Vaults and Villains: Chapter 20
"I should stay," Nino said, his hand still placed against the green dragon's heart. "Like I said before, you guys make a complete group… I just make you better. With only one other person, I can't do much, and besides… I'd kinda be a sitting duck."
"The majority of us have to stay," Max pointed out. "Maybe we should focus on the best two to keep going."
"Adrien, definitely," Alya insisted from her spot at the white dragon. "First, he can transform, so he's like two guys in one. But second, he can both attack and dodge. With only two people fighting, that's clutch."
Adrien glanced around the room. He knew what Alya was saying made sense. Besides, he was Chat Noir. It was literally his duty to find and defeat the akuma, but he had a deep-seated sense of dread that he just couldn't shake. Moving forward with just two people felt wrong… which was odd as he was usually so comfortable in a partnership. Then again, that was with Ladybug… Shaking off his fears, he nodded.
"We should send Marinette then," Max offered. "She has already had to heal Adrien multiple times. I mean no disrespect Adrien, but based on our experiences so far, logic dictates that you are unlikely to get much farther without her."
"But Marinette is purely defense!" Alya argued. "We need more power. The enemies just get stronger from here right? How about Adrien and Kim?"
Kim, no longer attached to the wall since Marinette had taken his spot, had backed up toward the kneeling statue and was eyeing the suspended stone slab when he heard his name suggested. He sighed. "Listen, uhhh…" the jock-turned Berserker hesitated. "I don't know guys. I mean, I've nearly gotten us all killed, what, like 10 times now? Even when we play the game for real—I mean, not for real like this, but when it's just a game—I always do something stupid. Max, you know I'm right! The times when I'm the most useful are when I'm berserk, and then I can't tell the difference between good guys and bad. I'm lucky I made it this far."
Max, looking concerned, opened his mouth but Kim cut him off. "Don't get me wrong, I'm having a blast!" the dwarf grinned. "But seriously, let's not rely on me to win the game, huh?"
The sorcerer returned the smile with an understanding nod. "Well, placing all of your stat points in strength and constitution does have its drawbacks," Max said.
"That's what you're there for!" Kim replied with a chuckle. "Fortis is meant to be an unstoppable force of destruction. It's your job to…y'know, figure stuff out."
"Besides, there would still be a problem," Nino chimed in. "Adrien and Kim… or Adrien and Marinette for that matter… we'd have no range. What if we run into archers again?" He turned to face Alya.
Alya nodded. "You've got a point. But if we're gonna send a ranged fighter, we should send Max. He's ranged AND magic, which counters Adrien's melee physical fighter. And anyway, Kim has a point. Max knows the game the best."
Adrien approached Max, who still stood with his hand against the red dragon, and offered a hand. "What do you say?" the blond offered. "Partners?"
Hesitantly, Max removed his hand from the wall, causing the stone slab to crash down again. This time, nobody jumped. All eyes were on Max and Adrien. While Adrien wore a (practiced) charming grin, the other expressions looked uneasy. Were they making the right choice?
Max moved to extend a hand, but the gesture was almost imperceptible as he immediately withdrew it again to stroke his long, gray beard. Adrien quirked an eyebrow in surprise.
"I still think we should send Marinette!" the sorcerer blurted, gripping his beard nervously.
Alya giggled, amused. "Don't tell me you're scared, Max! You rock at this game, and besides, you can't argue with the facts. You're the best compliment to Adrien's fighting style!"
"It's not that…" Max trailed off. He took a deep breath, then set his features without pretension. His next words came out in a rush. "I have calculated a 98% probability that Marinette can transform with Tikki!" He nodded self-assuredly, then visibly relaxed, as if a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
"Say WHHAAAAT?!" Alya yelped, turning to face the gaping-mouthed cleric. "Girl, you didn't tell us?!"
"I… uhhh…" Marinette stammered, her eyes reflexively flicking toward Adrien, whose green eyes opened wide as saucers when they met hers.
Plagg popped up from his nap in surprise, floating a few inches above Adrien's shoulder.
"I'm also fairly certain that she didn't know," Max continued. "Or Tikki, for that matter!"
Tikki came flitting out of the satchel at the repeated mention of her name. "What's going on?" the small god asked innocently.
"Max says Marinette is your master and you can transform her!" Nino exclaimed excitedly.
"What? No… that… my master is…." The kwami's mind raced as she tried to think of a logical excuse.
"You don't know who your master is, do you?" Max addressed Tikki with a self-satisfied tone.
His gaze locked on hers, Adrien took a few slow steps toward Marinette, oblivious to the commotion unfolding around them. She slowly let her hand fall away from the wall to clasp the other hand in front of herself shyly, dropping her chin but unable to tear herself away from his gaze. Her cheeks burned under his scrutiny, but she felt no judgement. She wanted to say something, to tell him everything… but what was there left to tell?
"You see," Max smirked as he began his typical rambling explanation, "when we first met Tikki, she indicated to Adrien that there was food in the leather satchel, the one obviously bearing Marinette's signature design. Therefore, it must be Marinette's satchel. Having known the contents of the satchel, Tikki must have already been inside the satchel, or at the very least opened it, implying that she belongs to Marinette."
"Yeah, but Plagg was in the satchel too, and he isn't Marinette's," Alya pointed out.
"Ah ha!" Max's eyes sparkled with triumph. "But that was only after Marinette shared the satchel with the group! You see, in this game, bags are personal items: containers in which you can store goods, loot, food, et cetera. Only the player has access to his or her bag. Even when in a party, players cannot open another's bag or see what's inside unless the bag is "shared" for communal use by the whole party. Since Marinette had not yet "shared" the bag by offering it to Alya, then Tikki must belong to Marinette!"
Tikki was the only one to catch the flaw in Max's logic: unbeknownst to the group, she had actually snuck Plagg into the satchel before Marinette offered the satchel to Alya. Apparently, game rules regarding bags and personal inventory did not apply to bags transported from the real world… or at least not to kwamis. Still, her mind reeled, this might be for the best. If she went along with Max's explanation and played dumb, she could transform Marinette without arousing suspicion. Adrien would of course know the truth, but… maybe that was acceptable? She glanced toward Marinette to gauge her reaction to this unexpected revelation just as Adrien took the blackette's dainty hand in his.
Marinette's hand trembled as, without breaking eye contact, Adrien gently brought her hand to his lips and planted a delicate kiss there. "M'Lady," he said calmly, one corner of his mouth pulling into a soft smile.
With all the drama, nobody had noticed Kim had not re-joined the group gathered near the wall. From the center of the room, his voice called out: "Open the door!"
The entire group turned in surprise to see the dwarf gripping one of the torches from the wall, holding it poised above an offering plate. They watched in horror as he released his grip.
"KIM NO!" Marinette screamed, reaching out toward him in vain.
The scene played out in slow motion: Kim dropping into a runner's stance as the torch fell, the thicker, heavier end of wood, bearing the flame, causing the object to rotate flame-side-down as it dropped toward the offering plate. Kim exploded from his stance at a full run just as flame met bowl, lighting into a bright yellow flame.
"OPEN THE DOOR!" Kim bellowed again, his voice carrying the timbre of authority that more closely matched the stout warrior he appeared to be than the athletic teen he truly was. Max spun, slamming his hand back to its place on the red dragon's chest, but the stone slab did not react as the blue dragon remained dormant.
No sooner had the flame in the golden dish lit then it snuffed itself out, purple-black smoke billowing from the now-unlit bowl… too much to have resulted from the small fire. It poured out, rolling over itself along the floor. Quick as Kim was, the flood of smoke soon caught up to him, twisting around his trailing foot mid-dash.
Kim lurched forward as his right foot, suddenly impossibly heavy, did not leave the ground as he continued his sprint. With a few quick hops on his left foot, he glanced down. His booted foot had already become a pale gray, the details of his own appendage etched in what had become stone. It didn't really hurt though… that's a relief. "Let me do this!" He insisted. "Strength and constitution, I can do this!" Still a few feet away from the infuriatingly still-closed door, he heaved the weighty leg forward for another step. "You can ALL keep going!"
With sudden clarity, Marinette turned from a very confused Adrien and smashed her hand into the blue dragon's chest hard enough to make it throb. The pounding in her hand reverberated through the chamber: a heartbeat, their heartbeats, synchronized as one and amplified through the dragon puzzle's magic. The stone slab slid upward as Kim used his arms to forcibly lift his stiffened leg, now both entirely made of stone, and force it forward, coming to rest directly in the center of the open archway as the stone curse ate its way to his hips, freezing his legs in place.
Kim's face was beet red, beads of sweat streaming down his face, as he struggled to manipulate quickly-stiffening shoulders to raise his cumbersome stone hands over his head. He spat an exhale and grinned, getting into position under the door just as the gray scourge inched its way up his neck. "I got this," he vowed, just before a mask of stone froze his face in its confident smile.
"No!" Adrien cried out and, finally snapping to attention and comprehension of the situation, ran to Kim. The burly dwarf was now a statue of their companion, poised underneath the open door, arms outstretched above his head with palms open. Adrien dropped to his knees to look his friend in the eyes, only to see that the stone eyes were focused intently upward.
"What do we do?!" Nino asked, his voice panicked. The bard moved like he wanted to approach his petrified friend, but kept his hand on the wall, creating an image like he was straining against invisible shackles. "How can we fix it?!"
Max swallowed hard to cover a whimper. "We d-don't." He couldn't help his voice from shaking, even as he understood what Kim was trying to do. He cleared his throat and shook his head, hoping the others wouldn't see his tears. "Kim is using the stone curse to strengthen his form. He intends to hold the door open and allow the rest of us to continue."
"WHAT?!" Alya exclaimed, wildly gesturing with her free hand, careful not to disturb the hand pressed against the wall. "How do we even know that will work?! What if we release the door and crush him?! Nope, I refuse. I'm not doing it!" She leaned into her wall-hand, as if to reaffirm her resolve.
Marinette tried to speak, but her voice came out a whisper. Focusing on the pulsations that still beat through her hand, the summation of the heartbeats of her friends, and tried again to speak. "We have to." She met Adrien's eyes. Her partner, her chaton… he stood alone, the rest of them stuck to a wall. "We have to move forward," she insisted.
"Marinette's right," Adrien said, moving toward the open door. "If we don't keep going, we are all trapped. Besides, it's what Kim wanted. It's what he sacrificed himself for."
"OK fine," said Nino, shaking his head. "But I'm not letting go first. No way. He helped me when I was down on myself… I'll keep fighting, for him, but I won't be the one to crush him if it doesn't work." Nino winced, ashamed to say what was on everyone's mind, but he didn't take it back.
"I'll do it." Max breathed with intention, in and out, steadying himself. The rest of the group looked at him in shock.
"But Max, you can't… you're his best friend! What if…" Marinette trailed off. "We can't let you take that responsibility!"
"It's OK," Max replied, voice steady. "I trust him." Then, with earnestness, he declared: "Fortis is the strongest and the toughest!" Without another moment's hesitation, Max removed his hand from its spot, pressed against the heart of the red dragon.
Just as before, the enormous stone slab dropped, gaining momentum as it descended. Alya gasped as Adrien balled his hands into fists at his sides, willing Kim's plan to work.
Vault Master scoffed as he watched the sorcerer step away from the wall. "What idiots!" he mused aloud so Hawkmoth could hear. "The dwarf just activated the stone curse AFTER they had solved the puzzle! Kim has made some short-sighted decisions, but this takes carelessness to a whole new level!"
"So the ax-wielder is no more?" Hawkmoth questioned telepathically.
"Not just that!" Vault Master had to focus to suppress his laughter. "The Berserker tried to exit the room, but was trapped by the stone curse directly under the door! The Rogue either continues without any of his fellow adventurers, or the group retreats, smashing their friend to gravel in the process!"
"And what of Ladybug and Chat Noir?" Hawkmoth questioned with anticipation.
"That's the best part! Our would-be heroes now have two unidentified companions: the green pawprint, and a solid red circle adorned with black dots," Vault Master replied. "Now… who or what could that be?"
Hawkmoth's sinister chuckle echoed in Vault Master's head, and he couldn't help but join in. After a moment, Hawkmoth contained himself and, with his typical calculated tone, stated: "When they choose to act, inform me."
As Vault Master grinned at his tome, he felt a slight pang of discomfort. A feeling like something was wrong, that the game wasn't going as planned. Right, because usually when you trap Kim like this it doesn't ruin the game for him… He comes back and tries again. That's why it's fun: nobody is left out. He shook the thoughts from his head as the ink on the page began to move.
The icon depicting the sorcerer stepped away from the wall, and the depiction of the door overlying the stone-cursed dwarf immediately indicated "off." As Vault Master waited for the berserker icon to vanish, multiple lines of text scrolled by, one after the other:
Race attribute, Dwarf: Stone Form
+50 Constitution
Class attribute, Berserker: Rage
+30 Strength.
Fatal blow: 2d12: 15+ success to inflict 'mortal wound' (Player level enemy or below)
And lastly…
Class attribute, Berserker: Warrior's Will (applicable only when 'Enraged')
Negate fatal damage, 1d20: 10 + player level = success
"No…." Vault Master's eyes bulged as the last line morphed, the "10+ player level" text replaced by "15", just as an apparition of a 20-sided die dropped onto his book. It bounced once and rolled toward the edge of the page before coming to rest:
20. The triangular face of the die mocked him. He had been bested at his own game.
"NOOOOOOO!" The Vault Master screamed.
The group (including the two kwamis, now floating fully in view) gathered around Kim, forever entrapped in stone as he held open the giant stone slab of a door, a confident grin permanently etched onto his face. It looked like they were about to have an important discussion, except one of the group members was a haughty-looking statue. It was Marinette who first started to giggle: a soft, light sound like a tinkling bell breaking the silence. Max soon joined in, and soon the whole party was laughing with abandon.
"You realize," Nino said between gasps for air, "that Kim was the only one to see a solution where all but ONE of us could keep going?!"
Max wiped his tearing eyes and nodded. "When we get back to the real world, we will never hear the end of it!"
Alya composed herself and playfully jabbed Marinette in this side. "And can we please talk about the fact that YOU can transform?! I wanna see it! YOU are Tikki's master?! Who knew, right?"
Adrien grinned, meeting Marinette's eyes again. "Yeah," he said with a soft chuckle. "Who knew?"
"Oooonnnn that note," Nino added, eyeing Max with exaggerated suspicion, "if there are any other helpful secrets anybody knows and is hiding, can we disclose them NOW rather than, you know, at the last possible moment?"
The group giggled softly until, unexpectedly, Alya slowly raised a hand into the air. "Actually, uh… I have something." She smiled meekly.
"Oh yeah?" Nino turned to face her with surprise. "What is it?"
"Well," the elven archer said, bending her knee behind her to tap a toe on the ground nervously. "I don't have fancy statistics like Max or anything, but I'm pretty sure those two are Ladybug and Cat Noir."
A/N: I LOVED writing this chapter! I had to put a burner under my butt because I'm pretty sure one of you was going to suggest Kim's idea, now that you're all in puzzle-solving mode! CONGRATS to those who guessed the right answer to the Warriors' puzzle btw, I hope you enjoyed trying to figure it out! Til next time! -Floof