The Athenaeum Pt.2

After that Jean started to seek the others and I had to move towards the centre of the platform, since it is considered a lobby for the captured said Jean after she caught me and she also said, "The man under the Overseer said that I can't explain more than that because he would explain it individually to each and everyone here and the timer given is 8 minutes the same number as we are in counting"

She didn't say much after that and went on to tag the others and I had to wait till the others were also caught, I went on to be so bored that laid next to one of the ruin pillars and slept till George woke me and asked me, "Were you caught?", I didn't reply and then laid on to the pillar. George continued, "Are you still mad about me getting along with Jean?... maybe you are I really can't blame you because Ya, she is a girl about our age but I wanted to be friendly around her since she might miss her friends like you miss the others getting separated from us, like Allan... about him I...".

As he was about to continue Hassan tapped on his shoulder and said, "Hey! I saw you got caught so I surrendered", George replied, "Brother I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been by thy side", they then hugged it off melodramatically, I had to act along for them like I used to do it often while Hassan, George and I hang out together during all those Conventions, It has been a while since it has just been us three hanging around each other. The last time we hung out was at the Anime Convention 2045, I had dressed as a Character from One Piece named Nami, Hassan had dressed as a Character from Naruto as Naruto and George got dressed up as Monkey.D.Luffy from One Piece same as mine since it was the 23rd Aniversary since its Anime came to an end and so did Hassan he came as Naruto on the 28th Aniversary since its Anime came to an end. That was one of the best days I had with them I won't ever forget that because it was a day after the 5th Year Death Aniversary of my Dad, they used to take me to different other conventions to cheer me up. I then said to follow it up, "What about me shouldn't we stay alongside each other to vanquish the demons as the prophecy has spoken", They then glared at me for a moment, then George smiled and put his right hand in the middle of us like the round table, So, Hassan also joined along with it and put his right hand on top of George's and then I also put my right hand on top of Hassan's. George said, "Even if I part ways with any of you, I will strong for you all as a guardian!".

Hassan and I laughed and I said, "Well, If you are the guardian we are already doomed, So I will be yours", Then we saw Diana coming towards us meaning she had been caught. As she reached us Jean was also behind her, Jean then said, "My Timer is empty!"

We all were confused here that, Then HGs beeped and the voice said, "My apologies for not introducing myself, I was too focused on my duties, My job is as an Assistant to the Overseer, You can call me the Viceroy of the Asylum and I will inform you the rest after the game is over on both the Pieces and now the 2nd Tagger stay in the centre and the others can go on to hid"

Diana stayed whilst we went to go hide. later after a few minutes, she started moving quickly to catch the others, She caught George first, then well Hassan joined him, She then caught Andrew and lastly, she caught John. Then Diana said, "My Timer is empty!", the same way Jean did. I could say that that is how they end each other's turn.

Then came John's turn, he had to stay in the middle again as the others did. He first caught Benjamin, he did find me but he told me to stay down, I couldn't make out why didn't he catch me. After John left me he had noticed Jean hiding and then went after her and caught her, then he also caught George and Hassan hiding together this time well at this point they have been caught every single time. Lastly, he had caught Andrew too, he could have caught me with it if he wanted to. John then said, "My Timer is empty!"

Now it was my turn, I was already curious enough to know what were the rules and what if we lose. As I reached the centre my HG beeped and the Viceroy said, "Hello there you were the interesting one the Overseer was talking about, Alexa! If you are worried about your brother don't be he is doing well along with the others who are the same age as him. I can presume you have a vague memory of coming here and you ask yourself why are you here, it is not odd that you don't remember well. You know that there are videotapes or cassettes, the Overseer had put out on 3 different floors, one of them contains what you want to know and explains how are you here and why too", I was surprised to hear it from him, So, I was speechless and let him continue, "Well and the Game of Tag has a timer of 8 minutes and when it is done you have to call out "My Tumer is empty!", So, It can record your catch and also you have to tag them with the gloves that will fall on you... now", And ya the gloves dropped on my head, I took it and wore it. The Viceroy then continued, "You can keep them as move on ahead and as you do that the HG on your neck will be deactivated and the gloves will be what you will be wearing it is comfortable in any temperature, it cools your hand while you feel hot, it also heats you up when you feel cold or it normal just warms you up like any other gloves. This device as you see covers your palm but not your fingers and on top of your palm, you see the number 0, it is based on the game you are playing right now, as you tag someone the number changes and you can only tag a person once. And finally, this device is called the G for Gear, If you want to know what does HG stand for it is Headspiral Gear, it was the first device we made it is certainly hard to fixate it in the neck, but the Overseer is good at it still he had made devices to fixate it into the nerves of your neck carefully. That is all, I have to say for now Alexa, I know you want to ask a lot of questions but I will give you another chance later", then the HG just beeped off.

The G just beeped and the "0" started to blink and around it were 8 dots which meant the timer for the game since the game had already started. I knew this would be hard, So, I had planned in advance on catching them, since I know them well I will use that to my advantage. I first thought of Benjamin on how to lure him out, I took off one of my shoes and threw it to the left side of mine, Then saw the others shift their positions. I had noticed almost everyone except Benjamin, So, I look at the right side and found Benjamin immediately since I had known where he would have been hiding. He hid in the front row of the Ruins just next to the centre, I tagged him then and went to the side where I had seen the others and caught George and Hassan, I didn't catch Hassan exactly he just surrendered like the previous times he did. And then I caught Diana and lastly John. Then finished my turn saying, "My Timer is empty!"

And now it was Hassan's turn. He caught George first, well we can't say anything about them giving up in the game. He then caught Diana and when it was almost time-up Jean revealed her location and eventually gave herself up. And then Hassan said, "My Timer is empty!"

Then came Andrew's turn. He actually did play the game well, He first caught Diana, since it was obvious to him where she would hide since she always hid right next to where Andrew hid and when it came to him tagging this time she just hid in the first row of the Ruins next to the centre. Then he tagged George and told him to keep quiet while he catch the rest of them, he mainly wanted to catch Hassan rather than give up in the game and so he did catch Hassan hiding in the last row of the Ruins. While he was searching for Hassan he did notice a few like Jean and Benjamin and caught them after tagging Hassan. He also did see John but moved away from his previous position and then it was time-up for Andrew. He ended his turn saying, "My Timer is empty!"

Now it's Benjamin's turn, he would normally be the one struggling during tag since he is handicapped but so is what I thought till we saw the brilliant way he played the game. His first target was John and taunted him to change his as he felt he got closer to him and it worked brilliantly, he taunted him by saying, "I totally don't get it why this game has to be played with only one tagger at a time can't I just tag someone and ask him to join me to catch the rest that could work, I don't know who to tag except the one I want to call my bestie and brother. Who else but..."

As he was about to continue John just up from his position and ran towards Benjamin crying with happiness saying, "Come On! You knew I wouldn't abandon you for my life, bro.", whilst John hugged Benjamin.

Benjamin then said, "I am sorry! I did that to you. You know I hate to lose, I don't like playing with my friends but I had to do it to you since you were the hardest to catch. If you are thinking of helping me catch the others don't I have already caught the others even before I had to catch you since you were the target I wanted to catch you but I had to spot all of their positions and where they would after I had told them just like how I had done just now", Well we all felt it was just a bluff to get us out off are spots.

Then he did the craziest thing ever, Benjamin said, "If think it is a bluff I will prove to you, you all might think you can keep changing. Ya, you actually can but also you can't since I had already tagged every single of you even before I planned on how to go for John, if you want me to prove that also I can reveal the positions you are on now!"

Some of us were thinking that Benjamin might have outplayed all of us, while the others thought that he playing the game with bluffs all around just like he did to John. Well, then Benjamin continued, "Well, Well, I guess none will come till I say. Alright then, here it goes there are 12 rows and I will number the 1st row the one closest to the centre and the 12th row the farthest away from the centre. And there are 2 openings in the 1st row and 3 openings in the 2nd row and goes like that till 13 openings in the 12th row. And George and Hassan are in the 4th row, 2 openings away from each other. It was obvious in Jean's and Diana's position because I was the quarrel you both had on the 11th row and if you both hadn't fought I wouldn't have noticed Andrew on the 12th row just behind the opening next to Diana, Oh! And both Diana and Jean were hiding just next to each other meaning just 1 opening between both of you, And Alexa on the 5th row it took me time to find you and that is why I had to take to my time to plan for John and that's all", Then he sighed and ended his turn saying, "My Timer is empty!"

Well, Of course, we all were in shock after that even was John who got caught last after he had told all that, he was more of a gaped in awe situation than in shock. We had to move on from it since it was George's turn now. It was going as we thought since Hassan tried to surrender himself but George told no to him and said, "I want to play fair because I have seen the others have been trying their best so I have to do my best too"

And He did well in the beginning as he caught Hassan by searching around and then also found Jean almost immediately since they both had hidden in the 5th row, 2 openings from each other and she didn't think she could get away from him because Hassan had noticed her, So, he would notify George on Jean being beside the same spot as he hid. But it was over for George and ended his turn saying with a sigh, "My Timer is empty"

Now the game was in our Piece we had to wait till the Viceroy instructs us on what to do next. Then our Gs beeped the Viceroy said, "Sorry! You all at the 1st Piece had to wait a while since the game in the 2nd Piece just got over and we had some issues with them but now it is resolved. They now have their own G same as the others in Pieces 3,4 and 5 and well since there seem to be only 2 survivors on the 3rd Piece, here is a thing I made the 2nd Piece play the game for fun and get along with each other. While the 1st Piece played this because the last 3 of you will join the 3rd Piece along with the other two. And here are the positions... 1st place is 7 [Benjamin] with 8 points out of 8, 2nd place is 6 [Andrew] with 7 points out of 8, 3rd place with a joint point of 5 points out of 8 are 3 [John] and 4 [Alexa], 4th place with a joint point of 4 out of 8 are 1 [Jean] and 2 [Diana], 5th place is 5 [Hassan] with 3 points out of 8 and lastly, 6th place is 8 [George] with 2 points out of 8"

Then The Viceroy continued, "Since there are no clear last 3 members except 8 and 5. You can choose between yourself and do what you want and send a person along with them or I will give you an obvious choice that is one of the 4th places by voting upon it voting between the winners between 1st to 3rd.

It all of a sudden got so intense in here after we heard the G beeped off. It all seemed like it was going well till we heard three of us had to stay behind to go to the 3rd Piece. We as in John, Benjamin, Diana, Andrew and Me went on ahead past the door leaving Jean George and Hassan behind at the platform of the Hive, we had voted Diana to stay and Jean to join the 3rd Piece. We made it to the elevator and were off to the 45th Floor that the Viceroy called The Athenaeum, Meanwhile George, Jean and Hassan were scared of what was to happen to them and then their G beeped and said, "Well, Well it seems like you three are the losers of the bout the gift for you surprising at first but it seems like it won't be fun anymore for me, Oh! if you hadn't noticed from the voice I am back! I was a bit busy I had to look into the 6th Piece and seems like There is a Grovelor that had gone rampant and evolved into something unusually Suspisiously stronger than I had expected it to get if any. And if you want to know how will you reach the 3rd Piece, you don't have to do anything just stay there", As he said that the Platform started to shake and then it shook a bit wild as the Platform moved downward and they came to see a path below the large gate and that there was a pathway just under them felt unreal to them. they went into the Snarl leading to the 3rd Piece as reached the end of the pathway they met a couple named Lucas and Rose on the 3rd Piece. Lucas said, "Welcome to our Asylum!"...