You are Nicole Smith.
You're in the final frontier of your story. You're about to fight one of the four CEOs of the STILLE DAG ORGANIZATION.

The organization that has been pestering you for the last month. The organization that wishes to reclaim its old spot as B-Corp by any means necessary.
The organization that threatens the people you care about.

Let's cut to the chase, okay? We all know why we're here.

ARCHIVE: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Cleaner
MAIN CHARACTER SHEET: https://pastebin.com/3y638TfK
YOUR SQUAD: https://pastebin.com/iuaajHP0
THE OTHER SQUADS: https://pastebin.com/te2Y73Bx, https://pastebin.com/7G7zN51n, https://pastebin.com/N0AEBBFF, https://pastebin.com/75eDGWXg
INVENTORY: https://pastebin.com/n0MH6M17

No one is willing to make a move yet. Not after what just happened.

Maruyama huffs and puffs as his body pumps enough adrenaline through his body to kill him seven times over.
BELNOL stares down at the man with abject confusion. The other EXCISORS are staying quiet in a faint, desperate attempt to deter your group from attacking.

Maruyama's breathing is the only sound you can hear over the hectic war happening right above you. Blood continues to pool at the bottom platform everyone is standing on. There's enough to drown someone in if worst comes to worst - It looks pitch black under the red glow of the emergency lighting.

You smile. "You can't stop us. Every enemy, every obstacle, dealt with like the trash they were."
Otto throws his shades away into a nearby pool of blood. His eyes faintly glimmer underneath the crimson red light. "You're outnumbered too. Seven to six."
"YOU FAILED TO CORRUPT ME," Benedict puts on a faux monotone voice. "YOU'RE FAILURES."
"I know I was supposed to die. God told me so," Adam's knuckles turn white from how hard he's holding onto his chef's knife. "I defied Fate once. Why not a second time?"
Anderson taps at the bolt action pistol hanging off his belt. "One shot and five of you will die. Leave and I might spare you."

Lex cracks his knuckles. "I killed one of ya before and I was weak as shit back then? Now?" Lex shifts into a boxer's stance. "I'm ready for my rematch, BEL. Wanna fuckin' try me?"

"It's your choice. Do you really wanna die for this?" You tighten your grip on your FEDKILLER. "I'm ready when you are."

The EXCISORS don't bother to respond. They're not the type to monologue, no, the one behind them is probably going to start one soon enough. Yet none of them are moving. It's hard to read their expressions (and their minds are shielded from your MINDREAD) but...

>103!

Fear has clearly set in amongst their ranks. They're not going to run away, no, but it's clear they're too shaken to put up a proper fight anymore. BELNOL and the COWBOY EXCISOR are the only ones who are going to even attempt to make a move in the upcoming fight. The others are hesitating, unsure of whether it's actually worth it to fight or not.

>Three of the EXCISORS have been outright stunned for two turns! Their stats have also been penalized!
>BELNOL and COWBOY EXCISOR have received a heavy penalty to all stats for the duration of the fight.

"Neat trick lads. I suppose I have to copy that later." You hear a voice with a thick, heavy accent you couldn't immediately put your finger out. "Putting the fear of God in my lads, huh?"

Someone steps out from behind the five Excisors. You nearly shatter your PARADIGM in your hands when you see who it is. It's the CEO himself. He holds himself with an air of subdued dignity that you refuse to believe a Spook could have. He calmly stands in front of his bodyguards with no sign of fear in his eyes. You know he's the CEO solely by how he dresses himself.

His tacky silver business suit clearly belongs on a runway model and probably has a six digit price tag. It hangs over his wiry, stringy frame like loose skin.
His seaweed green hair is perfectly slicked back with a heavy layer of hair gel and sweat. His pants and shoes share the same tacky, expensive look to them - You're pretty sure they're caked in silver glitter as well.

He's pale as a ghost. You doubt this man has ever been in a fight before. His hand loosely holds onto a six shooter revolver just like the one that Otto is holding. You shouldn't be terrified of this guy in the slightest - One swift breeze could obviously kill him.

Yet. You feel a pit in your stomach. Your allies step away from the CEO. You keep your distance away from him as well. Something about him feels wrong - no, not that. He looks wrong. His face looks like a mangled average of every single male party member you met across your long journey.

A copy of a copy of a copy. You're not even sure if there's a trace of his original face anymore.

"Not used to this, yeah, thought I'd give it a lash." He cracks his shoulders just like Lex. "Betcha think I look like an eejit, huh?"
His eyes suddenly flash with a off, almost creamy, white. "No point borin' ya with a monologue, lads. Let's start this scrap already, huh?"

His veins pulsate with the same telltale slurry of colors you saw in the Excisors. "Good thing I took my drugs before I chatted, huh?"

You grit your teeth. There's no more room for talk. No more room for hesitation. You'll only get one good shot. If you don't get through them, this will all have been for nothing.

https://youtu.be/Ly3gQvIlctM - FIGHT AGAINST THE STILLE DAG
To make things simple, combat will be simplified compared to how I used to run it until you're down to one target. Won't bother writing out 'attack rolls' and everything. Just focus on the voting options.

COMBAT PASSIVE: TICK TOCK! (You have a limited time before the nuke goes off. You have THREE turns to disable or kill the enemies. Run out of time and you LOSE!)
LEVEL OF VIOLENCE: LOW. (Slowly builds over the fight. Empowers LEX's abilities and stats. Can be increased by picking certain voting options.)

(Unless stated otherwise, everyone below is an anomalous human and is therefore weak to anti-anomaly items)

STILLE DAG CEO #2 of 4: 188/188 FLESH, 188/188 RESTRAINT, ALL OTHER STATS AT 88!
COWBOY EXCISOR: 28/28 FLESH, 39/39 RESTRAINT, 28 TALENT, 20 VIOLENCE, 15 in ALL OTHER STATS! (-15 to all stats!)
BELNOL: 50/50 FLESH, N/A RESTRAINT, 39 VIOLENCE, 15 TALENT, 7 in ALL OTHER STATSs! (-15 to all STATS!)
EXICSOR 1-3: STUNNED for TWO TURNS!!!

YOU [ANOMALY]: 10/14 FLESH, 14/18 RESTRAINT
LEX: 14/18 FLESH, 11/15 RESTRAINT
ANDERSON: 13/17 FLESH, 13/17 RESTRAINT
MARUYAMA: 10/27 FLESH, 17/32 RESTRAINT
BENEDICT: 18/22 FLESH, 10/14 RESTRAINT
OTTO: 11/15 FLESH, 9/13 RESTRAINT
ADAM: 10/14 FLESH, 9/13 RESTRAINT

In pure, raw bulk, you're clearly outmatched. Even if you account for all of the drugs pumping through you. What's your plan for your FIRST TURN of COMBAT, NICOLE? Pick one MAIN plan and two SIDE PLANS.

MAIN PLAN
>[ANDERSON ALLY] Convince Anderson that he should use AWAKE FROM YOUR NIGHTMARE. Right fucking now. (CHALLENGING CHARM DC: 48, rolling your 12d6. Succeed and you'll deal MASSIVE damage to all six targets in front of you.)
>[UNSTABLE] NO PLAN. JUST SHOOT UNTIL THE ENEMIES FUCKING DIE. WE'RE GOING TO WIN!!! (+LEVEL OF VIOLENCE. No check. Your group will take considerable damage but you'll kill one of the still active EXCISORS while lightly wounding the rest of the enemies.)
>[BENEDICT ALLY] Harvest the stunned EXCISORS. Get rid of the most vulnerable. (MODERATE VIOLENCE DC: 88, rolling 20d8 as a group. Succeed and you kill two of the stunned EXCISORS and cripple the remaining one.)
>The CEO is clearly the biggest threat. Focus all of your energy on him. (-2 of 2 IMPLANT INTERVIEWERS, ADAM'S MATTER ERASER PROTOTYPE RIFLE will go on cooldown this fight. You'll focus on the CEO, crippling him for the rest of the fight.)
>Write in.

SIDE PLANS
>[MARUYAMA ALLY] You need more turns! Slow down the nuke's timer with Maruyama's TEMPORAL JAM! (Buys you 1d2 extra turns at the cost of 2 MARUYAMA RESTRAINT.)
>[OTTO ALLY] Let Otto talk to the CEO. You bet he has a way to mess with his head. (MODERATE CONNECTIONS DC: 70, rolling Otto's 20d6. Pass and he'll get underneath the CEO's skin, hampering his ability to give orders. Everyone in your party takes 3 less damage this turn.)
>Keep the EXCISORS pinned for as long as possible. (-N-CORP BINDING SCORLL, -2 of 2 HEMOGLOBIN GRENADES. Stuns the three stunned EXCISORS for another turn and hampers the two active ones. Three random allies take 2 less damage this turn.)
>[LEX ALLY] Time to use Lex's new DETACH ability. They won't expect a detached, telekinetically launched fist! (+LEVEL OF VIOLENCE. Does MASSIVE damage to a random target. Heals everyone's RESTRAINT by 2.)
>Pull out your WATERLOGGED POCKETWATCH. Stop time for a brief moment. Make sure whatever you do HURTS. (WATERLOGGED POCKETWATCH goes on cooldown this fight. Costs 1d3 FLESH and RESTRAINT from you. Improves the effectiveness of your MAIN PLAN and your other SIDE PLANS. Any DCs are reduced by 5.)
>Call for help! (Can be used a total of three times this fight. Costs nothing to use. One of the squads above you will offer supporting fire, dealing light damage to all of your enemies.)
>Write in.

I apologize for the 7 day long delay when I meant to only do a 2 day long delay. Used that time to recharge.
Let's keep going, shall we? Final thread. I promise.

>>6256042

>The CEO is clearly the biggest threat. Focus all of your energy on him. (-2 of 2 IMPLANT INTERVIEWERS, ADAM'S MATTER ERASER PROTOTYPE RIFLE will go on cooldown this fight. You'll focus on the CEO, crippling him for the rest of the fight.)


>[MARUYAMA ALLY] You need more turns! Slow down the nuke's timer with Maruyama's TEMPORAL JAM! (Buys you 1d2 extra turns at the cost of 2 MARUYAMA RESTRAINT.)


>Pull out your WATERLOGGED POCKETWATCH. Stop time for a brief moment. Make sure whatever you do HURTS. (WATERLOGGED POCKETWATCH goes on cooldown this fight. Costs 1d3 FLESH and RESTRAINT from you. Improves the effectiveness of your MAIN PLAN and your other SIDE PLANS. Any DCs are reduced by 5.)

Not too sure but the CEO has to be crippled

>>6256081
+1

>>6256042
>The CEO is clearly the biggest threat. Focus all of your energy on him. (-2 of 2 IMPLANT INTERVIEWERS, ADAM'S MATTER ERASER PROTOTYPE RIFLE will go on cooldown this fight. You'll focus on the CEO, crippling him for the rest of the fight.)
>Keep the EXCISORS pinned for as long as possible. (-N-CORP BINDING SCORLL, -2 of 2 HEMOGLOBIN GRENADES. Stuns the three stunned EXCISORS for another turn and hampers the two active ones. Three random allies take 2 less damage this turn.)
>Pull out your WATERLOGGED POCKETWATCH. Stop time for a brief moment. Make sure whatever you do HURTS. (WATERLOGGED POCKETWATCH goes on cooldown this fight. Costs 1d3 FLESH and RESTRAINT from you. Improves the effectiveness of your MAIN PLAN and your other SIDE PLANS. Any DCs are reduced by 5.)

>>6256042
Changing vote from >>6256109 to backing >>6256174. We have 3 turns for the nuke, we can use the [MARUYAMA ALLY] option next turn maybe. Securing the upper hand by keeping the Excisors suppressed is the best course of action now that I think about it

>>6256174
+1

>>6256042

Sure. I will change
>>6256081

to

>>6256174

>>6256174
+1

Five people all want the same thing, let's get going. We don't wanna be here all day after all
Two anons, roll
>1d3
to see how much FLESH and RESTRAINT you spend. then I'll get writing. First d3 is FLESH, second is RESTRAINT

Rolled 1 (1d3)

>>6256235
Good thing I always roll low.

Rolled 2 (1d3)

>>6256235
Rollan

BANG BANG BANG!
Six shots ring out before anyone could even THINK of moving. Six trails of bright red blood are leaking out of the brand new six holes in Lex's chest. It takes Lex's brain far too long to register what just happened. "GHH!!!"

>LEX takes 4 (REDUCED FROM 7) FLESH DAMAGE! 10/18 LEFT!
"Hm." The CEO rapidly reloads his six shooter. "Tough. Ain't that grand."

His body almost seems to teleport with how quickly he aims at you. You try to dodge out of the way but he already fired off six rounds before you could.
Thankfully, your telekinetic field manages to block them. He's only using regular ammo - He's not even bothering to use anti-anomaly stuff! What a fucking joke!

He grunts, moving to reload again. The two active Excisors launch towards your group to buy the CEO time. BELNOL raises its armblade up in an attempt to cleave Otto in half. It nearly manages to do so but Benedict moves in just in time to block it with his own armblade. Seething, hateful electricity roars throughout his blade but it's not enough to stop BENOL.

Anderson and Maruyama immediately move in to help. A katana and an inky, melty rapier move in to help deflect what must be an insanely heavy blade. Otto takes this moment to quickly retreat from what would've turned him into a pile of gore.

The two are now struggling to keep the blade from cutting THEM in half. Their combined strength is barely enough to tie with BELNOL's. You need to find some way to help them but everything's moving too fast...

The COWBOY EXCISOR grits his teeth. He raises his revolver in the air and all of a sudden, a thick layer of silver crystal coats his own six shooter. He snaps his aim right at Maruyama while he's too busy to dodge.

Everyone else is too busy fighting to survive to notice that Adam hasn't moved. Instead, he has taken his sweet time to line up a shot on the CEO with that old MATTER ERASURE RIFLE you found a while ago. No one has bothered to pay attention to him. Even you didn't notice him until right now.

A plan rapidly springs into mind. The CEO's stats are jacked - You're not even sure Adam could land a shot on him...not without some help.
You yank your WATERLOGGED POCKETWATCH. The CEO immediately spots it and he tries to warn the two active EXCISORS to do something but it's too late.

TICKTOCK!
TIMEHASSTOPPED!

The world is immediately awashed in monotone grey. Everyone around you soon locks into position as time itself screeches to a halt.
Blood leaks out of your ears. The mere act of stopping time seems to be far, far too much for you right now. Something in the air feels wrong...
>YOU lose 1 FLESH and 2 RESTRAINT!

Maruyama and the CEO are the only ones (besides you) to realize that time has stopped. Maruyama takes advantage of this oppurnity to slowly slice into BELNOL'S ARMBLADE.
The CEO scoffs, "One of your old tricks, huh? Ya know I wasn't gonna be frozen. One on one duel, huh? Works for me."

He aims his gun at you. Very. Very. Slowly.

His eyes widen when he realizes how little he can move in stopped time. "Shit! Shit, shit, that god damn signal! It's...FUCK!" Modifying that anti-anomaly signal he was broadcasting seems to have rendered him vulnerable to your timestop!

You quickly sprint over to the CEO while his body is all sorts of jammed up. He tries to pull the trigger but every small movement he makes stretches out for what feels like minutes. You yank the two IMPLANT INVERTERS out of your pocket.

A shit-eating grin spread across the CEO's face. "That won't be enough, punk." He hisses through his teeth as the two inverters are jabbed deep into his neck. A mess of colors flashes across his eyes and veins. They're doing the magic now that's for sure.

"Oh. I doubt you're disabled that easily. But I think you forgot someone."
"Feh. Who? There's only six of ya, right?"

You step away from the CEO so Adam has a clear line of sight when time resumes. You casually toss your two HEMOGLOBIN grenades at BELNOL and the EXCISOR, prime and ready to disable them once time resumes.

You unfurl the scroll, not at all worried about the CEO still aiming at you, and you start to chant whatever is written on it. It doesn't take long until the three stunned EXCISORS are quickly entangled in golden string that ties their arms to their sides and their legs to the floor.

Even if they weren't hesitating, they clearly aren't going to move for a while.
"It's seven, dumbass." TIMERESUMES!

A massive beam of energy launches out of the MATTER ERASURE RIFLE. It slams into the CEO's chest before he even has any time to react. A large chunk of his suit and the flesh underneath it easily melts away under the sheer force of the rifle's blast. The overwhelming stench of burning flesh floods the arena. It almost reminds you of your parents for some weird, unexplainable reason.

The CEO is sent flying back all the way towards the nuke, slamming hard against it.
>MATTER ERASURE RIFLE is now on cooldown!

The two active EXCISORS soon realize their limbs are all sorts of gummed up from the grenades you threw earlier. Your allies quickly take advantage of this to land some serious hits on them.

Lex charges his BOAR KILLING SPEAR with a torrent of energy from his power tattoo before shotputting it right at the COWBOY EXCISOR. It pierces cleanly through the cowboy's chest but, sadly, he's far too sturdy to die from it.

He tries to fire at Adam but his limbs are too jammed up to aim properly. Most of his shots miss this round but two managed to strike true...but they hit Adam's BULLETPROOF VEST.

Adam stumbles back but he doesn't seem that hurt, frankly. More annoyed than anything.
>ADAM took 2 (reduced from 8!) FLESH DAMAGE!

With the gunk jamming up its limbs, the three allies fighting back against BELNOL barely managed to overpower them. Benedict uses all of his strength to shove the EXCISOR back. It is knocked off balance! Its guard is down!!!

Just long enough for Maruyama to stab his katana DEEP into the mechanical abomination's chest.

Anderson rapidly slices up BELNOL's legs with his INK RAPIER, tearing them to ribbons.
The mechanical abomination groans in pain but it rapidly regains its balance and it wildly swings its arms to get everyone away from it. The three get grazed by its armblade but it wasn't enough to be anything serious.

>ANDERSON takes 1 (REDUCED FROM 6) FLESH DAMAGE!
>MARUYAMA and BENEDICT take 3 (REDUCED FROM 6) FLESH DAMAGE!

The CEO slowly climbs back up to his feet. A massive burn as wide as Lex's chest has spread across the CEO's chest. Necrotic, blackened flesh is sloughing off of the burn as his body seems to be unable to heal it off properly. It wasn't enough to seriously hurt him. Not by a long shot. But he's weakened now.

Before you have time to think of another plan, you hear something heavy slamming down right behind you.
"No fucking way!" Lex yells out. "WHAT IS HE DOING HERE?"
You snap your head around. WHAT THE FUCK IS HE DOING HERE?!

STILLE DAG CEO: 140/155 FLESH, 155/155 RESTRAINT, ALL OTHER STATS AT 70! (-30 MAX FLESH + RESTRAINT, -18 to all other stats! REGENERATION severely hampered!)
COWBOY EXCISOR: 20/28 FLESH, 30/39 RESTRAINT, other stats unchanged
BELNOL: 34/50 FLESH, N/A RESTRAINT, 34 VIOLENCE, other stats unchanged
EXICSOR 1-3: STUNNED for TWO TURNS!!!

YOU [ANOMALY]: 9/14 FLESH, 12/18 RESTRAINT
LEX: 10/18 FLESH, 11/15 RESTRAINT
ANDERSON: 12/17 FLESH, 13/17 RESTRAINT
MARUYAMA: 7/27 FLESH, 17/32 RESTRAINT
BENEDICT: 15/22 FLESH, 10/14 RESTRAINT
OTTO: 11/15 FLESH, 9/13 RESTRAINT
ADAM: 8/14 FLESH, 9/13 RESTRAINT

BENNETT HUXLEY: 88 VIOLENCE, 66 COOL. RANDOMLY ATTACKS ALL TARGETS ON THE FIELD.

Two turns left before the bomb goes off. What do? One main plan, two side plans. Any plan from last vote will have the same effect unless stated otherwise.

MAIN PLAN
>[ANDERSON ALLY] Convince Anderson that he should use AWAKE FROM YOUR NIGHTMARE. Right fucking now. (DC reduced to 45, also damaged BENEDICT.)
>[UNSTABLE] NO PLAN. JUST SHOOT UNTIL THE ENEMIES FUCKING DIE. WE'RE GOING TO WIN!!!
>[BENEDICT ALLY] Harvest the stunned EXCISORS. Get rid of the most vulnerable. (DC reduced to 84)
>Oh hell no! You're not dealing with BENNETT as well! Fry that fucker! (-S.R.T PROTOTYPE. Stuns him for this round, massively reducing the damage you'll take.)
>Write in

SIDE PLAN
>[MARUYAMA ALLY] You need more turns! Slow down the nuke's timer with Maruyama's TEMPORAL JAM!
>[OTTO ALLY] Let Otto talk to the CEO. You bet he has a way to mess with his head.
>[LEX ALLY] Time to use Lex's new DETACH ability. They won't expect a detached, telekinetically launched fist!
>Call for help!
>Heal up your party! This shit is getting serious! (-SINSU BOTTLE, -1 MEDKIT. ADAM, MARUYAMA and YOU will heal 3 FLESH!)
>Try to convince Bennett to help you! Even a little! (??? DC: ???, rolling ???. It's a long shot but maybe it could work...?)
>Write in.

>>6256319
>[BENEDICT ALLY]
Kill 2 cripple 1, demoralize the CEO and COWBOY EXCISOR. Do this while we can
>[MARUYAMA ALLY]
Buy time. BUY TIME.
>Try to convince Bennett to help you! Even a little!
+ HUXLEY FAVOR X2
+ KNOW HE LIKES GAMES
+ KNOW HE LIKES FRANK
+ SUCCEEDED IN INJURING HIM BEFORE
+ SAW THE OTHER CITY ON THE WAY HERE
+ KNOW CASEY IS A FORMER SANITECH
+ KNOW DOUBLE A
+ MET THE MOTH-HEADED MAUS BEFORE
What else?

>>6256374
+1

>>6256319
>[ANDERSON ALLY] Convince Anderson that he should use AWAKE FROM YOUR NIGHTMARE. Right fucking now. (DC reduced to 45, also damaged BENEDICT.)

>[MARUYAMA ALLY] You need more turns! Slow down the nuke's timer with Maruyama's TEMPORAL JAM!
>Try to convince Bennett to help you! Even a little! (??? DC: ???, rolling ???. It's a long shot but maybe it could work...?)

Alright, seems like BENEDICT + MARUYAMA and HUXLEY wins. We'll go with spending 2 HUXLEY favor as well.

Three anons, roll the following
>10d8 (half of BENEDICT)
>10d8 (half of BENEDICT)
>17d6 (FLESH CHECK for BENNETT. DC of 65)

REROLLS/ROLL MODIFIERS AVAILABLE
-MANAGER'S FLESH (Works on BENEDICT, not BENNETT. Rerolls three dice for free but only once.)
-HAPPINESS IN A PILL (Adds 5d6 to your FLESH check and heals you, but gives you a random mutation. You have four.)
-SUNSTONE CLUMP (Has five charges. Can spend 1 to add 2d8 to either check.)
-SUNSTONE FRAGMENT (You have three of them. Can spend 1 to reroll three dice on BENEDICT.)
-PEP PILL ZETA (You have one. Can lower the DC of BENNETT by 4.)

Rolled 1, 3, 6, 5, 2, 5, 3, 1, 3, 3, 3, 3, 5, 4, 1, 3, 3 = 54 (17d6)

>>6256742
BENNETT Roll

Rolled 3, 8 = 11 (2d8)

>>6256748
Use one PEP PILL ZETA
Use one SUNSTONE FRAGMENT
Use one SUNSTONE CLUMP

Rolled 1, 6, 6 = 13 (3d6)

>>6256748

>>6256748
>>6256750
Okay, with all of that, you go from a 54 to a 75, beating a DC of 61.
Consumes your last PEP PILL, one SUNSTONE FRAGMENT and SUNSTONE CLUMP has four charges left. Oh and the two Huxley favor but pft.

That just leaves the two BENEDICT rolls for the other anons.

Rolled 2, 8, 5, 8, 2, 3, 1, 4, 4, 4 = 41 (10d8)

>>6256742
Rolling

>>6256759
41/84 is almost dead even. I'd rather wait for the next 10d8 before deciding item use. We might not need any

Rolled 5, 6, 5, 6, 4, 5, 7, 4, 6, 6 = 54 (10d8)

>>6256742

Rolled 1 (1d2)

Cool, you passed both checks.
Rolling 1d2 to see how many turns you bought with MARUYAMA then I'll get to writing.

"Wait, wait, wait!!!" You scramble to think of something, anything, to unfuck this situation. You can't fight BENNETT, the CEO and the two surviving EXCISORS at the same time. That's just not possible.
Even the CEO and EXCISORS aren't moving. Guess they're too worried about Bennett, huh?

Bennett cocks his shotgun. There's nothing but malice behind that mask. You're not even sure why you're trying to talk to him. No harm in trying at least, right?

"He has the prototype core you're looking for! Him! Not us! We're on the same side!"
Bennett tilts his head.
"I already beat you once! I-I'll beat you again!" The overwhelming taste of blood lingers in your mouth. "J-Just. A truce! That's all I'll ask! R-Robert, he-"

Bennett aims his shotgun at you. He's clearly not listening to a single word you're saying.
Yet.
>75!

BOOM
A slug zips right over your head. Bennett loads another slug into his shotgun - He. He missed on purpose. You guess he's agreeing to a truce, then.

>BENNETT HUXLEY will not attack YOU for this fight and he has a lower chance of attacking your allies.
>The LEVEL OF VIOLENCE has increased.
[UNSTABLE] OK.
>LEX's powers have been upgraded!

The brief pause to the violent festivities abruptly ends. BELNOL easily rips out of its restraints and charges right at you with a fury you'd normally only see in the possessed. You instinctually move to block it with your FEDKILLER. The sturdy PARADIGM is able to hold back the blade...for now.

Your knees buckle under BELNOL's inhuman strength. You try to call out for help but everything's moving too fast. All you can see is the cold, lifeless stare of your own face staring back at you.
You hope to god this works. You yank the ASSAULT RIFLE out of your inventory with your telekinesis and you promptly load it with three PROTOTYPE ANTI-ANOMALY ROUNDs.

You yank the trigger with your mind.
The bullets pierces right through BELNOL'S first head. Already rotten brain matter splatters across your face. It stinks worse than a fucking sewer but there's no time to gag.
BELNOL stumbles back but you don't give it any time to recover.

You jam the FEDKILLER right into BELNOL's chest before pulling the trigger. Two bright pink slugs rip right through its torso. You jam another two HIRCHSTONE slugs into your shotgun before aiming right at its already battered legs. BANG!!!

Two holes explode out of BELNOL's left leg. Already torn to shreds by Anderson's rapier, this is enough to sever the leg completely. The abomination collapses to the floor now that it only has one leg to support itself. It struggles to get back up but it's out of the fight for now.
>4 HIRCHSTONE SLUGS left!
>You are out of PROTOTYPE ANTI-ANOMALY RIFLE ROUNDS!

You snap your head around to see how everyone else is doing.
The Cowboy Excisor rips the spear out of his chest and promptly tosses the thing at Otto with all of the strength he has left.

Otto scrambles to get out of the way but he still gets a large gash carved right across his arm!

>OTTO takes 4 FLESH DAMAGE! ARMOR was ignored!
The CEO scrambles for cover behind the nuclear bomb before anyone else could land a hit on him. Maruyama quickly moves to cast his TEMPORAL JAM ability around the nuclear bomb to buy some time.

He was in a rush so it wasn't as effective as you hoped...
>MARUYAMA loses 2 RESTRAINT! You bought an extra turn, leaving you with two turns after this round!

It's still enough to slow down the CEO's bullets as he tries to rain down suppressing fire down upon your group. You can't even count how many bullets are sluggishly crawling through the temporal field. Twenty? Thirty? Forty? The number increases with every second that passes...fuck. That's another issue to worry about.

Everyone's attention is drawn towards the three stunned EXCISORS. You yell out one simple command - "KILL THEM ALL!!!"
Your allies + BENNETT all charge towards their newfound targets. Blades, guns, teeth and fists ran down upon the three EXCISORS. What happens next is a complete blur of carnage that you can hardly process.

It ends about as quickly as it started. When the dust settles, you take stock of who's still standing.
>95!
The only ones left standing are your allies. The EXCISORS put up a little bit of a fight even when they were stunned. Wounds, worn like badges, cover your allies.

Gashes that weep crimson tears, bruises of a shade of purple you've never seen before, swollen black eyes, missing teeth.

Bennett's shotgun butt is dripping with blood. A large crack runs down his ANIMALISM armor.
Lex's PARADIGM jacket is torn to shreds, barely clinging to his body. His back looks like it's been torn by a spiked whip.
Maruyama's left arm loosely hangs. Dislocated and limp.
A large bloody gash runs down the length of Benedict's chest.
Adam's nose is broken beyond repair and a large chunk of his hair got ripped out.
Anderson is bleeding black pus from gashes carved into his stomach.

Yet they're still alive. And only one of the EXCISORS, a man with lizard-like features, is still standing after the brawl. The others lay in a pool of their own blood, their bodies torn beyond repair.
The LIZARD EXCISOR is telekinetically yanked over to where the CEO is at.

>ALL of your allies took 4 FLESH and 2 RESTRAINT DAMAGE from the brawl (-3 FLESH DAMAGE from 'BENNETT SLIGHTLY HOLDNG BACK'.)
>TWO EXCISORS have been killed!

The COWBOY EXCISOR finally manages to rip himself out of the restraints he was in and scrambles to find some sort of cover alongside the CEO and LIZARD EXCISOR.
"c'mon c'mon c'mon!!!" You can hear the CEO muttering to himself as he begins to copy yet another power - TOMORROW'S REGRET. Shit. You managed to disable three of the threats but there's that wall of bullets stopping you from outright chasing them.

You need to think of a way to flush them out or, at least, to not get torn to shreds by the volley of revolver rounds about to head your way.
Bennett is already marching towards the nuke. You need to make a decision.

TWO TURNS until the NUKE explodes.

STILLE DAG CEO: 145/155 FLESH, 135/155 RESTRAINT, ALL OTHER STATS AT 70! [GUARDED BY BULLET WALL! MELEE ALLIES can't approach!]
COWBOY EXCISOR: 28/28 FLESH, 30/39 RESTRAINT, other stats unchanged [GUARDED BY BULLET WALL! MELEE ALLIES can't approach!]
BELNOL: 10/45 FLESH, N/A RESTRAINT, 25 VIOLENCE, 10 TALENT, 4 in all other stats!
LIZARD EXCISOR: 25/35 FLESH, 30/35 RESTRAINT, 20 in all other stats! [GUARDED BY BULLET WALL! MELEE ALLIES can't approach!]

YOU [ANOMALY]: 9/14 FLESH, 12/18 RESTRAINT
LEX: 10/18 FLESH, 9/15 RESTRAINT
ANDERSON: 8/17 FLESH, 11/17 RESTRAINT
MARUYAMA: 3/27 FLESH, 15/32 RESTRAINT
BENEDICT: 11/22 FLESH, 8/14 RESTRAINT
OTTO: 3/15 FLESH, 7/13 RESTRAINT
ADAM: 4/14 FLESH, 7/13 RESTRAINT

BENNETT HUXLEY: STATS UNCHANGED

Pick three SIDEPLANS and one MAIN PLAN!

MAIN PLAN
>[ANDERSON ALLY] Convince Anderson that he should use AWAKE FROM YOUR NIGHTMARE. Right fucking now. (DC reduced to 43.)
>[UNSTABLE] NO PLAN. JUST SHOOT UNTIL THE ENEMIES FUCKING DIE. WE'RE GOING TO WIN!!!
>Flush them out! You need to kill them ASAP!!! (Spends most if not all of your explosives, molotovs, etcs. Forces them out of cover and deals massive damage to the three still-active threats.)
>Leave it up to BENNETT! Don't get in his way! He's MR. VIOLENCE MAN, after all! (You'll leave it up to him. You're not sure what'll happen.)
>Write in.

SIDEPLANS
>[MARUYAMA ALLY] You need more turns! Slow down the nuke's timer with Maruyama's TEMPORAL JAM! (Costs 1d4+1 MARUYAMA RESTRAINT, buys another 1d2 rounds.)
>[OTTO ALLY] Let Otto talk to the CEO. You bet he has a way to mess with his head. (DC reduced to 67.)
>Call for help! (Will help to flush out the CEO + the two active EXCISORS on top of dealing damage to them.)
>Heal up your party! This shit is getting serious! (-SINSU BOTTLE, -2 MEDKITs, -HAPPINESS IN A PILL :) bottle, -RAW VOIDSTONE CHUNK x3, -SWEET COMA, -JOYVEL BOTTLE. All allies heal 5 FLESH and 5 RESTRAINT. Three random allies will get a random mutation.)
>[LEX ALLY] Lex is praying in an ancient tongue. Guard him while he finishes it. (MODERATE WILLPOWER DC: 22, rolling Lex's 6d6. If he passes, every weapon your group has will be blessed, vastly increasing the damage you deal for this fight.)
>[BENEDICT + ANDERSON ALLY] Prepare for the incoming swarm of bullets. Have BENEDICT use COLD STORAGE to reflect them back. (-2 BENEDICT and ANDERSON RESTRAINT! With ANDERSON copying the ability, all of your allies will take 4 less FLESH DAMAGE this round!)
>Write in.

>>6256849
>Flush them out! You need to kill them ASAP!!!
Time is running out!!!
>Heal up your party! This shit is getting serious! (-SINSU BOTTLE, -2 MEDKITs, -HAPPINESS IN A PILL :) bottle, -RAW VOIDSTONE CHUNK x3, -SWEET COMA, -JOYVEL BOTTLE. All allies heal 5 FLESH and 5 RESTRAINT. Three random allies will get a random mutation.)
They can cure their mutations later with all the money we'll make! We need to survive to then first! Maruyama, Otto, and Adam are both almost dead now, and WILL be dead if we don't do this!
>[LEX ALLY]
Time is running out!!! Next turn we need to spend a side action on MARUYAMA regardless! It fucking SUCKS that the help call option is NOT a free action!

>>6256849

>[ANDERSON ALLY] Convince Anderson that he should use AWAKE FROM YOUR NIGHTMARE. Right fucking now. (DC reduced to 43.)


>[BENEDICT + ANDERSON ALLY] Prepare for the incoming swarm of bullets. Have BENEDICT use COLD STORAGE to reflect them back. (-2 BENEDICT and ANDERSON RESTRAINT! With ANDERSON copying the ability, all of your allies will take 4 less FLESH DAMAGE this round!)

>Heal up your party! This shit is getting serious! (-SINSU BOTTLE, -2 MEDKITs, -HAPPINESS IN A PILL :) bottle, -RAW VOIDSTONE CHUNK x3, -SWEET COMA, -JOYVEL BOTTLE. All allies heal 5 FLESH and 5 RESTRAINT. Three random allies will get a random mutation.)

>Call for help! (Will help to flush out the CEO + the two active EXCISORS on top of dealing damage to them.)

>>6256925
+1

>>6256963
But they are HIDING BEHIND THE NUKE
AFYN will trigger the nuke on hit and we're doomed

>>6256849
FUCK IT IF IT'S BEEN FREE THIS ENTIRE TIME AND I DIDN'T KNOW
>Call for help! (Will help to flush out the CEO + the two active EXCISORS on top of dealing damage to them.)
TO MY VOTE IN >>6256925 IF POSSIBLE

>>6257006
+1

>>6257006
>FUCK IT IF IT'S BEEN FREE THIS ENTIRE TIME AND I DIDN'T KNOW
I said you could pick three sideplans this update. He was just picking three sideplans.
Just clarifying.

>>6257006
>FUCK IT IF IT'S BEEN FREE THIS ENTIRE TIME AND I DIDN'T KNOW
I said you could pick three sideplans this update. He was just picking three sideplans.
Just clarifying.
>AFYN will trigger the nuke on hit and we're doomed
I wouldn't give you an option that reads "FUCKING DIE". As funny as it would be to make it so it did explode, Anderson is not that incompetent with his aim.
You do only get one shot with it and it is behind a skill check still.

>>6257050
I am dumb and did not see 3 sideplans, whoops

>>6256849
>[ANDERSON ALLY] Convince Anderson that he should use AWAKE FROM YOUR NIGHTMARE. Right fucking now. (DC reduced to 43.)

>Call for help! (Will help to flush out the CEO + the two active EXCISORS on top of dealing damage to them.)
>[LEX ALLY] Lex is praying in an ancient tongue. Guard him while he finishes it. (MODERATE WILLPOWER DC: 22, rolling Lex's 6d6. If he passes, every weapon your group has will be blessed, vastly increasing the damage you deal for this fight.)
>[BENEDICT + ANDERSON ALLY] Prepare for the incoming swarm of bullets. Have BENEDICT use COLD STORAGE to reflect them back. (-2 BENEDICT and ANDERSON RESTRAINT! With ANDERSON copying the ability, all of your allies will take 4 less FLESH DAMAGE this round!)

So, ANDERSON ALLY for MAIN PLAN
BENEDICT/ANDERSON, LEX ALLY, and HEAL YOUR PARTY wins out.

Three anons, roll the following

>6d6 (LEX)
>7d6 (first half of ANDERSON)
>5d6 (second half of ANDERSON)

ITEMS AVAILABLE TO MODIFY YOUR ROLLS
-MANAGER'S FLESH (Can reroll three dice on LEX but only once.)
-SUNSTONE CLUMP (Four charges, can spend one to add 2d8 to either check. One charge per check.)
-MOONSTONE FRAGMENT (You have three, can spend one to roll 3d6 on LEX.)
-OPEN YOUR MIND" BRANDED PILL (You have one, can spend it to add 1d12 to LEX and boosts his future RESTRAINT/WILLPOWER/COGNIZANCE rolls.)
-RUSTY BLUE PILL (You have two. Can spend one to add 4d6 to ANDERSON and heals you by 2 RESTRAINT.)

Rolled 4, 2, 2, 1, 6, 2 = 17 (6d6)

>>6257353
I am OK with this vote outcome
Rolling for LEX ALLY

Rolled 6, 5, 4 = 15 (3d6)

>>6257370
MANAGER'S FLESH on 1, 2, 2

>>6257370
>>6257372
>4, 2, 6, 5, 6, 4 = 27
Nice, passed the DC 22

Actually, wait, I fucked up the SIDEPLANS thing

BENEDICT + ANDERSON: I+w, OUQ
HEAL: EVERYONE
LEX: oCg, OUQ, /Y0
CALL FOR HELP: oCg, /Y0, OUQ

Making a small correction, must've misread something. You're actually doing HEAL/LEX/CALL FOR HELP
Doesn't change what you're rolling at all. Just clarifying.

Next turn we need to spend one SIDE ACTION on MARUYAMA ALLY to avoid the nuke blowing up. This leaves us with 1 MAIN and 1-2 SIDE ACTION.
>[LEX ALLY] Time to use Lex's new DETACH ability. They won't expect a detached, telekinetically launched fist! (+LEVEL OF VIOLENCE. Does MASSIVE damage to a random target. Heals everyone's RESTRAINT by 2.)
It might be time to use this then, if after Anderson destroys them all with AFYN only the Spook CEO is left standing. Then he becomes the ONLY target possible. It'll be more bothersome if any EXCISOR is still left and the coinflip picks them instead of the CEO. The RESTRAINT heal isn't much compared to the FLESH damage we're taking, but it helps to use more powers up. The VIOLENCE increasing can only help us after Lex's teamwide weapon buff goes through, and Bennett will undoubtedly appreciate it in his own way.

Then we can either use the last potential SIDE ACTION on call for help?

>>6257376
So CALL FOR HELP flushes the 3 out right into the path of AFYN and then Bennett? At least we have some heals on allies in case we need those after the bullet wall? I think Benedict and Lex can also heal, maybe other methods I'm forgetting?

Rolled 5, 1, 5, 4, 6, 4, 3 = 28 (7d6)

>>6257353

Rolled 2, 4, 4, 2, 2 = 14 (5d6)

>>6257353

>>6257543
>>6257562
>off by one
Which item to use?

>>6257575
I'll just default to the RUSTY BLUE PILL because
-The SUNSTONE CLUMP is probably far, far more useful this encounter than the CHARM/CONNECTIONS boosting pill
-Healing your RESTRAINT is good.

With that, you pass both checks! You spend a lot of healing items and one funny blue pill. Writing!

Oh, right, mutations. The WILL of GOD has decided that LEX, OTTO and ADAM have been targeted for mutations.

Rolling 3d100 myself. First for MARUYAMA, second for OTTO, third for ADAM
MUTATION TABLE
1-10 = AWFUL (A purely negative mutation. Nothing good about this - Get this excised immediately.)
11-25 = BAD (A mutation with a minor upside and a large downside. Might be worth it depending on your luck.)
26-35 = EH. (A mutation with a minor upside and a moderate downside.)
35-45 = OKAY. (A mutation with a moderate upside and downside.)
46-55 = DECENT. (A mutation with a great upside and moderate downside.)
56-65 = GOOD. (A mutation with a minor and moderate upside and a moderate downside.)
66-75 = GREAT. (A mutation with a minor and moderate and a minor downside.)
76-85 = AMAZING. (A mutation with a two moderate upside with a minor downside)
86-99 = REALLY AMAZING (A mutation with two great upsides and a minor downside.)
100 = GODLIKE (A mutation with two AMAZING upsides and no downside.)

Rolled 51, 72, 66 = 189 (3d100)

I'll just default to the RUSTY BLUE PILL because
-The SUNSTONE CLUMP is probably far, far more useful this encounter than the CHARM/CONNECTIONS boosting pill
-Healing your RESTRAINT is good.

With that, you pass both checks! You spend a lot of healing items and one funny blue pill. Writing!

Oh, right, mutations. The WILL of GOD has decided that LEX, OTTO and ADAM have been targeted for mutations.

Rolling 3d100 myself. First for MARUYAMA, second for OTTO, third for ADAM. But this time, I remember to actually roll.

MUTATION TABLE
1-10 = AWFUL (A purely negative mutation. Nothing good about this - Get this excised immediately.)
11-25 = BAD (A mutation with a minor upside and a large downside. Might be worth it depending on your luck.)
26-35 = EH. (A mutation with a minor upside and a moderate downside.)
35-45 = OKAY. (A mutation with a moderate upside and downside.)
46-55 = DECENT. (A mutation with a great upside and moderate downside.)
56-65 = GOOD. (A mutation with a minor and moderate upside and a moderate downside.)
66-75 = GREAT. (A mutation with a minor and moderate and a minor downside.)
76-85 = AMAZING. (A mutation with a two moderate upside with a minor downside)
86-99 = REALLY AMAZING (A mutation with two great upsides and a minor downside.)
100 = GODLIKE (A mutation with two AMAZING upsides and no downside.)

>>6257592
>DECENT (GREAT UPSIDE, MODERATE DOWNSIDE)
>GREAT (MINOR + MODERATE DOWNSIDE, MINOR DOWNSIDE)
>GREAT (MINOR + MODERATE DOWNSIDE, MINOR DOWNSIDE)

Meant to say Lex for the first one.
Revealing mutations so the following update is a bit less cluttered with random stats

>LEX
The blood trailing down his back faintly sizzles. It reminds you of that one old sci-fi movie from the 1970s your dad showed you one time. A drop falls onto the floor - It melts right through.
>ACIDIC BLOOD! (Whenever Lex is damaged in melee combat, the enemy takes 5 MIXED damage back and has a high chance of getting a crippling injury! Nearby allies have a low chance of receiving 2 MIXED DAMAGE and a minor injury when this ability triggers.)

>OTTO
The skin on Otto's body quickly turns dry, hard and vaguely scaly. It's oddly similar to the mutation the one lizard EXCISOR has...
He would start itching if he wasn't in the middle of a combat zone...
>LIZARD SCALES! (Otto takes 1 less FLESH damage from all sources and gains +2 MAX FLESH as well! His mobility has taken a hit, so he has -1 TALENT.)

>ADAM
A thin layer of steam emanates from Adam's nose and mouth. It smells vaguely like what you'd smell if someone was cooking aromatics in the kitchen.
It calms your group but you gotta admit, it's very distracting...
>PLEASANT AROMA (Everyone will slowly heal RESTRAINT if they're near Adam and Adam gains +1 MAX RESTRAINT! SHIFTer powers are slightly weakened, on both sides, if he's nearby.)

Okay, NOW I'll write.

>>6257602
>ACIDIC BLOOD
Shit that's gonna fuck up his vein healing! But on the other hand, that means he could pump that acid right into the CEO's body and he won't see it coming
>LIZARD SCALES
Eh, it kinda suits him?
>PLEASANT AROMA
Sucks for powers but it'll be a nice way to recover everybody's sanity after we're outta here, alongside Casey being Casey

>>6257773
>pump that acid right into the CEO's body

Clever.

>PLEASANT AROMA

Kind of a mixed bag but may be useful to weaken the CEO and not all of our Crew are SHIFTERS so the benifits might out weigh the down sided.

I kinda hope another team can make it to us to help. Naomi's boons could be nice and infinte Casy's would be a good meat shield. Frank is fucking Frank. Clover has good powers and firepower.

Heal. Heal your FAMILY. You need to keep them safe. Too much blood. T-T-Too much blood is being spilled. It stinks of iron, sulfur and sweat in here. You lick your lips - The taste of metal lingers on your tongue.

"E-everyone! BACK! F-FIND COVER, HEAL!"
Everyone falls into line. You find some brief cover behind the two oversized EXCISOR corpses. Even despite everything thrown at them, their corpses still remain intact enough to shield your FAMILY.

Adam desperately tries to staunch the bleeding gash on his head (seems like some of his scalp was ripped out as well) while everyone else is too numb to really process their pain right now.
You need to heal them. And fast. You vomit out as many healing items you feel comfortable using right now onto the ground.

Your allies scramble to grab an item to patch themselves up with the same fervor as a starving homeless man.
You can't keep doing this. You're RUNNING OUT OF TIME.

"Anderson," You choke out. "We need to use your gun. AWAKE FROM YOUR-"
"Out of the question. We're doing fine." He's patching up his torn open stomach with a needle and thread. He swears under his breath with every new stitch.
"Are you FUCKING JOKING? They're ripping us to shreds! We have to overpower them NOW-"

"And I told you. We are not using it." Anderson barks back.
"Is it because it only has one bullet? Yeah, that sucks, but we can find another one. We can flush them out. It's fine!"
"You think finding another bullet is EASY? I have spent years, YEARS, of my life trying to find a bullet for it."

"I am not wasting it on some no-name Spook."
You rub your temples. You can feel your antlers growing into your brain at this rate. "Maruyama can get your bullet back. We can find another one. I promise you, it will be worth it."

"You- You don't understand the power you're asking me to use here."
You dry swallow a RUSTY BLUE PILL. "Oh, I think I understand, that's exactly why I'm asking you. You do this or we die, Anderson."

Maruyama forces his arm back into its socket. "There's only so much time I can buy too."
"They're hiding behind the nuke! What if I accidently blow it up?! What then, genius?"

"I can flush them out. Look, just. I'm willing to pay the price of whatever I'm asking you to do. Please. I beg you, just...use your gun."

>46!
Anderson grinds his teeth together. He really doesn't want to do this but he can see the writing on the wall. "Get them out of cover and I might consider it. Okay?"
"Of course, of course." You tap your earpiece. "ANYONE WITH A GOOD LINE OF SIGHT, WE NEED YOU TO FIRE EVERYTHING YOU HAVE DOWN ON THE CEO. HE'S RIGHT BEHIND THE NUKE!"

A mangled mess of various calls and responses echoes back through your earpiece. You can only hope this will work.
Your group finishes up healing after Lex (with a lot more caution due to his new mutation) helps to equalize the healing across the party with his healing veins.

>EVERYONE heals 5 FLESH and 5 RESTRAINT!

Lex clasps his hands together.

In a low, reverent voice, he begins to pray. Right as he begins to pray, you glance up at the rungs above you. Six of your allies have managed to break away from the ceaseless violence to offer your support.

Three different sniper rifles, one modified revolver, a flashbang and a cryo grenade are all trained on the CEO
On your command, they spring to fire down a flurry of bullets and grenades down upon the CEO's cover.
The CEO and his associates try to scramble away from the grenades but that only leaves them exposed to the volley of bullets.

Large chunks of flesh are easily torn out of their bodies but they're too sturdy to die from JUST sniper fire. That's not what you were worried about - They're falling right into your trap.

Lex finishes his prayer.
>27!
Your party's weapons start to glow with a deep dark (almost blacker than black) red light.
>Every weapon has been blessed! Every hit will inflict a scaling FLESH DAMAGE TAKEN debuff, permanently increasing the damage your target takes.

You and Anderson scramble out of cover while everyone else stays behind - They overheard what Anderson was babbling about with his gun and they don't want to be anywhere near it.
Bennett pushes past through the bullet wall with barely any damage taken. All he cares about is the fresh, succulent meat in front of him.

Anderson cautiously loads in the single bullet he has for AFYN. There's a heavy weight behind the bolt locking into position. A weight you're not sure Anderson is willing to carry.
But, it's now or never. Bennett, the CEO and the two still living EXCISORS are all in a straight line. Away from the nuke.

Anderson is really, really hesitant to pull the trigger but it's too late for him to make a decision. On one janky movement, he pulls the trigger.

...
...
...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDKnY9CK6vg - AWAKE FROM YOUR NIGHTMARE

Everything goes white.
You can't hear anything. You can't see anything. You can't feel anything. You can't smell anything. You can't taste anything.
Pure, holy white. Smothering every aspect of reality itself. You think you'd be floating if you had any sensation in your body.

Vision quickly returns to you. A cloud of white smoke oozes slowly out of the barrel of his gun. The air around it ripples and distorts like it has been superheated in an industrial oven. The bullet is moving slowly through the air, spinning and twisting in on itself. Time itself seems to be distorting under the bullet's influence.

Then, in a flash, everything returns to normal.
The bullet rips through the people in front of it like they were made out of paper. Bennett is sent flying into the air from the sheer force of the blast.

The left side of his armor promptly shatters into a million tiny pieces. The flesh underneath has been pulverized into a fine paste, clinging onto his bones (which seem completely unharmed) like wet Papier-mâché. Those in front of him aren't so lucky.

The lower half of the COWBOY EXCISOR explodes into a fine red paste. Bone fragments scatter throughout the air like rice at a wedding. The sheer air force of the bullet rips the skin right off of his face, exposing his skull.
The left side of the LIZARD EXCISOR explodes into a fine red paste. His internal organs spill out of the massive gap in his left side. Almost reminds you of popping open a pizza roll to see the juicy sauce inside.

They collapse to the floor, unmoving.

The CEO instinctually reacts to the incoming bullet. Thick silver crystals caked in a protective layer of ash rapidly coat his body. Thick layers of electrified oil orbit around his crystal-coated body. Four different copied powers - All used to try surviving what's coming his way.

A bright flash of light floods the arena as soon as the bullet collides with him.
The sheer force of the impact sends the nuke flying to the other side of the arena. It smashes against the wall and beeps out something you can barely hear. "-TIMER DA- RESET T-"

>You bought 1 extra turn due to the sheer power of AFYN!

When the light eventually begins to fade and disparate, you're finally able to see what's left of the CEO. Needless to say, it's not pretty.

Large crystal shards have imbedded themselves all over his body, violently fusing into his skin from the intense heat infused into them by the bullet. One of the shards has jabbed itself into his left eye, blinding him in the process.

The skin all over his body is now a bright, burnt red like the world's worst sunburn. Thick layers of skin are peeling off of him, exposing the muscles underneath.
The head-sized layer of necrotic flesh on his chest has now spread to cover large sections across his entire body. A thick layer of dead, blackened armor.

A hole the size of your hand has punched into his chest. It's deep enough to expose his still beating heart - colored a bright, tainted silver.

Weeping, bright white pus leaks out of gashes across his body. His body is barely able to handle the sheer amount of damage thrown his way (especially after you disabled his implants). Even through all of the damage that would've killed a man a thousand times over, he still stands.

He crunches down on something hard. The hole showing his heart rapidly seals shut with black, necrotic flesh.
Anderson lowers his gun. "It's just you now. Surrender. This is the only mercy we're going to offer you."

The CEO loosens his shoulders, not even seeming to be aware of the damage done to his body. His remaining good eyes sparkles with bright cream-white light. "So it has come to this. So be it. Remember my name - Liam 'Fredrick' Dag." He calmly reloads his still intact six shooter.

A pair of ashen wings violently burst out of his necrotized flesh.
A thin, oil soaked layer of crystalline silver coats the weak spot on his chest.
Electricity fizzles around his non-gun wielding hand.

https://youtu.be/1m9h8W1WkB0?si=g2DSlKu_Cx92CLz1 - LIAM DAG

LIAM 'FREDRICK' DAG: 95/155 FLESH, 95/155 RESTRAINT, ALL OTHER STATS AT 85! (He's all alone. He's fighting for his left now.. Takes little damage from any damage type/source.)

YOU [ANOMALY]: 14/14 FLESH, 18/18 RESTRAINT
LEX: 16/18 FLESH, 15/15 RESTRAINT
ANDERSON: 13/17 FLESH, 16/17 RESTRAINT
MARUYAMA: 10/27 FLESH, 22/32 RESTRAINT
BENEDICT: 16/22 FLESH, 13/14 RESTRAINT
OTTO: 8/15 FLESH, 12/13 RESTRAINT
ADAM: 9/14 FLESH, 12/13 RESTRAINT

BENNETT HUXLEY: 73/88 VIOLENCE, 51/66 COOL. He barely seems phased by the AFYN bullet.

TWO TURNS UNTIL THE NUKE GOES OFF! Choose one MAIN PLAN and three SIDE PLANS!

MAIN PLAN
>[BENEDICT + ADAM ALLY] DISTRACT HIM! You need Benedict and Adam to weaken his powers! (CHALLENGING WILLPOWER DC: 55, rolling 14d6 with Adam and Benedict working together. Neuters his abilities for this round if it passes, allowing you to deal some truly serious damage.)
>[UNSTABLE] Shock and confuse him! You have an old damage reflecting item - Have everyone hit you as hard as they possibly can! (-O-CORP FOLK CHARM. You'll take a LOT of damage but it massively damages Liam with no stat check needed!)
>Keep your distance. Pester him with explosives and ranged weapons. (Limits the damage you can deal but it massively reduces the damage you take this round. Consumes some explosive items.)
>[LEX ALLY] Try to distract him for long enough so Lex can use his ACIDIC BLOOD on him! (CHALLENGING FLESH DC: 67, rolling Lex's 16d6. Costs some LEX FLESH to use but it completely melts LIAM's insides, disabling what little regen he might have left.)
>Write in.

SIDE PLAN
>[MARUYAMA ALLY] YOU NEED MORE TURNS!!! (Costs 1d5+2 MARUYAMA RESTRAINT, buys another 1d3 rounds before the nuke goes off.)
>[OTTO ALLY] OTTO, MESS WITH HIS HEAD!!! (MODERATE CONNECTIONS DC: 65, rolling Otto's 20d6. Pass and his ability to use his powers to fight back is crippled, reducing all future skill check DCs by 5 this fight.)
>THIS MIGHT BITE YOU LATER BUT OFFER BENNETT SOME SUPPLIES! (-SINNLÖSCHEN, -LATE TIME SUPPLEMENT x2, -6 of 12 ARMOR PISTOL SHOTGUN SLUGS. Bennett will buy you 1 extra NUKE TURN and his presence will lightly boost your party's stats.)
>BUY SOME TIME! YOU NEED ANOTHER SQUAD! (Eats up a SIDE PLAN without doing much THIS turn. Two random will join the fight to offer you support!)
>CALL FOR HELP!!! (Has two charges left. Weakens his insane protection his new armor is providing him and does light damage to him.)
>KEEP HIM LOCKED TO THE GROUND! (-last GRAVITY GENERATOR. Limits his ability to fly and avoid your attacks via his ASHEN WINGS. You really don't want him to fly freely...)
>WRITE IN!

Yeah, sorry for the delay, not sure what happened. All I remember is passing out on my desk and waking up, like, an hour ago.

>>6257942

>All I remember is passing out on my desk

Been there, done that a lot recently; have a bruise from it lol.

I will need to consider it. Fucking up the Excisors was good but fuck this dude will not go down.

Thinking time.

>>6257968
It occured to me that Maruyama has this
>ROSE TINTED PAST
Which has this mentioned
>Maruyama may spend 2 FLESH and 2 RESTRAINT to manifest 1d3+1 items from someone's past. This item will always be significant and powerful to the person in question. If he chooses not to spend RESTRAINT/FLESH, only one will be selected.
Nicole also still has
>MEMORIES OF A FORGOTTEN ERA
That can be used to pull items from the past. Getting Anderson back an AFYN bullet to make up for the one he used is a great way to repay him once we get out of here alive

>>6257968
>fuck this dude will not go down.
This man is literally the final boss for Nicole. Everything she's suffered is thanks to him. Of course he will take almost everything we have to defeat. I suggest taking like 30 minutes reading over the INVENTORY and MAIN CHARACTER SHEET and B5 SQUAD pastebins. Maybe there's something there that could be the key for a great write-in? Reading back to see which new powers the squad has that the CEO has NOT copied and DOESN'T know about is also wise. Either way we're still not done

realized life got autocorrected into left. Spellcheck your stuff, kids.
>>6257997
>Reading back to see which new powers the squad has that the CEO has NOT copied and DOESN'T know about is also wise.

I'll save you some time and list out what you've seen him copying so far.

YOUR POWERS
-TELEKINESIS (he yanked his allies into cover)
-FLESH WEAVERY (That's your best guess for what's offering his insane protection boost and why the necrotic flesh is making itself into armor for him.)
LEX POWERS
-COMBAT CRYSTALIZATION (Used it to protect himself. Tried to empower the COWBOY EXCISOR'S gun but Adam just no-diff'd the extra MENTAL damage)
MARUYAMA POWERS
-None, but he clearly knew how to use the TEMPORAL JAM to buy himself some time.
BENJAMIN POWERS
-ASHEN WINGS (Obvious, he has wings right now.)
-PROTECTIVE ASH (Used it to protect himself.)
BENEDICT POWERS
-ELECTRIC SURGE (His hand is fizzling with electricity right now)
-TOMORROW'S REGRET (He tried to heal his allies using it.)
MAX POWERS
-OIL SLICK (He's been using oil to modify his other powers.)

As for powers you're pretty sure he doesn't know, it's Maruyama's ROSE TINTED PAST (one that generates items), Lex's DETACH/REATTACH (limb altering) and THICKER THAN WATER (his healing ability), and Benedict's COLD STORAGE (cryo damage/bullet blocking) and BETTER SERVE COLD (power/weapon negation).
Everything else is probably on the table.

>>6258005
Thanks OP, this'll be handy to have for this final fight

>>6258008
>>6258005

Indeed. TY. I will probably sleep and sober up before making choices or thinking of a write in

Having Maruyama remanifest a bullet for Awaken From Your Nightmare for a second shot if we can get rid of his protection powers might be a game ender if we use it at the right time.

I am kinda having a hard time deciding between getting rid of his regen or knocking his powers out for a round.

I do think getting a couple more people down here and call for help could be smart. Possibly Maru getting us extra turns. He has the revive ability right? So one death isn't a game ender and we have Bennet to use for another turn as well but our salaryman is really putting in overtime. Haha, Master or wit.

>>6258008
>>6258046
I seem to remember we had some kind of damage-blocking item. We can use it in conjunction with [UNSTABLE]

>>6257942
>[BENEDICT + ADAM ALLY]

>[MARUYAMA ALLY]
>[OTTO ALLY]
>BUY SOME TIME! YOU NEED ANOTHER SQUAD!

>>6258225
Why all that?

>>6258416
look it's been 23 hours and no one else is voting for anything, at least he's VOTING FOR SOMETHING.
i'm closing the vote in the next 8 hours. vote for something.

>>6258445
You got it boss

>>6257942
>[BENEDICT + ADAM ALLY]
Get him depowered
>[OTTO ALLY]
Cuck him for the rest of the fight
>[MARUYAMA ALLY]
Slow that nuke more
>BUY SOME TIME! YOU NEED ANOTHER SQUAD!
Surely, surely all the other people above are almost all dead and our guys are good to go? How are we going to burn through 95 FLESH with just our squad + Bennett? We need literally everybody here just to mob him to death with his insane levels of FLESH/RESTRAINT

I want to save that O-CORP FOLK CHARM for the HEAD MEETING final boss if possible?
We need him DEAD and pestering him is a BAD idea for killing him faster
LEX ALLY for the acidic blood fucking him up is a good idea for next round, I think
I refuse to give Bennett more supplies, fuck that
We could use the GRAVITY GENERATOR on the escape too, and if the CEO is depowered then that also means no wings and no flight so it's all good right?

Again, how are we going to kill all that HP? AFYN did a big chunk but he's still going. We keep having to use Maruyama to delay the nuke timer while we slowly wear this guy down and we're being worn down more than he is. At this rate he will WIN the battle of attrition unless Bennett finally goes ham on his ass, or unless all the rest of our allies finish killing literally the entire engine room above of goons and elites with zero casualties and leaving the CEO as the only man left.

>>6258225
+1, seems the best options right now

Rolled 4 + 2 (1d5 + 2)

Okay, cool, all three anons agree to the same thing. Three anons, roll the following

>14d6 (ADAM + BENEDICT)
>20d6 (OTTO)
>1d3 (TIME SAVED BY MARUYAMA)

ROLL MODIFIERS ALLOWED
-MANAGER'S FLESH (Can reroll 3d6 on ADAM + BENEDICT or OTTO. Can only be used once.)
-REFINED GALAXYSTONE (You have 3. Can spend one to add 3d9 to OTTO.)
-OPEN YOUR MIND PILL (You have 1. Can use to add 1d12 to ADAM+BENEDICT)
-SUNSTONE CLUMP (Four charges, can spend one to add 2d8 to either check. One charge per check.)
-Q-CORP CIGARETTE PACK (Has three cigarettes. Can be used to reroll three dice on either check. Dice rerolled this way are 3d9s.)

I'll roll for how much RESTRAINT damage Maruyama took.

Rolled 3, 3, 5, 3, 3, 6, 1, 1, 6, 2, 2, 4, 5, 1 = 45 (14d6)

>>6258653

Rolled 1 (1d12)

>>6258666
>Use OPEN YOUR MIND PILL

Rolled 3, 5, 7 = 15 (3d9)

>>6258666
>Add a Q-CORP CIGARETTE, reroll 3 1s

>>6258666
>>6258668
>>6258669
Tallying up for convivence
That leaves you with an 58. That passes.

Rolled 4, 1, 2, 2, 4, 4, 3, 6, 6, 1, 3, 1, 3, 6, 3, 6, 4, 2, 4, 6 = 71 (20d6)

>>6258653

Rolled 1 (1d3)

>>6258668
wow dice gods fucked this one up

>>6258653
Rolling the time saved

>>6258705
WOW THE DICE HATE US
NOT A SINGLE GOOD MARUYAMA NUKE TIME SAVE ROLL THE ENTIRE FIGHT

Tell you what, I'll give you a quick option to uncuck Maruyama's roll. Since he has consistently rolled dogshit every time he has done it.

Pick one. If you pick anything but DON'T PAY A PRICE, he'll give you 3 turns (bumping it to 4 turns with the end of turn decay.)

>PAIN (He loses 3 MAX FLESH and takes 3 FLESH damage.)
>SUFFERING (He loses 5 MAX RESTRAINT alongside the damage he took)
>DRUGS (You lose SINNLÖSCHEN, 2 of 3 MOONSTONE FRAGMENTS and both Q-Corp cigs.)
>DON'T PAY A PRICE (Accept the 1 turn boost and don't spend anything more.)

>>6258714
>SUFFERING (He loses 5 MAX RESTRAINT alongside the damage he took)
He's fine

>>6258719
+1

>>6258714
>DRUGS (You lose SINNLÖSCHEN, 2 of 3 MOONSTONE FRAGMENTS and both Q-Corp cigs.)

Ogey. Three votes and two agree to make him suffer. This update is already lagging behind so let's get going.
As for which party members are coming?
You'll see soon. Writing. Here's a line from one.

"Are ya ready, partner?"

Liam already moves before you even have the time to finish a single thought. He closes the distance so far you swore he teleported.
The first thing that registered in your mind is the sound of tearing flesh and the worst pain you ever felt in your entire life.

The second thing you register is one simple fact — Your right arm has been torn clean off.
Pink blood gushes out of the wound like a god damn waterfall. Your anomalous body (with help from your EVIGT IMPLANT) hastily repairs the wound by cauterizing the stump.

>You take 8 ARMOR PIERCING FLESH and RESTRAINT damage!

And like he never moved, Liam is back where he was standing. Holding your own severed arm.
It's only then that your party realized anything has even changed. Hands begin to shake, pupils dilate, heavy breathing overshadows the sounds of war above.

You nearly collapse to your knees. Everything hurts. Your vision is swimming.

"I didn't become a CEO by being weak." He crushes your severed arm into pulp. No recovering that. "Let's dance."
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Lex yanks one of his two shotguns resting in his INVENTORY and tries to aim a killing shot on Liam.

Liam easily dodges the first slug fired his way. Then the second and third. His body weaves out of the way with the same ease a fly dodges a clumsy attempt to swat it. He would've dodged the fourth one if Bennett didn't manage to blindside him with a grab.

Bennett struggles to hold the CEO in place — Bennett of all people! Thankfully it was enough for the single PROTOTYPE ANTI-ANOMALY SLUG fired to land its mark.
A small crack forms in his armor from the impact of it but that's it. No blood was drawn. You're not even sure he registered it.

Bennett puts all of his strength into crushing the CEO's body. Liam struggles against the agent's grasp, thrashing like a wild animal caught in a beartrap.
You take this brief moment to plan with your allies. "A-any ideas, guys?"

"Fuck. This dude won't go down!" Lex grits his teeth. "We can't do this by ourselves. We need backup!"
"Even if we do get help," Anderson lights up a molotov. "It wouldn't matter with that armor he's wearing."
Adam nearly coughs up a lung from all of the steam he's producing. "I think I-I got a solution. We need time, though, and a really good distraction."
Benedict taps at his armblade. "His speed is abnormally high but if I could touch him, I may be able to overpower his anomalous strength. Even for a moment."

Otto reloads his revolver. "I got an idea. Nicole, stay back. Weird asian salaryman, do your time stuff."
"You know my name." Maruyama wheezes. "F-fine."

You tap the earpiece barely hanging in your ear. You quickly jibber out a cry for help for anyone, ANYONE, to back your squad up. To sum up what you said succinctly, 'WE ARE GOING TO GET OUR ASSES KICKED!'
You can only hope your call for help was heard.

Bennett's crushing grasp managed to form cracks all across Liam's steel-like necrotic flesh.
That's all he could manage.

Liam's body liquifies into an oil slurry and like he wasn't even there at all, he phases right through Bennett, coating him with oil in the process.

Liam appears right behind Bennett and solidifies back to his normal form. He then casually snaps his fingers.

Bennett doesn't even have time to react before his body is set ablaze. The agent immediately throws himself into the quickly rising pools of blood to snuff out his smoldering body.
Liam snaps his fingers again. Five crystalline balls filled to the brim with electrified oil manifest in the air. They're launched at your group like bullets, smashing into your group on impact.

The smell of burning hair and frying flesh fills the air. Your allies convulse and squirm from the electrical current flooding their nervous systems. It's weak but...
>EVERYONE takes 2 ARMOR PIERCING FLESH damage! Everyone but ADAM takes 6 RESTRAINT damage!

The shattered crystal balls immediately reform before rewinding back over to Liam, ready to be refilled with more electrified oil.
Shit! You can't dodge that attack - It's too fast! He has to be speeding up time somehow. An inversion on Maruyama's TEMPORAL JAM?
Before he can throw another attack, Otto loudly clears his throat.

It's enough to stop Liam for a brief moment.
"What a load of shit!" Otto fires a pot shot at Liam. He easily dodges but it's clearly meant to keep his attention on OTTO more than anything. "Look at this! I gotta give you props! A+ for being able to staple a buncha different powers together. I can give you that."

"THAT'S ALL YOU ARE, THOUGH! A CHEAP COPY OF US!"

Liam scoffs, "Do you think I care that they're not mine? If it works, it works. You're a business man."
"Creating a good idea is one thing. Being able to refine it, turn it into something worthwhile, THAT'S what I'm doing."

"Oh, right, I guess I shouldn't have expected anything better from a knockoff of B-Corp."
Now THAT got underneath his skin. "We were the original. We were the Eyes of the City long before the imposter YOU call B-Corp came into existence. We deserve their spot."
"Uh huh, is that so?" Otto keeps firing shot after shot at Liam to keep his focus. Liam dodges most of them with ease and the few that managed to hit Liam simply bounce off. "Didn't you literally just excuse yourself for copying? Now B-Corp is bad for copying you?"

"Make up your mind!"

Adam and Benedict slowly begin to sneak up on the distracted CEO.

"They are nothing like us. They were a hasty, cheap replacement by the Head. We 'encroached' too far into their domain. We 'redacted' too much information they wanted to know. So they installed a puppet Company solely subservient to them."
"It's pathetic. If you are to copy someone, copy what is good about them."

"Maybe that's what they copied," Otto smirks. "The fact you're a hastily ran, third rate company no one cares about. You couldn't even stop a fucking schizo deer from ruining your plans."

>71!

Oh, he sees RED now. "YOU!"

The crystal balls floating above him shatter into a million little pieces. He manages to revert the damage as quickly as it happened but his focus is shattered now. "YOU TAKE THAT BACK!"

"Make me!"

Right as Liam is about to move, Adam and Benedict spring into action.
Adam wraps his body around Liam. It doesn't slow him down in the slightest but the steam leaking out of Adam's mouth dazes the CEO for a brief second.

Just long enough for Benedict to transform his arm. Benedict shoves the palm of his hand against Liam's chest...
>58!
And just like that, the once indestructible armor he wore begins to slough off in huge clumps. Liam's knees begin to buckle under the sudden negation of his abilities. "W-wuh- YOU DARE-" Adam drives his chef's knife DEEP into Liam's thigh. Blood gushes from the inedible wound, mixing in with the rest of the blood on the floor.

Adam's reward is getting kicked with enough lingering force to send him flying to the other side of the arena. His back smashes HARD against the westernmost wall. All of the air gets knocked right out of him. You barely manage to catch him with your telekinesis before he falls and drowns in a blood pool.

>ADAM takes 4 (lowered from 5) FLESH DAMAGE!
Benedict eats a full force headbutt right to the face, breaking his nose to match his best friend's. Benedict's jaw crunches, snapping into an awkward position. He stumbles back from the impact but he's able to hold his ground for now.

>BENEDICT takes 7 (lowered from 8) FLESH DAMAGE!

Liam struggles to move his body to attack the others. The crystal balls floating around him collapse to the ground, shattering uselessly. "YOU! YOU PIECE OF SHIT-"
"SHUT UP!" Lex charges at him with his BOAR KILLING SPEAR. Liam's still fast even without his abilities so he manages to dodge a spear to his chest. Lex quickly swerves to impale the spear right through his leg.

Now pinned, Anderson lobs one of his many molotovs right towards Liam. It shatters on impact and lights the fucker up like a christmas candle. Lex snaps off a piece of his BOAR KILLING SPEAR so that Maruyama can repair it in need be.
Maruyama reaches his hands out to cast another TEMPORAL JAM on the NUKE. It seems like his power is starting to drain his mind more and more as he constantly spams it out.

He bits down HARD on his tongue to regain his focus. A thick, solid TEMPORAL JAM sets around the nuke. It's going to hold for now.
>MARUYAMA loses 5 MAX RESTRAINT and takes 6 RESTRAINT damage.

He taps Lex's spear end - The TEMPORAL REWIND rips the rest of the spear out of Liam's leg, tearing his leg to shreds.
Liam uses this brief moment of freedom to blitz over to Otto. He reels his fist back but Lex leaps in the way to eat the punch.

It sends Lex slamming HARD into the cold floor below.
>LEX takes 5 FLESH (reduced from 8) and 3 (reduced from 4) RESTRAINT damage!

Liam stumbles around from the sudden bodyblock.

Acidic blood has splattered across his body - burning away at his already weakened armor. "W-WHAT THE???"

Otto takes this chance to pepper him with revolver bullet after revolver bullet. Each one does pitiful damage to Liam's durable frame but each gash keeps Liam distracted.

You charge forward with your FEDKILLER in hand, fully loaded with HIRCHSTONE SLUGS. You stuff the barrel right against his chest - BOOM! A fist sized hole is punched right into his chest. Liam tries to swing but you duck right out of the way.

You reload and fire your last two slugs into his chest again. A second fist size hole pierces right through his body. The kickback is enough to knock him to the ground. He is forced to kneel on the ground now that his legs are torn to shreds.
Maruyama yanks his GLOCK 83 out of his holster and, with what little time before Benedict's negation turns off, unloads every last round into Liam's body.

They pierce through Liam's skin but with little to no obvious feedback. Maruyama throws his now empty gun onto the floor.

The flames licking Liam's flesh soon extinguish. What now kneels before you is a smoldering, burnt hunk of flesh. Any semblance of his humanity has been beaten right out of him. Every bit of skin has turned into burnt pitch black. The only specks of color on him are from his failing implants leaking out their fluids through the gashes on his skin.

And yet. He's still not dead.
His hand pierces right into his gut, digging around it like a kid looking for candy. "Y-y-yield my flesh. T-To. Claim. M-My. Bones." In one fluid motion, he rips out a long ornate broadsword from deep inside of his body.

He forces himself back to his knees. "I'm not moving. This base dies with me. I. I won't let you win." His broadsword glows with an ominous silver light.
Right as he pulls this stunt, you hear two familiar voices.

"We got here as fast as we could, partner!"
"It appears you are attempting some corporate restructuring. Perhaps we shall help!"

"Oh thank god!" You turn to check on the two but, woo, they have seen better days. Their bodies have been torn to shreds by all of the fighting they had to do to get here. Exposed bone pokes out from their arms. Their eyes are nearly swollen shut from the black eyes they have. Large gashes that'll leave permanent scars are all over their bodies.

But, they are here and they can help. That's all that can be said.
Bennett finally drags himself from the blood pool he was drowning in. For the first time in this whole fight, you hear a sigh of exhaustion crawling out of him.

You're getting close. You just need to push him just a little bit further.

LIAM 'FREDRICK' DAG: 35/135 FLESH, 43/135 RESTRAINT, ALL OTHER STATS AT 66! (He's fighting for his life. His body's regeneration is hampering your ability to hurt him. HAS A HIGH CHANCE OF KILLING MANY OF YOUR ALLIES!)

YOU?: 4/14 FLESH, 4/18 RESTRAINT
LEX: 9/18 FLESH, 6/15 RESTRAINT
ANDERSON: 11/17 FLESH, 8/17 RESTRAINT

MARUYAMA: 8/27 FLESH, 10/27 RESTRAINT
BENEDICT: 7/22 FLESH, 7/14 RESTRAINT
OTTO: 7/16 FLESH, 6/13 RESTRAINT
ADAM: 3/14 FLESH, 10/13 RESTRAINT
CLOVER: 5/10 FLESH, 6/13 RESTRAINT
CASEY: 9/15 FLESH, 6/12 RESTRAINT.

BENNETT HUXLEY: 69/88 VIOLENCE, 47/66 COOL. He seems more 'frustrated tired' than anything.

FOUR TURNS UNTIL THE NUKE GOES OFF! Choose one MAIN PLAN and three SIDE PLANS!

MAIN PLAN
>[CASEY + CLOVER ALLY] These two - They both have beam attacks Tell them to FRY THIS CEO WHERE HE STANDS!!! (CHALLENGING WILLPOWER + CHARM DC: 65, rolling 17d6 to represent Casey and Clover. Succeed and the intense power behind their beams should PERMANENTLY DISABLE his powers, vastly reducing the damage he deals.)
>[LEX ALLY] Try to distract him for long enough so Lex can use his ACIDIC BLOOD on him! (MODERATE DC of 59 now, same dice as last vote. PERMANENTLY DISABLES his regen if it succeeds, leaving him open for a truly fatal blow.)
>[PERSON OF INTEREST] Play it safe. Kill him. Now. (Spends every single last molotov, grenade, explosive round and a vast majority of your party's ammo. Should be enough to put him down for good with no check.)
>[UNSTABLE] HE TOOK YOUR ARM. TAKE HIS ARM AS PAYMENT! (??? VIOLENCE DC: ??, rolling your 15d8. Pass and, no matter what happens, you are certain every ally comes out of here alive. You will pay a hefty cost for their safety.)
>Write in.

SIDE PLAN
>CALL FOR SUPPRESSING FIRE! (Has two charges left. Does light damage to Liam and lowers the DC of any skill check by 3.)
>LEX, HEAL PEOPLE UP! (Reduces the damage you deal this turn with Lex out of the fight. Every ally will heal 1d4+2 FLESH and RESTRAINT.)
>[MARUYAMA ALLY] TRY TO SCROUNGE FOR ANOTHER AFYN BULLET WITH MARUYAMA'S POWER!! (MODERATE RESTRAINT DC: 60, rolling MARUYAMA'S 16d6. Pass and you'll manage to find another one, earning Anderson's favor and unlocking a special option later.)
>CALL FOR MORE BACKUP! (Another two random allies will arrive.)
>Cry. Let it all out. (+15 MAX FLESH and RESTRAINT to you, +8 to your other stats, fully heals you. Will take a toll on your humanity.)
>[CAPTAIN'S AUTHORITY] Let me out. I wish to talk to this man...without a vessel. (Summons the ADMIRAL. ??? ??? ???. Unlocks a special option for the HEAD MEETING)
>[???] Scream. Scream until the pain stops. (Massively reduces LIAM'S MAX RESTRAINT, deals heavy RESTRAINT damage to him, heals your party's RESTRAINT?. ??? ??? ??? ???.)
>Write in

Holy shit we're actually winning
Oh god Nicole and Adam are almost dead

>>6258769
>[UNSTABLE]

>CALL FOR SUPPRESSING FIRE!

>[MARUYAMA ALLY]
>[CAPTAIN'S AUTHORITY]
>[???] Scream. Scream until the pain stops.

>>6258769
>[UNSTABLE]
"you are certain every ally comes out of here alive" better mean Adam and the others get healed too because they're not looking too good... If this heals somehow then no need to go Lex healing SIDE OPTION
>CALL FOR SUPPRESSING FIRE!
Lower those DCs
>[MARUYAMA ALLY]
Repay Anderson in kind
>[CAPTAIN'S AUTHORITY]
Sounds cool. Let's not forget when Nicole distorts in the Head Meeting, she'll eject Admiral too

>>6258807
You got 4 SIDE OPTIONS there anon. You need 3

>>6258807
Remove >CALL FOR SUPPRESSING FIRE!

>>6258769
>[CASEY + CLOVER ALLY] These two - They both have beam attacks Tell them to FRY THIS CEO WHERE HE STANDS!!! (CHALLENGING WILLPOWER + CHARM DC: 65, rolling 17d6 to represent Casey and Clover. Succeed and the intense power behind their beams should PERMANENTLY DISABLE his powers, vastly reducing the damage he deals.)

>LEX, HEAL PEOPLE UP! (Reduces the damage you deal this turn with Lex out of the fight. Every ally will heal 1d4+2 FLESH and RESTRAINT.)
>CALL FOR SUPPRESSING FIRE! (Has two charges left. Does light damage to Liam and lowers the DC of any skill check by 3.)
>[CAPTAIN'S AUTHORITY] Let me out. I wish to talk to this man...without a vessel. (Summons the ADMIRAL. ??? ??? ???. Unlocks a special option for the HEAD MEETING)

>>6258769
Changing vote from >>6258851 to backing >>6258863

>>6258863
>>6258903
Shouldn't we save the Casey/Clover beam power for the fight against the Star?

Rolled 4 + 2 (1d4 + 2)

MAIN PLAN: CASEY + CLOVER
SIDE PLAN: SUPPRESSING FIRE, HEAL UP, CAPTAIN'S AUTHORITY

Righto. Let's do this.
Three anons, roll the following.
>8d6 (First third of WILLPOWER + CHARM check)
>6d6 (Second third of WILLPOWER + CHARM check)
>3d6 (Third third of WILLPOWER + CHARM check)
DC is set to 62. I'll roll for the amount of FLESH + RESTRAINT healed across the whole party, saves time.

Let's add in something special. If you roll 75 or higher, you get a small bonus.

ROLL MODIFIERS ALLOWED
-MANAGER'S FLESH (Can reroll 3d6. Can only be used once.)
-HIRCHSTONE (You have one. Adds 8d6 to the roll.)
-Q-CORP CIGARETTE PACK (Has two cigarettes. Can be used to reroll three dice on either check. Dice rerolled this way are 3d9s.)
-SUNSTONE CLUMP (Four charges, can spend one to add 2d8.)
-SILVER CIGARETTE PACK (Has two cigarettes. Can spend one to heal CASEY and CLOVER by 1 RESTRAINT and adds 1d12 to the roll.)

Rolled 3, 6, 2, 6, 2, 6, 4, 5 = 34 (8d6)

>>6259240

Rolled 1, 5, 6, 3, 6, 5 = 26 (6d6)

>>6259240

Rolled 3, 1, 1 = 5 (3d6)

>>6259240
Rolling!
>max FLESH and RESTRAINT heal value
About damn time

Rolled 5, 3, 1 = 9 (3d6)

>>6259240
MANAGER'S FLESH these:
>>6259270
1, 1
>>6259256
1

Rolled 2 (1d12)

>>6259271
We're sitting at 71 right now and I want that 75 bonus
I vote for using 1 SILVER CIGARETTE
Rolling the 1d12

Rolled 7 (1d12)

>>6259272
>off by 2
First that OPEN YOUR MIND PILL jobs and gives us 1 out of 12, now SILVER CIGARETTE is jobbing giving us 2 of 12.
Let's use the last SILVER CIGARETTE and finish this pack. It'd add some minor humor to the scene with both Casey and Clover smoking the glownigger branded cigs right in front of the CEO's face as they beam blast him to oblivion

Right. So that's two silver cigarettes consumed to get the bonus.
Another set of consumables to the void.

Writing.
The end is approaching. I can't wait for this quest to be over already.

>>6259274
Me too, it's been one hell of a ride. I hope that the Silver CEO is finally dead this turn

>>6259274
>The end is approaching. I can't wait for this quest to be over already.

I hope you enjoyed writing it since I enjoyed reading it and playing it.

Random as crap, I just stumbled on this one morning and thought the prompt was cool, and is like one of my top three on the board.

You feel something stirring inside of you. An ancient, blood-drenched aura that you've managed to suppress and store inside your vessel for so, so long.
A weathered, almost leathery hand phases through your torso. You allow this thing, this entity, to escape your body.

You feel your eyes roll to the back of your head. Something walks right out of you like you're simply a door.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1SbYeD1ZyM - THE ADMIRAL

The entity standing before you is ancient looking man that towers over everyone else in the arena at a solid ten feet. His skin is beyond wrinkly and weathered, looking more like a well tanned leather than any other kind of skin. His hair, both on his head and beard, are encrusted in a thick layer of sea salt that has dyed his normally jet black hair bright white.

An admiral coat, which has a black and white checker pattern all over it, loosely hangs over his torso. It is covered in every single possible naval and military medal recognizable to the average person.

Benedict and Lex immediately recognize who this is and they scramble to get as far away from him as possible. The others are slower to react but the presence of the entity 'lightly encourages' them to clear some distance from him.

A bright blue glow pours out of his eyes. Grasped loosely in his left hand is a rusted saber. He points it towards Liam while giving him a cold, disinterested gaze.

"Y-you!!!" Liam struggles to stand up. "You betrayed us! You were supposed to work for us! Like every other anomaly! Why are you with HER?"
"A banal question with an equally banal answer, Liam. She entertained me. A book that I feverishly read while I licked my wounds." The Admiral calmly stretches his sea-salt encrusted shoulders. "I only wanted to watch your defeat in person - Without having to use her eyes to see it."

"I-I'll kill you! I've killed ALEPHs before! I've killed X5s before! I've killed Keters before! Whatever name you want to use, I've killed them before!"

"Do you truly believe that?" The Admiral shakes his head. "I would label the nine humans fighting you, collectively, as an 'X4'. Yet look at where you stand. On your knees, acting like a fucking child."

"You couldn't stop them. You failed your men. Your followers are being mulched above. You're a complete, utter failure, Liam."

The Admiral steps away from the group out of sheer disgust of what he saw out of Liam. "She's more of a leader than you are. I hope you recognize that - Maybe you can die with some honor with that toothpick of yours."
Only when he gets pretty far away does anyone in your party speak up.

"Wait, he's not helping us?" Otto chokes out.
"He's a sick bastard - He thinks this game is too easy for him." Lex grumbles.

Liam forces himself up to his knees. What little resolve he has is starting to burn out. The Admiral's words left an inedible EMOTIONAL wound on him...
>LIAM takes more damage this turn!

Before anyone could move for the killing hit, though, he regains enough of his power to launch himself into the sky with his ASHEN WINGS.

He raises his broadsword up in the air. The glow surrounding it begins to get brighter, brighter and brighter. The silver glow gets thicker and thicker, glowing brighter than the sun itself. You can hardly see anything besides the silver light subsuming the environment around you.

You know his next attack will kill your injured party - No questions asked.

Otto is trying to buy time by unloading round after round into Liam. Bullet after bullet pierces into Liam's skin but his nerves are so shot, you doubt he feels any of them.

"LEX! HEAL US!"
"ON IT!"

Veins burst out of Lex's arms, legs and torso. They launch out to pierce into the veins of your various other allies. Aside from some quick yelps of pain, everyone quickly just rolls with the squirming worm-like veins attached to their bodies.

A cooling sensation floods throughout your body...
>EVERYONE heals 6 FLESH + RESTRAINT!

"CLOVER, CALL FOR SUPPORTING FIRE!"
"ON IT, PARTNER!" He taps his earpiece and screeches out a command. Whoever he managed to contact responded real quick!

Small glowing orange balls erupt across Liam's body - Explosive round after explosive round is being unloaded into his desiccated body. They seem to keep coming with no sign of stopping - That has to be Frank. They only seem to be distracting Liam more than actually hurting him. That's all you need, though.

You briefly glance to see what Bennett is doing. He's taking this moment of distraction to make a break for the nuke! His injuries are slowing him down but only barely. Son of a bitch - Fine! As long as he's not getting in the way.

"This is quite a pickle!" Casey chirps out with a placidly cheery tone. "I think we need to pull out the [B I G O N E]!" You're not sure why her voice echoed there but there's no time to think.
"BLOW THAT FUCKER OUT OF THE SKY!!!"

Your other allies (sans Lex) prepare to use what little ammo and weaponry they have to try to knock him down. You toss ANDERSON your spare ASSAULT RIFLE and enough RIFLE AMMO to last a good while and you toss MARUYAMA the rest of your anti-anomaly rounds.

Clover raises his pointer finger up and Casey yanks out her SUGAR WAND X. A glowing yellow light builds at the tip of Clover's finger. A glowing pink light builds at the tip of Casey's wand. They aim their weapons towards the CEO - The one who refuses to die no matter what you throw his way.

"FIRE!!!" You screech at the top of your lungs. For a brief moment, you thought you saw the Admiral smiling from the corner of your eye. When you turn to check, he has the same bored look he always has.

Round after round of shotgun, pistol and assault rifle ammo pierces into Liam's body. Chunk after chunk of desiccated flesh flies off of his body. Liam finishes charging his blade...

"I will pray for you." Liam mutters before he charges down upon your group.

Two bright beams, one yellow and one pink, pierce through the air to meet Liam. The sheer pressure behind them is enough to push him back but he continues to charge through. No matter how much firepower your group pours into him, he refuses to give him.

Even as the flesh is burnt right off of his bones.

Clover and Casey focus all of their energy into their attacks. Their beams only grow brighter and brighter, burning hotter and hotter. Sweat pours down Clover's face as he continues to fire the beam upon Liam.
Casey's SUGAR WAND X glows bright red from the continuous use. Their attacks can only go on for so long...

Liam is getting closer and closer. Foot by foot, pushing back against the dual beams. Twelve feet. Then ten. Then eight Six. He raises up his sword, ready to clear your party in twain.

Clover's eyes ooze with yellow light as he puts all of his height and SOUL into it. "YOU. WON'T. HURT. THEM. YOU. FIEND!!!"
You quickly light up two cigarettes before flicking them to Casey and Clover. They catch them in their mouths. Using the drugs laced in them, they make one last push to knock Liam out...

>80! BONUS!

All Liam can do before being knocked out of the sky is cry out with indignant rage. The force of the two beams sends him smashing HARD into the floor. Casey and Clover continue to fire their beams for as long as possible to keep him pinned but they run out of juice not long after.

What is left in the crater is a desiccated, barely alive husk of a man. His broadsword begins to flicker out of reality - In one desperate attempt to kill someone, he throws it at you with all of the strength he has.
Benedict leaps in the way, eating the hit.

>BENEDICT takes 4 FLESH and 4 RESTRAINT damage!

That's the last attack he has. His body is almost skeletal with how little flesh or muscle is clinging to him. Inside his body was a complex slurry of oil, crystals, and ash that were used to enhance his body. With his powers seemingly disabled, they begin to leak out of him. Without them holding his body together, he's nothing anymore.

Something falls out of his torso. A small silver stone, almost like the bloodstone you saw a while ago, glistening with malicious energy. You move to pick it up.
>STILLE DAG STONE! (A pearl-like stone radiating with malicious energy. Presumably holds propriety secrets of STILLE DAG. Can be sold to another CEO for $75000, no questions asked.)

Holy shit. You pocket it before anyone else can see it.
Your group moves to surround the CEO to see if he has any more tricks left in him. He doesn't bother to get up. All of the fight was knocked right out of him.

He stares up at you with a rictus grin. "Y-you're welcome, Nicole. You're fucking welcome."

Huh?

"Y-you think you won but y-you didn't. M-My company i-is the only thing that g-gave you purpose. N-now what? Wh-what's keeping that vessel of yours holding itself together?"
"We'll g-go underg-ground. W-we'll come back. But n-not in your lifetime."

"W-what purpose do you have without us?"

"Shut up." But he doesn't.

"I m-made you! I-I gave you a purpose! Y-You should be thanking me-"
You smash his face in with your fist. He barely even reacts to it.
"W-what's your life without us?"

"Let's find out!" You slam your fist into his face again. And again. And again. Silver blood sprays across your fist with every punch. All Liam can do is to laugh at your feeble attempts to hurt him.

"A-admit it! Y-You know th-they're not going to care! N-No one w-will remember what you did! No one's going to care! YOU WASTED YOUR LIFE CHASING A GHOST!!!"
"The CEOs won't care! THE HEAD WON'T CARE! YOU FOUGHT A GHOST THINKING YOU WON!!!"

You pull your fist back but you hesitate.

"EVEN I-IF YOU KILL ME, I C-CAN SMELL IT IN YOU! YOU'RE ALREADY A DEAD WOMAN WALKING! O-OH, IT'LL BE GLORIOUS TO SEE WHAT YOU TURN INTO!!!"

...

"Don't listen to him." Clover places a hand on your shoulder. "He's messing with ya. C'mon, let's go."

>You won the fight against the STILLE DAG CEO.

You can disable the nuke easily. You can tell them the code, you can get out of here. You doubt there's many STILLE DAG agents still alive up there.
But what to do with the STILLE DAG CEO?

You stare at your hands. Your fist are drenched a bright silver. His face is stained in bright pink spittle.

You hesitate. Is it even worth killing him?
>[UNSTABLE] BLOW HIS BRAINS OUT WITH YOUR FEDKILLER. THIS IS EVERYTHING YOU BUILT UP TOWARDS. KILL THE BEAST.
>[PERSON OF INTEREST + CAPTAIN'S AUTHORITY] Leave him your FLINTLOCK PISTOL. One single bullet. He'll know what to use it for.
>[ANOMALOUS ABILITIES] Let your friends deal with him. They're the only reason you got here. Move on from this shadow of a man.
>[SEEKER OF THE CITY] Let him bleed out. Let him die down here - Forgotten and alone. He's not getting up from this.

Shorter update, shorter vote. Once something is agreed upon After this, you'll get outta here.

>>6259597
>[UNSTABLE]
We take his corpse with us as evidence, as a trophy, as the culmination of more than a month of gitting gud and a lifetime of misery. This is Nicole's final boss as a human being until she ever becomes human once more, perhaps in the future. But right here, right now, a broken girl needs her peace of mind.

>>6259597

>[UNSTABLE] BLOW HIS BRAINS OUT WITH YOUR FEDKILLER. THIS IS EVERYTHING YOU BUILT UP TOWARDS. KILL THE BEAST.

Obtaining your life's goal makes you lose something just as important. Just the way it works. Equivalent exchange is a bitch like that.

>>6259597
>[UNSTABLE]
Evidence.

>>6259597

>>6259762


Also tell him we have our Family now. The people we met and learned to love. He on the other hand has nothing. We have what is ours. He has a kingdom of ash.

>>6259597
>[UNSTABLE]

>>6259597
>[UNSTABLE] BLOW HIS BRAINS OUT WITH YOUR FEDKILLER. THIS IS EVERYTHING YOU BUILT UP TOWARDS. KILL THE BEAST.

Obviously.

[UNSTABLE] VIOLENCE IS THE QUESTION
[UNSTABLE] AND YOU ANSWERED YES
[UNSTABLE] TWO ANONS, ROLL
>1d100+25 (HOW GORY THE KILL IS. GET 65 OR HIGHER, BONUS!)
>1d100+50 (HOW GOOD IT MAKES YOU FEEL. GET 110 OR HIGHER FOR A BONUS!)
[UNSTABLE] HIGHER IS BETTER.

wait who is unstable talking to-
[UNSTABLE] SHHH.

The bonuses won't be anything major so don't feel bad if you don't get them.

Rolled 82 + 25 (1d100 + 25)

>>6259857
GORE!!!!

>>6259858
107. This guy is in chunks.

Rolled 63 + 50 (1d100 + 50)

>>6259857

>>6259871
Bonus acquired

>>6259858
Extremely gory as it should be with Nicole venting all her pain and misery at the hands of the spooks
>>6259871
Nicole feels liberated for once, after the state she was in at quest start.
With the few hints about her family scattered through the quest, I wonder if any living relatives will recognize her after they see her on live TV? Or will somebody who knows her be at the HEAD MEETING?

[UNSTABLE] Everything goes pink. You can't see a foot in front of you. All you can see is a pink, swirling haze and the CEO right in front of you.
[???TABLE] You never felt so calm in your life. Everything has finally clicked into place.
[??????LE] Violence isn't the answer here. It's the question.
[ERROR!!!] And you already know the answer.

Your hand latches around Liam's throat. His throat squirms and slithers in your hand. It reminds you of when you picked up a worm as a kid. You stare down at the sniveling excuse of a CEO. This thing, this husk of a vessel, it disgusts you.

"I have my FAMILY now. King of ash, you know nothing of what I have or what I'll become. Your words are hollow-"
"S-save the fucking monologue for someone who cares."

So you do.

You roughly toss him back to the ground. You telekinetically yank out your FLINTLOCK PISTOL and, with your last round, you blow out his one good eye. Ocular fluid splatters across your face and his screaming fills your ears but all of it elicits nothing in your mind.
You smash the butt of your FEDKILLER against his jaw. Then again. Then again. Every strike distorts his clay soft jaw until the lower half of his face is completely obliterated. His tongue loosely flops out of his mouth. He gurgles out one last venomous jab, "SEE YOU SOON!"

You press the barrel of your shotgun against his forehead. You slam the trigger HARD. An eruption of fireworks blows out of the back of his desiccated head. Drool pours out of your mouth - It's such a beautiful, delicious sight. You need to see more of this.
Your antlers burn with pink light as you levitate the corpse of the CEO into the air. As easily as ripping apart tissue paper, you rip the half by pulling HARD on his midsection.

The only thing connecting his two halves together is his intestines. You then move to rip his arms off. POP! POP! Then his legs. CRACK, CRACK!

Oh, why the hell not, let's pop his head off! Not like it's doing him any good!
SQULECH!

Five detached limbs and two halves of his torso float in the air now. As your last act of spite, you slam the limbs down onto the ground. They splatter like blood-filled water balloons. Your outfit is drenched in another layer of human mess. You want to keep doing this-

You feel someone shaking your shoulder.
The pink haze fades away. You're now back in reality - Somewhat. You still feel like everything's swimming, like you're not really yourself anymore, but you're a bit more aware of what's going on.

Oh. You might've thrown those chunks a bit too hard. The only identifiable part of his body left is the two halves of his torso and some of his head. The rest is meat paste that sticks to the floor. You collect the head and torso chunks for, uh, trophy reasons.

You can feel a dozen pairs of eyes staring at you with equal measures of concern, pride and fear. You don't care, though, you feel...

You feel great. Everything was worth it in the end.
Wait - Shit, the nuke!

[UNSTABLE] Everything goes pink. You can't see a foot in front of you. All you can see is a pink, swirling haze and the CEO right in front of you.
[???TABLE] You never felt so calm in your life. Everything has finally clicked into place.
[??????LE] Violence isn't the answer here. It's the question.
[ERROR!!!] And you already know the answer.

Your hand latches around Liam's throat. His throat squirms and slithers in your hand. It reminds you of when you picked up a worm as a kid. You stare down at the sniveling excuse of a CEO. This thing, this husk of a vessel, it disgusts you.

"I have my FAMILY now. King of ash, you know nothing of what I have or what I'll become. Your words are hollow-"
"S-save the fucking monologue for someone who cares."

So you do.

You roughly toss him back to the ground. You telekinetically yank out your FLINTLOCK PISTOL and, with your last round, you blow out his one good eye. Ocular fluid splatters across your face and his screaming fills your ears but all of it elicits nothing in your mind.
You smash the butt of your FEDKILLER against his jaw. Then again. Then again. Every strike distorts his clay soft jaw until the lower half of his face is completely obliterated. His tongue loosely flops out of his mouth. He gurgles out one last venomous jab, "SEE YOU SOON!"

You press the barrel of your shotgun against his forehead. You slam the trigger HARD. An eruption of fireworks blows out of the back of his desiccated head. Drool pours out of your mouth - It's such a beautiful, delicious sight. You need to see more of this.
Your antlers burn with pink light as you levitate the corpse of the CEO into the air. As easily as ripping apart tissue paper, you rip the half by pulling HARD on his midsection.

The only thing connecting his two halves together is his intestines. You then move to rip his arms off. POP! POP! Then his legs. CRACK, CRACK!

Oh, why the hell not, let's pop his head off! Not like it's doing him any good!
SQULECH!

Five detached limbs and two halves of his torso float in the air now. As your last act of spite, you slam the limbs down onto the ground. They splatter like blood-filled water balloons. Your outfit is drenched in another layer of human mess. You want to keep doing this-

You feel someone shaking your shoulder.
The pink haze fades away. You're now back in reality - Somewhat. You still feel like everything's swimming, like you're not really yourself anymore, but you're a bit more aware of what's going on.

Oh. You might've thrown those chunks a bit too hard. The only identifiable part of his body left is the two halves of his torso and some of his head. The rest is meat paste that sticks to the floor. You collect the head and torso chunks for, uh, trophy reasons.

You can feel a dozen pairs of eyes staring at you with equal measures of concern, pride and fear. You don't care, though, you feel...

You feel great. Everything was worth it in the end.
Wait - Shit, the nuke!

Bennett has already yanked out one of the two cores hidden inside of the nuke. The other one is too firmly attached to be removed - You'd guess that's the one you have to disarm.
His masked gaze glances towards the mess you made of the CEO.

>GORE ROLL: 107!
Bennett nods approvingly at the sight. He steps away from the nuke, gesturing at you to approach it.
Your party rush over to the nuke and with some quick finagling to see where you'd actually put the code, you finally disarm it.

It's now just a inert hunk of metal holding a core of nuclear material.
Lex and Benedict decide to shove it into one of the deep pools of blood shattered throughout the arena. You're certainly not bringing it with you - Might as well bloodlog it.

Bennett pockets the core and, without turning back to your group, he makes his way out of here. He's not going to attack you? It's hard to tell what won him over but he seems content to let you be. You wouldn't call him an ally, no, you hate the fucking guy.

You're just glad you don't have to fight him.
The Admiral confidently strides up to you and phases right back into you. It feels like someone is wearing your body like a skinsuit for the briefest of moments but it fades quickly.

>SATISFICATION ROLL: 113!
You let out a deep, deep exhale.
There's nothing you have to do now. You're free. You're going to be paid enough to live comfortably for months if not years. There's no more threats you have to deal with from this piece of shit company.

The NEO taste of pure FREEDOM lingers on your tongue. The warmth of a job well done floods from the tip of your head to the bottom of your soles. There's nothing you have to worry about anymore.
>You fully heal your RESTRAINT! Your RESTRAINT is now set to 25/25!

"Let's get out of here." You only now realize you don't hear any fighting up ahead. You toss the PURIFIED ENKEPHALIN over to Casey before you start up your GRAVITY GENERATOR so everyone can float out of here in style.
Your group begins to levitate past the several rungs between the core of the engine room and the entrance you came from.

The rungs are littered with corpses. None of which are your allies, thankfully, but you didn't think that at first from how horrid most of your allies look after all of the fighting. Most of them are barely standing and, fuck, most of their weapons are holding together through sheer determination.

Missing arms, teeth and eyes. Large, weeping gashes. Dislocated or broken legs. Most of them are not in a state to fight anymore. You need to get everyone to the surface ASAP so you can tend to the wounded.
Your group lands at the top rung with little to no fanfare. You were expecting a self destruct sequence or some last minute attack but there's nothing. The only sound you hear is the ragged, exhausted breathing of your FAMILY.

The trip up to the surface is oddly calm and empty. There's no one left. It's just you. It's not long until you're back up to the surface - Or what's left of it

That beam you called down from the space station a while ago has turned the STILLE DAG base into a crater. The only thing remotely intact about it or the adjacent buildings is the parking lot right by the back entrance. Everything else is gone.

You take your first breath of fresh air in a while. Everyone made it out - Alive. Sure, most are probably only at 1 or 2 FLESH but that's better than them being dead.
You look around for that one JUDICATOR you saw in your vision. You think you caught someone who vaguely looked like them far, far away from the the base but they're in no rush to confront you.

Weird. Didn't your vision say she wanted to deal with you because of what you're becoming?

Your small army collapses onto the floor. Your few healthy allies move to patch up the wounded to the best of their ability. It's going to take most of your consumables to bring them back to a state where they can walk again but you got time - You think. The HEAD MEETING isn't going to happen for a little bit. You still have time to make it.

As your group scatters to tend to their wounds, you hear someone yelling out for you. Trying to get your attention.
You swerve your head around to see...a SPOOK??? One of them managed to survive???

He draws his service pistol at you. One man against a small army's worth of people. This has to be a suicide mission - Some kind of desperate attempt at keeping face. It's almost funny if it wasn't so pathetic. You could snap this dude in half if you wanted to.

"Just because you think you've won...doesn't mean it's over."
It's pathetic. You have half a mind to kill him right here and now. Yet there's a brief moment of hesitation.

No one else notices this straggler. It's up to you on what you wanna do to him. Something tells you what you'll do is important somehow.
He seems like a regular SPOOK so he shouldn't be hard to kill.
Are you second guessing yourself? Maybe you should go with your gut instinct.

What do you do, Nicole?
>[UNSTABLE] KILL HIM. You killed a CEO, what's one more? Run up and RIP HIM TO SHREDS! (!?!)
>[PERSON OF INTEREST] Something's up. How did THIS guy survive everything that happened? He doesn't even look injured! (!?!)
>[ANOMALOUS ABILITIES] Disarm him with your telekinesis and keep your distance. See what he's going to do. (...?)
>[SEEKER OF THE CITY] Try to talk him down. If for no other reason than to give him an excuse to save face. (???.)
>Write in.

:)

>>6259919
>No one else notices this straggler.
Okay, this is suspicious as hell.

>[PERSON OF INTEREST]

>>6259935
+1
Investigate. Last time we investigated two spooks acting off with Lapis and... I forgot the Harvester spook lady's name, we "befriended" them. Now in the aftermath, who could this be?

>>6259919
>[PERSON OF INTEREST] Something's up. How did THIS guy survive everything that happened? He doesn't even look injured! (!?!)

>>6259919

>[PERSON OF INTEREST] Something's up. How did THIS guy survive everything that happened? He doesn't even look injured! (!?!)

>>6256040

>STILLE DAG CEO #2 of 4

I have a bad feeling. Two out of four.

>>6260092
Nah, we're done man. Those 3 other CEOs won't bother us anymore. They know the game is up. All they can do now is hide

>>6260393

Hopefully.

It is cool that in a month our two, Nicky went from zero to hero and with her allies managed to 86 a guy who most normies would think was a god. Go Nicole!

>>6260400
Speaking of normies thinking CEOs are gods, we do still have to fight one as the bonus final boss at the Head Meeting. They won't be anything like Liam here; they're not the CEO of an upstart company or shadow organization. Our final opponent will be a real deal full power Wing leader, and the whole event will be televised to the entire City start to finish. The bright side is we don't have to kill the CEO and only put up a good enough fight. They most likely won't kill any of our allies either

Your danger sense kicks in - There's no way this guy is a normal spook. You quickly look behind you to see how your allies are doing.
At least a dozen different copies of Casey are roaming around to tend to the wounded. There's an odd look in Casey's eyes as she watches her, for a lack of a better term, children. There's still a placidness in her eyes but you can tell it's masking a level of predatory intellect now.

She looks back at you. She doesn't seem to notice the Spook you're watching but she picks up on the fear in your eyes.
She nods, waiting for your signal.

You turn back to the Spook. He looks like any ordinary Spook to you. Thin build, silver suit and dress pants, unmarked service pistol, bland and unassuming facial features. You could easily lose him in a crowd if you didn't know what he was.

There's something wrong with him. Something squirming underneath his skin. Pulsating, wriggling worm-like things.
He takes another step towards your group. The pulsating, squirming things under his skin are getting excited.

[PERSON OF INTEREST] You can't put your finger on what this thing is but you can't let it get any closer.
[PERSON OF INTEREST] You need that thing as FAR from your FAMILY as possible.
[PERSON OF INTEREST] Don't. Kill. Him. Not yet.

You're not taking any changes. You whistle for Casey to make her move and without missing a beat, she fires her FLARE GUN at the Spook. The blazing hot flare sends the Spook stumbling back.
While he's off balance, you pull one of your spare HARPOON GUNS out of your inventory. You fire a spear right through the Spook's leg, pinning him to the spot.

You discard the HARPOON GUN and step back, watching to see what happens.
The Spook's body goes limp as his leg gushes out pure red blood.

...You don't believe for a second he's dead. You whistle for your allies to get moving despite how bad their conditional is. Most of them hesitate to get up but your small army is already clearing some distance away from the SPOOK.
Your shambling, exhausted group is making slow but steady progress. You think you managed to get everyone at least thirty feet away from the SPOOK. Nothing seems to be happening-

You snap your head around just to be sure.

The Spook's body is violently convulsing reminiscent of a man being electrocuted to death. A wave of misty blood sprays out of his mouth as he tries to desperately call out for someone. His eyes roll to the back of his head before he goes limp again. Frothy blood gurgles out of his mouth. A low, groaning sound drones out of him.

He stays there for a good few seconds. It wasn't even satisfying to watch, you felt just kinda bad watching it happen.
He falls back first onto the cold concrete street. You can barely hear his last words.

Huh. Nothing's happening. W-weird. Is this some kind of trick?
You feel something's hand on your shoulder. You turn around to see the loving couple themselves, Max and Benjamin. They've seen better days.

Benjamin's left arm cuts off right by the elbow but aside from that, his body is coated in too many nicks and scratches to count. He leans against Max for support.
Max is a complete wreck. Her outfit has been torn to shreds and deep, purple bruises cover her stomach. She's missing her shoes and the stripped socks underneath are soaked in blood.

They seem happy enough, at least.

"Let's leave that dude behind," Max tries to keep up her chipper tone of voice. For Benjamin's sake, you'd assume.
"Ha. Guess this is a good time as any to cash in on my Z-Corp Ampule surplus. I'll buy some for everyone here - We deserve it, don't we?"

"Yeah." You sigh. "How's everyone? I haven't really been able to check up on everyone."
"Bad." Max rolls her eyes like that's obvious. "We'll make it though. Heck," She slugs your shoulder. "We made it outta here, yeah? We're gods!"
"Haaa." Benjamin softly exhales. "It was nice being able to do something that mattered, you know? You know, I could fix your arm once we get somewhere safe."

You look down at the nub that was once your right arm. That would be nice but you don't really miss it. It feels like your body doesn't really matter anymore. It's just a thing that exists. "That'd be nice. Think the others are ready to keep moving?"

"I'd think so. Casey and Naomi are trying their best to order the others." Max nods her head towards the front of the crowd. "Say, what was with that weird guy you shot?"
"Some straggler, I think. Smelled like a trap."
"Probably was one. Doesn't seem like he's moving so, eh, leave him be." Benjamin shrugs as best as he can given his physical state.

"Are we missing anyone?" You ask the couple. "I wanna make sure we didn't leave anyone behind.
"Not to my knowledge. Unless you counted all of those copies of Casey." Max shivers at the thought of them. "Weird little things. They all had the same face - like cheap anime plastic figures."
"I think it was impressive, actually!" Benjamin tries his best to keep Max calm. "I had to take one of those copies home to study."
"Ha ha. My body's still good, dork."

"H-hey. Not in that way!" "I know, I know! Pulling your chain, dummy!"

You can't help but to smile. Even after everything that happened, they're still able to joke around.

Well. Seems like worrying about the spook was a waste of time. You-

T U R N A R O U N D
A wet, moist pop echoes through the air. The best comparison you have on short notice is putting an egg on a microwave and nuking it until it pops. You snap your head around to see what caused that noise.

The Spook you left behind has a massive, gaping hole where his face used to be. Dozens of arms thrust out of the remnants of his face. Agent after agent crawls out of the neck hole like they were being pushed out of a mother's womb.

When you're able to process what's going on, a hundred identical agents are standing right only forty feet away from your group. Each one is coated in rotting, stinking viscera.

https://youtu.be/2eradYcvV7Y - BLOOD OF THE AGENCY
More and more bodies spill out of the Spook's gaping facehole. It quickly becomes impossible to figure out how big the crowd surrounding the Spook is but there has to be two hundred different spooks by now. The number keeps growing second by second.

There's something fundamentally wrong with how they look. Their skin is plasticine and grey and their suits look like they were made in a sweatshop. One of them twists their head at a 180 degree angle, nearly breaking their own neck.

OCEP Agents. What a cruel trick.

"EXPURGATION IN PROGRESS..." It calls out in a deep monotone.
It takes a brief moment for everyone to notice the crowd of Spooks right behind them. The only thing you can hear now is the frantic screaming of your allies. You need to go. NOW.

EXPURGATION PRODECURE [SUPERBOSS]: 1000/1000 FLESH, 1000/1000 RESTRAINT. OTHER STATS NOT RELEVANT.
>[COMBAT PASSIVE] ENDLESS NAMELESS. You can't kill them. They'll just keep coming. Forever. EXPURGATION PRODECURE regenerates 100 FLESH and RESTRAINT per turn.
>[COMBAT PASSIVE] WRATH OF THE AGENCY: They only want your blood and the blood of your FAMILY. They will not listen to your screams. They want payback for the CEO's death.

>Due to your hesitation, you bought a turn's worth of distance.

You need to make more distance. Now.
Wait - You spot the car you drove in from at the edge of the parking lot. It isn't remotely enough to fit your allies but you can make it to your car.

What do you do to slow down the horde? Pick two.
>[HELIOS SEEKER MKv2] Send a beam from HEAVEN down upon these freaks. (-HELIOS SEEKER MKv2. Draws a LOT of attention to the horde and what's going on. Some associates of yours will come over to help slow down the horde.)
>[SEEKER OF THE CITY + KIARA ALLY] You need to lose them. Lead your injured allies down the maze of alleyways that make up the backstreets of the City. (EASY COGNIZANCE DC: 65, rolling 20d6 with Kiara's help. Succeed and you'll be able to lose them for a brief moment, buying enough time to heal the worst of your injured. Should speed up how quickly you can get away.)
>[ANDERSON, MAX, BENJAMIN ALLY] BURN THEM ALL TO THE GROUND! (-all of Anderson's molotovs and your POLISHED NOVASTONES. MODERATE VIOLENCE DC: 70, rolling 17d7 to represent the three of them. Pass and the rate they regenerate is massively reduced, increasing how effective any future vote to slow them down will be.)
>Rush over to your car and lure some of the EXPURGATION PRODECURE agents AWAY from your allies. (Your allies get a lot of extra distance to break from the EXPURGATION PRODECURE. INCREDIBLY RISKY for you, though.)
>MYSTERY BOX, HELP US!!! (-MYSTERY BOX, ???.)
>[UNSTABLE] DRUG UP YOUR FAMILY. GET THEM MOVING NOW NOW NOW NOW!!! (-A LOT of your consumables. Pushes your allies into hyperdrive, massively increasing how quickly they can gain distance from the horde.)
>Write in.

:)

>>6260464
>Write in: Ask the others what they see. Confirm we don't have hallucinations
>[UNSTABLE] DRUG UP YOUR FAMILY. GET THEM MOVING NOW NOW NOW NOW!!! (-A LOT of your consumables. Pushes your allies into hyperdrive, massively increasing how quickly they can gain distance from the horde.)

>>6260464
>[HELIOS SEEKER MKv2] Send a beam from HEAVEN down upon these freaks. (-HELIOS SEEKER MKv2. Draws a LOT of attention to the horde and what's going on. Some associates of yours will come over to help slow down the horde.)

>>6260464
>Write in: Ask the others what they see. Confirm we don't have hallucinations
>[HELIOS SEEKER MKv2] Send a beam from HEAVEN down upon these freaks. (-HELIOS SEEKER MKv2. Draws a LOT of attention to the horde and what's going on. Some associates of yours will come over to help slow down the horde.)
Even I did not see this coming

>>6260464
>Write in: Ask the others what they see. Confirm we don't have hallucinations
>[HELIOS SEEKER MKv2]
>[ANDERSON, MAX, BENJAMIN ALLY]

>>6260650
Oh right we can pick two!

>>6260464
Add to my vote in >>6260566
>[ANDERSON, MAX, BENJAMIN ALLY]
Where we do that FIRST for "the rate they regenerate is massively reduced, increasing how effective any future vote to slow them down will be". Then we follow up with HELIOS SEEKER for max effectiveness of the sky beam, plus "Some associates of yours will come over to help slow down the horde." will also get helped out. Then as we run, we ask the hallucination question

>>6260468
>>6260544
Guys we can pick two, assuming the write-in ask is a FREE ACTION

I'm going to go with HELIOS, ANDERSON AND FRIENDS and HEY ARE WE SEEING THINGS???

I'll take the ARE WE SEEING THINGS as a free action. No skill check needed since you're asking them, not trying to parse it out yourself.

Three anons, roll the following.
>7d7
>6d7
>4d7

We'll see what you roll first before we talk about consumables. I don't feel like listing them all out anyways.

Rolled 3, 4, 1, 5, 3, 2, 6 = 24 (7d7)

>>6261101

>>6261115
>precisely half
Curse you law of averages!

Rolled 4, 2, 7, 6, 7, 6 = 32 (6d7)

>>6261101

Rolled 2, 5, 7, 1 = 15 (4d7)

>>6261101

Waow.
You passed. By one point. Razor thin line there.
Hope this isn't a sign of your luck for the rest of the encounter! Writing.

Your vision is swimming. A thick haze overtakes the sky that drenches the whole world in front of you PINK. Your chest feels tight. Your heartbeat becomes twisted.

Suddenly, a bone-chilling gust of wind blows from up north. Everything around you is starting to lose its coherency. The screaming only gets louder. Echoing, echoing. Something digs into your brain - Your antlers refuse to stop growing into the precious grey matter tucked away inside your skull.

>You don't feel like you anymore. +1 to all stats!

"Please. Please tell me what you see." You can't look away from what's in front of you. You desperately paw your hand for someone, anyone, who might be behind you. "Is this real? I don't want to do anything if it's not real."
A cold, metallic hand clasps around your hand. "I-It." Kiara's voice calls out from behind you. "I can see it too. The horde, right?"

"What a cruel fucking trick." Vincent, somewhere behind you, spits out.
"TRULY. A FEAST I CAN NOT DEVOUR." Quentin calls out with his usual monotone. "WHAT A CRUEL JOKE."
"Why is everything pink?" Somewhere, you thought you heard Dasha's voice.

The crowd begins to march- No. That's too kind of a description. The pulsating swarm of flesh pours forward with mindless, unceasing hate in their glossy eyes. A tidal wave of flesh and silver. They're real. You have to do something and you feel like running away is fruitless unless you slow them down SOMEHOW.

"MAX! ANDERSON! BENJAMIN! HERE, NOW!"
"ON IT!" "CHRIST, I THOUGHT THE FIGHTING WAS OVER!" "So be it."

They scramble to your side with what little strength they have left. Benjamin forcefully manifests his wings with a sickening CRACK, watery and impotent oil dribbles out of Max's palms and Anderson lights one of his many molotovs.

You prepare your POLISHED NOVASTONES.

Everyone else is fucking running - They do not want to be anywhere near that horde (ESPECIALLY in the condition they're in). You can only hope you can buy them enough time.
Max sprays a thick layer of oil between her and the enemy before chucking a small ball of oil towards the horde. It hits them but they don't even register it. Benjamin quickly lights up both spots of oil with his ASHEN WINGS.

The front of the horde ignites into flames and, now blinded and on fire, some of them trip over themselves and are promptly crushed by their own kin. The thin wall of fire tricks the horde to slow down for a brief moment - Buying you and Anderson enough time to throw your consumables.

>71!

Everything erupts in a bright white and orange light. Molotov after NOVASTONE after molotov slams into the crowd with little to no reaction from the horde. No screaming, no words, just the silent shuffling of hundreds of feet as they try to retreat from the fire.

A smoldering wall of fire keeps the horde from trying to get payback from the PAIN you inflicted on them. Fire burns through the crowd without any sign of stopping, stinking the air with acrid smoke.

"GO!"
Your trio of helpers moves into action the moment they hear your command. Anderson helps the injured couple to catch up with the others who got a headstart.
It's just you and the EXPURGATION PRODECURE now. You can't make out much but you can tell that the rate the crowd is growing is slowing down by a lot. It's still growing in size but you stunted it for the time being.

Good. Good.

Thousands of eyes now stare at you. Waiting for you to make a move.
You draw the HELIOS SEEKER.
You raise it up to the air. You pull the trigger.

Two bright orange beads of light pop up at the front and back of the swarm. You leap back right before a beam as wide as a sports car slams down where you were once standing. Nothing the beam hits survives. Flesh, bone, steel and concrete melt away just as easily as cotton candy when you pour water over it.

The EXPURGATION PRODECURE pours around the beam as they charge forward but with the sheer amount of agents charging at you, a good chunk of the crowd is forcefully pushed in the way of the beam. The horde has been successfully slowed for this round.
You take this moment to fucking book it as the beam melts through the crowd. You doubt the beam is going to last forever so you need to make as much distance as you can.

A symphony of engines revving and confused, enraged screaming can be heard from the streets, buildings and businesses near where all of this is going down. You're sure some of your associates had to see this - You can only hope they can buy you enough time to get out of here.
You weave into a narrow alleyway that you last saw your allies rushing down. There's one good thing about the City and its backstreets - There's enough alleyways and small, weird dead eyes to lose anyone chasing after you.

You rejoin with Anderson, Max and Benjamin. Your other allies have about a five foot lead on you and you think you still have a solid sixty foot lead on the EXPURGATION PRODECURE. That's what you thought, at least.

The backstreets you're in branches out in three different paths - North, east and west.

The B-CORP THREAT EVALUATOR collar around Max's neck is beeping like crazy now. "Shit! We're about to be attacked!"
Ashley yells out from the front of the crowd, "EVERYONE, TO THE RIGHT!"
Your allies swerve down the rightmost turn and that was the right decision - Hundreds of OCEP agents suddenly flood the north and western alleyways. They smash right through building walls like they were nothing but tissue paper. They quickly pour after your group as everyone desperately rushes down the only safe alleyway.

You turn around and you immediately regret it. A wall of flesh as tall as the buildings surrounded you is only about twenty five feet away from your FAMILY. With every second that passes, they close the gap inch by inch. You know for a FACT that if they catch ANYONE, they'll be beaten into a fine red mist. Instant death. Like a killzone.

But, they suddenly start to lose distance. It's not by a lot but they're subtly slipping behind. You. You can make it out of here alive - You know it.

EXPURGATION PRODECURE [SUPERBOSS]: 977/1000 FLESH, 977/1000 RESTRAINT. SLOWING DOWN...
YOU: CAN SURVIVE ONE HIT FROM EXPURGATION PRODECURE.
YOUR ALLIES: WILL SUPPORT YOU TO THE BEST OF THEIR ABILITIES.

What do you do? Pick THREE actions.
>[SEEKER OF THE CITY + KIARA ALLY] You need to lose them. Lead your injured allies down the maze of alleyways that make up the backstreets of the City. (EASY COGNIZANCE DC: 64, rolling 20d6 with Kiara's help. Succeed and you'll be able to lose them for a brief moment, buying enough time to heal the worst of your injured. Unlocks more options to deal with the horde.)
>MYSTERY BOX, HELP US!!! (-MYSTERY BOX, ???.)
>[UNSTABLE] DRUG UP YOUR FAMILY. GET THEM MOVING NOW NOW NOW NOW!!! (-A LOT of your consumables. Pushes your allies into hyperdrive, massively increasing how quickly they can gain distance from the horde.)
>EAT A HIT FOR YOUR FAMILY. (You'll receive four CRIPPLING INJURIES and a small stat penalty to all of your stats. Slows down the horde considerably. Slightly slows your transformation into an anomaly.)
>[FRANK ALLY + CAPTAIN'S COMMAND] THEY can bleed. You can slow them down through overwhelming violence. Tell your allies to blow whatever excess ammo they got left. (Burns through a lot of your ammo reserves. Grants your allies the ability to survive ONE hit from the EXPURGATION PRODECURE and earns some massive FAVOR from certain companies in the HEAD MEETING.)
>[OTTO + GREGORY + ALEXIS ALLY + USED HELIOS STRIKER] Get your corporate kissups to call for help!!! (Burns a few random CORPORATE FAVORS you have. CHALLENGING CONNECTIONS DC: 77, rolling 20d6 to represent them as a group. If passed, the help they call will massively slow down the horde and you'll unlock a unique action for the HEAD MEETING.)
>Write in.

>>6261251
>EAT A HIT FOR YOUR FAMILY
We need to make it as long as we can as a human. The best way to go is Nicole finally becoming an anomaly right at the CEO fight at the HEAD MEETING on live TV. We have ways to fix those CRIPPLING INJURIES, right? Z-Corp can do that, or an ally or two? If anybody asks why Nicole did that, it's easy enough to answer that physical pain helps to ground her in this state
>[FRANK ALLY + CAPTAIN'S COMMAND]
They said we aren't allowed too many weapons in the HEAD MEETING, remember? Whatever good guns we decide to take in there with our group going into the victory lap fight, we can figure that out and buy ammo for them before then. We will have enough money for ammo and heals or whatever. Right now we all need to make it through alive and that means letting loose.
>[OTTO + GREGORY + ALEXIS ALLY + USED HELIOS STRIKER]
More slowdown AND unique action sounds good. We have enough favor to do this here at the critical moment

I don't wanna MYSTERY BOX until we decide on which CEO to fight, honestly.
Drugs and heals are best saved to when the action is over and no immediate threats exist
Losing the horde in the streets won't be enough despite "Unlocks more options to deal with the horde." sounding good

>>6261251
The CEO was not enough for you, huh!?
>[SEEKER OF THE CITY + KIARA ALLY] You need to lose them. Lead your injured allies down the maze of alleyways that make up the backstreets of the City. (EASY COGNIZANCE DC: 64, rolling 20d6 with Kiara's help. Succeed and you'll be able to lose them for a brief moment, buying enough time to heal the worst of your injured. Unlocks more options to deal with the horde.)
>[OTTO + GREGORY + ALEXIS ALLY + USED HELIOS STRIKER] Get your corporate kissups to call for help!!! (Burns a few random CORPORATE FAVORS you have. CHALLENGING CONNECTIONS DC: 77, rolling 20d6 to represent them as a group. If passed, the help they call will massively slow down the horde and you'll unlock a unique action for the HEAD MEETING.)
>[FRANK ALLY + CAPTAIN'S COMMAND] THEY can bleed. You can slow them down through overwhelming violence. Tell your allies to blow whatever excess ammo they got left. (Burns through a lot of your ammo reserves. Grants your allies the ability to survive ONE hit from the EXPURGATION PRODECURE and earns some massive FAVOR from certain companies in the HEAD MEETING.)

>>6261306
+1

>>6261278
+1

>>6261278
+1

Alright, four votes for FRANK/CAPTAIN COMMAND, THE CORPORATE TRIO, three votes for EAT A HIT, one vote for SEEKER. Let's go.

Three anons, roll the following.
>10d6 (half of CORPORATE)
>10d6 (half of CORPORATE)
>4d100 (HOW FUCKED YOU ARE!!! The severity of the CRIPPLING INJURIES you get.)

CRIPPLING INJURY CHART
1-25: AWFUL!!! SHIT'S FUCKED!!!
26-50: BAD!!! REAL BAD!!!
51-75: OUCHIE!!! YOU'LL SURVIVE, THOUGH!
76-99: TOLERABLE.
100: Huh, you think you got off lucky. The injury you got won't slow you down at all.

Rolled 1, 6, 2, 5, 3, 1, 4, 2, 3, 4 = 31 (10d6)

>>6261795
OK here goes

Rolled 4, 6, 3, 1, 4, 2, 5, 2, 4, 3 = 34 (10d6)

>>6261795

Rolled 1, 1, 2 = 4 (3d6)

>>6261796
>>6261815
Use flesh managers

Rolled 1, 1, 9 = 11 (3d9)

>>6261796
>>6261815
>>6261817
>31 + 35 = 66 of 77
Using a REFINED GALAXYSTONE if possible
>REFINED GALAXYSTONE x3 (An obnoxiously bedazzled gemstone. Adds +3d9 to any CHARM, CONNECTIONS or COGNIZANCE check.)
Rolling 3d9

>>6261823
>exactly 77
Woooooooooooooo
All these 1s mean dice gods are jobbing us. Here's to hoping the Nicole injury rolls are good. If not, then Dasha is getting some good boosts

Rolled 10, 2, 17, 51 = 80 (4d100)

>>6261795
How bad could it possibly be?

>>6261938
We’re dead.

>>6261938
>>6261941
Not dead! Just in unspeakable pain!
Your ribs and femur will grow back just fine! I hope!

Writing.

>>6261947
On the plus side, we have ways to fix all this

You. You need to feel pain in a way that matters. Your body's too numb. Feels like you're an outside observer puppeteering a body that is not your own.

It clicks in your brain - You can eat a hit. You know you can. It will hurt like hell but you're certain that the horde won't just run you over.
You dig your heels in. Your hooves bite into the ground. You spread your arms out as if inviting the EXPURGATION PRODECURE to charge at you. The air is electrified with pure, unfiltered anomalous energy. You hope this shields you from the worst of it.

The horde slams at you with all of the strength it has. Everything in your body strains underneath the sheer pressure and weight pressing down upon you. The thin shield of electrified air you made with your latent powers shatters like glass.

Everything goes grey. Everything in your body shatters. There's no word in the English language that can describe what just happened to you beyond that.

>ALL STATS are permanently reduced by 1!
>You receive SHATTERED RIBS (-4 TALENT, -4 VIOLENCE, FLESH DCs are increased by 10.), RUPTURED LIVER (You regularly take FLESH damage every turn, can't heal FLESH or RESTRAINT from consumables), BROKEN OFF ANTLERS (-8 WILLPOWER) and DISLOCATED JAW (-3 CHARM, -1 CONNECTIONS)

Yet, when your vision returns, you realize that the wave of grey flesh has receded. Their bodies are pressed against the walls of the alleyway. The front of the horde has been charred a light pink from the impact and for the time being, they don't seem to be moving.
You choke something out of your broken mouth. "SHOOT THEM! PUSH THEM BACK! SEND THEM ALL TO HELL!!!"

Your allies scramble to pull out whatever guns and ammo they have left. Gunshot after gunshot rips into the endless, nameless horde. The one good thing about this death wave of grey flesh is every individual OCEP Agent is super easy to kill. One bullet is enough to kill one of them on the spot.
The horde keeps growing, growing, growing despite your allies pouring every bit of spare ammo they have into it.

You join the festivals with every bit of ammo you have. It doesn't take long until your guns begin to dry fire. The swarm of gunfire your allies were pouring into it quickly dies down as well.
>Your AMMO RESERVE has been massively reduced!
>Your allies are out of ammo!

The horde isn't dead. Oh, far from it, but you managed to make a massive dent in its numbers. You managed to make such a dent that there's a nine foot tall pile of corpses between you and the EXPURGATION PRODECURE.
The EXPURGATION PRODECURE begins to pick up speed. You need to get moving. Now.

"M-MOVE!" You hack something wet and meaty out of your mouth. It was uncomfortably big to be brushed off as something unimportant but there's no time to dwell on it.
Everyone gets a move on while the EXPURGATION PRODECURE is struggling to pick back up to its former speed.

"Nicole, what the FUCK was that about?!" Alexis speaks up over the rest of your panting, heaving allies.

"PAIN keeps me GROUNDED." You do feel a bit different after eating that hit. It's hard to quantify but you feel like yourself - Even if only for a brief moment.
>You bought yourself some precious time. Hard to quantify what that means, though.

"That wouldn't work in a thousand fucking years- Fuck! I can see your bones poking out! Y-" Alexis tries her best to find the exact right words for how fucking furious she is.
[LIQUDIATION] But you think her desire to live outweighs everything else.

It's hard to make out what your other allies are doing but you see Dasha, at the very front, has quite a considerable lead on everyone else. Seems like seeing you get completely torn to shreds gave her enough motivation to speed up.

"LISTEN!"

"CALL SOMEONE! ANYONE!" You point your torn up hands at Alexis and your other corporate allies. "I DON'T CARE WHO, YOU GOT THOSE CONNECTIONS FOR SOMETHING!"

They scramble to pull out their phones. A flurry of calls are made on your command. You can hear them babbling names you've never heard in your life. With how frantic they sound, they must be pretty high up on the corporate chain.

Your small army swerves around corner after corner in a feeble attempt to shake off the EXPURGATION PRODECURE. You managed to get a solid lead at first but the horde is slowly catching up. You do mean SLOWLY, though, as long as you keep running you're easily outpacing it.

That is - If you can keep running. None of your allies have much stamina left in their tanks. Their injured bodies, exacerbated by the constant running, are on the verge of shutting down. Adrenaline can only keep their bodies numb to pain for so long.

That's when you hear Otto screeching your name over the line. Whoever's on the other end of the line clearly listened because the next thing you know...

You hear something fast whizzing through the air, cutting through it like a knife. Something collides HARD five feet away from you, imbedded into the concrete floor. The next thing you know the buildings around you collapse in on themselves. The stench of sulfur and bleach fills the air. A thin, watery liquid pours out of the weird rod stuck in the ground.

Whatever the liquid touches seems to melt into a sticky clay-like material. There's a solid, thick wall of that stuff blocking the pathway behind you.

[SEEKER OF THE CITY] You instinctually recognize it as a mixture of K, S and P-Corp technology. You don't recognize that exact device but it's turning the concrete it touches into a barricade.

The EXPURAGTION PRODECURE tries to push against the barricade. It stretches and warps but it's going to take a while before it outright breaks.
"I SPENT 50K TO GET THAT FUCKING THING SHIPPED!" Otto yells, not at you but to whoever he was talking to. "THAT'S ALL IT DID?"

"Lars, listen, we need more than that." Gregory pleads with whoever he's talking to.
Alexis doesn't even bother saying anything to whoever is on her line. Her seething silence seems to be more than enough.

Two more payloads shoot overhead from some unidentifiable source. The next smell you detect is acrid smoke and gasoline mixed with lemon?
[SEEKER OF THE CITY] Something based on H and L-Corp. There's an intense, blinding amount of light peaking over the barricade.

Whatever it is, it seems to be distracting the EXPURGATION PRODECURE. You and your allies take this distraction to get as much of a lead as you can.
For the next few minutes there's no one chasing after you. The little adrenaline still left in your group's tank runs out then and there. They can't keep running anymore and so...they just don't.

One by one, your allies collapse to the floor. Blood, sweat and vomit quickly stains the concrete you're standing on. Your body too collapses under the strain of everything.
No one is willing to continue. You can't force them to - They already sprinted what must've been half a mile off of pure adrenaline.

Time passes but nothing seems to be coming down the turn you just came from.
That is until you hear Otto's phone dialing. He picks it up. What he hears on it clearly isn't good.

"Okay - They're still coming." He wheezes out. "But they've been routed. If we can make it to the other end of the alley, we're home free."
...but the motivation to continue has been beaten out of your allies. Only Dasha seems to be willing to keep moving - everyone else is prone on the floor from their injuries.

EXPURGATION PRODECURE: 942/1000 FLESH and RESTRAINT, has been successfully delayed...for now.

You need to do something. How do you push them to safety? Pick one.
>[UNSTABLE] DRUG UP YOUR FAMILY. GET THEM MOVING NOW NOW NOW NOW!!! (-A LOT of your consumables, slightly slows down your anomaly transformation. Pushes your allies into hyperdrive, getting them to safety. No skill check needed.)
>[CAPTAIN'S COMMAND] Try to motivate them! Think of something cool to say to push them just a little bit further! (MEDIUM CHARM DC: 51, rolling your 10d6+3d10 with DASHA'S HELP. Succeed and your motivating speech will be enough to get them to safety. You'll get to bring some extra allies to the HEAD MEETING!)
>[ANOMALOUS ABILITIES] Pray. Their flesh is weak - So empower their spirits. (CHALLENGING RESTRAINT DC: 65, rolling 15d7. Pass and you will empower your allies enough to push them to safety. The allies you bring to the HEAD MEETING will have their stats boosted considerably and some of their BOONS upgraded.)

Oh, yeah, heads up. You're not going to be able to bring most of your allies to the HEAD MEETING.
Physical injuries are one thing but everyone here is beyond exhausted. Don't expect some NICOLE AND HER 20~ ALLIES VS A CEO fight.
We'll be voting for that after this. I will say that five allies - ALEXIS, MAX, OTTO, GREGORY and CASEY - will be at the HEAD MEETING regardless of who you pick next vote

>>6261990
>[UNSTABLE] DRUG UP YOUR FAMILY. GET THEM MOVING NOW NOW NOW NOW!!! (-A LOT of your consumables, slightly slows down your anomaly transformation. Pushes your allies into hyperdrive, getting them to safety. No skill check needed.)

>>6261991
+1
>You're not going to be able to bring most of your allies to the HEAD MEETING.
>Don't expect some NICOLE AND HER 20~ ALLIES VS A CEO fight.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck that'd have been so cool... but everybody did well enough AND LIVED THROUGH ALL THIS, so I cannot complain too hard. As long as they all get patched up well by Z-Corp and get a nice cash payout for all this stress and horror, they'll be fine, won't they? Sheeeeeeit, I'd love to have had EVERYBODY with us there on live TV for the whole City to see...
>Physical injuries are one thing but everyone here is beyond exhausted.
The ones sitting out could just be in a nice safehouse or R&R spot and all stay together to watch the others at the HEAD MEETING fighting the CEO? That'd be cool. Then they can see what they're missing out on

>>6261990
FUCK NVM CHANGING MY VOTE FROM >>6261994 TO
>[CAPTAIN'S COMMAND]
I just saw this bit
>You'll get to bring some extra allies to the HEAD MEETING!
And I want this. Even if they get BTFO in seconds, I want them there with us on TV

>>6261995
+1

>>6261990
>[UNSTABLE] DRUG UP YOUR FAMILY. GET THEM MOVING NOW NOW NOW NOW!!! (-A LOT of your consumables, slightly slows down your anomaly transformation. Pushes your allies into hyperdrive, getting them to safety. No skill check needed.)

Seems like we have a tie. I'll leave it open for another 4 hours and if another vote doesn't come in, assume voting is closed and I'm writing UNSTABLE since it doesn't require any dice.

You're no good with speeches and, to be frank, you're not sure if praying to some higher power is going to do anything. Hollow and immaterial things that don't matter right now.
All that matters is your physical and visceral reality.

[UNSTABLE?] THE PAIN ITSELF IS THE REASON WHY.
[UNSTABLE?] HUMANITY CONTINUES TO STRUGGLE.
[UNSTABLE?] THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL. WE MUST REACH IT.

Your own voice echoes in your head. It sounds so wrong now. Distorted, twisted, words merging and echoing over each other. You feel like you're on the edge of a cliff right now - One wrong step and everything can collapse in an instant.

You need to keep your FAMILY safe.
You throw every consumable you can think of onto the floor. Gems, pills, bundles of medicine, vials filled with chems, illegal hard drugs, whatever you can think of.

Benjamin, Lex and Adam do their best to stretch out what you gave them but you only managed to save three consumables...
>YOU are left with REGEN-MAXX, HIRCHSTONE and PZ-Z1 SYRINGE.
So be it. You can buy last-second supplies at the HEAD MEETING but you can't buy your friends back.

A slurry of drugs is pumped through every single ally through strategic use of Lex's veins. Right as he finishes pumping a thin slurry into the last of your allies, you hear something banging and skittering around the corner.

Your allies scramble back to their feet. The slurry of drugs pumping through them is enough to force their bodies to work at max capacity. Dasha yells out something in a slurry of English, Russian and some other language you can't put your finger on.

Everyone runs for their life. You quickly follow after them and good thing too since, only a few seconds, does your foe finally catch up with you.
The EXPURGATION PRODECURE shows no sign of exhaustion despite everything your group threw its way. Every Agent looks like they're in the prime of their life - No sign of any bullet wounds, no light pink burns, nothing.

The only thing that brings you any amount of comfort is that this is a smaller chunk of the EXPURGATION PRODECURE chasing you. Seems most of them got routed by whatever Otto and co. called.
Doesn't really matter since they're rapidly growing back to full size but you might have a chance to lose this one.

Turn after turn, your allies continue to weave through the expansive maze of alleyways, dead ends and abandoned buildings that make up the Backstreets. The EXPURGATION PRODECURE is only ever a few feet away from you but you can tell they're getting desperate.

AND THE MANY MOUTHS OPEN CRIED OUT ONE WORD, "GET BACK HERE!"
Their voices blend together and echo with such intensity, you swore the buildings around you were about to collapse.

Your vision swims but you can't slow down. No one can slow down.
You see the end of the maze you're in. A light is shining from it - Some sort of searchlight? You can't quite tell but you know that there's safety there.

The EXPURATION PRODECURE screeches, its furious voices nearly deafening you. "NO" "NO!" "RETURN HERE AT ONCE, SMITH." "PURSURING SUSPECT OF HIGH TREASON!"
Your legs nearly give out on you. One by one, your allies manage to reach the end of the alleyway. To safety.

The walls around you are closing in. As if the City is trying to seal away the EXPURGATION PRODECURE from the rest of itself.
[SEEKER OF THE CITY] Y and G-Corp technology.
The last one to reach the exit is you. You launch yourself forward right as the alleyway seals shut, leaving behind only a smooth, thick wall of concrete and steel.

Loud banging echoes from behind the wall but it's far sturdier than the other walls they tore down. With no way to reach you, you hear hundreds of footsteps stepping away from the sealed exit.

>You SURVIVED the EXPURGATION PRODECURE!

You're now in some random parking lot on the other side of the sub-district. You're too dizzy to really describe it in any more detail. There's, like, cars or something who cares.
You collapse to the floor. The pain of your injuries finally catches up with you. The next hour passes by in a blur for you.

Ambulance sirens. Men and women in bright white uniforms. Men in suits interviewing some of your allies. Something tried to talk to you - You didn't really pay any attention to them. You didn't recognize them. A man with grey-blue hairs yells at Max and Gregory. Money is passed around to suppress any information about what just happened.

The next thing you actively remember is Kiara shaking you by the shoulder. She nods her head to something behind her, "Seems like some esteemed benefactors have offered to heal you up! To the best of their abilities!"
"Most of us are...going to a Z-Corp safehouse. But, we'll be watching the HEAD MEETING, trust us."

Casey and Quentin pop out from behind Kiara.
"Today was an excellent display of employee competence, was it not?" You feel an un-Caseylike level of...smugness behind her words. "I must say, you truly know how to lead by example!"
"IT WAS PLEASANT. GETTING BACK AT THOSE WHO HURT MY FAMILY." Quentin pats you on the shoulder. "WHAT DO YOU PLAN ON DOING?"

"I-I have to go to the MEETING. They need to know. They have to know." Wait, you swore you were warned about a JUDICATOR. You glance around the parking lot but all you spot are cars (including yours), some parked ambulances, and...

A figure in a teal cloak covered in bronze hexacombs is hiding behind one of the many cars in the parking lot. You can't see their face but you can hear them laughing to themselves. <"Oh, she's too entertaining to kill. Sorry, Poia, we're letting her go. For now.">

>You have received the acknowledgement of a JUDICATOR, an Agent of the HEAD, by surviving the EXPURGATION PRODECURE.

You scramble to your feet(hooves?). You have to lean on Kiara to keep standing. You're promptly escorted over to one of the many ambulances.

You take a moment to think on who you should convince to go to the HEAD MEETING. You'd probably only have time to get 5 allies on your side before everyone has to go.

You know MAX, ALEXIS, OTTO, GREGORY and WENDY are likely already heading there for their own reasons. So, it's time to think on who your last SQUAD should consist of. Every ally not brought along will be left behind to heal.

PICK YOUR SQUAD
>THE CLASSICS (Consists of Lex, Quentin, Benjamin, Kiara and Frank. The first four allies you ever hired...plus Frank.)
>THE HEROES (Consists of Maruyama, Clover, Casey, Anderson and Dasha. The most 'morally upstanding' of your allies.)
>THE SURVIVORS (Consists of Ashley, Naomi, Vincent, Adam and Benedict. Those most directly impacted by the STILLE DAG.)
>Write in (Pick five allies amongst CLASSIC, HEROES or SURVIVORS to bring along.)

The JUDICATOR is still there. Watching you. She's not going to attack you, you think, but you're unsure if you should even acknowledge her presence.

Do you talk to the JUDICATOR?
>NONONONONO
>Yes. Keep it brief and professional. Acknowledge her as she has acknowledged you.
>Yes. Ask her why she's watching you. Did she get her sick fucking kicks out of what happened?
>Write in.

You take a moment to think on who you should convince to go to the HEAD MEETING. You'd probably only have time to get 5 allies on your side before everyone has to go.

You know MAX, ALEXIS, OTTO, GREGORY and WENDY are likely already heading there for their own reasons. So, it's time to think on who your last SQUAD should consist of. Every ally not brought along will be left behind to heal.

PICK YOUR SQUAD
>THE CLASSICS (Consists of Lex, Quentin, Benjamin, Kiara and Frank. The first four allies you ever hired...plus Frank.)
>THE HEROES (Consists of Maruyama, Clover, Casey, Anderson and Dasha. The most 'morally upstanding' of your allies.)
>THE SURVIVORS (Consists of Ashley, Naomi, Vincent, Adam and Benedict. Those most directly impacted by the STILLE DAG.)
>Write in (Pick five allies amongst CLASSIC, HEROES or SURVIVORS to bring along.)

The JUDICATOR is still there. Watching you. She's not going to attack you, you think, but you're unsure if you should even acknowledge her presence.

Do you talk to the JUDICATOR?
>NONONONONO. Do not acknowledge her.
>Yes. Keep it brief and professional. Acknowledge her as she has acknowledged you.
>Yes. Ask her why she's watching you. Did she get her sick kicks out of what happened?
>No. But keep an eye on her as you're getting patched up.
>Write in.

Shorter update, sorry.
Also changed CASEY to WENDY in the 'will be going to the HEAD MEETING regardless'. Mostly because WENDY is an actual Corpo Rep while CASEY is just a cute bee.

>>6262607
>THE SURVIVORS (Consists of Ashley, Naomi, Vincent, Adam and Benedict. Those most directly impacted by the STILLE DAG.)

>No. But keep an eye on her as you're getting patched up.

>>6262607
>Write in
Let's be real with all of them. We're going to the HEAD MEETING which is televised LIVE to the entire City. We're going to be in a space with all the biggest names and the most powerful people in the world. We're going to lay out everything we've collected and set up to make sure they all know Stille Dag exist and are a detriment to them and everybody else. We are going to have to face a CEO, a real deal Wing leader and nothing - NOTHING - like the man we just killed at the bottom of that facility. And we will need to simply show off, not even try to win, not even fathom being able to kill them because that's not the goal here.

We tell them all this once they're stable enough to receive this news ESPECIALLY that last bit with the CEO. Whoever is coming with us will be famous forever guaranteed, but that might not be appealing to some of them.

Not voting right now, just saying that I personally want
>Clover
Imagine him using JUSTICE BLAST to beam clash the L-Corp King. That'd be too hype to not record on live TV
>Quentin
His "dad" is going to be there
>Naomi
Ex-Silver Agent, walking evidence, plus has fought and killed a CEO before
>Benjamin
Only because Max is going to be there, and he's up there in Z-Corp
>???
I have no idea who I'd want for a fifth person, will have to think about it...
Maybe Kiara for the big televised symbolism of an android and a drone fighting together against an impossible opponent?
Maybe Ashley because she's supposed to be giving a concert or whatever?
Maybe Dasha because Alexis is there?
Maybe Lex because his mom and the rest of their village might be watching somewhere in I-Corp?
Maybe Casey because she's a rep from a different quest's setting and is good with corpo?

Otherwise I don't think the others are as symbolic or crucial to bring along.
Kiara? She can still spread her big scoop on Stille Dag without going to the HEAD MEETING.
Frank? He ain't good in a big corpo setting, plus he did his damn job perfectly for us.
Maruyama? Sure he's IN HIS PRIME now but he's done enough for us at that final boss plus preventing the nuke timer.
Anderson? He despises the Head and all the CEOs, he helped us against Liam, and he has somewhere else more important to be...
Vincent? I think he'd want to relax and paint something good after all this.
Adam and Benedict? They're both free now, Benedict is back to being fully human, and they had their spotlight against Liam the Stille Dag CEO final boss.

>No. But keep an eye on her as you're getting patched up.
Don't want to get murdered for taboo violation

>>6262607
>THE HEROES

STILLE DAG is already widely known now for obvious reasons and inevitably to the public. I pick the heroes option because I want to make the city common people's lives a bit better, or more if possible, and inspire other people to be more like THE HEROES, not just destroy/expose STILLE DAG. This will definitely be good in the long term for the common people of the city. Instead of just simply lie down, roll over, and get washed away by the tide of misery, nihilism, suffering, and hopelessness.

>No. But keep an eye on her as you're getting patched up.

>>6262607
Making my actual vote now after
>>6262626

>Clover
>Quentin
>Benjamin
>Maruyama
>Casey
So THE HEROES but replace Dasha and Anderson with Benjamin and Quentin
Keeping my JUDICATOR vote the same

>>6262626
This is an important event, I definitely think he's going to be involved in the head meeting in some way.
>>6262793
Also, is it a good idea to bring Quentin? There are potential causes for Quentin "Dad" to panic at the sight (which potentially gains the attention of other CEOs, and curiosity about what makes him panic, CEOs will start asking questions and investigate it) of Quentin because he fears other companies potentially finding out that he conducted taboo experiments, and we don’t know if Quentin will keep his mouth shut/not reveal too much/change the information about his past.

https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2025/6213851/
No.6243046
[MAXXED ALEXIS RAPPORT] "It's." She whispers to you to make sure Quentin doesn't hear. "it's the high corporate administrator of Z-Corp. Q and Z tried to make an experimental Drone variant that could revive the dead."

[SEEKER OF THE CITY] Such an act is deemed horrifically taboo by most of the Companies in this City.
[SEEKER OF THE CITY] While most injuries can be healed through advanced medicine, full destruction of the brain is enough to render them invalid.
[PERSON OF INTEREST] The official explanation is to prevent CEOs from holding power forever. A way for the Head to restrict the power of the Alphabet Companies.

>>6262817
And CEOs (type that not concerned about taboo revive dead) if they find out what Quentin is. Will potentially want Quentin's sample and bodies for his own ends.

>>6262820
>>6262817
Ok good point

>>6262607
Changing my vote in >>6262793 from
>Quentin
to
>Dasha
BUT we can make a note to secretly pass on Quentin's contact to the High Corporate Administrator of Z-Corp via Benjamin, so Quentin stays secret but his dad can still go seek him out on his own terms. Benjamin is already in good standing and position at Z-Corp, so he can make it happen easier

>>6262823
Also, want to bring Anderson with us, to keep a eye on him and make sure he don’t do something crazy.

https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2025/6213851/
>A hint from them, Nicole. A revolutionary that reeks of coffee and false hopes has entered the facility. He seeks to help you but he has ulterior motives for heading here. Do not fully trust him.
>[PERSON OF INTEREST] We were told he would be here by the Antennae Voices. That we shouldn't trust him fully - Even if he wants to help us.

Right, so it seems like some flavor of HEROES is winning. I'll just do a quick verification vote then I'll write.

CLOVER, MARUYAMA and CASEY 100% come. Who do you want as your last two?
Pick two. Leaving this open for six to eight hours, depending on how quickly something solidifies.

>DASHA (Would absolutely be a marvel to the CEOs, would probably have some level with I-Corp, X-Corp, J-Corp and R-Corp's CEOs due to her background.)
>BENJAMIN (Has ties with Z-Corp, Max is going to be there so he really wants to be there, would probably want to meet the more anomalous CEOs. Could bargain for some very powerful healing supplies before the fight.)
>ANDERSON (Would probably know some weaknesses of the CEO and would be able to warn you about what tricks they pull. Might be a liability in the MEETING, though, to be frank.)
>QUENTIN (Has ties with various corporations due to his experimental status, would probably get a massive kick out of showing the Q-Corp CEO what for, has been supercharged due to the corpses he obtained from the HEAD MEETING)

I'm mostly asking since it's 1 for SURVIVOR, 1 for HEROES and 1 for Tow's write in of Heroes.
As for the whole 'QUENTIN causing a shitstorm', an Agent of the Head let you go because they found you amusing. Make that what you will.

Right, so it seems like some flavor of HEROES is winning. I'll just do a quick verification vote then I'll write.

CLOVER, MARUYAMA and CASEY 100% come. Who do you want as your last two?
Pick two. Leaving this open for six to eight hours, depending on how quickly something solidifies.

>DASHA (Would absolutely be a marvel to the CEOs, would probably have some leverage with I-Corp, X-Corp, J-Corp and R-Corp's CEOs due to her background.)
>BENJAMIN (Has ties with Z-Corp, Max is going to be there so he really wants to be there, would probably want to meet the more anomalous CEOs. Could bargain for some very powerful healing supplies before the fight.)
>ANDERSON (Would probably know some weaknesses of the CEO and would be able to warn you about what tricks they pull. Might be a liability in the MEETING, though, to be frank.)
>QUENTIN (Has ties with various corporations due to his experimental status, would probably get a massive kick out of showing the Q-Corp CEO what for, has been supercharged due to the corpses he obtained from the HEAD MEETING)

I'm mostly asking since it's 1 for SURVIVOR, 1 for HEROES and 1 for Tow's write in of Heroes.
As for the whole 'QUENTIN causing a shitstorm' Nbd is worrying about, an Agent of the Head let you go because they found you amusing. Make that what you will.

>>6263327
>Benjamin
He stays with Max, duh.
>DASHA
The last character we ever got, we might as well bring her to have her get one last prominent section this quest

>>6263327
>DASHA
>ANDERSON

>>6263327
>BEN
>QUENTIN

Two votes for Dasha, two votes for Benjamin, one vote for Quentin, one vote for Anderson.
Good enough for me. Your final party will consist of Dasha, Benjamin, Clover, Maruyama, and Casey.
Writing. Cutting it here since it's likely we just end up with a tie anyways if I kept this open any longer.

For funny, I want one anon to roll 11d6 for Benjamin's COGNIZANCE. DC of 34/37/40. No MANAGER'S FLESH, no consumables, just rawdog it.
You'll see why depending on what you roll.

Rolled 6, 4, 6, 5, 6, 1, 4, 5, 4, 5, 6 = 52 (11d6)

>>6263409

>>6263411
BASED BEN AT IT AGAIN

You mull over who to bring - You briefly linger on the idea of bringing those most affected by the Stille Dag. You decide against it though. You need to make a SCENE at the MEETING. You need to make sure all of this MEANT something.

So why not bring some HEROES?
You hiss as one of the nurses smears some thick cream over the shattered stumps that were once your antlers. You should worry about that after getting healed.

You let one of the nurses inject you with a sedative so you can get some proper surgery. Everything goes black soon after. Gotta admit, it-

When you next wake, the first thing you spot is a swarm of Z-Corp nurses staring at you with a mixture of fear and curiosity usually reserved for discovering a new lifeform. They're muttering and whispering to each other over what they just saw.

You look down at your right arm. It has regrown but it feels like there's something wrong with it. You run your finger down your forearm - Yeah, there's metal in there. It seems your body regenerated over a metal replacement they gave you. Reminds you of seeing Kudza growing over an abandoned building.

You flex your fingers. Feels stiff but it'll work, at least.
>RUPTURED LIVER, SHATTERED RIBS and DISLOCATED JAW have been healed!
>LEAKY EYE MUTATION is removed!
>SHATTERED ANTLERS replaced with BUDDING ANTLERS (-3 WILLPOWER)

Benjamin pushes past the horde of Z-Corpers to get a better look at you. He's gotten a similar half-prosthetic-half-flesh arm to replace the arm he just lost. "Hey! Glad they managed to fix you up. You doing okay?"
"As good as I can be after that." You groan. "How are the others."

One of the nurses answers for Benjamin, "Stable. The ones heading to the MEETING were given extra attention but all are stable."
You grit your teeth but Benjamin elaborates before any misunderstandings could brew.

"Oh! Some makeup artists came by to help hide any bruises or scars - They're going on TV after all, haha! It would look REALLY bad if, say, Max looked how she did an hour ago."
Fair enough, you suppose.
The nurses scatter to deal with your other allies now that you've been (mostly) patched up. Benjamin sits right next to you on the ambulance floor. "So. You're going, right? Mind telling Max something if you're heading up there?"

"Ah. Funny thing you mentioned that." You click your tongue. "I want you to come."
Benjamin blankly stares at you. You tap around your neck to make sure you didn't literally grow a second head.
"Uh. You okay there?" You awkwardly laugh.

"I. Huh! I didn't. I didn't expect that, really, I was. I was kinda expecting not to go." It's clear he has some reservations about going but you can tell it's not about the MEETING itself.
[SEEKER OF THE CITY] He's worried about how his presence might harm Max's reputation. It IS the biggest event in the City.

"It'll be fine, man." You pat him on the shoulder. "Do you or do you not wanna go?"
"Ah, what the heck! Might as well! Who else?"
"Funny you say that."

You roam around the parking lot to gather your other allies for this final, FINAL mission.

Clover and Casey were really easy to convince. The promise of flashing lights, big corporate names and a duel for the ages is easily enough to win them over. The bright glow of ambition fills their eyes - They're more than ready to go RIGHT NOW.

Maruyama hesitantly accepts. He's beyond tired after having to fight a CEO, even one that's probably weaker than whatever a proper Corporate CEO could put out. Yet you can tell he wants to go if only because he doesn't WANT to stop. He wants to keep going no matter the cost.

Dasha is the last one you approach because you were hemming and hawing over whether you'd pick her or Quentin. BUT, fuck it, she deserves a moment in the spotlight. She accepts pretty quickly as well but you're 90% sure that's because Alexis is there.

You take stock of the rest of your allies. Aside from the others heading to the MEETING alongside you, most of them are still being treated due to how bad their injuries are. The only one who approaches you is Quentin. There's an air of finality around him. He knows that you know that you're probably not coming back from the Meeting as a human.

He slips Benjamin a piece of paper before he holds out his hand.

"NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, WILL YOU STILL BE MY FRIEND?"

You grab his hand and shake it. "Of course."
"THEN THIS IS GOODBYE THEN. I HOPE YOU GUYS WILL BE SAFE."
"Ah, don't worry about us too much, Quint. We're all good." "Oh! Before we leave, I must impart you with a commemorative gift."

Quentin tilts his head at Casey. Before he knows what's going on, Casey plants a kiss on his cheek. His face immediately goes neon red, "W-WHAT."
"I'll give you a better gift once we're back. I just thought you'd enjoy it!"

"WHAT. WHAT." Quentin tries his best to process what's going on. Maruyama and co. can only laugh at his expense (though Benjamin and Clover are proud of Quentin, if you ignore their laughing)

With that, you're escorted over to your car by your allies.
You made sure to keep an eye on the JUDICATOR during your treatment and while you were recruiting your allies. She didn't move a single muscle over the last half hour. She watched your every move with the same smug smirk and a faintly amused glint in her eye.

>FIRST THRESHOLD PASSED
No one else seems to notice her except for Benjamin.
He nervously glances between you and the JUDICATOR. He's not sure if he should say anything but he leans in to whisper something to you.

"Uh. You do know who that is, right?"
"What?" You whisper back.
"That's an Elite Judicator. Kiara told me there's only 26 of them in the whole City - Why the hell is one of them here???"
"I don't know and I don't want to. Just don't acknowledge her. Please."
"O-okay but..." His words die before he can say anything else.

You and your five allies climb into your car. It's a bit bent out of shape from some wayward hits from the EXPURGATION PRODECURE. Poor thing.

You rev up the engine and, thankfully, that still works.
>SECOND AND THIRD THRESHOLD PASSED
Everyone has settled comfortably into the car except for Benjamin. He's glancing behind him like he's seeing something no one else is.

You decide to ignore it for now. You start the long drive towards the HEAD MEETING. From what little you remember, it's in the dead center of the City right where A, B, and C-Corp's districts intersect.
It would be a long drive but you spot a VIP Limousine driving down the road. That's probably what Max and co. are driving.

You simply follow after them. It doesn't take long until you are led down a private road that goes deep underground. The tunnel you're in is lit up with dark red emergency lighting - Probably got hit by accident when you were messing around in the STILLE DAG base.

Your GPS went apeshit the moment you drove down the tunnel. Portal tomfuckery, you'd guess? Probably some Y-Corp nonsense.

https://youtu.be/NIWyZmFSep0 - CENTER OF THE CITY
The trip through the tunnel cuts off abruptly as you're spat out into the streets of a completely different district. The dull grey buildings disappear and are immediately replaced with glamourous, luxurious high rises. The streets glimmer and sparkle under the dusky sun. The dark red hue that's settled on everything from the dusk sun adds a warmth to the otherwise tacky buildings.

The road is completely filled with cars that all look exactly like the VIP Limousine you were following. The only reason you're not being escorted out is likely that they were informed about you before hand. Crowds upon crowds of star hungry Cityslickers flood the sidewalks, almost giving your group a heart attack after what happened only an hour ago.

"Woah." Clover chuckles as he processed everything he saw. "Never expected I'd end up in some glitzy place like this. Feels weird."
"A woman I used to know," Maruyama sighs. ",would always complain about me not being able to bring her to a place like this."
Dasha and Casey are stunned into silence. Dasha has no real way to process what she's seeing and Casey is just taking in the atmosphere.

Your vision is assaulted with hundreds of flashing lights from the paparazzi scattered throughout the crowd.
You can only trust that your muscle memory is enough to stop you from getting into a crash.
The convey you accidently joined leads you and the rest of the VIPs to the main building itself. THE CITY HALL: HOME OF THE HEAD.

It's a skyscraper that reminds you of that massive, massive beast of a tower you had to climb in R-Corp. But way more reasonable in terms of high. It stretches up into the sky like a hand reaching up into heaven. It glimmers with a light people like you could only see from a distance, never so up close and personal like this.

Your convey heads into a private, secluded parking garbage attached to CITY HALL. One where paparazzi won't turn your vision into a glowing white haze. The end approaches.

Max and co. are promptly escorted into the building proper by at least ten armed bodyguards. The security here is going to be tighter than a N-Corp girl's privates, huh?

Right as your group steps out, Benjamin lingers behind your car.
"Is something wrong, comrade Ben?"

"What are we doing to do with THAT thing?"
You turn to see what he's talking about-

WHAT THE FUCK IS IT DOING HERE.
A mass of black tar is seated where Benjamin once was. It's in a vaguely bipedal form but other than that, you can't make out any details about it. That's TRAPPED BEHIND FOREVER or, well, some fragment of it.

How the hell did it follow you?!
Your squad immediately goes on high alert but the anomaly doesn't respond. It barely seems to be, well, conscious. Benjamin waves his hand in front of it and it seems to acknowledge his movements at least.

"Want." It gargles out. "To. See. The finale. Can I. Come? Sorry for. Stalking."
...Seems like Benjamin must've noticed it way, way before anyone else could. Was this thing just going to follow you if he didn't notice.

What do you say to TRAPPED BEHIND FOREVER?
>[PERSON OF INTEREST] "It's probably not safe for an anomaly to be in there. We could get someone to bring you a TV or something, at least?"
>[UNSTABLE] "Fuck it. Follow us. Make yourself comfortable."
>[SEEKER OF THE CITY] "We can ask Security to bring you somewhere an 'anomalous asset' would be allowed. You don't have to hide."
>[ANOMALOUS ABILITIES] "Sure but on one condition - You help us later with whatever CEO we're dealing with."
>Write in.

And as for the CITY HALL itself, do you follow MAX AND CO or not?
>Follow MAX AND CO. Best to stay together and, hey, let Benjamin see his girlfirend.
>Explore the CITY HALL by yourself. You'll see them soon enough and you wanna see the 'locals' that live here.

Lastly, anyone you want to talk to as you walk? Pick one.
>DASHA
>CLOVER
>CASEY
>BENJAMIN
>MARUYAMA
>...TRAPPED BEHIND FOREVER?
>Save the talk for later.

>>6263583
>[UNSTABLE] "Fuck it. Follow us. Make yourself comfortable."
It's the beginning of the end,
So you might as well set fire to your friends...
>Follow MAX AND CO. Best to stay together and, hey, let Benjamin see his girlfirend.
We're almost there...
>DASHA
Let's get more screentime for you before it all ends

>>6263583
>[SEEKER OF THE CITY]
I think the UNSTABLE option is a bad idea, because this is a head meeting, so there are definitely tons of security and anti-anomaly detection.

>Follow MAX AND CO. Best to stay together and, hey, let Benjamin see his girlfirend.

>DASHA

Also, when will we give Casey, the PURIFIED ENKEPHALIN?

>>6263917
Fine I'll change the vote then

>>6263583
Changing vote from >>6263596 to
>SEEKER

15 hours, two votes, let's just get going. Writing.

>>6263918
You did. You tossed it right when you were escaping - You just didn't have time to really see how it changed her since, uh.
You were running for your life against the EXPURGATION PRODECURE? That took up your focus the last few updates.

There's no way you're letting this thing follow you along like a dear old friend. Not because you hate the idea of an anomaly following you. Hell, it'd be hypocritical considering what you are.

You fear for this thing's safety. God forbid that someone like W-Corp's CEO spots this thing mulling about. It took like three missions to get Wendy to somewhat calm down and even then. You don't want to imagine what W-Corp would do.

"Hey! Sec!" You whistle for one of the VIP bodyguards. A tall, burly man in a black suit and tie one size too small for his body immediately rushes over to you. He coldly stares at you, waiting for your order.

"This anomaly here-"
The bodyguard immediately draws his service pistol. Dasha and Clover step in to block his line of fire.
"No, no, no. We don't want it dead. Could you possibly, uh, escort it somewhere an 'anomalous asset' would be allowed? IT is with us."

The bodyguard narrows his eyes but he nods, gesturing at the anomaly to come out.
"You don't have to hide." You whisper to the anomaly.
It stumbles out of your car. It struggles to stand on two legs but it's willing to go now. "T-than. Than k Tha Knk yo u."

The bodyguard grunts. "Follow me."
He escorts the anomaly with him. The anomaly briefly turns its 'head' to look back at you.
It spits something out onto the floor before it lets itself get escorted away.

Benjamin picks up the tar-coated bauble.
>DON'T FORGET obtained! (PARADIGM. An old polaroid camera. Any picture taken by this is imbued with a memetic property that makes it impossible to forget. Has four charges that will be spent over the mission.)
A wry smile crosses the pharmacist's face. "What a lovely gift, huh?"

"Memories are truly an ephemeral thing." Casey has lost her usual faux-sweet salesperson accent. "It's a lovely gift indeed. Mind if I keep it? After all of the hard work we did, we shouldn't forget it so easily."
"Sure." Benjamin tosses the camera over to Casey. "We should hurry up before the others get too far ahead, yeah?"

You nod. With that settled, you quickly follow after MAX AND CO. A swarm of bodyguards move to surround you to make sure you're as safe and protected as the actual VIPs.
You decide to take this moment to chat with Dasha.

She's glancing around the parking garage with a type of fear in her eyes usually reserved for small baby prey animals.
"You okay?"
"It feels like I'm floating in a dream, Nikola. I still worry that this isn't real. That I'm still back there."

"The base. That felt real. I understood that. Fighting, killing, having to struggle for the right to breath."
"This. This feels wrong. I'm not supposed to be here."

You sorta get what she means by that. It feels weird for you to be here as well. "I can promise you that this is real. I can't really fault you, though, I'd be shocked too."
"This is how my father must've felt. When he came home from the war." Dasha wraps her arms around herself. "Everything feels sticky. Like you're tethered somewhere else."

"I can see that...stickiness on you as well. Do you feel like you can move on?"
It takes a moment for you to realize what she meant. Hm. You already answered that when you killed the STILLE DAG CEO.

"I can. and I will."
Dasha offers a warm smile. "Good. I'm glad to have met you. Even if we did not have long to meet and to know each other, it is nice knowing that. That."

"That there's hope for a brighter future. Even in a place like this."
You smile but you don't respond. You're not really sure you have a good answer for that.

You change the subject. "What do you plan on doing here?"
"I suppose. I shall meet with those who would understand my struggles. Those who know war."

"It would be nice to meet those who understand. You have fought your own battles but listening to those who went through the same things I did? That would be. Nice."
You pat Dasha on the back. "Well, hey, we're here for you. Do whatever you wanna do. I'm just glad you came with us."

Dasha's smile grows even wider. "Heheh. Yeah." Her laugh is airy and light. You can't help but to laugh with her.
Your conversation is cut off when the bodyguards stop everyone right by what appears to be a back entrance.

"Only one weapon is allowed for those without direct ties to a corporate entity. The rest are allowed two weapons. No explosives above a certain caliber are around. Please dispose your weaponry with us."

Everyone groans but you can't really argue with the bodyguards. Your allies dispose whatever weapons they don't feel like bringing into the HEAD MEETING proper. You can probably sneak your FEDKILLER in by demanifesting it so that leaves one weapon you can bring.

Choose the weapon you wanna keep. The rest will be discarded.
>MOSIN NAGNAT (A very potent rifle. Rolls insanely high compared to your other weapons. Consumes RIFLE AMMO, which will be harder to barter for. Might be better against a CEO.)
>NIC-SMI-WES REVOLVER (A tacky revolver that is laced with your own energy. Rolls lower and only damages the mind, has infinite ammo but can use revolver ammo to deal physical damage.)
>HARPOON GUN + FLINTLOCK PISTOL (The FLINTLOCK is so bad compared to City weapons, it can brought alongside another. Objectively worse in terms of numbers compared to the other options. The COOL factor of using it will be incredibly high. The ADMIRAL will love it if you pick this.)

>CASEY and BENJAMIN have two weapons left! DASHA, MARUYAMA and CLOVER only have on weapon left.
>PASTEBIN for your final squad: https://pastebin.com/NeYKiyED

After you made your decision on what weapon to bring, you're promptly escorted deeper into the building. Your group soon finds itself in something straight out of a movie.

https://youtu.be/f2twCHbdHa8 - THE BANQUET HALL

Pure, blinding opulence. Golden light shines down from a trio of massive chandeliers that hangs from the ceiling.
The golden walls are lined with art pieces from the old world, before the City itself as you knew it was formed.

The large, open venue is filled to the brim with tables that host some of the most powerful people in the City.

Men and women from the highest rungs of society, all wearing the finest clothing straight out of a fashion magazine, are seated as far as the eye can see. Animal-like body modifications and bizarre prosthetics are a dime a dozen. Hell, one of them looks almost exactly like you (but a man instead of a woman.)

Piles of food that would cost you a month's wage to get fill the tables with the same care you'd put into throwing your discarded clothing onto the couch. Caviar, whole roast pigs, wagyu beef, ancient bottles of wine from so long ago their labels have been lost to time.

You and your five pals are stunned into silence at the sight of it. Otto is also, to be blunt, stunned at the sight of actually being here but the other four HEAD MEETING allies treat this as...on par with what they're used to. They seem more worried about how you are feeling than anything else.

You're promptly escorted into a spare table meant for you, Max and the eight associates the two of you brought along.
The table is flooded with the same overly opulent food you saw the other tables had. Everyone scrambles to get a plate full of the decedent, luxurious food. You don't bother grabbing anything: You're just not that hungry.
You turn to look at Casey, who's seated right next to you. She's not eating anything either. She's just running her finger across a spare apple thrown her way by one of your other allies.

"Mind if I make a suggestion?"
"Go ahead."
"We should talk to some of the corporate elites here. Pull what favor we have with them before the BIG SHOW happens, right?"

You should probably should. No point sitting here when you're not even going to bother to eat. Choose the CORPORATE ELITES you want to interact with before joining the others for DINER. They might be able to help you get connections

Pick four.
>VANNI AND CO! (-VANNI and KRAKATOA favor. You spot Robert, Rosaline and Roland sitting at one of the tables. They can pull some connections to upgrade everyone's armor, FLESH and the support of the C-CORP CEO.)
>VICTORY!!! (-3 V-CORP FAVOR, -FORGOTTEN SIGNAL, -V-CORP BRIEFCASE. A group of fifteen identical men with shit-eating grins are watching you. They'll supply you with a lot of cheap surplus ammo and healing supplies. Buys the support of the V-CORP CEO.)
>SPACE. (-SPACE AGE COMPUTER CHIP and SATELLITE TILE, -RADIO R-3-121-5. A lone man sits at a table, pecking away at his dinner. It's clear he rather be watching the stars. Buys the support of the Y-CORP CEO and a space station filled with weapons.)
>PROGRESS AT ANY COST. (-D-CORP BRIEFCASE, -D-CORP FAVOR and H-CORP FAVOR. Two exhausted women are staring blankly at their plates. You should give them something to look forward to. Buys the approval of the both the D and H-CORP CEOs but with no material rewards.)
(1/2)

>HOMEFIELD ADVANTAGE. (-G-CORP and I-CORP FAVOR, -APPENDIXED FROSTBITTEN TOME. A trucker girl with a familiar face smiles when she sees you. She seems...different though. The G-Corp CEO will fight alongside you during your fight.)
>ANOMALOUS BENEFACTOR (-P-CORP and U-CORP FAVOR, -A-ENERGY SIPHON x3, -"P-CORP LETTER OF RECOMMNDATION". A group of scientists are all watching you, clearly having been told about your presence. Buys the support of the P-CORP CEO and a variety of items that will help you to push your powers to their ultimate limits.)
>WAR. (-X, R and Q-CORP FAVOR, -X-CORP ACHIEVEMENT MEDAL. A small platoon of soldiers is seated at one of the tables, ready to fight if need be. Buys the support of the X-Corp CEO and a small backup army of troops to keep the peace during the final duel.)
>A SHINING LIGHT! (-M, L, S, B-CORP and COMRADE FAVOR. A rag tag group of various corporate elites raptly watch every move you make. You earn the support of B and M-Corp's CEOs and the three possible CEO final bosses will be weakened.)

Consider this your time to spend all of your excess favor to prepare for the final, final fight. The items you spend on top of the favors won't likely be useful elsewhere, so don't worry about 'saving' them.
To clarify what 'support' means, the CEO in question will be willing to listen to you and will likely be more receptive to the STILLE DAG story. Don't worry too much about who they are just yet - just know any given CEO is on par with another CEO in terms of influence.
Any FAVOR you don't spend will be spent before the fight to get a weaker effect.

>>6264026
>MOSIN NAGNAT

>ANOMALOUS BENEFACTOR (-P-CORP and U-CORP FAVOR, -A-ENERGY SIPHON x3, -"P-CORP LETTER OF RECOMMNDATION". A group of scientists are all watching you, clearly having been told about your presence. Buys the support of the P-CORP CEO and a variety of items that will help you to push your powers to their ultimate limits.)
>VANNI AND CO! (-VANNI and KRAKATOA favor. You spot Robert, Rosaline and Roland sitting at one of the tables. They can pull some connections to upgrade everyone's armor, FLESH and the support of the C-CORP CEO.)
>HOMEFIELD ADVANTAGE. (-G-CORP and I-CORP FAVOR, -APPENDIXED FROSTBITTEN TOME. A trucker girl with a familiar face smiles when she sees you. She seems...different though. The G-Corp CEO will fight alongside you during your fight.)
>A SHINING LIGHT! (-M, L, S, B-CORP and COMRADE FAVOR. A rag tag group of various corporate elites raptly watch every move you make. You earn the support of B and M-Corp's CEOs and the three possible CEO final bosses will be weakened.)

>>6264138
+1

>>6264138
+1

>>6264027

>VICTORY!!! (-3 V-CORP FAVOR, -FORGOTTEN SIGNAL, -V-CORP BRIEFCASE. A group of fifteen identical men with shit-eating grins are watching you. They'll supply you with a lot of cheap surplus ammo and healing supplies. Buys the support of the V-CORP CEO.)

>HOMEFIELD ADVANTAGE. (-G-CORP and I-CORP FAVOR, -APPENDIXED FROSTBITTEN TOME. A trucker girl with a familiar face smiles when she sees you. She seems...different though. The G-Corp CEO will fight alongside you during your fight.)

>A SHINING LIGHT! (-M, L, S, B-CORP and COMRADE FAVOR. A rag tag group of various corporate elites raptly watch every move you make. You earn the support of B and M-Corp's CEOs and the three possible CEO final bosses will be weakened.)

>ANOMALOUS BENEFACTOR (-P-CORP and U-CORP FAVOR, -A-ENERGY SIPHON x3, -"P-CORP LETTER OF RECOMMNDATION". A group of scientists are all watching you, clearly having been told about your presence. Buys the support of the P-CORP CEO and a variety of items that will help you to push your powers to their ultimate limits.)


We are dry on ammo for one thing. We need another beast for the final fight and to weaken the other side, and our anomalous powers have gotten us this far.

>>6264602
Oh right we still need ammo
Is that more important here compared to VANNI AND CO buffing people to not get fucked instantly?

>>6264027
>MOSIN NUGGET

>ANOMALOUS BENEFACTOR
>A SHINING LIGHT
>VANNI AND CO
>WAR

>>6264603

Most of our allies in the fight now do need ammo, are not melee spec'd. No Clue what the flesh boost would be but, no guns = no fun. IDK.

>>6264617
OK

>>6264030
>>6264027
Changing vote from >>6264194 to
backing >>6264602
Ammo is ammo

>>6264406
Change
>>6264602
+1

Righto. So it seems like we're going with IIvermory's vote then.
Tell you what. I'm going to be a bit generous. I'll let you get one extra bonus since we're probably going to end this thread soon. No point being stingy.

First one to three gets picked. Totally not buying for time since it just hit 97 degrees and I'm sweating like a pig.
>ANOMALOUS: FEATURING VANNI! (Spends the VANNI FAVOR. Everyone's armor will be upgraded to weaken any esoteric or bizarre damage types the CEOs might throw out. You get an extra +5 WILLPOWER.)
>VICTORY: FEATURING KRAKATOA (Spends the KRAKATOA FAVOR. Alongside the cheap surplus ammo and healing supplies, you'll get a surplus of cheap stat boosters that'll add +2 to two random stats for everyone in your party [including you)
>HOMEFIELD ADVANTAGE: FEATURING KRAKATOA (Spends the KRAKATOA FAVOR. The CEO that'll help you will get a minor boost to all abilities and stats, making them a far better ally in the fight.)
>A SHINING LIGHT: FEATURING VANNI (Spends the KRAKATOA FAVOR. You'll be given intel on some of the psychological weaknesses of the CEOs you'll come across, unlocking more effective plans during the fight itself and slightly lowering all DCs by 2.)
>Stick with what's in IIvermory's original vote.

>>6264629
>A SHINING LIGHT: FEATURING VANNI
This it it Luigi!
>it just hit 97 degrees and I'm sweating like a pig.
Wow, me too! Aaaaaaaaaaa

>>6264629
>HOMEFIELD ADVANTAGE: FEATURING KRAKATOA (Spends the KRAKATOA FAVOR. The CEO that'll help you will get a minor boost to all abilities and stats, making them a far better ally in the fight.)

>>6264638
+1

>>6264629
>SHINING LIGHT

Shining light it is. Have a short snippet as I write.
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, our greatest source of entertainment yet has arrived! She's mean! She's pink!"
"Everyone, please welcome our guest with a roaring applause! She deserves it, you know!"

>>6264662
Fuckin elders baka

My current plan is to fight K-corp CEO for obvious reasons and K-Corp is pro-silver.

>>6264671
You want the fucker to erase our allies? I want to fight L-Corp CEO instead

>>6264629

>just hit 97 degrees

I might guess you live in the southern part of the US too?

Last year, my AC went out like in August and my god. I was typing only in underwear only with like two fans in the computer room.

No clue how people live on the equator.

>>6264687

I don't have a preference. Maru might be able to counter erasure stuff since he can fuck with time and erasing someone involves that by default.

Regardless, not going to be fun. Just different kinds of not fun.

You pat the MOSIN NAGNAT hidden in your inventory.
>-ALL OTHER NON-FEDKILLER WEAPONS

You get up from the table. Everyone, sans Casey, seated at the table gives you the side eye. They're clearly disappointed you're not going to eat SOMETHING after everything you did.
You roll your eyes. You rip out a chunk of a roasted pig with your telekinesis. This satisfies the table and they go back to chatting about whatever they're chatting about.

You got more important things in mind.
You gnaw on the hunk of pork while Casey gnaws on her apple. You excuse yourself as you begin to hop from table to table. You don't care if this is a social faux paus or not. The end is nigh and you need to do this. You need to PROTECT everyone.

>VICTORY!!!
The same sneering face stares back at you. Fifteen men with the exact same face and body are all seated at the same table. All of their eyes are locked solely on you. You might as well treat them as one person - You can't tell the difference.

"So. How's it been?" The V-Corp Rep opens its many mouths. "Had a good time? A fun time? Had the time of your life?"
Casey's plastic smile stretches wider than you think a human's mouth should. "She had an excellent time before she made the mistake of talking to you."
"Mmh, that so? I don't think we were talking to you, foreigner." "Lost bee with a lost soul. Disgusting."

"I've accepted my place. At least when I create spawn, I bother to make them unique. Marketable. Unlike the mess I'm looking at now."
"Touche." "But we're copied from the best, we are." "Yes, yes, the best."

You clear your throat. "Well, you clearly seem to know what just happened, so you can guess exactly what I'm going to ask of you."
"Should've used our catalog before." "Yes, yes, would've solved that issue."
"I had like a thousand things to spend money on. Things slipped through the cracks- Look."

You run your hands through your shaggy, blood-stained hair. "I'm going to be fighting someone soon. And you know exactly who. You want this to be FUN, don't you?"
Their grins grow wider. These sharks smell the first drop of blood of an upcoming bloodbath. "Indeed."
"And me running out of ammo isn't FUN, right? No guns. No fun."

You throw the CATALOG (you thought you had a briefcase but you didn't oops!) and the FORGOTTEN SIGNAL PARADIGM down on the table.
"If you would be so kind," Casey talks for you. "Give her and her associates enough ammo to make this upcoming 'performance' fun for all ages, wouldn't you?"

The V-Corp rep stews on this result. Their smiles fade for a moment as if they loathe having to actually DO something useful. "Short notice." "We can do it." "Our 'boss' would like to see this in person anyways." "Touche. We'll do it."
>YOU gain 24 SHOTGUN SLUGS and 15 RIFLE AMMO!
>Allies with a ranged weapon gain 20 AMMO for their respective guns!
>Your party gains 35 SINSU (Heals 1 FLESH) and JOYVEL (heals 1 RESTRAINT) pills!

"Good boys. Time for our next client."

The V-Corp Rep mutter and huff at Casey's words but they don't bother to stop you as you leave for another table.

>HOMEFIELD ADVANTAGE!
A familiar trucker lady is seated at one of the tables. Bulky plaid vest, thick leather pants, quaint little trucker's hat, red hair and freckles - Yeah, you've met her before.

Ages ago, it feels like, but you recognize her. She's a G-Corp Rep. There's something different about her though. Something that you didn't notice before. A weight that hangs on her shoulders.

Casey immediately realizes something's off about her, "Miss? Do you mind if we talk?"
"Oh! Hey, yeah, uh. Long time no see, huh, Nicole?" The G-Corp Rep(?) awkwardly laughs. The bags under her eyes already have two layers of bags underneath them. She's nursing a warm cup of coffee in her hand.

"...Have you been promoted lately? I can smell that telltale HARD WORKING EMPLOYEE stench!" Casey flashes a toothy grin at the G-Corp Rep(?). "I can see that those from G-Corp work themselves to the bone, huh?"

"Wait-"
You're interrupted by the G-Corp Rep. "Turns out helping you out caused me to skyrocket up the corporate ladder. Guess the last CEO wanted to retire so." She holds her hand out to you. Her hand almost looks like it's infested with something with how many calluses there are.

You grab the G-Corp CEO's hand and shake it. "Well, didn't expect to meet you like this. Are there any other CEOs out here in hiding?"
"I think the D-Corp one is out here someone but beside her? Nope. Most of them are in some private room, talking about...CEO things. Some of the things you hear in there are disgusting."

"And most of them are about people like you." She points right at you. Huh? They're talking about YOU? You tilt your head but she doesn't elaborate from there. "It's a shame, really. You'd think you could do something with all of this power but when the a majority of the strongest people in the City disagree, what can you do?"

"You can fight back." A faint smirk forces itself onto your face. "Tell you what. I already know some of them want a big show - If you join me, well, you can punch one of them right in the face too."
"Stress relief is a very important part of a healthy work-life balance!" Casey chirps.

The G-Corp CEO stares at you like you suddenly grew five heads. "I- Uhm. I'm not sure how good the optics of that would be if I were to, uh, fight my. Urm."
"You're backing someone from your district. It's only fair, isn't it?" You place down the APPENDIXED FROSTBITTEN TOME. "Here's some payment for your trouble."

The G-Corp CEO rapidly flips through the pages. The archaic lore tucked away in there immediately melts through any reservation she had in her heart. Guess that book is finally useful for something. "I'm in. Give me some time to get ready, though, I'm still getting used to my new....body."
>The G-CORP CEO has joined your party(?). You'll get her stats later.

Onto the next table!

>ANOMALOUS BENEFACTOR!

A trio of scientists in pure white labcoats (with some uncomfortable looking turtleneck sweaters underneath) are scribbling down schizophrenic looking notes onto napkins and the table cloth itself.

Their eyes lock on you the moment you step closer to them.
"Subject." "C5. How did she get in?" "They wanted her in. That's why."

"What a wonderful way to start a conversation." Snark oozes in between the gaps of Casey's saccharine voice. "Please. You can talk to her like any other person. You have to treat the customer like how you want to be treated."

The trio stare at each other before looking back at Casey. That went through one ear and out the other.
"Right." You clasp your hands together. "Less talking, more bargaining. Empower me. Use whatever weird tech you got to make me as strong as you can possibly make me."

"Less talk. Less description." "Mechanics. Pages of it. More than the writer can handle." "Yes, yes."

And with that, they move to analyze your body to the best of their ability to see what would work best on you. They analyze every last bit of you. Your hooved feet, the fur covering your body everywhere but your head, the bodysuit fused to your skin, your antlers, the pink fluid that replaced your blood ages ago, your eyes - Everything that isn't human.

They rip out two items from your inventory without even asking you. Guess they're getting right to the point.
Your bloodstained, mangled outfit is quickly replaced with a brand new one that looks almost the exact same as your other outfits. Jeans, boots, pink hoodie, gloves. It's not much to really write home about.

All of it feels charged with some sort of energy. You can almost feel the tiny drops of A-Energy sloshing around inside the fabric. To make up for your mangled antlers, a pair of metal antlers are attached to the still healing nubs. They crackle to life with a pink glow - For all intents and purposes, they're your antlers now.

>BUDDING ANTLERS has been healed! You gain +1 WILLPOWER on top of the penalty being removed.
>Your powers have been upgraded yet again! FLESH WEAVERY heals more often and you can negate five damage types, TELKEINESIS has a near limitless carry capacity and your other upgrades will be revealed as they become relevant!

You thank them for the upgrades before politely bowing out. That leaves only one last table.

>A SHINING LIGHT!
A group consisting of three men and women, including a random Vanni for some reason, are all chattering about 'checks and balances', 'evening the scales'.
Their eyes all lock upon you but before they can say something weird, Casey starts the conversation off on the right foot.

"We all know what we want, right? Your mumbling wasn't very secretive! You gotta be careful with trade secrets, hehe."
"Ah but I shouldn't kid with things like this, should I?" She gestures at you like you're a golden idol. "Tell her everything she needs to hear."

One of them leans forward to get a better look at you. "Hm. We have a proposition."

"We want you to make a CEO bleed. And, last I checked, the last major assassination of a CEO was 35 years ago. Which one was it again?"
"I believe it was H-Corp's. They weren't like this when I was a youngen." An older man amongst the crowd mumbles out.
"And we think you have the power to do so WHILE getting away with it. See, the other CEOs can attack each other whenever but it's all checks and balance. Such a naked power grab would only incite other people to attack them."
"The Antiseptic War is not something people wish to repeat."
"It would be wise to...humble the CEOs, would it not?"

You almost regret not bringing Anderson alongside since this sounds like some shit he'd ramble about. BUUUTTT you're glad you left him behind - This would've motivated him to do something stupid.

"What's the plan, exactly?"
"Well, it's simple. You play your part and agree to the possibility of pain and seizure. We will convince our bosses that your actions will be better for the...health of our community."

You feel like you're being played here somehow but you don't see a better option. Anything to even the playing field.
"On one condition. Tell me a way to mess with these guys. Killing the mind is what's important, yeah?"

"Whatever you say." "They keep their cards tight to their chest but we know a few things." "Listen well. The show's about to start."

"Leonard Candela the 16th has been around for centuries, millennium, even. He's not the only CEO L-Corp has had but he has been there since before modern society existed. He is bored. So, so very bored. All he wants is something to relieve that boredom." "The poor man will do anything to entertain himself. Challenge him. Make a bet with him. Do anything to make things interesting and he'll fall right for it."

"Zhao Hai of the Western Seas." "Yes, yes, he has not recovered from his failure." "His failure to rout the ADMIRAL without outside help."
[CAPTAIN'S AUTHORITY] Heh.
"It weighs heavily on his heart. Jealousy has seeped through the cracks in his soul." "He wants you dead for this slight. His vision has been tinted green. He is unable to think rationally." "Make fun of his failure. It will be burn his soul."

"Purification Program #952-192-592." "A machine as you can clearly tell." "Wishes to purify the world back to a clean, pristine white. To turn the world off and to bring only peace."
"It is prideful of its pristine beauty. Its interlocked and highly complex machine body." "Smear its body with your blood. Stain it the same color as you. If it itself can not be pure and clean, it may do something drastic to itself."

Interesting. You open your mouth to thank them but you're promptly interrupted by a loud noise coming from the center of the banquet.
A hole opens a section of the banquet you thought was just empty space. A large stage hidden by red curtains rises up from it. Everyone's attention is drawn to the stage.

The curtains open to reveal nothing but a man wearing a white shirt, yellow tie and red tailcoat standing by a mic.
"I apologize for the lack of a, uhm, traditional performance. We were supposed to have a M-Corp backed indie band, something like Strands of Silver, playing."

"But we had to cancel that due to their lead guitarist being injured. Quite sad."
The crowd murmurs, hisses and boos at the cancellation. You can't blame them - Ashley probably really wanted to be here BUT you doubt she's too angry after what she did at the STILLE DAG base.

"But we have a replacement! A much better replacement!"
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, our greatest source of entertainment yet has arrived! She's been here all this time and you just haven't noticed! She's mean! She's pink!"

A spotlight suddenly shines right above you. You have to squint to avoid frying your eyes. You can feel the gazes of hundreds, no, thousands of corporate elites staring at you. Eyes shining upon you like stars.

Casey tries to say something but all she can do is pat your shoulder. "I'm sorry. This is going to hurt - Just grin and bear it."
You force yourself towards the stage. Your legs are heavier than stone now. You really don't want to go up there but you have to. You climb onto the stage and join the announcer. He makes a wide sweeping gesture towards you. The spotlight continues to shine down upon you.

"Everyone, please welcome our guest with a roaring applause! She deserves it, you know! NICOLE SMITH!!!"

A thunderous applaud fills the air. Every last square inch of the room. Shrill cries of deranged laughter piece your eardrums and mercilessly beat upon your ears. All you can feel is the cymbals of stage light crashing down upon your forehead and sweat pouring down your forehead.

Your eyes are blinded by a curtain of sweat and tears. W-what's going on?

"We've all heard the stories! Oh, yes yes yes, the amazing stories of this former nobody! Rising up through the ranks to end up HERE of all places!"

"The terrible duel between her and the Admiral himself, S-Corp's greatest blight!"
"The savior of P-Corp, denying some shadowy saboteurs from leaking decades of pent up A-Energy into the air!"
"She stumped FIVE assassination attempts on high ranking corporate family members in one day! Let's not even mention the gassing incident - The one that J-Corp tried to claim."

"H-hey-" You try to interrupt him but he promptly talks over you. Your ears begin to ring.
"And did you hear what happened when she got here? A crowd of endless, nameless agents tried to crush her down! A wave of flesh trying to crush her and her beloved allies! If it wasn't for some choice calls from Alexis Morozov and Gregory Krakatoa, guess what?"

The crowd goes silent.
"We would've lost our greatest guest!"
A roaring tidal wave of exaggerated, performative gasps washes over you.

"Good thing she's smart enough to still be here, isn't that right?"

The veins in your neck burn underneath your skin.

"Before she meets with our glorious CEOs for their private meeting, I thought it would be worth it to let her talk to the crowd!"
The microphone is shoved over to you. The air is immediately smothered by questions upon questions. Questions of rage, joy, envy, lust, boredom slam into your eardrums until they're an indistinct slurry.

"WOAH, WOAH, GUYS! Give her a chance to speak! This is her time to shine!"
"Her stories have been very, very entertaining, you know! We even tracked down some third party sources to hear about her very first adventures! Golly, could you believe that a group of shadowy agents have been following her?"

"The STILLE DAG, I heard? What a scoop! Who else could provide such an engaging plotline."
"OOOO!" "Oh, I heard she fought like a beast when they're involved!" "Oh, I've heard she is RUTHLESS in battle! No wonder why the CEOs want to fight her!"

What pieces of shit these fuckers are. They knew about you from the beginning. They likely knew about the SPOOKS even before you knew what they were.

And yet. They watched? They treated this as some sort of GAME? Some fucking soap opera to watch?
N-no, no, maybe they just don't know the severity of it. Maybe they don't know. Maybe you can do something with this spotlight.

Everything goes silent. You try to look for your table for any hint of support.
Your allies try their best to cry something out to motivate you but their words melt away into static.

Their gazes continue to stare at you. You need to say something. You have to get off this stage as soon as possible.
What do you say to the CROWD?

>Try your best to placate the crowd. Force a smile until you're allowed to leave. Save your breath. (-5 RESTRAINT, MEDIUM CHARM DC: 42, rolling your 12d6. Placating the crowd might help with dealing with the CEO?)
>Talk about the STILLE DAG. They need to know how serious of a threat this is. (MODERATE CONNECTIONS DC: 64, rolling your 17d6. Your words might just get through to them?)
>[UNSTABLE] "You knew? You fucking KNEW?!" Throw the mic down and confront the Host. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THESE FUCKERS KNEW ABOUT THE STILLE DAG THIS WHOLE TIME AND DID NOTHING ABOUT IT?! (Slows down your anomaly transformation. Boosts your stats by a random amount. ??????.)
>Mutter something into the mic. Leave the stage AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. (The Audience will not be pleased. Boosts your MAX FLESH and RESTRAINT by 5. ??????)
>Write in.

"Before she meets with our glorious CEOs for their private meeting, I thought it would be worth it to let her talk to the crowd!"
The microphone is shoved over to you. The air is immediately smothered by questions upon questions. Questions of rage, joy, envy, lust, boredom slam into your eardrums until they're an indistinct slurry.

"WOAH, WOAH, GUYS! Give her a chance to speak! This is her time to shine!"
"Her stories have been very, very entertaining, you know! We even tracked down some third party sources to hear about her very first adventures! Golly, could you believe that a group of shadowy agents have been following her?"

"The STILLE DAG, I heard? What a scoop! Who else could provide such an engaging plotline."
"OOOO!" "Oh, I heard she fought like a beast when they're involved!" "Oh, I've heard she is RUTHLESS in battle! No wonder why the CEOs want to fight her!"

What pieces of shit these fuckers are. They knew about you from the beginning. They likely knew about the SPOOKS even before you knew what they were.

And yet. They watched? They treated this as some sort of GAME? Some fucking soap opera to watch?
N-no, no, maybe they just don't know the severity of it. Maybe they don't know. Maybe you can do something with this spotlight.

Everything goes silent. You try to look for your table for any hint of support.
Your allies try their best to cry something out to motivate you but their words melt away into static.

Their gazes continue to stare at you. You need to say something. You have to get off this stage as soon as possible.
What do you say to the CROWD?

>Try your best to placate the crowd. Force a smile until you're allowed to leave. Save your breath. (-5 RESTRAINT, MEDIUM CHARM DC: 42, rolling your 12d6. Placating the crowd might help with dealing with the CEO?)
>Talk about the STILLE DAG. They need to know how serious of a threat this is. (MODERATE CONNECTIONS DC: 64, rolling your 17d6. Your words might just get through to them?)
>[UNSTABLE] "You knew? You fucking KNEW?!" Throw the mic down and confront the Host. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THESE FUCKERS KNEW ABOUT THE STILLE DAG THIS WHOLE TIME AND DID NOTHING ABOUT IT?! (Slows down your anomaly transformation. Boosts all of your stats by 1d8+3. ??????.)
>Mutter something into the mic. Leave the stage AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. (The Audience will not be pleased. Boosts your MAX FLESH and RESTRAINT by 7. ??????)
>Write in.

Leaning towards "talk about STILLE DAG" or UNSTABLE.

>>6264856
>UNSTABLE
I'm not surprised by them knowing

>>6264910
OKAY FUCK IT!!! WE ARE ENDGAME!!!

>>6264856
>UNSTABLE

>>6264856

>[UNSTABLE] "You knew? You fucking KNEW?!" Throw the mic down and confront the Host. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THESE FUCKERS KNEW ABOUT THE STILLE DAG THIS WHOLE TIME AND DID NOTHING ABOUT IT?! (Slows down your anomaly transformation. Boosts all of your stats by 1d8+3. ??????.)

Mystery box!

>>6264856
>[UNSTABLE]

>>6264856
>[UNSTABLE] "You knew? You fucking KNEW?!" Throw the mic down and confront the Host. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THESE FUCKERS KNEW ABOUT THE STILLE DAG THIS WHOLE TIME AND DID NOTHING ABOUT IT?! (Slows down your anomaly transformation. Boosts all of your stats by 1d8+3. ??????.)

I know that this is supposed to be the “politically incorrect” option. But if these people are all fanboying over Nicole, then a schizo freakout is probably exactly what they want.

>>6265062
>>6265008
>>6265001
>>6264910
I am glad we are all on the same page. Love to see unanimous UNSTABLE vote in this quest

Alrightie. Three anons, roll the following to see how big the stat boost you just got is. 3 will be added to the final tally.
>3d8 (FLESH, RESTRAINT, VIOLENCE)
>3d8 (TALENT, WILLPOWER, CHARM)
>3d8 (CONNECTIONS, COGNIZANCE, MISC)

MISC TABLE
1-3: All of your allies gain +1 to all stats
4-6: All of your allies gain +5 MAX FLESH and RESTRAINT
7-8: All of your allies gain +8 to their preferred combat stat.

Rolled 6, 8, 1 = 15 (3d8)

>>6265138
Come on finale power

Rolled 6, 8, 5 = 19 (3d8)

>>6265138

Rolled 4, 1, 8 = 13 (3d8)

>>6265138

So, this all tallies up to:
NICOLE
+9 MAX FLESH
+11 MAX RESTRAINT
+4 VIOLENCE
+9 TALENT
+11 WILLPOWER
+8 CHARM
+7 CONNECTIONS
+4 COGNIZANCE
and
-Clover, Dasha and Casey gain 8 TALENT
-Maruyama and Benjamin gain 8 COGNIZANCE

YOUR FINAL STAT TALLY
FLESH: 25/25
RESTRAINT: 36/36
VIOLENCE: 19
TALENT: 23
WILLPOWER: 32
CHARM: 20
CONNECTIONS: 24
COGNIZANCE: 18

YOUR INITIAL STAT TALLY AT THE START OF THE QUEST, just to show how far you've come.
FLESH: 2
RESTRAINT: 6
VIOLENCE: 2
TALENT: 4
WILLPOWER: 4
CHARM: 2
CONNECTIONS: 2
COGNIZANCE: 4

Writing.

"You knew?" It comes out as a whisper. Your knotted throat refuses to let you get any louder.

"Oh! Nicole, Nicole, Nicole! We knew for a while! But, in the spirit of keeping competition fair!!!"
The crowd's incessant laughter is only emboldened.
"We paid them no mind! Now, once they started getting real serious, some of us might've humored the idea of doing something. Sure."

"But why should we, we thought? Our glorious hero, our glorious Nicole, she dealt with the inconvenience for us!"
"I gotta say! For a random Cityslicker to bring them down, that's pretty damn impressive! I heard she even killed one of their four 'CEOs'-"

"YOU FUCKING KNEW?!" You immediately sent the microphone flying off the stage with your telekinesis. It smacks into a random dinner guest with a wolf's head. His groans of pain are the only thing you can hear now. The rest of the crowd has gone silent.

"Yeah?" The Host shrugs as if this shouldn't be a revelation. "We knew them long before we knew about you. You were a mystery until the gassing incident but the STILLE DAG?"

"We knew some folks from old B-Corp held some grud-"

You stomp up right towards the shit-eating Host. You yank HARD on his tie to get him to shut up. "ALL OF THIS TIME. WHEN I WAS FIGHTING FOR MY FUCKING LIFE. BEING HUNTED AND STALKED BY THEM FOR MONTHS ON MONTHS." Your memory on how long they've deemed you a POI is fuzzy but it's been for a WHILE. "AN UNCOUNTABLE AMOUNT OF PEOPLE TRANSFORMED INTO ANOMALIES TO THEM - NOT TO FUCKING MENTION THE UNDERGROUND FACILITY!"

"AND YOU DID NOTHING?! YOU JUST THOUGHT, OH WOW, THESE SILVER GUYS REALLY ARE WEIRD! HAHA!" All you can see is pink. "BUT HAHAHA, SEEMS LIKE SOME RANDOM SCHIZO GIRL IS KEEPING THEM DISTRACTED, HAHAHA! WE SHOULD TOTALLY PUT ALL OF OUR FAITH INTO HER!!!"

"EVEN THOUGH THEY COULD'VE KILLED GOD KNOWS HOW MANY CEOS!!! I WORKED WITH ONE OF THEM!!!" You pull tighter on his tie. The Host struggles to breath but no one is moving to stop what's happening. The corners of his mouth is twisted like he's about to smirk at any moment. "SHE KILLED ONE!!! WHO KNOWS WHAT DAMAGE THEY'D COULD'VE DONE IF I DIDN'T RAT OUT THEIR DOUBLE AGENTS HERE!"

"OH! DID WE FORGET ABOUT THE NUKE TOO? THE NUKE THAT COULD'VE TURNED G-CORP'S TERRITORY INTO AN IRRADIATED HELLSCAPE?! THEY COULD'VE DONE IMMEASURABLE DAMAGE TO THE CITY!!! AND YOU DID NOTHING?"

You let go of his tie. He stumbles away from you before reaching to clutch at his throat. He loosens it to make sure he can breath before he turns back to address you.
"Yep! After all, you won! You sent them into hiding. Why would we bother doing anything? The problem solved itself."

"HELL!!! WHY AREN'T YOU DOING ANYTHING NOW?! THEY'RE WEAK! DEFENSELESS!! YOU CAN KILL THEM NOW!!!"
The Host is oddly confused at your concerned tone. He clearly doesn't understand why this is riling you up.
"Why, it's simple! So you can keep fighting them! Oh, they're sturdy little guys, I'll give them that! They'll come back soon!"

"And when they do! We can do this all over again! Encore! Encore!"

The crowd immediately erupts into an ecstatic flurry of laughter, cheering and hooting. Their words pierce right through your soul.
"Oh, that was excellent! I heard she was a schizo but seeing in the flesh?!" "No wonder why Leoht was so interested in her! A-Corp really knows what's entertaining!" "Ahhh! This is never going to get old!" "What a beautiful star of the city!"

[POI] The. The BASE ASSAULT. It only delayed the inevitable? It was pointless?
[UNSTABLE RESOLVE] No. Quite the opposite. We were the only ones in the City who WOULD'VE done anything to stop them.
[UNSTABLE RESOLVE] It doesn't matter if these sick freaks care. What matters if we stabbed at an monolith and we made it bleed.

Yet despite your voices trying to keep you stable, everything begins to spin.
You clench your fists so tightly you swear you're drawing blood.
You're about to do something you're going to regret.
It would be so easy to pop their heads like grapes. To show the City the bloodbath you tried to spare them from.

You give a crooked smile. That'd be nice. They'd DESERVE IT-

BANG! BANG!
Everything goes silent. The laughter screeches to an abrupt halt.
Two derringers are raised in the air from the table you were seated at moments ago. One is a royal blue, one is plain grey.
Max and Alexis.

Sweat runs down their brows as they quickly realize how big of a mistake they just made but their interruption gave you the quiet you need to stabilize.

"No. You know what? I'm not playing your sick games."
"I can see why Anderson fucking hates your kind now. So you know what?" You look around for a moment and, lo and behold, there's a camera man hidden amongst the crowd. You point right at him. "You wanna see something entertaining?"

"You're going to see a CEO kneel before my feet! You're going to see a CEO bleed! I killed one CEO! I'll kill another one! Go ahead and stop me IF YOU FUCKING DARE!"
You gesture at the crowd to make a move. "C'mon! You think I'm fucking joking? Huh? Huh??? I'll make sure when you say my FUCKING NAME, you'll remember this day."

[CAPTAIN'S AUTHORITY] "This will be a recording of the day you must never forget."

The Host tries to say something but he's stunned. You can't tell if it's out of shocked or conceited amusement. He clears his throat, "Uh. Well then. That. That certainly was a speech." No doubt he would've said that with some snark before but his voice is dry and quiet. This clearly wasn't part of whatever script he expected you to follow.

The crowd is equally impressive, insulted and intrigued at...everything that just happened. You doubt they fear you or even 'respect' you but you surely left an impression on them, that's for sure.

"Is that right?" A deep, rumbling voice echoes from somewhere in the crowd. "I'd like to see that."
You snap your gaze towards whoever just spoke up. An old man in a dull pink suit is seated at one of the tables.

His hairless, wrinkled skin is covered in liver spots. His eyes aren't visible underneath the bags on bags underneath his eyes. His thin, skeletal hands are clasped together, shaking with excitement.

He struggles to sit up straight with how bent out of shape his spine is. He lurches over his table like he has a hunchback.

His suit is loosely draped over his skeletal frame. You're pretty sure a strong breeze could send him flying

The Judicator you saw back at the SILVER BASE is standing right next to him with a stoic, dead expression.
"I forgive you for sparing her." He addresses his Judicator. "You were right. It was better this way."

"Who. Who are you?" You mutter.
"Ah. Just an old man with a big HEAD on his shoulders." He croaks out. "You know, there's seven Judicators surrounding you right now. Bet you can't even see them."

No one in the crowd dares to speak up now.

Your stomach drops.
[SEEKER OF THE CITY] Oh. Shit. That's. That's Poia. John HEAD himself - The man above everyone else in the City.
[SEEKER OF THE CITY] The one who organized this whole MEETING.

"But the fire, the spirit, in your words. Your speech stumbled over itself, yes, but it wasn't something I'd ever thought I'd see."
"Tell you what. I'll escort you personally to the. Other CEOs. They have their own. Private room." In his excitement he struggles to regulate his breathing. He almost chokes on his own words. "Your friends can come too."

"...Before you go, you may ask. One thing of me. I can promise I will give you what you want."

>Your schizophrenic, rage-fueled speech managed to impress the HEAD itself. If only because of the emotions behind it and less so what you actually said.

"Tell me. What do you want?" Something tells you this is the last decision you'll make before the CEO Fight.
>[UNSTABLE RESOLVE] "I want my family to be taken care of. You know which one I mean by that. Give them everything they need to live their life to the fullest."
>[PERSON OF INTEREST] "Kill the STILLE DAG. Right now. I don't care what the cost is - I don't want anyone else to be hurt by them ever again."
>[SEEKER OF THE CITY + CLOVER ALLY] "Fix D-Company's district. I don't care how long it takes. I don't care how much it'll cost you. I don't want those people to suffer anymore."
>[ANOMALOUS ABILITIES] "Help people like me. People who are on the verge of turning into anomalies. I don't want anyone to lose themselves and to become a monster."
>"I don't want anything from you. I just wanted to live a normal life."
>Write in.

>>6265202
>AN EXIT. EVEN IF I'LL NEVER BE FREE FROM THIS CITY, THIS TOMB OF CONCRETE AND STEEL, THEN EVERYONE ELSE SHOULD BE ABLE TO FLY SOMEWHERE FAR AWAY.
Not what the narrative is building up to, or even relevant, but there's better places somewhere else than this fucking mess. Unstable is probably the way to go lol

>>6265206
We can't do everything for the friends. Some things are up to them. I don't feel UNSTABLE RESOLVE fits here
SEEKER+CLOVER can happen on its own eventually with what him and the others could set in motion after this

POI or ANOMALOUS feel like the way Nicole should go. Your AN EXIT idea also ties into Y-Corp and that lunar colony.

>>6265202
>[ANOMALOUS ABILITIES] "Help people like me. People who are on the verge of turning into anomalies. I don't want anyone to lose themselves and to become a monster."

The prevalence of SHIFTers has the city on the edge of a full-blown anomaly plague. This should help the most people in the long run.

>>6265202
>[SEEKER OF THE CITY + CLOVER ALLY]
Well, we have a promise with Clover on this.

>>6265218
>SEEKER+CLOVER can happen on its own eventually with what him and the others could set in motion after this
I think this is WAY too much work for Clover and his group to fix the hellhole that is the D-corp district. AKA social issues, poverty issues, economic issues, crime issues, environmental issues, and health issues, and many things need to be fixed.

>>6265457
Okay fine, let's keep one of our promises eh?

>>6265202
>[SEEKER OF THE CITY + CLOVER ALLY]

>>6265202

>"I don't want anything from you. I just wanted to live a normal life."

>>6265253
This was my vote. Change it to:
>[SEEKER OF THE CITY + CLOVER ALLY] "Fix D-Company's district. I don't care how long it takes. I don't care how much it'll cost you. I don't want those people to suffer anymore."

You have everyone's attention. Even the owner of the fucking City itself is listening to you. Granted you're really lucky he didn't decide to send his elite agents to murder you after what you said.

You accidently got a glimpse of his stats as you try to think of what you want out of him.

POIA [Noisy.]
FLESH: 3500 (SHIELDED)
And you promptly stop reading since you don't want a heart attack.

There's so many things you could ask him to do. You could purge the STILLE DAG right here and now. Your friends could given millions of dollars at the drop of a hat. You could ensure the safety of those like you from ever experiencing the pain you felt.

And, to be honest, part of you doesn't want to say anything to him. This feels like a gesture of pity given to you after the fucking humiliation ritual you had to go through.
But.
You can do something good with this. You shouldn't waste it.

"Alright. I want something outta you."
"Atta girl. What. Do you want?" Poia croaks out. "Gah. Not used to talking. Sorry."
The Judicator next to him holds up a glass of water to his desiccated lips. "thank you."

"Right." You search for wherever you threw that microphone to and you yank it back over to you. "We all know how shitty D-Corp is as a place to live at. Let's not sugarcoat it. I went there. It fucking sucked. And I've been in the middle of the fucking ocean on a tiny, tiny boat. I'd rather live on that boat than ever go back to D-Corp."

Some hooting from a S-Corp rep was heard but otherwise, the crowd can only mutter and mumble in agreement.
"And I know things about that corp that I probably shouldn't. Won't say anything else about that for my own safety but you can guess what I mean by that."
"It's too much filth for any one group to fix...except for you, Poia. You have the whole City at your disposal. Fix their district."

"I don't care how long it takes. I don't care how much it'll cost you. I don't want those people to suffer anymore. At least give D-Company enough money to operate properly."

Your eyes begin to water again. The stagelight above you is shining down upon you with such intensity it is as if it is weighing your body down. God, you want to break that fucking thing already.

Poia rubs his chin as he contemplates your request. You can hear Clover crying out a flurry of cheers and prays to no one in particular. Scattered throughout the crowd, various men and women in jet black suits (from D-Corp you presume) are sweating just as badly as you are.

Poia nods his head. "I can approve of this. Effective as of now, we will assign a preliminary force from F, S, K and T-Company to investigate and to assist in the purification of the District. I shall also grant D-Company a grant of 325.7 million. I will assign a Judicator to analyze the finances to hopefully reduce any chance of that money being embezzled."

"This money will come from my personal account. Pocket change, truly, but I do not want my fellow Companies to rely on my money to exist."

You can hear at least two dozen different D-Corp representative cheering you on from across the banquet hall. Wow. It was. It was that easy to get something into motion, huh?

There's some obviously annoyed muttering from the corporate reps from F-Corp and co. but overall, most of the corpos here mostly shrug along to this request of yours. They don't seem to get why you picked THAT instead of something that'd personally benefit you.

Fucking scum.

>You obtain 20 D-CORP FAVOR!!!! You won over the D-Corp CEO!!!
>Clover has been empowered! Clover gains +3 FLESH and +2 to all other stats!

"Now. Get off that stage. You deserve to eat."
You leap off the stage. You stumble back to the table where your allies are at and you join them for a meal. Seems like they already set aside a large pile of meat for you to chew on. Delicious.

"S-sorry we couldn't help." Maruyama awkwardly laughs. "You were sorta in a trance up there. I don't think you heard anything we said."
"I was worried you were going to lose your mind." Dasha pecks away at some odd lump of dough filled with onions and ground meat.
"Hope, uh, the gun trick helped. Ha!" Max is sweating like a fucking dog. She really didn't think that through.
"How in the fuck did you managed to get HIS attention?" Alexis looks like she saw a ghost. She's still trying to process what's going on. "I-"

"Thank you, partner." Clover flashes a pair of finger guns at you. "I ain't got the words to describe the good ya just did. Just. Thank ya."

The Host starts babbling about something else from his stage, shifting everyone's attention away from whatever just happened moments ago. You don't really care what the soulless corpos here think - You did something good and you made yourself heard. The City itself saw what you did...and it's not even the only thing you plan on doing today.

You spend the next hour just chatting with your friends and filling yourself up with as much food as possible. Everyone knows what's going to happen once you're done eating so for now, everyone's just enjoying each other's company. You don't really talk about anything relevant or important so you don't bother repeating it in your mind.

Once the last scraps of food are finished, your group gets up from the table. Alexis and co. stand behind but you can tell they're ready to follow you at a moment's notice if need be. Mr. Poia approaches your table and gestures at you to follow him.

You're promptly let out of the banquet hall and down into a maintenance hall. "I apologize but we do try to keep the CEOs hidden away from their own safety. This will be a bit uncomfortable."
The hall is a maze of dingy grey walls and pipes but you've dealt with this back in the STILLE DAG base so it's easy for your group to navigate.
You wound around a few staircase and a few narrow detours but you soon arrive at an non-descript door that could've been easily missed if you didn't know what you were looking at.

Mr. Poia bows and leaves you to face the CEOs yourself.

You take a deep breath before opening the door to face the music. The light of the setting sun pours out through the now open doorway. An intense gust of wind nearly knocks you off your feet.

Seems like wherever this is, it has access to fresh air. Good. You need to get some fresh air after everything that happens.

You cross the final threshold, passing right through the doorway.

You're on a large, empty metal platform attached to the side of the skyscraper. The sun shines from the open ceiling. A large fence surrounds the edge of the platform to make sure no one can fall off by accident.

The only thing on the platform besides you are two groups of twelve podiums on opposite sides of the platform. Seated at each of them are, who else, the CEOs of the Alphabet Companies themselves.

https://youtu.be/bXn0W8ghi5A - THE FINAL SELECTION

The air is thick enough to cut a knife with. Dozens of eyes are staring down upon you with a mixture of intrigue, disgust, amusement, warmth and suspicion.
You take a moment to get a look at what the CEOs, these elusive figures, actually look like. You already recognize Leoht (A-Corp) and the Trucker (G-Corp) but the others are a mishmash when it comes to their appearances.

Some look like any other corpo. They have distinct colors on their outfits and sometimes they'd wear something fitting the theme of their company (R-Corp's CEO wears a poncho and X-Corp's wears full tactical gear) and their corpo logo stitched onto their breast but other than that, they're just regular humans. You'd say a majority of the CEOs look like generic, unassuming people.

The ones that catch your interest (and the ones you won over) are
-A large, formless and endlessly mutating pile of flesh loosely piled at one of the podiums (F)
-Squirming centipede legs and chitin that are only a fraction of some unspeakable large creature you can't even imagine the size of (Q)
-An antique, bulky computer from the 1950s that has been upgraded and modified with so many spare parts it has somehow achieved sentience (E)
-Fifty copies of the same man with the same shit-eating grin (V)
-An eyeball the size of a small car floating in a jar of saline (B)
-A desiccated corpse stapled to a cross. A large white robe covers her(?) decency (N)
-A gaunt, eyeless man who's skin is completely caked in a thick layer of what seems like tar. He smiles at you like you're his daughter. (D)
-What appears to be a DJ straight out of the 80's. Somehow he feels the most out of place here. (M)
-A single lantern hanging where a CEO should be. You swear the fire is looking at you. (H)

You can hear them muttering to themselves about you and the small outburst you had back in the BANQUET HALL (presumably they overheard the STILLE DAG thing). Their conversation is immediately interrupted by two CEOs crying out one single word - "ORDER!!!"

A scarred hand and a large, metallic nozzle point at you. You trail back to see the two CEOs who clearly have an issue with you - S-Corp and K-Corp.

The K-Corp CEO is a bulky, heavy-duty humanoid robot with thick armor plating covering its body. One large nozzle has taken the place of where a human's left arm would be.

Large vents constantly leaking out a white gas into the air are scattered all throughout its torso. Its LED eyes glow a dull red hue, clearly enraged at your presence. "THIS ENTITY HAS COMMITTED A TABOO MOST SEVERE TO ME. IT USED CHEMICAL WEAPONRY WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF K OR X-CORP AND, THE HORRORS, ON CIVILIANS NONETHELESS!"

A woman in a nurse's outfit cocks an eyebrow at the K-Corp CEO. "Those same 'citizens' were also part of a syndicate. I don't think that's something WE should care about, let alone you."
"SILENCE! SHE HAS GOTTEN AWAY WITH THIS CRIME FOR FAR TOO LONG! SHE NEEDS TO BE ERASED FROM THIS CITY BEFORE HER IDEAS ARE EMBOLDENED ANY FURTHER!"

"I concur." The S-Corp CEO joins in the discussion. He's a man in his late 50s wearing the outfit befitting of an Admiral himself. His tight fitting service coat is embezzled with an uncountable amount of awards and wartime medals that has to be uncomfortable to wear. He even has a cool little hat. "Do you want something like this out and about? Something that KILLED an X5 with little to no difficulty?"

"What if she decided to go after powerful corporate entities like our subordinates or, god forbid, us! She's right here for god's sake!" He slams his fist down onto his podium. "Hell! Not one day goes by without me having to hear about that wretch!"

The L-Corp CEO stays silent through all of this. That's because...you don't think he CAN talk. He is seated at the frontmost podium on the row closest to you but you can't make out much of his appearance. His body has fused to his podium. Every last inch of his body is encased in a thick cocoon of bright white wax that has to at least be a foot thick with how little you can see into it.

The only gap in the cocoon is a single hole drilled into where his eye would be. You can barely make out a single bright yellow pupil shining down at you. Unlike the other two there's no malice behind the gaze.

Just unspeakable boredom.

Your allies draw their weapons, ready for the fight of their lives.

Who do you challenge, Nicole? This is the last challenge you have to face.
>S-CORP. (The CEO of ENVY. An egotist who refuses to accept that you did more for his company than he did. Put him in his place.)
>K-CORP. (The CEO of WRATH. A traitorous rat that was once sided and might well still be sided with the STILLE DAG. He must pay for the crime of associating with them.)
>L-CORP (The CEO of SLOTH. ...Challenge the King. Give him the entertainment he desperately wishes for.)

It would be cool but no, you can't challenge all three. That's suicidal even with another CEO fighting with you.

Mr. Poia bows and leaves you to face the CEOs yourself.

You take a deep breath before opening the door to face the music. The light of the setting sun pours out through the now open doorway. An intense gust of wind nearly knocks you off your feet.

Seems like wherever this is, it has access to fresh air. Good. You need to get some fresh air after everything that happens.

You cross the final threshold, passing right through the doorway.

You're on a large, empty metal platform attached to the side of the skyscraper. The sun shines from the open ceiling. A large fence surrounds the edge of the platform to make sure no one can fall off by accident.

The only thing on the platform besides you are two groups of thirteen podiums on opposite sides of the platform. Seated at each of them are, who else, the CEOs of the Alphabet Companies themselves.

https://youtu.be/bXn0W8ghi5A - THE FINAL SELECTION

The air is thick enough to cut a knife with. Dozens of eyes are staring down upon you with a mixture of intrigue, disgust, amusement, warmth and suspicion.
You take a moment to get a look at what the CEOs, these elusive figures, actually look like. You already recognize Leoht (A-Corp) and the Trucker (G-Corp) but the others are a mishmash when it comes to their appearances.

Some look like any other corpo. They have distinct colors on their outfits and sometimes they'd wear something fitting the theme of their company (R-Corp's CEO wears a poncho and X-Corp's wears full tactical gear) and their corpo logo stitched onto their breast but other than that, they're just regular humans. You'd say a majority of the CEOs look like, shockingly, normal people

The ones that catch your interest (and the ones you won over) are
-A large, formless and endlessly mutating pile of flesh loosely piled at one of the podiums (F)
-Squirming centipede legs and chitin that are only a fraction of some unspeakable large creature you can't even imagine the size of (Q)
-An antique, bulky computer from the 1950s that has been upgraded and modified with so many spare parts it has somehow achieved sentience (E)
-Fifty copies of the same man with the same shit-eating grin (V)
-An eyeball the size of a small car floating in a jar of saline (B)
-A desiccated corpse stapled to a cross. A large white robe covers her(?) decency (N)
-A gaunt, eyeless man who's skin is completely caked in a thick layer of what seems like tar. He smiles at you like you're his daughter. (D)
-What appears to be a DJ straight out of the 80's. Somehow he feels the most out of place here. (M)

You can hear them muttering to themselves about you and the small outburst you had back in the BANQUET HALL (presumably they overheard the STILLE DAG thing). Their conversation is immediately interrupted by two CEOs crying out one single word - "ORDER!!!"

A scarred hand and a large, metallic nozzle point at you. You trail back to see the two CEOs who clearly have an issue with you - S-Corp and K-Corp.

A scarred hand and a large, metallic nozzle point at you. You trail back to see the two CEOs who clearly have an issue with you - S-Corp and K-Corp.

The K-Corp CEO is a bulky, heavy-duty humanoid robot with thick armor plating covering its body. One large nozzle has taken the place of where a human's left arm would be.

Large vents constantly leaking out a white gas into the air are scattered all throughout its torso. Its LED eyes glow a dull red hue, clearly enraged at your presence. "THIS ENTITY HAS COMMITTED A TABOO MOST SEVERE TO ME. IT USED CHEMICAL WEAPONRY WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF K OR X-CORP AND, THE HORRORS, ON CIVILIANS NONETHELESS!"

A woman in a nurse's outfit cocks an eyebrow at the K-Corp CEO. "Those same 'citizens' were also part of a syndicate. I don't think that's something WE should care about, let alone you."
"SILENCE! SHE HAS GOTTEN AWAY WITH THIS CRIME FOR FAR TOO LONG! SHE NEEDS TO BE ERASED FROM THIS CITY BEFORE HER IDEAS ARE EMBOLDENED ANY FURTHER!"

"I concur." The S-Corp CEO joins in the discussion. He's a man in his late 50s wearing the outfit befitting of an Admiral himself. His tight fitting service coat is embezzled with an uncountable amount of awards and wartime medals that has to be uncomfortable to wear. He even has a cool little hat. "Do you want something like this out and about? Something that KILLED an X5 with little to no difficulty?"

"What if she decided to go after powerful corporate entities like our subordinates or, god forbid, us! She's right here for god's sake!" He slams his fist down onto his podium. "Hell! Not one day goes by without me having to hear about that wretch!"

The L-Corp CEO stays silent through all of this. That's because...you don't think he CAN talk. He is seated at the frontmost podium facing the entrance but you can't make out much of his appearance. His body has fused to his podium. Every last inch of his body is encased in a thick cocoon of bright white wax that has to at least be a foot thick with how little you can see into it.

The only gap in the cocoon is a single hole drilled into where his eye would be. You can barely make out a single bright yellow pupil shining down at you. Unlike the other two there's no malice behind the gaze.

Just a deep, unspeakable boredom.

Your allies draw their weapons, ready for the fight of their lives.

Who do you challenge, Nicole? This is the last challenge you have to face
>S-CORP. (The CEO of ENVY. An egotist who refuses to accept that you did more for his company than he did. Put him in his place.)
>K-CORP. (The CEO of WRATH. A traitorous rat that was once sided and might well still be sided with the STILLE DAG. He must pay for the crime of associating with them.)
>L-CORP (The CEO of SLOTH. ...Challenge the King. Give him the entertainment he desperately wishes for.)

It would be cool but no, you can't challenge all three. That's suicidal even with another CEO fighting with you.

>>6265766
>K-CORP. (The CEO of WRATH. A traitorous rat that was once sided and might well still be sided with the STILLE DAG. He must pay for the crime of associating with them.)

>>6265766
>K-CORP.
He need to be made as an example and humiliated.

>>6265766
>K-CORP. (The CEO of WRATH. A traitorous rat that was once sided and might well still be sided with the STILLE DAG. He must pay for the crime of associating with them.)

Also tell him that W-Corp makes better gas.

>>6265766
Guess we're not having a climactic beam clash with the old man... but even so. Even so...
>K-CORP. (The CEO of WRATH. A traitorous rat that was once sided and might well still be sided with the STILLE DAG. He must pay for the crime of associating with them.)

>>6265766
>L CORP
WAX
KING

>>6265856
Fuck it

>>6265766
Changing vote from >>6265837 to
>L-CORP (The CEO of SLOTH. ...Challenge the King. Give him the entertainment he desperately wishes for.)

So, it seems like three for K-Corp, two for L-Corp.
Tell you what. Let's make things more interesting. I'll do a quick follow up vote.
You can't fight multiple CEOs...at once.

Do you accept the possibility of pain, seizure and glory? This will likely be televised.
>YES. (HARD MODE enabled. L-Corp's CEO will influence the fight, helping out both sides as it sees fit. You will not be forgotten by the City.)
>NO. (You'll just fight the K-Corp CEO. No penalties, no bonuses, just what you voted for.)

Do you taunt Happy Robot CEO with W-Corp's gas, as per T7b's suggestion?
>TAUNT THE CEO (You and all of your allies will deal and take more damage this fight.)
>DO NOT TAUNT THE CEO. (You and all of your allies will deal and take less damage this fight.)

I'll leave this open for 6~ hours, though depending on how quickly people come to a majority I may close sooner.

>>6266237

>YES. (HARD MODE enabled. L-Corp's CEO will influence the fight, helping out both sides as it sees fit. You will not be forgotten by the City.)

>TAUNT THE CEO (You and all of your allies will deal and take more damage this fight.)


Fuck it.

You die as a hero or die as a coward.

>>6266238
+1
As long as our allies all live...

>>6266238
+1

Rolled 2 + 1 (1d4 + 1)

Three votes right into it, huh?
Fair. Writing now, should be a quick update since it's just a prelude to the fight itself.
Rolling 1d4+1. For reasons. Don't worry :)

"You wanna erase me? Okay. You can certainly TRY." You point right at the K-Corp CEO. "If you really want me dead, come down here and fight me like a MAN!"
"YOU'RE RIGHT. I SHOULD. I SHALL FORMELY INTRODUCE MYSELF - I AM PURIFICATION PROGRAM #952-192-592. ONE OF NINE HUNDRED FIFTY TWO HUNDRED MILLION PROGRAMS FROM THE OLD WORLD COMPANY 'KNIGHT SECURITY FIRM'."

It immediately leaps off of the podium it was on. It lands on the stainless steel platform with an ear-piercing metallic CLANG! A heavy indention is punched into the floor from the sheer weight of the robot's frame.

"I HAVE NOT FAILED TO PURIFY A THREAT BEFORE. I WILL NOT FAIL NOW."
"Threat?" Clover cackles at the robot's words. "She ain't a threat - You are! Last I checked she ain't workin' with no Stille Dag or whatnot."
"BETTER TO WORK WITH THE ENEMY YOU KNOW THAN THE ENEMY YOU DON'T." PURIFIER #952 (as you will refer to him) flexes the fingers on its right arm.

"Oh! Right!" You sneer. "Work with the dudes who wanted to overthrow the Head. Right. They get to be excused as a JOKE while I'm somehow the threat. RIGHT!"

"THEIR WORDS WERE EMPTY GESTURES. ANY ATTEMPT TO UNDERMIND THE SYSTEM WILL SIMPLY BE USED TO PERPETUATE THE SYSTEM. YOU, HOWEVER, ARE AN EXCEPTION."
"YOUR INFLUENCE IS A CANCER TO OUR ASSETS AND THEIR PROFITABILITY. YOUR PINK DISEASE HAS SEEPED INTO THE HEARTS AND SOULS OF TOO MANY PEOPLE. YOUR 'FAMILY' IS A BLIGHT THAT DESERVES TO BE ERASED FROM OUR BLESSED CITY."

"I SHALL NOT SPEAK ANYMORE ON THE SUBJECT." A thick white smog pumps out of the vents all over PURIFIER #952's body. "PURIFICATION IN PROGRESS-"
"Wait!" G-Corp's CEO leaps down her podium and scrambles over to your side. "I'm not going to let you kick someone around from MY district like that!"

She quickly joins up with your other allies. She holds her hand up and, like she's manifesting a PARADIGM WEAPON, a rusty pipe wrench pops into her hand out of nowhere.
"SO BE IT. YOU ARE AN OUTDATED COMPANY THAT HAS BEEN SUPERCEDED BY Y-COMPANY. SO BE IT. SO BE IT."
The fight's about to stare but you decide to be a bit cheeky.

"Yeah. This is going to be easy." You crack your shoulders. "Also, outdated? I've seen W-Company produce better chemical weapons than you. The gas they have? THAT's good stuff."
The W-Corp CEO (an elderly woman with half of her face caked in purple crystals) cackles at your comment, "Heh. Guess the anomaly ain't so bad after all. Did you hear that, LACK? SHE supports us."

"WHAT?" PURIFIER #952's body begins to glow bright red. "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?"
"You insulted her company," Casey chirps out with far too much sugar in her voice. "You should be able to take some criticism as well. W-Corp simply produced better stock for Nicole."
"That's why I didn't feel bad about pissing your company off! Your shit fucking blows!"

"To be fair guys, VX-NINE was useful. It was really a good product. Especially when we're talking about the spooks." Benjamin is trying his best to hold back his laughter

"They dropped like worms." Dasha covers her mouth with her hand. "Oh, if it wasn't for that, we might've actually had some issue with them. THANKS for working with them!"

PURIFIER #952's body is now glowing a bright, searing orange. Oh you certainly pissed it off this time. "YOUR DEATH SHALL BE SLOW AND PAINFUL."
"And you!" You point at the L-Corp CEO. "It's not FAIR if it's two CEOs and six normies against one CEO, right? I challenge you as well!"

No one in the room dares to say a single word. Everyone's eyes are locked onto the L-Corp CEO to see what he will do.
A crack forms on the left side of the waxen cocoon it is hiding in. Another crack. Then another. More and more form until a wax-coated managed to punch out of the thick waxen shell.

It gives a single thumbs up before it willingly enters its cocoon again. The hole it punched through immediately seals shut as if it was never even broken.

A faint warmth surrounds your allies...
>Your group gained a 3 FLESH point shield!
>THE L-CORP CEO has joined the fight as a neutral party. He wishes to make things 'fair' and 'interesting' for both sides.

"STAY OUT OF THIS, LEONARD! THIS IS NOT YOUR FIGHT!"

https://youtu.be/XCafx7Zy5rI - THE PURIFIER
THE FINAL BATTLE BEGINS!
PURIFIER #952 vs NICOLE AND FRIENDS
COMBAT PASSIVE: A RAPT AUDIENCE (You managed to win over a large selection of CEOs. You've unlocked unique voting options to ask them for supplies, ammo or advice.)
COMBAT PASSIVE #2: ENRANGED PURIFIER (Your attacks deal an extra 5 FLESH and/or RESTRAINT damage to PURIFIER, weakening its ability to protect itself. Try to avoid getting hit if possible.)

PURIFIER #952 [FINAL BOSS] - 888/888 FLESH, 700/700 RESTRAINT, 500 VIOLENCE, 350 IN ALL OTHER STATS. TAKES 25 LESS FLESH DAMAGE FROM ALL SOURCES. DEALS MIXED, PHYSICAL AND ESOTERIC DAMAGE.

CLOVER: 16/13 FLESH, 15/15 RESTRAINT
DASHA: 13/10 FLESH, 8/8 RESTRAINT
MARUYAMA: 30/27 FLESH, 22/22 RESTRAINT
BENJAMIN: 12/9 FLESH, 10/10 RESTRAINT
CASEY: 13/10 FLESH, 7/7 RESTRAINT
YOU? [ANOMALY]: 28/25 FLESH, 36/36 RESTRAINT
GABBY (G-CORP CEO): 228/225 FLESH, 275/275 RESTRAINT, 130 IN ALL OTHER STATS

LEONARD/L-CORP CEO - 777/777 FLESH, 777/777 RESTRAINT, UNKNOWN IN ALL OTHER STATS, TAKES 77 LESS DAMAGE FROM ALL SOURCES [Will randomly buff/debuff both parties as he sees fit. Can not be easily influenced.]

You know you don't have to get it to 0 FLESH. You just need to last long enough to make an impression with the other CEOs.
Choose one MAIN PLAN and two SIDE PLANS.

MAIN PLAN
>Use its rage to your advantage. Toss the O-CORP FOLK CHARM to squishy ol' Ben and bait the CEO into attacking him. (-2 of 3 O-CORP charges, MEDIUM CHARM DC: 65, rolling 17d7 with Casey's help. Succeed and the PURIFIER will take a lot of backlash FLESH damage and the CEO will receive 2d3 random CRIPPLING INJURIES)
(1/2)

>[CLOVER ALLY] Blast that fucker to hell with a JUSTICE BLAST! (-4 CLOVER RESTRAINT, CHALLENGING WILLPOWER DC: 47, rolling Clover's 12d6. Pass and the CEO will lose 75 VIOLENCE for the rest of the fight alongside taking a sizable hit to its FLESH and RESTRAINT.)
>[MARUYAMA ALLY] Buy some time and have Maruyama dredge items from the past via ROSE TINTED PAST. (-2 MARUYAMA FLESH and RESTRAINT, MEDIUM CONNECTIONS DC: 51, with him rolling 15d6 with Casey's help. Pass and you'll get two very powerful items to hopefully turn the odds of the fight in your favor.)
>[UNSTABLE] Jab the PZ-Z1 SYRINGE and crunch down on the HIRCHSTONE. Let VIOLENCE wash over your mind. (-THE MENTIONED ITEMS, no check needed. Massively boosts your stats and adds an extra 3 FLESH and 4 RESTRAINT shield to your allies. Slightly speeds up your transformation.)
>Write in.

SIDE PLAN
>TRUST. IN. THE. MYSTERY. BOX!!! (ERROR! ERROR! POSSIBLE RESULTS CAN NOT BE LOADED! PICK THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!)
>[BENJAMIN ALLY] Tell Benjamin to analyze it for any weaknesses you can exploit. (COGNIZANCE THRESHOLD: 65/68/71, rolling Benjamin's 19d6. For every threshold passed, you learn a new weakness to exploit. Pass all three and you'll unlock a unique voting option later.)
>[UNSTABLE] Bite into your arm until it bleeds. Prepare to smear your blood on the CEO. (-6 FLESH and 3 RESTRAINT. Will deal HEAVY RESTRAINT damage to the CEO.)
>[DASHA ALLY] Try to use Dasha's past as a soldier to pull some supplies from some of the war hungry CEOs. (You'll get a lump sum of explosives and ammo and you'll likely piss off the PURIFIER even more, weakening its protection slightly. Unlocks a voting option later.)
>[MARUYAMA ALLY] You do NOT want to get hit by this thing. Keep your distance and have Maruyama spam out TEMPORAL JAMS to slow the CEO down. (-1d4+1 MARUYAMA RESTRAINT, your allies will take 4 less damage from all sources this turn.)
>Write in.

>>6266325
>[MARUYAMA ALLY]

>[BENJAMIN ALLY]
>[MARUYAMA ALLY]


My plan is to make him so enraged that PURIFIER sends a massive attack on Nicole. When that happens, Nicole will use O-CORP FOLK CHARM to reflect all that massive attack back to PURIFIER.

>>6266325
>[MARUYAMA ALLY]

>[BENJAMIN ALLY]
>[MARUYAMA ALLY]


My plan is to make him so enraged that PURIFIER sends a massive damage on Nicole. When that happens, Nicole will use O-CORP FOLK CHARM to reflect all that massive damage back to PURIFIER.

>>6266364
+1
By the way, look at this
>[JUSTICE BLAST] The physical manifestation of JUSTICE. Clover may spend 4 RESTRAINT to blast a beam of pure yellow light out of his hands. This beam sets an enemy's FLESH and RESTRAINT to half of its max value and inflicts them with KARMA (which penalizes VIOLENCE massively)
Setting that 888 FLESH/700 RESTRAINT to 444 and 350 would be huge value

>>6266407
Yeah, this is a good find!
Though by RAW it'll ignore all previous damage on the enemy, so we should use it before we do any other attacks

>>6266676
So do JUSTICE BLAST next turn as MAIN, then what? Start stacking the rage on him with DASHA ALLY and UNSTABLE blood smear?

>>6266728
O-Corp Charm would be good a that point I think

>>6266732
We picked hard mode and taunting, so are we forced to keep spending a SIDE ACTION on spamming Maruyama's TEMPORAL JAM to avoid big damage on allies like with the nuke timer? We need to pull the MYSTERY BOX at some critical point

>>6266733
I think we should go for blood smearing as soon as we can. -4 damage is probably not enough to outtank him

>>6266735
So we treat it like a DPS race? JUSTICE BLAST next turn into O-Corp Charm turn 3?

>>6266756
I'd do it like that, yes

Mmh, two votes for the same thing. I like the discussion but it seems like we already decided what to do for this round.

Three anons, roll the following
>8d6 (Half of MARUYAMA)
>7d6 (second half of MARUYAMA)
>19d6 (BENJAMIN)

Rerolls available
-ENDURING MINDSET (Has three charges. Maruyama can spend 1 charge to add 3d6 to his skill check.)
-T-COMPANY TEMPORAL REWINDER v2 (Has a 33% chance to be consumed. Rerolls all 1s and 2s on either skill check. QM will roll 1d3 if this is picked and if it's a 2, bye bye.)
-MANAGER'S FLESH (Rerolls 3d6 on either check.)

Rolled 1, 4, 5, 5, 3, 5, 6, 1 = 30 (8d6)

>>6266812

Rolled 4, 5, 3, 5, 2, 2, 1 = 22 (7d6)

>>6266812

Rolled 4, 4, 3, 5, 5, 1, 5, 1, 6, 2, 3, 5, 2, 5, 1, 4, 3, 3, 5 = 67 (19d6)

>>6266812

Rolled 2, 1, 6 = 9 (3d6)

>>6266912

Rolled 3 + 1 (1d4 + 1)

And with the MANAGER'S FLESH, that just barely eeks out all three thresholds at a y3.
Rolling 1d4+1 to see how much RESTRAINT Maruyama loses and then I'll start writing.

MANAGER'S FLESH really is the strongest item in the game, huh?

>>6266931
Damn Maruyama keeps eating shit, but he can take it
>MANAGER'S FLESH really is the strongest item in the game, huh?
That Manager and his old Heads better be watching this climactic battle unfold. All those side characters better be watching this alongside the entire City. Many people bettee be taping this to immortalize it

>>6266941
They’re gonna be selling pirated copies of this for the next fifty years.

We’re gonna be a pink furry Johnny Silverhand.

PURIFIER #952 closes the distance faster than your brain can process. Its heavy gauntlet, made of reinforced steel, wraps around your neck.
Your body instinctually reacts...
>RESISTS SHIFT TO - ESOTERIC, CRUSHING, MIXED, CORROSION, HEAT

It raises its nozzle arm towards your face. A torrent of bright white gas blasts against your face. The boiling hot gas would've melted your face into sludge if your body wasn't quick to react but, shit, you can't breathe!

Shit, shit!
>-2 RESTRAINT! -1 FLESH!
>-2 RESTRAINT! -1 FLESH!
>-2 RESTRAINT! -1 FLESH!

You can't break out of its grasp. You'd have a better time breaking a stone with a pillow. Your consciousness begins to fade. This isn't how you expected it. To. G-

An ear-shattering gunshot echoes through the arena. You're promptly thrown face first into the ground. You felt something shatter on impact before you have time to shift your resistances.
>-5 FLESH!

The PURIFIER has a fist-sized hole punched through a vent on the side of its body. A trail of black smoke leaks out of the hole but it quickly patches over it with a blast of foam from its nozzle. The foam hardens immediately, sealing the hole.

Benjamin loads another round his ANTI-MATERIAL RIFLE. He's flying out of the PURIFIER's direct range with his ASHEN WINGS. "Ha! Got distracted, didn't you?!"
The foam quickly reinforms into something that resembles steel. You doubt it actually 'healed' the hole that much, thankfully. "LUCKY."

"B-Benjamin! Analyze his WEAKNE-" "YOU CAN BE QUIET NOW." It slams its 'foot' down onto your torso. The wind is knocked right out of you. While you're stunned, the PURIFIER charges towards Casey without any hesitation. An engine rumbling deep inside of its body roars to life as it picks up the speed.

Before it can turn Casey into a smear against the wall, something forces it to a halt. Time distorts around it until its movements grind to a standstill.
"HURRY! Shoot it!!!" Maruyama yells out. "I'm not sure how long that's going-"
The white smoke corrodes away at the TEMPORAL JAM. Its already beginning to pick up speed like the TEMPORAL JAM didn't even hit it.

Maruyama spams out TEMPORAL JAM after TEMPORAL JAM to buy some time but you can tell this is only going to buy seconds.
>-4 MARUYAMA RESTRAINT!
"CUTE TRICK. HISAKO PULLED THIS ON ME ONCE."
A torrent of regular and normal bullets erupt from Casey and Dasha's guns. They limply bounce off against the PURIFIER's body. They are scratching its metallic frame but only barely.

>73!
Benjamin finishes analyzing the threat. "The eyes and vents! They're not reinforced like the rest of its body! Target them-" He pauses for a moment. "I analyzed the chemical compound in the gas! I can create a counter agent! Buy me time!"

"LIKE HELL YOU WILL!" The PURIFIER raises its nozzle to blast something towards Benjamin but before it can, Gabby sneak attacks her fellow CEO! Two halos of grey light surround the head of the wrench right before impact.

Whatever it was, it seemed to actually damage the PURIFIER's body!

A small crack forms at the sight of impact. Black smoke erupts from the hole in its body. The force of the strike was enough to throw the PURIFIER's aim off. It blasts a gust of bright red smoke that just barely grazes Benjamin's body.

The flesh on the left side of Benjamin's chest melts away into a slurry. Blood-filled pustules erupt across the affected skin. Benjamin bites his tongue and flies to another position before the PURIFIER can readjust his aim.
>-2 BENJAMIN FLESH + RESTRAINT! (Reduced from 7 from TEMPORAL JAM + SNEAK ATTACK!)

"GABBY. WHY DO YOU FIGHT WITH THEM? THEY ARE THREATS TO THE CITY ITSELF. IF IT WAS NOT FOR POIA'S MERCY, THEY WOULD BE DEAD AND BURIED BY NOW."
"DO YOU WISH TO JOIN THEM ONCE I CONVINCE HIM OTHERWISE?"

"Shut up!" Gabby tries another swing at PURIFIER but it moves out of the way before she can land another empowered strike.
Clover digs in his poncho's pockets and finds what he was looking for - An old coin. He flicks it into the air and aims for the trick shot of his life.

BANG! The bullet ricochets right off the coin at just the right angle to smash right into the PURIFIER's left LED lens. It only manages to crack it but it was enough to throw the PURIFIER into a hissy fit. It catches the bullet and immediately flicks it back towards Clover.

Clover moves to deflect the bullet with his poncho. The sheer force the PURIFIER put behind its flick was enough to pierce through Clover's poncho...
But luckily, it missed anything vital. Clover stumbles back from the hit but he's fine. For now.
>CLOVER took 4 (reduced from 12 from TEMPORAL JAM and THICK PONCHO) FLESH DAMAGE!

Maruyama takes this chance to activate ROSE TINTED PAST. He stabs his katana into the metal ground before and, with all of his energy, he charges his blade with anomalous energy.
The floor around the katana shifts and changes into something completely different. Metal shifts into plastic, plastic shifts into ceramic tile, ceramic tiles shift into wood.

Casey wraps her arm around Maruyama's shoulder, whispering something to him.
The PURIFIER breaks out of the TEMPORAL JAM and it shifts its attention back to Gabby. It blindly swings its fist down at her but she blocks it with her wrench. The force of the strike was enough to send her reeling back but she's fine. For now.

>GABBY took no damage!
>52!

Maruyama's channeling finishes. Two small items lay on the floor.
>GOD KILLER BULLET x8 (Gold plated bullets. Useful for pistols and revolvers. Ignores all protection and permanently lowers all of an the enemy's stats by 5.)
>EFFIGY FROM THE PAST x3 (A small doll made out of black thread. Can lower one skill check DC by 7 before becoming inert. Will be fully consumed if a lethal attack would kill an ally. When consumed this way, it negates any damage taken.)

You stumble back to your feet. It takes a second to adjust your stance. You feel...taller. Your boots feel constricting.

Your chest is tight. Something's wrong. You can feel in under your skin. But that's not important. This thing is going to rip your FAMILY to shreds if this keeps up.

The waxen king stirs in his cocoon...
>TEMPORAL JAM disabled this turn! Will be available next turn.
Shit.

PURIFIER #952 - 852/888 FLESH, 700/700 RESTRAINT, 500 VIOLENCE, 350 IN ALL OTHER STATS.

CLOVER: 12/13 FLESH, 15/15 RESTRAINT
DASHA: 13/10 FLESH, 8/8 RESTRAINT
MARUYAMA: 28/27 FLESH, 16/22 RESTRAINT
BENJAMIN: 10/9 FLESH, 8/10 RESTRAINT
CASEY: 13/10 FLESH, 7/7 RESTRAINT
?????? ????? [ANOMALY]: 20/25 FLESH, 30/36 RESTRAINT, ??/?? ??????
GABBY (G-CORP CEO): 228/225 FLESH, 275/275 RESTRAINT

Choose your next MAIN PLAN and three SIDE PLANS. (Voting actions from last turn have the same DCs, dice and item consumption as before. Refer to last update.)

MAIN PLAN
>Use its rage to your advantage. Toss the O-CORP FOLK CHARM to squishy ol' Ben and bait the CEO into attacking him.
>[CLOVER ALLY] Blast that fucker to hell with a JUSTICE BLAST!
>[DASHA ALLY + GABBY ALLY] Have Gabby distract her fellow CEO and have Dasha unload the GODKILLER ROUNDS at the Purifier's weak spots! (CHALLENGING VIOLENCE DC: 49, Dasha rolling 11d7 with Gabby's distraction. Succeed and the CEO's defenses will be crippled, allowing your allies to deal ACTUAL damage. All of the PURIFIER'S STATS will also take a decent hit as well.)
>[BENJAMIN ALLY] Buy time so that Benjamin can prepare a counter agent for the PURIFIER's attacks! (MODERATE COGNIZANCE DC: 70, rolling Benjamin's 19d6. Succeed and the PURIFIER's ability to deal damage will be crippled for the rest of the fight, buying your allies some much needed protection.)
>Write in.

SIDE PLANS
>[UNSTABLE?] Jab the PZ-Z1 SYRINGE and crunch down on the HIRCHSTONE. Let VIOLENCE wash over your mind.
>TRUST. IN. THE. MYSTERY. BOX!!! (ERROR! ERROR! POSSIBLE RESULTS CAN NOT BE LOADED! PICK THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!)
>[UNSTABLE?] Bite into your arm until it bleeds. Prepare to smear your blood on the CEO.
>[DASHA ALLY] Try to use Dasha's past as a soldier to pull some supplies from some of the war hungry CEOs.
>[CASEY ALLY] "Why are you like this?" Casey wants to distract him with her words. Let her. (MEDIUM CHARM + CONNECTIONS DC: 55, rolling Casey's 16d6. Succeed and she'll be able to mess with the PURIFIER's head, dealing heavy RESTRAINT damage; Future DCs will be lowered by 2 if this is successful.)
>This is being filmed. Smile for the camera. (Choose three of your allies to draw the audience's attention to. They'll get a sizable stat boost for the rest of the fight.)
>Write in

>>6267011
>[CLOVER ALLY] Blast that fucker to hell with a JUSTICE BLAST!

>[UNSTABLE?] Bite into your arm until it bleeds. Prepare to smear your blood on the CEO.
>[CASEY ALLY] "Why are you like this?" Casey wants to distract him with her words. Let her. (MEDIUM CHARM + CONNECTIONS DC: 55, rolling Casey's 16d6. Succeed and she'll be able to mess with the PURIFIER's head, dealing heavy RESTRAINT damage; Future DCs will be lowered by 2 if this is successful.)
>This is being filmed. Smile for the camera. (Choose three of your allies to draw the audience's attention to. They'll get a sizable stat boost for the rest of the fight.)
Clover, Casey, Maruyama

>>6267027
Why Maruyama? Why not Benjamin or Dasha?

>>6267011
Fuck it, voting now
>[CLOVER ALLY] Blast that fucker to hell with a JUSTICE BLAST!
The earlier we stick the max FLESH/RESTRAINT halving on this fucker, the better. We might eat shit this turn but we have a few ways to heal and recover anyhow. Next turn we NEED to do Benjamin's option for that counteragent to get PERMANENT protection for our allies for the entire rest of the fight. This helps us rely less on TEMPORAL JAM abuse unlike the Liam Stille Dag silver CEO fight, and frees up a SIDE OPTION for us to make more headway
All of these SIDE OPTIONS need to be done after Clover does his JUSTICE BLAST halving though
>[CASEY ALLY]
Lowering future DCs by 2 is still worth it however little, and the big RESTRAINT damage will matter regardless
>[UNSTABLE]
Even more heavy RESTRAINT damage. The PURIFIER has lower RESTRAINT than he does FLESH, so going in on sanity drop might be the best way unless his insanity mode is worse for us than it is for him... But I doubt that. Reminder to what A SHINING LIGHT corpo elites option told us earlier:
"If it itself can not be pure and clean, it may do something drastic to itself."
This sounds like dropping him to 0 RESTRAINT if possible is the true way to go about seriously hurting him, or even getting close to killing him before he kills us.
>This is being filmed. Smile for the camera.
Clover, Casey, Benjamin
Maruyama's good enough that I don't really want to worry too much about him.
Dasha I'm worried about because she has NO MELEE WEAPON (!!!), so hopefully the DASHA ALLY option we can pick later can have one of the CEOs throw her a bone in that regard?

Speaking of TV, I hope Maruyama's ex-wife who ditched him is seeing him in action like this. I bet Mr. Sukane also is getting hype over his business partner on the big screen forever. Imagine all the bets being made, the money changing hands all across the City over this once-in-a-lifetime event of epic proportions... Clover's friends manning his casino are making the BIG FUCKING MONEY offscreen over this, while simultaneously worried as hell over Clover possibly not making it out alive. Dasha? I bet most of I-Corp is passing the vodka around over her in this fight. Casey? I guess the other-quest characters are watching her, and maybe what few copies of her survived the BASE ASSAULT managed to find a TV offscreen? Benjamin I don't know about; probably his parents he mentioned offhandedly once (maybe twice?) are seeing him on TV. The Krakatoas are hoping he lives for Max's sake if nothing else.

>>6267238
+1

>>6267239
>Don’t know about Benjamin

He’s a mid-level researcher for Z-Corp. if he makes it out of this alive then his future is looking damn good.

So, three votes for the same thing, let's a go go.

Three anons, roll the following
>12d6 (CLOVER, DC 47 as a reminder.)
>8d6 (half of CASEY)
>8d6 (half of CASEY)

ITEMS TO HELP YOU OUT
-MANAGER'S FLESH (Rerolls 3d6 on either check but only once.)
-T-COMPANY TEMPORAL REWINDER v2 (Has a 33% chance to be consumed. Rerolls all 1s and 2s on either skill check. QM will roll 1d3 if this is picked and if it's a 2, bye bye.)
-SYNDICAKE (Allows you to reroll two dice on either check. Dice rerolled this way become d8s.)
-[QUEEN BEE MINDSET] (Allows Casey to autopass her check...but this can only be used once this fight and it can be used to autopass checks she assists in. Might be better to save it.)
-EFFIGY FROM THE PAST (You have three. Can render one inert to lower a DC by 7.)

For clarification, it going inert still means it can be consumed to block a lethal attack. You can just only use the DC lowering ability once per EFFIGY.

Rolled 3, 5, 5, 2, 1, 1, 5, 5 = 27 (8d6)

>>6267444
Casey part 1

>>6267448
Don't want to use any item yet until we see the second set of rolls; we might not need to use any

Rolled 1, 2, 6, 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 6, 6, 5, 5 = 47 (12d6)

>>6267444
Clover

>>6267460
>-4 CLOVER RESTRAINT, CHALLENGING WILLPOWER DC: 47, rolling Clover's 12d6
Holy shit right on the dot

>>6267467
A wizard does not roll too much or too little

Rolled 5, 3, 3, 2, 3, 5, 3, 2 = 26 (8d6)

>>6267444

Rolled 3, 1, 2 = 6 (3d6)

>>6267448

Rolled 6, 1, 2, 3, 1, 4, 3, 4 = 24 (8d6)

>>6267444
Cary part 2

Alright, let's see.
Casey got a 53 with o+D's roll (first come first serve AND it's the better roll)
assuming he's rerolling the two 1s and one of the 2s...he gets...
A 55. Exactly.

You got two exact rolls with Casey and Clover.
What the actual fuck?????

Pick your minor bonus. First to three wins.
>BLOOD!!! (Your blood burns. Your vision swims. Your blood shimmers. Your blood will deal constant minor RESTRAINT damage to the CEO and increasing all RESTRAINT damage it takes for the rest of the fight.)
>SWEETNESS!!! (The stench of oranges and sugars fill the air. An unknown party will hit the CEO with a second beam, slightly increasing the VIOLENCE stat drain Clover inflicted and slightly weakens its FLESH protection.)
>ENGAGEMENT!!! (The audience is pleased by how close this fight is going! A supply drop of some specialty ammo will arrive and Maruyama will also get a stat buff from THIS IS BEING FILMED.)

>>6267525
First one rushes insanity on the guy
Second causes more physical damage on him and less outgoing damage
Third is the GOOD ammo and Maruyama buff

I think we can easily get tables turned and fucked up if we lose momentum
>BLOOD!!! (Your blood burns. Your vision swims. Your blood shimmers. Your blood will deal constant minor RESTRAINT damage to the CEO and increasing all RESTRAINT damage it takes for the rest of the fight.)

>>6267532
+1

>>6267533
Look, I get the feeling once the PURIFIER hits 0 RESTRAINT insanity, he'll open himself up to more FLESH damage or worse anyway from self-sabotage. The big RESTRAINT damage means if he somehow snaps out of insanity, we can more easily put him back into insanity. If he fully heals RESTRAINT or FLESH in any way, we're fucked.

>>6267525
>SWEETNESS!!!
In the name of Fructose and Sucrose~ Here comes Magical Girl!

Rolled 86 - 5 (1d100 - 5)

Eh, I'm just going to call it here and go with BLOOD. No votes in a while and I doubt two guys are going to come in to vote SWEETNESS in any reasonable time so. Yeah.

Writing.

1-33 = HURT HIM (+2 VIOLENCE/FLESH/TALENT to ?????? ?????.)
34-85 = WHY CAN'T I FEEL MY BODY (+2 CHARM/CONNECTIONS/WILLPOWER to ?????? ?????)
86-100 = SOMETHING'S WRONG. (+3 COGNIZANCE and MAX RESTRAINT to ?????? ?????)

>>6267606
Oh no, Nicole is distorting already. I thought we took enough pain and enough "delay the transformation" options.

>>6267618
Oh, those still matter. Just consider this a prelude.

>81

Your perspective shifts. Your legs twist and extend like they've been round up and compressed for so, so long. Everyone looks so much shorter than they were only a few seconds ago.
You scratch at your face. It's so itchy yet, at the same time, you can't feel anything. Only the slimy, gross texture of rotten flesh on your face.

None of your allies seem to notice just yet. Your hair's so long now that it's hiding your face. The rest of their attention is focused on the CEO itself.

Your antlers begin to burrow into your skull. It should be painful but all you feel is the slight pressure of the boney material pressing against your brain.
You. You're losing your grip. You need to get your head in the game.

>You picked enough options to slow your transformation! NEW BOON: [GOT A GRIP] obtained!
>[GOT A GRIP] You slowed down your transformation enough to have mild control over your mutating body. Your mind is able to withstand your mutation far better than it otherwise would've.

[GOT A GRIP] A second passes. You bite your own tongue. The taste of blood stains your mouth.
Everything shifts back slightly. Your antlers recede, your legs shrink, the flesh on your face heals. Your thoughts clear.

You ground yourself long enough to think up of a plan.
>YOU? gain +2 CHARM, CONNECTIONS and WILLPOWER.

The order comes out of your mouth before your brain can process itself, "BEAM HIM! BEAM HIM!!! BEAM! HIM!!!"
PURIFIER #952 is already charging right at Clover. Clover doesn't wait another second before holding his palms towards the CEO.

An intense beam of yellow light erupts out of the center of his hands. PURIFIER #925 doesn't seem to register it even got hit by it at first. It tilts its 'head' at Clover, "WHAT? IS THAT IT?" It's enough to make it go from 'charging at Clover' to 'casually strolling at Clover' at least!

It's clear, though, it's solely to taunt him.
Clover clicks his tongue. His eyes begin to shimmer with the same bright yellow hue as the beam he's shooting. The beam glows brighter and brighter, brighter than light itself. His face turns red from all of the effort he's putting behind it.
It's enough to start slowly pushing PURIFIER #925 back.

"ALRIGHT. ENOUGH GAMES." Once PURIFIER #925 finally takes the attack seriously, it begins to charge head first at Clover again. The beam is barely slowing it down - You need to buy him some time.
You cake two Q-CORP SHOTGUN SLUGS in your last bits of HOLY OIL. Your other allies prepare to buy Clover as much time as humanly possible with their own weapons.

You aim for one of the VENTS and FIRE!!!
One slug bounces off its metallic body but the other hits its target. It bounces around inside the CEO's body, distracting it for a brief second. Before it has time to readjust, Maruyama and Gabby charge forward with their weapons raised high in the air.

Maruyama's blade leaves a trail of rust across the side of its body while Gabby manages to make another solid dent with her wrench!

Both are promptly punished by getting hit by boiling hot blasts of white gas. The two are sent stumbling back in pain but they're still alive. Thankfully.

>GABBY takes 10 FLESH and RESTRAINT damage!
>MARUYAMA takes 7 FLESH damage! (ESOTERIC and MIXED damage negated by FORGOTTEN IN TIME!)

Benjamin racks another round into his rifle while the CEO is distracted. He aims to make sure his shot will land true before landing a critical hit! The anti-material round slams into the CEO's leg, forcing it to kneel for a brief second.

This onslaught of distractions is just barely enough to give Clover a chance to push his beam's power to its upper limit. The beam glows bright enough to blind anyone who's looking at it. Everyone has to cover their eyes to pretend their eyes being seared clean off.

>47!

The beam continues to blast away at the PURIFIER for a solid minute before it loses all of its potency. You uncover your eyes to see how much damage the CEO took.
Good news: A lot. Bad news: Not as much as you expected.

Its body is glowing bright orange from the sheer heat of Clover's beam. Clumps of molten metal peel off of its body in large, teardrop shaped lumps. They splatter onto the ground, leaving behind molten puddles. Its nozzle arm has been heavily damaged and is little more than a stump with a hole coming out of it. That'll certainly limit the range of its gas attacks.

Melted steel pours out of its vents like blood from gunshot wounds. That's about all of the damage the beam did. Structurally, it's still pretty intact. Its body is rapidly beginning to cool down as if it was just dunked with ice water.
>PURIFIER #952 took 284 FLESH and 233 RESTRAINT damage!

The CEOs watching this display are murmuring at what they just witnessed. That someone, anyone, could've done as much damage to a CEO as Clover just did.
PURIFIER #952 gets back onto its feet. Red gas, the same that turned Benjamin's skin into an infected mess, leaks out of its damaged nozzle. "I AM IMPRESSED. CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE." It raises its arm up at Clover but Casey promptly interrupts him with a single, piercing question.

"What do you gain from this?"
PURIFIER #952 immediately tries to shut her up with a wild blast of corrosive gas. Casey leaps out of the way but her leg gets grazed. Blisters and blood-filled pustules erupt across her (thankfully protected) leg.
>CASEY took 5 (2 blocked) FLESH DAMAGE.

"WHy are you like this? Why are you fighting us?"
"I TOLD YOU THE ANSWER ALREADY. SHE IS A THREAT - DON'T YOU SEE WHAT'S HAPPENING TO HER? SHE'S MUTATING RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!"
You grit your teeth. You're keeping your shell a stable size. You're still a human.
"THE STILLE DAG ARE GONE SO WHAT IS SHE GOING TO AFTER NOW? WHEN SHE TURNS INTO A MONSTER? CEOS LIKE ME? RANDOM PEOPLE THAT WEAR GREY CLOTHES? HER OWN ALLIES?"

"I'M SAVING YOU AND THE CITY ITSELF FROM A THREAT THAT SHOULD'VE BEEN SMOTHERED LONG, LONG BEFORE IT GOT HERE."
"Do you actually believe that?"

"If that WAS the actual reason, why fight her yourself? You're a leader of a whole Company. You have a country's worth of land, resources and personnel. If you really wanted to stop a threat, you could've."

"No. What I believe this is all about is that you lost. You placed a bet on the STILLE DAG and you lost. You and J-Company were both working for them and now you have to accept that you made a bad investment."

"SILENCE. J-COMPANY WOULD'VE JOINED ME IF IT WAS JUST A 'PETTY STILLE HISSY FIT' OR WHATEVER YOU'RE CLAIMING."
"Maybe it's because you're still sore about her using your chemical weapons to kill your people. Isn't that funny? If it wasn't for the STILLE DAG being so irresponsible with their weapons, they let them get stolen by Nicole, maybe they would've still been alive."

"You. Made. A. Poor. Investment."
>55!
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! I DIDN'T MAKE A POOR INVESTMENT! I MADE AN EXCELLENT INVESTMENT THAT GOT FOILED BY AN ANOMALY."
"If your plan got foiled by one rogue element, was it not a bad plan? That would surely be unbecoming of a CEO, no?"
Its LED eyes begin to glitch out. "SHUT UP! THIS IS. THIS. THIS. STOP CODE: CRITICAL_OVERHEATING_REBOOTING."

The CEO goes limp. You probably bought yourself thirty seconds to do some quick side plans before it gets back up.
You spot a small camera drone floating around the open ceiling.

"Smile for the camera." You mutter out.
Clover flashes an exhausted smirk. Benjamin waves at the drone with a sheepish smile, "Hey dad. Hey mom. I'm on TV, huh?"
Casey puts on her customer service smirk, "Are you enjoying the show? I sure hope you are! :)"
>CLOVER, CASEY + BENJAMIN gain +4 to all stats!

While they're busy doing that, you bite your arm HARD. Your teeth rip into your flesh with ease. You rip a large chunk of your own flesh off and you feel the warm pink blood oozing down your face and arm.
Your body immediately begins to regenerate but it'll take some time to heal. You run up to the CEO with a bloody hunk of Nicole meat still in your mouth. Now or never.

You throw the hunk of meat right onto its LED eyes before rapidly smearing your blood-smeared hand all across its chest and face. You're promptly grabbed by the neck the moment you finish smearing it with blood.
Your body is sent flying through the air right towards Dasha. You manage to fling her out of the way with your telekinesis but it was rough. Both of you land on the ground pretty damn hard.

>DASHA loses 3 FLESH and 1 RESTRAINT!
>You lose 2 FLESH and 2 RESTRAINT on top of what you spent on UNSTABLE?

The PURIFIER desperately claws at the blood smeared all over its body. It's completely distracted. While your other allies are too busy trying to reload or to reorient themselves for a better angle of attack, Dasha takes this chance to pop some potshots on the PURIFIER.

Most bounce off but one cracks one of its already damaged LED eyes, causing the blood to leak inside of its body. This only causes it to seethe even harder.

It swings its arms around like a beast, trying desperately to catch someone.

You doubt it'll stay like that for long but for now, you have the upper hand!

The Waxen King stirs in its cocoon...
>PURIFIER #952's attacks will deal HEAVY RESTRAINT damage! PURIFIER #952 will also inflict random CRIPPLING INJURIES on hit
>Your party's attacks will also deal light RESTRAINT damage to #952!

PURIFIER #952 - 552/888 FLESH, 399/700 RESTRAINT, 418 VIOLENCE, 340 IN ALL OTHER STATS, takes 2 more RESTRAINT damage from all sources

CLOVER: 16/17 FLESH, 11/19 RESTRAINT
DASHA: 10/10 FLESH, 7/8 RESTRAINT
MARUYAMA: 21/27 FLESH, 16/22 RESTRAINT
BENJAMIN: 14/13 FLESH, 12/14 RESTRAINT
CASEY: 12/14 FLESH, 11/11 RESTRAINT
YOU [ANOMALY]: 14/25 FLESH, 25/36 RESTRAINT, GRIP: STABLE
GABBY: 218/225 FLESH, 265/275 RESTRAINT

Choose your next MAIN PLAN and three SIDE PLANS.

MAIN PLAN
>Use its rage to your advantage. Toss the O-CORP FOLK CHARM to squishy ol' Ben and bait the CEO into attacking him. (DC is now 63 and you now roll 18d7)
>[DASHA ALLY + GABBY ALLY] Have Gabby distract her fellow CEO and have Dasha unload the GODKILLER ROUNDS at the Purifier's weak spots! (DC is now 47.)
>[BENJAMIN ALLY] Buy time so that Benjamin can prepare a counter agent for the PURIFIER's attacks! (No roll needed due to excessive COGNIZANCE. The PURIFIER will deal less damage for the rest of the fight.)
>[GOT A GRIP] You can feel your budding ANOMALY powers manifesting. Unleash them. (MEDIUM WILLPOWER DC: 98, rolling your 25d7. Succeed and you'll permanently reduce the PURIFIER'S RESTRAINT and WILLPOWER by 100 alongside dealing heavy FLESH and RESTRAINT damage. Weakens your GRIP and speeds up your transformation.)
>Write in.

SIDE PLAN
>[UNSTABLE?] Jab the PZ-Z1 SYRINGE and crunch down on the HIRCHSTONE. Let VIOLENCE wash over your mind. (Massively boosts your stats, grants a 6 FLESH and RESTRAINT shield to your allies. Speeds up your transformation and weakens your GRIP.)
>TRUST. IN. THE. MYSTERY. BOX!!! (ERROR! ERROR! THE BOX CALLS TO YOU!)
>[UNSTABLE???] Bite into your arm until it bleeds. Prepare to smear your blood on the CEO AGAIN!!! (-8 FLESH, -4 RESTRAINT. Deals even more RESTRAINT damage.)
>[DASHA ALLY] Try to use Dasha's past as a soldier to pull some supplies from some of the war hungry CEOs. (On top of ammo and explosives, Dasha will get a good melee weapon and Casey will get a better gun.)
>[MARUYAMA ALLY] TEMPORAL JAM that motherfucker!!! (-1d5+1 MARUYAMA RESTRAINT, reduces all damage taken by 4 this turn.)
>[CASEY + CLOVER ALLY] "Hey, Nicole!" "Keep your breathing still, partner." Get a grip. Get a grip... (MEDIUM CHARM DC: 56, Clover rolling 17d6 with Casey's help. Succeed and you gain a 4 FLESH and RESTRAINT shield, your transformation slightly slows down and your GRIP is strengthened.)
>Take a breather. (Heals you by 8 FLESH and RESTRAINT. Your allies will heal 3 RESTRAINT and FLESH by consuming the surplus meds you got from the V-Corp Rep.)
>Write in.

It swings its arms around like a beast, trying desperately to catch someone.

You doubt it'll stay like that for long but for now, you have the upper hand!

The Waxen King stirs in its cocoon...
>PURIFIER #952's attacks will deal HEAVY RESTRAINT damage! PURIFIER #952 will also inflict random CRIPPLING INJURIES on hit
>Your party's attacks will also deal light RESTRAINT damage to #952!

PURIFIER #952 - 552/888 FLESH, 399/700 RESTRAINT, 418 VIOLENCE, 340 IN ALL OTHER STATS, takes 2 more RESTRAINT damage from all sources

CLOVER: 16/17 FLESH, 11/19 RESTRAINT
DASHA: 7/10 FLESH, 6/8 RESTRAINT
MARUYAMA: 21/27 FLESH, 16/22 RESTRAINT
BENJAMIN: 14/13 FLESH, 12/14 RESTRAINT
CASEY: 12/14 FLESH, 11/11 RESTRAINT
YOU [ANOMALY]: 14/25 FLESH, 25/36 RESTRAINT, GRIP: STABLE
GABBY: 218/225 FLESH, 265/275 RESTRAINT

Choose your next MAIN PLAN and three SIDE PLANS.

MAIN PLAN
>Use its rage to your advantage. Toss the O-CORP FOLK CHARM to squishy ol' Ben and bait the CEO into attacking him. (DC is now 63 and you now roll 18d7)
>[DASHA ALLY + GABBY ALLY] Have Gabby distract her fellow CEO and have Dasha unload the GODKILLER ROUNDS at the Purifier's weak spots! (DC is now 47.)
>[BENJAMIN ALLY] Buy time so that Benjamin can prepare a counter agent for the PURIFIER's attacks! (No roll needed due to excessive COGNIZANCE. The PURIFIER will deal less damage for the rest of the fight.)
>[GOT A GRIP] You can feel your budding ANOMALY powers manifesting. Unleash them. (MEDIUM WILLPOWER DC: 98, rolling your 25d7. Succeed and you'll permanently reduce the PURIFIER'S RESTRAINT and WILLPOWER by 100 alongside dealing heavy FLESH and RESTRAINT damage. Weakens your GRIP and speeds up your transformation.)
>Write in.

SIDE PLAN
>[UNSTABLE?] Jab the PZ-Z1 SYRINGE and crunch down on the HIRCHSTONE. Let VIOLENCE wash over your mind. (Massively boosts your stats, grants a 6 FLESH and RESTRAINT shield to your allies. Speeds up your transformation and weakens your GRIP.)
>TRUST. IN. THE. MYSTERY. BOX!!! (ERROR! ERROR! THE BOX CALLS TO YOU!)
>[UNSTABLE???] Bite into your arm until it bleeds. Prepare to smear your blood on the CEO AGAIN!!! (-8 FLESH, -4 RESTRAINT. Deals even more RESTRAINT damage.)
>[DASHA ALLY] Try to use Dasha's past as a soldier to pull some supplies from some of the war hungry CEOs. (On top of ammo and explosives, Dasha will get a good melee weapon and Casey will get a better gun.)
>[MARUYAMA ALLY] TEMPORAL JAM that motherfucker!!! (-1d5+1 MARUYAMA RESTRAINT, reduces all damage taken by 4 this turn.)
>[CASEY + CLOVER ALLY] "Hey, Nicole!" "Keep your breathing still, partner." Get a grip. Get a grip... (MEDIUM CHARM DC: 56, Clover rolling 17d6 with Casey's help. Succeed and you gain a 4 FLESH and RESTRAINT shield, your transformation slightly slows down and your GRIP is strengthened.)
>Take a breather. (Heals you by 8 FLESH and RESTRAINT. Your allies will heal 3 RESTRAINT and FLESH by consuming the surplus meds you got from the V-Corp Rep.)
>Write in.

>>6267697
Main
>[BENJAMIN ALLY]
Defense up the entire fight! While he's distracted is the best time to get this done safely

Side
>[DASHA ALLY]
Get the better gear + continue building up PURIFIER's rage
>[CASEY + CLOVER ALLY]
Delay the distortion while we safely can. If Nicole becomes an anomaly mid-fight this early things will get bad for us real quick with Poia probably disapproving and the W-Corp CEO old lady going kill-crazy. We might have to resort to that GOT A GRIP main option eventually with how big that damage is going to be on him, so gaining stability now helps us to spend stability later if need be. The blood smearing option is absolutely important to make any real headway in this final boss fight, in my opinion
>Write-in: Pass the SPACE AGE COMPUTER CHIP and SPACE AGE SATELLITE TILE to the Y-Corp CEO. We KNOW about what's above like PROJECT THORN and it's cool (though Nicole is a City girl through and through and all her friends/FAMILY are here), so can the CEO help us out?
Maybe also a small favor like getting the Y-CORP HANDHELD TELEPORTER to where our allies are, in case we need one of them that's healed up enough to teleport in here for a surprise backup? Hell, if all the others are together watching this climax battle unfold, they have to have all their items too. Lex for example has this shit
>FLESH OF THE SON (CLASS 2 RELIC CONSUMABLE. A small white cracker that tastes like nothing. Fully heals FLESH, removes all CRIPPLING INJURES or negative status effects, and adds +2d20 to the next dice roll the user makes.)
Which is extreme value. That's just one example of what we could have the surprise backup ally bring with them. This is the final boss fight, surely this sort of "unzip the BROKEN SHIT" is allowed??? We have yet to do some insane thing like Maruyama using TEMPORAL REWIND to regenerate IN THE YEAR 2525 to have the epic reusable "revert ally death" item literally RIGHT IN FRONT OF ALL THE WING CEOS and on LIVE TV BROADCAST TO THE ENTIRE SETTING

>>6267721
As for the other side options...
UNSTABLE I don't think we should do yet, we don't need the mass statup second wind on Nicole and it's too early for that
MYSTERY BOX I think we need to pop after PURIFIER goes insane? When do we even use this? I think we need to use it before thread ends
UNSTABLE blood smear option we already know about
No MARUYAMA ALLY here right now, that TEMPORAL JAM cost is rising rapidly and I don't like it one bit
I don't really want to TAKE A BREATHER yet either. It might actually be interesting to do that later for style points while the PURIFIER is eating shit on the floor from hitting himself with his own hands. As it stands, we're doing pretty okay so far. I'm not that worried yet... but I'm still pretty worried

>>6267721
As for the surprise teleport plan, we can easily set it up by telling it to the camera. All the allies are watching, so they'll be able to get the signal from us when the time is right on top of preparing themselves offscreen

>>6267721
Also yeah, I wanted to finally use those two SPACE AGE items after we used up all the rest of them on other things until now. The Y-Corp CEO, who I am certain is one of the Yue family we found out about before, is literally right here at their podium/seat watching all this happen like the others. It's an easy enough thing to go do briefly while we have this very slight reprieve early on

>>6267721
+1

Two votes, no other votes for 10 hours, let's go.

Three anons, roll le following.
>8d6 (half of CLOVER AND CASEY)
>9d6 (half of CLOVER and CASEY)
>2d100+20 (QUALITY and QUANTITY of the assistance Y-Corp provides.)

TABLE below.

QUALITY
1-20: N/A (would've been EH. CHIP + TILE negates this.)
21-40: GOOD (It's a good effect. One ally can be teleported to or from the arena via the item he gives.)
41-80: VERY GOOD (Three allies can be teleported to or from the arena via the item he gives.)
81-110: EXCELLENT! (Five allies can be teleported to and from the arena via the item he gives.)
111-119: GODLY (Seven allies can be teleported to and from the arena via the item.)
120: UH OH. (T E N A L L I E S.)

QUANTITY (each item will have two charges)
1-20: N/A
21-40: TWO TELEPORTER
41-85: THREE TELEPORTERS
86-119: FOUR TELEPORTERS
120: FIVE TELEPORTERS and ???

Same items as >>6267444 for the skill check, yada yada.

Rolled 38, 66 + 20 = 124 (2d100 + 20)

>>6268036
Please hit natural 100. Please grand finale EVERYONE IS HERE it like Smash

>>6268052
Still better than nothing. The too-badly-injured recovering guys can give moral support back from the bench.

Rolled 8, 1, 5, 6, 6, 2, 2, 1 = 31 (8d9)

>>6268036

>>6268205
You know what, I'll take everything but the 8. Reroll that with a d6.
Then the next anon that comes can roll a 9d6.

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>6268205

Rolled 2, 5, 4, 2, 1, 4, 2, 5, 1 = 26 (9d6)

>>6268036

Rolled 3, 5, 1 = 9 (3d6)

>>6268205
>>6268257

>>6268205
>>6268217
That totals 60 so we made it past DC

You passed. Update is going to be a bit delayed. Partially due to the glacial slow rolls today and partially because I gotta go into town today. See you in a little bit

Your flesh squirms. Your breathing is heavy. You can feel fur, squirming like worms, inside your muscles.
Get a grip. You delayed it for this long, you can keep delaying it.

PURIFER #952 snaps out of its rage-fueled tantrum for just long enough to analyze who to attack.
It blitzes over to its GABBY with enough speed to leave behind lingering afterimages. Its hand wraps around her throat and, unlike you, she manages to put up a decent fight.

Not enough to break out but she actually managed to bend one of its fingers at an awkward angle before she was shotputted into the floor. HARD. The sickening crack of bone and metal echoes through the open arena but PURIFIER #952 already moved onto his next target before Gabby even has time to get up.

Maruyama tries to use his time powers to blitz out of the way himself but he's too slow. He promptly eats the same pain that Gabby just endured. Only, well, he doesn't have 200+ FLESH to absorb the force of #952's attack. It takes him a lot longer to get back to his feet.

>GABBY took 13 FLESH + 13 RESTRAINT damage! GABBY negates her CRIPPLING INJURY via CEO PROTECTION!
>MARUYAMA took 7 FLESH and 7 RESTRAINT damage! (protected by FORGOTTEN BY TIME!) MARUYAMA now has a BROKEN LEG! (-3 TALENT, takes 1 more FLESH damage from all sources!)

It tries yet again to blitz to another target but its legs lock up. The leg that Benjamin dented with an anti-material round is refusing to listen to the PURIFIER.
"NGH."

Time to spring your plan into action!
"BENJAMIN! ANTI-GAS AGENT, NOW!"
"ON IT!"

Benjamin flies well outside of #952's reach while he prepares to concoct something to purify the PURIFIER's attacks.
Everyone gives the PURIFIER a wide berth now that it's immobilized. It can still attack with its stunted nozzle so staying close sounds like a bad idea.

Dasha stumbles over to the CEOs watching this whole circus act. She glances around through the unfamiliar faces until she spots some CEOs in military or police attire.
"Ahem, ahem." Dasha tries her best to flash an award winning smile. "Your fellow comrade is, to put it in simple terms, thrashing our ass. Its body is clearly too resistant for our civilian grade weapons."

"You literally have an anti-material rifle." The X-Corp CEO nods his head towards Benjamin.
"And," The J-Corp CEO shrugs. "Clearly you're hurting him well enough as is."

"A-ah! But you see, uhm, it would be cool if we saw him blow up. Imagine what the audience would think."
The two CEOs share a look with each other. That was the winning answer since X-Corp's CEO snaps his fingers. "Fair enough! No point just letting the cowboy and nerd have all the fun, yeah?"

You hear some grumbling from Z and R-Corp's CEOs but they don't get any further than that.
A small box manifests right by Dasha's feet.

>Your group obtains 30 FRAG GRENADES, 20 ARMOR PIERCING PISTOL and REVOLVER ROUNDS, LADY PINK HANDCANNON (drains MAX FLESH on hit) and MILITARY ISSUE FIREAXE (slowly chips away at physical protection)

"YOU'RE BETRAYING ME?! AFTER ALL OF THE SUPPLIES I GAVE TO YOUR COROPORATIONS?!" PURIFIER #952 snaps its gaze up towards the J and X-Corp CEO. "YOU!!!"
"Sorry but you got into this mess, 'comrade'." X-Corp snorts. "You're too much of a liability now."
"There's a reason we stopped working with those guys." J-Corp shrugs.

"NGGGHHH!!!!" It snaps its leg back into place before charging right at Dasha.
Dasha manages to throw the HANDCANNON over to Casey, who promptly loads it with armor piercing rounds.

Your allies try their best to slow down with a volley of bullets or, in Gabby and Maruyama's case, throwing their weapons as hard as they can at the CEO.
The attacks dent and scratch the CEO's weakened armor but it wasn't enough to slow him down.

You reach your hand out and instinctually use your PUPPETEER ability to latch strands of psychic thread across the CEO's body.
It manages to actually snag it in place for a brief second. Dasha charges at the PURIFIER with her axe raised in hand before swinging it down HARD into the shoulder joint of its regular arm.

It embeds itself DEEP into the weak joint, not enough to slice through it but enough to jam it up.
"DASHA!" You yell out. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?! IT'S GOING TO ATTACK-"

"A soldier is willing to die for her cause."
The area around the PURIFIER erupts into a haze of white and red gas. You hear something being torn out of metal before seeing a figure stumbling out of the gas.

There's not a single scratch on Dasha.
>1 EFFIGY OF THE PAST rendered inert. 25 FLESH and RESTRAINT damage negated!
>DASHA now has DAMAGED LUNGS (-3 VIOLENCE and 2 TALENT.)

"HA! Must've hit a gas line! Oh well!"

"YOU FUCKING IDIOT!!!" You feel your body twisting in on itself. That would've KILLED THREE TIMES OVER WHAT THE FUCK WAS SHE THINKINGYOUTRIEDPROTECTINGYOURFAMILYFROAREASON
Clover and Casey scramble over to your side. The two of them begin to whisper pleasant sounding nothingness into your ears.
"It's fine, it's fine, we're winning." "Take a deep breath, partner, it's okay." "Get a grip, get a grip..."

Your body continues to grow and shrink at random intervals as the two of them continue to keep talking to you. Eventually, you feel the growth stopping. You feel a bit taller but otherwise?
>60!
Your mind stabilizes. Okay. What Dasha did was stupid but you got those three items for a reason. It's fine. It's fine. You got a grip.

While all of this is going on, Benjamin chucks a wet, sticky grey bolus into the gas cloud surrounding the restrained PURIFIER. The gas clears away just like that. One moment it's there and the next, all that's left is the PURIFIER.

The joint Dasha hit WAS a gas line, it seemed, but there's hardly any gas coming out of it. Thick clouds still sputter out of its nozzle and vents but it's only in short bursts now. It's not going to stop its gas attacks but it's going to make them a LOT less useful.

>PURIFIER #952 now deals 3 less FLESH and 2 less RESTRAINT damage for this fight

It yanks itself free of the PUPPETEER strands. Fuck, this guy REFUSES to go down.

You need backup-
Wait.
You shift your gaze up to the Y-Corp CEO.

A bald, elderly man wearing a bright yellow suit looks back at you.
You hold up the SPACE AGE COMPUTER CHIP and SPACE AGE SATELLITE TILE.
He snaps his fingers. The two items teleport out of your hands.

"Thank you." You whisper right before he grants you the items you were wishing for.
>PERSONNEL TELEPORTER MARK v1 x4 (Two charges each. Allows three allies to be teleported to or from a location. Can even mix and match, i.e teleporting two allies to you and one away.)

You instinctually use one of them to call some much needed help.
As if they were always there, three new party members manifest next to the entrance of the room you're in.

Quentin, Naomi and Max are beyond confused as to how or why they got here but when they spot the CEO thrashing around in the middle of the room, they get the gist real quick. They draw their weapons, ready for another scuffle.
You sorta wanted Lex to come but you suppose that'll have to be saved for next turn. SPEAKING ABOUT THAT!!!

The Waxen King shifts in his cocoon...
>Quentin, Naomi, Max and Benjamin will deal little damage this turn.

PURIFIER #952 - 500/855 FLESH, 333/693 RESTRAINT, 400 VIOLENCE, 334 IN ALL OTHER STATS, takes 3 more RESTRAINT damage from all sources, takes 28 less FLESH damage from all sources.

CLOVER: 16/17 FLESH, 11/19 RESTRAINT
DASHA: 7/10 FLESH, 6/8 RESTRAINT
MARUYAMA: 14/27 FLESH, 9/22 RESTRAINT
BENJAMIN: 14/13 FLESH, 12/14 RESTRAINT
CASEY: 12/14 FLESH, 11/11 RESTRAINT
YOU [ANOMALY]: 18/25 FLESH, 29/36 RESTRAINT, GRIP: SOLID
GABBY: 203/225 FLESH, 252/275 RESTRAINT
MAX: 8/8 FLESH, 10/10 RESTARINT
NAOMI: 12/12 FLESH, 9/9 RESTRAINT
QUENTIN: 12/12 FLESH, 13/13 RESTRAINT

You got enough allies to do TWO MAIN PLANS but no SIDEPLANS this turn. What do you do, Nicole?

MAIN PLAN
>Toss the O-CORP FOLK CHARM to squishy ol' Max and bait the CEO into attacking her. (Same DC as last turn but deals slightly more backlash damage due to how squishy Max is.)
>[DASHA ALLY + GABBY ALLY] Have Gabby distract her fellow CEO and have Dasha unload the GODKILLER ROUNDS at the Purifier's weak spots! (Same as last turn.)
>[TELEPORTER] Shift some allies around... (Maruyama and Dasha will be sent away to heal, Lex will be brought in as replacement.)
>[GOT A GRIP] You can feel your budding ANOMALY powers manifesting. Unleash them. (Same as last turn.)
>[NAOMI ALLY] Hey! She killed a CEO before. Any tips or tricks, Naomi-sama? (VIOLENCE THRESHOLD: 40/44/48, rolling Naomi's 12d7. For every threshold passed, each ally gains +1 VIOLENCE, +1 MAX FLESH and +1 to their combat stat of choice.)
>[QUENTIN ALLY] Time to do an old classic! Have Quentin pester the CEO from a distance while everyone else piles on! (MODERATE TALENT DC: 51, rolling Quentin's 12d7. Pass and the CEO's mental and physical guard will be heavily weakened this turn!)
>Write in.

>>6268419
>[QUENTIN ALLY]
"Pass and the CEO's mental and physical guard will be heavily weakened this turn!"
HEAVILY WEAKENED
WE GO IN NOW
>[DASHA ALLY + GABBY ALLY]
"Succeed and the CEO's defenses will be crippled, allowing your allies to deal ACTUAL damage. All of the PURIFIER'S STATS will also take a decent hit as well."
ACTUAL DAMAGE
WE GO IN NOW

>>6268419
OP quick question, with the O-CORP FOLK CHARM does the reflect count as the damager doing the damage to themselves, using the folk charm user's squishiness in their own place? This might be too retarded to ask and the answer is probably "yeah all the debuffs you put on PURIFIER plus Max's own squishiness all stack, it's going to fuck him up extra, don't worry about it"

>>6268423
>Quentin, Naomi, Max and Benjamin will deal little damage this turn.
Sure this kinda sucks with QUENTIN ALLY working for this turn only, but this is fine. Max has OIL PRINCE, Benjamin has his ASHEN WINGS, Quentin has his own wings, and Naomi is juiced up. Hopefully they'll be fine running harassment interference potshots this turn as a result of WAXEN KING's turn effect. Maruyama's losing a bit of steam with that hit plus BROKEN LEG, but he can still do things. Clover, Casey, Dasha, Gabby, and Nicole will have to be the heavy hitters this round. Not as much damage as it would be if the round effect wasn't up, but that's okay. PURIFIER is halfway to insanity and almost halfway to dead. We're doing okay but the damage is mounting...

>>6268419
>[DASHA ALLY + GABBY ALLY] Have Gabby distract her fellow CEO and have Dasha unload the GODKILLER ROUNDS at the Purifier's weak spots! (Same as last turn.)
>[NAOMI ALLY] Hey! She killed a CEO before. Any tips or tricks, Naomi-sama? (VIOLENCE THRESHOLD: 40/44/48, rolling Naomi's 12d7. For every threshold passed, each ally gains +1 VIOLENCE, +1 MAX FLESH and +1 to their combat stat of choice.)

>>6268419
Changing my vote from >>6268423 to backing >>6268432
We could do QUENTIN ALLY main into the blood smear all-in some other turn. More setup and buffing is always good especially for our squishies

>>6268425
This might be too retarded to ask and the answer is probably "yeah all the debuffs you put on PURIFIER plus Max's own squishiness all stack, it's going to fuck him up extra, don't worry about it"
Well, you answered your own question there.

>>6268419
>Toss the O-CORP FOLK CHARM to squishy ol' Max and bait the CEO into attacking her. (Same DC as last turn but deals slightly more backlash damage due to how squishy Max is.)
>[NAOMI ALLY] Hey! She killed a CEO before. Any tips or tricks, Naomi-sama? (VIOLENCE THRESHOLD: 40/44/48, rolling Naomi's 12d7. For every threshold passed, each ally gains +1 VIOLENCE, +1 MAX FLESH and +1 to their combat stat of choice.)

>>6268432
+1

Fuck it, I'm hopped up on booze and a mixer of energy drinks. Let's get writing to make up for lost time. Everyone wants Naomi, three want DASHA + GABBY and only one wants O-CORP.

Three anons, roll the following
>11d7 (GABBY/DASHA, DC 47.)
>6d7 (half of NAOMI)
>6d7 (other half of NAOMI)

REROLLS AVAILABLE
-MANAGER'S FLESH (Rerolls 3d7 on either check but can only be used on one check.)
-EFFIGY FROM THE PAST (You have two after one was consumed by Dasha. Can render one inert but still usable for blocking a fatal attack to lower a DC by 7.)
-[MILITARY EXPERIENCE[ (Has two charges. Can add another 2d7 to either roll.)
-[SOLDIER FROM ANOTHER WORLD] (Has two charges. Converts any dice below a 3 on GABBY/DASHA into a 3.)
-'OATH TO CONTAIN' (Has three charges. Adds 1d12+2d7 to either check.)

Rolled 3, 4, 6, 5, 4, 4, 1, 7, 6, 2, 4 = 46 (11d7)

>>6268582

>>6268607
>off by one
I'm holding off on items for this until I see the Naomi rolls

Rolled 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6 = 29 (6d7)

>>6268582

Alright, it's been four hours, someone who already rolled can roll the 6d7.

Rolled 5, 3, 3, 4, 2, 1 = 18 (6d7)

>>6268745
Rolling. I'm >>6268607

>>6268747
>47
Cool.
Tell you what, since there's no reason to NOT use the rerolls/stat alterations, I'm just going to say you use MANAGER'S FLESH on Naomi to get 48 and you spend SOLDIER FROM ANOTHER WORLD on DASHA/GABBY since it's the objectively more important one.

That cool? Doesn't matter, I'm the QM.
Writing.

Rolled 1, 4, 2 = 7 (3d7)

>>6268607
SOLDIER FROM ANOTHER WORLD
1 becomes 3
46 becomes 48
DC of 47 passed

>>6268747
Manager's Flesh 1, 2, 3

>>6268748
>>6268749
Holy shit, exactly as predicted. The 1 and 2 remain but 3 becomes 4 for precisely the 48 we needed

"Hey! Naomi! Got any tricks?! You killed a CEO BEFORE!"

Naomi mimes slashing at her throat because, yeah, maybe that's not a good thing to say in front of a buncha CEOs. The other CEOs simply glance around as if the prospect of a CEO dying to some old granny is hilarious.

"Pft. Her? Really?"
"Oh! I get it! It's like a dramatic reveal she's some hidden badass or something, huh?"
"What an obvious twist. This is getting boring."
"THIS IS A DISGRACE TOWARDS YOUR FELLOW CEOS, PURIFIER. STOP WHILE YOU'RE AHEAD."

Your eye twitches. They're talking just like the guys in the room you just left.
Whatever. You got this.

>48!
"Oh. I think you misunderstood her comment as a jest. A haha. A funny." Naomi points towards the camera drone. "Listen to what I'm about to say and listen to it well, children."

"First you [REDACTED] [CENSORED] [XXX] [XXX] [ERROR] [ERROR]." Most of the words coming out of her mouth are being censored in real time. It's all just static and garbled garbage noise now. "Then you sever the [EXPUNGED] [REDCATED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED]." Drool oozes out of the corner of her mouth. Every word she says brings her a sick pleasure that hasn't felt in decades.

"There's a hidden organ [XXXXX] [XXXX] [XXXXX] [XXXXXXXXX] and if you harvest it properly, [XXXX] [CENSORED]!" Spittle flies out of her mouth. She's riling herself up...
"Of course, there's a chance [XXXX] [XXXX] [XXX] but that's only an issue with [REDACTED]-Corp and its [EXPUNGED] allies!"

"Now with K-Corp right here, [XXX] [CENSORED] [EXPUNGED] and [TB@(#GTOISGBNSG]. That's what we should focus on!"

You didn't get a single bit of that. The CEOs look beyond horrified at what she was saying (presumably they heard the uncensored version) and any banter they were spitting out has dried up immediately.
PURIFIER #952 is too angry to really process what she just said in any real depth but it's enough to make it hesitate. "HOW DO YOU KNOW ANY OF THAT."

"You think you'd recognize one of your 'allies', PURIFIER. But I suppose you never really did care about the STILLE DAG after all."
PURIFIER #952 lets out a small hiss of steam through a broken exhaust vent. "OH. IT'S YOU."

Despite no one else because the CEOs understanding a lick of what Naomi said, the sheer energy behind her movements was enough to rile everyone up.

>EVERYONE gains 3 VIOLENCE and 3 MAX FLESH!
>MARUYAMA and BENJAMIN gain 3 COGNIZANCE!
>DASHA, CLOVER, CASEY and QUENTIN gain 3 TALENT!
>GABBY, NAOMI and yours truly gains 3 EXTRA VIOLENCE!
>MAX gains 3 CHARM!

Good thing Naomi got that extra FLESH since PURIFIER #952 functionally teleports to her with how fast its moving.
Its fist collides HARD with Naomi's stomach, knocking the wind right out of her, but it doesn't let it. It blasts a short gust of red gas right in her face in an attempt to kill in one go.

Something shatters inside Naomi's pocket as she drops to her knees. Blood pools at the sight of the impact. It stains her uniform a deep, crimson red.

Her bandages are now stained with the gas but she's still alive. Hacking and wheezing, sure, but alive.
>NAOMI took 5 FLESH DAMAGE and 3 RESTRAINT damage!! SUNSTONE SHATTERED!

It blitz right over to Clover before he gets a shot off. It grabs him by his good arm and promptly tosses him like a bag of sand right towards Casey.
The two promptly hit the ground and eat shit face first after colliding into each other. Clover's right arm hands loosely by his side. Casey, for her part, looks pretty fine actually.

>CLOVER takes 6 FLESH and 2 RESTRAINT damage!
>CASEY takes 3 FLESH DAMAGE!

Seeing that Casey didn't take nearly enough damage, PURIFER #952 shifts over to another target. It picks up a discarded, spent casing and flicks it right towards Benjamin.
It pierces right through his leg. A torrent of red, crimson liquid pours down Benjamin's leg—That had to hit some kind of artery with how much's coming out!

The labcoat he's wearing to stitch together and cauterize it (with help of his powers) but yowch.
>BENJAMIN took 7 FLESH and 2 RESTRAINT damage!

It tries to move again to rip someone to shreds but its damaged leg jams up again. Okay!!! Now it's your time to attack!
You quickly supply everyone but Dasha and Gabby with grenades. You doubt this will really damage him but that's not the plan.

The plan is to distract him for long enough to put the ACTUAL plan into motion.
"ON MY MARK! READY!"

A chorus of eight grenade pins being yanked out ring through the air.
"FIRE!"
Grenade after grenade is tossed at the PURIFIER's feet. It tries to kick some of them away but Max rapidly spreads a thick layer of oil onto the floor. The oil causes the grenades to slide right back to the CEO's feet.

A few grenades manage to land inside of the CEO's body through some lucky tosses. You even spot that a few of the ones that got inside are coated with oil. Devious. Even if Max herself can't do much damage, fire is fire.
Everyone immediately scrambles to the far, FAR end of the room to avoid immediately getting maimed by the explosives. The other CEOs don't bother to even move (they got enough FLESH to tank it).

The PURIFIER's leg unjams right in time for all thirty grenades to explode, one after enough. Puff after puff of white and grey smoke fills the air around the PURIFIER until there's a whole cloud of murky smoke lingering around where the PURIFIER was.
It stumbles out of the cloud looking like it just came out of a house fire. Black ash cakes its body from head to toe, blurring any real detail its body once had. Its LED eyes are heavily cracked, nearly broken, from the sheer amount of shrapnel stuck inside of it.

A dull orange glow pours out of its vents. It's burning up from the inside out but it seems more focused on beating the shit out of you than a simple internal fire.
It flexes its regular arm which is laced with shrapnel sticking inside its slightly melted metal 'skin'. It swings its arm around to send the shrapnel flying in all directions.

Most of it misses its mark but with so much shrapnel, it's hard for it to miss.
>EVERYONE takes 3 FLESH damage and 2 RESTRAINT damage

The wounds are starting to mount up. You need a moment for your allies to take their pills so they don't drop dead.
Hopefully this next attack will buy you enough time.

Gabby breaks into a breakneck sprint, running up towards PURIFIER #952 with her wrench in hand. Three rings of grey light encircle the wrench right as she swings it down onto the PURIFIER's head.
A dent forms on the site of impact. More and more dents form with every reckless swing she throws at her fellow CEO.

"FINE. I'VE IGNORED YOU FOR LONG ENOUGH."
PURIFIER #952 decides to trade blows with his fellow CEO. Every swing she throws is met with a horrifically visceral gut punch. Gabby easily eats the first dozen gutpunches but every single one is weakening whatever mods her body is juiced up with.

In a blow to blow fight, it's obvious who's going to win, even with how injured PURIFIER #952 is and how relatively injured Gabby was.
All of his attention is focused on Gabby. Just as planned.

Dasha carefully sneaps up behind the PURIFIER. She carefully loads in the GODKILLER ROUNDS with the surgical precision necessary for a plan that has your life on the line.
Benjamin points out the weakpoint that Dasha should be targeting.
She raises the barrel right towards the weakpoint: A nearly invisible maintenance panel. A panel that holds some very, very delicate internals that would be easily damaged by basically anything.

She steadies her breathing. Everything is counting on this.

Blood sprays out of Gabby's mouth, staining the PURIFIER's blackened body. She can't take much more of this...
>GABBY took 75 FLESH damage!
>49!

The eight bullets land their mark. Their protection-negating property was enough to easily damage the screws holding the panel together. With a large CLANK, the panel falls off to reveal the soft insides of this crab of an enemy.
The PURIFIER immediately stops what its doing. "NO, DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE-"

Every single ally with a gun aims at the wiring, computer chips and other delicate internal machinery expected of a sentient robot like this.
There's no point saving any ammo when a chance like this reveals itself.

Dozens on dozens on dozens of bullets fly from everyone's guns (including your own). Wiring is torn to shreds. Chips are shattered into tiny pierces. Cooling mechanisms are immediately broken beyond repair. Capacitors and transistors are shorted or burnt until they're no longer functional.

The PURIFIER manages to reposition itself in such a way where you can no longer target the exposed weakspot but by the time it managed to blitz away, you can tell you fucked up its internals by a LOT.
Its movements are a lot more sluggish than they were moments ago. Its limbs randomly lock up far, far more often and occasionally, its LED eyes would sometimes just stop glowing outright. You HURT it in a way that actually mattered