Calvin looked towards Ice with a degree of intent. His eyes were clouded and his lips parted slightly as he looked Ice over. His eyes scanned over the room, and settled on Aleecia. She The look on her face was resolute, and it terrified him. “I can handle this.” He said, not unkindly. “I’ll try and talk some sense into her. Into all of them.” He looked ahead to Rika who was still waiting for Ice. “Good luck with her. And with Alice.” His cheek still stung.

Relief flooded over the Blood Donor’s face. It was unusual for anything besides anger to show on his face, but his true colors were always drawn out by the people he cared about. The last interaction between the two of them played over in his head again, “I have nothing to offer but my gratitude.”

“You don’t gotta offer anything, man.” There was a bit of clarity in Calvin’s eyes. “I don’t want anything to happen to her either.” He let out a sigh.

Calvin was the only one Ice could trust with Allie in this state. Not only because he trusted him as much as one of his own siblings, but because Calvin cared for the Dice Master just as much. He gave a small smile to the ground before letting out a sigh himself. With another nod, Ice patted Calvin on the shoulder before slipping past him and out of the room.



Calvin turned to look to Aleecia, who had a slight frown as she faced his general direction. Had she heard him? He made his way to go over, feeling a slight sense of urgency but before he could get to her, Monokuma spoke up, introducing a new “game”. As Aleecia took a spot to face Faith, Calvin turned slowly to look upon Noel.

“Listen, I’m not here to fight about this. But we need to stop getting involved in all of the bear’s bullshit.” Calvin gestured with his arm towards the black and white bear watching the debate with glee. “Monokuma’s on our side? That should be an immediate sign we need to stop what we’re doing and think about this. Let him run the game, we shouldn't be doing his dirty work!” He looked at Noel, doing what he could to appraise her. He had spoken with her in passing before, but never a great deal. She carried herself with a degree of confidence that Calvin respected deeply, and he hoped he could get through to her.

Noel followed the debates of the others intently. Naturally she had covered politics before, and the boring debates that ensued there. She was happy to report that these exchanges of words were infinitely more interesting! Well, perhaps it was because it was a more dire subject matter… well it didn’t matter! She was rather enjoying herself, seeing the sides clash against each other with such zeal!

Noel shook her head resolutely as she noticed the blacksmith tried to get her attention.. ”I don’t disagree that having the bear on our side is… troubling. But abandonment of our allies can’t be right.” She stated crystal clear. ”I wasn’t there the first time, and I know you didn’t really have a say in things… but you can probably imagine best what Krista is going through right now. Can you say, knowing the feeling of being saved from such despair, that it is the correct option to leave her to whatever fate Nariko has in store for her?” Noel was calm, but Calvin could feel that behind her neutral gaze, intense judgement was being passed.

Calvin ran a gloved hand through his hair, a look of pain crossing his face. “You think I don’t give a shit she’s in there?” His tone was pained, not pointed, but Noel’s following statement brought a bit of heat to his chest. “Whatever sort of good feeling we were supposed to get from surviving that encounter was torn to shreds when we look at what it cost! Monokuma even admitted it! He didn’t have the authority to kill any of us, until good people a lot like you tried to fix things. It doesn’t fucking work.” His hands clenching themselves into fists and unclenching at a slow yet methodical rate.

Noel chuckled embarrassedly, he did have a point. However, he forgot something very important. “Yes, that time didn’t work out perfectly, did it? But I believe we do remember one time where things worked out rather swimmingly?” She paused, giving the cogs in Calvin’s head a moment to spin. ”Aleecia was in pretty dire straits last time, wasn’t she? She is alive because Alexandria was confronted and beaten that time.” She shrugged. ”In need of immediate medical attention or kidnapped. it doesn’t really matter, does it? So is there any reason why we shouldn’t do it this time? It seems we have even more people helping this time. I imagine our odds to be even better.”

Noel threw a piercing stare. ”So tell me, what is the difference between now and then?”

Even though the laugh was good natured, Calvin’s blood boiled. He was about to unload into the Infinite reporter, but she was quick to begin speaking, and Calvin was already having difficulties keeping up with the reporter’s strong arguments. “The last time was lucky! We can’t keep trusting on these plans to work because we believe in ourselves enough. And if something goes wrong?” Calvin’s face went white. “Nobody should have to deal with that. Having someone’s blood on your hands… It’s-” He took a deep breath. “Krista doesn’t deserve that.”

”Luck? Do you truly believe you can defeat something like a carnage chassis with pure luck? If all you had was luck last time, we would’ve found a squad of dead bodies, and Aleecia would’ve followed suit.” She sneered. ”You’re a bloody infinite. You may not be a fighter, but together we can do some pretty amazing things. Do you think your weapons were not an important reason why they succeeded last time? Their skill? Their plans?” She was visibly angry. Her aura shifted to something different for a bit, it was steadfast, yet furious. An incredibly, silent force.”There is nothing bad about having luck on your side, but such an act is not purely lucky. ” She let out a deep breath of her own. ”And the only way Krista won’t have to live with blood on her hands, is if we do a damn good job once again. Because you can’t stop me. It’s just not… right” She was resolute.

Calvin shuddered a little, looking at Noel in the eyes. There was a fire there that seemed so distant to Calvin. Some piece of him registered it as a part of himself, but that seemed so long ago. Where was his passion? His verve? He tried to muster it up, to find the words that used to come so easily to him whenever he disagreed with someone. It didn’t come.

Was it what he was arguing? Or some deeper part of him that had been snuffed out? What was wrong with him? He realized he had been staring at Noel for far too long, and broke eye contact sheepishly, looking down. “You’re right. I can’t stop you. You can do what you want, Noel But I’m not going through this shit again.” His voice was quiet, his tone low. “If another one of us goes, and my work is in their hands or turned against them, I…” He looked back up, and though his tone was brittle, there was a dull severity in his eyes that was chilling.

“I think I’m going with them.” It didn’t sound as though it was a threat, but rather a simple fact.

Noel nodded with simple acceptance. Calvin’s point was rather weak. If they died without his work, then maybe they could’ve been saved by having them? But Noel couldn’t bring herself to make that point. It was clear the blacksmith was on the edge. Telling him the truth now might only push him. ”Do as you like, I’m not going to judge.” This was a lie. Noel believed that inaction might be one of the worst actions. But at the very least it was better than opposition. She didn’t agree, and judged the others harshly for their choice. But ultimately, they had already lost too much time arguing. It was time for action.

Daimyon's tormented mind was not in the least eased by his entrance to the break room. Cyrus revealed the extent of their predicament: Krista had been captured by one of the Carnage Sisters and was being held hostage in the morgue of all places. Monokuma seemed to want to help the group of Infinites, but after what that bear allowed to go down, the poet held nothing but contempt for him. Contempt... It was a strange feeling, to be engulfed by such a swirl of negative emotions. Daimyon was not used to it and wanted it to stop. He wanted to make himself useful again for the people he cherished, but his revelations seemed to have taken away his capacity for positive thought for now. So, he looked for a silver lining to cling onto as he was wont to do.

Writing. That was it. He would write something and get out of this rut. He strode past the Infinites who were arguing about the best way to proceed and found himself a corner of the room to tune everything out and access his imagination. He opened up his notebook—quickly scrolling past the letter nestled in between the first pages—and got out his pen.



At this point, the room around the poet reorganised into a debate hall, dividing the people into two teams to duke it out with reasoning or else. He cared little, remaining leaned against the wall, paper and pen in hand and his attention fully on his words.



He snapped the notebook shut in the next moment, a new determination rising up within him. He could see the debate was slowly dwindling down. Though he was unsure who stood on which side, he made up his mind: he would follow those who take action.

Loud voices continued to play out as Ice closed the Diner's door behind him, but Ice pushed ahead. His nervousness was started to make his hands sweat, and he quickly wiped them off on his pants. Ice would quicken his pace before slowing down again, wanting to get it over with quickly, but also wanting to rehearse what he wanted to say. His feet automatically lead him up to Alice's door, where he hesitated to knock. Ice hadn't been close with Alice for long, and it felt wrong for him to ask so much. To risk her life when she had already refused, to maybe give up her chance to meet Henry again.

Ice leaned his head against the door, taking long breaths and trying to come up with some kind of explanation to why she should help him. He brought his hand up and gave a gentle knock, slowly moving his head away from the door.

Instead of the usual silence Mercy had to deal with before, Alice swung the door open, in hopes of her friend back at her doorstep. "Merc-

-y...?"

Ice's face went pale, not expecting her to answer so quickly. In reality, they weren't too close to each other, but Ice felt their faces were only inches apart. "I- Um... Hi Alice..."

"Um, hey Ice." Alice lightly waved hello, before stepping aside to let the blood donor inside. "If your wondering, Mercy already told me about what happened to Krista. Nariko's not that different to Alexandria when it comes to romance, isn't she?" The recon said, picking up a book from where she was sitting before.

Somehow Alice was able to keep her cool, but Ice was the opposite. With a small nod, Ice walked into her room. He might have remarked more on her room's appearance at any other time, but Ice's brain couldn't really process any of his surroundings right now. "Wha- Oh..." His hands clenched and unclenched. Standing in the middle of the room, Ice turned to face the Recon, "You- I mean..." Ice kept choking up.

He really was an idiot.

Ice brought a hand up to rub the back of his neck, "Look, I know you told Calvin you wouldn't help us against any of the droids. And I'm sure you are a Ruella of your word but..." He sighed, "I can't fight them all by myself. Or with the other..."

Ice slipped his hand down to his side, "Blast it all! I need your help Alice."

While she wouldn't admit it, Alice was conflicted with her decision to stay out of the Night of Carnage. On one hand, the recon couldn't contribute much to what they already had, except for fighting the robots. But on the other hand, what the plague doctor told her could be right. A lot of the other infinites didn't have fighting experience, more or less could wield a weapon.

"Look- I don't know. I wanna help, really, but other than dealing with the idiotic automatons, I'm basically useless." She explained to Ice, sighing in defeat.

Now that the real question was out in the open, Ice was more confident in himself, especially with Alice's tone full of doubt. Ice took a few steps closer, "Alice. What we need to do right now is stop the killing machines from what doing what they do best. We need to stop this place from becoming a bloodbath, because we don't just have Nariko to deal with, but the other three too. Both Allie and Calvin are in danger with the bots not having any restrictions and I know we can work together to keep them safe."

He reached out a hand reassure her, but it met an invisible wall. While that might be the thing he wanted to do, Ice didn't want to intrude on her space.

"I know this is a horrible thing for me to ask for. And I don't know what I would do without- Without you by my side." His face was a mixture of embarrassment and pain.

Alice's expression softened once she looked back at Ice. "God, I'm an idiot..." she mumbled under her breath, holding her head. The recon thought for a moment, before speaking again. "...Fine, I'll help you fight. Just don't let Tinker Bell distract me if she wants to help. It's bad enough I wanna stab her in the gut for all the, let's be honest, false information about gods and magic and all that malarkey."

"Besides, I doubt the goddess of love has white hair."

One of Ice's rare smiles slipped over him before he couldn't stop himself. Ice picked Alice up and twirled her around. All the negative thoughts slipped from his brain as he knew he would have someone so strong by his side.

"WOAH-!!" The recon yelped, before busting out laughing.

Ice twirled her around for a few more moments before dropping her down lightly and staring into her eyes. Finally it dawned on him how embarrassing this was. He swiftly took a step back, his face a blushing mess. "U-Um... I have no words for how thankful I am..."

The recon wanted to reassure Ice, but instead of words, a chuckle slipped out of her mouth.

Ice rubbed the back at his neck again, "...Stop laughing." He was still smiling, and chuckled along with her.

"Sorry, hehehe." Alice apologized, scratching the side of her head. "But don't worry, actions tend to speak louder than words from time to time."

"Besides, that was cute of you to do..." the recon mumbled under her breath

Of course, that just made the Blood Donor blush more. He did, after all, have the extra blood to rush to his face. Not knowing what else to say, he stared at the ground for a second. Now wasn't the time to be laughing, now was the time for actions to scream louder than words ever could. "Everyone is still deciding in the Diner. Would you rather wait for them to finish and come in later or go now?"

"Honestly, I don't wanna get involved till things died down a bit." Alice shrugged.

Ice took a seat on Alice's bed, "It's up to you. Calvin is being nice enough to watch over Aleecia, so we've got a bit of time." Ice reached into his pocket for a candy, and came up empty for the umpteenth time. He visibly frowned.

"Oh, you don't have any more sweets on ya, do you?" Alice asked, before she rummaged through her jacket pockets to pull out the two pieces of candy Ice had given to her. "I was gonna save these for later, but we can split 'em, if you want."

Ice's eyes sparkled for a moment, before he shook his head, "I really can't..." But he was eyeing them like he hadn't eaten anything in days.

Before Alice could say anything else, Ice walked over, "Well... If you insist."

The recon then grabbed Ice's hand, and placed one of the pieces of candy inside. "So, why are you always eating sweets?" Alice asked, popping her piece of candy into her mouth before sitting down.

Ice slipped his in his mouth before playing with the wrapper. "It's actually my replacement for my smoking addiction..." He twisted the wrapper, rolling it between his fingers. "I did some shady things when my older sister was still around to take care of the little ones. But after she and my parents left, I knew I'd be around the kids all the time." Ice sat back down on the bed. "I tried to go cold turkey, but when I started carrying candies to bribe my little rascals, I ended up having a lot too. I guess you could say I just switched my smoking addiction to a sugar one. When I woke up... After my coma and first tried to get information, everyone in the underworld either tried to get me to sell drugs or buy them. I had a run in or two in my own gang that would have set me off track if I didn't have my partner..." Ice ran a hand through his hair, messing up his head bandages to all hell. "I got my ass handed to me by him and he passed me a caramel and I got back into the habit of carrying them around. I stuck with my favorites, but it was a nice change of pace."

"..." Alice sat there in silence for a moment, before, on instinct, hugging the blood donor.

Ice froze for a second, not quite processing what had happened. Before the killing game, Ice hadn't had any companionship for years. With all his loved ones lost, he hadn't had any affection or human touch. And normally, Ice wouldn't get close to others enough to touch them. But with Alice, Calvin, and Allie, it reminded him of better days. Ice slipped his arms around her back, leaning his head on Alice's shoulder, and took a long breath. He wanted to say thank you, but he thought the moment would be lost.

Erica calmly responded in stead for Braden. “Look around us: I’m here, Krista isn’t. I may not be useful, but at least I am smart.” Braden looked irritated - no surprise there, that was his default expression anyway. “I do not care if you’d like to avoid me: I’m here to survive, not make friends, cuck.” Erica scoffed, using the insult thrown at Zachary during the trial for good measure.

It was obvious that this debate was going nowhere: the room was split on opinion and people were talking in circles rather than responding to each other. Erica’s voice was undoubtedly drowned out by the vocal players of either side that were busy debating their side was the wisest choice. Monokuma was able to physically split the group depending on their view on the situation, and Braden stepped up to the podium. He had very little to say, but the least he could do was stick by what he thought even if the group wanted to commit suicide together in the end.

The podium opposite to Braden was occupied by Mary. Interesting. Braden had talked to the streamer back when he had first arrived at the killing game, never seeing her since until the trials. He gave the girl a respectful nod.

Braden started first. “So you acknowledge we’d be slaughtered if we try going against the carnage sisters, so why are you willing to be a part of such madness? Something like this has happened before, no? Something about a Shona? Why not learn from your mistakes and play to survive?”

Mary's eyes lit up fiercely when the former Ultimate Knight was mentioned. Her hands clenched into fists, and she glared at Braden. "Shona sacrificed herself to save all of us! We have to keep her memory alive by saving those we can! Even if it's risky, it's meaningless if you don't try!" She took a deep breath. "Playing to survive is exactly what the mastermind wants. He preys on our feelings of weakness, and uses that to turn us against each other. Don't you see, Braden? If you're going to ignore Krista, you'll be continuing the cycle!"

“She sacrificed herself to save us all, huh? Sounds to me like it was in vain. The killing game is still happening and people are still dying. That’s what this is. A killing game, and unless you’re smart about things, you are not going to live. I’ve only been here for a short time and I’ve seen Krista defend a blackened without even considering any other option and now she has gone off trusting a carnage sister and here she is. She is getting herself into these situations and we cannot clean up her and Bill Clinton’s mess just because he wants a bit of Monica Lew-” Erica was interrupted by Elias, who made an uncomfortable coughing sound.

"It's only in vain if we let it be!" Mary responded clutching for her heart. "Krista may be a bit ditzy, and has poor word choices for her jokes, but she doesn't deserve to be abandoned! Just as she has helped others, so should we help her. I know I can't let her die," she said, looking aside briefly. "I still have something I need to tell her. The only way we can continue, the road to hope, is in saving her."

“Alright. So we go save Krista, and say we lose a couple people in this room.” Erica gestured around herself wildly. “Would that really be worth it? The life of Krista, who has done nothing but lie and keep things from you, as well as defend the blackened and get herself into trouble, for the life of say… Max. He’s strong, can fight and looks like he has a brain that skull of his, even if he’s not using it right now. He can apprehend the blackened should he find them and knows how to solve crimes. Would that really be worth it?” Braden shrugged. “I’d rather have Max who can figure out whatever the fuck is going on in a trial than somebody that will blindly trust the first person they see in a case. We’ll survive longer that way.”

Erica scoffed. “You talk about these guys praying on a moment of weakness… Do you not see what you’re suggesting? These stupid robots KNOW that people like you will go out of your way to protect damsels like Krista. By coming out and showing you’re willing to be a knight in shining armour each time, you’re showing them your weaknesses!”

Mary puffed her cheeks, annoyed that Braden wasn't listening, and used his damn sock puppets to taunt her on top of that. She knew she didn't have to take it personally, but she was miffed nonetheless. "Fine! Let's agree to disagree then. I know I'm right on this matter, I don't need your approval for it."

Once the debates were over, the Dining room gradually shifted back to its original state. Monokuma was sitting on top of a table, holding his chin. ”Hmm... Well it doesn't seem like you're all in agreement, but I think it's clear to see team 'get off our butts and do something' beat out 'let's hibernate and hope for the best.'” Dr. Killgood stood up. ”Now that I have most of your attention, we can get to planning. The two largest obstacles for you guys are the doors to Nariko's room, and Nariko herself. I understand your frustration better than you do. It's a classic example of the young rebellious teen locking herself in her room. She's using my favorite punishment against me! UGH!” After squinting his eyes in frustration, the bear gave everyone a sly look. ”But no daughter of mine is going to pull one over on me. Daddy's got a pair of spare keys, and while he can't enter the room, he can open the door for the rest of you. I do have to be near the door to unlock it, but I can defend myself better than a swarm of angry honeybees can defend their hive.” With a wink, the bear went on. ”Now as you are aware, Alexandria had a unique kill switch. Just twist her head and she goes to sleep. The carnage chassis have those in case they turn into a banana, like faith. So we have these extremely secret, obscure kill switches to shut them down... ” Monokuma pulled out a rag and started to towel off some “sweat” that was forming on his face. ”B-but Nariko has the weakest carnage class chassis, so it seemed kind of silly to give her a weakness like that. I mean, breaking her heart would be enough to make her delete herself. W-why bother with a kill switch, right?” The bear swiftly consumed the rag. ”Anyway, I'm sure you guys will work something out.” Monokuma suddenly fret his brow.”And you WILL destroy her. I don't mind saving Krista, but I'm going to be pretty mad is you don't keep your end of the bargain! It's like going to one of those stores that has everything on sale 'up to 50% off', and most of the merchandise is only 10% off! Who do they think they are!?” This was going to be an interesting night for sure...

---

Krista's skin was covered in goosebumps. A few seconds ago she was forced to change clothes while an all too eager Nariko stripped her down before dressing her up. It didn't help that the robot had cold hands to boot. Her new outfit was pretty revealing compared to her old one, and didn't do much to lock in heat. It was heavily accessorized though. Nariko had two bear shaped hair clips holding her hair in pigtails.

”You look just like the real thing!” Nariko took a step back and examined her handiwork. While the robot always looked sad, her tone was one of satisfaction. ”Do you like it Krista? Please tell me you like it! I always see the worst possible outcome, so it's important to tell me when you like something.” Nariko reached for one of the other drawers and started to pull it out. ”What is Aleece going to wear though? I have some ideas, I'd like you to look at them.”

Krista doubted Nariko would harm her… much if she did not comply but then again. Krista did not think Nariko was capable of holding her hostage in the morgue either so what does she know? The outfit was kinda cute, a little too much going on and not something she’d wear but… fashionable. “I like it.” It wasn’t an entire lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth either. Just a short response. “Do you really think Aleecia can handle how cold it is in here? She still might be weak from the POD…”

The carnage sister froze stiff. Her hand was still on the drawer handle. ”Do you think a clumsy blind girl has a better chance out there with everyone else?” Nariko turned to look at Krista. Her voice was somber now”Flowers may not bloom as frequently on the mountaintops, but they can't be plucked as easily.” The robot folded her arms. ”It won't be that bad with just the three of us, will it? If anything, I think you'd appreciate her company.” Nariko lowered her head. ”I know I can't make you happy.”

“I like Aleecia but… wouldn’t she be safer in a large group? At least the infinites can protect her but the rules stop you from harming a patient.” Krista pleaded the robot to understand. It was admirable how much Nariko cared for Aleecia, but this was just not going to work… If Krista could just help protect Aleecia, then this would be worth it.

”But I don't have to let anyone into my room either.” The robot took a few steps closer to Krista, keeping herself hunched over so that she looked smaller than the violinist. ”The only time someone could force themselves in is during the night of carnage, which I suspect is what your friends are going to do.”

Krista sat up properly, pressing her knees to her chest for comfort. “You’re overestimating the number of friends I have in here.” Krista smiled. “Why don’t you show me the ideas you had? Maybe you can try it on me if you need a model.”

”O-Overestimate!?” Krista's word threw the robot off balance. She wasn't even able to entertain Krista’s suggestion anymore. ”M-maybe so, but I do think they are going to come for you, and I do think they will beat me.” Nariko huffed. ”Nothing ever really goes my way, but the only thing worse than failing is never trying, right? Who would take their nurse seriously if all she ever did was stew in her own despair?” Krista noticed pink smoke rising up out of the floor. The robot's eyes glowed a bright red before she stepped backwards into the smoke. ”It's only through determination that we can acquire the conquest we seek.” A loud hissing sound filled the room as more pink smoke was pumped in. Nariko was totally engulfed, and Krista couldn't see more than a few feet in front of her. Though her gut reaction was to close her eyes and cover her mouth with her arm. But it wasn't long before the hissing sound stopped, and Krista opened her eyes again. The veil of smoke was disappearing, though Nariko was no longer what stood in the center of the room.

There had been little time to reply to Nariko before the pink smoke swallowed her whole. The sight of the monstrous carnage chassis sent Krista's heart racing from terror. This is what people would have to... deal... with if they come to help? If Alexandria's carnage chassis wasn't scary enough, Nariko's many weapons would make her a difficult fight. “H-hey, Nariko. I- I promise nobody will try hurting you. Y-you do not need to use your carnage chassis tonight.”

Nariko did not respond to Krista, but it was unclear if it was because she didn't want to, or her new form meant that she couldn't. Or perhaps this creature wasn't even Nariko at all. Regardless, it stood in front of the door with all of it's weapons raised. Whatever it was, it was ready for a fight.

The monitors cracked to life all over Axis Mundi, and Davis's face showed up once again. “Your daughters turn on you, and so you turn on your daughters. Is this really how a doctor should be acting?”

Monokuma watcheds the video from his room on the fifth floor. He would have to return to the second floor so that he could join the patients and free krista. Everyone understood this, and knew the carnage sisters would likely show up before he did. “What sort of mastermind turns on his own people?”

“Did you forget Junko killed her sister?”

“But she was always loyal to despair!”

“You've been using that word so much its entirely lost meaning.” Davis turned his back to the bear, and everyone else who might be watching. “There's over twenty patients in the candidate’s killing game. Excluding Hector Ecclesia's killing game, no killing game has ever seen such large numbers. It doesn't really seem fair to expect four carnage sisters to keep them in check, especially if their father is going to abandon them.” Davis looked over his shoulder at the screen, his only visible eye was at half mast. “They will be receiving reinforcements shortly.”

“Brah!” Despite Monokuma having short legs, he could run surprisingly fast when he needed to. Perhapse not as fast as a mechanical horse, but they would get him to where he needed to go. “That other bear had it so easy, just having to look after one wild boy!”

---

---

Once Ellie saw the condition Aleecia was in, she wanted to give the blind girl a warm hug, but someone else beat her to it, they were already hugging Aleecia, but it didn't stop Ellie from still going over to the two, she gently put a hand onto Aleecia's shoulder so she wouldn't startle the blind girl." Aleecia, we should get you cleaned up." She told her." Wouldn't want you to look like a mess when everyone returns right?"

Faith didn't say anything, just kept hugging her, not knowing the relationship between the two. Aleecia wasn't aware of much that was going around her, her sobs started to crack from her strained throat. She felt Ellie's hand on her shoulder and started to bat it away, before stopping as she heard Ellie's voice. "I-I... I don't care!" She slipped her hand over Ellie's and gently pulled it away, gripping it in her hand. "I won't let them think I'm okay, because I'm not, a-and... I want them to feel guilty, because what they are doing isn't right!"

Calvin did not look up for several moments after his debate with Noel. For half a moment, a deep pressure settled on his chest that made it hard to breathe, but the shame subsisted after a few moments. When he looked up, she had already turned away. He scanned the room, the vacant look not quite leaving his eyes.

He saw Ellie walk over to Aleecia, and gingerly place a hand on her shoulder. With a bit of a start, Calvin remembered his conversation with Ice. He walked over slowly and listened quietly, a few steps away. “The're gonna be okay, Aleecia.” There was a metallic taste in Calvin’s mouth, and his voice carried the same sort of tinny quality that projected only the slightest degree of confidence. “We'll hold up and help them if they need it." He was glad she couldn't see his face, though he felt Ellie's eyes appraising him briefly. He made eye contact with her. "Can you come with us? I..." He knew he wouldn't be able to take care of her on his own, not as he was.

The caretaker bit her lip before looking back to Aleecia and telling her." It's not about them." She told her." You can't let them get to you, breaking down like that only shows to the Neoslayer that he's getting to you and not just you but all of us." She let out a sigh before telling Aleecia." After Mason's death I wanted break down and cry as well, but I stood as strong as I could, you have to hold out hope Aleecia, but if you don't want to listen to me it's okay, I can understand that you are upset right now."

Faith took a step back, Aleecia seeming to accept them and started to head towards the door. If the blind girl had been in her right senses, she would have thanked the girl, but... "I-I... I..." Aleecia let go of Ellie's hand and covered her eyes with them, sobs escaping from her throat again. Half of her wanted to sleep into the void that she normally stayed in due to her blindness, while the other wanted to rip through the fabric of reality to save her friend. She couldn't seem to get out what she wanted to. This was all so messed up and she didn't care what the Neoslayer thought. "We need to h-help-" Sobs cut off her words again, tears and other fluids leaking from her face, which dripped down over her sweatshirt. "I-I need to g-g-go to Nariko... I won't leave now!" A fit of coughing slipped over her.

While everyone had made good points in the scrum debate, Mercy couldn't help but pay more attention to Aleecia in worry. It was the first time the plague doctor had seen someone break down in a while, so afterwards, she quickly walked up to the dice master to try and calm her down. "Excuse me," she muttered to Ellie, moving past the caretaker, before pulling Aleecia into another hug. "Shhhhh, it's okay, it's okay..." Mercy whispered, rubbing the other girl's back in an attempt to comfort her.

Again Ellie had the chance to hug Aleecia and comfort her, but instead Mercy arrived from the corner of Ellie's eye and pushed past her to give Aleecia a hug, it was almost starting to irritate her, but she didn't let it get to her too much. Ellie let the doctor do her best to comfort her while she went into the kitchen, when she reappeared, she had a soft cloth in her hands, she approached the two and spoke before she acted." Aleecia, I'm going to clean you up a little if you don't mind." The caretaker then moved the cloth to the blind woman's face.

She didn't want to be 'cleaned up' but didn't want to upset her friends anymore. It wasn't like they had signed Nariko's death warrant, they were just the clean up crew. Aleecia dropped her hands down to her lap, leaning into Mercy while balling up her hands into fists. It was a good thing she got them cut regularly or she might have drawl blood with her nails. Ice had been so kind and thoughtful when he did it but... "Where's Ice? I-Is he...?"

"He's talking with Alice, I think." Calvin said, turning back towards the door. Ice had been away for a while, but Calvin hadn't bothered to ask for more details before he had left. "They're... They can handle this." He felt inept, standing watching the women all comfort Aleecia. He wanted to reach out, but also understood that the others were far more capable than he was in his current state.

Ellie gently pressed the cloth gently across Aleecia's face, wiping her eyes and cleaning her cheeks thoroughly, even though Aleecia was a grown woman, She reminded Ellie of the children that she would care for usually, the thoughts of her countless visits to the hospital came to the front of her memory as she finished up and stuck the cloth into her pocket, she wanted to join the hug with both Mercy and Aleecia, but held off doing it remembering what happened last time when she hugged Aleecia."I know you feel angry and upset, but you should look presentable Aleecia, for when you get better." Ellie looked the Blind woman in her eye, well her closed eye as she spoke to her.

"Wait really?" Mercy asked, looking over to Calvin. "I'll be suprised if he convinces her to join this Night of Carnage. Girl's been having doubts..." she explained, moving aside so Ellie could clean Aleecia's face, but still giving the dice master a side hug.

"Pretty sure." He listened to Mercy speak further about Alice, and nodded gently. "She seemed pretty pissed when I said I wasn't helping." He watched intently as Ellie gently washed Aleecia's face, admiring the careful nature of the Infinite Caretaker's ministrations.

"Ah, well, it must've been her depression talking for her, atleast when I went to see Alice. So give a few minutes for her to cooldown, and she'll come back to apologize to ya or something." Mercy reasured the metalworker.

"He's... he-" Aleecia couldn't help remember that morning when Ice had abruptly tried to get her to leave. She had known that Ice didn't care much for her robotic friend, and... As much as the blind girl hate to think of it, she knew Ice would jump at the chance to help everyone murder Nariko. Aleecia gently pushed Ellie away for a second as another coughing fit came over her, her breaths still stuck in her throat turning to sobs. Everyone... No one would protect Nariko. The one who had helped the brunette the most. "Why should we have hope? What's the point?" She squinted open her eyes, wishing she could peer defiantly in Ellie's face. But even without her blindness, she wouldn't have been able to see through her tears.

"I wonder....what if she's lying to you?" Mercy asked, turning back to Aleecia as her expression changed to a more serious one. "What if Nariko's only using you and your kindness, only to stab you in the back once you're vulnerable? I mean, I get why you want to protect her, but machines tend to have artificial hearts, their emotions only being a mock-up. But... Sure, once things seem to go out of hand, you can go talk to her, try to reason with Nariko. However, if she doesnt let up, or tries to hurt you afterwards, tough choices must be made. Ya get what I'm saying?"

"It's my burden!" She started to shake again, this time with the fire she had held when debating with Faith, "Whether I trust my friends is up to me. I don't want to treat Nariko any different then I would all of you. Should I just assume everyone I meet wants to stab me in the back? No, I couldn't live like that!" Somehow, Aleecia had stopped the sobs swelling up inside her, so if anything else, this was helping in a small way. "This isn't only about Nariko, but also about my morality. I'm just letting one of my closest friends get slaughtered, if you were me or if Nariko was Alice, how could you be okay with that?"

"But how would you know if she's your real friend?!" Mercy exclaimed, a hint of anger in her voice. "Anyone can betray, hurt, and guilt you till you're nothing, how would that robotic bimbo be different, huh?!"

"I'd rather trust and fall, then distrust and never know love. I'll at least gain the satisfaction that I tried and put my all into my side, even if the other person didn't put hers in. Nariko is... misdirected. Without a helping hand, wouldn't we all be damned in this place?" The girl shuffled uncomfortably in Mercy's arms. They were rather close to each other and Aleecia felt so defenseless, especially after having lost the debate with Faith.

Calvin had thought the debate scrum was over, but clearly there hadn't been much of a resolution. "That thing isn't your friend, Allie." The name slipped without a great deal of intention, but there was a bit of force behind his words. "These things are tools that are keeping us here, and they're killing us in the process!" He threw his arms up for half a second, before taking a deep breath. "Nariko isn't going anywhere. Just like with Alexandria. You can't get rid of them."

Angry tears started falling down her face silently, "There's no way the mastermind has complete control of them, that's obvious based off of Nariko and Alexandria's actions. With their own AI's, it's the same as being a person! How will she feel knowing that I've abandoned her? It... It wouldn't be strange if she just killed herself off. She's too fragile for this..." Aleecia pounded her fists against her legs, "Why would she do this? I can't even make sense of it..."

"You need to understand that those things can't be trusted. Even with their own AI's, they arent human." Mercy told Aleecia, as her expression softened. She didn't want to argue with her, but the dice master was making it hard to stay calm. If anything, she was making it easier for the plague doctor to turn her in, but that wasn't right."Just...keep your guard up, okay?"

"It's not that my guard is down... it's just..." In an angry huff, she brought her knees to her chest and screeched into her lap, "Ugh!"

Bliss walked into the dining room with a few cups that had strings attached to them. “Alright. Denis and I set up the communication system. It works surprisingly well.” The nanny smiled at her handywork before looking at everyone else. “And not a moment too soon it would appear. I hope he's going to be okay. Denis might have an unhealthy addition to woman, but I don't wish any harm on him.”

---

All of the monitors switched on and displayed the elevators on the first floor's patient quarters. “Behold, reinforcements. Champion carnage sisters that wish to participate in the candidate’s killing game.” When the elevators opened up, there were several carnage sisters, all dressed up like nurses that just wandered out of the emergency room. And they must have been operating, because they were stained with blood.

The first sister to step out looked a bit lust driven. She had a hungry look in her eyes, and appeared to be drooling non-stop. ”Ohohoh Yes!” She held a guillotine's blade in one hand, and it was tied to a length of rope coiled around her other arm. ”Napoleon's here to test your stamina. I left my fuzzy cuffs in another killing game, but I brought plenty of rope <3.”

Once Napoleon charged off, another carnage sister stepped forward. This one's head didn't sit right. It was always bobbing side to side, its tongue freely swinging from its mouth. ”Yoo hoo, Julia here!” This one appeared to be armed with a sword like to the one Davis used in the first trial, and she held a massive tower shield to boot. ”I'm gunna have lots of fun using your blood to paint pretty, pretty rainbows all over. WOOOOOO!” Julia skipped away, her head bobbling around as she did so.

”Hey, why is I on that thar screen?” The carnage sister was pointing at a monitor next to her elevator. She had buck teeth and big goofy eyes. ”I ain't a fan of city slickers and their tricks.” She grabbed the starter cord on her chainsaw and, with a single tug, got the chainsaw to start. But the carnage sister was able to hold onto the gas guzzler with just one hand. She held a shotgun in the other. ”The name's Adar y'all. And I'm gunna make some country fixin's outa yer rear ends!”

After Adar ran off screen, there were no more carnage sisters present in view. The screen quickly filled with static, but didn't turn off. White noise filled the hallways for several seconds before displaying the elevator again. This time there was but a single carnage sister, and she didn't appear to have any weapons.

”So, this all seems pretty strange, right?” The carnage sister seemed to have much greater control over her face than the other sisters. She wasn't moving like a puppet at all, and was actually moving her lips to speak. ”It doesn't even seem real does it? Well, maybe it's not real, maybe none of you are real. It has to be a possibility, right? The carnage sister giggled like an innocent child. ”I mean if I was going through my normal life and I woke up in a death game, I'd assume it wasn't real. The whole idea of a death game is just absurd. Something like that could only happen in a video game.” The girl's head perked up. ”But the killing school trip was a video game right? I doubt anyone would do that more than once. Twists like that can get pretty boring when repeated. You need to switch it up a bit!” She smiled. ”Anyway, my name is Monika. Can you guess which conqueror I'm named after?” Monika stopped speaking for a moment. Possibly to let her audience think. “I look forward to meeting all the infinites, and maybe taking some of the players out of this killing game.” The monitor displayed more static, then turned off.

...They might have been there for a bit too long. Ice pleasantly having this moment of human touch while Alice seemed to be having the same thing. They didn't have anyway to know when the debate would be over so they just stayed in Alice's room, but now Ice was starting to feel antsy again. The man slipped his hands out from around Alice and lightly pushed her away from his embrace. "Th-They must be about done now, and I want to check on Allie and Calvin." Ice hadn't really thought before about how close he was getting with Alice, but now his face was starting to heat up. How many minutes had they been hugging, especially on Alice's bed?! This was definitely most improper and while Ice might not have been the most proper of people, he still wanted to treat Alice with the respect she deserved.

"...So-" Now, that would just be more embarrassing for him to apologize! If Alice didn't realize what he was thinking about, she would probably be confused and come up with the wrong conclusions, and Ice wasn't about to let that happen. With an annoyed sigh, he got up and stretched, flinching a little at his achy hand and arm. "Thanks... for agreeing to come with me," he wanted to get his emotions in check before looking back at Alice, so he didn't turn to her before walking over to the door. Finally, he opened the door and turned back to her, "Shall we?"

"Erm, y-yeah! Let's go check on the others..." Alice agreed as she followed behind Ice, mentally punching herself in the face for not keeping track of time. Or really, just embarrassing herself in general.

The two of them hurried up to the second floor, the sounds of arguments not even heard from their vantage point. Had they arrived too late? How had the debate gone? Ice's heart skipped a beat when he remembered Aleecia's determined face. Had Calvin been able to stop her? Had Cyrus? Nothing was discernible from the other end of the hall. They were just reaching for the door when-



Faith had taken the opportunity as the debate wrapped up to make her way to the door. A couple of other Infinites had grouped over to look after Allie, giving her the perfect chance to make her escape from the room as quickly as she could. Seeing the girl break down as she did... it hit her somewhere she tried desperately to keep quiet. How determined she was to use her own life for the sake of her friends - it was commendable, but equally stupid, in her eyes. To let such a young and innocent girl give herself to a fate most likely worse than death; Faith shuddered at the thought of letting that happen, each stride taking her closer to the door of the Diner.

Her hands reached out to push the doors open, planting her palms firmly against them and forcing her body weight against them to drive them open in one movement. The moment she did, Faith took another stop forward, but immediately stopped in her tracks. There was something there, in the way; Ice and Alice.
"Huh?" the sound crawled out from her throat involuntarily, and quickly she reached up to wipe her slightly damp eyes, "O-oh, hi! If it isn't Isaiah and the Exodus~! Did you change your mind on joining the festivities~?"

"Move." It was fairy dust again, the girl that made the hairs on the back of Ice's neck stand on end. Why did this situation have to happen again, and for the love of crumpets everywhere, Ice really didn't want this to end the same way. Ice moved slightly in front of Alice, not wanting Faith to get closer again.

What really was unnerving Ice was the expression Faith had had on when she first came out. What could be so horrifying as to make someone like that tear up? All of this was worrying the broody blood donor and his heart involuntarily sped up. This was really not the time considering his condition. This whole situation made him want to pop a candy in his mouth, even with his lack there of.

Alice herself didn't want to deal with Faith at the moment, the night of carnage being more important than whatever the matchmaker wanted, so the recon decided to deal with it and move on. Cause the faster the two reached the dining room, the better. "What do you want, Tinker Bell? Make it quick." She asked, unamused.

"Well that's not very nice~!" even despite her cheery and seemingly playful outset, it was seemingly obvious that she wasn't expecting such a harsh welcome from the two. Whether it was because she was oblivious to how they thought of her, or simply because she blatantly ignored it, for a brief second her face flashed something of a solemn look, before regaining its usual happy smile, "Y'know, the debate is practically over. Pretty sure I managed to convince Allie to stay behind and let the others deal with Nariko, too~! is that what you wanted to hear~?"

Ice took a longer glance down at the girl, "You met Aleecia? If you said anything to hurt her..." Images played through his head and he almost started shake. He knew that everyone in the room, including Calvin and Ellie, wouldn't let Faith physically hurt the girl, but there was no way to block words. While he did care for Alice and Calvin, Allie had become Ice's main concern. She was the one that couldn't fight and was defenseless, reminding him of his younger sisters so long ago... There was no way Ice would let her get herself involved with this. Ice's blatantly annoyed looked turn venomous as he stared her down. "I said move."

In response, Faith simply placed her hands on her hips and pouted. What had she done to deserve such cruelty?! They'd barely met and they were just so mean to her! Their last interaction, she was under the impression she had helped; not only had she given Alice an insight into her hidden ability, but she had given Ice an opportunity to grapple with himself - and this was the thanks she got? Even the bland people in her old game were more receptive to her help then these two. Allie hadn't been upset when she talked about magic, so what was the problem with these two?! She simply couldn't fathom it - not in the slightest. They were in a Killing Game, even something as outlandish as magic in modern day society should have been less surprising that that

"Hurt her?! No, never! I'd never hurt anyone unless they deserved it~" she smiled, releasing the pout from her face with newfound energy, "Hey, I was thinking - you shouldn't be fighting Isaiah!" her blatant and random change of subject hung in the air for a couple seconds before she started again, "Not cause you're an ordinary human or anything, even though that contributes a liiiiiiiiittle bit. But cause you're injured; you cant hide those bandages from me~ What are you gonna do about confessing if you're dead~? Soooooo, don't fight~! We wouldn't want you to get killed after all~"

It wasn't that Ice was exactly taking Faith for her word, but he knew since Calvin was there that Allie would be okay. Therefore Ice was able to switch topics over to the fight at hand... The one he knew would be merciless. "If I can move, I can fight. It might look like a narly road rash, but I can still move pretty much everything if I take off some of these excess bandages." Ice brought moved his right hand up his shirt to slip the chained blade out. "I can fight as well as anyone, got that? There's no way I'm not going to give that pompous Flib a piece of my mind, one that will leave her in smoldering pieces." The bandages that had been badly wrapped around his head fell away, his right eye becoming more visible through them and just as dark as Alice had seen during the trial, though the darkness that involved him was only a fraction of what it had been when he had seen the murderer of his family.

"Hey, hey- Calm down, calm down..." Alice told Ice, a startled expression on her face as she put a hand on his shoulder. As she looked back at Faith however, it changed to a more apathetic look. "Look, if he wants to fight, just let him. Okay?"

"Hmmmmm..." she pondered for a second, watching the two defend Ice's capabilities. The emergence of his weapon was something of a surprise, but Faith didn't let it show on her face. Where he had been hiding that she wasn't sure, but at the very least she could tell he was relatively used to combat to have such a weapon; a blade on the end of a chain - a unique approach. "You two are close, aren't you~?" she suddenly asked. leaning forwards to look at the two of them, "I can see emotions, y'know, and look into people's hearts~! Hey Alice, would you really wanna let him fight in his condition? I mean, lack of magical assistance aside, he is injured. But maybe I was wrong - maaayyyybeeeee, you like each other~? Hey, hey, what if he died? Wouldn't you have wished you'd listened to my advice then~?"

She paused, letting the two formulate a response, but quickly cut them off before they could say anything.
"I get it, though - you really wanna fight Nariko cause she's a big meanie. Buuuuuut, you shouldn't fight her; emotions are nice and all but they might get'ya killed. Oh - oh, since you're so bent on fightiiiiiing~" she took a quick bound forward, so they were truly face to face, "How would you mind accompanying me, eh~? I wanna fight, but Davis kiiiiiiinda weakened my magic, so I need a buddy! And I can totally stop you from getting killed~! No fighting Nariko, though!" she took a glance over to Alice and smiled, "Let's leave that to the real fighters~"

"I don't think- Wait, what?!" Alice exclaimed, eyes widened in shock. "T-that's ridiculous!!"

Ice was starting to feel numb again and that couldn't be a good thing. The Blonde Donor could barely feel Alice's arm on his shoulder and flinched slightly when he finally did feel it, talk about slow reaction time. If only Ice had been facing Alice, maybe that would have calmed him down, but his bloodthirsty fantasies were taking control of his morals. His hand tightened on the blade. It had become almost ritual for him to wind the chain up his leg in the mornings ever since Shona's death. Usually none of it was necessary since Ice didn't leave his room often.

Faith's question went over his head, all thoughts of Alice gone as he imagined slicing Nariko's head off, then Monokuma's, and finally, Davis's. Some man of conquest, hiding with his tail between his probably extremely heavy legs. Perchance had Ice been listening, he probably would have ignored Fairy Dust anyway, her ludicrous thoughts of magic driving him to a migraine. It was only when Faith brought up Nariko's name that Ice's eyes refocused on her. He didn't move when she came closer, his hand still gripping the blade tightly. "What's the point of fighting if it doesn-" Then, realization slipped past his murderous notions.

Alexandria. The lack of rules. She would be easy to pick off. It wasn't like Ice could actually crush her existence, but maybe he could work off some steam and practice for when it was the time to go head to head with all of them at once. Sure, Ice was hoping that he would be fighting alongside Alice and the other stronger infinites of the group when they moved to overpower Monokuma, but practice makes perfect. They needed someone to stop the other sisters from going to help Nariko and Ice would rather eat his own shoes than let them help the mechanical witch.

It would be easy to agree with Faith right away, but Ice was too annoyed to take the easy route, "Why should I accompany you? You don't seem like much of a gladiator to me."

Faith couldn't help but give a smile at Alice's reaction. Even without seeing her face, she could tell just what thoughts were going through her head; telling when people were smitten was her forte, after all. Needless to say, though, she found herself a tad disappointed at Ice as he seemingly stared off into space, lost in his own little world. And when they were having an important conversation about their plans, no less! Had no one taught the man manners?! But even still, it wasn’t as though she could get angry at him. Anger was such an ugly emotion. It had no place in the palace of romance!

”That’s okay, Alice, you don’t have to admit it right away~!” she chirped, leaning a but over ice’s shoulder, ”Come talk to me if you need any advice, Kay~?” and at that she, took a little step back, with just enough distance between her and Ice for them to touch, ”Now then, Mr. Isaiah! Maybe I don’t look like a fighter, but you can bet your pretty little behind that I can~! Training was hard, but as an Heiress people do kiiiinda wanna kill me - can’t think why~! But, but, if you keep thinking with that attitude... well, you miiiight just get~” she gently tapped his nose with her index finger, ”Offed~!”

As quickly as she she did so, Faith danced around him, and out of the doorway to the Diner, just off to the side behind them.
”How would you feel about helping us keep some of the Sisters at bay~? You’ll get your fix of combat, and I bet it’ll be tonnes of fun~!“

Ice had already agreed to the request in his head, but somehow he was going to have to begrudgingly accept her out loud. "..." Ice had opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Really, he was acting like such a child, even Ice could see that! But... he didn't want to do anything nice for this girl that creeped him out. He just finally scratched the back of his neck and nodded. Before Faith could react, he pivoted on his feet to face Alice, "They need you and you'd better not die, got it?" The look on his face was blocked from Faith's sight, and Ice felt better that way. His past desperation from Alice's bedroom showed there again. Would the Recon agree to go fight Nariko? ...Or would she only fight if it meant Ice was there with her. Everyone needed Alice to make the right call, and maybe... Maybe Allie's life depended on it.

Alice wanted to yell at Faith for making such an assumption, and she wanted to question Ice's decision to team up with the matchmaker of all people, yet something inside the recon told her to stay quiet, so she did. "...Right. I promise I'll stay alive." She answered, forcing a smile before walking inside the diner.

"You make one pass at either Alice or Aleecia and I'll slit your throat and smoke with your windpipe," Ice stated, starting the walk back downstairs. If they were going after any of the disfunctional Killgood family, it was going to be that yandere robot ruella.

"I wouldn't dream of it~" accompanied by a giggle were the only response before the Matchmaker vanished down the corridor.

And thus came the time. The Night of Carnage, upon the Infinite patients of Axis Mundi and Davis's Killing Game. Faith wondered around her room, checking off the varying parts of her load out that she would need for the up and coming battle. Her dagger, the Ignis Pouch, its fuse and a set of matches, and other different odds and ends that might have come in handy one way or another. She had already prepared some things at the location, within the ER room of the Hospital Facilities; having spent all day working with Mary and Daimyon to develop traps, she had had plenty of time to prepare. Such was the life of a Mage - one had to stay one step ahead of the enemies in order to come out the victor. And she had no intentions of losing.

She flung her door open with all her might, taking a strong and confident stride out from her room and into the corridor. A nervous anticipation left itself buried deep in her chest, less anxiety and more excitement. Very rarely was Faith able to participate in such battles due to her lifestyle and schedule. Planning dates and parties and all manner of different events, meeting clients and producers - it was a busy life, but not one she would ever trade away. It put her magic to waste but that was the compromise of doing the work of the Goddess of Love. To learn one had to experience, and if she ever wanted to be a successful heir to the throne she needed all the experience she could get, that was merely a given. In a way she had to thank Davis, although she would never admit it. His cruelty knew no bounds, and yet he had presented her with many new and otherwise inaccessible opportunities for which Faith was, if just slightly, grateful.

However, that was simply idle thought. The only thing she should have been thinking of was the battle they would undertake, but even with her steeled resolve she couldn't help but find her mind wondering. Was it out of fear or something else? There wasn't a chance she was scared, so what could it have been? She pondered the question on her way down the stairs, breaking out from their incline and into a seemingly the same place. If she didn't know better she might have mistaken the first for the second floor with how similar they were, but she had spent the day memorising the layout of the hospital. Ice's room was designated as E, located just at the end of the first corridor leading into the Patients Quarters; they hadn't set up an exact rendezvous point, but there, she figured, was where he was most likely to have been. The Night of Carnage wasn't even scheduled to begin for another twenty minutes.

And so at the end of the corridor, she lifted her hand and rapped her knuckles against its construction.
"The Night of Carnage commeth Isaiah. I hope you're ready~"

Ice had wanted to go see Aleecia, but he knew they would end up fighting. All that had happened today played in his mind and he didn't want to see the disappointment on his friend's face. So... Ice had left Allie to Calvin and had spent much of the afternoon beating himself up over it. What a doltish coward he was, not even able to face someone he cared about. Ice had cut himself off from the rest of them, not wanting to become anymore drained by the infinites around him, even spending time with Alice could make his headache right now. Ice had checked around his room for sweets and had found a stash that had been hiding away in his suitcase. After plopping a butterscotch and bloody fairy in his mouth, he had gotten to work on unraveling the work Alexandria had done on his hand.

She wasn't going to be happy and Ice would enjoy that. If nothing else, he could get her riled up easily, it was a skill that he had long since possessed.

Most of the bandages had been discarded. The braces on the fingers that were actually broken stayed, but there was only really one or two while the rest were swollen. He'd be able to wrap to hold the chain with pain, but still be effective in his attacks. His way of fighting would be reversed, so Ice went to practicing it without his weapon and with. Once he thought it would go okay enough, he tried to take a nap and massage some of the tension out of his limbs... to no avail. Finally, he had given up and thoughts had drifted by to last night and the bloodthirsty fantasies that came with it.

Hearing the knock at the door, Ice stood up and opened it a few inches. He nodded and moved out into the hall. Besides his chain weapon, he had packed up a few shivs that weren't quite as sharp at the one on his chain, but could still cut savagely. If there was a use for his failed attempts, he would find one in them now. As he stared in the direction of the hospital ring, memories rushed through his head of the last time they had fought and if he hadn't been in control of his emotions, he might have shivered, "sod..."

"Y'know..." Faith took a step around Ice, between him and the direction of the Hospital he so longingly stared into. Her expression seemed mixed, on the edge, teetering between a neutral and serious expression and a full on grin; she was clearly enjoying the herself, but trying her best to keep it hidden as to avoid ridicule, "I'm still totally against you fighting here tonight~! Felix is gonna be fine, cause he can outrun Geina's little cannons, and Daimyon and Mary have enough traps to spark a Tumblr war - Willow wont be much of an issue, iiiiiiiiif they stick to the strategy. And I mean, I can totally fight little Miss Alexandria on my own~" she scanned him, flicking her dagger between her fingers with uncharacteristic dexterity, the ornately engraved blade, peppered with runic symbols, glinting in the sheet white light of the corridor, alongside the reflection of the wooden handle, similarly adorned in carvings and alien tongue, "So why'dya wanna fight, again? Did Alexandria threaten Alice? Or do you wanna get revenge for Calvin? - I heard from my little birdy the past events of this game. I can see in your heart that you like him, but your emotions for him are a bit unstable~!"

With her last comment and slight flourish of her blade, Faith turned to her side and looked down across the corridor towards the Hospital. Her last game they had all voted to stay in their rooms every Night of Carnage. The death of one of their friends after the first trial at the hands of one of the Sisters had left them all rattled. Even Faith had been, if for only a short time. They were one of their favourite candidates for matching, and besides Jez they were one of her only friends within the game. But she couldn't exactly let herself shut down in the midst of their crisis. She was a leader, after all, and the leaders job was to their people - she couldn't abandon them. She formed them all together, and held the vote to keep out of the Nights of Carnage. It didn't stop people from going out if they really wanted to, but... it was better than nothing. Coming out of their rooms to a murder, that was a surprise, but that was the killers mistake - practising their crime first gave them all a chance to solve it and realise the similarities when the actual crime came about. At the very least, she was glad Jez wasn't around to deal with it all. All she could do was hope nothing like that happened again.

These people had a trust between them, though. Something Faith's previous game was devoid of. After the first murder and the subsequent loss of Jezebel to Davis's whims any semblance of cooperation went down in a blaze. Faith only barely managed to pull them together after the third murder. Now that they had lost their leader, what would become of them? Would they just kill each other off? Continue her work? Enter into a game wide suicide pa-
"Anyways!" such thoughts weren't welcome here, "We, Isaiah, have a battle to win! None shall stand in our way! We shall be victorious, that is the only path laid out for us!" she tilted her head back, fully emblazoned with a wide grin, "I'll match you with any Infinite of your choosing after this, so you better not die on me~! Oh. oh, and make sure to have fun! - that's, like, the cardinal rule of all this, 'kay~? Onwards to the battlefield!" she announced, flicking her dagger so the blade pointed to the floor, and commencing her march forwards.

The man stopped as Faith created a block between him and his mission, that did not bode well for her. "I'm fighting Alexandria, you can back me up." He knew of the carnage sister's abilities and he also knew there was absolutely no way someone could off her by themself, "There needs to be a decoy and attacker, without that she'll murder us both. We've already lost the element of surprise so we have to be as swift and precise as possible." His voice was becoming more and more devoid of emotion, which if Faith had known him longer, she would have known that was a bad sign. "I don't want her alive to hurt anyone else, capiche?" All this talk of emotions was annoying the Blood Donor, he didn't want to have to start worrying about Faith or the others right now, just focus on the battle ahead. By all means, Ice didn't like the Matchmaker, but he didn't want anyone to run to their death either. If she died, it would hurt him, just as much as anyone of them.

Fairy Dust kept chattering after that about victory, but what was the point? They were going to destroy a machine that had to be dealt with until the time was up, nothing more. "Don't die." Then again, his words had only fueled his worry about another infinite's death. He didn't care about his own.

Faith’s light giggle was an easy indication that whatever Ice had said, Faith wasn’t exactly on board with.
”You’re funny, Isaiah - uuuuuugh, Isaiah is too long a name. D’ya have, like, a nickname or something? Allie is letting me call her Allie, sooooo, I oughta call you something too, right~?” she chirped, walking off in front, before spinning around to face him, walking backwards down the corridor, ”I know you’ve built up your little tough guy persona, with your cool weapon and emotionless facade, buuuut there’s no way you’re killing Alexandria on her own either, y’know that, right~? I mean, be reasonable - if you’re gonna put my abilities down, what can you do? Damaged hand, supposedly combat inept partner - why, you’ve got a cocktail for death~!”

Faith spun around once again, running on a little bit down the corridor with her arms outstretched, dagger clutches tightly to her palms, like a child pretending to be an aeroplane. Once she was at the end of the corridor, she danced a short ways into the plaza and turned back to face him.
”And I mean I totally agree with your whole hit and run tactic, but dont'cha thinks that’s a little... boring~? I’ve got my knife,” she pulled the pouch from her waste, ”My secret weapons, and my Tome~!” she patted her breast pocket with her free hand, and grinned towards him, ”We aren’t here to kill the psychorobot, Isaiah. From what my birdy said about Shona’s death, the Sisters come back suuuuuper quickly~! We gotta just distract her, and keep her around so she can’t respawn or get to her buddies and help em. What’s the fun in employing boring strategies when we can mess with her~! It might even do some good, right~?” and with that she danced around the corner, ”Just give it some thought, ‘Kay~?” and down the corridor towards the Crematorium.



The Night Of Carnage had started. They had taken a while getting ready, it seemed, or lost track of time, or something, as the screens crackled to life with what would have been pressumed as the announcement commencing the daily festivities. Soon, they would be engaged in combat with a machine designed specifically for killing. Faith had previously fought them before, of course, during one of her games first Nights. The Sisters there didn’t mess around, but they came out unscaved. Not for long, of course, but she held they victory with pride and high regard.

Except as Faith skipped past the Waiting Room, just past the stairs where Noel had said the past case’s killer, Shaun, was found by, she abruptly stopped. Beside her, the large monitor over the series of consecutive, uncomfortable looking hospital chairs crackled to life. Ordinarily she would have ignored it, since it was merely to be the announcement for the Night of Carnage. But as she watched, it was something entirely different: an elevator. From somewhere else than the screen she heard the sounds of machines moving, presumably of something in the Patients Quarters, or thereabouts, and her memory clicked.

Where ever the other Sisters had just come in, it was on the first floors Patient Quarter.
”Hey Isaiaaaaaaaaaah~ You may wanna hurry up just tad - there are kinda more murderous robots on their way to make us into meat kebabs, and they don’t look interested in helping out little Miss Nariko protect her prized Violinist~!” Before quickly skipping off towards the Crematodiumm ready and waiting to begin their battle.

They walked in silence and honestly Ice was fine with that. His brooding might have gotten even worse with Faith's chatter. As they passed by the Waiting Room, Ice's eyes met the stairs and suddenly 'shaun' was at the bottom, unresponsive and helpless. Krista was running forward and Mercy was checking for a pulse. Shaking his head, Ice looked again and found no trace of them, not even the blood from 'Shaun's' head. The fact that Ice had ever believed the boy had been gentle and kind unnerved the Blood Donor to the core. He had seen deceit, he knew what it was like, yet how hadn't he seen through Erin's simple facade?

While Ice had zoned out, he missed the beginning of whatever was on the monitor and mentally cursed himself. As he watched, his gut clenched in on itself. While the idea of the new carnage sisters coming in on one side and Alexandria coming at them from the other horrified him, Monika was what really put him on edge. Her giggle made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end and his brain kept telling him to follow his flight response. While the instinct wasn't used very often, misuse had sent it into overdrive. "You watch the crematorium, I'll watch the exits." He turned to face the patient's quarters, his hand clenched around his weapon as he moved backwards.

In response to Ice's request, Faith turned to watch the Crematorium door as they began their slow and careful approach. There was no use in rushing the fight, as much as she didn't want to waste time, but there were too many risks to take into account to dive straight in. Ice has fought this Sister before, or so Noel had said, but Faith herself had no experience against Alexandria. How she moved, her attack patterns, even her choice of weapon was out of her scope of knowledge. It wasn't going to be easy, distracting her, but that didn't matter!

She shouted in her head, hearing the resounding vote of self confidence echo against her brain, but quickly silenced by the creaking of metal ahead of her. Watching the doors inch open, wasting precious seconds, only to see their foe barrel from its depths full force.

”Ohz nohz, so uncool!” Alexandria's voice was far more nervous than normal. She stopped several feet away from the duo. ”If I don't get to calvie poo, his cutie patootie will be toast!” She lifted her spear over her head. ”Back you! I've got a boyfriend to save!”

"Ah... that's a horse." Faith whispered to herself, flipping the dagger so it pointed towards her adversary, "I didn't account for that. Oh well~! Come one Isaiah, we've got a horsey to put down~!" she shouted, elbowing him in the back on the off chance he hadn't heard her approach.

Ice moved so that his sides were facing both directions while his head was looking towards the crematorium per the noise of Alexandria's horse. "What I'd give to have a motor right now..." He cursed and threw out his chain to grab hold of one of the waiting room chairs. There were two objectives with this, one, to trip the horse, or two, to put the chair into it's bloodthirsty path. Faith's elbow had stung a bit, but he kept his mouth shut, all his attention on the carnage sister.

”Calvie poo doesn't want me to boop anyone, are you really going to fight me anyway?” Alexandria only waited so long before speaking up again. ”Suit yourself, but I warned you.” Instead of charging directly towards them, her horse broke into a full gallop straight through the ER room. It appeared that she was going to try and circle around them.



"Calvie Poo?" Faith turned back to Ice as Alexandria ran off through the ER, "She doesn't happen to mean Calvin, does she? So it's true, she really does has an attachment to him - how interesting~!" instead of looking around for where the Sister had gone, she turned and opened the door to the Neurology Room as she spoke, "Hey Isaiah~? Can you protect the stairwell~? - that's gonna be the way she gets to Nariko, soooo, you should keep that cornered off just in case she makes a break for it~" and with that, she disappeared inside.

The purgatory was she going?! Ice ran toward the chair he had hooked and hurried to unwrap it before moving towards the stairs. As he reached the far side of the Waiting Room, he hooked his chain to the last chair and moved to make a line to block the robot, his body in an anxious cold sweat. "Why would blasted mongrels would Calvin be in any danger Alexandria?" He called, trying to act like he was going to reason with her, though he didn't think that would do much.

When Alexandria emerged from the other side of the ER room, she had an arm full of IV polls plus her spear. ”I know you saw the TV.” As she ran along the south wall, she pulled one of the IV polls out of the bundle and held it over her head. Of course, Ice couldn't see this until she came into his line of sight, between the physiology ward and the office cubicles. But by this point, she had launched one of the IV polls at him. It wasn't the most aerodynamic projectile, but those sisters had fairly strong arms.”He wasn't in his room, so he could get booped! ” Alexandria continued to ride around the east wall. If faith was right that Alexandria wanted to join forces with Nariko, the stair well was the most obvious place to guard. But if Alexandria was really intent on seeing Calvin, there was a chance she would use the ramp leading into the resort, as it was the same distance from the dining room on the second floor.

Something was fast approaching Ice and his brain couldn't even process what it was. His flight instinct moved him as quickly as possible, lowering the chain and falling onto his back. The ground vibrated beneath him as the IV pole made impact and Ice swore, "Holy- Pieces of the wall broke into a small cloud and Ice quickly shut his eyes, sputtering as a piece got into his mouth. Ice got up after his initial shock and wiped at his face before peering towards where the projectile had come from. She had moved clear in the opposite direction. Buttocks! Ice should have made sure Calvin had just taken Allie back to his room! "Faith!"

Faith dove out of the Neurology room, clutching some object or another, banking a right towards the Waiting Room at the sound of the IV Pole tearing into the wall. If her idea had gone correctly, Alexandria would have made her way to the Hospital Facility stairs and attempted to make her way to Nariko. Of course she just had to have other ideas. It wasn't the first time she had seen a Carnage Sister infatuated with a patient, but it was all she could do not to lament that her chosen foe was one such irregularity.

"I'm on it - just cover the Resort entrance~!" but that didn't matter, not in the long run. She ducked back around the corner, past the door of the Neurology Room and into the main corridor of the area, with full view of the entrance to the Patients Quarters. Faith didn't know where Calvin would be, but there was really only one option left to them; keep the target in the room. Her right hand tightened around the glass vial she held, seemingly ready to throw it.
"The Nine Suns rotate like the hands on a clock, ticking away in perfect symphony at the whim of the Gods. Shadows illuminate the hearts of men, and in the name of Lux we burn them away~!" her left hand flicked at a lighter, before bringing it to the top of the bottle - the neck stuffed full with a torn piece of bed-sheet. The fibres lit up immediately, igniting in her hand before being lobbed down the corridor, slightly inaccurately, but in the direction of the Patients Quarter entrance. The smash of the glass echoed around the Hospital Facility, spilling the flammable liquid inside across the hallway and setting it ablaze.

The Molotov cocktail went off quickly, leaving flames that were nearly as tall as a child. ”Not the suit! I'm going on a date!” The flames seemed to deter the carnage sister from going into the patients quarters, as she rode right on by. But this didn't cut off Alexandria from the resort ramp, which she was fast approaching. This would likely be Faith and Ice's last chance to stop the carnage sister. Alexandria was ready for the waiting mobster. She raked her spear against the walls of the reception desk (Post). As soon as she came of the wall, she would strike Ice.

But instead, she struck a flying metal chair.

Ice's arms were sore from trying to throw such a heavy object, but there wasn't any time for whining. Ice hurried to move out of the way of the chair as it bounced back towards him. He had whiplashed the chain so that it dislodged itself and now he was slipping under the horse's legs, his chain wrapping around it's front-left leg and Ice started to pull after coming out behind it, hoping to trip the mechanical atrocity. But then Ice had to deal with almost barreling into the fire. Quickly he dove behind the reception desk (Post)'s south wall. The trip would be slightly less effective, but it kept him from melting blazing up into ash.

It was a troublesome scene to be sure. A tug of war match between a full metal horse and a malnourished mobster. Fortunately for ice, the horse's legs weren't especially heavy, and it was relatively easy to overcome the hydraulic cylinders in the horse's legs. It's front-left leg was pulled back, and its head started to dive. The room was filled with the ear splitting sound of metal grading away on concrete. The horse's jaw “bones” were sparking and kicking up dust. But now Ice was playing tug of war with the entire horse, and his hand was tightly entwined with the chain. He could not let go, and he was pulled out from behind his cover. Ice's feet left the floor as his entire body was thrown into the east most wall. Fortunately the horse had enough folward momentum that Ice wasn't hurled down the still burning corridor. But Ice wasn't alone in his flight. Alexandria was also thrown in front of her mount. She was able to make a graceful roll by holding the IV polls lengthwise with the floor. Alexandria sprung to her feet without letting any of her weapons touch the floor. ”You meanies, that's animal cruelty!” She blurted before running up the resort ramp. By this point, the horse was able to lumber to its feet. It turned sideways as to block the path towards Alexandria, and looked at where Ice laid on the ground. It made a mechanical gurgling noise as it's eyes lit up crimson red.

Ice didn't even have time to brace himself for the impact and the wind was knocked out of him. His eyesight was momentarily blurry as his brain cried for oxygen. Finally he looked up and saw the horse staring him down, making sounds that weren't the most inviting. Alexandria had gone after Calvin and escaped to the Blood Donor's dismay. He gave an angry curse as he started to get up, his ribs aching and probably bruised.

Faith ducked past the back corner of the Post room and into the hallway by the second floor stairs and bathrooms. The horse toppled before her, with the background sound of Ice colliding with something solid, almost overpowered with the violent sounds from the Carnage Horse. The things body went down like a ton of bricks, flinging their target from its back. It wasn't a perfect situation, but it was workable. She pocketed the lighter, and drew the dagger from her back pocket.

But before she could do anything further the Sister bolted. Faith's smile dimmed slightly, realizing their position; they would either have to split up, or risk the Sister fleeing to Nariko's side after finding Calvin. Neither were optimal, but...
"Isaiah~!" she shouted from around the room, "Lure it forward and bring it to its knees so I can cut its head off, 'kay~?"

His eyes rang for a few more moments, distorting Faith's irritating sing song voice. She wanted him to get closer to the thing?! Ice finally got all the way up, his injured left hand against his stomach while he tried to wriggle his hand out of the chain. It didn't seem to work well, so instead, Ice ran back towards the west hallway, the chain gripped tightly in his hand to trip the horse yet again.

Because the horse wasn't charging, it was much more difficult to try and trip up the horse while it was standing still. Ice was able to pick up it's leg, but it simply shifted it's wight to it's rear legs to remain standing. The horse wasn't able to move very quickly like this however, and simply limped after the infinite blood donor.

"What a pitiful creature..." Faith spoke aloud to herself, slowly approaching the beast from behind as it limped down the hallway towards Ice, "To think Davis would be so cruel as to bind a soul to something like you... To desecrate the dead is one thing - that Necromancer knows that - but to demean them is another." she gripped the hilt of her dagger tight, the blade pointed down the hallway towards Ice, matched its pace to walk beside it, as quietly as she could, "I bid you find rest, poor soul, free from the torment of a mechanical body such as this." and with her last words, she gently placed her hand against the back of the robots body and forced the blade to the side with as much force as she could muster, intent on finding the softer parts of its neck to penetrate, and slice around across its throat.
In cutting the horse across the neck, she severed every wire running to the horse's primary computer. The robotic horse's eyes faded into black orbs. Faith felt the heat of the creatures internal circuits spark against her bare flesh as she dragged the blade through its neck, watching its body go limp under her attack until it slumped to the ground in defeat.
"May you find rest peacefully, 'O Nameless Spirit." she said, trying her best to lay the robots dying body down gently against the ground as though it were a real, living creature she had just executed, "Well then~! That was fun, huh Isaiah~? All that adrenaline, maaaaaaaaaan I cant tell you how long its been since I had a fight that good~!" she ripped the blade from the creatures neck, wiped it down against her sleeve, and flipped it with the blade facing down to slide it into her back pocket, "But oh man did you get roughed up, huh? I'd heal you if my magic wasn't weakened, but you know how it goes~" before she spun around and started walking towards the Resort, "But come now! We have to find Alexandria and put a stop to her evil schemes~!" she giggled, barely even giving Ice a chance to respond.

Ice leaned against the wall for a second before moving towards the dead machine. He spit angrily at it before bending down and attempting to dislodge the chain from around its leg. The weight of the horse's right leg was pressed over it and Ice strained himself trying to get the chain out from between them. Once he finally did, he felt around his tried and beaten body. It wasn't going to kill him, so he got up and headed for the resort, knowing Calvin would be in deep trouble otherwise, "...I hope you burn in purgatory."

Meanwhile, Denis's head popped up from behind the reception desk. Just enough to watch the two follow after Alexandria. He was glad Bliss and he took the extra time to run the strings along the ceiling like a real spy would instead of just laying them across the ground. He didn't look around long though. Denis could hear the sound of a chainsaw revving, and quickly ducked behind the counter again.

God, it was reprehensible, Thomas’s mind couldn’t stop racing and he reimagined his duel with Max. Of course he had conceded, and of course Max brought up a reasonable point. If Thomas claimed to be such an advocate of Lagos, he truly did need to put what Max said into consideration. There were other factors, however. For example, how exactly did they go about combating the Carnage Sisters? How did the Carnage Sisters work? Did they adapt to the Infinite’s fighting? So that was what Thomas set out to find. To hell with these…. Support, Distraction, whatever they were. Thomas was gonna form a team of his own, and he knew just the person to help him. Someone colorful and loud.

After the teams had dispersed, Thomas stepped towards Caora. The morphenomenal kitchen should’ve separated him from Mary, and Thomas believed that Mary would disapprove of Caora accompanying him during the night of carnage. Spotting the half boy, Thomas came within conversation range. “Infinite… Trap.” Thomas seemed hesitant to say the word trap. “Where do you plan on going tonight, once all the other talents disperse?”

Caora was minding his own business after Bliss and the others began talking among themselves, happy that the loud arguing stopped. He was munching on a bread when he heard some noise near him. ”Hm?” He mumbled, and turned around to see a short man talk to him. He blinked. ”I dunno. Maybe I’ll go explore with Fang.” He then resumed playing with his stuffed toy. ”But when it is scary time, I’m in my bed. It’s no good going outside...Knight Lady should have known better...”

Knight lady… Thomas mostly pocketed this information. He’d analyze its other implications later, but for now it was just the obvious observations to make. Thomas had seen the Infinite Knight in his handbook, and didn’t know if they were a blackened, victim, or neither. Thomas’s drone continued. “Miss Moffett, they died during the night of carnage? They’re a knight? Right?” Thomas trailed off, and he abruptly stopped, thinking for a moment “She died fighting, right? She’s a knight, it’s the most likely possibility.. Well, that’s beside the point. Infinite Trap, your talent truly is a marvel, isn’t it? To crown a cross dresser an infinite, to convince others that you’re female at a level recognized by the initiative, to lie so proficiently. You must know a lot about the way other people think, don’t you?”

Caora glanced in Thomas’ direction, and shook her head. ”I don’t lie,” she answered with a pout. ”I’m just being myself.” He fluttered his eyelashes at the short man, and stared at him. ”You’re very curious, but act like a robot. That’s funny. What Infinite talent did you have? I forgot.”

Thomas idly brought his hands together. “I’m the Infinite Biomechanic, ah… I study movement. But that hardly matters. We’re all Infinites here, and with a talent as my own, well, no level of Kinesiology is of any help here. And that’s why I, well, you should help me tonight. I mean, I need your help.” Thomas took one of his signature pauses, but before Caora could respond, he added “Have you ever heard of the Turing Test?”

Caora blinked at his answer, obviously clueless about the scientific terms Thomas threw around. ”My help? She asked, and hugged Fang close to his chest, his eyes wary of him. ”Turing?” Caora repeated what she heard with a quizzical look, his head leaning to the side. ”It was something about intelligence, I think. Sorry, I’m not really booksmart or anything,” she then added with a pout.

Thomas unhooked his hands and raised one of his hands up to his chin. ”I see. You’re smart though, call it a hunch. You won’t misunderstand what I’m asking you. The robots, uh, Carnage Sisters. Have you ever wondered what exactly they were? How they function? Surely you have, you’ve been in this game at least as long as I have. This is where the Turing Test comes in. A test that gauges whether something is sentient. When it was first conceived, it was thought to use it to prove whether an artificial intelligence was comparable to that of a human. However, we can parlay its guidelines for a different use. Due to the nature of the Turing test, it can also be used to gain a valuable piece of information in this killing game. Surely you see what I mean now? ” Thomas lowered his hands and motioned towards Caora. “I want to prove whether those fakes are an actual intelligence, or if they’re just a caricature. And you, of all the infinites here, even if you don’t know exactly what the test is, you must know enough. I want you to prove to me that the Carnage Sisters can think.”

”Why should I prove anything to you?” Caora asked back, his eyes glaring. ”It doesn’t matter if the scary robots can think, they are still scary. Besides, that sounds like a bunch of mumbo jumbo to me and Fang. Isn’t that right, Fang?” He then held Fang on the table by its stubbby arms, and made it nod while smiling mischievously. ”See? Even Fang is smart enough to know better than that!”

Thomas furrowed his brows for second, watching Caora fiddle with the doll for a moment. He then replied “Isn’t it obvious? You know what, there’s other ways of proving my thesis. I thought this was the easiest way, I just can’t do it by myself. But you’re clearly too apprehensive. I think I made a mistake in asking you” Thomas turned away from Caora. He looked over his shoulder and added ”Of course, out here all alone, you can not help but wonder if I’ll make it back tonight. It’s undeniable in this situation that being by myself poses an acute risk to my well being. If you don’t see a reason you should help me though, I think we are both be wasting our time here.”

Caora was back to looking like an innocent little girl when Thomas turned angry, blinking while holding Fang. ”This place is dangerous,” he spoke with a chillingly serious tone to his voice. ”You never know if you’re the next one to die.” He simply stared at the Infinite Biomechanic as he then left, and then turned Fang to look at his direction. ”You scared the robot away, Fang! Bad!” He slapped the doll, and then hugged it tightly. ”But it makes sense; everyone’s afraid. And when people are afraid...bad things happen.”

The split opinion between the Infinites was not entirely resolved but that did not break the morale of those wanting to take action. Urged on by Monokuma, they formed groups, each given different tasks for the upcoming Night of Carnage. The main goal was to free Krista and take down the Carnage Sister ‘protecting’ her—both of these objectives got their own teams. However, there were yet other matters to attend to, such as keeping the rest of the hospital's robots away from the covert operation, which is what Daimyon eventually signed up for. As much as he had wanted to be the gallant hero to save the damsel in distress, he realised that his talents were much more fit for distraction than outright battle. He found that he was not alone in this belief as other Infinites also expressed willingness to do some crucial sideline work.

Right away the gears in his head got to turning, eager to make up for their earlier sputtering. There was a hint of desperation hidden in his determined motions as he hastily flipped through the pages of his notebook, looking for some particular information about the Carnage Sisters. Finding it was all it took for an idea to pop up: a rather crazy but, at least in the head of the poet whose lips curled into a wide smile in the next moment, brilliant idea. He needed some preparatory work, however, to make it successful. He needed a…musically inclined person, in particular.

...alas!

The most obvious choice was unfortunately out of the equation. And as Daimyon scanned the e-handbook for anyone else who could be suitable, he found the repertoire of musical Infinites saddeningly lacking. That would not stop him, naturally—and thus he approached a man he had not really spoken with before.

“Zachary!” he accosted the Infinite Archer, “Pardon my sudden entrance, but I need your, ah, help to prepare for the upcoming carnage.”



At the moment that he was approached, Zachary was seemingly lost in thought and hadn't even realized someone had come up to him. It took a minute for him to both look directly at Daimyon and speak. “Me? You need me for something?” he had found it strange that the Infinite Poet would request his help. Surely there was somebody he was familiar with that could help him prepare instead? Zach wasn't entirely sure what he wanted to do himself, truth be told. But then again, he'd resolved to help free their imprisoned Infinite, so worrying about things with Jez wasn't going to solve anything.

“Sure.” he answered positively. “I mean, if it's within my capabilities, I don't mind. What'd you need exactly?”

“You are good with...strings, correct?”

“Uh…” Zachary raised an eyebrow. “...probably? I guess it would depend on what you mean by that.”

“Perfect! You're just who I need. Would you care to accompany me, then?”

Barely even waiting for an answer, the poet beckoned Zach and headed out of the break room after waving a brief farewell to the rest of the Infinites.
“I assume you'll stand on the front line? You have the skills for it. I, myself, am unfortunately lacking in that regard,” Daimyon spoke up on the way to the resort. “Yet you see, I still want to help the group effort.”

“...right.” Zach still wasn’t sure what ‘strings’ had to do with him, but he was admittedly curious as to where this was going to end up. “You’re correct in that I will be a part of the group that intends on fighting, but I, hopefully, won’t be getting too close to Nariko.” he clarified. Pretending to nock an arrow and fire one from a ghost bow. Daimyon nodded—it made sense not to step in too close, for a bow was of little use bashing people in the head. “Range is preferred when using a bow. Though I’m not sure how effective I’ll be given that it’s a machine…”

Realizing that he was both digressing and revealing his lack of confidence in the fight to come, Zach shook his head. “Uh, anyways… So how do I factor in to you ‘helping the group effort’?”

“You shall see in just a moment!”

The poet quickened his pace. They stepped through the gate to the first floor resort and walked past the magnificent fountain, which the man regarded with exceptional esteem, until they reached the expansive theatre. After stopping for a couple seconds to take in the tall ceiling and long rows of seats, he quickly headed forward backstage. It was unsurprisingly messy in there with various props scattered around, including a row of cardboard cutouts of Monokuma, which Daimyon almost tripped over.

“Come on now, don't tell me you don't keep one of those here...” he muttered as he searched through shelves and even a cabinet. “Ah, this was supposed to be a place for higher art!”
Fortunately, he was not proven wrong in the end as he found exactly what he was looking for. He grabbed it from its unworthy place at a corner, dusted it off with swift motions, then presented it to Zach. It was a lute, and a quite decorated one at that: a thing of pure beauty to the poet. He had wanted to play one for ages; unfortunately, he somehow had never got around to learning it. That was when the Infinite Archer came into the picture.

“There we go! My only question is, Zachary, are you as deft with stringed instruments as with stringed weapons?”

Oh. I understand now. Bows have strings. Lutes have strings. Ah, this all makes sense. A lot of sense. Completely understandable…!

“...” Zachary was silent for a moment.

He turned to Daimyon with a warm smile, brighter than anything he’d ever given anybody else up to this point. It looked beautiful. “That is… CRAZY. What? How did you make that connection? Isn’t that stretching a bit? Bows and lutes aren’t the same! They’re entirely different, there’s literally just the string involved! You can’t make music with a bow! Bows are a weapon used to send arrows flying into distant targets, the sound they make is rather minimal and frankly not that nice to hear, unless you like weird sounds! No, no, no! You dragged me out here because of that?!” Zachary was almost shouting, though he did not actually seem angry, strangely.

“...boi. Do you even know how hard chords are?”

So in reality, the answer was probably no, no he was not great with stringed instruments.

Daimyon should have seen that coming; he had to admit he had made a couple leaps to think that Zach would be able to help him.

“Hmm...” The poet delicately plucked a few strings. The lute was well-tuned and the sound was clear—still, with the sheer number of strings on the instrument, it was clearly not simple to get a good melody out of it. “You're right. Ah, but who else could I turn to? Our main musician languishes in a prison as we speak...”

“I'm sure if she could be here right now, she'd be happy as can be.” It was not as though Zachary wanted to give off the impression he 'knew' Krista, it was just that from their brief interaction, she seemed like she'd be overjoyed at the prospect of teaching somebody. He could certainly be wrong about that, though.

“Weird that you choose now of all times to want to learn an instrument. You said you needed help for the upcoming night, but I'm not creative enough to understand how learning how to play the lute would benefit anybody.” Zach commented, eyeing the lute. He didn't seem very interested in the sound it made, but was actually observing the item as a whole. “I wish the strings weren't so thin. I'm sure I could fashion a bow out of that lute were they not.” he knew it'd be a rather cruddy bow, but a bow nonetheless. Maybe one could just use all the strings to make the bow? Probably would feel weird at best, honestly.

Nah, probably not.

“..anyways, I'm sorry, but I was always more of a wind instrument person myself.”

“...a wind instrument? The, ah, flute, perchance?”

Zach scowled. “What do you take me for, a brute? I’m experienced only in the finest, eloquent instrument in the world: the kazoo!” he declared while puffing his chest out.

Daimyon looked at the archer in disbelief, which seemed to be exactly what he was waiting for. Eager to prove the sceptic wrong, Zach pulled out the famed instrument and raised it to the air triumphantly. A moment's anticipative silence later he took it to his mouth and busted out a glorious solo that left even the poet—who thought himself versed in the world of music—in awe. It was so...different! His mind soared with inspiration and he soon realised there was only one way to elevate the experience a level further: to add another unlikely instrument to the mix, one that he happened to be holding in his hands.
He plucked one string, then another, clumsily, without much rhyme or reason, but artistic standards be damned, the two sounds together actually did not sound entirely cacophonous. As the spontaneous jam session went on, his play also became smoother and he managed to finger out a few very simple chords. Inspiration was all that he needed, in the end!

Now, once both men took off their rose-coloured glasses and the sheer majesty of hearing the kazoo and the lute in one tune subsided, they realised that no, it did not sound all that well, either. And that was completely fine—for if nothing else, the poet had achieved what he called Zach here for.

“Well! For the first time in a while, words escape me. I cannot quite describe exactly what we have just done. But! You have my everlasting gratitude for it, Zachary.”
He chuckled. Perhaps, things were not so hopeless after all...

---

Daimyon returned to the break room, which has quietened down somewhat but got no less busy. After the passionate debates, a number of Infinites remained here, mostly those who either had no intentions of going toe-to-toe with killer robots or simply felt that their talent was better suited for assistance. They were the support team, the fourth and final group. The poet thought of joining up with them; he had little to show in terms of fighting skill, after all. Still, he felt an unbreakable determination driving his ship forward into unknown and dangerous waters with the lingering feeling that everything would work out in the end. It always had, for him. Like a leaf, he had drifted through life on the gusts of inspiration, his eyes always on the sunny sky where every cloud had a silver lining.

This occasion was no different. Sure the stakes were higher than ever, but he had an extra card up his sleeve to match: a plan. That was not usual for him, and he had faith in it working out, even if others would have thought differently. He picked out a nice corner table in the hall, sat down and started gently plucking the strings and improvising a quick ditty for it.





Mary was about to head to Daimyon's room to retrieve him, but happened to catch him in the break room. "Oh, Daimy-doo! Hey, that's a great song, but listen; we need to prepare for the coming night of cornflakes. Our job is to make sure those metal mannequins don't interfere."



“Ah! Hello, Mary.” He turned to the streamer and put the lute aside. She took him by his hand, and began pulling him away.

"Let's go to the second floor of the hospital, that's where we were assigned."

“So we're assigned together? Why, I can't complain.”



Though he had stopped playing, his mind still finished the rhyme and with that, gave him a great idea. Traps! Not the fellow Infinite kind, but actual, capture-capable traps. Neither him nor Mary were particularly capable fighters, so they needed something else to tip the scales in their favour. While Daimyon had a plan of his own, it only made for temporary relief. Something more...permanent was required.

“Say, miss, what do you think about...getting a little creative in our task?”

Mary was looking around, biting her lip in frustration as she looked around. "Well sure, if you can figure out something useful out of this. Like traps or something?"

“Exactly! We are facing robots, and they have one well-known weakness. If we can capitalise on that, we shall surely be victorious!”

They walked through the first floor hospital and up the stairs to the second one.

“Let's see...” Daimyon took out his e-handbook and examined the map of the area. There were not many facilities available on this particular floor, but, with some ingenuity, it was all they needed. “Now, I'm no expert, but I think we'll find what we need here. But! I'll need your help for it. Shall we?”

---

So away with ye, numbing normality

Daimyon looked at the clock, for the umpteenth time. The Night of Carnage hung above him like the sword of Damocles. There was not long to wait now. He paced back and forth in his room, but his thoughts circled back to the same topics again and again. As much as he had wanted to keep his composure, there was an unmistakable tremble in his step and feelings he could not quite place. Was he ready?

Step off, for I'm chasing immortality

He forced himself to sit down. His open notebook sat on the table. There was a half-finished poem on its most recent page. He picked up the pen, finished the unfinished line, but could not go further. He stood back up.

To form, to shape, to construct and create

The lute lay on the bed. He picked it up and played a few idle chords. They sounded surprisingly powerful, even in the hands of a novice like him. Perhaps that was just his mind dramatising the occasion.

That is my destiny, that is my fate

He looked away and around the room, and the wardrobe caught his attention. Perhaps such critical event demanded more appropriate attire?

Long have I wandered but I found the truth

Yes! The colourful, gold-adorned outfit, the white scarf, the white-feathered purple hat: the bard's clothes! He had completely forgotten about them. There was no better time to wear such special attire. Right away, he changed into it and then looked at himself in the mirror. Something did not seem right still though... He quickly headed back for the lute.

I blossom now in the second flush of youth

There he stood: Daimyon Londe, Infinite Poet, as the bard he had always aspired to be. The circumstances were not ideal, but it mattered not to him in the moment. When the announcement commencing the carnage sounded, he knew. He was ready.

All alone in the pharmacy sat Max; sharpening a knife, readying himself for what was about to start. As the clock reached twelve, he raised his head towards the entrance, waiting for the rest of his team to arrive.

Noel stepped into the pharmacy, just a few minutes before midnight. Apparently she was the second to arrive after Max. Strange, she was already rather late. With her she carried a sledgehammer she had procured from the monoshoppe. She rose a brow at Max when she saw him fiddling with a small knife. “"You’re bringing a knife against a robot?” She was somewhat astonished. Nariko wasn’t exactly going to die from blood loss. To her, that knife seemed about as useful as fighting the thing bare-handed. She sighed, hoping the others would bring more useful tools.

"Well, atleast it's something." Alice spoke up, appearing at the door behind Noel. "So what's the plan? Cause I doubt sitting around here long is gonna help, obviously." She asked, looking over to Max as she kept a tight grip on her cutlass.

"We draw the robot out and deal with it, right?" Zachary appeared just after Alice had asked the question with his bow and what remained of the arrows from before. He looked around at the 'team' he was now a part of. "Kept ya waitin, huh? I wouldn't be too surprised if she's already suspecting an attack on her given how we attempted dismantling one of her 'sisters', but we'll still need to find a way to lure her out of the room and beat her."

Zach paused. "At least, that's what I figure."

"That's the easy part." Said Max, as he stood up, sliding his knife in his gun holster. He took a step towards the others with an aura of competence and urgency before continuing. "We simply state that Aleecia is waiting for her outside. Nariko and her companions don't have access to the camera's during the night of carnage correct? Then that means that she will have no way of knowing whether Aleecia is actually waiting."

“If she doesn’t come out, we’ll need to wait for the rescue team. Monokuma can open the door for us.” Noel chimed in. She had given up on talking sense into her teammates’ weapon choices. “I don’t think Nariko would want to endanger Krista, so between the choices of fighting in there or fighting outside, we might be able to force her then. “ She sighed. ”So, does anyone have any bright ideas yet on how to wreck it?” She said cynically.

Zachary took a look around and noticed the same thing Noel had about their current arms. They were not well-equipped, sadly. Unfortunately, Zachary only really knew how to use a bow effectively, and he honestly didn't even know this place had sledgehammers. He should really pay attention while he randomly explored.

"...Well, it seems the majority of us are limited to the assumed weak points in the chassis she posses in terms of targetable areas, which means... we could try to have one or two of us draw the aggression from her while others focus on these points." after saying such, he realized it sounded like a general approach to fighting a tough monster in an MMO. Of course, they weren't going to just lose some gold or time if they died here. "I'm not exactly fit for leading a squad into a serious battle though, one of you guys surely has an actual plan...right?"

While the infinites talked among themselves, they could hear a certain Russian spy's voice come on through a paper cup. "Ayy babe, we're all in position. I'm under you right now but it ain't no thang." Support team had positioned Denis in the intercom room, surrounded by a plethora of cups with strings attached to them. It was a crude system, but Denis was able to get Intel from support team and relay it to all the other teams. Since they knew Attack team was going to set up in the pharmacy, one cup was placed there. There was another set up like this in the dining room, but in a pinch, Denis could use the intercom to report a message to everyone. "So now you have to save the other babes, maybe have a baby shower in a few months ehh?" Denis appeared to be asking the team to move towards Nariko's lair. "The bear, babe, and politician should be waiting for you there."

To say that Max was irritated by Denis' speech would be an understatement, he was starting to wonder whether the spy could actually hold a normal conversation at all. There's a time and place for jokes, and this was not one of them. But max was not gonna let the crude announcement bother him for long, he had to answer Zachary's question.

"I have a plan, but we don't have time to explain it all right now, team R is waiting for us; Just follow my instructions and we'll beat Nariko." Max started walking towards the exit and held the door open for the rest. "What are we waiting for?"

"Nothing, nothing. Let's get this over with..." Alice said to Max, before walking out of the room.

If Max was confident enough in his plan that he felt it didn't need to be explained, then power to him. Zach hoped that they wouldn't end up in a bad position because of it. "Lets hope this doesn't end in death or confetti." he sighed as he exited the room.

Noel was about as confident in Max's unexplained plan as she was in the tiny tool he was packing. Yes, she was talking about the knife. But if it came down to it, she'd just have to be sure it wasn't her neck on the line. ”I guess time's up, so lets do this.” she sighed about simultaneously with Zach. Honestly, she wouldn't mind confetti on the robot’s ‘death’. It'd be like a piniata; a mechanized, murderous piniata. With some luck there'd be candy as well.
She then opened the door of the pharmacy, letting everyone through before closing the door behind her. The walk to the morgue was almost dreadeningly short.

When they all got in position, they could see Rika and Cyrus at the other end of the hallway with their back to the door. Monokuma was running like a spring hair towards their position.

” Looks like a lot of the distraction teams are fighting already. Like bees valiantly protecting their hive.” Dr killgood was doing some mock panting before standing up straight. ”But we have to break into this hive and get all the sweet goodness out of it we can. And no, I'm not referring to Krista, I'm referring to my sweet, sweet daughter.” Monokuma gave the keypad a light tap, and the doors to Nariko's room gradually started to open. As they did, it revealed what could only be Nariko's carnage class chassis. Like Alexandria, the lower half of its body was that of a horse, but it got much stranger going up. Eight long, spider-like arms protruded out of it's back. Each one held a pitch black katana. Nariko's torso didn't have any arms attached to her shoulders, and the head was a cluster of a hundred or so eyes. Nariko spread out her arms, blocking the entire pathway. The group could see Krista behind her, chained at the ankle, unable to move from her spot by the wall. Nariko did not seem to be making any sudden movements. Monokuma had wisely chosen to slide in beside Cyrus and Rika to stay out of Nariko's line of sight.

Zachary sighed in relief upon seeing the hideous form of the Carnage Chassis. “Oh, thank god it wasn’t anything scary. If it had been a skeleton or skeleton-like, I admit I might have fled in fear.” he told the group in a tone that made it very difficult to discern whether or not he was telling a joke or being serious. “Well,” he turned to Max. “About that plan...”

Max nodded to Zach, “I want you to watch closely and fire at Nariko’s knees once you see an opening, the rest of us will provide that opening.” Over in a corner of the intersection stood a few buckets of water and a defibrillator which Max pointed towards. “Once we impede Nariko’s movement, we throw those water buckets at her and shock her to death. Do you think you can manage that?” He aimed the question at all of them.

Of course, Nariko wasn't going to just sit there and listen idly while the infinites discussed how to destroy her. The carnage sister broke into a charge as soon as Max finished his question. Fortunately, her close proximity didn't give her a lot of room to build up speed. But her arms were in motion, swinging all over the place. Her onyx blades circled her entire body in crescent swings. This created a barrier of blades that would mince anything that was foolish enough to stand in it's way.

"Oh, bloody hell- Move, move!!" Alice told the other three, taking sight of Nariko's approach as she quickly stepped back and broke off into a sprint to the carnage sister, intending to hold her off so the rest can work on the plan.

But who's terrible idea was it to talk about eliminating a target when they're right beside you?

Noel wasn’t stupid enough to charge on a robot bringing the whirlwind of death. Oh no. They needed a different plan. “Back up! Retreat, damn it! Get to the intersection and spread out!” The reporter barked the commands, then started to walk away from the spider-centaur-samurai-bot. They would have a much better chance of success at the intersection. The other hallway was far wider, to start with. They could actually attack her from different sides there as well. Also, if Nariko got too far away from her room, there was a realistic chance the rescue team could sneak in without being spotted. All in all, it was the best option they had by a county mile. Whose idiotic plan involved charging after seeing this?

She wasn’t certain if Max’s plan was all that good. Especially now that he had stated his exact intentions. However, they did indeed need Zach to cripple the enemy before they could make their move. Getting close was a death sentence to be sure.

Not desiring a cruel fate of becoming pulp at the hands of a spider samurai, Zachary was already backing off when the thing started to rush them. He didn’t feel like it needed to be said that spinning blades of death were likely to inflict death to those they captured. “I’m pretty sure there’s a saying in the military about plans never surviving first contact with the enemy!” he shouted. “Survive, then worry!”

Luckily, Zach was one of the people who enjoyed playing CoD games story modes. Man they had cool quotes.

Alice weighed maybe just over a hundred pounds and held a single curved sword. Nariko likely weighed at least half a ton, and had eight swords. No matter how you looked at it, it was physically impossible for her to stop the robot from charging. Alice was instantly forced on the defensive by Nariko's harrowing blows. The recon found herself bouncing between strikes, nearly getting decapitated on several occasions. Some of the swings came so close that her skin got cut. This was especially true for her legs, which she couldn't fully protect. Had Alice not tried to circle the carnage sister she might have fared worse. Nariko might have had the weakest carnage class chassis, but she was still in the same league of robotic monstrosities that killed the infinite knight. The only reason Alexandria was so easy to deal with was that they had the advantage of surprise as well as knowing her kill switch. They had none of these with Nariko.

The blade typhoon kept on spinning, though Nariko's hooves moved with purpose. She appeared to be running straight for the buckets and defibrillator.

But while Nariko and the others were busy with everything, Max had silently positioned himself away from the attention of Nariko, who was seemingly targeting the defibrillator and buckets while slashing at Alice. That Recon was as crazy as she was brave, and it gave Max the perfect opportunity to observe and assess what the carnage chassis was capable off.

“Zach, stand behind me, now’s your time; I’ll create your opening.” He whispered while keeping his eyes locked on Nariko. With a simple move, he took hold off the tip of his knife and got ready to throw it.

“Move Alice!” Alice only had a small window to dodge, but Max was confident in her abilities, and so he threw the knife at Nariko’s front right knee, forcing her to guard it with some of her blades and leaving the other knee semi-exposed. And in his final move, Max took a step to the side, revealing Zach who had hopefully already nocked his arrow.

Throwing caution to the wind and hoping this plan of Max’s would end in their victory, Zachary fearlessly stood up, bow in his hand and arrow ready to fly just as the cop had moved out of the way, hoping it would strike true.

Perhaps what the reporter had been most surprised about was that Nariko seemed intent on destroying the water and the defibrillator. That meant that she did see those tools as a threat! As she rushed over, she was forced to drop her hammer in order to secure one bucket of water and the defibrillator. That was all she could really carry away on her own should their attempt at stopping her fail right now.

As soon as Max told her to move, Alice quickly rolled out of Nariko's way, leaving an opening for the cop's knife. Noticing that the carnage sister was charging to the tools needed to destroy her, the recon quickly grabbed one of the buckets of water with her free hand.

Unfortunately, the vortex of blades surrounding Nariko knocked aside Max's dagger like it was nothing. Even Zachary's arrow was deflected before it could strike the robot. Their projectiles weren't heavy enough to provide much resistance. It was not like when Alice charged the thing and used her whole body to deflect incoming strikes.

While Alice and Noel were able to secure a few buckets of water, Nariko would get what remained. She used one of her swords and thrust it under the handles of the two remaining buckets. Once that was done, she lifted the buckets off the ground and turned around, charging down the hall. She seemed to be ignoring the infinites, continuing to swing her swords like a fanatic. But when she passed under a sprinkler head, one of her upper most arms would take a swing at it, soaking her and the floor under the sprinkler. If the attack team's goal was to get Nariko to move away from the morgue, they were succeeding. She appeared to be heading into the intersection.

Nariko’s actions were odd to say the least. She had completely doused herself in water and was now running away from the morgue. Wasn’t the plan going a little too smoothly right now? Also, with the robot doused, the water seemed unnecessary. However, with the floor wet like this. It was possible that the shock would conduct to others who she didn’t wish harm. Noel decided to lower the bucket to the floor. Instead she rushed back to where she had left her hammer. She probably couldn’t swing it well while holding the defibrillator, but that wasn’t a concern at the very moment.

Zachary’s attempt at disabling the robot had failed, but it seems they had managed to succeed in moving her away from the morgue. “Well done, team?” he had let his guard down and had said this rather quiet-like, so only someone next to him would have even heard it. Really, he was confused. Why did this damned robots do random stuff like this? It made it hard to predict them, and they were already at the advantage by being murder robots.

The archer resigned to the fact that this must have been some sort of trap. It likely had something to do with the water the robot was throwing about the place, but that could also be a diversion too. Ah! Too much thinking!

“Try your best to not get wet.” he quietly tried to warn his allies as he readied another arrow. Unfortunately, without someone providing an opening, it seemed his bow wasn’t even going to do what little it possibly could. Tfw no tank.

"Right. Atleast now the other team can start on the rescue." Alice nodded, setting the bucket of water in her hand down before walking over to where Nariko had fled. "However, we still need to destroy her. So, anyone got ideas?"

While everyone stayed by the morgue, high and dry, Alice was walking towards the robot. Nariko had turned around to face the infinites, and wasn't swinging her blades anymore. All of her arms were spread out, as if to block access to the hallway from the intersection. Save for her right upper-most arm, which sheathed its sword. Once her hand was empty, Nariko hopped with her front legs and plunged her fist into the ceiling. When her front hoofs slammed back into the earth, the hospital shook. But more alarming than that was the giant black cable she had pulled out of the ceiling. The lights behind her flickered as Nariko yanked on the cable. Once she was satisfied with where the cable was, the carnage sister placed as many of her swords as she could fit around the cable and attempted to saw through it. The infinites could see sparks leaping off of the cable as Nariko sawed through it. Meanwhile, the water on the floor was making a bigger and bigger puddle, to the point where they may not have a dry place to stand in a few minutes. There wasn't much time to deal with Nariko's trap.

Zachary wasn’t bright enough to understand exactly what Nariko was doing, if it was beyond attempting to electrocute the A-team. However, he felt uneasy as he watched the robot sawing through the cord. It could be misplaced, but his gut said that that was bad. Perhaps they should stop her? Only, his bow was kinda ineffectively as long as she wasn’t distracted. It was very likely she’d just cut down anything he fired at her. He couldn’t hurt her like that. So, then, what should he do?

Wait, I might not be able to do any damage, but perhaps someone else can? If playing the tank is what my team needs, then…

Zachary advanced. He didn’t have to, what with him having a bow and all, but it’d be best this way. He switched his role. He still had arrows left, albeit a limited number of them, and he’d use them not with the intent of harming, but distracting or irritating his target. If Nariko shifted her attention to him, then others who could do more damage with an opening could do some work. Hopefully. He’d really need to be careful, though. He didn’t have enough arrows to blindly fire, and if he wasn’t threatening what little weak points his arrows would actually harm, then she’d probably just ignore him.

“Here I am!”

Zachary fired an arrow right for the robot’s knee. It wasn’t going to miss.

Meanwhile, max was trying to come up with a different plan, but as his brain continued searching, Max kept bumping into mental walls. Nothing seemed to stick, and a certain dread took hold of his body as he realised that his mind became empty and numb. It started to look like they had lost, Nariko was going to win and kill not only krista, but his entire team as well.

And then Zach fired his arrow; with no clear intention but to fight, a hopeless battle with an unbeatable opponent. And yet it inspired Max; screw logic! Screw the plans! All he had to do was fight, fight without thinking, fight without fear, fight with courage. If his brain couldn’t find a way, his body would. If his body couldn’t find a way, his team would. And so, Max picked up his knife, and when Zach released his next arrow, Max would be charging after it, right at Nariko.

Noel was shocked as Nariko revealed her odd plan. Surely, it would kill them all, but the robot would not survive it either. That said, she had many spare bodies. Ultimately, this setup only allowed really one mode of action. Nariko had left herself much more vulnerable. And her teammates were already attacking. Noel hang back a second longer than they did, waiting for them to draw her attention. Then, she started rushing herself. She dropped the defibrillator and prepped the hammer for a large swing. There was no time for hesitation or caution, it was hammer time. Nariko was going to become scrap metal.

Seeing Nariko using their plan as a trap meant that there was no other way to hurt her for Alice, as the recon backed up from the carnage sister, silently hoping that someone could figure out what to do at that point. Then, as the rest of the group suddenly charged at the robot, she realized there was only one way to destroy Nariko now. Fight. So, charging at the carnage sister after Noel, Alice went in for a strike.

It seemed like Zachary's gambit was spurring on the other infinites to act. She was able to deflect his arrows with a single blade. But then Max jumped in with his dagger. His reckless attack was blocked with two katanas. Nariko was not going to let such an easy target pass her up however, and retracted three of her sword arms to stab at max. But her katanas were batted out of the way by Noel, who was coming in at full speed. With one arm on the cable, and her last remaining Katana weighed down with buckets of water, there was a momentary opening for an attack. This was something Alice took full advantage of , and drove her sword into one of the joint's on Nariko's legs. The robot seemed to creek and groan like a howling beast, and stumbled backwards. The infinites jumped backwards as the carnage class chassis flailed its weapons. Nariko was still a threat, but they could see her leg wasn't working quite right. Her leg occasionally spurt out blue hydraulic fluid. It wasn't much, but the infinite's morale increased knowing that the monster could be harmed. If it could bleed, it could die. They just had to keep on fighting, and hope the other teams were successful.

---

After having discussed the general plan with the others of D team, Felix went towards the Private Quarters on the second floor. The echoes of footsteps stopped in front of the dump, where Felix stretched his legs, carefully observing his surroundings. His lower arms and ankles were covered in pieces of metal, they may be a bit heavy, but they could hopefully stop any projectiles thrown at him.

This wasn’t like last time, Felix came fully prepared to win this fight tonight, and nothing was going to stop him. He even considered distracting more than a single sister by himself, but then again, he wasn't that stupid.

While Felix waited, he could hear a thud from behind the dumping room door. Something akin to a metal object being dropped on a metal table. It wasn't especially loud, though that might have been because the door was shut.

Feeling the tension of the eerie quietness around him, Felix was almost happy when the noise snapped him out of his own anticipation; even though it scared him. This was not the time to be frightened though, so Felix quickly jogged towards the dump door before silently opening it and peeking inside.

Upon opening the door, Felix was reminded that the trapdoor in the dumping room was open on the second floor. With the door open, it became obvious that Napoleon was using her guillotine as a makeshift grappling hook. The unusually massive blade was able to support the carnage sister's weight without being coiled around anything. ”Here I come!” the gitty carnage sister called out before pulling herself up. However, she had the other end of the rope tied in a noose, which she hurled at Felix.

If he wasn’t prepared for anything when he opened the door, the noose might have turned Felix into cattle, but luckily, his freerunning reflexes allowed him to dodge to the side, only barely being scraped by the rope. He immediately wanted to get some distance from Napoleon, but with the sudden rush of adrenaline, he stumbled over his own feet, leaving him a dozen feet from the door.

”I didn't think you'd be waiting for me, heh. I hope I didn’t keep you waiting.” The carnage sister had pulled herself up and was quickly winding up her arm to retrieve her rope. She used her other hand to effortlessly pick up the guillotine blade and hoist it over her shoulder. Traditional blades for the guillotine weighed almost ninety pounds, but this one looked like it might weigh even more. It was heavy enough to support Napoleon's weight when she climbed out of the trap door after all. ”It's a shame I don't have my steed with me, I'd just love to ride something right now” The carnage sister wasn't making any sudden movements, just slowly stepping towards Felix. ”Is there a reason why you don’t have a weapon? I think you'll find me pretty hard to discipline without one.”

“Ehehe.” Even though the situation was not favoring Felix, he had an obvious grin on his face; perhaps he was confident in his ability, or maybe just really scared. Either way, he was quick to his feet and with every step that napoleon advanced, Felix devanced.

“These metal plates-” he said as he raised his arms. ”Are heavy enough, using weapons would only limit my full potential. And I’m not fighting you anyway.” Felix then stopped in his tracks to allow Napoleon to get closer. “I think you know what I’m here for, I mean what with all the reinforcements and all? it looks like Davis is realising the threat we pose.”

The carnage sister cooed ”Please stop talking, you're spoiling the mood.” Napoleon Heaved her weapon towards Felix, but not directly at him. The blade was moving pretty fast, but the free runner would undoubtedly be able to avoid getting cut. On the initial throw anyway. The carnage sister held the rope so that it wasn't directly behind the blade. Once the rope fully extended, it would swing like a pendulum in any direction Napoleon chose.

But while Napoleon swung at Felix, he had started running towards the robot, clearing the guillotine. With a decent build up, he jumped over napoleon, intend on disorienting her.

Even though Napoleon's initial swing missed, there was still plenty of momentum to carry the guillotine counterclockwise around the carnage sister. The robot herself spun clockwise in the opposite direction, winding the rope around her waist. This shortened the rope's length to the massive blade, causing it to revolve around Napoleon's body even faster as it closed in. Meanwhile, she had thrown out her noose again. It was coming at Felix clockwise, from the opposite direction of the guillotine. Aiming above her head was difficult, and she would not be able to snag any of Felix's limbs. But in the air, Felix didn't have a lot of control over his momentum.

Looking over to his side, Felix was surprised to spot the guillotine coming his way, but with no way to dodge it mid air, he braced his arms to try and catch it, or at least block it. That’s when he found out how heavy the blade really was; it send him flying into the direction of the rope, which acted as a whip at the velocity that the two collided. He could feel the air escaping his lungs as the intense pain surged through his back; while it wasn’t a fatal strike, this would surely hurt for the coming days.

it wasn’t looking good for Felix, the sheer strength of Napoleon would be manageable if it wasn’t for those unpredictable movements. Now that Felix was lying on the ground, he realised how outclassed he was, and the only option would be...to run. So before Napoleon could react, Felix was already sprinting towards the resort, although his injured body may have caused him to run a bit slower.

Napoleon caught the massive blade before it had a chance to crash into her. The carnage sister was carrying a lot of weight, but it didn't seem like she was having any difficulty pacing herself with the injured free runner. ”Please tell me you're not done already. You have to be able to last longer than this. Why are men always so fast to finish up?” As the two came crashing into the resort, Felix found himself near the music plaza. He could see some of the musical instruments set up on an elevated stage. Escaping from the plaza would be difficult in his condition. He couldn't jump over Napoleon like he had done previously, and she was quick to position herself between both of Felix's remaining exits. He might have been able to escape into the beach retreat, but it was a very small door, and the carnage sister had just gotten done unwrapping the guillotine from her torso. So Felix decided that before heading to the beach, he would try to distract Napoleon first.

“Come on sister? isn’t it kinda weird to harm the injured patient that you’re supposed to care for? I mean, I know you’re new and all, but in this killing game, the sisters take care of the patients, I’m pretty sure monokuma won’t be happy about what you’re doing here.” As Felix said what he did, he slowly started moving towards the beach, trying to make it look like he was just walking aimlessly.

Felix would not have to pretend to leave much longer. Something hit the door hard enough to pop it off of it’s hinges, and it was coming straight for the freerunner. Between Felix's diverted attention and hurting body, he wasn't able to avoid the door's charge. It smacked into his back, and shoved him towards his pursuer. Napoleon was ready to capitalize on Felix's predicament. While she was sprinting forward, she hurled her guillotine directly at Felix's chest. The giant blade spun as it hurdled through the air. Such a large piece of steel could easily split a man in two, even with the blunt end. But then the door that was shoving felix along suddenly changed direction. He found himself being slammed into a wall. The pain was hard to ignore, but the vertigo was even worse. He found it impossible to remain standing and fell to the floor. Years of practice as a free runner made it possible for him to guide himself to the ground in a controlled manner. He was able to turn and face the two carnage sisters that would end him. Only there was someone else there as well. Felix was able to see someone clad head to toe in armor. In one hand, they held Geina's severed head, and in the other, they head a sword. If the split in Napoleon's head and upper torso was anything to go by, they had just cut her in half. The carnage sister's inhumanly heavy blade laid at their feet in two halves. ”Heh.” the carnage sister chuckled. ”I'm not much for the submissive role, but if it's you-” the metalic figure swiftly removed the blade and cut across the robot's torso, splitting her into three pieces. The robot's outfit was stained in equal parts blood and hydraulic fluid.

”Evil will always submit to justice.”



Justiciar tossed Geina's head off to the side and approached Felix, extending a hand towards them.

”Can you stand up?”

“Huh?” Felix was completely dumbfounded. Not only did he just get thrown in two directions without touching the ground, He wasn’t even sure Who threw that door at him. And now Justiciar was standing in front of him!? If he wasn’t so worn out and hurt, Felix would surely question justiciar’s allegiance, but from seeing him handle nepoleon, he didn’t stand a chance anyway.

And so he hesitantly grabbed hold of Justiciar’s hand, stumbling a bit before regaining his balance.

“I uhh..should I be thanking you?”

”I am needed elsewhere.” was the vigilante's response. The suit didn't let Felix gauge what the individual’s facial expression might have been. ”I can help you to your room, but I need to assist with the fight against Nariko as soon as I can. Getting yourself killed now would be a great injustice.”

“I can’t leave yet, I have to-” A burst of pain surged through felix, and he flinched in response. In his current condition, he’d be of no use to anyone, so perhaps it would be best to leave it to this metalclad savior.

“I’ll be fine on my own.” Felix sighed. “If you’re targeting Nariko, I won’t hold you back.”

---

The atmosphere in the dining room was tense. Sure, none of them were fighting carnage sisters. But it was almost worse not knowing what was going on outside. None of them were safe in the dining room, especially with the arrival of the champion carnage sisters. All they could do was hope that they weren't needed, or attacked. Everyone waited in silence, hoping Denis wouldn't report a fatality.

Bliss shuddered. ”It hasn't even been five minutes.” Her eyes were glued to the clock. ”Do we have a plan if one of them attacks us?” The support team had been busy collecting supplies that would be needed to treat any of the injured infinites during the day. There were a few makeshift stretchers and medical supplies specifically picked out by the plague doctor. But With Calvin refusing to make weapons, their weapons were fairly rudimentary.

Calvin looked up briefly to Bliss. He was seated at a table, his gauntlets laying across each other in the center. He shook his head briefly. “We can’t block the doors, in case someone needs back in. If anything happens…” His eyes lit up for half a moment, but were quick to flicker out.

Bliss folded her arms and looked away from Calvin. ”Well, I have faith in the others.” She exhaled. ”I just hope we aren’t needed, and if we are, we'll be able to make a difference.”

It wasn't long before the monitors in the Dining room sparked to life. First there was white noise, then the image of an all-to-realistic carnage sister appeared on the monitor.

”Hi guys!” Monika waved. ”And by guys, I'm referring to the one guy and all the girls huddled together in the Dining room! This transmission is just for you, I'm not appearing anywhere but here... I don't exist anywhere... but here.” she giggled. ”Provided any of us exist at all! Wouldn't it be something if this was just some theater act we're all putting on? Or maybe it's more like the Trueman show where everyone but you is an actor?”

Allie had been huddled in a corner, sitting on a chair and stressed beyond belief when she heard it. The monitor first going on for the new sisters which sent chills down her spine, then the white noise. Had something happened in the surveillance room? Why else would- That girl, Aleecia had heard her earlier, she was one of the champions, right? Aleecia started to shake, even more than before, the way the champion spoke creeped down her ears and knocked around her brain, sending memories of forgotten babysitters and children who had picked on her long ago. Aleecia hugged her waist tightly, what did the world look like around her? Why couldn't see say for certain that this was reality? Why couldn't she- Why couldn't she-

Why did it all have to be ripped away from her?

Calvin blinked for a moment, looking up at the image of the new carnage sister. "God. Fucking. Damnit." He said, louder than intended. He looked over to Aleecia, at first concerned with his language but the worry quickly adjusted to her shaking. "Hey hey hey..." He said, standing up from his chair. "It's another class in robot philosophy, nothing to be scared about." His voice was soft, and he slowly closed the distance between himself and the rest of the group.

Ellie didn’t know when, but the caretaker slinked off to a corner of the room to be by herself and curled up with her knees in her face, a surprising feat for someone of her build to do, all of it was slowly eating away at her, despite her hopeful face she put on she couldn’t keep it up. The dred of a monster or a robot coming to kill them put her on edge as much as the others, then it was also that someone could kill anyone of them in this room, or someone could come back wounded and dying or someone could just come back dead.

Ellie was silently panicking on the inside, worrying about what could possibly happen to the others and herself and the “special broadcast” didn’t help. The blue haired woman began sweating and her nails dug into her jeans, she closed her eyes and hid her face in her knees wondering what she could’ve done to deserve this, a killing game, a murder of a young boy, the execution of a girl willing to throw them under the bus. All of this was starting to feel like it was too much for her to handle, she wanted to just be finished with this, just to get away from it all and go back to what she was doing before all of this, she was use to helping people, not killing people.

The caretaker’s fingers began going numb as they went from digging to her jeans to into her skin, she couldn’t catch her breath and couldn’t feel her fingers digging into her ankles, she could feel a mild pain in her chest growing as each second dragged on.

When she heard Calvin calling out to her, Aleecia moved her head up in his direction. She reached out a hand to him, biting her lip to keep back a scared sob. "I'm worried about Iz-Ice..." Even in times like this, the girl didn't want to go embarrassing her closest friend. Aleecia had come up with what she thought was the perfect nickname for him, but Ice had strongly advised her not to use it. But why couldn't she call him Izzy? A tiny smile slipped over her face, before she remembered he was probably out there fighting. "Will he be okay?"

Bliss didn't respond to the monitor, and instead moved to the care taker's side. ”Hey!” She said a little louder than usual. ”I-I mean, Ellie. I think you'd feel better if you stood up and took a breath. Here, I'll help you up.”

Monica laughed. ”Oh, look at all of you worrying about other people! That's a psychological defense mechanism you know? If your thoughts are focused on the well being of another person, you don't worry about yourself as much.” Her eyes closed to half mast. ”But don't worry, now that I'm here, there's no reason to worry about anyone else. There's plenty of danger right here!” The camera zoomed out, revealing the carnage sister to be standing on the mock beach. There was a tiny red buoy floating behind her, and all of the infinites knew that there was only one buoy like that on the beach. But when they looked out the window, they could see the buoy was all by it's lonesome. There was no Monika in sight, unless you looked at the monitor.

Calvin noticed something occuring with Ellie, and was prepared to move but Bliss went first. He felt what could have been relief, though it didn't last long. For a support team, they were quickly falling apart. Calvin supposed it made sense. They were those who weren't ready or willing to go out. "Ice can handle himself. We have to focus on-" He looked back up to the screen, carefully listening as Monika continued "Is this thing serious?" Calvin said. It was bravado, and weak at that. He knew there was something wrong, but it was the shot of the beach that truly put him over the edge. He looked through the window to see that Monika was nowhere to be found. "Stay here." He said lightly to Aleecia, as he walked to the door. His body was tense as he put himself behind it.

"Alright, Ibbs." With a start, he flung the door open, charging a few steps outside of the door before taking in his surroundings. It was the same beach, with no noticeable change. The red buoy sat in the distance, bobbing freely. Calvin ran a hand through his hair while cursing under his breath. No one responded. He walked slowly back inside, his heart pumping. "It's not out there." He said flatly. Despite its large size, the room felt increasingly claustrophobic.

”Of course I'm not out there! Why would I be?” Monica gave everyone an open-mouthed smile. ”I don't exist, so I'm not out there.”

Once Bliss came to the Caretaker’s aid and told her to stand up, she tried to calm herself down before standing up and facing Bliss, what came next was a surprise to Ellie herself. She began feeling lightheaded and dizzy she put a hand on her head before losing all balance and falling on her side, her eyelids grew heavy as darkness consumed her hazy vision.

"Oh Gott, wenn wir es mit einem Geist zu tun haben..." Mercy mumbled under her breath as she turned her atention from the eccentric carnage sister to Ellie. The plague doctor then walked up and sat down besides the caretaker. "Hey, it's okay...breathe, breathe..." she gently told Ellie, trying to calm her down.

With Mercy looking after Ellie, Bliss turned to face the Monika.”So you insist that you don't exist...” It took bliss a moment to think about what this could mean. ”Does that mean you don't have a physical body? Are you just a program?”

Monica closed her eyes and nodded, pleased with the answer. ”Of all my sisters, I'm the only one that's fully digital. That's right, this beautiful girl on screen is completely intangible! Hasn't CGI come really far? I look more real than my other sisters do!” She sighed. ”But I'll still never be a real girl. However...” Her eyes shot open, revealing their crimson glow. ”I'm still the best killer. I have a higher kill count than any of my other sisters. And because I can't die ” She giggled. ”Good thing your supah hakkah is toast, he might have been the one thing that could have stopped me.”

Why should Aleecia be worried about herself when everyone else was in more danger than she was? Something was going on with Ellie, but the girl couldn't tell what and everyone was freaking out about something that wasn't there... Aleecia stood up, no longer shaking. It wasn't the time to be having a pity party, it was a time for action. "Whatever she can do to us, it isn't going to be as easy to fight as the other sisters, but that doesn't mean we're powerless. We don't have to kill her, just avoid whatever tactics she has planned until the hour is up. There can't be much time left, right?" Allie had never needed a watch since she couldn't see, but maybe her estimate wasn't too off?

She was going to stay alive for as long as she could. For Ice who was trying so hard, for Nariko, who would be in shambles and would need to be put back together. For everyone. Aleecia grabbed the chair she had been sitting on and held it up towards the sound of the monitor. "If there's one thing we have, it's hope, so let's do this."

Ellie’s body was limp, she let out shallow breaths with some of her blue hair hanging in front of her face covering her eyes, while she didn’t respond to the doctor she mouthed the word “I’m sorry” over and over again not speaking it once between breaths only mouthing the word.

Calvin threw his arms up in frustration. The carnage sisters inner working eluded him, but at least he felt as if he could understand their bodies, the way they operated. It was when things moved to technology that Calvin became completely inept, and he had no idea how this carnage sister could kill without a physical form. His mind immediately began thinking of ways he and all in the room could die, and for half a moment he wished he was facing Alexandria's carnage chassis with the other. It was the sound of Aleecia's voice that brought him back to reality.

He stood in a bit of awe as he saw the girl raise her chair and point it towards the screen. In a happier time, he might have laughed. For now, there was a glint in his eyes as he walked back to the table where he had left his gauntlets, slipping them on quietly and curling his hands into fists. He hadn't brought a weapon with him, so he merely stood next to Aleecia. "I'm with you too, okay?" His voice was quiet, and he put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it gently for half a moment. He turned to look at Ellie and Mercy, who was comforting her, but felt he couldn't leave Aleecia's side. He hadn't been keeping track of time, but he was quite certain they would not be saved by the bell.

Bliss looked between the disturbed caregiver, and the monitor. ”Alright.” She turned to Mercy and nodded. ”I don't think there's anything I can do for her. I'll leave her in your hands.” Bliss reached for her umbrella, which still had a metal pick smelted onto it. It was one of the weapons Calvin made for Bliss before the fight with Alexandria. ”You're not going to drive us apart, Monika.”

”A wolf isn't disturbed by how tightly knit a pack of sheep happens to be, what makes you think I care about your bonds?” Monika leaned forwards, and her face filled up the screen. ”Right now you're standing together, but it just takes one of my father's motives to turn you all into hungry killers. The things you'll slaughter each other for is near endless. Your friendship and bravado is just another thing that doesn't exist. They're just stories you tell yourselves when you''re facing a real threat. A threat like me.” Monika giggled. ”Do you know why they call me Monika? We are all named after conquerors, you must know that by now.” She gave everyone a sideways glance. ”Some people try to tie it to latin and greek roots, which are advisory and unique respectively. But that doesn't really have anything to do with conquest. Unless you consider victory unique, but a real conqueror doesn't.” Monika then turned her head and glanced at them from her other side. ”Some think I'm named after Monaca Towa. You probably don't know who she is and, honestly, the less said the better. But one city does not a conqueror make.” Monika looked directly at the infinites. ”It's actually very simple. I'm named after the avatar of despair itself. My father monokuma! See? I'm named after a conqueror who is a mascot. So even the conqueror I'm named after doesn't really exist!” She giggled. ”Monokuma, Monika? It almost has all of the same letters too. Some people call me monokuma Jr, but that's not very cute.” Monika tipped her head. ”I think I can make a tongue twister, hold on... Monokuma and Monika monologed about monochrome. Try saying that five times fast! Try saying it once!” Monika hummed. ”Right, there was a point to this! You know how monokuma can control all kinds of cool death traps? I can do the same thing! Even while playing music! Hit it boys!”



Just like during the scrum debate, the floor broke apart and started to float around, a bit like ice breaking off an ice cap. Metal shutters closed over all the windows and doors, and the room was being filled with strange music.

Bliss looked down at her feet. ”We're floating apart!” Each of the infinites was on their own platform, save Mercy and Ellie who wound up together.

Monika's grin widened. ”Let's start with something easy like... Saw blades.”

On her command, long poles with circular saws on them emerged from between the platforms. They did not move very fast, but they seemed to be closing in on whoever was closest to them.

Calvon couldn't believe his eyes. The saws were slow to raise, but seemed to be picking up speed. "Aleecia!" He called out across the space that divided them. "It's saws, okay? Just-" He punched his leg firmly, trying to figure out a way to guide the girl through the upcoming gauntlet. "You have to trust me, alright?" While he was yelling across the chasm, he looked over to see Mercy and Ellie on their own platform. Ellie was unmoving, and Calvin felt his throat knot up, but the loud humm of the saws brought him back to his current situation. He stepped carefully to the side as one passed by with a speed that was not fast but certainly not comfortable. Others would come quicker.

Once the room seemed to shift and trap everyone inside, fear struck Mercy as saws rose from the ground. While Aleecia, Bliss, and Calvin were stuck on their own platforms, the plague doctor and unconscious Ellie were stuck together. So Mercy stood the caretaker up and threw an arm over her shoulder to keep her from falling. She quickly moved both her and Ellie out of the way as one of the saws passed them both.

Allie swayed as her footing became unbalanced, wh-wah-what was happening? Sounds echoed from the walls and music came from the monitors, a headache was starting to form at the base of Aleecia's neck. Calvin's hand moved away from her shoulder and Aleecia wanted to grab out for it, but the chair in her hand stopped her.

S-Saws?! "I-I trust you!" Aleecia's whole body was trembling in fear as she heard the saws moving towards her. The blind girl threw the chair at the sound and let out a squeak as she heard the saws cut threw it. As it came closer, Aleecia moved as far to the left as she could, almost falling off the platform. Not being able to see the saws was causing her to overstep, which was dangerous in it of itself. There was some kind of different sound coming from the violent contraption, some mechanism was coming into play.

"Drop!"

An anxious yelled slipped out from Calvin's direction and Aleecia fell as a saw blade went whizzing over her head, they could rotate?!

Calvin's attention was split between the saws coming towards him and those approaching Aleecia. Adrenaline coursed through his veins as he saw Allie narrowly avoid a horizontal saw, only for the same to come roaring towards him. He threw himself to the ground, looking across the room to the other Infinites with cold sweat running down his face. "Mercy!" He called over the divide. "Are you-" He was interrupted as another saw, this one faster than the rest, came hurtling towards him. He rolled out of the way as quickly as possible, before standing back up gingerly and refocusing his attention on Aleecia's situation.

Bliss was making tiny hops from one platform to the next, careful not get hung up on any of the blades. ”I'm on my way mercy! Justhold on!” Even though the nanny wasn't moving very fast, the Dining room wasn't especially large. Once Bliss was close enough, she took her pick and reached to pull one of the saws, almost like a Sheppard hook snaring a lamb. Every tooth on the saw broke until the arm was nothing more than a long prodding arm. Bliss pulled the pick close to herself to examine it. ”You do good work, Calvin.”

“What? You guys are actually fighting back?” As surprised as Monica sounded, she looked really happy about the development. ”Well, since I'm on a bit of a schedule, I think we'll just skip to the last hazard. How about... A chaingun?” A hole opened up in the ceiling, and out popped the gun that Monika requested. ”If you're quick, maybe you can destroy it before the barrels get up to speed.”

”Boop!” The unarmored wall beside the reinforced shudder burst open. Standing in the opening was none other than Alexandria, She had used the IV polls to act as a battering ram to break down the sheet rock wall. The carnage sister dropped every IV poll and hurled her spear into the chain gun, piercing the barrel in place. ”Boop!”

“Uh, sis?” Monika fret her brow. “You missed the patients.”

”But I wuv Calvie poo!” Alexandria was using the IV polls to take out each remaining saw, one at a time. The arms sputtered and ”And he's been so nice, staying away from those icky girls. I feel like I need to reward him.”

“But love is just a concept, it can't possibly exist.”

Alexandria's eyes glowed an extra dark shade of red. “Stop being spooky, I know how to turn you off!”

“Fine, I'll go play somewhere else...” The screen went black.

The carnage sister turned to face Calvin and Aleecia. ”So how's everyone doing?”

"I might regret saying this later, but thank god you showed up before we got sliced, nurse." Mercy told Alexandria, gently setting Ellie down.

Aleecia started to get up, her stomach hurting from the impact of dropping. It seemed like the platform was moving again and the music had stopped. Who had that voice again...? Aleecia couldn't exactly place it, all she knew was that it was one of the sisters. "Calvin... Are you okay?" She reached in his direction.

One moment, Calvin was saying prayers as the guns slowly revved up. The next, Alexandria had burst through the wall, impaled the turret, and turned to ask how all we're doing. "I'm... fine. He simply stared at the Carnage sister with a mixture of awe and deep resentment. She had just saved them. But something about that made his blood boil. "Thank you, Alexandria." There was a half-cooked smile on his face, but his voice sounded genuine. It was then he remembered Allie. For half a moment, he had forgotten she was there, but when he saw her reaching for him, he sprinted over. ""I'm fine, I'm fine." His throat hitched as he held her tightly, visions of the saws passing through his mind. "I thought... I just-" His body shook, and when he pulled back his eyes shone with tears as his face broke out into a broad smile. "I can't believe it." Remembering himself, he looked around the room. "Are we all okay?"

Bliss's hands were trembling on her umbrella pick. ”Y-yes, I think we're fine.”

Alexandria looked at the clock on the wall before looking back at the infinites. ”I'm super short on time guys, so I'm going to cut the mustard.”

The nanny raised an eyebrow. ”I don't think you used that phrase right.”

”Aleecia.” The carnage sister yanked her spear out of the turret and approached the blind woman. ”Nariko is on a boopathon, and she won't stop until she's booped every patient there is to boop.” she gestured for Aleecia's hand. ”Only you can talk some sense into her. ”

Aleecia slipped her arms around Calvin's waist and squeezed slightly, her thumbs moving over his back soothingly. The way his body shook was worrying her and it almost seemed like he had been injured, "Shhh... You're sure your not injur-"

The blind girl shut up as she heard the robot speak again and then call out her name. It seemed like she was coming closer and she turned to slip behind Calvin. While Aleecia was happy to spend time with Nariko, the other sisters still scared her, especially right after Monika's attack. But once she heard what Alexandria had to say, "I'm coming!" She slipped her hands up to release Calvin's arms from around her, moving towards the robot as she did, "Stay here, I'll be right back, okay?"

Calvin stood forlornly as he looked towards Aleecia and Alexandria, his eyes clouded. "You shouldn't-" He caught himself as he spoke. There was a look of determination on the girl's face that gave him pause. "I'm coming too." He ran the back of his gauntlet over his eyes before he turned back to Bliss and Mercy, looking concerned. "Someone should stay with Ellie." He was amazed she was still in one piece, and looked at Mercy, impressed at how she had held up.

"I'll stay with Ms. Ellie. You guys go on ahead." Mercy told the others, a weak smile on her face. She was still suprised that she survived something out of a Saw movie. Wait, isn't that a pun on it's own?

”But Calvie poo! The only reason why I'm doing this is to keep you safe!” Alexandria huffed. ”But if you want to keep me safe, I guess you can tag along. But no hitting Nariko! That'll be a bad idea!”

Bliss aproached Calvin ”If you insist on going, Calvin, you should probably take this.” She handed Calvin the pick umbrella that he made for her. ”It will be easier for Mercy and I to move Ellie around if I'm not carrying that.” Calvin accepted the piece of his handiwork with a bit of a grimace, though he nodded with appreciation.

”Alright, let's get going, toot-toot!” Alexandria picked up Aleecia bridal style and started to run for the hospital wing, with Calvin following close behind. Aleecia gave a little yelp before holding on tight, the faster they went, the better.

---

Daimyon walked purposefully out of his room, paying little attention to the row of screens on the hospital walls announcing the addition of four new robots, more murderous than ever. He was set to meet Mary at the entrance of the pharmacy in the second floor hospital where they were assigned. With a little pacing, they could watch over all three entrances to the floor from there. Pacing was what the poet was doing, also—driven forward by anxiety and excitement alike. Mary was there already, so he composed himself and smiled before addressing her:

“Looks like this is it. Do you know the plan?”

”Uhh, yeah, I think so I’ve done the ice bucket challenge, so I’m confident I can pull it off!”



The plan was reasonably simple. Daimyon would keep an eye on every entrance, waiting for a Carnage Sister—hopefully Willow, as his plan was most likely to work with her—to show up. He would then take her attention, and lead her down the corridor between the pharmacy and the implant workshop, in an apparent straight line to the morgue. Mary, meanwhile, would be waiting in the workshop, equipped with a bucket of water and a kitchen knife. The latter would be used to cut one of the live wires powering the CNC machine, then throw the electrified water on the Sister for a nasty surprise.

It was not a risk-free plan by any chance, but, and that was the most important, it was executable by the two Infinites who otherwise lacked combat skills and would not have been able to fend any of the robots off. Not to mention that they were in the same area the morgue, the ultimate destination of every Carnage Sister was. Everything depended on this approach to work, for Daimyon had no plan B. Not one that would dismantle the sisters anyway.

Mary’s legs shook as she held the knife in one hand and the bucket on the other. ”Sheesh, this is heavy! But I gotta stay strong; Daimy-doo’s relying on me!” She mumbled to herself, and kicked her heels off, knowing they would only impede her if they had to run.

“Good luck, Mary! And, ah, try to aim that water...!” Daimyon told her as she was on her way out. While Mary might not have been the strongest or fastest Infinite, the poet knew of the…lengths she was capable of going for things—or people—she had sought after. Before the night struck, he had reminisced about the earlier weeks in the hospital: his time spent with Shaun and Caora, his brief escapade with Mary and Noel, and the other pleasant and not-so-pleasant memories he had written down. They had strengthened his resolve further; he was thinking of his friends as he leaned against the corner of the pharmacy, from where all three entrances were in view, in wait. He would do his part.

Daimyon could hear something coming down the stair case from the third floor. It was the unmistakable clop of a horse. It didn't take long for the horse to finally appear, and the rider was happy to announce her arrival.

”The queen is here!” Willow twirled her sword. I almost regret taking the quick route. I suppose my reinforcements can deal with the other mongrels on their own.” She used her free arm to brandish her cannon. ”Fear not Nariko, you may not be a princess, but you are my sister, ahahaha!” Willow prepared to charge west, so that she could enter from the north side of the intersection where the fight with Nariko was taking place. Before she could do so, however, Daimyon steeled himself and stepped up ahead of her. She towered above him on her mechanical warhorse, not to speak about the massive cannon in her hand that could have obliterated him in one shot. A wave of fear ran down the poet's spine—all he had were his words and his instrument. But, with some luck, they might just be enough.

“Your Highness! Forgive my interruption,” he began. “You must be busy in your infinite wisdom. Yet! I must assure you I have a similarly important matter to bring to your attention.”

I notice that you have no bard in your court!
No one to regale tales long and short
Of your magnificent story, guided by fate
Well—I am here to step up to the plate!

I know you're in a hurry, so I won't hold you
Just follow me along, relax and listen to
The odes and hymns this poet wants to sing
And, of course, next to verse, pluck the string!

He took his lute into hand, then beckoned her to follow him down on the path straight ahead.

————

Mary heard Daimyon’s loud voice ringing in the distance, and shut her mouth before she could gasp; she listened intently for clopping noises drawing near. ”Come on...Just a bit closer...” She thought as she waited for Willow to come into sight. Her arm holding the bucket slightly shook, causing a tiny drop of water to hit the floor as she anticipated the moment of action.

Willow looked down at the poet. The static face of a carnage sister was hard to read. She stood motionless. It wasn't clear if she was captivated, or bewildered by Daimyon's strange behavior. ”This is an unusual hour for you to be outside, peasant. If I wasn't mistaken I'd say it was a trap.” The horse walked closer to the poet. ”But this is far too elaborate to be a trap! Are men not vulnerable when they bear their hearts to the ones they fancy?” She let out a queenly laugh. ”But please, continue to sing.”

Daimyon let out the slightest sigh of relief, then smiled a reassuring smile to the queen. She would not regret her decision. He took a long breath, plucked the first chord and began walking down the road merrily.

Once upon a time was a queen named Willow...
She sat on a throne of heavenly glow
Her fame swept the land and everyone knew
That her daring exploits were quite a slew…

He played a simple melody and sang in a minimal range—it did not sound terribly impressive, but this way it seemed like he was an actual trained bard. He did not look behind him, the sound of metallic hooves were reassuring enough that the robot was still following him. As they rounded the first corner, he took a moment's glance into the implant workshop. He could not see Mary, which hopefully meant that the Sister could not either. He just hoped the woman would choose her timing well, for they only had one shot…

Willow was starting to hum along with Daimyon's singing. It was fair to say she was captivated by the tune, willingly following the 'bard' wherever he went.

Meanwhile, Mary's concentration was broken by a dull thud. Instinctively, she turned to look at the long window along the north side of the implant workshop; There was a second carnage sister with a crazy look on her face. The tower shield and gladius let her know it was Julia, one of the champion carnage sisters who introduced herself not long ago. ”I thought you were in bed!”

“And you totally woke me up!” That sounded like Jezebel. A latticework extension arm came into view. On the end of it was a leather glove, which struck the carnage sister's shield.

”Party pooper!” The attack hadn't really done much more than harmlessly bounce off the shield. ”Well whatever, you're not going to stop us!” Julia advanced towards the other side of the window, but stopped when she saw Mary out of the corner of her eye. ”Another one! Wooo!” She rammed the side of her shield into the window, scattering glass shards all over the workshop.

”KYAAAAHHH!” Mary screamed, and threw the bucket of water right on Julia’s face as a reaction. Then, she bolted right out of the room, as fast as her legs could carry her; she was really glad she wasn’t in high heels.

“Leave the Betty alone, barf bag!” Jezebel followed after Julia. Her extending punches weren't strong enough to beat down Julia's shield. But that didn't stop her from ruthlessly chasing after her.Julia's head and hair were drenched. ”You bitch! I just colored that!” She pounced into the room. ”Come back here, I wanna dry off with your blood!” She was running after Mary. Julia occasionally bumped into some of the equipment with her massive shield, which made her a bit slower than she normally would have been.

Hearing the cacophony behind him, Daimyon froze. He had just finished a verse, but his mind was two ahead and he was ready to turn the tale into the fall of the mighty queen, for that extra dramatic effect when Mary jumped out to douse her.

It appeared that he would not get such satisfaction, however. Instead, he heard the streamer's scream and then saw her rush out of the implant workshop ahead of him. She made a small skip before turning the corner and disappearing out his sight.
Wait a second! There was something at the end of the hallway: a tripwire! Daimyon had forgot about it—of course they had a plan B, how could they not, when the stakes were so high? Since the original idea had spectacularly failed, it was about time to act on this emergency measure.

“Well,” he turned to Willow, who stood similarly dumbfounded at the rapidly unfolding events. The poet knew she would soon catch from her reverie, however, realising that they had indeed set a trap for her. That sizeable cannon shining in her hand would also no doubt be aimed at him right after. He wanted to avoid that at all cost. “It has been an honor singing for you, my gracious queen. But, alas, this is a tale for a different time. Farewell!”

————

He took a quick bow, strung the lute back on his back, then took off forward. He stepped over the tripwire, trying not to make its presence obvious, and rounded the corner to the right.

Willow had started to chase after Daimyon, but stopped just short of the tripwire. “Hmmm.” Willow looked over her shoulder at the chaos unfolding behind her. But this was only momentary before looking ahead once more. ”You know Daimyon, my dear bard. We do receive video feed from all the sentries until night of carnage starts right?” The Horse then sped up, running directly into the tripwire. This caused the steed to stumble forwards and plant it's face into the ground. The rider tumbled from her mount and landed on her face. ”I seem to have forgotten about this little detail.” she said before getting up. ”For your sake, peasant, I hope you're better at running than I am at shooting.” Willow aimed down the corridor at Daimyon. ”Off with his head!” she cried out before firing.

Mary continued running around like a headless chicken, panicking as she heard Julia cursing her and proceeding with the pursuit, metallic creaks causing her to sweat with dread. All the planning they did went to shit! ”At least we got their attention!” She half-screamed, followed by more regular screaming of terror. She decided to run to the dorms; no team she was aware of were operating there, and it would buy them more time.

Jezebel groaned. “Mary! Like, slow up!”

”I agree!” Julia said, following directly after Mary.

The poet's outfit was undoubtedly snazzy, but also rather unsuited for intense physical activity. In fact, Daimyon himself was unsuited for intense physical activity—he was a man of the mind, not the body. Still, he was human, and that meant he was pumped full of adrenaline by the prospect of a murderous robot out for his blood just as much as anyone else would have been. Hearing Willow's cry from behind him propelled him further ahead and, acting on a sudden impulse, he rounded the other corner of the pharmacy as fast as he could, even losing his feathered hat in the turn. In that very moment, a bombastic shot rang out and a cannon shot rammed the wall ahead in a perfect line. He was thinking about fetching his cap, but quickly thought better when he realised just how much that projectile could have shattered him if he was any slower. Catching his breath and doing his best to suppress the growing feeling of exhaustion and the pain of sudden exertion in his limbs, he started running again, giving little thought on where he would end up. He knew that the attack and rescue teams were waiting in the wings; his task was to get the Carnage Sisters as far away from the morgue as possible. He had no idea where Mary ran to, but he hoped she was okay.

He hoped everyone was okay.



After running past the pharmacy, the poet quickly found himself in the patient quarters of the second floor. He did not look behind him—all he cared about was that he was in a large open space, the absolute worst place to be. The familiar exterior of the break room caught his eyes first, so that was where he headed next. Slamming the door shut behind him, he felt like he could stop to take a breath, which he was horribly out of. His mind was racing and the silence, his beloved companion on most occasions, was now instead terrifying. The tell-tale sound of a cannon shot could sound again at any moment, and it would be perhaps be the last sound he heard. Frantically, he looked around for a place to hide. His heart skipped a beat when he realised he was quite stuck in this room, and it started beating faster again when he spotted another door with the word ‘Lockers’ written on it. Inspiration struck him, and he stepped inside.

The locker room was about how he imagined it. An enclosed space with rows of lockers separating the area into tight corridors. Using a large weapon in such space would be ill-advised, but Daimyon was still not willing to take his chances. He found another detail of the room much more interesting: the fact that one small door was the only way to enter. A sudden resolve possessed him: he could take down Willow for good here. He just needed a weapon. First, though, he took the heavy lute off his back, as it was weighing him down.

Hold on!

He took the lute back in his hands, but held it upside down. The neck was thin and the body unshapely fat in comparison, and he had to hold it with both hands, but it actually looked like a passable weapon this way. Definitely one that could deliver great upfront damage, which was hugely important for him—while sharper and deadlier in the right hands, he was not strong enough to pierce a robot's body with kitchen knives and the like. With a sizeable lute, though, he might just have had the chance. He took two swings in the air: his shaking and weak arms were barely enough to hold onto the instrument stably. He realised he would potentially only have one opportunity to strike Willow while she was unaware. He had to make it count.

Daimyon Londe, Infinite Poet, stood at the side of the door of a locker room, pressed up against the wall, with a lute wielded like a deadly weapon, waiting to ambush a murderous robot. If someone told him this would be him in barely a few weeks, he would have not only not believed them, but would have certainly written a lengthy poem to ridicule their delusions.

Alas, truth was stranger than fiction. And the survival instinct overrode everything else.

There wasn't a second to waste. They didn't have time to faff around, wasting their time retrieving weapons or planning a next move. They didn't have time to stand around hoping she would come back. It was clear that she would only be going to one place, before she joined up with her sister. Alexandria had stated it right from the get go. She was going to find Calvin. But that wouldn't do! Ice was already apprehensive enough about the machines existence, but Faith could tell that letting her get close to Calvin wouldn't make him best pleased. His heart held a special place for the boy.

So with him in tow, she barrelled up the stairs to the Resort, and to the Diner. She had a head start, but by the time Faith made it to the Resort, there was a sight awaiting her that she hadn't quite expected. Alexandria had already put massive hole through the wall of the Diner, reducing it to rubble, and was making her way, with Calvin and Aleecia, towards the Hospital Facilities. If she hadn't seen the pace she took off in, Faith might have called the feat impossible. But then again, who was she to talk about the impossible?
Hiiiiiiiiiiii guys~!" she called out, skipping up from the stairs and into the corridor, hoping to draw Alexandria's attention, "You're such a meanie, you know that? Running away before we could finish our fight - delaying the fun; you should be ashamed!" the blade of the dagger glinted against the hospital lighting, and she looked back slightly to see if Ice had caught up yet, "But we're here now~! We're gonna stop you from getting near Calv-" her eyes fell on the boy, "Ah... that spoils the fun. But hey, he's not dead, that's a good sign~! We can finally resume now - time to kill each other~!"

"Hey hey hey!" Calvin had been lagging behind, but quickly caught up as Alexandria slowed. He stood in between Faith and the Carnage Sister, raising the pick lightly though without much finesse. "Alexandria saved us back there! We're going to try and talk Nariko down." He looked at Faith, then back at Alexandria with a bit of apprehension. "Wait a second... Where's Ice? Were you both fucking going after her?" He raised his unarmed hand to gesture towards Alexandria, his voice rising lightly.

”Hmm, seems I waited around too long.” Alexandria took Aleecia and threw her onto her shoulder. This freed up one of her arms to hold her spear. ”But you might want to check on icecream. Monika is as stubborn as they come. She's a big time booper from way back.” Behind Alexandria, a chain gun descended from the ceiling and aimed down the staircase. To the lower floor. It was a fairly heavy caliber, so it would take a moment for it to build up speed. ”Tee-hee! Sounds like she found him!” Alexandria broke into a run again.

The girl was slipped over Alexandria's shoulder, much to her discomfort, "Alexandria! If you or Monika harms him I won't say anything to Nariko! Stop her!" Sounds of gunshots played through her head and she could almost feel Ice's blood on her hands. "If-If you don't-!"

Meanwhile Ice had been following after Faith and the carnage sister, but he froze when he heard the sound of the high caliber chain gun. All he really knew was that he would have to move and it would be fast. Going up would take too much time so he threw his chain around up so that it would impale one of the ceiling panes and get caught, then he ran down the stairs to the left, pulling on the chain so that he would gain momentum along the wall and quickly get off the stairs, flying to the right. Ice let go of the chain and started to fall, moving to land in a crouch, but he was weaponless.

Any response would have been expected. Any at all. Except that one. Faith didn't know what exactly to do at Calvin's response, and stood awkwardly in the corridor, eyeing up the Carnage Sister and her associates. She saved them? How did that work? Every sister in her last game had been out for blood night after night, and never had she heard tale of them saving a patient. Her original assumption had been that Davis had placed some kind of action inhibitor on the souls, forcing them to conform to a directive like computer programs, but if they had the capacity to go against that and save people, was she wrong?

"She... saved you? Why? I thought they-" her train of speech broke off at the turning of machinery, and her head tilted to follow the sound, down the stairwell to lock gaze with the metal head of the already rotating chaingun, "Oh now that's not great..." she turned back, and skipped into the corridor a tad further, "But it's fine~! Ice'll find a way up eventually~" the sound of his landing behind her confirmed her comment, "Now we've got all the time in the world to sit and chat! I'd offer to grab a drink, but somebody destroyed the Diner~! Soooooo... what's this about talking Nariko down? Isn't she, like, a bloodthirsty demon who kidnaps children and eats hospital patients or something? Oh, oh, like an Arasnia!"

Calvin had thought Monika had tapped out for the night, but that was clearly not the case. He felt a surge of adrenaline as he saw Ice quickly break sight of the chaingun, though he hoped Alexandria would intervene. When he looked however, he saw that she had already run off with Aleecia in tow. He was torn between helping Ice and following the fleeing carnage sister. He turned to Faith, who was speaking to him. "Nariko's more dangerous than Alexandria, I guess. She's losing it, so maybe they got to Krista?" Calvin shrugged for half a moment, though he still felt a great sense of urgency. "We need to-"

As intent as faith was on talking to Alexandria, the robot had bolted past her towards the hospital wing. However, several entities were coming out of the hospital wing towards faith. One was Mary, who was shrieking in horror, and behind her was Julia, who appeared to be soaking wet. Even further back was Jezebel, who had her face scrunched up in anger.. The three ran right past Alexandria like she wasn't even there. The uncontested chaingun was starting to rotate, and would be firing down the hall at them shortly.

"Holy shit." The trio was charging towards them, all while a chaingun revved up and began aiming towards Calvin and Faith. Neither option seemed ideal, but Calvin doubted he or Faith could disable a chaingun on their own. "Fucking... Can you handle that?" He pointed the pick towards the chaingun, with a hint of dismay in his voice.

Sounds of talk and the resounding calamitous sound of the guns barrel moving again pushed Ice into action. He quickly moved out onto the staircase and hopped onto the hand rail, reaching out rather unbalanced for his weapon. Once he had caught hold of it, he leaned his body against the wall and pulled with all he could muster. The ceiling above rained down white plaster, but didn't budge. Ice cursed inside his head and tried again, but it didn't seem like the chain would be able to be dislodged from this position.

"Maryyyyyyyyy~! Did you deal with Willow yet~? Oh, who's the new frie-eeeeeeeeeeEEEEE! Jezebel~! You could've said you were gonna join us~!" Faith shouted down the corridor, ignoring their expressions and Mary's cries. But as she did, the sound of rotating machinery drew her attention once again. But instead of Ice she found herself looking at... it was the business end of a chaingun. "Huh, guess we'll have to catch up later, Jez~!" she called out behind her, before jumping up and down in front of the gun, "Hey, hey, lookie here, I'm a target! C'mon little Miss Monika! That's your name, right? Monokuma would take us on in person, so I bet that's you, right~?" she spun around in a circle, deliberately taunting the Sister, "You gonna shoot me or what~?"

”Alright.” Bliss picked up Ellie by her shoulders. ”We need to move her to safety, Mercy. Maybe back into the dining room?” The plague doctor quickly nodded, as she helped carry the caretaker back inside the dining room.

The chain gun did appear to be aiming at Faith now, and would fire any second now. Maybe not even a second. Julia and Jezebel continued to run like nothing else was going on.

"OH NOOO!" Mary cried as she saw members of S-team on her path; she lead a Champion Carnage Sister right to their midst. She felt like crying, that's how much despair she felt. However, she was still in such a panic that she wasn't thinking of stopping, for better or worse. WILLOW'S STILL ON THE LOOOOOOSE!" Mary screamed as she continued running past Faith at an average speed of 23 miles per hour, not looking back. Then, she made a sharp turn, and rand down the stairs to F1.

Ice was just about to jump down when a hysterical Mary ran down the stairs past him. The sound of her scream sent shivers up his spine as he imaged she had to be running from someone. A moment after she passed, Ice fell back onto the stair, almost tripping, and starting pulling at the chain all the more harder. He heard the sound of Faith's taunting and let out a sling of curses, what was she thinking?! He couldn't let her be killed!

Disaster. Calamity. Horror. These were a few of the words creeping through Calvin's mind as he saw Faith begin to taunt the chaingun, and Monika by extension. As it began to rev up, he heard Mary begin to scream, followed by her whizzing past both him and Faith and running down to the first floor. His mind tried to comprehend what had occurred to set the plan so astray, but it was the gentle click of the chain gun revving and aiming at Faith that demanded all of his attention. He took a moment to appraise the white-haired girl, who he hadn't truly formed a relationship with. She seemed insane, and yet - Calvin was impressed by her mettle. Or terrified. He briefly looked at the gun and the pick in his hand. He couldn't help, not here, but he knew where he could. "Aleecia and Alexandria ran off, I'm going after them!" He yelled down the stairs towards Ice. He looked to Faith as he broke off into a sprint down the hall. "I..." He shook his head, closing his eyes as he tensed up, preparing for the sound of gunfire.

Even with Faith's apparent complete insistence to get herself killed, her expression barely changed from one of a smile. Despite the circumstances and overwhelming odds she could clearly be seen having fun, even as the sound of heavy, robotic footsteps grew louder behind her, and the revving of the chaingun's turning mechanism increased every second. Her arms were outstretched, as though offering herself up as a sacrifice. Even as the second ticked down, the smile didn't evade her lips. Like some kind of ga-

She didn't even have a second to move. She flipped her knife so the blade faced the ground, already turning and running as Mary passed by, shouting to her in terror. Who could blame her? Julia was evidently unhinged.
"I am the thirsty. I am the hungry. I watch the young grow old and die unchanging. I cancel. I rend. I pray a thousand blood soaked prayers. My essence creates power. My blade carves the sun. I bid you an offering of death - thee smitten by chains. Ferrum Clamoris."

Her legs fell in front of her and she dropped to the cold, white floor of the Resort. Sliding. Irregardless of whatever gunfire accompanied her across the floor, she slid - between Mary and Julia. Sure, the robot was heavy. It'd crush her in an instant if it managed to step on her, breaking who knew how many bones in the process. Except as she came in front of the Sister, she swung the knife out to connect with the joint in her knee, digging into whatever slot she could find, using her own momentum to swing herself between Julia's legs, ripping the blade out of her knee in the process. Leading the gun straight to Julia.

With the minigun bullets trailing faith, The next thing to get ripped apart by the chain gun was Julia. She didn't even have time to fall to her knee before the bullets ripped through her body. Faith was close enough to the robot that she was going to get soaked with hydraulic fluid. By this point, Jezebel had caught up to Faith, and the two of them were able to hide behind the tower shield. It took both of the girls to hold the tower shield up, which still had Julia's arm strapped to the opposite side of it. After a few seconds of trying to break through the shield, the gun eventually stopped firing. The barrels just spun without firing anything at all.

”Out?” Monika sighed. She had reappeared on a wall monitor. ”Well whatever. There's a lot more people in the hospital anyway.” She waved to no one in particular. ”Thanks for being a good sport everyone! If you want to play with me some more, I'll be in the other room.” and with that, the monitor blinked off.

Jezebel turned around on her heel and started to walk towards the hospital. “You're coming right?” she called back without turning her head.

Faith stood from the body of her most recent kill, dripping with the supposed life blood of the Sister. To think Davis would have go so far as to even simulate blood within the cold husks he stuffed with souls. If she hadn't already declared him the enemy through the murders he induced, the sick attitude he expressed to the dead might have sent her into a rage. The deceased didn't deserve to be disrespected in such a manner, and the idea that magic such as Necromancy was still practised within the civilised society of the modern day turned her stomach.

But she couldn't exactly dwell.
"Jezebel~!" she quickly shouted, running up behind her friend as she walked off, wrapping her arms around her shoulders, "Why didn't you say hiiiiii? I can't believe we're gonna fight together~! Eeeeeeee, I can feel my heart racing at the idea already~! Where'd you get the cool gloves from, anyway?" but as soon as she asked the question, she ducked behind her a little ways and turned back the corridor, "C'mon Ice, lets'a'go~! We've got a Nariko to slay~!" before turning back to skip alongside Jez.

Plastered rained down on Ice head, mixing into his hair and slipping into the seams of his long trench coat. With the sound of Calvin's message, one thing ran through his head. Aleecia. She was in danger and all Ice's mind would do was replay Shona's death scene with Aleecia's body impaled instead. Aleecia hung up in her room, Aleecia torn to pieces. Ice pulled harder and harder until the panel finally completely caved, narrowly missing him in the process. Ice swung the chain so it wrapped around his right arm, moving to hurry up the stairs. Nariko was doomed, especially with all the infinites were working together to bring her down, but Alexandria would be bathing in her sister's blood soon after.

"If there even is a god out there, I beg you to keep her alive."

”Hmm...” Willow looked down the path to the second floor patient's quarters. ”No, I didn't come here to chase peasants. Even if they have...alluring lute playing skills. I came here to protect my sister.” with a snap of her fingers, her horse returned to her side. ”But now that I don't have a cannon, what can I hold in my other hand?” Willow felt around her horse until she found her scepter.”Haha! I'm all set!” She jumped onto her horse. ”Let's wage war, the queen is here!” And with that, Willow went running towards her sister.

The support team is scattered after a harrowing ambush. Nothing went right for the distraction teams. The attack team can just barely contend with Nariko. The rescue recovery team exchanged a life for Krista's safety. Mary stood at the foot of the the patient's quarter's stairwell, the fire from Faith's Molotov still burning. Bliss and Mercy took care of Ellie, who passed out from all the excitement. Ice, Jezevel, and Faith followed after Calvin, Aleecia, and Alexandria. Soon they would join Alice, Max, Zachary, and Noel in their battle against Nariko. But Monika and Willow are not far behind. Felix limped back to his room, trusting that Justiciar would help, wherever they are. Cyrus is carrying Rika's dying body, and a wounded Krista limps behind them. Monokuma, Julia, Napoleon, and Geina lay in ruin, but it will only be a matter of time before they return to the game. Adar remained unseen, and Daimyon waited in the second floor locker rooms, betting that his lute could fell the pursuing queen Willow. But it's a danger that will never arrive.

Things are coming to a head, it's the final push to destroy Nariko's carnage class chassis. The infinites have received their reinforcements, and so have the carnage sisters. It's a heated battle, and neither side will accept anything less than victory. But what will they sacrifice to obtain conquest?

The more Thomas grew acquainted with this new caste of infinites, the greater his distaste for them grew. In the last killing game, he had thought maybe a few of the infinites a little obnoxious, but now, a certain conqueror would be a welcome sight… if he wasn’t the reason Thomas was here in the first place. This was a problem for another day, but Thomas did make a note of his distaste. Sometimes, he’d be upset in the moment, and not as much later. Perhaps he was just tired. Thomas couldn’t thoughtfully do anything about the sheer nescience that was eating away at him until he had rested for a bit. He couldn’t rest yet though.

Caora had left. Which meant Thomas needed to get hands on with a Carnage Sister. Which in turn would mean he would have to do one of two things. Either find a Carnage Sister himself, and somehow disarm it, or find one of the other infinites who had already deal with a Carnage Sister. The second option was far more appealing, but there was a flaw. Thomas did not stick around for the logistics of the Infinites plans. He knew for sure where only one team was, and if every goes as the other infinites expect it to, they won’t be dealing with the kind of trouble Thomas is searching for. So he set out of the dining room and began to make his way around the hallways in pursuit of another team. His small stature lent to a sense of inconspicuousness, but he could never be too careful; Thomas was moving almost painfully slowly through the hallways in an effort to conceal himself.

There was a lot happening around Thomas. Even if he couldn't see it, he could hear it. The sound of metal hoofs beating against the hospital's floors, steel crashing against steel, and even a Molotov shattering. There were voices too, the many voices of the sisters and the infinites, too far away to make out words. It was impossible to tell who was winning, if anyone was winning. But one sound was louder than all the others. It was the distinct sound of a chainsaw, and it was coming from the patient's quarters on the first floor. Alexandria was suppose to be down there, but one of the champions must have wandered down there as well. The chainsaw sounded like it was rumbling at idle, but it had to be big if Thomas could hear it from the top of the stairs.

Thomas focused on listening to his surrounding, as it would be nearly impossible to ignore the sounds around him. He began try to map the locations of the loudest noises, but it found it nearly impossible to tell which direction any of them were coming from. It didn’t take long for Thomas to notice this greater one though, a sound so loud that even amidst the chaos it was identifiable, and he quickly assessed the probability of him finding one of the distraction squads if he approached it. He found his odds favourable. He listened around his vicinity on the second floor for any disturbances, and broke away from the awkward half sneaking maneuver he was attempting. A little less quietly but many times quicker, he made his way all the way to the second floor patients quarters, pausing at the stairs to pull his hoodie’s hood over his head.

”Hey now, someone dun started a camp fire, and there ain't no campers to roast marshmallows with.” The voice most certainly belonged to a carnage sister. As Thomas peered out from the stairs, he could see Adar walking towards the hospital wing.”Shoot, if I knew there was gunna be a camp fire, I mighta brought out some good ol' country fixen's for supper.” For as talkative as the carnage sister was, her chainsaw made it difficult to hear what she was saying when she got too far away.

A chainsaw. Thomas had figured as much, but it was still a little surprising. It’s not everyday that one gets to see a robot wielding a giant chainsaw talking about camp fires. As fascinating of a sight this was, there was a key component missing. Thomas couldn’t see any of the other infinites around this Carnage Sister. The implications of this, the Carnage Sister in front of Thomas was an immediate threat to him. On the other hand, Thomas had already been around the second floor. He didn’t find any type of situation he was looking for. On top of that, the Carnage Sister in front of him already had their back to Thomas. If Thomas wanted to search the first floor…

Thomas made his decision. Slowly, but deliberately, he removed himself from cover. If he was caught in this straightaway hallway, there would be nowhere for him to run. He was confident in his ability to hide himself, but the thought gnawed away at him. Carefully, he made began to make his way down the hall.

As Thomas moved out into the open, the door to the break room swung open. Lucy was standing inside, munching on a half eaten sandwich.

“Hmmm?” The girl was a little perplexed with Thomas's appearance, but regained her composure. She finished off her sandwich and placed her hands on her hips. “Ho ho! Come to see me back to my room have you?” She closed her eyes. “I didn't realise there were people who were worried about me already, but since I'm so important to this outfit-”

Adar turned to look over her shoulder. ”Do I hear youngin's, or...” She turned around to face Thomas ”Do I hear a marshmallow cryin' ta be a smore?” The robot started to walk towards the boy, and was going to level her shotgun with his head.

You’re kidding... Thomas’s eyes contorted into a mixture between bewilderment and contempt. For someone to arrive at this location, at this time, right in the middle of Thomas’s path, when there was a Carnage Sister literally meters away from him. Thomas was beginning to wonder if his talent was just plain bad luck. Jesus christ. He was tired. For this to happen now…

Thomas’s shook the thoughts out of his head. He had already wasted half a second on trivial thoughts, and from the looks of it, another half second and he was going to be killed. That’s right. Thomas Herringson was many things, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew that staying calm was the key to the dissolution of this situation.

The first step was identifying the threat. That was easy. The Carnage Sister was beginning to take aim at Thomas. Then, he just had to predict what’s going to happen next. Carnage Sister was clearly getting ready to take a shot at Thomas, so he predicted he would about a second or two before he was dead if he continued to stand there. So, what was he to do about it? Thomas checked his surroundings and focused on Lucy, or, the space behind her. As long as he was in direct sight of Carnage Sister, he was within seconds of being mortally wounded. Thus, the immediate objective is to remove himself from the Carnage Sisters line of sight. Afterward, he could figure out what came next. Once he had lay out the plan in his head, Thomas predicted only had milliseconds till that same head was blown off. He wouldn’t have any more time, he had to act now.

The final step was execution. Thomas, with surprising agility, launched himself towards Lucy without a word. Ideally, he would’ve wanted to avoid the girl, but that was not an option with this little time. Instead, he was moving directly towards Lucy, as to push them both inside of the breakroom and out of Adar’s sights.

Maybe it was Adar's voice, maybe it was Thomas's footsteps, but Lucy's eyes opened up in time to see the biomechanic run for his life. Unlike Thomas however, she had gone into a full panic. Her pupils got smaller and smaller as Thomas barreled towards her. He would have to push past her, there were no alternatives. But when Thomas tried to push past her, but she lost her balance and grabbed onto the nearest object she could. Unfortunately, that was Thomas, and Lucy might have been the same age, but she was a full six inches taller. They fell to the ground with a thud, with Lucy on her back. The shock seemed to be just what the prodigy needed to snap out of it. “H-hey! You could have asked me to-” She must have seen something behind Thomas, because her eyes dilated again. “M-move!” While still hugging onto Thomas Lucy rolled behind an island counter just as a spread of buckshot landed where they had been just moments ago. Once they were behind the counter, Lucy got off of Thomas and pressed her back up against the table. She was clearly on the verge of a panic attack, whispering “What are we going to do?” over and over again like a mantra.

”I'll eat your sweet meats!” The carnage sister dropped her chainsaw on top of the countertop and started to cut through it. Lucy looked to Thomas, silently begging for an idea.

Thomas clenched his jaw as Lucy pulled him around the counter. Christ! Why was he in this situation. He just wanted to prove whether there was some people controlling some robots and now he was fighting for his life. Not only that, but he was stuck with some-

Cut it out! Thomas’s inner voice screamed at him. He was beginning to get a headache. He shouldn’t of gotten up so early today. He was so tired. All he wanted to do was sleep. But he couldn’t. Thomas knew what happened when he was tired. His work was sloppy. So he needed to be on point. That’s how it’s always been? Right? Work till you pass out, and even then you just get back up and keep working so make up for being tired. And unfortunately for Adar, this is where Thomas performed best. Even if he was tired, it truly meant nothing. Thomas wasn’t some kid who couldn’t deal with drowsiness, and he sure as hell could figure out how to stop the chainsaw that was currently bearing down on him.

Throughout this, Thomas’s outward expression remain unchanged. A plan quickly formulated in his head. In a swift motion, Thomas took something out of his sweatshirt pockets and threw it across the breakroom. It landed on the floor near the mini fridge. Thomas would have to retrieve it later, there was no room for an object that size in his pant pockets. Before Lucy could see what it was Thomas pulled off his sweatshirt, revealing a white undershirt underneath. He shot a glance towards the chainsaw. Once again, this was a timed endeavor. This time though, the advantage was in Thomas’s. A chainsaw was a machine, sure, but it was pretty similar to a pivot joint. If he could get a piece of cloth long enough to tangle it around the sprocket and clutch, the chainsaw would be unable to rotate. And he’d have neutralized one of Carnage Sister’s threats. Once the chainsaw was dealt with… maybe he could even start to turn this situation around and get some of the information he came for.

Eying out a measurement of his sweatshirt though, he realized it wouldn’t be long enough because of Thomas’s size compared to the chainsaw. Unbuttoning his undershirt would take too long, and something about taking off his pants just didn’t sound like a good idea. After a split second of thinking, Thomas’s eyes settled on the girl in front of him.

“Prodigy. I need you to listen to me. I need you to give me your shirt, we don’t have time to argue.” Thomas droned on, uncannily calm, as he removed his handbook from his pocket and offered it to Lucy “The moment you give me your shirt, you’re going to throw this at the Carnage Sister as hard as you can- aim for the area between their chest and head. After that, you’re going to get out of the way. If you’re able to do that, then, uh, you might just avoid being responsible for killing both of us.

The look on her face let Thomas know she was very displeased with his order. But Lucy was the infinite prodigy, a master of following her teacher's instructions. She tugged the ribbon around her neck loose before attempting to pull her shirt over her head. “It’s not my fault you wanted to bask in my greatness right in front of that thing.” Once her shirt was off, she started to pull her arms out of the sleeves. “This had better not be an elaborate ploy to get me to undress. Y-you’d be better off waiting a few more years anyway.” Lucy's undershirt was a black tank with spaghetti straps. Not much to look at, but the color change in her face let Thomas know she wasn't happy to be seen like this. She traded with him, taking his hand book and dropping her shirt and vest in his hands. Her clothes were a little warm, but that was to be expected. By this point, the chainsaw had almost cut completely through the countertop. Lucy and Thomas were being showered with saw dust. “Alright, I'm going to save us now!” Lucy belted out a war cry before standing up and throwing the handbook. Her aim was true, and it struck Adar in the neck. The handbook wasn't especially heavy, but it did get Adar to take a step back. A normal chainsaw might have jammed from it's operator stepping away at an odd angle, but the carnage sister's saw kept on cutting as it was yanked free.

”It ain't nice to throw stuff.”

“Gah!” Lucy ran for the locker rooms while Adar lifted her twin barrel at her.

Thomas stared blankly at Lucy, perhaps a little too long, but the moment he had her garments he looked away and started working. Thomas was tying the sleeves of the shirt and sweater into a intricate chain of clothing. Or, at least he would have liked it to be intricate. In truthfulness, it was just a bunch of crude knots at the sleeves making a large string of cloth, around twice as long as the chainsaw was.

When Lucy landed her shot, Thomas was relieved. Her compliance was both key and unexpected. He had accounted for her missing, and figured that herself as a distraction would generate enough time for him to hook the chain of cloth around that of the chainsaw, so landing her shot was an unexpected but welcome development.

Thomas just needed to execute his part. Using Adar's stupor, he tried to vault over the counter onto the other side. He had not accounted for the counters height compared to his own, causing him to stumble when he attempted to clear it. This ruined the whole plan, Adar surely would be able to see what Thomas was planning to do with the large chain of shirts. On top of that, it gave Adar an extra second to react before Thomas could catch the chainsaw on one of the shirts. All Thomas could do before Adar reacted was mutter a single indiscernible word that sounded suspiciously like an oath.

As Thomas suspected, Adar was able to take full advantage of his blunder and swung her chainsaw behind herself, far out of Thomas's reach. She swung her arm completely around, and dropped her elbow on Thomas's back, pinning him to the countertop. She wasn't going to give Thomas a second chance to disarm her chainsaw. This became evident when she prepared to swing the shotgun into his head like it was a baseball bat. But a second handbook struck her in the head, throwing off her aim. The countertop exploded into splinters just inches away from his head. Then a box of playing cards struck the carnage sister again, but she still didn't let go of Thomas. That was when Lucy let out a war cry and threw a wooden chair at Adar.

”What did I say!?” The carnage sister manage to get out one quip before taking her shotgun and blowing the chair into pieces. There was enough debris near Adar that the exploding chair knocked her off of Thomas, and he could hear Lucy and Adar yelp in unison. Both the carnage sister and prodigy stumbled backwards into opposing walls and slumped to the ground. Lucy was clutching her arm, and there was a small amount of blood on the wall behind her. Adar's eyes were flickering, but she was still a threat. Adar was already starting to stand up again, if with some difficulty.

Some of the splinters found their way to Thomas, but if he noticed, he was doing a good job of not showing it. More importantly, when he was slammed on the table, Thomas felt a crack in his torso. He couldn’t feel where it was, his endorphins made sure of that, but he would almost certainly need to check it out once the immediate threat of Adar was dealt with.

There was no thinking this time. Thomas just readied himself again with the chain of shirts, allowing himself a deep breath before continuing, as if he expected something bad was about to happen. He darted towards Adar once again and grasped two ends of the chain of shirts in his hands. Before he collided with Adar though, he sidestepped the robot and then sidestepped back so he was directly to their right. Not waiting to see what Adar was doing, he moved to place one end of the makeshift chainsaw jammer under the chain so it would be pulled into sprocket once the actual chain on the chain saw passed it (probably... don’t cite me on that). Rather than stopping there though, he attempted to spin around Adar. It wasn’t clear what he was trying to do.

The chainsaw blade was at idle, and wasn't moving fast enough to destroy the sprocket inside. It just pulled part of the shirt into itself and jammed. Perhaps if the chainsaw was spinning at full speed, it might have had the desired effect. But for now, Thomas would have to be content with a momentary jam.

”What in tarnation are you doin' sunshine?” The robot opened her shotgun up to eject the two depleted cartridges. ”That ain't how you play hide and seek, I'll find you faster than a hiccup!” While a human might need two free hands to reload a shotgun, Adar had a compartment on her chainsaw arm that dispensed shotgun shells, and she only needed to lift her shotgun up to it for a speedy reload. ”I can shoot what I can't see, ya know? That's why I carry this here boomstick. I does not need to be accurate.” Adar was attempting to aim behind herself with the shotgun, but the barrel was proving to be a little long.

Thomas, completely disregarding the speech of the Carnage Sister, once again went through his newfound process of dissolution while in mortal danger. First, identify the threat, Adar’s gun. Then, predict their action, Adar is going to try shooting Thomas. After that, identify a diffusion to the situation. This time, his eyes settled between Adar’s ankles. A small space was available, just enough for Thomas to know what had to be done.

Execute. Thomas dropped down as low as he could, his back now pressed against the wall, and slid under Adar so he was in front of her. Still holding on the the cloth that was also connected to the chainsaw, it formed a makeshift armhold where Adar would not be able swing at Thomas with the jammed chainsaw. This time, there was no flaw in his execution. But as Thomas slid under Adar, he was presented with two choices.

He leave the break room and flee. End this conflict, and wait out the rest of his night in his room. That was the logical option? Right. Or, he could regroup with Lucy in the locker room. The only reason to do that was to increase her chance of survival at risk of his own chance of survival. And was there any reason for that? Was there any reason Thomas should be responsible for Lucy?

Not necessarily. But Thomas chose to go to the locker room anyways. Maybe he was acting selflessly, or perhaps he was more interested in Lucy herself. It didn’t matter now. He gave one final tug on the chain and began to make his way to the Locker room.

Fortunately, the carnage sister wasn't able to recover in time to shoot Thomas in the back. This was largely due to Thomas's unexpected maneuver, which caught Adar off guard. Lucy was starting to get up on her own, but was still holding her arm. By the time Thomas got to her, they were able to rush into the locker room before Adar could get off another shot. Of course, that didn't stop Adar from firing at the door. None of the pellets were able to breach it however. ”Stinkin' youngin's. Why I'll give them what for...” Adar decided to use the opportunity to unjam her chainsaw and possibly reload her shotgun.

On the other side of the door, Thomas and Lucy stood side by side, both a little winded from the encounter. “I've lost track of who is more responsible for getting us here, but I'm pretty sure it's you.” Lucy stumbled over to the lockers on the right most wall and started opening them, one at a time. She did not close them or bother looking inside. “Anyway, I still think I can save us. Unless you think we can we can walk back out there and distract her with synchronized dance moves.” Lucy took a break from opening lockers to hold her arm. Thomas couldn't see her face, but she was groaning through her teeth.

Adrenaline was beginning to wear off. That was good, contrary to what Thomas was imagining before. If he could spend just a minute thinking, he could solve this. He came to the locker room, which meant that he now had the objective of also getting Lucy safely away from the carnage sister on top of ensuring his own survival in the night of carnage. Turing tests were put on the backburner for now. His headache was getting worse, and he felt a dull pain in his chest. Everything is fine?

He could vaguely hear the sound of metal on metal outside. ”What are you searching for?” Thomas inquired, his voice noticeably more sluggish than it was moments earlier.

“You think I'm looking for something? I've already found what I'm looking for, fwahahaha-Eh!” Lucy's laugh was interrupted by a sudden jolt of pain. Apparently, a few of the pellets had hit her torso as well. Good thing that wasn't a slug. “No but, I think we can fool the robot hillbilly into thinking we're in one locker, and then hiding in another.” The prodigy turned to face Thomas. “If we open all but a few lockers, and then hide in one of the open ones near the door, she'll think we did a search and decided to hide in one of the closed lockers, right?” She smiled past her pain. ”Brilliant, huh? She'll never even look our way. Then we just have to sneak past her!”

”That’s fine” Thomas murmured as he walked towards a a rag he saw in the corner. It wasn’t the cleanest, it was sitting in that corner for who knows how long, but it seemed to be satisfactory to Thomas. As Lucy continued to open the lockers, he presented a white glove from his pocket. He laid out the rag and glove flat on the ground, kneeling so that his hands could reach them, and tied two knots with the adjacent corners of the rag. The glove was laying in the center of a sort of cradle made out of the rag and glove.

”Once you finish opening the lockers, come here.” Thomas said, manoeuvring himself so he was sitting on the floor watching Lucy.

“I realize I make a lot of people feel inadequate, but… eh, never mind.” Lucy received no help in opening the remaining lockers. The entire time, they could hear Adar struggling with her chainsaw. She definitely wasn't going to leave without entering the locker room first. “Done.” Lucy sat down in front of Thomas, taking just a moment to look at the instruments in front of him. “Are you going to make a bandage and a tourniquet?” She extended her arm.There were a few areas where the pellets were able to break the skin, and these wounds were surrounded by countless bruises.”I mean, it’s not bleeding too much, so maybe just a bandage will do it. A tourniquet probably isn’t necessary. But I didn’t realise you were a doctor.”

"Huh?" Thomas watched Lucy as she sat in front of him, extending out her arm. For a second, now that everything was calmer, he drifted into his typical enamor with physiques. Average height, average ath- Thomas stopped himself, now was no time for that.

He vaguely got the idea of what Lucy was suggesting, and she was correct that her arm would need someone to look at it. She was incorrect in assuming he was a doctor, Thomas had grown tired of explaining his talent to individuals so he let it slide, and she was also incorrect in Thomas's intentions.

"You're right. Your arm is hurt. And we can deal with that later."he remarked, and he placed the makeshift bandage on her extended hand. He began to unbutton the lower buttons on his shirt, and he stopped once his upper abdomen was exposed. It was apparent now exactly how small Thomas actually was without any shirt or sweater covering his torso; it was a miracle that Adar didn't just snap him in half like a twig when he was slammed on the counter. There was a single large bruise encompassing the entire right side of his lower ribs, which itself was visible just underneath his skin.

"Its a misconception to say you wouldn't need a 'tourniquet', what the glove would represent if it was staunching a wound. Bruises don't expose what's beneath your epidermal layers, ah, skin to the elements and infection, so it's easy to assume using a dirty cloth by itself would be fine if it were to only be applied to areas where no skin is broken. That's incorrect. Any infection that you'd want to avoid from that rag is, well, I don't have time to explain." Thomas reached to grab the rag out of Lucy's extended hand. "Like I said, I'll look at your arm once we deal with our current conundrum. For now, just help me with this"

Lucy's hand tightened around the rag as Thomas laid his hand on the rag. This was painful to Lucy, this was apparent by how much her arm was shaking. Though her teeth were grit in anger instead of pain. Here eyelids twitched a bit, but the proud girl continued to hold onto the rag for several seconds before resigning with a sigh. ”It's suppose to be lady's first, you know?” She pushed the rag into Thomas's hand. ”You really need to work on your manners, especially if you want to stay in my good graces. We're neighbors after all.” She groaned and placed her hands in her lap. ”So what do you want me to do?”

"Ah, but of course, my queen. Being chivalrous right now is about as useful as you are proving to be." he replied as he turned around. He placed the part of the rag with the glove on the largest part of the bruise, and wrapped the rag around his torso so that it was tightly encompassing his his mid torso. He had his hands behind his back with one end of either side of the rag in either hand. "You're going to tie these ends together. Then, we can go to the lockers, like you suggested." Thomas was a little hesitant about this plan, but after some thought he quelled his worries. This specific carnage sister they were dealing with, he should have realized this earlier, had a severe design flaw. Even if things went awry, he was already prepared with a backup plan.

”Are you sure about me not being useful?” Lucy sounded irritated, but she started doing as Thomas requested regardless. ”Your plan to jam the chainsaw with my clothes failed, leaving us both topless. Just an FYI, it failed because you couldn't jump over the counter. And YES, thank you, that was a good shot. You’re welcome! But more impressive than throwing your handbook was how I threw my own handbook, my favorite deck of cards, and a chair to keep you from eating the end of robot hillbilly's boomstick. But while you didn't get shot, I did. And thank you for your concern, but let's tie up your little bruise first. Because apparently, being 'chivalrous' is SUPER useful, as you’re struggling just to keep up with me. ” With a huff, she seemed to relax. ”Your name is Thomas Herringson. You're a biomechanic, which means you study the movement or structure of living organisms. You're five-foot-one, weigh just over forty kilograms, and have a thirty inch round chest. Your blood type is A negative, and your birthday is August eighth. We also happen to be the same age, which is sixteen.” After tying off Thomas's rag, she stood up and walked towards a locker. It wasn't right up against the door. She picked one that was far enough away that Nariko wouldn't be able to look directly into it as soon as she walked inside. ”So I'm not full of myself, and I'm definitely not useless.” Lucy pointed into her locker with a gloved hand. ”Now get in here before she decides to make chainsaw carvings out of us.”

Thomas stared blankly at Lucy, his neutral expression ever so just that. For a second, a short snicker escaped his mouth, did he really think that this was something to laugh at? His untimely laugh would go unaddressed, as he looked like he was about to say something, but stopped, presumably to think about his response. His voice was a lot clearer now, Lucy's aggression was enough to pull him out of his groggy stupor.

"Even mistakes are made" he remarked as he got up, opening and entering the locker directly next to the one Lucy was pointing to. He was small, and Lucy wasn't exactly large, but there was hardly enough room for a single small person in a locker, much less two.

Lucy's strategy was to leave a few lockers shut on the left side of the room, while leaving all the ones on the right open. And because all of the locker doors opened to the right, that meant that Adar wouldn't be able to look inside any of the open lockers without walking past the doors first. Of course not all of the doors were fully open. Lucy tried to make it look like they were looking for something before hiding.

Thomas and Lucy didn't have to wait long for Adar to appear again. ”Alright, youngins. I know you're in there. How about you stand in the middle of the room and I'll spare ya?” As soon as the carnage sister entered the room, she fired her shotgun into the room. ”Huh? That don't seem to have worked.” Adar's eyes scanned the room. ”Y'all a little quiet. I know you're a rambunctious group of youngins.” She took a step forward. For whatever reason, she chose to walk along the right side of the room. ”Hmmm...” Adar used her shotgun to push Thomas's locker shut. She kept the barrel of the gun pressed against his locker while examining her surroundings again. ”Nothin' goes together better than buck shot and buck teeth. Doncha agree?” Adar threw her back into Thomas's locker and fired across the room. She then fired again, making sure to hit all of the closed lockers. ”Huh?” She popped open her gun to reload. ”Do we have ourselves a couple Houdinis in here?” The carnage sister pushed herself off of Thomas's locker and took a swing at the door on Lucy's locker. The chainsaw crushed the door before ripping the door off it's hinges. Lucy could only scream as as the robot looked into her hiding spot. ”Found you!” Was all Adar said as she before pulling back her chainsaw arm. She was fully intent on splitting Lucy down the center.

Adar’s ramblings were beginning to annoy Thomas, not much didn’t at this point, but his main concern shifted from petty grievances to the carnage sisters now fixed chainsaw. Lucy’s speech was a wakeup call for Thomas, he couldn’t just blame his malperformance on a headache. Or, that’s what he probably thought. Almost entirely a contrast to his previous attempt to stop Adar, Thomas’s response was quick, methodical, executed correctly. The moment Adar stepped away from his locker, Thomas advanced directly to the side, closest to him, of the Carnage Sister.

As if he was pulling on the strings of a puppet, he reached behind the carnage sister and carefully grabbed onto on of the robot’s pigtails. As he reached behind Adar, he also shifted his feet towards the robot. Having finished this maneuver in all of a second, he braced his elbow of arm not holding the pigtail onto the frame of the locker. He then positioned the rest of his arm so that his hand was directly in the path of travel of Adar’s chainsaw. It would hurt, but this made it so that no matter how hard Adar tried to push down, Thomas’s arm would function as a baluster. It would be impossible to levy the chainsaw any further than Thomas’s arm without breaking his arm or the locker it rested against. And while Thomas wasn’t exactly strong, his bones were the same as every other human. It would take a tremendous amount of force to break it to a point Adar could reach Lucy with the chainsaw.

That wasn’t all Thomas did though, as his makeshift brace against the chainsaw didn’t necessarily ensure the safety of both him and Lucy. Adar could still treat Thomas’s hand like an axle, and angle the chainsaw downwards until it cut through Lucy. Or it could turn the chainsaw on Thomas and swing to his right. That’s where the pigtail came in. In much a same way as he did before with the shirts, although more careful, he brought the pigtail to the side of the chainsaws chain. This time however, instead of tucking it under, he let the chains sweep strands of the pigtail out of his now open hand as they rotated around the bar. On top of sweeping the pigtail out of Thomas’s hand, the chainsaw was causing a lesion where it grazed Thomas’s palm; although he paid it barely any heed. This would ensure that once the chainsaw was stopped by his arm, they would once again have an opportunity to escape while Adar was confounded.

Once the chainsaw caught the bulk of Adar's hair, it pulled the chainsaw and her head together. A few sparks jumped off her head as it made contact. ”What in tarnation!? Again!?” Lucy was quick to bolt out of there, Sliding around the other side of Adar. With both Thomas and Lucy in the clear, they ran out of the locker as fast as they could. Both children managed to scoop up their handbooks as they ran by. But Adar was hot on their trail. When she emerged from the locker room, her chainsaw was still tangled in her hair. But she was gripping her shotgun with two hands. ”Got dang it, get back here!”

Lucy and Thomas were running side by side. She was still holding her arm. ”Well, it's good to see that you were able to make yourself useful to me after all.” She might have laughed, but a sudden spike of pain made her wince. ”N-not that I couldn't have just rolled out of the way, normally, if I wasn't hurting.” It was then Lucy noticed that they were running towards the resort instead of the second floor stairs. ”Wait, aren't our rooms in the other direction? Do you think I'll be safer over here?”

Something changed. Thomas didn’t seem that tired anymore. He seemed to be reinvigorated by the success of his last attempt on the robot. “No. I plan to destroy the robot. At first, ensuring your escape was one of my priorities.” Thomas said as he ran through the hallways. He was easily ahead of Lucy, but her longer legs meant that she wasn’t falling behind him either. The arm that he used to stop the chainsaw was dangling at his side. It wasn’t quite broken, but it would definitely hurt a whole lot more once the morning came. Thomas would deal with that problem later. For now, it was time for action. Speaking between breathes, he added “I had convinced myself that I would forego my objective in an effort to focus on our survival. That was a mistake. I have not yet satisfied my curiosity. We-”

A shot rang out from behind Lucy and Thomas, hitting the wall in the hallway leading to the resort from the patient's quarters. It briefly deafened them, and what Thomas said was drowned out for a second. “There’s a single flaw with the carnage sister, ah, this robots, design. The length of its chainsaw, and the length of it’s shotgun, mean that it is not able to hit anything that is directly in front of her within, say, half a meter of any wall. The shotgun is too long, and the chainsaw would cut into the wall before it hit you. I’m going to exploit that. Your participation at this point is only a suggestion.” Thomas took a moment to catch his breath, and another shot rang out from behind him. Adar sounded like she was saying something, but neither of the young infinites could figure out what it was as they raced through the hallway into the resort.

Having arrived at the resort, Lucy followed Thomas on a direct path through the the study. They had gained a substantial lead on Adar at this point, and had almost twenty seconds to set up whatever Thomas was planning. Thomas closed the door to the study, but instead of preparing some setup, Thomas just grabbed Lucy’s hand a pulled her to stand directly in front of a bookshelf on the left side of the room near the entrance. There was about a meter and a half between them and the closed door.

Lucy looked between the bookshelf and the doorway. ”So you just want to push the bookshelf on top of her?” She rubbed her chin. ”I suppose with such long weapons, she will have difficulty reacting in time.” She turned to Thomas. ”Aren't you worried about what her body is actually made of? She can lift that chainsaw with one hand.”

”Don’t kid with me. The tensile strength of steel is around fifty thousand pounds per square inch, a material that I would consider the strongest possible for any of these robots to be made out of.” Thomas remarked, watching the door for Adar’s inevitable entrance. ”If I were to estimate the weight of one of these book shelves, I would guess it would be at least a ton. Whoever planned this section, they weren’t cutting any corners. Well, if this book case is about a thousand kilograms. And this things, say, roughly two meters tall.” Thomas stopped, shifting his gaze to Lucy. ”Tch. I don’t need to go on. You’ve already figured this all out, haven’t you, Prodigy”

Lucy blinked a few times. ”Well, I mean.” She looked at the floor. ”Maybe I didn't know all the specifics. But...” She placed a hand on her hip. ”Yes, haha! I definitely understand now! We’re going to let her drop this bookcase on top of herself. You know maybe when this is all over, I'll let you be my teacher.” There wasn't much more time to gab as Adar had come into the study. She was angry, and was going to swing that chainsaw just like the two of them anticipated. Only a very large, black object impaled the robot before she could finish her swing. Adar had a trident larger than she was impaled in her chest. The trident itself had a chain attached to it, which ran back into the vault. The entity gave the chain a mighty pull, and Adar was pulled with the trident towards the small opening. While the trident cleared the small gap, Adar did not. The sound was akin to that of a car crash, and what little of adar didn't get pulled through the two inch gap landed on the floor, leaking hydraulic fluid.

”Ahhh...” A voice called out from the vault. Even though it sounded like a whisper, Lucy and Thomas could hear it loud and clear. ”It's been a long time since I've gotten to destroy a champion.” A red eye hovered in the darkness behind the vault. ”I hope you don’t feel cheated. It’s just been so long since I’ve had the chance to destroy something.”

Thomas stopped for a second to assess the situation, and suddenly darted to put his back against a table in the study, removing him from Alice’s direct line of sight. As he did so, he motioned for Lucy to follow him. Without removing himself from behind the table, he shouted out to Alice. ”Who are you?”

Lucy sat beside Thomas and hugged her knees. ”Y-yea! What he said!”

”I am not a carnage sister, if that's what you are wondering.” Her eye bobbed up and down in the darkness ”I am Alice Parker. I suppose I can't be too surprised the others didn't tell you about me. Or perhaps they simply didn't have time to talk about me? I suspect you're new to this killing game. ” Parker blinked. She didn't speak for a few seconds. ”You do not need to hide from me. If I desired your end, that petty obstacle would not save you.” She chuckled darkly.

”I think she has a point.” Lucy hugged her knees tighter. ”Maybe she won't kill us if we dance for her.”

”Watching you humiliate yourselves is hardly necessary.” Parker's hand crept around the edge of the door. ”All I wish to know is your names, and why you're out at this hour.”

”Lucy Fairglaive, I just wanted a midnight snack. But there were complications.” Her eyes jumped to Thomas, but only for a second.

Alice… Parker?

”It’s right. Whatever was able to impale the now destroyed carnage sister isn’t going to be stopped by this table” Thomas stated as he pushed himself up and moved from behind the table. Lucy followed him. He started walking towards the vault, confident for now that the initial danger was gone. Thomas stopped about a meter away from the vault, and looked at the trapped Alice Parker. Her red eyes were unsettling, but the relative dimness of the vault did not let Thomas recognize her mechanical nature. Thomas’s gaze was overshadowed by the red daggers formed of Alice’s eyes, but his voice was nothing less than dry as he spoke. ”I don’t care about your name. What is your talent."

”My talent is destruction. But I am not an infinite. I was made in the likeness of the ultimate assassin, if that helps.” the eye half squinted. ”Is there a reason you haven't told me your name?”

”Nothing in particular, but now there is reason. Of all the names I’ve taken on, Thomas Herringson is the least important. In the end, it’s just a burlesque of who it belongs to. To someone like you, Destruction, that name would mean nothing. So, you can call me the Infinite Biomechanic." Thomas stepped closer to the vault, and knelt down next to the now destroyed Adar as he spoke — to analyze it’s broken remains

There wasn't much of Adar left. The head and arms of the carnage sister were all that was left, and they were bent up pretty good when Parker violently pulled her into the vault. ”Are you interested in them?” Parker pressed her head against the opening. The robot's neck length black hair and white face became visible. It really wasn't as “pretty” as the other robots.

”That’s- “ Thomas started to speak, but he as he looked up he was met with the unexpected realization of Alice’s immortal nature. His mouth seemed to stopped for a moment, caught on his words like a machine might get stuck when a gear breaks. As soon as this disruption occurred, it passed with no acknowledgement that it ever happened by Thomas. “...Prodigy “ – Thomas said, tip toeing her name – ”I can only assume your, ah, involvement tonight was benevolent, so I thank you for contributing to our collective survival. If… “ Thomas stopped to consider his words “Find me in the morning. I’ll figure out whatever care your arm will necessitate. For now, I ask that you leave me and Miss Parker to our own devices."

”Alright, I'm going to hold you to that.” Lucy forced a smile. ”And you have to look at my uh, my side? I think that got nicked too.” She squinted her eyes. ”Just don't get any funny ideas, doctor.” Lucy made her way out of the room.

”So.” Alice's head seemed to float towards the ceiling, as if she had been kneeling this entire time and decided to stand up. ”Why are you ”really” here?”

---

That was it! They had done... something! They were in a position that was better than what they were in before and that could potentially be used to gain momentum in this battle! Zachary couldn't help but grin at the sight of the robot bleeding. He imagined this is what everybody from the movie 300 felt like when Xerxes was injured by Leonidas, though he didn't have any desire to end up like the Spartan king.

"Press the attack!" Zach instructed, intent on re-engaging Nariko with his bow again. If they were quick, then none of the other sisters could reach them! Their chances only decrease with the addition of more of these chassis! Believing this to be the best course of action, Zachary advanced again with no hesitation. Fortune favors the bold, or whatever the saying was.

In his signature one-motion shot, he nocked an arrow and fired it at the weakened sister, intent on keeping the pressure up. The small amount of damage Nariko had received didn't slow her sword swings. She had discarded the buckets of water and now had all eight of her swords at her command. It was difficult to get a shot past her, but with the other attacking, Zachary knew he'd have a chance.

”Ohz nohz!” Alexandria came running around the corner, followed shortly by Calvin.

Shit, that's...!

Spotting the additional sister, Zachary put his entire being into stopping his advance. Unfortunately, he stumbled in the process and nearly tripped. He simply wasn't expecting her arrival at that time. It was certainly the worst moment for him, and even after he recovered, he had been frozen to the spot in confusion as to what he should do next given the additional threat.

Alexandria lowered Aleecia to the floor and stood up again, still holding the blind girl's hand. ”Just you watch Calvin, I'll stop everyone from getting booped!” She hurled the spear with all of her might, and it looked like it was headed straight for Zachary!

Thankfully, while he had more or less been a deer caught in the headlights, Zach was entirely focused on the sister that threw the spear and hurriedly made a motion to get out of its way. He wasn't going to take a spear thrown by a robot like a champ, he imagined.

But the spear was not aimed at Zachary. Behind him, Willow had her sword out and was prepared to cleave through someone. Her mighty steed allowed her to approach the infinites before they could even take notice of her. But Willow was not oblivious to Alexandria's attack. She leaned out of the way, but not without losing her sword. ”Whah!?” The horse steered off course, but Zachary was directly in its path. Willow took notice of the archer and reached for him. Up until now, Zachary hadn't realized how large her hands were.

Rolling out of the would certainly have been more than enough to keep him out of the literal hands of the enemy. However, Zachary Ackerson was no soldier. He was not used to dealing with a constant stream of unexpected encounters. Taking in all this new information was not an action he could do instantaneously. And so, when he heard the spear hitting something of Willow's, it had alerted him to look behind him, but that's all he could really manage. The sight of a robot and her steed approaching him was comprehended, but realizing he needed to hop out of the way... well, he didn't have that extra second to do so.

Willow’s icy grip was unpleasant, as was the pain that came with it. Being grabbed by a horse-riding robot hurt and the impact had cost him his bow, though he did still the arrow from earlier tightly in his grasp.

...Shit! At this rate, I'll...!

With willow's hand around Zachary's neck, she was able to pull him up onto the horse and across her lap. Willow was going to drive her scepter into Zachary's face but the archer was able to block it by getting his arm up in front of his face. This caused the scepter to snap in half. With his other arm, Zachary attempted to stab the robot in any vital point he could find. There wasn't much to work with, The doll joints didn't have many openings where he could jam the arrow. But he attempted to go for the robot's glowing red eyes. The agitated carnage sister dropped what remained of her scepter so that she could take hold of Zachary's wrist when he tried to stab her. Her grip was a lot stronger than that of humans, there was no escaping it. Willow released Zachary's neck and placed her hand on the side of his face. Her thumb slid over his cheek. ”Not, this, time.” Willow slid her thumb into Zachary's eye socket and dug it deep. His screams did nothing to stop the pain, and he continued to hemorrhage blood over the carnage sister's arm before suddenly going silent.

Jezebel, Faith, and Ice came just in time to see Willow and Zachary running towards them. Jezebel had started running towards them as soon as she heard Zachary's scream. “Zachary!?” she called out, but she was too far away to do anything. Willow rolled the archer off of her horse and turned around to continue fighting while he landed with a very audible thud. Jezebel ran up to Zachary's side and shook him. “Zachary, answer me” Her breathing was audible through her clenched teeth. “Zachary... No...”

Zachary wasn't moving...

Calvin had thought they had a shot. As Alexandria launched her spear, he felt a slight bit of elation. This was their chance. The spear connected with Willow’s sword, sending it scattering off loudly. But Willow continued. And grabbed Zachary. And pulled him up. And…
With one hand held by Alexandria, Aleecia grabbed hold of Calvin's arm, her head a mess from the sounds of fighting everywhere. She was so happy that Alexandria was helping against the other sisters, but she couldn't even begin to worry about the infinites with the sounds pressing into her skull. Every sound bit into her brain and she couldn't seem to understand how large the area actually was. but then she heard the screams. Everything seemed to finally stand still, but not in the way she imagined. Aleecia let out gasp after gasp, shaking and holding tightly onto Calvin, asking over and over what was going on?!

"NO!" The roar came out of him as Willow dropped the body without a care in the world. He saw Jezebel run towards the still figure of the Infinite Archer. His legs buckled a bit, but he held himself up as he caught a glimpse of Zach’s body. The Infinite – his friend was dead. Of that he was sure. Calvin dully realized he still had the pick in his hand. It was a thin blade, lacking in ornament, but strong. Calvin’s work was always that way, and though he felt a bit of revulsion upon looking at the object, he gripped it tightly. His body began to lurch forward, but a small arm continued to grip at him, holding him just above the wrist.

Aleecia felt Calvin start to move and she stopped shaking, there was no way she was going to let Calvin go, not if his screams would soon join the poor Infinite's as well. Allie planted her feet and held on as hard as she could, "No!"

Willow had turned away, looking to re-engage with the A-Team who was currently facing Nariko. But Aleecia was holding on tight. ”Get to Nariko.” He pulled ahead with a bit of force, and his gauntlet slipped off of his hand as Aleecia gripped hard. ”Alexandria! If anything happens to her, I’m going next.” As he broke into a sprint, he looked back for half a moment. He saw Ice, still running to catch up. Good. He could take care of her.


Ice finally reached the scene, ignoring the stabbing pain in his abdomen, he had arrived behind the others and his eyes first searched for Aleecia. He saw her hugging onto a gauntlet that was warm with familiarity, screaming for someone to stop. His head imediately turned to see Calvin sprinting for Willow, who he guessed had been the cause of the screaming he had heard just moments earlier, "Calvin blimey- Stop! You idiot you can't- Stop!" As the words loudly escaped Ice's throat, his voice started to crack with anxiety and fear for his closest friend.

Calvin felt blood course through his veins. Willow still was turned away. Calvin presumed she was trying to retrieve her sword. He wouldn’t let her. Raising the pick in his warm, bare hand above his head, he let out a yell as he lunged forward, hoping to plunge his craft directly into the Carnage Sister's back.