Exploring the Gateway

John woke up to the sight of an unfamiliar face. It belonged to a man that was probably in his forties. The man, who was sitting in a chair near John, had a smile slowly creep across his face as he spoke.

“So, you’ve finally decided to wake up,” the man began. His smile now showed perfectly white teeth that were just crooked enough to become creepy. Trying to speak, John couldn’t open his mouth. When he tried to look down, panicking, he noticed his mouth was taped over. He also had different clothes on. Consisting of simple black pants and a white shirt. The man stared at John, and when he noticed him trying to speak he spoke in an ominous tone, “for now that’ll remain shut. There’s no use for your scared babbling, but I promise you’ll have plenty of answers to give later,” he chuckled creepily.

John looked around the room, hoping to find something that would help him get out of there. Thinking that staring at the man who was still sitting there, almost like he was waiting, was a waste. He also noticed a dull pain in his back beginning to appear, though he wasn’t sure what had caused it.

The room itself was small, dark and mostly covered mostly by various devices and implements which were clearly used for torture. Many of them were ones John recognized, some were not. A few of them even still had blood on them, a fact which only made them more horrific. One of them, a cage like device with spikes protruding from its inner frame, had obviously been used recently. Blood still dripped and flowed from the spikes. Sitting in one of the corners of the room, was the man, in a simple metal chair. It was placed right in front of the table John was lying on, which he was tied to with a few leather straps. Before the now immobile young man could look around the room any more, the man who had captured him continued.

“I’m quite sure even you are not naive enough to not understand your own situation, so I’ll skip the introductions Ember surely already gave you,” he spouted in spite, this time truly laughing. John was surprised to discover he knew the spy’s name. “I was sent here to stop your arrival to the council, and give my employers some answers. That is exactly what I’m going to do, nothing more, nothing less. And for your sake, you really ought to cooperate,” he continued, a slight note of anger in his voice. Once he finished speaking, he stood up from his chair. The man who had yet to identify himself to John was huge, easily standing at almost two meters, and a hulking brute of a man. Even so, he radiated an air of mystery that John could not explain. His fairly simple clothes were all black, and almost designed to mask his presence. Making him look like a shadow. But they also were so out of place that John couldn’t help but notice him.

John was sure the man had continued speaking afterwards, but he could hear none of it. His mind was too busy racing faster than it ever had, both in fear and trying to think of a way out of this. The thought crossed his mind that he might be able to use Modify Emotion to do something similar to what he did to Brad. Using it was extremely, and since he wasn’t in a life or death situation he was more hesitant to use the ability, since it was quite an extreme and unpredictable measure. One that could easily fall out of his control or backfire. He wanted to fight his way out, but as he knew nothing about the man and was still tied up, that wasn’t an option. Charm could be an option, but he still needed to have more information. Understanding of the man and his abilities being essential to any of his plans, John decided to use Observe on him, hoping it would work.

There were too many questions to ask upon viewing that sheet, most of which John knew he would not get answered in this short time, if ever. First and biggest of which was why an operative of the Council would want to stop an escort by another operative. As strange as that was, there was no time to think about it. Instead, John looked to the single weak point in that sheet. The one thing that might get him out of this situation. Fighting his way out now was entirely futile. John had no chance against the so-called bruiser. If Graham truly believed that he knew nothing, however, a belief John was quite happy to support, then there might be a peaceful way out. One with hopefully minimal consequences.

At this point John’s captor had grown tired of the young man obviously ignoring him and walked up to the table upon which he was lying. Pressing a small button that was placed on the underside of the table with a jab of his finger. Every muscle in John’s body spasmed slightly as he felt a shock going through him.

Damage taken: 5 HP lost

It was a sort of biting feeling, as if somebody had snapped a thousand small metal jaws on every inch of his body. Which was only made worse by the flaring up of the dull pain in the Gamer’s back, leaving him gasping for relief for a few seconds. As painful as it was, it told him something important, even with Gamer’s Body he would still feel pain. A very welcome notice when faced with the advent of torture. Graham soon began speaking again, sure of the direction John’s attention would take this time.

“Now, I’m not going to repeat myself again. You will answer my questions, or you will suffer the consequences. Do you understand?” He said, waiting until John responded with a small nod, “first, who are you?” He asked while removing the tape over the Gamer’s mouth. As soon as it was off, John began to speak as quickly as he could. If he wanted to avoid getting tortured and probably killed, he would need to answer those questions that he did have answers to.

“I’m John Miller. Up until about a few days ago I was a completely normal teenager. But then a day after my eighteenth birthday I suddenly got powers. I didn’t know what the hell was going on, really, and I still mostly don’t. Because of that I just continued on in my normal life. That was until I met Ember,” John was slowly going through his answers, choosing his words carefully as to not give more information away than was needed. If his captor didn’t know the details of what he had been up to, it would not help anybody if he learned them. “when I did, everything changed. I found out for sure that somebody else had powers of some kind. And the first one I met threatened to kill me,” he continued and noticed Graham was mumbling something under his breath in response.

"Sounds exactly like….” John couldn’t catch all of what Graham was saying, but it was still a strange way to respond.

“After that I mostly continued on living normally until Ember came back. And now I’m here. That’s all there is to tell really, I don’t really know anything about the Abyss Ember hasn’t told me,” John finished, annoyed at telling the story again, and waiting anxiously for a response.

“Hmm… That does fit with the information I am aware of,” Graham told him. “Ok, second question. What powers do you have and how do they work?” his tone was still harsh, and he clearly didn’t care for any niceties.

“My powers are based on videogames, but I don’t have too many. For the most part I just have a spell that gives me the ability to see some information on others. A spell that allows me to sense people’s minds, and one that allows me to charm people,” John quickly responded, trying to note only those spells he had already told Ember about.

“And this spell that lets you see information, did you use it on me?” Graham asked, his tone showing just a hint of curiosity. “I am interested to hear what it said,” he continued, laughing eerily again.

“Yeah, it didn’t seem to work though,” John responded in a flat tone, lying.

“Interesting…” the hulking man mumbled under his breath. “Now, third question. What do you know about the Council?” Graham asked, returning to his tactless tone.

“Nothing, really. I just know it’s called the Council of Exploration and that Ember works for them,” John answered, twisting the truth once again. Luckily, it seemed Graham didn’t know enough to disbelieve the young man.

“She told you nothing else?” Graham asked, though his continuation moments later told John he was not looking for an answer. “Regardless, I should ask you a final question. Do you think I’m a fool?” He said, his face taking on an even stranger grin than the one he started with.

“What?! No. Of course not,” John said, his mind racing in an attempt to understand the man’s odd response.

“Then you must think I don’t know how to differentiate a successful scrying spell from a failed one?” Graham retorted, his grin expanding. That was the moment John realized he had truly fucked up. He knew then that he needed to take drastic action, and so he did.

He exited his mind and entered the mind of the man now standing above him