Tough Love stared at the weird, game-playing NEET, and listened as he gave his spiel. Something about how his games were magic? And then came the bit about the coin and the card, which he flipped in the air to emphasize his powers. Tough Love reached out and grabbed the coin as it fell, and glared at the creep. "You can keep your stupid card. And Tough Love is an awesome name for a superhero, shut up. Anyway... If you're the criminal, I guess I've gotta take you in. No way I'm letting some Rain-Man gambler walk out on a bill just because of his dumb, and completely rigged, game powers." She placed the coin down, holding it on it's side to ensure it didn't fall. "And by the way. You keep saying 'no rules'. Does this count as me winning?" She was genuinely curious as to how far the 'house always wins' aspect of his powers really went. "Or does the fact that I cheated affect the outcome?"

---

"The game continues, that's the point of having no rules," Jack said dryly, it should be obvious, "In fact, by catching the coin, you have essentially put the game into your hands, put the coin onto the table on it's side and this guy," he took a moment to point of the man still holding him back, "wins the game, put in down any other way and I win, whoever win takes ownership of the card and no one else can take it," He motioned for her to put it on the table, "Anyhow, even if you take me to the police station what are you going to do? Complain that I got a complimentary meal, which need I say this receipt confirms?" He pulled the receipt out and waved it around a bit, "It doesn't need to be signed, it's a machine receipt, for a fast food joint. Who's going to sign that?"

"Also, still, seriously? Tough Love? I mean I thought that The Dancing Jack was a bit bad, but compared to that," he scoffed as he made the comparison, "well, it's grown on me to say the least,".

The manager and the employee were still trying to write a receipt out for him, they'd done what? Fifty now? All of them official and complimentary. There was something funny about people who didn't like losing games.

Shēn Hiei
Location;; Class 4-A
Tagged;; N/A

Shēn was bored.

It wasn't something that happened rarely, especially at school. As an...enhanced human, his brain moved at a speed higher than that of an average human, which meant that these lessons went by...so...slowly. The teacher, Mr. Akuma's, lesson was slowly droning on and on, each word barely seeming to escape the man's ratnest of a beard. The boy leaned back in his seat, dark orange eyes slowly closing, and then opening, in boredom-induced sleepiness. His notebook was splayed out on his desk, showcasing an intricate page of notes, already having studied on this specific lecture whilst cramming that previous day. 'This is ridiculous.' He thought, leaning forward, and resting his elbow on the wooden surface of the desk, his palm coming up to allow his chin to rest. Bored eyes wandered the class's interior;; Much like him, there were other students slowly dozing off, barely listening to the man's incessant World History rant. Truly, World History, for his age, was a bit of a bad idea. He usually had a lot of patience...but this, this was just straight boring. His mind moved faster...maybe he should have taken something a bit more challenging, like college courses?

"And that's why, class, we should always look both ways before we cross the street. Now, have any of you finished your assignment?" The students around him murmured, and Shēn rose an eyebrow, his eyes finally opening from their barely-opened, half-dazed stare. The assignment...yeah, that's right. They were assigned to write a half-page paper about the, in their opinion, most defining and shocking moment in Neo-City history, specifically, it was supposed to be about a hero, or their favorite hero, more-likely. Basically a lot of nerds wrote a lot of exaggerated things about their favorite super-heroes. You were also supposed to, first, write about your favorite hero in Nero City, and then go on to explain the most defining and shocking moment. This assignment was...a bit of a stretch. However, the other students seemed quite excited, so Shēn sighed under his breath, flipping to a new page on his notebook. Of course, he had ignored the teacher's orders, and ignored this specific assignment. Whatever. His pen tapped against his bottom lip in thought, and the world, in the boy's mind, began to slow down. Pen ink touched paper, and Shēn's hand blurred, perfectly-written cursive blasting across the white paper like a tattoo.

As his perception of life began normally again, Shēn, in his hands, held a perfectly-tailored story about the most 'defining moment in history', and his 'favorite hero'. This wasn't really true, of course, for he had no favorite hero, so he basically wrote about why he didn't have a favorite hero. To him, the whole super-hero thing was...well, it seemed like a joke, honestly;; like a cartoon, and the fact that the heroes didn't seem to mind their popularity made it seem much like a chain of publicity stunts, more than actual hero vs criminal justice. He wasn't specifically against heroes, since there were definitely things that regular law enforcement couldn't handle, but he just wished that everything was a bit less...chaotic. Maybe that was his mother speaking. Another student got done with saying his assignment - practically gushing over The Sentry, and then spitting venom about the different super-villains and the chaos they've caused over the years, saying that all of the times they were beaten by The Sentry was the 'most exciting moments in history'. Shēn almost deadpanned, but he kept his thoughts to himself, mentally sighing when the teacher pointed at him.

"Mister Hiei, you're up!" The slightly overweight man said. Shēn stood from his place in the middle of the room, near the window. He wasn't terribly popular, but he wasn't shunned, either. Above-average, in terms of popularity, he guessed. It was mostly because of the few times people saw him easily and simply knocking out some bullies, once they cornered him in the lunchroom for his lunch money, and due to the fact that he often let people borrow his perfect notes. The boy made his way up to the front of the room, turned around, and looked over the class with cool eyes.

"Today-" Alarms began to ring.

As students panicked, and the teacher began to evacuate the class, Shēn exhaled softly, dropping his notebook onto the teacher's desk, his assignment open. He glanced around as the class emptied out, before walking over to the window, glancing out into the yards. This was a relatively regular thing, at this time of the year. Villains attacking the school...it was a bit sad, really. He generally followed the others to the bomb shelters, but this time, he didn't really feel like swaying around the jostling and tears of panicking students. Rather, he was a bit curious on what was happening. Hn...he'd check it out.

____________

Shēn Hiei
Location;; Academy Roof
Tagged;; Metallica Woman (?)

As he arrived on the roof, Shēn was suddenly blasted by strong winds, sending brown hair flying. Bringing up a hand to block the sudden gale, the boy glanced around, his eyes locking onto a feminine figure leaping off of the roof. Brief surprise sent him dashing forward suddenly, and he stopped at the edge, dark orange eyes widening slightly when a figure in a suit landed on the concrete pavement. So...the person was a hero, then? Not one he recognized. His eyes furthered wandered upwards, and Shēn rested his hands in his pockets, simply watching the figure in the suit, for now. He'd watch, for now. He wouldn't want to get in an official person's way, after all.

Tough Love shook her head. She knew supervillains had a tendency to pick out... Flamboyant names for themselves, but The Dancing Jack? Surely he realized just how fruity that was. Not that she really cared, honestly. More power to him, right? Out and proud was fine, just a little unexpected. She was trying very hard to justify her reaction without coming across as... Intolerant.

"Listen, Mister, uh, Dancing Jack?" she cleared her throat, "This game thing is all well and good, I guess, but you do know what coercion is, yeah? And this whole thing reeks of some kind of supernatural coercion. The results of an ill thought out magic wager are definitely inadmissible as evidence in court. So honestly, you really have got to understand that you aren't legally in the right here." She placed his coin on the table, trying very hard to balance it on it's side, and crossed her arms. "If you give me the payment, I could give it to them, right? Loopholes need to exist here, don't they?"

Lance Hardcheese cruised around, the Challenger gliding through the streets like a black hearse carrying death. On either side he could sense the trash and disease that festered in the gutters. A fire was rising and soon it would cleanse this town. The war would go on.

The car pulled into the parking lot of a local diner. Even if he was the tool of their destruction, he was still only a man. Zipping up his jacket, he stepped out, locking the door behind him. Inside were a pair arguing and fighting. It was a lover's spat, no doubt. Lance shrugged, and went to the counter, ordering a beef bowl and some coffee. Even a foreign place like Japan knew the value of meat and grains. As he waited for his food to arrive, a mug of steaming black liquid was filled up before him. Still, he found himself grinding his teeth as a trio argued to his side. Some punk was trying to weasel his way into a free meal, and the other two were far too indirect to solve this. At least the woman had no patience for his games, but she was using words. Game Warden knew that words never mattered. Not in the war.

Standing up, he picked up a nearby stool. Walking at a brisk pace, he shifted the weight of the furniture around, then brought it in a downward arc towards Dancing Jack.

---

"Loopholes only exist as the game is in progress, Ah he wins, therefore only he can grab the card," Jack began, interrupting himself to finish the game, he reached out to try and grab the card, but as he got closer something stopped his hand, a unexplained force,an unmistakable shimmering noise occurred as he pushed against it, "The rules of the game won't let me take the card, nor will it let you. Now back onto the matter at hand, a receipt, which as I'm sure we have established has defined my order as complimentary, as do the other receipts they have tried to create," he motioned once more to the employee and manager, who had seemed to have given up, "Is admissible evidence, whereas claiming that I had caused them to not charge me through magic is not, from a court point of view, I am in the right, they gave me a gift, I accepted said gift. Hence the terminology used in the receipt," Jack made an exaggerated motion and pointed to the word 'complimentary' once more.

These people really aren't getting it are they, he thought to himself, his apple pie was probably cold by now.

Then he saw the hulking figure walking towards him, chair in hand, this could not be good. He needed to think, needed to think of a game to avert this guys attention. The chair was raised above his head, and began it's decent. Jack didn't have enough time to adjust to the situation, he couldn't even get out of the way.

He reacted, throwing himself against the guy who still held his arm, he was strong enough to support him right? He sure as hell hoped so as the chair hit him, he curled in his head, he wouldn't walk out of this with brain damage if he could help it.

He began to buckle, but it was directly onto Stopman, the support idea had worked. Mostly, Jack was left in a half standing state, rather pathetically, although he did manage to say one thing, "please tell me this counts as assault," his neck was killing him, as was most of his back, and his shoulders. Hopefully nothing was broken.

As he continues waving to his fans, he suddenly hears several alarms blaring towards the north. He recognized the alarms to be coming from the academy. A look of worry rolled over his face like a storm cloud as he panically looks to the north and back to his fans. It was time to take out more trash.

"Sorry guys!" Tomo said as he slowly ascends to fly, "Gotta go! Duty calls!"

And the crowd then began to cheer him on, chanting his name, as his boosters fired off. Tomo zooms through the city and towards the academy. Something seemingly bad was going on there and he will like to find out whats going on. After zipping through narrow streets and tight skyscrapers, he finally approaches the academy and sees two people on the roof tops. One was a high schooler wearing a black vest and crazy orange hair, while a person can be seen on the ground near the academy. He then begins to call out to the person on the rooftops.

"Sir!" Tomo calls out with his palm cannons slowly charging up, "It appears you are disrupting school-time! State your business!"

@Crimmy
@Dirty Dan

"Uh... Yeah, that's DEFINITELY assault. If not attempted murder. Holy shit." Tough Love turned to face the imposing figure that had just battered the pie thief with potentially lethal force, and cleared her throat again. "Attention, evildoer! I, Tough Love, am placing you under a citizen's arrest! So, uh, please cooperate."

"It's not assault. It's justice. You can't arrest a tool in the war." Lance replied to the heroine.

"And you." he pointed a chair leg at Jack. "Pay your damned bills, slacker, or I'll be back to kick your ass even harder."

Dropping the chair leg, he walked back and chugged his mug of coffee. If there was one thing that pissed him off, it was punks who didn't know the value of a dollar, or a yen, or whatever mooncurrency they used here. Also other things, but those other things weren't here right now. They were outside, waiting for him to come and mow them down.
Digging into his wallet, he pulled out the six hundred and fifty yen, plus tip, and left it on the counter, beef bowl untouched.

"If you youngsters are done here, I'm headed out. Some of us have important things to do."

The students of Bright Elementary were eagerly awaiting the school's annual culture festival. Little cafes for the students to get a snack, haunted houses, even a goldfish catching game! Yes, this was shaping up to be a fun day for the students as they milled about in the gym for a brief assembly. That is, it would have been, if it wasn't for the pterodactyl man cracking his neck on the school roof. Shovel in hand, his trademark paperboy's sack around his shoulder, a toolbox in his hand, and a confident smile on his beak.

"YOSHA YOSHA! Time for the Pterrordactyl touch!"



The children cheered as they ran out to the festival, lining up for the various attractions. The goldfish catching game was always popular, and of course the child-friendly haunted house was bustling. That meant Pterrordactyl's usual subtlety was at work.

Class 1A was making its way through the haunted house, jumping at the Mokumokuren represented in the sliding doors and the laughing lanterns. With beaming smiles, the fun the children were having was obvious. Suddenly, the dim lights went out fully. And then... someone tripped over something. In fact, many people were tripping over things. The teacher raised up a flashlight and screamed, as the pudgy boy of the class looked at what she'd tripped over... a mostly-decayed corpse. In fact, the room was FULL of corpses.

"G...grandma?"

---

At the snack booth, one of the teachers was scooping up cotton candy and rice balls for the children. A number of children got cups of water from a large cooler before running back to the events. Of course, for the sweet tooth of the children, a minifridge had been set out full of "Cosmic Brownie Milkshakes." After all, it was important to keep up them fed and hydrated during such a physical event! Until... well, the youngest of the children eating the cotton candy just stopped moving. Their eyes began to tear up as a foul smell began coming from their pants. The teacher looked around for her cell phone, scrambling across the ground... only to find a tube of laxatives from the local grocery store.

A few continued running, straight to the bathroom. But as the kids ran to the bathroom, they made a horrible discovery... There was no toilet paper. In fact, there was only ONE toilet, a portapotty that had somehow been forced in here, the others having been ripped from the wall. Looking between themselves, they knew that forming a line wouldn't work. So they scrambled for it, pushing and shoving before finally the pudgy boy hopped in and locked the door. Finally, he could go in peace. It was then that he realized there was saran wrap over the toilet... and that the paper was gone, replaced by rough-grain doublesided sandpaper.

---

Thankfully, the goldfish game seemed fairly normal. The first child of the day, a little girl named Yuki, was dipping in the paper net, about to put the goldfish into the bowl... just before the rice paper snapped. The kid began to tear up before a scaly hand patted his shoulder.

"Aw... bad luck kid... you still want a pet?"

With a sniffle, the child nodded and looked up.

"HERE! HAVE A CONSOLATION PRIZE!"

With that, he reached into his paperboy's sack and grabbed the child's long hair with his free hand, shoving a large, meaty sewer rat into it. He ran forward, laughing maniacally as it scratched and bit. Reaching in again, he began throwing rats at all the children present. As they ran and screamed, Pterrordactyl continued throwing them with a pitch that would make a baseball player proud.

"DON'T WORRY! I'VE GOT PLENTY TO GO AROUND! YOU GET ONE! AND YOU GET ONE! EVERYONE GETS A RAT TODAY, COURTESY OF PTERRORDACTYL! YA SEE THAT KID? YOU'D BETTER BELIEVE HE GETS A RAT! AND YOU CAN THANK LITTLE TANAKA YUKI FOR BRINGING ME HERE, KIDS!"

---

Spandez stood beside the thermometer meters, watching as they skyrocketed from the collected sorrow of those children. With a wave of his hand, he grinned to the audience.

"CAN YOU BELIEVE IT FOLKS!? Pterrordactyl hits it out of the park again, and our hidden cameras are there to capture every second of it! He's racked up over eighty-thousand credits in tax-free prize money, and he's destroyed enough of that food to win himself a Badurong Kitchenware Toaster, a five hundred credit gift certificate to Spacey's department store, but also the brand new Mark 47 Badurong Cosmic Roadster personal spacecraft! NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL-"

"BIG MONEY! BIG PRIZES!"

"IIIIIII LOVE IT! The Spandez Conquest Hour will be right back with you, after a word from our sponsors!"

STOPMAN III

Souta was done. Absolutely done. Dining and dashing was one thing, but using flat-out mind control to do it? That was beyond low. "Yeah, sure, I'll grab it. Eventually. Like, maybe ten years from now. You just hold onto it till then. Now, buddy, how about we play my game?"

He caught Jack's arm with his other hand as the cheat attempted to dodge a chair. It clipped Jack in the shoulder, probably bruising it heavily. He wouldn't be moving it for at least a few minutes.

"My game is called 'Don't Let Me Break Your Arm'.", Before Jack or Tough Love could react, Souta brought the limb down across his knee, splintering Jack's arm just above the elbow with a wet snap. He looked up at Jack with half-lidded eyes, "Whoops. You lost."

Souta held the upper half of Jack's broken arm with his left hand and grabbed his unbroken one with his right, systematically transferring his grip so Jack couldn't escape. He leaned in close, "Want to play again? Oh, but I got an idea. How about we all play together this time?"

The manager stood up straight for the first time in years, granted new-found courage by Jack's poor situation. Fifty times, this son of a bitch had mind-controlled his staff into giving him free food and fifty times (fifty one, counting today) they had just let him walk out, but no more. He reached into the pocket of his cheap suit, taking hold of the brass knuckles he had bought on a whim a month and a half ago. For the first time, standing here in this building, Minami Kenji DID want to play. He stepped forward.

"Looks like we've got our first contestant: The man you've wronged the most here. How about we count your crimes, one blow for each meal you've stolen? I think that's fair. Don't worry, I'll count so that he doesn't go over."

Kenji gripped Jack's forehead with one hand, ensuring there was no escaping, period. A set of brass knuckles slammed across Jack's jaw, knocking his teeth loose and starting his gums bleeding.

"That's one.", Souta muttered as he restrained both of Jack's arms, holding Jack tightly so that he was unable to move or escape, "Fifty left."

-removed-

But completely unaware to Alexander and his parasite 'hosts', someone else was in his car. Staying completely silent, a tall female humanoid was hiding in the backseat, the one directly behind the driver's seat. Why the hell was she in that car at THAT particular time? Who would know. But this is no ordinary human with a mask... with sharp claws, and a mask that can "blink". This was a demon... a vengeful demon... known as Lilith, and she had been lurking in Neo-Tokyo over the last 10 years, looking for the "two" that got away. She stayed silent as she can hear Alex licking the hood of the car. LICKING the car. She seemed quite disgusted over what she thinks to be... a fetish of some sort. Then Alex entered the car, thankfully not seeing that Lilith was hiding in the back car. She was pretty lucky to say the least.

Even as soon as he starts driving, Lilith continues to hide in the back, hoping that she will not get caught. She will surely kill this bastard of a child once he gets off at wherever he needed to be. Later she can sense that the car was going towards an abandoned part of town. She silently clicks in glee as she will have the perfect spot to kill this bastard. Once the car grinds to a halt, Alex gets out to talk with a person who happened to be there as well. Xeal was the name Lilith recalls. As the two men talked outside, the demon slowly peaked her head jut a taddy bit to eavesdrop on the conversation.

It didn't seem to be the friendliest of all conversations and he can see Alex being led to a secure location. Though before reaching the facility Alexander draped an arm rather forwardly over Xeals neck, causing him to stutter violently. She continues to watch what was going on as Xeal's life was taken away by Alex. Now it seemed the time was right to attack. She sneakily teleports out of ALex's car and begins to slowly approach Alex while issuing several predator-like clicks, announcing her presence towards her victim.

@The_written_John

On board the Video Star, Badurong's most important broadcasting center/TV Studio/Spaceship, it was garbage day. This meant Spandez's two most trusted lieutenants, Loot (a monster that seemed to be equal parts "Pirate" and "Chainsaw") and Pillage (one that was equal parts "Viking" and "Zippo"), were hard at work trying to figure out the best way to lighten their load. As usual, it was to tightly pack the ship's waste into a series of iron garbage cans and fire them through the ship's railgun. It got the boss of their back, got the ship smelling better, and required minimum effort.

"Avast, thar, Pillage, I find that I be thinkin' 'bout somethin'."

"Und hwhat would that be, bruder Loot?"

"Ya ever feel like... yer bein' watched?"

"Hwell, hwe are on der television. Have our own segment on the show!"

"Oh yar. That'd explain it."

Loot began fiddling with the targeting, pointing the crosshairs straight at the nearby sun. An easy way to dispose of garbage, environmentally friendly (provided there wasn't any Solar Fuel in the trash, but that wasn't likely), and low-effort.

"What's th' planet's gravitational constant again? We should probably account fer that before firin' th' railgun."

"...Crap, Loot, that's the byoss! Foorget about der corrections and fire!"

Fearing the lashing (either from his tongue or from his microphone-whip) Spandez might give them for taking so long, Loot slammed the "fire" command on the console. With the loud spinup and electric whine of a magnetic pulse, the garbage cans were launched, caught by the Earth's gravity well almost instantly. Spandez nodded approvingly as he approached, noting their clever use of the railgun. He took a sip of his coffee for the commercial break, waving as he headed back to the studio.

"Very nice, boys. Working smarter AND harder. You guys remembered to correct for gravity, right?

Loot and Pillage looked at each other before responding in unison.

"Aye."
"Ja."

---

Neo-Tokyo. Population: Spandez does not care. Primary exports: Spandez also does not care.

Miles above in the atmosphere, however, glowing red embers of molten iron and partially-combusted garbage streaked down with the force of a large ballistic missile. Accelerated by the sort of gravitic assist from the moon and earth that other civilizations reserved for intergalactic travel, the molten blobs rained down on a parking lot next to a large white building. As the superheated garbage melted the cars there to slag, a mostly-intact garbage can fell, impacting with the force of a bunker buster on the center of the building. Where once had stood the Neo-Tokyo Stock Exchange, now sat a molten crater full of broken concrete and the tattered remains of the people that once worked and traded there. The rubble and twisted metal husks of cars rained down all over the streets as people screamed and ran from the destruction.

---

"Oh, you!" Spandez said with a fatherly laugh as he clapped his lieutenants on the shoulder. These sitcom antics served as a sort of bumper for the show. The laugh track played, as the studio audience wasn't present for it.

"Remember folks, gravity is in important factor in the travel of anything in space- whether it's a vessel carrying a warm snuggly sweater grandma's sending you through the mail, or it's a standard garbage shoot! If you mess up the gravitational constant, it can lead to a lot of trouble for someone down the road- I mean, just look at that- they went and destroyed a place central to the Japanese economy! So don't be like Loot and Pillage. Be careful, and always double-check your calculations!"

The Spandez Conquest Hour is brought to you by...

---

"SEVEN CYCLES! SEVEN CYCLES! SEVEN CYCLES! THAT'S HOW LONG YOU HAVE UNTIL THE NEXT BROADCAST FROM RODTHORG'S X-TREME SPORTS X-TREMATORIUM BLOWS YOUR PUNY INSIGNIFICANT MINDS! THAT'S RIGHT, THE UNIVERSE'S GREATEST DISPLAY OF MARTIAL ARTS RIGHT FUCKING HERE! WE'VE GOT CRUSHINATOR CLASS FIGHTERS! WE'VE GOT WIZARDS! WE'VE GOT THE LIZARDMEN FROM THE TENTH DIMENSION, HERE TO FINALLY SETTLE THE SCORE WITH THE SERPENT MEN OF DIMENSION X! TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE NOW FOR FIFTY CREDITS FROM THE BADURONG SPORTS COUNCIL! I CAN'T STOP SHOOOOOUUUUTTIIIIIIIIING! CALL A HOSPITAAAAAAAL!"

---

White words faded across the screen, intercut with shots of a typical child's room. The difference, of course, being the large nest in place of the bed.

You've seen him on the Conquest Hour.

You've seen how he's touched our lives, and the lives of billions.

But have you seen... where he came from?

Emotional music swelled up as two pterodactyl-like humanoids stood in a kitchen, fighting. With a backpack and loincloth, a little one made his way to the door. As he reached up to the knob, he looked out to a world of infinite possibilities with the sunrise and the clear, blue skies overhead. The male pterosaur came forward, taking off his belt and shoving the female to the wall.

"WHERE ARE YOU GOING, YOU LITTLE SHIT!?"

Coming to theaters this winter...

The little boy ran out, tears in his eyes. He began sobbing after the male shouted after him from the doorstep, but never stopped running.

"YOU'LL NEVER AMOUNT TO ANYTHING! YOU'RE NOTHING, YOU HEAR ME?!"

The screen went to black and the music cut out. One last white message appeared, read aloud in a soft voice.

Stand By Me, Pterrordactyl.

Lance gave a knowing nod as the civilians began to gang up on and subsequently assault the punk for dine and dashing. Maybe there was light after all.

No, he thought to himself. He may have helped here, but the war.... the war went on.

Game Warden turned the keys in the ignition and put the shift into drive, continuing his quest for vengeance. Reaching into the side compartment, he pulled out a photo and taped it to the dashboard. On it was his next target. The war would continue soon, and the streets would run red with the blood of his enemies. Days of planning would culminate in this next attack. He had been silent but the enemy would know now of his presence. Pulling around to the back of the restaurant, he pulled the shovel from his trunk and dug under the bushes next to the dumpster, retrieving a duffel bag from a large box buried in the ground. Placing them back in the trunk, he set down the crowded Neo-Tokyo streets.

The battle would start soon. And battles are just notable bumps in the war.

-removed-

Lance shifted the Challenger into park, pocketing the key as he went to the back, retrieving the duffel bag.

Neo-Tokyo's deer park was a popular tourist destination on the outskirts near the forest; it was filled with nigh hundreds of the creature, frolicking and prancing about, mingling with various citizens. Lance, Game Warden felt a queasiness in his gut as he looked around.

A singular deer, a majestic twelve-point buck, came up to the man, lightly sniffing around him. Game Warden drew a pistol with one hand, and with a loud, distinctive crack of thunder, its head was burst open.

The nearby citizens looked in shock at the man as the deer fell to the ground in front of him, lifeless. One screamed as she saw the smoking piece of steel in his hand. They all started running away as he holstered it, unzipping his coat to reveal a deer skull emblazoned across his chest. As they screamed and ran, Game Warden reached into the duffel bag and pulled out a fully loaded M60, and fired it at the mass of deer. Antlers and bones snapped as the bullets tore into the beasts, stupid animals that couldn't think but to run in panic.

By this point, the human population had cleared and Game Warden swept the muzzle to the side, tearing into yet more warm, wet bodies of venison. Some beasts thought they could outsmart him, try and run off to the side. Still firing the gun with one hand, Game Warden tossed a grenade, sending shards of shrapnel and death flying with such force that one doe simply flew apart.

Click. The gun was empty. A host of deer carcasses covered the ground like a wet, brown and red blanket. Game warden loaded another belt and began firing, aiming for anything that twitched, the injured, the fakers, anything that might still be alive, just to make sure. When the second belt was empty, he shouldered the gun, and tossed several homemade canisters, scattering them around the treeline. One last safety, just to make sure. Taking aim with his handgun, Game Warden lit up the canisters of napalm, setting the deers' forest ablaze. The park was coated in flame as the bulky, dark figure exited, a cold look of destiny on his face.

As the muscle car drove back into the city proper, Game Warden let out a long, deep breath.

Human casualties: Zero.

Estimated deer casualties: Over two hundred.

The war went on.

Varrence rubs his closed eyes in a circular motion, sighing with tiredness as the chauffeur drives him away from his latest managerial meeting. He unbuttons the jacket of his carefully pleated suit and leans back in his seat, lounging in the back of the armored Bentley. Lazily pressing a few buttons on the HUD of the car's center console, the back of the Bentley was slowly turned to a near pitch black environment. Laying horizontally, Varrence slept with he head propped up on one door and his legs propped up on the other in a soft U shape. Within a minute, he is in a coma like sleep, only awaking when his chauffeur arrives outside a massive apartment complex.

Slowly sitting up with a silent smacking of the lips, Varrence hit a few buttons on the HUD and released the tint settings, softly patting the chauffeur on the shoulder, "Thank-you Avery, the ride was very smooth, I slept like a baby." The chauffeur stepped out and opened the door for Varrence, "I'm very glad your ride was enjoyable, Mr. Xavias." Avery murmured as she moved to make way for Varrence's exit, her face beet red as she faced the ground. Varrence stands as he exits the car, towering over Avery by a near foot, with a chuckle, he draws her chin up with his index finger up, a soft smile playing across his face, "I'm all the way up here, my dear... I'm feeling rather invigorated after that nap, might I be able to borrow this car from you? Of course, I'm under the impression you all take turns for the right to my suite whilst I'm gone. It's yours but I can't promise your safety come night time." He finishes with a confident smirk, the meek girl merely nods gratefully and scurries towards the complex.

Watching his chauffeur leave, Varrence ran his hand along the roof of the car, "Bentley Continental GT, huh? I don't remember buying this..." With a helpless smile, he gets into the driver seat and sets the tint to high, slightly darkening the interior of the car. Setting the transmission to manual, a stick-shift slowly rises from the center console, and with a swipe of his hand, the GT growls ferociously before taking off down the street.

Lilith stood still as he looked into the eyes of her foe. Apparently this sick bastard had the guts to actually stand up to her. Did he have ANY idea who he was dealing with? Either way, she continues to stand almost motionlessly as her hair moves to the direction of the wind.

-Alex's First speech-

Whore? Slut? No, she was something FAR more worse. A bloodthirsty demon off to seek revenge over the two victims, Adam and Eve, who had foolishly left without her... and created a jealously far beyond anyone's comprehension. Not even his words could scare her as her four eyes began to squint at him, as if she was unimpressed. She had no intentions to kill him... if only he didn't drive her away to this spot. She had sensed the aura of one of the two victims and was about to ambush he/she, depending on who it was. Alex took that chance away from Lilith. So rather ALex calling her a problem, it was really he HIMSELF that was the problem here.

Even after he swiped out the knife out did Lilith still not move. Only her pupils got slightly smaller in annoyance.

-Alex's Second speech-

She could've attacked him in the car and indeed did she had such a motive. But it will only bring about more chaos... and she was the type that preferred the assassin's way of silently killing your victim... and no one will ever know that he died. Yet it seemed as if this psycho was beyond any mortal human she had ever encountered. Either way, he will die a horrifyingly gruesome death for defying the demon Lilith.

She continues watching him as he strafes quietly to the right and behind a ruined building. Suddenly, a knife was issued to her chest with pinpoint accuracy. However, with a quick sweeping motion of her left hand, she deflected the knife as it ricochets towards a wall and digging itself deep into the concrete. She looks around for this spoiled brat as she issued several other clicks, as if mocking him to come out.

"I'll be waiting~" Alex taunts at her...



What a risky little fool he was. She had enhanced senses... smell, hearing, sight... she'll be able to sniff him out. However, even his own scent was bizarre, so it was just a little harder picking it up. She levitates slowly to the sky in a cross-like fashion, with pink electricity volts gushing through her body. Then, she unleashes the sparks from her hands, quickly moving her arms from the front of her body to the back of her back in hopes of driving Alex out of hiding. Some of the volts were powerful enough, to slice and even break some weakened concrete, but only enough to make big cracks in newly dispatched cinderblocks. The battle was on!

@The_written_John

---

Enough was enough, Jack was at wits end, his face writhed in pain. "You," he coughed, "crossed the line, I propose a NEW game, one which is far more interesting," his arm was killing him, as well as the rest of his body, "Oh and before I start, you are a shit hero".

He closed his eyes, the game was serious this time, it would take effort. More than usual, he hated it when the games got serious, he could only do it once a day, but something of this size would set him back around two and a half days. He could still use his power, just nothing serious. At this point, Jack was sweating, his concentration needed to be at an exact point, almost as if he needed to slip into some sort of meditative state. He slowed his breathing, coughing as he tried. He rolled his neck to the left, clicking it. And then, as he became seemingly tranquil - at least as tranquil as a guy who was undergoing these events could be.

His eyes snapped open and a seemingly dream-like haze had covered them. His lips began to move, slowly at first, with no sound escaping them, then as the words me mouthed became faster a sound became noticeable. His words were mesmerizing, as if he was setting a new meaning to the world. For that was exactly what he was doing, unlike before there was no minor pulse as the world changed, instead the effect seeming dilated the world around those who were sat inside the bar.

As The Dancing Jack spoke, time slowed for reality to keep up, at least time appeared to slow. It was as if everyone had been submerged under water, the world sounded distorted, cars seemed miles away and the everyday hustles of the streets merged into one melancholy tone. Soon the very fabrics of the world began to change, it was difficult to describe without an incredibly firm understanding on what was occurring. The Dancing Jack himself had never used his power in such a way since he had obtained it, he'd done large scale things, but nothing so serious. Where before his games had carried a sense of mischievous glee which can be commonly found around young children who are just beginning to gain a grasp on the world, this game however was laden with motifs of a more sinister nature. The sinister nature that lurks within everyone but is very rarely let out to play.

As the the world changed, The Jacks words rang out loud and true.

"He who challenges the Dancing Jack,
Need only escape through the back.
Standing tall and in your lonesome,
This challenge will you overcome.
The victor claims innocent lives,
The loser will stand knowing they tried."

The words rang through the building as the game started to take effect the rules were clear, The challenger must escape alone from the building which would be on fire. They must use the back door and if they won, they claimed the lives of the innocents, meaning that they got to escape.

It was the perfect plan, this guy would have to escape ALONE. This left Jack with the chance to escape while he was otherwise occupied. A bang went off in the kitchen, a gas canister had spontaneously combusted. The fire had begun, one or two people tried to escape, but barriers blocked the doors. While the game finished it's set up the diner was a sight to behold. Flames flickered in slow motion from the canister, dancing across the floor, slowly, but surely. They licked at other canisters as they went past soon enough the fire would be added to by them. And yet, among all the panic, The Dancing Jack sat there, in a dreamy state, oblivious to what was going on around him. Not even he fully understood his power, no one did to his knowledge. As far as he was concerned this was a first for the world, and that may very well have been true. All he wanted was an apple pie and he was brought to this.

Finally the game finished setting itself up, the Arena was clear, the challenge had been made and of course the rules were being enforced. The dilation effect began to suck back towards The Jack, and then finally everything resumed. No one was quite sure how long has passed at the time, but they only lost a few seconds maximum. The dilation may have only been some fancy effect. The fire however was not. This was the first, and as far as he hoped, the last time that The Dancing Jack has truly unleashed his power. He was fairly sure he didn't like it that much.