Calle Ruidiaz
Iniesta, Cuenca, Spain
October 9, 2014
10:02 AM CET
"My phone is supposed to be protected by my Auctoritas! How is this guy getting through?!" Alex said to Feeney.
"A Power's auctoritas can be penetrated if the attacker's strike overwhelms it. In the world of Powers, we're high school freshmen. The new kids." Feeney explained. "These guys we're up against are about to graduate from the Ivy League with a Ph.D."
"Crud." Gadgeteer said. "So we're way out of our league."
"Fortunately they've underestimated us, as we've seen with Romulus and Mohamed." Feeney said.
"How do you know all this, anyway?" Gadgeteer asked.
"I read a book I found in my shop." Feeney explained. "Nobilis: A Field Guide to Powers by Jenna Katerin Moran"
"The whole book?" Gadgeteer asked.
"We're Powers. We can do a lot harder things than reading a 363-page book in 3 minutes and 18 seconds." Feeney explained.
"You counted?" Gadgeteer commented. "Whatever."
"So then we have a big problem." Alex said. "Now what are we going to do about it?"
"Okay, I think you guys need to know about the 'world' I 'came from, and how my leadership experience there is… just not good enough for life as a Power." Gadgeteer sighed. "There, the enemy was only slightly more powerful. I was part of a rebellion, but it was a rebellion thousands strong and global. It was also expanding fast."
"What are you saying, kid?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I can't be our leader. I don't think any one of us can." Gadgeteer explained. "If we're going to survive, we need to work as a team, not a unit. No orders, just cooperative actions."
"Alright." Alex said. "We need a plan though, and I don't have any ideas."
"I think the guy we're facing now is using technology as a shield." Gadgeteer pointed out. "That means we just have to find him and he'll be a lot more vulnerable."
"Where would he try to hide, though?" Alex wondered.
"Where else do Powers hide? Their Chancel." Feeney said.
"Then we need a vehicle." Gadgeteer pointed out.
"And a way in. Chancels aren't designed to have gates you can jump, pick the locks of or crash through. This isn't Fort Knox we're breaking into, it's Azkaban." Feeney explained.
"Well where can we find out about the defences and entry points of Chancels?" Alex asked.
"Nowhere." Feeney sighed. "Every Chancel is unique. Our best bet is to go to the entrance, try to get inside…"
"And if we somehow manage to find the weird, arcane entry method?" Gadgeteer said.
"Play it by ear." Feeney shrugged.
"Great! So we're winging it!" Alex groaned, exasperated. "Now, where's a car we can boost?"
"Hmm… You could just summon a car from a racing game, if I'm not mistaken." Feeney realised.
"What?!" Gadgeteer shouted. "You could have done that at any time?!"
"That…may just work…" Alex said, blinking as if he had just woken up from a dream. He thought for a while and tried to think of what car to summon. "You guys want a van like the one from Assassin's Creed or a Ferrari?"
"Another supercar or a creepy van? No thanks. Can't you just, like, summon a couple motorcycles? I can fly fast enough to keep up, you know." Gadgeteer responded.
Alex sighed in a disappointed manner before looking over to a big enough spot to spawn a car. As everyone blinked, a Chevrolet Camaro from Gran Turismo 4 appeared on the road; the keys already in the engine and ready to be ridden. "I don't know how to ride a motorcycle and I prefer not to kill myself, so…."
"Well we should be honest with ourselves. We're not mortal anymore. A motorcycle crash is the least of our worries, in no small part because we'd barely get a scratch from it." Feeney pointed out. "You also can probably learn to ride it without even trying. Becoming a power can give you a lot of skills you never had. Although if you were REALLY terrible at motorcycle riding, it might be an exception to that."
"I…well…er…just get in the car, then we have to figure out how to find this guy's chancel." Alex said, already walking over to his new Chevrolet Camaro.
CM-311
Castile-La Mancha, Spain
October 9, 2014
10:19 AM CET
As they travelled along the motorway, Gadgeteer had a thought. "Guys, I think that the power of Sadism was the threat to my Estate. I haven't felt anymore threats since I… k-k-killed… him." he said sadly.
A beeping noise came from Gadgeteer's GamePlayer, almost as if in response. On-screen was an emulation of a 'Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask' ROM. Suddenly Link died on-screen, and an Elegy Statue blinked into existence in the game. The words You can't escape that easily… appeared in the subtitles. With that, both Gadgeteer and Alex felt a fundamental WRONGNESS with their Estates.
"I guess that answers that question." Gadgeteer grumbled.
Alex shuddered as he just felt a chill go down his spine, and the names Amnesia, Slender and Five Nights at Freddy's came to mind along with an image of the Steam digital distribution platform interface. "Oh…oh God…what the hell? What was that?!" Alex shook his head as he continued to drive on the motorway, trying to get that irksome feeling off his back.
"That would be your connection to your Estate." Feeney explained. "Obviously another Power is trying to mess with us, most likely a member of Romulus and Mohamed's Familia."
"Now you know how I felt when I was flying over Vancouver and suddenly… bam! My Estate was attacked on another continent." Gadgeteer commented.
Alex began to drive with one of his hands as he snatched the GamePlayer from Gadgeteer's hand with his right. He stared at the Majora's Mask game being defiled before him. "Oh you've got to be shitting me! Who would do that to Majora's Mask?!" he said as he gently tossed it back into Gadgeteer's lap. He sighed in exasperation and began to drive a bit faster.
Gadgeteer pumped up his auctoritas, and closed the game. It was then that he noticed an icon on the device's home screen that had not been there before. It was labelled, simply, 'sonic.exe'…
"Not even going to touch that one." Gadgeteer said, uninstalling the rogue file.
As they drove down the road, the sky became conspicuously overcast. A light fog persisted as well, limiting their range of vision to a couple city blocks.
"So…er…where am I driving to?" Alex asked, continuing to drive aimlessly down the road.
"Honestly? I was hoping there might be some sort of clue as to the location of an entrance, but it looks like they want to remain hidden…" Feeney said, disappointed with the situation. "Unless we get lucky-"
Suddenly a large object could be seen lying in the middle of the road, about the size of a dead animal.
Alex hit the breaks on the car immediately, he didn't want to deal with roadkill on his wheels nor get sent flying due to running over it. He got out of the car and looked at it from the driver's door. "What the hell…?"
Gadgeteer's BOGGLES analyzed it, and came up with a 100% conclusion. "Is that… an animatronic character?"
Sure enough, when they got out of the car to inspect it, it was a heavily damaged, ugly and slightly disturbing-looking animatronic rabbit. The car's headlights reflected off of it's once-shiny blue surface.
Alex blinked and narrowed his eyes, "Are you shitting me? That's just horrible taste for whoever is f***ing around with us." He sighed, not at all concerned at the animatronic who would try and kill them. He was rather disappointed at the fact that this Power had such horrible taste.
"Who would leave this in the middle of a highway?" Feeney wondered.
"Uh, guys?" Gadgeteer said, pointing. "That wasn't here before, was it?"
Sure enough, a run-down abandoned building sat on the side of the road, it's parking lot entrance leading to the highway. The sign on the dilapidated establishment said, in English rather than Spanish, "Fr d y Fa B r' Piz eri", with the remaining letters in a jumble on the ground after having seemingly fallen off ages ago.
Chaser facepalmed himself. He proceeded to look around the area as if trying to spot the Power. "You know, I'm going to kill myself. I'm going to kill myself and it's your fault due to your shitty taste." he said in an unamused manner. He looked at the nearby Chucke-E-Cheese rip-off and then at the Bonnie animatronic on the road. "Wait a minute…they're also part of my Estate…can't I just…think them away?" he asked, turning to Feeney.
"No, don't!" Feeney said. "Well, maybe the rabbit. But that restaurant is the break we've been waiting for!"
"Oh, look a spooky mansion! Jinkies, let's split up and explore it, gang!" Gadgeteer joked.
Alex attempted to destroy this rogue element of his Estate, but nothing happened except him getting a slight headache.
"Ow ow ow…" He rubbed his head in annoyance as the animatronic got up from the road. It began to walk towards them. "Uh…dang it…think…think…" It was only ten feet away from them. "Wait a minute, if I can summon the car, I can summon a character or another object, correct?!" he asked Feeney, beginning to back away from the animatronic.
"Quit asking questions and try it!" Gadgeteer yelled, pulling out his N.Y.R.F. V.I.G.I.L.A.N.T.E. and firing several rounds of N.Y.R.F. at the creepy robot entertainer. They simply bounced off, turned to ordinary foam darts by the miracle's protective aura.
"Damn it…damn it…alright…let's see…how about Spear the Gungnir?" Alex said. Out of nowhere, a short bat-winged, purple haired, pink frilly dressed girl appeared in front of them. Her right hand began to glow red until a huge spear formed in it completely. In less than a second, she threw the spear at the nearing animatronic, hopefully piercing through it and destroying it. The powerful attack tore the animatronic character to shreds, its individual joints broken in two. The young CEO/Game developer looked at the lolita vampire before him in surprise. "She…it…just…she's right…here…" he pointed down at her. Remilia turned and curtsied before him, "Remilia Scarlet, sir." Alex was pretty much at a loss of words as he kept staring down at her.
The vampiress tilted her head, "Is there anything else I can do for you?"
He slowly shook his head, "N-no…that's quite alright, thank you for the help…and what an honor to meet you."
She curtsied once more and disappeared.
Alex proceeded to walk over to the completely decimated animatronic, looking down at it in total surprise. "Jeez…"
"I hope that's the worst that our foe can throw at us." Feeney said.
"No! You jinxed it!" Gadgeteer facepamed.
"So I can summon anyone from EXDeath to Maximillian to Yukari to…pretty much anyone from my Estate…" Alex said, still in a slight awe. He shook his head and looked towards the pizzeria. "Shall we go in?" he asked.
Inside the building, they entered to find it completely dark. Feeney reached for a lightswitch, which surprisingly worked… sort of. Some, but not all, of the flourescent ceiling lamps turned on. Those that did flickered occasionally, and a few were precariously dangling from the ceiling.
Alex's eyes scanned the area, trying to find anything of importance. "It's a bit silent, shouldn't the other animatronics also be here?" he whispered.
Instead of an ominous answer in the form of noises, the lights merely flicked off and then back on again. On the wall at the end of the hall, the words 'this way' were suddenly written in blood beside an arrow pointing right.
"Something tells me we should go left…" Gadgeteer said, shuddering.
"We can check it for traps? Actually, let's not. Let's get someone else to do it." In front of the three Powers, four Prinnies appeared. The stuffed penguins began to take a right as they waddled along. "That should take care of anything." Alex proudly explained.
As the group-plus-cannon-fodder edged slowly down the hall, they were surprised that nothing seemed to be happening. They finally reached the T-junction and had no idea whether to trust the sign.
"I re-iterate." Gadgeteer said. "Let's split up, gang!" he joked again. "But seriously? I'm not going to do what this jerk is telling us to." The ceiling lamp above them suddenly dipped a bit above their heads as one of its fasteners snapped. An old envelope slipped from the lamp's now exposed topside and hit Gadgeteer on the head, landing in his hands.
Gadgeteer opened the letter. "You are the Power of Play. You have to PLAY ALONG." he read from it. "Crud."
Chaser looked down at the Prinnies and they began to take a right, going down the way the blood on the walls told them to. "Shall we wait here until they explode or something?" The Prinnies sudden explosion was paradoxically surprising but not unexpected, as a chunk of the roof collapsed on them. The explosion also shook the building, causing it to begin crumbling around them.
"Shit!" Alex cursed as he began to back away from the ceiling that began to crumble on top of them. "Let's get out of here!" he exclaimed.
The ceiling collapsed in the hallway immediately behind them, blocking their way out.
"Should I spawn another one to blow away the rubble?" He quickly asked, as he was trying to think of alternatives as to get out of the crumbling pizzeria.
It was as this was happening that Feeney was shivering from his own encounter with his Estate being ravaged. "This place… It's causing Disruption to be attacked! It was a trap!"
"We…we have to get out of here! No time to worry now, come on Feeney!" A special rope appeared in everyone's hands. And with that, they instantly teleported back to the Camaro. The Pizzeria was now a pile of rubble on the ground nearby.
"Nice job getting rid of our only way into the chancel…" Feeney complained, shaking his head to try and get rid of his Estate's cries for help.
"I shouldn't have summoned those damn things! Now how are we gonna get to this Power's Chancel now?!" Alex said in annoyance. "Damn it! All three of our estates have been attacked now, we can only assume much worse is to come."