Cherri lifted Ash. “Since your vase is broken, why don’t you ride on my neck? I don’t mind your weight. In fact, I rather like it. You’re better than a necklace.”

Being freed of the need to cart Ash around in a vase everywhere sounded good to Petals.

The self-proclaimed ash golem slithered up the teen girl’s arm to her shoulder and wound around her throat. “Thanks, Cherri. Mind if I take the flashlight off your hands?”

“I don’t mind holding it.”

“I insist. Please?”

Cherri shrugged. “Okay.” She held the flashlight near him. “But I didn’t think you could hold it without something to support it, like your vase.”

He grasped the flashlight with his tail—the end not wearing a wig and sunglasses—and lifted it from her grasp. “I haven’t gained any Body stat points, but it feels like it. I don’t need to focus so hard on keeping myself intact when I move or hold things. It’s not that I feel normal by any means, but I do feel rejuvenated.”

“Me, too,” said Greta. “I don’t know what it feels like to be human, but I get the sense I’m one step closer.”

“I don’t feel like that,” said Cherri.

“Neither do I,” said Elena. “Maybe it has to do with Petals’ flowers.”

“You might be onto something.” Ash waved the flashlight. “So, before we go, has everyone assigned the latest unassigned stat points they earned? I reached level four. What level is everyone else?”

Petals and Greta were level four as well. Cherri had reached level three and was halfway to level four. Elena had made level three, but barely. Everyone had gained a skill point, and no stat points.

Petals increased her Spells skill and boosted her Move spell to level two, as it was proving to be quite useful. She wanted to increase her Access spell, too, thinking they might need level two magic to get into the places they might need to go, but what use was it to access a place if they couldn’t handle the situations they found themselves in once they were there?

“I’m torn,” Greta said, “between increasing my Sword or my Bow.”

“If we become engaged in close combat,” Petals said, “you’re our only real offense. It’s up to you where you assign your point, of course, but if you want my advice, I’d put it on Sword rather than Bow. Elena is our Shooter, and your bow at skill 1 can supplement her. But no one else in the Color Guard has your skill with melee weapons.”

“I’m thinking about taking a point in Scimitar.” Ash willed one of the weapons from his inventory, holding it with his wigged end. It didn’t go crashing to the floor as Petals might have expected. “Like you say,” Ash continued, “we’re seriously lacking in offensive melee combat ability. And you know as well as I do that a lack of offensive melee combat capability will become more and more a detriment to our group as the game proceeds. As a Healer, I’m not allowed to take points in just any weapon, but Scimitar is one I’m allowed. I think I should take at least one point in the skill. But… it still wouldn’t hurt to have someone amongst us who is highly skilled in melee combat. At some point we’ll run into enemies who are highly skilled, and we’ll need someone who’s a match for them to have any chance of defeating them.” His weapon vanished as he put it back in his inventory.

“You’re probably right,” Petals said, “except that we can’t think only about how we—Justine and Alfie—programmed the game.” She turned to the eye still suspended over the teacher’s desk. “Gondra, tell us the truth. How much control do you have over this game, and how much does Seth have?”

The eye didn’t blink as it turned its gaze on her. “Seth and I each have limited power over the world. Neither of us have the skill to make drastic changes, or we’d have already taken advantage of it. But Seth has a control over the shadow monsters that I do not have. This is why I need one brought to me, that I might learn how to control them to use against him.”

“And you can’t leave this room, can you?” asked Petals. “You’re already imprisoned. But Seth is free. How do we know you’re not trying to trick us? Maybe our bringing a shadow monster here is what you need to be freed from this place.”

“And then you’ll join Seth to destroy the real world,” said Ash.

“If I were on Seth’s side,” said Gondra, “do you think Seth would leave me here? Don’t you think he’d already have freed me, just as he freed himself? Every second you spend doubting me is another second in which your planet comes closer to total annihilation. Every second you spend in discussing where you’re assigning points is another second in which Seth wreaks havoc in the real world. Your lack of faith in me will not be your downfall. Your lack of a sense of urgency will be. Whether you trust me or not, you need to take action asap, because Seth is not standing idly by while you debate the benefits and disadvantages of every little action you might take.”

No one spoke or moved.

The eye looked at the ceiling. “This world is doomed.”

“Fine,” said Ash. “I’m taking my point in Scimitar.”

“I’m putting mine on Bow,” said Greta.

“I’m taking a point in Scimitar as well,” said Cherri.

“Mine point is going on Shoot,” said Elena.

“So that’s settled,” said Petals. “Let’s go.” She headed for the exit.

“Not that way,” Gondra said.

“Of course not. That would be too sensible.” Petals turned around, shining her light around the room. “I don’t see any other way to go.”

“Not yet,” said Gondra. “I mean, you can go the long way if you wish. But there is magic here you might wish to take advantage of, in the interests of urgency. Problem is, if I tell you it’s full nature, then Seth will know, and he’ll destroy it. So, you have to find it without my telling you directly. I will say, it might be helpful for she who worships a creature of the night to check in a mysterious place for a useful item.”

The Pink Wizard shined her light on the Moon Priestess. “Go ahead.” She refrained from saying Cherri’s name, in case Seth could hear her words, too. Her light played over Cherri’s Backpack of Mystery. “What do you have in there?”

“Seth can’t hear you, Flower Head,” said Gondra. “Only me. You don’t need to be careful with your word choice because of him, unless you’re in his presence. Like I said, he and I are twins. We can’t read each other’s thoughts, but we do hear each other’s words when we give them voice. Unfortunately, Seth has found a way to communicate with the shadow monsters telepathically, so I don’t know what he’s saying to them.”

Cherri unzipped a compartment on her backpack, reached in, and pulled out a piece of white chalk. “Is this what you’re looking for?”

Gears fell into place inside the Pink Wizard’s head. “Yes. May I?”

The Moon Priestess handed her the chalk.

Petals approached the chalkboard behind the teacher’s desk. It spanned the full length of the wall from floor to ceiling. Moving all the way to the left side of the board and starting at the base of the chalkboard, the Pink Wizard drew a rectangle approximately three feet wide and six feet tall. She stepped back to examine her work. There was something missing.

“All it needs,” chirped Cherri, “is to say, Flower Head.”

“You’re exactly right.” Petals wrote the words within the rectangle at eye level. When she stepped back, everything looked right. She turned to Cherri, holding up the chalk. “Mind if I keep this?”

“Be my guest.”

Petals stashed the chalk in her inventory. She aimed her staff at the rectangle. “Rectangular outline in chalk, grant Access for us to walk—outta here.”

The outlined area of chalkboard swung inward as though hinged on the left. Light from their flashlights revealed a five-feet by ten-feet broom closet. A door on the far side of the closet allowed a sliver of light to pass beneath it. A row of mops and brooms hung on the wall to the right, under which sat a line of mop buckets. Shelves on the left wall held boxes and bottles of soap, paint cans, disinfectant aerosols, and other janitorial materials.

“Come along.” Petals entered the broom closet. The other Color Guard members followed close behind. Greta brought up the rear as usual, and when she had entered, the door slammed shut. The door had no chalk outline on this side, and once it closed, the wall mended. The door was no longer visible. Petals pushed at the wall where the door had been, but it failed to open. “Nothing can be easy here.”

Cherri grabbed one of the disinfectant aerosols, but it wouldn’t budge from the shelf. It was merely decorative. She tested other items, including brooms, mops, and buckets, but everything she touched refused to move.

Petals helped the Moon Priestess check everything. Maybe one of the items here was special. But nothing came of their effort. Elena and Greta kept their range weapons—bow and rifle—trained on the exit door, alert to any movement of shadows in the sliver of light below it.

“There’s nothing of use here.” Petals motioned at the door. “Elena, if you would take the lead, please.”

Shots rang out from the other side of the closet door, followed by cries of rage and anguish. Metal clanged. More shots sounded.

All went deathly quiet.

Elena pulled her hand away from the door knob to look askance at Petals. “Still want me to go out there?”

Petals frowned. “Maybe we should give it a few minutes.”

A couple minutes passed. No more sounds came. Petals nodded for Elena to proceed.

The Camouflaged Shooter slowly twisted the door knob. She eased the door open, outward.

Shots rang out. Bullets pummeled Elena in the chest and head. Her body exploded into a spray of fading sparks. Not losing momentum, the door continued swinging open.

Ten feet away, four teen girls in camouflaged tank tops and miniskirts knelt on a slick wooden floor, rifles aimed at the closet. Greta released an arrow, striking one of the girls in the shoulder, who went pop. The other three girls fired, as Cherri stepped forward with arms crossed, shouting, “Moon Defense,” just in time.

Bullets bounced off the invisible barrier right in front of Greta, but one bullet got through, catching her in the shoulder, staggering but not killing her.

“Zap you.” Petals shot her lightning attack over Cherri’s shoulder. One of the camo girls burst like a bubble.

A pseudopod stretched out from Ash’s serpentine body and touched Greta. “Heal.”

Two enemy rifle girls remained. Cherri yelled, Stop, but not before the rifles fired. The bullets tore into the Moon Priestess, scattering her pixels across the broom closet.

Screaming in agony as though he’d been hit too, Ash landed with a thud on the floor. “Heal.” Evidently, he’d taken one of the bullets and Cherri had only taken one, not two.

Recovering from her injury, Greta fired her bow an instant before Petals nearly invoked another Zap spell. The Pink Wizard hesitated another moment to see which camo girl the Green Warrior had targeted. The instant one popped out of existence, Petals zapped the other. The rifle girls were done.

But the Color Guard had lost two of its own, Cherri and Elena.

“I’m lucky to still be alive,” Ash muttered. “I had one hit point left. Those bullets hurt like hell.”

Encounter ended, came the announcement. XP to level five is 25%.

The broom closet opened into a corridor of the convention hall. A large TV screen hung from the ceiling in the distance. Petals pointed that way. “Come on. Let’s collect our slain comrades. With any luck, we can also capture one of the rifle girls after she respawns. If we can avoid killing her, we can take her to Gondra and Oust a shadow monster from her.”