Disclaimer: I don't own Homestuck or Fairy Tail.
Chapter 5: Trial of the Golden Bull
The doors creaked open to yet another stone chamber. Thankfully, the guild members didn't have to go hunting for this troll; he was sitting in the middle of the chamber and fiddling nervously. The mages looked around the room for a clue of what the challenge might be. They heard a low humming noise, but nothing else was apparent.
The troll was sitting in a wheeled device and was wearing a black T-shirt with the Taurus sign on it, black jeans and sandals. His hair was styled into a Mohawk, but what really caught their attention were the huge horns he had attached to his head. They were obviously bull horns and would've been extremely intimidating had the troll stopped muttering how hard dealing with them could be.
The troll looked up from whatever he was doing when they entered and gave them a shy smile. "uH,,, MY NAME IS TAVROS AND I'LL BE GIVING YOU YOUR NEXT CHALLENGE,,," the troll muttered, running a hand through his hair.
"Did the Celestial Spirit King say anything to you before he sent you here?" Lucy asked, desperate for any information Tavros might have on the gauntlet they'd been forced to participate in.
The troll looked startled but shook his head negatively, forcing Natsu and Gray to dodge his horns as they jerked around. "sORRY, BUT I DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT THIS PLACE, sOLLUX AND KANAYA MIGHT KNOW SOMETHING THOUGH,,," he replied.
"Who are they?" Erza asked, frowning at the foreign names.
"uH, i GUESS YOU HAVEN'T MET THEM YET THEN,,," Tavros said, sighing. "wHO HAVE YOU MET SO FAR?"
"The first guy was really annoying," Natsu said quickly, cutting off Lucy before she could start. "The second troll was obsessed with drawing things on the wall and the last chamber was this weird spider girl."
The gray-skinned troll seemed to pale a few shades. "d-dID YOU SAY SPIDERS? wAS THE LAST PERSON NAMED VRISKA?" Tavros' eyes darted around helplessly. "s-sHE'S NOT HERE, IS SHE?"
"No, she turned into this key," Lucy said, holding up the key for Scorpio. Unexpectedly, the troll flinched away from Lucy.
"i'LL GIVE YOU YOUR CHALLENGE, JUST DON'T BRING HER HERE!" Tavros yelled, beginning to wheel his device in the opposite direction of Lucy.
"Calm down!" Lucy said hastily, starting to panic. She quickly shoved the key back on her key ring and out of sight. "Look, I won't bring her out. Promise."
"fINE," Tavros said, staring at the celestial wizard warily. "yOUR CHALLENGE IS TO RETRIEVE THE PASSCODE FROM MY LUSUS, hE'S HIDDEN AMONG SOME ILLUSIONS OF HIM I HAD THE CELESTIAL SPIRIT KING MAKE,,,"
The team's watches beeped. "Task: Lusus capture and retrieval of passcode."
"What the hell is a lusus?" Gray asked, staring around the empty chamber. There was nothing in the room that was out of the ordinary.
"tRY LOOKING UP,,," Tavros said, giving them a crooked smile. The mages looked at each other uncertainly before glancing at the ceiling of the chamber.
"Woah! Look at all the bull-flies!" Natsu gasped, eyes widening. The humming noise from earlier revealed itself to be hundreds of small white creatures with a bull's head and an insect body.
"How are we ever going to find the right one?" Lucy said, beginning to despair at the thought of checking each one.
"Better get started," Erza said grimly, summoning her Queen of the Heavens armor and leaping into the air. She snagged one of the creatures midflight and dragged it down. Unfortunately, as soon as she grabbed the struggling bull creature, it disappeared in a puff of smoke. "The fake ones disintegrate on impact!" she yelled down to her team.
"Well, that simplifies things," Natsu grinned as he began summoning his magic. "Wings of the Fire Dragon!" He launched himself into the air and began slashing at the lusus.
"Ice Make: Spear!" Gray threw a large chunk of ice into the air, taking out ten fake bull creatures in one go. Meanwhile, Erza was continuing to hack and slash at the beasts, who attempted to dodge away from her swords.
"wOW,,, tHEY'RE REALLY VIOLENT,,," Tavros muttered, watching the guild members. Lucy decided to walk over to him, as she was stuck on the ground without her keys to help her.
"So what exactly is a lusus?" she asked the troll, attempting to make conversation.
"uH, wELL A LUSUS IS KIND OF LIKE EACH TROLL'S CARETAKER, wHEN WE ARE JUST LITTLE WRIGGLERS, INCAPABLE OF CARING FOR OURSELVES, THEY CARE FOR US AND, IN RETURN, WE CLEAN UP AFTER THEM," Tavros replied.
"Do they have names?" Lucy asked, intrigued.
"i CALLED MINE TINKERBULL, BUT HE DIED A WHILE AGO,,," Tavros said, eyes growing distant.
"I'm sorry," she said, sincerely meaning it. She could sympathize with the loss of a parental figure. Tavros gave her a weak smile and nodded. Lucy felt as though she should probably change the topic.
"What is your world like?" she asked, trying to keep up her usually optimistic personality.
"aLTERNIA? i DON'T REALLY KNOW HOW TO DESCRIBE IT,,," Tavros said. "kANAYA WOULD PROBABLY DO A BETTER JOB THAN ME,"
"That reminds me," Lucy began. "How many trolls are there?"
"wELL, tHERE ARE TWELVE OF US IN OUR 'SESSION', bUT THERE USED TO BE A LOT MORE TROLLS, yOU KNOW, bEFORE OUR UNIVERSE WAS DESTROYED,,," Lucy was thankfully saved from awkwardly responding to that when Natsu yelled that he'd found the correct lusus.
"What's the passcode then?" Gray asked, obviously disappointed that the fire wizard had beat him. Natsu pulled off a card that hung around the bull's neck.
"What the heck is this supposed to mean?" Natsu said, squinting at the card. Gray grabbed it from his hands.
"Let me see it flame brain," he growled. He started frowning. "What the heck does 't1CK' mean?"
"wAIT, HAVEN'T YOU MET VRISKA?" Tavros asked. "sHE WAS SUPPOSED TO GIVE YOU HER CODE TOO AND EXPLAIN IT."
"She never said anything about that," Lucy said, thinking back to their previous encounter.
"uH, wELL I'LL JUST DO IT THEN," Tavros said, sighing. "fOUR OF US TROLLS HAVE CODES THAT WE CAN GIVE TO YOU AND YOU'LL NEED THEM TO COMPLETE THE GAUNTLET, mY PIECE OF THE CODE IS 'T1CK', aRE YOU SURE VRISKA DIDN'T GIVE YOU ANYTHING?"
"When she turned into the key, all that was left of her chamber was the fluorite octet that popped out of the hammer," Erza said, pulling out the die.
"When did you find those?" Lucy asked.
"I saw them lying on the ground when we exited the last chamber," Erza replied, rolling the dice in her palm. "Wait, there's something written on them." She squinted. "I didn't see it before because I only glanced at them." Lucy took the dice from Erza and looked at them herself.
"The letters are only on four of the dice," She said, pulling them out.
"What do they say?" Gray asked, attempting to get a better look.
"8r8k?" Lucy wondered aloud.
"uH, i THINK YOU MEAN 'BREAK'," Tavros said quietly, causing the others to flinch. They'd forgotten he was there with the new revelation. The guild members suddenly whirled on him, making said troll jerk back in his chair.
"How do you know?" Erza questioned Tavros.
"yOU'VE BEEN TOLD ABOUT OUR TYPING QUIRKS, rIGHT? vRISKA ALWAYS USED A LOT OF 8'S IN HER SENTENCES,,," the troll replied. The mages all sweatdropped at this.
Suddenly, Tavros began to glow with a bright light. "w-wHAT'S GOING ON?!" he yelped, panicked. In a flash, he'd disappeared and a glimmering golden key was left in his place.
"We didn't get all the answers we needed yet," Erza muttered, frustrated. Lucy sighed and went to go retrieve the key.
"Well, at least we finally got some action in this boring place," Natsu said, excited that they'd finally had a physical challenge.
~~~~~The Next Chamber~~~~~
"I'm so glubbing bored wit)( all t)(is waiting…"
~~~~~In another universe~~~~~
ectoBiologist [EB] has opened chatroom WHAT THE HELL.
turntechGodhead [TG] entered the chatroom.
tentacleTherapist [TT] entered the chatroom.
TG: alright bro whats with the name of this chat
EB: sorry, that's all i could think of at the moment. i think it sums up our problems quite nicely.
TT: What are these "problems" you are referring to, John?
EB: the trolls! no one has heard from them in days!
TG: i thought we agreed that they were just off dicking around or doing whatever it is they do when they aren't bothering us
TT: Dave could be right this time.
TG: this time? i'm right all the time
TT: Please try to keep your overinflated ego in check, Dave.
EB: focus please! where is jade?
gardenGnostic [GG] has entered the chat.
GG: sorry I'm late! what's wrong?
EB: oh thank god you're here. have you heard from any of the trolls lately?
GG: no. karkat hasn't spoken to me in a while…
TG: well there goes that idea
TT: Jade, since you are the Witch of Space, could you possibly determine where the trolls might be located?
GG: i'll see what i can do, but i don't think the trolls are even in this universe anymore.
EB: what?!
GG: it's like they've disappeared.
TT: That is rather troubling.
TG: well it wasn't like they ever helped us anyways
EB: that's not true! vriska helped me get to god tier!
TG: so what theyre usually just pains in the ass
TT: Nevertheless, they might need our help now. Jade, is there any chance you can take us to their current location?
GG: i don't know. i usually need to have a clear idea of where i'm going or i'll just be jumping into random dimensions.
TG: you cant just follow their astral trails or whatever
GG: those don't exist!
TT: Please try to find any possible options. Their disappearance could mean something very bad is about to happen.
GG: i'll see what i can do but don't hold your breath.
gardenGnostic [GG] has left the chat.
TT: Are you satisfied, John?
EB: i guess. but we still need to figure out what happened to them.
TT: We'll just have to wait on Jade then. Hopefully she'll have some good news. Personally, I'm starting to miss talking to Kanaya.
tentacleTherapist [TT] has left the chat.
TG: i'll go check the other time loops for any clues later bro
turntechGodhead [TG] has left the chat.
ectoBiologist [EB] has closed chatroom: "WHAT THE HELL".
A/N: Hi guys! Sorry I haven't been updating in a while... it's just that school and other things have kept me a bit preoccupied ^_^' anyways, looks like the plot is moving right along so... bonus. Oh right, I haven't read Fairy Tail in a while, so sorry if the characters are a bit OOC... I'll try and fix that in the next chapter. X(
I know I said earlier that the kids probably wouldn't be getting involved, but I might have to go back on my word... I know, I'm an awful person
So please leave a review! Tell me what you like/ hate/ have an idea for! Thanks to everyone that's left a review or followed/favorited this story! You guys motivate me to keep writing~