Nonary Game: Resonance

"I suppose we should go ahead and split off into these three doors, then?" Leo asked.

"Wait, we shouldn't do that so quickly," Cody replied. "We only just got out of the others like ten minutes ago."

"He's right," Ian said. "We could have missed something on this floor because we were too focused on racing ahead as quickly as we could. We should at least take a few minutes to make sure there are no other ways to go."

"So like we did back on floor 0," Robin added. He couldn't help remembering that the investigation had revealed to the group that there would be no other way to go than forward, but if there were any clues like the key attached to the bathroom sink, he'd hate to miss them. "Should we split up? Like, are there multiple different places to investigate or something?"

"Yes, in fact," Lucky cut in. "If you want, I can give everyone a quick rundown of the options, and then we can go explore." No one else said anything, responding only in a series of shrugs and nods. "Excellent. For starters, we could head back toward the stairwell, to see if we could have missed something like the supply closet on floor 0. Second, there's Door [1]. We've only glanced at it before being distracted by Doors [2] and [6], so there could be something hidden over there. There's also the big main room, which could surely use some investigation, and then, I guess, the hallway around Doors [2] and [6]."

To Robin, none of these areas sounded particularly fruitful to investigate, especially the last one, since they'd all gathered around the two doors and surely seen all there was to see. Alas, they figured it best to split into four roughly even groups. Basilio and Boxcars would look around the area of the doors sharing their bracelet numbers; Marcus and Cody would head back towards Door [1] to see if anything interesting was in that small entryway; and the largest force of Delta, Leo, and Lucky would investigate the main room.

Since the hallway had seemed the only place Robin could believe anyone had overlooked anything, he chose to head that way. Ian had decided to join him, and he was actually somewhat pleased. He hadn't the chance to talk much to the man earlier, and Ian seemed the kind of person who was determined to solve the mystery of their capture more than any of the others.

"Do you think we're wasting our time here?" Robin asked, several seconds after they'd passed back into the hallway.

Ian visibly tensed, something cold darkening his eyes for a split second, so quickly that Robin thought he imagined it. "Why would I?"

"Didn't your group already look at everything in this hallway? There's no way you all just ran straight for the foyer, unless you magically knew it was going to be there and avoided everything back here." He could easily believe that adrenaline had affected the other participants' observational skills back at the beginning of the game, but by this point a couple of hours in, he no longer could accept any inattention.

"Oh," Ian answered, blowing out a slow breath of air. "That's reasonable enough, I guess. But, to be fair, Cody agreed to stay behind and wait for the rest of you. I guess it was an assumption in the back of our minds that he'd see if there was anything we needed to know in the area."

"He didn't say anything of the sort when we met up with him," Robin continued. "But I don't think I know him well enough to trust him, so he could have neglected to mention something intentionally." The look Ian gave him then was almost surprised at the idea of Cody being any less than trustworthy, and he wondered what gave Ian that impression.

"Well, even if Cody wanted to keep something to himself, what could he gain by hiding it?" Ian asked, reaching for a nearby door handle that failed to budge. "If there's something over here, we'll see it."

"Point," Robin conceded. He'd moved to the other side of the hall, just in case there were any other doors coming upon them. Alas, they quickly made it back to where the stairwell had been, and they found the door had been stopped open, much like it had on floor 0.

"Something wrong, Topaz?" Ian asked. It was only then that Robin realized a quizzical look had spread over his face, and he moved to shake it off.

"I don't remember us leaving the door open. Uh, no big deal," Robin assured. I was the last one through, wasn't I? And I sure didn't put the stopper in it… He'd expected Ian to simply move past it and head around the upcoming bend in the hall, but he didn't. Instead, Ian had met Robin firmly in eye contact.

"Don't worry." Robin wasn't sure why Ian had said that, but he couldn't bring himself to ask. "Alright, let's just keep going and see what we see." With a nod, he returned to the task at hand.

What a strange interaction, Robin thought, much like every time I talk to any of these people. He couldn't help wondering what the hell he'd gotten himself into by failing to close his door completely the night before.

Unlike his, however, all of the doors supposedly leading to classrooms were locked, and after a nearby bend in the hall, a large, metal wall prevented their further exploration. "At least this wasn't a total waste of time," Ian mused. "Here's another restroom." The sign beside it lacked a gender denomination, so Robin assumed it was neutral. "Let's see if there's anything inside."

"Exactly as expected, this bathroom looks the same as the one on floor 0." Robin traipsed toward the sink, looking to see if there might have been something else hiding in the sink.

"I'm starting to sense a trend," Ian replied, only slightly tongue-in-cheek.

"There are chains hanging from each of the faucets, but…" Robin started, approaching the nearest sink. "Yeah, this one's just attached to a normal plug. I'm not sure why a school bathroom has these, anyway. Who is ever at school and needs a reservoir of water?"

"Nothing in this building makes sense, honestly," Ian agreed. "Hey, down there at the last sink. The chain goes all the way down into the drain." He raised his eyebrows at Robin then, offering a hint of a grin. Robin held out his hand, as if to allow Ian's passage. Following the lead, Ian approached and wrapped a finger around the chain, tugging it up and clasping the end in his palm. After giving it a little jiggle to congratulate himself, he spread his hand for Robin to see.

Indeed, another simple key was affixed to the end of the chain. The surface was immaculately silver, excepting a black engraving. The symbol appeared to be a triangle on top of a plus sign, almost like the female symbol. "Does this marking mean anything to you?" Robin asked.

Ian gave a short chuckle. "Your guess is as good as mine. But that's four keys we've found now, with three different symbols." The look on his face gave Robin the impression that this was good news, although Robin was unsure by which metric that might be the case. "What do you bet this is the same story after the next round of doors?"

"Hopefully by then we have enough keys to actually open something," Robin sighed.

"Not to mention a something to open," Ian concurred. "But there's nothing we can do now, I guess. Might as well head back; I'm willing to bet everyone else has finished their searches by now." With that, he gently laid the key on top of the sink counter.

"Actually, hold on a moment," Robin said. Ian raised his eyebrows again. "There's something I wanted to talk to you about, before we head back."

"What is it?"

"I know we've only been here for a couple of hours, but I was hoping I could start to piece together a bit of the puzzle," Robin answered. "About why we're all here in the game."

"You really do think there is some kind of deep connection?" Ian asked.

"I don't see why not," Robin said.

Ian turned to face him directly, showing that he'd opened the gates to a fully involved conversation. "Well, this is just my opinion, but if you ask me, wouldn't it make a lot more sense for someone to kidnap a bunch of random people? If we're all connected, then we'd all be able to trace it back to someone in particular, so we could figure the kidnapper out. But if you grab people who don't know you, then you're much less likely to be traced, even by the police. Or so I'd think."

"Consider this," Robin mused, staring at a distant wall in deep thought. "Setting up this Nonary Game must have been expensive, right? There is all sorts of technology involved, these puzzles are fairly complex and run themselves, not to mention the apparently fatal quantities of poison in our bracelets. Whoever was doing this had to know exactly what they were getting into."

Ian's face wrinkled then, his mouth betraying his discontentment. "That's fair. Our kidnapper has definitely been on top of the mind games so far."

"But then that brings us back to what you just said," Robin continued. "And, to be honest, it's the biggest thing that eludes me at the moment. Why would he pick the nine of us?"

"You brought this up back when we were picking nicknames, didn't you?" Ian recalled. "But no one said anything. Does that not mean there isn't a connection?"

"Maybe not an obvious one," Robin said. "There is an alternative thought, though, and I think it's a far more likely chance."

"Some of us are connected, but we're keeping it to ourselves."

Robin was a bit impressed. "Uh, exactly. One thing that's kind of clued me in is how certain pairs of us already get along so well, or don't." Ian's eyes angled up then, as though he were thinking about the other participants, and he nodded once. "So, forgive me if I'm overstepping a bit here, but… I think you might know more than you're telling the rest of us."

After that statement, it was Ian's turn to be surprised. "Are you accusing me of lying?"

"No, nothing quite so bad. Just withholding information," Robin said, doing his best to keep the stern face of a parent testing their child's honesty. "I'd ask you directly if you know anyone, because I think you do, but there's no need for me to put that dilemma on you. Just remember, if you're hiding a connection between us, that could be something that's keeping us from figuring out why we've all been kidnapped."

"That's… a bit farfetched," Ian sighed. "Even if some of us know each other, there's no way we all do. I mean, think about it. I'm from the Netherlands. You're English. Boxcars is from the United States. What kind of connection would make sense?"

"It might not be too hard. Maybe you and Marcus went to college together." Robin hadn't meant to name the person he thought Ian knew directly, but he could tell from the hesitation in Ian's face that he'd hit the mark. Accepting it as a win, he continued. "It's safe to assume that there is a reason each of us is here specifically. I just… have no idea why I'd be one of them. I'm really nobody special." Since he'd manipulated a bit of the truth out of Ian, he figured it was only fair to offer a some in return.

"That's not true," Ian said.

"Hey, no need to start waxing poetic," Robin defended. "I mean, let's be honest. You're a pilot; Cody does parkour; Leo must lift weights professionally. I'm just a college student, and not an exceptional one, so choosing me really doesn't make any sense." He didn't tell Ian, but he'd been thinking their kidnapper had something against talented people, which all of the other participants seemed to be, although perhaps that was Robin's low self-confidence talking.

"Listen, Topaz. It'd be asinine for me to say I understand why everything is happening here, but I can say that I'm pretty sure you are someone special. I mean, I think everyone is totally special in their own way, but that definitely doesn't detract from you being so. I know what it's like to see ridiculously successful people my own age and wonder how the hell they got it all figured out when I felt so confused and lost myself, but there is something unique about you. Even if you don't know what they are yet, you do have important skills. And no matter how much natural talent is out there, people with determination have done a hell of a lot more to change the world." Ian gave a long slow breath then, maintaining eye contact until several seconds later. "Well, so much for not waxing poetic."

Ian's words had given Robin a lot to think about, and as such, he hadn't been able to form a response. His first thoughts past his disbelief in his own talents were on what had happened in Ian's past that lead him to be an impromptu motivational speaker. The more he considered it, the more he appreciated the sentiment he'd been given by someone who hadn't even known him a day ago.

"You've been pretty clever so far," Ian continued after another minute or so. "If anyone's going to figure out this mystery, I'm putting my money on it being you." As Robin considered both of the conversations he'd had with Ian since their reunion, he found himself hoping the man was right.

They fell into a wordless cadence as they approached the main room of the floor. Robin had figured that, given the distance they'd walked and the time they'd burned through with their distractions, the others would have completed their separate investigations and prepared themselves emotionally for another trek into the numbered doors. Since no one was raving when they returned, he safely assumed a miraculous exit hadn't cropped up.

"We might as well share first," Basilio said, shrugging in Boxcars' direction. "There was nothing of any interest in the hallway around Doors [2] and [6] apart from the doors themselves. However, the RED machines beside both doors seem to be working just fine, so we can go forward with no delays if no one has found anything else exciting."

"Whoa, not so fast," Lucky replied. Their face settled into what was almost a smirk, as though they wanted to keep it from being obvious if they had something interesting to share. "You haven't heard from any of the rest of us. Unless the two of you are trying to hide something."

"Hey, calm down there, hotshot," Boxcars retorted. "There's no need for you to nitpick semantics. Cody, did you two find anything?"

Not giving Lucky a chance at lashing back, Cody immediately replied. "Unfortunately, we didn't. But the RED is fully functional as expected, so there's nothing stopping us there either. Topaz?"

"Huh? Oh," Robin replied, not expecting to be called on so quickly. "Well, actually, there was one thing. Most of the hallway was lined with rooms that are probably inaccessible, so that's nothing to really worry about. The big thing, though, is we found another key. It was in this floor's bathroom, chained to one of the sinks."

"Normally, I'd think that's a good sign," Ian added, "since it means we're hopefully finding all of the keys available to us so far. But this one has its own symbol, so it's not a pair with the one from Door [4]. So I'm willing to bet there are more keys we'll be looking for."

"Yeah, with six or seven more doors to go through, it's probably a safe bet," Lucky replied, their tone less than jovial. "What symbol was on it?"

"It's a triangle on top of a cross. Like the Venus sign, but… a triangle." Ian shrugged casually.

"So that's two symbols that don't mean anything to us," Robin replied. "And if we can't tell what they are, I'm starting the think the other key we found might not actually be referring to Mercury." The other participants smirked, but no one had any constructive response to his thought.

"Looks like that leaves us," Delta answered. "There was admittedly very little of interest out here. For as big a room as it is, most of it is surprisingly empty. I must say, the secluded area with the bean bags is the only part of this room that I have enjoyed spending time in so far. There is actually where I found the first of our clues."

He reached into his pocket, pulling out a slip of paper the size of an index card. It looked as though it had been folded in half, but Delta had smoothed it flat again. He flipped it to show the group what was written on the obverse: a number 8, encased by brackets, entirely in red ink. "Kind of menacing, isn't it, Topaz?"

Robin didn't find himself able to respond. A mysteriously cold sensation swirled about in his heart, as though something were about to burst from the ceiling, screaming and frightening. Why, he wondered, had a simple number given him such trepidation?

He had the feeling his uneasiness was about to come to a point as he noticed the others giving him a variety of unpleasant looks. Lucky looked a bit surprised and almost amused at Robin's discomfort. Leo seemed as though the trust he'd had for Robin was being questioned. Boxcars, though, looked dissatisfied, as though his time was being wasted. "Anyway," Boxcars said, "what's a card with a number on it got to do with anything?"

"Well, Delta did say there was a second clue, did he not?" Lucky asked.

"Of course you would have it," Boxcars grunted.

"Don't waste our time, Lucky. Spit it out," Cody commanded.

"Hey, hey, no need to order me around. I'll show you," Lucky replied. They fished inside of their vest, retrieving an envelope. Its flap was up, its immaculateness showing that whoever had placed it left it unsealed. "Inside of this envelope, there is one solitary photograph." They slipped the photo from its casing, resting it in their hand and absent-mindedly flicking it a few times.

Leo leaned over, giving the image a hearty stare. "It's a girl, probably high school age. But none of the three of us recognize her. Any of you?" At that remark, Lucky inverted the picture, showing the rest of the group.

The girl in the picture looked rather pleased, and her wavy brown hair framed her face in a joyful way. Alas, Robin had certainly never seen her before, at least as far as he could remember.

An exasperated grunt from beside him, however, captured his attention after another second. As he quickly glanced over, his hands reflexively rising for defense, he saw Marcus collapse to the ground.