Falias, Finias Chapter Twenty-Two
She remembered the face. White with fear and howling for a savior. Red and orange with a streak of gold colored the ratty hair. His wide eyes were brown as the dirt in Everrain which yielded such wonderful green. It was a face of a boy not of this world.
He reached out.
She thought.
He fell forward.
She believed.
He vanished.
And then she woke up at the bottom of an old fight pit. She looks up and sees the faces of the boy's captors. A snake. A bird. A bat.
Two trembled, one looked for something.
She lifted her hand and find it much changed.
Pink and soft, no longer able to cut the leering faces.
But she could climb.
Tom holds up Sarah, so she can get a peek into the Arsenal. Tom is glad that he kept up his arm exercises from his baseball years because keeping a person aloft is far harder than in the movies. It also doesn't help that her flip-flops have ridges on the soles that leave their impressions on his palms. He grits his teeth and endures for Sarah's sake.
"What are you two doing?" An English-accented voice makes Tom lose his grip on Sarah, and she comes tumbling down onto him. Tom lifts his head and sees a blond-haired guy in a preppy uniform.
"Tom! The fuck!?" Sarah hisses as she stands up and wipes the dirt off her capris.
"We got caught." He whispers and points.
Sarah looks to where he's pointing and sees another player. He has blonde hair slicked back to match his posh school uniform. He even has brown loafers that remind Tom of his dad's, except these were of high-quality leather.
"It's just another player, Tom." She says as she helps him up.
"My name's Reggie." Reggie gives a little wave at them. "Are you trying to break into the Arsenal? You do know that Bodal is here along with some OverWorld guards."
"We're not breaking in. We just need a scan." Sarah explains.
"By breaking and—" Reggie's face twists into alarm. "Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"It's like clapping."
The clapping sound becomes louder, coming from above. They look up to see a Creature descending at a rapid klick. It's a giant, red spider with two of its legs acting like a scorpion's tail. It pounces down onto a surprised Reggie, while Sarah and Tom hide behind a pillar.
"That's Spyder; he's an UnderWorld spy, but I guess he's here to steal." Sarah then points at the oblong, red, and gold BattleGear in Spyder's left back hand. She grabs Tom's hand and half-drags him to safety, leaving Reggie behind.
"So, you've been following me!" Spyder screeches at Reggie.
"N-No, I was just seeing a friend!" Reggie replies weakly. He's cornered and will probably be turned into mincemeat in another minute.
I can't just stand here and let him get eaten!
"Don't play innocent with me! I know what you are trying to—" Tom decides to act and steals the BattleGear.
"Tom!" Sarah nearly shouts as he plays hero.
"Helping yourself to some OverWorld BattleGear, huh? Well, if you want to take this back to your bosses, you'll have to take it from me!" And Tom puts his brief track stint to use and sprints away. He finds himself in a bazaar of some kind, weaving and dodging stalls while evading Spyder. He ditches the BattleGear under the desk of a purple stall. He then heads down the closest alleyway; it only takes him a few seconds to find himself face-to-face with Spyder.
"Give me back my Arrow Drone!" The UnderWorlder demands.
"I don't have it anymore!" Tom shouts back and gets webbed for it.
"Then, take me to it." Spyder hisses. "Or I'll make you s-s-suffer!"
Spyder brings him close enough for Tom to smell his rancid breath and see the venom dripping down those sharp fangs. He struggles, not wanting to make this easy for this vile UnderWorlder.
And then, a green, short Creature shows up with a Cyclance.
"S-s-so, we meet again. I'll s-s-see to you after I deal with this snoop."
Somehow, the Creature activates it and sends Spyder fleeing. Tom is on his back when the Creature peers over him.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Tom." The Creature blinks at him. "Would you mind helping me get out of here? Uh, I didn't catch your name."
"I am Bodal."
"Bodal!" Tom hears Reggie's voice and then the English boy appears in his line of sight.
"Reggie, is this Tom one of your friends?"
"We just met. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine and I chased Spyder off." Bodal says nonchalantly, but Tom can tell he's just doing that to impress Reggie.
"Wow! I tried to get the guards, but they were all trapped by the webs! I did get them out though."
"Good, I'll be getting the Arrow Drone." Bodal begins to walk away.
"Um, don't you want to know where it is?"
"You hid it in the weaver's booth, the purple stall."
"Oh. You have sharp eyes."
"I do, but you're also very predictable." Bodal leaves, and Tom just rolls his eyes. Reggie leans forward with a knife and cuts through the sticky bindings.
"What's your screenname, Tom?" Reggie inquires as he helps Tom up.
"MajorTom. You want a match?"
"Ah, so you're that Tom."
"Have we met?"
"We have a mutual friend: Kazdan."
"Kazdan? Oh, you mean Kaz. Yeah, we know each other." I was hoping we'd have a match by now, but he never sent a challenge. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen him in a match, not even in the rewinds.
"Have you seen him?" Reggie asks as they walk back to the Arsenal.
"No. Did something happen?"
"I've tried calling him, but he doesn't answer. Then, I sent him Chaotic mail about it, and he has no idea what happened to his Chaotic-self. He's quite worried." They find Sarah waiting for them without a scratch or her scan, but she's smiling at them.
"No, when did he disappear?"
"After Halloween. In his mail, he said that he was helping out Kamangareth and then he was going to a party afterwards."
"Did you try locating this Kamangareth?"
"I checked her home in Fear Valley, but she wasn't there. Kazdan did say she goes on missions for Chaor."
"Let me guess, in Danian territory?" Sarah speaks up.
"I believe so." Reggie looks curiously at Sarah.
"You've heard of this Creature?" Tom asks her.
"I've heard rumors of a half-woman, half-centipede who hunts Danians for fun. It's not surprising that she works for Chaor." Sarah sighs.
"Of course, Chaor would approve of her." Maxxor wouldn't do that. He'd fight his enemies face-to-face unlike the UnderWorlders!
"I tried finding him in UnderWorld City, but it's such a big Location."
"I know Peyton has friends in the city, so he could help." Sarah suggests.
"See, Reggie, we'll find Kaz in no time!" Tom promises, and Reggie nods but his eyes show his doubt.
At the top, the villains huddle together like cowards. They wear the orange robes of novices and attempted a feat beyond their master's level. They blundered into success and must pay the price.
"I was dreaming."
"Cothica, it's alive!" The serpent squawks.
"It was endless."
"What have we done?" The bird cries.
"I was never to wake."
"Will one of you just kill it!?" The bat hisses.
"You need to be punished. By fire." Except fire is so hard to come by in this form. Oh well, she'll just have to rely on old-fashioned methods. Dirty her hands. Break a few bones.
Tom and Sarah find Peyton back at the Port Court, chatting away with a pretty, tan girl in another language. It's an animated conversation because Peyton keeps gesticulating with his Barath Beyond burrito, while the girl just laughs in her husky voice. Tom wonders if he should just wait for them to finish their conversation, but Sarah clears her throat and gets their attention.
"Hey, guys! What's happening?" Peyton switches back to English, while the girl finishes her nachos. She gives Peyton a flirty wink before leaving for Perim.
"Tom nearly got turned into Spyder food, but Bodal saved him." Sarah says nonchalantly.
"Did you get your scan?"
"No, but I found out that an old friend went missing."
"What? Like on Earth?"
"No, somewhere in UnderWorld City. His screenname is KidChaor."
"KidChaor? I think I was supposed to have a match with him like forever ago, but he never showed up. He's been missing that long!"
"Since Halloween. He doesn't play the game much." Or at all.
"Oh, he's an adventurer-type. Mmm, UnderWorld City? I may know the guy who could help."
"Who is it?"
"H'earring."
She left them in the pit. Alive, she believes since she heard them howling from the bottom. Her new hands and arms ache like no other, unused to anything more challenging than holding up a toddler. Her nose throbs from the punch that the bat got in, but it's not broken, just bleeding. Did the snake bite her? No, he burned off the eyebrows. Her mouth tastes like copper pennies, her favorite flower. Chaor commissioned a field of them at her grave.
How morbid to go to one's grave!
She's tired before trekking up the hill and then she's falling to her knees. Her new form is even more delicate than her last. It can't do attacks. It can't deliver powerful blows; she had to use the red device to finally crack the bird's skull. The device didn't break, not even after being used as a bludgeoning weapon. But she lost it during the trek from the pits to the theater. She heard it fall out of the torn pocket. She didn't bother to retrieve it, knowing she wouldn't get up again if she bent down.
She makes it to the statue on her hands and knees. Looking at herself, she wishes that the sculptor didn't make the crook in her nose so obvious. She crawls to the back of her tomb and lays down for a much-needed rest.
H'earring reminds Tom of what a rabbit would look like after nuclear fallout and then bred with Blunk from W.I.T.C.H. He even smells like he spends his days dumpster diving. Or maybe it's from the moldy fungi he's eating. The UnderWorlder flashes a monkey grin at Peyton.
"Peyton! Looking for another scan?"
"Not today, little dude, I'm here about a player."
"Oh, you mean another human. Hmm, is it about Klay or Krystella?"
"No, it's about…" Peyton looks to Tom and whispers. "What's the guy's real name?"
"His name is Kaz, but he's calling himself Kazdan now." Tom speaks up. H'earring's dark blue eyes light up.
"Sure, I know Kazdan! He buys me lunch!"
"How?" Sarah asks.
"With money."
"But how did he get the money?"
"Caretaking."
"Like a Location?" Peyton inquires.
"No. A baby, but I can't tell you whose. Not even if you got me three sacks of Dractyl scales!"
"Have you seen him?" Tom brings the focus back to the main subject.
"No, I haven't seen him since the day before Spirit Night."
"Oh. Did he say where he was going on Spirit Night?"
"He was supposed to go to some party at Tartarus Theatre, but Illazar said he left after a few hours. He was a bit tipsy when he left; those were Illazar's words."
"Great! He probably tripped and cracked his skull open!" Sarah huffs.
"If that were the case, he'd be in the hospital or in the morgue. I'll check to see if any human turned up, but I wouldn't get my hopes up." H'earring shrugs.
"Not even if I got you some high-grade pool scum?" Peyton offers.
"I like you, Peyton, but I'm not the Cothica." H'earring swallows the last of his fungus and then hops off his stoop. "Come back tomorrow."
"Sorry, dude, but your friend might be gone." Peyton pats Tom's back in consolation.
"I'm still going to look around." Tom insists.
"I'll help until my match." Sarah promises.
"I've got nothing else to do, so I'm in!" Peyton grins.
Tom smiles. He's got the best friends in Perim and Chaotic.
It's five minutes until midnight when Tom finds himself a few yards from Chaor's Castle. He sees the red, faceless guards patrolling the dead area. Tom leans against the UnderWorld version of a lamppost and just catches his breath. He's been on his feet for hours, scouring the Location for Kaz. Sarah left hours ago for her match, while Peyton called it quits an hour ago.
He's been missing for a week. On Earth, he would be presumed dead. Hell, I would presume he was dead after a day. On Perim, who knows? He could've been chopped up and eaten by a group of UnderWorlders. Or he's in one of Chaor's secret prisons. Or he got captured and sold into slavery. All of that is possible in the UnderWorld. If he went missing in the OverWorld, it's probably because he lost his Scanner.
Tom's thoughts are interrupted by a firm poke to his spine. He turns his head and sees a girl. She has short brown hair and green eyes. She's smiling at him.
"Are you here for the spirit?"
"Spirit?"
She points a pale finger at the tower with a little bridge connecting it to the rest of Chaor's egotistical castle.
"At the stroke of midnight, the spirit appears out of the tower's window."
"The spirit of what? A poor prisoner that Chaor starved to death?"
"Who knows? The spirit does have red hair."
"Red hair?" Tom takes out his Scanner and sees that it's midnight. He points his Scanner up to the tower's window and magnifies the screen. He sees the spirit. The spirit has red hair like the girl says, but he sees bandages wrapped around the spirit's head and hands. The spirit leans forward and reveals a face far too pink to be dead.
"Kaz!" He shouts, and then the girl shushes him.
"You want to alert the guards! Then, keep quiet!" She whispers and leads him away from the castle and away from the guards searching for the shouter. They hide behind an open dumpster in a nearby alleyway, narrowly missing the guards.
"It was Kaz! He's being held prisoner!" Tom speaks softly.
"And what are you going to do about it?"
"I'm going to rescue him!"
"Do you have a scan of inside the castle?"
"No."
"Do you know the guards' schedule?"
"No."
"Do you know anyone who can sneak you in?"
"No."
"Well, then, you have a lot of work ahead of you." The girl pulls out her Scanner as pink as her shirt. "Cothicaspeed, hero."
She ports away, and Tom is left with himself and the smelly dumpster.
I can't just bust into the castle. I've gotta think this through and I've gotta tell Kaz about all this. He might know a way in. Yeah, I can do that.
Tom feels certain that he'll find a way to save Kaz.
Author's Comments- There are no links this time.
Giselle is first shown in season two's episode nineteen's "When a CodeMaster Calls" and was never seen again. I don't know what language she was speaking to Peyton at the beginning of the episode. I don't think it's Spanish from my six years of high school and college Spanish courses that I took, but I could be totally wrong. If anyone knows what language she was speaking, please, tell me. I promise she'll appear again just not anytime soon.
In season two's episode one's "A Rare Hazard," when Kaz defeats the Danian player, it's revealed that the player is a girl with short brown hair, green eyes, and a pink shirt. She had a soft voice and was courteous enough to congratulate Kaz on his win. She even looks concerned when Kaz walked away with such a sad expression on his face. I thought she was going to come back again, at least as non-speaking background cameo, but she was never seen again. I decided to do something with her, so she's going to make another appearance sooner rather than later.
Next chapter: Kaz wakes up.