Me: Date, nightmare and then chased down? Not the party they were looking for exactly.
Mushra: Yeah, snakes aren't my idea of fun.
Me: hey, on earth, they're not as bad! They're actually pretty cool!
Mushra: says you.
Me: *throws my rubber snakes at him and watches him flail* I own nothing, enjoy!
::

Chapter 4—Once Bitten, Twice Pissed

The darkness began to fade, but a fuzziness of the vision and mind hovered on the young woman.

Winter lay in what felt like a bed, and as of yet, had not regained all feeling in her limbs and body. Attempting not to panic, she went on to feel what she could of all that was around her. The feeling of a bed, even pillows below her, and from what her eyes could reach around her, it seemed to be the fuzzy vision of something bed-like below her. She could only assume she was in some room, but the shapes did not seem like that of her own bedroom. There was a flickering, waving blue light against the wall that seemed to be the only light in said fuzzy room.

She could just barely twitch her fingers…and she seemed to feel gloves, of some shape, on her hands. The type of gloves that covered the forearm and wrapped around the middle finger, and it felt as if there were rings on each middle finger. The fabric of the gloves felt like tight silk, as did the rest of what was on her body, her night gown and shorts she'd be wearing to bed completely gone. In the place of it was something that surely did not fully cover her shoulders and arms. She realized the room was cold from the chill she was receiving from every exposed bit of her body, from her arms and shoulders and part of her chest, to one of her legs from the knee down, though something long and flowing from her hips covered the other leg—the skirt to a dress? Was she wearing a dressed?

Her vision and mind, after working it a bit, were finally clearing, though her strength was just returning just a few beats behind. She turned her head with a sigh. It was a room; a closed-off room, with no windows or other rooms or doors for closets or anything. Just the bed she lay on, the torch on the wall across from her that was actually burning a blue strange flame with a mirror to one side of it and a door to the other. Slowly, memory was returning to her. The darkness…the fear…the snakes…the shaking, the crumbling, the roar, everyone running scared…and Ryuma.

Taking a deep breath as she felt the threat of fear over taking her, she took breaths to calm as she slowly sat up and looked around again, more to get a feeling of her muscles and limbs and the control of them. She finally looked down, seeing the dress was fit tight to her, made of white and light purple fabric, with silver binding around her waist, in the design of a damned snake. She stood, noticing the slit up half the thigh. The top of the dress was just hanging off her shoulders by three different bits of straps, with a tear-shaped opening in the chest, exposing cleavage.

Rubbing her arms and ignoring the feeling of exposure as much as she could, she made to stand, and had to steady herself. Taking another deep breath, she made for the door carefully, noticing the mirror again, and she just caught a look at herself. She was just lightly made up. Her hair seemed to gleam with a misty sheen. And there was a crown around her forehead, somewhat like Mushra's, but silver and in the form of two snakes winding, their heads around a greenish yellow stone. Uncomfortable and angry, she tried to tear it from her head, but the snakes seemed to hiss and almost bearing fangs at her.

Fighting a shiver and failing, she went for the door, turning the handle, only to find it was locked. "What…? He locked me in here, too?!" she jiggled it, shook it, pushed and pulled it. Grunting in frustration, she looked around for something to help her take down the door, because she was NOT staying here.

There was the bed, its pillows and blankets and so on, but the bed seemed too firm to break and use. There was so little in this room, she wasn't sure if there was anything she might use. She spotted the mirror, considering how stably it was set to the wall. She then went for the blanket, wrapping it around her arm to cover and cushion it, and she went for the mirror, breaking it in many shards, next yanking the mirror from the wall with some effort. She shook the rest of the stray glass, now sure none would fly and wound her; she began using it to hammer it against the handle, over and over, at different angles.

"Come! On! Budge! Already!" she complained, and with a raised, final hit, the handle fell, and there was an audible drop on the other side, and a hiss that fell into silence. Tossing away the mirror frame, she tore open the door with a rush of happiness and ran out.

The hall that met her was nearly barren, and confusing as the breaks to other corners and further halls were at random, confusing intervals. As she turned back to her door, she saw two more doors to the left of it and her. The outer nobs were wrapped in silver snakes, that seemed just that, silver, but Winter had the suspicion that if she reached out her hand, they would rise to life, the despicable vermin they were. Even so, she moved closer, clearing her throat before calling. "Jaden? Heather?"

"Winter?! Where ar—if you're on the other side of the door, move out of the way!" her first responder turned out to be Heather, and after just two loud rams, a rolling mass of white cloth and dark brown hair came busting out. Heather's roll stopped when she made impact with the wall, groaning as she went limp for a second. "Thaaat huuurrrttt…"

Winter hurried over, kneeling beside her friend, checking if she was hurt and other than the bruise that would most likely form on her shoulder, she saw nothing. But soon, she was taking in the entire look of her friend. Heather was in a dress, as well, though with a bit of a poof to it, less tight around the hips, though over the torso surely. Her shoulders were exposed, but she had sleeves…poofy sleeves. And her hair…was longer! What short strands she originally had were made back into a swirled, almost braided style close against her head, and some sort of ponytail extension laid with special clips and hair bits of white and blue. She had a purple sash hanging on her hips, and she seemed to wear heels just like Winter had. She also noticed a crown like her's around Heathers head, set with a purple stone.

Heather began to sit up then, looking up at Winter then. "…Hey snowflake…nice dress."

"I could say the same about you." Winter retorted, actually trying not to smirk.

Heather narrowed her gaze. "This thing would be torn off, if I was sure there was anything underneath. As for these shoes though." Heather commented, slipping the heels right off and tossing them across the hall, despite the chill around them. She looked around then, rubbing her aching shoulder when she saw the last closed door. "Jay!"

"I'm figuring it out! Just give me a sec!" there was a strangle jiggling and scratching they began to realize had sounded off and on.

"You sure you don't need help?" Heather asked, standing carefully.

"I'm almost there!" she assured them, as Heather took the chance to observe herself again, grunting.

"This is just… I swear, I'll kill him once for this, then I'll bring him back from card form and kill him for everything else." Heather commented, and silence continued until Jaden opened the door, a heel in hand that she'd been using on the door, Winter rushing to her sister and embracing her as the other stood and Heather made a noise of uncomfortable realization from her silent thoughts. "Does this mean he dressed us?!"

"Let's just stick with he used snaky magic, okay?" Jaden commented, releasing her sister and looking over Heather after looking over her sister. "…I agree. He needs to die twice." She removed both of her shoes just as Heather had, Winter following suit. Jaden's get up was much like Heather's, though her sleeves were more loose and flowing, a purple sash around her hip as well her skirt was slightly less poofier than Heathers. The crown around her head was set with a blue jewel.

Heather turned down the hall then, and made to walk.

"Wait!" Winter made to stop her. "We just going to walk around? We don't even know this place."

"What other option do we have?" Heather responded. "We don't know whats coming for us while we stand around here."

"We also don't know whats waiting for us." Winter offered, but she understood and agreed with Heathers point of moving along maybe being better than sitting around. "Just as long as we're ready. Who knows what Ryuma's intentions are for us."

"Either way, our next step is getting a move on, and looking for Sago, Mushra, and Xavier." Jaden said then. "We need to find out what he did to them, if he's controlling them, hurting them, or…" she shook her head, not even wanting to finish the thought or sentence.

"Alright. Let's go." Heather said, only for Jaden to halt them this time.

"One sec." she rushed back in to the room, Winter and Heather exchanging looks and wondering why until she returned, with Sago's cape. "…Don't know how, or even why I still have this, but…" she offered it to her sister to put around her shoulders, and her sister greatly accepted it as they all began their wandering through the halls.

Though, the further they walked, and with every turn they made, it seemed this place, whatever it might be, was more a maze than anything. The walls were white-blue, or completely ice; they cut and turned, became dead ends, even dipped into drops which the girls slipped themselves through at least once.

But weariness was setting in as nearly an hour of walking and searching had brought them nowhere but further from where they began. Jaden being the first to lean against an icy wall, she slipped down to her rear, and the other two joined her, either sitting or plopping down.

"It just…goes ON."

"No end, it just barely changes…" Heather complained.

"This Labyrinth crap is getting old, and I really don't want to find this David Bowie like I used to." Winter lay her head back, taking off the cape and tossing it to Jaden as she didn't need it as much anymore, and Jaden kept it grasped in her hand.

Looking over it considerately, Jaden was lost in thought, wondering over whether Ryuma would have killed the boys already, or if he was vindictive enough to keep them living a little longer. She leaned towards the latter, from intuition, and hope.

"…Would he kill Xavier…?" Winter wondered then, her voice unsure and fearful.

"What?" Heather asked, raising her gaze to the other.

"He's not his enemy, at least not an old enemy. He did nothing to him in the past with Mushra and Sago; all he's done is fight back against what Ryuma started. He…he's an unknown, no satisfaction would come from toying with him, so what could he have done with him?" her mind was running to places she really would prefer it not run, but she could help it. She looked to her sister, her eyes stinging. "He could be in the remains of that cave, carded or crushed, for all we know..!"

Jaden sat up then, facing her sister with her legs criss-crossed, the dress in an awkward pull and bunch. "Look, we don't know that. He could find other uses for Xavier. Who knows what all his twisted mind can come up with, as he doesn't seem to have made you a bride like us, by the looks of your none-poofy dress." She pointed out, though it was more than the skirt, it was the entire look of the dress. They'd seen the traditional dress he'd go for, on Yakumo, and Jaden and Heather seemed to be wearing the closest comparisons. "He might have another use for you, and therefor might have a use for him in turn."

"What kind of use, though?" She asked.

Jaden reached her hand to rub her neck as she shrugged and sighed. "I don't know…but that's what I believe…."

"I believe it too." Heather added, and Winter nodded, taking a shaky breath and sighing.

There was a distant sound then. A crack, or a shatter, and all their heads shot up.

"Did you hear that?" Heather asked, moving to stand, catching the skirt of her dress, slipping back down, and then hurrying up on her feet like it never happened as Jaden and Winter stood, nodding.

"Something breaking. Sounds a little off though. Around the corner..?" she looked to them, making her way around with the other two following right after her.

As they turned the corner, they found the hall was at an end…with a great big stone, frosted door.

"The hell…?" Jaden stated, moving closer in confusion as Heather marched straight forward, observing the door as there seem to be no handles whatsoever, and it nearly seemed as if it would only be a wall, if it were not for its arched shape.

"A door…but a weird one. Why isn't there a door hand, or lock out here?" Winter questioned.

"This could be somewhere they'd do important things….important things you'd only lock away from the inside when working on it to be sure no one could get inside to your work?" Heather commented, looking to them as if this was what they'd been looking for.

"If you're implying it's the guys, they'd have to be in cages in there; unless Ryuma expected to let them roam free, which would be extremely stupid. And with the fact that he caught all of us, I'm doubting that level of stupidity." Jaden voiced her opinion, but Heather went ahead began pushing on the door.

"Might as well find out, after all the looking we've been doing." Winter put in, and joined, placing her hands firmly and pushing, the stone seemed to break and pull away from the caked ice.

Jaden joined, and with many pushes and shoves and pushing of weight on the door, it tore from the ice, moving faster and faster until the bulk of the stone door was pushed away from the doorway and it opened swiftly enough. With it halfway open, the three of them slipped in and spread out. Blue torches lit this area as well, offering an ominous but useful light to the room.

The room that greeted them seemed to be a strange lab. There were a couple tables to one side, shelves to the other, and across from the door at the opposite wall was electronic and strange glowing machinery. The ground was covered with strange, alchemy-like circles and markings, and stains of some liquid, presumably from either the table full of chemical vials or table full of powder or mixed content filled vials. The shelves were filled, mostly, with books, though there were strange instruments set up in front of, between, or unsurely on top of some of the books.

"Was that what made the noise…?" Winter asked, pointing to a cylinder that had been filled with some kind of chemicals, which were now simply spilled on the floor, smoking strangely, but doing nothing else that was of any noticeable nature.

"I'm sure that was the source of the noise. What made it, though…" Heather looked around the room considerably. That thing couldn't have fallen on its own, and there were other vials on the table knocked over and spilled or seeming to have splashed up a bit.

The three of them spread out around the table, looking towards the tables behind it, more trinkets and tools and…cards?

"That could be the guys!" Heather sputtered suddenly, making to run around one table between them both, only to yelp in surprise and fall back. "MOTHER OF CUBONE!"

She started crawling back, as fast as she could, Winter and Jaden racing over as there was a gurgling, sticking noise, and a tearing ripping screech as they rounded the cloth-covered tables to find some monstrous, razor toothed maggot with many little legs making its way towards their friend.

Jaden grabbed Heather under the arms, dragging her back as the other made a strange grossed out whimpering noise as she was dragged back, but Winter stood her ground as it was advancing at the two retreating, its many legs bringing it forth swiftly in their wave as it screeched, spitting slobber and slime as it did.

"Stop!" Winter raised her hand, moving to distract it…but the moment her hand had raised, the ground beneath the creature seemed to shake and crack, a shard shooting up by its side to slash it. Above Winter's eye level she could not see, but the stone on her crown was glowing and she looked at the light and to the growling angry beast and the slime-stained stone that had slashed it. "…Was that me?"

Jaden and Heather just stared at her in awe after, before they realized the creature was advancing again, quicker and angrier now with great gurgled screeches. Heather was kicking to get up, flailing her arms and suddenly a shot of fire shot into the air, while the other blast of fire singed and burned the beasts face, causing it to screech again and wriggle.

"The heck?!" Heather asked, finally finding her footing, looking at her hands, then up at the purple light shining from her crown.

Jaden, looking between the two of them, stand up to the creature as it began to settle from its writhing enough to set its rage on a target again, and it was going straight for Jaden this time, who was growing suspicious of just how her sister and friend were able to do such things. A theory forming in her mind, she raised her hand and attempted to try it out as she yelled at the beast, "Aqua Tornado!"

From her hand blasted a swirling tornado of water, which surged straight at the maggot, blasting it into the far wall over the tables, into the wall hard. It fell just as hard, and did not move from that point on. Jaden looked at her hand, already able to see the blue above her vision, but realizing she just proved her theory right as she looked to Heather and Winter. "…We need to find the boys."

"Well, yeah, that's what we've been doing—how'd you know to say that?" Heather asked, reaching a hand worriedly to her crown.

"Do you realize who's power we have? Who's power we mirror?" she pointed out, and heard Winter gasp behind her. "We've….we've somehow been given the guys powers… We need to find out what Ryuma did with them..!" Jaden spun and began searching the room, looking for some sort of hidden door or corner doors or something, anything that could be hiding something bigger. Winter was doing the same, looking over the room for some sort of indication of where they might be, though she had no idea what could possibly indicate such.

Heather, however, was standing still, looking straight at three tall tubes she'd suspected before to only be some source of energy, some big sorts of computers or something. She walked right up to it, looking over each, and searching for a key pad or button or something to do something to the tubes, wondering if there were things or people inside. They were just big enough to hold the boys!

"Guys, over here, I think they're in here! Help me figure out how to open these!" she demanded of her friends, and they didn't waste time. Confused by the writings as they still hadn't fully learned the Enterran writing, they were pressing upon anything that would seem a latch or button of any sort, until Winter swiped some lever vertical and there was a hiss of release, smoke billowing as half the tube seemed to detach, mechanically moving away and raising up over the tubes to reveal three luminescent tubes…with three Enterrans hovering inside.

But they were no men.

"…Is…that…" Jaden began.

"It can't be…" Winter shook her head.

"…You've got to be kidding…"

There hovered three Enterran boys, one in each tube, all seeming to be slumbering. One of short brunette hair and baggy brown and black clothing. Another…white blue hair past his pointed ears, dressed in a dirty green full-body suit with a blue vest. The last, a boy in black and red clothing, and purple hair curving around his head.

"…They turned the guys into children…" Jaden spoke aloud the confusing conclusion to their search.

Heather could only stare, before looking to Winter. "Winter, you're dating a baby, that's so wrong."

::
Me: you have to admit, it would be adorable to have seen Mushra and Sago as lil chubby faced boys~
Mushra: *stares without a word*
Me: …..
Mushra: ….
Me: …. *moves to pinch attack Mushra's cheeks until he falls backwards just to get away from the pinching* Review if you'd like, next chapter coming soon!