The members of Team Shield and Hammer gather near the Golden Statue in fragmented groups with loose (if any) communication among one another, surrounded and lost in a thick haze presumably caused passively by the NULL Manifestation. Other Manifestations later separate the teams further, leading to five fights in the gardens and one intercepted in the dormitory complex.
Vs. EGO
Dr. Goldman, Dr. Ernst, Clyde, and Bob crawl out of a destroyed building in the midst of chaos already happening around them, and are ambushed by a manifestation based on Ernst’s arrogant, bandaged, apathetic past self (2019-2021). EGO starts with the upper hand, immobilizing Clyde, until Clyde activates the same nullification card against Gabriel to intentionally remove Bob’s armor and launch him into an attack that frees Clyde and damages EGO. Clyde and Bob’s tag-team tactics along with Ernst’s unorthodox strategizing and Goldman’s support quickly put EGO on the defensive–though even in its damaged state it taunts the group, claiming superiority and power over morals. Dr. Ernst confronts his past directly, delivering a decisive light-beam attack that neutralizes EGO, symbolizing his rejection of his former self. As EGO’s body dissolves into code, the team regroups, each member reflecting on the ordeal of the concept of ego in their own ways.
Vs. ROCK
Casti, Hugo, Nathaniel, Sean, and later Gabriel (who was still dealing with daddy issues) run into each other, hashing out beef from the Rockathon on Sean’s end. Ridley swoops in to tend to their cards before getting to everyone else, although makes Gabe a catboy for making fun of him. They are all once again faced with the fourth (or maybe fifth, lost count) iteration of the Manifestation of ROCK (let’s just call her Fake Karen), who holds Sybil as the sacrificial lamb to slaughter–28 STAB WOUNDS, to be exact–to set an example of how strong it’s become. It loathes Sean, Casti, and now Gabriel especially, claiming itself to be born purely out of hatred, a shadow of the most hated individual on campus unable to become anything more. But with the Machine, it gets to exact its revenge on humanity in ways the real Karen never could. Gabriel warns the team of Karen’s bluffs, but upon Sybil’s defeat Casti causes some confusion amongst the group in her antics to get the jump on Karen due to unresolved trauma. Nathaniel also blindly and unpredictably attacks, and plays a disruptive yet oddly helpful role in distracting Karen, despite not fully understanding the gravity of the situation. Most of the time, Hugo has no idea what to do, and fails to fully get a read on Karen, instead resorting to potshots and becoming the target of Karen’s attacks. This is especially troublesome when Karen shifts to her second boss phase, becoming a metal animatronic exoskeleton shrouded by deadly shadows. Gabriel reconstructs the arena and his weapons using his Gold card (usually to save everyone else’s ass) and realizes that bludgeoning damages are most effective against Karen. Sean gets the idea to light himself on fire to ward away the shadows while everyone beats Karen mercilessly. As a last-ditch final phase, she tries to stab Casti to use her body as a meat puppet, but Sean throws himself in front instead, becoming the Rock’s Vessel. Casti will remember this. Gabriel concludes that Karen is not a being of hatred. Being the son of a “womb of malice,” he has been raised to learn true hatred, built by years of grudges and traumas that fuel genuine passion, whereas Karen only learns the concepts associated with the emotion. Casti freezes up, letting Gabriel, Hugo, and Nathaniel carry. They combine their remaining cards to craft an unholy bomb made of cherry pie that explodes more than they expect, blowing Hugo and Nathaniel away. Not only does the shrapnel tear Sean from within, it also reaches the exoskeleton, melting through Karen. Once again, Gabriel stabs the Manifestation to death, finishing it off for good this time. Sean and Sybil respawn, and are escorted by everyone to the medical ward.
Vs. Metal Pearl & Silver Kay
Charlie, Jett, Fraise, and Ulah (the latter two picked up right after their greenhouse fight) arrive on the scene in Charlie’s car, and are ambushed by two Manifestations teaming up, Metal Pearl and Silver Kay. Jett tries frying Silver’s circuits with a taser (much like how Pearl defeated Silver last time) but it backfires, overcharging it with power instead. The guards fire on the robots with little effect, and Silver tears the roof off the car while Metal shoots lasers at them. Metal then throws Silver itself, but everyone jumps out of the car just in time. Jett pops the trunk, releasing Charlie’s entire stash of weapons out in the open. Charlie rushes Metal to cut its arms off, but trades damage by taking the full force of a bomb meant for the students. Fraise uses his first of three heals (a loaf of teleported bread) to revive him. Jett uses one of her cards to transform into Brown to lock Silver down after taking control of Charlie’s car, but quickly drops the car to attack Jett and Ulah with the stored taser charge. Ulah takes the brunt of the damage and Jett breaks free to stab its main core. Fraise frees Ulah and uses his second heal on her. Metal takes advantage of the free guns and rebuilds itself to form into a mutated version, ART.ILLERY, modeled after Artemis whose projectiles cannot miss. Charlie distracts ART’s minigun barrage directed at Jett and the students with a grenade, but fails to punish when Silver intercepts his attack, mocking him with Ethan’s voice collected from extraneous data just to piss him off. ART shoots out a grenade at Jett, but Charlie once again saves her by throwing its own grenade back at it, relentlessly firing at both robots and weakening them significantly. Silver runs away while ART fires an electric rail cannon at him point blank. Charlie redirects the charge, but Jett redirects it right back, blowing up the car nearby with both him and ART with it. Fraise forces Ulah to continue pinning Silver down while he and Jett run their hands on it, jumping it until it completely breaks down. However, Silver activates a self-destruct sequence and blows up Jett with it, and almost takes out Fraise had he not stuffed his last healing bread in his mouth. Fraise and Ulah congratulate each other while Charlie and Jett respawn in his car, picking the students up to drop them off at the medical ward and resupplying before going back to fighting.
Vs. Copper Golem (FT. ▀▄▀▄▀▄)
Fynn, Cyra, Joan, and Phoenix gather amidst the fog and immediately jump to making video game references (they are all huge nerds), though are freaked out hearing echoes of themselves around them. The unknown sentence-mixer presents Copper Golem, which uses an electric-based card against them but inevitably loses the upper hand from the firefighting and guard forces’ quick strategizing and cohesive teamwork. They realize that much like the real P.T., it is easily distracted by insults and quips against it, and take it down with flame-retardant foam used against the Man. of War. The remains of Metal Pearl, blasted away from Charlie’s car explosion halfway across the gardens, crash lands in this section of the arena, reconstructing itself and fusing with the Copper Golem into an unholy Brass Beast. Utilizing the qualities of both metals, this alloy is easily malleable from physical blows, but can reshape itself at will, and separate its strong endoskeleton to fight as two entities. The team figures out to keep the two halves of the Manifestation apart to stop its regenerative process, and destroy it with Joan’s lucky frying pan card. Cyra attempts to dismantle the skeleton, only for the strange announcer to commandeer it and dismember her arm. It is bombarded with an orbital barrage from a Gold card, revealing its physical form as a ghostly, chattering skull. It angrily swears and rants and raves with this admittedly really cool and well-edited .wav monologue, calling itself a demon outside of reality, promised freedom by SIR. The monologue devolves into incessant crude tangents, which make Joan smack it to death for good. With no time to waste, the team carries an armless Cyra to the medical ward, away from danger.
Vs. BLACK
Brown cannot stand being the only major player left not doing anything to help anyone, and his indecisiveness haunts him until a wave of memories flashes by, mocking him for not being good enough for anyone after all this time. When the memories subside, he is left wondering why he even cares so much about what others think of him. He comes to the conclusion that he really, really shouldn’t. With a newfound sense of purpose, he leaves his room but promptly gets ambushed by Fat Guy, under the control of Black. Brown is unsuccessful getting the sentient red gel off him without any cards, and spreads across his entire room, taunting him all the while. Brown jumps out of his window, but the gel breaks from Fat Guy and slams Brown into Dorm 2, the next room over, fortunately with the window still wide open from Skyber breaking it in her crashout. Fat Guy bursts through the wall and gives Brown his cards (including the Gold Sybil lent him) to help defeat Black, before Black spreads large enough to shake the building down to the ground. Fat Guy is impaled by a steel rebar but survives the fall, cushioning Brown. Black then regroups to drown Brown, but Brown uses his new cards to turn his body steel and damages Black from the inside. Brown taunts his Manifestation back, until it flanks and fully possesses Fat Guy once more. It mocks Brown further, exposing every one of his flaws, his insecurities, his desperation for attention because of his comparatively vapid personality, inferiority to people like Kay, Skyber, and Artemis, convincing him that none of them need him and that he will always be insignificant. It takes its new, Superior form after Fat Guy. Brown activates his last two cards, that apparently do no damage to Black but weaken Fat Guy from the inside, thus making Black Superior lose its structural integrity. Brown retorts Black’s insults by admitting that while he has always felt out of control of his whole life and may never be held in the same regard as his peers, he doesn’t care anymore, as in this place he has the will and the freedom to make his own decisions and find his own meaning despite his lack of past. Fat Guy finally frees himself of Black’s control. However, it suddenly begins to rain, giving Black a major buff that no longer needs to possess anyone for maximum power. Brown suspects the Machine is cheating, and is almost killed before Fat Guy takes the hit for him again, taking mortal damage and getting defeated. With sheer determination (and plot armor, ngl), Brown fights through the third and final boss form of Black, scaling its body and using the thunder above to his advantage, noticing the metal pipe he picked up from the rubble is likely to get struck by lightning. Brown sticks the pipe into Black’s head just as lightning strikes it, destabilizing the entire form. Brown earns the Gold card and remarks that perhaps like Electi, the Machine is lost and confused in a world that does not want them, and is acting out of self-preservation. This does not stop him from crushing Black’s remains, however. Suddenly, Brown suffers a concussion and slips in and out of consciousness. He and Fat Guy, totally unresponsive, are found by Suzy and Tawny, investigating the commotion around the dorm building.
Brown wakes up in the medical ward beside Fat Guy, Sybil, and Sean, while bloodthirsty shark-nurse Misty watches over the wing and struggles to manage all her new patients. She asks Brown what happened, though Brown is unable to even begin, other than informing that Fat Guy, whom he once thought an enemy, saved his life from imminent death. Misty explains that Fat Guy is in a coma, and is unsure if he’ll ever wake up, only able to keep him alive using her saliva-based ability with healing properties. Sybil and Sean also inform Brown of the chaos happening in the gardens, and of their fight with the ROCK. Brown holds a Gold card Fat Guy promised to return to someone, and Sybil shamefully admits that she gave him that card that caused the Clover Team so much trouble. Brown forgives her, knowing that Fat Guy really did mean his promise to use it to protect his friends. He returns it to Sybil. Penny bursts into the wing and initially believes Brown caused Fat Guy’s condition, but steps back after seeing his injuries and letting him explain the story, which steels her resolve to help fight SIR. Brown gives her the last of his deck as she is escorted out by Misty. Suzy also visits Brown, wishing him a full recovery and gifting him pastries as a sign of respect and gratitude for all his hard work. He almost cries.
Vs. Manifestation of the Unknown [UNFINISED]
Oliver and Claude narrowly avoid concurrent fights going on around them, hoping to regroup with the rest of their squad. They stop to help and/or rescue Carrie dealing with other NPCs, before all three are submerged in a black void, ankle deep in tar-like liquid. The liquid is unable to be damaged or affected by any cards, where the Manifestation resides within. The unknown manifestation takes Claude by surprise, distracting him with echoes from his past and weakening his mental fortitude with visions of a figure of a young man from his past. It haunts and accuses Claude of abandoning him and being too weak-willed and selfish to start a family. Unable to face this side of him head on, especially in public, Claude breaks down. Carrie moves to stop this but is confronted by the Manifestation’s projections onto her, appearing as a motherly, saintly figure gently scolding Carrie’s “sinful” behaviours and resurfacing old traumas from Carrie’s childhood, being sheltered from the public eye for being a dangerous Electi and being seen and treated as a freak or an affront to God. Carrie is enveloped in the goo to drown as her primal insecurities are literally unmasked. Oliver rushes to Carrie to pull her out of the goop and comfort her, reassuring that she is none of the things the manifestation is saying about her. He reaffirms that her parents were undeserving of a child like her, and pulls from his own traumatic healing to remind her there is nothing sinful about her existence. The impromptu therapy seems to work, and Carrie is easily removed from the goo, winded from the emotional turmoil. Oliver returns to Claude to do the same, and tries to warn that fighting against his fears only makes them worse. Claude is resistant to change, and his efforts to reject his failed family sink him further deeper into the goo.
Vs. THE GRAND FINALE [UNFINISHED]
Kay, Pearl, Artemis, Nova, Penny, and Preston all make it up to the Golden Statue, which has now transmuted and poised itself high above the campus. Enzo and Ridley are already clearing a path and fighting Lilith (Man. of Death), who is fighting against her will. Seeing the group, Enzo throws his 5 Gold cards to them to put into the statue while he sacrifices himself against Lilith to buy more time. As Ridley tries to help, he is literally deleted from the arena, ousted by SIR as the Cheater. NULL swallows the bottom space beneath the platform as the final contestants look on in horror to see SIR’s physical body–a celestial amalgamation of flesh, bone, marrow, and metal–take shape forming around the Machine as an augmented core for His body. He sends a meteor down to finish them all off, having no more use for humanity.
[WINNER]’s Wish: The Diegetic Retcon™
As promised, the WISH is finally granted: For ERA to not shut down after such a major disaster, the Cards, Manifestations, SIR, and the Tournament were all wished to be warped in the collective consciousness of ERA to be remembered as a trading card game that got a little out of hand (like actual TCGs) Along with that, Skyber and Nova are also effectively wiped from the collective consciousness; to ensure the machine won’t act up again. They are now known as Sky Starr and Noa Starr, two relatively normal Electi and cousins that dorm with Pearl. Only Sky, Noa, Pearl, Kay, Artemis, Penny, Preston, Brown, Lucas, Ridley, Lily, and Enzo have 100% complete unedited memories of the arc. Markiplier catches on fire.