Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Spider-Man's perspective: 

It was another night on this island for this strange competition called Champions Island. I, along with 15 other people, well, there were more than just people, I guess, 15 other characters from different universes, I’m guessing, were teleported here randomly and put us on two teams with strange names. One called team Wiz and the other called team Boomstck, the one I’m on, compete in challenges and eliminate others until there is one left and they win a prize, the host didn’t really tell us what the prize is, but it’s apparently grand and amazing, something that change your life and reality in the way you desire, and that was good enough for us to stay on and compete. 

Things as of now haven’t been the greatest, as of now. I have been making a few friends and being a helpful team member by being one of the physically stronger members on my team and, probably, the smartest one as well. Well, second smartest because that rotting corpse inside that bunny suit who calls himself Springtrap. Who is shockingly intelligent and knows lots of things, he’s useful, but he doesn’t like being around others that much, likely because he smells like shit. But I’m getting off topic. 

So, I was in an alliance with two others from my team, one was this yellow sphere with a large mouth called Pac-Man. He was a very kind, friendly, and shockingly older than almost everyone here, except for that thousand-year-old elf girl named Frieren. He apparently had a wife and kids, who wouldn’t shut up about how much he loves them. It was sweet, and he sort of acted like, well, at least was trying to act like the dad of the team.  

Meanwhile... the other guy was much less friendly. His name was Slenderman, he was this tall, lanky guy in a suit, with no face to speak of, and instead of talking because he obviously couldn’t, he instead used these pieces of paper that he always had for some reason. They were scratchy and looked like kid drawings. Mostly everyone was either scared of Slendy or didn’t like Him, but believed he was just a shy person or whatever he is. I mean, he might be a Symbiote, mainly because he would sometimes have these slimy, black tenacles grow from his back. He primarily used them to help with specific physical challenges. He can also teleport, which he does somewhat often.  

Now then, Pac-Man, Slender Man, and I formed an alliance, which was called the Man Alliance, because we all had man in our names. I know that sounds stupid, but it was what I came up with. Pac man found it funny, I wasn’t sure Slendy did, but anyways, a few hours ago, our team just eliminated someone for the second time (the first was Henry). That being... Pac-Man, well, it wasn’t elimination, Pac-Man quit the game himself because he missed his family and didn’t really need whatever big prize the winner would get if they won, he already had a good life, he told everyone. And now that was good for him, but not good for our alliance... I mean, I want to win whatever the grand prize is because my life back in my universe isn’t the greatest... (Fuck you, Paul) 

Now then, we're in the present. I was swinging around the island through all the tall trees, looking for Slenderman the whole time. I wanted to talk to him and actually get to know him a bit. After a while of aimlessly looking, I heard static noises. That was usually a sign that Slenderman was around.  

I hopped down to the ground and shouted out, “Hey Slendy, are you here?” 

There was no response, but then felt my spider senses tingle, I quickly turned around just as Slenderman appeared teleported behind me. 

I laughed a bit, saying, “Hah, were you trying to scare me, dude?” 

I was met with nothing but Slendy’s strange static noises. I decided to ask. “So, do you like hanging around the woods or something, Slendy? Wait, are you fine with being called that?” 

I placed my hand on a tree to lean on it, only for one of Slendy’s pages to appear on it suddenly, like it glitched into reality, it said in bold scratchy letters, ‘DON’T CARE.’ another one then appeared, asking, ‘WHAT DO YOU WANT?’ 

“I just wanted to hang out for a second, talk a bit since... we were the only ones left in our alliance and stuff, is that fine?” After a few seconds, I saw Slendy nod very slowly. “Ok, great, anyways, what do you like to do? Do you like hanging around forests or something?”  

Slendy nodded. 

“Oh, cool, did you do that back in... Whatever you are from?”  

Another page appeared at my feet; it was a crude drawing of tall trees and Slenderman standing with them. “I’m taking that as a yes.” I then decided to ask. “What are you exactly? If that isn’t offensive to ask, of course.” 

I could have sworn I heard the static become louder. He seemed upset. “Ok, sorry, likely a touchy subject.”  

The static noise calmed now, and Slenderman stopped acting mad. “So, um... what do you think we should do now since Pac-Man is gone?  

Another page appeared as expected, it said, ‘I HAVE A PLAN’ and showed a crude drawing of Springtrap and an arrow pointing to him.” 

“Oh, we're bringing him into the alliance?” 

Some extra writing appeared on the same page, saying ‘you can say that.’ I might be going to be a bit sleep deprived, but after reading that paper, the static noise that Slendy made sounded like a laugh for some reason. I ignored it.

“Ok, sounds great, what do you think the prize for the winner of this game is?” I asked.

The static noise increased, but I heard something through the static: “ONVDQ NUDQ DUDQXSGHMF”  

“Ahh! What the hell was that!? Were you... Talking there? What was that supposed to be?” I said after hearing that. 

Slenderman had no response once more. I was just getting more confused and a bit suspicious of Slendy here.   

“Dude, seriously, what's the deal? If we are going to be working together, I have to be able to trust you. You can't just keep being this creepy loner all of the time. Make me trust you, my man."

Slendy looked up to the night sky; he seemed to be thinking... about something. He then appeared to get an idea, but then teleported away. I looked around, and he was nowhere to be seen. But left a page showing another crude drawing of him, this time next to a stove, cooking something. But at that point. It was getting late, and I was getting tired. So, I went back to where my team's tent was and went to sleep.

Next Morning 

I woke up to a particular smell in the air, a nostalgic, familiar smell, as I stepped out, there was pizza being cooked on the campfire, a few of my teammates were there eating some slices, this girl that I’m pretty sure is some sort of robot or artificial intelligence named Miku, a half human half Genie called Shantae, and Springtrap of course. But did look a bit unerved this morning. For some reason

Miku was eating a slice and happily waved to me and said in her bright sing-song tone, “Hey Spidey, good morning!”  

“Hey there, Miku, who made pizza exactly?” 

Springtrap said in a hushed tone, “It was Slenderman. I saw him preparing it. I even... helped him a bit.” I could have sworn I saw him shiver after saying that.

Shantae then said, “Oh, really? I thought you made it, I mean, you did tell me that you owned a Pizza place or something?”  

Springtrap said, “I don’t feel like talking,” and then quickly, well, about as quick as a zombie in a fur suit could move, get up and leave.  

Shantae said disappointedly, “Aww, he’s still shy.” 

I said while grabbing a slice of pizza, “How did he even make this? I doubt this island has the stuff needed to make pizza.” I took a bite and it tasted like heaven, familiar heaven. “Wait, it’s New York pizza too!? How did he seriously make this thing?”  

Shantae suggested, “Well, when Henry and Pac-Man were still here, they could always just pull random things out of nowhere, Pac-Man with those fruits and pellets, and Henry with... everything, I guess. Slender can already make those weird pieces of paper appear out of nowhere, wouldn’t be that surprised if he could do more.” 

I got up from my seat, “I need to thank him for making this. Have any of you seen hi-” Before I could finish my sentence, I felt my spider sense alert me, and a second later, Slendy was at my side. I wasn’t surprised, but Shantae and Miku sure were. Shantae’s hair raised up high in surprise, while Miku let out a weird scream that sounded like a voice glitching out. 

“Hey there... Slendy, you've got to learn to stop scaring others?” 

As expected, a page appeared. This time, in my other hand, saying, ‘IT’S A HABIT,’ he then saw me hold the pizza he made. And another page appeared, which showed a drawing of the pizza with a question asking, “DO YOU LIKE IT?” 

I nodded. “Yeah, I do... wait a minute.” I then thought to myself that Slenderman might have done this to gain my trust. I met with an answer where a page appeared with the words ‘YES’ 

I asked in my head, “So, you can read our minds, did you find out I like pizza doing that?” 

Slendy pointed at his most recent page again, meaning yes. I then told him through my head. “Well, this certainly helps, thanks for this. But, don't read my mind again, please.” 

Slendy nodded, then disappeared. I smiled until Shantae asked, “Why were you just standing there saying nothing while Slenderman made random pages for a second?” 

“Oh, um, we were communicating in our special way.” I try to play off. 

“Oh, like how I do!” Miku revealed. 

“How exactly?” Shantae. 

“Like this, of course,” Miku then started singing, like she usually does, but this time, well “01001101 01101001 01101011 01110101 00101100 00100000 01001101 01101001 01101011 01110101 00101100 00100000 00001010-” 

She proceeded to sing a whole song in binary for the next 3 minutes and 38 seconds; it was still pretty good, though. I also noticed that Shantae was particularly paying attention to Miku's little morning performance. I will make a note of that in the future, I guess. 

Slenderman’s Perspective? 

DUDQXSGHMF VHKK EZKK HMSN OKZBD, OZQJDQ'R LHROKZBDC SQTRS, ROQHMFSQZO ZR LX OZVM, UHBSNQX VHKK BNLD ENQ LD ZMC MN NMD VHKK RDD HS BNLHMF. 

Chapter Text

Springtrap’s perspective

When I first appeared on this island with 15 others from apparently different realities to compete for a grand world-changing prize, I was actually happy. I can’t remember the last time I felt a positive emotion.

After spending eons being tortured and killed by my own creations in purgatory, thanks to a brat called Cassidy, I thought this was my chance to get ahead. To gain the power I needed. I fool and destroy everyone here, and no one sees it coming. I thought it would be easy, I wouldn’t run into any trouble…

I was bloody wrong!

The team I was placed on, team Boomstck, had a bunch of annoyances, three in particular (now four after what happened tonight)

The first was that guy with the chainsaw arm that reminded me of the last time I saw my daughter, before that fire ended us. But I’m getting off topic. The first annoyance was Ash Williams.

You see, despite my appearance as an undead corpse stuck inside a springlock suit, I was able to convince most of them I was trustworthy and not what they consider evil. Although I still get a few glares from that elf mage and Lego-looking guy on the other team. Also, this guy, who looked like a rip-off Power Ranger, thought I was whatever the fuck a Rider is.

But after everything, there was still one person who didn’t trust me and hated my very existence. That was Ash, of course. He apparently has loads of experience with dealing with the undead, and I remind him too much of the deadite things he kills.

I remember the first time we interacted, not fondly at all. It was the very first night on the island, and I purposefully isolated myself from the others; I didn’t want to be near them for now.

I then heard the sound of a shotgun reloading. I moved out of the way as fast as I could when I heard a gunshot, and a bullet flew past me.

“Great, I missed,” I heard Ash say, coming out from the shadows.

“What was that for!?” I said in an angry tone.

“Oh, you know exactly what that was for. You corpse.”

He aimed and shot at me again. This time, I let it hit me; the pain it did was nothing compared to most of the pain I felt during my life, my death, and my undead.

“That’s not going to do much to me, you know. I’m kind of hard to kill.”

Ash groaned and proceeded to get all up in my face, “I know what you are, and I know you're planning something.”   

I wasn’t threatened by this clown with a chainsaw; I didn’t know much about him now, but his grit and anger reminded me of... unfavorable people from my past.  

“I’m not willing to get into a fight with you, just because I look like one doesn’t mean I’m the monster you think I am,” I lied through my teeth,  

Eventually, Ash pulled back, saying, “I have my eye on you, got that, roadkill?” He then left.  

So... That was one of the annoyances on my team, and you would think someone who wants me dead would be harder for me to deal with others, I haven't mentioned yet, well, you would be wrong. I guess I’m more used to people who wish me dead than people who want me as a friend... like these next two.  

The first of these annoying befrienders was the genie girl, Shantae. She was quickly different from everyone else, who had a less-than-favorable first impression of me due to my outward appearance, as I said before. She was friendly from the jump, and suffocatingly so. 

"Hey there, teammate! My name is Shantae! What's yours? 

"What the! Um. Well, it's Springtrap." 

“Well, I hope we have a wonderful time working together.”  

She was so happy and bright when she met me; it was shocking and overwhelming. Later on, I decided to ask her why she was so friendly towards me from the very start. That was during the night we won our first challenge, and some guy named John from the other team got eliminated first. 

We were out picking berries or something, and I asked, “I don’t get it. Why aren’t you freaked out like the others when you're with me?” 

Shantae turned to me and said, “Oh come on, you’re not the first zombie I've met before.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“Back at home, I have a friend named Rottytops, she’s a zombie, but she’s pretty nice once I got to know her! I’m used to the sight... and smell of zombies, you don’t scare me the slightest!" Shantae said with a bright smile.  

“Zombie? I wouldn’t really call myself a zombie.” 

“Well, I mean, undead in general.” She giggled a bit and then asked. “If you don’t mind me asking, how did you end up like this in the first place?” 

After hearing that invading question, I was initially going to push it off and not tell her anything about me for obvious reasons, but then I thought of something: I can use this to gain her trust, play up my backstory, and switch up the gory details in order to use her. This genie is about to grant me a wonderful wish! 

“Well, it was... a truly tragic story. I was friends with this guy, Henry Emily. We were close and worked with each other with the business we owned, until one day, I found out something about him, something awful.” 

“Oh... what was it?” Shantae asked with suspense. 

“He was a serial killer, a serial killer that targeted children. He even killed his own daughter.” I say, I had to hold in a laugh for that last part. I then looked at Shantae to see her reaction; it was pure horror in her eyes. Just as I wanted. I continued, “I tried to stop his spree, but he trapped me in this metal cage of a suit. It was supposed to kill me, but I’m practically fused with it now.”  

After a long bout of silence, Shantae put a hand on my shoulder, saying, “I can’t believe that happened to you.” 

“Um... It did, ok.” I replied, briefly worrying that I screwed up for a second. 

“I’m not saying it didn’t, but it’s a lot to take in, and I know it was difficult for you to deal with.” 

“Yeah... it was.”  I mean, it wasn’t easy cleaning up the mess of my kills and not getting caught, so I wasn’t lying. 

“I’m hoping once I win, I can use the prize to deliver justice to him, taking revenge on what he did.”  I still wasn’t lying really, although remove the justice part. 

“I will try to help you achieve that goal. I knew you were a good person at heart.” 

My plan was working perfectly. This naive little genie was too easy to trick. The only thing that made me unsure was a weird feeling in the back of my mind, which I ignored for now. I always felt random pain in random spots, so that doesn’t affect me... is what I thought at the time. It only got bigger the more I was around Shantae. I didn’t know what the hell it was, and it was bloody infuriating. I can barely stand being around this bubbly, cheery, cute- Let's just move on to the last little character, I don’t want to think about her anymore. 

The last one was this yellow orb called Pac-Man. He was sickeningly sweet, like... she was, but in a different way. He was a father and had a wife and kids back home, so he acted like a caring dad or whatever to everyone else on the team. He reminded me of Henry Emily, at least before his daughter went missing for mysterious reasons, definitely not caused by me. But Pac-Man treated me differently, in an even worse way, after I accidentally slipped out of something one day. 

We were eating some poorly made fish one morning because Miku tried to make it and told everyone else that a robot wouldn’t cook well. I would know, I tried making robots that made food, and that went badly. But everyone else wanted to give her a chance, especially Shantae, because she was really close friends with her, and the fish turned out badly, and after taking a bite, I said... 

“This is about as good as the dinner my son made one time.” 

I instantly realized what I said, but it was too late, because Pac-Man soon yelled out to me, “OH YOU ARE A DAD JUST LIKE ME!?” 

Oh, my Scott, what did I do to deserve this? Actually, don’t answer that.  

Ever since that accident that was almost as big as Michael was, Pac-Man wouldn’t stop asking questions about my family I definitely ‘loved’. 

“How many kids do you have? What are their ages? Do you have a favorite? Trick question, you shouldn’t!” 

“Um, three of them, one’s high school age. The others are elementary  or middle school age, and Elizabet- I mean obviously all of them.” I struggled to reply. 

Seeing this stupid ball yap about his family made me want to kick him into a goal like a soccerball, I mean football, because I'm British, why did I have to remind myself of that? I'm getting off topic. 

The by far worst moment of being ghost chomper’s friend without my consent was one morning when I was one of the first to wake up on my team and noticed that Pac-Man was gone.  When I got out of the tent, I heard what sounded like crying, but it was low-quality crying like it was coming out of an arcade machine, so 8 Bit crying, pretty much. 

I reached the spot where I'd heard the crying, and I saw Pac-Man looking off into the distance while eating a giant cherry. I wanted to laugh again, but I kept it in and tried backing away, but thanks to my giant, loud, bloody footsteps, he heard me. 

“Oh, Springtrap… my bro. I didn’t see you there. Ignore me right now, ok, it’s nothing.” 

“Were you crying or something?” 

“What? No… ok yeah I was.”  

I very reluctantly came up and sat next to him; he split the cherry and gave me the unbitten one. “Why are you crying?” 

“I miss my family, Springtrap, I really do.” 

I don’t fucking care that you miss your family, mine died and shed a single tear, ok maybe when the first kid died, but that was it, that’s what I said in my head, but what I said to Pac man instead was, “that’s really sad, I miss my family too.” 

“I’ve been thinking of... quitting, honestly. I know we have only been here for like just over a week, but I miss seeing their faces every day.” 

Is this guy seriously going to give up the chance of infinite power over his finite family? Oh my god, he’s stupid, and I'm so happy that he is! “If you really miss them that much, but can’t you win for them?” 

“Well, we don’t really need this prize; we live a pretty happy enough, well-off life,” 

“If that’s the case, then you should go back to them.” 

And so, he did, because on that same day, he quit, and went back to reality, back to his kids, and I couldn’t be happier, but... that night, everything changed.  

I was trying to sleep, but I couldn’t for some reason. I then heard static... Great, that means one of our strangest teammates was nearby, Slenderman, the weird guy with no face, and with the drawing skills on par with those of the kids I killed. 

I decided to get out of the tent and tried to tell him to keep the static down or something, but saw him standing by the campfire, intensely looking at it. He then turned to me, and I heard the static saying something. 

“J LOPX ZPV LJMM DIJMESFO, CVU HVFTT XIBU? TP EP J, BOE J EP JU GBS CFUUFS UIBO ZPV CJUDI” 

“Was that you talking there? I don’t know what you said, but it sounded really fucking offensive to me!” I said, losing my temper a bit at the lanky man here. But he shut me up when his drawings appeared, showing a crudely drawn me stabbing at what looked like kids... 

“Wait, how the hell do you know!?” I aid with actual terror in my voice; I thought I was hiding everything mostly well. 

“OP, ZPV XFSF WFSZ PCWJPVT CVU FWFSZPOF FMTF JT B EVNCBTT” 

Another picture appeared, showing an open book and a brain under it, which I’m pretty sure meant mind-reading... Just perfect for me... “Please don’t tell anyone about this...” 

After a while, the third page appeared showing words that read, ‘I WON’T IF YOU WORK FOR ME.’ 

“Of course... blackmail.” Another page appeared; this one was especially hard to make clear, but it was like a pawn piece, attached to a leash... Cassidy, if you are hearing this, please drag me back to purgatory; this place is worse. At least I’m used to the torture you bring me. 

“Ok... I will work with you, and be your little pawn on a leash...” I say with utter shame. Then one more drawing appeared, it said ‘NOW HELP ME MAKE THIS’, it then showed a drawing of pizza. I was confused, but I guess he knows I have experience making pizza. So, I eventually said, “Fine.”  

Now I was the little pet of Slenderman, forced to do everything he said or else my past would be shown to everyone. Just wonderful...  

Chapter Text

Sakuya Izayoi’s perspective.

It’s been a mere few days since I arrived here on this island, and the experience has been… interesting. To say the least.

Despite the team I’m on, Team Wiz, being the physical superior one, we have yet to win a challenge. Even with me helping out here and there with my own abilities, which I noticed have been weakened here, with my time stop having a time limit being the main one.  which is frustrating to deal with.

Although luck might be a factor, I mean, the first challenge, we only lost because that shady John Constantine guy tried to use some sort of magical artifact that led to a demon being summoned that caused chaos for our team. Only Steve (the weirdly cubed person tons of building supplies) was killed by it, but he later appeared perfectly fine in his bed. No one else was injured, thanks to Frieren killing it as fast as possible, but the setback led to our failure. We booted him fast because of that, which I was especially glad to do; his bottles of beer and cigarettes were a pain to clean up while he was still here.

As of now, I am making a high-quality meal. Well, about as high quality as I can with the ingredients I have available on this island. For my other teammates. It only made sense for me to be the cook of the team, along with the cleaner. It makes it a bit harder for others to eliminate me with the benefits I bring to the table.

I then heard someone enter the tent, and then an all too familiar, and Irritating voice, “Hello, Miss Izayoi.”

Ace, or his Kamen Rider name, whatever that means, Geats, greeted me. I initially ignored him,  “I said, Hello, Miss Izayoi.” He repeated.

“I heard you the first time.” I finally replied.

“Ok, I was afraid you were going deaf there, that would be bad.” I didn’t bother looking at his face to know he had a cocky smile on it.

 The worst thing about Geats’ cockiness is the fact that he backs it up. Far too well... He is definitely one of our strongest teammates; he’s practically a god at challenges in that fox suit of his, even with his abilities being somewhat weakened here, at least that he says. I can tell that he will be staying here a while, so I will have to put up with him, just perfect...

 “What do you want? I’m busy as you can see.”

“I just wanted to check on our most helpful teammate. Is that so wrong?”

“What’s wrong is thinking flattery will get you anywhere, at least with me.”

I then tossed a knife in Geats’ direction, and I heard it being caught. “Wow, now you are throwing knives, pretty rude for a maid, huh?”

“Only because I knew you could catch it,” I said while finally turning around, seeing Geats effortlessly spin my knife in his hands. It annoyed me.

“Give it back,” I told Geats while walking towards him with my hand stretched out. But while I was walking, something popped up from the ground, and I stepped on it.

“Ouch! Watch  where you’re going!” I heard what I stepped on say. It was one of my teammates, one of the stranger ones, Flowey.

“You’re the one that appeared right under my foot, sprout,” I say monotonously. 

Flowey said while fixing a few of his petals, “Well, ignoring the disrespect, is this place safe?”

Geats asked while getting on one knee to be at Flowey’s height, “What do you mean by safe?”

“Ok, I mean, is this place safe from our little team leader?”

“You mean Meta Knight?” I asked.

You see, at the start of the competition, one team member in particular took the leadership mantle, the strange dark blue ball with a metal mask known as Meta Knight. No one really objected to his position because he certainly deserved it. His strength, speed, and skill with his sword. making him the biggest physical threat on the island, or at least tied with Geats. The fact that we still haven’t won yet is still baffling to me.

Geats asked the obvious question, “Why would it need to be safe from him?

“Well, Meta Knight has been following me, trying to keep an unneeded watchful eye on little old me. And I only just now got away from him.” 

“How do you know he’s been stalking you, and why is he doing it in the first place?” I say while finally pulling my knife out of the Geats’ hand while he isn’t looking.

“Look, while he is very silent and stealthy, his loud wing flaps are still obvious. And as for the other question… I have no idea! I’m just an innocent, sweet, little flower.” Flowey said that last part in an overly sweet, childish tone.

Geats stood back up while saying, “Cut the crap, we know that isn’t true in the slightest.”

“Oh, come on! Whatever could you mean? Everything I said is true.” He was met with silence. When Flowey realized that his lies weren’t going to work, he sighed and said in an irritated tone, “Why do I still try that? It never works when I do it here, well, excep-never mind."

I turned back away from Flowey, “Ok, can you two leave now? I have to finish preparing dinner.”

“Wait! I actually need to talk with you two for a moment.” Flowey pleaded.

“Sorry, I’m not interested,” I say before causally stopping time, freezing the other two in place, at least, I thought I did.

“Hey, maybe we should at least hear him out for a moment.”

“I would rather not help that scheming Flow- wait what!?” I say in shock while turning around and seeing Geats somehow still moving and talking within frozen time! While my usual poise was currently shot, I questioned, “How the heck are you still moving!?”

“Whatever do you mean, Miss Izayoi? Oh, wait, you stopped time, did you? Barely noticed.” The idiot teased.

I quickly regained my composure.  “Ok, I’m just going to ignore the fact that you are breaking reality (and my sanity). Why should I help out the weed?”

“Well, I don’t mean help out just yet; we just listen to what he has to say.”

I sighed and replied. “Ok, fine.” Time then went back to normal. Flowey looked confused for a second. “Ok, be quick with you have to say flower.”

“Oh, ok, Um, well. I would like to propose a little alliance with you two to get rid of the peskier members of our team, like the 1000-year-old lazy elf or Mr. masked edge lord stalker.  I know it may not seem tempting at first, but I can be useful, and a cunning ally that will keep himself and his friends safe for quite a while!” Flowey explained while sweating, which I guess he can do.

“Hmm, interesting,” I said. I turned to Geats. I could tell he was thinking what I was thinking. “Let us discuss for a moment.”

“Wait a minute, are you stopping time to tal-“ Flowey was interrupted by my time stop again.

“So, what do you think?” Geats asked.

“You know that this flower is eventually going to betray us for its own gain. Right?” I stated the obvious.

“Yeah, you’re probably right, but I think he will be useful. I could tell he's desperate for survival in this little game; his planning will help us out. He can be a useful shield in future votes.”

“Still not ignoring the risks.”

“Oh, come on, we will see it coming, we simply betray him, before he betrays us.”

I sighed again, “Looks like you are a strategic powerhouse too. How… Wonderful.” I say with contempt.

“Well, this isn’t the first competition I have been in; this is just another game I’m going to win. It’s just that I will need a few more allies to do so. Like ever intelligent Miss Izayoi.” Geats charmed while putting his hand out to me.

“Your flattery is still unneeded, but-“ I shook his hand. “I will agree.”

Time unfroze once more. “Not again… ” Flowey said after realizing we froze time.

“We made our choice, Flowey, we will agree with the offer,” I told him.

Flowey, I guess, breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank Toby, you did, I promise you won’t regret it.”

“Wait a minute,” Geats said.

“What’s wrong?” Flowey asked a bit nervously.

“No, nothing is wrong, I’m just thinking, we will need a little name for our group.” Geats suggested

“Are you serious?” I say tiredly.

“Wait, I like that idea, let me think of one,” Flowey said while rubbing his leaf to his flower chin, I guess?

After a few seconds, I said, frustrated but still calm. “I don’t have time for this, especially in this ridiculous place.”

Flowey then said, “Time, huh? Thanks for the tip.” Flowey strangely looked away for a second and winked at seemingly nothing before turning back and continuing, “I think I have something now.” I saw Flowey looking at the gun in Geats’ holster before saying, “How about… Bullet Time?”

“I like that name, it has a good ring to it, doesn’t it, Miss Izayoi?”

“I don’t care. Can you just please leave now?” I say, sick of this nonsense.

Geats nodded, “Alright, see you later and keep up your wonderful work, Miss Izayoi.” He then finally left.

“You two, Flower.”

“Oh come on, I’m still hiding from Meta Knight.”

“I said leave!" I say while pointing my knife at Flowey.

“Ok, ok, I get it now, I don’t need another kid threatening me with a knife.” Flowey understood before leaving me in peace.

I pouted a bit at his untrue ‘kid’ comment before finally getting back to preparing dinner for my mess of a team.

Chapter Text

Samus’ perspective.

It’s been around five days since I arrived in this strange new land and competition. I was currently searching and exploring the island where I was put with the others.

I wasn’t wearing my normal suit, left it back at camp so Sakuya could give it a clean. I could move much more quickly and be nimbler. I had my laser with me just in case.

That’s when I heard a bush rustle. I instinctively aimed my weapon at where I heard the noise, but lowered it once I realized what, or who, it was.

It was one of my teammates, Frieren, stuck headfirst in a bramble bush. I heard her muffled voice say, “Hey, is anyone there?”

“It’s me, Samus.”

“I… require your assistance.”

I nodded and pulled the elf out of her unfortunate trap after a few tugs at her legs. I asked her, “How long were you stuck in there?”

“Only 20 minutes, maybe 30,” Frieren said. I noticed that her left hand was weirdly clenched, like she was holding something.

“What were you doing around here, and what are you holding in your hand?”

Frieren turned away from me, “Didn’t think you would notice so soon. Well, to answer. I was exploring, looking for anything interesting on this island, and I found this shining from inside the brambles.”

She then revealed what she had in her hand, which appeared to be a golden badge with a skull symbol,

“What’s that supposed to be?” I questioned.

“Didn’t you read the manual explaining everything about this competition?”

“That’s 200 pages long. And we've only been here for four days,” I reminded her.

“203 pages, actually, and I read them all by the second night of us being here,”

“So that’s why you slept in for so long that morning?”

“Um… yeah, that.” Frieren lied, but I decided not to press on that. “But this is an immunity badge; if used during a vote, you will be immune from being eliminated.”

I was taken aback by that: “That seems like a very useful tool.”

“Yes, that’s why I wanted to keep it hidden, but I guess you finding out isn’t as bad as others.” Frieren sighed, then got up and started walking away.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“To the elimination zone, so I  register this immunity badge to the host… Do you want to come with?”  Frieren asked with a blank expression.

“Um, are you fine with that?”

“Well, you seem trustworthy enough, are you?” Frieren asked.

I wasn’t sure what to say. Well, I really aligned myself with any here yet, and Frieren seems like a decent person-, well, elf to be with during the competition. Well, I guess she has shown herself as lazy at times and leaves those books she calls grimoires around on the floor, although that mainly annoys Sakuya.

But at the same time, she is incredibly strong with her use of magic, she also seems incredibly wise compared to the rest of us, and even-

“Hey… Samus, are you there?” My thoughts were interrupted by Frieren.

“Oh, I was just thinking,” I responded.

“Ok, now then, are you joining me or not?”

“I’m coming with you.” I decided.

Frieren nodded and then started walking through the forest, and I followed her. She seemed to be on guard, constantly looking around for anything nearby.

“I can keep on guard if you want,” I told her.

“It’s fine, only I can sense where he is at.”

“Sense… Who?”

“Who else? The Flower.”

“Oh yeah, Flowey,” I said, not too surprised, pretty everyone on the team knows that he is scheming roach with how he acts. “Wait, how can you sense him?”

“I can sense the aura of beings with magic, like John, some of Steve’s items, and on the other team, Shantae, and Springtrap, although that might just be his gross smell,” Frieren explained.

Springtrap’s perspective

I feel offended for some reason.

Samus’ perspective.

Frieren continued, “And for Flowey, he himself is seemingly made of this unique type of magic. making him the easiest to sense out of all.”

“I see.”

We kept on walking a bit more, then Frieren stopped and asked, “I have a strange theory, want to hear it?”

“What is it?”

“It’s about what happened during our second challenge, and the elimination of Steve.”

I looked back on what just the day before, the challenge was fairly simple. We had to build something impressive in just 5 hours. Steve was expressing huge amounts of excitement upon hearing the challenge.

Since Steve didn’t really like talking that much, I  remember him placing down a sign that read ‘Guys, none of you worry! Just gather up some extra materials for me, and I will do almost all the building!”

After we did that, Steve started making an incredibly impressive mansion within half the time we had for the challenge, with very little from us except for Frieren and Meta Knight, who would carry Steve and catch him if he fell while building. The mansion itself was 3 stories tall and had a detailed interior as well. But we still lost.

“What’s your theory about that challenge?” I asked.

“I think we were sabotaged, with how everything it up in flames for us. ”

What Frieren was referring to was one of the reasons we lost. There was a fireplace inside the mansion. Steve apparently made a minor mistake in the building process that caused the mansion to catch fire due to the fireplace, and everything that Steve had made was burned down.  

After a bit of thinking, I asked, “Let me guess, you think Flowey sabotaged us?

Frieren nodded, “I’m almost certain, back during that challenge, right before the fire started, I sensed Flowey inside the room with the fireplace. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but now I definitely do.”

“Interesting, but I’m wondering why Flowey would do something like that. It wouldn’t benefit him anyway. And we likely would have lost either way, considering what team Boomstck had.” I said that last part in an annoyed tone because of how Team Boomstick actually won the challenge.

 It was because of one of their teammates, this weird, human but not human skinny guy named Henry Stickman, I mean Stickmin. I remember almost shooting him when I first came onto the island and saw him because of how strange he looked, although that could be said about a lot of the others here; I’m not used to inhuman things not being hostile to me upon first meeting.

Well, during that challenge, I noticed that Henry was nowhere to be seen on his for most of it but, at the last minute, he came back, placed down a weird looking leaf on the ground, and a giant orbital station appeared out of nowhere, and he since he had builder’s permit for the station, so It somehow counted and his team won. I was somewhat glad to hear that he was eliminated from his team. From what I have seen, he was a competent threat, like he's never failed in his life, doing everything perfectly. I guess even his teammates saw that.

Frieren then said, “Yeah, that’s what got me thinking, what if-“ Frieren suddenly stopped talking.

“What’s wrong?”

She didn’t respond, but in one swift movement, she martialized her staff in her hands, spun back, and shot a magical beam out… It was… very impressive to watch.

After a few seconds, I heard a voice say, “What the heck was that for!?” It was Flowey, of course.

“I’m not going to let you listen to our conversation. Leave now, or the next shot will hit.” Frieren threatened, her voice calm yet fierce. It was certainly something to witness.

There was no response from Flowey, but Freiren turned to me again and said, “I don’t sense him anymore. He's gone.”

That’s when we heard the sound of wings flapping. I instinctively looked up and saw our team leader, Meta Knight, coming down.

Frieren grabbed me, pulling me down to her level for a second, and whispered to me, “Don’t worry, I will translate what he’s going to say.”

You see, oftentimes, Meta Knight was either silent or spoke in a language I, or mostly everyone here, couldn’t understand, except for John, who was eliminated, and Frieren.

Frieren turned to Meta Knight and asked, “Hey there, team leader, what do you need?”

Meta Knight responded in his alternate language. Frieren and him communicated for a bit, then Frieren turned to me and explained, “he heard the noise my spell made, and now he’s asking if we have seen Flowey. He's been trying to keep a watchful eye on him.”

They continued to talk a bit more, and then the two shook hands before Meta Knight flew off. I asked, “Did you make an agreement with him or something?”

“Sort of, we just agreed to make sure that Flowey doesn’t last much longer once we ever lose again. Simple as that. Now then…”

Frieren paused for a moment and then grabbed my arm and started pulling me, “What are you doing?”

“We are still going to host for the badge, remember?”

I nodded and calmed down a bit; I looked down and saw her hand. I decided not to pull out of it. 

After about 10 minutes of walking, we were in the middle of the island, the main thing was this giant show stage where the host, a human called the Ringmaster, would usually be standing on and telling us the challenges with his sort of annoying host persona. 

We walked up the stairs and went backstage to meet Ringmaster, who was on the phone with someone.

“Look, we just need to borrow your little jail for a future challenge, ok? We promise to fix any damage caused to it by our contestants. Is that too much to ask?”

We didn’t really hear a response except for some super weird speech on the other end, and then the person hung up. Ringmaster shrugged. “Oh well, I will try to ask a better way later.”

“Hello, host,” Frieren asked from behind him.

“Ahh-what!?” he turned and was surprised to see us. “Oh, what are you doing, this place isn’t for charac- I mean, combatants to be at.”

“Combatants?” I questioned

“I meant contestants, don’t worry.” He corrected; I wasn’t convinced in the slightest.

“I came here to register this,” Frieren explained while showing the immunity badge.

Ringmaster was slightly taken aback, “Oh, I didn’t think someone would find this so soon. Impressive,”  He took a quick look at the badge to confirm it was real and said, “Yep, this is official, congrats, Frieren, you are able to officially use this to save yourself from elimination one time. Just make sure no one steals it!”

Frieren nodded. She then turned to me and said, “Alright, let’s leave Samus.” I listened and went out with her.

“Hey Frieren, did the manual mention any other special items besides that badge?”

“Well, there was one more, it was called the team swapper, which makes the user able to bring someone from the other team onto theirs, or vice versa, for some reason. It can’t be used on the user, though. It looks like a badge with a blue lightning bolt symbol.”

“I see…”

Frieren took a long glance at me, “You can leave and go look for it if you want.”

“Wait, really?”

“Of course, it will be nothing but beneficial to have that.”

“Are you coming?”

“I would just slow you down. I’m heading back; Sakuya is likely done making dinner. I will make sure to leave some extra for you.” Frieren said calmly.

“You don’t have to do that,” I said while turning away a bit.

“I know, I just will. See you later, Samus.” She then walked off.

After standing still for a bit too long, I went off to look for that team-swapping thing Frieren mentioned. I didn’t find it, but at one point, I stepped on something, I looked down and saw a sign. It was one of Steve’s signs that he would use to talk with. It reminded me that I forgot to ask Frieren for the rest of her theory, along with what happened to him after the second challenge.

That being the fact that Steve went through an overly depressive and sad state, due to messing up like that during the challenge. He left out this exact sign for us to read right before elimination, which read. ‘I failed you all, I failed myself. Please eliminate me.’ He wouldn’t get out of that slump, so we ultimately decided to eliminate him for that reason.

I sighed and walked away from the sign. To continue looking for that advantage… not knowing it was already in someone else’s…. Roots.

Chapter Text

John Constantine’s perspective  

“How did I get here?” I asked myself while taking a drag of my cigarette, while stuck on an island on fire with colorful pixelated ghosts flying all over it 

Three days before this event, I first got on this weird, small island after being the first person eliminated from this reality show competition that was pretty much a bunch of others from across the multiverse.  

When I first arrived on this elimination island, which was even lower-quality than the one I was on before, this robot called DUMMI floated up to me. I was given the option to either go back to my own universe or stay here on the resort, and here's the kicker: have a chance to rejoin the show in the future. 

I decided to stay; I didn’t just want to be dead last place here, and another shot at winning infinite power and everything I want did sound more than pleasant. Maybe I can earn my soul back or something. 

The first day alone on the elimination island was sort of tough. But I managed while being alone there. And then after a mere day or 2, I wasn’t alone. 

In the middle of the night, I heard something strange: the sound of something freezing extremely quickly. 

I went to the source of the sound and saw one of my teammates, Steve, running towards the island while freezing the water under him with these magic boots. 

“Oh… Steve, you kind of woke me up.”  

Steve didn’t respond upon stepping on the island, which he never does, but this time, he looked sad, which was very uncommon, at least from what I had seen of him so far. 

“Hey… is something wrong? Are you upset you got eliminated so soon?” I asked the blocky guy. 

Steve placed down a sign and quickly wrote something (without a pen, somehow). The sign said, ‘I’m not up to talking about it right now.” 

I decided not to prod any further. So now I was alone on the island with Steve because he chose to stay, and things were better because Steve was able to make a decent house. Granted, in that weird cube style he uses with everything he builds. But I’m not complaining. 

Steve seemed like a natural survivor; he knew how to do everything on the island. And I was also insistent on doing it on his own. Telling me just to relax. Oftentimes, I did, but one time… I had to step in, but we can talk about that later. 

One night, I stepped out of the house Steve made and was taking a smoke with the very last cig I had, until I heard a strange noise above me. I looked up and saw that one guy from Team Boomstick fell right on top of me. Henry Stickmin was also holding a teleporter in his hand. He must have used it to get here. 

I pushed him off me, and I slowly got up. Henry awkwardly waved, but I wasn’t in the mood to say hi back, mainly because this stickman ruined my last smoke break, at least until I got out of this place. 

Henry looked down and saw the ruined cigarette on the ground. I heard him say, “Oh, sorry.” He then put his hand out in front of him, telling me to wait a second. And Henry started looking through his pockets. 

He first pulled out a ninja star that he tossed away, and it got stuck in a tree. Then a bomb that he threw, then it exploded. Afterwards, he pulled out a can of beans that he put back into his pocket, and finally, he pulled out a fresh, nice pack of cigs for me. 

“Oh. Thanks.” I replied. 

With Henry staying here, things got a hell of a lot more chaotic. Nearly anything he pulled out leads to destruction that usually ends with me covered in ash, Steve having respawned in his bed after dying, and Henry being perfectly fine. He must have some sort of luck or time manipulation because there is no way he is surviving all of this shit. 

“Henry, how many items do you even have in your pockets?” I asked him one night by the campfire, where Steve was conversing with Henry about an orbital station and wanting a blueprint for it or something. 

After that talk, Henry responded with a shrug. He then tapped on Steve’s shoulder while he was cooking, or should I say crafting some rabbit stew, and then signed to him if he could borrow a sign. Steve obliged and gave him one, and Henry just wrote the infinite symbol on it. 

“…Are you kidding me?” I say exasperated. 

Steve saw the sign and smiled. He then wrote on it as well, saying, “I can store a nearly infinite number of items, too!” 

Henry and Steve then dabbed each other up. You see, they became very good friends once Henry arrived. I mean, it makes sense; they are two people who don’t really like talking and have the tools for nearly every single situation they get themselves into. It makes me feel like a third wheel to their ‘platonic’ relationship. 

My thoughts of somewhat shipping them in the back of my head were interrupted by the sound of a boat coming. That much means another eliminated contestant was here, and unlike Skinny and Blocky here, they took the normal way. 

We went to the docks and saw the 4th eliminated contestant, Pac-Man. 

Henry gave Pac-Man a small wave since they were teammates. The DUMMI robot floated towards him and asked, “Greetings, fourth-eliminated contestant Pac-Man, are you staying here on elimination island or going back to your universe?” 

I was expecting Pac-Man to nod and say he wanted to stay, as everyone else has so far, but he decided to leave, because the lucky bastard had a family he wanted to see again, I guess, good for him.  

DUMMI created a portal that led back to Pac-Man’s universe. He waved goodbye to us and went through it, but while the portal was open, I felt a strange presence from it, like when Pac-Man went into it; something was coming out. Something that couldn’t be seen with the naked eye. 

After the portal closed, I asked Henry and Steve, “Hey, don’t you feel something strange?” 

Henry shrugged, and Steve tried to shrug too, but his limbs were too stiff to do so, and he was just moving his arms awkwardly. 

Shit didn’t hit the fan until DUMMI left. And that’s when they appeared. Ghosts, a bunch of colorful, 2D, 8-bit-looking ghosts, became visible.  

“Are you two seeing this, or did I drink too much?” I asked in a tired voice.” 

Steve and Henry nodded and were watching the ghosts flying around like crazy. One of them ran into Steve, and it seemed he had taken damage. “Oh, great, they are aggressive.” 

Steve got in front of the two of us, pulling out a sign and writing on it. “Don’t worry, guys, I've got this. Leave these to me.” 

“Have you ever even dealt with ghosts before?” I asked. 

Steve pulled out another sign that read, “Well, sort of, back in my world, I deal with the undead often, there are these ghost-like things called Ghasts that shoot fire.  They are horrifying and cry loudly.  There are also these things called phantoms, and they appear and attack from the sky when I don’t sleep for too long... which is kind of often.” 

Henry then used sign language to ask, “Wait, speaking of sleep, what was the last time you slept, Steve? I haven’t seen you do that yet?” 

“Yeah, you know what, me either,” I said. 

Steve didn’t respond to our question and instead wrote something on the sign before rushing off. “SorrygottogetwhatIneedforthe ghosts!” it messily read. 

“This is going to go wrong, isn’t it?” I asked. 

We quickly went after Steve, while avoiding the ghosts flying about. I was using simple exorcism spells that required a few seconds of chanting to eliminate the spirits near me. 

We eventually caught up to Steve back at the now much larger house he had built for us. He was at that enchantment table that could boost the powers and abilities of his tools. 

Steve had an iron sword on the table and was flipping through the book, looking for a specific enchantment, I’m guessing. He seemed to find the enchantment and applied it to the blade. 

“What will that do exactly?” I asked. Steve shoved the book in my hand, and I quickly read what the enchantment did. It was called smite, and it apparently made weapons extra effective against the undead. 

I looked back up and saw Steve build something with iron blocks and a pumpkin. When he placed the pumpkin last, a golem made of iron and covered in foliage formed. 

Steve whispered something to the golem and then hopped into its arms. Afterwards, Steve was tossed into the air by the golem. 

He started slicing through ghosts with his sword, seemingly destroying them. But eventually he started falling. 

Before Steve could hit the ground and die, he pulled out a bucket filled with water and dumped out a far greater amount of water than that could realistically fit in the bucket. That water Steve spilled out broke his fall when he landed. 

“Hey Steve, I have quite a few spells that can eliminate these ghosts,” I told him. 

Steve speedily made another sign saying. “I GOT THIS!”  He then had the Golem launch him up into the sky to slash through more ghosts.  He repeated this multiple times, not listening to anything we said. 

Henry signed to me, “Have you noticed that the ghosts aren’t decreasing in number?” 

“Yeah, it’s not actually killing them like he thinks he is; they are simply reappearing after getting hurt. So, we are getting nowhere.” 

Steve landed, and water bucket clutched once more, but this time, Henry and I stopped him from getting launched by the golem once more. 

“Look, Steve, this isn’t working out. Just let us deal with these ghosts? Henry, do you have anything that can harm them? Henry shuffled through his pockets and pulled out an off-brand Pokeball. “Do you have more than one of those?” He shook his head. “Ok, I can handle this, just rest for once.” 

Steve pulled out a sign reading “I’m good. I don’t need help!” He then tried to pass us, but Henry and I carefully grabbed him.”  

“You need to rest!” I told him. Henry nodded with me. 

That’s when I heard Steve saying something for the first time; he yelled out from the top of his lungs, “I SAID I DON’T NEED HELP!”  

He then was able to toss me 10 feet right into a tree. I guess he’s more buff than he looks. While Steve himself tossed me, Henry got thrown away by the Iron Golem. 

Steve got tossed into the air by the golem once more. He was laughing manically and slashing through ghost after ghost, hitting more of them than he had in the last attempts, even though it still didn’t really matter.  

Steve started falling once again. He was going to land hard on one of the jungle trees. He took out a bucket like usual and poured water to break his fall, but this time. But because of his manic state. He picked the wrong bucket. It was instead a bucket filled with lava, and Steve fell into it. 

Steve yelled in pain like crazy. It reminded me of the souls of the damned I hear whenever I go to hell.  Steve eventually died, and his items were burned away in the lava, and Steve respawned back in his bed.  

After doing a small spell to heal myself, I got up and went into the house, where I saw Steve trying to rush out. 

I immediately stopped Steve. I could have sworn I saw tears in his eyes. “John, get out of my way, I NEED TO MAKE MYSELF USEFUL!” 

“Steve, no, you have proven yourself as more than useful since you got here. Staying here sucked when I first arrived, but it became bearable when you arrived and started building houses and stuff. You are one of the most reliable people I've met.” 

Steve slowly lowered his arms; it was working. 

“So, Steve, why don’t you take a break for once, and let me deal with our ghost situation?” 

After a few seconds, Steve suddenly embraced me. After a bit of resistance, I hugged Steve back, and I then realized he had fallen asleep in my arms. I guess he was that tired. 

I was forced to carry the shocking buff blocky guy to bed, tucking him right in.  

That’s when I stepped outside and realized the trees were catching on fire thanks to that lava bucket spill Steve did. How did it get like this? I thought to myself.

I saw Henry running out of the forest while on fire. He pulled out a wizard’s hat and cast some sort of spell that froze himself. The fire melted him out and then dissipated. 

I heard Henry say while shivering, “Fi-inally did-didn’t die.”  

I slowly pulled Henry back up. I saw him looking around. I guessed that he was wondering where Steve was. I told him, “If you're looking for Steve, he’s in there. I finally got him to rest. Now it’s up to us to deal with this ghost situation, and I guess the fire too.”  

Henry slowly nodded and signed, “What’s the plan?” 

“OK, first, we need to a draw an entire line around the island, do you have anything that can help do that.” 

Henry nodded and pulled out some red-and-white shoes and a large pencil. After putting on his boots, he disappeared. In under 20 seconds, he came back sweating.  

“You did it?” 

“What do you think?” Henry said, out of breath. 

I sighed, got into the proper position, put my hands together, and started performing the spell. 

In the distance, the line that Henry drew around the whole island started glowing blue. It was hard to see from afar, but it was still noticeable. 

As I continued to chant. Clouds started to form right over the island, and one of the ghosts from the Pac-Man universe started flying towards me. I couldn’t move, or else the spell wouldn’t work, fortunately. Henry threw that weird Pokéball he had earlier at the ghost and actually caught it.  Henry signed “Chekhov's gun.”  

After a few more seconds, the spell was completed, and it started to rain, but it wasn’t just normal. It was raining holy water, which burned and evaporated almost all of the ghosts flying around, and since it was water, it also put out the fire, killing two birds with one stone. 

Henry and I watched as the ghosts disappeared from the world, and we also fist bumped each other as a way of telling each other good work. 

The next day, 

Steve’s Perspective. 

I woke up... wow, I haven't done that in a while. I both heard and smelled something cooking in the furnace. I opened my eyes and saw Henry cooking something by the furnace. He turned around and saw me awake. He waved and brought me some food. It was some simple cooked beef, but that didn't mean it tasted bad. I scarfed the whole thing down. 

John walked in with a cig in his mouth, he said. "It looks like sleeping blocky is finally up."

I quickly looked around for my signs to communicate, but I remembered that I died in lava, so they were likely burned away. I whispered to Henry, "Can you get me some signs from that chest over there?" 

Henry nodded and got them. I wrote on a sign, "Where are the ghosts? Also, no smoking inside, John."

John nodded and quickly put out his cig before explaining, "Henry and I dealt with all of them once we got you to sleep. Well. Most of them."

On cue, one random ghost from Pac-Man's world came through the wall. I screamed a bit and tossed a sign at the ghost, and it, of course, phased right through it. Henry signed to me. "Don't worry, I caught it, and now he's harmless! I name him Charles."

I calmed down a bit and wrote on a sign. "If you say so." I then paused to continue to write. "I'm sorry for... everything that happened last night." 

"It's fine, we could tell you were stressed out... A lot happens to the best of us." 

I quickly wrote once, "I'm just always used to doing everything on my own, back in my world. I was the only person I knew who could create, fight, build, and explore. The few people, either villagers or traders, lacked drive; they were too passive, and I had to protect myself from threats. I just got used to that; I thought I would have to do that here too. Guess I was wrong."

Henry signed to me. "Yeah, here will be different. We were anything but passive. We want to make it back in the show!"

"Yeah, we promise we will help more with stuff from now on, Steve. And let's also promise that at least one of us will make it back on Champions Island."

I smiled brighter than I had in a while, wiped the tears that were starting to form for a moment, and nodded towards the others. I said. "I promise."

Henry also came in and said. "I promise to."

The three of us formed an alliance to survive this island and get back in the game.

Henry's perspective 

 While all of us wanted to rejoin, it wasn't all for the same reason. Ever since I got to this strange place... something felt off to me. And I think I know what caused it, or who caused it. And they were still in the game. And they weren't going to go anytime soon. 

Chapter Text

Steve’s Perspective. 

Oh… the beautiful night, with the pitch-black sky and the unusually round full moon only being the real source of light, and a torch I had in my hand. 

I’m pretty sure everyone else on my team was sleeping, so I had to get up and gather resources for them, like a perfect and helpful person should. 

I was currently in a small cave, mining some iron I found when I heard something pop out of the ground, “Howdy there, Steve!” 

I quickly turned around and saw one of my dear teammates, a cute, sentient flower named Flowey. I don’t really know what flower he is, though. I guess dandelion, that’s the only yellow flower I’m aware of. 

I made a sign for Flowey to read, saying, “Oh, Flowey, you startled me.” 

“Oops, I do that a lot, hope you don’t mind. 

I shook my head to reassure him, “Don’t worry, it’s fine. Now what are you doing up?” I asked. 

“Oh, I can’t really sleep first off, and second off, I just wanted to check on a trusted ally like you, Steve.” 

“Aw, thanks for that.” I wrote on another sign. I didn’t really know why the others on my team acted so weird around Flowey and didn’t trust him. he seems so nice. Well, everyone seems friendly here, except that Slenderman guy on the other team. he reminds me too much of Endermen back in my world. I'm getting off topic. The only other person on my team who treats Flowey with kindness is M- 

My train of thought was interrupted by Flowey saying, “Hey, do you need any help?” 

I immediately replied with a sign. “Oh, don’t worry, I have this handled.” 

“Oh, ok, if you say so.”  

Flowey sort of stayed by my side as I continued mining; he was a calming presence. 

Flowey then asked, “Hey Steve. With how good a builder you are, is there anything you struggle to create?” 

I shook my head. There wasn’t really anything I could think of in the moment. I wrote in response. “Nope, I always make sure I’m perfect, and nothing less.”  

“Oh... you are a bit of a perfectionist then? Everything you do must meet your standard, or you fall apart.” After a few seconds, I slowly nodded. “Well then... that’s good to know. I will keep that in mind. Keep up the work, Steve... WE ARE RELIYING ON YOU.” 

I felt myself sweat after hearing that. I was going to respond, but... Flowey was already gone. I took a deep breath and continued on mining, while humming a song that I heard M-

AFTER-#E### O# #I###### I mean- After the events of chapter 4.   

Geats’ Perspective 

I was simply relaxing on the edge of a cliff, flipping my coin up in the air as I watched the sunset. I took a deep breath and said. “I know you are there, sunflower; you can come out of hiding.” 

I heard the scheming flower pop out. “Hey there... Ace.” 

“Call me Geats. Ace is far too early.” I told him.   

“Oh... well, you are calling me a sunflower. But. Nevermind. I need to talk to you for a sec. Fellow Bullet Time alliance member.” 

I stood up and turned toward Flowey, “Alright, what do you need?” 

 “Well.... with how strong and powerful you are. You are practically godlike; you can do nearly anything possible.” 

“Get to the point, you buttercup.” 

Flowey’s eye twitched with humorous annoyance. “Ok, fine.” Flowey then pulled a weird badge from the out of ground; it looked like a blue lightning bolt. “This is a team swapper; I can use this to switch someone on to the other team. Or vice versa. However, it can't be used on yourself. I already got it verified by the host.” 

“Oh, so you wanted to show me this?” I asked.

“Nope, not, just that. You see... I remembered one time you mentioned that you are able to rewrite certain rules of reality, change the world to fit your image, right?” 

There was a long pause, and I just slowly nodded. “Yes... But remember, this island removes and restricts some of our powers and abilities. I think I can still do something, the hosts didn’t do the best job with nerfing me... But it’s still heavily limited. And the hosts might catch it if it's too obvious.” 

“Well, we don’t need to change much; I just want this little team swapper to do something special under the right circumstances, and I promise those circumstances will be met.”  

“Can you be a bit more specific?” 

“Fine... I want this to be able to save someone from elimination at the last second by switching them to the other team.  You will see what my plan is real soon, alright?” 

I thought about it for quite a bit. “Alright, sunflower, I can’t wait to see how you prove your worth.”  

I shook hands with Flowey. Well, he outstretched his leaf to shake his hand. He then asked. “Um... aren’t you going to change it?”  

“I will, just give me a second.”  

“Alright...” Flowey then disappeared into the ground. I chuckled; Flowey is undoubtedly interesting. For someone so cunning. He had already slipped up majorly, I think. Although I will keep that to myself for now.