Bobby shook his head. “I knew I shouldn’t of went down there.” Just then he heard someone or something huffing and running up behind him. With his state of mind right now, it wouldn’t be wise to run up against him. He looked behind him and it was Jasmine. She looked okay but out of breathe. It did look like a battle went on up here and it looked like the bad guys had won.. for now.

Jasmine looked at Bobby. “It was awful. These things came down from the sky and just rained fire. I barely got away.”

Bobby nodded. “Yeah, it was pretty much of the same in the cave. It looks like we both battled some pretty tough badguys. It’s okay.” They just needed to find more rings, he noticed that Jasmine was low on health.

He really wondered what kind of beast could ‘rain fire’ from the sky. Could it had been a blimp or an aeroplane? That would make too much sense and it seemed like this world didn’t make much sense. They started to walk again and they didn’t get even a few feet until they noticed a bridge. It was hanging on the otherside and on fire and there was no way to get across without jumping and climbing the bridge like a ladder. The ropes were still on fire and they were snapping fast and he shook his head and looked over to Jasmine.

Bobby then looked back at the bridge. “I know what we must do.”

Jasmine nodded too. “Yup!”

They both backed up a few feet and got a running start and jumped onto the bridge and climbed it like it was like a ladder and then climbed up onto the grassy hill that was pretty much ash now. He couldn’t believe what had happened. So now he was going to look out for fire breathing enemies. Jasmine was walking a few feet ahead of him and she found more of those monitors and kicked them. The rings came out and healed here. Whatever rings were left over from her healing, they added to her ring count. Being careful and mindful of your health while you were under fire from the enemy, that was hard.

She had some cuts and bruises on her body and they had somehow disappeared. These rings were magical. She continued to lead the way and her brother was bringing up the rear for once. She wondered what was on his mind, he was probably trying to deduce some plan to defeat the monsters and bad guys. That was so much like him, she just liked to explore and look for hidden things. It was unlike Bobby to go into a place that was off the beaten path. Maybe he thought he could find something useful in the cave. All that he found in that cave was a powerful bad guy to fight. So he thought the bad guy he had battled was a sub-boss. So was that thing that rained down fire from the sky a boss? It couldn’t be. There was no way she could of hit it and it didn’t come down and try to fight her. It was just a hazard that changed the landscape.

They came upon a sign that read : End of Zone 1. This was a zone? They completed it? She blinked and walked passed the sign so did Bobby. When they did, the landscape changed once more and another sign red : Entering Zone 2. Okay, another zone and the world was still on fire, smothering actually. There were birds flying above them and they didn’t look very friendly and they both blinked as they looked at their rings. They didn’t have anymore rings. So entering a new zone killed their supply of rings. Bobby was standing under a burning tree and he looked up and saw something metallic looking. He jumped and hit it. It was one of those monitors. It had ten rings in and the rings were divided up between him and Jasmine. Now they had rings.

They walked a few more inches and were greeted with a spike pit. They both blinked and then looked over at a ledge that was moving up and down. Bobby didn’t want to do anymore fucking jumping. This was getting bad. Oh yeah, the birds above them started spitting small fireballs at them. One hit Bobby and lit his ass on fire. This is when he decided to make that leap of faith and jump onto the moving ledge, he made and then he waited for Jasmine and then they both jumped onto another moving ledge and then another. After the last one they were on solid ground and then they passed by their first check point. The check point looked like a stop sign and when they went by it stars appeared above it. So if they died, they would be respawned here.

They walked a few feet further then were greeted by robot chickens that breathed fire. God, he didn’t want to deal with anymore fire based baddies. He kicked the chicken in the face and it got smashed into seemingly a billion pieces and then he saw more on the horizon coming there way. There was a bridge, this time it was intact. Jasmine got in front of her brother and it looked like she was going to have time to finally use her mallet. When the fire came down from the sky, she wasn’t going to try and fight. She ran a cross the bridge to the fire chickens and swung her mallet with all of her might and they went down rather easily. She smiled, looked back at her brother and gave him the peace sign with a cheesy smile.

Bobby shook his head. “Showoff.” He walked a cross the bridge and then stood beside of his sister and they continued to walk through the area. There were no more baddies for a little while and then they came to a bunch of trees that were dropping bombs that looked like coconuts and they had to haul ass, neither of them wanted to get hit. They needed full health. Both of them felt like they were going to come upon a boss soon. They reached a giant rock and they both leaned up against and sighed. That had been one of the toughest runs that they had done yet. Both of them knew there was going to be more dangerous zones ahead. They were surprised they haven’t come upon any of the locals to help them. Maybe they were the only people in this world right now.

Bobby looked at Jasmine. “Having fun yet?” He huffed.

Jasmine rolled her eyes. “Sure.” She was huffing too. She knew this resting was going to be interrupted by something soon. Maybe aliens or something. She wouldn’t be surprised if there were aliens in this world. Aliens beaming themselves down from another planet would be kind of cool and shes never really played any games where that had happened. She looked over at her brother and she knew something was on his mind. He’d always been the strong and silent type and she didn’t like it when he got like that.

Bobby was wondering if he should tell Jasmine about what he had found in the wreckage of that vehicle. Darkcrest Enterprises. It sound like an evil place to work. It probably was, why would someone want to make things that destroyed this awesome landscape? Maybe they had to, it could be all in the story of the world that they were in. He wondered how long it was going to take for them to bump into the area boss. Usually it didn’t take long, they were in zone two after all. He didn’t have a name for this zone. He could call it Fire Hills, but that wasn’t the official name for it. He leaned up against the giant rock, it was about the size of a boulder and it started to move as he leaned on it.

Bobby blinked. “What the hell..” He turned around and started pushing it. Jasmine saw what he was doing and decided to help him push the boulder. After they got the boulder out of the way, they noticed a secret area. There was a ladder that they could climb down and it looked like it was lit up by some sort of light source. Jasmine smiled happily and immediately began to climb down into the secret area. Bobby followed behind her. For the first time both of them were going into a secret area and then both of them saw what the light source was.

It was a room full of coins, not rings, coins. It was interesting and both of them grabbed as many coins as they could. It was odd, the coins registered as rings and were added to their ring collection. It looked like one room. Jasmine began looking around and saw what looked like a rock themed lever and she pulled it and then a wall suddenly opened up. It was another room and this room was a bit darker. There was still light coming out of it and Jasmine’s face lit up like a child’s face on christmas morning. Bobby walked behind Jasmine.

She was the first person into the room. It looked like an old pirate’s treasure room. There was some gold coins on the ground and a being that had a sword and a shield. It looked to be some sort of humanoid. They were human, well, they used to be. Could this been another person that came to this world and just did not survive? Jasmine looked around the room and Bobby went and examined the body. He took his bear paw and knocked on the skeleton. It was metal. Of course it was metal. Everything in this world was metal. Why did he think they had found a human? He could be an idiot.

Jasmine was running her hand along the stone walls, looking for another hidden switch. She found another rock themed lever and she pulled it and then ten compartments opened and more of the robotic beings popped out. This time they weren’t dead, they were reanimated. The one Bobby was next to came to life too. He jumped back a few feet. They wander into an area and get ambushed by metal men. Great, just fucking great. Bobby dug his feet down into the earth below and he was getting ready to fight. They could take all these assholes. It’s not like they haven’t been in this situation before. They’ve been in this situation multiple times today.

Bobby used all of his might and charged at the robotic person he was fighting, he hit the robot in the chest and it broke into a million pieces. He stepped over the discarded robot and went to help Jasmine. She was swinging wildly with her mallet. It didn’t look like she was hitting a single one. He kind of laughed and went and punched all the rest of the robotic people in the chest. Defeating them and he watched them get destroyed. More wreckage for them to step over.

Jasmine looked over to Bobby. “What the hell are those?”

Bobby shrugged. “I don’t really know.”

Just then the area began to shake again and the spaces that held the robotic warriors, it merged into one large door and both of them walked through it. This had to be a way out. They hoped it was a way out, neither of them wanted to deal with anymore robotic shit today. Inside the next room was a giant water fountain. The water was sky blue and very clear. There were two canteens on the ground and each other picked up a canteen and dipped them in the water and took a sip of it. They felt rejuvenated. Could this be some sort of health recovery spring? They both have seen places like this in games that they had played. After they drank, another door opened. That had to be the exit. They walked through the door and there was a ladder. Yup, this was the exit. Jasmine climbed up first and Bobby was right behind her and they climbed all the way up and they were back above ground.

They both looked at the sky that was still on fire. Both of them had a feeling they were going to be meeting the boss of this area very soon. Two against one would be great odds. Especially for them. They had fight bad guys separately and that wasn’t fun. Fighting with a friend was always a lot more fun. They eyed a bridge, it looked pretty sturdy. Jasmine walked over to the bridge and looked down bellow. There was water, it was blood red. It looked like it had been stained by fire.