128 Phase 112: Unexpected

Meanwhile, there was another little boy out there who definitely wasn't feeling safe. At all.

"Help!" Colin left Katrin another voice message and wondered whether any of his calls or messages were getting out of this box at all, much less reach another Dreamworld.

He couldn't get through the padding. He'd been scratching and scratching at it trying to claw a small hole in it, something large enough for him to batter his unextended staff against, just to make some sort of sound so people out there would know someone was inside.

Trying didn't help. He scrabbled until his fingers were sore and he felt sure that if this was the waking world, his fingernails would be been torn off by now. There wasn't so much as a scratch in the padding.

He tried calling everybody. Katrin first, obviously, then Dad, May, and Scarlet… he tried Satrox, Abby, Rita, Henry, even Lynn, Iylara, Michi, Aoi, and Larissa… he went so far as to try calling Jonah, Alicia and Larry.

But nobody responded. At all. Jonah's contact actually disappeared from his contact list before the call so much as connected. Alicia's didn't even ring. Larry's rang and rang, but nobody picked up.

It was like that for literally everybody in his Traveler Watch's phone book. There wasn't a single person left he could call that he hadn't already.

{If I can't even get Dad, who's probably right here on this Dreamworld… then something about this box must be blocking off my comms.}

Despair weighed in. Colin leaned his head on the padding and felt strengthless. He closed his eyes.

{This feeling… it's familiar.} He thought. {I've felt it before, haven't I? Locked away without hope of escape or rescue…}

A chuckle. Colin wasn't sure if it was from his lost memories or from the present, didn't think of how a chuckle might come through the padding in the present when all his yelling had been to no avail.

{"You didn't think we'd die for real, did you? Of course we respawned. We may have lost a battle, but we haven't lost the war."}

There. That voice. Another part of his memories that he had lost. It was coming back.

{God help me… help…}

Something about this situation and its familiarity was jogging his memories. Colin felt sure now. He'd been captured like this before. The padding… it felt familiar.

{"Get yourself out of this one. We've given you the power."}

Power. What power?

Colin's eyes snapped open. As if by an instinct he could scarcely remember, his left hand touched the scar on the back of his right wrist.

"Word." He said, hardly knowing how he knew what to say.

And Something responded.

He felt it happen though he could not see. Something came into being, or perhaps was Warped In from a distance place. It covered his right arm from scar to elbow…

{The bracer. It's appeared.} Colin felt a growing excitement. {Great! Now… what do I do with it?}

He thought about it. He thought about it for a long while.

What {was} he to do with the bracer?

"Fire." He ordered it, hoping it would shoot something. "Um… cut? Hello? Is there an instruction manual?"

The bracer didn't respond. It just sat on his arm like a dead weight. Well, it wasn't really heavy or anything, but it wasn't exactly saving the day either.

{How do I use this thing? I'm sure this was supposed to be that 'power' that could save me…}

But for the life of him, he couldn't remember.

He felt at it. The curvatures, the lines… it felt like there were places in it that would open up or something. But there were no switches, no buttons of any sort.

"Um… activate! Switch on!" Colin tried voice commands again. What was it he'd said to Warp it in? "Word!"

But there was no further response. The bracer just stayed still on his forearm.

"Uh… help?" Colin tried at last.

The bracer stayed silent.

Something else, however, sheared a corner off the box.

Colin blinked at the sudden light streaming in from above. {Somehow, I don't think the Gaians would cut a piece off the box like that. They'd just open it normally…}

"Colin?" the voice that called his name was a girl's.

"Katrin? May? Gracie? Kate?!" Colin guessed wildly, unable to place the owner of that voice.

"Colin!" the voice was heavy with relief. "Hold on! I'll get you out of there!"

"Wait! Who…?" Colin paused. "Um…"

"Shut up." She barked, and suddenly Colin recognized it.

"Alicia?!" Colin gasped. Of all people, she would have been one of the last three he'd expect a rescue from.

"Colin, can I just {kill} you?" Alicia barked. "Would you respawn somewhere…?"

"Uh… I don't know!" Colin said.

"I mean, you wouldn't just be stuck there screaming in pain if I stuck a sword through your chest, right?"

Colin gulped. "I really, really don't know! Please don't! That really doesn't sound like a good idea!"

Where'd she get a sword from, anyway?

{Silly question. I've got my own Adventura Import Link right here, don't I?}

"Is anyone else with you? Dad? Mom?" Colin asked hopefully, then grimaced. {What am I saying? Of course there'd be Jonah and Larry with her…}

"Just the Prayerman." Alicia said.

{The PRAYERMAN?! What the…?!} Colin didn't know what to think. "What's the {Prayerman} doing here?!"

"I needed help." Alicia said crossly. "Now, shut up and let me cut you out…"

"Careful!" Colin winced, trying to get as far away from that sliced corner as he could.

There was a jerk, and a short, two-edged sword slammed through the box's top, just inches over Colin's head. It got stuck halfway, leaving him to stare at the razor-sharp edge that still couldn't quite cut through the whole box and all the padding. "What {is} this thing made of?!"

"Careful!" Colin said again, trying his best to crouch lower and away from that blade. He covered his face with his bracer, thinking that at the very worst case, it could at least be good for something.

Alicia hacked at the box repeatedly, missing the first opening at least half the time, but after four successful hits at the same spot, managed at last to clear away the top of the box.

Colin scrambled out as fast as he could, and looked around for any sign of the Green Men.

But there was nobody there. They were in Gardens Dreamworld sure enough, with a small picnic area in the distance, a broad lake at the side, and grassy rolling hills all around… but no Green Men.

And no Prayerman either. Just Alicia, a short sword in her hand, and a boy with blue eyes and brown hair wearing a winged costume behind her.

"Who's that?" Colin asked, still glancing around for the cultists. "That's not the Prayerman."

"Who are you talking about?" Alicia blinked.

"Your friend there." Colin pointed. "Nice costume, by the way. I didn't know there was an Import Link that could give you wings."

Alicia jumped, turning to her friend to exchange wide eyed looks. Colin didn't bother them, instead, inspecting his little prison for a time. "Ugh. This looks like a coffin. Thanks, Alicia. I was really getting…"

What? Scared?

"…{worried}, there, for a bit." Colin shifted uncomfortably. "Just a little. And your friend too, assuming he helped?"

Alicia glanced at them both carefully before answering. "He helped. The Prayerman did too; but he's off chasing the Green Men away."

"Trust a Prayerman to deal with religious goons." Colin grimaced. He held out a hand to Alicia's friend. "Thanks for helping. What's your name?"

Her friend shook Colin's hand cautiously while Alicia stared. He introduced himself politely. "Hazael."

"Nice to meet you, Hazel." Colin answered, not quite able to mimic that little twist at the end of the name. He turned back to Alicia. "What happened to Jonah and Larry?"

"I… sort of left them behind." Alicia trailed off.

"How did you find me?" Colin asked next, looking around. "I don't even know where I am."

"The…" Alicia paused. "Hazel. He showed me."

Colin turned back to Hazel. "How did…"

He trailed off. Hazel was gone.

"He does that a lot." Alicia offered by way of explanation. "Disappears on me all the time."

"I… see." Colin didn't see at all, really, but he left it alone. The important thing was… "Let's get out of here before any more Green Men arrive. Where's the nearest Tram?"

"Blossoming Gardens Mall." Alicia pointed. "Back two hills over that way."

They ran for it. There were people picnicking around, but nobody commented on one boy and one girl running across the grassy hills together. That sort of thing happened all over this Dreamworld, usually with older kids, even with adults.

They reached Blossoming Gardens Mall near where the two quarreling boys had finally gotten their dads involved in their argument.

"Daddy! He says his daddy is going to beat you up!"

"{He} says {his} daddy is going to make you cry!"

The two dads met, both large, well-built men, one tanned, one fair-skinned. They held out a hand each in greeting and shook. "Hello."

"Hey." The other dad said. "Any idea what this is about?"

"Probably just some bragging." The first dad mentioned. "You're not really going to start a fight just because your son says so, are you?"

"My son does what I tell him to do, not the other way around." The other dad mentioned.

"I was thinking the same thing." The first dad agreed. "What say we teach them a little lesson on getting along?"

"Sounds about right." The other dad said.

The fair-skinned son pouted to his dad. "Aren't you going to make him cry?"

His dad turned on him just as the other dad turned on his son. The fair dad said, "No. But you know what? If you boys don't behave yourselves and be good from now on, {both} of us are going to make the two of you cry!"

"UWAAAA!!!" screaming, the two boys ran away together, no longer quarreling in the least.

Meanwhile, the two dads turned to each other. "Coffee?"

"Sure."

But the screaming had already done its damage. The boys ran right past Colin and Alicia, dragging with them the attention of every adult around the mall…

...including quite a few Green Men.

"Oh great." Colin groaned as the Green Men started towards them. "Alicia, you better get out of here while you still can. I'll draw them off."

"And waste all my effort coming all this way? Forget it." Alicia snorted. "We have to run."

But when Colin ran, he ran towards the side entrance of Blossoming Gardens Mall. "We can't outrun them! Even if we made the tram, they'd be able to catch up or stop it. We need to lose them first!"

"In the Mall? But there are more of them in there!" Alicia protested.

Colin didn't hesitate. He dashed in the side entrance, Alicia trailing after. {Have to… get away…}

[Must get away.] A voice stirred within and beyond.

Colin almost tripped. {Who…? What…? Where…?}

[Get away from… the Gaians…]

Colin felt it. A young boy running into a mall to get away from the Cult of Gaia…

{Cody.}

"What?" Colin stared as a Gate appeared right in front of him.

Alicia barely managed a yelp before both of them went tumbling right into it.

***

They walked into a hazy world that was not quite… complete. Colin glanced around, and found everything around made of half-formed images, there but not quite {there}, as if made of smoke, or damaged holo-projectors.

The only things here that seemed fully solid were himself and Alicia.

"Colin…" Alicia whispered. "Where {are} we…? How did we…? Gates don't just {open} in the middle of nowhere! Things like that don't {happen} in Dreamworlds!"

But even as she said it, her face went white. She, too, had to remember what their parents said.

The night Colin disappeared. The night all of this began… when he'd vanished for a few hours, and lost his memories… it had begun like this. With a Gate that appeared out of nowhere, right in front of him, too quickly for him to avoid.

"Am I going to lose my memories too?" Alicia whispered, frightened.

"I don't know." Colin answered honestly. "I can't remember anything. But I think… I think the Cult was involved somehow. And where the Cult's involved…"

"Kids lose their memories." Alicia shivered. "I did too."

Alicia, Colin remembered, had been nabbed by the Cult quite recently, grabbed from Nakama World along with Jonah and Larry. All three had been returned with gifts and apologies… and no memory of what just happened over the past few hours.

{And I… even before the Green Men started hunting for us Eight, I already had a few missing hours. A few hours I couldn't remember… after I ran through a Gate just like that one. A Gate that appeared out of nowhere.}

Colin's thoughts were going round and round in circles. He shook himself to clear it. "Well, there's good news and bad news."

"What's the bad news?" Alicia got straight to the point.

"The good news…" Colin said, still trying to cheer her up for some reason. "Is that the Green Men definitely won't be able to find us here. The Gate's shut."

Alicia turned around and saw it. Once the two of them had run through the Gate, it had vanished behind them.

"And…?" Alicia waited, not willing to ask the same question twice.

"Well…" Colin gulped. "I don't know how we got here or how to get back."

"In short…" Alicia took a deep breath. "We're lost."

Colin winced. "Actually, it's worse."

"How could it get worse?" Alicia demanded, fright now turning to anger.

"Thing is… this place… it doesn't look quite… {finished}." Colin said. "So… well… I don't see any way out."

Alicia's face went from white to near-transparent. Colin didn't think something like that was even possible, but it seemed that in Dreamworlds, or at least this half-formed Wherever/Whatever, it could happen.

Colin summarized it for her. "We're stuck."