Gon again.

"All right. I'm eager to catch a break at the library. Can't make it back to the safehouse."

Gon walked alongside the hooded man, keeping his mask up. "I'm pretty beat. Today's a bit exhausting."

Four Arms narrowed his eyes, not believing a word that the Kelsey copy was saying, especially not that she just wanted to talk.

"Yeah, so cut the lying crud," Four Arms insisted to 'Kelsey,' gripping her shoulder tighter. "We know you're some copy made by the Writer to murder the real you and then kill the rest of us. The Writer pulled this stupid copy schtick twice in a row already. He's a hack. Or just really lazy. But whatever, that doesn't matter! What does matter is you're staying right here, where we can keep an eye on you!" said Four Arms.

"Wow, you... you know what? I agree with you, and that's saying something under the circumstances." Rick shot a nod over at Ben's direction. "Okay, so, how we wanna do this? You restrain, I shoot?"

There was a pause as Rick looked at Morty, expecting the usual litany of complaints, but the haggard-looking teenager held up his hands defensively. "Nope. I'm on your side too. Had to kill two family members in less than 48 hours, I am officially outta shits to give. Fry 'er."

Library Lobby

"...Even if we keep her here, someone's going to have to constantly watch this clone to make sure she doesn't escape," Makoto said. "Someone else could walk in, start a fight, and free her in the confusion. I doubt she'll be cooperative and give us any more info on this challenge either. She's a liability at best." As blunt as Rock and Morty were being, getting rid of Kelsey the...postal worker now was most efficient. Makoto regained her Phantom Thief attire and watched the clone from behind her mask.

"If you don't want to watch, just knock her out and leave her for us, Ben. Then you can focus on something more dangerous. Like...the clone of you that's probably out in the City right now."

Edited by ScorpioRat on Sep 23rd 2019 at 12:31:51 PM

The man continued to sway and stagger down the street, occasionally glancing at the buildings next to him with one mostly-working eye. "Bah, no; not here" the man slurred in a rejecting tone, pausing to take a long swig from the bottle.

As the man continued to chug, Pecha glanced at Lewis again.

Miss Tairee stared at the shuppet. "You want a shooting attack? You'll still have to be more specific than that" Miss Tairee said, turning her head to her computer and doing some typing. "Ranged attacks available to your species would include... Hidden power, thunderbolt, thunder, psychic, shadow ball, round, charge beam, dream eater, dark pulse, and dazzling gleam" the librarian listed off.

Meanwhile, rather than look annoyed or freaking out, the Kelsey copy gave a short laugh, and didn't seem to care about Four Arms grabbing her. "Really? You're just going to kill me, even though I haven't done anything? Some good guys you are" the fake Kelsey said in criticizing sarcasm. "You heard what he said; real me has some, 'big armor and a chainsaw'. Yeah killing her would be great and all, but look at me: You really think there's anything I can do against that?" the false postal worker went on, holding out her free arm in a shrug.

"What the heck are you people doing?" asked Thomas, approaching the situation but standing off a few feet away. "You've got one of our foes trapped here, and you're not even going to try to get any useful information out of her? Are you even thinking?" the young wizard went on, upset with them, but not for the reason it probably seemed at first.

Hmm...

Nope, he still seemed normal. I looked at the trapinch, then back at the dude. "Hey uh, y'know it's been nasty lately. How come you're not camping at the library or something?"

Cascabel, supposing there was a reason it saw that particular move often, made a rattling noise in reference to Shadow Ball mention.

Four Arms glanced over at Thomas, shaking his head.

"Makoto's right. This thing isn't gonna tell us anything. At best she's gonna put us and everyone else in danger." He glared at Kelsey, gripping her tighter and lifting her off the ground.

"You're one to talk, lady. Kelsey may be influenced by the bird monster but she's on our side. She's helping us against things like you. On the other hand, you're just some monster the Writer cooked up to take advantage of us and then kill everyone we care about."

With that, Four Arms swiftly lifted the fake Kelsey over his head and moved to slam her into the library floor on the other side of his body. He then glared down at her, his voice becoming low and dangerous.

"Don't you dare talk to us and think you know what being a good guy is like," he snarled. "You don't know anything about what being a hero's like. And what's more, you don't have the right! I should take you out right now, but there are more dangerous things out there than you," explained Four Arms.

"Wha?" the man mumbled, half his face in a glare as he glanced back at Lewis. "Because I'm looking fer someone, ya' cunt" the drunkard added as explanation, before turning and continuing on his way.

Pecha gave a little bark towards the man, then glanced at Lewis.

"Alright, very well" Miss Tairee said, doing some typing. In a bit, there was a blur on the desk as a large disc appeared. "Not that I expect it to help you a lot at your strength, but here you are" the librarian added, offering the TM towards the shuppet.

Meanwhile, the fake Kelsey winced as she was slammed into the floor, giving a grunt in pain, but then slowly turned it into a coy, almost sinister smile. "Oh ho, is that how it's gonna be? Beating and punching and shooting an unarmed woman, and calling it heroism?" the fake Kelsey muttered, raising her head to get just that little bit closer to Four Arms. "Come on then, boy, I'm just a monster aren't I? Then go ahead, do it" the postage worker continued, before opening her eyes wider to glare at Four Arms and add in a demanding yell, "KILL ME! IF YOU CAN STOMACH IT!"

People around were watching in mix of confusion, and fear. Some looked concerned about the supposed enemy that was Kelsey; others however looked afraid of Four Arms, and of this posse of people that had all ganged up on this woman for having done... Nothing.

"... Ben" Thomas stated, his voice level, and very serious. He had his wand out now, but held down at his side, just pointed at the floor. "I think she's getting you to do, exactly what the Writer wants you to do. Think about this, Ben" the young wizard said, watching intently. It was obvious even under his cloak that his body was tensing and ready to act.

Edited by FirockFinion on Sep 24th 2019 at 6:39:48 AM

"Why are you all staring at us like w-we're a bunch of axe murderers?" snarled Rick to the gathering crowd. "She's an evil clone! We just spent two days repeatedly killing and getting killed by evil clones! She's not even- she's not even real, she's just an artificially created tenth-dimensional incursion into three-dimensional space caused by-" he sighed and took a quick swig.

"Look, kid, y-you want me to handle this? I guarantee I have-I have absolutely no moral compunctions about killing... betraying my values...becoming the real monster in this scenario or whatever."

Morty looked over at the unfolding tableau from behind his impromptu shelter. "H-he really doesn't."

Edited by Locoman on Sep 24th 2019 at 5:54:50 AM

Two, Ben's Being Awfully Riled Up, Library

Things escalated quickly. Two had no time to dwell on how Rick and Ben found common ground; this brutality from someone who generally opposed killing was ever so slightly unnerving. "...yes, I suppose that's true." She conceded to Makoto's observation with a weary sigh. It might have been correct to kill the Not-Kelsey, but it didn't feel right at all. "And there is nothing to gain. At best she would tell us there are others like her - which is something we've already known."

"Let Rick handle this. Or me, for that matter." She approached the situation, slowly cracking her knuckles. "But think on something: she might just be Writer's puppet, created to kill us, but she's still a person like the rest of us. To call someone a monster just because they had no say in having to oppose you... that's not very heroic, is it?" Two shook her head. "Let me or Rick deal with her and prepare for greater things to come."

"Like who?" I asked, eyes narrowing. That was a bit of information common to the evil clones...but it wasn't like actual people couldn't need to find someone either.

Cascabel raised the disc telekinetically so that the face was facing it, staring at it for several seconds before putting it down again and chirping in satisfaction. It turned around to face the doors before noticing the commotion surrounding it and approaching in a mix of confusion and upset.

Day 28: Library

After spending the last few minutes of day 27 trying to get his bearings after suddenly being not dead, the day changed. Caboose, not knowing what else to do, decided to search for the library. Aside from the friendly wrestling match two identical twins were having, which he saw no reason to intervene with, the soldier saw nothing of interest on his walk.

But, suddenly, as he got to the library, he heard a woman screaming about how she wanted to be killed in the library. Well, that seemed normal. And he had no reason to deny her that wish.

So Caboose strolled into the library and shot a bullet from Freckles right into the fake Kelsey's head. Freckles didn't even stop this, as it recognized the context of the situation to sufficiently paint her as a threat, what with all the allies being somewhat hostile to her.

As if nothing happened, he asked "hello! What did I miss?"

Library

It took more than a few minutes for Garrett to find the way back to the library, and in the meantime, the day ended and another started. Garrett arrived into the building shortly after everyone started arguing about Kelsey. Listening in to the conversations, and asking around, he quickly figured out what today's rules were.

Garrett thought about it carefully. If there indeed was a duplicate coming after him, and the library was no longer safe, then the best thing Garrett could do was to deny his copy any of Garrett's advantages. He'd have to stay outdoors, where the City's unnatural illumination provided no shadows for a clever thief to hide in. And then there was the matter of his duplicate's weaponry. In particular, the gas arrows and mines could decide the battle before it even began...

He turned towards Miss Tairee. "Hey. Do you have something that could help protect me from poisonous gas?"

"...And what's this about fights in the library? Are you saying that anyone can harass people here and get away with it?"

I couldn't remember when I'd fallen asleep, but I could remember that I'd tried to do it for a long time. After the cat left, I didn't really have much else to do, and I was a bit too nervous to do anything. I'd lost my appetite, and it was dark, so I'd tried to just go to sleep, but even then it took forever for me to actually sleep.

By the time I woke up, a lot seemed to be happening. People were coming in and going out of the library, most of them nervous, a few people were being loud, and there were piles of books near other children. They didn't seem to be doing all that much. Mostly reading.

I remembered the day prior, and how happy it'd made me to learn new things. Maybe someone would teach me how to read? Someone I could be friends with? They'd at least talk to me, right? Or did I look too weird? Well, a quick look at myself told me that I was still covered in dry blood, but I couldn't really do much about that.

I could still hide my knife, though.

I grabbed a couple of the bandages I'd taken off yesterday and used them to wrap the knife against my leg. That way it'd be easy to get if things got dangerous, but it was still hidden from other people. After I did that, I grabbed the bread that was left and I walked to where the other children were. But even on the way, I wondered how to even talk to them. How did people make friends? What did they say? Well, I knew I had to say something at least.

"Uhm.... hi!" I called out to two of them from some distance away, trying to come up with something to say as fast as I could. My eyes landed on the big pile of books next to them, so I asked: "I... uhhh... are you reading?"

It wasn't a good question, but it was the only thing I managed to come up with.

According to Ben the day had no real conditions apart from one where the library was not going to stop any incoming fights like it did the previous days which made Hercules really concerned about what was going to happen today. And then without fail, Kelsey entered the Library but oddly enough she wasn't dressed in the armour she was wearing the armour on Day 24.

Herc could already tell something was up, Ben and Rick had already sussed that she wasn't the real deal and then the not Kelsey started taunting the former. Ben was already in the form of Four Arms and then went and picked her up and slammed her into the ground, the fake Kelsey then dared Ben to kill her.

"Ben, no! She's not worth it! Don't do this!" Hercules then shouted, trying to get Ben to come to his senses. He was not about to let his friend murder someone out of cold blood, Clone or not. Then out of nowhere Caboose then suddenly shot Kelsey right in the head. Herc then turned to Caboose looking shocked at he had just done.

Edited by TheStarscream759 on Sep 24th 2019 at 8:07:12 PM

"Okay, great, Caboose is on our side." Rick took another celebratory shot. "Hey buddy, 'cmon in, you're just in time we're about to close up the doors and shoot every bastard that walks in after you."

Edited by Locoman on Sep 24th 2019 at 1:11:10 AM

Thomas looked at Rick and Two with a slight glare. "Seriously?! You don't care about even trying to-" Thomas was cut off with a startle about the sudden gunshot, raising his wand reflexively ready to fight for a few moments. "JEEZ, WHAT THE HELL!?" the young wizard complained. People around jumped too, with many backing off or diving behind furniture at an attempt for cover.

The shot had hit Kelsey's head, making it lurch aside with a spray of blood onto the floor, with the little saving grace being that it also turned her head so that the wound was down to the floor, out of immediate sight. She went limp, and a little more blood pooled there under her head; her body didn't vanish, but neither had the bodies of the foes from the previous two days.

Meanwhile at the central desks, Miss Tairee pushed her glasses frame up and pinched her nose. "Look, I know I can't stop y'all from..." Miss Tairee started, her Southern Belle accent slipped in, but she trailed off and cleared her throat before continuing in her usual accent, "that I cannot stop you from firing your weapons in here today, but I don't suppose you could at least try not to be loud? It's still a library." With that, she then turned her attention to Garrett. "I don't have anything, no, but I could make you something. Perhaps something like a gas mask?" the librarian suggested to him.

Elsewhere in the lobby, Tommy and Seirwuosuhr glanced at Ellen, but then jumped and freaked out a bit when Caboose's gun went off. "What? What's going on?" Tommy wondered, while Seirwuosuhr just cried a bit.

"It'll be alright; just hold onto your books, please" the nearby Miss Tairee copy said, trying to be reassuring. The duplicate librarian slowly took a breath in and then out through her nose as she looked over at Ellen with a neutral stare, then finally with some reluctance, the Miss Tairee copy picked up a few books and placed them on the coffee table in front of Ellen. "You may also want to read. Go ahead, pick any you like, or if there's another you'd like to have, just ask" the duplicate librarian suggested to Ellen.

"A stupid, stuck up cunt. Thinks he's better than everyone else" the drunkard said in an annoyed tone, still staggering along.

Edited by FirockFinion on Sep 24th 2019 at 6:05:46 AM

Library Lobby

Oh boy, now the clone was getting dramatic. While Makoto didn't think of this Kelsey as a "thing" she certainly wasn't going to feel too bad about taking out someone thst probably wouldn't flinch at backstabbing them if given the chance. Her sympathy was running low this week. A sudden gunshot from a red soldier ended that confrontation faster thsn it had even started. She winced, but then sighed.

"Hello, Caboose," she said. "People can be hurt in the Library today, so try to be a little more careful, alright? There's copies of everyone around the City too." She looked down at Kelsey's body, studying it for a few seconds. "...Was she really trying to pull the hero card to stop us from stopping her?" It might have made Ben pause, but after that mess with Joker and Sae, the last thing they needed today was to go easy on these clones.

"...I still don't see much value in squeezing any info out of the clones, but you should try stunning one with your wand if you're curious. I doubt they'd cooperate though," she said to Thomas. "That one didn't even recognize me, so odds are they don't have City knowledge." Makoto headed over to the front desk and began to write a list of items down on a piece of paper. If there was a clone of her out there, then she needed to have a certain weapon, along with other countermeasures for certain people.

I glanced at Pecha, mentally readying myself. "What for? Don't people generally want to avoid those types? Or is this a sudden burst of altruism that's struck you?"

Cascabel squeaked in surprise as Fake Kelsey's brains suddenly exploded, but seemed to calm down upon realizing it was from the funny suit guy it'd seen a couple of times. After an awkward silence, it went up to Caboose and started asking if he'd seen its trainer recently.

Library

Caboose saw nothing wrong with his actions, and didn't even mentally process all the negative reactions to his abrupt murder of the clone. "Thank you, Rick. I am very happy to be here," he stated plainly in his trademark dopey tone, oblivious to why they might want to lockdown the library.

Thankfully for everyone involved, Makoto at least provided an explanation that the library wasn't safe today. Though the soldier's response might cause some... facepalms. "Huh, I did not realize that it was not always like that," the red armored soldier said with complete sincerity. "Well, it was fine this time! Because she was asking to be killed! It is important to do what people want."

He looked aside towards the small cute puppet thing demanding his attention. It was making weird noises and movements. Using all the skills of deduction that he somehow failed to have when interacting with Lopez, Caboose came to one clear conclusion. "Oh yeah the sad not dead but was dead guy is somewhere that I do not know tiny flying puppet," he answered.

Gon, going to the 28th day

Gon accompanied Garrett back to the library. By the time he arrived, another day had started.

He went to take a swig of the potion when he listened to what Garrett was asking to Ms. Tairee. Or one of her many copies. He couldn't tell anymore.

I had heard the big red man's loud noises before, so it didn't scare me as much as it scared most of the other children. It was still very loud and surprising, though, so it did make me turn. There was still a lot of people talking and looking upset over there, so I didn't really want to get involved in there.

The library woman made some books appear on the table, and told me I could pick any I wanted to read, or I could ask her for any book I wanted to read. I didn't know how to read, so I started with the first one on the pile, and started looking at it. It was full of symbols written very close together, filling the entire page. A few pages of that later, I found an image of a person standing upside down holding a rock on their feet and big spoon in one hand. I realized then that I was holding the book upside down, and once I held it upright the image of the man standing on a rock was a lot easier to understand. Still, the book would be a lot more enjoyable if I could understand the words in it... the man's hat looked nice, though.

Ah, the second book had an image in front!

I put the first one aside and picked the second one up. It was a story about a big sleeping lizard and a man standing on top of it, but then the lizard woke up and they fought until the man started to run towards it and then I realized I was reading it backwards.

At that point I knew it'd be better to ask for help, but I didn't really know who to ask. The library lady still didn't like me that much; I could tell from the faces she made from time to time. The other kids had their own books to read. The angry people... no, it was better to leave them alone for now. Maybe it'd be better to just look at all the books one by one and see which one I'd like to learn to read first.

Starting with the third book, because I'd already seen a bit of the first two.

Library Lobby

"Um, could I get these items, please?" Makoto asked, sliding a sheet of paper with a list of equipment over to the Miss Tairee at the desk. "None of it has to be in the bag, I can do that myself."

List:

• Bag of Holding
• Parapsy Ring
• Tactical belt with gun holster
• 6 EMP grenades
• .357 Smith & Wesson Magnum replica/Ammo
• Arginade 6-pack
• 4 Kajaclear-R spray cans
• 6 Psycho Bombs

Edited by ScorpioRat on Sep 24th 2019 at 11:08:28 AM

"Well somebody's gotta show him what for. What's it fookin' matter to you, anyway?" the drunkard said, still staggering his way down the street.

The Miss Tairee copy watched Ellen for a bit, then nearly facepalmed. "Oh, gosh dang it; I forgot you can't read" the Miss Tairee copy said to herself in a frustrated embarrassment. "Alright, hold on" the duplicate librarian muttered, and a few moments later some new books appeared with blurs: Picture books.

"Here, maybe you'd like one of these better" the Miss Tairee copy offered, placing the books down on the table.

Meanwhile, Miss Tairee took a look at the list Makoto provided for a couple seconds. "Specifically a replica? Not the real thing?" Miss Tairee asked to clarify as she got to typing. "And I can't guarantee those sprays will work well, but I can still provide them for you nontheless" the librarian added, as the rest of the list minus the gun yet were appearing with blurs on the desk.

Edited by FirockFinion on Sep 24th 2019 at 10:14:40 AM

"At a time like this?" I raised an eyebrow. "I don't want trouble, I just think you should get somewhere safe instead of uh, that. Actually I was heading there for free gear, so."

Cascabel stared at Caboose with a frown for a few seconds, then went up to Makoto asking the same question.