Work Text:
“What?” Ragatha asked, “What do you mean…?” Gangle asked her before Pomni just suddenly took off, “Wait, Pomni, where are you going!?” Ragatha shouted. Pomni ran to the big block that the shadow figure was lurking behind, but when she reached the spot and peered around the corner, there was nothing there, “W-What?” Pomni muttered to herself.
As she looked on, the gang came over, “Pomni, are you feeling okay?” Ragatha asked as she walked up to her, “I-I swore, I saw a figure over here, he was…just..looking at me.” Pomni explained, the crew looked at each other, “I think Pomni’s going insane.” Kinger muttered, “I don’t think so.” Oliver retorted, “What do you mean?” Jax asked, “Well, like I said, your abstraction wasn’t like any of the others, something, or someone had to have done that.” Oliver explained.
“As to where this figure, or thing went, we’re gonna have to look.” Oliver said, the gang looked at each other and all nodded in agreement, but right as they were gonna go their separate ways, Caine suddenly appeared in the middle of them, “Would you look at the time, it’s time for a game!” He shouted, “Caine, not now, we gotta search for something.” Oliver said.
“Funny enough, this game involves searching!’ Caine responded, “Yeah, that’s cool, but…” Oliver was trying to say before Caine snapped his fingers, teleporting them to a big room, he then took a file out from his suit and handed it to Ragatha, “Good luck guys, and one more thing, you have just one hour to complete this game.” Caine said, “What happens if we don’t?” Jax asked, “Then you all spend time in the Screams of Agony ” Caine responded.
This terrified the entire gang, except for Pomni, “Uh, what’s that exactly?” Pomni asked, She was suddenly grabbed by Ragatha, “It’s a place that’ll haunt you for the rest of your life.” She started, “The last time we failed a challenge like this, we had to spend…god knows how long in that room.” Ragatha rambled on before Jax and Zooble pried her off of Pomni, “Yeah, it’s just not a good place.” Zooble remarked.
“...Oh.” Was all Pomni could mutter, “That’s right, so clocks are ticking.” Caine said before he disappeared, “Wait, Caine!!” The gang shouted, but it was no use, they were stuck, “Okay, that was suspicious.” Oliver muttered, “Yeah, it’s like he doesn’t want us to find out something.” Jax said, “Especially with that figure.” Pomni chimed in, “Okay, let’s just get through this game so we don’t have to go… there .” Ragatha said, in the file was a key to the next room so she opened the door and went in.
—
The next room had the layout of an office space with some cubicles, one the ground in front of the gang laid another file, Ragatha picked it up and opened it, “What does it say?” Oliver asked her, “It says we need to find three little triangles to put in that trap mechanism to open the door.” Ragatha said, pointing to the metal door.
“So fan out everyone, that way we’ll find these triangles quicker.” Ragatha said, the gang wasted no time, looking under tables, on computers and even breaking things…okay, only Jax was doing that, Jax and Oliver found two of the three, but the gang was starting to struggle, “Where’s the third one!?” Zooble shouted, “I can’t find it anywhere.” She continued.
“I’ve looked everywhere, but…nothing.” Pomni added, Ragatha thought of where else they could look, that’s when something struck her, she looked up to see the third piece, “There it is.” She said, she then turned to Pomni, “Pomni, I’ll give you a boost.” She said, “I-okay.” Pomni replied, after a little bit of struggling, Pomni managed to get the third triangle and get the door to open, but when it did, everyone saw the shadow figure staring from the darkness, then it quickly disappeared.
“Woah!” Jax muttered, “AH!” Kinger yelled, “What on earth was that!?” Ragatha yelled, Pomni looked on with absolute shock, she then ran towards the door, “Pomni, what are you doing!?” Oliver yelled, “That’s the figure I saw earlier!” Pomni replied, “Wait, what?” Ragatha responded, “He was hiding behind that big cube, the one I ran to.” Pomni explained, “Oh, so you weren’t going crazy?” Kinger asked, “...Come on guys!” Pomni said and with that, they headed into the next room.
—
The next room was a little dark, only lit up with some candles, with the gang looking around. Pomni went to the exact spot where the shadow figure disappeared to, but when she felt around, she felt nothing, (Dang it, must be able to go through things.) She thought to herself, as she examined that part of the room, Ragatha was reading through the next file.
“Alright.” She began, she walked over to a nearby room, and flipped the light switch on, revealing a huge bathroom like room. In the middle of all of it, there laid a huge bathtub, “Um, what’s going on here?” Zooble asked, “Apparently, someone needs to get into that tub to open the next door.” Ragatha explained, “So…who’s up.” She said as she turned around, everyone was dead silent as they looked at each other.
Then they all started to look at Zooble, “What, why me!?” Zooble shouted, “Cause.” Jax shouted, he suddenly yoked Zoobles head off, “We can use your body and you can still tag along with us, it's a win-win for everyone.” Jax explained, but Zooble still was having none of it, “Jesus, Zooble it’s either this, or you’re stuck in here for the rest of the game!” Ragatha shouted at her, Zooble just starred, “Fine.” She finally said so they dumped her body in and the door opened.
Pomni was still searching, even picking up one of the candles to look around, then she noticed the door open and when it fully opened, the shadow figure had returned, “HEY!!” She yelled as the thing ran off, giving off a disturbed laugh, the gang ran out, “Pomni, are you okay?” Oliver asked, “I’m fine, but I saw that beast, come on, let’s go, I’m not letting that thing get away.” Pomni shouted, so the crew ran off, except for Zooble, who was being carried by Jax.
—
For basically the next hour, the crew had to go through these insane games, all the while, the shadow figure kept escaping Pomni’s grasp, finally, they had completed the last game and were back in the circus tent, that’s when Pomni noticed notice the figure lurking quietly, “There he is, get him!!” She shouted, the gang quickly took off, the shadow was taken off-guard and pounded on, as Pomni was gonna ask who the beast was.
“No, not my NPC!!” Caine's booming voice shouted, he suddenly appeared and snapped his fingers, lifting the figure up, “Please don’t hurt him, he’s too precious.” Caine told Pomni, “Wait…what? Pomni asked, “What do you mean NPC?” Oliver shouted. “Well, you see, I had him follow you guys around to make sure you weren’t trying to cheat the rooms.” Caine explained, “And I must say, you guys did pretty good.” He continued on.
As he talked, Pomni just starred, (But…but…but…) That word just kept repeating in her head, she was sure that shadow figure was some outside entity, but with the thing being an NPC mean that the case with Jax had hit a dead end, Oliver was also confused on what could’ve caused Jax’s abstraction, (Was it some malfunction?) He pondered to himself.
“And that’s how I created him.” Caine finished, he had rambled on about how the shadow figure came to life, but Pomni and Oliver had zoned out to even care, but they snapped back, “Well, guess its a mystery forever.” Jax muttered, “Anyways, what’s our reward?” Jax asked, “Oh yeah…about that.” Caine responded, “Uh, what do you mean?” Zooble asked.
“Well, when I said pretty good job, I only meant thinking on the traps, what I didn’t say is that you failed to escape by only a few seconds.” Caine told them. The gang just stared, “You’re joking, right?” Oliver asked, “Afraid I’m not.” Caine responded, “So you all know what that means.” He said, the gang looked at each other, “God have mercy.” Jax muttered.