As the days went on Anne and Sprig continued their journey through the weirdly inconsistent and strangely beautiful world of Paradox. As they made their way through the different biomes, each one was vastly different from the others and seemed to have its own distinct biological and stylistic rules that did not necessarily follow those of other parts of the world.
It was confusing and seemed like it should be impossible, yet so far that was the reality which they had faced. During their travels they both had been working on training each other how to fight in their new forms so they could better defend themselves and each other against any potential threats.
It was a process, but the more they both practiced and tried to find ways to use their new bodies' strengths to their advantage the more they improved in their fighting skills.
This, of course, was put to the test when they encountered a real foe. The duo had been walking through a labyrinth of rock stacks when they were attacked by a giant worm.
In trying to fight like a human, Anne found that while she could still fight with her tennis racket like she normally did, she didn't have enough strength in her swings to do any significant damage. However, what she lacked in strength she made up for in agility, and she had been learning how to harness that instead. Sprig had been teaching her how to use momentum to increase the force of her attacks, and it worked! She used her newfound frog agility to launch herself from rock to rock towards the worm, creating enough speed and momentum that when she shot towards the beast she hit it with her racket so hard that it actually collapsed to the ground.
As for Sprig, he could still use his slingshot and had the aim of a sharpshooter, that hadn't changed. But he now lacked the agility and jumping prowess he once possessed as a frog. He made up for this in increased upper body strength, but although the physical strength of a twelve year old human boy might be impressive to an amphibian, to most of the creatures they'd encountered in this world so far it was nothing to sneeze at.
Still, Anne was teaching him how to use his lanky slender frame to his advantage in dodging and avoiding attacks, as well as leveraging the strength and agility that he did have in hand to hand combat. Practicing this stuff with her did make him feel a little less awkward and clumsy while in this new body of his, and the more he practiced it the more he seemed to improve.
Which is how he was able to dodge the explosive, grenade-like, spiky balls that the worm hurled at him from its mouth. At one point he even jumped on top of the worm and tried to wrestle it to the ground, but unfortunately the worm was still stronger than he was and was able to shake him off. However, it was just enough of a distraction that the worm didn't even notice Anne readying her own attack until it was too late.
Before the creature could come back to its senses after receiving a hard wack to the head, the dynamic duo made a break for it and were able to escape the situation relatively unharmed.
Battling a giant worm though, was just one of many interesting experiences they had endured so far. By now the two had reached a bizarre new landscape. The sun was currently setting over the wireframes hills in the distance, as the land before them lit up in a bright pink neon grid. The terrain was mostly flat and smooth, like walking on a solid floor, and aside from the pink neon grid that stretched across the ground endlessly, the rest of the ground was jet black and void of any plant life or vegetation.
It was strange, Sprig thought, walking through a place like this. The overall environment felt especially foreign to him, it just didn't even seem natural. There were no plants, no trees, no dirt, nothing but the cold hard ground that was more like a glowing bioluminescent floor than anything else. It was fascinating, how different it was from anything he was familiar with, but it was also unnerving all the same.
"Well this place is certainly unusual." Anne casually stated as she gazed at their surroundings, getting a weird retro vibe from it all.
"No kidding, I've never seen anything like it!" Sprig replied.
At the moment Anne was perched up on Sprig's shoulders with her head and arms resting atop his head as he walked through this strange new land. Sprig didn't really mind her doing that, and Anne for her part was enjoying the extra height it gave her as well as a much needed break from all this walking.
Suddenly though, something stopped them in their tracks. A sound, vibrating through the air. It almost sounded like….music?
In the direction it was coming from they could see colorful light pulsating through the air. Curiosity getting the better of them they followed the sound to its source.
When they got there they saw that the music was coming from a turntable where a robot appeared to be DJ-ing. The robot itself had a dome shaped head that was all screen aside from the headphone-like cups on either side of its head. The screen itself was black with the only thing showing on it currently being two blue circles that were no doubt supposed to be its eyes. Most of the rest of its mechanical body was hidden behind the turntable, but from what they could see this robot looked to be super high tech, possibly more advanced than even Frobo.
The music suddenly stopped and the robot's eyes narrowed at them before a series of unidentifiable symbols appeared on its screen while it simultaneously made a series of sounds that sounded like electronic beats.
Sprig and Anne just stared at it in confusion, having no idea what any of that meant.
"Uhh, sorry but we can't really understand what you're saying." Sprig said, setting his foot down on the grid square in front of him. He jumped a little when it made a sound and glowed blue in response.
"What the?" He said, taking his foot off of it, before he carefully set his foot down on the square again, and once again it glowed and made a sound. It kinda sounded like a musical note.
"Cool!" The boy said before setting his other foot on a different square. This one also lit up and sounded like a musical note, although the tone of this one was slightly different.
As Sprig continued to prance around and step on all the different squares, Anne jumped down from his shoulders and experimentally placed her own foot down on the square in front of her. As it too glowed and played its little note, she looked up at Sprig and said. "This is kinda fun!" Before joining him in jumping on different squares to see what different notes they would play.
The DJ's eyes narrowed again and suddenly, Anne and Sprig stopped as a square lit up on its own, without any one touching it. They stayed where they were, staring at it and waiting to see if it would do it again, which it did after a few more moments.
Curiously, Anne who was the closest to it, pressed her foot down onto the square. It lit up and played the same note it had on its own, but then several other squares lit up and played different notes, all following the same general tune.
Anne's eyes widened as realization dawned on her. "Oh I get it, it's like a game! You're supposed to step on the same squares that light up."
"Oh, well that shouldn't be too hard." Sprig said before jumping on the same squares that lit up before in the same order of which they'd done so. He would've matched it perfectly if he didn't mess up towards the end by accidentally stepping on the wrong square.
That square made a note that didn't really match the others and glowed red instead of blue. The next thing he knew, a laser nearly took off his head.
"Gah!" He yelped, just barely able to duck in time. "What the heck!?"
His gaze turned back to the robot, who was now glaring angrily at him, its eyes red. Its screen then turned to a red thumbs down as it made an angry sounding noise.
"Oops, guess it didn't like that very much." Sprig said.
The duo watched as the exact same squares from before lit up again.
"It looks like you have to follow it exactly without making any mistakes." Anne said.
Anne and Sprig looked at each other, then back at the floor. "…Okay, we can do this, I mean it can't be that hard, right?" Sprig said.
"Yeah, I mean, it's just like super dance fusion, only with the imminent threat of death if you screw up." Anne said.
The squares lit up again. "We got this, right?" The blue frog asked.
"Yeah, we got this." Sprig replied.
And with that, he jumped back onto the squares, this time being extra careful not to make the same mistake he did last time. This time he got it right, and then watched as a new set of squares lit up. This time it was Anne's turn, and she leaped gracefully from square to square, following them in the exact order which they played.
As more squares lit up and played their little song, the human-frog duo worked together to follow them in perfect synchrony. It began to feel a lot like dancing to the beat beneath their feet. They moved in perfect harmony with each other and the music.
That is, until Sprig's foot accidentally touched the wrong square again. Once again the square sounded off key compared to the others in the song and glowed red, and once again a laser beam was fired right at him.
Anne quickly leaped at him and knocked him out of the way before the beam could hit him. The two fell to the floor, causing more squares to light up red and more lasers to fire at them.
They both quickly scrambled out of the way of the onslaught of laser beams, before Anne looked up at the robot and shouted. "Could you please knock it off!"
In response the robot fired a small laser at her feet that narrowly missed one of her toes as she jumped back. Anne glared at the machine as it let out a mechanical sort of laugh.
"Should we stop?" Sprig asked.
At those words the robot stopped laughing and glared at the boy again before firing yet another laser at him. Sprig hurriedly ducked out the way.
"No, we should keep going! Maybe if we win it will stop." Anne replied.
So they continued from there, following the squares and notes as best they could to avoid being blasted by any more lasers. Finally, they reached the end of the song and played it out together in perfect harmony.
When they touched down on the final note, no more of the squares lit up. They both looked around for a brief moment before pumping their fists in the air and cheering. "We did it!"
They looked to the robot who gave them a blue thumbs up, but the moment they turned to leave they bumped into some kind of invisible force field surrounding the dance floor.
"What's going on, I thought we won!?" Sprig exclaimed.
They both turned around and saw the DJ step out from behind the turntable and onto the dance floor. Seeing the robot in full view now, they realized it was much shorter than they thought it would be. In fact, it was about the same size as Anne.
As it stood there, facing them, it began tapping its foot. Then, as if by magic, the music started up again, a slow beat that was steadily rising. Anne and Sprig moved back onto the dance floor, standing before the DJ and watching it with curiosity.
Then when the beat dropped the bot started showing off its moves.
For a robot it was admittedly a pretty good dancer, able to pull off some impressive moves that most people without versatile mechanical bodies wouldn't be able to accomplish. It helped too that its arms and legs were extendable and flexible, not at all held back by the limitations of having bones or joints. As it danced, streaks of red light appeared around it, flowing with its movements and the music. It finished its routine by spinning various parts of its body, rocketing up into the air, doing a mid air flip, and then landing while doing the splits.
After the robot finished it looked at Anne and Sprig expectantly, with a challenging glare in its digital eyes. Anne realized what it was wanting.
"It wants us to challenge it in a dance battle!" She said.
"Really, we're supposed to beat that!?" Sprig exclaimed.
"I don't think we have a choice, otherwise it'll just keep us stuck here." Anne said.
They both took a deep breath and stepped forward, facing the robot. Its dancing would be tough to beat, but Anne and Sprig were willing to give it a shot.
As a new song began they both started dancing to the beat, trying to pull off some of their best moves. Problem was that this was literally the first time they had ever danced in these forms, and not all of their moves worked very well in their new bodies.
While attempting to do a flip, Sprig managed to literally fall flat on his face while accidentally knocking Anne off her feet. They both looked up at the robot that, from their perspective lying on the floor, was looming over them.
The robot's face lit up in a red thumbs down. Sprig and Anne watched as it went back to its turntable, then they tried the forcefield again. It was still there, which meant they were still trapped.
"So that's it, you're just going to keep us trapped here?" Anne asked the robot.
The robot nodded.
"Don't worry Anne, we'll figure a way out of this, somehow." Sprig said to her.
She nodded, and the two of them set about trying to figure out how to escape. It became very quickly apparent that they weren't going to be getting past that forcefield anytime soon, and the robot was the only one who could control it and therefore the only one who could take it down. So really, they were pretty much stuck, unless they could somehow convince the robot to let them go, which from the looks of it didn't seem very likely.
…But would it have let them go if they had actually beat it?
Anne thought about this for a moment. It'd kept them locked up here because they'd lost, but maybe if they could actually beat it in a dance-off, then it'd let them go.
The only problem was as they were right now, they were no where near good enough to beat it. And there was no way they could practice without it seeing them….so once again they were stuck.
…That is, until the break of dawn, when the robot powered itself down to recharge.
After several hours of trying and failing to come up with a good plan of escape, the human and frog had given up and fallen asleep on the dance floor. When they awoke the next morning, however, they found that the robot was now in sleep mode.
The first thing they did when they realized this was check the forcefield. Unfortunately, it was still up, so they decided to sneak over to the turntable and see if there might be a way for them to take it down. The moment they so much as set foot near the turntable however, an alarm went off and the robot woke up and started firing lasers at them.
Well, so much for that idea. After a while the robot went back to sleep, but Anne realized that this was an opportunity. Maybe while the robot was asleep, they could practice their dance moves and then challenge it to a rematch later on. If they beat it, then maybe it would finally let them go.
So, after a quick breakfast of what little food they had left in their storage cube, the duo got to work.
Much like with training each other how to fight in these forms, they took turns working with each other and trying to figure out what moves did and did not work in their new bodies. This took quite a bit of experimentation and trial and error, but eventually they found what did work as a result.
Anne for her part, was actually finding that she really liked dancing in this form. Her froggy body being more agile and flexible than her human body was, meant that she could pull off moves she would never be able to pull off as a human.
Sprig was more of a work in progress, but with Anne's guidance he was actually finding some human moves he was pretty good at. He may not be able to pull off the extravagant leaps and flips that Anne could, but his longer legs and arms meant that some movements and postures looked more fluid and impressive coming from him than they did from her.
As the day went on the two started to form a routine that, the more they worked on it, the more confident they became that they could actually win this!
When the sun began to set the DJ finally awoke from its slumber, and was immediately faced with the human-frog duo.
"Alright robot, we're challenging you to a rematch!" Anne called the robot out. "And this time if we win, you have to set us free! Deal?"
The DJ stepped back onto the dance floor and approached them, then shook Anne's hand, showing that it accepted this challenge.
The duo and robot took their places at opposite ends of the dance floor, facing each other. Anne's eyes narrowed at the bot while said bot's eyes narrowed back. For a moment all was silent. Then the DJ snapped its fingers and the music started.
The robot's overall routine was very similar to the one from the previous night, except for maybe a few added moves they didn't see coming. As soon as it finished though, it was their turn.
They started by tapping their feet to the beat. Then they shuffled forward, sliding and kicking their feet in synchrony, their arm movements following suit. Streaks of blue and pink light formed around them like electricity flowing to the rhythm of their movements and the beat of the music.
They could feel the music all around them, vibrating in their very souls as they continued to dance their hearts out.
For their finishing move Anne did a spinning jump over Sprig's head, landing on his outstretched hands before jumping up high into the air, striking a pose as she did so. When she came back down she grabbed Sprig's hand and they both struck their final pose, holding their hands up high above them, one of Anne's feet clinging to Sprig's leg while the other was splayed out.
Despite only having a day to practice they did pretty good. They took a bow, before turning their gaze back to the robot. The machine itself seemed to hesitate for a moment, before finally relenting and displaying a blue thumbs up on its screen, bowing its head, and walking back to its place behind the turntable.
Anne and Sprig cheered and high-fived each other. "Dance in your face!" Anne yelled at the DJ in victory. Then they both went over to the edge of the dance floor to see if the force field was down. It was, and they cheered once again.
Just as they were about to get the heck out of there, Anne couldn't help but wonder why the robot had been so determined to keep them there in the first place. She looked around her, at the endless flat grid that stretched on for miles and the lack of anything except the occasional wireframe hill. This place did seem pretty barren and desolate, and probably boring and lonely too if you stayed long enough.
She actually felt sorry for the robot, for all she knew, it could be another victim of the portals. A person from another world who was now trapped here inside this mechanical body. If that was the case then it, or rather they, were probably just bored and wanting some company, to get their mind off of their current state of loneliness and despair. But it wasn't like she and Sprig could stay here, they had to keep moving. But maybe there was another way to cheer the poor thing up…
The robot lifted their head as they saw the blue frog walk back over to them. They tilted their head in confusion before the frog began to speak. "You know, we could stick around for just a little while longer, if you don't mind. After all, this is a pretty fun dance floor you got here."
The robot looked at her with wide eyes. They blinked, then a digital smile appeared on their face. They then started playing some upbeat dance music as Anne and Sprig started to dance along. The robot even joined them on the dance floor, all three of them just dancing and having a good time, as the floor lit up and lights swirled around them in sync to the music and their dance moves.
Truly it was the most fun night they'd experienced in Paradox so far.
This chapter was definitely not my best work. I rewrote it at least a few times and honestly I'm still not completely satisfied with it, but decided to go ahead and post it anyway. More than anything it's just a filler chapter, a bridge between events, but I hope it was still at least somewhat enjoyable. The next chapter should hopefully be much more interesting and in depth character wise.