ADV Gaiden (Sidestory) - THE Adventurers! Fanfic

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E Mouse
 

ADV Gaiden (Sidestory) - THE Adventurers! Fanfic

Unread postby E Mouse » Sun Nov 23, 2003 4:21 pm

Some of you guys may remember a the beginning of a fanfiction I posted up on the Adventurers! board last December.

Well, off and on since then, I've been working at it, and it's now done - the total length? Nearly 150 pages in Microsoft Word.

Really.

However, since my work on it was so spread out and I know that the tone and style of the writing fluctuated somewhat during the writing, I've decided to go through the entire thing again and revise things for consistancy, grammar, and the like.

However, on the advice of Uncle Pervy, I will be posting up the revised version in semi-regular installments here for general review and suggestions. If you notice anything that doesn't seem to work very well, please tell me so that it can be discussed. If it's something you'd rather not post here, I can be contacted at exitjmouse@direcway.com or on the screenname E Mouse2000 on AOL Instant Messenger.

If, for some reason, you came here out of curiosity and haven't read the ADVENTURERS! comic strip, go to the start of the comic and read up. My fanfiction was created at and intended for the point around comic 700 or so, so you may want to read up to that point for background information. Granted, I think that the fic might be understandable enough even if you haven't read the comic it's based on, but if you haven't, you might miss out on some of the injokes and references mentioned.

For the curious or impatient, the original complete version 1.0 of the fanfic can be downloaded in .doc form here. Bonus material included is the original concept blurb I used when I first began the fic last year. And yes, it has EZCode scattered all over the place - the fic has long been intended for forum posting.

UPDATE

The practically-final version of the fic has been designed and I'll soon be uploading it, then linking it to Webrunner and from the Spam forum here.

Special thanks go to:

Uncle Pervy for freaking out upon hearing the page count total and inspiring the style for this thread

My dad for reading both ADV and the fic himself to try and help me with it

EvilKillerPoptarts for encouragement, help with first-draft editing and inspiration, and hosting ADVGaiden 1.0 on her webspace. Check out her website if you like for some laughs.

Recognition of injokes and references will be met with cookies.

And without further delay...

^---^

The Spotted Bulbear snored loudly. It was taking a nap (as its kind often did), its bulging round body inflating and deflating slightly as its lungs were filled and emptied. The sun shone off of its black hide, accented with large red spots. Suddenly, it sensed a disturbance and awoke. Annoyed at the interruption of its nap, the Bulbear rose to its feet and threw back its head, roaring irritably. It then lowered itself back to the ground and lunged at the intruder...

... only to get slashed in half by an oversized sword, held by a certain armored, clueless hero with spiky, bright green hair.

“Are we done yet, Karn?” a blue-robed mage nearby asked impatiently.

“Just three more, I promise!” Karn replied, dashing off to look for another Bulbear.

The mage sighed.

-----

ADVENTURERS! Gaiden: Taka no Ejiki

An ADVENTURERS! fanfiction by Jeremy Saunders (AKA E-mouse).

Ardam, Khrima, Eternion, Karn, Tesla, Kemmet, Meck, and all other ADVENTURERS! characters are copyright of Mark Shallow.

All other characters and references (stated or implied) are copyright of their individual owners. Or whatever the case.

-----

“Remind me why we decided to go to this town in the first place.” The mage grumbled as he, Karn, and several others walked through the main gates of Almiez.

“Sidequests!” the warrior replied, smiling ignorantly.

“Didn’t we already have three of them here?” a third person of the group added; a young man wearing a loose blue vest, white undershirt, and dark grey pants. A pair of large red earrings also hung from his ears.

“You can never have enough sidequests, Drecker!” Karn said, still smiling like an idiot.

The mage sighed. “And let me guess, this one requires that you’ve beaten enough of those Bulbear enemies?”

“Nope, you do that to help out the aliens!” Karn replied.

The rest of the entering group stared.

“Did his brain finally snap, chook?” another member of the party wondered; a small creature with fluffy pink fur and long, bare limbs.

“You thought it was ever intact?” the blue-robed mage asked dryly. Several of the others in the group snickered, but Karn didn’t take notice.

“Let’s go to the weapon shop!” the hero cried, pointing at a nearby building that had a sign with a large sword on it over its door.

“Um, wasn’t the equipment in this place only an upgrade the first time we came here?” yet another member of the party asked; a girl in what seemed to be a dark blue ninja outfit, minus the facemask and hood, but including a katana, sheathed over her back.

“Karashi’s probably right… but do they have guns?” another girl of the group inquired, also clothed primarily in dark blue; a pistol holstered on her belt helped explain her interest in the weaponry in question.

“I don’t think so, Tesla,” the blue-clothed mage said, “The first time we came here was before you joined.”

“I hope they have wands.” the third and final girl of the group said cheerfully, smiling in a style disturbingly similar to Karn’s.

“Er... Lumi, if they don’t have anything for Tesla, I doubt they’d have anything for you...” another of the group said uneasily; a frail-looking young man, clothed in yellow, orange, and pink. He wore a peculiar hat on his head, and clutched a harp in one hand.

The fluffy pink creature giggled. “For once Gildward is nearly being useful, chook!” it said.

“Not that you’re one to talk, Chookie.” The mage said coldly. The creature in question cowered away from him in response.

A series of mechanical beeps, clicks, and whirrs revealed the presence of the last member of the group.

“Now what, Spybot?” the blue-robed mage asked warily.

“DESTROY?” the robotic member of the group asked.

“Not here.” The mage replied again, as the group walked through the door of the weapon shop...

-----

As they entered the store, the group split up, most of them looking for (or examining) examples of their weapon of choice. Karn, however, seemed more businesslike, and immediately headed towards the grinning shopkeeper, pulling out a small sack with the letters ‘B-A-G’ written on it in black ink. The hero dug around inside the bag for a moment before pulling out an impressive, faintly glowing blade that should not have logically fit inside its container. No one seemed to recognize this, though, and Karn put the weapon down on the counter in front of the shopkeeper.

There was silence for a moment as the hero waited for the shopkeeper to notice this. Finally, he frowned and waved a hand in front of the man behind the counter. The shopkeeper made no response, continuing to stare straight ahead with a mindless grin on his face.

Karn scratched his head (or rather, the edge of his impenetrable hair), and tapped the counter with a finger. This seemed to wake up the man behind the counter, who blinked and finally focused his eyes on the hero.

“Hello!” he cried, “Welcome to the Almiez weapon store! Buy/Sell?”

“Sell!” Karn exclaimed, looking more comfortable again.

The blue-robe mage glanced over at the exchange, sighed, and started walking over to the counter.

The shopkeeper remained silent for a moment, grinning stupidly once more. Karn did nothing at first, but soon his patience faded and he pointed down at the countertop, at the sword he had left there. The shopkeeper looked down, blinked in disbelief, and did a comical double-take, obviously amazed at what was being offered to him.

“This... this is the legendary, one-of-a-kind sword Dual Blade! I couldn’t possibly buy this!” the man behind the counter cried.

Karn blinked as well, but in confusion rather than disbelief. He frowned, apparently upset. “But if you COULD buy it, how much would you give for it?”

The shopkeeper hesitated for a moment, and then said quickly, “10 GP.”

The hero stared. The man behind the counter cringed, and said meekly, “International legendary weapon pricing agreement.”

But the hero suddenly grinned again. He opened his mouth to say something, but was stopped as the blue-robed mage (who had come up behind Karn to overhear what he was doing and try and halt any stupid exchanges) hit the hero over the head with his staff.

“Ow. What was that for, Ardam?” Karn asked sounding unhurt but slightly irritated.

“Do you remember what we had to go through to get that sword?” the mage asked angrily.

“We fought…” Karn replied, then hesitated as he thought for a long moment, slowly counting on his fingers. Finally, he said, “386 Sinistrals?”

“YES.” Ardam said, exasperated. “Are you going to turn in that effort for 10 measly GP?!”

“But we need it!” Karn replied.

Ardam stared. “Karn. We got twenty times that amount from a single enemy before Khrima even stole the Kildracks crystal. Why do we need to surrender something so rare for practically nothing?”

“We can get another!” Karn said, smiling idiotically once more.

Ardam stared. He considered bringing up the point that a single random battle would get what Karn wanted and more, but knew that offering to do so would merely cause the hero to start on another ridiculously long series of random battles to level up.

“Isn’t this Dual Blade thing stronger than your current weapon anyway?” the mage asked, changing tactics.

“But it adds to my magic attack! It’s wasteful!” Karn replied, seeming offended.

Ardam sighed. “Okay, whatever. Why don’t you just keep it and sell off some other excess items?”

Karn considered this for a moment, then turned, glanced around the room, and located the bard of the group (who was nursing an injured hand caused by his touching a rack of store merchandise on display).

“Hey, can I have the Miscalibur for a minute, Gildward?” the hero called over.

The mage slapped his forehead with a palm. “Try something that we aren’t USING.” He said, trying to keep his voice calm.

Karn stopped to ponder this again as the bard limped over to the store counter.

The hero suddenly grabbed the Dual Blade off of the table and swiftly tucked it back into the storage BAG he had.

“Anything else?” the storekeeper asked, smiling mindlessly.

Karn suddenly grabbed Gildward by the shoulders and tossed him up on top of the counter. “How much for this?” the hero asked over the bard’s wails of protest (and pain).

Ardam tilted to one side, then fell to the floor out of sheer exasperation.

“Are you okay, Ardy?” Tesla asked, abandoning her search for modern weaponry in the shop and coming over to the counter. She bent down next to the mage, concerned.

“Fine.” Ardam grumbled, standing up again.

“Ah… I REALLY can’t buy that one, sir…”the shopkeeper said nervously, staring as Gildward wailed in physical pain at being held on the counter.

Karn frowned, and let go of the bard. Gildward took advantage of this and dove off the countertop towards the door of the shop, obviously trying to escape from the hero’s ridiculous scheme. The bard landed with a thud on the floor of the shop, then curled himself up tightly and started whimpering pitifully.

“Pathetic.” Drecker commented. Karashi chuckled in agreement. No one took note of Chookie hiding behind a shield near the wall, out of Karn’s sight.

“Why do we need some more gold anyway, Karn?” Ardam asked.

“To pay for the inn!” the hero replied.

“The inn costs 50 GP here, Karn. We had thirty thousand the last time I counted.” the blue-robed mage said.

“But it isn’t enough!” Karn insisted.

“Why?” Tesla cut in.

Karn hesitated for a moment, then turned to the shopkeeper again. “Can I have seventy sword bombs?”

Both Tesla and Ardam fell to the floor.

-----

“I can’t believe it took half an hour to convince him to only buy sixty-five.” the gunslinger grumbled bitterly.

“We’re lucky we managed that much.” the mage replied wearily, “He usually ignores any protest.”

The gunslinger nodded sympathetically at him as they entered the inn of Almiez, conveniently located back near the default entrance to the town. The party had ignored it when they had first entered – Karn liked to do equipment shopping first when the group was in good shape – but now they headed there with the intent to pay for a soothing 5-second sound clip and a full-party HP/MP refill.

What they got was slightly different.

Once again, Karn immediately headed for the front counter of the shop and stopped in front of the shopkeeper, this time a smiling young woman. The hero paused, again waiting for the counterperson to notice him, but soon sighed and rapped on the counter with a finger.

The woman blinked and finally noticed the hero. “Hello! Welcome to the Almiez Inn! A room is 50 GP! Would you like to stay the night?” she asked, cheerily.

“Yes!” the hero replied. He reached into the BAG again and pulled out a handful of glittering, golden coins which he then handed to the shopkeeper.

The innkeeper took the coins and glanced at them, counting, for a moment, before smiling again. “Thanks! I hope you enjoy your stay!”

The woman reached under the counter, and there was a soft ‘click’ as she flicked a switch on the underside of it; the lights in the room and even the glow of the sun outside dimmed, and the party in the Inn’s lobby waited expectantly.

There was a pause, before Ardam broke the silence. “... well?”

The counterwoman apparently flicked the switch she had twice more, because the lights momentarily brightened before dimming again.

There was another expectant pause.

The switch clicked again, and the lights came back once more. The counterwoman frowned, looking puzzled. “That’s funny, it was working earlier...”

“Okay, let me get this straight.” the blue-robed mage asked suddenly, sounding slightly angry, “Not only do we not really spend the night, but you have a special heroes-spending-the-night sequence set up and you test it on a regular basis?!”

The woman behind the counter stared at him in surprise. “Why yes, exactly, how did you know?”

The mage sighed.

“But I guess you could stay the night if you wanted to, there should be enough room upstairs...” the innkeeper continued.

Ardam blinked at her, apparently surprised as well. “Wha...?”

“Woo!” Karn interrupted, “Plot night!”

The blue-robed mage looked disappointed and seemed to relax.

“Well... no, I don’t believe so, sir.” the woman behind the counter said, “We would have gotten a warning if something like that was going to happen...”

Most of the members of the party frowned. Exceptions were Gildward, who was still grimacing in pain from the relatively light fall he had encountered in the weapon shop, and Spybot, who couldn’t express a frown in the first place.

“Well... since we’re here, we might as well stay! Still a refill, right?” Karn said.

The counterwoman shrugged. “Probably.” she replied, then frowned. “But...”

“But...?” Drecker repeated, pressing for further information.

“Well... it’s all the space we have, so I’m going to have to charge you the usual rent for them...” the innkeeper continued.

Ardam shot an angry glare at the back of Karn’s head and said, “Okay. Which would be how much?”

“900 GP.” the counterwoman said after a moment’s hesitation.

“I think that’s okay –” Karashi began, but a sudden outburst from Karn drowned her out.

“What?! 900 GP?! The inns aren’t supposed to start costing that much until Lokar after the Kildracks crystal!” he raged.

“But sir, I already said that I’m using the renting rate rather than –”

“The inn here is supposed to cost 50 GP!” the hero continued.

“Sir...”

“I haven’t been this ripped off since I bought that airship from Honest Cid’s dealership!”

Ardam sighed.

-----

It felt like a long time later that Karn came up the stairs to the second floor of the inn, smiling triumphantly. The rest of the party, who had come up out of boredom or curiosity at various points during his debate with the innkeeper, looked over at him.

“What a deal!” the hero cried, suddenly.

Most of the party fell to the floor in exasperation.

“I’m guessing she gave in and let us have a discount...?” Drecker asked, rubbing the elbow he had landed on.

“Nope, but I did get this!” Karn replied cheerfully, and held up a small vial of liquid.

Ardam peered at it for a moment. “... that’s a potion, Karn.” he said, “We have ninety-nine of them kicking around.”

Karn blinked in surprise. “We do?” he asked, and stared at the object in question. Then the hero shrugged, said “Oh well!” and tossed it over his shoulder, where it vanished from sight down the stairs. A moment later, there was a crash as it shattered on the floor below.

“Scratch one excess item.” Drecker muttered.

Ardam rolled his eyes. “Right. Next problem; how are we going to fit a nine-person...”

Spybot and Chookie made soft sounds of dissent.

“.... character... party into three inn rooms designed for two people each?” he inquired, looking around the room.

Karn stared at him stupidly. “What’s the problem?”

A vein on the mage’s temple throbbed. “That means there’s only space for six. We’ll have to split up and –”

Karn suddenly clapped his hands together, looking overjoyed. “Party split-up!” he cried, and peered around the room. Then, he decided, and said, “Me, Ardam, and Drecker in the first group, Tesla, Spybot, and Karashi in the second, and Lumi, Chookie, and Gildward in the third!”

“... Karn, we aren’t going to be fighting.” Ardam said. He smirked knowingly and asked, “And besides, you wanted to have Lumi around yourself more often, didn’t you?”

The hero blinked. “I did?” he asked, looking up at the ceiling and adopting a ponderous expression. After a moment, he said “Oh yeah...” as if remembering something that hadn’t occurred to him at first.

(Surprisingly, Lumi failed to notice this exchange, and was instead still standing near the wall, smiling cheerfully.)

Karn hesitated for a long moment, and the blue-robed mage decided to add some reasonably logical reasoning to the considerations.

“It’d probably be best if we just had three people per room. Spybot can just power down in a corner, and Chookie’s small enough to sleep on a rug without problems, but at least two people are might have to share the same bed...” Ardam said, before pausing to think as well.

Tesla spoke up. “Why don’t I go with Ardy?”

Karn grinned suddenly. Drecker and Karashi glanced at one another and started to say something as well, but the hero interrupted with his final decision. “Then how about...”

-----

“Ooo! Look, Karn, there’s another star!”

“And another! There must be almost a hundred of them up there!”

“And the moon, too!”

“You noticed it too, Lumi?”

On the bed farther from the window in the same room, Drecker was franticly trying to stuff his ears with pillows.

-----

“I can’t BELIEVE I got stuck with these two.” Karashi mumbled.

“Want me to tell you a ninja bedtime story, chook?”

“I touched the corner of the blanket! IT BURNS!”

-----

The third room of the inn, though, was much calmer – in fact, practically sane. Ardam and Tesla entered, and looked around at the room and what its contents. The inn room was as generic as one might expect to find in Almiez A few empty cabinets, an open window showing the night sky, a pair of plain-looking beds, and a small rug in the middle of the room were the main traits of the room that were worth noting.

While the two were examining the room, the third occupant for the night walked in; Spybot. Ardam watched the robotic party member with suspicion as it looked around, apparently searching for something on the walls. After a quick scan around the room, the robot made a dissatisfied clicking sound, reached behind its back, and pulled out what looked like a large, red, K-shaped wall socket. The robot then walked over to one of the corners of the room and put the ‘outlet’ on the wall, where it stuck in place due to forces unknown. Spybot turned away from this outlet, slumped down to the ground, and moved its back up against the wall, at which point a small click seemed to signify that it was plugged in.

Spybot made a short series of noises, then seemed to close his eyes, as the red glow that usually shone from the robot’s ‘eyes’ dimmed and vanished. A few moments later, a twin pair of harmless pale blue lasers shot across the room, illuminating it slightly as if intended for use as a night-light.

Ardam shook his head and sighed. “And we’re still not supposed to suspect him for being a spy?”

Tesla giggled. “True, but at least he’s giving us some light to go to bed by.”

“Speaking of which, wasn’t it still light out when we –” Ardam began, before being interrupted as he yawned hugely, “... came into the inn? Oh well. Convenient how these time changes can make you tired, too...”

He glanced at the gunslinger, then nodded slightly and said, “Good night.”

With that, the mage walked over to one of the beds in the room and slipped under the covers, fully clothed.

Tesla hesitated for a moment, fighting over a decision, before quietly stepping over to the same bed and reaching for the blanket.

“You can use the other bed if you want to.” Ardam said suddenly, and the gunslinger jerked her hand back, startled.

Does he... not want me around? Or is he just being clueless again...? Tesla thought, watching him uncertainly.

Ardam shifted slightly under the blankets. “Something wrong?” he asked.

The gunslinger recovered and shook her head. “Oh, nothing,” she said, “Just... good night, Ardam.”

“Yeah...” the mage replied, sounding tired, “G’night.” He shifted again and turned away from Tesla.

The tracker watched him in silence for a moment more, then suppressed a sigh and walked to the other bed in the room. She slipped under the covers as well, but lay awake for several minutes, silently watching Ardam’s bed in the moonlight, wondering whether she had said the right thing.

Ardam also stayed awake to think for a few minutes. Why was Tesla so intent on being with me, anyway? Is it just because she’d rather not put up with some of the rest of the party... or is she supposed to be my...?

Though the inn rooms were reasonably warm, Ardam shivered. A series of tired-sounding beeps issued from where Spybot was recharging, and the two others in the room drifted off to an uneasy slumber...

v---v

EDIT 1: Forgot to run this part through the spellchecker, fixed a few words.

EDIT 2: Fixed one discrepency (or however that's spelled) in the scene transition bar numbers, and removed my sig. Baka desu!

Edited by: E Mouse  Image at: 12/24/03 5:03 pm

Uncle Pervy
 

Re: ADV Gaiden (Sidestory) - THE Adventurers! Fanfic

Unread postby Uncle Pervy » Tue Nov 25, 2003 9:41 pm

“What?! 900 GP?! The inns aren’t supposed to start costing that much until Lokar after the Kildracks crystal!” he raged.

I think I see a sentence break.


ANYWAYS

Not too shabby, Mus. I wanna see more on that weapons pricing agreement :D
<p>------------------
Greetings, large black person. Let us not forget to form a team up together and go into the country to inflict the pain of our karate feets on some ass of the giant lizard person.
</p>

E Mouse
 

Re: ADV Gaiden (Sidestory) - THE Adventurers! Fanfic

Unread postby E Mouse » Thu Nov 27, 2003 12:25 am

Issue resolved, yet I'm too lazy to go back and fix it, along with all the other minor edits me and my dad did together.

And sadly, the weapons pricing agreement is a one-shot gag. :(

This might give you a better idea of where I'm going with this, though!

^---^

Ardam imagined that the next day, he would be allowed to wake himself up slowly via the time-tested strategy of yawning, stretching, and believe it or not, scratching.

Naturally, this was not the case.

Instead, the mage awoke with a start and sat up in his bed, alarmed. For a moment he wondered, blearily, what had startled him, before he jumped in response to a blaring, artificial trumpet sounding nearby. Ardam looked over at the corner which Spybot had shut down the night before, and saw it back on its feet, broadcasting a loud military trumpet tune. Feeling grumpy at the rude awakening, the mage grabbed the spare pillow on his bed and flung it at Spybot.

The pillow hit the robot full in the ‘face,’ and the recording it was blaring was suddenly muffled by the projectile. Spybot staggered slightly from the force of the impact, then toppled to the floor as another flying pillow hit it a second later, while the robot was still off-balance. Puzzled, Ardam glanced at where the other pillow had come from to see Tesla sitting up in her bed, glaring at Spybot. The gunslinger glanced over at the mage, noticing his stare, and stared back for a moment before blushing faintly and turning to look out the window.

Ardam followed Tesla’s gaze and noted that it now seemed to be fairly early morning outside. The chirps of several morning birds, apparently having recovered from their surprise at being drowned out by Spybot, could be heard outside.

Spybot seemed to twitch from below the two pillows that had knocked it down. The attackers both laughed nervously and got out of bed to help the robot back up.

-----

“Good morning, Karn!”

“Good morning, Lumi!”

“Have we missed anything?” Ardam asked as he walked into the inn’s main lobby.

“Good morning, Ardam!”

“Good morning, Tesla!”

“Please don’t be turning into NPCs. Is the rest of the party up?” the mage specified.

“Drecker and Karashi are waiting outside, I think...” Karn answered, then paused as a thud resonated from near the top of the inn stairs.

Tesla and Ardam both glanced back up the staircase, curious, as another short thud could be heard.

A moment later the thuds continued, strung together as if something heavy was falling down the stairs.

Shortly, Spybot tumbled out into the inn lobby, several large pillow feathers obscuring the robot’s ‘face,’ including, of course, its vision.

Karn and Lumi immediately fell over laughing. Tesla giggled as well, though sounding more nervous than amused, and Ardam slapped his forehead with a palm.

“I’ll check on Chookie and Gildward.” Ardam called over the noise. Tesla nodded at him, and the mage went up the stairs, wondering what might have happened to the two relative weaklings...

------

The blue-robed mage stopped in front of the inn room Karashi, Gildward, and Chookie had slept in the night before. He knocked on the door and paused for a moment, listening intently.

No response. Ardam opened the door a crack. “Gildward? Chookie...?”

He peeked in through the opening. “... oh my.”

The mage pushed the door wide open to get a good look at the room and the chaos that had apparently visited it. The floor of the room was littered with feathers, apparently torn from the ruined pillows scattered about. A pillowcase was held up against the far wall by a pair of shuriken, apparently filled with a fuzzy, pink-furred object. The top blanket for one of the beds was ripped off of the mattress, but it was still in the room; the blanket was in one of the corners of the room, tightly wrapped around an unconscious Gildward.

Ardam shook his head. “Knowing these two, I can hardly blame her for this...” he muttered.

The mage turned around and shouted down the stairs, “Uh, Karn? Lumi? Could I have a little help with this?”

-----

After Lumi’s casting of a revival spell to awaken Gildward and pulling Chookie out of his makeshift ‘body bag,’ the party returned to the inn lobby and prepared to leave. After helping Spybot remove the feathers still left on its ‘face, the group bid an uncomfortable farewell to the innkeeper, several of them wondering how she would react upon seeing what Karashi had done with her room. They walked back out to find Drecker and Karashi waiting in front of the inn, apparently waiting for the rest of the party.

The two were an odd sight at the time; the thief was leaning up against the ninja, eyes closed, apparently asleep. The large black marks under his eyes made him look extremely tired. Karashi, however, looked up at the rest of the group as they exited the Almiez inn and seemed to fight back a sudden scowl upon laying eyes on Gildward and Chookie. The bard and ‘cute thing’ cowered away from the ninja for a moment as she glared at them, but she turned away and lightly nudged Drecker in the chest with an elbow.

“Hey. Wake up.” She said quietly. The thief muttered something softly, apparently in his sleep.

A vein on Karashi’s temple throbbed, and she elbowed Drecker in the ribs again, harder this time.

The thief let out a quiet “Oof!” and looked up, still bleary-eyed and half-asleep. “Huh? What?”

“Good morning, Drecker!” Lumi sang out, cheerfully.

Ardam rubbed his forehead in exasperation.

Karn seemed to ignore all of this, however, and turned towards the main gates of the town. “Okay everyone, let’s go!” he cried.

“... Didn’t we come here to find a sidequest?” the blue-robed mage asked heavily.

The main hero paused, then turned around and nodded at Ardam. “Yeah. It activates when we leave town. So let’s go!” he said, then turned around again, apparently wanting to get going.

“So how do you know that?” Karashi inquired. The hero stopped again.

Grumpily, Karn turned around, took out the BAG again, and dug around in it for a moment. Then he blinked, remembering something, and muttered, “Oh yeah, it’s a key item...”

Karn reached behind his armor and pulled out a small white booklet. Scribbled on the front in a half-legible script were the words ‘Sidequest Guide.’ The hero offered the book to Ardam, who took it and started flipping through it.

“Karn, this is just a listing of other sidequests we’ve done. And... only the ones related to Khrima’s activities.” Ardam said. He frowned. “Where did you get this?”

“Some guy with a yellow headband gave it to me...” Karn answered, seeming confused, then frowned as well and continued, “But there IS a new sidequest in there! Look in the back!”

Ardam flipped to the last page of the booklet. On it was a simple message:

Laser Facility #16
When leaving Almiez after Chookie and Gildward’s dungeon, there will be an event. This event will lead you to Lord Khrima’s Laser Facility #16, currently under construction. You know what to do here!


Ardam finished reading and sighed. “What makes you think that this isn’t a trick sent by Khrima to lure us somewhere?” he asked, though he felt that most tricks by Khrima probably wouldn’t be much of a problem. Karn, however, was unlikely to realize this.

“But the person who gave it to me wasn’t in Army of Khrima gear!” the hero said insistently.

“Just because SOME of the army members aren’t smart enough to take off their armor when they need to look like NPCs doesn’t mean that ALL of them are that stupid!” Ardam replied, angry.

“But if it’s a sidequest then it won’t interfere with the main plot!” Karn said triumphantly.

Ardam sighed again. “Okay. Whatever. We’ll do this stupid sidequest, even if only because we’re already here.”

Karn smiled and practically skipped off towards the main gates of Almiez. Having little other choice, the rest of the party followed.

-----

As the group left Almiez, the more intelligent of its members noticed that, unusually, there was no immediate transition to the world map. After a moment, Karn recognized something was wrong as well, and looked around in confusion as he tried to figure it out.

Once the hero noticed the rest of the party still following him around, he came to the first conclusion that he could think of. “Oh yeah! And the current party should be –”

The hero didn’t finish this statement, though, because he was interrupted by a female voice crying out from a fair distance away. The cry was too distant, at the moment, to tell exactly what was being said, but it seemed angry. The voice came again, and the party determined its origin to be the inside of a patch of trees near Almiez. As several members of the group turned to look at this small wood, mostly curious, a loud ‘thok’ of a blade or arrow hitting something wooden came from the same location as the voice.

Karn and Ardam glanced at each other. The hero smirked.

“Told you so.” Karn said smugly, and led the party into the tiny forest.

Ardam grumbled.

-----

Karn led the way into the small wood, hacking a path through the shrubbery with his sword for the rest of the group to follow through. As they did so, the party could hear what sounded like a small battle from somewhere inside the forest. The female voice could also be heard occasionally, yelling things like, “Leave me alone, you goons!” and “Stop chasing me!” An occasional ‘thok’ accompanied the sounds of the fight, constantly sounding more and more like an arrow striking wood than anything else.

“I’m guessing there’s some kind of fight...” Karashi muttered, keeping one hand on the katana sheathed on her back, and the other on Drecker’s shoulder to help him stay standing rather than collapse from exhaustion.

“Then we’d better help out!” Karn said cheerfully as he hacked away at the foliage.

“Didn’t I already point out that this is probably a trap?” Ardam grumbled.

The party stopped as Spybot let out a quiet, but urgent, series of beeps to attract the attention of the rest of the group. The others all glanced over at the robot and saw that it was holding a section of the brush aside with one hand, making a ‘hole’ about large enough for a person to jump through. Past the hole was what looked like a forest clearing, though most of the party couldn’t see any of what might be inside the clearing without getting closer to the ‘entrance’ the robot was pointing out. The rest of the group walked over, as quietly as they could manage to, in order to get a look; Ardam and Tesla were the first to get close to the ‘hole’ and get a good glimpse at the scene in the clearing.

The most surprising presence in the opening was that of about two dozen Army of Khrima goons, all clothed in their usual brown-and-red gear and K-capped helmets. Most of these minions were making a loose half-circle around someone or something hidden from view near a large tree at the far end of the clearing. The rest of the Army members seemed to be knocked out; they were sprawled on the ground, some with feathered arrows still sticking out of them. Many more similar arrows were scattered around the clearing, some stuck in stumps and trees around the edge of the area.

Suddenly there was a loud ‘twang,’ apparently from a bowstring firing, and one of the Khrima minions blocking the view into the loose half-circle of Army goons fell to the ground, an arrow sticking out of his helmet. This gave the group looking in on the clearing a better look at the person that the Khrima goons were trying to surround.

It was a rather attractive young lady, with both her outfit and appearance that almost perfectly fit a ‘Native American’ theme. The girl’s clothes seemed to be made out of deerskin, and she wore moccasins of a similar-looking material on her feet. From where they were at the moment, the adventuring party had difficulty recognizing other specifics about the girl, but it was easy to tell that she had rather long black hair and was holding a wooden longbow with her left hand, its string still vibrating from firing the arrow. Strangely, two pink orbs seemed to be floating near the top of the archer’s bow.

There was a moment of relative silence, broken only by the girl panting, apparently tired out from the fighting, and the dimming hum of her bowstring. The archer shot a quick glare at each of the Army of Khrima minions, then spoke. “That was my last warning.” she said, unable to completely conceal the nervousness in her voice, “Try anything else and I’ll really beat you jerks up!”

Several of the Army members glanced at one another, looking even more nervous than the girl was. But apparently fear of what their superiors would do if the Army group came back empty-handed was greater than their fear of what the archer might be capable of, and the goons inched towards the girl, closing the circle gradually as they went.

The archer licked her lips nervously, and reached for the top of her bow with her right hand. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you…” she growled.

-----

“Destroy?” Spybot asked skeptically.

Tesla leaned to Ardam and whispered into his ear. “What should we do, Ard–”

“I’ll handle this.” The mage said suddenly, and jumped through the hole in the shrubbery Spybot was providing. The edge of his robes caught on a branch for a moment, and he stumbled slightly as he entered the clearing. The mage shrugged this off, though, and simply yanked his clothes free, chanting something under his breath.

The crashing rustle of Ardam’s entrance made the others who were in the clearing turn and look. It was impossible to discern the expressions on the faces of the Khrima goons thanks to their signature helmets, but the Native American-themed girl looked simply puzzled at the mage’s presence.

Ardam wasted no time recognizing or responding to any of this, however. Instead, he finished the mumbled incantation for his spell, then whipped out his staff and stabbed at the ground with its pointed end.

“Mother Nature!” the mage yelled.

Among Karn and his party, the ‘Mother Nature’ summon usually caused a predictable sequence of events; first, the main party would vanish (except for Ardam), and a large tree would quickly grow out of the ground behind the mage. Then, Mother Nature would come out from behind this tree and decide whether to help with the current situation. This time was somewhat different.

No one vanished, and no new tree grew. Instead, there was merely a loud birdcall from the branches of the tree that the girl in the clearing was cornered up against. Several of the Army of Khrima members, and the archer girl, turned around again to look at the tree. They watched in silence as a trail of sparkling lights seemed to jump from the branches of the tree and hover down towards the center of the semicircle that the Krima goons had formed. Soon it could be seen that these ‘sparkles’ were actually a trail of sorts following Mother Nature’s path as she slowly faded into sight, half-floating and half-falling down to the center of the half-circle of Army members. The summon had her eyes closed at first, but when she fell to a point about one foot off of the ground, she stopped in midair, began levitating, and opened her eyes to survey the scene.

The first thing Mother Nature noticed was the presence of the startled Khrima goons nearly surrounding her; then she saw the forest scenery behind them. The summon instantly assumed – rather correctly – that the Army members were trying to defile the wood, and her eyes narrowed as she gave each of the minions a fierce glare. Mother Nature didn’t turn around and notice the other girl, now behind her and staring at the summon in disbelief, until the archer stepped backwards, bumping into the tree behind her.

Somehow, Mother Nature noticed this, and whirled around to look. She noticed the black-haired girl and blinked; after a moment more, her eyes widened and she spun around again, furious.

“How DARE you attack someone so close to nature!” the summon snarled at the Army members. She raised a hand and made a complicated, graceful gesture with it.

Ardam had only seen Mother Nature actually attack on a few occasions. Usually, the area was too focused on technology for her to properly use her powers, and other times she had done nothing but scold the mage for attacking innocent animals. But Ardam remembered that, when the summon DID attack, it was normally with a mass of living vines that came from the ground and entangle or impale the mage’s enemies.

Did it happen this time? Of course not.

Still, Mother Nature’s enraged attack started out similarly. Large, spiked vines suddenly sprouted out of the ground near the feet of the Army of Khrima members and wrapped around them, scratching the minions and effectively trapping them in place. After a few seconds, these vines sprouted large flowers, which bloomed at an alarming rate; the entire thing soon looked like a large rosebush of multiple colors (including red, pink, white, and a few black ones).

The attack didn’t end with that, however; Mother Nature gestured again and a strong wind blew through the area, bringing with it a seemingly endless swarm of beautiful, pink cherry blossom petals. For a few seconds this was merely a harsh breeze, but after a moment the wind seemed to intensify into a small tornado focused on the group of Khrima goons. The archer girl, who was closest to the whirlwind but still, somehow, excluded from the strongest of the breezes, grabbed onto the tree behind her to avoid being blown off her feet as the winds grew still stronger. After a moment more, the rosebushes seemed to let go of the Khrima minions – or the wind became strong enough to rip them off of the spikes which had held them in place – and they spun around in the air, caught in the ferocious tornado. Some of the flowers on the bushes were torn loose in the wind and joined the chaotic, perfumed windstorm.

Through all of this, Mother Nature ‘stood’ still where she had been, glaring at the Army of Khrima members with an arm outstretched. After the goons had been sent around in their tornado-driven course several times (getting scratched up repeatedly on the rosebushes, which had not moved), the summon gestured gracefully again, and pointed upwards.

The tornado seemed to respond to this request and ‘compacted’ itself, spinning faster and bringing the Khrima goons into a closer spiral and receding away from the black-haired girl, who seemed to be having a little trouble holding on. A powerful, ground-level breeze brought the unconscious Army members into the windstorm as well, where all of the minions crashed into one another repeatedly for a few seconds. Then, the wind suddenly stopped. Everyone with a view of the clearing watched in amazement as the cherry blossoms and rose petals fluttered through the air unaided and the Army of Khrima members were flung at high speed towards the edges of the clearing, often directly at a convenient tree.

The goons didn’t crash into the trees, however, as the wind came once again, and in a final burst swept in low and shoved the Army of Khrima members into the sky, completely blowing them away, both literally and figuratively. Still scowling, Mother Nature slowly faded out of existence, her summon time spent.

v---v

EDIT 1: Who is this mysterious stranger? Why was Ardam so willing to come to her rescue? Does anyone care about this comment right here? Is Mother Nature just PMSing? Was Drecker sleeping through the whole thing? Does Chookie REALLY like pie?!

FIND OUT NEXT WEEK.

... or whatever.

Edited by: E Mouse&nbsp; Image at: 11/27/03 12:32 am

E Mouse
 

Re: ADV Gaiden (Sidestory) - THE Adventurers! Fanfic

Unread postby E Mouse » Thu Nov 27, 2003 10:37 pm

And because I'm on a fsking roll today...

^---^

Most of the flowers that Mother Nature had brought into the clearing were blown high into the air and lost from sight when the summon ended. But many still remained, and made for a beautiful sight as they fluttered around the clearing during the calm after Mother Nature’s attack. Through all of this, Ardam managed to get a better look at the girl that he had helped out, who was staring back at him in amazement.

The mage had assumed correctly about many aspects of the archer’s appearance. Her pants were actually rather unspectacular short shorts of deerskin. The only odd thing about the garment was a small, black, dyed-on profile of a leaping rabbit, located near the bottom of the shorts. Her stomach area and belly button were exposed, but above that the girl wore what seemed to be a fairly modest (yet rather tight-fitting) deerskin bikini top, held in place only by a strap over the girl’s right shoulder. Her hair was rather complex; it was black, as Ardam had already noticed, reached to a point a few inches above the girl’s waist, and was done up into a single long braid. The braid was held in place by an odd hair band near its end, which had a large number of feathers identical to those on the arrows that were scattered around the clearing attached to its inside surface. The feathers seemed to be held in place only loosely, as if designed to be easily pulled out. Near the top of the braid, at the back of the archer’s head, was a trio of much larger, bright yellow feathers. Another part of the girl’s hairstyle was a pair of large ‘loops’ made from her hair that seemed to hang from her ears and reached almost to her shoulders. The archer’s longbow was rather plain-looking at first sight, but it did have an odd feature near its top: The very tip of the bow had a simple-looking wooden latch on it, which held a string in place on top of the bow. The string was actually the center of what looked like a bizarre weapon similar to a bola, consisting of the string held in place by the latch on top of the bow, a few inches of string reaching down out of the latch in both directions, and two bright pink, fuzzy balls, one on each end. Both of the balls had a trio of what looked like small talons sticking out of them, giving the weapon a more dangerous look than it might at first glance. The girl’s skin was moderately tanned, and thus, rather red-brown in color, and she had piercing brown eyes. Another odd physical feature of the girl was a black tattoo on her left shoulder that looked like an eagle, or some other bird of prey, with its wings spread wide, as if soaring.

The Native American-looking girl blushed when she noticed that Ardam was looking her over so carefully. She bowed slightly, seeming quite grateful, and said, “Thanks for the rescue.”

“Ardy?” Tesla called, stepping into the clearing. Karn, Spybot, and the rest of the main party followed, loudly crashing through the shrubbery.

The mage turned around. “I’m fine. Are we done with this yet, Karn?”

The archer girl stared at the rest of the group as they entered the clearing. Several of them looked at the new girl as well, curious.

“Wow, these flowers are pretty!” Lumi said suddenly, as if she had entirely forgotten how they had arrived in the area.

“Yeah, this is GREAT!” Karn agreed, completely ignoring the other mage of the group.

Ardam sighed and turned around again to address the archer girl. “I guess I might get a better answer if I just ask you. Could you explain why you had Khrima’s minions chasing you?”

The girl in question hesitated. “Well… it’s a bit of a long explanation…” she said, sounding slightly evasive.

“We have the time. Nothing new is going to happen to us unless our local idiot advances the plot.” the blue-robed mage grumbled. He shot Karn a dirty look which went unnoticed.

“Advances the plot…?” the archer asked, confused.

“Yes,” Ardam said wearily, “We’re supposed to be the current gang of heroes out to save the world.”

“Heroes...” the stranger said, and considered for a moment. Then, she said slowly, “I think we could use your help.”

Ardam raised an eyebrow. “We?”

The girl began her explanation, and most of the adventuring party watched her, listening intently.

“My name’s Chitaka. My hometown is a small village called Ehri-ko, up in the mountains near here.” The girl began.

“Ehri-ko? Never heard of it.” Gildward said.

The archer nodded. “We usually keep to ourselves, and live off the land. But a few days ago a big army of those guys you just defeated… Ardy, right?”

Tesla blinked in surprise. For a moment she glared at Chitaka, furious that the girl had used her unofficial nickname for Ardam, but then remembered that it was the only name for him that the archer had heard, and calmed down – a little, at least.

Ardam shook his head in response to the Native American-styled girl, and said, “No, my name’s Ardam.”

Chitaka glanced at Tesla and stared at her for a few seconds, as if thinking about something. A smirk flashed across the archer’s face for an instant before she turned back to Ardam and continued calmly, “Okay, sorry, Ardam. Anyway, a while ago the village was attacked by a huge group of those K-minions... Who did you say they were working for? Krhami?”

“Khrima. He’s an old enemy of ours.” the mage specified.

“But why would he bother attacking someplace so out-of-the-way when he’s so powerful now?” Karashi asked. She looked at Ardam, who shrugged.

“I don’t know,” Chitaka said, after a pause, “They didn’t give any reason or warning for the attack. The rest of the tribe tried to hold them off, and my father told me to try and escape... a few days later I went back to check, but Khrima’s troops apparently managed to occupy all of the longhouses... I tried to sneak into the Chieftain’s home to see if I could find out what was going on, but the goons discovered me and attacked. They’re pretty weak,” she smirked again for a moment, “As you apparently know, but there were just too many of them... I was heading towards Almiez and trying to shake them off when you showed up and helped me out.”

Ardam frowned. “Tribe? Longhouses?” he asked skeptically.

“Yep,” the archer said, “There’s not much in the way of... technology in Ehri-ko...” Chitaka hesitated for a long moment after this statement, glaring at the pistol Tesla had at her waist.

The gunslinger frowned at the new girl, doubtful that the two would be able to get along with each other for very long. The new girl smirked once more when she saw Tesla’s mistrustful expression. For a few seconds the two glared at each other, and the relative tension between them seemed to build up to the point where they could have lit small objects on fire. The two girls may have remained glaring at each other for quite a while longer, but both of them were distracted by another member of the party.

“Never fear!” Karn said suddenly, sounding exactly like the idiot hero he was, “We’ll free the village for you!”

Apparently looking for an outlet for the tension between herself and Tesla, Chitaka reacted rather violently to this interruption: The archer spun towards the green-haired hero, holding her longbow ready to fire, and grabbed one of the feathers on her hair band with her right hand. Chitaka yanked the feather free and somehow it was followed by an entire arrow, identical to the others she had been using while fighting the Army of Khrima members which were in the area earlier. The archer nocked the arrow on her bow and pulled back, ready to fire at Karn.

The party watched this reaction in stunned silence. As they did so, several of the group’s members also noticed that the feather that Chitaka had removed from her hair band grew back after a second, apparently providing the archer with an infinite supply of arrows.

Chitaka gave Karn a cold look. “Since when was I asking YOU about this?” she hissed.

Ardam stared at the archer, looking impressed at her forcefulness.

Karn managed to recover from his surprise at the girl’s reaction, and replied, “Bu… but I’m the hero!”

Chitaka looked at Ardam again and lowered her bow. “Is he always this stupid?” the girl asked.

The mage stared for a moment more before shaking himself slightly and recovering as well. “Yes, he is... Sadly, it’s hard to do anything about that.” he said with a sigh.

The archer looked at Karn and Ardam in turn, considering something once again. After a while she seemed to make her decision, and said to the hero, “I appreciate your generosity, but I want to know what Ardam thinks.”

The mage blinked, and stared at Chitaka again. The archer simply smiled back, looking smug. Ardam hesitated for several seconds, apparently surprised at his opinion being considered more important than Karn’s. Then the mage recovered some and asked, slowly, “Well…. How hard is it to get to... Ehri-ko?”

Chitaka gave Ardam an impressed look, pleased that he had remembered the name of the village. Then she shrugged, and said, “If you know the way, it isn’t too bad of a walk, and I can guide you there. There’s also a guardian of sorts on the way, but it’ll let us through with me around. Though there are some monsters that frequent the paths... then again, they’re easy to avoid...”

The mage shrugged dismissively. “We’ve dealt with monsters and guardians before. Are you sure you don’t have any idea why Khrima attacked your village...?”

Chitaka shook her head. “I don’t think there’s any real reason he should try to take over Ehri-ko rather than another town... I mean, we have our legends and resources, but there are more accessible places to get pretty much the same thing...”

Ardam stared at the archer for a moment more, then shrugged again and looked down, pondering what to do. The rest of the party watched in silence (except for Karn impatiently tapping his foot on the ground), until the mage finally sighed and looked up.

“Well... Karn’s going to go leveling up no matter what I say, but we might as well do it while messing with Khrima’s operations... and I’m curious about why he might have attacked anyway...” the mage said, “So I guess it’d be a good idea to go along with this... escort mission or whatever.”

Chitaka giggled. “Escort? I’m flattered by the offer of protection...” she said, and paused momentarily as Tesla flinched at the archer’s assumption that Ardam had intended to suggest such a thing. Chitaka hid another smirk and continued, “... but I can take care of myself if I need to. I won’t be a burden.”

Karashi raised an eyebrow. “ANOTHER temporary party member?” she asked. Chitaka gave her an angry look and was about to respond, but Drecker, who was leaning against the ninja to stay standing again, suddenly let out a loud snore. He was rewarded for this by another quick elbow to the gut from Karashi.

“Ow!” the thief said, waking up once more, “Now what’d I do? What’s going on?” He looked around blearily and blinked at Chitaka.

Ardam chuckled. Both Tesla and the archer did so as well after a moment, beginning at the same time. The two girls stopped and glared at each other. The mage didn’t notice this, and gave the party’s thief a quick explanation. “We found the sidequest Karn was looking for.”

“Oh. Okay then.” Drecker said, sounding tired, and closed his eyes again.

“I get the feeling Drecker won’t be in fighting condition for a day or two.” Ardam muttered.

“Who?” Chitaka asked, curious.

“The tired guy. He’s our thief. Karn and Lumi probably kept him up half the night.” Ardam said, throwing the hero another dirty look.

Chitaka blinked in confusion, then giggled. “I guess you really ARE a group of heroes... still, I’ve wasted enough of your time explaining and asking for help... you can tell me about your adventures on the way, if you want to.”

The archer turned and pointed off towards the west. “The path to Ehri-ko starts from the inside of another small forest to the west of here; the village is hidden in the mountains.” she explained.

Ardam nodded at Chitaka to show that he understood. Karn wasn’t as happy about it, though. “Can I take the lead as the hero again now?” he whined.

The mage sighed. Despite this mild objection, Karn smiled and continued, “Good! Then the party’ll be me, Chitaka, and Drecker!”

Ardam slapped his forehead. Chitaka blinked in confusion again, and said, “Uhm, isn’t he still exhausted? I think it’d be smarter to take someone else along...”

Karn blinked as well. He wasn’t used to being so disagreed with. The hero scowled at the archer. “Who would you recommend, then?” he asked grouchily.

“Ardam.” Chitaka replied, almost instantly.

The mage shrugged. “Okay, better than sitting back and being unable to help...” he said.

“Unable to help?” the archer asked, still curious.

“Like you said, we’ll explain on the way...” Ardam replied, stepping in the direction Chitaka had pointed out earlier as if to suggest that the party start moving.

The archer nodded eagerly and dashed up to walk out of the clearing alongside Ardam. The rest of the group followed, exiting the area alone or in pairs, until only Tesla remained, glaring after Chitaka and thinking.

How... how does she get through to him so easily? Ardy acts like he barely notices me, and yet... the gunslinger thought, and clenched a fist in frustration. Maybe... maybe it’s just a coincidence? I don’t know... I think I’ll follow along and watch...

She grimaced. Although... I don’t like that girl... not at all...

Tesla shook herself and remembered that the rest of the party had already left.

“H-hey! Hold on, Ardy!” she cried, and ran to catch up.

-----

There were two main options for non-active members of Karn’s party when they were not in a town or participating in an event: Usually, the inactive members were allowed to simply vanish into a sort of unused limbo where they could do as they liked, although the characters had to be available at any time for plot scenes, being switched into the active party, or other events. But sometimes the inactive members could chose, instead, to follow along with the main party, even if they weren’t allowed to fight, or do anything else significant.

Tesla chose to make use of this second option, although she didn’t actually tell the active party members about this. Instead, she simply followed them quietly from a distance, watching as Karn, Ardam, and Chitaka walked towards another small patch of woods to the west. The mage and archer were talking continuously, although the gunslinger couldn’t tell what the two were chatting about. The fact that Chitaka often burst into fits of giggles didn’t help Tesla’s hopes that Ardam had practical reasons for going along with the archer...

-----

“What’s so funny about the mere mention of Gildward’s name?” the mage asked.

“He’s a BARD!” Chitaka replied through her laughter, “Isn’t that just pathetically amusing enough?!”

“EVERYTHING’S funny when it happens to someone else,” Ardam said heavily, “But he’s part of the party, so we have to put up with him. Even in battle, sometimes.”

“Oh...” Chitaka said, and stopped giggling suddenly. She bowed her head apologetically, and said, “Sorry.”

Ardam shrugged. “It’s okay.”

By now the three were at the edge of the woods leading to Ehri-ko. Ardam could see a distant trail, probably a mountain pass, leading up past the far end of the trees, into the mountains beyond.

Karn stopped and turned around, towards the mage and archer. He looked around at the grassy fields the group had been walking through, scowling in confusion and frustration.

Chitaka wasn’t sure what the hero was upset about, but took a guess as to what it might be. “Er... yes, that’s the forest that leads to Ehri-ko.” the archer said hesitantly.

“It’s not that!” Karn replied, sounding panicky, “Where are all the random battles?!”

“Oh.” Chitaka said, and thought over that statement for a moment. Then she frowned as well, puzzled. “Why do you want to have monsters attack?”

“Experience.” Karn said, adopting a faintly dreamy expression.

The archer shook her head at the hero. “You ARE an idiot. Although... I suppose it might be wise to do a little hunting.” Chitaka replied.

With this, she knelt down and carefully removed the moccasins from her feet. Ardam stared, puzzled.

The archer smiled and offered the footwear to the mage for him to look over. “Moccasins of Traceless Movement,” the archer explained, “They work like the name says; makes it almost impossible to track anyone wearing them.”

“But Khrima’s minions still followed you...?” Ardam asked, wondering how they could have done so.

Chitaka shook her head. “Too many of them. They don’t work nearly as well when the tracker already knows that you’re there, or when they can see you – and one of the leaders there was alert enough to notice me and raise the alarm.”

“... what did the leader look like?” the mage asked.

“Oh, not much different than the rest of them, but he did have a weird weapon...” the archer replied.

Ardam frowned and looked down at the moccasins he was holding. A thought struck him and he pointed out another oddity. “If they only make YOU difficult to track, then why haven’t the monsters noticed me or Karn? It would make sense if they’d figured out that attacking the idiot was suicide, but that’s never happened before...”

Chitaka shrugged. “It helps us out a little, so why worry about it?” she asked, smiling at the mage.

Ardam chuckled and replied, “Good point.” He blinked in confusion as the archer extended a hand out towards him, then realized what she wanted and handed back the footwear he was holding. Chitaka nodded at him and bent down to put the moccasins back on.

“Are we ready to move on yet, Karn?” Ardam asked.

The two looked over at the hero and found him walking around in circles. Ardam slapped his forehead again.

“What’s he doing?” Chitaka asked.

“Still trying to get into some random battles. Guess we’ll have to put up with him for a little while...” the mage replied, sighing again.

Chitaka sighed as well, although sounding more irritated than resigned to something unwanted. She stepped into Karn’s path and glared at him.

Noticing either that the archer was standing in his way or his inability to go onto the area section she stood on, Karn looked at the archer.

“We don’t have time for this.” Chitaka snarled.

“But I’m the most important person in existence! Nothing’ll happen without me!” Karn replied, stepping around the archer as he continued to wander in search of random battles.

“And what if you can’t get there? I’m the only one who knows the way to Ehri-ko, and I’m going further right now!” the archer said, then whirled around and marched towards the forest.

After watching in amazement for a few seconds, Ardam glanced at the green-haired hero and followed Chitaka into the small wood.

“But... but I’M the hero...” Karn whined once more, sounding close to tears. He stared off into the woods after Chitaka and Ardam as they walked farther in for a while, then the hero sniffed, sighed, and ran to catch up with the two.

v---v


E Mouse
 

Re: ADV Gaiden (Sidestory) - THE Adventurers! Fanfic

Unread postby E Mouse » Fri Nov 28, 2003 10:35 pm

^---^

Well, that was different. Tesla thought as she stalked the active party through the trails of the loose, shady, quiet forest leading to Ehri-ko. She couldn’t hear any of the exchange that occurred just outside of the woods, but she had watched as Chitaka apparently gave Karn a good reason not to walk around fighting for experience, which was a rare thing to succeed at.

Not wanting to miss out on more of the main party’s conversation and thinking that it was safer to follow more closely now, thanks to the abundance of tree cover in the area, the gunslinger started to follow Chitaka, Ardam, and Karn at a small enough distance for Tesla to hear what was being said.

At least for the moment, the mage seemed to be still explaining the history of the party to the archer. He was currently recounting how Lumi had joined the group.

“... but there was a boss in the dungeon, as usual. A massive Shadow Slime. Lumi showed her usefulness by taking it out in one hit using Smite, though... anyway, we got the trinket she was looking for and went back to the church, where she decided to come along permanently...” the tracker clearly overheard.

Tesla frowned, wondering why the mage didn’t mention that the ‘trinket’ was also one of the Eternal-sealing pendants. Maybe he doesn’t trust Chitaka as much as I thought he did... the gunslinger thought, feeling slightly comforted by the idea.

After a while, the main party reached a small sort of clearing in the wood, and stopped for a moment. Tesla scanned the area quickly and noticed that there were four exits from the clearing; the one the group had entered through, another directly across the clearing from the first, and two other paths going out from the left and right edges of the area.

Chitaka stepped out in front of Karn and Ardam, then turned around and smiled. “You’re going to need my help now. It’s hard to find your way through this part of the woods unless you know which way to go...” she said.

“ANOTHER forest maze?” the mage asked.

The archer giggled. “I guess. Don’t worry though, it’s pretty short.”

“Then what’re the directions?” Karn asked huffily.

“I’m not giving you directions. I’m going to lead the way.” Chitaka replied, giving the hero a stern look. Karn grumbled something Tesla couldn’t hear.

The archer looked back at Ardam, smiled, and said quietly, “Watch closely.” She winked at the mage and headed off down the path to the right of where the three had entered the small clearing. Ardam stared at her back, wondering if there was some kind of special trick required to get through the woods that Chitaka was hinting at, and slowly followed.

Tesla had not heard the archer‘s last line, and, in a fit of jealousy at the way Ardam was staring at Chitaka, punched the tree she was hiding behind. This accomplished nothing but to make the gunslinger’s knuckles hurt, and she fought back curses and tears as she continued stalking the main party down the path Chitaka had left the clearing by.

After following this trail for a little while, the group stumbled upon another opening almost identical to the first. The archer glanced behind her to make sure Karn and Ardam were still following, then smiled again and walked off through another of the exits of the new clearing.

This process repeated itself several times, every clearing looking just like the one before it, until the group finally entered a different opening that had only two obvious exits; the one they had arrived through, and another at the opposite end that was thoroughly blocked by the trunk of a massive, old-looking tree.

Chitaka turned to the other two in the main party and grinned. “There! This is the route that leads to Ehri-ko.” she said.

Karn looked around in confusion, apparently missing what the archer meant. Ardam sighed, nudged the hero, and pointed at the other exit to the clearing, and the tree blocking it.

“But...” the hero began.

“So how do we get past this tree, Chitaka?” Ardam asked loudly, drowning out Karn. The hero blinked, glanced at the mage, and followed his gaze, looking up at the path-blocking piece of greenery.

Actually, the tree ‘guarding’ the route to Ehri-ko wasn’t green in the way one would first expect; none of its branches had leaves. The branches were further odd in that almost all of them seemed to be loose and flexible, drooping down like living whips. There was a singular exception to this rule, though; there was one stiff, more normal-looking branch at around head height on the tree that seemed to be reaching out towards the center of the clearing. It wasn’t entirely normal, though, since it was a dull grey in color and seemed to be made of stone rather than bark and wood. Much of the tree’s trunk was covered in a dark green moss of some kind, but the bark that could be seen was an unspectacular dull brown.

The archer giggled again. “That’s the guardian I was talking about earlier. The Barklin Tree can be fought, but it’ll also just let you past if you conduct yourself properly...”

Chitaka walked over to the tree, reached up, and grabbed hold of the petrified branch with one hand. She muttered something under her breath, too quietly to be heard, then stood still for a moment, listening intently. After a pause, the archer nodded, whispered something else, let go of the branch, and stepped back.

The Barklin Tree responded to the apparent command or request that Chitaka had made, and suddenly seemed to come alive. There were some loud creaking sounds, and a large section of the tree’s bark receded, then rose up on the inside of the tree’s trunk, opening up a darkened hole into the tree’s apparently-hollow interior. There was some more creaking, and the far side of the tree repeated the process, opening up a pathway directly through the Barklin Tree.

“Impressive.” Ardam said after a pause, sounding sincere. Tesla scowled from her hiding place near the other entrance of the clearing.

The archer smiled at the mage. “Thanks. Anyway, let’s get going... we should get to Ehri-ko by around nightfall...”

Ardam raised an eyebrow. “You expect time to pass during a sidequest?”

Chitaka blinked in confusion, then adopted a worried look. “It usually doesn’t?” she asked, concerned.

The mage shrugged. “It’s okay. Doesn’t matter, really... you’re right, let’s get moving.”

The archer nodded and the two started towards the passageway through the Barklin Tree. Karn didn’t move, however, still staring up at the tree with a blank expression on his face.

“... Karn?” Ardam called back to the hero, “Are you okay?”

“... huh? The cinema scene’s over?” Karn asked, sounding confused.

The mage blinked. “What do you mean, ‘cinema scene?’ There hasn’t been one.”

Karn scratched the edge of his hair, puzzled. “But I could have sworn the tree opening was one...”

Ardam sighed. “Whatever. Just come on, let’s go.”

Chitaka rolled her eyes. “Would it be a good idea to just leave the idiot here?” she asked.

“I wish it was, but it probably isn’t. Hey, Karn! Come on or you’ll miss out on all the experience!” Ardam yelled.

The hero blinked and seemed to come back to life. “What? Oh oh, wait for me!” he cried, and darted towards the passageway through the Barklin Tree.

The clearing was silent for several seconds as the main party left onto the route to Ehri-ko. Tesla waited for them to get past the tree, then silently walked into the clearing itself.

With some loud creaking and moaning, the Barklin Tree’s mobile layer of bark suddenly shifted back into its original placement, effectively blocking off the passageway it had created moments before.

The gunslinger froze and watched the tree for a second, tensely wondering why it had closed the passageway so suddenly. After a while she relaxed and considered what to do.

Well... it wouldn’t be easy to sneak past, and trying to fight this... Barklin Tree would cause a ruckus... not sure what kinds of powers it has, either. But... Chitaka calmed it easily... might be worth trying to do the same... Tesla thought.

The gunslinger slowly walked over towards the Barklin Tree, and its petrified branch. She hesitated for a moment once, when one of the other branches seemed to twitch of its own accord, but soon reached the base of the tree.

Feeling foolish, Tesla gave the tree a short bow, and reached up towards the petrified branch with a hand...

-----

The main party emerged on the other side of the Barklin Tree, and found slightly new scenery to greet them; the greenery began to get sparser, and the only obvious trail onwards had an uphill slope, heading into the mountains. The group walked in silence for a few seconds, then Karn spoke up.

“Where’s the experience?” he asked.

Ardam sighed. “We’ll get it later. For now we’re just –”

A loud moaning and creaking from behind them made the party whirl around and look at the Barklin Tree.

The ‘backside’ of Ehri-ko’s trail guardian looked very similar to the front, except with fewer of the strange, flexible branches that littered its other side. It even had another petrified branch, placed at the same spot as on the front. What was unexpected about it was the fact that the passageway through the Barklin Tree was now closed, showing only moss-covered bark.

“Wha... It closed up?” Ardam asked, after realizing what had happened.

“Strange... it usually stays open for a minute... the Tree must have decided to be a little paranoid after letting that group of K-goons get through with me earlier...” Chitaka said calmly.

The mage stared back at the Barklin Tree for a while, then turned around again. “Huh. All right, whatever. Let’s go...”

Suddenly, a scream came from beyond the guardian tree, along with another series of wooden creaks. Ardam whirled around once more.

The Barklin Tree was apparently alive in ways to defend itself as well as to block or allow passage through to Ehri-ko. The flexible branches on the far side from the main party were now whipping around, striking out at someone in the clearing the group had just left.

Ardam was the first to react, and recognize the voice. “Tesla?!” he called, surprised.

“Oh yes, she’s been stalking us since when we left that first forest...” Chitaka called out casually, as if she were commenting on the weather.

“Why is she being attacked, then?” Ardam asked urgently.

“The Tree doesn’t like technology, primarily...” Chitaka continued, still sounding half-bored and almost amused at the whole situation.

“Can you stop it?” the mage pressed.

“Well, I can try...” the archer replied, and hesitated for a moment. Then, she quickly dashed up to the tree and grabbed the petrified branch as she had before. Chitaka said something under her breath again, but the branch in her hand jerked up and away from her. One of the flexible branches on the archer’s side of the tree suddenly came to life as well, and lashed out at her. Chitaka dodged to one side, escaping the attack with only a small red cut on her cheek rather than a more serious wound.

The archer hid a smirk. “I think she made it angry.” Chitaka said, still sounding primarily amused at what was happening.

“So we have to fight it?” Ardam asked, pulling out his staff.

“I think that’s probably the best solution...” Chitaka answered, stepping backwards to avoid another wild lash from the Barklin Tree’s branches.

“YES! Finally, a battle!” Karn yelled, and charged in to slash at the tree. He struck at the trunk which had opened up for the party earlier, and his blade lodged into it with a loud ‘THOK.’ Undaunted, the hero started trying to yank it out, ignoring the branches lashing out at him.

Chitaka sighed. “He IS an idiot.”

“Yep. But you’re the knowledgeable one here; any suggestions about what we should do, Chitaka?” Ardam asked, focusing in preparation for casting a spell.

“Well... the tree’s very vulnerable to fire, but has good physical defenses...” the archer began.

Ardam nodded and launched into his chant for Fire 3. However, Chitaka wasn’t finished with her commentary, and concluded, “But it has immunity to pure magic, and it’d take forever to defeat it with just physical blows...”

The mage frowned, displeased, but continued his chanting. Apparently, he wanted to test the tree’s immunity himself. The archer kept thinking as she walked back and slowly took out an arrow from her hair band. She nocked it on her bow, then, after a moment’s pause, Chitaka let the arrow fly, where it headed straight for the thick bark of the Tree, above Karn’s head. The archer seemed to realize something a split second after she fired and suddenly said, right as Ardam finished the incantation of his spell, “Use it on the arrow!”

Huh? the mage thought, focusing more on his spellcasting than on what Chitaka was saying. Luckily, the archer’s well-timed distraction disrupted Ardam’s aim for his spell, and caused it to hit the arrow Chitaka had fired, lighting it on fire. The projectile struck the Barklin Tree squarely, and quivered in place for a few seconds. Then the flames licking at the arrow spread onto the tree, ripping away its living bark and branches with alarming speed. Literally within seconds, the lashing branches of the tree were nothing but ash on the wind, and the Barklin Tree itself was reduced to a pile of smoking cinders and a pair of petrified branches, one on each side of the tree’s remains. Karn easily yanked his sword out of the ashes, and immediately took to calculating the experience, gold, and AP the group had earned from the skirmish.

Chitaka kicked her way through the surprisingly cool cinders and walked back into the previous clearing to see a badly scratched and panting Tesla sitting down at the far edge of it. The archer sneered.

“Now what are you chasing us around for, instead of hanging out in that limbo with the rest of the group?” Chitaka asked, sounding gleeful at Tesla’s mistake.

“I... I... I wanted to keep an eye on Ardy.” Tesla replied, panting. A half-truth, but startled and shaken as she was, the gunslinger couldn’t think of much better.

“Then why didn’t you just ask to come along?” Chitaka continued.

“Having... having an extra party member around just ends up being a useless distraction...” Tesla said, repeating what Ardam had once told her.

The mage then stepped into the clearing as well, brushing the ashes from the Barklin Tree off of his robes as he entered. Ardam walked up beside Chitaka and asked, in a more neutral tone, “Why didn’t you try to fight back?”

Tesla felt betrayed. “Be...because you said... you said not to attack monsters when you’re alone, since that might draw you into a solo battle...” she mumbled, disheartened.

The mage shook his head. “No, you should have... this time it would have been the right thing to do, I think...”

The gunslinger stared at Ardam, struggling to hide the anger she felt. “What makes you think that...?” she asked.

Ardam averted his eyes from the gunslinger’s hurt gaze. “... just a feeling.”

An awkward silence followed, with Tesla staring at the mage in disbelief, Ardam apparently trying to think on his own, and Chitaka glancing between the two with an expression of barely-restrained glee.

It was the archer who broke the silence. “Ardy, I think I got scratched...”

Ardam turned and started walking back ‘through’ the ruined Barklin Tree. “You’ll be fine, Chitaka. Let’s just go...”

Chitaka’s smugness faded slightly, her cheerful grin turning into a mere smirk. She gave Tesla a look.

The gunslinger glared back with unrestrained loathing on her face. There was another long, tense moment as the two girls looked at one another.

“Shouldn’t we get moving?” Ardam called from past the remnants of the Barklin Tree. The archer turned away from Tesla and replied, “Sorry, sorry, I’m coming!”

With that, Chitaka strutted off to meet with the other members of the main party again.

For a few seconds, the gunslinger sat still and fumed. How... how is she doing this?! Somehow... somehow that stupid archer’s making it seem like she’s so much better than I am... and Ardam...

Tesla punched the ground, fighting back tears. I can’t give up... I’ll just have to show that I’m closer to him than she is... I won’t lose so easily!

Forcing herself to be determined, the gunslinger stood up, and ran to catch up with the main group.

v---v


E Mouse
 

Re: ADV Gaiden (Sidestory) - THE Adventurers! Fanfic

Unread postby E Mouse » Sun Nov 30, 2003 9:56 pm

Though I've done more than this, I've just been being shy. Here ya go:

^---^

As the main party neared a bend in the trail past the Barklin Tree, the noise of Tesla’s pounding footsteps behind them made the group turn around. The gunslinger ran up in front of the trio and stopped, panting slightly.

“Oh? And what do you want now?” Chitaka asked, sounding amused at Tesla’s presence. The gunslinger shot her a dirty look, and turned to Ardam.

“Could I still tag along, Ardy? I won’t be a nuisance...” Tesla said, with an almost pleading tone.

The mage shrugged. “Sure thing, if you want to.” he answered.

The gunslinger smiled, relieved. Chitaka scowled at her, but hid the expression from Ardam. The mage and archer turned around again to see that Karn had vanished from sight.

“Er...”

“He just kept going. Guess he wants to get there, huh?” Tesla said, answering Ardam’s unasked question. “C’mon, let’s go!”

The gunslinger grabbed one of the mage’s hands and led him around the corner the three had stopped at. The two quickly caught up with the green-haired hero and were soon joined by a now-fuming Chitaka.

The group walked in silence for a minute, watching as the scenery quickly changed from loose forest to sparse, rugged mountain trails, with sheer cliffs and steep walkways. After a while, Ardam asked, “Was it all right to attack the Barklin tree like that?”

Chitaka’s smirk came back again, and she replied, “It’s fine. The tree grows back in a few hours... in fact, sometimes villagers go out to fight it in order to train.”

Ardam nodded, accepting this explanation. Suddenly, Karn, who was leading the group as they walked through the winding trail, turned around and glared at the archer.

“Can we PLEASE do some fighting now?” he pleaded.

Chitaka sighed. “All right, all right, just a few while we’re on the way.” she replied, and took off her footwear again.

Tesla held out her hands, offering to hold onto them for the moment, but Chitaka ignored her and walked over to Ardam. “Could you keep track of these for me, Ardy?” the archer asked sweetly.

“Er... sure.” The mage replied, accepting the moccasins with his free hand. He stared down at them in mild confusion, causing him to miss the angry look Tesla shot at Chitaka.

This exchange was broken up by Karn as he loudly unsheathed his sword, grinning like the idiot he was. “Thanks!” he said simply, then began running around in circles.

Ardam slapped his forehead.

-----

Several minutes later, Karn was panting tiredly and wondering why his repeated circular motion wasn’t attracting monsters.

“Maybe we should try farther along the trail?” Chitaka coaxed, trying to keep the group moving.

Karn sighed, disappointed, but nodded at the archer and headed off down the path.

A bend in the trail leading into a canyon between mountain peaks came up soon afterwards, and when Karn looked around it, he gasped, sounding pleasantly surprised, then cackled gleefully and charged off around the corner.

Chitaka and Ardam glanced at one another, then dashed over to get a look themselves.

It was quite a sight: A large group of assorted monsters and other animals of the mountain trail were gathered there, milling about as if waiting for something they had forgotten about. The party’s green-haired hero was charging straight into the mob, oblivious to their sheer numbers.

“Maybe his pacing DID do something.” the mage mumbled to himself.

The archer giggled and nocked another arrow on her bow. “Shall we join in?” she asked.

Tesla peeked around the corner as well and stared as a pair of Bulbears, already awoken by the commotion, lunged clumsily at Karn.

“If we don’t, Karn’d probably just get himself knocked out...” Ardam said, stepping closer to the mob and trying to decide on a spell to use.

Chitaka giggled again. “All right then, let’s get started!”

-----

There were several more ‘random encounters’ of this style that came up at surprisingly logical points; ambushes from behind a rock faces or pieces of dense highland scrub, groups of waiting enemies hidden around a bend or similarly set out of view, and even occasional aerial monsters landing on the trail for no discernable reason. Apparently content with what he found going forward, Karn didn’t bother to try doubling back to find more monsters.

During most of the fights, Tesla spent her time cheering Ardam on, trying to make up for her silence from before. The mage seemed slightly embarrassed by the gunslinger’s praise, but grateful for the encouragement. However, it lost some of its effect when Chitaka joined in on the praising, leaving the mage very confused as the two girls got into small competitions to see who could complement him the most.

In the end, all of this was largely a way to pass the time as the group went along the trail to Ehri-ko. But finally, around another bend on the winding trail, the party stood at the top of a sheer cliff face overlooking the village, in a large valley in the mountains. Unsurprisingly, Ehri-ko perfectly fit the same ‘theme’ as Chitaka; the buildings were all basically traditional Native American longhouses, and several small teepees were scattered about the valley as well. However, it was obvious that Khrima had gained influence in Ehri-ko, since many of the longhouses had unnatural-looking mechanical additions and modifications. In fact, the largest one, located near the center of the valley, seemed to have been entirely reworked by Khrima’s minions; thanks to a large K-marked front door and all-steel surfaces, it looked more like an aircraft hanger than a longhouse. As it was getting dark, it was impossible to tell what the people milling about in Ehri-ko were wearing, but it was safe to assume that they were most likely members of Khrima’s army. The path continued around the edge of the valley, circling around and slowly descending to the level of the village.

Ardam cautiously walked over near the edge of the cliff and stared down at the town. “Is that Ehri-ko?” he asked.

Chitaka nodded. “Yes. You can tell Khrima’s been trying to change things around here... what should we do, Ardy?” she asked.

The mage thought for a moment, oblivious to Tesla glaring at the archer from over his shoulder. “Well... night cover might be helpful, but it’s more important to know what we’re going up against...I can’t even see if they’re guarding the path down in this light.”

The archer nodded again. “Okay. We can probably camp out back around the bend here... we shouldn’t be noticed there unless we make a campfire or something like that.”

“Good idea, but what if a Khrima patrol comes by...?” Ardam began.

Chitaka giggled. “Oh, that’s unlikely. They’re so clumsy they get attacked by monsters on the trail constantly; if the amount of goons the monsters distracted when I was escaping earlier is any indication, they’d have to send fifty or so to get this far.”

The mage frowned. “All right, and then what’s going to stop the monsters from attacking us?”

Tesla smirked. “You do remember that story you told me about finding a dozen electrified cuterabbits after resting in a tent once, right?”

Ardam grimaced for a moment more, then said, “All right. I guess I’ll just have to trust you on this one, then.”

The gunslinger and archer glared at each other for a moment, both trying to force the other to admit that the mage was referring to their own piece of information and not the others’.

Not noticing this, Ardam looked around for a moment. “Er... Karn? Where are you going?” he asked.

The hero was marching off down the path to Ehri-ko, standing out in plain sight. He stopped upon hearing the mage’s voice and turned around. “To save the village! It’s a daring nighttime raid, right?”

Chitaka sighed. “No, we’re going to camp out and check it out in the morning.”

“But...”

The archer silently nocked an arrow on her bow.

“... okay, I’m feeling tired anyway.” Karn mumbled bitterly.

“So what’d we miss?” Drecker said as he rounded the bend behind the four, before yawning hugely. He looked a bit better than he had in the morning, as if he’d had a bit of a nap, but still seemed to be pretty tired. At least the thief was standing on his own now. The rest of the inactive party came around the bend behind him, staring around in curiosity.

Startled, Chitaka jumped and whirled around. Tesla resisted the urge to snicker at her and turned around as well.

“We’ve arrived!” the gunslinger stated cheerfully.

Ardam stared down at Ehri-ko in silence. He seemed to be thinking about something.

“Well, we’re out here, so there’s supposed to be some kind of event here, right?” Karashi asked. Drecker rubbed his eyes and yawned again; the ninja reached over and shook him gently, trying to help him wake up.

“We need to go back a little and set up camp.” Chitaka said, quickly recovering her dignity and bringing up a practical point.

Drecker muttered something, then rooted around in a pocket with one hand, grabbed an object inside, and slowly pulled out a fairly long tent pole.

“Thank deity we all have a near-equivalent to Karn’s BAG.” Tesla said, smiling at Chitaka’s astonishment.

-----

By the time night truly fell, the party had a small campsite set up around the bend shortly before the cliff above Ehri-ko. The camp was made up of five small tents hidden from sight from the town by a cliff face. Ardam had one of the tents to himself, despite both Chitaka and Tesla being very willing to join him. The mage declined their company, saying that he wanted to think about something that was bothering him.

As Ardam sat and pondered in the tent, Tesla tiptoed in, holding the flap open to see by the light of the moon. “Ardy?” she asked quietly.

“Yes, Tesla?” the mage replied, willing to accept a momentary diversion.

“Well... I’d like to know what’s wrong. Why did you want this tent to yourself...?” the gunslinger asked hesitantly.

“Like I said, I wanted to think for a while.” Ardam replied, knowing the next question before it was asked.

“About what?” Tesla asked, hiding her nervousness.

“It’s just... something’s been very different today...” the mage said, frowning in thought.

Tesla winced. “I... I understand. It’s okay. I’ll just leave you alone...” the gunslinger said, trying to sound cheerful and failing.

Ardam gave no reply.

Tesla exited the tent and stared up at the night sky for a moment. Does he mean... Chitaka? Is her presence the difference that’s making him so concerned...? Ardy’s so clueless about emotions, so... maybe...

The gunslinger shook her head forcefully. No! Don’t think like that. There has to be something... hopefully...

Heart sinking regardless, Tesla walked through the campsite to her own tent, which she was sharing with Chookie.

“Hello Tesla, chook! Where were –” the pink-furred creature started, but was interrupted by an expertly-wielded pistol pointed at his face.

“Be quiet tonight. I need to think too.” The gunslinger snarled.

Chookie gulped, and Tesla put her weapon away. There was a minute’s silence as Tesla got into her sleeping bag.

“Can I ask one question, chook?” Chookie asked.

“If you mean beside that one, then okay. But only one. For the rest of the night.” Tesla growled in response.

Chookie shivered, but said, “Okay, chook. Where’s Spybot?”

Tesla blinked. Now that she thought about it, the robot hadn’t been there while the party set up camp...

-----

Far away from the mountain pass, near the edge of the forest leading to it, Spybot sat up against a tree, composing an electronic request to its creator....

SOS. SOS. STRANDED FROM MAIN PARTY DUE TO INABILITY TO PASS STRANGE AGGRESSIVE TREE. REQUESTING ORDERS OR AUTHORIZATION TO ACCESS A FLAMETHROWER.

And with that sent, the robot also went into ‘sleep’ mode.

-----

Ardam was one of the first of the party to awaken and exit his tent to start waiting for the others. He wasn’t the first to leave the tents, however. The mage wandered over to glance around the bend and noticed Chitaka sitting near the top of the cliff overlooking her village.

Curious, Ardam walked over to join her. He noticed that the archer seemed rather worried; she was nervously playing with one of the feathers on her hair band, and holding her knees close with the other hand.

Ardam crouched down next to Chitaka. “Is something wrong?” he asked.

The archer stopped playing with her hair ornament, wrapped the arm around the mage, and put her head on his shoulder. Chitaka sighed.

“I’m just a little worried...” the archer said, “I don’t know what’s happened to the rest of the tribe...”

Ardam blinked, stunned at Chitaka’s actions. “Uh... well, we should be finding out today, so just wait a while for the rest of the party...” he said, feeling awkward.

Chitaka smiled. “Thanks, Ardy...” she said, carefully putting down her bow and reaching over to give him an affectionate hug.

This was of course the worst possible time for Tesla to peek around the corner as well and see the scene. But so she did, and then stared in shock.

Ardam kept perfectly still for a few moments, stunned and confused at what Chitaka was doing. After that he slowly reached up and grabbed one of the archer’s arms with one hand, removed it, stood up, and backed away, giving Chitaka a suspicious look.

The archer simply smiled at him as he walked away, then turned to grab her bow again.

The mage stared at Chitaka as he backed away for a while, then turned around and shook his head, heading back towards the campsite. Conveniently, he didn’t notice Tesla watching him from around the bend.

“Ardy?” the gunslinger called in a small voice from behind the mage.

Ardam turned around and gave Tesla a stunned, puzzled look, still confused by what Chitaka had done. Though she tried not to show it, the tracker couldn’t help but smile slightly in relief.

After a few seconds of silent staring, Ardam seemed to recover, and asked, “What is it, Tesla?”

“Oh, nothing. Nevermind.” Tesla replied, watching as Chitaka scowled at the two for a moment.

Ardam shook his head again and wandered back to his tent.

-----

About an hour later, the entire party was awake again, and the group was almost ready to try to find a way into Ehri-ko. Drecker seemed entirely recovered from his lack of sleep the night before, and was asking about what had happened, which Karn was willing to explain.

Sort of.

“... and then we fought our way past the Barklin tree and then we started fighting random battles around here and got another 50 AP towards my next skill...”

“I get the feeling I should have asked Ardam.” the thief mumbled. He glanced at Karashi, as if to ask where the mage was.

“He’s helping Chitaka and Tesla figure out how we’re going to get into the town.” The ninja said with a shrug.

“Look at me, chook! I’m juggling rocks!”

Another rock suddenly flew at Chookie and struck the pink-furred creature in the head, knocking him over.

“Nice aim, Drecker.”

“Thanks.”

-----

In the meantime, Chitaka, Tesla, and Ardam were hiding behind a rock outcropping near the end of the path, taking a look at how Ehri-ko was being guarded by Khrima’s minions.

“It looks like they’re only guarding the bottom of the trail... I think there’s about five of them there...” Chitaka mumbled.

“Still, it’d be tough to get by them as a group, especially with Karn’s lack of stealthiness...” Tesla said.

“Would it be possible to come down the cliffside?” Ardam asked.

“It’d probably be too dangerous; we don’t have any gear for it, and the guards might notice...” the gunslinger replied.

“It IS a possibility, though.” Chitaka said insistently.

Ardam frowned, thinking about something else. If his suspicions were right, then maybe one of his spells would help...

“Chitaka, would Ehri-ko be a friendly town if Khrima wasn’t occupying it?” the mage asked, apparently out of the blue.

The archer blinked. “Well... yes, generally, it would.” She answered, with a glance at Tesla’s weapon.

Ardam frowned in thought. The transportation spell he had in mind usually put the party either on the world map, just outside of the town teleported to, or just in front of the town’s inn...

“Does the village have an inn or hotel?” the mage asked.

Chitaka shook her head, looking very confused about Ardam’s question. “No. Visitors are rare, and they usually stay at the Chieftain’s longhouse...”

The mage smiled. “That’s perfect.” he said, then noticed the archer’s puzzled look and explained.

“One spell I know, called Warp, can teleport the entire party to any friendly town or village that I’ve been to. It usually puts the group near the entrance to the town or right outside where we can take a rest there.” Ardam said, “If I can get into Ehri-ko, maybe I’ll be able to warp to the inn and bypass the guards for everyone.”

Tesla blinked. “Okay, Ardy, but... the key word there is ‘friendly.’ Do you think it’d even work right now...?”

Ardam shrugged. “I get the feeling that it will this time.” He said.

“And what are the requirements for this... visiting?” Chitaka asked.

“Usually you just have to step into the town...” Ardam replied.

“But that’s the problem. You’d have to get in alone...” Tesla said, worried.

Ardam chuckled. “Yes, but that’s easier than getting everyone in. And if I do get noticed, the rest of the party can watch from the cliff and help me out if I need it.”

Chitaka and Tesla glanced at each other. Even if they didn’t like one another much, neither wanted Ardam to get hurt.

“Well... all right.” The archer said, “But how are you going to sneak in?”

Ardam hesitated. “Well... I’m no expert at moving stealthily...”

Chitaka was suddenly struck by an idea. She smirked and knelt down, then blinked, remembering something.

“My moccasins.” the archer said.

Ardam blinked, and reached into his robes to retrieve the piece of equipment.

Tesla frowned. “Would those help enough?” she asked.

“They might, but I’m still not sure...” Ardam said, bending down to slip the footwear over his usual shoes.

Chitaka considered for a moment, and smirked again. “How about I lead Ardam into the village, and Tesla can go tell the rest of the party what we’re going to do?”

The gunslinger glared. “So you think you can make yourself invisible or something?” she asked angrily.

Chitaka’s smirk broadened. “I’m stealthy enough, and someone needs to tell the rest about this...” she said, enjoying herself.

Ardam nodded. “Actually, I think that’s a good idea.” he said.

Considering the situation logically, Tesla knew that it was probably a good idea as well, but that didn’t stop her from disliking the whole thing. After glaring at the archer for a second more, the gunslinger said, “Okay, I’ll go back. Good luck, Ardy!”

-----

After watching for a while as Tesla dashed back up the trail, Chitaka and Ardam turned back to one another. The archer smiled. “Just follow what I do, all right?” she said.

The mage nodded, feeling nervous at attempting something so delicate that he had little idea how to do.

Chitaka nodded back, then silently darted out from behind the rocks the two were hiding behind. She circled around it quickly before returning to the rock face and leaning up against it, staying in the slight shadow it provided to help stay hidden. For a moment, the archer watched the Khrima guards at the bottom of the trail leading down into Ehri-ko, before turning and waving Ardam onwards. The mage did likewise, surprised at how soft his footsteps were, and the two carefully sneaked towards the village.

Soon enough the two were behind another rock outcropping, very close to the five Army of Khrima members just inside the town. There was a pause.

“Now what?” the mage whispered, “We need a distraction...”

“I’d love to just blow these guys away, but it might not be smart to let them know we’re attacking yet...” Chitaka muttered in response. She thought for a moment, then smiled. “I’ve got it.”

The archer brought her hands to her mouth and somehow produced a sound scarily similar to that of a yawning Bulbear.

The Khrima goons guarding the end of the path jumped in fright.

“W... was that a Bulbear?” one of them asked nervously.

Chitaka imitated the beast’s call again.

“There’s at least one... jeez, not another monster attack! Let’s get outta here, we’ll need some backup!” another of the Khrima minions said. The goons scattered, running off towards the hangar-like longhouse in the center of the valley.

The archer lowered her hands and smirked. “Looks like the animals don’t want them around here either.”

Ardam stared for a moment, and nodded numbly.

“Anyway, let’s go!” Chitaka said, and darted off into Ehri-ko. The mage followed.

The archer quickly reached and hid up against a convenient teepee near the entrance to the town. Seconds later, Ardam arrived as well, panting.

“Not a sprinter, huh?” the archer asked, smiling. “Don’t worry, catch your breath.”

The mage nodded. Suddenly another voice interrupted from inside the teepee.

“Greg? You been messing with the helium tanks again?”

Chitaka and Ardam froze for a moment, looking at each other in fright. Then, the archer whipped open the flap to the teepee, pulled out an arrow, and quietly dispatched the lone Army of Khrima member inside.

“Hopefully that’ll go unnoticed...” Ardam muttered.

“They’re using it as a toilet,” Chitaka replied huffily, “I don’t think it’ll matter for a bit. You ready to use Warp yet?”

“Er... problem is that I need to be with the main party to bring everyone along using the spell.” the mage said, “But I will check if it’ll work...”

For a second, Ardam muttered quietly, then his eyes unfocused, as if he was paying attention to something he didn’t need to rely on sight to understand. Then the mage seemed to snap back to reality.

“Yes! Warp should take us right to that main longhouse.” he said cheerfully.

The archer wasn’t looking at him, however, and was instead staring back at the end of the trail leading into Ehri-ko. A larger group of Khrima goons were now gathered there, apparently waiting for something to happen, or maybe psyching themselves up to go and take care of the monsters they thought were about to attack before they came into the village.

“I think we might need another distraction, Ardy...” Chitaka muttered.

The mage looked over as well, and frowned. Something caught his eye and he glanced up at the clifftop near the corner the party had spent the night at; there was someone or something peeking down from the cliff’s edge.

This inspired an appropriate ‘distraction’ in Ardam’s mind. He launched into another spell chant...

-----

“I still say we should just charge in.” Karn grumbled.

“That would take too long. And if we do they might manage to keep us from finding out why Khrima attacked this place anyway.” Tesla said, nervously watching from the cliff’s edge for any sign of Ardam down in the occupied village.

“So we just have to wait for Ardam to show up?” Drecker asked.

“Pretty much. I hope he’s okay...”

Unnoticed by the tracker, Karashi and Drecker exchanged a look, but remained silent, waiting.

From out of nowhere, a rock hit Tesla on the head. “Ow! Who threw that?” she said, turning around irritably.

“Threw what?” the thief asked, sounding puzzled.

The gunslinger suddenly remembered a similar situation Ardam had once told her about, and glanced up.

A large, jagged slab of rock was fading into existence above her, obviously brought about by magic. Tesla’s eyes widened, and then she dove out of the way, towards where the rest of the party was standing.

“What the –” Karashi said, but was quickly drowned out as the rock hit the cliff edge and started a small rock slide going down into Ehri-ko.

This attracted the attention of all of the Khrima members (especially the ones that got crushed by the artificial natural disaster), and in the ensuing chaos, it was simple for Chitaka and Ardam to sprint back up the trail and to the rest of the party unnoticed.

“That enough of a distraction for you?” Ardam panted after sitting down and removing the moccasins. He handed them back to Chitaka.

The archer giggled as she took her footwear back. “You bet it was!” she said with a smile.

“That WAS impressive.” Tesla agreed, smiling at the mage as well.

Ardam simply sat still and panted for a few seconds, trying to catch his breath again.

“Maybe you should try to improve your endurance, Ardam...” Drecker said, noting how hard a time Ardam was having with recovering from the sprint.

The mage shrugged. “I’m a mage, what do you expect?” he asked, not sounding offended.

Tesla and Chitaka both glared at the thief, who balked. “Erm... sorry.”

Curious, Chookie had been watching around the bend leading further down the trail. Suddenly he spoke up. “We have a problem, chook.”

“What?” Ardam asked as he stood up again, having gotten his breath back.

“Khrima people, chook!”

“Probably coming to investigate. We should get out of here...” Karashi added.

“Do you think you can try using Warp now?” Tesla asked Ardam, sounding concerned.

“I’m fine,” the mage said, “Just give me a second...”

“Lucky we packed up the campsite.” Drecker muttered.

“Uh, isn’t there a good chance we’ll end up teleporting right into the middle of a group of Army of Khrima goons?” Gildward asked.

“But then at least we’d be DOING something!” Karn said, sounding frustrated at all the waiting.

“Chookie, get over here unless you want to get left behind...” Chitaka said.

“Oh, don’t worry; that wouldn’t be much of a loss.” Tesla said with a snicker.

“I’m coming, choo –”

“WARP!” Ardam cried suddenly, and the party vanished from the cliffside.

v---v

EDIT: Sometimes I'm stupid. Oops!

Edited by: E Mouse&nbsp; Image at: 12/1/03 6:40 pm

E Mouse
 

Re: ADV Gaiden (Sidestory) - THE Adventurers! Fanfic

Unread postby E Mouse » Mon Dec 01, 2003 6:50 pm

More!

^---^

The party reappeared with disorienting suddenness right near the middle of Ehri-ko, just in front of the large gate/doors to the main longhouse. Most of the group tensed up, ready for a fight, but the immediate area seemed to be entirely deserted.

“How very convenient.” Ardam grumbled.

Karn kicked at the ground, disappointed. Lumi gave him a comforting pat on the back.

Chitaka giggled. “True. Let’s take advantage of it, though...” she said, and looked at the large, K-marked doors leading into the main longhouse.

“Here’s to hoping they don’t creak.” Drecker said with a shrug, and walked over to the doors. He pushed them near the center, and they opened slowly and with relatively little noise.

“Good enough.”

The group walked into the mechanized building.

-----

“Well, this is.... different.” Chitaka said as she stared around at the new interior of the longhouse, apparently fashioned after many of Khrima’s other mechanical bases that the rest of the party had been through before. The current room they were in seemed to be some kind of entrance lobby, complete with several chairs up against the wall.

“Not really.” Tesla said, looking around at the rather familiar designs and decorations (most involving lasers).

“Right. We’re in. Now what?” Ardam asked.

Karashi pointed at the far end of the current room. “We choose a path, or split up.”

The rest of the party looked where the ninja pointed and noticed three distinct passageways leading farther into the longhouse.

“Convenient again,” Ardam commented, “But I guess that’s what you have to expect from Khrima.”

Tesla chuckled. Chitaka giggled as well, but stopped quickly and suggested, “Let’s split up.”

“Okay then! I’ll go with Ardam and Lumi and Chitaka can take Chookie and Gildward and Tesla can go with Drecker and Karashi!” Karn said.

Another arrow was quickly pointed at the hero. “Nice try.” the archer hissed.

Chitaka lowered her weapon. “I don’t mind who you want to bring along, but I want to take Ardam and –”

“Me.” Tesla cut in. She glared at the archer, who glared back, angry about the threat of competition.

After a moment Chitaka smirked and shrugged. “All right,” she said, “If that’s what you want...”

The archer turned and smiled at Ardam, then started towards the left passage. The mage followed, along with Tesla.

-----

The route that Chitaka had chosen was completely devoid of K-minions; they had apparently all gone out of the longhouse to see what the commotion outside was about. Well, perhaps that or they had decided to hide; there were occasional rooms along the linear pathway, most of which looked like laboratories or research centers, and only very rarely had Khrima’s researchers ever tried to combat the heroes.

While exploring one of the laboratories, Ardam found a sketch of sorts in a filing cabinet that he thought was very interesting.

“Hm... Tesla, Chitaka, look at this.” the mage said, holding up the drawing. The two girls peered over his shoulder to look at it.

It seemed to be a concept sketch for a plain-looking laser pistol. The only really noteworthy feature of it was a large red K on its front, where it was apparently intended to fire from.

The gunslinger frowned after looking the sketch over. “It’s a design for a laser pistol... what about it? Of course Khrima’d have this sort of thing everywhere...”

Ardam nodded. “Yes, he would. But look closely; these are more like construction plans than weapon schematics...”

Both the girls stared at it for a moment more. “Weird,” Chitaka said, “They do look like that...”

Tesla nodded as well. “This could be important. Good find, Ardy!” she said.

-----

However, this paper was largely forgotten as the three continued on, and soon reached the end of their passageway, which opened up into another lobby of sorts, looking very similar to the first room of the longhouse. A large, thick door, again with a red K on it, was at one end of the room, leading still farther through the ‘dungeon,’ with three large floor switches in front of it.

Ardam glared at the buttons. “This is too predictable.” he said, but stepped onto one of them. Nothing happened. The switch didn’t even move.

The mage frowned. “Try standing on all of them?” he suggested.

Both Chitaka and Tesla quickly moved onto the remaining switches, each trying to get into position first. They arrived at about the same time, but neither of the other switches moved. Nothing seemed to happen from any other source, either.

Ardam sighed. “All right... these switches seem to require a lot of weight, or they’re stuck. Come over here an –”

The mage didn’t need to finish his statement. Both Chitaka and Tesla rushed over and stepped on the same switch he was on, as Ardam was about to suggest. The girls both had time to glare at one another for coming at the same time, before both grabbing the mage’s robes to keep their balance as the switch suddenly sunk down by about a foot.

Fortunately for Ardam, the pulls from both of the girls practically canceled each other out, and he managed to stay standing as well. The mage stood still for a moment, listening carefully, but once again, there was no sign of anything happening as a result of the switch being pressed.

Ardam said something under his breath that neither Tesla nor Chitaka could hear, despite how close they were to him at the moment.

“Did you say something, Ardy?” the gunslinger asked.

The mage glanced at her, but said nothing. He thought for a moment, then suddenly stepped backwards, off of the switch.

Both Chitaka and Tesla fought to keep their balance again as the switch rose back up to its original position. By subtly shoving Tesla, Chitaka managed to stay standing, while also knocking the gunslinger off of her feet. The archer smirked smugly.

Ardam didn’t seem to notice this, and simply sighed. “Great. Three switches that require three people each, and do nothing individually... convenient.”

“Again.” Chitaka added. Tesla rubbed her shoulder, which she’d landed on, and glared at the archer.

Ardam chuckled at Chitaka’s accurate statement, and sighed again. “I guess we have to wait for the others...” he said.

Tesla stood up again, but was too preoccupied with her stinging shoulder to say anything in response. Chitaka, though, frowned and said, “I guess. But there’s got to be something we can do while waiting...”

Ardam sighed. “I wish there was... but I doubt it. I don’t see any optional routes or obvious secret passageways around here...”

Chitaka looked around the room, realizing that Ardam was correct. Undaunted, though, she walked over to the wall near one of the chairs and started examining it closely.

“Nothing better to do.” Ardam grumbled, and started examining the other end of the same wall.

Tesla cursed mentally and reluctantly started checking the opposite wall on her own.

There was silence in the room for a few minutes as those present concentrated on their search. This ended, though, when Chitaka and Ardam were nearly finished examining the wall they were checking.

With a sly smirk, Chitaka suddenly slipped into a sitting position on the lone chair left between herself and Ardam, then grabbed his sleeve, intending to stop him.

“Then again, Ardy, maybe we can sit down and rest for a sec...” the archer began to say.

However, her grab had thrown Ardam’s balance off. He staggered slightly and took a step towards the chair to keep from falling over. The mage’s knee hit the underside of the chair, and there was a loud clicking sound.

Everyone in the room froze. Ardam quickly moved his leg back.

Suddenly the chair Chitaka was sitting in dropped through the floor as the archer yelled in surprise. “EEK!”

“Chitaka?!” Ardam called, alarmed and (to Tesla’s displeasure) worried. He stared down at the floor where the chair was. “What’s a ladder doing there?” he asked.

The gunslinger blinked and ran over to look. Chitaka hadn’t actually fallen through the floor; apparently the chair could be used as a downwards-only elevator (as a pair of vertical support ‘holes’ for the chair seemed to show). There was also a white, plastic-looking ladder leading down. The problem, though, was the fact that there was no way to tell what was in the area below them; from what the two could see, it was pitch black. There was no way to tell what – if anything – was below them.

Ardam glanced at Tesla, and stared back down the hole again. Without waiting for a comment, he stepped onto the ladder and started climbing down it.

The gunslinger scowled from behind the mage’s back. Spoon it, this just isn’t going well... she thought, then sighed quietly and followed Ardam down the ladder as soon as there was space for her to get on as well. Somehow the ladder didn’t even shake or quaver from the added weight Tesla placed on it.

-----

Ardam touched solid ground after a short (but extremely spooky) time climbing down the white ladder, then took a step away from it to make room for Tesla, and also check to make sure that there was actually a floor.

“Chitaka?” he asked quietly, sounding intimidated by the oppressive silence and darkness of the room. His voice echoed slightly, as if the area was an open underground cavern.

“What? Who’s there?!” a gruff-sounding voice called from somewhere else in the dark, echoing as well.

Ardam, thinking that a verbal explanation would take too long, decided to try something. He held up a hand, palm up, and focused on casting a simple Fire spell. As it formed, though, he mentally grabbed the energy and kept it stable and in place, providing a magical torch of sorts hovering above his hand.

Tesla and the mage both squinted from the new light as they took a quick look at the large room they were now in. As both had thought, there was no other active light source in the room. The guess of the area being a cavern was also not far off from the mark; the place seemed to be a steel-floored (and walled) underground tunnel. One very peculiar feature of the room was that most of it – except for a rut in the center, near where Ardam and Tesla were standing – was curved, making the walls and floor technically the same surface. It largely resembled the bottom portion of a pipe cut in half lengthwise.

The mage wasn’t about to waste time examining Khrima’s dungeon design, though, and quickly looked around for Chitaka.

The archer was actually in front of the ladder that Tesla and Ardam had come down on; the mechanized chair had apparently traveled on the ceiling as well, and then dropped again onto the nearly-flat floor section while up against a far wall, which was actually straight and vertical, that marked one end of the cavernous room. Chitaka’s face was a grey color, and she seemed to be very frightened. The archer was squinting at the light as well, but boldly looked right at it, trying to see the face of who was causing it.

There was a few seconds’ silence as those present adapted to Ardam’s makeshift light source. “Ardam?” Chitaka asked in a small voice.

The mage took a step towards her. “Yes, it’s me. Are you okay?” he asked.

Chitaka shakily got to her feet; she was (understandably) quite spooked from the ride she’d just taken. The archer haltingly stepped towards Ardam. “That was... really scary...” she said quietly. Now that Chitaka was a little closer, the mage noticed that she seemed to be close to tears.

“Ah, it’s alright,” Ardam said quickly, “Don’t start crying or anything, Chitaka –”

“Chitaka!” the gruff voice echoed again. This time Ardam managed to locate its approximate source and looked over towards the voice, noticing a major feature of the ‘cavern’ that he had somehow failed to make note of before.

The cavern was apparently designed as a prison, and a rather uncomfortable one at that; thick iron bars came up vertically every few inches in a line along where the floor started to curve upwards on both sides of the room. These vertical bars were cris-crossed by horizontal bars, also coming out of the visible vertical wall every at few inches and stretching towards the other end of the room, which Ardam’s magical torch couldn’t light. A single tough-looking iron door could be seen on each of the two large prison cells of the room, with a somewhat oversized lock on each.

There were lots of people in the cells, all wearing Native-American-style clothes similar to Chitaka’s. Most of them were staring out of the cells at either Ardam or the archer. Tesla suddenly felt very out of place, but did nothing to draw attention to herself.

“Get the Chieftain.” several of the imprisoned people whispered to each other, their voices echoing enough to be heard by the party members in the large tunnel.

After a few seconds, someone could be heard clumsily running through the long tunnel towards where the party was. Ardam held up his ‘torch’ higher to see better.

Soon the running person in the prison cell came close enough to be seen by the light of the mage’s spell. It was a rather noble-looking member of Chitaka’s tribe, with short black hair, heavily tanned skin, and the same piercing brown eyes the archer had. He seemed rather disheveled, as if he had been beaten up; his large but tattered and torn headdress gave much to this impression.

“Little Hawk!” he said, sounding relieved, when he got closer and saw Chitaka.

Ardam looked at the archer. “’Little Hawk?’” he asked.

Chitaka blushed. “Chitaka’s really my nickname... it’s shorter.”

Ardam paused for a moment. “I don’t see any connection...” he said.

Chitaka shrugged. “Probably got lost in translation.”

The Chieftain sighed. “I keep asking you to listen, but you never do, little one.”

“Sorry, dad.” Chitaka said, in an unfittingly casual voice.

Ardam stared at her. “You’re –”

“My daughter. Yes.” The Chieftain interrupted, giving Ardam a frowning, critical look, “Although sometimes I wonder why I keep putting up with her.”

Chitaka rolled her eyes. “C’mon, daddy, I know you were worried, you never joke about it otherwise...”

The chieftain sighed, but then chuckled. “All right, you caught me. But how did you get here?”

Chitaka beamed a smile at Ardam. “Ardam here’s been helping me out.” She said cheerfully.

“Then who is the other girl?” the Chieftain asked.

Chitaka blinked, and turned to glare at Tesla. The gunslinger couldn’t resist the urge to smirk, but quickly turned it into a friendly smile, and waved cheerfully at the archer.

“Well... Ardam has some allies of his own that have been helping me out too.” Chitaka said shortly, turning back to her father.

The Chieftain stared at Tesla with suspicion and curiosity for a while, until Ardam spoke up.

“Even though my group’s handed many situations with Khrima before, I’d appreciate some help from your tribe, if possible, Mister... er...?” Ardam said, pausing as he realized that he didn’t know anything but the Chieftain’s title.

“Mighty Cockatrice. Miguel for short.” The leader specified, “And yes; given a way out of this and with our weapons returned, we would be very willing to assist you in driving out these invaders of our peaceful village.”

“Ah... yes, thank you, Miguel.” Ardam said.

“Also... Chitaka has explained what she knows about Khrima’s reasons for attacking your village, but I’d like to know more... is there any real reason he might choose to attack here than someplace else?” the mage continued.

The Chieftain shook his head. “Khrima’s the name of the leader of these fools? A fine thing to know.... but no, I know no reason for him to attack here, not that I can tell. I’ll admit that much of that which is unique to our village can be easily found elsewhere...”

Ardam frowned. All right, I’ll try to figure Khrima’s reasons out later... he thought, and said aloud, “Thank you anyway. Do you know how we can get you out?”

“Yes. The object that made it possible to open and close part of these half-walls is in the hands of a green-haired person with a blue cap and a tattered white shirt....” the Chieftain replied.

Ardam groaned. “Not Kemmit and Meck AGAIN!” he mumbled to himself, then noticed the Chieftain looking at him and said, “Continue.”

“I do not know where our weapons have been put; the K-people took it all someplace. I pray they are still within this place.” Miguel said.

Ardam chuckled dryly. “Don’t worry; Khrima’s predictable like that... we’ll be able to find your equipment.”

The Chieftain grinned broadly, showing surprisingly complete teeth for his presumed lifestyle. “Then do not waste time on us. We will wait for word of your success!” he said.

Ardam glanced around and noticed that many of the other tribe members were staring at him, most with expressions of awe or hopeful looks. The usual. Ardam thought, and said aloud, “All right, let’s get going.”

“Right!” both Tesla and Chitaka said simultaneously. They glared at one another for a moment, then the gunslinger waved cheerfully at the other tribespeople and got onto the ladder nearby. The archer walked over and reached for the ladder as well after Tesla had gotten high enough on it for there to be space for her, then looked around the cavernous room once more.

“Aren’tcha glad I came back now, daddy?” Chitaka asked, and climbed up after the gunslinger.

The mage looked around nervously for a while until there was space on the ladder for him again, then put his free hand on it. Ardam glanced around awkwardly again.

“Well... see you.” The mage said, and grabbed at the floating flame above his hand. It went out, plunging the room into darkness once again. Ardam felt his way onto the ladder and climbed up as well.

-----

“THERE you are. We were getting worried.” Drecker said when he noticed Tesla climbing out of the hole left by the chair Ardam had accidentally activated earlier.

“And not about Karn?” the gunslinger asked as she got onto the floor.

“You know him. He’s probably taking an hour off to beat up Khrima goons for experience.” the thief replied. Chitaka climbed back into the room as well, and helped Ardam get off of the ladder as well.

“Have you been waiting long?” the mage asked.

Drecker shrugged. “A little while. We brought along some entertainment, though.”

“Threes?” Karashi asked.

“Go fish, chook.”

Chitaka giggled.

“Any reason you didn’t try to explore down the hole to the prison?” Ardam inquired.

“No light. Too bad we didn’t bring Gildward along.” Karashi said, pouring over a handful of playing cards.

Everyone else but Chookie boggled at her.

“What? I just mean because he has that silly little harp-lighting technique!” Karashi said, flustered.

Tesla giggled along with the archer this time.

“I assume you figured out the switches?” Ardam asked.

“Yeah. Now we just have to wait for Karn. How about a game of War while we share what we found out?” Drecker said.

-----

About an hour later, Karn, Lumi, and Gildward entered the second lobby through the center entrance, walking in on a tense game of War; Ardam was particularly nervous, as he only had one card at the moment; the King of Hearts. The game was quickly abandoned, though, when the players noticed Karn and the two he’d brought along.

“Finally,” Drecker said, “What’d you do, try and learn fifty new techniques or something?”

Karn scowled. “There were only a few left inside. I did a lot of exploring, though!”

“And what’d you find?” Ardam asked.

“An armory with no weapons to take.” Karn said bitterly, “Does this place even have any treasures?!”

Chitaka and Ardam gave each other a look. “Do you remember which room it was?” the archer pressed.

“Well, actually, there were a dozen identical ones...” Karn said, as if pointing out an irrelevant detail.

Chitaka grinned. “That should work perfectly.” She said. The green-haired hero gave her a quizzical look, and the waiting group explained what had happened in the prison downstairs.

“Why didn’t you wait for me?” the hero whined.

“Because you took an hour and a half,” Karashi said, “I kept track.”

Karn grumbled as the entire party arranged themselves to set off the trio of red switches. As the hero held Gildward in place to set off the last one, a loud siren suddenly went off, and red lights started flashing near the ceiling.

“Wh... bu... but the door’s supposed to open!” Karn said in disbelief.

“Wow. That setup was actually intelligent.” Ardam said to himself. He quickly stepped off of the switch (and Tesla prepared to shove Chitaka first this time), but it stayed down. Ardam muttered something angry and looked around.

Suddenly, the large “K” door in the current lobby opened, revealing the room beyond; it looked like a control center of sorts. At the same time, a full dozen Khrima minions ran into the lobby through the three passageways from the other direction. Karn, Lumi, Drecker, and Karashi quickly formed a loose ‘wall’ through the middle of the room to block off the Khrima guards, taking Gildward and Chookie with them.

A familiar-looking (to most of the party) duo walked into the area from out of the control room. Green hair... blue cap... raggedy white shirt... the taller of the two fit the Chieftain’s description perfectly. His companion, shorter and stockier, had black hair, a dark purple headband, and purple shoulder pads. The taller one was grinning nastily as he glared at Ardam and his two ‘party members.’

“So! You’ve come to face your death!” he said cockily.

“Hello again, Kemmit.” Ardam said wearily.

“No, wait, shouldn’t that be ‘goodbye?’” Kemmit asked mockingly, “In case you haven’t noticed, THIS time is different! Khrima has put an army at our backs, and there’s nothing you can do to stop us now!”

“What army?” Tesla asked, looking back over her shoulder at the rest of the party.

While Kemmit was making his speech, Karn and the others had been fighting the dozen Khrima goons that had come. No more arrived to replace them, and most of the six who had fended them off turned to glare at Kemmit and his partner.

“Er...”

“They have a point, boss, the rest are all investigating what happened out on the mountain trail...” the shorter of the duo said nervously.

“Shut up, Meck! We can handle these guys alone!” Kemmit insisted.

“Um, you couldn’t handle us when you had a tank to back you up.” Ardam said, “And you don’t even have weapons this time.”

Kemmit looked around nervously, as this was entirely true. “So what?!” he asked, “We can take you out no matter what!”

“I seem to remember defeating you guys once...” Karashi said.

“Or twice...” Drecker continued.

“Wasn’t it seven times?” Gildward asked, uncertain.

Kemmit fumed in frustration. “Shut UP! We’re stronger now!”

“Yeah, if you count better durability due to getting beaten up repeatedly.” Tesla said with a snicker.

“But didn’t they go down in four turns last time, chook?” Chookie asked.

“Wanna try for one?” Chitaka asked.

The party stopped chatting and looked at Kemmit. He gulped. The group stared for a moment more, and, as one, GRINNED.

-----

One laughably quick ‘boss battle’ later, the party was free to continue searching the base. Most entered the control room to explore it more thoroughly, and Chitaka searched the unconscious Kemmit for the key to the prison downstairs.

The control room was actually rather small. It looked quite plain; the only real feature of the room was a large computer, its screen currently showing what looked like a laser-styled screen saver. Ardam jabbed a key and the screensaver vanished, now showing a large window on the screen with a single message:

KEMMIT AND MECK ATTACKED. ALL ARMY MEMBERS IN THE VICINTY ARE ORDERED TO COME TO COME TO MAIN LASER FACILITY TO ATTACK THE HEROES.

Have a Nice Day :)


Another small window had the phrase “Message Sent!” and an animated picture of a radio tower sending out a signal.

Ardam cursed. “They alerted the Khrima goons anyway! They’ll probably be here any minute now!” he said loudly, for everyone else in the control room to hear.

“What?!” Tesla cried, surprised. She started to say something else, but was drowned out by Karn.

“YES! Mass exp!” the hero said, almost dancing with glee. Lumi smiled happily as well.

Tesla glared at Karn for a moment, then walked closer to Ardam and said, “Good thing you found that out, or we might have been taken by surprise...”

The mage seemed to ignore her, and said, “Chookie, go check where they are.”

Tesla frowned. That’s rarely a good sign.

-----

Chitaka looked at Chookie as the pink-furred creature dashed past her while she was to rifling through Kemmit’s pockets for the prison key. So far the archer had found a variety of other random objects, but nothing that looked like it would open the lock. Chitaka had recently wondered why the mercenary had been carrying around a kaleidoscope, but for the moment wanted to know where the pink creature was going, and why.

The archer shrugged. She could find out later. Chitaka felt another cylinder-like object in Kemmit’s pockets and pulled it out. She knew on sight that her latest discovery was exactly what she was looking for; it was a large black key, colored the same as the bars in the prison downstairs. The archer stood up, planning to show this to Ardam, and heard a frightened “CHOOK!” echo down from the middle of the three passageways leading into the second lobby, followed by what sounded like muffled gunshots. Seconds later, Chookie came running past again, breathlessly saying “They’re already here, chook, they’re already here...”

The archer cursed and ran into the control room as well.

-----

“Thank deity Kemmit forgot to log off.” Ardam said.

“Makes things easier, doesn’t it?” Tesla replied with a smile.

Chookie ran up to them, panting. “The... they’re already here, chook!” he said

“The message must have been sent before Kemmit and Meck came out to fight us...” Ardam mused, “But they wouldn’t do that, and Khrima wouldn’t think of it...”

“What? What’s going on?” Chitaka asked.

“Khrima goons attacking. They were alerted somehow and they’ve gotten here already...” Ardam said, apparently mentally preoccupied. He glanced at the key Chitaka was holding.

“I think we’re going to need help for this one.” The mage said. “Okay, everyone, quick, I have a plan...”

“We can handle these Khrima goons easily, but there are too many for us alone. What we need to do is free Chitaka’s tribe and get them to their equipment so they can fight too. That means we need to have the second main room and the middle hallway clear of Army of Khrima people. But we can’t leave the side passageways unguarded or they’ll come through there and cut off the tribe members. They should be helped in getting out of the prison, too, and it might be smart to have someone handing out equipment.” Ardam suggested, talking quickly to not waste time.

“I think Chitaka should help the tribespeople get organized and start getting out of there. The middle passageway is most important; Karn and Lumi should be able to hold it easily.” The mage hesitated, considering his next suggestion for a moment, then continued, “Chookie and Gildward may as well help there too, because then they can get healed without wasting items.”

The mage looked at Karashi, then Drecker. “Do you two think you could handle a side passageway each?”

The two glanced at one another. “Well... you can always try.” the thief said with a shrug.

“Good. Make sure to take some good healing potions along so you can keep fighting, and don’t be afraid to retreat some if you need to.” Ardam said.

Drecker took a misty vial of a pale blue substance out of his pocket and nodded. Karashi pulled a similar item out of a secret compartment on the inside of her outfit.

Ardam nodded back, and the two dashed off to take their positions. “I’ll help hand out weaponry to the villagers. Tesla, you should stay here and see what you can find out with this computer. Back up Karashi and Drecker if they have problems. Chitaka, if anyone can’t or doesn’t want to fight, have them wait in the control room; it should be relatively safe here.”

The gunslinger frowned. “Why can’t I go with you, Ardam?”

“Because I still want to know what Khrima thinks he’s doing here. Find out if you can light the prison, too. Now let’s move out, we’re wasting time!” the mage said.

Karn glared at Ardam. “And why are YOU giving out orders?”

“Because I’m the smart one. Now GO!” the mage said forcefully, fingering his staff nervously.

“But... I’M the hero...” Karn sobbed as he slouched off towards the center corridor through the middle of the longhouse.

v---v

EDIT: Doh.

Edited by: E Mouse&nbsp; Image at: 12/1/03 6:51 pm


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