"Take that!" Gene cried, watching as all three of the jack-o-lanterns crashed to the ground in sequence, all thanks to his seaweed thing.
The trio of jack-o-lanterns remained stunned and vulnerable on the ground, so he and Ken took to the usual strategy of beating them senseless while Courtney just… watched. She didn't seem fit for close combat due to not having an actual weapon, Ken supposed. Best case scenario she had bombs, which wasn't going to end well no matter how he looked at it.
One, two, three jack-o-lanterns disappeared into the mist, leaving the third treasure chest of the night free for the taking. Previous ones yielded a weird yellowish stone and what looked like a blank playing card, both of which Ken had no clue how to go about using. Junk shop maybe?
With a solid thunk, the latch came loose on the treasure chest, revealing a plush velvet interior and a friendly golden glow. Within it, a full box of Chunky Blast-Offs?
"Huh?" Gene gawped at it. "What're Chunky Blast-Offs doing here?! And are there more?!"
Gene's elation aside, that posed more questions than it answered. As always. If worldly items were appearing in this dystopian mirror, it offered more evidence than ever that the worlds were linked, and worse still that someone may have the ability to freely travel between them. Either that or he was just overthinking.
"Either way, free Chunky Blast-Offs. Means more spells I guess?" Ken shrugged. "H-how many more chests were there in the area Courtney? One?"
"I um, think so," Courtney nodded. "Is… is this gonna take much longer? I dunno if I can keep this up…"
"Shouldn't be too much longer if there's only one," Ken reassured her, and the trio took to the streets once again, calmly moving between hiding spots to evade the bigger shadows. All three of their Persona creatures were low on power, if the near empty boxes of Chunky Blast-Offs were any indication, so if they could get through this last bit without using one of the spare boxes that would've been ideal. It meant forgoing extra experience, but they could also gain that another day.
He wasn't sure if his eyes had just gotten used to the mist or not, but it seemed a lot easier to see in this world now. Or maybe it was tied to the number of shadow things?
That would be something he'd find out when they went back, Ken forced a chuckle.
As expected, the fourth and last treasure chest was guarded by another blob creature thing, and this was far bigger and nastier than the last, practically taking up the whole alleyway. It moved quickly and would glance over its 'shoulder' at seemingly random moments too, which made sneak attacks nigh on impossible.
"Ugh…" Ken groaned. With a nod to his accomplices, he snuck behind a fence and waited for it to pass the corner in the hope that it wouldn't glance at exactly the wrong time.
Spear in hand he went for the lunge, just in time for a pair of crimson eyes to lock onto his position. The shadow creature growled in disdain and threw a swampy purple arm at him.
"Hey!" Gene cried from somewhere else and the shadow monster stopped in its tracks. Suddenly deciding that Ken wasn't important it instead turned around to look for Gene instead. Ken just balked.
A golden opportunity had just fallen into his lap. Whatever possessed Gene to shout at the thing he didn't know, but either way it worked as a distraction. The shadow creature shuffled slowly down the alleyway in an attempt to sniff him out, meanwhile Ken crept behind it as quickly and quietly as he could. It moved at lot faster than he could manage while holding a heavy spear though, so he was going to have to take another lunge at the right moment…!
His spear sunk into the shadow monster's flesh and it roared in pain before splitting into two different creatures, one that looked like a monkey holding a book and another like lady with a sword in each of hand. Definitely not ones to be trifled with.
Ken gulped and summoned Changeling. Now a weird toddler, the thing could walk on its own feet rather than float. It struck the monkey with a Garu spell – Courtney confirmed to him that that was the spell's name. With his second turn he struck the lady with his spear and was just met with two swords blocking his progress.
The swordswoman was the bigger danger here, it seemed.
"My turn!" Gene cried from the other side of the two of them. His seaweed thing hit the lady with a Bufu spell for seemingly neutral damage once again. Courtney's bird followed up with a light attack – Kouha, apparently – which struck the woman down at last. The two boys took their chance, piling on while their opponents were down, however both were still there after the clouds dissipated.
The monkey thing was the first to get up, firing a plume of darkness at Ken, while the lady slashed at Gene with both of its swords. The first was blocked by his harp but he wasn't so lucky with the second, taking a slash across the arm for his troubles.
"Agh!" He winced at the attack. "S-seaweed buddy!"
"I told you, it's called Nokken!" Courtney sighed.
"I'll call him anything as long as he heals me!" Gene cried back, bathing in the light blue energy that Nokken had just summoned. Ken just did the same as he did before, knocking over the monkey with a Garu. It sure felt a lot better knowing the names of these spells and things rather than just having to guess. Occasionally Courtney would be able to tell him the names of some of their enemies too, but not all the time. That suggested that maybe it was the stronger ones whose names she couldn't tell. And the fact that she hadn't given these guys' names away said it all.
Courtney followed the same pattern as last time, knocking the woman down with another Kouha spell, and the boys followed up once again, assaulting the pair while they were downed. Only the swordswoman remained this time, which had to make things easier surely?
It recovered from its assault and slashed at Courtney twice with its swords, knocking her to the ground with ease, and then decided to hit Ken with the pommel of one of its swords immediately afterwards, making him see stars.
"Nooken, buddy? Time for a heal!" Gene cried, reaching into his box for a Chunky Blast-Off and finding none. "Uh oh…"
Unsurprisingly, nothing appeared to take the lack of candy from him.
"Uhh…" Gene just looked hopelessly between his Nokken and Ken, then back again. "What now?"
Nokken disappeared in a flurry of damp seaweed, leaving Gene exposed to the sword lady's attacks. His hesitation cost him, and he took a slash to the side as punishment. Meanwhile Ken continued to stagger about in confusion and Courtney was still finding her feet after the last assault.
"M-maybe…" she clutched at her chest. "We should use that extra box we found?"
"Even if I wanted to, Ken's got it." Gene grimaced at the cut down his side. "Proof that holding a monopoly on snacks is dangerous!"
"W-well can we snap him out of it?" Courtney cried, summoning her Lona. The bird screeched and released another blast of light, knocking the woman down once again. Lona disappeared and Courtney shook Ken at the shoulder. His eyes were still unfocused and his footsteps shaky. She snapped her fingers in front of his face, yet still no reaction.
Courtney let out a strange noise. "Looks like we're fighting without him for a bit longer, Gene. Take this!"
A pill bomb exploded at the swordswoman's feet, launching her across the floor. Gene followed up with a trio of notes from his harp, each of which impaled their way into the sword lady's armour with a heavy 'thock'. Ken remained unsteady on his feet however, and this gave the lady the chance to get back up again, instantly retorting with another slashing attack. Courtney was spared, however it was Ken who took heavy damage instead, not even able to defend himself because of his dizziness. Several cuts to the side did wonders for his awareness however, and he was able to stop himself faceplanting the floor with an extended elbow.
"Ugh…" Ken wrenched back to his feet. "S-sorry guys."
"Don't worry about it Ken!" Courtney cried. "H-here, let me heal you up!"
She reached for her Chunky Blast-Offs, but after a few lonely taps about the box her eyes widened in panic. "Uh oh…"
"You're out too?" Gene grimaced. "W-what about you, Ken?"
Ken rattled the box in his hand. "One left. That's… not ideal."
"Of all the times to have a chocolate shortage!" Gene dragged hands down his face. "I-I know we were trying to save the new box, but mayyybe we shouldn't? I don't wanna be dead!"
"…maybe it's for the best," Ken considered. If Courtney couldn't use her Persona at all, that was a big issue. Even if she was the best healer, that wasn't a catastrophe on its own because all of them had some healing spells, but it seemed to be only her Kouha that even affected the swordswoman opposite. If Courtney couldn't strike the swordswoman where it was weakest, then it could just pick them off one by one.
"A-alright," Ken stammered, peeling open the little box of chocolate drops. A heat surged through the box in his hands and disappeared almost as quickly, taking the box with it. The same heat then exploded in his pants pocket, where Ken opened up the other box and found not just one, but eight whole chocolates now.
"By the power of chocolate I smite thee!" Gene adopted a weird, old fashioned voice and summoned his Nokken once again, who struck the swordswoman with another blast of Bufu. It fell to one knee but remained mostly unharmed from the attack. It couldn't even brace for a Kouha from Courtney however, collapsing onto its butt.
"Okay, this time!" Courtney lisped, and both boys took to the close combat once again. With Gene using his harp as more of a club than anything else and Ken just slashing blindly with the spear, the pair of them attacked until nothing remained for them to attack. One of the swordswoman's blades clattered to the ground as its body dissipated into the ether, which Ken promptly picked up.
"A… free sword?" He shrugged. He had nothing to put it in beside his pockets. Maybe it was time to invest in a rucksack or something, because there was no way he was going to be able to carry a foot-long sword about in his pockets. This wasn't The Sims.
"Might as well keep it." Courtney suggested. "Either way, we beat the bad guys! Woohoo!"
"And there's the last of the treasure chests!" Gene cried. "C'mon Ken, let's open it up!"
Ken simply nodded to Gene and fiddled with the latch on the treasure chest, which snapped away. A heavy hinge slowly folded outwards, inviting the three of them to the happy glow of…
"…a fancy metal sports bra!" Gene seemed elated. "Fashionable and safe!"
"Er, I think it's chainmail," Ken felt he had to correct there. He couldn't claim to know all that much about bras, but it was a pretty safe bet that they didn't come in metal.
"Or that too," Gene shrugged. "Who's gonna get it? Because I for one-"
"I think Courtney should," Ken handed it to her. "She did the most work and needs more protection from the heavy hits. Seem fair to you, Courtney?"
"U-umm…" Courtney was already blushing. Please don't read into this, Ken grimaced to himself.
"I-if you say so, Ken," she stammered, receiving it from him and slipping her arms through. "Ooh. It's all cold and heavy…"
She fiddled with the cold metal links on her chainmail as the three of them just looked around. What were they supposed to do now? They'd found all of the treasure chests as far as Ken was aware. Unless more spawned randomly or something like they did in online video games? He wasn't going to lie, that would've been a cool feature. They had more spells to use up now too, thanks to the fresh batch from that new box of Chunky Blast-Offs, but that was all well and said and done. As for actual energy levels, that was a different matter altogether. Gene was doubled over and heaving while Courtney had already collapsed into a sitting position on the cold stone floor. More spells or not, it looked like it was time to go home.
"So uh, home time?" Ken asked.
"We can go home?" Courtney sounded helpful. "You know how?"
"Uh. Sorta." Ken shrugged. "We kinda just have to wait for it to happen. But I think we're done with fighting for today right?"
"So you mean we wait for it to digest?" Courtney said. "That's super weird."
"Heh. Yeah, it's not the best system." Ken offered a meek smile. "Best we got so far though."
And then they were waiting. For how much longer, he had no clue. Maybe there was a way to speed it up?
He summoned his Changeling with another Chunky Blast-Off. Maybe using up energy would help. They had spare spells to waste anyway. Three blasts of Dia them, and Changeling disappeared as quickly as it came. No change of scenery, however.
"So uh. What now?" Courtney said.
"Waiting, I guess." Ken sighed. "Gotta find a better way of getting in and out than this."
It wasn't even a nicety. This was a really inefficient system. Imagine getting transported back to the real world while fighting a monster. They'd lose all of the progress, or possibly worse.
"So…" he struggled for conversation. "Plans for tonight?"
"I think I need a nap…" Gene yawned. "Like, three naps all at once. A supernap…"
"I-I have to do something with my dad," Courtney shivered from the cold. "What about you, Ken?"
"Long walk back home to Calvin's…" Ken groaned. His legs were already pounding from all the running about in this place. Another 2 mile walk back to Calvin's place was already sounding like torture.
"You'll have the best shins in town!" Gene was weirdly optimistic about Ken's situation, and Ken couldn't help but chuckle in response. All the girls were totally into well-defined shins.
The stifled conversation helped move time along just enough however, and Ken could feel the telltale gurgle in his stomach. His vision blurred as colour washed back into their surroundings, leaving them in some back alley he didn't recognise.
"Where… are we?" Courtney lisped, no longer wearing her chainmail vest thing. "This place doesn't look familiar."
"It'll be somewhere in town most likely." Ken muttered. "Let's wander a bit, see if we can find our bearings."
The three of them nodded to each other and ventured out of the grimy alleyway, then onto a main street. There were a few shops Ken thought maybe he recognised from his journeys with Calvin to collect rent, but there definitely wasn't anywhere he could guarantee to find his way home from. This could've been an issue.
"Look! There's the store where dad gets his fancy cheese from!" Gene pointed out to a dingy looking store across the road and down a few houses from them.
"Can you get home from there?" Ken asked.
"Uh, maybe?" Gene nodded. "I only ever see it when I'm in the car so I dunno if my feet remember the way."
"Better than nothing," Ken said. "Might as well start from there. Think you can find your way home from here Courtney?"
"Umm…" she hesitated. "I'll go with you guys for a while, see if there's anywhere I recognise on the way."
"Fair enough." Ken muttered. Taking advantage of a convenient red light, the trio crossed the busy street to enter into 'How Dairy', where Gene was able to ask the shopkeeper for directions. He split with Ken and Courtney, heading the opposite way back into the heart of town while Ken made sure Courtney was at least safely on her way back. That would've been all he needed, having something happen to her before she got home.
Taking the rural roads out towards Courtney's house proved the wiser option it seemed, with the nature and wildlife a lot easier on the eyes than constant traffic jams and angry motorists. Sure, there were still plenty even out this way, but it was nothing like the downtown chaos.
"Thank you for training with me today, Ken." Courtney smiled up at him as they approached the end of her street. "It was super helpful."
"No problem," Ken gave her the obligatory hug. "It answered a couple of questions for me too, so it was a useful day."
"Maybe we can do it again another time?" She asked.
"I've got a feeling we'll be needing to pretty often." Ken forced a chuckle. That incident with Tina was still pretty fresh in his mind, what with all of Igor's creepy foreshadowing.
Ken waved goodbye to Courtney and made his way back to the Fischoeder mansion, where Calvin was all too happy to see him at the end of the day. Ken could just about muster the energy for a couple games of Salad Samurai with his guardian before collapsing onto his bed for the night.
Morning came slowly, as if time itself was exhausted. Ken spent what felt like hours lost between dozing and semi-consciousness, shocking himself when only about 20 minutes had past since the alarm went off at 9.
Stretching his tired joints, Ken looked about his bedroom. Still as barren and lifeless as the day he'd moved in. He'd at least unpacked his travel case thing, he supposed. He made a mental note to perhaps decorate this place a little, because it didn't even look like he was living here aside from the occasional abandoned item of clothing strewn about the floor. There was the money issue of course, and while he was richer than the average kid thanks to Calvin basically throwing money at him, something suggested $90 or so wasn't going to go that far.
Calvin greeted him to breakfast as he made his way down, A small army of bacon was his breakfast it seemed. No complaints there. What young boy didn't like bacon?
Being off school so soon after the long weekend just three days ago was an alien experience. Like a forbidden respite that he didn't deserve. But it also felt just empty without anything to do. Going off to see Gene and the others again after yesterday was probably a bad idea if they were even half as tired as he felt, meanwhile he had a whole Saturday to waste. What to do, he wondered.
There were those items they found in the other world, he supposed he could go get those valued at some point. He supposed he could go find Igor and ask what the weird stone and blank playing card did. Igor seemed to know a lot about cards so that was at least one reliable answer. That might have killed… maybe an hour. Leaving him another twelve or so until he could realistically sleep again. A nap just sounded like a path to poor sleeping patterns, so that probably wasn't the best idea either. He could've just lost himself in the games room, but things didn't exactly turn out well last time he did that either. But then again, what were the odds that Felix would get in a fight with Frank over a hotdog again? He'd like to think it wasn't likely, but then again this was the Fischoeders. So he wasn't holding his breath in the hope of normality.
A few more games of Salad Samurai with Calvin soaked up another thirty minutes or so, but at this point Ken's tolerance for sociability was nearing its limit. Maybe it was time to just lock himself away somewhere and while the day away on something unproductive. Before he knew it, he'd sunk back into the game kart thing and was wasting time.
Occasional texts from Courtney breaking the time up nicely, the hours slowly melted away into evening, where Ken eventually decided enough was enough.
'March 14th' he scrawled into the diary. 'Did a whole lot of nothing today. Gene's sister is going to some horse thing tomorrow so I'll probably go with them just to see what that's like.'
After a dinner of colourless mush, or 'biscuits and gravy' according to Calvin, Ken indulged his guardian with a few more games of Salad Samurai had before rounding off the day, celebrating with a decent snooze.
Ken arose with his alarm at 9 once again, repeating yesterday's monotony of breakfast with Calvin and feeding Frank before heading out to the restaurant to see what was going on over there.
Unsurprisingly, Tina was a ball of nerves upon his arrival. Quivering like a leaf, she was barely able to jitter forget form coherent sentences. Gene had to literally prod her into the car, while Louise took advantage of her mental absence to call shotgun. Once again, Ken was stuck with the tiny middle seat, sandwiched between the two older Belchers.
This Equestra-Con thing was being held at an enormous grey building in the middle of town called the 'Wharf-Arts centre'. Everything about the building, from the weird cylinder roof to the seemingly random window placement and granite texture, was the sheer definition of pretentious. The kind of place that only the most pompous of events were held.
Linda pulled into a bay outside the complex and immediately leant over her shoulder, casting a concerned glance at her eldest.
"Are you sure you're gonna be okay at this Equestron, Teena Beena?" There was a worried quiver in her voice.
"I'll be fine, mom," Tina smiled. "It's just a bunch of old guys in horse costumes. O-oh, and it's Equestra-Con, not Equestron."
"I-isn't that what I said?" Linda tittered. "Anyway, I just don't wanna worry about you too much. You're all alone, and I can't say I'm too pleased about my little girl bein' surrounded by a bunch of old men. Ain't this Equesticles a girl's thing?"
"There are some girl fans," Tina nodded. "B-but I'll be fine, don't worry mom. I promise."
"Hnng…" Linda made a weird noise. "A-alright sweetie. I can trust you. Go be the best Equesticle ever."
Tina opened the door and stepped out of the car, standing on the sidewalk with the arts centre thing in the background behind her.
"…thanks mom," She said, waving her mother away with a smile. Linda made sure to hug her daughter properly before sidling back into the car, grey as the skies above.
"…she will be okay, won't she?"
"Surrounded by sweaty old men? She'll be fine!" Louise did nothing to help the situation.
"If anything, they're in the room with her, mom." Gene added his own brand of antagonism to the conversation.
"…she'll be fine, don't worry." Ken bit his lip. There was that worrying undercurrent playing in the back of his mind almost on repeat, like that one family video you could never quite forget. Ever since she'd given him that hug at school, he couldn't help but worry that something bad was going to happen. Igor's voice generally brought concern with it. But telling Linda wasn't going to help anything, he supposed. If worst came to worst, it was going to be up to him, Gene and Courtney. But until then, he guessed they were just going to have to see how things panned out.
Linda put the car into gear and pulled away, leaving Tina in her rear-view mirror.
Author's note:
End of chapter notes:
You acquired a Chainmail Vest.
You acquired a Life Stone.
You acquired a Blank Card.
You defeated a strong foe! Your Courage has increased!
You played many games of Salad Samurai! Your Proficiency has increased!
Hey there guys. We won't be seeing too much of Tina for a few chapters, as you may have guessed. I'll be speeding up the plot a wee bit to accommodate the time difference, but she's next on the awakening list. Bonus points for anyone who can guess her element :)