Chapter 25: More Stranger Things
"Medical officials are still baffled to the recent disappearences to many of Ninjago Online players." Gayle Gossip reported. "Last week, over twenty patients from the Ninjago City General Hospital have disappeared from their rooms. Along with other disappearences in Downtown Ninjago General Hospital, Ninjago Memorial, and even other hospitals throughout Ninjago. Security footage has shown no proof of their disappearence and it's highly unlikely for them to disappear without a trace."
"Families and friends are in grief to the disappearence of the players trapped in Ninjago Online by a virus that was suppose to be a boss created by Cyrus Borg and Neuro Hisoko. If anyone has seen anyone that is supposedly roaming around in Ninjago in hospital gowns and their NeuroGear helmet, notify police so they can return to the hospital for their proper care until they're freed from the Overlord virus. The families and friends of the trapped players would gradually appreciate it. More to come tonight. I'm Gayle Gossip on scene."
The screen went silent after Cyrus held the remote to silent the large computer monitor on the wall to sigh. First day of his game released and everyone is trapped in the game. Now players were disappearing from their hospital room without a trace. This didn't sound natural and it was going to ruin the man. Neuro glanced at his boss to sigh with him as he focused his attention to the city from the large window. He scratched the stubble of hair on his chin to ponder now. It sounded odd, just something to consider a stranger thing. Like what P.I.X.A.L had told them the other morning.
The man turned away from the window to see his sulking boss and turned to the android as she worked on a new tablet since she told them she lost it from her chase. He could tell she looked tensed after what she told them. "So you claim to have seen some of the missing patients?" he wondered.
The android nodded. "Respectifully speaking, yes." she said to tap on the glass tablet. The large monitor replayed the events she seen from her eyes to show the two how the patients looked lifeless. Neuro was confused as he watched it to ponder how they were moving even with his creation still attached to them. "As you can see, they're moving. Not connected to any ethernet outlet, but are they still connected to the game. Here I'm thinking though, the NeuroGear should've stopped any brainwave activity to prevent players from moving and-"
"It should be doing that!" the man shouted. "I designed that to prevent players from hurting themselves and there should be no way for them to be moving. Even if they're not connect, they shouldn't be up and moving if the Overlord has them trapped. This isn't possible, I find it hard to believe."
Cyrus had to agree with him as he found it hard to believe too. But from what P.I.X.A.L told and shown them, the news report of the hospital disappearences, this was something to believe now. "P.I.X.A.L, have you researched into the event further after your discovery?" he asked.
"I have actually." she replied to type on the tablet to have the screen change a different scenary. The three glanced around the view to realize the camera was close to the floor and slowly began to move from the android's control. They watched as P.I.X.A.L started to climb onto the wall and disappeared into an air duct. "I've done reconisence with the spider drone to survey the area after. . .my fright and felt like there was more than two. My hypothesis was correct as there are more than two." The camera peeked out of the vent grate to show them two more hospital patients, in gowns and NeuroGear helmets, roaming down the halls. The camera disappeared to move further down the vents.
"Alright. . ." Neuro acknowledged. "But it still doesn't explain to how my creation is not rendering them incapable of movement."
"I thoughts exact." The drone left a different vent to climb onto the wall. "But this is different on my discovery and I had to show you before I showed the authorities." She panned the camera to focus on her discovery.
The three stared at a large room with players surrounded around a metal case with a glass top. It made them think of it as a sarcophagus. Some players meandered around, attending to some computer consoles and diodes. Cyrus and Neuro were astonished to what they saw to turn to P.I.X.A.L as she nodded. "P.I.X.A.L, that's in sublevel B-6, right?" the wheelchaired man asked. She nodded. "What is happening then?"
"I wish I knew more clearly." she stated to move the drone aside to hide it. "But this is unnatural though. The missing patients are within our corporation, hiding below us as we speak. I don't know if we should notify the police of this."
"We must then." Cyrus said.
"But wait," Neuro interrupted. "This would be a bad end on our company. The patients are under our building, we notify the police, they would think we kidnapped them. Already enough we have players trapped in our game, we can't have the public think we're kidnapping hospital patients. This would ruin you, Cyrus, everything you stand for. It's best we send the recon drones out to retrieve the patients and return them to safety."
The man wanted to inject, but he stopped to think as his partner was right. The missing patients were on his property, they notify the police, it would be his head. It was something he couldn't risk even when being targeted by the media. "Very well, send them out." he agreed to see his assistant nod. This was becoming stranger by the second.
The rising sun broke through the treeline to have the rays reach onto the slumbering face of a teen. A groan escaped from his lips as the rays hit his eyes to turn his head away from the sun. But a foul smell had reached his nose to cringe and pried his eyes open. His vision was blurry to shake his head to yawn and wake up more to fix his vision and gaze at his new surroundings.
He found himself in a swamp like forest with rotting trees in a green pool of liquid. He felt nervous to the liquid as he couldn't see the bottom of the bog and saw vapors rising from the green pools. He heard the sound of frogs croaking in the distance. The trees around him stood tall and blocked most of the sunlight through its foliage with vines hanging off the branches. Lloyd glanced around to see the others around him on a small strip of land that was away from the water to raise a brow as he turned back to it. He grabbed a small stick to carefully stick it into the water to hear it hiss, the water churning to pull it out to see his stick was small and burnt. These bogs were acidic.
The blonde haired teen heard his friends groaning as well as they were slowly waking up to turn back to them. Cole was the first to sit up and stretch to gaze around their new surroundings. He raised a bushy brow as he studied the swamp they teleported to after their encounter with the Overlord and Morro's transformation. He turned to the spiky haired teen as he pulled himself up to groan and rub his head. "Really, Kai," he grumbled. "Out of all places, you picked the Toxic Bogs? What were you thinking? This is place is nothing but acid that can kill us."
The samurai turned to the knight to give him a quick glare and sighed. "I panicked, okay." he admitted. "I couldn't think straight since the virus was there and he changed Morro in front of us that wanted to kill us. Bright side, we're far from the prison and hopefully safe from Morro and his crazy followers."
"I understand your predicament, Kai." Zane said to pat his back. "Thank you for getting us to safety at least." He turned to Jay as he wasn't awake and calmly shook his shoulder. "Jay, please wake up, we're far from the prison."
The auburn groaned to shake the A.I's hand from him and slowly sat up to yawn. He stretched his arms to get to his feet and turned to the others. Their eyes were wide and their words were frozen in their throats to what they saw on the thief. Jay glanced at the others as they looked at him puzzled. "What? Something wrong?" he asked. "Something in my teeth?"
Lloyd glanced at the teen to ponder on what to say to him without him panicking. But he wasn't sure how Jay will react. "Um. . .don't freak out," he said. "But there is something different about you. . .that'll take time to heal and all. But don't freak out about it right now. Okay?" He saw him nod unsure to draw out his sword and held it at Jay to show him his reflection. "Don't freak out and remain calm."
Jay studied his reflection to have his hazel eye widen to scream the top of his lungs to have some birds flutter away. Half of the right side of his face was missing to have franctically feeling his face to realize he couldn't feel his right arm move to glance at his arm to realize it was missing at the shoulder. He screamed more to pace around the sand bar, trying to calm his nerves. "What happened!?" he screamed. "What happened to my face!? Where's my arm!? Where the heck are we!? I can't calm down knowing half of my body is missing!"
The knight quickly grabbed Jay to stop him from moving any closer to the acidic bogs and carefully set him down on a tree stump. "Now relax, okay." he said to try and calm him down. But he knew it wasn't working when he saw the pain and fear in his one eye. "We're in the Toxic Bogs, after Kai got us away from Morro and Overlord, and we blacked out. But you must've accidently rolled into a small puddle of the acid to have some of your body gone. But luckily it didn't kill you to only leave you in critical condition and it'll heal in no time. Just relax for the time being."
"How can I relax at a time like this!?" the auburn exclaimed. "I have one arm and eye missing, I need two hands to work with my spear here! I can't relax when it takes time to regain my missing body, most likely a day since it's this bad!" Sighing, he frowned as glanced at his missing arm and felt his missing face. "This is just the worst morning right now."
They had to pity the teen. He was right, the worst morning he was having. But it wasn't going to help him if he was sulking like this, Jay would have to be patient. Lloyd had sheathed his sword and patted Jay's back to comfort him. "Hey, it'll be alright." he said. "I get it that's hard, but you'll make it through. Just try to stay positive on it right now. We're far from the prison and are back together. So thank you, all of you, for finding me." He saw the thief smile to him to give him one back.
They all shared a smile together to agree with the blonde haired teen. They were far from the Overlord and Morro and were back together. Something to smile about as they were a group again and not loners. The best they could do for now was to relax and regain their health they may lost, and in Jay's case his body, and think of a new plan. They saw how powerful the Overlord was and what he was capable of to transform Morro into something new. Something they wouldn't see coming or capable to defend themselves against.
But something bothered Lloyd after his fight with Morro. The man was bargaining with the virus and could give him a body, he didn't know how, but what the Overlord said was something he couldn't comprehend. What makes you think I haven't begun it already? "Zane, you recorded what the Overlord said, right?" he asked to see the A.I nod. "What do you suppose he meant?"
Zane only shrugged and opened his menu to pull out the recording. He replayed the event to have shivers down their spines to his voice. "Your NeuroGears allowed me to intercept your brainwaves, enabling me to rewire everything to have you under my control. I don't need a body when I'm having one being made and I'll soon rule this world and also take control of the real Ninjago." the recording said.
He pondered to replay the event again and again to draw a blank. Something didn't feel right to him to sigh and opened the console on the ground. He typed on the many keyboards to have images appear in front of him and carefully scanned each one. The algorithms and binary codes couldn't dechiper him a message. He decided to hack outside of the servers to pull up anything from the Borg Industries, knowing this would alert the Overlord of his presence if he wasn't quick enough. What he pull up made him raise a brow.
The five players studied the recorded images from security footages, to news reports from Gayle Gossip about missing hospital patients of Ninjago Online players. The A.I shifted his attention to a recording from Cyrus' assistant, P.I.X.A.L, to ponder as she was facing two people in hospital gowns and the NeuroGears over their faces. He grew more curious as they chased after her to shake his head as it didn't make sense to him. The NeuroGear was to enable players to not move and intercept brainwaves to move the player's avatar in the game. Something was strange to them.
They glanced at a video of a large room to have their eyes widen in curiousity. They watched as players moved around in gowns and their NeuroGear helmets. But they grew more curious as the players huddled around the metal case and glass cover to see the shadow of a body inside. The more the A.I studied it, it clicked into his systems. "I understand now." he gasped to quickly close the console to prevent the Overlord from finding him.
"What's wrong, Zane?" Cole asked.
"Everything now to what the Overlord Virus said." he replied to pace around the sandbar. He stopped to collect his breath and turned to the others. "The virus has become more self aware of himself. He was created to be a boss in the game and was destroyed as he was deemed unstable, but he made himself more self control like me."
"What does it have to do with anything we saw on the outside world?" Kai asked. "Even I'm confused to see moving players when they're not connected."
"Because he's controlling them." Zane watched as confusion clouded their face to sigh and collected himself. "What he meant was that he had intercepted the fallen players' brainwaves to manipulate them and brainwashed them. They're not connected, they're awake and out of the game, following the Overlord as puppets. He's not creating an army inside the game, but outside as well. And the body we saw is his body, slowing being made. He's becoming sentient."
Their eyes widen in fear and shock to what the A.I said. The virus was controlling people to have them roaming outside of Ninjago Online. This was shocking to the five to believe but the A.I knew more than they would so he had to be right. "Okay, let me get this straight." Jay said. "The dead players actually left the game and are moving in the real Ninjago. I mean that's unfair since we're stuck here, but this sounds weird though. And what about his army in this game and Morro? And what do you mean by sentient?"
"Sentient is the term known as 'able to perceive or feel things'." Zane replied. "The synonyms are feeling, aware, and living. He's able to create a body under secrecy. And to achieve his goal, he's using players' avatars as his army to prevent players from defeating him while outside he's using them as his other army."
"So. . .What can we do now?" Cole wondered. "There has to be away to stop him from getting to his body and free us and those zombie players."
This was happening too fast to them to comprehend and think. They could feel a weight grow on their chests to the outcome of the Overlord reaching his goal. There had to be a way to stop him from escaping the game, they couldn't let him until Zane could destroy him with the antivirus software in him. They had to find the Overlord now and soon. The virus had a goal, now they did as well.