4.50 – Reunion II

"I don't think anything," Natalie said, looking around. "A rest stop, I guess. A safe room." There weren't any visible indicators of danger, and a single door on the wall nearest to them led out.

The rest of the team peered around to make sure of that, but they found nothing worrying.

"Okay, then," Jordan said. "A chance to reconvene. What's all that?" Jordan gestured at the items littered around the floor—Natalie had lost her grip on them as she tumbled down, and they'd been spat out alongside her. At least the bags hadn't popped open and spilled coins everywhere.

"Our loot," Natalie said. "Lost my grip."

She collected them from the ground and stored them, to be looked at later. Scooping up one of the bags and peeking inside, she breathed a sigh of relief—the stat-boosting potions hadn't broken during the tumble. That wouldn't have been exactly fair if the dungeon had thrown them into an angled stone slide through the darkness and broken their delicate belongings in the process, but nobody ever said the dungeon strove to be fair.

"We'll look through them in a second," Natalie said. "We don't even know what they are. But first, what happened with you three? Anything important we need to know?"

"Not really. We were just, you know, fighting for our lives." She snorted. "While you two were out frolicking and fornicating. And I bet you two got better loot than us, too. How is that fair?"

"Be serious," Natalie said, though her heart rate picked up at the accusation. 'Fornicating'? That had just been a guess, right? Jordan didn't actually know she and Ana had done—well, everything they had, right?

"I am serious," Jordan said. "There's not much to say. Nothing special happened, not besides the class and body swaps." She wrinkled her nose. "I will admit that I like being back, though."

Sofia grunted in agreement. She rested a hand on her rapier, finding comfort in her weapon's familiarity. She'd been the worst off from the body swaps, Natalie knew, having to take up Liz's mantle. Sofia was many things, but a competent spellcaster wasn't one. There wasn't a much bigger paradigm shift needed than going from a one-on-one physical duelist to the team's support mage.

"Speak for yourselves," Liz complained loudly. "I kinda liked being tall, for once."

"I'm not tall," Jordan corrected. "I'm just not tiny."

"And have boobs, too." Liz glared at Jordan's chest, then down at her own, and Jordan laughed, patting her on the shoulder—which only made Liz pout harder, though her lips were twitching in amusement.

Sofia spared a quirked eyebrow for the interaction, then faced Natalie. "And you?" she asked. "Is there anything we need to know about your …" her nose wrinkled, "adventures?"

To Natalie's side, Ana twitched, as if she'd remembered something.

"Oh," Ana said. "Yes, actually. I need some of that infertility potion."

Natalie winced.

Right.

That had been the entire reason they'd fled the challenge early.

But had Ana really needed to blurt it out for everyone to hear?

Face coloring, Natalie murmured at her, "Some subtlety would be nice, you know." She dug around her pouch to pull the monster core out.

"And you're still wearing my weapon," Ana said. "I'd rather we didn't get ambushed without having it equipped."

Natalie groaned.

"You found a new weapon?" Liz asked innocently.

"Yes."

"Where is it?"

"Inside Natalie."

Everyone paused.

"It's a buttplug," Ana said calmly.

"Oh, fuck off," Natalie said. She passed over the infertility potion core—which Ana took, then drank a dose from. If there was one upside to being subjected to that challenge with Ana, it was that she had learned a lot about the girl. She could tell when she was being screwed with. Or, with more reliability than before. Ana wouldn't ever be 'easy' to read, with that stony mask of hers.

The team took Ana's two announcements—the need for the infertility potion, and the buttplug—in varying ways. Liz, with wide eyes and a flush, as if wondering whether Ana was joking. Sofia was likewise flustered, though masking it with a vague disdain directed entirely at Natalie. And finally Jordan, with that aggravating smirk she wore so often these days, as if she wasn't surprised at all.

Natalie eyed her in return, giving her a warning look that promised she would be taking out the day's frustrations on her if she kept teasing. The smirk deepened, and Jordan wiggled her eyebrows, suggesting something along the lines of, 'I can't wait for you to try'. Her best friend was really too much of a trouble-maker, recently. Shameless woman.

"A buttplug," Sofia said flatly. "You found a buttplug. And it's a weapon. That you're wearing."

"It didn't swap with our bodies," Natalie defended herself.

"At least it's hands-free," Jordan said. "That seems useful, for a casting weapon."

"That's what I said," Ana agreed, giving Jordan an approving look, as if pleased to have finally found a kindred spirit—someone who was focused on what was important.

"I'll give it back in a second," Natalie interrupted, cutting off any further discussion on the topic. "When we have some privacy. I'm pretty sure we won't be ambushed. This is a safe room."

"We think it's a safe room," Ana pointed out.

"Nat just wants an excuse to keep wearing it, I bet," Jordan said.

"I would much rather it wasn't inside me," Natalie growled at her. "It's distracting. And I've had enough of all of that from the challenge room."

"You? Have had enough?" Sofia asked, crossing her arms disdainfully. "You realize that we know you, right? A pervert like you will never 'have enough'."

Natalie couldn't help but feel like she was being teamed up on. "Anyway," she said, "if there's nothing else important, then we should talk about our loot, shouldn't we? Then get moving. It's getting late. We need to get back to campus."

Jordan gave her an amused look, making it clear she'd seen through Natalie's desperate deflection, but she ended up agreeing, anyway. "She's right. Let's get up to speed, then get going. Starting with Ana's weapon, actually. I'd love to know more."

Natalie glared at her, but it did need to be discussed. The team deserved to know every item that they earned, so it could be doled out appropriately. Not that she thought Liz would be contesting Ana for ownership of the buttplug—even if she didn't already have her wand.

So, it was time to have the item talk. And beyond just what they'd already found, there was the ink vial, the necklace, and the arrow. The last one especially concerned her. It had come from completing all three tiers of their last challenge—probably the most intense encounter Natalie had faced. So just what would it do?