PART 05- BLEW DOWN THE DOORS / and boxed us in

~~~

Fireworks

"Hey, are you okay?"

Seto opened his eyes weakly. Everything was dark, but he could feel what he assumed was mud sticking to his cheek as he laid face down on the ground.

"Dave, don't come near him, he's covered in blood. Just keep playing your game. Bart, help me turn him over."

Seto didn't have the strength to fight back as two pairs of hands grabbed him and turned him over so he was lying on his back.

"Don't worry, we're just here to help you- Eek!" The hands let go of him abruptly. Seto groaned softly as he tried to catch his bearings. Where was he? How did he get here? All he remembered was that it was New Year's Eve... Jason's concert... Ashley...

"H-His clothes- he's-!" a teenage boy stammered frantically to someone. Seto peered up at them warily. The boy was holding a flaming torch and standing next to two other people who looked like-

Seto flinched and instinctively tried to back away from the two mobs, but his aching muscles barely responded. He raised an arm and clutched his head. Why did he feel like he'd been beaten from head to toe?

"Who are you?" the boy asked, staring at him with what seemed like suspicion.

"...I'm Seto..."

"And... what are you doing here?"

Suddenly, it all came crashing back to Seto. "You- You have to get out of here-" he stammered frantically, struggling to pick himself up. "There's a dangerous man nearby- He tried to kidnap my friend- Where is he, oh god if he found the others- I can't believe I let him get away-!"

"He's dead."

"What?"

"Assuming that's his body over there, the poor guy got completely torn apart somehow..." the boy whispered with a shudder, looking at something on the ground a few yards away. "Are you hurt?" he asked, turning back.

"I don't- I don't think so..." Seto mumbled.

"I guess that's all his blood on you, then..." The boy shuddered again. "So... were you attacked by Endermen, or...?"

"I don't know... I was fighting him and he started choking me and I... blacked out then, I guess..."

"Hmm..." The boy looked around. "I guess you got lucky, he must have looked at a haunting of Endermen and gotten into huge trouble..."

A haunting of Endermen? Something felt off about that hypothesis to Seto, but he couldn't figure out what. For some reason, he didn't really want to figure it out... 

"You said he was dangerous and tried to kidnap your friend?" the boy asked.

"Yeah, we were at my friend Jason's concert when Bodil noticed that Ashley was kidnapped-"

The boy's eyes widened. "Jason? Bodil? Ashley?"

"Do you know them?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm their friend. Is Ashley okay?"

"I think so, I don't know... I know the others got her out but I hope they found their way back... Good thing Jordan left redstone torches as markers..."

The boy and the Enderman looked at each other. The Enderman nodded and the boy turned back. "My name's Steven," the boy said, approaching Seto. "Let's get you out of here, it's clearly not safe. I don't want us to run into any monsters."

"Wh-Why are you with two of them, then?" Seto asked, stunned.

"They're not monsters, they're my friends. Can you stand? Here, let me help..." Steven passed the torch to the Enderman and bent down to help Seto up. "You're lucky we happened to be passing by," Steven murmured as the four walked together towards the redstone torches.

"Yeah... Thanks..." Seto replied. It took too much effort to look straight ahead, so he resigned himself to staring down at all the dirt and blood coating his black cloak. 

They walked for a few minutes before Steven suddenly stopped. "I see flashlights!" he exclaimed, waving his arm at something in front of them. "Hey, over here! We need help!"

~~~

Seto clutched the gray shock blanket that was wrapped around his body as he sat in the back seat of a police car, his legs dangling outside the vehicle. Exhausted, he leaned to the side and pressed his cheek against the seat, vaguely listening as the others told the officers about their accounts of the kidnapping. Since Ryan's mother happened to be there, Ryan, Mitch, and Jerome were also present.

"Seto..." Jerome said, chuckling as he shook his head. "You really are something..."

"I don't mean to sound rude, but what is up with you going after stronger people and letting yourself get beaten up?" Ryan asked with exasperation.

"Well he always wins the fight anyway," Mitch pointed out. "You should give him more credit."

"Still!"

"I'm just glad Ashley's okay and no one got hurt..." Seto murmured.

"No one? What about you?" Ryan asked, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, you did get beaten up pretty badly..." Mitch said sheepishly.

"Besides that..."

"Not to take anything away from your heroic act, but you really should be more careful next time," Jerome advised.

"I hope there isn't a next time," Seto replied.

"Boys?" Ryan's mother said, approaching them. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I need to ask Seto about his account. Go chat with the others or something."

The three boys quickly left the area, leaving Ryan's mother and Seto alone.

"How are you feeling?" she asked kindly.

"I'm feeling better than before..."

"That's good to hear. Well, you are not obligated to answer my questions," the woman said, turning over to a new page in her notebook, "but it would definitely help to have your perspective on the whole thing. Even though there's not much more we can do with this case, given the culprit has already died, we'd like to wrap this up as best as possible."

"Okay," Seto mumbled.

"Why don't you just start from the beginning?"

"Um... Ashley was already gone when I got here... She apparently had to use the restroom. At some point, Bodil went looking for her, and when he came back he was panicking because he'd found one of Ashley's hair ribbons. He led us to the place where he'd found it and there had clearly been a struggle where she was attacked by a sorcerer."

Ryan's mother stopped writing and looked at him, raising an eyebrow. "Clearly? The others said you were the one who figured it out. How?"

"Well, it was easy to tell because of the dirt. There were two sets of footprints. One was from sneakers, the other from adult-sized boots. There were also body imprints everywhere, I guess the sorcerer must have tried to pin Ashley down."

"And how did you know it was a sorcerer?" 

"I knew because I saw potion bottle shards and burn marks all over the place. I guess the shards were there because a potion was used to subdue Ashley. There was also the smell of magic, I'd recognize it anywhere."

The woman stared at him for a few seconds before shaking her head. "Unbelievable. This isn't exactly related to the case, but how old are you?"

"15..."

"Oh, I thought you were younger for some reason. Do you watch a lot of crime shows?"

"No... I don't watch TV at all..."

"Hmm. This is just my opinion, but I think you should be some sort of investigator someday. I have a feeling you'd be good at it, especially if you had professional training."

"My mother was a detective," Seto blurted out without thinking.

"She was? Huh, must be in your blood."

"I guess, but I don't think being a detective's for me..."

"Well, in any case, you are definitely one smart young man, and I'm sure that intuition of yours will help in the long run."

Seto felt his face turn red and he looked away. "Um... Thank you..." 

"Anyway, I'm sorry about that, let's get back to what happened. So you figured all that out, and then what did you do?"

"We were lucky the man left footprints. I wanted to go after him myself, but the others insisted on going with me, so I told Bonks to get security while the rest of us followed the footprints. Jordan left a trail of redstone torches so we could find our way back. We walked for a bit before we finally got to where they were. The man had a campfire set up and Ashley was tied to a tree. She was awake. I think the man was trying to make another potion to knock her out again. I told Bodil and Tyler to help get her out while Annie used her arrows to distract the man. Jordan was our scout for danger while Sky went back to warn security."

"Next time, maybe you should wait until the police actually get here..." Ryan's mother murmured. "You guys were lucky you weren't hurt badly. What if there had been other kidnappers there?"

"Uh..." Seto felt embarrassed. "Well... There wasn't any time to waste, so..."

"Don't put yourself at risk like that again, young man. But keep going."

"I went to help Annie because the man had gone after her. I told Annie to help get Ashley free while I distracted the man to buy them some time."

"All by yourself?"

"I thought I could take him on..." Seto mumbled.

"You teenage boys are all the same... And then that's when he almost killed you?"

"We... um... fought for a bit, and then he got his hands around my neck. That's... all I remember before I blacked out... When I woke up, Steven was there and the man was dead. Steven thinks that a group of Endermen got him..."

"I'm no detective, but it certainly seems that way to me as well. Ender particles have a certain... smell. The claw marks also seem to match. Anyway, so Steven helped you get back here?"

"Yeah, that's all that happened."

Ryan's mother nodded as she wrote some final words before closing the notebook. "I believe that's enough to get this report over with. We'll have to identify the man, see if he's done this to other people. Even though you were extremely reckless, you should be proud of yourself. You and your friends definitely helped Ashley. Who knows what he planned to do with her..."

"Y-Yeah..."

Ryan's mother frowned as she looked down. "This is slightly off topic, but... Where did you get your cloak?"

"This cloak?" Seto's face paled as he stared down at the Ender Dragon face. How much did the police know about the Order? He'd assumed that the group was so obscure, the cloak would go unrecognized... "Oh, um... I think I got it off some random market seller somewhere... I saw it and thought it looked... cool?"

"Ah, I see. Well, I'm sorry to tell you, but that symbol is associated with a dangerous cult."

"Oh, it is? I didn't know that..."

"Yes, I know it just looks like a regular dragon face, but it's quite dangerous for you to be wearing that in public. Members of the cult who see it might get the wrong idea."

"I don't go outside very much..."

Ryan's mother blinked at him. "Well, even still. Don't wear this when you go outside. Don't you have any other ones?"

"Y-Yeah... I do..." Seto lied.

"Then wear those instead. I'd hate for you to get into trouble with this cult. The people in it are not those you'd want to get involved with."

"I'll try not to..."

"Anyway, thank you for your help. I think we're just about done here then, and your friends are waiting to talk to you. You can keep the blanket if you want."

"Thank you..." Seto stood up slowly, still clutching the gray blanket, and walked over to his friends.

"Seto! There you are!" Sky called out as the others rushed to his side.

"Are you okay?" Bonks asked.

"I thought you'd been killed!" Bodil shrieked.

"I'm fine..." Seto mumbled, shrinking into himself due to all the attention. "You should thank Steven for helping me..."

Steven glanced away. "It was nothing..."

"I'm glad you were okay in the end," Jordan murmured.

"Yeah, you were really lucky!" Seth exclaimed.

"When I left, I didn't realize you'd actually start fighting the guy..." Annie said, rolling her eyes.

"See, this is what I meant! Can you stop rushing into danger for once?!" Ryan scolded.  

"Fighting him head-on dangerous! What the hell were you thinking?!" Husky demanded.

"He kind of forced me to fight him..." Seto replied.

"I personally think it was... um..." Tyler looked away, his face turning red. "...really brave what you did, Seto..."

"Okay, I'm not the only one who thought it was hot," Jason said, grinning.

"THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!!!"

Ashley suddenly stepped forward. "So, um... I guess this is the first time we've met, Seto..." she muttered awkwardly. "But I'd like to thank you for saving me."

"Well... The others helped too... You should be thanking them, not me..." Seto replied shyly.

"Aw come on, give yourself some more credit!" Mitch complained.

"Yeah, I wasn't even there, but I'm pretty sure you were the main helper," Jerome muttered.

"I'm thankful for all of your help, I owe all of you," Ashley said. "I'm sorry I wasn't more careful and that I caused all this trouble, though. And I made your concert end earlier than it should have, Jason..."

"Who cares about that?" Jason asked, laughing. "I'm just glad people actually showed up. Besides, what really matters is-"

-BOOM!!!-

"EEK! WHAT IS THAT?!" Bodil shrieked, clinging onto Ashley.

"I totally forgot about the fireworks!" Husky cried out.

"How could you forget something like that?!" Annie snapped, shielding her ears with her hands.

"S-Sorry for startling you all, we set them to go off at exactly midnight..." Seth said, giggling nervously.

Seto looked up, watching in awe as brilliant fireworks of all sorts of colors gloriously erupted in the night sky.

"Well, uh, Happy New Year?" Jordan asked, laughing.

"Happy New Year!!!" everyone cheered except for Seto, who couldn't look away from the spectacular sight. He had seen many pictures of fireworks, knew how to craft them, but he had never expected them to be this breathtaking...

"See? What did I tell you! You have to see them in person!" Sky shouted over the booming sounds. "Aren't they great?!"

Seto smiled slowly. "Yeah... They are..." 

"Isn't this the best New Year's you've ever had?!"

"Yeah... And the best birthday..."

Sky's face fell. "W-Wait, what? Birthday?"

"My birthday's on January 1st..."

"And you never told me?!" Sky shrieked, alerting everyone's attention.

"Woah, it's actually your birthday?!" Steven asked, shocked.

Seto shied away from everyone, suddenly the center of attention again. "Um... yeah...?"

"How old are you now?" Seth asked.

"S-Sixteen..."

"Oooh, it's your sweet sixteen, gurl!" Jason said, laughing.

"We have to sing the birthday song!" Bonks exclaimed.

"All right, everyone stand back!" Jerome said, approaching Seto.

Seto's eyes widened. "W-Wait, what are you gonna- Ah! Put me down!"

Jerome grabbed Seto, lifted him up like he weighed absolutely nothing and placed him on his shoulders. Everyone else surrounded them.

"On the count of three!" Tyler shouted, grinning. 

Seto's cheeks turned red as he tried to hide his face in the shock blanket. "D-Don't, you don't have to-!"

"One, two, three!"

Everyone started singing the birthday song, much to Seto's embarrassment. However, he couldn't stop himself from grinning behind his shielded face. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt this happy... In those moments, as he was surrounded by his new friends... He felt like this happiness would last forever...

~~~

It seemed that everyone was back in their original rooms now. For a few moments, Seto was tempted to persuade himself that everything that had happened in the resort was just a terrible, messed-up dream. He wanted to believe that when he left the room, Jordan, Steven, Bart, and Dave would still be alive and well. But no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't deny the truth. Those four had been the next ones to perish in this deadly show, and it was all thanks to MonoWither. Now there were only six participants left. Was there any way more people could die at this point? How much longer was MonoWither planning to draw this out?

"I hope you all get out of here somehow... I know you will, just trust me..." Steven said, a hopeful smile on his lips. "You've all made it this far, right? Just keep going no matter what, don't give up... Believe in us, believe in your friends, and believe in yourself... You'll make it through, I promise..." 

Seto sat on the bed, his pillow propped up behind him, as he stared at a familiar gaming device in his hands. He examined it carefully, observing how the symbols and colors of the keys were faded because Dave had pressed them so much. He had obviously spent lots of time playing with this device; rarely had the zombie been seen without his face totally lost in his precious video games. 

This device was clearly very dear to him. But if that was the case, why would Dave just leave it there in the courtroom?

It had to have been some deliberate action on Dave's part. The device was usually in either his or Steven's pocket, so the likelihood that Dave had dropped it by accident was low. But Seto couldn't think of any reason why he would just leave it on the floor before he was sent off to his execution.

Seto sighed. Perhaps he was just overthinking it, he thought, as he leaned back against the pillow. Maybe Dave had just wanted to leave it behind as some sort of memento for them. Or maybe it really had just been an accident. Still, the thought refused to leave Seto for some reason. He raised the gaming device, wondering why he felt so bothered by this, before holding down what looked like the power button. The device turned on and played a startup animation before the menu for Ghast Blasters loaded.

Seto hesitated for a moment before using the arrow keys to select "New Game".  The game's theme song played as the level loaded to show a pixelated person standing on a white surface. An 8-bit ghast appeared at the bottom. 

LEVEL 01- START!

The ghast started shooting fire blasts at the character. Seto struggled to move the character away from the fire blasts but accidentally stepped into a hole, losing a life.

Seto frowned and sat up straighter. He needed to concentrate better if he was going to beat this level...

The second time, Seto lasted for a little bit longer as he dodged more fire blasts, but eventually found himself cornered and unable to jump to safety. His character promptly plunged into the lava below and he lost another life.

Seto sighed as he sat up again and held the device closer to his face, but that was when a strange message popped up.

BONUS LEVEL UNLOCKED: PLAY? YES or NO

Bonus level? This wasn't actually part of the game, was it? Why would he get a bonus level before he even finished the first level?  

Seto raised his eyebrows as he moved to select "YES", but then as he relaxed his arms, the message disappeared and resumed showing the game.

Huh...

Seto looked up at the security camera that was above his head, then back down at the device. He moved the device towards his face again, and the message appeared. Then he moved it back in view of the camera, and then the message disappeared. 

This couldn't be a coincidence.

Keeping the device out of the camera's view, Seto selected "YES", only to be met with another message.

PASSWORD? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

There was a numeric keypad underneath the message. Seto stared at the screen, his mind scrambling desperately as he wondered what the hell this all meant. Now it was asking for a password to access a supposed bonus level? Why would this only appear once the device was in the camera's blind spot?

Somehow, he had a feeling this was related to why Dave had left the device on the floor...

DING DONG, DING DONG

Good morning, bastards! It's 7 in the morning! Time to wake up! Let's all strive to have fun and entertain the audience today!

Barely registering the morning announcement, Seto frowned as he stared at the device. He wanted to figure this out, but without a password, there wasn't anything he could do...

...right...?

Seto felt for the key that Steven had secretly given him back in the trial and took it out, making sure the camera couldn't see it. Was there something hidden in Steven's room that he wanted Seto to see? It looked just like a regular room key, after all. To make sure, Seto took his own room key out and compared the two. They were clearly made out of the same material and had the same head shape. The only visible differences were the shape of the key blades and...

It was then that Seto noticed that the serial number inscribed on Steven's key was "19-20-5-22-5-14" while the one on Seto's was "19-5-20-15". He didn't know why he thought that was strange; different room keys were bound to have different numbers, right?

Then it came to Seto like a flash of light. The alphabet! The numbers were there to match the room key with the name of its owner! Therefore, this was definitely Steven's room key. He felt slightly pleased with himself for having figured it out, but that feeling of victory quickly faded once he realized it didn't have anything to do with his current enigma. Or did it?

Seto stared at Steven's key again, paying attention to the serial number. It consisted of 6 numbers that were separated by hyphens and corresponded to the letters in Steven's name. There were 10 digits in total. 10 digits... wait, didn't the password...?

Seto grabbed the device and pulled up the password prompt, which indeed asked for a password that consisted of 10 one-digit integers. Would there be a penalty for getting this wrong? There was only one way to find out. Seto used the arrow keys to select each digit, praying that this would work.

When he inputted the last digit, the screen suddenly flashed green as a new message popped up.

PASSWORD CORRECT. LOADING C.O.D.I.E. 0%...

The percentage went up rapidly until it reached 100%. When it did, the screen went black for a few seconds before flickering on again.

What Seto saw before him almost made him drop the gaming device and scream in total shock. Instead, he found himself paralyzed, unable to mentally process what he was seeing right before him. Was he still dreaming somehow? Was this some bizarre hallucination? What the hell did this mean?

From the screen of the gaming device, a spitting image of Seth's face smiled up at Seto.