Spike: Chapter 6

Cemetery, 1:30 AM

Larry sat on another Coffin TV, recently powered up by Spike's remote. "Rude, much? Didn't even thank me for finding that coffin."

"Maybe it's because you knew it'd shoot me that high in the sky? AND you knew where I'd land?"

"I had no idea, actually. Usually, coffins are small boosters. As for the landing area, that was a lucky guess."

"Yeah, yeah..." Spike approached the TV, ready to enter another area of the Cemetery. Before he did, though, he looked at Larry and asked, "Anything new I should know about before I enter?"

Larry thought for a moment. "...nope. Nothing you haven't faced before. Just...keep an eye out for the breakable floors. You don't want your life to end so soon, do you?" ...no reply. Larry turned to look for Spike, only to be alone on top of the TV. I wonder how much of that he heard? he thought as he entered the TV.
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Both ghost and dragon appeared at the same time. Something about this area was a bit...off. Everything was black and white. Including Spike, who was supposed to be purple and green. (Like I need to REMIND you?) Spike looked around for something to help the problem. "Where are we? And what exactly happened?"

"We should be in the Cemetery still," Mr. Exposition stated. "But soon, Ned Turner will have this colorized." As if on cue, the world was hit with sudden color. Exactly the same ones the two adventurers were used to. "What'd I tell you?"

"Yeah, don't get full of yourself," Spike muttered as he slid down the hill. Over the edge was a hopping tomato with an evil grin. Not the weirdest thing he's seen. "What is this, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes?" Spike asked out loud. He destroyed it, and saw another purple question mark. One flick of the tail revealed another message from Fluttershy and Lewis.

"And we're on," Fluttershy said.

"Got more juicy insider info," Lewis announced. "Apparently, reapers love coins. In this world, the coins are in the form of golden flies." Pulling one out as a visual, he continued, "If you have a hundred of these babies before you die, you can give them to the reaper and he'll turn a blind eye to your death. Neat, huh?"

"Also," Fluttershy added, "certain areas have, um, a...video tape, he called it? It supposedly records your progress. But we haven't seen one yet..." The box clicked and disappeared again.

Fly coins? Spike thought. Where, and more importantly how, am I going to find a hundred of those things? As if to answer his thoughts, he saw an arrow. All made by fly coins! Amazingly, they didn't fly away when he approached. He grabbed one, and it disappeared. He grabbed another, same result. It was apparent that they were going to be acting like the remotes, so Spike kept walking. It seemed the Frankies had gone on vacation and decided to let the Tomatoes take their place.

As he nodded to the change of pace, the ground before him erupted in flames! Just for a moment, though. Still, it caught the dragon off guard. He looked for the source on the ground, but couldn't find anything. The next thing he knew, the flame hit him in the back of the head. It didn't kill, but by Celestia, did it hurt! He looked up to find the cause: A yellow winged beast that looked like a gargoyle. Every time it turned around, it would shoot a fireball from its mouth. Spike jumped up to try and get rid of it, but it was too far up in the sky.

"Huh. Didn't think we'd see them so early," Larry remarked. "They rarely are ever on your level, so your best bet for now is to just avoid their fireballs."

Again, Spike wasn't listening. Because before him were an aqua gemstone and a pearl. Spike had never tasted either of them, so why not try now? He ate the aqua stone first. As he downed it, he felt lighter. As if he could just speed through everything. Which probably explained why the pearl went down very quickly. This one's effects took immediately, too. A whirlwind formed around him, whipping up sticks, bones, and other items to protect Spike. With a laugh, he ran off, hitting a camera quickly, and barreling through a horde of Tomatoes.

Larry saw it coming before Spike ever did. He shouted out a warning to Spike to jump. But as fast as he was, the dragon's reaction time couldn't keep up with his new-found speed. He fell right into the pit and into the de-rez pool.

"Yeah, this is gonna be one of those levels," Larry muttered to himself.
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Gary's Pad, Time Unknown

Gary tapped his finger lightly. How to make this next move? He couldn't fail this time, a lot of money was riding on this. Tentatively, he pulled two cards out, put them face down, and put them in the discard pile. George handed him two more cards. George himself discarded one, and took one from the deck. It all came down to this.

"$20," Gary said.

George put the money in the pot, and added $10 more.

"I see what you're trying to pull. Raise $10 more."

George called it. Before the cards were revealed, a familiar purple-scaled, green-finned dragon appeared.

"And here, I thought it was going to be boring. What happened to you this time?"

Spike laughed uneasily before answering, "The edge of a cliff. Led right into a de-rez pool."

"Payment in the pot," Gary said uninterested, pointing to the pile of bills. Spike took out one of the amethysts he won and threw it in. "Very well, on your way. You're interrupting a close game." Spike left for the door, utterly confused.

The last two things he heard before reentering the cemetery were, "PAIR OF TWOS, BITCH!" and "WHAT?!? A  THREE OF A KIND?!? NOT AGAIN!!!"
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Same Time, Cemetery Milestone

Beep. Beep. CLICK! In a bright flash of light, Spike appeared. The camera stuck the picture out, revealing the fast whirlwind that had passed it not too long ago. Somehow, Larry took the picture from the camera and put it in his pocket. "This will give me laughs for years to come," he chuckled.

"Why do you keep things a secret from me?"

"What do you mean? The pool?"

"Yeah, the same one that killed me?!?"

"...I did. You just didn't listen."

Spike's right eye twitched. He seemed to have a response to it, but he decided against it. He instead continued on his way, destroying the enemies that had dared to be in his way during the last run. That was probably the only thing he hated about dying: when he came back, the enemies did, too. Thankfully, not only did he get to his death spot quickly, he didn't fall in like last time. The background, once again, was easy to climb on.

"Hey, want to learn a new technique?" Larry asked.

"Is it useful?" Spike asked.

"Half and half. It'll allow you to hit things that are just out of your reach, but it takes a while to perfect."

"How does it work?"

"Climb up to here." Larry hovered over to something new: a yellow movie reel turning left and right, as if it was looking for something. Spike carefully climbed up to the spot, only realizing he couldn't quite reach it. Plus, there was no path to drop and hit the reel on his feet.

"Ok, now do a 360 tail whip."

"Exactly how? If I try to do that, I might lose my grip!"

"It's Nintendo Logic. Don't think about it, and it works in your favor."

"Nintenwha?"

"Just do the tail whip."

Spike sighed and complied. He did a tail whip. Nothing happened. "Ok, basic's down, now keep spinning." The dragon sighed, knowing Larry was eventually going to get him killed. Again. But he kept spinning. One, two, three, four...wait, what was that sound? It sounded like a power up. When Spike stopped spinning, he saw his tail was glowing, giving him a bit of a further reach. Plus, there was a path before him. And on top of that, (sensing a pattern here?) the yellow movie reel had now turned purple.

"And that is the Power Spin. It takes a bit to charge, so it's not really practical, but it also keeps yourself defended. Just take a look below you." Spike looked down to find the remains of three gargoyles slowly dropping into the de-rez pool.

"Well, no time to gawk. We still have a lot of ground to cover and this isn't even the halfway point!"

Spike followed Larry on the new path. If this was going where he thought it was, this was going to be a long day.