A/N: Hey Guys! I know I said I'd update every Sunday, but of course I had to skip Christmas. I cuddled my dog, got some new clothes and even got a Christmas kiss from my lovely boyfriend. Now I'm back to work, and because tomorrow is New Years Day, I decided to make this my last post of the year! Whoot!
Thanks everyone who reviewed, and I love your enthusiasm. You make me want to keep updating. To make up for the wait, this chapter is double the size of the other ones. I hope you like it, and let me know!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Goodbye 2016! (Thank the Gods).
Starfire was just not having it today. "GET. OFF. ME!" She screamed. The swarm of wyverns were upon her. She roared, eyes flaming and hands sparking with fiery energy. She fried two of them, and they fell dead and smoking to the forest beneath her. She hoped desperately that none of her friends were below her. The other three flapped their leathery wings and screamed in her direction, their fangs were green and they had no eyes. She screamed back and punched one of them in the damn face. She was always a warrior before she was ever a princess.
The other two attempted to latch onto her again, but she threw a bolt into the wing of one, burning a hole in it, and it too fell to the ground. The one that still had teeth got hold of her boot and tore it off of her, but that was all it got. She kicked it where its eyes would have been and collapsed its skull. The final one, the toothless one, screamed one last time before it tried to retreat. She chased after it with fervor and pulled it by the slimy tail. With a battle cry, she spun it around and let it loose into the nearest tree trunk. She winced at the crunch sound that it made, but sighed in relief. She took off again without haste in the direction of her orange beam of light.
Beneath her in the trees, Cyborg and Robin were wondering why the Hell flaming dinosaurs were falling on their heads. Cyborg blasted one away with his sonic cannon before the final one made a horrible sound when it collided with a tree above them. They gave each other a look and just kept running. It made a thud behind them.
"What are we looking for again?" Robin shouted.
Cyborg pointed. "We gotta split up."
Their beams of light were shining in opposite directions of one another. Robin was about to claim that splitting up was a stupid idea when they could easily go together to each chest, but Cyborg already took off.
"This is why we need Raven as our strategist." He grumbled between panting. He raced off in the direction of his own.
They hadn't seen anything at this point yet anyway.
He rounded a tree and hopped over a large root. When his feet hit the ground they were swept out from under him by a heavy force. Bearing down upon him was a great, smelly orc-looking thing. It had a club in its hand that looked like a small tree.
"Okay…" He frowned. "Here we GO!"
The thing raised its club and swung it down, intending to smash him flat. Robin sprang into action, but his cape got caught on the club and he was yanked back to the ground. His elbow grazed a rock, sending a shockwave up his arm.
Oh, it's so on. He bit down hard, clenching its teeth. The thing raised its club again, setting him free. He swept up beneath it, dragging a long vine in his hands. He wrapped the vine beneath the legs of the creature and pulled, hard. The orcs' feet sprang together and it tripped, crashing down to the earth. When it seemed secure, Robin took his staff and gave the orc a good whack to the noggin. It was out like a light.
Robin panted, wiping his face on his sleeve. He frowned down at the thing, then back at his own beam of light and kept going.
In the meantime, Cyborg was fighting off some sort of living plant/vine that was trying to strangle him to death. He blasted and cut and chopped his way through, but the green monster kept coming back to get him. He took off running again, freeing his arm from the vine's grasp, but just as he picked up speed, something tripped him and held his ankles in a vice grip. He hit the ground, kicking up a considerable amount of dust. He coughed it out and spit a rock from between his teeth.
"After I get free again, I swear I'm gonna –." But the vine silenced him and started dragging him back toward a dark corner of the forest. He struggled and tried to pry the vines apart with his brute strength, but couldn't apply the right amount of force. He was almost about to give up hope when suddenly the vines caught fire. Shrieking, like only evil haunted vines could, they disintegrated and he was once again free.
Cyborg spit the leaves out of his mouth and tried to find the source of the fire that saved him. Beast Boy stepped out of the woods in full-fantasy-gear. He wore armor on one arm and was given a pair of gloves with retractable claws. He had a hood and long boots that laced up and seemed to be reinforced with some sort of scaly skin. Cyborg almost laughed, if it weren't for the serious look on Beast Boy's face.
"We're in the game." He stated, simply. He held up a card that contained the 'Green Fire' spell from their game nights. The one that he'd used to save his friend. "We're stuck in my stupid game."
Cyborg could see the anger and guilt on his best friend's face and shook his head. "Don't beat yourself up, this isn't your fault. Honestly, if we're still in the tower, this is probably all in our heads. Malchior must have planned this out, extensively."
"You don't think my game was cursed?"
He shrugged down at Beast Boy. "I don't know, maybe Malchior created the game in the first place and sold it to you. Does it matter?"
Beast Boy shook his head. "No. What matters is…" he paused and reached into his pocket, took a deep breath and recollected himself. "I got my stuff first!" He held out an intricate deck of cards wrapped in a leather string. "Not to mention, I look amazing!"
Cyborg rolled his eyes. "Just help me get my stuff. I need to be out of all this nature."
"Those vines got you good." Beast Boy smirked.
"Oh yeah?" Cyborg accused. "And what did you fight?"
Beast Boy shuddered. "The evil rabbit from Monty Python…"
…
The Titans reconvened at the entrance of the forest, each one decked out in something fantasy-medieval looking. Starfire's outfit looked like it had been a fancy green dress, but she'd torn it and turned it into a somewhat sexy pair of loose-fitting pants and a tunic. Robin got slapped on the back of the head by Cyborg for staring so long at her. Robin himself was decked out in some Boy-Wonder version of Robin Hood, except instead of a bow and quiver, he was outfitted with throwing knives, a staff on his back, and a hero's sword.
"Of course." Beast Boy commented, jealously.
Finally, Cyborg was outfitted in full strong armor with a massive axe. He was fully convinced that nothing would be able to touch him.
"If you are able to move…" Starfire hinted.
In everyone's treasure chest was both clothing, boots and a large adventurer's pack.
They were additionally each gifted a deck of cards that suggested a lot of horrible scenarios where they might need them. Things like:
Vixen's Taunt: distract up to four enemies at once for ten seconds.
The Mad Hatter's Tea: poison a wave of enemies with a cloud of purple miasma (to prevent personal death, administer an antidote card before or immediately after use).
Apple Core: a meager snack that will either replenish your health or deplete your stamina (roll the die above a 6).
Beast Boy frowned at the last one. "Health and Stamina…" He looked up above everyone's head. "None of us have a health or stamina bar…?"
Robin reached into his pack and pulled out a small mirror. "It's here." He held it up. It showed their faces staring back at them, but above their heads were stamina and health bars. Above Starfire's was a green for health and a blue mana bar for magic.
"Star, you can do magic?" Beast Boy was amazed.
She frowned and attempted something spectacular, but produced a regular, shining star-bolt. "I think that is what it means by, 'magic'." She declared.
"Wait, are our abilities limited by this game?" Cyborg asked.
The green titan shrugged and became a sparrow, flitting back and forth above their heads. When he was satisfied, he returned to human form and pulled out his own mirror. "Whoa…yeah it does." His green health bar was the same, but his yellow stamina was down a little. "That's not good."
Robin waved away the idea. "We know what we can handle, I don't think we'll need to worry about it."
"But, dude, I have way more juice than this stupid bar says I do!"
Suddenly a letter fell from the sky, again. It hit Beast Boy on the head mid-sentence and he yipped in surprise. It fell into his hands and he warily glanced down at it, hoping that it was a congratulatory letter and not a: "I've killed your friend and you're trapped in fantasy-land forever," kind of thing.
Robin nodded for him to open it, and cautiously, he read what it said. "Greetings Players. Congratulations on completing your first quest. You have all gained one level and are now fully equipped to begin your journey."
He shrugged at them all. Robin sighed. He dug into his pack and pulled out a small notebook that had statistics written all over it. His read:
Robin: Hero
Level: 1
Skill: Ranger/Knight
Health: 570
Stamina: 650
Items: etc.
"How do you keep finding all of this!?" Beast Boy accused, exasperated.
Robin frowned. "Did no one think to look in the pack and take inventory of their supplies before returning to the rendezvous point?"
"Uh…" They all said in unison.
"If we make it out of here, I'm going to run you all through some serious drills." He grumbled at them.
Upon further inspection, it was discovered that they each had a stats book.
Each one was classified "Hero" with varying stamina/mana depending on their size or strength. Starfire and Cyborg were practically gods, but all of their health was at the same level. They were all level one and had different items, but they each had different skills.
Cyborg was classified as a "Marauder/Berserker", Beast Boy was a "Shapeshifter/Assassin" (Which he loved), and Starfire was listed "Mage/Summoner".
"What do I 'summon'?" She asked. They all shrugged.
"Beast Boy, keep reading." Robin urged.
He scanned the page for where he left off. "Uh… the road ahead is treacherous and long. Your goal is to make it to Castle Roe and save your Hero from the clutches of evil. Provided are instruction manuals for further inquiry. You have three days to complete your quest, or your Hero…" Beast Boy looked up. "Will…die."
Starfire put her hands to her chest and Robin clenched his teeth. Cyborg growled "I'm gonna bash his face in with my new axe."
Robin raised a brow. "I think it's more like slicing his face in half at that point."
Cyborg looked at his massive axe and then back at his team. "That'll work."
Beast Boy yelped when the letter disintegrated in his hands, the fragments spelling "BEGIN" on the ground in front of them. Robin held up his mirror to express that they currently had a time limit.
2:23:55
"Two days, twenty three hours and fifty-five minutes." He read.
"Let's get going, then." Cyborg announced. They all nodded and began running down the path.
…
"Oh, come on." He smirked over tea. "You must admit that this is fun."
"This is cruel." She replied, simply. She refused to touch her cup. He said it was green tea, but she thought that it was a little too green for that. "Since when are you the type to come up with some elaborate hex that throws us all into a stupid fantasy game?"
"Since I realized playing games with humans was so fun." He replied, pointedly. He was taking about the time he'd played with her emotions to help free his stupid, scaly ass from that book.
She didn't take the bait. "So for three days you're going to keep us locked in our heads?"
He shook his head. "This whole endeavor has lasted seven minutes so far. By the end of "three days" you'll have been out for an hour and a half. That is, if your pawns survive long enough to save you." He set his teacup back on the saucer.
She disliked the *clink* noise that it made. Everything that he did seemed to make her skin crawl. By now she was growing frightened and frustrated, but she had been through a lot since their last encounter. She even surmised that she was stronger than him now. But, even so, until she figured out how to break this hex upon them all, she'd have to play the game, because everything that was happening felt so real.
"So where are you in the real world?" She asked.
He raised his eyes from his claws (which he was admiring so fully) and frowned. "What do you mean?"
"You're not in the tower." She stated.
He smirked, his fangs showing again. "How do you know?"
"Oh stop." Raven rolled her eyes. "You keep bouncing in and out of dimensions, I was just curious as to where your…exploits had ended."
His eyes sparked green fire. "I wouldn't have had any exploits if you weren't so keen on keeping me a prisoner away from reality."
"I…" His tone was biting, so she drew back from her interrogation. It was so difficult to find the line with him. She felt like she was constantly teetering back and forth upon his patience. How was she supposed to puzzle this out if everything she asked poked the dragon?
Raven spent the next awkward silence gazing around the room, looking for clues or hints. His magic was strong, but archaic, and she had spent a lot of time studying the grimoire since she'd freed the mutants living in the tower basement. His methods and history made more sense to her, but understanding another sorcerer's powers was always a difficult thing.
"You should try paying more attention to the game." He mumbled through her thoughts.
She snapped back to attention and gazed down at the board. The pieces were now moving together, which is where she knew they'd be the strongest, but their road was headed toward a huge river and an old bridge. Raven thought it looked harmless, but gazing at Malchior's stolen face, and the expression he wore, made her fear otherwise.
She took stock of her playing cards and found them to be far less in number than his own deck.
"Here," He handed her a small journal.
She took it tentatively from him, wary of his intentions. When she opened it, she was bombarded with a detailed list of information on her friends. Their levels, ranks, skills and stats. She knew every card that they had and what each of their weapons and armor were capable of. She smiled a little to herself at Beast Boy's armor. There were small sketches of her friends next to their stats, and his was like something out of a movie. She thought he was probably happy with his new outfit, as it gave his taller frame a spiky overtone. He looked like a Lord of the Rings assassin, or something out of Dragon Age.
"You have all the tools to beat me, Raven." Malchior hissed lightly. "Can you, though?"
"Can you wipe that blood off your face?" She shot back.
He tapped his lip with one clawed finger and sighed. "Ah, yes."
"You'll tear that human's body apart." She bit.
He frowned. "This vessel, though attractive in a minor way, is not something I regularly show concern for."
"That's probably why your lip looks like it's been through a grinder."
His grin widened. "Oh, come on Raven. My sweet. My pet." He leaned in, his horrible, bloody lips nearly touching hers. With quiet whispers he breathed, "Just one taste, dear?"
She gathered her illness and coughed loudly and roughly on his face. Little drops of spit hit him in the eye. Agitated, he leaned away from her and wiped his face with a dark handkerchief.
"Don't ever come near me again." She threatened.
He huffed and let the blood flow freely just to spite her. She wondered if it was more beneficial for her to wait out the "ticking time-clock" that was this new form of his. While she felt sympathy for the poor soul he'd stolen, she'd rather it fell to pieces than be stuck here a moment longer.
As her team approached the bridge, she picked up a die and shook it in her hands. Malchior rolled higher, so he was going first.
…
Beast Boy approached the bridge at the black river, fully expecting to find a troll or a wizard who would ask them questions before they were allowed to cross.
"I'm thinking," Cyborg commented, "That Malchior is more interested in our deaths than riddles."
Beast Boy scrunched his nose up at the smell of the dark water. It looked polluted and angry. "You're probably right."
"Why?" Robin interjected, unsheathing his sword and scanning the waters of the river. "What is this whole thing really about? I mean, we're trapped in the tower, dressed like The Lord of the Rings, and we're missing Raven." He felt the balance of the blade in his hand and thought that it was a good fit.
"He's…" Beast Boy thought. "He's trying to get to her. To tear her down again."
"To what end?" Robin looked out across his team. "What could he possibly gain from all of this? Even if we lose, what does he get?"
Beast Boy ground his teeth together. "He's –"
Suddenly the water exploded behind him raining black drops down on them all. He whipped around and saw a huge, slithering sea-serpent. It was sharp with needles poking out of its skin. It was a dull, grey-blue; the color of a corpse. It oozed black goo from its eye-less sockets.
"-disgusting." Beast Boy finished.
Above the monster's head was a health bar and a name: "Leviathan, the Drowning God".
"Titans! GO!" Robin cried.
They sprang into action, the waters roiling with black goo and foam. The sound of star bolts and sonic blasts filled the air, and for a while it seemed to be working.
"Fall back!" Robin commanded. The team hesitated at the water's edge before coming back to stand with their leader. The thing screamed and hissed, its serpent head searched for them without sight, its long tongue flicking at them. "Nothing's working, we need a new strategy."
"What do you mean it's not working?" Cyborg accused, angrily. He was panting, clearly tiring from the ordeal.
Robin pointed at the health bar. It had hardly moved. The serpent was still in the green; perfectly healthy.
"New strategy…? Oh, DUH!" Beast Boy exclaimed. He dug into his pack and pulled out the deck of cards. "Does anyone have dice?"
They caught on quickly, each member of the team pulling out their own small decks. Robin shook his head. "I think Raven has the dice, remember?"
"All we have to do is pull as many spell and trap cards as we can, weaken that ugly worm, and pray that Raven rolls higher than an eight." Beast Boy said with conviction. Robin smiled and nodded.
He set his pack down and began to rifle through his cards. "Okay, we need a plan –"
"I invoke the 'purple miasma'!" Starfire announced, using her "mage" status to cast spell cards. A purple smoke surrounded the creature, causing it to make horrific gagging noises. She flew off to attack it from the air.
Beast Boy got excited. "'Thief's Shroud'!" Suddenly he was gone in a puff of smoke. They could hear him running off, away from them.
Robin started to get uneasy. "Guys –"
Cyborg was next. "I use: 'Berserker's Pep-Talk'!" Suddenly, his stats rose exponentially, though his health remained the same. His giant axe glowed red and so did both of his eyes. "GHAA!" He sprang into action, attacking the monster head-on. His axe sank deep into its tail that had briefly surfaced the water. It shrieked, oozing goo from the wound and the tail sank down once more. A well-placed star bolt threw the creature off balance, sending it tumbling into the river.
Beast Boy was gone, probably trying to set up a trap card somewhere. Robin was rooted to the spot, torn.
Raven's our hero, she's the one who is supposed to call the shots. He thought to himself. What if we're messing everything up… how do we know what she's planning?
Suddenly, strangely, his bag started beeping. It was like the noise a homing device makes when it goes off. He reached inside and pulled out the mirror, which was flashing violet. "Raven?"
"Come at me dude!" Came the battle cry of Beast Boy who threw an assassin trap card called 'boiling lake'. A horrible smell permeated the air when Leviathan started to cook in the river. It screamed a mighty cry, thrashing and now spitting black goo everywhere. Robin hopped backward to get out of range.
"Raven!" He demanded of the mirror. Followed by a slight static-noise, Raven's face appeared blurry in the mirror.
"Robin!" She called out to him.
He smiled in relief, she was alive. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," she breathed. "Are you?"
He nodded. "Except for Leviathan, we're doing okay."
She frantically replied, "I know, you're - it wrong! - wasting cards!"
He frowned, confused. "What?"
Raven's voice crackled with more static. "The ooze-clea-so you can-ss the river!"
He was lost, frustrated and distracted by the screeching of the sea serpent and his team. "The ooze? From his eyes?"
The mirror went dark.
"No!" He growled. He almost threw the mirror, but instead stowed it back in his pack. He pushed his cape out of the way to get another look at his cards. The ooze…clean it? Cross the river?
He pulled one that he thought might work. He reached the river bank and threw his weapons and bag on the edge, clutching the one card in his hand. "Titans! Fall BACK! Beast Boy! Undo the trap card!" He commanded of his team. He couldn't know if Beast Boy had heard him, but he saw Cyborg and Star retreat upon his words. He plunged into the river, praying that the boiling water spell was undone. It was. He swam down far, pressing the card 'drought' to the sand. Suddenly his body was sucked downward, nearly suffocating him while the water disappeared into the card in a tidal rush. It felt like forever, but when the river had drained, the trap card magically turned into a new one that read: 'flood'. He gasped where he was, panting on the sands. A trickle of water was headed toward him, no doubt from the mountain above. It would slowly try to become a new river again. He had to hurry, and not let the water touch Leviathan. He coughed out something slimy and looked back up at the creature.
"Ew," Beast Boy gagged, appearing once again in a cloud of smoke on the bridge above Robin. Leviathan had shriveled up in the dirt. The ooze from his eyes was nothing but dust now without the water to help it form. The creature had died, boiled, dried, bloated and smelly.
A popping noise came from the sky.
"Fireworks?" Cyborg asked as he hauled Robin from the river bed. He helped him to the bank and they all read in the sky: "Boss Defeated" written in fireworks.
Starfire clapped happily. "Glorious!" She smiled. "Perhaps this game is not as difficult as we first imagined?"
Robin smiled at her positivity, wishing he could hug her and say that she was right, but he couldn't. Instead she floated down to him and helped him stand. He was a little winded from nearly drowning. He held up 'flood' and they all nodded in appreciation for his quick thinking.
"Raven told me what to do."
Beast Boy's ears perked up. "Raven? You spoke to Raven? When!?"
Robin was starting to become less shocked over Beast Boy's outbursts on Raven's behalf, but he still had to raise a hand to quiet his friend. "I just talked to her through the mirror, but it was choppy and static-y. She's far away and has a low signal, but she's alright."
Beast Boy let out a long-held breath. "Is she…with him?"
Robin recalled seeing a dark figure lurking behind Raven… watching them. "I think so."
The green Titan bristled just thinking about it. They all agreed to haul the massive creature from the river bed and let it rot on land so Robin could return the water to the river. The small amount already trickling from whatever mountain source the river originated from looked like it needed a little help. Robin thought that letting the water return would probably be the best idea in the long run.
"What if you need it later?" Cyborg had asked. "Think of how great it would be if we just drowned Malchior where he stood."
Robin frowned. "Do you really want to leave it like this?"
"It's all an illusion anyway." Cyborg grumbled, however, even he had to admit that the smell of dying fish and seaweed was pretty gnarly. Once Leviathan was safely removed where he could not regain power, Robin threw the 'flood' card onto the sands without another word. Suddenly it exploded in a torrential downpour, and in no time the river was back to the way it was, sans sea serpent.
"See? Much better." Robin announced. Out of nowhere a small tinkling noise, like the sound of bells, came from the bridge. A large treasure chest, which had not been there before, sat awaiting them.
Beast Boy grinned from ear to ear. "I bet those are some power-ups!" He wrenched it open and an inked parchment floated out of it in a gold glow. It read: 'Side-Quest completed! "Friend to Nature". Reward: stat-boost, heal, map!'
Robin grinned at Cyborg who laughed. "Okay, okay."
Starfire frowned. "Heal?" she pulled out her journal and her eyes went wide. "Friends…" She shakily whispered.
They looked down at their own journals and went quiet. Their health bars were all in the red; dangerously low.
"B-but… I barely got knocked around by that thing… I've only got 22 health left!" Beast Boy was shocked.
Starfire shook her head. "Things are not as they seem, and we do not seem to be prepared for it."
On the bright side they were all at level three now, but their stats were still pathetic compared to the recorded stats of the first boss.
"Dudes," Beast Boy exclaimed. "The first boss is ALWAYS the easiest. It's just to help you better understand the game… not to actually kill you." He shivered. "This…isn't going to be easy, is it?"
Robin shrugged. "The level-cap is ten, so the game won't be…forever?"
"If we live that long." Cyborg objected.
Starfire shook her head. "We must remain vigilant to our new statistics and maintain a system of strategy. Robin, can you contact Raven again?"
Robin didn't know. He pulled out the mirror calling: "Raven?"