As you sneer at the jackass with the fake Doctorate, he looks to Ahuizotl in surprise.
“Ahuizotl, you’ve already captured Daring Do? I guess that explains why you were so busy…but still, I had to wait a long time with this horrible child.”
“Hey! Who you calling horrible?” Nightshade defends as she tosses the kitty behind her.
“You! You are. Pretending to be a ghost, then “somehow” beating my unbeatable card strategy,” he whines.
“Oh please, don’t be a sore loser ya numb nuts,” you interject, causing him to look at you with a raised eyebrow.
“And you are…?” he asks.
“Huh?” you say taken aback.
“I’m asking who you are to insult me so,” he continues, confusing you more.
“What do you mean? We met each other on several occasions. Quick Fix remember?” you explain.
He gives you a once over and purses his lips. “Sorry, doesn’t ring a bell Changeling.”
“I…I didn’t even disguise when I was hanging with this crowd! How do you not remember me?” you blather.
He ignores you and turns back to Ahuizotl, “Random rude changelings aside, I think I’m owed a bit extra Ahuizotl.”
“I…Wha…?” you bumble and Ahuizotle leans down to your ear.
“I think he suppressed his memory of you after you thrashed him so hard at cards amigo.”
“That’s not true! I’ve never lost at cards! Never!” Caballeron shrieks. “This little nameless brat is the only exception, but she shouldn’t count!”
“I’m not nameless! I told you my “name” earlier,” Nightshade speaks up.
“Uh-Huh, sure ya did.”
“…Are you already starting to repress yer memories of her?” you ask.
“Of who? I don’t know who you’re talking about,” he answers.
“Oh by the gods you’re petty,” you growl.
“Yeah! Quit Repressing me! That’s incredibly rude!” Nightshade yells.
“Whatever,” he ignores you both and looks to your old chum.
“Mi amigos, please, everyone calm down now and let’s talk things out,” Ahuizotl tries to keep the piece.
“I don’t think so! I’ve had enough of this stupidity!” comes the taunt of Daring Do herself as she wriggles free from Ahuizotl’s grip, a knife in her mouth, and lands opposite of Caballeron and Nightshade.
“What in the?” Ahuizolt looks at the cut rope in his tail hand. “Who gave her a knife?”
Everyone’s eyes immediately go to Steve who is nervously looking at the ground and scratching the back of his head.
“Dang It Steve! You’re fired!” Ahuizotl yells.
“Ohhh…” Steve slumps his shoulders. Looking back to the more pressing manner than an idiotic underling, you see that
Kichi’s Comment
Somehow the situation has developed into a three way duel. Caballeron is eyeing both Daring and Nightshade, Daring sizing up the other two to see who to go through to escape easier, and Nightshade who looks at both in utter confusion.
"Alright Caballeron, surrender whatever world conquering artifact you have or things get ugly,” she threatens.
“Ha! As if I would surrender to you Daring Do!” he answers thrusting his jaw forward. “This is the last time you disturb my business…by the way the price has gone up for Daring Do involvement,” he says to Ahuizotl, who sighs.
"You better not hand anything over to her! You owe me remember?!” Nightshade barks at the villain, causing him and Daring Do to glare at her.
“Stay out of this kid. This fiend is squirelly and-“
“Don’t tell me what to do,” Nightshade interrupts the adventurer. “I may be a fan and all, but this butt munch owes me, and I’m not gonna have you stealing what’s mine.”
“You say as you rob me blind of my possessions,” Caballeron counters.
“You lost fair and square dummy!”
As you watch this exchange, Ahuizotl stands next to you.
“Quite a determined little filly you have there,” he compliments.
“Eyup. You can’t teach that, that’s genetic.
“I bet you 10 bits that if this comes to blows though, that Daring will somehow come out on top and cause mass amounts of damage.”
“Heh,” you chuckle. “I’ll see you those 10 bits, and double it that the kid will come out on top and break everything.”
“Thanks Grandbuggy, I won’t let you down,” Nightshade calls out, and you two look over to see the other three looking at you.
“I’m glad to see that you don’t underestimate your enemies Ahuizotl, but I’m not destructive,” Daring adds.
“Sommambula’s Temple would say otherwise,” Caballeron interjects. “And how come no one voted for me? I could possibly win this, don’t you think there’s a chance worth betting on?”
"Yeaaah... Nope" Ahuizotl admits.
"Nu-uh." Nightshade agrees.
“Not a chance,” Daring adds.
“Why are you still here?!” you finish.
“Fine! If you’re all against me, then why don’t we all settle this dispute with a game…”
“Game?” Daring asks.
“We just played several games,” Nightshade harrumphs.
“It’s a different game!” he shouts.
8BitMadness’s Comment
"I have in my possession an artifact of great power that will help us to settle this dispute!"
"Yeah, but you owe me 6 of those," Nightshade deadpans.
"This just happens to be my seventh artifact, thank you very much!" Caballeron replies.
“Oh so you were holding out on me then?!” Nightshade accuses.
“No! I just…Here it is,” he stammers as he holds aloft a square wooden box.
"This is an enchanted board game that cannot be quit until it is over. If I win, I get my stuff back and Daring Do cannot stop me from leaving of my own free will. If you win, you get everything. An all or nothing bet. Sound good?" Caballeron asks.
Nightshade rolls her eyes, walks up to Caballeron, takes the game box out of his hooves and says,
“Get this Jumanji Bullspit out of here!” She then throws the game into the garbage chute while Caballeron looks like he was just smacked upside the head.
“That took me years to find!” he shouts.
“I don’t give a buck,” Nightshade growls. “Gimme my money and artifacts before she steals them you sleazeball!" To punctuate this threat, she pulls out the dark cannon and aims it at him.
Your eyes pop open at that.
Holy Tartarus Kiddo, You don’t buck around do you? Good thing though, that snake probably had loaded dice for that game. Caballeron starts sweating heavily with the weapon in his face and even Daring Do looks concerned.
“Uh…Maybe we should take this down a notch huh Shadow?” she tries to calm her down, even setting her knife on the ground.
“Stay out of this Do. You can have him after he pays up.”
"N-now, I'm s-sure we can work th-this out," Caballeron nervously stutters.
"You probably should just give the girl the money, ya dumbass" you pipe in. "You won't like her when she's angry."
Down With Chrysalis’s Comment
Caballeron begins to back away from Nightshade, before he suddenly smirks.
"Wait a second...that gun is fake! You had me going there for a second, but there's no way that is real."
Nightshade just raises her brow before pulling the trigger. The Dark Cannon begins to charge up, and everypony begins to back away slightly as they can see the gun start to glow and hear it charging up. Caballeron starts to sweat some more before stuttering out,
"N-now see here! This is a nice light show but there's no way tha-"
Right before the gun fires Nightshade turns and aims it at a pillar. The Dark Cannon fires and its energy arrow flies threw the air and completely obliterates the pillar. Nightshade then turns back to Caballeron, her brow still raised as she shifts the gun back to aim at him.
You let out a whistle at the destruction, while Daring Do just stares for a bit before saying,
"Okay kid, gotta admit...that was pretty awesome."
Caballeron, on the other hoof, seems to forget how his legs work as he collapses on the spot shaking like a leaf. He stares at Nightshade in pure fear as he mumbles out,
"That...that was real! You...you could have killed me! I-I-I..."
Before Caballeron's mental breakdown can continue however, Ahuizotl hands you 20 bits.
“Well you were right Fix. She did cause massive destruction.” He then releases all of his cats from their cages and shouts, “I think we should all be running, like RIGHT NOW!” Then the entire temple begins to shake. Everypony begins to look around in
“What’s going on Zotl?” you ask as you try to keep your footing.
“She just blasted the one key pillar keeping the entire temple up,” he shouts as he picks up his kitty.
“What?!” all of you shout.
“Why was that the only thing holding this place up?!” you shout.
“It was like a self destruct button, only less techy, that’s why I had it in my cat room so they could protect it!” he then takes off down the hallway with his cats.
“Well screw this noise then!” Daring Do shouts as she flies off.
“EEEEE!!!” Caballeron screams like a filly and takes off as well.
You share a look with your Great Grand Daughter, and you both utter the same exact words for your feelings on the matter.
"Oh crap baskets!"
A Daring (Pun Intended) Escape Later
POV Change: Nightshade
RandomFastReader’s Comment: kill it all kill it all with FIRE!!!
You pant from the exertion of flying through a collapsing building as you watch the ruins of Ahuizotl’s temple go up in flames.
“Why? *pant* Why did it catch fire? It’s all stone,” you ask Grandbuggy who is also panting.
“Because kid *pant* somehow you’re Dad’s predilection for arson is genetic,” he answers.
“I don’t know what preda-whatever means, but I’m not fire crazy like Daddy,” you defend. “I mean, sure I accidentally burnt down Whinny Land and all, but I didn’t do it on purpose.”
“Well, whether ya wanna smooch it like your dad or not, you got the firestarter blood in ya girl,” he chuckles and your ears flop to your head.
“You can say that again Fix,” Ahuizotl grumbles as he walks out of the surrounding trees and stares at his burning home. “Thankfully everyone got out, even if that does include Steve,” he spits.
“Yeah…sorry about all this old chum. I really only intended to get one Ring and be on my merry way,” Grandbuggy apologizes.
“Eh,” Ahuizotl shrugs. “Daring Do has done this to several of my temple homes. I have spares.”
“Still, I’m really sorry about all this,” you apologize. “I was just trying to show up Caballeron because he’s nothing but a big bully…Where is that turd anyway?”
“Gone,” Ahuizotl says with a sigh.
“Gone? With all of my stuff?!” you growl.
“Actually Daring Do took those, and he took off after her. She jumped his goons outside one of the exits and flew off with their loot, including one of my Rings of Scorchero,” he slumps his shoulders. “She’s gone too. I didn’t even get to yell out my curses to her…”
“Cheer up pal, she’ll be back again. She’s got more stories to sell,” Grandbuggy comforts and Ahuizotl nods.
“So Daring Do has my stuff? That thieving little…” you growl and Grandbuggy cuts you off.
“Shade, were any of those artifacts on the list?”
“Well…no,” you admit. “But they were cool sounding. One of them was a magic staff that could shoot laser beams.”
“You can do that with your horn kiddo,” Grandbuggy points out and you look up at your rarely used appendage.
“Oh right. I keep forgetting about that,” you admit and Grandbuggy shakes his head.
“Goramnit boy…Well next thing you’re learning that your pops should have taught you is magic.”
“Sounds good Grandbuggy, but what about the Ring of Scorchero WE need? Shouldn’t we go after it?”
“That was only one senorita,” Ahuizotl says as he pulls a hula hoop sized ring out of…somewhere, and hands it to you, “Like I said, there are more, and since I won’t be able to bring a heat wave to the jungle anytime soon, I suppose I’ll find some other Ancient artifacts.
“Oh…Sweet!” you cheer as you put it in the Inventory.
1 Ring of Scorchero Acquired
“Alright! We have one of the artifacts we need and it was easy as pie!”
An explosion somehow goes off in the ruins of the burning temple just as you say that and Ahuizotl looks at you sadly.
“…Relatively speaking. Sure it sucks that your home got destroyed, and I lost my well deserved WINNNGS! But I think we’re doing good so far.”
“Well said Kid. Luckily I also got that map me and Ahui here wrote up. We know exactly where our next destination is,” Grandbuggy agrees.
“Awesome…let’s get to that before the jungle starts burning why don’t we?”
After a nod from both Grandbuggy and Ahuizotl, you all begin to make your way back to some semblance of the civilized world.
As you do, you can’t help but wonder,
“I wonder if Daddy and Mommy are doing as well in that other world?”
POV Change: Bugze (You)
“Oh gods, I’m not doing well at all Selly, I don’t know if I can do this,” you stutter nervously.
You’ll do fine Bugze, it’s just a school, Selena encourages.
“Yeah! High school! I don’t have very fond memories of it!” you shudder as you stand outside the entrance of Crystal Prep Acadamy early in the morning.
A couple days ago, you got around to telling B2 the story of your life till this moment, and suffice to say, he really seemed into it, claiming he could write an epic rock ballad with the stories you gave him. He also swore to help you in your quest to find the Siren Stones.
Supposedly that’s what he’s doing today, using some vague information power he called, The Internet, while you get to play janitor.
“Why didn’t he take the first day again?”
Because though he is getting cleaner, the toxins in his blood still remain, Selena explains again with a sigh.
I know how that feels, Sombra grumbles grumpily.
“Oh quit whining, we haven’t drugged you in months,” you roll your eyes at his dramatics.
Oh Gee, In that case I’ll just forget about that harrowing experience why don’t I? he says sarcastically, which goes over your head.
“That’s the spirit!” you cheer before you focus again on the real world and gulp.
“Alright…I can do this. I’m the adult now, so there’s no need to fear evil disgusting human teenagers. I just have to find the portal’s location, and then I can move on with my quest.”
You then hear one of those evil bus things, only this one is Yellow, with several of the students inside.
“EEEK! There’s a whole swarm of them!” you shriek as you rush inside the building towards Scruffy’s “Work” Area.
*Sigh* Bugze, For Goodness's Sake...
WHAT DO YOU DO?