Mission #46: Escape From Monkey Island!

[Randy Savage]

Randy awoke to find herself unceremoniously face down in the sand. The water licked at her thighs as half her body was still in the water. She wasn’t quite sure where she was or how she got here. As a matter of fact, she couldn’t remember much of anything from what felt like the last few days! She shook off her daze as she stood and brushed the sand and surf off of her body. Reaching her hands toward the sky, Randy stretched out, loosening up her body. Despite the state in which she woke up, she actually felt quite well rested! The life of a transient bounty hunter could be a tough one; Randy had learned to sleep comfortably almost anywhere. But, after spending months on a ship, she softness of a nap on the sand felt like paradise. Randy absentmindedly slapped away a crab that was still latched to the hem of her shorts, knocking it to the sand as she began to walk.

She looked up at the height of the trees that lined the ‘front’ of the island for what seemed like miles. They were monstrously huge! She could hear rustling in the canopy. The island was certainly bustling with wildlife. There was a gigantic mountain range looming in the distance, marking the other side of the island. The longer Randy spent here, the more she wondered how she could have possibly gotten here in the first place. Devlin wasn’t around, so it seemed unlikely she arrived with him. There was no boat or dinghy near her when she awoke on the beach. If she were more gullible she might think she were simply dropped on the beach from the sky! Randy wasn’t one to let her mind ponder about theoretically, so the mystery of her arrival would most likely go completely unsolved.

Randy’s attire for this trip was a simple bright green romper. A design of whales and anchors adorned the outfit. Whatever she was doing before she arrived, she was clearly relaxing and not really preparing for battles. On her feet were a dark brown leather pair of small healed boots. Their laces were undone and the boots were worn loose. Randy bent over to tie them up tight around her ankle. It was looking more and more like she would have to traverse through the island to try to find a way off of it. Around Randy’s waist were loops of different colored fabrics, creating a makeshift belt that served fashion more than function. Her hair was done up in a big pony tail; her hair was thick and its color shone vibrantly in the sunlight of the island. Her golden gauntlets were, of course, ever present on her arms and she was always thankful to have them. Whatever was happening on this island was quite strange and Randy was happy to have her weapons with her.

Something giggled in the canopy as Randy entered the island. She slowed her pace a bit and looked overhead. She could see rustling but didn’t see any shapes or forms. For a moment she wondered if it was simply her mind playing tricks on her. Randy continued to move forward through the foliage, ever mindful of her surroundings. Something about this island was making Randy’s hard flicker and her skin crawl. For a moment, her anxniousness seemed to die down. That is, until she stumbled upon a large sign in the middle of the forest. It was covered in vines and dead leaves and looked like it hadn’t been touched in years. Randy set to work pulling down the dead foliage. She was kind of desperate for an idea of where she was. Stepping back, Randy couldn’t help but nearly laugh at what the sigh said.

Welcome to Death Island!
Enter at your own risk!
If you are able to leave, do so. Now!”

”Bwahahaha! Subtle.”

Randy laughed at the ridiculousness of the sign. Much to her chagrin, as her laughter died, the laughter in the canopy continued to grow. The laughs started out mocking hers and then grew louder and louder. Soon, it sounded like the whole canopy was chittering with chuckles, giggles, and chortles. Randy starred at the canopy with confusion, still not 100% clear on what exactly was going on. Wham! Randy’s thoughts gave way to a sharp pain as a large rock flew down from the canopy and nailed Randy directly in the forehead. She wailed out and stumbled backward, eyes watering as she threw her hands up to her head. Her hair flickered outward as a burst of rage rose up inside her. She raised a fist to the sky.

”Hey assholes! What’s the big idea!”

Randy yelled at the top of the trees and, much to her surprise, the laughter stopped immediately. This is starting to piss me off! Randy had a short temper for things she did not understand. Feeling the need to release some steam, Randy threw a fist into the base of a tree right by here, shaking the trunk of the large tree. The tree was surprisingly tough and, had Randy’s hands not been gauntleted, she would have went reeling in pain. Hushed whispers seemed to explode in the canopy after her punch, like hundreds of children whispering in a classroom. Randy was about to punch the tree again when suddenly a large monkey leaped down from the tree and attacked Randy!

As the monkey lunged it lashed out with two gigantic claws! Randy hopped back quickly, her anger giving way to instinct. The monkey missed its attack and landed on the ground in front of Randy. It had the shape of a simple chimpanzee but its size was huge for the species, standing at a little more than half of Randy height. As the monkey hit the ground he did a back flip and lashed his tail out. Randy nearly paid the attack no mind but she saw a glint of metal at the end of its tail. Reaching up reflexively, Randy defended herself from the strike, causing the monkeys tail to hit her gloves hard, sending her reeling backward. This monkey had a gigantic scythe for a tail! Clearly, Randy had been underestimating what was in the trees.

Lashing out in frustration, Randy through a punch at the monkey. It leapt backward, easily avoiding her swing and landed upside down on its hands on the top of the Death Island sign. All the monkeys in the trees began to hoot, holler and laugh. Now that Randy knew what to look for she could see their outlines and devious smiles. Randy yelled at the canopy, irritated by their constant badgering. The laughter stopped immediately but soon a hailstorm of rocks, sticks, and other debris flew down from the overgrowth at Randy. She swung ineffectually at the items, knocking some down but getting hit in the arms and legs by others. Randy could see the monkey on the sign begin moving toward her, just as two more dropped down onto the forest floor. Not good.

Randy was never a fan of retreating, but this situation was getting out of hand quickly. If she was going to fight these things, she would need to do it on her terms, not while surrounded in the middle of the woods. The new monkeys blocked her path back to the beach so her only option was through the woods. Turning on her heel, Randy dropped her guard and sprinted through the woods. Luckily, she had grown up on an island with thick forests so she was able to navigate quickly. She could hear the monkeys keeping up with her overhead. She wasn’t able to lose them but, luckily enough for her, she was able to move fast enough that they couldn’t stop and throw things at her. Looking back, Randy could see the other three monkeys chasing her at floor level. They were exceedingly adept at using their claws and scythe tails to navigate the jungle. She was going to be in serious trouble.

After a harrowing gauntlet of woods and foliage, Randy finally made her way to the base of the mountain. The forest gave way to more open areas, fallen trees, and some hills marking the landscape. Her feet carried her true and gave Randy another reason to be proud of her upbringing. The monkeys were keeping pace with her but so far hadn’t gotten ahead. For that she was thankful. Randy burst from the treeline and ran toward the base of one of the high mountains that lined the island. She no longer heard the monkeys on top of her but continued to run. She could see a large hole in the base of the mountain, a cave maybe? If I can get to that cave I can defend myself. Bottleneck them so I only find one at a time! Just a bit more! As she got to the mouth of the cave opening, Randy turned on her heels and expected to find a horde of monkey men on her tail.

The monkeys however were still a few yards away at the end of the treeline. They had stopped chasing her and instead had taken to yelling and throwing more debris. She was far enough away now that they couldn’t hit her but they continued to rage anyway. She kept eye contact with them as they slowly turned and seemed to descend back into the woods, leaving her be. A chill went up Randy’s spine. She had hunted enough animals to know that if one predator backed off, it meant there was a bigger one nearby. She looked around hesitantly, wondering what would show up next but, for the moment, thankful for the reprieve. She turned slowly and looked down the mouth of the cave behind her. The cave seemed to proceed nearly straight down a gravelly hill into darkness. She could barely see anything beyond the lip.

Suddenly, there was a noise behind her. Randy spun on a heel to face the jungle and what she saw sucked all of the color out of her hair and face. Mere inches from her was a gigantic spider, nearly her size, hanging from a series of webs on the side of the mountain. The spider opened its mandibles and unleashed an inhuman shriek. Fear shot through Randy as she screamed back and jumped. The shock and fear taking control of her body as she fell backward. Randy tried to maintain her balance but her mind was at war; one side of her wanted to dive into the hole and run away from the spider, the other was desperate to keep her balance and not run from this monstrous creature. Randy had stared down brutal beasts before but nothing compared to the fear of a woman sized spider.

The spider launched webbing out of its mouth at Randy, causing the rest of her balance to give way to fear. Oh no! It’s trying to eat me! Randy’s mind screamed as she fell backward into the hole, rolling head over heels in the darkness. Her screams would proceed her as she tumbled. First she screamed out of fright, but these screams gave way to yells of pain as she tried to regain ehr balance while she rolled into the cave network. Regaining your balance while falling was hard enough but doing it in the dark was nearly impossible. Before she was able to properly get her feet underneath her, Randy hit the ground with a painful Oof! and slid a few feet from the bottom of the cave she fell out of. Randy stood up slowly, the fall leaving her bruised and dizzy. Her arms and legs were covered in cuts and her hair had fallen loose of its ponytail. She took her hair down and tried to adjust while her eyes became acclimated to the dark of the room.

There was dim lighting around the cave floor in the form of torches. They looked ancient and their light was weak, but it was enough to get a basic feel for the room she ended up in. The wall she had fallen out of was lined with dozens of other holes just like it. It was as if there was more than one passageway that would lead someone to this exact spot, like it was intended as a start of some sort. Opposite the wall she came from was a large, ornate rock door. There were words carved into the wall and door but they were of a language she couldn’t understand. The illustrations were clear though; hundreds of crude drawings of stick figures going through a maze and getting crushed by what looked like dangerous traps. Stick figures getting crushed by large rocks, falling in pitfalls, getting impaled by spike traps and all other manner of torture were drawn on the door to this labyrinth.

For a moment, Randy turned back toward the hole she came from and looked up it. She could tell she fell quite some distance as the hole of light from the sky was so far up it could be covered by her thumb. She looked over the room she was in and sighed deeply. As far as she could tell her only options were to force the door open and proceed through the labyrinth or try to climb her way back up the hole and try her luck with those gigantic spiders. Ugh, just the idea made her dry heave. Randy stretched her arms and legs and nursed her bruises. For the moment she was able to rest and think of a game plan and next move.

[Fluffy Lynx]

The breeze of the sea was a fantastic thing indeed. Refreshing, calming, and capable of playing music unlike any instrument known to man. It was the truest lute of nature, and a song that she much preferred to the varying noises one could find on land. The scent of salty seawater reached her senses with every subtle breath. The waves were mostly silent, calm, perfect for the occasion. The sky was a darkened canvas, colored with different shades of yellow, orange and red, as the hour of twilight was settling in. Amongst this canvas, the shimmering stars and the moon, that would soon together claim the night sky as the only sources of light, were growing more and more visible through the thin veil of clouds that remained. Alongside the scenery, was a meal befitting of royalty. There were many different kinds of fish, cooked to perfection with rare spices, vegetables, potatoes and what else ones heart might desire. The scenery, the food, the atmosphere, everything combined together made a perfect evening in the girls mind. Sitting there, on the deck of her ship, with the entirety of the crew either immediately around her, or celebrating the day downstairs, she was enjoying the festives that had been created around her own birthday. Constantly her plate was refilled with delicious food, and her glass refilled with Southsea Rum. 

Amelia was, given the circumstances, dressed in her finest clothes. The darkbrown hair was falling over her shoulders, as it had been expertly curled by their lovely hairdresser, Monica. Amongst the locks were several flowers, and petals were practically raining from her hair whenever she moved her head. Despite this, there seemed to always be an abundant amount of flowerpetals remaining. Then came the dress. It was black as the night itself, reaching only to just above her knees. The sleeves were elbow short. At her chest, it cut down in a v-shape,  just deep enough that you could see the corner of her blackened bra. Around her ankles, a pair of black leather strips were assisting in keeping her abnormally high heels in place, and assist her with keeping her balance as she walked. The entire evening there had been comments about how gorgeous she was, and how fortunate this crew of pirates was to have her as their captain. Brown-nosing, all of it, but certainly more welcome than the usual snarky comments...

...As the night progressed, the celebrations were starting to go overboard, as it usually was whenever something of this magnitude was being held amongst her allies. Amy herself had gotten sliiightly intoxicated by the amount of rum that she had consumed. All around the ship, her crew had started collapsing in random corners and spots, as their drunken haze had knocked them cold. The winds were picking up, and the ship was starting to rock slightly from side to side. Even so, there was still music playing, and still a handful of party-goers who remained active enough to continue the party. Amongst them, was Amy. Dancing around on the ship, as a large wave crashed against the side, the bouncing was sending nausea through her system at an alarming rate. It was too much rum for the tiny girl, and she needed to get it out immediately. Rushing over to the side of the ship, she started coughing lowly, before her chest heaved, and the alcohol was released from her stomach. Seeing their captain in this weakened state, released an enormous round of applause and laughter around the ship, as one of the larger men walked over to her side and placed his hand on her shoulder. Cap'n, you sure know how to party! Ahaehaehae! Amy smiled widely, yet drunkenly, as the man roughly clapped her back, as if to mark her as a comrade. Unfortunately for the whole situation, this was simultaneous with another wave crashing against the ship. The bouncing upwards, and being such a lightweight, had Amelia somewhat dangling in mid air, as the far too rough smack to her back came in. Toppling sideways and overboard, the drunkeness disallowed the female from activating her abilities. As such, she plummeted majestically into the water like some dolphin. The pressure of the water, alongside the curse of the devil fruit, had her sinking like a solid rock. 

The alarm was sounded immediately, as a couple of the drunken partygoers attempted to jump into the sea after her. Though, at this point, the breeze had become a storm, and thunderous clouds were looming above. They knew that she couldn't swim with the curse. They knew that if they didn't find her, she was extremely likely to drown. Even so, after over an hour of panic and searching, they had come up empty handed. A celebration had turned into mourning. A birthday party had turned into a funeral...

.........Cough, splutter! First mouthful of water that was spit out onto the sandy beach had been extremely taxing for her exhausted body. Spitting, gasping, soon several more mouthfuls followed, as she seemed to cough up half a fish-tank of water. Sprawled out on the ground, she had washed up onto some kind of shore, face down in the sand. If the girl had washed up on her back, she likely wouldn't have been able to clear her lungs of water and get some fresh air. Panting, whimpering, her arms were shaking as she attempted to get back onto her feet, all to no avail. The girl could feel every single wave of the ocean tickle against her feet. There were so many coincidences that had allowed her to somehow wash up on shore with her life still belonging to her. The change of the tides had left her on the beach, out of the water, while retracting further down. The warmth of the sun had dried her off, kept her from freezing to death in her only moderate clothing. The sand banks had made her wash in with her face down, so that she could puke up the water. So much fortune over such a small amount of time. By all means, Amy should've drowned out in the ocean. Now, there were plenty of other worries to take into account, however.

The girl had a headache beyond measure. The intoxication from the rum was still keeping her completely locked down. Combined with her body's exhaustion and desperate attempt at survival from nearly having drowned, it took her at least an hour or so of just lying there on the beach to recuperate enough to get up and move around. The black dress was torn in so many places that it seemed only like a rag. The curled hair was soaked, salty and filled with sand and flower petals. The high heels were sinking into the sand, making her quickly abandon them in favor of bare feet. Though, there were other things that she was fortunate about. A waterfall from one of the higher areas created something close to a spring of natural, fresh water, that could sate the worst of her thirst. The banquet from the day before had caused her to overeat so horribly, that she wouldn't even have to consider a meal anytime soon. So when Amy started moving around the island, in the hopes of figuring out where she were, things could've definitely been much worse...

...and things were going to get much worse. Unbeknownst to the girl, she was currently being watched. They had seen her wash up on the beach. They had been busy trying to search her pockets for anything valueable, when she had started to move, startling them enough because they were so certain that she was dead. Now that she was up and moving, and strange magic was out of the question, they'd begin their assault. Noone drank their water, or ate their food! The first glimpse Amy recieved, that something was wrong, was strange movements and sounds coming from nearby bushes. Whenever the female turned her head to look in a direction, something quickly disappeared, rattling the bushes enough that she was certain that someone or something was trying to hide from her. Instinctively, Amy picked up her pace. When the movement within the bushes appeared to be quicker and in larger numbers now that she was moving, the only thing that she could think of, was that someone or something was preparing an ambush for her. Then, before she knew more of it, several shouts from angry monkey-like creatures echoed through the woods. Pebbles, sticks, coconuts and the like were flung at her violently from every side. The screaming of the monkeys were spreading like a wildfire, as their number seemed to only increase... 

...Fleeing, Amelia soon came to a dead end. The beach was ending, by a large cliffside. There was only two ways to continue from there. Either she'd climb the steep cliffside, or she'd jump into the water and let the devil-fruit curse handle the rest. Jumping up onto the wall, Amelia was whimpering in pain as the pebbles, sticks and coconuts smashed into the cliffside all around her. The monkeys who weren't busy lobbing some sort of offensive tool at her, were quickly hopping onto the cliffside to follow her upwards. The tiny girl was so scared, that in her attempt to climb faster, she ripped her own hands to blood against the rocks. Bloodied fingers were making the attempts at getting a solid grip even harder, causing her to further damage her hands. Regardless of the unfortunate situation, the girl managed to make her way to the top. Body pumping with adrenaline, she quickly moved herself forwards, taking a peek over her shoulders to confirm wheter the monkeys were capable of scaling the wall as quickly as she had. It was a question that she never had answered.

While looking over her shoulder, she had stepped onto an ancient wooden plate of some sort. It was so old and rotten, that it broke underneath her feet, sending her gliding down through some sort of narrow tunnel. Squealing the entire way down, the transport took a generous amount of time. It easily felt like a good handful of minutes, before she dumped out into some underground room with a loud thud. As her perfect and beautiful behind smashed against the rocky floor, dust from at least ten years rose from the floor in every which direction, causing her to immediately sneeze and cough. Gawking around in the darkness, she could see several torches that, without any logical explanation as to why, were burning. The immediate area in front of her was blocked off by some sort of metal grating. Within the grating was a door with just an ancient a padlock. Grasping onto this door, she shook it in an attempt to break the padlock and get free, but it was to no avail. Due to all the seawater she had swallowed, she also currently wasn't capable of transforming into her fairy form and simply fly through the bars. Thus, the only way out, was up the same way that she had come in. Trying to get back into the tunnel, it was so slippery that every attempt of escape resulted in a maximum of ten to twenty feet upwards progress, before she'd casually slide all the way back down into her cell room. Investigating the bars, she quickly learned that if she simply waited long enough, she'd be able to fly through these as soon as she could return to her fairy form. So rather than giving in to hopelessness or despair, Amy simply walked to the back of her cell room and sat down, closing her eyes and getting some rest. It'd be nice to get rid of some of the intoxication, too...

...
Serveral hours had passed, when a strange noise was heard. It was the noise of something or someone falling down into the same general area as herself. Slowly rising up from her location in the cell, Amelia stepped forwards. Could it truly be that she wasn't doomed to be alone in this hell of a nightmare? Walking up to the metal grates, she could narrowly make out the outline of another female, clearly trapped in the same manner that Amy herself was. "H-hey?.. D-do you understand me?" Amy tried, as her hope of getting out sooner than later was rekindled. "I-if you can understand me, c-could you help me break out of here? I'm not entirely sure how I got caught in the first place, b-but I cannot escape this cell." Amy was stuttering weakly, mostly because she was unsure of wheter the other individual could even be trusted. In this darkness, there weren't many features that she could make out. The only reason that she had addressed the stranger, was the dumb naivety and hope that she carried with her, from still being just an old teenager. If Randy found herself willing to assist Amy, the padlock itself wouldn't be incredibly hard to break. Their combined physical strenght could easily do it. There was only one problem. Once the door was forcefully opened, all the openings out of this maze from above would close down, and the labyrinth games would begin. Figuring that, perhaps it was impolite to ask a favor of a stranger without even introducing oneself, Amy quickly added a small ammendment to her initial introduction. "O-oh, b-by the way, I'm Amy Delacreux.. N-nice to meet you..?" It was the best she could do. The rest, would be up to her new found friend. If only she wasn't feeling so darn weak, she'd be able to make a much better first impression. All of this on the day following her birthday. Sometimes the fairy cursed her own poor luck.

[Randy Savage]

Randy continued to look around the room she was in. Still running her fingers through her hair, she took the time to untangle the knots she had from apparently spending the night of the beach. The sand in it would continue to be a problem but alas, living the life of a sea faring bounty hunter made one used to the feeling of sand in their hair. Despite all of her searching the room still met her original description; tunnel in and one door out. She sighed lightly. It wasn’t the worst situation in the world, but it did have a piercing feeling of loneliness. Randy held a strand of colored fabric in her mouth as she wandered around the room. It was the one she had used to hold up her hair. Then a voice caught her attention.

She wondered over to a corner of the room she had managed to miss in her initial assessment. The corner of this room had been caged off by large metal grates. Beyond the grates were a few more holes, similar to the one Randy had fallen down, and also...a person! Randy tilted her head as she noticed what turned out to be a young girl. She eyed the girl up as she spoke to Randy, no doubt looking strange with a piece of fabric in her mouth, seemingly not responding. After the girl introduced herself properly, Randy had finished adjusting her hair. She picked the long cut of fabric out of her mouth and moved it to her hair, finally securing it up in a high ponytail. The sight of another person refilled some of the color to her hair that the spider had stolen.

”Hey Amy! I’m Randy Savage!”

Oi, pretty name. There had been moments when Randy lamented at how ineloquent her name sounded sometimes. When trying to show off in front of boys it always served her well, but when trying to have a conversation with a group of girls it usually just served to provoke venomous snickering. Randy had long grown past truly worring about that, but sometimes the old thoughts would return. Randy looked the girl over herself now that they were standing close enough to see each other. Super cute outfit Randy thought absentmindedly. Completely impractical to fight in though... Randy appreciated high fashion. To be honest she loved to dress up and wear clothing as fancy as she could find. More often than not though she favored function--combat being a favorite of hers, she would rather miss out on frilly skirts than miss out on throwing punches.

Randy decided that Amy was cute. She was slight of frame and looked well taken care of, clearly not a fighter. The girl seemed pretty roughed up by whatever ordeal got her into this cave in the first place. Randy could tell her hand was bleeding. Taking her eyes away from Amy, Randy looked around the outside of the cell to see if there was an easy way to open the whole thing up. Randy had never actually been inside of a cell before, so she didn’t actually have a lot of experience on breaking out of them. After a few moments of fruitless searching, Randy decided to look at the lock holding the cell together in the first place. It seemed old enough--Randy had a plan.

”I got an idea! Stand back a bit, I’m not sure what’s going to happen when I do this.”

Those are comforting words, right? Randy took a couple steps back from the door and eyed its craftsmanship. Clearly, at one time, it was well put together and maintained. But, years and years, perhaps even decades, have cause the metal to fall into a state of disrepair. Unfortunately, the metal wasn’t exposed to the sea breeze of the outside, so it hadn’t rotted and rusted away completely. Still, Randy’s plan should work. She reached into one of the pouches around the waist of her romper and grabbed a handful of powder. She tried her best to be sneaky about--Randy never liked thinking about how much she was cheating when she used this technique.

”Yosumi Sutoraiki...” Randy was really making a show of it. She took a crouched, combat pose and held her right hand back behind her. ”Fourth Corner...Burst!

With that, Randy rushed forward the short distance she put between her and the cage. Carrying her momentum forward, she launched out a hand and hit the cage door right on the handle where the padlock rested. Her fourth corner technique exploded as her first connected with the door. The explosion itself usually did not sound that impressive but, in the reverberating dome of the cavern, it sounded near calamitous. The explosion blew the lock off of the door but the cavern itself continued to shake as if in response to her attack. Overhead, Randy could hear what sounded like grinding metal. Unbeknownst to her, large stone slabs were rolling in place over the multiple entrance like holes to the maze complex. After a few moments the cavern stopped shaking. This was punctuated by a loud unlocking noise from the large rocklike doors at the center of the opposite wall. Randy addressed Amy more directly, now that they were up close.

”Nice to meet you too!”

Randy reached out a hand to shake Amy’s. She would hold it outstretched for a moment before realizing she was holding out the gloved hand that had just exploded open the door. Her gauntlet was still smoking and looked hot to the touch, the smell of gunpowder was fresh around it. With a nervous laugh, Randy would realize and offer Amy the hand that hand’t just blown a door off of its hinges. Now, up close, Randy realized how pretty Amy was, despite her disheveled appearance. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that--normally Randy was the prettiest girl in the room. She certainly wasn’t jealous, but she wasn’t sure what she was feeling. Her attention snapped back to Amy’s hand.

”Those hands of yours don’t look too good. Here, let me bandage them...” Randy held up a still smoldering hand of her own. ”You could say I have some experience in hand injuries, hahaha”

Randy wasn’t sure how Amy would take to Randy walking up and reaching for her hands, but she did it anyway. Amy seemed shaken enough and Randy hoped her carefree attitude would put the girl at ease just enough. Her hands were still bleeding and probably sore, Randy guessed. She unwrapped some of the long pieces of fabric along her waistline and started to wrap hand individually in a few layers of the fabric. Each hand would be a different color; a vibrant orange on the left hand and a earthy blue on the right. They wouldn’t match her dress too well but they served their purpose. Randy would hold Amy’s hands for a moment after she finished wrapping them and pull her lightly toward the large stone door. After taking a few steps she would let go natrually of course.

”I’d bother asking how you ended up here but, if it’s anything like my experience then you don’t remember much anyway. Take a look at this door though. What do you think? It looks like this is going to be our only way out.”

Randy smiled and tried her best to seem peppy and upbeat as she spoke to the girl. Merely an hour ago Randy had woken up from some of the best sleep she had gotten in a long time. She was all set up to go on a grand adventure in a maze and, all in all, this was shaping up to be an A+ day according to Randy Savage standards! From what she could tell, however, Amy had faired a bit worse on her way into this dungeon. Randy just wanted to seem pleasant and have a bit of fun. Amy seemed ill at ease in the darkness of the cave. Maybe it was her stuttering, but she came of exceedingly nervous to Randy.

After a few moments of looking at Amy, Randy crossed the room a bit and pulled a torch off of the wall. Randy came back and held it close to the door, examining the ornate carvings a bit more closely. The still couldn’t understand what it said but now, with the light nearby, Randy could see the entire wall was carved in an elaborate, complex maze. In the center of the maze, and the door itself, was a large carving of some sort of monster. Randy had fought a lot of monsters in her time, but this carving didn’t look like any of them. Randy continued to examine the door, intent to wait until Amy felt more able to progress.

”So...Any ideas?”

Randy asked in a light voice.

[Fluffy Lynx]

The tiny girl within the cage was looking a little perplexed, as the other simply wasn't responding. The darkness of the room made it hard to truly see what was taking place on the opposite side of the grate, but for all intents and purposes, the other individual within the dark confines of this labyrinth wall appeared to be blatantly ignoring her at first. Standing with something in her mouth and looking completely disinterested, Amy lowered her head for a short moment, biting her lip. If the other was so intent on stating nothing, then perhaps it was for the better if she simply waited there for her powers to recuperate. Though, now that Randy was so close, the other female could really see how the ordeal of being tossed into the ocean and fleeing from the beach had affected the more petite and casually built girl. There were a few lines remaining from some eyeliner, running in subtle black markers over her cheek. The girls skin was pale as snow, even occasionally nearing small shades of blue from the asphyxiation. The shimmering light and color from the torches were reflecting deeply in the girls eyes. Eyes which themselves seemed to shimmer in all the colors of the rainbow. Though there was a strangte weakness and blankness to them. Combined with the salty nature of her hair and clothes, alongside the bruises and other rips and shreds in her clothes and body, it wouldn't be incredibly difficult to infer that Amy had been cast unwillingly into the sea. Nor that she had been close to drowning.

The moment before Amy would've returned back to find a place to sit, Randy extracted the piece of cloth from her mouth to start talking energetically, happily. Amelia would've sighed audibly, at the realisation of the others personality. This was a type of person that she knew all too well. A person to take everything as a sparkling adventure with a pile of treasure waiting at the end. No matter how dire the situation, no matter how much one wanted to add a little seriousness to the mix, all that would be given was some vocal cheering. On top of that, the girls name was an absolute atrocity. Savage. That likely couldn't be someones birthgiven name, right? It had to be some kind of earned surname, like a title. Savagery wasn't one of Amelia's stronger suits. Civilisation was a much better alternative. It was simply another reason why this underground ruin wasn't soothing to her in the slightest. Alas, the other was capable of communication, which was a positive at the very least. Regardless of how she looked at the situation, having the assistance of someone else was going to increase her own chances of survival, and Amelia wasn't above using someone else to get what she needed. In fact, it was something that she did on a daily basis.

"Y-you're not sure whats going to happen?!" It was blurted out of her in response to Randy's reassurance that something was going to happen. Amy didn't have the time to think or evaluate what was said, as she simply hurried to the back of the small cell, sitting down and holding both of her arms protectively over her head, almost in a surrendering fashion, as if she expected the door to spontaneously explode. Certainly, those words were comforting. Comforting in the sense, that at least Randy Savage was gracious enough to warn Amy of the possible danger of the situation, in addition to actually attempting to assist the female in escaping the cell. Positive thoughts Amy, positive thoughts. In the meanwhile, as Amy was peeking through her fingers to figure out what was going on, Randy launched her attack at the padlock. A, to Amy, loud and echoing explosion reverbed through the entirety of the cave system. The metal-grate door was forced open by the blast, as the padlock crumbled under the pressure and power of the technique. It didn't stop there, though. The cave was shaking, rumbling, as some kind of mechanism had been triggered. "W-what did you do?!" Amy stuttered acusingly, unable to get a good enough grip on the situation to get on her feet. At least, initially. Surely this was the result of the brute not thinking about things properly!...

The light from the outside was soon shut off, as something had slid in place over the entrances. The light from the torches seemed to simultaneously increase. Slowly getting to her feet, and in extension to the door of the cell. Looking around curiously, there was a strange smell within the confines. It was the smell of gunpowder, of battle. The glove, or rather, gauntlet, that the Randy was holding out towards her was likely some mechanical contraption that vastly increased the power of any punches. As a mechanic, Amy would've enjoyed taking the time to truly dissect it and learn how it functioned. Now, unfortunately, wasn't the time. Neither was it the time to shake hands. That thing was disgusting and would easily burn her flesh. "Uhm.." Amy started, as the realisation seemed to dawn upon Randy aswell. The change of hand made the tiny girl smile a little, cautiously putting her hand forward to shake Randy's. "Please be careful, I've hurt my hands.." The stuttering was slowly vanishing, as the more gentle nature of Randy was convincing Amelia that there wasn't going to be any fighting between the two. Then she seemed to be joking in regards to the metal gauntlet. Could this perhaps be some kind of prosthetic?... Once again slightly curious, the mechanical side of Amy demanded more knowledge, but it was being suppressed by the reality of the situation. They were trapped underground, and it certainly wasn't pleasent.

"Thanks..." Amy muttered softly while Randy was attempting to bandage her hands. With a little bit of wiggling and assistance, since Amy actually had some knowledge when it came to first aid, the two of them managed to wrap her hands and fingers so that she could still actually move each finger, instead of it turning out to be a glove that'd render her hands practically useless either case. Now that kindness had been showed, and they had bonded over their situation at least somewhat, they could start focussing on other things. Randy had a question, which Amelia didn't immediately answer. Instead, she too went to acquire a torch, so that she could inspect the different carvings and paintings around the room, which could possibly tell them what they had gotten themselves into. It was during this process, while her mind was thinking of how to piece this puzzle together, that she started responding to the question of how she had arrived there. "...Yesterday was my birthday. We were partying a little too much, and I got knocked overboard..." Stroking her fingers alongside the carvings, she was biting her lower lip absentmindedly. From what she could tell, this certainly wouldn't be a stroll through the park. In fact, they were likely to both die if she read these tablets correctly. "...I thought I was going to drown. My lungs filled with water, and I lost conciousness. Next thing I knew, I was on a beach. Fortunate to be alive, coughing up water." 

The true shock to Amelia came when she saw the depiction of the creature. Could this really be some kind of sick game, where ancient tribes and the like had sacrificed people by putting them into a maze?.. Let the gods decide wheter they were worthy enough to reach the middle, only to be eaten by this thing?! For a moment, Amelia simply stood there, staring at the depiction in disbelief. Then she shook her heard. Clearly, these ruins were ancient. There was a high probability that some of the traps were malfunctioning, and that, whatever this depiction was supposed to represent, had died ages ago... "...I got chased by all sorts of island creatures, ended up falling down a hole, now here I am." The girl continued, when she had assured herself that everything was going to be okay. It was clear that she was a little startled, but also determined to get out of there alive. There was no point in questioning Randy about how she had arrived here. Afterall, she had already explained that her memory was rather foggy. Analyising the whole thing a little more, she then spoke her conclusion. Hopefully Randy was going to agree.

"I believe we've been trapped in some sort of maze, built to honor whatever that creature there is..." Amy pointed towards the beast in the middle of the depiction, making sure that Randy was paying attention during the explanation. Amy was an intelligent young girl, and easily made up for what she lacked in strenght by using her head. "From the other depictions, I would conclude that sacrifices would be sent into this maze. If you were unworthy, you would be crushed by any of the traps towards the main chamber." Gesturing now to the multitude of stickmen that were being crushed by various mechanical contraptions around the room, it was all making decent sense. "In the main chamber, something would be awaiting the few who made it that far, and the exit out of the maze would be just beyond." Gesturing towards what seemed to be a depicted passageway to a chamber filled with treasure behind the creature, she then looked to Randy directly. "..So our goal should be to make it there alive, in one piece, and get out of this death-trap. Since the ruins are old, I wouldn't be surprised if many of the original dangers in here would malfunction. Still, the mechanic to trap us here worked perfectly fine, so we should be on ou toes." Smiling warmly towards Randy, Amy would point the torch ahead of herself, and slowly being  walking down the freshly opened passageway. Cautiously keeping an eye out for anything that stood out of the ordinary...

[Randy Savage]

Randy said absentmindedly as she continued to study the wall She was looking at it on her own for quite some time but after awhile took a step back and just watched Amy. The girl seemed to be pouring over the wall with a bit more fervor than Randy, and she could tell Amy was actually piecing together its meaning, rather than just trying to find all the pictures of the funny stick men. Randy listened as Amy described her experience nearly drowning. Randy had almost drowned herself once or twice and knew it was a terrible, terrible experience. The act of losing consciousness in the water wasn’t so bad; that lost its novelty after the first couple times. It was the horrible feeling of water in your lungs that was the worst. It made it hard to take deep breaths and it was like constantly having slime in the back of your throat. For Randy, at least, it usually gave her a sore throat for weeks. Randy considered saying something--a comfort or apology of some kind, but she wasn’t usually the best at sympathy. Amy kept talking so Randy decided it was best to keep listening.

As Amy moved into the description of the maze, Randy looked at the door and wall with renewed interested. With Amy’s explanation she could see the correlation between all of the pictures on the wall. It seemed obvious now. A part of Randy’s mind jumped at the idea of an ancient maze beast. That was certain to be something she hadn’t seen before. For a moment, Randy let her mind wander to what a creature like that would taste like. Age didn’t always have a direct correlation to taste. There were a lot of factors like diet, exercise, and how large or small it was. She figured it was probably able to feed on any foliage that grew down here and possibly, was capable of escaping to predate on the monkeys that populated the island. Whatever this beast was must be mighty fearsom if it fed on those packs of monkeys. Randy shook the hypothetical ideas out of her head; abstract thinking was entirely too distracting. She should be focused on the now.

”Monsters and treasure? That sounds perfect! I’m not sure how I got here but the longer I stay the more I get the feeling I was coming here on purpose anyway, haha!” Randy let out a carefree laugh. It was then she noticed that Amy didn’t seem to revel in the excitement in the same way as her. Maybe she would try to dial it back a few notches. “So...I clearly got a handle on punching anything that comes our way. If you don’t mind me saying so, you don’t carry the look of a seasoned fighter.” Randy hoped Amy wouldn’t take offense to her presumption. ”Anyway--if we run into something that needs punched, I’ll handle that! You though. You seem to have an eye for figuring things out. Though I am good at punching things, damn good if I may say, I lack almost all forms of subtelty. So I think it’d be a good idea if you kept an eye out for any traps that might come our way. Why, I’m just as likely to punch a trap as try to avoid it, hehehe!”

Randy laughed at the way she exaggerated her attitude to Amy. Sometimes she felt like she enjoyed coming off a bit simple--it let people underestimate her. She often found that was one of the easiest advantages to exploit over someone--when they thought you a fool. In reality though, Randy wasn’t being completely dishonest. She was never good at nuance or subterfuge. Her father’s words sounded in her mind; Simplicity is the goal of subtlety. Not the start. She always thought he meant the words when he said them, but a bigger part of her felt like he was just being kind. Randy never did have an interest in things like book learning and theory--she belong to the school of the practical and applicable thought. For her, if it wasn’t something she had learned because it nearly saved her life, then there was hardly a point. Amy walked ahead of Randy and began the maze. At that moment Randy realized something she hadn’t said earlier. Randy wasn’t always the biggest on keeping track of her birthday, but she knew the habit was usually strong for others. Any excuse to drink was usually good enough for her.

”Happy birthday, by the way!” Randy said cheerfully.

As they entered the main hallway of the labyrinth, Randy couldn’t help but open her mouth in awe. All along the walls and ceiling of the cave were flowers that glowed with a vibrant blue. They easily illuminated the entire hallways. The flowers were bound up by think, swirling vines that practically covered every inch of the wall. Randy dropped her torch to the ground, no longer finding it necessary in the caves natural light. The iridescent light of the flowers had an intoxicating quality about them. Randy just loved to marvel at nature sometimes. The complexity of it was technically impressive, even if she didn’t care to understand how it worked most of the time. She reached out and brushed a hand against the wall, her hand touch the vines and flowers. Upon her touch the flower shook gently and a light cloud of pollen fell off the flower and onto her hand. She recoiled her hand quickly, being sure not to touch herself. Cursing her stupidity for a moment, Randy held her hand tense waiting for some sort of paralysis or numbing feeling. Randy didn’t have an eye for traps but she had been out in the wild enough to recognize the earmarks of flora that had built in self defense mechanisms. She had been on the receiving end of the ill effects of many other plants and they were not to be taken lightly.

”Be careful with the flowers, I think there’s somethin--”

Randy’s voice was cut off by the deafening noise of rumbling rock on rock. The entire hallway seemed to shake, almost causing Randy to topple over. She steadied her posture and reflexively reached her hands toward Amy. She wasn’t sure if Amy needed her to help stabilize her balance, but Randy was ready to be helpful regardless. Something big was happening. Randy felt the rumbling under her feet grow more intense as did the noise in the cavern all around them. She considered yelling something out to Amy but the sound was so loud she doubted Amy would hear here. For just a second Randy wondered if the entire mountain was falling down around them. Perhaps this entire cavern was ready to collapse in on itself and their weight was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back.

Just when Randy began to wonder if the rumbling was ever going to end, the entire hallway started to rotate. The effect was jarring and was hard to discern underground. But, having spent a lifetime on a boat, the movement was unmistakable. The entire cavern lurched to the side. Behind them the door closed and slide out of view, replaced by flat wall the hallway rotated. Randy looked around, trying to see or trying to feel exactly how much of the maze was moving. The hallway they were originally standing in was long and straight but now Randy could see multiple paths sliding past as the section of hallway they were in picked up speed. By watching the section ahead of them, Randy could almost tell what was going on. It almost seemed as though their entire outer section of the maze was spinning on the outskirts of the labyrinth, bringing them to a new side. Eventually, and suddenly, they came to a stop. The abruptness of the motion almost sent Randy forward; she had been subconsciously leaning to the side to hold herself steady.

”Did what just happen what I think just happened?”

Randy asked, confused. The syntax of her speech gave away her confusion perhaps more than her actual question. Randy tried her best to calm the queasiness in her stomach. It wasn’t the motion itself that upset her stomach so much as the spinning. Randy hated spinning. She turned around and walked up to the wall that was now behind them, replacing where the door once was. Randy gave it a few knocks and it rang as solid and true as she thought it would. The wall was solid through and through, most likely hundreds of feet underground. Probably under the sea level even, now that she thought about it. Randy turned back to face Amy and put her hands on her hips. A part of her wanted to just sprint ahead in the dungeon. Try to get ahead of the movement before they lose their place again.

”Whatever that was...do you think it will happen again?”

It was just then that Randy’s eyes finally looked upward and paid attention to the ceiling. The walls of the maze went up and we almost flush with the ceiling, but not quick. The roof was marred with scrapes and deep grooves, most likely from years and years of the maze spinning around itself. The roof was a decent height above her head, comfortable enough that she didn’t feel claustrophobic, but low enough that if she reached a hand up and jumped she could probably touch it. She sighed as she looked forward, past Amy. The new hallway was no longer a straight and relatively boring passageway. The longer they waited, the more dangerous this place was becoming.

[Fluffy Lynx]

The stone floor was incredibly cold towards her bare feet. All the small rocks were prickling and annoying. It was painful to a walk, and if she stepped on something that she hadn't seen, she could potentially get poisoned, get the small scratches infected, or something a lot worse. So without much warning, the girl stopped, grapped hold of her already shredded dress, and pulled off additional pieces of cloth, essentially ruining it even further. At this point, she was extremely lightly dressed, as one could see the corner of her underwear. Sitting down, she carefully wraped these makeshift lines of cloth around her feet, essentially creating a pair of makeshift cloth sandals so that she could move about unhindered. The girl was, despite what Randy might've thought about her, quite capable of surviving on her own. Though one thing the other had gotten absolutely right. Amy was far better at a flight response than she was a fight response. While she was wrapping her feet up nice and tightly, Randy was making the comments in regards to taking the front line. This made Amelia slightly perk herself up. So in other words, the girl was being allowed to take the proverbial lead of the group, in that the other had realised that she was smarter. It was almost like giving Amy the complete and utter freedom to manipulate the other female in whichever way she saw fit. This fact made a small smile errupt onto her lips. It was so brief and so short that it likely couldn't even be picked up upon. "...I can bandage your wounds, or rebuild you if you've got prosthetic limbs, but fighting certainly isn't one of my strongest suits." 

It was almost like a confession, in that Amelia seemed a little embarassed that she was so useless in a field. There was a soft smile on her lips, as she scratched the back of her head, shrugging in an apologetic manner. Though in earnest, she could hold her own against most opponents that she had faced so far. The Devil Fruit that she had eaten gave her quite the array of abilities that could be used to either render an opponent completely harmless, or simply escape by flying to heights where the most common attacks couldn't even hope to reach her, let alone hit. A tiny fairy wasn't the easiest thing in the world to point a gun at. So for the most part, Amy was quite satisfied with her own survivability. The only thing that really bothered her, was that breaking through a wall or toppling over a door was beyond what she could do. Though in some cases she had been quite close to being able to squeeze through keyholes...

They walked together, as Randy continued to speak. Groaning sotly to herself, it really did seem like Randy enjoyed listening to her own voice. Constantly. Fortunately, Amelia was quite used to having a lot of chaos and noise going on around her, so thinking clearly in this kind of situation wasn't unfamilliar to her. In fact, it seemed to be the norm. Looking around herself the two females were starting to enter what Amy could only describe as the inner workings of the temple itself. There was quite the array of fauna present. Flowers, moss, roots and other plants of all kinds. Luminesence was keeping this place relatively alight, as far and wide as Amy could currently see. These weren't plants that she was immediately familiar with, though most plantlife that could create light did so for a reason. Most were attempting to attract insects or other animals, to kill them with poison and have their rotting bodies become sustenance for more flowers. Or they could even be carnivorous plants, luring insects into a special section of their body, only to consume them. Looking curiously at the plants, inquisitively, Amy only managed to spare enough brainpower to mumble a low thanks in response to the birthday comment. Normally it wasn't something that she cared too much about, and it had mostly been on behalf of the crew that this particular birthday had been celebrated at all. Looking to her left as Randy got in contact with the plants, she slowly moved over.

"So here's the first rule. Unless specifically told to, don't get in contact with strange things. This especially goes for glowing, shiny or things that would otherwise interest you. Got it?" Grasping Randy's hand to get a closer look, it took a few moments of inspection before Amy could conclude that if there was an effect to this pollen, it certainly wasn't immediate. Which, for plants, was rather uncommon. Perhaps it was meant to get into Randy's airways through breathing or something of such sort. Shaking her head slowly, Amy was being quite cautious, yet kind in her movements. Everything considered though, it was quite obvious that Amy was the leader type. Giving out orders and commandments, she would probably boss Randy around if allowed to. "Try not to breathe it in. It didn't seem to affect your skin, so it might need to enter your body before anything serious happens." Getting up from the small inspection of Randy, Amy was about to walk onwards, as something happened through the ruins at a rapid speed. The ground was shaking, quivering, as rock was grinding against rock, as if they were both trapped in an enormous salt-grinder. Almost toppling backwards, it was only thanks to Randy's quick movement that Amy didn't end up flat on her back. Almost as quickly as it had begun, the whole turning and churning stopped. Disoriented, it was clear that Amy wasn't fond of being moved around involuntarily, especially when it wasn't something that she had expected...

Without giving Randy another gaze, she was tracing her fingers across the walls, then placing her head, or more correctly her ear, against the stone surface, listening for something. Mumbling something about formulae to herself, she was then gazing at the roof, holding up a finger as if to determine certain sizes by guesstimating a distance, comparing it to the lenght of her thumb, and thus being able to relatively accurately calculate the size of the room. Scratching her head, soon she had come up with a theory. A theory that was, in most likelihood correct. "This whole maze is probably shaped like a cylinder. Judging by the spin duration and speed, plus the amount of area we moved, I'd estimate we have about five floors before we reach the bottom." That piece of information was the most important one. It gave them a rough estimate of what was possible within the timeframe, and if they needed to speed up or slow down everytime they had cleared a floor. It wasn't all however, because their time was limited. "Our movement has to be done within roughly three hours, before the whole maze moves again. Once the three hours expire, even if we find a temporary safe spot, since we don't know the actual layout of this maze, its more than likely that we'll get trapped or crushed as the maze moves. I suggest we get a move on, and that you take the front." 

This was the best estimation of their situation that she could give. The time in which the maze moved around had likely been shorter once, though over the years, the amount of force that the construction could build up was a lot lower, which granted any intruder a little more time to move about. Looking at Randy, Amy was prepared to follow if they moved forwards. There was no telling what awaited them in the ruins beyond, and being forced to move relatively quickly wasn't a good thing for them. It meant they were ever more likely to rush head first into a trap that they couldn't have predicted. Dangerous, dangerous stuff this was, and suddenly she wasn't so sure that they were going to make it out of there alive, although she did everything she could to remain hopeful.

[Randy Savage]

”Ma’am, yes ma’am!”

Randy gave a cheerful mock salute as she moved past Amy and started walking into the hallway. She had no idea how the girl could tell when the walls were going to move again. A larger part of her didn’t care though, maybe the girl had a devil fruit that allowed her to talk to walls. After all, she did press her ear up to the wall and then seemed to know something from that. Randy found herself still a bit surprise at the stern attitude Amy had shown her right before the room started to rotate. Amy had treated Randy like she was a child who had just knocked over the cookie jar when trying to steal a cookie. Randy decided that she must have completely judged a book by its cover. Her initial disheveled appearance, combined with her high fashion outfit, made Randy judge her apparently both too quickly and also incorrectly. She knew she had a habit of judging things and people prematurely--it usually made it easier to punch them.

Randy chanced a look down at her pollinated hand. Before, she hadn’t even considered putting it near her face, but now that she was told not to she was finding it difficult. A part of her just wanted to know what happened! She had been afflicted by strange paralytic pollens before. Even taken a few stings from poisonous animals. She doubted that whatever the flowers could do could hurt her that bad. Right? Randy tried her best to shake the thoughts away. There were times where she knew she was thinking about things childishly, but that didn’t make it any easier to deny the impulse. Especially for someone who acting on impulse was their bread and butter!

As they began to make their descent into the madness of the maze, Randy’s first instinct was to start sprinting. Their time was short, of course, so they had to move at a pace that was probably faster than they would be able to discern the safety of their surroundings. Shr pushed this impulse away though; sprinting through this maze was likely a very easy way to get killed. Randy let her mind wander back to the drawing she saw on the save walls before entering into this labyrinth. So far, their only trap had been slight disorientation. In combination with something else, sure it could have been deadly, but not by its lonesome.

It was time to enter the brave new world of the labyrinth. They had traveled the short distance worth of hallway that they had traveled the rotation with. It was short, but uneventful, most likely just intended to move whoever was captured here to a more dangerous section. Randy looked down as she walked, watching her feet pass over the stones. She could see the break in the architecture from where the rotated part of the floor ended and the new piece began. She paused for just a moment. Chancing a cautionary look back at Amy, Randy gave her a smile as if to say ’here goes nothing.’ With that she took a step forward into the new hallway, planting a firm foot.

*Click*

And that was it. Randy was dead. Or at least that’s where her mind went. Her entire body clenched as she looked around tentatively. Well that’s unnerving. Nothing happened! Or at least was happening. That she could tell at least. The pressure plate under her foot was completely depressed. It took everything she had not to reflexively leap from the button and run for cover. Randy’s eyes searched the walls, roof, and floor of the cavern, trying to find a clue as to what the danger was. As far as she could tell there were no holes in the floor for spikes to pop up, no holes in the wall for a generic arrow trap or something like that. Perhaps the trap was simply the paranoia of thinking there was a trap? Surely labyrinths couldn’t be that abstract, Randy convinced herself. Her next idea was to look for a rock, or something they could push on to the plate so Randy could relieve herself of the duty. Unfortunately there didn’t seem to be any large enough; despite how old the dungeon was it seemed to be surprisingly well kept from big pieces of debris.

”Shit! Should we just try to run?”

Randy was more irritated than scared. She hated not having a direct foe. The ever present danger didn’t bother her--what bothered her was that the ever present danger was invisible. Randy wasn’t quite sure where they would run to. The hallway up ahead took a sharp turn to both the left and the right. Not only were they presented with a trap below them, but it seemed they no longer had a straight direction to proceed in. She clenched her fists reflexively. She moved her other foot and stood with both feet planted on the pressure plate. For awhile she was kind of worried to move at all but after the initial tension of the situation, Randy realized that she would probably be fine as long as she kept her weight on the tile.

Slowly and slowly, Randy was finding herself out of her depth. She had nearly no experience with mazes or labyrinths in her life. Throughout her travels she had met other people who taught fighting styles that revolved around logic. Logic puzzles were a dalliance that her day to day life was fairly void of. That had always been more her older sister’s way. Her sister had tried to instill an interest in the subject to Randy but often became frustrated at Randy’s solutions. Tilt the glass panel to move the ball into the hole? Randy would just break the glass, pick up the ball, then drop it in the hole. This would infuriate her sister, but strangely, pleased her father. Even further strange was how much that also seemed to enrage her sister. Randy shook the thoughts out of her head; she spent all of her life avoiding logic puzzles, the last thing she wanted to do was die while thinking about ones from her childhood. She continued to search the cavern with her eyes. She was hoping that Amy would be able to find a solution, but part of her didn’t want to rely on the girl for it. Really, there was nothing keeping Amy from just trying to run as far away from Randy as possible, leaving her to discover alone what happened when she stepped off of the switch.

It wasn’t until then that Randy realized just how many bones there were around the fringes of the hallway. As a matter of fact, it seemed like there were actually a lot of skeletons and ancient corpses her. Some of them were obscured by the foliage on the way; they must have sat down, exhausted, and spent their last moments leaning against the wall only to be grown over. Something inside made her feel like the skeletons or had wasted away whole were the saddest ones. They most likely just sat and waited. Either waited for someone to save them or just gave up hope and waited for the end. Even if she were lost for an eternity, Randy couldn’t imagine letting herself just sit down and die. To that end, a trap was a much more fitting death. Or being maimed by some mystical labyrinth creature. Randy would rather break her arms off trying to punch through the maze than just sit down and die. But that wouldn’t happen; Randy refused to die here.

[Fluffy Lynx]

This other, Randy, was starting to acknowledge the fact that Amy was the leader, even if she could sense a hint of sarcasm in the others voice. The two of them had a very different outlook on life, and what being trapped within these ruins meant. For Randy, this all seemed to be some strange game that she could simply partake in as she pleased. Naive towards the aspect of death, it almost seemed like Randy wasn't aware that death could come by at any time and end her aspirations. Everything that Randy had ever desired or wanted, could be swept down a maelstrom in an instant, if she wasn't paying attention. Naturally, this wasn't something that Amy practiced to a degree where it could be the cause of post-traumatic-stress-syndrome, for she made an effort out of not taking it to paranoid levels, but overall she was careful and cautious when it came to situations where it could cost her her life. The truth of the situation was, that now that they were trapped together like this, Randy could easily have ended up being the sole reasoning why Amy could end up losing her life. If the other unintentionally triggered a trap or device, then who was to say Amy wasn't going to simply succumb to the same trap? Thus, being who she was, the girl was keeping a close eye onto Randy, and being extremely careful when giving out orders, so that there was nothing which could be misunderstood. In short, Amelia wasn't prepared to die within these ruins. They would make it out, no matter what the cost or method might be.

Their instincts were vastly different, too. Where Randy's approach would've been one of speed and dumb luck, Amy's would've been one of careful analysis. One girl was hoping to conquer the obstacles by speed, not caring what she might trigger on the path. The other was hoping to overall save time by not triggering anything, and thus securing a constant progress through this dungeon. As such, when they came upon a new section of the labyrinth, Amy's first reaction was to kneel down and quickly inspect the architecture. The floor here was built mostly with plates, as were the walls. Plates were one of the easiest objects to conceal trigger-plates. Even if one was triggered, it wasn't possible to tell if other plates could drop down and reveal arrow holes or other constructs designed to quickly catch someone off guard. The skeletons alongside the wall was giving off a ton of information aswell. Since they had died at different times and not been moved, regardless of what the trap in the room might've been, it wasn't something that came close to the outer edges of the wall. Nor did the skeletons appear to have any arrows or fragmentation to their bone. Thus, if Amy was to conclude anything, it was that this trap was likely some sort of isolation room, where if the trap was triggered, you'd simply be trapped in there until the maze moved a full turn again. Judging by the skeletons, it could likely be days or even weeks before the maze reset to this very location, hence why they had died sitting down without any hope of moving on.

Just as she was parting her lips with the intention of warning Randy, the silence was cut off by a click. Visibly facepalming, Amy shook her head from side to side. Couldn't the other wait for even a single minute so that Amy could at least analyse the most basic of information and share it along? Apparently, that was far too much to ask for. Grunting dismayed, Amy entered the room. "..Just stay still. If my predictions and assumptions are correct, the trap in here would be akin to an isolation chamber. Thus, if the trap truly triggers, it'd be like a cage you'd have to break us out of with your punches. Therefore, we're not going to trigger it. I may need your punching energy later on.. So just hang on for a moment.."[/b] Reaching in under her dress to get a hold of the belt she had around her waist, she procured a hammer, seemingly out of nowhere. If Randy had paid attention, it was clear that Amy also had wrenches and the like readily available, even while she had been wearing a party dress. The girl was a mechanic, and she didn't like leaving her tools behind. Those tools were not only one of the only things she had from her old life, it was also her weapons and lifelines. Carefully nudging the surrounding plates with the hammer till she found one that sounded hollow, it was clear that she was experienced when it came to the inner workings of contraptions. With a few smashes of the ammer, the girl broke the sliding tile just besides the plate that Randy had triggered, with the hopes of reaching whatever mechanical construct was triggering the trap below. With a little bit of work, she soon came down to the pressure plate trigger, where the pin had obviously been removed, meaning that the only reason the trap hadn't sprung, was because Randy kept pressure on the plate instead of the pin...

Grunting in dismay, it took a few moments before Amy came up with an idea for a replacement pin. Once again reaching in under her dress, this time she removed her own bra. The metal clasp that kept the bra in place through its hook, could be used as a replacement. Thus, she destroyed her own bra to get the metal clasp free, placing the remaining strips of cloth from the bra into her belt. Noone knew when such a resource may become helpful again. With a little careful hammering and adjusting, the bra-clasp soon functioned as a pinning device that she could insert into the trap below the pressure plate. A few short moments later, and everything was where it should be. The only question that remained was, how long this makeshift pin could maintain the pressure without breaking. "...Sorry for the wait. The trap should be temporarily disabled. From here, I don't see another choice but to run for it. As soon as the architecture changes again, we should be safe.. For a while, anyway." Holding the pin in place, she looked to Randy, nodding, before getting to her feet, beginning to run immediately. Although the two of them were stepping on multiple other pressure plates, since the main trigger to the trap had been disabled, nothing was happening. Randy was likely going to get out of the area a few short moments before Amy. One thing was for certain, if Randy had slowed down behind her, she was in for bad news. The moment Amy got around the corner, a loud snap was heard from within the room as the makeshift pin gave out. A massive stoneslab smashed down where the two females had just left the room. It was fortunate that Amy hadn't been crushed.

Panting and gasping f or air, Amy soon found herself on the ground, trying to recover some energy. With how close she had been to drowning, her body wasn't agreeing with the amount of physical exercise that she had needed to pull off. The sweat on her forehead was cold, and in general, she seemed to be getting in a worse and worse condition from needing to exhaust herself further. Randy likely needed to take a little care of her. "...That was.. Far... Too close." Amy sputtered tiredly. When the girl simple collapsed on the floor, she hadn't even bothered to look ahead at what the next area could bring. Hopefully Randy would be a bit more cautious and not get herself in trouble again. 

[Randy Savage]

Randy waited patiently. Probably the most patient she had waited for anything ever in her life, actually. She watched Amy carefully as the girl studied the chamber. Randy hadn’t triggered the trap for more than a few moments before Amy was already talking about predictions and assumptions. The meaning was not immediately apparent to Randy but she gathered what Amy meant by the context clues. If she were let this trap trigger then the room would wall off, or something similar, and leave them pinned in here for an indeterminate amount. Randy laughed audibly as Amy talked about potentially needing her punching energy. It wasn’t a laugh of irritation or defiance; she was actually amused by Amy’s thought process. She even managed to turn punching things into a solution that could be plugged into a later equation to solve a yet-to-be-seen puzzle. The whole thing just really served to amuse Randy.

”Don’t you get tired of thinking so far ahead? I think I’d forget where I was if I was so worried about where I was going to be.”

Tapping her chin in thought, Randy’s question was genuine. Moreso speaking to herself than asking a direct question; the tone in her voice may have even came off as teasing more instead of the personal reflection it was intended as. Randy had always prided herself on her ability to react ‘on the fly.’ In the past, her father had commended her for it--scolding her older sister for her lack of the ability. She could remember fights with Sera; they could both throw an attack at the same time, but Randy would adjust or shift. Sera would do the same but only after her mind calculated the risks and pros and cons of every move she made. By the time Sera would actually act, Randy’s action had already changed, causing her to start the process all over again. A smile curled on Randy’s lips as she remember fondly the arguments her sister and father would have. Sera swore by her life that she just had to get faster at thinking, but Papa swore just as vehemently that she had to stop thinking altogether. It really was the sight to see them go at it...By her life...

As Amy reached under her dress, Randy’s attention snapped back to the, increasingly strange, girl. Surprises upon surprises. It seemed like in each room Randy learned new ways in which she had incorrectly prejudged the girl. Progressively, it was seeming more and more like Amy was more prepared than Randy to be here. Maybe she had been on her way here too. Briefly, Randy thought about the possibility that Amy was lying to her. A part of her wished to discard the thought immediately. No one desires to potentially be trapped in a small stone box with a liar. But, a chunk of her considered the idea with some weight and decided to leave it in the back of her mind. They were in this together, for now, but Randy had no way to know how Amy might act once escape was in sight.

With infinite surprise and interest, Randy squatted down next to Amy and looked into the plate she opened up. Underneath the floor there were a number of interesting cogs, wheels, and mechanism. A lot of the contraption was stone but there was also plenty of metal and other devices that Randy didn’t understand. Who in the world made this place? The underbelly of this room had a strangely alien quality about it. This room had obviously been born lifetimes ago. But, for the machines to still be function. And for the technology to be be both so ahead and its time but also mysteriously ancient. This entire island was seeming more and more interesting. Randy wondered why this entire place hadn’t been picked apart yet! There could be technological secrets hidden under this place that could launch technology ahead by leaps and bounds. Randy was no scientist but she at least understood that whatever power source kept this place moving for so long with so little interaction from the outside must have been truly a marvel. Watching Amy’s inquisitive face while she worked was interesting. Randy could tell she had a solution in mind as she stared at the machine. I can’t even tell what this damned thing is, let alone how to fix it!

A smile grew on Randy’s face as Amy stood and began removing her bra. The urge to make a ridiculous comment was almost insurmountable, but Randy did not want to break Amy’s concentration. Still confused by what the true solution was, she watched as Amy dismantled her bra for some clips of metal in its lining. The girl bent back down into the hole and continued to fiddle and hammer things that were beyond Randy’s comprehension. Realistically, she didn’t even care how the thing worked, but she could appreciate how deftly Amy was handling the situation. Maybe after we make it out of here I’ll come back down and run this gauntlet myself. I’m curious to how it would turn out... Randy mused as Amy seemed to fix whatever problem was plaguing them in the room. She couldn’t help but snort when Amy apologized for the wait. To Randy it seemed pretty quick--usually she was the impatient one.

Randy nodded her head to Amy as the girl explained what to do. She was always happy to run for her life--it was the most exciting kind of running. As Amy took off, Randy let her get a bit of a head start. Whatever mechanism would hold the plate in place, Randy figured it would only start to bear the pressure once she released it. After Amy got nearly half the distance, Randy sprinted off behind her. It was hard to ignore the pressing of plates underneath her fight. She had to fight the urge to stop, duck, or roll after each plate was relieved. Catching up to Amy, she rounded the corner just a smidgen ahead of her, instinctually jumping forward at the sound crashing stone behind them. Jumping and cheering as they cleared the danger, this place was just getting more and more exciting to Randy.

”That was pretty awesome! You did great!” Randy turned to face Amy, a large smile on her face. It wasn’t until then she noticed how shaky the girl was starting to look. ”Oh crap, are you alright? Did something hit you?”

Randy ran over and crouched next to Amy as she slumped to the floor. She gave her a brief eye check over to see if she had any obvious wounds. Amy’s face was pale and she was sweating a lot, but felt cold to the touch. Randy thought about the best way to proceed. A part of her mind, the one growing increasingly more cautious, wondered if she should just wait for Amy to feel well enough to proceed again. On the other hand, who knows how long that would be? Not only that, but if they would have to keep exhausting themselves then breaking for a rest, they most likely wouldn’t make it very far before having to stop again. This wasn’t good. Reaching a hand up, Randy tapped her chin again--watching Amy work kind of made her want to be more thoughtful with her solutions. Her mind raced as she tried to think smart. I can use the vines on the wall to make a harness for her!...No. I’ll....drag her by the arms! No...I can run ahead and set off all the traps then come back for her! No! None of Randy’s ‘smart’ plans sounded very logical, not even to her. She decided it would be best to leave that thinking to the ones suited for it. The simplest option would always work the best for her.

”Alright, doing this one my way. Arms up!”

It wasn’t entirely clear just how lucid Amy was at the moment. Even if she was capable of standing and supporting her own weight, she most likely wouldn’t regain her breath any easier if they were constantly on the move. There was only one option in Randy’s mind; she would have to carry her. Her first consideration was to just scoop Amy in her arms like one would carry a child. But that would be impractical and obscure Randy’s view of her feet, making it hard to be careful and see where one was going. She opted for the more practical option. Without waiting to see if Amy could raise her arms herself, Randy lifted Amy’s arms up for her. Randy had been squatting beside Amy while she check on her, but now she turned her back toward Amy. Pulling her hands over her shoulders, Randy would then scoop her hands under the girl’s butt and heft her onto Randy’s back. The resulting piggyback would get off to a bit of a wobbly start but after fulling standing and adjusting Amy’s weight on her, she would be able to carry the girl fine. Amy seemed to way all of about nothing to Randy. She was pretty sure that carrying some cannonballs had been more of a strain on her. Even if Amy wasn’t particularly present enough to hold on, Randy could keep her steady by leaning forward slightly and keeping a firm hold underneath her legs, locking her in place. During this entire process, Randy never once gave a thought to how Amy may react to all this--personal space was a bit foreign to her at times.

”Alriiight...” Randy spoke out loud, mostly to herself. “Where to next?”

The original hallway they were in had ended perpendicularly to the one they stood in now. After running out of the trap room, the doorway closed off and wall sealed, making it seem like they were essentially in one long hallway that went both ways. It was up to Randy to decide which direction to take now. Without giving it much thought, Randy moved to the right. Instinct was always best. Before she left, Randy reached into her pouch and pulled out a strange, squat, vibrant yellow pepper. To a casual observer it might look like Randy was absentmindedly about to start snacking. If that would surprise them, then they’d be even more bewildered when they found out Randy had a real plan! She crushed the pepper between her fingers and began smearing a gigantic X on the cavern wall the direction they were starting to walk down. The juice inside the pepper was a fantastically bright yellow, almost neon in color. Randy did the motion, smearing the juices in a big symbol before tossing the pepper on the ground, wiping off her fingers, and returned her hand as a firm ‘seat’ for Amy on her back. She spoke her plan; if Amy was listening, she wanted her to know what she was doing. In the back of her mind, she laughed as she figured Amy probably figured it out before Randy thought of it.

”That’s the juice of the poetically named Sulfur Pepper. The pepper itself is known as one of the hottest, but the juices on the inside are so dangerous that they’re only edible if they’re cooked just right. In their raw form, the juices almost act like a sort of acid; it will literally burn your skin if you leave it on too long and some people even use it to thin the paint on their ships before a paint job. That should help us mark out way in case we get turned around.”

Randy finished her explanation and started on her way down the hall. The girl’s exasperate nature with which she had been dealing with Randy was starting to make her realize how much she talked. Normally, in a group setting, Randy wouldn’t particularly care. Something about being in a small setting made it painfully obvious though so she tried her best not to be annoying. Other people being annoyed usually annoyed Randy, regardless of their reasons. The last thing Randy wanted to do now was get mad--she was trying to stay upbeat and happy. Increasing her anger would just increase her urge to punch things. Gotta remember, Amy wants me to save that energy, haha. Randy laughed to herself as she walked down the hallway.

Their walk did not carry them far before they reached a gigantic pit in the labyrinth. Randy leaned over the edge and looked down--it was completely black. Kicking a rock over the edge, she listened for a sound. It only took about 2 seconds until there was a solid clack in the darkness. Those two seconds might not seem like a long time but Randy had fallen from dangerous heights enough times to know that would be nearly a 50 foot fall. Randy was feeling pretty hardcore today but she doubted even she would survive a free fall of that magnitude. Looking across the gap, Randy estimated it to be just a biiiit under 30 feet. That was pretty extreme. She judged the distance, even taking a few steps back and then feeling how a running start would feel with Amy on her back. That was seeming unlikely. She also toyed around with the idea of just giving Amy a clean toss; that would probably get her across but Randy wasn’t sure how Amy would take the landing in her current state. She knelt down against the wall near the gap and gently slid Amy off of her before turning around to face her.

”Hey girly, I think we need some of that brain power of yours. I can’t punch a gap.” Randy joked, giving her a comforting smile and a slight laugh. ”I thought about throwing you across; what do you think?” This probably also sounded like a joke...except for the fact that Randy didn’t laugh after it of course.

They could probably turn back and see what was down the other hallway. Randy wanted to get Amy’s input first though, if she could. At this point, Randy wouldn’t put it past Amy to have some other ace up her sleeve; she had one nearly every time so far. Amused, Randy wondered if maybe Amy had a few jet dials. Or maybe she kept a collapsible bridge in her britches. Or maybe she was actually something bizarre like a bird logia and could turn into a swarm and ferry her across. It all seemed likely at this point. If Amy was out of commission, Randy would have to think of something. Her mind bounced around the layout of the hallway; maybe she could tarzan across? Meh, I’ll just see if Amy has any ideas.

[Fluffy Lynx]

Letting out a soft pfft when Randy asked if Amy didn't ever get tired of thinking, she merely continued working on the plate. When she was certain that she knew exactly what she was doing, she responded calmly. "You said yourself that I do not appear like a fighting type. That is not to say I haven't tried, though. I just never got any real good at it. So if I am to have a chance against someone like you." The short exchange happened just before they started running, and with Randy easily catching up to Amy, it was clear that the girl wasn't exactly a physical athlete.

Breathing heavily, she was legitimately feeling like she had been poisoned, although that was highly unlikely to be the case. Instead, it was probably that her body wasn't adjusting too well to the amount of energy she had to use just to survive, when she had been submerged in seawater, and even had it fill her lungs. The fact that she was alive on its own was astounding. Being able to move as a Devil Fruit user, a miracle. "I'm just.. my body.. Hurts so bad.." It hadn't been much more than a hundred meter sprint, and she was feeling rather pathetic. Though, if she was to make a guess, everything was going towards the better. The clicking sensation that her fairy powers were returning was a warming feeling within the entirety of her body, almost like the first time that she had consumed the fruit. It was strange how sea-water could have such immediate effects on the body.

Closing her eyes for a moment, she was definitely feeling the brunt of the exhaustion. Amy wasn't one to do physical battles, nor was she one who could be considered in good physical shape. Decent shape, definitely, but she needed more than decent to continue running after having fled from monkeys, climbed a wall, almost drowned and now sprinted for her life. The real problem was how her body, due to having eaten a Devil's Fruit, was reacting to the drowning experience. It was many times worse to her than it would be to most regular people, should they have been able to arrive at the beach in the same manner that Amy was. So for a few short moments, all that she wanted, was the ability to get a little rest. The floor also seemed to agree with her, because she had never experienced solid rock that felt just as soft as this one. Slowly she was sinking away into unconciousness, calmness and tranquility, when Randy literally pulled her out of it, by somewhat forcefully grasping her and lifting her upwards. Blinking a little in confusion, the girl would've definitely made a couple of complaints, but somewhere deep within her mind, she knew that Randy was doing this because she was worried. They both needed to move forwards within a certain timeframe, or they would both end up getting crushed and killed in this maze. Somewhat weakly, Amy managed to wrap her arms over Randy's shoulder, placing her head besides Randy's so that she could continue watching without having to spend much energy. Conserving her strenght, it was the better for the entirety of the group. If Amy could somehow restore her ability to use her fruits power, this entire thing would become so much easier. So thats exactly what she would comply with, even if it meant sharing her personal space with another woman that she hardly even knew.

Amy was somewhat dosing off again, with her head placed against Randy. The girls eyes were slumping, and she was only blinking mildly occasionally. Unsure of what she was even dreaming of, the girls rest got interrupted again by a foul smell. It almost smelled like something Amy would usually use to clean up metallic parts to machinery if something serious had gotten stuck inside it. Looking around with a mild confusion on her face, for a few short moments she thought that she had merely passed out within the engine room of her beloved ship. Instead, Randy's voice was a cruel reminder of the actuality of things. Groaning with displeasure, Amy rubbed her own face and let out a yawn. It wasn't that Randy was incredibly dull, it was just that Amy didn't expect to hear anything useful out of the fighting-machine that Randy seemed to be. So most of the explanation about what she was doing had been immediately lost on Amy, although the general gist of her idea seemed reasonable. Using a fruit to mark the way. Who knew, perhaps it could be useful later on, and it didn't seem like it took much out of Randy to perform. So without any complaints about the whole situation, Amy simply went right back to getting a little powernap. It was returning the color to her skin, and she was stopping the strange coldsweat. Recuperation had begun.

...Although that recuperation was kept to a bare minimum of a handful of minutes passed out. Soon Randy found herself with yet another problem that she couldn't overcome. Being woken up, Amy simply stayed on the back of Randy. From this unusually comfortable position, the tiny girl looked around to make some sense of everything. Without really thinking much of it, probably because she was so mentally spent that she couldn't quite think anything through properly until she got some more rest, Amy simply replied; "I'll just fly us over." It was said as blankly and serious as it could be said. At this point she was functioning a lot more on instinct than she was on intellect, though the instinct of flying was pretty solid. It all happened before Randy really had much of a chance to think about it. Especially considering Randy didn't appear like the quickest or sharpest blade in the cupboard. Amy had shrunk a little in size, and sprouted two enormous fairy wings. Because of her smaller size, Randy was naturally heavy, but it wasn't impossible for her to take off flying and carry Randy over the small gap before safely putting her down on the other side. Though if Amy was tired before, she was now reaching a point where she could not stay awake... Shrinking even further, the woman that turned out to be fairy flew around Randy, before finding herself a pocket to simply sit in. Almost immediately that she was secured and Randy didn't have to worry too much about carrying her around, the tiny fairy nodded off, even snorring a little in Randy's pocket. A strange green dust was being secreted by her wings, and even Randy would feel slightly invigorated...

...Now that they were on the opposite side of the drop into the pit, they could move onwards.. Although here, the architecture of the labyrinth once again changed. The hallway above had tiles much like the isolation room, except they were covered with different arachnid symbols. The ceiling of the tunnel seemed to simply not exist, as if it stretched upwards into endless darkness. Across the entirety of the tunnel, there were small strands of silken arachnid web, so thick and strong that it likely couldn't be cut by any ordinary weapon or attack. Attached to the web were small globules of something adhesive; If Randy got in contact with it at all, she'd most definitely be stuck until it could be either cut or burnt off. Judging by the webspun sacs of animals and people across the room, it also seemed like an enormous spider was using this particular part of the maze as their hunting grounds. Randy would have to be careful when traversing this room, as one wrong move could get her caught while alerting the spider. A spider that Randy, so far, couldn't see within the darkness above.

[Randy Savage]

”Pfftt, yea. Fly us over. Right. You’re sil—“

Before Randy could finish her sentence, she was plucked from the ground and began hovering over the edge. A primal part of her instincts lunged to the surface, telling her to flail and kick, get away from whatever was trying to fling her over the edge. The trip was smooth and while flying, Randy couldn’t help but be filled with a sense of child-like wonder. She had never flown before. Even over the dark chasm in this dank labyrinth, it still felt like an amazing experience. For a moment she forgot where she was, imaging the ocean below her and the sky ahead. This was a way to truly feel free. Before long, feet on the ground, Randy came back to the earth. The darkness of the labyrinth snapped back into place. Amy proceeded to fly in front of and around Randy, and she started to understand what happened.

”Not quite a flock of birds logia…”

Randy spoke absentmindedly as Amy swirled around her before settling into a pocket on the waist of her Romper. A zoan!? And a strange one at that! Randy’s mind swirled with questions. She had yet to see many devil fruit users in her travels, zoans even less so. Not only that, but such a strange zoan too! Randy wasn’t even 100% sure what she was. There was no time for questions though, before she knew it Amy had shrunk down a fraction of her original size and made herself comfortable in Randy’s pocket. It was a strange feeling, having someone in your pocket that is. There was weirdly comfortable warmth to the little fairy body and Randy couldn’t help but feel a bit refreshed and rejuvenated. Now they were ready for action again.

Taking the lead, Randy was determined to solve this next puzzle on her own. At this point it was becoming a point of contention for her that she was feeling pretty useless in the labyrinth. Sure she had gotten here and better shape than Amy and was capable of releasing the girl from her prison. But she hadn’t done much else beyond that. Even more still, with Amy’s zoan form revealed, Randy realized the girl didn’t even need her help to get out of the cage. She felt like a proper dunce. Not anymore! Motioning to take a step forward, Randy’s eyes finally processed what she was looking at. Webs?! Spider symbols?! Creatures being eaten!? She recoiled backward, hands in front of her face, and had to stifle an urge to scream at the top of her lungs. Randy absolutely despised spiders. As a child she always hated that part of herself; it was a terribly generic fear for a girl to have. She tried her best to resist and overcome it. Many times she had confronted spiders, large and small, and never once did she feel any better about it. She even fought and defeated a great spider monster once! Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling of “heeby jeebies” on her skin.

Examining the room, Randy got the feeling that whatever was feeding on things in this particular hallway was gigantic. Either that or a lot of much smaller spiders; both propositions were equally disgusting to her. A number of tiles littered the ground with numerous spider symbols, none of which comforted Randy. She could see a number of silken strands lining the walls and some even streaming across. Large sacks of either spider babies or spider food hung from the vaulted ceiling. The more she stared at the scene in front of her and tried to think of a solution, the less she could concentrate and the more her skin itched. This was getting nowhere. For a first step, Randy figured she would test the strength of the webs. She had been around spiders enough to know that different types of spiders created different webs. A hope deep inside wished for these to be the peaceful, silk spinning kind. Hesitantly poking a finger into a sack of webbing near the closest wall, Randy soon found herself stuck knuckle deep in a bundle of webbing. She gave her hand a hard tug and, though the sack moved with her a bit, her finger hadn’t budged.

Planting both feet hard on the ground, Randy gave her arm a spirited yank. There was less resistance that time but Randy was incredibly impressed by the strength of its hold on her. She considered the idea of taking her gauntlet off, but that was quickly dashed against the stones of her mind. Oh god I'm going to die here. A giant spider is going to come and--No! Randy's mind started to race and panic started to swell within her. Her hair flickered as her emotions raged, but she was able to quickly force down the rush of emotions. She had to stay calm if she wanted to survive this. And she would survive this. Planting her feet again and grabbing her wrist with her free hand, Randy summoned the strength and a yell to rip her hand free of the webbing. The sudden loss of pull on her arm caused her to stumble backward but she regained her balance before falling over the cliff or into another globule of webbing. As Randy observed the sacks hanging from the sky, she started to form a plan in her mind. It was a ridiculous idea, and certainly lacked the technical touch of their previous solutions, but it was right in line with how Randy thought.

Randy reached into her pocket and gathered a small bit of gunpowder in each hand. Taking a running start, Randy leapt across the floor and punched her fist into one of the pockets of webbing that hung from a weave pattern along the top of the room. Hand stuck true in the webbing, Randy began to swing back and forth, trying to get enough momentum to carry herself farther. She let her eyes wander down to the spider blazoned tiles on the ground. Something told her she really didn't want to hit those. Looking up at her hand, that was when the first rocket of panic launched in her mind. Coming from the web sack, hundreds of tiny, semi translucent spiders began to descend down her arm. This must have been an egg sack. Stifling a fit of panic, part of Randy was thankful for what part two of her plan entailed. Tossing her free hand up, Randy clanged her gauntlets together above her head. There was a spark between the metal and then a violent explosion. The blast was small, she hadn't used much gunpowder, but it was enough to blow her hands free from the egg sack. Forward swinging momentum carried Randy's weight forward until she flew by another clump of webbing. Thrusting the opposite hand into this pad, Randy soon repeated the effect of her first jump and was sent flying forward over the tiles again.

As she flew through the hallway, she could feel the dozens of strands of webbing stuck to her skin. They weren't strong enough to stop her weight as she careened through the air, but they were one hell of an annoyance and certainly weren't helping her inner fears and itchy skin. Shoving a fist into the last sack in her path, Randy heard a monstrous scream resound overhead. She tried her best to ignore it soon the walls, and the sack she was hanging from, began to shake. When thinking over her plan, Randy thought she realized the obvious; giant spiders in the ceiling drop down when I hit the buttons. What she had neglected to realize was that any giant spider hanging out in the ceiling, hearing the explosion, would most likely come down anyway. Landing with a thud on the opposite side of the hallway, Randy managed to clear the entire length of the hallway without triggering a single spider tile. That was one victory at least. Looking back on the hallway, Randy realized how many burning sacks of spider babies she left behind. While this made her happy, she doubted whatever was up above would enjoy that.

Before Randy could continue through the labyrinth, there was another scream, this one much more urgent, as a large feral spider dropped from the ceiling. Now, large is perhaps an understatement as this spider was so gigantic that he touched both sides of the enormous labyrinth walls. His back legs were even up on the walls as he had no room to fit them beside his huge body. Before Randy could let out a curse, the spider screeched bloody murder down the hallway, shaking Randy's head from the sheer force. Almost playfully, the spider began to slam his legs down on the untouched tiles along the floor. Panels and tiles slide open on the walls and floor as dozens of the spiders Randy had seen outside of the dungeon started to make their way into the hallway. In the back of her throat, Randy dry heaved. The sight of so many spiders made her body wretch and she was half tempted to faint just from how disgusting she felt. The largest spider spat out a giant wad of webbing toward Randy, snapping her body into action.

Reflexes kicked in, pushing her fears away and throwing Randy into a roll on the floor. Spider feet skittered across the floor as dozens of smaller spiders made their way to Randy. Ugh, the sound giant spiders feet made on tile is absolutely disgusting. It nearly reminded her of the noise a house pet would make, except there were twice as many legs. As the horde broke ground to her, all of the tiles she tried so hard to avoid were flipped, unleashing more of the beasts. Playfully, Randy wondered how Amy would have reacted to this in normal form out here with her--for the most part though she was happy that the fairy was in her pocket. That meant that Randy could now do this labyrinth her way. She was nearly forced too though. With how sticky this webbing was, there was no way she could expect to stay here and fight the monsters. They’d wear her down on pure numbers only. Rising to her feet, Randy instantly sprinted down the hallway in front of her, heedless of what may lie ahead

”Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit!"

Randy found herself panting hard as she ran. It wasn’t that she was winded, but the rush of adrenaline made it hard for her to press down her fear. She did her best not to look back at her arachnid pursuers. Their screeches still made their way to her ears though, as flaks of webbing shot past her or landed behind her. Luckily, they didn’t seem to be good at aiming while they ran. The first hallway she ran into had spikes stabbing up out of the floor in intervals. She wasn’t sure if she triggered the trap by running or if these ones were always on. She pressed on. The first patch of spikes nearly got her but with a quick dive and tuck of her body she was able to avoid it. Chancing a glance behind she saw a number of the smaller pursuers get skewered as the spikes rescinded then shot back up. A smile almost crept along her lips but the biggest monster began to stomp through the room, knocking to spikes down and pressing through the spike traps unfazed. Cursing, Randy turned and continued to run. A spike trap nicked her arm; then her leg, but the wounds were shallow and Randy’s fear wouldn’t let her slow down. She followed the example of the big spider, kicking down spikes if they were in her way instead of waiting for their retraction.

Turning the corner at the end of the hallway, Randy found herself faced with what looked to be some sort of acrobatic challenge. There was a long, skinny walkway across a chasm. Never one to be feared by heights, Randy took to sprinting across hit. Suddenly, a burst of flame shot out of the walls on either side of her. The sudden blast of heat surprised her and sent her reeling on the skinny walkway. With a bounce and roll, Randy found herself hanging precariously off the edge of the balancing beam. Panic rushed through her mind as the horde of spiders rounded the corner and started over the walkway. A few of the creatures leaped but were blasted away by the flames themselves. Urgency surged through Randy’s veins, her hair flickering and standing stark in response. She flung herself haphazardly back onto the skinny bridge. As she started to regain her balance, the largest spider came to the front end of the bridge. Curiously, he started to bat at the tiny walkway, chipping away at it. Randy felt the entire path wobbled as he broke stone away from the end

”This is why I HATE spiders!”

Randy yelled fruitlessly at the godless creature; it screeched back in response. She turned to sprint down the walkway at full speed. Fire spewed from the walls as Randy held her gauntlets up at her sides to block the fire. The heat was intense but her hands protected her body from the initial burst and she didn’t stand in the flames long enough for long term damage. In a way, she was almost thankful—this was serving to sear away all the webbing that clung to her body. Smaller spiders skittered along the walls and roof of this hallway but Randy paid them no mind. Some were knocked from their perches by the jets of fire; others weren’t able to keep up. A large crash sounded behind her and almost knocked her completely off balance. She could now hear the biggest spider slamming his feet into the walls, making his way over the chasm without the help of the bridge. The walkway was wobbling fiercely. Randy almost felt like she was using the force of the flames to help her adjust her balance. The spider had knocked down the one end of the bridge, resulting in a domino effect that threatened to send Randy into the darkness below.

Reaching the end of the bridge, Randy launched herself forward. Her body slid down a small slope that fed into what seemed like a wide open room. The heat from this place was nearly unbearable. The room had the form as the large lava chute. Magma poured from the opposite wall—there was a font that came out from under the wall and proceeded through the chamber and flowed out the opposite. The room was terribly wide. Randy ventured a guess that the flames from the previous rooms were from a released of pressure in this one. Pausing briefly, Randy tried to figure out how this whole maze worked. Trying to picture a cylinder with lava rolling over the top, which could still rotate, but also managed to cycle the lava through it properly…it all confused her. She did have a small realization this; this lava was probably part of the power source that kept the labyrinth in motion. Damming it up could give them an easier time, maybe even shut down the traps! Something bumped into the back of Randy’s leg, taking her out of her contemplation.

”What the…? Oh Crap!”

Kicking the spider into the lava in front of her, Randy was snapped back into the seriousness of the situation at hand. You know, for someone who claimed to not have a mind for the hypothetical, she sure spent a lot of time daydreaming or in pensive contemplation. Another handful of spiders slid down the slope. Luckily, this slope seemed to confuse them a bit, giving her the opportunity to stomp, punch, or otherwise crunch them before tossing them into the lava behind her. Her mind was rushing for a way to make a makeshift bridge. Sure, Amy might be able to fly them in this situation too, but there wasn’t time. The largest, monster spider came to the top of the slope. Randy made eye contact with the beast—or at least as much contact with as many of its eyes as she could. If Randy was a betting lady, she’d put money down that the disgusting thing was smiling at her, as if acknowledging the seeming hopelessness of the cornered Randy. Turning to the lava, Randy saw a large piece of solid rock was floating through the river. With a grunt she would make a leap of faith toward the piece of rock. Landing with a stumbled, Randy placed a gauntleted hand down to steady herself. Heat shot through the metal, causing her to recoil her hand. She noticed her feet were steaming but that wasn’t bothering her yet. The rock wasn’t molten itself but the heat from the lava was still strong.

Her stance was shaken and she was almost tossed backward off the rock. A loud screech sounded out behind Randy that was loud enough it caused her to reach up reflexively to block her ears. The titanic spider had jumped from the slope and was clinging to the edge of her rock. Its ass end was in the lava but it barely seemed to affect it. She could see the hairs on its back were lit on fire from the lava. She started to slide toward it as it rocked the natural raft she rode. Scrambling, Randy pushed herself to the opposite end. A part of her considered rushing down and punching it in its dumb, creepy ass mandibles, but she decided against it. All it would take was one bit of that webbing and she would be stuck and probably sucked into the lava with it. That, and the thought of touching it, even with a punch, made her body cold.

As she reached the top of the stone she could see the other end of the hallway looked like a funnel. No time left to think; Randy launched forward and tossed her body into the natural toilet bowel of rock. Although natural looking, the rocks were incredibly cool and smooth. She slid around a hole in the wall, her momentum from the jump keeping her circling the bowel. The spider screeched and raged. She couldn’t see it anymore but she could hear it thrashing and pounded in the cavern. Pulling herself forward, Randy pushed her way into the hole in the wall. At the moment, the unknown darkness sounded infinitely more appealing than spending any more time in a room full of spiders. She slid through the tunnel in complete darkness, just now realizing how out of breath she was. Randy laid her head back and took some time to relax and enjoy the quiet. Dungeons were hard! As her heart stopped racing and she was able to start thinking again, Randy instinctively brushed at her arms, still feeling the ‘creepy crawlies’ all over her body. When the ground came, it was sudden. The smooth surface of the tunnel gave way to hard, rocky stone. Randy hit off of it hard, bouncing and rolling along the floor. This room lacked the flora of the original hallway, leaving Randy in the darkness. She couldn’t even see her hand in front of her. For the moment though, that was okay; she stayed on her back in the darkness, happy to take a moment and catch her breath.

[Fluffy Lynx]

Randy had made comments about how silly Amy must've been. Though, Amy herself naturally knew better, being that she was the one who had made the suggestion. The Zoan that she had devoured was a special one, and the price of it on the market where she had stolen it was through the roof. One of the few mythical zoans! Although, most of the interested people at the pirate market knew nothing of what powers the fruit actually held. To this statement, Amy was no exception. All the girl had initially wanted, was to steal it for herself so she could sell it for astronomical amounts. Unfortunately, that plan had been cut short, when she had been forced to eat it and hope that it would grant her the power to escape and survive. Afterall, stealing from a pirate usually wasn't the smartest of ideas. Especially not when the item in question was so sought after and valueable. Though, Amy was a rather unknown entity, and with the powers of the fruit being so unknown, when she seemingly vanished, most hadn't gotten a good enough look at her face to trace her down afterwards. Soon it had merely become a rumor, and Amy could continue with her journey, unfettered and unprovoked by anyone... 

As Randy was placed down, Amy could see the absolute wonder in the other womans eyes, but it was something that they'd have to talk about later. For now, all Amy really wanted, was to get a little more rest. The pocket in Randy's pants was exactly what she had been hoping to find. With how it was designed, she could fold her wings so she'd just barely fit. Placing her hands over the edge of the pocket, she was basically sleeping while standing up, supported by the edges of the pocket itself. As such, Amy soon found herself relatively warm and comfortable, and with the regenerative dust that she was instinctively shedding off of her wings, she was recovering rather nicely within the pocket too. It was almost like being plopped into a healing chamber of some sort, and if anyone currently needed it, it was her. Extremely exhausted, even as Randy started moving onwards towards the next area, Amy had completely dosed off. The girl wasn't expecting to get much sleep out of the ordeal. In fact, she wasn't expecting to get any. However, sitting in the pocket and watching Randy do all the work was also some kind of relaxation. That is, as long as Randy didn't attempt something completely silly. Which, for the short time that Amy had known Randy, couldn't be counted out of the question. In fact, it was more than likely that Randy would end up doing something absolutely hopeless. Though, for now, Amy was slowly whisked away into a land of carefree dreaming. Throughout the time where Randy was contemplating how best to approach the room with the spider symbols and intricate webbing, Amy was recovering at almost miraculous speed. The color was returning to her skin, the glint in her eyes, the rainbow colors. All weakness that she had been feeling was disappearing from her body, and soon she would be ready to take on challenges once again...!

...Awoken crudely by nothing less than an explosion, the tiny fairy looked around in confusion, panic. There were webs absolutely everywhere. There were strangely indicated tiles, that clearly pointed in the direction of some kind of trap. There was an enormous amount of sacs that could only be filled to the brim with small spider eggs. Normally, this wasn't something that would've phased Amy at all. Spiders weren't much else than a nuisance, or in some cases, even a friendly neighbor that took care of mosquitos, but judging by the sheer size of the web, whoever had created it, was likely large enough to wrap a small ship completely in its strands. In addition, ever since Amy had eaten the fairy zoan, she couldn't help but feel like a spiders prey. Fickle wings, small size, that was usually exactly what spiders enjoyed. Once those wings were stuck in webbing, there was absolutely no way that the girl would get free. Thus, instead of poking her head out and starting to shout at Randy for doing something so absolutely crazy, she attempted to retreat deeper into the pocket, hiding herself away from sight as best as she could, hoping that she wouldn't have to stand face to face with the queen arachnid herself. Noticing the surprise on Randy's face when, in fact, the Queen of all arachnids appeared, Amy was making a lot of frustrated gestures. Were you truly expecting to make such a huge mess without being noticed?! You're a real effing genius, aren't you?!" However, even that she kept to herself. With how quick Randy was moving on, and how dire the situation was, there was absolutely no need for the tiny fairy to distract the other woman. If anything, a distraction here could likely lead to the demise of them both. So, placing an ounce of trust in her temporary companion, Amy bit into the side of the pocket so as not to scream or make any distracting noises...

...However, even that peace soon came to an end. There was a narrow walkway across a deep chasm. The walkway itself was clearly lodged into a specific place so that it wouldn't simply fall off. That however also meant, that stepping on the walkway would trigger whatever was waiting for them in the room. Imaging boulders swinging from the sides to knock them into the abyss, Amy let out a soft. "No, stop, consider what you're---!" It was too late. Randy had already raced out onto the walkway at full speed. Along the walls in a long line, several small plates slid to the sides, revealing some kind of small oval shaped hole. Everything within Amy had slowed down so incredibly. The tiny fairy's heart was pounding so incredibly quick, at the wonder of what might happen. Could it be poisoned darts, firing at them from every direction? Could it be launching some kind of gas to envelop the entire room? Were they even sure they could continue once they got to the other side? All the questions were answered shortly thereafter, as a gust of wind started running through the small pipes, soon followed by a flammable liquid and a single spark. The liquid ignited almost instantly, and the pressured winds were making the flames incredibly potent and dangerous. It was at this very moment that Randy forgot about the fairy. Raising her gauntlets to protect herself, the only thing that was around Randy's legs to protect that specific part of her, were the pants. Within the pants, was the fairy. A little creature, with a very small size and very thin wings and cloth. The heat was unbearable, and she was attempting to do whatever she could to avoid this overwhelming heat. Tears were welling up in her eyes. The flames were almost intense enough to make her feel like she was being cooked alive. The fairy's skin was turning a sharp red, and pain was running through the entirety of her body. Sinking to the bottom of the pocket, Amy bit down hard onto her own shirt to avoid screaming in agony. Pulling up her knees to her chest, she was doing everything she could to shield the centre of her body from the majority of the heat. It was doing a little, but when you protect your body with other parts of your body, you're certain to get burnt.

For a short moment, there was a reprieve from the heat, as Randy had moved on from the initial room. Even so, Amy was being strangely quiet. If Randy had felt her move prior to this point, there would be no movement from her now. It was pure stillness, calmness. Enough so, that if Randy and the spiders weren't making such an obnoxious amount of noice, one could've heard a pin drop to the floor and echo through the room. The magma certainly wasn't a welcome change in temperature. It was akin to stepping out of the sauna into a fire. Amy was rocking herself back and forth in desperation. There wasn't a single way that she could take this, yet she had no option. With everything being the way it was, she couldn't leave Randy's pocket and return to her human form without knocking the other woman into the molten lava. All that Amy could do in her situation, was bite down, and endure. Every single time Randy had a close call or bumped against something, she was getting squeezed tightly by the near burning cloth that was Randy's pants. This was torture beyond compare, and Amy couldn't even express it. Because as horrible as things were for her currently, Randy was doing absolutely everything s he could to protect the both of them. Randy could've left the fairy so many times, or even simply hammered a hand against her pocket, and it would've all been over. In other words, Randy was trying her best, and that much Amy could only admire and respect.

Shortly thereafter, the heat was dying down, much to Amy's pleasure. Much to her displeasure however, Randy seemed to be down on her chest, crawling through some kind of tunnel. All of this movement, in so many different directions.. All of this unbearable heat, the flames licking against her cloth and against Amy herself, the magma from below having essentially been one enormous oven.. The fairy needed to get out of this pocket and return to standing on her own two feet, for she wasn't feeling as good as she had hoped a little break would've given her. The bumping and rolling was doing ever more damage to the fairy. Perhaps being in the pocket was the worst possible idea that she could've hard. Randy had stopped, though. Randy had finally stopped to take a breather. So within this darkness, she called out to Randy, in a shaking and breaking voice. It was clear that the fairy could hardly manage anymore. "P-please.. L-l-let m-me o-out." It wasn't the stutering of someone who had been nervous or paniced. It wasn't the stuttering of someone who simply couldn't take anymore. It was the stuttering of someone who was in undeniable pain. When Randy positioned herself so that Amy could more easily crawl out, it became apparent just how roughed up she was. 

The girls hair smelled of smoke and fire, and several pieces of it had simply been burnt completely off to the root. The beautiful and shimmering fairy wings had several holes to them and were severely burnt, leaving the fairy unable to even attempt to fly. The clothes were just as holed from the flames. Upon her back, where the heat had been intense but not directly burning, the fabric of her dress had burnt into her skin, giving her the scent of smoked bacon. Quivering, she was gasping for air, heaving even. On the parts of her body that hadn't been clothed or otherwise covered, she had several burns. The miscoloring of her skin ranged from dark red, to white, where her skin had suffered the most damage. The fairy was in tears, and she could hardly move anymore. Staggering around, she soon fell to the floor with the tiniest of thuds, as her body wasn't large enough to make a proper impact. It welled up within her. Unbearable emotion that she simply couldn't manage. Then it errupted from her, like some explosion that couldn't be withheld any longer. Crying deeping and heartbreakingly, she was muttering sentences under her breath, rocking from side to side as the pain was too much for her to manage. "A-aah.. I-it hurts s-so much, a-and I don't want it anymore..! M-my b-beautiful wings..! O-oh m-my wings..." At first, the crying and whimpering was one of complete and utter surrender. It was hopelessness, the sound of a being that had been crushed to its center... Then, it slowly shifted into anger. "J-just f-fucking kill me!.. I-if you're going to l-leave me burnt and c-crippled anyway at least don't let me suffer! I-I cou-could've flown out, a-and t-this is how you repay me!?" The girl knew in her heart, that Randy wasn't at fault for what had happened. The woman had really tried her best... The best just wasn't good enough, and choosing to guard her sides over the fairy had cost the tiny being a lot of pain and agony...

How would they proceed from here, when Amy could hardly even move on her own two feet, and the pocket definitely wasn't an option?

[Randy Savage]

"P-please.. L-l-let m-me o-out."

Randy shot straight up. What the hell was that?!...Oh crap, AMY! Tossing open her pocket, Randy felt the meek fairy pull herself out of her pocket and onto the ground. Somehow, in the midst of all the action, spiders, and fire Randy had completely forgotten that she essentially had an entire other person in her pocket. There was a rush of panic into Randy's heart; did she crush her or otherwise hurt her in some way? The answer to that question seemed a resounding 'yes' as she could hear cries and whimpers coming from the fairy. Frustrated at the darkness of the cavern, Randy scrambled around trying to find some sort of light source. She could see Amy as a faint glow on the ground; Randy couldn't make out her shape in any way but it was enough to help Randy be sure she didn't step on the girl.

"Hold on, I need to make a light."

Randy had an idea but she knew part of it would just cause Amy more suffering. Quickly, she pulled the hair tie out of her hair. It was a long stretch of fabric, longer than Randy's arm. She rolled it into a bunch a placed it, as gently as possible, under Amy. It might not make sense to pad her from the ground but it would in a moment. Moving to the other side of the room, Randy got down on her knees. She was far enough away from Amy that the fairy wasn't in any danger, but the room they were in wasn't terribly large by any means. Randy ripped a bit of fabric off of the bottom of both pant legs. The romper was already fairly short but still had some lose fabric. She opened removed one of her leather pouches from her belt. One of them was starting to run low anyway, having used her gunpowder a few times already. Randy dumped the rest of the gunpowder into her palm and then placed the fabric on the top of the pouch. She then placed the gunpowder on the top, trying her best to mingle the last few beads of gunpowder with her last few straps of fabric. Randy raised her fist above her head; for a moment she considered warning Amy or telling her to protect herself, but figured it was ultimately pointless. Punching the ground with a slam, there was a brief flash of light as her metal gauntlet produced sparks against the floor.

This was the reason Randy had at least padded the ground under Amy. The pounding of the gauntlet on the solid stone would sound calamitous to the tiny creature. At least the fabric would cushion the blow a tiny bit. A couple punches more and Randy's sparks managed to catch the gunpowder. There was a short series of small explosions and, to their benefit, the fabric caught fire. Hurriedly, Randy rushed over to the down fairy and pulled the fire close. The flame was about the size of a fist so it produced enough light for Randy to see Amy's entire body. Leaning close, Randy could see the damage done and wounds that Amy had been nursing in the darkness. Randy was taken aback as Amy's yells intensified. The idea of a spritely fairy, rolling around on the ground and cursing would probably be humorous in a different setting. Right now, the dissonance was heartbreaking. Seeing Amy's burns on her body sent Randy's mind into a bit of a flashback. She remembered the burned bodies of her family back home. The carnage of what happens when someone stands to close to an explosion. Stop it. She told herself. It's not the time.

"Amy just...just hold on. I can fix this."

Randy's first action was a simple one. She overturned the pocket that Amy had been snoozing in. Green powder fell into her hand, its faint glow mimicking that of Amy herself. Randy wasn't sure what this powder did but she could tell it was doing something to make her feel more energized. she sprinkled the body over Amy's body. She wasn't sure if it would help but it was worth a shot. Working quickly, Randy moved Amy off of the fabric--gently of course--and spread the fabric along the ground. She quickly pulled open another pouch on her belt and pulled out two medium sized peppers. The peppers themselves were nearly the length of Amy. As Randy worked, she wondered at how serious Amy was about her comments. What if Randy had taken her at her word and squashed her into the dungeon floor? At this point it was clear that Amy had not spent much of her life with any serious damage done to her. Randy had some burns across her legs and torso herself. She could feel their skin. But, she had felt burns before and was capable of ignoring them. Randy kept her voice soft as she spoke.

"Normally, the first thing you have to do is get the heat out of a burn. Unless we find some water or, less likely, ice, that isn't going to happen. Next best thing is to try to stop the pain."

The peppers she had removed from her pouch were a breed of Sezchan pepper. It was actually a pepper she had sought out, and then crossbred specifically for Devlin. The foolish man couldn't handle pepper or spice for the life of him. As a compromise, Randy had started cooking his meals with a bit of this pepper. The thing about this pepper is, unlike others, it wasn't spicy. If you were to smell it, it would be tart like a lime. The juice of the Sezchan pepper, and the entire point, was that it actually numbed your nerve endings and certain pain receptors in the mouth. Randy had used it in the past for minor wound numbing and Devlin swore by its effectiveness. Although, he had developed a new problem of biting his tongue, now that Randy's meals effectively made his entire mouth numb he often had problems keeping track of it. Randy broke open one pepper and spread the juice across the fabric, trying her best to douse it evenly. She then opened the other pepper and poured it over Amy.

"You might think this is going to hurt but I promise it will make you feel better...Now, it might sting a little bit at first but trust me."

She then went to work pulling another pepper from her pouch. This one was a lot less esoteric and recognizable from its shape; the Chili Pepper. The use of this was one a lot of people didn't realize it had. Chili peppers were actually great for pain relief. Especially, in the case of a burn. See, when you got a burn it would serve to frazzle out your nerve endings. Some of your nerves would even shut down, in an attempt to save you from the pain, but the other side of this is that your nerves weren't there to tell your brain when to stop feeling pain either. The trick of the chili pepper is a neurological one more than anything. Whenever you ingested a Chili Pepper, the chemicals in its seeds and juices would pretty much tell your brain that your tongue was on fire. It binds to the signals that your body sends out and makes sure they don't get relieved. What ended up happening is that your body thinks your tongue is on fire and floods your body with its natural pain relievers. It then binds to the tongue of your pain, stopping it from being relieved but also continued to flood your body with attempts at relief. At the end of the day, thinking your tongue was on fire and having a hot mouth was a much better alternative than actually feeling the burns on your body.

"Here, put this in your mouth and try your hardest to swallow. It's going to burn but...it's just your brain thinking it's burning. Try and relax."

What happened next surprised even Randy herself; she took off her gauntlets. Setting them down next to the fire, Randy felt like her hands and forearms felt absolutely freezing. She wasn't used to not having her gloves on. Actually, she literally could not think of the last time she actually had taken her gloves off. This was a sign of exceeding care on Randy's part. The meaning might be lost on Amy in her pain and just generally not knowing a lot about Randy, but it still held significance. Randy reached down to pick Amy up in her hands. Without her gauntlets on, Randy's touch was impressively delicate. Something most people didn't realize was that, in order to be able to wear gloves near constantly, one would have to have impressively dexterous and careful fingers. As close as Amy was to Randy's hands she would probably see the numerous scars and burns on Randy's hands. Her fighting style was brutish, fierce, and dangerous. That was true even before she had her gauntlets. Not only that, but Randy never learned what an oven mitt was until her late teens. Cooking for herself as a young child, combined with the training of the fourth corner of her fighting style had left her with numerous burns and scars up her arms.

"I'm going to wrap you in this fabric. It has more numbing peppers on it so it should make you feel better..."

Randy set Amy down on the fabric and wrapped it around her. She swaddled her tightly, the pressure might sting a bit but it was necessary to make sure her wounds stayed clean. She made a mental note to make sure they cleaned Amy's wounds and changed the bandages as soon as they could. Burns were difficult to take care of but, assuming you did properly, you could usually make a full recovery. Randy hypothesized that with Amy's healing powder she could probably be healed even faster than Randy. Taking a moment to revel in the tenderness she hardly ever got to show, Randy would keep Amy cupped in her hands, hands in her lap, for just a moment. They couldn't afford to wait around forever of course, but Randy figured that with the speed that she ran through the last four or so rooms they could probably take a small break. Not only that but Randy thought they have even gone one a floor or so. It was hard to tell where the tunnel had brought them but Randy swore she felt like she was going 'down.'

Looking down at her lap, Randy couldn't help but be saddened, and a little mad at herself, for the state Amy was in. Randy never was particularly good at protecting other people. That was part of the reason she always had problems fitting into a crew. Though she was a skilled fighter, her skills never included teamwork. She had been told, on more than one occasion even, that she had actually put others' lives in dangerous more often than she helped. Randy shook her head. It wasn't supposed to be like this--it was supposed to be a fun adventure...Maybe if she had behaved a little more seriously this wouldn't have happened. Randy wasn't the kind of person that got sad easily. She almost felt like, at a young age, that one traumatic experience of losing her family had taken all of the sadness out of her. Whenever things like this happened she just felt angry. And mad. Mad at herself for not being as good at protecting people as she needed to be. Some day she would change that. She looked down at the fairy as she writhed in pain, hoping she would feel at least a bit better after Randy's efforts.

"I'm sorry Amy.

[Fluffy Lynx]

Lying completely on her side, Amy wasn't even attempting to get up anymore. For a few moments she had tried to drag herself across the dungeon floor to get herself a little more comfortable. Realising that the pain was something that she couldn't control by finding a cool, moist corner, she had attempted to get her hands underneath her chest and push herself up sitting. Every feeble attempted made her arms shake. Sweat was already pouring off of her body, as it was attempting to do away with the enormous excess of heat that was coursing through her. The added physical strain was only making everything worse. So eventually, while Randy was speaking gibberish, she was just lying there, on the side, sobbing and sweating. Sprawled out across the floor, she wasn't in a condition where she could save herself. Even the powers of the fairy's fruit wasn't going to help much with anything, with how her wings were damaged beyond what she could realistically repair in a short period of time. So any creation of dust was simply out of the question. The girl couldn't in any way shape or form assist herself with recovery, so it had to be done the old fashioned way, with rest and relaxation. Downside being, within this ruin, there wasn't many places where she could be allowed to rest for an extended period of time. The timer would eventually catch up to her, and then the maze would simply end her, killing the fairy. This pain was a strange and overpowering one. It was so taxing on her mind, that the fairy was simply breaking down, giving up, surrendering herself. When Randy was moving Amy onto a cushion of some sort, she wasn't responding much. The fairy felt limb to move, as if she wasn't even caring anymore... It must've felt absolutely terrifying to carry such a tiny being...

When the pounding went off, Amy's body was being shaken against the cushion. It was strange how something so soft, which was intended to protect her from additional harm, could hurt so badly when it came into contact with her burns. Rocking lightly from side to side, it was obvious that she would've been bouncing all over the place if she hadn't been somewhat secured by Randy. Thoughtful, for once. When the flame was being lit, and Amy could feel the heat from it, she was involuntarily moving, attempting to free herself from the cushion and crawl away from the flame. It was physically painful to even be close. Whimpering softly in her situation, soon after Randy was rambling about being able to fix it all. Now that was something Amy had a hard time believing. Throughout this entire dungeon, although they hadn't been together for more than about an hour, Amy had come to learn that all she could count on from Randy's side was handling the physical dangers. Closing her eyes, the fairy wasn't going to be resisting. At this point it wasn't as if Randy could really do anything to her that could make things worse without killing Amy, and getting killed wasn't half as bad as it would be to be left alone within the dungeon, waiting for a spider or something else to wrap her up in silk and eat her like a butterfly. The green dust that was her own creation, was drizzled across her as if to season her for a meal. Even so, Amy wouldn't say that the gesture was a bad one. If anything, this restorative dust of hers might be the only thing that could bring her to her feet before it was too late.

There was a strange explanation of what was meant to be done to burns. If Amy hadn't been in such horrible pains, she would've been capable of being sarcastic. This notion of what it required to cleanse burns was something that even the most under-developed kid would've figured out. It was something that was so engrained in any living species, that it could practically be called an instinct. Amy managed to hold back the snarky comment, not feeling it neccesary to come off as snide in her current position. If Randy was determined to do something to help, then Amy wouldn't be complaining. Afterall, in her world, it was still better than being left there on the dungeon floor to starve. Before Amy knew any better, a thick and sticky liquid was doused over her. It almost felt like some kind of oil, although it was definitely stinging her at first. Groaning a little in pain, her body soon seemed to relax. The dust was gathering in the liquid and wrapping around her like a thick protective layer. The pain receptors were reacting to the chemicals aswell, soon bringing down both her whimpering and groaning, although it still wasn't perfect. Thats when a stranger sensation yet occured, and Amy opened her eyes to look at Randy. The other was attempting to feed her a pepper!

Closing her lips tight and looking away, she wasn't willingly going to eat that thing. Peppers were usually incredibly spicy, and it wasn't something that she was good at managing in general. What worried her more, was that eating something so spicy would cause her to sweat more, and with the burns, she was afraid of getting dehydrated. Hopefully though, they could find some water, but with the last trap being of fire and lava, it was highly likely that any water they found would be trapped, poisoned or worse. After a few moments of squriming to not eat a bite of the chili, Randy managed to convince the fairy to take a big bite. The effects were immediate. Coughing lowly, the fairy's face turned bright red almost immediately, as she was gasping and panting for air again. It was way too spicy for her, to the point where she was actually running her tongue over the palm of her own hand. The sweating quickly followed too, but for the most part, the pain in the remainder of her body had dropped to an absolute minimum. There wasn't anything more that could be done to relieve her of any pain. In that regard, Randy had done relatively well. The crazy behaviour with her trying to manage the spicyness continued, until she heard the clank of metal-gauntlet against the floor....

Those gauntlets that the other woman had been wearing for the entirety of this ordeal had been loosened and placed besides the fire. The tiny, burnt and wounded fairy was lying in the palm of Randy's hand, very reminiscent of a wounded bird that couldn't yet fly away. Looking up at Randy with a confused look, Amy could feel the heartbreaking pain that Randy was feeling. This fact almost froze the tiny fairy in place, as her own crying stopped. Looking straight into Randy's eyes, looking at the burns on her hands, the girl lowered her head. The fairy fruit allowed Amy to feel the emotions of others, especially when they were so close and intimate without the gloves. The cloth was being wrapped around her, almost as if she was a precious gemstone that had to be taken utmost care of. The fairy's hands were gathered at her front, as the cloth was closed around her, almost trapping the fairy in some kind of cocoon. Being held in the hands of Randy, placed into the womans lap, was an extremely strange experience. Amy could not remember the last time that someone had been so tender with her. Nor was it often that she got to be so small, literally held cautiously by someone who was trying their utmost not to harm her any further. It was a strange sense of security, of calmness, warmness. The fairys breathing was calming down, as the light of the torch was flickering within the darkness of the room. Not sure why, a single tear of hope ran down her cheek. It felt suddenly as if everything was going to be okay. As such, the fairy had one little thing that she needed to let Randy know.

"...I'll forgive you.. J-just.. get us out of here in one piece." Being wrapped like within a cocoon with everything that she needed to recuperate, the only thing that she could ask for at this point was a glass of water as to not dehydrate. Everything else was moving forwards splendidly.

[Randy Savage]

”I can get us out. I will get us out. Both of us.”

Randy was mostly a solitary creature. She always tried to fit in with other crews of bounty hunters but rarely did. Her mindset and the way she behaved was not conducive to teamwork. She tried very hard, that much was true, but it never came naturally to her. What always served as a point of particular aggravation was just how hard it was for her to get along with a group. For some reason, something inside of her wanted desperately to belong. But an equally large part seemed to be stifling her. Regardless, Randy was a woman of her word. She meant what she said. Randy’s heart was sympathetic to Amy, but her entire demeanor and tone were angry. There were times where Randy was particularly bad at controlling her anger. That was actually one of her greatest fears in life; losing control of her anger. Losing the loose grip that she managed to keep on the Savage blood in her veins.

Cradling the fairy, Randy could feel every minute motion she made. It was strange for her; having so much feeling and sensation in her hands was not something she was terribly used to. Something deep deep inside made Randy feel like she was weak for relying on the gauntlets so wholeheartedly. In the uppermost parts of her mind though, Randy felt like the gauntlets were a part of her. Were her and her family. Her last link to everything she lost. It seemed like, since then, she hadn’t had the opportunity to not lose something. Sure, fights were easy enough to win but people and relationships seemed to just slip through her fingers. Randy shook her head. It was like exposing her bare hands also exposed bare certain parts of her mind that she did not like to dwell on. Being angry was functional; you could focus it and use it as a tool. Being sad did nothing for anyone.

Thinking for a time, Randy finally thought of somewhere she could put Amy; her cleavage! The idea seemed silly at first, but when given thought it was fairly smart. Right in front of Randy’s heart was probably one of the safest spots on her entire body. That was a vital part that always needs protected, regardless of situation. The only problem may be Amy’s own comfort; Randy had no problem with personal space. Wordlessly, Randy lifted the bundle of fairy up and slid her gently into the top of her romper, right in the middle of her chest. Her bra would easily keep Amy up so she wouldn’t slide helplessly down into Randy’s clothes. The top of the romper was elastic and would do a well enough job of keeping Amy in the shirt. Of course, if Randy went upside down there might be a problem, but she figured that would be avoidable. Shuffling her chest with her arms, Randy stretched and swayed. She wanted to make sure she could move comfortably and that Amy wouldn’t go tumbling out of the top of her shirt. Satisfied, Randy would prepare to move out.

She did all of this wordlessly. Randy’s normally talkative and corny nature was gone, replaced by anger. All of her life she had trained at focusing and using her rage--it was literally in her blood. She restrained herself from talking only because she didn’t like to come off harsh and moody. Sure, some people gave her that reputation anyway because of her penchant for being blunt, but she never felt that way herself and did not want to start now. Red hair danced all around Randy’s body. Free from the length of fabric that held it up, it now flickered and twirled in the air indiscriminately. Despite Randy’s best efforts to keep her rage under control, her hair was always another story. Hues of red quivered in the dim light of the room. It almost appeared to be giving off a light of its own, but that was only a trick of the eyes. With soft steps and rage boiling under the surface, Randy approached the wall opposite the hole they came out of.

Randy’s heart would beat fiercely against her chest. She was never aware of just how hard her heart pounded when she was mad but with Amy leaning against it, the pressure made it obvious. She hoped that, with Amy’s small size, the beating wouldn’t be too much of a nuisance. Once they made their way out into the labyrinth again, they would both probably be too distracted by its perils to notice at all. Before making it to the wall, Randy would reach down and redon her gauntlets. The metal felt cool on her skin, her body heat having left the metal since their siesta on the ground. Tightening them with straps around the hand, wrist, and forearm, Randy flexed her hand and stretched it into a fist a few times. Satisfied with the feeling, Randy moved onto the wall. Running a hand against the cool stone you would never believe a chasm of magma ran over top of this room. Lifting her right hand and giving the wall a few light raps, Randy tried to find their way out.

Knocking on each wall in turn it would seem as though the floor was the most hollow piece of the room. A normal person may have stopped and gave some thought to the situation. Randy’s sense of...well, good sense, was fairly loose normally. Add to the fact that she was brimming with anger and even her normal, light musing went out the window. Raising her arm’s, Randy brought both fists down hard against the stone beneath them. After the first hit there was no give. She considered bulling out her remaining gunpowder and just blowing a hole in the floor. The second punch brought some minor fractures into the stone and finally, with a third smash, the floor caved in dropping the debris, and Randy, into the hollow below. Landing deftly, Randy was glad to find this room was once again illuminated by the natural flora of the dungeon. This new hallway was long, sloping, and marred with intricate carvings along the floor and walls.

*Click*

A noise sounded behind Randy, making her turn back from the long away. Behind her was a gigantic round rock. It was coming loose and it’s weight was starting a slow motion into the tunnel. Randy’s first instinct was to punch. It wasn’t that Randy was an idiot; she just truly believed she could punch the boulder to dust. Her punches were stupendously ineffectual and Randy could tell from the weight of the stone that she wasn’t getting anywhere that way. Throwing her weight into the rock, Randy put her hands up to try to force the rock back into its hole. Her push worked a bit better than her instinct to punch and stopped the rock solid in its tracks. With a grunt, Randy soon relented. This wasn’t working. Guess I’ll have to run from this giant rock. How original. With a sigh, Randy turned and took off down the hallway. The rock was following, slowly at first, but before long was barreling right down on Randy.

It wasn’t until now that Randy realized how smooth and round the halls were. The walls met the ceiling and floor to create an “O” shape instead of a traditional square. This made traveling for the orb rather easy and it was able to pick up speed amazingly fast. Randy sprinted, her breathing easy and her feet carrying her down the hallway with impressive speed. The rounded and smooth floors and walls made it easy to keep speed for her too. As the hallway curve, Randy’s speed caused her to rise up the wall a bit as she banked around turns, the rock following closely behind. Her focus was singular on outrunning the rock.

The chase was coming slowly to a close; up ahead Randy could see a solid wall. A small voice in the back of her mind noticed the wall was littered with small holes. They were all spaced from one another purposefully and formed a solid, almost checkerboard like pattern on the far wall. Drawing closer to the wall, a strange square stuck out on the floor. Randy recognized this as one of the pressure plates and maneuvered around it easily. That mattered little though as the rock, directly behind her, crunched down on the plate and activated the unknown trap. Well, unknown was a misnomer; Randy had a pretty good idea of what the trap would be. As the click of the button sounded down the hallway, arrows launched from the wall at the end of the hallway. They formed a pretty solid wall of pain as they soared through the hall, threatening to peg Randy to the rock as it continued its journey to the end of the hall.

Randy’s mind raced through the options. She could try to smack the ones out of the way that would hurt the most. Or maybe run up the side of the wall and try to dodge them. Both of those were dangerous. In other situations, she would have used her first corner to rapidly smack the arrows away. Unfortunately for her, that was an incredibly difficult feat when running at full speed. Before more solutions came through her mind she remember Amy resting comfortable between her chest. She had to make sure Amy was safe. As the arrows closed the distance, Randy jumped into the air. She tucked her legs and body as tightly as she possibly could and brought her gauntlets up and together, like a shield across the front of her body. Amy would be protected by Randy’s knees and gloves. Pain stung Randy in various places, but she ignored it. Hitting the ground, Randy rolled for a couple feet before pushing her self to the right side from a crouch. She had reached the end of the hall and leapt off into one of the branching paths at its end. It seemed the trap switched also served as some sort of return switch for the gigantic rock; as the boulder hit the wall at the end of the tunnel, the floor dropped out almost immediately. As it disappeared into darkness below, the floor sealed back up and the hallway was silent.

Standing slowly, Randy could feel slight pains all over her body. She assessed herself. Some of the damage was immediately obvious; her right shin and left knee had huge gashes in them. They were bleeding lightly, nothing to be too worried about. Arrows had most likely hit her there directly but were deflected off course by her bones, knocking the arrows away instead of piercing her limbs straight through. There were some small cuts along her sides but she barely felt those. The one that stung the most was the arrow sticking directly through her right upper arm. It missed the bone and was clean through the muscle, in the front and out the back. Reaching up, Randy casually broke off the end of the arrow sticking out of her front, leaving about an inch of wood sticking out of her arm. The arrow itself stuck out about the same amount from the back. She knew it was best to leave the arrow itself in her arm for now; removing it could cause it to bleed more profusely and she didn’t have the time to deal with that. They needed to keep moving.

The hall way they were in was another that split two ways. Technically three, but Randy discounted the way they came. So far they were making decent time--probably because Randy’s solution for the last two traps had been the deft strategy of ’run like hell.’ While not the best idea, it was surely speeding up their progress through the labyrinth. One could argue though, that their need to stop and nurse injuries was slowing them down just as much. Randy did not intend to slow down this time though. She gave one last look down at Amy to make sure she was alright. Randy’s face was harsh and her eyes were fiery. Her hair was going wild above her head, the injuries only enflaming her anger. Still, it was best to make sure Amy was still in a condition to continue moving.