Midday Nightmare [Geata/Anonymous]

Anonymous giggled at the sight of how those two handle his little penalty when they answer his puzzle wrong. Now usually he can just watch those two continued going around reassuring each other like a newlywed couple. In a way, he could almost saw something that reminded him on something…

His thought started to wander slightly; the little illusion started to waver like a mirage under the hot summer day. Once he realized what happen, Anonymous quickly returned his focus in order to stabilize his illusion world. Azoth probably managed to take a glimpse of that armed guard slowly walking around the corner before them. After his illusion world finally stabilized, he began to ponder for Geata’s inquiry at him:

“Hm…that is some good questions. Let’s me see,” he started to think for an answer for a moment, “I guess I would say I have in my position the people that you’re suppose to meet today. Don’t worry; they’re only venturing around the Dreamland as we speak, so they’re perfectly safe. Maybe having some nightmare, but safe nonetheless.

But I guess it wouldn’t be enough of a reason to keep you both here, so why don’t we make this game more interesting. After you solved my puzzle and we start playing our chess game, how about this: we’ll followed your little rule of asking questions to each other in order to know each other better.

The only thing I would like to change slightly is that the questions must not have anything to do with our civilian’s life, or what our power and how they work. However, we’ll not have that two passes that you can use to decide on not answering each other’s question. If I win the chess game and the puzzle overall, I would like to have access to the Keeper’s information archive. I’m certain you, little Misty, have shared some of their info to the other supers around town, and I would like to have access to that as well.

Of course, it’ll only fair that you’ll have something if you win my game and puzzle. Personally I don’t really know what you would want from me, so I’ll let you decide on your reward. That sounds fair, right?”

Anonymous feel something built up pressure inside his head, a familiar feeling that he had been feeling sometime. Taking a long deep breath and let out a long sigh, he snapped his finger. Soon, both Azoth and Geata would see the illusion world started to fade away and return back to the abandon factory. They can see the injured man that Azoth just blew up groaning in pain right beside the conveyor belt, and if they looked closely, they can see Anonymous standing on the railing on the second floor.

“Fine,” he said to them, his tone shifted from being playful to quiet “if you want to leave, then leave. If you don’t want to play my game, then there’s no point of keeping you here.”

He then started to walked down the stair toward the bunch of unconscious people down below. He doesn’t seem to care what Azoth or Geata would do anymore; even if Azoth make the air before his face explode, he just shrugged it off and continue walking. Once he reached the informant, he pulled out one of the guard’s gun, aimed directly at the unconscious guards and pulled the trigger.

“YOU FUCKING STUPID BITCH!!!” Anonymous screamed in anger each word for each shot he fired at the informant, “Do you know how hard I have put my effort in creating this little game?!”

After he finished with the gun, he reached down and grabbed hold of the informant’s neck and lift him him:

“All I want was to play a game with you; all I want was to be able to learn what information you Keeper had been kept away from the public. Is that too much to ask?!!!” He threw the guy straight in the rusted machinery. Pulling out another gun, he started to shoot the other guards, who finally woke up from their slumber only to see a faceless super started to kill them off one by one with their own gun.

“Do you know how many time you Keepers had interfered with my work?! Every time I went out to look for some information, you’re always there, ruin everything. Even when I get the upper hand, you simply snatch my work away just like that. You hoard all the information away from everyone when such information could have save many innocent lives, super or otherwise. Every time you interfered with my work, I get nothing while you get the info; every time you lend your “aid”, we both get the info. Do you see the fucking pattern?! No matter what you do, you always get the information while I have to work for it, and even then I don’t even know if it was worth it or not! So congratulation for winning the first prize, kiddo; you FUCKING earn it!”

Anonymous panted heavily after all the rage that had been built inside him all this time finally vented out. He dropped the gun on to the ground and fall to his knee, looking straight into the wall without any emotion left in him. He then turned to Azoth and Geata; seeing how the two of them like this, it reminded him too much about the past.

“You think seeing the nightmare before your eyes is bad? Try living in one.” His voice became flat and monotone as he said to them, “now go back to your home and cry like a bunch of pansy that you are.”

He then started to chuckle to himself, paying no attention to either of them. He quietly pulled out the small silver coin and tightly clutching it in his hand, closing his eyes while contemplating.

Anonymous remained quiet for the entire time Geata start talking; had his request being at unreasonable? All he wanted was access to the information archive of the Keeper if, emphasis “If”, he won the chess game. He created this whole puzzle because he wanted to know how intuitive Azoth is in paying attention to everything. He would’ve expected her to cheat her way through the challenge; he could never trust a Keeper to keep their words. That vision that he made Azoth saw was exactly what he would expected a Keeper would do when they no longer have any need for their own agents. This was the reason Anonymous doesn’t like the Keeper, or at least the higher-up of the Keeper.

After some moment of silence, Anonymous looked up toward Geata and let out a chuckle, his tone returned back to his usual playful self:

“Goodness gracious, didn’t I tell you that I have no idea what she’s going to negotiate for? What can I say; all this frustration that had been built over the past few weeks had been quite unstable. So I do have to thank you, little Misty, for giving me the permission to release my built-up tension out.”

He then stood up and dusted himself off as he began to think about Geata’s proposition. He sighed since Azoth is being a paranoid little brat; she said she won’t give him access with the archive, yet she had share the secret with other people that she worked with in the past.

“Well, how about this, little Misty,” he thought up an idea and decided to speak to Azoth in her head only, “I know a part of how your ability work, that’s how I was able to at the very least fool your boyfriend over there by having you creating that fog that you saw earlier. Those rambling codes that you saw in your head was my doing, but I guess you know that already. Am I safe to assume your power came from those chains of codes that I constantly see in your head? And that similar to how a human DNA built protein in their body, you’re using those chains of codes as a blueprint to create whatever you want as long as you obtain their code pattern into your head, right?

So, here’s my proposition to you: I’m willing to keep that little information as a secret from everyone, even your boy-toy over there. In return, we will play our little game from where we left off, perhaps even sharing some of the information we might have. What do you say? We all need to look out for each other in the end, right?”

Geata sighed at Azoth's words. Judging by her tone, if Anonymous knew that, he was suddenly the one with the power of the situation again. It was made even more clear when Azoth agreed to play the game after all. Once again, they were playing right into the faceless super's hands. It was irritating, but Geata was in no position to leave. Azoth's condition had improved, but the second Geata left, he knew she was powerless to prevent another attack. There was no way he could leave her vulnerable to something like that again, not after seeing how she reacted to the first attack.

When Azoth quieted down and spoke to him alone, he smiled. "Don't worry, kiddo," he said calmly. "I'll accept payment in the form of us hanging out without having to do a job, if that works for you."

Azoth sighed, annoyed to be back where they were before. But, she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t the smallest bit glad to have something to take her mind off of the illusion Anonymous had created. The timer was a minor distraction; she didn’t want to waste time sitting around thinking. Think outside the box, Anonymous had said. That could be managed fairly literally, she figured, but first came the pieces.

Since this was an illusion, the pieces obviously weren’t actually there. This could be relegated simply enough. Where the black pieces rested on the ground, wood replicas created as far as she could tell formed. The sides facing away from her would be a little rough, but approximations would do. ‘Removing the guards’ was completed as all of the remaining pieces burst into a raging fire. Nothing but ashes would remain.

Then, for the king. “Geata, please pick up the box with the king and throw it through the wall.” Azoth said, aware that she could do so herself if she got down from Geata’s back. The fact of the matter, however, was that she didn’t want to and therefore was avoiding doing so. She elected to blame her inability not so much to miss but to be unable reach the side of a proverbial barn when tossing an object if pressed.

“Oh little Misty, try as you might,” Anonymous started to sing a familiar tune, “but as you look closer, you never get right. But oh do not worry, your boyfriend is near, and does what you should have, and that much is clear.”

He then let out a maniacal laughter that echoing through the factory and both of their minds. The glass box that Geata just threw right at the wall simply hit the wall and fall down on the ground without much of a mark on it. Soon the glass box open and drop down the white king piece onto the floor, slowly rolling toward their feet. With that, the room slowly fall apart and brought them back to the chess board, and the white king piece is right next to the board.

“I have to be honest, little Misty,” Anonymous gave them a small claps, “I really thought you’ll be smart enough to solve such an easy puzzle that even your idiot boyfriend there managed to solve. But I guess that teach me not to overestimate you so much. Well, you both know the drill by now: one down, five more challenges to go, and you’re only lost one pawn from all of that.”

In the meantime, Anonymous quietly make his way toward the burning wooden chess pieces that Azoth just made using her power and put them out. He simply picked each of the pieces up while they were still burning and clenched them in his hand. The burning sensation is there, but just barely. The burn slowly healed away as if nothing had happen to him; his pain-tolerant level had gotten much better since he had suffer through a lot of those pain that he started to become numb to them. So in fact, he welcomed the pain; it's proof that he's still have his senses, that he can still suffer through his own action like how a normal human being should.