"So either way somebody dies....Hm."

Johanna said putting her finger to her lips for a minute before saying with a concentrating look on her face

"Or I can just make meany Kari-chan go to the dark room and let Johanna-chan stay in this body."

Mat-Mat blinked for a minute. "How would you be able to do that?"

"ENOUGH TALK! Time for the game!" Atticus yelled as characters made a giant box around them. There were bears, wolfs, squirrels, foxes, all types of animals you would find in a forest anywhere. They all had on different outfits, and each one had different powers.

"Pick wisely, for once you pick, you can't switch. The first one you pick will be your leader." Atticus explained as he stared to Johanna (Kari). "Since you haven't been much of a butthead, you can pick first."

"Mmk Atticus!"

Johanna said cheerfully as she hopped/skipped over to the box and thought it over for a minute or two before picking a fox as her 'leader' saying cutely

"I want the foxey."

"Excellent choice. That fox will be your leader and is really smart. You'll have a good advantage in this game already."

Atticus said sweetly smiling, showing all his teeth. His smile then disappeared as he stared at Mat-Mat. "Your choice, butthead?"

"I'll choose....this one." Mat-Mat said as she chose a dirty blond wolf with expert knowledge of the forest. ((Reminds you of anyone? CX))

((Lol,dunno.The fox has brown fur and is 'super intelligent' remind you of anyone?XD))

"Hm.....I want the bunny."

Johanna said picking out the greyish rabbit out of the box and putting it down next to her fox while waiting for Mat-Mat to pick her next animal.

"That guy.....he looks familiar...his presence...something really familiar" Jillian mumbled thoughtfully, Alexander raised an eyebrown and looked at her, suddenly her eyes widened in pain and horror and then narrowed in anger and sadness at the same time, Alexander just looked at her as he wondered if it was possible Atticus was the one responsible of Jillian's broken heart and her becoming a cupid, she never talked about it so he wasn't sure.

((Gee, I wonder who?))

"I'll take....this little kitty."

Mat-Mat said as she picked out a black mountain lion. It was small, but fast.

Johanna thought hardly for a minute and then asked Atticus raising her eye brows in a curious like manner,she really did think of the most insane ideas

"Can I pick myself Atticus?"

This is why I hate 5-year olds..... Atticus thought to himself as he answered, "If you do, and you die in the forest, then your team automatically loses, and you and Kari get sent to the dark room."

"I won't die.I have Kari-chan on my side,she would never get over her precious precious L-kun dieing while I could personally care less."

Johanna said simply,picking herself for this round.It was the truth though,Kari had taken multiple training sessions with Naru that involved the forests and since she was only half chimera she had more raw power just less control and less time usage then fulls and she said to Mat-Mat cheerfully

"Your turn."

"Ok....I pick.....the red fox."

Mat-Mat said with an anime sweat drop coming down her head. She hated five-year-old bubbly kids as much as every other teenager.

Even if I do have to go up against Johanna, I won't let Kari die, even if it is my last character.

"I want the eagle please."

Joanna said tuning down the bubblyness since she was thinking hard,with Kari's brain I might add and not her own.

"I'll take....the hawk."

Mat-Mat said as she chose the brown and black hawk, glad that the bubbliness was soften.

(..whats happening?)

(Lol,alright so you see Allen and Kari got in a fight and then Kari's turned into the 'colder and more blunt than ever' part of her and she agitated the Cupid's who're pretty much the matchmakers trying to get her and L together and then Mat-Mat brought in Atticus who took everybody somewhere else and tied Allen and L to a chair and is making Johanna,5 year old split personality of Kari XD,and Mat-Mat do a game and who ever looses goes to a dark room to die unless the other girl takes her place and if they both win then the guys die I'm pretty sure and if they both loose than one of them dies.)

"Wolf."

Johanna said taking a snowy white wolf out of the box before blinking some,her eyes changing to the usual hot peppery black instead of the cold tunnel like ones signaling Kari was back in control,for now that is,and she noticed Atticus still had her Hades and she went over to him calmly,as fast if not faster than he was earlier,and pressed the black decorated part of the gun to her ear,letting him hold onto it so he knew she wasn't doing anything 'funny',she was listening to her 'friend' again,mumbling

"Speak to me, friend.Whisper, I'll listen.I know, I know.You've been locked out of sight All these years!Like me, my friend!
Well, I've come home To find you waiting!Home,And we're together...And we'll do wonders...Won't we...?Hades....?"
Something was going on in that head of hers.

((Hades, Atticus, and Midnight are in another room. It's just Mat-Mat and Johanna in the room with a screen that Atticus is talking from....XD))

Ok......

Mat-Mat though to herself as she chose a mother black bear from the box.

"You really don't need to be telling your choices out loud. Then you might reveal your plot. Just pick your final ones, letting this little cat go first as usual, and then I'll tell you how to operate your characters."

Atticus said bored. "If you don't soon, I'll just have to start doing some things to your friends." He said as he smiled his famous 'Grinch' smile.

((You weren't clear >.<))

Kari sighed and picked out a nightingale and surprisingly,a large black and white panda bear as her last couple animals.

((I sorry. XD))

Mat-Mat finished off by picking a raccoon and a deer as her last choices.

"Good. You're both finished. Now, it's just as simple as a game of chess. You just try to maneuver your animals into a place that you could easily capture it. You can easily just tap into it, but that won't do it. Your animal must do at least a hard kick, scratch, punch, whatever to take it down. Once there are only two animals left, one on each team, we go into sudden death. Once that happens, we'll do the traps, but for now, enjoy your game to the death...."

Atticus said on the screen before it went blank, and the forest then rose above them to at least see what is going on.

"Ok, let's get this over with...."

Mat-Mat sighed as she put her eagle in a tree to watch over the forest.

"Yeah."

Kari replied rather depressed as she whistled sending her wolf over to Mat-Mat's fox which hid expertly before pouncing and snapping the fox's neck in it's jaws,killing it instantly.

"Hmm, not sadden by taking the first kill?"

Mat-Mat asked jokingly as her mother bear attacked the wolf, killing it. "That's one for one."

"Madison,we've played chess together.You know perfectly well that when I play I play for keeps."

Kari said,jumping from her hiding spot in the tree's and kicked the bear's head down with her heel Lenalee kick XD *shot* well,that was either out cold or dead.

"True...however. I choose not do attack your character."

Mat-Mat said as she moved her hawk to snatch up and kill her bunny. Why did she even pick the bunny?

"I have yet to attack you directly haven't I?"

Kari replied,sweat dropping.Damn Johanna and her bunny fetish.And she clapped her hands onto a tree making a bow and arrow out of wood from it and shot the hawk down.

"True, once again."

Mat-Mat said as her mountain lion came up and attacked her fox.

((I'm going to send you a PM about how I hope the end of this game will work out. XD))

The fox however could put up a hell of a fight before Kari got over there and kicked the mountain lion in the ribs making it pass out before it K.O'D or killed her fox and the giant panda bear was somewhere eating leaves,before attacking Mat-Mat's wolf.

Mat-Mat's wolf barely escaped, thanks to her raccoon attacking the giant panda bear. Her wolf runs, while the raccoon desperately claws at the panda bear.

The panda bear well sort of kicked/punched the raccoon off of it making it hit a tree and KO but the panda passed out from all the scratches,Kari swore they were down to they're last ones now and she mumbled to the fox and it nodded and headed over to the wolf antagonizing it and making it chase it,the fox going towards a cliff.

Mat-Mat's wolf ran and ran away from the fox, trying not to let it catch up to it.

"STOP!"

Atticus said loudly popping on the screen. "Now that you two are the last ones, choose a place you would like your traps to be. Make a wise choice, you only get three traps."

Mat-Mat quickly set her traps at a spot that she thought no one would even bother looking for. Then, Mat-Mat's wolf ran away from the fox, back into the forest.

Kari set up snare traps under a tree and under a large pile of leaves and a pit fall around where no one would bother looking and then the fox started making the wolf towards the pit fall.

Mat-Mat's wolf easily spotted the trap (He's an expert in the forest) and ran away from it, but in doing so....ends up at a dead in at a rock face.

"Damn it..."

Mat-Mat mutters as she realizes that she's trapped.

"Stupid wolf.....You should know fox's and cats are natural tricksters."

Kari mumbled as she jumped down from the current tree she was hiding in

"Wolves can be sneaky as well."

Mat-Mat said as Kari and the fox both fell for the wolf's traps. Kari was insnared in a rope trap, which held her by her ankle, while the fox fell into a pitfall, K.O'ing him.

"Well....it's just you and me, little kitty." the wolf said.

"........You remind me of an annoying wolf named Kovu that would keep eating my dinner when I was in the pack back in the old days."

Kari said bluntly,dangling by her ankle and cornered by a wolf was not the most fun thing in the world

"Well....let's see if I can't make it any better."

The wolf said reluctantly as he cut down her from the trap. He then stood where she could easily attack him. "I won't leave. I'm not supposed to. You're going to win. It's what this person controling me told me I needed to do. You've won, Ms. Kari."

"Congrats, Kari." Mat-Mat said as she positioned the wolf.

"I don't want to win this game."

Kari said to the wolf bluntly,she hadn't wanted to win since the beginning,one of the main reasons why she picked so many animals that could easily be taken out.

"I don't care if you want to or not. You are. I'm not going to attack your character and send you there. Just go ahead....I promise you that I'll be fine."

Mat-Mat said sternly as she moved the wolf to a standing position with his front legs wide open, like in a wide hugging position.

Kari blinked and walked over to the wolf and hugged it tightly briefly before snapping it's neck in one swift painless movement,she had won.AND SHE HATED IT!Oh how was she ever going to tell Allen?

The forest disappeared. The room suddenly went gray, and Atticus came back on the screen, smiling his evil smile.

"Congrats, Mrs. Neko. I knew you were going to win. Don't worry, you'll be sent back to your friends." he said smiling. "As for you...." he added as he stared at Mat-Mat, who was suddenly extremely pale, "it's time to say goodbye to everything that you hold near and dear to you....any last words?"

"Yeah. You're a f**king lunatic, but otherwise that, I'll be fine."

Mat-Mat said as she disappeared into a black smoke. She was gone, and nothing and noone could do anything about it.

"I want Hades back."

Kari said almost automatic to Mat-Mat's 'death' 'permanently stuck somewhere dark' whatever you wanted to call it,her hair was hiding her black eyes as she had near invisible tears going down her face

"Yes, of course, the little wolf-boy will have it when you return."

Atticus said as he snapped his fingers, and she was suddenly back in the 'Joker of Cards' room, with everyone staring at her, glad to see her back.

"Kari.....where's Mat-Mat?"

Allen noticed as he suddenly turned anime white.

Kari shook her head,taking Hades from him,and said softly shaking signaling now that she was crying

"She lost the game."

Allen's eyes filled with despair and sadness, but he didn't cry. He didn't want to show it. He started shaking though, trying to fight back the despair.

"Oh.....at least you're back...." Allen managed to say, his voice soft.

"Well, there's two good things in one. The annoying butthead is gone for good, and I get to play with your hearts some more."

Atticus said as he appeared in the room, smiling from ear to ear. "Now, who shall play my games now? I'll let you guys decide. The price, you may like."

"I'll play your irritating games."

Kari said before the boys could open they're mouths,she did not want them getting into it,besides she had Hades at her hip so she was beyond well armed.

"Ah, but you see, this game requires two players. And this game is for a very good prize, you can choose one of three things. For Mrs. Neko, I'll grant you any prize of your choice. Mr. Wheeler, the same goes for you too. The third thing, if you both either win, you can have your friend back. But....I'd hurry."

Atticus said as he smiled. He then showed on one of his screens behind him where Mat-Mat was. Mat-Mat was in a dark, black catacomb, chained to the wall by her hands, her clothes ripped, her body extemely pale, blood coming down her forehead, and it looked like she was dead. "You don't have much time before she doesn't exist anymore in this world......"

"Mat-Mat.....I'm in."

Allen said shocked, before agreeing to the game.

"Alright,what's the game this time Atticus?"

Kari asked,still not calling him a single bad name.We can only wonder why but the most probable answer was that she knew what he was feeling and didn't want to be a hypocrite by calling him a mean name.

"It's the oldest game in the entire book....the fight of survival. In otherwords....a fight to the death. It's just as simple as the title. Whoever comes out on top will win their prize. If you both win, I'll give you the prize that will be given to you."

Atticus said with a smile. I've always loved watching good friends fight each other.....

"So.....what if we both lose?" Allen asked with his eyes bright.

"Then you'll both be sent to the same place where your girlfriend is....." Atticus replied with an evil laugh.

"Really now?" Allen said with a grin, hiding it from Atticus. He thought of the perfect way to get back Mat-Mat. "Ok....I'm going to like this game."

"Allen,I don't trust that grin.And I highly doubt you can survive bullets,or do you want it to be an animal to animal fight?"

Kari said/asked sighing,how troublesome.

"Oh, on the contrary....I'm not going to survive, and neither are you if all goes to plan."

Allen said grinning from ear to ear. "I've found a way to use them, Mat-Mat, and it's not for pranks." he mumbled to himself.

"Ok, wolf and kitty, time to go to your arena, but first, I'll give you at least a good ten minutes to devise your plans."

Atticus bellowed waiting patiently.

".........Allen.No offense but,I'D LIKE TO STAY ALIVE FOR MY BIRTHDAY!"

Kari said with her eye twitching

"Okey dokey, Atticus. Are you going to give us some privacy, so the suspence will kill you in the battle?"

Allen asked grinning.

"Sure, why not? I'll give you all the privacy you'll use in the last minutes of your life."

Atticus said as the screen went blank. Allen waited until he thought he couldn't hear any of them, and when it was clear, he dove into his pockets and brought out a handful of red pill like things. "This, is going to get us to Mat-Mat, and you'll get to experience your birthday."