Finale Start

---

As the mountain begins to shake, a limp figure on the B3F floor begins too, to shift. Not in the Lost in Hogwarts sense, mind you. Lynn Tyrne climbs to her feet, smiling to herself. B3F was an advantageous position, all things considered. Still, she had something she had to do, with nothing to lose.

Stealing upstairs to B3F, she slips into Advanced Cthonics and lays her hands on the flamethrower in Containment Control. If everyone else was too pussy to use it, that would be their loss. Dr. Pierce, terrible of a boss as she was, at least knew how to stock up on effective weapons.

Yes… Soon, that blasted Bureau agent would pay fo-

Bigfoot clears his throat behind her. She swivels around as he holds out his hand and asks for the flamethrower. Oh for fuck's sake. Lynn rolls her eyes, handing over the weapon. Bigfoot nods affirmatively, and heads out back into the hall.

Alright fuck. Whatever.

Several stories up, Rio Ranger bolts upright in bed, panting in a cold sweat. He wonders why the fuck he was sleeping with the pending threat of an avalanche over their heads, but upon seeing the sleeping form of the ASMR Youtuber across the room, he decides he no longer cares.

Throwing his blanket aside, he picks up one of his severed invisible legs and slowly creeps up next to the Youtuber's bed, a sick grin slowly spreading across his face. Her eyes snap open as he brings the leg down onto her face, sending her back to sleep with a mighty blow. He tosses the leg aside, no longer having use for a mangled invisible limb. Not all that useful really, besides as a nifty bonking tool. Even then, there were probably better bonking tools sitting around. Could probably just hit someone with the bedside table, honestly.

But if someone had to die in the avalanche, it might as well be the Youtuber. After all, Rio liked Faust, for the most part. Everyone did. He's just an inherently likeable guy, bag be damned.

One floor down in the Experiment Dorms, Faust sits awake in bed. He gives a metaphorical "F" in the chat for his fleshbeast, forever trapped in the elevator shaft.

Grabbing his gas, he slips out into the hall. Him, Luna and the ASMR Youtuber… they were all going to survive this together. He was sure of it.

Less sure of that fact was the ghost of Dark Souls II, clutching their frying pan and knife as they crawl out of the vent in the VR Control Room. Yes indeed, Dark Souls II was one of many dedicated to the sacrifice of the Youtuber, and they were not about to allow even the slightest chance of Dr. Wexlyn dying. Was this particularly moral, considering the Youtuber didn't exactly... do anything to them? No, not at all. But Dark Souls II did not care, at least no more than the average mediocre 2010s action-rpg game would.

While the sentient video game debated the morality of ritualistic deer sacrifice, a deal was going down only a few rooms away. A deal that would determine more than one would expect, considering the cirumstances. In the Experiment Dorms, Lost in Hogwarts and Chiaki Nanami were making a trade. A powerful weapon, in exchange for the life of a certain unsuspecting Yakuza.

Oh yeah, Hogwarts thought as her new, improved laser-mounted gun arm was meticulously wired into the empty socket left behind by the execution. If there was one person even more fucked than ASMR, it was DK West.

After all, if death was so easy to dodge, then perhaps it was time for someone else to pick up the reaper's mantle.

Dr. Alexander Wexlyn was a kind man, all things considered. Yes, technically he was a murderer, but that was just semantics. He liked to think that unless his own safety or the safety of those he cared about was threatened, he would never go out of his way to actually harm someone.

However as he sits in the burned-out husk of his office, he catches himself thinking that he probably would like to give a not-insignificant slap to whichever higher power dictated that he start his night there. He opens the charred door of his fridge and pulls out a can of soda, the can now blackened and dented.

He raises the can to his lips and takes a sip, only to toss it down to the ground in something that resembled a lesser form of disgust.

Ugh, it was flat.

Suddenly, a knock at his back door draws his attention. Giving the can a gentle kick across the floor, he approaches the door and opens it.

Meanwhile, the ASMR Youtuber is awoken rather rudely, Luna being the one to shake her violently back to the land of the living. Or the land of the conscious, she supposed. She groggily asks what the hell happened, as Faust follows in behind the nurse. He raises his tank of gas, preparing to put the Youtuber back under, only to have Luna swat his hand away, giving him a look of general minor disapproval.

She helps the Youtuber to her feet and the trio depart into the hall.

Up in the Weather Station, Agent Liz Grayson finishes packing up the remainder of her important documents. Pausing as she goes to slip her final file folder into her bag, she opens it, tracing her finger down the page as she counts off names and numbers in a quiet tone.

She stops on one of the entries on her list of things that went missing during the Containment Breach. The “Idol of Screams”. Well, if she had to guess, the stupid monkey statue was probably what all that broken stone in the containment room with Senpai’s corpse was. Even if it wasn’t, the Idol of Screams wasn’t exactly high priority, considering it just… screams. They really needed to start categorizing these things by their hazard levels.

Next up, the Shadow Plague sample… Yeah, no point even bringing that one up. Confirmed, and eliminated hopefully.

She continues on the listing for the “Staff of Sealing”, taking another pause. This one… it sent ripples of phantom pain through about half of the scars on her body. She moved on quickly. She wasn’t getting that one back.

The Enigma Paint though, as well as the Void Rifle, those were still somewhere. Somewhere in this facility, assuming the Crimson Eye didn’t take them along. A few more things to add to her task checklist, kind of like the one that little space guy had. Back when they were still a little space guy anyway.

She sighs, closing the folder and placing it with the others, zipping the back up and slinging it over her shoulder. Chances are the guy who had this stuff now was DK West, and she’d have to get… creative in order to deal with an almost literally invincible undead Yakuza.

With a last look back at her meticulously-organized corkboard, she opens the door and leaves the Weather Station behind.

As she passes by the Outdoor Storage, a certain pair of meth cooks are having what amounts to a brief mental breakdown inside. Dr. Hawke and Waltar White both empty their pockets, bags, and basically tear the place apart, but one fact remains evident: one of their serum samples is missing.

Did someone pickpocket them? Did they lose one?

Dr. Hawke shrugs. He suggests leaving their remaining sample behind, but Waltar shoots it down, reminding him that not only could Pierce or DK West come after them, but also that because they didn’t return to bed, Waltar himself literally has AIDS and Hawke has Snowblindness, rendering snow imperceptible to his senses.

Dr. Hawke tries to point out that he doesn’t think the latter is a real disease, but after a brief argument that would probably be rather amusing if I bothered to write it that culminated in Waltar shoving Hawke’s head outside and a subsequent bout of screaming from the latter about how all the snow “suddenly vanished”, the two decide that they’d be better off safe than sorry.

It looks like the others were on their own.

As for the missing sample though… Senpai’s ghost knew all about that. Crouching in the shadows of the Equipment room, he slowly and carefully coated the bullets from his handgun in the stolen serum. He may be dead, but for both his sake and the sake of his dearly departed Summer, he was going to have his shot at redemption.

Whether he succeeded or not, he was going to try and execute Pierce once and for all.

Dr. Morgan Pierce didn’t necessarily care about their impending doom, or any of that. Everything she wanted to do was right and proper fucked anyway, flooding Nadare with snow was just another shovel onto the shit pile that was rapidly encompassing both her life and the relative state of un-life that she was currently experiencing.

Still, as she steps out of the Elevator into the Lobby, she finds herself unable to get something out of her head. There was presumably going to be one guaranteed death, right? Well, if she wanted revenge, now would be the time to take it. At times she had to take a brief pause and ask herself if revenge was even worth it at this point, especially against a man who, for all intents and purposes, had done far less harm than her.

But in the spirit of fairness, the harm he had done was directly TO her, and things would not be half as tits-up as they are now without Wexlyn and his stupid fucking plan. Besides, her harm was directed, done with the purpose of long term gain. She didn’t do anything to Dr. Wexlyn, and yet he sought to have her lynched. Hardly following the rules of equivalent exchange there, hm?

She commands the Crimson Devastator to guard the Lobby, and passes to the south through the Gallery. With the power off, these Crimson Eye-locked rooms openfreely as she walks through to the Relaxation Hall.

That Dr. Wexlyn was a braindead fool anyway, she thinks to herself. It’s not like the Lazarin Project was supposed to kill anyone. It was supposed to do the bloody opposite. That wasn’t her fault. But still everyone chose to stab her in the back over it, except that spaceman-turned-anime-girl and almost the entire Crimson fucking Eye.

Maybe she should have just tried to negotiate with them, in hindsight. Oh well.

She kicks open the door to Dr. Wexlyn’s office, a grin on her face. The therapist and Rio Ranger turn around, their eyes widening. She raises her handgun, when suddenly… Another gunshot rings out from behind her. She tries to duck out of the way with superhuman reflexes, but it’s too late, the serum-soaked bullet clipping her shoulder regardless.

A wave of paralyzing pain shoots through her body and she falls to the ground, the darkness slowly leaching out of her eyes as Senpai stands behind her, clad in the shredded coat and hat that he died in. He goes to line up a second shot, this time a lethal one, when he lets his gun arm fall to his side instead, his gaze transfixed on someone entering the hall and moving towards him.

Summer’s corpse approaches, a soft smile on her face. She beckons Senpai towards her, and he reaches out for her hand. Suddenly, her smile dissolves as she pulls out a flamethrower and sprays Senpai with a burst of flaming napalm. Senpai wails in pain, his gun clattering to the floor as he collapses, trying desperately to put out the flames that only burned brighter with every attempt.

“Summer” puts on goggles and a lab coat in a cartoonishly quick fashion, revealing herself to actually be the ghost of Bigfoot, inhabiting her body. He laughs, tossing Dr. Pierce an AK-47. Now stripped of her supernatural abilities, she catches the gun and hauls herself to her feet, spraying a barrage of bullets at Dr. Wexlyn and Rio Ranger as they flee out into the Courtyard.

She curses, telling Bigfoot to keep an eye on the hall as she staggers outside after them.

Luna, Faust, and the ASMR Youtuber come barreling out of the Media Library into the Lobby. So far, so good, the Youtuber thinks to herself. Beyond the whole KO incident in the Patient Ward, this is seeming like smooth sailing so far. Before they know it, they’ll be safely tucked away down in th-

The ASMR Youtuber lets out a strangled cry as the Crimson Devastator scuttles out of the shadows at lightning speed, pinning her to the wall with its hydraulic vicegrip arm. Thinking quickly, she tries to pass it her Leprosy. It does not seem to care.

Well, this is an embarrassing way to die. Death to… not even a player or NPC, just the evil corpse robot. The ASMR Youtuber struggles as it begins squeezing tighter and tighter. But as a figure steps out of the elevator, the Crimson Devastator’s compound head turns to analyze the new threat. A large, stocky figure approaches, letting out a jolly chuckle as he looks upon his newest opponent.

He rips his shirt from his back, and stands ready for battle.

“Ewah.”

Dr. Hawke tries to start the snowmobile, jamming the key at the slot. He eventually gets it in there, twisting it with more force than he probably needed.The headlights flicker on, and the engine begins to rev. Hawke tightens his grip on the handlebars as Waltar climbs on behind him. The position is not particularly comfortable, but it works well enough. Thankfully, Waltar’s cancer-ridden body doesn’t weigh much.

The duo come blasting out of the Outdoor Storage at full speed, sending a barrage of snow spraying out onto Dr. Wexlyn and Rio Ranger, knocking them down into a nearby snowbank. Dr. Hawke lets out a triumphant yell, flipping the middle finger to Dr. Pierce, who bursts out of Dr. Wexlyn’s office. She sprays off a burst of gunfire in response, but Waltar manages to shield them with a psychic barrier of syringes.

They rocket down the side of the mountain as Dr. Pierce calls for the Crimson Devastator to drop its current directive and chase them down instead.

Unfortunately for her, the Crimson Devastator is a bit occupied at the moment. DK West picks up the Lobby desk, smashing it over the cyborg’s head. It reels backwards, ASMR Youtuber slumping onto the floor as its grip is released. She scrambles out of the way as Luna shouts to head for the Elevator. The trio frantically sprints across the Lobby as DK West keeps the Devastator distracted by beating it with various signage.

Faust, Luna, and the ASMR Youtuber cram into the elevator, the former jamming the B1F button rapidly. Slowly - too slowly, the elevator begins to crawl down the shaft.

Back upstairs, DK West tears off one of the Crimson Devastator’s legs, showering sparks across the lobby. Lifting the spiderlike limb above his head, he drives it into the monstrosity’s shoulder, knocking it back into the Media Library. It crashes into a shelf, knocking the room apart in a domino effect of tumbling books.

It throws the shelf lying directly on top of it onto DK West and flees into the Glass Hallway. DK West catches the shelf and shoves it to the floor, giving chase. The robot bursts through the hallway to the Courtyard, DK West not far behind.

Tearing a chunk of broken glass from the hall with his bare hands, DK West leaps through the hole left by his opponent . Silhouetted against the moonlit sky, he sailed through the blowing snow towards the Crimson Devastator. He raises his arm to pierce it with the shard, but it knocks him aside with a swing of its arm. He gets back to his feet, preparing to slash, but a jeering call from the Equipment door catches his attention.

"Ever since you died, you have been a JOKE to everyone! You were puppeted for a joke. You were REVIVED as a joke, and everyone immediately knew you were evil since. You are nothing more than the monster-of-the-week foil to the REAL contributors, and your team only succeeded from BLIND LUCK you had no control over. Maybe if you were worth a SINGLE SHIT, you'd have already survived and left. But no, you've about as much VALUE as a corpse, which is fitting! Ha ha ha!!"

Lost in Hogwarts finishes her taunt, and DK West suddenly finds himself filled with an… almost supernatural feeling of pure rage. He hollers a war cry and charges towards her, but she raises her newly-forged arm cannon, blasting a hole clean through his chest. He falls over backwards, void conduit dying the snow around him a deep, slick black.

---

DK West has died. For real this time. A bond level power was used in order to make him easier to anger, and Lost in Hogwarts baited him before shooting him dead with a ranged weapon.

His role has already been revealed.

---

Dr. Pierce stares at the scene, completely dumbfounded. Lost in Hogwarts calls to her, telling her that “people just hate to see a girlboss win.” This does not in any way alleviate her confusion or help to clarify anything at all.

Lost in Hogwarts ducks back inside to Equipment, where she is immediately bowled over by Lynn Tyrne, who smacks her out of the way as she lurches for the exit.

fuk

Faust, Luna, and the ASMR Youtuber stumble out of the elevator in a heap, sprinting towards Dr. Pierce’s Office. If the Lazarin Vault was the place to be, that would be the quickest way there. Quicker than running all the way to the elevator shaft, then running all the way around B2F, THEN entering the Research Lab and… yeah, Luna decided. Too much shit.

As the group runs down the staircase in the e-Pass Control room, Dr. Pierce hollers at the Crimson Devastator several stories above, telling it to hurry up and chase Dr. Hawke and his bald butt-buddy. If the Crimson Devastator was not a soulless mechanical abomination, it would probably point out that it had the shit beaten out of it only minutes earlier, but also was missing one of its legs.

The Crimson Devastator however, was unable to protest. Likely because it was incapable of actually caring. Scrambling towards the side of the mountain, it leapt off after the dynamic duo, skiing down after them on its spidery limbs.

Waltar lets out a warning cry to Hawke, who veers to dodge a spray of bullets from its shoulder mounted cannons. The Devastator changes tactics, instead beginning to charge its massive void cannon to unleash a well, devastating blast of energy. Thinking fast, Waltar uses his telekinesis to shift a rock in front of the snowmobile, causing them to go flying into the air.

A pitch-black beam erupts from the Devastator’s mouth, melting a line straight through the snow for what seems like miles ahead. The duo land back in the snow, and Waltar guides Hawke away from the melted patch, determined not to let Hawke die due to something as simple and stupid as “snow blindness”.

The Devastator picks up speed, rocketing towards the two at a surprising pace. Waltar launches several syringes of sedative into the abomination, but they seem to do nothing. Hawke comments that he might want to try the syringes on something that’s actually alive next time, and Waltar simply tells him its time for Plan B.

Hawke shakes his head, telling Waltar to drive for a second, switching places on the snowmobile. He knew that Hogwarts girl had a weakness, her “Forbidden Action”. Maybe this one did too.

He looks down at his last bottle of his favorite whiskey, pulling it from his coat pocket. With a sigh, he hurls it at their pursuer. The bottle explodes into a spray of glass and liquor, coating the Devastator. It begins to spasm suddenly, lurching around erratically as it continues down the mountain.

Waltar looks back, and with his psychic powers, hurls one of his bombs back at the malfunctioning machine. The liquor coating it ignites on contact, and the Crimson Devastator erupts into an almighty ball of fire. Waltar and Hawke high-five each other as they speed away, switching places once again on the snowmobile. The Devastator’s remaining mechanical parts, now reduced to a twisted heap of metal, go skidding down the mountain, finally coming to rest at the base of a tree.

A nearby bear looks on in confusion, before lumbering back into the mountainside treeline.

This post was last modified: Sep 2, 2021 at 5:04 AM by Spooks?.

Lost in Hogwarts stumbles back to her feet, brushing herself off. The nerve of that green-haired wannabe Scooby-Doo villain-of-the-week… Didn't she see what her new gun just did to DK West?

...Upon thinking for a moment, Hogwarts realizes that no, Lynn probably didn’t.

She begins to march outside, ready to give the final Crimbo a piece of her mind, only to be subsequently shoved aside yet again by Chiaki Nanami, who had one single goal in mind. She had to protect Liz, at all costs. Chiaki tumbles out the door into the snow as Lynn leans down next to DK West’s corpse, plucking a small, metal box from his pocket.

With no hesitation, she slammed the box onto her back. Tubes extended out from the box, plugging themselves into her limbs and beginning to pump a thick, black liquid throughout the remains of her body.

Dr. Pierce, ignoring the new diversion, advances towards Rio Ranger and Dr. Wexlyn as they haul themselves out of the snow. She points her gun towards them, her finger on the trigger. A bang rings out from behind Dr. Wexlyn and Rio, and Dr. Pierce suddenly recoils backwards, clutching her arm as it begins to bleed a hypnotic combination of black and red.

Liz leaps down from the mountain path behind Dr. Pierce’s two would-be victims, the barrel of her gun smoking lightly in the frigid air.

---

Crashing through the Research Lab, the trio of Faust, Luna, and the ASMR Youtuber shuffle down the stairs towards their destination: the Lazarin Vault. Ignoring the wailing alarm siren coming from the Reactor door. Their pace quickens, but the Youtuber finds herself knocked to the ground from behind, having been smashed over the head rather unceremoniously with a frying pan.

The ghost of Dark Souls II crouches over her body, slitting her throat with a knife.

Dark Souls II stands up, seemingly oblivious to the horrified expression splayed across the faces of Luna and Faust (Well, probably anyway, in the case of the latter). The knight rolls back into the stairwell, her opponent having been vanquished.

---

The ASMR Youtuber has been killed. She was admitted to Nadare as a patient, with a diagnosis of Asymptomatic

role description: Show

i actually fucking killed someone

what the fuck

Recovering from her state of shock, Luna grabs Faust by the arm, yanking him violently into the Lazarin Vault. She grabs the massive door, straining herself as she tries to swing it closed. Sweat drips down her brow as she manages, millimeter by millimeter, to budge it just a couple of inches.

She clears her throat, glaring at Faust. He awkwardly moves his skinny ass over to the door to help. After a considerable amount of effort, they manage to get the thing closed. Luna takes a deep breath, taking a seat on the cold, metal floor. She pulls a copy of Slicer IV: The Blade is Back from her bag, flicking through it until she reaches her bookmark.

Faust looks around. Well, they made it into the vault, minus one. And minus DK West too, if he counted. He probably didn’t. He was evil, he supposed, but… Faust thought back to the fleshbeast… and the Robbydude cubes… and the random gassing…. and Violent Jimin……. and the literal, actual murder of Dark Souls II…………..

Yeah, maybe he wasn’t allowed to judge. DK West was okay, he would be missed.

Already growing rather bored, Faust asks Luna if he can borrow her book.

She says no.

---

Back outside, Dr. Wexlyn and Rio Ranger attempt to take advantage of the situation, running for the Outdoor Storage to snag a snowmobile. Liz slides down the mountain path, now training her aim on Lynn, who slowly advances forward through the snow. Dr. Pierce grimaces, pulling herself together. She’s been through worse pain than this, she can take it.

She begins to run after Dr. Wexlyn and his patient, closing the distance between them as they continue towards the shed. As they approach the door, Dr. Wexlyn closes his eyes, letting a deep sigh from his lungs. He tells Rio to go inside and get the snowmobile ready. Dr. Wexlyn knew what he had to do, he thought to himself as he pulled his handgun from his pocket and stared down Dr. Pierce.

One last act of kindness, ensuring Rio’s escape. Even if he di-

Rio Ranger smacks him across the head, then yanks the psychologist inside by the collar of his sweater. He slams the door, pushing a tool chest in front of it. The doctor seems oddly upset that he didn’t get to have his heroic sacrifice, claiming that it would have been “so cool” and “just like in Slicer III”, before going on to describe the heroic deeds of Dr. Rick Dagless, M.D.

It was about at this point that Rio began tuning out. He liked the guy, but Slicer III wasn’t even a top ten Marenghi, come on.

An audible rumbling from somewhere above jolts Rio back to reality as he shakes Dr. Wexlyn out of his rambling. They scramble for the snowmobile, time now breathing directly down their necks. The battery’s there… Looks fueled up… Dr. Wexlyn holds up the key, a surprisingly confident smile on his face.

It was time to go.

Dr. Pierce pounds on the door to the Outdoor Storage, but Rio Ranger and Dr. Wexlyn’s barricade holds fast. Chiaki Nanami runs towards her, gripping her by the waist and pulling her from the door, shouting that she doesn’t want anyone else to die, not now that they’re so close to the end. Dr. Pierce falls limp for a second, hesitating, but ultimately elbows Chiaki in the stomach, breaking free.

She slams into the Outdoor Storage door, breaking through this time. She fires at Wexlyn and Rio as they start the Snowmobile, but the ghost of Garth Marenghi bursts out of the Propane Locker, diving in front of the shots. He skids across the floor, but sits back up quickly, flinging off his shirt to reveal his flabby, authorial gut.

...And also several copies of Slicer IV, strapped all over his body like a bulletproof vest.

Before Dr. Pierce can react, they start the snowmobile and almost bowl her over, if not for the ghost of Sugar pulling her away, as they speed out the door. Garth runs after them, leaping down the mountain with no snowmobile or other sorts of snow protection. Really, it was quite ballsy, but... It was worth it, if it meant he could finally take his revenge on his old arch enemy: the bear.

Liz, meanwhile, is busy dealing with Lynn. Unlike earlier when she was fighting the intern’s corpse controlled by Bigfoot’s shitty zombie AI, this time she was evenly matched. They traded blows, Lynn’s undead state allowing her to take several direct gunshots without faltering.

Chiaki scrambles up from her place on the floor, running over to assist. She pulls out her handgun, loading in her secret weapon: a Crimson Bullet. Aiming directly at Lynn, she pulls the trigger.

Down the mountainside, Garth Marenghi slides down through the snow by the seat of his pants, fully aware that if he weren’t a ghost, he would probably be royally fucked. As he zooms towards a small group of trees, his eyes zero in on his furry target. He springs into the air, propelled by his momentum as his fist sails into the bear’s face.

The bear topples over, rolling down the mountainside with Garth, gathering into a gigantic snowball. It hurtles downwards, as Dr. Wexlyn veers to avoid it. It continues downwards, and Waltar White yells for Dr. Hawke to turn. Dr. Hawke looks backwards, seeing nothing due to his condition. He tells Waltar he’s crazy, and continues on his current path.

Waltar grabs for the handlebars, but as the snowball draws closer, the ghost of Jack of Spades appears, crashing into the ball and knocking it off course. They continue on, the ground now in view just a little further down.

Back at Nadare, the Crimson Bullet pierces through Lynn’s body. She freezes up for a second, twitching slightly, before beginning to laugh. The idea that a bullet stuffed with Void Conduit would kill someone who’s already dead… truly pitiful. The bullet was meant to not trigger a trial, not to instantly kill the Crimson Eye.

She swats Liz away and tackles Chiaki to the ground. As Chiaki fumbles for another weapon, the tide of falling snow begins to plummet into view from the Courtyard, crushing the Weather Station in its wake.

Chiaki Nanami was many things. An engineer, an inventor, a by-proxy executioner of DK West, a trap-layer, the Head of Security, a demolitions expert, a coffee delivery person, and… a “sussy baka”, regrettably. It was a long story, and one that flashed before her eyes with excruciating details as she lay there in the snow, pinned down and about to die.

She prepared a Crimson Bullet, she had a plan… All she wanted was for nobody else to die. A bit hypocritical considering she placed lethal traps all around almost every single night, but that was just playing the game. Y’know, they’re called incentives for a reason, she really couldn’t resist.

After being violently yanked to the side seconds earlier, Dr. Pierce shakily gets to her feet, her revenge plans essentially ruined with the departure of Dr. Wexlyn and his idiot friend. She had nothing left at this point, for real this time.

Well, mostly.

There was one thing… the only person left who’d supported her almost the entire time she’d spent here at Nadare. Sure, half of said support was done under threat of Forbidden Action, but Dr. Pierce preferred to think of threats as nothing more than particularly effective encouragement.

Despite everything, no matter how far off the rails she went, no matter how much of her past was dredged to the surface, the little crewmate remained loyal, trustworthy enough, at least compared to the others. She stands there for a second, the snow lightly falling around her, the mountain rumbling behind.

She started all this, years ago, with the intention of helping people. She’d made countless sacrifices just for the “greater good”. But right now, at the end of it all… Well, maybe there was something she could actually do, now that she had nothing else left.

Chiaki Nanami closes her eyes, preparing for death, but death never comes. As Lynn prepares to bring down one of her monster suit’s clawed hands onto Chiaki’s head, the butt of an AK-47 crunches against her head, sending her flying into the snow nearby. Dr. Pierce grits her teeth, lowering the gun and pumping several more shots into the intern.

Dripping with blood and void conduit, Lynn slowly climbs to her feet, only to be immediately knocked down by another smack to the face by Pierce’s gun. Liz, looking back up at the mountain briefly, breaks out into a sprint towards Chiaki, grabbing her by the arm and yanking her into Equipment.

Holding onto Chiaki, she leaps down the elevator shaft, sliding down the ladder with Chiaki’s flailing body in tow. She pries open the B1F doors, jumping out into the hall by the Surgery Ward. Chiaki, as she goes to follow, gives Faust’s horrific fleshbeast a look of pity as it sits at the bottom of the elevator shaft, mostly immobile and almost definitely doomed.

The fleshbeast simply gurgles back.

Reports say that the famed “Nadare Avalanche”, or as it was known in Japan itself, the rather redundant “Nadare Nadare”, clocked in as one of the largest in the country’s history. Allegedly, if you peered out at just the right time that night and stared at the mountains in the distance, it could be witnessed from even miles away.

While she never truly bore witness to the event itself, the deafening sound of the entire first floor being blown away when the snow finally struck was enough for Chiaki Nanami to say that yes, that was probably true. She had only barely made it out of the elevator shaft when the snow rushed down at breakneck pace, flooding into the hall after her as the ceiling began to crack under the weight above.

She rushes down the hall after Liz, the ceiling giving way behind her as snow crashes down from above. Swerving around the corner, she sprints to the north, but the snow gains on her. As she turns the next corner by the Laboratory, the floor beneath her gives way under the snow’s weight, and she feels herself falling.

She comes to a sudden stop, Liz grabbing her by the leg. She helps Chiaki up, pulling her around the corner and towards the Panic Room. In a surprising display of strength, she lifts Chiaki up and hurls her into the room, sliding in herself as the doors slam shut. The room shakes as snow pummels it from all sides, but it holds fast.

After a moment of silence, Liz exhales, pulling her phone from her coat pocket. Checking the signal, she slowly sees the signal bars flicker back into existence, the facility’s power now completely shut off.

A grin spreads across her face, and a feeling of relief washes over both of them. Sure, she failed in her mission, the Crimson Eye got away with the Lazarin, and almost everyone died, but once again, she made it out of one of these goddamn things. With any luck, so did Dr. Hawke. Maybe the Lazarin situation wasn’t completely hopeless after all.

Still… something didn’t sit right with her about everything.

That Lynn girl, she claimed that they launched the Lazarin operation specifically when they did to lure her there, but the Bureau had only sent her to Japan to begin with in order to keep an eye on Pierce’s operation and any Crimson Eye interference. Taking out a couple Crimbos in Tokyo was entirely incidental. They even gave her a dossier on the Nadare situation, she didn’t just go there because she felt like it.

Well, that was a series of questions for later. She shoves that thought out of her mind, pressing the EMERGENCY RESCUE button on her phone. With any luck, someone should be there to pick them up… soon. She looks at the food stores in the Panic Room, picking up what looks like a rather old can of corned beef.

Hopefully sooner than “soon”, actually. God forbid she’d have to eat one of these things. She rummages through the cupboards further, pulling out a weathered, dusty copy of Killing Game 7: The Official Board Game. Opening it up, she examines a few game pieces, resembling a red mansion and a pink portable building. She quickly tosses them back into the box in disinterest, and returns the box to the shelf.

She sits down next to Chiaki, reaching into her bag and retrieving her Containment Breach file, reading it over once again. Curious, Chiaki looks over, pointing at one of the entries and asking what it’s all about. Liz smiles, before launching into a long, nostalgic story.

Maybe the wait wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Ah... That board game. If you don't mind, I'll examine the contents. Something in there is catching my eye, for some reason.


...There's a rock in there. It's supposed to be the "treasure" of the island, nothing more than a piece of plastic, yet I feel like I've seen this same thing, but for real.


A while ago, I met a guy who took great interest in some crystal. He said it had super powers, saying it as if he were as gullible as a kid talking about Santa Claus. I didn't believe it, but it turns out that maybe it's true. He showed me a very small crystal and told me that it was the real deal.

That man, I don't even know his name, he coaxed me into doing something for him, involving that crystal. I don't know what, my memory at that point's hazy. In fact, a lot more of my memory is hazy.


But I do know someone you might know. A certain Kaede, right? I know her, somehow. I don't know how, but I do. I told her that I'd be working here, not specifying why. She told me that a friend of hers would work here, too. If I'm right, that friend would be you. At least, her description of you is accurate enough, I think.


I was sent here by that shady crystal guy to kill everyone. Staff, Patients, whoever who was in the know, but I haven't really done a good job there, have I? I had a different motive, alongside escaping and starting a new life, or something. This facility was clearly working on some sort of "immortality" project, and while the crystal guy wanted the plans for himself, I wanted to see if it had to do what he did to me.

Believe it or not, I've died multiple times already. Every time a painful one, but I've always come back after a while, maybe a month or so. The man didn't know about this, as I haven't told him about my multiple demises, just in case that he wanted to use me as a test subject before going on and doing to himself what he did to me.

So, what if this facility had information about my "problem"? They didn't. It was all failed experiments. Dr. Pierce never really found the secret to immortality, yet she worked with the one person whom she'd envy for all she had.

Ironic, isn't it? I think she's lucky that she hasn't found out about me. Being immortal like I am isn't really fun.


I know, it's both a lot to swallow and a lot of missing information at the same time, but, if it's not too much to ask... Liz, Do you know anything about this? About what I have, about what the crystal is about?

Arriving at the base of the mountain, Dr. Hawke and Waltar White skid to a stop, both taking a moment to settle after the ride. Before they can relax though, they’re covered by a wave of snow as Dr. Wexlyn and Rio Ranger do the same behind them, drifting to a stop. Waltar pops out of the pile, reminding the group that not only does he have cancer, but he has fucking AIDS too

Hawke pops out next to him, his Snow Blindness making this whole situation extremely surreal and terrifying. As they pull themselves out, the giant snowball crashes into a nearby tree. Garth Marenghi’s ghost kicks his way out of the snowball, covered in blood and carrying the bear’s head over his shoulder. He bellows out a victory cry, but his voice falls quiet as he looks down at his blood-soaked hands.

Yes… Blood… Blood…… That’s it!

An idea pops into his head… Slicer V... He knew exactly where to take the story next. He pulls out a pen and paper, beginning to jot down plot notes as his spectral form begins to flicker, being so far from Nadare. He wails in despair as he fades away slowly, the bear’s head plopping into the snow right where he once stood.

Rio Ranger walks over and picks it up, explaining that it’s another souvenir for the collection, gesturing to the rest of his ridiculous collected items. Dr. Wexlyn sighs lightly, shaking his head.

That little habit was definitely something they’d have to talk about later.

As the sun begins to rise, the group at the mountain’s foot turns their gaze forward, towards the city lights still glowing hazily in the morning light. This was it, wasn’t it? Despite the odds, they made it out. The Crimson Eye, Dr. Pierce, the Reactor shutdown… they’d survived it all, even if surviving involved, you know, killing and all.

In Dr. Wexlyn’s case, that was something he’d likely always regret, even if he felt his motives were justified. Was there another way? He didn’t know, and he never would. Still, he figured that was just life. He also regretted allowing the Robuster into his Dungeons and Dragons game, for what it was worth.

Dr. Hawke, meanwhile, did not feel any remorse for helping kill Violent Jimin, both because he was Violent Jimin, and also because Waltar had offered him money. Also the guy turned out to be literally evil anyway, so there was that.

Well, while the Crimson Eye may have gotten away with the Lazarin sample, maybe this was his chance. He couldn’t go back in time and fix anything that happened during the Lazarin Incident, but thanks in part to Waltar and their work at making a counteragent, maybe he could do something now, something that mattered.

The avalanche rushes down the mountain, finally coming to a stop behind them, spraying them with a light dusting of snow. Dr. Wexlyn brushes himself off, taking one last look back up the mountain. He hoped everyone made it out okay, or found themselves a safe place to hunker down.

But… he supposed it wasn’t time to dwell on that. Much like the rising sun on the horizon, things could only get brighter from here.

---

@Rio Ranger has survived the 8th Killing Game. He was a Patient, with the diagnosis of Phantom Limb Syndrome

Role Description: Show

@Mr Waltar Whité has also survived the 8th Killing Game. His role was the Ultimate ESP?, with the unrealized potential to turn into the Ultimate Ghost Trick

Role Description: Show

Due to a role upgrade, he was given the ability to use true telekinesis.

If he had died during the course of the game, he would have become the Ultimate Ghost Trick, with the ability to prevent one attempt per night on a player of his choice and the ability to speak with the players he had saved even while dead.

It was a few days later that the Bureau of Paranormal Investigation arrived on the mountain, but to Luna, it felt like decades. Stuck in a vault… with nothing but Slicer IV and a guy who spent the entire time huffing his own gas, literally. Faust enjoyed most of his tenure in the vault high on his own supply, although he found himself chewing on his doctor’s bag from time to time, seeing as none of them brought a meaningful amount of food.

Once they were hauled out of there by the excavation team and taken to the surface, they sat themselves up at the temporary camp the Bureau had set up, awaiting their ride out while various tests were run.

---

Luna sips a cup of hot chocolate, bundled up in a large thermal blanket. A Bureau agent scans her up and down with some sort of… scanner. Looked like a megaphone. The agent calls for his assistant to jot it down, and they walk into the distance, trudging through the snow now burying Nadare; save for the tunnel excavated down into where Equipment formerly sat.

She didn’t really care what they were up to. Finally, she was getting out of this hellhole. She elbows Faust, who is seated next to her, causing him to snap out of his gas-induced trance and jolt upright. She gestures to the nearby hot chocolate that was set aside for him, taking another sip of his own. Faust picks up the cup, and immediately passes back out, splashing himself with the burning-hot liquid.

Ah, well. At least he was on his last tank of the stuff.

Further away, by where the Outdoor Storage once sat, Agent Liz Grayson sat with Chiaki, though this pair was unfortunately deprived of hot chocolate. Liz considered harassing the other two for some of theirs, but that Faust character was still pretty unpredictable. She considered never trusting a crazy guy with a scalpel to be one of her core virtues, and she was not particularly willing to throw that away.

She looked over at Chiaki with curiosity, the girl now absorbed in some kind of mobile game about spacemen, now that the wireless service had returned. She wasn’t particularly sure what to make of the sudden heart-spilling triggered by that stupid board game, but it concerned her somewhat.

Bringing someone back to life, only to have them dress up in an astronaut suit and blow up a research facility? Sounded a lot like the Crimson Eye, but from what it sounded like, that wasn’t the case. She had a few other “prime suspects” maybe, but nothing really lined up. She doubted the girl was wrapped up with certain other figures in the criminal underworld who would pull something like this.

Maybe it was someone Dr. Pierce pissed off. That certainly didn’t seem like an unlikely possibility, or a small group to be part of.

She looks to the horizon in the distance, the first time she’d seen sun in what felt like forever without the looming threat of an execution in the distance, thinking briefly of Dr. Hawke, Dr. Wexlyn, and their respective… Friends? Patients? The relationship between Dr. Hawke and Waltar in particular was quite strange, to be honest. She wasn’t really sure what their deal was.

She hoped they made it out, but she had confidence in that fact. They were a resilient bunch.

It was a shame about the Youtuber though. She’d watched as the Bureau’s agents pulled her body from B3F. For some reason it felt like the second time she’d watched someone carry that same limp body, though she chalked it up to pretty much all of these ASMR channels being the same shit.

Well, either way, that was that.

It wasn’t over, but then again, what ever really was? She was okay with it. It was over for now, and that’s all you could ask for. Chiaki, Faust… and maybe the other four… they were all okay. Dr. Pierce’s research was buried as deep as you could get while still being near the top of a mountain, and most importantly, they were on their way out.

11 nights… Jesus christ, she thought. That felt like six months.

---

@Faust has survived the 8th Killing Game. He was staff member, with the role of Ultimate Surgeon

Role Description: Show

@Chiaki Nanami has also survived the 8th Killing Game. She was also a staff member, and her role was the Ultimate Engineer.

Role Description: Show

Aw my ghost piss didnt even show up here