Chapter 9
Dark.
Everything was dark.
She couldn't see. Can't see!
It's just like when the Hyper took over.
Is it happening again? Am I stuck here? Oh God, I can't see!
Strings of yellow light appeared, swirling around her and the panic faded.
"Kape?" April called out, the darkness sucking up the sound. "Is that you?"
"Welcome to the Mental Plane," the strings of light hummed.
"Where's Jay?"
"Over here," he emerged from the dark, guided by strings of light that twirled around him and swam in front, showing him the way.
"Good, we're all here," some of the strings of light mingled around each other as Jay stepped up beside April. They swirling around the humans, protecting them from the darkness of the Mental Plane. "Now stay close, don't want to be getting lost in here. Trust me, it's a nightmare trying to get out."
"These last few days have been a nightmare," April muttered.
A few strings flitted ahead, scouting out a path while the others circled around the two humans. They followed the scouting strings and set a swift pace through the darkness.
"I expected there to be more," April said, breaking the silence.
"Hmm?" Jay glanced over, pulled from his own thoughts.
"It's just, there's nothing here. Just a black void."
"The Mental Plane gives form to the minds that are connected to it. Right now that's me, you and your friend."
"What about Kape?"
"Kape is different. She doesn't work the same way we do. She doesn't really have a physical body, so she doesn't need a mind to work as a link between body and soul. Her soul is enough to control her . . . essence, I guess you'd call it."
"Are you talking about me behind my back," the light hummed.
"You don't have a back," Jay said bluntly.
"Touché." One of the strings flicked him and he rolled his eyes. "There they are," Kape said suddenly.
April turned her attention back to the blackness ahead and gaped at what she saw.
Two sets of gates loomed in front of them, facing each other, and seeming to have come out of nowhere. One set she recognized from the last time she was on the Mental Plane. The strong metal bars crossing like the entrance to a grand estate, sturdy and firm, blocking entrance to all those who didn't belong with the shadows of rows of books and computers laying beyond.
"Those are Donnie's gates!" she exclaimed pointing to the set on the left.
"And those are yours," Jay said inspecting the other set. They were a lot less impressive than he thought they would be. A simple wooden fence with a simply locked wooden gate. It would be like walking into someone's backyard rather than their mind. It spoke of the innocence that it protected, the little girl that would play out in the yard without a care in the world. But at that moment, the little girl wasn't paying attention to her own set of gates.
"Donnie!" April yelled and ran forward.
"April, wait!" Jay reached for her but missed. The strings of light lagged behind at her sudden take off, but quickly caught up and swirled around her angrily for a moment.
"Don't do that!" The light scolded. "I told you to stay close. It may not be far, but it's too easy to get lost in here."
"Yeah, yeah, sorry," April said half-heartedly, trying to look around to swirling lights and into the space behind the gates. There were rows of computers and book shelves, just like the last time she saw it, but this time there was something new. "Donnie!"
"April?" A voice asked from behind the gate, before Donnie's form appeared behind bars. "Is that you?"
"Donnie!" April cried in relief as she pushed past the stings of light and ran up to grasp the bars. Her eyes fell to the spot on his chest, where she now knew was the spot where the Hyper ripped out his Soul Key. There was a dark hole where his heart should be, but it wasn't clear. More out of focus, with some sort of haze surrounding it, making it hard to look at. Her thoughts drifted back to the moment when the Hyper had him strung up and he tried to fight back, but then the tendril drove into—
She blinked, and was back in front of the gates. "Are you alright?" She managed to ask.
"Yeah, I think so. Freaking out a little," he chuckled nervously, tapping his fingers against the bars that separated them. "Since you're here and all, you know, wherever here is, you mind telling me, i-if you could . . ." he paused a moment before spazing out. "What the heck is going on?!"
"Right," April sighed and collected her thoughts. How to go about this? "Well, right now, you're sort of locked in your own mind because the Hyper stole you Soul Key, but it's weakened now so we have to go into my mind to, find it, and get your Soul Key back so we can unlock your gates and go back to the Physical Plane."
Donnie blinked and just sort of stared.
". . . Right," he drolled out after a few moments of silence and tried to process this. "Sorry, one more time."
"That thing that was in control on my body, the black mist guy that locked you in there, that's the Hyper. When it . . ." April stuttered here. "What the Hyper took from you, that was your Soul Key."
"Soul Key?" he asked skeptically.
"Oh, I'm no good at this," April said, drilling her palms into her forehead in frustration.
"The Soul Key is the only thing that will open the gates to one's mind," Jay intervened, stepping forward.
"Oh hey," Donnie said, noticing the other, "look at that, you brought a friend."
"Donnie, this is Jay," April introduced. "He's here to help."
"What about me?" the light hummed again.
"Oh geez," Donnie jumped back as the yellow strings swirled around closer, "aren't those the lights that the Hyper thing was using?"
"What!?" the light exclaimed. "It was using my lights!"
"That's Kape," April reassured. "She's . . . actually, I don't really know what she is, but she's what's inside the Shard."
"Shard—oh right, the Shock Rock. Wait, it's sentient? I knew it!"
"Yes, and I'm not an it," the light swirled. "Anyways, time's a wasting and we need to get moving."
"Wait, you're just going to leave me here?" Donnie exclaimed.
"Not entirely," Jay said.
"I'll keep a fragment of myself here to answer your questions," Kape said and a single string of light separated itself from the others and entwined itself around the bars of the gate. "It's best we don't spend too long here. Come on you two."
The winding strings of light weaved their way through the space up to the other set of gates. Donnie watched the two humans go, walking towards the white picket fence that looked as threatening as Ice Cream Kitty. He suddenly had a bad feeling about this whole thing.
"Okay, just one more time," he turned to the talking yellow light twisted in the bars that locked him in. "What the heck is going on?"
Oo-oO
"These are my gates?" April wondered as she approached the innocent little fence that stood a little higher than her waist. "Doesn't look very strong."
"Doesn't always look strong, but doesn't mean that it isn't," Jay explained. "If anything, it's the strongest part of your defence."
"But why a flimsy fence," she nudged it with her foot and it squeaked in protest.
"Who knows," Jay shrugged. "Like I said, the mind is a complex phenomenon. Not much makes sense in here."
"If you say so," April said. "So, how do we get in?"
"You've got the Soul Key," Kape hummed. "It's your mind, you just need to open it."
April eyed the little white fence before peering beyond. Beyond the gate was a dark mist, but she thought she could make out shadows, like tall poles or trees looming up from the ground. It was so different from Donnie's strong gates and library filled with computers and other gadgets.
She felt a little nervous as she stepped up to the wooden gate and laid a hand on the latch. She felt a pulse run through her chest and a flash from her hand snapped the lock open and the little wooden gate creaked open. April turned to look at Jay before she ventured through the gates and into her own mind.
Jay followed close behind, the lock clicked back into place as the gate creaked shut.
"Ready?" He asked, turning back to April. She was staring off into the dark misty fog that encompassed her mind, trying to make out the forms of the shadows that lingered within.
She took a breath and squared her shoulders. "Ready."
"Alright," Kape hummed and a few strings of light flitted forward. "Follow me, stay close, and we'll have your friend's Soul Key back before you know it."
Oo-oO
Trees.
There were trees behind April's gates. But there were other things too. Pillars, tubes, poles, towers. All tall structures that loomed above them, made up of various materials. Wood, plastic, glass, metal. But there was a haze around everything that didn't quite let you see more than a dozen or so feet in any direction. Every now and then, flashes of a disturbingly familiar pink light ran up and down the towering structures and off into the unknown.
"This is my mind?" April wondered aloud, taking it all in. "What's with all the towers?"
"They're transcribers," Jay explained as they followed the flitting strings. "They receive and send out signals to other parts of you mind that, in turn, control your body. Each person's mind manifests them differently. Best not to mess with them."
April watched as one of the pink flashes zipped by her feet and buzz up what looked like a telephone pole made of glass. After a few moments, another flash erupted from the glass telephone pole and rushed off to another tower that was lost in the haze but somehow resembled the Eiffel Tower.
She stumbled when she realized that she was falling behind and picked up her pace to catch up. As she drew level with Jay again, another pink flash darted by. Or at lease, she thought it would just dart by.
"Look out!" April yelled when she realized that the flash of pink energy was headed directly for Jay.
The strings that circled around Jay reacted instantly, they twisted around each other and formed a disk in front of him like a shield. The pink flash smashed against the yellow disk and disappeared. As the pink light faded, the yellow disk loosened and resumed it string form and once again circled lazily around Jay, who didn't seem fazed by the sudden attack in the least.
"What was that!" April demanded.
"Defense system," Jay said calmly and continued walking. "Like the immune system, attacking any foreign bodies that it detects."
"You mean this is going to keep happening?"
"To me. You hold the Soul Key, so it won't attack you. But don't worry, Kape can fend off any attacks easily."
To emphasize the point, another pink flash shot towards Jay. Kape formed the yellow disk again, and the pink flash disappeared just as quickly as the last.
"See?" Jay said.
"Yeah," April breathed and hugged herself, feeling like they weren't supposed to be in here.
They walked a little more in silence, weaving their way between the towering structures that seemed to repeat themselves endlessly and April wondered how they were ever going to be able to find their way out. She glanced back the way they came and felt a thread of anxiety weave into her chest when all she saw was a haze blocking the way back to the gates, blocking the way back out.
She suddenly felt claustrophobic, like the towers were far too close together and they were about to fall at any moment and crush them all . . .
She picked up her pace and moved closer to Jay. "You sure you know where we're going?" she asked eyeing the towers nervously.
"Kape knows what she's doing," Jay said in a reassuring tone, keeping his gaze fixed on the path ahead.
"It's just weird," she said as she watched a pink flash travel up a tube filled with a bubbly green liquid before a response shot off towards a white tree with shinning blue leaves. "We're in my mind, but I feel so foreign, like I don't belong here."
"Connecting a soul to the Mental Plane and directly interacting with the mind isn't natural," Jay explained. "It only makes sense that it doesn't feel natural. Doesn't help that this feeling is more intense when it's your own mind you're connecting with. There are some things the body knows that the soul shouldn't and vice versa. Putting both soul and body together isn't supposed to feel right."
"What do you mean, there are some things the soul and body shouldn't know?"
"Oh, let's see . . . emotions, for one. Happiness, sadness, anger, love. These are things that the soul deals with. Meanwhile, the five senses, for example touch; soft, hard, hot, cold . . . pain. Theses are things the body deals with. The soul can't process pain the same way the body can't process love. If that makes sense."
"Hmm . . ." April thought over what she'd just learned.
"It's close," Kape's voice snapped her out of her thoughts and back to the present. "I can feel the Hyper nearby."
April came to a stop and suddenly felt nervous. The last time she faced this thing, it chained her up and hurt Donnie and there was nothing she could do to it, and not for lack of trying.
"Let me guess," Jay drawled, "it's in the big one."
"You're getting good at guessing," Kape hummed. "Now, come on." Several strings flitted ahead, urging the party to start moving again.
April peered into the dark haze and made out where they were going. There was one tower that was bigger and taller than the rest. It was made out of a light, shiny metal and had veins of pink energy snaking upwards. April froze as she recognized the distinct Kraang architecture. She flinched as a pink flash generated at the top of the tower, raced down and disappeared into the dark haze.
"What the heck is a Kraang base doing inside my head!?" April exclaimed.
"Kraang?" Jay questioned.
"You mean the guys who's only thought is to dominate everything?" Kape hummed. "Interesting. Why would your mind's nexus manifest as something from an alien race? Do you have some sort of connection to the—Oh! Yeah, that would do it."
"What? What is it?" April demanded.
"Donnie-boy said you're a human-Kraang hybrid," Kape said. "If you have genetic ties to these guys, then it only makes sense that you would have some sort of representation in your mind. But for it to be your nexus . . ."
"Hold on," April held her hands up to stop her. "First off, how are you talking to Donnie?"
"Hm? Oh, I'm still connected to the fragment of myself that I left behind with him," Kape explained. "It comes in handy sometimes, being in more than one place at a time. Can be a pain to do on the Physical Plane though."
"So you're talking to him right now?"
"More like I'm trying to talk and he won't listen because he's freaking out. Seriously, if I didn't know we were on the Mental Plane, I'd swear his head is about to pop."
"Okay, okay, okay," April said. "And what about this 'nexus'?"
"The control center of the mind," Jay jumped in. "It sends out signals to the transcribers that relay commands to the body."
"Okay," April placing her hands on either side of her face. "And the Hyper is inside the nexus?"
"Seems like it," Kape hummed. "I mean, if there were a place to take over someone's body, this would be the place to do it."
"Alright," April took in a deep, calming breath to steady herself. "Now, let's take this thing down and get out of here."
"Whatever you say," Kape hummed and most of the strings dashed forward with the few remaining behind to protectively swirl around the humans.
April set off at a run, but Jay pulled her back just in time. A pink flash shot out from the nexus tower straight toward April. The strings wove into the yellow disk and absorbed the attack, just as April stumbled out of the way.
"What?" April asked breathlessly. "I thought they wouldn't attack me!"
"They wouldn't, if there wasn't another presence that's trying to take over your mind."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, if the Hyper has even partial control, then it can easily set off your mind's defences and aim them at you."
"It knows we're coming?"
"Without a doubt."
"So what can we do?"
"We let Kape handle it," Jay gave her a rare smile. "It's what she's good at."
Even as he said it, the Kape's strings arrived at the base of the nexus tower and slammed full speed into the front door. The strings splayed around the door as it refused to move. They lingered around the entrance for a moment before they started to circle the tower, spinning around it in endless circles, gaining speed, circling faster and faster until they were nothing more than a glowing yellow blur.
Pink flashes shot out at the strings in retaliation, but they were waved off, barely making a scratch on the sentient light. The glowing pink veins on the nexus started to glow brighter as they tried to defend the tower. Large pink cracks spider webbed over the surface of the nexus, and more pink energy oozed out. Then, all at once, a sort of energy barrier shattered and shards of pink light blinked out of existence. In the silence that followed, the door to the nexus soundlessly slid open.
"Door's open," the light swirling around April hummed. "Come on in."
Already Kape's strings were slipping in through the now open doorway, scouting out the best path to their destination. April and Jay were quick on her heels. They passed through the door and entered the nexus.
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