TMD: Round 2: Kitchens

I am once again surrounded by absolutely nothing. White expands as far I can see. I quickly drop to the ground, holding out my hands along the surface, only to find that it's completely solid. I slowly stand back up, letting out a slow sigh.

"Bummer, I guess the Editor learned after last time. Oh well, we'll just have to wait, then."

"Waiting serves no purpose. Let's continue walking, Sir Daniel." Oh look, he stopped calling me wimp. I guess that's a good thing . We continue  walking along a large, flat, emptiness for a while. Finally, I hear  a noise from behind me. It sounds like a car engine, interspersed with some puffs, grunts, and screeches which could only come from somebody driving a stick-shift for the first time. The car looks long, black,  and a bit old.

"What is that ...?"

"It's a form of ... magical transportation from another ... kingdom." I answer,  cutting off Alonzo before he can continue. Alonzo simply nods, obviously wanting to say more but not quite sure what to ask. The car comes up rather quickly, and stops further in front of me. White patches begin to form all over the cover. It soon turns into a kind of ooze that drips down the sides.

Arguing inside the car, which doesn't show any sign of melting yet, are three people. The one in the driver's seat has a quite authentic Irish accent, and looks like a hunter that came straight from a fantasy world. He utters something in a language that sounds like old Gaelic, to which the girl in the passenger's seat to his right replies , "I told you that you shouldn't have messed with the stick-shift so much, Julek."

"It's not my fault, girlie, it stopped working all on its own."

"You know, driving a car auto be easy." The pun comes from a guy in the back seat, causing the girl to groan. The only distinguishable feature on him is a headset that he was wearing.

"You could go out and see if there's a problem with the engine, GP."

"I'll just stay back here, Hayley. You seem to have it all under control." Julek and Hayley continue arguing, but GP doesn't seem that interested and just proceeds to throw out an occasional pun.

For while I just watch them, being rather entertained since they haven't noticed me yet walking in from behind. The car continues to melt, however, and soon a tire is completely gone, causing the car to shake as it crashes down. I then decide to knock on their window, but instead just get covered in the white ooze, which seems to resemble a kind of clay.

"Um...your car's melting. I'd get out of there if I were you." The three of them look at me oddly until I show them that the window's already almost gone. They all simultaneously reach for the door and clamber out as quickly as possible.

Julek seems more interested in the phenomenon than scared, unlike Hayley or GP. He proceeds to poke at the white clay and even tries tasting it, which Haley protests to, saying it might make him sick. He says it doesn't have any flavor. My curiosity is peaked now as well, so I press a small amount against my tongue, and sure enough, it has no taste at all. It doesn't even taste bland; it's just like there wasn't anything there. The only thing I taste is my finger.

"Are you all finished? There are more pressing things at hand than the flavor of your...melting transportation." Alonzo's objection causes me to realize that I haven't properly introduced myself yet.

"My name's Daniel." I extend my hand in greeting, to which Haley slowly grabs. "This is my character, Alon..." I'm interrupted by Alonzo clearing out his throat very clearly. "Sorry...King Alonzo." My head quickly gets slapped in the back by Alonzo's hand. After muttering to myself about watching too much NCIS, I continue. "King Alonzo the...third, His Excellency from the land where  the fairies dwell." Alonzo seems satisfied and nods to them all. Julek is  content to simply stare at him, having quickly run out of interesting things to do with the car ooze, now that it's fully melted.

Hayley introduces herself, GP, and Julek. She carries a distinct giddiness in her voice when talking all about Julek and her novel, although she is careful to be tightlipped about the rest of the plot she has planned. She explains GP's headset; he is currently asleep on Skype, and talking in his sleep to Ahm, a friend. After a round of greetings and a short, yet awkward, silence, I decide to speak up. "Wait, so...you defeated GP last round? Did anything...um...odd happen to him? Like sudden amnesia right when his character died?"

Hayley looks at me as if trying to decide if I'm being serious, joking, or am just crazy. I raise my eyebrow and lean forward a bit, silently asking her to continue. "Uh...no. But I'm not sure if Dan, his character, actually died. Vampires are rather hard to kill. It definitely looked that way, though."

"Hm...so maybe if the character doesn't actually die, the Muse can't steal their creativity." I mutter to myself.

"What was that?"

"I...uh...nothing. It's kind of hard to explain." I lie, trying to avoid telling Hayley that I might steal her mind if I win. "So, you said we actually have a link to the real world through GP's sleep talking? That's rather useful. Has she found out anything about the Muse?"

"Not yet, but we have a theory of ours that she's collecting writers from online, such as DeviantArt for this dream war. Ahm's been helping us research. I'm Mippins on there, by the way.''

I perk up, recognizing the name. "Oh! You did that writing tournament, didn't you?"

She nods, a smile coming to her face. "Yep! I guess we were right about what the Muse is doing."

I ignore her, trying to place the name of Mippins' writing tournament. "It was called...what...um...Blood?"

GP raised his hand. "Ah, that was mine. I hosted it, but it was bloody difficult."

"Ah, right, of course. How could I forget? So Mippins did the one named...um...um...um..." I continue for about a minute. The name feels that it's at the tip of my tongue, but it can't come out, and I eventually sigh in defeat.

"The Exchange." Hayley finished to me.

I nearly jump in the air. "That's it!" I clear my throat, slightly embarrassed at my excitement. "Right, that was a really good setting. It's what got me interested in OCT's to begin with."

Hayley smiles. "Thanks! So...where are we? Some intro ground?" Before she can speak further, the Editor finally comes out of the sky.

The Editor glances around and soon a building begins to form around us. A slick linoleum floor rises out of the ground, with different tables and cabinets beginning  to grow out of them. After about a minute, it becomes abundantly clear that we're inside a huge kitchen.

"This round, you will not be able to use any of your weapons that you brought with you to fight your opponent. You will place them here," the Editor says, pointing to an empty table. After a short silence and a dark stare from the Editor, Alonzo reluctantly sheathes his sword and puts it on the table, along with all his capsules. Afterward, Julek begins a rather long process of putting all his knives and other equipment on the table. After a full minute has passed and he still isn't done, currently being very careful about taking off his bow, I gulp, realizing that a kitchen is the perfect spot for a knife expert. Julek doesn't seem all that phased, and instead seems even more cheerful than ever at this prospect, constantly glancing at everything around him. "And all defensive equipment as well." Alonzo let out an audible grumble and proceeds to put his chainmail shirt and shield on the table as well.

When they're all done, the Editor continues. "Instead, you have 5 minutes to search the kitchen and use whatever is available to you. Then, a bell will sound, and the characters alone must fight to the death." I wince at the last word. I was hoping that we could avoid another death. A sinking feeling fills my whole chest as I realize what will happen to Hayley if I win.

"Begin!" For a moment I just stand there, unsure of what to do. GP quietly slips away to take a look around. Julek begins questioning Hayley about everything, while simultaneously pulling out every knife he can get his hands on. Alonzo head-slaps me again, bringing me back to reality. "Come on, are you still a wimp?"

"Uh...no, not at all." I quickly begin searching the kitchen for the biggest knife I can find, hoping to get one that will work as a sword. We soon find a huge meat cleaver, which Alonzo picks up.

"I suppose this might work. But more importantly, I need a shield." I pause for a moment, thinking.

"Ah! I bet there's some tables for a restaurant nearby." We go through the first door I find, and quickly back out after realizing it's a freezer. The next one proves useful, though, and we find ourselves inside the restaurant. I run to the nearest small round table, and proceed to pick it up, only to find it bolted to the ground.

"Perfect. Just perfect. So much for that. Maybe we can get a cabinet door or something..." I'm about to run back into the kitchen when Alonzo starts hacking away at the table with the meat cleaver. It does a surprisingly good job, and it becomes clear that in a minute or two we will have a new shield to use, albeit slightly small. I guess dream wood isn't anything like real wood...although that means out table might not last a lot of well-placed knife throws. Maybe the Editor intended for this?

I try to make some conversation while Alonzo hacks away. "You know, I'm really glad you're anything but a wimp. Man, if Katie was here with her character Corey, she'd be in trouble." I chuckle  to myself before realizing Alonzo didn't have a clue what I was talking about. "Katie's one of my best friends, you see, and...never mind . I'll go back into the kitchen to look for more stuff."

I skip back into the kitchen and begin looking around, but can't find anything else. Eventually, I just decide to trust Tangled and grab a few frying pans and the biggest knife sharpener I can find. Hayley comes out quickly from around the corner and we almost bump into each other. She quickly moves past me, searching some more cabinets.

"So, is it going well?"

"Oh, heck yes. We're going to completely murder you." She said, wearing an eerily large grin.

"Ah, well that's good. No wait, I mean...bad. Or...wrong. Yeah." I pause, unable to think of a good retort. Thankfully, before I can continue, I hear a loud bell ring. The inside walls and all the cabinets disappear in an instant, along with anything that hadn't been taken out. I breathe a sigh of relief as I see Alonzo ready to fight. He carries the table rather awkwardly, but it seems to work. The real problem, though, is how short the meat cleaver is.  I offer him all that I found, but he shakes his head.

Julek is now completely serious, his previous curiosity and cheerfulness gone. He has a whole pile of knives beside him with more stored all over his body. Alonzo starts to charge at him, but Julek quickly reacts by throwing several knives. The first two are blocked by the table, which breaks up a bit from the impact, but the third was thrown down low and hits Alonzo in the leg. Alonzo does his best to ignore it and closes the distance, taking a swing at Julek.

A terrible thought strikes me that I hadn't realized yet. What if I lose  this round? I'd lose...everything. All my stories, characters...but worse...most of my friendships are based around my writing in some way. What...would I lose them? Katie? Missy? Everyone else? Could I even live like that? Panic begins to set in. I hold my fists as tightly as possible and try to forget, but it doesn't work. The thought of losing my mind gets past any kind of analysis or bright side that my mind typically uses to deal with anything frightening. Of all the things to happen, this is the one idea that could really scare me. Unable to watch the fight, I go to the outside walls, and duck behind a passageway I found, not caring to wonder why it was there.

"What's wrong?" I jump a bit, not noticing Hayley right next to me.

"Shouldn't you be watching Julek? You were awfully happy with him earlier."

"Yeah, well...he's really angry with me right now. His brother died last round and he doesn't want to believe that he's just a character."

"Heh, mine neither. I have the same problem, actually. He seems to be going along with everything fairly well. I just hope he doesn't realize that I'm the reason he had to kill his brother."

"Yikes. Oh, and nice job avoiding the subject, what's wrong?"

"Darn. Fine, I guess I should explain everything to you. You deserve that much." I tell Hayley about everything from last round, and how Intox lost all her writing creativity and memories after her Soldier died.

For a moment, Hayley just stands there, shocked. "Are you serious? You're not just pulling my leg, are you?"

"I'm very serious. Please, you can trust me."

Hayley looks at me skeptically for a bit, and then slowly nods. "Ok...ok I'll trust you on this. We need to figure out how to stop this Muse before one of ... oh man, we need to get our characters to stop fighting! " We both run back out to the open area Julek and Alonzo were fighting in. The floor behind Alonzo is covered in knives, who has long since ditched his shield. Julek holds just two knives, one in each hand, and both are covered in wounds.

"Hold it!"

"Wait, stop fighting! There's something we have to tell you!" They both look at us like we're crazy, but I give my best nod to Alonzo, and Hayley gives her best pleading look that she can to Julek.

"Julek, could you help me get a handle on this situation? I think it's important." I hear GP call out from far away.

"Well this mood looks about as dead as a doornail. Speaking of which, I need you to unlock a door, Julek, I think I found something. I tried to get a handle on how to open it by chatting with Ahm, but I think it's a bit too old for Google." We all turn to face GP who casually walks in, barely giving a note to the battle scene before him. "Hey, don't give me that look, something important might hinge on this." Our characters slowly put down their weapons, and we all follow GP.

"When the walls dropped down for the fight, this appeared." He leads us to an area that looks different from the rest of the kitchen; it looks ancient and was covered in stones. In the center of the far wall stands a door with a complex metal lock on it. Julek glances back at Alonzo to make sure he wasn't going to attack him from behind and then proceeded to examine the lock, a smile beginning to return to his face. I join him, and shortly we open up the door.

Colors start shifting around us and soon we're in the same meadow as before. I instantly recognize the whole place, the pale colors indicating to me that this is another memory. The girl is there, but doesn't seem to notice us at all. She's also a year or two younger.

"I saw something like this earlier. She was upset with the Muse about something, but that was later. This is an earlier memory." I whisper to the group before motioning for silence. We all watch as the Muse comes down from the sky. She looks different from every time I've seen her before. Her face is lit up completely with delight, and she races through the sky to meet the girl.

"You remembered! You actually remembered me!" Her voice holds more happiness than I ever thought possible. It sounds almost like a harp, dancing along.

"Of course, how could I forget you?" The girl asks, as if it were an obvious question.

"Oh, but you don't know how happy this makes me. Almost nobody can control their dreams well enough to meet me unless I reveal myself to them, and then nobody ever remembers me this much. Thank you." She's crying again, but this time it's out of pure joy. "How have you been? Where did you go this weekend?"

"Oh, I went to New York City with my dad again! I'm sorry I didn't get to talk to you, but the beds were really uncomfortable and I kept on waking up."

"Oh, that's fine. But...where was your mom?"

"Oh, she stayed at home. Dad says it's better that way, so they don't argue." The Muse seemed concerned by this, as was I.

"Are your parents ok?"

"Sure! They promised me that they loved me more than anything, and would never separate. I trust them."

Suddenly, a lightning bolt strikes the middle of the field, and the whole meadow collapses. Green swirls into red, and heat begins attacking us. We soon find ourselves in what can only be explained as a giant upside-down oven volcano. Metal bars weave their way through the ground, all leading towards a central pit which fire spews out of.

The source of the lightning came from far above and I see the Editor once again. His face is wrinkled, carrying an expression of disgust. "You think you can crawl into the Muse's past, ignore my rules and get away with it? You will now fight against an army of creatures created from a kitchen. The authors will not get specifically targeted, but can try to fight if they so choose. However, they are not allowed to harm the opposing character. There can only be one victor in the end, but if both characters die, nobody will win. The author's minds will both belong to the Muse." His voice booms across the land, and I wonder just how he expects us to fight off an army.

"Then give us back our weapons!"

"Fine! Now be off!" With a wave of the Editor's hand, all of our characters equipment appears  on the ground, and Julek and Alonzo start  quickly putting it all on.

"What did he mean, take our authors' minds?" I curse under my breath  before I can stop myself. Julek's curiosity wouldn't let something like that just go by. Before I can decide what to say, though, Hayley has already started explaining.

"So, if I lose, Vystrel is in danger?"

"Not just that, all of Alcindor will just cease to exist. Instantly."

Julek nods solemnly, carrying an expression on his face I haven't seen before. It starts to worry me, but then I hear a clicking noise. I turn around, and find it coming from the fire pit. It carries a distinct metal sound, and soon, swarms of creatures come out of it. Some look like spiders, but they are all made out of forks, knives, spoons, and any other small metal instrument you can think of.

"Oh, ick , spiders. Cool, but ick ."

"We will have to fight together if we will survive. After that, we will continue our fight. Here, grab this." Alonzo pulled out one of his healing capsules, and once Julek grabbed hold, Alonzo crushed it. A light pink fog enveloped them both, healing their cuts and bruises.

Julek quickly grabs his bow and  began shooting at the kitchen army. The arrows broke through a whole line of plate before frying pan and hurling straight into a cake.

"You probably want to use the ice sword. The change in temperature should help a lot, not to mention keep us from burning up." I swipe away the sweat already forming on my brow.

"Heheh, afraid of a little heat, wimp?" I give Alonzo a 'not-now' expression. He shrugs, pulling out the ice sword capsule and activating it. Dark blue flames quickly erupt from it, along with a wave of refreshingly cold air.

"And don't be afraid to use you grenades, this looks pretty  tough."

"I know how to fight, wimp."

"Now I thought you would stop calling me that."

"Then fight by my side!" Alonzo clearly looks angry with me, so I quickly close my mouth and back up. The army of pans and pots and blenders continue to approach, and when they are almost at us, Julek puts down his bow, and then hands a knife to Hayley.

"This is for you, girlie. I think I can trust you now, and look forward to meeting my brother again after this is all over."

"No knife for me, I guess?" To my surprise, Alonzo hands me two lightning grenades. He mutters something about an extra pair of hands, and then faces towards the evil army of bottles and boxes and apples and apricots.

Alonzo and Julek get back to back, careful to avoid the hot metal along the ground. Then the kitchen army hits us. The whole oven is a blur of clashing steel and splitting fruit. I try to keep track of everything, but soon realize I can't do anything but kick at the bowls and carrot peelers and trust Alonzo, throwing the grenades I need to. Hayley, on the other hand, is stabbing all the meat and lettuce that she can see, while GP decides to sit down and wait for it all to pass, while casually grabbing a passing evil cookie to eat, despite it trying to squirm its way out of his hand and poke his eyes out with its almonds.

Then, Julek knocks a knife spider out of the way, which happens to fall right on Hayley's back.

"Eek! Get off, get off!" Hayley lets out the first real yelp I've heard from her yet. I quickly grab the spider before it can slice into her body and throw it on the ground. She then proceeds to stomp it flat until it stops moving entirely. "Gosh, what a bad day."

The fight seems to be going hilariously well. GP continues snacking, I keep on kicking, and Hayley continues slashing. Alonzo takes care of all the larger enemies, such as the sink and large pans, with his shield and sword, while Julek hits all the more nimble enemies with his knives, like the ninja fork and slippery soap. Despite Alonzo's ice sword, we all begin sweating from exertion.

Then, a giant blob of yellow mucus that looks like it came straight from a cold medicine commercial rises out of the fire. All the creatures we are fighting leave and gather around him. Then they all walk into him, causing him to begin to grow until he has pieces of metal sticking out from all over him and is about the size that I imagine Goliath was.

"Behold, for I am M, your worst nightmare." His voice is rather small for such a large creature, and I can't help but chuckle in spite of myself.

"We're just getting all fired up!" I notice GP shout out from behind me, obviously annoyed that his apple walked away...somehow. "What, do you not lava my puns? I get punished and punched enough for them!"

"M? What, are you trying to rip off Deathnote or something?" Hayley yells back. "What's your real name?"

"I am...Monosodium glutamate. My friends, cancer and Yellow Dye #5 just call me Mono, though" I gasp. The nerve of him showing up.

"Uh...what's that?" Julek asks, getting his bow ready.

"The worst enemy you have ever seen. He steals health away from nations, spreading disease everywhere he goes. He takes years off of children's life and merely laughs it off."

"Good enough for me!" Julek begins firing his arrows at the yellow beast. They manage to pick off chucks of the mass, but not nearly enough. He begins leaping up from the pit at an astounding speed. I get my lightning grenade ready, having used up one earlier on a giant glob of Mayonnaise that Alonzo couldn't cut through.

Right before Mono lands straight on top of Julek, I throw the grenade up, and somehow manage to hit him straight on. He falls to the side, stunned. Before he can get up, Alonzo begins chopping at Mono, taking off huge chunks which fall motionless to the ground. Mono raises up several arms from his body to attack, but Julek throws his knives, lobbing them off each time. Soon, the ground is covered in evaporating yellow globs.

"We...did it!" I barely manage to say these words before I hear the sickening sound of a knife piercing through skin. In a split second, Julek had thrown a knife straight through Alonzo's throat. Alonzo quickly pulls it out, but collapses on the ground right afterwards.

I feel like my heart has been cut open. I run over to Alonzo, quickly grabbing a healing capsule and fire grenade from his pouch. I activate the capsule and throw the grenade at Julek before I realize what I'm doing.

"Please don't die, Alonzo, please." I realize that my hands are shaking as the pink fog gets sucked into the neck wound.

"I'm not dying that easily." Alonzo stands back up and rushes at Julek. Julek, still recovering from the fire blast, is caught off guard, and gets run through before he can evade.

For a moment I just stand there, not wanting to accept it. Then Hayley pulls a laptop out of her backpack and begins frantically typing everything down that she can.

"I can't forget, I can't! I promised Julek that he'd see his brother again. I can't...I can't...I can't break that promise." Her hands are shaking as she types, and I begin to sense information flooding into my brain. 10, 20, no 30 characters. Even more? 100? There's so much information that the whole process seems to take a while. And Hayley's aware of every second of it.

Some tears appear on Hayley's face, and I notice entire folders in her computer disappear. Soon, the computer itself is gone, and Julek's bow appears on Alonzo's back. "I have to remember, I have to remember. My book, my friends, my story. His name is...is...it starts with a...who's name? What...was...my friends. I can't forget GP. We've done...I can't...I can't...who's GP?" Then Hayley falls silent.

My head feels like I'm experiencing my first migraine. All the information explodes in my head and I feel like I'm about to collapse, and yet at the same time I feel more awake, alive, and in control than I ever have.

"I'm going to edit you out of existence." In all the panic I haven't noticed the Editor come down to watch the ending. But GP has and stands up, pointing straight at the Editor. His voice carries a dangerous tone to it, but the Editor merely smirks in reply. GP holds his hand out, and soon a gun appears in it, only to explode a second later.

"Nice try, GP, but overall pointless. You cannot control the dream. We'll get to you later. But Daniel, you broke the rules. The Authors must not fight. You will be punished."

"I don't care what you say, I'm not doing this anymore!" I should out.

With a wave of his hand, he disappears, along with everything else. Silence fills the room. I find myself alone with GP and Alonzo, surrounded by tall brick walls, and nothing else.

Or rather, alone with him and somebody hunched over, crying in the corner. Not knowing what else to do, I walk over to him.

"Are you ok? What's your name?"

"C-C-Corey." I thought I had been scared before, but now I'm filled with a fear  so great it turns into anger. Before I can react, some  large guards, complete with guns, walk through the wall, pick up Corey, and disappear back through the brick.  The Editor is back, still carrying that gleeful smirk.

"I have trapped Katie within the dream. If you break another rule, I will destroy her mind, along with any other of your friends that I feel fit to bring in. Would you like to see her?" I stood still, not knowing what to say. I feel more angry than I ever have.

"Come and fight us yourself, coward!" Alonzo shouts at the Editor.

"I'll take that as a yes. Here she is."  A door appears in the wall, surrounded by even more guards. Alonzo quickly runs up and swings his sword through one, only for it to pass through completely. We can't do anything. I bite my tongue to avoid cursing out the Editor and walk on through.

Katie is in a cell right beyond the door, sticking her head through the bars and smiling at all the guards. "So this is a pretty boring place. You should get flowers and stuff. Decorate a little. If  you keep me in a nice cell, your deaths will be less painful when my friends and family find you. Oh, hi Daniel! Come to get me out of here? I hope you brought a larger army than that."

"Katie, are you alright? Is that Corey there with you?" I ask, pointing to a shadow in the corner.

"Corey?" Katie turns around, gasping. "Oh my baby!" She runs up to him and gives him a big hug. "You'll be ok, I promise, they can't hurt you." I wish. GP taps my shoulder, and I look over at him. He silently nods at a cell further down. I look into it and see the last thing I expected to see.

Older than I had seen her before, the girl from the Muse's memories is asleep in the cell.