Chapter 6: Behind Closed Doors
Jacob sat glaring daggers at the scanner on his scuffed desk. He had just gotten back from the library, an hour and a half on the computer giving no results. Threads in the Chaotic message board, nothing. Supposed 'leaks' for new card sets, nothing. Trawling search engines for any scrap of information. Nothing. This was as much as he could do here, now it was up to another 'him' to find out what was what.
He picked impatiently at the faded blanket on his bed, eyes fixed on the screen, and waited for the scanner to beep.
"C'mon, Elliot. You're the Location guy. You've gotta know something."
The bespectacled boy shrugged helplessly. "I can't help you, Jake. I've never seen it before. I can't speak for the Codemasters, but you're probably the only one in Chaotic who has this card." His eyes narrowed shrewdly "Now, if you wanted to sell it..."
"Goodbye, Elliot" Jacob ended the call and banged his head on the table, groaning in frustration. All around him, players were talking about their latest trip to Perim, enjoying food brought by the serving robots, or cheering on their friends in drome battles broadcast throughout the Port Court.
"Mugic for your thoughts?" a female voice asked.
"I should be so lucky." he raised his head to see an unfamiliar teen probably a few years older than himself with long brown hair pulled back into a high pony tail. She was pretty, with a midriff-baring top and capris. It took him a moment to realise he was staring.
"Oh, uh. I just, um...have a lot on my mind" he mumbled, averting his gaze so as not to seem rude.
"I can see that" the girl pulled up a seat across from him and held out a slender, manicured hand. "I'm Krissy"
"Jacob" he grabbed her hand and sat up a bit straighter. "Did you need something?"
Krissy shook her head. "I saw you sitting over here by yourself, and thought you looked upset. Thought I'd swing by and offer a friendly ear."
Jacob smiled in appreciation. "Thanks, but unless you know anything about mysterious, creepy locations that apparently don't exist, I don't think you can help."
"Okay... I think I'm missing a few details here."
"Sorry" Jacob took a breath and wondered how much to give her: there was an incident with a Flux Bauble and how he wound up in a strange new location? After scanning it and porting out, he showed it to his friends, who expressed that they're never seen anything like it before? A quick match in the Beta Drome with Hank only gave him a rough idea of the layout as well as the name of the location? He settled on showing her his scanner and telling her it's name.
"The Coralsmithy, huh?" Krissy was looking at the image on his scanner. "Can't say I've heard of it."
"And that's the problem: no one has." Jacob took a drink from a bottle of water one of the servers delivered. "I'd port there to find out more, but without any clue where it is, or what Tribe controls it, I'd be going in blind."
"Maybe no one 'controls' it. It could be an old abandoned place, like those giant ruins in the Overworld, or Stone Pillar in the Underworld."
"On the flip-side of those coins, Gigantemptopolis is a filled with dangerous traps and Stone Pillar is literally haunted. Unoccupied, still dangerous." Jacob pointed out. "Although, none of that kind of stuff came up in my match..."
"Then why not go?" Krissy pressed. "You could get some new scans of gear or creatures no one's ever seen before" She met his eyes. "I'd go in a heartbeat if it were me"
"It's not just that, I don't like doing the solo adventure thing when I go somewhere new." he started hesitantly. "I try to bring backup whenever I can, in case something happens. In this case, I'd have to go there, grab another scan, then come back and give it to one of my friends so they can come with."
'Sounds like you have a plan already"
"Yeah, except all of my friends are busy." Earlier that day, Hank had taken Monica on a tour of Pouril Forest, and they weren't planning on coming back until sometime later tonight. "I could wait a other day, but this whole situation is...frustrating."
"I bet. You must be raring to do something"
Jacob nodded, idly spinning the water bottle's cap.
"I...no" Krissy began, but stopped herself, shaking her head.
"What?" He looked up at the girl, giving the cap another flick.
"Well, if you wanted to... I could go with you?"
The bottle cap went flying off the table, hitting another player in the back of the head ("Hey!").
Jacob was stunned. Okay, maybe she was just being nice. Maybe she just wanted to see a new location. But that didn't change the fact that a cute older girl just asked to go somewhere with him. His mouth was suddenly dry, and he took a big gulp of water.
"Yeah" his voice cracked with the word, and he cleared his throat with a nod. "Yeah. I can-yeah."
"Great. I'll wait by one of the card stations while you get that scan" Krissy shot him a wink, and walked away, back to him. Jacob turned in his chair to watch her go.
A blonde man nearby suggestively asked "Enjoying the view?" in an obnoxiously familiar accent.
"Shut up, Klay"
A short walk to the transport center later, and Jacob was taking a few bracing breaths, finger hovering over a button on the scanner. Pressing it, he dropped into a low crouch as Chaotic faded out around him, replaced with the dim damp cavern he had accidentally visited a few days previously. Instead of silence like last time, he was greeted by rhythmic metallic pounding and wet clicking sounds. Breaking into a sprint, Jacob made for one of the giant stalagmites that seemed to pass for buildings in the region and hid in a gap he found during his only match here. He had been using the form of the blue-skinned genie Deenha at the time, and this spot was much tighter to his human form than the petite Overworlder.
Peeking cautiously out, a pair of creatures appeared, speaking in a garbled, watery language. They looked like bulky human-sized mutated crabs: glistening green chitin, propped up on four sturdy legs with two arms, one ending in a oversize pincer and the other in a four fingered hand, and bristling with short, sharp spines. They reminded him of the Overworlder Crawsectus, but meaner and a few millennia devolved. Or those crab-monsters from that post-apocalypse video game he watched Hank play.
Waiting for them to be out of sight, he started scanning the area, nervous sweat dripping down his temple as the few seconds needed for the scanner to do its work passed by excruciatingly slow. Finally, it beeped to indicate it's task was finished and Jacob sighed in relief, porting back to Chaotic in a shimmer of light, oblivious to a silhouette watching from above.
Krissy was waiting patiently at a card station as promised when he arrived, playing with her scanner. Smiling at his approach she leaned forward. "Everything go okay, then?"
"Sure did."Jacob held up his scanner and locked it onto the slot in the table where the new scan of the Coralsmithy appeared on it's surface. A few taps on the screen later, and the card was displayed on Krissy's scanner.
"Fantastic. Let's say we meet up again in about half an hour or so, and head there together?" She smiled and gave him a playful wave, walking out towards the Transport Center. He nodded in reply, grinning like an idiot. Several minutes passed before he realized he was on a schedule now and ran to the Transport Center himself, queuing up a scan of Ravanaugh Ridge.
This particular scan was one he didn't use in the Battledromes. Located a few miles (or Glints, as the Perim locals would say) from Dranakis Threshold, it was a small cave he had found early on in his time in Perim, and, since their last camping trip, was being used as a kind of storage unit for gear and equipment he didn't need to bring from Earth. It allowed him to grab things like notebooks, pens, and duct tape without having to go back home first. Shoving some things into a bag, he ported back to Chaotic and awaited Krissy.
She arrived about ten minutes later. "Shall we?"
Jacob agreed, letting her know what the immediate area would like like, and they activated their scanners simultaneously, materializing in the cavernous chamber. They met up at the hiding spot where he had taken the last scan and had a whispered conversation.
"The only creatures I've seen so far are some big crab things, they can talk, I think, but I couldn't understand them. Don't know if they're hostile."
"Okay then. We stick to the edges of the buildings and shadows. Did you get a look inside any of these?" She gestured to the windows carved into the spires of rock.
Jacob shook his head. "Did a 'Grab and Go' on both scans, didn't see much during the match. Was trying to figure out the layout and hazards."
She nodded thoughtfully and motioned to a lower window. "Give me a boost"
Placing his back to the stone, Jacob laced his fingers together and Krissy placed her foot down. Lifting her up, his heart skipped a beat when her exposed navel stopped at eye level.
"Looks like a workshop" she said, peering through the window.
"Yeah?" While she wasn't heavy, he was becoming more uncomfortable by the second.
"Yeah, lots of diagrams, tools and stuff, but no battlegear or anything. Let me back down."
He frowned and slowly eased her to the floor. "If they have any, I'd bet it's higher up and guarded, too"
"Probably. I hope we can find something." She gasped, grabbed his hand and pulled. "This way"
Krissy led Jacob along the edge of the structure into a gap between it and another, where deep shadows pooled. An odd clicking noise was echoing through the space, and they could see an outline of a humanoid crustacean walking around where they had just been standing. A pair of glowing purple eyes swept over them and stopped. Jacob's heart beat against his ribs, wondering if it could see in the dark.
[I will observe.] a voice sounded in the creature's head, unheard by the humans. [Return to your duties.]
The crab thing turned and scuttled away, leaving the two humans to breath a sigh of relief. Blushing, he realized he was still holding Krissy's hand and released it with a nervous chuckle. He couldn't see her reaction in the dark, and hoped the reverse was true.
"You think it saw us?" he whispered, trying to cover his laugh as anxiety at the close call.
"I dunno" A sliver of light illuminated the girl's smiling face "But I found a door"
The door, more like a stone panel, slide open noiselessly and the pair slipped inside. Within was a wide hallway lined with more of the strange doors, each one large enough to accommodate the crab-people and labeled with strange alien script. Peeking behind one of these showed them rooms stacked with heavy stone chests filled with coral, unknown metal and pieces of thick chitin. They looked like supply or storage rooms.
A spiral staircase with wide steps and a gentle slope led up to the next level. With its wider, more open space, and low stone tables filled with odd tools, it felt like a workshop. While Krissy was playing with the tools, Jacob's eyes were drawn to a crude mannequin at the side of the room. It was in the shape of those crab creatures, but attached to it were several pieces of the spiny chitin he saw downstairs. The dummy's head was exposed, otherwise leaving it well-protected.
The sound and light of an activated scanner made Krissy's head turn. "What are you doing?" she hissed
"Scanning this sweet armor" Jacob pocketed his scanner and frowned at her scowling face. "What? There's no windows to give us away and Crabby down there didn't see where we went."
"Let's just get moving" she was holding a tool that looked like a pair of forceps and walked to a door at the back of the room and apparently used them to jimmy it open. They walked on in silence, checking rooms and corridors. All the while, a bad feeling was stirring in Jacob's gut, beyond the normal "first time in a new location" jitters.
Eventually their walk brought them to a room similar to the one Krissy described earlier: an angled desk with diagrams carved into thin sheets of metal, more stone cases of those strange shells, and racks of foreign tools.
"This place looks important" Jacob peered at what he assumed was a blueprint on the desk. It looked like nothing he'd ever seen and idly wondered if Bodal could decipher it. He frowned remembering the welcome he received if Kiru City last time, and decided to leave the sheets be.
A low grunt pulled his attention away to Krissy, who was struggling with another sliding door.
"What's in here?" he asked, casting a glance at the older girl.
She smiled sweetly, and Jacob felt his cheeks warming up. "I've got a good feeling about this one. Help me?"
Nodding, he ran his hands around the edge of the door, feeling for a latch or lock. He was rewarded with a small square that smoothly depressed and the panel opened, spilling out it contents: a sweaty and frustrated Chaotic player with pink shades and a blonde goatee.
"Took you long enough. Did you know the door was locked?" Klay grumbled. "Who wants a scan of the inside of a closet anyways?"
"I got here as quick as I could. I had to deal with this dork" she pointed to Jacob over her shoulder with thumb "leering at me every five minutes. I was gonna gag"
"Krissy? What's going on?" Jacob looked between the two, utterly confused.
"You really think I'd hang out with a loser like you if I didn't have to?" Her friendly tone was gone, replaced with an audible sneer. "Besides, I prefer Krystella"
The name rung a bell, but he couldn't place it. Hurt, Jacob sputtered out "What, why-?"
"Because you were waving that thing around like a winning lottery ticket" she responded simply. "'Never-before-seen, only the Codemasters have a copy'" she said mockingly.
"I didn't say that, Elliot did! Besides, how did he get here?" Jacob pointed at Klay.
"Just after you gave me the scan of this place, I came back to grab one for my partner here" she tilted her head to acknowledge Klay, who waved sarcastically "Some of those lobster-things spotted me though, so I ran up here to hide. I guess they locked the doors behind me after I ported out."
"And now that that's done" Klay gave Jacob a hard shove into the closet. He tried to fight back, but the older player was stronger than him, and pushed him back down. Another short scuffle had Jacob on the ground a third time and also saw Klay holding his scanner away at arms length.
"You won't be needing this" Klay laughed, tossing it across the room and giving the boy one last trip to the floor, this time slamming the sliding stone into place where it made an audible 'click', cutting off the pairs jeers.
Hot tears rolled down Jacob's face as he pounded on the door, pulling and pushing at it to get the panel to move, to no avail. He eventually collapsed on the cold stone, knees against his chest in the cramped room.
.
.
.
How could he have been such a moron?! He lashed out with a foot, connecting with something in the darkened room that cracked under his heel. Great, now there was probably broken glass in here too.
.
.
.
Going to a new location, anywhere, with someone he just met and didn't know? Idiot! He banged his head against the sealed door.
.
.
.
And why? A pretty face? Stupid! He searched his bag for anything useful and came up with what felt like a handful of granola bars, some dry socks, a ball of thread, and an empty water bottle with no cap.
.
.
.
Who knows how long he'd been in here. Thirty minutes? An hour? Two hours? His watch was a cheap dollar-store brand. No light up screen or glow in the dark hands. Between his futile attempts at escape and feeling sorry for himself, he lost track of time.
.
.
.
He was munching on a granola bar, recovering from the panic attack, when the latch clicked and the door slid open, causing him to fall backwards into his savior. For a wild moment, Jacob thought it was another human, until several unnatural details registered. Tall and lithe, it had reddish rubbery skin (though that may have been a trick of the light), and solid blue eyes. A quintet of tentacles sprouted from its face where a mouth and nose would be, with more, longer, tentacles taking the place of it's left arm.
It glared at him, not with shock or anger, but a cold curiosity. By human standards, it was as if he were a mildly interesting lab specimen; Who knew if this thing thought like a human. Jacob was unpleasantly reminded of a brain-eating tabletop RPG monster that lived in places exactly like this one, and reflexively scooted back.
The creature's arm tentacle lashed out at the movement, causing Jacob to flinch in surprise. Instead of an attack or physical blow, Jacob felt the appendage gently press against his forehead. Several thoughts came unbidden to the front of his consciousness, as if pulled. Images of classes in school, watching TV at home, joking around in Chaotic, transforming for drome battles, and journeys in Perim.
[How?]
The word echoed through his mind and he fought. He now recognized the feel of mental attacks from the Battledromes and wished for the iron willpower of Maxxor or Najarin but a single hazy image floated up from his memories.
Maintaining contact, the thing turned its head to where Klay had thrown his scanner. His only way out lifted itself up from the floor and floated over to the creature who plucked it from the air with it's hand and tapped on the screen with a clawed finger. It's eyes narrowed when nothing happened and held it up for Jacob to see.
[Show me.]
A jolt of excitement rushed through him as Jacob reached for the scanner, following the psychic command. The creature seemed to notice this though, and held it back. Did it know he could use it to escape? If not, it certainly did now.
[Stand. Follow.]
Against his will, Jacob pulled himself up from his sitting position and fell into step behind Octo-Face, who chose to float a few inches above the stone. It led him downstairs and back outside while he struggled against the mental control, barely able to twitch his eyes or move a finger. Some of the fantasy stuff he read would describe this kind of control or domination as a compulsion, a desire to do something the controller wanted, or following direction as one would for a friend. But this wasn't so gentle, more like someone was grabbing his legs and forcing them to move, step by step.
The creature stopped at a lower stalagmite, ushering Jacob inside. Within and down a flight of stairs, were several square rooms with bars instead of walls on their front. A table sat far away from these cells, along a wall where one of the crabs from earlier was standing, holding something. The creature rapidly set it down when they approached and exchanged words with his 'escort' is their strange garbled language.
[Enter.] the telepathic voice commanded, it's owner pointing at one of the cells.
Jacob's eyes lingered on his scanner, which was set on the table alongside two others and he was forced to walk into a cell. With a bit of surprise, and no small amount of satisfaction, he saw Klay and Krystella sitting glumly in their own cells on either side of him. The guard, he guessed it was, slammed the door shut and he felt the effects of the mind control leave with the squid-head.
He wasted no time in grabbing the bars and giving them a firm shake, wincing in pain when the rocky material bit into his skin like little needles.
"Don't bother" Klay's Aussie-accented voice drifted over from the next cell. "It's about as sturdy as a regular prison"
"You don't say?" Jacob snapped back "Been in many before?"
"Don't start" Krystella's voice came from his other side. "We need to find a way out of here"
"You're right. Have you tried flirting with the guard?"
"Cute" he could practically hear her rolling her eyes. "It wasn't anything personal."
"It wasn't-? You lied to me, beat me up and locked me in a closet! It felt pretty personal!"
"Someone would've found you. Eventually. Maybe" Klay said with a nasty grin.
"And if we left your scanner with you, you would've left and we'd be stuck here. Do you really think you could live with that?" Krystella asked with a fake pout.
"Right, because you just knew you'd get caught. Let me guess: you got busted and dragged here just after you left me?" Jacob stewed on that idea for a moment. As much of a favor as it would be to the entire Chaotic player base, he would feel awful just leaving them here, even if it took him a few days to realize they were gone. His train of thought was broken by the guard storming over and banging a claw against the bars.
This quieted the trio down and gave Jacob time to think. Think about how it felt being locked up again (it was spacious to him, but probably on the smaller side for the crab-people). Think about how much he hated the two people he was sharing a jail with. Think about a way to escape. This was like Mount Pillar all over again.
Klay was whining about being thirsty and Jacob briefly entertained the idea of filling up the bottle he had with some of his own 'personal' water for the teen. But that would require him to have his...Jacob's eyes widened and he made to grab for his bag. The straps were still there, comfortable on his shoulders. Tentacle guy never took it from him. What kind of prison was this, that didn't do a simple search? Or where they just expecting the humans to follow their commands without question?
The guard noticed the sudden movement and glared at him. He stared right back and made a face until the guard looked down, trying make their scanners work. Peering around the room, Jacob looked for anything that could be used as a weapon or tool, with no results. Not even a comically oversized ring of keys.
'No way to open the door. Can't break it. Gotta get Mr. Pinchy to do it for me'
Jacob slung the bag off his shoulders and said "Hey, over here" to Klay, making no effort to hide the act of handing over one of his food bars.
"What are you doing?" Klay asked, taking it.
"Something stupid, probably" Krystella quipped.
"If it's stupid and it works, it not stupid." was Jake's reply. He was handing one to Krystella now, finally getting the attention of the guard, who got up and approached the cell. It saw the object in his hands, and barked out something in that strange watery tongue while making a beckoning motion with its fingered hand. Jacob just shook his head and backed further into the cell.
Another series of noises, angrier, and Jacob backed up some more, until he was pressed against the back wall. He did his best to look frightened, and clutch the bag tighter. Finally, the crustacean grabbed the door and pulled with the claw while doing something near the edge of the door with it's other hand. The door opened and Jacob watched as the creature came forward, legs clicking against the stone and holding its hand out.
With a burst of motion, he dashed forward and squeezed around the guard, kicking at it's knees and scraping himself against it's rough exoskeleton, tripping just outside the barred wall. The guard was turning to face him, but with some difficulty, and he kicked out again, this time at the cell door. It closed with a clang and the guard was letting out watery shrieks, unable to open it from the inside.
"You'll help us out, right chum?" Klay begged, doing his best to look apologetic.
"Yeah, just hand us our scanners and this'll never happen again" Krystella chipped in less than sincerely, reaching through the bars.
"I wouldn't say 'chum' around a bunch of bottom feeders." Jacob's gaze fell on their scanners. "Okay, but you've gotta do something for me first"
They obviously protested his terms. They yelled, swore, kicked and cursed his name. Then he reminded them that there was a mind-controlling, possibly brain-eating octopus man outside that locked them up for a reason, and the guard, presumably yelling for help, would bring it back quicker. A few creative words about what said creature would probably do when it came back finally convinced them.
With one last hateful glare, Klay and Krystella sent over a particular Location card from their decks and ported out of the prison. Jacob toyed with the idea of scanning the imprisoned guard and decided against it. It may have been under mind control as well, a much stronger version than he was subjected to, and that didn't sit well with him. This whole place left him feeling dirty, and he knew he wouldn't come back if he could help it.
Activating the return function on his scanner, he vanished in a flash of sparkling light.
Jacob practically leaped up from his bed to grab his scanner. Smashing the blinking button at the top of the device, his anticipatory grin slid away as new memories came rushing in from his other self. He stood there blinking for a few seconds, taking in the events of the day, then shakily gathered his things and left the apartment.
His dad stopped him at the door. "You okay, kiddo? You look a little pale." he said from the lumpy couch where he was watching a baseball game on tv.
"I'm good. Left some stuff at the library earlier, just gonna run back and get 'em"
His dad was reaching for the old cordless phone next to a pile of bills. "Okay. How does Chinese sound tonight?"
"Sounds great" Jacob said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "I'll be back soon". He broke into a light jog as soon as the door closed behind him.
At the library, he signed in at one of the computers and went about setting up a new email. From there, he created a new Chaotic account with a screen name that was little more than gibberish; random numbers and letters. To this new screen name he sent the trio of Coralsmithy Location cards from his online deck. A few taps of the keyboard quickly brought up a box of text.
With only a moment of hesitation, Jacob clicked on a little "Yes" button under the words "Delete Account?"