Alright everybody, here's chapter 4! Lots of action and suspense that I'm sure you all will enjoy.
CHAPTER 4: THANK UNCLE JOE
CHAPTER 4: THANK UNCLE JOE
Achan’s foray into the puzzle filled maze wasn’t going as smooth as she would like. To be completely fair, though, It’s not like she was expecting a maze to begin with. She knew the raiders were wacky folk, but the maze was a bit over the top if you asked her.
Static buzzed through Achan’s earpiece as she turned left at a corner. “Achan,” said the voice of Akan, who sounded a bit irritated. “Stop making left turns so damn much!. You’re making this whole thing longer than it needs to be.”
Achan made another left as Akan said that. “Well, if making right turns didn’t have me reaching dead ends so often, I would probably stop making left ones!” After her retort, Achan continued to follow her better judgement and progressed further to the left half of the maze. At certain points she felt she was going in complete circles. Up then left. Left then down. It certainly threw her head for a spin, and while she couldn’t see the rest of the fortress from her position, she could feel that she would be running into a few more circles, much more than she would have liked to.
Another left now, and Achan found herself along a path where she could only advance straight. Seeing this, Achan figured she had pretty much covered as much of the left half portion of the maze as she possibly could, and followed the path with hope from making some considerable progress. The straight shot seemed long, but Achan could see a giant metal wall and a path going right. She smiled. She was doubtful at first, but her intuition would not fail her this time, she thought. Akan was the stupid one this time around, and that promising right turn would be her undeniable proof.
She made the right and continued along the route until finally…
“A dead end?”
She stopped dead in her tracks and stood in disbelief. Achan gawked at the cruel maze wall that played the spoiler. Where did she go wrong? She wondered. Surely, in her mind, she was going in a promising direction. Akan had been leading her on blank missions, falsely directing her nowhere, and now her own sense of direction couldn’t be trusted. Achan would have to backtrack.
Again.
Salt was bubbling on the surface of Achan’s skin, and as if the sodium pouring out of her wasn’t enough, a mocking Akan verbally began rubbing that salt into Achan wounds. “Haha! Stupid! I told you to stop going left so much. That’s what you get!”
Achan growled.“Shut up! Aren’t you supposed to be helping me solve this damn puzzle? ‘Cause you’re not doing a good job of that!”
“I was helping you. You just weren’t listening to me.”
“No, you know what I mean by ‘helping me.’ What happened to that digital map you were downloading? Having a layout of this place would be ten times more helpful than you just giving me blind guesses to go off of.”
“Oh please, like yours are any better. And for your information, no, it hasn’t fully downloaded yet. Cracking into the thieves’ underground database was no fast process, so you’re lucky that I at least have a working map of what you’ve progressed through so far. Though, to be honest, tracking your left turns in real time is really giving me a headache.”
Achan, still a little heated, stormed up to the giant wall and kicked as hard as she could. “Argh! This maze is so frustrating!”
A metallic shriek rang out.
“Huh?”
Achan wasn’t entirely sure at first, but a few seconds of needed silence passed, and she was able to confirm her paranoa. The wall had definitely budged. Not by a lot, but it had budged nonetheless.
“Hey, that thing moved, right? Try pushing it some more.” said an urging Akan.
Achan listened. Though, she really didn’t really need Akan telling her to do something so common sense.
She pushed on the flat surface. The wall was certainly dense, but it slowly gave way to Achan’s show of force. A huff, a puff, and a creak later, Achan pushed her way onto the other side.
And she wasn’t too happy to say the least.
“Wait, what?”
Before her were three paths: One going left, one going right, and a path that lead back to the starting point. Her jaw dropped. All her hard work gone down the drain just like that. “How?” she asked desperately. “This doesn’t even make sense!”
“Hmm…” said an musing Akan through Achan’s earpiece.
“What are you ‘hmming’ about?
“That door was an RNG.”
Achan looked perplexed. “RN- what?”
“It’s short for ‘random number generator’. Basically it refers to something having an unpredictable amount of random outcomes. Coming across a desired outcome is based on pure luck. In our case, that door you just passed through is probably linked to every other door like it in this maze, and once you pass through one, you’ll end up in another random area.”
“So what you’re saying is that finding Uncle Joe will depend on luck alone?”
“Partially, but not entirely. We can still maneuver around normally, it’s just that avoiding going through a RNG door will be highly unlikely. We’ll just have to carefully consider our options each time, and hope for the best.”
A depressing sigh escaped the tired Achan. “Great…”
“Luckily for us though, the digital map I’m downloading is nearing completion. It looks like we’ll have much easier time solving this hellhole once I’m finally able to see this maze in its entirety.” Akan paused, and Achan could hear her partner’s subtle moans of thoughtful pondering, quiet though they were. “Damn, it looks like those doors won’t be the only obstacles getting in our way. From what I’m seeing, the bosses of the thieves will be have a lot more in store for us.”
Achan shrugged lazily and snapped back around to the RNG door that landed her in her current position. “As if this stupid maze alone wasn’t enough.”
“Gonna test your luck?”
Achan pressed a hand against the wall. “Might as well. It’s not like I got much to lose with where I’m at right now.”
She pressed forward, the door turned, and Achan ended up on the other side. As far as what this side would lead to was a mystery.
Lego had arrived at the front door of MR Tower. Stumbling of course. He was still a little drunk, but the buzz was slowly receding and he was at least coherent enough to not fall through the entrance and land flat on his face. Say what you want about the cat, the guy knew how to handle his liquor.
The automatic doors slid open and Lego stepped into the main lobby. Nothing out of the ordinary presented itself. The guest specter was behind the counter like usual, the lobby was clean, etc etc. Still, even as he shrugged his earlier suspicions off, Lego still felt the vibe in the air was off. But what was it?
He decided not to put too much stock into it for now. After all, his intuition wasn’t always the greatest. Add that on top of being intoxicated and he could easily just chalk it up to pointless paranoa. Lego moved with drunken wobbles up to the counter to sign in on the guest list. Normally, a moderator could just skip signing in altogether, however Lego felt like signing in anyway. To his surprise, though, he found an interesting entry on the list. His eyes squinted hard at the familiar names.
“Hasith and Corycaly are out again?”
According to the sheet, the administrators had left earlier during the morning and hadn’t returned since. Not too weird, Lego thought. They would on occasion would leave the city to handle personal matters. Whether those matters included scouring the Net for the latest ecchi manga or sewing supplies was often as not the real question. Either way, it wasn’t Lego’s place to judge. Still though, he was a bit disappointed. Lego had hoped a conversation with one of the two would rid him of his worrisome thoughts. Now he would have to wait until day was over to get rid of whatever bad mojo he was feeling.
Just as Lego was about to leave, his ears twitched. He had heard something. A voice, mumbled, and with a slight echo. He looked over his shoulder and realized it was coming from women’s bathroom. Who? He wondered. It’s wasn’t uncommon for someone to stop by the tower to take a convenient restroom break. But given the time of day, and just the simple fact not many raiders were out and around at the moment cast a funny suspicion over him. He followed his instinct and headed towards the door of the women’s bathroom. Now that he was closer, the voice was slowly making itself familiar to his ears. Lego had an idea of who it was, but his drunken stupor prevented him from being certain. He knocked on the door without thinking.
A panicked shriek sounded, followed by a what sounded like something being dropped to the floor. “W-who is it?” Akan asked, sounding almost terrified.
“Akan?” Lego tilted his head, looking confused.
“Lego!? What the hell are you doing here? Jeez, don’t you know it’s rude for a guy to just randomly knock on the girl’s bathroom?”
Lego burped. “Jus’ wondering who was in here. Hey, where’s Achan then? She in there with you?”
“Um... no, stupid! She uh… left already. Yeah… I told her I would meet up with her later.”
Lego took a moment to ponder. “Huh… I don’t remember seeing her…” he said quietly to himself. “Yah sure she’s not in the there with you?”
“I said NO!” Akan screamed.
Lego shrugged. “Alrighty then- hic! I’ll be going now. Make sure ya flush after you’re done and use plenty of tissue.”
“UGH! JUST SHUT UP AND LEAVE ME ALONE ALREADY!”
With that, he excused himself from Akan’s presence and walked back over to the center of the lobby. He flopped down on a lobby couch and hung his head back on the soft cushions. Lego felt dazed. First the weird vibe, and now this awkward run in with Akan was throwing his head for a loop. ‘Normal’, he kept repeating to himself. Everything was normal. He tried his best to convince himself that nothing was wrong, but he shook his head. Something was wrong. Lego just hadn’t figured it out yet.
He popped up from the couch and headed for the elevator. The moderator wasn’t sure why he was walking towards the elevator, but at this point it didn’t really matter. Lego was operating off of pure instinct, and he allowed it to take him to wherever it saw fit.
To Lego’s credit, it led him to the source of his paranoa.
The elevator doors opened, and without even stepping in, Lego noticed the pieces of destroyed security camera on the floor. He lifted his sight up and found a broken hook that belonged to the no longer operating device.
“Huh…”
Lego turned back around immediately.
Back inside the bathroom, Akan was still reeling from her interaction with Lego. Her eyes kept darting back and forth from her phone to the door. Even as she continued to guide Achan, her free ear was still much attuned to the subtle noises coming from the lobby. She hoped Lego had actually left. The last thing she needed was a raider interrupting the plan after everything had already been going so smooth. More than that, it was too important for them to succeed. The lives of the demon’s very much depended on it.
“Hey, Akan,” Said Achan through Akan’s earpiece. “You alright over there? You’re a bit quiet. That cat isn’t around still, is he?”
“No. I think he left, but I’m not really sure yet. I’m a bit nervous to tell the truth.”
“I can’t really blame you for feeling nervous, but now isn’t the time. You need to focus and help me reach the end of this maze, remember?”
Akan took a deep breath. “You’re right, for once. I’m sure he’s gone by now.” Akan returned her full attention to the digital map on her phone screen. “Hey, there’s another dead end coming up soon. Try going-”
Before she finished, the bathroom door was kicked in. There stood Lego with a stone cold expression on his face.
Akan jumped, eyes wide with terror. “Ah! Hey what are you-”
Lego teased his blade against her throat.
“You’re coming with me.”
It had been complete radio silence on Achan’s side for quite some time now. And it was beginning to worry her.
The last thing she heard from Akan was a panicked shriek and some muffled noise that she couldn’t make out. Other than that, her earpiece had been quiet.
“I hope she’s alright,” Achan said to herself. She knew Akan had been captured, and soon enough she would be caught as well if she didn’t hurry. Even though Akan had been captured, she herself still had a mission to carry out. It was just that now with Akan out of the picture, things would unfortunately be a lot harder than necessary.
Achan headed straight along a path and took a left that had a series of shorter paths. The majority of them were dead ends of course, so Achan stayed away from them. However, a particular path on her right caught Achan’s attention. She skidded to a stop and stared at the potential option. After a moment of contemplation, she went in that direction. Achan didn’t know why, but she felt that the direction she took was absolutely vital, as if a voice in her head had told her to do it.
Funny enough, there was a voice, but it wasn’t from inside her head. Achan stopped upon hearing the murmuring of a feminine voice nearby. She turned around. “Who’s there?”
“Over here, intruder!”
Achan looked all around for the culprit mocking her, but there was no one in sight. It wasn’t until she looked up, however, that her eyes came across the speaker in question.The woman was sitting on top of the maze wall at the end of the path. Her hair was brown and around medium length. She was dressed in a white collar shirt with black slacks and shoes, which gave Achan the impression that she may have been a professional of some sort of occupation. What unnerved Achan the most however was that she gave off an ethereal glow. She didn’t seem quite human in the way the light radiated from her. The young woman adjusted the glasses on her face before hopping down from her perch.
“Who the hell are you?” Quizzed Achan as the woman slowly approached her.
“I’m the one who should be asking you that, silly.” The woman shrugged. “Then again, I wouldn’t have to ask you that necessarily, since I know who you are already. But it seems polite.”
Achan looked skeptical for a moment. “You know who I am? And just how do you know that?”
The woman stopped and smiled. “I know because Joe told me. He knows everything about everyone here.”
“Joe? You mean… the computer?”
“Yup! He me told everything there is to know about you. You’re Achan Heptadelta, an ex agent of 4kids who first appeared during the ‘Dystopic Blades’ incident. You were captured along with your companion, Akan Octa, who is also a former agent. Your height, weight, measurements are exactly-”
“Alright! I get it already!” Achan yelled, cutting the woman off mid sentence. Had she kept going, the proud fighter would’ve ended up losing her composure. “So you know who I am. Great. Good for you. But you still haven’t explained who you are and why you’re here in the first place.”
“You’re rude, but to be fair it’s rude of me not to introduce myself as well.” The woman cleared her throat before speaking again. “To answer your questions, my name is AnimeDoodler. And before you ask, no, I am not the actual Doodler. Just a defense program created by Uncle Joe to deal with any unidentified intruders. Think of me as a guardian if that helps. Although, as the actual intruder here, I think it is rude of you to ask my reason for being here.”
“Defense program huh? Didn’t know data could have a personality.”
Data Doodler raised a finger. “We’re based off our original’s data during their time in the city. So physical traits, personality, powers, status, etc., are all copied” She raised another finger. “Fun fact: We’re also randomly generated, and unfortunately for you, Joe generated the worst possible raider for you to deal with.”
Achan instinctively assumed a defensive stance. “And is that supposed to make me scared? What makes you so special?”
Data Doodler waved her hand and before her a giant pencil pixelated into shape. She grabbed it and pointed the lead tip at Achan. “Two reasons: One, you cannot defeat me because I can only be disabled by Joe himself. So, good luck with that. And two, like I said, I am based off my original counterpart’s data at the time of their presence, and before Doodler left she was a moderator sooooo…”
Data Doodler spun her weapon with a twirl and readied an attack stance. “You’re gonna have a bad day with me, sweetheart.”
Akan was tense.
On the elevator trip down, Lego had kept his blade snuggled against her throat. Even while inebriated, Lego made sure that she wouldn’t able to slip away. He was ready to make her pay should she try anything funny. Akan wanted to move, but didn’t risk it. All she could do was gulp down nervous globs of saliva and hope for some sort of miracle.
The elevator stopped and the doors flung open. The two stepped out, Lego had been right behind Akan, prodding her forward with ungentle jabs. She walked uncomfortably. Being pushed around was certainly pissing her off, but all Akan could afford was groans and balled fists. She thought of Achan, wondering if she was still making any progress without her help. Lego had already confiscated her gadgets and discarded them, so any hope of contacting her was obsolete.
They made it to the entrance of the maze and Lego whistled after seeing it close up. He had known about the maze from what the Administrators had told him, but he had never found occasion to visit the space. It was far larger than he had imagined it to be. Lego burped. “Pretty big maze…”
Akan rolled her eyes. “You’ve been a mod for how long and this is your first time seeing it?”
Lego wrapped his arm tightly around Akan’s neck, teasing a choke. “You’re not getting smart with me are you?”
“N-no.” Akan said as she struggled to breathe.
Lego released his grip and Akan gasped for air with a cough. “Good.” he said.
Lego pushed Akan on and they stepped past the starting point. Lego looked around with a few head turns and already seemed visibly confused. “So uh, where is she?”
“Uh, how I am supposed to know that, dofus? She could be anywhere in this stupid maze.”
“Can’t you contact her or something?”
“You took away my phone, remember?”
Lego burped. A look of dumbfoundedness had struck him. “Right…”
Akan groaned. Her only thoughts were of Achan, and the quickest possible ways of getting to her while ditching the cat in the process. The layout of the maze was still fresh in her mind’s eye. Akan could possibly lead Lego to her by memory, if given the chance. The only problem with that, of course, was that her memory was limited. With the design of the maze being how it was, that could take an eternity. Then again, there was also the alternative…
“The walls…”
Lego raised a brow. “What about ‘em?”
“They’re RNG. If you pass through one, you’ll end up in another part of the maze. If you want to find Achan, going through the walls will be our fastest option.”
“You lie…”
Akan turned her head around and smirked at the cat. “I can go first and show you if you don’t believe me.”
Lego glared at Akan with suspicious eyes. He shook his head. “We’ll both go. Wouldn't want you running off on your own.”
Akan shrugged. “Fine with me.”
The two stepped forward and stopped in front of the maze wall. Lego was a bit hesitant. After all, his knowledge of the maze was rather limited, and there was no way of knowing if Akan was telling the truth. Akan on the other hand, crossed her fingers. The chances of actually running into Achan were one in a million. And even if they did, there was still Lego to deal with. Akan hoped that by the time they ran into her, she would have a plan in line to lose Lego and make it to Uncle Joe in one piece.
With Akan in tow, Lego pressed one hand against the wall and pushed. The wall gave way and turned. Soon enough they found themselves on the other side. It was in that very same moment, however, that Lego was knocked on his back by a giant pencil smacking him on the forehead. Surprised, Akan turned from the reeling Lego and looked in front. Before her was Achan squaring up with a woman she couldn’t recognize. “Achan?!”
Achan snapped around. “Akan!”
Doodler was confused. “Akan? She’s here too?”
Lego eyes shot wide as he got up. “Doodler?!”
“Lego?!”
“Cat!” Hissed Achan at Lego.
“Witch!” He shot back.
Seconds passed and for a moment there was no movement between the four individuals. It was then that Akan made the first move with a sprint to Achan. Lego played the spoiler however, and grabbed ahold of her arm before she could take off. Akan cursed as she struggled to break free from Lego’s grasp. “Let go of me you smelly fur-ball!”
Even as she kicked Lego held tight. “Never!”
Achan turned away from Doodler. “Akan!” she called out. “Don’t worry I’m--”
“You’re not going anywhere!” Doodler said, cutting her off. She charged pencil lead first at Achan and went for a stab. She thought she had caught Achan off guard, but she didn’t take the agent’s reflexes into account. Achan sidestepped the stab and tripped Doodler. As Doodler fell over, Achan grabbed ahold of her arm and pulled Doodler over her shoulder for a judo-like throw. With a shove Doodler was launched. Her target: Lego.
Unfortunately for the drunken cat, he was too occupied with Akan to notice the incoming data clone in time. Before he could dodge, Doodler slammed spine first against his face, and the two were sent tumbling through the revolving RNG door behind them. The maze wall completed it’s rotation, and with that, the two agents were finally together and alone. For now at least. They looked at one another. Achan spoke first. “You okay? He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
Akan shrugged. “The only painful thing I endured from him was his terrible breath. Other than that, I’m fine.”
“Fair enough. Let’s hurry up and find Uncle Joe then. You still have that phone, right?”
Akan shook her head. “Negative. The cat confiscated it on our way down. We’re gonna have to wing it from here on out.”
Achan spit, slightly annoyed. “Great. And just how we’re gonna go through this whole thing without a reference?”
“With luck, remember? The walls are our only chance of reaching Joe before they catch up to us. We’ll just barge through as many walls as possible until we land on the exit.”
Achan still seemed bothered the idea, but it was better than solving the maze the old fashioned way. “Fine.” she said. “Whatever works, I guess. But we need to get going now before those thieves show up again.”
Akan nodded. “Agreed. I would hate to have to smell that cat’s breath again.”
And with that, the two agents charged to a wall on their right and pushed onward.
On the other side of the maze, Lego and Data Doodler had finally recovered from their collison and gotten to their feet. Lego, being a little buzzed still, was having difficulty figuring out if the woman before him was actually his long lost compadre, or just a mere clone of the girl he’d known. He felt a bit awkward about it, almost to the point of being unable to speak due to nervousness. Lego spoke regardless, with a hint of hope in his voice, of course. “So uh, how you’ve been Doodles? Long time no see, am I right?”
“Hate to break it to ya sweetie, but I’m not the real Doodler.” she responded with a tone that sounded almost cold to Lego’s ears.
Lego sunk his head in disappointment. “Kinda figured that. Gah, at least a guy can dream I guess.”
“I’m sure you’ll see her again, so don’t feel so down. But now isn’t the time for that. We have to find those two troublemakers before they get to Joe.”
Lego’s face stiffened. He was serious again. “What do you think they’re up to exactly?”
“I’m not entirely sure to be honest, but if I had to take a guess, they’re probably trying to hack into the city’s registry network. What they do from there is beyond me, and quite honestly, I’m not gonna wait to find out.”
“I can agree with that.” Lego said with a nod. “But how are we going to catch them? It will take ages to reach them in this place.”
“Not if we use the walls.” Doodler said with a smirk.
“Huh? But aren’t those things random? Can really rely on them?”
“Of course we can! We just have to make some adjustments to them first. Watch.” Data Doodler stuck out her arm and directed it to a maze wall in front of them. Her hand glowed with a golden shine, and the wall in front of them reciprocated that same glow. The glow remained for a second, and after it finished, Doodler snatched Lego’s hand. “Lets go!” she said, and headed past the maze wall with Lego following behind her.
Achan and Akan weren’t having the best of luck in the meantime. They had ended up on multiple sides of the maze, and even ended up back at the entrance a few times. While their route was still leagues better than manually traveling the maze, at this rate they were bound to run into Lego and Data Doodler sooner or later, and that would pose a major problem. The pair doubted the same trick would work twice.
As they jolted down a path towards another wall, they stopped upon noticing that one of the walls on their left shown strangely with golden light. Achan turned towards her partner after studying the phenomenon briefly. “What do you think? Could it be a sign from Uncle Joe?”
Akan placed a hand under her chin. She looked rather uncertain. “I’m not too sure if it can be trusted. Could be a trap for all we know.”
“Then let’s keep mov--”
Before she could finish the maze wall spun, and from the other side emerged Lego and Doodler storming towards the agents at full speed. Doodler pounced on Achan and slammed her down to the floor. Lego had attempted the same with Akan, but the nimble agent rolled out of harm’s way. As Lego was getting to his feet, Akan looked towards Achan for some sort of help. Unfortunately, Achan’s hands were tied, or more accurately, pinned to the ground. Even as she struggled Doodler wasn’t giving her much wiggle room.
As she was dodging punches from Doodler, Achan called out to Akan. “Go!” she screamed. “I’ll catch up with you later!”
Akan froze upon hearing her partner’s request, but instinct took over as she swayed left when Lego pounced for her once again. “But--”
Achan trapped Doodle’s swing in between her underarm before yelling back. “Just go already!”
Not another word was spoken. Akan ran for the nearest wall available and desperately pushed her way through. Lego followed suit, but stopped for a second to look at Doodle for some sort of confirmation. Even as she tousled with Achan on the floor, Doodle obliged. She lifted up a free arm and pointed at the wall Akan passed through. Her hand and the wall glowed simultaneously, and once the glowing ceased, Lego headed through.
Taking advantage of the brief distraction, Achan raised her knees up to her chest and pushed Doodler off with a kick. Doodler flew and landed against a wall, but minimized the impact by planting her feet against its surface at the last second. Achan rose to her full height and wiped her mouth with her arm. Gasping for air, Achan said. “So you’re the reason why that wall glowed earlier.”
Doodler dropped down from the maze wall with a grin. “Thanks to Joe, I have complete control of every single wall in this maze. I can dictate which side of the maze a wall transports you to, and what’s more, I can control them all from up here.” Doodler said, pointing to her brain. She waved her hand and her giant pencil materialized before her. She grabbed it and lowered her stance. “I don’t know what you two devils are planning, but as long as I’m here you won’t succeed.”
Achan dashed forward. “We’ll just see about that!”
The game of cat and mouse between Akan and Lego wasn’t boding well for the agent. While she could certainly hold her own in a fist fight, a one-on-one with a super alien cat moderator didn’t exactly sound ideal. Running was her only viable option. Problem was, Uncle Joe, the universe, and mysterious cosmic forces all felt like they were conspiring against Akan.
No matter how hard she tried to throw the cat off her trail, Lego was always right behind her with his sword in tow. The RNG factor of the maze walls no longer seemed to matter, for Lego was either popping up from behind walls she passed through, or appearing from another wall in the vicinity. “Doodler…” she said in her head. “She must be controlling these walls somehow.”
Suddenly in the midst of thinking, the sound of lightning cackled behind her. She turned her head slightly, and saw a lighting bolt already zooming her way. Akan ducked down and rolled out of the bolt’s way. As she got up, Lego was already in front of Akan with his katana swinging for her head. She ducked down and crawled behind Lego through his legs. The moment Akan got back up on her feet, she barged shoulder first through a wall on her right and kept her feet peddling. As she disappeared, the wall behind her glowed, and Lego passed through once it stopped.
Even though she had lost Lego for a second, Akan knew he would back immediately. If her theory was correct, Doodler had programmed the walls to track her movements, and then use that data to direct Lego to whatever location the targeted wall sent her to. However, from what Akan had seen so far, only one wall could be altered at a time. It meant she could still throw her enemy off if her movements were quick enough and unpredictable to boot. She decided to put that theory to the test by rushing through a wall up ahead on her right. The moment she passed through, Akan immediately turned right back around and passed through it again. As she vanished on one side, Lego emerged from the opposite side of the rotating wall. He looked confused. He expected to find Akan scurrying away from him, but as he looked down the path he found no trace of her.
“I lost her?!” he shifted his attention to the wall behind him. “But Doodler said as long as I pass through one of those glowing walls I should be able stay on her trail. Gah, what’s going on here?”
It was then that Lego heard the pinging sound of a wall glowing nearby. He snapped around and saw a wall shining in front of him. He almost ran for it immediately, but paused upon noticing that another wall at a dead end was glowing as well. Before he knew it multiple walls surrounding him had been glowing on and off in very short intervals. Lego shook his head. “What the hell…?”
Back on Doodler’s side, Akan’s erratic movements were throwing the data clone’s head for a spin as well. While she could easily link the coordinates between two walls, constantly adjusting them to keep track of Akan’s position was definitely tricky. And an arm flailing Achan wasn’t making her job any easier.
As Achan closed in for a roundhouse kick, Doodle ducked and weaved. As she rose back up she swung her pencil up with Achan’s face in mind. Achan jumped to side in time, however, and launched herself back at the clone. Data Doodler lowered herself down and swept Achan by her feet. Achan fell, and Doodler went to close the deal with an impaling stab. Before the pencil could connect, Achan rolled to her left and bounced back up to her feet. Doodler did the same, and a moment later the two combatants were engaged in an intense staredown.
Achan could only help but to chance a glance at Doodler’s ever glowing arm. If that arm of hers was responsible for the RNG probability integrated into every maze wall, then she would have to figure out how to throw clone’s focus off somehow. She didn’t have too many ideas on hand, nor did she have much time either. For all she knew the administrators could swoop in at any second and put a stop to their plans in a heartbeat.
And then, the air shifted.
“...?”
Data Doodle’s face scrunched up. Her face revealed worry. And it was for good reason.
In another part of the gigantic structure, Akan made it.
“That’s… it!”
Thanks to some strategic decision making and unfathomable luck, Akan had finally arrived at the exit. A short single path lead to Uncle Joe’s main interface. Supercomputers upon supercomputers, all accompanied by blue-lit monitors with various codes running across the screens. Surrounded by these smaller monitors was one humongous monitor with a blank blue screen. This monitor was the main one, and Akan nearly froze in awe from the sight of it.
She ran for it. Her chance was now, and Akan refused to waste it.
On Lego’s end, he had almost given up hope finding his target.
For a moment the glowing walls that kept him on the right path were no longer functioning. The RNG had completely kicked back in, which lead him back to square one: A wild goose chase with no goose in sight.
“Dammit!” he cursed. His sudden unluckiness may have been tied to an unfortunate mishap on Doodler’s end, he posited. If Lego’s hunch was correct, then his luck may have indeed run out.
It was only then that a maze wall in front of him glowed. Lego managed to grab back on to that last shred of hope. Without a second thought, he charged his way through.
Data Doodler was on tilt for just a second. “How did Akan reach Uncle Joe?” she pondered desperately in her head. She was sure that she set the coordinates of every single wall to not lead to Uncle Joe. Where did she go wrong? She had been sloppy.
In that same second Achan noticed Doodler’s uneasiness, and that was all the time she needed to capitalize.
Achan jolted forward, leaving Doodler little time to react. Achan shot a kick towards Doodle’s side. Doodler lowered her pencil and blocked the strike in time. Achan didn’t let up though. She could tell from Doodler’s worried expressions that something was keeping her off focus, and that something may be related to Akan. She jabbed, decking Doodler in the mouth. Doodler stumbled, but bounced back with a roundhouse kick. The blow connected. Achan fell over, and Doodler used that moment to get away. Her arm glowed and she directed it to a wall behind her. She started to run, but stopped upon feeling something tugging her by her leg. She turned her head and found Achan using her leg as support to rise to her feet.
“Where do you think you’re going?!”
As she pulled herself up on the Doodler’s leg, Achan drove a devastating fist to the side of Doodle’s head. Doodle was dazed. Her eyes dilated. For a moment the space around her seemed to glitch in and out of her consciousness. She collapsed onto the ground, and in her momentary fading vision, she caught a glimpse of her enemy slipping past the maze wall she herself was targeting.
The wall that lead to Uncle Joe.
“Crap!”
Doodler quickly rose back up and made an attempt to move, but for some reason her body was slowly ceasing to function. One by one one her limbs began to glitch out of view. She twitched and squirmed, making every attempt to resist her pending fate, but it was of no use. Doodler didn’t want to accept it, but she knew-- Akan had successfully infiltrated Uncle Joe’s mainframe and shut down all of its security programs-- her included.
“I’m sorry Lego, I failed you, and MR…”
With her last fleeting words, the data clone faded away into bits of scattered code
Akan was crunching numbers on the keyboard at lightspeed.
With over a hundred thousand soldiers to register she had to work fast. Luckily, her hacking experience made breaking though Uncle Joe’s main security programs a breeze. Clearly, Hasith had never expected anyone to ever get this far. But first things first. Joe could only do so much. Narcissus had supplied her with an order of operations that would do the most harm in the least amount of time. First came what she knew the machine was capable off. Next would come what they could only hope Joe could achieve. At the rate she was going, overtaking the primary system would take no less than ten full minutes.
If you tossed a raging alien cat to the equation however, then you could probably add an extra five minutes to that estimate.
A blade was closing in behind her. Akan could feel her death incoming. Instinctively, she rolled to the left, leaving the blade to clash with technology. Sparks flew everywhere in the aftermath. Akan got up, and her eyes nearly went sore from once again seeing Lego’s ugly face. “Will you get over yourself already?!”
“Just what the hell are you trying to do?!” Lego swung his blade aimlessly out of frustration. “And tell me the truth, dammit!”
“It’s none of your business, smelly!”
“This is exactly my business you dumb b*tch!”
As they bickered, the sound of footsteps appeared at the edges of their awareness. As they grew louder, both turned to see who was approaching. To Akan’s joy and Lego’s frustration, Achan emerged. Alone.
“Ach-”
Lego cut Akan off and spoke with rage bubbling in his throat. “Achan! Where is Doodler?!”
Achan shrugged. “You mean that half-baked copy?” she smirked. “Probably out of commission by now.”
“Fiend!” Lego shouted. He gritted his teeth and shot towards Achan in a blind fury.
Achan embraced the raging cat with a kick to his stomach. The kick connected, but Lego was unfazed. He swung away, almost mindlessly, which made dodging nearly impossible for Achan. But she was sober, and he was enraged. In the midst of dodging Lego’s flurry, she called to her sister in arms. “I’ll keep him distracted while you finish things on your end!
Akan nodded. “Right!” She ran back to the main monitor and started back to work. As she typed away, images and codes rapidly flashed across the screen. Behind her was mayhem. The sounds of traded blows and cackling lightning perturbed her ears, but she paid them no worry. Her eyes were dead set on the mission in front of her. Distractions could not be afforded. Not after getting this close to accomplishing their goal.
In the meantime Lego was giving Achan hell. She had thought after years of training in secret that she could match Lego in one on one combat, but this Lego was different. No amount of training could subdue the combination of anger and liquor settling in his system. Then again, Lego’s anger was of Achan’s advantage, and Lego was too busy flailing his sword to notice.
Slowly but surely, Achan danced Lego around all the way back to the maze exit. She baited him with mocking taunts, and Lego bit. Ducking another swing, she ran down the path with Lego in hot pursuit. When Achan reached the wall on the far end, she stopped and turned. Sure enough, the moderator was right behind her. Lego thrusted his sword forward, but Achan flipped over him before he could connect.
From there it was checkmate.
"You lose, cat!”
Lego heard Achan’s snarky remark and turned. “What are-!”
Too late.
Before Lego could react, he was met with a mouthful of boot. The power behind it was strong enough to fling him past the wall behind him. He landed with a smack, and the wall turned all the way around. Lego was nowhere to be seen. Wherever in the mazed he had ended up, there was not chance of him returning in time.
Achan sighed in relief and made her way back to Akan. With the Lego finally out of the way, everything else should go as planned.
But as she soon realized, things never go exactly as planned when dealing with a raider.
Upon making her way back to her compatriot, Achan had expected her to be finishing up with Joe. But that wasn’t case. Akan’s hands were not mashing away on the keyboard. They were caught in a firm grip by the hand of Hasith, who did not seem to pleased with Akan.
Noticing Achan’s presence, Hasith swung Akan around in front by her wrist and spoke. “Achan… I figured you would be here as well.”
“Hasith, when did you get here?! Let go of Akan!”
“Be quiet. I’m making sure you two knuckleheads don’t disrupt my city. And as for your request, that is going to be a ‘no’.”
As he said that, the maze trembled.
“Hmm?”
Following that was a rumbling from up above.
“What in the world…?”
Little did Hasith know, his arrival was a tad too late.
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