#they literally said nuh uh we are not going to the dungeon we are BREATHING AIR

[ujunxverse]

i said no more kpop gotcha i lied i'm a zerose now

[bluezey]

Inside Onward - The Gauntlet

We’re getting into the part of the story I couldn’t wait to write.  Just like you all (I hope) I was excited to get to this part.  So, of course it took me forever to get to it.  But, here we are!  And, if I did this right, buckle up.

Ian took up his staff, Barley took the leash, and both cautiously stepped into the grand doorway into the dungeon.  Dad blindly followed along, being led by the leash.

Things were quiet. Too quiet.  So quiet you can almost hear the particles shifting within the emotions’ bodies.  Fear watched as the walls around Ian and Barley seem to grow closer and closer. The grand archway they walked under led into a tightly cramped, dark corridor.  The only thing lighting the way is the torch Barley was holding, and the faint, ominous glow coming from the barred holes lining the base of the walls. The arched gaps seemed to be the only generous thing in the threatening hall made of stone, releasing into the darkness a faint blue aura, as well as the faint sound of stilled water.  The emotions glanced around cautiously as the age, decay and debris of the dungeon, Disgust giving a cringe when he spotted a beetle crawling over a skeleton and into the skull’s eye socket.

Distracting his anxieties with something, Fear looked down at his watch, just as Ian looked down at his watch.  Less than two hours left.

“The Phoenix Gem is just on the other side,” Barley whispered.  “Careful, there could be booby traps.”

Fear shivered. “Booby… traps?”

“This place is over a thousand years old,” Ian whispered back, glancing around the dark, confined corridor.  “There’s no way there could be-“

SLAM!!

A loud noise shuttered through the hall as a large blade shot horizontally through the dungeon. It thankfully avoided the brothers, who were on opposite sides following the stone walls, but it knocked the top half of Dad’s disguise clean off, leaving him a pair of legs standing on an activated cobblestone on the floor.  The brothers gasped, followed by the emotions.

And with a small puff of air, the torch was snuffed out.

Fear panicked.  “What do we do?  What do we do?  We can’t see!”

“We see that, Fear,” Anger snapped.  “The lights are still on in Headquarters.”

“But there’s no light in the catacomb,” Sadness sighed.  “How are we gonna get Ian and Barley through?”

Joy’s face lit up as something in the ceiling caught her attention.  “Oh look, there’s some light,” she said as she pointed to the green light ominously filtering into the dungeon.

The brothers looked up as the trap door in the ceiling gradually opened, slowly revealing the glowing green being.  Ian was unsure of what it was, but his face and the emotions face slowly fell as they caught sight of the fear taking over Barley.

“Oh no,” Barley gasped. “It can’t be…”

The trap door fully opened, releasing the giant green cube.  The cube plopped down onto the stone floor, with a gushy thump that caused Disgust to reel back and gag.

“A gelatinous cube!!” Barley shrieked with fright.

“They’re real??” the emotions yelped in unison.

Still frozen in place in both shock and confusion, Ian caught the cube slowly shift towards them. The top half of Dad’s disguise was sucked into the gelatinous square blob, and immediately dissolved into nothingness, with a fierce, hungered fizzle.  The emotions stepped back in horror.  “It ate Dad!!” four of them exclaimed as Disgust ran off to wretch.

Barley looked up as he heard a groan of stone scraping against stone.  Far ahead at the end of the corridor, a stone slab began to slowly close from the ceiling downward.  “Run!!” Barley shouted.

“No crap!” Anger shouted.

“Wait!” Fear said, stopping Disgust as he raced back to grab the controls.

“Wait!” Ian stopped Barley by blocking him with his staff.  “It’s a puzzle!” Ian explained, looking down at the cobblestone floor, each one with a different, mysterious symbol.  “We have to figure it out or-“

Barley interrupted. “No time!  Grab a shield!”

“What shield?” Disgust saw Barley pick up an old shield off the floor, plucked from an old skeleton. “Nuh uh, no way!” Disgust protested, about to throw up again.

“We have no choice!” Fear grabbed the controls.

Ian grabbed a shield off the ground, an arm of a skeleton coming along with it.  “Ew ew ew ew,” Disgust gagged, pressing some buttons, causing Ian to close his eyes and clench in disgust as he brushed the arm off the handle of the shield.

The brothers held the shields at their sides towards the walls, with their Dad huddled between them. They picked up their dad by the belt and, with one adrenaline filled scream, raced down the corridor.  With every step, traps were sprung.  Arrows and spears were flying from left to right, right to left, blades came falling from the ceiling, missing the three of them by mere inches.  It was pure utter chaos!

“I got ya!  I got ya!” Joy exclaimed, helping at the controls as he saw Fear falling apart at the seams.  Losing control, Fear stepped back, being replaced by Anger as Fear placed his hands under his arms and gasped for breath.

“That’s the most frightening thing Ian’s ever done,” Fear gasped.

And it wasn’t over yet.

The brothers stopped sharply at a pit, causing Barley to drop his shield and watch it skewer onto the spikes below.  Fear watched as Ian looked up, the stone door ahead halfway closed, and closing teasingly slower.  The pit between them and the door was too far to jump, but maybe…

Fear ran to the shelves, grabbed an idea bulb, ran back and shoved it into the idea bulb holder on the console.

Ian grabbed his staff and looked towards his brother.  “Jump!”

Barley was shocked at such an order.  “What?”

“What?” the emotions asked, staring wide eyed at Fear, taking his place at the console.

“Trust me!” Ian told Barley.

With a second guessing glance, Barley took a few steps back, then gave a running jump into the air.  He gave a loud shout as he started to fall into the pit.  

Acting fast, Ian aimed his staff downward towards Barley.  “Aloft elevar!”

Barley felt himself halt in midair, causing him to peek from under his forearms, and see himself floating in midair, enveloped in a magical aura.  Barley gave a laugh, realizing Ian just saved his life, and got them a way across the pit!

“Wow,” Disgust gasped.

“Way to go Fear!” Joy cheered.

Anger chuckled as he watched Ian lead his Dad over the pit, using Barley like a bridge.  “Heh, nice,” he commented, watching Ian unknowingly place his foot against Barley’s cheek for a second.

Just as he made it over the pit, Ian tripped and fell.  Dad flopped onto the floor and, more importantly, Ian lost grip of his staff. Fear shrieked.  “We need that!” he exclaimed, as Ian reached for the staff just inches in front of him.

“Ian?” Barley called out, watching as the gelatinous cube was looming over him as it crept inches closer towards the pit.

Ian climbed to his feet as fast as he could, then turned and held the staff upward, pulling Barley out of the pit and out of the impending doom of the gelatinous cube.

The emotions cheered for a brief second, followed by surprised screams as Barley was literally thrown onto Ian, causing the two to be thrown through the doorway.  Just as Ian and Barley sat up, they caught sight of the door just less than a foot from the floor.  It was too close for the brothers to make it through, but just enough to reach through and grab the leash on the other side.

“No!!” Fear shouted as all the emotions scrambled for one of the levers on the console and pulled back. Ian reached through the gradually closing opening, grabbed the leash and pulled back with all his might, with Barley grabbing the rope of the leash and pulling as well.  With their combined efforts, the brothers dragged their Dad through the doorway, mere seconds before it closed with an echoing thud.

The emotions sighed in relief and gradually peeled themselves off the console.  Ian and Barley eventually stood and looked around, finding themselves in a small circular room with a tall ceiling.  The emotions watched the screen as Ian looked up. “Wow, that’s really tall,” Joy commented aloud.

Fear gave a shriek as he caught sight of Barley gripping Ian by the shoulders before he could step forward. “Woah woah woah, don’t step on that,” Barley warned, motioning towards the cobblestone plate planted in the ground.

“We gotta be more careful,” Fear sighed, reeling back Ian’s leg.

“Hey, you weren’t looking down either,” Anger argued.

Before the emotions could continue, the room echoed with a loud thud, followed by an ominous sound of rushing water.  Seconds later, water began to pour in through the thin cracks between the stone floor sand the rocky walls.  Just as the waters reached their feet, Ian and Barley knew the waters were beginning to rise, and fast.

“I didn’t touch it!” Ian exclaimed, grasping his staff as Barley grabbed Dad and hoisted the sentient legs onto his shoulders.

“I didn’t touch it!” Fear exclaimed to the others, lost in his panic.  “You all saw me not touch it!  Did any of you guys touch it?”

“No one touched it, Fear!” Disgust snapped, shutting Fear up.

“Oh no,” Sadness gasped. “The water’s so cold.”

“It’s gonna ruin our hair!” Disgust gasped dramatically.

“That’s your concern?” Anger snapped at the others.  “We’re all gonna drown!”

Joy was still distracted by the tall ceiling, finally making out the etching above them.  “Oh!  I got it! It’s a sun!”

“Huh?” Fear and the other emotions looked at the screen, noticing the engraving.  Realizing that the water is taking them upwards, Fear thought aloud.  “Maybe that’s the exit!”

“Let me try something!” Joy pressed a few buttons.

Ian tried to focus through the rising cold water as he aimed his staff upwards.  “Voltar thundasir.”  The staff released a small bolt that just flickered and fizzled mere feet above them.

“Of course that didn’t work,” Anger grumbled.

“I don’t see you coming up with bright ideas,” Disgust argued back.

“Like what?” Anger snapped. “Like that ceiling will open up if we DID step on the booby trap?”

Fear paused and thought a moment, eyeing the engraved sun in the ceiling.  Quickly, he pressed a few buttons, and Ian held his breath and ducked his head underwater.  The emotions quickly caught a glance of the cobblestone below them, noticing the exact same engraving.  “That’s it,” Fear thought aloud.

Anger crossed his arms and said, “Told ya.”

Disgust pouted defensively. “Lucky guess.”

Ian took a deep breath as he returned his head above water.  “That tile down there, it has the same shape as the opening!” Ian shouted above the rushing water.

“Maybe we were supposed to step on it.”  Barley placed Dad onto Ian’s shoulders.  “I got this,” Barley said before taking a deep breath and diving into the water.

The emotions crowded around the console and watched.  The chamber was half full, so they knew it was quite a swim to the bottom.  “Did he make it?  Is it working?  Is he okay?” Fear kept asking, begging for an answer.

A loud groan echoed above Ian.  He looked up to see the ceiling begin to slowly open, revealing sunlight that poured into the room.  “It’s working!” he cheered.

“Phew! Fear sighed.

“Yay!” Joy exclaimed, hugging Sadness.  “We’re gonna make it!”

The ceiling immediately slammed shut.  The room immediately became dark.

The emotions faces fell. “Wait, what?” Joy asked.

Barely popped his head back out of the water.  “It’s impossible!” he gasped.  “No one can hold their breath that long.”

Fear and Joy unanimously exchanged glances.  “Hold their breath!”  Together, they grabbed an idea bulb and placed it in the console.

Ian glanced at Barley, Barley glanced back with the same wild idea.  Together, they grabbed their Dad and shoved him down deep into the water.

Fear was already looking through the water like crazy.  “Did he make it?  Did he make it?  Did he make it?”

“He made it!” Joy told Fear, hugging the purple emotion tight while pointing at the screen.

“But he’s not on the tile!” Disgust pointed out before grabbing for the controls.

“Ahh!!” Fear leaped over Sadness and Anger as he grabbed the controls as well.

Ian took the leash and pulled left, trying to lead Dad towards the plate.  Moving blindly, the legs overstepped and nearly hit the wall.

“Too far!  Right!” Anger snapped, grabbing a dial on the console.

Ian pulled right, making Dad overstep the tile again.

“Good effort,” Joy encouraged, seeing the frustration in the room.  “We can do this.”

“Guys, the ceiling!” Sadness called out, pointing to the screen just as Ian’s head bumped against the stone ceiling.

“No no no no no!” Fear slammed his hand on a button.

Ian and Barley both took a deep breath and dove underwater just as the last remaining space of air was filled with water.

“Ian can’t hold his breath for long!” Fear said as he took the controls, making Ian pull the leash another direction.  “Someone watch his vitals!”

Sadness looked down at the vitals on the console.  “He’s losing oxygen fast,” Sadness cried.  “He’s not gonna make it!”

“Wait!” Joy watched with baited breath as it looked like Dad was stumbling close enough to the stone plate, but missed by a mere inch.  As the emotions sighed in frustration, Joy’s face lit up with hope.  “He’s standing right over it!  Pull up!  Pull up!”

Ian and Barley both pulled the leash upward with all their might.  Dad was pulled straight upward before floating straight down in a standing position right on the stone tile.

“We did it!” Joy cheered.

Sadness gasped.  “Oh no!  Ian’s lost his breath!”

“We’re gonna drown!” Fear shrieked.

Before panic could break out, the emotions saw onscreen as Ian was suddenly above water, gasping for breath as one hand clung to the edge on the basin on the other side of the open door.

While relieved, Fear was still dumbfounded.  “Wha- what happened?”

Sadness looked down at the vitals stabilizing as he was putting the pieces together.  “I think Barley pulled us out of the water.”

Joy grinned at Barley onscreen before grinning at Fear.  “He’s such a nice guy.”

Ian and Barley climbed out of the water and sat on the edge of the basin.  As Barley fished Dad out by the leash, the brothers could do nothing else but look at each other, their gasping breaths turning into laughs of relief, realizing that their trial is over.  The emotions each shared a laugh, realizing that they survived, and they got Ian through all of that trouble.  The Manticore, the pixies, the bridge, the dungeon.  And they made it.  With little time to spare, but they made it.

Barley picked Dad out of the water and hoisted him onto his shoulders. “The Phoenix Gem is just beyond this door,” Barley said triumphantly, motioning his hand proudly towards a ladder in the wall.  The ladder led upwards towards the exit above, blocked by a metal plate with holes filtering sunlight through.  “Shall we?”

Joy stepped in at the console.  “I got this!” she said playfully.

Ian led the way, climbing up the ladder.  “We certainly shall!” Ian exclaimed, his boasting voice echoing through the small space. “Dad, we have followed the quest, and it has led us to our victory!”

The emotions shared a laugh, with Fear patting Joy’s shoulder.  “Nice one, Joy,” he smiled, with Joy smiling back.”

Ian reached up, moved the metal plate aside, and felt the warm sunlight pour onto his cold, wet face. He proudly climbed up through the hole to find himself facing…

… New Mushroomton High School.

Ian’s face fell.

The emotions paused and stared blankly at the screen.  They had no clue what was going on.  Looking for answers, Fear took control, allowing Ian climb out of the hole to look around at his surroundings.  The more Ian looked, the more it began to sink in.  The school.  The BMV. The construction site surrounding the old weathered fountain.  The water tower.  The apparent sewer the two just climbed out of.  This isn’t some shrine or trove containing the Phoenix Gem.  This is right back where they started.

Barley finally pulled Ian away from an oncoming bus and onto the sidewalk.  The jostle was enough to break Ian out of his confused trance. “We’re back… home,” he said in disbelief.

“No… no no no no, this isn’t right, this isn’t right,” Fear whimpered, stepping back and placing his hands under his arms.

“This can’t be right,” Barley thought aloud.  “We took the path of peril.  We followed the ravens, we followed the water… unless we were meant to stay away from the water.”  Barley pulled the clover shaped stone from the raven statue out of his back pocket and observed the markings.

Anger grumbled as he threw his hands up in the air.  “I knew it. I knew this was pointless.”

Disgust rolled his eyes. “Complete waste of time.”

Joy was still in a confused daze.  “No… no, it couldn’t be.”

“Don’t worry,” Barley said, “we can figure this out.”

“Figure out what?” Ian asked.  “We’re back where we started.”

“No, there was a gauntlet,” Barley began to argue.  “Unless that gauntlet was for, coincidentally, some different quest.” Barley paused.  “Actually that’s a possibility.”

“What?” Fear exclaimed as Sadness began to tear up and cry.

“No no, this has to be where the Phoenix Gem is,” Barley continued, his voice growing ever quieter as he thought to himself, “I followed my gut.”

Anger slowly turned at the screen.  “What did he say?” he snarled.

Fear heard that growl. “Oh no… no, I-I got this.”  Fear began to press buttons on the console.

“Oh no,” Ian said, reality hitting him like a ton of bricks.  “The gem is in the mountain, which we could have been at hours ago, if we stayed on the expressway.”

“No, the expressway is too obvious,” Barley argued.  “You can’t take the easiest path.”

“That’s it!” Anger shouted, storming up to the console.  “Let me at him!”

Fear immediately grabbed Anger and pulled him away.  “No! No no no!”

Joy intervened, helping Fear keep Anger away from the console.  “Fear’s right!  Let’s not have Ian say something he’ll regret.”

“I hate to admit it,” Disgust commented, Sadness right beside him, “but Joy’s right.  It’s not Barley’s fault.”

“Then who’s is it?” Anger snapped, still in Fear’s arms.

“I don’t know!” Disgust snapped back.

“Who cares who’s fault it is?” Fear shrieked.  “We have half a dad to-!”

“If I didn’t listen to you! Okay?!” Ian shouted.

The emotions froze. Fear looked at the console… the unmanned console.  Confused and shocked, he silently looked at Disgust, Sadness, Joy, even Anger, still in his arms.  Fear let go, Anger looked back and held up his arms, showing he didn’t do anything.

A glint of light finally caught Fear’s attention.  He turned a complete one eighty and faced the Islands of Personality.

Family Island was alive and active.

Fear raced towards the window, the emotions following.  They all looked at each other in shock, not understanding at all why Family Island would be active at a time like this.

“I can’t believe this,” Ian continued, stepping closer towards the shocked Barley, the emotions watching in stunned silence.  “You act like you know what you’re doing, but you don’t have a clue, and… and that’s because you ARE a screw up!  And you just screwed up my chance to have the ONE thing I never had!”

Barley winced, clearly hit hard by those words.  But Ian, Ian didn’t care.  He just grabbed Dad by the leash and began to storm off.

“Hey, where are you going?” Barley asked.

Ian stopped, turned, and shoved the wizard staff into Barley’s chest.  “To spend what little time we have left with Dad,” he said firmly before turning his back to Barley and continuing to storm off.  Barley called out to Ian, but his words were ignored by Ian’s elf ears.  Ian continued to storm off, clearly furious, clearly heartbroken.

Barley’s inaudible words finally snapped Fear out of it.  He shook his head, realizing that Ian was walking away.  “Wait, where are you going?  Turn back!” he shouted.  He began to race to the console, when a loud sound behind Fear made him freeze in his tracks.

Fear turned, and watched with the other emotions as Family Island shuttered… and the Barley part of the statue on Family Island crumbled away, the pieces falling into the Memory Dump beneath it.

“… no…. no, no no no no no…” Fear finally spoke in disbelief, his hands on the window glass. “This can’t be happening!  What’s happening?”  He turned to the other emotions, just as lost as he is.  “What’s happening??”

The emotions were lost for the moment, before Joy finally spoke up.  “The core memory… maybe it’s the core memory.”  Joy immediately turned and ran for the core memory holder, the others following.

Fear chased after them. “No!  The core memories are to remain in the core memory holder where they’re safe-!”

Anger turned and punched Fear in the gut, causing him to flop onto his back and grab his sides with a pained gasp.  He then turned and met up with the others at the core memories.

Joy pressed the button to make the core memory holder to rise up out of the floor.  After a quick search, she plucked out the core memory powering Family Island with a, “There!”

Disgust looked at the core memory as Joy examined it in his hands.  The orb was bright and shining yellow, with a memory of Laurel at the dinner table with young Ian and young Barley, both laughing as they were baking cookies.“It’s still yellow,” he thought aloud.  “That means Ian should be happy about his family.”

“But then why wasn’t he happy?” Joy brushed his hand over the bright yellow orb, and the orb dimmed.

The emotions were quiet. They watched as Joy tried it again. He brushed his hand one way, and the memory dimmed further.  He brushed it another way, and the memory grew brighter than ever.  Joy moved his hand on the orb further until the memory changed, to a memory of Laurel helping young Ian with his homework.  Then, Joy changed the memory again, to a memory of young Barley helping young Ian learn to walk.

And the light dimmed so lowly that the orb was faded.

The core memory was faded.

Ian’s core memory of Barley was faded.

Joy was in disbelief. “This… this can’t be right.”

“Can you fix it, Joy?” Sadness asked.

Joy replied, “I dunno…”

Fear finally climbed up to his feet, one hand still clinging to the side of his sore torso.  He looked through his narrow eyes to see Joy kneeled in front of an open memory holder, holding a core memory.  “No!!”  Fear ran to the group, but he couldn’t get passed the other emotions crowding Joy, wondering what’s wrong.

“Why is it faded?” Disgust asked.  “Core memories can’t fade, can they?”

“This is so sad,” Sadness sobbed. “Ian’s forgetting Barley.”

“I knew it!  I knew this would happen!” Anger shouted.  “I knew we should check on the core memories!”

Fear couldn’t hear the emotions, he couldn’t even see that the core memory was faded.  All he could see was Joy holding a core memory.  Even playing with it!  “Joy, put it back!”

Joy was still busy trying to fix the core memory.  “Maybe if I… no…”

Fear kept trying to push through, calling out to Joy, but to no avail.  “Joy, please!”

Finding a gap, Fear finally squeezed in and reached for Joy’s arm, only for Joy to pull away as he tried rubbing his forearm against it.  What is he doing?  “Joy, you’re…!”

“There’s gotta be some way to fix this,” Joy thought to himself, gently shaking the core memory.

In complete shock, Fear exclaimed, “You’re hurting my Ian!!”

Joy froze.  Then turned to Fear.  “YOUR Ian?”

Fear was wide eyed, frozen solid.  What did he just say?  Did he just say that?  Out loud?

Joy’s confused face fell into a disappointing frown.  He turned away from Fear, shoved the core memory back into the holder and walked away. “We’ll deal with it later, guys. Let’s go help Ian.”  The other emotions followed, Anger leaving Fear with a judgmental glare before storming off.

Fear was left alone. No one to help him.  No one to comfort him.  All he could feel was the realization that everything was falling apart. And once everything was stripped away, he realized the damage he had done.

Ian lost the chance to see his Dad.  Ian had left Barley behind.  Ian’s Family Island was broken.  Ian’s core memory of Barley was faded.

And now, Fear has lost the respect of his emotions.  Even Joy.

Feeling helpless, hopeless, Fear just let his body collapse and fell onto his knees.