Nonary Game: Resonance

(Current path: 52)

As Robin, Leo, and Lucky exited the auditorium, they found themselves in a small corridor. It was as dimly lit, matching the auditorium so well that they hardly noticed. "This sure isn't wide enough for a whole group of students, is it?" Lucky mused.

"This must just be one of those emergency exits, huh," Robin said. "Maybe behind that large metal panel is a door that leads outside?" With a sigh, he knocked on the panel, earning a solid thunk.

"Still," Lucky added, "it seems odd to have this little interim hallway at all. Why bother, right?"

"Maybe it messes with the acoustics of the stage to have it bordering the outside," Leo shrugged. "Or our kidnapper couldn't think of a better way to lead us wherever it is he wants us to go next."

"I think we can safely rule out the idea of this building's layout making any fucking sense," Robin grunted. "Well, there's no point sticking around here. We might as well see where this goes."

"One thing real quick," Lucky interjected. "Would it be too much to ask that we make sure this door won't lock behind us? I mean, I know from what we learned in the last round it shouldn't, but… you can never be too sure, right?"

Despite their anxiousness to continue, Leo and Robin begrudgingly agreed. It was decided that Robin would step into the corridor alone, at which point the door would be closed on him. He would see if it could be reopened from the outside. At least, that was how he assumed it would be going.

As Lucky shut the door, though, they said, "I hope you don't mind waiting for a moment. I have something I need to discuss with Leo quickly." Leaving a dumbfounded expression on Robin's face, Lucky quickly swung the door shut.

Robin stood stockstill for a split second, until he heard a click of the door, shocking him back into action. "Hey, what?" His volume quickly rose between the two words, and he gripped the handle tightly. Alas, it seemed that Lucky had returned it to its locked state, as pressing it failed to yield. "Lucky!" He slammed his palm against the door twice, resigning the rest of his frustration into a staccato grunt and several seconds of simmering.

After venting the main brunt of his anger, Robin decided it might be in his best interest to pay very close attention to what Lucky and Leo were saying. As swiftly as he could manage, he leaned an ear against the surface of the door, ignoring the chill of the metal as he focused his energy on listening. He concluded, though, that if the two were still close to the door, they had kept their voices at a whisper. Essentially in silence, he had no ability to reason their distance, much less what their conversation might be about.

Had he heard even the slightest hint of a murmur, he might have remained hopefully at the door, but after about thirty seconds he felt it futile and plopped into a seated position opposite the door. "How long are they gonna keep me here?" he said to himself in a sarcasm-laden singsong.

It wasn't too long before his question was answered. In roughly another minute, the click of the lock reverberated through the stillness of the corridor, and Robin jerked up onto his feet again. As the door creaked open, he gave Lucky and Leo the most quizzical look he could muster. "Having fun?" he asked, accusingly.

"Told you," Lucky said to Leo, tongue-in-cheek. "Anyway, we're ready to go. There's probably another room at the end of this hallway we have to seek a way out of, huh?"

"How should I know?" Robin asked. "Besides, you're evading me. What the hell were you two talking about?"

"If I wanted you to know," Lucky answered, "I wouldn't have left you out of the conversation. But it's nothing serious. Nothing you need to worry about." With that, they marched right past Robin and headed down the corridor.

Robin's eyes fell to Leo then, hoping the man might be more receptive. "Don't even ask," Leo sighed. He offered a slight chuckle as a sign of no hostility, but it felt manufactured and did little to quell Robin's distress. "I don't know why they needed to be so… theatrical. But they're right; you shouldn't be worried." Awkwardly, he patted a hand on Robin's shoulder, waiting a second before following Lucky forward.

"Unbelievable," Robin whispered as he chose to let it go and follow suit.

Although the aura around the trio was relatively free from tension, they carried out their walk without another word until they reached the end of the corridor about a minute later. The wall at the back was square and empty, showing that the door out was to the group's left. "Well, no sense wasting time," Lucky sighed, gripping the handle and throwing the portal open.

The three soon found themselves in a very tidy looking room, much smaller than the auditorium had been. A large desk sat in the middle, and various aesthetic posters were hung on each wall. "This must be where the principal sits," Leo said. "That's the largest damn desk I've ever seen."

"Yes, it looks like we can already see the signs of puzzles in our future. Numbers on the wall," Lucky stated. "But come on, let's see if either of these two doors work." The first they checked was in a nearby corner, and it had only a thin, rectangular window that had been painted over in black. They grabbed the handle and jiggled it to no avail. "Guess we'll be getting into that one later."

The other door, however, was in the middle of the longer wall opposite their entry. Its window was a full square, its glass remaining clear. "Oh, this one opens," Leo said, quickly shoving the door outward as though it might lock if he waited too long. Robin and Lucky approached, noticing a very short hallway before them, which opened into another office-looking room. Before they reached it, however, there was a solid wooden door to their left. Leo opened it quickly and called, "Bathroom," before closing it again.

"You know, we're probably gonna have to check that for clues," Robin said, biting the inside of his cheek.

A shrug was the first reply Leo offered as they continued into the open office. "Might as well check all our surroundings first." Robin could hardly argue with that.

The trio then found themselves in a room smaller than the first they'd entered, although it somehow felt more open. Immediately to their right was a partially-enclosed area filled with filing cabinets, and the remainder of the room was to their left. Another decently-sized desk stood before them, with a few computer monitors and a tabletop calendar on it. Robin briefly glanced at the calendar, frowning when he noticed it was completely blank.

Lucky and Leo, however, had not stopped to take in the furniture. They gazed at a wall with two doors near its edges, their faces drawn into concern and confusion. "Wha-" Robin's question was cut off as he saw what troubled them - a wall constructed entirely of glass panels and metal rails was blocked on the outside by solid white. "Someone put up another wall outside this one?" he asked.

"Assuredly our kidnapper," Lucky concurred. "Keeping up with their trend of preventing us from seeing between any of these rooms."

"Then one of those doors is probably the exit," Robin figured. He crossed to the nearest door, at the front left of the room, but found its handle was jammed. "Alright, maybe not this one."

Lucky took the statement as a cue and shuffled to the door in the far corner, making a show of jiggling the handle. "This one's got a keyhole in it. I guess we know what we're looking for, then."

"So if there's this front room, files back there, and the principal's room, I guess that makes this the main office, huh," Robin mused. "Since we've got a few different rooms, how about we split them up a bit?"

"Sounds like a reasonable plan," Leo agreed.

Lucky folded their arms. "Whatever works. I suppose I'll take this front room and the filing cabinets. Leo, how about you take the principal's office and see if you can get into that locked room."

"What about me?" Robin asked.

"You can serve as ambassador, of course. It's entirely your nature," Lucky chuckled. "Bounce around between us and see if there's anything either of us has found that the other needs. Or check the bathroom." With another laugh, they crossed into the room of filing cabinets, quickly enough to miss Robin's glare.

"Uh… I'll just come with you for now," he monotoned.

"Cool. Let's head back and get started," Leo said.

(Suggested listening: Data)

Although the mammoth wooden desk dominated the floor space of the principal's office, the walls were far more interesting on first glance. As Robin and Leo closed the hallway door behind them, they gazed at the wall behind the desk, which was decorated with several artistic photographs of, they presumed, the school they were in. None of the shots were wide enough to get a good glimpse of the school's exterior; thus, their location and even the appearance of the building as a whole remained a mystery.

"That picture kind of looks like the main room back before we picked Door [2]," Leo said, pointing to an image near the left edge of the wall. Robin noticed that there had been a few more tables present in the picture, and smudgy-looking people were in clouds around or at them. "This must have had a long exposure." Alas, there was no useful information to be gathered from the pictures, so they moved on.

There were two main attractions upon the back wall. The first was a large American flag, spread wide. It must have framed the principal's face, inspiring some sort of patriotism among the students or whatever. Americans are way obsessed with their flag, Robin thought. "I guess that gives us some clue of where we are," he said.

"America is not exactly a small country, so it's not terribly helpful," Leo sighed. "And the fact that we come from around the world yet all ended up here before waking up makes me wonder what the hell we were gassed with."

Robin didn't offer a follow-up, instead only smirking as he glanced at the large composite beside the flag. It had two rows of very professional-looking people, in exceptionally high definition. The first row of four was entirely quite elderly white men, but they seemed to get younger and more diverse on the second row. "This must be a composite of the past principals."

"Or something our kidnapper cooked up for us to figure out," Leo exhaled as he leaned towards the composite. "Unless this school really hired a dude who was named Katbelxy."

"That doesn't even sound like a real word," Robin said, somewhat surprised. He glanced more closely at the names below the images and found that Leo hadn't been exaggerating. Beneath each principal was an eight-letter name in all caps, although none of them sounded very much like names. "OBURIDEN, THYMINXE, KREUTWEV, ALEGHAXT…"

Leo inflated his cheeks as he exhaled showingly. "...KHIVTROR, PHRUMITE, KATBELXY, and PONTVIES. There's no way that these aren't a clue."

"What a strange thing for our kidnapper to make. Can you imagine them at a print shop, trying to explain this giant alien document to someone?" Robin mused.

"Especially how they got these quality pictures. This younger-looking one's kind of cute," Leo said, tossing a finger lazily to the bottom right corner quickly enough that Robin couldn't catch its intended target.

"...What? That Pontvies lady has got to be at least 45," Robin chided.

"...Forget it," Leo sighed. He turned away from Robin then, sitting in the principal's chair and splaying his hands on the smooth, wooden surface.

"Now that is mahogany," Robin stated, offering the furniture a hearty knock. "Hey, look at that. There's a big latch in the middle." Leo carefully reached over and swung the latch up, revealing a series of blocks and divots. "Whoa."

"I knew this desk had to be too big for shelf space. Guess it was specially made to house this puzzle," Leo stated.

"What do you think we have to do here?" As Robin asked, he reached for one of the blocks near the surface and pulled upward on it, but it caught under another and refused to move beyond a centimeter. "Obviously clear these out."

"I wouldn't go that far," Leo replied. He slid a block on the other side of the opening along a groove, offering a slight view at another row of blocks beneath its original position. "There must be something in here that we have to retrieve. Maybe we've gotta slide these all out of the way, like it's Jenga or something."

Robin was about to tell Leo that he wasn't certain that was the goal of Jenga, but he decided it best to keep the thought to himself as the other man started to make quick work of the puzzle. At least, had he been making all of the proper moves, he would have been making quick work. However, as time ticked ever forward, Robin wasn't convinced the weightlifter was making his motions with any forethought. He remained respectfully silent for the duration of the puzzling, until Leo finally cheered.

"Yes! I just solved the shit out of this puzzle!" His shout made Robin flinch back, but he offered little more than a tilt of his head in apology.

"Let's not get too carried away," Robin deadpanned. "What did you get for all your trouble?" Leo reached into the latch and pulled out a small key.

"I doubt it goes to the exit, of course," Leo stated, "but there are a few drawers on this desk…" He gave the top row of drawers, four in total, a quick tug each to show Robin that they were all locked. Alas, with his new key, he had them all unlocked in a manner of seconds, and he waggled his eyebrows twice. "How about that?"

"Let's see if there's anything exciting in there," Robin said, reaching for the leftmost drawer. As he opened it, it clicked several times, at which point he noticed the side paneling had been inscribed with letters. He must have pulled the drawer seven clicks out, as a "G" stared up at him at the point of the drawer's protrusion from the desk. "It's empty, though."

As he moved to the second drawer, Leo gripped the last two handles and tugged them out. A series of clicks harshly ratcheted from the desk, confirming that all four drawers were identical. "If nothing's happening, we probably have to open these to something specific."

"What do you bet," Robin started, tapping Leo's shoulder and pointing to a side wall, "it's got something to do with that?" Beyond his finger was a string of numbers written across the wall, in a seemingly random assortment of colors.

"Oh, damn it," Leo grunted. "Didn't we get enough of the selective color bullshit in the auditorium?" He slapped the desk a few times as though starting a riff, then stood to approach the numbers. "Yeah, they're all primary and secondary colors. But I don't see any lights or anything we're supposed to shine on them. Maybe there's something in the other rooms."

Since the two had failed to find any further clues that would help them into the locked room, they shrugged and crossed into the front room, hoping to see that Lucky had found something useful. They heard them shuffling around in the filing room, however, muttering quietly to themself. "They sound a bit preoccupied. Maybe we should look around in here first," Robin mused.

The two first approached the desk again, ignoring the blank calendar and looking at the monitors. Only one was lit up, a wavy blue design serving as the background to a small, white bar in the center. "This must be where the principal's assistant sits," Robin stated. Donning a facial expression one might accompany with a shrug, he sat down and located the mouse, moving the pointer over the bar and clicking. Exactly as expected, a cursor appeared, blinking slowly.

"That's two passwords we don't know, huh," Leo sighed. Robin half wanted to tap at the keyboard randomly to check how many letters the password was, but he figured it useless - you could type any number of characters in a password box without it stopping you. Thus, he sat still, looking up at the glass wall before him. He didn't seem to have missed any clues on it earlier.

Leo, however, had circled to the right side of the desk, giving it a thorough gaze. "Here we go," he said, beckoning Robin to join him. "It's a little combination lockbox." Indeed, the face of the small device attached to the wood was dominated by a keypad and a digital screen reading "0000" in red LEDs. "Maybe the exit key's in here." Channeling the feeling Robin was having at the desk, Leo reached down and typed in "2222," which was quickly replaced by "INC." "Shit," Leo grunted. As he spoke, the word was replaced with "1500," which ticked down to "1459," then "1458."

"They timed it out to prevent it from being brute forced," Lucky's voice rang from beside the others. They stood from their crouched positions and crossed to Lucky, taking in their look of only moderate disapproval. "My old principal's office had boxes just like it, although I must admit I was hoping our kidnapper hadn't turned that function on."

"Well, odds are it takes us more than fifteen minutes to figure out the right combination, so don't feel too bad," Robin said, offering Leo a conciliatory smile. "Is there anything else out here you've noticed, so we don't waste time re-noticing it?"

"Just that poster behind the desk," Lucky said, nodding up to the wall opposite the exit. A large azure banner was centered near the top of the wall, extending several feet. In bold, cursive text, it read: "One from one, two from two…" It was met with two puzzled stares. "Strange motto, isn't it?" Lucky stated. "I have the funniest feeling it's something some old intellectual said about putting in extra effort to get more out of life or some crap like that."

With that, they headed back toward the filing area, which Robin and Leo took as a sign that there was nothing else to be done in the assistant's room for the time being. Thus, they followed them inside and stood at the entryway, waiting for their analysis.

Lucky did not keep them waiting long. "These drawers are all labeled with some letter ranges, as you might expect, although this school has gone into quite a bit more detail, I mean…" They wandered over to a random column, gripping the handle of the top compartment. "Fy to Ge? Talk about specific." For a split second, Robin thought he saw Leo's face clench in trepidation, but the other man walked forward before he could make certain.

"Open it up," Leo suggested. Lucky offered him a salute. Internally, Robin recalled the two of them both saluting in the auditorium, and he wondered when the action had become a favorite of theirs. Unperturbed by Robin's thoughts, Leo fished through the files, expelling a clear sigh as his fingers came to rest. "These names don't match the letter range."

"Astutely observed," Lucky replied. "More importantly, in my opinion, is that these names seem completely random. These last names seem entirely made up. Uh…" They reached in and pulled out a manila folder, opening up to a sheet that was heavily blacked out. "Like this. "Unhogo?" Totally falsified. I've been looking through all of these drawers to see if there's any exception, but so far there hasn't been."

"Does every drawer have a few black folders in it?" Leo asked, pulling one open as though to make his case. Its sheet seemed to have a similar amount of information redacted.

"Yessir," Lucky answered. "But they don't seem to be even a bit more useful than the rest."

Robin's attention faded slightly as the other two continued to chat, instead being directed at the rows and columns of cabinets around him. It was a bit oppressive to be in a room filled with them, their repeating pattern making it a bit difficult to focus. However, he let his eyes carefully glide over their letter ranges to see if any of them broke the pattern.

"Yeah, there's just more files in that last row," Lucky reassured him. "Nothing interesting without more information from somewhere else."

Robin offered the slightest hint of a smile. "What about the blank one?"