Day 3, Part 2: Meta

Sureika sighed. Up at four this morning with the jet lag and she hadn’t updated her ski lodge in weeks. She wrestled her brother away from the computer and sat down. Usually she typed on her tablet, but the family computer was available for once and she figured why not? She started to type a post, but then the computer bleeped. [Error]. “What?” Sureika said out loud.

She pressed F12 to fix whatever the bug was, but the computer screen stayed open. It started blazing purple, flashing from color to color. Sureika remembered just how meta she’d gotten from the last few posts and gulped. (Though she couldn't help but feel a bit of excitement. Had she created this? How much power did she have?). It started to whirl out and Sureika scrambled back. She grabbed the nearest book and threw it at the screen. Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment vaporized, which wasn’t really a good sign. Furiously typing code, Sureika pulled the keyboard further and further away from the screen. It seemed to be working, but then the computer lagged. It- Sureika muffled a swear word as she saw the events of what she was doing be projected on screen- lagged. It fricking lagged. So the screen kept whirling.         

Sureika kicked aside the stool and scrambled out of the house as the light began to project out. She ran up the street and knocked on a house’s door as loud as she could, then tried to shove it open. “Michalé? Stuff’s blowing up and I need your help!” There was no answer, and the door was locked. It was only then she remembered her best friend had moved to a cheaper neighborhood a month ago. What am I supposed to do now?

Someone was calling her name. Sureika felt like an idiot for a moment- it’s probably my family, I should’ve gone to them straight away- but then she realized they weren’t yelling “Sureika!”. They were yelling “Blue Moon!”

So this really is all my fault. This is the ski lodge coming back to bite me. Sureika- she was starting to think of herself as “Blue” now- raced back towards her house, bare feet flying. Three kids were biking past, yelling out her username.

“What?” she called, and they stopped. Sureika did a double take. Two of them were fading, glittering at the edges, and they looked like her AEs. They were her AEs. cloud’s tousled hair touched her shoulders, glowing a soft silvery gray. Pzun's eyes were dark brown, and he tumbled off the bike just like Sureika had imagined.

The third was a tall, dark-skinned eleven-year old boy wearing a Tardis hoodie. Sureika actually vaguely recognized him from something or other- hadn’t they both been at OMSI one time?

“Um… what’s your favorite animal?” he asked.
Sureika started to say “Ele…” then paused. The boy’s eyes twinkled, and Sureika realized what she was supposed to say. She grinned. “Chirp chirp cricket.”

He whooped and jumped up and down. “We found her! We found her!”
Pzun grinned. cloud meanwhile was looking around with wonder. “This is where you live?”“What? Oh, yeah.”

“Waitwaitwait,” Sureika said, tilting her head. “You’re… Catsclaw, right?”

“No,” cloud said, “I’m cloud.” Everyone ignored this.

“Yeah,” the boy said. “You can call me Solomon,”.

“Cool. One of my friend’s’s named Saul.”

Solomon tilted his head at her. “You don’t seem kidnapped,”.

Sureika rubbed her neck. “I think I am, actually. Virtually. Come look at this.”

She led the way inside her house. The three kids looked around, and Sol kicked off his sneakers. The computer sat in the corner of the living room (well, the room that was a giant conglomerate of the living room, dining room, and kitchen.) Books were scattered around everywhere, and a rat was clambering up the couch. Sureika stopped for a minute to scratch their ears, and the rat scrabbled up to her shoulder and peered around inquisitively at the three strangers in her house. “Hazel,” Sureika said by means of introduction, and Sol petted them tentatively.

cloud tapped on their shoulders and pointed to the computer. The purple light was growing insanely fast. As they started to back away, the light touched Pzun on the shoulder as he scritched Hazel’s tummy and Hazel picked through his hair.

Instantly, both rat and AE were gone. Sureika stared for a second, and then ran into the haze.

“What are you doing?!” cloud yelled.

“Getting my rat back!” and then she was gone.

cloud and Solomon looked at each other for a second, then shrugged. Together, they ran into the mist.
***
Blue Moon was drifting. She felt her body was heavier then usual, but not anchored to the ground. She tried to lift up an arm, found it futile, and then put it back down.   

Shadows shimmered in the corners of the room, but when Blue tried to look at them, they drifted away. She felt weird. Managing to sit up, she pressed her palm to the ground. It felt glassy, and there was something on it. A firefly. They were in the Chatterbox. But there was no part of her who felt like she was sitting curled up with her tablet, typing and weaving a story. She wasn’t typing anything.

A  shadow drifted towards her, and Blue gulped, edging away. “Hazel! Are you there?” The rat bounded across the floor, apparently greatly relieved. Pzun looked rueful.

“I guess I’ve been abandoned,” he said. Sureika grinned in spite of herself. Hazel wrapped herself around her neck, nuzzling her.

She closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to go back to the real world. Nothing.
“Is there a way out of this room?” Blue said, trying to contain her panic.
Pzun shrugged. “Let’s look.”

Even if you get out, you won’t be able to go to the corporal world,
where I don’t have power. Here, my power is infinite. You’re right where I want you and I’ve got the murderer coming.

Also you’re one to talk about joining your own ski lodge, Summer.

I'm so sorry that I went MIA in the comments for a while, but I read through and felt the need to comment.

WOW, this is great! All of the subtelties, the real world tie in, and the mafia element.. I'm intrigued.  I don't know if you are going to finish it, but either way applause to you.  Also, if you do start up again I promise to write in my diary like a good Detective if you still need it.

Thanks! Sorry for the wait, everyone.

Day 3, Part 3- Cavalry

Shy Peacock- wait, wasn’t it Stardust now?- put a hand over her eyes, looking off into the distance. “We lost communications with Catsclaw, but hope is not lost! For we have an agent on the inside, who knows where Chaan is being held!” 

(The CBers all tended to narrate like this when they were stressed.)

Poison grinned weakly. “Yep. Let’s go save the day.”

“Where’s Kate and Viola? and LilyPad?” Stardust asked.

“They’re right here,” Poison said. “You can’t see them?” Stardust shook her head. 

“Only you can, I think.”

Poison looked worried. Behind them, Nymph swung up. “Ready to do the saving.”

She was a large dragon with a whip-thin tail and amber eyes that was standing on its hind legs, forelegs shifting into a multitude of weapons. “Where’s Viola?”

Stardust shrugged. “Poison says only she can see them.”

“Sounds like a lie. You know one of us has to be the murderer...”

Marigold ran up, breathing hard. “Sorry, guys, I got here as fast as I could. I just had to do something first.” 

All of Nymph’s scorn and suspicion was directed onto Marigold now. It is not very comfortable to have a dragon stare you down, and Stardust winced. 

Spyro was seen in the distance, flying in circles. His mood had been dampened when he hadn’t been able to go to the other world, but he seemed normal now, going forward and then back to HAB. “Come on, let’s goooo,”

The purple dragon landed with a huff on Stardust’s head. “CBers.”

“Ay!” Stardust flapped her hands at Spyro. “Get off!”

He did willingly enough, landing with a happy flip on the ground. Hot-Air Ballon came a few seconds later, sliding in. “Spyro! I told you to wait! The murder for today hasn’t happened yet! Who knows who will attack an AE all on their own?”

“No one would dare attack me,” Spyro said contemptuously, and Stardust stifled a laugh.

“Poison, let’s go,” she said to their guide. Poison had shown up late in her room, telling her she knew how to get to Chaan. Stardust didn’t trust her, but there were heroic deeds that had to be done and Poison seemed to be the only one who knew how to do them. Still, she was uneasy. She had saved Spyro, because Poison had told her to, but didn’t know where Poison had got that information. 

Poison’s eyes were closed, her black hood over her head. Kala... When Stardust tapped her on the shoulder, she sat up suddenly. “Kay, yeah, let’s go,”. She got up, drawing her sword, and banged it on a metal piece on the wall. Everyone looked at her. Briefly. And then started talking again.

Poison sighed and set off, Stardust behind her. The others followed, and Stardust was glad that at least they were slightly organized. 

They reached a wall, on the outer edge of the Ski Lodge. “Oh no,” Poison breathed, and shoved herself against it, which did nothing. All the other CBers tried, using their various powers. Nothing, and the wall seemed to encircle all sides. In the end, Nymph turned into a goop and slid through, changing back into a dragon form afterwards.

“I don’t know how you are going to get through, though.”

HAB’s eyes lit up. “If Nymph could go through like that, that means it doesn’t extend into the ground. We can dig through.”

The others agreed to that, and worked at digging it, something that was really hard and tiring.

Eventually, Nymph sighed, turned her hands into an acid, and finished the hole in a few seconds.

“Why didn’t you do that earlier?” Marigold asked. Nymph grinned.

“I wanted to see you suffer.” There was really no response to that.

Following Poison’s lead, they forded through the Thread River. Then Poison stopped abruptly. Stardust crashed into her, and fell into the river. She paddled up to the surface and spit out a strand of hair. “What?”

Poison pointed up, to the huge box in the air. It was made out of a pure amber, and boats full of papers floated up to an entry point before being sheparded inside by annoyed-looking Admins or taking huge, beautiful form before turning into a miniature version and splashing into the glittering river.

“Up there. That’s where Chaan is.”