”And thus….we come here. To the end of our little game. There is nowhere left to go; nowhere left to run and hide or avoid each other! You have but a few hours left down there until our delightful little island ceases to be. I hope you’ve enjoyed yourselves here; I know I certainly have, and I’m sure our viewers at home have, as well.”
Bulletins and Updates
This is the last phase. I’ll be going to bed shortly after I post this, so if you have any more posts to make or writing you want to do, now’s the time. Once I’m up, I’ll be hitting the grindstone to start vomiting out the finale fights, until there’s just one of you left standing.
The entire island has been seemingly erased, with the exception of the small few mile stretch of land holding the final safe zone. The edges are a glitching, corrupted mess and will be steadily eroding further inward toward the center of the area as time passes on.
The ‘weather’ is gentle, though with a cold breeze blowing through and a pale light as of just before sunrise illuminating things.
Death Game 2020: Finale
The Prisoner, Gengar, Pathfinder, Revenant, Mirage, Karl Jak, Weiss
A lone chunk of land was all that remained of the once sprawling island arena. Over a thousand square miles, reduced to less than ten. A small stretch of farmland, with its scattered buildings and equipment, and the crops long since past their time for harvesting. Here and there trees loomed, casting thin shadows in the pale light.
The undead pair of Gengar and the Prisoner had been the first to arrive, slowly pacing through the eerily silent landscape. The chilly breeze did nothing to elevate their spirits, but it did certainly set the grim mood for the final fight.
But they weren’t left alone for long.
As they pace along, beneath the shadow of a tree, they both heard it. The metallic twang as something hit the bark, and then a whining sound...before a sudden call of “Hello, friends!” a split-second before something huge and metallic crashed into the surprised form of the Prisoner and sent the both of them toppling and rolling over into the fields.
“What in the--?!” Gengar snarled, rounding on the commotion and grasping for his sword. He was rewarded for his attentiveness by being absolutely slathered in viscous, green sludge with a cartoonish splortch sound. For one, brief instant it was disgust that reigned supreme in his mind. Then it was agony. Searing, unbearable agony as his ears were filled with the sound of acidic bubbling and sizzling, and his own frenzied screams as he dropped to the ground and wallowed around with all his might to try and clean himself of the ichor.
The form of Revenant loomed over him, yellow eyes blazing from behind the tinted lenses of the Bloon Solver’s protective suit. “So ghosts can feel pain,” he hissed, curiosity managing to creep into his tone for the briefest of moments before he leveled the nozzle of the death-spurting glue gun. “How fascinating.” And the weapon erupted in a torrent of the thick goo again.
Gengar screeched and howled, rolling away and phasing through the ground to get away. He popped up several feet away, heaving and gasping. One eye had been burned away, one of his arms a sizzling stump, but he was intact otherwise. “What the heck...kind of Acid was that?”! he demanded, as he flung his arm out to one side and freed his sword of its sheath. A sharp blow on the whistle there heralded the appearance of Yojimbo.
The towering ronin appeared on command, slowly clomping its way out of the shadow of the trees, one hand resting on the hilt of its sword. Masked eyes turned to survey the duel between ghost and simulacrum, before armored fingers grasped its sword…
“Yeah! Let’s get this freak, pal!” Gengar snickered.
...and Yojimbo struck, like a flash of quicksilver. One instant it stood, some half dozen paces behind Gengar. The next, nearly a dozen paces past both combatants, slowly pacing away with the light clap-clump of its wooden sandals. The gleam of its blade slowly vanished into its sheath...and with a finally ting of metal, it was fully sheathed.
And Gengar was split in two by an unseen slash, as Yojimbo vanished in a swirl of cherry blossoms.
The ghost pokemon’s remaining eye bugged out and threatened to burst as its bifurcated mouth spread wide in a silent screech of utter disbelief…
...only to have Revenant lash out with a frenzy of strikes from the Vampire Killer, the holy weapon turning the ghost pokemon into so much flaming confetti as the summoning blade for Yojimbo tumbled to the ground.
Death Game 2020: Finale
The Prisoner, Pathfinder, Revenant, Mirage, Karl Jak, Weiss
Pathfinder struggled desperately against the Prisoner. His heightened mobility from the Maneuver Gear Mirage had given him was his greatest asset, letting him keep on the move and avoid being caught in a straight fight for too long. The swords that had come with it were great, but he had a feeling he wouldn’t last too long against that wicked-looking sword the corpse candle was packing.
Anubis jeered and taunted invisibly, heard only by his wielder, as he spurred the undead on. And the Prisoner was quick to respond, slowly but surely picking up speed and momentum the longer they fought. Every lunge carried him further and faster, every swipe and slash came closer to striking him, every block was more perfect and smooth.
“It looks like I might be in trouble, friend!” Pathfinder called out, the emoticon on his chest flicking to a worried look, eyes darting side to side rapidly.
The arwing drone with him hovered about with a whir of its tiny ion engines, camera lens adjusting and focusing...and then the blue segments of its wings popped open, revealing the gleaming chromed barrel of twin blasters. With a whine of building energy, they let loose a quick salvo of gleaming green laser fire. Each one only packed the punch of a small pistol, but the raking stream of them across the undead’s back was still a fine distraction.
“Oh! Thanks, friend!” Pathfinder chirped as he launched himself with gear-assisted speed and force at the Prisoner, crashing into him with both legs and rolling into a clumsy, powerful blow with both swords from the gear.
It staggered the undead, tearing open two bone-deep gashes in its chest, but failed to bring it down. With a surge of its flagging strength, the corpse-candle surged back up and launched into a frenzy of strikes with both swords, uncaring that one of them could do no damage.
It was only the timely intervention of another ally, as Mirage came sprinting into the fray, that saved Pathfinder. A flying kick, accompanied by a hail of gunfire from the chicago typewriter, sent the Prisoner staggering and drunkenly toppling over into a mangled heap.
As all three of the Legends crowded in to finish the downed undead off...there came the sharp electric whining of a drill spinning up, as a wave of green flame burst out over the farmland.
“Morning, lovelies,” came the saccharine voice of Karl Jak, as he strode into view. His left arm was ensconced from the shoulder down in a mechanized set of armor, terminating at the elbow into a monstrous drill coursing with lines of green flame. “Room for two more?” He grinned as he planted the haft of the green dragon in the dirt beside him. “I sure hope so.”
“There’s only one of you, you pompous skinsuit,” Revenant hissed. “I’ll deal with this one; you two handle the wax bag over there.” He rounded on Karl with fire in his eyes, hefting the oozing nozzle of the bloon solver as he stalked forward.
“Oooh...that’s going to be messy,” Karl whispered, a smirk tugging at his lips.
“You have no idea,” the synthetic nightmare growled.
“Oh, no, sorry. Not you.” Karl lazily gestured with his drill-arm toward something behind Revenant, as the roar if a chainsaw could be heard. “I meant that.”
He whirled around just in time to see Weiss come bounding into view, leaping over the still-downed Prisoner and crashing into Mirage with a fierce dropkick, crowbar and chunks of rubble held in her telekinetic grasp crashing into the Red-powered Legend with a sudden bombardment, driving her down with a yelp of surprised pain.
And Kazooie burst free from the backpack, with an avian screeching noise and swung down with the chainsaw for all she was worth. The blade sputtered and sparked as it hit the twin swords Pathfinder raised in defense. “Uh-oh! Friends, I’m in trouble!” the MRVN yelped, the face on his chest switching to a tear-streaked one moments before his blades snapped in two.
The chainsaw came down and carved a sparking, steel-shredding arc through his mechanical frame, from shoulder to chest before the motor of the chainsaw finally gave out.
Dropping his swords, Pathfinder struggled to keep upright as sparks and oil popped and spattered from his new wound. The shattered screen on his chest went out, and the optic in his head flickered and wavered unsteadily. “D-Do...do your….best…!” he managed to get out, looking toward his teammates. He lifted his head up toward the Arwing. “G-Go--gggggggooooo help them!” With the last of his strength, he managed to give a thumbs-up to Revenant, before his other arm locked around the bird-woman in a death-hug as he toppled over. “Your best...friend...believes...in yooouuuurgh…..”
With a warbling of dying speakers, the MRVN went silent and dark, even as his final action kept Kazooie locked in his arm, the death-hug as tight as any vice.
Death Game 2020: Finale
The Prisoner, Revenant, Mirage, Karl Jak, Weiss
“What a shame,” Karl snickered. “At least he went out fighting.”
Revenant rounded on the executive with a roar and charged at him, hefting the bloon solver and absolutely drenching the landscape before him in a torrent of the noxious, caustic glue. Everything was covered in green sludge, bubbling and hissing as everything melted.
Revenant barged through it heedlessly, the slick green suit protecting him from the acidic haze that was quickly blanketing the area.
Karl was not so lucky, and fell back with a coughing fit as he covered his face with one arm. “That’s just foul,” he wheezed.
“Just like your attitude!” Revenant seethed, letting the bloon solver’s nozzle fall into one hand while the other came up holding the vampire killer and lashed out violently.
Karl dodged for all he was worth, ducking and weaving and leaping this way and that, managing to avoid the worst of the attack and only suffer a few scratches here and there...until he struck out in retaliation and caught the whip’s chain with his drill. “My turn.”
The weapon spun up to full speed in an instant, whining and droning as green flames erupted around it and threatened to pull Revenant right off his feet as the chain was reeled in. With a curse, the simulacrum released it and recoiled back, just as Pathfinder’s arwing drone swooped in and pelted the producer with a spattering of laser fire as it buzzed by overhead.
Revenant took the chance to turn and run, loping off away from the drill-wielding executive back toward his remaining ally.
Mirage was locked in a desperate struggle with the Prisoner, the undead’s head-flame blazing a bright crimson red. He had lost an arm in the ongoing struggle, and wielded Anubis in his remaining one. It was a silvery blur as it flashed and arced wildly, the undead managing a slow and steady marching advance while he pushed Mirage back. Deflecting bullets and punches and kicks in equal measure, in showers of sparks.
“Whoa-hoa-hey there, big, uh...guy? Take it easy!” Mirage yelped as she was forced to duck into an awkward tumble to keep her head. “This is all part of the--whoof!” The breath was ripped from the Legend’s lungs by the sudden impact of a crowbar striking her squarely in the chest. Next second, the angry, tear-streaked face of Weiss was all she saw before everything turned to stars and Mirage went flying, tumbling end over end across the fields with a stream of blood in her wake, and Weiss in hot pursuit.
Revenant stormed onto the scene, Karl Jak pursuing almost sedately behind him, and crashed into the Prisoner with a hail of viscous green sludge.
“Hmm...two for one, eh…” Karl whispered, and planted the green dragon in the earth to tug the C-Finder into his hand. Lining it up, he depressed the trigger with a smirk. “Smooches.”
The sky split open as a brilliant beam of blue light thundered down toward the two dueling abominations. Revenant looked up and for a moment, there was a distant longing etched on his features...before he lurched into motion and clawed at the Prisoner’s arm-stump with one hand, wrenching the beleaguered undead down atop him.
When the smoke cleared, The Prisoner had been reduced to a charred husk, quickly fading to ash, as Revenant slowly hauled his smoking carcass out of the crater. “You...are so dead,” he rasped at Karl.
#001 The Prisoner eliminated
04 Contestants Remain
Death Game 2020: Finale
Revenant, Mirage, Karl Jak, Weiss
Revenant hauled himself up out of the crater. Smoking and charred, the protective suit for the bloon solver a not-so distant memory along with the weapon itself. One hand clawed at the dirt as the synthetic nightmare ripped himself up back onto level ground, and the other arm soon followed…
...clutching the gleaming, pristine hilt of Anubis.
Karl’s eyebrows shot up at that. “Oh, that can’t be good,” he whispered.
“Oh, it’s actually wonderful,” Revenant hissed, taking the sword handle in both hands. “For me...for you? Very bad things are about to happen.” And he bolted forward, storming across the field and uphill toward Karl, like some berserking shinobi-cum-samurai in his last desperate charge.
All that was missing was the ‘Banzai!’ to go with it.
Karl merely grinned and lunged forward on his own, drill-arm drawn back and ready to strike…
“BANZAI!” a voice shrieked, and out of (quite literal) left field, Mirage came charging in.
She crashed into Karl Jak like a runaway freight train, and then spun around to swing Weiss, held by the head in the Legend’s Red-empowered hand, directly into the executive to send them both toppling away in a flailing heap.
“Go get ‘em!” she rasped, toppling over onto her hands and knees to just breathe.
Revenant leaped over his breathless ally, never even breaking strike with his charge, and fell upon the unlikely duo with a vengeance just as they managed to regain their feet Anubis flashed...once...twice...and then a savage kick from Revenant sent Weiss rolling along the ground, her legs left behind.
The huntress gagged and sputtered, blood dripping down her chin. “N-No….” Her eyes wavered unsteadily, looking toward the place where her partner -- no, where her friend lay trapped by the death hug of another competitor. “C’mon...move...work, you stupid...body…” she wheezed, willing against everything for her failing body to move.
Revenant stalked into view, looming over Weiss’s prone form...and crouched down before her. “Hey, kid,” he rasped. “Wanna see something cool?”
Weiss stared up at him incredulously, spitting out a mouthful of blood. “S-Sure. Why the fuck not.”
The simulacrum placed Anubis aside and clapped his hands together. “Watch closely.” His fingers flashed and whirred as he went through a number of quick hand motions, several seals forming in rapid succession...dog, monkey, snake, tiger...and then without warning his hands shot forward. The clawed, metallic digits, already in the form of a spearhead, skewered the icy huntress’s face like an actual spear.
Blood dripped down her chin, and down his arms.
“H-Huh...neat…” she managed, before the life finally bled out of her entirely.
Death Game 2020: Finale
Revenant, Mirage, Karl Jak
Revenant grasped for the hilt of Anubis as he rolled aside just in time to avoid the huge drill tearing into the ground. Karl scowled, wrenching it out and turning to regard the simulacrum. “So much for an easy finish…” he muttered.
Mirage staggered up to stand beside her teammate with a wheeze. “Okay, okay...I’m back! I’m ready!” she managed. “Let’s...let’s go! Finish this!”
“Couldn’t agree more,” Revenant rasped.
They both lunged forward in unison, Mirage splitting into half a dozen duplicates to run interference as fake bullets rained down from crazy angles. She was going to do her best to make this--
“No, no...I don’t think so,” Karl whispered, and raised the green dragon overhead. With a deft, one-handed twirl he spun it around to point blade-first at the ground. “Alright, you hunk of junk...GREEN DRAGON ROAR!” And he thrust it into the earth with all the strength he could muster.
It was like an earthquake hit, or a bomb went off underground. The earth heaved up with a bellowing dragon’s roar, the viridian silhouette of Guan Yu himself rising with the Green Dragon twirling like a buzzsaw and sending Mirage and Revenant flying in opposite directions like leaves in the wind.
“Not bad…” the executive muttered, rounding on the synthetic nightmare and stalking toward him. “Now let’s try that finishing you off thing again…” He closed the distance to within half a dozen yards and raised the drill as it spun up to speed. Karl grinned, preparing his final death lunge. “Goodnight, love…”
And then a hail of gunfire shattered the tension, as several bloody holes tore open through Karl’s chest. His eyes widened in surprise, as he staggered weakly.
Turning around, he stared in disbelief at Mirage, one arm hanging limply at her side but the other raised and holding the chicago typewriter steadily leveled at Karl. “Bang...bang…”
“Son of a bitch,” Karl whispered as he slowly toppled over into a bloody heap on the ground.
Revenant was slow to regain his feet, wavering unsteadily as he did so. “So…” he rasped, staring at Mirage. “Only one thing left to do…”
“Y-Yeah…” Mirage flashed an uneasy grin. “Guess so. Only one left standing and all, huh…?”
“Damn straight.” And Revenant grasped Anubis in both hands before breaking into a sprint. The sword’s jackal-headed spirit loomed over him, grinning maliciously. “I lost the torch-headed thing, but you’ll do nicely too. Lemme help you out,” he snickered. And the simulacrum wove and darted between the hail of bullets with precision and grace, avoiding each round by the barest margin, even going to far as to slice some of them in two.
Closing in on Mirage, he lunged forward and with one heavy stroke...severed the Legend’s arms at the elbow. A bloody scream went up from her, as she toppled over onto her back writhing and wailing in agony. “Nothing personal…” Revenant hissed, raising the sword overhead. “...just part of the game.”
And the sword came down in a silver arc, intent on relieving Mriage of her head…
….just as a huge conflagration of green fire erupted from where Karl Jak had fallen.
Death Game 2020: Finale
Revenant, Mirage, Karl Jak
Karl Jak’s body slowly rose up. No longer flesh and blood, but a being consumed entirely in green flame. Streaks and streamers of purple flowed over him, taking the form of his ruined suit, as his head lifted up, gleaming pools of dark brown where his eyes should be. The drill on one arm roared to life, spinning hard enough to create a spiraling helix of rainbow-hued light around it.
“What in the god damn…” Mirage managed, staring with wide and gaping eyes as she struggled to see through the roaring energy.
“Wasnt he dead?!” Revenant roared, shielding his eyes with one arm.
Karl Jak’s free hand rose up, forming a spiraling nebula of energy in his palm as he rocketed forward over the ground. The crazily whirling energy mass was thrown forward, hitting Mirage and sending him sailing away, spinning like a top into the clouded sky above.
Revenant scowled and lurched forward, Anubis raised overhead and struck out. It was responded to in kind with a shower of sparks as the drill batted the blade aside and Karl rounded on the simulacrum. There was a brief staredown, then they both surged into motion.
Karl’s newfound spiral-driven strength clashed with the killing intent of Revenant, augmented by the supernatural precision and learning ability of the mystical sword. They clashed back and forward for several seconds...then a minute…
...then finally Revenant began to gain the upper hand. He pushed forward, driving Karl back with a relentless and steadily intensifying barrage of strikes, slashes, thrusts and insults.
It almost seemed the synthetic nightmare would win…
...until Karl Jak’s free hand lashed out, driving the barrel of the C-Finder into Revenant’s gut like a makeshift dagger. There was a cracking sound as the plastic-like casing barely withstood the strain, and then with an uppercut motion the spiraling mass of Karl-like energy sent the synthetic nightmare into the air with a twisting helix of light trailing after him.
Still with the gun raised overhead, he wasted no time in depressing the trigger.
“I DON’T FUCKING BELIEVE THIIIIS!” Revenant roared, as the sky split open and a second pillar of light came thundering down onto him, and completely incinerated him.
Below, Karl simply waited as the lance of heavenly light came down toward him...and then thrust the drill on his arm up to meet it. A blinding conflagration of light flared, blue and green clashing...and then everything exploded and Karl’s brilliantly shining form was covered in smoke.
Out of the smoke, Karl Jak weakly staggered. The all-consuming flames had died down to bare embers along his skin, the drill having shrunk back down to a mere forearm-covering gauntlet. “And that….is how you win a murder island torunament,” he whispered, hacking up a mouthful of blood and spit.
A horrible screeching sound from the sky overhead drew Karl’s eyes upward...to see Mirage rocketing down toward him.
“Oh...that isn’t good…”
All that time in the Apex Games served Mirage well, as she flailed through the sky with all the grace of a wingless turkey. A final breath, and just before impact...a huge wall of flame belched forward, covering Karl in a blazing inferno as all the force of a gravity-augmented dragon-turtle-Mirage crashed into him.
Smoke and ash swirled in the breeze for several seconds...before Mirage slowly and weakly staggered out into the light. With one boot, she kicked the body of Karl Jak away as it flopped over the ruined and blackened grass. Glassy eyes stared up at the sky, as he remained motionless.
The arwing camera drone hovered down into view, slowly circling Mirage as she lifted what remained of her arms, with a weak and exhausted grin. “Yeah! That’s right! I’m basically the best!” she managed, with a hollow, hoarse voice. “I’m the greatest...in the…” And with a groan she toppled over into the dirt.
Mirage lay there, breathing weakly but with a stupid grin on her face as she stared up at the sky. “Well, Renee…” she wheezed. “....how was that? I do a good enough job?”
There was a crackle of static, as one of the few hidden speakers remaining came to life. ”Congratulations, contestant number eighteen! You are the winner of the Death Game, and have claimed the illustrious title of our champion.”
There was the soft creak of a door opening, and then pure white light shone out onto the blackened grass. ”Your way out awaits.”
It seemed to take all the strength Mirage had left to get up onto her feet, staggering and shaking on unsteady and weak legs. “Alright…” she whispered. “...let’s go.” She stumbled forward into the doorway, pausing for only a moment to take one last look over the carnage around the scene….and then turned and stepped into the light.
