Max bent down, picking up one of the larger rocks, and striding down the hillside as the dust began to clear. Quite the shame he'd have to end
things so soon with this one. He seemed to have spirit, and that always made it more fun. Sadly, he'd just have to finish him off...
Just then, he noticed the unmistakable sound of a helicopter taking off. No time even to make sure then. Thinking quickly, he hurled his rock in
the direction of Zack's head and immediately turned to race down the hill towards where he planned to climb the wall. Having a helicopter in
the mix most definitely was not something he had planned for, but it had all worked out. He had definitely hurt a satisfying crunch when his
rock connected, but there hadn't been a scream. With luck, he'd scored his kill after all, but at the very least, he'd crushed his windpipe. Either
way, it would leave him unable to explain the situation, and the wonderful thing about helicopters was the way they scattered the wind
outward. Between that and a few more surprises he'd prepared along this route, he was confident he had plenty of time.
++++++++++
Chad and the others watched in silence as the shouting huskey suddenly tore off, frozen almost, like a deer in headlights. Did she seriously
think her brothers were a bunch of rapists? Bitch. Still, she didn't need the whole Order standing around laughing at her, especially with what
she had to talk over with Vinny. When they planned this whole thing, he'd said he was going to rig it all so the two of them would end up
together at the top. Not something she was going to scream about in front of the rest, but what the hell had gone wrong there? It almost
seemed like Vinny'd double crossed her... but she'd gone up against two of the wimpiest scrub pledges out there. Still needed to smack that
grin off his face about it. Anyway, he'd won his first fights, so hopefully he'd come out on top and fix this whole mess.
While the other does milled about, Chad grabbed a stick to sketch out a bracket in the dirt. She wanted to be sure those punks who'd somehow
cheated and taken her out were in for the same. It was 32 slots between the Stags, the stragglers, and a the park bucks they'd brought in, give
or take. She doodled some branches, counted out 5 rounds. Then she remembered it was double elimination. Friggin' Vinny, making things too
complicated. She sketched a bit more, making sure she had it straight. So today, they'd mostly finished two rounds. She'd lost, which was crap,
Vinny won, that damn punk Shaun won. Round 2, Vinny'd won again, so... he was save from the doe thing then. Shaun'd gone down like the
bitch he was, so that's still how he might turn out. And of course Chad was totally robbed because whatever the hell kind of defective antlers
she'd been stuck with.
She looked down at her sketch. Kinda looked like antlers really. Who had the biggest now anyway? Vinny had a pretty damn nice set of course.
Probably the most points anyway. But then Mitch had some nice ones too, with that one point that kinda curved off at an angle... she'd have to
have another look around tomorrow. Anyway, so there were two bitch matches for round 2 that got put off after she'd blacked out... then round
three had another set where that was on the line for anyone who lost. After 5 rounds, there'd only be one person who was undefeated. She was
pretty sure he whoever that was would end up leading the Order but there was some stupid garbage with wild card slots and maybe having a
rematch where the best of the losers fought the winner twice if he won once. Man, screw all this, she thought. Next year we're just doing one
elimination. Too freaking complicated.
With that, she put down the stick she'd absently used to doodle faces in her brackets and headed to that "TG rock" the husky had pointed out
for the night. She didn't trust them with how they kept trying to ruin everyone's fun, and she sure as hell didn't want to deal with any park deer.
Tomorrow she'd come back and get a good seat to watch the fights. Once Vinny was off resting to the side between fights, she'd go down there
and ask what the hell went wrong here. Just go whisper in his ear or something. Get a better look at those antlers.
++++++++++
Meanwhile, at the gate, Agent Sherman was losing her patience, asking an increasingly rattled receptionist what the holdup was.
"I'm sorry ma'am, but regulations are strict about not letting anyone in untransformed. I'm sure someone will make an exception here, but you
see the only way in is through the transformation chamber, and it makes an automatic scan for foreign objects before the locks cycle. I don't
really understand how it works myself, but there was that one movie..."
"Well then override the scan. If we aren't being transformed, it doesn't matter what we take in."
"I'm sorry, but I don't really have a way to do that from here. Let me see if I can get in touch with our programmer. Just, hang on a moment."
"Well, we could always just comply," Johnson said with a grin. "Stalk this guy down as a big ol' pair of tigers or something."
Agent Sherman glared back with a look that clearly showed she was in no mood to deal with any jokes today.
++++++++++
Susan struggled to pull herself up through the gap, fighting through agonizing pain and feeling like her grip might slip at any minute.
Eventually she pulled herself halfway up, but her ruined leg was stuck. At least the worst part was over. She was halfway there. She just needed
some rest. A little nap here and she'd crawl to freedom. As her adrenaline faded, she passed out, leaning halfway out of the treacherous gap in
the floor.
++++++++++
"So," said the Minotaur, when he called his guests down to the sitting room, large glass of cognac in hand. "Just what was so important you felt
the need to rush over and explain it in person?"