Chapter 12: In Which Ralph and Sorceress Discover a Cave

Ralph's workday went by at a painfully slow pace. Concentrating was difficult, and soon the gamers playing Fix-It Felix, Jr. began to notice that the Bad Guy was moving slower than usual. He managed to get through the day without Mr. Litwak deeming the game Out of Order, but Felix grew worried that something wasn't right with him. The wrecker evaded his questions after work, denying any concerns about his relationship with Sorceress, and quickly left for Sugar Rush.

Upon his arrival Vanellope noticed Ralph was in a weird mood but didn't have time to press him for answers before the Random Roster Race started. Watching her helped get his mind off his worries for a while, especially when she celebrated her first place victory by performing the evil laugh she learned the day before. Thinking his weird mood had passed, the girl loaded him up with peppermints for his breath and sent him on his way, wishing him luck on his date and telling him to give her regards to Sorceress.

The not-so-random security check on the way out didn't help Ralph's temper, but his annoyance was quickly forgotten when he joined Sorceress outside Hero's Duty. She was glad to see him and her enthusiasm to explore the dangerous world and fight Cy-Bugs was refreshing and even contagious. It almost made him believe the experience might be fun. And it almost made him forget all the things she had told him yesterday about her past boyfriends.

The high-tech train into Hero's Duty was the most modern and spacious one in the arcade. Reminiscent of a spacecraft in design, it had enclosed cars built to accommodate large numbers of huge armored space marines. The seats weren't particularly soft, but they were roomy enough that Ralph didn't have to squeeze into his seat or scrunch his knees up to his chest. Even better, there was room enough for Sorceress to sit next to him. As the train carried them to their destination, they discussed plans for what to do in the game.

"Did you want to go inside the building?" Ralph asked. "Because I'm gonna have to veto that plan now."

"Oh, no, not the building," Sorceress replied with a firm shake of her head. "I've been in there so many times it's not fun anymore. Besides, there are so many areas besides the building we can explore."

He arched a quizzical eyebrow. "Like what? The only other areas I've been to are the wedding chapel and reception hall."

"There's much more to Hero's Duty than that." With a puff of twinkly purple mist, she conjured a scroll of yellowing paper and held it out to him. "Hunter made this map of the game. He explored it from top to bottom chasing Cy-Bugs. "

Ralph unfurled the scroll to see what was on it. His bushy brows knitted together in a confused frown. "Looks like a blank piece of paper to me."

Sorceress smirked. "The space marines thought so, too. That's why they didn't confiscate it when they banned Hunter from the game. He wrote it in magic ink."

He arched his eyebrows in surprise. "That's actually pretty smart for a guy like Hunter."

"Hunting is the one thing he's always been smart about," she said with chuckle.

Ralph lifted the scroll closer to the train's harsh yellow lighting and turned it every which way. No matter how he looked at it, it still appeared blank to him. "Well, I hope you know how to read this thing," he said as he rolled it shut. "Because I can't make heads or tails of it."

"Of course I know how," Sorceress said haughtily. She took the scroll back and it disappeared in another puff of twinkly purple mist. "I'll show you when we get there. It only works once it's inside the game it was written about."

"Okay, just try not to lead us into a death trap. I'd rather not die today, if that's possible." Ralph said all this in the most nonchalant way he could to keep her from suspecting the extent of his anxiety. Even after saving Sugar Rush from a full-scale Cy-Bug plague, he still found those creatures terrifying. It wasn't just the risk of permanent death that worried him, either. It was the possibility of becoming a hideous mutant monster. He had seen it happen before with Turbo and it was the stuff of nightmares.

Despite the wrecker's casual act and despite not knowing the specifics, Sorceress picked up an anxious vibe from him. She put her hand on his arm and gave it a comforting pat. "Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you."

He thought she was teasing until he got a better a look at her face. There was no hint of humor in her eyes or her smile, just calm reassurance and sincerity. His heart skipped a beat and the thought of kissing her crossed his mind but he quickly pushed it aside. She had told him two days ago that it was too soon and he needed to respect that. Instead he raised one hand to hold hers, smiling back gratefully. "Likewise."

Moments later the train stopped inside the terminal of Hero's Duty.The automatic doors slid open and the two rose from their seats to disembark. As they passed through the dimly lit metallic corridors side by side, Ralph stayed close to Sorceress and kept her hand in his grip. At last they came to the main entrance. The hangar doors were closed and two soldiers stood guard on either side. The wrecker groaned inwardly, not looking forward to going through another security check. These men were not like the scrawny Surge Protector, either. They were nearly as tall as Ralph, fully armored and fully armed. Unable to see their faces through their visors, he tightened his hold on Sorceress' hand, alerting her to his tension.

She floated up a few inches to whisper to him. "Let me do the talking, okay?"

Ralph nodded, not taking his eyes off the guards or releasing his hold on her.

"Good evening, gentlemen!" Sorceress said, all smiles as they approached the guards. "May we please enter your game tonight?"

"That depends," one masked guard replied, his voice an ominous baritone. "You folks got any ID on you?"

Her brows crinkled in confusion. Then she saw the name stenciled on his chest plate and chuckled. "You already know who I am, corporal."

The guard pushed a button on the side of his helmet, opening his visor to show his face. Corporal Kohut smiled down at her and nodded politely. "I'd never forget a woman like you."

Ralph's stomach turned to a lump of lead and dropped through the floor. Of all the space marines they could have bumped into tonight it had to be Sorceress' most recent ex-boyfriend. And he was being playfully flirty, too. Was Kohut trying to win her back? Did she still have feelings for him? Even worse, what if she chose to ditch Ralph and take the handsome corporal back?

To his surprise, Sorceress did the opposite of what he was thinking. "Very funny, corporal. I'm dating Mr. Wreck-It now, so don't get any ideas."

"Is that right?" Kohut remarked, arching an eyebrow and giving the wrecker a sly wink. "You're a lucky man, Mr. Wreck-It."

Ralph didn't say anything. He just tightened his grip on Sorceress' hand a tiny bit and did his best to resist the urge to bash the other man's face in with his own helmet.

The corporal turned his attention back to Sorceress. "You talked him into going on a bug hunt, didn't you?"

She smiled up at him innocently. "How did you ever guess?"

Kohut chuckled. "It was the only thing you wanted to do in here. I'll let you in, but first you'll need this." He reached into a metal bin beside him and pulled out a palm-sized plastic device. "It's a scanner. Use it to contact us if you need help."

She frowned, offended by the implication that she would need to be rescued. "That won't be necessary, thank you. As you well know, corporal, I can fight my own battles."

"Standard safety protocol, ma'am," Kohut said as he put the comm-link in her hand. "Keep that on you at all times. If things get too hairy out there, call us and we'll track the signal to your location."

Sorceress studied the comm-link. It was small enough to fit in his pocket and had only one button and a speaker. "Thank you, corporal," she said flatly, conjuring the device away in the usual puff of twinkly mist. "Now will you please let us in?"

Kohut signaled to the second guard, who smacked a button on the wall. The hangar doors creaked open and the ramp clanked down. "Good luck out there, you two."

With a delighted squeal, Sorceress dragged Ralph by the arm out the doors, coming to a stop at the foot of the ramp to admire the desolate scenery of the hostile, unnamed planet. Volcanic vents belched black smoke and ash from the ground, a seemingly bottomless gorge stretched before them, and the familiar jagged skyscraper stabbed at the dense thunderclouds blanketing the sky. Not a speck of color or sunshine anywhere.

"It's even more beautiful than I remember," Sorceress sighed.

Ralph had no interest in the landscape. All he could think about was how exposed they were to any Cy-Bugs that might be swarming around out here. But as he looked around he saw no telltale green lights crossing the bridge or swirling around the building. The air was eerily silent; no sounds of mechanical buzzing or plasma gunfire, just the occasional rumble of distant thunder.

The clanking sound of the ramp folding up and the hangar doors closing made him jump. Once it was quiet again, he cleared his throat and put on a smile he hoped looked confident. "Okay, we're in! Time to crack that magic map open, right?"

"Right." Sorceress opened her hand and the scroll appeared in a puff of twinkly purple mist. As she unfurled it, detailed drawings bloomed into existence and notes written in neat cursive script spread across the formerly blank page.

"Whoa," Ralph breathed, leaning closer to watch the enchantment in wide-eyed fascination. "It really is a magic map."

Sorceress pursed her lips as she studied the scroll. She pointed to a spot of red ink on the page. "See, this is us right here at the foot of the bridge."

"And there's the building," the wrecker added, pointing to the ink drawing of the unmistakable landmark across from the red spot. He squinted at the swirly, foreign symbols written near the illustration. It was like no writing he had ever seen before. "What's all this stuff mean?"

"They're notes written in Elvish, Hunter's and my native tongue. Few people outside our game know how to read it." She underlined the paragraph next to the building with her finger. "It reads 'Here lies the greatest nest of all Cy-Bugs; beware the beacon at the topmost spire, for it blazes with the heat of a thousand suns'."

Ralph furrowed his brows skeptically. "Don't tell me that guy was actually dumb enough to go near the beacon."

Sorceress rolled her eyes. "He came home with half of his hair and clothes burnt off."

Hearing this, the wrecker started questioning how the foolhardy Good Guy of Blood & Thunder had managed to survive twenty-five years. Looking at the map again he noticed a floating arrow pointing down into the gorge with more Elvish words written above it. "What does that say?"

"To the secret bonus level," she translated. Then she grinned, fangs glinting in the dim light. "That's where we're going."

Ralph looked out at the real gorge in front of them. Its walls were lined with metal scaffolding and thick, soupy fog filled it from top to bottom. There was no way of knowing how deep it was or what could be waiting for them if they reached the ground. He wasn't able to mask the uncertainty in his voice. "Err… Does it say anything about Cy-Bugs down there?"

Sorceress scanned the map once more. "No, nothing here. We'll have to go see for ourselves." She rolled the scroll up and handed it to him, then raised her arms to form a shimmering sphere of pink energy around them. "You're not afraid of heights, are you?"

"No, but maybe we shouldn't… Whoa!" He stumbled backward as the sphere lurched off the ground, lifted both of them up and over the edge of the chasm and dropped them down to the fog layer below. With a frightened gasp, Ralph threw his beefy arms around Sorceress' tiny waist and clung for dear life, eyes squeezed shut and face pressed up against her ribs.

If Sorceress hadn't been trying to control a spell she would have enjoyed the surprise hug much more. But he was squeezing her so tight that it was hard to concentrate, let alone breathe. "Ralph," she gasped. "You're crushing me."

He loosened his grip but didn't dare let go or open his eyes. "Isn't there some other way to get down there? I don't have such good experience with flying…"

Fortunately her arms were still free. Using one hand to sustain the magic sphere, she reached down to pat his head to calm him. "This is the most direct route," she replied calmly. "Trust me, I know how to do this."

Ralph pried one eye open to see what was happening. They were still descending through the gorge, thick clouds of white fog billowing past the magic force field. He looked up to see the bridge spanning the chasm as it disappeared in the mist. Then he looked at Sorceress. With both arms outstretched, she maintained the size and shape of the bubble as it dropped at a steady, controlled pace. They weren't falling; they were floating.

He released her waist, keeping one hand on her back for security. She really did seem to know what she was doing. "Is there anything you can't do?" he remarked, once again in awe of her powers.

Sorceress smiled at the compliment. "I can't see through this fog. You can help by reading the map for me and telling me if there's any obstacles ahead."

In all the excitement Ralph forgot she had given him the map. It was in his free hand, and as he rolled it open he saw that the pictures and words had changed. The illustrations showed only the walls of the chasm and a single red dot slowly dropping through the middle. Upon closer inspection he noticed some manmade structures zigzagging the walls; stairs and walkways, it seemed. He squinted as more shapes resembling machinery appeared at the bottom of the page. Wow, this magic map seemed to know everything—

BAM

They banged into something hard and metallic. With the fog dispersing somewhat, it was easy to see that they had hit a maintenance walkway and the bubble was sitting on top of the newly dented handrails.

Sorceress groaned. "Ralph, didn't you see that coming?"

The wrecker looked down at the map. Sure enough, the red dot had stopped at a maintenance walkway exactly like the one they were on top of. "Oh, there it is," he said with an embarrassed chuckle.

She sighed and gestured for the bubble to lift off the handrails and under the walkway. "Is there anything else in our way?"

Ralph studied the map intently. "There's another one of those things coming up. Looks like we're in the clear the rest of the way." He looked up again and saw the fog growing thinner the deeper they went. It was also getting darker as they drew further and further away from the surface. Adjusting his hold on her back, he scanned the misty darkness for the telltale green lights of Cy-Bugs. "Any idea what we'll find at the bottom?"

"Not at all," Sorceress said. This time she steered them carefully around the second walkway. "There's probably bugs, of course, but this is a secret bonus level so it must be special." She turned to him, eyes sparkling in the abyss. "Isn't it exciting? We're about to discover something we've never seen before!"

The eager look on her face helped him relax a bit and he smirked. "You sure you're not just excited about blowing things up?"

She flashed her fangs in a rather sinister grin. "I'm delighted about blowing things up."

Such a face would have scared him a week ago, but this time it struck him as funny. He remembered how much fun she had smashing up cars and barrels in Street Fighter II only a few day ago. Truthfully, it was fun for him to wreck things, too. He was good at it, and it was nice to have someone who could safely do it with him. That was surely the reason Sorceress was so excited about bringing him to Hero's Duty; in a game where violence was the key to victory, they could do all kinds of wrecking together.

At last they reached the bottom of the chasm. Sorceress' magic bubble dissipated into glittery pink sparkles and she raised her hand up to cast a new spell. An orb of yellow light the size of a tennis ball appeared floating in her palm, bright as a lantern illuminating the dark space. As the pair took a moment to get their bearings they noticed the fog was thinner here. Gaping black tunnels ran deep into the rock on either side of the gorge. Crates and carts of mysterious crystals were scattered about, and the machinery they could see was all for digging and drilling.

Ralph opened the map to see what the pictures had to say. "Bring that light over here, would you?"

Sorceress obliged, leaning in to get a closer look. Once again the map's scenery had changed to match their surroundings and the red ink spot showed their now stationary position. The floating arrow had reappeared, this time surrounded by Elvish writing and pointing to one of the tunnels ahead. "To the secret bonus level," she translated. She looked up and pointed through the mist at the tunnel the map indicated. "That way."

Ralph followed her finger with his eyes to the gaping, rectangular hole leading deep under the alien planet's surface. There was nothing but pitch-black darkness in there. It was the perfect place for Cy-Bugs to hide from the beacon and a difficult for space marines to investigate when doing a perimeter check. With a dry gulp, he tried to play it cool again. "Don't you wanna hang around out here first? Out in the open, not in a small enclosed space where it's harder to run—I mean fight?"

Eyes sparkling in the golden glow of the light spell, Sorceress clasped her hands and levitated to kick both feet giddily behind her. She caught him by the arm and started pulling him toward the tunnel. "Come on, come on! Let's check it out! We can handle whatever's in there!"

The wrecker tried to protest but all that came out was flustered stammering. There was no way he could tell her 'no' when she was so adorably happy. Before he knew it she had dragged him into the creepy mining tunnel. As soon as they entered the magic map changed again. This time it showed the subterranean mining network and highlighted the path to the secret bonus level in red ink. Ralph gave the map back to Sorceress and let her lead the way while lighting their path with her spell. Fortunately for him the tunnel was designed like the train; to accommodate the huge armored space marines and their equipment, so he was able to stand up and not scrape his head on the ceiling.

Ralph stayed as close to Sorceress as he could without stepping on her. Soon the tunnel brought them to an elevator. They boarded it and Sorceress pushed a button, causing the steel door to groan shut and the elevator to sink steadily down. As it took them deeper and deeper into the bowels of the game and further and further from safety, Ralph fought a growing dread building in his stomach. Maybe talking would help calm him down.

"Say, uh," he began, swallowing a dry lump in his throat. "I didn't know there was a mine in this game, did you?"

"No," Sorceress said, her voice calm and her eyes watching the map. "But it makes sense when you think about it."

"How's that?"

"The first humans who came to this world discovered the soil was rich in minerals. That must be what the mine was built for."

"Oh." A pause, then a frown. "How'd you know all that?"

"Corporal Kohut told me back when we were dating." She looked up at him curiously. "Hasn't your friend Sergeant Calhoun told you anything about this game?"

Ralph shook his head, trying to distract himself from thoughts of Sorceress and Kohut dating. "Not really. She doesn't like talking about her work." Another uncomfortable pause. "So, uh… How much farther does the map say to go?"

Sorceress looked down at the scroll. The red dot was moving down the elevator shaft and the floating arrow indicating the secret bonus level was somewhere near the bottom. "There's another tunnel when we get off." She grinned another fanged grin at him, bouncing up and down in place. "Isn't this exciting? We're so close!"

The wrecker chuckled uncomfortably, stomach twisting in knots. "Heh… Yeah, can't wait…"

She frowned, sensing his thinly veiled anxiety again. "You're sure you want to keep going? Because if you're not, we can leave and go somewhere else. We don't have to stay if you're scared."

He froze; she was onto him. Only a show of bravado could keep her from finding out how scared he really was. He let out another awkward chuckle and rocked back and forth on his heels as nonchalantly as possible. "Me? Scared of Cy-Bugs? Nah, why would I be scared of those flying tin cans? I fought off a million of those things before and I'll do it again. Bring it on, I can take it." To drive the point home he punched a fist into his palm and cracked his knuckles noisily.

Sorceress arched a skeptical blue eyebrow. Before she could say anything the elevator groaned to a stop and the doors creaked open. Another dark tunnel stretched before them, leading straight to the secret bonus level. "All right, then," she said, raising the light spell overhead. "Let's keep moving, shall we?"

Ralph plodded after her, hoping she hadn't figured him out as his eyes darted around for signs of Cy-Bugs lurking in the shadows. As they proceeded further and further into the unknown, they saw something strange up ahead. There was an eerie cyan light at the end of the tunnel, softer than the artificial light sources of Hero's Duty and colder than the golden warm glow of Sorceress' spell. The closer they came to it the brighter the tunnel became until the pair could see easily without the aid of her magic. Then they reached the end and stopped, eyes wide and mouths agape open in complete amazement.

Outside the tunnel was a huge open cavern filled with colossal crystals of all shapes and sizes. They jutted from the walls, hung from the ceiling and scattered the floor, forming jutting columns, spiky clusters and jagged rosettes. All of them glowed with the same ethereal cyan light, giving off enough brightness to make everything clearly visible.

After several moments of gaping in speechless amazement, Ralph spoke. "Sweet Mother Hubbard… What is this place?"

Sorceress extinguished her light spell and studied the map to find the answer. "The Crystal Cave," she translated aloud. "Home of the secret bonus level; less thoroughly infested than the tower but no less perilous. Here is the den of those fortunate few Cy-Bugs that escape fiery death in the beacon. Taking refuge underground, they are inevitably lured by the crystals' welcoming light."

Hearing this, the wrecker clenched his fists and crouched, unsure of whether to hit any bugs that might ambush them or to grab Sorceress and make a run for it. His eyes searched for any hint of acid green among the formations of glowing blue crystals. After a long, tense moment, he allowed himself to relax ever so slightly. It was just as still and silent down here as it was in the tunnels and on the surface. "Nope, not a bug in sight."

Frowning harder, Sorceress turned the map sideways and upside down, searching for some hidden clue that would explain the strange absence of bugs. According to Hunter's note the cave should have been crawling with those mechanical monsters, but there was no sign of them. "There must be some bugs down here. Where could they be?"

Ralph shrugged his big shoulders, unclenching his fists and propping his hands on his hips. "Maybe the space marines killed them off before we got here."

She glared out at the cavern of crystals stretching before them and conjured the map away in the usual puff of twinkly purple mist. "They couldn't have destroyed them all. They're required to keep some eggs alive for every Quarter Alert. Let's take a look around."

As Sorceress flew into the cavern, Ralph heaved a resigned sigh and trudged after her. She was hellbent on tracking down whatever Cy-Bugs she could and blowing them to smithereens. And since he couldn't read the Elvish map to find his way out of the mines or fly to the top of the gorge, he had no choice but to follow her. But even if he could leave the game on his own there was no way he could abandon her. Back on the train he had promised to not let anything happen to her, and he needed to follow through on that promise.

They started searching the cave for Cy-Bug eggs, but Ralph they quickly became distracted by the dazzling beauty of the crystals. While Sorceress floated around the ceiling searching for any bugs that could be hiding among the shining clusters hanging there, the wrecker stopped to admire a long strip of tiny crystals spreading over part of the floor and climbing up the wall like a river of twinkling stars. "Wow," he said aloud, voice echoing off the cavernous walls. "Who would have thought there was a place like this in Hero's Duty?"

Sorceress approached one huge cluster to study it up close. It looked like an upside down castle made of icicles. But it wasn't cold at all; the closer she came to it, the more heat she felt radiating from its surface. She reached a curious hand out and quickly snatched it back as a spark shocked her finger. "Ouch!"

Ralph spun around at the sound of her cry. "Sorceress? What happened?"

She stared at her finger incredulously before calling down to him. "I'm alright! The crystal just gave me a shock!"

His bushy brown brows drew together in confusion. "It shocked you?"

"Yeah," she answered as she descended to his level. Her hair looked just the tiniest bit frizzier than before. "Not a big shock, just enough to give me a start. It was warm, too."

"Really?" Curious, Ralph bent down and spread his big fingers over the patch of tiny crystals spreading over the stony floor. He felt faint warmth emanating from them as he gave one crystal an experimental poke. To his surprise it shocked his finger, just as the crystal on the ceiling had shocked Sorceress. "Weird," he murmured, shaking his tingling fingertip. "These rocks don't just glow in the dark. They're giving off energy, too."

Sorceress smacked her fist against her open palm in realization. "That's it! I remember now! The crystals are an energy source! They can produce electricity as well as conduct it. Corporal Kohut told me once that they're part of the beacon, too."

Ralph had followed her explanation with interest until she mentioned her latest ex-boyfriend. Face darkening, he scowled down at the floor. "Great," he muttered. "That's... really great, Sorceress."

She looked up at him quizzically, confused at his abrupt mood swing. "What's the matter?"

The wrecker shrugged his big shoulders and put his hands on his hips. He glared at the twinkling little crystals at his feet as if they offended him. "Nothing's the matter."

Sorceress frowned. She had seen Ralph do this before. He had acted strange last night, since the moment she turned around and saw him sadly watching her as she left. He had been unusually tense around Kohut, too, and any time she mentioned the corporal after that. There was definitely something wrong that he wasn't telling her.

She floated up until she was hovering at his height and placed a hand on his shoulder. "What's going on, Ralph?"

He turned away from her, still refusing to make eye contact. "Nothing's going on."

"Come on, talk to me." She kept her voice steady as she hovered around to face him. "Are you upset I used to date Corporal Kohut?"

He ground his teeth together, fists shaking at his sides. Again he turned away. "I'm not upset," he grumbled. "I told you, nothing's going on."

Growing impatient, Sorceress put her hands on her hips. "Then what is it? Why won't you talk to me?"

Ralph rounded on her suddenly, eyes flashing with anger and pain. "Because there's nothing to talk about!" He started pacing back and forth, making wild gestures with his hands and his tone steadily rising in volume. "I don't care that you used to date Kohut! I don't care that he's witty and charming, or that he doesn't have a weird smell or freakishly huge hands. I don't care that any guy you could ever date is better than me in every possible way! And I definitely don't care that I'll never, ever be good enough for you!"

He punctuated his last statement by slamming his fist against a big crystal jutting from the wall. There was a brief flash of blue sparks and a piercing CRACK of solid stone. The crystal snapped in two pieces and crashed to the floor, but Ralph wasn't done with it yet. He pounded away at the broken stump until it was nothing but chunks and fragments and sparkling dust. Panting from the effort, he pulled his tingling fist back and turned to Sorceress, expecting her to yell at him or otherwise reprimand him for acting so foolish.

Instead he saw her with her cringing with her hands over her mouth and her eyes wide in dismay. Then, slowly, she lowered her hands to show an expression as saddened and afraid as if he had physically struck her. She didn't look like a powerful vampire elf queen at all. She looked like a helpless damsel cowering from a wild beast.

And just like that, Ralph's heart shattered into a million pieces. His temper dissipated and left him cold and hollow. Hanging his head he turned away, too ashamed to look at her. He shouldn't have snapped at her. He was as bad as Turbo, who had also hurt her with words two and a half decades ago. On top of that, he had thrown a violent temper tantrum that scared her. A guy like him would never, ever be good enough for her.

Sorceress said nothing. She watched him in pained silence, waiting for him to do or say something else. When he didn't, she gazed down at the smashed crystals at her feet. She wasn't sure what was worse, the fear or the guilt. Yesterday she caught a glimpse of what Ralph was like when he lost his temper, and today she saw it in action. And just like yesterday, he had snapped over things she had told him, things about her exes she clearly should not have brought up. Her words had carelessly hurt him. She should have known better, should have considered his feelings better. But now it was too late. The damage was done.

Suddenly, a distant shriek jolted them out of their thoughts. It was like metal scraping against metal and seemed to come from far away, deep within the mountain. Startled and confused, they looked around for the source of the noise but saw no other creatures in the cave besides each other. And then it was back, this time accompanied by a muffled droning of cybernetic wings buzzing through the air and the clanking of metallic legs clanking and scraping against stone.

The little hairs on the back of Ralph's neck stood on end. He would know that shrieking and buzzing anywhere. Sometimes he still heard those sounds in his worst nightmares.

There was a Cy-Bug somewhere deep within the cave.

No, there were several Cy-Bugs in here.

Suddenly there was a harsh grinding noise of metal gears coming from the tunnel. A huge door of solid steel slammed shut, blocking their only visible exit and trapping them inside.

"No!" Ralph shouted. He ran to the door and pounded away at it with all his might, but it remained closed and intact without so much as a scratch. "What is this stupid thing made of?!"

Sorceress sighed and shook her head. "It's no use, Ralph. The building has doors like this, too. They're unbreakable so no Cy-Bugs can escape."

"Then how are we supposed to escape?!" the wrecker demanded, whirling around to face her.

"I don't know!" she snapped, rising up higher so he couldn't tower over her. "What do you want from me? I've never been to this level before!"

He clawed at his hair, growing more panicked than angry. "Then check the map! There's gotta be another exit somewhere!"

She was about to snap at him again when she saw the terror in his eyes. "All right, I'll check the map," she said, calming down somewhat and hoping to calm him, too. She conjured the scroll up and stretched it open. It showed the same drawing of the Crystal Cave but the notes had changed.

Ralph watched her read and waited for her to say something. When she looked up at him the expression on her face was not at all encouraging. "What?" he asked as his forehead crinkled with worry. "What is it?"

"I have good news and bad news," Sorceress began, doing her best to stay calm. "The good news is that there's another exit."

"What's the bad news?"

She pointed to the map, showing him where the exit was. "We have to go through where the Cy-Bugs are."

He looked at the map and saw that she was right. The Crystal Cave was longer than he realized and they were standing at one end of it. The only other exit was on the opposite side of the cave, the same place where the Cy-Bug sounds were still coming from.

As Ralph gazed out into the unknown depths of the cave before them, he started to realize what kind of bonus level this was. The formerly beautiful crystals weren't there for decoration; they were obstacles between them and their only chance at freedom. Running away wasn't an option. The only way out was straight ahead, through sharp rocks that could electrocute them and ravenous mechanical monsters waiting to devour them.

A small hand reached out and squeezed his index finger. Sorceress' eyes, more violet than red in the crystals' blue light, burned with cold, resolute fire. "Don't worry, Ralph. I won't let anything happen to you."

He curled his fingers around her hand, swallowing a dry lump in his throat and straightening up as best he could. "Likewise."

Author's Note: Hoooo boy, you guys. If you think things are dramatic now, just wait until you see what I have in store for you next chapter. Will Ralph and Sorceress be able to resolve things, or will they get the big Game Over before they get the chance? That's for me to know and you to find out! On another note, the Crystal Cave and how our heroes get there is partly inspired by elements of Laputa: Castle in the Sky, which also had a cave of glowing rocks accessible through mining tunnels, and a real cave of giant crystals that actually exists! It's called Cueva de los Cristalesand is located under Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico. It looks like something straight out of a sci-fi film and its environment is too hot and humid for humans to survive in, which is perfect for a setting in a dangerous sci-fi world like Hero's Duty.