| “ | This is a moment to be savoured my sweetling. Not rushed over. Not fumbled. But look. You've spoiled it now. You've robbed it of it's fun.
— Madame Mist to her underlings
|
” |
Madame Mist is a is a Child of the Spider, a mysterious tightly knit group of sorcerers who specialise in using spiders in combat. Because of their unusual appearance and unconventional appearance they are unable to interact with mortal society in any real meaningful way and this has lead to a resentment towards the mortals, fostering a belief that as they have magic they are superior to mortals and should rule them rather than having to skulk away in the shadows.
After the elemental Erskine Ravel, was badly injured during the War against Mevolent, he spent a year recovering with the Children of the Spider and it is here that he met Mist and the two began to plot to elevate sorcerers above mortals. As part of this goal Ravel and Mist began gathering the support of other sorcerers as well as beginning to manoeuvre themselves into positions of power. Mist became a elder in the Irish Sanctuary and got the sanctuary relocated to Roarhaven, where she can better complete her plans.
Eventually Mist was able to put her plan into action, attempting to goad Warlocks into attacking a mortal city where the sorcerers would swoop in and save the day. This plan was ultimately thwarted by Skulduggery Pleasant and the Dead Men and Mist herself was killed after engaging in combat with China Sorrows, who disintegrated her via a suicide magic attack after Mist defeated her in combat.
Animal Group BR (by Wassboss)[]
Chapter 1: Welcome To The Jungle[]
The city of Animatropolis is not your average city although you wouldn’t be able to tell just by looking at it. As far as cities go it looks pretty normal with its intricate winding streets and roads, skyscrapers poking up towards the heavens and a hustling bustle of inhabitants going about their daily lives. That however is where the strange nature of Animatropolis reveals itself as it is populated not just by normal humans but anthropomorphic animals as well. These two groups live in relative harmony where seeing a wolfman walking down the street is no stranger than seeing a regular human.
Even in a city like this however some visitors do still stand out Kassandra thinks as she takes in the area around her. She’d received a message from a mysterious client, promising her a handsome reward to come to this city and eliminate ten targets. Her client was not forthcoming on the identities of these targets however giving them code names such as Mammal, Fish and Amphibian. Having dealt with the Cult of Cosmos many centuries ago she is used to odd code names such as this but she can’t help but wish better information had been provided. With that being said though she is fairly certain she has identified the target known only as ‘Crustacean’.
Plodding its way through the streets is a robotic crab being, dwarfing the people and animals alike and drawing stares all around. Kassandra slips through the crowd in its wake, biding her time for a good moment to strike. As the crowds of people begin to thin out her targets stops, scanning its head over the crowds as if it is looking for someone. Sensing a chance, Kassandra increases her pace until she is right behind the robot. Bending her knees, she launches herself up to the top of his body, swinging the Spear of Leonidas. Suddenly the head snaps around in a complete 180 and the rest of his body quickly follows, the large metal claw swinging right at Kassandra. She manages to turn herself in the air so the bulk of it misses her, with only the very tip clipping her legs. Still, this is enough to throw her balance off and she lands on her side, quickly rolling up into a crouch.
“You didn’t really think I hadn’t noticed you right?” Kraab says mockingly. Kassandra doesn’t respond as the people around begin to scatter, not wanting any part in the fight to come. She instead takes up her dory, twirling it around her and circling the cyborg. Kraab responds by raising his claw at her, opening the pinchers, and firing off a stream of lasers. Kassandra dodges around the lasers and rushes in close, thrusting the dory up at his chest. However, the spear head merely glances off the body without doing any damage. The claw comes down to try and snap it but Kassandra has already moved it away and this time she tries to go for sweeping motion on Kraab’s legs but again the spear merely bounces off with no effect.
Tossing it aside she takes her bow from her shoulder, notching up three arrows at once. While she does so she also activates flame mode, coating the heads of the arrows in a blazing fire. Kraab sees what she is doing and rushes her down as she releases the arrows. He raises his claw and blocks two of them with the third smacking off his chest, leaving a small scorch from the flames but nothing more. Kassandra tries to jump out of the way but Kraab slams his claw into her from above, smacking her into the ground. She groans in pain as Kraab looms over her. “Your puny earth technology is no match for me” he says, drawing the sword from across his back to finish her off.
Before he can however he is suddenly sent staggering away as something large and green smashes into him. Kassandra raises her eyebrow at the large lizard man standing where Kraab once was, sword drawn “You look like you could use some aid adventurer” Lizard Priest says to Kassandra with a smile.
“If you’re offering,” she replies, waving away his attempts to help her up as Kraab steadies himself from the blow. His head swivels as he takes in the new challenger as well as the old one.
“Getting help I see. Fine with me, you’ll need it to have any chance,” he says, readying himself as the pair rush towards him.
Meanwhile across town Earthworm Jim finds himself drawn to the sound of screaming from around the nearby corner. A woman runs from around it, swatting around her head with her hands. Jim stops her as she tries to run past. “Good Citizen! What is the cause for all this screaming?”
“There’s a crazy man back there,” the woman says, shaking in his grasp. “He’s yelling about pain and suffering and he’s got a fuck ton of bees or wasps or something following him around.”
“Don’t worry my good lady, I will deal with this lunatic!” Jim sprints round the corner to find the scene exactly as the woman described. The man in question is huge in size and swarming all around him are hundreds and thousands of bees, stinging indiscriminately at any person unfortunate enough to be caught nearby. “You there!” Jim shouts. The man turns to look at him, his face covered completely by a balaclava.
“What do we have here? A worm? In a suit?” the Pain says. He cackles evilly. “Well, whatever you are, prepare to face a world of PAIN like you’ve never imagined.” As he finishes his sentence, he does a flip before grabbing a vial jacket. He throws it at Jim, who quickly draws his plasma blaster and shoots it. The glass shatters but the liquid comes tumbling out and splashes all over his suit and head.
“Egads!” Jim exclaims. He sniffs and recoils back in horror. “What disgusting concoction have you assaulted my nostrils with you fiend!” The Pain doesn’t answer he merely cackles once more as a column of hornets breaks off from the main group and makes a beeline towards Jim. He fires at them with his blaster, shredding through their numbers until most of them have been vaporized by the heat. He charges forward at the Pain who watches him come closer with interest. Just as he is about to get close enough to punch him, a huge cloud of hornets suddenly emerges from the Pain's suit and surrounds Jim, carrying him away. Jim flails about trying to free himself as well as swatting away any of the hornets that get close to his head.
“GRENADE” the Pain shouts maniacally as a small group of hornets slowly begin to carry a grenade towards the main swarm. Distracted by trying to stop himself being stung and with the deafening buzzing all around him, he doesn’t hear or notice the grenade until it is right in front of him and it detonates, sending him flying through the air and smashing through the window of a nearby café. Jim extracts himself from a pile of tables and chairs, his head spinning from where he whacked it off the side of the counter. The patrons of the café are all fleeing out of the back entrance but as he stumbles forward back towards the Pain, he notices one of them instead jump through the broken window.
Jim follows after her and to his surprise sees her running straight at the Pain. A group of hornets buzzes around her, jabbing their stingers into her body but they have seemingly no effect on her. “Not bothered by hornet stings, are we?” The Pain says. “Well let’s see how you deal with this! TOMMY GUN.” A machine gun suddenly appears out of the swarm of hornets and the Pain grasps it tightly, firing off a barrage of bullets into the mysterious woman. They pierce into her body, making her stumble back and when the clip is emptied, she is left barely standing and covered in bullet holes.
“Silly girl, you could’ve avoided all this PAIN, if only you’d stayed away” The Pain says. He starts to laugh but he cuts it short when he sees the holes on the woman’s body slowly beginning to close over. She lifts up her hand to point at him, almost as if she is holding a gun and something small, green, and fast suddenly shoots forward. Before the Pain can do anything else the projectile hits him on the jaw. He grabs at it expecting to feel some sort of effect but oddly there is nothing and he looks back at the woman who seems to have healed completely from her wounds. “Whatever you did it didn’t work!” he shouts. “It didn’t even cause me any PAI-”. Before he can finish his sentence, his chest explodes open and he looks down at it in shock as spilling out amongst the blood and the guts are tiny plankton. He slumps slowly to the ground as the hornets around him disperse off into the sky.
Jim rushes over to the mystery woman, who is crouched over the body of the Pain. “How did you manage to survive that!” he says amazed. Before the woman can answer a faint beeping noise catches their attention. Jim quickly identifies it as coming from the Pain and he peers over before a look of horror crosses his face. “Jumping Jalapenos! That’s a bomb! Look out!” He grabs the woman and pulls her away from the body, shielding her with his suit as the blast from the explosion rocks them. “Are you okay?” Jim asks once he is sure it is safe.
“I’m fine I think” The woman says before looking up at him, a glimmer of interest appearing in her eyes. “But that isn’t important. I’m more curious about you. Am I right in saying you’re an earthworm?”
“That’s right! I was just a normal worm, worrying about not getting devoured by birds. Then one day this suit fell down from space and I crawled inside it and well that made me into the worm I am today! The name’s Jim,” he replies extending out his hand to shake. The woman looks at the hand curiously.
“My name is Foo Fighters but everyone calls me F.F. We’re not so different me and you. I was also given new life from above although not in the same way. I used to just be a normal colony of plankton.”
“That’s fantastic! So, you know what it’s like to escape from the bottom of the food chain!” Jim says jollily.
“I sure do,” F.F says smiling.
“Say, I’ve been sent to deal with some really ungroovy baddies in this city. I could do with a friend like you to help me out. What do you say?” F.F brow furrows at this, realizing that Jim must be one of the people they have been sent to eliminate. But at the same time how could they hurt another who has been given the gift of intelligence as they have? F.F banishes the thoughts of betrayal from their mind for now and smiles.
“I can help you sure.” Jim grins at this and reaches into his suit and takes out his Pocket Rocket.
“In that case, let’s make like some eggs and scramble!” he says, sitting on the rocket and patting on the seat behind him. F.F tentatively jumps on the back, letting out a whoop of excitement as it whooshes off into the sky.
Humming as he strolls down the street, Baron Samedi carefully observes the citizens to see if he can figure out who exactly he is here to eliminate. Nobody he has encountered so far seems like they are much of a threat and he has been here since the early morning. His path takes him down towards a block of residential flats and he notes the high number of them. Deciding that this is as good a place as any to start he walks towards the first one on the ground floor, rapping on the door gently. After a few seconds a man appears at the door. “Can I help you?” he asks.
“Bonjour mon ami,” Samedi says tipping his hat. “Is there a Mr Smith who lives here?”
“No. It’s just me who lives here.”
“Not ideal but it will have to do,” Samedi says as he woges. He spits a glob of venom into the man’s face and he stumbles back, grabbing at his face and crying out in pain. Samedi strides past him and closes the door behind him, his first minion claimed.
When he’d been told there were ten great warriors waiting to face him in battle, Tai Lung had relished the challenge, finally a chance to prove he really was the Dragon Warrior. But after hours of walking about in Animatropolis his good mood has faded, replaced with a growing annoyance. Wherever these great warriors were supposed to be they aren’t showing themselves. As he walks he sees a frog man walking down the street, lugging behind him a large Warhammer and his interest is piqued. A newt man is walking past him in the opposite direction and the frog grabs him by the arm as he passes.
“Ah ha. Surely you must be who I’m here to fight. A great warrior of the Newtopian Army!” the frog says.
“Get the hell off me freak,” the newt says gruffly, shaking him off and carrying on walking. The frog sags dejectedly as Tai Lung approaches him.
“You there Frog!” he calls.
“You better not be talking to me,” the frog says stiffening. “I am no frog.”
“Well, whatever you are. Am I right in thinking you have been sent here for the same purpose I have?” The frog’s expression changes from annoyance to excitement.
“Are you saying that you’ve been sent here for glorious combat just like me? At long last, I was beginning to think I been sent on a wild goose chase. My name is Captain Grime of the Toad Army.”
“I am Tai Lung, the Dragon Warrior.”
“A dragon warrior, eh? That sounds like a worthy opponent.” Grime says hefting Barrel’s Warhammer up into his hands. The rocket booster activates, bathing the head of the hammer in a purple hue as he lunges forward. Tai Lung easily steps back out of the way of the attack and it smashes into the ground, leaving behind a large indentation in the ground, the purple shockwaves emanating out before dissipating. Grime presses forward, swinging the mighty weapon as if it were as light as a feather but Tai Lung is more than quick enough to avoid the wide arching swings. He doesn’t attack himself initially and instead studies Grime while he avoids his attacks, noting the armour that covers his vitals.
When he gets a feel for Grime’s style, he launches his counterattack. As another wild swing misses him, he sweeps Grime’s feet from underneath him which drops him to the ground. Another kick sends the Warhammer sliding away across the floor and as Grime jumps to his feet he slams both his fists into his chest. The power of the blow smashes the breast plate into pieces and sends Grime hurtling through the air. He uses his tongue to latch onto an overhanging drain pipe and flips himself around to land on his feet. Realizing he’s getting nowhere with the Warhammer he elects not to retrieve it and he and Tai Lung rush towards each other again. They trade blows but it is quickly apparent who is the more skilled of the two as Tai Lung blocks or dodges everything Grime can throw at him while getting the better punches in. As the snow leopard goes in with a knee to the chest, Grime uses both his hands to block it before extending his tongue out to deal a hefty whack to Tai Lung’s head, his first successful blow of the encounter.
Tai Lung stumbles back, wiping at the slimy mucous from the tongue, fending off the blows from Grime as he presses this advantage. Once he has recovered, he catches a pair of punches and flings them away and with a roar he delivers a high kick to the head of the toad. He then ducks down low to deliver a punch to chest and Grime exhales loudly as all the air is forced from his lungs before Tai Lung follows through with an elbow to the jaw. He finishes off the move with an earthshattering jumping kick which sends Grime reeling away. He steadies himself against a nearby wall as Tai Lung takes a moment to catch his breath. Deciding he has had enough of this fight the next time he attacks, he bats away Grime' punch and jabs his finger into the right coronary artery and Grime seizes up. “You fought well but not well enough,” Tai Lung says, as Grime collapses to the ground completely paralysed. Invigorated by the fight he walks with a spring in his step as he searches for his next opponent.
A few minutes later a man wearing dark sunglasses and dressed in a large trench coat, surveying the scene. He stands over the prone Grime and a long metal tentacle slides out from under the coat and grabs him by the leg, lifting him up into the air. Otto Octavius inspects the amphibian with interest. “He’s taken quite a beating but he’s still alive,” he says softly. “Whoever did this to him is clearly very powerful if they’ve paralysed him this bad. I should probably avoid whoever this is, let them wear themselves down on some of the others.” Another tentacle slides out and sidles up to his ear, the pinchers fluttering as if it is talking to him. “Hmm, you make a good point,” Otto says quietly “The quicker we defeat whoever did this the quicker we can get the tritium we need. We shouldn’t wait.”
Satisfied the tentacle moves away from him and the remaining two also appear, lifting Otto into the air. They carry him up the side of the nearest building so he can look for where this mysterious attacker could’ve gone to. Preoccupied with his search, neither he nor his tentacles notice a small black spider crawl up his jacket and slide into the pocket as a veiled woman observes him from inside a darkened alleyway.
Chapter 2: Attack Of The Dead Men[]
The nozzle inside Kraab’s claw opens up and a purple gas flows out of, enveloping him, Lizard Priest, and Kassandra in a cloud. Lizard Priest is unaffected by the vapours but Kassandra is left coughing and spluttering from the effects of it. Kraab uses this to his advantage and smashes her with his claw, sending her sliding across the ground roughly and into a nearby market stall, her sword flying off somewhere overhead. She extracts herself from it and takes a moment to have a breather while Lizard Priest grapples with Kraab.
“I thought he was being cocky when he said we’d need the two of us to beat him but he wasn’t wrong,” she thinks before she considers what her next move should be. None of her regular weapons seem to be having much effect on the cyborg but she is pretty sure the Spear of Leonidas would do the trick. The problem is getting in close enough to get a clean strike. Shadow of Nix would help with that but she is reluctant to use such an adrenaline draining ability especially with the worry that all the commotion from the fight might attract the attention of her other targets.
As she is thinking this, she notices people starting to appear from the various streets and doorways around the square their fight is taking place in. She initially thinks nothing of it, assuming they have come to see what all the fuss is about. But something seems off about them and she uses Ikaros to get a closer look. Their eyes are wild, with a red ring around their eyeballs and a spattering of green gunk around their mouth and chin. Feeling a sense of dread, she looks around and sees that the group of people have blocked all the routes of escape. She looks over at Kraab and Lizard Priest, who are so preoccupied with their fight they haven’t noticed the rapidly growing horde. Then as if a switch has been flicked the people start rushing towards the trio, growling angrily and Kassandra draws her bow.
“Hey! We’ve got a problem here,” she shouts and Lizard Priest looks over to her, seeing for the first time the zombies rushing at them. Kraab also notices, his head swivelling around in a 360 degree angle to survey the new threat. The three look at each other, silently acknowledging a truce for the time being. Kassandra fires off an arrow at the closest zombie, sending it piercing through their throat and dropping them to the ground. Kraab fires off lasers, knocking the zombies to the ground, but they are quickly back on their feet, seemingly even angrier than before. Lizard Priest scatters a few fangs on the floor, bowing his head in a silent prayer to summon a Dragontooth Warrior, handing him a spare blade from his robes. Once the zombies get close Kassandra and Kraab switch to their close quarters weaponry as more and more of the undead begin to funnel into the square.
Kassandra slams the Spear of Leonidas into an approaching zombie’s chest, ripping it out again to stab into the neck of another as it snarls at her side. Lizard Priest is beside her, hacking at the zombies with his sword while nearby the Dragontooth Warrior is doing the same. Suddenly Kassandra gets a signal from Ikaros of something unusual and via his birds eye view of the area she sees a man stood at the fringes of the horde of zombies. He shows no sign of being infected but the undead ignore him and Kassandra realizes this man might be the person responsible for the zombies.
Dispatching another zombie she shouts for Lizard Priest, who looks to her and she gestures wildly at the man. “I’m going to go after the man in the top hat, I think he’s the one controlling the zombies” she yells and Lizard Priest gives her a quick nod, before raking his claws across a zombies face and sending them sprawling. Kassandra fights her way through the crowd, focusing on weaving between the zombies and only killing them when she has to. Once she has moved far enough away from her ally, she activates Ring of Chaos and all the undead around her knocked away and stunned. This leaves her a clear path to her target and as she runs towards him, the man tips his hat at her and smiles before darting off as Kassandra chases after him.
Meanwhile Tai Lung is also in the midst of his own fight against the undead, sending one of them flying through a nearby doorway with a powerful kick. As another approaches he drops them with a sweeping leg kick before stamping hard on their head to knock them unconscious. Another jumps onto him from above, grabbing him in a bear hug. He spins around rapidly, dislodging them enough to fire off a series of vicious elbows into the zombie, breaking several bones and leaving them in a crumpled heap on the floor. More have appeared in the meantime and Tai Lung finds himself backed up into a corner as he fends them off. As his desperation grows his attacks become increasingly brutal, one punch so vicious it rips the head of one of the zombies 180 degrees with a sickening crack as the neck vertebrae snaps.
He hears a growl from behind him and turns to face the threat only for the zombie to be hoisted away. It continues to snarl and flail about in the grip of a long metal tentacle before being thrown into the ground with such force Tai Lung can hear the bones shattering. The owner of the tentacle is a dark haired man with sunglasses on and three more tentacles are at work smashing aside other zombies until between the two of them they have finished off the horde. Tai Lung looks at the man with interest but before he can say anything a tentacle strikes at him and he jumps away out of it’s range.
“I had a feeling you were one of the warriors I was sent here to defeat,” Tai Lung says. “I admire your honour; you could’ve just let that rabble overwhelm me.”
“I just didn’t want them getting in my way,” Otto snaps, before the tentacles launch forward at the snow leopard. Tai Lung jumps over the grabbing hand of the first one, running along the arm of the tentacle towards Otto’s body. He knocks another one away with his arm before jumping forward with a flying kick. Inches before he connects one of the arms leaps up to block it, closing around his foot and hurling him away. He twists gracefully in the air, landing on his feet and swerving his body out of the way of another strike from a tentacle. Another one dives in at him and he moves to dodge it however this was a ruse and another sneaks around the other side, grabbing his ankle in a vice like grip.
Tai Lung finds himself suddenly suspended upside down as another of the tentacles grabs his other ankle. A third grabs his left arm and he suddenly finds himself almost completely immobilized. Otto smirks at him. “You’re quick but you’re no Spider-Man” he says smugly and the final tentacle lungs in, a blade protruding from the centre. However in his arrogance he sends it too close to Tai Lung’s free arm and the snow leopard takes full advantage. He swings down a punch, striking the tentacle at the joint between the hand and the arm. There is a spark of electricity and the other tentacles recoil back as if in pain, releasing their grip on Tai Lung who drops to the ground. The hand on the damage tentacle dangles uselessly and Otto looks at it in disbelief. “How dare you do that to my creation,” he shouts and with a roar of anger the undamaged tentacles barrel towards Tai Lung in a frenzy.
He settles into a defence stance, batting away the first two tentacles before grabbing the other, under the hand so it cannot grab him. He heaves it with all his strength, catching Otto off guard and dragging him towards him. The other two tentacles dig into the ground, anchoring him in place but this is exactly what Tai Lung was expecting and he releases the tentacle he is holding onto, giving it a kick as he does to ensure it can’t pursue after him. Otto tries to extract the other two tentacles from the ground but he is too slow as Tai Lung strikes him with a double handed punch to the chest and he is sent crashing into a nearby building, smashing through the brick wall and landing in the rubble. Tai Lung saunters up to where he lays groaning, ready to put him out of commission for good.
Baron Samedi scans the area around him as he runs. He has been careful not to let his pursuer get too close but also made sure he hasn’t got so far ahead that she gives up entirely. She is fit and healthy though and Samedi can already feel his legs beginning to ache. All around him he can hear the sounds of violence and chaos as his children wreak their havoc and it brings a smile to his face. He comes across a group of them viciously kicking a lion lady on the floor, hopefully this is the target with the code name “Mammal” he thinks. He also spots a dilapidated house nearby and decides this the place for him to lay his trap.
He whistles to get the attention of the group of zombies and they crowd around him. He points to Kassandra, chuckling as he sees the annoyance on her face when they barrel towards her. He keeps back two however and leads them to the house. He orders them to break down the door and as he enters, he glances back over his shoulder to make sure Kassandra sees where he has gone. He looks around the bottom floor of the house and finds a door that leads down into a basement which is dark and damp, the perfect place for an ambush. He leaves his two minions up in the house as he settles down to wait.
As he does, he feels a slight sting on his neck and as he puts his hand up to touch it. Suddenly a sharp pain shoot through his body like lightning. He drops to his knees, feeling his throat begin to constrict and the muscles in his body begin to seize up. He woges repeatedly in a panic as his wesen and human side fight against whatever is ravaging his body. For the first and only time in his life he feels the despair and fear his own victims do, before the venom takes full effect.
“Get away from me you foul creature” Jim cries out as a zombie tackles him to the ground. He pushes it away but two more take it’s place and begin pummelling his suit. Jim pulls his head down inside it to protect it, hoping none of the creatures think to stick their hands in and pull him out. After a few moments the rhythmic sound of kicking stops and he peeks out his head. The two zombies are grappling with the zombie who initially tackled him and Jim is confused until he sees plankton seeping out of the eyes of the lone undead. He shoots the two zombies with his blaster until they go down and the one Foo Fighters has possessed is quick to follow as the plankton destroys their brain from the inside.
“We should try and avoid any more of these if we can,” F.F says. From the next street over they can hear the sound of fighting and they begin to walk off in the opposite sound of the commotion.
“But that could be an innocent citizen over there being attacked by those brain hungry freaks! We have to protect them!” Without another word Jim rushes over to the noise and F.F watches him as he comes up to a large brick wall. Suddenly the wall explodes, sending bricks flying and a cloud of dust spewing up so Jim has to cover his eyes. When it has cleared slightly, he sees a man lying groaning amongst the rubble. Strolling casually towards the man from the other side of the wall is an anthropomorphic leopard and it doesn’t take long for Jim to put two and two together.
“Hey you furball! Who do you think you are attacking this innocent man?!”
“Innocent?” Tai Lung says, arching his eyebrow.
“Don’t try to play coy with me! Don’t take another step or else there is going to be big trouble!”
“Is that so?” Tai Lung says. “You think you can threaten the me? You’re just a stupid worm. What are you going to do spit dirt on me?”
“Hey! Don’t speak to him like that,” Foo Fighters says with a snarl, plankton surging up their arm to form a gun.
“My, my everyone wants a go at me don’t they,” Tai Lung says as he looks down at Octavius who is still writhing about in pain. Deciding he is not a threat at the moment he leaps forward at Jim and sending him staggering away with a kick to the head. F.F fires a cluster of plankton and Tai Lung swipes them away with his hand as he rushes at the stand user. They raise their arms to block his initial strike before aiming a kick at his chest. It connects but doesn’t have enough power behind it to affect him and he returns with a kick of his own which makes them stumble back. He then attempts to strike their head but F.F contorts Atroe’s neck manoeuvre it safely away. They then spring forward at him and he bats away their punch before kicking at their leg, which buckles under the strike before Tai Lung sends them sprawling with a blow to the ribs.
Jim grabs Tai Lung around the waits, hoisting him over his head and slamming him into the floor with a suplex. He rolls to his feet and drives a punch into the suit which pushes him back but as he follows in Jim grabs hold of his head and flings it forward like a whip, slapping Tai Lung in the nose. Dazed, he is then launched backwards by a punch from Jim and F.F sprints towards him. Tai Lung lands on all fours, his claws scraping with an awful squealing sound against the pavement as he slows himself before he charges towards her. He jumps into the air and they mimic him, with both of them aiming a punch for each other in mid-air. They both connect, both in the chest and they both go down with a painful sounding bang.
Tai Lung is the first to his feet but before he can hit F.F again he is driven back by Jim, who is firing his blaster at him. The plasma shots singe his fur and he roars in anger, the damage to his pride stinging more than the damage to his body. It’s at that moment a stray zombie wanders into the street and it’s gaze locks onto Tai Lung. It runs towards him in a rage and Tai Lung drops it neatly with a savage kick before grabbing it by the shirt. He throws it with all his might at Jim and it crashes into him, sending them both to the floor in a heap. F.F runs in and Tai Lung ducks in low past their defences, aiming for the heart as he did with Grime earlier. He hits the correct spot and but F.F. doesn’t seem to be effected and they slam a headbutt into him which staggers him back.
As he stumbles away Jim detaches and fires off one of the hands from his suit and it blasts through the air and latches onto Tai Lung’s neck. It begins to choke him and he claws at the hand in desperation but he cannot get good purchase on it. F.F uses this distraction to fire off several plankton bullets at him and they bury into his body. Tai Lung roars in agony as they begin to attack him from the inside and combined with the powerful choking grip of the super suit, he is soon laying unconscious on the floor.
F.F uses the plankton to expunge the water from Tai Lung’s body in a spray which she gratefully slurps up, replenishing her injuries. “Hey F.F. I hate to interrupt your water break but could I get a little help here?” Jim says and she glances over to see the zombie from before, having recovered from the earlier collision is trying desperately to bite Jim who is holding it off with the other nondetached hand. A flurry of plankton shots later and the zombies is lying prone on the floor, the water from it’s body adding to that of Tai Lung’s as F.F practically showers in the liquid.
While she is doing this Jim walks over to the man in the rubble, who is just starting to get to his feet. “Are you alright mister?” Jim says, slotting the detached hand back in place as it returns to him.
“I think so,” the man says, holding his head.
“What’s your name?”
“Otto Octavius”
“I’m Jim. Why was that psycho-kitty attacking you anyway?”
“He was trying to rob me I think,” Otto says as a metal tentacle slides out from his jacket. Jim looks at it in awe.
“Woah. That’s a pretty groovy looking robotic arm you got there.”
“Huh. Oh yeah. It’s an invention of mine.” The tentacle slide up to his ear and the man stares off into space as if contemplating something.
“Well I think it would be better if you stuck with us. There’s some crazy stuff going down in this place but me and my friend F.F are trying to help out,” Jim says, flicking his thumb towards Foo Fighters who has gotten enough water and walks over to them. As they approach, they look at Otto with suspicion. “I was just saying to Mr Octavius here that he should stay with us for a bit, at least until we’ve stopped the lunatic who unleashed all these brain munching zombies.”
“I don’t know Jim, I don’t think we can trust him,” they say. Otto is still staring into the distance while the tentacle appears to become more animated.
“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he says quietly.
“Why not?” Jim asks. Otto shakes his head suddenly as if snapping out of a trance, the tentacle slumping over almost like it is upset about something. He looks at the pair.
“Sorry, I was miles away. No, I think you’re right we should all work together” he says but there is a slight hesitancy in his voice.
“That’s great news!” Jim says. The sound of screaming and growling filters down from further in the city and Jim turns his head towards it, running off towards it. F.F takes another look at the new ally, getting an odd feeling from him but follows Jim with Otto ambling after them.
Chapter 3: The Itsy Bitsy Spider[]
Kassandra inspects the body of Baron Samedi carefully. The man is clearly dead but she can’t see a scratch on him anywhere. “It’s almost as if he died of a heart attack,” she murmurs to herself. She lifts up his head and notices two small pricks on his neck as if he’s been bitten by something. Confused she straightens up, whatever has happened to him he certainly won’t be creating anymore zombies. As she goes back up the stairs a small white spider scuttles up the handrail next to her and she pulls her arm away instinctually. It stops, almost as if is about to leap at her but instead carries on up the wall and disappears from sight. Leaving the house with a sense of unease, she retraces her steps back to square where she finds the zombie horde has been whittled down to almost nothing.
Lizard Priest has his hands on his knees, clearly catching his breath from the fight, while Kraab is still engaged with a couple of the zombies, his back to them. As Kassandra approaches, she looks at Lizard Priest, then at Kraab and he nods his head, understanding straight away what she is suggesting. Kraab stomps his pincher legs down on the last remaining zombie, impaling it through the chest. “Now that we’ve dealt with this little distraction,” he says starting to turn towards the pair, “It’s time for us to finish what we started.”
The Dragon Tooth Warrior leaps forward at Kraab but he is much too quick to react and he smashes the summon into pieces with a powerful sweep of his claw. Lizard Priest meanwhile is knelt as if in prayer and as Kraab starts to run at him, Kassandra draws the Spear of Leonidas to intercept. However Kraab suddenly stops in his tracks, as if he is being prevented from moving by an invisible wall. Kassandra is confused at first but then she notices a thick orangey brown rust spreading up from the cyborgs legs and up his torso towards his head. He topples over, his head spinning around in a panic, as the rust begins to disable his cybernetic enhancements. Lizard Priest, having finished his prayer, strides over to him and with a powerful sweep of his tail, smashes Kraab’s head clean off and sends it clattering away.
“Something tells me you aren’t an agent of the Demon Lord,” Lizard Priest says.
“And I’m guessing you’re not in the Order of the Ancients,” Kassandra replies. “Which I’m glad for, I’d hate to have to kill you after all your help.”
“Me too,” Lizard Priest says. “I’m used to travelling with a party, this solo adventuring isn’t really my style. I don’t know of this Order of the Ancients but they don’t sound all too friendly.”
“They aren’t. Likewise with this Demon Lord you mention,” Kassandra says.
“I think we could both use help in stopping these tyrants. So if it’s okay with you I’d like to continue our partnership”
“I think that is a very good idea,” Kassandra says.
“That man you pursued earlier. Was he the one responsible for the zombies?”
“I believe so yes. He’s dead, although not by hand. We should probably leave this place. We don’t want to be here, surrounded by dead bodies, when the police show up. I’ll explain more as we walk,” Kassandra says. The pair leave the square, as the sounds of sirens pierce the air.
Otto inspects the damaged tentacle arm, grimacing at the extent of the damage. It won’t be a simple fix and he knows he doesn’t have time to stop and try and find the tools necessary to repair it. He tries to put it out of his thoughts but he cannot and a spike of anger shoots through him whenever he does. Ahead of him, Jim, and F.F are in deep conversation about what their next move should be.
“I understand what you’re saying F.F but surely, we should focus on helping out the normal people. There are still zombies walking about looking for brains to munch on!” Jim says.
“The emergency services can deal with that,” F.F replies. “Our focus should be on stopping whoever is responsible for this. Or on stopping some of these other bad guys you mentioned.” Otto’s attention is peaked by this remark as one of his tentacles sidles up to his ear.
“No. How could they know I’m one of the people they need to defeat,” he says quietly. “They could prove useful still.”
“Did you say something?” F.F says, they and Jim looking back to him as they walk.
“Nothing, I was just talking to myself,” Otto says quickly.
“They say that’s the first sign of insanity!” Jim says with a laugh. F.F smiles but there is no warmth to it and paranoia wells up inside Otto. The earthworm won’t be a problem, he seems to take everything at face value. But this woman. She’s much to suspicious of him. “You make a good point though F.F,” Jim says steering the conversation back to their original discussion. As he talks another one of the tentacles sidles up to his other ear and Otto furrows his brow in frustration.
“You’re right of course. I’ve wasted too much time,” he mummers. A tentacle bursts forward, smashing through F.F’s torso and punching out the other side in a gaping hole. They gasp in shock and Otto hurls them away before the other two make a bee line for Jim. One grabs him around the torso and the other grabs his head and with a flick yanks him out of the Super-Suit. The Super Suit is flung into the distance, where it smashes into a nearby building, breaking a waterpipe and sending water exploding out from the pressure.
“Without that suit you aren’t so tough,” Otto says, flashing an evil grin at Jim who wriggles about helplessly in the grasp of the tentacle. Another of his tentacles unsheathes the blade stored within it’s hand but suddenly swings to the side, blocking a flurry of projectiles. Otto glances over to see F.F getting to their feet, the hole in their chest slowly beginning to heal over. His tentacle retracts back and he looks curiously at the green gunk which is slathered across it and appears to be moving. Inspecting it closer he can see tiny little creatures moving about inside the gunk and he recognizes them as plankton.
“How curious,” he says. “Do you control the plankton? No you must be the plankton correct?”
“I’m not just plankton,” F.F says. “I am more than that. I have emotions and dreams and intelligence just like a human does.”
“Intelligence truly is a priceless gift,” Otto says, a surprising softness in his expression. It’s doesn't last long though and the tentacles lash out towards F.F with surprising speed. They dodge around them before firing off another cluster of Plankton which are once again intercepted by the tentacles and flung aside. One of the tentacles latches onto F. F’s arm but rather than holding them in place it instead pulls powerfully and the arm comes off in a spray of blood and plankton. The other arm tears off a leg and F.F. collapses to the ground as more precious liquid begins to pour out, preventing them from healing the massive damage that has been done to Atroe’s body. As the tentacles loom above them, Otto feels a tickling sensation slowly rising up his leg. He looks down in shock to see hundreds of black spiders clambering up his body.
He immediately retracts his tentacles, dropping Jim onto the ground, and they begin snapping at the spiders, crushing many of them, but they are quickly replaced by more and more of the arachnids. They begin to get under his clothing and he can feel them biting his skin and he yells out in a mix of anger and fear. Otto is so preoccupied with the spiders that he doesn’t notice the plankton bullet flying towards him until it is too late. The plankton bury into his body, expunging as much fluid as they can from inside him and shooting it towards Atroe’s body where the rest of the colony can put it to use healing the wounds.
As Otto slumps over, his body slowly shutting down from a combination of dehydration and the effects of the spider venom, he gazes over to the side where he can see a woman peeking out from inside one of the darkened doorways of a nearby building, her face concealed by a veil. Oddly this reminds him of his wedding day and he smiles as he remembers how beautiful Rosie looked that day. The thought that he will soon be joining her takes away the last of his fight as his tentacles slump down next to him.
“Are you okay F.F?” Jim says as he crawls towards her.
“Yeah. I should have enough water here to patch myself up.”
“What are we going to do about all those creepy crawlies?!” Jim says, pointing towards the rapidly approaching horde of spiders from Otto’s body.
“Don’t worry, I can handle them. You’d better get your suit back though,” F.F says.
“Righto! Once I’m all nice and snug in my suit and we’ll send those eight legged monsters scurrying back to the shadows!” Just as he is about to start crawling back towards his suit however the air behind F.F parts to reveal a woman, clutching a spear in her hand. She swings it downwards, impaling F.F. through the head. “F.F, NO” Jim shouts in shock, forgetting completely about his suit and flinging himself at the mysterious attacker. He wraps himself around her neck, yanking her backwards and away from his friend. She tries to grab him but Jim is quickly to slither away and around her body.
F.F pulls themselves to their feet, the stab wound in their head still healing as they rush to help Jim. A large lizard man steps in front of them before they can, clutching a sword in his hand. F.F steps back as he swings it at her, narrowly missing adding yet another deep wound to their collection of injuries sustained today. They duck and weave around the flurry of attacks that follow before seeing an opportunity to attack themselves as a wide two handed hacking blow leaves Lizard Priest wide open. As F.F. moves to strike them though they are struck by his tail, knocking them away.
As F.F recovers they find themselves surrounded by the spider swarm from before and Lizard Priest too can feel them climbing up his leg. He tries swatting them away but the numbers are too great and they are soon clambering all over him. F.F meanwhile opts to try and escape the spiders rather than fight them off, jumping into the air to avoid the main group of them. They then begin to eject spurts of water from their skin, sending the spiders that have manage to stay attached to them floating away. Leaving Lizard Priest at the mercy of the spiders she makes a beeline towards Kassandra, who has managed to grab hold of Jim by the mid-section and with a quick slash of her spear, she slices his head from the rest of his body.
“JIM” F.F howls in anguish, raising their hand and sending a barrage of plankton at Kassandra. They hit her in the arm, not breaking through the gauntlet but turning her attention towards them. As they get within striking range, F.F. jumps into the air to avoid a slash from the spear and drives a kick into the Spartan’s chest. She then lands, delivering a powerful jab which rocks Kassandra’s head back before firing into her chest point blank with a massive blob of plankton that sends her stumbling away towards the direction of the spiders.
Satisfied that Kassandra is distracted for the moment, F.F then rushes over to Jim who looks down worriedly at his bisected body. “Don’t worry Jim, I can patch you up no problem.”
“I wish that you could F.F. but it’s not just a simple wound,” Jim says quietly.
“But I can fix you! Surely, I can fix you. Right?” F.F says, desperation in their voice.
“Look, I’m not the smartest worm around. But even I can tell that you can’t. I would’ve been in the stomach of some feathered fiend by now if I hadn’t found that Super-Suit anyway so I guess I’ve had a good run. You’ve done more than enough already help me this far but hopefully I can ask you just one favour,” Jim says.
“Of course, anything," F.F says, their voice trembling.
“Make sure those bad guys eat dirt,” Jim says, forcing out a smile even despite the pain. With that his eyes close and F.F can feel tears welling up in their eyes as they bow their head in grief.
Meanwhile Kassandra, having managed to rid herself of both of the plankton and spiders, turns her attention to Lizard Priest who is in much more trouble than she is. The spiders have covered just about every inch of him below the chest and some are beginning to crawl up onto his neck and head. He has managed to keep one arm free however and is hacking at the thick layer of arachnids with his sword.
Suddenly a woman leaps out, seemingly from the pool of spiders. She lands on Lizard Priest, holding onto him with her legs and clamping her hands down on his upper and lower jaw. He tries to throw her off but she is surprisingly strong and the spiders are restricting his movement too much. Slowly she begins to prise open his mouth, spiders streaming down from her robes and crawling inside of it. He tries clamping his mouth shut but too many have already made their way inside and he begins to cough and splutter violently as they start to crawl down his throat. Kassandra tries to go and help him but the woman sends forth a tidal wave of spiders to intercept her. Forced to defend herself she can only watch in horror as the spiders completely overwhelm Lizard Priest, burying him in an avalanche of legs and fangs.
Kassandra activates Ring of Chaos, sending forth a wave which blasts all the spiders away. As she backs up, she draws her bow, aiming it squarely at Mist, who stands eerily still. She seems to be looking past her, although it is hard to tell with a veil covering her face. Kassandra glances over, keeping Mist in her peripheral vision to see F.F striding towards her. “You killed my friend,” F.F says her tone venomous. “And you,” she says jabbing a finger at Mist. “It was because of your spiders that I couldn’t get to help him quicker.”
“Your foolish friend wouldn’t have lived much longer anyway,” Mist says. “He needed to be eliminated for our plans to continue. Just like you two.”
“Shut up. I’m going to kill both of you. I can do that much for Jim at least,” F.F shouts.
“Well at least two of us are going to die here,” Kassandra says. “I guess we’ll soon find out who.” With the sun dipping low in the sky as evening draws near, the three women stand ready, each daring the other to make the first move.
Chapter 4: The Final Girls[]
Kassandra is the one who attacks first, releasing the arrow at Mist, who dodges out of the way of it. Spiders start to crawl out from cracks in the ground and up onto her, biting at any skin not covered by her armour. Kassandra hops around as if she is standing on hot coals, trying to dislodge the spiders but the more and more venom courses through her body she can feel her movements becoming more sluggish.
F.F too finds themselves besieged by the arachnids as they break away from Lizard Priest’s corpse to attack a living target. Unlike Kassandra however the venom doesn’t affect her in the slightest and every spider she crushes leaves a gooey gunk she can absorb the water from. Mist, recognizing the spiders are not effecting them, makes a beeline for F.F to finish them off herself. Any plankton fired her way are intercepted by the spiders streaming down from her sleeves and when she gets close enough, she pounces on F.F, pinning her to the ground.
As the pair struggle, Kassandra draws her bow once more, with the spiders threatening to overwhelm her. She activates Rain of Destruction, firing off a volley of arrows into the air in rapid succession. They fall down in a deadly hail, smashing through many of the spiders but more importantly also raining down upon F.F and Mist, piercing through their bodies in multiple places. As they both slump down in a heap, Kassandra can feel the spiders on her begin to disengage, dispersing away in the shadows. She takes a moment to rest, feeling her vitality returning as her immune system begins to fight off the effects spider venom.
She looks over to her two opponents and is surprised to see F.F heaving Mist off of themselves, before carefully removing the arrows which are still imbedded in them, the wounds closing over as they do. Mist however simply lies motionless, having taken the brunt of the arrows and having no healing factor of her own.
Kassandra unsheathes her sword and the Spear of Leonidas and rushes towards F.F, still feeling sluggish from the spider venom but knowing she can’t give her opponent the chance to recover. She swipes away a bombardment of plankton bullets which come hurtling through the air at her and chops the sword downwards at F.F who just about manages to roll out of the way. As they scramble to their feet Kassandra keeps up the pressure, making them have to focus on dodging the blade and not giving them time to counterattack. However she is surprised as F.F reacts to one of her attacks by sticking their arm up to block it, the sword embedding itself deep into the muscle. They then clamp the other hand down on top of it, holding it rigid in place.
“Can’t use your sword if I have it trapped like this can you?” F.F says, the fingers on her hand contorting around to point at Kassandra. Before they can fire however the sword suddenly bursts into flames and F.F recoils back in shock. Kassandra releases the blade before thrusting her spear, which is also aflame, right into their chest. As the plankton try to heal the wounds, they are burned up in the fire which also begins to evaporate the water inside Atroe’s body around where the two blades are lodged.
“I noticed before how you were draining the liquids from the guy with the tentacles,” Kassandra says. “And I overheard you saying you are made up of plankton. So my guess is you need water to function and, more importantly, to heal.” She yanks the spear out and swings it across in an arc, severing one of F. F’s arms and leaving it dangling uselessly. Another pair of blows gash deep into their legs, leaving F.F on their knees. In one last desperate attempt, they fire off a chunk of plankton from their still functioning arm but Kassandra side steps the obvious attack and they fly off harmlessly into the distance. She then goes to work opening up as many flaming wounds as she can, eventually leaving Atroe’s body a burning pyre, the screeching of the plankton trapped inside ringing out.
Retrieving her sword from the body once the flames have died out, Kassandra ponders if she has any more targets to eliminate. As she is thinking about what her next move should be she gets a warning from Ikaros and from his birds eye view she can see Jim’s Super Suit slowly ambling its way towards her. She cuts off the link with Ikaros, turning around to face it, wondering if perhaps Jim had simply pretended to be dead. However what she sees instead is a black, grey, and yellow mushy pile, eyes and a mouth formed in the centre to create an illusion of a face.
“I wasn’t aiming for you before,” the sludge says and Kassandra recognizes the voice as being F. F’s but much deeper. “Jim gave his life to trying to save me but that wasn’t all. He left this behind, all nice and full up of water. I think it’s fitting I use this to avenge him.” The right hand of the suit shoots free suddenly, slamming a punch into Kassandra’s face and sending her staggering. She recovers just in time to avoid F.F as they come flying in on the Pocket Rocket, leaping from it into a jumping kick. Kassandra jabs the spear into the torso of the suit but it bounces off harmlessly and the free hand from before hits her from behind, gripping her hard on the back of her neck.
She reaches up to try and dislodge it but it’s hold is too strong and she is lashes out wildly at F.F as they get closer but the blows have no effect on the Super-Suit itself. F.F grabs Kassandra by the throat, leaning their head of pure plankton down so it’s right in her face. Several chunks of it break off and crawl over her face, entering into her mouth, ears and eyes and she screams out in fear. Her chest bursts open in a spray of blood and her body drops to the floor as F.F releases their grip on her, her last expression one of pure terror.
Looking up to the skies, F.F remembers back to a time before she met Jolyne, when Whitesnake had come to drop off some discs he had acquired from prisoners. He had talked to them at great length about the idea of Heaven, a place where the righteous go when they die. F.F hopes that what he said about there being a heaven is true and that Jim is up there. With his kindness and determination to help others they had sensed within him the same spirit that they saw in Jolyne. Surely such characteristics would surely earn him a place in paradise now? The mystery person who gave them this mission had promised F.F that they would reunite them with Jolyne and F.F hopes that maybe they can do something to bring Jim back as well. “That’s what is so great about having intelligence,” they murmur, “It allows you to have hope for the future.”
Expert's Opinion[]
11th Place: The Pain, 11 Points
The Pain had the perfect trifecta of last placed royale warriors; he was noticeably evil, completely insane and his powers were not potent enough to kill people quick enough to make those previous two points less of an issue.
10th Place: Captain Grime, 21 Points
Grime didn't have any real flaws as such but he also lacked anything special, just being a pretty strong toad man with a lot of combat experience. He wasn't physically the most powerful, he wasn't the most intelligent and he didn't have any creative powers to give his opponents anything to think about in a fight.
9th Place: Baron Samedi (Grimm), 35 Points
Samedi had the most polarizing placements out of any of the combatants and where people placed him really came down to how they thought he would utilize his zombies. In the end he finished third from bottom mainly because outside of his ability to create zombies he lacked the combat ability to compete with the other warriors nor was he stealthy enough to stay off their radar while his zombies did the work.
8th Place: Tai Lung, 43 Points
Tai Lung was probably the most physically powerful and technically skilled warrior in this royale but this just painted a massive target on his back and his arrogance meant he had no allies on his own, meaning he would inevitably be overwhelmed by warriors working together to take him down.
7th Place: Kraab, 44 Points
Kraab had exactly the same problem as Tai Lung, being a massive mechanical crab cyborg means you've inviting people to team up against you which will lead to your eventual defeat no matter how strong you are.
6th Place: Doctor Octopus, 57 Points
Octavius finished smack bang in the middle of the rankings with his tentacles being powerful and flexible enough for him to put up a good fight against pretty much anyone else in the royale. Unfortunately said tentacles also made his mental state very volatile and this would lead to him acting irrationally and impulsively, a death sentence in active combat.
5th Place: Earthworm Jim, 62 Points
Jim had many flaws which would ordinarily place a warrior near the bottom of a royale namely that he is rash, brash and not particularly smart so would throw himself into fights with reckless abandon. However he also had a Super-Suit that was impervious to damage meaning his opponents had to target his head in order to do defeat him. His kind-hearted nature also meant he could pick up allies who could help him get further than the lone wolf contestants below him but eventually his luck would run out against smarter and more composed warriors.
4th Place: Lizard Priest, 63 Points
Lizard Priest has all the right components to go far in a battle royale. He's a skilled fighter, has a variety of useful magic abilities and is used to working as part of a group because of his role as an adventurer. However his miracles being limited to only four a day eventually left him with only his physical capabilities to get him by and that wasn't enough to break into the top three.
3rd Place: Madame Mist, 74 Points
Mist was basically the Pain or Samedi but if they were actually able to be stealthy. Her spiders were a lot more subtle than hornets or zombies and given she's spent literal centuries plotting and scheming from the shadows she had no problem simply staying out of sight and letting the spiders do her work for her. She's not much of a fighter so once she revealed herself she was toast but she could keep herself hidden long enough to snatch third.
2nd Place: Kassandra, 90 Points
Kassandra had basically no flaws and was unfortunately to only finish second. She is a highly skilled fighter, with a ton of equipment, a magic system which is easy to use and has a lot of variety, by far the best at stealth and affable enough to make allies easily. This allowed her to approach this royale in whatever way she wanted, unlike the warriors below her who were limited to one style. She finished second not through any fault of her own but simply because the winner was just better.
1st Place: Foo Fighters, 99 Points
Foo Fighters won this royale because of their unique physiology which meant that actually eliminating them a really difficult task for any of the other warriors, especially with them not initially knowing about their reliance on water. Combine this with their intelligence and creative use of said physiology plus their ability to make allies meant that Foo Fighters finished top in everyone's votes and ended with a perfect record.