Chereads / The Successor / Chapter 9 - The Successor Chapter 9

Chapter 9 - The Successor Chapter 9

Riding on the wave of publicity generated by the previous two episodes, the audience have high expectations for the final two episodes.

In past episodes, the contestants were tested on their teamwork, their debating ability, their strength of will, their intelligence, their physicality, and their adaptability. Taken together, these Challenges preview the contestants' superhero career.

Additionally, candid moments and interviews provided the opportunity for the contestants to build affinity and relatability with the viewers; allowing the contestants to obtain and maintain a stable fandom.

The final team competition is a comprehensive Challenge that takes place in the simulated reality of the greatest superhero battle since the death of Paragon; the "Battle of Hope City" circa 1992.

In this Challenge, the rogue hero, Solar Flare, battles against the combined forces of Golden Star, Magenta Blue, and Psi-Axe.

With big data, expert testimony, and eye-witness accounts, the Producers can guarantee a 99.9999999% accuracy in the simulation. Their confidence comes from having data from PNN, the long-time sponsor of Solar Flare; and from Alien Axe, the heir to Psi-Axe's power.

In this backdrop of every increasing collateral damage, the contestants have to find and recover the "omega alignment" from one of the three Dr. Para (robotic, super-powered, or vampiric) and return it to their "spawn point" before Solar Flare nukes the whole city in 120 hours.

The teams will randomly spawn in one of the major bases on the map; with the city's police, with the state police, with the National Guard, or with the S.H.O.C.K organization.

All of the contestants will take the role of generic superheroes with the powers of energy blast, super strength, and enhanced durability. The simulation, however, will preserve relative strengths; a stronger contestant will still maintain his strength advantage over weaker contestants.

A contestant will automatically be ejected, safe-and-sound, from the simulated reality when they "die". Additionally, all foreign entities are automatically ejected when the simulation ends.

The simulated reality is created with the power of the Primordial Orderis, an ancient artifact from an advanced civilization.

Human scientists have long since learned to hack into the Primordial Orderis in order to have it create simulated realities virtually indistinguishable from real reality; save for a soft background "ticking" sound that permeates throughout the simulated worlds. Although the incessant ticking sound has driven quite a few users insane, some whisper that the ticking sound is a feature - not a bug. Their proof? Generations of human scientists have failed to fix the alleged "bug".

The Primordial Orderis is also a voyeur's wet dream. The artifact can watch, record, and play back any scene that takes place in the simulated reality; this makes it relatively easy for the show's Producers to gather footage.

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Preparation phase, the Trainees' room.

"...I know there isn't a lot of time to prepare," Keith was saying. "The Producers were very tight lipped about it."

"Still," Keith continues. "We have three days. We should use that time to gather as much information on the battle as we can. I'm talking about books, libraries, movies, anything."

"Any questions?" Keith asks.

The room shakes their heads.

"Ok. This is it guys," Keith says. "Let's do it".

-----

Preparation phase, the Sidekicks' room.

"Time to hit the books," Krystal suggests.

"I hate studying," whines Jackalyn- an extremely pale, masked lady with jet black hair and numerous tattoos. "Can we do something fun instead?"

"Not all of us are stoned losers," mutters Scales.

"Who are you calling a loser?" Challenges Jackalyn.

"Ladies. Settle down," interrupts Krystal with a frown on her face. Krystal's voice has an almost hypnotic effect, immediately quelling the brewing hostilities.

"Let's go to the library," Snow Lily suggests, "We can make a day of it. Get some boba, eat Korean BBQ..."

"Yay! Field trip!" Candy happily replies.

-----

Preparation phase, the Inscrutables' room.

S.Q. was saying, "we need experts."

"Did you get Dr. Hans?" S.Q. asks one of his staff members.

The staff member replies, "he's busy."

"Westley Adams?" S.Q. queries.

"He has a prior appointment," says another staff member.

S.Q. sighs, "only libraries and bookstores left."

"But libraries and bookstores won't have tactical battle information," Robolox points out.

"I know," replies S.Q. "So we go for the next best thing. History and biographies of battlefield commanders."

-----

Preparation phase, the Rejects' room.

A large battle map is spread across a huge table. Numerous plastic miniatures and flags dot the map's landscape.

"No no no," says a man in a tweed jacket- Dr. Hans. "If you go here, you'll be ambushed by mutated plants."

"If you don't go through there," responds a man in a black suit- retired Major General Adams- "but go through that section, you'll alert the vampires in section A9 to your presence."

As the two men argue, the camera captures some Rejects team members having a conversation off to the side.

"Man, I hope we start with the military," says Tyrone.

"Nah, I think it'll be easier to leverage NPC resources if we start with S.H.O.C.K," replies Risky Business- a masked dark haired man wearing a formal tuxedo.

The camera then pans over to Alex.

Alex glances at the camera before rhetorically asking, "do you know what's better than hearing an expert lecture on a subject?"

After a short pause, Alex answers, "hearing two experts argue over it".

-----

The final Challenge.

The Challenge opens up with a close-up of a flying man wearing a blue and silver spandex costume, Psi-Axe.

Holding a gleaming silver poleaxe in his hands, Psi-Axe says in a booming voice, " behold the power of my alien axe ," before telekinetically ripping a skyscraper from its foundation and catapulting it toward a flying man wearing a dark red costume with the emblem of a golden sun on his chest, Solar Flare.

Solar Flare makes a backhand motion. As he does so, streaks of dark red fire erupt from his backhand and strike the flying skyscraper, disintegrating it into flaming rubble.

A muscular man wearing a golden costume, Golden Star, crashes into Solar Flare from behind.

Looking pissed-off, Solar Flare grabs Golden Star and hurls him into a building, the force of the collision causes sections of the building to break off and fall onto the streets below.

It was then that the contestants spawn.

-----

The "Eye-of-God" camera pans to various scenes in the simulated reality before stopping at, and displaying, some of the more interesting ones.

The camera pans to an empty nondescript room.

"How do I fire an energy blast?" Delilah asks as she starts making random poses with her hands.

"Look at me! I'm strong," says Tiff-for-Tat as she effortlessly lifts a table with one hand.

"Put that down before you hurt yourself!" Robolox lectures.

"Limitless Blade Works!" Infinite Blades screams as three green "energy arcs" erupt from his hands and blow up a small section of a nearby wall.

A bunch of cops run into the room with their guns drawn.

"What are you guys doing?" A cop angrily asks.

-----

The camera pans to the Rejects inside a locker room.

"Hey, vhat is S.H.O.C.K?" asks Berig as he slips on some body armor.

"It's like KFC," responds Tyrone as he laces up his combat boots. "It ain't nothing".

"KFC stands for Kentucky Fried Chicken," interjects Tony T as he checks his gear.

"Nah man," Tyrone replies. "It ain't Kentucky, it ain't chicken..."

"But it is fried, ja?" Berig interrupts as he cracks his neck.

"Anyway," Tony T changes the subject. "S.H.O.C.K stands for the Superhero Organization of Central Kansas."

"But ve not in Kansas," Berig points out.

"I know", says Tony T as he and the other Rejects begin walking out of the locker room. "It was founded in Kansas, and the name stuck."

"I don't believe," Berig says while shaking his head.

"Hey boy!" Berig calls out to a passing youth wearing S.H.O.C.K body armor. "Vhat is S.H.O.C.K?"

"Sir. Mr. Super Sir," the youth responds, "S.H.O.C.K stands for Superhero Organization of Crusading Knights."

"Huh," says Tony T. "Today I learned."

-----

The camera pans to an outdoor training area. Rugged, tamperproof, and weatherproof exercise equipment lay scattered around the area.

"I..." Landon said slowly. "I didn't mean to... it... just happened..."

Landon points his finger angrily at a headless corpse wearing BDUs. "IT WAS HIS FAULT!"

A group of BDU wearing guardsmen slowly backs away from Landon.

"What are you doing?" Lacie screams as she runs toward Landon. "Have you gone crazy?"

Lacie screeches, "we'll fail if they detain us for more than 120 hours!"

"Well, let's make sure they don't detain us," Landon smirks.

"What..." asks Lacie as she takes a step back. "What are you planning?".

"Everyone. Stand down," commands a middle-age guardsman as he enters the area. His three chevrons above a rocker indicates he's a staff sergeant.

"Just this," demonstrates Landon as he rips out some equipment from its foundation and throws it at the sergeant.

The equipment collides with the sergeant splattering him against the compound's concrete wall.

"Holy shit!" A guardsman screams.

"Fucker," Lacie curses as she throws a kick at Landon.

"Oh. It's on," Landon grins as he dodges the kick, "I've been wanting to do this for a long time."

Upon hearing his words, Lacie grinds her teeth. She grunts and swings her fist at him.

Landon, however, dodges. Looking at Lacie's furious expression, his grin widens as he taunts her, "are you done yet?!"

"Now it's my turn", Landon says as he counterattacks.

The two exchange blows as a nearby guardsman radios for help, "the supers have gone crazy. We need backup."

-----

The camera pans to Snow Lily waving goodbye to a bunch of uniformed officers as she walks away from them.

The Sidekicks dodge falling rubble as they walk down the street.

As she dodges a particularly large piece of debris, Scales sullenly mutters, "I still say we should have gotten NPC backup."

Jackalyn rolls her eyes, "they'll just hold us back."

Candy asks, "do you think we should have gotten directions?"

Jackalyn hits Candy on the back of the head. "Dumbass, do you think there's going to be big flashing signs pointing at Para's HQ?"

"Hey. What's that?" Asks Snow Lily as she points toward a giant blimp.

From the distance, the Sidekicks can make out an evil-looking airship, with a dark purple and green color scheme, dropping bombs on the city below.

Suddenly, from seemingly out of nowhere, a blast of dark red fire engulfs the airship; causing it to explode.

The Sidekicks witness the passenger compartment of the airship crashing downward.

"Let's go that way," says Candy as she happily skips toward the wreckage.

-----

The camera pans to the Rejects.

"Incoming hostiles at 3 o'clock," a voice buzzes through the radio communications.

"Roger. Red Rover," Tony T replies through the comms.

"We going radio silent!" remarks Tyrone as he takes a silver grenade from his tool belt.

A squad of twelve robotic "pods" appear from the 3 o'clock position. Each robotic "pod" looks like a futuristic ray gun mounted on a silver disc with four legs.

Upon seeing them, Tyrone hurls the silver grenade at them.

The grenade explodes with a flash of light. The robots suddenly stop and collapse on the ground.

"OH!" shouts Tony T. "GOT TO LOVE THOSE EMPS".

-----

The camera pans to Landon laughing as he shrugs off bullets and barrels into a group of soldiers wearing BDUs.

Lacie lies nearby, crumpled on the ground.

"Look at me! I'm unstoppable!" Landon laughs as he single-handedly lifts and tosses soldiers around as if they were stuffed animals.

-----

The camera pans to the Inscrutables

"Well that was a waste of time," comments Robolox as the Inscrutables walk out of the police station.

"So these NPCs think their world is real," Tiff-for-Tat muses. "What da hale?".

"At least we got that part over with," Delilah exhaustively lets out a sigh.

"Hey!" Tiff-for-Tat says. "Do you think we can bully Solar Flare?".

"No," Robolox says firmly. "We'll just die".

"You just don't want to kill your hero," replies Tiff-for-Tat. "Noah fence".

"None taken," responds Robolox. "And no, I just don't want to throw away our lives in a meaningless endeavor."

"Well, I'm going," says Tiff-for-Tat as she raises her hand. "Who's going with me"?

Seeing as how the other members of the Inscrutables mutter "no" as they shake their heads, Tiff-for-Tat stamps her foot angrily.

"Fine," Tiff-for-Tat spits out. "I'll do it myself."

And with that, she leaves the group.

-----

The camera pans to the Sidekicks.

"I hate this. I hate this. I hate this," Candy repeatedly says as she hurls energy blast after energy blast at a seemingly endless horde of mobile giant Venus flytraps. "What are these things anyway?"

"Mutated plants," snaps Scales as she lets out another beam of energy, "Didn't you get the memo?"

"Less talking. More pew pew ," says Snow Lily as she fires off an energy blast.

-----

The camera pans to the Trainees.

Landon looks exhausted as he slumps on the ground. Rich red blood flowed from his many wounds.

Surrounding him are numerous corpses of BDU wearing soldiers.

Landon's eyes open wide in surprise and he mouths an "oh shit!" as an RPG rocket strikes him in the chest.

He explodes, thus ending his reign of terror.

-----

The rest of episode twelve are scenes of the teams moving around and interacting with the NPCs.

Meanwhile, time is ticking down in the simulated world.

-----

After the twelfth episode aired, the most up-voted comment on the internet was "behold the power of money." The audience saw how Alex was able to get famous experts to guide his group, and that those lessons are paying off in the simulated reality.

What the audience doesn't know, however, is that Alex was the one who came up with the final Challenge and he has long since prepared for it. The audience is also unaware that Alex's team was able to go into the simulation early in order to acclimate themselves to the environment. After all, Alex was the one who paid the exorbitant fees to borrow the Primordial Orderis from the secure vaults of PNN.

It's the final challenge and Alex is pulling out all of the stops.