Party Hard

by David Petrie

  Farnsworth was next in line, and she stared at the crystal glass of pure darkness. She started to take a step backward but stopped herself. Then she froze, her hand wavering as if hitting a barrier that she couldn't cross alone.

  Kira responded by sliding her glass gently out of the small skull’s mouth, its teeth snapping shut with a painful sounding crack as the others had. She scooped up the liquid and raised the shot to her mouth, stopping as a drop that balanced on the rim, passed to her bottom lip. It spread across the pink skin of her mouth, shining in the dim light. She looked to Farn, making eye contact. Then together, they sipped.

  Max winced as they swallowed, expecting them to react as the others had. Farn grimaced, but that was it. She swallowed, then ran her tongue around her mouth as if trying to remove an aftertaste. She scrunched her nose as if smelling something along with it. "It's sweet." Her voice shook as if there was something more that she wasn’t saying.

  He turned to Kira, her eyes staring forward at nothing in particular as she let the water flow into her mouth and swirl around her tongue. She swallowed without reaction and lowered the glass, placing it on the rim of the basin. One hand raised to her lips, her fingertip ensuring the removal of any uncooperative droplets. Her face was hard to read, and Max wondered if she was doing it on purpose like she didn't want them to know what she felt. Then she blinked a few times and placed the glass back down. "Sorry, tasted like nothing."

  Before Max could say anything back, the basin lit up. The still surface of the water filling with a video portal, similar to the previous one he had been shown the night before, the same basement wall with the same man in front of it, Carver.

  "Hi there. Welcome to the end of the world," he said matter-of-factly but without malice, like he was reading from a script. "Good to see Milo was able to get you all signed on for this. He is good at negotiations." He paused, leaning back from the camera, swiveling back and forth in his chair for a moment. "Anyway, for this quest, I've planned something a little special. Think of it as a Nightmare expansion made just for you. And since it is a battle to stop the destruction of this world, it seemed fitting that you should face some of the biggest fears shared by humanity, the four horsemen of the apocalypse to be exact. Each time you defeat one, the location of the next will become available.

  However, before I can set you loose on the world, there are some rules that we should cover. The reason that you were required to drink this stuff to start the mission was so the quest could mark you as participants and make some small changes to your character data." He leaned forward again. "Number one." He held up a finger. "You'll notice that you no longer have the glyph required to start a teleport spell. It has been disabled. You'll get it back upon completion."

  Kira and Corvin swiped open their menus to confirm his claim as he continued.

  "So, if you want to get anywhere, you'll have to physically travel there. No shortcuts.

  “Rule number two - you can no longer accept transfers of any kind from anyone outside of your current party. So no asking Milo for infinite items. You must do this on your own with the resources that you have available or else it won't mean anything.

  “Rule three is simple. Long distance communication is out. You can't use com-rings or send messages. If someone isn't in earshot, then they can't help you.

  “Number four is important, so pay attention. At any given time, no more than four of your team may be logged out. If at any point more than four of you are offline, a failure will trigger, and the world will end. There is no way to stop this, so don't take any chances."

  Puzzled looks met across the basin as Max considered the purpose of such a condition.

  "And, last but not least, is rule number five which is more of an extension of rule four. Since your whole team can't log out together, it should go without saying that you can't all die at any point either; that would count as a disconnect since it forces a brief logout before putting you back in. So if your team wipes, the world will end."

  He placed his hands on his desk, interlocking his fingers. "I apologize for not being able to be there myself to send you on your way, but I've never been that interested in role-playing. So, without further adieu, here is the location of the first horseman," a system chime sounded, indicating the addition of a waypoint to their maps. "But before you go, I want you to know that I do hope you win. In all honesty, nothing would make me happier. So be careful, and do the best you can." He reached forward to stop the recording but paused before hitting the button. "Oh, almost forgot. You will have thirty hours to complete the quest. Also, as soon as this video terminates, you will have five minutes to escape this dungeon before it collapses. Good luck." His finger tapped a button, and the basin went dark.

  A timer appeared at the bottom of Max's stat-sleeve, blinking five-zero-zero before ticking down each second. A second timer faded into existence in the space the beneath that, showing the mission clock's thirty hours.

  "Crap!" Max looked to Kira for ideas.

  In battle, he’d always been a take-charge kind of guy with quick tactical thinking being his strength, but when he needed some outside the box thinking, she could usually come up with something. She might not have always had the most common sense, but when it came to complex thought with a dash of the absurd, she was his girl. It was part of why they complimented each other so well.

  She took a moment to think as Ginger and Kegan glanced toward the stairs, numbers counting down on their wrists. Kira spoke as if responding to what they were thinking. "No, it took hours to get down here, we'll never make it up that way." She stood still for a moment looking up. "I think I might be able to fly out."

  That was all Max needed to hear. "Okay, Farn, you're with Kira. Everyone else, log out."

  "What?" Kegan blurted.

  Kira nodded in line with his decision. "If you're not here when the place comes down, you won't be killed. I should be able to make my way up without getting hit by debris, and Farn should be able to take a few hits while flying if she uses her shield." She turned to Farn and stepped closer. "We'll need to stay close so I can keep your health up, and I might need to get under your shield if things get bad."

  Farn nodded, though her eyes looked like they were screaming.

  "What about the angels?" Max fluttered his hands together to mime a pair of wings.

  Kira looked up again. "We'll wait until it all starts to come down. They'll have to deal with the collapse too. I'd rather dodge falling objects than dodge arrows that are specifically aimed at me."

  "Okay, sounds good. We're out," agreed Max as he signaled to the rest to head out. They didn't seem confident, but they selected the sign-off option on their sleeves anyway.

  Max knelt down to make sure he didn't cancel his logout request by moving around too much as the short wait-period passed. He couldn't help but notice how anxious both Farn and his sidekick looked as they stood like an awkward pair of teens thrown together at a junior high school dance. He figured he should say something encouraging. He turned toward the fairy. "Try not to screw this up."

  Kira crossed her arms, unamused.

  Then he turned to Farn, adding, "Try to make sure Kira doesn't screw this up."

  Farn’s mouth fell open, but no words came out.

  "You done?" Kira glared at him on the ground.

  He laughed at his own joke before raising his hands and lowering them as if he was melting. "Good luuuuuuuck …" he said, dragging out the words and letting them waver like a ghost as he attempted to time it with his log out. Then he held the pose, looking foolish.

  "You timed it wrong." Kira’s arms remained crossed.

  Max dropped his hands and let out a single, "Damn," that echoed as the world faded out of existence around him.

  Chapter Twelve

  Farnsworth stared at the timer on her forearm, regret setting in as soon as Max was gone. She looked up at the dozens of enormous chandeliers hanging above her head. It was insane, the idea that she could somehow fly o
ut of there. She glanced at Kira and wanted to shout at Max for volunteering her to protect the fairy. She had only known her for a day, and while it may have been fun, she wasn't ready to jump into a situation where they had to depend on each other to survive.

  Even worse, Farn was angry at herself. She actually had a contract ability that could have shielded the entire party, but she hadn’t spoken up fast enough. Classic Farn, she scolded herself as she touched her gauntlet against her chest plate and remembered the words to activate the contract. She yanked her hand away. It was too late. With only two party members logged in, the ability was out of the question. She just couldn’t pay the cost to activate it.

  Kira glanced up at her, making eye contact for the briefest of moments before looking back to the scene above. The fairy's body trembled, and she took a deep breath as if she was struggling to hold herself steady. It actually made Farn feel a little better, knowing that she wasn't alone. Kira was probably just as freaked out as she was.

  At the thirty second mark, Kira set up a Flight spell with an added protection buff that felt warm and tingled as it activated around Farn’s body in a spiral of sparkling silver dust.

  The timer hit zero, and for a moment, all was silent. Then a low foreboding rumble came from above, reaching down into the back of Farn's mind, fanning the flames of doubt. She motioned to take off, but Kira reached out, her hand stopping a few inches before making contact with Farn’s wrist as if telling her, not yet. The sound of stone crumbling above reached her ears as slits of moonlight found their way through the falling rubble that was once the ceiling. Iron chandeliers clanged and crashed against each other as they tore their support ropes from the walls and tumbled down the shaft, their echo reverberating as Farn stood below. She held her ground, looking up at the sight, more intimidating than any she had ever seen. Her heart raced as she fought the urge to launch. Timing was everything.

  Finally, as the volume grew to a deafening level, Kira yelled, "now!" and shot up into the air.

  Farn followed close behind, her shield glowing, hoping to plow through whatever might be in her way. She moved fast to meet the falling rubble, the familiar twinge of doubt reminding her of the insanity of the plan she’d agreed to. It vanished as she watched Kira weave around the first of the chandeliers that fell toward them as if it was nothing, its heavy chain whipping by as she passed. Farn did the same but with far less grace, the chain glancing off her shield as she watched the sparkling fairy above slip through the branches of two more iron shapes like a thread through the eye of a needle. The angel statues screamed in horror as they fell victim to their crumbling home. Farn took a few large hits to her shield, her health dropping about half way from the spillover. Kira responded by firing off a heal from her queue, making it obvious to Farn that the mage was hanging back to stay in range. Farn gritted her teeth and sped up to force her way through, not wanting to slow them down any more than she had. The light from above grew brighter as they streaked toward the surface until, suddenly, it was gone, blotted out by the debris. They were so close.

  The iron and stone simply became too dense. Through the energy of her shield, Farnsworth saw the fairy juke from side to side before freezing in the air, her last moments slipping away before her death became inevitable. It was over already, Farn thought, but that was when she heard something unexpected: her own voice yelling.

  Farn's body moved on its own, guided by the instinct developed over the course of three years of protecting others, telling her mind to shut the hell up with all its stupid doubts and fears. She wasn't shouting anything in particular, just a long roar of ferocity. It snapped Kira out of her panic as well, and she glanced back down at Farn speeding toward her. Then it all fell into place.

  Kira’s wings blinked out of existence for a moment, and she dropped to meet Farn halfway. Farn reached out and caught her wrist, pulling her in. Kira let out a squeak as Farn let go for a second only to wrap her free arm around the fairy’s back to keep her within the protection of her shield. She clenched her fist to push the Flight spell's speed to full, still yelling at the falling rubble as she rushed straight toward it. Kira shut her eyes tight and ducked her head close to the safety of Farn's body, just as they hit.

  The sound of rock, metal, and shouting blurred together as impact rocked the pair again and again. Their forms smashing through layer after layer; Farn didn't have to look at her status to know that she was close to death. Then light engulfed her as Kira's wings reappeared with an eruption of shining dust that brought Farn's health back up and held it steady as she forced her way through. She just hoped the mage had enough mana to keep it going.

  The shack, through which they had entered the dungeon, fell along with everything else, somehow still intact. At least it was until Farnsworth smashed through its doorway with the force of a cannonball, a fairy held close like a damsel in distress. Dark clouds billowed around them, forced up by the collapse of their surroundings. Farn had no way to tell if there were more obstacles in their path or even which way was up.

  With her arm still clutching the mage, she felt Kira hold her breath as if clinging to the hope that it was over, that they were out. Farn did the same, finally letting her endless war cry die out. For a moment, it seemed like the world was gone, like it was just them, floating in a void of sand and dust. Then, just as Farn expected it to go on forever, the sky filled her view.

  Kira let out a long, "Whoooooooo!" in celebration as Farn released the fairy from her grip, freeing her to fly in circles around her as they made their way back to the Nostromo hovering not far above.

  Farn's legs gave out as soon as she landed on the deck. Kira toppled down next to her, laughing hard enough to shed tears. Farn couldn't help but laugh too at the absurdity of what she had just done.

  Alastair rushed out on to the deck, his face somehow even whiter than it had been already. He held his com-ring in his hand rather than wearing it on his finger as if he had taken it off when the group chat had gone dead. He must have been panicking without a way to know what to make of the rest of the party's sudden logoffs.

  Farn was pretty sure she saw his eye twitch. She ignored him for the moment. Instead, she sat up and leaned against Kira who was still far too consumed by endless guffaws to be able to stand up quite yet.

  Finally, the pair settled down, the mad laughter dying into just a few chuckles as Farn voiced what they both were thinking. "How the hell did we survive that?"

  Chapter Thirteen

  After suffering through a rather long debriefing aboard the Nostromo, Farnsworth was forced to return to Valain. Since the dungeon that the others had been occupying when they had logged out no longer existed, the system defaulted to the last city they had entered as a new login point. This was a function she had already expected, as she had encountered it before while accessing a number of temporary dungeons that were available at certain times per year. Although, they didn't tend to self-destruct so spectacularly.

  A look at the mission counter told her they had lost a little over a half an hour on the return to the city. There was still plenty of time. So, while the rest of the team took a short break in the real world, unsure of when they would get another chance, Kira had insisted that she and Farn run a few errands. Farn suspected that the fairy just didn't want to be cooped up in the ship with nothing to do. Considering that the inability to accept transfers from anyone outside the party would make it difficult for the team to get supplies during the night, it wasn’t a bad idea.

  The Nostromo took port at a private dock, belonging to a major footwear manufacturer, atop one of the taller buildings in Valain in an attempt not to draw attention to the irregular airship. Farn followed Kira as she hopped off the retractable stairs.

  An overly serious elven assistant stepped onto the dock behind her acting as their corporate chaperone. Farn could tell Kira wasn't a fan of the arrangement from the near constant eye rolls and scowling. She wasn’t being subtle. There was something insulting about being assig
ned a babysitter after all.

  Out of curiosity, the fairy removed her inspector from the back of her journal and looked at the elf through it. He hadn't introduced himself in game yet or passed on his contact information, so no one knew his character's name. Kira let out a sudden snort. "Really? Jeff with a three?" she asked as she read the name above the man's head.

  Farn leaned down to see as well, curious about the what she meant by the question. Apparently, he had tried to use his real name but had spelled it with the number three in place of the letter E. It must have been picked by another user before him.

  The elf looked annoyed. "Yes. Is that a problem?" responded Jeff-with-a-three, which was now what Farn remembered him as.

  "Not for me, I guess." Kira shrugged and moved past it.

  The dock was made of polished stone slabs held up by a series of buttresses, and being on one of the tallest buildings in Valain, it gave them an almost unobstructed view of the city surrounding them.

  Farn watched as Kira rushed to the edge without warning and leaned a little too far over a railing to remark on the people walking below. She reached into her item bag and retrieved a small piece of iron ore meant for crafting. Then, holding the clump of metal out in her hand, she dropped it.

  Jeff-with-a-three gasped at the action.

  She then turned to the archway that concealed an elevator at the end of the dock and ran toward it. "Come on; we gotta see if it hit anyone." The cheerful notes of the fairy's laugh convinced Farn to follow, and Kira tapped the call button as soon as she reached the large stone doors.

  Their chaperone expressed his reluctance by keeping his pace slow as to make them wait. This, of course, turned out to be a mistake when the fairy slipped through the elevator doors as they opened and hit the button to close as soon as Farn stepped in behind her.