Mischievous Function

Ladies, Gents, and Paintbrush

Half an hour later, in the snowy clearing behind the hotel...

"Guys, this still doesn't really feel right," OJ insisted as he took his place between Snowball and Paper. "Six of us guys versus only one girl?"

Gelatin smirked at them and shook his head. "And good odds for her, at that. Trust me, you two. With the six of us, this is as fair as it's gonna get."

On the other side of the clearing, Teardrop was going through several arm and leg stretches as she sized up her competition. Unlike last time she was in a snowball fight, she'd be facing them head-on instead of trying to sneak around them with her guard down, so...what happened...last time, she assured herself, would not happen again this time.

Paper watched Eraser and Snowball crack their knuckles and their necks before speaking up timidly, "Uh...yeah, I'm not so sure about this, either. I mean...I know I'm not that much of a help either, but...six of us seems kind of overkill, doesn't it?"

"Look, buddy," Coiny chuckled, shifting out of his ready position for a moment to face Paper, "I don't think you understand just how hardcore our girls can be. Let's see: we've got among us a bodybuilder who can smash men's arms through tables without batting an eye, a sprinter-marathoner who can run across and around the entirety of Yoyle City without breaking a sweat, an avid gymnast and martial arts enthusiast who gets high off adrenaline and singlehandedly took on an entire mafia squad, a deadeye gunslinger who can empty the entire magazine of her gun in less than a split second with pinpoint accuracy while also being able to literally shrug off bullets, an actual murderous lunatic who can—and, quite literally, has—killed droves of people and dodged the police literally in her sleep, and a morally devoid sociopathic inventor who builds the stuff of nightmares and exploits every possible weakness of the people around her. Meanwhile, the closest thing to hardcore that the boys have is a boy who can fight off demons with one arm in a sling—and let me remind you that that same boy is also the most cowardly of us all."

"Not gonna lie, dude, he's kinda right," Snowball agreed. "Remember that demon cave we drove through on our way here? The girls would have taken care of them in less than half the time it took us—and that's just on their own, without the weapons in Four's bus."

Paper gulped before turning back to face the other side of the clearing and shifting into his ready position while the other boys did the same. "Thanks for the reassurance, guys..." he muttered.

Meanwhile, Paintbrush was standing off to the side near the hotel doors, an equal distance away from both sides of the snowball fight. Once they saw that both the boys and the girl were ready, they nodded beside them to Yin. Yin nodded back before raising his hand in the air.

"Oh! That's the signal, guys, get ready," Gelatin told them as they all got ready to run.

Yin looked right at the boys, looked left at Teardrop, and counted to three in his head before rapidly swinging his arm down and pointing at the ground. At the same, Yang drew his fist back and slammed a hard punch into the snow, briefly creating a large crown of snow around the crater before the snow fell back to the ground.

Paper watched as the rest of the boys let out battle cries and started rushing toward Teardrop, balling up snow on their way. He gulped nervously one more time before balling up a snowball himself and hesitantly following them.

Teardrop had initially been excited about the fight, but she stopped when she saw the five guys stupidly rushing her and Paper desperately trying to bring up the rear. She cocked an eyebrow before giving them a disappointed, flat frown and dropping the two snowballs in her hands.

Coiny was the first one to get within throwing distance of Teardrop and slung his snowball at her face. She easily tilted her head to the side, however, and shook her head, realizing that this fight was going to be boring after all.