Chapter Text
Elliot felt his heart drop, flashes of fire everywhere, people screaming, not being able to breathe-
‘No.’
The former pizza worker refused to believe the ex-hacker had gone back to his exploiting ways.
Elliot had seen his change, witnessed the man’s grief when his son was reportedly taken into a child detention center.
The fear he felt, the missing posters, the lashing out he had when he found out his son was removed from his custody without his knowledge.
Elliot remembers being one of the few who signed the petition for a proper trial and investigation.
It was never repealed.
The man raised hell then, breaking into the center and raging when he realized his son wasn’t there.
The man shut down after that.
Elliot couldn’t do much, he didn’t know him well enough.
‘I should’ve done more.’
Elliot was not proud to admit there were times he wanted to hate the single father.
Hate him for his damaged lungs, hate him for burning down his father’s workplace over and over again.
Yet, in this hell holding grudges wasn’t worth it.
Especially when you could be the reason that he might never wake up again.
The anxiety was always there, clogging his senses with the possibility that any round could be their last.
How many times had he woken up from a nightmare where he was the last man standing and no one was in the cabin when he returned?
He had lost count, they had increased heavily after the round where the ex-hacker went missing.
007n7 tended to be the one who took death easiest, handing over supplies to others and obstructing the killer whenever a sentinel was too injured.
Many times they had told him collectively that he needed to try more in staying alive, not being a martyr.
He always got a funny look at that.
He closed his eyes and breathed in lightly.
For 3 hours, they had to survive 3 hours against a new killer, one they all knew personally.
He carefully walked around the ruins of his old workplace.
Letting out a sigh of relief as he spotted a generator and began to rework the wires.
The generators only took of roughly 3-5 minutes of the timer, but any time shaved off was valued.
He let out another sigh of relief when the machine beeped and turned green.
All his teammates were still at full health, it hadn’t been long, but it was still a scary thought.
Where was the killer?
As if to answer his question a sound echoed in Elliot’s mind as he stared at his friends health.
His vision clouded in yellow as he saw where his friend was.
Taph had been hit heavily.
BOOM
He flinched and began to run in the direction of the loud noise.
His lungs stung with effort, but he kept running.
‘Faster, damn it!’
His heart began to pump faster adrenalin spilling into veins.
His rush hour became active and everything became slower.
He grit his teeth as Taph’s health dropped again.
Their bar was at 35%.
Finally after what felt like an eternity of running he was met with a sight that would haunt his nightmares.
Belatedly he was definitely staring at his fellow survivor, but everything about him felt exaggerated.
He was taller than before, Elliot could not tell if it was a genuine height change or because he was no longer slouching.
His brown hair was longer, falling over his face like those TV monsters Mia would make fun of during movie nights.
His clothes (if you could even call them that) draped and clung to him at awkward angles. The man was filthy, covered head to toe in what Elliot hoped was not his own blood.
His horns were sharper, his wiry tail twitched.
The windows of the coolgui seemed to be trying to eat him slowly, covering him with bright red windows in the majority of his face.
Taph was shaking, left arm was missing entirely, and their robes were singed.
Without hesitation he threw pizza at them, but before it reached them 007n7 jumped forward and swiped it from the air.
His mouth twitched into a small smile.
The screen on his face changed.
‘Thx Ellie! XD’ it read.
The pizza dissolved into red pixels, but the effect was the same Elliot had to withhold the urge to puke as the various injuries on the killer closed.
Instead he used the killer’s moment of politeness(?) to grapple Taph’s hood and force them to run.
He ignored the aching of his sides and focused of running, Taph clumsily tried to keep up.
Against his better judgment he took a peak behind him only to let out a yelp as the killer charged toward them like a flaming lance.
‘I’m sorry…’ The window read.
He kicked Taph in the stomach sending him to the left then took the hit.
Claws grasped at him, sharp claws piercing skin.
It was painful, fire crawled up his arms, and he felt the areas where the sharp claws were injected with something.
A paralytic venom?
Slowness 1 10 seconds flashed on his vision, but something else caught his attention.
His Rush Hour was back on, had healing the killer counted?
He shook his head, forcing the ability to activate again, he hauled Taph on his shoulders and kept running.
Taph hummed and tinkered with a tripmine and threw down the cube: Boom!!!
The killer let out a sound that sounded like static scream.
‘Keep running! Keep running!’
Ka-chuck
A bullet tore through their former teammate's head.
The killer’s windows flickered ‘!’.
The the wiry tail twitched in rage.
“Really, Chance?”
Chance jumped back behind him was a figure Elliot couldn’t fully make out.
They were too far away.
What he did see however was how uncomfortable the gambler had gone.
Elegant blonde strands gently framed a half-covered face, on his head and bold crown made of ice gleamed.
Chance took a step back.
“I-iTrapped-”
The figure walked forward then his body exploded into light.
From it crawled 007n7.
‘Here I Am! :D’
Chance bristled at the horrifying image of their former teammate ripping themselves out of their former friend.
(And the realization he had closed the distance between them so quickly made him wonder, what was the point in shooting from so far away?)
Chance needed to run now!
He hissed as claws ripped at his back, then began to run in the opposite direction.
‘Keep it away!’
“Did you forget what you owe me?” Oh hell no, he wasn’t falling for that again.
“Hahaha- nice try your italian accent isn’t nearly posh enough!”
He ignored the face of the false crime boss being ripped into a gateway for the killer.
‘Will your Lady bless you today???’ The panes read.
She in fact did not, maybe taunting the killer with 80 health was a risky idea, but what was Chance if not a risk-taker?
He flinched as fire rippled around him, damn that charge hurt.
“Ow! Dude I literally let you win in poker! T-throw me a bone!”
‘You WHAT?!’
Crunch
Chance felt his spinal column snap under the pressure.
‘Oh. I’m so dang dead.’
He in fact was.
Guest’s face twisted.
He spawned way too far in the map, he was practically in the stocker area of the original pizza place.
It felt like centuries before he could reach the others.
“Guest?”
The soldier slowed down a bit.
“Elliot, have you found Taph?”
The Pizza delivery man shook his head.
“I threw a pizza, but my aim was off… the killer won’t stop chasing them.” The healer looked anxious and guilty.
The soldier nodded his head, he understood sometimes it was hard to heal when the killer fixated on only one person.
“What direction did they go… the killer is it really seven?”
Elliot shook his head.
“No it’s c00lkidd, he’s just dressed up.”
The soldier deflated.
The single father was still MIA.
“We need to find Jane Doe.” Elliot spoke.
“But what about Taph?”
“I have a plan, trust me.”
The Guest stared at the healer, then nodded his head.
“Okay.” The journey was set.
The duo ran looking for their teammate.
The round was almost over.
It seems c00lkidd was having a hard time.
It took them roughly 20 minutes to find Jane, she was guarding a turret.
“Guest get away from that thing!”
What…?
Behind her was another Elliot.
“What’s going on here?”
Shedletsky and Builderman stood confused behind them was Guest.
What?
They glitched, Guest felt claws stab his back.
“Sorry.”
Every single copy exploded at once.
Pain erupted everywhere his health went from full to one shot in an instant.
Unaware to him he’d taken the brunt of 3 explosions full force.
“What-” Something reached into his chest, flashbacks to the dream came back.
And he was back in the lobby.
He blinked as he stared at his teammates.
After him Taph popped up.
They looked nervous.
It was a Last Man Standing.
007n7 versus Elliot.
Guest couldn’t believe it, they’d been manipulated into a singular area of the map and then turned to mincemeat.
The survivor turned killer looked heavily injured.
Did the explosion affect him as well?
Or had something else done that to him?
‘Can I get another pizza Ellie???’ The text appeared on the red windows.
“Over my dead body!”
The killer stomped his foot.
‘Pretty please?!’
The Pizza Worker glared.
“I swear Seven if you don’t acknowledge the situation you're in right now! You’re not your son, you know what’s going on, so why are you acting like this?!”
The ex-hacker stopped.
“Sorry.”
“I’ll forgive you when your actions match your words.” He was panting exhausted.
The timer was too damn high.
He had no one to get Rush Hours from.
They weren’t surprised when the bell rang.
The Killer Won
+++
The single father stared at the figure before him.
“How was that?”
It laughed.
“1 d1dn'7 7h1nk y0u'd b3 4bl3 70 w1n... y0u purp053ly m4d3 7h3m b3l13v3 y0u w3r3 74r6371n6 7h3 d3m0l1710n157? cl3v3r, bu7 7h47 w0n'7 w0rk 4641n.”
He stared at it in disgust.
“I’ll make it work.”
“h4h4 5p0k3n l1k3 4 7ru3 p4r3n7.”