Chapter 3: An unlikely Ally

The bird had its eyes right on us, and Miku and I were freaking out. "Oh my god! What do we do, what do we do?"

We started looking around frantically, until something caught my eye. Another button! "Miku!" She turned to me, looked at the button, then me again, and smirked.

She picked me up by my tail, swung me around, and chucked me at the button. As I was flying through the air, I thought about Miku. Believe it or not, I liked her a little bit. I was worried about what would happen to her if we didn't make it out. If anything bad happened to her, I would never forgive myself.

I hope she makes it ou-

SMACK!

That was the sound of me hitting the button. A platform came out of a slit in the wall, right below me. I landed on the platform with a perfect landing.

In the thoughts of Miku not making it out, I completely forgot we were in danger until she dashed right past me, Opila bird right behind. I followed Miku, and we made it to the other side. I was stressed out. And I did what everyone does when they are stressed out. I turned around…

And spammed the button as much as I could. The platform fell, sending Opila into the abyss. Miku and I tried to catch our breath. Then, I felt something wrap around my ankle. I looked down and realized that Opila didn't fall. The thing that wrapped around my ankle was her beak. I was pulled down by Opila, dangling off the edge.

"Cinder!" Miku grabbed my hand and tried to pull me up, but it was too late.

I fell down into the pit, and I blacked out.

I heard a small, distant voice.

"Cinder? Cinder?"

The voice was getting louder by the second.

"Cinder!"

I opened my eyes to see Miku standing over me. A look of relief flashed over her face. She reached down and embraced me. "Did-Did you save me?"

"No, but he did!" I looked up, and a blonde guy was standing over me. "Hey, man!"

I sat up. "Who are you?" The guy smiled. "Call me Z3NITH."

"I-is that like… a code name?"

"Kinda! I'm a shadow wanderer. I have the ability to turn into a dark ghost that can interact with things. I'd like to join you guys in escaping from this place."

"Sure! We need another person in our crew. Anyway, let's get going."

We walked over to the exit and opened the door. Inside was a lift. After yet another puzzle, we got in the lift and went down.

As we were heading down, I saw Miku looking at me out of the corner of my eye. Could she… like me too?

Suddenly, the elevator stopped. An alarm went off and red lights flashed. We heard a groaning. I stopped and looked down. A giant green blob was getting closer to the elevator.

I stepped back as soon as two blood covered hands grabbed onto the elevator. A huge green head with a huge smile popped up over the side.

"Jumbo Josh." Z3NITH, Miku and I said at the exact same time. Suddenly, The elevator snapped under Josh's weight, and the entire thing fell. We all went down screaming.

(Editor's note: Z3NITH was a character that my friend wanted into the story, and he is now Canon to the stories lore. Deal with it.)