[10] End Game

[Jesper]

Everything, for better or for worse, seemed to spiral down to a finish.

The arctic chill garnered from Sage’s rather unique ability remained, though the harshness that had been found in the cold had been offset by the looming levels of lava. Sophia lifted a hand to wipe on her face—a brief glance at the appendage revealed a layer of soot that had been smeared. The priestess couldn’t help but feel the slightest bit of despair—not only was she fighting for her dear life, but she hadn’t taken a decent shower in God-knew how long. Such things had stopped her before, but she couldn’t allow this situation to be similar—not when she had come so far in the game.

Sophia stumbled a bit as a crack underneath her left foot deepened, almost giving way before she managed to side-step to safety. The healer glanced around, vertigo filling every part of her senses as she tried to survey her standing. The ledge below the mouth of the volcano served as their pedestal, the open air, filled with smoke and ashes, as their surroundings. Kai, despite his extensive injury, still managed to keep an arrogant smirk pasted on his face, though the glimmer that had been in his eye seemed to die down a little bit. He had been backed into a corner, pushed against the ropes.

Down but not out.

“Once again, I have miscalculated the measure of your resolve,” the madman spoke through gritted teeth. “My finale has reached exactly the levels of entertainment that I had been hoping for. For that, you can pat yourself on the backs.”

“I’m touched,” Piper rolled her eyes, wiping off a small portion of Kai’s blood that she had failed to notice initially.

Kai cracked his knuckles. “You four are the spirit of this game. Through blood, toil, and tears, you have overcome the many challenges I had set out for you. However, my gratitude for making this game a success can only extend so far. Somewhere along the line, this game must finish. And I intend to become the victor.”

“He’s stalling,” Sage breathed, clutching her pistol as she edged closer to Ashe. As if on cue, the chopping sounds of helicopter blades sounded in the distance. Sophia, despite her mind’s urgings, had allowed her hopes to rise to the expectation of a rescue. After all, the last helicopter they had come into contact with had been a form of that very salvation. However, her faith and hopes were dashed as a chain of gunfire lined the area before the foursome, splitting them in half as they jumped out of the way.

“Either our saviors have the worst aim ever…” Piper began.

“…or that chopper isn’t for us,” Ashe finished, looking down at her comrades for some sign as to what their plan of attack was. The healer looked up and tried to distinguish who their attacker had been. The helicopter swiped through the smog and quickly darted to the air behind them. As they passed, Sophia didn’t recognize any faces in particular, though they donned the same outfit that Kai’s guards had worn during her several encounters with them. Her heart sank, forcing her to dig deep down inside to find motivation. One glance at Kai was all it took; the sneer on his face was enough to make her skin crawl.

“So you fight best together, eh?” He laughed silently. His eyebrows furrowed. “Well, good luck with that. I hope my little toy doesn’t bother you.”

With that, he broke out into a maniacal laughter that would make even the corniest of villains wince. The foursome backed up, knitting their bodies together in a tight formation. Sophia looked around desperately, her eyes fluttering in several different directions as she tried to find some viable alternative to dying in the mouth of a volcano. The land feature threatened to burst with lava at any moment, the very ground trembled beneath them, and death from the helicopter above came raining down with bullets. She shook her head—the situation was coming to a head, and they had a shot against Kai, but not with that blasted fly bothering them constantly.

Suddenly, she heard a startled gasp from behind her. Turning her head, she witnessed a rock pop out of the ground, buckling from the pressure of the magma below. Although it wasn’t big enough to threaten the group as a whole, getting pelted by the thing could have meant serious injury, and losing even one member of their group would have severely decreased their chances for survival. The healer almost turned to pull the girl out of the way, but before she could react, Sage lifted her hands and summoned a spear of ice. The element shattered the rock, and only a shower of pebbles even so much as touched the group.

“Sage!” Piper sounded her plan just seconds before the strategy came to Sophia. “Use your ice to attack the chopper blades!”

“Wh—what?” she stuttered out, indecision prevalent in her features.

“You’re the only one who even has a shot at it,” Ashe patted her on the shoulder, and motioned to her gun as she continued. “There’s only so much that these things can do. And shooting down a helicopter isn’t one of them.”

“Not so fast!” Kai snapped, realizing their plans as he pulled out a rectangular device. “There’s such a thing as trying to make things too interesting. Now shut up and die![/]”

Pressing a button, the ground below them began to shake. A crevice formed underneath them, and they could only assume what was about to ensue. They each simultaneously backed up diagonally as if they were trapped in a box, and jumped backwards with all their might as the ground exploded with a fountain of lava. Sophia fell onto her backside and shook her head violently, shaken but grateful that she had moved in time to avoid getting broiled alive. She stole a glance at Demolic; his device worked like one of the video game controllers that she had seen the young monks use back at the temple—a stick controlled something, and a button activated it. Startling realization make her swallow back the lump in her throat.

“If you needed another example of my genius, take a look at this,” he cackled, pressing the button and summoning another pool of magma underneath the body of Sophia. She rolled hard to the left, wincing as small bits of the lava burned her forearm when she rolled out of the way. “There is no place you can hide, no safety to be found. If you wish to rest, seek eternity.”

His confidence was noticeably building back up, much to the chagrin of the group as they dodged lava and bullet alike. Kai was laughing all the while, mashing down on the button as they giddily watched lava explode from the holes that had already been created—she assumed that even he would frown upon wrecking the [i]entire ground that supported his weight. Though he directed bursts of lava at every member, he focused on Sage the most. There was no place she could stand to avoid lava and still have a shot at the helicopter, much to her annoyance. However, through the haze of smoke and steam, a realization struck Sophia like a bolt of lightning.

Focusing on Sage pushed her into a corner, while the other three had been forced into a triangle surrounding the host as their advancements were redirected by lava flow. He could only attack with the lava so quickly before he had to wait on the machine to refocus. Sophia locked eyes with Ashe and Piper, who suddenly came to the very same conclusion that she had reached.

“Now!” Sophia shouted, and the trio rushed the madman in an attempt to take the device from him. Kai glanced at all three in quick succession, and pressed a button. The ground shook once more, and a geyser opened up right before the feet of Ashe, pushing her backwards and out of the picture of their attack. The remaining pair continued their pursuit as the host frantically pounded on the button, trying to summon at least something to stop them. Nothing came as a result, but a line of chopper fire pushed Piper backwards.

“Dammit!” she cried out. “Sophia, go for it!”

Realizing that she might not make it to him in time, she wound her arm back and threw a ball of azure ki at the man, hoping that her aim towards the controller remained true. Time seemed to slow at the energy spiraled towards the man’s device; his finger creeping towards the button that could possibly summon her death. Luckily, the attack reached the end of the rectangular object and destroyed it in a large fiery ball. Kai gasped and tossed it to the ground, watching it smolder in ashes. Growling, he clenched a fist and sprinted towards Sophia, who was still on the ground following her short fall after throwing her attack a bit too hard. A familiar barrage of fists crashed down upon her. Two hooks found her cheek and jawbone, and another would have connected if Sophia didn’t raise her uninjured forearm to meet it.

Pushing his arm backwards, she clenched a fist of her own and directed it towards the one spot where she was positive he had a weakness. The madman groaned and reached two trembling hands down to his groin, sinking to his knees.

Sophia jumped to her feet and ran over towards Sage, fighting off the urge to smile. “Now’s your time to shine, Sage! Wait for the helicopter to pass over, and…”

“Got it!” the blue-haired girl nodded as she saw her opportunity, sending a blast of ice towards the flying machine. The foursome looked on with cautious hope as the arctic spear rushed to meet its target; even Kai stole a glance as he pushed himself to his feet. The attack hit the base of the chopper blades, and suddenly, they began to turn slower.

And slower…then they stopped.

Momentum allowed the immobilized helicopter to carry over to the lip of the volcano, but no further. Steel crushed against rock, and the chopper began to plummet towards the impending pool of lava below. The machine exploded, sending a ball of flame shooting upwards behind the group as they turned to once again stare at Kai Demolic, their one last true obstacle.

“It’s of no matter,” he shrugged. “I’m still more than capable of destroying all of you.”

“Tired words of a broken man,” Ashe smirked.

[Ashe]

"Tired words of a broken man," Ashe spoke softly.

The mastermind leered at her before they all began to feel the ground trembling once more beneath them. The four girls exchanged looks before Sophia said what they were all thinking. "I destroyed it, unless he's got another one!"

Looking back in the direction of the man proved that this was not something he had caused himself, however, as he turned and looked into the variety of crevices that surrounded them. "Perfect... perfect!" he mumbled wildly, growing excited. "Even without the device, the volcano has grown unstable. It's going to blow soon, and when it does it will take this entire island with it!" His hysterical cries had pierced the ears of all of the girls.

Unable to contain herself, the fiery haired medic began to approach him. "You fucking piece of shit!" she began, paying no heed to the streams of molten fury rushing beneath her.

"There's a city still here, with hundreds of citizens!" the restorative priestess cried out, vainly hoping to appeal to any scrap of humanity that the man had left.

Sage was finding the heat to be vastly unbearable, wiping the pouring sweat from her brow as she trembled in compassionate rage. "They don't even know what's going on here and you... are happy to see them die?"

Kai gave a disdainful laugh as his arm casually dismissed the numbers in the air. "That, ladies, is what creates the greatest television," he reminded them, as if this somehow justified his actions.

Brilliant blue passion enveloped Ashe entirely, her eyes no longer showing any sign of humanity as they burned like stars. "You are a monster, Kai."

He simply smiled at her without a care. "I know," he answered simply. "But aren't we all?"

Ashe had fallen into step behind Piper as the four woman fanned out in a cone shape before the man, a deep flaming gulch separating them. "The people back in the city..." she began, remembering their courtesy and normalcy when they had eaten at the restaurant and replaced their clothing at the shops.

"Ashe, you should all realize by now the truth of the matter."

"What truth?" Piper demanded.

He laughed maniacally at their ignorance, bringing his graceful fingertips up to hold his pained cheekbones. "I didn't specifically seek all of these contestants out. I randomly chose you all." He paused for a moment to let the words sink in before continuing. "Of course, I did my research afterwards to make sure that my investment wasn't a folly. In the end, I just went with it, interested in what sort of entertainment ordinary people could provide."

With a great turn, he gestured at everything around them. "The four of you have become so interesting. I have already shown you how each of you could become that which you hate. Each of you having great potential for letting a single bad day send you directly into my direction," he chortled, his eyes falling directly onto Ashe's frenzied orbs. "Do you delude yourself into thinking that each and every one of those people in that city could not equally become just like me? That they too do not share the potential to do what you four have realized you are capable of?"

Not one of them said a word, leaving the man to continue into the silence as the liquid hatred flowed beneath them at a steadily increasing pace. "Sage, how did it feel to take the life of another living person?" he taunted.

"Sage, you are not responsible for those lives," Ashe snapped, trying to make sense and defend her from the madman's accusations. "There is a difference in a need for survival and killing for entertainment."

"I could have..." the girl began, leaving the pink haired girl to immediately cut in again as Kai grinned from ear to ear in victory.

"You think you could have, but Kai has made sure that we have been placed into situations where the choices are not really choices. Yeah, we could have let them kill us instead. We could have run in terror. We could have hidden until we starved. Kai would still have continued taking the lives that he's taken, and we would still be moving at the hand of the puppeteer."

Amused, Gregory Rogers held up one finger. "But I've taken no lives," he explained.

"A life taken by proxy would still count. At least, that's what you wish for us to believe. You want us to feel responsible for deaths caused based on our choices, even if we were not directly responsible, by claiming that our decisions may as well have been pulling the trigger ourselves," the gathering storm known as Ashe recouped. "And yet you wish to deny having any influence on the eliminations of both those at your command and the innocent contestants that you forced into this game."

He paced from one side of the ravine to another, his gaze falling upon the lava in glee. "You still believe that someone could be innocent?" He opened his mouth to continue another poetic story about the dark demons that every man held within, but Piper didn't give him the opportunity to respond.

"They were far more innocent than you, Kai Demolic!" she growled.

The blond haired priestess clasped her hands tightly before her as she looked at him in melancholy directness. "Some sins can be forgiven," she explained.

"Yes, I really want to be judged by a priestess that has betrayed her God and desired the death of one of her fellow contestants even after he had publically declared her to be a friend," he snapped sarcastically, the words cutting deeply into the woman. "I think the fact that you could wish for his death only as long as someone else's hands were stained with the blood speaks wonders for your hypocrisy."

"Shut up!" Piper screamed at him, teleporting quickly over the flowing tide to physically bring about her demand.

As soon as she appeared, Kai's hand clasped around her throat in a vice grip with amazing speed, squeezing strongly so that her eyes bulged from her head. She dangled within his one arm's grasp as he glowed a fierce red, turning and holding his trophy tall before walking over to the torrential vent at his feet. "Piper, why don't you tell them about how bad your little drug habit is? Why don't you explain to Sage what she is getting herself into with her dependence on chemical intervention?" He slowly lowered the struggling woman down until her feet were just barely shy of the hottest portion of the stream. It was only her raging aura itself that kept her feet from igniting into flames.

None of them knew what to say. Ashe tried her luck by begging him to return Piper to them, carefully avoiding the phrase 'release her'. He spun around, still holding her writhingly in the air, waiting to drop her into the fluid. "What about you, Ashe? Mommy and daddy wish the world for you and implant you with a very powerful relic that is capable of doing so many things. You can see the flows of energy through each and every one of us and sense when we are near. You have a well of latent power within you that most people struggle for. The entire world is at your feet, and yet you cast such power aside and instead cut your wrists and fuck more boys than the number of concerts you've been to."

"Leave her alone!" Sage cried out surprisingly, having heard enough. She attempted once more to freeze over the top of the volcano to keep the enormous shaking of the rocks at bay, but the heat was too overpowering, leaving her to fall forward to her knees as if dehydrated.

Sophia pulled her to her feet and glared at Kai, knowing that he had cut each of them deeply. Kai's laughter was so victorious and boastful, however, as he turned his assault to Sage once more. "You are nearly as bad. You know deep down that your sister has done horrible things to many people, things that make me look like a saint, and yet you are willing to always overlook these things if she is the one that has done them. It's ok to kill your close teacher, because precious big sister Zena would never do it through an act of pure selfishness, would she? No, of course not, even if she can give you no good reason why it was necessary, you are willing to let the subject drop because you are too weak and drug dependant to fight for yourself. I'm only slightly surprised that you are not having a seizure right now from just how many toxic chemicals you are imagining enter your body from the ash in the air right now," he finished darkly, leaving the girl to turn pale in response.

"Each of you think of yourself as ordinary and pure, and yet you ignore that you are too stained to be pure. And," he continued, motioning once more at the suffocating figure within his grasp. "Ordinary is nothing more than a phrased used by those of us in power to demean the weak. Everyone in that city is ordinary, yes. Because everyone in that city shelters their own hidden demons. Honestly, they are all just as fucked up as you are. I've done the research," he concluded.

"And now," he announced, stepping forward to the precipice at his feet. "I cast the first stone into the lake of fire as an offering. Perhaps Piper's sacrifice will appease the infernal fires enough that they not see fit to cleanse this entire island from the face of the planet!"

As if answering the man, the steam vents all around them suddenly burst into a tremendous fury of pressurized air, the quaking rock being strong enough to take all of their legs from beneath them until Kai lost his grip by slamming his head painfully into the burning rocks beneath him. Piper rolled painfully to a stop, gasping through ragged breaths to sort the oxygen from the sooty vapors before Sophia made her way to her.

"Come on, we have to get out of here!" she cried over the roaring from beneath them. She gestured feebly at the lava spilling angrily over the top of the caldera around them.

"I will not let you leave here alive!" the madman declared from within the thickening smoke. They couldn't see him, but there was no mistaking the desperate voice contained within. "No one on this island will live through this!"

Ashe slowly walked forward, swallowing down her fear to kneel down at the edge by the closest stream of passionate fury. She was going to lose her friends, one way or another. She couldn't let this happen. No, these people deserved to live, to correct the mistakes that they had made in their lives and to continue on. These were good people. As were those in the city.

"Go! NOW!" Ashe cried out, her voice echoing across the caldera to the others. She didn't wait to see if they had listened or not. She would need them off of the top of the lake of fire. But... how?

An image flashed through her mind, moving from person to person of all the people that she had met on this island. Those distinct and those unfamiliar. Everyone had a reason to live. Everyone. The people in the city... She couldn't just let them all die while entirely unaware of what was going to happen to them!

She would have killed Kai Demolic if it would have solved this problem. She could picture herself standing before him, her gun pointing directly against his pulsing temple as he slept, ready to take the shot herself. Her arm would be shaking, fear and panic gripping her tightly in realization of the moment that she was experiencing.

She could see herself so easily with her finger on the trigger, ready to kill the man that had caused all of this strife and torment. And yet... She still couldn't actually do it. Was she not strong enough? A hand gently placed itself onto her shaking arm and pushed it down, removing the gun from its target. "No, Ashe," an image of Kaden said to her, arriving at her side to be her emotional support. She could see herself looking up at him pleadingly, hoping for an answer to his comment. He simply ran his fingers through his dirty hair in his normal manner before looking back at the unmoving image of Kai Demolic. "You won't do it because you are strong. Strength is what prevents us from falling to the level of people like Gregory... Kai Demolic. We need to protect those we love and keep people like this from doing what they do, but if we are to do that..." the vision trailed off, searching for the words. "It isn't difficult to stop the monsters from doing what they do. The difficult part," he explained as if it were a simple fact of life. "is keeping your humanity and not joining them. If everyone took the easy route and took justice into their own hands, then this world would have no hope."

It was something, she realized, that she remember him telling her one day in the alternate future that Kai had shown her. She had asked him once why he came home so pained over a killer escaping him when he had had the man within a direct line to eliminate him. Kaden's words held true.

She would protect them all.

I need your help.

Her thoughts went into her soul, the guards that kept her Star's Tear from overflowing into her body unlocking themselves. She could feel it, as the entire world turned a bright shade of blue through her fiery eyes. She could feel everyone around her, in a great moment of overwhelming awareness, as they ran for the edge of the caldera. She could feel Kai seeking them out. She could feel each and every person in the town below the ruins as they went about their business, seeking shelter from the volcanic eruption that they had realized was to come.

The dark blue energy that ripped through her body left lines etched deeply into her skin, as if runes had been tattooed upon her, designating to her spiritual power the best way for her chakra to flow. Her dyed pink hair had found its coloring diminished, replaced by the sapphire hue of a super nova. She kneeled down as her clothing shredded away, placing her hands to the raging earth as if able to calm the land itself.

She had unlocked her deep well of power, ascending herself into something that was entirely unordinary.

Energy spread from her fingertips to slowly cover the top of the volcano like a spiritual seal, moving along every bit of it in rapidly strengthening pulses as Ashe's chakra embedded itself into the seal that she was creating. Everyone would live, she hoped, as long as she prevented this cataclysm from taking place. Piper... Sophia... Sage... They could bring Kai to justice afterwards.

She had no illusions that she would survive what she was doing. Her own well being was the furthest thing from her mind. Her strength lay in her compassion.

The eruption began, welling up within the seal with such force that it expanded upwards, fighting desperately to contain the explosion while Ashe channeled more and more power to fight back against the natural disaster. Her seal slowly turned into a bubble of passionate blue energy, welling up until she could be seen by all, breaking through the smoke and soot, an Ashe of her own namesake, standing tall with all seeing eyes. Her naked form had been covered in each etch and mark of where her energy expanded and flowed, and her wild blue hair blew into a flurry above her.

She had no theatrical aura in representation, however. Everyone on the island could see her standing tall above the enormous dome of energy attempting to contain and quell the monster below her. All of her energy was being placed into doing so.

"Live."

[Friend or Foe]

The dome ceiling of the quivering volcano began to quake harder, causing the four figures standing on a cracked platform to lose their footing and struggle to maintain themselves on their feet. Kai Demolic turned to leap from one ledge to the next, rolling as he landed in the middle of one of the earthquakes. Sage, Piper and Sophia used each other to stay standing, but were unable to follow him.

"What is she doing?!" Kai was shouting to nobody in particular. He looked up as the quaking stopped, allowing him to see the pink-haired teenager known as Ashe struggle to calm the volcano down. "She's going to make things worse! She'll mess up all my plans! She'll ruin everything!" He turned to run, looking for the nearest way to ascend higher, towards the opening at the top of the crater.

They were standing above the lava pit directly at the bottom of mother earth's boiling pot. Piper's first instinct was to chase after the madman, so that was what she did. She didn't know what Ashe was doing at the head of the mountain, but she knew whatever it was, it was the opposite of what Kai wanted.

Behind her, Sophia grabbed the smaller Sage by the wrist and yanked her forward. A chase ensued, with Kai leading the pack up a steep rock hill along the side of the inside of the volcano. Piper was right behind him, using double steps as she grabbed the bigger figure in a bearhug, pushing him against the ground, then rolling forward over Kai.

"Get out of the way!" He shouted, "I am tired of dealing with you brats!"

Piper just grinned, the only thing stopping Kai from reaching Ashe in the middle of whatever she was doing.

With a roar of anger and frustration, seeing his whole master plan starting to crumble before his eyes, he threw his hand out, easily snatching the redhead's neck in his strong grip, giving it a tight squeeze before yanking her sideways towards the ledge of the steep platform.

He looked up into the eyes of his victim. He had claimed that he hadn't killed yet, and it was true to a certain extent, but he was certainly very capable of it. Piper, however, showed no fear. She knew that right now, she was winning the mental battle. Kai had lost his edge, and he was afraid of her. Even as she dangled above the edge, held only by his palm, she was smiling.

Before he could say anything witty or even let go, there was a small shoulder that smashed into his gut. Sophia caught Piper as she came down to the edge, then both girls rolled backwards into safe territory.

Just as the two got up to join Sage, who was running behind them, both hands of Kai came up, blasting with an energy wave that sent them backwards.

Sage hit the ground. Piper hit the ground. Sophia landed on her feet.

Kai had already turned around to run.

He was on the ledge.

This was it. There was no thinking involved as her feet started moving on it's own. The risk was there and there was no doubt if she had stopped to think before reacting, she'd have talked herself out of it. But right now, the only to do was to ensure Kai Demolic did not live to tell this story again.

She heard Sage shout her name. Piper's feet was moving to stop her. Everything was in slow motion as Kai Demolic turned to see her just as contact was made. Sophia speared her lithe frame into the body of the bulky man, sending both of them into the air above the fiery chamber. Just as they dropped from sight, another earthquake struck the cavern, causing the two remaining girls to stumble to the edge.

They made it just in time to see the two figures disappear into the lava.

"Hey," someone said. The two girls turned just in time to see a pink-haired girl standing there, as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened. "...Where's Sophia?"




















(Sophia is 4th place, and she has been killed.

To be continued...now.)

[Friend or Foe]

They were silent as they climbed down to the lava pit where two of the three girls witnessed what they thought was a dear friend disappearing in the fiery chasm. Ashe could have told the girls about her supernatural experience above the volcanic ceiling, where she drained about every inch of her body to calm the angry crater down...but she didn't.

In truth, even Ashe didn't know what she had done. But she knew that now, the volcano was safe, and that was all Piper or Sage had to know.

"This is where...it happened," Piper said aloud as they trio came to a stop at a small ledge, just above the hissing red liquid. "Sophia and Kai fell in. They're...dead."

"The volcano is calm again," Ashe explained. "So...I guess that's it. We won."

The small girl just behind them made a sudden move, and then a noise. Both heads turned to see her look of sheer fright and nervousness, as if a bug had just crawled up her back. "He's not dead," she said suddenly. "I can...I can feel him. I can hear him. He's in pain."

"I don't hear anything," Piper said, slightly annoyed.

"He's still alive," Sage said, "...And he's mad."

Ashe was about to say anything, but then she heard it too. It was a gut-wrenching, horrible scream. Then all three girls turned to the lava pit just in time to see a hand pop out from the top of the orange-glowed pool. It was seared black and red, with ki energy clearly visible floating around it, keeping it alive but hardly protecting it from the pain that was inflicted on it.

"He's still alive," Piper said, agreeing with Sage. "His shield kept him alive."

"Doesn't look like it's doing him any favors."

Kai Demolic lept out of the pit, onto the platform near the girls. His entire body was similar to the hand, lit up and covered in the burning lava, but protected by the energy field. "You did this to me!" He shouted, his eyes bulging and his fists clenching. "I should have won! I'm stronger and smarter then all of you, put together!"

He continued to babble as he struggle to walk forward, most of his energy used in just getting out of that angry-looking pit of fire. "We have to get out of here," Piper said. She looked around, quickly noting the nearest entrance. "Down there, a river. I bet it leads out. You two head down there, I'll hold him off."

"Whoa now," Ashe said, "Hold on. You can't beat him."

"He's burning alive," Sage noted, again seeming very distant as she was the only one paying attention to Kai, and not the conversation. "He's going to die. Slowly. Painfully."

"So we all go," Ashe said.

Piper opened her mouth, prepared to again volunteer her services to battle Kai to his death, though she was interupted by a wailing roar from the gameshow host. He lept into the air, towards the trio, both arms up above his head. "Scatter!" She settled on.

Piper went up and Ashe to the side, which left Sage to head down towards the aquatic exit that the redhead pointed out. Just as she started moving, Sage began very aware that the running ball of fire known as Kai Demolic was chasing her, all the way down the makeshift steps.

"Duck!" One of the girls called to her, causing Sage to roll forward down the stairs, banging an already bloody knee on her way down. Still, the fall had allowed her to dodge an angry, scarred punch that took off a rocky structure near her head.

Sage spun around in time, sitting on her bottom, just in time to slide backwards and avoid her legs being crushed by another fist then hit the ground. This allowed her to look up into the man's eyes.

Before, Kai Demolic was just a man. Sure, a demented man who thought he was much smarter then he actually was, but he was still somebody with rational thought. He was the the mastermind of everything political and military for years. Now, he was just a monster, coated in fire and covered in scars. He could think about pain, what he was receiving and what he longed to give.

One of the giant fists went up again. Sage looked up with those innocent, blue eyes. Eyes that anybody would see, and stop their rampage.

Kai didn't even feel remorse anymore. Only pain. His fist came down.

The sound of machine gun fire caused him to lose momentum and roll sideways. Sage could see clearly again without the burly, burnt man in her way, and another helicopter now flew freely in the sky between the volcanic ceiling, and was firing shots at the weakened shield of Gregory Rogers.

"Sage!" Someone called. The girl looked up to see two familiar men in a small motorboat on the river. "Come on!"

With Kai Demolic's attention reverted to the helicopter, Sage made her escape and jumped on the boat with Oliver Nash and Jackson Pride.

















(Sage is 3rd place)

[Friend or Foe]

"It's Kaden!" Piper shouted as she and Ashe ran up the side the volcano, towards where the helicopter was making it's last stand against Kai Demolic. "I can see him in the cockpit with Trisha! He's alive!"

"Not for long unless they can get Kai down!" Ashe countered.

As Piper had predicted, Kaden and Trisha were both in the cockpit, with Rosemary channelling ki energy into the turret machine gun, firing into the beaten body of Kai Demolic. For his effort, he was a powerhouse of sheer energy, the lava on his body eating through his shields, slowing dying as every ounce of his overpowered and drugged-up form built further and further towards his own destruction.

The two girls ran through the center bridge-like platform towards where the rope ladder waited for them. Kai Demolic was running like a madman towards them, trying to catch them all off guard.

Piper got there first and ducked his aimless punch, then throwing a roundhouse kick to his face. Ashe rolled under where his arm was and got the rope ladder first, climbing up. As Kai ran to catch her, he got two feet to his chest in a dropkick-form from the redhead.

He had lost everything. Kai Demolic had lost his best friend, Jackson Pride. He had lost his most loyal servant, Balrog. He had even lost his wife. Now, all because of his foolish stubborness, he was going to lose himself.

"No!" He shouted up into the sky as Piper held onto the bottom step of the helicopter. She and Ashe looked down as he roared into defeat. "I'm the smartest man in the world! It shouldn't be like this! I'm not supposed to lose!"

Where had he gone wrong? Who had he mistrusted? Why did the good guys win? Why was he the one who had to be punished? Through thick and thin, blood and sweat, he was the one who made everything happen. No matter how many people paid to watch his program, nobody would mourn his death, and he knew that.

He dropped to his knees and found a pistol near him, the product of one of his guards. He grabbed it.

That was when Piper let the rope ladder go.

It should have been her to do it. She was the one who had fought the hardest, been through the most trials, and helped the most people. She had learned about herself, and about humankind as a whole. She was the ultimate player, the one person that no matter what, Kai Demolic could never keep down, and never beat.

She landed perfectly in front of Kai Demolic and kicked his pistol away, then planted the foot right on his chest, sending him backwards and laying there, helpless against her limb.

"You don't get to get off that easy," Piper said. "A bullet in the skull doesn't do the horrors you've committed...justice."

She realized very quickly as the man spoke that he was crying, but no tears were visible as his eyes were too far scarred and burned to product water. "It wasn't supposed to be like this," he forced out. "It was just gonna be...a show. Nobody was supposed to die. Nobody was supposed to get hurt. But then it just grew. As I came up with ideas...it just became bigger and more dangerous. People got hurt...but the ratings were so high..."

"Sophia is dead," Piper said to the man. "A lot of people are dead because of you. Guards, soldiers, innocent victims of your game. You don't get to walk away from this, Gregory. You don't get to live while they rot in the afterlife. You're going to die here, slowly and painfully, and your show right behind you. You and Friend or Foe will be forgotten forever."

"Piper!" Somebody shouted. It had sounded like Kaden. She didn't look. Instead, she just backed up into the rope ladder that had been lowered for her again.

Kai didn't say anything. He had lost. The last thing he saw before the lava ate through the shield around his head and took away his eyesight, was Piper alone on the rope ladder, raising up to her exit.

It was over. She was the winner. Piper Juunanagou had conquered friends, foes...and herself.


























(And fin! Piper wins, Ashe gets second. I'll have rewards and the scores for the entire game up soon, possibly tomorrow depending on how I'm feeling.

Anyone can get an epilogue post in the helicopter if they survived (Sophia can get one in too if she feels she needs to). After the boat crew is picked up, the following people have survived and are in the copter: Piper, Ashe, Sage, Kaden, and Wizard...Jackson and Champ, Rosemary, and Trisha)

[Piper Juunanagou]

“Piper!” Someone’s voice rang down from above. It sounded vaguely like Kaden, but Piper wasn’t paying enough attention to be certain. Stepping backwards, the woman sat down on the second to last wooden rung and wrapped her hands around the sides of the rope ladder. A moment later, she was off the ground and slowly ascending toward the helicopter…toward freedom.

With unmoving eyes, the woman watched as the lava enveloped Gregory Rogers. She watched as his waning energy shield surged one final time before it failed beneath the intense heat. The defeated man spoke no words as he slowly vanished under the river of lava. A twisted expression of pain was visible on his face, but he spoke no words—he simply grimaced for a few moments and was gone.

As Piper was airlifted up away from the scene, she knew that this scene would haunt her for days to come. There would be no amount of therapy or drugs that would ever liberate her mind of Kai Demolic and sadistic brain child. At least, Piper reasoned, no one else would have to suffer at his hands.

“I hope you find some absolution,” Piper whispered as she reached into Kaden’s jacket and pulled out Trisha’s dagger. The blood-stained steel of the weapon shimmered with a dull green as the woman held it in her hand. “Bye, Kai,” she muttered as she tossed the dagger down into the slow-moving flow of lava. A few moments later, Piper felt a hand on her shoulder and she was calmly drawn into the cabin of the helicopter.

Turning around, the redhead found herself staring at the somber face of the courier.

“Kai?” Kaden asked softly as he directed one of Piper’s hand to one of the safety bars mounted to the roof of the helicopter.

“I’m sorry…I couldn’t save him,” Piper replied softly as she looked down over her shoulder at the volcano. “He became the final victim of Friend or Foe,” she added as turned her attention back to the inside of the cabin. “Did Sage escape safely?”

“Yes, we’re actually going to swing around and pick the boat crew up, but we’re still short,” he muttered as he motioned with his eyes toward the group of people seated inside the cabin. “Do you know what happened to Sophia?” The courier asked as he helped the bruised and weary medic toward the seats that lined the wall of the helicopter. Piper frowned softly as she looked across the cabin at Ashe. The pink-haired girl was silent—the sadness and misery in her eyes told the story.

“She didn’t make it,” Piper muttered as she came to stop a few feet from the bench. Turning to Kaden, the woman shook her head and tried to stifle the sobs welling up in her gut. “She… she died trying to stop Kai,” the medic stammered as tears began to form in the corners of her eyes. Without words, Kaden moved forward and wrapped his arms around the woman, drawing her in close as the tears began to stream.

“It’s over,” Kaden spoke softly as he ran one of his hands through the woman’s ruffled, unkempt hair. After a moment or two of silence, he leaned in closer to her ear. “You have a lot of split ends,” he whispered jovially, prompting the crying woman to lean back from the man’s chest. With wide eyes, Piper lifted an eyebrow as Kaden began to chuckle softly. “You look nice in that jacket,” he added as he walked Piper over to the bench and sat her down.

“Thank you,” Piper muttered with faint smile as she strapped herself into the bench and then allowed her head to roll back against the slightly cushioned wall. As the woman stared vacantly at the roof of the cabin, reached up and wiped the tears, blood, and dirt from her face.

Friend or Foe may finally have ended, and the cuts and bruises would heal up in the due course. Unfortunately, it would be a long time before the pain and suffering it had wrought upon the minds of its survivors would ever heal.

[Sage]

She wasn’t quite sure how it happened. The pain and fear and the shouts of the people in the boat were probably responsible. Kai’s fists crashing down behind her literally drove her to the edge, and she was forced to jump. The blue haired girl plummeted through the air, crashing hard onto the floor of the boat, nearly crushing Jackson’s dog, who narrowly escaped the little hybrid.

Dazed and only semi-conscious, she wasn’t really aware that they were moving. She could hear a familiar whup whup whup droning all around her but couldn’t quite piece together the fact that it was the sound of the helicopter racing overhead.

Hands clasped onto her shoulders, and Sage found herself being hauled to her feet, too stunned to even voice her shock or protest. “Get climbing, kid,” a gruff voice sounded out. It was Oliver, the old man who had risked his own life to protect her and the others.

And Tempo, who didn’t make it.

The quarter saiyan stumbled from side to side, her already diminished sense of balance taxed to the limit from the wildly rocking boat, which swayed hard under the furious down wash coming off the blades of the helicopter overhead.

Sage raised her rose colored eyes up at the ladder dangling in front of her, and hesitantly, she took hold. She was trembling; the idea of falling from the ladder on the climb up didn’t sit well with her at all.

The young doctor knew there was too little time to worry, though, and despite her trepidation, she began her climb. Oliver started up after her, shouting for her to get moving. Jackson was the last to grab hold of the ladder, forced to go one-handed because of Champ, who he awkwardly held under his arm like a gigantic football.

Before they had even climbed up, the helicopter veered off and pulled away from the island, much to Sage’s chagrin. Still, she somehow found the strength to get up to the bottom edge of the doorway into the chopper, and a pair of hands wrapped around her forearm, before hoisting her inside the helicopter.

It was Kaden who had pulled her in, and he quickly did the same for Nash, who helped him with the delicate task of bringing in Jackson and the dog, before the ex-cop roughly slammed the sliding door shut.

The blond man flopped back onto the bench next to Piper while the others took advantage of the remaining seats.

Sage hesitated a moment, scanning faces. Piper was here, and Ashe was in a corner, covered with a blanket she must have found aboard the helicopter, but...

“...Where’s Sophia?” she inquired. The gravity of her question, combined with the ludicrous innocence Sage asked it with, elicited winces from those who knew what happened to her. Piper, especially, seemed crushed by the question, and Sage helplessly looked on, ignoring the stifling silence.

“She... didn’t make it,” Kaden sighed.

“Wh-” the blue haired girl nearly choked on her own words. “But she- you mean she’s alone with Kai?!” she exclaimed. She knew what happened to Sophia, but she was clinging to some insane hope that Kaden hadn’t meant what she already knew he meant.

“Kai and Sophia are dead,” the redhead bitterly quipped, her eyes firmly fixed on the spartan wall beside her.

Sage’s expression went from hopeful to despondent. The familiar sensation of utter hopelessness washed over her, and she sank onto the floor, leaning against a vacant bench behind her. “She...” the words needed to be said, but they weren’t there.

Drawing her knees into her chest, she put her head in her arms and shed her tears in silence. The others had suffered enough, they didn’t need her despair added onto their own.

Sophia had reached out to her at the start of the competition. If not for the actions of someone who was then a complete stranger, Sage would have likely died during Demolic’s terrible contest. The priestess had given her a future, and in turn was forced to give up her own.

How unfair it was that such a wonderful person was killed while someone like Sage was allowed to live on. How much Sophia could have done, how much more meaningful her life must have been.

It should have been Sage. She would have been better off. The doctor held out hope that Kai had been telling the truth and Zena was still alive, but secretly, she harbored doubts. And if Zena was dead, then... what was the point? It should have been Sage.