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Chapter Text

Monika Rain grabbed another bag of chips from the kitchen cabinet and joined her brothers in the living room. "So far I'm in the lead with three, you two with zero. You'd better catch up."

The oldest of the three, Sans, reclined farther back in the comfy chair where he sat in an unbothered manner.

The youngest brother Papyrus slammed his hand on the floor. "I DON'T GET IT! How do you keep beating me?!"

Monika opened the bag and handed it to Sans, who took it with a casual glance. She would have made him get it himself, but she knew he probably wouldn't do it anyway. Papyrus looked up. "MONIKA STOP ENABLING HIM!"

Monika crossed her legs and leaned back slightly. "I can't help it, he's just so darn persuasive."

Sans chewed a chip in mock contemplation. "Because you love me?" Monika sighed with a smile, taking a bite out the mostly melted popsicle on the coffee table. "Because if it wasn't for me, you would probably be living off of instant ramen. Which, might I remind you, is still not a breakfast food."

Sans chuckled slightly at this comment, Papyrus just nodded in agreement while shuffling the deck of cards. There were still quite a few cards strewn about the floor from the previous rounds of Slapjack. This was a family ritual on certain weekdays for the trio since Monika had moved into the skeleton household many months ago. Back when she and her friends first broke out of the game they were trapped in.

She had met the jovial Sans shortly before then during one of her low points. She had hidden herself away in her floating classroom as she usually did when she was feeling stressed and terribly angry with herself. She would sit in there for hours, combing through code and wondering if there was any way to leave, any way to fix what she had done, any way to assure herself that she was real, that she was important, that she wasn't even a horrible monster.

She had given up hope that she would ever find out an answer to quell all her questions, and she had run out of ways to shamelessly pour out her feelings and thoughts out in the form of poetry. But on that day, she wasn't alone.

She met him.

She saw him.

She could speak to him, and he spoke back in a way that she couldn't predict.

For once in her life, she could speak to an entity that didn't abide by the rules of this world, she hadn't memorized all his possible responses. She had reached out to him for help, confessing all her woes and problems to the skeleton, who, in the moment, responded to her in seemingly curious ways and only when he needed to.

Monika snapped back to the present when she noticed the cards on the ground starting to float. "Sans, are you doing that?"

Sans only shook his head, eyeing the floating cards. Papyrus watched in shock. He promptly screamed when the floor began to dissolve beneath them revealing a white nothingness.

Monika stumbled backwards, crawling away from the increasing void in the middle of their living room.

"Everybody get outside!" Sans shouted.

Monika grabbed a stunned Papyrus by his thick gloved hand and pulled him upward, then stopped. Her legs felt as heavy as lead and she couldn't move. Try as she might, she nor Papyrus were going anywhere except up, everything including them seemed to be suspended in the air.

"Did we forget to pay a bill or somethin'?" Sans asked as he grabbed onto his chair to avoid floating away. This wasn't a very effective technique, as the chair was rising into the air as quickly as he was.

"This is not the time!" Monika screamed. She gestured to the floor. The carpet had begun to unwrap itself from the floor and swirl around them, pulling them into the ground faster than any one of them could process. Before she knew it, Monika couldn't see anything except orange-brown carpet and the white void.

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Sayori Takahashi bounced on her feet at the street corner waiting to cross. She was off to her medical lesson with her teacher Dr. Ludwig, or as his coworkers and friends called him, Medic. She had been his apprentice for about 2 months, learning all sorts of... interesting medicinal practices.

Her friend Sans had showed her and some others several shortcuts in Hometown so she wouldn't have to shell out large amounts of money just to go to New Mexico for a few hours. It had just started to rain, giving off the smell of freshly dampened pavement. She breathed in the welcoming scent and watched the raindrops hit the ground one by one.

Sayori suddenly got the feeling that the signal was taking way longer than it usually did to alert her that it was time to cross the street. Probably just traffic, she thought. But something else had come to her attention. The raindrops she was watching moments ago seemed to somehow be falling slower, slowly getting caught up in the air, as if they were almost being pulled back into the sky.

It was like time itself froze.
Before she knew it, she was the only thing moving. All the cars at the intersection had frozen in time too.

What was going on? She took a few steps backwards in disbelief.

Sayori suddenly felt the the ground give way beneath her, upon looking down, she quickly saw why. The sidewalk where she stood slowly shattered like a stained glass painting, fractured bits of concrete in rectangular shapes stripping away from the ground and floating up around her, flooding her view so that she could barely see anything other than the shards of stone clouding around her body.

She felt her feet leave the ground.

------------------

Emma awoke to the droning sound of thousands of people talking and yelling while she lay on the dusty ground, surrounded by feet, shoes, and paws that she didn't recognize.

Laying next to her was her friend Wheatley, a small robot that she had come to know as a member of her own family. Looking closer, she saw a small, rectangular purple sticker on his outer shell. A new addition, she didn't remember this being here before.

She reached out to peel it off, but it wouldn't budge. It was then that she noticed a similar colored rectangle on her wrist, like a tattoo. It was the same shape and size, but a bright, almost neon green shade.

She pulled Wheatley hastily into her arms so he wouldn't get stepped on and shakily got to her knees, scanning her surroundings.

She was in a big crowd of people, possibly thousands. Everyone was looking around in confusion, a few looked at the dirty grass-stained child but offered no help.

She panicked, trying her best to search her memory for how she got there.

She had been chasing a strange white speck of light into a clearing of trees and found herself falling through the ground with the metal sphere mere moments before.

She didn't know why she was now here, lost in a crowd of strangers who all looked just as lost as she was. She swiftly got on her feet nonetheless and dusted herself off.

It was then that she noticed the huge, wide tower, providing a fair amount of shade. In front of that, a large stage with a screen surpended above it by the branches and vines of two arching trees, tangled with wires.

She turned Wheatley around to face her and woke him up. "Wheatley!" She had to yell in order to be heard over the hubbub. He woke with a start and looked around in panic. "W-wwhat... Did we get back up the hill..? Wait, WHERE ARE WE?! WHAT'S GOING ON?!" His deep blue eye swiveled around madly, trying to look in all angles at the same time.

"Shhhhh! It's ok."

She glanced at the stage. Wheatley whirled himself back around to look at her. "But, where...how, did you take a bus or something? Where are we?"

Emma shook her head. She was trying to talk as little as possible to avoid straining her voice by yelling. Wheatley didn't exactly have the same problem. Being a robot, he could talk for hours and hours without getting tired of it. Honestly, he could go on. And he did most of the time. But at the moment he seemed to be more focused on getting a grip on his surroundings. And besides, his body was much too full of questions to pick just one thing out of the bunch to say.

But he spoke anyway. "Well, where ARE we? This doesn't look like Hometown. Not particularly...homey, or town-y, so to speak."

Emma looked around a little, the antenna of hair atop her head bouncing slightly. "I don't think think this is Hometown either. We seem to be in some sort of..." She stood on her tip toes to get a better look at the stage.

"I don't know... We're outside, that's for sure."

The sun shone bright and high in the sky, reflecting off of Wheatley's shell and onto Emma's dirty white dress shirt. "There's a big tower, a stage, and a TV screen above that, and two big trees..."

"A drive-in movie maybe?" The robot questioned, half jokingly. As Emma was describing the scenery, a bright light flickered onto the screen, and everything surrounding seemed to get darker.

Emma flipped Wheatley around carefully and lifted him up so he could see the stage. Everyone got silent, all eyes were fixed on the stage, expecting someone to walk out and give an explanation.

Instead, a woman's booming, almost robotic voice tore through the silence and hung over every single person in the crowd.

"Good afternoon, esteemed and confused competitors."

Wheatley looked down at Emma, then back to the stage.

"You might be wondering why you are here. It is quite simple. I want you to participate in a game."

The crowd looked around at each other and a wave of whispers and questions rippled through the mass of people. The woman continued.

"This game will last for an undisclosed amount of time. There will be four teams: orange, blue, green, and purple. If you look on your left wrist, you will see a mark of one of these colors that indicates which team you belong to. Your goal as a member of your team..."

"...is to kill as many members of opposing teams as you can."

Emma stared in disbelief. She quickly pulled Wheatley back down into her arms and covered his mark with her hand, then rolled down her sleeves to cover hers.

Some more unruly members of the crowd had started to cheer and holler and whistle. Most groaned in frustration and gasped in shock.

"If you wish to survive, keep your marks hidden at all times. We have made these marks with magic ink. This ink will gradually spread across your body, making it increasingly more difficult to hide it."

The crowd was bristling with anticipation. "When someone is killed, their magic mark becomes solid and can be removed from their wrist. It can then be turned in to the guards spread throughout the boundaries for points. The number of points for each team will be tallied at the end of the game. And one more thing."

"The guards will be making sure this is as entertaining as possible... for me. So if you are caught being too friendly, or even if you are simply minding your own business, they will intervene to create action. Furthermore, you may also report enemy team members being friends to the guards for extra points."

Emma realized immediately that she was going to have to tread lightly in order to survive.

The robotic voice spoke again. "We will now show a list onscreen of all of our competitors."

Emma looked up to the screen, which now showed a scrolling list of all the participants. She looked anxiously for any of her family. To her shock and horror, Ray, Norman, Gilda, Gillian, Nigel, Zazie, Phil, and Chell were there. There may have been more people that she knew, but that was all she needed to know.

A lump formed in her throat. She couldn't bear to imagine 4 year old Phil fighting for survival and avoiding bloodthirsty people who could turn on him at any second.

She tore her eyes away from the screen and didn't care to see any of the other participants. "Who else is here?" Wheatley looked behind him. Emma didn't respond.

She fought back tears. Why were any of them chosen to be there? It wasn't fair.

"Emma?....Are you ok? Why aren't you saying anything?....Is it...Can you see who's here? Is it, uh, particularly concerning or...somewhat concerning?"

"...Chell's here." She said quickly, trying not to think of her fears.

Wheatley looked taken aback, then went silent for a bit. "Oh, oh okay..."

"That's not all, is it?"It was more of a statement than a question. He didn't know much, but he could tell something was wrong.

"Ray, Norman, Gilda and Phil are here too." Her voice trembled a little.

"And some old friends you don't know."

Wheatley fell silent, a rare occurrence. He didn't quite know how to console someone. If he had arms, he might've offered an awkward pat on the shoulder, but there wasn't really much he could do now.

The robotic voice rang out again. "Here is a map of the boundaries. Study it well. You may go anywhere within these boundaries, except the Center Tower. Only authorized personnel are allowed to enter. There will also be weapons scattered throughout, so look sharp."

Emma tried to memorize the map. It looked like one big circle separated into three distinct sections: the Center, the Middle, which wrapped around the Center, and wrapped around that was the Outer. In the Center, Emma noted there was a donut shaped city labeled 'Center City', she figured that's where they were right now, judging by the fact that the tower was pictured to be in the middle of this city. There was a thin forest between the Center and the Middle. In the Outer, there was a fairly large portion of grey labeled 'Cliffs'.

"You may now be dismissed from this briefing. Go, and have fun." The woman's voice said. You could almost hear a grin creep onto her face as she spoke these final words.

It was on.

The crowd had become rowdy over the course of this speech, but now their excitement was at full force. People pushed and shoved and anxiously scrambled to get away from the Center Tower. Everyone split off in different directions.

Emma ran as fast as she could away from the thundering crowd, avoiding getting trampled in the rush. "Are we on the same team? What color am I?" Wheatley asked nervously. His handles twitched as he spoke.

Emma looked down briefly. "You're purple."

Wheatley tensed up in her arms. "So, uh, does this change anything? You're not going to...you know..."

Emma looked down at her friend quizzically. "What do you mean? Of course not. We're a team!" Her voice was shaky from running so fast, but was laced with confidence.

"Well, I mean, it is bloody dangerous for us to be seen together. You, you'd be safer if you left me behind, right?"

Emma looked down at him, but kept running. "I guess you're right, I would. But I'm not gonna." she responded. "I promise, I'm going to make sure we're okay."

She felt around her pocket to see if there was anything she could use to cover up his purple sticker. Her hand closed around a small, folded up sticker sheet. She pulled it out and peeled off a smiley face and put it over the purple rectangle.

"Well, that's a nice touch." Wheatley craned his eye to try and see the sticker with an odd air of pride. Emma continued towards the forest.

Sayori ran as fast as she could. She had never been particularly athletic, so trying to regulate her breathing while trying not to panic required all of her strength.

After getting clear away from the Center City, she fell to her knees. She looked at her light blue mark and struggled not to cry.

It was enough that she was in an unfamiliar place against her will, but what was worse was that she was forced to fight for survival.

She took this opportunity to catch her breath and calm down. She sat curled up for a moment. She felt admittedly pathetic, but perhaps this was just her way of coping. Besides, the grass felt nice.

But she couldn't stay here forever. If she did, she might be killed. She got up, clenching her fists. She had to keep going.

She didn't have much, she didn't have weapons, she didn't have very prominent muscles, she didn't have any training for this sort of thing, and her physical abilities weren't anything to write home about either.

But Sayori didn't need that to survive. She had her boundless optimism. It might be her greatest tool, because if she didn't have that, she almost certainly would have been dead already.

She had everything she needed in sheer resolve. She slowly stood up, dusted the grass off of her knees, which at the moment were shaking like trees in a strong wind, and decided then and there that no matter how dangerous the situation, she would try her best and simply keep going.

It was at that moment that Sayori felt hands grip her shoulder. She tried to scream, but her breath caught in her throat and it came out as more of a squeak. The unknown attacker whirled her around to face him while two others grabbed her left wrist. She knew what this could cost, and this time she did scream. "No! Let go! Please!" They pulled up her sleeve, revealing the blue mark.

"It's a blue!" The attacker called out to his companions. Sayori got a glance of his wrist and could see that he was an orange. She heard a familiar yell and found a brief wave of relief upon seeing Pyro being restrained by two more people. Despite the circumstances, she was at least happy to see a familiar face, even if it was covered by a mask.

The people who had a firm grip on her started dragging her and Pyro through the forest. To her confusion, they weren't getting ready to kill them.

"Excuse me, not complaining or anything, but why haven't you killed us?"

"We just want to get money and materials. So we're taking you into a town in the Middle where we're gonna trade you both in for goods. But if you even think about doing anything stupid, we could kill you."

'Well that was fast...' Sayori thought.

It was only the first day and they were already captured.

"This clown already gave us enough trouble." He nodded towards Pyro, who looked like he was experiencing a mixture between boredom and confusion. Suddenly, the sound of a rocket launcher fire rang out and and a nearby explosion caused them all to turn their heads. "Blast, they found us."

The man holding Sayori by the wrist tightened his grip with a surprising amount of fear. "Stay behind and fend him off, we'll get these two to town!" He directed two of the orange members and tore through the forest, Pyro's captors following close behind as they disappeared into the trees.

Chapter Text

Monika and Sans reached a place in Center City that looked safe enough to stop and catch their breath.

Monika clutched her head. This couldn't be happening, this wasn't real, was it? Sans took a few deep shallow breaths. It was a seemingly arbitrary thing to do, as he had no lungs.

Beads of sweat dripped from his forehead as he leaned against the side of a building and slumped down onto the ground. It was evident that he was only doing this to give the illusion that he was keeping his cool, but Monika could see through the facade.

The two just stared at each other, absolutely unsure what to do now. What can you do in a situation like this? Monika looked at the ground and silently shook her head in disbelief.

Sans wiped his forehead, still winded. Finally he spoke.

"So, what do you think we oughta do now?" He said between breaths.

Monika sat down so she was at eye level with him. "I don't know. I really don't know." Her hoodie was smudged with dirt, and her hair was slightly tangled, but she didn't care.

"Did you see Papyrus?" Sans asked.

She shook her head. "I didn't see anyone else in the crowd either, I just saw their names and pictures on the screen. "Toriel-"

"I know." Sans interrupted. She got silent.

--------------

Gon Freecss and Killua Zoldyck had been traveling around the outskirts of Center City for hours now. They were surveying the perimeter. It was late afternoon now and the sky was stained a deep shade of orange. Gon didn't want to admit it, but he wasn't exactly excited to go on. He had fairly impressive physical endurance, but his legs ached from walking nonstop for an extended period of time.

"I think this is it. We've circled the entire city." Gon said, sitting down on the dirt.

Killua kept his eyes on the ground. "Yup."

"Now what?" Gon scratched the back of his head nervously.

"I guess we should look for more members of the purple team."

Gon nodded. "And how exactly should we go about doing that?" Killua thought for a moment, then shrugged. "We could go out to the Middle, make some alliances. Since we've decided we aren't gonna kill anyone, making enemies might be pretty easy."

Gon played with a pine needle on the ground. He wasn't exactly sure how to feel in this situation. They had already decided not to work towards winning, just wait it out.

Gon knew one thing for sure, he was glad they were both on purple. He knew his friend wouldn't hurt him anyway if they were on different teams, but this made things less complicated. Should they get caught sticking together, they wouldn't be punished for being on different teams.

Killua looked to the forest. "You wanna go out further?"

Gon got up and dusted off his pants. "That's a good idea. And maybe we should look for Leorio and Kurapika while we're at it."

The two walked into the forest. "You know, at least this could be a good chance to sharpen our survival skills!" Gon said with excitement. He had to try to look on the bright side. Killua smiled. That much was true.

---------------

The late afternoon sun shone bright in the sky, giving an amber light to everything it reached.

Monika and Sans had exited the forest and been spit out in a small part of the Middle after an hour or two, and it was different than either of them expected. Surprisingly empty, generally derelict, and there was barely anyone there.

A light gust of wind played with Monika's hair and blew a few old papers across the ground. "Is there really no one here?"

"I'm just waiting for a comedically timed tumbleweed to roll through here." Sans said with a chuckle.

An unknown voice hissed at them from the shadow of a ramshackle building. "Hey! Psst!"

The duo whipped their heads around to look for the voice.

"Down here, idiots."

Monika looked down to see a disgruntled looking Flowey glaring at them, poking out of the dirt.

"Flowey?" Sans was surprised to see the small plant still alive. His petals were slightly wrinkled, and one of them was stained blue, but on the whole he looked alright.

"Who do ya' think? Now c'mon outta the open! It might look empty right now, but dangerous people run through here occasionally and trust me, you don't wanna be here when they do."

Sans was about to respond, but the impatient flower interrupted. "And don't think about thanking me, smiley trashbag. I couldn't care less whether you both live or die. But someone else does. So just follow me and shut up." He ducked into the dirt and quickly slithered just under the surface of the dirt road like a mole, looking like nothing more than moving lump.

"I don't entirely trust him." Monika muttered.

Sans shrugged. "What do we got to lose?"

Monika and Sans hastily followed the lump down the road, around a corner, remaining a good 4 feet behind him at all times. He was surprisingly fast.

The two picked up the pace a little as Flowey turned another corner to a small area with two buildings that shaded the path, making the road look secluded. One of the buildings had a missing door covered by a dirty blanket like a curtain. Flowey slithered underneath.

Sans and Monika hesitated outside the entrance. How safe was this place, anyway? It looked just as rickety as the rest of the area they were in. But still, this place gave off an air of solace and peace, Monika took a deep breath in and could smell that it was warm, she smelled old linens and heard the crackling of a warm fire.

Flowey popped his head out from under the curtain to scold them. "Well, are you coming in or not?" His petals bounced back and forth and snapped back into place when he spoke, his appearance being just as expressive as his blunt personality.

The pair lifted the blanket and stepped inside, being careful not to step on Flowey.

They were in a small area hidden from view. There were blankets spread over the cracked tiles on the ground. In the corner, a crate containing boxes and cans of food with faded labels sat, along with several clean looking jars of various sizes all lined up in no particular order. In the middle of the room, a makeshift fire pit made with stones arranged in a circle with a crackling, modest sized fire burned, providing an orange glow and warmth.

Over the fire was an old cooling rack held above the flames by two concrete blocks. The cooling rack held a kettle with chipped paint. Monika assumed this must be where the pleasant smell was coming from. Several other crates were arranged around the fire like little chairs, and surprisingly enough they looked extremely welcoming.

So rare and odd to find such a place of bliss in this situation.

"There you are! I'm so glad you're both alright!" A recognizable soft but clear voice welcomed them. Monika looked up toward the voice and froze. A large majestic white creature with huge paws and horns looked at them with relief.

"Toriel!" They both exclaimed.Toriel instinctively pulled both of them into a hug.

She had come to be recognized as a mother figure to all who knew her, and she seemed in this moment to be celebrating the return of two of her children and dear friends.

"I like your hideout," Sans said when Toriel finally released them from her embrace. "It's only been a few hours and you guys are all set up. I wouldn't expect better service from a five star hotel."

The large silky eared creature laughed one of the most pure laughs any human could ever hear. "Well, I had a little help from Flowey." Flowey rolled his eyes. He was now over by the fire warming himself up from a safe distance.

"Come in, the soup is just about ready, it will keep your strength up. Please, have a seat." She made her way over to the corner of the room and grabbed three jars. Sans and Monika took a seat on two of the crates.

"Thanks for taking care of us, Tori." Sans said as he sat.

"No problem!" Toriel started walking back to the fire pit. Monika leaned back in her seat and put her hands in the pocket of her green hoodie. The fire felt incredibly nice. She wished she could stay in this moment forever.

Toriel sat beside her and set the jars on an unclaimed crate. She then grabbed the kettle from the cooling tray and began dividing it up, making sure each of them were sufficiently filled. She handed Sans and Monika each a jar.

"Careful, it's hot. Oh dear, your shoes!" She looked at Monika with concern. Confused, Monika looked down at her feet. The only shoes she had only been wearing were her Uwabaki when they were transported there, and they were now rather muddy. If only she knew they were going compete in a game for survival perhaps she would have worn some sneakers or other good adventuring shoes.

"Oh, they're fine." "Are you sure?" Toriel asked.

"Yeah, it's alright." She sipped some of the soup. It seemed to be made with carrots, potatoes, meat, and a little bit of pepper. She drank more gratefully.

"So, what is your strategy? Any plans?" Toriel inquired, swishing around her jar to cool down the soup.

"Don't know. But I'm sure we'll figure it out." Sans replied. Flowey suddenly looked up. "Seriously? You don't have any sort of plan?" Monika shrugged. "It's only the first day."

Flowey's petals twitched like an animal's ear and he responded. "Well, we decorated a whole hideout, so what's your excuse?"

Toriel looked thoughtful. "Well, no matter. You both may stay here for as long as you like."

Monika's thoughts turned to the whereabouts of their other friends. She wondered what Sayori, Natsuki, and Yuri were doing. The nature of their whole predicament was rather troubling, but she couldn't dwell on that now. She realized if she wanted to stay alive and find them, she had to first focus on getting settled, and this area seemed to be the perfect place.

There was a tapping sound on the roof. All eyes turned toward the wooden roof. Monika cautiously sat more alert in her seat. Some dust fell from the ceiling, followed by a creaking noise. Before anyone could react, the roof was broken with a crash.

Splinters of wood flew in every direction. A piece of shattered wood fell on Flowey as he squealed

"Flowey!" Toriel gasped. Monika got a good look at their intruders.

Two tall, slim looking figures covered by dark cloaks. One of them held a silver rapier, which shone vibrantly in the light. The other was shorter, and had a damaged looking sword. It wasn't possible to see their faces, because they were obscured by the shadow of their hoods. The shorter one spoke.

"This is our game to win. Stand down."

Everyone being addressed froze, their eyes glued to the intruders. Monika swore she heard that voice before.

"That's where you're wrong." Toriel said, preparing a magical fire attack. Monika slowly backed up. Flowey popped out of the ground near her foot and slithered his way up her side to wrap his roots around her arm. He nervously whispered into her ear. "You might wanna start running sometime soon."

The taller hooded figure raised the rapier and prepared to charge. Toriel jumped in front of them and called out.

"RUN!"

Monika grabbed Sans' hand without thinking. She sprinted across the room, practically dragging him behind her.

The shorter hooded person jumped in front of their path without warning. Monika cast a quick glance behind her to see how Toriel was faring, she was engaged in a fierce battle with the rapier-wielding attacker, expertly blocking his onslaught of attacks with blasts of fire.

"Monika!" She heard Sans shout. She whipped her head around to see a sword slicing through the air toward her face.

All in a split second, she leaned back and dodged, the blade barely missing her by half an inch.

Toriel faltered and threw a fiery attack too late. She was struck by the silver blade. It didn't do very much damage, she couldn't bleed, but it was enough to catch her off guard.

She dodged as the hooded figure lunged forward, trying to skewer her with the blade. Monika ducked as the shorter hooded figure tried to slash at her again.

She had to admit, they had excellent precision. She was only barely dodging.

She sprung back up and prepared to avoid an oncoming attack, but was instead met with a swift and hard kick to the chest.

Flowey expressed his lack of appreciation with a disapproving shriek.

The hooded figure stepped on Monika's chest, squeezing out the remaining air that had not already been knocked out from the impact. Monika gasped and struggled to get free.

Where was Sans? Why wasn't he helping? Monika's question was answered just as quickly as it had been asked.

Sans had positioned himself behind the hooded figure during the scuffle with the hot kettle in his hands. He wound up, preparing to splash the remaining soup on the attacker. The taller hooded figure yelled across the room to the other one something in a warning tone.

Monika knew from taking a foreign language class that this was French, and it meant "look out." The figure currently causing her breathing obstruction turned around to see what exactly they were being warned about and jumped out of the way just in time to avoid getting burned.

Part of their cloak had been soaked however, and some of the soup had landed next to Monika. Taking this opportunity, Sans helped her to her feet and they ran like heck. Unfortunately, the shorter hooded figure seemed to be chasing them. But with their head start they were far ahead.

They ran for quite a bit before turning a corner. At some point, they were aware that they had stopped being followed but wanted to to get far away in case.

The trio eventually stopped behind the shade of a new looking building near what looked like a small mountain.

Sans didn't have very good stamina and flopped over onto his side in exhaustion. Flowey peeled himself off of Monika's arm and planted himself in the ground once again.

Monika herself collapsed to her knees and the three of them thought about what had just happened. "We just left her behind. Are you insane??" Flowey asked dumbfounded.

"I assumed she would follow!" Monika responded, wiping hair out of her face. Sans scratched his head.
The sun sat lower in the sky than it was before.

Chapter Text

A rhythmic tapping of boot soles hit the ground in a slow, steady, repetitive pattern and echoed into the trees as Emma walked down a dirt path, carrying Wheatley in her arms.

He was talking nonstop. "So, should we happen to run into a guard, or, a some bloodthirsty enemy team member, do you have any sort of semblance of a plan? I mean, I'm assuming that you do, of course you do! Not that I can't come up with plans, but plans are kind of your thing!"

Emma didn't even look down at him as she answered in an unbothered tone. "No, not really. But I'm not that worried about that just yet." She briefly quickened her pace with a little skip, the robot bouncing in her arms.

"Oh, okay...do you think maybe you could come up with one fairly sharpish?"

Emma tilted her head to the side like a curious dog, her bright red hair ruffling with a slight breeze. "Well, I guess run as fast as possible, then fight if necessary. I don't want to get into a fight with anyone unless we really need to, especially not this early on."

Wheatley wiggled his core body in a vague nod. "That's probably good, we can tell quite easily what sort of people we're dealing with from that crowd's response to this whole thing. Wouldn't want to go charging headfirst into something like that."

Emma nodded. "But not everyone in that crowd could have been all bad, some of our friends are here, remember?"

"Right, then," he replied, "I apologize for insulting your family." She smiled at him playfully, causing the sprinkling of freckles on her face to migrate upward. "You better stop that, or I'll have to banish you for high treason!" She said dramatically, in pretend intimidation.

She balanced him on one hip as she adjusted one of her shoes.

"Hey, look!" Wheatley peered over the hill they were on.

The dirt trail they had been travelling on wound down to a small bustling town. Along the side of the trail was a sign welcoming them to the Middle. Wheatley's handles wiggled in anticipation.

Emma took a deep breath and smiled. She didn't know what sort of things to expect in this town, but it could be worth it to continue.

Making her way down the path into the town, Emma immediately was met with the sweet aroma of fresh baked bread, spices, and all sorts of meats. There were people pushing carts of homegrown fruits to sell, and everyone was shouting. There were people as well as animals everywhere, goats bleating and horses tied to stakes waiting for their owners to return from the taverns and shops.

People pushed past with seemingly no regard for anyone else unless they were interested in selling them wares. Emma was bumped into by too many people to count, many gave odd looks at the sight of a girl carrying a robot through town.

Caught in her observations, she was startled when a man grabbed her by the shoulder, causing her to jump. She gaped up at him. He was a large, sturdy looking man. The hand currently alighting on her shoulder looked big enough to effortlessly crush her skull like it was nothing. He spoke. "How much for the ball of metal?"

Caught off guard, Wheatley responded in a most offended tone. "Oi, that's Mr. ball of metal to you, mate!"

Emma clutched him closer and squared her shoulders in an attempt to look tougher. "He's not for sale sir." The man chuckled haughtily.

"Oh, come on." He removed his death grip on Emma's shoulder and held out his hand as if he was expecting something. "Even for the right price?"

She shook her head. She had started to cautiously edge backwards. Wheatley uncomfortably looked left and right frantically, trying to escape the situation. "Absolutely not." Emma sounded firm now, but the man was clearly not intimidated.

She didn't want to stay around here any longer. She started to run when she felt a hand grasp the collar of her shirt. She was lifted into the air.

"Oh no! No no no no!" Wheatley screamed as the man held them dangling, effectively helplessly. The man cackled again, reaching for him. "I gave you an offer. Now you don't get a choice."

Emma struggled to breathe with her collar practically choking her. She swung her leg back as far as she could and swung her knee into his chin. The busy bustling folk stopped for a moment. Emma looked around confused.

People were staring, specifically at the man's face. She followed their gaze and gasped.

His lip was busted open and blood was streaming from his mouth. His jaw had been shoved into his lower lip by the impact.

The man dropped her without so much as a glance. Wheatley landed next to her unceremoniously, accompanied by a metallic thud and a yelp.

The big man clutched his face. "You..." His voice shook like a mighty building during an earthquake, Emma could tell he was in pain and about to snap. Her stomach dropped.

"Hello?!" Wheatley rolled around in futility on his metal face. "Why aren't we running?"

The man quickly turned from pain to anger. He grabbed the front of her shirt before she could run and pulled her close so that she was at direct eye level. "You've really done it now." He coughed. Emma was panicking now, she couldn't run away, his grip was too strong. She had to think of something.

The man wound his fist up and prepared to punch. Just before he struck, she quickly ducked down and his fist met with open air. She came back up and headbutted him, which did more shock than actual damage, but caused him to lose focus and let go.

She slid under his legs, grabbed Wheatley, and dashed off into the busy marketplace.

The man gave chase and Emma tried her best to disappear, ducking under tables and behind carts and blending in with people. She wove in and out of the cloud of faces, accidentally bumping into several people in her rush.

The man shoved past groups of shoppers, vaulting over a table at one point and causing everyone immediately nearby to part ways and let him through. Upon looking behind her, Emma realized how fast of a runner he was. But she was pretty fast too. She hid behind a passing family and spotted a table with a cloth draped over it, creating a perfect hiding spot.

She snuck under the table. "Is he still following us?" Wheatley asked.

She panted heavily. "I don't know."

She peeked her head out from under the cloth and scanned the area. "No, I think he ran past already." A large hand slammed onto the edge of the table and gripped it, practically splintering the wood. The man lifted the table up and threw it away.

Emma inched backwards and held her hands out in front of Wheatley as he towered over both of them. The man reached for her move her out of the way but froze. He swayed slowly, as if he were suddenly made of jelly. Emma stared at him in confusion, before realizing he was starting to fall.

She grabbed her friend and leapt out of the way as the man fell like a dead tree and shook the ground.

There was a small dart protruding from his back. She looked around to see where it came from and her eyes locked on two boys who looked to be about the same age as her.

One had green clothes, a yellow backpack, and crazy dark green hair that reminded her of a bird's feathers, and the other boy had even messier white hair and carried a dart gun. He wore a white t-shirt on top of a darker long sleeved shirt and a serious expression.

The green haired boy ran over to her with concern. "Are you ok?" He offered his hand to her. Emma nodded and he helped her up. "Yeah."

"Uh, hey, hi, down here! Still...on the ground." The boy noticed Wheatley and looked amazed.

"Whoah, who are you?" The other boy, who had walked over the others, looked intrigued.

Wheatley involuntarily rolled onto his side. "Just, someone waiting for your help. If you don't mind."

Emma knelt down and picked him up. "This is Wheatley." She dusted him off.

"Nice to meet you! It's pretty cool to meet a robot!"

The white haired boy nodded. "I'll say."

Wheatley laughed nervously, not used to all this attention. "Well, I wouldn't say that, exactly, but you can, y'know, if you want to."

The green haired boy laughed.

The white haired boy looked at Emma. "And what's your name?"

"I'm Emma." She smiled. "I'm Gon!" The green haired boy piped up.

She lowered her voice. "What team are you on?"

Gon and Killua showed their wrists. Both displayed a small purple rectangular mark.

"Hey, same as me! Nice to meet you, fellow purples!" Wheatley exclaimed.

She looked at them hesitantly.

"Don't worry, this doesn't change anything." Gon clarified.

Emma extended her hand in a friendly gesture. "Wanna team up?" Killua and Gon looked at each other and nodded. "Sure!" Gon said excitedly, taking one of her hands and grasping it firmly.

Killua's face shifted to a more serious one. "We should probably get outta here, there's too many people." Emma nodded.

Wheatley looked at the unconscious man. "What about him?"

Killua gestured towards him. "Mild tranquilizer. He should be out for a few hours. We'll be long gone by then."

Emma scratched the back of her head. "Uh, where exactly are we going?"

This time, Gon spoke. "We should probably look for a place to set our base. Or at least a place to stay for the night."

"Let's go, then." Killua said.

The four new teammates headed off through the crowded town, pushed past droves of people, trudged up concrete stairs through the steam pouring out windows and shops. Emma suggested that they buy food before they leave the town. They purchased about two days worth of food before continuing. The steam and smoke rose high into the sky and tangled into trees as they motley crew arrived at a forest.

Gon looked around. "Does anyone remember the map?"

"Don't worry, I memorized it." Emma responded. "We are in the Middle right now, I think I saw there was a forest in there somewhere, I think the Outer should be about 20 miles away."

Gon froze, sliding a few rocks on the ground in front of him.

Emma looked back at him. "Are you ok Gon?"

Killua also turned his head and stopped walking. Gon locked eyes with them and silently put a finger to his lips. They understood and got quiet.

Gon smelled something in the air. It smelled...wet, muggy, like damp wood, old cloth, and rotting fabric. And gunpowder...

He ran as fast as he could into Emma, Wheatley, and Killua, pushing all of them to the ground like a stack of dominos.

BANG!

The bark of a nearby tree split and splintered as a bullet whizzed past and planted itself deep in the trunk. The four of them lay there for a moment, frozen in fear and shock. Gon held his hands protectively over the others and everyone turned their heads to see exactly what shot at them.

A large, heavily-breathing humanoid looking creature lumbered out of the bushes, holding a shotgun and shaking the ground as it walked with its enormous mud caked boots.

Its most notable feature was its face, or lack of one, instead replaced with a large burlap sack with a crude hole cut in it, suggesting that the creature still needed to see. One of its arms was ripped and stuffing was spilling out.

Was this thing made of fabric?

It raised the gun once more let out a moaning shriek that sounded more like a bird call than a yell.

"RUN!" Emma screamed out.

Gon leapt up, Emma grabbed Wheatley and the three kids ran deeper into the forest, weaving through the trees dodging bullets.

The creature pointed his gun at them and prepared to fire again. Looking around for a place to hide, Emma spotted a large, very dead tree. She crouched behind it and pulled the other two behind it with her as it took the shot, shattering the bark into little bits and flinging them into the air.

Emma guessed the bag on its head caused this thing to have poor vision. She peeked at it from behind the tree. It was scrambling to reload quickly and loudly screeching like a frustrated toddler.

It was breathing even heavier now, almost wheezing. It slowly stomped toward then and lifted its shotgun.

"Now would be a good time for a plan!!! What is that thing!?" Wheatley yelled, panicked.

"Shhhh!" Killua hissed. "That thing doesn't have very good stamina, and it can't see very well. If we can just keep dodging it and running away from it..."

"...We can tire it out enough to get away." Gon chimed in.

Emma suddenly gasped. "GO! NOW!"

Before they could run to another tree, the one they were hiding behind was shot at again, this time the bullet pierced all the way through. The upper part of the tree split and came crashing down. Emma grabbed Wheatley by his top handle and jumped out of the and way of the oncoming tree trunk, sliding on her knee. Wheatley flung out of her arms in audible shock.

Killua jumped backwards, and Gon also managed to dodge fairly easily. The creature followed, wheezing painfully, but it refused to stop the hunt.

Wheatley saw it approaching in an upside down view and swiveled his eye over to Emma to see if she was okay.

"Come on, get up! We gotta go!" He called.

She sprung up like a rabbit and grabbed him as the three kids jumped behind another tree. The thing prepared to open fire once more. His breathing was labored now, he struggled to grip the gun.

"He's getting weakened!" Gon said, panting. "We just need to keep this up for a little longer." The tree was struck with a gunshot. The kids braced themselves. They got out from behind the tree, and immediately tensed up.

The creature was nowhere to be seen.

They all looked around confused for a few seconds. Silence. Gon's eyes narrowed, focusing for anything.

Emma finally said something. "I guess he left."

No sooner than the words left her mouth, the creature shuffled out of the bushes and took aim with a loud muffled growl.

"OVER THERE! GET DOWN!" Wheatley shouted.

The kids dropped down just barely in time to avoid the oncoming attack. The bullet made contact with ground in front of them, causing a vibrant explosion of brown and green leaves inches away from their heads.

Emma rolled over and jumped to her feet, out of breath. Killua grabbed her and Gon's hands and towed them through the forest, the creature hot on their heels, though struggling immensely to keep up at this point.

Killua spotted a sharp dropoff where the ground inclined into a small pit of fallen leaves and he jumped down into it. Emma and Gon followed suit. They waited there with baited breath, waiting for the creature to pass.

It slowly stomped its way toward the incline, pausing at the top and scanning the area, wheezing heavy as ever. Emma held a hand over mouth to silence her breathing. Gon peeked his head out of the leaves just enough to see the creature. Killua gripped his knees tightly. Wheatley squeezed his eye shut and shivered, despite not feeling cold.

After what felt like forever, the stuffed thing shook its head in defeat, hoisted the shotgun onto its shoulder, and shuffled off from where he had came, disappearing into the forest. They waited until they were sure it was gone, and breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"Oh, man alive." Wheatley groaned. "I was almost certain we wouldn't make it out of that one. That was madness!?!"

Gon rubbed his face, still trying to process everything. The kids got up and dusted themselves off. Killua looked up at the sky.

"We should make camp in the forest for now, it's getting dark."

The twilight sky shone through the trees, illuminating everything like a painting. Bathed in its lavender light, birds flew home to their nests, squirrels returned to their tree hollows with food that they had stolen over the day, and three tired looking children and a metal ball laid down for well deserved rest.

Emma laid Wheatley down on the soft grass and flopped herself down on the ground with a sigh. Gon took off his backpack and used it as a pillow, and Killua laid down beside the other three. It was a pretty cold evening, so they huddled close to maintain warmth. It didn't help that the kids' legs were bare.

Emma drew her knees up to her chest and hugged herself. She had started to doze off when a crackling but a booming voice split the silence and immediately caused them all to bolt upright. It was the robotic feminine voice from earlier in the day, coming from some sort of loudspeaker.

"Good evening, everyone. If you are wondering how you can hear me right now, there are hidden speakers everywhere for announcement purposes. Even in the trees. There is nowhere my voice cannot reach. Anyway, 22 competitors have been eliminated today. Get some rest. You’ll need your strength to bring that number up!”

The voice faded. A silence fell over the group. Emma shuddered and slowly laid back down. She thought of her friends, wondering if they were one of the numbers. Tears stung the back of her eyes.

Wheatley was about to close his eye when he felt a small arm wrap around him. Emma pulled him close to her. Wheatley was normally put off by physical contact, but he could really use the comfort right now.

Within a few minutes, she fell fast asleep. He thought to himself to help calm his mind. However, he was much too tired to think. He let himself relax in her arms and before he knew it, he had drifted off.

Monika paced back and forth in the cave where her, Sans, and Flowey had decided to spend the night. Flowey had already fallen asleep, and Sans sat cross legged, watching his sister wrestle with herself.

"Can you stop doin that? You're gonna wear a hole in the rocks."

She whirled around to face him.

"Sans, I am stressed. And when I am stressed, I write poetry. But I don't have a pencil or paper, so for right now, I pace when I'm stressed. If that bothers you, you may take it up with whatever is left of my patience and go find a different cave to sleep in."

She sat down on a rock opposite of the skeleton.

"Dang, tell me how you really feel."

"Is this a joke to you? Is it? Because you don't seem to be taking this seriously. We could die!" Monika barked, exasperated.

Sans stared at her with a static, unchanging smile. The truth was, he was actually not taking this situation well either. For once, he didn't know how this was going to end and he didn't like feeling like he wasn't in control. Monika could tell.

"...I apologize for my tone. Would you like to talk?"

He thought about it, then shook his head.

"Nah. Let's go to sleep."

They were interrupted.

"Good evening, everyone. If you are wondering how you can hear me right now, there are hidden speakers everywhere for announcement purposes. Even in the trees. There is nowhere my voice cannot reach. Anyway, 22 competitors have been eliminated today. Get some rest. You’ll need your strength to bring that number up!”

Every person in the cave became immediately tense, including Flowey, who had been rudely awakened by the sudden announcement.

“What the heck was that crap???”

Sans shrugged it off. “Let’s just…hit the hay.” Reluctantly, Monika agreed and the three slept through the night.

Chapter Text

Emma, Wheatley, Gon, and Killua had slept peacefully through the night, occasionally shivering from the cold and being met with the disturbing fears of their minds' invention. It was one of those nights, the kind of night where Emma had one the bad nightmares.

It wasn't uncommon for her to have nightmares, she was used to them at this point. But occasionally, there would be one of *those* ones. The kind that felt so tangible, so real. Sometimes she would wake up shocked that she was still alive. This was one of those times.

She clapped a hand over her mouth, her shoulders jumping up and down as she silently cried, trying not to wake anyone up.

A familiar voice pulled her out of this mental fog.

"Hey, uhm, are you, uh, in the mood for a conversation about...whales?" Wheatley whispered, always the observer, intentionally or not.

She giggled through her tears. It was standard fare for them to make conversation when either one of them had a nightmare. "Mhm. But let's go somewhere else so we don't wake them up." They sat and talked and laughed for about an hour while the sun came up.

After a while, Killua and Gon came to get them and the group began going about their morning routine.

"Whoah!" Wheatley exclaimed, very loudly.

"What? What's wrong?!" Emma asked.

"Your mark, it's already starting to spread!"

Emma checked her wrist. The neon green ink had bled a tiny bit further across her skin.

"Cool." Killua was admiring his own spreading purple mark, a small smile creeping onto his face. "Maybe it's not helpful, but it sure looks cool, doesn't it?"

Gon smiled. "I guess so!"

The four walked and talked and laughed and told each other stories about their friends and families until they reached a small pond and stopped to wash their hands and faces.

"So you're hunters? Like...bounty hunters?" Emma said as she wiggled her fingers in the water. Gon shook his head.

"Some are."

Killua used his shirt to wipe the water off his face. "It's more of a general title. There are a bunch of different types of hunters."

Gon looked at Emma in respect. "And you really aided in a rebellion against a demon-run human hunting ground?"

"It's true."

"And you really got stabbed?" Killua asked.

Emma's face got straight and comedicly stiff. "Mmmmm yeah, unfortunately."

The three kids turned their heads sharply at the sound of Wheatley screaming several feet away. A bird was fluttering right over him. "BIRD! BIRD! AAH!"

The three kids struggled to contain their laughter. Emma walked over and shooed the bird away with her hands.

"Agh, thank you. I hate birds. Little fella was trying to kill me! That was a proper murder bird, that's what that was."

Gon started thinking about travelling. He wiped his hands on his pants. "We should start thinking about a strategy."

Killua ran a hand through his hair. "I think we should keep moving bases and not stick to one place for too long. Too dangerous."

"I agree." Emma added.

"Do we need anything before we travel or..." Wheatley questioned.

Gon thought for a moment. "We have food already, but that'll likely only last a couple days, and we don't know how long this game lasts. We should probably get more if we plan on moving around."

Emma jumped in. "Y'know what I was thinking?"

"What if animals have different accents?" Gon replied.

"Oh, that is a good question! But I was actually thinking we need a team name."

"That sounds fun." Wheatley said.

Killua thought. "How about the Scavengers?" "Ooh, that's so cool!!" Emma hopped up and down.

"The Kid Crew?" Gon suggested.

"Well, not all of us are kids." Wheatley said.

"How about something more general, like...the Misfits?" Killua offered.

"I guess that fits best!" Emma said.

"I like it!" Gon agreed.

"Me too. Kinda tough-sounding." Wheatley added. So it was decided.

Luck had brought the quadrio together, but now they faced the hardest part of this challenge: staying alive.

------------------

The orange team members had been travelling for a few hours now, marching in an ordered group. Sayori and Pyro were positioned in the middle, sandwiched inbetween them so they couldn't easily run off. They were thoroughly tired now, Pyro had fallen asleep multiple times and one of the oranges had to hit him to wake him up.

Sayori had then taken it upon herself to help him stay awake by telling him stories and occasionally poking him. When they had finally reached the town, Pyro wearily collapsed to his knees.

"Pyro!" Sayori stooped down and helped him up. The leader of the oranges group lifted him up by the back of his suit. "You can't sleep just yet." He propped him up next to Sayori so that he leaned on her.

She was distracted from trying to keep him upright by the various sounds of the bustling marketplace. Everyone was shouting and running and performing sketchy trades behind abandoned looking buildings. People were yelling in different volumes, kids ran through the streets, it was so busy, her eyes couldn't focus on just one thing. Her ears hurt from all the noise, and her throat was sandpaper from all the smoke and dust.

She stepped behind one of the orange members, trying to become invisible. He motioned for her to move back to her place in the middle of the group. They entered a tavern, a tinkling bell on the door announcing their arrival. A man behind the serving counter flipped a cloth that he had been using to wipe a glass onto his shoulder. "Welcome in."

He hollered across the room. Sayori could smell freshly baked food and lots of alcohol. Some gruff looking diners turned their heads to look at them, causing her to freeze in their gaze. The orange leader grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to the counter.

The tavern keeper greeted them. "What can I do for today?"

"We'd like to discuss a trade."
The ringleader of the orange crew gestured to Sayori and Pyro, who had become distracted by looking at a giant fluffy dog in armor. The tavern keeper raised an eyebrow. "Whadya want in exchange?" The orange member held out his hands.

"Food and weapons." The tavern keeper looked the two up and down, thought for a moment, then agreed. "I'll go get some extras. Stay put." He disappeared behind a door that led to a back room of some sort. Sayori's knees were jelly. This was it. They were going to get traded away and probably killed.

She solemnly looked over at Pyro and saw to her surprise that he had concealed a match in his hand.

Looking at the counter, she could see people sat there with their drinks. Pyro and Sayori exchanged a knowing glance. She knew what she had to do. The tavern keeper emerged from the back room and handed the oranges their supplies, wrapped in a cloth. "Pleasure doing business with you."

He beckoned for the duo to come behind the counter. "You two, come here. Now."

The two walked slowly and cautiously, preparing for what was about to go down.

Suddenly, Pyro let out a muffled yell and the entire tavern froze to stare at him. Sayori knew what she had to do. She grabbed one of the drinks from off the table and threw it to the floor. Pyro lit the match on the wood floor and threw it onto the puddle of alcohol, starting a huge blaze.

The oranges roared with anger and stumbled backwards to avoid the growing flame, the staff and tavern keeper scrambled to douse the fire, the customers abandoned their seats and headed for the exit, and Sayori and Pyro made a run for it.

They ran through town, passing dozens of people leaving the tavern in their rush. They ran well away from the town, their footsteps thundering behind them. They ran until their legs hurt.

The duo finally collapsed on the dirt road.

"Do you think we took it too far??" Sayori called inbetween breaths.

Pyro cackled gleefully and gave a thumbs up.

"THAT WAS SO...exhilarating! But also so wrong!! We just committed a crime, Pyro!" Her arms noodled around her stomach, trying to calm her lungs and the fluttering in her chest. Her companion was much less concerned, clapping his hands together as if asking for an encore.

She dragged herself under the shade of a tree, closed her eyes, and heaved an exhausted sigh as she flopped over on her back. Pyro crawled next to her and patted her head. "Thanks, buddy."

A leaf fell onto the nose of Pyro's mask and he marveled at it like a curious child. Then another fell.

Then another.

A leaf landed on Sayori's face and she sneezed herself into an upright position. Leaves rained down furiously. Confused, she looked up and her eyes filled with shock.

A skinny, dirty man was crouched up on a branch of the tree like a grasshopper, watching them. He had wild hair and an even wilder expression. Sayori was like a deer in headlights. The man leapt down from the tree and she screamed.

"Alright, I'm gonna give you both two options. One, go quietly and we won't kill you, or two!...We WILL kill you. If you don't go quietly!"

He leaned dangerously close to them and whispered. "We're not actually gonna kill you because we need you alive." He chuckled to himself before clapping his hands over his mouth.

"I don't think I was supposed to tell you that." The girl and the pyromaniac just stared. He wasn't a very threatening person, but his loudness and erratic behavior was enough to put them on edge. "Are you...gonna say anything?"

Sayori shook her head.

"So go quietly it is then! Roooadhog! Good news! They're goin' quietly!!" He said this last part almost incredulously, as if he couldn't believe it had been that easy.

Heavy footsteps echoed behind them. Sayori turned around just in time to see a large, imposing man with a mask emerging from the trees. And the last thing she remembered was his enormous fist coming down before everything went black.

Chapter Text

Monika, Sans, and Flowey stood outside an abandoned convenience store.

Flowey once again had reclaimed his spot on Monika's arm. Monika tried the door, to no avail. The plant laughed in annoyance. "Great, it's locked. Let's split." She glared at him.

"I am thoroughly fed up with you."

"If you recall kid, I didn't choose to come along. If those two edgelords hadn't showed up-"

Monika smiled in a disturbingly fake way. "If you recall, 'kid', I can squish you."

Sans interrupted. "You two can chill with the arguing. We gotta get in, remember?"

Monika gestured at the door. "So...do your thing."

"Do what thing?"

".....Open the door with your...powers."

Sans cast her a quizzical glance.

"I have no such thing."

"Don't be coy, I know you do!" She insisted.

"You are so full of it! Use your object-moving thingy!!" Flowey piped up.

"Oh that. 'Kay." He pulled up his sleeves and raised his arms over his head.

"Abra cadabra, do the thiiinng."

"Sans are you kidding me right now?" Monika asked, impatient.

"Aight, I got it." He threw a bone through the door, reached his arm through the fresh hole, and unlocked it. Monika and Flowey looked on in confusion.

"That works." Monika said.

They walked into the store. It looked ransacked, like people had already run through there. There was definitely a fight. Blood smeared the ground, there were scuff marks, and cans of food had spilled onto the floor.

"Keep your eyes peeled, people could still be here." Sans whispered.

Monika nodded. She made her way over to the counter while Sans looked for supplies. Looking over the counter, she could see no one was there. "Looks like we don't have to pay. Good thing too, I don't have any money on me." She remarked.

"Oh, you didn't think to pack spare change?" Flowey responded.

She shook her head and started scanning the shelves. She grabbed some canned meat, green beans, carrots, corn, and milk.

"Can we get Twinkies?" Flowey asked sheepishly.

"I don't know if they even have those here, Flowey."

"It's a convenience store, Monika. And it would be convenient for ME if they had Twinkies."

Sans yelled from across the store. "YES GET TWINKIES."

Monika sighed. "Alright, I'll look." As she searched a shelf, she heard the sound of something dropping behind it. Startled, she stood up and hit her head on a shelf.

"OW!" She clutched her injury. "Dang it...what was that?"

"I dunno, my sanity? Go find out." Flowey replied plainly.

She groaned and peeked over the side of the shelf. A man jumped out and swung a wrench at her, almost hitting her in the face. She fell to the ground in her attempt to dodge.

"Oh, sorry Monika!" A short, kindly man with a yellow hardhat and slightly stubbly chin stood awkwardly clutching the wrench.

"...Engie?"

Sans appeared around the corner with his arms full of assorted snacks. "Oh hey." He offered him a bag. "Hungry?"

Engineer shook his head and yelled toward the other side of the store. "It's ok, it's Monika and Sans."

Flowey poked his head out from behind the girl.

"What am I? Chopped onions?"

Soldier emerged from his hiding place holding a spoon in one hand and a rocket launcher over his shoulder. Upon seeing that Engie was right, he relaxed. "Sans! Monika! I killed 4 people with this spoon!"

Monika nodded uncomfortably. "...Good?"

Zhanna, Sniper, and Heavy came out of hiding. "Eyyy, the whole gang's here." Sans proclaimed.

"Not everyone. We still can't find Demo, Scout, Medic, Spy or Pyro." Sniper said, scratching his head. "We do know where Pyro is. Soldier saw him get taken by some members of the orange team in the forest. He also-"

"I also saw them take Sayori." Soldier interrupted, leaving Sniper looking slightly annoyed.

Monika's face fell. "Where did they go?"

He adjusted his helmet. "I don't know. I fired at them, but some got away."

Flowey rolled his eyes. "You're all idiots!! Which way did they go?"

Soldier looked around. He spun around a few times as if looking for something, then thought deeply.

"...Left."

"They're not going to stay hiding forever. I saw. They are tiny weak men with tiny skulls. They didn't even think to cover their tracks." Zhanna said plainly.

Monika thought back to the attack on Toriel and Flowey's hideout. "Did these people happen to be wearing hoods?"

Soldier shook his head.

"Why?" Engie asked.

"Toriel, Flowey, Sans and I were attacked yesterday by two people in hoods. We were able to get away, but unfortunately I don't know what became of Toriel."

The Texan stroked his chin. "That's interesting. Do you have any idea who they might be?"

She hesitated. It hadn't occurred to her until this moment they could be people she knew. The odds were slim, but not none. "No, I don't."

Heavy lifted up the bag of groceries he had been holding. "How about we eat before making conversation."

Monika hadn't known they were going to be stopping to eat. Her main focus had been getting food they could take on the road, but the convenience store had fresh food as well, perfect for weary survivors and whatever stray animals managed to find their way in. She ate her biscuit hungrily, which tasted surprisingly good. She tore off a piece.

"Flowey." She held it out to flower. "You want some?"

"No. I don't need to eat."

"Then why are you so cranky? Take it."

He folded over like a cat trying to hide its stomach.

"Fine."

He chomped down on the biscuit, nearly taking off her hand. Everyone sat pretty clumped together in a corner of the store, Sniper sat on the counter, Sans, Heavy, Soldier, Zhanna and Monika on the ground, and Engie on an empty crate.

"So, these figures, what did they look like?" Engie asked.

"One was tall and skinny, the other was shorter but still pretty tall." Sans recalled. Engie nodded. "Very descriptive."

Monika interjected. "That was pretty much all we could tell. We couldn't see their faces and most of their features were covered."

"Probably a couple bludgers who've been waiting for an excuse to participate in something like this." Sniper said. That was the end of that investigation.

"So." Sans placed his bowl of soup on the ground.

"How are you guys planning on playing the game?"

"We're not getting kills, if that's what you mean." Engie replied.

"I would've thought that you jerks would leap at the opportunity like this." Flowey said, mouth full.

"We are mercenaries, not monsters. Killing civilians is different." Heavy suddenly joined in. "Not job description."

"I guess that makes sense." Monika said.

"How about you?" Engie countered.

"We haven't killed anyone either." She replied.

"You do understand how dangerous what we're doing is, right?" Flowey asked, dumbfounded.

"So, we're all in agreement that we're gonna do it anyway?" Sniper smirked.

"What do you think about the game? Why were we picked out of everyone?" Monika asked, staring off into the distance.

Sans thought. "It seems like a bunch of people from a bunch of different worlds got randomly selected to participate. We just happened to be some of them. As for the purpose, I can't imagine why that robot voice mystery-woman would be doing this." He reasoned.

"Enjoyment, probably." Zhanna stated. Sniper, Heavy and Engie nodded.

"We'll stay together." Heavy stated.

"Where are we stayin'?" Sans asked.

"Nowhere, yet. We slept here last night." Engie responded.

Sniper shook his head and chugged his coffee. "Worst night of my life."

"Me too! I'm not sure, but I think raccoons were trying to infiltrate the building. I think they smelled Lt. Bites' essence." Soldier announced.

"At least you didn't have to sleep in a cave." Monika sighed.

Engie nodded sympathetically. "That's rough."

Suddenly, a crash. Several bags of food fell to the ground, followed a shushing sound, all from the far side of the building. Everyone looked to the direction of the ruckus. Sniper pulled out a knife.

"I'll go see what it is."

He stepped carefully, minding the volume of his footsteps. He made his way down the aisles and listened carefully for the source of the sounds.

As he grew closer, an overwhelming sense of dread washed over him.

His hand gripped the knife tighter and his legs suddenly felt weak. He had no clue why, but he hadn't felt a presence like this before.

It was like something that didn't belong in this world.

A growl and an empty can rolling towards his feet caused him to nearly trip and fall flat on his face. He heard the growling sound again, coming from the freezer area. He creeped around the edge of a shelf and heard the growling get louder.

From this distance, he knew now that it was a stomach growling.

"What, what do you want? Why won't you eat?" Sniper heard the pleading voice of what sounded to be a child as he turned the corner to face the intruder.

He slowly lowered his knife and internally groaned. Two small, skinny children huddled in a corner of the freezer section, one boy and one girl. The boy wore a dirty-looking trench coat that fell to his feet, along with a paper bag with two holes cut for eyes. The girl was smaller and wore a bright yellow raincoat. She was hunched over, clutching her stomach while the boy held her by the shoulders trying to calm her down; that was, until they both froze in fear at the sight of the man.

Sniper was annoyed.

He didn't really care for children, one could even say that he despised them. And he certainly didn't want to deal with two intruding on the crew's place of refuge. The boy stood up and stretched his arms out protectively in front of the hungry child and spoke.

"Stay back!" His small voice was filled with hesitation, but it was easy to tell he was trying to sound imposing.

Sniper just stared at the two unassuming intruders for a second, then lowered the knife with a hint of annoyance. He nodded toward the raincoat-clad girl.

"You hungry?"

On cue, her stomach grumbled its disapproval. He swiftly strided over to a fridge with bread and donuts and grabbed a bread roll from off the rack. He walked back over to the child and offered it to her.

The boy looked soberly at the girl, sprawled out on the floor. Sniper could almost see her fading.

"C'mon, take it."

The bag headed boy stared cautiously at him.

"I'm not gonna hurt you, just take it you little monster."

Her hunger outweighed her distrust and she snatched it. After eating it, the girl struggled to shakily stand but fell. She clearly was weak, not just from hunger. The boy looked back at her once again.

"Can you help her?"

Sniper stared, slightly irked. Well, there was no turning back now. With a huff, he knelt down and picked up the tiny girl in his arms. She fought back a little at first, but was weak with hunger and quickly got still, left only to clench her fists in protest.

He held her at arm's length and walked back through the aisles to rejoin the group as the child followed.

"Thank you sir! My name-"

"Do you want my help or not?"

The boy nodded.

"Then button it."

They turned the corner to see the group's shocked faces. Monika's jaw dropped. "What the shitake mushrooms..."

Sniper sighed. "I didn't want this either."

Engie was equally stunned. "Hello there, little one." He tried to make the boy feel comfortable.

Everyone's eyes fell on the girl wrapped in a raincoat in Sniper's arms. Monika regained her senses. "Is that kid alright?!"

Something stirred within Zhanna. Perhaps, sympathy, or maybe simply sisterly instinct.

"I will handle this." Zhanna stood up and took the girl from Sniper.

"Here." Sans gave Zhanna a meal box and she began to feed the child.

The group had invited the curious boy to sit with them and supplied him with another meal box, amply stocked with nutrients that no doubt would be helpful to the thin boy. He accepted it gratefully, devouring the food with much enthusiasm while his mask was rolled up over his nose, still obscuring most of his face.

The girl immediately locked eyes with him and relaxed in the woman's arms, finally understanding from her friend's unbothered demeanor that she wasn't currently in any kind of danger. She surrendered to hunger and let Zhanna feed her, since she was too weak to do it herself.

Everyone stared in shock at the child's ability to calm her.

"Do you two have names?" Engie asked.

The boy nodded, his paper bag rustling.

"I'm Mono, and she's Six." He went back to his meal.

Across the store, the bell on the entrance door jangled violently from the door slamming open. Several shouts rang out.

"Everyone in here, show yourselves!" Heavy stood up and ran toward the door. Engie muttered something under his breath and grabbed a shotgun before running after him. Zhanna walked briskly over to Sans and placed Six in front of him.

"Take the child, be quiet."

She grabbed a second shotgun. Monika looked at the child, and watched as Zhanna and Soldier ran to the commotion.

"Ok?" Sans said, confused.

Sniper looked around the aisle. He leapt out of the way as an entire shelf and its contents crashed to the floor. Sans pulled Monika down behind a shelf. A fight raged on in the store, people shouting and things getting knocked over.

Monika saw enemy team members start to trickle into the half of the store where she, Sans, and Six were standing in their corner.

"Hey!"

A whispered yell caught Monika's attention. Mono had hidden himself behind the counter. She grabbed Sans' sleeve and slid over the counter, plopping next to Mono and pulling Sans and Six down with her.

"I saw some over there!" Footsteps echoed through the convenience store, rapidly approaching their hiding spot.

All four held their breath and scooted even farther under the ledge of counter, hoping that would hide them. Unfortunately, Monika was bigger than the other three and much more visible if someone were to look over the counter. Which someone did.

Without warning, An attacker slid over the counter and shouted at the others before turning her attention to Sans, Monika and the children. She swung a knife, and Sans grabbed the children and pulled them out of the way, pushing them out the door of the counter area and back into the main store.

He looked back to make sure Monika was following, and his eyes went wide.

"Monika!"

The knife made contact with her arm, slicing it open. She cried out in pain and crumbled to the ground.

The blood flowed from the gash as she clutched it, the attacker slowly closing in, the edges of her vision starting to become fuzzy. Her focus was briefly brought back by Mono tugging on her good arm as she blinked in and out of consciousness.

She felt a grip around her waist and heard the sound of gunshots as everything faded away.

Chapter Text

Sayori's head pounded from the impact of...something, it took her a moment or two to remember. The edges of her vision were clouded and dark. She blinked it away and sat up straight, trying to get her bearings.

She and Pyro were in what looked like the backseat of a truck. There were dozens of empty bottles and it stunk of alcohol and some other odd smells that Sayori couldn't quite put her finger on. She nudged Pyro in the shoulder urgently. "Hey! Hey, wake up!"

The pyromaniac woke with a start and sat up, rubbing his head. He scanned their surroundings briefly and cast her a look that felt more confused than anything. "I don't know where we are, do you?" She asked, not really expecting an answer.

He shook his head. The front doors of the truck squeaked opened and the duo ducked down, but it didn't really matter as one of their attackers had turned around to face the back seat, a horrifyingly large grin plastered across his overly expressive face.

"Well, you've sure sure found yourselves in a pickle, eh?" He leaned in before throwing his head back with an unhinged laugh. They recoiled.

"Don't overdo it." His companion in the front seat mumbled in a deep voice, not bothering to look back. The weird skinny man sighed. "Why do you always have to interrupt when I'm in the middle of intimidating someone?" Sayori and Pyro exchanged a confused glance. Now that they were unwillingly up close and personal, she could get a better look at the two. The smaller one had wild blonde hair that stuck out in every direction, with singed looking tips, like they had been set ablaze many times. On his back sat what looked to be a tire with spikes all along the edge, fastened to his back with a chain. Sayori also noticed something that she hadn't before, both his right hand and leg were prosthetic. Not really thinking, her confusion got the best of her.

"So...you're not going to kill us?..."

He looked disappointed. "Yeah, well we were going to, but it turns out we need food, so then we decided we were gonna ransom you both to your teams for money, but then it turns out we're all on the same team, sooo..." He hopped down into the backseat in between them, awkwardly squeezing himself right into the middle seat, his back not quite being able to touch the seat due to the tire. Despite still being in a truck with people she didn't know, Sayori was relieved to at least know they weren't going to be killed. The future might be uncertain, but she had to take comfort in the small things.

"OH! I have need to show you both this." The man took something out of his pocket. Her eyes got wide. It was a small map, color coded to show where several teams have set up their bases. The names of several places were labeled, including one called 'Needle Point Stronghold' written in red ink. She stammered. "How did you figure all of this out?" His smile faded into a more matter-of-fact face. "Oh, we didn't. We stole this off of some folks headed to some safe haven called Needle Point Stronghold. So we're going to go there!" He pointed emphatically to Needle Point on the map. Underneath, Sayori could see someone had written 'Safe place', 'go', and other urgent fragments and words including 'blue base'. "And you can come too!" The grasshopper-like man held out a hand to each of the passengers, crossed over each other. "So, we all go there, and give each other protection in return? I mean, we don't really have a choice, killing teammates'll do us no good."

Sayori considered the man, impossibly cheerful and terrifying face smudged with mud and expecting an answer. This was a safe bet, and in Sayori's eyes, an excellent opportunity to make friends in this dark situation. She smiled. Why should she say no? "Alright, deal!" She and Pyro took each of his crossed hands and were immediately met with the most enthusiastic handshake they had ever had the surprise of experiencing. Pyro cheered enthusiastically under his mask, accompanied by even more enthusiastic arm movements. Sayori's mood lifted. Not only did they now have allies, but they were on their way to a safe place, most likely stocked with food, weapons, and materials. The man smiled. "Allow us to introduce ourselves, I'm Junkrat, he's Roadhog." He casually and plainly gestured to first himself, then the person in the front driver seat, who wasn't particularly interested in whatever odd conversation was being made in the backseat.

Sayori sat in awkward silence for a bit, then realized this would probably be a good time to introduce her and her friend. "I'm Sayori, and this..." she pointed to Pyro, who was trying and failing to untangle himself from his seatbelt, "...is Pyro." Junkrat gave a confused little nod. "Alright!" He clapped his palms together and rubbed them vigorously. "Let's get to it then!" He grabbed onto to the armrest of the front passenger seat and flung himself forward.

"So, here's the plan. We're gonna go there, if there's any members of enemy teams, we're gonna kill 'em, no witnesses, except us of course. Then, we get all the guns, ammo, food, and supplies we need, hightail it out of there, fight our way to the top and become the champions and ultimate winners of this game!" He gradually built up energy as he spoke, raising his fist in the air at the climax of this speech. Roadhog nudged him in the arm.

"..."

"What could I POSSIBLY be forgetting this time?! I am not changing the plan again for you just 'cuz you can't understand the genius!" Sayori raised her hand in the backseat like a clueless preschool student asking to go to the bathroom. "Yes, you in the back!" "What if there are people who are stronger than us?" Junkrat looked as though he was about to respond, then froze, mouth open. Roadhog crossed his arms, validated that someone voiced the same criticism he was told not to share. "Oh, don't look so smug." Junkrat muttered, still thinking. "Ok ok, new idea. Go there, get stuff, train to become stronger, hightail, fight, become the best!" He paused, awaiting correction. Sayori and Pyro glanced at each other. The girl raised her hand again. "Or maybe we could lay low for a bit?" She offered. Junkrat laughed. "Pffft, we don't do 'laying low.' You know what, we'll just figure it out when we get there. To the blue base!!"

So they started their road trip to the blue base, Needle Point, with high morale and even higher spirits.

Chapter Text

It was the dawn of the third day. The past couple days had been difficult, but nothing Chell couldn't handle.

She walked through the forest with intention, on her way to the Outer to avoid detection.

The only comfort in this moment was knowing that whatever she may experience here, it couldn't be nearly as bad as what she had gone through before.

She wanted more than anything in that moment to go back to the cozy house full of people where she felt truly happy, with Rattman, the Gracefield kids, and the cores.

Her family.

It was hard, but she kept urging herself to keep going. She wouldn't let herself die.

She couldn't.

She had been traveling nonstop and searching for them for four days, only stopping to rest and eat whatever she could find, which for the time being was mostly flowers and nuts off of the ground.

She had also found a pistol and holster, along with several small boxes of matches. A lucky find, but thankfully she hadn't had to use the gun yet.

As for the matches, she found that if roasted, the shells of the nuts she kept finding would secrete a sort of purple liquid that served as an excellent natural ointment for wounds and healed them within a day.

But back in the present, she wasn't having as much luck.

She had lost track of where she was, and the sun had only barely risen. She looked around.

Had she already been this way?

She stopped in her tracks to think.

Chell sighed in frustration. She got a brief glimpse of the map at the beginning of this game, but couldn't remember for the life of her what it looked like.

She was startled out of her thoughts by the sound of a twig snapping nearby. Before she could even think, her hand was on the holster strapped to her hip and she was pointing the gun into the bushes.

To her surprise, a tall, awkward, gangly man stumbled clumsily out of the leaves, holding his hands up and shaking his head desperately.

He wore an off white button up messily untucked from his dark pants. His face bore a distinct clueless and fearful look.

Chell just stared at him in silence, her eyes narrow, her arms tense as she gripped her weapon.

The man didn't speak, but wordlessly expressed to her not to shoot him. After some thinking, he clearly seemed more scared of her than she was of him.

She lowered her weapon.

This surprised the man just as much as it surprised her and he hesitantly lowered his arms. He looked extremely relieved.

She was less enthused. She cautiously approached him and looked him up and down while circling around him.

He watched in curiosity.

Chell finally was convinced that he wasn't a threat. She held her hand out and waited for him to take it. She had wrapped her wrist in bandages to hide her color.

He looked down at her hand, unsure, but decided it was bad manners to refuse a handshake.

Before the man could react, she gripped his wrist and pulled the sleeve of his shirt up. He tried to pull away, but she had already seen the mark.

Orange.

She took a step back. She was on blue, but she couldn't kill him. It just wasn't right, none of this was.

He noticed this and figured they must be on different teams.

"Staanleeey!"

Both of their heads whipped around toward the sound of a smooth, accented voice.

Out from the bushes strode a more elderly looking man with strands of silver in his hair and a pair of gold colored glasses resting serenely on his nose. One of the lenses was cracked, and the jacket that he wore was torn and dirty.

The thin man waved. Chell deducted that these two must have known each other long before the game.

The older man looked at her, puzzled. His eyes slowly panned between the two of them and after a few moments of confused thought, he spoke.

"Stanley, who is this?"

Stanley looked to her for a response.

She gestured to herself.

"Chell." She stated flatly. She didn't talk often, and her voice sounded quiet and slightly hoarse.

Stanley gave her a small smile. Chell was slightly confused by his demeanor. It seemed to her that he didn't seem all scared of her, despite them being on different teams.

The older gentleman approached them.

"You're not going to kill us, are you? I can see you have a gun."

She forgot she was still holding it. She shook her head decisively and put it into its holster.

"Well, I don't have a weapon, so you have my word we won't hurt you either. Good day."

He started to walk away when Stanley grabbed his sleeve.

"What? What's the matter?"

The tall man nodded toward Chell.

"Wha- Stanley, no! We have to keep moving! We can't trust anybody here, we can't take her with us!"

Stanley looked down at him with a pleading expression. The man brought his voice down to a whisper.

"She does seem like she would be good at fighting..."

Chell gave a small nod. She was.

The man sighed and adjusted his glasses.

"Agh, fine. You can tag along, just don't get us killed please. By your hand, or someone else, I'd just rather not have to deal with that."

She nodded solemnly.

A girl with dark hair and a green bandana covering the lower half of her face walked into the clearing carrying a large sniper.

Everyone turned to look at her. She stared back, surprised. She clearly wasn't expecting to see anyone out here.

"Who are 𝘺𝘰𝘶?" The older man asked.

Her body tensed up and she pointed the firearm toward them defensively.

The three others raised their hands.

"Hey! Whoah!" The older man exclaimed.

Chell took the hint that this girl needed some proof as a sign of trust.

Chell unwrapped the bandages and revealed her blue mark.

The girl seemed to take some comfort in this gesture of honesty.

"Me and this simpleton are on orange." The older man said.

The other girl lowered her gun and placed it onto a strap across her back.

"I'm Paula."

She was quiet, but so was 66% of the others around her currently.

The older man realized they were about to add another member to this trio. He sighed.

"You can just call me Narrator. I don't suppose you want to come with, do you?"

Paula gently nodded, a stray strand of black hair falling onto her face.

"Then let's go."

Chapter Text

The radio was playing. The engine was humming.

Junkrat, Roadhog, Pyro, and Sayori were on their way to Needle Point, a possible safe haven in this crazy land. By this point, they had reached what looked like a neighborhood, surrounded by one of the many forests that resided in this place.

Junkrat had taken over driving from Roadhog, who now lay sleeping in the passenger seat.

Pyro was looking out the window, and Sayori was guiding the driver from the backseat using their small map.

"Turn left here!"

The old battered truck lurched as Junkrat swerved quickly to the left, causing Sayori to bump into Pyro and squish both of them into the window.

"Sorry! Hang on back there! It's gonna get a little dicey, especially when we start blowin' up all the poor dipsticks over there."

Sayori straightened up in her seat. "Is that...a good idea? I wouldn't want to make very many, y'know, enemies..."

The demolitionist giggled.

"They can't be our enemies if they're dead!"

Sayori shrugged. She'd rather not argue with this lunatic.

She instead turned to Pyro. "What do you think we'll find there?"

He mumbled something incomprehensible.

Sayori nodded with a supportive smile. She didn't understand.

"I wonder if there's any nice people there..." she thought aloud.

Pyro hrrmphed his agreement.

Suddenly, a loud gunshot echoed off the truck and Roadhog bolted awake.

Sayori nearly jumped out of her seat. Pyro quickly turned away from the window to see if she was okay.

"Crikey! Who's shootin at us?!" Junkrat checked the rear view mirror.

Six other trucks followed close behind them, all armed with people hanging out of the windows with guns.

"What do we do?!" Sayori asked.

"Let's give them a bit of a challenge! Pass me that dynamite back there!" Junkrat instructed.

Dynamite? Sayori looked around, only for a few sticks of the explosive to roll towards her, bumping into her foot.

She grabbed them and handed one to Junkrat. Roadhog grabbed two out of her arms.

They hastily lit them and threw them out the open window.

The car behind them exploded into flames and drifted off the road.

Unfortunately, in the time it took to light the dynamite, another one of the pursuers had driven up alongside their left side.

"Gimme another!"

Sayori reached down to grab another handful, then screamed as a bullet shattered the window nearest to her, dangerously close to her head.

The truck next to them bumped into them, flinging dynamite and passengers everywhere.

Pyro grabbed onto Sayori to steady himself.

Junkrat got an idea. He turned to face the backseat.

"You! Can either of you drive?"

Pyro shook his head with a resigned 'mph'. Sayori nodded. "I can, but why-"

"Take the wheel! Try to lose these bludgers! I'll handle the rest!" he said, opening his door and leaping out. Roadhog followed.

"Did he just jump?!" Sayori yelled.

The truck swerved as Sayori scrambled to reach the front seat.

"Keep her steady down there!!!"

"I'm trying!!" she grabbed onto the wheel and steadied the large vehicle.

Upon drawing nearer to the other truck, they could see Junkrat planted firmly on the passenger door, clinging to it with his hands while he kicked in the glass with his peg leg.

He slipped into the broken window easily and pulled a grenade seemingly out of nowhere.

"Here you go!" he cackled with unstable glee as he pulled the pin and swung himself back onto the roof of their own truck, all in a matter of a few seconds.

The explosion distracted the remaining few pursuers for a moment, but they quickly caught back up again.

From the roof, he continued to throw grenades while avoiding bullets.

Without much effort, the truck behind them was exploded.

A spray of rapid gunfire shot through the back window, barely missing Pyro and Sayori and shattering the windshield, leaving them more exposed.

Another truck pulled up alongside them and rammed into them, harder this time, slamming Pyro into the back of the passenger seat. He slumped down, stunned.

"Pyro! Are you okay?!" Sayori exclaimed.

He gave her a thumbs up.

Another car bumped into them from behind, followed by two others boxing them in at the sides. They pulled closer, creating friction and sparks.

Sayori pushed down on the gas in an attempt to squeeze through, but to no avail. Panicking, she checked behind her, even though she knew it wouldn't do much good. Before she knew it, she had crashed into a metal pole. The two drivers that were boxing them in drove for a few feet before pulling over and getting out.

"Ok, time to go!" Junkrat called. Roadhog slid off the roof and kicked one of the followers squarely in the face as they exited their car. Sayori hopped out of the driver's seat and hurried to open the door for Pyro, who clambered out of the dented truck with a tired 'humph'. He had had enough excitement in the past couple of days.

Roadhog pointed to an exit into the forest. "There! Go!"

Sayori and Pyro sprinted towards the tangle of trees, nearly out of breath from everything that had been going on. One of the pursuers grabbed Junkrat, who swiftly punched him in the face. Roadhog ran back to help him. Or at least, that's what Sayori thought, but it turns out he just wanted to cause more chaos.

More explosives flew back and forth as Sayori looked on in horror and Pyro giggled with maniacal glee. The duo was distracting the attackers, at least for now.

"Keep going! We'll hold 'em off!" Junkrat called, already lighting another stick of dynamite. He looked like he was having the time of his life. Sayori hesitated. "What about you two?"

"She'll be apples! We'll catch up!" Junkrat yelled back as he dodged a punch. Sayori grabbed Pyro's gloved hand and pulled him through the forest, dodging explosives and gunfire. She ducked behind a tree just in time to avoid a bullet.

As they fled, Sayori's foot got caught on a branch and she tumbled down a previously unseen and treacherous hill into a pile of branches and thick bushes. Pyro yelled in muffled concern. She looked back up her friend, unable to move from the shock and pain.

But several of their attackers were already on the pyromaniac, holding him still and injuring him. Sayori wanted to run to his aid. She began to get up, but he yelled.

It was something she couldn't understand, but she somehow knew what it meant. He wanted her to go. Tears bit at her eyes.

He yelled again. With all her remaining strength, she pulled herself out of the sharp bushes and ran.

She ran as far and as fast as she could, across fallen leaves and sunny clearings until reaching a dirt road. She pulled the wrinkled folded map out of her pocket. She was close to Needle Point, she could make it. Her eyes stung from the wind, and her legs ached. She couldn't run anymore and crumpled to the ground.

She sat there for a while, just trying to catch her breath.

She looked down at the map again. Just about two more miles. She wanted to stay there and hide, but she had to get to the safe haven. She could get there before nightfall, even if she walked. So she picked herself up and started off toward her destination.

-------------

After about forty minutes, Sayori reached it. Needle Point. It wasn't like anything she was expecting, at least not at first. It was a medium sized building, grey and square and hard. There were a few large rocks and boulders laid in front to hide the place a little bit.

It didn't look all that inviting, but somehow, it felt more like a home than a shelter. In front of the door, there were two smooth, oval-shaped white objects with three legs each and a glowing bright red eye in the center of their bodies. Sayori didn't know what they were, but they did seem oddly adorable.

The objects extended what looked like little wings from their sides, revealing two sets of little black boxes which began dispensing bullets. Sayori quickly stepped behind one of the boulders as it got pelted with ammunition.

"Are you still there?" They called in a metallic singsong voice.

Apparently these things could talk.

She had to find a way past, but she didn't want to hurt them. Her eyes followed the line of boulders across the perimeter of the building. She could use those as shields to make her way past and sneak behind them, assuming they couldn't aim backwards. She was counting on that.

Sayori made her way behind the first boulder, dashing past the spot that wasn't covered. The laser eyes focused on her for a fleeting moment of fear, but disappeared when she hid behind the next boulder. She continued this until she reached the door and slipped behind the white androids.

Inside, the building looked dark and cold, the walls the same dark grey color as the outside. The walls were empty except for a small inspirational poster of a cat in the corner of one of them.

There were tons of boxes and crates on the floor. A little farther back, in the left and right walls, there were two doorways with no doors. And towards the back of the room, stairs.

One doorway was labelled "Dining Room" and the other was labelled "Supply Room." Sayori decided to enter the Supply Room first. Inside was a modest looking area, still grey, with a small square table in the center. On it were a few med kits, some scissors, bandages, canteens of water, a geography map that looked watered out and blurry, some gardening gloves, and a few weapons.

On the floor, boxes full of even more weapons were stacked messily. There was a small window with wood nailed over it in the back of the room, letting in a small amount of light. There was no sign of anyone there recently.

Sayori felt something on her face, something that she didn't notice was there before. It felt cold and wet. Blood, trickling down from her nose. She must've gotten it from the crash earlier. She took a med kit and opened it up to search for a cloth. She found one and wiped away the blood. She also cleaned up her other minor injuries while she was at it and put the cloth on the table.

She decided to explore some more before taking any supplies. She went back out into the main area before entering the Dining Room. Inside was a room slightly larger than the Supply Room, with a longer wooden dining table and chairs in the middle. This place was much roomier, allowing for many cabinets and cupboards along the walls, as well as a refrigerator in the corner. A homemade oven/heater sat by one of the walls, constructed from a metal cabinet with a few dead coals in it. It looked like it had seen much use.

But most interestingly of all, in the center of the room, sitting at the table, was a man in a blue shirt.

He was eating something out of a can with a spoon, completely oblivious to his unexpected visitor. He looked worse for wear, with small cuts and bruises along his body and bandages in several places.

But he was another person.

Sayori froze. She couldn't say anything. She was too surprised to say anything. This place was empty, how could someone else be here?

The man noticed her standing in the doorway and screamed, dropping the can to the floor. Sayori jumped and gave a small scream in response.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you!" He said, putting his hands out in front of him.

"What are you doing here?!" Sayori asked. Her voice was full of fear and uncertainty.

He must have noticed this, because he slowly began walking toward her with his hands still out cautiously, offering a welcoming smile. "Hey, it's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you..."

"How do I know that?" She backed away.

"Because I'm on blue too, see?" He pointed to the blue rectangle on his wrist.

"How did you know..." Sayori checked her own wrist and realized her sleeve was ripped slightly at the bottom. It must've happened during her fall down the hill. She clapped a hand over it then relaxed.

"It's okay..." he repeated, lowering his hands. "You look kind of freaked out, are you...okay, emotionally? I mean, nobody is right now, but you definitely look like you've seen some things."

She stood in silence staring at him for a few seconds. She felt her mouth go dry. "Oh yeah, I'm fine..." her voice quivered as she tried hard to remain calm. "I'm alright, I just got separated from my friend, pretty much everyone I love is here and they're probably in danger or...or..." her voice trailed off as tears started to form in her eyes. She couldn't hold it in anymore. She couldn't stand to think about it. She shrank to the ground, knees shaking as she let the warm tears roll down her face.

The man clearly didn't expect this but knelt down and placed an awkward empathetic hand on her shoulder. "Hey, hey, it's alright, deep breaths..." She bleakly lifted her head, tears streaming down her face. She gulped.

"We're gonna be fine!" he laughed a little, trying to lighten the mood. "There's enough provisions in here to last us years! Maybe a...millennia! If we resort to eating bugs!"

This remark made her laugh a bit through the tears.

He pulled her into a reassuring hug. He didn't really know how else to comfort people, but this worked fine. He gave her an awkward pat on the back. "You good?"

"Yeah, yeah." She wiped her eyes and stood up. "Sorry, I was trying not to..."

"No it's fine, I've had like three moments like that in the past couple days."

"Oh..."

"Yeah..." he walked back toward the table, trying to avoid the awkward comment he just made.

"You want something to eat? We've got canned meat, or...meat in a can..." he quipped while rummaging through some of the cabinets nearby for a substantial meal.

Sayori laughed while wiping the last remaining tears off with the sleeve of her blazer. She hadn't realized how hungry she was. "Canned meat is fine."

He took a can from the cabinet and peeled the top off before sticking a spoon in it and setting it on the table. They both sat down and she devoured the meat hungrily. It was kind of cold and spongy, but she didn't care. After eating practically nothing for a few days, it tasted like a full feast.

"So, what's your name?" the man questioned.

Sayori looked up. "Sayori. And you are?"

"Guy."

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘮, she thought.

Despite her hunger, she didn't forget her manners. "It's very nice to meet you, Guy." she smiled.

He smiled back. He had one of the most genuine smiles she had ever seen. "So, how did you find this place?" he asked.

Sayori swallowed a spoonful and answered. "These two guys gave me a map. They said they stole it from someone they beat up." She noticed Guy's face shift into embarrassment. "Yeah, that was me."

She eyed his injuries. "I figured..."

Guy picked his can up from the floor and continued speaking. "So where do you come from?"

Sayori thought hard on what to say. She could tell the truth, that she was an ai that gained sentience and somehow escaped into the physical world, or she could just leave that part out and say that she lived in a town full of monsters. Of course, to her, it was just her life. She was aware that it was strange, but she was accustomed to strange.

Guy took her hesitation as an invitation to talk. "Well, I'll go first. I come from paradise. Actually, it's called Free Life. It's a video game."

Sayori's bright blue eyes lit up and she looked at him.

"Really?"

"Yeah! I wouldn't normally tell that to someone, but seeing as we're on the same side, and you seem trustworthy..."

"Me too."

"...What?" he asked, puzzled.

"I'm from a video game too!" she burst out excitedly, more loudly than she intended. It was exciting, finding someone else like her, who knew what it was like to realize your world was just a smaller part of someone else's.

"You are?" he asked in disbelief. It wasn't really a question, more of an expression of shock. "That's great!" he added.

"I found out I was living in a video game almost a year ago, my friend Monika found out first and then told me. Then we told the rest of our friends." As she spoke about her friends, she couldn't help but smile when remembering simpler times. "How about you?"

"I used to live in Free City, where laws were basically just guidelines. I worked at the bank until a player named Millie told me the truth. She and her friend Keys created the game and they needed ME to help them prove that their original code was stolen by a big company." he explained. "How crazy is that?"

At this point, Sayori was fascinated. "Well did you succeed?"

"We did! They got their game back, and I got to live in the best place ever. You could walk out into the street and hop on a pegasus." He remarked wistfully.

Sayori leaned forward in her seat. "Really?"

He nodded quickly. "Really! And the sky is almost always blue."

"That sounds...awesome." She sighed happily and leaned back in her chair. "Does anyone else live there?"

He took another bite of meat. "Oh, my buddy Buddy! We used to work together at the bank. He's the best." His eyes held a faraway look. "I miss him."

Sayori knew exactly how that felt. "He sounds like a really good friend."

"This Monika sounds pretty nice too." he replied. She nodded. "She is." Guy began to take an interest in her life as well. "So how about you? What's your home like?"

"Oh, it's great! I live in Hometown, where both humans and monsters live together. Most of my neighbors are animals, and my friend Monika lives with two skeletons!"

Guy's eyes darted up from his can of meat to widened in disbelief. "Skeletons?"

"Well, they're magic skeletons, so they're as alive as you and me." she stated it as plainly as a normal fact.

He shook his head and smiled. "And here I thought I was living a strange life." His face straightened into a thoughtful look.

"Wait a minute, if we're both video game characters, how can we be here?"

"Well, I broke out of my game a while ago..."

"Yeah," Guy continued, "but how am I here? I don't remember leaving Free Life. Come to think it of it, I don't even think I can. It's like, one moment I'm riding giant dog with Buddy, the next, poof! I'm here."

Sayori shrugged it off. "I don't know. I guess it was all kind of sudden." She remembered something. "Oh! Can I...live here?"

He didn't even think about it. "Sure! It's, well you know, it's not exactly paradise, but there are walls, walls are good. And a roof. And a family of rats that live in the walls, so that's delightful."

Sayori smiled. "I'm not picky."

Guy laughed too. "Great! Because this place 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘴!" He broke into laughter towards the end of that sentence.

Sayori laughed too. Guy got serious. "There is a robot living here too though."

"Oh. That's fine!" She said cheerily.

Guy stuck his head out the doorway. "Claptrap! We have a new roommate!"

A box-like robot driven by a single wheel whirled around the corner from the Supply Room. Sayori must have confused him for a metal crate when she was in there earlier.

"Oh yeah! New roommate! Welcome to the crib, there are rats in the walls!"

Guy nodded. "I already told her about the wall rats."

Claptrap rolled over to them, put his thin metal arms around both of their legs and pulled them closer to him.

"I think we're all gonna get along fine! Unless we die."

Chapter Text

Emma, Gon, Killua, and Wheatley reached a warehouse by late afternoon. It was big and wide, and had way more windows than any warehouse would need. The sun hit them in such a way that the windows glowed, illuminating the entire building. Killua went ahead and pushed open one of the heavy doors to reveal a large interior with tall shelves of supplies that reached the ceiling. He pulled out the dart gun and held it defensively in front of him in case they weren't alone. The kids looked around in awe as they slowly entered, stepping around boxes and scanning the shelves.

"Looks like there's no one here. I'm gonna go see if I can find some backpacks to carry stuff in." Killua said as he walked off.

Gon started walking after him. "I'll look around for anything else that might be useful."

Emma nodded. "I'll see if I can find any weapons." She mumbled, more to herself.

She began inspecting the shelves. There were many neatly ordered boxes, full of all sorts of things. But a lot of them were either things she didn't recognize or didn't deem useful enough to take with her.

"Find anything interesting?" Wheatley asked from his comfortable spot in her arms.

Emma shook her head. Out of the corner of her eye, she spied a length of rope. She set Wheatley down on the floor and grabbed the rope, along with a pocket knife that was sitting in one of the boxes.

"What're you doing?" he asked quizzically. She knelt down next to him.

"I just got an idea. If I tie one end of the rope to each of your handles, I can carry you on my back like a backpack and have both of my hands free!"

She cut two long pieces of rope with the pocket knife and tied an end of the rope around each side of his top and bottom handles, creating two loops. The robot admired this new device. "Handy, aren't you?"

She smiled and pulled the rope loops over her arms. With her new freedom of movement, she grabbed two more pocket knives for each of her companions. Meanwhile, Killua had located three black canvas backpacks with lots of pockets.

"Got the backpacks!" he called to the others, who he was currently unable to see through the rows of shelves that separated them.

Gon hollered from another row, bringing the others to attention.

"Hey guys, there are canteens full of clean water over here!"

"That's great!" Emma called back. "That's awesome!" Killua added. "We won't need to look for clean water right away now. And by the time we find some, we can just refill them."

Gon grabbed three canteens.

Something else caught Emma's eye: a bow and a quiver of arrows! A familiar tool for her. She closed her hand around the smooth wooden bow. There was something oddly soothing about having something this familiar back.She slipped the bow over her shoulder and placed the quiver onto her back by Wheatley. There was another bow and quiver nearby.

"Hey Gon, do you want a bow and arrow?"

"Huh? You found one?" he responded from a few aisles down.

"Two actually! I thought you should take one since you're the only one without a weapon now."

"Well, I'll take it, but I don't really know how to use it."

"I can teach you!" she offered cheerily.

Gon smiled to himself. "Sure! That sounds good!"

Gon slung the straps of the canteens over his shoulder and grabbed an armful of canned food. While moving boxes around looking for more, Gon noticed a tuft of red hair moving around in the next aisle behind the shelves. At first he thought it must be Emma, who somehow got over here quickly, but it was much too red to be Emma's, and whoever it was attached to was slightly taller than her too. He stepped back.

"...Killua..." he spoke barely above a whisper. Killua walked over to see Gon staring at the shelf in front of him, unblinking.

"Gon? What's wrong?" he asked, louder than Gon would like. He shushed him.

Emma noticed his silent response and got concerned. She walked over to them to see if everything was alright when she saw it. A pair of green goggles staring back at them from behind the shelf. Everyone stood stock still.

"What's going on? I can't see much back here..." Wheatley said.

"Shhhh." Emma whispered.

Gon slowly raised his hand slowly to wave, and the red hair and goggles ducked out of view. The kids were startled, but not intimidated. Gon crept toward the end of the shelf and peeked around the corner, coming face to face with a red haired girl. He jumped back in surprise, causing the rest of the group to jump as well. The girl stepped out from behind the shelf and stared at them all blankly. She had a white sleeveless shirt that hung loosely around her torso and black shorts adorning her lanky legs. Beneath the green goggles were pink cheeks that seemed to smile at them in greeting. Orange ink crept through her tan skin. She was, as Gon had guessed, slightly taller than the rest of them and he assumed she must be older.

Gon stared at her inquisitively. She didn't seem like a threat, and she didn't have any weapons. As a matter of fact, she wasn't even covering her color, and she definitely didn't seem scared of them. Emma finally spoke up.

"Why aren't you covering your wrist?"

The tall girl looked at her and her lips parted into a wide, white smile. "Ed dosen't have to." She swung her arms absent mindedly as she talked before starting to walk around the group in a loose circle.

"Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky the Fourth, at my service!" she stopped her circular route to give a dizzy bow, nearly falling over on her skinny legs. Killua looked on in either confusion, or fascination (it was hard to tell.)

Gon could tell she clearly wasn't a threat. "I'm Gon!" he waved with a friendly smile.

"And I'm Killua." The white haired boy waved also, still eying her curiously.

"I'm Emma!" Emma stepped forward and bowed in return, revealing Wheatley on her back. The robot was confused to say the least.

"Wait, are we still under attack?"

Edward seemed captivated by the odd little core and reached out to touch him.

"Ooh, who is metal friend?" Upon seeing that the 'threat' was an unarmed child, he inferred that they weren't in any danger. "I'm Wheatley, no last name."

Ed turned a cartwheel and landed sitting cross legged on the floor next to Killua.

"So you're here on your own?" he asked.

She shook her head and gave a short whistle. A small rotund brown dog with a red collar waddled around the corner and barked at the three unfamiliar kids at first, before trotting over to each of them to sniff them.

"Ein! Say hi, don't be shy!"

The three reached out to pet him. Gon and Emma cooed at him and kissed him on the head and let him lick their faces while Killua and Wheatley were fine admiring the cuteness more casually.

"So," Emma spoke in between licks, "no offense, but how are you still alive if you aren't covering your mark?"

Edward turned another cartwheel over to a small table arrayed with empty teacups and plates. "Because of her!" Ed pointed behind her casually. A skinny girl of about the same age as Edward with a dirty dress and a white mask pulled sloppily on the side of her head emerged from under the tablecloth, holding a grenade with her hand on the pin.

"Hellooo! Don't come any closer or I'll blow you to pieces!" her threat was said in a strangely cheerful tone.

"Geez, calm down!! We're not gonna do anything!" Killua exclaimed agitatedly. Gon instinctively put an arm in front of Emma.

"Okay, what's going on now?! Are we under attack again?!" Wheatley yelled in a frenzy.

"We don't want to hurt you! We just came to get supplies. I promise." Gon stated.

The girl lowered the grenade. "Oh, okay." she threw it away. "I knew you looked friendly! That was just an intimidation tactic!" she stepped toward them and curtsied. "They call me Tiny Tina. They call me that because it's my name!"

The rest of the group shared an amused look. "Sure." Killua muttered.

"As long as you're not going to steal from us and leave us in a ditch, would you like to stay for tea?" she smoothed out her apron and lifted up a cracked teacup from the table.

"As much as we'd love to, we really should be going. We shouldn't stay in the same place too long." Emma said.

"Oh..." Tina lowered the cup. She perked back up again. "Where are you headed?"

Gon shrugged. "We're not sure yet. We'll probably set up camp somewhere outside, hopefully somewhere with lots of trees for hiding and a water source."

"Water! Water! Let's all go to the water-trees!" Ed held Ein's paws and danced while singing her song. "Where the water and trees grooow!"

Killua's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "What? You can't come with us."

Gon tilted his head. "Why not? We could always use more help."

"We know at least one of them is on a different team than us. If we get caught, we're only going to get in trouble! Besides, with more members, it'll just weigh us down." Killua argued.

Emma put her hands on her hips. "I'm on a different team, you didn't object to me and Wheatley tagging along."

"This is different. We saved your lives, we couldn't just leave you there. And our group is still pretty small and easy to manage. If we have to move quickly, we won't have to worry about leaving anyone behind."

"Easy to manage? What are we, animals?"

Tina fell to her knees dramatically, causing the trio to momentarily stop their argument. "Please take us with you! I'm begging on my knees here! I've had to live on nothing but canned vegetables and meat! It's awful! I was trying to stay strong, for her!" she pointed to Edward, who was trying to eat a beetle.

The three kids looked at each other. If Wheatley had a head, he would be shaking it.

"Aw, just listen to the poor sap. We can't just leave them here..."

He whispered to Emma. "Psst, she seems like she can fight, we might need her for protection. Just say yes."

Emma turned to look her in the eyes. "Actually, Wheatley makes a good point."

"He does?" Killua questioned.

"I do?"

Emma nodded. "You have explosives, and you do look like you've seen quite a few fights!"

Killua sat in silence before finally hanging his head and sighing. "I agree."

Gon reached out two hands and Tina shook one, Ed crossed her arm over and shook his other hand. "Welcome to The Misfits!"

"Get your things, let's go!" Emma said.

Just then, the door on the far side of the room was kicked in and several much larger opponents entered. Gon dropped the cans.

"Time to go, time to go!!" Wheatley nervously watched them from his perch on Emma's back. Ed scooped up Ein in her arms and they all ran.

"Oh come on, we can take them!" Tina yelled back at them. "Come and get us, motherhumpers!"

"Let's just go!" Gon called. Emma grabbed an arrow from her quiver behind her and shot back them, hitting one squarely in the shoulder. Killua used his dart gun to down another two, and by now the kids were nearly to the door. They quickly exited and slammed it behind them before continuing to run. Tina pulled a small remote-looking object from her pocket.

"Lucky for us, I rigged the building!"

"Huh?!" Gon responded, genuinely bewildered.

"Get as far away as you can!" Tina ordered.

He dived away, pulling Killua, Emma, and Ed down on the ground with him as Tina pressed the single button on the device. Just as the remaining intruders were exiting the building, it erupted into a single explosion. The rest of the group looked on in stunned silence as they lay on the ground.

Tina raised her arms high into the air and giggled. "WHOO! That was fun, thanks for the memories."

"You know, that wasn't necessary!" Killua finally said.

Emma sat on her back in shock. "Remind me to never get on your bad side."

Ein simply sneezed.

Chapter Text

Guy, Sayori and Claptrap awoke in their shelter with the sunrise. All three were not usually early risers, but there was such a peace to being in this place in the early morning, nestled away in the middle of nowhere that they felt like watching the sun rise. They sat around their modest wooden table and began to take stock of their situation. They talked about their lives before this point and reminisced over memories of their friends. By the time they were well acquainted with each other, and they had settled into their own roles. Sayori was the chef, Guy was the scavenger, and Claptrap was the lookout. He spent most of his time rolling around the perimeter of the hideout and scaring off birds and squirrels that got too close.

That morning, as they ate their breakfast, the trio got to discussing how they got to this point in the game.

"...And then after they threw me out of those towns, I found this place!" Claptrap concluded.

"Wow, Claptrap, that is...um, I'm sorry to hear that." Sayori said, trailing off awkwardly.

"Yeah." Guy whispered with an awkward nod.

"So, what's your story sunshine?" The robot nudged Sayori, causing her to back up a little.

"Uh...After getting captured by a group of scary looking people I committed arson with my friend and escaped into the woods." She didn't want to think about Pyro right now. She shook her head to erase the thought and turned to Guy.

"What about you? How did you find this place?"

"Well, I was surviving on my own, then I thought, 'I should draw whatever interesting things I find on a map! That would be smart.' So I found a map, added some landmarks, and then got beat up, and now I'm here. Oh! I almost forgot."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out another piece of paper. Unfolding it, he revealed a drawing of a spiky plant done in purple crayon. "I found this weird plant. I watched this spider and this guy made of fire eat it, and they started acting, well, weird."

Sayori scanned the doodle of the spiny plant. It was well drawn, each leaf sticking out on every side like many arms. She noted she should definitely look out for it. Her eyes sparked with recognition.

"Wait a spider and someone made of fire? That must be Muffet and Grillby!"

Guy's lifted his eyes from the drawing. "You know them?"

"Well, I guess I know OF them, but I don't know them personally. They work at a restaurant in my town!"

"...Unusual town." He tried to smile to make the remark seem less rude.

"Now I'm no plant expert, entomologist, whatever it's called, but if that plant has anything to do with the spider and flame guy, do you think it's got mind control juice in it?"

"Mind control juice?..." Sayori asked.

"Entomology is the...bug science." Guy mumbled.

"No wait, actually I think I understand what you're saying. The plant might be turning them evil or something."

"That makes sense. Ohhhhh, that means more people have probably eaten it though..."

The trio went silent. Finally, Claptrap spoke.

"Well that's not good."

"Nuh uh." Sayori nodded blankly.

"Soooo, what do we do?"

They looked around the table at each other.

"We shouldn't eat it. That's...I think, that goes without saying." Guy put in plainly.

Sayori nodded. "I concur. That would be pretty bad."

------------------

Monika started back to consciousness. She didn't quite have full awareness as to where she was, but it looked like a tent. She was lying on the ground, rocks digging into her back slightly. She shifted, but it shot a piercing pain through her arm. She looked down to find someone had bandaged it up.

She remembered the skirmish they had gotten into at the store. Moments ago in her memory, Sniper, Sans, and the two young children they rescued were by her side. Were they okay? Was her skeletal brother okay? Where was everyone? Was she the only one left? And if so, who bandaged her arm?

She sprung out of her resting spot. Her arm ached again but she didn't care. She didn't even process the logistics of a living AI feeling pain or getting hurt. The only thing on her mind were her friends.

She stumbled to her feet and climbed through the flap of fabric covering the entrance to the tent. Outside, the barren ground lay stretched before her in a sort of large crescent shape. On the edges of the rocky crescent, the ground gave way to shelves of rock, like huge naturally forming stairs.

She was in The Cliffs. After getting a good long look at her surroundings, she realized that there were many other tents scattered around her. She ran to the nearest one and looked inside.

"Hello?"

A tall man with spiky black hair and a blue suit sat, presently occupied sorting a box of medical supplies. He turned to meet her.

"Excuse me?" He half-asked, half-demanded, slamming the box shut.

She was a bit put off. "Excuse ME?! Who are you?!"

He stared blankly for a few seconds before gripping his forehead and tilting it upwards to the sky as if he remembered something.

"You're a little confused." He stated matter-of-factly.

She was getting impatient now. "Yes, I am! I don't mean to be rude, but who are you?"

He grabbed his box angrily and stood.

"Sorry if we got off on the wrong foot, but I'm kinda stressed right now! The name's Leorio, I patched up your arm. You're welcome."

She gripped her arm and stared straight through his expressive but tired face.

"How...long have I been asleep? And where were the people I was with? Did you see them?"

"Whoah, slow down with the questions! You've been unconscious for a day, and you're crazy friends literally ran into me and begged me to help you. Of course, that was after they tried to steal the medkit I was carrying..."

There was a distinct groan of annoyance in his voice. But it didn't last long before his annoyance turned to barely disguised rage.

"And now, they won't let me LEAVE. I'm like their live-in medical errand boy."

Monika could tell he was already haggard and fed up from this whole experience. It felt as if he had his last drops of energy sapped over the course of the past few days. Not to mention her allies basically enslaving him for the past day.

"Mmm.... I'm sorry about all that. But my question still stands. Where are they?"

He groaned and rubbed his eyebrows. "I'll take you to them. Follow. And try not to get lost."

He peeled open the tent opening and walked out into the sunny cliffs. Monika obediently followed, growing increasingly less anxious about finding the rest of her group as she scanned the numerous tents strewn about the rock face. Leorio led her into the midst of the tents. She hated to be the type of annoying person to ask a lot of questions, but she hated even more to be out of the loop.

"Who are all the people that live here? Are you all...together?"

Leorio's annoyance had subsided a fair amount.

"If by 'together' you mean we knew each other before the game, no. From what I gathered, this is just a group of people who decided to pool their skills together to survive. I don't know any of them. After meeting your 'kindly companions,' they dragged me with them and we found this place. Then they just kind of accepted us in."

They reached the tent at the very back of the others, shaded by a large rock.

"This is where we part ways. The leader lives here. She's talkin' with one of your friends, she said he wanted to be the first to speak to you when you woke up."

"Thank you Mr. Leorio."

"Just- never mind. Have a good afternoon."

"Thank you."

Monika hesitantly entered the tent.

Inside, a large muscular woman sat crosslegged, making marks on a piece of paper. She was the tallest woman Monika had ever seen, with a strong but easy disposition. Sans sat next to her, watching with neutrality and fighting the urge to fall asleep. They looked up at Monika.

"Hey you're awake." He muttered.

"I missed you too." She stated. "Is everyone okay?"

The woman spoke up.

"Oh, uh, sorry! Some of them got hurt in the uh, shuffle. I'm Luisa by the way!"

"Luisa. You're the leader here? Thank you for giving us shelter. I...uh, extend to you my deepest gratitude. And thanks."

"Oh you don't have to be all proper. I'm just me!"

"Thank you nonetheless."

Chapter Text

The loudspeaker announcement rang out that evening just as the sun had set. "Good evening competitors. 23 deaths today."

Sokka sat in a grove of berry bushes. On his wrist, a bright blue mark that crawled the entire length of his arm. In one of the bushes sat his hidden bag of fish. Earlier that afternoon, he had tied a rock to a stick and fashioned a sort of spear to catch them.

He was currently engaged in sharpening the spear and trying his best not to shiver from the cold. The past few days has consisted of him first frustrated and incredulous at his situation, trying to find a way to possibly escape. And after traveling a long while, he realized the world they were in did in fact have an end.

He reached a wall. But when he touched it, it had burned. He couldn't climb it. He then focused on trying to figure out a way to find his friends. He had seen on that giant screen that Katara, Aang, and Toph were there.

He had long since resolved to stop trying to figure out a way to escape, and instead made survival his priority. He knew how to hunt, how to fight, basic first aid, he could do it. The only obstacle now was the loneliness. He caught some fish at a stream earlier. That was something to celebrate. A slight breeze caused him to shiver. He shook away the cold and tried to put all his focus on his sharpening. It hurt to think about how he didn't know where anyone else in his life was. After a few seconds of attempted distraction, he dropped it and decided to try and get some sleep.

But a crunch in the leaves caught his attention.

He dropped the sharp rock he was using and hoisted his spear above his head. He took a deep breath and realized he should deal with this calmly. He took a deep breath and readjusted his stance. He lowered his sword down in front of him and crept towards the sounds of crunching leaves. He was careful to avoid leaves and make that same mistake.

As he crept closer towards the bush, a new realization hit him.

He left his bag of food in the bush.

An animal was probably already knee deep in his supply. He silently chided himself and charged into the bush.

"Alright come out with your hands up!"

His defensive front fell. Where he was expecting to find an animal, a young boy with messy hair and white clothes was digging through his rations. Upon closer inspection, he spotted the number "16194" tattooed across the left side of his neck.

He looked up at him in fear, as if not expecting him to see him at all. Sokka shook off his surprise.

"HEY! Drop it!"

The boy hesitated for a split second before grabbing the bag and running.

Sokka jumped through the bushes, branches and thorns gripping at his clothes and holding him back. After struggling free, he saw that the boy was much farther ahead. But after putting on some speed, surprisingly he was able to catch up to him quickly.

"Come back here you..." Sokka's voice scratched and he had to stop speaking. He decided his throat was far too dry to yell.

The boy was far ahead, but Sokka was closing in on him now. He finally got near enogh to grab him by the collar and pull the bag out of his hands.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to catch fish with a spear?! What do you think you're doing?!"

The boy struggled to escape from Sokka's grip on his arm. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I was just...I didn't know you were there! I was hungry! Just let go!"

Sokka's anger faded. What did he think HE was doing? This was just a kid. And he was yelling at him for stealing without meaning to. He looked into the boy's scared eyes and felt like a jerk.

He let go. The boy rubbed his own sore arm and looked up at him. Sokka looked away.

"I'm sorry. I'm just...so tired. Here."

He reached into the bag and pulled out three of his four fish. The boy's eyes went wide. He clearly wasn't expecting that.

"Really? You're serious?"

He smiled. "Yeah."

The boy was shocked.

"Do you have anywhere to go?"

The boy shook his head. He was still looking over his newly acquired fish. "No, not yet."

Sokka thought. He wanted to ask him if he would like to stay with him, but did he have the means to keep another person alive?

"Do you want to stay with me?"

The kid looked up. "Yeah! Oh, I'm Don by the way....Hey, wait!"

Sokka looked at him quizzically. The kid backed up defensively, his gaze dropped to his wrist. "What team are you on?" He edged backwards nervously. Sokka quickly shook his head. "Hey hey, calm down. We'll show, uh, on three. So that way we know we can trust each other."

He hesitated, then nodded. Shifting the three fish underneath one arm, he prepared himself.

"One, two, three."

Both blue.

The boy released a sigh of relief.

"So, now what?" he asked.

"Dinner, of course. Four fish!"

Chapter Text

The next day dawned bright pink. The previous night was not a pleasant one for the new members of the Tent Dwellers. Engineer, Sans, and Heavy slept well withput interruption, Sniper didn't sleep very much due to Sans and Mono staying up talking. The three of them had got stuck in the same tent. Monika slept alone in the medicine tent while she was recovering, and Six was placed in a tent with Zhanna. The two slept well, aside from Six having nightmares and kicking Zhanna in her sleep.

The tents housed not only Leorio and the leader Luisa, but several members of her large family. Her sisters Mirabel and Isabella, as well as her cousins Camilo and Dolores. The others camped there were as follows: A tall boy with a paper bag on his head named Zazie, a little girl named Chihiro, a black blob with a curious-looking mask aptly named No Face, a fiery girl named Gillian, a man in a suit named Sanji, a muscular man named Leo, a girl named Rita, and a tall skinny man with a slingshot named Usopp.

That morning, everyone gathered around in a circle to eat breakfast, except Flowey, who decided to stay asleep for the time being. Mono and Six seated themselves next to Rita and Chihiro, seeing as they appeared to be the only other kids there.

"Oh, hello! You two are part of the new group. I'm Rita, It's nice to meet you. And over there is my friend Leo."

Mono looked at her, then to the tall imposing man sitting beside her. He returned the look causing Mono to jump slightly.

"You know this guy?"

He nodded. "She saved my life."

The other three children stared on in awe. To Mono and Six, most adults looked like giants compared to him, but he still carried a serious dangerous energy. But Mono assumed if he was friends with a nice person like Rita, he was probably trustworthy. He felt a nudge at his side as Six got his attention and pointed out the man with the bag on his head.

"Oh yeah, he does look like me!" Mono agreed. To his surprise, the bag man returned his gaze and gave a friendly wave. Mono waved back.

On the other side of the circle, Usopp was occupying himself by regailing the group with the tales of his escapades. Sans and Soldier indulged him happily, throwing in questions and comments.

"Whoah! So you're really a soldier, huh?" Usopp asked excitedly. "A strong fighter like myself, I assume!"

"Son, you have no idea! I practically invented combat!" Soldier replied energetically, slapping a hand on his own knee and taking a swig from his metal mug. "Back when I fought in World War II..." as he spoke, Sniper leaned in to whisper to Usopp.

"Don't listen to this looneybin, he was never in the war."

Monika was peering curiously around at the motley crew. They were unusual to be sure, but they had managed to survive for this long.

"Hey."

A gentle voice caught her attention, not much louder than a whisper. She turned to see Dolores leaning towards her. "I like your bow."

Monika looked puzzled, before realizing what she meant and subconsciously looking up. "Oh! Thank you! I like yours too!"

Dolores beamed and continued eating. At a particularly climatic part in Usopp's story, he raised his voice and Dolores reached her hands over her ears.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, my hearing is just very sensitive. I can hear birds flying around from a mile away."

Monika's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Whoah, really? That's...impossible."

"Normally it would be..."

"You haven't told her yet?" Camilo piped up.

"Told me what?"

"We have-" Dolores began, before being interrupted by Camilo.

"We have magical gifts."

She glared at him.

Engineer perked up slightly. "What kind of gifts?"

In an instant, Camilo melted upwards and transformed into an exact copy of Engineer, the latter of which, looked very shocked. Monika gaped and looked from Dolores to her brother for confirmation of what was going on.

Engineer lifted up his helmet and scratched his head. "if only Spy was here to see this..."

"What about Luisa?" Monika questioned.

"She's really strong." Camilo stated casually, still in the form of Engie.

"Can you stop doing that? It's weirding me out." Gillian said from the other side of the circle.

Camilo shapeshifted into her. "My name's Gillian! I like...guns!"

"Very funny." she natched the pink beanie identical to hers off of his head.

"Hey!"

She ran off and Camilo chased her. Mirabel smiled.

Sans looked to her. "How about you M-"

"No." She simply replied. "I Don't. I don't have a gift. But that's okay!"

Chihiro finished eating and looked to the black blob sitting beside her. "Are you done?" He stared silently before nodding. She got up and dusted the dirt off her shorts.

"Thank you again for breakfast." she nodded toward Sanji.

"My pleasure. It sure feels good to cook for a large group of people again, even if the only stovetop is a campfire."

Chihiro looked whistfully away from their camp into the fresh sun. "Luisa, can we go walk over by the other side of the cliffs?"

Mono and Six had also finished eating. "Can we go too?"

Luisa looked at her in thought. "Um...well, I'm not sure. It's kind of dangerous for you kids to be by yourself."

"They'll be fine, we can see them from the edge!" Camilo said casually, grabbing some more food.

Zhanna stared at Luisa solemnly. "If anyone tries to attack the children, I will personally run over to them and crush their skulls so far down their puny throat that they pass them like kidney stone."

Everyone stared in shock, disgust, and confusion. Leorio finally spoke up.

"What the -"

"We'll just send Zazie down their with them." Luisa said quickly.

Zazie nodded, grabbing his swords.

Chapter Text

Mono, Six, Rita, Chihiro, and No Face walked idly along a rock path far below the camp. They were still in the cliffs, but in a lower spot where the ground was flat and framed by gnarled dead trees. Zazie was walking behind them, swords on his back.

Rita brushed a piece of short hair out of her eyes and looked at Six.

"So, what do you think about all of this?"

Six glanced at for a few seconds before putting her head back down to the road.

"Six dosen't really speak that much." Mono explained.

"Oh." Rita looked away. "That's okay! May I ask, is there a reason?"

He thought. "I'm not sure. She was like that when I met her."

He looked up as No Face passed in front of him to pick a single leaf off of a dead tree. He admired it like a treasure and turned around to show Chihiro.

Six grabbed and squeezed his hand. She seemed scared of the creature. Mono looked over at Chihiro.

"So, what exactly is No Face? He is a curious thing isn't he?"

Chihiro thought for a moment, trying to figure out how to explain.

"I really don't know. I think he might be a spirit."

No Face handed her the leaf and she turned it over in her hands as if to appraise it.

---------------

Several feet behind them, Zazie's attention was grabbed by a butterfly. Despite his current mission to guard his charges, the bright colors of the insect drew his eyes away and started him on a chase. He ran after it, picking up speed gradually.

He hopped over rocks, bare bushes, cracks in the ground and climbed up steep hazardous ledges. The rocks slid under his feet, threatening to let him fall, but the butterfly was so close.

He kept climbing until he found himself on a single, tall cliff.

It jutted out over what looked like a small canyon, with a sprinkling of dead trees creating a large cage around the cliff. He noted a campfire, still smoking, with hot freshy burnt wood piled on it.

Someone had been here, and recently. But Zazie was too occupied to think about it for long.

He was just about to reach out to catch the butterfly when he sensed someone else on the cliff. He whirled around to see a serious-looking man standing behind him, on the side of the cliff where he had just came.

He had short green hair and three gold earrings that reflected the harsh sunlight into the zigzag hole in Zazie's paper bag. A black cloth was tied around his left wrist.

But most notably, attached to his side were three swords, one of which his hand was resting on intimidatingly, ready to draw it at any moment.

And yet, his expression remained neutral.

"What do you think you're doing up here?"

Zazie didn't respond. He just stared blankly.

This seemed to annoy the man slightly.

"Hey, I'm talking to you."

When he still didn't respond, the man sighed.

"The strong silent type, huh? I'm not a fan of that. If you came to my camp to ask for food I'm afraid you're outta luck. I just ran out."

Zazie realized something. This man wasn't at the camp when he came there, meaning he had just shown up. For all he knew, this mysterious man could have been following him. Remembering his mission, he realized he could have seen him and the kids walking out of their own camp.

He had to protect them. He pulled his twin swords out of the sheaths on his back and dug his feet into the dirt.

The man narrowed his eyes.

"So you just want a fight, do you? I guess it wouldn't hurt to get some team points."

He drew his own swords and Zazie watched quizically as he put one of them into his mouth.

"I have to warn you though, I'm not one to go easy on people."

----------------

Roronoa Zoro stared at the curious man. A tall, curious thing with a long coat and a paper bag mask.

No one had been able to find his hideout yet. It was hidden away, and too high up for anyone to see him from the ground. But this guy had somehow found it. If this man was really going to try to attack him, he couldn't let him leave alive.

Zoro adjusted his grip on his swords and prepared for the man in the paper bag to charge.

----------------

Zazie ran straight toward him, twin swords glinting. He slashed at him, but Zoro deflected expertly and swiped back at him. Zazie ducked and shifted himself backwards before swinging at him again. Dust pooled into daunting clouds at their feet, swirling into a sea that they both swimmed through in a dizzying dance.

Their swords clanged together. Zazie stood with his arms outstretched, then brought his blades forcefully forward. Zoro leapt back and trapped the blades between his own.

They struggled for a few moments, pushing fiercely against each other as the orange morning sun glowed on their weapons.

Zazie kicked him in the stomach with all his might, sending him flying backwards into a large rock.

Zoro gripped his gut in pain.

𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘶𝘺'𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥... he thought as he steadied himself.

...𝘒𝘯𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘦...

He got up slowly and dusted himself off.

"Not bad."

Zazie shrugged.

𝘊𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘺... the green haired fighter grabbed his swords and smirked.

"Your move."

On cue, Zazie ran full speed towards him and their swords met once again with a loud screech.

Zazie's twin blades faught against the sword in Zoro's mouth. The bag headed fighter was amazed. This must be the reason why he carries three.

Zoro pressed the blade to Zazie's throat, pushing him down over the glowing firepit and scorching his back.

Zazie screamed in pain and struggled to push back against the weapon.

He fought past the searing pain on his back and thrusted his knee into the other swordsman's chin, sending him stumbling back.

While he was distracted, Zazie kicked him in the chest with all his might.

Zoro fell to the ground and coughed. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘶𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵.

Zazie was about to kick him again, but he dodged and hit him in his wounded back with the handle of his sword. Zazie moaned and doubled over in pain.

An unfamiliar voice called out.

"Hey! Back off!"

Both turned to look at the source.

A humanoid turtle with a blue mask over his eyes was standing at the other side of the cliff. He carried two swords, poised and ready for attack. Zoro's chaw tightened on his weapon.

"Oh great, another one. What kind of freak are you supposed to be?"

The turtle stepped forward.

"I'm Leonardo Hamato, the kind of freak that dosen't tolerate attacks on the innocent." It was obvious he was trying his best to sound heroic.

Zoro looked around confused and annoyed. "He's the one who trespassed into my camp!"

Zazie shook his head and pointed at him accusingly.

The turtle ran toward them and Zazie and Zoro were on their feet, swords in hand, crossing to meet him. Zoro was surprised to note that the turtle seemed to have a much different fighting style. That like a trained ninja.

Their swords clanged together, the feeling of metal on metal reverberating harshly through Leo's body. He nearly lost his grip on his weapon as he stumbled backwards. It was like these two were ganging up on him. Before he knew it, he was on his back on the ground, with Zoro's foot on his chest.

But it didn't stay that way for long. The turtle leapt up, and with a flash and a clank, Zoro was inbetween Leo and Zazie, fending one off with the sword in his mouth and the other with the swords in his hands. He wasn't even breaking a sweat.

Soon, they switched positions again and it seemed as if Leo and Zoro were fighting against Zazie. Then Zazie and Leo vs Zoro, then Zoro and Zazie vs Leo again. They danced around like this for a while until they were panting.

The afternoon sun sat high in the sky, beating down on their backs. All three were drenched in sweat and lay on the ground.

Zoro unclenched his jaw and let his swords fall to the ground.

"I don't think we're getting anywhere with this." He said inbetween shaky breaths. "I gotta say, you two put up a good fight."

"You too. Truce?"

Zoro considered his offer.

"Let's get one thing straight. None of us owe each other anything."

Leo nodded. "I know. No conditions."

"It's a truce then." He slid his swords back into their sheaths in a flash.

Zazie groaned and tried to sit upright.

"Oh yeah, sorry about your...back."

Zazie balled his hands into fists. Underneath the mask, tears formed at the edge of his eyes and he gritted his teeth.

The others could tell he was in pain.

"Here, I have some bandages, let me help you." Leo offered.

Zazie shook his head. Muffled under his bag came the sound of a growl. To him, this thing looked just like a demon. Zoro looked nonchalantly away. He didn't want to deal with this right now. The turtle held out his hand to Zazie.

"I promise, I just want to help you."

Zazie looked at his outstretched hand and considered it. Surely he wouldn't offer to help if he was going to harm him.

He had to admit, the turtle was pretty good at treating wounds. He wrapped him in bandages as expertly as someone who did this often. Zoro sat down with his back against the nearest tree and watched through half-lidded drowsiness.

After Leo finished his task, Zazie stood up and took a deep breath to test the feeling of the wrap on his body.

Soon, the deep red-orange curtain of the sky pulled back and the moon opened its silver eye to look down on the three interlopers.

They were sitting around a fire, jovially talking as if they had been friends for their entire lives.

Leo drank from a canteen of water, occasionally handing it over to Zazie. Zoro drank a bottle of sake he had found at a nearby town.

"Y'know, I'm sorry for trying to kill you earlier." he said as he took a swig.

Zazie waved his hand as if to say 'it's fine.' A small groan escaped his mouth in an attemp to form words.

"So, how did you find yourself up here anyway?" The green haired man nodded toward Leo.

"I just heard the commotion. I was looking for my brothers."

"How many do you have?"

Leo looked into the moon with reminiscence.

"Three. Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo."

Zoro stared off into the middle distance before taking another drink of Sake.

"So...are you italian?"

"No..."

"...Alright."

A faraway voice echoed through the cliffs up to their hideout.

"Zaaaaziiiiie! Now's not the time for games! You're in big trouble!"

The man in question got up and went to the edge to look.

"That you?" Zoro asked.

He nodded. The two others got up to investigate. Upon looking down, they saw a man walking around the canyon, hands cupped to his mouth to amplify his voice.

Leo craned his neck to see closer.

"Who is that?"

But Zoro recognized him.

"Usopp?"

The three swordsmen descended down the steep cliff to meet him.

"Zazie! There you are! How could you leave the kids by...themselves..."

His eyes lit up when he spotted his fellow crewman.

"No way! Zoro!"

Usopp ran full speed towards them waving his arms wildly. Zazie looked at Zoro in confusion.

"Yeah, he's with me."

It looked as if Usopp was about to give Zoro the biggest bear hug he had ever given anyone but he stopped short and nearly fell on his face at the sight of Leo.

"Good heavens what 𝘪𝘴 that?! You know what, it dosen't matter right now! Zazie, how did you find him?"

Zazie looked to his two new acquaintances for an answer.

"We beat the everloving crap out of each other." Zoro stated.

Chapter Text

The days passed.

Each day, the victims of this game made new discoveries, strengthened bonds, and made excellent progress. One could barely keep track of the days there, they seemed to drag by as the members lost track of the sound and rythm of their former lives. They had grown accustomed to their situation, realizing that there wasn't much they could do.

But the world outside kept moving on without them.

About two weeks in, the Misfits went to a pond to refill their canteens and Emma found herself examining her wrist. The ink had devoured almost her entire arm by now. The bright neon green hue seemed to taunt her. She might as well have a snake chewing on her arm. It felt like a curse keeping her tied to this twisted world. She stared into the pond and sighed. Attached to her back, Wheatley was still sleeping.

"Hey Emma, check this out!"

She looked around to see Gon with a huge goofy smile plastered across his face. His purple mark spread a lot faster than the other kids'. It had made it all the way up to his neck and was creeping up the edge of his chin.

"My mark grew almost three inches last night!"

"That's not something to celebrate." Killua put a heavy hand on his head. "This game is gonna start getting harder for us real soon."

His own purple mark had grown about the same amount as Emma's.

Tiny Tina waved her hand excitedly. "My arm is half 'n half! It looks like I'm wearing a glove or somthing!"

"Whoah!" Emma and Edward exclaimed in unison and stared at the mark climbing up Tina's arm in a long blue glove. Ed's mark had grown similarly to Killua and Emma's. Wheatley was nearly half-covered in purple.

"They seem to be spreading in different ways." Gon remarked.

"Interesting. Do you think it's permanent?" Killua said, screwing the cap back on his canteen.

"I guess so." Emma replied with a hint of sadness in her voice.

"Hey, cheer up girlfriend! We're gonna look sick after this! Tatted up, battle scars, where I come from, that's a sign of pure awsomeness!" Tina said, enthusiastically putting an arm around her shoulder.

"Where is that, exactly?" Gon asked curiously.

"Frick around and find out."

"I think you can pay for tattoo removal. We could just do that when we get back home." Killua stated, completely ignoring the conversation that was going on.

"Did ya hear anything I just said? Grade A bedazzlement."

"I'm just saying. You can."

"Yeah, but it's expensive isn't it?" Gon asked.

"Ed thinks we should put our money together!" Ed suggested cheerfully.

Killua looked at her. "Not a bad idea. How much you got, Ed?"

She thought for a moment before shrugging and laughing nervously.

"If we get back home-" Killua began before Emma cut in.

"What do you mean 'if'?"

"I just meant when we get back..."

"But you said 'if'. We 𝘢𝘳𝘦 going home, you know that right?"

Everyone looked around each other. It was getting harder and harder to believe it each day.

Emma shook the uncertainty from her head. "We can't start losing hope, it's only been a week."

She grabbed the hands of Gon and Killua who were standing next to her.

"We've got this."

Gon smiled at her. Everyone else joined hands until they formed a small but bright circle. Ein rested his head on Ed's leg.

A loud blaring beep noise made everyone jump and pull away from the circle. Wheatley startled awake.

"Attention all competitors. If you are hearing this, congratulations! You have made it two weeks. As a reward, personal items will be dispensed at Center City in a pile for you to collect. Something of yours may be there, or may not. Have fun."

"...What was that?" Wheatley sleepily mumbled.

"Well," Gon pulled on his backpack. "Looks like we're going to Center City."

It took the Misfits about two hours to travel to the city, not including the time they took to properly wrap their color marks in cloth and bandages. By the time they got there, a crowd of people had formed around the pile of precious objects. The kids had a hard time pushing through the crowd, squeezing their way inbetween people with great difficulty.

Killua shouted to be heard over the hubbub. "I'm gonna go see if I can find my skateboard! Let's meet back up at this spot!"

They split off in different directions. Emma started off by looking in an old looking chest labeled "clothes." She didn't know what she was looking for exactly, but she knew when she found it.

An off-white, dirty stained coat and black pants that she had worn when she was living at B06-32.

Her eyes lit up with the memories of that time. She could remember everything so well.

"What is it?" Wheatley asked from her back, unable to see what was going on behind him.

"My old clothes from the bunker!"

"The what?"

"Oh, I'll have to tell you all about it later."

She stuffed the clothes into her backpack.

Somewhere else in the crowd, Killua was digging around for anything he could find. There were boxes full of random knick knacks, instruments, and memoirs, some of which were strewn all about the ground as people searched.

His eyes landed on the object of his mission: the skateboard. He smirked and grabbed it from the mess of objects.

Elsewhere, Gon spotted his fishing pole.

𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵! 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘧𝘪𝘴𝘩! He thought.

It was so crowded he had to crawl under people to get to it. He retrieved the fishing pole and squeezed out of the crowd.

Ed crawled through the mass of people and spotted her scooter.

Tina shuffled through a bunch of weapons while humming a nursery ryhme.

"Dang it! Where's my stuff?"

She put her hands on her hips and stroked her chin in thought.

"Hey Eddie, do me a flava and help me find explosives!"

"Okay!"

The two girls dug around for a while, gathering grenades and other weapons that looked fun. Truthfully, Ed didn't know what these things were for, but she grabbed whatever she thought looked cool or particularly interesting.

"This looks GOOOOD! Shawty, you da best."

"Yay! Hahah!"

Ed laughed and leaned against her.

Tina started shoving explosives in her pockets. "Alright, let's skadaddle back to the guys before people realize we stole their stuff."

---------------

Upon hearing that morning's announcement, the Tent Dwellers decided it would be too risky to all go together so they sent Sans, Monika, Zoro, Leonardo, and Zazie to Center City. Mono and Six, desiring to explore for away from the camp for a while, asked to come with them. Mono was riding on Zazie's shoulders.

"Whadya looking for today?" Sans asked Monika.

"Not sure. Maybe my piano." She joked. "What about all of you?"

"I've got all I need honestly." Zoro said calmly.

Leo nodded. "We're just here for escorting."

Monika laughed. "Escorting? I didn't know this was such a serious mission."

"Could be." Zoro stared straight ahead with a neutral expression. "We just have to be careful."

"Careful. We can do that..." Monika responded uncertainly.

"Yeah, we're like, always careful." Sans agreed.

"Really? 'Cuz didn't Miss Monika almost die a few days ago?" Mono asked cluelessly.

Monika laughed nervously. "I think 'almost died' is a bit of an exaggeration Mono..."

Sans chimed in. "Focus up, gang. Let's start lookin'."

The group dissolved into the crowd.

Almost immediately, Mono spotted something shiny out of the corner of his eye. A music box.

Six's music box.

"Six, look at this!"

He grabbed it and handed it to her excitedly. He was eager to prove that there was no ill will between them. She gave him a long hard look before taking the music box from him.

Monika and Leo decided to talk while they looked around aimlessly.

"So, you're like, the leader of you group?" she asked.

"Yeah. It's hard sometimes. Especially looking after three people the same age as you."

"Took the words right out of my mouth. Do you also have a duo that just won't stop arguing?"

"I'm 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 of the duo that won't stop arguing!"

She laughed but promptly stopped when she spotted something in a cluster of photos and trinkets.

"What is it?" Leo asked.

She stooped down to pick it up. It was her pen from school. She ran her thumb over the heart-shaped clicker.

"My pen!"

"...That's it?"

"Yeah, I was hoping for more, but I'll take what I can get."

"Hey Monika!" Sans called.

Both Monika and Leo turned their heads to look at him.

"I found my trombone."

"Oh, surely that'll come in handy." Monika noted sarcastically.

"Yes it will, and don't call me Shirley."

"That's such an old joke." Leo said, laughing anyway. "We should go find the kids."

"Agreed." Sans nodded, happily hoisting the instrument onto his shoulder.

----------------

Somewhere else in the crowd, Guy, Sayori, and Claptrap scanned the area. The trio couldn't decide whether or not to dive deeper into the chaos to try to find something.

"It's pretty stuffed, maybe we should come back later?" Claptrap suggested.

"But there's no garauntee all of this is gonna be here later." Sayori answered. "I'm just gonna take a quick look."

Guy nodded. "We'll wait over here."

She looked over the piles of clothes and boxes and spotted her ukelele. She ran over to it and grabbed it.

-----------------

Stanley, Chell, Narrator and Paula had a hard time fighting the flood of people, but successfully made it through and collected Stanley's bucket (much to Narrator's annoyance). Chell looked a while for the Companion Cube but to no avail. Paula searched for anyone she might know, but found no one she could recognize. The group retreated back to their base.

Chapter Text

When all was said and done and most everyone had their items, the contestants returned to their hideouts and bases, satisfied with their accquisitions.

Scout ran from the City as fast as he could, which was pretty fast. The surrounding circle of forest looked like a blur as he looked behind him to see how his friend Natsuki was faring. The wind whipped her pink hair into her face and the branches' hands reached out attempting to ensnare her, but she was keeping up exceptionally well. She ran up ahead of him.

Scout was carrying his newly accquired baseball bat, stained with dirt and blood among other things.

Natsuki looked behind her to make sure they weren't being followed. Upon seeing the coast was clear and there was no present threat, she gave Scout a look of excitement. Scout returned it, silently celebrating their find and their luck so far.

Air pelted Natsuki's face in a rush of excitement. It felt like a moment of peace, something they hadn't had very much of as they had to keep moving around the past week.

A loud, crunching snap pulled her out of her thoughts.

Everything went deathly silent and she felt her entire body shiver. Whatever that was, it sounded close.

So close...like it was behind her.

She slowly stopped running and dared to turn her head around.

There was Scout, kneeling on the ground, leaves scattered around him as he clutched his leg in horror.

His leg was only half visible as it was stuck in a large bear trap.

Natsuki's eyes widened fearfully as she struggled not to throw up. Her heart pounded. If he made any sort of noise, which he was bound to in this much pain, everyone nearby would know where they were.

His loud scream cut through the silence and echoed through the tall trees. She slid over to him on her knees and clapped her small hand over his mouth, stifling the noise as best as she could.

She tried to get his attention, but it was too late. She was sure they were done for. And on top of that, Scout was injured and couldn't walk. The only thing she could do now was try to free him from the trap and get both of them far away somehow.

She squeezed her fingers inbetween the teeth of the trap, being careful not to cut herself, and slowly struggled to pull it open. It was a difficult task especially for someone with her strength. But she managed to pry it far apart enough for him to pull his leg free before it snapped shut. He groaned and dug his hands into the dirt to suppress the pain.

"I'll be right back, hold on!"

She ran off deeper into the forest, the whistling of wind in her ears deafening her as she went on. She had to find water or something to clean his wound before it got infected. But where could she find water? She was no longer sure if the rustling in the bushes were people coming after them or just her imagination.

After running in deafening silence for what felt like an eternity, she reached a meadow with a pond right in the middle. She hastily ripped a strip of her shirt off and dipped it in, soaking up a good amount of water. She ran back to Scout, hoping that he was still there. Thankfully he was still laying on the ground barely moving. She knealt down and pressed the wet cloth to his leg. He winced but tried his best not to make a sound.

"What do we do now? You can't walk..."

"Yes I can." He tried to prove it and painfully fell over.

"Are you stupid?! Sit down! Your foot's probably broken! You'll be lucky if you're ever be able to walk on it again."

"Well we can't just sit here!"

"Shhhh!" She put a finger to her lips. "We'll just have to figure something else out. Can you crawl?"

"Nah, that'll take forever."

Natsuki got an idea. "Wait. Take my hand."

Scout grabbed her hand and she pulled him up, placing his arm over her shoulder and grabbing his around the waist so he could lean on her.

"Are you sure I'm not too heavy?"

"Don't flatter yourself, toothpick."

The two slowly but surely made their way through the forest.

Chapter Text

The next day, Monika and Sans found themselves at a rare point where they could just walk through the cliffs and enjoy the peace and quiet. Sans was talking about whatever happened to be on his mind while Monika was attempting to braid a few strands of her hair together as they walked. Some issues had been gnawing on the back of her mind.

"Hey Sans, can I...ask you something?"

"Sure kid."

She paused.

"Do you miss Papyrus?"

The walked on in silence for a few moments. Monika almost wondered if he hadn't heard her.

"Yeah."

She looked away. "Mhm."

The two didn't dare make eye contact.

"I'm sorry, for...bringing it up."

"Nah, it's ok. I was already thinking about it anyway."

"Really?"

He nodded.

"Do you miss the rest of the club?"

Monika stopped walking.

"...The thought...has crossed my mind."

The truth was, she missed them all terribly, but she was doing her best to not show it.

"I miss them a lot." Her voice quavered and she cleared her throat and continued walking.

"So." He clapped his hands together and changed the subject. "The view up here sure is nice."

"Definitely! Of course. Yeah."

She had to agree, the sun peeking over the cliffs was truly a magnificent sight. One of the most beautiful sights she had seen.

"So, how are you connecting with the tent people? You and Dolores seem to be makin' friends."

She smiled. "Yeah, she's nice. Very soft spoken."

"That cook guy they brought in recently seems really interested in you."

"Who, Sanji?" She asked incredulously.

"Yeah. He totally thinks you're hot. He told me so."

She burst out laughing. "Stop! You're kidding, right?"

"Oh come on sis, you know you think he's a smokeshow."

"Sans!"

"I'm right though!" he chuckled.

"Well, yeah, but you don't have to say it like that!"

They laughed for a bit. It almost felt like things were normal again, back when they would talk like this after she got home from school as they ate dry ramen.

"I've missed this." Monika said after a while.

"Me too. Hopefully soon we can talk about more stupid stuff with Pap and the girls too."

"Of course we will."

The sound of crumbling rocks and distant shouts put a stop to their conversation. Sans motioned for Monika to stay still while he went to get a closer look.

Running through the orange sun baked rock surface was a large group of guards. They carried spears and were headed right toward the camp.

"We gotta go."

Their footsteps echoed off the rocks as they ran back to the camp, staying one step ahead and out of the oncoming enemy's sight.

"What did you see?!"

"Guards. They're heading to the camp. We gotta warn them so we can start makin' moves."

He was breathing heavily, struggling to keep running.

Monika figured this would happen. With that many people staying in one place, they were bound to get caught and have to move eventually. The only question now was how they were going to get everyone out of there safely. They arrived at the camp out of breath and visibly panicked.

"Everyone!" Monika called.

Camilo and Mirabel looked up from the laundry they were busy cleaning.

Leorio raised an eyebrow at them and Zoro woke up from a nap.

Dolores walked up to them looking concerned. "Something is coming."

"I know, that's what we're here to tell you about!" Monika caught her breath. "Guards are coming. We have to go now!"

"Guards?!" Mono tensed up.

Luisa walked through the group. "Alright, nobody panic! Everyone just calm down!"

Leonardo walked out a tent with the other Leo. "What's going on out here?"

"Guards are coming!" Monika repeated.

"We have to pack up everything!" Usopp exclaimed.

Soldier grabbed him by the shoulders. "There's no time!"

"Well what do we do?" Chihiro asked, looking to Luisa.

Luisa paced in thought. "How many are there?"

"About..." Sans thought for a moment. "Thirty or so."

"Holy crap..." Monika muttered.

Luisa's eyes narrowed in intense thought. "Okay. My guess is they're going to try and surround us. Sanji, gather up all the food. Monika, Sans, Flowey, Camilo, Dolores, Leorio and Mira, get the kids out of here. We'll stay and fight."

"Got it." Sanji wasted no time performing his assigned task.

"Hey, why do I have to evacuate?" Leorio crossed his arms.

"Always protect the medic." Engie stated seriously.

Mirabel looked at her sister in shock.

"Luisa..."

Luisa put a firm but caring hand on her shoulder. "We'll be fine. Go."

"You guys are gonna take on a small army?" Monika asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, we are?!" Usopp looked around nervously.

"Have to try." Heavy shrugged.

"Enough chit-chat! We don't have time for this." Gillian stated. "You guys gotta get out of here before they get here."

Mirabel puffed out her chest, trying to make herself look more strong and certain than she felt. "Come on, guys."

The kids obediently followed and soon Monika (with Flowey reclaiming his spot on her arm), Sans, Mirabel, Dolores, Leorio, Rita, Mono, No Face, Chihiro and Six were out of sight.

"Okay." Zoro unsheathed his swords. "Let's do this."

Sanji slung the bag of food supplies over his shoulder. "All done here."

They could see the guards coming toward them from over the cliff now.

"Leo!" Luisa called.

"Yes?" Both Leos responded in unison and looked at them.

"Uh, go collect all of the weapons we have and distribute them."

They retreated and wove in and out of the tents, dropping two handmade spears, an axe, and their only gun.

Gillian gasped. "I call dibs on the gun!"

Engie looked around. "Where the heck is Sniper?"

Sniper came out from behind a tent. "I was just sleeping, keep your shirt on. What's going on?"

Everyone hushed as the guards approached.

"Oh." his voice lowered in dissapointment. One of the guards spoke.

"Stand down. We have been informed that multiple enemy team members have been taking refuge together in this area against orders."

When no one responded, the guard repeated himself.

"Did you not hear me? Drop your weapons and stand down."

"Yeah, we aren't gonna do that." Zoro said plainly.

"If you don't..." The guard speaking trailed off. "Didn't the boss say there was more?"

The group exchanged wary glances.

"Are there more of you hiding somewhere?"

Soldier pointed back at the guard accusingly. "We'll ask the questions here!"
Luisa spoke up. "No, this is all of us."

The guard motioned to the rest of the guards. "Search those tents."

They went through and did a quick sweep of the cluster of tents.

Gillian leaned close to Usopp and whispered. "When do we open fire?"

"I don't know, ask Luisa!"

Luisa shushed both of them. "When I say."

The guards emerged from the tents.

"All clear. Lucky you."

The Tent Dwellers glared at them.

"I will repeat myself one more time. Drop your weapons, and we won't have a problem."

Luisa's face contorted into a horrified expression and the pointed behind them. "What's that?!"

The guards all turned to look, and Luisa punched the nearest one as hard as she could, flinging him off the side of the cliff face.

Now she really looked horrified. "Sorry!"

Heavy yelled as more guards flooded toward them. "Good Luisa, keep going!"

"I just killed a man!"

Instantly, the guards were pointing their spears at them and charging.

"Now?" Usopp asked, slingshot poised.

"Yes, now!" Luisa shouted.

Usopp and Gillian fired, knocking out at six guards in all. A guard tried to grab the bag of food away from Sanji, who returned him with a swift kick to the legs.

"Sorry, this is ours. I'm pretty attached to it."

Sniper dodged an oncoming attack and looked around hurriedly. "I don't have anything to shoot with!" He swung at an attacker as they ran toward him.

Leonardo, Zazie and Zoro swooped into the cluster of rapidly approaching guards and faught them with ease. Engie threw his wrench, taking down three guards in one throw.

Luisa, Heavy and human Leo made quick work of the rest of the guards with their strength. All in all, the whole group working together was able to overtake them.

"Well that was easy." Sanji said, dusting his hands.

"Too easy..." Leonardo mumbled suspiciously.

Gillian looked at him. "...Really?"

"I'm sorry, I just...thought it fit the mood."

Luisa looked around cautiously. "No, he's right. Something feels off."

Zoro spotted movement from the corner of his eye. "We've got company."

A group of guards were somehow already far away, persuing the rest of the fleeing group.

"Dang it! Where did they come from?!" Gillian said through gritted teeth.

----------------

Monika panted hard. Behind her, Sans, Mirabel, Camilo, Dolores, Leorio, and the kids followed closely.

"Where do we even go?" Rita asked, out of breath.

"Just keep going!" Mirabel called.

Sans tripped and tumbled to the ground.

"Sans!" Monika called out. She ran over to help him up.

"I'm fine, just go."

"Don't be dramatic, I got you!"

Flowey waved his leaf arms urgently. "C'mon, hurry up!"

She tucked him under her arm and kept running. Mono held tightly to Six's hand.

Dolores covered her ears. "We're being followed! And there's lots of them!"

Camilo looked annoyed. "I thought they handled it!"

"Don't worry, I still have our trump card." Monika dove behind a large fallen log and the others followed. She pulled a bottle out of her hoodie pocket.

Mirabel adjusted her glasses and stared wide eyed at it. "What is that?"

"Is that a molotov?!" Sans asked.

"Yep! Sanji gave it to me for emergencies."

"How come come I didn't get one?"

"Because you don't have legs like these. Does anyone have a match?"

Six reached into her raincoat pocket and wordlessly handed over her lighter.

"Thank you." She lit the molotov and threw it behind her.

Dolores covered her ears in preparation. Mono and Six huddled close and Rita put her arms around them.

They heard a few screams and felt the warmth of fire lapping behind them.

Mirabel and Sans peeked their heads over the log. Rita stopped the younger kids as they were about to do the same. "Don't look."

"...Is that...all of them?" Mirabel asked breathlessly.

A guard emerged and grabbed her by the arm, but was quickly on the ground with one hit to the head by Luisa.

"Are you okay?" She gripped her by the shoulders and examined her with great concern.

"Yeah, don't worry, I'm fine!" Mirabel adjusted her round rimmed glasses and felt a small sliver of something wet running down her face.

"What happened?" Luisa firmly but gently grabbed Mirabel by the sides of her face and inspected the injury.

"I just got scratched somehow, I'll be fine!"

Sans stared at the human shaped piles of fire strewn about the ground. The others ran down to meet them. Flowey looked around in a demeaning air of annoyance.

"What are we supposed to do now?"

'Turtle Leo' looked toward the horizon, freshly sinking sun brimming his blue band and illuminating the group in a warm afternoon glow.

"I guess we have no choice but to move camp." he decided.

"Are you...absolutely sure?" Monika questioned him. "Where do we go?"

"As much as I hate to admit it, you do have a pretty sweet little set up here." Sniper mumbled. "We might not find a base like this around here."

"Maybe, but we can't stay here anymore. It's not safe." Luisa's voice was stoic and resolute. Her mind had clearly been made up. Monika felt a tug on her hand and looked down to see Mono looking up at her questioningly. "So...are we leaving?"

Sans put a hand on his shoulder. "Looks like it."

After gathering up all the important supplies they would need for their journey, the group ventured into the cliffs to search for a new place to stay. As they walked, they spoke fondly of the things they had seen and experienced thus far, and what they might experience going forward. The more responsible members of the group were more inclined to discuss the important matters of their venture.

Sans and Monika walked a fair distance behind the others, silently taking in the rocky scenery. Sanji fell back from the group to walk alongside them and honestly, Monika was glad for his company.

The Tent Dwellers were on their way to venture deeper into the Cliffs.