chapter 8: Static Immersion: part 1: Pandemonium

The room was blank, eerily so. The contrast between the sky and the ground made one's head reel. Nobody dared to look up more than twice. Staring at the infinite vastness of complete color absorption became disturbing. It leaked through your skin, weaving its way into the recesses of your soul. Hallucinations were common there; one could easily become lost in the mind-numbing room. Actually it was wrong to call it a room--or a world for that matter--but for lack of a better word, such will be its name. That room was a great place, which made one feel excessively happy. The feeling was creepy and unnerving, as if such a level of bliss was unnatural. I had wanted to stay there forever; Aelita and everyone and everything else didn't matter to me. As long as that image of pure white surrounded me, my mind and body were at peace.

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The group woke up in a blank, white area. It seemed that after falling through the crack in the ceiling that this room had healed them. Indeed, touching the darkness recreated every previous wound. After three meaningless hours had ticked away, a wave of static swept through the room. Odd and Jeremy were pulled out of their reveries; the others weren't so lucky.

The peace and happiness was all an illusion; the room was filled with static. Nothing except for a mindless drone of static, which created a white light when gazed upon for too long. Its inhabitants were affected by no other methods. Still, the static alone was enough to keep Odd's and Jeremy's senses of reality fluctuating.

One second they were surrounded by static, the next white void. One world completely vacant; the other filled to the brim with broken strands of computer code. White to nothing. Concern to bliss. Purity to destruction. Values, norms, morals, standards, mores, and taboos to lack of socialization whatsoever. The vector of white was disrupted. Static remained unchanged.

Xerv's face was projected on an invisible panel. With the next change he was gone.

"Do my...you? Are...satisfied? Are you...location? ...Zero Sector...No escape! Three other sectors...access. Sky...prot...sea. You...demise! Meet my new...Tamer!"

A crack formed within the realm of purity; a crack that disappeared a moment later, only to reappear twice as big. There was a deafening sound as actual light rushed into the area. A creature burst forth from the crack, clad head to toe in armor. A faded, red XANA symbol was printed on his helmet, which had no visor. The grayish-green armor was skin-tight; the monster's form mimicked that of a human's. It had in its hands two chains, wrapped securely around its wrists and forearms. The monster stood there as a squadron of Krabs surged forth from the gaping hole. Strangely enough, debris was nonexistent.

The original monster, a Tamer, was acting as the leader of the ten defense programs. It stood surveying the group for a few seconds, then the symbol on its head began to radiate orange. The Tamer signaled the small force to attack. The whole world fizzled out.

Static once again began its monotonous crackling. Odd and Jeremy, deeply confused, took a few steps forward to where the crack was once before. They became lost in the static once again; they were standing next to the crack! Pain instantly shot throughout their whole bodies, causing them to jump backwards, straight into the Tamer! The monster was stunned, so Odd took the opportunity to fire three laser arrows in offense. The arrows bounced off of the steel plates, as the Tamer regained its composure. Their enemy lashed its chains in their direction as the planes switched again.

Convinced of their safety, they relaxed their guard. Three seconds later, another switch. Chains were on the floor beneath them; the chains came up and cut straight through skin. Blood began to drop onto the floor. Red blood. The darkest and most violent red imaginable. Its sight burned both guardians' eyes, and they winced away in sheer agony. Their offender took the window and launched his fist into Jeremy's face. Jeremy produced a ray of energy in retaliation, but the consequence was skipped. Odd and Jeremy began to run away from their current spot, hurt and bewildered.

White again--the Tamer was struggling to get off the floor and their friends had dealt with the Krab infestation. A chain grappled with Odd's foot, tripping him and dragging him towards his enemy. The chain left the ground and Odd was thrown through the air. Odd landed on his shoulder, and rolled into a slump on his back. Jeremy tackled the Tamer into the ground before it could resume its attack on Odd. Swap, head pounding again.

"What the Hell is going on!" Odd cried out, finally speaking the words that had plagued his mind for so long.

"I have no idea."

"This sucks! At this rate we'll wind up under our tombstones within minutes! I've already dislocated my shoulder!" Odd's last word was spoken as the next switch took place. With Nikolas' last punch, the Tamer was deleted.

"What were you guys doing?" Ulrich started yelling at them. "You've been walking around and talking this whole time!"

"I do wonder how you did that trick though," Herb mused. "When you'd just stand there or start running, stuff just passed straight through you!"

"We don't know, we..." Jeremy began, but stopped because it was no longer necessary to continue his sentence.

"This stinks!"

"...are you guys even listening to us?" Yumi asked, clearly agitated.

"No! You guys keep disappearing!" Odd blurted out.

"Odd, I think we're the ones doing the disappearing. Have any of you seen static either?"

"You mean like from a TV?" Nikolas asked. "No, this place is completely white!"

"We keep disappearing from wherever we are now, and going into this place filled with static! Then reappear in this room!" Odd explained.

"I think that first wave of static triggered it!" Jeremy hunched.

"Wave of static?" Ulrich asked, confused. "There hasn't..."

"...nothing either," Aelita finished.

"This is getting us nowhere!" Odd exclaimed, annoyed. "Let's just move on, and hope it stops!"

"Hope what stops?" asked Yumi. "You've been standing here the whole time!"

"Shut the fuck up!" Jeremy yelled. "We left again! You can't see it, but we did! Once it happens, everything around us is replaced by static! Let's listen to Odd because I'm tired of trying to explain such a simple concept to you idiots! I'm confused enough as it is!"

The rest of the group silenced, and they climbed through the second hole in the room.