Venomous Affections
The intro begins to play, with a shot of the moon before panning to Ro screaming, stuck on the Ferris wheel.
It cuts to The Spy, Lucy, and Solar Flare tied to the carousel. High Tower and Sally Slaughter are shown about to slam their weapons into them and a man rides on a motorcycle in the background.
Next, Waluigi is shown tied to a wonder wheel and the lead clown throws a knife at him, narrowly missing.
On the streets, Mike, Gwen, and Harley try to escape from the chains around their neck held by The Carnival Master. The Demon Dog jumps in joy at their futile attempts.
In the graveyard, a zombie bites a townsperson in the neck. Gloria stands outside the demon arch with a bloody spear.
Jax stands about to be chomped by the Funhouse entrance as Loki and Izuku runs away, terrified.
Finally, Charlie stands in front of the town entrance, horrified at the chaos surrounding her.
Escape The Night
The group sat in silence and mourning over Solar Flare's death. Calliope went to the map and took it down, walked to the group, and placed it on the coffee table.
Lucy: So, Calliope takes the map off the wall and we can see new things on there.
Jax: I need to redeem myself by helping as much as I can.
Lucy pointed out Fat Man Slims on the map and Jax read the note next to it. "Beware of snakes. The Serpent's Eyes lie in wait."
Gloria: There’s a message sayin’ 'Watch oot for snakes.' Great, first it wis Mr. Mime, noo we’ve got tae wrestle wi’ Silicobra.
Unknown to the group, a woman named Bahar crept into the arcade. She walked through the mini-fridge and looked into the lounge, seeing the group.
Waluigi: So, all of a sudden, we see this woman peeping at our meeting.
The Spy looks in her direction and alerts the group to her presence. They all rose from the couch and gave chase through the arcade. Izuku and Mike quickly get to the front.
The two of them reach Bahar and tackle her. Mortimer joins them and the three lead her back to the arcade, where Calliope is prepping a chair and rope for an interrogation.
Izuku: That was the first time I've really been able to use my hero training here. Still felt amazing.
Mike threw her into the chair and Calliope handed Harley the rope. "Tie her up! She cannot be trusted! Quick!" The woman shrugged and complied while Charlie questioned the decision.
Harley: Of course we're gonna chase her and tie her up. That's what any normal person would have done.
The Spy got in her face, "What were you doing?" he began. Bahar calmed her breathing, "I'm looking for the same thing you are looking for," she said. "And what it that?" Spy continued, "The Serpent's Eyes."
Jax looked at her neck, "She was bit!" he yelled out. Low and behold, when everyone looked, she had two red marks with the veins around them black and yellow.
"The Snake Woman bit me. She stole my husband," Bahar said. Jax scrunched his face in annoyance. Though he always did pranks with centipedes, he still knew animals don't mess with you unless you mess with them. A f*ck around, find out relationship.
"Do you know anything about an artifact," Jax pushed aside his annoyance of her for the group. "I don't know, look for suits in the lounge. That's what I heard," she said.
The group scrunched their faces in questioning, suits in the lounge? They walk back to their lounge, wondering what she meant. Mortimer and Gloria stayed as lookouts.
Rosanna: What does that mean? Are they evil FBI agents?
Harley: Do we get new outfits?
Gwen: We walk back into the lounge to try and see if there's anything that we haven't seen before to help us solve this.
Charlie lifted an object, finding a bunch of playing cards. Suits in the lounge... playing cards... she smiled as she realized what it was. "Guys, I found cards! Look for playing card suits!"
Rosanna: Hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs. We gotta find 'em.
Lucy noticed a dice tray with a club on it, "I got the club!" She saw no dice near it so she added, "There's dice for it somewhere as well!"
Everyone continued looking around as Mike picked up a diamond perfume bottle. "Oh, some of these have lines," Charlie said as she fidgeted with the cards.
Charlie: I realized some of the cards had markings. It was like a puzzle, I had to connect the cards, and make a symbol.
"It's an 8," she said to herself. Waluigi saw some dice on a shelf, "What?" he asked himself. Izuku looked at him, "What did you find?" The man showed him, "They're dice, but they've got clubs on 'em."
"Clubs- Bring it," Izuku pointed him to the dice tray. Waluigi dropped them in, where they stuck on 1 and a club. "Woah, that was weird," he slightly jumped back.
Everyone asked him what happened, "It magnetized to the tray." He picked up the dice and dropped them again, getting a 1 and a club again.
Waluigi: That has to mean something.
Lucy spotted a paper hanging on the wall with a diamond on it. "I think this paper might go with the perfume," she said.
Mike grabbed the bottle and Harley told him, "Spray it on, bitch!" He sprayed the bottle, revealing a simple map of the room.
Lucy: We see it's a map with an X on it. An X on a map means a clue.
"Okay," Izuku looked between the map and the room as everyone looked for the X. "These rectangles have to be the couch, so it must be there!"
He pointed at where Gwen was as she lifted a seat finding a trapdoor. She opened the trapdoor to find a clock with four hands, each correlating with a card suit.
The Spy: Inside the trapdoor is a clock with a suit printed on each hand.
"Wait. These have to correlate!" Charlie thought before grabbing one of the cards that formed the eight. It was a heart suit.
Izuku: Each suit has a number. The cards were hearts. 8=Hearts.
She grabbed the dice and rolled. She landed on 1 and a club. She rolled again, magnetizing on 1 and a club. Third times the charm, 1 and a club.
Izuku: The dice always land on 1 and a club. 1=Clubs.
"We're missing a spade," Mike pointed out, "We have nothing with a spade." Spy pointed out that they don't have a number for diamonds, getting Harley to walk to the map, finding a 10.
"10. The map has a 10. 10, diamonds," she called out. Jax spotted a statue of Lady Liberty and sat down, pointing out she doesn't have her torch. Gwen, in another part of the room, saw a hand with a big ring.
Gwen: In the back of the lounge, I see the missing torch of the Statue of Liberty, but with a ring instead of fire.
"She's got a spade," Izuku pointed out the spade carved on the hand itself. "What if you look through it- Is it pointing at something?" Mike asked as Izuku spotted another ring in line with the hand.
Loki: I look through the statue's ring, line it up with the other ring, and I spot something on the playing card poster.
"There's a blue line of the poster. What is it?" Jax ran over and spotted a 5. "5! 5 is spades!" he yelled out. Spy turned the last hand to 5 and the clock face popped open.
Spy opened it more to reveal inside were two red-orange stones and a note. Ro grabbed the stones and Jax grabbed the note. Unknown to the group, The Snake Woman lurked outside the arcade.
This is the second of the wicked artifacts. To cleanse The Serpent's Eyes, you must find the head of a great snake, place the eyes inside, and bathe it in the blood of a serpent's heart.
Lucy: Success! We have the eyes!
Jax: But we still have to cleanse the artifact.
"So," Lucy began, cutting off the group. "We have to find a snake head, place the eyes inside, and bathe it in serpent blood from a heart." The group nodded at the instructions.
Back outside, The Snake Woman snuck into the arcade and hit Mortimer over the head, scaring Gloria. "Whit the bloody hell!" she screamed, getting the attention of the group.
Gwen: We hear screams from the arcade.
The Snake Woman noticed the second person and ran toward her, biting her in the neck. The group appeared as The Snake Woman turned to Bahar.
She killed her prey before noticing the group. The Snake Woman hissed and ran off as Calliope ran over to Gloria and Mortimer got up, rubbing his head in pain.
Izuku: The woman we captured is dead.
"You've been bitten," Calliope announced, "You have 20 minutes before the venom eats your organs." The group turned to each other, knowing they need an antidote.
"I know where a drugstore is. I can take some of you," Mortimer said. Izuku, Ro, Jax, and Lucy decided they would go as they searched Bahar's body.
Mike: Might as well check the body, see what clues there are.
Ro took off the shoes saying, "Always seen this in movies. They take the shoes off." Calliope led Gloria to a couch as Jax pulled a match box out of Bahar's coat pocket.
"It says, 'Meet me at 7:30 - Cindy," Jax read from the match box. Charlie took the match box and close the lid with the note to find where it's from, Fat Man Slims.
Charlie: Guess we're gonna find out what's at Fat Man Slims.
The group walked outside, splitting off in two. The group going to the drugstore barely left the others when The Snake Woman jumped out and bit Izuku.
Calliope ran out as he screamed and The Snake Woman leaving the crime. She led him to where Gloria was as everyone went to where they needed to be.
Jax: Me, Ro, and Lucy all go to the drugstore to concoct an antidote for Gloria and Izuku, and the other seven run to Fat Man Slims to try and find clues there.
Izuku: Calliope says I only have 20 minutes to live, and I know Gloria has less time. It just sucks not being able to help.
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"We gotta be quick," Mortimer tells the trio as they open the drugstore entrance. "Okay, no one inside," Lucy says as they fully enter.
Lucy: We walk in the drugstore and there are jars and bottles everywhere.
Jax ran to a table, finding an apothecary field guide. He opened it and quickly flipped through finding an anti-venom recipe.
This is an old recipe for anti-venom that will stop even a cobra's bite. Not too sure about it myself so proceed with caution. After the ingredients are gathered, they have to be combined in a centrifuge or they won't bond properly.
Jax scrolled past the ingredients to the bottom, saying the last piece of information they needed.
If done correctly, the liquid will be yellow.
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Harley: So we walk into Fat Man Slims and I'm thinking, "Let's get a drink."
Waluigi looked at a clock on the wall, "Wait, it's almost 7:30." The group looked at the clock as well before getting to clue finding.
Loki: So we start looking around the room to see if there's anything interesting or suspicious.
Charlie reread the note on the match box as Mike went up the stairs. He reached a door when a flap opened, shocking him a bit. The group went over as a gruff voice came from the flap.
"You want the package? Well, then you've got to give me the password." The man closed the flap as Mike walked back down.
Waluigi: Cool, we gotta figure out a password to get this package.
Gwen spotted some gold flash from behind the wall. She felt the area around for a way to get there, finding a gap big enough for a hand. "I found a gold box," she called out as she walked to a table.
Charlie leaned over to see the box, "I bet inside is the password." Gwen looked at the lock, finding three wheels of numbers, "Okay, we need three numbers," she relayed to the group.
"Try 7-3-0. The matches said we were supposed to meet Cindy at 7:30," Spy said. Gwen nodded and put those three numbers in the lock, opening the box. The group cheered as they searched the insides.
Charlie pulled out a bunch of dollar bills and Loki took the five pictures that were under the money. He read the sticky note on the back, "Use the photos to get the password."
Mike: Inside are a series of photos that seemed to have been taken in different parts of the bar, and it says to use them for the password.
Harley: There's five photos, five words for the password.
"Should we recreate those moments in the pictures?" Harley asked. Mike thought for a second before saying, "Maybe... But let's also try just searching those places."
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Jax went back to the ingredients list, "Ingredient 1: A pinch if hem●●●●●." He scrunched his face as Lucy stated the obvious, "It's crossed out." Jax waved his arms, "Okay, search for anything that begins with hem-."
Jax: Unfortunately, the recipie was blacked out in certain areas. So, while I read out the ingredients, Lucy and Ro try and locate what specifically we're looking for.
Ro grabbed a bottle, "I found a hemp-. But, there might be more than one-" She was cut off by Lucy bringing hemlock.
Jax looked back at the guide, "Ingredient 2: One drop of snake ●●●●●. Ingredient 3: One drop of ●●●●●● oil."
Lucy brought a bunch of bottles, "There's probably gonna be multiple for each thing, cause I've got rose oil and tea tree oil." She placed the two oils before looking at the containers for snake venom and blood.
Jax: There are actually multiple items that fit each of those criteria.
"Grab whatever you see, but quickly, cause we don't have a lot of time to save them." Lucy remembered something and placed the snake venom on the table and the jar of snake blood back on the shelf.
"It has to be snake venom. Cooper told me some basic survival stuff. One was that you use the venom of the attacking animal in an antidote." Jax shrugged before reading more.
"Ingredient 4: One petal from an evening flower. Ingredient 5: One pebble that causes water to bubble." Mortimer walked over with another pamphlet, "What's this," Jax asked before taking the pamphlet.
"A way to demonstrate hydrophobia is to add calcium carbonate to water. When the calcium carbonate touches water; its chemical compounds become unstable and begin to break down. The resulting process releases carbon dioxide, which means it's gonna bubble, which is released through the water as bubbles. Try it and see."
Jax began searching, "We need calcium carbonate, which..." He looked at the pamphlet, "might be labeled as CaCO3 if they use the formula form. But we have to do it quick, we don't have a lot of time."
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Gloria lays on a yellow couch with Calliope next to her. Bahar's body is laying outside and Izuku is sitting where she was tied up just a couple minutes ago.
Gloria: It’s pure rubbish. We cannae help them just noo as we’re stuck in the arcade.
Izuku: We're not helping the team, and I don't like that.
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Loki grabbed a photo of a vertical beam with a poster hanging on it. "Is this poster anywhere?" he asked, getting the group to look around the bar.
Loki: I realize that no matter if we need to search the areas or recreate the pictures, we need to know where these pictures were taken.
Waluigi looked and found the poster, pointing it out and asking if they were the same. On the poster were a bunch of around pointing at the wavy, bubble letters spelling 'grass.'
Outside, The Snake Woman lurked toward the door. "Are you sure we shouldn't recreate them?" Harley asked from inside the stripper pole room. Mike shrugged and told her to go with it.
Harley: Finally, a thing I can do and accomplish.
Gwen grabbed the money and walked over as the rest of them looked at the photo. Harley jumped onto the pole and started dancing as Gwen fanned the money at her, looking away.
The door slammed open, causing the door to huddle into a corner with a side door. They quickly and quietly exited as The Snake Woman saw them.
They all ran around, trying to make back inside. Unfortunately, Loki was the furthest from the door and got bitten by The Snake Woman.
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Gloria slid her arm under her back and felt for whatever was making her uncomfortable. She determined it was under the cushion and got off as Izuku and Calliope rushed to her help.
Gloria: Ah find a note an' an ashtray. An', all o' a sudden, ah get this burst o' energy. Ah kin still help ma pals wi' this.
"Come find me.' Come n' find wha'?" she asked when The Snake Woman appeared. She threw Loki into the arcade, where he was caught by Calliope. As The Snake Woman left, Gloria showed Izuku and Loki the note.
Gloria: Loki says he's been bitten too, an' ah show him an' Izuku that we kin still help the team by crackin' this puzzle.
"Come find me," Loki reread the clue before looking at the other two. "Should we check the lounge?" The other two shrugged and they went to check.
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"Anti-venom is developed from the venom of the attacking species. It's important to identify the type of animal that's bitten you," Jax read from another pamphlet.
"So, whoever Cooper is, he told you right. Keep the snake venom," he said to Lucy. The two girls went back to searching as Jax put the venom on a tray that is now 'The Tray of Correct Ingredients.'
Jax: So we learn that anti-venoms actually contain venom from the animal that bit you. So that already solved one of our ingredients.
Rosanna: I can be helpful in that I can find things that are really low to the ground.
"What about moon lily. That's a night plant," Ro said, breaking through Jax's panic induced pacing. He stopped rubbing his hand through his hair as he thought, "Yes! Yes, bring it!"
Rosanna: Everyone is helping and that's something I really love about this group.
Jax continued to pace around, rubbing his hand through his hair to calm himself, which didn't work. Lucy peeked at the back of a shelf, finding the calcium carbonate.
Three ingredients found and figured out, that's good. As Jax continued to panic, even higher due to looking at Mortimer's watch, Lucy double checked the calcium carbonate. She quickly filled a beaker with water and put it in, making the water bubble.
Lucy: Now, we start trying to figure out which ingredients are gonna make the right anti-venom.
Jax placed the calcium carbonate, snake venom, and moon lily on the tray and looked at their remaining options. Hemlock, hemp root, rose oil, and tea tree oil.
Jax: So we knew about three of the ingredients for sure. The other two we have multiple options for.
"●●●●●● oil. Seems like it's only one word, so let's use rose oil," Jax placed the oil on the tray. "Hem●●●●●, we got hemproot and hemlock. Let's try both-" He was cut off by Lucy.
"Wait, this says here, 'Hemlock is so poisonous it can cause death," she read from a pamphlet. Jax quickly took hemlock off the tray. He grabbed a new beaker and placed everything in.
One pinch of hemp root, one drop of snake venom, one drop of rose oil, a petal of moon lily, and one pebble of calcium carbonate. He added some water and put it in the centrifuge.
They grabbed another beaker and Lucy held it under the nozzle. She twisted the nozzle and they all watched for the color.
Lucy: We know if we get this right, it'll be yellow.
Ro chanted yellow as the machine spat out liquid green. Lucy quickly turn it off and Jax threw the beaker with the anti-venom out the window, which broke in the street.
"No, no, NO!" he yelled before rubbing both hands in his hair. Everything was wrong, he couldn't have more deaths on his hand. Not again. Never again.
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The remaining six in Fat Man Slims calmed down after Loki got taken. "Okay, we gotta work as fast as possible, because Loki is dying!" Gwen emphasized, getting the group to continue to look for words.
Gwen: We have to focus on finding this password before The Snake Woman comes back again.
"Cold.' I found this coaster with cold on it," Charlie placed the coaster on the table with the pictures. Spy followed next with a cigarette pack that said 'green.' Harley checked under the table, finding 'snakes.'
Waluigi: So we've got all these words, but we aren't quite sure what the order for them is.
"There's a 5 under the sign," Spy pointed to the picture. Everyone looked in shock and Charlie looked at another picture, "Wait! This one has a 2!" They looked at each photo, finding a number on each.
Mike: On each of the photos, there is a number telling us the order.
Mike grabbed each of the items with words and placed them on the corresponding photos. All together the group read what they had so far, "Green snakes blank cold grass."
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As Jax continued to panic, Lucy went to try and figure out what went wrong as Ro went to comfort Jax. She went through, knowing they had everything but oil, which racked her head.
It's not long enough for tea tree. "Are you sure that's all the oils?" Mortimer asked, getting Jax to pick himself up and run through the shelves. Oil, oil, oil, "Castor oil!" he yelled out.
He ran over to where Lucy was putting everything in another beaker. He took the dropper and dropped in one drop of castor oil. They placed the beaker in the centrifuge and held the last beaker under the nozzle.
Lucy turned it all the way and yellow liquid spilled out. "Yes! Yes! YES!" Jax yelled out. He grabbed a dropper and ran out to the lounge. Never again, never again, never again he chanted in his head.
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Loki: So we're looking for any shape with that symbol. Well... I am. Gloria is coughing her lungs out and Izuku is getting close too.
Loki spots the symbol on the wall and finds a cord. He pulls it revealing it to be a secret door with a wooden sun and a note, reading 'Place me on the horizon.'
Out of nowhere, Jax busted in with a beaker of yellow liquid and a dropper. He saw Gloria on the floor and gave her some drops before getting to Izuku and giving him some, and finally gave some to Loki.
Jax: Also Loki was bitten, I guess. I also don't know how it tastes. Looks like a mix between Capri-Sun and urine.
When all three began to cough, Jax thought he had failed. But then he saw the black and yellow veins around Loki's neck dissappeared and go back to normal. It worked. He redeemed himself.
He turned to Ro, who he just realized was there and was carrying bandages and bear hugged her. She patted him on the arm as he ran to Lucy and did the same.
Ro went to each person's neck and patched up the bites. Loki remembered the group at Fat Man Slims and placed the wooden sun and note in a hidden space. The six of them ran back to Fat Man Slims.
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While Jax was running over to the lounge and Ro was grabbing bandages with Lucy, Charlie walked back to the stripper room in Fat Man Slims. "It has to be in there," she said.
They followed her and looked over the room when Mike had an idea. "Should we lift the cushions?" he asked before doing it anyway. In doing so, he found the word 'in' written under it.
They ran over to the pictures and repeated the password. "Green snakes in cold grass!" Outside, the six from the drugstore and lounge ran toward the door and were let in by Gwen, who saw them.
Charlie: So with everyone inside, I head up the stairs and say the password.
"Green snakes in cold grass," she told the man behind the flap. "Head downstairs," his gruff voice said, "I'll meet you shortly." She went to the group who all sat or stood around the table wher the pictures were.
As she was saying the password, Waluigi had moved everything onto another table. "Well, well, look at this lot," he said as he came down the stairs. "Oh, hey!" Harley said as he pulled out 12 playing cards.
"Each of yous take a card," as they did Lucy noticed the back door, "Why did that just open?" The man answered, "That's Rodrigo and his friend. He's my manservent."
Harley: Do I have some kind of dating app on or something? Where are all these hunky men coming out of?
Rodrigo and his friend walked to the table and placed the package on it. It was a giant pillar covered in a blanket and was half of Ro's size when on the floor.
Charlie: I have no idea what could be under that blanket, but whatever it is, it's not gonna be good.
Rosanna: The cover comes off and it is a snake table top game.
"It's time to play The Serpent's Game," the gruff man began, "where the ante is your life. Inside this tower there's a golden brick and it's up to you to find it, and place it on the pedestal right there."
He pointed behind Ro, where a wooden chest sat with a protrusion, which had to be the pedestal. "You topple over the tower, you go into the final death challenge. No vote. Flip your cards over."
Everyone followed his orders, "Now that's the order that you go in." Charlie looked at her card, the queen of clubs.
She was last to go as she had one of the second highest cards out of the deck, only trumped by the king, who was not here as there were only twelve in the group.
Izuku: Basically, the object of The Serpent's Game was to find the golden brick that was hidden in this wooden tower.
Charlie: If you knock over the tower, you go directly into the death challenge.
Gloria: Nae pressure.
Lucy: (exhales) Okie dokie.
"Game on!" the man said. Spy went first, pulling a block after kicking Waluigi's leg to shut him up. Waluigi went next, Izuku telling him to be careful. "Who's three?" Charlie asked, Ro raised her hand.
Rosanna: This tower is massive. It's taller than me. So, I'm so nervous, because I don't know... physics.
Ro grabbed a block and slightly pulled, making the tower wobble. She screamed before calming down, "Okay. Just wiggle, wiggle," she said before placing the block at the top.
"Who's four?" Waluigi said, Mike answering by getting up. He cleanly grabbed a block and put it on top. The order continued, going Jax, Gwen, Loki, and Gloria.
After her turn, she asked, "Dae onybody see the gowd?" Everyone looked but couldn't find anything, "We need to find the gold," Jax said, thumping his foot on the ground.
The game continued with Lucy, Harley, and Izuku's turns before it was Charlie's. She looked over the pieces and pulled one out. "I think it's a dock," Ro said, referring to the gold.
"Cause I'm seeing the tops of these and it's, green, green, green." Spy, Waluigi, Ro, and Mike all took their turns. Jax had to go but wasn't in the right mind and took a long while.
"Just pick one, Jax," Waluigi said with an edge of annoyance. Ro and Izuku each comforted him and he finally took out a piece as Waluigi complained that he took too long.
Waluigi: Just picked a block, Jax, and stop faking a panic.
Everyone took their turn landing on Jax again, "Here's the thing," Loki said. "One of these that give structural integrity could be the one with the gold." Izuku looked to Jax, who was trying to deliberate a piece.
"You gave me the antidote, Jax. You gave me the antidote, I could do this for you." Jax looked at him with pleading eyes, "Please don-" Waluigi cut him off by standing and pointing at Izuku.
"How can you say you're a hero and not take a chance for all of us?" The ex-rabbitoid looked at Waluigi and shook his head.
Waluigi: Why don't you step up, sir.
"No, literally. You said you were a hero when we waiting for Charlie! You say you're a hero, prove it!" The kid look him in the eyes, "Alright, watch." He leaned to the bottom right block when-
"NO!"
Jax yelled and grabbed the block before Izuku, toppling the tower and sending himself into the challenge. He looked at the block, no gold.
Loki: It collapses. He's being sent to the final challenge.
He walked over to Waluigi and placed the block in his hands. "You happy?" Jax said like he would before Solar Flare's death. "This is for you. That's for you," he pointed at the block as everyone searched for the gold in the pile.
Izuku instead grabbed the bottom left brick, seeing it to be the gold brick. It's paint was starting to chip away, revealing its greenness to be painted on. "I found it," he said, walking over to the pedestal.
Izuku: I grab the gold piece and place it on the pedestal next to the chest.
The chest opened, revealing a big, green snake head. Ro grabbed the eyes from her coat pocket and placed them in the eye holes after Izuku pulled the head out.
Charlie grabbed a note that was inside as well and read it. "To finish cleansing the artifact, two must be selected by vote and search the innards of a serpent to claim its heart."
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Gloria: Sae, we hae tae pick anither two fowk tae haud face tae face wi' death. But, Jax huv already toppled the tower, sae he’s in the mix by default.
"I say we just split up again and just discuss amongst ourselves," Charlie decided. They made two groups in opposite corners.
Izuku: I think we're all thinking the same person.
"In our puzzle, he helped enough, but that showing with The Serpent's Game..." Gwen said to Izuku. He nodded along, already planning on voting him.
Izuku (cont.): He almost sent me into the challenge because I wasn't being 'hero enough?' Have you forgotten that I had powers. I'm not one for this voting stuff, but this is absurd.
In the other corner, Mike asked Ro, "So how was your group's dynamics?" She thought of how to put it, quickly finding an answer. "Everybody found stuff."
Waluigi butted in, "I tired of this talking in two corners." He found a high place in the lounge, "Can I just say something. I feel like the first two The Snake Woman bit haven't done much."
Lucy: Waluigi has really started to create some divisions in this team.
Gloria looked offended, for understandable reasons. "Ah wis poisoned an' couldnae dae a thing fer maist o' twenty minutes, an' ye expect me tae help solve puzzles that’re a'ready done! Ah got cured an' we played Jenga richt afterward, whit did ye expect me tae dae!"
Loki defended her, "And she also found a clue that we tried to figure out before they went out of order." Waluigi held his hands in the air, "Can we just start voting and let the cards decide."
Gloria: Let’s git this ower wi’
"The first person to be in the challenge is The Troublemaker, understood?" Calliope said. Jax nodded, "Which leaves only one slot," she continued.
Harley turned to their other helper, "Puddin', how do you feel about this?" He shrugged, "I mean, the voting stuff's her idea," he said. Izuku turned to Calliope, "Calliope, we- we don't have to keep doing this."
"It must be done," she cryptically said. Jax walked up and picked Waluigi's card. Spy walked over and picked one of Gloria's cards. Waluigi sauntered over and picked Izuku's card.
Waluigi: Izuku hasn't done enough heroism and it irks me.
Izuku: He said I 'wasn't being a hero' and then claimed me and Gloria weren't doing enough?
Loki: I know they both didn't do much, but they were dying! What else could they have done?
Charlie hesitantly took a Waluigi card, seeing it was the last in the pile. "You guys," she gave it to Calliope and turned, "There's only a certain amount of cards per person."
"So we might not get to vote for our first choice?" Mike asked, she nodded. His face turned to anger before he went up and took one of Spy's cards.
Mike: I went with Spy as while he's helping, he seems cocky. When he helps, it feels like he knew it all along and was waiting for us.
Gwen followed him and took another of Spy's cards, while Harley took one of Mike's cards. Ro and Lucy closed the voting by voting for themselves and Calliope took the deck.
Charlie: Waluigi
Jax: Waluigi
Lucy: Lucy
Izuku: Waluigi
Rosanna: Ro
Gloria: Waluigi
Loki: Waluigi
Walugi: Izuku
The Spy: Gloria
Harley: Mike
Mike: Spy
Gwen: Spy
Calliope shuffled, and shuffled, and shuffled still more. "The person going into the challenge with The Troublemaker is..." She drew, looked, and flipped the card to the group.
"The Disco Dancer."
Waluigi: It’s clear that by being vocal about my opinion has put a target on my back.
Jax: You wanted a child to die making me go in, and now you're with me, ha!
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Second Person: Jax POV
Mortimer, Calliope, Dicknose, and I leave the arcade and walk to the forest at the edge of town. We come across a fenced off area with The Snake Woman, two mosaics, two giant 'snake bodies,' all with a snake arch entrance.
Mortimer hands me and Dicknose hazmat suits to put on. We complied as Calliope handed Dicknose the instructions.
Search the intestines of the great serpent to find the missing pieces of your mosaic. A completed image is at the end of the snake to guide you. The first to do so will be able to retrieve the heart and the other will be envenomed by The Snake Woman.
"Good luck," Calliope said and we silently walked into the challenge. "Go!" she added and we ran to each body and dove our hands into the intestines, and God, was it cold.
Waluigi: There are parts of the body I didn't know about. Squishy things, gooey things.
Jax: It's hard because most of the things are squishy, and it's cold, so my fingers can't feel as good.
I squeeze my intestines, finding my first piece due to its hardness, and ran to my map. Dicknose, however, was complaining about how he doesn't know what the pieces look like.
Jax: Thankfully, there is a map in front of the mosaic, so I can tell where everything goes.
I found where the piece went as Dicknose pulled out a piece. "I found this piece, I don't even know if that's the piece!" he said. I rolled my eyes, "Of course it is, Dicknose," I say.
Waluigi: My head is having so many thoughts. Am I gonna die? Am I gonna find these pieces? What is Jax doing?
He ran over and placed it by his map as I dunked my hands back in the guts. Quickly, I found my second piece and found its place in the mosaic and plopped it in.
"Okay, Jax, you got this," I told myself. "Do this for Solar Flare. Show to them you aren't the same." I dunked my hands in the guts again. Dicknose finally looked at the map.
"This doesn't make sense at all," he said, "the heck?" His eyebrows shot up in realization as I ran over with my third piece. He placed his two, since when did he have two, pieces in as I placed my third.
We ran back and started searching again, me quickly finding my fourth piece. I was gonna win this, but another death would be on my hands. As I searched my mind wandered.
Jax: I was thinking if I should win at more blood being on my hands. Buuuuuuuut then, I remembered that he tried to get a child in this death challenge, sooooooo...
Dicknose found his third piece and placed it in, "I just need two more pieces, but I don't even know..." Meanwhile, I had found my last piece, I was gonna live.
I placed it in, making the box open and making The Snake Woman awaken. She hissed and walked toward Dicknose and I ran to the heart. I pulled, but it was so big and slippery.
"No. No. No, please!" he yelled as I got the heart out, "I haven't even gotten into Smash Bros. yet!" I ran through the entrance to Calliope and Mortimer, who held the head.
I heard one scream, a hiss, a whimper, and another hiss afterward. I assume The Snake Woman has bit Dicknose, lifted her head, and bit again, killing him. I squeeze blood out of the heart, cleansing the eyes.
The Snake Woman hissed and I turned around to see her becoming smoke. But instead of dissappearing like the clowns, she became human. I ran to her as she flopped on the floor.
Her human form was Caucasian, with brown hair and eyes, wearing nothing but the small, jingling skirt she wore as The Snake Woman. She quickly jumped over to Dicknose and tore off his hazmat suit.
She put it on and looked at me, "Thank you," she said before running off to Fat Man Slims. I walked back to Mortimer and Calliope and we started the trek back to the lounge.
As we got to Fat Man Slims, we saw the woman who was The Snake Woman shoving the hazmat suit in the trash can. Now she wore a blue shirt with a yellow ascot and a black skirt.
She saw Mortimer and called out his name, "Cindy?" She ran over and hugged him, turns out they were childhood friends. Us four walked to the lounge, Cindy being afraid of the group hating her.
Mortimer draped his arm over her shoulders to protect her. I opened the side door and we went inside.
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The group sat, waiting for whoever won to come in. The side door opened and Jax entered, followed by Calliope, and Mortimer, whi had his arm around another woman's shoulders.
She took his arm off and approached the group. Jax looked to her and spoke, "This is Cindy, she was the one corrupted to become The Snake Woman."
She looked at Gloria, Izuku, and Loki who all sat next to each other. "I am so sorry. I-," she stopped, "I was in a relationship with Bahar's husband. He hated her and loved me, she found out and beat me up."
She started to tear up, "The Carnival Master offered me a chance at vengeance and when I touch the eyes, my mind was filled with it. I just saw everyone as her. I'm sorry you all were in danger."
Charlie got up and hugged her, "It's okay. We saved you. That's all that matters." Cindy smiled and continued to cry into her shoulder. Jax took the head and placed it in one of the cubbies.
Cindy finished crying and waved goodbye before Charlie said, "Leave this town and wait in the clearing outside. It'll have a fire pit. If we come out of this alive, one of us will give you a new home."
She nodded and Mortimer led her to the town entrance. Calliope took one of Waluigi's cards and placed them in the box she put Solar Flare's in a while ago.
They finally saved someone, but Charlie wanted to know something. "Loki, earlier, you said Gloria found a clue, what did you mean." He got up and grabbed the wooden sun and note from their hiding place.
"She found a note saying 'Come find me,' with a symbol of a woman. That symbol was on a wall and I opened it, finding this. It says, 'Place me on the horizon."
Everyone looked around and Mike and Izuku spotted the horizon painting on the wall. Loki placed the sun on it and a note fell from behind the painting. He grabbed it and read, "One among you will betray the group."