Give Me a Sword and a Thousand Words: [Battle Triocast] Portal Posi - "Decoy"

9. With a wild snap of its jaws, Posi’s mech snaps up Martus! Posi tears open a portal behind the mech and vanishes with the Paperverse’s favorite concierge in tow. Draw or write about your character rescuing Martus. (Thanks to Bordayus for the idea!)

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The smack of fronds and leaves. Vines and branches whipping at his mask and arms, slowing his fall but increasing the chances of getting snagged or snared. 

Which was what ended up happening, as he found himself not smashed to bits on the ground, but dangling about five feet from the damp forest floor, entangled in vegetation.

“Need a hand, Scappy?” Lusabeth’s face filled his upside-down field of view, a glint of overeagerness in her eyes. 

Scap looked at the flame in her hands and immediately flinched away. “If your idea was to burn these, you’re going to set me on fire, and then the rest of Aridin. I can untangle myself, thank you.”

“Fine, do it the boring slow w-”

An instant later, Scap was on the ground, vine-free and only a little dusty. Lusabeth’s mouth was still open. “The boring fast way, then.”

“Time is of the essence,” Scap reminded her. “We were lucky to catch Posi slipping through that last portal.”

“That was because I gave you two a shove in the right direction.” The third member of the party stepped out of the bushes, looking a little scuffed but otherwise unscathed in her pink armor. 

Lusabeth’s eyebrows lowered. “Oh, she came through with us too.”

“You wouldn’t even be here without me!” Kaytlyn pointed out.

“What’s a little fox kit playing dress-up going to help us with?” Lusabeth taunted, playing with a little wisp of fire in her fingers.

Kaytlyn gasped indignantly. “F3NN3C P1NK does more than you could ever dream of, hoodie girl. You wanna see my flamethrowers?”

Scap stepped between the two with his hands raised. “Okayyy. No fires. Stop arguing. You can have a showdown later, but I really would like to get my talisman back as soon as possible.” 

Lusabeth crossed her arms and turned away, but not before sticking her tongue out at Kaytlyn. The fennec girl activated her wrist blasters and fired a stream of water in response, soaking Lusabeth and catching Scap in the splash radius.

“THAT’S IT, LET ME–”

“YOU WERE THE ONE WHO STARTED–”

Scap waved his arm in a sharp motion, like a conductor cutting off an orchestra. The breath briefly snatched from their lungs, both squabbling rivals fell silent, finally taking the masked boy seriously.

“Lusabeth. Can you pick up Posi’s trail? And Kaytlyn, could you make sure we’re not being watched or tailed by anyone?” Scap hoped delegating tasks would at the very least keep them from ruffling each other’s feathers. It might be a stretch to consider it teamwork though. 

“And what are you going to do, Scappy?”

“Make sure the two of you don’t burn down the whole forest.” 

Lusabeth smirked. “Yeah, I guess that’s important. You got anything from that snake lady I can track?”

Kaytlyn tossed her a little chunk of scrap metal. “Plenty of it. She nearly trampled the Guild and left a mess behind. Martus didn’t come down from his office either. You’d think he would be more bothered by the giant snake that almost crushed the Inn.”

As she held the piece of scrap metal before her eyes, Lusabeth’s irises glowed a light purple, reminding Scap of the first time he’d seen her use the All-Seeing Eyes ability. (Tracking him, of all people, but he supposed he deserved it after that bandage incident.)

“She’s thataway,” Lusabeth announced, standing straight up and pointing down a barely-visible path through the foliage. 

Upon more attentive inspection, the leaves showed signs of being trodden-upon and disturbed, but nothing so destructive and noticeable as a giant snake mech could’ve plowed through there.

Despite the cloud of doubt that hovered around him, Scap nodded. “It’s our best lead so far. Lead the way.”

The red-haired demon girl grinned triumphantly as she brushed past Kaytlyn to take the front position. The blasters on F3NN3C P1NK’s armor whirred threateningly, and Scap noticed that Lusabeth moved just a bit faster to distance herself from the fox.

Ten minutes of staggering over roots and ducking under branches led to an increasingly clear path of debris. If Posi’s mech had come through via portal, it looked like it had fallen at some strange angle that barely scraped some parts of the forest, but likely made a crater in some unfortunate clearing.

Lusabeth stopped abruptly, causing Scap to nearly trip over his feet. F3NN3C P1NK bumped into him from behind, upsetting his balance anyways, and the three of them tumbled into a heap. 

Scap released himself from the pile by slipping into the Deep Currents, shushing the two girls before they could start making noise. Just ahead of them was a large wall of twisted, curved metal, like the husk of a ship.

Or the shed skin of a snake, Scap thought. “I’m going to scout ahead.” Anticipation made him restless, and he itched to get his talisman back.

“Hey, we’re coming with you,” Kaytlyn whispered fiercely. “You’re the one who asked for eyes and ears.”

“Yeah, what she said.” Lusabeth jerked her head at Kaytlyn. “I can’t believe I’m agreeing with her.”

Two against one. “Fine, but be quiet. Don’t do anything reckless. We don’t want to scare her away.”

To minimize the sounds of approaching footsteps, Scap whisked himself through the Deep Currents at intervals, checking back once in a while to see if the girls were following. Kaytlyn made a signal that he interpreted as ‘I’m going around the other way’, and he gave her a thumbs up. Lusabeth stuck nearby, moving quite stealthily and swiftly to keep up with him.

They approached the opening of the metal husk. A figure in long, trailing purple robes stood completely still in the middle of the rubble, facing away and unaware of this ambush. This was their chance! Scap glanced at Lusabeth, and she flared up her fire with a grin. “Let’s take down this snake.”

“Gotcha.” Scap reached for the hilt of his short dagger.

Counting down… three… two… one… whoosh~

CLANG!

He didn’t know what hit him when he rematerialized. Stunned, he fell onto his back, reaching under his mask to rub his forehead. When his vision stopped swirling, he noticed F3NN3C P1NK standing over him. Betrayal? “Hey, what-”

“What happened to not being reckless, huh?” Kaytlyn scolded. “You almost skewered and barbecued our Guild Master!”

Scap looked up at the purple-robed figure. It was Martus. The elf had on a hooded robe like one Posi wore, and he was tied to a chair. Posi had used him as a decoy. “I-I am so sorry, sir.”

Lusabeth thankfully hadn’t been as fast as Scap and was still standing where he’d left her, hiding her flaming hands behind her back with an innocent smile. “

Martus shook his head breezily. “Oh, don’t worry about it, nothing bad happened! Luckily our Guild Intern here spotted me from the other side.”

Kaytlyn’s tail was wagging from side to side happily, and Scap could just see her beaming behind those ruby-red lenses. “We came to rescue you!”

“Did you? I was beginning to wonder if I’d have to sit here for days. I didn’t think anyone noticed Posi’s mech snatching me up from my office. This robe is awfully stuffy in the Aridin humidity as well, which was why I may have been napping when you three popped up.”

Scap opened his mouth, about to correct Kaytlyn, but he decided this was one of those times where it was better not to. He stood up and started working on the knots. “Why would Posi leave you here as a decoy, I wonder?”

“Good question.” Martus smiled. “I haven’t the faintest idea. She mentioned something about heading back to her lab, however. If you’re heading that way after this, do you mind dropping me back off at the Inn first? I must call someone to repair that hole in the roof.”

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1309 words

Thank you to penguinparty (Kaytlyn) and Ando (Lusabeth) for letting me triocast with your kiddos! ^v^