The Great Escape

The ground shook as Keith and Neve broke through the metal door, the cobalt colored powder immediately moving to another doorway further in. The floor started to break apart and revealed a great chasm underneath. Without thinking and with a few chords, Jenny bounded over the hole that had formed behind the entrance.

“Jenny, wait!” Keith said, much slower than her in his steel form. He couldn’t hope to clear the gap she had.

“I have to go save him!” she yelled at Keith, and her glare made it clear that she would hear no argument.

“I’ll go with her,” Neve said begrudgingly, putting a hand on Keith’s shoulder, “but you owe me one.”

“Go!” Keith told her, as Jenny had already moved to the giant staircase, following the powder. Neve leapt into the air, not propelled by sound as Jenny was but swinging from the light fixtures on the ceiling as the floor cracked and gave way, the bottom level almost totally floorless. Meanwhile, the stairs began shifting and creaking.

An explosion rocked the chamber which formerly housed the cipher, and John entered Reflex Mode at the last second, wrapping himself in his Robe of Elemental Protection to save himself from the fire bombarding him and diving out of the doorway. A charge the size of a pebble imploded the room, nearly sucking him back into the steel-shattering **** from meters away. Instead, his head collided with the door frame, resulting in a debuff.

Concussion, Removable Debuff
You have suffered a concussion, and if untreated, this damage will worsen and eventually become permanent. -4 to Agility, Intellect, and Wisdom. -2 to Charisma, Strength, and Endurance. Additional symptoms of a concussion may occur.

With less grace, he stumbled toward the thin metal beams criss-crossing the floorless room. The building was collapsing behind him, but the feeling of being weaker in almost every way washed over him and eroded his very spirit.

Well, I either sit here… and die… or go forward and probably fall, John thought as he nearly tripped over his own feet, but he caught himself at the last second. Slowly getting used to the new lack of coordination and realizing how much he had been relying on it, he walked across the metal beams. The walls and floors began crumbling faster and faster, and without him realizing it, they caught up to him. He fell and shot out a Magic Rope randomly, hoping it would catch onto something.

Gamer’s Luck Level 4!

The momentum of the fall turned sideways as the rope snagged on a broken metal beam, and he swung back into the room, just barely escaping falling again. He ran down the metal beam, but there was a gap between the doorway and the last beam that he doubted he could jump over with full Agility, let alone now. I’ve got to try, John thought as he took a running start and leapt forward. Suddenly, everything went into slow motion. Not because of Reflex Mode or some other game mechanic, but because of the exorbitant amount of fear that Gamer’s Mind couldn’t hope to begin to contain, especially with his new, lower Wisdom. He hardly felt it as a grainy, cobalt powder bombarded him as he fell.

I’m not going to make it, were John’s last thoughts as he randomly threw out a Magic Rope onto the barren floor above him and the ground rushed upward to meet him.

Jenny saw the translucent rope and immediately recognized it to be the same as the one John had tripped her with a few days ago. She dove for it (and probably him) as it slid across the metal floor.

John felt a tug on his wrist as Jenny caught his rope, and everything resumed its normal speed. Jenny slid across the floor as she wasn’t strong enough to pull John’s weight. Her stomach leapt as she was pitched over the edge with him, desperately attempting to grab onto the edge. Her fingers begin to slide off the slick surface until eventually they’re completely off, sending her into a freefall.

Neve’s arm jostled in its socket as she grabbed Jenny’s free arm. Jenny’s bass strap loosened, and as it fell off her, she caught it with her foot. That’s going to be sore, Neve thought as she started pulling them up. As the strap began to slide off her foot, Jenny had to choose between saving John or the only thing she had to remember her mother by.

“John I need you to catch my bass,” Jenny said urgently as they were being pulled up, but with a sudden yank, the choice was made for her. The strap slipped off her foot fully and sailed into the black abyss that was quickly replacing the building’s foundation, just out of John’s reach. John tried to use Move to bring it back to him but only succeeded in slowing its descent.

Jenny felt numb as Neve threw her through a hole in the wall. Keith, startled by this, forcibly ended his steel form, ignoring the intense wave of nausea and vertigo as he caught her as gently as he could. Neve followed directly behind, holding John close with her fleshy arm as her metal arm pierced the building and slowed their descent.

“I’d appreciate a warning next time,” Keith spat at Neve, gently setting Jenny on her feet, “before you drop one of my closest friends over sixty meters.”

“What’re you complaining for, you caught her, didn’t you?” Neve asked as she did the same with John, though much less gentle. John immediately began to puke, though he had eaten nothing that morning.

“We’re even,” Keith said, staring daggers at her, and Neve backed down.

“Either way, I’d consider that a success. I calculated a ninety-five percent probability that you would catch her after dismissing your steel form, causing mere cosmetic injuries. Well within the acceptable risk,” Neve explained, flipping her hair back. “I was much less sure about him,” she said, nodding toward John. “The chances of my dropping him with my non-robotic arm were about thirty percent, which is high above what I’d usual risk during fatal possibilities.” Neve shrugged, typing something onto the tablet she had left behind. “Still, it was the best chance he had.”

“If that’s a success… I would hate to see a failure,” John attempted a witty remark, though delivering it between throwing up made it flop.

Keith had thought something was wrong with her from the moment he caught her, but he finally realized what it was. “Jenny?” Keith asked, turning to her,