THE GREATEST SHOW UNEARTHED

[whocouldwinarabbit]

WHO: The HABIT whocouldwinarabbit and his eighteen lucky Rabbits.
WHERE: Yankee Stadium.
WHEN: Tuesday, November 13 afternoon onward.
WARNINGS: Not for the children. Graphic murder expected.
SUMMARY: THUNDERDOME.
FORMAT: Whatever our contestants would like.

"Rise and fucking shine, campers!" blasts the loudspeaker.

Eighteen bodies. Not a bad turnout. He's hauled them into the locker rooms to wake up together, tied balloon strings to their wrists, the balloons Skittles colors. Angora, some say in sharpie, Flemish Giant. And all have a smile drawn on, bunny ears on top.

"You're probably wondering what the hell you're doing here, right? Wonder no more! Welcome to the Trials, rabbits. Time to feed the HABIT."

The crowd roars in response, their fists in the air. They're not nearly enough to fill the stands, not hardly, the count's barely crawling up to a hundred -- but it's the impassive eyes of the cameras set up around the stadium that matter. These idiots are just for the noise of it.

"Now, see, the rules to this game are real simple. All you gotta do is kill everybody else. That's it! What could be easier, right? Knife in the brain. Sword in the guts. I don't care how you do it, just do it, meat. Look at it this way: the Porter'll bring you back good as new. So... what's keeping you? Besides, hey... the winner gets a prize."

HABIT laughs tinnily through the sound system, over the sound of the crowd. "If one of you makes a break for it -- go ahead! I encourage it, make your move -- but you will notice that there's no escape. Can't have you spoiling my fun, now can we? The good people up there in the stands paid twenty-nine ninety-nine for a show, and by fucking golly, they're gonna get it."

"Now... if you'll look at the balloons for your group assignments. Flemish Giants, why don't you come on out here? No, no, hey, don't be shy. Being first is a big ol' honor. So show us some blood!"

He hits the music, and opens the doors.

Comments

[seeksherownsalvation]

[Maybe Kyouko wouldn't have plunged into this mess so fast if she hadn't watched five groups just like their own slaughter each other beforehand. Maybe if she hadn't seen the looks on the faces of the victors--that is, the ones who survived themselves.

As it is, now she's caught up in the fight and there's no stopping her. And the look of panic on her face is fast fading--or rather, fast being covered over by a look of savage fighter's fury as she goes after Jay.

Her first attack misses him by inches.]

You stand still! Let your betters slice you up.

[A gleaming red barrier of thousands and thousands of tiny interlocked spears rises suddenly from the ground between Jay and Max. For all her panic, she's not an inexperienced fighter, and she knows some tactics. The shaft of the spear splits in her hands into segments chained together, and suddenly it's twisting through the air like a snake as she hurls the blade.]

Course it has to be this way. Humans die to feed magical girls! That's normal! This shouldn't be any--

[But there are almost tears in her voice as the head of the spear races for Jay's chest.]

--different!

[She flicks her hands slightly on the twisting chains she holds, and the spear twitches its course to go for his gut instead of his heart.

As for Max, Kyouko's quite ignoring her. It's one thing to psych herself up to kill one human being, but that leaves her not at all equipped to deal with two--hence the barrier. But as it's high and stretches across the entire length of the stadium...it's also weak to enough efforts to shatter it.]

[futurebatwoman]

[ The barrier is a shock and more than a momentary stumbling block. She slams herself up against it at first in momentary unthinking panic and rage. No, no no. She may not know Jay all that well, but she likes him and even if she didn't, even if she hated him -

She takes a moment to think and then slams her bat against the barrier as hard as she can, puts real effort into it as she swings again and again. Come on, come on, if she can just get through. They can still all get out of here alive, if she can just - if she can knock this girl out, that'll take her out of the running, right? And then she and Jay can talk it out, can figure something out. ]

No, come on, he's not - he's not a threat, I'm a threat! Come on, I'm the threat!

[ She is not going to watch him die. The slam of the metal bat on the barrier is a weird sound, steady counterpoint to the cheering and Kyouka's yelling, reverberating back up through her arm. She just needs a little more time, it's weakening, she can feel it. ]

[intothewoods]

[Kyouko meteors back down to Earth, too close for comfort. Jay scrambles out of the way, trying to keep moving, trying to get to Max, trying to find something with which he can defend himself -- and then the barriers flare up between them, cutting him off.

He turns in time to see the spear flying towards him, the chain serpentining through the air, but even knowing it was coming wasn't going to do him any good. His earlier hesitation cost him too much time. He wasn't far enough away from Kyouko; there was no room to maneuver and no time to react.

The spear slams home into his abdomen with a sudden shotgun blast of pain. The force of the blow staggers him back; he drops to his knee, hunched over, and even that small movement hurts.

He can hear Max yelling and the rhythmic beating of her bat against the barrier as his fingers curl around the spear shaft lodged in him, and for a crazy moment he's not sure what he's supposed to do now. Pull it out or leave it in? Get rid of the source of the pain or bleed out even faster? He can't think around the pain blooming in his gut.]

[seeksherownsalvation]

[Kyouko's blood hasn't been spilled yet, so it just roars in her ears. She doesn't hear Max, or she does, but she can't process the words. Because she's watching her spear go into Jay. Another human being. It's weird, but for a moment, the look on her face is almost as frightened as that on the faces of the other two combatants.

It shouldn't be. She's gotten people killed before, and she's let people die. Why is killing one person herself any different?]

It isn't different. It isn't any different at all.

[This is muttered to herself, barely audible to the others. She whips the spear back to her hands, back into a straight shaft held firm and at the ready.

And she concentrates, trying to force herself to finish it off. As she does so, the barrier holding Max back finally splinters and disappears. But that's okay, right? It's already finished, somewhere in her brain. This guy is going to die.

All her attention narrows into one spot. Kyouko aims the spear at Jay's throat and thrusts it forward, ignoring everything else around her.]

[futurebatwoman]

[ She doesn't scream, or if she does she doesn't notice it. He's bleeding, he's - this can't be real. This can't be real, he could still be okay if she just gets through, if she can find a way to get them both to safety.

What's she thinking? There's no way she's getting him to a hospital on time with a gut wound, not without her suit for certain and even then - look how many others had failed to get out, with powers that were actual powers instead of just minor add ons. No. No, she can't think of it like that though. She's not losing.

The barrier shatters and she moves faster than she'd thought she could, swings the bat at the back of Kyouka's head, trying to calculate speed and force so that she won't kill her on accident instead of just knock her out. She doesn't even look at Jay, because any distraction might make her too late and she can't be too late.

She's not going to be too late. ]