Aru Shah - Jumanji: The Next Level AU

Chapter 2

Aru had tears in her eyes, flying out as she ran. She glanced behind her, scowling when she saw her friends running to catch up to her. Ever since she and Aiden decided to take a break, she'd been feeling as if no one wanted her anymore - especially after her mom died.

Deep down, she knew Aiden was right. There was no stopping her mother's death. It still hurt, though. Aru needed positive words, not words that clearly said, 'Nothing is going to work out for you.'

Aru saw her school up ahead, and a smile Grace-d (R.I.P Jason -Trips) her face. She found the school's back door and used a hidden crowbar to pry it open. It was summer, which meant that no one was around to catch her in the act. The security cameras were off, and everything was going perfectly.

Aru ran through the halls, past multiple doors, and skidded to a stop - the detention room. It was the room Aru and her friends had entered two years ago. It was the same room they saw before they entered Jumanji - a freaky, come to life video game.

Aru looked around her and breathed a sigh of relief when she didn't see her friends. She listened for their voices and footsteps, and when she heard them, she hastily opened the door and walked through.

~~

Mini and the gang had never seen this side of Aru before. She'd always been so straightforward with her problems. Running away from something that hurt her, wasn't like Aru at all.

She and her friends walked through the back door of the school and looked around. Rudy sighed, "Why would Aru come here?"

Suddenly, they heard the distinct creak and closing of a terribly oiled door, coming from the left corridor. Mini snapped her head towards the sound before turning back to her friends, "Guys, you know where that door leads?"

Aiden grimaced, "The detention room."

Nikita raised an eyebrow, "Why would she want to go in there?"

Mini craned her neck to the noise, "I have a sneaking suspicion..." She gasped, "She can't be!"

Mini ran into the corridor, turning her head back to her friends, "Guys! Come with me!"

~~

Boo saw Aru run out of the museum. He started to run after her with the group when he accidently got separated from the group. He started to get nervous. Boo looked around him. There was nothing but a dark alleyway, with alley cats meowing and hissing.

That's when he saw something, glittering on the alleyway's wall.

It was an intricate feather, with a branding on it. Boo wanted to touch it, but knew he shouldn't. Aru needed him and the others right now. He started to back away, starting to sprint. He stopped when a wall of black smoke blocked the opening. That's when he saw it. An electrifying purple beam surrounded him.

'Just what is happening here? This shouldn't be possible. I'm in the real world. Not in a stupid video game.' Boo thought, gulping.

Hands trembling, Boo slid his glasses off, to clean them.

'Probably just a hallucination. As soon as I put them on, it should be gone.' Boo thought again, his eyes darting around.

Except when a hand touched his shoulder, he abruptly dropped his glasses. They shattered on impact, leaving Boo blurry eyed (not blind - he could still see, partially), and terrified.

A girl with glowing yellow eyes, with cat slits showed her face. Boo screamed.

The girl clasped his mouth shut, and slowly took it off saying, "Hey, wait. I'm not going to hurt you I promise! My name's Kara... What about you?"

Boo gaped, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME! HAVE I GONE INSANE? Nope, there is no possible way that you are Kara from Jumanji. Nope. Less than 0.00000000000000000001%. You aren't her right?"

Kara grinned, "To be quite honest, I am."

Boo frowned, "Does Jumanji drive you insane? Or does it make you develop any mental illnesses? Because that's the only solution I can think of. You... you can't be her..."

Kara patted his back, "I know it doesn't. You aren't crazy. But this is really happening. You see, when you broke the game of Jumanji, something happened. You remember the sequence it went through to change through a video game? Something like that happened. Jumanji is forever 'immortal' you could say. So basically, it just respawned. I may just be a NPC but apparently, it sent me out to get you guys to help. We need you to help. Jumanji is in grave danger again, and I fear that you are in trouble. The reason Jumanji wasn't fully destroyed as it should be, is because someone in this town kept the pieces. So, I know you need to help your friend, but you need to come with me."

Boo folded his arms, "How does the game still work with pieces missing?"

Kara frowned, "The game is magic. You must have figured this out when you got sucked in. It can always regenerate - like a character in a video game. The game can always create itself new pieces. However, I have a feeling that you want to completely destroy it."

Boo nodded, and Kara cleared her throat, "Then you have to destroy it's motherboard - the original one. It was stolen. Jumanji must have regenerated a backup to keep it running. Break the original motherboard, and all the people stuck in the game will come out. And Jumanji will be forever destroyed."

Boo sighed, "So, you're saying, I have to scour this entire town for a motherboard, break it if I find it, and save whoever else stuck in the game."

Kara nodded. Suddenly, a bright green light blinded them both. Boo saw Kara turning into green particles. He reached out to her, "Come back! Where are you going?!"

"I'm being summoned back into the game! Find the motherboard! AND SAY ITS NAME!" Kara yelled. With that, she vanished.

Boo kicked a stone, "Honestly, I hate this. 'Say its name?' Wonderful. Just wonderful. What did I ever do to you, Universe? WHY MEEE!!?"

Suddenly, he heard footsteps swishing past him. That's when he saw who it was. The girl doubled back and popped her head into the alleyway, "Boo? What're you doing here?"

"I can ask you the same, Sheela." He said.

Sheela scoffed, "Our friends got sucked back into the game. C'mon."

Boo snorted and ran after her, mumbling about how the universe absolutely despised him.