Young Writers Society

The last thing Kai had expected when waking up today was to be lectured by inanimate objects. More specifically, a cup of herbal tea and a mint plant.

"Welcome to the arena!" the mint plant enthused. "Here, you will fight to the almost-death for points and glory!" It waved its leafy stalks in a way that somehow conveyed excitement. Kai frowned. Almost-death? Also, he had never seen such an expressive plant before. But then again, he'd never seen such a strange place before either.

Their surroundings looked like a cross between the Colosseum and a laser tag arena. Kai was standing in the center, along with approximately ten other people, most of whom looked as confused as he was. They were facing a TV with screens that faced in all directions. That was where the tea and mint were speaking from.

"Inside this laser-colosseum (patent pending) you'll try to get the most for your respective team; Team Periwinkle or Team Mint! (patent pending as well.)" mused the tea cup.

Kai was speechless. They'd just woken up at Camp Half-Blood, changed into a t-shirt and jeans, and stepped outside Cabin Nineteen when they found themself here. And now he had to fight on a team named after an extremely specific color? Or possibly an extremely specific plant. They were both, funnily enough. The life of a demigod could be crazy at times, but Kai was pretty sure this topped everything they'd seen so far.

"Can I, like, forfeit? I just want to get back to camp before the capture the flag tonight." Kai stared at the objects. Could they even hear him?

"Kai, nobody cares about capture the flag when you're in a patent pending laser-colosseum!" mused Xavier, who was waving across the room.

"Xavier?" Kai gaped at their fellow camper. How could he have missed that iconic hair? "You're here too?"

"Hehe... yes! Also you still have resting bitch face." Some of the other people nodded in agreement around Xavier as he said that.

Kai spluttered. "I do not! Wha- stop nodding!"

"Yes you do!" The other people continued nodding.

Kai threw their hands up in the air in exasperation.

The tea cup spoke once more. "Kai, you do indeed have a resting bitch face."

"Oh, come on! Even the weird talking beverage agrees? Literally the whole world is against me." Kai scanned the faces of the others in the group. "Someone back me up here."

The mint plant coughed. "Anyhow, let's get on with some logistics! Hooray!" Two images of watches slid onto the screens. One had a periwinkle-colored wristband while the other had a mint-colored one. "The color of your wristband indicates which team you're on."

"These watches can do many things. Some functions include:" A list came onto the screen, each function appearing as it was said. "Walkie-Talkie with your teammates, the points your team has, a small map that shows the locations of your team, and it can also tell the time! Some functions it doesn't include are hostage negotiations, tea making, and creating an inter-dimensional portal to the shadow realm!"

Kai examined the wristband on his wrist. It was a mint-colored wristband, which mimicked the design that of an Apple Watch™. Apparently he was on the mint team. They glanced over at Xavier, who had a periwinkle wristband.

"Now that we've talked about your watches and the fact that someone..." The tea cup coughed. "Kai, has a RBF, we can get to you guys!"

Kai was extremely tempted to chuck their watch at the TV screen. They groaned. This would be a very long day.

"Also about you, why not get to know each of you?" The tv turned into a split screen, displaying a photo of Xavier and his name, age, and other fun facts about him.

"Hey look! That's me! That's me!" Xavier exclaimed, almost too excited about this notion.

"Xavier Londons, Team Periwinkle! The obviously superior team. His hobbies include friendship bracelet making and sour candy. I don't quite know how sour candy is a hobby but it is for Xavier! He has prophetic dreams and originate from Camp-Half Blood, just like our next contestant..." mused the tea cup as the photo switched to Kai, again with an RBF.

"Caius Jeong, Team Mint! Clearly this is the superior team. I have no idea what Tea is talking about. Anyways, Kai makes spectacular origami and is an excellent strategiest, especially in capture the flag games at Camp Half-Blood." The mint plant glanced briefly at the picture. "Despite their RBF, they're a great person to have on your team. On to the next contestant!"

"Kai! Look! Even the disembodied voices agree that you have an RBF!" said Xavier as he giggled.

Kai pretended not to hear him, though the tips of their ears grew red. They focused intently on their watch, glaring at it and fiddling with the buttons on the side.

The photo switched to a boy with pink hair and black eyes. "Next up... Dyal! Team Periwinkle! Dyal comes from the world of Greek gods and goddesses, but unlike the past two he is a full god. His powers include a bs detector and time manipulation! Additionally, he's son of the gods Eros and Chronos! Beware this romantacist!" The man who looked like the photo cringed at the end of that statement.

The photo then switched to a girl smiling cheesily into the camera, with a green braid. Next to her was a photo of an white oval robot. "Now we have Sunny and Robert, on Team Mint! Sunny is originally from Earth, and Robert is from Javaland, a world that runs on code. Sunny knows martial arts and has a list of tips for fantasy protagonists. Robert is a robot. I sure hope someone brought a charger! Or a sword. Sunny's wanted a sword for pretty much her whole life." The girl who looked like the image shrugged and nodded. Apparently that description was pretty accurate.

The image then became a photo of a man with a long blonde braid and blue eyes. "And now, Eliot Sawyers, also known as Elsa!" The man who was presumeably Eliot facepalmed. "Elsa- I mean Eliot, is on Team Periwinkle and is a big artist! She comes from the land of Atlanta, with ice powers! His pastimes are DIYing and art! Does she want to build a snowman? You'll have to wait and see." Eliot facepalmed even harder.

The next contestant could've competed with Kai for "best RBF." An image of a lady with two black braids on either side of her head stared coolly from the TV, her mouth in a slight frown. "Siris Lyangi, Team Mint! Baker and owner of the Eureka Bakery in the land of Terith. Loves palindromes, not so much a fan of people. It's alright, Siris! Fighting in a death arena is a great opportunity to make allies, and eventually, friends!" Siris looked like she was making a list of the top twenty ways to kill a mint plant.

The image became a black haired boy with pink hairclips. "This is going to get confusing. Meet Kali Demis with one 'l', Team Periwinkle. Kali is a prolific daydreamer, also a prophetic dreamer, somewhat like Xavier. He comes from the world of Fate Undone, and has been cursed by Fate to know about the future! Additionally, he spends hours at a time fawning over men- both fictional and real. Don't call him insane, call him hoplessly in love!" Kali burried his face in his hands when the tea cup said the part about his crushes.

A picture of a guy with bronze skin, turquoise eyes, and windswept black hair appeared on-screen. "And then, Kallisophos, or Kalli for short! Same pronunciation, but this Kalli has an extra 'l' in his name. This Team Mint member and Greek God is the child of Zephyrus and Iris. He's proficient with a sword (Sunny, you may want to ask for lessons!) and can travel as fast as the wind to deliver messages. Amazon, you might want to watch out, cuz Kalli just might become the next multinational shipping corporation! Oh, and get this: he sparkles like a Disney princess." The person who must've been Kalli looked confused. "What's a Disney princess?" he mouthed.

A frail brown haired man with brown eyes came onto the screen. "Up now, Hatred! This member of the Periwinkle Team is also from Fate Undone. Due to some... circumstances, he left the Higher Place (patent pending as well as well) and now lives in a cabin on earth! He has a kind soul, but can't help but cause discourse with people around him. Not to worry though, he loves to distance himself from others." The man who matched the photo on the screen waved meekly.

A person with warm brown skin and lively dark eyes was next. "Roshan Singh, Mint Team! Like Eliot, Roshan hails from Atlanta. They're quite fun to talk to, but beware: Roshan plus any crafts-related activity is a recipe for disaster. In fact, don't even hand Roshan any recipes. They'll find a way to set the paper on fire somehow. Or freeze it and drop it and watch in horror as it shatters into pieces, or maybe turn it into poison, or-"

"That's enough!" Roshan waved their arms frantically. The mint plant laughed lightheartedly.

"Two more to go! Gabriel Kang, Periwinkle Team! Gabriel, better known as Gale is a blind menace. Don't be fooled by his cane and sunglasses, he can throw hands if you're too close. Not to mention his affinity for finding humour in other's pain. Also because he has heightened senses of sound and smell. Maybe don't get on his bad side, won't ya?" Gale started whacking the area around him with his cane while smiling.

A girl with perfect curls and gem-like blue eyes showed up on screen. "Valencia Heartwood, Mint Team! She's from a world with a lot of mineral and plant names, interestingly enough. She's always believed she'd be the Chosen One. Ooh, I hate to break it to you, Val, but you're not." The mint plant looked at the camera sympathetically. "You are pretty skilled in combat and strategy, though, so that's cool!" Val stared at the TV screen in disbelief.

"Anything i'm missing Mint?"

"Just one last thing before we can get on with the fun stuff!" The mint plant said, "You guys will be assigned targets! These will be shown on your watches in a couple moments. You'll be able to get points by attacking your opponent, but not by attacking others. Not to say that attacking other people is against the rules. The rules are pretty loosey-goosey here. But you won't get points for it."

"Alrighty, let's get to it!"

Sunny was a little confused as to why she was in this arena, but she had experience on being teleported to strange lands, so she was mostly excited. She hoped she'd actually get to use a sword this time, though.

Next to her, Robert's face looked like this: -_-. He groaned. "More adventures? Just when I thought I'd get some extra sleep. Why exactly have I been dragged here along with you?"

Sunny was about to respond when her watch gave a pleasant ding, like the sound of elevator doors opening. A little image popped out of the screen, showing a guy with light pink hair and dark eyes. A caption said: "Your target is... Dyal!"

Sunny looked across the arena to find her opponent.

A boy whose face matched the image looked up from his watch and stared at her.

Sunny sized him up and decided she could take him. She'd just have to find a sword somewhere and use the element of surprise. Or perhaps she'd use her martial arts training? Though she'd be sure not to underestimate her opponent either...

The mint plant bobbed up and down in excitement. "Okay, and the game... starts... now!"

Neon-edged walls started to rise from the floor until the arena became like a laser tag maze. Sunny lost view of Dyal as she and Robert found themselves in a dead end.

"Alright, Robert. Think it'd be cheating if you hovered higher to look over these walls?"

"I still don't know why I'm here." Robert managed a creak that sounded like a yawn. "See any outlets anywhere where I can plug in and sleep?"

Sunny sighed. "I'll take that as a no to hovering over the walls then." She started off in the opposite direction from the dead end at a fast walk. Robert reluctantly followed, then stopped short as Sunny turned a corner and nearly bumped into another contestant.

"So much for the element of surprise," she grumbled as she looked up. "Oh. Cool braid, dude."

"Thank you." The man was fiddling with some paint brushes in his braid, along with some Coca-Cola cap earrings.

Sunny's eyes flicked to his watch. Periwinkle. But he wasn't her target, so it was probably fine. Probably. "Hey, you know where I can find a sword? Also, you don't have anything against me attacking Dyal, do you?"

"To be fair, I don't even know why I'm here."

"Me neither," Robert added.

"We're here to have fun in spontaneous combat, of course," Sunny said. "Duh." She was only half-joking.

"Hm. Do you know where i can find the woman with RBF?"

Sunny laughed. "The baker girl who needs more friends? Sorry, I haven't seen her. You're the first one I've run into."

"Hm. Anyway, hope you find your target!" The man walked away, spinning a paintbrush in his fingers.

"We're on opposing teams, but sure. Good luck to you too!" Sunny continued down the pathway in the opposite direction of the person she'd run into (Elsa? Eliot? If she remembered the intros correctly).

Sunny thought as she walked. She supposed she couldn't just wander the hallways singing, "Dyaaaaaal, where are youuuuu?" at the top of her lungs. And Sunny didn't particularly want to keep walking through the hallways randomly either. Maybe she could try to climb the walls? Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by one of the game masters, whose voice boomed from all corners of the arena.

"Ahem. Hi. I forgot to mention one teensy tiny detail about this arena." The tea cup cleared his voice once more. "You'll see computers sprinkled around the arena, each with your name on it in fancy lettering. These computers offer challenges with certain rewards- if you're up for the challenge that is. Heres an incentive for... let's see here... Sunny and Xavier. Sunny, you'll get a sword for doing yours, and Xavier you'll get a friendship bracelet slingshot. Again, good luck!"

A sword? Sunny's eyes lit up. "Robert, I'm going to find that computer. And I will either code it or kick it into submission so I get that sword."

She traversed the hallways at a faster pace, her steps motivated by the prospect of getting her own sword. She hoped she'd be able to keep it once she exited the arena.

Finally, she saw a computer at the end of another dead end. It was sitting on a bright yellow podium and it had the name "Sunny" etched on its top. Sunny quickly turned the computer on and read the directions on the screen.

"Challenger: Sunny McOracle
Challenge: Debug the following piece of spaghetti code
Reward: A programmable sword"

At the bottom of the screen, it said, "Press SPACE to continue."

Sunny pressed the spacebar and was immediately slapped in the face by a screen full of long lines of code. In the top right corner, there was a picture of a plate of spaghetti, saying, "Click this when finished."

Sunny groaned. "This'll take a while." She started to scan the code. "Okay, so that method calls that other method, which takes in this argument and... ugh, this is so poorly organized. My eyes hurt already."

As Sunny reorganized lines of code and deleted extraneous variables, she heard some faint shouts from behind her and to the right. They quickly faded and she wondered if someone had attacked or been attacked, but she checked her watch and saw no change in the number of points.

Approximately half an hour later, Sunny's eyes felt like they'd turned into mini-suns that were burning her eye sockets, but she'd finished untangling the spaghetti code. She clicked the spaghetti icon in the corner and sagged against the podium in exhaustion.

"Robert, I'm done."

"Good job. You didn't even need my help this time!" The robot blinked up from where he'd been resting against a wall.

Sunny nodded proudly. "I've learned quite a bit from you. Now, time to claim my sword..."

The computer chirped like a songbird. Then it cawed like a murder of crows. Finally, it gurgled like water going down the drain as it transformed into a shiny golden sword.

Sunny gasped. Tears filled her eyes. "It's... it's perfect. I'll name you Goldilocks, Goldie for short."

Gingerly, Sunny grasped the handle of the sword and gave it a few practice swings. She found a button on the bottom of the handle and pressed it. A holographic screen popped up, with a small label saying, "Enter code here:"

"Oh?" Sunny grinned. "I think the odds just tipped in my favor."

Dyal didn't know what all this 'computer' stuff was about. What he did know is that he had to fight Sunny McOracle. What an interesting last name. He walked through the halls of the brightly lit alleys the walls made.

He then ran into a person with curly black hair and lively dark eyes. They looked up and smiled at him.

"Oh. Hey there! I'm Roshan! Do you know how to get this watch working?" Roshan pointed to the mint-colored strap on their wrist, which was connected to a watch screen that was glitching in colors of red, green, and blue. It froze for a second and turned to black, then turned fully blue.

"Uh... Sorry, I don't even know what a 'watch' is. Nice to meet you Roshan. I'm Dyal." Dyal inspected Roshan's watch. It was very colorful. He then looked at his watch. It was displaying a map and had a periwinkle wristband.

"You don't know what a watch is?" Roshan looked shocked, their dark eyes expanding. "Did you grow up in the 1800s or something??"

"Excuse you, I grew up in Olympus. Far superior than earth."

"Olympus... Olympus..." The person's face scrunched up as if they were thinking hard. "Hm. I remember a children's story about like a guy who ate his kids and then someone made him eat a rock and he threw them up." Roshan faced Dyal apologetically. "Sorry if that was way off the mark. It's a weird story, I know."

"Oh! You mean the thing where Kronos ate the big 12? I heard of that. Not to be confused with my father Chronos, however."

"Your father." Roshan's eyes grew even wider. "You're not kidding. I know they introduced you as a god and a romanticist or whatever but- You're serious."

"Ah, yes. I am Dyal, son of Eros and Chronos. The first Eros, not the son of Aphrodite, Eros."

"Eros... Eros..." Roshan frowned. "I don't know the difference between them, but wasn't that the guy who inspired Cupid? The baby shooting plastic-tipped arrows to make people fall in love?"

Dyal sighed audibly. "Cupid is the son of Aphrodite. The other Eros, is a primordial god. My fathers are Chronos and Eros, Time and Love. How dense are you?"

Roshan shrugged. "Very dense, me thinks. It's not all bad. At least my noggin is protected when experiments blow up." They grinned mischievously.

"Expiriments?" Dyal didn't know what kind of expiriments these were. For all he knew, it could be the evil kind. The creepy kind? After all, this guy had some weird motives.

"Mhm! I'm actually doing some solar panel research at my university. We're working with polycrystalline silicon, and I'm interested in organic photovoltaic cells as well..."

Dyal looked at Roshan with a mix of disgust and confusion. He muttered under his breath a prayer to the gods and then turned away from Roshan. "I wish you good luck with finding your target."

"Oh. Not interested in my research? Understandable, I guess." Roshan sighed. "Good luck to you as well." Then they wandered off, grumbling at their watch and muttering things about faulty materials.

Dyal ambled casually, and found a screened item with his name on it.

"Challenger: Dyal
Challenge: Flirt and hit a bullseye.
Reward: Boomerang Arrows."

Dyal didn't really know what to do, but under it had instructions.

"Press the blue button to start."

Under the screen was a long rectangle with letters and words. Dyal noticed that there was a long blue rectangle, which he then pressed.

The thing clunked and spit out a bow and some arrows. A target appeared not too far from him, but the screen had a timer on it, with instructions to flirt before the timer runs out.

Dyal drew his bow. "Do you believe in love at first sight? Or do I have to walk by again?"

The timer reset and he shot his bow. It was just off. He drew his bow once more. "There are 21 letters in the alphabet. Oh right, I forgot U R A Q T."

He shot once more, hitting above the target. He started growing irritated. After some time, he had began to run out of pick up lines. His bow was drawn and the time was almost up. He shut his eyes and let go of the string. He heard a small ding.

"Did I do it?" He looked behind him. 5 brown and red striped arrows. He put one into his bow and shot it at the target. It hit the target then flew back towards him, slowing as it came into his hand. He chuckled and walked away from the computer.

After some walking, he turned a corner and spotted a girl with a green braid. She was gripping a glowing sword with one hand, and when she spotted him, she grinned unsettlingly.

"There you are." She started to charge.

"Don't underestimate me." Dyal drew his bow. This was going to be easy.

Siris's blood boiled as she thought of all the customers she'd lose today, just because she got zapped to a random arena and publicly insulted by a sentient plant. She stalked through the hallways, giving the walls a death glare.

"Why now, just when the Eureka Bakery was doing so well, and people were finally finding out about us through word-of-mouth-" Siris stopped short. There was a person in front of her. She checked her watch-- nope, not her target, Eliot. Oh, it was the RBF guy. Kai, was it? No matter. Siris tried to brush past him, but they held up a hand to interrupt her.

"Hey, you're on the mint team." Kai's gaze flicked to Siris's watch strap. "Want to team up? I have a strategy in mind."

Siris frowned. "No."

Kai searched her face for a moment, then shrugged. "Fine. I thought it'd be smarter for us to find allies, but it's alright if you're not willing."

Siris paused. "Actually... Do you have a strategy for getting out of the arena?"

"I haven't thought that far yet, but I'm sure I could come up with something."

Siris nodded slowly. "In that case, perhaps I'd be open to working together." Siris wasn't entirely opposed to interacting with others, after all. It was true that she didn't interact much with her hired workers, but she worked on entirely different parts of the business, so that was understandable, right? "I just want to get out of this arena and return home."

"Me as well." Kai offered a hand to Siris, who shook it after a second of hesitation.

Kai's gaze narrowed as they focused on their watch. "Here, I'll show you how to activate the walkie talkie function. We can split up to cover more ground. If you see either Xavier, my computer, or a way out of the arena, tell me, and I'll do the same for you."

Siris wasn't entirely sure if Kai could be trusted. They were a complete stranger, after all, and Siris didn't even know what kind of soul he had. But it was a good idea to have more information.

Siris and Kai split ways after that, and Siris strode purposefully through the hallways. She figured that if she kept going in the same direction, she'd eventually reach an edge of the arena. It was made significantly more difficult by the constantly turning hallways, but Siris hoped she was moving in approximately the same direction.

As she turned a corner, she saw a computer with Kai's name. (Siris had never seen a computer before, but it stood out as the only thing other than the smooth walls.) Siris hesitated for a moment, then activated the walkie talkie function. "Kai, your computer is here. You can see my location on the mini map, right?"

"Yes, I can. I just found your computer as well," came the slightly staticky response.

"Alright. I've memorized your location, so you can move now."

Once Kai confirmed that he had Siris's location as well, Siris started moving towards her computer. Perhaps the reward would help her get out of here.

"Challenger: Siris Lyangi
Challenge: Bake an asymmetrical cake
Reward: Combat Rolling Pin"

"Press the blue button to start."

An asymmetrical cake? An asymmetrical cake? "Okay, com-pyoo-ter. I don't know who you think you are, but clearly you have no idea who I am. The whole point of the Eureka Bakery is that everything, everything, is symmetrical. The cookies! The cakes! The loaves of bread!" Siris exploded. "It has harmony! You can't just ask me to bake an asymmetrical cake."

Siris glared at the computer, then shoved it roughly off the podium. It landed on the floor with a muffled crunch.

There was a loud cough. "Ahem. Siris? Please don't shove our computers. They're state of the art! I paid a good 200 points for them! I could have posted poetry! Or a chapter in a novel! There's another 200 going down the drain." The tea cup sighed.

"Exactly! Are you trying to remove precious points from the YWS economy? Points do grow in the Green Room here, but wasting points is still a no-no." The mint plant seemed highly offended.

Then an identical computer appeared on the podium, with the same challenge.

Siris huffed. "I don't know what points or economy you're talking about. I just want to get back to my bakery."

Finally, after another good glare at the computer, Siris pressed the blue button. She could at least try, she supposed. A small kitchen appeared, with Siris's usual tools and ingredients. Siris crafted a perfectly symmetrical cake as usual, this time flavored dark chocolate with raspberry cream. There were symmetrical swirls of white chocolate arranged on the top of the cake.

Then, Siris gritted her teeth and pushed one swirl to the side. It nearly physically pained her. She immediately pushed it back into place.

"I can do this. I can." Siris breathed heavily.

She tried pushing another swirl, but she could feel the lack of harmony and the lack of balance. It was like a red-hot pain at the base of her skull, letting her know in no uncertain terms that something was very wrong.

Siris placed the cake right in front of the computer. "It just needs to be asymmetrical for one second, before I press the button again."

Siris shoved a swirl and used all her willpower to slam the blue button. The cake disappeared and Siris let out a quiet sigh of relief.

A rolling pin appeared on the podium. On one end, there were buttons with icons such as a flame and a spike.

Carefully, Siris picked it up and pressed the flame icon. One end of the pin shot out fire and Siris stifled a yelp. She set the rolling pin down, then tapped the spike button. Metal spikes shot out around the same end of the pin.

"Alright. I just need to remember which end is the dangerous end, I suppose." Siris picked up the rolling pin and hefted it in her hand. "This could be useful. Now, to make my way towards the edge of the arena again..."

eliot


Eliot walked casually through the arena, thinking about the girl she just met. Sunny seemed nice, maybe he could make friends with her when this is over. He started fiddling with the paints in his pockets and the brush in his hair. Then he ran into a kid with a cane.

"Ah, sorry kid!"

The kid with the sunglasses looked at Eliot. "Who are you? Mind telling me your name?"

"Eliot. And you must be Gale?"

"Yep. We're on the same team are we not?" Gale folded his cane.

"We are! Would you like to walk with me to find our computers?"

Gale shrugged, and reached out his hand. "Sure. I can't really ya know... see, so can you lead me there?"

Eliot took his hand, and started walking around the maze-like corridors of the patent pending laser-colosseum.

The tea cup coughed loudly. "Oh wait. Am I muted?" The audio then stopped. What an odd interruption.

Eliot stared at Gale. "So... where do you come from?"

"A forest with a crerpy narrator. You?"

"Atlanta, but a chemical gave us superpowers."

"Fun." As the two walked, they encountered a computer repeating the words:

"Challenger: Gabriel Kang.
Challenge: Read braille, then type the braile on the keyboard.
Reward: Sight upgrade for watch."

Gale reached his hand out to feel the computer. Only the F, J and SPACE keys hand braille on them. Eliot looked at the keyboard.

"How do you read Braille?"

"Braille is a bunch of bumps. Like legos, they're in a 2 by 3 grid. Each bump pattern creates different letters, numbers, etc. See these two bumps up here on the top and the little bump below it? That's F."

"Interesting. What is that paper next to it?"

Gale moved his finger over the braille covered paper. "Matcha, Chamomile, Peppermint?"

"Hm?"

"Why do I have to type a list of mints and teas?"

"I don't know. Maybe the tea cup and mint plant [i]really[/i] like their exsistence or something." Eliot peeked over Gale's shoulder, which wasn't hard considering she was 1 foot taller than him.

Gale rested his fingers comfortably on the keyboard and started typing at a leisurely pace. He mumbled as he went, his hands switching between the keyboard and paper. "Pennyroyal, Basil Mint, Taro, Yuzu, English Breakfast, Chocolate Mint..."

It took Gale a good 30 minute to complete his task. But he hit Enter and his watch made a ding. It started speaking.

"Eliot is 1 foot behind you. There are no imminent threats."

Gale smiled. Eliot looked amazed, and used the scroller on his watch to look at the Shop. There were many watch upgrades, like weapons, stuns, and portal... making. Eliot looked at the description for the portals. In big red letters under it said: "Not to be used for inter-dimensional travel."

It cost 100 points. Sadly, Eliot realised he had no points.

"Hey, Gale?"

"Yes?"

"Do you mind if I leave and look for my computer?"

"Not at all." Gale unfolded his cane again and smiled cheekily. Eliot started walking away, but he heard Gale's watch say one last thing:

"Siris is 10 feet away."