Red Stitch Report: Episode 3

Episode 3 of Red Stitch Report.

## Episode Synopsis

The group has an outdoor picnic with Daisy and Vick, where Daisy agrees to help them out in a fight subtly as compensation for completing the task for them. The group schemes and walks around, and bumps into Hitogata, who invites them to a lunch with Robin, Hitagata, and Mushi. They are informed of how to gain access to the vents. They spy on Georgie Fantastic and find an old storage room. The group fights and defeats Georgie Fantastic and the Stadium Blowouts in a wrestling match. Vice informs Cadmus that he's arranged a special match for his return. Cadmus's initial excitement is dispelled when he realizes its a match against Governor Soccer Moses, the man who defeated him in the governor race by revealing Cadmus's epithet. Cadmus is sorely outmatched, and is defeated.

## Summary

As luck would have it, as the trio proceeded to flee the scene, they bumped into Vick - and informed him that the deed was done. With their end of the deal held up, Vick invited them to an outdoor picnic, so that they could discuss proper compensation. Daisy suggested that, given the upcoming fights could get extreme, the group could give her a signal for a one-time bit of subtle assistance if they so desired; where she’d help out in her own special way. Vick also suggested that, if the group are looking for more information on Hutch, their best bet is to ask Zelda; as, in the fiction of the wrestling world, she’s supposed to be his wife (despite not pursuing a relationship in reality). With a long day still ahead of them, the group thanked Vick for his time, and headed back to meet up with Cadmus.

With Cadmus and Haymaker finally recovered, Cadmus briefly reminisced with Shelly and Nyx, before bumping into the rest of the group by the entrance to the locker room - including Ian, who provided the rest of the group with a napkin drawing of a map of the area. Isabelle noted that Hutch had a room to himself, but Ian mentioned that it was locked tight, and was covered heavily by security cameras. While the group attempted to make plans on how to get in undetected, Ian left the group to their own devices, opting to continue walking around instead of working on their main goal. The group continued to discuss ideas on how to bypass security, out in the open, communal corridor, until they eventually attracted the attention of Hitogata - who, fortunately, didn’t seem to care much for their ulterior motives, and instead reminded them that they were invited into a private space with Robin, should they want to plot somewhere less conspicuous. Needless to say, the group followed up on that offer.

The group partook in cake and casual conversation with their former opponents, with Isabelle ecstatically getting the chance to know Robin a little better, and the group let their guard down to the point that they confided in Hitogata and Mushi regarding Hutch’s attempt on their lives. While they didn’t have any extra information to offer to the party, Hitogata opened up the entrance to a vent in their room, giving them the opportunity to sneak around the venue undetected. Cadmus and Florence take the chance given to them, and end up in what they assume to be the storage room, given the incredible amounts of clutter and unusual items contained within. In fact, Cadmus was certain of this, given he recognised a significant number of props from the old days; with most of them gathering dust, untouched. Unfortunately, the two failed to find anything of interest there, and followed the vent in the opposite direction. The duo managed to find the room of their upcoming competitors, a rock and roll themed group led by a boisterous man named Georgie, and attempted to eavesdrop on them. However, they were accidentally spotted by one of Georgie’s teammates, a whipped man named Piper, causing them to bolt in panic and abandon the vents completely.

The group wrapped up their stay in Robin’s room, having enjoyed the time spent with them, and began to head out and prepare for their upcoming match. However, before they could go, Hitogata stopped Isabelle and directly asked her what her epithet is - with Isabelle offering zero resistance and revealing it to be ☆Error☆. Hitogata, taken aback by the blunt honesty, felt compelled into sharing hers as well - revealing hers to be ☆Butterfly☆. Hitogata advised Isabelle to not be so nonchalant about revealing her power to others, and to also try and treasure it more, as it still had positives among the apparent sea of negatives. As they left, Hitogata advised the group that they should work on their (previously nigh nonexistent) teamwork, which is something they’ll desperately need for the fights ahead.

Intending to kill two birds with one stone, the group went to find Zelda to talk about the upcoming match - and also hoped to find an in to discuss Hutch. Zelda, to the point as always, had little time to waste on the group. She confirmed that their next match will be against “Georgie Fantastic and the Stadium Blowouts”, the rock and roll band that Cadmus and Florence saw earlier. As she tried to get the group to leave, Craigor asked if they could replace their teammate, swapping Haymaker for someone like, say, Heartthrob Hutch. The other 3 were aghast at Craigor’s forwardness, but this actually penetrated through Zelda’s shell, causing her to drop the crabapple act and speak more jovially to the group. She mentioned that Hutch took a week of vacation without specifying any reason, something that they’d already learned from the record room, and appeared to not know much more. She also opened up to Cadmus about her father, as Cadmus was convinced that Vice would have a lot of choice words to direct at him, but Zelda was sure that he had a softer spot for Cadmus than he realised. Discussions of Hutch also started to eat away at the party’s conscience, as it was clear that Zelda had full blown romantic feelings for him, beyond the ones falsified for the storyline. She also commented that Hutch kept mostly to himself, but did bring round a red-haired scientist occasionally, perfectly describing Marco without even knowing his name. With Zelda continuing to rattle off \*far\* too much irrelevant information about Hutch, the party took their leave, and headed on to their imminent upcoming match.

In the arena once more, the party are introduced by K. Fabulous as “Straw for Brains”, pitted against - to no-one’s surprise - Georgie Fantastic and the Stadium Blowouts. As opposed to their previous match, where the arena morphed to a thematic but balanced battlefield against their ninja-esque opponents, this battlefield was instead a concert stage for Georgie with the party watching from the mosh pit. Piper, playing the managerial role for Georgie, used a flute to summon in a horde of supporting fans to occupy the mosh pit; while Georgie and the band proceeded to rock out instead of fighting seriously, clearly using the match as an exhibition for their music rather than their combat abilities. On the party’s managerial side, Isabelle took Hitogata’s advice to heart, and managed to bend reality to the point that she outright erased some of the pit fans from existence. Having learned from his previous mistake, Cadmus attempted to take more of a supporting role in this fight, in an attempt to try and last to the end rather than go down immediately. As part of this, he somehow managed to bring forth an ally from another universe, a futuristic man by the name of Connor Flannigan - who begrudgingly helped the party out. Florence and Haymaker took to the stage to battle Georgie, opting to ignore his two band members, Foxy McCool and Vegas St. Louis, despite them also throwing occasional attacks at them. While it can be questioned if the group truly focused on improving their teamwork, they certainly found this match much less troublesome than the previous one, managing to dispatch Georgie with a dramatic final rush of blows from none other than Haymaker himself. However, Haymaker had followed through with his gimmick of setting himself on fire, and inevitably passed out mere moments later. Having lost their lead member, and with no intention to actually wrestle without showing off their rock and roll skills, the remaining members of Georgie’s band forfeited the match. With the battle won, Connor scolded Cadmus for messing with the universe so carelessly, and returned to his own dimension. Cadmus, who did not even understand how his own abilities worked, felt immensely sad.

As the group began to make their way back to the locker room, they were quickly stopped by Vice. Claiming that the matches had been missing a little “beef”, and not living up to the Absurd Beef Initiative standards, he offered Cadmus the chance for an immediate follow up battle, a 1 on 1, for fame and glory. Cadmus, getting back into the wrestling swing, and fully expecting this match to involve the Triceratops Catapult he saw in the storage room earlier, giddily accepted - only for all his joy and excitement to be completely stripped from him when he learned the arranged opponent is none other than Governer Soccer Moses, the man who truly took everything from him.

Cadmus put up a valiant effort against the Governor, who did not pull any punches against Cadmus, utilising his soccer-based powers to their full potential; but the fight was never fair from the start, with a weakened Cadmus being pitted against an opponent that he would struggle against even if he was in tip-top shape, and all it takes is for Cadmus to fail to defend against a single one of Moses’ relentless attacks to be put in the ground and knocked clean out. Keeping up public appearances, Soccer Moses carried his unconscious foe back to his friends in a demonstration of good sportsmanship, and immediately left to return to his work. Content with the display, Vice welcomed Cadmus back to the world of the Absurd Beef Initiative, and let the group begin their preparations anew.

## Notes & Trivia

* Georgie and his crew are references to the same characters from the lost Anime Campaign Filler Episode, Amongst Elastic Royal, where they attempted to steal an Airship.
* Connor is a reference to the same character in Mars Dreamed Bigger.