There's an issue going on with the review system, so I can't read or respond to any reviews, sorry! But I'll get to them, so don't stop leaving 'em!
As for the Best Girl nominations, still going strong. Anyone else left to add?
Currently Nominated: Sango, Cynthia, Elaina, Kate, Dakota, Ayame, Marion, Kitty, Serefina
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 191
The students in the Room of Knowledge had entered a long, empty hallway lit by more flickering lights. Nikita and Blake were both keeping their eyes open, scanning the walls and floor for anything that could be a clue. They reached the end of the hallway, where there were two doors. One directly in front of them, and one on the left wall. The one in front of them had an electronic lock, which displayed a screen with a 3x3 grid on it. The other door was locked with a padlock. In the corner between the two doors, was a small box with a four-digit combination lock.
Blake glanced at Cynthia. "Let's try the other codes for this one."
Cynthia nodded. The first code they entered was the odd string of numbers Cynthia had discovered, 34-63. The box popped open.
Blake reached into the box. Within it was another block, this one a slender diamond-shape, and a small picture of a 3x3 grid like the one on the door's lock. The center box had a 5 drawn on it, the bottom-center box had a 9, and the bottom-right had a 2. Below the grid were the words "Can You Find the Rest of my Magical Combination?"
So that's what this is… Blake thought.
Sylvia watched intently on the monitor, looking at Blake's eyes. She could tell he'd already figured it out.
That's right, Blake, you just need to use your brain. Rather than search for numbers that aren't there, it's far more efficient this way. I would expect people to get stuck on this for quite some time…
Sylvia smirked.
1-panel Sudoku isn't even a challenge, as long as you're thinking in the proper mindset.
"So we need to find more numbers?" Cynthia sighed.
"Yeah, but where?" Julia asked. "We've already checked the room, and there's nothing in this hallway. Could we have missed something?"
"Maybe the numbers we need to enter are from the articles," Nikita suggested, looking at the pile of newspapers in her hands. "We should look through them to see if any numbers stand out."
"…No, this is enough," Blake said, walking over to the lock.
"Huh? We only have three numbers, Blake!" Cynthia objected. Blake ignored her and began typing on the keypad. The lock beeped, and the door opened. Julia and Nikita were both surprised. Caelia was as blank as always, but even Maddi raised an eyebrow.
Cynthia was absolutely flabbergasted.
"Are you a wizard or something?!" Cynthia gasped.
"It's a magic square," Blake replied. Nikita's eyes widened.
"Of course!" She gasped. "I should have known!"
"What's a magic square?" Cynthia asked. "Is it like a magic circle?"
"It's a type of puzzle," Nikita explained. "A square with nine boxes for the nine digits from 1-9, in which the three numbers sum up to 15 no matter which direction you add. The 5 should have tipped me off."
"There's only one combination to make with these possible numbers," Blake explained. "The top row is 8-1-6, the middle row is 3-5-7, and the bottom row is 4-9-2. That's the only combination that you can make, so we don't need to go finding more numbers. That would just waste our time."
"Well, three cheers for magic squares, then!" Cynthia smiled, following Blake through the door. They entered the next room, and the door slammed shut behind them. They barely had time to glance around the room before the slights went out completely.
"AAAARRHRRGHH!" Caelia's shrill scream startled everyone there, and a cluster of screams broke out, people falling all over each other in the darkness.
"Can't see!" Caelia screamed, repeating the words over and over. "CAN'T SEE! CAN'T SEE! No! Not the darkness, no, please, light, need to see! Can't-can't see, can't see, can't see, can't see-"
"Caelia!" Blake cried out. "Calm down, I know-"
"Can't see, can't see, can't see, can't see…"
Caelia was ignoring him, thrashing about in the darkness as she cried and screamed, and there wasn't much Blake could do to stop her. Suddenly, the room was bathed in light.
"You dropped this," Maddi said, her face lit by the eerie glow of the flashlight. Blake blinked to let his eyes adjust and took the long flashlight from her hands, turning the beam on Caelia.
Caelia was curled up into a ball, trembling, tears falling from her eye as she scraped at the floor in what could almost be considered desperation if not for the fact that she really couldn't even feel such things.
"Light…" Caelia panted, staring up at the flashlight like it an oasis in the desert. She continued hyperventilating a little longer, as the others all caught their bearings as well. That had been… shocking. The lights switching off had been bad enough, but to the students who were, for lack of a better word, "in the dark" about Caelia's condition they thought someone was being murdered.
"Don't DO that!" Julia snarled, holding her hand over her chest. Her heart was racing a mile a minute.
"I… I nearly peed myself…" Cynthia wailed. "That was so scary! I almost ruined my costume!"
"Caelia, are you okay?" Nikita asked cautiously, but Caelia was ignoring her, still laying on the ground and shaking. Nikita reached a cautious hand towards her.
"Caelia is… she's been through some rough stuff," Blake informed the others, sitting down next to her. "Caelia, are you okay?"
"I… I am fine…" Caelia whispered, but clearly she wasn't fine at all.
"Cynthia, give me the walkie-talkie," Blake insisted. "I'll contact Sylvia and have her end this. We can't leave Caelia in this state."
Caelia blinked.
"NO!" She shouted, sitting upright. "I refuse."
"Wha-?"
Caelia narrowed her eye.
"I have told you before, do not concern yourself with me," Caelia replied. Her tone was nearly approaching anger. "You wanted… to win… didn't you? I will not… be the reason for your goal to remain unfulfilled."
With much difficulty, being unable to feel her body nor the ground at her feet, Caelia managed to stand, shaking.
"I won't be a hindrance… use me how you like…" Caelia promised, staring into the darkness. "As a tool… however…"
"Nope, no good," Cynthia said, lightly bopping Caelia on the back of the head. Caelia didn't even notice.
"What was that?" Caelia turned to the new voice, Cynthia's face sticking out of the darkness.
"What's with this whole 'tool' business, huh?" Cynthia demanded, puffing her cheeks up. "Stop being so gloomy! We're a team right now, none of us are going to use you for anything."
Caelia blinked.
"I don't care about that."
"Well, tough. Just like how you have a team of six pokemon, there's six of us! And we're going to work together to get out! So if you want to be useful, then start being a team player. It's that simple!"
Caelia stared blankly at Cynthia, which only made the redhead more frustrated.
"How about we start with this?" Cynthia asked, pointing to the big smile on her face. "A big smile! Come on now, you can do it!"
Caelia's face remained expressionless. Smiling? When was the last time she'd even considered something like that?
"Cynthia, that's enough, really," Blake said, stepping between the two.
"But Blake…"
Blake gave her a look that made Cynthia think now was a real good time to be shutting up. She didn't like it. It was scary. She'd never seen Blake make a face like that before, and it was so startling that she didn't have anything to say back. She simply nodded her head.
"Now that we've worked all that out," Julia's voice echoed from the darkness, "maybe we can get started on finding our way out of here?"
Maddi quietly agreed. It wasn't that she had a problem with dark spaces, but it wasn't exactly comfortable to be there, either.
"Okay, we should probably get started looking around," Blake suggested. "We'll have to stay close if we want to find our way through."
"Um…" Nikita said. "I hate to be the one to say this, but… when the lights went out, I was really startled, and then the scream happened, and I kinda… sorta… dropped all the stuff."
Blake wanted to scream himself. That was a frustration he didn't want to have to deal with, but it looked like they'd have to spend some time digging around and looking for papers scatted across the floor in the commotion. Still… it had to be done.
Blake glanced at Caelia.
"Caelia, stay close to me, okay?"
"Of course," Caelia automatically replied. In her mind, why would she be anywhere else?
Caelia stood as close to him as possible as Blake scanned the ground with his flashlight, the other girls going to find the scattered pieces of paper. He could feel Caelia trembling. He reached out for Caelia's hand and held it in an attempt to comfort her, only to realize that it was a futile action since she couldn't feel him anyway. She was still trembling.
"Are you worried?" Blake asked.
"If the light goes out, my world will…"
"I know," Blake sighed. "Don't worry, I won't let that happen."
Blake wondered how it was this girl ever got to sleep.
"Okay, I think that's all of them- wait, what?" Nikita, Julia, and Cynthia looked over the papers they'd gathered off the tile floor. They'd recovered all the newspaper clippings and the scraps that had already served their purpose, but there was one more sheet of paper in their collection, though. A note. Written on it were the words: "Light up all 4 corners, and the path will show the way!"
"So it appears our next step is to find our way through the darkness and light up all four corners, huh?" Blake mused. "A puzzle in the darkness. How quaint."
What's the matter, Blake? Sylvia mused. Caelia's exclamation was… surprising, but for a demon, I would think the darkness should feel right at home, no?
Blake scanned over the room with his flashlight, getting a good look at it. It was bigger than the room that he'd been in. This was…
An operating room. Blake had memories of this, certainly. But unlike most operating rooms… this one looked like it had been reconfigured, set up so that all the equipment was pressed up against the walls.
They moved as a pack towards the closest corner, since there would be no value in working in the dark.
"See any light sources around here?" Julia asked. They were staring at a large machine of some sort, making some soft beeps, but there were no lights to be seen anywhere on it. Right beside it, backed against the wall, was a large metal cabinet. Cynthia tried the door. It was locked. They ran the lights over the machinery, but there was nothing else to see.
"Looks like we have to move to the next corner," Blake replied. How tricky. Normally with a puzzle like this, we'd want to split up and solve the 4 puzzles simultaneously. But with just this flashlight, we have to stick together as a group and solve them one at a time…
The group moved to the next corner, which was where the operating table was located. There was a large light hanging over it, which was presumably where they were supposed to make light in this corner. Blake shined the light over the machinery, and saw a piece of paper taped to it.
"Enter passcode to turn on." The paper read. There was a small screen on the machine, with three empty slots, and a touch pad with the numbers 0-9 below it.
"Nothing here yet either, then," Nikita commented. "We need to find the 3 digits here."
They moved to the third corner. This time, there was something out of place. They were next to shelves of medical equipment, but the crucial piece of information, the location of the light, was…
A lamp.
Blake blinked. And turned the lamp on. The light of the flashlight was eclipsed by the dull light of the lamp, and the room brightened up slightly. Blake could hear Caelia's breathing returning to normal as she calmed down, being able to see more of the room.
"Well, that's one down! To the next one!"
In the dim light of the room, Cynthia ran over to the last corner. This corner was basically empty. There was only a box with a lightbulb on top of it, and four dials. Each dial was a thin disk with a thin arrow sticking out, the kind that you could grasp with your fingers. Each arrow was facing upwards.
"What's that?" Nikita asked, walking over to Cynthia and looking down at the box.
"I don't know, it's got these weird dials," Cynthia replied. "Look, you can turn them, see?"
Cynthia reached down and grasped one of the dials in her fingers, turning it to the side so the arrow pointed left.
"I see, we must need to find the proper combination," Nikita said, nodding. "We must have to twist these dials a certain way. So we should find what way that is."
"Well, we have three things we're looking for, then," Blake said. "The passcode for the spotlight, the key to that storage locker, and whatever this combination is." Blake looked around. There was a decent amount of light in the room, enough where the group could split up and search through the cabinets and shelves for any potential clues.
"I think we should split up," Nikita suggested. "Just like before, let's all start from one corner and work our way to the sides."
"This time, though, there's nothing in the center," Blake commented. "Caelia and I can work together, and I'll keep hold of the flashlight."
Blake turned to Maddi.
"Maddi, think you can work with Cynthia?"
Maddi blinked. She didn't want to.
"Why?"
"In case she misses something."
"Hey!" Cynthia exclaimed. "Why do you get to flirt with the fire girl, and I'm stuck being looked after by a babysitter?"
Blake gave her a look of exasperation. Cynthia blew a lock of green hair out of her face, crossing her arms.
"How about instead, I stay in the center and coordinate things, huh?" Nikita asked. "That way we can gather the clues and bring them to me. Blake and Caelia can team up, and the rest are on their own?"
"Yeah, exactly!" Cynthia nodded eagerly. "What she said."
Maddi nodded in agreement, and Blake shrugged, everyone splitting off towards their respective corners.
Caelia automatically walked toward the lamp, Blake following after her with her hand held tightly in his. Of course Caelia would want to start there.
"Hey, I found something," Julia called. She walked over to Nikita. There was a strange object in her hand, about the size of a playing card. It was almost like a puzzle piece. The long edges were flat and even, but at one end there was a bulge sticking out, and another bulge pushing in on the other end.
"A puzzle piece?" Nikita said, surprised. On the front of the strange puzzle piece was an arrow, pointing directly at the outward bulge.
"Maybe we put them all together, and that's how we know the combination," Julia reasoned, turning it over in her hand so that it was on one of the flat edges. The arrow was now pointing left.
"But do we point it left, or right?" Nikita mused. "Maybe we need to try both combinations."
"I'll keep searching," Julia said, heading towards the cabinets by the large light machine where she'd just come from.
"Guys, be on the lookout for stuff that looks like puzzle pieces," Nikita advised. The others acknowledged that and continued searching.
"I couldn't find anything," Cynthia reported, returning to Nikita. "That corner of the room is pretty barren."
"Found one," Blake called. He walked over to the two of them, with Caelia following after him. In his hands was another puzzle piece. This was much like the last one, except three of the edges were flat, with the fourth bulging inwards. The arrow that this one had was pointing in a different direction as well, towards one of the long edges
Nikita tried to fit the two pieces together, but the bulge of the one Julia found couldn't fit within the slot of the other.
"Found another one," Julia said. "It was under the sink."
Julia held up another piece. Nikita took the piece, and began fiddling with it. It was a perfect fit! It slid between the other two pieces perfectly, making a small line of arrows. Starting from the flat edge, the arrows read "Up, Right, Left," or maybe it was upside down and it actually meant "Right, Left, Down". Either way…
"It can't be that the last arrow is down, can it?" Cynthia said. "Whatever, we've got three, that's enough! We can process of elimination the last one!"
"I'm not sure we can," Nikita said, shaking her head. "We don't know the right way to read it. Maybe instead of Up, Right, Left, it actually means Right, Left, Down."
"Well, then we'll just flip 'em around later, no big deal!" Cynthia said.
"Or…"
Everyone turned after hearing Maddi's quiet voice. She was holding a fourth piece in her hand. This one was an arrow that was pointed right. They slide it in, another perfect fit.
"And there you have it," Cynthia smirked. "Let's go!" Cynthia took the assembled puzzle over to the box, and began turning the dials on it. "Up, Right, Left, Right!"
Nothing happened.
"Oh, well, we must be reading it the wrong way," Cynthia laughed. "Let's turn it over…"
"Left, Right, Left, Down."
…
"Why isn't it turning on?!" Cynthia demanded.
"Maybe we don't have the right combination?" Julia asked. Nikita shook her head.
"No, that doesn't make sense. Maybe…"
"Wait, look," Blake said, pointing at the puzzle in Cynthia's hands.
"Oh!" Maddi, having found the piece, picked up on it, too. "I think I get it…"
"What?" Cynthia asked, confused.
"I found that piece at the front, the one with the up-down arrow," Blake explained. "See how three of its edges are smooth?"
"Yeah, so?" Cynthia asked.
"Oh, you're right!" Nikita gasped. "Look at the last piece!"
The piece Maddi had found had a bulge pushing inwards, unlike the one Blake had found. That could only mean one thing. There was still a piece of the puzzle they were missing.
"So we've got more to find?" Julia grumbled. "But we tore this place apart, and it's not in here."
"I know," Blake said, nodding. "And I mean, we're locked in here, so she can't want us to backtrack, right?"
They began searching again. But even so, they couldn't find any more puzzle pieces.
"Okay, it's definitely not here," Nikita admitted. "So what? How do we get out of here?"
Maddi glanced at the door they had entered through. She walked over to it, turned the door handle, and opened it. Light from the hallway flooded into the room.
"…You've got to be kidding me," Blake said, shaking his head.
"So she shut the door and didn't lock it?" Julia groaned.
Caelia said nothing, stomping out into the hallway as fast as she could on her leg brace. Clearly, she would not be spending any more time in that room.
"But we already searched everywhere else, too," Cynthia groaned. "Are you sure the last piece could be hidden somewhere in the other room?"
"Or in the hallway," Blake said, nodding.
"I'll stay in here and keep looking," Julia volunteered. "You guys keep searching everywhere else."
Out of curiosity, Blake tried the other hallway door. Nope. Still locked.
They expanded their search to the other rooms, but still no luck. There was no puzzle piece to be found.
Nikita was getting exhausted. It must have been almost an hour by now, right? And they still had a whole room left to solve. She sat down and sighed, picking up the box they'd discarded, where they'd found the hallway hint.
Nikita blinked as she held it in her hands.
Wait a minute…
"Blake!" Nikita called. "Come out here and bring those blocks with you!"
"Blocks?" Blake asked, walking out of the first room. "Why?"
"Just do it," Nikita said, holding her hand out. Blake handed her the blocks.
"I was just thinking, if we've searched everywhere, then maybe it's hidden somewhere we already searched," Nikita said. "And this box… it's kind of weird that it's just here, right?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, it's the only puzzle for the hallway. Why not just put it in the first room to begin with? Maybe we're supposed to use it for the operating room."
"Makes sense, I guess," Blake agreed. Nikita took two of the blocks, the rectangular one and the cylindrical one. They were both the same shape. She set one so that it was sticking up, next to the box, just slightly shorter than it. She set the other pointed up as well, but inside the box.
Her eyes widened as she looked at the results.
"See? Look!" Nikita said. "There's almost an inch of difference in length between the two rods!"
"A false bottom!" Blake gasped.
Nikita turned the box over in her hands and studied the bottom. There weren't any holes or anything, or a lever to pull, or…
Her finger brushed against a bump on one of the box's sides. She pressed down on the bump, and the panel at the bottom slid away, revealing a fifth puzzle piece.
"We got it!" The two exclaimed at once, Caelia glancing over at them, almost startled.
"What?" Julia peeked her head out of the operating room as Cynthia and Maddi ran in from the office.
"We found the last piece," Blake said, turning it over in his hands. It had four arrows on it, all pointing the same direction.
Nikita proudly walked into the operating room, sitting next to the puzzle deposited on the floor. As the one who found the last piece, it was her right to insert it in. Now, the message read "Up, Right, Left, Right," and then Four "Up" arrows.
"So I guess that means we have to turn them like this," Nikita said, turning the arrows in the directions initially indicated, "and then turn all four of them so they face up."
Nikita grabbed two and Julia grabbed the other two, the two girls twisting the arrows so they all pointed upwards. The lightbulb on the box flashed on, and a clicking sound was heard, the box opening to reveal a key nestled inside.
Nikita took the key and walked over to the storage locker, sliding it open. The locker was emptier than they expected.
"It's a black light," Julia said.
"And another newspaper clipping," Blake murmured, taking the clipping. The date read "January 3rd, 2003." The picture was a picture of a large tree in the center of a town.
Julia attached the plug of the blacklight to the outlet, and turned it on. The room had a weird glow in it, and-
"Wait, look," Maddi said, catching their attention. She pointed at the wall. "I just saw something. Bring that thing over here."
Julia moved closer to the locker, holding up the blacklight. There, barely visible in the dim glow, were three stark-white number standing out on the purpled surface, 0-9-4.
"And there's the passcode," Cynthia cheered. "Good eye, Maddi! We coulda spent hours tryin' ta find that!"
Cynthia skipped over to the operating table and entered the numbers, and the room was flooded with the intense light of the surgical equipment.
As it happened, the regular lights in the room turned back on, and a sudden flash of movement caught everyone's attention. One of the floor tiles shot up like it was on a spring, a clear indicator of where they were supposed to go next. Blake knelt down. Beneath the tile, was a key. For the next room. No one said anything, but they all assumed it was going to be the last of the rooms.
The group of five left the operating room and reunited with Caelia in the hallway, the key hot in Blake's hand. He walked to the door, and inserted the key, turning and opening it.
A smile crossed Sylvia's face as she watched them enter one by one. It had been a blast so far. They only had one room to go, and there, hopefully, Blake would finally show her what she'd wanted to see. Nothing about what he'd done so far was unusual for a person of decent intelligence. But this room…
If he really is that child… he won't be able to overlook things, Sylvia reasoned. He'll have to give that answer. It's the only answer he can give.
What answer could that be? What does Sylvia have in store for Blake's side of things? We only have one more chapter for the Room of Knowledge, in the meantime let's check up on the Room of Courage.