Phi hauled Sigma out of the hole and helped the old man to his feet. They surveyed the room they had been let into and the exterior of the 'elevator' they had escaped. From the outside the AB room was a very-near-featureless grey box; the only blemishes in the smooth metallic surface were the lid of the hatch they had escaped through, towering above them where it rested against the wall, and – Phi presumed, since she couldn't see the front of the box from her position on the roof – the normal sliding door of the elevator. There were five similar boxes arrayed in a row along the wall; all of their hatches were also open except for the one on the far right.
Unfortunately, they had escaped from the captivity of the AB only into a slightly more expansive captivity. It was as though their kidnappers were taunting them. The room they had entered was a grey concrete-walled warehouse. There were four doors out of the warehouse, all solid metal and giving every impression of being impenetrably locked. Three of them were to Sigma and Phi's right, staggered at regular intervals along the wall, and almost glowing with vibrant colours: magenta, yellow and cyan. The remaining door was even more staggering: marked in blood red with a number nine, held in place not just by its sheer size and weight but also by claw-like clamps, each giant rivet further emphasising the horrible strength of this 'Number Nine Door'.
But the thing that completely confirmed the inescapability of the room was the crowd gathered in front of the Number Nine Door. For one fleeting, fearful moment, Phi assumed that these were the kidnappers, waiting patiently for Sigma and her. Fortunately, a quick reassessment showed that the five people before her were fellow victims. Any guards sent to control those escaping from the AB rooms would have had weapons at the ready and trained on them; instead, the people at the door were not even looking at them. In fact they were trying futilely to open the Number Nine Door; they were as trapped as Sigma and Phi. Phi was shocked to see a rather young child among them. She could barely imagine what sort of scheme required Zero to abduct a child.
Phi had expected Sigma to require help getting down, or at least to hang by his arms from the lip of the roof in order to shorten the fall, but he seemed comfortable jumping down much as Phi had. Phi was worried the old man would injure himself, but she didn't press the matter in case Sigma remarked about her unnaturally high jump. It would be disastrous if her first introduction to these new people was accompanied by suspicion from her companion.
At the sound of their landing, the kid turned and ran towards them. His green jacket fluttered behind him in time with the bounce of his step, the utilitarian brown helmet covering his messy blonde hair barely staying on his head because the chin-strap was unused.
"Hey, new people!" the kid called to the group behind him. "Hello, Mister, Miss," he greeted Sigma and Phi, "I'm Quark". Phi was warmed to see that Quark seemed unaffected by the severity of the situation.
They told Quark their names and he introduced them to the other people. First, hobbling hesitantly after Quark was a Japanese man, even older than Sigma, in a creased blue shirt and a loose tie. Quark introduced him as Mister Tenmyouji, but he stuttered slightly as he said it and Phi wondered if he had nearly said something else.
Striding purposefully past Tenmyouji came Alice. She was dressed in a manner Phi could only describe as 'minimalistic'. She wondered for a moment if the kidnappers had removed her clothes, but Alice was so unselfconscious that it had to be how she usually dressed.
Hovering timidly closer to the door was an immaculately dressed lady with a soft kind smile. She introduced herself with a high but steady voice as Luna.
Finally, still testing the Number Nine Door was a man who Quark called Dio, who was so focused on the Number Nine Door that he hadn't noticed Phi and Sigma's arrival. As they approached he stood up and kicked angrily at the metal plating; his ostentatious red longcoat whirled furiously across his shoulders with the force of the kick. Dio's foot struck the door with a sickening thud and he stumbled back in pain, spinning around on his other foot to face away from the door.
Phi began, succumbing to a well-worn instinct, to scrutinise the others for weaknesses: Dio lacked impulse control and forethought, Tenmyouji was defensively wary of everyone but Quark, Luna was timid and indecisive, and Alice… Phi could barely read Alice at all… Phi shook her head to dismiss the train of thought. Having such conniving thoughts racing through her head unbidden was unpleasant; Phi wanted to use the chance to start afresh, rather than having the habits and reputation of her life cast shadows over her first impressions on these people.
At the very least, she would have to gain their trust if she was to find out more about the situation. She started by volunteering her account of her kidnapping. As she described the anaesthetic smoke that had knocked her out Alice took over, saying that she had been abducted using the same gas. According to Alice, the chemical in the smoke was called Soporil Beta and it had been popularised as a solution for riot control and hostage situations by the Japanese police force, but was available almost everywhere for use in hospitals. Phi thought that was an exaggeration – she had never heard of it – but accepted that the use of the chemical by their abductors didn't narrow down the potential suspects. There was a pause as everyone took this in, then Tenmyouji, Luna and Dio murmured agreement; they had also been kidnapped using Soporil Beta.
"Which two of you came out the same elevator?" Phi asked. There was a shocked reaction from the others. Phi supposed they were wondering how she knew exactly two people were in the same elevator, but it seemed obvious to her. Five people got out before Sigma and her, four hatches were open, so there were at least two people in the same elevator. If there were more than two people in an elevator, or more than pair in an elevator, then there would be less than four groups. Eventually Quark answered: he and Dio were in the same elevator, the second closest to the Number Nine Door.
"I was the first to escape," Alice interjected, "That means I saw who was in each elevator." Luna had been in the furthest right – looking at them from the front – next to Dio and Quark. Alice had been in the third furthest right and Tenmyouji was in the second from the left.
Suddenly, Tenmyouji interrupted. "Can I see your bracelet there?" he asked Sigma. Tenmyouji studied the bracelet intensely, and then turned to look at Phi's. "Hmph. I thought so. Quark, you and Dio show them your bracelets." Those bracelets were identical to Phi's except that they displayed blue text rather than red. Then Tenmyouji showed Phi his own bracelet: it was green, and as Phi had expected the text said 'SOLO' to indicate that Tenmyouji had been alone. Phi checked Luna's and Alice's bracelets as well: they also said 'SOLO' and were blue and red respectively. There was one thing about the bracelets Phi didn't understand: all of them had a number 3, and there was no indication of what it might mean. Phi was about to ask when the final hatch opened.
Everyone turned in amazement as a giant figure leapt into the air, red cape billowing behind it. As it soared closer, Phi saw that it was clad in metal plates, a suit of armour that concealed the entire body. The suit of armour touched the ground gracefully, gently lowering the – Phi leaned in closer to get a better look – young woman it was carrying in its arms. She flopped limply onto the floor, her wild pink hair falling chaotically across her face.
Alice ran past Phi, shoving her aside. "Clover!" she yelled frantically. Clearly Alice knew this new arrival, Clover – Phi wondered what their relationship was. Alice knelt over the unconscious body and tried to shake her awake. When that failed she turned furiously on the armoured figure. "What did you do to her?!"
"Nothing," the man in the suit of armour replied. His voice was smooth and deep with a strange electronic hum; it was clearly being amplified and altered by the suit. "She was like that when I woke up." He raised his arm apologetically. "I really wouldn't worry though. She should be alright. Her breathing is steady. I believe she is only sleeping."
This barely placated Alice, but she turned back to Clover and cradled her tenderly. Instead, Tenmyouji stepped forward.
"So she hasn't woken up since they kidnapped her."
Phi couldn't see the face of the man through the mask, but his entire visible body language indicated that he was confused by what Tenmyouji had said.
"Ah, kidnapped?" the masked man queried. This was a surprise. Everyone else had been abducted, but this man didn't even understand what Tenmyouji was referencing. "Begging your pardon, but…I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean. Where are we? Who are you?"
Before anyone could answer Sigma interrupted, interrogating the armoured man forcefully. "Whoa, hold on! How about you tell us who you are first. You leap out of that box…" Here Phi was glad that Sigma hadn't brought up her own superhuman jump earlier; suspicion that ought to been directed at her fell solely on the newcomer. "… dressed like some kind of robot, carrying an unconscious girl, and we've only got your word you didn't make her that way. I think you owe us an explanation, pal!"
The man took this calmly and paused thoughtfully before answering. "I'm… Who am I? I don't remember… anything. I have no idea where I am, who I am, or even what day it is. If you happen to know any of these things, I would very much appreciate it if you shared that information. Not knowing one's identity is… vexing."
Phi did not have much time to consider this before Dio scoffed sceptically.
"Yeah, very original: the amnesiac routine! The guy who's face we can't see claims not to know who he is. How are we supposed to take you seriously when you're wearing this… robot suit! Are you going to tell us someone forced you into it?"
The masked man pondered Dio's question. "I assume so," he guessed, "It seems the most reasonable explanation."
Dio, Sigma and Tenmyouji seemed intent on grilling the mysterious man more thoroughly, but they were interrupted when Clover stirred, haltingly raising herself off the ground towards Alice.
"Alice…" she murmured, "Where are we?"
Alice filled Clover in while everyone else stood away respectfully to give them room to reunite. They spoke quietly until Alice said the words 'Nonary Game'. Clover shook fitfully in Alice's arms, despair leeching her face of life.
"No… no, that can't…" Clover cried.
To give Clover time to recover, Phi went back to examining the masked man. The left arm of the suit of armour had a circular window of plastic, embedded just above the wrist, through which Phi could read a display similar to her own bracelet. As Phi had predicted from seeing everyone else's bracelet, the text was green, with a large three and the word 'PAIR'; Phi did not need to check to know that Clover's bracelet had an identical display. As the man's arm moved and the metal plates shifted above it, Phi saw the display rattle inside the window: it was in fact a bracelet inside the suit – snugly pressed against the window but distinct from the armour itself. Phi guessed that the bracelets had some sinister purpose beyond just displaying information and keeping track of the captives, since both could be accomplished merely by building those functions into the armour.
As the uproar about the last two arrivals died down, Phi finally had a chance to look at the other side of the warehouse, away from the Number Nine Door. The group of people had dispersed somewhat, with Alice tending to Clover in front of the AB rooms, Dio and Tenmyouji questioning the armoured man, and Luna and Sigma examining the magenta door. Phi followed Quark along the longer wall of the warehouse, past the AB rooms, to where an incomprehensible phrase had been spray-painted in huge red letters: 'Two Milkmen Go Comedy'.
"What do you think that graffiti is?" Quark asked her.
Phi was bewildered. Everything else she had seen so far had at least been either elegantly logical, like the pattern of colours on the bracelet displays, or at least overtly hostile, like the personality of the animated mouse Zero. This was just… entirely nonsensical. Phi couldn't imagine any reason why anyone would kidnap nine people and lock them in a warehouse so they could read senseless graffiti. Phi cleared her head: that she could not imagine a reason to write 'Two Milkmen Go Comedy' on the wall only meant that she had missed something important. She looked again at the phrase, the horrific grammar of it imprinting itself on her mind. That was when she realised: it was an anagram!
"An Anna… gram?" Sigma asked from behind her. He and Luna had snuck up while she was thinking.
"C'mon, seriously?" Phi replied, "You've never heard of an anagram?" She started thinking about how to solve it. Attempts to make a verb ending in the 'ed' of 'Comedy' went nowhere: there were plenty such words available from the letters but extracting any of them from the phrase didn't leave any obvious way to continue. Instead, she starting looking at the small words she could make from the letters: 'I', 'Me', 'My', she dismissed 'Go' as it was already in the anagram, 'To'… As she played around with the letters the word 'Come' in 'Comedy' came to the front of her mind. 'Come'… 'Come'… 'Welcome'! With that word at the start, the rest of the letters fell into place.
"Welcome to my Kingdom," she told the others. She gestured in the air, showing them how the letters would move from their locations on the wall to their positions in the solution.
"Hee, Hee, Heeeeee!" The disturbingly cheerful laugh of Zero emanated from speakers around the warehouse, echoes reverberating off the smooth concrete walls. "That's right, Phido…" Phi could only assume that referred to her. "… Welcome, to my Kingdom."
Phi, Quark, Luna and Sigma whirled around. At the opposite end of the warehouse, on the wall next to the Number Nine Door, a screen of blue light had appeared, projected on the wall by some form of apparatus that had emerged from a slit in the floor. As everyone gathered close, the animated mouse that had been Zero's avatar in the elevator reappeared in the middle of the projection with a malicious grin, magnified so that he was towering over the nine captives and revelling in their confusion.
Dio was the first to respond to Zero. "Where are you, you little bastard?! Too scared to come out and face me like a man?"
Zero stretched out his arms to gesture at the wall he was projected on. "I'm right here, Dio… or shall I call you BO?" The rodent mimed holding his nose mockingly.
Dio jumped back with shock as he realised that Zero knew his name. Phi sympathised with Dio's discomfort, but wondered why he hadn't expected the kidnappers to know. After all, they had had plenty of time to go through everyone's personal effects and learn anything they wanted.
Zero continued, "Oh, you are an idiot: you want to see me in real life. I'm a rabbit. You really think talking rabbits are real things?"
Dio seethed as he spluttered out a furious response, "Of course I don't. That's not what I meant!"
The mouse chuckled and bounced around the confines of the projection. "Oooh, you want to see the person who's controlling me? Maybe… Maybe you already are! Hee, hee!"
Sigma gasped. "Zero is one of us?"
"Well, yes, I guess that's one way to put it. You could of said it more, like, dramatically, though." Zero pouted, as if sulking at Sigma.
"But you're responding to our questions and stuff right now," Quark said, "That means you're not just, like, a video someone made. Wouldn't that mean Zero would have to be controlling you and sending you answers right now? Are you sure Zero's one of us?"
"Well, yeah, duh!" Zero responded, "Of course I'm sure. I'm an AI. Zero created me. I guess that makes one of you my parent! Now, are you my mommy or my daddy? Ah, ah! That would be telling." On the screen Zero looked round at the nine people assembled before him. "Mommy! Daddy!" he called with a childlike whine. "Oh, no response. I guess that makes me an orphan." Mock tears dribbled down the cheek of the projected mouse.
Zero went mercifully silent for half a minute. Everyone looked at everyone else with mistrust, even people who had come out of the same rooms distancing themselves from each other in mutual fear. Phi couldn't quite imagine the bumbling, embarrassing old man Sigma as master kidnapper Zero, but she'd been swindled by much more innocent-looking acts before, with no intention of falling for Sigma's, if he was acting. Phi also wasn't the only one to direct angry glances in the direction of the suit of armour; it contained the most mysterious member of their group. Only two groups of people stayed comfortable with each other following Zero's announcement. Clover, who obviously knew Alice from before, had leaned wearily against her. But Phi also noticed that Quark had drifted closer and closer to Tenmyouji since the knowledge that one of the others might be Zero had sunk in.
Once everyone had been suitably rattled, Zero changed the subject. "It's my job to make sure the Nonary Game runs smoooothly."
Quark looked puzzled. "What is the 'Nonary Game'?"
The armoured man was the first to answer. "Nonary refers to the base-nine number system, but can also mean something that is, in some way related to the number nine. It stands to reason that the 'Nonary Game' is a game that deals with the number nine in some way. There are, after all, nine of us."
From behind her Phi heard Dio grumbling. "He remembered what 'Nonary' means but doesn't even know his own name. Hmph."
"Exactly," said Zero, "Nine is a very, very important number in this game. Nine is your goal! You see that door in front of you? That's your door." The mouse slid over to the side of the projected area, pointing out the Number Nine Door. "If you can open the door with a nine on it… you can escape! Now you see your bracelets? Of course you do, they're on your wrists! Wait… we didn't kidnap anyone blind, did we?"
Zero explained that the number three, as displayed by everyone's bracelet, was their 'bracelet points' and that anyone with nine points could open the door. However, the door would only open once for nine seconds, and anyone without nine points at that time would not be allowed to leave.
Tenmyouji interrupted. "You still haven't told us what we need to know most. How do we get BP?"
"Oh, that's easy!" Zero replied, "Just use the Ambidex Room. You like abbreviations; you can always call it the AB room instead."
"How do we get in? Through those hatches?"
"Ha, ha, ha, ha, no! I had a hutch you might try that, so I closed those up tight while we were chatting. Don't be hatching any hatch plans, understand?"
Phi winced at Zero's sudden and mind-rendingly awful descent into puns, though she wasn't quite sure about the 'Hutch' one: did mice have hutches?
Zero continued, "I live in the master computer. All the electronic doors in this whooole warren are under my control."
"How do we get in, then? Dio asked angrily, "The doors on the front are all locked."
Zero smirked. "There's a card reader next to each one, isn't there? All you've got to do is slide a card through and there you go. I think you'll find what you're looking through behind the Chromatic Doors." Zero indicated the magenta, yellow and cyan doors behind them. "Hey, Quirk!"
Quark took a moment to realise Zero was talking to him. "What?" he asked.
"You see those buttons on the sides of your watch? Can you press them at the same time?"
Even as Quark moved to obey, Phi did the same, a discouraged sinking feeling churning her stomach. As she pressed the buttons the screen changed – how had she missed pressing them together when she tested the buttons before? The display changed to a digital clock face, reading '00:10'. Just as she started to wonder what it meant, the ten changed to a nine; the clock was a countdown.
"I don't even need to explain the rest, do I?" Zero remarked.
"I'm guessing this is the time until the Chromatic doors unlock?" Tenmyouji said.
"Ding, ding, ding! Very impressive, Tenmyoldy!" Zero replied sarcastically, "Just like the Number Nine Door, they won't stay open forever. You have five minutes. Once your time is up, they'll close no matter what, so I hope you've gone through by then! Of course you'll all have to split up."
Zero explained how to work out which people went through each door: both members of a pair and a solo had to go through each door, so that either the colour of the solo and the colour of the pair mixed together to get the colour of the door, or both the solo and the pair had the complementary colour to that of the door. Unless a correct group went through each Chromatic Door, secondary doors behind the first set would not open trapping the players inside. Zero talked to each of the nine players, confirming that they knew what they were doing – it would be more accurate to say that Zero was insinuating that they did not know what they were doing – until he reached the masked man.
"Um, who are you?"
The armour took on a pensive demeanour. "I'm uh… I suppose you can call me… K…"
Dio turned on 'K' sharply. "I knew it! You were just lying about the amnesia crap!"
"I'm not lying," K responded calmly, "This was just a… flash of insight, I suppose. I wish I knew what the letter 'K' meant. Sadly I have no idea. Does it mean anything to you?"
Before anyone could answer K, the Chromatic Doors opened, the smooth hiss announcing the end of the countdown. From the speakers came a neutral, authoritative computerised voice.
"Chromatic Doors have opened. Five minutes remain until Chromatic Doors close."
"Ohh, so sorry guys, but it looks like you time's up," Zero said, "You'd better get to it and get those secondary doors open."
Before this could sink in, Dio was advancing on the screen gesticulating wildly. "Fuck that!" he roared, "We aren't gonna open shit! Take your Lame-ary game and shove it up your ass."
A psychotic smirk appeared on Zero's face. "I thought you might say that. Of course, if anyone is left outside after they close… they'll be penalised."
"What the hell is this 'penalty', anyway?" Dio asked.
"Death. Duuuuuuhhhhh!" Zero blew a raspberry at Dio. According to Zero, the bracelets contained needles capable of injecting two drugs: first Soporil Beta – "You should know that the Soporil is only there out of the kindness of the real Zero's heart. Zero just doesn't want to see anybunny suffer. Isn't that just soooo compassionate? If I had a heart, it'd be melting right now! You'll die pretty painlessly, so, hey, there's nothing for you to worry about." – and then, nine minutes later, the turbocuarine that would freeze the victim's heart.
"Well then, looks like it's time for me to hop on out of here," Zero concluded, "Good luck, guys! Have a nice trap!" With that send-off, the mouse that was Zero's avatar vanished, the projectors shutting down and retracting into the floor.
Phi mulled over the rules of the game. The colourful system by which players entered the doors was, much as she hated to admit it, a logically elegant pattern, which made it easy to figure out the possible combinations of people who could go through the door. She explained them to the others:
Option A:
Phi and Sigma went with Luna through the Magenta door.
K and Clover went with Alice through the Yellow door.
Dio and Quark went with Tenmyouji through the Cyan door.
Option B:
Phi and Sigma went with Tenmyouji through the Yellow door.
K and Clover went with Luna through the Cyan door.
Dio and Quark went with Alice through the Magenta door.
Option C:
Phi and Sigma went with Alice through the Cyan door.
K and Clover went with Tenmyouji through the Magenta door.
Dio and Quark went with Luna through the Yellow door.
No sooner had Phi finished explaining than a chaotic argument erupted. It started with Tenmyouji and Dio, as Tenmyouji demanded Option A and Dio refused to let a 'senile old loser' come with him and Quark; Dio instead claimed that Option C would be best. This drew in Alice and Clover, who clearly wanted to enter together, on Tenmyouji's side. Luna, looking nervous and hesitant and directing some queer glances towards Sigma, said some quiet words against too hastily deciding, which Dio, with obvious glee, took to be complete support of his position. K attempted to break up the argument but, unwilling to use the physical advantage his armour provided him, he only managed to increase the racket. Phi looked down at the display on her bracelet. There was only one minute left! Someone had to take charge, and Phi figured it might as well be her.
Choice:
Go through the Magenta door with Luna.
Go through the Yellow door with Tenmyouji.
Go through the Cyan door with Alice.
This fanfic has branching storylines. To keep track of the various storylines, a link to the Flow Diagram is provided in my Author Profile.