Chapter 7 - The Mad Mayor's Manor Part 2

Jared decided to just ignore Patty-Cake's comment as he sent the information to the others so that they can check it out since as of right now, all information about anything to do with any part of this town is a welcomed piece of information.

Jared soon said "Brooks, investigate the scroll."

And so Brooks went back to the front of the stuffed bear and carefully took out the scroll. He looked at it and since his squad has encountered a couple anomalous items so far, he decided to ask "Hammers-Man, you got any tech on you that can detect cognito-hazards?"

Hammers-man replied "You mean those anomalies that when you look at them they mess with you?"

"Yeah. Well, do you?"

"The tech we Omega-45 operatives use is usually weaponry due to the restraints of their design and creation" solemnly replied Hammers-Man.

Brooks takes out an old, seemingly very beat up quarter and sort of rubs it lovingly before flipping it. It lands on heads and Brooks sighs before he gently and quite slowly opens the scroll.

Inside the scroll was a language he had never seen before. The letters of the language were sharp and brutish while others were smooth and curvy almost like cursive. There were also diagrams of various creatures and entities.

Some of the creatures appeared human-like while others were so beyond the correctness of reality that they just felt wrong. Dogs who had the face of man yet with the legs of a crab, lions with manes of scorpion stingers, and all manner of horrors.

"Well, I'm not that surprised. Luckily it isn't a cognito-hazard" said Brooks calmly.

"Still quite unnerving though, no?" replied Hammers-Man just as calmly.

While they were reacting calmly the supervisors of the mission were less calm as they tried to found out any and all information about the language. The best they could find were a couple of pictures taken of some markings in a few caves in Canada that somewhat resembled the language in the scroll.

"Is it me or does the scroll look more like the a page of a book that was taken out?" asked Hammers-Man and due to this question the gears clicked in Jared's and the various others sitting comfortably in their offices or mission rooms.

"That scroll has a decent possibility of being a page from the real book that the copy found in the museum is based on." said Jared to Squad 19 and the squad from Omega-45.

"So we should keep an eye out for any other secret compartments that might contain more pages, right?" asked Butter-boy who was current checking out a dining hall with a heavy and old looking oak table.

Carved onto the side of the table was the same language that was written onto the paper. Butter-boy guessed that what was carved onto the side was some sort of dinner prayer and considering what the Mayor and his family considered as dinner, the prayer was probably disturbing at best.

Against the walls of the dining hall were, oddly enough, mannequins wearing various articles of clothing. Some were wearing dresses, some suits, some just jeans and a t-shirt. It all felt... odd. The mannequins were posed in different ways... of fear and panic. Some with their arms over there heads, others seems to be made to look like they were trying to run away.

"You think it's a puzzle?" asked Xlotl but Butter-boy did not reply as he continued to look at the mannequins.

"Hey, Jared?" said Butter-boy rather out of nowhere in an odd, almost monotonous and emotionless voice.

"Yeah?" replied Jared who sounded like he was keeping an eye on the other pairs.

"Did the town or surrounding towns or counties ever have a large amount of missing persons recently?" asked Butter-boy.

Before Jared could reply, Fyre said over the coms "I'm thinking the same thing Butter-boy. Jared, Captain Kent and I found what we can only describe as a trophy room."

Jared took a look at the screen showing what Fyre and the captain of the other squad were seeing and he saw a room with purses, jewelry, wallets and the like. They were in a room that looked like a copy of the dining hall. The items were on pedestals and each pedestal had a symbol on it.

"Butter-boy, do the mannequins have any symbols on them?" asked Jared.

And so Butter-boy went up to the mannequins that were wearing the clothes of "missing" individuals. He carefully looks at a few of them and noticed two thing, which he relayed back to Jared.

"On the palm of the mannequin's left hand is a symbol, but on the palm of the right is a button, I think." replied Butter-boy before Xlotl squealed out "It is a puzzle!"

Jared was thinking the same and began discussing it with both the others watching the cameras, his supervisors, and the various scientists.

Fyre soon said "Jared, are the symbols on the pedestals in the same order as the symbols on the mannequins?"

Jared soon had Butter-boy look at each of the mannequins and soon said to Fyre "No, they aren't... What if we had either Butter-boy or Xlotl press the buttons in the same order as the pedestals?"

"That could work... We should start clockwise instead of counter." replied Fyre.

But since Squad 19 did not have access to tech that shows them pictures sent or anything of that nature, Jared and Frye had to play a game of verbal charades until Butter-boy got it right and eventually, an excruciatingly long eventually, a loud CLACK, CLANK, and KRRRRRRNG noise was heard throughout the manor.

A wall in the dining room is lowered and a spiral staircase is seen leading downwards. Fyres voice soon said over the coms "Everyone should head over to the dining hall. Be careful, if there are any hostiles in here they heard that."

After about fifteen minutes, all the pairs had managed to reach the dining room. They all stared at the opening that lead below the manor.

"Where does it lead?" Some wondered.

"We should just burn this manor, and this town to the ground." Believed others.

While Butter-boy started to feel something. A scratch in the back of his mind. Or perhaps a pull. Was it dread? Or perhaps a sense of longing. Butter-boy thought it was both.

Fyre who always made sure to notice when her squad mates were off, quickly noticed that Butter-boy's body posture suggested he was confused.

"Butter-boy. What is your status?" asked Fyre.

Although the question confused some, to Squad 19, they understood. It was Frye's best way of asking "Are you all right?"

"Not sure. But something isn't right." replied Butter-boy which made anyone not part of Squad 19 panic thinking he was infected with the mutated 008.

"I feel the same." replied Fyre, although this was less due to a feeling of fated dread and more due to her animalist instincts yelling at her that they were being led somewhere by someone and that what laid at the end was death and misery.