Amy, Larry, and Tommy rode on the escalator as they headed up to the mountain.

“I’m bored,” Amy muttered.

“Already?” Tommy asked.

“Can this go any faster? I mean, how long will this take?”

“Did you just ask that?”

“Aw, heck with it, let’s just run for it!”

“That might not be a good idea!” Larry exclaimed.

“Wait, don’t leave us in the dust!” Tommy added.

As they ran up the escalator, the three ended up getting sweaty and tired, their legs giving out; Larry suffered the worst of it.

“Ugh, this sucks...” Larry groaned.

“Come on; Larry, put your all into it!” Tommy tried to motivate him, to little avail.

“I don’t know if I can. I’m not in such good shape like I used to be.”

“Ok then, could you at least move out of the way so I could—?”

“Hey, guys?” Amy spoke up.

“Do you want us to stop ‘arguing’?” Larry guessed.

“Well, yes, but is it just me, or does it seem like we’re going in the opposite direction?”

“Hey, now that you mention it, why is the escalator going the wrong way? What’s going on here?”

“Look out and don’t trip!”

The three looked down, finding the escalator going off in a different direction, and tripped up while running. Once the escalator moved up again, the group all tumbled down on the up escalator. The moving stairway changed direction sporadically as the team grew nauseous.

“My everything hurts,” Tommy whined.

“No, we can’t falter now!” Amy exclaimed with determination.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“What are we going to do? At this rate—”

“I got it. Let’s climb up on the handles of this!”

“But we don’t have excellent friction!” Larry pointed out.

“Aw, don’t give up so quickly,” Amy reassured him with a wink. She took out two more vials with colored potions and handed them over to the other two. “Drink the Potion of Potency and watch...”

“You could’ve done that sooner?” Tommy questioned.

Amy glared at him, giving him an ‘I didn’t think of it until now’ look. Tommy and Larry hurriedly took the vials and drank them. After a while, Amy took a sip from another flask and climbed onto the handles. Tommy and Larry did the same.

Their movements zoomed upward toward the edge of the top of the mountain. Their bodies propelled and skyrocketed forward.

“If that escalator is going the opposite of what it’s supposed to do, then so will we!” Amy boasted.

“Say what?” Tommy questioned, flabbergasted.

“Hang on you guys; this'll be a bumpy ride!” She grabbed both of their arms as they jumped off and landed on the highest peak of the summit.

They looked over and saw a bright red sun from far away, along with mist and clouds. The three noticed the scenery a lot better from up there and tried to locate the next gem. Beyond the horizon, Amy spotted the light blue crystal tower. She pointed out how that was where they needed to head to next, as she could sense the gem from a distance. It may have looked far away, but she still had a plan.

Larry wondered how they could make it in a short amount of time. Amy grabbed hold of the guys and leaped off the mountain. The three tumbled down the snow until they formed a giant snowball and slid down, hitting the tower, breaking apart into pieces, and splitting out of the snowball reasonably quickly.

“Man, you could’ve warned us at the very least,” Tommy said, sighing in exasperation.

“It wouldn’t have mattered,” Amy replied. “It would have the same impact, regardless.” She turned and walked off toward the doors. “Now, let’s continue.”

“Hey, wait, I have a question for you.” Tommy brushed the snow off his clothes and walked over to her.

“Ugh, now what?” Amy stopped in her tracks and turned to face him.

“How do you know the name of the dark void? Do you two have some history going down between them—?”

“Whoa, hey there.” Larry interrupted. “This is Amy we’re talking about here, and you know she’ll just say—”

“It doesn’t matter.” Amy cut his sentence short. “You shouldn’t get involved in people’s businesses, anyway.

“But Amy—” Tommy tried to butt in, but she cut him off again.

“What matters is that you focus on your goal, is that clear?”

“My friend is in danger! All because of...”

“How would you know that? Maggie could be lying to you...”

“What? Why would she lie to us?”

“Do you know much about her?”

“Well, no, but she sounded so serious. What about you, Miss Classified? How can we possibly trust you when you constantly keep us in the dark?”

“What!? You do not understand what—”

“Enough!” Larry shouted at the top of his lungs, causing the ground to shake briefly. Amy and Tommy stopped fighting and turned to face the man. “Whatever happened to getting the gem and not stalling around like nimrods?” He continued.

“Well, yeah, now that you mention it...” Tommy started with his head hung low.

More rumbling occurred as Amy spotted an avalanche across the distance. Realizing the sticky situation that they got stuck in, the three hurried inside the tower before they could get buried in the snow.