired as each and every one of our gang of colorful protagonists endured their intense training session. All in good fun, of course. By the end of it all, the field they had been battling upon looked like something out a war, with desecrated ground, smoldering craters, and incinerated foliage stretched out for as far as the eye could see. Not even a small portion of what had once been a flat inconspicuous grassland remained unmolested by the gang's explosively potent training session, so intensely had the group been brawling with one another for the hours that ticked on by.

All in all, it was a rather productive day.

---

“How in the hell are you guys so casual about all of this?!”

That was Zelgius, of course, who was speaking, the Black Knight utterly flabbergasted, bamboozled even, about the air of nonchalance exhibited by his teammates regarding the immense growths of power being displayed by the Freelance Police alongside their literally alien transformations. It was nightfall, or at least the afterlife equivalent of it, and the group were heading back into the indoors of the nearby house that was spared of the collateral caused by their sparring.

“We’re being forced to play a series of cruel games by a nigh omnipotent chimera for the purpose of making it out of the afterlife,” Hector calmly pointed out. “I think absorbing an alien’s power is one of the less weird things to have happened so far.”

“Yeah, but like, none of what you just said makes any sense,” Zelgius continued. “It’s just- I’m honestly still shocked that any of this is happening to begin with. I mean, talking animals, Merlin himself, and this very afterlife all feel out of place together. I had no idea what the fuck a gun was until I met you guys, and I keep learning about all this futuristic stuff that apparently was made far after my time and makes me have an existential crisis. It's just all so incomprehensible I feel like I might just go insane!"

"Zelgius." It was now Merlin who spoke up as he rested his hand on the knight’s shoulder. "Dude. Buddy. Pal. Friend. Calm down. We're all here to help you through with this. I know how crazy all of this might seem to you, but you're not the only one dealing with this. We're in this together as a team, and we’ll help you out with figuring this all out."

"Yeah man," Hector added confidently with a smile. "I mean, I came from a time of magic too, but I was able to adjust pretty well to this world. It’s all weird and new, yeah, but we handled everything thrown at us so far. Whatever else comes our way isn’t gonna be a problem for us.”

At his allies’ words, Zelgius couldn’t help but chuckle, managing a smile as their confidence carried his spirits upwards. “Hah, thanks. I suppose you’re correct. Maybe I can handle whatever more oddities we might face-"

"Ooh, we might fight another guy from the far future, or a monster that constantly adapts and changes to counter anything thrown at it, or maybe even an eldritch deity who could drive us insane with a thought!" That was Max speaking now, listing off several possibilities with all too much enthusiasm.

"Or maybe I’ll perish," Zelgius quickly added with a hint of defeat. "That could happen too."

"We'll help you with working on your confidence," Hector replied with a smirk, as the Black Knight began heading into the house, wishing that things will be a lot easier to comprehend henceforth.

“I’m certainly feeling confident, Sam,” Max just commented with a toothy grin. “What do ya say we go looking for any crooks running free in the afterlife to teach them a lesson in redemption?”

“Haha, you’re just a little fluffy ball of righteous vengeance, Max,” Sam replied with a laugh, Hector watching he and Max converse and waiting until after the small rabbity creature all but frolicked into the building to speak up.

“So like, are you the top between you and him or-”

“Hector shut up,” Sam quickly interrupted with a forced neutral expression, deliberately avoiding eye contact with the therianthrope.

[u/Kiryu2012 → u/Kiryu2012]

As Sam hastily went indoors to further avoid giving any answers, Hector turned his attention to Merlin, noticing how the half-incubus wizard was remaining outside, his back to the temporary home as he looked ahead, almost as though he were waiting for someone or something. “You coming, Merlin?”

“Oh yes, in a sec,” the sorcerer answered, looking over his shoulder at the wereboar with a small smile that almost seemed forced. “Just wanna enjoy the night for a bit longer.”

Hector couldn’t help but feel as though something were amiss, that the wizard wasn’t telling him the truth, and that there was something more going on. As it was, though, he didn’t feel like pressing the matter; if Merlin had something personal he didn’t want to share, who was the wereboar to try and force it out of him?

“Well, alright then,” the therianthrope responded. “G’night.” Turning around, Hector paused briefly as he glanced back at Merlin, the wizard still watching him, before moving and joining his friends within the house.

Merlin’s smile had faded as soon as the last of his teammates had vanished indoors.

“You know what’s bound to happen. You can’t lie to me.”

The new voice pulled the wizard’s attention to his front, prompting a glare as he was met with Discord’s cocky smirk. Having appeared out of thin air, the draconequus was looking rather sure of himself, no sense of weakness being detectable by the incubus.

“Why are you even doing this?” Merlin hissed angrily, taking care not to raise his voice. “We’ve been complying with your games up until this point.”

“Because I’ve decided that the gloves are coming off,” Discord answered, his confidence unwavering. “Your friends have gotten rather sure of themselves, especially with how strong they’ve been getting. So, I’ve decided that this will be an effective means of cowing them into compliance, while also getting rid of some unwanted residents.”

“This is insane!” Merlin nearly snapped, for a moment disregarding the Spirit of Chaos’ power and wanting to smack the ego right out of him. “If the others know about this they’ll-”

“Meet the fate they’ve been managing to avoid up until now,” Discord interrupted, souring the wizard’s spirits as he paused. “Same with you, if you tell any of them of what’s happening. And I will know if you do.”

The half-incubus wizard wanted to continue the verbal fight, to continue to try and somehow argue his way out of this whole conundrum. But he couldn’t. Defiance would result in death, and when it came to Discord, even death may die. How he loathed it all, how he wanted nothing more than for all of this to just end and everyone be free to go back to their original lives. But all he could do was grit his teeth and slowly nod his head in forced compliance. He wanted to wipe the disgustingly egotistical smirk of the draconequus’ face that appeared in response, but successfully stayed his hand.

“Good,” Discord continued on darkly. “I’ll be looking forward to seeing if your team can make it out of this.” And just as suddenly as he’d appeared, he was gone, as though he was never there to begin with.

Leaving Merlin alone in the dark to slowly lower his gaze to the ground, angry at himself for the circumstances beyond his control now in play.

---

“This task should hopefully be a rather simple one for you to accomplish.”

Discord was speaking aloud as he addressed the entirety of our group of plucky protagonists. Yet again was the group teleported to yet another designated location, courtesy of their Game Master. At least now they were more or less used to this method of transportation by this point, even if they still didn't like it. Sam and Max were mostly standing at attention, Zelgius begrudgingly endured Discord’s prattle, Hector simply couldn't be bothered to take the Spirit of Chaos all that seriously, and Merlin was putting up a front of not being fazed by what the draconequus had in store for all of them.

They were all standing outside what looked to be a music store of sorts, Zelgius mentally checking this off as yet another advancement of technology that he had little to no prior experience with. Such an establishment was situated within the heart of a city that certainly would have been bustling in the living world, but was eerily silent in the afterlife, with the only people they could see being the glimpses into the realm of the living via those people they’d pass straight through just like when they first met one another. Perhaps Merlin or Zelgius would have liked to have been able to further inspect this city, take in the sights and see what was there to find about such a section of civilization. But of course they would not be permitted such an opportunity, not as long as Discord was there to keep the team under his chaotic control.

Speaking of Discord, the chaotic draconequus was still giving out his order for today, addressing everyone present. “All you have to do is reach the top floor of Tower Records,” he said, referring to the music store they currently stood before as he gave his mission objective to the team. “You have 8 hours to do so. Fail, and face erasure.”

A silent pause. Everyone on the team gave one another skeptical glances as they processed the rather basic information they’d been presented with, as if they were hoping that their teammate would have any better idea of what exactly was the truth about this whole situation. Sam and Max didn’t have their usual smiles this time around, both animal cops having come to their conclusion sooner than the rest. Zelgius was very much wary about the Game Master's order, narrowing his eyes as if he were expecting a surprise attack or something like that. Hector didn't like how vague Discord was being with his request, nor that he nor seemingly anyone else on his team knew the truth of what was going on here. Merlin did his best to hide his solemn angered expression as he turned his gaze away, with the rest of the group unanimously agreeing that such a simple task felt far too easy. There was something more at hand here, and Discord was deliberately not telling them of that.

“...What’s the catch?” Hector dared to speak up, voicing everyone’s thoughts on the matter (except for Merlin) as they turned their attention back to the smirking draconequus. They knew something was up, that there was more to this than the Spirit of Chaos had initially led on. And none of them liked it one bit. It didn’t help that Discord’s smirk merely strengthened in correspondence with the therianthrope’s inquiry.

“That, my friend,” the draconequus responded, emphasizing friend with a dark air that nobody on the team liked to hear, further amusing the Spirit of Chaos. “Is something you’re going to have to find out for yourselves. Let’s just say you might be facing some…shall we say, obstacles in your mission. Don’t expect to think you could just fly your way up to the top, either: you might find that you could receive punishment for trying that cheap tactic."

Punishment didn't sound like it'd be pleasant for anyone of them, especially given who they were dealing with here. Max had frowned when the draconequus stated that flying was basically not going to be an option for the team; it seemed like Discord had anticipated such an admittedly easy tactic. The mention of obstacles further proved to the team that this was in fact far from a 'simple task', and some of them certainly didn’t approve of the vagueness of it all.

"Alright, what is really going on here?" Zelgius questioned with no small degree of annoyance, the Black Knight feeling a headache coming in from irritation at being deliberately left out of the loop. "Do you think we're children or something? You’re hiding something from us, and I demand to know what!” It was more than likely out of place for the knight to talk back to the Game Master in such a manner, but quite frankly, Zelgius didn’t care in the heat of the moment. Being unwillingly used as a pawn for some reality warping chaos god’s morbid games was very much a bridge too far for him, and he’d be damned if he was going to allow himself to be compliant with this.

Discord seemed unphased by Zelgius’ lowkey blatant defiance, although his tone did noticeably drop as he spoke yet again. “You’ll know once, or maybe if, you find out. Try to defy me, or run out of time, and you’ll be erased.” For just a moment, then, the draconequus dropped his foreboding facade as he briefly adopted a more cheerful demeanor. “So, have fun~!” And before anyone on the team could get a word in edgewise, he was gone just like that, leaving the collection of protagonists on their own to get through this mission all by themselves.

“So, we’re all in agreement this is a total setup, right?” Hector asked his teammates, Merlin looking away in silent guilt as the rest of the group very much concurred with the wereboar’s statement.

“Absolutely,” Zelgius found himself agreeing with Hector in regards to that. “If I had to guess, I’d say this might potentially be a trap set to try and get rid of us.” He’d no idea how right he was, Merlin knew as much. “But we’ve been clearly left without any other choice in the matter.”

“I guess we’re going to have to play his game,” Sam decreed, Max nodding along in agreement. “Stay sharp, everybody. Who knows what he’s got waiting for us?”

“Yes,” Merlin concurred quietly, moving with everyone else as they entered Tower Records. “Who knows, indeed?”

---

All things considered, it was a lot less hazardous traversing the floors of the music store than what the group had collectively assumed, though the team nevertheless kept their guard up just to be on the safe side.

[u/Kiryu2012 → u/Kiryu2012]

As it turned out, it was a lot bigger on the inside than what the exterior might have otherwise implied. Each one of the floors largely looked the same, boasting shelves upon shelves lining the dark up walls and filled to the brim with CDs and vinyls of all sorts and kinds. Sam, Max, and Merlin all had a field day educating the baffled Zelgius of the advancements in music and how it was being preserved nowadays, Hector taking great amusement at the Black Knight’s amazed reaction all the while. It seemed that, for all of Discord’s dark foreboding warnings, things just didn't seem so bad currently. Looks could be deceiving, though, and everybody in the team knew this. As such, they made sure not to let their guard down even as they conversed among one another about how much music and its preservation methods had evolved.

It seemed like the group had traversed multiple floors over the course of several minutes, each section of the building’s interior largely looking the same with the shelves of music preservation and wall design. The team had to take the stairs to go up higher and higher, but with how physically fit everyone was, such a workout was more than fine with them as they made great progress traversing the ever increasingly higher floors. All the while, they still found no opposition to their progress, no signs of any danger or any hint of ‘obstacles’ waiting for them. Such ease of traveling up the deceptively large establishment began to plant subtle seeds of doubt in the minds of everyone outside of Merlin. Maybe it was all just a bluff on Discord’s part to test their resolve?

“Discord had been yakking up a real big talk,” Max noted as the team began to make their way up to the top and final floor after almost a half hour of walking up stairways. “So where’s the danger?”

“We’re not out of the woods yet, Max,” Sam wisely pointed out, the group just now stepping onto the final floor as they were now making their way to a pair of doors at the end of a hallway lined with yet more shelves. “If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say we’re gonna be meeting some trouble soon enough.”

In a way, Merlin felt relieved. It seemed like his teammates had already come to the conclusion that he’d known but been left unable to tell bout for all this time. Such a relieving thought helped lift some of the weight off his shoulders, even if he could still tell nothing about what he knew. All he could do was mentally brace himself as he and his team drew near to the increasingly ominous looking doorway, hoping, no, knowing that his team had what it took to survive this day.

The wizard’s thoughts, and those of the rest of the team, were quickly cut off by the sounds of conflict beyond the closed doors. Though muffled and indistinct, the noise was audible enough to relay the message that a brawl was surely brewing. Pausing several feet away from the makeshift barrier that kept them away from whatever was going on, the team collectively listened in on the confrontation at play. They could hear voices, however obscure and muted they were, as well as gunshots and explosive discharges. As a matter of fact, it all sounded as though it were rapidly getting louder and louder by the second, almost as though-

“Heads up!” With the hearing of a boar, Hector picked up what was going down sooner than the others, and his forewarning was appreciated by his comrades.

That was because the doors promptly exploded afterwards.

Everyone was forced to reflexively protect themselves, recoiling from the plumes of flames and the wooden and concrete debris sent flying their way as a result of the unforeseen detonation. As chunks of wall bounced off their bodies, the teammates left with no other choice than to stand their ground and endure the bombardment, a figure flew by the lot of them, unceremoniously forced on a one way trip down the hallway and into the opposing wall by the stairs up to the floor they stood upon. Said figure was left embedded in a newly formed crater within the concrete comprising the wall, their form remaining limp as the team looked back towards them in surprise.

Almost on instinct, Zelgius turned and sprinted his way to the person in question out of a need to provide aid, crossing the several meter hallway in less than a few seconds, leaving the rest of his team to quickly turn and face the source of the explosion. And just in time, too, for the group of four stepped out from the interior of the spacious room they’d just been brawling within, smoke and flames flickering their way out; evidently there’d been quite the destructive battle going on prior to the team’s arrival.

“Was wondering when you fellas would show up,” one of them, Frank West, had said, holding with him a strange, seemingly custom made bow with specialized arrows that he had raised up in preparation.

“Terribly sorry it has to come to this, but if you comply, we can at least make it quick,” another one, the Doctor, spoke next, the Scotsman much more formally dressed than one might figure given the context and circumstances currently at hand.

“Don’t bother trying to talk this out,” the next man, Sebastian Castellanos, coldly stated, cocking a sawed-off shotgun at our protagonists.

“Aw damn, and that’s a cool gun too,” Max quickly commented.

“Please just let us end this quick.” That was the one woman, Princess Zelda, who finally softly spoke as her outstretched palm glowed with a golden magical light. “We have just as little choice in this as you.”

“Lemme guess,” Sam commented as calmly as one could in such a situation. “Discord made you try and kill us?”

“And anyone else who’s coming here,” Sebastian confirmed, his grip on his firearm tightening subtly as he addressed everyone present. “We were threatened with erasure if we refused, so now we gotta be your executioners. Nothing personal.”

“Look, you all look like good gentlemen,” the Doctor commented, trying on a casual tone himself. “If it weren’t for the circumstances, I bet we could’ve been good buddies. Just let us make it quick and it’ll all be over and done with.”

“Yeah, no,” Hector answered as he and his teammates stood their ground. “None of us like this, but that doesn’t mean we’re just gonna be compliant with dying again.”

During this verbal exchange, Zelgius had reached the figure flung into the concrete wall, the Black Knight’s eyes widening in shock at her appearance, for it was very much a woman who’d been launched away by the explosion. She was on the athletic side like Undyne (and about as well-endowed, if not even more), with an obviously feline look to her, white fur covering her limbs and conveniently covering her…assets. Her cat ears twitched as she shook her head, her luxurious blue hair looking messy currently. His chivalry forcing himself to focus on the situation at hand, Zelgius reached a hand forward for assistance.

“Are you okay?” He inquired as the woman looked up at him, accepting his hand as he helped her to her feet (to her paws? He just noticed her hands and feet were very much like a cat’s paws, albeit anthropomorphized.). Even despite having clearly been sent flying by such a detonation and getting cratered into a concrete wall, the woman shook herself clear and seemed fine just a moment as she briefly flashed a smile at the knight.

“Yes, thank you,” she said to Zelgius, before her smile swiftly switched to a silent snarl as she turned her attention towards the group opposing our group of protagonists. “But those guys killed my team! And they were trying to go after me next!” Before the surprised Zelgius could make any inquiries about this, the catgirl dropped down to all fours as she raced back down the hallway, the Black Knight quickly following her.

“No, we don’t accept guns as bribery!” Frank groaned in exasperation as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“C’mon, it’s the deal of a lifetime!” Max pleaded. “If you order right now, I can throw in some alien hybrid vampirism absolutely free!”

“No!” Sebastian snapped in frustration.

“It was a good try, little buddy,” Sam commended his smaller partner for his efforts.

Both groups’ attention was pulled away from their discussion by the arrival of the blue-haired catgirl as she skidded to a halt besides our protagonists. “I can’t believe you’d do this!” She snapped bitterly. “We could have teamed up against Discord, and you chose to try and kill us instead!”

“Felicia, I’m so sorry,” Zelda pleaded to the cat woman; evidently she was the one named Felicia. “If we had the means of stopping Discord, we would have helped you. But we don’t have any choice in the matter.”

“You killed her team?” Hector asked in a mix of anger and shock as he glared at the opposition, Felicia hissing quietly as she stayed on all fours.

“Unfortunately, yes,” the Doctor solemnly confirmed as he and his allies squared off with the squad. “Now please, just let us make this quick.”

“Yeah, no.”

That was Max who spoke, before both he and Sam promptly gave off a flash of purple energy that caught both the would-be assassins and Felicia by surprise. In a moment, both Freelance Police had ascended into their Frost Demon transformations, violet energy briefly crackling across their armored frames like electricity.

“Shall we make this quick, Sam?” Max asked as he glared at his opponents.

“Can’t think of a reason not to,” Sam confirmed, watching on as the enemy team was already desperately trying to act.

[u/Kiryu2012 → u/Kiryu2012]

Frank took a shot with his bow, launching an arrow that Felicia swiftly cut down with a swipe of her claws. Sebastian fired with his shotgun almost frantically, Zelgius jumping in front of his allies as he gave a series of quick swings of his sword, slicing apart the incoming pellets and letting them fall to the floor. Zelda promptly lobbed a fireball from her palm, only for the spirit of Hector’s brother to swat it aside, letting the flaming projectile blast a hole in the nearby wall, before decking the princess with a swing of his foreleg to send her flying back into the large room and through another distant wall.

The Doctor had no time to act, before he and Sebastian were greeted with a Death Beam fired at bullet speed to the foreheads, Max firing off thin lasers from his fingertip in rapid succession to drop his opponents on the spot. Frank West only barely managed to escape the same fate, having already been throwing himself to the side to instead let the Death Beam aimed at him pierce through his left arm and leave a hole in the wall behind him.

“I’ll be taking this in his honor,” Max stated as his tail picked up Sebastian’s sawed off shotgun.

“I…can’t help but feel like we were greatly underprepared for this,” Frank noted in spite of the great pain he was in, clutching his bleeding useless arm.

“Yup,” said Max.

“Uh huh,” Sam confirmed.

“Oh yeah,” Merlin added.

“Definitely,” Hector concurred.

“Absolutely,” Zelgius commented.

“...Uh, maybe?” Felicia decided to add on.

“Welp, might as well get rid of this whole place,” Max declared as he clapped his hands together. “Like your friend said, nothing personal.”

“And that’s our cue to get outta here,” Merlin said, quickly teleporting himself and his teammates alongside Felicia out of Tower Records. Only Sam stayed behind, he and Frank watching on as Max was generating an aura of dark purple power around himself, his arms and legs tucked inwards.

“Oh hell,” Frank West quietly said.

“No, just Max,” Sam casually retorted seconds before the bang.

The bang in question was Max’s Demon Explosive Wave, a powerful violet-hued shockwave of energy that erupted from his body in an omnidirectional dome. Almost instantly was the entirety of the building destroyed in a fiery explosion, concrete, steel, and wood alike all incinerated in an instant by the extreme heat. Quite frankly, it was as though a miniature nuke had been set off within Tower Records.

Having wisely found it best to stay well out of the blast radius, Merlin and his allies all watched on as the music store was erased from the face of the afterlife earth, leaving a massive deep crater encompassing the surrounding city block and then some.

“Holy fuck…” Hector commented in bewilderment.

“Yeah, not stuff for rookies,” Merlin noted, Zelgius and Felicia watching on in stunned silence.

“Y-you bastards!”

That voice grabbed everyone’s attention, as they turned to see Princess Zelda glaring at them with tears in her eyes. Having been launched out of the music store, Zelda had been able to see what was happening, and managed to get away in time before Max unleashed his explosive attack.

“We could have made it all quick and painless!” The monarch cried, her hands shaking as she gathered up her magical might. “And you slaughtered us in response!”

“I mean, you did try to kill us and killed Felicia’s team,” Hector quietly pointed out.

Zelda could only shout in outrage as she prepared to fire a powerful blast from her hands, our team plus Felicia bracing themselves for one last bout-

“I do believe that’s enough.”

Everyone stopped in their tracks, for Discord had suddenly appeared between both sides, smiling wickedly as he looked down upon the shocked Zelda. “You and your team had a job to do, and it looks like you failed at it.”

“N-no, please!” Zelda begged, backing away from the draconequus in clearcut fright. “Why do you have to do this?!”

By this point, Sam and Max quickly flew in on the scene, Sam having tanked Max’s Demon Explosive Wave with only smoke rising from his armored build. They alongside the rest of their team could do nothing but watch what was unfolding.

“I’m terribly sorry, my dear,” Discord stated coldly. “But clearly your team and you just couldn’t manage to uphold your simple little objective. It was good doing business with you, but this is where we part ways. Arrividerci~!”

“No, please-” Zelda was cut off as she suddenly began screaming, a horrible visceral cry escaping her throat as her body swiftly took on a pale gray tone. As our protagonists watched on in shock, the princess rapidly broke down into ashes, such powdery residue failing at persisting for even less than a few seconds as it all just faded away into nothingness.

In the blink of an eye, she’d been erased from the afterlife.

“And as for the rest of you,” Discord casually began, turning to see the mix of horrified and outraged expressions on the team’s faces. “You did a fine job, and managed to make it out alive in the end. Well done.”

“You set us up!” Hector snarled, his brother’s spirit standing above him in anger. “You lured us to that place just to get us all killed!”

“Au contraire,” the Spirit of Chaos retorted. “Correction: those people were the obstacles I’d referred to before. Your real mission was to get rid of all those useless players.”

“What are you-” Hector was cut off by Merlin suddenly speaking up, the wizard’s gaze dropped.

“Those weren’t just regular CDs and vinyls we were passing by. They were all the souls of players who Discord didn’t like or found boring, sealed away to be discarded. We were really here to get rid of them for him.”

The collective shock that the wizard’s team felt at that point was practically overwhelming for several of them.

“You mean…I just wiped out a whole lot of lives by doing that…” Max spoke slowly, processing such information.

“And quite effectively at that, too, I might add,” Discord confirmed. “Now then-”

Max gave Discord a hard punch to the face.

The rest of Max’s team watched on in shock as the vampiric lagomorph sent Discord flying through a trio of tall buildings, the structures promptly exploding into piles of debris from the force of the impact.

“Max, what the fuck?” Merlin questioned in disbelief. Even he was surprised by the vampire rabbit’s defiance, though he was nevertheless proud of him.

“Always a raging ball of vehement violence, little buddy,” Sam complimented Max, who glanced back at him with a cheeky grin.

“Cute.” Everyone jumped slightly as Discord was suddenly back in front of the team where he’d just been standing. The Spirit of Chaos had tanked the blow, with no visible injury to be discerned. “But don’t think you’ll be getting anymore free shots like that in the future if you want to make it out of this. But since I’m in such a good mood, I’ll let you get away with that one.”

“Why thank you, Discord,” Max replied with a smile, subtly patronizing the chimera.

“Now then,” the draconequus resumed. “You’re all free to enjoy yourselves for the rest of the day. But don’t let yourselves get too comfortable, I will be bringing you to your next assignment soon enough. Tata~!”

“Wait, what about-” Felicia couldn’t finish her sentence in time before Discord was gone in a flash, leaving her and the team alone in the city.

“So,” Merlin began, addressing everyone present as he gave his confession. “I knew what Discord wanted us to do, and I knew what would be happening. But I couldn’t tell you any of that, Discord threatened to erase me if I did.”

“Hey man,” Hector said as he approached the half-incubus wizard. “Nobody’s mad at you for this.” Merlin managed a smile as Sam and Max came in to further comfort him.

“So what about you?” Zelgius asked Felicia, noting how the cat woman seemed lost now that her own team was gone. “You said your team’s…gone.”

“I’ve no idea what to do now,” Felicia spoke sadly, looking down at the sidewalk she and the others stood upon. “My team’s gone, and I only managed to escape the same fate thanks to you guys. I have nowhere to go.”

“Then come join us,” Merlin offered, Felicia’s face lighting up as she turned towards our team. “We’d be more than happy to have an extra hand to help out.”

“Oooh, can we keep her, Sam? Please?” Max begged his larger partner. “I promise I’ll take good care of her!”

“But Max, you don’t even like catgirls,” Sam was quick to point out.

“Oh thank God, now I won’t have to worry about what brand of cat litter to buy!”

“I’d love to!” Felicia eagerly accepted Merlin’s request, rushing in as she pulled her newfound teammates into a tight hug. “Oh thank you so much! I promise I’ll be of great help to you!”

“Don’t mention it,” Zelgius spoke in reply, his voice muffled as his face was being unintentionally buried in Felicia’s cleavage. Upon being let free, the knight’s face was about as red as his armor as he panted for air.

“Well, might as well check out the sights while we’re here,” Merlin commented, his spirits already raising as he and the team, as well as their newfound member, made their way into the rest of the city. Despite everything that they’d been forced through today, their drive to keep going remaining unwavering.

They were all determined to see this through.

[u/Kiryu2012 → u/Kiryu2012]

Introducing

Felicia the catgirl nun Darkstalker.