Disclaimer: Persona 5 Characters except Fujin Katsuo belongs to Atlus, this fanfic has no commercial purpose.
Typical. Why there was always trap doors in pyramids? I knew that was too easy. Everyone was shaking for the fall. We stopped screaming when we touched what was supposed to be safe ground, but it was still too damn dark to know for sure.
"Owww, what happened? Did Futaba-chan trick us again?" I could hear Panther's voice despite being stuck in this place.
"Mreoooooow! Who is stepping on my tail!?" Morgana screamed.
"My apologies..." Fox responded.
"The hell, man? I can't see!" Skull spoke too.
"Where are we!? Why everything is so dark!? Somebody do something, please!" And that was undoubtedly Queen.
"Everyone calm down." I heard the leader's voice, and everyone felt less agitated than before.
"Why this shit always happens to us?" I tried to get back on my feet, but I ended up hitting myself in the head with the ceiling. "Oww! Seriously!? What's going on!?"
"I don't know, but we can ask her ourselves after we are done of getting out of here. Skull, Panther, could you give us some light?"
"Sure thing Joker, give us a moment," Panther said. So we waited to let them use their Personas, but nothing happened for a whole minute.
"Any time, guys," I commented, almost feeling desperate. "What's the hold up with you two?"
"Well, how do we explain…?" Skull was hesitating to answer us.
"We can't use our Personas," Panther replied, leaving everyone in shock.
"What do you mean you can't use them!?" Queen asked aloud.
"It's like, you know, somethin' doesn't let us use them," Skull said while dumbfounded. "Also, we don't have enough space here to do that either."
"Then what are we going to do!? We are trapped! We must find a way to out and…!"
"Calm down, Queen. I know we are having a problem, but we can solve this if…" Joker tried to calm her, but she would stop acting agitated.
"Calm down!? How can I calm down when we can't see! We are going to die!"
"Shut up!" I yelled at her. I could feel everyone looking at me, even if I couldn't tell apart in the darkness. "Okay, first up, sorry for raising my voice to everyone in this room. Second, we cannot lose our minds right now. It is already a headache not knowing what our situation is."
"Y-Yeah, sorry..." Queen said, embarrassed.
"By the way, it's you the one clinging my arm?" I was feeling a firm grip on my left arm. I knew it was Queen because I was got some spikes touching my shoulder.
"Well, I guess your knight in shiny armor is on your side. Don't you think, Maverick?" Panther chuckled.
"Not in the mood, Panther," I sighed. "I think I got something to give us some light." I tried to look in my pockets, hoping I didn't forget it this time. "Got it!" I pulled my lighter, instantly illuminating the room by extending my arm to the center. We were inside of a box; space felt tight for us.
"What is this thing?" Mona asked. We saw the walls and ground having some green lines on them.
"I don't know, but I can assume this place is why doesn't let us use our Personas," Joker commented. He tried to summon any of his, but no results.
"So how do we get out of here? There must be a button or something?" Skull tried to move around, but he couldn't.
"Hey, Maverick… Are you still smoking?" Queen looked at me as if you tried an interrogation by glaring.
"Oh, come on... I only smoked once!" I objected. "Just because you caught me doing it outside of the school, that doesn't make me a regular smoker!"
"You know students shouldn't smoke!"
"Neither to butt-in on other people's business, but alas, looked where we are now." The tension rose as Joker had to move in-between and look at us.
"Alright, calm down, you two. I know we are not in the best position, but I want you to focus on escaping from this trap." Joker kept his head cool while carefully looking at our predicament. "More importantly, Skull is right, this kind of traps always have an emergency button or else like the movies. Any ideas, everyone?"
"I might have one," I said without hesitation. "Did any of you ever watch an Illinois James movie before?"
"Nope"
"Nah-huh"
"Sorry…"
"Who?"
"Nevermind..." I rubbed my eyes while thinking, much to my dismay.
"What do we do, Joker?" Mona asked our leader, hoping he might have an idea.
"I don't know, but I'm sure that we shouldn't move around carelessly. Any type of surface may activate something that we wouldn't want to happen. Stay to the center, everybody." Joker decided for the group to squeeze to the point that we were very uncomfortable. We ended up annoying each other by accident.
"H-Hey! Stop pushing me with your elbow!" Panther yelled at Skull.
"Me!? You are the one pushing me!" The punk berated back with the same loud tone next to my ear.
"I'm going to be deaf before we can escape from this hellhole," I muttered while slowly losing my mind to the situation. "Hey, could you move a little forward? Your stepping on my foot, Fox."
"I'm deeply sorry, I'm trying to get enough room to breathe."
We did our best to not make any sudden movement. I couldn't imagine what other absurdly elaborated trap could await us if anyone would make a mistake. There wasn't much point just complaining as the best we could do was moving our eyes all over the room to see if there was a clue to help us escape. But, of course, there were very particular about the hieroglyphics that caught everyone's attention in a further inspection.
"Interesting… there are some Medjed symbols," Queen said as she looked carefully at the walls.
"Medjed? What do you mean by that?" I asked.
"It is the same symbol they have on their website."
"Why does she has those here? Do you think Futaba had some connection between her and Medjed?" Fox asked.
"All we can know is they are rivals. That's all we can say for sure."
"Whatever is, we must find a way out." Then, for a brief second, we heard a click that interrupted Skull. "Uh oh..."
"You stepped on something, did you?" Panther accused.
"How should I know!? I just tried to stretch my leg, and then I heard somethin'!" Skull kept excusing himself. "It was accidental, alright!? This place is crammed anyways!"
"I hope that is the case," Joker said. Then, the place box started to agitate as we heard some chains being detached. Then, everything went silent for a moment as we tried not to move.
"I have a bad feeling about this..." I said as the box got destroyed, making us fall once again.
"Shiiiiiiiit!" That punk screamed as we were falling into something.
"Ngh is this…." Fox struggled.
"Quicksand! Everyone, swim with all your might!" So we did what that cat said. Everyone swam in different directions as we tried to get out of that pool.
Seriously, the pyramid got nothing but more cliché traps. As we finally reached the ground. It was a near-death experience that left all of us out of breath.
"…Hey, you guys still alive?" Skull asked while looking worn-out.
"No thanks to you, numbskull!" I yelled while trying to stretch my arms.
"Oww…" Panther groaned. "First a boulder, then a box, then this… Did we piss her off somehow?"
"I don't think it has anything to do with us angering her…" Mona replied.
"Then, what is it?" I asked the cat, almost losing my patience after this bullshit.
"I suspect the problem is that she can't control her instinct to push people away from her."
"A simple defense mechanism…." Queen commented. "Considering what she's been through, I don't blame her for mistrusting others."
"Joker, let's save her! We've gotta help Futaba-chan open that door to her heart!"
"Of course!" our leader nodded.
"I have no objections, but we should worry about ourselves first and foremost," Mona said while looking serious. "Come on, let's look for a way back above ground. Otherwise, this place is going to end up our tomb too." So, without further ado, we began taking action and went up.
The road back to the outside wouldn't be an easy task for us, but we had to survive until we could find the Treasure. This place where a girl was hiding with shame and fear towards herself, I couldn't let her continue feeling like that. I wouldn't stop until we could save her.
However, after a few more floors in the area, the path began branching out. We couldn't tell which way could lead us to the exit or be another dead end. So Joker decided to split the group into two, giving us a better chance to find our way out and fight any Shadows on the way. Too bad I ended up with Skull and Mona.
"Out of my way, freaks!" I said while ripping off my mask. "Oni Kagura!" Faust leaped and shredded any opponent that crossed paths with us. Most of those enemies were weak to either ice or wind; it was good that Joker had Fox in his group.
"Magaru!" Mona fought some Cavern Snakemen who were blocking our path. That place was huge, and we didn't even explore the whole damn pyramid yet.
"My turn? Alright! Time to show a little surprise!" Skull smirked as he held his mask. "Seiten... Taisen!" Captain Kidd was gone from the blue flames, but someone else took his place: A giant monkey with mohawk and armor riding an angry black cloud while holding a nailed staff with "8000K" written on it. "Rampage!" And in an instant, he wiped out the floor with a single strike. A surprise, indeed. "How far are we reaching the top?" He asked Mona.
"Not even half-way done."
"For real!? Dude, I'm already tired..." The punk sighed.
"We will take a break until we are out of here. I forgot that damn cooler at the entrance," I said while looking at the other group's progress. We were way behind them. I looked at Skull as I got curious due to our last battle. "Hey, question, what's with the new Persona?"
"I was about to say the same," Mona commented.
"Pretty cool, right!" The punk said proudly.
"But how or when?"
"I dunno..." Skull shrugged. "It just happened one day. Hard to explain, but it was like if something changed inside me. Do you have any idea, Mona?"
"No, this is the first time I ever heard of this," the cat sounded unsure.
"I thought you would know this stuff!" Skull said with a very blunt demeanor which upset Mona.
"Hey! I don't always know all answers!"
"Why did I have to be stuck with those two...?" I muttered.
"Also, if you can do that, do you think I can do that, too?" Mona asked.
"Maybe, but who knows?" I replied.
"I think we got enough chat, let's continue," Mona ordered us around. That's what happens when you got a cat like him as second in command.
Evolving a Persona, huh? That was interesting as that was supposed to be the power from the heart. I wondered what made him change him, but I can suspect he finally put his shit together or something. Mona made a good question earlier: if everyone else can do the same, too.
To be frank, I wasn't so sure if I could do that as well. Just more idle, pointless questions.
We fought through our way until reaching the top floors. In one of those moments, we stopped and looked for where to jump. We saw Joker using his wire-thing to swing across the area like your typical superhero. I forgot to mention that I saw the leader using it a couple of times at Kaneshiro's Palace. However, he only used it to reach somewhere that seemed impossibly higher for us. I asked Mona why we couldn't get one of those, but he replied that he could make the only one back when dealing with Kamoshida. Not enough materials or even time to produce another and being stuck in a cat form in the real world didn't help either. At least Joker helped everyone find the way around, so not much to worry about.
At last, we got to the top floor, but we weren't done yet. There was another room or hallway that was heavily patrolled by Shadow mummy dogs. Things were never easy for us.
As we went through the door, we walked a few steps before turning to our left; we saw the light from a distance. "Hey… Ain't that light the exit!? I'm kinda surprised how close it ended up bein'!" Skull noticed too. I could feel the freedom.
"Thank god we can finally get out of here. This was all around a horrible experience," the cat sighed.
"Oh don't be so moody, Mona, we can at least leave this place and plan our next move," Joker said, trying to light his mood. He felt reassured like everyone else. I never thought that I could ever want to go outside despite the horrible environment.
Of course, freedom was never that easy. We got some dog guards roaming around. Joker sneaked and took out its mask, revealing its proper form. There were two Chanting Baboons. "What the… aren't the same form as that corrupt doctor from Mementos?" I asked while Queen analyzed the Shadows.
"Yes they are the same, but much weaker. Be cautious though…"
"Don't worry. I won't lower my guard that easy again." I held my mask while summoning my Persona. "Terror Claw!" Faust did a considerable swing as it inflicted fear on the Shadow.
"My turn… Go, David!" Joker used Mapsi on the Shadow, knocking it down. "Hold Up!" We surrounded them with our guns, but it wasn't worth the damn to assault him with an All-Out Attack. "Give me your money."
"Please don't hurt me," the Shadow begged, but it was still under the effect of fear.
"I guess we can't negotiate with it until he returns to normal," Mona explained. So Joker decided to negotiate with the other one.
"Ah, so what do you want?" The Chanting Baboon asked. Joker tried to request money again. "Huh? I was part of you once. Can't we talk about it again?"
"Sorry, can't do."
"Mhhh… fine I guess if this is what you want," it dropped 3,748 yens and left us in peace. Too bad the leader couldn't persuade a little more, but I guess it was for the best for us.
"Another victory, eh Joker?" Skull said as we continued moving forward. The more we were getting closer to the exit. More enemies were patrolling on the hallways. We tried to avoid most of them until we found a bigger one behind some pillars.
"That guy looks way intimating than the rest," I commented, keeping my distance from it.
"Let's not bother with him yet, let's just get to the exit," Mona said, and I agreed without hesitation. It was better to be prepared first before starting to fight that thing.
We finally reached the exit and left the place from the back door. "We made it out! Damn it's hot though. My ass is all sweaty…" Skull said in relief.
"Yeah, I don't want to know the rest," I said, disgusted.
"At least we have secured our escape route. We can finally go about exploring this place now," Fox commented.
"Let's use this as our entrance from here forward. It should be more stable than the front," Queen pointed out. We formed a circle to make our next move.
"So, what do we do to the big guy from before?" I asked the group.
"We are not sure, but won't know until we face him directly." Skull sounded so relaxed as he got something on his sleeves.
"Planning is always important. Don't get too confident about it, Skull." Queen sounded really serious, and I couldn't blame her too.
"I know that, just sayin' that today I'm feelin' pumped for some reason."
"If that's the case, take the front line for now." So Joker formed the team, and I went for backup, just in case. I didn't mind, though. We came back to the underground chamber and got ready to confront that Mummy.
He was standing there with a bizarre posture. "Look how tranquil it is. It appears to be different from the Shadows we've encountered prior," Fox said cautiously.
"Heh, you don't gotta freak out about it! Let's beat its ass!"
"Here we go," Joker signaled us to charge against it.
"Brace yourselves. This is no normal enemy!" Mona warned us before we could approach it for the fight.
And that mighty Shadow spoke to us:
"…FOOLISH CRAVE ROBBERS. YOU HAVE ENRAGED THE GUARDIAN OF THIS PLACE. HENCE, THERE SHALL BE NO PATH FORWARD FOR YOU. IT IS TIME YOU PERISH!" It transformed into a Coffin-borne God. We got into our positions and prepared to take it down. I guess there's no break for me as it would attack anyone.
"Rakunda!" I made the first move just to give everyone the honor to beat the crap out of it.
"TRAPPED RAT!" A creepy hand came out of the coffin, doing a weird spell on me.
"Squeeeeeeeak!" (Translation: Daaaaaaamn!)
That stupid Shadow transformed me into a mouse, making me absolutely useless.
"This is not good. Watch out everyone with that attack!" Queen warned us while I had to hide behind her until the effect went away. "Freila!" She attacked while moving away from its sight.
"COME, MY SERVANT!" The Shadow called reinforcements. It was a Slithering Snakewoman.
"Agilao!" The minion attacked Fox, but he evaded it with ease.
"Foolish Shadow, Bufula!" Our good old artist knocked down that snake, giving us another move. "Mona!" He initiated Baton Pass with the cat.
"Alright then, Garula!" Mona used on the big one, making it kiss the floor too.
"Me, me, me!" Skull was asking to make a Baton Pass chain too. Mona rolled his eyes, but he complied without any issue. Skull began feeling the surge of power for his next move.
"Time to bust some moves! C'mere, Seiten Taisei! Rampage!" That attack killed one of the minions while doing massive damage to the other Shadows. But, we were not done yet. "Crap, that thing is tough as hell!"
"Then keep kicking his ass!" I yelled despite still being in mouse form.
"What the… you can talk?" Panther was surprised to hear me.
"Of course I do. I think it is not so different from what Mona can do in the real world." I kept talking while Queen carried me in her hands.
"MEGIDO!" It cast energy spheres that did a lot of damage to everyone. Queen tried to cover me while withstanding the blow for me. Then, things started to look bad for us.
"Garula!" Joker used Matador to stop the Shadow again. "Fox!" They switched places as he was preparing for another attack.
"Rising Slash!" That did significant damage, but that thing was too strong even for its weakness.
"This is not enough; it won't give up that easily, Panther!" Queen ordered to the blonde. She nodded back as they knew what to do.
At first, we all thought things would go as expected, but blondie surprised us with another trick. "Hecate! Tarunda!" Carmen was gone, and instead, another being with huge eyes and two floating dog heads barking and chained to her. It was just like Skull.
The Shadow's attack got weaker for the moment. This is because that Megido was so far dangerous for us.
"MINIONS, COME TO ME…" The Shadows summoned the same Slithering Snakewoman and a Cavern Snakeman to aid him. So things started to look worse for us, huh?
"Zionga!" the Snakeman used electricity against Mona. He went down so quickly. "Marakukaja!" It took his time to increases everyone's defenses. More Shadows meant more trouble for us.
"Ominous Words!" Snakewoman tried to inflict it on Joker. Bad luck it worked on him.
"Hey pull yourself together man!" Skull used a paper fan to cure him of despair. That was a close one. "Phew, don't worry I got your back." Skull was getting ready to attack again with his new-looking Persona. "Memory Blow!" He swung with his staff with nails that made some cuts that caused forget status on the Snakeman.
After so long, the effect had worn out, and I returned to normal. "That's it. It's payback time!" I grabbed my mask out of anger. I never felt so much passion that inside after wasting my time as a mouse. Faust was composed as waiting for me to unleash my rage on them. "Oni Kagura!" He rushed and started to stab all enemies with his claws. The Snakewoman got angry by the attack.
"Let's keep going everyone. We are almost done…" Joker was preparing a skill against all of them. "David, Mapsi!" It did technical damage to the minions, killing them out of the bat.
That thing was opening the coffin while showing his hand again. "TRAPPED RAT!" It did that stupid spell but with Fox.
"Oh, my… this is a rather 'mice-rable' outcome," Fox said with a high-pitched voice.
Did I hear that right? Did he just make a pun? That was… Man, whatever.
"Damn, it will keep giving us trouble as long he comes out of that coffin." Mona analyzed its behavior while thinking of a better strategy.
"Then let's make sure it never shows its ugly face again," I started to run towards it while he threw more Megidos at me, but I dodged them pretty fast. Joker ordered everyone else to distract the Shadow until I could get closer to it.
It worked.
"I got you, sucker!" I used my chain to wrap the Shadow around and make it impossible to open or even do anything to defend itself. "Skull, take the chance now!" I said while pulling the chain.
"On it!" Seiten Taisei's weapon increased the size and stroke down with a lot of force that killed the Shadow. "Assault Dive!" Skull let his Persona deal the final strike, turning it into nothing but black goo.
We finally were done with the fine, and it broke the spell, making Fox regaining his human form.
"Goddamn, that was a tough one…" I said after taking a deep breath.
"All right," Panther said while still in high spirits, "we managed to scrape through that somehow! Let's keep it up and head for the Treasure!"
"We should make sure we don't get reckless though. It's better to proceed one step at a time," Queen acted rationally. Even after we were making progress, there was a lot more work ahead of us.
The first thing was a strange light coming from the ceiling being reflected in a mirror. We didn't have an idea of what that was for. The group investigated the room further, but nothing but a large ballista was there collecting dust. However, it seemed still in good shape, which prompted our leader with an idea.
He went up with his wire on a wooden platform and saw a strange button. We were hesitant that it might activate another trap, but Joker assured everyone before pressing it. Then, we began hearing gears turning.
It was a couple of seconds until he saw the colossal ballista pulling the arrow, giving it enough thrust before shooting it across the room and breaking a wall.
"Holy crap, that scared the shit outta me!" Skull jumped after witnessing it. "It totally was a trap!"
There was something positive in the situation; despite the surprise, the wall was the room with a mirror and the strange light. The light began traveling directly to the door. Something changed until we started taking a closer look at it.
An much to our rejoicing, the door opened without trouble.
"Oh, hey! It's open!" Panther said, triumphant of the outcome.
"So, the shining light upon the is what caused it to unlock..." Fox reflected.
"Wait, doesn't that mean we can open the door at the great stairs the same way!?" the blond pointed it out.
"That's a definite possibility. In any case, we should push on," Queen said.
We followed Joker to the next room, but the group first saw something written in glowing green:
"The light shed by the god of the underworld shall become the sign for those who traverse the pits."
"What could this mean?" Queen wondered as she read the cryptic words.
"Nothing good, that's for sure," I commented.
The group continued moving forward while dealing with our fair share of Shadows along the way. However, those things weren't much of a trouble as our Personas became stronger after each battle. We were too confident in our skills. So, naturally, it was easy to forget to keep our guards up all the time.
As we explored, we came across another room with a statue holding a shiny orb. That caught our attention, eager to investigate that thing.
"It's holdin' something..." Skull said, looking closer at the orb until his eyes focused on the statue. "Wait, what is this statue anyways? Some kind dog... thing?"
"This is Anubis," Queen explained, "the Egyptian god of the underworld."
Panther was in deep thought as if something caught her with Queen's explanation. "That sounds kinda familiar," she said. "Something about light from the god of the underworld?"
"Hm, this may come in handy somewhere. Shall we take it?" Fox asked Joker.
"I'll take the gem," our leader replied as he grabbed the weird orb and stored it in his pocket.
"This may prove to be an object of great import," Fox said.
I couldn't say much, but somehow, I didn't like the idea of taking it. It was clear that pyramids or temples activate traps after taking a shiny object from its place. So why I didn't say anything? Maybe because I thought they wouldn't be stupid enough to fall for that. Right?
It didn't take us two steps outside the room until we saw mummies coming out of their sarcophagus. It was clear that orb woke them up, getting more on their way.
We had to maneuver around them, absolutely avoiding to engage combat. We couldn't know how much we had left before reaching a safe room if there was any.
Joker saw a way to get the high ground by using his wire again. He acted as our eye by looking at the advantage point. He told us the number of Shadows on the way and when to move on.
You know the worst part? When we found a place to put the orb, we discovered that we needed two of those things. Why Palaces had to be so convoluted!? Well, the only bright side was that we were back to the main entrance as we looked at the giant door blocking the stairs directly to the Treasure.
"Nothing is happening," Fox said after putting the first orb on one of the pedestals.
"We are missing something," Queen commented. She looked at the other pedestal. "Perhaps we need more than one, I assume."
"I wouldn't be surprised," I said. "But where the hell the other orb could it be?"
"I guess we will have to look around," Joker reflected as he turned around, heading back to investigate. "Everyone, keep your eyes open if we see any missing rooms." His instructions were clear.
We came back to the previous area. I couldn't know what happened, but our focus to find the way to the Treasure made us forget to check one last room on the same floor. It was a couple of steps nearby.
How did we miss that? But before I asked that, we were already far and the job was already done. So, whatever...
We found the second orb precisely in the same way as the other one. It didn't stop looking creepy.
"Huh, this statue's the same weird dog thing as before," Skull pointed it out. "And look, it's got one of them gems too!"
"The god's name is Anubis. It really isn't that hard to remember, Skull..." Mona said exasperatedly. "So, do you think we should take this gem?" The cat turned to Joker.
"This is the only way." The leader grabbed it without hesitation. It wasn't long when one more Shadow appeared next to us.
The enemies were getting stronger the further we got deeper; those irritating Bearers of Scales were no exceptions as it appeared after taking the second orb.
"No holdbacks!" Skull yelled while preparing for the fight. "Zionga!" It got enough damage but got affected with shock status.
"Double Fang!" I made technical damage on it, but things were never that simple.
"Makouga!" The Shadow used it against everyone, but I got hit pretty badly. The Shadow saw the opportunity. "Hamaon!" It was lights out for me.
"You... asshole..." I lost consciousness while everyone tried to take cover from other possible moves that might kill them too.
"Maverick is down! Be careful everyone!" Mona told the others as he started to fight back. "Lucky Punch!" It took care of it as they did the rest of the work on executing it.
"Maverick, are you alright?" Joker asked as he helped to stand on my feet again.
"Not really, as I know how it feels to be affected by instant-death skills," I said while trying to wipe some dust off my cape. "I guess I will stay on the sidelines in the meanwhile." I didn't like to not contribute anything. I knew my stance regarding working as a Phantom Thief, but it would take me so long to repay Joker back if I didn't pull my weight.
For now, I only saw them dealing the Shadow until it died. Then, we continued our way back.
We put the second orb on the other pedestal. While it initially felt that there was nothing, we noticed the mirror reflecting the strange light from before. We put two and two together that it could probably make a similar effect to the giant door. Joker pressed the button, turning the mirror on the opposite side alongside the light.
Well, we were finally going somewhere as the door finally opened to us. We could see the long stairs, but there were still more doors.
The Great Corridor was our only direct way, and we still had a lot more work ahead.
The next area was the Chamber of Rejection.
It looked like a long hallway: boring and uneventful for the first five minutes we walked. It was unsettling, especially being inside of a pyramid. What other cliché traps awaited us in this area?
-Ryuji's Ultimate Persona Skill: Runner's Peace (Evade Wind + Null Rage)
-Ann's Ultimate Persona Skill: Charmer's Focus (Evade Ice + Null Dizzy)
