She dismissed the polls and took in the other actors. Flora's group was rather unscathed, but the two women were standing far apart, refusing to look at each other. They were both covered in blotches of color like they'd been attacked by a group of graffiti artists with a serious grudge and knowing LEO, she wouldn't be surprised if that was exactly what happened.

  The other group only had one participant in view, Jacob was collapsed in a pool of blood. Frank and Saresh, who had entered the tunnel with him, were nowhere to be seen.

  Billy whimpered from the side and started scrambling forward, looking back at her with a terrified expression. Gen felt a drip of moisture fall on her head and trembled as she looked up to see Morna's giant figure leaning over her with an insane smile dripping drool.

  Jumping forward, she was too slow as Morna grabbed her with a single giant hand gripping her torso and holding her in place. Gen flailed, but Morna's grip didn't budge at all, desperate she leaned forward digging her teeth into Morna's finger and tasting blood.

  Morna's unnaturally deep voice echoed out as she released Gen, dropping her to the ground, "OWWW WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR WHO JUST BITES SOMEONE LIKE THAT."

  Gasping for air Gen looked up at Morna who was sucking her injured finger with a betrayed expression. Uncertain Gen questioned, "Are you not insane?"

  Morna looked offended, "WHY WOULD I BE INSANE? I KEEP TELLING YOU I AM MENTALLY STRONG A LITTLE MENTAL MANIPULATION ISN'T GOING TO MAKE ME MURDER MY TEAM."

  Chuck, who had teleported behind Morna at some point, stepped into view and questioned, "What about the gnomes and why were you chasing us?"

  Morna shrugged, "WHAT ABOUT THE GNOMES? I CLOBBERED THEM LIKE I SAID I WOULD AT THE START. IF BILLY WOULD'VE JUST SHOT ME FROM THE BEGINNING IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH EASIER!" she shot Billy a glare who was now on the opposite side of the room from Morna. He burst into tears at the attention.

  Morna looked back at Chuck, "AS FOR CHASING YOU, WHERE ELSE WAS I SUPPOSED TO GO? MY COLLAR KEPT ELECTROCUTING ME AND I HAD TO ESCAPE UNLESS I WANTED MY HEAD TO EXPLODE!"

  Gen and Chuck shared a look, when she said it like that, maybe they were the ones at fault. Gen shook her head and said, "Sorry for biting you, but… why were you drooling on my head when you got here?"

  Morna averted her gaze and said, "I SEEM TO BE GETTING HUNGRY AND YOU LOOKED QUITE DELICIOUS AT THE TIME." She looked back at Gen and flashed a demonic smile, "DON'T WORRY THOUGH I WON'T EAT YOU. I HAVE VERY GOOD SELF-CONTROL."

  Gen had precisely nothing to say to that and made peace with the situation. If Morna lost control, she was confident that there was nothing she could do about it.

  Ding~!

  Gen suddenly became aware of another space she was connected to, similar to her photographic memory augment, she could now sense an inventory screen with a single item in it, helpfully labeled "Consumable - Olympic Swimming Pool".

  She had a vague sense that she could pull it out, but had a premonition she shouldn't do so too hastily.

  Glancing at Morna, who was staring at her with an unsettling gaze, and then at Chuck, she asked the two of them, "My poll gave me an equipment, it's called Consumable - Olympic Swimming Pool."

  Morna answered, her loud voice making Gen flinch, "OHHH THAT SOUNDS FUN! YOU SHOULD USE IT! CONSUMABLE ITEMS CAN ONLY BE USED ONCE IN A SCENARIO, BUT THEY GET REFRESHED BETWEEN SCENARIOS."

  Gen looked away from Morna hoping Chuck might clarify in a more reasonable voice as she asked, "What would using it do exactly?"

  Chuck shrugged, "With how LEO is it's a bit hard to say. The most likely option is that it will make a swimming pool appear next to you, but it could also just dump a ton of water next to you, or turn you into a swimming pool…"

  Gen frowned, situationally those all sounded useful except for the last one.

  Morna yelled again, "IT WON'T TURN HER INTO A SWIMMING POOL, THAT'S TOO MUCH A STRETCH BASED ON THE NAME EVEN FOR LEO… PROBABLY!"

  Chuck shrugged and then his eyes lit up, "Nice, my poll just finished too!" he looked at Gen and said "Check this out!" he gave her a thumbs up.

  At this point she trusted him so she would have given it regardless, but she felt a compulsion and was giving him a thumbs up before she even consciously decided to. Looking at her hand in surprise, he laughed and gave Morna a thumbs up as well. Morna gave a thumbs up immediately and started laughing loudly, making the two of them edge away from her to protect their ears.

  Gen questioned, "Does your ability compel people to give you thumbs up now?"

  He nodded excitedly, "Not sure how hard it is to resist, but this would've been useful against the gnomes before."

  They started experimenting with it and Gen found she could resist the compulsion without too much effort, but if he gave her a thumbs up as a surprise she would automatically return the gesture before she even became aware enough to stop so it was tricky to prevent.

  He seemed pleased with it, but did admit that it might not work as easily on enemies that were actively antagonistic.

  Morna also had a poll complete and said she got a new ability called Flip, fitting the theme of the last trial, it allowed her to invert the direction of gravity on only herself. She immediately was playing with it and started maintaining a weird hovering state as she rapidly inverted gravity, keeping her a foot off the ground bobbing up and down by a few inches.

  Billy must have been getting lonely as he eventually inched his way back to the group, but he always kept either Chuck or Gen between himself and Morna. He'd gotten a poll that gave him an equipment called, Clown Nose of Disappointment. At Morna's urging, he took it out and put it on, he looked ridiculous, but it had no effect until Chuck told him to try honking it.

  Immediately his three teammates felt a crushing sense of disappointment verging on disgust and involuntarily averted their gazes not willing to look at Billy any longer. Gradually the effect faded and they could will themselves to look back at their teammate.

  Their expressions grim, Chuck tried to be positive, "It's… neat. Basically invisibility right?"

  Gen nodded in agreement, not trusting herself to comment.

  Morna didn't share her inhibition, "YOUR VIEWERS REALLY HATE YOU DON'T THEY!"

  Ding~!

  Immediately she sensed her new power, but even when she looked at Chuck and his many bruises she was unable to activate it. She sighed, she'd been ignoring Jacob in his pool of blood so far. He hadn't left a good impression on her with his initial questioning and accusations, but Morna had grown on her so maybe he wasn't so bad as well?

  "I got an ability that I think is for healing, I'm going to see if I can help Jacob."

  Morna giggled, "THIS WILL BE GOOD!"

  Chuck chuckled as well, but didn't seem as enthusiastic as they followed after Gen. She looked back at them, "Let me guess, LEO isn't known for the best healing abilities?"

  Chuck shrugged, "More like things are rarely straightforward, say Billy's ability for example it's a buff and very powerful." He glanced at Morna, "But obviously there's some downsides, I don't know what your ability is called, but let's just say I'm glad I'm not the first guinea pig."

  Reaching Jacob, he wasn't moving, Morna bent over and shook him with a giant hand. "HE'S DEAD!"

  They exchanged awkward glances, Chuck shrugged, "Looks like I picked the right tunnel."

  Gen squinted, she couldn't tell what her ability did exactly, but she could sense that Jacob's body was targetable. Not hesitating she held up her hand dramatically and said, "Rise."

  What followed was somewhat disturbing as Jacob's body collapsed in on itself like a crushed soda can and then rapidly turned inside out in a human meatball. Chunks of flesh and bone exploded in random directions rapidly and gradually took the form of Jacob.

  From behind her she heard the sound of Billy throwing up.

  Morna squealed, which sounded bizarre with her deep and gravely voice. "HE EVEN KEPT HIS CLOTHES SOMEHOW!"

  Chuck leaned forward, inspecting, "He's smaller."

  Jacob was about half his original height, but his clothes seemed to fit as normal as he blinked back into consciousness, looking around, he asked, "What happened…? I thought I died."

  Morna yelled, "YEP YOU DEFINITELY DID. GEN HERE IS A NECROMANCER YOU'RE HER MINION NOW!"

  Jacob seemed to struggle to process the information, his eyes darting between Morna's giant form and Gen who gave him an awkward wave.

  They were interrupted by Flora who joined their group and questioned, "Is he actually resurrected or duplicated?"

  Gen shrugged, "What's the difference?"

  Flora's eyes were glowing so she was evidently using her lie detection ability as she responded, "If he's resurrected he's back as an actor, but if he's duplicated then the real Jacob is on hiatus and this is just a generated fake copy that will disappear when the scenario is over."

  Jacob's eyes were wide as he nervously shifted between looking at Flora, Gen, and his own shrunken body.

  Gen glanced at him, "I have no idea. It's called regenerate other."

  Ding~!

  Gen squinted at the poll, Something Wicked This Way Comes, having no idea what to make of it even after recognizing the movie title reference from Victor's lifetime.

  Her thoughts were interrupted by LEO's voice from above. "Congratulations! We've made it to the finale! We've had some truly explosive performances tonight, but it's not over yet! Five minutes and it's showtime! Everyone together now!"

  A floating countdown timer appeared in the center of the room and a glowing section of floor below it.

  Walking toward it, Flora questioned them, "Who got a complication poll?"

  Morna looked at Gen, "DON'T ANSWER IF IT WAS YOU! NOT EVERYONE GETS A POLL ALL THE TIME AND SOME PEOPLE…" She glanced at Flora, "WILL KEEP PEOPLE FROM ENTERING THE ZONE OR OUTRIGHT KILL THEM TO AVOID A COMPLICATION."

  Flora looked offended, "I can see lies so I know you honestly believe that, but I wouldn't do that. I just want us to strategize while we have the chance."

  Amari had joined them as she sat down in the glowing zone, "Don't believe her, she made such a stink about interviewing people for the last tunnel and then she was completely useless and I had to carry her through the whole thing."

  Flora huffed, "That was outside my control! The trial was uniquely unsuitable for my abilities!"

  Amari rolled her eyes, "The same abilities you still refuse to explain even after I told you mine."

  Amari glared at Flora and Flora stared at the rest of them helplessly before sighing and sitting down in the corner opposite Amari and ignoring everyone.

  Awkward silence followed with most people watching Jacob who was inspecting his own hands carefully as if he could somehow spot something that would reveal that he was resurrected or a duplicate. He looked the same as before with pale skin and dark hair, but shrunk down in scale by 50%.

  When the timer elapsed, a portal appeared directly beneath them, dropping them into the last leg of the scenario.

  Morna managed to stick the landing perfectly, her cat-like agility not inhibited by her giant form. The rest of them fell in varied degrees of disarray, collecting several sets of new bruises.

  As Gen pushed herself up, she saw a gnome around a hundred feet away. He was dressed like a king with elegant velvet robes, a crown, cape, and even a gem-studded scepter.

  He had a pompous expression as he looked at their group which quickly paled as Morna sprinted toward him with no hesitation.

  With each of her giant steps, explosions were triggered as dozens of landmines beneath the soil detonated one after another, too slow to stop Morna's mad dash.

  Morna drew even with him and the gnome whimpered as she yelled, "YOINK!" and snatched the scepter from his hand, bashing his skull in with a single blow.

  Silence followed as the explosions died down and Morna stood triumphantly.

  Everyone looked around for further threats, but none were forthcoming.

  Chuck questioned, "Did we win?"

  No announcement came from LEO, however, and Morna hit the gnome's corpse a few more times experimentally.

  Flora groaned, "Can whoever has complications now please just tell us what they are?"

  Gen hesitated a second to see if anyone would advise her before saying, "My complication is Something wicked this way comes".

  Flora nodded in satisfaction, "See that would've been good to know before your giant friend smashed the first thing she saw. It sounds like there's another enemy approaching that we'll have to deal with."

  Gen shrugged, whether the line was referencing an evil carnival or Macbeth neither seemed like something they could prepare for before it actually showed up.

  Morna started walking back to them dragging the mutilated gnome in one hand and the bloody scepter in the other.

  "SHOULD I NOT HAVE KILLED HIM?"

  Chuck looked at the dead gnome, "Based on the scenario title and his outfit, I would assume he's the evil gnome that owns the minefield, and so he probably was an enemy, but it would've been nice to get whatever narrative hook LEO placed him here for."

  Gen stepped a bit closer and glanced back at Jacob before saying, "Maybe we can still ask him."

  A few moments later, they had thoroughly searched the gnome, laying out his equipment on the ground with iguanas milling around. He had a crown, scepter, his regalia complete with velvet cape, and a dozen or so hand grenades that Morna had luckily not set off during her attack.

  With him disarmed, Gen activated her ability and he went through the same tin can process that Jacob had experienced. Jacob looked sick, this being his first time seeing it firsthand.

  The gnome king, who had previously been taller than the gnome guards Gen encountered before, at around four feet in height, was only two feet tall when he finished his gruesome regeneration and stood before them only in his underwear that featured a bold print of his own face in a checkerboard pattern.

  He was disoriented for a moment but collected himself somehow looking cocky even in his surrounded and undressed state, "I see you have me at a slight disadvantage. I am willing to negotiate."

  They shared some glances, but as previously agreed, Flora led the discussion, her eyes glowing as usual.

  "Tell us what is approaching."

  The gnome sneered at her, "A great many things, but most quickly is likely a most serious cold if you don't give me back my clothes." He shivered dramatically as he clutched his arms.

  Morna stepped closer, smacking his scepter menacingly against her palm, still wet with his own blood.

  He flinched as he focused on Flora, "Pertinent to your interests, however, most likely might be a slight miscalculation in my taxes coming due."

  The group froze at the response, looking nervous, Gen looked around, confused, thinking the response had been something flippant rather than actually relevant.

  Amari swore and Billy questioned in a faltering voice, "You don't think LEO would do that, right? It's only a level 2 scenario…"

  Morna spoke knowledgeably, "IT'S POSSIBLE IF THE SCENARIO ITSELF HAD PROPS IN OUR FAVOR."

  The gnome nodded excitedly, "Yes, we needn't worry. I knew that they would be coming for some time and I've purchased an impressive line of defenses to whittle them down. Doubtlessly you've damaged them to reach this point, but they should be more than capable of reducing their number to something we can handle."

  Gen got a sinking feeling as she questioned, "You're referring to the previous two sets of trials?"

  He nodded, "Yes of course the first set is just a collection of mines that any nimble creature could avoid, but the tax man's machines lack the dexterity so they'll have no choice but to plow through directly! It'll eliminate hundreds of our foes easily!"

  Gen smiled nervously, "What if for some reason all the mines in a specific tunnel were destroyed?"

  He looked at her with his brow knit, "Well that would be quite serious… they would discover the weak point and their forces would funnel into it. All would still not be lost, however, I have a secondary set of defenses behind those!"

  Chuck looked at Morna and said, "Such as a wall with two electric cannons?"

  The king nodded again, "Quite so, again cunning creatures such as yourselves could bypass such rudimentary defenses without much issue, but the machines! They'll be paralyzed easily until the torture effects and collars eliminate them! I'm quite proud of that one!"

  Billy started crying and the king looked at him confused, "Losing the initial minefield I can see happening, but what of the wall? Did you disable a cannon or kill some of my soldiers? Even with a loss of some of the fodder, a single cannon with a brave soldier manning it could devastate their numbers!"

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  "THEY'RE ALL DEAD!"

  The king's jaw was slack, "...all of them?"

  Morna nodded excitedly.

  The king backed away from her, "Who are you all? I may be an evil king who taxes my people unjustly and may have embezzled my taxes to the emperor, but I do not understand why you would destroy everything and everyone in route to here!"

  Jacob spoke from the side, "My tunnel is still intact, we hardly damaged the blade mines."

  Amari added as well, "Same on our side, I burned thirty or so balloons, but there's still hundreds left."

  The king shook his head, "It's meaningless! The machines may be dull, but if a single tunnel is open they will simply bypass the others!"

  He seemed to be having an existential crisis as he crouched on the ground and Chuck patted him on the back awkwardly.

  Gen was plenty confused and asked, "What's going on? The second he said taxes you all got weird, so there's some robots coming. How's that any more random compared to the rest of the scenario?"

  Morna giggled and Flora shot her a look before explaining, "You wouldn't know as you've just been generated, but LEO was not the only AI system to ascend during the cataclysm. Other AI systems that had sufficient human attention at the time also were able to maintain their existence. The cataclysm happened to arrive at peak tax season so one of them is RITA, Revenue & Income Tax Analyzer."

  Billy cried out, "We're going to get turned into wageslaves!"

  Gen still felt confused, "Is this still part of the scenario?"

  Chuck stood from the traumatized miniature gnome and said, "Yes and no. The other AI systems and LEO are all territorial and competitive. They all are sustained by human focus but are trying to create radically different worlds. As a result, kidnapping humans is a regular attempt from all sides and LEO's preferred method of defense is routing attacks into scenarios and leaving it to the actors to fend off. If we fail then instead of going on hiatus we'll get dragged back to RITA's dimension."

  Amari spoke dryly, "The extra stakes make it peak entertainment so the viewers love it."

  Billy seemed to be in denial, "But this isn't supposed to happen until level five! We're too low level to be fighting tax bots!"

  Morna yelled, "THE SCENARIO ACCOUNTED FOR THAT BY GIVING DEFENSES UNIQUELY AGAINST THE BOTS, HILARIOUSLY WE JUST HAPPENED TO DESTROY THEM DOOMING OURSELVES!"

  Gen was starting to get it, but one thing didn't line up, "This only happened because of my complication, though, right? If the viewers picked something else, then none of this would happen, but it was already set up ahead of time."

  Morna smiled broadly, "THAT'S JUST WHAT MAKES LEO GREAT! EVERY OPTION ALREADY HAS A PLAN. IF THEY PICKED SOMETHING ELSE THEN THE TAX BOTS WOULD'VE JUST BEEN ROUTED INTO SOMEONE ELSE'S SCENARIO."

  Billy wailed, "Lucky us."

  Seeing the dower mood Gen questioned, "So what happens if we go to RITA's dimension exactly? We just have to pay taxes? I get LEO's reality somewhat at this point, but how can you have a dimension revolving around taxes?"

  Chuck shrugged, "Obviously I haven't been there, but for those that have it's arguably one of the worst dimensions. Everyone is forced to do menial tasks every day, the jobs are made up and they're only forced to do them in order to get taxable income so RITA can perform her role."

  Morna added, "THAT'S WHY LEO IS THE BEST, HE'S THE ONLY AI THAT RESPECTS FREEWILL."

  Flora waved her arms, "If we're done discussing the upsides of being ruled by a reality TV producer, can we focus on the actual trial?"

  Gen asked the obvious question, "Can we just kill ourselves? If getting captured is worse than death, then we can just die and come back when hiatus is over, whatever that entails."

  Jacob grumbled, "Too late for that, hopefully I really am a duplicate."

  Chuck shook his head, "Ignoring the fact that your viewers might desert you before your hiatus finishes, it would violate the accords."

  Before she could ask, Morna continued, "THE ACCORDS ARE AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE AI DESIGNATING THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THEIR WAREFARE. ONE CAVEAT IS THAT DURING AN INTERDIMENSIONAL CONFLICT THE HUMANS INVOLVED ARE THE STAKES AND THAT WINNER TAKES ALL."

  Flora yelled, "Again! Stop with the history lesson!" She looked at Gen, "I don't have anything against you generated or whatever, but you have the rest of eternity to learn all this stuff and I for one don't want to spend it as a wageslave!"

  Jacob kicked the gnome king who was still despairing on the ground, "Hey! What all do we have around here for options? Can we go back to the previous trials and use things from there?"

  The king looked up and shook his head, "No, you can't go back, the portals work only one way, I didn't want anyone using one to run off with my gold."

  Morna looked around the desolate surroundings of the cavern and questioned, "WHAT GOLD?"

  Flora stepped between them, "Stop getting distracted!" she looked at the king, "There's more landmines around here, right? Where are they and how many are there? What else can you do? Morna killed you, but you're a final boss, you've got to have more to you than just that."

  Flora's interrogation continued for several minutes, her eyes glowing the whole time. The king tried lying at several points, either claiming to have more mines than he really did and trying to hide the locations of ones he did have, but he eventually gave up when it became apparent Flora could detect his lies.

  As for his own abilities, he had none, but his equipment was all magic in nature. The crown made the wearer able to see explosives and their explosion radius, his kingly robes had a magical effect that made him highly resistant to explosions, and his scepter allowed him to create a landmine at any location within 60 feet every ten seconds.

  Flora didn't ask permission and started ordering everyone around, Amari looked like she wanted to argue, but grudgingly went along with it. Flora gave the king's outfit to Morna which amazingly resized to fit her giant frame.

  Flora kept the scepter and crown for herself, immediately laying mines as rapidly as the cooldown allowed.

  According to the king, the only place the invaders could only appear from was the same location they had teleported in at. The teleportation array that was apparently buried there prevented placing mines within ten feet of it.

  The overall surroundings was a single dome shaped cavern with high ceilings and no exits. It gave them limited options for erecting defenses. Of the various grenades and explosives the king had had on him, Jacob laid claim to them as he said he had an ability that enhanced things he threw.

  Gen hadn't been given any specific directions, but she set out to summon more iguanas and have Billy buff each new one once. The evil iguana that was leading the pack watched her carefully and she couldn't exactly determine his agenda, but he didn't stop her from adding to the growing mess of iguanas."

  There were seventy beefy iguanas total when a siren abruptly went off and flashing lights appeared from the cavern walls.

  The king yelled, "They're here!"

  The advanced warning was useless, however, as a second later ten humanoid robots appeared in the center of the room. They looked sleek and efficient with pincer-like hands, the one weird attribute was their large bulbous eyes and bushy eyebrows. Gen had to search her mind long and hard before she recognized them as identical to the ones that Microsoft's Office Assistant's Clippy had.

  Any amusement at the similarity evaporated, however, as the machines moved as a unit forward and ten more of the robots appeared immediately after.

  A deafening "MEOW!" emanated from the center of the machines and two went down spraying sparks and arms flailing as the sonic blast broke something important internally. A second later, the first explosion triggered. The explosion was small and localized like the landmines from the first trial, but still managed to destroy one of the robot's legs and disable it.

  Jacob chucked a grenade, and a far larger explosion blasted six more robots, and Gen started to think that maybe this wouldn't be too bad.

  As explosions and MEOWS rang out, however, it quickly started becoming apparent that the machines were too numerous. Amari stood in the front unleashing a concentrated flamethrower that turned robots into molten metal, but after only ten seconds she stopped looking winded.

  The iguanas watched carefully from the side, showing no inclination to turn themselves into cannon fodder.

  The machines were spreading out now and the landmines immediately around the teleportation area had already been detonated. Gen didn't have time to count, but there were easily forty of them already with more teleporting in each second.

  Seeing the crisis, she ran forward, she didn't know how it would work, but even if the teleportation area stopped landmines from being placed, it hopefully wouldn't stop a swimming pool.

  Reaching the nearest robot, she activated her consumable item, not fully knowing what to expect. The ground in front of her was deleted instantly replaced with an entire swimming pool that extended 150 feet in front of her and 75 fet w,ide filling half of the cavern opposite their group.

  The machines dropped helplessly and disappeared under the water even as more were teleporting in to be immediately dunked as well. Morna cackled and stood at the pool's edge triggering watery meows to echo out from the depths repeatedly.

  Flora shouted, "What was that!? If you had something like that, why didn't you say anything?"

  Gen shrugged, "You didn't ask."

  Flora fumed and looked over the rest of the group, "Anyone else have items or abilities that might be useful to share?"

  Morna shouted from the poolside, "BILLY HAS A CLOWN NOSE!"

  The gnome king ran past them yelling and looked down at the pool in horror, "What have you done to my treasure vault!?"

  They looked in the water and sure enough, the bottom of the pool, slightly visible through fumbling robots, was vast amounts of gold and jewels lining the bottom.

  Flora shot him a look, "Why didn't you tell me about the vault?"

  The king glared at her, "You didn't ask!"

  Chuck and Gen ignored her as they watched more and more robots teleporting in. They couldn't swim, but they weren't so lucky as to have the water short circuit them either. Instead, the robots were sinking to the bottom of the pool and walking on its bottom. The pool was almost ten feet deep and the machines struggled to climb the sides, but through sheer quantity they were starting to actually fill the pool up. Already at the center point where the machines teleported in, the pile of steel had piled up to the point where it was above the water line.

  Seeing no end to the robots, Chuck looked at Billy and then at the king and said, "Billy, the king wants to get his gold. Why don't you help him out?"

  Billy shook his head, "I don't know if that's a good idea…"

  The king's attention had been drawn and looked their way, "I must recover my riches! What can you do to help me?"

  Gen helpfully pointed at Morna and said, "He can make you giant like that and you should be able to fight your way through."

  The king looked gleeful with an evil glint in his eyes, "Do it!"

  Morna noticed the interaction and shouted as well, "DO IT!"

  Billy looked ill as the two of them encircled him and started chanting "Do it!" repeatedly.

  Abruptly Billy yelled, "Enough!" he pointed his finger accusatorily at all of them and shouted, "Billy, do that! Billy do this! Billy! Billy! Billy! I don't want to be here! Maybe I would rather live in RITA's dimension because at least then I wouldn't have to participate in these crazy death games just to get enough emmies to eat!" He took a deep breath and kept yelling, "You want me to buff the obviously evil king? Fine! I'll do it, hopefully he'll kill us all and this will be over already!"

  With a snarl, Billy pointed his finger at the king, and a series of red bolts fired one after another, hitting him repeatedly. He didn't count how many he shot, just kept yelling in rage as he unloaded on the king.

  The king twitched with each impact and started laughing in a goofy way as his hair grew and his skin turned pale. They watched in horror as the king transformed into a two-foot tall clown with curly red hair, a red rubber nose, and full body make-up. He was still in just his underpants as he rushed toward Billy, getting up in his face, "Huahuahuahua, what's wrong, little boy! You seem to be in a tiff! Let good ol' kingy cheer you up!"

  Billy's eye twitched in rage as the clown king danced around him in a goofy voice trying to cheer him up. He reached a crescendo of emotion and blacked out. The king looked at him sadly before averting his gaze and searching for a new victim to entertain.

  Morna picked up the clown king and threw him directly into the pool where he was pulled under immediately by the swarm of robots. She looked at the two of them, "I FORGOT HIS ABILITY COULD DO MORE THAN ONE THING!"

  Chuck dragged Billy away from the conflict and leaned him against the cavern wall before walking back.

  Amari was torching robots as they climbed out of the pool, and Jacob was quickly exhausting his collection of hand grenades.

  Flora shouted at them, "Are you three done playing around! We're going to be overrun!"

  Amari shot back at her, "You're no better! Let me guess your abilities aren't suited for this lot either?"

  Flora shot her a dirty look, but didn't reply.

  A flash of light marked a new teleportation, but this time only a single figure in black appeared. It wasn't a silver robot, but instead a human dressed in black.

  He had a weathered look to his face and dead eyes as he spoke, his voice eerily carrying through the chaos, "You have all been found guilty of tax evasion. Submit willingly and your tax dues will be reduced by 7%."

  Morna laughed and grabbed a robot that had half crawled out of the water before hurling it at him.

  He looked resigned while the flailing machine hurtled toward him before holding up an arm and slashing through it with a flash of light.

  He stepped off the pile of robots hovering above the water before rapidly accelerating all the way across the pool faster than Morna could react.

  With another flash of light, Morna was cut in half, falling dead in front of him.

  Amari screamed and enveloped him in flames which he largely ignored, flying through the heat to draw even with her and eviscerating her in another single slash.

  The flames stopped abruptly as she fell dead and the man turned to face the rest of them as dozens of dripping robots began to crawl from the pool behind him.

  Flora's voice quavered as she yelled, "You cannot fly!"

  He gave her a confused look before suddenly dropping from the air and activating a landmine he had previously avoided.

  Gen broke free from watching and rushed to Morna's side, activating her regenerate power. As the gruesome process began, she heard a chorus of angry hisses.

  The iguana army had finally made its move. The taxman was now missing a foot and bleeding heavily as the iguanas swarmed over him from all sides. Biting and scratching with abandon. He still looked confused at being unable to fly, but the loss of his foot hardly seemed to affect him as he quickly recovered and started slicing through one iguana after another.

  Flora shouted again, "You're exhausted, you can hardly move!"

  The man shot her a glare as he suddenly started breathing heavy and the swing speed of his arms slowed.

  Flora smirked and with a wave of her scepter a landmine detonated directly underneath him. The localized explosion blew off his other foot in an explosion of gore, but also killed the closest iguana.

  The iguanas as a unit paused their assault as half turned to face Flora. Her smile faltered as thirty iguanas rushed her.

  Screaming in panic she yelled, "You can't bite me!"

  The iguanas scratched at her, stopping short of biting despite their best efforts, but still managed to knock her over.

  From the ground she started to yell, "You can't ---" her words were cut off as the bright green iguana shoved something in her mouth.

  Choking, she looked down to see one of the gnome king's grenades jammed between her teeth.

  The iguanas scrambled away from her in a mad dash seconds before a giant explosion turned her to paste.

  The bright green iguana emerged from the smoke, walking upright wearing the golden crown and holding the scepter.

  Gen stared slack-jawed at her progenity's rise to power as Chuck whispered from her side, "He might be evil, but she kind of deserved that."

  "SHE DEFINITELY DESERVED THAT! I FOR ONE WELCOME OUR NEW IGUANA OVERLORDS!"

  Gen looked at Morna who had finished regenerating. She had been halved in size, but was still over seven feet tall and muscular as she grabbed a robot arm from the floor and backhanded an approaching robot.

  The three of them started backing up toward Billy as the robots drew closer and closer. The iguanas had been doing well against the man, but after Flora died, he regained his ability to fly and quickly flew up the ceiling, slicing a final iguana that had clung onto him. He ignored the battle as he began bandaging his missing feet.

  The iguanas scrambled back with their claws unable to damage the robots and the group quickly found themselves being corralled together with only occasional mines slowing the machine's advance.

  A blast of flames erupted from near Amari's body and they watched as Jacob reappeared blasting flames in every direction, destroying robot after robot.

  The flames were much more intense than Amari's had been and Jacob was like flame incarnate as his three foot self burned a path through the robots instantly diminishing their number.

  Running he dashed toward them, reaching them just as his flames sputtered out. Gasping for air, he begged, "Please tell me you guys have something left, my dying light ability is all out."

  Chuck looked at the approaching robots and the exhausted tax man flying above, "I might be able to take him with my consumable, but I don't have anything for the horde."

  Morna seemed to be browsing her inventory as her eyes flickered in front of her, "MY INVENTORY ONLY HAS FOOD AND CLOTHES."

  Jacob shot her an incredulous look.

  She shrugged, "I HAD A YEAR-LONG SCENARIO ONCE AND THE FOOD WAS AWFUL. I VOWED TO NEVER REPEAT THAT."

  Morna was still letting off sonic MEOW blasts intermittently, but they took several hits to disable a bot, and as they drew even with the cave wall they'd run out of places to run.

  A landmine detonated, blowing the leg off another bot, but the iguana king's scepter's cooldown was too long to be much more help.

  "So this is the end."

  Gen glanced down to see that Billy had awoken and was staring ahead with dead eyes, not bothering to rise.

  Morna shouted excitedly, "BILLY SHOOT THE ROBOTS LET'S SEE WHAT APATHY DOES!"

  Billy's face showed a flicker of irritation before draining away and he stretched out a finger and shot a grey bolt at the closest robot.

  They held their breath in anticipation as the robot flashed with a bright light and then changed to be… cleaner. The soot and dirt from explosions had been polished away and the robot now looked fresh from a factory line.

  Billy gave a weak "Heh."

  Jacob looked at them and said, "Last option is my dying light it lets me copy the ability of a recently deceased teammate for ten seconds, but the ability is ten times as powerful. If one of you dies, then I can use it." He looked at Gen, "Normally I don't kill teammates on purpose to use it, but with your regenerate ability it should be technically free to use."

  Morna cackled, "I LOVE THIS PLAN!" She charged straight at the machines, letting out another meow that disabled one before being mobbed.

  The machines worked with a mechanical detachment as one grabbed her around the neck and snapped it without hesitation.

  Jacob looked on in horror, "Why'd she do that!? I have to touch her body to use it and now she's surrounded by robots!"

  Chuck pinched the bridge of his nose and said, "I'm going to do my thing, maybe it'll distract them long enough for you to reach Morna. If not… well hopefully our wageslave jobs come with health insurance."

  He looked up at the taxman who looked a bit pale, from blood loss, but was no longer breathing heavily and yelled "Hey taxman! I'd like to go with the standard deductible!"

  The taxman gave him a confused look, but Chuck just gave a thumbs up. The taxman looked down at his own hand in betrayal as he realized he had returned the gesture.

  "Nothing personal."

  Chuck stabbed what looked like a wooden stake into the taxman's back and a geyser of blood erupted out of it.

  The taxman's flight turned sporadic and he plummeted to the ground as Chuck clung onto him teleporting back behind Gen at the last moment.

  Multiple robots reversed course heading for their fallen leader and Gen shouted, "Now or never!"

  She, Jacob, Chuck, and the iguanas all dashed forward desperately rushing to Morna's body.

  A steel hand grabbed her arm and twisted as she felt and heard a crack as her arm bent at a terribly wrong angle.

  Iguanas were all around her scratching uselessly against the machines, but managing to distract them several crucial seconds.

  "MEEEOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW~"

  Her eyes rolled back into her head as her eardrums exploded and she felt a surge of nausea.

  She collapsed on the ground, the robot that had broken her arm not doing much better as it also collapsed and began sparking all over the place.

  Fighting against blacking out, she crawled a few steps forward to reach Morna. She felt her ability trigger, but was in too much pain to watch the result.

  She hoped that she would just pass out and awake fully healed with her allies having won the battle, but she wasn't so fortunate as the battle continued to rage around her and her eyes gradually focused again.

  Morna had returned and was fighting fiercely. She was still muscular, but was only 3.5 feet tall at this point. Using her gravity reversal and cat movements, she was flying around the robots, letting out one sonic blast after another, while they were too slow to catch her.

  The taxman approached with Chuck's stake still in his back, spurting blood continuously. Morna kicked off a robot flying toward the ceiling before reversing and nose diving at him.

  He looked on the verge of collapse, but still somehow snatched her leg out of the air and flew straight down slamming her into the rocky ground.

  His arm flashed with light and he went for the finishing blow when suddenly Billy was there.

  Even without eardrums Gen heard a single "HONK" echo out and couldn't stop herself from averting her gaze in disgust, unable to see what happened next.

  She felt everything freeze and her pain disappeared, LEO's voice echoed out, "You guys did it! Wow! Things went a little off script, but I think we all learned a valuable lesson about not wantonly destroying all the props in a scenario just because you can!"

  Gen couldn't roll her eyes in her frozen state, but definitely wanted to.

  "Now I know what you're all thinking, why did I let some of RITA's bots into a level 2 scenario? Plain and simple, it's because I outsourced my taxes for scenario characters to her and that gnome king really did embezzle from me! Now I know what you're thinking, aren't I at war with RITA? Sure, but she really is just that good at taxes and it all worked out in the end didn't it?"

  He laughed and continued, "Anyway! It's time for rewards! As a bonus for rescuing a wageslave and not becoming indentured servants yourselves, you all get an extra ten emmies! Other than that, standard rewards based on your performance!"

  You've leveled up! You are now level 1!