Day Two

[Karl Jak]

Face to Face
#27 Deadpool, #30 Sasuke Uchiha, #43 Vincent Valentine, #28 Mami Tomoe vs #Strazio Rockwell vs #35 Wartortle

The rain outside was torrential.

Sasuke frowned as he looked out the window of the diner. At this rate, it wouldn’t be fit for them to travel until sunrise, but by then, what new horror would Karl Jak be waiting to roll out onto the island?

“Where did Crona go?” The ninja asked as he realized that the soft-spoken adolescent had disappeared.

”Communication error?” Deadpool said, leaving Sasuke to wonder what the hell that was supposed to mean.

“He’ll catch his death out there in this storm,” Vincent muttered from his position atop one of the large stoves. That remark elicited a chuckle from the mercenary, who turned his attention to something in his bag.

With a scowl, Sasuke turned toward the window and continued to watch the rain pitter-patter on the glass. As he listened to the sounds of the storm, he heard footsteps out in the area of the diner reserved for customers. Glancing over at Deadpool and Vincent, the ninja motioned with his head toward the swinging door that opened into the dining room area. “You heard that too?”

“Not hard.” The smart-mouthed mercenary replied as he zipped up his bag and followed Sasuke out into the actual diner part of the building. As he stepped out, the ninja threw on the nearby light switch, flooding the room with light and causing the white-haired man in the middle of it to grunt as he clutched his hands over his eyes.

“I just need to rest,” Strazio groaned as he shook away the spots in front of his eyes and looked at the trio. “I’m hurt pretty bad.”

“What do you have on you?” Sasuke asked, his eyes scanning the other man for any sign of weapons other than the garish spear clutched in his other hand.

“Just this.” Strazio’s tone seemed genuine enough, but the trio didn’t seem sold on the man’s innocence.

“Take your pants off… You might be packing heat. As soon as the words left Deadpool’s mouth, he glared up at the ceiling and started to swear at someone or something.

“I’m a good guy,” Strazio Rockwell said as he fished for the emblem that marked him as a member of the Darkshire garrison. He held up the sign of his rank with the vain hope that someone would recognize it, and lo and behold, the unlikeliest of the tree spoke up.

“I know that dirt hole,” Deadpool declared as he clapped his gloved hands. “Has to be the worst beer in the entire Omniverse, but hey, the bartenders are nice to look at.

“Can we trust him?” Sasuke asked as he clutched his hands around the barrel of his weapon.

Deadpool shrugged his shoulders. “I said I know where it’s from… that isn’t to say he didn’t just take it off a corpse or someone else he murdered.”

“That’s not me.” Strazio snapped, causing the three primes to turn their focus back to him. The looks they wore on their faces showed they weren’t too pleased with his tone, but before any rash decisions could be made, they heard someone smacking at the door.

“Let me in!”

This time it was Sasuke who recognized who was screaming through the diner door at them. “Mami!” The ninja shouted as he rushed passed Strazio to the blonde woman rapping at the glass door. He threw it open and ushered the woman into the diner. “What the hell happened to you?” He declared as he looked at the sorry excuse for clothes she wore. Parts of her outfit were burnt, others were soaked in her blood, and all of it was drenched in rainwater. Hair that had once been pleasant and bouncy was now stained brown and clinging to her skull.

“I ran into some people from the preshow events,” she muttered as she fell to her knees and tried to catch her breath.

“They did this to you?” Sasuke demanded as he glared out into the storm. “Are they still around?”

“They didn’t do this to me,” Mami muttered as she looked up at the angered prime. “Some psychopath in the woods did. He was wearing a hockey mask and had a machete. I don’t know how I escaped him.”

From a previously unoccupied corner of the diner, someone let out a laugh. Everyone in the diner turned to see a bipedal turtle sitting on one of the tables. “Boo.” Wartortle shouted as he brandished a nail gun and opened fire on the collected primes. Vincent ducked under the count and cursed the fact that he’d left his Molotovs in his bag in the kitchen. A few feet away, Deadpool remained seated on the counter near the cash register as nails whizzed through the air. One of them smacked into the machine and caused it to spit out its tray with a pleasant ding!

In the middle of the bar, Sasuke pulled up his flamethrower and released a blast of flames just as a nail ricocheted off his shoulder. While the nail didn’t bite flesh, the force was enough to throw off his aim, and he missed the turtle by more than a few feet.

Another nail plugged Strazio Rockwell in the small of the back, and the Defender of Darkshire realized that he was better off out in the storm. Before anyone could stop him, he rushed for one of the windows and dove through.

From his seated position, Wartortle stopped shooting and turned to look at the second broken window in the diner. “Do they teach that move in some sort of prime-ary school?” The turtle asked, prompting a chortle from Deadpool. “Did you find that funny, you spandex-wearing faggot?” He shouted as he turned to look at the mercenary.

“…Wait, you weren’t making a joke?”

“A joke? You think I’d lower myself to making puns for your amusement, hu—” Wartortle stopped and marched across the diner until he was a few feet away. Vincent and Sasuke watched intently as the red merc and the blue turtle had a glare-off. “Do I know you?” The turtle demanded as he poke a clawed finger into Deadpool’s chest.

“Deadpool. We raced up a mountain together when we were inside that virtual reality inside that other virtual reality...” Deadpool stopped talking for a brief moment, and then he snapped his fingers. “Like a dream within a dream…”

“I remember that.” The turtle replied. “We were shoved into parkas and tethered to some little shit heads who weren’t… who weren’t…” Wartortle trailed off as the word he sought remained trapped on the tip of his tounge.

“Posting. They weren’t posting.” Deadpool answered, prompting Wartortle to nod his head, even though the turtle wasn’t quite sure what the term meant in the context they were discussing.

“So what the hell is going on… Do you know that creature?” Sasuke demanded.

“Yea, I guess,” Deadpool replied. When Sasuke gave him a glare, he shrugged his shoulders. “Hey! I know a lot of guys… no homo.”

Before Sasuke could get more information out of Deadpool or Wartortle, he heard a strange sound.

Chh chh chh… ahh ahh ahh…

The ninja turned around to see a hulking, rain-drenched man in a hockey mask standing behind Mami. Seeing Sasuke’s mortified expression, the blonde turned around just in time to have her head lobbed off by a violent swing of Jason’s machete. The woman’s decapitated head spun up into the air and splashed blood all over Sasuke and the diner floor. Her neck likewise spurted blood like a hose on full blast, and by the time that Mami’s severed head landed in Sasuke’s hands, the ninja was drenched in her blood and the killer was nowhere to be seen.

[spoiler]

#28 Mami Tomoe DEAD

34 Primes Remain

Sasuke has a cut on his shoulder – Minor Injury (+1 Damage)
Sasuke has Mami’s severed head and is coated in her blood – Story Injury (+3 Years of Therapy)
Strazio Rockwell got shot with a nail… OUCH – Minor Injury (+2 Damage)

The Diner guys should expect a PM from me.[/spoiler]