Cryptic Infiltration
Chapter Five – Word of Warning
On Monday afternoon, after the school day had ended and they'd met up in Penny's room, Rudy and Penny returned to ChalkZone. Worried about the Zoners of ChalkZone City, they were keen to return and check that nothing had been further damaged since the dragonfly attack the day before. They had been planning to go to the city during school hours, but ended up having a harder time than usual sneaking into ChalkZone due to the fact that Mr. Wilter had stayed in the classroom during the recesses. There hadn't been any spare classrooms for them to use at the time, either. They had also had little luck using the blacktop outside, and hadn't managed to find a secluded enough place to slip away until near the end of recess. They had only been able to manage a short trip, which hadn't been long enough to make the journey to ChalkZone City and back, though from what they could see when they saw the buildings from a distance, nothing seemed amiss, which was at least fairly reassuring.
This time, however, they had plenty of time to make a visit, and Rudy was sure they were going to need it, as he planned to help with the repairs in the city. They both felt bad about how they had had to leave ChalkZone so suddenly after the attack the previous day, and were happy they could now be of help to anyone who needed it. Rudy had brought along a few extra pieces of magic chalk, thinking that Penny could help him redraw parts of buildings if it was needed.
Rudy had decided to use a vehicle to get to the city to save time. Normally they wouldn't have minded walking, since they had come into ChalkZone from Penny's portal, which meant the city was close by, but Rudy was a bit anxious and impatient to make sure the city Zoners were all right, and that there was no threat of a repeat attack. Dangers like that did not usually get solved as easily as yesterday's situation had, and it made him wonder if there was another threat around the corner. He tried to tell himself that he was only more worried than usual because of the strange occurrences that had happened the past few days, and after a few minutes, he began to feel like maybe he was being a little paranoid.
"Well, it certainly doesn't look like the city's taken any more damage," Penny remarked as they neared the first buildings and could observe them clearly, already able to hear both the faint sound of Zoners' cars as well as the waves of the Wait N' Sea to their left.
"Well, that's good," Rudy replied in relieved agreement as he kept his eyes ahead. If they ignored the parts of ChalkZone City that hadn't yet been repaired after Newland's termite attack, everything looked completely normal, and it was again clear that there hadn't been any more disasters while they had been away at school.
"We should also make sure the ChalkZone City officials brought those creatures to a place where they couldn't harm anyone," Penny pointed out.
"Good idea," Rudy replied. He then considered something. "Do you think we should go see if Snap wants to come?" he asked. However, after all they had been through the previous day, he was a bit hesitant to drag Snap around the city while he was still recovering from his injuries. As much as he wanted Snap to come with them, he cared more about letting his friend rest.
"I'm sure he'd want to come along…we should at least ask him," Penny replied, and Rudy nodded, knowing that Snap could stay behind if he wanted to, and Penny was likely right that Snap would rather go with them to help.
Since they were already close to the beach, they didn't have to go far to reach Snap's house. It was only a short drive to the sand, which Rudy found difficult to drive on. He tightened his grip on the wheel as he glanced out his window, frowning as he tried to figure out what the problem was. Penny suggested that it was a simple grip issue, and he nodded in agreement.
After slowing the car to a stop, Rudy leapt out of the driver's seat to make some quick adjustments to the tires, Penny advising him a few times on how to alter them. When he was satisfied, they hurried over to the tall structure that Snap called home, passing a few curious Zoners playing volleyball, sun baking and building sandcastles as they did so.
They pulled up and climbed out of the vehicle, they followed the short path leading to his front door and knocked a few times. It took roughly half a minute, but eventually their blue and white friend appeared in the doorway bearing a smile.
"Oh, hey there, guys!" He turned around and glanced into his house, as if to check everything was in order before looking back to them. "Where're we goin' today?"
"We're going to check the city…just to make sure everything's okay. We weren't sure if you wanted to come, but we figured we'd ask," Rudy said, although acknowledging that Snap looked prepared for wherever his friends planned to take him.
"Sure, Bucko, of course I'll come," he replied enthusiastically, a hint of perplexity in his voice upon hearing that they felt the need to ask him first. "It'll be good to make sure those rotten creatures were dealt with and won't be comin' back!"
"Are you sure?" Penny wondered, concern warming her voice. Upon noticing his confused look, she continued, "Because of your physical state, we thought we should ask you first…in case you were too weak to come."
"Nope, I'm good to go," he assured them calmly.
"Okay ," Rudy began, content to see that his friend was in good enough order to come with them, "let's go!" He gestured to the car and led the way toward it.
"What's the hurry, Bucko?" Snap raised his voice to ask as he followed, looking a bit confused. "You need to be home early or somethin'?"
"No," he replied, a little nervously, "I just want to make sure nothing's happened."
"Well, everything seems fine from here," Penny stated with a clear tone. "If there were some major disaster, I'm sure it would be readily apparent."
Snap nodded as he hobbled with his crutch behind. "I would've seen if anything else was attackin' anybody."
"I know," Rudy sighed, knowing that due to the height of Snap's house, his friend would easily have been able to see if anything happened to ChalkZone City that day, and he felt a little silly for failing to consider this shortly before. He wasn't sure what had been making him anxious enough to check that everything was fine, but he figured he was simply overreacting, thinking back to the incident with Bob Newland's drawings and perhaps fearing that history would repeat itself. He knew, however, that this situation was nothing like that one had been, and he realized his urgency was probably a little unneeded. All the same, there was probably a lot he could do to help repair the damage, and he would need a fair amount of time for that. He certainly wanted to help the Zoners in their time of need, and that was reason enough to hurry. "You're right," he sighed with a shrug, hoping to seem a bit more relaxed than he felt. "But there's still a lot we can help with."
As he arrived at the car and whirled around to wait for the others, Rudy noticed that Snap was limping worse than he had been for the past week or so, and he looked to him with wholesome concern. "Are you all right?" he pressed, wondering if it had been a bad idea to ask him to come along after all. If they had not given him the option, then he would have been spared the activity.
"It's not much worse," Snap replied, though a bit unenthusiastically, as if he wasn't entirely sure himself. Rudy deduced that it must have been a result of him moving around so much during the attack in the city the previous day, which he knew he wasn't supposed to do. Snap didn't seem to be in an extreme amount of pain, but he felt bad for him all the same.
There was an easy path from the section of the beach where Snap's house currently resided that led into ChalkZone City, snaking conveniently around the place where most Zoners chose to play, lie or sit. The trip was short and smooth, and the trio remained reasonably silent while the new tires did their job across the sand.
As soon as they reached the city, they noticed with annoyance that the streets in that area near the beach were closed off, so Rudy left the car there and they took a path by the shops, noticing with relief that everything in that section of the city seemed to be in a perfect state, and there wasn't any sign of fire or further damage. Rudy knew that the place where the recently drawn police station was located would be a different story, and he couldn't help being worried about the sort of damage they might find there or in areas around it. He was pretty sure the monsters hadn't reached places like the hospital, and he could only hope he was right.
Luckily, the trio managed to catch a snail taxi on the next street over, where the streets were not closed, so Rudy didn't have to draw them transportation. Peering through the window of the snail's shell, Rudy could see that there were hardly any Zoners on the streets. He at first found it a bit odd, being so used to seeing many of them, until he realized that they would obviously be wary considering what had happened, and felt a bit silly for expecting to see a lot of them. When they neared the street where the attack had first taken place, however, they could see that the area around the police station was a completely different story, and the three could only stare in both shock and confusion.
Though the damage to the surrounding buildings looked no worse than the trio remembered it from the previous day, there was definitely something strange going on, as a massive crowd of Zoners was spanning across the entire street. Most of them clearly weren't there to help repair the damage, and as Rudy watched even more civilians approach the scene with frantic looks, he felt a sense of apprehension.
As he called for the snail to stop and he exited the snail shell, he realized that both the sidewalk and the street were crowded with Zoners who had gathered there. Rudy kept to the edge of the path to avoid some of the frantic arriving civilians, most of whom who looked just as clueless about the situation as he was. Penny and Snap came to stand beside him, staring around at the scene in utter confusion. The three friends could quickly tell that the focus of the attention was the police station, or rather, a group of Zoners who were standing in front of it.
As soon as the Zoners in the crowd noticed Rudy, they quickly stepped aside to make way for him and his friends. Rather than ask one of them what was going on, Rudy and the others decided to go directly toward the source, which, as they saw once the group parted to let them through, was a group of police officer Zoners who seemed to be trying to explain something, but the questions and cries of the city citizens around them were obviously making things difficult.
Rudy nudged his way past a tall zebra in order to move to the front of the crowd. Muttering a quick apology, he turned and ran up the steps of the police station to where the nearest police officer was standing in front of the doors, looking like he was trying to calm down the shouting Zoners. "Excuse me," Rudy asked, fighting to make his voice heard, "but…what's going on? Was there another attack?" Behind him, Penny and Snap finally managed to make their way into the small section of open space in front of the police station as well.
"No," the officer, a tall penguin dressed in a police uniform, replied. He looked warily at the crowd before adding, "There's been a threat against ChalkZone City."
"A threat?" Rudy replied, unsure what to make of that information as Penny and Snap exchanged looks of bewilderment too. "A threat from who?"
"We aren't sure," the officer replied, "but around noon today, one of the television stations that broadcasts here was hacked. A message was aired telling the entirety of the city that we would need to give up all our food, drinking water, medical supplies, as well as everything in the shops, and the personal belongings of the city's citizens. That's why all these Zoners are so upset." He waved a flipper toward the crowd for emphasis. "The culprit who did this was, as he said, the one who sent those dragonfly monsters into the city."
"And you have absolutely no idea who or what this Zoner is?" Penny asked before Rudy could reply, sounding just as shocked as he felt at the turn of events.
The penguin shook his head. "The message included no image of him. Just a name. Shift. Have any of you heard of him?" He glanced toward the three kids, who each shook their heads.
"Well," Rudy began, lifting his stick of magic chalk, "if he decides to show himself, rest assured that we'll do everything we can to-"
"There's something else," the officer continued, and from the sound of his voice, Rudy could tell at once that he knew of some other factor that would not make stopping such a criminal so easy.
"Yes?" Penny prompted when the penguin took a moment to shout something at a Zoner who had run to the front of the crowd with some sort of demand.
"You see," he continued after turning back to them. "This Zoner…claims he has access to the Real World."
Rudy felt his blood turn to ice at those words. Out of everything he could have possibly suspected the officer was going to share with them, he couldn't have guessed this. He wasn't sure how such a thing would even be possible, unless this 'Shift' was working with another creator. The thought sent cold shivers through his body, as the only other humans who had been creators in recent times were Vinnie Raton, Terry Bouffant, and Bob Newland. If what this criminal claimed was true, he could easily bring magic chalk to any human he wanted to if he was able to invade the Chalk Mine, and suddenly the image of the newscast about the Chalk Mine's infiltrator and the destruction to one of Biclops' rooms entered his mind like a lightning bolt, and he nearly staggered backward out of shock as his brain made the connection. "Wh-what?" he stammered, feeling his arm drop as his grip on the magic chalk loosened.
"That's what he told us in the announcement," the penguin officer replied grimly. "Of course, you know what this means. If anyone like that…Reggie the Red kid got in, we'd-"
"Wait...wait!" Rudy cried, his voice shaking as he held up his hands. "Did he say anything else? Like what he was going to do with this-"
The penguin shook his head. "No," he replied. "Just that he could use it against us."
Rudy turned around to look at his two friends, exchanging looks of horror with each of them. Penny, however, took a step toward him. "Rudy, we don't know if this Zoner is telling the truth," she stated firmly, though behind her brave look, Rudy knew she was scared herself.
"Yeah, Bucko…" Snap replied, giving Rudy an uneasy smile. "This Shift fellow could be bluffing, right?" He gave a nervous chuckle, but it was clear he certainly wasn't entirely convinced.
Rudy and Penny were both unable to formulate a reply, and Rudy thought back again to the Chalk Mine incident. It hadn't seemed like any chalk had been taken, but there was no way anyone could notice if a few pieces were missing. He felt himself start to shake, the enormity of what this could mean dawning on him all over again.
"Look, I know what you're thinking," Penny stated after a moment, and from the look of worry on her and Snap's faces, it was clear they'd made the same connection Rudy had, "but those dragonflies looked nothing like Newland's drawings."
"Yeah, and uh, you'd think if Newland had the chalk, he'd be stormin' the place with his monstrosities already," Snap added.
"No! No, he wouldn't," Rudy cried, a bit louder than he'd intended, for now the attention of a large portion of the front of the crowd had shifted to him. "I told Newland I had that footage of him breaking into my house, remember? He wouldn't do anything until…until he was sure I couldn't use that against him! He could just be biding his time. And he's a professional artist; I'm sure he could imitate inexperienced drawings too if he wanted to!" He paused, realizing that Snap looked quite taken aback by his outburst. "Look, I just…" he began with a shake of his head. "…We need to get to the bottom of this, and we need to make sure that neither Newland nor any of his creations can touch that footage! And then somehow we'll need to-"
"Rudy, maybe we're jumping to conclusions too quickly," Penny stated, and Rudy stared at her in shock.
"But, Penny-"
"I don't mean we shouldn't take precautions in case it is Newland again! I mean, I just think we need to consider…that there might be another explanation. Another human who got their hands on the magic chalk, or…or an open portal somewhere."
"No one's taken any chalk from me!" Rudy protested. "And…where would there be an open portal? I don't even leave my portals open if I'm going to be gone longer than fifteen minutes or so anymore!"
"Maybe this Zoner only snuck in one of those times," Penny replied. "We'll have to be careful, but…we need to find out as much about this as we can. We can't panic yet… Let's ask the officers to see this broadcast ourselves."
Rudy tried to push the images of the infiltrated Chalk Mine from his mind as he turned to the police officer, who had begun conversing with one of the others during his and his friends' conversation. "Okay," he said, but he had a feeling they weren't going to learn much more from it. Shift, whoever he was, didn't seem to want to give them much information.
"Try to think of anything that might have happened recently," Penny continued. "Any time a Zoner might have-"
"I can't think of any time they would have had longer than a few minutes!" Rudy replied with a hiss of frustration. "Especially not since…not since the Chalk Mine was invaded. I haven't even left the portal open since then!"
"Maybe they…haven't gone back to the Real World yet?" Snap suggested, and Rudy cringed, remembering the incident where two Zoners, Boorat and Dooth, had attempted to bring magic chalk into the Real World, and ended up kidnapping Snap instead, locking him away from ChalkZone for two days.
"He said he has access to a portal," Rudy replied. "Or some means of getting to one whenever-"
"That's not what he said," Penny interjected. "The officer told us the message stated that he had access to the Real World. That's it. He could just be using your portals for quick trips whenever you-"
"But for what?" Rudy cried. "I don't leave the portals open long enough for him to sneak into unless he somehow knows exactly when I'll choose to go to ChalkZone each day."
"True," Penny replied, "but even if he's not lying, he might not be telling the truth about having it right this moment. It may just be a plan he has in place. If he really had something like…like a creator on his side right now, I don't think he'd hesitate to take whatever he wanted from the city, but instead he's waiting for them to hand it over to him. I think there's a good chance that, if he's not just bluffing, he doesn't quite have what he claims to yet."
"Maybe…" Rudy responded half-heartedly. What Penny said did make sense, but he knew there could be a reason for the simple threat. Maybe, like Newland, this Zoner didn't want to harm ChalkZone if it didn't have to come to it. But if there was a chance that the Zoner behind the message did have what he threatened, he certainly wasn't going to ignore the possibility. He was unsure what to do without any leads, but it was clear that the city couldn't just hand over its supplies. He closed his eyes, trying to drown out the sounds of the crowd around him before he opened them again, suddenly moving to the center of the area in front of the group of police officers. "Everyone, listen!" he announced, and after a few times of repeating the phrase, he finally was rewarded with something close to silence. He knew that he could not explain to these Zoners just what was threatening them, but he could at least reassure them on one thing. "None of you have to worry about losing your shops or your belongings," he called out, and it was clear from the Zoners' hopeful and surprised expressions that he had their attention. "You won't have to give them up," he continued. "Instead…I'm going to draw this…Shift…what he wants, so you can keep what's yours."
"What?" Penny and Snap cried at once, clearly alarmed by what Rudy had just said.
"Rudy, are you serious?" Penny questioned with wide-eyed alarm. "You don't know what this Zoner intends to do with all those things!"
Rudy cringed, realizing she had a point. A very good point. In the moment, it had seemed far better to eliminate any threat of another attack on the city, especially involving someone from the Real World, but now Penny's argument seemed much clearer. If a human wanted to harm ChalkZone, a Zoner getting what they wanted wasn't going to stop them. And if there was a sinister purpose for the items that Shift was demanding, Rudy knew that simply handing them over could be a big mistake. It had seemed simple enough to give this mysterious Zoner the supplies, but now he was realizing how dangerous that sounded. He looked to the Zoners in the crowd. Some were nervously agreeing with Penny, and others were protesting her statement, demanding he draw the items in order to get the criminal to leave their city alone.
"Okay, look!" Rudy shouted, and this time, the noise did not die down much. "Before I do anything, we're going to find out who this 'Shift' Zoner is. And then…then we'll decide what to do." He looked to Penny and Snap, who looked satisfied with his final decision, yet extremely worried about the situation as a whole. He was sure that the first thing they needed to do was find out who the mysterious Zoner was, and how he had a link to the Real World, if he did at all.
Though the members of the crowd around them were visibly worried, most seemed to accept that there was nothing else Rudy could do at that moment, and had gone back to loudly conversing among each other, save for a few who were still demanding he draw the supplies. Rudy tried to block them out, remembering that Penny had wanted to see the broadcast itself, and to his relief, he saw one of the police officers beckoning him and the others toward the open doors of the building. He and his friends could find out everything the police knew, and from there…
Rudy sighed, feeling far more lost even than he had when trying to follow the trail of strange occurrences throughout ChalkZone the previous few days. After they saw the footage created by this strange unknown Zoner, the trail would be a lot less clear. In fact, he wasn't sure there was a trail he could follow at all.
ooo
"Axxar, I've got important news," the voice on the other end of the device buzzed.
The werewolf gripped it tightly, immediately alert. After his subjects' failure to find the culprit behind the dragonfly attack in ChalkZone City the previous day, he had been anticipating another call. This one, however, had caught him by surprise when he'd been scouting the edge of the Wait N' Sea near the city, hoping to stumble across some sort of clue before he was needed back at the base again. Looking around at the other Zoners lounging on the beach or splashing in the waves nearby, he was sure to keep his voice down as he increased his brisk pace. "What is it? Did you find him?"
A flicker of static sounded on the other end before the voice continued. "No, but…there's something else. Something much more important."
Axxar waited in expectation, knowing just from the tone of the speaker's voice that what he was about to say mattered much more than even catching the Zoner behind the attacks.
"This Zoner claims he access to the Real World."
Axxar nearly stopped in his tracks, but caught himself and kept going, not wanting to attract any attention from the surrounding Zoners in case they overheard something. As unlikely as that possibility seemed, considering that many Zoners went for walks along the beach and he hardly stood out, but he was determined to be careful anyway. "Can you verify if this is true?" he asked, his voice low as his gaze shifted toward a polar bear with glasses, who had cast a curious glance in his direction.
"Not exactly, but…Axxar, this could mean everything. If we had the means to find it-"
"I know," the wolf replied cautiously, still keeping his voice low. Even though he was sure he wasn't close enough to the other Zoners for them to overhear, he was wary, knowing that it was possible that some could have stronger than average hearing. He was determined to say as little as possible out loud until he could reach a more secluded spot. "What else do you know about him?"
"He calls himself "Shift,"" the voice replied. "He wants supplies from ChalkZone City. For what, I don't know."
"That's not important," Axxar growled, pausing to shake a bit of sand out of his shoe in annoyance before carrying on. Luckily, he was now on a stretch of the beach that didn't seem to have any visitors at the moment, which he assumed, with a bit of amusement, had something to do with the triangular fins of some newly drawn sharks circling in the water. He slowed down to a more normal pace. "Look," he stated, "forget what I said earlier. If you find this 'Shift' Zoner, don't kill him. Find out how he's doing this if what he says is true."
"Of course," the voice replied. "Do you think we should-"
"Send out some of the others to search for his entry point," Axxar continued, cutting his associate off. "This is more important than the construction right now."
"I suppose so, but…"
"We can bring in more recruits to work on it," he growled. "I want only those I trust looking out for this…gateway into the Real World."
"And if we can't find Shift…?"
"Don't worry about that," Axxar continued. "I believe I have a way to track him on my own."
"You? But I thought you-"
"Like you said, this is more important," the wolf replied. "I'm leaving you in charge until this is done." Without waiting for a reply, he shut the device off.
Turning to face the city, the dark gray Zoner narrowed his eyes. He had a hunch on how to track Shift, and he could only hope that it would work. Normally he would not leave his workers for so long, but this was of far greater importance at the moment. At first, he had thought this mysterious Zoner of a level of importance only befitting an investigation by those beneath him, but this, this possibility of constant access to the Real World…changed everything.
ooo
Pulling open the drawer in his desk beneath his bed, Rudy quickly dug through his belongings, including his current magic chalk stash, until he found the tape he'd recorded with the footage from the small camera he'd set up in his room a month ago, when Bob Newland and his accomplices had broken into his room. For a while, he had only had a chalk tape, but after Penny expressed concern about it getting wet somehow, she had managed to find a way to copy it onto a Real World tape using a combination of ChalkZone and Real World technology that, after a few failed tries one afternoon while Rudy's parents had gone, had finally worked. "We need a better hiding place for this," Rudy muttered.
He turned to Penny, who was standing beside him, and then toward the open portal on his chalkboard, where he knew Snap was waiting down below. Penny looked to him worriedly, still unsure what to make of everything they had discovered that day. The broadcast itself hadn't given them any more clues or information, and she, like the others, was at a loss for how to solve such a problem. Though none of them could be sure how much of Shift's threat was the truth, they knew they couldn't afford to assume anything if there was a chance that a way into ChalkZone, unknown to them, existed.
"We'll have to put this somewhere in ChalkZone," Rudy told her firmly, his hands on the evidence tape. "Keeping it in the Real World is too risky. There's no good place to hide it here."
"Are you sure it'll be safe?" Penny asked. "What if some random Zoner comes across it?"
"Well," Rudy replied, still looking at the tape as he did so. "A while ago I stored a lot of my old drawings in ChalkZone, and they're still fine." He thought back to that day, remembering that it had been the day he and Snap had met Snap's cousins in ChalkZone, which had turned out to be a rather unpleasant visit. However, the memory was quickly interrupted by thoughts of what they were now facing.
"Maybe I could hide it somewhere in my house," Snap called from outside the portal, and for a moment Rudy cringed, worried that his parents might have heard the shout, but he relaxed after there was no sign of either of them coming up to investigate.
Walking over to the portal, he leaned his head in and responded, "That might be a good idea. I…I could even draw a safe for it somewhere."
He heard Penny approaching and retreated from the portal to see her looking more worried than she had previously. She seemed to be deep in thought as she began, "Rudy, can you think of any time someone could have gotten their hands on the magic chalk? Even for a little bit? Possibly at school…?"
Rudy shook his head. "No, nothing like that happened! I was really careful about bringing it to school."
"And you never lost a piece?" she asked.
"Of course not!" he snapped. "I would have told you if I had!" He paused, realizing he'd shouted a bit too loudly, and muttered a quick apology. "I'm just not sure how any of this would be possible, unless…" He took a deep breath and sighed. "Unless we didn't actually take all of the chalk from Newland and the others."
"What?" Snap cried from behind the portal, causing both of them to look to him. "Of course we did! They didn't have anythin' left to show those people on TV, and if they did, they would have, believe me!"
"Snap's right," Penny stated, seeming even more perplexed by the situation. "I can't see a reason they would keep a piece of magic chalk secret, after they so badly wanted to show it to the world." She sighed. "I can't think of any other explanation, unless there's an open portal somewhere."
"But I close all the portals I use!" Rudy protested. "I hardly even go into ChalkZone from any place other than the school or our rooms!" He paused. "And we don't know how long it'll be until Shift does something else! He didn't exactly give us a time limit, or-"
"He's not going to destroy the city if he wants supplies from it!" Penny pointed out. "I mean, remember what Newland did. He just wanted to scare you. This…could be like that."
"I suppose so," Rudy murmured, realizing that she did have a good point. "But what if there is a portal somewhere? We'd have to find it before anyone else…from either world…got their hands on it."
Penny nodded and remained silent, and Rudy stared almost absentmindedly into the ChalkZone sky through the portal. There had to be something they were missing, and he wished once again that they could somehow find a way to discover what Shift was actually doing. "It's getting late," Penny said after a moment. "We need to return to my room soon."
"I know," Rudy sighed. He stared down at the tape in his hands, knowing that, at least, it would be far out of Newland's reach after he hid it somewhere within Snap's house. He sighed. "We'd better go."
Without a word, he and Penny lowered themselves back into ChalkZone, and Rudy, still thinking about what Penny had said, wiped away the portal before they carried on.
ooo
It wasn't until the next morning that Rudy suddenly remembered something he'd neglected to think of the previous day. He was anxious to talk to Penny and Snap about it, but didn't have a chance until during recess at school when they were able to sneak away into ChalkZone. Luckily, they had the whole recess period ahead of them this time, and were able to make the journey to Snap's house by plane. Rudy thought back to the previous evening, when he had snuck back into ChalkZone after dinner and drawn a hidden safe in the walls of one of the rooms of Snap's house, a carefully concealed place for him to put the copy of the tape he'd had in his room. He still had the chalk version as well, and opted to keep it where he'd originally hidden it, thinking that if Newland somehow got his hands on it, he wouldn't think to look for another one.
The three of them sat together on the balcony on the top story of the house, the Wait N' Sea in clear view for miles ahead. "I didn't think of this yesterday," Rudy was saying, "but there was one day…it was about three weeks ago…when I did lose a piece of magic chalk for a day."
"What? How?" Penny responded, shocked, and unsure what to think of Rudy's news, and astonished that he could have forgotten such a thing.
Snap looked like he felt this all but confirmed the existence of a portal somewhere the three of them did not know about. "Well, where'd ya lose it, Bucko?" he asked worriedly.
"Well it wasn't actually lost…" Rudy began. "It was just left in my backpack when I lent it to my Aunt Tillie to use to bring some of Sophie's things when they went to a Zoo in Orangeapolis."
"You mean Sophie could have gotten her hands on it again?" Penny replied, astonished. "Why didn't you tell us about this before?" She and Snap exchanged startled glances, and Rudy realized that they were both shocked that this had happened and he hadn't ever told them.
"Well, you weren't able to come to my house that day," Rudy explained, looking to Penny, "and Snap was still in the hospital, but…but nothing happened! I realized there was still a piece left after she'd left with the backpack, but when I got it back the chalk was still there, and didn't seem like anyone had used it, and there was only that one piece…I just didn't think it was worth worrying you two about at the time."
"Well, if this is the only thing you can think of," Penny began with a concerned look, "then unless we find out that this Shift villain is lying or doesn't have a way to the Real World yet, then that's probably how a portal could have been left open." Her gaze was worried and serious, and Rudy felt suddenly ashamed that he had neglected the fact that there had been a piece of chalk still in his backpack that day. With everything that had been going on at the time, and how much he had been trying to help the Zoners after the devastating attacks from Newland's monsters, he hadn't realized it until his aunt had already left. "…Unless this has to do with Newland, which I'm not sure is likely," Penny continued, and Rudy thought back to what she'd previously said, knowing that at least the evidence against it being Newland's doing was strong.
"I hope you're right," Rudy murmured as he leaned his hands on the balcony railing, feeling a cool wind breeze through his hair as he stared out toward the sea.
"I think what we need to do now is figure out where this zoo is in relation to ChalkZone," Penny said after a few moments. "If there is…somehow…a portal that no one's noticed, it's got to be around there. That's where Sophie would have had the backpack."
"I guess so…" Rudy replied. "But what I don't understand is…how could there be a portal open for that long…that no one knew about? Unless…" His voice trailed off for a moment. "Unless it actually does have something to do with Newland, or…or someone else." He still wasn't quite sure what to think, and although he wished he could rule out exactly what it was they needed to be looking out for, he did realize that Penny's idea was the most sensible for now. They didn't exactly have anything else to look for. However, finding out where the zoo was could take time, even if he did know a few places in ChalkZone that corresponded with areas in Orangeapolis. "How much time do you think we'll have after school?" he asked.
"We could probably buy a bit more time than we had yesterday," she responded. "I'll ask my mom about it when we get home."
"Good idea," Rudy replied, feeling the tiniest bit better, "and at least a portal should be fairly visible from the ChalkZone side." As he said this, he realized that it was likely that beings from ChalkZone could have escaped into the Real World, unless Shift or anyone following him was guarding it, which seemed likely. He realized for the first time that their excursion might be dangerous, and he hoped that Shift would want to avoid drawing attention to the portal with guards. After the three friends discussed their plans further and Rudy and Penny got ready to go back, Rudy could only hope that he'd be able to find that portal, and close it, soon.
ooo
In the afternoon, Rudy and Penny met up in ChalkZone beside Penny's portal immediately after they returned from school. Using the same plane Rudy had drawn the day before, they made their way to Snap's house and picked him up before heading toward an area they knew would be somewhere close to the zoo – the ChalkZone side of the Orangeapolis sports arena.
Rudy remembered the place from when he'd snuck to the School of Destruction concert, and he figured that if they explored the areas of ChalkZone near there, they could find where the zoo was and at least narrow down their search for a portal. He had voiced his concerns to the others about running into something like guards working for Shift, but Penny had reassured him, saying that if there were guards, it would be obvious, as well as a clear indication of where the portal was. He was also a bit concerned about how to search for the zoo without his portals being spotted by anyone from the Real World. He had decided to draw a small hole through each chalk surface, so he could make sure the coast was clear before getting a better look. He knew it might be tricky, as if there were people around and he couldn't draw a full portal, it would be hard to see much through such a tiny opening.
As soon as they reached the area he recognized from the School of Destruction incident, Rudy and the others took a moment to look around. It was an area covered with small purple mountains and hills along with the occasional crudely drawn pine tree. There didn't seem to be much of a hiding place for a window into the Real World, but Rudy knew there might be one further on. From what he remembered, the floor of the concert stage was actually many feet up in the air on the ChalkZone side, and he realized that they would need a good way to reach any other chalkboards in the surrounding area.
Landing the plane, he began to sketch a helicopter they could use to hover close to the chalk surfaces so Rudy could draw the portals. After the machine was completed, the three of them climbed in and Rudy maneuvered it into the sky, keeping a look out for chalk surfaces in the area. They first came across one that turned out to be a backstage room in the stadium, and moved further away to look for a place that both corresponded somewhere outside and was somewhere relatively secluded. They saw plenty of sidewalk chalk surfaces as they continued on, but there was little way to tell where a good place to sneak in would be, and the horizontal surface made it more difficult for Rudy to reach from the helicopter. He managed to do so by drawing a rope harness for himself and carefully leaning out the side. During his first few attempts, he could hear footsteps close by and had to quickly erase the tiny hole he'd created.
After several failed tries, he finally managed to find a place that was quiet, and, after the three held still and listened for a minute or so, waiting in case anyone had heard the sound of the helicopter and was coming to investigate, Rudy risked drawing a bigger portal and carefully peered out. He had drawn the portal on a path between two shops, and luckily, there was no one around. Taking advantage of the opportunity, he hauled himself onto the ground in the Real World, untying the rope harness and then turning to look down through the portal and handing it to Penny, who was holding the helicopter in place. "Okay," he whispered, "you two wait here. I'm going to go see if I can ask someone where the zoo is."
Penny and Snap nodded, and Rudy erased the portal. For a short while they waited, seeing no Zoners around aside from the occasional bird or flying pencil, and soon Rudy returned. "I found it!" he exclaimed excitedly after opening a new portal in the sidewalk. "I could see the zoo from the next street!"
"That's great, Rudy!" cried Penny, and looked to him with relief as he climbed carefully back down into the helicopter and erased the portal.
"Now all we gotta do is find a way into there," Snap agreed.
"Yeah," Rudy responded. "I'll find a place to sneak in and search from the Real World side, while you two stay here and look for any signs of the portal in ChalkZone."
"That's a good idea," Penny replied as she and Rudy switched places so he could maneuver the helicopter in the direction he'd seen the zoo. "At least we should be able to see any light from a portal around here," she added, noting that the clouds drifting through the sky above them provided a sort of shade that was not usually present in such bright DayZone areas.
"Yeah!" said Rudy. "And it would have to be noticeable from the Real World…that might mean that it's somewhere people don't usually go, or we would have heard all about their discovery by now." He could at least feel reassured that there was little chance someone would keep quiet about finding a portal to another dimension.
"Maybe there's a disused area somewhere?" Penny asked, and Rudy responded that he thought that was probably likely, and he'd keep a look out for any such place while in the Real World.
After a few miscalculations, Rudy finally managed to find a chalk surface that led him into a small restaurant. Upon first discovering it, he almost erased the peephole and turned back, when he noticed from the shop's decoration's that it was obviously part of the zoo, and there was no one currently there. He waited for about a minute, and after he heard the one employee he had seen leave to the back for a moment, he drew a larger circle and quickly slipped out of the shop and into the zoo grounds, leaving Penny and Snap to erase the portal.
Once outside, he looked around, observing nothing unusual, not that he expected to notice anything strange right away. There were several other visitors walking on the paths nearby or looking at the animal exhibits. No one paid him any attention, and he immediately set about to looking for any place that could possibly hide a portal to ChalkZone. He felt immediately intimidated, as the place was a fair bit larger than the Plainville Zoo. He told himself that a window to another world couldn't go unnoticed just anywhere, and that at least narrowed it down, and he could avoid the open and clear areas. He tried to think of anywhere that his cousin could have wandered off alone, and realized as he did so that it would be unlikely she'd strayed far from the paths without anyone noticing, which left him feeling frustrated and confused. Nonetheless, he picked a direction and started walking, keeping his eye out for anything that looked like it could be a possible hiding place.
He wondered if there could be a place like a disused building that could have a chalkboard, but as he walked past each animal enclosure quickly, and even when he quickly checked a zoo map, he could see no such thing. There were no hidden chalk surfaces near any of the paths, even when he took the time to check certain places in detail. His behavior was earning him some odd looks from other visitors, and he simply ignored them, but despite this, he was unable to find anything close to what he was looking for.
Luckily, most of the path areas were open without any places that could hide anything, so Rudy covered a lot of ground quickly by simply walking and briefly looking around as he did so. After he was sure he had walked every path in the zoo, he hurriedly searched in any building he could find – the restaurants, the gift shop, and even the bathroom – but there was simply no sign of a portal whatsoever. Knowing that the only buildings left were those the zookeepers alone had access to, he had to admit that there wasn't any more he could do from the Real World side.
Feeling both exhausted and defeated, he left the zoo and found an empty, deserted alley that allowed him to draw a new portal. Swinging his legs and leaning down, he quickly drew rocket attachments to his shoes before he lowered himself in, erased it, and went to look for the others.
It didn't take long, but once he found them, Rudy could tell immediately that their search attempt had been just as unsuccessful as his was. "Nothing?" he asked sadly, already knowing the answer.
His friends shook their heads. "We looked everywhere, Bucko," Snap sighed with disappointment.
Penny held up the piece of chalk Rudy had given her upon them entering ChalkZone as Rudy lowered the helicopter to the ground. "I managed to calculate where the ChalkZone side of the zoo ended, but…Rudy, if there was a portal, there's no way we could have missed it. There's simply no way to hide it." She took a deep breath. "Do you know of anywhere else Sophie could have taken the chalk?"
Rudy shook his head as he stepped out of the helicopter and onto the chalky grass. "No, I mean…they wanted my backpack to bring Sophie's coloring books and art supplies along for whenever she needed to rest at the zoo. I don't know where else she would have gone."
Penny and Snap were silent for a moment, each thinking to themselves. "Well, that leaves four options," Penny began after Rudy shot her another worried look. "Either Shift is lying, he doesn't have access to the Real World yet, there's somehow an open portal somewhere else, or…" She trailed off, and Rudy and Snap looked to each other nervously, knowing exactly what the fourth option would be.
"…Or there's another creator in on this," Rudy finished grimly.
Penny nodded and then moved her eyes to the ground. "Yes…" She took another breath before looking to Rudy again. "But…we don't know for sure," she said quickly, unwilling to believe such a thing so soon without evidence.
Rudy, however, didn't look any less anxious. "I think I know what we have to do now," he said.
Penny and Snap focused their attention on him again, peering at him from their positions on the helicopter seats as he paced back and forth on the grass. They were unsure exactly what he was suggesting, and Rudy's worried tone did little to reassure them.
Rudy looked determinedly at his friends as he slapped his fist down on his palm. "We need to find out what's going on…from Shift himself."
"But Rudy, we don't even know who…or what…he is," Penny said quietly, "we don't even know where he is."
"Then we'll have to find out…somehow…" Rudy realized as he said it that neither he nor his friends had any idea where to begin looking, and it was likely that Shift was located somewhere hidden, out of the range of the police or anyone else that could search him out. He didn't have a clue where that could be. But one thing was certain; they would need to find out soon. Whether Shift was lying about the portal or not, it was too big a risk to wait to take action. There was no reply from his friends, but Rudy could tell that they both knew he was right. This was the only way they had to find out anything for sure.
"We really need to be getting back," Penny said worriedly after she checked the time. "We'll need to figure out what we're going to do tomorrow." With only a nod in reply, Rudy climbed back into the helicopter with her and Snap, and they took off.
ooo
They made it back to Snap's house mere minutes before they knew they would have to return to the Real World. They gave their friend a hasty goodbye before heading back to their houses. Snap watched his friends leave before heading back inside his house numbly, still startled and unsure what to think of the sudden turn of events. He cast one last nervous look at the retreating sight of his friends before he closed the door.
Near the house, a small butterfly, with wings that camouflaged perfectly with the sand it rested upon, suddenly moved from its still position and took to the air. None of the beach goers paid it any mind, despite the fact that its fluttering wings prevented it from blending in with the blue sky, even though they could take on its color. The small insect fluttered past a group of Zoners playing volleyball, one of whom swiped at it in irritation, but missed. Moving higher into the air, the butterfly then headed toward a large building of ChalkZone City overlooking the beach, moving slowly but determinedly in its direction. When it reached the massive structure, it landed vertically on the wall, high above the road and bustle of cars beneath it, and near a small, square device that was so well blended in that it could not have been noticeable to anyone who wasn't specifically looking for it.
The butterfly reached out with one thin, fragile leg and pushed a series of tiny invisible buttons on the surface of the device, which was only a fraction as big as the creature itself. A small sound emanated from it, and the butterfly took this as its cue.
"Rudy and his friends were spotted in ChalkZone at around 6:15 PM," the insect said in a small, squeaky voice, peering over with its large eyes at a massive clock on a building near the one it had landed on. "And I've found where Snap's living quarters are. That's what you wanted, right?"
Somewhere dark and secluded, the butterfly's tiny voice rang through a small monitor, something akin to a P.A. system. It echoed a bit, as the room was fairly large and empty, reverberating off the walls and amplifying the butterfly's small voice. The only lighting in the room was a dull lamp that shone down on a hunk of machinery that had a crude, makeshift look, as it was composed of what appeared to be spare parts, but there was an obvious expertise to the design, giving it the appearance that whoever had built it had certainly known what they were doing.
All was quiet for a few minutes, the butterfly repeating its message a few times, and a light on the device beneath the lamp blinked, and the sound of something large shifting in the darkness with a strange, almost rattling sound broke the silence. A long, metallic claw reached out, sliding across the metal surface with a high-pitched screech until it touched a button on the machinery. Another small light flicked on near one end of the structure, and a grating voice, sounding almost like a hiss, spoke. "That is all I need." With that, the small light flickered off again, and the being lowered himself to the floor, his claws making loud clicking sounds as they scraped along the smooth surface.
After what his hidden subjects had told him about Rudy Tabootie and what he'd told the Zoners of the city, he knew that he wasn't, or at least not soon, getting the supplies he'd demanded, and Shift had decided it was time to send another warning. If Rudy and his friends were getting in the way, then it was a good time to eliminate one of them. Killing off one of the three who had become the city's heroes after the attacks from Bob Newland and his accomplices would motivate the city's inhabitants a lot more than his last plan had.
At first, the obvious choice had been Rudy. He was, as the protector of ChalkZone and the Great Creator, the one Zoners looked up to above anyone else. However, the time Rudy had been seen in ChalkZone did not suit Shift's needs, nor did the idea of having to wait for him to enter in the first place. Facing the magic chalk did not appeal to him either, for that matter, and as sure as he was that he would not give Rudy any time to use it against him, he did not want another potentially harmful factor to be thrown in on top of anything else. And ChalkZone's "protector" could be unpredictable. What he needed was a quick, easy way to send a message to ChalkZone City, not to tangle with the creators. That left one more, much simpler, option. Instead of waiting for Rudy or Penny to return, he would target the member of the group who did not leave ChalkZone's realms, who had no power over the magic chalk, and therefore was a much easier target.
Their injured friend.