Author's Note: This is where I normally apologize for taking so long to finish the chapter, but I'm sure anyone still reading is just as tired reading my apologies as I am of writing them, so I won't bother. I will say, however, that for once I have a few good excuses (the biggest one being the fifty-or-so pages worth of material rejected due to a catastrophic pacing problem), though that's not to say I couldn't have got it done much earlier if I had made writing a higher priority.
Chrono Crossover: The Funhouse
by Chronos Cat
Episode Eighteen Chapter Three
Round Five Part Three
o-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-o
The Challenge Room looked much like it normally did, except that now there were ten cages arranged in a circle around a foot-high pedestal in the middle of the room. Each cage was six feet tall, four feet long, and four feet wide. and made of metal bars about six inches apart; within each cage was a solid-looking metal chair with a back but no arms, and a pile of ropes and other objects. The pedestal was about a foot high, with a number of small colorful objects on it – from the door only Robo could fully make out that they were keys of various colors.
A number of Funhouse staff stood within the circle of cages – Marian, her assistants Anar and Reton, a man in a simple old-fashioned black suit (some of the players recognized him as Donald, the head of the cleaning staff), and two women in maid outfits (Annette and Martha, also from the cleaning staff). The trio of Vicks, Wedge, and Piette stood by as well, accompanied by a fourth old man identical to the other three.
Bekkler greeted the players, then led them into the circle of cages. He reintroduced the various staff members for those unfamiliar with them, finishing with the new soldier. "And finally, allow me to introduce my newest assistant, Vicks' twin brother Biggs."
After a scattering of "Hellos", Bekkler said, "Alright then. Today's Challenge is one we like to call 'Escape Artist.' Each of you will be placed in a straitjacket, and manacles and chains will be placed on your legs, then you will be tied to the chair in one of the cages, and the cage closed. Your goal is to escape from all of your restraints. To aid in that goal, we have placed the keys to your ankle cuffs on the pedestal over there, and the cages will only be latched shut, not locked. Getting out of the ropes and straitjacket will be entirely up to you, however.
"There will be no breaks, but at any time you may give up the challenge, and the staff will free you.
"The player who escapes first wins; in the event no players escape, the player who lasts the longest without giving up wins. The three players to face the threat of Eviction shall be selected first from those who refuse to play the Challenge, then from those who give up and asked to be released, and finally if necessary from the last few players to escape.
"You have until noon tomorrow to escape; if a winner hasn't been selected by then the six point prize for victory is forfeit; and if we don't have enough potential evictees by then the remaining tied up players will need to spin for Tie-Breaker dares, as Kid and Pierre did at the end of the first round.
"Any questions?"
Lucca raised her hand. "I assume that since you didn't tell us what to wear to this Challenge those of us with costumes have to wear them in the Challenge?"
"Yes, I'm afraid so."
Lucca looked down at her robot costume, thinking about how it reduced her flexibility. "Having to wear our costumes is going to make getting out of our restraints more difficult for some of us..."
"Yes, well, unfortunately that's the way the Funhouse works sometimes. Part of the challenge of a Challenge can be overcoming the handicap of the dares one has accepted. If it's any help, though, once you're all tied up and the challenge begins you may temporarily remove clothing or costume parts that get in the way of your escape attempt."
Lucca crossed her metal-clad arms. "And how are we supposed to take anything off when we're tied up?"
Bekkler spread his hands to indicate he had no idea. Turning to Leena, he said, "That reminds me, Leena, you will need to wear your handcuffs at the start of the Challenge; we'll modify how you wear your straitjacket accordingly. You don't need to get them off to complete the challenge, but if you can remove them on your own you may do so once the challenge has begun, so long as you put them back on when you're done with the challenge."
"Okay," Leena said reluctantly. Normally she wouldn't have minded needing to keep her handcuffs on, but in this challenge they could prove an added obstacle to winning. She just hoped that if she wound up facing Eviction, her Penalty Dares would be ones she didn't mind doing.
Kid was torn about whether to participate in the challenge. On the one hand she didn't want to have to perform random Penalty Dares to escape Eviction, and this challenge was one she had a better chance at winning than most. On the other hand, she really didn't like being restrained, and she was just getting over the stress of her possession dare.
On the chance she'd participate, she asked, "Does it matter how we get out of the restraints?"
"You may not get anyone else to help you escape, either by asking them or by trickery. And if my staff have to release you for any reason (excepting a life-threatening medical issue) it counts as a loss. Beyond that you may use any means available to you – flexibility, raw strength, your teeth, or any tools you might have with you."
After a pause in which no one asked any questions, Bekkler asked, "Any other questions?"
Harle raised her hand.
Bekkler groaned. "I've already said everything I'm going to say about why I don't have a body."
Harle said with a trace of confusion, "When did you say anyt'ing about zis?"
Marle said, "A few days ago, during one of your amnesia dares. He said it had something to do with a laboratory accident."
"Oh, I remember now. But I sought 'e was explaining why it waz raining zat day."
Bekkler spoke up, "Anyway, if there are no other questions, I'd like anyone who wishes to skip this Challenge to speak up now."
Marle was unhappy enough with the Challenge to toy with the idea of skipping it, but consoled herself with the fact that she could ask to be released at any time. At least if she started the Challenge then asked to be released shortly after, she wouldn't be docked any points.
Ayla didn't like the idea of being restrained either, however she didn't even consider forfeiting the dare. A challenge had been made and she felt compelled to answer it; and at any rate she was confident her strength would be sufficient to get her out of any restraint.
Kid had not yet decided whether she wanted to participate when Bekkler moved on.
"Alright then. Let's begin. To save time you've all already been randomly assigned a cage and a staff member to restrain you; when a staff member comes to get you please follow them to your cage, and cooperate with them as they restrain you."
Annette walked up to Kid. "Please come with me," she said, and led Kid over to one of the cages. Annette reached in, pulling out a red leather straitjacket. Like most straitjackets it had extra-long arms, and a number of straps and buckles for securing it in place. "Please pull this over your head and put your arms in the arms of the jacket; I'll strap you into it."
Kid took the jacket, but hesitated to put it on, still not sure if she wanted to participate in the challenge. Finally she decided it was better to try the challenge and give up than to give up without even trying. Taking a deep breath to sure up her courage, she pulled the straitjacket on.
o-o-o-o
Marian led Crono to the next cage over from Kid's going clockwise; his cage happened to be the furthest from the door of the Challenge room. The straitjacket she pulled out for him was white, but it too appeared to be made of leather.
Once Crono had the jacket on, Marian had him cross his arms in front of his belly. As she pulled the loose ends of the arms tight behind Crono and began tying them in a knot, Marian said, "Normally we'd have you put your arms through the loop in front, but since you're supposed to be able to escape this with a little bit of effort, we're going easy on you."
Meanwhile, by the cage closest to the door (and across the circle from Crono's) Ayla pulled on a yellow colored straitjacket. As Martha pulled the sleeves tight behind Ayla and started to tie them, Ayla began to fidget.
"Um, could you please try to stand still?" Martha asked quietly as the half-finished knot came undone.
"Sorry... Ayla no like be tied up..."
Ayla tried to hold herself still, and while she couldn't quite manage it she came close enough that Martha thanked her for cooperating.
When Martha pulled a couple of straps between Ayla's legs, Ayla asked suspiciously, "Why put those between Ayla legs?"
Even as she finished buckling the straps in place, she explained, "Th-they're crotch straps. They're to keep you from just pulling the straitjacket up over your head like a shirt."
"Oh. Ayla thought maybe Martha try to turn Ayla on."
"What?" Martha squeaked. "I'd never do something like that!"
"Is okay," Ayla said, reassuring her. "Ayla no turned on." If it had been Marian Ayla might have teased her about the crotch straps, but considering how sensitive Martha seemed to be, Ayla decided to drop the matter.
Martha now began adjusting buckles and straps in various places on the jacket, tightening the jacket around Ayla. "Um... Please let me know if I pull anything too tight; I don't wouldn't want to hurt you."
Ayla snorted at the idea of someone as weak as Martha hurting her, but said, "Ayla let Martha know."
Back on the other side of the circle, Annette was pulling the straps tight on Kid's straitjacket. Little did Annette know, but when she had started tightening the straitjacket, Kid had taken a deep breath and was even now keeping as much air in her lungs as possible so that when she relaxed the straightjacket would be looser than Annette intended it to be. This was not the first step Kid had taken to give herself an advantage either – when Annette had pulled the sleeves tight before tying them behind Kid, Kid had subtly pulled back, thus giving her more room to move her arms.
On the other side of Crono, Reton was helping Marle put on a blue straitjacket (getting her stone arm into the sleeve was a little tricky, and though she probably could have managed on her own his help sped things up). "With your arm petrified, we can't secure your arms the usual way, so Chronos came up with an alternate way," Reton said. He had her place her left arm across her belly, with her hand (covered in the extra-long sleeve) on her right arm. He then took the loose portion of the sleeve over her right arm and around to her back, where he pulled it tight and tied it to one of the straps there. He then began tightening some buckles and straps along the back of the jacket, pulling it tighter.
While he did this, Marle glanced over at Crono and Marian. She was a bit concerned to when Marian pulled the crotch-straps between Crono's legs, but to Marle's relief for once Marian was professional, and didn't touch anything she wasn't supposed to.
Looking down at her own straitjacket, Marle noticed that it too had straps hanging from the front. However, with her snake tail, there was no way Reton was going to be able to run them between her legs! "So, what are you going to do with those straps?" Marle asked Reton.
"The crotch straps? Well, this is a situation where one of your dares gives you an advantage – there's really not much we can do with them. Of course, I don't know if that's going to compensate for the disadvantage the lack of flexibility in your arm is going to be..."
Meanwhile, Wedge had led Harle to the next cage after Marle's, and Anar had led Lucca to the cage after that. Harle and Lucca were restrained in the same way Crono and Ayla had been; the only differences were that Harle's straitjacket was black, and Lucca's red.
Between Lucca and Ayla was Serge; Biggs was in charge of restraining him. "You don't seem that fazed by any of this," Biggs commented as Serge pulled on his white straitjacket over his cat costume. "I take it this sort of thing is normal in the Funhouse?" Serge only shrugged.
On the other side of Ayla was Frog. Frog's straitjacket was blue, like Marle's, and as in Marle's case the loose portion of Frog's right sleeve was used to secure Frog's gold left arm to his side. However, as Frog's legs were free Piette made use of the crotch straps.
Meanwhile, Vicks found getting even the extra-extra-large black straitjacket he had been provided over Robo's bulky body a challenge. Even with Robo's assistance it took a few minutes to pull it down far enough that the crotch straps would reach between his legs. Pulling the sleeves tight enough to tie them also required a bit of effort, and Vicks found there was no point in trying to tighten any of the extra straps.
o-o-o-o
"So, how are you going to get that on me when I'm wearing handcuffs?" Leena asked Donald as he presented her with a blue straitjacket.
"Actually, Miss Leena, I will be removing your handcuffs temporarily so you may put on the straitjacket; I'll put them back on momentarily."
"Um, I didn't think to bring the key to them."
"No matter, I have a copy of the key." Donald produced the key, and unlocked the cuffs. After she'd pulled her head through the neck of the jacket, and put her arms in the sleeves, Donald snapped the cuffs back around her wrists, over the leather of the jacket.
Since she couldn't cross her arms with the cuffs holding her wrists near one another, Donald instead had her hold her hands over her stomach; the loose portions of the sleeves were still long enough for him to bring them around behind her and tie them off.
Donald tightened Leena's straitjacket, then led her into her cage and had her sit down on the chair in the middle of it. He took a pair of metal cuffs separated by a foot-long chain and, kneeling down, secured them on Leena's ankles.
Leena found her pulse racing as Donald held up a length of red rope, and making sure that Leena was sitting with her back against that of the chair, tied several loops of rope around her and the chair at waist level. Leena hadn't been this restrained since her hogtie dare, and she found it quite exiting; she also liked the fact that she was a lot more comfortable this time.
Donald took another rope and looped it around her and the back of the chair just above where her hands rested against her belly; this rope not only held her to the chair but held her arms to her body. One final rope went around her and the chair just above her breasts.
"I trust you are not too uncomfortable?" Donald asked.
"Actually, this is nice. Really snug, but not so much that it hurts. Good job."
"Thank you. In that case, I shall leave you. Please refrain from attempting to escape until Mister Bekkler says it is okay to do so."
Donald backed out of the cage, closing and latching the door behind him.
o-o-o-o
At the same time as Leena was enjoying being restrained, Kid was doing her best to give herself every advantage she could in the upcoming challenge. When Annette started tying Kid to the chair not only did Kid take another deep breath, but she slid her rear away from the back of the chair a little bit when Annette wasn't looking. So long as she didn't move, the ropes looked tight – but Kid knew there would be a helpful amount of slack to work with once the escape portion of the challenge began.
Annette secured Kid in basically the same way as Donald tied up Leena, with ankle cuffs and with three sets of ropes, one below her crossed forearms, one above them, and one above above her breasts; the biggest difference was that her rope was white.
After securing the ankle cuffs on Crono, Marian had to step out to help Reton carry Marle into her cage, as with her arms secured Marle couldn't crawl like she was used to doing. "Why didn't you have her sit down on the chair before she started putting the straitjacket on?" Marian complained.
"Sorry, I guess I didn't plan ahead very well..." Once they had her on the chair, Marian returned to Crono's cage, and began tying up Crono with yellow rope. She tied him up in much the same way as Leena and Kid had been, except that the third rope went across the center of his chest.
Back in Marle's cage, Reton wrapped a chain around her ankles and secured it with a lock (as ankle cuffs wouldn't work through the snake-tail).
Marle was fairly comfortable in the straitjacket, and didn't even really think about how it restricted her movement at first. It was only when Reton took some white ropes and began tying the ropes around her that she really started to feel restrained – and even then it wasn't so bad. To her surprise being held tightly in place actually felt a little comforting. Thinking about it a bit she remembered that having her full-body cast put on had been rather nice too; it was only when she grew tired of not moving that it had became unpleasant.
With that revelation, Marle started to have hope she might be able to stand being restrained long enough to avoid being put in line for the Rescue Challenge.
Like Leena, Harle was tied up with red rope, while Anar tied up Lucca with green rope.
As Anar pulled the middle rope tight between Lucca's arms and breast-plate, Lucca said with a sigh, "Right now I'm really wishing I'd chosen a different costume."
Envisioning how much more fun it could have been to tie up a girl not covered head-to-toe in armor, Anar muttered, "You're not the only one."
Biggs made a couple other attempts to start a conversation with Serge as he put on Serge's manacles, and tied him to the chair with black rope; however Serge kept his answers short when he answered at all, and finally Biggs gave up.
As Martha knelt down to put the manacles on Ayla's ankles, Ayla mused on how ironic it was to have someone so meek restraining her.
When Martha took some green rope and began tying Ayla to the chair, Ayla had to force herself not to fidget again. Even knowing she could probably break the ropes, and that she would be released as soon as she asked, being so restrained made Ayla nervous and restless.
In the next cage over, Piette was restraining Frog. Piette used a green rope on Frog that matched Frog's skin tone, and standard manacles and chain.
In Robo's cage, Vicks watched nervously as Robo sat down on the chair. Luckily it was strong enough to hold under his weight. Vicks used large manacles on Robo, then tied him to the chair with yellow rope.
Thanks to the difficulty he had had getting the straitjacket on Robo, Vicks was the last staff member to close up their subject's cage.
As soon as Vicks stepped away from the cage, Bekkler said, "Alright players, you may start your escape attempts now! Good luck!"
o-o-o-o
Most of the players began testing or struggling against their bonds as soon as Bekkler gave the word.
Kid however already had a plan, and wasted no time. She pushed herself back against the chair, released her breath, and pulled in her abdomen. She then pulled her feet up onto the seat, and pushed her torso upwards, causing the ropes to slide off the back of the chair as she stood up.
Leena started struggling against her bonds right away, just like everyone else; however, at first she was enjoying the feeling of being restrained more than she was trying to escape. She was distracted from her own bonds when she saw movement from the cage to her left out of the corner of her eye; she turned her head in time to see Kid stand up on her chair. Amazed, Leena watched to see what Kid would do next.
Kid hopped off the chair and began wiggling in her straitjacket, raising her arms upward bit by bit, and the tied off bit of sleeves behind her with them. This wiggling had the added benefit of causing all but the top rope to fall down to her feet.
Leena was surprised and a bit disturbed to find that the sight of Kid wiggling around in her straitjacket was turning her on almost as much as being tied up herself was.
Hoping to turn her mind and arousal to a safer target, she glanced across the circle of cages to see how Serge was doing. He was still fully restrained, like her, but had apparently caught what Kid had done too. As Leena watched he pulled his feet up on the chair and tried to push himself up; however his costume's feet didn't provide very good traction (a problem made worse by his inability to bend his casted right ankle), and his feet slipped off the chair. He kept trying, but even when he kept his feet on the chair he seemed to have a hard time pushing himself up.
Leena was relieved to find this sight turned her on too, though admittedly not quite as much, probably because he wasn't wriggling around the same way.
Curious how every one else was doing Leena began looking around at the other players. (Wanting to see her friends squirming in their restraints had nothing to do with it, she told herself.)
To the right of Serge (from Leena's position) Lucca was also trying to imitate Kid, with little more success than Serge. She appeared to have a little more traction with the boots of her costume, but even less flexibility – she could barely get her heels on the chair. And either because she wasn't as strong as Serge or because her ropes were tighter against her costume, she seemed to have a harder time pushing herself upwards.
To the left of Serge, Harle was surprisingly not trying to duplicate Kid's feat, instead wriggling around in her straitjacket energetically, a look of concentration on her face. Finding herself getting turned on again, Leena forced herself to look away.
Unfortunately, thanks to cages and other people in the way, Leena couldn't see Crono, Marle, Ayla, or Frog very well. However, to her right, Robo seemed to be testing his bonds methodically.
Deciding she should probably try to escape herself, Leena did as she'd seen Kid do, pulling her feet on to her chair, and trying to push herself up into a standing position. However, like Serge and Lucca, she found it to be harder than Kid had made it look. With the ropes holding her back to the back of the chair, and the straitjacket preventing her from using her arms to push with, getting the right angle to push from was tough – and between the awkward angle and how tightly the ropes held her, pushing herself up required a lot more strength than standing up normally did.
As she stopped to catch her breath, Leena wondered how the players she couldn't get a good look at were doing.
o-o-o-o
Crono, being on the other side of Kid from Leena, also witnessed Kid's escape from her ropes. When it became apparent he wasn't flexible enough to pull his arms out of the sleeves of the straitjacket, he decided to follow Kid's lead. Of course, like everyone else who tried to imitate her, he found it was harder than it looked – he wasn't flexible enough to even get his heels on the chair for more than a second at a time.
Hoping for an alternate means of pulling off the trick, he tried simply pushing against the floor with his feet – but all he was able to do was rock the chair backwards or to the sides, or pick it up with him if he leaned forward while pushing.
Meanwhile, despite being a bit more flexible than Crono, Marle found that between the tightness of the straitjacket and the ropes holding her arms to her body, she just didn't have enough room to move her left arm enough to pull it out of it's sleeve – and it went without saying that she had even less mobility in her right arm. This was disappointing, as it meant she probably wouldn't be able to get free, but at least she was reasonably comfortable, and for the moment was okay with not being able to get free without help.
Not having seen Kid's escape from her ropes, Marle had no idea what Crono was attempting to do, and didn't think to try and lift the ropes over the back of the chair.
Ayla had started her escape attempt by pulling at her bonds lightly and shifting around, just to make sure Martha hadn't accidentally left her any easy way of escaping. Like Leena, Crono, Lucca and Serge, she saw Kid climb on top of her chair to get out of the ropes; however Ayla dismissed this as a pointless step. Instead she took a deep breath, and tried to pull her arms away from her body through brute force. To her shock, the straitjacket did not tear; in fact it didn't even stretch enough to give her any slack.
"What straitjacket made of?" Ayla wondered, awe evident in her voice.
"Terrasaur hide," Bekkler said. "Chronos had them specially made to hold all of you. I think he even traveled back to your era just to get the hides."
Ayla gave a rueful smile. "Chronos smart." She then shook her head, musing, "If only Ayla had thunder magic..."
Upon hearing this explanation, Robo considered trying to unleash a shock attack; however he concluded that without being able to open up his armor to expose the electrodes that normally released the electricity, there was too large a danger of damaging himself. Instead, having determined he did not have a wide enough range of movement to get free by any other means, he too attempted to use his strength to break free. However, he failed as well; even at the maximum level of force he could exert without risking damage to his systems, the straitjacket held.
Crono meanwhile thought he could probably pull off a "Lightning" spell without raising his arms in the air – though it would be tricky, as he'd never tried to hit himself before. He focused his magic, causing glowing specks of light to appear in the air around him. His hair and loose clothing began to flutter as if in the wind, and he lifted off the ground (taking the chair with him). Then a bolt of lightning shot from the ceiling down to his cage – but rather than hitting Crono as he had intended, it instead struck the bars on the top of the cage, spreading across them and down the sides of the cage without ever touching Crono.
Though the magical lightning produced no thunder, it produced enough light to get everyone's attention. Crono was gently lowered back to the floor as the spell ended, only to find everyone with a line of sight to his cage looking at him. He gave a slightly embarrassed laugh.
Crono considered using "Lightning 2", but decided against it. Even under normal circumstances it would be hard to modify the spell to strike him instead of avoiding him without also risking hitting everyone else in the room; there was no telling what might happen if he unleashed the spell while everyone was in metal cages.
However, when Crono resumed his struggles to get free without magic, he found that his spell had actually done him a little bit of good – at some point when he had been raised up he had come off his seat enough for the top-most rope to come loose from the back of the chair.
o-o-o-o
Frog found himself having similar difficulties to Marle. After several minutes of trying to escape only highlighted how helpless he was, he was prepared to resign himself to waiting out the challenge and hoping enough people forfeited to put him out of danger of eviction. But then he remembered he had one more appendage than the other players, and it had not been restrained...
Frog looked down at the ropes restraining him, pushing his jaw as flat against his chest as he could manage. He then aimed his tongue at the nearest rope, and fired. He was not used to hitting things from such an awkward position, so it took a couple of tries, but finally he snagged the rope. He then used his tongue to pull the rope up to his mouth. He had hoped to toss it off of him, but this proved easier said than done, so he settled for letting it hang from his neck and shoulders.
Frog now began to repeat the process with the other two ropes.
Meanwhile, in the cage to his right, Ayla was continuing to try to escape through sheer strength. However, the longer she failed to make any progress, the more she found herself fighting a rising panic. Finally she had to stop and force herself to take deep slow breaths while she reminded herself nothing was going to hurt her – there were no dinosaurs or monsters around, and the Funhouse staff wouldn't let anything bad happen to the players.
She was able to calm herself a bit, but realized if she didn't escape she'd likely loose control of her panic long before three other people had given up. If she wanted to avoid the shame of giving up, she would have to escape soon. And so she watched carefully as Kid worked on getting out of her straitjacket, all the while doing as she'd seen Kid do earlier, putting her feet up on her chair as best she could and trying to push herself into a standing position.
In this task Ayla's strength helped to compensate for her lack of preparation and that fact that she wasn't quite as flexible as Kid. The ropes stretched a little due to her less than perfect positioning, then slid up the back of the chair as she pushed herself up, the slight friction of tight rope against metal not nearly enough to stop her.
Meanwhile, Frog ran into a couple of problems trying to pull the third rope up. First of all it was almost impossible to aim at it with his arm right across his belly, as the rope was below his arm. Secondly, even when he managed to contort enough to snag the rope, his arm was in the way of pulling it up. After thinking about it a bit, he decided to try to slide the rope around him until he could reach the knot, in hopes he could somehow untie it with his tongue.
o-o-o-o
Having mostly given up on getting free, Marle had taken to watching the other players' escape attempts to pass the time. She was quite shocked when she turned to Harle after a few minutes of nothing much happening, to see that Harle had her crotch-straps undone, and her arms were sticking out the bottom of her straitjacket. "How the heck did she manage that?!" she thought incredulously. Marle had assumed based on her own experience that it would be impossible for anyone to pull their arms out of the straitjacket sleeves so long as the rope around their torso helped to hold their arms in place.
"Either she's insanely flexible, or she has some sort of 'escape' spell." Marle thought.
Harle calmly untied the ropes holding her to the chair, and pushed the straitjacket up and over her head. She then nonchalantly walked over to the door of her cage and stuck her hand between the bars to grasp the latch. It apparently wasn't the simplest of latches, though, as Harle had to fiddle with it for a minute before she could get it open.
Meanwhile, out of Marle's sight, Kid had pulled the loose ends of her sleeves over her head, and used her teeth to untie them. Each sleeve was sewn shut at the ends, but there was enough give in the material that she could grasp things through the sleeves – albeit not very well. Thus, her next step had been to try and undo her crotch straps. This was easier said than done with her hands in the sleeves, and it took her several minutes.
Kid was just finishing undoing the last buckle when she saw to her dismay Harle walking over to the pedestal that the keys were on. As soon as she had the buckle undone she began pulling the straitjacket off as fast as she could. (With the arms untied and the crotch straps undone, it was rather like trying to take off a tight long-sleeve shirt made of a not particularly flexible material – certainly doable, but still not the simplest of tasks.)
In the middle of the room, Harle examined the keys. There were ten of them, each with a different tooth pattern. They were all painted bright colors – one white, two black, two red, two blue, one yellow, and two green. "Which one do I use?" she wondered.
"You'll have to figure that out for yourself," Bekkler told her.
"Well, red is my favorite color, so I suppose I'll start wit' one of zem..." Harle grabbed one of the red keys and tried to fit it in the lock on one of the manacles on her feet, but it wouldn't fit. She tried the other red key, with the same results. Deciding to move on to her next favorite color, she now grabbed one of the blue keys.
Meanwhile, Kid finished pulling off the straitjacket. Having heard Harle and Bekkler's exchange, and seeing that Harle was still trying keys, Kid decided to gamble on a different approach. She put her hand to her mouth and spit her lock pick out into her hand. She then crouched down and began picking the lock on one of her manacles.
However, while Kid did this, Harle moved on to black keys, and on her second try was able to unlock a manacle. She tried the same key in the other manacle, and it worked there as well.
As the manacle fell to the floor, Bekkler announced, "Harle wins the Challenge!"
Harle stood up and bowed to the other players.
Some of the players called out congratulations, but Kid just muttered, "Showoff."
Bekkler told Harle, "With this victory, you have seventy two points."
"Oh? How nice."
Raising his voice, Bekkler said, "From this point on, the Challenge is to determine who must face the Rescue Challenge, and who is safe. As I said before, the challenge continues until noon tomorrow or until we've selected three people to face Eviction, whichever comes first. Your best bet is still to escape – up to six players can still win their safety by escaping. On the other hand, if at any point you've had enough, just say the word and we'll let you out – but of course you'll automatically be in line for Eviction. Good luck!"
Bekkler disappeared with a cackle. Saying they had other work to do, Donald headed out as well, taking Annette and Martha with him. Reton soon left too, but Marian, Anar, and the four soldiers remained behind.
o-o-o-o
Kid was a bit annoyed by having been so close to winning but still failing; not only had she wanted to win for the sake of winning (and showing off her escape skills) but it would have been nice to have a few points again rather than the zero her forfeit of the Possession Dare had left her with. Still, she didn't have time to mope just yet – she still needed to make sure she didn't wind up in line for the Penalty Dares and Rescue Challenge.
A quick look around revealed that Ayla was the only other player to have gotten free of her ropes yet, but she wasn't that far behind Kid – even as Kid watched Ayla undid the knot in her sleeves, and began working at the buckles of her crotch straps.
Kid knew that if she wanted second place she had a better chance if she just went and got one of the keys. However now that she had started picking the lock on her manacle, her pride insisted she finish the job. And so, Kid did her best to put Ayla out of her mind, and turned her focus to picking the lock.
o-o-o-o
Not having anything better to do, Harle wandered over to check on Serge. He was breathing heavily when she got there, but showed no signs of having made any progress in getting free. "Oh, poor Monsieur Chat, you look so sad in zat cage." When he looked up at her, she said regretfully, "I would help you out, but zat is against ze rules..."
Harle watched Serge struggling for a while. He seemed to be alternating between trying to get his arms free, and putting his feet onto the chair and trying to slide his torso up the back of the chair. Neither strategy seemed to be working for him.
Growing bored, Harle decided to check on her teammates. The closest one was Frog, so she headed to him first. She watched in amazement for a while as he worked at loosening the knot in the rope with his tongue. When it finally came undone, she clapped her hands in applause. "Amazing! Never before 'ave I seen someone with such a skilled tongue!"
Frog croaked in embarrassment.
o-o-o-o
After what was far too long in Kid's opinion, the second manacle came open and fell to the floor. Kid stood up and pocketed her lock pick. Glancing across the room to see that Ayla still had to deal with her manacles, Kid broke into a grin. She walked over to the door and reached through the bars to grab the latch. To her annoyance her triumphant escape was delayed a moment as she fiddled with the latch, trying to figure out how it worked without being able to see it. However, it took her less than a minute to figure out she had to lift the latch up, push it to the left (against the force of a spring), then push the latch back down (to keep the spring from re-latching the door before it even opened).
Vicks announced, "Second place in the Challenge: Kid!"
"Good work, Kid!" Marle called out.
Kid winked at her. "What can I say? Opening locks is my specialty."
Kid turned her attention back to Ayla, who was now fiddling with the latch to her cage. In less time than it took Kid, she got it open, then making use of her practice running with her legs restrained together she rushed over to the pedestal where the keys were held.
Ayla glanced at the keys for a moment, then grabbed both black keys. She tried each key in her manacles, but they wouldn't work. Frowning, she muttered. "Guess different key for different person..." She studied the keys for a few moments, then nodded to herself and grabbed the green and yellow keys. She tried the yellow one first, but it didn't work either. However, the first green key she tried worked. She quickly used it on the other manacle as well.
Vicks announced, "Third place in the challenge goes to Ayla!" Ayla pumped her fist in victory.
Kid walked over to Ayla. "Good work, mate. I gotta admit, I never expected ya to be so good at gettin' out of ropes and chains."
Ayla said quietly, so only Kid could hear, "Ayla not until today. Ayla no get out fast if no watch you first."
"Oh!" Kid said. "Well, it's still pretty impressive. I don't think I could have done so well on my first try, even knowing what to do."
"Thank you. And thank you for showing Ayla what to do." Even more quietly, she said, "Ayla no know how much longer could have stood being tied up."
Just as quietly, Kid said, "I know what ya mean."
o-o-o-o
As Ayla headed to the yard to get some fresh air, Kid walked over to where Harle was standing by Frog's cage to see what Harle was doing. As she got closer it became apparent Harle was cheering Frog on; glancing in the cage Kid saw that Frog was out of his chair and trying to use his tongue to undo the knot holding the left sleeve of his straitjacket to a strap in back. In order to reach the knot he had to aim over his shoulder and shoot out of the corner of his mouth, but somehow he had managed it nonetheless.
"Pretty impressive that you can reach that knot with yer tongue, but do ya really think that ya can undo that knot that way?"
"He undid ze knot of a rope ze same way," Harle told her.
Kid glanced down at the floor, where one of the ropes lay untied; seeing as she couldn't think of any reason for Harle to lie for Frog, she had to assume Harle was telling the truth. Astonished that Frog could accomplish such a thing, she replied, "Well, then, good work mate – and good luck."
A moment later, Harle said excitedly, "Ze sleeve moved, I saw it! Keep it up, monsieur Frog!"
Kid looked over at Harle, and said, "So, not that I'm not happy he's doing so well too, but any particular reason yer cheering fer Frog?"
"He is our teammate. Is zat not enough?"
"I suppose," Kid said. She had a hard time believing Harle had entirely good intentions in anything she did, but the only possible plot she could see here was if Harle was trying to trick Frog into trusting her by acting nice to him. And considering that they had to live with her, Kid couldn't quite bring herself to tell Harle not to be nice to people, at least not without some evidence Harle had something underhanded planned.
"Oh! But I am neglecting poor Marle! Ow about you take over 'ere, while I go encourage Marle?"
"Er... Sure."
Rather than constantly cheer him on, Kid just watched as Frog worked. After a few more minutes he finally managed to get the knot undone. Kid gave a whistle at this accomplishment. "Impressive, mate, bloody impressive."
o-o-o-o
Leena paused to catch her breath, though she held her position – it had been hard work getting as far as she had and she didn't want to loose any progress. She was in a partial crouch, her back held to the back of the chair by only two of the three ropes. It was getting easier as she was able to get her feet under her and get a better angle to push upwards (the metal chair didn't offer much resistance to the movement of the rope; the challenge was the way being tied to it kept her from bending her back), but after the effort it had taken to get this far she needed a break.
Looking around at the others, she saw that Crono, and Serge were still trying to pull off the same trick, though neither had gotten as far as her. She couldn't see Frog very well with Robo between them, but she could tell he was standing up (so he obviously had already gotten free of the ropes). Neither Marle nor Lucca were doing much at the moment, but Leena didn't know if they had given up or were just taking a break.
Just then there was a loud clang to her left; she turned to see that Crono had managed to knock his chair over onto its back. Leena took a mental note to be careful in her struggling – landing on her back would make it much harder to get free of the ropes, and also she didn't want to risk hitting her head on the floor.
o-o-o-o
"Are you alright?" Marle asked Crono. He smiled at her sheepishly, and nodded.
Marle was still watching Crono as he struggled with his new position (from the way he was rocking the chair, she thought he might be trying to get it onto its side), when Harle reached her cage. In an annoyed voice, Harle asked, "Why are you not trying to get free?"
Marle turned to scowl at Harle. "I was checking on Crono. Besides, I've tried everything I can think of; nothing works. At this point I think my only hope is for three of the others to forfeit. And the sooner the better, I'm getting tired of being tied up."
Harle shook her head. "Zat is a foolish hope. Do you zink zat Robo would grow tired of not moving, or zat Crono or Serge would ever give up? And zen zere is Leena..."
"Yeah, I suppose she is making some good progress."
"What?" Harle glanced at Leena's cage, to see that Leena had two ropes off the chair, and was making progress towards getting the third one free as well. "Zat is not exactly what I meant, but no matter. Ze point is zat you cannot rely on her forfeiting either."
"So what do you suggest I do? I'm not flexible enough to pull my arms out of the sleeves of my straitjacket, or to do that standing up on the chair thing everybody else seems to be trying – at least not with my legs in this naga tail and my arm petrified."
"Oui, zat does make zings more difficult. I do have some ideas, but..." Harle turned to where the soldiers were standing around chatting while they observed the challenge. "Excuse moi. I waz wondering, are we allowed to give each other advice on how to escape?"
Vicks shrugged. "Sure. Just keep in mind that Marle might not be the only one to hear you."
"Oh, I had not considered this." She glanced at the cages to either side of Marle's. To Marle's left (clockwise) was Harle's empty cage, but to Marle's right (counterclockwise) was Crono's cage. Keeping her voice down so hopefully only Marle could hear her, Harle said, "Zis is what I am thinking..."
o-o-o-o
Frog took only a few moments to catch his breath before he began fiddling with the buckles of his crotch straps with his right hand (he couldn't reach them with his left). It took him a couple of minutes to get the buckles undone, then he moved on to the straps and buckles holding the straitjacket tight.
Meanwhile, Leena hopped off her chair, then sat back down to rest again and to plan out the next step of her escape. As she looked over her straitjacket, it occurred to her that even if she could somehow untie the ends of the sleeves and undo the buckles, she wasn't going to be able to remove her arms from the sleeves so long as her hands were cuffed – and she had no way to remove the handcuffs.
She let out a sigh. It looked like even after all her work she wouldn't be getting free. She wished he had thought her escape plan through ahead of time; she might not have even bothered trying to get free if she had known this was as far as she would be able to get. On the other hand, at least now she was free to change positions and move around in her cage. At any rate, she hoped the challenge ended before night time; she wasn't looking forward to sleeping on the hard floor of the cage.
Several minutes later, Frog finally got the last of the buckles undone. He now began to try to pull off the straitjacket; however even with the straps undone the straitjacket was tight and relatively inflexible, and his golden left arm provided an additional handicap. At first he tried holding his right sleeve with his left hand and trying to pull his right arm out of the sleeve; however the shoulder area of the straitjacket was too tight and his elbow caught in it. Instead he had to hold his arms above his head, alternating grabbing his left sleeve with his right hand and his right sleeve with his left hand as he slowly inched the straitjacket up over his head.
It took several more minutes, but finally Frog pulled the jacket off and tossed it aside.
Kid said, "I gotta admit, I wasn't sure ya were gonna manage ta get free, what with that gold arm and all. I'm impressed."
"I thank thee, milady."
"Well, now for the easy part," Kid said, stepping away from the door so he could open it.
o-o-o-o
Frog looked over the assembled keys for a few moments before taking one of the blue keys and trying it on the locks of his manacles. It refused to turn in the lock, so he tried the other blue key, but it didn't work either. He looked over the keys again, before frowning and taking one of the green keys. When the manacle came open, he sighed. "How predictable, that they would give me a lock that opens with a green key."
"Look on the bright side," Kid said. "At least that made it easy to find the right key."
Frog made a sound under his breath that was somewhere between a croak and grumbling as he undid his other manacle.
Vicks announced, "Fourth place goes to Frog."
o-o-o-o
"You know, Harle, I don't think that's physically possible, at least not for anybody with bones," Kid commented on Harle's latest idea as she and Frog walked up to Marle's cage.
"You are just jealous zat you did not zink of it yourself."
Marle grit her teeth as she tried to pull her arm in a direction it didn't want to go. Finally she sighed and relaxed, saying, "I'm sorry Harle, I just can't do it."
Harle sighed as well. "I suppose not everybody can be az flexible as I."
Marle turned her attention to the newcomers. "Hi, Kid. Hi Frog."
"How're ya doin'?" Kid asked.
"I'm kind of tired of these ropes, but otherwise I'm fine."
Harle turned to Kid and Frog. "Perhaps one of you can zink of a way for Marle to escape?"
"Are we even allowed to be helping her?" Kid asked. "I thought that was against the rules."
"Giving suggestions is acceptable; I asked." Harle said.
"In that case, let me take a look..." Kid walked around Marle, examining her restraints. "Hmm... Well, if you can get those ropes off, you might stand a chance; Frog was able to get out of his straitjacket even with one arm frozen, and you don't even have to worry about crotch-straps."
"And how do I get out of the ropes?"
"Have ya tried putting yer feet on yer chair and pushing yerself up inta a standin' position? The ropes aren't secured to the chair, so once ya don't have the back of the chair between you an' the ropes, it'll be a lot easier to get them off."
"Wait – is that what Crono, Serge, and Leena were trying to do?" Glancing at them, she noticed that Leena had actually succeeded, though she hadn't gotten any further than getting the ropes off. "No, I haven't tried that yet."
Marle pulled her tail up, and tried to get her feet up on the chair. However, the tail was tight enough that she couldn't bend her knees all the way, and the padding at the end also made it difficult to get her feet onto the chair. In the end she had to settle for just resting her heels on the edge of the chair – and the material of the back-side of the tail was so smooth that when she tried to push with her heels they simply slid off the chair.
After a few minutes of repeatedly trying again, Marle said, "Sorry, Kid, it looks like your idea isn't going to work for me either."
Frog croaked. "Perhaps if thou were not fighting against gravity?"
"What do you mean?"
Frog very deliberately looked over at Crono; when the girls looked as well they saw that Crono had managed to get his chair onto its side, and was now using his legs as best he could to push the seat of the chair away from him. It was slow going, but he had already gotten the chair down enough that the top rope had come loose from the back of the chair.
Marle gulped. "You mean I have to knock my chair over?"
Frog said, "It may be the only way – unless you wish to wait and hope three people forfeit the challenge."
Marle shook her head. "No, like Harle pointed out earlier, there's no way Crono, Serge, or Robo are going to give up. That just leaves Lucca and Leena, and even if they both gave up, there'd still be one eviction slot open, so I might still wind up facing the Rescue Challenge even if I stuck with this challenge to the end. And I really don't want to just sit here until noon tomorrow, anyway – not being able to move all night once was more than enough for me."
Kid shrugged. "Then I guess ya might as well try Crono's idea; I can't think of any other way ya could get out of those ropes off the top of my head."
Marle nodded, and took a deep breath. She began rocking side to side, building up momentum. When the chair started to tip, she bent her head away from the direction she was falling in hopes of avoiding banging her head; luckily it worked.
She now began using her tail to push against the chair; ever so slowly it began to move.
o-o-o-o
Lucca watched as Marle's teammates offered advice and encouragement as Marle attempted to get free. Lucca felt a bit jealous – she didn't have any teammates helping her (then again, it was questionable whether Ayla would have any good advice, anyway).
Not being able to hear them very well, she was a bit surprised to see Marle apparently intentionally knock her chair over. She decided to keep watching to see what they were up to, though she did occasionally look over at Crono to see how he was doing. It was in watching Crono that she finally figured out what they were up to, and she had to mentally kick herself for not thinking of it herself.
Lucca was sure the same technique would work to get her out of her ropes; the only problem was that even if she got out of her ropes she had no idea how she could get out of her straitjacket. She was hoping she could pick up a trick for that by watching Marle; the only problem was she wouldn't have a very good view if she knocked over her chair. She looked around at the others; Marle and Crono were the only ones making any progress at the moment, but Serge was watching them intently, and Lucca suspected he was also planning on trying their technique.
Lucca realized that if she, Crono, Marle, and Serge could all get free, then the last one of them to do so would be up for eviction. As such, she didn't have any time to waste. She rocked forward, shifting her weight onto her feet, then moved the chair around to face the direction of Marle and Crono (in hopes she'd still be able to see what they were doing). She then pushed her chair over onto its side (not having her feet restrained as tightly as Marle, this was much easier for Lucca to do).
It didn't take Serge long to figure out that the race to avoid the Rescue Challenge was on, so he quickly followed Lucca's lead.
o-o-o-o
A little while later, Crono finally got the back of his chair out from between him and the ropes around him. Getting to his feet, he squirmed out of his ropes. Having seen both Kid and Ayla get out of their straitjackets by pulling the sleeves of their jacket over their head then untying the knot with their mouth, he decided not to argue with success, and began pulling his arms up his torso as they had.
Serge was the next one to get free of his ropes. He had also seen Kid escape, and even before noticing that Crono was attempting the same thing, he started pulling his arms upwards, wiggling and squirming when necessary to pull the knot in-back up. After a minute or so of this he thought he felt someone looking at him; looking up he saw Leena watching him intently, with what he could have sworn was a lustful look. Serge kept up what he was doing, but found a blush growing under his face paint.
It was a few more minutes before Lucca and Marle got out of their ropes; they did so within a minute of one another. Lucca quickly sat up to see what the others were doing. Seeing what Crono and Serge were doing reminded her of how Kid had gotten free, and she quickly decided it was her best chance of getting free.
o-o-o-o
"Okay, I'm out of the ropes, now how do I get out of the straitjacket?" Marle asked.
"Well," Kid said, "you're going to have to pull your left arm out of its sleeve. Normally I'd say to undo the knot holding it first, to give the you a little bit more range of motion, but I can't see how you could do that – unless someone else has an idea?"
Frog said apologetically, "I used mine tongue for said task – but unless Marle hast some amphibian blood, I do not think her tongue wouldst reach that far."
Harle said thoughtfully, "Perhaps her mouth is still the answer. If she pulls her left arm up, it should pull the knot up too; she can then undo it with her teeth."
Kid said, "That just might work! The knot is tied to one of the straps of the straitjacket, but her straitjacket isn't secured at the bottom, so there's no reason she shouldn't be able to pull the entire thing up her body."
"I suppose it's worth a try," Marle said.
o-o-o-o
Leena found herself squirming a bit just watching all of the remaining restrained players except Robo squirming in their straitjackets. She also felt heat rising in her cheeks and other places, and was glad Serge seemed to be the only one to bother looking her way.
o-o-o-o
Despite Crono's head start, it was Serge who got his arms up over his head first. He quickly began working at the knot connecting the sleeves. Crono followed suit a minute later.
After another minute or two, Marle managed to pull the knot in her straitjacket up to her shoulder, but it took a bit more pulling and shifting position to get it to her teeth.
Lucca was the last to get her arms over her head. She then faced a problem none of the others had had - the grating covering her mouth prevented her from undoing the knot with her teeth. She had just decided that she would have to try to undo the crotch-straps then pull the entire straitjacket off with the ends of the sleeves still tied, when Crono and Serge almost simultaneously got their knots undone.
Crono, Serge, and Lucca all worked at the buckles of their crotch straps at the same time, but in addition to the leather sleeves hampering all of them, Lucca had to deal with the added challenge of her metal gauntlets under her sleeves, and the fact that her hands were essentially tied together. Crono and Serge finished well before her, and after a short delay had removed their straitjackets entirely.
Crono and Serge raced to the doors of their cages, and began fumbling with the latches. Serge figured it out first, and rushed out to the pedestal where the keys lay, but before he had decided which one to try first Crono caught up with him.
Serge and Crono both chose blue keys first, but neither one worked for them. They then traded keys, but this didn't help. Serge next chose black, while Crono chose white; again neither had any luck. Serge grabbed the other black key and tried it, while Crono chose yellow. Serge's key still didn't work, but Crono's did. While Crono was moving to unlock his other manacle, Serge tried the white key – this time it worked. Crono finished with his manacles first, but Serge was only a moment behind him.
Vicks announced, "Crono is fifth place, and Serge sixth. If another player gets free, the remaining three will have to face the Rescue Challenge and associated Penalty Dares if they want to avoid eviction."
Crono headed over to check on Lucca and Marle's progress, while Serge went over to Leena's cage.
Leena was still blushing, and Serge couldn't help but say quietly, "You enjoyed watching me trying to get out of my straitjacket, didn't you?"
Her blush growing fiercer from embarrassment, Leena said, "Maybe a little..."
Serge gave her a smile that was part amusement and part bemusement. "Well I'm glad you liked it, but don't expect me to let myself get restrained like that often..."
"No, of course not." She didn't add that she was much more interested in being the one restrained, anyway.
o-o-o-o
"Sorry, Crono, this is a Grey-Team only party," Kid told Crono when he reached Marle's cage.
Through a mouthful of leather, Marle said, "Hey, I gon't min'g him being here."
Harle said, "Do you really want him to find out our secret techniques and pass them on to his teammates?"
Marle rolled her eyes, but said with a resigned tone, "Why gon't you go keep Rucca company."
Crono nodded and headed over to Lucca's cage.
In a distracted tone, Lucca said, "Sorry, Crono, no time to talk. Busy. Feel free to watch if you want."
Crono nodded, and leaned up against Harle's empty cage to watch Lucca continue to struggle with the buckles of her crotch straps.
o-o-o-o
Finally, Marle undid the knot. She then began to pull her straitjacket off like a shirt, though as usual the tightness and lack of flexibility of the material made it a bit more challenging than an average shirt, and her inability to bend her right elbow made it even more challenging. Before she had gotten it off, Lucca got her crotch straps undone, and began pulling off her straitjacket as well – though she had her own challenges: not only were the ends of the sleeves tied together, but her armor had various edges that the material of the straitjacket wanted to catch on.
When Marle finished pulling the straitjacket off, the rest of her team applauded.
"Now all ya need to do is open the door, find the right key, and unlock the chain around yer legs," Kid said.
"I wonder if I really need the key," Marle said. She tugged at the chain, trying to pull it off her tail – but while it was loose enough not to be uncomfortable, it was still too tight to get past her heels. "I guess so."
Marle crawled over to the door and grasping the bars pulled herself into a standing position. Reaching through the bars with her left hand (as it would be too awkward with her right), she fiddled with the latch for a moment.
Growing impatient, Harle told her, "Lift ze latch up, push it left as far as it will go, zen push it down. It is simple!"
Marle did as she was told, and soon had the door open. As she crawled over to the pedestal, the other three followed her. Kid asked, "So, anybody have any idea what key she'll need?"
Harle said, "Mine was black, like my innate element."
Frog said, "Mine was green – but mine element of magic is water."
"And I didn't even use my key," Kid added. "So yer just gonna hav'ta guess, Marle."
"That's okay, everybody else had to guess too, and it never seemed to take too long."
Meanwhile, Lucca had the straitjacket over her head so she couldn't see anything, so Crono warned her, "Better hurry – Marle's out of her cage."
Lucca swore under her breath and redoubled her efforts.
At the pedestal, Marle looked over the keys. "Wow, that's a lot of colors!" She started by trying the yellow key, but it wouldn't fit in the lock. She then tried the red keys, followed by the white key, all with no success.
Lucca finished pulling off her straitjacket, and rushed to the door. As she did so, Crono told her how to work the latch. She quickly opened the door and began rushing towards the pedestal - but in her haste she forgot the very reason she needed a key. As she tried to break into a run the chain between her ankle cuffs kept her from moving her legs as far apart as she had intended, and she lost her balance and fell to the floor with a loud clang.
Marle looked up to see Lucca sprawled on the ground. "Are you okay, Lucca?"
Lucca moaned. "I... I'm not sure."
"Oh dear... I'd better cure you, just in case."
Pulling herself off the floor into a kneeling position, Lucca put her hand to her head. "No, that's okay. I'm sure at worst I'll have a few bruises..."
"At least let me use my Aura on you."
Harle protested, "What are you doing? You must find ze right key and finish ze challenge!"
Marle ignored Harle, and put her left hand on her chest (her right arm she held out in front of her). A rainbow of light began to play across her body, then she spread her arms wide, and a shower of sparkles fluttered down around Lucca for a moment.
Lucca said gratefully, "Thanks Marle, I feel a lot better. Now all that's injured is my pride."
"No problem!" Marle said cheerfully, then turned back to the pedestal to pick out another key. Lucca got to her feet and began walking towards the pedestal as quickly as she could manage safely. Before Lucca reached the pedestal, Marle grabbed a blue key and tried it; this time the lock opened.
Vicks announced, "Seventh place goes to Marle! Lucca, Leena, and Robo, all of you are now up for eviction. As soon as we get you out of your restraints you'll need to convene in the Dare Room to select your Penalty Dares."
Lucca muttered to herself sarcastically, "Thanks Marle."
o-o-o-o
When Ayla saw everyone else gathering in the Dare Room, she decided to go in and join them.
"Challenge over?" She asked.
Kid nodded, and gave a brief rundown of the escapes Ayla had missed.
A minute or two later, Bekkler arrived. After greeting them, he commented, "From what I heard, the end of the challenge was pretty exciting. I'm sorry I missed it.
"So, according to my staff, the three of you up for eviction are Lucca, Leena, and Robo. Is this correct?"
Lucca and Robo nodded, and Lucca added, "That's right."
"Alright then, have the three of you decided on your champions?"
Leena chose Serge, Lucca, and Marle as her champions. Lucca chose Crono, Marle, and Robo. Robo chose Lucca, Marle, and Ayla.
"Wow, I'm popular today!" Marle commented.
Bekkler said, "Well, lets get to assigning Penalty Dares, then. Lucca, we'll start with you."
For Crono, Lucca spun "VIII 8: Sing Chosen Song".
"Wow, an easy one. Nice," Lucca commented.
For Marle, Lucca spun a Jack.
Lucca tilted her head back and laughed. "First an easy dare, then a freebie! Looks like I'm not going home today!" Looking back at the dare wheel, and touching her hand to the side of her mask near her eye-pieces, she said, "I suppose I might as well see what it'll take to recruit Robo..."
She spun the wheel again, and got a IV. Just knowing that the category was "restraint", she figured she probably wouldn't bother with it – after all Crono and Marle ought to be enough to win the Rescue Challenge easily, why deal with a long-lasting dare that was not only going to be inconvenient but probably hinder future challenges? Still, just to be sure, she spun again and spun the mini-wheel to narrow down the dare. She wound up with 2b: "Tape thumb to hand (right hand)." This left her a bit uncertain – on the one hand it was a relatively minor form of restraint, on the other hand holding things would be a lot more difficult without use of her thumb.
Bekkler asked, "Would you like to pick a card to determine the type of tape?"
"Well, I don't know. I'm kind of leaning towards not accepting this dare."
"You do have until everyone else is done selecting their dares to decide whether to accept yours. However, if you are going to accept this dare you need to select the type of tape now."
"Alright, fine, I'll pick a card." Bekkler held out four cards with their backs to Lucca; the card she picked turned out to be "masking tape".
As Bekkler called Leena up to spin for her dares, Lucca muttered to herself, "Masking tape? That won't go with my costume at all..."
Leena's first set of spins were to recruit Serge. The first of these spins was "IV", while her second was a Jack.
"Nice,", Leena said, hiding her disappointment. She had been hoping to get some interesting dares, and this wasn't exactly the best start. She tried to consoled herself with the thought that it was better to get the interesting dares as Bonus Dares so she could get points for them and didn't have to worry about being forced to leave the Funhouse if they were too much for her.
"If you'd spin for your dare for Lucca?" Bekkler prompted her.
"Oh, right!" Leena spun the wheel, and it landed on a King. She gulped, and thought to herself, Be careful what you wish for, Leena!
The first of the three dares resulting from the King was "II 2b: Islander Costume". As Bekkler pointed out, "Seeing as you're already wearing an Islander Costume, you'll need to spin the mini-wheel again." This time she spun a "c"; the message on the board listing her dare changed to "Pirate Costume".
"Well, I suppose that wouldn't be too bad, though it's still a little annoying. I mean, I just picked out this costume!"
The second of the three dares she'd need to perform to recruit Lucca was "IX 7b: Body Part covered in crystal (indefinite time length)".
"That's interesting," Leena said, caught off guard by the idea of it, but nonetheless intrigued. "What color crystal?"
"Er... In our tests it generally turned the color of the subject's innate magic," Bekkler said, a little surprised by the question.
"Oh, that'll work then."
"Don't you want to know what body part it would be covering?" Bekkler held out a deck of cards.
"Oh! Right." She picked a card, and turned it around to reveal, "Left Leg".
"That's not including the foot, incidentally. Oh, and I should also make clear, the crystal will be strong and solid enough that you won't be able to bend your knee."
"I see."
Leena now made her final set of spins to recruit Lucca; the dare she received was "IV 6: Wear a cast", and the card she picked was "Neck-brace cast." Bekkler explained, "In addition to your neck itself, the cast would extend down just far enough to ensure you can't move your neck, without limiting the movement of your arms; it would also cup the base of your skull, restricting the movement of your head."
"That's quite the set of dares..." Leena said, not quite sure what to think. On their own either the crystal or cast dare would have interested her; however she had to wonder if both of them together and in addition to her handcuff dare might be going a bit far. There was also the fact that she was sure any other player would turn these dares down if they felt they could afford to, so if she accepted them she'd have to be prepared to justify her decision.
Deciding she ought to know what it would take to recruit Marle before she made a decision on her dares to recruit Lucca, she spun for her next dare. This time she got a "V" followed by a Queen. The resulting dares were "8c: Paint left-hand fingernails in a rainbow pattern" and "10d: Cover skin in shiny paint."
Bekkler explained. "In the first case you'd paint each fingernail a different color of the rainbow. As for the second dare, we have some special body paints which remain shiny and somewhat reflective even when dried; you can choose what shade you'd like or even use more than one, but you'd need to cover all of your skin with that paint."
"When you say all of my skin...?"
"Yes, your entire body, even the parts normally covered by clothing."
Not liking the direction this was going, Leena asked, "Does that mean I'd have to show everyone... how much of my body was painted...?"
"Not at all. You could let the paint dry in private, and after that put on your clothes and go about your business as usual. You would need to let one of my staff look you over once to make sure you got every bit of skin, but the decision of which staff member would be entirely up to you – it could even be one of the cooking or cleaning staff if you aren't comfortable with the Resource room staff."
"Huh... I'll need to think about that."
"Alright then, why don't we move on to Robo then."
For Lucca, Robo spun a "V 8a: Paint fingernails on left hand a random color". However, as he had no fingernails, he had to spin again for a dare within the "Appearance" category; this time he spun a "1b: Wear excessive makeup." For Marle, he spun a "VIII 6: Kiss chosen person," but as he had no lips he once more had to spin again; he managed to ge second time, but on his third try he got a 7: "Let chosen person choose easy dare and all relevant details."
"So, who would you like to choose your dare for you?"
Without any noticeable hesitation, Robo said, "Lucca."
Lucca looked over at Robo silently for a moment, before saying, "Wow. I don't know what to say. I'll try to pick out a good dare for you."
"I am sure you shall choose well."
Bekkler floated over to Lucca and handed her a sheet of paper. "This is your list of options."
Lucca looked over the list. "Huh. So that's some of what we've been missing out on?"
"Well, more or less – we made a few changes in wording, to make it easier to read."
"I assume I have to decide on my own, without any input from Robo?"
"That is correct."
Lucca looked over the list for a little while longer before saying, "This is tough. Could I have a few minutes to decide?"
"Sure, just try not to take too long – I'd like to get the Rescue Challenges over before supper time if possible. In the mean time, Robo, why don't you spin the Dare Wheel to see what dare or dares you'll be doing to recruit Ayla?"
Robo spun a Queen first. He then spun a "IV 5b: Gagged". Bekkler told him, "We have cloth gags which only need to cover the mouth, so the dare is valid. Incidentally, you may choose the color of the cloth."
Robo's second dare to recruit Ayla was "III 6: Cover soles of feet with messy stuff (reapply as necessary)", when he picked a card the messy substance selected was honey. "As usual, this being a dare involving food it would only be for twenty-four hours."
Bekkler turned to Lucca. "You still have more time to think about Robo's dare, but it's time to decide if you're accepting your own dares."
"Okay. Um... well, I'll definitely accept the singing dare... As for taping my thumb to my hand... " She hesitated a moment, then said, "No, I'll pass. I'm sure Marle and Crono can rescue me without Robo's help."
"Alright. What about you, Leena?"
Leena hesitated, then looked down and in a meek voice said, "I'll do them all."
Bekkler simply said, "Very good," but both Lucca and Kid turned to Leena and said, "What?!"
Despite her obvious embarrassment, Leena looked up and countered with her own "What?"
Lucca said, "Don't you think those dares are a bit much?"
Marle broke in to say to Lucca, "This, coming from a girl in a full-body robot costume?"
"That's different!" Lucca protested.
Bekkler coughed into his fist. "Lucca, we're now waiting for you to decide Robo's final dare, so he can decide which ones he'll accept."
"Right. Just give me a minute more – I've narrowed it down to just a few ideas."
As Lucca looked down at the list of dares again, Marle told Leena, "I think its great you're accepting so many dares, Leena. I can't wait to see what you look like as a shiny crystal pirate!"
Leena smiled. "Thanks. I'm actually rather curious how I'll look, myself. Actually, that's part of the reason I decided to accept the dares."
Kid said, "Did it escape yer attention that ya won't be able ta move yer leg, or yer head, and yer hands will still be handcuffed? That's a lot of handicaps if ya ask me."
Leena shrugged. "You're right. And maybe I'll come to regret accepting the dares to recruit Lucca. But I couldn't see leaving the Rescue Challenge to just Serge and Marle, not when Marle is in that snake tail. ...Even if Lucca apparently is willing to risk leaving her Rescue to just Crono and Marle."
Kid shook her head. "Ya must be really desperate ta stay in the Funhouse."
"I wouldn't say 'desperate'. But I am enjoying myself, and I'm not quite ready to leave just yet."
Kid couldn't think of anything to say to that, so she let it drop.
Shortly, Lucca said, "Okay, I've made my decision; sorry for keeping everyone waiting. I've decided to go with the 'Wear costume of choice' dare, since Robo didn't get a chance to participate yesterday. And since I have to pick out the costume for him, I decided on Mummy Costume, type A." She turned to Robo and explained, "That would be completely covered in bandages except the eyes, but with the arms and legs bandaged separately from the torso and each other, so you can still move freely."
Bekkler said, "A good choice. So, Robo, what do you say? Will you accept all of your dares?"
Robo replied, "Affirmative. However, I shall pass all of them but the costume on to my copy."
"All right then. As usual, those of you in danger of eviction have half an hour to get packed. Leena, you may put on your normal clothing and take off your handcuffs. Lucca, since you're participating in Rescue Challenges, you'll need to keep performing all your dares; if you don't make it we'll provide you with a place to get changed and washed up before you leave."
"Okay." As she thought about the slim chance she might be leaving, it occurred to Lucca that while she'd miss Crono, and all her friends, she'd also miss her costume. She'd put a lot of effort into putting it together, and she really liked how it turned out. Sure, it was a pain to sleep in, and it was a bit hot inside it a lot of the time, but she still wished she could keep it, and could figure out some excuse to wear it outside of the Funhouse besides at a costume party or something like that.
o-o-o-o
When the Red Team got back to the Red Room, Leena grabbed her normal clothing, and went into the bathroom to get changed. Meanwhile, Lucca and Robo started packing.
As they packed, Lucca asked Robo, "So, you're really going to wear the costume yourself, rather than dumping it on your doll?"
"Affirmative. I believe it will improve team morale to have all six of us performing the same dare. In addition, I am curious as to what it shall be like to have my appearance temporarily altered in such a fashion." Turning to Lucca for a moment, he said, "Thank you for choosing this dare for me."
Lucca laughed theatrically. "It wasn't a problem. After all, how could I choose anything but the best of dares for one of my best friends?"
o-o-o-o
After changing and packing, Leena went to the kitchen to talk with the staff about who would be the best person to verify her body-paint dare. (She wasn't comfortable with Marian being the one to do it, and she certainly wasn't going to let a guy do it!)
The first person she talked to, Carol (one of the assistant chefs), wasn't interested in the job, and was going to be busy cooking dinner and then cleaning up afterward. Annette was willing to help, but was also going to be busy until late into the evening. Upon hearing this Martha hesitantly spoke up to volunteer. Both Carol and Annette were willing to vouch for her professionalism, so Leena accepted Martha's offer.
o-o-o-o
A bit later, Lucca, Leena, Robo, Crono, Serge, Marle, and Ayla made the trek to the Funhouse lobby.
Bekkler joined them in the Lobby with his usual cackle. "Ayla, I think you might have played a version of this Challenge at the Millennial Fair, but I'll go over the rules again anyway." After he'd done so, he turned to Lucca, Leena, and Robo, and said, "Since the three of you who are currently in jeopardy all failed the Individual Challenge, it doesn't matter which order we do the Rescue Challenge in. Any of you have any preferences as to order?"
The three players in question discussed the matter, and agreed Lucca should go first, so she wouldn't have the question of whether she was going to stay in the game hanging over her head while she competed in the other two players' Rescue Challenges.
Marle positioned herself all the way on the right, so she could handle the right-hand Poyozo without getting in Crono's way – though she did intend to throw a few rocks at the middle one when she got the chance.
Lucca was lifted over the flame, and the Rescue Challenge began. Crono was quite experienced with this game by now, and likely could have handled it without help, so with Marle's help it was an easy task. Before long all three Poyozos had been sent back into their cage, and Lucca released.
Leena and Robo now discussed who should go next; Robo chivalrously offered to let Leena go next, and she accepted. Marle stayed where she was, and Lucca took the middle position (as she explained, she had no peripheral vision thanks to her mask, and that would make handling both the button and a Poyozo a challenge); thus Serge took the left-hand position.
Marle and Lucca were each easily able to handle the Poyozos coming at them. Serge had a little bit of difficulty managing both a Poyozo and the button to raise the rope holding Leena, mainly because the cast on his foot made it hard for him to run back and forth between the two positions (he had to do it without his crutches, as he needed his arms free). There was a couple of close calls, once when Serge almost didn't push the button in time, and once when his Poyozo got a little close for comfort. However, in the end he pulled through, and Leena was rescued.
Finally, it was Robo's turn. Marle and Lucca stayed in the same spots, while Ayla traded places with Serge.
"Are you sure that rope is going to be able to hold his weight?" Lucca asked as the rope wound its way around Robo.
"It's enchanted rope; I have every confidence it will be up to the task," Bekkler said.
As before, Marle and Lucca easily handled their own Poyozos. Ayla took to tossing stones at her Poyozo quite well, but Robo had to remind her a couple of times to press the button to raise his rope. Despite this difficulty, the three girls managed to drive off the Poyozos again.
After Robo was released, Bekkler said, "Well, another round has come and gone without anybody going home. You all know what that means – next round four people will need to face the Rescue Challenges!"
"I can't wait," Lucca said sarcastically.
And so, the players all headed back into the Funhouse.
o-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_o
Next Episode: Be sure to tune in for a special interlude starring Magus!
Author's Notes: October 4, 2013 marked the 10-year anniversary of this story on Fanfiction dot net. ...Man is this story behind schedule...
In other news, I added a very short bit of text at the beginning of the Prelude (AKA Chapter 1), before the title, in imitation of a similar blurb in the instruction manual to Chrono Cross. It does not add to the plot of the story at all; I just thought I'd mention it for the sake of anybody who might happen across it and wonder "Was this always there?".