Taylor pushed herself to her feet with a groan. The last thing she remembered was pounding on her locker door and screaming for someone-anyone-to let her out.
She had no idea where the burning piles of skulls, yawning skull doors, or that odd looking mirror next to a stone bridge had come from.
As the only interesting feature, Taylor wandered over. The reflection looking back was kind of hers, if someone made her look like a cartoon character. She poked at a button on one side of the mirror and the hair color changed from dark brown to... white? The button next to it changed it back. Other buttons changed the hairstyle, added braids, moustaches and beards, or altered the colors of eyes, skin, and lips. It even had buttons for male and female.
On the other side of the mirror, she saw four badges, helpfully labelled as Warrior, Rogue, Mage, and Healer.
She pushed the one for Warrior and the image gained a set of battered armor and a long sword. Rogue had dark leathers and a pair of daggers. Mage and Healer both had staffs and robes, but Mage had dark blue while Healer had a more elaborate version of Panacea's costume, adding gold tracings.
She wasn't a particularly big fan of video games, but she'd played a few and had listened while one of her classmates, Greg Veder, would enthuse about the latest Aleph import. She thought for a few minutes. Something told her she could not only change things later, she could turn the look off whenever she wanted.
With that in mind, she played around until the image had spiky purple hair, wrapped braids down either side of her face, and yellow eyes. As she stepped away from the mirror, she felt an odd shiver and she realized she had the brown leather and daggers from the mirror. Purple braids hung just at the edges of her vision.
Now, to figure out how to get out of here. Probably somewhere past that skeleton waiting in the middle of the bridge. She hefted the twin daggers now in her hands. She took a deep breath and darted in to slash at the skeleton. She managed a second slash before having to dodge a return swipe. Her third slash felt... different. It added a poison effect.
The poison drain made it much easier to kill the skeleton-and how did she kill something that was already dead? At least it left a present, if the sack next to the remains were any indication.
Taylor grimaced as she examined the torn cloak she'd just picked up off the skeleton she'd destroyed. She had no real interest in the thing, but she knew it would give her some, minor protection, so she figured it wouldn't hurt to wear. At least for now.
As soon as she decided that, the cloak vanished from her hands and she felt the heavy fabric wrapped around her neck and hanging off her back.
Useful.
The next platform had more skeletons and a fire barrier blocking the next bridge. At least this time, she had some idea of what she was doing.
Tayler picked out the nearest skeleton, darted in to strike, and immediately backpedaled. As expected, the skeleton followed her away from its companions, letting her fight it one-on-one. This time, she tried a spinning slash. It slowed her, but it also seemed to make the poison drain faster.
When the skeleton went down, she was a little disappointed it didn't leave any gear, so she went after the next one. This time, it reacted just a little quicker, forcing her to dodge... into another skelaton.
Swearing at finding herself fighting two opponents she didn't plan on, she focused on dodging while swiping at them whenever she could get a shot in. At least her poison effect helped by continuing to drain the skeletons'...life? health? when she couldn't actively attack them.
Still, she couldn't avoid every hit. Most, she took on her arms (and how were they not bloody and broken?!), but the one time she tried her spin attack, she took a nasty hit to her ribs and another to her lower back. As with her arms, they hurt (a lot) but didn't cause any damage she couldn't fight through. Still, by the time the second skelaton collapsed, she knew that she'd taken enough damage she needed to recover.
And that wall of fire still blocked the next bridge.
Hospitals had never been Danny's favorite places. His opinion had only gotten worse when his wife was killed, never mind she died before paramedics could reach her.
Finding out Taylor had been brought in... It was probably a good thing Pete had overheard it and insisted on driving.
He'd already spoken to a nurse who had given him the basics about how Taylor had been pulled from a locker full of biological wasted. Now, he could only wait for the ER doctors to come out and let him know if she would be okay. He took a sip of coffee, grimaced at the burned, sat-too-long-on-the-heat taste. Maybe he should have detoured through the cafeteria instead of relying on the waiting room offerings.
"Mr. Hebert?"
He jumped to his feet. "How is Taylor?"
"She's stable but still in serious condition, between the infection risk, dehydration, and having had to restart her heart in the ambulance-"
"Her heart stopped?"
"Briefly. As I said, she's stable now, but we're going to keep a close eye on her for the next few day. Get her rehydrated, and full spectrum course of antibiotics."
Danny closed his eyes, reminding himself this wasn't the doctor's fault; he was just doing his job.
"To be honest, the biggest concern will be her mental state. Until she wakes up, we won't know how she'll react or what she'll remember."
"Any idea how long until she's awake?"
"We'll keep her sedated until we've got the first round of antibiotics in her. Once we have her in a room, someone will come and take you up."
"Thanks. By the way, is the cafeteria any better than this?" Danny waved at the coffee pot on the counter.
"There's a 24-hour coffee shop across the street most of us go to. You'll have more than enough time to get back before we'll be ready to move your daughter. You should grab something to eat while you're there, too."
"You sure?"
"Go. Get some food, get your coffee, and the fresh air from the walk will help, too."
Danny nodded and stood.
Taylor slumped in relief as the last skelaton collapsed and the fire wall vanished. It hadn't been easy, exactly, but she thought she was starting to get the hang of things.
When she saw what waited on the next platform, she grimaced. There was only one skelaton, but the thing was massive; two, maybe three times her height. There were also two bridges. One blocked by another fire wall and the other led to...was that a chest? Didn't chests usually have useful stuff in them?
Taylor carefully circled around the edge of the platform until she could dart across the bridge. The chest wasn't locked and the lid opened easily.
When she saw the contents, she grimaced. The gaudy, blue and silver belt had a huge skull on the front and reminded her of the prize belts they gave boxers. Still, it should help against that giant skelaton. Just like with her cloak, as soon as she decided to use it, the belt vanished from her hands to reappear on her waist.
She took a deep breath and marched towards the giant. Once she was close enouogh, she sped up, slashing at it as she ran past. It turned to face her, raising its arm to crush her. She dove out of the way but still caught the edge of the blow, sending her tumbling towards the edge of the platform.
Taylor scrambled to her feet as it turned to lumber towards her. She ran at an angle, hoping to get around it to attack from behind.
That seemed to work, so she settled into a pattern of circle, strike, retreat, and occassionally getting one of her spin attacks while it was off-balance from its smashing attacks. She mistimed a couple of her attacks, taking enough damage, she wasn't sure if she could take another hit.
At least her poison worked on the giant skelaton, same as the regular sized ones. It actually collapsed while she was dancing just outside it's range. This time, she picked up a couple flasks of red liquid.
Taylor shrugged. Everything else so far was pretty much straight out of a game, and red flasks usually meant a health potion. She popped the cork on one of them. The stuff tasted like red Kool-Aid, but she felt a lot better.
The next firewall vanished. Now, she could see a cloaked figure with... was that a scythe? Well, everything else so far was difficult but not impossible, so she hoped this wouldn't be too bad.
As she cautiously approached, the thing turned to look at her.
"WELL, YOU'RE A BIT SCRAWNIER THAN I'D HOPED, BUT YOU'LL DO."
Taylor stopped short, "You can talk?"
"OF COURSE, WHY WOULD YOU THINK I CAN'T?"
"It's just, none of the other skelaton had anything to say."
It waved her off, "MINOR GUARDS. I JUST KEEP THEM AROUND FOR TESTING PURPOSES."
"Testing? Why?"
"SOME IDIOT CRASHED INTO THE ENTRANCE TO MY UNDERWORLD FROM YOUR WORLD.
"Under-" Taylor's eyes widened, "You're Death?!"
"YES."
"How did... I died?"
"YOU'RE ONLY MOSTLY DEAD. YOU'LL BE FINE ONCE YOU GO BACK."
Taylor found herself sitting on the ground. "Back..."
"I NEED SOMEONE TO CLEAR THE WRECKAGE AND FIX THE DOORS. AND YOUR IT!"
"Why me?"
"WHY NOT YOU?" Death leaned over her, "AS INCENTIVE, I'LL KEEP SENDING YOU BACK ANY TIME YOU DIE UNTIL YOU'RE DONE."
"Why would you think I'll... I'll die?"
"ADVENTURERS LIKE YOU ALWAYS SEEM TO FIND THE ODDEST WAYS TO GET YOURSELVES KILLED. IT GETS RATHER ANNOYING.
"Wait, what-Adventurer? But I'm not-"
"YOU ARE NOW."
Death reached down, picked her up by her new belt, and chucked her, screaming, through a nearby portal. As she vanished, he tapped his chin.
"PERHAPS I SHOULD HAVE TOLD HER THE IDIOT'S NAME?"
_
Adapted a few AdventureQuest details for Worm.
Worm: Grimdark Superhero world, belongs to Wildbow
AdventureQuest: Tongue-in-cheek adventure MMORPG, belongs to Artix Entertainment.
