Chaos! Rumble in the Crystal City!

[cityship]

[This is for Team 2: Jinx, Mindfuck, Zouichi, Ter'thelas, Ashley, Edward, Jamie, Victoria. The first shore leave / observation deck post is here where they can say goodbye to others.] ]

The massive crystal spire jutted skyward perhaps a thousand feet. Alone, it would be beautiful.

With lasers playing up and down its sides, floodlights sweeping the sky, and banners hanging over it, though, it was just tacky. ULTIMATE ENTERTAINMENT! proclaimed one banner. D☺☺M AWAITS YOU! another added. And over top of the massive doors chipped in the entrance hall flashed a brilliant neon sign: CRYSTAL CITY.

The path led up to and through the wide-open doors, into a black hall beyond. No sooner had the last of the crew stepped in than the doors slammed shut behind them, plunging them all into pitch blackness. But not for long; a second later, two bright-white signs flared into life.

MEN -->

<-- WOM N

(A bulb was out.)

Each arrow pointed to a door surrounded by an ominous crystal. Try to go through the wrong gender's door and it would reject you, possibly making disparaging comments about your mental status. The rooms inside looked as if they'd been lifted straight from an athletic stadium; a row of lockers stood opposite a few lacquered benches, and each had a crewmember's name on it. Inside their assigned locker were a set of clothing along with instructions to retract their plantsuits to minimal coverage and don the provided garb.

The fanservicey-but-functional provided garb. Tight-fitting shirts that breathed magnificently, sleek shorts (rather short shorts) for both men and women. None of it interfered with motion in the slightest, and the outfits were only slightly uncomfortable, mostly because they were just a bit tight.

Once everyone had garbed themselves properly -- and not before -- the doors on the far wall snapped open. Through them, the members rejoined their companions in a large room (which of course made no physical sense, as the doors could not possibly have led to this room, but who's counting?), in a grand crystalline foyer filled with sweeping spotlights, glittering sparks deep in the walls, and extremely canned applause.

A drumroll began over the applause. A hush fell over the prerecorded crowd, the drumroll building in strength and then declining again, like a wave, to build suspense.

The drumroll abruptly stopped.

"TURN TAPE OVER!" blared over the invisible audio system. After a moment, fumbled clattering and muffled grumbling echoed distantly from some far point in the chamber, followed by a sharp CLACK, then a click. The drumroll resumed.

Then, in a crash of cymbals and a triumphant fanfare, the spotlights all swung as one to focus on a hitherto unseen throne at the far end of the room.

Comments

Uh... why is that throne empty?

[cityship]

[Yeah, someone was slacking. In the awkward silence, the crew would have a moment to talk.]

Re: Uh... why is that throne empty?

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

These outfits were kind of uncomfortable. But you know what, not as uncomfortable as the maid outfit. Zouichi was fine.

"...so, is something supposed to happen now?"

Re: Uh... why is that throne empty?

[badluckbabe.livejournal.com]

Jinx didn't mind the outfit actually, it made her feel sexy. Either way she folded her arms with a stare, "I am so far, unimpressed."

Finally a figure appears and it's...

[cityship]

After what seemed like forever, a pale-skinned figure dressed in Gothic clothing appeared, nearly throwing herself over the thrown in an annoyed grunt. She was chewing on something...really loudly and those that knew of modern earth cia 2000 would probably tell she was in that rebellious teenager phase. Only, if your father was the God of Chaos and you just happened to be his daughter, the God of Discord.

"What an idiotic and dumb farce. DAAAAAAAAAAAAAD! I don't want to do this dumb yearly thing again! LAST YEAR EVERYONE DIED AFTER THE FIRST ROUND!" she looked at the people in front of her in mid-chew. "Wow, tacky outfits this year too. God I bet he gets off on them or something." She sighed again and put one of her hands on her cheek, as the chaos god peeked out from his side of the planet, waving his eyebrows at them.

"Well, LOOK at them! Rrrrowr. Ladies."

She rolled her eyes at his response, and clapped her hands to close the portal.

"EWWWWWWW! Gross. I don't know why he likes mortals so much. Anyway. Welcome to the yearly challenge of the greatest universal challenge of something or whatever." She'd done this so many times, the words had lost meaning from when she was just but a tiny birthed chaos lord watching over the tiny mortals doing it, giggling with her dad. Now she had gods to date and posters of the hottest guys to hang up on her room, this was just...wasted time that her dad still thought she enjoyed.

"You have been selected due to the fact you came here of your own free will and must now undertake a great journey into the Crystal City to retrieve the treasure and yaddayadda you get to keep the treasure if you survive and all the outfits too as a souvenir. No questions, I don't feel like answering them."

Re: Finally a figure appears and it's...

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Screw no questions, Zouichi still had one. Okay, several, but --

"What treasure?"

And also, "Since neither of us wants to be here, can we just skip to the part where we pass the challenge?"

[bonnypiperlad]

"Aye," Jamie piped up, his arm tightening about Victoria protectively, both from the odd lassie's comment about everyone dying and from that leer from her father. Granted, he wasn't entirely opposed to the way the outfit looked on the other lasses - especially her - but it was the principle of the thing.

"Could we not just say that we finished it and go?"

Challenge One: The Witch's Riddle (Jinx)

[cityship]

As the rest of the group passed by Abul and through a gateway, he rudely thrust out a hand to separate Jinx from the rest of the group.

Instead, he pointed at an opening in the crystal wall, where a wide-eyed Santa-sort of elf beckoned merrily to her.

It seems she wouldn't be handling her first challenge with the rest of the group.

The entrance led to a winding staircase, up and up and up in circles. Every so often windows broke the side, but none of them seemed to look out on quite the same spot; one showed a vast, starry sky, one showed a studio audience that was quite clearly made up entirely of cardboard standies, and one showed a fish swimming idly along quite merrily.

Up, and up, and up...

At the top, the elf threw his shoulder into a massive trapdoor, popping it open with a thud. Then he motioned Jinx up, a manic grin on his face.

Re: Challenge One: The Witch's Riddle (Jinx)

[cityship]

"Welcome, welcome!" she tells her, hitting a nearby wooden beach for the girl to sit. Giving her some (very black and bitter) tea. The woman herself was very, very old, only had probably two teeth left in her mouth from the way she spoke and lisped.

"So you're here for the challenge ain't you?" She held up a big shining glass crystal in a light, as rainbows appeared around them before closing her hand again. "You'll have to earn it to get it! I hope your mind is ready, little girly...would you like some sugar?"

She held up a pot that looked like it hadn't been used for at least a few thousand centuries.

Re: Challenge One: The Witch's Riddle (Jinx)

[badluckbabe.livejournal.com]

Jinx was already not feeling so great without her luck to back up her usually unrivaled confidence. But she kept a stone wall firmly in place around her emotions and tried not to look the least bit concerned with leaving the party.

After all it's not like she knew any of them.

"Heck of a fun house you've got here creepy Bucky." She remarked passing through the trap door and glancing around. "So what's the game?"

[cityship]

"A riddle, that's what it is my dear," she answered, still shaking the thousand year old sugar pot. You haven't answered her first question, missy. Oh well, dark black tea for you it is, then.

"Once you're good and ready, I'll start this giant hourglass right here. Then you'll have two minutes to solve my riddle." She looked at the girl with a smile again, her two teeth shining like golden coins. "I hope your mind is young and good as it should be, Eh he he he he he!"

Challenge 2: Box-O-Surprises (Jamie, Victoria)

[cityship]

Abul led the group to a narrow gateway in the cramped crystalline hall, the torch in his hand casting a thousand reflections and refractions up and down its length. He pointed at Jamie and Victoria, bidding them to step forward.

"Inside, there are boxes on the ceiling. One has a key," he growled. "Get it before the time expires --" He pointed to a pair of massive crystals on the wall, welded together at the center to serve as an hourglass -- "you get to keep it.

"In," he said, yanking a small metal block from the joint of the crystals so that sand began pouring from the topmost crystal to the bottom.

Re: Challenge 2: Box-O-Surprises (Jamie, Victoria)

[bonnypiperlad]

Jamie enters first, motioning to Victoria to stay behind him while he takes a look around. Getting a key out of the boxes in the ceiling sounds simple enough, providing there's something there they can use to get them open.

The lack of power coming from the morphers worries him a little, but he hasn't had them that long. He's confident he can figure out a way to get through these challenges using his own wits.

That metal block would be handy if it's still around, he thinks. He's got a decent throwing arm. Maybe he can use that block - or something like it - on the boxes and try and open them that way.

"Victoria, do ye see anything we could use to throw at these things?"

[sonicscreamer.livejournal.com]

She looks around, hear heart still beating a mile a minute - this is hardly the situation she wants to be in, but without having much of a choice, the faster they figured it out, the faster they could leave.

"I see a stick!" she answers, pointing to the tiny black baton. "But oh! It's dreadfully too short for it to reach as high as this...you or me." At least, if they tried it alone, in any case.

Challenge 3: Surf's up! (Zoiuchi, Mindfuck, Ter'thelas)

[cityship]

Down the winding corridors at a swift trot, up a wide staircase circling a pit that seemed infinitely deep, through a hallways that seemed to hold countless gallons of water behind a paper-thin sheet of glass right next to them... onwards, Abul led the intrepid contestants. Up a narrow set of stairs, and out --

Onto a ledge hanging over a circular pool. A surfboard buzzed past, driven in circles on a long pole attached to a motor. Its path led it under ledges, past obstacles, through hindrances, all the way around to a ledge perhaps twenty feet to the right.

Abul pointed at Zoiuchi, Mindfuck, and Ter'thelas, in that order.

"Ride the surfboard. Make it to the next ledge."

Re: Challenge 3: Surf's up! (Zoiuchi, Mindfuck, Ter'thelas)

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Well, this didn't look too bad. Zouichi was pretty good at balancing on moving vehicles! And... okay, surfboards were kind of a vehicle. With one seriously? look at Abul, he leapt lightly onto the surfboard as it made another pass, ducking under a low-hanging ledge as he made his way across.

[cityship]

Next in the path of the surfboard: massive iron beams that whipped across the board at knee-height, like a demented fan. If Zouchi managed to navigate that, he'd find himself needing to jump onto a platform, keep his balance against the sudden tilt of the boards beneath him, then jump back onto the surfboard -- after a series of misters just under the ledge had left it dangerously slick.

Challenge 4: The Submarine Minigame (Edward, Ashley)

[cityship]

Abul slapped open the next door and stepped in without waiting for anyone.

Inside, the group found themselves looking at a bank of black monitors, against the walls of a glass room. Through the glass, they could see what appeared to be an inside dock, with the tower of a minisub visible, gently bobbing in the water.

With another grunt, Abul motioned towards Edward and Ashley as he stepped through a sliding panel. Once the pair of them had passed through, he slammed the panel shut and wedged it with a bar so that the rest of the team could no longer reach them, nor call out advice.

Looking expectantly at Ed, Abul pointed to the submarine's open hatch/

hnnn /late forever

[alchemyxfreak]

Well, that was- reassuring. He didn't like the way they were all being split up, but any time to protest it was already gone so instead he cast Ashely a dubious look. He didn't really like the feeling of this at all, and the sight before them didn't reassure him in the slightest.

But Abul was waiting for a response and he didn't back down from a challenge - so he boarded the submarine without protest, even if he didn't look remotely happy about it.

/cuddles the shrimp

[helpmeleon.livejournal.com]

Ashley watched Ed go, but she really wasn't sure what was coming next. But something didn't seem right. "Wait, why is he going in there? He's, like, 14. He probably doesn't even know how to drive yet."

But then again, it occurs to her he might be a robot boy. She should probably consider these things a bit more before she talks.

Challenge 5: The Balance Test (Whoever Dares Accept)

[cityship]

Abul led them to another chamber, but this time he paused before he entered it. Producing a cloth from his belt, he dipped it in a stream of water that trickled down the side of the cavern, then wrapped it around his mouth and nose like a mask.

They he shoved open the door.

A wave of heat blasted out of the open passage like a slap to the face, bringing with it a sickening, acrid smell. Unfazed thanks to his protection, Abul stepped inside without a moment's hesitation, nor did he allow the others that luxury either.

Inside, far down, a pit shown with the brilliant orange light of lava as it bubbled in a pool. The heat was, if anything, far worse here than the blast had ever hinted at. On each side of the pit, massive pipes let a slow, steady flow of bubbling-green acid pour into the pool, where it dissolved even before reaching the molten rock proper.

Out over this pit, a long, slender, curved beam perhaps four inches in diameter jutted perhaps thirty feet over the pit. As they watched, a wicked mixture of acid and lava sprayed out of a series of jets on its surface, hissing upwards with an almost intelligent glee and hunger. Far out, at the very end of the pit, the key dangled at the very end. Beneath it, nets laced like webbing to catch whoever might fall -- but the heat was so bad up here, surely it must be downright dangerous that close...

Ter will take this one, if that's alright.

[seasindorei.livejournal.com]

Ter coughed, wishing he'd been able to take a precaution like their guide. Instead he peeled off his thin shirt, already soaked in his sweat from earlier, and wrapped it around his head and mouth, almost like the headcloth of some desert nomad. His torso was crisscrossed with scars, large and small, including a particularly nasty one that cut down his entire right side. But he was still lean, wiry, spring-coiled muscle. He glanced back at the others and tipped his head, one hand moving to wipe away sweat matted hair cling to his forehead.

"I'll take this one." His voice was muffled behind his improvised mask, but clear enough. He paused for a moment, eyes closed as he took in a breath, then another, gathering his mind and body for the trial ahead, kicked off his shoes. Then he took his first unhesitating steps out onto the beam, arms extended as he moved along with the practiced motion of a man who'd spent years traversing the rigging of sailing ships and slipping silently down dark corridors.

[cityship]

Some of the challenges were meant to be easy, to be overcome with a little effort and skill. After all, it wouldn't be nearly so fun if they failed wholeheartedly on simply gathering their keys.

And some of them were designed to be nightmarishly sadistic if not overtly injurious.

Three guesses which one this is, and the first two guesses are "acid and lava".

No sooner did the elf take a couple of steps onto the beam than the first jet erupted violently. This close, one could easily see that it was designed to hurl nightmarishly hot rock and acid in both liquid and gaseous form in an indiscriminate spray all around. To be caught in the main spray probably spelled annihilation, but even safe from that threat, to be on the bar was to be peppered with droplets of hissing acid and blobs of molten rock.

To add insult to injury, the eruptions made the beam wobble erratically.

Challenge 6: Firewalk (Team Effort)

[cityship]

Passage to the second half of the Crystal City was not a gift, nor a right. It was to be earned.

The corridor ahead of them flickered with red-hot coals, as flames licked up the walls on the outside edges of the path. Visible through the heat distortion above the were large pull-ropes, which would shut off the flames up to that point.

Did they send a durable person first to clear as much distance as possible? Or did they send a weaker person, and save a more lasting sort for the last push?

Re: Challenge 6: Firewalk (Team Effort)

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi looked down the corridor, then back at the others. If he still had his abilities, he could simply walk across himself... but it probably wasn't a great idea under these circumstances.

"Generally," he said, "The shorter the distance a human being traverses across hot coals, the less chance they'll sustain injury."

They might do well splitting the distance amongst all of them, rather than trying to rely on one or two to cover most of the hall.

[sonicscreamer.livejournal.com]

"This is insane!" Victoria said, shrinking back from the very idea of fire-walking. "Human bodies are not made to do this!"