Whooowie! Is everyone enjoying their spring break? Or had already enjoyed it? Personally, mine is coming to an end x.x ...but I promised to update this before it could! And I did! Well well. Take that, spring fever. Enjoy!
Episode 7 (Part 4)
"Well, I assume our mission is to come later," Luvbi said, tossing her head, "instead of now." It was dinner time, and torches at the side of the boathouse dock blared in the cool and calm air. As waves gently splashed onto the rocky shore that served as their ground, the players ate and thought more. It was nighttime in Noki Bay.
Luvbi: Even though we were all tired, I still found the place relaxing. I just felt the aura and knew it was a good one.
"At least we're having a full meal to eat," said Wario, already finishing up his main entrée on his plate. "Am I the only one not complaining? Come on now." Vivian just looked down at her appetizer, only halfway done.
"I'm just glad we get to relax now at a time like this," said Vivian, laying out her napkin in front of her.
"Well, I was able to get a very nice, three-hour nap within the hours of today," Luvbi said, sounding refined. The players had the opportunity to catch up on their rest for the entirety of the day, and by 8 P.M, all of them had gotten at least two or three extra hours of good sleep. At this point, they were mostly refreshed and less tired than they were supposed to be.
"Call me crazy when I say that this place has been the only location so far in where I was able to sleep in full peace and tranquility," Luvbi added.
"Noki Bay," said Yoshi, using his tongue to scoop out the inside of a scallop shell.
"What about Noki Bay?" Vivian asked.
"Don't you know?" said Yoshi, his voice getting excited. "This place holds some kind of magic! Like, magic you've never seen before. See that wall painting there?" He pointed to their right, and above them in the wall they all saw the imprint of a red-colored square, with an odd symbol boxed inside of it.
"That is odd," said Vivian quietly. "I wonder what it does, if you like, press it."
"They're all over this place," said Yoshi. He was holding a brochure that was labeled Noki Bay: The Home of the Covered Creatures. Wario peered closely at the cover page of the folded paper.
"Hmm, there seems to be a lot of secret openings in this land," he said, looking at the aerial shot of the land.
"Who knows," Yoshi said, putting down his drink. "It's crazy. I mean, I've been here before."
Wario: WHAT?
"You've...been here before?" Wario sputtered, almost spitting out his drink.
"Meh, I have," said Yoshi, shrugging. "But if you think that it given me an advantage, it hasn't. Everything is different now."
"You've been here before," Wario said, suspiciously, his eyes glaring at him.
"Well, to think that we've been to all these places," said Luvbi. "We're all in the same world." Yoshi nodded.
"Mostly just islands though," Vivian said.
"The game has seemed so short up till now," Luvbi said, finishing a last bite of food for herself. "And the idea defies rationale: we're heading to the final mission of this episode."
"Yeah, the host was SUCH a big help on telling us what our next mission would be, right?" Wario said sarcastically. "It only makes us more confused, what he told us all."
"Do you think the food is delicious?" Vivian asked suddenly, looking at Luvbi. Luvbi turned to her, an odd look on her face.
"Why, yes," Luvbi said, a little stunned.
"I'm just wondering. I agree," Vivian finished, looking back to her food. Wario shifted his eyes suspiciously.
"Well," Wario said slowly, then continued to eat his dessert.
"If Goombella was here, she'd know what those magic signs were," Yoshi continued, looking around. "Alas...it's just the four of us."
"I'm still floored on how Goombella couldn't make it to this round," Wario said, more mystified than ever. "She was so smart! I can only wonder...what tipped her off?" He shook his head heavily.
"Someone else, I suppose," Luvbi said. "But in the end, she made a bad choice. She was very close though."
"Yeah, she was," said Vivian, a little sad. "I'm just surprised that I'm here in this episode, and...she's not. It just doesn't make sense sometimes."
"Does anything in this game make sense?" Luvbi pondered. She lifted her glass, then paused for a moment suddenly. With confusion, she stared at the tablecloth in front of her. The water that spilled naturally from her cup during dinner had fallen onto the table and soaked little bits into the tablecloth, making it more transparent than it was supposed to be. She looked at what was in front of her.
"Words," she said immediately, lifting her tablecloth. "Look!"
"They're...they're here too!" Wario noticed, lifting his own side of the cloth.
"Wait! What are you...oh." Yoshi lifted his own side of the cloth, then Vivian followed after hesitantly. In front of them each, etched into the table, were two simple sentences, a clue that would help them all prepare for something that would be coming up in the future of their game:
Stop the intruder. The danger is closer than you think.
It was approaching midnight. Their final game of the episode was minutes away from going into full action, and the players could only wait as the sky got darker, the large cliffs within Noki Bay's realms casting shadows everywhere within the sea-filled land. An hour before, the players were dressed up in their necessary gear: pads were on their shoulders, and present on the fronts and backs of their bodies were vests, strapped and fit to their bodies snugly. They were all given new shoes to wear: their new footwear looked like dress shoes in appearance, but in actuality, they could take the heaviest of stomps and still manage to maintain their shape. With heavy feet, the players trudged to where McHallyboo was standing.
Vivian: We looked like we were in spy clothing. It was pretty intense. I was more nervous at that moment than I was at any other time throughout the entire day.
"Well...you've all made it," he announced. By means of climbing, crew help, and elevator usage, the players had made their way to the very top of the cliff that towered over most of Noki Bay. At the top, they discovered a grassy, tranquil looking area that surprised all of them. The host had his shoes planted into the floor, snug within the short strands of grass that stuck out from the ground. Besides him, an awkwardly-placed square-shaped hole was present, and the players could only guess where they were going next.
"Welcome to the beginning of your mission," said McHallyboo, looking at the players. "You are all wearing gear to help you become suited for this game. This game will be called, "The Sacred Pot", and you will all be playing the role of guards tonight." They all turned to each other, almost in unison and agreement.
"The game will begin at midnight and will end when the sun rises," said the host, as the players' faces showed amazement and disbelief.
Yoshi: This was a joke. First, we stay up till 3 o'clock in the morning for a mini-mission. Then the next day, we play a game that ends until the sun rises!
"This is what the mini-mission had prepared you all for: to stay alert for such an unusual amount of time. I know you can do it," McHallyboo told them all. "Your job will be to enter a secret cave, hidden within these cliffs of Noki Bay. There, a ceramic pot will be found, standing tall in the center of the room. It's your job to guard it, because in it, 10,000 coins are resting."
"10,000 coins?" Wario said, raising his eyebrow at the fact that their other missions had been worth tens of thousands of coins more.
"But what you don't know," continued McHallyboo, "is the fact that the pot itself is what's valuable. The cost of the pot is approximately 30,000 coins."
"Oh," Wario finished, sounding more pleased. The other players all listened carefully, more excited.
"There's only one catch," the host said. "At some point during the mission, an intruder will appear. Their job will be to break the pot, and if that happens, then most of your game is over."
"Why would they want to break the pot?" Luvbi asked.
"For many reasons," said McHallyboo. "But they only want to get to the ten thousand coins in the middle."
"I would just steal the pot itself," Yoshi said reasonably, chuckling. "It's worth more money."
"If the pot is broken, not only will 30,000 coins be lost, but the intruder can pocket as much money as they can before the time limit ends," said McHallyboo. "You see, the intruder will get to keep this money."
"So this game will be worth 40,000 coins," Vivian said, a little dread in her voice. McHallyboo nodded.
"However, there is a way to 'kill' the intruder in this game and stop them," said the host, but then he smiled. "But, you will have to figure out how to kill the intruder on your own. And remember, there is only ONE way to officially kill them."
"Typical," Wario said, grunting and frowning at the same time.
"Watch out," the host warned. "The intruder is a compulsive liar." McHallyboo looked at his wristwatch and saw the time of 11:56. He nodded, then faced forwards to the square-shaped hole that lay ahead of them. With a head tilt, he motioned towards it.
"You will have to lower yourselves down there," he said, and the presence of the cables that sat next to the mysterious hole in the ground started to make a lot more sense.
Luvbi: Climbing down that passage was one of the most terrifying moments of this entire game. It made me know that things were going to get more intense, especially in this game.
"Where...are we?" Vivian asked. The cave would have been pitch dark, if it weren't for the slits within the cave that exposed them to the regular, outside world of Noki Bay. The moon's light helped them to see around, and the more they walked, the more they saw that the area they were in wasn't as small as they had imagined it to be. At the same time, it was not as large as they wanted it to be either. As they lowered themselves to the floor, they saw that the place was more magnificent than they pictured it to be in the first place: the walls seemed paved and the floor had tiles.
"Look," Yoshi said, almost jumping. In the middle of the room, mounted upon a pentagon-shaped pedestal was a tall, vase-like object: it was the Sacred Pot, blue in color and larger than anything else in the room. As the players look around the room, they saw indents present within the walls, and in those indents, even more pots were present.
"It's like a small art gallery," said Vivian, looking around.
"But we can't dilly-dally here, we have to stay alert," said Wario, pointing to the pot in the middle of the room.
"Why?" asked Yoshi.
"Cause of the intruder," Wario said, looking around. Luvbi had looked around too, and was now staring at a yellow wall design on the left wall of the room. She looked at all the other walls that surrounded them, minus the cave opening, and frowned.
"I don't wish to touch and disturb," she said, "but that yellow wall design isn't on any of the other two walls."
"I don't want to touch anything either," said Vivian. "Who knows, something might pop up and make us lose the game."
"But, we should take chances," Yoshi suggested. "If we don't, then we'll get nowhere in this game, right?"
"And I agree one hundred percent," Wario announced, and he walked right up to the rocky wall. The other three backed away from him as he placed his hand on the wall design. Confused, he tried to push it down, and with little effort the switch was activated right away, as the yellow symbol sunk into the wall. A loud sound was heard from all around them, almost as if a rock was moving out of its place.
"See that!" Luvbi noticed, turning to the edge of the pentagon pedestal that the Sacred Pot was upon. A compartment had been revealed, hidden by a large tile, but now that the ground had opened up the players could see the numerous objects that were concealed away from them.
"It's a...clock?" said Wario, picking it up and handling it in his hands.
"This is weird," said Vivian, digging into a pile of blank papers that were hidden in the square-shaped hole. Also hidden in the slot was a ball-point pen, which Yoshi put into his pocket resourcefully.
"Hey, look what else I found!" Yoshi spotted, looking through the pile. Within the pile of papers was a small brochure, the title displaying: Noki Bay's Sun Guide.
"Noki Bay's Sun Guide?" Luvbi read. "What could this mean?"
"And a clock...oh," Vivian said, looking at the clock. She grabbed the brochure and began looking through it. The others looked confused, but Vivian kept flipping.
"What are you trying to do anyway?" Wario questioned.
"The two objects should be related," she assumed. "I mean, it's a clock, and then a sun guide..."
"I completely see," said Luvbi, smiling. She flipped through the pages of the packet, then stopped at a calendar page towards the end of the information packet.
"I found it!" said Yoshi, pointing to a date on the calendar.
"That's not today's date," Luvbi said, shaking her head. "It's been a day, remember?" She pointed to another date and time, then nodded: 4:07 AM.
"Four o' seven?" Vivian read. "Is that that time when the sun's going to rise?"
"That's what it says," said Luvbi. "Wario...what time is it now?" Wario lifted up the clock for all of them to see: 12:08.
"It's 12:08," he read, shrugging. "We still have a long, long wait."
"Well, we have a little under four hours, and then we're done," Luvbi said. "So I guess we're not staying the WHOLE night."
"I guess that's a good thing," Vivian said, nodding.
"Not exactly," said Luvbi, and with a sigh, she sat down on the tiled floor, looking at the outside world through the exposed slits of the cave.
"I don't care what I do first, but I'm searching this cave," Wario announced. He attempted to reach an indent in the left wall, and within it, a yellow pot was being held.
"I'm going to relax for just a little bit," Luvbi said, looking at the outside breeze. "And if the intruder comes...we'll use our bare arms to fight them off. What else can we do?"
"Maybe there's a hidden clue in this brochure," Yoshi speculated, looking through the packet and sitting down. "Who knows? After all, it's the only thing we have in this room to look at."
"True, I agree." Vivian sat down too, but her eyes remained on the blue pot in the middle of the room.
"Well, at least we have fresh air," Luvbi said, smiling and facing her peer besides her.
"Yeah...this game isn't too bad," Vivian said, turning away from the pot and looking nervously outside as well.
SMASH!
Wario had tipped a pot over from one of the wall indents, making the other three jump. It was the third pot he had knocked over, and the players were getting more agitated. However, they were even more alert, all of them standing on the sides of the Sacred Pot. Except for Wario, who was doing his own individual mission.
"Maybe we could use those pots as weapons," Yoshi spoke up, turning to Wario.
"What for?" he said, trying to reach for a fourth one on the highest wall.
"What if the intruder comes and we have nothing to attack him with?" Yoshi thought.
"Then we'd just punch them," Wario replied, reaching higher.
"What if they're stronger than we think?" Yoshi spoke up. Wario stopped for a second, then continued reaching for the pot.
"I don't know," he said, reaching his hand out more, and lifting a foot.
"What if they have weapons with them?" Yoshi speculated.
"Like I said, I don't know," Wario said, almost losing his balance. He stepped onto a ledge that was sticking out from the wall.
"What if they-"
"WHAT IF? What if!" Wario exclaimed, turning to Yoshi. "Maybe if you were just a little more quiet, this game wouldn't be as annoying. It's only an hour into this game and I'm already annoyed by you. Come on." Yoshi faced him, stunned, while Wario lost his balance and fell to the floor. Luvbi shook her head, slowly.
"Look at you," she said, lifting her voice, but not her head. "You're the one who's not even dedicated to the purpose of this game. We're supposed to be protecting this pot, and you're getting us all agitated."
"By what?" said Wario, his voice heating up at the player. "Looking for something that might help our game?"
"By making noise," Luvbi said. "We should all...just be quiet."
"Why not try using a shoe to hit that high pot?" Vivian said curiously, looking up from the ground. Everyone turned to her, then up to the small pot on the ledge. Yoshi looked down at his shoes unwillingly, and so did Luvbi. Wario looked at his own feet, looking intent.
"Let's do this." Wario had already taken off one of his shoes, and with a small signal to the others, he lifted his arm back. The others scooted away as the shoe flew into the air, hitting the side of the pot and smashing right into its side. The shoe, along with pieces of small debris from the smashed pot, fell to the ground, but as the players looked into the indent, they saw nothing else but a shattered pot.
"Nothing," Yoshi said, kicking at some pottery bits on the ground. "I guess we just destroyed a good pot."
"Well, we tried," Luvbi sighed. But as she said that, Wario had already used his shoe to hit another pot on the third wall, high above their heads. As it shattered, everyone ducked immediately. The pot that had been hit was bigger than any of the pots before, and along with the falling shoe and pieces of ceramic, dark objects fell to the floor as well. Wario went up to them, and then laughed.
"I knew it!" he said. Inside the pot were guns, small in size and resembling real pistols. Each player picked one up for themselves, cautiously at first, then more comfortably.
"Guns?" commented Yoshi, eyes wide and looking at them. "This is the most random thing ever!"
"It's just a fake gun," Wario said, jokingly aiming one at Vivian.
"No! Don't do that!" she immediately cried. Wario's lowered his gun.
"Whoa, sorry," said Wario, then bent over to pick up a piece of paper that had dropped from the pot. He held it up for everyone to see: To Kill The Intruder: Shoot the White Glow.
"Shoot the...white glow?" Luvbi read. "What does that mean?" Yoshi faced the gun to the moon that was exposed to them, and pulled on the trigger. Nothing happened.
"Well, it was worth a shot," he said, then with a small chuckle said, "No pun intended." Luvbi pointed her pistol against the wall, then shot.
"Laser pointers," Luvbi assumed, then pointed her gun around as well. "This could be very interesting."
"I'm just...worried about what the intruder is going to do," said Vivian. "We never know what's-"
Suddenly, a loud sound rose up from all around them, as they all lost their balance. The ground was shaking, and when the players looked around to see what in the room was changing, they saw that the ground on all corners of the room were opening up. As circles were opened up in the tiled floor, it wasn't far until another rumbling sound was present, and this time, columns were protruding from the small, circle-shaped entryways that were formed in the floor. Though the room has not changed entirely, the presence of four marble columns within the cave made the players all stunned and baffled.
"What are they?" shouted Vivian.
"Probably old relics," Wario snorted. But all of a sudden, a loud voice was present. Echoing in the hollowness of the cave, the players had to cover their ears as it spoke to all of them.
"GREETINGS," it said. The voice was not distinguishable, and everyone present could tell that the person was using a device that modified their actual voice into a disguise.
"I AM THE INTRUDER. IN THREE HOURS TIME, I WILL COME AND ATTACK YOU FROM THE MOST UNEXPECTED PLACE. THE POT WILL BE MINE. YOU WILL TRY TO GUARD IT, BUT I WILL DESTROY IT, FOR MY OWN PERSONAL GAIN." The players were mystified from the voice surrounding them all.
"IT IS NOW 1 O'CLOCK. YOU HAVE THREE ATTEMPTS TO KILL ME. THE FIRST WAY TO KILL ME IS FOR ALL FOUR OF YOU TO STAND ON THE RISEN COLUMNS. BUT I WILL WATCH YOU FAIL. YOU HAVE A THIRTY SECOND TIME LIMIT BEFORE THE COLUMNS DISAPPEAR. GOOD LUCK." As the voice and its echo disappeared, the players faced each other.
"That is the most...speaking-awkward person I've ever heard," Yoshi said out loud, dumbfounded.
"Hurry, the columns!" Vivian shouted, going up to one. "We have to go!"
"Wait a minute," thought Luvbi. "This is clearly suspicious. We cannot trust this...voice?"
"Well, what else can we do?" said Wario, and he began walking to the column in the farthest corner of the room. "Everything is suspicious to you." Slowly but steadily, he walked up to the three-foot column and climbed upon it with ease, planting both his feet on its top face. With small hesitation but paced walking, the three other players walked up to a column each respectively.
"I'm not so sure about this..." said Yoshi uncertainly, placing a foot on one of the columns.
"Come on, just get on it!" Wario demanded. "We only have fifteen seconds!"
"Yeah, neither am I," Luvbi said defiantly. "I am not following the words of an intruder." But Vivian had already gotten onto her column, and placed both feet upon it.
"We have nothing else to try," Vivian said, shrugging. Closing his eyes, Yoshi climbed onto his own platform column, crouching down on it with fear. Luvbi, however, was the only one who didn't move.
"I am not following the words of an adversary," she concluded. Wario glared at her.
"Then how about-" Suddenly again, the rumbling came back. But this time, it was stronger than ever. As Luvbi fell to the ground, Vivian did too from her column, losing balance and falling to the ground. Yoshi and Wario looked below them, in terror.
"The columns are falling!" Vivian cried, looking up. "Jump off!" Yoshi did so with ease, and fell to the tiled floor. But as the three players looked up to see Wario's attempt, they witnessed that his feet were not moving.
"My...feet!" he cried, sounding panicked. "I can't get them off! It must be my shoes!"
"Get his shoes off!" Vivian cried. The columns were now rapidly descending, and Wario stood on top of the fourth one like an attached trophy glued tight to the column's top. Reaching his hands up into the air, Wario had disappeared by the time the other three players came to their senses and rushed over to him. Luvbi drew her hand back as the hole to the floor was automatically sealed up, closing it forever. She looked at the ground, in shock. The other two were panting, stunned, and scared as well.
"We...we need a plan," Luvbi said firmly.
"ONLY THE GULLIBLE ONES BELIEVED ME," the voiced boomed, coming on suddenly once again. "IT IS A SHAME I CAN ONLY TAKE ONE PLAYER EACH TIME DURING THESE THREE GAMES. I WILL SEE YOU AT 2 O' CLOCK." The three players looked up, then back at each other.
"So, why was Wario taken instead of...us?" Vivian asked.
"Because he was the first one to stand on a column," Luvbi reasoned. "It makes sense."
"Here," said Yoshi, and he laid out a small map he had drawn on the back of the brochure packet. He had sketched a layout of the cave room they were in, as Yoshi pointed to different spots. "There are six known entryways in this room that we now know of. Four of them are where the columns had protruded from." He circle the four holes on his map, as Luvbi and Vivian nodded. They formed the outline of a square.
"Fifth, the entrance that we had all entered from can be another possible entryway for the intruder to use." He pointed up above them, as they all looked at the hollow, dark passage that led up to open air. "We have to keep our eye up at the ceiling as well."
"And where's the sixth one?" Luvbi asked.
"The sixth possible entryway, of course, is this opening right here," said Yoshi, pointing behind them at the exposed slits of the cave. "In order to make sure the intruder won't come in undetected, we have to guard all six of these spots 24/7. We have to even out the guarding of these entryways proportionately."
"I'll take the ceiling opening and the two back columns," Luvbi said, standing up. "More officially, the pot's back."
"I'll take care of the open air exposure," Yoshi said, walking up to the end of the room. "And Vivian, the two other columns and the pot's front?" Vivian nodded, willing, as Yoshi smiled.
"Then we're set," Yoshi said triumphantly. "Let's do this." All three of them had settled to their appropriate areas and waited. Picking up their guns and taking a stance, they all stood attentively, pacing once every here and there. As time drew closer to two o'clock, the players became even more alert, but along with their increasing alertness, each of them couldn't help but feel a sense of growing fear inside themselves as well.
"Who do you think the intruder is?" Luvbi asked, breaking the air's silence. She lowered her head, resting her neck from staring up at the ceiling's hole too long.
"It could be anybody," Yoshi realized, still looking at the realm of Noki Bay. "Anyone could come in and smash this pot. Thirty-thousand coins...gone." Vivian just listened, sitting at the base of the pot and looking at it. In her hand, she twirled the paper with the mysterious message: To Kill The Intruder: Shoot the White Glow.
"White glow," Vivian whispered.
"What's if it's McHallyboo?" Luvbi asked, chuckling to herself. "I would be very amused."
"That earlier voice did sound like him," Vivian spoke up. "I thought it could have been him."
"Or," said Yoshi, turning to face both of them, "what if it's someone who we just saw the day before? Someone who we least expect? What if the intruder's no other than Toadette?" Vivian gasped, but Luvbi only laughed.
"Nonsense," said Luvbi. "She wouldn't be doing this mission."
"But," Yoshi said carefully, "did anybody see her leave the bay?" Vivian looked at Luvbi, who was looking up at the entrance above them.
"It's possible," she admitted. "But, frankly, I don't see the reason she would be back here, playing in this game."
"Maybe she misses her past adventures," Vivian said quietly, looking out at the bay's world.
"Regardless, I think we all better keep an eye out, for anything," Yoshi said, raising up his gun. "Because any second now..." He froze, looking at the only clock in the room that provided them with the time. It was 1:59 A.M.
"The second game," he said, and as soon as he said that, a familiar voice echoed into the room. It was the same voice that had haunted them before, but this time, less fuzzy. The players were bewildered at the fact that this time, the voice sounded just a tint more familiar to them.
"HELLO," it echoed, as the players were less taken back by the loud voice that went through the room. "YOUR SECOND GAME IS HERE. BUT LIKE LAST TIME, I WILL NOT TAKE ANY ACTION TO ELIMINATE. THIS WILL BE THE GAME FOR ONE OF YOU."
"What does that mean?" Vivian wondered. The players listened further.
"RIGHT OUTSIDE THIS CAVE IS A BOX. A BOX TO FREEDOM. A BOX THAT WILL HELP YOU SURVIVE EVEN MORE IN THIS GAME. A PLUS ONE." The players all stopped listening and faced the outside air of the room.
"FIND THIS BOX AND YOU WILL WIN. BUT BY DOING SO, YOU LEAVE THE OTHERS BEHIND. THERE IS A 1 MINUTE TIMER UNTIL THE PRIZE IS SEALED. GOOD LUCK." The voice disappeared, as Luvbi turned to the others, shaking her head.
"No one will go," she said, but Yoshi's stare of revelation caught her attention.
"A plus one?" Yoshi gasped.
"You will not go outside," she said, but the dinosaur's eyes were already facing out the room's only available opening. Vivian looked alarmed.
"But...it's a plus one," said Yoshi, his voice sounding urgent. "It's the final execution until the last episode. I have to make it there. I want to make it there!"
"We can all make it there...fairly!" Luvbi protested. "Just, don't do this. It's the intruder's way to eliminate another person, so they can easily access this room. If you do this, there's one less person on guard."
"And if I'm executed...this very moment will haunt me...forever," Yoshi said, and he took a step towards the cave's opening with a sorry look. "I'm...so sorry. But good luck." Luvbi's mouth opened, wanting to protest, but the player had already gone, stepping into the outer world and out of the game's territory. They heard a small splash outside, and both of them knew that Yoshi had landed in the water, unknowing of whether he had found the box or not. After a minute, the clock turned 2:01.
"Is he gone?" Vivian whispered.
"Yes...gone to fulfill his greed," Luvbi said, voice exasperated. "But what do you know? Once offered a prize, you get spoiled. He won a plus one last episode, and now he's a spoiled brat. He went after another." Vivian smiled at the term.
Vivian: I didn't want to mention to Luvbi that she herself had been going after many exemptions...especially in the past. But I didn't want to bring it up.
"The intruder can come any minute now," Luvbi said. "Now we have two less people to help guard this treasure now."
"I think we can do this," said Vivian, but her voice showed a large hint of dread and uncertainty.
Luvbi: I was panicking in the inside, but I didn't want to show it. I had to keep Vivian and myself strong as we stayed there, alone and uncertain of what was going to happen next. And to make it worse, it was almost 3AM.
It was 2:55. Fifty-five minutes had passed since the mission's last major event, and Luvbi and Vivian had been guarding both sides of the pot endlessly, not knowing where the intruder would strike and how. Knowing that the next game was to begin in just five more minutes, they were now more awake than ever before. The two remaining players could only wait with half-opened eyes for the mission to be over. But before that, one last game of elimination would commence in the next few minutes to come.
"I'm...a little scared," Vivian admitted, looking unsure.
"Vivian, listen," said Luvbi, facing her urgently. "We both must, I repeat, must stay past this third game."
"What do you mean?" Vivian asked her.
"If one of us disappears in five minutes, it'll be up to the last person to defend for herself against the intruder," Luvbi pointed out, "and I do not think that will end well." Vivian nodded, tightening her grip on her laser gun. Luvbi pointed her gun up, hearing a sound from above her, from the passage that led to the grassy platform up on the clifftop.
"Who's that?" she said out loud, up into the air and into the hole above her head. "Who is it?"
"Is it the intruder?" Vivian asked, nervous.
"Guard the pot," Luvbi said, motioning for Vivian to move to another spot. She did, and Luvbi kept her gun aiming up. She covered her face as small collections of dirt and dust fell down into the cave room.
"There's someone up there, for sure," Luvbi said firmly. "I can almost see-"
"Look!" Pieces of paper started to fall from the vertical tunnel, and both Luvbi and Vivian stood back and watched the mysterious objects fall to the ground. Once they were settled, they approached the scattered arrangements of papers, picking them up one by one.
"What are these?" Luvbi asked. Just then, the thundering voice came on, louder than ever before. As it spoke, the two remaining players listened carefully. But Luvbi's eyes were wider than usual as the voice spoke, this time, a heavy amount less disguised than what it originally was.
"THIS IS THE THIRD GAME. ITS IDEA IS SIMPLE. ALL OF THESE PHOTOGRAPHS MATCH WITH EACH OTHER. NONE ARE DIFFERENT. TAKE YOUR ACTION WITH THE LONE PHOTOGRAPH. KEEP IT IN YOUR HANDS. 3 MINUTES, OR A MAGNET'S FORCE WILL HELP YOU PROCEED." The voice shut off, leaving the final two players more confused than ever. But Luvbi opened her eyes, processing the fast, cryptic message that was just spoken.
"Well...since the intruder said to keep it in your hands...we know that's a lie," said Luvbi, certain. "We must destroy the photograph that doesn't match. Like McHallyboo said, the intruder is a compulsive liar. We were supposed to do the opposite of what he or she was saying the entire time!"
"Are you sure?" Vivian asked, as they both looked at the pictures in their hands. "So we have to look for the photograph that's different?" After a few seconds and a quick scan, Luvbi shook her head.
"I don't get it at all," Luvbi said, defeated. "These...what are these?" As the two of them took the time to look through the photographs, they saw that the pictures had nothing of what they recognized. One picture was of a desert landscape, another of a seashell, and one picture even displayed a photograph of a Pianta eating an ice cream cone.
"There's...there's a clue somewhere," said Vivian. "There are twelve photographs."
"Where?" Luvbi shouted. "There's nothing we can see here!" Vivian covered her mouth, picking up a photograph.
"The intruder...I have a feeling he or she is gonna come down here soon," Luvbi said, sounding more defeated. "And there'll only be one of us left, to fend for ourself."
"Wait," said Vivian suddenly, and her eyes seemed to be in a trance. Kneeling down, she put the photograph in her hand down, but in its own separate pile.
"I recognize these." Luvbi looked at her, confused, as Vivian picked up a photograph and put it in the same separate pile.
"Vivian, where have you seen these?" Luvbi asked, mystified.
"Flashes...on the TV," Vivian said, shaking her head in disbelief. "I can see them, almost clearly in my mind. It makes no sense, but I see them!" As Vivian picked up another picture, Luvbi stopped her. Looking closer at it, Luvbi grabbed it into her own hand, then gasped.
"A desert landscape...yes," Luvbi said, swallowing slowly. "I remember seeing this too." Vivian grabbed the remaining photos into a pile, and with scanning eyes, began putting down the photos on the floor one by one. On each picture, Luvbi and Vivian did an examination before putting it down, either acknowledging recognition of its contents or unfamiliarity. After three reviews through the entire pile, they realized one thing: one of the pictures did not belong.
"The...pistol?" Luvbi said with perplexity, as the ground shook. All of a sudden, a wooshing sound was heard, as Luvbi cried out. The sound in the cave echoed greater than ever before, as the two of them realized with dread that something else was happening in the room.
"I'm...I'm being pulled somewhere!" Luvbi cried, and Vivian saw that Luvbi's vest was being pulled by an invisible force. Shocked, Vivian grabbed onto her vest, pulling back against the force that was part of their game.
"Rip the photo!" Vivian cried. Luvbi closed her eyes and ripped the photograph of the pistol right in half, straight through the center, turning it into nothing more than two scraps of paper. The rumbling in the room seemed to stop, and Luvbi's body fell to the ground, as she looked around the cave room with awareness. In the corner of the room, they all saw the clock: 3:04.
"It's...gone," Vivian said, a look of disbelief on her face. "I guess you're not going anywhere." Luvbi smiled, sighing with heavy relief.
"That was close," Luvbi said, shaking her head and clearing her mind. "I can't believe we were able to do such a task...to think subliminal flashes could get recorded like that into our minds. Now the game is almost over." She looked at Vivian, but Vivian didn't look back at her. Her body was facing the air of Noki Bay, towards the cave's slits.
"Yes, it is" Vivian replied. " The game is almost over."
"Well," Luvbi began, a look of hope on her face, "At least there'll be the two of us left to fight this intruder."
"No," said Vivian, and she turned around to face Luvbi with a sorry look. "Just you." As she turned around, Luvbi saw the front of Vivian's vest gear, and she froze in place. Her eyes were looking directly at what was being emitted from the center of Vivian's vest, and as Vivian only looked at the pot with determination, Luvbi gasped.
A white light was glowing.
! So a twist ending for this episode's penultimate part! :o Weird, right? But don't worry, the next part will explain a lot more. And lo and behold, the episode as a whole is soon to end!
Which player will be going home before the final episode? It's up to you to speculate. And who is the Mole? What new clues and suspicious acts have you picked up on that points to the Mole's identity?
Stay tuned for the next chapter's conclusion of Episode 7! The final execution awaits, and from there, the final three will be finally decided.
Stay tuned! ;)
Oh, and hehe. Your final, Final Destination clue is below.
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