Intense Struggle! (Round 7 - The Database)

Originally posted on MSPA by cyber95.

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B flew into a wall.
He should have been prepared for the round change, but he was focused on what was happening below him at the time. It looked like D’neya had been killed. B was a little bit shaken, both from the sudden impact against metal, and the fact that he’d seen somebody else die. Even after having made a kill himself in this game, he didn’t think he would ever get over the idea of death. He thought of the lab. The day that C showed up, and freaked out. Most of the people killed were not very nice, but most of them also had families, friends. He considered some of them his own friends, even if they probably didn’t share the same sentiment.
B shifted back into his normal, human form, and felt a draft on his chest. He managed to get his shirt incinerated in the last round with that stunt of his. He meant to take off James’ shirt but the illusion didn’t seem to discriminate. Shoeless and shirtless, he thought perhaps he could find something to work as a cloak somewhere. Would provide ample coverage without being too in the way of transformation. He was about to walk forward when he noticed the electrical beams in his way. It wasn’t until that point that he got the idea to look at his surroundings.
He was in some kind of metal jail cell. Kind of futuristic looking, really. He would consider turning into something really small to get through, but with electric bars instead of the traditional iron, he wasn’t willing to chance it, particularly when such small forms would be more susceptible to death from strong jolts. The Monitor said something about escaping, so he should probably figure a way to do that.
“Hey!”
What was that? Somebody else is in here?
“Hey you! B! To your left!”
B was startled by his name being called, in particular from a voice he hadn’t ever heard before. Looking through the less electric bars of a window going to the next cell, he saw a dark blue glow of a mechanical eye, and stepped back a bit. He was eased a bit when the shadows lifted from the rest of his face to show a more friendly demeanor than the eye alone suggested. “H-how do you know my name?”
The short man smiled and pointed at B’s shoulder. “Well, I didn’t know it was your name, but it’s written right there! “
B looked at the tattoo of the letter B on his right shoulder. He’s pretty sure it was so that the people who created him would always have an identifying mark, as if the front of his hair being naturally bright red wasn’t an odd enough identifying feature already. “Who, uh... who are you?”
“Oh right! I’m Gadget Solune! Nice to meetcha. Would be nice if it were under different circumstances, though. I’m guessing you aren’t from where I’m from. I mean, that Cabaret guy that was next to me wasn’t either-“
“Cabaret? He’s alive!?”
“Yyyyyeah. Was he supposed to be dead?”
B was confused. On one hand, this meant that maybe he didn’t kill anybody after all, but on the other hand, he was clearly not a good guy. And was next to Gadget. That implied he was gone now, so there wasn’t any guarantee that he’d look the same. Although he may very well smell the same... He’d have to get out first to find out.
“Gadget? I need to get out of here.”
“We’ve been coming up with a plan for that ourselves, but it’s been taking a while. ...say, can you turn into anything else? I had a friend who could turn into a snake whenever she wanted but that’s about it. You limited to that one thing?”
“Uh, no, I can turn into pretty much anything really.”
“Great. Hey, Maxwell, have you figured it out yet? If not, I doubt that it can be disabled through the-“
Another voice shouted out from across the hall, this one with a British accent, “It’s certainly right here, but this friend of yours is making it rather difficult to concentrate, as great a source of light it is.”
“Don’t take it too hard on him, it’s a new world for him, he’s excited.”
“Yeah! Gosh I can’t wait until you figure this out and get us out there’s probably SO MUCH NEAT STUFF out there!”
“Wonderful. Really, all that needs to be done is one red and white striped wire should be disconnected, but it’s rather small and difficult to get at.”
B was confused. What was going on and who else was over there with the British guy? How was the world new to Maxwell’s companion? These perplexed thoughts were interrupted by Gadget.
“Alright, B, if Maxwell figured it out, you can get out, and get the rest of us out of here, too. If you can turn into something really small, get down into that panel over in the corner of the room, and take out the wire that Maxwell mentioned. It should be near the bottom of it somewhere.”
Okay. Red/white stripey wire. Couldn’t be too hard. B shrunk down and got a bit furrier as he became a rat, and went over to the panel mentioned. The cover of the panel opened a lot easier than it should have been able to, particularly from the inside, but within the panel was a tangled mess of wires that were impossible to make out each individual one. This may have been a bit more of an ordeal than he bargained for. Nonetheless, he dove into the wires, looking through the dozens upon dozens of wires for one specific one. It felt like an hour, but it must have only been a few minutes, B did eventually find a wire striped like a candy cane. Thinking more at the delicious candy associated with the colors, and less on what had probably been touching the wires, he took a big bite, severing the wire cleanly. A strange electric sound could briefly be heard from outside. Struggling back out of the wire filled panel, B found he managed to turn off the electrical bars blocking his escape. He quickly shifted back to his normal self once again. All this changing so quickly was starting to get tiring.
B walked out of the cell and decided to get a look at the occupants of the cell across the hall. There was a kinda tall, thin guy in a trenchcoat and a fedora, and next to him was what appeared to be a desk lamp, hopping up and down in excitement. He quickly conceded that at any point he figures nothing more could surprise him, he would quickly be proven wrong.
“Good job, B! We’re only in Sector E, not considered dangerous or violent, so security is pretty low. There should be an electronic key somewhere at the end of the hall.”
B simply nodded and walked down the cell lined corridor. Other than him and his new ‘friends’, the cells were empty, but at the end there was an arrow pointing to more Sector E cells, so perhaps this was just a single branch of the sector left mostly unused. Probably meant less surveillance than other parts anyways. There was a desk nearby, with a card key on it. He grabbed it and went back to the cells of Gadget and Maxwell. Swiping the card through a device near them disabled the electricity immediately.
“Thanks, B!”
“Uh, no problem. Oh, uh, and I don’t think I’ve been introduced to you either?”
Maxwell shook hands with B, “Maxwell Deakin. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
A small, kinda squeaky voice was heard below from the desk lamp, “And I’m Brightly!”
Gadget smiled and shook his head at the lamp, “That would be my doing. I can give souls to, well, anything really. Cabaret pulled that out of his cloak as he was taken away, so I worked my magic on it.”
B quickly grabbed the conversation thread there, “Cabaret was taken away? Where? Why?”
Maxwell shrugged a little, “Well, he just so happened to pull a chainsaw out of his cloak at some point, and there was a swift relocation order put on him. I assume he’s in one of the higher levels at this point. You were looking for him, I believe?”
“Yeah, I was. You guys know more about this place than I do, can you help me find him?”
“Sure thing! Think you can help me out in return?”
“Uh, maybe. What is it?”
“Well, my friend Whir got taken, too. While we’re looking for Cabaret, can you help me look for him?”
“I can probably help you out with that.”
“I’ll come. Perhaps you can help me find a cup of tea somewhere around here.”
B laughed a little. Somehow, despite all that’s happened, he’s managed to make a few friends here in this screwed up place. Maybe this ordeal wouldn’t turn out so bad after all.
“So, B, we going? I think I know how to get to Sector D, but from that it’ll be trickier.”
“Yeah, okay, let’s go. Oh, uh, Gadget, Maxwell. You can call me Ben.”