Modern Age Online

"Where did he go?" Abby practically yelled as the three toys went back to their game.

The pink teddy bear snorted as he picked up his cards. "Out."

"Out?! What do you mean, out?"

The soldier doll sighed dramatically at Abby's tone. "Out of the Toy Box. We don't know why, but once you start to lose your memories, you're taken out of the box."

"It's so they can be played with." The octopus said.

Abby sputtered as Kaleb looked around in thought. The Toy Box was relatively empty. It was a dark square space with a few cartoon-looking spider webs in odd places. He also noted that he could still see even with the space being pitch black. Then his eyes shifted across something that almost made his stomach turn. Strewn about the toy box floor were bits of brightly colored arms and legs. They were clearly pieces of other toys, but they had been either shattered or had their limbs ripped off.

He was about to point them out to Abby when the short woman angrily shouted into the darkness.

"What the hell kind of cartoon is this?! Sentient toys?! Really? Is that idiot just mashing things together, hoping for something cool? How the hell do toys fit his motif?"

Kaleb shrugged as the toys played cards. "Abby, most toys come from cartoons. So it does kind of make sense. But that's not the problem here. We need to get out."

All three toys snorted as Abby turned to Kaleb. "You don't think what's happening to them will happen to us, right? I mean, they're NPCs. We must have some kind of protection."

"Don't matter what kind of protection you think you have." The teddy said. "This place changes everyone. Then, once you're changed, you get played with. Put in Karick's disgusting pantomime until he gets bored with you."

"Is that what happened to them?" Kaleb asked, jerking his head toward the broken toy pieces.

All the toys looked up from their cards at what he was pointing at. They all grimaced as the soldier doll shook his head.

"No. Those were… others."

"The ones that didn't want to lose themselves."

"They tried to rip the toy parts out. It didn't work."

Kaleb grimaced at the dullness in the toy's voices as they explained what happened to their past compatriots. As he looked over the three, he realized that each of them was completely toy-ified. Whatever process that was changing them had clearly finished with their bodies. All that was left was probably their minds. How had they lasted as long as they had? When Kaleb asked this out loud, the pink teddy bear snorted.

"We can thank our stronger mental defenses for that."

"It's allowed us to hold on to our memories longer." The octopus said. "But… it's wearing us down. Soon we'll pass over to the Room. Where we'll spend eternity being played with."

"Until Tore gets sick of us." The soldier grimaced as he folded his hand and slammed his cards on the table.

Kaleb nodded to himself. It made sense. These people were some of the last in the box. That meant something in them was hanging on to who they were. Which probably beat back the toy transformation. Kaleb was about to ask another question when Abby ran off into the darkness, her shadow blades out and swiping in front of her. Even in the dark, Kaleb could see her running toward the nearest wall, shouting at the top of her lungs and attacking the black surface there with gusto.

Her strikes left large gouges on the wall that joined a myriad of other claw, scratch, and blade marks. Kaleb spun around and looked at all four of their prison walls. Marks like the ones Abby was making were all over the interior of their prison. She was clearly not the first to try this method. The toys snorted and rolled their eyes at her efforts, clearly not impressed.

Kaleb let Abby work out her frustrations on the wall. She clearly wasn't comfortable in the dark enclosed space and she wanted out. Once she calmed down a little, he'd have a talk with her. For now, he needed to be the one to think their way out of this. He wasn't sure how the toy box affected Players, but he wagered they were going to be transformed at some point. Once that happened, it would be a constant struggle just to keep their in-game avatars under control.

Mind-control and other such powers in video games were tricky. Players didn't like losing control of their characters. But spells and powers that let other players do just that were rampant in other games. Developers got away with it by always giving the controlled Player a way out. They'd have to have a high enough Willpower score, or they'd have to solve some complex equation. So long as the controlled player had a way out that was fun and gave them back control of their character, things were fine. But that didn't mean that Kaleb was excited about being turned into a toy and played with by some dumb RPer with too much fucking power.

He studied the walls and floor of the box. Abby was still chopping away at the northern side, so he walked to the south side and started poking around. The walls were one flat piece of stone stretching from end to end. Only broken up by the weapon, claw, and power marks along its surface. Kaleb could see that some of the wanna-be escapees had combined their efforts and tried to dig out the hard stone. Large indents, cuts, and punctures ate into the grey stone, revealing how thick the actual box was. He tested the edges of the cuts with a finger and sighed at how deep some cuts were. It looked like some pretty powerful people had tried to get out of the box.

Kaleb turned his eyes upward, trying to look away from all the depressing marks and failed escape attempts. The wall climbed high above his head before it curved off into a domed top. Like an old-fashioned treasure chest. The thought made Kaleb spin around, looking for a seam between the wall and the top. He searched the south wall before spinning around and dashing over to the north side, where Abby was still chopping away.

As he passed the toys playing cards, he heard the Octopus mutter. "Looks like we got another thinker."

"Think he'll find it?" Soldier asked.

"They all do."

"It doesn't matter." Teddy said.

Kaleb ignored them as he started following the north wall. He found what he was looking for about twenty feet from where Abby was chopping through the wall. It sat high on the wall, a shaft of golden light in the darkness. It floated in the dark abyss. Like a beacon shining from nothing. Unthinking, Kaleb pumped his vision full of mana and opened his eyes wide. Again, the power of the pocket dimension nearly blinded him. But he managed to spot what he was looking for before he had to stop the mana flow.

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"Gragh!" Kaleb winced in pain as he rubbed his eyes. "Latch!"

"What?!" Abby screamed, stopping her assault on a stone wall.

"Op! He found it."

"That was quicker than the others."

"It doesn't matter."

Ignoring the toys again, Kaleb pointed a finger up and addressed Abby. "There's a keyhole and latch up there! It's masked by magic, but maybe we can do something with it."

He felt Abby rush to his side and start searching the wall as Kaleb blinked the spots from his eyes. When he finished, he found the ray of light again and followed it to where it ended at the north wall. It wasn't a strong shaft of light, going only a few feet into the air before the shadows swallowed it. But it was a good enough point of reference.

Reaching into his lab coat, Kaleb drew his Sun Gun and Cybar. Taking aim at the light's point of origin, he opened fire on where he thought the latch was. A shimmering, golden escutcheon appeared as Kaleb's yellow and blue blasts hit it. He kept up the rain of fire until his Cybar had to vent and then he stepped back to check his work. The keyhole and escutcheon were fully visible now. The spell that made them invisible was gone. But Kaleb couldn't see any damage to the latch or the surrounding wall. Instead, the yellow and blue energy of his shots were being absorbed.

"I would tell you to give it up," said the Teddy bear from his place at the poker table. "But I know you won't. The smart ones always learn their lessons slower."

Kaleb turned back to issue the doubting bear a side remark, but his right arm started to feel funny. Looking down, Kaleb saw his bright green scales going slightly pale. A plastic-y sheen was growing along his entire arm and he could feel it getting heavier. Starting from his elbow and moving outward in either direction, he was becoming a toy. Swallowing the scream that tried to claw its way out of his throat, Kaleb dumbly pointed out the change to Abby.

The short woman gasped at the sight, drawing the attention of the soldier and the Octopus. Both toys snickered at the sight as the teddy bear explained.

"You think you're the first to realize this is an actual toy box? Sure, it's made of stone. But the shape is generally recognizable. Attacking the one weak point of the box, however, just speeds up the toy-ification. So keep going if you think you can break it. But just know that I've seen Powered go at that thing for eight hours straight and all it got them was plastic limbs and amnesia."

"What kind of powers?" Kaleb asked.

The Octopus toy shook its bulbous head, sighing. "Thinkers."

"Every kind of power. Super strength, speed, laser vision, metal fingers, animal transformations, phase shifting. Trust me, it's been tried."

"But not magic users?"

"Oh, we've had magic users." Soldier said. "They go the quickest. I remember one of them saying that the latch absorbed magic like a sponge. He hoped he could overload the latch before he turned into a toy. It did not go well. What did he become again?"

"A cowboy." Octopus said. "Or some weird cartoon version of a cowboy. Him and a bunch of others a while back. I think Karick was going through a phase."

"How long has this been going on?" Abby wondered out loud.

"Feels like years. But it's probably only been a month." Teddy said. "Regardless, we've said our piece. Now comes the part where you don't listen and keep trying. Then when one of turns, the other will either become catatonic or angry."

Kaleb waved them off as the teddy bear tried to bring focus back to their card game. Turning to Abby, he outlined his new horrible plan.

"Their right. The latch seems to absorb magic. So I like the idea of overloading it."

"Did you not hear what happened to the last guy that tried that? Maybe I can pick the lock?"

"Abs, look at the lock." Kaleb said, pointing at the large keyhole. "It's massive. Can you hold one tumbler back with one hand while pushing up on the next with the other? Then you have to turn the damn thing, which will surely crush you."

"Well, maybe we can use some of these plastic arms! It would still be better than you trying to overcharge something with magic. Especially cause you fucking suck at magic!"

"Who said anything about magic? The latch also absorbs the energy from my weapons. If Milly and I can overcharge one of them, I'm sure we can hit with enough force to crack the lock."

Abby bit her bottom lip in thought. She looked down at the weapons in Kaleb's hands before glancing up at the latch again. Her gaze lingered on the plastic part of his arm before she looked back up into his face again.

"What about turning into a toy? If the rate of the change is proportional to how much damage you're doing, you'll change fast."

Kaleb shrugged. "Oh, I'm becoming a toy. I'm pretty sure of that. But if I can hit the thing hard enough, you and the others can get out. Maybe if I destroy it fast enough, I won't be whisked away."

"There are an awful lot of maybes and ifs in this plan, doc. I don't like it."

"The alternative is waiting here to be rescued."

Abby stopped biting her lip and scowled at his words. With a deep sigh, she finally nodded and waved for him to go ahead. Nearby, Kaleb heard the octopus snicker again.

"Oh shit! He's going to go for it."

"Fifty says he turns within twenty seconds." Soldier said.

The three toys started to bet on how fast Kaleb would change as he summoned Milly. His marmot pet was resting within his arm and stirred at his call. Poking her head out of his arm, Kaleb gave a brief overview of the plan. Nodding sagely at his words, Milly dove back into his arm and a surge of power filled the cybernetic. The whir of power filled their dark void, and Kaleb let Milly aim his palm at the keyhole. Both the Cybar and his cybernetic were powered by the Weikacol solution. He hoped the strange nature of the solution would give him an edge.

Abby patted his arm in gratitude as electricity ran up and down his arm. With his other hand, Kaleb drew his Cybar and aimed. Mentally counting down in his head, Kaleb and Milly synced their attacks to happen at the same time. With a squeak and a prayer, Kaleb started firing as Milly unleashed all the power she built up in his arm out of the repulsor in his palm.

A blue beam of energy shot through the air and up to the keyhole as Kaleb kept pulling the trigger of his gun. Blue orbs of energy struck the escutcheon as Milly's concentrated fire filled the toy box with blue light. The blue glow around the keyhole grew brighter and Kaleb almost celebrated until he felt his fingers start to lock up. His arm was rapidly becoming plastic and hard to move. He felt his feet grow heavier in his shoes and face was becoming stiff. The glow around the keyhole was a bright white now and Kaleb was sure they were close. But the lack of his Cybar was clearly causing a problem. That's when Abby's twin pistols started firing to his left.

Slowly moving his stiffening neck to look at the shorter woman, Kaleb saw her focused on the job at hand. The white light filled the toy box even faster as Kaleb's cybernetic arm started to rapidly change to match the rest of him. Milly gave a whistle of indignation as she was pulled from her home and the beam of energy cut out. The sensation of changing crawled up the back of Kaleb's head and he felt his body go rigid as a single loud CLACK filled the air.

Notification

Your in-game avatar is now under someone else's control. The rules of your current game dictate that you can attempt to free yourself once every hour. You are free to watch what happens from a third person perspective until you regain control or you can rest in the Pod start menu. (AGE Incorporated is not responsible for any liability on deals you make outside of game with the person currently controlling your character.)

Kaleb brushed away the bright blue box and quickly shifted to viewing mode. He sighed in relief as he saw his plastic body collapse to the toy box floor. A golden ray of sunlight lit the entire box as Abby ran to his in-game character's side. His little lizard-man avatar tilted over as Abby touched him and Kaleb grinned as he saw a massive plastic Milly on his shoulder. The creature threw off his weight. Making him top-heavy.

The three NPCs in the toy box were staring at the bright sunlight in wonder as Abby tried to right Kaleb's body. They had done it. The toy box was open. All he had to do now was make an attempt to free himself. Quickly. Who knew how fast Karick Tore would realize his toy box had been broken? There was still much to do before they could escape the cartoon world. Only now, Kaleb thought he had a way to bring down Karick and his cartoon plane of existence.