Of Riddles, Mazes and Octi...

[snarkypotions]

Characters: kill_joo_ded , snarkypotions, hardcorecute, magicxmarker, capuletguarddog, callinblueskies, checkmychainyo & coraltaijiya
When: Two hours after this
Where: Random location [x,y] & Hex's Maze and Lair
Rating: PG
Summary: Bubbles and her friends set out to rescue Octi from the evil clutches of Messieurs Bad Guys.

Comments

Place: Hex's Tower. Rescuing Octi!

[snarkypotions]

Having finally made it through the maze and climbed the tower, the heroes found themselves in the room that Octi was held captive in. The ropes were gone though, and the octopus seemed perfectly fine, but none of them would be able to draw close until...

Ah yes, a contract. Written in crayon. For every person in the room to sign.

I, ____________, do hereby agree that I had fun.

x_____________________

Perfectly harmless, right? Oh, and Bubbles, the crayon's yours to keep.

Rescuing Octi! <3

[hardcorecute]

"Octi!!!" Bubbles cried out happily upon seeing her best friend, safe and sound. "It's Octi! Look, everybody! Octi!!!"

But when she tried to approach... "Why can't I get Octi?? We got to the end and everything!! Why can't I have him now??"

Details, after all, were not something Bubbles was too keen on noticing. The contract had completely escaped her attention.

[checkmychainyo]

Kurapica fell into a run to catch up with Bubbles as they neared Octi in the last room. He stopped short when Bubbles couldn't reach her friend. Don't tell him there's more puzzles and riddles to solve, just to get to Octi?

That's when Kurapica noticed the contract close by. Once he read it, his eyes narrowed. "'Agree that I had fun'?" he repeated. "All of this was just a game?"

[magicxmarker]

Hanna kind of stares at the paper a minute and frowns. After all the magical paper that was down there, this might be a trap, but he just shrugs, signing his name.

"What ever, as long as we get Octi back, mister Nose can't do anything more to us"."

[coraltaijiya]

Sango had been looking at the sheet warily (it absolutely reeked of something missing), but...

"Mister Nose?" She blinked at Hanna incredulously. She didn't exactly keep up with Snape's nicknames. She'd rather fight him with blows.

[capuletguarddog]

Tybalt glared suspiciously at the paper and tried to move towards the chair that held Octi. He snarled when he ran into the same force that had stopped Bubbles.

"Fun? Oh I had 'fun' alright. I'd have even more 'fun' if the coward who put this little song and dance would actually show himself instead of hiding behind witchcraft and children's games"

[hardcorecute]

Bubbles watched all of this. Fun? Well, actually...

She thought about it as hard as she could. The puzzle had been hard, but it had been nice to see everyone work together. The riddle had been lots of fun and people even complimented her sleeping! The maze was a bit scary, but they'd all made it through okay. Why, the only UNfun part was when Octi got stolen, but since she was about to get him back (she hoped), she supposed she could overlook that part for now.

"I had fun!" she announced abruptly.

And so she floated up to the pedestal, took the crayon and signed her name on the line as best she could.

[checkmychainyo]

At Bubbles's announcement, Kurapica started in surprise and side-stepped out of the way for Bubbles. Like most of the other people involved in the rescue, he was annoyed at the contract and the idea that all of this was simply a game for them to enjoy. But now that he thought about it, too...

...Well, this venture did break the monotony of Adstring, and having the chance to focus on simple puzzles did distract from other pressures. Besides, if the mastermind was serious, they wouldn't have kidnapped a stuffed animal.

"I see," Kurapica said. He stepped forward and signed his name with the crayon, as well.

[coraltaijiya]

Sango sighed and signed her name noncommittally. This was something so small that she could overlook the minor lie, if it got Octi back and made Bubbles happy again.

She would have fun--when she got her hands on that scumbag. Which, coincidentally, might be her next sparring session with Snape a day or two from now...

[kill_joo_ded]

"Oh, I wouldn't say I was hiding behind them. You guys just weren't looking for me very hard." Out of the shadows directly behind Tybalt stepped not Severus Snape but someone who looked no older than twelve and who was rather infamous around Adstring for playing games with people.

Killua Zoldyck grinned innocently at his audience, prepared to gauge their reactions and act from there. It would seem, even to Kurapica himself, that Killua had simply appeared out of nowhere thanks to a combination of assassination arts and zetsu to erase his presence.

[checkmychainyo]

The voice completely surprised him, but no sooner did it ring out from the room did Kurapica recognize it as belonging to Killua. Sure enough, as he turned around, he saw Killua standing directly behind Tybalt.

"Killua?"

...And it made a lot of sense, now that he thought about it - though knowing Killua's abilities, he wasn't the only mastermind behind this game. Kurapica gave a sigh. "Somehow, I'm not surprised..."

[capuletguarddog]

Tybalt spun at the sound of the voice, drawing his knife in a smooth, practiced motion.

"Oh I would very much call it hiding behind," he snarled. "Because only a craven dirt-sucker would think holding a child's toy hostage is some sort of game."

[coraltaijiya]

Sango spun as well, reaction similar to Tybalt's--half unslinging Hiraikotsu from her back. Seeing Killua, her expression hardens. This only cements her impression of him as an irredeemable asshole.

"Did you do all this yourself?"

[magicxmarker]

Hanna's kind of surprised, though maybe this guy was one of the people Bubbles had told him about, except with a nickname. It made sense, and regardless, he was still positive it was him. This stuff was magic, and he wasn't too sure about this guy knowing how to rig up all this stuff.

"Where's Snape? He's involved isn't he?"

[kill_joo_ded]

"You seriously think that stick-in-the-mud would come out here and do all this for a toy? Man, have you talked to the guy? Sure, I got some help, but if that's who you were expecting, that's pretty damn funny." He chuckled at that, perhaps laying it on a bit thick. But the bad guy was supposed to gloat. He could only hope Bubbles would appreciate it.

Taking a few steps in a semi-circle, he looked each of them up and down and then promptly waved at Kurapica, still smiling and clearly enjoying himself. "Yo. How am I doing so far? I think I've got it down, all except for..."

He trailed off, letting his gaze ride from his friend to Tybalt to Tybalt's knife. "You should probably put that away. Though if you really want to up the stakes, that could be fun too."

[checkmychainyo]

Obviously Killua was treating this like a game, though as far as Kurapica could tell, the other participants didn't like the sense of loss Bubbles experienced at Octi's M.I.A. - even if it was only temporary.

Killua was making a lot of enemies like this, and even as Pica was confident in Killua's abilities, Pica didn't know the abilities of everyone else, either. He only thought it fair to give a warning. "Killua, I doubt the people that came to help Bubbles know you like I do. I wouldn't push the situation so far."