Fantasy Game On!

The crane in Czecho's hand pulsed with a faint light. All about the shop things began to stir. Paper creations twitched and rose. An army of paper cranes burst from the shop door, swirling in the air like a storm of bats.
Each of the creations were plain save for a simple black ink mark on their heads.
They dove at the player, trying to destroy the crane he carried.
Togy


Bee gave Blixt's taunting request a healthy dose of eye-roll, and then she jogged to catch up, elbowing the other player and barking at her like a dog as she ran past.
She played along, bowing to the valet.
"Oui oui, carry on mon garçon!"
The lobby was well lit with a warm, golden light. The foyer was decorated with towering columns, cream-coloured suede furniture and red carpets abound.
The concierge desk was done in deep mahogany, little golden keys in rows on the wall behind it.
At the top of the rows was a single key on a peg, a crown in place of a number on it's key ring.

"Hey! The royal sweet, I wonder if that's were we're supposed to go?" Bee pointed to the key.
She hopped over the desk, reaching out for it. There was someone at the desk, but he didn't move.
"What is with these npcs? The hotel is nice, but this is just sloppy coding..."
As soon as Bee touched the key however, she couldn't react fast enough. The attendant at the desk had grabbed her and thrown her. Bee sailed through the air with a yelp, landing just shy of the couch, luckily their suits had a shock absorb layer built in.

"Ow, what the heck?!"
Suddenly all of the attendants were moving...advancing. Bee fired a shot, but it went right through them.
"Uuuuum, our weapons don't work on them!"
She looked at Blixt. "Any ideas oh fearless leader?"
Nellancholy


In the window of the cat cafe, one could see a vast array of kittens and cats, playing or sleeping among piles of blankets and toys, but at the back of the shop one cat didn't look quite right. It was red, with longer ears, a longer muzzle and a large, bushy tail with a white tip.

@ anyone who chooses option numero 3

Of course Bee couldn't go for more than a minute without bringing the security down on them. Sure, Blixt could understand the value of a swift strike. But did she have to be so careless? Maybe contrive a little scheme to get up there and around the guards before actually doing it.

And of course their weapons wouldn't work. Well, it'd be too easy to solve the "puzzle" otherwise, maybe. Good thing she had other abilities on hand.

"Stand back, genius. I got this." Hopping off a couch, Blixt tucked herself into a somersault and landed on her feet right in the middle of the advancing attendants. Her hands went up into the air...and came together with a single clap. Her Mirage Field activated, a cloud of glowing smoke engulfing the horde as various images of her appeared, leaving them uncertain which to grab.

A spinning knife bounced off the floor, flying between their legs and sinking into the one enemy that was the closest to the key. In a flash, Blixt was there by the counter instead. Casually, she picked up the key that seemed to be their target, twirling it around her finger. "Please. Like this was meant to be hard?"

But Bee was now much closer to the elevator, which meant...

"Hey, fetch!" Blixt wound up like a baseball pitcher and snapped forward. Just like throwing a grenade.

The key sailed through the air towards Bee.

SilverFlight

Giving his counter a glance (just to make sure!), Linguine nodded to himself; he had made plenty of kills during this first part and he sat comfortably at 17. More than enough to proceed! “Man, the competition sure thinned out already, huh…”, he idly commented. Quickly mumbling thanks to Annie for the ride, he squirmed his way out of her grasp, making his way to the large Tori gate on foot.

“Piece of cake, eh?” He gave Bee a lazy grin as he poked her shoulder. “Now then, what do we have here…? Oh daaaaamn…”, he let out, taking a moment to appreciate the urban landscape that laid before him and his teammates. Now Linguine wasn’t a big fan of large, bustling cities but he had to give credit where it’s due; the place looked amazing! If that was a preview to what the Japanese night life was like, he’d be in for a treat!

“... A scavenger hunt?”, he guessed after reading the instructions over his fellow Mighty Moose player. “I think it’d be more optimal to split into three groups and bring the items to… the spirit tree.” He hummed as he instinctively glanced away to face the large sakura tree in the distance. Yeah, makes sense. Gamer logic. “Welp, don’t mind me going to the neko place thing.”, he called out to the others as he began his walk toward the illuminated cafe. There just had to be something in there -apart from cats, of course.

Making his way inside, the Canadian had to stop for a second, blinking under his visor to process what he was seeing; the sheer amount of cats inside was much larger than he anticipated. Siamese, munchkin, russian blue, chartreux. “Sheesh, alright, what do I even need to -oh wait, can I just…?” Slowly advancing inside the shop, Linguine activated his visor’s scanning ability. Maybe something was hidden among that literal army of cats?

It took the Moose a minute or two to look at everything. Despite the aura of absolute cuteness around him, he still had his head in the game. For all he knew, these cats would merge into a giant Cat-Mecha™ the second he’d find something interesting.

Beep beep!

“Wuzzat…?” His visor alerted him of something and he glanced to the side, furrowing his brow at the sight of the… weird red cat. Alright, who was he kidding? A fox tail was required for the puzzle. Still wary of the sea of cats, Linguine slowly approached the small fox, stopping after only a few feet separated them. ’This is way too easy…’ But despite his slight hesitation, he reached out to try and grab the digital mammal. He had his Clone ready in case of a random attack from an upcoming Cat-Mecha™ or other players.

Nellancholy SilverFlight FiveElemental Togy Goonfire Mirai-chan kase9187 Eccentric_Undead

Annie stepped through the portal a bit late, having worked on her suit and waiting for Jason. She'd managed to hear a bit of the challenge, moving to give Czecho some backup... right when the cranes began to come to life. She rushed forward and managed to intersect herself between the flurry of paper and Czecho, her mech half springing to life to cover her arms and put up shields for the cranes to smash into.

"FUCK! DUDE, RUN! THEY'RE PROBABLY NOT GONNA STOP!" She cried out, the rest of her suit struggling to assemble itself while keeping the shields up, forming slowly. The cranes were beginning to go around the shield now.

Togy

“Language!” Czecho had the mind to yell, chucking a paper weight into the Origami horde before diving behind the counter. It didn’t help, predictably. The cranes were flapping around like locusts, packed so tightly together they almost formed a wall of paper. Alone, they barely did any damage. Grouped together in the hundreds as they were, they swarmed you and drained your health like leeches.

Czecho was inordinately proud of the fact that he’d solved the riddle on his first guess, but he was also weirded the hell out by this turn of events. It was like if halfway through an escape room a paid actor ran in and broke your knees with a tire iron.

Clutching the origami figure closely to his chest with one hand, covering it with his body, he whipped out one of his pistols and opened fire. Of the fifteen rounds he fired, maybe two or three hit, the rest easily dodged by the palm sized birds. Czecho barely had enough time to fling himself over the counter, barely dodging the origami swarm soaring past like ballistic missiles, imbedding themselves into the wall by their beaks.

He caught one or two on his forearm, which he was pretty sure shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did, or at all. Yelping in pain, in the time it took him to swat away two more another three had stabbed into him.

He tried to heed Annie’s instructions, but before he could even reach the door of the shop the swarm had flown in front of it, cutting him off. Cursing, he sprinted down the crafts aisle, more origami cranes spawning from loose sheets of paper on the floor around him. Seeing the swarm rapidly gaining behind him, he knocked the shelf down in at least an attempt to deter them.

Crashing against the opposite shelf, its motion didn’t stop there. Caught at an odd angle, it began trembling and shaking for seemingly no reason whatsoever.

Czecho caught on immediately.

“Physics glitch…” he muttered softly, amazed.

In a show of physical impossibility, the shelf began jerking erratically, hitting everything thing around it and sending art supplies flying at speeds in-proportionate to The force applied to them. Suddenly, the bottom of the shelf phased through the floor, increasing the chaos by tenfold as it began to phase into the middle of other shelves around it.

“Glitch!” Czecho yelled, ducking under a paintbrush flying at mach three, origami cranes being struck down around him by broken physics objects at record speeds, “I found a glitch!”

The shelves were floating in the middle of the store now, fused together and jerking around the room. Any crane that made contact with it died instantly, crumpling to the floor. Suddenly, the almagamation of shelves shot out through the store’s front window, flying into the street.

The cranes, no longer subdued by the broken physic objects, began collecting back into a swarm, respawning from any remaining packets of paper. Czecho, seeing his chance, dove through the broken window. Running like his life depended on it, the one true crane clutched close to his heart, Czecho let out a cheer as he ran past Annie, giving her a five as he went. “Thanks for the assist!”

The cluster of shelves were still flying away, gaining as altitude and growing distant, flying majestically off into the sunset. Or directly into the sun. It was hard to tell.

SilverFlight Mirai-chan Togy Goonfire Tiguidi kase9187 @animegirl20 Nellancholy @animegirl20 FiveElemental

Jason sighed as he looked around. His eyes finding Annie and looking around the space. A hearing riddles and seeing these strange things. This wasn't a good game. Not at all. Most of the people here were more equipped for combat rather than riddle solving. However, when the cranes began their assault, he knew his part in this portion of the game. It was his same function in all games. To protect the others.


When the cranes began their assault, he needed to keep others safe. That much he knew. He looked at his damaged armor. His defense wouldn't be too useful. However, he has a skill to cover it. First he stabbed his sword into the ground and growled. He used his Magic Anchor skill. Increasing the odds of hitting him, but lowering the odds of hitting everyone else. Then, he used Swift Cover to appear in front of Annie. Finally, he used Brimstone Fortress. He locked in place and became immovable. He glanced back to Annie, tanking all the cranes "You okay short stuff?"

Annie dropped to a knee, her suit returning to a black box on her hip. She huffed as she bled lightly from her papercuts, slowly losing health.

"Just... a bit... worn out..." She managed, thankful for Jason's intervention. Her suit had been failing and she couldn't have kept distracting them or blocking for much longer.

Eccentric_Undead

Bee caught the key in midair.
"Noice! Lookit us! Bein' a team and stuff."
She tapped the button for the elevator and it flashed red and went out. Bee tried again, but it seemed like the elevator wasn't working. Then she noticed a pad on the other side of the elevator, identical to her own. She tired to reach for it while holding the first but it was too far away.
"Hey uhh, new bestie?" She grinned and shrugged, pointing to the dual lock puzzle.
"Game says this is the part where we work together."

The atendants were making quick work of the mirages Blixt had set, and it wasn't long before they turned on the players again. Bee grabbed a pillow off of one of the couches.
She threw it at the npc nearest her ally. To her surprise the pillow collided with it and sent it tumbling.
"OOOOOH We can hit them with stuff from the hotel!"
Nellancholy

*~*~*

The fox looked up and yawned lazily. It stayed where it was as Linguine reached out, and just as the player was about to touch it, its fur began to glow.
The fox took off, straight out of the cat cafe doors. It grew several inches in a split second and another tail appeared beside the first.
The cats looked round all at once. Though they only watched, the motion was unsettling. Suddenly the cafe held a very hostile air, and if a player had decided to stay, it was hard to tell what would happen.
The fox bounded down the street, alighting on top of a red car parked close to the shop. It sat there, in plain sight, and waited.
Tiguidi

*~*~*

The cranes continued to swarm, they folded themselves, but before they could take off, a pen appeared out from the debris to park its head with a black point.
The shop was a wreck, stationary everywhere. The cranes collected again, readying for another swarming attack, though there were some that held back, protecting the animated black markers that apparently gave them power.
kase9187 Togy Eccentric_Undead

Mirai-chan FiveElemental Goonfire

Annie pointed at the crane markers, knowing full well that escaping outside might not mean safety. "Jason! Czecho! Those things! Break them!"

To add to her message, she picked up a nearby chunk of counter and tossed it with as much force as she could muster and hoped it'd make its way through and collide with the marker, hoping her guess was right.

Eccentric_Undead Togy

Reign was towards the back in this sort of marching order. Seeing the tanks rushing to help Czecho and hearing that delightful rattle of machine gun fire coming from the hotel, the poisoner sucked his cheek. None of them were slouches, and Linguine seemed to be going off alone, so Reign opted to accompany him to that neko café. “I’m more of a fish person, myself... but I’ll oblige,” he quipped before approaching the place.

Reign was taken aback by the odd fox darting outside. On top of that, it mutated. “Hm? Another tail?” he questioned. Did the riddle refer to a kitsune? That made sense, given the Japan-themed puzzle level. “Do we need a tail from that one? Or is it leading us somewhere? Maybe I should follow it, before we both turn to ice,” he supposed, pointing with his thumb to the eerie cats whose collective gaze lowered the room temperature. Having said that, he jogged down the street after the fox, keeping possible hazards in his peripheral vision.

Tiguidi SilverFlight

"We can hit them with stuff from the hotel!"

"Shit, that's all you had to say." Grabbing the nameplate off the desk, Blixt spun, hurling it like a knife straight into the head of one of the guards. It sank into its target, tiny glowing voxels emitting from the guard's "wound" as it staggered and fell. As much of an advantage that was, they weren't here to fight.

"Come on up..." She muttered to Helios, grabbing the mechanical cat and flinging it up towards a low-hanging arch in the lobby. Morphing into its spider form, it clung on, firing a thick thread of silk from its mouth instead of a more...accurate part of its anatomy. Twisting with surprising strength, it hauled Blixt into the air and allowed her to land next to Bee.

"Puzzle..." she panted. "Hope you've put that brain to work figuring it out." With that, she rested her hand on the other glowing red panel. "Or maybe we'll get lucky and this is just a friendship door."

Just for the heck of it, she tapped another button on her wrist while she waited, and Helios snatched up a lamp with its thread, swinging it at its next victim.

SilverFlight

Jace was watching and Then Started Firing Sniping off some of the Paper Cranes as hewas humming a Good song to himself while Doing it. With Phi sending hin vision links to him every time. Jace liked cranes, but it even more fun when you get to snipe Paper ones.

Reacting immediately upon seeing the fox glowing, the Canadian paused his movements and took a step back. His lips pursed as he analyzed what the mob would then do… ’It’s… running? C’mon…!’

Not to lose sight of the mammal, Linguine began following it, eyes darting side to side. The cats didn’t quite turn hostile like he predicted they would, but the atmosphere still felt tense. He knew how to pick up warnings and cues so he didn’t linger any longer than he had to.

“... What’s it doing…?” After jogging out of the cat cafe, Linguine quickly took sight of the fox, which brought forth more questions. It was waiting for him, it seemed. But why? Several theories formed in his head but he had to force himself not to think too much on them. In short, either it was leading him somewhere or he’d need to back it into a corner in order to catch it. ’Urgh, what a pain…’

“Let’s follow it for now.”, Linguine spoke to Reign. “If we’re lucky, we’ll simply need to follow it until it grows all nine. Or, uh, something.” Briefly turning around, the Moose cringed at all the felines that were glaring at the two, murderous intent clear in the air. “Yep, let’s follow…”

Taking the lead, Linguine went forward in pursuit of the fox. He wasn’t quite sure what its deal was so he played it safe, not running too fast, not making any aggressive move for the moment. If they really needed to catch it, he was pretty sure Reign and himself could handle it with ease. “Keep your eyes peeled. This seems a bit too easy for now.”, he warned his ally.
Goonfire SilverFlight

A soon as one of the black ink markers was hit a massive swath of cranes simply dropped from the sky, the makrs vanished from their heads and they sat, still and simple as regular paper cranes. The rest, sensing danger, flew into a frenzy and dove at the players. One group formed a giant pair of scissors and tried to corral them, while the other flew earthward and formed a massive bulldozer, which charged, trying to trap them in its shovel.
((You can go ahead and take them out if you like, then go help Linguine and Reign, they might need it. Kase, leave at least some action for the others XD))
kase9187 Mirai-chan Eccentric_Undead Togy

~*~*~

The fox, upon seeing no sign of aggression yipped and wagged both tails, leaping down from the car to rub against Linguini's leg like a pampered cat.
It looked up with bright eyes, seemingly content to stick around. Something thudded in the distance. Something big. It sounded like it was on the other side of the huge sakura tree. Three tiny figures scrambled over the roots, silhouetted against the sun in the sky. Three other players, running as fast as they could towards the group. Then, just behind them, a huge black shadow appeared, galloping after them. It was a fox, but hardly the small, adorable creature that Linguine and Reign had befriended; this monster was the size of a minibus, and angry, nine tails flared like a fan behind it. These players had obviously failed to solve the puzzle, and now their fox was after them with a vengeance. They were running down the street straight towards the cat cafe, and the two Lounge 5 players.
Tiguidi Goonfire

~*~*~

The evelator pinged and the doors opened.
"Friendship door!" Bee cried happily. The elevator didn't look terribly big. As Roland appeared it looked like it would only hold the three of them.

"Hey coach! Come to join the crown team?"

When they had all piled into the elevator the doors closed by themselves and the elevator started moving upwards.
The floor they arrived at was indeed the penthouse, and oh was it incredible. The elevator opened up onto marble floors, gold fixtures and a massive golden chandelier hung over a silk-sheeted bed the size of a backyard swimming pool. In the dining area a chocolate fountain flowed, sending rivulets of three different chocolates down gilded troughs in the table, which ran past an ice cream bar, a soda machine and a mountain of cakes and sweets.
"Oh my god...why isn't this place real...." Bee nearly sobbed under her breath, she reached out towards the rows of cakes, her eyes practically sparkling.

The crown they needed floated in a gilded cage, hooked onto the chandelier, but with the high vaulted ceilings, there was no way they could reach it.
So focused on cake, Bee didn't notice the faint pop music playing, and the pixels that flooded down the windows. Forming the titlescreen of an old game.
Three sets of arrow tiles formed on the floor. The title screen faded and a wheel of songs popped up: All pop or electronic remixes of so many different genres it was hard to keep track.
"Select song" The screen read, and began to play the first on the list, waiting for the players to step up and choose a song.
FiveElemental Nellancholy

As the elevator dinged, Blixt scanned the room, one hand levelled as she swept the muzzle of her gun across her line of sight. As ineffectual as her weapons would appear to be in that situation, it was the reassurance that gesture gave that was more important. Of course, Bee's childish elation was rather amusing, but it probably didn't get them any closer to completing their goal. "If you try eating those, I'm not helping you. They won't go down well." Her eyes narrowed as she considered every detail of her surroundings, awaiting any clue that could bring them closer to the crown...

But as it turns out, the crown wasn't hiding at all. Or maybe it was, and this was a trap. Either way...the obstacle before them was a challenge, sure. But not a...puzzle like they'd been lead to believe. Now here was something that Blixt had gotten fairly familiar with. The kind of thing that relied on muscle memory, sure. But you could get by just as well with the proper timing and reactions.

Stretching her arms over her head, Blixt took a few steps closer to the platform but stopped just short. "Want to take the first step, Bee? I'm sure they won't mind if you take it easy."

SilverFlight FiveElemental

Linguine briefly tensed up when the fox approached him and Reign but remained unmoving. “Annnnd… ah? Huh, easy as that…”, he let out when the small creature rubbed against his legs. He’d be lying if he said he expected exactly that to happen but hey, he wouldn’t complain! “Welp, one thing done, I guess. Now wh-” He interrupted himself at the sight of the other players running toward them -other players, obviously. But they weren’t alone.

“Ohhhhh…. shit.”

Reflexively raising his cannon at the sight of random players, Linguine instead shook his head and moved to get out of the way, making sure to scoop up the small fox at his feet. That bigger fox looked like it was aggroing these other guys -better keep things that way.

Goonfire SilverFlight

Annie was trying to summon her mech enough to throw up a shield for Jason carrying her, trying to put up barriers between them and the huge swarm of cranes.

"Jason, hun, can you get me away from the papercut brigade before I bleed out and get disqualified?" She said through pained breaths.

Eccentric_Undead Togy Mirai-chan