Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or Homestuck.

Chapter 4: Trial of the Scorpion

"Close, Gate of the Crab Palace!" Lucy commanded, jabbing her key at the scowling troll.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?" Karkat asked, rolling his eyes. "ARE YOU TRYING TO INTIMIDATE ME WITH THAT SHITTY EXCUSE FOR A STABBING WEAPON? THIS IS PATHETIC."

"Why won't he go back in his gate?" Lucy muttered, glaring at the grey-skinned being.

"BECAUSE I DON'T FUCKING FEEL LIKE IT, THANK YOU VERY MUCH," Karkat growled.

Lucy gritted her teeth. "Forced closure!" she yelled, releasing her magic at full force. She heard the troll let out a long string of profanities as he was sucked backwards into a glowing golden gate.

"WHAT THE FU-?" The gate doors slammed shut, cutting off his cursing, and faded into nothingness. Lucy collapsed a second later, exhausted from releasing so much magic, and Erza managed to catch her right before she hit the floor.

"Well, at least we know not to use that key again," Erza muttered, glaring at the golden key that twinkled innocently on Lucy's belt.

"Thank god that ass is gone," Gray muttered, trying to get the ringing in his ears to stop. "A few more minutes and I would have gone deaf." Natsu finally let his hands fall to his side; they had been clamped tightly over his sensitive ears.

"Tch," he muttered. "When I see him again, I'll punch him right in his mouth."

"We should move on," Erza said to Lucy. "The sooner we complete this gauntlet, the better." Everyone silently agreed with that statement. If all the trolls were like the previous two…

Lucy steadied herself on her feet and looked up at the symbol over the doors. "Open, Gate of the Scorpion Palace!" The doors made a rough screeching noise as they slid over the stones. When the group peered through the gates, all they could see was pitch black darkness.

Natsu bounded through the door first, using his hand as a makeshift torch. "I don't see anything!" he yelled, sounding disappointed.

The other members warily followed the dragon slayer into the dark room. As soon as Erza, who was bringing up the rear, stepped through the doorway, the doors swung shut behind her. The knight immediately brought her sword down on the doors, but didn't even scratch the wood. She frowned and gave her team mates a look that said, 'Be on your guards.' They warily walked deeper into the chamber. Natsu's fire only illuminated the gray stones of the floors and walls; the room appeared completely empty.

Gray grunted when he suddenly tripped over something large and rectangular, sending him crashing to the floor. The rest of the group whirled around to find the cursing ice mage flat on his back. The sight of the mage in such an undignified position made Natsu howl with laughter, while the other two struggled to hide their smiles.

"What's the matter, Grey?" the fire mage taunted. "You get beat up by a ghost?"

"I tripped over something!" Grey yelled back defensively.

"Suuuuuure," Natsu grinned, drawing out the word to show he didn't believe him.

"I did!" Grey huffed. "It's right over… where'd it go?" He looked around to see whatever object he'd tripped over was gone. "I swear I tripped over something…" he muttered, looking at the spot with confusion.

The dragon slayer just rolled his eyes while smirking. "Just admit you tripped over nothing."

"I didn't!" Grey snarled. "There was a box or something!"

"Was not."

"Was so."

"Was not."

"Was so!"

"Enough!" Erza commanded, glaring at them. "In case you two have forgotten, we have a task to complete." The two mages were sweating bullets under the knight's gaze and started apologizing profusely.

"Where even is this troll?" Lucy asked, glancing around in the darkness.

"Natsu," Erza said, making the dragon slayer's head snap up from his apology. "Light the room." He nodded vigorously and sent a blaze around the edges of the room, lighting up the whole chamber.

The guild mates blinked at the sudden light, but when their vision cleared the room still looked completely empty except for a small chest in the corner.

"That's what I tripped over!" Grey said, pointing at the box.

"But you tripped right there and the box is all the way over there," Natsu snickered, pointing at the two spots which were a good twenty feet from each other.

"Someone moved it then," Grey said, crossing his arms. Lucy rolled her eyes while Erza slammed the boy's heads together.

"Stop bickering over nonsense," she ordered.

"Yes ma'am," the two muttered, clutching their injuries. While the boys waited for the pain to leave, Erza and Lucy headed towards the chest.

"Does it need a key?" Lucy asked, checking for a lock. Erza shrugged and pried at the top, managing to open it with some effort. The two peered into the box to find a note written in blue ink on a small slip of paper.

This is your task: 8eat me in a game of luck! 8ut I don't think you'll 8e a8le to ::::)

The girl's watches beeped and they looked down. "Task: Test of Luck."

"So what do we have to do to test our luck?" Erza asked, looking around the chamber for something they might have missed.

"Well, I'm so glad you asked!" a female voice yelled, causing all the guild members to look for the source of the voice. A figure dropped down from its hiding place on the ceiling of the chamber to land with a loud thwam! in front of Natsu and Grey.

Erza eyed the girl troll up and down. She wore a gray coat over her black shirt with the Scorpio sign, blue pants and red sneakers. She had orange horns like the other trolls the team had encountered, but instead of being symmetrical, one was shaped like the end of a harpoon and the other was reminiscent of a claw. The weirdest things about her, however, were the eye patch she wore over her left eye and the robot prosthetic she had in place of her left arm. The troll grinned at all of them as if she had something awful planned for them.

"Who are you?" Erza asked cautiously, wondering if the robot arm could be used as a weapon. It was a high possibility.

The troll rolled her eyes, er- eye, at the question, almost as if it wasn't worth answering. "I don't see why it matters," she said irritably. "8ut my name is Vriska Serket. How do you not know that 8y now? You've pro8a8ly already talked to a lot of other trolls."

"Actually," Lucy said. "You're only the third troll we've talked to."

"Wait," the troll said, her head snapping around. "You mean I'm not num8er eight?"

"No?" Lucy answered hesitantly.

"WH8T TH8 H8LL?" Vriska yelled at the top of her lungs. "I HAVE TO 8E NUM8ER EIGHT!"

"Wait," Lucy said trying to calm the girl down, to no avail.

"THIS IS UNACCEPTA8LE! I REFUSE TO 8E ANYTHING OTHER THAN NUM8ER EIGHT! GET DOWN HERE YOU STUPID CELESTIAL DOUCHE AND MAKE ME EIGHTH!"

"Actually, we already have a task from you," Grey muttered, pointing at his watch. The troll girl crossed her arms and glared at the ice mage.

"No. I'm not doing it. Find someone else."

"Great," Natsu muttered. "She's even more useless than that yelling dude. Uh, Karat?"

"Karkat," Lucy answered. Vriska's head snapped up and a slow grin crept onto her face.

"You've met Karkat?" she asked.

"Yes," Erza answered. "I don't see how that's relevant."

"Don't worry a8out it," Vriska said, smirking widely. "I just have another iron in the fire. You need a task, right?" The humans all nodded, not liking how the troll's personality seemed to do an immediate 180. "Okay, so here's what we're going to do. We'll play roul8 with the Hammer of Zillyhoo!" She pulled a very odd looking hammer out of thin air.

"Woah, how do you guys do that?!" Natsu gasped, trying to grab the hammer from the troll. She managed to fend him off with her robot arm.

"What are you talking a8out? I just pulled it out of my sylladex," she growled. "Anyways, we all get a turn at the hammer and whoever rolls all eights first wins. Ready?" Vriska swung the hammer at the ground and managed to get all of them to roll eights except for one that got a five. She huffed and handed the hammer to Lucy.

Lucy hesitantly grabbed the multicolored handle and hit the hammer on the ground, rolling five eights, a six and two threes. She frowned at the hammer and wondered how the contraption worked. The troll girl just shook her head and said that Lucy's luck was abysmal.

Vriska took the hammer back and swung again, rolling all eights except for a single dice with a six showing. "Looks like my luck is improving," the troll said with a shark tooth grin. "Who's next?" She handed the hammer over to Natsu.

"Alright!" the dragon slayer grinned, hitting the ground with all his might and cracking the stone. The dice showed six eights, a seven and a six. The girl nodded approvingly.

"Looks like he's the luckiest out of you all," she grinned, swinging the hammer and getting seven eights and a seven on her roll. "Looks like my next roll will win it. Anyone want to see if they can 8eat me?"

"Give me the hammer," Natsu said, grinning. "I'll get it this time!"

"No way!" Grey said, shoving the fire mage out of the way. "It's my turn, flame brain!" The boys began wrestling each other for the hammer, both of them gripping it so hard that Lucy feared it would break.

"Give me the hammer now!" Erza said grabbing the striped handle, while Lucy tried to help her tug it out of the boy's grips. With all four guild mates grabbing the handle, the hammer hit the ground, by some strange twist of luck, rolling all eights.

"T-That's impossi8le!" Vriska stammered, glaring at the Hammer of Zillyhoo in outrage. "I never lose in games of luck! N8V8R!" She was still yelling when she disappeared in a flash of light, leaving behind a key.

"Dang, I forgot to ask her!" Natsu said, scrambling to his feet.

"Ask her what?" Lucy inquired, also getting up.

"She was supposed to be Scorpio, right?" he asked seriously.

"Yes…" Lucy replied, wondering where he was going with this.

"So why was she obsessed with spiders and not scorpions?" There was a very long, awkward pause.

"How do you know she was obsessed with spiders?" Erza said, adding her voice to the conversation.

"Well, she was hanging from the ceiling like a spider," Natsu explained.

"That doesn't mean she's obsessed with spiders," Grey said, rolling his eyes.

"She could be!" Natsu retorted.

"I don't think so," Grey answered coolly.

"You just like disagreeing with me," Natsu growled, glaring at the ice mage.

"That's because you're always wrong."

"No, I'm not!"

"Yes, you are!"

"BOYS."

"We're sorry!"

~~~~~In the next chamber~~~~~

"i HEAR NOISE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR,,," a voice muttered. "dOES THAT MEAN I'M NEXT?"

~~~~~In another universe~~~~~

ectoBiologist [EB] began pestering tentacleTherapist [TT]:

EB: hey rose

TT: Yes, John?
EB: have you had any contact with the trolls recently?

TT: I cannot say that I have.

EB: yeah i've been talking to dave and he says the same thing.

TT: That is a bit worrying. Kanaya has not spoken to me in quite some time.

EB: vriska has been gone too. do you think jade has talked to any of them?

TT: I'll go and pester her after this conversation.

EB: okay. i get the feeling that something weird is going on. maybe the trolls need rescuing or something! what if they're in danger?!

TT: Don't get too ahead of yourself, John. These trolls are a fickle bunch. Perhaps they will contact us in due time.

EB: you're right, i guess. contact me if jade has anything.

TT: Alright.

ectoBiologist [EB] ceased pestering tentacleTherapist [TT].

A/N: I'm baaaaaaaack! (Yes, there are eight a's). After a long time on various escapades resulting in hilarious shenanigans and all manners of tomfoolery, I have returned to fanfiction! Woo-hoo!

Anyways, this chapter was fun, yet challenging because I find Vriska to be kind of a complicated character. She's usually smirking and manipulative, but she is also prone to lose her shit (pardon my French) in fits of rage. Hm... I hope I managed to pull it off.

So please review! Thanks to everyone who has reviewed/followed/favorited so far! You guys are my inspiration to keep writing!~