Adventurous Act 3

“So… why haven’t we killed this thing?”

“We gotta kill it… if we don’t and it lives, if it lives we die, it’ll kill us!”

“Sorry~ I just had to study it!”

“You know, if this were a movie you’d be getting comeuppance right about now. That thing is definitely gonna escape and make you look like a total moron.”

“It’s a monster, it’s a freak! It’s… it’s what almost killed my son! I mean not it… but one like it!”

“We can kill it all we want after I finish up my experiment~ Besides it has no way to escape! I set up various security measure so that nothing can get it or out, such as the-”

“DON’T SAY ‘EM!”

“You’ll just jinx us further. Next thing we know someone will break through all hose defences in some fantastic action set piece.”

“Ok~ But do watch your step! Wouldn’t want to lose your leg, right?”

The Delinquent looked around nervously before shaking his head. His father the Clown didn’t seem particularly disturbed, but then again he also hadn’t moved an inch since entering the room, possibly out of a sense of instinctual caution.

“Why are you wasting time on this anyway? The Dragon could be released soon, right?”

“The second part o’ that’s wrong… maybe, I really do hope its wrong.”

Though the Quack seemed like she was about to explain in great detail, it was the Clown who jumped in.

“That beast o’ living nightmares! It musta… it musta made them and when it did it, well it musta tired itself a bit! It had to… I hope it had to. But why are you letting, why is she DOING this? Shouldn’t we, I mean should we really be wasting time on…?”

“Well we have to wait for your son’s friend to wake up, he’s the only one who could possibly translate the texts to find the Knights location. I tried figuring it out myself but~ It requires an expert to really get it nice and figured!”

“Besides that sir, we need to know how these butterflies tick, if we wanna deal with ‘em on mass.”

The Delinquent jumped a bit as the Chief appeared behind him.

“How ARE the experiments going?”

“Hard to say~ The butterfly is rather intelligent, so it forces us to be more careful… but it also seems to lack self awareness? It has a hard time recognizing itself in the mirror, yet it can easily navigate through any mazes we place it in.”

The Clown jumped in once more. Though for once his tone had a bit more certainty to it.

“It was made from the Dragon to be a… well sorta like a drone bee. I think… understand it can do just about anything the Dragon wants, but can’t come up with its own… plans, ideas and, and other things.”

“I never heard about that~”

“There are… were fringe oral stories of the Dragon possessing a group of people like… like dolls or those action figures kids like. In these stories, they mentioned folks, good folks acting aimless without orders, but perfect when given direction. I think they mentioned… maybe they also mentioned the hats. Weird hats the dolls… people wore.”

“Why didn’t the Dragon do it more often~”

“Was it supposed to? I mean should it have… it wasn’t really, I mean it’s not like it needed to anyway, it killed almost everyone around anyway, it killed them really easily to.”

“So there we have it.”

The Chiefs assertion left all in the group a bit confused, before he clarified.

“We’ve been talkin’ back and forth ‘bout why the Dragon used the butterflies this way or that, and I think we finally got a definitive answer for why. It genuinely isn’t that good at planning, or I guess is just real inexperienced. The first thing it should have done was sabotage the Knight investigation, instead it tipped us off to its existence by attacking you first.”

“Why didn’t it possess me anyway?”

“Weren’t you wearing a cap~?”

“Oh you GOTTA be kidding.”

“So my afro would… could it protect me too?”

“Wanna test that~?”

The Clown, Delinquent, and Chief all responded with a hearty-

“““No.”””

“Oh my~ Triple negative? That cancels it all out…”

“Don’t it actually still leave it negative? Don’t be a moron at a time like this kid.”

“Sorry Chief~ I guess I’m still frazzled by the fight!”

“Oh…well… that’s fine then, sorry for bein’ insensitive.”

“Ahhh~ Well aren’t you just a big ol’ softy!”

“I ain’t old!”

“Getting there~”

The Chief huffed a bit in abject annoyance before looking at the Delinquent and continuing.

“Ok, so no matter how he feels, your buddy is getting up within the next two hours. To prepare I’ll need you to-”

But there was apparently no need for planning, due to a sudden appearance of the Bookworm bursting through the door dressed in a hospital gown.

“I KNOW WHERE HE IS!”

Before he could go any further (and potentially trigger more of the traps), the Chief stopped him in his tracks.

“Calm down now- where WHO is?”

“HIM! THAT GUY!”

The Bookworm was pantomiming excitedly. Trying to emulate a few stock poses. It was the Delinquent who caught onto his friend's meaning.

“A Knight…? THE KNIGHT?”

“Uh huh!”

“How?!”

“The notes to find it weren’t destroyed~? That's great!”

“Ah well… actually that's how I figured it out! When I woke up I sneaked to the office to figure out the damage and… when I looked through the notes? There it was! Well not literally, but by ripping apart the notes, the dumb butterflies accidently made me figure out how the old order hid the location! It was kind of like… I suppose the best term is jigsaw puzzle? But that’s not the point! The point is I know where!”

Excitement was positively bursting through the Bookworm, before he began a coughing fit.

“Guess I’m still- Gahack -a bit hurt? Oh dear I’m getting positively lightheaded…”

The Chief gave the Bookworm a proper shoulder to lean on. He was actually feeling quite excited as well at the positive development, but contained himself to ask some questions.

“So then… where is he?”

This immediately put a metaphorical rain on the Bookworms parade, and it took him a moment to finally speak.

“Ah well… it’s actually kinda funny. Or perhaps only natural?”

“Lay it on me.”

“It’s actually relatively close by… to something else we’re dealing with at the moment.”

“Don’t play metaphors with me, I told ya to tell me, now say it nice and clear.”

“It’s… it's in the same cave as IT. The exact same cave as the DRAGON.”

This prompted an immediate freeze from all in the room, as they silently considered the implications.

“So~ Why put him there?”

The Delinquent answered.

“I mean it WOULD be the last place we’d suspect.”

The Clown had a different opinion.

“Do you know, do you really think that's true? Actually I think there's a chance you’re wrong, I think your being rash and if we’re not careful we’re gonna get kill-”

The Delinquent immediately moved to shut his father up, and the Bookworm was about to respond. But the Chief himself stopped both of them and motioned to the Clown to explain.

“Ah… ah well… I mean they were controlled, wouldn’t- no couldn’t -see a thing. They probably, yeah they maybe did this to trick and fool us. If we think they're stupid like you say than we’re, we’re just underestimating it too much!”

The Chief carefully considered what was said, before finally speaking once more.

“What is… what’s the minimum distance for a person to get closer to the Dragon? Before it notices them and starts waking up faster.”

“Your asking what, I mean I don’t think it’s a good idea to get close, in fact I think we’re tempting fate to much already, I think we should stop by killing the butterfly now-”

“Just give me a relative answer.”

“Ah-”

“In five words or less.”

There was a thoughtful pause before the Clown spoke once more.

“Gotta… has… must-”

“Two words left, or I disregard everything you say.”

“Within eyeshot.”

“So if we see it, it sees us.”

“...”

“You can speak again ya wordy so-and-so.”

“Yes. Yes thats what I said, its probably true I mean it might not be totally accurate it can probably tell when people are around it but that's the simplest answer. In raw distance, in the distance between two it’s probably way less because of the cave walls.”

“Ok… ok…”

The Chief looked up for a moment before speaking.

“Could the butterfly help us?”

“Hmm~ Oh I see! Well the connection between the butterfly and the Dragon is a bit inconsistent~ But odds are, if we bring the butterfly with us, it SHOULD act as a sort of canary in a coal mine! Reacting when nearby the Dragon~”

The Delinquent jumped in.

“Yeah, that sounds smart, but it ain’t no canary. If it figures out what we’re doing, it might just play dumb to lure us into the Dragons range.”

Next was the Bookworm.

“I mean maybe if we sedate it, we can put it in such a state that it reacts to the Dragon, but can’t think enough to play pretend. Though… I mean really I think going to the Knight at this point is kinda pointless, considering the Dragon needs to be woken up first.”

The once more left all involved silent, this time in confusion, before the Bookworm spoke again. Himself being similarly confused at the odd reactions of his fellows.

“You all knew what needed to happen to wake up the Knight… right?”

IIt was the Quack who responded with a classical gesture of apology before speaking.

“I forgot to tell them~”

“Then why didn’t you say anything???”

“I still thought it was weird~ I mean depending on the circumstances it sure would be hard to get him right?”

“Ohhh, well guys… uhhh, it's actually kinda funny. Apparently the Fairy put a sort of enchantment on the Knight, so that when certain conditions were fulfilled, he would be freed in perfect health… I don’t quite understand it, but there are apparently two parts of her magic. For one the more strict the condition the stronger the effect, so she tied his stasis to the Dragons. For another, frankly I can't make heads or tales of it, something about the setting needing to match the meaning of the... 'theme'? And somehow it gets stronger if it's more 'climactic'? Really that second condition is just weird... but I digress..."

The group (with the obvious exception of the Quack) stared in silence, this time somewhat annoyed at the constant touch and go with cheap suspense.

“All we gotta do is wake the Dragon up first, then the Knight will be freed, nice and easy!”