Chapter Seven: Earthquake
"Maybe… maybe we should have thought of a plan first," said Ellie, watching frozen as Sweetie headed away.
Elizabeth bit her lip. "Ellie! We've got to follow her! With how rushed she is… I bet she knows of an exit, and she's going to seal it off!"
"Oh no oh no oh no!" Ellie bolted from the far end of the living and dining room in pursuit of the pink crane, her friend following close behind. Their final puzzle? Stop Sweetie in time.
Disobeying all they had been taught on stairway safety, they ran down the carpet which had been stretched out with the press of a button to allow a wheeled appliance an easier time descending, like a cushy wheelchair ramp. On any other occasion, Ellie would have tried to use it as a slide, but she was determined not to let Sweetie trap them in the cramped ruins forever.
When they entered the basement, they were greeted with ocean-blue walls and the first whiff of fresh air they had since they left the barrier behind. They knew they were on the right path, and Sweetie was blocking it.
Hearing them approach, she paused. "You want to go 'home,' don't you? Well, ahead of us lies the end of the ruins. An entrance to the rest of the underground."
She sighed, turning away from the two girls. "I'm going to destroy it." Something was whispered under her breath, something the girls could not make out. An apology? A goodbye?
Ellie's eyes widened. "No, you can't!"
"Please, be a good girl, and go play upstairs." She began to move again, her pace faster than before. No dust was kicked up, showing the basement must be traversed often.
It only took a few seconds for them to catch up with her again, thinking the same worried thoughts and not needing to speak or come to a compromise. And once again, Sweetie paused to speak to them. "Every human that comes to me leaves, and they all meet the same fate. I have watched it too many times. They come, and they leave, and they die. I don't know how much more of it I can take. You foolish children… if you leave here…"
Her voice grew choked up. "If you leave the ruins, the king, King Phil, he will take your souls."
Elizabeth stepped back. "You mean he'll kill us?"
She nodded. "Exactly. Can't you understand I am only protecting you? Now… go to your room."
For a moment, Elizabeth considered following her order. She wanted to leave, she wanted to see her own family and house again, but if she had to be trapped down here, she would rather be trapped alive than trapped as a corpse. And maybe Ellie did too, but the glances of fear they exchanged each other confirmed they had to keep trying.
Sweetie turned a corner, revealing the final stretch of the basement, which was a large door, the largest they had seen yet, the kind you would expect to seen on a barn with the most detailed crest carved and painted on in what must have taken days, if not weeks. The closer they approached, the colder the air got, with both girls growing goosebumps.
The crane's voice was on the verge of yelling. "Please, do not try to stop me!" Her face held no emotion as she approached the door, the two girls lagging only a couple feet behind.
Neither of them were sure what to do, or how to stop her. Elizabeth was right. We really should have thought up a plan. But it was too late for that now. They both hoped they could at least think of something to do now.
Both of them opened their mouths to speak, but were cut off by a desperate whisper. "You want to leave me so badly… why did I expect any different? You're just like all the rest."
Ellie stepped up, trying to give her a nudge like she offered them before, but she leaned away. "Maybe… maybe we could prove ourselves! We can prove we are strong enough to survive!"
"Wait, what?" Elizabeth shook her head. "You mean by fighting her?"
She did not even get an answer to her question, other than a small nod, a forced smile, and the lights in the room growing dim to reveal the red souls. "Not again…"
"Make the first move," she directed them. "And let's see if you really can hold your own!"
Both Ellie and Elizabeth were frozen in surprise, neither of them expecting a battle so soon. Sweetie took this as them giving up their turn, launching her first stream of attacks towards them.
The white magic that every appliance seemed to have formed into a two-dimensional claw, the kind found at least five times in every arcade. Without one, it hardly deserved the title of 'arcade' at all. The claw grabbed for their souls and their heads with speed none of their adversaries had possessed before. The girls jumped out of the way just in time, their souls moving with them to safety.
"I bet being bigger and tougher than all the other appliances makes her harder to defeat!" Elizabeth pushed her bangs out of her eyes just in time to allow Ellie to grab her shovel, and whack Sweetie with it.
A health bar appeared above her, but only a few measly points were drained, and the plastic did no damage at all against her metal surface. In fact, it was the shovel that got it the worst, with at least two inches of the left end being dented upon repair.
Sweetie continued to stare into their eyes, hoping to intimidate them enough to turn back. She let another attack loose, which grabbed onto Elizabeth's soul for a moment draining some of her health bar, but Ellie pushed her out of the way.
"What do we do now?" Ellie asked, knowing they couldn't do anything with the shovel, and any one-on-one confrontation with a giant machine would result in nothing but bloody fists and broken bones.
"I know!" Elizabeth's eyes lit up, the perfect opportunity for a bulb to start glowing above her head. "She never said we had to defeat her! We just have to prove ourselves, and I bet we can do that by just outlasting her!"
"You're right!" Ellie stood tall, looking the crane in the eyes, waiting for whatever came next.
Sweetie said nothing, instead launching her third attack, this one a wave of crumpled papers (or as Ellie would call them, origami snowballs) and small pebbles wrapping around the girls, trying to hit their souls in a frenzied whirlwind. Ellie ducked as one was sent flying towards her head, losing her focus and a few health points.
"Keep your head in the game!" Elizabeth called out. She nodded.
They could see Sweetie's resolve breaking, with her tense brow loosening and claw beginning to lower. The two girls once again refused to fight back, and she made her next attack, once again sending the hologram crane after them.
This time it grabbed onto Elizabeth's soul, draining her health bar past halfway. An ache went through her, starting with her chest and moving into her arms and fingers, but she knew that if she gave up now, she would never see the surface again. The thought of losing the sunlight and being trapped down here in a place where they were the only humans sent a chill through her spine, colder than the breeze rushing through the doors.
She tried to swat the crane away, but her hand went through it. It seemed as though it could only grab their souls, and not their bodies.
"Attack me, or run back to the house!" yelled Sweetie, bracing herself for another impact, but both girls shook their head in defiance. With a sigh, another wave of snowballs flew past them, and they had to dodge through holes in the pattern to avoid being hit. "What are you even proving by doing this?"
"That we can last out there!" Elizabeth's words were answered by nothing but another snowball hit, her health below a quarter. She grimaced as the wave of pain went through her body.
"Please, stop this! Stop looking at me like I'm the villain!" She shook her head, her scarf coming loose. The holographic crane appeared above Ellie's head, making a sharp dip for her soul which she avoided with no time to spare. Both of them expected it to rush after Elizabeth as well, having always gone for the both of them, but it disappeared before it had a chance.
It dawned on Ellie that she was refusing to attack Elizabeth any more, seeing how much she had been hurt already. Watching her friend tense up with tears welling in her eyes made her heart sink, but she knew it might be an advantage. If both of them were injured, the crane's resolve might break all together.
Sweetie said nothing as she pelted Ellie with a storm of tiny raindrops, and as opposed to moving her soul out of the way, she made sure to catch them, the tiny pinpricks lowering her HP to Elizabeth's level. She looked confused for a moment, before letting out a low sigh.
The next few attacks were sent with little resolve, nothing but a few snowballs flying with trajectories that would not even graze past the girls. They bounced off the walls exploding in a brilliant light show.
As one of the million sparks created from the impacts hit her face, Sweetie yelled out "enough!" The regular lights in the room returned, and the girls breathed sighs of relief. Ellie laughed, the only way to calm her racing nerves as she awaited whatever Sweetie had to say.
"Please, I know you really want to go home, but I'm begging you to go back upstairs now!" A twinkling tear slid down her metal cheek.
"But we have families that we miss, Ma'am," Ellie protested.
"I can take good care of you! You won't have to be alone!" She began to smile. "I don't have much, that's true, but I swear we could have a good life…"
Ellie and Elizabeth looked to each other, desperate for an answer. "Why is this so hard?" retorted Sweetie in their silence. "I am only trying to help."
"We know that, but-"
"Go upstairs, please." Another tear dropped to the navy concrete floor, along with her scarf.
All of them were silent, no one wanting the battle to continue. Those few seconds were tense, filled with nothing but the cold air chilling their skin and the sound of a motor running in the distance. Then, Sweetie began to laugh. A sorrowful chuckle, but a laugh all the same. "Heh, this is so pointless. I've never been able to save any of them, so why could I now?"
Not sure what to say, Ellie picked up her scarf, and offered it to her, but she shook her head. "You two would be miserable stuck in here. I'm certain the ruins would be too small for a human. Keeping you here against your will… what kind of caretaker… what kind of mother would I be?"
"Mother?"
Sweetie drove up besides them. "My fears and my loneliness… I need to put them aside. If you want to leave the ruins, I should not stop you. All I ask is that you try to stay safe, and stay together. Through what little time I got to spend with you, I can tell you are best friends, and I can't stand the thought of you alone."
I can't believe that actually worked. Elizabeth wrapped her arms around Sweetie, not even flinching when up against her cold metal, with Ellie following suit. "And please… as rude as this is, please don't come back. I really hope you can understand."
They both nodded. "Thank you for everything, Ma'am," Ellie choked out, trying not to cry herself.
"And take my scarf!" she added as she pulled away, the concrete underneath crackling. "It's pretty cold outside of here."
Elizabeth chuckled. "We can tell."
While anxious to see what lied beyond the ruins, Ellie did not want to leave until Sweetie felt better. "Hey, why did the lamp always get good grades in school?"
Sweetie blinked in confusion. "What?"
She grinned. "Just because he was always 'bright!' Get it?"
Sweetie's laugh was small at first, but she began to chuckle enough for it to echo off the walls. "Goodbye Ellie, goodbye Elizabeth," she smiled, turning away. "And good luck out there." Once again, she drove off without another word, but this time, they at least knew why.
Once she was out of sight, they pushed the door open, requiring both of their efforts for it to move. They were faced with a long hallway, a sight that no longer surprised them in the slightest. "I can tell this is going to be a great adventure." Ellie stepped forward into the cold.
Elizabeth nodded. "We're going to be telling our grandkids about this."
They walked in unison as the paint in the hall got lighter and lighter, and they reached the other side, with nothing but a brick arch they had to duck under to exit.
The final room in the ruins was cramped and small, with nothing but a spotlight aimed at a patch of dying grass, and a familiar facing glaring up at them.
Didi.
The girls back away, against the wall and as far from Did as they could get. "That was hilarious! I'm so glad you two decided to, you know, drop by?" There was no laugh from either of them. "For pun-lovers, you two are a real tough audience. Anyway, I bet you feel real clever right now, don't you?"
"What do you want?" Elizabeth's voice was icier than the room around them.
She took a step towards them, which considering her size, was only an inch or so, but enough to send their blood racing. Their health was already quite low, and they knew Sweetie would not be rushing to their aid this time. "I wanted to remind you the rules of this place. It's still Kill, or BE Killed. You might be able to play by your own rules in the ruins, but it's different-"
Ellie groaned. "It's dangerous, we know! We already heard all of this from Sweetie!"
Didi rolled her eyes. "Of course you had to spare her pathetic little life this time. But I know people like you. Humans… you'll kill everything in sight and then make sure you didn't miss anything."
"We're not like that," Ellie protested, getting ready to give the radio a sharp kick against the wall if she approached any closer. "I don't know who you've met, but we don't mean any harm."
"Sure you don't," she grimaced. "That's what they all say just to make themselves feel better. Why should I see you as any different? And why should you be exempt from the rules?"
"We're not going to kill anyone, period," hissed Elizabeth. "Not even an over-glorified music box like you."
"That's the best insult you could think of?" She laughed. "Someday soon, you're going to meet somebody who isn't so caught up with outdated ideas like 'right' or 'wrong,' and what will you do then? Will you fight back? Will you finally get the message?"
She did not wait for a response. "Or will your life end at their hands? I know that soon enough you will tire of trying." The radio grinned. "It would do us all a favor if you would just give up your puny souls and let me run this show again. I am the heir of this world, and in the end, I will make sure I can claim my throne."
Didi saw the worried looks on their faces which only increased her joy. "No no, I don't want to kill the stupid king. He'll be taking care of that for himself one of these days. What I want is going to a lot more fun."
She did not stop laughing as she left the spotlight, ducking underneath a hole in the wall to access her own small pathways that allowed her to pop up in places no one else would expect. Being that tiny had a couple benefits she refused to admit.
As she left, the girls were glad to be alone at last. "We better keep an eye out for her."
MASTERTALE
END OF ACT ONE