Disclaimer : I don't own anything from Jumanji.

JohnHammond: Yes explanations on the "how" are coming but the group has something to do first :). I won't introduce new characters that I haven't mentioned before.

The coming chapters are quite talkative as the characters are slowly figuring out what happened.

Reset

When Spencer open his eyes, everything was bright. The light from the renewed sun was too intense. It took several seconds for him to adjust his vision. Martha and Fridge were standing next to him, obviously in the same state of confusion he was in.

- "What happened?" Asked Fridge.
- "I think your plan worked." Replied Spencer with a corner smile. "The pedestal is activated. We are safe."

They looked around. They still were in the glade but it was not a dark place anymore. Jumanji's jungle was back, lighter and healthier than they've seen it since they were called back by the game. Further, the pedestal was sitting in a green nest of roots and leaves. Next to it was standing Bethany, or at least her avatar. They couldn't tell as she was turning her back on them. Martha initiated a movement in her direction but Spencer stopped her.

- "We don't know, if she is herself." He murmured.
- "There is not a million way to find out..."
- "Martha, I don't want to hurt you, but she was the cloud. That's what she told me." Added Fridge in Spencer's defense. The red-haired girl sight in defeat.
- "That was not her."
- "They shared the body... What makes you think she is herself now?" Asked Spencer. "She is so still..." He added, looking back at Bethany.
- "The shadows got us and we are still there. The pedestal worked, right? Why wouldn't it work for her?" tried Martha hesitantly.

Fridge looked at his arm; the one that was infected. It seemed untouched and, to his surprise, he found a tattoo on it: three black bars.

- "I think she's right!" He exclaimed. "Look, I have my life count back. It's like nothing happened! The game has reset."

The others checked their arms too and found the same volatile tattoo. That proof was enough for Martha who joyfully called her friend.

- "Hey Bethany! We did it. You're safe, now. We can go home." She exclaimed.

But as her friend slowly turned round, her alacrity vanished. The evilness seemed to have left her avatar but she seemed far from ok. The exhaustion seemed to burden her.

- "Bethany?" Asked the red-haired girl worryingly as she slowly approached.
- "She's not there." Replied tiredly the avatar with a subtle British accent.
- "Professor Oberon?"

He nodded. The tree teenagers joined him. The cartographer was looking obstinately to the ground. His expression was a mixture of anger and despair.

− "What am I still doing here?" He finally asked with languishment.

They all stayed quiet in front of his resentment. What could they tell him anyway... They had no explanation to the current situation and, even if they empathized with him, they couldn't tell him that they were mainly worried for their friend.

Suddenly, Bethany's avatar glitched, but unlike the previous glitches they witnessed it was not a shift between two appearances. It was more like he was shifting to nothingness.

− "God! Why is he still glitching?" Exclaimed Fridge, pointing at him.
− "Gli...tching..." Repeated Oberon, deeply frowning and finally looking back at them.
− "Hmm... It's hard to explain..." Began Spencer, quickly glaring at his friend. "Mainly because we are not from your time." The remark was more for Fridge but the cartographer jumped in.
− "Ancient East gods' reincarnations. Now time travellers. What are you exactly?" He said dryly.
− "We are not..." mumbled Spencer.
− "I know... I was kidding." The roundish man clarified, as he saw that his interlocutors had missed the irony. "I was trying to lift my mood. But still. What are you?"
− "We are just teenagers." He replied. Oberon raised an eyebrow.
− "Teenagers, huhu... And what is 'glitching' from 'your' time?"

Clearly, at first, the man wasn't receptive to any kind of explanations, but he patiently listened to them anyway. They began the hard task of explaining him what a video game and virtual worlds were. Then, they tried to relate what happened to Jumanji. Spencer and Martha did the heavy lifting in therms of raw explanations but that was Fridge who ultimately made him understand the concepts with his personal interpretations. Oberon seemed even interested by the footballer's commentaries.

− "So, you are telling me that Jumanji was infected by some kind of illness that machine from your time can catch. Those black things oozing from the sky were the virtual representation of that illness... And... Glichtes are the manifestation of an unstable state due to that illness. Am I right?"

The teenagers looked back at the cartographer with amazement. They truly believed he wouldn't get it all, but he surprisingly nailed it.

− "Wow! The guy is a smart ass." exclaimed Fridge, saying out loud what everything thought. Oberon eyed him critically. The black man saw it and quickly added. "Well, our times are different, man. I can speak my mind freely."

Obviously, the cartographer had been caught off guard by the remark, but he replied promptly with a mischievous smirk.

− "I think I can adjust to that. If I can manage to be in presence of a half-naked woman, I think can handle your sassiness."
− "I like you." Said Fridge, smiling.

An impressive glitch interrupted their joyful banter and it took a long time for Bethany's avatar to stabilize this time. Even if he wasn't fully aware of it, he understood what just happened by the look on the teenagers faces.

− "I did it again, right?"
− "Yes... And it was a big one." Said Spencer worryingly. "I would have thought with the reset you would stabilize but it seems that the opposite is happening."
− "Why is that?"
− "Maybe because you shouldn't be conscious at this point." Proposed Martha.
− "The game is resetting to his original configuration and you're in an incorrect state." Completed her boyfriend like he had a big revelation. Oberon frowned.
− "Don't worry, I don't get it all either." Said Fridge to the cartographer, which made him snigger.
− "The reset process is still occurring. The pedestals are cleaning the virus. When it will be done, the game will return to his former stable state in which you are not conscious. Our avatars did it already but they weren't damaged or, at least, not as much as you ." Spencer stretched his arm to show his life count. "As you were infected to the core, it may take longer for you." The cartographer sighed deeply.
− "What about Bethany?" worryingly asked Martha. "You said she was not there. What did you mean?" Oberon closed his eyes for a brief moment, as he seemed to recollect his memories.
− "She was angry and quite crestfallen when she left you. She blindly went in there." The teenagers quickly looked at each other. There was guild in their eyes. "She was about to activate the pedestal and... nothing. The next thing I remember is you talking to me." He opened his eyes. "I just don't feel her presence. Maybe she is still in there... dormant."

The professor was obviously not at ease. Speaking of oneself like being a simple vehicle for another wasn't pleasant, but he tried to reassure them.

− "So, what do we do now?" asked Fridge.
− "The pedestal!" Exclaimed Spencer. "It gave us advices. Maybe there is some clue on this one too." He turned toward Oberon. "Bethany guessed that she could decipher the glyphs because of you could. What does it say?" The roundish man looked back at the strange letters on the pedestal.
− "I don't know this language, but yes, curiously, I can read it. It says: kernel."
− "If we consider Jumanji a video game, the kernel surely means where is coded the operating system." Proposed Martha.
− "Yes! Good deduction!" Complimented Spencer.

The two teenagers began a technical conversation that left Oberon and Fridge aside. They looked at each other with the same expression: a profound lack of understanding.

- "Does it happen often?" Asked the professor to the petite man.
- "Since they are in couple, quite often unfortunately." He sighed. "Excuse-me!" He interjected, as he knew the conversation would take forever if he didn't stop it. "Could you share with us?"
- "Oh sorry!" Said Spencer. "We think that Jumanji want us to find his kernel. Maybe there is something more we should do in order to complete the reset process."
- "And where is that?"
- "I don't know, but it may be hidden or unrecognisable, like protected files on a computer. Most of the time, the interface is user friendly but hides the internal machinery which could seem alien for those who don't speak its language." Oberon grimaced as it was again gibberish to him. "I mean... The kernel is the heart of Jumanji. This could be just a strange place in Jumanji we didn't explore. But, the game has no reason to expose its heart. It's surely hidden and protected." Tried Spencer in a more metaphoric way.
- "So, how do we find it?" Insisted Fridge.
- "It's hard to tell. I have no idea of what we have to look for. I mean if the thing is hidden, we have just a tiny chance to find it just on luck. We have to know exactly what we are looking for."

They stayed quiet for a long time as the task seemed too hard to achieve. Oberon was especially very pensive. He was fixing the pedestal.

Spencer observed him. The cartographer was a curious man too him. He had a strong will and a sharp mind. The state he was in was not covetable by any means and anyone in his position would have tried to find a way to live but his expression was clearly showing darker lines of thoughts. Spencer joined him.

− "Are you ok?" The man jumped, as he was dragged out of his thoughts.
− "Yeah... I was just thinking about what you said about those machines; the video games things."
− "You had quite a hard introduction on that. I'm sorry." joked Spencer, but the professor didn't even smile. He was too focused.
− "Why can I read this?" He asked, pointing at the pedestal.
− "I don't know. Are you sure it's not some old languages you learned?"

Intrigued by the conversation, Martha and Fridge joined them too.

− "Yes, I am certain. I know how to read this instinctively, like everybody knows how to breathe without thinking about it... It's so disturbing for me to say this but... what if I'm a part of the machine?" Spencer eyes widened.
− "You could speak its language." He completed.
− "And see things that shouldn't be seen..." Added the professor.
− "You know where the kernel is?"
− "Maybe... You said the kernel could be a strange place. I know a very peculiar place in Jumanji."
− "The mechanical city." Said Martha. "Boys, remember! Bethany told us that she used to scavange stuff there for her hiding place." Spencer nodded. Fridge was a bit lost. "And you, you said that you regained consciousness there too." She quickly added, speaking to Oberon.
− "Exactly..."
− "So, you know how to go there?" Asked the black man.
− "Like I know how to read those glyphs." Oberon smirked.

There is one more chapter before the two endings : a good one and a bad one. Like in video games ;).

See you next Friday!