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The Portal Games

Arena 2, Episode 3

Draconicon

The game had gotten interesting, alright, and in a way that he hadn't entirely seen coming.

He tossed another ball of popcorn down his throat as he watched the split displays of the two teams. They were both dealing with the shift in dynamic in their own way, but he could tell that they were still a bit at odds with the situation that they were in. They both had an imprecise understanding, and he was curious if they'd figure it out before the end of the round.

Black Chaos had been more than 'infected'. They'd already given the demon a chance to get free from the moment they'd offered up a test piece. When the jagged bit of metal had been turned into a dagger, it had become a demon. The same had happened with the axe that Sergino carried, both of them part of the same hellish hive mind, both possessed of the same demon in two different bodies.

Of course, there was also what had happened to Tarin. The demon had not just corrupted him, but slid a portion of its own essence in there, giving itself a secondary body outside of the two relatively inanimate ones that it already had. Should the deer give way, the demon would be allowed full freedom to act, though he didn't think that they were at that point just yet. The demon was, after all, still rather weak, and it would only be able to tempt, not command.

And that was if Lykus didn't pull some bullshit with his cards and do something to it. Draconicon shook his head, smiling to himself.

"And...there's the push," he muttered, watching as the screen zoomed out, showing the wave of energy coming from the 'bottom' of the station, near the starting point. It was gradually consuming the different chunks of the space station, gradually moving up and through the station as a whole.

He'd set that up to start as soon as the challenge was beaten, mostly as a way to keep everyone from searching the station relentlessly for idols. The last thing that he wanted was for them to start seeing that as the be-all, end-all of the game, and the only way to keep them moving when they had this much extra time was to give them a reason to stay on the move.

So, their previous three-day time limit had been shortened by...oh, two and a half days. They had a couple of hours to get to the end point, but the arena was shrinking by the minute.

This should be rather entertaining.

Whoopsie Daisies

Isabella was having a bad day, and so was the rest of the team. They groaned as they all floated off the deck, their last motions sufficient to push them off the ground. Jason managed to flex his claws and grab hold again, but everyone else was at least partially suspended in mid-air.

Kotone and Sarah looked back at the ground, the mare and T-Rex hesitating for a moment before continuing their assigned jobs. If they were currently cut off from the power grid, then they needed to find their way out as fast as possible. Whatever passage they could get, they would have to take.

"What's the plan?" Sergino asked.

"Um..." Isabella looked away from Jason, trying to remember the layout of the space station. "Um, um...they're going to go straight for the portal, don't you think?"

"Probably."

"Then we should - oh, dear."

Her healing wasn't working as well as she'd hoped. Physical injuries were simple enough to heal with her power, but this was something else. The transformation had ripped through his sense of self, changing him utterly, and despite her connections to the spirits, the pangolin couldn't convince the dragon's soul to come forward and take its old form again. She hoped that she'd have better luck with that later, but for now -

No, no, she had to think of what the plan was. She was the team leader. She had to keep them safe.

"I don't want to fight them," Isabella said. "They're waiting for that. They want that."

Sergino's axe-head nodded, pulling back from the bodies that it had been munching on. The entire team stared at the reddened blade, and the ice dragon gave the axe a shake. It subsided.

"Um...Are...we going to be okay with that?" Isabella asked.

"If it gets out of hand, I'll deal with it. Plan?"

"Right." Isabella nodded, wringing her hands, 'washing' them nervously. "Um, um...I think we need to go to the outer ring now. Put some distance between us and them. And...and maybe we'll get lucky. Find an idol."

"Maybe. Unlikely."

"We have to try."

"I second the outer ring idea," Glyn said. "Keeps us from getting too close to them when they got weapons."

"We have weapons," Sergino said. "And more hands to use them."

"And we have one big dumb dragon that's got a lot more bulk and doesn't know how to use it yet. No offense, Jason."

"None. Taken," the four-legged dragon muttered.

"So, you can talk," Sergino said.

"Never said...I couldn't. Getting...used to it."

"Anyway. When they find the way out," Isabella said, "we run. Run as fast as we can. Or...or fly...or whatever we have to do to make it to the end first."

They were entirely conscious of the fact that they were robbed of a straight shot to the portal out. The other side had a clear advantage from winning the challenge, and if they had the ability to shut down the power from one mini-station to another, then they had probably made a deal with the demon. They couldn't just assume that the deal wouldn't also include the demon's knowledge of the station.

Including the location of the idol.

They had to move. They had to move fast.

"Kotone? Sarah? What do you see?!" Isabella shouted.

"Upstairs takes us further along the middle ring," Kotone shouted back.

"Downstairs takes us to the outer ring, but the door's locked," Sarah called up.

"Looks like I'm up," Glyn said. "Let's see what I can do."

Isabella nodded. As she called for Kotone to come back down and join them, the pangolin's eyes drifted in the direction of the other stations. She could feel things moving, and she didn't like what she was sensing.

Black Chaos

"You're kidding me..."

Tarin shook his head, and Ailsa slapped her forehead.

"Well, that shoots down the idea of going for a triple elimination..."

The demon had some knowledge of the idols, but it had made it quite clear that the idol that they needed was back at the start of the arena, in the very first room. Their hurry forward had meant that they hadn't bothered to check it while they were getting ready to run, and now, there was no going back to fetch it.

And from the sounds of things, it wasn't going to be reappearing ahead of them. Destroyed by the environment seemed to affect it differently than destroyed by players.

Still, at least that meant that it was less likely that the other side would find their other idol, too. It was still down to who got to the portal first.

"Are we clear?" Ailsa called.

"Just about," Sanmer shouted back.

"Alright, good...good. Tarin? Can the demon shut off the power to the next station?"

"Not yet...it needs some time to pull itself together again."

"Okay. Don't have it do it just yet. I have an idea...a rather good one, I think."

The stingray led the demon-possessed deer back to the corridor leading out of the Core. The wall of ice that had stood between them and their destination had completely melted now, and they had a clear view of the next station. Looking through the transparent corridor, she couldn't make out any signs of the other team hurrying through from their end, which meant that they still had a lead.

"Alright. Move out."

She took point, with Lykus behind her, Jaden behind him, followed by Sanmer and then Tarin. She'd determined that to be their marching order from now on; one good fighter in the front with ranged support behind, with the shaman in the center as magical radar, the mad scientist in the back with his tentacle plant to keep anyone from sneaking through the line if Tarin got taken out, and the other fighter at the rear. It was a good way to keep any ambushes from happening, as far as she was concerned, and it meant that they could strike quick and hard from either end.

They had no interruptions or ambushes as they walked down the steamy corridor, and she had to admit that the heat was a nice change compared to the chill of the station that they'd been dealing with up til that point. She even relaxed.

Which was a mistake.

As soon as she stepped foot in the new station, she was under attack. A robotic arm swept out and grabbed her by the throat, lifting her off her feet and swinging her against the nearest wall. She managed to get her arms up before the restraints came down, but not her legs.

Lykus dodged the swinging arms, rolling into the room and pulling his cards from his pocket, while Jaden ducked, but was grabbed by the legs. The orca was swung head over heels, lifted up and away from the corridor.

"What the fuck?!" Lykus shouted. "What kind of space station is this?"

" Welcome to the Cargo Processing Station. Please restrain all living cargo for the purposes of processing."

"Well, that answers that question, I - HEY! OFF THE LEG!"

As the striped wolf flicked one of his cards at the mechanical arm in question, Sanmer and Tarin joined the group. The fox held his tentacle plant in hand, holding it by the pot as it flicked out and batted away anything that came close, while Tarin was almost casually bobbing and weaving through the mechanical menaces all around them. Whether it was the influence of the demon or something else entirely, he was moving with ease through the traps.

And it bothered her. Ailsa growled as she thumped her fist against the waist-level restraint that kept her pinned to the wall, shaking her head.

"When someone's got a moment, get me out of here," the stingray ordered.

"Working - gah - working on it!" Lykus said, the timber wolf jumping over another mechanical arm, even as his card use turned it into a snake. "A - what? How - okay, not questioning that one..."

It was a madhouse, to put it mildly, and it was only getting worse the more that they fought back. Ailsa shook her head, only to yelp as something started prodding her ass from behind.

" Beginning Cargo Examination."

"Hey, just because I have junk in the trunk - mmmmph..."

Whoopsie Daisies

It took longer than any of them wanted, but eventually Glyn was able to hack the door open. The timber wolf rubbed his hands, nursing the electrical injuries that crisscrossed his hands from hacking the door security.

"Not doing that again," he muttered.

"Is that a serious statement?" Kotone asked.

"No, but it hurt."

"Understood."

The team looked down the glass tunnel that connected them to the outer ring. No ice stood in their way, but the cracks in the glass made it clear that it would be a dangerous crossing. They all looked at Jason, the big feral dragon floating for the moment, but the same thought occurred to all of them.

The other station would have gravity. If he came down hard, he'd shatter the glass, and they'd all be dragged out into the vacuum.

"There's gotta be a way," Sarah muttered.

"I would like to hear any thoughts," Sergino said.

The same trick that they'd tried earlier in the round wouldn't work here. They didn't have access to the far panel to tweak the gravity around, and Glyn had already made it clear that he couldn't do that without access to more electricity than they did over here. The gravity controls required more juice than the door.

So, how the hell were they going to get across?

As they floated around the exit, Kotone gripped the edge of the corridor. She sunk her fingers in, tapping the metal ring that marked the joining point of the station to the corridor, and glanced down the glass tube. A metal ring about the same thickness could be seen every twenty feet down the corridor. Every twenty feet meant quite a few holds for a tube that was over 1,800 feet long, but that was an opportunity.

"Glyn? Do you still have your rope?"

"Yeah."

"Could you secure it to this?"

"Yeah, but - Oh. Oh, good idea."

The rest of them caught on quickly. The timber wolf pushed himself off, carrying his rope with him. He caught himself on the first ring and braced himself, and Isabella followed.

It was a relay, slow but steady, launching themselves one by one down the corridor. It was the only safe way to do it. Sure, Glyn or one of the others could have launched themselves further down the tunnel, continuing in empty space for as long as the gravity stayed off, but that would have ended in a crash that likely would have shattered the floor out from under them. If that happened with the wrong member of the group, they could all be cut off from each other.

Whereas if they took the rope, they were moving slower, but they had twenty-foot intervals in which they could test the gravity and be sure that they were going to be okay when they landed at the other end. It wasn't ideal, and it wasn't quick, but it was a hell of a lot safer than the alternatives.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

The lighter members of the team - Glyn and Isabella - went first, testing the tunnel in twenty-foot increments, then setting up a harness further on for the others to catch up. Then they'd continue another sixty feet - again, in twenty-feet increments - and set up another harness to catch the others. Bit by bit, they advanced, and it was as safe as one could like.

Black Chaos

They were moaning. A lot, actually, though for various different reasons.

Ailsa was pinned to the wall, and so was Jaden, the pair of them gasping as they were fucked by 'examining rods' from behind. The orca kept fumbling with the demonic knife in his hands, trying to move it, adjust it, but every time that he was about to strike, he held back, stopping himself for a reason that seemed clear only to him. Ailsa was grunting and all but fucking herself back as much as the restraints allowed.

Lykus had ended up blasted with one of his own cards, his cock throbbing as the machines kept trying to get close, only to be sparked with the corruption of the demon magic his cards had absorbed and pushed back. The striped canine growled, but couldn't help but moan from the constant corruption coursing through him as the machines turned into half-living constructs around him.

Sanmer? Well, the fox had sheathed himself in his plant, wrapping it around him like armor. It was busily sucking along his cock for 'food', as far as anyone could tell, though it was proving very effective at keeping the various machine arms away from him. Everything was going quite well for the fox, if one ignored the various tentacle molestations that he was 'suffering' for the sake of the group.

And as for Tarin?

Tarin stood on one of the arms, suspended at the top of the room, wielding a charged red blade to keep the others at bay while stabbing another arm into the vents above the rest. The deer's demonic eye glowed bright red as he kept fiddling around.

"Tarin! Hurry up!" Ailsa gasped, arching her back. "Fuck, it's getting thicker!"

"I am doing the best I can. If I could have a little -"

"NNGH!"

Jaden finally managed to get lucky, stabbing the demon knife into his restraints. They dropped him like a hot potato, the orca hitting the ground with a groan. He looked at the knife, shaking his head.

"This thing..."

"Just wait a moment. I think - there we go."

Crack.

Hum.

Silence.

The room went dark, and the arms released their captives. Those that had been trapped by the various mechanical limbs fell forward, and in Ailsa's case, slurped right off the thing that had been holding her.

Those that hadn't been naked now were, with everything on display and nothing hidden from the rest of the group. Some blushed, some looked away, but all were completely exposed.

"Well, that was fun," Lykus said, one arm wrapped around his oversized cock as it rested against his belly. "But any chance of getting this taken care of so I can actually, you know, walk without tripping over my dick? Hot as it looks, I'm not going to be able to run with this like this. Stomping on your cock ain't fun."

"I'll make you a belt," Sanmer said, finagling himself an exit from his plant. The piece of tentacle flora deposited itself back in its pot, and he was just fine. "Of course, we'll have to find the fabric for that first, and that might be a trifle difficult. But if this is cargo processing, then we -"

"We need to keep moving," Ailsa groaned. "And fast."

"Agreed," Tarin said. "Before the other team beats us to the end."

"It's just one more corridor," Lykus said. "Do you really think they can outrun us when we still have the heat beam?"

"Let's not risk it; it was damn close last time, and I don't want to lose again."

Particularly not when there was the chance of shrinking the team even further. One loss meant that they were competing at 6 to 5. Another would make it 6 to 4, and that would be a lot harder to come back from.

"Jaden, grab the gun."

"..."

"Jaden." Ailsa narrowed her eyes. "I said, grab the gun."

"Only if we leave this knife behind," the orca said.

"...What?"

"I want to leave this thing behind. It's dangerous, and it's more demonic than Tarin is."

"It's a tool. We need it."

"It's...not just a weapon. Or a tool. It's much more than that, and if we take it with us -"

"If we leave it here, then we lose a tool. And I'm not losing anything that might be useful."

Jaden clenched his fist tighter around the knife, but slowly nodded. The orca clearly disagreed, but wasn't going to fight. The stingray knew him, knew what his sort was like. They were more interested in keeping the peace than fighting to preserve it later.

"Move out, everyone. And Tarin?"

"Hmm?" the deer asked.

"The demon. He charged up?"

"...Yes?"

"Have him super-charge the station they're going to. All systems on." It was time for those guys to learn how it felt to deal with station security.

Whoopsie Daisies

They reached the station successfully, though not without a few sweat-inducing moments when Jason came thumping down when gravity reasserted itself, or when Sergino's axe decided to try and 'help' by trying to eat through the door to the station. The intense destruction from dragon and weapon alike nearly broke the barriers that kept space on the other side, and the entire party was on edge when the doors opened. They wanted out.

" Welcome to the Circe's Spa and Relaxation Center. Prepare to be Cleansed."

"...Why does that sound more ominous than it should?" Glyn asked.

"Because you can hear the capital letter," Sarah said, shaking her head. "Oh lord, it's one of those things."

"I don't suppose we have a way through this?" Sergino asked. "Without fighting? I don't entirely trust this thing right now," he said, shaking his axe until it stopped with the maniacal, toothy grin that the blade had taken on.

The team turned to Isabella. She smiled, but it was a shaky grin, the sort that came up when someone really didn't know whether they were right or wrong anymore. So, they turned again, this time to Sarah. The T-Rex looked back, arching an eyebrow.

"Oh, what, you think I can lawyer our way through this?"

"I've seen weirder," Glyn muttered, shaking his head. "Trust me, wouldn't be the first time that rules came to the rescue."

"And wouldn't be the first time that they damned everyone, either," Sarah said. "I hate working a case without knowing all the facts."

"Well, it's either push in and fight, or see if arguing gives you half a chance."

"Oh, hell..."

The T-Rex shook her head, leaning towards the crack in the door. She poked her muzzle through -

And was immediately under attack by cleaning arms and hands, seeking to pull her through and restrain her. If it wasn't for the fact that the last harness was still tied to her, she would have been dragged through before anyone could have done anything to save her. As it was, they were barely able to pull her back.

"Right...well..." Sarah shook her head. "That was fun."

"So, back to the fighting plan," Sergino said.

"Not necessarily. I did see a plaque on the other side. And the first rule it mentioned was something about payment being deducted from an account. Do any of us have active credit accounts?"

"None of us are from here," Glyn said. "How would we -"

"Just in general. Does anyone have any accounts?"

"Not me," Isabella said. "What's an account?"

"We use cash back on my world, so not me," Sarah said. "Sergino?"

The ice dragon shook his head. So did Jason, muttering something about a mistress having control of any of his.

"The shrine provided for our needs," Kotone said.

All eyes turned back to Glyn. The timber wolf rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well, um, I - you have to understand, it's a necessity to have a certain amount of resources but have a place to put them when you're not in the mood to carry them around."

"Get rid of 'em."

"WHAT?!" The timber wolf likely would have leaped out of his skin at that moment and stomped his foot if it wasn't for the fact that it would have broken the glass and sent them into space. "What the hell for?"

"If we don't have any resources, then we can't be given the treatment. It's gotta be in the rules for the spa somewhere; if you can't charge the customers, then they can't give the treatment," Sarah said.

"But...but..."

"Get rid of the credits, and we might be able to get through with nothing bothering us."

"Might. Might! I have - okay, I don't have that much, but I still have a fair bit of money where I came from. And you're telling me to just get rid of all of it, just for the sake of a maybe?!"

Sarah shrugged. Glyn sputtered. The rest of the team, of course, was silent, with Isabella being helpfully gagged by Kotone.

The timber wolf grumbled, rubbing his forehead as he pulled his wrist up. He tapped something hidden in his fur, little beeps following. His finger hesitated over whatever it was, and he looked up at them.

"I want you all to know, you owe me big time for this."

Tap.

Beep.

"Ooooh, that hurts. Oh, that's buyer's remorse to the nth degree," he muttered. "That better work."

"Only one way to find out," Sergino said, stepping through the door.

They waited for the grunts, the shimmer-schnick of machines moving around, but heard nothing. A few seconds later, the ice dragon chuckled.

"Well, looks like we're good here. Come on in."

Lawyer one, machine zero. They beat feet, knowing that they had little time.

Both Teams

The heat beam did its magic again, melting a passage to the final room, and Black Chaos ran as fast as they could through it. Off to the side, they could already see the Whoopsie Daisies making their way down the corridor from the station at 11 o'clock to the same one that they were running for, and they seemed to be about neck and neck. It all came down to who entered the station closest to the floor that the portal room was on.

The Daisies entered at the bottom of the station, Chaos entered at the top, and they immediately spread out, looking for the way out.

It wasn't on the top floor.

It wasn't on the bottom.

It wasn't on the second from the bottom.

It was on the second from the top.

It would have been all over for the Daisies at that moment, were it not for one thing: a very hungry axe.

Draconicon

"This shouldn't take too long," the dragon muttered, looking at a nonexistent watch on his wrist. "They can't actually hurt each other, no matter how much they try."

Or at least, not to any long-lasting level. Even the demon on the other side couldn't change that rule, though he was a little irked at just how successful it had been in tempting the stingray. He supposed that he shouldn't have been surprised. The other iterations of that woman he'd known were just as dedicated to the 'bad end' of their games, and just as willing to corrupt or be corrupted.

Still, he had wondered if this one might be different.

He tapped his foot as he waited for the fight to finish. Sergino's axe would buy time for the two teams to equalize in on the main floor, though if Chaos was smart about it -

Shimmer.

"Ah, welcome, Sanmer. First through," the dragon said.

"That...was too...close," the white fox muttered, cradling his plant like a baby. "And you...you better send me back there sometime. There was too much tech to lose. I want to study that."

"Win, and we'll talk."

The white fox stepped off to the side, only for Jaden and Lykus to pass through just after. They hit the ground with a thump, the orca whipping around and throwing the dagger back through the portal...or at least, trying to. The blade passed through and hit the wall on the opposite side, staying with them.

"...Too late," Jaden muttered.

"Hello, still hyper-cocked here. Anyone have something to help me with that?" the wolf said, still pinned down by the weight of his own cock.

"A moment," the dragon said, shaking his head. "Welcome, by the way. Lykus, Jaden, second and third. Eight more to go."

It wasn't too surprising; he imagined that Ailsa had sent all the noncombatants through as soon as possible, using herself and Tarin to fight against the big hitters on the Daisies. It secured three of their team members right off the bat, and it meant that they only had to disengage from their opponents to get through as soon as they had an opening.

Tactically, it was very intelligent.

Shimmer. Sarah stepped through, the T-Rex shaking her head.

"Okay, that's one of us," she said. "I didn't expect that to get out of hand so fast."

"To your place, then. Fourth, Sarah," the dragon said.

"This is nuts."

"I know."

The fighting was probably getting more severe on the other side, five on two. He imagined that Isabella was trying to pull her team back, keep it from getting deadly despite the fact that she'd been told, just like the rest, that it couldn't actually become deadly. But she still would worry. That was just the way she was.

Shimmer. Glyn, this time, followed immediately after by Isabella. Three of the other team, now, leaving three on two.

"Not yet! I want to help!" Isabella shouted.

"No way. We're not getting caught in that. You're safer here," Glyn said.

"But they're not!"

"It's better -"

"They'll get -"

"Glyn and Isabella, fifth and sixth," Draconicon intoned. "Now, if you'll untie the pangolin and take your place with Sarah?"

They weren't happy about it, but they did it. The slight advantage of being the losers was becoming ever more apparent. You might have fewer people to get through the challenges, but you didn't have to get as many people through the portal to secure a win. The Whoopsie Daisies had gotten half of their team through, but Black Chaos had already seized a majority, more than half, and they just needed to get their team through now.

Shimmer. Tarin and Kotone leaped through together, with him holding her with her arms pinned to her sides. The mare hit the ground first, and the deer loomed over her. He whispered something in her ears before getting to his feet, nodding.

"Seventh," Tarin said.

"Indeed. And eighth, Kotone. To your sides."

The mare moved without a word, taking her spot with the other three members of her team, while Tarin did the same with the other three of his.

"Four and four. Eight down, three to go," Draconicon said.

Shimmer. Sergino leaped through, snarling as he hit the ground and whipped his head around.

"Slippery little stingray," he muttered. "Jason, you better not -"

Shimmer.

"Sergino, ninth. And Ailsa, tenth."

Shimmer.

"And Jason, eleventh. And the winners of the round...are Black Chaos."