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The Chromatic Witch, Ep 1: The Gate of Blue Heaven


Yoruichi-san
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Outside the Box Studios Presents...

A Y-san Puzzleduction...

(Based on the short story The Chromatic Witch that Y-san's real life alter ego was too lazy to actually write...)

The Chromatic Witch

To WoS/WoD for introducing the puzzle/adventure game format, many thanks. Xie xie

:D

To all the shows/animes I've watched, books I've read, games I've played that inspired my subconscious to have the dream this is based on, arigatou.

To my laziness for not writing that dream turned story idea into a short story for over a year, so that it was readily available for transcribing into this format...;P

And to all who will follow this series and give it life, thank you :).

The room was almost completely dark. Around the periphery of the room, the girl could barely make out the outlines of pieces of equipment, stands where pieces of equipment should have been, lab benches with varying degrees of dust cover, drawers brimming with supplies, and cabinets littered with specimen jars that were labeled in a weary hand.

“Are you ready?” asked a voice, muffled by the presence of a light turquoise surgical mask. The man it belonged to, donning the matching attire, adjusted the fluorescent stand light next to him. Then he turned and selected a scalpel and surgical drill from the trolley of tools sitting next to him.

It could have been his imagination, but he thought that, for just a brief moment, he caught a slight wince in the corner of the girl’s eye when her gaze fell upon the drill. But he blinked, and it was gone.

Reclining back onto the vinyl back of the surgical chair, the girl closed her eyes.

“Do it.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Welcome to Sector Lambda

Our world is in grave peril. The most nefarious, most maleficent, most devious Chromatic Witch seeks to destroy it through her malevolent tricks and heinous devices.

The Chromatic Witch draws her vile power from her seven Gateways. Each Gateway has the property of being a different color, and each color grants the Chromatic Witch different powers.

Hence, we have gathered you, the best and the brightest agents, here, under the skillful supervision of the most capable and fair Father to form an elite team in the world’s defense.

You and your fellow agents will have to venture into the territory of these Gateways and destroy them, one-by-one, to remove her hold on this world and vanquish her.

There are a few things you must know, though, before you can attend the task at hand.

1. Do not question the word of Father. He is here for your guidance and protection. Father knows best, and has your best interests at heart. Normal human beings such as you and I cannot hope to understand the depth of Father’s knowledge and comprehension.

2. Do not question the above, ever.

3. Some of the challenges the Chromatic Witch will pose will require special knowledge, which should be readily available through the neuro-link to the vast information network implanted into your minds. If your neuro-link is malfunctioning, please contact the BioIT department at SectorLambdaBioIT@gmail.com for help.

4. Some of the challenges the Chromatic Witch will pose may have more than one possible solution. If you discover multiple solutions, then take pride in your savvy as an agent. However, you will have to face the Chromatic Witch in her own domain, and to defeat her power over the domain, you must find the solution to what she has set as the key to her devices and abilities.

5. Some agents will be more readily adapted to certain tasks or easily identify the knowledge needed for certain challenges than others. After all, no man may have complete knowledge, no man except Father, that is, but he is no mere man. Therefore, to be the most effective, you must function as a team and build on each others' strengths. Remember, this is not about you as an individual, this is about protecting our world.

6. Do not question any of the above. It just may cost you or your team their lives.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Led by a tall, gangly man with scraggly dark hair and close-knit brows, who had introduced himself as “Agent Wraith”, the new agents entered the main operations room of Sector Lambda, burdened by a combination of excitement, anticipation, and anxiousness.

“And this is the main control unit,” Agent Wraith explained, waving his arm towards the an expansive sloped panel covered with back-lit buttons of various shapes and sizes, from which a number of holo-screens protruded. “We use it to coordinate all of our operations in the field. It sends real-time feedback from our agents’ neuro-links, so we can monitor their vitals and receive any information they attain, allowing us to guide them as effectively as possible.” He demonstrated by dragging out a sample schematic on the nearest holo-screen, featuring a rotating representation of a head on one half, which zoomed out and displayed the agent’s infrared signature, and with several panels of scrolling data on the other half.

Most of the group emitted the appropriate oohing and aahing sounds. Wraith nodded acceptingly, ignoring the few holding back. Then he turned and went to stand by a panel with four 12 columns of lights, every other column of which was blinking, and contained 1, 4, 3, 2, 5, and 2 lights, respectively. The non-blinking columns contained 5, 6, 4, 7, 7, and 6 lights.

“That ends the orientation. But before you can start your duties, there is a little test we administer to new Agents to make sure they’re up for the trials ahead.” He swept out his arm at a group of Agents sitting nearby.

“Hi, I’m Janine,” said a pretty, freckled girl with short reddish brown hair and glasses. She gave them a warm smile.

“And I’m Orin,” followed a somewhat tall, muscular blonde with clear blue eyes, a strong jaw ,and prominent cheekbones. He gave them a welcoming nod.

“And that is Umi,” Wraith finished, gesturing towards a small, thin, silver-haired girl with pale skin and sharp eyes. “She doesn’t talk much, but she’s a wiz with computational stuff.” The girl blinked at them and then turned back to her work. “One of the agents here is the squad captain. Did you get the memo? Good. Your test, new agents, is to figure out which one. And no random guessing.” He wagged a finger. “Only answers with appropriate reasoning will be accepted. You must demonstrate your prowess before gaining the right to wear a Sector Lambda uniform.”

Edited by Yoruichi-san
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The effervescently tempered agents were effulgent with ideas. They tried more codes, but the door remained immutable.

Orin was still ruminating over everything that had occurred. There was something they were missing. All these things so far, the first door, the second door, the pictures, they had to connected somehow, but how? The code for the first door, so specific. An equivalent effect could have been gotten with different numbers in the 2nd, 4th, and 6th positions, it was only the 1st, 3rd, and 5th that really mattered. But yet that number...he had a feeling that it had been specifically chosen for a reason. The pictures as well, an odd selection, not a collection you'd expect anyone to have chosen for aesthetic purposes. Why that number, and why those pictures? Could it be...

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The second door defeated, the triumphant agents marched through, managing enough manner not to jostle each other on their eager way.

The doorway led into another room, with sky blue walls and two doors on each side, a door opposite them, and, of course, the door they entered through. Above each door on the side hung a panel of LED’s displaying a series of numbers. Next to each door was another keypad, though the screen on these looked different and the keypads only had numbers.

Orin stepped to the first door on the left. The LED display above it read: 33-29-19-22-13-15. He shrugged and entered the numbers into the keypad. The door clicked open, and the curious agents struggled to get a peek inside. A small alcove with nothing of interest: clothes on hangers hung on a rack, old shoeboxes stacked on the ground and hatboxes stacked on the shelf above.

Orin moved on to the next door. Its LED read: 36-17-14-22-13-14-16. Again, he inputted the numbers, and the door clicked open. Inside was a bedroom, with pastel flowered wallpaper and stuffed animals lining the walls, and a crib in the center with a mobile of the solar system rotating above it.

Next he moved to the doors on the right. The first, whose LED read: 35-21-15-26-14-19-19-37, made Orin frown and Wraith smile as they glanced its tiled floor, sink, and toilet. “At least she’s considerate enough to provide amenities,” the captain joked.

The last side door, 22-15-17-23-16, was walled with impressive bookshelves fraught with antiquated but well-maintained tomes and contained a large mahogany desk atop which lay strewn papers and pens.

Orin turned back towards the group to make a comment, but stopped when he noticed the LED display above the door by which they had entered: 13-36-15-14-21-36-33-13. It, though, had no keypad.

The final door on the diametric wall was the opposite. It had a keypad, but no LEDs. On the very left of the keypad display, partitioned from the rest of the display with a |, was the number 3.

“I’m guessing that’s the way we have to go,” Wraith remarked. “Well, better get started.”

Orin shrugged. It seemed too easy, but maybe he should try the number from the door they had entered by? He stepped up to the keypad and did so, then pressed [enter]. The keypad display flashed. Could it have been that easy?

The door didn’t budge, but the 3 changed to a 2.

“Hmm...I’m going to guess that’s the number of tries we have remaining and I’m further going to guess that we don’t want to know what happens when we run out of tries,” Wraith remarked. “We better think this one through...”

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Tthe numbers in blue represent letters.

35-21-15-26-14-19-19-3 spells the word BATHROOM

22-15-17-23-16 is STUDY

36-17-14-22-13-14-16 is NURSERY

33-29-19-22-13-15 is CLOSET

13-36-15-14-21-36-33-13 = ENTRANCE

Nice

also each number line as one more than the last

22-15-17-23-16

33-29-19-22-13-15

36-17-14-22-13-14-16

35-21-15-26-14-19-19-3

13-36-15-14-21-36-33-13

so i think we need one more number for the ENTRANCE line

maybe ENTRANCE"S" since there is two

so add a 16 to the number line?????

this is not to be entered in the keypad yet want to see if anyone agrees?

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Nice

also each number line as one more than the last

22-15-17-23-16

33-29-19-22-13-15

36-17-14-22-13-14-16

35-21-15-26-14-19-19-3

13-36-15-14-21-36-33-13

so i think we need one more number for the ENTRANCE line

maybe ENTRANCE"S" since there is two

so add a 16 to the number line?????

this is not to be entered in the keypad yet want to see if anyone agrees?

oops i mean 22 not 16

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I'm kind of curious to know what happens when we run out of tries...

From what I gather, Orin already tried 13-36-15-14-21-36-33-13 at the entrance.

Perhaps we need to discover the encoding method in order to spell the word EXIT. This is my best guess.

13-?-?-15

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Uh oh, MM is here...time to go hide the plot hints...and the silverware...

I'm kind of curious to know what happens when we run out of tries...

Mm...hmm...*taps fingers together in imitation of Mr. Burns*

Well done, everyone! The stuff for the next segment is on my comp at home, so it will up this evening. Meanwhile, please don't break anything...including the plot twists ;P.

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Uh oh, MM is here...time to go hide the plot hints...and the silverware...

...

Meanwhile, please don't break anything...including the plot twists ;P.

..that Father is working with the Witch to find a group worthy enough to track down and destroy the Devourer of Worlds.

Edited by Molly Mae
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The third door capitulated with nary a contest. Captain Wraith smiled as he watched his underlings march through it. Father must be proud...

The room they entered now was very round, perhaps even perfectly round, with cornflower blue walls (or perhaps it was better to say ‘wall’). There were no paintings or displays, the wall was a pristine barren blue. The ceiling was a metallic looking dome, and In the center of the room was a round table a shade lighter than the walls on which levitated a large metallic sphere whose surface took on a bluish hue as it reflected the color of the room.

Around it were several large, translucent, wedge shaped buttons, which were vertically labeled: (0,0,0), (0,0,1), (1.0,0), (0,1,0) and (1,1,1)

Cautiously, Orin approached the table. When he was within touching distance of it, it seemed to sense it presence and the (1,0,0) button lit up for a moment, then turned back off. Orin glanced back at Captain Wraith, who nodded, and then pressed gingerly down on the button.

A moment later, the (1,0,0) button lit up again (and turned off), and a moment later, the (0,1,0) button lit (and turned off). Orin mimicked the pattern. Then it was (1,0,0), (0,1,0), (0,1,0). Orin continued to repeat the shown series. After the sixth installment of the series, it became somewhat difficult for Orin to remember, but with the forthcoming aid of the other agents, he managed to get each within a few tries. The sixteenth installment was:

(1,0,0), (0,1,0), (0,1,0), (0,1,0), (0,1,0), (0,0,0), (0,0,0), (1,1,1), (1,1,1), (0,0,0), (0,1,0), (0,0,0), (0,1,0), (0,0,0), (1,0,0), (0,0,1), (1,1,1), (0,0,0)

But after he had repeated it correctly (yes, he and all the rest of agents were certain that it had been correct), instead of continuing on to the next installment, the buttons remained dark.

“I’m guessing we have to figure out the rest of the series for ourselves,” Wraith spoke up after a few moments. “I have an idea, but...it seems dependent on style...”

Father’s voice came. “Yes, but I believe the Witch gives beauty the benefit of a doubt.”

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