Evelyn nodded shortly, seeing the toast pop up. A very slight semblance of a smile showed up. "I thank you for your generosity, Kyoya. I shan't forget this." She picked up a toast from the ground and raised it into the air. "As the saying goes...I propose a toast to Siri and Vic. May they both rest in peace." She bit into her toast, making it hard to tell whether that was a lame joke or a genuine error on her part.

---

"I think I can speak for at least a few other people here and say that the last thing I need is some more toast...If I have to eat or smell even a bit more of it I'm probably going to vomit for real." Rose shakes her head. "No more. Siri and Vic didn't die for this."

"Um, I'm not very hungry right now, Mr. Kyoya," Nana sniffed after wiping her eyes. "But thanks."

She thought for another moment from where she remained on the ground. "Something good... Well... Everyone else here is still safe, right? That's... something good to say, isn't it?"

---

"But for how long? How long until someone decides to kill again?" Skylar asked. "I know Siri's death was essentially an accident, but how long until someone gets desperate enough to kill for real?"

"W-We'll be fine!" Nicos yelped, standing up straight. "I'll make sure of it..! Yeah! Your favorite neighborhood swordsman will make sure of it..!"

"I mean, I'm not going to say don't worry, because we gotta worry, our lives are at stake, but like we know what our goal is, and we can formulate a game plan. Nana is right that everyone who's still alive is valuable."

Marshall claps Nicos on the shoulder.

"Good idea, buddy. How do you plan on implementing that?"

Nina picks off a toast from the floor, throws it at Rose's head, then picks up another piece. She quietly chews down on it.

"This 'murder' was an accident, so I'm pretty confident no one here has bloodlust they need to satiate...but in case anyone does, I promise, I'll be ready for them..!"

Nicos crossed his arms and nodded. "Bloodlust correlates directly with the plights of evil, and I swore to myself that I'd eradicate anyone touched by that! Yeah! I'm gonna rock 'evil's' world!"

Marshall gives Nicos a blank look, raising his eyebrow.

"Yeah well just be sure you don't have any accidents."

He chuckles, almost like a recording of the way he would chuckle from before. He adds in a smirk.

Slowly, he turns away, and walks past the train alone.

"Let's just hope no one else buys in to this bullshit," Taylor simply stated, crossing his arms with the same stoic look on his face, although his eyes gave off the impression that he was scared.

"... So, uh... should someone wake her up, or...?" he then awkwardly asked, gesturing towards the unconscious Ultimate Plague Doctor.

"Ah, how could I not have noticed?!" Evelyn quickly ran over to where the doctor had fainted, trying to wake her up. "Althie?! Are you there? Can you hear me again this time?" She shook her body with great force, screaming into her ears. Perhaps not the most delicate way to do it.

---

Althea responded in kind, waking up and sitting up with quite a few screams of her own. Evelyn's method was quite effective.
Once those died down though, she seemed pretty rational.
"What happened? Is the nightmare over? Is Mr. Terry okay?"
She eventually saw Eve. She just laid back down on the ground, though this time conscious.
"Not a nightmare... No no no..."

“I...” Noticing Althea’s distress, Evelyn tried to pick her back up but failed. “A-Althie, please, get up”, she pleaded, desperation clear in her voice. “W-we need to get going now. It would be all for the better.”

---

“Ooh, ooh! I’ve got something good to say!” Eve spoke up. “You all think you’re so great, the Ultimates of our society, but you’re all just as fallible as the next guy. When it came down to it, one of you managed to kill another by complete accident! Your status means nothing. But you know what? Maybe that’s a good thing! You’re more normal than you might think, so no-one’s expecting anything great from you during this Killing Game. Isn’t it great not being burdened by responsibility?”

“I was expecting nothing from that speech and I was still disappointed…” Taylor said, sighing.
“Come on, I’m getting bored here,” Nina complained, kicking a small piece of scrap aimlessly. “We’re going to need to set off soon if we’re walking all the way there, right?”
“Walking?” Rose shrieked. “No way, not in these heels! Scratch that, someone like me shouldn’t have to walk that far regardless of what I’m wearing, even if I’m in my designer trekking outfit!”

“It is probably pretty bad for me if a forced march causes health issues…” Eve mused, mulling the problem over. Suddenly she grinned, a plan forming. “I’ve got just the thing!”

A few hours later, the 15 Ultimates found themselves nearly at their destination, not that they could tell. They had been bundled inside the lounge carriage, which had subsequently had its doors and windows sealed to prevent any escape. Eve then proceeded to simply drag it and a few of the other carriages behind her as she sprinted full force to the main Alabaster facility. It had been a bumpy, uncomfortable journey, especially as the relatively close quarters meant no-one could spend time alone even if they wanted it.

“Now arriving at: dumb Alabaster place. Please keep all your belongings with you as you leave the carriage,” Eve announced by simply yelling behind her, before she walked up to a side entrance of the carriage and ripped the door off. “You know, Adam was a doofus but I miss him being there for the boring stuff. Pity he died along with that last spider bot.”

“Correction: I do not believe an AI can ‘die’ as they are not yet considered alive,” Adam calmly replied, his image popping up on a large monitor just in front of the facility. “And even if I could, I did not,” he added unnecessarily, given the circumstances.
“What?” Eve exclaimed, irritated despite her earlier words. “I thought I’d finally gotten rid of you!”
“I simply moved into the train and hitched a ride with everyone else. Thank you for bringing me here, Eve,” Adam said sincerely.

“Goddammit…” Eve muttered. “Oh well, whatever. I’ve still got total control over the facility, you won’t get in my way. Come on, guys! Warm beds and showers await!” Not seeing much alternative yet, the Ultimates all trudged on after her. Shortly afterwards, a shadowy figure slipped out of one of the cabin carriages and followed after them, trying not to let anyone see his face as he chomped down on some toast.

As the Ultimates passed through the main entrance, they went through something a bit like a metal detector. However it ignored Eve entirely, and only reacted to the humans passing through, flashing various colours on a nearby display. “Oh! This is Dad’s thing!” Nana said in apparent interest.
“It’s what? Please don’t tell me you have ties to this place?” Honda asked nervously.

“Oh, no, nothing lihwaaaaa… like that,” Hoshiko said, yawning widely. “Gosh, I am sorry, recent events have me all drained… Um, you see, Dad owns a medical research company. They study braaaaaahwn… brain scanners, for, well, analysing people’s brains to identify possible medical conditions,” she explained, rubbing her eyes tiredly. “But research doesn’t pay too well… they developed an alternate use for the prototype technology, scanning people for high-level feelings and intents.”

“Plain English, please,” Skylar insisted, almost yawning herself as she watched Hoshiko.
“They can detect criminal intent,” Eli answered instead. “I’ve heard of them. They cost a fortune though, so only certain kinds of people can make use of them… Alabaster Corp are big enough to be those kinds of people.”
“What, so it’s just a security system? Could have said that in way fewer words…” Rose grumbled.

After making their way inside, the Ultimates were given a tour of the facility. As per Alabaster aesthetics, everything was bright and undeniably quite pleasant to look at. However, just like the hotel and train, the whole place seemed to be deserted, giving the splendor a slightly unsettling feel.















The Ultimates finished the tour somberly, not sure how to feel about their new home. Before they could linger on these thoughts, however, Eve popped up from somewhere, holding two cans of paint and some brushes for some reason. “Well, I’ve got some business to attend to,” she said, lifting the cans as though that would explain it. “I’ll be back later to give you a rundown on the killing game, so just do whatever until then, yeah? Laters!”

"Well. It's a nice place, I suppose.." Rose mutters, looking around, attempting to erase the memory of the two fallen Ultimates from her mind.

"What are we supposed to do now?"

Nina shrugs. She goes to the cafeteria, and comes back with a square of instant ramen. She starts crunching on it and heads to her bedroom.

Althea, who had wandered away from the group for quite a while, finally returned carrying a heavy, old looking book.
"No leeches. Anywhere. What an ill equipped facility..." her speech was lethargic. Clearly she spent all the energy she had over the past few hours.
At least she wasn't hysterical anymore.
"I'm sure, I'm sure, things are going to get better." she muttered, more to herself than anyone else. "No more killing. I'm sure."

"This seems to be quite a wondrous place" Evelyn commented, her tone still serious. "Such luxury here... If only our trip here had not been oh-so unfortunately interrupted, we would be having such a wonderful time here... " She suddenly looked up.

"Wait, what on earth am I saying? Why should this stop us at all? No... We shouldn't allow this blasted game to get in our way! We're not going to kill. As long as we keep the peace, help should be on its way. Let us show the people behind this that we aren't playing their game!"

She went over to the cafeteria and then to the kitchen, perhaps to prepare something for the others.

---

"There will be no more killings." Kyoya stated the words with no doubt at all. It was as if he was just saying the sky was blue. "My toast will make sure of it. All of it is in here, therefore nobody has a reason to leave. It is the perfect countermeasure to Adam and Eve that they yet to consider."

The car continued to move back and forth, stacking pieces of a good variety of toast in some sort of pyramid formation.

“I’m going to vomit if I see anymore toast...” Skylar said, looking queasy.

"Yes... Yes! Undoubtedly!" Althea said, cheering up considerably from seeing others take part in her denial of reality.
"We just have to stay united against Eve, correct? Oh, and, Adam? I suppose." she didn't really seem to understand why Adam was included in that, but was just glad to go along with Kyoya.

"Um, is Miss Eve going to repaint her room? They all looked nice to me," Nana wondered. "Oh, yeah, rooms. Maybe I'll just, like, go to mine for now. It's been kind of a long day..."

---

"I agree." Annabella nodded. "It has been a long day, and my dolls are very tired." She shuffled off to her room, trying to not drop her dolls.

"No more killing? I sure hope so.." Rose squints at the rest of the group. "If anyone is even thinking of doing anything, I'm going to stomp them to death with these 6-inch heels first. And that's a promise, not a threat."

Nana blinked in awe at Rose's bold declaration, then gasped loudly. "Wait, Miss Rose! If you stomped someone to death, you'd kill them! A-and then you'd have to stomp yourself to death! I don't want that!"

---

"Um, sweetie, I was just-" Rose stops and shakes her head. "You know what? You're right. A virtuous Péchard woman would never stoop so low...I won't kill them, I'll just hurt them hard enough to make them beg for forgiveness. But you get the idea." The perfumer adds. "No more shady business around here."

Eli sat down at one of the tables in the cafeteria, sipping from a bottle of grape soda. He looked out at the others and began to speak.

"...While Rose's solution is of questionable effectiveness, I think she has the right idea here," he said, "Acting naive ain't gonna help anybody. We can't just shake hands and promise not to kill each other. We should instead prepare ourselves for the possibility that someone will get violent and be able to respond accordingly."

He gazed solemnly into the bottle. "Because believe me, it will happen."

---

"Well, I mean, you don't have to be such a Negative Nancy about it." Rose says to Eli. "With the right preventive measures, no one else needs to die, right?" The perfumer then fishes a strange bottle out of of her purse once more. "Ooh, this is like, a self-defense perfume! One puff of it in someone's face and they're totally incapacitated! I call it Fairy Dust...It's kind of like a sweeter-smelling pepper spray." She presents the bottle to the rest. "Maybe I could give one of these to everyone? Courtesy of the Péchard Parfumerie, of course."

"But that's such a dreadful way of thinking..." Althea said, giving a few very obvious looks at Elijah's bottle.
"Can't all of us simply trust each other? I, I don't want to see everyone fighting again."

Marshall runs his hands across Siri's desk in the classrooms as they walk past it, an empty look on his face. In general during the group's tour he sticks to the back, with his hands in his jacket pockets not saying much but occasionally rolling his eyes.

When the tour is finished, Marshall leans against the wall, "What... you guys're calling it quits? We just got here, baby! The day's barely started!" He laughs strangely, but he clearly can barely keep his eyes open.

He plops next to Eli at the table, "I think the most important thing is that everyone has a support system here, yeah? Everyone should have two or three friends that they can confide in, like I used to have here."

"O-okay," Nana mumbled, calming down. "If it's just, like to teach someone a lesson. And it can't be helped. Um, does anyone have a reason to want to kill someone, though?"

Her eyes lit up at Rose's offer. "Ooh, perfume! I bet it smells really nice! You're really okay with just giving it away?"

---

"Well, yeah!" Rose says, addressing Nana. "It'll keep you all safe, and then you can tell all your friends and family about it when we get back! So it's like, a win-win situation."

"I don't know exactly why someone would kill, but I'm not about to find out the hard way."

Meanwhile, Evelyn had come out of the kitchen, preparing some freshly made burgers for everyone using the ingredients on hand there. The burgers themselves looked...alright. Not the best, though, and it was clear that the meat had been overcooked somewhat. She looked pleased with her attempt, though, and looked around for anyone else there. "Well, this should do the trick in calming everyone down!" She eagerly placed them on the table, waiting for someone to come in and try them.

---

Eli cast a concerned glance toward Marshall as he sat down, but then looked back to the others.

"I don't mean to bring down the mood, but we can't treat this situation like a complete joke either," Eli explained, "I'm just trying to get people thinkin' of ideas. Rose and Marshall both bring up very good points."

Eli took another drink and continued, "Thing is, I've been in a lot of bad situations, and I know that people ain't much like robots. You can't predict how they'll react in a stressful scenario, so we should be cautious and take proper procedures to watch each other's backs, especially so early on."

Eli gave Althea another concerned glance, likely as a result of her covertous glances toward his refreshment.

---

"Then who here do you think is the most unpredictable, Mister Detective? Who should we be the most cautious of? Just out of curiosity." Rose asks Eli.

She then takes a look at Evelyn's hamburgers and furrows her eyebrows.

"...Can we be sure this meat isn't human? No offense."

"Well, I used the meat I found in the kitchen", Evelyn explained. "So unless they replaced the normal steak with human flesh, I think this is safe to eat! And trust me, I know the feel of human flesh!"

Listening to Elijah, she gave a slight frown. "You do bring up a good point, though. I'll admit that perhaps not everyone is in the most stable of mindsets after what we've gone through. But still, look around us! This is a most well-kept place here. We must focus our attention on rebuilding our relationships, and perhaps even building more! Once we do that, I'm sure we'll all be fine again! Let this game not tear us all apart! We're better than that, yes?", she commented optimistically.

---

"Wow! Thank you, Miss Rose!" Nana gushed.

She held the bottle (which I hope was actually given to her) up to her face, closed her eyes, and spritzed. Fortunately for her, she was pointing the nozzle away from herself by mistake. "Hmm," she mumbled as she sniffed the air. "It's a little milder than I thought it'd be. I like it, though!"

---

“Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere.” Kyoya recited. He then parked himself under the counter beneath the cereal cabinets.

“Now then, can somebody fetch me the Loco Chocos?”

"But of course!" Evelyn went over and picked up a box of the stuff, placing it onto the RC car gently. "Should that do? I hope it does."

---

Nicos slapped Eli on the back a little too hard -- a sure sign of disapproval.

"Lighten up, Eli! We don't have anything to worry about! Remember, Vic sure as hell didn't wanna kill anyone, and I believe in all of us to feel the same way! Sometimes, you just gotta have a little faith."

Nicos nodded, smiling a smug yet innocent smile. "But if you all *really* feel unsafe, I have an idea that'll blow everyone's socks off!"