Note: This was posted in Archive of Our Own and Wattpad, so I've made the decision to post it here too.
Disclaimer: I do not own Wizard101 (or Pirate101)
Samantha woke up to the sound of muffled booming from afar. They didn't hurt her ears that much, but it was loud enough to scare her. Gaining adrenaline rush, she quickly rolled over and ran towards one of the doors in the room.
Opening it, there was a staircase. As she ran down as fast as she could, more booming sounds were heard here and there.
"Over here!"
"Huh?"
Samantha had almost no time to react. She couldn't even tell who in the world was calling her. All she knew was that this feminine voice had some accent that you could hear from Europe or Russia, but she couldn't tell which. Besides, did she had enough time to think about it anyway?
"This way!"
It was a female penguin in red, grabbing one of Samantha's hands in order to guide her to safety.
"Where are we going?"
"Just follow me!"
"Who are you!?"
"I'll tell you later! We need to get to safety!"
Samantha and the unknown penguin were rushing towards the corridors of the unfamiliar building as the booming sounds got louder and louder. Not to mention, the whole area was cold as heck. At least Samantha's light blue wizard robes were thick enough to warm her even a bit. But guess what, the cold never bothered her anyway.
The penguin in red went down some sort of hatch, the one that probably leads to a basement. She motioned Samantha to follow her suit and she did. Climbing down the ladder to the basement, Samantha made sure she'd close and lock up the hatch just above them.
The penguin sat down on the floor, panting and out of breath. Samantha looked at herand decided that that was probably the right time to introduce each other. "So, who are you?"
"Red Rosa."
"Nice to meet you." Samantha grinned. "I'm Samantha."
"Ah, I see." Red Rosa nodded with heavy breaths. What Samantha didn't notice that the female penguin was checking out her outfit, particularly just below her neck to where a name tag was hanging. "Mhm, so I see you are not Paige Shadowshard?"
"Paige Shadowshard?" Samantha raised an eyebrow.
"I was with her a while ago. We split up because of this large piece of wood that fell in the middle and we had no way to move around it." Red Rosa eyed Samantha from head to toe. From her shoulder length red hair, lightly tanned skin, blue eyes, and down to her clothes. "You... wearing her clothes... you certainly did not do THAT to her, did you?"
"What!? No way!" she retaliated. "Look Red Rover or whatever the hell you said your name was, the only thing I remembered from the past hour was that we were sucked into a book and then I woke up, there's a war."
"Impossible!" exclaimed the penguin. "You are disguising yourself as her with that red hair and blue getup. Stay back, I tell you."
Samantha could already feel her blood boil due to how frustrating the whole scenario was. "You watch your words, lady. Because you really don't know what happened to me in the past hour so if I may be so bold to make a suggestion for you, it will be that you keep your mouth shut or I'll have you marching outside and get you shot by whatever the fuck is happening out there-"
"Non! You tell me where she is right now!" Red Rosa marched to Samantha and aimed for the redhead's hair, thinking it was just a wig.
"Stop it!" Samantha shrieked loudly as she could feel her hair being harshly pulled by a penguin out of all people- er, animals.
"Tell me where Paige Shadowshard is right now or else I will report you to authority!" Red Rosa yelled, the two technically getting into a wrestling match by this point. "You are basically an impostor! You look like her! You act like her! You are even wearing her clothes!
Samantha wanted this whole misunderstanding to end. However despite the feeling of her hair being wrecked, an idea popped in her mind. Besides, Red Rosa just said that she acted like her...
"Yes, I am! I'm Paige! I'm sorry!"
This made Red Rosa stop and stood back on her two feet. "Oh my... I am so sorry..."
Samantha, now known as Paige, gave a sigh of relief. At least it made her stop, but hiding her real identity is going to be a tough problem in the long run.
"It's fine. Come on, let's get out of here."
There was a path in the sewers that would lead the way up and that is where they went. Rushing down the dark area, the sounds of booming and shooting were minimizing the farther they went. When they reached the end of what seemed like forever, a ladder stood against the wall, leading to the exit just above.
"Let's climb up this ladder and get out of here, yes?" Red Rosa stated, before making her way up the stairs until they heard something which made them stop.
A bunch of footsteps were heading their way.
"Shit shit shit shit shit! Hurry up!" Paige shrieked as her hands began to tremble out of fear.
Red Rosa widened her eyes at the sound. "There are soldiers coming."
"Hurry and get your fat penguin ass up there so you can help me climb up!" Paige cried.
Red Rosa did her best climbing up and attempted to open the sewer exit but it seemed to be locked. "It is locked!"
"Fuck!" Paige wailed. Her hands started to freeze.
But it felt good.
Her hands started to slightly turn blue as if she were Elsa from Frozen. She made a circle with her index finger and a small streak of blue light with sparkles started to follow wherever her finger decided to go. This made her smile with amusement.
"What are you doing?" Red Rosa asked, forgetting about the possibility of soldiers that were heading their way. "This is not the first time you've handled magic, yes? You are an Exalted Thaumaturge, Paige."
Exalted Thaumaturge. That sounded good. However, she felt like she doesn't know what to do with it. She swirled her finger in hopes of tracing lots of circles but what happened was that the light made a symbol, a symbol of what looked like a four-pointed snowflake. When the light disappeared, gray colored shields started to surround the both of them.
"Hurry up! These shields won't last long!"
"Oui, oui." Red Rosa nodded. "I will need help in opening up this though."
Paige once again twirled her fingers. The light blue magic aimed for the sewer, freezing it until ice crystals started to appear. The lid burst out open from its spot and landed who knows where, giving Paige and Red Rosa an exit.
"Let's go!" shouted the penguin and hoisted herself up.
Paige looked back as she could hear the soldiers getting closer and closer. She jumled onto the ladder and climbed up as fast as she could. With the help of Red Rosa pulling her up, they got out of the sewers. Paige casted another spell, and now the access sewers was blocked with an ice block on it.
"Walruskberg." Red Rosa said under her breath with a mist coming out thanks to the cold. All they could see was a town based off of French and Russia combined, only it's filled with animals of the arctic. Everyone seemed to be in a drastic state as if whatever or whoever was possibly chasing them a while ago may have wreaked havoc in this town. "What a mess..."
Paige winced at the site of the people. There were these animals crying for help, mothers and children feeling helpless and families homeless.
"We need to go get some help," said Red Rosa. "I'll go check and see the condition of the Empress. You can go and check the other areas, yes? I'll be right back."
"Wait!" Paige shouted but Red Rosa already ran away towards the other direction. Feeling helpless like the people around the area, she started to walk around, until she found what seemed like a huge archway with a door in the center. "Maybe there are more people here who can help, I mean that door seemed a bit peculiar..."
Instead of helping the people around the area, she decided to go look for help instead by approaching the door.
Without thinking about what could be on the other side of the door, she opened it. This was when her eyes widened out of shock. She thought about closing it again, but curiosity killed the cat... and walked in.
She couldn't scream as she felt herself falling into an abyss full of the unknown. It felt like she blacked out for a bit until she reached a door, the same looking door that she saw. Opening it, she surrendered herself and fell, but luckily, she actually did not fall unconscious.
Sounds of leaves rustling can be heard all around her, as well a familiar voice calling her by her real name...
"Samantha!"
End chapter.
*The upcoming few chapters will introduce the fates of the rest of our group just to give a heads up.
Main cast introduced so far:
1. Frankester "Frankie" Harris / Paul Hawkbane
2. Dawn Izunia / Isabella Dawn
3. Samantha Juniper / Paige Shadowshard