Dr. Ferris appears in an empty room, with a single door, sealed behind a combination lock. A number of chalk outlines of human bodies in various positions cover the floor and walls. Dr. Ferris pauses for a moment.
Dr. Ferris; Hmm... I have no idea which Fear this room is supposed to represent...
Dr. Ferris looks around, before turning to face the door.
Dr. Ferris; Well, I don't see a timer or any indication that there's a time limit here...
Dr. Ferris sits down, carefully observing each chalk outline.
Dr. Ferris; Might as well take my time solving this.
Several minutes pass, before a voice comes on over the loudspeaker.
Mysterious Voice; Well, hello there! Dr. Ferris, correct? Are you having trouble with this room?
Dr. Ferris; Hm? Oh, no. I figured out the combination a while ago. I was just double checking my calculations. I'm sorry, who are you?
Mysterious Voice; Oh, you see, Acelegin and Red Daniel have tragically perished.
Dr. Ferris; Unfortunate, but not unexpected.
Mysterious Voice; So I've come to step in as commentator!
Dr. Ferris; Equally unfortunate...
Mysterious Voice; Anyway, you are now in an escape room themed after the Ivory Woman! The solution requires you to-
Dr. Ferris; The combination is 36 right, 12 left, 17 right, then tug my left earlobe. I managed to figure that all out by examining the angle of the outline's limbs.
Mysterious Voice; Um... How did you figure out the earlobe thing?
Dr. Ferris; Fuck you, that's how.
A large portion of one wall suddenly collapses, and Quan steps through the hole.
Quan; Oh, hey Doc. What's this room about?
Mysterious Voice; Greetings, Derek Quanford! You have unfortunately triggered this rooms defense protocols, and you are both about to be incinerated!
Several hatches open up on the ceiling, and flames begin raining down from them.
Dr. Ferris; Dammit! You imbecile!
Dr. Ferris teleports up to Quan, grabs him, and they both vanish.
The two of them reappear in a different room. Quan collapses in pain.
Quan; Fuck! Warn a dude next time you decide to drag him through the God's Way!
Dr. Ferris; It's your own damn fault! What were you thinking? Just bursting your way into random rooms you know nothing about? You can't just punch your way through every problem!
Quan rises to his feet, as the loudspeaker comes back on.
Mysterious Voice; Well, hello you two! You seem to have teleported into the Rake themed room! Something should be done about that...
Glowing runes appear along the walls.
Dr. Ferris; Dammit. More of these...
Mysterious Voice; Now, now, if you're concerned about being... how did you put it... "tethered?"... You aren't as limited as you were in the first room! You both may make use of your respective teleportation methods, but you will be confined to this room.
Dr. Ferris teleports to the other side of the room.
Dr. Ferris; They're right. I can still use the God's Way, but I can't leave this space...
Quan; I'll take your word for it. So just who is this asshat?
Dr. Ferris; They seem to be our new announcer, now that Acelegin and Red Daniel are... unavailable...
Quan; Think there's more to it?
Dr. Ferris; Obviously. But more data is needed before a conclusion is reached. So, what's the deal with this room?
Several lights come on overhead, further illuminating the room. There is a single, barred door on the South wall, a High-Striker game with a mallet leaning next to it on the West wall, a Punch-Testing game on the North wall, and a Whack-A-Mole-esque game on the East wall.
Mysterious Voice; This room is rather simple. Solve every challenge in this room, and the door will open. Between the 2 of you, 3 failures will be permitted. Any more than that, and... well...
Hatches open on the ceiling.
Mysterious Voice; Incineration.
Dr. Ferris; Wonderful...
Quan; What the hell do carnival games have to do with the Rake?
Mysterious Voice; That's for me to know, and you to figure out.
Quan; Just who is this prick?
Dr. Ferris; Not sure yet. But it's something I intend to find out.
Quan; So, why are you still here? You regained access to the God's Way earlier. Why didn't you just bail?
Dr. Ferris; Why would I? I love escape rooms. Bit of a hobby of mine. Put the mind and problem-solving skills to a proper test. Furthermore...
Dr. Ferris glares at a security camera on the ceiling.
Dr. Ferris; I wanna figure out who's running this whole thing. And I can't solve that mystery if I leave.
Quan cracks his knuckles.
Quan; Good point. I'd like to deck whoever's in charge in the fucking face.
Dr. Ferris; Then we're in agreement. We work together. For now.
Quan; Got it.
They both approach the Punch-Testing machine. Dr. Ferris sighs.
Dr. Ferris; Damn it. I can't believe I'm saying this, but it looks like we need to punch our way through this problem...
Quan; Ha! I'm just the man for the job.
Quan prepares to throw a punch, but Dr. Ferris stops hm by hooking his arm with his cane.
Dr. Ferris; Hold on. Let me examine this machine for a minute. There might be more to it.
Quan; Ugh, fine. Buzzkill.
Dr. Ferris looks over the machine. His hair turns black, and his eyes begin glowing red.
Dr. Ferris; I see... We need to hit it with just the right amount of force. We need to hit it with a minimum of 5000 Newtons.
Quan; Oh, I can do that easily.
Dr. Ferris; There's a catch. This thing is rigged to explode if we go over 10K.
Quan; I see. So, I've gotta hold back. Hmm... Gimme a sec.
Quan picks up a pebble off the ground, and flicks it at the pad of the Punch-Testing machine. The counter goes up to 5461, and a bell rings, as confetti rains down from the ceiling.
Dr. Ferris; How on Earth did you...?
Quan; Escape rooms are one of your hobbies. Shooting marbles is one of mine. I know how to measure the strength of my flicks.
Dr. Ferris; Well, you've got some damn strong thumbs...
The 2 move on to the Whack-A-Mole machine.
Quan; So, what's the deal with this one?
Dr. Ferris; Let me have a look.
Dr. Ferris's hair turns black again, and his eyes turn red. He examines the machine for a bit.
Dr. Ferris; Hmm. Seems to be Whack-A-Fear. Inside are a rotating group of Fear models. No telling which Fear will pop out of which hole at what time. Hitting different Fears have a different effect on the score.
Quan; So we wanna go for the more valuable ones?
Dr. Ferris; Yes and no. Like the last game, we don't wanna go above a certain threshold. We wanna get at least 1000 points, while keeping it bellow 1300.
Quan; So, which Fears do we focus on?
Dr. Ferris; Avoid the Vision. It'd be like picking up a random penny on the street. It's technically money, but not valuable enough to have any value. Don't bother hitting the Cold Boy or Unnamed Child either, unless our score goes over the threshold.
Quan; Will they cost us points?
Dr. Ferris; Cold boy shaves off 50 from our total, and the Unnamed Child brings us down by 6 percent.
Quan; Got it. So, what are the good ones?
Dr. Ferris; Slender Man is worth 20, Archangel is worth 50, Valvarn is a bonus 5 percent of our current score, Wooden Girl is an extra 10 percent, and the Brute grants a random amount between 1 and 300. Hitting the Rake will double our current score, but it only pops up for a split second, making it the hardest to hit.
Quan; Huh. I think I'm starting to catch onto the theme here...
Dr. Ferris; How so?
Quan; You know how the Rake is usually portrayed as being a feral creature, but is secretly super intelligent? Well, I think the theme of these games is-
Dr. Ferris; Calculated Savagery...
Quan; I was gonna say "Smart violence", but... yeah.
Quan picks up the games hammer.
Quan; Keep an eye on the score. I'll get started.
Quan starts up the machine, and begins smacking the Fears as they come up. After a while, Dr. Ferris catches Quan's arm with his cane.
Dr. Ferris; You've gone over. Hit the next Cold Boy or Unnamed Child you see.
Quan nods, and hits an Unnamed Child as it pops up. The score falls just below 1300. Quan waits for the timer to buzz, and more confetti falls from the ceiling.
Quan; That's 2 challenges down. Just one left, right?
Dr. Ferris; So it would seem.
Quan; That last one is one of those "bring the hammer down to ring the bell" things, right?
Dr. Ferris; Looks like it.
They both approach the High-Striker game.
Quan; Same as the last 2, right? Try to hit it just hard enough, but not too hard?
Dr. Ferris; Maybe. I have an idea, though...
Quan; Oh yeah?
Dr. Ferris; You know that one trope, where people hit these things so hard, that the bell gets knocked off?
Quan; Sure. What about it?
Dr. Ferris; Well, my hypothesis is that that's the limit here. We hit it as hard as possible, without the bell getting dislodged.
Quan; Makes sense.
Dr. Ferris; So then, if we render the bell incapable of being removed, it won't matter how hard we hit it.
Quan; Huh... Do you wanna examine this one to be sure?
Dr. Ferris; Well, we are allowed a total of 3 failures, and we haven't failed yet. So why not take a chance? Half the fun of escape rooms is the risk factor.
Quan; Well, our lives are sort of on the line here...
Dr. Ferris; Which is why we'll only try this once. If it doesn't work, I'll give this machine a closer look, and see if there's another way to go about this.
Quan; Okay. So, how do we keep it still.
Dr. Ferris raises a hand, focusing on the bell.
Dr. Ferris; Leave that to me. You land the blow.
Quan lifts the mallet, takes a breath, and hits the lever with all his might. The puck rises, hitting the bell, and confetti fall from the ceiling yet again.
Quan; Wow. I was worried I put too much into that. How'd you do that?
Dr. Ferris; Empty City's power. Let's me control metal and rock. Which includes holding it still.
Quan; Neat. So, uh... Why is the door still barred shut?
Mysterious Voice; Congratulations! You've solved 3 of the challenges set before you. However, as I said, you must solve every challenge in this room. And there is still 1 left.
Quan; And what would that be?
Mysterious Voice; Why, each other, of course!
Dr. Ferris; Excuse me?
Mysterious Voice; You see, I've been observing you both. You work well together. Managed to avoid failing even once. You make a great team! Brawns and brains, in perfect balance! Aha!
The Mysterious Voice lets out an audible sigh, and shifts to a darker tone.
Mysterious Voice; I can't have that.
Quan; What do you mean?
Mysterious Voice; I mean that only 1 of you may continue. The other... well...
Dr. Ferris; You expect us to fight to the death.
Mysterious Voice; Bingo! There's a reason you're the smart one! Now, get to it. That door won't open 'til one of you is dead.
Dr. Ferris sighs.
Dr. Ferris; What a pain...
Quan; So, that's it, then? We gotta come to blows.
Quan pulls a pair of fingerless gloves out of his back pocket and begins sliding them on.
Dr. Ferris; It appears so.
The 2 begin circling each other. A glyph resembling a lightning bolt flashes briefly on the back of Quan's right glove.
Quan; What a shame. This team up was pretty fun.
Dr. Ferris; I suppose so.
Dr. Ferris clicks a switch on his cane, revealing the sword concealed inside of it. A glyph resembling a snowflake briefly appears on the back of Quan's left glove.
Dr. Ferris; For what it's worth, I'm sorry for what comes next.
Dr. Ferris draws his blade, pointing it at Quan. Quan chuckles.
Quan; You speak like you've already won. But you don't seem to understand.
Quan's muscles begin bulging, and his body increases slightly in size.
Quan; I ain't you're typical Enhanced, buddy.
A dark aura envelopes Quan, and he glares into Dr. Ferris's eyes.
Quan; I'm the mother-hugging OG!
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