A/N: I have to admit to a mistake…when in the last chapter I introduced Anne she said she was a Rook of Hearts but she was later labeled as a Bishop of Hearts by the Rabbit (and the chapter title is 'Bishop to A-4'). I want to clarify - she's a Bishop. My b…anywho! Here's the next fun installment of Looking-Glass!
-x-
The Rabbit twitched nervously as she stared at him, "A-are you sure you want to do that madam? I mean, the Players and all the Pieces may be unable to deal with it so soon…"
"Silence. The Queen is moving…she KNOWS something is up and I CANNOT lose to her. You know what will happen if I do…" he shivered again under the cold, calm glare of her eyes. "This is no longer an order, this is an override command: Tell the Creatures to go and find their Hosts."
The Rabbit's eyes widened but he bowed nonetheless, "Y-yes madam…" As he hopped away, he sighed and commented under his breath, "But even IF the Pieces are all here, there is no need to go and do THAT…they'll wreak havoc on Wonderland!" He shook his head and proceeded down the hallway to complete his mission.
-x-
The Queen shrieked as she paced her room nervously, "This place was made to attract the brightest human minds but HE was not supposed to be here! His Belief, it's interfering with the Process! How will I face failure now?!!! She will win! I must devour the rest of Wonderland! I must…" and she left her room, the Mirror reflecting only darkness but for a single pinprick of light that glinted in the silver frame like a star.
-x-
Dib sat with his back against a Tumtum tree, his HP slowly going up. "I never thought trying to get this thing to hunt would be THAT much of a pain…"
'Well it isn't coordinated and it's a baby, and it's STUPID…' Shoulder-Gaz sighed, 'Wonder what made it this hard?'
Dib just shot her a look, "Quiet…no one asked you…"
'YOU did'
"Never mind…" he stood back up as the tree withered, having done its job. "Let's try this again…" he gestured and the Gryphon bounded up to him, tail a-wagging. "See that?" he pointed at one of the lizards, "Go get it…"
The small animal loped off, gathering momentum until it was a few feet away from the monster. Then it leapt in the air—
—and promptly face-planted, skidding to a rest only a few feet in front of the confused reptile. Dib dashed forward and kicked the lizard in the jaw and then punched it in the soft spot on its skull, killing it instantly. He looked at the Gryphon and asked, "Are you okay?" It mewled sadly. Dib picked up the Card at his Reflection's feet and flicked it lightly, letting the breeze catch it and carry it away, "Go get it." The Gryphon perked up and leapt after it, his feet still on the ground but his wings beating furiously.
'What are you doing?'
"Playing fetch with it…" Dib watched it as it leapt into the air after the Joker, missing by an inch. "I'm bored…" She said nothing and Shoulder-GIR was using his doggy-costume as a parachute to catch and ride the wind while Dib sat and watched the Gryphon finally catch the Card, its beak tearing through the paper. A glow enveloped it and it grew in size, its wings becoming more detailed and more prominent and its features sharpening out to a more mature look. Dib and Shoulder-Gaz gasped in awe. "The Cards…"
'They act as a stat-booster!' Shoulder-Gaz floated over to the Gryphon and circled it with a 'Kid-in-a-candy-Shoppe' look on her face. 'Check and make sure…'
He clicked on the Gryphon's stats and gasped in amazement, "His stats ARE different! And his EXP went up enough for him to level up almost!" He called his Guide, who looked rather sleepy, and went through the 'INQUIRY' process, typing in "Can the Cards be used as stat modifiers?"
The albino looked pleased, "Yes. They can be used for trading as well but only inside your Suit. If you have armor or weapons the Cards can level them up too so you don't have to waste your time bartering from better goods or suffering for your lack of defense or attack. Nice to see you're using your head now…was getting sick of all those 'What is this' and 'What does that do' questions…even though I'm programmed to have all the answers to everything in the Game, doesn't mean I have endless patience. Toodles!" Then he hopped off, the gilded pocket-watch in hand.
Dib and Shoulder-Gaz just stared, jaws slack. 'he's funny for a person-game-man! he knows stuff!!!!' Shoulder-GIR chirruped cheerily.
'I don't know if it's good programming or insanity but did your Guide just self-acknowledge that he was a computer program in an MMO?...' Shoulder-Gaz just stared as Dib turned around and squatted, absentmindedly petting the Gryphon.
"So there's only two more fields before I hit the House of Spades where the Suit of Spades' Face Cards reside…then there are only four more Fields before I reach the Black Queen's citadel. That should have something interesting in it for me because according to the rules of chess, a pawn that makes it across the board gets to emulate any piece in the game aside from a king." He glanced at Shoulder-Gaz, "What do you think?"
'I think you should level up before you go anywhere. Even as high as you are you still have a horrid disadvantage because of your Class so you need to up your attack. Your defense can be upped by using the Cards on your tunic but your attack will go nowhere.'
"What do you suggest I do then? Killing lizards will get me nowhere fast and the Cards will not help."
'The Boss of the Field.' Shoulder-Gaz remarked matter-of-factly.
"Boss?"
'Yeah. Just because you can leave the Field when you want doesn't mean you conquered it. Every game has one of two types of levels: mission-based or boss-based. Seeing as you've been able to come and go as you please (within your Class limit) it is to assume that this Game's Fields are Boss-based levels. Therefore you just have to find the boss.' She folded her arms in smug satisfaction.
"And how, do you propose I do that?"
'issa lizurd…' Shoulder-GIR said suddenly. 'there'z a giant lizurd-man-thingy that's out there.' He pointed out to a cave in the distance.
"How do you know this?" Dib asked, stunned by the display of real intelligence.
'the piggeh tolded meh!' Dib lost all faith in the hallucination.
Regardless of the stupidity of this choice Dib continued on towards the cave while dodging the lizards that seemed to get antsier the closer he got to the cave. Then it hit him, he had been dodging the lizards the entire way to avoid confrontation and the use of his second Tumtum tree when all he had to do was this! He sat down and pulled out a small grass and a flint set. He lit the grass on fire and began to smoke it.
'Drugs are bad for you…' Shoulder-Gaz said as she watched him hack up a lung in a smoke-induced coughing fit.
"I'm-*cough*-I'm fine…I just-*cough cough*-need to finish this-*hack cough*-one and I'll be good…" he wheezed out and then exhaled, the smoke forming small snakes that formed a bigger one when they joined together.
What do you wish for?... they hissed.
"In-*cough hack*-invisible protection…" Dib choked out, "Make us invisible and-*cough*-keep us safe till we reach the cave."
As you wish… The snake thinned out and covered the tall teen's Reflection and the Gryphon in a veil of smoke. As they moved forward they realized they weren't noticed.
'What was that?' Shoulder-Gaz asked, upset she didn't know already.
"Wraith-grass…it does whatever you wish within reason…" Dib whispered as they passed a large hoard of lizard men. "Got a bit of it from that grove a ways off, next to the thorny vine that covers eighty percent of this field." They walked farther in to the field and reached a large cave where the smoky veil dissipated, leaving Dib's Reflection out in the open. He hurriedly dashed into the cave and came face-to-face with a HUGE lizard wearing a crown and backed by a hoard of other lizards that were all seething with fury. "Oh nuts…"
"Thissssss huuuuman hassss defiled ouuuuur ssssssanctuuuuuary." It hissed, surprising Dib.
"Wait - you can talk?!" he asked, confused.
"I can. My minionssssss cannot." It hissed.
"Are you the boss?" Dib asked.
"I am the drakovitch king." It sighed, "I control all the drakovitch in thisssss field."
'Take that as a yes.' Shoulder-Gaz noted.
Dib eyed a large treasure chest behind the drakovitch king hungrily and he noticed. "Youuuu want thissss? Youuuu'll have to fight for thissssss chessssst. Youuuuu have killed many of my people and therefore mussssst pay."
"Well what do I have to do?"
"Youuuuuu have to particccccipate in the thouuuuuussssssand touuuuurnament." It gestured to the large coliseum dome behind them and grinned, its maw filled with large pointy teeth. "Then youuuuu can have thisssss chesssst…if youuuu ssssuuuuurvive that isssssss."
"What's that?" Dib asked as the Gryphon noticed the drakovitch and began to growl lowly.
"Youuuuu muuuussssst defeat drakovitch in ssssetsssssss, ssssstarting with one and moving up to one thouuuuusssssand at onccccce." He grinned again as his tongue darted up to flick at his lidless eyeballs, "There are no ruuuuulesssss other than kill or be killed. There isssss no pauuuuussssse between grouuuuupsssss sssso youuuuu have to adjuuuusssst quuuuickly."
"I accept." Dib stated and Shoulder-GIR and Shoulder-Gaz floated away from him as if he had the plague. "Let's go."
"I'm not done exxxxxxxplaining yet. Then, after the one thouuuuusssssand, youuuu have to faccce me." Dib grimaced and the drakovitch king smacked his lips hungrily, "Youuuu will make a very niccccce presssssent to my wivessssss."
'Way to go genius…' Shoulder-Gaz remarked. 'With your current stats you can only take out nine hundred of them at once without having some issues. You know their weakness but the Boss will be much harder than that and a one-hit KO will be unlikely. I suggest you take the Gryphon with you.'
Dib nodded curtly and pulled out some of his Cards as he modified his tunic and the Gryphon as he walked his way to the coliseum. When he reached the coliseum he stepped in and the gate shut behind him. A loud voice echoed around the cave, speaking in a strange hissing noise which dib took to be the drakovitch language. "Hssssk, kshhh n'kassss sssssssvirik. Kiiiii, risssssssan ssssssshisssssslaaaaaansssss." Then the first drakovitch entered and Dib's fight began.
Like Shoulder-Gaz said, alone he could take up to nine hundred before he finally buckled down and called the Gryphon over to help him, knowing their weakness allowing him to survive longer than humanly possible yet eventually being overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Then it was the two of them; a flurry of feet, fists, feathers, and fur flying every which-way as they fought off their reptilian foes, under the scrutinizing stare of the drakovitch king. Then they finally reached one thousand and Dib finished off the final one with a flying kick to the soft-spot in their skulls. He panted heavily as he stared at the king expectantly, the crowd of drakovitch all around him hissing in displeasure of his winning. The large lizard-like drakovitch king jumped down to face Dib, his weight causing the floor to shake.
"Now it issss my tuuuurn…" he hissed evilly, swatting the Gryphon away with one swing. Dib gasped as the small Creature collapsed on the floor in pain. "Now it issss youuuuur tuuuurn to be in pain, juuuusssst like my bretheren." He raised a large claw and lunged at Dib, surprising agile for his size and body mass.
Dib ducked and weaved through his large punches, aiming for the soft spot all of the drakovitch had above their eyes. When he landed a hit he winced as his health went down and the drakovitch king's didn't. "What was that?!" he shrieked as he dodged another barrage of attacks.
'He isn't like the others you idiot!!!!' Shoulder-Gaz hollered.
"Great…" Dib ducked and weaved and attempted every move he knew and some he made up on the spot, only succeeding in pulling his health down to critical levels. When he finally gave up he pulled out his flint and a thing of Wraith-grass, lighting the entire bundle and smoking it as fast as he could while running away from the angry king. When the Wraiths that inhabited the grass asked him what he wanted he wheezed out "Protection for me and the Gryphon from anything for a short amount of time." They nodded and surrounded him. "Eat this…" he hacked as he pulled out a small seed and tossed it at the king then ducked for cover. When the seed hit the drakovitch king it exploded into a stream of thorns, pushing through the king's body to root into the ground, its tendrils reaching out and catching every living thing there except for Dib and the Gryphon, impaling them. When the smoke finally cleared the thorny branches had stopped growing and all that was left there were the frozen figures of the millions of lizard-men that had been snared in the attack, their bodies flickering with some sort of glow as if a fire was lit inside of them and was eating them inside out.
Shoulder-Gaz just stared as Dib picked up the Gryphon (now considerably larger and heavier) and walked over to the treasure chest. 'What was that?!!! You shouldn't be able to do that! You're cheating!' she fumed.
"No" he calmly said as he checked the chest for traps, "Someone else cheated, not me. I just monopolized on that cheat." He opened it and pulled out a sweet-looking pair of gauntlets, donning them and smiling as they flexed to fit his hands. "Back some ways (as I found out after some digging in the game-code) there was a hacker who thought it would be neat to create a piece of code that would allow him to kill anything with one hit, with just a touch and so the Thorns were created. When he used it, however, it didn't just kill his enemy; it devoured him and every other living thing for a huge radius and then ceased growing, feeding off of their code. He had created a virus and destroyed his Reflection in the process. The Thorns create some seeds and so I grabbed a few along with some Wraith-grass thinking they'd be useful. They were." He used a few Cards on his new gauntlets and grinned at his new weapon and Attack stat.
'And you don't consider that cheating?' she asked angrily.
"Nope." He said nonchalantly, pulling out the Tumtum tree and resting his and the Gryphon's forms beneath it. "Funny you of all people should be so upset by a little luck."
'I don't like hackers….GAZ doesn't like hackers. Hackers cheat and don't play the game as it was meant to be…' she was seething and Dib got nervous, Shoulder-Gaz or not.
"Look, they only grow in this area and I only grabbed a few for fear that it would spear me." He placated her, "I need to go to the next field and so I need to get out of here. Won't use these unless I NEED to." He promised and she relaxed. Dib, fully healed, pulled out the map and moved to A-5 and then saved, getting off yawning. "Dang…" he yawned, looking at the clock, "That game seems like full immersion some times…I even hacked and coughed when I used the Wraith-grass. Need to sleep." He sighed and rolled over in his bed, falling quickly to sleep.
-x-
To be Continued…
(A/N: I thought I should explain the reason he was so into the Game so I added that last paragraph. We're moving into the next arc, the real part of the storyline!!!! Yay! Anyways, still looking for a beta for a story I'm writing for the Jhonen Vasquez fandom so…PM me, yes? Oh, and R&R or Dib will use the Thorns near you. *'Sandria smiles evilly and waves goodbye to all the people who could be spending their time outside while it's nice* Laters!)