Disclaimer: Maplestory does not belong to me, nor will it ever. It belongs to Wizet/Nexon.
A/N: I know some of the stuff that I wrote in this chapter doesn't actually happen when you PQ, but really, how could you possibly write about "clicking"? I'm trying to make this seem sort of like real life…well, with a lot of fantasy. No computers or keyboards involved.
Also, this is my first maplestory fanfic...I'm an addict, though. I have never played warrior, bowman or bandit classes, so if some info is wrong, tell me.
"Daris, they're at crack already!" A female bandit whispered urgently into a walky-talky. She had bright, blue eyes and blonde hair that reached to her shoulders. A black pilfer crowned her head, with a white skull decorated on the hat. "Gotcha, Aura. Tell me when to go." Another voice, Daris, replied through the device. Aura looked up to the other four members of the party.
"He's got the message." She relayed to them. Another girl wearing a black pilfer nodded. Her hair was longer, black, and had a slight waviness to it. Emerald green eyes could be seen beneath her bangs (A/N: In America we call 'em bangs, but to other people they could be called "fringes"), and an orange kandayo was equipped onto one of her black, gloved hands, marking her job as assassin.
"How's the tracking going?" The assassin asked the other member of the party, a female wizard whose specialty was in ice and lightning.
"Be patient, Kasai, they're still fighting Alishar." The brunette replied in a teasing tone. Her dark hair flowed past her shoulders, and her hazel eyes were closed in concentration. A black guiltian adorned her head, giving her a witchy appearance. Her light skinned hands were gripping her arc staff tightly, focusing on the other party inside the Party Quest, at the last stage. Only mages had enough psychic intellect to "spy" for their party members and help get them into the PQ.
"Fine, Jade. I'll just sit next to Setei and Sasken." Kasai grumbled and sat next to their two other party members, sitting against a wall. Setei, a hunter, had long, blonde hair tied in a ponytail. A feathered black hat called a distinction, sat atop his head. A red bow was settled in his lap, a Soul Searcher.
The other, Sasken, was a spearman, and held a crescent pole-arm in his lap. A bone helm sat atop his head, muffling his short, messy black hair. Shining silver armor protected his body and glinted off the sunlight shining through the large windows.
The room the party occupied was large, colorful, and crowded. Very crowded. Many other parties were huddled in their own spots, wanting a chance to PQ. The leaders of all these parties were absent, however. They were in another room, granted only to leaders of a party with six members (including the leader). Steel doors blocked them off from the rest of the room, which was elongated like a straight racetrack. The doors would instantly open 10 seconds after the party inside the PQ had been transported to the Bonus stage, where prizes could be won. Although the opening of the doors would alert the leaders that the party was out, it was always better to be prepared, hence the usefulness of walky-talkies. Because once the doors would open, a long half-mile stretch of land was presented, with a stop sign at the end of the room. The stop sign was the goal; to touch it would magically teleport all members of the party to the first stage of PQ. Before the steel doors stood seven leaders, evenly spaced out from each other, tense and nervous. One of them, Daris, was staring at his walky-talky. He was a cleric, and held an arc staff in his other hand. Short, spiked brown hair was muffled by the white guiltian on his head. Daris's hazel eyes scanned the other six leaders' faces and he went back to staring at the walky-talky. Suddenly, Aura's voice whispered excitedly from the walky-talky.
"Bonus! They're at Bonus, get ready!"
"Right." Daris replied, and got into a sprinting position.
The ten, slow, agonizing seconds seemed to take an eternity. Then, before Daris could blink, the doors sprang apart and revealed the runway. Suddenly, everyone sprang to life and started running for the end of the room. Daris smirked as he saw a page trip over a large rock, conveniently placed as an obstacle. The cleric passed three other people, and was now running as fast as he could against a bandit. Usually, people wouldn't expect a wizard or cleric to be running as athletically as Daris, but he proved the stereotype wrong. The bandit glanced around quickly to see Daris running side long with him, and improved his speed. Luckily, abilities were disabled in this area, and the bandit was unable to haste. Although, Daris couldn't teleport either. Suddenly, Daris tripped over a wire and fell to the ground, hard. The bandit looked back, and he smirked, but continued on. Daris quickly got up, cursed, and started chasing after the bandit again. The other five were far enough behind to ensure that it would only be Daris or the bandit winning this round. Yet the stop sign was rapidly approaching, and the bandit was closer to it than him.
But out of nowhere, a stream of fire erupted from the left and the bandit collided into it, not being able to stop his momentum. Daris froze. He had never heard or even seen fire being used in running for a chance to PQ. He glanced around him, and the other five leaders seemed to be nowhere in sight. Daris ran over to the crippled form of the bandit, but before he could touch him, the bandit vanished.
"What the fuck?!" Daris swore, confused as ever. He walked over to the stop sign, and reached a hand out to it. Instantly he was enveloped in a black mist and he too, vanished from sight.
Meanwhile, back in the waiting room, Aura, Sasken, Setei, Kasai, and Jade all simultaneously were enveloped in a white mist and were teleported to the first stage of PQ, where they met up with Daris, who seemed a bit disoriented.