Reality Bends

"DAMN-IT!" Shawn howled, "Fumble!"

"Roll a percentile," Janet instructed.

"Hmm...It's a 56," Shawn announced. He looked displeased with the result.

"That's a normal hit on friend. You just hit..." a die clattered from her hand, sealing the unfortunate's fate; "Starlunder, who is in the middle of casting a healing spell. Roll the damage."

"It's a four," Shawn replied. He sounded more dejected than ever.

"Starlunder, you've been hit by Bonakus' mace. Your spell is ruined."

"I figured that," Carl said. "Keep a leash on that thing, will you."

"Ha ha. Very funny."

"Steelweaver? What's your pleasure?" Janet prompted.

"Two on me?" Maria asked rhetorically. "Attack with the short sword. Spells would take too long...20! Crit hit! Percentile...99!" she whooped.

Janet paused. "Hmmm....that's a decapitation. The orcs body falls at your feet as the head rolls a few feet away from you. The second decides Bonakus looks like a weaker target and charges him. It attacks and misses."

"Weaker? We'll see about that," Shawn said, "I attack."

"Not your turn yet, Bonakus. Lightfinger stabs at the the orc in front of him... and hits for six damage...it dies."

"Has anyone noticed how long Steve's been gone?" Maria asked in a slightly quavering voice. "It seems like too long."

"Yeah, how long does it take to buy some sodas?" Carl agreed.

Janet made a face. "Let's finish the battle and then call a reality check. Starlunder, it's your turn."

Carl frowned. "OK attack with the mace...hit for five."

"Good, the orc is dead. None of them have anything of value. Reality check, we'll talk XP's later," Janet said. "Let's see, Steve's been out for a half hour at least. The gas station's about three or four blocks away from here."

"Something's wrong," Maria said, "I know it." Her face turned pouty as it always did when she was worried.

"You really are concerned about him, aren't you?" Shawn asked as he put an arm over her shoulders.

"I kinda agree with her," Carl said. "Something is wrong. I think we should go out after him."

"Think we should, Maria?" Janet inquired. The response was an emphatic nod. "All right then, let's go."

Janet opened the door and they all stepped out into the humid night air. The darkness itself seemed to wrap around them lake a great snake.

"What happened to the streetlamp?" Carl asked. "Hell, what happened to all of them?"

Confused, they waited for their eyes to adjust to the pitch blackness around them. None were prepared to see the foreign landscape their eyes now beheld. Instead of a neighborhood full of duplexes, a rocky crag jutted up a short distance away. A large fallen rock sat in front of the rock face; other scattered bits of rubble lay at random intervals.

A leather clad young man seemed to materialize from beside this largest stone and approached them.

"Who the hell are you?" Shawn demanded. The others merely stood stunned.

"Shawn, it's me, Steve. Look at yourselves," came the reply

They all did as they were bid. Until that moment, the fact that he had raised a mideval mace toward this young man hadn't even dawned on Shawn. He also hadn't noticed that he now wore a full suit of armor. "Where did all this come from?" he asked, gesturing toward his new attire.

"Don't you get it?" Janet screamed, her t-shirt and jeans now swapped with deep purple robes, "We left our 'real' selves behind!"

Steve nodded. "Welcome to the nightmare."