Seeking Strays

The arcade was weird. I guess that should’ve been expected from an anomaly. I stared at an arcade machine that someone had spray painted EXIT onto. It pointed forward, only for another cabinet to have the exact same sign painted going the other way. Did this place shift around?

I continued while carefully watching the arcade machines. The retro cabinets faded into a racing section full of fake motorcycles and cars. A screen flashed with JACKPOT while another off to the side politely asked for player 2 to sit down so the game could start.

The more I watched instead of just zooming past them, the more messages I noticed. EVERYONE’S A WINNER! A few more steps revealed DON’T BE SHY! A bit further down was TAKE A BREAK AND HAVE SOME FUN!

It was like the arcade desperately wanted to be enjoyed. ‘Course, though, not every message was from the arcade. There were plenty of signs Harbor had been through here. I found one of the screens covered in that same green marker that marked the safe ones. FOOD COURT IN SAFE ZONE C. KEEP CRUMBS OFF THE GAMES!

I slowed down. I’d been moving through the arcade at max speed and flying through the aisles, but a scent in the air caught my attention. My pace dropped to a crawl as I carefully tried to find the scent I just caught. My tail stilled behind me, and my ears swept my surroundings alertly.

The scent of fear sharpened. I’d lost its trail ever since we entered the arcade, but I was steadily starting to pick it up. It was bitter and deeply unsettling, which just made my ears twitch around even more alertly as I tracked the scent. 

Chase? Or… It’d been about an hour since the last blackout, and I had a feeling I was due for another one any time now. Part of me wanted to go ahead and find a good hiding spot. There were sections of the Arcade where there was literally nowhere to hide for long, long stretches. If I got caught in one of them when the lights went out, it’d force a life and death battle against the maintenance creature.

I came to a clearing where the endless arcade games briefly gave way to a casino-like layout with large tables scattered around. Small figurines and laminated maps lay around like someone had just been in the middle of playing a TTRPG. My ears twitched as the sound of the surrounding arcade faded ever so slightly without the machines pressing in.

I lifted my head as my nose twitched sharply. I subtly drew my pistol, and held it low and ready. “Hello? Anyone there?”

Silence, outside of the arcade games’ cheerful tunes, met me. I hesitated a moment longer before heading further into the clearing. Seek pointed a different route, but I ignored my psionic ability in this case. I could always find Quinn, but I couldn’t always find one of the missing kids. If there was a chance to find one, I’d obviously go for it.

”I know you’re there!” I called out into the room once more. I wasn’t even sure if someone was here, to be honest. I wasn’t super great at tracking with my nose. It was a sure fire way of getting someone to expose themself, though. “Lizzie? Is that you?”

My ears twitched as I picked up muffled movement from underneath one of the tables. A small boy hesitantly poked his head up over one of the tables with fear filled eyes. “Y-you know Lizzie?”

”We found her bag at the entrance to the place.” I stuffed my gun back into its hip holster, and edged forward into the place. I forced my tail to swish and sway disarmingly behind me like I was just a big happy dog and not the big bad wolf. 

“H-how do I know you’re not a monster?” Fair question. I wasn’t entirely sure some days either. The kid backed away when I tried to approach, and shakily pulled out a rune etched knife. I instantly stopped moving. He looked like he’d hurt himself with it before he ever got me. 

I stopped, and discreetly summoned out the Rose Window Ear Cuff. Its familiar weight instantly warmed against my ear as it boosted my trustworthiness. I tried to make myself smaller and friendlier. I had no idea if it worked, but his eyes dropped to and followed my tail as the soft silver fur swished from side to side.

“I’m not coming any closer, okay?” I raised my hands in front of me to show him I wasn’t holding anything. “My name’s Reyna. I’m a Canary from Silverport. Guardian Tidebreak and I came in here to find you kids.”

“H-how did you know we were here?” He glared at me, and tried to look brave. Bless his heart, he really was trying. The trembling throughout his body gave him away, though. “No one was supposed to know what we were doing.”

That was a fair point. Hmm… was this kid even real to begin with? This could be a long con, and he was the monster. The Harbor documents hadn’t said anything about human-looking entities though. ”Lizzie left her bag outside. My Guardian and I found it, alongside the open doors into the arcade.” 

“Canary Reyna? As in C-Canary Reyna Vargriev?” His knife lowered slightly and he squinted at me. “You’re really here?”

“Last I checked.” I didn’t have to fake it as my tail swished in relief. Oh, thank the Pyre. My fame was finally paying off for once. 

“T-then you’ll get us out of here?” The brave front he’d been putting on started to crack around the edges.

”That’s the plan.” I took a hesitant step forward. He didn’t flinch away, nor did he raise his knife again. I took it as a good sign and slowly started to close the distance.

”A-all of us?” His voice cracked, and made something in my chest twist. This poor kid… how long had he been here all alone?

”All of you.” I was within reaching distance now.

The knife slipped out of his fingers, and stabbed down into the arcade’s ugly carpet. His face crumpled, and tears started to leak through his eyes. “I-I thought I-I was going to die here.”

I carefully pulled the boy into a hug. When he didn’t resist, I wrapped my tail warmly around him while he sobbed. The kid was so short he barely reached up to my chest. “Of course you won’t. Just hang in there? We’ll get through this together.”

”I—“ His voice cracked, and he broke into full blown sobs.

I was never any good with kids. Especially not ones that were crying. I pulled my tail tighter around him, and gently rubbed his back. “Hey, hey, breathe with me, ‘kay? Nice and slow.”

It took a long time for him to calm down enough to breathe easily. By then, my blouse was soaked through with fresh tears. Despite it all, I couldn’t help but feel a little relieved once he calmed down enough to stop bawling his eyes out. Crying kids always made me deeply uncomfortable.

I carefully backed away from him while he collected himself and picked up his knife. The Blackwater Biosystems popped into my eyes.

| Hero's Dagger

Type: Equipment

Anomalous Property: Unyielding

Effect: Slightly boost bravery. Never show fear, no matter the odds! | 

An anomaly? Really? The effect obviously wasn’t that strong. The kid just spent the last five minutes sobbing into my shirt. Then again… my eyes dropped to the kid. He’d survived here alone for who knew how long despite the blackouts. Maybe it was working better than I thought.

He nervously watched me as I held his knife. I ran my finger along the grip with a small frown. “Where’d you get this, anyway?”

”I-I got it from Daggerfall over there.” The kid couldn’t quite meet my eyes, and looked away from me with red spread across his nose and cheeks. He pointed loosely to one of the esoteric arcade games on the edge of the clearing. “I-it was a reward for the highscore.”

”You got the high score? Impressive!” I forced myself to be cheerful and overhype his achievements. It seemed to work as a shy smile bloomed on his face. “Oh, what’s your name, by the way?”

”R-Robert.” He rubbed at the crook of his elbow, and stared at the dagger held in my hands with longing. “S-sorry for crying on you, C-Canary.”

“Please, just call me Reyna.” I handed the knife back to him with a warm smile. He could keep it for now. Once we got out of here, Harbor’s containment unit would inevitably confiscate it, though. ”Can you tell me how many of you came in here?” 

“Th-there were four of us. I lost them as soon as we entered this place.” His face scrunched up, and he slid the dagger into an oversized belt wrapped around his hip. “A-are they okay?”

”I’m sure they’re fine. Guardian Tidebreak came in with me, so we’ll protect you guys.” I was not totally sure that they were fine. Four kids lost in this place… if they read the documents before coming in here, there was a chance. Otherwise, the first blackout—no, best not to think about it. “How’d you get in here, anyway? The door was supposed to be sealed off.”

“Lizzie bought a card off of someone, and convinced us all to come in with her.” The kid frowned, and his hand tightened into a fist. “H-her mom’s sick, and enough tickets could get her a cure. We all agreed to help.”

Pyre… these foolish, brave kids. I tightly closed my eyes for a moment as the cheerful facade I tried to keep up melted. “I’ll find them.”

“I believe you.” The kid smiled slightly. Heh, he really was desperate for reassurances, wasn’t he? “O-one second.”

The kid backed away from me and moved back around to the TTRPG table. He crawled underneath, and came out with a spool of tickets clutched tightly in his hands. It looked like there were about eighty.

I nodded my head lightly, and allowed Seek to pull on me once more. “Let’s get going. My Guardian is somewhere over there.”

With my new traveling companion following me from behind, I was forced to significantly slow down. He wouldn’t be able to keep up with me sprinting through the arcade at max speed like I had been.

To keep his mind off of things, I kept asking Robert questions about himself. Stuff like school, his family, what he did for fun—all pretty basic. We steadily worked through the arcade. 

Everything was going fine until Robert stopped right behind me. I also slowed to a stop and turned around. “Is something wrong?”

”I… can I play this one?” Robert moved in front of an arcade cabinet. Thankfully, it didn’t look like it was one of the anomalous ones. “I played this all the time in Silverport!”

My gut instinct was to tell the kid no. We didn’t exactly have time to stop and play games. My primary priority was to keep him safe until we could get out of here. Instead, I asked, “why?”

”Lizzie told us she needs ten thousand tickets to save her mom.” He lifted his chin resolutely. He looked like he’d only come kicking and screaming if I said no. “I-if I can help her, then I shouldn’t hesitate. I’m really good at this one.”

”… fine.” I leaned against one of the other cabinets. I didn’t like it, but I could see where he was coming from. ‘Sides, I could feel the temptation to stop and play too. It’d been so long since I’d been to an arcade. “Make it quick.”

“I will!” He instantly got to work and booted up the game. The entire arcade was in free-play mode, so we didn’t have to worry about paying to play.

I spotted a green-striped cabinet off to the side. It looked kinda fun? I glanced back at Robert, who was entranced by the game and still playing it. Before I realized it, I’d already taken a few steps toward the one that caught my eye.

I needed to assess this place for that 15 Vitae anyway, didn’t I? That meant I should probably play one of these things just to be safe. I didn’t have the courage to test one of the unmarked ones, but a marked one should be fine, shouldn’t it?

It was a shoot ‘em up game with a plastic rifle. Is this really fine? I mean, I should be hunting for the other kids before the blackout… and yet I really wanted to play one of the games scattered around. I grabbed the plastic rifle and booted up the game.

It was one of those zombie survival ones with the perspective on a track and wave after wave of enemies coming at me. The aim was a bit off compared to a real gun, but I quickly adapted and flew through the mission collecting power ups and other weapons as I went.

“Operator.” Vigil’s voice crept into my ear. It twitched in annoyance as I focused on surviving the mass of zombies pressing in.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Operator Reyna.” He broke my attention once more. I checked back on Robert to find him totally focused on his game. We were still safe.

”One sec.” I squeezed the trigger and wiped out a wave of zombies approaching me. 

“You said that four minutes ago.” Despite the total neutrality of his robotic voice, Vigil sounded exhausted.

“Yeah, and I’m almost done.” Had it really been that long? Nah, we were just taking a short break to play some games. What was wrong with that? I finished up the mission, and started to move onto the next one—

”R-Reyna?” Robert poked my arm, and my attention on the game broke. “Are you okay?”

I froze, and the plastic rifle in my hands suddenly felt heavier than a real one. I immediately took a step away from the arcade game. Why—? He stopped playing before I did. I was supposed to be the one watching him, not the other way around.

My tail curled low around my calf. Some kind of mental effect, maybe? The rifle slipped from my hands, and dropped to the ground with a light clattering noise. On the survival guide from Harbor, it said to have fun. Maybe it meant that playing the games would be enforced by the arcade itself?

”R-Reyna?” Robert called my name again. He shifted from foot to foot, and looked extremely uneasy.

”I… yep, I’m totally fine.” I patted his shoulder, and forced myself to back away a few more steps. “Let’s keep moving.”

”What about your tickets?” Robert pointed back toward the game.

After a moment, a ticket slot at the base of the arcade machine started to spit out a roll of tickets. A panel popped open, revealing a small canister with a bright red cross on its top. I recognized it from the game, and a moment later the Blackwater Biosystems popped into my eyes.

| Healing Salve

Type: Consumable

Anomalous Property: Regeneration

Effect: Apply to a wound to instantly start the healing process. | 

I hesitated for only a moment before grabbing the tickets and the healing salve. I shook my head, and backed away from the machine. The two of us quickly left that section of the arcade behind to keep looking for Quinn.

Anomalous influence or not, I spent way too long playing the game. We barely moved a few cabinets down before—

Bzzzzzzzt! Zzzzzzzzt… zzzzzzzzt…

The lights all around us started to flicker and fade. My heart leapt up into my throat as I looked around us. There wasn’t anywhere to hide. We were in a stretch of the arcade full arcade cabinets with no space underneath. Not even an ant could’ve crawled underneath them.

“Attention, valued guests.” The grainy, distorted voice called once more across the arcade. “Scheduled maintenance is now beginning. Please remain near an arcade cabinet until service resumes!”

We couldn’t stay here. I snatched Robert off the ground into a princess carry and started to move. Through the setting darkness, I could see his face pale. He tightly clutched at the Hero’s Dagger. “N-no. No, no, no, no…”

As darkness enveloped the arcade, I sprinted down the aisle at max speed desperately looking for somewhere to hide.