Chapter 38
The group was still thinking, when in a puff of smoke, a little man with really long ears, blue eyes, and long silver hair appeared before them.
"Greetings, all, I am Puck!" he proclaimed. He jumped into the air and started to do a flip. In the middle of it, he caught sight of Frus and he began to float over to him, still upside-down. "Are we related or something?" inquired Puck.
"No, see, I'm not always like this, I-" Frus was cut off by the strange little man's shrieking laughter.
"You-you actually thought I was serious! Aw, no…well, so what happened to you guys?" asked Puck.
"Well, we-" began Maria, who was also cut off.
"No, no, I don't really care. Mostly because…I already know, lady!" yelled Puck.
"You're starting to get annoying," said Ygrene.
"Huzzah!" cheered Puck, and he began to laugh again. The group started to move towards the odd man. "Calm down, peoples, I'm going to help you, or so you think."
"You're really going to help us?" asked Otto.
"Or so you think," said Puck. He then waved his hand, to make everyone forget that last part, then laughed because he had had to repeat it.
"So, Puck, what are you going to do?" asked Ivy.
"Ah, little, little, little lady, you see, I not only know about your problems, I can fix them! That is, of course, if you win a little game!" said Puck.
"Let me guess. If we lose, we die horribly, right?" asked Saga.
"No, no, but I don't help you, and I continue to laugh at you," said Puck.
"So, how do we play this game?" asked Ivy.
"You're already playing!" shouted Puck.
The group looked around. They were in a very…warped version of Shuggazoom. Saga was standing on top of a street light, which instead of a bulb had a glowing eye. The streets were dark, even though the sun was out, and the people seemed mindless. The doors to almost all of the buildings seemed painted on, and the only ones that could possibly work were on new buildings. One said "Weapons & Armor" and the other said "Items." Finally, most noticeably of all, was that everyone was human, not to mention wearing fantasy gear. Most of it looked like it had been drawn over them, and badly, but Ivy and Frus had on well-made, if odd, costumes. Frus had pants that had apparently been a recycles potato sack, but wore a glimmering chest plate and held a claymore. Ivy had a "full" suit of armor, but almost anything probably have been more effective.
"Why am I dressed like this?" asked Ivy.
"I thought it would be funny!" said Puck.
Ivy sighed. "So what's the point of this?" she asked.
"As you can tell, this isn't the real Shuggazoom. This is like a bad RPG world based on it. However, I brought that guy Trev…Pervis…whatever here and turned him human, too, and you have to get to him and beat him to win! He has final boss stats, of course," replied Puck.
"Of course," groaned Ivy.
"Now, get going!" commanded Puck. He then floated up above them and held out his hand. Popcorn appeared and he got settled to watch.
Everyone in the group shrugged at the same time, then started on their quest. After about ten or fifteen steps, the world warped, and suddenly Frus, Ivy, Sprx, and Otto were facing down…two pink puffball creatures. The others were nowhere in sight. If their enemy was a final boss…this was going to take a while.
Frus slashed one of the puffballs in half with his big sword, and then it was Ivy's turn. She suddenly had a staff, which she used to whack the other puffball…several times. It ran out of HP and blew up. Frus, Ivy, Otto, and Sprx each received 10 exp, and Ivy got an herb. Then, the world warped again.
During the fight, it had started to rain, and as the group returned to the over world map, they were exposed to it. But this was no ordinary rain. It was raining a ham sandwich. Not ham sandwiches plural; the same ham sandwich over and over. After a collective sigh, our heroes started walking again, hoping to get just a little further this time before another random-battle.
Note to readers: Please don't get mad at me about the apparel. When I got to that part, I remembered how, so often when you find a legitimate list of characters that happen to wear armor, someone just had to put in a girl with armor that makes you wonder how it could ever be effective. I thought that when they finally reach the end their enemy's reaction would be priceless (it would also allow them to skip some leveling-up if he's distracted during the final fight).