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Before Deryk could get an answer from Lizzy on the matter, there was a slow clap from somewhere around. Just as he turned around to see who was doing that, he saw an orange flash before feeling a surge of electricity that brought him to the ground immediately. What the hell had just happened? Oh. There was a runic dagger in the ground nearby... though it didn't look like the standard issue ones. Not quite.

There was also a foreign voice. So it had been a double trap, but furthermore... who was this guy and what the hell was he on?

"W-woah! Wh-who are you?" he managed to stammer out after twitching for a moment from the shock. He hadn't really felt what it was like to be disabled by a runic dagger before.

"What mess... y.. you're crazy.."

The stranger wasn't making much sense.

Random a** clapping was not a good sign. It was never a good sign. Marcus had watched enough movies in the last year to know that when anyone did the slow clap, s**t was going to happen. And indeed, s**t did happen. The sound of runic daggers, the feel of something go up- and pain. Hunter tech was designed to contain, provide a barrier, and drain. This was real pain, and the daggers were not the ones that he knew of nor had any knowledge were even in existence. Whoever it was that had trapped them, they had done it well, and crazy aside, Marcus was hoping that their ending would be something like that of Hollywood. That the ‘good guys’ won. Only- he hoped the other part, the part where half the party dies, didn’t happen. <********.” The brick missing his head had blue eyes at the figure. “Revenge and Hate or maybe -" pain lanced down his arm. "-You're just ******** nuts. But then things aren’t simple if you call it a ******** iceberg.” He cursed again, looking back to the daggers. All the runics he knew of could be disabled. The nets could be worn down, the chains broken, and the dagger barriers removed. Remove a dagger, the barrier weakens. Remove enough the barrier fails.
The only problem was that even if he wanted to, he couldn’t move. At most, he could do was look to the others and the daggers, hopefully sending them the message.

As if the burns weren't enough, Lizzy soon felt herself dropping to the floor; the encounter with whoever had put a blade to her back had put her on edge, and she simply was now too tired to talk or move - not that she could even if she tried. Everything was too loud, too bright, too painful... So she stayed there, eyes opened, staring up at the figure who was looming above them.

He looked familiar - sounded familiar - and as she continued to stare, it dawned on her that this was the person who led them here. Through the underground sewers. Into that abandoned building. Left them there. Her lips moved, and she tried to say something, but she couldn't vocalize it. Instead, she tried to catch Deryk's eyes, all the while mouthing 'Mike', over and over again.

-

Ariane was, to be honest, wondering why that one girl was being so obedient; it sounded like she was giving them information much too easily, although she kept it to herself. After all, Deryk seemed to trust her, and she saw no reason for them to lie.

However, she definitely did not see the runic dagger coming; it wasn't the first time she had seen runic daggers being used, but it was the first time that she had been pinned down like this... The runic daggers that she had used were used to generate a protective shield. Besides, they definitely had a different colored rune on it. As the attacker spoke, she grimaced, trying to push herself off the ground to no avail; her body could hardly move... If only she could kick the runic dagger...

To be honest, despite the situation they were in, she couldn't help but think that he sounded to her like one of those cartoon villains... The type of villain who spend a great deal of time doing a monologue rather than destroying anything, resulting in their eventual downfall.

She was waiting for the downfall part.

What. Just. Happened. Junko was struck speechless by the events that had just played out before them, backing away a few steps and just staring at the insane as all Jack Hunter with strange devices attached to his body. "Wh-what are those?" She squeaked out, shooting distraught looks to each of the other somewhat saner Hunters around her and her friends. BOOM!? Explosives!? What was wrong with him?! He'd take out his own comrades! Apparently that had been his plan all along..

Why?

She swallowed hard, frowning and ducking behind the nearest body for cover. Junko still peeked around them, eyeing the psychotic Hunter with a look of discomfort. "Nothankyou. I-I don't agree with hurting humans...I'msorry."

"Why are you apologizing, you twit?" The Mistress grumbled. Junko squeaked and looked to Lizzy, desperately seeking the answer from her soulmate with looks alone.

Deryk watched in horror as Mike killed d**k right before their eyes. The guy had defected..? Well... it certainly was looking like that right now. From the way things were, it sounded like he had lose his weapon. Was it because of Caelius? Trembling a bit, he stared at the insane man who had strapped himself with explosives.

When the offer was given to the students to kill all the hunters, he looked towards the small group. There was some relief in Junko's words. She didn't want to kill him or the others. The cowboy was pretty silent though. With a sense of uncertainty, he looked towards Marcus, Ariane, and Ofelia.

He still couldn't move right now. And even then, he wasn't really sure how they could stop this madman.

"Wh-why are you doing this..? Why?" he asked. Well. The guy kind of told them already. Having what sounded like his weapon being taken away may have a lot to do with it all but... maybe he could buy them a little more time.

"L-look.. you don't have to do this. N-no one else has to die. Ju.. Just calm down man... calm down.."

And just like that? d**k was down. This guy- d**k hadn't been a bad guy. He'd been amicable. Nice even for their brief encounter. Dis- Dis was a low hum. Waiting, calculating things he wasn't picking up on maybe, but in the end- rely on himself. Crazy pants was crazy, rambling, likely unreasonable, likely to kill them all. If he could get his daggers then maybe, maybe-

The change in tone had blue eyes looking back at Mike. No, no just get the daggers up. Move, anything anything anything-

White noise. There was sound, he was aware there should be sound but- he couldn't pick it out. It was a roar. It was no sound at all. There was fleeting recognition as Dis was said something. Marcus missed it by a mile.

HP: -6

Ariane had decided that this ex-hunter had lost his marbles a long, long time ago; how a crazed murderer like him managed to avoid detection, while in possession of runic weapons, was beyond her. When he offered the Halloween students a chance to finish them off, she tensed up, eyes narrowing as she eyed d**k's unmoving body; as much as she sometimes pitied the students, she still did not trust them. They might not be much now, but in the future, who knew how many humans they would scare into insanity simply by existing?

Maybe that's why the way they turned down Mr Crazy's offer surprised her - just a bit... But only because one of them had already established that they're here with PETA-for-humans, which probably meant that they weren't for killing humans.

Due to her wounds from before, she barely had time to react when the explosion happened; all she heard was Kintama yelling something-

-and then nothing.

HP: -18