Chapter 52

"I can't believe we got the Ring!" Courtyard Droll exclaimed. They were back at Derse's palace, having successfully taken the Black Queen's ring from Meenah. They sat around their poker table, which they had dragged out from another room all the way into the throne room. The Ring was on the table with their deck of cards and the Draconian Dignitary's Gray Ladies. "We didn't even need to fight Meenah since Kurloz did all that for us! How easy was that?!"

"Who cares how easy it was?" Jack snapped, tapping his foot impatiently. "We got it, and I'm puttin' it on to get all the powers it gives. Say, what were those powers again, DD?" DD looked up from reading the latest issue of the Gray Ladies.

"What? Oh, yeah, right, the powers." He flipped through the pages of fake newspaper until he found a note listing the prototypings he had slipped in. "Here they are. Let's see…"

"Hold on a minute!" Hegemonic Brute interrupted. "I thought we were supposed to be wearing the prototyping stuff for a while! What have we been in instead?"

"I don't know!" Courtyard Droll shrugged. "I guess we're naked, then?"

"No, we're not!" Jack shouted. "We're all decked out in classy, mafia-style suits!" Courtyard Droll and Hegemonic Brute looked down at their clothing and realized Jack was right. When wasn't he?

"In any case," Draconian Dignitary continued, "The prototypings are mostly aesthetics. You get an 8 on your forehead…"

"Does it give me psychic powers or prophecy?" Jack asked.

"It didn't do that before to any of us when we painted'em on our heads for the queen, so I don't see why it would do that now. There's also a t-shirt with a keyboard on it, some goofy reading glasses, a pair of boxer shorts…"

"No pants?!"

"No pants."

"What?!"

"Don't worry, that's the last useless thing. Now on to good stuff. You get a helmet that protects you from drowning, toxic gas, and head injuries, of course. There's a plasma pistol and a cape that gives you the ability to fly…"

"Awesome!" Jack cried. "I had no idea the capes let you fly!"

"Sure they do!" Courtyard Droll insisted. "But you banned us from wearing the prototypings!"

"I, uh…why the heck did I do that?"

"Lapse in judgment?" HB suggested. "Happens to me all the time."

"Enough chattering," DD pleaded. "You guys are gonna give me a migraine if you keep that up. Anyway, there's a fire extinguisher for some weird reason, but I guess that would help if there was a fire. It's in your specibus with the plasma pistol. You also have fiduspawn properties. If somebody kills you, there'll be 2-5 clones of you somewhere."

"Oh, yeah, that happened to Queenie when the fish girl tried killin' her!" Jack recalled. "I hope my other "me"s listen to me. Heck, I don't even know if any of them would be me!"

"Won't know till you try," DD suggested dryly. "And lastly, there's a wind-up key in your back. You can wind it up to let you go backwards or forwards in time a bit. Kind of like a remote for life to rewind or fast-forward stuff with."

"Aw, yeah!" Jack pumped a fist in the air in glee. "I'm gonna kick that king's ass on the Battlefield! Well, I will if all of the stupid stuff gets in the way. Can I just wear my suit instead of the fashion disasters?"

DD shook his head. "All or nothing," he insisted.

"Oh, well. Still, I can at least go and try to kill that stupid king. Derse will be mine, and maybe Prospit, too, if I'm lucky!"

"Why can't you just take over Derse while the king's away, boss?" CD asked. "We could build up such defenses that his weakened army could never overcome us!" DD slapped him.

"Don't you ever…!" he leaned in close to whisper, "Don't mess with Jack's style. He hates it when people tell him what to do. Although between you and me, reinforcements and consolidating our hold here doesn't sound like that bad of an idea."

"Dignitary, you're in charge while I'm gone," Jack instructed as he picked up the ring. When he put it on his finger, all of the accessories from the prototyping appeared instantly, without even a single dramatic effect or flash of light. "If you don't hear back from me, then just…I don't know, think of something on your own!"

"Jack, wait!" Hegemonic Brute cried. "How am I supposed to remember how to chew food without you? DON'T LEAVE ME HERE WITH THESE IDIOTS!"

But Jack flew off. It wasn't that he disliked his minions or wanted to abandon them; he just needed a break from them every so often. That wasn't so bad, right?

"Ok, while he's gone," Draconian Dignitary began, "CD, you're on propaganda duty. Go on the royal radio station and tell people how great Jack and I are. HB, you go find some crooks and turn them into cops to be our mafia-style law enforcement. Beat up any bad guys—and by bad I mean really bad, worse than we are—and Dersite cops in uniform. Everybody wears what they want here; when I'm through with this place there won't be any uniforms. And if I'm lucky, no competition for Derse's annual "Best Dressed" award."

"Whatever we want?" CD asked. "Can I be naked?"

"If it promotes anarchy, sure. Just don't let Jack see you that way. Now if you'll both excuse me, I need to go sit on a throne and look dignified. Maybe make some phone calls as well to some businesses I need to force into submission with unspecified threats."

So, while Jack was away, Courtyard Droll went streaking to the radio station, Hegemonic Brute found his Hammer of Love and whacked people with it until they admitted to doing crimes or joined him as a rookie cop, while the Draconian Dignitary made prank calls to people he didn't like.

"Hey, wait a sec," he said aloud just as the others left. "There are 12 trolls, but only 10 prototypings…weird. That's not how it's supposed to go."

. . . . . .

During all of the commotion previously seen in this Act, Meenah sneaked away from Aranea's group and boarded a transport ship from LOJAP to Derse. Taking public transportation wasn't exactly fun or fitting for royalty, but after Kurloz had killed her dreamself there wasn't much else she could do to get to Derse, and from there the Battlefield, other than this way.

"I'm telling you, Derse has gone downhill ever since the Queen got killed!" a soldier complained to no one in particular. "How are we supposed to win a war when we've got an uprising going on? I'm still not sure if the King even knows what's going on. We haven't been able to really talk with him much ever since he grabbed his scepter and got all of the prototypings."

"Oh yeah! I did that!" Meenah remarked. "Seems like such a long tide ago I krilled the Queen. Sorry if it gave y'all a ton of bubbles. I only did cuz' Jack said she was a real bitch and cuz' she had that fab ring."

"You're the one who killed her?!" all of the Dersite soldiers angrily glared at her. "Well…I guess she had it coming," the argumentative Dersite remarked. "Thanks for not slaughtering the rest of us like that clown fellow."

"You mean Kurloz?" Meenah asked. "What was he doin' that for?"

"We're not sure. We think it might have had to do with avenging the Queen or something." Meenah sat back and thought about her earlier misadventures on Derse. She had befriended the Midnight Crew, stared at Mituna's ass, and...ordered Meulin's death to tick Kurloz off. She couldn't remember why she had done that, but she suspected it had had something to do with wanting to cause trouble in the session.

She shuddered when she realized that she was technically responsible for the deaths of a number of innocent Dersites. Oh, whale, right? Nothing could really be done. They'd have gotten killed anyway somehow. Right?

"Uh…how many of you guys got krilled, anywave? Ten? Twenty?" she asked.

"At last count, I'd say…45," the Dersite guessed. "A real shame, too."

Meenah gulped. Sure, this was just a game, but…maybe Aranea was right. Maybe she had been going out of control lately. She hadn't interfered too extensively with the other trolls like Aranea, and she had thought that had made her have the moral high ground. She was in it for herself and wasn't dragging anyone into a mess. Except Meulin, Kurloz, Cronus, and maybe Damara. And, of course, her best frond that she had just abandoned to go off on another killing spree.

She didn't know what to think of Aranea now. This was someone who had bothered to keep in touch after she moved to one of Beforus' moons. She had wanted nothing to do with most people, except her, and later that courtesy was extended to all of Aranea's chums. But ever since this session began she hadn't cared for any of them; all she had wanted to do was play the game—a game that destroyed the universe and made a new, better one.

Maybe one where she could redeem herself. Almost everyone from the old world of Beforus was gone, and with Sgrub finished she could live in a new universe—not as royalty, but as a common person. And maybe then, she could actually start being a friend.

A voice over the intercom announced that the ship would land on Derse in a few minutes, and Meenah mentally prepared herself for action. She'd still have to take another transport ship to the Battlefield, but there was still the possibility of Kurloz lurking around, or some other shady character.

At Derse's airport, she didn't see any shady characters, but she did find a crazy streaker, yelling about how Jack was going to be the new King of Derse. He also mentioned something about a radio station.

"Wade a minute…I've seen you beshore!" Meenah called out to the crazy streaker. His voice and physique were familiar; this was the little guy in Jack's crew.

"You're back!?" the naked Dersite cried nervously. "Listen, I don't have the Ring! Jack does, and he's going to use it to beat the Black King!"

"Wade, did you chumps steal my ring?!" Meenah gasped. The one unforgivable offense against her was stealing her stuff. "Listen to me, you little shrimp, if you don't tell me where ol' black Jack is he's gonna wake up in the mornin' with an oar up his boat and one less finger!"

"What boat?" Courtyard Droll asked. "Oh, you mean his butt! Well, you can't do that! He's at the Battlefield to go kill the Black King! And I, well…kill me if you're going to kill someone over that ring! We stole it because it's got powers!"

"I thought it was just jewelry," Meenah remarked. "Oh whale, I'll get it back schoon enough. Shore thing, though, I can krill ya. Hold on, let me get my 2X3dent…"

Meenah stopped herself. There was no point to killing this guy. Sure, he was an accomplice in the ring heist, but what was the point of causing more bloodshed over a ring?

"Oh, shell…I ain't gonna krill ya. Heck, if I had a spare outfit I'd give it to ya."

"Oh, so you don't have your God-tier pajamas yet? If you did I'd love wearing those!" Meenah realized she was on her way to fight the Black King without even going God-tier yet like Aranea had. Since Courtyard Droll was such a wealth of information, she asked:

"What do you need to dew for that?"

"Oh, you know, die in your Quest Bed!"

"Aw, shell, that almost happened to me a little while archipelago!"

"Arca-what?"

"It don't matter."

"Oh. There are some more Quest Beds on Derse, so you can always use that. Jack would appreciate the help if you're going to kill the Black King. Anyway, see you around, then! Thanks for not krilling me, whatever that means!" and with that CD skipped merrily away, still naked but with no naughty parts whatsoever to show for it.

"Whale, that was orcaward," Meenah remarked. "I chatted with a naked black guy and decided to spare his useless life after he gave up a whole school of info without a fight." As weird as that was, at least she knew what to do now. As she made her way to her Quest Bed with the help of some kind Dersites that gave her directions, she decided to make a promise to herself: she wouldn't kill any more people unless they wanted to kill her and stood in the way of stopping her goals. That wasn't too shellfish of a motive, right?

. . . . .

Meanwhile, Aranea was also on a transport ship, but this one was Prospitan.

"Next stop, the Battlefield!" the pilot reminded the passengers.

"W8, I thought this was going to take us to the Land of Fog and Shine!" she protested.

"It will," a woman reassured her. "We just have to get to the Battlefield first. Most of us here are medics and field nurses going to treat some wounded soldiers. We came from LOJAP since they have a lot of medicine we can't get on Prospit."

As much as I h8 going there myself, at least I can see Skaia. I need guidance, or a hint, or something! Where are you, Clover?

AN: I'm a bit concerned that people aren't leaving any reviews or feedback, but I guess that's what happens when you put this story on hiatus for so long. I intend to finish this now that I've got the plot all figured out. For anyone that's still around, thanks so much!