[Round 2, Set 1] That Which Darkness Shields

[HitokiriChibi]

The first thing that would claim ones attention was the black. The darkness, broken only by sudden flares of light that shot through the air in bursts the eye could barely follow. Bright red that lanced through the air, bodies falling as it passed over them, like an evil eye seeking out their weaknesses.

After that, it was the sounds that tore through the air that filled the listener with fraught awareness, the tension within them rising as cries rose and fell beyond sight, adrenaline pouring through them and their ears sharpening to hear the slightest hint of pattering feet that would signal an enemy or ally approaching.

Yes, a battle raged and caught within the struggle for supremacy were fanatics and those enlisted to join their cause.

The sounds on the field quieted and from the distance a horn could be heard blowing mournfully. As one, everyone disengaged and retreated, floating back to the shadows and gathering around those who had fallen, jeering in the manner of one who thinks they will fall in the next engagement.

Caught within this frantic realm where darkness was a friend to hide within and light was a signal of impending doom, one young man was thrust forward with a pack on his back and a gun in his hand.

“R3membe|2 m4n! J00 c4n’7 g37 hi7!” The words flashed neon green within the helmet; the words near indecipherable from their original meaning. A ‘click’ as someone flicked a point on his helmet and the words became clear.

“Remember man! You can’t get hit!”

“Ara? Joker doesn’t want to get hit…”

Laughter echoed, “600d c4ll m4n! 7ryin6 f0r 4 n0-70u(h \/i(70|2y!”
Good call man! Trying for a clear win!

A sudden push and what lights had been in the holding bay were lost as darkness closed in around the teen that stood bemused with an unfamiliar gun in his hand. Before him stretched a hall, one of many that were connected by series of ramps that led both up and down. Overhead, mesh walkways were suspended above the field, the metal thumping to the sounds of many feet trooping its length as snipers made their ways to their favorite vantage points. Through this maze were random boxes, walls and barriers to provide cover from the enemy.

“Onwards, team! Crush those who invade upon our turf!” A body rushed past, knocking Joker aside in his haste to engage the enemy. Even as Joker watched, a red beam shot through the air and the man tumbled down, struck so soon into battle.

“Ararara~ this seems dicey!” As a sudden smile bloomed across his face, Joker sprung forward to avenge his fallen comrade. Flipping, pivoting on one hand while the other aimed directly where the shot had come from, he fired and was rewarded by a garbled cry as his blue laser connected.

"Joker went BANG and down went the man~!" he sang cheerfully as he crouched over the twitching body of his team mate. He had been told that while death wasn't a problem, getting a 'killing' strike tended to get one shocked and put out of action for thirty seconds.

“FIRST STRIKE FROM BLUE TEAM REWARDED TO JOKER” the automated message rang against his ear and he grinned as hoots were yelled from across the multi-leveled labyrinth as his team took heart at this new player’s apparent skill.

“|)ud3, y0u’v3 pl4y3d b4! Ic3d!”
Dude, you’ve played before! Seriously cool!

Not bothering to reply, Joker ducked behind an outcropping as lasers streamed over his head. Sneaking backwards, he saw a low wall and scampered his way up it, lunging up as a red beam narrowly missed him. Ducking low on this new platform, he aimed behind and was again rewarded with a cry as another fell to his precision. Scooting forwards, looking at those who had fired on him when he had been on lower ground, Joker grinned.

They were below him, crouched behind a low wall as they waited for him to make a new appearance.

Well, appearance he would make, he thought happily as he slid over the edge to fall towards them, laser blazing.

“Cha~ra~ra~!" with each syllable uttered,a shot was fired, "Joker appears~!”

OoC: Thas right, laser wars =P It's a battle - yet not, and this is to completely underscore what I was saying about this being FUN~!
i wonder if Shotty will fail me for using l337, I know many despise it o.o I can't give him ideas

[MrRandom]

OoC : Alright...*gulps*

BiC : "I told you this was a bad idea...Maroon has already been shot!"

"Calm down, it's all part of the plan."

"What, the plan to get us all fried repeatedly? Why did we all sign up for some combat thing in the firstpla-"

"Cha~ra~ra~!" Cyan was promptly cut off by a blue laser from just above his head. As he fell to the ground writhing Purple took off behind a nearby wall, firing a couple of shots as he ran. An assortment of fragments and White himself, all wearing the same battle gear consisting of a helmet, a gun, and some sort of backpack like thing, were waiting for him in a well-defended space that the red team had established as their base of operations for the game. A quick glance showed that this was due to the cover on all sides and the ease with which the snipers could provide support fire to the location. It was a veritable strategic fortress.

All up, White had summoned nine of his fragments. Cyan and Maroon had already been shot down and were now presumably off fighting somewhere else where White couldn't reach them. Well, not without using some of his abilities, which Sienna said was cheating. Purple strode quickly to the center of the room and addressed the remainder of his team in a loud voice.

"Okay, we need a new plan. We'll have to organize a strike force to take out whoever just shot Cyan, since he seems to have dropped into our territory with little or no support."

"Remind me again why we need a plan?" a happy-sounding voice replied. Orange appeared to be enjoying the advanced state of chaos this game was causing, peeking over the crate that he was hidden behind and spraying laser fire in an apparently random pattern to send people running for cover. Even though he was hardly hitting anybody, he was doing a good job of scaring them off.

"Yeah, I say we just charge out and blast them all to oblivion!"

"Calm down, it's only a game. And we should probably get the other players involved in this too...the effectiveness of a strategy rises exponentially with the quantity of people effectively incorporated in- hey, what the?" he said in an extremely irritated voice as Grey shoved him out of the fortress and into an open area. He was quickly marked as easy prey and gunned down.

"Ah! Purple just went down," White muttered in a worried tone as they searched for Purple's assailant. He spun around and gave Grey a few choice scalding words before he was tapped on the shoulder by a large-looking teammate.

"Hey, how do you know that purple guy went down? Have you got some sort of cheating device that lets you tell?"

"Uh, I'm not sure? I just got a feeling...Grey, you imbecile!" White said nervously, worried that he might have just let slip about his fragments. Luckily, the man he'd been talking to decided to give it little thought and charged out with his gun blazing a few seconds later. He was promptly shot down by laser fire from several strategic points.

"Why do people keep doing that? It's obvious that the stealthy approach is the only way to go here."

"No, the hell with that! I reckon that guy had the right idea."

"Yeah, let's just go and zap the jerks who shot us last round!"

"I don't care who we zap just as long as it hurts."

"As long as it's all within the rules..."

"Guys, why are we having a heated argument? I signed us all up for this because I thought it might help us work out our differences and have a bit of fun. If we're not having fun I may as well just unsummon you all and leave the rest of our team to their own devices. Clear?"

White sounded rather irritated at his fragment's constant bickering. Surprised by the sudden outburst, the others grumbled a little and headed off to do their own things. Magenta, Red and Grey charged out into the open and fired, unknowingly drawing the enemy's attention so that Green could sneak off unnoticed. Orange popped up every now and then, firing towards the spots he saw blue lasers coming from and eventually hitting someone. Though he didn't connect often, a sharp decrease in blue laser fire was evidence that Orange's wild firing had caused several enemies to flee.

The three fragments who had charged out of the defensive location had all but been shot down, with Red now using the bodies of the other two for cover. As he was slowly surrounded by more people from the blue team, Green slipped around behind them seemingly unnoticed and peeked over a low wall, his gun ready to pick off the fools who had taken the unwitting bait.

Unable to control his anger any longer, Red leapt up and managed to shoot down a couple of enemies before he was picked off by Cyan's assailant. Spotting his chance, Green carefully aimed his gun at the man who had just shot Red down, but just as he was about to fire Orange used his head as a jumping board and leapt out over the enemy gathering, firing downwards as he went. He landed on the ground nearby and managed to run back to the fortress with his usual chaotic pattern making him rather hard to hit. Cursing Orange repeatedly Green slipped back into the fortress, picking off an enemy as he did so.

"Okay, we've been separated from almost everyone now..."

"So? White was right, this is lots of fun!"

"As long as everyone signed up voluntarily..."

"Of course they did. Now, most of our team has scattered, and in Purple's absence it falls to me to come up with a plan. So I say we go with a merge."

"But that's one of White's powers, using that would be cheating!"

"Ah, but our team ends up effectively losing me and Orange if we do this. So it balances out."

"Hmm...alright, but no other abilities while that's happening."

"Of course."

"Hmm...yes, we really do need the unity boost to get out of here without being shot. We can try to regroup the rest of the team and re-take the stronghold later."

"Ooh, so I get partial dominance from this! Fun," Orange shouted excitedly over the commotion. White closed his eyes for several seconds while Sienna provided cover fire, opening them once Orange and Green had disappeared in flashes of coloured light. When he opened his eyes again, they had green and orange swirls playing across the pupil, which were mirrored Noticing that Green and Orange had left their gear behind when they disappeared, White picked up one set and equipped the gun from it, strapping the pack to his front.

"Ooh, so now we have two guns? That means more chaos!"

"Now now, we're going to try to slip out of here unnoticed..."

"No. With this setup, I think we can probably take a few of them out as we leave...although that guy who took Cyan out looks kind of dangerous."

"Yeah, there's no chaos in sneaking off..."

"Urgh, fine. I guess I'm outvoted," Green muttered, quite clearly annoyed at the situation. Their collective mind made up, White charged out of the fortress, weaving left and right and firing at several targets with surprising speed that came courtesy of Green. The combination of speed and chaotic attack pattern made him incredibly hard to hit, and having a pair of guns meant he managed to scare off most of the enemies and even shoot one down. He used the available cover in an efficient manner, only being even slightly vulnerable for seconds at a time.

However, a few of the enemies stood their ground and managed to get to nearby cover without being hit. Among them was the man who had shot Cyan down previously. White aimed his two guns towards the nearby cover and waited, hoping that a few of his other fragments would show up again before more of the enemy did.

OoC : You were right - this IS fun! ^_^

[HitokiriChibi]

“Cha~ra~ra, ra~ra BANG!” A body fell twitching to the ground.

“Cha~ra~ra, ra~ra BANG!” Once more there was a distant thump as a person was ‘killed’, wondering how on earth he had managed to get shot by what seemed to be a singing lunatic.

Laughing, Joker spun himself around a corner and sank into the splits as a laser was fired at him.

“Idiot, how you going to dodge now?” his assailant crowed in victory as he aimed his laser and fired, the red beam lancing towards Joker’s head in what seemed an inescapable hit.

“Buu buu~!” making the sound of a quiz show buzzer, Joker flattened himself back against the floor, the laser passing his nose narrowly. Without even checking, Joker knew what his opponent’s next move would be and raised himself into a backwards handstand, the new shot hitting where his ass had been a moment ago.

“Buu buu~ You miss Joker again~” Joker laughed as he bounced on the floor one handed, the other stretched to the side for balance as it held his own gun.

“What the hell?! You a clown? I freaking hate clowns!!!” Roaring, the man fired his laser wildly at Joker, his rage at all the clowns in the world that had traumatized him as a child focusing on Joker. Unfortunately for him, Joker was not the most easy thing to focus upon.

Joker spun midair, bent himself backwards, sprung off walls like they were made of rubber and at one point even hung from an overhanging pipe by his foot while cuddling what seemed to be a stuffed penguin that had found lodging in a U-bend.

“Buu buu~! Mister should really give up, must be age that makes you so blind that you can’t hit one Joker!” Laughing, Joker pirouetted and did a leap over a wild shot that would have done Swan Lake justice. Landing, he swirled into a graceful bow, his hand extended as he fired a single shot that downed the man and left him sprawled on the floor, near frothing at the mouth.

“Cha~ra~ra~, ra~ra~ BANG~!” he sang belatedly as he crouched on the low wall and kept firing at the fallen warrior just to see him twitch, “Joker wonders if doing this will make him more insane… can he hear Joker? Does he know what Joker is doing to him? Ara, if he’s conscious while ‘dead’ he might use this as a chance to become Joker’s rival!”

Standing up in sudden insight, Joker laughed and clapped in delight, “Joker has his own evil rival, just like the ones in cartoons! The ones who always try to become stronger than the hero but always FAIL~!”

“Y-You… clown…!!!” The grunted words brought Joker’s attention back to the man who still twitched on the floor.

“Arara, Joker must be off now~!” Grinning, Joker leaped off the wall, clung to a pole and shimmied his way up it like a worm. It didn’t take the icy haired teen long to notice that the pole he climbed connected to an overpass, one that no one seemed to have taken advantage of as yet. Possibly because the only known entrance to it was so exposed none ever survived to reach it. Then again, no one would have dared climbing the pole as Joker had done – the drop was at least five levels.

Working his way over the edge and into this new suspended walkway, Joker whistled at the view he had. This had to be the highest path available in the labyrinth and everyone below was subject to Joker’s whims.

“|)ud3, I s33s wh47 j00 d|d! \/\/i|<3d 5killz j00 g0t. T4k3 0u7 4s m4ny a5 j00 c4n!” Man, I saw what you did! Cool skills. Get as many of them as you can!the message scrawled itself over the inside of his visor and Joker grinned.

Impulsively, he stood on the rail of the walkway, walking along its thin edge with ease. Flinging his arms out, he fired his laser at a small blue dot that was scurrying below.

“Cha~ra~ra BANG~! Cha~ra~ra BANG~! Cha~ra~ Bang!” Skipping along, avoiding lasers even as he fired them, Joker laughed and sang then ducked behind a wall for safety once more.

Whistling cheerfully to himself, he checked his score count and was pleased to find it was the second highest in the game. The one who was in the lead was his own team mate, the one who had such odd speaking habits. Sadly, that meant that unless Joker upped his game, there was no way he could dispose of this rival that prevented him from winning. If firing one’s own team mate had been allowed, Joker would have been found clinging to a ceiling and stalking the poor man.

So now Joker waited on high, firing at the people milling below him like insects, waiting to be picked on by those on higher ground. Alas, while his new position afforded him a better chance of winning, Joker was getting bored of sitting in the one place and resolved to move as soon as he could think of some sort of dramatic manner with which to do it.

“Joker wonders… is this game what people refer to when they say Gang Bang?”

[MrRandom]

"Hmph...morons. Not a subtle thought in their heads, any of them! Everything's just charge charge charge, blast blast bla- wait a second...White, start moving NOW!"

"Why? I don't see anyone here who could pose a-"

"No, but do you see that trail of your allies who have been shot down? The one that's pointing towards us?"

"...oh. Okay then, running it is," he said with just a hint of panic in his voice. Within seconds he had vacated the area in Orange's usual style, zipping in and out of cover and even doing the occasional front flip. Once he reached the team's stronghold, he peeked around the corner only to have to pull his head back as lasers went zooming past it. He guessed that there were around seven of the opposition occupying the area.

"Alright, we need a plan."

"Why? Let's just run in and shoot them all like we usually do."

"No chance. There's far too many of them..."

"So, any ideas?"

"Of course, I'm full of them." said a slightly amused voice from behind a nearby wall.

White spun around and pointed both guns at the source of the sound. "Hey, what the- oh, am I glad to see you! So what do you suggest?"

"Well, I do have a spell that will allow you to walk on a surface at any angle...including 180 degrees, if you get my meaning."

"Whoa, hold on there for a sec. That would be cheating!"

"So? Unsummon someone to balance it out. Sienna, you've been rather useless recently..."

"What? How dare you!"

"Stop whining, would you? White, unsummon him."

"...Fair enough," he sighed in a slightly worried voice. A few seconds later Sienna had disappeared into White's mind, leaving just the laser equipment behind. Purple picked it up and added it to his own, then began going through the complicated motions of a gravity-warping spell.

A minute or so later, Green-Orange dominated White was taking his first few steps along the outer wall of the fortress-like setup. Orange was delighted with the potential for chaos, Green was interested in the tactical potential, and even White had to admit it seemed pretty useful. After a quick discussion, they came up with a plan of action.

The only entrances to the fortress were a pair of narrow gaps at two of the corners of the rectangular structure. It would be impossible to pass through either gap without being immediately spotted and subjected to heavy fire...or so it seemed. To make matters worse for White and Purple, the fortress was full of low walls and boxes behind which the defenders could take cover. However, Purple had devised a plan to turn all this to White's advantage.

With a pleased expression on his face, Purple charged around to the left entrance and fired off a shot or two, missing completely. Before the enemy had a chance to return fire, he had ducked out of sight again and slammed his back against the fortress wall, breathing heavily. A shadow of doubt flickered across his face, but his desire to see the plan completed quickly overpowered his fear, so a few seconds later he turned to face through the entrance once more, firing both his weapons at everyone in sight.

Purple was very methodic in his targeting : he fired first at the people in the best position to retaliate, then ducked out for a second or two, repeating this process several times before finally being shot down. Though he failed to hit any of the enemies, his tactic was not designed to do so. After finally bringing Purple down, the occupants of the stronghold did a casualty check, had a laugh when they found no-one was hit, then resumed their usual positions facing the two entrances.

About a minute after the incident, White carefully popped his head up from behind a low piece of cover in the back corner of the stronghold. Taking his time to avoid any mistakes, he carefully aimed both guns at the two enemies furthest away from his current position...or at least he tried to. Orange quickly got bored of aiming and exerted his influence to make White fire both guns earlier than he'd expected, the result being that only one of them hit. His cover blown, White stood up quickly and took out a further three members of the opposition before ducking back behind cover.

"Oh great work, now we're stuck here."

"So? There's only three of them left, we can take them out like we just did can't we?"

"But we don't have the element of surprise this time...there's no way we can even get one shot off without being hit. They probably have their guns aimed at us as we think."

"Bah! We can take em."

"...No, we really can't. And the guys we just shot will be up again pretty soon. We need backup."

Their mental conversation was cut short by the sounds of laser fire coming from the far side of the room. Unable to resist taking a quick look, White peeked out over the box and saw, to his amazement, Purple firing both his weapons at the remaining three opponents. Seeing his chance, White quickly got to his feet and shot down the one remaining person guarding him, then proceeded to take out one of Purple's assailants. The remaining enemy stood there with a shocked expression on his face, unable to believe that White had managed to sneak into the fortress undetected. Purple gestured at the roof where a row of footprints could clearly be seen, then dropped the guy with a well-placed laser to the chest.

Having shot down all the opposition within the fortress, White waited for them to come around and then held them at gunpoint, telling them to leave immediately. Not surprisingly, they did so. With Purple keeping a careful watch on both the entrances, White summoned Green and Orange once again. They redistributed their gear so that they had one gun, pack, and helmet each, then sat down with their eyes on the entrances to discuss their next move.

After a short discussion, they all agreed to go after the sniper who had been picking off their allies : whoever they may have been, they were far too dangerous to leave out there. Still under the effects of Purple's spell, White and Green snuck out of the fortress, finding Red and Magenta along the way and sending them to help guard it. Within minutes, Green had spotted the sniper's likely location and a good way to get up there behind him. Acting quickly, they almost ran up the wall, then began being stealthy once they got close to him. They could see some amount of blue hair sticking out at funny angles from under the sniper's helmet.

The two of them attempted to land silently on the walkway to get a better shot at him. Unfortunately, while Green was silent enough to pull this off, White made a clanging noise which immediately attracted the sniper's attention. Both of them reacted by aiming their guns at him and firing, but both shots were easily dodged. The situation quickly turned into a standoff.

"He seems to like dodging a lot...try to anticipate where he'll dodge from my shots and fire there."

"Sounds like a plan..." The two of them looked at each other briefly, then turned their attention back to the blue-haired guy, who was acting more than a bit strangely. Still, an enemy's an enemy, so they continued trying to hit him, having little success but managing to avoid all of his shots as well. They both ducked behind cover and waited : it looked like this was going to be a contest of endurance more than anything else. Or one side would get bored and leave, giving up the sniping position to the opposition and providing a nice target for the other side as they fled.

[HitokiriChibi]

Joker peered over the edge of his walkway, staring at what seemed to be his team’s base being overrun by a team of only two people. It was disgraceful and Joker didn’t hesitate is shouting his abuse down at them.

“Foolish fools falling foolishly~! Disgraceful dunderheads~! POSTURING PEDOPHILIC PENGUINS~!!!” snickering down at them Joker turned to look at the other side of the walkway. Far below him, the usual skirmishes were taking place. Since his own blue team had lost their main stronghold, the red’s seemed to have taken great heart is this victory and were yelling wildly at their enemies, their jeers and taunts echoing throughout the labyrinth like a pack of howling wolves scenting weakness.

Sighing, he flicked a switch on his helmet, the scoreboard lighting up within it. Perusing it, distracted, he didn’t even realize he had company until a clang sounded on his walkway, alerting him to a breach in his defences.

Spinning about, his eyes widened as he saw not one but two people upon his vantage point, both immediately opening fire on him. Startled, he automatically jumped and flipped and at the same time opened tiny portals that absorbed the lasers harmlessly. Luckily, neither of his opponents seemed to have noticed his impulsive action, covered up as it was by him firing back at them and forcing them to scatter and dodge.

Staring at them, his purple eyes darting between the two, thoughts flickered through Joker’s mind hurriedly. Firstly, was the pressing matter of what it felt like to be on the receiving end of those lasers, after all causing one to be incapacitated had to be uncomfortable and possibly even a startling experience. In Joker’s mind, he would rather he himself was the shocking experience, not some other outside force. This then brought up the thought that with two opponents facing him on such a limited field as the walkway, avoidance of such an experience would be very hard to accomplish. Naturally, this would mean the most reasonable thing for Joker to do would be relinquishing his strategic point in the most dramatic fashion available to him.

Oh, and the other inconsequential thought he’d had: one these men before him had been holding two guns and packs yet now only exhibited one.

“Arara, be one of you here cheaters? Joker knows you were the masterminds behind the takeover of the base below – Joker witnessed it with eyes of his own! And Joker’s own eyes saw one of you with TWO packs. Now where be that other pack now? For that matter, where be the other people of your little team?” Raising his eyebrows in a wasted move thanks to his visor, Joker sidled backwards a step, his eyes narrowing he processed his own words.

If he wasn’t mistaken, he could well be speaking to people who were different from all the other players…

To test this theory he grinned, a flash of white against the darkness of his skin and the shadow of his helmet, as he leaped backwards over the edge of the bridge to freefall down into a portal no one else saw him create.

As he fell, Joker rationalized that while using a portal was no doubt cheating, he would balance the act out by not using his gun as a weapon one he appeared in a position that would afford him a clear victory.
“Cha~ra~ra~ra~ Joker appears~!”

His cheerful cry was all the warning his sudden appearance would give as he fell through the first portal and into the second that was above the heads of his enemies, landing upon one in a fierce hug.

“Joker caught you~!”

[MrRandom]

"Them? Masterminds? Do not make me laugh. I'm the one who comes up with the plans here," came an irritated voice from just above them. Purple, it seemed, had decided to follow them up after all, and was now hanging precariously from a pipe on the roof, aiming his weapon with his other hand. White looked up and subsided into a fit of laughter, not noticing any of Joker's strange behavior. He recovered enough to speak after a few seconds.

"What happened to you? Spell give out?" White said, trying not to chuckle.

"Before I answer that, you may wish to look up."

White looked up just in time to see Joker's form descending out of the portal. Unable to get out of the way in time, he ended up pinned against the walkway, and it was Purple's turn to suppress a chuckle. Green, however, was too busy concocting a counter argument to Joker's supposed cheating allegations to pay any attention to the sudden tackle.

"I don't believe either one of us count as having cheated. If you'll look at the official regulations, there is no rule against a single participant using a pair of weapons given that this provides an inherent disadvantage because another team member must forfeit their equipment. In addition, we have taken extra balancing factors to counteract various other actions performed during the course of the-"

"Umm...how about you stop arguing and get this goon off me!?"

"Huh? Oh yes, of course..," Green muttered in a rather sheepish voice before aiming his gun at Joker and firing. Unfortunately, Joker was far too fast for him and jumped off White at the last second, meaning the laser struck White instead. As Joker dashed off with a gleeful exclamation, Green noticed a message scrolling across his helmet's visor in bright, red letters : "PLEASE DO NOT SHOOT YOUR TEAMMATES".

Slightly angry at having been tricked, Green offered White a hand in getting up and set off in speedy pursuit of Joker. White followed quickly, failing to hear the increasingly annoyed voice coming from the roof... "Hey! What about me!"

"Sucker..."

The two of them charged ahead for a while before realizing that they had taken several turns without noticing, resulting in them becoming hopelessly lost. Anger, it seemed, could be a dangerous thing. White smirked at this thought, wishing Red were with them, then stopped to take a look around.

They seemed to be stuck deep in a maze positioned somewhere near the center of the laser wars area. The walls were unusually smooth and featureless, the roof had none of the usual pipes and other handholds on it, and the floor was almost like stilled water, completely free of any marks or scratches and slightly reflective when viewed from the right angle. It was a little too dark to tell properly, but the surfaces looked almost shiny...

The lighting was poor at best, making aiming difficult and putting both Green and White in a tense, highly strung state. Somewhere up ahead, Joker seemed to be enjoying himself judging by the eccentric sounds that seemed to come from all directions at once. Reacting suddenly to the noise, the two of them fired their weapons in opposite directions, only to duck as they bounced off the walls and roof to come flying back towards the two. One of the shots hit White in the eye and dazed him even through the helmet's visor. At this White lost control, saved from total rage only by Red's absence.

"Gah! What is this, a funhouse!? This is ridiculous!" he yelled, pounding his fists against the walls in frustration.

"Whoa calm down, it's only a game...you're taking this WAY too seriously."

"...yeah, I guess..." he replied, seeming to calm down until more jubilant exclamations wafted down the corridor. Upon hearing the word "funhouse" repeated a couple of times in an exaggerated happy tone, White lost it again and started firing madly a the source of the sound. Only he couldn't tell where that was, so he ended up firing pretty much everywhere until "PLEASE DO NOT SHOOT YOUR TEAMMATES" showed up several times on his helmet.

"...wow...if Red was here, that would have gotten ugly..."

"Come on, we need to get out of here...somehow."

"Bah, what am I doing? I signed us up for a spot of fun...now look at me! Going nuts at the word "funhouse"...you're right, let's just blunder around until we see something a bit different. At least until we come up with a better plan."

With that, the two of them headed off down the nearest corridor, trying to ignore the sounds of footsteps echoing through the maze. It seemed that Joker wasn't the only other person in there with them...White thought with a smile that if he could tone down his intensity a bit, this was going to be a lot of fun.