Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

There were a lot of things that Victor feared in life. It was the natural reaction to being sheltered and under constant stress and abuse, especially when he was struggling so much just to complete school. He was in the home stretch all things considered, working incredibly hard every day so he could graduate. Damn his seasonal depression, he should have been working daily and instead he ended up cramming all his schoolwork into the end of the year.

He was working on another assignment, having already finished most of the unit in an hour… But he was in the final stretch. He would be able to graduate, he could feel it. He could feel… feel… oh god, he feels bad.

He felt as something was surrounding his neck, slowly suffocating him as he tried to breath but couldn't. Everything was getting numb as he felt his head begin to separate from his neck, wanting to scream for help but unable to. What the fuck was happening?! He saw his body as his head rolled to the floor, staring on in horror as his senses started to fade out.

He couldn't feel anything. He could only hear… Rain. Until even the rain was gone.

And then he felt something again. It was like he was being yanked somewhere, along with the rest of his system. A warm cushioning feeling surrounded the system's soul; until he could feel…

Arms. Legs. A head. A torso. He was alive again? He gasped for air and yanked himself up.

Why the hell is everything… blocky?

"Ah, it seems like I have a new apprentice!"

Is that a fucking wizard. From combat initiation. Looks different enough yeah but still what the fuck.

"U-uh- where am I?"

"You really don't know? This is the ruins of the old Astral Isles! The stars align once every ten years, and a new apprentice is brought along! Though, it's quite rare that you'd see a Noob summoned… no matter!" The wizard looked through some drawers in the chapel-like area.

"What are you talking about- noob? What… where-"

"Ah-HA! Here we are! This orb will make it so we can see what magic you're most com…you… you look far more confused than others would- are you not a noob? Well, I guess I have never seen a noob with a red shirt and black pants…"

"No, I'm not- I- I think I just died-? I felt my head come off my body and- and-"

"… Oh ####" The Wizard hurriedly places the orb down on a pedestal, "Use this and tell me what it says, I'll be… right back-" The wizard then proceeded to teleport away in a hurry.

Okay. Whatever. Guess this is happening now. The human Robloxian awkwardly walked towards the orb, struggling with the R6 proportions as he tapped it twice. The orb swirled with color, and said the word "STARLIGHT" before glitching and warping to "ECLIPSE," "GROWTH," "CONNECTION," and "CREATION."

Ominous but ok. Sure. This is happening. He hoped this was just another dream where he gets isekaied. That's happened before. After a little while, the wizard returned looking frazzled.

"My apologies for the wait- this hasn't happened in quite a few decades, so if you'd forgive me on asking some questions after you tell me what the orb said…" Huh, this guy was surprisingly not an asshole like other wizards probably would be.

"Oh- uhh, it said Starlight, Eclipse, Growth, Connection, and Creation. Also, it's fine, I'm a little frazzled myself but I'd be willing to answer questions if it helps."

"I- well that's a… confusing result for the orb. Let me…" they scribbled that down on the clipboard as they passively floated as if pacing. "Okay, first question, what was your name?"

"I uh… uhh…" what the hell, "I don't remember."

"That is… concerning," they scribbled that down too, "what was your species?"

"… Human."

"Alright, alright, let's see… ah- have you had phantom limbs for limbs you've never had?"

"Yes, why?"

"That could explain a lot for the results you got with the orb," they mumbled nervously before speaking up again "next, do you happen to feel any sense of wrongness in your soul? Like… almost as if it's not fully 'yours' in some form?"

"… I mean, depends, if you say feeling like I'm a patchwork of many different people as something like that?"

"Yeah that counts- it would also explain why there was multiple answers from the orb instead of just one… alright, that's all I needed- follow me, there's a room already prepared for a temporary stay but nothing permanent yet."

"Okay? Guess this is happening…"

He just followed behind them, awkwardly trying to walk like a person at first before realizing he's in roblox, finding it far easier to move his legs like an avatar than to try and move them like actual legs. This is so weird. He stopped at the… stairs.

"… are you going to follow me or-"

"I don't know how to go up stairs."

"What?"

"I don't have KNEES, I don't know how to get up the stairs."

"Oh."

He suddenly felt weightless, yelping a fit in frantic nervousness before opening his tightly-shut eyes to being at the floor he needed to be.

"… thanks. Please warn me next time though, nearly had a heart attack from that."

"Sorry, I'll install something to help with your lack of experience with stairs soon."

They took the former human to a room, it being nicely decorated for a temporary resting area- even having a table for a tea party. It was still plain, though.

"Give me a moment once more- you're probably hungry, right?"

"… I guess I am…?"

The wizard disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving him alone to his devices. The robloxian sat down, generally confused by this situation as he grabbed a book from the shelf next to the table. The book, titled 'the fundamentals of magic,' was quite thick and had a hard cover. It was worn, but clearly had a good binding on its spine.

He quietly began to read, as he waited for the wizard to come back.

— [A FEW WEEKS LATER…] —

"You need to work on the enunciation of that spell, but you're on the right track all things considered!"

"What exactly is the point of that one again?"

"It's for self-defense mostly! Though it does worry me how you haven't evolved yet, you can still do this spell even without evolution!"

"And why are certain spells locked behind evolution again?"

"They're not necessarily, but they're advanced and they can end up hurting you if you don't properly evolve. It doesn't help that we might be on a time limit…"

"… What do you mean by that?"

"You see- Wizard apprenticeships are heavily restricted by the admin known as 'Mr. DoomBringer' in order to keep our numbers elite, and uh… I didn't get approval for this apprenticeship."

"Oh. Okay then." That explains why the Wizard has been so nice all this time.

"You're… Not terrified at the prospect of meeting an admin?"

"Nah. I'd be more concerned about you actually."

It had been a while since the former human, now known as Vex, had been brought here by that summoning spell. He had gotten used to the Wizard he was training under, figuring out different spells like puzzles and topping off the knowledge gained from his education before this. The way that magic was structured was kind of like code, similar to how it was noted down in old Roblox lore. If-then-and loops were prevalent, but there was a lot of intricacies that differed from just code. In fact, magic here reminds him of scripts and hacking GUIs like the C00l GUI almost. Makes sense why it's so regulated.

"You are truly a strange one, Vex. But rather, you wouldn't be my apprentice if you weren't strange… truly, I'm surprised at how quickly you grasped the basics."

"Eh, that's just how I roll. Plus, a lot of it is like a puzzle, and if something doesn't work it's kinda easy to figure out why!"

"Hm… even then, I still am stumped why you haven't evolved by now… do you have a mental block of sorts? Or is it something else?"

"I… I guess I have always been a little afraid of growing up into something that I didn't want and being unsatisfied with my life… being stuck with only one path is a sucky way to live, I like options."

The Wizard looked deep in thought. Deep, deep in thought. And then their eyes lit up.

"Well, you didn't hear this from me- but I've heard of an old… rumor that there's a… call it a 'sub-evolution' of users, but it's the only non-standardized evolution that can occur these days."

"Hm?"

"They're called 'Bloxxers' from what I've heard- they can appear as Noobs even after evolving, but they're all users that don't have specializations and can use a wide swathe of skills and abilities. Anywhere from wielding swords of fire, making turrets, to even necromancy- they can utilize those abilities to their own whims! It's an incredibly rare thing to happen as their evolution isn't obvious like many others, but their very existence is considered very dangerous to the Admins."

"Huh. You think I might be evolving into one?"

"Mm, perhaps- while you are absolutely a candidate for evolving into some form of spellcaster, your skills don't only lie in magic… I saw you trying to learn a few other things earlier, and you seemed to at least have some idea on how to wield all of the weapons you tried."

"Weird. I don't really feel any different than before, though?"

"Ah… then you might not have actually fully evolved at all yet. You'll get there…?"

"Anyways, can we get back to learning? This spell's pretty tricky for me."

"Yes yes, back on topic. So for this spell, you'll want to…"

—

— [SEVERAL MORE WEEKS LATER…] —

—

Vex still didn't really feel any different. Even after learning multiple spells usually reserved for the most wizened Wizards in the world, he still hadn't evolved. He could literally float, and yet he just. Didn't evolve. It's to the point where he got a title, despite it being rare for users in general; "The Cursed Valedictorian". Like, that had to be the most ominous title ever too, why was that the title he got? He wasn't even CURSED damn it!

"I've taught you all I could while you're still a noob, and yet still you haven't shown any sign of evolution… you mentioned not feeling any different as well, despite all that knowledge- and you even have a title at this point…"

"Ehhh, it's a little frustrating, but honestly I'm glad I'm not stuck down one path for now. Though, why are spells so standardized like that? I'm curious as to why they're not expanded apoun…"

"Ah- right, it's not written in standardized textbooks, but it's to prevent someone from evolving into a Hacker."

"I… suspected as much, but why is it so dangerous?"

"Hackers can manipulate the very fabric of reality, and can stand toe-to-toe with Admins, yes- but they also loose their minds with power from their evolution, more often than not. Anyone can evolve into one, if they dabble too much into the wrong paths- one spark of curiosity can cause their evolution into one, causing them to be a danger to both themselves and others."

"Makes sense, having all that power has gotta corrupt someone at some point. I'm assuming it's a common misconception that Bloxxers and the pre-evoloution to Hackers, and that's why they're natural outlaws?"

"Precisely! I have met with one Hacker before- not a pleasant experience… unfortunately, most are usually misguided youth that don't realize what they're doing is wrong."

"Sounds about right… the 'hackers' I know from back where I'm from were often youth that just went on some form of power trip from downloading pre-made scripts, but the more well-known ones actually revealed genuine security concerns. Though, there's white hat hackers who hack to inform the people of security concerns or reveal especially damaging bugs, and then there's black hat hackers who are after money and causing destruction, and both are technically illegal still."

"Interesting… that's truly fascinating, I never knew there were two factions of hackers in any form…!"

The Wizard was fidgeting nervously, looking anxious. It didn't take Vex long to figure out why- considering how he was technically an illegal apprentice, it must mean they're getting low on time. He thought for a moment.

"You know, since I'm still a Noob, I could probably hide in a crowd and not get noticed. I'd rather you not get into deep shit from just training me and showing me what this world is like…"

"No- no, it's okay. I can handle the Admin, I just… I don't know if I'll survive buying you time. So, I'm thinking of how to give you the materials and tools you need without him noticing…"

"What if you put it a in a bag that I can quickly grab and run? It would be easier to grab one bag and put it in my inventory than to put everything in there one at a time. And also, I'd rather you not get banned, actually."

"That… might actually work…!"

The Wizard teleported away to grab the things they wanted to give him when he had to run from this place. He… didn't know how to feel about this. Why does the law of this land go this way? It wasn't right, but then again… it sounds just like how Roblox always is. He just wished he could change it.

He felt something begin to shift. But it wasn't obvious what it was, at least not now.

—

He grabbed the bag they had made for him, using his knowledge of the old temple's layout to his advantage while hiding from the swathe of Smiths raiding the place. He saw that Mr. DoomBringer had flown in, interrogating Vex's teacher on where he was without noticing him. He saw as the admin lifted the hammer, staring at it- the hammer looked… off. Something felt off about it, he just couldn't put his finger on it. He then watched, as the Wizard and the Admin disappeared… and as he made his escape.

He changed his outfit to the Noob standard, managing to find himself being pushed into line to fight in crossroads with a mob of other noobs. A few looked at him weirdly, and shrugged, while a few looked at him suspiciously with scrutiny in their eyes. He moved weirdly. He acted ever so slightly wrong. Not like a Noob typically does.

He was pushed into the area that looked sort of like a loading dock by a bunch of other Noobs, noticing a few Bobbys and gunners as well as he was pushed on the teleporting pad with a few more suspicious looks. Was there something on his face?

He found himself at one of the enemy spawners in the Blackrock area of crossroads, but noticed that he didn't feel like he added to the enemy counter, while all the others did. Huh, weird, probably nothing though.

The weird stares got more intense.

And the next thing he knew, he was being chased by a mob of other noobs and some Bobbys, and being shot at from almost all angles by random gunners. Also, he was screaming and running away because- well no shit, HE DIDN'T HAVE ANY WEAPONS ON HIM! He ran around to the elevator, screaming his head off as he ran and dashed (wait, why can he dash? He wasn't able to do that before-) around crossroads completely unarmed, seeing a bunch of Bloxxers fighting off the wave before one of them inevitably noticed his screaming.

"Yarr, what are ye fools doing?! By Davy Jones's locker, that landlubber's unarmed!"

A Pirate-looking Bloxxer blew up the crowd chasing Vex, fighting off any stragglers and parrying the projectiles aimed at him after he tripped from being, obviously, a little shocked by the explosions five feet away from his face. He got up, hearing the elevator rumble at the center of the area as the pirate held out a hand for him to grab.

"Ye alright, matey? Ye seemed a little outta yer element there… Aye, yer a new one, aren't ye?"

"I- I don't know what you mean. I- what's happening? Why was I being chased? I didn't even bring a weapon- I just got pushed in with the crowd, why did they attack me?"

"Ohh… oh yer NEW new… don't worry, matey- I, Captain Ember, shall show ye the ropes!"

Another voice perked up from near the shop- a bloxxer wearing a traffic cone and a similarly-colored outfit spoke, "Ember, you found a new guy? That hasn't happened in a while… Name's Caution_Crumbler."

A third one, one with a soldier-like hat and a green sleeveless hoodie, spoke up as well- "M' PlaneNSimple. Nice to meet you."

Vex spoke up, "uh… I'm… I'm- just… just call me Vex. Just… Vex. I don't… I don't want to… tell you my actual name." Totally executed that lie perfectly, not like he remembers his name anyways.

"Aye, ye don't need ta' hassle yerself with the details; not the first time it's happened fer newcomers. AYE, SHOPKEEP!" The shopkeeper perked up from the Captain's yell, "WE HAVE A NEW DECKHAND TO WELCOME!"

The shopkeeper took one glance at Vex and nodded, as Vex came up to them the shopkeep pulled out a selection of weapons to choose and put a ROBLOX visor on him to differentiate him from the noobs. Honestly Vex was pretty confused, but at this point he connected the dots- picking out the sword and the rocket launcher as his free weapons of choice.

"Solid choice for a beginner, I must say. You might actually be an interesting, never seen someone so sure about their starting weapons before!" Caution gave him a pat on the back.

"W-well I do know how to use a sword relatively well… and I'm not that accurate, but I'd rather have something to help with large crowds so I don't get chased like that again…"

"Heh, really thought this through huh? I like your energy, you might have some good potential!"

"Aye, quite a rarity for someone to think their choices through like that! Lad's certainly got a plan of action!" The captain barked a laugh, "if ye need something, go ahead n ask me, ye got that laddie?"

"S-sure…"

"Less talking. Wave's soon." Plane stated in a monotonous voice.

"Plane's right, we don't have time to chatter for now. I recommend saving up some Tix so you can upgrade your stuff later, new kid."

"True, Laddie's new to this, they'll need all the help they can get!"

"He. I'm a man."

"Ah- my apologies, HE needs all the help he can get!"

"It's fine, better than being automatically assumed as a girl. Happened more times than you would think."

He stretched his body a bit before getting ready for the wave, doing a few practice swings and checking the mechanisms in the rocket launcher before the timer for the between-waves break ended. He ran around, purposely trying to get a crowd's attention and corral a large amount of noobs and Bobbys before dashing away and launching a rocket at them, swapping to his sword to pick off the last few stragglers from the group and parry a few projectiles from random gunners and blowing up more enemies. He located the gunners and killed them too, probably getting an XTREME ranking from doing all that.

He ended up getting into a bit of a groove, wave after wave he ended up getting more and more used to his tools and getting so into the zone he was almost completely silent by the time Jason came around. It was to the point where he felt almost like he was controlling himself like he would with the game version of Combat Initiation- every movement being dictated by imaginary button presses and mouse movements. He looked for Jason and imagined pinging his location, faintly seeing an outline and a 'JASON HERE!' above the killer.

"Eh? How'dya do that?"

"Odd."

"Yarr, that be an awfully useful gift, laddie!"

Oh. Oh that's not a normal thing to do here is it. Whatever, time to beat up a serial killer. NOT GONNA SUGARCOAT IT.

Jason was down before he even knew what hit him, the entire group of four Bloxxers absolutely annihilated him. After that, Vex promptly snapped back to reality by vigorously shaking his head around. He went to the shop, looking at his gear selection before grabbing the grappling hook without hesitation and without thinking. He looked over to the other Bloxxers, Captain Ember proceeding to ruffle his non-existent (or, rather, 'invisible' to him) hair.

"Aye, how'd ye pull off that trick matey? Never seen a Bloxxer able to do that, not once!"

"I dunno, I just kinda… Did. I guess i was so focused on not dying I didn't realize I could do that until I had already done so."

"Yer quite an interesting one, aren't ye? Say, what were ye doing before getting here?"

"W-well… This may take a bit to explain…"

—

Vex sat on the elevator with the other Bloxxers, traveling to Chaos Canyon as he explained his situation a little bit more.

"Soooo… you were an illegal apprentice to a Wizard, and you're essentially out for revenge against an admin."

"Not out for revenge, I just want to become a nuisance he can't get rid of out of spite."

"You're insane."

"I know, but I also know that Bloxxers can't get banned normally, and that's why Admins go after us. A perfect storm I would say so myself!"

"… Yeah, you fit right in with the others around happy home. Though, you mentioned you had a title- what is it?"

"Something something, 'The Cursed Valedictorian' or something like that- it was because I just wouldn't evolve into a Wizard no matter how much I learned and mastered magic as a noob. I'm pretty sure it might have changed by now, but I haven't bothered to check."

"That's ominous as hell."

"Aye, that's truly a foreboding title."

"I know right?"

"What clan did the Wizard you trained under come from? I haven't heard of any Wizard that was even remotely nice in a looong time."

"I think they mentioned the 'Astral Isles' at one point? And that they had disbanded a long while ago and they had to find an apprentice to pass their knowledge to but couldn't find one good enough, hence why it was an unregulated apprenticeship."

"Wait, what?" Caution looked baffled, "you were apprenticed under The Wayward Starlight?"

"I- yes? Is that important?"

Everyone turned to him, now also baffled and surprised.

"Ye don't know?! That crazy landlubber stood toe-to-toe with THREE admins back in their heyday! They're a living LEGEND!"

"Oh ####. Didn't know they were THAT important, their power must have dwindled over the years since they were so insistent on hiding me…"

"True. It has been quite a few decades."

"Oooooooorrrr they knew Vex had something special about him and the potential he had to evolve into a Bloxxer!"

"Now that you say it, they did say that at some point…"

"HA! I knew it."

As they chattered, Vex had a feeling he would get used to these Bloxxers. Hey, maybe he might become good friends with them, it would be nice. He breathed, and smiled as the elevator finally began to open up to daylight, and Chaos Canyon came up into view. He eagerly dashed out, getting to a more open area while nervously glancing up at the high vantage points. He dashed and dodged, parried and launched, up until he was given a moment without aggro on him.

He looked around in the area under the high vantage points of the map, taking the moment of peace for recon- before he noticed something strange. Something a bit out out place in such a 'retro game' type of world.

A familiar red rotary dial with no chord to plug it in with, dulled with scrapes and slightly-chipping paint from time, hidden in an ever-so-slightly opened crate.

Chapter Text

Vex stared at the rotary. Stared and blinked and looked around, before yoinking the odd item into his inventory. It was certainly an… unordinary trinket, but like hell was he gonna just leave such a strangely familiar thing out in the wide ####### open, especially when this place is about to become a war zone again here soon.

He dashed out of the little area, getting back out into the open areas that he preferred to fight in. Honestly he was starting to get pretty hungry, he should ask the shopkeep if he could get a snack at the actual intermission. Wave 4 began, and he returned to running around and fighting as best as he can; he's thankful that respawning exists in robloxia honestly, otherwise he would probably feel way worse fighting off the waves.

On instinct, forgetting this was reality for a brief moment, he used the grappling hook to get to high ground to snipe crowds. It was at this moment he remembered that this wasn't a game anymore, and then remembered that he was deathly afraid of heights. His breath hitched, the vertigo and the amount of height rooting his feet in place after he landed clumsily on the large wall's platform as he made the mistake of looking down. That was… a lot of stairs.

He froze up like a cornered animal, unable to move from his spot as his legs felt weak. Captain Ember came up to the platform too and looked concerned at how freaked out Vex was. They waved their hand in front of his face, causing Vex to quietly squeak.

"Are ye alright matey? Ye look practically frozen in fear!"

"I- I uh- I'm terribly afraid of heights. And… And stairs. C-can you help me get… back down?"

"Eh? Why'dya choose the grappling hook then laddie?"

"I don't know? I just kinda did-" Vex's feet got wobbly to the point where he fell, "####!"

"Oh BARNACLES I FORGOT-"

Vex held his breath, ready to fall to his doom-

Only to land perfectly on his feet like a cat, taking absolutely zero damage. He buffered a bit after that, his eyes unfocused as he tried to process that he is, in fact, not affected by fall damage. Ember landed right next to him, landing on two feet as well.

"Ayee, well. As ye can see, Bloxxers aren't as… affected by falls as the average user, matey."

"I… would have liked to… know earlier." Vex tried his best to take deep breaths, he was fine. It was fine. He wasn't about to di- "hoLY #### THAT'S A MASSIVE SPIDER-" he ran away from the spider immediately, trying to get as far as possible from it.

"Woah there matey, ye be afraid of spiders too?"

"Yeah- only… when they get too close to me. And it depends on the day."

"… ye need help with that fear?"

"M-maybe later. The fear of heights should… fade… hopefully-"

"Aye, but if ye be overwhelmed, come to yer Captain, got that matey?"

"Ye-yeah, thanks."

The intermission began and Vex walked up to the shop, looking at the upgrades and grabbing the firebrand almost immediately. Big fire sword is a big fire sword, and he likes fire. He asked the shopkeeper for some food, and got a whole box of pizza to himself which he promptly devoured before stretching. Man, honestly he's gonna start craving fish at this rate, been a long time since he's had some good sushi.

Vex fought through the waves, occasionally getting stunlocked on a high place before realizing he can just fall without consequences and grappling-hooking to another spot to get away from the giants. Each wave was at least a little tougher than the last, crowd control desperately being needed more often than not and Vex delivering the best he could. Then, it was time for the boss fight.

The Captain (boss) bowed, and the others bowed back. Vex nervously bowed, the boss clearly taking note of his 'seriously new to this' energy and giving a an understanding nod. Soon, everyone immediately sprung into action- the fight consisting of erratic movement and strafing from all involved; Vex managing to hit back a few barrels with his firebrand while his rocked launcher auto-reloaded causing massive damage.

When the captain boss fell, Captain Ember showed an especially respectful bow, along with the others including Vex. He then spun his firebrand around, putting it back on his back because swords here apparently don't care about the laws of physics or something. Speaking of the firebrand; Vex noticed something strange about Ember.

"Hey, Captain Ember, isn't the firebrand 200 TIX? How did you have it back in crossroads?"

"Aye, it's an odd tale fer certain! Ye see matey, back before my days as a Bloxxer, I was a deckhand on a ship that very user ran! Twas a long journey looking fer treasures unheard of, soon enough I found meself at the ruins of an old temple… now, I'd have evolved to a Bloxxer at this point, but I'd swear on me missing eye, that place looked like it had ancient treasure all over it!"

"So… you found the sword in a temple."

"Indeed, laddie! Lost me eye in that temple; fell for one too many booby traps, yarharhar!"

"Yooooou sure it ain't cursed?"

"It's very cursed matey, can't leave my inventory despite everything! Stuck with me through thick n' thin!"

A shiver crawled up Vex's spine as the elevator moved onto Glass Houses. Vex, now more used to being high up (even if slightly nervous), immediately grappled to high ground and used the umbrella he grabbed to slightly control his direction and speed while sniping enemies from afar. He landed on the platform and grappled a few killbots as the waves went on, until wave 25 hit and the cannon spawned a little ways away from him (which he immediately pinged).

He dashed from the high ground, doing more crowd control and sniping killbots before safely landing after the cannon was destroyed. Plane was leaning on the shop, zombies from their zombie staff wandering about, as Vex and Caution looked at the wares, Vex buying a Bazooka and Caution buying a pinata. Vex internally questioned what the hell Caution's fighting style entails before realizing a guy literally named 'Caution_Crumbler' would probably have a whack ass strategy anyways.

After the break finished, Vex continued on his merry way, fighting off the next wave up until a mark spawned. Now, there is something that Vex remembers from the game Combat Initiation, and that's the absolute bull#### run-enders that marks gave him while he was working towards the Combative Egg of Initiation in the Easter 2026 event (which he didnt get because he unfortunately had a skill issue). Thus, he HATES these ####### enemies, and that causes him to snap his head DIRECTLY towards the mark and grapple straight to them. They didn't stand a chance. He proceeded to do the same for any mark that he came across.

Pretty soon, wave 40 came and passed, and the Vagabond entered the fray looking for a fight. He looked directly at Vex, giving a cocky smirk at seeing a newbie before beginning to attack. Vex grappled away to snipe from afar, dashing around and using his umbrella to have more precise control over his speed and falling while sniping the boss, forgetting about his own fear of heights for a moment from the pressure.

Vagabond began to zone in on Vex, seeing the game of keep-away as a sign of fear when really it was a lure. Vex dashed to dodge his attacks, grappling him and using the firebrand whenever he saw an opening and luring the boss back over to the others as they all depleted his health bar to zero. When the Vagabond recognized his defeat, he hopped back and did a short bow before leaving the scene to not be seen again for this run.

Vex stretched a bit, taking the decoy deploy from the gear selection, a snack, and a soda from a provided cooler to recuperate from the tough fight. He yawned, the pressure from running around hurting his feet, so he leisurely floated around for a bit to rest his muscles, surprising the other Bloxxers and the shopkeep.

"Yooo, you can float? I thought only Wizards, Killbots, and Admins could do that!"

"Mm? Yeah, my title was The Cursed Valedictorian for a reason; technically I can do anything an average Wizard can and then some, but it's kinda boring to use that during a fight. I prefer to challenge myself to learn new skills anyways when I can, way more fun than just sticking to what I know."

"… Makes sense."

Vex stopped floating as the quartet got on the elevator, now departing to Rocket Arena. He fidgeted with the visor he was given, adjusting it like he would his glasses back when he needed those. He had bought a trowel to prepare for sentry gaming later, as he lured a bunch of the crowds to him and used a decoy deploy before grappling to the next grapple-point. He did this until the King mech dropped in, which he proceeded to grapple away from and snipe repeatedly and occasionally parry when they got too close. Checkmate, idiot.

Vex used the intermission to finally buy the wrench (and the time bomb because he had enough), and to get some sweet sweet air conditioning wafted at him because, go figure, this place was REALLY REALLY HOT. He ambled around a bit, setting up a sentry and imbuing it with fire by giving it a smack with his firebrand before setting up a decoy deploy trap there to help fight off the waves and grappling away. The waves started up again, and he continued to fight until a Wizard spawned right next to him.

"Ohoho? Quite the magical aura for a filthy Bloxxer… though our king was defeated, I won't back dow-!?"

"L + Ratio + get pwned idiot."

The wizard did not stand a chance.

Each wave came and went, the beacons being easily destroyed and the wizards being quickly dispatched before the boss came along. Yep, that sure was a massive ####ing kaiju alright. Vex did his best to avoid as many attacks as he could, consistently putting sentries down and placing down a decoy deploy for homing rockets and killbots. There goes the big red dinosaur, talk about being carried- the other Bloxxers were absolutely destroying that thing's HP!

Vex finally got a timebomb at the shop along with the Regen Coil gear, in preparation for tripmines and healing like a ####, before eagerly getting on the elevator while kicking his feet with a devious 'little ####' smile plastered on his face. The other Bloxxers looked slightly concerned at that, while Vex internally evilly plotted.

You see, Vex had decided as soon as he saw that admin attack his mentor to become an absolute nuisance. The others in his system also agreed with this sentiment, and all collectively decided to ragebait that admin until the day they die. This includes the DoomBringer from a separate continuity in their headspace. As the doomspires came into view, Vex remembered one of his worst fears in the world.

Rain.

Now don't get him wrong, he likes the sound of rain. When it's not anywhere close to him that is. He used to live in tornado alley and had a kinda ####ty house though, without a specialized shelter or basement or anything for tornadoes, so that lead to a pervasive fear of the rain; especially thunder and lightning. Along with that, he HATED getting wet, so this was just an unfortunate event all around for him. He froze up.

"Eh? Matey, are ye… afraid of rain?"

"… y-yeah. And… lightning- I lived in an area that had tornadoes a lot, so…"

"Aye, I see. Ye be fine laddie, just dash around to avoid the lightning once ye see sparks. No risk of tornadoes here!"

"I-if you say so Captain Ember…"

The pirate ruffled his hair, "Believe me, the swarms are more dangerous than the rain matey."

Vex nodded and started dashing around, fighting off waves before grappling up to high ground and freezing up a bit. Holy ####, these spires were tall. Now he was simply nervous from the height; doesn't lightning often go for the highest spots to equalize its charge? Wait… before getting distracted by a Wizard, he had sworn that he saw something in the sky.

Probably nothing?

He fought through each wave with caution and diligence, trying his best to ignore the lightning and the rain making him feel shaky, cold and terrified. He grappled back to the shop, using the umbrella to control his speed before grabbing the Subspace tripmine as his upgrade of choice before dashing around to help with the next waves. Anything to distract him from the rain.

Pretty soon, the last wave came and went, and the quartet of Bloxxers were dragged to the center of the map.

"ENOUGH! The remains of our societies, all laid in ruins. Left none to-"

"Nice to see you again, you unobservant oaf."

"WHAT?! How DARE you interrupt my-"

"Dude, did you seriously not notice me sneaking out while you harassed my mentor? Lol, ROFL even. But go ahead, do your little dumb speech, I heard it earlier when I slinked away!"

"You… You're that Wizard I just banned's little apprentice, aren't you? Such a disgrace, for such a powerful magic user to have such a rude apprentice."

"Wouldn't be so rude if you just left em' alone!"

"The word of Justice condemns you dead; and I shall do it's bidding. LET THE TERMINATION COMMENCE!"

"Nah, I'd win."

One bossfight later, and Vex had proved to DoomBringer that he was, in fact, not being cocky for the sake of being cocky. Arguably, he did the most damage through both chip damage, Melee, and kaboom-power to beat his ass via his vague memorization of his attack patterns from his previous life. Vex felt a stroke of pride as Captain Ember slung their arm over his shoulder while barking out a laugh.

"Well I'll be, yer a natural matey! Aye, thought ye'd be all bark and no bite but ye pulled through with those fighting words!"

"It was quite impressive all things considered." Plane had their arms crossed, despite looking serious and stoic a sense of curious pride came off as well.

"Plane's pretty proud of you, a lot of Bloxxers loose all their lives their first run but you didn't even loose one!" Caution clapped.

"Th-thanks… so we return our weapons now?"

"Yep, can't go any further yet until the shopkeep finds a suitable place to fight. Plus, we gotta grab any goods that got strewn about now!"

"Okay…" Vex dashed about to look for things to take back.

He fell to the underground section, finding the secret movie theater and the secret hat from there; before noticing something else. A wall of wooden boards that wasn't there before. He broke it, finding an old storage area with a bunch of gears and weapons- or rather, gears and weapons that never came to be. He looked in a particular box, feeling an oddly familiar pull as he opened it only to find two highly rare, highly valuable, highly scrapped gears.

He took the Fuchsia and Hazel Periastrons, something felt natural about holding them. Comforting almost. It was strange. He put them away in his inventory before grabbing the last of whatever was needed for that run, and then getting on the elevator back to happy home in record time.