((Alright guys, super long post. Sorry about that. [insert lame excuse] Let it be noted that despite that I said there were two weeks in-game from new students arriving and returning students... returning, we're gonna jack up the timeline now and those guys will show up. Feel free to throw in other students as NPCs whenever you need to. Let's see if the pacing can't change within a few days, eh? Welcome new peeps, get to posting. I'm sure a post this long will bring up questions because I can be unclear and stupid sometimes. Bear with me, please. Anyway, longpost action go.))
It seemed like people were starting to disperse. Good. And Eris still hadn’t said a word to him since they were in the basement. That was fine with Nick. I better get moving before she decides to change that, I guess. A shame, really. He’d been hoping to tag along with someone (with the exception of Eris and that Gas Mask kid), but it looked like he was going on his own for now.
And then, almost as if on cue, came the chatty girl from earlier. Serena. Wonderful. On second thought, it might have been better if he had just gone alone. Then again, a second person couldn’t be that bad. He had to get used to it. She identified him by name, albeit with a bit of trouble, and he only nodded in response. She had the same idea as him; get a partner and start searching. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt.” He shrugged. “Come on. I have a plan of sorts. Just follow me and keep your eyes open.” He turned and headed back down to the ground floor.
He figured it had to be centrally located, so that meant it would be near that entrance they’d come in earlier, most likely. He’d search around that area on the first floor to start. If he didn’t find the Cafeteria there, he’d move up one floor at a time. It won’t be so simple as just a door tucked away. What kind of test would that be, then?
Nick started by moving to the entrance. The door to the basement was shut with a sign reading “CLEANING IN PROGRESS” slapped on it with tape. It made sense for the Cafeteria to be nearby, somewhere easy to access from anywhere in the school. He had counted five floors from the outside with the windows, though there might be a few rooms on a sixth floor, like an attic or something. In which case, the next most likely place aside from near this area was on the third floor.
He figured it was best to not overthink it just yet, though. He walked down a hall running north-south, and looked in all the open doors. Those that were closed, he just opened a crack and looked in. They were classrooms, it seemed, or study rooms for students, and some seemed to be teacher offices. Nothing but a few lights, tables and chairs. And the hall itself sometimes had a small table and chair, a painting here or there, or a plaque with names on it, and a few empty spaces. He found the hall was quite large, though. He hadn’t seen the building in its entirety, and he figured it was quite large, but this was impressive. Not quite the size of a normal school, but certainly large enough for a hundred people to live. Maybe more. It was hard to say.
He turned to his left at the end of the hall and continued walking silently, more or less ignoring Serena (if she was even following. He found it rather easy to block people out). The Shade occasionally whispered to him, if it saw something “neat.” It was the Shade that drove him to a rather small door, with three old wooden chairs next to it. They were significantly less comfortable looking than the others he’d seen, without cushions and half-rotted. The door had a name printed on the foggy, scratched glass. “PROFESSOR BYRON MORIARTY.” Well, the man didn’t keep his office very up to date, apparently. Nick was about to open the door, just to look inside for the sake of curiosity, but stopped with his hand hovering over the handle. There were voices inside.
“…said he’d be here on time today.” It sounded like a woman, and Nick could only assume Moriarty was late for something.
“Oh, calm down. He’s probably working with the new students.” Came a gravelly response. “His little program this year will be a lot more intensive than previous years. I’m told he won’t have much time to spend on us.”
Another voice entered, now, deep and grim. “That’s what I’m for. Forget Byron for now, he’s not your concern. We should be focused on our job.”
“Alright, fair enough.” The first voice responded with a hint of defeat. “I just think that this crap’s the reason why the Alpha has never had to double up as a babysitter.”
“Actually, he’s a professor.” The second one said matter-of-factly.
“Enough!” The third barked. “Now, you’re sure of what you saw, Alan?”
“Yes, sir.” The second said, his tone shifting. “Smoke in the woods at dusk, and then one of the fugitives near dawn.”
“Which one?”
“I couldn’t confirm. But they weren’t any mundane, and no friend of the Academy would have fled from me like that.”
There was silence for moment. Then the third spoke up again. “I want you to get word out to the other Hunters. We’re on High Alert, and I want scouts hidden at the gate at all times, no exceptions without the Alpha’s word. Are we clear?”
Nick was surprised when not two, but five or six voices responded with a definitive, “Yes sir!”
“Enjoying yourself, Nick?” Said another voice behind him. Nick felt like he could’ve jumped out of his skin if a hand hadn’t immediately covered his mouth. “No need to scream, now.” It was Moriarty. He had his hand over Serena’s mouth as well, a good thing considering her tendency to never shut it. “I presume you have questions, but they’ll have to wait. To make it all short, the school has a few protectors. You were supposed to meet them in a couple of weeks, but from what we heard, things are sounding rather urgent, yes?”
“Weren’t you downstairs?” Nick asked as Moriarty pulled his hand away.
“Well, obviously I came back upstairs, didn’t I? It isn’t that hard, you know.” Hardly giving Nick or Serena time to react, he grabbed the two of them by their collars, bunching their clothes together in his right hand.
Moriarty opened the door, and the three people inside turned to him. All of them wore masks with old, worn paint. At one time, Nick imagined they were very bright and colorful, but now the paint had yellowed and peeled. “About time you showed up.” Said the man who’d held the third voice. Several of them eyed Nick, with his collar still being held tightly by Moriarty.
“I was busy downstairs. One of the new students had… Let’s call it an ‘accident,’ today.” Moriarty smiled. “It’s okay now, though. For the most part. Might have to get out one of the old mats for a bit, though. Now, I was eavesdropping with these sudents for a bit. Good call, by the way, with the guards.”
“… Should I leave?” Nick asked, his voice sounding small and tiny all of a sudden.
Moriarty laughed. “Nicholas, my dear boy, you should be in the cafeteria by now. Really, for as intelligent as you all appeared in your dossiers, not one of you has had a thing to eat yet. Give me a moment. Hunters, you are dismissed.” With a salute, the three masked ones went through the door into the hallway, their footsteps making not so much as a whisper. Moriarty picked up a phone sitting on his desk and hit a couple of buttons before lifting the speaker to his mouth. His voice echoed throughout the entire school, yet Nick did not recall seeing a single intercom.
“Attention students, this is Professor Moriarty speaking. It’s time you got your daily dose of learning. Fun fact 1: Your mind is your greatest asset. Fun fact 2: The solution to any problem can be found by thinking creatively, but sometimes the answer can be staring you in the face. Have a nice hunt.” With that, Moriarty slammed the phone down with a smug grin.
Nick stared at Moriarty in a state of confusion. “Didn’t you basically say that earlier?”
Moriarty nodded. “I did indeed. And I’ll continue saying it until each one of you understands it. You see, you may have heard those things before, and you might think you already knew that. Yet you all think in box of sorts, and I want you to all think as individuals so that you all have something to contribute to one another.”
“… So, I don’t suppose you could just tell me where the Cafeteria is?”
“Now there’s a new idea.” Moriarty tapped his chin. “It may not seem like it, but it really is. Most students assume that because finding the Cafeteria is a ‘test,’ that they won’t receive help. They also assume it will be difficult. But it isn’t like an ordinary test, is it? You could starve to death, after all. When your life is on the line, you need to be willing to ask for help, or things will be a lot more complicated, yeah?” Nick gave no response. “Well, you get the point. Never rule out getting help from anyone. And never rule out the simplest possibilities. That’s the primary lesson here, and one that will be taught several times over the year.”
After that little mini-lecture, Moriarty gave them the details to the Cafeteria and (quite literally) tossed Nick and Serena out of his office. After regaining his balance and narrowly avoiding ramming his head into the opposite wall, it seemed high time they got some food.
He walked back to the entrance rather briskly, and up the stairs to the second floor where the doors to the Ballroom stood, and where the Headmistress had come from when they arrived. In front of the doors were three tables with four signs. The largest read “WELCOME BACK,” and the others were distributed to the tables. Students Nick didn’t recognize were coming in, and heading to a table based on their year. They gave their name, and were handed a small stack of papers with room number, schedules, and everything else they needed to know about a new year at the Academy.
So the others students had arrived.
The Ballroom, Nick found, was quite impressive. And just as Moriarty had said, a wide set of stairs were on the west end of the room, with three double doors at the top. Opening them proved his directions were correct. It wasn’t particularly fancy; it was still a cafeteria, after all. But Nick could see how they could spruce up the place on a moment’s notice if they needed to. There were just some plain tables and benches, and it looked like you got all your food in the back end. There were a few vending machines aside, as well.
But there was nobody else inside. No cook. And no food. Nick pondered this, as after all this trouble, it seemed he should get something. He frowned and turned around, going back into the Ballroom, hoping to see a chef or somebody waiting to surprise everyone (as ridiculous as it sounded, he didn’t have any better ideas). But in the ballroom, was only one greasy man, strolling in through the eastern doors (which Nick had been told led to Madam Eastes’ Office).
“I bet they told you to find the cafeteria, didn’t they?” He purred. “ Crazy, isn’t it? The cook’s out right now, apparently. A bit disappointing, really. Guess he’s making some huge dinner for tonight.”
“And who are you?” Nick was getting some unpleasant feedback about this man from the Shade.
“I’m a friend. I want to help you, and all your pals.” The man grinned.
“Doesn’t do much for me as an answer.”
The smile on the man’s lips turned to a rather frightening scowl for the briefest moment. He covered his eyes and took a deep breath before chuckling. “My manners.” He shook his head. “My friends call me Dee. Listen, you’ve probably not been here long, but you know something’s up with this place, right? It isn’t right. They’re keeping you in the dark. Not telling you things. I think that’s just criminal, don’t you? If this place is about learning, why have so many secrets, am I right?” Nick shrugged at this. “Of course I am.” The man continued. “They want to control you, to bend you into a shape that fits into their little gift-wrapped box. Like a baby toy. They want to turn a square into a triangle so it fits in the hole they want it to.”
“That’s a strange way of putting it.” Nick cocked an eyebrow.
“But you didn’t deny the truth of it.” It was true, Moriarty seemed hardly the trustworthy type. But Nick didn’t trust people that the Shade didn’t trust. Even if Shade was interested in something, he hated anything that endangered Nick, and by extension, himself. “Listen, there are answers here. With as many secrets as this place has, there are always records. I need someone like you and your new friends to help me get them out.”
Nick only stuck his thumbs in his pockets. “Why are you so interested?”
“A friend asked a favor of me. I need to get the truth out to do it. You understand, I’d do anything for my friends.”
