Common Writer: Episode Four

Episode Three: https://pastebin.com/P76F8PGY

>You stared at the ceiling of your bedroom, wondering.
>Spending the better part of the evening at Yuri's house, you both realized the damage done to her science project was a bit too much for one day's work, so you'd help with it another day. Luckily, it wasn't due until next week.
>However, you couldn't shake your thoughts about the person from the park.
>It wasn't uncommon for people to watch fights between you guys and the Shashairi. Pictures had been up on social media of you and your fellow Writers fighting.
>It was, however, uncommon for metallic people to watch you. Was it another Writer? If so, why weren't they fighting alongside you? Was it some kind of enemy, furthering whatever strange plot the monsters had?
>Those green eyes haunted you into the night, piercing your thoughts as you drifted into sleep.
>It was something to worry about for tomorrow; you could discuss it with your clubmates.
>And thus, you slept through the night with slight unease.

>Your day progressed as usual. Waking up, getting ready, going and waking up Sayori and waiting for her while she madly dashed around getting ready, walking to school with her, going through your classes.
>Club time has come once again on this Friday, and you enter the club room to see your fellow Writers already sitting down and chatting.
>Greeting them and sitting down, you count the people in the room.
>One, two, three.
"Hey, where's Monika?" You ask.
>"I don't know. She wasn't in class today, and that's not like her." Yuri notes.
"Huh."
>As if on cue, Natsuki's phone begins to ring with an obnoxious anime ringtone.
"Moe Moe Kitty Parade, huh?" You ask with a smug smile.
>Blushing furiously at her forgetfulness to turn off the ringer, she quickly picks up.
>"Hello? ...Monika? Slow down, what's wrong?" She begins. "Shit! Okay, we'll be right there!" She hangs up, with a hint of anxiousness in her eyes. "There's a bunch of monsters out behind the school, we've gotta get back there!"
"Woah, she's gotta be trapped by them or something!" You hop up from your seat. "Let's go, then!"
>Running out of the classroom together, you form a plan. The best place to transform out of the eyes of the public would be the roof, and then you all could just hop down from there to reach the back of the school. Leading the way, the four of you make it atop the school, and get your Fudeformers out.
>"Henshin!" Escapes from all of you simultaneously. A rave of blue, purple, pink, and green.
>The belts sound off as you transform, and leading the charge, you jump off of the roof and somersault several times in the air, landing on your feet at the rear of the building. Looking forward, you saw several grounds used in sports. The running track, the football field, stuff like that. Behind you, the other Writers land, and Sayori speaks up.
>"Whoa, Anon! When did you learn to flip like that? It's so cool!" She says, in awe.
"I... don't know, actually. I think the suit just helps with it." You answer, looking out across the track. Where were the monsters?
>Running ahead with the girls behind you, you enter the track and get near the bleachers when you hear a striking sound.
>Directly in front of you, a pen was embedded into the ground. Then, two more, flying in from the right.
>Turning toward the bleachers, you saw the stranger from yesterday wielding a bow. Lime green metal body with black highlights, piercing emerald eyes. Two white diamonds on its chest with a red heart in the center, an Author Driver along their waist with another heart sticking out from it hanging above a skirt that was fading in and out of reality. Brass hair, with a large white piece in the back.
>In one hand, a large bow with a white hand guard modeled after the bow on her head. In her other, a silver pen.
https://i.imgur.com/5Tm2DST.png
"Monika! I thought you couldn't transform!" You called out, recognizing the suit's pattern.
>"Ahahaha~" She responded before disappearing into a cloud of pixelation. Back at the track, your ears were assaulted with the sound of wind whipping around you.
>"Anon! It's the monster from yesterday!" Yuri yelled over it.
"What? They can come back? Shit!"
>"I've never fought one more than once!" Natsuki hollered before getting hit by a gust to her guts.
>"Did you say Monika? Did she bring them back with that pen I made for her?" Sayori yelled, preparing to make some empty bottles to throw.
"What?!" You were confused. She can do that? "Never mind, we can deal with that in a minute! We gotta take care of these things!"
>"We don't exactly have a vacuum, Anon! How are we going to deal with them?" Yuri says between getting ready to counter them.
"I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" You look between your club mates.
>Yuri was good for protection against direct attacks, but eventually they'd just do that whirlwind attack.
>Natsuki could maybe counter that, running quickly in the opposite direction and cancelling it out.
>Then, you look over Sayori with her bottles.
"Sayori, how empty are those bottles?" You ask.
>She looks back and forth between you and the clearly empty bottle in her hand.
>"Uh, is this a trick question?"
"No! Do they have air in them?"
>"Yeah! I think!"
"Make them without air, instead!"
>"Alright, I'll try!"
"Okay, team! Sayori will make bottles with a vacuum seal! Yuri, you'll guard her! Natsuki, we'll run around and suck em up into the bottles!"
>A chorus of agreement occurred, and the plan was set into motion. The vacuum of the bottles was strong enough, and with minimal damage done to any of you, the lonely cloud Shashairi were defeated.
"Great work, everybody! We're a great team!" You said, shattering the last bottle under foot and watching as the alphabetical characters dissipated.
>"All thanks to your great leadership!" Sayori beams.
>"Yeah, it was pretty alright." Natsuki adds.
>"Quick on your feet again, Anon." Yuri says.
>"Okay, everyone! Good warm-up!" A fourth voice adds. Spinning on your heels, you come face to face with Writer Monika.
"Hey! What the fuck's your problem?" You ask, furious.
>"My problem? Oh, nothing, Anon! Ahahaha~"
"Really? Because it seems like you just unleashed three wind monsters on us and then bailed while we fought them!"
>"Oh, you still don't get it, do you?" Your heart drops.
>"Monika..." Sayori says under her breath.
>"I had Sayori make me a Fudeformer, to test if my dad was telling the truth! And since he clearly wasn't, do you know what I'm doing with it?" She leans forward in a smug manner.
"You're..." You clenched a fist and raised it. You didn't want to fight your club president.
>"That's right! I used my powers to save a copy of the monster from yesterday and loaded it back up, so we can fight it to train!"
"You bi- wait, what?" You lower your hand.
>"Yep! My powers are to save and load things, so I loaded multiple of that monster! I also let you guys fight them without me to see how you worked as a team!"
>Silence among the Writers, broken after a moment by the pink one.
>"That's a rotten trick, Monika! You had me worried, like you betrayed us for some reason!" She said, stamping her foot into the ground.
>"Yeah!" Sayori agreed.
>"It was a bit odd." Yuri remarks.
>"Ahah, I guess it was." Monika's mannerisms turn sheepish. "I'm sorry, everyone. I just wanted to surprise you, since we thought I couldn't help other than giving orders before."
>"Well, next time, just transform in front of us! That's a big enough show!" Natsuki yells.
"Gotta agree with her. But... it's cool that you can transform." You stick out a hand. You're not quite over having to fight those things again, but better to let bygones be bygones.
>She takes your hand and gives it a firm shake. The other girls gather around, and you chat about the powers for a moment.
"Say, how did you do that fading away thing?" You ask.
>"Oh, I reloaded myself in a previous location! It was actually just across the way, there!" She points across the track, to a spot near the finish line.
"You can do that? How?"
>"Oh, all I gotta do is touch whatever I'm saving, then hit Save on my journal here!" She points downward, and you look at her belt. Save/Load is prominently featured in her handwriting on the page. "Then, I just think of the thing I want to load, and by touching Load I can either load it from these pens I shoot from my bow, or in the case of myself, wherever I last saved!"
"Huh. Neat!" You didn't quite understand it, but it seemed powerful!
>"Oh, oh, I've got an idea! We should do one of those team cheer things, now that we've all got powers!" Sayori exclaims.
>You're confused, but see no reason why not. Suddenly, you're mobbed by four incredibly cute toku heroes in a group hug.
>Hearing a beep as you're squeezed, Sayori leads the cheer.
>"Alright, everyone! 'Go Common Writers!' on three!"
>"One! Two! Three!"
>You all shout in triumph as for the first time you're united as the ultimate fighting force!

>"Go Common Writers, indeed." Another voice booms, this one being a light, almost nasally male voice.
>Turning to see the new addition, you spot a man slowly approaching you. A short man with short black facial hair, dressed in a lab coat.
>"Dad? What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be on a business trip!" Monika yelled.
>"I was, but I felt something was wrong, so I came back early. I see you found a way to transform without my help."
>"I did!" She exclaims, taking her pen out and transforming back.
>"Interesting. Say, you there. Without the skirt."
"M-me?" You respond. He walks up closely to you, and extends a hand. You shake it in response.
>"Nice to meet you, Acclimate. Monika has told me a lot about you. You may call me Dan." He smiles at you, returning the shake before walking away down the track. "It would seem the experiment is going well, hm, Monika?" Something wasn't right about the way he said that, you thought.
>"Yes! With all of us being able to transform, those Shashairi don't stand a chance!" She exclaims happily, and the rest of the group makes noises in agreement.
>"You're right. With that being said, we'll have to end this experiment..." He snaps his finger in the air. "Early."
>What did he mean by that? You looked to Monika for answers; she was transfixed on him. Looking to Natsuki and Yuri yielded the same results.
>Looking to Sayori...
>Wait. Where was Sayori?
>You turn back to the man.
>"You see, I can't have you defeating my creations as quickly as you are. That gets in the way of my plans." Another snap. Yuri and Natsuki disappear, and you start to panic.
"W-what are you doing to them?!" You yell.
>He turns to you with an amused smirk.
>"The Author Drivers inject the user with a unique strand of DNA to allow them to transform. And as the creator of the project, I sought to use this to achieve ultimate power. So, as the final Writer; you may call me Dangerous, if you like, I have two powers. One; to summon the Shashairi to do my bidding. And the other, to instantly delete anyone and anything injected with the DNA. Just. Like." He raises his hand. "This."
>Monika turns to you and rushes into your arms, throwing her hands around your waist. As a snap reverberates through the air, she fades away into nothingness.
>"Not a trace of them remains. And now, there's only one more person to do this to that could possibly stand in my way." He laughs, points his hand at you, and snaps once more.
>You feel yourself fading.
>Or, rather, you feel your armor fading. Soon enough, you're back in your normal form, Driver around your waist.
>"Oh? I see that Bottles must've made you a belt, and the DNA strand allowing you to transform must be different. Looks like it only destroyed your pen." He puts his arms across his chest, then laughs once more. "No matter. Without a Fudeformer, there's nothing you can do." A snap with his other hand summons several of the birds you faced on your first morning as a Writer, who follow closely behind him. "I'll let you live, since you're so interesting. Let you see what terror I wrought."
>With that, the short scientist left, and you were left in tears.
>Four friends, gone, in the blink of an eye.
>A crazed scientist looking to take over the world or something.
>And you, powerless to stop him.
>You ran off to the club, to hide in shame and try to think things through.

Episode Final: https://pastebin.com/72TT0Pr9