THE MOMENT
"It's different..," Crystal shook her head as soon as the trio of friends stepped out of the portal. They stood on a lone dirt path that cut through a forest of deep red pine trees. The teen with double-plaited, golden-blonde hair flicked her wrist up at about waist height to summon her Slate. A large, grey, translucent pane of glass appeared in front of her and she nodded. "This is the right server...but the trees were green last time I was here...," she said. "Actually, I think they were different trees altogether... I might have brought us to the wrong side of the planet..," her shoulders slumped with disappointment.
"Hold on..," Surge summoned his own Slate and stared at the server information. Then, he chuckled. "You need to pay more attention to the server info," he said. "There's an event happening; it just started but apparently this forest is a major quest point. It's going to be crawling with players soon, they need to come here and break the curse. You might want to make it fast, whatever you wanted to show us."
"Yeah, why all the secrecy?" Alis asked when Crystal led them forward again. Crystal had asked to meet both of them for an afternoon and it took a little time to sync up their schedules. In the meantime, she refused to comment on what she wanted to show them.
"Because it's a secret...," Crystal answered. "...a secret I'm not supposed to know about."
"And... you want to share it with more people...?" Alis asked.
"I know it sounds bad, but you'll understand. Trust me!"
"We trust you," Surge chuckled. "She's just giving you a hard time. How did you find out this secret you're not supposed to know?"
"I was here doing a druid quest and I saw and heard things..," she said. She led them to a thick wall of red pine trees where the path seemed to end. Then, she summoned her Slate again. She honestly had no idea what she was doing, but she hoped there would be a way. The last time she was there someone used their Slate on that exact spot and the forest opened. She looked down and saw a discreet '#57' in the top right-hand corner of the Slate and she jumped with glee. It was tiny and if she wasn't looking for it she would never have noticed it. She reached forward and pressed the number.
The row of red trees disintegrated as she expected. The last time she was there, the disappearing trees revealed a smooth white surface just behind them. This time, she grinned when she spotted the same white glow as before. She wasn't prepared when a giant, house-sized white spider emerged from the clearing; none of them were. It scurried forward at them as soon as the trees were gone.
"I got it," Surge stepped forward and the other two let him. Out of the three of them, he was the strongest. Surge braced himself and faced down the spider's eight glowing red eyes as it charged at him. He heard a chittering sound that almost sounded like laughing once it got close enough; but, it moved faster than he expected.
Surge planned to catch one of its legs and missed. The giant spider pierced Surge's shoulder with its leg coming out of his back. He screamed.
"SURGE!" Alis immediately aimed her palms at the Spider; the red scissor logo against its white bulbous abdomen made for an easy target. She fired twin streams of blue star plasma at the spider and nothing happened. The stellar fluid fell to the ground and melted earth easier than the spider. Surge grunted and strained as he tried to pull the spider's leg out of him but the spider was stronger.
"ALIS!" Crystal panicked and pointed at Alis' legs. They were covered with hundreds of tiny white spiders that were crawling up her body. She looked down to check her own feet and saw she was still clear. Crystal ran down her list of spells in her mind as she tried to think of a way to help them. She decided on trying to wrap the giant spider up with vines somehow. She prepared to cast her spell, but then the floor fell out from beneath her.
After a sudden wave of dizziness, she found herself hanging upside down from a tree staring at a teenage girl with a black visor over her eyes.
"YOU HAVE TO HELP MY FRIENDS!" Crystal begged once she recognized Abby.
"You mean the friends that wouldn't have been there if you didn't want to share a secret that isn't yours to share?" Abby smirked. She stood in front of Crystal with her arms crossed while the blonde teen swayed upside down.
"I'm sorry!" Crystal was worried for her friends. She knew they could take care of themselves, but that spider was at the very least on their level. However, she suddenly had a new concern growing in the back of her mind. "Wait... why did you save me?" Crystal became aware that she was alone in the forest with, and at the mercy of a known killer.
"'Cause you're my friend!" Abby grinned. At her words, Crystal fell to the ground and she felt free to move.
"No...I'm NOT your friend! Get it through your head!" Crystal shook her head as she stood up and pulled stray webbing off her body. She didn't know where she was but she prepared a black Traverse card in the hopes that she could find her way back to Surge and Alis.
"Yeah.. that's probably a good thing...," Abby nodded with a smirk. Crystal sensed that she was off guard and she moved fast. She tossed the card on the ground and jumped into it as soon as the portal opened. Abby didn't move to try and stop her. Crystal heard Abby finishing her thought as she sank through the portal. "... you tend to get your friends killed."