Quest for the Omnistone

Chapter 48: Trapped, Not to My Surprise

Max:

"Crystal? Johnny?" I called out, reaching the junction point.

'BOOM!' The tunnels shook again, seeming to come from my left. Crystal's path. Typical. What was she up to now?

"Crystal?" I would've run into the tunnel right there and then, but a faint yellow glow up ahead made me falter. Was that... the sun?

"Max, you idiot! What are you standing around for?" Jolted back into my senses, I noticed Crystal's outline against the yellow ball's light. They were maybe twelve yards away, but I could tell Crystal was scowling.

"What monster did you anger this time?" I yelled back, revving the cannon.

"What, can't recognize Pac— Oompf!" My clumsy cousin had tripped over a rock formation in her path. (Of course, she would never admit her clumsiness and blame it on me for distracting her.)

I ran into the tunnel to help her, shooting Pac-man with the cannon to slow him down. Sadly, I only managed to make the dot-muncher angrier. He would've snapped me up, cannon and all had I not been dragged by the arm back down the tunnel and towards the entrance.

"It won't work!" Crystal said, releasing me so I could run properly. "We need a ghost!"

I cursed under my breath. "Where's Danny when you need him?" Desperately, I looked at the tunnel's ceiling, hoping for a large spiky rock we could probably drop on the big guy.

Something gold and sparkly caught my eye. Some words had appeared on the walls, repeating the same phrase over and over again: 'Esolc no regnad'. Some kind of password? A spell? It was worth a shot. I glanced over at Crystal but she made no notion of having seen the words. Already, they were fading from the rock.

"I'm going to try something." I told Crystal. "Just run as fast as you can—"

"What do you think I've been doing?"

I rolled my eyes and bit back a retort. "Just take my hand. Wouldn't want to get separated or anything."

Crystal frowned, but took my hand anyway. I waited until the last possible minute, when we were close enough to the entrance before yelling, "Esolc no regnad!"

'BLAM!' A rock wall closed down on the tunnel entrance, trapping Pac-man inside.

"Phew." Crystal panted, hands on her knees. "That was a close call."

"You're welcome." I smirked. "What happened anyway?"

Crystal frowned and turned away before muttering, "I opened his cage by accident."

I would've belted out in mocking laughter had another tremor not shook the tunnel. Immediately, I put the cannon back on my shoulder and pointed it down the path Johnny had gone. "Uh-oh. Looks like Johnny found something else for us to play with."

Crystal nodded, pointing out the silhouette of a running man against a purplish sort of light. So that's where the centipedes were.

"Johnny, hit the deck!" I yelled. Realizing what I was going to do, Johnny dropped to the ground with his hands over his head.

'BOOM-BA-BOOM-BOOM!' Luckily, the tunnel wasn't wide enough for the centipedes to try and make me hit them in the middle. The first centipede went down within seconds, followed by the remaining two. 'BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!' 'BA-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!'

With the pixelized threats gone, Crystal ran forward to help Johnny up. Once out of the tunnel, I patted him on the back. "Nice luck you have, eh?"