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With the Bastard Babies gone, all they needed to do now was advance further into this “Nautiloid.” Madalyne had the right idea- Well. Leah was pretty sure the hot, horned chick was Madalyne- by saying Leah should be the tank. She had an axe, she had terrain-altering capabilities (probably) and enough strength to punch through walls. She could probably take a few more hits than the others.

Though it didn’t sound like toughness was going to help much against brains that ate brains. ”Okay. Everyone stay behind me. If there are traps, someone make damn sure we don’t fall into them,” Leah said, walking over the corpses of the Fallen Fetuses, and poking her head through the doors to the lab. She looked around carefully, for the sight of the Intellect Devourers that Mads seemed to expect.

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As the group moved forward, Gideon and Dorian worked in tandem to take down foes and carve a path to the endgame. Gideon had asked him why they needed Mads, something he'd mentioned he'd explain later, but he quickly came to realize there may not be a later. His worry was that if Arcade were to catch wind of the plan then he'd find a way to counteract it. But he could spy in at anytime, so then when would be a right time? Dorian thought on this as they pressed onwards, Mary Sue using her powers to help with obstacles that stood to either get in their way or attempt to obliterate them. No few times had there been close calls that gave Dorian a dash of adrenaline, a drive you only got in these types of situations…and pro gaming.

Before they knew it they had made it to the end, the King Koopa himself standing before them. ”OK. I ‘ave an idea. Keep Bowser busy while I work on somet’ing else.” Dorian asked as he took a step back from the front. He decided to give Percy's idea a try for once. There were only two ways to beat Bowser and one was extremely risky given how many players, the other…well he wasn't sure how well they'd handle a straight up fight against Bowser with no ranged abilities. So he attempted to focus on his body, his real body back outside of the simulation. Normally the system kept them from accidentally using their powers in the real world, or those tanks would get destroyed on the daily. But Arcade had removed the failsafes, allowing them to die if they did so in game. So maybe if he focused hard enough…maybe he could get his real body to phase out of the tank and take on Arcade one on one.

Dorian closed his eyes, concentrating on the task at hand. But everytime he felt his powers begin to activate, he felt it in the digital world, not the physical. The neurons kept believing that this was his real body and not an assortment of pixels. ”Right. Back to Plan A. Plan B was a no go. Let's kick Boswers ass, find Mads, and move on to operation Magnet Mads.” He said before they'd went into action. Sabine seemed to have a plan in mind, telling the others to get off the bridge asap. Did she watch his playthroughs? A part of him melted inside at the idea of her secret support. But that faded quickly as Bowser glitched and appeared back over to the bridge. Sabine behind him. ”I'll hold him in place so he doesn't move or attack!” Dorian called out as he slipped out of the Koopa Troopa and floated towards the King Koopa himself.

As he rushed towards him he simply…passed through. His possession didn't go as planned, and now he worried that Bowser would rain down on his allies. The Axe broke, the bridge fell under its weight, and Dorian stretched out his mind towards Mary Sue as he attempted to grip her with his telekinesis. The staff glowing and making its eerie noises but he was too slow. He wasn't able to grab hold of her and his heart sank.

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There they stood, face-to-face with the...dinosaur? Turtle? She never knew what Bowser was. The last time she saw the baddie was when he was riding around on a little cart on Rainbow Road, but instead he stood in front of them, blocking their progress. Gideon was on about a princess despite her standing right there. "I believe she is in the castle behind him. You know 'you're princess is in another castle' or something like that?"

Sabine didn't have much video game knowledge, but she knew this at least. In this instance of the game it was your classic Mario. Get behind Bowser, hit the axe, the bridge falls and Bowser with it, victory. Getting to the axe was another matter entirely. But she had a trick up her sleeve. One she utilized, glitching Bowser out. Once she saw the baddie was pixel-y and not moving, she ran forward. "I'm going for the axe! Be careful!"

She made it safely past him and saw her goal. She tried once to knock it, but the axe stood still. She tried again to no avail. Eventually her glitch opted out, but Dorian was trying his best to control it. She finally hit it with enough force to send it down, knocking the bridge out.

What she had not anticipated was Gideon and Mary Sue both still being on it. Try as he might, Dorian wasn't able to get either of them as they fell to the lava below. If she recalled correctly, they still had some lives maybe. "Sorry! But this is a video game, surely there's a way to pick up more lives." At least they had won? Shallow victories were still victories.

“‘ey, if I don't try, we won't know.” Danni shrugged in response to Diana. “I wonder if t'ere is a screenshot function. Hey, Arcade! If you can ‘ear me, can you like, tell me ‘ow ta take a pic? I wanna memorize t'is for after we kick your butt! Hopefully Arcade wasn't a total stick in the mud.

“Okay, so we're in a giant flesh ship and now we're on t'e way ta a mad scientist lab wit’ eldritch brain ‘orros. Fantastic, fantastic.” Danni nodded as Mads explained the situation. “I am very, very down for Leah takin’ ‘its. No offense, but I don't wanna brain foot t’in’ touchin’ me. It can't be good for my skin.” Danni scooted up behind Leah and tried to see around her, very much wanting to see the weird brain thing.

One moment, Mary Sue was in the thick of it, and then quite literally, the ground had been pulled out from under her. Inn that moment, the world slowed down to a crawl. She was looking for anything to stop her from hitting that lava, but Dorians hand was out of reach before she could react. Desperately, she tried to use her power to summon up anything that could stop her fall, but it was too much going on, too quickly. She wasn't enough here, and that meant what happened next was her fault. As her body hit the lava and glitched out of existence, she was fully terrified that she wouldn't survive.

Shortly after this though, she reappeared at the foot of the bridge, and barely was able to keep standing up. She looked at the situation ahead of them. Her head was swimming, not with self analysis as she might normally, but with thoughts of betrayal from Sabine. She didn't wait for her to get off? She didn't care if she lived or died? What was that? That wasn't what heroes were supposed to do. She didn't know much about this girl, but she was now fully confident in at least one thing; she didn't like her, and even if one day she could, she was confident she could never trust her.

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She was a little confused as to what was going on with Victoria, since she wasn't seemingly attacking them or anything like that anymore? Maybe she was trying to fight off whatever was going on? This led to another problem though, and that was that they had to potentially deal with the fact that they really shouldn't be trying to kill Vicki. That would not end well, and that was not something that she would want to have to deal with back in the real world. There had to be something that they could do in order to prevent Victoria from killing them, though if she attacked again, she was perfectly willing to fight back in order to defend herself and April, but she'd prefer not to have to go through with anything like that. An idea crossed her mind though that might help.

Why not try to calm her emotions? That might help.

"Just keep the shield up in case we need it, I'm going to try something..." she said to her sister, before she started trying to calm down Vicki in order to hopefully stop this situation. Her first attempt resulted in her getting not very far with it, holding it for a second before getting kicked out of it. Her second attempt was more successful, but she could tell it was a weak hold as she tried to shift everything, and she tried to get a stronger hold, when suddenly the game seemingly glitched out. Looking to see what was going on, she was a bit stunned at what she saw.

The first was she saw Victoria as herself, except she was in the typical green tunic for Link now. But that wasn't the only thing she saw there. Not too far away, there was another version of Victoria, in the same out, appearance wise, except the clothing was all colored black. So now there were two Victoria's, and based on what she knew about the game series? She was betting the one in the darker clothing was probably not going to help them out at all.

"...I mean we are technically in a version of the Water Temple... But pretty sure Dark Link isn't in this game, or not supposed to be," she commented, glancing towards her sister very confused as to what she might have accidentally done.

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@BlueSky44@Kirah: Arcade had summoned Ardere, instructing his sister to remove Andy's corpse. He hadn't wanted it around - it would be for the best if it were destroyed, just as the godling's would be. If Andy suddenly opened her eyes, inheriting some of her mother's dark gift, Arcade did not intend to be around for her to exact her anger on. No, that was what Ardere and Usagi were for. They were disposable.

For all intents and purposes, Andy was dead to the world as Ardere dragged her down to the gym's basement, banging Andy's head against each step with a thud-thud-thud. Usagi was standing guard over Zari - they had the unconscious Asgardian slumped over on a table, a steady IV feeding more and more chemicals into her body. It would be a lethal dose soon enough.

"Aww, happy pride!" Usagi snickered, seeing that Zari's girlfriend was the second victim.

Ardere rolled her eyes, dropping Andy unceremoniously. "More of them should be dead."

"Now now, don't be impatient!" Usagi shook her finger, tsking slightly. "They'll all be dead soon enough!"

@Forsythe: Vicky will regain control of herself and her functions.

@Blizz: Leah sees nothing out of the ordinary.

@Patientbean@Trainerblue192@Natsu: Truthfully, Gideon wasn't super mad about it - she was used to it, at this point, having a near death experience. She had been dying since she was a little kid, when the nuns had tried to murder her along with all the other children. It was boring now, death. Only fighting brought her excitement, brought her a thrill. And as Bowser fell in, the game cheerfully announced their victory - but rather than end, freeing them and letting them back into the real world, the game reloaded.

It wasn't Mario this time - and it wasn't a game that Gideon recognized. Others may however. They were in Phasmaphobia, a horror-ghost hunting game. The group spawned into a small van/truck, where a bulletin board gave some details about the case. They were investigating a ghost named Andy Lensherr, and the ghost responded to everyone, even when not alone. On shelves were various tools that they may need - flashlights, salt, crucifixes, a spirit box, EMF detector, etc etc.

They all looked like themselves again - Gideon once more wearing her signature sunglasses. And they had a new bar, beyond the hearts for their lives - a sanity reading.

"What the fuck is this - Buzzfeed Unsolved?" Gideon scoffed.

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April didn't know very much about this game, but she knew enough to see that there was something weird going on with Vicky. Maybe she was fighting Arcade's control - or maybe it was just a glitch, or just something to trick them into a false sense of security. Either way, she didn't let the shield falter, maintaining the water bubble up around them. It was the only thing that stood between them and death by mud. Her heart was pounding furiously. Her eyes stung with fear and exhaustion.

For a split second, she wondered what her parents would say at her funeral.

She shoved the thought aside frantically, instead watching as her sister did... something. The beast before them divided and split into two, before turning into Link - or at least, April assumed that was Link. One of them was in green, the other dressed in black. "Um, what? Is one of them like... evil? Is this a Star Wars Force Vision type of thing? Or like... the Hot Topic variant?" she asked nervously, as her sister said something about one being Dark Link and a Water Temple - both things that immediately went over April's head.

The Dark Link laughed. "Let's see how you fare against a real threat," he taunted, before jumping up with his sword, arcing down as he slashed at Vicky - she would manage to dodge just in time.

"Wait he talks???" April then shoved her hand forward, throwing the shield at Dark Link - but she missed, soaking Vicky thoroughly instead, with enough force that one of Vicky's lives was deducted. "Oh shit shit shit sorry!!!!"

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Percy nodded at Mads' instructions - the strategy seemed sound, and she was definitely more knowledgable about this game than anyone else. He wanted to live, so he'd have to listen to her and trust her judgment. The other person with decent video game knowledge meanwhile was fixating on how to take a screenshot, seemingly oblivious to the danger that they were in. Percy had to resist the urge to throttle Danni.

As they made their way into the next room, traversing through a sphincter that made Percy nauseous, the sound of banging drifted to his ears. There were pods all over the place, veins connecting them to the ground, throbbing like nerves. In the middle of the room were a bunch of people, strapped down and connected to some sort of strange device - and a series of buttons.

Nothing had attacked them - yet.

"So... What exactly is the goal of this game? Besides being disgusting?" Percy asked Mads. He then frowned, studying some of the symbols on the control panel - the one that seemed connected to the unconscious people. One of the symbols translated for him - terminate. Another was - unleash.

The banging continued - only growing louder and louder. "LET ME OUT!"

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Andy had died. Her heart stopped and all that. In the moment it happened Andy was livid. The whole situation angered her. Ed, or Arcade, whatever he wanted to call himself, would pay.

Death was only temporary. Andy did take after her mother, in many more ways than she wanted. The thumping on the stairs hadn't woke her. What woke her was the hunger she had felt raw since Halloween abating. The bitter flavor that filled her was not like coffee, but more like soured milk. But she did not care.

Suddenly it was cut off. She reached up grabbing at what had been holding her and pulling. Filling herself. She had been so hungry for so long and death had not decreased that any.

Andy opened her eyes. There was Zari. Usagi was doing something and whatever it was Andy didn't like it. Usagi was in cahoots with Arcarde. She punched the rabbit, electricity sparking. Then she set about freeing her girlfriend from the weird IV setup.

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Walking into the room, Leah didn’t immediately see anything dangerous. She never liked labs. Hell, she grew up in one. And to that end, she more or less had an understanding of the flow that all this shit in here had. The fleshy wires, the console, the people strapped to tables. It told her there was some sort of experiment going on. ”Nobody move,” she said, being the tank. Leah hefted her new axe over one shoulder and walked towards the people. She made sure not to trip or step on the “cables” as she did so. Looking them over, Leah snapped her fingers in their faces, and noted they didn’t react much.

The voices pounding on those pods confirmed something for her. ”…Madalyne. You said there were supposed to be monsters in here called “Intellect Devourers?” I’m taking a guess they don’t exactly plant flowers and dance in circles given their names. So is there any reason at all we should open those pods and free what I’m assuming is something pretending to be a person?”

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Madalyne followed shortly behind Leah and the others into the next room, she shook her head slightly at Danni wanting to know how to take a screenshot. She decided to completely ignore him for the time being as her eyes scanned the room, seeing a number of people were strapped to some chairs, and a pod on the other end of the room. She could hear a voice and someone banging to let them out. She knew that it was most likely the character Shadowheart. Her attention turned over towards the nearby console and started to approach it while looking at Percy asking her what the goal of the game was.

"This area specifically is more or less the tutorial area of the game and is to try and escape the ship itself. But the actual goal and story to the game is to try and get these things that the Ilithid implanted into your head called tadpoles. They'll eventually turn you into one of the Ilithid. They basically look like Cthulhu like creatures with a hivemind to a being called the Netherbrain, and your group has to save the city of Baldur's Gate." Madalyne explained, she turned her attention towards the console and held out her hand started to get a sense of what kind of magic powered the console.

"The ones strapped to the chairs are cultists we don't want to free them, but the one who's inside the pod is an ally." Madalyne told Leah she had played this part a few times and knew there was a chance to fail. "I'm going to try and release the one in the pod." Madalyne said as she used her magic a green glow appeared from her hand as she used her magic on the Ilithid console to power it on, instead she ended up releasing the cultists who were in the chairs who suddenly woke up and started to attack the group.

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Diana followed the group into the next room as she looked around seeing people strapped down to chairs, and a pod in the room she listened to Madalyne as she started to explain the game a little bit more. She really wants much of a gamer growing up really and would just follow Mads instructions. She heard someone yelling and some banging and made her way over towards the pods and started to approach them to see who was in the pod. She saw an elf woman who was trapped inside she didn't know how to free her as she looked at Shadowheart. "Hold on we'll get you out." Diana said to her, as she watched Madalyne for a moment as she did her witchy woo thing.

She then could hear some yells as her attention turned towards the ones who were strapped onto the chairs were released as they quickly came to. "Maybe not touch some of the buttons in here?" Diana said as she quickly drew out her bow and aimed it at the nearest cultist and fired off three arrows. The first one missed its target as the second quickly flew by and managed to hit it's target, and the third one killing the cultist.

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It was working. She was lucky. If Vicky was in the Flynns' place, handing initiative over to her would have probably ended in a quick attempt at eradication. It seemed like there would be a stalemate for now, and hopefully if noone did anything stupid, Ed would not notice they stopped fighting and intervene for long enough for her and Ultron to find their way out of the simulation.

In fact, the way things were going, she was starting to come off combat high and calm down. Something Ultron was in fact highlighting as a potential concern.

Inquiry: Reason for deescalated emotional state. Adverse events were not eliminated, but delayed. Continued existence of unit still in credible jeopardy. Further risk of being noticed by Target 0 introduced.

It wasn't wrong. The chance of occurrence of death did not drop just because she was not being attacked at the moment, and Arcade might very well notice she stopped attacking and seek to mitigate that issue. And with that realization, the calmness went away just as quickly. There was one explanation: Outside influence. And with that came potential for more problems, given how well messing with the game's source worked so far.

Sure enough, there came another attempt, and this time, the game did not like it one bit. Victoria felt like she would momentarily turn inside out, and then she literally seemed to split in two beings. There were ups and downs to it. The up was that with the split, the malicious code ordering her to kill was gone, which was a relief and a half. The down was related to an apparently dark version of herself leaping at her with a blade drawn. By virtue of being prepared for an attack, Victoria managed to dodge the blade, but was blasted by a water jet for her efforts. Still. Over under, her situation improved. "I'm fine, and it looks like I have free will back, so thanks, if that's your doing."

This was getting them nowhere though. Even if they defeated her dark mirror, she bet they would just load into another game. Likewise, she was reluctant to try hacking her way out again, with the trap malware waiting for her. But... recalling their training sessions, Edward did always have a backdoor installed in the framework. Would he omit to remove it for this? She was willing to take that chance. Beating him by using his own tool against him might be the only way to get out of this mess. "I'm going to try something, if you get any opportunity to strike, take it!" With that, she ran at her dark mirror, focusing on surviving and getting close rather than landing a hit of her own, that wasn't the plan.

It sort of worked, as she found herself getting choked by her dark twin. It worked for her purpose though. "Choke on this! Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start." she quickly said, touching the chest of her dark twin. If her hypothesis was right, this should activate some kind of override, like turning the target into a mech.

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Well, it was a good thing that Victoria was now no longer actively trying to kill them, kind of anyway. Actually she hadn't been entirely sure that would have worked in the first place. However she decided to answer April's questions despite her own confusion over everything. "Yeah, something like that, Shadow Link is basically an actual mirror image copy of Link and has all of the same moves and weaponry as him for the most part by that point in the game," Zelda explained, as Link decided to start attacking Victoria, which wasn't too surprising, considering the fact that she was the character he was the shadow of. Then Victoria basically decided to insult gaming and all in the absolute worst way possible.

She screwed up the whole different game companies thing!

"This isn't Gradius or Contra for the NES! Konami didn't make this series!" Zelda said, clearly annoyed at the whole situation now. "Not to mention clearly I need to probably be prepared for the inevitable failure of whatever the hell she's doing," Zelda ended up saying under her breath, so only April really could hear her. The bow she still had in her hand started to morph and change shape, instead choosing to manipulate it into a hammer that she leaned against her shoulder. The only weapon that Shadow Link didn't have access to (which she never could understand why that was) and it did just as much damage as the Master Sword in the game, so why not try using it herself?

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Zari had no idea what was going on, all she really seemed to know was that she was insanely tired, and she could vaguely make out voices around her. Had something gone wrong with the Framework or something? What was going on? She remembered going into the tank and closing her eyes, but after that? Nothing. Just darkness. Something had to have gone wrong, that was the only explanation she had at the moment. Or something like that. Though the voices were starting to become clearer a little bit, before disappear and she could tell that someone was right by her now.

Eventually, she managed to sort of will her eyes open and the world came into focus, and she had absolutely no real idea where she was, but she saw that Andy was there. "Hey Andy, what's going on?" she asked, as she eventually sat up from where she was, though when she did that her head started to spin. She looked over and saw where Usagi was, and was definitely very very confused. Since this was really really weird. "And where are we?" Zari was a bit dizzy and was fine just sitting there for a few moments in an attempt to regain her balance or whatever for a moment.

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Dorian floated silently for a moment, watching as both Gideon and Mary Sue had fallen into the lava. It was only for a second, but it stretched on for what felt like minutes. Suddenly there was a familiar sound as both of them glitched back onto the platform. He flew down towards them and as he began to approach, the scene shifted. The game had changed. Winning didn't guarantee an immediate out, only a new location to play in. His body now stood firmly on the ground once more, Sabine, Mary, and Gideon all back to their normal selves. Dorian wrapped his arms around all of them, squeezing them tight. ”You guys did amazin’ back t'ere! Clearly t'ere needs to be some trainin’ on all of our parts for last second power usage, I feel like t'at'll come in ‘andy for t'e future but, anyways we made it! To…uh…”

Dorian looked around at where they were, it was a small room, metallic and rectangular. The hum of an engine could be heard idling just outside the walls. A generator? Screens littered a metallic desk on the far end as the wall to his left was littered with devices and objects that seemed both commonplace and high-tech. The right a screen that projected some statistics for them, and to the left of that screen was a pinboard with information. Andy Lensharr, responds to everyone. His eyes lit up, quickly running over to the opposite wall. ”Gideon as much as I'd love to be in an episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved, t'is isn't t'at. We are in Phasma!!! It's a ghost ‘untin’ game and one t'at ‘elped start my streamin’ career. People love seein’ a ghost boy gettin’ spooked by virtual ghosties.”

Dorian grabbed three things off the wall, the same amount the game allowed. One strong Flashlight, honestly who used the regular ones anymore? One Spiritbox, and the thermometer. ”Name of t'e game is identify t'e ghost. We should all ‘ave logs to help us decipher what it is we are dealin’ with. I've got temps, speaking, and a Flashlight. I suggest everyone grabs a Flashlight and two other items. Use t'is info to determine what kind of spirit it is and if it's friendly or…can kill us. It seems Arcade ‘as a t'ing for Magneto given t'e ghosts name. Probably an attractive made us son of ‘im or somet'in. Like anot'er Pietro. Anyways, t’ree biggest rules. One: if your Flashlight flickers you eit'er run out t'e front door or turn it off and ‘ide ASAP. T'at means a ‘unt ‘as started and we angered t'e ghost. Two: If you find devices IN t'e ‘ouse; i.e Oujia Board, Monkeys Paw, Tarot Cards, leave em be till we all ‘ave discussed it. Sometimes t'ey mean instant death. Trois: Try not to anger t'e ghost.”

Dorian then ran off the van and entered the house. Pulling out the digital thermometer and turning it on before inspecting the initial doorway and first room before him. Walking around the space it stayed steady, an even 75° the entire way as he let out a sigh. ”Hey! So two t'ings. Eith’er A. We are in easy mode where t'ere is a bit of set up time before any real activity. Or B. T'is isn't t’e room for Magnetos kid.” He called out from the doorway to the others.

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Their victory with Mario was short-lived as they were transported somewhere else. Sabine glanced around the room before being roped into a group hug by Dorian. She had to admit, it felt nice despite the guilt she had at having hurt Mary Sue and Gideon. And it seemed like they wouldn't be finding any extra lives here. Instead, it looked like their health was replaced with...something.

Thankfully Dorian stepped up to explain the new game. It was apparently some ghost hunting game. Sabine hated horror movies and probably hated horror video games as much, if not more. She took Dorian's advice though and grabbed a flashlight. She also grabbed a crucifix and some salt, though she didn't know what to do with either. Weren't crucifixes used on vampires?

"So we are just supposed to go roaming around a haunted house trying to figure out what type it is and exorcise it? This is messed up. Dorian, I'm trusting you through this." The unspoken words being that she didn't intend to have Dorian out of her sight at any point. After all, wasn't one of the rules of horror movies to not split up? "Maybe explain how these tools are supposed to work? I have a crucifix and salt. Unless I plan on seasoning the ghost at church, I'm at a loss."

Danni looked around at the new chamber, face scrunching up as Mads explained more. “Wait, we ‘ave cthullu babies in our faces? T'at's so fuckin’ gross! ‘ow do we get it out?” Danni patted his face, trying to find a bump or anything that told him where it was. “I'm too fuckin’ cute ta be an Illthiad or whatever t'ey are. I am not stayin’ stuck I'm t'is stuff forever. Mads, can't you magic t'is stuff out? Game over, and we win in time ta beat up Arcade, save our friends, and get ‘ome in time for dinner!”

Of Course, nothing could be easy for them “Okay, Pod girl is friend, everyone else it's on sight. Got you, got you…” Danni trailed off as the Cultists came undone and Diana immediately went into attack mode. “Ya know, I feel like you'd like some fire arrows. You want me ta like, set t’e tip of your next arrow on fire? See t'at helps anything at all? As Danni was asking Diana, he whirled his hands together, collecting a ball of fire in them, and then hurled it straight into the other cultists chest.

As the world shifted around Mary Sue, she felt at peace for a moment, fairly confident that, if they were being loaded into a new game, they'd at least have a brief moment of reprieve. Games, she reasoned, typically didn't come out with things to kill you right out of the gate. She didn't know how they were actually going to get out of this situation, but that just meant they had to assume that it was going to last awhile. She was already down two lives, and that meant that she no longer had room for error. Now was the time for tactics, to try to understand their situation so they could take advantage of it.

Taking in the situation around them, Mary Sue was briefly reminded of a scary story her dad had told her once, where he and her mom had been forced to go toe to claw with a demon bear. That was the extent of what she knew about ghosts, but she considered that her indirect knowledge of the real supernatural wasn't particularly useful in the context of the video game. Mary Sue grabbed for a flashlight. "There are a lot of myths about salt protecting from ghosts; lines of salt blocking their entrance to an area." Mary Sue explained, absently, as she took the EMF detector and UV light, before heading out, sticking close to Dorian and Sabine,

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@BlueSky44@Kirah: Had Selene been there, she would have been so proud of Andy. As Andy's dead fingers stretched upwards, it was nothing inanimate that she grasped. No, it was a living person - an awkward, angry freshman with powers revolving around heat, around vitality. The death in Andy reached out, sapping away at Ardere - Ardere aging rapidly, no longer a teen but an adult, then a middle aged woman, then elderly, then a husk - and finally, nothing more than dust, a corpse disintegrating into a pile at Andy's feet.

A life for a life.

Andy would feel a part of herself slip away - an innate purity, perhaps, that she would never be able to reclaim.

Had this been how it started for Selene?

Andy managed to free Zari from the trap, the poison still pumped through the young Asgardian's veins, disorienting her. Hopefully, her system would be able to burn it out, to remove the toxin. Now more than ever, Zari's unique abilities were needed - both of them, Andy and Zari, were needed.

"Surprise, bitch!!" Usagi shouted, twitching strangely as arcs of electricity continued, penetrating her fur. "I'm not dead!" The cat slowly picked herself up off the ground, and then jumped at Andy, claw's extended, aiming to scratch the shit out of her face.

@Patientbean@Trainerblue192@Natsu: Gideon raised an eyebrow, not much of a huggy person - she actually couldn't remember having ever hugged before in her life. But from her brief amount of time around this group (which was exceedingly brief), it seemed to be part of their norm. "So... It's Buzzfeed Unsolved but the ghosts are real," Gideon surmised.

And then proceeded to pretty much stop listening - had it not been for her shades, the others would have been able to see her eyes glaze over as Dorian went down a long list of minutia, explaining the ins and outs of this game. When the others started to grab items, Gideon glanced through the shelves. "There's no fucking gun? Lame. I want to shoot a ghost." She then sighed, grabbing a flashlight, and then the two things she immediately saw - a camera, and an old looking book.

She walked into the house, noticing that it looked like a boring old house - all the lights were off, things were pretty clean and tidy, and there were no signs of anything ghost like. "Hey there demons, it's me, ya girl!" Gideon shouted, leaving the foyer and heading into the dining room. "Hellooooooo! Ghosties!!! Come out come out wherever you are!!"

She sighed slightly. This really was like Unsolved. Nothing was happening!

---

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"What... is she doing? Is she having a stroke?" April asked, her mouth slightly agape as Vicky poked the evil Link in the chest while saying a strange pattern. She wasn't a geek, at least not in this manner - April didn't recognize the code that Vicky was playing off of. But the air above them all shimmered, bursting into green sparks as a strange creature came into view -

"Yahaha! You found me!" the creature cheered.



While April stared in confusion at the flying green creature, trying to figure out what the hell had just happened, the dark Link was not nearly as perplexed. "Cute," Link said. "But a Korok won't save you." Vicky managed to kick at his wrist, but he had been anticipating such a motion - instead of disarming him, Link used the change to his momentum to his advantage. He spun quickly in a circle, his sword blurring into a deadly line of steel - he cut Vicky, knocking her backwards and to the ground - her body flashed red, one of her hearts vanishing before her eyes. She had one life left. And Link was still coming.

"Vicky!! Get up! Run!!" April urged. She blasted water at the dark Link, but he quickly blocked it with his shield, digging in his heels in a firm stance so the pressure could not even force him back.

Hopefully Zelda could handle things, her weird new weapon seemed promising? April had no idea.

---

Percy wasn't exactly pleased to hear that they all had psychic parasites in their heads - with how immersive the Framework was, he didn't want to learn how his body would interpret any signals or commands from the parasite. However, it was not the end of the world - the parasite was only as real as his odd, frog like body was. Once they escaped the Framework, the problem would cease to matter, being reduced to just pixels on a screen. "Relax, Daniel," Percy said, rolling his eyes. "There isn't actually a parasite in your brain - it's just code. But if it makes you feel better, I could always take an icepick and have a look."

It was mean - but Percy was stressed. He still didn't know what had happened to everyone else - where the rest of his... friends... were. He supposed some of them could be considered friends. Most of them were just acquaintances, but a few mattered. And this game, it was all new to him - he had to rely on Madalyne for information, trusting that she wouldn't lead them astray. She said the victim pounding in the pod in the back of the room was an ally - and the ones tied to tables in front of them were not. Unfortunately, even with that information, Madalyne's spell unleashed the cultists - and Percy found his feet locked into the ground again, as combat began.

"GET ME OUT!!!" the voice continued to scream.

Percy drew his dagger, and teleported through the space (well, misty stepped) until he landed next to a cultist. He swung his dagger, only to miss. Another swipe though, from his off-hand, was successful - he drew blood, the cultist's health down to half, but it was still up. The cultist made an unarmed attack, sucker punching Percy, and Percy felt the wind get knocked out of him - but he was still alive.

The cultist who attacked Diana missed, their swing going wide.

Mads wasn't as lucky - she ended up taking a firebolt to the face, losing half of her health bar.

Danni narrowly avoided being hit by a firebolt as well - the cultist attacking him whiffing it hard.

And Leah, Leah was stabbed in the gut, the cultist landing a solid enough of a hit to deplete her health - but unlike normal Baldur's Gate 3, she respawned in, just down one more heart.