Chapter 16: Lava a Little
Ralnas breathed deeply before stepping onto one of the tiles. After waiting for a few seconds he stepped onto one of the tiles directly in front of him. A spike appeared and he was back at the start. He then repeated the first tile and then tried a different tile. Again a spike appeared and he continued to repeat this process. Methodically testing tiles as he went.
"Ral this is going to take forever..." Jenira moaned. He nodded at her, "I know but I haven't got any other ideas honestly. Plus, if I keep doing this maybe Micu will figure some kind of pattern out." Jenira smiled out of pride for her brother. He was very aware of his limitations and she knew having the lowest potential score out of the team had been a blow to his confidence.
She joined her brother and followed his footsteps as best she could so that they didn't repeat tiles. Jayce looked to Micu, "See anything yet?" Micu shook his head no. "There seems to be a pattern but none of the symbols overlap." He pointed to Ralnas working through the maze, "Look Ral steps on the one that looks like a Z to begin and then he later steps on the same symbol and it killed him." Micu shook his head. "I don't get it yet."
Jayce watched the Marrow's and tried to think of a solution as well. "If we keep the current pace up it'll take way too long to figure this out Micu! We've got to think of something." Micu sighed and turned to his friend. "Ready to get impaled again?" Jayce smiled, "You know what they say, four impaled friends are better than one."
The foursome raced to figure out the way through sprinting the same tiles over and over until they could do it with their eyes closed.
Suddenly Ralnas stopped, "Guys I get it! The symbols don't mean anything they're just to confuse us. Every odd tile is a trap unless it's next to an even tile." Micu looked at him with shock on his face. "Really?" Ralnas started laughing and then was impaled on a tile. From behind them came his voice, "Nah, but we only have two rows to go so it doesn't really matter anyway."
Three loud groans came from the room and Jenira finally edged her way over to the other side. "For real this time, I figured it out! Jayce you're closest I'll guide you." The three boys quickly arranged themselves in a line behind Jayce and followed Jenira's instructions to the letter. Once they were all across they hugged each other and let loose some excited shouts.
Jayce started walking towards the door, "Thankfully they don't mark us down for total deaths in the end score or I fear we might be stuck in last place no matter how many rooms we got past." Jayce gave Ralnas a thumbs up, "Good work idiot." Ralnas acknowledged him with a smirk and a wink. "Brawn over brains today." They then jumped through the fourth door.
Jayce glanced at the clock. One hour and two minutes to go. He looked at his team, "Guys we've done four rooms in 58 minutes. So we might want to hurry if we want to get to ten." They nodded at him and then looked at the problem before them.
Two hallways were in front of them and a signpost that read, "Split the team, if you have a dream". Ralnas looked at the signpost, "Uh is this supposed to be a riddle or something?" Micu shook his head, "I don't think so. Let's split the team. I'll go with Ralnas on the left and you two take the right path." Ralnas made a face at Jayce getting to be alone with his sister but quickly ran to the left hallway and set off with Micu.
"Well Jen, let's beat them to the other side." Jayce winked at Jenira. She coughed and then rolled her eyes. "Let's just go."
After ten seconds Jayce and Jenira came to a huge steel door. They couldn't see any way around it and were about to turn around when they head Micu's voice carry over from the other hall. "I think each side has to solve a small puzzle to let the other side progress. Are you guys trapped?"
"YEAH!" Jayce and Jenira responded together. They heard a grunt from Ralnas before a turning of gears. The steel door slowly descended before them. "Thanks, guys!" Jenira called out and they set forward again. In front of them was one of those old timescales that had two weights on each side. It was unbalanced with the right weight being much greater than that on the left. Jayce surveyed it before calling out, "Are you guys trapped now?"
A resounding "YES!" was heard to their right. Jayce looked to Jenira. "I think we need to make it balanced for it to open for them." He started taking off weights from the left side when Jenira cried out, "Stop!". He turned to face her. She pointed to the weights. "We need to make it even right? So to do that we need to know the total on the other side. Quick, put me on your shoulders so I can see the other sides weight." Bending down Jayce stood underneath Jen and then stood up with her straddling his neck. She then put her hands on his head to balance and climbed onto his shoulders.
"Good thing you don't weigh that much." Jayce mused aloud. To which he received a small kick to the head. "What did I say?" Jenira kicked his head again. "Sorry sorry..." She put her hands back on his head before he knelt down to let her jump off his shoulders. She looked at him with teasing eyes, "Didn't your mom ever tell you not to talk about a woman's weight?" Jayce rubbed the part of his head where she had kicked him. Deciding not to continue that conversation right now Jayce quickly changed the subject. "What's the weight of the left one?" She quickly began pulling weights off the right side of the scale. "It was a total of 22 so we've got to remove exactly 18 pounds from this side."
Going about it quickly the two J's had the scale balanced to which they heard a loud "thank you!" in what could only be Ralnas' voice. Rounding the next corner they saw that again there was a huge steel door in front of them. "We're stuck!" Jayce called across the wall. "So are we!" Micu replied quickly after.
"Huh?" Jayce turned to Jenira who shrugged. He noticed there was a large button on the side of the door. He quickly pushed it and heard the wall on the opposite side descending. "There's a button on your side that lets our door lower!" Jayce called out. He watched as their door lowered and then let go of his button. Jayce then heard an indignant "Hey!" He quickly pressed the button again. "What is it?" He called across.
"I'm too far from the door to make it while holding your door down. You have to keep holding it until I can get across!" Ralnas shouted. Jayce glanced at Jenira. Then responded, "I can't get across if I hold this button the whole time?!" Their wall was finally low enough for them to see the other side and Jenira swiftly climbed over the descending wall to the other side. Jayce looked at the distance from the button to the other side. He quickly came to a conclusion.
"Ral! We're going to have to let go at the same time!" He heard an okay as a response and then counted down from five. "Three, two one, GO!" He let go of the button and ran with all his might. The wall seemed to raise twice as fast compared to its speed descending. Jayce leaped and slid on his stomach across the top of the gate just as it was about to get too high for him to be able to climb over. Panting he bent over to catch his breath. Jenira called out, "Ral? Did you make it okay?" She heard Micu's voice in response, "Yeah he did. Just barely though."
She smiled, "Okay then let's keep moving forward!" As she turned the corner she saw a button just like the one Jayce had been holding down. She pressed it and watched as the wall behind them began to fall. Laughing out loud she turned to the still winded Jayce, "Well looks like you gave all that effort for nothing..." Jayce glanced up and then behind him before scowling. "Well it was good exercise I guess." Jayce straightened up and then followed after her. A couple of seconds later they heard Ralnas cursing and Micu's laughter echo across to their hall. They then came to a path where the two hallways converged and the other two emerged with Micu still laughing softly and a red-faced Ralnas following behind him.
"Well it wasn't that tough as a puzzle room but I guess it was more testing our teamwork?" Jayce glanced at his friends before striding through the fifth door. The other three quickly jogged after him. Jayce was looking at the clock above them when they entered. 54 minutes was printed on its display. "Well, I would say we did that room pretty fast!" Jayce proudly boasted to them. His face then fell when he looked down in front of himself. Four beautiful hoverboards were parked before them. Ralnas quickly shot towards the red one and started strapping himself in. "You guys! Hurry we can make up some time in this room!"
Micu and Jenira grabbed the green and blue boards respectively. Jayce trudged to the white hoverboard and strapped himself in. Just as he was about to ask what the plan was the wall behind them started to collapse. They turned to face the wall and a huge wave of lava began pouring out of the wall. Swiftly turning their boards they shot forward. That feminine voice echoed in the room. "You do not need everyone to survive this room but for every team member that is swallowed by the lava it will subtract five minutes from your total time."
Jayce's eyes bulged and he pressed the acceleration with his left foot to shoot past Micu and Jenira. "Jayce slow down!" Jenira called out. Micu then added, "Just do your best to stay behind Ralnas!" The four zoomed forward while the collapsing cavern they were in rumbled around them. Stray stalactites fell every so often forcing them to adjust the diamond formation that they had been flying in. The lava seemed to be increasing in speed and Jayce was already pushing the fastest he had ever gone before when he saw Micu and Jenira speed past him. Grimacing he pushed his foot down harder and sped to keep up.
The wind whipping past him made it hard for him to hear anything besides the roar of the lava and the crumbling of rock. Just as he was beginning to get comfortable with the speed he saw in front of him another burst of lava had exploded from the cavern. Ralnas banked sharply and spun his board to the right following a much narrower path. Micu and Jenira were far enough behind to adjust without too much difficulty but Jayce had to slam on his brakes to feel comfortable going into such a small cavern. He turned his board frantically while he ducked down to put his hands on his board to turn more sharply. He then pressed down too hard on the accelerator and shot forward into the cavern. He was still 25 meters behind Micu but felt comfortable at his current his speed before looking back and seeing the lava catching up to him quickly. He panicked and pressed even harder on his board zooming to within touching distance of Micu's board. He was stuck in an accelerating too hard and then braking too fast cycle.
Moreso than anything else Jayce didn't want to cost his team time. He was on the verge of panic but his steely determination to not let his friends down kept his nerves from overwhelming his mind. Just ahead of them he saw the light of an escape and was gripped with joy. He was about to slow down to land safely when he saw Micu suddenly speed up again. He turned to his left then right and saw a huge wave of lava was about to crash down on him. Looking in front of him he knew right away that neither he or Micu were going to be able to avoid it. Gunning the board to the extreme he shot towards Micu and pushed him upwards with all of his momentum. He managed to get Micu out of the range of the wave by the slimmest of margins before he was swallowed whole by the lava.
Micu was unbalanced by this desperate dive but turned around and yelled out "NOO!" before watching Jayce get consumed by the lava. He quickly joined Ralnas and Jenira on the exit and hung his head. "I lost Jayce." Ralnas and Jenira glanced behind him before turning to face Micu. "It's okay, no one was expecting you to take care of him." Ralnas patted his friends back. Jenira noticed that there were tears forming in Micu's eyes. "Micu it's okay! He's not dead. We just need to go through the sixth door and he'll be waiting for us.
Micu looked at them and nodded. "I know, but we all support each other and know about Jayce's weakness on hoverboards. I wanted to support him like he supported me during the snake pit room." He wiped his eyes quickly then dashed through the door to join Jayce in the next room. Ralnas and Jenira looked at each other with a faint smile on their lips. Jayce was always sacrificing himself for the good of the team and they were familiar with Micu taking it harder than anyone expected him to. They followed after him slowly giving Micu a few moments alone to talk with Jayce.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
AmurZeTiger
AmurZeTiger Confession: some of these ideas are stolen from Mario Party
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone