12/12 Instance: The Floor is Lava

[Starfish]

Timeline: Sometime after "To Hell With It".


Melati: "I think they're gaining on us!" Melati yelled as she ducked just in time to prevent the jagged black spear from impaling her skull. "They may be awful shots, but your ass isn't exactly a small target." Sitting on Santo's shoulders, the mutant lizard clung to her rocky friend's neck while looking back at their pursuers.

Melati: "Man, we really pissed them off, didn't we?" Despite the direness of the situation, she couldn't help but flash a toothy grin at the grotesque horde behind them.

Santo: "I'm just glad those little blue devils aren't on their side!" He yelled back while he sprinted, each footfall a loud stomp as his heavy body made its way back to the portal where they came in. Around them though were the little blue devils that helped them escape from the citadel, popping in and out of view with their smoke.

Melati: "Yeah, I'm starting to think these smelly smurfs are equal opportunity thieving pests," Melati said and looked at the demonic looking helmet running in front of them, little blue feet and a forked tail poking out at the bottom. "Then again, who can blame them for not wanting to work for the guys who just want to eat them."

Santo: "How's the thingamajigger? You break it yet?" Santo asked stumbling a bit when a spear hit his leg, before getting back into his running. "I think they chipped a calf."

Melati: "Nah, I got it safely tucked into my... oh fuck!" The gizmo slipped from her claws as Mel pulled it out of her waistband. The weird remote bounced between her flailing hands a couple times, before she managed to snatch it out of the air. " See? Totally fine. Told you it was in good hands with me."

Santo: "Sweet, 'cause I hate to be the one to tell the watchmaker or whatever his name is that we broke it. What's up with the little blue balls?" Santo asked as they neared a group of them waving about their little arms in Santo's path. "No time to play, lil guys!" he yelled and jumped over them. The second his foot touched the ground, it gave way beneath him, with lava splashing out from under. Santo grabbed Mel and threw her to safety as he slid deeper into the red burning ooze.

Melati: The heat licked her bare feet before she slammed into the ground, the doodad sliding from her grip. "Unf!" That was the air escaping her lungs. "Oh damn!" Melati lunged forward, her claws fishing for the fancy phone thing. "Santo! What the hell-" Something made a big splash in the molten rock behind her. "Santo!?"

Santo: "Oh crap oh crap oh crap!" Santo yelled as he tried to crawl and wade and move, but only sank deeper. "Mel!" he called out before his head slipped under the glowing redness, and finally he was gone.

Melati: "Oh shit no..." Melati spun around and reached for her friend. "Santo!" To hell with that guy's bloody phone. "No!" She didn't even know what she was trying to reach in that pool full of molten rock. She only knew that she had to try until the pain become unbearable. Even though her fingers didn't touch the bubbling surface, the heat alone was enough to blacken her scaly skin.

Santo: The heat around him glowed right into his eyes. He could feel the burning, but it wasn't painful. It was just there, all around him, and then felt it seep into him as well. For a moment he was in shock, unable to comprehend what just happened, until something else touched him.

Santo: Just that one sensation of something else than the heat around him pulled him back to reality. He had to get out, and he could feel through the lava. He could feel the edges of where the magma touched and became hard against rock. Slowly he started moving, reaching up, taking control of the molten rock as if it was part of his body.

Melati: Melati didn't expect the lava to reach back, and so she landed with her backside on the hot ground. Staring with her mouth open, she even forgot about the smoke rising up from her tail. She could hear the demon horde in the distance, but her eyes were on the hulking form rising out of the fiery pit.

Santo: Things felt slow for a moment, but the more he rose from the depths, the more he could move. He opened his eyes and immediately saw Mel. She seemed smaller than before, much smaller. He raised his hands and watched in stunned silence at how he glowed, veins of magma breaking through the pieces of hardened rock and dripping down to the pool he was standing in. "Mel... you're hurt."

Melati: It took her one moment to believe what she saw, and another to make her tongue work despite the heat having turned her mouth into an arid desert. "Santo?" Mel coughed. "Is that you?" She looked down at her blistered hands. "No I'm not." That was the moment the spear picked to impale her chest. "Fuck..."

Santo: Santo twisted around, causing the lava to spray from his hand towards the group closest to them, burning the monsters. He could feel the lava he was connected to beneath the ground. He reached out, clenched a fist and pulled up his hand. As the hordes of creatures came for them, geysers of molted rock shot up before and in between them, burning them, before causing a great number of the creatures to fall into the new pools of magma.

Melati: While the demons fell and burned, Melati gripped the spear stuck in her chest with both hands. She grit her teeth and closed her eyes, before yanking the wicked black shaft from her flesh. "Hnngah!" As expected, it hurt even more than it looked. "Just..." She panted. "Just a moment, to catch my breath..."

Santo: After the initial pyromania moment had finished, Santo started feeling a little dizzy and stumbled back, tripping over the edge of the lava pool and landing on his rear next to Melati. He sat still for a moment, still amazed at his new power. "That was... wow." he said, before looking back at his friend again. "Oh... wow, yeah wow, you okay?"

Melati: Melati felt the wound slowly mend itself underneath her hand, leaving her panting for air while she nodded. "It takes more to send to me real hell," she managed to reply. Turning her head, she took in Santo's glowing form and gave him a long look. "Why did you have to scare me like this!? I thought you were gone!"

Santo: "Hey don't blame me! I thought I was gone as well!" He yelled back. "So just to be clear... you sure you're okay?" he asked.

Melati: "For someone who's just been impaled, I'm feeling absolutely peachy," Melati replied, using the spear to pull herself up on her feet again. She looked towards the burning remains of the demonic creatures. The shrieking and roaring of their brethren came from not far behind them. "I'm still not eager to give them another shot, so we better keep moving. "

Santo: "Yeah. Ha! I just realised something. I'm hot and huge. Haha!" Santo laughed. "I hope I don't stay like this all the time though." he added as he started to get up, about to give Mel a helping hand before stopping himself. "Umm... think I might burn you."

Melati: "Yeah, I think I'll wait to shake your hand until you're no longer a walking barbecue." Melati took a deep breath as soon as it didn't feel like tearing her chest apart anymore, then walked past the red hot piece of living rock. "Help me find that remote thing instead. I dropped it somewhere over here."

Santo: Santo didn't much walk or stomp anymore as he moves. It was more of a heavy sliding sizzle each step. He was twice as careful as usual while he tread lightly in search of the thingermajigger. "Can you hear something? It's like a beeping noise. Mel, you're like a feral, right? Don't you have ears of the wolf or something? Come on Bravestarr, use your super powers."

Melati: "Great idea, and that's totally what I'd do if you just shut your vent for one second." Melati waved impatiently at Santo and quickened her pace, her long tail swishing behind her as she hunted for the funny little device. "Just say something if you see any more demons coming."

Santo: Santo stood up straight, towering much higher than he normally would while just rock, and looked around. "Something. A lot of something. Like a frikken army of somethings."

Melati: "How long until all those somethings are here?" Melati asked, before leaping on top a small jagged rock. "Gotcha!" The lizard girl went one hands and knees to reach down and retrieve the phone from the future.

Santo: "Uhm... nowish I would say. Hang on, lemme try that fire and brimstone thing again." Santo reached out and concentrated. A small mound of magma oozed a few feet away. "...yeah, I got no idea how I did that mini armageddon."

Melati: The black spear flew from Melati's hand and burrowed into the belly of a winged abomination, and sent it hurtling down a flaming chasm before it could sink its talons into Santo's back. "I think it's time to listen to an old wisdom," she said and came running back to him. "When you can't beat them, get your ass out of there."

Santo: "Right right, which way to the hole again?" He asked Mel, still trying to force lava to come out of the ground in giant waves, and only getting a plop or two.

Melati: "It should be right this..." Melati bit her lip and stared at one of the tall spires, then at another, and finally a third off the other way. "Wait a second." She turned her head and gave Santo a long, thoughtful look. "I was supposed to remember?"

Santo: "Well yeah! I got a rockhead, remember? Only thing I ever was good at remembering is rock songs and geology." Santo said, then started to move away from the oncoming horde. "Let's just keep going this way."

Melati: Mel stood and looked at the hellish beasts charging towards them. "I think I like your plan," she replied and bolted past Santo. "Hey, don't these caves look familiar? At least we can try to lose them in there."

Santo: "Actually... yeah they do. Wait... we weren't following eachother, we were following the little blue boys!" Santo smaccked his head. "Come on you little dickenseses, where's the exit?!" he called out as they ran towards the caves. Bamf-bamf-bamf went the noise around them and smoke puffed up as the tiny terrors jumped around them and tried to lead them.

Melati: "Move your huge smoldering ass a little faster, unless you want it to meet those ugly bastards and their long sharp sticks." Tucking the gizmo into the hem of her pants, Melati bound on all fours in an attempt to keep up with the teleporting fat smurfs. "Come on, in here!"

Santo: "It ain't easy running while made out of sloshy squishiness!" He yelled back as he followed her. He ducked into the cave and followed the pudgy imps deeper into the darkness until the only light visible was Santo himself.

Melati: Once the horde was no longer to be heard or seen, they slowed their steps to make less noise as they ventured deeper down the winding tunnels. Melati looked back over her shoulder at the walking, glowing rock giant. "Could you try to perhaps... not shine so brightly? I don't know, maybe you could dim it a little?"

Santo: "What you want me to do? Jumping jacks? Want me to take a jog around the cave? I don't know how this works, Mel, it's all new to me." Santo asked grumbling a little. "Am I moody?" he added, "Cause I feel kind of grumpy."

Melati: "I don't know," Melati replied, giving Santo a wary look back. "As the guy who just roasted a small army of demon beasts to smoking cinders, you tell me how moody you feel." She sighed and raised a hand. "Listen, just... try to keep it down, okay. We don't want to get cornered by these things down here."

Santo: Santo just mumbled some more as he kept walking with them. "So, you little monsters, where you taking us?" He asked. One of them turned and cocked its head at the glowing mountain, and just shrugged, before turning back to join his bretheren. "Oh great, they don't even know where we are."

Melati: Melati stopped to look around, taking in the familiar shapes of rock bathed in the hellish light emitted by Santo. "Nah, I think they know exactly where they are," she concluded, pointing a claw at the heap of stolen goods ahead, their cooler box still where they had left it. "It's just that what they were expecting to find isn't here."

Santo: "What you mean?" Santo asked, looking around. "They looking for something else the little devils stole from us?" he asked. It took a moment to sink in to his magma thick head. "The hole. Well no wonder the place is so damned dark, the hole's not making that creepy lightshow. Where's the hole?"

Melati: "I have no idea, but obviously not here!" Melati paced around the pile of loot stolen from the school, joined by equally distraught little blue devils teleporting around in confusion. "Something tells me it was not supposed to do this."

Santo: "Great. Great! We're stuck in fucking hell!" Santo yelled, his body giving a bit more glowiness off than usual. "Where's that asshole in the suit? Hey Timekeeper! Timewatcher! Timethinger! Where are you!"

Melati: "No, no that's not right." Mel said and turned back to Santo. "No, we're not just stuck in fucking hell. We're stuck in fucking hell with an entire demon army after our skin! Well, my skin, anyway. Who knows what they'll do with you."

Santo: "Probably dip me in water and hope to make a fucking fantastic statue." Santo grumbled some more. "Now what?" he asked. "And what's with that gizmo's beeping? it's been getting worse since we got it."

Melati: "How am I supposed to know?" Melati pulled the blinking device from her belt and gave it a couple good nudges with her hand. "Maybe I broke it, or it's just annoyed about me touching it. Hey, did it do that before?" The random flashes of light seemed to form what looked like patterns and symbols of an unintelligible language.

Santo: "Don't think so. Give it a couple more whacks, maybe you're doing something right." Santo watched mel tap and press the blinky thing several times until it actually started making a whole different sound altogether. "That good or bad?"

Melati: "Does it matter?" Melati asked while fidgeting with the weird device. "I mean, there's a whole army of monsters after us, how much worse can it get?" At the limits of her patience, the lizard girl gave the funny remote a firm swat. The alien symbols stopped moving, shining brightly for one moment, and the cave walls around them began to bend and distort.

Melati: "Santo? What did I do?" A moment later she realized it wasn't the walls that looked distorted, but reality around them itself. "Did I break the world?"

Santo: "Uhhh... yes." Santo said, before adding, "But I think it's a good break, cause we got company." He said, pointing towards the tunnel they came in. "Quick, slap that thing again!" he yelled when the monsters started pouring through the tunnel into the cave.

Melati: Melati spun around and growled when she saw the nightmarish creatures pouring out of the tunnels and into the cavern. She looked down at the strange device in her hand. A single light flashed in its center and urged to be pushed. "Oh to hell with it, what do we have to lose..."

Melati: Her clawed thumbed pressed down on the bright light, and the whole world came collapsing down on them.