Chapter 4: No Flux To Give
Jacob tied the tightly rolled sleeping bag to the bottom on his backpack and reached into another bag nearby to munch on some chips. A pipe had burst in school earlier that day, allowing him to start his weekend vacation in Perim a good day a half sooner than expected. He spend that time stocking up on supplies while waiting for Hank and Monica. The serving bots were more than happy to bring over some dry foods that would keep while they spend the next three days scouting a cave they found in the Riverlands on their last trip.
"We going camping, or are gonna live in Perim?" Monica joked, walking up with Hank and staring wide-eyed at Jacob's small mountain of equipment. The two had formed a fast friendship since their last match, and Hank asked if she could come with. Jacob was more than happy to have the punk-styled girl along. While Hank was in his customary track pants, running shoes and jersey, and Jacob was in his usual black tee and cargo pants, Monica favored a black hoodie with a band logo and shorts over tights with heavy boots.
"It's not camping if you keep going back for stuff. Besides, you never know what could happen" Jacob said, placing some matches in a side pocket. "Remember last month in Glacier Plains?"
"Blizzard left us stuck at the Crystal Range" Hank explained to the curious Monica. "Somebody" he glared at Jacob "insisted we couldn't leave until he can a new scan of the other side of the valley"
"And somebody else agreed" he glared back, stuffing some thin blue and silver cans in the bag.
"Didn't know you drink those."
"I don't" Jacob hefted the backpack onto his shoulders, testing its weight. "I know a bakery in Kiru City. The old lady that owns it makes these fruit-filled scone things. I dont remember what they're called, but they're amazing. I'll pop in on days her grandson is working, and he'll trade me some for Earth energy drinks. Gonna swing by before we leave."
"How did that arrangement even come up?" Monica wondered.
"College students pulling all-nighters are universal. Be back soon"
He arrived in an alleyway, just off the main Residential District. Maxxor's Castle loomed above this part of the city, but it felt more safe than intimidating. He had just rounded a corner when a voice called out "Hey, you!". A pair of Kiru City guards were fast approaching, and he stopped so they could catch up.
"Yes?"
"Don't let him get away" one shouted, and he turned to see another pair of guards headed towards him with Cyclances drawn.
"What seems to be the prob-WOAH" He ducked a spray of hard stones and grabbed his scanner, vanishing just as the guards reached for him.
A few blocks over, a bell over the door rang cheerily when Jacob entered, giving a shaky wave to the creature behind the counter. He was humanoid, with grey skin and two pairs of sharp tusks jutting from his jaw, one pair curling high enough to nearly touch his forehead, the other sticking almost straight out. Jacob thought he looked like an Orc from a fantasy novel.
"What's up Birusa? Brought some of those drinks you-"
Birusa's eyes widened over his hog-like snout. Panicked, he shushed the human and whipped his head around looking for anyone else in inside before rushing to the door, flipping the sign to "Closed" and closing the blinds.
Jacob was confused. "What's the-?"
"Did anyone see you come in?"
"No...? Why, It's never been a problem before. What's up?"
"The guards are looking for you" Birusa informed him in a low voice. "Something about a break-in at the Armory."
"I had a run in with them earlier, but I thought it was one of those 'all humans look the same' scenarios" he said, indignant. "I haven't been there in, like, two weeks. Not since I last talked to Bodal. I've barely even been in Kiru since then."
"Really?" the young Overworlder looked relieved then apologetic. "I mean, I knew you wouldn't do that." They sat down in a booth and Birusa took one of the cans from Jacob. He cracked it open, took a long drink and let out a sigh of contentment.
"I don't know how humans go without these."
"Some can't. Now tell me why the cops are after me?"
"Oh, right." He set the can down and leaned forward. "Almost a week ago, the guards caught a human inside, going through the gear in Bodal's workshop. When they tried to stop him, he used a Liquilizer to freeze one in place and vanished with one of those transporters you guys carry."
"A Scanner" Jacob corrected. "But what's that gotta do with me?"
"The guard they thawed out recognized him. Said he was there with you about a week before that."
"Two weeks ago...Will?" Jacob leaned back in the booth and frowned. "How did he get in?"
"Must've warped in" Birusa took another, smaller drink. "Rumor has it here was no forced entry, all the doors were good."
"No way. To 'port in, he'd have to get a scan of the inside. I would've seen and stopped him. Bodal would've stopped him."
"You two were with him the whole time? Never alone?"
"Yeah. Except for..." He had a brief flashback: Will tripping and knocking over a rack of gear, himself running off to chase an orb. Out of the room for maybe 30 seconds, he could easily imagine Will hiding behind something while Bodal fussed over the scattered battlegear, oblivious to the light and sound of the scanner as it analyzed the room, overwritting the scan of the outside of the building in favor of the interior.
"I'm gonna get that little twerp. He was complaining about not getting to see any of the rarer gear. Guess he decided to come back later on his own."
"How or why, they think you helped him break in."
"I didn't though!"
Birusa help his hands up in a placating way. "I know, I believe you. I mean, I had thoughts, but you-"
"No, you're fine" Jacob shook his head and got out his scanner. "I need to sort this mess out."
Hank and Monica were splitting up the rest of the camping equipment between them when Hank's pocket started ringing. Fumbling with a portable camp stove, he fished out his scanner and answered it, Jacob's face appearing on screen. "Yo, got your danishes, or whatever?"
Five minutes later, Hank ended the call.
"So," he told Monica "Looks like I got a job to do before we go. Wanna come with?"
"I was hoping you'd ask"
Guards patrolled the perimeter of the arsenal in groups of two that night, eyes peeled for any intruders, or worse, humans. Every few minutes, a team would stop at the main door, check it, then move on. The lights inside were dim, and Jacob was unable to see any movement inside from his perch atop a nearby building. Setting down his binoculars, he stretched the kinks out of his back before going back to reconnaissance.
There had been no sight of Will, or any other human, since sundown. After a brief talk with Hank, they agreed to keep an eye on the place until the weekend, or they caught the younger boy breaking in again. Many new players had a habit of being selfish with their scanning, and hopefully Will would be no different. A faint glimmer through one of the lower windows caught his eye, and he immediatly dialed his friend via scanner.
"I think we got something, lower window, East side"
"I saw it" Hank responded from behind a vendor stall. Through his own binoculars, he could see a shadowy form moving around inside. "Definitely a Chaotic player. 'Ported right in. Lucky for him he hit a patrol gap. What's the plan?"
"Any chance you can tip the guards off?"
"Doubt it. They look pretty edgy, they'd probably shoot first, and forget to ask questions"
Their scanners vibrated to indicate Monica trying to set up a group call, and Jacob brought her in. "There's something happening at the West end. The patrols are heading towards the castle!"
Jacob cursed under his breath. "Can you see what it is?"
"No, but there's smoke and two groups left the rounds."
"Come around to the East," Hank suggested. "someone's here, and it's probably the same someone drawing the guards out."
By the time Jacob climbed down from his perch, Monica was jogging up and Hank was waving them over to the stall. A hushed conversation ensued where they put together an idea. When the next patrol passed, the three snuck over to the window. With nary a grunt of effort, Hank gave Jacob a leg up through the bars, where he landed inside as quietly as he could.
Deciding against using his flashlight, he slowly crept through the rows of weapons, straining his ears for unusual sounds. Lamps kept the area dimly illuminated, but deep shadows embraced the shelves where the light couldn't reach. Keeping to these pools of darkness, he made his way to the workshop where any new or experimental gear would be kept alongside older pieces undergoing repairs.
The door to the room was slightly ajar, brighter light than the main storage area filtering through the crack. A shadow passed by from within, causing Jacob to freeze. He cautiously peeked through the gap into the shop and saw a small human in dark pants and hoodie carefully lift up a small dagger from the bench, inspect it, shake their head, and set it back down. The process repeated for a pair of blue and yellow gauntlets, and a long green gem set into a bracer.
"What have we here? the intruder mumbled, picking up a bright blue Mugic crystal. Jacob bristled at Will's voice, ready to barge into the room, but held himself in check. His eyes widened seeing the boy place the mugic in his pocket instead of scanning it. Will opened a file cabinet next, and Jacob use the scraping of the drawers to cover his opening of the door.
Sliding into the room, he shut the door as quietly he could and let out a low "psst". Will jumped about a foot in the air at the noise and had his scanner in his hand before he realized who it was.
"Jeez, you almost gave me a heart attack. What are you doing here?"
"Me?" Jacob whispered "What about you? You got busted once already, and got ME in hot water with the locals. What where you thinking?"
"Uh, that I wanted some good gear?" Will went back to flipping through the drawers contents "I don't know what you're getting so bent out of shape about. It's not like they're real or anything"
Jacob's brow furrowed in confusion. "How do you figure?"
"Because it's obvious" Will shut the drawer and turned to look Jacob in the eye. "We're real. This whole place is just a big elaborate video game, and they're nothing but really well-programmed NPCs. We can take everything they are and bring it to our world, but they can't do the same to us. We can affect their world, but not the other way around. This whole place exists for us, and they're just here for us to use."
"Oh really? Then why don't I just call the guards in here and they fill the room with lightning bolts? Or I can grab some Nexus Fuses from the other room? You know what those do." Jacob put himself in the boys face, voice raising from a whisper to a low hiss "You like coming here? Then you better wise up. You don't get extra lives. You can't reload a save. Once you're done here, youre done, and this kind of attitude will see that happen sooner rather than later." Will took a step back, startled at the older boy's sudden annoyance.
"Get away!" he grabbed an object from the desk and swinging it wildly. Jacob instinctively ducked at the caged orb Will was holding by a length of chain and felt his stomach twist. The workshop was gone, the smell of oil and metal replace with something rotten that hung heavy in the air. They were standing in green ankle-deep water and massive bones littered the landscape.
"What did you do?" they snapped at each other
"I was trying to get you out of my face!" Will snapped, cocking his arm back like he was going to throw the orb at him.
"I didn't bring us here. How could I?" Jacob took in the area around him. "My best guess: looks like we're in Skeletal Springs."
"Where's that?"
Jacob shrugged "Somerwhere in the Overworld, that's all I know. Never actually visited before."
"That still doesn't explain why we're here" Will clipped the sphere's chain to a ring on his belt, freeing his hands to take a scan of the location for himself. Jacob took the opportunity to inspect the item properly.
"That's a Flux Bauble. Tricky peice of gear that warps the user to a random place. And anyone nearby, apparently.
"I know what a Flux Bauble does."
"Good. Great. Now port back to the armory, put it back and quit stealing stuff" Jacob suggested.
Will scoffed. "Uh, no? This thing's awesome!"
"I'm serious, just because you think someone doesn't matter, it doesn't give you the right to take their stuff"
"Make me"
This kicked off a short tussle between the two where Jacob grabbed at the bauble and Will tried to shove him away. During the struggle the boys tripped and landed in the shallow water with a splash. Almost instantly, the scenery around them changed to a large underground cavern, blue and green lights eerily reflecting off the walls. Cool and damp, the only sound was the dripping of water into unseen pools. Around them were massive stalagmites the size of apartment buildings with glowing holes, as though someone where living in them and left the lights on.
The sudden "flux" stopped their squabble and they sat there, gaping at the scene.
"Okay, this place is trippy." Will said "Can we fight later?" Jacob nodded wordlessly, drawing his scanner and sweeping it over the location, storing it's data.
"How do I work this thing?" Will ran his hands over the cage, feeling for a switch or lever. He brushed against a button that depressed easily, setting their guts churning as they "fluxed" again.
This time they actually fell, landing roughly on a stone floor with a grunt. "You're not allowed to drive anymore" Jacob got to his feet with a groan. The new location was an enormous hallway, far larger than a building had any right to be. Crafted from proportionally large bricks of tan stone, it seemed to stretch on for miles.
The stone panel beneath them sank a few inches into the floor under their weight. A rumbling followed a few seconds later, sections of the wall opening up to launch sharp metal blades into the room! Jacob threw himself back to the floor, a blade whirling just over his head, while Will darted around trying to dodge them.
"Nope! I'm done!" Will grabbed for his scanner and cried out in shock when one of the blades got too close, knocking the device from his hand and sending it skidding across the stones.
"Stay low! We can go under them!" Jacob shouted, keeping himself pressed to the floor. Will complied, nearly getting a new haircut, but managed to army-crawl over to the older boy. "This way"
They slid on their bellies over to the next section of floor tiles where the blades couldn't reach and stood, dusting themselves off. From here, they could see the blades weren't just poping out of the wall freely, but were attached to metal arms that were moving wildly around the area.
"Great, how am I supposed to get my scanner now?" Will watched the blades slashing just above his fastest way out. Jacob sighed next to him.
"Our scanners." He pointed over where they originally landed, to his own scanner. He had it out when they arrived, and must've dropped it when they fell.
"Even better" Will said sarcastically then pointed at Jacob's backpack. "Got anything in that Bag of Holding we can use to grab them?"
"I should have some rope. Or we could knock them out of the way of the blades with something heavy, then find a away around?" he asked, slinging the backpack off, and searching it's contents.
"And have someone else come by and grab them? No."
Jacob bit back his comment about theft and hypocrisy and uncoiled a length of sturdy nylon rope instead. "Here you go. I also got a hammer and pitons for climbing, some carabiners, first aid kit, flashlight, spare fuel for the stove, some water, energy bars, chips, matches, a multi-tool, and a sleeping bag."
"How's any of that gonna get our scanners?"
"I don't know. You asked what I had. I planned on dividing up the supplies, Hank and Monica have the rest" They sat back down and sulked, waiting for the blades to stop. A half hour later, they were still going and the boys had grown tired of snipping at each other. Occasionally, Jacob's scanner would ring, and he knew his friends were trying to contact him.
"You called my backpack a 'Bag of Holding' earlier." Jacob said, trying to make conversation "You play a lot of tabletop games?"
"Yeah" Will eyed him warily. "So?"
Jacob shrugged. "I do too. Stuck in a dungeon, spinning blade trap blocking the path. A rogue would probably know how to disarm it" he chuckled.
"Or the barbarian would get mad and smash the thing"
"Even the alchemist could probably just..." He trailed off.
Their heads whipped around to each other, then they dived for the camping gear.
A few minutes later...
"Have you ever done this before?" Will finished wrapping the can of propane up in torn pieces of the sleeping bag.
"Once, by accident." Jacob poured a small measure of rubbing alcohol from the first aid kit on the cloth. "Dropped a can in the campfire. My dad was furious."
"But it worked?"
"Oh yeah. Fire in the hole!" The match flared, igniting the alcohol in the bundle and Jacob hurled it towards the wall where the mechanism for the blades was housed. It landed where the wall met the floor and, with a muffled thump, came to a stop beneath one of the metal arms. They immediantly ran several yards back.
A minute passed. "What's taking so long?" Will wondered aloud.
"The can needs to be hot enough to-"
Blam!
The sound of the blast made them jump, stone and dirt kicking up with the sudden burst of flame. There was a shower of sparks from the arms and blades, the explosion knocking them out of synch, causing them to hit each other. When the dust settled, the arms were wrapped around themselves, deep score marks in the floor, and the trap completely destroyed. Together, Jacob and Will picked through the wreck and collected their surprisingly undamaged scanners.
"I think that's enough excitement for me today." Will brought up the return function on his screen.
"Wait," Jacob put a hand on Will's shoulder, who shrugged it off.
"For what? Another lecture? I'm good, thanks"
"Just..." He paused to gather his thoughts. "You caused a lot of trouble for me when you broke into the arsenal. I was trying to do something nice for you, and your actions bit me in the rear end. Can you at least stop doing what you're doing in Kiru?"
Will's face fell into a frown, before vanishing in a flash of light.
"...then he ported out with the Flux Bauble. Still has that Mugic too, as far as I know." Jacob aggressively stabbed a marshmallow and held it over the fire. They had finally gotten their trip underway, minus one fuel can and sleeping bag, but that was far from Jacob's mind. "I don't get players like him, you know? They have this fantastic world to explore, and they waste time being jerks."
"You know how it is though, man" Hank said, removing his treat from the fire. "Some people are just born awful, like Klay. And others" he blew on the chunk of burnt sugar to cool it off "they don't get it until they spend some more time here. Hopefully, the kid is in the second category"
"Not everyone is one of the two though" The boys had given Monica the tent as a courtesy, and she was lying on her back, torso out of the flap to look at the stars in the clear night sky. "I bet you guys never went of of your way to do that kind of stuff."
"No" Jacob agreed, food browning in the flames. "Not even a little."
Hank swallowed his marshmallow "Nope." he said simply. "Especially in a place like this" He walked to the shore with a notebook, admiring the alien constellations in the glittering water of the Riverlands and began to sketch.