Rachel woke up first. She groaned as she sat up and opened her eyes. She certainly wasn't expecting the sight that lay before her. She lay in a heap of her friends, all of whom were still unconscious, in the middle of a grand room. Rachel thought the place was a ballroom with a massive domed ceiling at first. Until she saw the shards of crystal that littered the exact center of the room. Some of which still glowed with a dull blue light. The blue glow was supplemented by crystals in the ceiling, which made it look as if the room was open to the night sky. The lack of wind or clouds indicated that wherever they were, they were certainly not outdoors.

Rachel pulled herself to her feet, hearing a muffled groan from Alex when she accidentally kicked him in the side as she got to her feet, she didn't need to check his vitals. She stepped over the sprawled sportsman and pressed two fingers to Eric's neck, feeling a steady pulse. Satisfied that the prankster still lived, she moved over to Ashley, who was curled around a satchel. Rachel felt a surge of anger at the sorceress for bringing them wherever they were now. But she suppressed it for the time being, no point in being angry without reason. Rachel knelt down and gently placed her hand on Ashley's pale neck. Feeling for the subtle beat of life. Ashley's pulse continued to beat it's steady rhythm.

Alex was stirring from his place on the cold stone floor next to Eric. Groaning as he awoke. Rachel walked over and offered the dazed boy a hand, which he gladly took as he struggled to his feet. Looking around in wonder at the softly lit room. He asked an important question.

"Where are we?" Alex asked as he rubbed his side where Rachel had kicked him.

"I don't know, Ashley is still out cold, so we have no way of knowing for now." Rachel replied evenly as she went over to shake Eric awake.

"What do ya mean? Did Ashley kidnap us or something?" Alex asked, as he still hadn't looked around.

"I'm afraid that the situation is a bit more... strange then that. Look up." Rachel said as she began to vigorously shake Eric awake, who let out a strangled scream at his violent awakening.

"What the heck?" Eric all but shouted as Rachel let go of him and moved to awaken Ashley.

"Eric, look up." Alex said with a faraway tone to his voice.

"What?"

"Look up."

"Fine, I don't see why I should... OHHH." Eric said as realization dawned when he gazed skyward. "This... This redefines awesome"

"Yeah. I gotta say, best kidnapping ever." Alex said with a massive grin as he looked upon the crystalline ceiling.

"We were kidnapped? I'm thinking this was a surprise mandatory vacation." Eric rationalized.

"I agree, this is the coolest place ever."

"You two do realize that we may be stuck on another world without a way to get home right?" Rachel said as she straddled Ashley and gripped her shoulders. Sighing internally as she remembered the pair's love of fantastic architecture.

"...Worth it..."

"...Definitely..."

"Oh I give up." Rachel said as she began shaking Ashley awake. The thin sorceress sputtered and flailed about at the shaking.

"What? Who? Where?" She choked out as she found herself pinned to the floor.

"Calm down. We have something we need to talk about." Rachel said as she loomed over Ashley.

"Could we talk about it without you straddling me?"

"Absolutely not." Rachel said forcefully, which caused both of the group's boys to take notice.

"Why is Rachel sitting...?" Eric tried to say before Alex covered his mouth.

"Do not spoil the possible Girl-on-Girl action or I will never speak to you again." Alex threatened, having not known any lesbians or even bi-curious girls in his life. He was sorely lacking for Girl-on-Girl action.


In the depths of the ruin, the swarm awoke. They had slept for untold seasons, waiting for warm blooded prey to return to this desolate place.

They were awake.

They were hungry.


"Now, Ashley. What exactly were you doing when we happened to walk into your room." Rachel said from her place on Ashley's belly.

"Using magic...?" Ashley said in a questioning voice.

"Yes, we all realize that. What spell were you using?" Rachel said quietly, with an added measure of 'No Lies' to boot.

"I didn't fully translate the spell's name. But it was supposed to open a window into a different plane of existence. I swear I didn't know it was a transport spell." Ashley said hurriedly, not wanting the others to think she did this on purpose.

Rachel stared Ashley down for a long time before accepting what she had said. Ashley stood from her straddling position and stepped away from Ashley, offering a hand to help her up. Which Ashley gladly took. Secretly, the girl was rather relieved that Rachel had gotten up when she had as she'd been getting uncomfortably... warm underneath the other girl. As Ashley stood and brushed herself off she found herself hiding a light blush while being subjected to a small flurry of questions from the boys.

"So do you know where we are? What world are we on? Does Reality still apply? How long have you been doing magic?" and on and on the list of questions continued. The questions would have gone on for eternity had the foursome not heard an unearthly roar. At the far end of the room, a small swarm of horrible looking four legged insects came charging at the group.

The four stood and stared in shock as the beasts began to close the distance, until Rachel broke the silence.

"Ashley, if you have any combat spells, get casting. Eric, come with me, were going to grab some of those crystal shards, if were lucky some of them will be sharp enough to fight with. Alex, protect Ashley."

Ashley nodded and pulled her spell book out of her satchel, flipping through it until she reached a rather explosive spell. Alex stepped between her and the swarm of insects, rolling his shoulders and cracking his neck. Eric and Rachel took off at a dead sprint, covering ground at a breakneck pace as they made for the pile of crystals in the center of the room. Hoping to grab weapons.

Ashley chanted as fast as she could, even as a portion of the insects split off to fight Rachel and Eric. Runes formed in the air and glowed with destructive power. As the insects closed the gap and Alex raised his fists, ready to fight. Ashley finished her spell. A plume of fire erupted in the middle of the swarm of insects, sending bugs everywhere, most of them trailing flame. One insect landed next to Alex, chittering weakly. He saw the sword like legs it had and acted quickly, he grabbed onto on leg and planted his foot on the bugs carapace. With a great heave he yanked the bug's blade leg off and held it up like a baseball bat, ready to do some damage. Another bug, trailing flame, charged at Alex only to get a talon slash through it's armored skull. Killing it instantly. By that point, the other surviving kruthiks had shaken off their momentary disorientation and screamed shrilly all charging Alex and Ashley, chittering with rage. But Ashley had finished another spell, and a cloud of ethereal daggers formed in mid air. With a final arcane word and a sharp stab of a finger, the cloud of daggers flew at the bugs, impaling many. Two remained standing, both of which launching themselves at the sorceress who had killed so many of their kin. Alex intercepted one, his stolen talon smashing into the creature's own blades. While the other ran past and threw itself at the sorceress, who dropped her spellbook and reached into her satchel. Pulling out a pole of wood with a long blade on the end and handles built into the poles sides. Ashley swung her war scythe as hard as she could, hoping to catch the kruthik in mid air, but only succeeding in knocking it down. It quickly righted itself and sprang at the sorceress again, talons out for the kill. Ashley moved backwards while making sweeping slashes at the things legs, trying to bring it down. But to no avail, the kruthik got within her guard and cut a long gash in her leg. Ashley cried out in pain but kept moving, not wanting to get caught by the bug any more then she had been hit already. She smacked it in the face with the handle of her scythe, dazing it long enough to skewer it on her scythe.

Meanwhile, Eric and Rachel were running for their lives, trying to avoid the kruthiks nipping at their heels. The pile of crystal was in reach. But the Kruthiks were too close, there were only eight of them, but that was still too many for the two humans. Rachel made a decision then, one that might lead to her death. She turned around and charged the kruthiks while Eric kept running. Eric would have turned around to help, but he knew he was useless without a weapon, so he kept running. Rachel took but a moment to focus herself, then threw a devastating roundhouse kick at the lead bug, cracking it's armored carapace and sending it flying. Having no time to gawk at what she just did, she threw an open palmed strike at the second bug, propelling it backwards and into a small cluster of it's fellows. She grabbed the talons of a third kruthik and flipped it over and smashing it into the ground behind her. Leaving it dazed.

Eric reached the pile of crystalline shards and began to search through the smaller shards. Eventually pulling out a long spear like spike of crystal. The crystal, despite having shattered on the floor, was surprisingly sturdy. It would do for now. Eric spun around and stabbed a kruthik where it lay on the floor from being thrown by Rachel. He planted a foot on the dead kruthik and yanked his spear out. Coming forward to stand beside Rachel with his spear brandished before him. The remaining kruthiks gathered in a half circle around the two teens, sword like talons waving as they chittered and clicked amongst each other. Rachel and Eric stared them down, waiting to see who made the first move. Two of the kruthiks skittered forward, slashing with their talons. Rachel jumped over her kruthik and brought her heel down on the bug's back. Cracking open it's carapace. Eric simply stabbed forward, his spear smashing through his kruthik's face. Killing it instantly. Eric once again planted his foot on the kruthik's carapace and yanked out his spear. He also received a gash in his side when an opportunistic kruthik slipped in from the side and slashed him with it's talons. Eric grunted and turned to face the kruthik and smashed it with the pole of his spear, sending it flying. Rachel smashed aside another of the bladed insects and crushed it's skull with a well timed curb stomp. One of the bugs snuck up behind her and slashed Rachel across the back, opening two massive rents in her back and sending her to her knees with a cry of pain. Eric spun to help his friend and stabbed the kruthik through the side. Killing it while drawing attention to himself. The remaining three kruthiks refocused on Eric, charging him as he ripped his spear back out of the monster and stepped back into a defensive stance. Keeping his center of gravity low and his spear ready.

The first kruthik came from the side slashing with it's talons, only to receive the butt of the spear to the side of it's head for it's troubles. Knocking it backwards. The second and the third charged at the same time. Forcing Eric to step back while he tried to slash and stab with his spear. But these kruthiks were clever, using their talons to block the jabbing spear while taking measured slices at Eric whenever they thought they had an opening. Eric managed to land a few glancing slashes and stabs on the kruthiks. Eventually bringing one of them down. But that just forced the last living kruthik into a frenzy, allowing the insectoid monster to get a number of hits in on Eric.

It was getting harder for Eric to hold on to his spear as his hands became slick with blood, the cuts on his arms slowly weeping blood. Eric was a mess now, his jeans were badly torn and soaked with blood. His light green shirt being turned darker from an occasional slice that had got past his guard. His vision turning splotchy red from the blood running down his face from a cut on his brow. He was getting tired, but he was going to win this if it killed him. So Eric spat out some blood and threw as much as he could behind his strikes and stabs as he began to push the kruthik back. Eventually, he caught the bug's leg and sent it crashing down to the floor. With an animalistic roar, he stabbed his spear down through the bugs head. Killing it. The fight was done.

Eric looked up now, seeing Ashley and Alex coming towards him at a run. Ashley pulling some sort of vial out of her satchel with one hand while carrying a strange weapon in one hand. He deduced that the vial was some kind of potion. Perhaps a healing potion. That would be nice, because he seemed to be loosing his sight. Did the potion cure blindness? That would be nice. Being blind right now would be really bad. Why was it so hard to string a thought together? Oh, right, bleeding out here.

Eric crashed to the floor, finally loosing consciousness. Being mindful of her back injuries. Rachel struggled over to where he was lying on top of the dead kruthik. Checking to see if her friend was still alive. Thankfully he was still breathing, though his pulse was weak, and getting weaker. Ashley reached the pair and flipped Eric over, opening his mouth and pouring half of a vial of strangely colored liquid. Nothing happened for a moment, but then Eric's wounds began to close up. After a moment, anyone looking at the teen wouldn't be able to tell (apart from the blood and ripped clothing) that Eric had been hurt.

Rachel looked up to Ashley, only to see the remaining half of the vial being held out to her. Rachel took it gratefully, quaffing the vial in one gulp. The potion had a delicious taste to it, hot chocolate mixed with cinnamon. It was also incredibly warm going down her throat, like good whiskey. The warmth spread throughout her body, eventually spreading to her back and mending the terrible cuts there.

"You have healing potions?" Alex asked after seeing the effects of the strange liquid.

"I'm a practicing magic user. Can you think of a good reason for me to NOT know alchemy?"

"Good point, sorry I asked."

"Don't be, I only have three more vials of this. I just hope we won't have to use them"

"Important question though. Are we stuck here?"

"For the foreseeable future? Yes."

"Well shit."