SCFA

X had just failed her mission, she was on her way to return to base immediately, she now understood why Abigail was so mad, but for some reason she still wasn’t angry at the heroes, she was just... confused, she never understood ‘normal people’ probably because she never could talk with anyone, aside from anyone that was an angel, they were all different... Doctor X slowly approached Lord Icarus’s room to inform him of her failure, she really couldn’t bear anymore failure than what she’d already caused, she reached the doors with her hung head, she slowly looked at the guards, who let her in, she took a heavy breath and walked towards the center of the eerie room, and she fell to her knees “my lord, I’ve... failed you, failed everyone-” “ENOUGH! I don’t care that you failed, I expected it with that silly robot, that has to be the most ridiculous stunt you’ve ever pulled, and you dare to bring a random girl back?! I can’t believe this, I can forgive a failure when there’s room for correction, but you go on a date, you bring this- this child back?! Explain this to me!” She looked up from her shameful position, “I... I got distracted from the real goal, my selfish desires for happiness put everyone else’s at risk... the girl- that girl! I brought her back because she ruined it! She’s one of the hero’s friends too, I brought her back so now they aren’t as strong” Lord Icarus paused for a moment, “well... no matter, I don’t care what you do with her, but don’t let her roam around, I don’t want to see that stupid brat, you need to get your act together and fast, I’m sick of these... episodes from you, one second you’re very capable, the next you’re a joke, and then the next you sit in front of me like a baby, now get up and do something!” he said with his cold voice.

Doctor X rose with her eyes shining with tears on the verge of breaking through her eyes, she left silently, and returned to her lab, there was an unconscious girl laying there, restrained, X looked at her, and back to the floor, “what am I doing anymore? Who am I now?” The girl said “you’re a freak! That’s what!” Apparently she was faking her unconsciousness, “you know, you aren’t really that far off, and you don’t even know what I’ve done, you aren’t really that different from me you know, we’re both the same thing, monsters, disgusting, neither of us deserve the luxury of happiness, no matter how much anyone tells you that you do, I heard from the people in your little town that you used to steal from everyone, elderly, sick, children, all for your pathetic self, I almost feel bad for you-” “shut up, at least I’m not some weirdo that kidnaps people, you don’t even know who I am or what I’ve gone through” X cut her off with a small chuckle, and it grew into a dark laugh, “what- what you’ve gone through?! You really are funny, well, what if I told you I can make your pathetic life better? Once we get into the new world, you won’t be so pathetic and miserable, you might even feel joy, as if you deserve it though” a scream rang out from the lab and it quickly stopped, X probably finally broke into insanity, could

anyone blame her? Probably.

After listening to the odd note, the heroes finally approached the fighting arena, they walked in and noticed many posters for famous fighters and legends that passed through, as they walked in they were greeted by a flamingo with the name tag that said “Bob” a pineapple fell on top of him, it then said “howdy there new fighters I assume, Donna you sure know how to pick em I see great potential in... the Dog already!” Alex stared at the jerk of a pineapple, “uh we’d both like to register to fight” Dawg said, “oh, well like, alright sure whatever you can play as a team, but like, you’d need to play as a team, and for no reason that also means that Donna joins you because I said so” Donna yelled, “WHAT?!? What do you mean I have to join them, that would mean I go back to the bottom!” The pineapple said “well it’s decided! You’re officially with them good luck bye, name’s Larry, this is Bob my pet flamingo okay bye!” As he walked away, the heroes threw insults around directed towards him, Donna kicked at the ground, “guess I’m a noob again” “mom it’s okay, you got up to the championships how hard can it be when we’re a team?” She looked at him and then smiled, “well let’s go kick some butt then” she said raising her fist in excitement, the heroes went in to the Newbie area where they gathered around, it was absolutely filthy, everyone greeted her, everybody knew her “What’s Demolition Donna doing in the Newbie area?” said one of the fighters, the crowd all wondered the same thing, “I’m joining this team and they bumped me down back to this, it’s nice to be back though, can’t wait to kick your butts all over again” as she cracked her knuckles, “well why don’t we warm up here?” a woman said pushing through the crowd, it was Janice, you could tell by the painfully disgusting grimace Donna wore, “what are you doing in the Newbie lounge, Janice” She said in a mocking voice, “this!” Janice said, throwing punches faster than bullets, Donna deflected each and gave her a kick in the stomach to knock her back, the crowd went to the sides to give the women room to fight, now standing at opposite sides of the room, they both charged at each other with a powerful force, Donna quickly spun right before crashing into a painful impact, and then she did a swift slamming kick to knock Janice into the ground, she then did her signature cannonball blast, where she jumped up, formed into a cannonball as the name suggests, and pounces onto the person with all of her force, it was always an easy finishing move considering she was a big woman, she then stomped on Janice’s back and flexed her victory pose, “guess I would’ve won that championship and completely embarrassed you with THAT performance!” The group cheered “Demo! Demo! Demo!” Janice got up shaking in pain, she fell over and said “I don’t know what happened... I’m stronger than this!” She then passed out, the group stopped for a moment and gathered around her instead “she’s faking it” Donna said, Dawg went up to her and said “she’s not breathing!” He then ordered some of the fighters to take her to medical, where the group was questioned as to what happened, they were sent to Larry’s office, “Demmie D... I know you were eager to be the champ, and I know you might’ve been angry that you were knocked to Newbie again, but you can’t go around and kill Janitor Janice like that! “Kill?! I didn’t kill her! She’s a fighter she should know how to take a few hits! And she was up in the champ league and I hardly even touched her! C’mon Bob you know that’s not true!” The awkward flamingo stood still not batting an eye, “well Don, it doesn’t matter she’s in good hands, just go tear through the ranks like you did back in the day! I believe in you!” The heroes were sent back to the Newbie area to prepare for their first fight.

Upon arrival, the crowd was split around gossiping and giving looks to the heroes, much of the gossip was related to the missing people and confusion, “Janitor Janice wouldn’t go down that easy, she was a champ and fought like a rookie!” “You think she’s dead?” “Why am I even here?” The heroes prepared for their first fight together, they went to a touchpad screen to look for an available fight, “only 2 fighters at a time, any other friends can switch out!” All of the rules were skipped since they didn’t really matter, Donna set the first fight up, and the heroes all went to the stage for the first battle of many, it was very informal, not even an announcement or anything, just straight into the fight, Donna sat this one out, since this team wasn’t anything strong, apparently weapons were allowed, this place really was cool, they only had small pocket knives, pathetic. Alex drew his much bigger knife, and Dawg... well Dawg doesn’t really have a weapon, he just barks man, but the opposing team rushed straight towards Alex, a rookie move, Dawg barked once and their knives were knocked away, and they were heavily knocked back, with anger they found the energy to throw many slow punches and kicks, they were all easily dodged, and countered with such a light punch just to mock them, they lost miserably, and the heroes won with no sweat, returning with little victory money they sat in the Newbie Area on a break, they overheard a conversation, “hey man, you seen Janitor Janice?” “you mean the champ that got creamed right here?” “yeah how’d she even get here?” “she lost man, she did so poorly she was kicked down here, lucky she wasn’t banned for letting all of her fans down” “you seen after she went to medical?” “Nah, maybe she quit, these missing fighters are just bogus!” “well 8 good ones don’t just disappear man” “they do when they fail” “something’s not right” they then began talking about an up and coming new fighter that would be a champ by tonight, as if…

The heroes had to constantly fight their way through the ranks, many fights later they reached bronze league, only silver, gold, then champ, the champion’s belt had to be the artifact, otherwise this would be a complete waste of time. Nobody had seen Janice since her embarrassing defeat, her family didn’t see her either, she was effectively a new missing fighter, hopefully the last. The heroes left the fighting area to get some food from the pure exhaustion of never-ending fights, on their way out they noticed a poster for the fighter mentioned earlier, “murderous mech!” her name was, her style was very cool with a futuristic outfit, they’d be fighting her soon! Out in the crowds of the food court, they noticed a familiar woman, one that was never too far from the heroes, total stalker even, none other than the brilliant Doctor X, she was complaining how the food lacked the explosive flavor she craved, she looked over at the here and her jaw dropped, “EEEHH! DEMO DONNA I’M LIKE YOUR BIGGEST FAN! SIGN MY MEOWNADE PACK!” she was very giddy with excitement, not even caring that the other heroes were literally in her face, Donna signed the Meownade package as requested, and Doctor X adored it, she then said “oh hey guys, whatcha doing here” only just now acknowledging their existence, “what are you doing here? You better not be up to anything” Alex said, X laughed and said, “nah I’m not much of a fighter... As you can tell, but when you’re working to destroy the world it’s not everyday you get to see a fight like you do here, I should sell some weapons huh?” she then looked at Alex’s knife, “you definitely need something new, that thing’s just not you, unless you’re the type to use trash knives” Dawg didn’t appreciate how he wasn’t offered a new weapon, so he bit on the bottom of X’s lab coat, when a piece came off it self repaired perfectly, “bad dog!” she said, slamming her heel into the ground, it was a big piece of fabric, she stormed away in anger, leaving behind her coat, Alex took it away and from the pocket was dropped a tape, “X-2″ it read, Alex began to play it. It was bone-chilling to say the least.