her face as more cubes
tumbled and crashed over her.
When the cascade was over, Mei opened
her eyes. She was suspended in a web of
strong, white sticky material.
Mei checked herself, pulling her arms from
the sticky web with some difficulty. She was
bruised, but nothing appeared to be broken.
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She checked her health
meter. She had lost a
heart in the explosion
but still had two left.
Mei peered down
through the white
strands to see she wasn’t
that far from the ground.
The cavern was warm and surprisingly
well lit.
“OK, Mei. Let’s think this through.” She
took off her backpack, which was still
completely intact. She pulled out five
vines and twisted them into one another.
With a sshhhuuk sound, they formed a vine
rope. Mei threw the rope over the side, and
fastened her end to a thick-looking strand of
the web hammock. She slowly pulled her legs
and torso free, and clambered over the side
to climb down.
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Ripley blinked open his eyes. Everything was
out of focus for a moment or two, but
eventually shapes started to form in front of
him. He couldn’t move. His arms and legs felt
stuck. He couldn’t even turn his head. He
realized he was trapped in something very
sticky and very strong. He had a mammoth
headache—it felt like he had eaten a giant
scoop of ice cream too quickly. He started to
panic a little.
Slowly, the reality of the situation began to
sink in. The cave collapsing around them . . .
the rushing water . . . the fire spiders.
This felt real. It was real.
The video-game world was real, and it was
trying to kill them. He was worried about how
many hearts would be left on his wristband—
he really took a hit from that explosion.
Rip tried again to move, but it was
hopeless. He coughed out tiny cubes of dirt
and took a deep breath.
“MEI! MEI!”
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The words echoed for a while, which led Rip
to believe he was in a larger cave than
before. Suddenly, a large, blocky body slid
down toward him with four long, spiky legs
expanded out on each side. Its torso started
to glow red, which in turn lit up the creature’s
face.
To Ripley’s amazement, the face was
familiar.
Then, it spoke.
It was Angela. Angela was a spider. A BIG
spider.
And she looked mad.
LITTLE
MEAT.
LITTLE
THIEF.
not so
itsy bitsy
M
ei shuddered, tearing the long, sticky
strands of spider’s web from her arms
and legs. This was a disaster. Where on earth
was Ripley? She desperately hoped he was OK.
“RIIIIP?” she called out hopefully.
In the distance, she thought she heard
someone yell.
“RIPLEYYY?” she called again, this time
louder and more urgent. But there was only
the dark, eerie silence of the cave.
Mei took a better look at her surroundings.
This part of the cave glowed a glittering blue-
green. Light seemed to be generated by tiny
glow-worm-type creatures that covered the
ceiling and walls. The light was so glowing, she
didn’t even need her torch.
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Mei had to find Ripley and get out of here.
Around her, strands of silky web stuck to
the glowing walls, and Mei could see they
continued along the tunnel in one direction.
She didn’t like the idea of heading the same
way a spider might have gone, but it seemed
to be sloping up toward the surface. Mei
decided it was the best way to go. She
adjusted the bag over her shoulders and
followed a trail of silk into the turquoise
oblivion.
A horrible feeling of dread filled Ripley’s
stomach as Spider-Angela began slowly,
menacingly advancing. Seeing her face
distorted into the shape of the spider was
positively horrifying—it was Angela, and yet
not Angela. She had been completely
transformed into an inky-black pixelated
arachnid. How had this happened?!
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LITTLE THIEF. I WILL EAT.
Eat?!! Does she
mean me?!
“A-Angela?” Rip swallowed nervously,
struggling against the bonds of the spider’s
web. “Angela, it’s me . . . Ripley. Angela,
something has happened to you. Inside the
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game. You’ve got to snap out of it! I can try
and help you!” Ripley was writhing madly in
his cocoon beneath the terrifying red glow of
Angela’s spider-body.
“LITTLE THIEF!!!” she hissed again,
rearing up with her front spider legs, her
fangs snapping wildly as she prepared to
lunge at him.
Little thief. What was she talking about?
Spider-Angela lunged forward and sprayed
some sort of venom. A burst of burning liquid
splattered over him—it was searing hot, like
lava, and Ripley cried out in pain. But the
sticky strands that were binding him began to
loosen. He managed to wrestle one hand free,
at the same time noticing half a heart blinking
on his health meter before disappearing
entirely. He was down to one heart!
Little thief. Little thief.
It had to mean something! Rip had to think
quickly—he needed something, anything, that
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would buy him some time. He couldn’t access
his bow, but he lifted his free hand to the
helmet on his head.
The helmet. Of course! He had looted those
items from Angela’s castle! So she did
remember something! Rip hastily pulled the
helmet off and in one swift movement hurled
it in Angela’s direction.
It hit her square in the chest, sending
her flipping over onto her back, her spider
legs wiggling madly. Ripley wrenched
himself free of the remaining web, most of
which had now dissolved in the fire-
venom.
For the moment, Spider-Angela
seemed stuck, unable to flip
herself back over. Rip
scrambled over to her,
holding his hands
cautiously out in
front of him.
CLUNK!
“Angela,” Ripley said tentatively, “I know
you’re in there.”
The spider’s legs stopped wiggling.
“It’s me. Ripley. Listen, we’re . . . we’re in a
video game. Something has happened to you,
and we all have to try and get out. There’s . . .
some kind of fault with the VR headsets
or something. But as soo
n as we find a way
to complete this level, everything will be OK!”
Angela turned her head and stared at him
blankly with her large spider eyes. For a
moment, it seemed as though she recognized
him. She opened her mouth and closed it
again. She seemed confused. Heartened, Rip
continued.
“You can come with us and we’ll find a way
out together. And we can try and get you
back to . . . normal.”
“BACK. NORMAL.” Angela shook her
head as she tried to form a sentence. She
seemed all muddled.
“CAN'T. ESCAPE.
BIG LAVA . . .”
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Rip frowned. “What’s Big Lava?”
Angela’s eyes grew larger and wider. “BIG
LAVA. MADE ME LIKE THIS. CONT ROLS
EVERYTHING. NO ESCAPE.”
She struggled
to get the words out.
Rip could hear the fear in her voice. He
suddenly felt very cold all over. “Angela, I
don’t . . . I don’t understand. What do you—”
A thunderous rumble shook the cave.
The room began to shudder, rocks and
dirt crumbling down from the ceiling. The
jolt was enough to get Spider-Angela
back upright, and she scuttled for the
tunnel exit.
“LAVA. COMING!!!”
Rip stood dumbfounded as a huge hole
appeared in the wall of the cave, and in
poured a series of large, fiery-red lizard
creatures. Blocky fireballs spewed from
their mouths as they clambered along the
walls and floor of the cave—right toward
Ripley!
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Ripley blinked, as if snapping out of a
trance. He turned to follow Angela but one of
the fire lizards was blocking the way out.
It belched fireballs in his direction, and
Ripley had to leap to one side to avoid them.
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With a feeling of dread, he realized he was
surrounded. Ripley began to shake all over.
This was it.
It was going to be
GAME OVER .
RIIIPP!
Up here!!
With a sudden flood of hope, Ripley followed
the sound of the voice above. It was Mei!
“MEI!” he cried in relief. “I’m . . . I’m stuck
down here. I don’t have a lot of time . . .”
Mei hesitated. “I’ll find a way to get you up.
I will. I’m going to need to craft something.
Give me a sec!”
Sinister reptilian hisses grew louder all
around him as more lizards fixated their
fiery gaze on Rip.
“Uh . . . I don’t have a sec, Mei! I need
something to slow them down!”
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Mei panicked and fumbled with her
backpack.
Think, Mei. Think!
She saw something shiny in her backpack—
the medallion. It must be powerful, but she
wasn’t sure how to use it.
Then, she saw, or rather smelled, something
she’d forgotten about. A faint cloud of rotten
egg and stinky, moldy cheese smell reached
her nostrils. Her fingers closed around the
small, cube-like petals of the fart flower.
Not knowing what else to do, she stuck her
head through the cavern hole and called out,
“HEY! Try this while I craft something to get
you out!”
The flower fluttered down and landed at
Rip’s feet. Ripley stared at it in disbelief. “A
FLOWER?!”
“Not just any flower,” she said, tapping her
nose and grinning.
Rip had no other choice but to use Mei’s
stinky flower for protection. He snatched
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the slightly withered bloom from the ground
and held it out toward the lizards.
Amazingly, he saw little stink lines radiating
from its pretty yellow blossom.
The stench was awful,
somehow amplified
by the heat. Ripley
coughed and
choked on the
horrible odor.
“Seriously, Mei, this
is gross. It’s—” But he stopped, as he
watched one of the lizards recoil at the
horrible cloud of gas. “Hey!” He laughed. “It’s
working!”
More of the fire lizards howled and
snarled before retreating too.
“I think I’m going to be OK!” he said
triumphantly.
A fiery ball of flames suddenly shot across
the cavern and engulfed the flower in his hand.
155
“Argh!” Ripley cried, dropping the
smoldering flower. The flames had not
reached his hand, but the fart flower was
now a pile of ash on the ground. Rip looked
up to see the fire beasts advancing. Great.
“Um, Mei . . . ?”
“Quick, Ripley!” Mei produced a rope ladder
that she’d managed to craft from several
items in her backpack. She lowered it down
into the cave, securing the other end to a
boulder in the upper cavern where she was
waiting for him.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Ripley
reached for the ropes and began scrambling
up the ladder.
Hissss!
Ripley could hear that one of the lizards
was close. Before he could react, a fireball
engulfed him! Ripley felt white-hot, burning
heat all over, but, amazingly, no actual pain.
His chest-armor had protected him!
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Still, there was now smoke—the flames had
reached the rope and were taking hold.
The ladder!
“Mei . . . the ladder is on fire!”
Lizard creatures were climbing
the walls and moving onto the
ceiling in an attempt to cut
Rip off before he could
escape.
“Climb
faster, Ripley! I’ll
pull at the same time!”
Rip frantically climbed for the
ceiling. Mei was hoisting the ladder
with all her might, trying her best to pull
Rip to safety—but he was too heavy. The fire
lizards were closing in, and so was the fire.
“Rip, your armor—you’ve got to let it go.
You’re too heavy with it on!”
Rip panicked, swinging to
avoid another fireball. Without
his armor, he would be more
157
vulnerable. But with it, he might not be able
to escape!
“Rip—hurry.
PLEASE!!”
There was no other option. With one last
burst of energy, Ripley managed to tear the
armor from his body and let it fall down onto
the seething group of angry lizards below.
One rope-ladder rung after another he
climbed, finally hauling himself up through the
ceiling hole and into the upper cavern.
But Rip and Mei weren’t safe yet!
“We have to cover the hole with
something,” Ripley panted, trying to catch his
breath. His skin still tingled with the heat
from below.
>
Mei looked around frantically, searching
the rocky surroundings. “There isn’t anything.
We’ll have to craft something.”
Ripley almost laughed, and nodded. Of
course!
He opened up his backpack and pulled out
enough stone to build a sturdy hatch door,
158
and began assembling the pieces. It was
complete in seconds.
He and Mei both lifted the stone hatch
with all their might toward the hole—just as
one of the fire lizards burst through!
HAIL MEGALAVA,
LORD OF
T HE GAME!
A hot explosion of flames filled the upper
cavern, narrowly missing them.
Rip and Mei exchanged glances.
“Who is this ‘Lava’ guy?!” Ripley wondered
aloud, gripping the stone door tightly.
“MEGALAVA SEES ALL. RULES ALL.
GAMERS COME. GAMERS NEVER LEAVE.
LAVA WINS.”
“Yeah, well. We’re not just any gamers, fire-
breath,” Mei quipped, nodding at Ripley. Taking
her cue, he nodded back, and they both
hoisted the stone hatch in the direction of
the lizard, forcing him back down into the
hole. With an angry cry, the reptile stumbled
backward in a cloud of smoke and flames.
“MEGALAVA WILL—”
But there was only silence as the stone
hatch sealed the hole shut. Rip and Mei were
alone in the darkness once more.
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the last
stretch
R
ipley and Mei’s torches lit up the
jagged walls around them as the two
forged onward and upward, hoping to
escape the mine before they discovered
more trouble.
“We look terrible,” said Mei. Her hair was
covered in tiny cubes of dirt and rock, and
she did her best to shake it out. Rip was
pulling at the spider silk that was still stuck
to his arms and legs.
“At least we have spider silk now!”
said Rip, adding it to his bag.
“So, that fire lizard said there’s
something called Megalava . . . What’s that
about?” Mei wondered as they walked along
the winding path.
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“Oh yeah, that was strange . . . Oh, Mei!” Rip
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