Not Part of the Plan
The room wasted no time in coming to life. The red and yellow lights began to pulse, momentarily blinding Tony. He blinked rapidly and he tried to reorient himself. He felt like he was spinning through the air, the ground under his feet the only proof he was not. He involuntarily dropped the pencil he was holding, the sound of it clattering away strangely distant.
Sketchbook was no longer sitting on the stairs. She was lightly skipping toward him, the smile on her face so wide that it partially disappeared on the aria where her face was missing. There was something about her appearance that terrified Tony, though it took him a while to figure it out. Her pupils had seemed to have come… unwound. They looked like a spiral of string, spinning slowly in a counterclockwise direction. She had been in here with the brainwashing lights for as long as they had been gone. Tony shivered, was there anything left of her to save?
The intercom buzzed to life. "Ha ha, too easy." Shrignold's voice mocked. "You and those blockheads walked right into this!"
"What have you done to the others?!" Tony yelled, gently pushing Sketchbook away, as she had reached him and was slowly trying to give him a hug.
"Nothing yet," Shrignold replied. "They're currently trying to get the door back open. Fools, little do they know that I originally opened it for them!"
"You knew we were here." Tony sighed. It was not a question, it was a fact.
"Of course! We've been on high alert ever since you left." laughed Shrignold. "You may have had the element of surprise the first time, but this time I was watching."
He paused. "You know, I think it's rude of you to keep pushing your girlfriend away like that."
"She's not my girlfriend." grumbled Tony. Tony thought back to when she had dragged him through the halls. She had been full of unbelievable strength then, but he was now holding her back with one hand. He noticed that there were deep lines engraved under her eyes.
"Has she slept at all?!" Tony yelled towards the intercom.
"No," giggled Shrignold. "But how could she, she just missed you too much to sleep."
"Liar! You kept her awake!" Tony yelled.
"Well just maybe." Shrignold replied sweetly.
"Mon amour…" Whispered Sketchbook, her voice barely audible over Malcolm's grunting.
"Now, I'm going to be silent for a little bit." declared Shrignold. "I would love to keep taunting you, but I can tell this little argument is distracting you."
Tony gritted his teeth. So he had noticed too. Tony's anger toward Shrignold worked as a distraction from the horrible pulsing tempo of the room, but if Shrignold refused to argue back, there would be nothing left to focus on. He had to keep this going, just a little longer.
"Love is a waste of time!" he yelled, but there was no response. The smoke around Tony's eyes crept in, further obstructing his view.
"There is no way I'll ever fall in love with Sketchbook!" he tried again, but all he heard was the buzzing of the intercom. The smoke crept in further.
"Your mother is a worm!" he yelled in frustration.
A simple "Ho ho ho ho!" echoed across the room, and with a click the intercom switched off.
"Blast!" Tony turned back to Sketchbook, who had given up on trying to hug him and was now just standing there, watching him. She shone out against the inky blackness that clouded his eyes, and he wondered if she was all he would ever see again.
"I could never love you, never! Not like this!" he yelled at her grinning face. Somehow, she seemed to grin even wider.
"There is no way I could fall in love with you, because… because…" he stuttered, trying to compose his thoughts. "Because this isn't love!"
Sketchbook's grin faltered, and the miasma in Tony's eye receded slightly. His thoughts became more clear.
"Think back Sketchbook! All the good times we had together! The sandcastles at the beach! The comedies we watched! Those ridiculous late night games of truth or dare! What Shrignold is trying to do would take that all away! Do you think what we've seen here is really love? Is love blindly devoting yourself to another person and forgetting who you are?"
Sketchbook began to shake slightly. Her eyes darted around, unfocused on anything, trying to take in everything. The intercom violently snapped back on.
"Cut it out!" Shrignold's voice was, for the first time Tony could remember, angry. "What are you doing!?"
Tony ignored him. "Sketchbook, you're my friend! My first friend. You helped me to see that friendship wasn't a waste of my time. Please come back to me, I don't want those good times to end like this!"
A sound like breaking glass rang through the air. All at once, the rhythm stopped. With a 'snap!' the red and yellow lights were replaced with a crisp white one. Sketchbook's pupils wound together again, and she sank to the ground.
"Auggg! I can't believe it!" Yelled Shrignold. "I have been defeated by the power of… friendship!"
With a loud bang, the intercom fell from the wall.
Sketchbook stirred slightly on the floor. The white light licked gently at the edges of her eyelids, the peaceful silence was a welcome sound compared to pounding she had been hearing for the last few days. Her head still hurt a little bit, but it was a relief compared to crushing sensation she remembered.
A light tinking sound arose her from her sleep. It sounded like someone lightly knocking on a mug with a spoon. Her eyes fluttered open to be greeted by the friendly light. She sat silently for a moment, getting her bearings, before she turned to look for the source of the noise.
Tony was standing against one of the curved walls. He was knocking his fist onto it in different places, as if he was searching for something.
"Tony?" Sketchbook asked tentatively, memories of the past few days creeping around the edges of her mind. Tony jumped slightly, but turned to face her.
"You alright?" he asked hesitantly.
"I think so." she replied. "What happened after I blacked out?"
Tony turned back to continue knocking on the wall. "Not much really. You were very tired, so you kind of just slept." He shifted over slightly to hit another part of the wall.
"How long was I out?"
"3 hours, 26 minutes, and 14 seconds, give or take a few milliseconds." Tony replied, shifting to yet another part of the wall.
Sketchbook's eyes widened in surprise. "That long? What have you been doing this whole time?"
"Well, first I tried to take out the big lug over there." He pointed toward Malcolm. "To no avail." He added. Malcolm let out a loud drone of a laugh. "And now we've been trying to find a weak spot in these walls."
"We've?" Sketchbook asked, confused.
Tony hit the wall again, this time with a more deliberate pattern. 'Knock Knock Knock, Knock Knock Knock Knock, Knock, (pause) Knock Knock, Knock Knock Knock, (pause) Knock Knooock, Knock Knooock Knooock, Knock Knooock, Knooock Knock Knooock, Knock.'
A response came, presumably from the other side of the wall. 'Knooock Knooock Knooock, Knooock Knock Knooock.'
"Red guy knows Morse code." Tony explained. Sketchbook looked at him, wide eyed. "Yeah I know, it surprised me too."
"Actually, I'm more surprised that you know Morse code." Sketchbook said respectfully.
Tony shrugged. "I stumbled upon a misshelved book while I was learning Greek. I had a lot of free time on my hands before you came along."
Sketchbook looked at the ground. "I'm sorry."
This time it was Tony's turn to look surprised. "Whatever for?"
"Well, Lamp told me how you used to prefer solitude after your lessons. I had no idea when I first met you. It was my first time teaching and I hadn't met any of the other teachers yet, so when you showed up a few years after my lesson, I was so excited to have another talking object in the house that, well, I kind of just forced you to be my friend." Sketchbook paused. "You would never have gotten sucked into all of this if it wasn't for me. You'd probably be in some library learning spanish or something."
Tony stared at Sketchbook before quickly knocking on the wall. 'Knock Knooock Knooock Knooock Knooock' He turned back and walked over to her, kneeling down to be at her level.
"You have nothing to apologize for." he said earnestly. "I was a bit hesitant when you wanted to become my friend. I simply had my way of doing things and I liked my routine. I didn't want friends, because I thought they would be a waste of my time, when I could be doing things like learning and improving my intellect. But you have made me realize something very important. I'm not going to be around forever. Eventually everything, even clocks, run out of time. I finally asked myself: 'when the time comes, and I reflect on my life, what do I want to see?' So I took some time to look back and you know what I saw?"
He paused, and looked Sketchbook directly in the eyes. "I looked back and the only things I remembered fondly were the times I spent with you, and the others. Not all of those years sitting in empty libraries reading countless books, but these past few months of spending time with friends. And Sketchbook?"
"Yes?" she asked quietly.
"Thank you for showing me how much I needed friends, before it was too late."
Sketchbook looked up at Tony, a small, relieved smile on her face. Tony grinned widely. "Además, ya sé español."
Sketchbook was silent at first, then she giggled, then laughed, then laughed a little harder. Tony began to laugh as well. Soon, to two of them were on their backs on the floor, rolling around and kicking their feet in the air. It may not have been the funniest joke, or even really a joke in general, but the two of them had been through so much in the past few days. At this moment, none of it mattered. Nothing else existed aside from the two friends who were pealing with laughter and just being happy.
The moment was over all too soon. Tony gasped for air as he wiped tears from his eyes. He sat up, grinning like a goof. Sketchbook soon hoisted herself back up too, still giggling slightly. She also began wiping tears from her eyes, but stopped and winced when she accidentally brushed the edge of her torn paper.
Tony frowned, his giddiness evaporating at the sight. He remembered the pencil that Roy had given him back at the cave, and searched around for it. He spotted it sitting on the floor, over by the entryway to the building. He stood up and walked hastily to retrieve it.
"Let's take care of this." He said to Sketchbook, who nodded solemnly. It would be hard to get the rest of the page out in one go, as so much of it was missing, but Tony knew that once it was out, I wouldn't be a problem anymore.
With shaking hands, he reached out to grip the top of the page. "Ready?"
"Mmmhmm." Affirmed Sketchbook.
"On the count of three. 1...2...3."
Tony and Sketchbook sat on the stairs underneath Malcolm. Two torn pieces of paper sat at the bottom, one engraved with a frowning pencil mouth. Sketchbook gently stroked the place on her current face that had been torn on the previous one.
"So," Sketchbook asked. "Why did you try to destroy Malcolm?"
"Humm?" Tony broke out of whatever he was thinking, the startled look fading from his face. "Well, the plan was for us to get him first, in order to free the brainwashed inhabitants."
"Oooh." Sketchbook replied, cringing slightly.
"What?" Tony asked, confused at Sketchbook's response.
"Well, you see, Malcolm here is just a lump of rock. Aren't you buddy?" Malcolm grunted in response. "You see, Shrignold uses Malcolm as a figurehead, no pun intended. All Malcolm wants is gravel."
"Gravel!" roared Malcolm, the force of his breath nearly knocking the two of them off the stairs.
"So, who is controlling the brainwashed then?" asked Tony.
"Well, the job originally belonged to that huge inanimate computer in the main room." Sketchbook explained. "But after Shrignold got Colin, he transferred the job to him, because he ran a little faster than that old behemoth."
"Are you saying that we have to take down Colin in order to save everyone?"
"Yeah, pretty much. He's basically running everything around here."
Tony pressed his face into his hands and groaned.