927. Chapter 927

After The Blame Game

Episode 8.12

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I'm not to blame for season eight! Rating: K Time: See above.

Author's note: This is a sequel to chapters 536, 802 and 867.

"You're sure she won't be there?"

Rick Castle put his arms around his wife and kissed the top of her head. "No, Erika Vaughn is in London, or at least she was four hours ago. She won't try anything tonight."

Kate rested her head on his chest. "It's just that she killed a business associate to cover up her own financial mis-dealings, then tried to make it look like she was the target, and she wanted you as her bodyguard so she could…..have her way with you. And the cold blooded bitch got away with murder."

Castle kissed the top of her head again. "You know you're the only one I let have their way with me. When the Brits voted to leave the European Union, it caused a huge upheaval in her European operations. A guy I know, who's a reporter, told me he'd seen her enter a business meeting in London four hours ago. Now can we go, Mrs. Castle?"

She smiled. "I love to hear you call me that."

"I know." He smiled. He waited a beat and added, "Mrs. Castle."

It took their car service less than a half an hour to get to the headquarters of the Sinthesis Corporation. They were met by Todd Manwaring, the president of the company

"Rick, Kate, I'm glad you could come. Come on, I'll introduce you to the other guests and explain what we're doing tonight." He took them into a large room where four more people were waiting.

Manwaring spoke. "Thanks for coming tonight without any hint of why. As you know our virtual reality gaming system has been huge hit. We can hardly keep up with demand. Our version of Jules Verne's Five Weeks in a Balloon is flying off the shelves. But we can't rest. Our competitors certainly aren't. So, we're getting ready for the release of a new game, something of a sword and sorcery game. Marketing hasn't come up with a better name yet." Todd stopped and handed out sheets of paper to each person. "You're all good gamers, so I've asked you here to be the first non-company employees to try the game to get your reactions. Please look over your game characters and then tell the others about yourselves in real life and in the game."

When they had read about their characters, Kate spoke first. "I'm Captain Kate Beckett, NYPD. In the game I'm Kate, Warrior Princess. My best weapon is apparently the bow and arrow, but I have a sword and shield."

Next was Rick. "I'm Rick Castle, and Kate is my wife. I'm a writer, and I occasionally help my wife on cases. In the game, I'm Rick the Bard."

They both looked at the woman standing next to them, who blushed and stared at her feet. She was slender and flat chested, with blonde hair cut short. Short and oddly cut as if she'd cut it herself without mirror. She was dressed in jeans and a Star Wars tee shirt. "I'm Chrissy Evans, and I've been a girl gamer geek since college. Um, it's funny, but in the game I'm a thief. In RL, I work for an NGO that analyzes corruption all around the world." She never looked up the whole time.

"I'm Maurice Rose and I'm a lawyer. Oddly, they call me Morrie the Magician and I'm your friendly, local wizard, Morrie the Wizard. "

The next player was a tall, slender older woman with silver hair and a smile. "Hi. I'm Janet Collins. I've been a wife and mother for most of my life, but the kids are all gone and my husband died five years ago. A friend of mine got me into gaming. Tonight, I'm Janet the Red, another warrior. My weapon is a two handed sword, however."

Rick, at least, recognized the last player. "I'm Jawan Hardy, ex-pro basketball player. About ten years ago, I did some work for Todd for a basketball game he did. We've been friends ever since. I always beat him at hoops, since I'm six eight and can dunk over him, which I suspect is why tonight I'm Jawan the Dwarf. I have a battle axe and can dig like nobody's business."

Todd smiled at them all. "Okay, people, sit down and get comfortable, then put on your VR goggles and away you'll go.

Castle found himself in an odd land. To one side was snow and another side was desert. Behind them was an active volcano and in front of them, endless prairies. He looked at his companions. He smiled at Beckett who was in a chain mail bikini. He looked down at himself. He had a short sword and a large box strapped to his shoulder. Inside were quill pens, ink and vellum to write on.

Chrissy, their thief, was in a short dress, slit up the side. She had a dagger and the tools of a burglar. Her hair was longer and in a braid down her back. She seemed a lot more confident than she had been earlier.

Morrie the Magician leaned on a staff, his long, iron grey hair and beard blowing in the breeze. He wore a long blue gown and cape, covered in mystical runes.

Janet had changed the most. She looked to be in her early twenties, tall, busty and with a tangled mane of red hair. She wore a chain mail shirt and shorts and did carry a huge two handed sword. From the look of her muscles, she'd have no trouble handling it.

Jawan was hardly five feet tall, but looked like he'd top the scales at a good two hundred pounds. He had on a helmet and chain mail from head to toe. His battle axe looked like it could chop down a tree with one swing.

"So, which way do we go?" Asked Janet.

Castle looked around again. "I'd vote against the volcano and we're not dressed for snow."

Chrissy spoke "I'm not seeing anything worth stealing in the desert, so I vote we go straight ahead."

They hadn't gone more than a hundred yards when the plains began to change to a country of rolling hills and little copses of trees.

"Oh, shit." Castle said, pointing to some trees. Some twenty skeletons armed with swords were coming straight at them.

Kate took command. "Morrie, get behind us and start casting spells. Castle on my right so my shield will protect us both from the left. Janet on the other side of Rick and Jawan on the other side of her, and Chrissy, stand next to Morrie and keep any skeletons off of him."

Morrie began chanting incantations which didn't drive off or destroy the skeletons, but broke up the group, some slowed down and some sped up, some started going in circles and some headed off to the right or left.

"Keep it up, Morrie. They won't be able to overwhelm us." Kate yelled, pulling back her bow. The first arrow flew straight through one skeleton's ribs and out the back. The second arrow hit a femur and lodged there, but didn't slow the skeleton down. The third arrow hit the skull, which flew apart and the skeleton collapsed. "The skulls are their weak point!" Kate yelled. "Hit their skulls."

Rick watched as five skeletons came at them. One tried to get past Beckett on her left and the other went after her when she turned to the left. Rick, wishing he had a longer sword, reached out and smashed the skeleton's skull, then turned to face the skeleton that had been coming for him, only to find that Janet had taken his skull off with one blow. Both Jawan and Kate had taken care of their skeletons.

The rest of the skeletons came at them in ones and twos as Morrie found his magical footing. Soon the skeletons were no more.

After brief congratulations, they headed down the road that had appeared, now being in a forest. They soon came to a bridge over a wide, rapidly flowing river. In the middle of the bridge stood a being some twelve or fourteen feet high. In one hand was a sword, a good ten feet long, rusted and with a nicked and notched blade. "I'm Thomas the Troll. To pass over my bridge, one of you must entertain me. How about you, sweet one in the chain mail bikini?"

"How about me?" Castle said, stepping forwards.

"How will you entertain me?" The troll grumped.

"I'll tell you a story."

"Okay." The troll said.

Rick began, "Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there lived a young being named….Thomas, just like you."

Castle went on until he got to the end. "And the handsome troll married the beautiful princess and they lived happily ever after."

By this time the troll was crying. "That was the best story I've ever heard. You must stay with me forever and tell me stories." However as the troll walked towards Rick, his tears blinded him and he walked of the bridge into the waters below and drowned.

Kate looked at Rick. "You couldn't have used a Nikki Heat story?"

"The very next troll, I'll tell all about Nikki."

The scenery changed from a forest back to a prairie again. Soon they saw a cloud of dust headed their way.

"Riders." Janet said. "And if things go as they have, they won't be friendly."

As the riders approached, they saw that there were more than a hundred of them, and there were no riders.

"Those are centaurs! Half man and half horse." Castle said.

The centaurs stopped a dozen yards from them. A large centaur with a red coat and human skulls hanging from his body sneered at then. "Two legged walkers. Your kind made me your slave for years. So now I will kill one of you. The redheaded one."

"Suppose I kill you?" Asked Janet.

The centaurs laughed, but their leader replied. "No matter what happens, your friends can continue, And If you kill me, the same. Except I'll be dead." The centaurs laughed again.

The six gathered together. Kate handed Janet her shield. "Take my shield and Rick's short sword as a back up."

"Oh, shit." Rick interrupted. "Look at what he's fighting with. That spear has to be a good fifteen feet long. Does anyone know any good anti-centaur spells? Morrie, I'm looking at you."

Morrie shook his head. "Something's blocking my magic. I can't help."

"You need to get close to him. Once you're past the spear head, he can't harm you." Jawan said.

"Any good ideas how I'm to do that?"

No one had an idea.

Both the centaurs and the humans backed off to give the two fighters room.

It was quickly apparent that the centaur knew what he was doing. He danced back and forth, moving all the time so that Janet had to move to keep her shield between her and the centaur's spear. The centaur would dash in and out and slam his spear against the shield, once almost knocking Janet off of her feet.

Rick put his arms around Kate and whispered in her ear. "Relax. This is all virtual reality. The worst that can happen to her is that her goggles get turned off if she's "killed" and she has to sit there while the rest of us play."

Kate squeezed his hand. "I know, but I've been in so many life and death situations, that it's hard to…."

There was a roar from the centaurs. The spear had slammed into Janet's shield hard enough to knock her down and caused her to drop her sword. As she struggled to get back up, the centaur came in for the kill, holding his spearhead in front of her eyes.

"Look at your death, human." He snarled.

Janet grabbed Rick's sword from her belt and slammed it down on the spear, chopping in in two just above the spear point. She leapt to her feet and grabbed the centaur, holding the edge of the sword against his neck. "If I win, everyone walks away, but you die, isn't that what you said?"

The centaur nodded.

"You're wrong. We walk away and you live." Janet stepped back. "Now get the hell out of my sight."

The centaurs looked at the humans for a second and then slowly rode off.

Janet looked at the rest of them. "I guess I'm not really a killer."

"That's not a bad thing." Kate said.

As they walked, the scenery was changing again. Now they were in the mountains.

"I think this is my kind of country." Said Jawan. Then he smiled. "Look up ahead. We're in a canyon that ends at a cave. We're going underground."

When they got to the cave entrance what they saw wasn't encouraging. There were two skeletons dressed in battered and torn chain mail. Smashed shields, and broken swords and spears surrounded the skeletons.

"Not my kind of a welcome mat." Castle said, smiling.

"Let's go inside, babe."

Inside, they found six torches. Using flint and steel, Castle tried to light them. "This is harder than it looks in the movies." He complained, as he got sparks, but no flame.

"Do you want to let an expert do it?" Morrie said, as the six torches lit at once.

They each picked up a torch. "These torches shed a lot more light than I'd expect." Kate said.

"Magic torches. Nothing but the best for my companions." Morrie said with a smile.

The cave soon took a sharp downwards turn and grew narrower. Then they found themselves in a vast underground cavern.

"Wow!" Castle said.

"If only that was real." Chrissy commented.

"It's a dragon's hoard. There must be acres and acres of gold here. And where there are dragon's hoards, there are dragons. We need to get out of here. Now?" Jawan said quickly.

"Hi. Who are you?" Said a high pitched voice.

They turned to see a small dragon coming towards them. Well, small by dragon standards. He was perhaps eight feet tall and was bright pink.

Rick stepped forward. "I'm Rick. Let me introduce my friends." Which he did.

"I'm Daurag, and I live here. Do you want to play?"

"What do you play, Daurag?" Jawan asked, suspiciously.

"I love chess. Do any of you play chess?"

"Why, I do." Jawan replied. "Where's your board?"

"It's with my mom."

"Daurag?" Called a much deeper dragon voice.

"Over here, mom. I have some new friends. One of them can play chess. Can I play with them?"

The dragon hove into sight, and she was every bit as much a dragon as you could imagine. Fifty feet long with her wings folded against her sides, covered in green and brown scales, and smelling of brimstone.

"I'm Maug. How are you today?" She asked pleasantly.

Everyone replied that they were just fine.

"Daurag, you can play one game with your friends, but then you have to take your nap."

"M-o-o-o-m!" Daurag wailed.

"One game, young dragon and no more."

Maug led them to where the chess board was and Daurag and Jawan began playing.

"Nice place you have here." Castle said to the mother. "But why all the gold?"

Maug shrugged. "It's genetic, I suppose. We dragons just hoard gold, that's all. Of course it was worse in the old days. We'd have to raid castles and fight all sorts of beings. My grandfather lost an eye to an elf who shot him while riding on a giant eagle. But things are a lot better now."

"How so?" Rick asked, fascinated.

"My husband, Dalrog works at the steel mill. It's so much better than using up all of that coal. And it pays well." Maug sighed. "I just hope those rumors about the mill moving to Hobbiton aren't true, although they say those Hobbits work for next to nothing. But can they make steel like a dragon? I think not."

"Interesting." Was all that Castle could think of to say.

"You're not here to steal our gold, are you?" Maug said, suspiciously.

"Us? Steal gold? Not at all. We're adventurers, and this cave looked…adventurous." Castle thought for a second and then decided to chance it. "What happened to the two guys outside?"

"Them? Two idiot humans. They started fighting over who got how much gold before they even entered the cave. Greedy fools. I left them there to warn others."

"See? We came in anyway, so we're not greedy." Castle said quickly.

"Well, I'm glad you came then. Little Daurag isn't old enough to go to school and he has few friends his own age to play with."

Both Daurag and Jawan were fairly good chess players, but after two hours Daurag smiled and said, "Checkmate in three moves."

Jawan looked over the board, frowning. 'You're right. You win, young dragon."

Daurag turned to his mother. "Mom, could we play another game?"

Maug shook her head. "You need your nap and these nice humans have to be going. They have to do some adventuring."

As Daurag said goodbye to everyone, Maug spoke to Kate. "If it's adventure you want, go through that tunnel and turn left wherever possible. That's bring you to the Queen's palace. She always has adventures that need to be done."

Once back in the tunnels Castle shook his head. "That was beyond weird. A standard sitcom family but with dragons? Weird."

Jawan shrugged. "Todd always throws something odd in his games. His customers expect it."

In a half an hour they reached the surface and found themselves facing a vast, multicolored palace, complete with turrets, a curtain wall with towers and crenellations and a moat with a drawbridge.

"The drawbridge is up." Said Chrissy. "But there seems to be some sort of lock. Let me get to it." Chrissy took out her burglar tools and in minutes she had the drawbridge down. Once across the drawbridge there was a thick steel door with multiple locks. "Be just a moment." Chrissy said.

It was just a moment and they were inside. The palace had marble floors covered in expensive looking carpets. The walls were either hung with tapestries, or painted with frescos. As they walked through the long hallway, they peeked into rooms as they passed. They had comfortable and expensive looking furniture in them. Finally they came to two huge doors that opened as they approached them. At the end of the large room was a woman on a throne. They walked towards her.

Suddenly Castle stopped. "Oh no! Erika? Is that you?"

Erika Vaughn laughed and stood up. She was wearing a gown that was completely transparent. She did have the body of a porn star. "Surprised to see me, Rick?"

"I'm going to have a long talk with Todd Manwaring about this."

She laughed. "Oh, don't blame Todd. I own stock in his company and I'm always looking for good people for my companies. I found a young man who was scandalously underpaid at Sintheses and hired him away. But I asked him to do a little work for me first."

Rick found himself walking towards Erika and getting an erection at the same time. Kate tried to go after him, but her character couldn't move. She tried to call to Rick, but nothing came out.

"Your friends can't help you, Rick, and you can't help yourself, either. Virtual lovemaking may not be the same as real lovemaking, but it'll do for a start. I'll be able to play this over and over again."

Rick stopped some five feet from Erika, causing her to frown. "Come on. Rick. You have to come to me." But Rick didn't move.

But something was happening to Erika. Her large, firm boobs became much larger and began to sag until they reached below her knees. Her long, shapely legs grew fatter and flabbier, as did her arms. She developed double chins, then triple chins, quadruple chins and then too many chins to count. Her hair fell out as did her teeth. She continued to grow fatter until she was unable to stand on her own and fell back on the bed behind her. She grew and grew, getting fatter and fatter.

Rick found his legs worked properly and when he turned he found Kate by him with their other friends right behind.

"My God!" Cried Morrie." She's becoming enormous. She's covering the entire king sized bed and more."

Just then Erika lost control of her bowels and bladder, releasing an awful stench.

"Look," Chrissy said, giggling, "She has a mirror over her bed. She can see herself."

"We should leave." Rick said.

No sooner had he said that than he found himself back at Sintheses. He pulled his VR goggles off. Everyone was there, including Todd Manwaring, who was wearing a huge grin.

Suddenly Castle knew what had happened. "You knew! You knew Erika had hacked into your program."

Todd just kept smiling. "You know I always go over my programs with a fine tooth comb. And I know how to spot hacking."

"Erika is going to be very angry with you. How long will she be that way?" Kate asked.

"Long enough for her to have real bladder problems. But Erika has other problems. A whole lot of very sensitive information about her financial and other dealings is going to governments all over the world. She'll be way too busy to worry about me. But, tell me. How did you like the game?"

Kate looked around. "It was fantastic. Especially the end."