"I would estimate that we do not find out until we step on the elevator," whispered Mouse.
Gabby noticed that Mouse wasn't hanging back like she had before and wasn’t hesitating to speak her mind. She liked they were coming together as a team, at least the girls were. She just hoped her concerns about Mouse betraying them were not true.
She was ready to ask the others how long of a rest they would need when Unthar strode to the red button in long powerful strides and punched the button.
"Why wait?" he stated with a mocking smile, aimed directly at Stephan.
So much for their developing teamwork, she thought.
A grinding sound erupted from somewhere above, like a train starting, and the floor rumbled enough to force Gabby to put her hand on the wall.
Mouse pointed up the shaft. "Something's coming down."
Seeing Stephan still on the floor, she dragged him to his feet.
Moments later, an elevator, as she had suspected, drifted level with them. It wasn't an elevator as they were used to. Really it was a platform with ropes at the corner, not unlike the Prisoner's Dilemma challenge.
They moved onto the platform, Gabby and Stephan stepping on last, and it lurched downward as their heels touched the wood.
Gabby wondered why the elevator needed to be so wide. The five of them barely took up the space. They could fit all the raid teams at once if they wanted to.
The light of the first tunnel appeared on the far side. If they thought they were just going to run into it as the platform went by, their hopes were smashed by the rows of bars.
As the platform matched elevation with the first tunnel, it slammed to a stop, knocking them to their knees, except for Unthar who had his two-handed sword speared into the flooring.
Before anyone could act, an object appeared in the middle. Gabby recognized it instantly as a neural pathing problem. The pulsing blob looked like a cross between a jellyfish and a porcupine. Solving it would require at least an hour, for Gabby it would anyway.
Avony quickly stepped up. "I'm probably the best at these." Everyone nodded their approval, Stephan even giving her a flourishing wave.
The blonde leader of the Evil Dolls dove into the seething mass, pulling out fibers and tagging them as she went. She had to figure out the neural pathways controlled by certain actions. It was the advanced theoretical form of neural shaping.
Gabby was impressed by the way Avony picked through the threads, throwing them over her shoulder in practiced hitches and occasionally bundling a group together. Gabby figured Avony could solve the problem in a third of the time.
When a giant red TEN appeared over their heads and began counting down, Avony freaked out.
"Holy Mario! Have the game designers got a major dot to the head? There's no way I can solve it that fast," she said, throwing her hands up and letting the bundled fibers fall off her shoulder.
Avony's obvious anger turned to pain when the countdown hit zero. She practically lifted off her feet as if something had hit her. Avony threw her hands across her chest and crumpled to the floor.
Gabby and Mouse ran to her side. Avony peered up at them through her perfect doll hair, eyes brimming with water, holding her chest as if it would split open.
"Let us see," said Gabby.
When Avony moved her hands, she revealed a red stripe that started on her collarbone and dove down her chest, past the fabric of her white robe.
"A sword appeared in the air and cut me across the chest. It burns," said Avony.
The elevator lurched again and resumed its ride downward. Before they all had curious stares, wondering what their challenge would be. Now that they understood the basics, their gazes cast shadows.
Sooner than Gabby would have liked, the elevator came to a stop at another tunnel. Again bars blocked the way off the elevator. And like the previous stop, an object appeared in the middle of the platform.
It was another advanced problem--a bioeconomic game structure tree chart. Hundreds of spheres, connected by different color lines, rotated lazily.
Unthar surprised them all by moving up to the chart and touching a sphere. As he touched it, a little box of information appeared. He quickly read it and then randomly picked another, or at least it appeared random.
As he concentrated on the problem, his faced softened and if Gabby looked at him just right, he didn't seem so bad. The others collectively held their breath as Unthar worked.
When the red ten appeared, Unthar tried to apply a solution. Gabby had been following along and realized what he was attempting to do. He had to have known that he wasn’t going to get much time to solve the problem, so he set off to give himself the best chance of getting lucky in that short time.
Unfortunately, he did not answer correctly because the countdown disappeared at six and Unthar fell to his knees as if he'd been hit in the back.
No one ran to the big Brute and the elevator started up again. This time they were ready for its movement.
"Unthar was given an additional ten seconds to solve his problem," said Mouse. "I surmise that the time frame to solve the problem will grow as we go further down, or the problems might get easier."
"But by then we'll all be passed out from the pain," said Stephan, leaning heavily on his staff.
The elevator stopped and a quark uncertainty problem appeared. Raw physics problems were the basis of the Blaster class. Gabby, along with the others, looked to Stephan.
Stephan refused to make eye contact, staring at the base of his staff instead.
Gabby was about to move forward to attempt the problem, when Mouse leapt forward. "Fine. I'll try it," she said with uncharacteristic vigor.
Mouse gave it her best attempt, utilizing the strategy that Unthar had used and made an educated guess when the countdown began. She was wrong and yelped and grabbed her leg, falling onto her side.
Gabby and Avony both shot Stephan nasty looks.
"What?" he asked. "I'm not fully healed from my fall. If I get that wrong then you'll have to carry me to the next challenge."
Gabby frowned at Stephan's cowardice, but as the elevator left the third stop and headed downward, Gabby saw the movement of people in the tunnel.
"Hey!" she yelled. "Another team was in that tunnel."
Avony nodded. "I saw them, too. If we can get one of these problems right soon, then we won't be too far behind. Besides that dead guy, we haven't seen any sign of the others."
"We can have a good chance of winning if we try," said Mouse, clearly indicating Stephan.
They didn't have long to think about it when the elevator stopped again. Gabby's heart leapt when the bizarre cube appeared.
"What in Mario's name is that thing?" said Avony.
Gabby moved forward as she spoke. "A fractal-recombination cube."
The others hadn't ever seen one before because it was an obscure branch of cryptography that only showed up in highest level of math games, and a required skill to learn if one wanted to be even a low-level hacker.
Gabby set to work right away, spinning the sections in practiced motions looking for a pattern she recognized. The problem she was working on was not too far different than the one she'd used on the track exploit last week.
But it was still different enough that she would need every ounce of her concentration to solve the problem in the allotted time.
Gabby blanked her mind of anything other than the patterns before her, spinning the cube and resetting the fractal angles to create new designs, hoping she would recognize one.
Her arms flew in a blur of motion and in some distant portion of her mind, she heard the others gasp. She ticked through the various fractals, recombining a few times and then moving to the next. A vague clock was ticking in her head and she knew she was running out of time.
When she made the next adjustment, the pattern fell into her mind like an avalanche. Her moment of joy that she knew she could solve the problem was quickly squashed by a big red ten appearing at the perip
heral of her vision.
Gabby began recombining the fractal cube as fast as she could. She was racing the countdown and the numbers were winning.
She couldn't see the countdown any longer, her focus had dialed down, laser like onto the cube and the reality around her was completely shut out. The countdown felt like a dead weight around her neck, she didn't think she had enough time.
Gabby spun, pushed, and yanked; manipulating the cube in a frenzy, until at last she shoved the keystone into the final position. She expected the burst of pain, thinking she was too late.
Instead she was rewarded with silence. A big red "TWO" hung off to her right. Avony's eyes were wide in amazement.
Then the cube and the red two disappeared, and the grating covering the tunnel slid into the wall, leaving the way open for them.
They hobbled off the platform and into the new tunnel. Mouse patted her on the back as she went by and Unthar gave her a strange nod that she assumed had to be a sign of respect.
Only Stephan seemed uninterested in the result of her display. Gabby didn't like the way he was sulking off to the side on his own, almost looking disappointed.
Gabby filed that thought away as they moved into the tunnel which quickly led into a wide cavern. They didn't have long to get used to their new surroundings, when from atop an outcropping of rocks, two figures leapt into view, aiming a bow and a staff at them.
"Stay where you are, unless you'd like to be frag-bait," said the boy with the staff.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Their defensive position couldn't be any worse. The two ranged classes had them pinned down in a narrow tunnel. The Hunter and Blaster could kill at least two of them before they could even get halfway to the rock outcropping, and Gabby had to assume that the other three were lurking somewhere nearby.
"I didn't realize we were PKing in this raid," Gabby yelled out.
"Kill or be killed," said the boy with the staff. "We got ambushed this morning."
Gabby couldn't remember the boy's name, she was always forgetting their names.
"Hey, Justin," said Mouse, waving enthusiastically. "Looks like you survived that ambush pretty well."
"Hey, Song." Justin relaxed and waved, until the kid with the bow, Passel, she remembered, elbowed Justin in the ribs.
"It's only the two of them," whispered Unthar without moving his lips. His eyes glowered with an intensity that creeped Gabby out.
"They lost of the rest of their team in ambush," he said. "Stephan can throw pinning fire and I can take their focus. You girls do the rest."
Gabby was surprised by Unthar's willingness to sacrifice himself for the team. She tried to figure out how it might be an advantage for him, but couldn't.
"Why do we want to attack them?" Gabby whispered. "We shouldn't be turning on our own school mates. We'll knock them out of the game."
"Exactly," said Avony. "Less of them means a better shot at surviving the raid."
A jet of flame burst over their heads. "Quiet down over there. We didn't give you permission to talk."
Justin was waving his staff at them, bits of flame dripping from the end.
"Well, you're not saying anything," Gabby yelled. "So we're talking."
Justin opened his mouth, but appeared baffled by her response.
"I still don't think we should be attacking them," said Gabby under her breath.
"Either we knock them out directly, or we out point them," added Stephan. "Either way, it's the same thing. I say we take them."
"It just seems wrong to attack them," said Gabby. "This is a competition, but these are kids we hang out with. The system's the enemy, not them."
Gabby grimaced. She was so wrapped up in the raid, she'd forgotten that the Coder could be watching every second, or reviewing the transcripts later.
"Shut up over there," yelled Justin. "And we want you to surrender to us."
Avony strode to the front, putting her hands on her hips and pushing her bare leg forward. She casually tossed her hair out of her face.
"Don't be silly, Justin," she said. "We know you lost the rest of your team in that ambush. And we're one-hundred percent positive we can take you two out before you can get even one of us."
Avony spoke with such aplomb that the two boy's weapons dipped slightly.
But then a shout came from behind the rock outcropping.
"Avs! Don't shoot, don't shoot. Truce!" came a high squealing voice.
Gabby recognized the other Doll that ran into view toward Avony, arms wide, ready for an embrace. Of course, it had to be the Doll that Gabby found most annoying. Betsy had a high nasally voice like a screech owl sucking helium.
Gabby wasn't so sure that Avony wasn't going to round-house Betsy in the face when she neared, but she relaxed and opened her arms at the last second. Betsy didn't even notice Avony's hesitation, but Gabby had seen it. If Avony was willing to consider offing her own friend, even if it were only for an instant, then she shouldn't trust the leader of the Evil Dolls.
But that was going to be hard as she was enjoying hanging out with Avony. It reminded her of their younger days when LifeGame seemed just like it was--a game.
Now they were considering subjecting their fellow classmates to a near-death experience, just to get an advantage. Nevermind that the losers would disappear forever.
The two Evil Dolls were hugging and chatting while everyone else held their weapons limply, trying to figure out how their standoff had turned into a reunion.
Gabby laughed when the other team's Brute appeared from a hidden cubby. He was a boy everyone called Stick and the two-handed sword looked bigger than he did. Weighing her team against theirs, she knew they would have won easily had it come to blows.
When the fifth member appeared from the far tunnel, Gabby thought it might have been her exhaustion playing tricks on her. Her heart buffed with joy and she ran toward Zaela, who hadn't yet seen Gabby.
Gabby practically tackled Zaela, embracing her in a hug. She almost started running her mouth about everything she'd learned about the Frags and the Coder and LifeGame, but then she caught Avony staring at her, almost trying to will her to keep her mouth shut.
"Gabby!" said Zaela. "I can't believe it's you!"
Gabby held Zaela at arm's length. Her best friend looked twinked to the max in her armor, dark bronze skin and silky black hair gleaming. Gabby was happy to see her, but she could sense a general anger toward Zaela from the other members of her team.
"I'm so glad you're still in the raid," said Gabby. "I've been so worried."
Passel rang his staff against the rock. "Is this a pajama party here? You girls realize this is Final Raid, right?"
He stood tall in his crimson robes, superior in his little speech for about three milliseconds, and then the collective gaze of the four girls withered him like the hot sun.
"Okay, fine. Be that way," said Passel, who plopped to his butt in a huff, placing the staff over his legs.
With the four girls at the center, the rest of the two teams gathered around warily, the other team still shooting Zaela nasty looks.
Gabby wondered if she and Zaela could leave the rest of them and set off on their own. But the fantasy didn't last long, as she remembered how the previous challenges had required her full team.
Avony, who had moved to the center of their combined groups, spoke up. "Is there any reason our two groups can't work together for the remainder of the raid?"
Gabby nearly hit herself in the forehead for not thinking of it first. It made perfect sense. Cooperation could be a winning strategy, too.
There was a general sense of agreement around the circle with everyone except Unthar nodding. Gabby wouldn't be surprised if Unthar wouldn't prefer to kill them all and go it alone.
The red team, as Gabby thought of them since their mage was in crimson robes, had been lost in this section of the game for a few hours. They had come
up from the lower tunnels, having missed about fifteen questions in the elevator.
Everyone made noises of appreciation at Gabby when they explained the question she got right. Her face flushed red and Zaela punched her in the arm.
The rest of their experiences in the raid differed. The red team had encountered other challenges involving water and bars of gold, and another with multiplying clockwork monkeys. They'd been ambushed not long after they'd entered the section after the elevator.
The other group had gone even further down. Gabby was surprised to learn that Zaela had been a member of the other group, but had refused to participate in the player killing. The ambush had taken one of them, so she filled out their fifth spot.
It explained why Zaela had been hanging back in the tunnels and not with the others, and the mean glances.
The red team explained that there was a cliff with a tunnel at the top they suspected might be the way out, but they had no one that could climb.
Mouse volunteered immediately as a Spy class. Since the red team didn't have a Spy, they'd been stuck.
The cliff wasn't but a few minutes away and Mouse shimmered up the side like a spider. Then she disappeared, setting Gabby's hands to tap nervously on her thighs. Mouse was gone for longer than Gabby thought she should be, spurring thoughts of an ambush or Mouse deciding to abandon the group.
About the time Gabby was going to volunteer to try and climb, a thick knotted rope rolled down the cliff. They climbed up easily, except for Stephan, who was still weak from his fall and not ready to dare new heights yet.
"Where'd you go when you got to the top?" asked Gabby.
Mouse gestured down the tunnel. A deep red pulsing light washed the walls in pale blood.
Mouse covered her mouth with a cupped hand, shyly answering, "I wanted to confirm our route."
"Is it bad?" asked Gabby, wondering about the source of the crimson light and Mouse shrugged with indifference.
It turned out to be lava that was making the light. A deep crevice ran through the huge cavern blocking them from continuing. But on the other side was a sign with a target on it and two large piles of rope, coiled in neat piles.
Everyone immediately looked to Passel, who pulled out his bow and took aim. The arrow fired true and nailed the center of the target, quite a shot from a hundred meters away. Gabby wondered how well they would have done if they'd tried to attack them.
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