Let Me Go Gravity - The Reaper's Game CYOA

Mike eyed the Reaper with the controller. Pixie's face was so cheerful, it almost slightly mitigated the instinctive fear caused by the massive whale barreling down next to her.

"Zachi! Take care of them!" Mike yelled, and before his partner could ask how he expected her to do that, Mike's bat was in mid swing and he was Rushed towards the whale's dorsal fin.

Zachi glanced behind her just a moment to take in where CC and Spencer lay, before slashing out with her pen. Ink was slathered down onto the ground, in an arcing arrowhead pointing towards their position. She didn't dare risk trying to stop the Orcinus with her detonation, but she could try to redirect it slightly.

Mike cracked his bat against the whale's fin, and his attack was met with a shower of sparks and pixels. It was flashy, but it didn't seem to do anything to deter the Noise from its course.

Right...now what?

Now hanging in the air next to the whale's fin, Mike's next best idea was just to grab on with his free hand. He grunted as he was wretched through the air, and bashed the bat against the Noise's back. Unlike all the noise before it, the whale's skin was smooth and hard like gemstones. It was a wonder how the bat didn't break on that last swing. His blows were producing nothing but light shows. Meanwhile, the whale was getting closer to its target.

...The face!

Mike let go and swung downwards, this time closing in on the Orcinus's snout. A louder smack. A bigger shower of glittering pixels. No signs of slowing down. And now the whale had him pinned against its snout in mid-charge, with every intention of squashing him against the pavement with the other three below.

...Eyes?

Mike found the beast's right eye, gripped his bat, and stabbed down into it. Only it wasn't so much "into" as it was "against", since the surface of the eye was just as hard as anywhere else on its body. But this time, it did seem to flinch just a bit as the sparks flew off of it.

I felt it budge! Keep doing that!

As the whale passed the point where anything sentient would brace for impact, Zachi had her finger on her trigger, and Mike was wailing blows down two handed with the bat on the whale's eye. Mike had to squint to see through the brightness of the sparks he was kicking up, but he kept at it since he could feel the whale's head listing toward the left side.

Up in the air, Pixie pouted and pulled up on her controller resentfully. Drake looked on disapprovingly.

"He's not actually hurting it with that stick, is he?" The Game Master asked, as if it were a test.

"Hell no! It's just the sparks blinding it making it harder to control....!"

And KABOOM Zachi's payload blew below, making even Pixie jerk back as flames shot into the sky. The sudden jolt to the side of the whale's head knocked Mike away from his ride, sending him tumbling towards the players nestled safely among the mass of erupting fire. The Orcinus's charge smashed into the building behind them just left of where it was aiming. It showered the players with debris, but otherwise left them unharmed. Zachi shielded her eyes while Mike shielded his everything with his Shred Rubber force field.

"You missed your cue." Drake snorted.

"Cheating RNG!" Pixie hissed.

With the whale on the ground, Zachi ran over to CC and bent down to pick her up (wow she's light). Spencer...was another issue. Sparkles would show soon, right? Meanwhile, Mike whirled around to where the whale's face lay and rammed it with Velocity Attack. More sparks. He figured that he'd feel better if he took that as a good thing, so he did, and kept up the ramming assault.

"Come on boy! Let's play!" He shouted at the whale, who was just in the process of floating back up into the air. It seemed to glare at him...assuming you could ever determine if a 16-bit whale was glaring.

It opened its mouth, and Mike could see the glow of something charging. So taking the logical approach, he leapt directly at the whale's forehead, Velocity Attack propelling him upwards. After all, you couldn't fire a mouth laser at face. He touched down and activated Shred Rubber, and the whirling force field made a firework of the space between the Orcinus's eyes. It roared in annoyance and bucked its head backwards, wasting the laser as it shot up towards the sun. Now genuinely annoyed, it felt Mike's shredding shield slide down its head, neck, back, tail...oh goody, tail. With a quick flick it batted Mike up into the air.

Nonononononono-!

The whale flipped in the air again, and with a *SNAP* its tail smacked the shielded Mike away like a hockey player slap shots a puck.

NONONONONONONONO-!

*SPLASH*

Mike was cast out to sea.

Zachi was setting CC down sheltered behind a nearby building, but heard the splash and feared the worst. She ducked out from cover and saw no sign of Mike. Just an angry whale and Spencer lying in the street. Well, she saw Spencer for like a second. Then she saw a girl teleport in, grab him, and teleport away.

"Hi."

She turned around and Sparkles was there, placing Spencer's body down.

"Where's Mike?" Zachi asked, quickly.

"What?"

"Did you see him?"

"No...just got here."

Zachi poked her head out again. She saw tornadoes now roaring around the whale and two lamp posts bashing themselves against it, while Chris was standing on top of the thing raining blows on down its blowhole. But no Mike.

Just then a pink glow filled the room, and Zachi turned to see Sparkles healing the players put previously out of commission.

"Wait."

Sparkles stopped.

"What? What?"

"You have limited healing. Bringing them back will mean less for the rest of us. We can just hide them" Zachi dictated.

Sparkles took a pause to think about that. "Well I mean...if Ms. Scientist says more for us is ok then well..."

A) Heal Spencer and CC
B) Heal just Spencer
C) Heal just CC
D) Don't heal either

...K, C.

A

A) We'll learn to do something that'll come in handy later.

A! Let's start it up!

Zachi had CC's support. But everyone else sided with Chris. Zachi accepted it.

"So what's a fusion attack and how do we do it?" Zachi asked openly.

Sparkles answered first. "It's a super-attack, like how Chris and So-yeon ended the battle yesterday."

"It's an explosion of soul energy that both deals great damage and heals the users." Chris said succinctly, "You need to synchronize your thoughts and feelings with your partner to charge it up. When it's ready, you'll feel it, and it will appear on your Fusion Pin."

"What pin?" CC asked?

In response, Chris held up some larger than average pins. "I got some extras. Players aren't normally supposed to have them but this week has already gone off the rails." He tossed a pair to Zachi, who caught them, and gave them a close look. They were blank white, and didn't seem anything out of the ordinary. But she did notice that all the other players had one equipped.

Chris held another pair out to CC, who just looked at them awkwardly. "Um...just stick them in my pocket." the girl said, turning around and bending over slightly. Chris raised an eyebrow, and Zachi took the liberty of moving them from Chris's hands to the back pocket of CC's denim mini-skirt.

"Synchronize. Explain." Zachi commanded. She realized that it had gotten quiet around the corner. And before she got an answer, she realized the lighting of their refuge spot had gotten darker. Orcinus Canor, its masters deciding that the Players had enough of a break, chose that moment to practice looming ominously overhead with something glowing in its mouth.

"RUN!"

Every Player capable of shouting did so, and scattered as the whale fired its laser. Zachi lost sight of everyone except CC as the blast missed her, but the shock wave threw them both off  their feet. Zachi hit the ground hard and would have rolled off the edge of the pier if it wasn't for CC grabbing her. Right arm wrapped around a post, CC caught Zachi under her left leg.

"Thanks." The girl in the lab coat said, getting up shakily.

CC untangled herself and jumped up to her feet. "Don't mention it." She said before pointing both guns at the Orcinus. It was looking right at them, nestled between tow high-rises. In the tight confines of the streets as opposed to the pier, it didn't seem to be able to use it's usual flipping attacks. Which was probably their advantage.

"We should distract it and keep it away from open air." Zachi said.

"Sounds like fun." CC said with a giggle, before running in guns blazing. Fountains of energy balls and laser blasts spewed from both barrels and converged on the whale...and as usual, made for a nice light show and not much else. The whale groaned though. That's something, maybe.

Zachi ran after her, pen at the ready.

---

"And now it's out of range!" Pixie fumed.

At this point GM DJ was completely disinterested. "I'm thinking your Noise is out of tune with this whole concerto. Bravo. You get to sing your song to the Conductor."

Pixie flew over to where she could get better reception. Drake followed because Pixie was still screaming at him as she left, and it was only polite to be within earshot.

"You said we'd pick them off one at a time!"

"And you could have if you didn't spend your passage gloating!" Drake shouted back.

"I designed this boss fight for two players not six! It's not supposed to chase people down or leave the arena!"

"Play it ad libitum. Don't tell me you can't keep up with a changing metagame."

Pixie hissed, "You're not even using that phrase correctly!"

---

"Is anyone around!?" CC shouted as she traded bullet storms with the whale.

Zachi didn't know where the other players were, but she hoped they were charging up or whatever. In the meantime, she was getting a workout dodging the whale's barrage of mouth lasers. She tried to find an opening, but any time it opened its mouth she was running for her afterlife.

"Can you make it open wider? Or stall it? Or something!?" Zachi shouted out. She was answered by a street light shoving itself up the whale's mouth, trying to pry it open. She looked around, but couldn't see Jesus even though he had to be close. Orcinus snapped the streetlight in half and spat out the other end, embedding it into a wall, but Zachi took the opportunity to give the whale a very inky lipstick job. Mouth stuck fast, it visibly tried and failed to open it, and CC grinned. Zachi didn't though. Things merely happened as planned.

CC ducked behind a corner for cover. Two growing balls of energy started to form at the tips of both pistols. Charge shot time. The whale, finding itself down an attack and in need of more space, spun around into a dive and blitzed down the street, knocking aside cars and destroying parking meters along the way (Pixie groaned and followed it back). Zachi and CC ran after it, CC's guns now glowing to indicate they were fully charged.

---

...can I reach the Reapers from here?

Under the water, Mike peeked up above. He was at the pier now. Maybe he could pull off a sneak attack. The Reaper girl with the controller was definitely giving the Whale orders, if not controlling it directly.

But then again...did he really want to fling himself at two Reapers?

His train of thoughts were interrupted by a new arrival. A shadow loomed ominously overhead with something glowing in its mouth.

---

Once back over the water, the whale wasted no time in doing a a front flip, summoning a tidal wave to wash down the street where it came from. Zachi and CC were back on the pier as well, but the two girls were quick enough to dive to the sides. The wave, wrecking what was left of the cars, passed harmlessly along. Across the way, their gazes met.

"Go!" CC yelled, peeling out from cover and aiming her guns squarely at Orcinus's face. Zachi hit the detonator, and CC pulled her triggers. The whale's mouth burst open with pillars of fire as two blazing laser bursts exploded from CC's pistols and rammed themselves down the pixel Noise's throat....or at least they would have if the whale didn't use the opportunity to let loose its own charge shot. The whale's laser devoured CC's meager offerings and blazed directly towards the two girls.

"Move!" Zachi yelled in a controlled panic.

"Oh God not again!" CC screamed.

---

*FLASH*

"You trust me?"

"...!"

"Then let's end this!"

---

The air burst around Zachi and CC as a wall of tornadoes sprung up to protect them. Intercepting and dissipating the whale's laser attack was a tornado filled with swords of light, holding Chris and So-yeon hovering in the air. Swords sprayed out of the center tornado like a sprinkler in all directions, so while good for a crowd, for the most part it missed the Whale's mouth completely.

Chris's subsequent shouts of "Go go go!" indicated that this probably wasn't too much of a problem.

---

*FLASH*

"Let's light them all up!"

"Applesauce Dalmatian!"

---

A storm of rocky debris whipped up around the players, and it was from the direction of the voices that Zachi realized Jesus and Sparkles were on a rooftop. Chunks of metal, brick, and concrete flowed together, grinding themselves smooth, and scattered about into the approximate shape of a massive satellite dish in the air. Sparkles thrust her ring towards the formation, and its red light of pain scattered as if from a disco ball. It reflected off of the parabolic debris, conglomerated into a ludicrously large spotlight, and fired a laser that dwarfed the Whale's in size and that's heat could be felt from the streets below.

Sparkle and Jesus' fusion attack nailed Orcinus Canor square in the mouth, and face, and parts of its fins as well. It roared in pain, and the force of the attack drove it backwards into the water with a fountaining splash. Steam erupted from where the laser hit the water, and made a hissing sound as it cleared to reveal not a Whale in sight.

Zachi really hoped Mike saw that. But from far away.

Sparkles and Jesus teleported to the ground as everyone regrouped. CC slumped to the ground, flooded with relief.

"Did that do it?" Sparkles asked quickly.

"Only one way to find out." Chris said, running to the water's edge. Everyone else was quick to follow suit.

---

Mike saw a massive red laser drive the pixel whale into the water from quite close up. It nearly landed on him. But he's nothing if he's not quick.

The water around him sizzled in the wake of the attack, but that wasn't all that was sizzling. Orcinus Canor did not look like it was in good shape, but it was still moving. Its pixel paneling was falling off in patches and dissolving to reveal a graffiti-style wire frame and a red glowing core in the middle. Its eyes were no longer pixels, but unblinking glowing orbs.

Man, I hate it when they turn red...

The water around Mike warmed as he saw the whale glow brighter and tremble. He could see its inner workings as it charged energy within its belly to fire up at the surface, and it didn't look like it was going to hold anything back.

In the absence of Zachi, Mike ran options through his head.

A) Surface now to warn others it's still alive.
B) Surface to mess with those Reapers and delay the attack.
C) Attack the whale right now

C.

Mouth buzzing, eyes glowing, fins sharpening...

Mike watched the Whale simmer and decided he had to act. Now.

"YAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

I SHOULD THINK OF A BATTLE CRY!!!

Its core was practically pulsating, so Mike figured he'd throw it the biggest loudest Rushdown uppercut he could muster. What he didn't expect was for the whale to practically double under the blow to its belly. Orcinus Canor didn't notice Mike's lack of improvisational skill, but it did notice something about the size of a person sucker punch its weak point for massive damage, and it noticed loudly. And explosively. It was like Mike punched a giant water balloon except instead of water inside it was death rays. Pointy slashy death rays.

Luckily, a Shred Rubber force field holds up decently against pointy slashy death rays. Water doesn't though. The immediate vicinity around Mike exploded with light, steam, and frothing bubbles as the whale's payload ruptured in the middle of the bay. Even inside his force field Mike could feel the whiplash snap his limbs numb as he shot up through the surface.

---

*BANG*

"AAHHHH!"

CC squealed and jumped back from the pier, as did all the other players (the jumping part, not the squealing part). A pillar of energy shot out just a few meters from the pier, sending water and foam cascading high into the sky. A defensive tornado erupted around So-yeon as Chris took a defensive stance. Sparkles teleported herself and Jesus a few dozen paces back on instinct. As the enough water cascaded down from the explosion to douse the Olympic Torch, Sparkles saw what was effectively a giant whale made of burning plasma breech the water, do a flip, and then dive again in pursuit of...some ball shaped thing. She also saw CC running towards her.

"Can you still heal?!" The small girl asked the slightly less small girl.

Sparkle nodded and pointed her ring, but then realized that CC wasn't injured at all. "Uh...a bit. Why?" she asked, pulling her arm back.

CC nodded frantically, mentally putting her hands together pleadingly, "Give me the rest. Please! I need it!"

---

Meanwhile up above...

"It has a kamikaze attack?" Drake asked Pixie.

Pixie scowled. "Kamikaze form you binary bozo. I gotta take at least one Player out today!"

---

And down below, Mike was finally able to see through the slightly settling water. But he saw a gigantic plasma whale bearing down directly on top of him so it wasn't all that comforting.

Movemovemovemovemovemove-!

Shred Rubber had run out of charge, so now it's all up to Velocity Attack. He ran...swam...moved through the water away from the whale as quickly as he could, but it was dead set on chasing him down. It's a good thing Mike had figured out how maneuverable he was in the water, because he needed it to stay a step ahead. Taking a bet that the whale wouldn't be able to turn as quickly as he could, Mike swerved around 180 degrees. Mike thought about ramming it. But seeing as it looked like it was on fire underwater, and no longer had a visible weak point...yeah, best to try a different tactic.

Everyone else is above water. I just need to get past this thing!

Roll off the whale's wake in the water, get above it, and launch to the surface. That was the plan. But as he should have guessed, once you say the plan out loud, it usually doesn't work. And in this case, Mike failed to take into account that the whale could do barrel rolls. Suddenly, it wasn't a whale he was charging at, it was a fin-blade blender that was sucking him in.

Bail out! Bail out!

Velocity Attack decided then that it had been used enough and needed to recharge.

Dammit! ...Rushdown! But I need a...

The water began to froth again as the whale spun, which made it even more difficult for Mike to look frantically around for something to home in on with a Rushdown blow. There was nothing but water, water, shafts of light through water, more water, inky darkness below, spinny whale blade death and...an...origami butterfly?

Mike swung. His fist hit the butterfly. The Whale hit water, and since it didn't like that, it immediately turned around, and was unexpectedly greeted by an origami wolf and an origami bear leaping onto its face and clawing at its eyes. Mike was just putting together what was going on when the butterfly swooped around, and carried him up to the surface. Unfortunately, the Whale wasn't held up by Spencer's summons for long, and it honestly couldn't be bothered with anything besides chasing down and erasing Mike. It made a headlong charge towards the surface in pursuit.

---

On the pier, CC sighed a breath of relief, as Sparkles's healing psych bottomed out.

"He's alive...thanks Sparkles." She said sweetly.

Sparkles was about to respond, but got distracted by a trail of ink that slathered itself beneath her feet and ran down some steps to the pier. She looked behind, and Zachi (who she had lost track of for a bit) was mounting a bike at the top of a hill.

"Move!" the girl in the lab coat commanded, as she jammed down on the pedals. The other two girls obeyed, and jumped aside as Zachi picked up speed and biked straight for her trail.

"What are you doing?!" CC asked loudly.

"You can bike?" Sparkles asked confusedly.

"No!" Zachi said as she biked straight for the stairs, flew off the side, and hit her detonator. The ground exploded beneath her, shooting the bike and her into the air, and rocketing her over the water with an array of firey pillars.

But I know someone who can.

---

Mike shot up past the surface and the butterfly dissipated in mid air.

Orcinus Canor shot up at Mike.

"Mike! Catch!"

Mike looked up. Zachi and his bike were flying towards him. A pin was flying towards him faster, thrown from Zachi's hands. He reached out, grabbing for it.

The whale roared. Mike was slowed down due to Gravity. The whale wasn't. It opened its mouth and revealed a mass of seething plasma blades inside. It picked up speed and placed Mike squarely between its jaws.

Zachi's momentum gave out. She started falling towards the water. But she was less worried about that and more concerned with one specific pin on her lab coat.

The whale moved to clamp down on Mike. Mike moved clamped down on the pin. 

Mike was faster.

---

*FLASH*

This guy's done!

An accurate conclusion.

---

Mike's bike spawned in an instant between his legs, and shot him out of danger faster than a rocket. Behind him, a trail of asphalt hung in the air like a flying tron steamroller might leave. He jammed on the handlebars and soared a circle around the whale, and his trail wrapped it and tightened like a lasso. He turned his head to see Zachi flying by at his side. She rode a large elegant fountain pen like a witch would a broom. It trailed a floating ribbon of ink through the air, and her lab coat billowed out behind her.

They gave each other a nod, and set to work. The Whale was caught fast in Mike's snare. It couldn't move, and that was just one strand. Mike and Zachi flew about, laying their trails and bundling Orcinus Canor up. Once around, twice around. As the Players picked up speed, they lost count. The Whale was reduced to a fly, and Mike and Zachi were the spider cocooning its prey. They crossed gazes, spun in the air, tied a knot, made a bow, and then Mike flew past Zachi, slapping the now giant pen-tip detonator.

It wasn't a kaboom. It wasn't a kablam. It was just a very loud dull echoing thud from inside the cocoon, preceding its disintegration. And not a trace of anything was left inside.

---

...

Pixie held the crushed remains of a controller in her hands.

"I'll start the paperwork." Drake said, vibrating to a different place.

Pixie's eye twitched. Twice. Then she wordlessly followed suit.