Disclaimer: "I do not own Jumanji, or any part of that franchise. I only own my character, Sydney, and any original content that I make her do or say. Everything else belongs to the talented writers of Jumanji."


Chapter 4

Once it was discovered that Bethany's character was the only one who could see the map, everyone began trying to hunt for the way to reveal what their strengths and weaknesses were. And Sydney was running out of places to look, when finally Spencer managed to access his. As the box appeared in the air above them, Sydney made a thoughtful noise in the back of her throat and said, "Impressive."

Fridge demands, "What did you just do?" But Spencer is still in awe of his box of skills. Reading aloud, he says, "Strengths: Fearless, Climbing, Speed, Boomerang. And… Smoldering Intensity?" And at that, Spencer suddenly took on an intense stance, his eyes narrowed seriously and his eyes gazed out into the distance.

Yep. Smoldering intensity. Check.

After that, Spencer reads in amazement that his weaknesses… are none. And then he grins when Sydney says, "Should come in handy out here. Means you're hard to kill. So when the next hippo arrives, I'm just gonna hide behind you. Sound good?" He nods, though when Bethany looks like she thinks Sydney is serious, Spencer explains, "She's kidding." "Oh!" Spencer then looks to the bottom of the box, where there is the word 'Score', followed by the number 5,000. And Sydney is about to ask about that, except Spencer is already explaining, "That must be the points we've already earned in the game. For surviving the first level or something."

Then Martha, after slapping Fridge's hand away, taps in the same spot Spencer had before, and reveals her list. And in this game, she has several fighting styles as her strength. Along with dance fighting, which Martha asks, "Is that… is that even a thing?" And she turns when Sydney says, "It actually is in some places. It's seen as more of a workout than something to actually use in real life… but since we're in a game… makes total sense."

And then Martha grins when Syd adds, "Though, the fact that it makes total sense at all should really concern us. We seriously need to get the hell out of this game." Martha nods, and then reads that her score is also 5,000, and her weakness is venom. For a moment, that frightens her, but she smiles again when Sydney says, "We haven't even seen any snakes yet. Don't worry. And if we do, we'll let Spencer deal with them, since he has no weaknesses."

Spencer gives them both a look while he's grinning, and then they turn to Bethany when she asks, "Seriously? Paleontology? What does that even mean?" Sydney shrugs, but then points to Martha in approval when she explains, "Study of fossils? I think. Which… that's kind of cool."

And then Sydney also points to Bethany in approval and agreement when she says, "Says the gorgeous karate badass to the old fossil guy who doesn't have any endurance. And I only have 3,000 points. What's up with that?" Sydney ponders it a moment, and then says, "Maybe it has something to do with you getting eaten in the first level."

And then Fridge reveals his, and he goes into a rant about how ridiculous it is that strength, in itself, is his weakness. "And why would I need speed? Why would I need to be fast, when I'm being chased by an enormous killer zebra or some shit, in this dumbass hat?"

Sydney, now standing next to Martha, says, "Well… at least the hat seems to suit him." Martha almost laughs at that, but when Fridge turns towards them, she instead comments, "You're also a good… weapons valet." "What does that even mean?"

Sydney shrugs, but then can't help smirking when Spencer says, "Well… since you're my sidekick… I think it means you carry my weapons in your backpack, and you give them to me, when and if I need them?" Fridge looks like he literally can't believe this is happening to him. He apparently went from being the school jock, the toughest and biggest among them; to being the smallest and most defenseless of them. But, at the very least, he has 5,000 points as well, same as the others.

And honestly, Sydney would be ready at that point to just begin getting the hell out of here. But when no one makes to move, she looks up to find them all staring at her. "Oh. Right." She pats her left breast so her own screen pops up in a dark blue color. She would've figured green… but Spencer's was green, so she supposes they can't both have the same color screen.

Spencer tilts his head at her screen. Where the others had a simple and predefined outlook, Sydney's was slightly different. Next to each of her strengths, there was also a little tiny option that looked like, if it was clicked, would provide another little backstory, as though explaining when the strength had come about.

Sydney reads the top one, "Kung Fu. Well, that makes sense." Fridge blinks and asks, "It does?" "Well, yeah. I know Kung Fu in real life. Makes sense I should know it here. Though, I have no idea how the game knows that." Spencer reaches up to touch the little side button next to that strength, and the screen flips so they all watch a playback of when Fridge had been getting in Spencer's face, commenting on the fact that he didn't have the top two feet of his body.

Spencer gasps and says, "Oh, of course. The game is watching and adapting your weaknesses and strengths as you go along. That's what it said. The actions and decisions you make in the game would determine what strengths and weaknesses you have along the way. It must've read your body language somehow, known you were prepared to use Kung Fu to kick Fridge's ass, and added it to the list of strengths. And..." He looks over at the other side, where her weaknesses are listed. Unlike everyone else's, who had lists of one right after the other, Sydney's weakness list seemed to correlate with her strength list. Like, for whatever action or decision she'd made to gain a strength, if she'd also done something to gain a weakness at the same time, her weakness lined up directly across from that related strength.

Explaining that to her, he adds, "Which is why you don't have a weakness next to Kung Fu. The game couldn't come up with anything on that point." Sydney nods, and then reads the second strength, "Heart on Sleeve?" Spencer hits the button again, and they watch the scene replay where Fridge was wondering how everyone was okay that Bethany had just fallen out of the sky after dying the first time. And when Sydney had yelled back that they were all simply happy she was alive, and Bethany had wondered at it, and Sydney had explained that just because they weren't friends, didn't mean she wanted Bethany to die.

Martha points to Sydney and says, "It's because you told her exactly what you were thinking. I mean… you're usually quiet in school… but that's because no one ever really asks you anything. When someone does, you don't bother to hide what you're thinking though." Sydney nods to that, and then reads that her weakness relating to that is, "Won't lie."

Shrugging, she says, "I don't see how that's a weakness, but okay. Next." Bethany reads out, "Immense strength. Oh! That must be from when you hit the hippo that was about to eat me a second time!"

Sure enough, Spencer hits the button, and that scene is replayed for them, along with Sydney grabbing and dragging Bethany along behind her afterwards. Then Bethany reads the weakness, "Never leaves anyone behind." Fridge tilts his head and asks, "How is that a weakness? Isn't that good for us?" Spencer looks over at Syd and says, "For us… probably. But for her specifically… maybe not."

Syd meets his gaze, and then shrugs simply enough. So far, she wasn't surprised by any of this. It seemed like the game was just picking key parts of her personality as the game went along, and labeling them as her strengths and weaknesses. Aside from the immense strength, which was apparently a gift from the game… the rest of it sounded exactly like the real her.

Low and behold, the next strength reads that she can be "Invisible to the Enemy." That was added when Fridge had to point out to Nigel that Sydney was there, and rather than affirming that she was real, Sydney had shrunk back towards Spencer, as though expecting to disappear again. The weakness relating to that one, was that she would never be the main person targeted by the enemies in the game. Everyone else would be.

Bethany puts her hands on her hips and asks, "Okay, and how is that bad? She won't be a target! The rest of us will! That's definitely an advantage to her!" But Spencer shakes his head and says, "Not when you combine it with the fact that she'd never leave any of us behind. She becomes a target by interfering."

Sydney shrugs again. Not starting off as the main target would give her an advantage, as far as she was concerned. The game had a weird way of picking her weaknesses. So far, she didn't agree with any of them.

The next strength was, "Light in Darkness." The scene relating with it shows Spencer asking if Sydney was with him in all of this, and her answer had simply been, "Always." Fridge points and says, "Okay… okay, that's good. You give out hope. Means maybe we won't all give up in despair when we feel like we'll never get out of here. Because you know that's going to happen at some point."

With no weakness relating to that, Sydney then looks down at the bottom of her box and sees that, instead of 5,000 points, she has 7,000. Tilting her head, she ponders how she got more than everyone else. She hadn't done anything more than them yet… at least, not to her recollection.

Then Bethany gasps and says, "Oh my God! When you saved me from being eaten the second time! I lost 2,000 points from my count because I was frozen in place by my fear! And then you saved me… so those points went to you instead!" Spencer nods, "That makes sense!"

And then he laughs when Sydney says, "It should really worry all of us that it's this early in the game, and we're already starting to say that some of this shit actually makes sense."

Then Bethany gasps and says, "Oh my gosh, you guys! The map, it's changing." But as Sydney and Spencer both look over her shoulder, Sydney realizes that it actually is completely blank to her. She can't see anything. Whereas, when Spencer asks what's going on, Bethany can see perfectly and says, "Well, there's not a lot of information. But a minute ago, it didn't say this, and now it does. It says… 'The Might Roar'."

And in response to that statement, the same beating drums that they'd heard before they got sucked into the game, start pounding again. Everyone looks around, trying to identify the source. But as before, the sound appears to come from everywhere, all at once.

When it's over, Fridge says, "I don't like that. I'm just... I'm done." But Spencer simply asks, "What else is there?" Bethany looks it over again and says, "Okay. And right here, it says, 'From the Deep'."

Spencer looks up in realization and says, "The hippo came from the deep. I mean… the one that…" Bethany holds up a hand to stop him and says, "Yes, the thing, that did the thing. That's it. Moving on." "Right, sorry. So… if 'From the Deep' is the first level, then 'The Mighty Roar' must be the second level."

Nodding to Bethany, Spencer asks, "Which way?" Bethany looks over the map, deciphering where they are like a pro, and then says in confusion, "Well… right here... I think."

Sydney hears a whistling in the air from nearby, and turns to see a high-power missile sailing towards them. Eyes widening, she surges towards Martha and shouts, "Look out!"

Martha finds herself shoved to the ground before she can even blink. But before she can comment on what Sydney just did, she screams when the missile, which would've hit her, crashes into Sydney instead. Oddly enough… the thought running through Sydney's mind right now, is that a missile should not have hit her, and then proceeded with dragging her body away through the air. It should've exploded on impact with her body.

But this is a video game. Which apparently means that the common rules of rocket launched missiles no longer apply. Fascinating.

The others watch in horror while Sydney's body is carried off on the missile, and then explodes a second later when it hits land and finally goes off.

Martha slaps both hands up to cover her mouth before asking, "Oh my God! What happened?!" Fridge gapes at where the explosion just took place, and then says, "She… she…" Spencer is staring at where his sister just exploded… but then takes a moment to think about it, and then casts his eyes up towards the sky.

The others turn their attention towards the sound of revving engines, finding motorcycles soaring over the hill nearby and racing in their direction. Fridge throws his hands up and shouts, "What is this game?!" And as more motorcycles move to join the ones already approaching, Bethany says, "Oh my God! We need to go!"

But Spencer, still looking up, says, "Wait!" Fridge stares at him and says, "What do you mean wait?! We have to…" And then that same chiming sound goes off, and everyone looks up to see Sydney falling out of the sky.

Landing in the same crouch as before, Sydney snaps her head up to look around, and then asks, "What the hell just happened?" Then she straightens up and turns around to see the motorcycle guys chasing after them. Back to the others, she shouts, "What the hell are you standing around for?! GO!"

Spencer would've liked to reveal his latest theory to them… but decides it'll have to wait until they aren't being chased by the guys with bikes, machine guns, and rocket launchers. And as they race down the hill, Spencer can't help grinning and laughing while he runs. One of his strengths was speed, and he was, literally, flying past everyone else. It was amazing!

Martha is close behind, followed by Bethany, and Sydney sticks close behind her. But she draws up short and turns around at the edge of the forest when she hears Fridge scream, "Why am I running so slow?!"

Speed was Spencer's strength, and apparently Sydney could run just as well as the others in this game. But Fridge… he was like, a half a mile back from where the rest of them were now. And the men on bikes were gaining on him.

Spencer turns back to see if they have everyone, and then shouts, "Syd! Don't!" But she's already sprinting back into the open field, meeting Fridge halfway. And all their eyes widen when, instead of just running with him, or fighting off some of the men as they get closer… Syd has another plan in mind. She grabs Fridge by one of his arms, and then spins in a circle while hefting him into the air. And using her immense strength, she throws him like a discus, past the edge of the brush and into the forest.

While Spencer rushes to check on him, Fridge exclaims from where he'd landed against a tree, "Ow! What the hell?!" Syd breaks through the tree line, and after seeing that he's okay, she says, "You're welcome. Now, let's move!"

They end up breaking off after a while, the girls heading one way and the boys in another. Martha breaks off from the other two after a moment, leading one of men away. And when another appears behind them, Syd pats Bethany on the back and says, "Keep going!" And then she breaks off to deal with this one.

He chases after her, getting closer and closer every second. It apparently wasn't within this bad guy's capacity to wonder how he was catching up to her now, when she'd been able to outrun them before. Maybe because he was a preprogrammed character?

Sydney doesn't know. And she doesn't care. She just knows it works to her advantage. She lets him get closer and closer to her, nearly right on her, and then races straight towards one of the trees. Running up it and flipping over, she lands on the ground behind the bike as the bad guy speeds headlong into the tree base, his bike exploding on impact.

Smiling in her victory, she then snaps her head around when she hears Bethany scream.

With no endurance, Bethany's character was having trouble getting up off the ground after she'd fallen down. So when the guy on the bike started heading straight for her, she thought she was a goner. Then Martha sprinted in out of nowhere, jumped and span around in midair, and landed a harsh kick to the guy's chest that sent him flying off the back of his bike.

Bethany rolled out of the way of the bike as it continued on and then crashed somewhere behind her. And after Martha landed, Bethany sat up and exclaimed, "Whoa!" Martha grins and says, "Come on!" But then another guy races out towards them on foot, and Bethany screams in fear.

Martha would've run up to try and help her, even if she wasn't entirely sure what she was going to do about it. Everything she was doing right now was like a reflex that was already built into her character. She would've just been hoping that it kicked in again.

But before she can do that, Sydney sprints out of some of the nearby brush and right up to the man. And both girls are left with their mouths hanging open as she works.

Before the man can even blink, Sydney practically runs up his body, basically as though he were a ladder she was climbing. One leg slips around one side of his neck, while her other knee pins itself beneath his armpit. And then with a heave, she launches herself backwards in a flip, dragging the man with her. He lands flat on his face in the dirt; Sydney landing on top of him. And then, with a swift twist of her hands, Syd snaps the man's neck.

Standing up, she doesn't even waste time wondering what the other two are staring at. She grabs Bethany by her arm and hauls her up off the ground while shouting, "Let's go! They're still coming!"

They race through the forest like bats out of hell… right up until they reach the edge of a cliff that's overlooking the pool at the bottom of a waterfall. Sydney curses under her breath, though she does feel a bit of relief when Spencer and Fridge race up beside them a few seconds later… Fridge being carried on Spencer's back.

They stare out over the water a few seconds longer, and then Martha says, "We have to jump!" Bethany snaps her attention over to Martha and screams, "Are you out of your mind?!" And then Spencer adds, "I would literally rather do anything else right now, but that!" Martha looks at all of them for a moment, and then turns to look at Sydney.

Sydney shrugs and says, "It's hot. Good a time for a swim as any other." Smiling, Martha then yells, "Jump!" And she launches herself over the edge. Bethany shouts after her, "Martha!" Then she turns to look at Sydney and asks, "Are you jumping too?!" "Yep. Right after you." Putting a hand on Bethany's shoulder, Sydney says, "I'm right behind you. You can do this. Now go!"

It takes Bethany a second longer… but with the sound of the bikes increasing in volume behind them, she inevitably leaps over the edge, screaming and kicking all the way. Sydney then turns her attention to Spencer and says, "Go!" But Spencer shakes his head, "We don't even know how deep the water is!" Fridge struggles on Spencer's back and says, "You have to jump!" "But…" "Spencer, jump!" "I can't… it's…"

But while they were arguing, Sydney ran over to be behind him. And then, with a swift kick to the backside, she knocks them both over the edge towards the water below. Glancing back at the approaching bikes, Sydney then takes a deep breath and says, "God, I hope the water's deep." And then she dives over the edge as well, slipping straight down into the water below, leaving the bad guys up above, apparently defeated.

For now.


And that's Chapter 4. I'm taking a break now, but hopefully I'll be able to continue posting a little later. :)