And we are back! JustAnAverageGuy101 back with chapter 2 of An Interesting Question. I appreciate the following this story has gotten so far. Shoutout to Inkaliber for leaving a review, I hope we can make this story the good kind of interesting.
Chapter 2- Questions Answered or just more Questions?
Final match. Start of next round, the revealed location is Glacier Plains. Nauthilax is gone, so he's attacking Siado with Rothar. With Siado having Surprise, I start with Initiative. Use Invader's Tactics to attack, dealing 15 damage from the card, 5 from Torwegg and 5 from Taffial. Opponent plays Lavalanche? Negate damage with Melody of Mirage, he takes 5 from Reckless. Deal 20 with Eroding Blast, remove their Earth element. Resulting Streak Strike only deals 10, Rothar takes another five. Finish with activating Unsanity, dealing 20 and defeating Rothar. Only remaining creatures are Vyll and Miklon.
As Question clicked on his own Location deck, revealing The Storm Tunnels, Question only glanced up momentarily when he heard the door open, only for the buff figure of Captain Marvel to poke his head in.
"Hey Question?" The lightning-born hero asked before he stepped in, "I needed to talk to you about my missing Scanner. I heard in the cafe that you had it for some reason. Can I have it back, please?"
"Of course," Question said, not taking his eyes off the screen, "I just needed it to investigate a lead I've been following," he said as he stood up and handed it back to the boy in a man's body.
Captain Marvel's face split into a grin as he looked over Question's shoulder and looked at his monitor. "Oh yeah, I heard some of the other heroes that you were looking into the series. Are you really playing Chaotic now, though?"
"For now, if only to get the answers I need," said Question, turning to look at the hero, "while the company maintains a shining reputation, I am almost positive that something sinister lurks within 4Stars Entertainment. It's just a matter of finding what that is exactly."
"I think it's awesome that you're playing," Marvel grinned. "I never took you for the online game type. It's a pretty fun game once you really get into it. I use an Overworld deck myself, they're pretty powerful when you have the right deck arrangement."
When Question didn't respond, Marvel's eyes fell on the Yellow Scanner on Question's desk. "You chose the Mipdedian tribe, huh? Gotta say, that actually seems suitable for you," Marvel commented, causing Question to momentarily pause before he turned around.
"Oh? Why is that?,"Question asked, raising an unseen eyebrow at the boisterous hero.
"Well, players say that the Mipedian players tend to attract all the weirdos and loners…" the hero started to say, before he realized what he was saying and turned sheepish.
"I guess I'll fit right in, then," Question snarked, and turned back to his screen to resume his match. "Like I said before though, this is only the means to an end. I'm only playing to uncover the true face of 4Stars Entertainment and find out just what they are truly hiding."
"What makes you think that there's anything at all to find?" Marvel asked, a slightly confused look growing on his face, "It could be that the game is just that popular. I've been playing for almost a whole year now and I've never noticed anything suspicious or any 'sinister intentions' coming from the company the whole time I've been playing in Chaotic. I think you're thinking about this too much. I'm sure it's nothing to get too freaked out over."
"That's how they want it to appear," Question responded as his voice took a harder edge. He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms as he gazed hard at the screen. "It's how they've always done things. People thought Luthor was a kind billionaire genius on the surface that was dedicated to helping the world , but under that carefully crafted facade, he was a power mad maniac, holding a grudge against Superman. A grudge which almost destroyed his reputation, the Justice League, and saw me tortured for nearly 3 whole days. Even if the company has a clean record, that doesn't mean that there isn't anything to find."
He turned back to his screen, and selected Qwun to attack Miklon, "Either way, I'm nearly at the seven-win streak this time. Some of the players are unexpectedly formidable. However, the game's AI for managing the rules, like the rest of Chaotic-based technology, is unexpectedly advanced for a mere game. This is the third time I've had to restart my win streak when it pointed out a misplay."
Marvel just nodded along to Question's rant, unsure of what to say. As he glanced over at the unmanaged pile of cards next to Question, he picked one up before he let out a noise in surprise. "Oh sweet, a Najarin card!" Marvel said, and glanced over at The Question before he asked, "Hey, can I have this?"
Question glanced over at Captain Marvel for a moment, before he shrugged and returned to the match. "No, feel free to take it, I have no need of it." he said as he played a Turbulence Funnel, carving over half of Miklon's energy away in the first attack, "I've scanned all the locations and attacks in, but I only needed Mipedian creatures to fill out my roster." Captain Marvel nodded in thanks, and pocketed the Chaotic card before he closed the door behind him.
With the door now shut, Question quickly won the match. With five wins under his belt, the following hour saw him win his sixth match against an Overworld player who messed up and had Ulfhedinn attack his Khenti at Tablet Sanctuary, allowing him to destroy three monsters with Mugic. However, the seventh match was sadly cut short from 'network issues', meaning that Question had to play an eighth match against a to complete the streak.
As Question clicked out of the battle menu, a sudden chirp from his Scanner made him pause. He looked away from his screen to see the Scanner's screen blink on. As he went to pick it up, he saw several blank spaces on the screen. "Seems like just the place to put… a code" he realized as a thunderbolt realization struck him. "This is it," he thought, "this is the key to the missing piece of the puzzle." He looked around as if to make sure no one was watching him despite the fact he was alone in his own quarters.
He looked back to his computer and began to input the code that had appeared on his computer screen into his Scanner. When he finished, he hit the "enter" key and then waited. A message then appeared on the screen that said "Please wait while your Player Code is being processed. Keep your Scanner on hand and do not damage or misplace it".
"Interesting," he thought to himself. "No immediate signs of any negative drawbacks or side effects from inputting the code. Does this mean that the mental programming is taking time to implement, or is it recording my biometrics for something? It could just be doing something like linking with the account in order to try and siphon money from my bank account? If it is, then the jokes on them. Very bold of them to assume that I use a bank at all."
When still nothing happened, he placed the Scanner back on his desk, stood up and then walked to the fridge to get a drink and maybe a snack while he waited for the "Code" to be processed by the server.
He sat back in his chair with a fresh mug of what could only be described as the unholy combination of ginseng tea and black coffee and sighed.
"Nothing else I can do but wait I suppose. Let's see if this will shed some light on the matter," he thought.
Unknown to him, something was indeed happening, but Question wouldn't know…at least for another few hours or so.
In Chaotic….
Question looked down at his Scanner, somewhat perturbed that nothing noticeable had happened. He scowled under his mask, wondering what was going on and what he might be missing.
"I don't understand. At least something should have happened. All of the strange behavior exhibited by players began AFTER they received their code. Maybe..." He trailed off as the sound of conversation broke him out of his thoughts. Question drew his gaze away from his Scanner as he realized he was somewhere entirely different.
He appeared to be in a large area or court of some kind. The whole area was mostly white, with chairs and tables dotted around. People walked around the area, chatting with one another or eating. What appeared to be small, hovering What mostly caught his attention were the large screens mounted on the upper walls. They seemed to be displaying battles of some kind?
"Wait. Those are creatures. Real creatures! Does that mean that they exist and the players bet on them like some kind of dogfighting ring? No. There are multiple battles that have the same creature. That must mean that either there are multiple to begin with, which is unlikely given how each Creature card describes them with an individual personality, or the players use the creatures in simulations. Perhaps they can turn INTO the Creatures themselves? Interesting," he thought to himself as he sat down and continued to take in the sight before him.
"The sudden teleportation still doesn't make sense. One minute I'm in the middle of the MetroTower, and the next moment, I'm teleported to who knows where, and all without me even realizing I've moved." Stepping over to the side, Question continued to think as he tried to think things over. Could it be a dimensional shift? No, there'd be some sense of vertigo from the shift. Maybe a temporal freeze using the Scanner as the emitter? He knew that some villains like Abra Kadabra and Braniac had access to tech for stasis, but you'd think the temporal disruption would be noticeable. Then again, with the Breakthrough Marketing Conspiracy, it wouldn't be unsurprising that improvements were made to preserve things until they fixed easy teleportation systems for their foodstuffs…
Before he could continue his train of thought, a sudden beep interrupted his thoughts. He looked up to see a sleek, limbless drone hovering in front of him, an effigy of a robotic head held up on a limb. For a second, it just hovered in front of him before its facial grid began to light up. "QuestionR, You have been scheduled for your first match in Battle Drome Chirrul. Follow us immediately to your designated Arena."
"Us?" thought Question before the drone grabbed him with an extending arm and began dragging him towards what appeared to be a monorail that led elsewhere in the arena. Feeling his heart start to race, Question tried to pull out of the robot's grip. Before he could break out of the robot's grip though, a tight hand took hold of his shoulder.
"Relax, man!" A bulky African-American told Question, before he clapped him on the shoulder a second time, "Just let them lead you, and it'll be alright."
"You're coming with us, Question," A stern-faced general said as his uniformed lackeys dragged Question to the interrogation chamber, "I think it's time for us to discuss what you've taken from Mr. Luthor and CADMUS."
"What's the matter, nerves getting to ya?" A teen asked as he began to hyperventilate, before he grabbed Question's other hand and leaned in, "Just relax. Once you get in there, you've got nothing to worry about."
His body spasmed as he fought for air, his body struggling to hang on. Before he blacked out, Question was pulled back out of the water. The denim sack was torn off, and he took greedy gulps of air before he looked at Luthor. The corporate mastermind sipped at his wine glass as Question regained in his breath, before he leaned in towards the investigator. "So, are you going to work with us? Or do we have to make things difficult?" Question didn't bother to speak, and spat blood through his facial cover at Luthor. The genius didn't even flinch as the glob stained his suit, and calmly wiped it off before he looked at the general next to him. "Send him to Harding and Wellson," He told her, and the director nodded before the soldiers grabbed the investigator and shoved him underwater.
"Come on, you can't be late for your first match!" A blonde teen said as she slapped him on his back, causing him to start hyperventilating, "It's something you cannot miss out on!"
Question's body jerked forward as he was struck, a visceral snap coming from his ribcage, before a scowling military officer leaned forward. "Still not talking?" The agent asked, her tone like she was talking about the weather, before she grabbed a set of pliers, "In that case, I think we might have to use some more permanent reminders of what you'll be losing if you don't comply." Bringing the pliers up to Question's bound hand, the agent pinched his fingernail with the tool before she pulled.
His mind racing in panic and his body now in a cold sweat, Question pulled his arm back before he shoved the two teens off him. As they were sent sprawling by the motions, the crowd that had been gathering stepped back. With the momentary reprieve, Question tugged at the drone's iron grip again. Feeling no reprieve, he reached into his coat for the protection he had grabbed from the League's vault. He refused to let them detain him again!
—-(POV Tom)-
Tom Majors, a lanky, dark-haired teen, grumbled as he made his way into the Port Court before sitting down at an open seat. "Stupid rookie luck," he muttered, and crossed his arms.
Hearing his mutters, a redhead _ looked away from the battle screen before he set down his soda. "What's got you bummed out, Tom?" Kaz asked as he looked at Tom expectantly, "Did your match end up falling short?"
"That's putting it lightly," Tom grumbled before he snagged a soda from a passing robot. "I was scheduled against a new Underworld player. Some guy named DrakeInTheGrass. It was supposed to be my seventh match!"
The blonde girl let out a snort at that, before she pointed at Tom. "So what? It's not uncommon for new players to have a rare card they bought online for support," Sarah said. However, her comment made Tom scowl, and he clenched down on his cup of soda before he looked up at the screens.
"That's the worst part," he grumbled, and took a long gulp of his soda before he crumpled it up, "I thought I was doing well recently, but he managed to beat me with common cards. Hell, he took out my Maxxor with Drakness, all by using a Flux Bauble to Ravanaugh Ridge before sending me off the cliff with a Flame Orb Attack! I was code before I even knew what was going on!".
"Relax, Tommy my man," Peyton said before he took a sip of his Pouril Springs Bottomless Soda, "I'm sure that you'll do fine by next-"
Peyton suddenly froze as something flashed to Tom's right, before he exclaimed, "Holy crap, is that a gun?!" At Peyton's shocking statement, Tom and Kaz spun around, only to see one of the newest players holding what looked to be a high-tech gun standing over a Port drone, punctured by shards of ice. With the drone down, the players and drones that had been apparently surrounding the new guy quickly stepped away.
"Um… I'm not the only one seeing this right?" Kaz said, having jumped behind Tom, "because I don't see a face on that guy!" Tom looked again at the question, only to realize that Kaz was right - Under the player's fedora, there was only blank flesh where a person's features should be.
"Ok yeah, that's seriously freaky. How does he eat? How does he Breathe?" Tom asked aloud, and visibly shuddered at the idea of being stuck with something covering your face.
"Forget his face," Sarah said, and pointed at the man again, "How did he get a GUN into Chaotic!?"
"Sarah, we're able to bring whatever we're holding into Chaotic when we use our Scanners," Kaz reminded her, a faint smirk on his face as he commented, "you should remember because you conned a Danian merchant with a can opener for that Battlegear scan."
As the two began to bicker, Tom turned towards Peyton and noticed that his friend had gone unusually quiet and was looking at the faceless figure with a deep look of concentration across his face. "Peyton, what's the matter?" Tom asked him, getting the attention of the bickering Kaz and Sarah, "You're unusually quiet. I thought you would be freaking out about this kind of thing."
"You would indeed be right bro, but I swear I've heard of this guy," Peyton said, scratching his chin and beginning to head to the transporters, "I'm gonna head back home and see what I can find out about our mystery man. Be back in a moment, dudes!" He pressed the transport button on his Scanner and sent his code back to his real self.
As Peyton ported out of the Chaotic, Tom watched with trepidation as the man continued to point his freeze gun at anyone who got too close. As the drones began to hover overhead, their visors glowing brighter for some reason, a figure began to flicker in and out in front of the faceless man. The cape pointed his gun at the apparition before a purple-robed figure materialized, his face hidden behind a metallic dog-like mask with etched fangs and pointed 'ears'.
"That's Codemaster Chirrul!" Kaz exclaimed from next to Tom, causing the brunette to start in surprise. While he had battled against Codemaster Crellan and had watched Clay get trumped by Codemaster Imthor, he had never seen Codemaster Chirrul before.
"What do you guys think he's doing here?" Tom wondered, then asked the guys, "I've never even seen the guy and it's not often that one of the Codemasters just shows up in the PortCourt."
"The CodeMasters only show up outside their Dromes when there's trouble" ,Kaz said nervously, "So that means that something bad is going down or the faceless guy IS the trouble"
The three friends exchanged nervous looks with each other as they continued to watch the Codemaster conversing with the trench coat-clad figure. While they were too far away to hear what he was telling the vigilante, it seemed like he was trying to calm the guy down more than anything.
—-(POV Question)-
Question kept the Cryo gun he had… borrowed from the Watchtower's vault trained squarely on the chest of the purple-robed figure in front of him. He was aware of the onlookers watching the scene, waiting to see who would make the first move. As he mentally assessed the scene before him, he started to make mental notes of the man's actions, "No signs of hostility. Not attacking either. Not even trying to restrain me even after I shot. No signs of brainwashing or subliminal messages…yet. "
Finding his voice, Question decided to ask his namesake and get some answers about where he was. "Who are you?" Question inquired, his voice shaking slightly as he rattled off more questions, "Why have you brought me here? Where IS here? Who are you?"
The masked figure raised its hands in a placating gesture before letting out a slight chuckle. "No need to panic," the masked man slowly said in a baritone voice, "No one here intends to harm you, Question." Despite not being visible, Question's eyebrows shot up to his forehead at the casual name-drop. "Don't sound so surprised, after all we review the profiles of everyone who register for the game" The man said, before he casually added, "Admittedly, we were surprised when we saw your profile appear in our database. It's not every day a member of the Justice League is seen here."
"More surprised that you know me." Question muttered, but didn't lower his freeze gun as he stared the man down, "Outside of the league, not very many people know about me. So how do you know? I doubt most of the public would know who I am."
"You really think that? With the recent events, a lot of people may not know what you look like, but they do now know your name and recent investigations," the figure replied, and gave a short bow without breaking eye contact, "Anyways, I am Codemaster Chirrul, one of the seven administrators of Chaotic."
"Really? That's the best excuse you can give?" Question shot back, "There's no mention of any sort of title or name like yours on the servers' administration list. Even looked into possible aliases of most of those administrators." As he momentarily paused, he soon mentally chatisted himself. If they administered an off-the-grid place like this, it was unlikely they'd have a direct listing online.
The now identified Chirrul started chuckling again. "You wouldn't see our names on the servers. We leave management of those to company appointed admins while we watch over this place."
"And this place; how exactly did you bring me here? Long range teleportation technology? Smuggled through Intergang or another dealer?" ,guessed Question, trying to make heads or tails of his current situation.
"No, you're right in the same exact place, so to speak, '' answered Chirrul, moving to a table and motioning for Question to take a seat across from him.
Question scowled under his mask at the odd nature of the answer, but reluctantly holstered the cryo gun and moved to the table, before taking the seat offered to him.
"Now to clarify on my answer to your question", began Chirrul as Question sat down, "only part of you is actually here in Chaotic." he paused until Question gestured in a "go on" sort of manner. "The Scanner creates a virtual copy of the player that occupies this space. The memories and sensations it experiences are then sent back to the player in the real world when the copy ports out of Chaotic. Right now, your real self is still sitting right in the exact same place no doubt waiting for the Scanner to do something." he continued.
"Fascinating", muttered Question, turning off to the side and stroking his chin thoughtfully. Creating an exact mental copy of a person is no easy feat and even harder to execute with no negative side effects. Only a few supervillains, let alone superheroes, could have this power. As he looked up at a screen, he paused before turning back to Chirrul. "I can only assume since this place is real as you and I; then Perim must be as well. Correct?"
Chirrul chuckled again. "You're as sharp as people say you are. Yes, you would be correct in that assumption. The Scanner also lets the player teleport to the various locations around Perim; as long as they have the location card for that specific Location."
He paused for a second before asking, "How did you deduce so fast that Perim was real? What gave it away?"
"The cards," Question responded with no hesitation, "The descriptions on the Creature and Location cards were highly detailed for a simple card game. Add in the desire and research costs to teleport duplicates, let alone all of the entertainment value of… this-" At that comment, he waved a hand at the multiple screens mounted up, "It sounds exactly like someone who had actually been there. Let alone meet the Creatures in question."
"Indeed they do," Chirrul murmured, somewhat lost in thought, before he snapped out of his daze and continued, "Back to the Scanners, they allow the player to scan one Creature, Location, Mugic, and Battlegear before the player has to port back to the Port Court to lock in those scans."
"Doesn't seem very practical," Question said with a raised eyebrow, unseen under his mask, "Wouldn't it make more sense to have it store more than just one of each rather than just having to port back over and over again?"
"We did have that in one of the earlier scanning versions," Chirrul said, then explained, "However, given that a majority of the Tribes do not take kindly to the presence of Chaotic players, even less to the ones trying to scan them all the time. We designed it that way so no player is in Perim constantly stalking their favorite creature and scanning them for a full one-creature team. It's hardly necessary to spread the evil of paparazzi to their world."
Question let out a hiss at that, having seen himself how intrusive some members of the paparazzi could be. With how often the paparazzi tried to steal his clues, it was almost like they were working counterproductive to him… Shaking his head at the bad memories, Question looked up at the screen before he asked Chirrul, "Still, how on earth did you manage to get all of this made?"
Chirrul stood still for several seconds, before he finally tilted his head. "I'm sorry Question, I can't answer that, as that really is our best-kept secret for 4-Stars," the Codemaster commented. When Question turned to give him a glare though, the Codemaster began to chuckle and commented, "I'll tell you this, though. If you manage to actually figure it out? I promise, you'll be promoted to being an Honorary Codemaster."
Question fought to contain his need to complete the challenge. However, they had finally arrived at a large, purple, glass building, seemingly shaped after Chirrul's helmet. With the two outside the main door, Chirrul gave a short bow and said, "In that case, I wish you luck with your first match. I have a feeling that things will be quite entertaining from your actions." With his last comment, Chirrul flickered out of sight.
Question stared at the now-vacant spot for a few seconds, before he turned towards the door. While a part of him was still wary of what to do, the challenge of a new mystery… more conspiracies and questions to answer… Taking a single breath to calm himself down, Question finally stepped into the drome.
And that's a wrap for chapter 2! Once again, please leave a review, any constructive criticism is helpful. Follow and Fav and all that jazz. Shoutout once again to Scribe of Thanatos for co-writing this story, he's been a great help in this endeavor. Shoutout to anyone who can guess who DrakeInTheGrass is. Leave your answer in a review.