[Round 3 - C] Pennywise & Shantotto vs Handsome Jack & Friend

[Karl Jak]

Handsome Jack was all alone.  He knew that something had gone on with Fabio, and the response from the Syntech people had simply been 'we'll deal with it.'

Now he was standing in the middle of the woods, and he had no burly, herculean partner to do all the dirty work for him.

"All alone?"  A ghostly voice echoed from the trees.

Jack rolled his eyes and turned his focus in the direction of the sound.  In the dark of the forest, he caught two floating orange orbs.

"Nice eyes," the man remarked before suddenly making a run for it.  He broke through the tree line and found himself on the edge of a lake.  In the distance, he spotted a cluster of cabins.  Just nearby, a large wooden sign read: Camp Crystal Lake.  "Never a fan of camping," Jack spoke as he heard footsteps.  Turning on his heels, he saw a mortifying clown monster emerge.  On the creature's shoulder was a tiny, mammal-looking person.

"Are you a circus act?" He replied with a smile as he rested a hand on one of his sidearms.

chh chh chh ... ahh ahh ahh.

"If by yourself you fight, you best take flight."  The talking furry-thing spoke, prompting Jack to swallow a chortle at the thought of being trash-talked by a human ferret.  As the man opened his mouth to speak, he saw something moving behind the pair of primes.  Handsome Jack grinned.  "You might want to turn around."

Pennywise turned around just in time to have a machete jammed into Its gut.  A panicked Shantotto was thrown from the clown's shoulder and immediately had to run to avoid a hail of bullets that tore through the night air.

Left by Itself, Pennywise growled as it looked at the silent, masked man who had impaled It.  The clown unhinged its mighty fanged maw, but the machete came wrenching out of Its gut.  A beat later, a solid strike threw the monster into the waters of Camp Crystal Lake.

Word Limit: 850
Posts: 2
Time Limit: 48 hours
Random Elements: On
Damage Meter: Off

Time limit starts at 12 pm CDT on July 15, 2018

Jack has elected to go out in fashion, in a fight co-starring everyone's favorite serial killer.  Your Fight Area is a few square miles of campground, with the lake, forest, highway, and the camp itself.  You may fight separate 1v1s or mix and match as you see fit.  Mr. Voorhees has all his movie powers, and is stronger, more durable, faster, and more technical than either of you, regardless of power ups (he has those too).  If anyone has any other questions, just holler at me.

[Pennywise]

Even after Pennywise had struck the water like a skipping stone, it wasn’t long before the water once again became eerily still. Sinking into the murk and gloom of Crystal Lake’s shallows, the child-eating monster observed as the hulking, dark shadow that was Jason Voorhees approached the water’s edge.

Jason watched as the lip of the lake shivered against the shore, the pebbles under his mud-caked boots shifting as the tide came rushing in. Only a slowly expanding ripple remained to betray the creature’s disappearance, but the serial murderer just gripped his machete like a man possessed, the eyeholes of his aged hockey mask never leaving the water.

All at once a shape emerged from the lake, only the silhouette visible as water sloughed off from its frame. One arm stretched out to reveal the delicate webbing between Its clawed fingers, veiny and nearly translucent from the moonlight passing through it. Scaly skin was layered over Its body-- tough, chitinous, and rigid like armor, while the froggy lips of Its face gaped like a fish swallowing around a pebble, parted slightly to reveal fanged teeth. Mud and slime coated the thing’s scales, reeking of pondscum and gutted fish.

A gurgling croak came out from the gill-man’s throat as It lumbered toward Jason. It moved slowly. Purposefully, like a monster out of a black-and-white movie. Thus, it was rather easy for Jason to haul one arm back and smash his machete into the gill-man’s face.

“Holy shit!” Handsome Jack hollered from somewhere far off, apparently watching the fight while fending off Shantotto. “Get ‘im, Hockey Puck!”

Emitting a choked-off snarl, the aquatic man stumbled backward. Its scaly visage twisted with rage, the creature lunged at Jason’s midsection, claws slicing through the undead golem’s tattered clothing and digging into the decaying flesh underneath. Unfortunately, the newly-minted Creature from the Black Lagoon wasn’t quite prepared for the massive fist that closed around the fibrous gills on one side of Its neck, jerking Its head roughly to the side before hurling It toward the tree-line.

Pennywise collided with the trunk of a tall spruce with a solid thunk. Scrabbling at the damp earth littered with leaves, still rapidly shifting back to Its preferred form, the circus terror looked up to see that Its prey-turned-predator had vanished from the lakeside.

Ch ch ch... ah ah ah...

A very insistent and ex-ceeeeeedingly irresistible instinct caused It to tear through the wild blackberry bushes growing nearby and vanish into the undergrowth. It fled, not because of something so pathetic as Fear, but because… because…!

Suddenly, a spark of orange filtered through the mess of brush up ahead. Pennywise angled toward this spark like a hound catching a whiff of just the right scent and, after about fifty yards of tearing through the woods at breakneck speed, emerged into a clearing. A shack stood unassumingly at its center, dilapidated and toppling into disrepair.

But, the orange light was there, a beacon flickering against the cracked pane of one of the few windows left. Clawing at this window, the clown eventually bashed Its way inside in a shower of broken glass.

The first thing that caught Its attention was the candlelight. Tall and short pillars of wax sat upon what appeared to be an altar, the yellow glow of dozens of flames circling around it in a perfect circle. Pants and a pale cable knit sweater were laid delicately over the shrine, slightly wrinkled and stained. Most interestingly of all, however, was the severed head sitting at the center of it all. Shriveled up like an apple, brown with age, clumps of stringy blond hair still clinging to it like cobwebs, the head stared with eyeless pits back at Pennywise.

A harsh wind blew through the shack. It rattled the rickety walls and chilled the air, the many candles wavering fearfully. And with this wind came a soft whisper, low and sad, keening into the night.

“Jason…”

Pennywise stared at the dead woman’s dried-up, ugly little skull. If It was a dog, Its ears might’ve perked up.

”Oh, Jason. My special, special boy!”

And then, something clicked into place in Its evil, evil brain.

Grinning a toothy grin, the clown strolled up and plucked the woman’s skull from the table. It peered into ‘her’ eyes gleefully, shoulders shaking from mirth. “Sorry, ma’am! I’m gonna have to borrow your face for a while. Your kiddo’s about to get the surprise of his life!”

The wind moaned, roaring so loudly against the window panes that it almost sounded like someone screaming in anguish. Pennywise cackled and promptly chucked the head like a rotten tomato at the wall. The thing burst into dust and crumbly bits of leathery flesh, sending the clown into another fit of hysterics. And as It laughed, the Monster of Derry’s body began to shift, twist, change.

The door to the shack creaked open. Pamela Voorhees turned to welcome her baby boy home with open arms.

850 words - Google Docs!

[Shantotto]

Shantotto watched as her partner was cast into the lake, indication of the destructive might possessed by the hockey-masked freak. Was that the end of her partner? No! Pennywise the Dancing Clown was not one to be done in such a way? To no surprise the clown arose from the waters of Camp Crystal Lake, bearing the guise of some strange water creature.

The midget mage held back a hearty laugh only to be interrupted as the distinct sounds of a pistol rippled from behind. A crack rang out,a drumming thunder through the silent fog that hang over the lake’s still waters. Shantotto hunched over, gasping as a bullet raked through her midsection.

Fiery pain dimmed her senses, it felt like being prodded with a red-hot poker, or maybe struck by lightning. Both metaphors felt inadequate. Pulling her hand away, she looked down to find a small hole torn in her clothing. Shantotto stared, her eyes wide, sanguine blood already seeping from it.

“Oh yeah! Thats Hyperion accuracy for ya!”

Her target taunted her, a pistol leveled at her. Adrenaline pumping, Shantotto conjured a shield using her staff-like mage’s weapon. The sound of a second gunshot rang out, followed by the reverberation of a bullet hitting her conjured defense. The shield rippled as the bullet pinged against it, shattering the shield in a vibrant display of raw magical energy.

Shantotto used this opportunity to run for cover, putting as much distance between herself and the gunman as possible. The trees and cabins surrounding the camp’s lake made for perfect little hidey-holes, and combined with her petite size, the mage hoped it would be enough to turn the tide against Jack.

She ducked behind a gnarled tree, branches above twisted with age and covering her in shadow. Breathing deeply, she looked down at the blood staining the robes over her stomach. The dark fabric was sticky, clinging to the wound. If she couldn't get the bleeding under control...

A sigh left the tarutaru’s mouth. A mistake.

TWAP-TWAP-TWAP!

The sounds of bullets striking trees filled the area, bark flying off in splintered chunks. Grimacing, the mousy-looking mage curled in on herself, trying to make herself an even smaller target.

“Where ya goin kiddo?” Jack called out. Shantotto heard the sound of him discarding a magazine and slapping another in with practised precision.

Shantotto tried to focus on casting a spell, but this was all so new to the mage. Gunfire was never this fast-- duelists always had pistols! But this one in particular was proving to be far more formidable than anything her opponents thus far had thrown her way.

Dashing from one tree to the next, the mage quickly was lost among tall trunks and vines. Her attacker was no longer wasting ammunition... now the very forest was her foe. It teemed with darkness, the broad leaves overhead blocked any light from the moon might have provided for her. Breathing in short puffs, Shantotto grasped the edge of her robes and pulled.

Riiiip.

The tarutaru clenched her teeth; the sound of her robes once again being desecrated was as painful as the bullet. She took the strip and wrapped it, hoping it would slow her bleeding-out. She worked carefully, quiet as a mouse.

Suddenly, the little mage’s ears perked up. Footsteps!

Shantotto pressed herself even further into the tree trunk she’d been sheltered against, breath ratcheting up as she saw the half-shadowed form of Handsome Jack prowling across the forest floor, a few feet away, close enough to touch with her staff.

“Ya know, back on Pandora, we got these things called elemental weapons,” Handsome Jack said, nonchalant as he tossed a small grenade up and down in his hand. “We got fire, electric, slag... I feel like I’m forgetting one...”

Shantotto peeked out from behind her tree, hoping to get a good look at him. The grenade,little more than a toy in his hand. Up it went, flipping carelessly into the air, and then down it came, landing with a sharp smack in the man’s palm.

She was nearly crawling out of her skin when Jack suddenly clapped a hand to his forehead, grinning madly and giving a faux-sheepish shrug. “Oh yeah, I remember now! Explosive.”

The device he had been so casually tossing dropped to the ground, crunching across leaves and grass before it rolled to a stop but a few feet from the woman. A small beep was all she heard as blinding white flashed across her vision.

There was a ringing in the mage’s ears as her vision swam back into focus. She could see Handsome Jack walking towards her, but she… she couldn't get up,looking down she now knew why.

Her arm, reduced to a stump, shattered bone, and dangling flesh by the blast. Letting out an exasperated yell, Shantotto focused her energy on sending the Hunter of Vault Hunters on a one way ticket to hell.

“All done buttercu...” Jack’s voice trailed off as three monstrous lightning bolts descended from the heavens, exploding and reducing the ground to little more than a smoldering crater.

849 words according to wordcounter.net

[Storyteller]

The door to the shack flew inwards with an unceremonious bang. Dim candlelight wavered expectantly upon the dull, scratched surface of Jason's mask as he stood on the threshold. Dark eyes scanned the room, initially oblivious to the object of fascination standing right in front of them.

"Welcome home, baby!" Pamela tried, taking a tentative step forward. This saccharine greeting did not have the sort of effect that had been anticipated. There was no surprise in the brute's stance, no spasm of shock. Utter stillness reigned. Jason brushed past the figure of his mother, stomping into the center of the room. He looked around slowly, taking in every corner and shadow with careful scrutiny.

"What would you like for supper?" Mother asked, but Jason was busy. The distant sound of detonations and thunder rolled through the forest, and the silent maniac turned his head towards the window. With no further words, Vorhees stomped back outside, closing the door behind him. Pamela stared. Then came a loud, lurching, scraping sound. Scowling frightfully, the jilted shapeshifter went to try the door, but found it jammed shut. Something heavy had been pushed against the outside. But wait, It thought, hadn the door opened inwards?

The hinges were gone. Not anymore, it didn't.

Meanwhile, Handsome Jack was staggering upwards from the smoldering ruin of the arcane crater. Of course the damned lightning spell had blasted straight through his shield. Steaming, crimson lines down his arms and a sudden splurt of blood from his lips indicated a wide assortment of internal injuries.

"Fuckin...lemming..." Jack cursed as he pulled a shotgun out of thin air. He shouldered the weapon and advanced on the little hairball's last position.

Ch...ch...ch...

Ah...ah...ah...

A heavy, cold hand suddenly clasped Jack's shoulder. The executive flinched instinctively, but relaxed slightly as he glanced up at Jason. The fleshwall was gazing towards the bush where Shantotto had cast her spell from.

"Ah. Perfect idea. Go! Go get 'er!" Jack said in the manner of a huntsman speaking to his hound. Shantotto, however, had not remained still. She had managed to quietly squirrel her way through the brush for several yards before running face first into a tree trunk. The impact jostled her arm, and she suppressed a cry of anguish before looking up. A hockey mask stared down at her.

Before she could conjure her wits, let alone a spell, an iron hand plucked her out of the bush and held her up like a kitten. She looked so small and helpless...already wounded grievously. The creature was, hypothetically, someone he was supposed to kill. A machete glinted softly in the moonlight, and the tarutaru whimpered.

Jason trudged back into the lightning-scoured clearing, still holding Shantotto like a kitten. By this time, she had managed to regain her sense of impertinence.

"Unhand me you faceless dog, or I'll send your corpse right back into the bog!" she shrieked. Jack laughed loudly and pumped the action of his shotgun, not because he needed to, but because he could.

"Great job, my guy! Give her a toss when I shout pull!" the Hyperion usurper jeered. As he said this, however, the black mage pulled her rod out once more, barking out a sharp string of arcane power. A torrent of fire engulfed the upper hald of Jason's body, but his grip did not relent.

It was a pity, how often hubris was fatal in his presence. There was a sudden howling from the treeline as a distorted, rage-filled Pamela Vorhees slipped into the moonlight.

"Spoil the clown's game, will you? Fine! So much for good theatre!" Pennywise bellowed. He tore off apron he had adapted from Mrs. Vorhees to reveal a rotund gut, split open and filled with churning teeth. It surged forward hungrily towards Jason, and was subsequently fed as the hulk tossed Shantotto into the demon clown's maw.

"Penny...wwiiiise!" the mage shrieked. Oh the confusion! Already tenderized, small and afraid! The perfect bite! As the Dancing Clown gagged and tried to find the restraint to spit It's ally out, Jack walked up to Jason and clapped him on the back.

"Well, I didn't say pull, but this'll do nicely." Jack said loudly. Another grenade materialized in his hand. A machete was also driven between his ribs.

"For fuck's...sake..." Jack wheezed. Jason callously kicked the injured fop several meters away with the blade still inside of him. A somewhat merciful gesture, all things considered.

[Pennywise]

Shantotto squealed in agony as fresh blood gushed from her many wounds, exciting the monstrous clown to no end. Instead of prompting her partner to spit her out, the tiny mage’s thrashing brought to the fore the keen interest of a predator. Nostrils flaring, Pennywise’s eyes rolled back into Its skull, the thrumming of Its deadlights building into a steady, satisfied purr.

Oh, how It had missed this! The terror of a creature so utterly trapped within Its grasp, heart beating hummingbird-quick and threatening to burst from their chest! The pleasure that came with tasting another being’s Fear, that delectable nectar off of which It thrived… Pennywise shivered, jaws flexing around the small body caught within Its gaping maw. Pure heaven.

It could not let her go, and truthfully? It didn’t want to.

Before It could gnash Its mighty teeth and seal the deal, however, a wide object became lodged between Its hideously straining jaws. Tongue lolling about to taste this foreign object, the demented clown’s confusion built as It roved over the splintery, magicky-flavored item that kept Its mouth from clamping shut.

“Pennywise!” Shantotto screamed, struggling to keep her staff in place where it was precariously jammed between either side of Pennywise’s fanged maw. Her surroundings were dark, slippery, and sharp, the stench of rotting meat and burnt sugar causing her stomach to churn violently. Nausea and bright, searing pain threatened to overcome her as numerous teeth bit into her skin, slicing along her body from head to toe. To add to her unfortunate situation, Shantotto had been practically bathing in rivers of drool since being chucked into Its mouth. As a result, her spit-coated fingers often slipped away, failing to regain purchase around her staff.

If she couldn’t hold the staff in place any longer… well, that would be the end of Shantotto.

Gagging in disgust as another string of drool slid down her face, the mousy magician attempted to center herself. Her ally was long gone, ostensibly lost to predatory instinct and hunger. If she truly wanted to survive, she needed to play hard-ball. And she understood just what she had to do.

The tarutaru hunched in on herself, feet dragging across the slithering, worm-like appendage that was Pennywise’s tongue. She clenched her jaw as hundreds of teeth dug in and created fresh lacerations, suppressing the harsh groan that threatened to escape her throat. Although they slid through a slimy topcoat of frothing, pinkish spittle and blood, her hands finally found their familiar positions on her trusty mage’s weapon, tightening in a white-knuckled grip around it.

Noxious fluid erupted from the end of her staff, thick like pea soup and colored a murky eldritch black. The disgusting liquid flushed down Its throat like bitter medicine and, once the gut-churning flavor and acidic properties registered, the clown was quick to cough the contents of Its stomach up. A chorus of gagging and hacking paved the way for Shantotto’s return to the relative safety of the forest floor, her body hitting the ground with an unceremonious splat.

Landing in a puddle of bubbling sick and miscellaneous body parts, Shantotto could only lay there, shaking like a leaf after her close brush with death. To the proud tarutaru’s immense horror, tears began to sting at her eyes!

“This is no time to cry,” she chastised herself, scrubbing a palm furiously across her face. “Look at yourself-- you didn’t die!”

As she heaved in ragged breaths, mind taking stock of her injuries, the navy-colored night sky swam into view. It was dappled with stars, the spiky tops of pine trees fringing around it... The tarutaru reluctantly acknowledged that Camp Crystal Lake might actually be quite pretty when one wasn’t being stalked by a serial murderer.

Speaking of serial murderers, Shantotto could hear the only two combatants left standing duking it out in the background. Craning her head to the side and wiping a bit of her partner’s vomit out of her eyes, the tarutaru blinked at the vicious struggle taking place behind her.

Pennywise was at it again with the shapeshifting, it seemed. Clad in a bright orange letterman jacket with someplace called ‘Derry’ printed on it, the clown had sprouted brownish, matted-looking fur all over Its body, complete with two pricked ears and a pointed muzzle. Deep, guttural growls erupted from Its throat as It snapped and snarled at Jason Voorhees, sharp canine teeth flashing a stark, feral white in the darkness.

The hockey-masked golem was unfazed by Pennywise’s wolfish display. Despite having abandoned his machete moments ago by impaling Handsome Jack with it, Jason didn’t seem at all bothered by the werewolf’s loping approach, nor was he particularly troubled when Pennywise’s enormous maw champed down on his arm, tearing through the tattered material of his jacket and clawing ferociously at whatever part of Jason’s body It could reach.

In fact, the undead revenant just stood there, the soulless eye holes of his mask staring down at the cosmic devourer-- still as a scarecrow being swarmed by a flock of angry crows.

850 words! - Google docs

[Shantotto]

Shantotto winced, her arm stump throbbing as the nerves adjusted to the shock of having been severed so violently. It seemed that she had been mostly forgotten by the other combatants, both a blessing and an insult to her good name. On top of that, her partner had dared to bare Its teeth at the tarutaru! Her blood boiled at the very thought, righteous rage nearly overriding the mind-numbing terror that came with being almost devoured.

But, that certainly wasn’t the only item on her long list of grievances. The mousy mage mourned the state of her valuable black robes, ruined again! Saliva from the Macroverse monster, mingled with the sticky blood that poured from her wounds, created an absolutely unholy mess that smelled of the underworld itself. No amount of laundering could fix that. While the state of her clothing could be overlooked for the moment, she would definitely be having Words with Pennywise later on.

Wrinkling her nose against the vile situation, Shantotto steeled herself for the coming battle by surveying their opponents, her tactician’s mind whirring. Jason Voorhees and Handsome Jack. Some partners those two were! Jason had so gracefully given aid to his partner in the form of a machete stab wound, a true show of solidarity if Shantotto had ever seen one. This fight just seemed less and less like a two versus two match-- truthfully, it had become more akin to an outright free-for-all.

The heiress of the Shantotto family looked down upon her weapon. Her once glorious staff was cracked, damaged, and overall useless to her now. Discarding it with disdain, the mage limped silently to one of the gnarled trees and rested against it, lamenting her ill fortune.

Shantotto breathed deeply, struggling to keep a grip on her sanity in this showdown of horrors. Fatigue forced her to sag against the tree trunk, rough bark digging into her skin. There was too much going on, too much damage scattered about her petite frame. She couldn’t focus.

“A bit of space is what I need, to rest up to finish the deed,” she muttered. A heartbeat later, a ring of black energy swelled up from the ground around her, shrouding her in magical safety.

Efficient as always, Shantotto quickly began working to reduce the strain on her body. She couldn’t even use her dimensional break at the moment, let alone chainspell. She needed time to replenish her reserves of power; hopefully her energy shroud would afford her that.

Locked from view of Its tasty morsel, Pennywise was left alone, facing off against Jason and the downed Handsome Jack in the forest’s shade. The clown had faded back to Its usual circus wear, though Its face was still elongated, distinctly lupine in appearance.

“OOOOH, Jack be nimble… Jack be quick!” Pennywise’s sinisterly sing-song voice echoed through the trees, Its arms swaying merrily with each step.

“Jack jumped over a CANDLESTICK!” A wickedly-clawed hand reached out, snatching the severely hurt Hyperion leader’s leg in a vice-like grip.

“Ow, what the f-uuuck…” Handsome Jack’s voice cut off as the Monster of Derry swung the man around like a ragdoll, slamming him into Jason with a bone-breaking thud.

Jason’s deadset glare never even wavered as the man was used as a human maul. The puny hunter was but a gnat, his real prey was this clownish abomination who seemed intent on opposing him. Reaching down, Jason withdrew his machete from Jack, either unconscious or dead at this point.

Shantotto’s wall of darkness subsided into nothingness, and behind it stood the tarutaru, poised for battle, another strip of her precious robes used as a makeshift tourniquet for her stump arm. Her remaining arm gripped a brand new stardust rod, fire in her eyes as she turned her gaze towards the limp man on the ground.

“On this day you shall come to rue… biting off more than you can chew!” She spat out venomously as a vacuum collected above Jack, exploding brilliantly and dousing the man in angry liquid flames. If there was any doubt in the minds of those present that Jack was still alive, it was quickly doused by the resulting corpse left amid smoldering ash.

Pointing her stardust rod at Jason, Shantotto prepared to scorch him into a cinder, but was interrupted by… clapping?

“Ya know, this is why it’s good to be me,” Handsome Jack’s annoying voice rang out, startling the tarutaru into nearly dropping her weapon. “Gotta love a good ol’ Digi Jack!”

“I just sent you to the abyss! You dare tell me my spell did miss?” Shantotto’s anger was palpable as she glared at the man, enraged by the cocky grin on his peculiar face.

Jack shrugged, still grinning, his yellow Hyperion shotgun resting upon his shoulders. “Listen here, sugartits. I’ll deal with you and your… clown-thing later, after this jackass says hello to my one hump thump! Or was it one pump thump...?”

His maniacal grin widened as he pulled the trigger, sending a cone of fiery rounds at Jason. “Oho, the money shot!”

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[Storyteller]

The dandelion-colored shotgun cracked off a loud report, and the heavy Hyperion buckshot hit Jason's face like a wall of leaden hail. For once, the titanic Prime actually stumbled backwards, and the signature hockey mask on his face was knocked loose. The behemoth found his footing after a few backsteps, his moldering boots squelching softly in the dewy moss. When he reared back to his full height, Jack tipped the immense firearm back onto his shoulder, and rose a condescending eyebrow. A low whistle rolled across the humid bog.

"Holy shit you guys, get a load of fugly." Jack chuckled, nodding his head towards Jason. Shantotto and Pennywise reared around, eyes wide as they took in the piteous features. A swollen, hairless brow bulged sullenly over unleveled eyes. A sunken nose, almost skeletal, dripped with a vile ooze that ran over a cleft palate. A sharp, biting laugh issued forth from the teen wolf, and an accusing claw was stretched towards the haggard visage.

"So he's a deformed mutant behind the mask? Just put it back on, that's all I ask!" Shantotto managed to squeak, despite her ravaged form. It was nice to be able to, at the very least, lob a few insults at the mysterious murderer. What else could they do? Clammy hands rose to cover Jason's face, and the immense man sank to his knees. He gently began to rock back and forth, half murmuring a pathetic noise that may have been a song.

Karl Jak's hands squeaked softly as his grip on his chair tightened. He always had to pay attention when Vorhees was in the ring, but this was a special case. It wasn't necessarily that he was concerned for Jason or the contestants; they knew what they were in for. At the very least, Jason seemed to enjoy Syntech's little games. But standing around laughing at the ugly mug of a deformed monster? It wasn't good television.

"Uh yeah Hans? Can we clip the feed on three-c? I'll let you know when- oh wait. Nevermind." Karl said, easing himself back into the shiatsu equipped recliner.

Meanwhile, in the chilled air of the camp's evening, screams of pain and terror filled the air. Jason moved as a shadow, forgoing the need for any sort of blade, power tool, or profane trickery. With a dull grunt of rage, Jason surged towards the toothy maw of Penny wise, gripping top and bottom jaw in two hands and ripping the pliable Prime almost entirely in half. Shanttoto could barely find the wherewithal to run before she was plucked up from the bushes like the rodent she was and repeatedly bashed into the dense trunk of a rustling spruce tree. Each crunching splat was a sharp reminder of just how baby-soft the skin of her face was.

Dull popping sounds eventually alerted Vorhees that the other masked man was shooting his guns again. As the red welts opened up on his back, Vorhees casually dumped the tarutaru's mess of a body on the ground. What could Jack do? Another one of him dissolved into the night, but Jason was tired of this. If masks were coming off, then so would this man's. He was deserving. They all were deserving. The small one, Jason had wanted to trust her. He had wanted to believe that she was small and different, but they were all Primes. Like any other Prime, she had to be killed.

Ch...ch...ch...

Ah...ah...ah...

The Digi-Jack was impaled through the chest by an arm like a birch tree. He evaporated back into cyan sparks without so much as a gurgle of protest. Jack withdrew his grenades again, but Jason was already upon him. There was savagery fueling every blow, jab, and kick to the already injured executive's body. A snarling, spittle-filled bark of rage that caused blood to gush out of the Handome one's abdominal injury in heavy jets. When he was finally on his feet, Jason grabbed hold of the other Prime's mask and tore it free. The synthetic visor writhed and glitched loathesomely as Handsome Jack was brought to the lowly status of, simply, Jack. The Hyperion's head lolled backwards, neck broken and thoroughly dead. Vorhees regretted his anger. He had wished to prolong the suffering. Jack's body was hurled into the black waters with a violent heave.

A low, hissing chuckle came from behind Jason as the final ripples faded away. The mutated face contorted into an expression of dull bemusement as Jason turned to see the leering deadlights bobbing inside the lycanthrope's sundered skull.

"Ohhhhohoh..." It gurgled, not bothering to reassemble its dangling bodyparts, "...I get it. My skull, the chimpmunk's face, and the bougie' buddy's mask, eh? All about the face. Bringing us down, down dowwwwn to your level." Pennywise hissed in a knowing tone. The mealy, unfocused eyes of Vorhees scanned the demon clown with a bored look. A look that seemed to say 'we were supposed to be done.'

"Oh don't be like that, Vorhees. Not going to take ol' Pennywise off the Christmas card list are you? What would Frederick think?" the clown cackled. Jason was now carrying a large canister, with chemical labels too faded and worn to make out. He set it down gently on the ground, where it rang with a hollow, metallic vibration.

"Something special? Just for me?" It squealed, placing a sincere hand on Its chest. Jason solemnly stomped towards the wriggling, half-dead teen wolf with grim purpose. The crescendo became too much for Pennywise to resist. It loped forwards, lead by Its arms in a simian fashion, gargling and howling with as much cinematic relish as It could muster. Jason met him half way, and the two became entangled. Dull moans and grunts escaped the towering hulk as he staggered around the mulched clearing, with every inch of Pennywise's writhing, shifted corpse biting into him. Teeth came and went, blood was spilled aplenty, and the entire time, Jason made his thrashing way towards the canister.

Then, with one final, hoarse yell, Jason flopped onto the container, which erupted into a cloud of bright, clean vapor. There was a deafening bang and roar, followed by utter silence. Not even the frogs, squatting in their grottoes, could overcome the sheer finality of the act. As the white cloud slowly cleared, it revealed the two icons of horror tangled still, but utterly motionless. They were frozen in a thick coating of rime, with long icicles comically drawn forth from their bodies. Still, in the end, it appeared that Jason had managed to force an undesired face onto the clown.

Handsome Jack's mask sat quiet and dead upon the darkened face of a half-shredded, flash-frozen werewolf.

[Karl Jak]

Face to Face
#28 Pennywise & #23 Shantotto vs #09 Handsome Jack & #X Jason Voorhees

In the end, Karl had to pull the plug and teleport back the pair of primes.  The last thing he needed was a more expensive bill to patch their pieces back together.

The mask-clad man who talked too much was dead.  That was a tragedy.

Syntech teams, dispatched to the island, found nothing but a puddle of melted ice.  Whether that meant Voorhees was dead or not, no one could confirm.

[spoiler]
#09 Handsome Jack DEAD

Pennywise and Shantotto will face the Quarterfinal loser with the 3rd highest score.  This is a slight change from the brackets, since the larvae/ahana team dropped out.

Handsome Jack will respawn at the Fountain of Infinity in 7 days. [/spoiler]