when the time came for the tournament to start you had to make sure things fell into the right places for things to be moved into more favorable positions. Starting with the fact that as you had previously noted that the "increased security" of the TasCorp infrastructure was still crap at best. you snagged a id off a guard to freely roam without too much questions. you hung back a sec to watch the plan of Lamar get yelled at by a bot. As you went to move into position from the spectacle of a robot chewing him out Protocol Klutz was launched and the place went dark for a few seconds for Lamar to get on stage and swap out the cartridge of the game the tournament was to be held on before things went back to normal.

you watched as lucks seemed suspicious but decided to keep it in from the crowd that could see onstage again.

with that underway you listened in to the conversation that Sophia had with the others before you winked at Tari from your spot above the crowd as she smiled and blushed causing the other guys in the crowd to go wild steaming the princess in pink.

Meanwhile with belle and Br/N they chuckle at the news of the plan launching and readied the phone.

"Her clumsiness could be a talent." she said absentmindedly before covering her mouth. to which your brother gently pinched her arm.

"Ow." she said looking up at him.

"Thats for saying it, but acknowledging you screwed up." he said kissing her cheek and handing her the controller. "now show me what you got babe." this caused her to blush but nod and focus on the task at hand.

When she found theo she saw him hiding behind some bushes and did her best to reach him, which she did but he seemed jumpy and scared.

when she told him who she was he got a little angry about the last time she abandoned him to get him stuck in this nightmare.

"Yeah ok i didnt expect Lucks to go THIS intense but i know a way to fix it. All we have to do is beat the game." she said bargaining with him.

Both your brother and theo were confused. "How is that gonna do anything?" they asked.

once she bragged a little she explained the memory dump after beating the game.

"OH Thats right! its the biggest oversight that this game had and the fans loved it." your brother said remembering how many times you blew through it trying to match any speedrun time.

Theo was hesitant with this idea and unconvinced of the plan that was set before them by his friends.

then belle gave a stern but fair ultimatum of his being wiped from existence and how little time remained for him and he had really one choice to pick once seeing how bad his game was getting especially when an enemy said to him.

Y̶̩̩̲͓̜̅͛͆̉̋̌ǫ̸̢͖̪͓̠̺̻̫̥͔̬͖̃̈́̋́̃͂̌̒̏̚͜͜͝͝ͅu̵̧͚̦͈̝̺͚̖͙̗̩̳̹̣͈̯͛͒̇̑̔ ̶̣̻͖͙̞͔̯͒͋͊́ͅs̶̛̰̯̒͊̏̓͑͒̉͛͆̑h̴̨̡̰͓̠͕̣̔͑̇́́̇̔̉̉̑͑͗̀͆͌̽͘ͅo̵̹̝̬̹̪̣̗̍̎̂̈̈́̿̿̓̚͝u̵̩̤͚̭͉̹̎̈̎́͑͘l̸̨̡̢̖̣̻̭̯̭̟͖̯̩̝̤̐d̴̨̢̢̡͓̮͎͕͓̰̘̼̼̯̪͉̞̓̇̿͂̆̾͒̏͒̂͌̉̆̕̕'̷̧̡̛̟̩̹̠͎̲̞̱͉͕̝͉̮̒̓͑͋͗̓͌͐́͑̏̓́͐̔̊͜n̷͇̖̩͇̗̖̼̤͛̏̿̏̈͊̃̀͆͐̕̚͝͝ţ̴̢̛͙͉̦̣̗͕̗͇͇̲͉͙̤͕͑̔͛̀́̀̃͐̆'̶̼̍͛͐̚v̵̪̖͈͚̼͚̥̖͕̘̯͐̈́e̵̢̖͉͔͐̅ ̷̖͎̥͓̞̠̹̲̬̥͔̹̥̪̼̭̅̓̈́͂͒ͅd̴̙̀̉͛̔̇͜ͅò̴̻͇̖̘͎̆̈͋̆̒͝ń̷̡̜̖̠̒͝ȇ̶̡̨͓̱͎̞̫͕̀̂͗̔͑͘ ̵̛̛̱͕̼͛͂̽͑̃̆̒̓̀͘̕͘̚͘͠ţ̵̛̺̦͉̳̞̎̄̄̀̉͌̎̈́̚͝͠h̸̡̧̧̞̗͎̫͖͖̭̞͈͉̦̾̈́̾̓̑a̴̺͖̮̥̝̻̙̯̠̥̬̿̌́t̴̢̞̮̃̾̃̄̈́̃͗̇̋̊̑̆͜

"OK I TRUST YOU! Just GET ME OUT OF HERE!" he yelped in horror

"Excellent Choice." she said with a Cheshire grin getting a good head-start before a platform spawned from the ether and knocked him into a pit loosing a life. theo griped about her skills.

"Oi! this is very special circumstances." she snarked back before sighing and muttering "This is gonna be an intersting run." she said before using her meta runner arm for help.

Back at the Tournament the intro to the game started up and revealed that it was a robot samurai battle royale Hidden Heroes.

"Oh jeez i've always had bad luck with this game." you mutter watching the cutscene.

when the stakes were 50 vs 2 you weren't so keen on it either even if the odds looked more like 4 vs 48 and things DIDN'T go wrong.

"you don't have to go in if you're scared." Sophia said into your ear after the rundown was given.

"oh i'm not going in physically i'm not that dumb, i know princess b will throw a wrench in the plans so i'm going your guys way." you say grabbing a controller and setting up for a very stressful game.

the others looked at eachother but shrugged. that was until Felix piped up.

"He's smarter than he looks. i'm impressed." he said with some sarcasm.

"Well i mean he can see death flags in a plan." Fr/N interjected.

you tuned things out as the pod doors closed and the countdown began for 20 Minutes.

"Its showtime" you mutter as Lucks announces that the games started.

Your character spawned in and you stared doing what you knew how to do best.

"TEAM KILLER" was yelled at you as you managed to ricochet an arrow of the building into one of the 50

"4 vs 47" you thought to yourself

"4 vs 46"

"4 vs 43"

ect. as the opposition dropped you saw the others dropping just as many as you were. and chuckled at the voice asking who the griefers were team killing and asked what the heck you guys were doing.

"Sorry misinput laddie." you say sounding scarily irish.

"When the heck could you do that?" kevin asked you.

"just before i met Belle." you admitted.

Once you all start to head over to Tari thing started feeling like things were about to go wrong so you sighed and pushed ahead when you caught a glimpse of Tari surrounded.

Then the flashback hit.