Hector first noticed the shining lance on the floor, pointed toward his face. "Oh, right," he murmured, "you got the crystal one for plus three holy damage."
"Kupo," Alice complained. She pressed one hand to the ground and started to stand, then stared at it, drawing Hector's gaze to the same spot. Her hand was small and fuzzy, ending in claws, and the same white fur covered her bare arm and in fact, all over. A red pom-pom thing bounced above her head on its antenna. "What the hell? Are you seeing this?"
Hector struggled to stand up and felt like he was trying to climb over a pile of pillows. His hands didn't move right, and flopped around in odd ways.
His arms were white-feathered wings. He squawked -- the noise sounded like "Wark!" -- and noticed the curve of a black beak in the middle of his vision.
"Whoa, Hector! You look, uh, regal!" Vincent had a suit of bright plate armor (+2 defense against Shadow damage) with his non-specific sun god crest. Literally, now, and not just on his character sheet. He was grinning.
Hector took a moment to confirm that he was seeing what he thought he was. He couldn't feel his fingers, but could definitely feel wingfeathers against that hard shell-like thing where his nose and mouth should've been.
He had some trouble thinking for a minute or two after that, and at some point the Red Mage whacked him upside the head. "Quit panicking. What has happened is obvious. We just don't know why, or how I'm going to explain this to my officer in ROTC."
Vincent grinned wider. "Are you kidding? This is great! You probably even have a real spellbook now, one that's not made from an old copy of a Nintendo Power strategy guide."
The Red Mage's eyes widened and he fished through his stylish red robe (not much changed from the fancy one he'd already had) to find a gem-encrusted book. "I... think I need some time alone."
Alice steadied him before he could faint. "I'm a moogle, for God's sake! Magic mole-bat critter? Did anyone catch that, kupo?" She paused. "Damn it, I'm saying it already. And if we've just been hit with some kind of reality shift, then that noise over there is probably not special effects by the GMs. On guard!"
A lumbering beast the size of a horse stomped out from behind a ruined stone column. Armored plates covered its back and its mace-like tail.
"Ankylosaurus?" said the Red Mage.
Vincent picked up his lance. "Let's fight!"
Predictably, the sudden dinosaur charged at them. Vincent set his lance, but the creature dodged and only made the point slide along its tough hide. It whipped around and caught Vincent with its massive tail-club, slamming him to the ground despite his armor.
"Lightning!" shouted the Red Mage, dramatically holding his staff aloft. Nothing happened.
Alice found a sturdy-looking hammer on her toolbelt, and swung it mightily despite being fuzzy and cute. Her blow caught the dinosaur square in the leg and made it stagger. "No visible damage numbers? Aww." She hopped back out of range, making the little wings on her back flutter. "Get 'im, Vincent!"
Vincent struggled to stand. Hector tried to help him up, but found that his wings really weren't good for grabbing things. Instead, Vincent seized Hector's wing and pulled himself up with that, making Hector wince. Vincent said, "Sorry! Busy fighting dinosaurs!" and did a stabbing charge.
Hector hung back while his friend and Alice laid into the dinosaur and the Red Mage tried to figure out how to actually cast spells. He shook his beaky head at the madness. They were in danger, but he couldn't help feel that it was insignificant, equivalent to the dozen mock battles they'd already had.
Vincent grunted and skidded backwards, scraping sparks from his armor against stone. This time he'd gotten bashed in the head, hard enough to bleed. Hector gaped. This was the guy he'd seen doodling dragons in physics class, suddenly knocked out of the world of academics into actual trouble.
"I can't do this!" said the Red Mage, shaking his staff in frustration. "Heal him, Hector!"
"How?!"
"I don't know!" The Red Mage was suddenly busy trying to fight in melee against a multi-ton dinosaur.
Vincent lurched closer to where Vincent had landed and poked him with one wing, saying, "Uh, heal?" To his surprise, his feathers shined with warm, pure white light, and Vincent's wounds closed in seconds. The man sprang right up and returned to the fight as though nothing had happened, cheering himself on.
Hector stepped backward and looked at his wings again, tilting his head to stare with one eye and then the other. "I did that?"
The ankylosaurus roared and thudded to the ground, slain at last. Something metallic clattered against the "ancient" stones and rolled into the moss and vines.
Alice moved in a blur to scoop up the things that'd fallen. "Gold! These have gotta be at least tenth-ounce coins, kupo!"
Vincent twirled his lance around in a victory pose, wearing a look of satisfaction. "I could get used to this." He stepped toward Hector and said, "That was amazing! You saved me back there. And did you see when the 'saurus was like, 'Raar!' and reared up and I jabbed it in the chest?"
The Red Mage crowded close, too. "How did you get your healing to work after all? I don't think I'm a Vancian-style wizard, but I probably need time to study this spellbook. It's never made clear in canon how spell preparation works."
Alice bounced over with an armful of jingling, shiny coins. "Help yourselves. Ben Bernanke is my new nemesis!"
Hector flapped in dismay. "I have no idea. Why are you three taking this, this lunacy so well? Why aren't you asking how the hell this is happening -- and how long before we get into some dumb plot about a guy trying to blow up the multiverse?"
Vincent grinned and took a single coin from Alice. He tried biting the metal and found it was soft enough to leave a tooth mark. "See this? Gold. Freaking gold pieces, dropped for no real reason by a freaking dinosaur in a temple that shouldn't be here. What could be better?"
"Platinum?" said Alice.
Vincent patted Hector's wings. "And look at these. Magic! I think it's working for you because it comes intuitively to your species."
"My species? I'm not a chocobo, despite whatever did this to me. I've got this ridiculous beak and the wings, but..."
"And the feet."
Hector glanced down. Shreds of his shoes hung from great big, yellow, taloned bird feet. One toe of each faced backwards. "When did these happen?"
"Gradually, I bet," said the Red Mage. He was waving the gnarled wooden staff around Hector's feet as though searching him for metal.
"Then is it not over?! I don't want to be a bird!"
Vincent looked the others over. "Hey, mage. How into it are you?"
"Into it? I love the thought of getting spells and everything! I just want to know what the hell is going on."
The paladin took him by the shoulders and smiled. "That's your problem. Overthinking it. You're a wizard; you have mastery of the arcane! Who cares why you have power? Just let it happen, like Hector did!" He looked over his shoulder at Alice. "You don't mind this either, right?"
"Well, no," she said, "but how am I going to explain --"
"Don't bother! You're cute!"
Alice blushed under her fur. "Kupo."
Hector took a few tentative steps on his bird feet and made for the stone arch marking the doorway. He poked one claw beyond the arch and felt it clack against linoleum. "Let's get out of here. Who knows what else is going wrong?"
Vincent tried to chase him, then found that indeed, his armor was slowing him down. He'd gained the dreaded "freshman fifteen" that came from eating Aramark cafeteria food instead of having parental guidance for the first time. "Whoa, Hector."
The others followed Hector out. Those three looked back with longing at the mysterious ruin. Hector, though, was lost in thought. The hallway had turned dangerous, so maybe the bits of fantasy had leaked out even farther into campus. Worse, they hadn't changed back by leaving. Considering the logic of the games...
Vincent interrupted his train of thought by reaching into the big belt pouches Hector wore and stuffing the new crystal in there. "Hey, Alice, you can keep the gold in here too."
Hector squawked. "Excuse me." He glanced down and saw that the containers had shifted, becoming more like proper saddlebags. At least he still had his jeans and shirt, for now. "I'm not your beast of burden."
"Sure you are!" said Vincent. "Don't worry; I'm not trying to hop up on your back and ride you." Alice snickered.
Hector grumbled at the indignity. "Next quest: contacting the GMs and campus police."
"Yes, actually," said the Red Mage. They all started down the hall back the way they'd come. No monsters, at least yet, and no more traps. Alice did check for little scraps of paper announcing them, though.
They came to Lobby 10, at the center of campus, and found that everything was going wrong. It was evening, yet the sky through the south windows glowed eerie purple. Purple, of course, was the color of evil magic, along with black. The square of campus lawn had become a Gothic tower with sickly thorns and swirling purple runes around it. A dozen other students in costume stood by the windows, gaping, or had actually ventured out to stare at the lawn.
"I think they already know," said Alice.
Hector stepped closer to the crowd. "Are you guys crazy? Get away! There could be --"
Some of the students turned to him and saw his wings and beak, and Alice with her weird fuzzy mole-bat body, and Vincent with his metal armor and crystal lance. "Whoa! What happened to you? Is this thing spreading? Magic!" Hector noticed that they weren't saying, "Nice costume." They'd seen the tower. He felt people poking at his wing feathers.
Vincent grinned and held up one gauntleted hand. "Yep! The fantasy's coming true. Don't worry, everyone! We'll vanquish the evil -- what was his name again?"
"Dark Lord Bishnara," said the Red Mage.
"Him. And bring peace to the Institute!"
Hector slapped his beak with one wing. "Dark Lord Bishnara is that crazy sophomore who pranked the Harvard people into letting him steal back T.I.M. the Beaver's mascot paw, remember? I don't think it'd look good on your transcript if you stabbed him, even while he monologues about blowing up the universe."
"No," said Vincent. "Why are you still thinking in terms of transcripts and campus games? We've made it, Hector! Whatever caused this outbreak of fantasy chose us to be part of it! We belong out there, assaulting the tower and saving the world."
Hector thought back to the normal reality of just a day ago, to the world that he was maybe a little more aware of than the average freshman. "If the world's really in danger, it's from a bunch of boring politicians and their broken-souled followers, not some melodramatic giggling maniac with a katana. If you want to collect magic crystals, fine, but only for the sake of fixing this hole in reality instead of turning the world into your playground."
"Geez. Don't take this so seriously," said Vincent. He hefted his lance and grinned for the crowd, speaking more loudly. "Stay safe, everyone -- and enjoy the show! Onward, friends!"
Reluctantly, Hector followed Vincent along with Alice and the Red Mage. The Lobby 10 doors opened. He felt freezing wind whip through his feathers, a startling sensation, and shut his eyes for a moment. It was a little reassuring to know that other people saw strange things going on; it wasn't just his own brain going haywire. The people back there really might be in danger, though. His own curiosity about the source of this madness was less important than to use what power he had, to make sure any threat was contained.
The evil tower stood ten stories high, making it less impressive than Building 54 but still daunting. Worse yet, creatures made of blurry shadows and claws were crawling from the thorn hedge around it. Hector said, "Alice, do you somehow have anything better than a hammer now?"
The moogle girl patted down the various pouches and pockets she wore. There were probably twice as many as there'd been before that last crystal; she'd been too busy to notice more than the fur and wings. "A fragile jar with 'Bottled Lightning' on the label... Ooh, a ribbon. And this!" She pulled out a crossbow from a too-small holster.
The Red Mage was frantically skimming his spellbook. Hector wondered what he saw in there.
Vincent said, "Charge!" and began running. Two strides later he stumbled and fell.
Hector stepped closer and offered him a wing. "No charging. Monsters plus thorn wall. Retreat." The shadow-things were starting to circle them.
Alice said, "Guys! Over by Building 4!" Off to their left, the usual grey campus buildings dipped into the earth, forming a sinkhole and a tunnel.
Vincent hefted his lance. "We'll fight our way over there. Hector, stay with me this time." He ran without waiting for an answer.
Hector sighed and ran along with him, per the rules of this game. This time Vincent didn't stumble, and Alice and the Red Mage hurried after them. They were headed right for the shadow-beasts! Hector squawked and tried to do... something.
He found himself leaping to kick one of the creatures with his outstretched, taloned foot. The move slammed the shadow-thing to the ground, where he landed expertly and kept on running. He glanced backward and saw it whirling away into the air, apparently slain. Nice! The thorns whipped by on their right and more things were lurching out from under the wall.
"Duck!" said Alice. She fluttered ahead in a sort of gliding leap and fired her crossbow at an inky flapping shadow overhead. The recoil sent her flying backward. Hector reflexively stuck out a wing to catch her. "How does it have that much kick? Oh." Whatever the flapping thing was, it thudded to the ground and died with a bolt all the way through it.
The Red Mage was trying to read even while they ran. "Down those stairs. Just give me a minute."
"We don't have a minute," said Vincent. The fog of ink and darkness was taking shape around them, like a living wall that borrowed mass from the thorns. The paladin started to herd everyone into the jagged stairs that led down into darkness, where there should have been a classroom. The entire building sloped into the sunken ground.
"Fine." The Red Mage flipped his cloak dramatically to one side, raised his staff, and made it shine with blue light that pierced the clouds. "I call forth -- Water!" The sky parted and a very precise rainstorm appeared, more like a wave called sideways from the Atlantic. It slammed down on the nearest mass of shadow-creatures and washed them away as though they hadn't been there, leaving a blob of seaweed and plastic bottles in its wake. The air suddenly smelled of salt.
Alice retreated into the tunnels. Vincent cheered, "You did it! You let it happen!" Hector felt stunned, but didn't let his body show it. He tried to grab the Red Mage, then settled for shoving the elated wizard along with his wings before any of the other critters could eat him.