NWF #8: Happy Birthday Shaun, Pt. 2: Shaun Rosten and the Chambers of Bitch Fits

Here is part two of Shaun's birthday present. This thing is turning out longer than I expected, but I hope people enjoy it. Next week will be part three!

 

Part Two:

Ground Floor

The door closed behind them, Nate checked it, “It's locked.” It wasn't like they were leaving anytime soon, so it wasn't too big of a concern for Shaun at the moment. He tried to get the layout of the room, but it was pitch black, save for their torch. The darkness seemed to be fighting the torch, and winning, it barely gave off any light. “Can you see anything?” Shaun asked Nate, forgetting that Nate's eyes get worse in the dark. “No, everything is just dark, I think it's actually a mist or something, like a dark cloud.” Shaun took a step forward, and heard the sound of glass breaking, he looked down at his feet and saw a pair of glasses, with dark lenses. He saw another pair, they were probably meant for the two of them, he had stepped on the smaller of the two pairs, the one meant for Nate. “Dammit Shaun, watch where you're going” Nate complained.

“How was I supposed to know that there would be glasses on the floor? How could I possibly think that would be a thing that would happen in here? I only broke one pair, there's still another so calm down.” Shaun picked up the good pair and put them on, the haze seemed to be thinning, there was a green light flashing from the other side of the room, Shaun could faintly make out a door. “Over there, the exit's over there, easy.” Shaun and Nate started walking towards the exit when they heard a low moan, “What was that?” asked Nate. “I don't know, just keep walking, we're almost there.” Shaun whispered back trying to listen. The light in the glasses was getting brighter and closer, he could better make out the shape of the door, he made out a symbol on the door, a skull with a hole in the forehead. What is that? The moaning was getting louder, Shaun ignored it, they were so close, he was reaching out to the door handle.

“Shaun, seriously, what is that noise, it's freaking me out.”

“Nate stop overreacting, we're almost at the exit,” Nate had a tendency to do that, it didn't matter what was moaning they would soon leave it back in the room. Shit, what if it's locked, well, Nate has his stupid lack pick. He reached out and tried to turn the knob, locked. “Nate pick this lock.”

“What? Shaun, it's pitch black, I can't see shit, how am I supposed to pick a lock I can't see?”

“Wear the glasses”

“They were made for a big human, I am a Dwarf, I can only see out of one lens at a time.”

“Well I'll hold the fire really close, just do it”

Nate tried but the glasses kept falling, the fire was being dimmed by the cloud of darkness in the room, and he just couldn't get it open. “Shaun, this isn't gonna work. We need to find a key.”

“Where do you see a key Nate?”

Nate looked around the room, and saw a small light all the way on the other side of the room, back where they started, it was a key with a skull and a hole in the forehead, just like the door. “Over there, on the other side of the room, holy shit!” Nate could now make out what was making that moaning sound, there were people, well, people like shapes in the darkness. They just stood there, reaching out towards Shaun and Nate, they had walked past them the entire way here and never noticed them, and now they had to walk back to the other side to get a damn key that they never saw. Nate was not happy with the situation, “There's things out there, they were the one's moaning, holy shit we walked right past them.” Nate was not one to be happy about dealing with the undead, there wasn't much he could do to them, he had a little dagger, and his potions he saved for himself and his party members. Shaun on the other hand, was pretty great about dealing with them, his spells were strong enough to deal with many at once, “Nate, calm down, I've got plenty of spells for a situation like this” as he held his hand high and began casting a spell something caught it. He looked up and a giant metal cuff was around his wrist, a giant smiley face painted on it, it lifted him into the air. “uh, ok, second plan, I'll cover you, go get the key Nate!” Shaun yelled down.

“Are you kidding me? What about all the Zombies?”

“Just go Nate, I can't reach it from here, so you have to do it!”

“Fine!” He was even less happy then before, but he was more freaked out than anything. Nate began walking across the room, it seemed much larger than the last time. He tried to be as quiet as possible, but Shaun yelled out “Hurry up Nate!” the zombies heard this and turned around, one looked directly at Nate. Shaun couldn't see anything, but he heard Nate yell “Oh shiiiiiiiit!” he could make out a little bit the light from the torch, it made patterns in the darkness from Nate running around in it. “Oops” Shaun said. He saw the fire stop moving for a second, and prayed they didn't get Nate. “I've got the key, now help me! Shoot a giant fireball in my direction, I'll duck, just do it!” He did as he was told and shot a giant fireball towards Nate, he tried to aim it a little higher, to make sure to avoid Nate. There was an explosion and the little flame from the torch ran across the room, it was Nate, he unlocked the door with the key and the device released Shaun. He fell, looked up at Nate, and laughed, Nate's eye brows were missing. “Fuck you” Nate said, pulling his hood over his forehead. The door opened and flooded the room with light, Nate and Shaun stepped into it, the door closed behind them.

Second Floor

They looked around, and thought something was wrong, how could they be inside? This “room” was actually a huge field filled with nature, it was a plain as far as the eye could see. They could feel the warmth of the sun on their faces, the wind blowing in their hair, they could see it in the grass. “This is some very powerful magic, how did we get here?” asked Nate.

“I don't know, and where is the door? Are we on the second floor now?”

“Hey, there is someone over there, maybe it's someone we know.” Nate said, but Shaun knew better. The note that Nate had supposedly written had said that every five floors one of their friends would be found, this was the second room they had visited, even if this was the second floor it wouldn't make sense that they would find someone from their Guild. “Nate, be careful, I don't think that's anyone we know.” Shaun yelled after Nate who was running over to the person. Nate got closer and didn't recognize the figure. It was a tall man, about Shaun's size, in fact he even looked like Shaun. Something was strange about him, he wore all black, pants, a shirt, and a jacket, he had short hair. He was just sitting in the middle of this field, looking forward, as if waiting for them to get there. Nate got close and said, “Excuse me? Hello?” the man's ears twitched, but no other movement was seen. Nate went around to his front, he didn't even look at Nate. Nothing fazed him, until Shaun approached and said “So? Who-” before Shaun even got to finish the man pulled a knife out of his jacket and slashed at Shaun, ripping the sleeve on his robes. “Whoa, what the fuck?” was all Shaun could get out before he was attacked again, this time getting out of the way completely. The man never said a thing, he didn't make any sounds, he didn't even seem to be breathing. Shaun was quick to set up a shield spell between himself and his attacker. The Man in Black seemed to know what it was because he stopped attacking at that moment and pulled out something else from his coat, it was a key, but where was the door? The Man in Black pointed to an area across the field, and a door appeared, with the skull on it, just like the last room. The Man in Black tied the Key around his wrist and gave a “come on” motion to Shaun.

“Nate, he's got the key, we gotta get it from him” Shaun yelled.

“Are you crazy? That guy is going to kill us!”

“I think he only wants me, look, I'll cast a speed spell to make you even faster, then I will get him to attack me, are you ready?”

“Shit, fine!”

Shaun cast a speed spell on Nate, he had a golden glow now and moved much faster than your average thief, which was fast already. “ok, Go!” yelled Shaun as he took down his shield and began to fire spells at the man, drawing his attention. The Man in Black ran for Shaun with his knife out, reaching into his jacket for something, it was a bomb, he lit it with a fire ball he had just dodged and threw it at Shaun, who shot a fire spell at it, causing a massive explosion in the middle of the field. While the Man in Black was distracted Nate went in for the key, the Man in black was shielding himself from the debris of the explosion and was holding his arms in front of his face, where the key was attached. Nate grabbed it and took off, the Man in Black nearly cutting Nate with his knife. “Got it!” Nate yelled as he made for the door, “Come on Shaun!” The Man in Black followed after Nate, as did Shaun, who was firing spells at the same time. The Man in Black took out another bomb, but in the time that he took to light it Shaun had cast an Ice spell at him, it hit him and he was stuck, frozen in ice. Shaun ran for the door and Nate had already got it unlocked, they looked back at the man, he had broken one arm free of the ice, and opened the door. Water came crashing over Shaun and Nate, it pulled them into the next room.

Third Floor

Shaun looked around, he didn't see a top to this water, they were seemingly just in endless water. He saw Nate struggling to hold his breath and waved his hands around Nate's face, creating a block of air that pushed the water away from his face, and created one for himself as well. “Oh god, thanks” Nate said breathing heavily, “That guy was crazy, it was weird, it's like he was waiting for you, he hardly moved when I was right next to him, then u come and say one thing and he attacks.”

“Yeah, I don't know what that was about.”

“What was weird is that he looked like you.”

“What do you mean, like he looked similar to me, like we could be related?”

“No, like he looked, just like you, he could have been you”

“Weird. Well, we're here now, so let's keep an eye out for a key, and a door.”

“Right.”

They swam straight ahead, really unsure of just about everything in this room. How were they going to find a door in what seemed like a giant expanse of water, which way was up, which was down? Shaun tried going upside down, but the gravity of it all seemed the same, he was just as comfortable this way as the other, it all seemed natural. The biggest question of course was how were they going to find a key in all this water? The answer unfortunately was right above them. Shaun looked up and saw a large whale swimming above them, and attached to its tail, was the skull key.

“Hey Nate, how fast a swimmer are you?” Shaun asked, with a shit eating grin across his face, Nate knew what that meant, it meant he was chasing the whale. “God dammit Shaun, first I have to make my way through a group of undead, then grab a key off some deadly assassin or something, and now I have to chase a whale?” Shaun's only response was “Yes.” Nate had no answer, he really didn't want to, but he was the fastest person in the group, especially when it came to swimming. “Look, I'll even give you a push with a spell.” Before Nate had time to respond Shaun was in the process of casting a spell, Nate turned toward the whale and braced himself for the push. It came immediately and Nate shot off like a rocket being propelled by the water. He was right behind the whale swimming after it, when the whale brought down it's tail creating a huge wave of water that shot Nate back towards Shaun. “Well, that didn't quite go as planned” Shaun said.

“No, no it didn't, what are we supposed to do now?”

“What about an ice spell? To stop it's tail?”

“Will that work? Wouldn't the whale just stop swimming and sink? How are we supposed to get a key from a sinking whale Shaun?”

“Well, do u have any better ideas?”

“No, not really.”

“Ok, I'm going to shoot you back over there, then I'm freezing the tail, u had better grab that key as fast as you can before it starts to sink and take you with it”

“Wait, what-” It was too late, Shaun had already shot Nate off with a spell. He zoomed back over to the whale, as it's tail came down a small ice shard hit it and engulfed it in ice, stopping the tail from moving, and thus stopping the whale in it's tracks, Nate swam as fast as he could and saw the key. Unfortunately, the key was also frozen, Shit! You've got to be kidding me Shaun! He thought as he pulled out his knife and started hacking away at the ice, he almost got the key out when the whale started sinking, and fast. Nate was going down with the whale, but he needed to get the key out, he had barely fished the key out of the ice when a wave of water, sent from Shaun, crashed against him and knocked him away from the tail with key in hand. He was safe, except that he found the door, it was on the top of the whale. “Shaun, the door is on the whale!” he yelled.

“Crap, what!?” Shaun fired off a wave of water pushing him towards the whale, he needed to get that ice off of it's tail. He got right next to it's tail and used a fire spell, of course they were under water so it just made the water around his hands very hot. He put his hands to the ice and it started to melt. Nate swam after Shaun and the whale as fast as he could, just as Shaun had freed the whale enough for it to swim. It stopped sinking and Nate put the key into the door, Shaun came over and Nate opened the door, the water drained into the door and pulled them through.

Fourth Floor

The door opened and Shaun and Nate came spilling out with a good amount of water before the door closed magically behind them. They laid on the floor in a pool of water for a good five minutes before taking in their surroundings, what could this room hold for them? This would be room number four, or was it the fourth floor, there wasn't really anything telling them that they were moving up the Pillar of Death. They seemed to be in a small cave, there were candles lighting up the place, a little table sat in the middle of the room, it had a red table cloth and a small bell, with a note, “Ring for Assistance” next to it. “Should we ring it?” Nate asked, “It could be a trap” Shaun said.

“But there isn't anything else here.”

“Well then ring it.”
“But what if it's a trap like you said?”

“Then don't ring it.”
“Well, we don't really have a lot of options here, either we ring it or we don't ring it.”

“Ok, so choose”

“Shaun, you're the leader, you chose”

“I don't care either way, I am leaving the decision up to you”

“But what if it's a trap?'
“But what if it isn't?”

Nate was very frustrated and decided not to argue anymore, he grabbed the bell and rang it. Nothing happened. “Well, what was the point of that?” Nate said. “Hello, how can I help you?” said a voice that was familiar to Shaun, it was the Invisible Man from Experimental City.

“Who's there?” Nate asked.

“It is I”

Nate was very confused and a little freaked out, he heard a voice but didn't see anyone, “I who?”

“I, the Invisible man.”

“You're invisible?”

“Yes, that 's what I just said.”

“Ok, but what's your name?”
“Not important, just know that I am a man, who is invisible. You rang the bell, what can I do for you?” he addressed Shaun, “Oh it's you! Shaun of the family Rosten right? Did you ever find your horse or whatever?”

“It was my friends that were missing.”

“Well I see you've found one, although I would probably say he is half a friend, am I right?” The Invisible Man laughed at his own joke, Nate was not as amused.

“Look, can you tell us where we are? What's going on, have we made progress in this tower or not?” Nate asked cutting the laughter short.
“Well, aren't we rude? Especially for someone with no eyebrows. Uh, let me see here, I think I have instructions here for you.” He pulled out a piece of paper, as usual seemingly out of thin air, Shaun wondered if he had an invisible bag too.

“It says here that you are now in what is called a 'Rest Room' a room where you can get some rest, drink from these potions, the blue one is to replenish magic, the red for health. Every room u pass through is actually taking you up a floor, you are now on the fourth floor. The next Rest Room will be on the Eighth floor, after that there will not be a rest room until the nineteenth floor, so plan accordingly, the potions may not be taken from the room, although you may purchase some from the Mole Merchant Woman, tap on the ground three times to summon her. On the next floor you will find one of your friends and a trap, you must disable it to set your friend free, disabling the trap also unlocks the door. Enjoy your stay in this Rest Room. That is the end of the note, any questions?”

“Uh, no, I guess not, you just about answered all of our questions, uh can you tell us what rooms are coming up or any hints about some of the rooms?” Shaun asked.

“I don't know a lot about any of this, I was just given this note about an hour ago, again I was summoned to that damned tree, then in here,”

“Ok, well, uh thanks.” Shaun said. He sat down near the table and drank from the blue potion, thinking about their next move. Nate took a swig from the red potion and thought about the same thing. Shaun thought they would be ok without buying potions right now, Nate had some and his own endurance for spell casting was pretty high, he had already made it four floors without running too low. Hopefully they would be able to find some money before the next Rest Room to buy some potions just in case. Shaun felt good enough to get going again, and so did Nate, the Invisible Man noticed this and said “All ready? Here is the door, I hope you enjoyed your stay here in Rest Room one, good luck!” A door appeared out of thin air, as if from behind an invisible curtain. Shaun opened the door and stepped through to the next room.

Fifth Floor

It was dark, pitch black, they could only hear what sounded like machinery. Neither one of them made a sound, for fear of an undead horde in the dark like in the first room. The low hum of whatever was there filled the room, Shaun was unsure of what to do. Nate had an idea, he still had what was left of the glasses from the first room, although the fire ball that blew off his eyebrows did break the glasses in half. He took out the lens and held it up to his eye. It didn't do much, he could sort of see, there was a thick fog of darkness just like the last room, but no figures in it, so there was probably no undead, Well, that's a relief he thought. He continued to search, across the room he saw what was making the noise, there was a hole in the ground filled with water, in the water there was a school of fish, but they were all robotic, gnawing away at a wire that Nate followed up to the ceiling where it was attached to an unconscious Sarah.

“Shaun! It's Sarah! She's tied up near the roof, there is a small pond or something filled with robotic fish, we gotta save her.”

“How can you see all that through the fog?”
“I have what's left of the glasses you broke from the first room”

“I broke? How was I supposed to know that there would be a pair of glasses on the floor in front of me in the dark Nate?”

“No the other ones, the pair I was wearing when you shot that fireball at me.”

“You told me to, and then you didn't get out of the way, so that's your fault”

The familiar sounds of the two bickering woke Sarah up, “Hey, can you guys stop arguing and get me down from here!”

“Well maybe if Nate would lead the way being the one with the lens that can see through all this fog”

Nate begrudgingly led the way, when they got closer to Sarah the fog dispersed, Shaun approached the pond and a few of the fish turned their attention to him, trying to jump out and bite him. “Get me down!” Sarah shouted from the ceiling. Nate tried to cut the wire, figuring they could just try and catch Sarah, not the safest plan, but the easiest. The wire would not be cut by Nate's dagger, it may have actually just dulled the blade. Shaun thought it shouldn't be too hard to get rid of the fish and untie the wire from in the pond, he zapped them with a powerful Bolt spell and the fish robots were fried, they sank into the puddle. Shaun then reached his hand into the pond, but he saw a shadow swimming up towards him, he pulled out and saw that it was another school of fish, this time they were bigger. “Ok, so killing them only makes them come back bigger, this could be a problem.” he said, he had another idea, he used an Ice spell to freeze them, they were still technically as alive as fish robots could be, but they sank towards the bottom and he reached his hand in to get the wire undone. Another shadow, they must have gotten free, but this time they were even bigger. Shaun pulled his hand out as one of the fish almost got a hold of it. The robots were now the size of sharks, one more time and they could be large enough to destroy the pond and the room, and Sarah along with it. “Nate, do you see a door anywhere?” Shaun asked, Nate put the lens to his eye and looked around, he found the door, it was on the wall to the right of them, “Over there,” he said. “Ok, I am going to get the robots to cut the wire, I want you to grab Sarah and run for the door, got it?” Nate nodded his head, he readied himself to catch Sarah mid fall. “You guys are crazy! Nate if you let me die, I will haunt the shit out of you!” Sarah yelled from up above. Shaun stuck his hand near the pond to get the robots' attention, they made for him, he put his hand near the wire and moved it just in time for one of the robots to snap the wire in half, Sarah screamed as she fell, praying that Nate would catch her, Shaun fired a Bolt spell at the pond, frying the Sharks, Nate caught Sarah and they all made for the door as fast as they could. They were almost at the door when the floor around the pond crashed open and a giant robotic whale burst through, it was maybe ten feet behind them, not far enough for anyone to turn around. They made it to the door and flung it open, jumping through just in time to not get eaten by the giant metal beast.

Sixth Floor

The three of them lied in a heap on the floor, Sarah was the first one to speak, “Well that was extremely uncomfortable.”

“You think that was bad? You should've seen all the crap we went through just to get here! Freakin zombies, some guy doppelganger mother fucker who tried to kill Shaun, chasing a whale!”

“Nate, stop overreacting, we made it out of all of those in one piece. We're fine, and we found Sarah, I'm sure she'll be a big help in the rooms ahead.”

Nate felt like he was not overreacting, this place was dangerous, whoever thought this was a good idea was insane. How did he get signed up for this?

“Sarah are you ok?” Shaun asked, “Yeah I'm fine, just a bit dazed, where are we?” Nate and Shaun caught them up on the situation. They were not very excited about having to do this for everyone, but they were the ones who were kidnapped so there wasn't much they could do about it. They were so busy explaining everything they hadn't even taken the time to notice what the room was like. It was a technological dump, there were parts to everything from robots, cars and weapons to strollers, mechanical bulls and Air ships. This was Sarah's domain, she left the guys mid explanation to go digging through the garbage, within mere minutes her and her little robot Gina had gathered three large piles. “Sarah, we can't take all this crap, we still have twenty floors to go in the tower.” Shaun told her. “Just give me a second.” She took out a little box from her belt, it emitted a bright blue light and one of the piles shrank and transferred itself to inside the small box. She did the same with two other boxes, the lights red and yellow, respectively. “Ok, just a little longer.” She took off and Shaun and Nate just sat there amazed at her technology, sure they had worked with her for a good couple years, but they had never really seen her in action this way, they never really thought about where the parts for her robots come from, and now they knew. She came back with what looked like a crude shotgun slung over her back, and a few little put together pistols, “Ok, ready, now what?”

Shaun was the first to come out of shock, “uh, we gotta find a key and a door.” Sarah had already found the key apparently, which made this all seem a lot easier. “Oh, uh, ok. Did u see a door by any chance? With the same skull on it?” She took them to the door, this all seemed too easy, Shaun and Nate were waiting for something horrible to happen, a giant robot, or some sort of metal monster. “Uh, Sarah, how did u find all this stuff? Like weren't there any monsters or some sort of obstacle to getting the key?” Shaun asked. “Well yeah, it was just some giant snake made out of parts, as if, I make things like that for fun, it was no trouble at all, plus it gave me all those parts you saw me put in my Cubes.” her answer was so matter of fact that they couldn't really question it. They opened the door and went through to the next room.

Seventh Floor

They entered the room, and there it was again, the darkness. The dark cloud that they couldn't see through, Sarah didn't even have anything that could help, she tried her brightest lights, but nothing broke through it. Something was different about this darkness though, even more than usual. It was cold, there was a chilling breeze through the air. Nate took out the lens and looked around, most of the floor was missing, if they had taken even one step in the wrong direction they would have fallen into a pit of Darkness. “You guys, watch your step, the room is full of huge pits in the ground, follow me” They did as they were told and followed Nate. As they started walking Shaun and Sarah could see where the floor gave way, but it was still too dangerous to try and navigate it without Nate leading the way. Shaun looked over the edge of the floor, the pits were filled with the Darkness as well, there was no telling how far it went, it could have gone on forever what with all the crazy magic going on in this insane place. They were about halfway through when the ground started shaking, they all held on to each other stabilizing themselves, the floor then began to shift and move, as if someone was moving them like tiles. Once the ground stopped moving Nate had to reassess the ground situation, they were surrounded on three sides by pits, and the only land was back the way they came, so they had no choice but to back track. “Nate, we're going the wrong way,” Sarah complained. “Well every other way is a pit, so we have to go this way.” he barked back. They went back towards the beginning of the walk way, and the floors started shifting again. “Ok, they shift every fifteen minutes it seems, so this time Nate, get us across as fast as you can.” “Ok, but we still have to find the key.” Shaun had forgotten the key, luckily at that moment the key was passing them on a tile a little ahead of them, Shaun went after it. As he took a step towards it he realized there was a pit in between him and the key, so he jumped at the last minute and made it to the edge of the tile. It was still sliding into it's place and took Shaun along with it, but as it was getting close to it's destination Shaun saw another tile headed right for him. He climbed up almost getting crushed by the tile, and his robe got caught between the two tiles, he would have to wait for the next shift before moving again. He couldn't see Nate and Sarah. “Can you guys see me?” He yelled out, no response, they probably couldn't hear him either. He waited in silence for the next shift. There was a rumble and the tiles started moving again, he got his robe free and stood up on his tile. It moved back towards where he had come from, but no sign of Nate or Sarah. He searched for some sign of them, or the door. He found a dark stone, it looked like it was made from the same material as the glasses, he held it up to his eye, nothing it was just a dark stone. He broke it in half, and again, and again, until he had a very thin piece of the stone, it was practically a lens itself. He could faintly make out shapes in it, Nate and Sarah were on the other side of the room looking for him. Just as he was about to head over to them he heard the low rumble, the floor started shifting again. He jumped to the next tile, and was taken back over to them. “Hey guys, look what I found!” he held up the key and the new lens. “Shaun, where the hell did u go? We've been looking for you for like three hours!” Nate said angrily. “What? I've only been gone like three shifts, that's 45 minutes tops.”

“No, it's been much longer then that, we were starting to get worried.”

“I swear I've only been gone three shifts, it must be the darkness making it all seem distorted. I'm here now, and I've got the key, and an extra lens I mad out of a rock, it's not as powerful as the glasses lens, but it's ok. Let's get out of here, have you guys found the door?” Nate showed him where the door was, they waited for the next shift before attempting it. Sarah and Nate had figured out the pattern to the tiles while searching for Shaun, the trek to the door must have only taken five minutes. They reached the door and headed to the next floor.

Eighth Floor

A Rest Room. This one was considerably nicer, large pillows to sit on, a hot meal everything they could have wanted. They sat and ate in hushed glee.

Sarah was the one who broke the silence, “So, how much further is it?”

“We are on the eighth floor, there are twenty-six floors altogether, so there are eighteen left.” Shaun told her. She groaned, “There has got to be a quicker way to do this!” A blue light appeared, they all recognized it as one of Guy's time portals, it opened up and Guy stepped out of the light. “Hey guys, so I'm still captured an everything, and I just wanted to know if y'all could hurry the fuck up? I know I'm a time traveler, but I can't really go anywhere if I'm all tied up in that trap, so I was sent back by you guys from the future to tell you about a short cut. Shaun told me to tell Shaun to ask the Invisible Man about a shortcut, whatever that means.”

“There is a man here who is invisible.” Said Shaun. “Oh shit really? Can I see him?” Guy excitedly asked.

“No Guy, he's invisible, no one can see him.”

“Well how are you gonna ask him about a shortcut if you can't see him?”

“Because we don't need to see him, we just need to talk to him.”

“Well, alright, but I still think I would like to see him.”

“Guy, go back to the future, thanks for the tip, we'll come save you as fast as we can.”

“Good, cause it was getting boring in there, I even stopped by to visit past me, and we agreed that the waiting was not enjoyable, so I solved the trap and set myself free, he's just waiting up there on the twentieth floor, see ya.” A blue light appeared and Guy left through it. Shaun wondered why he didn't just bring his past self here, if he had already set him free, but decided it was best not to try and ask Guy questions about time travel. But they had a clue, a shortcut, this might just be what they need to get through this damn tower alive. It seemed like the rooms would only get worse from here on out. He whistled, Sarah and Nate looked confused, “The Invisible Man told me to summon him by whistling” he explained. They waited, no sign of any change, but then they heard him. “You rang? Oh hey look you found another one of your friends, do you have a lot of short friends?”

“Uh, no, just the two, everyone else is either tall or regular sized,” Nate and Sarah were not amused, “So hey look, I was told to ask about a short cut through here, and I was told to ask you, what can you tell me?”

The Invisible Man was quiet but there were sounds of rustling, as if he was looking for something in his invisible bag, he pulled out the book he had shown Shaun in Experimental City. “It says here that there is a stone that can be found in the Pillars that will warp up to four people to a room of their choosing in the pillar, except the final room. Also, when this warp power is used the stone will need to be recharged by going through the magic between doors, at least two doors. So have you found any rare stones while here?” Shaun remembered the stone he found in the last room, and showed it to the Invisible Man, “Well it looks like you broke it, but there may still be enough magic to get you a couple of floors before it has to recharge.” Nate pulled out his lens and showed it to the Invisible Man, seeing as how it was made from similar material. “Ooh, now this stone has been well taken care of, the problem is that it belongs to a set so it's power is also considerably weak.” Shaun was pissed, a shortcut was with them the entire time, and given to them at the beginning of this whole ordeal and they didn't even know, there was so much needless peril, and all of it could have been avoided if he wouldn't have taken that first step. “Are you kidding me? All that we've been through and we've had this great magical tool with us from room one!?” Shaun yelled. “Hey I didn't know until you showed me the stones, how could you have known? You know now and that's what's important, so decide where you would like to go and the stone can take you there, remember when you use one, you need two rooms to recharge it.” Shaun, Nate, and Sarah talked it out and planned their route, they needed to pick up someone from the tenth floor, someone from the fifteenth, and Guy on the twentieth. They were on the eighth floor now, if they went through to the tenth, then warped to the fifteenth, they could immediately warp to the twentieth. Then go from the Twenty-second floor to the twenty-fifth. Then the final floor, where Death awaited. They discussed that since the stone could only take four people at a time everyone else would wait at one of the Rest Rooms. They agreed on the plan, and set out to the ninth floor.

End of Part Two