Jumanji's Creed Welcome to the Jungle
Season 2
Episode 16 Leaving Well Enough Alone
29-30 June year unknown
City of Riften
Jumanji
Sunset
The creaking of boats tied to their docks met the ears of the two women, Spike unseen in her white dress and Diamond wandering the streets calmly looking to see what was there and what could be used.. "So this is a vampire run city ? There is people everywhere here" Diamond mused softly so only Spike could hear her.
"It was different in Markarth, until the vampires were slain, everyone lived inside with fear in their eyes and hearts." Spike replied.
"So whats the plan ?" Diamond asked as the two went through a throng of people. One man was speaking of learning an entire dictionary of knowledge just by drinking what he had.
"We explore, find who really pulls the strings, and then cut those strings one after the other until the city is freed" Spike said as they went through the marketplace of the city. A man approched them
"I think we're going to find out sooner than one thinks" Diamond muttered, Spike snarled looking at the man as he approached Diamond.
"Lot of coin you carry there eh lass, but not the least honest was it ?" The man asked.
Diam,ond raised an eyebrow and looked at the guy. "What, sorry what ?"
"I am saying you have the money, but you stole it, didnt you ?" The man persisted.
"How could you possibly know that ?" Diamond asked as Spike inverted her vision and observed carefully the man. He glimmered red. Vampire thrall
"I know many things lass, and the fact that you have money that was illfully gained"
"That is not your business" Diamond retorted
"Oh but that is where you are wrong lass, wealth is my business." The man replied calmly, he crossed his arms and looked at her
Spike didnt like where it was going. So she fed Diamond a line. "Wealth may be your business, but my wealth is not." She then asked as the man seemed to not back down with a darker tone. "Who is in charge here ?" The man smirked and directed her not to the mayoral hall, but to a more overbuilt house nearby. Spike smirked Diamond didnt even say thankyou as she left the man and stalked away.
A moment later and Spike slit the mans throat in his own stall. As much as she wanted to destroy the vampires and return to the game properly, she had to take out even the vampires underlings too. While the market went insane with the sudden onset of missing adams apple Spike and Diamond calmly went into the house pointed out. And the stentch of death met them as they snuck inside.
Upon entering they found themselves in a well kept well lit foyer that led to a gallery of a hallway and they could easily see the living area acdross the hall easily. Turning left Diamond snuck through the house unseen as Spike ambled after her also easily unseen by anyone but Diamond as the two explored. Directly to their left was a dining room, a large table was laid out and was well kept by appearance alone, which meant the house held more than just vampires.
Back into the hallway they found the kitchen with a large pantry, it had some rats in it and Spike easily stomped the fiends flat. Blood splurted onto the floor and parts of the cabinets as the rats died. Opening a door Diamond spotted a vampire thrall doing what else but cleaning clothing. Easily slitting the mans throat she moved on. A stairway led up to the second floor, as well as down to the basement, Spike went down briefly as Diamond exoplored the area before the stairs. There was a nice fireplace within the living space, a formal family rtoom it looked like.
Spike while in the basement found one other thrall and plenty of useless junk and also a full wall barring access to another stairway yet Spike knew there was something else nearby. Going back uyp stairs as Diamond opened a door that lead into a boat house, two docks it looked like spiked out from the centeral structure. Seeing the two docked boats Diamond smirked. "We have a boat going vampire ? Do you suppose they go fishing ?" Spike tried to joke
"That is a bad joke and you know it" Diamond said
Spike smiled. "I try. Shall we try the other side of the house then ?" Diamond nodded and the two women headed in that direction. Going backwards the way they came down the hallway they came across a door on the left, going therough it they found what had to be a safe room that also acted as a closet, the room was well kept, like a bedroom for a guest or two Only a single thrall was in there. Spike saw another set of stairs leading up to the second floor as Diamond opened the door to the master bedroom.
A large bed adorned the centeral part of the room, a dresser, a desk and two end tables were also within the room and it was like the rest of the house, well lit. Vampires thralls perhaps ? It was possible the only owner of the house was a vampire while the rest of the place were simply thralls in their sway ?
Slipping into the bathroom Diamond found their primary target, a woman, bathing in the oversized bathtub simply didnt see either woman enter her home, none of her thralls and underlings had alerted her in any manner. Spike nodded to Diamond to take the strike while Spike went through the nearby safe in the massive closet for further information. A gurgling choking scream was heard as the vampire bitch died in the bath.
Spike found all sorts of bits of information, most of it related to the local and city operations. Some of it related to a group called the guild. "I think its time we pay the underground a visit, more vampires are operating in this town under there" Spike said.
"We still havent checked upstairs yet" Diamond replied. The two did so and as they went down the named list of who was present in the house there was only one other vampire still; operating in the city, a guy named Vek, and he operated strictly below the ground. So the entire vampire nest running Riften was dead execept for one guy and his Guild.
Which meant they had to go out of the house and underground, and kill those living down there, one member of the guild was already dead as it was. "So we got most if not all of the vampires exedcept for this last Vek guy. Lets go find someone who has knowledge of the underground" Diamond said, Spike simply nodded and the two women left the house after getting the owners deed. If they had to they could easily move in the group and fortify the place nicely.
At the entry to the sewer network where the Guild apparently resided the two halted. "Something wrong ?" Spike asked
"Yeah" Diamond said, it didnt feel right to kill off a guild, even if they were thralls to a vampire. "This doesnt feel right."
Spike then thought a moment then smiled, "Its a question of moral." She said
"What ?" Diamond asked her
"It is not that we want to do, far from it, we could avoid killing the overall guild and then simply killing the vampire lord itself and leaving it at that. But, the guild is thralls, the whole lot most likely, and they have this city in their hand to do their bidding." Spike explained. "We dont want to kill these people, but we have to in order to eliminate the vampire control over this city. But then we can remember, its just a game"
"True, its just a game" Diamond smiled, the two then entered the sewers and snuck through the near dead darkness as Spike could easily see. Diamond could also barely see ahead of them very far.
As the two women walked through the sewer network they heard voices ahead. "Will you relax" Said a voice, "I told you we'd get the goods on the guild then reveal the truth!"
"Yeah, you said that months ago, now look at us, you said we'd have a manor as big as the leaderships place, but look at us. We're still in the sewers collecting secrets!" Said another unhappy voice
"Will you relax! I promised we'd get the goods on the guild then tell it to the right people, get a reward and live like kings. So whats to worry about ?" Said the first voice. Diamond and Spoike hid in the shadows, Spike scanning with her modified vision, there wasnt any outline of red or blue around the two voices owners, but there was an outline of gold. They had informaiton. "Alright look, just trust me, I'm gonna check and see if our source or a guard has shown up"
As the owner of the voice went around the corner and came into their view Diamond stood there like a deer in the headlights. The man came up short and asked "Who are you ?"
"Who are you ?" Diamond replied
"I asked first" Said the man.
"Fair point, My name is Diamond, we're looking for the Guild, I overheard you had goods on the guild, but I think I can help you there. The guild is about to be destroyed. If you go up top and look for the leadership of the city in the main mayoral hall, you'll find it vacant and the depouty mayor's home is all yours." Diamond said. The man smiled liking what he heard.
"Fair deal, the guild is that way. You may have to navigate the sewer network to get to their base of operations however." The man then called to his fellow and the two went back Diamond as if nothing was wrong. Diamond then headed deeper into the sewers and found what the man meant. There was a blocked off bridge, there wasnt a means to get past it, which meant they had to go deeper into the sewer network to get to where they wanted to be.
Slogging their way through the sewers Diamond was unhappy, Spike didnt seem to care much as the two slogged their way through knee deep sludge and then freshwater that was flowing from somewhere. "I dont like this" Diamond grunted after killing another attacker from the guild, this one a vampire. "Here we are slogging our way through sludge and crap and who knows what else. Just to find a vampire and kill it"
"I dont like it either, but we gotta destroy this last vampire so we can find Malkev so I can get back to normal" Spike replied, thankfully she had become coherent enough to strike at another attacker and take it down easily. "Fact of the matter is, hunting vampires is apparently second nature, remember that hologame a few years back they remade ?"
"yeah I remember, it had that holopack expansion set, where you could either hunt vampires down and destroy them entirely, or join them. Personally I always hunted them down." Diamond replied. Spike nodded.
"Likewise, I hated vampires in that game, they were always overpowered, and in many ways, uglier than shit to begin with. The vampires here remind me of them a lot, so we can hunt them like we hunted the vampires in the game. We just have to adapt to Jumanjis world view." Spike replied easily knifing down another vampire thrall and then some.
Diamond took a turn and the ground went up, out of the shit and into a dry area. A dozen massive critters milled about and swarmed them, if it wasnt for the cheat codes they had used they'd have been slain on the first run through the place. As it was, Diamond was more and more thankful that Spyder had given them the codes. Drawing a pistol Diamond shot a critter, sliced up a few more, then shot the last one easily. "How many more of these things are there ?" She said as she stabbed on a flying bug the size of a small horse with wings.
"No idea, I just know I will never look at spiders the same way again. Spyder has control of most of the critters, but those are the small ones, spiders this big are just too huge to worry about right now. Come on!" Spike said, she picked up a fallen sword after her last one had broken in battle and kept fighting other critters and enemies.
"Oh look, an infant, how quaint" Said a haughty elflike creature. Diamond snarled something and turned towards the guy. A sword in hand and gun in the other.
Giving the haughty fellow a deadly look she hissed "Looks who is talking, asshole" Diamond said, she brought up her gun and fired, the elflike creature ducked and drew a magical spell. Spike threw her sword, it nailed the man in the chest. He fell over as Diamond stepped over him. He started screaming seeing Diamonds gun poinrted at his face. "Good night asshole" Diamond said blowing him away.
They made it to the place they needed to be, one more door to get through. It was possible though that the place they were to go to was filled with their enemies, and it was also possible that the vampire itself was deeper inside the structure. Taking a deep breath Diamond relaxed and settled into a stance. But they had no idea what to expect once inside. Thankfully the opening area of the place was empty. It was so run down and filty Diamond almost gagged at the stink yet Spike shimmered ghostlike as she appeared mostly solid and clearly ghost like.
Spike withdrew a pistol from the nearby table, finding ammo for it she racked a clip into it and setoff towards the center ofd the tructure, it looked a typical sewer cistern, like where they had spent the night with Jalen before setting off to find Diadems campsite.
As if sensing their approach there was a bouncer, and he didnt look too happy either. Spotting Diamond he snarled, "You're not supposed to be here" The man wasnt too happy to say the least, apparently word filtered down, their front man in the market had been slain, and their benefactors slain in their city rules own home to boot.
"I have every right to be here as you" Diamond replied calmly, her swords held loose in her hand as Spike formed out of the blue and opened fire. The bouncer reacted and struck at Diamond who dodged easily as the fight was on. Spike hopped a table and ducked as a chair was thrown, it smashed apart in the cistern. Firing again she soon dropped the weapon and rapidly started trading blows with the bar owner fist to fist. The two really going at it for a good minute or so as Diamond made short work of the bouncer. More of the guild showed up and scambled madly towards them. Spike backtracked to the cistern and stood in the shin deep water as she fought skillfully, for a ghost.
One of the men fighting Diamond spoke. "Who are you and why did you come here ?" He swung at Diamond who easily caught the weapon and headbutted the guy dead on, the man fell over and struggled back to his feet as Diamonds sword sliced the man apart easily.
Another shouted. "I'll have your innards on a pike!" as he struck at Spike, Spike easily dodged. Spike grapped the fallen weapon from the man that Diamond had just killed and used the thing to fight with the bar keeper.
A third screamed. "Never should have come here!" The woman of course used a dagger, and try as she might she only annoyed Spike and was soon struck down by Diamond from behind as Diamonds left sword came up and sliced the attacking woman up the back from the top of the hips to the base of the neck in a perfect slice of flesh.
Finally the room was quiet. Spike sighed. "Well, that was fun, but we still have more to kill not far from here. Check them" Diamond nodded and sheathed her swords without a word and went from one body to the next and checked each one, any weapons she found, most of the gun ammo she tossed to Spike, the rest of the weapons she simply tossed aside as they didnt suit her style.
"Ok so, we took out the first half of the group, what about the rest ? None of these are a vampire, only its thralls" Diamond said Finally getting to her feet after searching the last body. Spike picked up her dropped gun and picked up a key off the bar top, it lead to the fake door in the back.
"We killed thralls, no vampires, but that thing will die, and it is still the plan. Come on" Spike racked another clip into the handgun and headed for the door. The two women stood ready for combat before Spike unlocked the fake freezer door and stepped through it.
The two followed a short hallway until it turned to a hard left, weapons ready they went through the second door and right into a ambush. Ducking at the last second Spike dodged a strike, lost her weapon, and kicked a man in the crotch dead on. The man screamed and sank to his knees as Spike moved to the next man in line as Diamond span on her feet like a dancer, slicing easily into enemy thralls as the two worked their way to the center of the rear most part of the structure. Finally there was a lull as the thralls backed off, some of them breaking morale and fleeing like mad before dying seconds later.
A voice spoke up. "An amusing display, woman. But fruitless."
"Reveal yourself demon!" Diamond called out
"Demon ? Hardly. I am a vampire, a strong powerful one at that" The cultured voice schuckled as the owner stepped into view.
"Whatever" Diamond growled
"I know what you want" the vampire gloated. "To use your power as the ghostly one, to bend the world to your will. I can give you that knowledge, for a price."
Spike raised a gun to shoot the vampire. "Really ? You think you can bargain your way out of this one ? Diamond, take the rest, I will handle pinstripe suit here."
"You will handle me ? For a woman I figured you a better lay" the vampire said simply. Spike snarled and fired, the vampire dodged quicker than expected as Spike snickered and dropped the gun, flicking out a picked up sword from the ground with a foot the two, ghost and vampire went at each other with a clash of steel.
Diamond made short work of the remaining thralls as Spike fought the vampire back easily. Locking weapons the two stared at each other carefully. Spike leaned in close as the vvampire struggled to hold her back. She spoke simply. "I am not your woman, nor am I your food, I am not a treat nor plaything to cast aside when done with. What I am, is your judge, your jury, and your executioner. Any last words ?"
The vampire stared at Spike, she was strong even as a ghost yet she was skilled and fast too. Just like him. "You are one of us more than you know!" He said before breaking the lock and the two split apart with a class of energy. Spike snickered and tossed aside her weapon. Diamond was in position by then. The vampire had his attention locked on Spike which allowed Diamond to get behind him.
He stared at her and snarled. "What is so funny ?"
"Nothing, I just wanted your attention on me so she could get behind you" Spike smirked. The vampires eyes went wide and he turned around, with no chance to get away or out of Diamonds reach the vampire fell to the ground dead, in three pieces. Spike smiled. "Vampires are cute, but only when they are dead." She turned to Diamond, "Do they have anything on them ? I cant sense any others left"
"Nothing. Only money." Diamond replied, the place had been cleaned out entirely.
"Good, shall we get going then ? Perhaps see how active the city has become with the vampire lords slain ?" Spike said, when did she get so verbose ? She didnt care, she figured that blaming it on the fact she wasnt fully in the game might help her mental state.
The two women left the underground guild headquaters where the former guild packed with theives and cutthroats resided slogging through the dead as they went back, Activating the bridge they easily cut off a huge loop as they moved through the sewers to the door to get back to the open fresh air and out of the stink. When they exited they heard voices, people were active and about. It seemed that with each vampire death the people were more and more free.
"Moments ago this place was a ghost town" Diamond said, Spike and Diamond both looked around, the marketplace area was packed with people. "Now look at it, active, inside and out."
"Lets head inside and get a room again for tonight, tomorrow we'll head back to Diadems camp unless we can find side jobs to pass the time or fast travel back there right now. Your choice" Spike said. Since Diamond was the only one able to see her at that point outside the sewers Diamond smirked, it was time to go.
"I think we should head back to Diadem and Spyder, Mark is most likely worried about us both, your cat too might be worried for you." Diamond said
Spike had to smile at mention of James, he had Lisa now, so Spike didnt know if James still wanted to be with her or if he'd want to stick with Lisa for the rest of his life. "He's got another of his kind, but its alright, When this is over I am going to ask Spyder to care for them, unless I can take them home with us to the real world outside this gemstone" Spike found herself liking and enjoying James companionship and being around. James, for a Jumanji cat, was a good cat, a fun cat.
James was also protective, and helped Spike track down a vampire, and got Spike into and out of situations a few times already. Spike found herself more and more wanting to take James home with her. But could she ? Would she be able to take a Jumanji cat back to the real world ? Or was she going to have to leave him ? She tried not not think about it too much, last thing she needed was to worry James, muchless the others on what was going on. "James is a good cat, But I am not sure if I can take him home as much as I'd love to" Spike finally said. Diamond had to smile, Spike did care for cats that they had found. Just like in Sacremento back home Spike cared for the wildlife as much as she could while also caring for and maintaining a peaceful world for the kids and families to live in.
"So whats the plan ?" Diamond asked as Spike opened a fast travel portal.
"For now, rest, tomorrow we make plans, the day after I think we will take the fight to what is left of the vampires" Spike replied, the two women stepped into the portal and disappeared from the city of riften.
When they arrived in Diadems camp, Mark looked to Spike, who looked not the least bit sleepy, yet Diamond stank. "What did you guys swim in ?" He asked
"Long story short, Shit happens" Diamond replied, she reeked. "im gonna take a swim and get some sleep. If you need me, I will be awake in the morning" With that Diamond turned and left her brother and Spike.
Mark turned to Spike, but she simply shook her head. "I will be in my cabin" She said, also leaving Mark alone, James and Lisa were scampering about the fortress camp and darted into Spikes cabin as she opened the door. It made Mark smile seeing how Spike actually did know how to care for things. After all she had kept several colonies of feral cats in Sacremento well cared for.