A/N: ... Hi. Back after a year and a half. Not sure how it happened, but it did, so :D

This has been in my drafts for ages and I just randomly decided to finish it on a Sunday evening? It's a bit of a long chapter, 9k words.

Lots of things have happened since I last updated, notably Blue9 returning for All Stars (!!!!). This is still a silly fic, the meta probably doesn't work as well anymore, but I can't let this go. It feels wrong to not include SG when it's so iconic and holds the record up till now.

Thank you everyone for your patience! Your lovely comments are what motivated me! <3

Recap of previous chapter: the Bats are understandably stressed that they have to play Survival Games, and Grian comforts them by saying he would "pave the way". He does end up paving the way by killing Dream and three-quarters of Lime (Dreamslayer) which creates an uproar. The Bats are doing well until H falls ill, and nominates Fruit as the temporary leader.

-

For those of you that wanna know what we're all about

It's like this:

-

"I want you to lead for the time being."

Fruit dropped his sandwich on his lap. "What?!"

"Listen, Fruit." HBomb exhaled, then massaged his temple. "Remember our convo after the 8th Championship? After I cheered Joel on and he got that 1v3? You said something about me. Something about "being good at awakening other people's potential". And you know what?" H jabbed a finger at Fruit's chest, who reflexively jerked. "I see that leadership potential within you."

Fruit opened his mouth. False stuffed a cracker in. Fruit shut up.

"Fruit, you're adaptable," H declared. "You pretty much always keep your cool. You're good in high pressure situations. You rarely get mad or upset by your teammates. You may be a little shy, but you know what?" H gestured to False and Ren. "You have two incredible teammates who are ready to follow you to the literal end. It doesn't matter if you make mistakes. If you're worried, just remember I'll be there to reign you in, okay?"

The other Bats could almost see the tornado of emotions flitting through Fruit's face, but in the end Fruit was quick to react. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves. "Alright. I'll do my best. But my main concern now is: H, how are you?"

H leaned back in his chair and yawned. "I told ya, I just need a little rest."

"Can you walk?" Ren immediately asked.

H attempted to stand, but his knees wobbled and he crashed into Ren. Ren gripped H's arms and helped him sit down."Apparently not! I guess I'm an old man. Just as everyone says."

Ren snorted. "If you think you're old, then you're nothing compared to us, my dude."

"H, are you sure you don't need First Aid?" False's voice, laced with urgency, cut through.

H waved a dismissing hand. "I'm good. I don't want to eliminate myself from this game just yet. I want to keep on fighting with you guys! We're a team!"

Fruit's mind was already spinning. "If H can't walk, we need to carry him. One person can carry him on their back—"

"I'll do it," Ren piped up, always ready to volunteer.

"No." Fruit's usually soft voice suddenly had a firm edge to it. Was it due to the "leader" role that H had given him? "Ren, you're already carrying our resources. Carrying H will just slow you down. I can do it."

"Fruit, you're our fighter," False reminded him. "You can't fight well with a person on your back. I'll carry H; I'm used to carrying stuff back on 3-H."

Fruit rubbed his palms together. "Yeahh, that sounds good. Glad that it's solved. False, can you keep an eye on the window? Ren, tell me more about our escape paths." Fruit was taking his leader role so seriously to the point he was scaring himself a little. He chewed on the inside of his cheek. "Uh, sorry if I sound too demanding or whatnot," he chuckled nervously.

"You're good!" H grinned at Fruit. "Carry on."

Ren took out a few items from his bag to help with the visualization of the routes. "Okay, Fruity, this water bottle here is our tower. We have two routes from here— go down," Ren slapped a piece of beef jerky adjacent to the bottle, "or go across using a bridge." Ren connected the water bottle to a second bottle using an energy bar. "The good thing about going across is that we'll have access to more towers, and we'll have the high ground. We can hunt down players. The bad thing is if a team's chasing after us, we only have one direction to run in, thus we can be easily sandwiched." Fruit nodded to show his understanding.

"The good thing about going down is that we'll have access to a lot more areas. The bad thing is that, well, we can be seen easily, but we can always enter a new building."

False's eyes were glued to the window. "Yup, Ren's analysis is correct."

"Cool. Thanks." Fruit tapped on False's shoulder and she moved aside so he could sit by the window too. "Hmm, yeah, I get what you mean. No one's here so far, I presume."

"Yup," False confirmed, "and we're pretty safe from the border too."

Fruit exhaled. "Good. Honestly, I think we should go down. We're not fit to take down an entire team at the moment, so we can't let ourselves be cornered."

"Maybe we should stay here for a little longer for Hmama," Ren suggested. "And besides, I found a lot of cool stuff, and this seems like a good time to distribute them."

"Sure." As Fruit took watch, False scooted over to Ren who was placing items on the ground. He laid down water balloons, crackers, bullets, and stickers. "Hey, you guys should take the Swiftness! It's so OP in PvP!"

Fruit stretched out a palm. "I'll take one!"

"H, come get a Swiftness too!"

H nodded at Ren. "I have one already."

"Alright, cool."

Ren stepped forward and pressed a handful of bullets into Fruit's palm. "Dude, these are for you."

"Thank you!" Fruit took out his stash of bullets from his pocket, combined them with the ones Ren just gave him, and started silently counting. "I have half a stack of bullets!" Fruit wheezed, a look of absolute delight painted on his face.

H might have been tired, but he wasn't going to let himself be dead weight. His eyes scanned across his teammates, and he noticed Ren was still missing a pair of iron boots. He faintly remembered somebody had a spare pair, but the exchange must have gotten lost in the confusion. "Does anyone have boots for Ren?"

False blinked. "Oh yeah, I do! There you go. Sorry, I thought everyone had one."

"Thanks, Falsie."

Just as Ren yanked on his boots, a voice rang in their intercoms: "Border shrinking!" Fruit and False lifted their chins like alert birds.

"Should we go now?" False asked.

"Yup, we've been here for a good while." Fruit kneeled and helped Ren to pack their items. Meanwhile, False let H climb on her back.

"Hope I'm not too heavy," H laughed.

"It's alright!" False shifted on her feet as she got used to the weight on her back. "I'm good to go."

"It's all about survival now," H muttered. "Be careful."

Fruit led them down the tower, with False right behind, and Ren keeping a lookout from the rear. None of them could see or hear anybody, so they were safe for the time being.

"Our tactic right now is to gear up and run away," Fruit declared. "Only two of us can really fight. But I don't know how many people are left. I know Lime's gone, and that's great, but I think Green is still alive. And Cyan too."

"That's good," False mused. "You know what? I think we're already doing way better than they expected us to."

Despite his tiredness, H managed to grin boldly. "And you know what? I think we can do even better."

-

This is ten percent luck

-

Back on the audience stands, the hermits weren't really worried about the Bats despite them having a member down. They were all still caught up in the euphoria of Grian killing three-quarters of Lime. Herman Blur hadn't stopped screaming. Bdubs hadn't stopped making feral chihuahua noises.

The hermits were so excited that they made a flashing "Lord Grian Dreamslayer" sign in record time. The hermits' area on the spectator stands was covered with blue and pink flashes, and Zedaph's confetti machine was still spitting out confetti. Neither Blue Bats nor Pink Parrots had won anything, but they were already champions in the hermits' hearts. Not to mention the hermits were clearly outdoing everyone else with their cheering efforts.

Cub smirked as he raised a "BLUE BATS" sign. Seeing Grian destroy a team from the main campus was so satisfying. It almost made up for the time he and the other hermits got beat up by bullies. And this time, Grian didn't need tasers developed by super rich people. He did it fair and square. And nobody could do anything about it.

Unfortunately, the more immature portion of Lime's fans were already whining like their favourite participant had been unfairly "cancelled" over something they couldn't control. "MY MEOW MEOW IS DEAD???" "omfg who killed dream :pleading_face:" "Whomst the fuck is GRAIN!1!!!1" To them, seeing the Pink Parrots be so lovingly supported was rubbing salt into their wounds. Lime's fans were desperately trying to wrangle the vocal minority into behaving, but apparently Stan was making the situation worse (as always). And of course, the spectating hermits didn't give a single shit.

"Woooo!" Iskall screamed. "Grian killed the Nightmare guy or something! FUCK YEAH!"

"THAT'S OUR G-MAN!" Scar cheered. "Let's goooo!"

"GRIAN IS POGGING OUT THERE!" Bdubs furiously declared.

Doc had crossed his arms and he looked incredibly smug. "See, this is the power of buff Grian!"

"Hermitcraft Supremacy!" Cub called out.

Herman Blur was trembling in their excitement, with their hands over their eyes. "That was absolutely amazing, I won't be able to sleep for days—"

Cleo marched over to Herman and roughly shook his shoulders. "Get it together, Herman!" She half-scolded. "We still have one more team to cheer for."

"That's right!" Reminded by her words, Xisuma spun towards the hermits. "Let's direct our energy towards the Blue Bats too!"

To reply to him, the hermits raised their fists and screamed their support. "LET'S GOOOO BABY!" Cub hollered, and the other hermits echoed his words.

No one had really expected the hermits to do that well in Survival Games. Grian, of course, had popped off, and by the looks of it, False and Ren were doing pretty good despite H feeling unwell. Cub was so nervous that he could barely tear his eyes from the screens. He had faith in his friends, and maybe, maybe, they could make history.

And maybe, maybe, one day, Cub could have his own moment too.

-

Twenty percent skill

-

There had been a shift in the leadership, and everybody could feel its impacts. False was quieter and less likely to attack because she had H to worry about. Fruit was doing something he'd never really done before. For the past few weeks, it was always H who glued them together and cracked jokes that made everybody laugh. Fortunately, they were all now comfortable with each other to the point they didn't rely on H for team synergy.

Ren did not think of himself as a leader. Sure, he liked brainstorming ideas and storylines back on Hermitcraft, but when it came to things like fighting, he usually preferred to be the support (unless he had a Scottish accent and a certain blond guy as his right hand man, but that was a story for another time). He'd been the follower to H's leader, and now he would be the follower to Fruit's leader. It was simple.

Fruit and False were discussing tactics while H slumbered on False's back. "I think we should go forward and snipe those stragglers because we have bullets, and we can get points without engaging in close combat," Fruit said.

"Well, I dunno but we should watch out for the border because it can easily cut us off. We should play it safe."

Usually Ren would just let the experts do their job, especially when it came to people he respected a lot (like False and Fruit), but he felt he had to say something. "Erm, exsqueeze me?

They turned to him. "Yeah?"

"You two aren't even talking about the same thing. Fruityloops' about attacking, and Falsie's talking about the border."

At the realisation, False and Fruit paused, stared at each other, then started talking again— but this time constructively. However, the discussion was cut short when a bullet whizzed past Ren. They all jumped in alarm.

"We're freakin' under attack, dudes!" Ren yelped.

A team was shooting at them from above and the three hurried for cover. "They're targeting me!" Fruit cried out. To Ren's alarm, Fruit's virtual health was lowering dangerously. Due to all of the firepower focusing on Fruit, Fruit could barely pause to whip out his gun. And False, of course, had her hands full. Ren's heart lurched, nervous. H was unconscious, and Fruit and False could barely fight back. If one of them died, it would be a disaster—

And Ren would not allow that.

So Ren took charge. He took off one of his bags and flung it towards False. "Take this and run!" He hollered. Ren didn't pause to see if False listened— after all, he trusted her. Without the extra weight, Ren ran quicker.

"Fruityloops, I'll be your shield!" Ren declared. A bullet dinged on his armour. Ren didn't even wince. A healing potion was ready in his right hand. "I'll buy you time!"

"Great!" Fruit was panting as he slapped on a golden apple sticker. Ren grabbed Fruit and they started to run, Ren's body covering Fruit. Pain erupted all over his back but he didn't let himself be distracted. Fruit may not look like it, but he was shaken and Ren could tell. "Focus, Fruit," Ren commanded in a soothing voice. "Focus on protecting yourself." He leaned down and passed a speed sticker in Fruit's sweaty hands.

"Okay. Okay." More and more attacks slammed on Ren and he held back his grunts of pain. It was all worth it to protect their team's ace Fruitberries. With Ren's protection, Fruit was able to shoot back. The attacking team, having run out of bullets, decided to literally leap into action. Their swords and axes glinted. Fruit, with his HP still recovering, instinctively took a step back. Ren shot him a glance. Two hearts. That wasn't good.

"I'll hold them off," Ren said calmly, almost too calmly.

False's urgent voice came through the communicator. "Guys, we're crouching behind a pillar two blocks away. Run."

Fruit's eyes darted between the enemies and Ren. "Sorry Ren," he muttered, and then he sped off.

The enemies pounced, and Ren did not falter. Pain blossomed from his arms and legs but he gritted his teeth and stood through it all. He also started to run, but made sure to lead them away from Fruit. He could hear gunfire from behind him and prayed it was from his Bats. His chest shuddered with heavy breaths and his legs felt like they were on fire.

"Ren, watch out, one of them's still after you!" False warned.

Ren attempted a jump, but he missed and his head crashed into a wall with a sickening thwack. He was pretty sure his teammates were screaming but their voices blended into one. Disoriented, he tried to find his balance— oh wait, he was on the floor. His vision spun.

A voice floated in and out of his ears. It sounded like Fruit. That meant Fruit was still alive. Ren's head throbbed and he groaned. He had protected Fruit. He had done his job. He—

"REN!"

A pair of strong arms lifted him, and Ren blinked. False's anxious face stared back at him. "Oh my goodness, you almost gave me a heart attack!" she yelled.

Seeing False made Ren a little more awake. "How's Fruit?" he gasped.

"I'm fine, we're all more concerned about you." Fruit popped up next to False, the bars of his virtual health rising. "We got them off our trail thanks to you."

False accidentally brushed past Ren's bruises and he jolted in pain. Despite that, he managed a smile. False huffed in frustration. "Dude, stop looking so happy! It was terrifying watching you hit the wall!"

"Well, my dudes, I had to take one for the team! I had to keep Fruit alive!"

"Thanks!" Fruit called out, then fixed him with a stare. "But you're all battered up now! Don't do that again!" He passed Ren a pack of ice that he immediately used to soothe his bruises.

"RENPOG!" Came a familiar gleeful shout, and Ren's heart leapt. "You did SO GOOD!"

HBomb was standing next to Fruit, colour now returning to his cheeks. He was holding up the bag Ren had tossed to False. Evidentially he'd returned during the scuffle. H flashed Ren a grin. "Hmom's back and running! I'm back in business!"

Ren was pretty pleased with his performance. It was his duty to support his teammates, and he did so by taking bullets for them. His back ached and he knew it would hurt like hell, but for now, he was beaming.

With H's return, they became the four-person unit of Blue Bats again. They had survived an ambush, but they somehow came out of it more confident than ever.

As they moved away, Ren snuck a look at the distant leaderboard.

Players alive: 30 out of 40.

... Somehow, despite everything, Ren had a good feeling.

-

Fifteen percent concentrated power of will

-

Fruit was immensely relieved when H got back on his feet. For one, their team wasn't at a disadvantage anymore. And of course H could resume his role as a leader.

Fruit didn't want to show it, but the attack earlier gave him quite the scare. He knew False couldn't fight because she was carrying H, effectively reducing their team to two members. Fruit had miraculously avoided a good amount of shots, but it was due to Ren acting as Fruit's shield that Fruit managed to pull himself together.

So yeah, Fruit was pretty fond of his team. The Bats were awesome.

With H leading the pack, they hunted the campus for stragglers to target. Fruit took a deep breath. He could do this. He was in his element. He was made for this game. And even better, his gun was enchanted with Flame and he could shoot flaming bullets to deal extra damage. Pretty insane if you asked him. He lifted his head and glimpsed shadows moving behind glass windows.

"There's people in this hall over here!" Fruit hissed. "There's... two Purple people and that's it." Bloodlust roared in his ears. "I'm going."

A voice right next to him. "I'm coming with you!" H took out his gun (the "pleasant present" from Fruit) and loaded it with bullets. The duo then sped off. SB from Purple ran to escape from them, and Fruit's eyes followed his every move. Unfortunately for SB, they were in a long and straight corridor right now with no hiding spaces. Adrenaline flared up inside Fruit— he knew he got this. The Purple Pandas were panicked.

"It's Fruitberries and Dream!"

"No— it's Fruitberries and HBomb!"

Ren noticed there were some chests outside the hall. "I'm gonna loot these."

H cried out a final "keep in touch!" before he and Fruit went off. Fruit kept them up to date with his attacks. "I'm gonna shoot SB a flame— shot him, shot him again—"

"I got a shot on him too!" H cried out. Digital flames flickered on SB's suit and his movements became more frantic.

"SB737 was shot by Fruitberries!" the Commentator boomed.

"Nice!" Ren cheered. He hurried over to False. "You done with this area?"

False was already staring at the inside of the hall. "Yup, let's go." Splatters of orange water covered the diorite tiles (seriously? Iskall would be disappointed). "Watch out for the lava!" she called back towards Ren.

False nimbly navigated past the puddle of "lava" and caught sight of two distant blue figures. The lack of footsteps around False reminded her of something. "Ren, keep up with us."

"Yep." H and Fruit replied in unison.

"I'm on my way!" Ren was organizing his inventory, but decided to do it later in order to not be separated from his team. Fruit was busy looting SB's items. His heart rate was pretty high from all of the running and excitement, and his helmet was getting filled with sweat. He picked up a few pieces of iron armour— good, because he knew False and Ren needed them. A square of sunlight to his left. H had opened the back door of the hall.

Ren caught up with Fruit. "You need some water, Fruity."

Fruit sighed. "Yeah, I do." He tried to reach for his water bottle, but his hands were full. He awkwardly tried to shift the armour to one hand, but they were heavy. Fruit giggled nervously. "Um—"

"Here, here." Ren opened a bottle of water and put it under Fruit's chin. Fruit tilted his chin, Ren tilted the bottle, and in that fashion Fruit had a quick sip of water. Fruit was too focused to be embarrassed; he was just grateful. "Thanks," he mumbled.

"Happy to help!"

"There's another team here!" H announced, but then False yanked on his arm and forced him to crouch behind a bush. "Yeah, and H, you're by yourself!" False hissed, anxious.

"That's fine." H sounded confident. At that moment, Fruit and Ren stepped out of the hall.

Fruit squinted, his eyes a little unused to the sunlight. Still, he could see two puddles of "lava" because they were striking against the grey cobblestone path. "Be careful!" he whispered.

H was aggravated and excited. "Aaa, I wanna single that guy out. I wanna— I wanna get that kill!"

Despite the tension, Fruit couldn't help but bite back a smile. Usually he was the one being aggressive and impulsive, and H was supposed to reign him in.

H started running, and naturally False followed him. Fruit huffed and puffed, his arms sagging with the weight of the iron armour. "False—"

False was busy looking after H. "Yeah?"

"Got you an iron chest chestplate."

"Oh!" Now False turned, and she could see Fruit carrying all that armour. She quickly took the iron chestplate to relieve the burden. "Thank you."

"And then Ren, I have leggings. And we're all full iron."

The group gathered around Fruit as he handed out the armour. They could have a breather after that scuffle with Purple. Sweat was wiped off their brows, water sipped from their bottles. They had full iron and were properly geared up. They felt a little safer with their equipment.

False took a deep breath. "Okay, we're good now. Where is that person you saw, H?"

H slapped a Swiftness sticker onto his boots and peered at the distant buildings. "I wanna find that guy who ran away. He ran— "

"BIG FIGHT!" Fruit gasped, interrupting everybody's train of thought. He saw figures clustered together in a grass field and could just barely make out their colours. "There's a big fight this way." Fruit didn't even bother to gesture; he just ran with the hermits trailing after him. He was operating on his killing instinct knowing he had his teammates to back him up.

H switched targets immediately. "Alright, you wanna go for it? Let's go for it."

Fruit grabbed some food stickers in preparation for the upcoming battle. "Let's clean. A 100%."

It was a declaration, a goal, a promise. Fruit would pave the way.

"Make sure your gun is loaded!" H reminded everybody. "I'm loading my guns really quick, hang on."

Fruit was getting closer and closer to the fight, boots thudding on the dirt paths. His muscles were tense. He could recognize some colours— Green and Orange. Fruit ducked behind bushes and wooden benches, then whispered into his comms, excitement clear in his voice, "They're still fighting! There's— there's only three left!"

H's voice exploded in Fruit's ears. "Let's go let's go let's go— "

"Yeah, just go!" False cheered Fruit on.

Encouraged, Fruit deftly jumped over a bench and launched himself straight into battle. His opponents might be vaguely aware of his entrance, but they were too busy fighting to care. He raised his gun and shot at a familiar figure— George from Green Guardians.

"George is one hit!" Fruit announced. "I missed—"

A sudden bullet crashed into George's suit. "Dead!" Fruit gleefully declared.

"GeorgeNotFound was shot by renthedog!"

Fruit couldn't even be mad about the kill being stolen from him. "Nice Ren!" Fruit gasped. "You hit him! You killed him!"

Ren noticed his kill later than Fruit did, and while Fruit couldn't see him at the moment, he could hear the sheer disbelief in Ren's voice. "I did? I actually got a kill?"

"Kinda stole it from me," Fruit joked, "but that was really nice!"

Because that was the point of a team, wasn't it? To support each other, to make up for each other's weaknesses, to watch out for each other's backs.

And now their story was unfolding. Their training was paying off. The narrative didn't write itself— the Blue Bats had grabbed the pen and wrestled with it to tell their story to everyone.

And on and on they continued.

Five percent pleasure

Back on the field, there were tall stacks of andesite on the ground, which acted as walls for players to hide behind and shoot. The Blue Bats approached their enemies with ferocity, but they didn't forget to be cautious. "Don't get too separated!" Fruit warned.

H jolted at Fruit's words, and he turned around. Ren was next to him, Fruit was up ahead. "Come back! Come back! Who's behind?"

"Me." False was looting George's items, but instantly stopped at H's voice.

"False, we need you up here."

False obediently hurried forward, axe in hand. She squinted but couldn't make out any enemies yet.

"Alright, I'm coming back," came Fruit's voice. He'd been at the front, and was now circling the stacks of andesite.

"Fall back, fall back," H ordered. False caught up to the gang, and they all made eye contact. Good. They were now familiar with everyone's position and could watch out for each other.

"Does anyone have bullets?" H asked. "I need bullets."

"Take em!" Ren slipped a handful of bullets into H's pocket.

H was pleased. "Thank you, boss!"

They gathered near a tree to decide on their next move. False started pulling weapons out of her bag. "There's a Fire Aspect sword and a Punch II gun if anyone needs it."

"Fire Aspect sword?" Ren echoed. "Oh my goodness."

Nobody needed the Punch II gun, so False ended up taking it. Once upon a time, she would've felt like that gun would be wasted in her hands, but with the Blue Bats, False was feeling more confident. They trusted her. She trusted them.

"Anybody need food?" Ren, the walking inventory, piped up. "Like, real food."

"I'm good! Let's stick to the right border." H gave orders as always. "We want to survive. Survival's the main game right now, not kills."

While H said that, when he saw two players, he instantly screamed for Fruit and the others to go get them. Fruit even applied a Swiftness sticker in order to catch up and cut off the path of whoever that was running. Krtzy from Green emerged from the bushes and sneakily splashed Fruit's legs with a cobweb water balloon, rendering him unable to move. Fruit gasped, panicked. "He cobwebbed me, he's onto me, HELP—"

"I'm here!" False yelled. She leapt into action with an axe, and together they managed to defeat Krtzy. Fruit looked up with a bright smile on his face. "Thanks!"

False stayed by Fruit's side while the cobweb effect wore off. Like the strategist he was, H was already planning their next move. "There's one more green guy. Sapnap ditched the others and ran this way."

The Blue Bats were hot on Sapnap's heels, and they found a couple more people in the same area. The place was dotted with tall pillars which were simultaneously good news and bad news (good news: they could hide; bad news, so could their enemies). Calvin from Aqua shot Ryguyrocky from Purple, and the Blue Bats advanced. A BB pellet slammed into False' shoulder, and she winced. "They have a Flame gun," False announced as fire damage lowered her health bars bit by bit. She darted behind a pillar to catch her breath. "Watch out."

"I'm getting Fire Res." Fruit had that Fire Resistance sticker ready for quite some time, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to use it. "Stay with the group! Stay with the group!"

With that, Fruit launched himself into battle, fearless against the flames, his own Flame gun by his side. Three out of four of the Bats were burning now, the orange a stark contrast against their blue outfits. Fruit traded shots with others and nimbly bounced around to avoid their shots.

False, the only one who wasn't on fire, had been crouching behind a pillar to regain her health. "If you're getting fired, stand back."

H's red bars were getting dangerously low, and he winced. "I'm backing up!" he yelled.

A delighted gasp from Fruit. He was making good progress in his showdown against Aqua. "Calvin's one hit! Aaand he's down!"

"Calvin was shot by fruitberries!'

H grinned broadly. "Nice nice huge! And I have two hearts, so I'll be at the back, I need to heal."

Fruit's fire resistance could end up being a game changer seeing how much damage his fellow Bats took from just the fire. Ren was moving around in the back, slapping food stickers on his suit. A freshly healed False and a pumped up Fruit moved forward.

"I have a lot of flame bullets!" Fruit cheered, then realized his blunder. "Ugh— you know what I'm saying.

"I have no bullets," False found herself saying.

Finnster and Spifey, both from Aqua, ran past Fruit. He followed them. Adrenaline coursed through his veins— this was an opportunity that he couldn't let go. Of course, the presence of two Axolotls meant the ace of their team was also there— Technoblade, the Blood God himself. A chill went down everybody's spine upon seeing that flash of familiar pink hair. Ren attempted to lob a water balloon of damage at Techno, but missed. It didn't matter because Fruit was swiftly advancing. The rest of the team could follow him through his updates in the intercoms.

"Heal and run at them." There was a slight hint of urgency in Fruit's voice. Aqua was pretty strong, and they needed the entire team to be together. H went off immediately despite his health still being in the danger zone.

"I'm going," H declared. "Don't want to fall behind."

"Hit Techno... hit him again... he's low, H!" Fruit, who was shooting bullets at Techno, could see H advancing out of the corner of his eye. Any moment now—

"Technoblade was slain by HBomb94!"

"Nice!" The Blue Bats cheered in unison. Technoblade had resigned himself to his elimination with his characteristic dry humour. "Yeah, there's no getting out of that one," he simply stated.

They went their separate ways— the Blue Bats forward, Techno to the stands to watch the Games. "Lots of teams here," Fruit casually pointed out as H complained he was missing all of his shots.

"I got two of them!" False's tone was urgent. "GamerBurry at the back is really low! Get inside the building!"

At False's words, H and Fruit hurried towards their next target. As H ran past Ren, he noted his virtual health and called out, "Ren, you gotta heal!"

"Yeah, make sure you're healing," Fruit chimed in. He sounded terrifically nonchalant for someone landing blows on an opponent.

"I'm gonna get a crit here!" Fruit yelled. "I'm gonna get another one! Dead!"

"GamerBurry was slain by fruitberries!"

"Nice!" Ren cried out in joy.

"Just keep on going." Fruit didn't have time nor the energy to celebrate. Despite Fruit's words, Ren decided to loot GamerBurry's items. And H noticed instantly.

"Ren, you with me?" H asked. At that exact moment, Ren ran past H, his bag sagging with loot. "Oh, yeah, you are."

"Anybody need bullets?" Ren called out again, once again reminding everyone of his role as the resource manager.

H spun towards Ren. "Yeah! Gimme some." Ren obediently did so, and once they were geared up, they went on the hunt again.

"We've gotten so many kills!" H whooped. "We're doing great, guys. We're in first!"

At his words, the Blue Bats took a quick look at the leaderboard. They were indeed first (first!) with 3450 coins, significantly ahead of Green Guardians in second with 3025 coins. But it was still too early to celebrate. No longer were they scared and cowering behind pillars. No, the Bats were on the prowl now. They attacked and plundered their enemies one by one, team by team. The more people they defeated, the more loot they accumulated, and the stronger they became. Rinse and repeat.

They could do it. They could regain their previous second place— and get even more.

-

Fifty percent pain

-

Jimmy, the only surviving member of the Pink Parrots, had been moving around the campus on his own. His eliminated teammates spoke in his comms about information they could glean from the spectators' stand. Grian, of course, was still hyper from the thrill of his three kills.

"I can't believe you killed three of them!" Jimmy marveled. "It's just weird hearing the commentator announce that!"

At that moment, Martyn warned him about other teams getting close to him. Jimmy tried to run, but alas, Sapnap got him. In his last seconds, Jimmy attempted to throw a water balloon of harming and he hoped it did something. But at least he could be reunited with his friends. Jimmy left his gear on the floor and hurried back to the rest of the Parrots.

As expected, Grian was in a haze of triumph, with his fans screeching and shoving stickers of golden crowns in his hands. Jimmy's eyes scanned over the large screens and focused on the one with the Blue Bats. They moved together like a well-oiled machine, impressive and efficient, and when they targeted GamerBurry, Joel just sighed. "Meghan's so dead."

"Blue team! C'mon, my fellow hermits!" Grian whooped, and his fans echoed his cheers. But Grian's friends could pick up a pleading tone in his voice— Grian really wanted his hermits to win. It would be so big for all of them. But even if they didn't, at least Grian had his Dreamslayer moment which would certainly be the talk of the month, if not the year (and for years after that too, until the forums moderated by Reddit grew tired of the oversaturation of that meme).

"They've got H and Fruit in there as well," Joel marveled out loud.

"Yeah, and I know they've literally been training for this, so."

Jimmy laughed. "Ren's very— y'know, 'if we train, we'll win'. And I didn't think he was being that serious." Grian snickered at his last comment.

Joel's eyes flickered to the scoreboard. "Well, they're doing well! They're number one in this game."

"Yeah, all that training's paying off." Grian couldn't tear his eyes off the screen. "Go on!"

Grian's fans, following his lead, also cheered for the Blue Bats. As the number of teams dwindled down and all four members of the Bats remained alive, the audience gradually realized something was up. The Blue Bats were suddenly viewed as a decently strong threat. More and more people started cheering for them just because of their strong performance. A shift was visible in the spectator stands. Even those who weren't supporting Blue were looking at them with interest. All eyes were on them.

This was it. This was the beginning of change. And everyone was there to witness it.

-

And a hundred percent reason to remember the name

-

Fruit was truly in his element now, and he was practically bouncing on his feet when he observed their surroundings. "Let's go towards... this way." He hurried in one direction. "Follow me!"

A figure caught his eye. "Spifey's alone! He doesn't even know I'm here!" Fruit whispered. He motioned for his teammates to stay quiet, then he pounced.

"Crit him! DEAD!" Fruit gleefully screamed when he killed Spifey.

"Spifey was slain by fruitberries! Team Aqua Axolotls eliminated! 5 teams remain."

"Nice!" H readied his gun. He had said it automatically, but now he realized how many times he said that and how many kills his team had gotten. The number of players were dwindling fast and he knew it was because of them. He could feel it, the tension thrumming in the air, the tides of change— it was happening. They were happening.

Fruit continued, relentless like a bullet train speeding in the dark. "I'm gonna push Mefs here— hit him—"

"Got a shot on him!" came H's voice.

"Killed him!" Fruit announced, in unison with the Commentor who exclaimed, "Mefs was slain by fruitberries!"

"The teamwork— I like it!" H proudly declared. "I love it!"

With Mefs gone, Fruit focused on the sole remaining member of the Yellow Yaks— Quig. Fruit raised his gun and started chasing Quig, the rest of the Bats hot on his heels.

"Quig has to be low... aww, I'm missing," Fruit said oh-so-casually. "Oh, I'm choking today!" (How ironic considering how many kills he'd achieved.)

"I'm loading up my gun!" H shouted from Fruit's side. The Blue Bats moved as a single unit as they rapidly approached Quig.

"I killed him!" Fruit yelped in excitement, but then the Commentator shouted, "Quig was slain by PeteZahHutt!" "Or... Pete did."

Several things happened at the same time. Firstly, the Bats realized they weren't alone— Pete from Cyan was there. Secondly, the border just shrunk, its distinctive alarm blaring throughout the area. Things were getting serious now. "Another team here!" Ren cried out. He held his loot close to himself as he ran for his life.

"Get out of the grass!" Fruit called out. The uncut grass was as high as their waists and obscured their vision (not to mention they were ticklish). "Come to the road here."

H then realized something important. "Sapnap's behind!" he yelled. "Let's go after him!"

Sapnap. The only member of Green Guardians left. Everybody agreed with H's decision instantly. Fruit turned around and led everyone back into the grass. "Yeah, everyone run back. Go get him."

Bullets zoomed past them and False panted, "They're peppering us with arrows, watch out."

"Just watch out for health if you're low," Fruit reminded.

"Yep," False chimed in. "Make sure to eat— both the food stickers and actual food."

The now-familiar stone pillars came into view, and the Blue Bats hunted for the solidarity Sapnap. Once, they were the ones afraid of being hunted. Not just within the Games, but in their school life too. H and Fruit had to carefully maneuver around Stan Twitt lest the tide turned against them, and of course the two hermits had a long history of being looked down upon. They had to hide— from bullies and troll comments and fists and swords. They slipped between shadows and retreated to their 3-H campus to create their own beautiful world.

But now, they weren't being hunted. Because they were the hunters themselves.

12 players out of 40. 4 teams left, although it could be considered as three since Sapnap was the only one from Green Guardians.

Surviving wasn't enough. The Blue Bats wanted to win.

Ren hurriedly slapped on a Fire Resistance sticker, and H and Fruit split up to cover more ground. Eventually, Fruit found Sapnap crouching between two pillars, puddles of orange water around him.

"He's in the lava with Fire Res!" Fruit chuckled. "Shoot into the lava!"

"Ohh, that is sneaky," Ren laughed.

"Just spam bullets and he's dead!" Fruit cheered gleefully.

Bullets slammed into Sapnap from all sides much like the walls from Hole in the Wall, except this time Sapnap couldn't magically glitch his way out. In the end, Fruit got the kill.

"Sapnap was shot by fruitberries! Team Green Guardians eliminated! 3 teams remain."

With a shrug, Sapnap turned his bag and let his items fall out. "You can't get them anyway," he said nonchalantly.

Ren, who conveniently just applied Fire Resistance, stepped into the lava.

Sapnap stared at Ren.

"Listen, Sappers, my dude," Ren told Sapnap as he scooped up bullets from the ground. "I'm flaming hot, okay? Hot things don't bother me because I'm hot."

"Ren's right, actually," H mumbled under his breath.

(None of them knew that, but Iskall said the exact same thing from the spectator stands.)

"Fruit, you've gotten so many kills!" H whooped. "Pop off, dude!"

"Yeah, dude!" False reached out a hand for a quick high five, but Fruit wasn't looking at her. Something more interesting had grabbed his attention.

"There's a big fight!" Fruit screamed. "There's a big fight right here!" Notably, Red and Cyan, the two last teams, were at the fountain.

"Yeah, I see." H raised his gun. "I'm going in."

The Blue Bats didn't need to say it out loud, but they knew. This was it. This was their final act of defiance against fate who'd chosen the game they wanted the least. The beginning of the end was here.

Fruit swiftly shot Scott, and Ren hurried back to the trio. "I got twenty one bullets from Sapnap's corpse!" he triumphantly declared.

"I— I don't have any bullets anymore," came False's voice. "I'll need some, Ren."

H was the only one on offense right now as Fruit and False were crowding around Ren for bullets. Ren passed some to Fruit and some to False.

Fruit turned to False. "I'll split!"

"No no no!" False and Ren said together, although for different reasons. False knew Fruit was the better one at marksmanship and wanted to save the bullets for him.

"I split them already," Ren informed them. Luckily for the team, he was thinking a step ahead.

"Thank you thank you!"

In the time the three had taken to sort out bullets, H had gotten shots on Jordan and Puffy who were both on Cyan. Things were looking good for the Blue Bats, but they weren't going to celebrate yet.

"Alright, let's go!" Fruit cried out as they started attacking again. "Shoot into the group, I suppose."

As Fruit narrated his shots, Ren pounced towards Cyan Creepers. Somebody tossed a lava water balloon at him but Ren was undeterred. Digital flames licked over his suit, but he didn't care at all. He was hot, he was alive, and he was unstoppable. A determined Ren swung his sword once, then twice, and Jordan was down.

"CaptainSparklez was slain by renthedog!"

It was chaos in the middle of the square, the stage for the final showdown. There was a rather nicely built fountain in the center (seriously, Noxcrew should just renovate the entire school and blow up those ugly cobblestone towers), and the fountain proved itself crucial because players kept getting set on fire. "Tommy behind!" H screamed urgently as he hurried towards Tommy.

A pellet hit Fruit and digital flames danced on his suit. His health bars dropped rapidly. Despite that, Fruit didn't panic, mostly because he had prepared for this moment. From the inside of his jacket, he swiftly took out one of the most prized food stickers— a golden apple. "Fire's on me! I'm gapping!" he announced.

Golden apples. A coveted item in Survival Games, and a must-have when it came to intense close combat. It could bring a player back from the brink of death. Fruit could feel the relieving buffs of Absorption and Regeneration wash over him. Golden flickers danced on his suit, finally melding together to form two golden hearts. Knowing he'd done all he could with the food stickers, Fruit charged.

Everybody could feel it. This was it. This was the final stand. No more hiding trump cards, no more saving for later, because none of it would matter in three minutes.

Out of the four, only Ren had applied Fire Resistance, so as Ren advanced, False had to retreat to the fountain to stop the burning. The borders were painfully close now, boxing the few remaining players in. If the players had a moment to breathe, they would realize the eliminated competitors were watching them in the metaphorical front row from just behind the border. People were cheering and screaming with all their heart, and Grian was about to fall over in his excitement.

Confidence surged in Ren's veins. It was pure luck that he'd found Fire Resistance, but it was his wits that urged him to take it beforehand and now he had an advantage over everyone. Rendog, who liked to stay in the background as support, who followed his leaders willingly, who was seen as the "weakest hermit", could be the most powerful person right now.

Fire enveloped the suits of everyone else, creating a hazy orange glow that reflected on their surroundings. People were screaming and rushing towards the fountain, but Ren felt strangely invincible. Ren was on fire. Literally. And it was doing nothing to his health bars!

... Ren remembered the burn scars he'd gotten from working with fire with Iskall. Back then, his team was worried the pain might affect his performance. Ironic how Ren was the only one who wasn't burning to death.

So Ren charged.

He charged with a viciousness he didn't know he had before. He raised his sword and hacked it at Puffy, who was wading through the fountain. H jumped into the fountain with a splash, and just a second later, Puffy was gone.

"Team Cyan Creepers eliminated! 2 teams remain."

"Oh shit."

The four Blue Bats turned to the only surviving enemy— Tommy from Red Rabbits. His eyes were wide and glazed with exhilaration, amazement yet fear. Fruit and H shared identical smirks, then pounced.

"Tommyinnit was slain by HBomb!"

And then—

"Game over!"

"LET'S GO! LET'S GO!" H jumped up and down, splashing water all over his teammates, but none of them cared. Fruit screamed and flung his arms around H. "Look at how many coins we got!" he shrieked with unadulterated glee.

False pumped her fists in the air. "Dude, what the heck?!" she screeched, but her screaming was interrupted when Ren picked her up and spun her around. "LET'S GO, BABY!" Ren roared.

"LOOK AT THAT!" H boomed and he dramatically gestured to the leaderboard. "LOOK AT OUR LEAD!"

They got a whopping 7200 coins, twice of second place with 3550. It was staggering. It was unbelievable. It was almost impossible.

But they did it. The Blue Bats did it, against all odds.

"AND WE DIDN'T EVEN LOSE A SINGLE PLAYER!" H screamed, an echo of their Sky Battle performance. Back then, they also had a round when they all survived— was it foreshadowing for their Survival Games? If so, that pointed to one thing:

The Blue Bats were always meant to win Survival Games. Despite their fears and worries, this was a game made for them. Or rather: they were made for this game.

Ren stumbled and he and False fell backwards into the water, but both of them were laughing so much that they barely registered it. "Dude!" False repeated, too stunned to say anything else. "What the heck just happened?"

Ren sat in the fountain, water dripping down his face. There was a huge, dumb grin on his face. "Ohh man!"

Then screams and claps.

Championship participants were clapping as they stood in a circle around Blue Bats. Their faces were painted with disbelief, although some did look very impressed. After all, how could a hermit team dominate at one of the riskiest PvP games ever? Seepeekay and Pete were both losing their minds and screaming, "BLUE! BLUE!".

"THAT WAS NUTS, BLUE!" Joel from Pink Parrots thundered, and the rest of the Pink team cheered behind him.

Martyn cupped his hands and yelled, "That is what I meant when I said why simp for the middle when you can simp for the top!"

Joel shot him a look. "Did you just call Ren a—"

"LET'S GO!!" H continued to scream as he frantically shook False's shoulders. Fruit jumped and climbed on top of H's back and waved his hands to the applauding crowd. They were all screaming with all of their might, fists pumping into the air. All of the blood, sweat, and tears, hours and hours of training, misery and hope—

It was worth it.

It was all worth it!!

"We just popped off!" False spun towards Ren, who was still sitting in the water, and offered a hand. Ren looked up at her with the biggest smile on his face. "Man, I'm so tired, I don't think I can stand up."

"AYYYYYYY!"

A new but familiar voice barged in, and Ren's ears perked up. "Grian!" he and False joyfully shouted.

Grian, filled with hysterical strength, lifted up Ren with one arm and False with the other. Cheers and whoops sounded from everybody else. "I told you I would pave the way!" Grian hissed in their ears, his eyes alight with triumph. "My fellow hermits! You did it!"

"Grian!" Ren thumped Grian's head affectionately. "We couldn't do it without you, dude! You eliminated one of the strongest teams out there— you really did pave the way for us!"

"You got three people," False marveled. "That's insane. You're insane!"

"I guess— maybe I just lost control," Grian stammered, his cheeks turning pink. "Like, I was thinking of you guys. And how you guys get beat up, whether in the Championship or outside of it by bullies... and I snapped. I had to do something."

H overheard. "AS YOU SHOULD!" he roared, and everyone laughed.

Once Grian finally let go of his fellow hermits, other participants came by to congratulate them. Familiar faces swirled in front of them, from the 3-G crafters to Dang to even 3-A people like Technoblade and Wilbur. The Green Guardians nodded with smiles, showing their respect to their opponent who had thoroughly destroyed Survival Games. The Blue Bats nodded back, but they were so ecstatic that they were almost hysterical now.

"FRUIT! How many kills did you have!" H screamed.

Fruit was giggling in amazement, his face flushed with exertion and joy. "I got eight!"

"I GOT FOUR!" H was properly screaming but nobody cared. In fact, the crowd was screaming along with him. "How much did you guys get? LET'S GO!"

"Domination!" Fruit whooped, his arms tightly around his teammates.

False stared at the leaderboard, then gasped, scandalized. "I didn't get any because I kept getting kills stolen from me!" she mock-chastised. H in particular caught her stink eye and grinned cheekily.

Ren proudly crossed his arms. "I got two frags, baby, two frags!"

"UNDERDOGS MY ASS, LET'S GO!!" H thundered. Again, just like the sleeping quote, H had no idea just how iconic and important that phrase would become in later months and even years. On the stands, the Blue Bats fans echoed his words, screaming them for the whole world to hear. Waves of blue flooded the stands, and the four Bats stood in the spotlight, completely overwhelmed by the victory and love shown by the fans.

The Blue Bats had eliminated 14 players in total. That was 14 out of the 36 they could kill. Fruit in particular had demolished one fifth of the players. They were insane.

The Blue Bats might've thought they weren't supposed to win, but in actuality, they were always meant to excel in Survival Games. They had the perfect team makeup— a careful observer, a dutiful support, a bloodthirsty ace, and a strategic leader. Combined with their training and synergy, they were unstoppable.

Even with the perception that they were underdogs.

Even with the perception that they would get annihilated by Survival Games.

Because they did more than survive— they hunted, they thrived, they lived.

The Blue Bats became incoherent as they collapsed in a happy pile on top of each other. Out of breath from both fighting and celebrating, they took a moment to drink and eat. "The coins are broken," Fruit remarked, but he was obviously delighted.

"That was a big win, guys," Ren laughed.

"That was a huuuge win!" H's eyes were practically sparkling with pride and excitement. "That was juicy; I loved it!"

"But dude, that's the strat!" Ren declared. "You have one guy that gets bullets and stuff, like the weakest player just keeps feeding the other players! That's how you do it, man!"

Fruit had actually collapsed on the ground in his fit of uncontrollable, pure laughter. "Holy shit. LOOK AT OUR COINS!" The end of his sentence dissolved into giggles. "I'M FIRST OVERALL!"

The Bats looked. In second place: Green Guardians with 16547. In first place: Blue Bats with 20307.

False shot Ren an incredulous look. She couldn't hide the smile on her face. "Twenty thousand?!"

Ren heartily clapped Fruit on the back. Fruit, who'd just managed to stand up, almost fell down again. "Let's go Fruityloops let's go!"

H was gaping at the coins and was craning his neck as if to see how their points had stacked to the skies. "We're up by three— four thousand?!" he shrieked.

False smirked. "That's what I like to see!"

"Wait, I'll need a pic of that," came Ren's voice. "This is history in the making for me, guys. This is something I've ever only dreamed of."

Like Fruit, False was giggling uncontrollably. She took a step back and bumped into Ren, who pulled her in for a photo. Their heads knocked into each other but neither of them cared. They were both smiling so widely that it almost hurt. "This is insane."

"This is insane, Falsie."

"Actually insane, like for real."

How many times had False and Ren joined the Championships together? They took photos every time they went, happy to be in such a spectacle, and now they were in first place and leading by quite a lot. It truly was an odyssey for the two of them. The adrenaline was fading, replaced by genuine adoration for their friends.

"From zero to hero!" Ren boomed. "Fruityloops and the Hmamma! We love you guys!"

"Thank God we played SG!" Fruit laughed as he excitedly bounced around the area.

H's eyes landed on each of his Bats, fondness in them. "We're nuts. Let's get it."

"Alright!" Fruit whooped. "Let's keep it together for one more game, and then we have the finals!"

At his words, False took a shuddering breath. They only had one more game until Dodgebolt— Dodgebolt! The final arena of their dreams! Survival Games was their seventh game with its 2.5x multiplier. It was a risk that paid off, a risk that they didn't choose but they killed at it anyway.

But regardless of what would happen in the eighth game, regardless of what would happen in Dodgebolt—

The Blue Bats knew they had already made history with the Survival Games of the 9th Championship.

7220 coins, 2880 unmultiplied. Most coins earned in one game by a team. This was a record that they set, a record that they continued to maintain.

The Blue Bats of the 9th Championship. HBomb. Fruitberries. False Symmetry. Rendog.

And people respected them, adored them, remembered them: artists with their celebratory posters, statisticians with their intricate spreadsheets, passionate video tributes and playlists and thoughtful analyses, mythologising them, lovingly crafting their narrative, cementing them as legends among legends, countless people chanting, voices melding into one—

Remember. Remember their names.

-

A/N: Remember the Name by Fort Minor is SUCH a good song. This is also very much inspired by genesisfrog's AMAZING animatic of MCC9 Blue + MCC10 Orange to Remember the Name, very much compulsory to watch it haha. Watch it here! https://youtu.be/9xuY7G2glPs

Anyways, MCC9 Blue Bats [gross sobbing noises]. They really were a well-oiled machine in SG. I added extra scenes here to show Fruit's leadership potential (since he does lead in S2) and Ren's tendency to sacrifice himself :( also yeah Renchanting remarks. Mmhmm.

We don't talk about how long it's been since False and Ren teamed in MCC. It is but a distant memory to me. At least we recently got False and H e-sports content haha.

Honestly, I think I was really burned out by transcribing for the last few chapters? And maybe that burnout took a year and a half to wear off. It's comforting for me to write this and rewatch their VODs (again). And yeah, I still think fondly of the Blue Bats.

If you've reached this point, thank you so much for reading!! Hope you like it <3 <3