THE SKELEITON KEY by Devon Edward Fiedler

CHAPTER 2

Is it worth the risk?

Police are all around the factory as they arrest any leftover mobsters, then came Lenard with a face of true anger walking at the detective. “DETECTIVE!!!” he said with the loudest voice both have ever heard, “I said we NEVER had ANY jurisdiction here, because of you the chief will have me hanging on a steak by my a- “. Keys interrupts him before he can say the no-no word, “Woah hey dude its fine we had this entire thing settled way before you even got here.” He then explains to Len how the Southrun police arrived before any of Dorcya City Police Dept got here, and that the police never even knew about the mafia factory out here. “And as a sign of gratitude they let me take all the stuff I want from this defunct manufacturer.” Said Keys as he is finally done loading his van with all he could carry. 

From the other side of the yellow tape, Southrun officers Jamie Lun and Lou Smith are searching the building, more specifically, the office of El Copper. “This place is awesome, does the mafia business really make this much money?” Lou said while admiring the architecture of the large meeting room, not caring enough to mention the bones in suits sitting on luxury leather chairs, while the forensics were pre-occupied with taking pictures of the recent and not so recent dead bodies, Jamie found a hidden pathway under the large table. With Jamie and Lou standing in front of the tunnel, they walk in without anybody seeing them, as they descent into the damp and pipe lined sewer, they hear distant footsteps in front of them. Watching closely, they spot what looks like a man walking far in front of them, looks like the sewer is more like a small gross tunnel, they then begin running as in their head they think it might be a gangster or even El Copper himself.

As they finally make it to whoever they were running to they notice the perp’s abnormal features, this man was 6 feet tall hunching underneath the small sewer roof, they noticed what seemed to be a tail partially hidden behind the large coat it was wearing, it had an abnormal white skin tone with what seemed to be scales over what skin had been shown, the monster then turned around revealing more of what they had gotten themselves into, the beast had an abnormal mouth filled with pearly white sharp teeth. Then it introduced itself “Uhm, well hello, I’m- “then the officers screamed and started firing their pistols causing the monster to run in the opposite direction full speed, which was fast, really fast. 2 weeks had passed and Dakota was still unable to crack this case, in the weeks prior, both officers Jamie and Lou had gone missing, the only leads were the breaking and the bullet casings suggesting that the officers had some sort of fight with their kidnapper, and the only piece of evidence connecting the H.S.A.I.C. case and the Kidnapping case, and this was the only reason the chief in Southrun allowed her to work on both cases, she looks over her evidence one more time.

She then hears a knock at her front door, she lived in a rich suburban neighborhood, so it was pretty normal for her neighbors to invite her to parties, she opened the door to nobody there. Looking down she saw a box, opening it right on the porch, inside the box was a nearly empty vial rack, holding 3 vials, only one being filled with a mysterious fluid. “Hey Keys, you need to get here, I think I just found out what was stolen from the H.S.A.I.C. building.” she spoke into the phone, propping it up with her shoulder as she analyses the fluid in the vial

Keys and Gas were walking to her house as the van was in pretty rough shape after being tossed around so much, regretting the previous night when they had to ram it into a getaway car carrying criminals. “So, when are you gonna tell her?” Gas started the conversation with a question Keys had been avoiding, “When I’m ready I’ll tell her man, just give me time.” With a laugh Gas exclaims that he can’t keep hiding his secret to the people he is so close to, “Gas this will be a bomb to drop on someone who thinks I’m long gone”. “Hey you!” they then turn around to see a character in a black trench coat, “I might have info on your case.”. “The name is Detective Richard Joke, I’m the lead detective at Southrun, if you want me to say more we should go to a secure location, there are Arceneer spy bots around. Keys, Gas, and Joke finish their walk to the detective’s home and get settled. “So, you were a spy in the mafia operation, but that case was completely irrelevant to the H.S.A.I.C. case, I just had some unfinished business there.” Keys asked the mysterious man, “Quite the contrary my friend, El Copper was the one who stole the liquid in the first place.” The room falls silent, “Liquid?” Gas said after picking up one o the vials, “Yea, the thing your holding, that’s what was stolen, I don’t know what they do with it but it can’t be good in the wrong hands, probably why the mobsters wanted it.”

They then go to the H.S.A.I.C. building to finally ask, what was stolen, with or without being allowed to. “Knock knock, open up, I have a few questions to ask you!” the detective asked, the door opens into a very classical house, the inside was different than the outside in many ways, stepping inside the building they take note of the tall ceiling and large lounge room they seem to be in the floor a dark red carpet lays with stains a many, the walls a black varnished wood, adorned with paintings and awards to many, including Dorcya Bays most prominent scientist Dr. J. L. Brown, the lead scientist in the Anomaly Project, a project made to study, capture, and or kill the monsters on the island, Joke then spoke in a soft spoken voice, “Hello! Anybody home?” only to be responded with silence. The room was dark, not a light on, when they all were inside the room the doors shut and the lights turned on blinding our heroes. Over a speaker they hear some one in a menacing tone, “Hello my test subjects, you will be the latest lab rats for my new machine, the Transporter will begin in 5 seconds.”, “What?” Joke said before the room fell dark.

Keys then woke up in a city, familiar to his own but it was more, gritty and industrialized, with purple flags with a skull emblem on every street. A car then passes, one not of Gennt origin, something that was able to hover. Key is confused, was he teleported, or sent to the future. Walking down this street, he starts to recognize people, his first order of business was to get a map of where he was. Keys then thought, “If this is the future then maybe Dakota is still the lead detective. He finds what seems to be a police department, Stefan Weber Police Dept, walking in he tries to talk to the first cop he sees, “Uhm hey, I need to know where I am, can you please- oh hi Len.” Len looks at Keys with no amusement, “Oh hey look another slack job looking to be the next Firefighter, what’s your name, Death Giver, second you’re in Stefan Weber Square, on Dorcya Bay, third, I have 0 idea who you are, fourth- “Keys cuts him off before he can say anything else, “Jeez ok man I get it I’m not welcome.” Len then cuts him off again and says “Ok well if you would have let me finish then I would have told you that any vigilantes are to be killed on sight, you have 0 seconds to go now.” The buildings wall then gets blown out as a guy in fire protective gear comes running in and grabbing Keys by his arm, “We have no time for introductions, my name is Firefighter and welcome to the resistance.” They then go into a modified firetruck and speed down the roads losing the cops, driving into the hidden base, Keys realizes that this is the same base that Arceneer uses, “Hey isn’t this Arceneer’s base?” he asks Firefighter, “Who is Arceneer, never heard of that hero, did he like die or something?” Fire spoke back, within the cave are many people, these include, Firefighter, Cunner, and a ghost named Hook. “the Resistance is 3 People? This is very strange man.” Keys said with the most confusion he has ever experienced. “Well…… if you need some sleep then the sleeping quarters are over there, down that hall to the right.” Keys thinks to himself that sleep might help him figure it out, he knows something’s wrong but he can’t put his finger on it.

With Keys drifting peacefully into sleep he starts thinking hard in his mind, who, what, when, and where are his only questions, who is Firefighter, What has got everybody on a hero killing spree, When does this point in time take place and where is he, because this certainly isn’t Dorcya Bay, Keys is woken up to clear vision and a copper plated pistol to his face, “So, you think you can just sneak in here, appealing to our desire to help people huh Hubris!” around Cunner were Hook and Firefighter with their respective weapons pointed at him, Keys with a grogginess to his voice finally speaks, “Uh, man like what are you on abou-“ Firefighter then yells at the top of his lungs “You know what is going on Hubris!” “You can’t just walk in here and think you would have gotten away with it!” “Now give us one reason to not wipe your pitiful life of the face of the earth.” Then it finally clicked for Keys, “Wait, you think I’m this Hubris guy, I don’t even know what hubris means dude.” Then Hook said, “Lies will get you nowhere Hubris!” “He doesn’t have to.” Said a purple figure at the end of the room, Firefighter then spoke with genuine surprise “But, y-your right here? How are you- ““I’d love to stay and chat but I have a me to get rid of.” Keys then gets up and puts his mask on, pulling out his double pistols, with Hubris pulling out a revolver with a purplish tint, they both aiming their respective arms at each other, “Now it’s a game of who shoots first.” Hubris said cocking the hammer, “Well that will determine who wants to get shot second.” Keys spoke, the room falls silent until a boom is heard outside, with Hubris running outside and oureroes following suit there in the sky is Mr. Gasmask and “Gas what are you doing up there.” Hubris said while still running out the building, in the sky is a green and yellow cloud with 2 figures fighting in it then in no time flat Gas is thrown into the building, “Hey Gas, how was the fall” Keys said with a smile, “Not now Keys we are literally about to die.” then gunfire starts raining down on out heroes, with them now running the hail of bullets.

The heroes then run into a back-door area and onto a dock where a ship was waiting for them, the driver yells from within it, “We going?” “Yes, we are going Ken! Start her up.”, a guy with a teal hat comes running out holding a glass of what was presumed alcohol, the guys load up onto the boat and they set sail away from the island, Firefighter then starts whispering to Ken, with the pair occasionally looking back at Keys and Gas. “Hey, the name is Ken, though I bet you already know a lot about me, my friend here has already told me what has happened, how did you get here stranger.” Keys and Gas then explain how they got here, explaining how they entered a room and were taken and placed into chairs, transporting them into this world. On the ocean it was strangely sinister, like the ocean held more than it revealed, which was probably the case. “So.” Gas asks, “Where is the detective?”, they look him puzzled, “Which one, Southrun or Stefan?” Ken asked steering the ship to the left, parking next to a dock connecting to an island, a sigh labeling it as, Kergernoughtst Island.

Keys responded “I guess both, in our world they were with us before we were teleported.”, “Wow, you were in the same room as the Dorcya detective and still have your liver?” Fire talked with surprise, Ken said to the fireman with much annoyance, “Dude, he isn’t from here, his Dorcya detective isn’t a crazed killer.” Entering the island, they are loaded up onto a makeshift van made from trash and other stuff, no doubt made from Kenneth smarts, but he noticed it lacked the signature Kenneth charm to it, this creation seemed, lifeless. 

“Well, if you do need his help then we can show you to our Dr. J. L. Brown, he might be able to send you back to your world.” The island was larger than Dorcya bay by a longshot, miles upon miles of road and trees, in Keys world, this place was a mutant infested mess, but here, I was peaceful, not a monster in sight. “This place is nice.” Keys said admiring some local plant life, both worlds still had orange trees, but he was willing to bet that these were edible. “Why what’s wrong with Kerger in your world?”, Keys then stood up, “Long story.” They walked up to a house, it was a small second story with a huge garage, with to rooms on either side of it, in this garage were many tools and spare parts, old posters of women in bikinis on the hoods of old cars, they went inside and Ken told them he had to fix there car, but that the doctor would be expecting them in 3 days, the rooms on either side of the garage were small, one was a laundry room and the other was a kitchen, the fridge was empty, this place hadn’t had power for a while, the cupboards still had canned food in them though, assorted vegetables and cans of beef stew, and Keys favorite canned mandarin oranges, they were probably safe to eat, the other 2 rooms in the house were a living room with what seemed to be multiple milk cartons of beer in it, and a room on the second floor that wanted to collapse from the sheer weight, being held up by rope, bungee cords, and luck. The only thing there is an old bed frame and moldy mattress.

Then a news broadcast goes off from Firefighters radio, “Breaking news, suspects lost in Stefan Weber Bay, they e-escaped on boat and are being pursued by our b-brave leader, H-h-hubris, when the suspects are caught by the D-dorcya detective and eaten alive we will c-celebrate and praise our glorious leaders.”, “To preachy in my taste, of I were to rule the world I wouldn’t make myself look like the devil incarnate…, wait did he say eaten?”, Keys said before out of nowhere a frail female figure in a torn trench coat wields a sacrificial knife and digs it into Keys back, he screams in pure agony as the knife digs itself deeper and deeper until Gas kicks her off him and evacuates the building with everybody, with the evil detective and gas now in battle he tries to irradiate her but she whacks the axe out of his hands causing him to lose his powers, several punches and stabs are thrown and she stabs Gas in his arm, but then he finally reaches his axe and he makes the house forever inhabitable, the screams emanate from inside for only half a second as a bright green flash takes over the house and almost blinds everyone, Gas walks out unharmed from the flash, the Dorcya detective, now lies on the ground a moving puddle.

Hubris looks over the island, waiting for the cannibal to return with 4 new prisoners, then a green flash erupts not far from where he was, “Gas we have to deal with this problem ourselves, unfortunately.”, they then load up on a purple and black speed boat, stopping at the remnants of the home they go to walk inside but their Geiger counters start going off, high amounts of radiation in this area, but they do notice something, tire marks ,on the dirt, leading deeper into the island.

Down the road not far from the house is an old gas station that some run of the mill bandits took over, though they had better weaponry than usual, there were a lot of expensive Douglass Rifles, stuff from the mainland, scoping out the place Gas determines that there are 28 bandits, 19 equipped with rifles, 4 with old rocket launchers, and another 4 with different melee weapons, and one with powered heavy armor and a mini-gun. “How are we gonna pass without them taking the van, man?” Keys said while pulling out his dual pistols, Fire trying to convince him “Violence isn’t the answer, maybe we can convince them to leave us alone.” Then from inside the gas station comes gunfire and yelling, running to the building weapons ready the gunfire suddenly stops, walking out of the station are Joke and the Detective, Cunner then asks, “Is that the dorcya detective from your world?”, “Hey, what’s up Keys! We have been looking for you.” Both sides then explain their story, detective and Joke both were sent to Kerger and had been searching the island for a boat to get back home, but they didn’t know that this was a opposite world to their own, “We are going to find the Doctor and he might be able to send us back.” Gas said, with no hesitation they all load up into the van and speed down the dirt road, passing abandoned buildings and old broken vehicles, all ending up at a junkyard labeled “Browns Keep”. The yard had large walls with spikes poking out of it, knocking on the large door, Fire says nervously, “Hello! Anybody home?” the large doors then open a smidge for an eye to peek out from the crack, “Who is there?” the doctor said while his darting eyes took in the people in front of him.

“We need to help these people get back to where they came from, they said they came from a different world, like you.” Ken spoke taking a sip from his drink pointing at Gas and Keys, the doc not believing them starts to ask a few questions, “What is the capital of Dorcya Bay, what is the story behind the Lost Dark, where does Kenneth buy his ingredients for the Kenneth Special?”, “Easy, Saint Porter, it was a Nazi in need of help and a demon helped him, and duh, the only store in main street, the big yellow building.” Keys said while pulling out a map of Dorcya Bay, pointing to various locations, most of the group having no idea what they are looking at. The doctor invites our heroes inside, the walls were made of old cars and scraps, sheet metal and old wood run the walls, old and dingy, yes, but surprisingly comfortable, Dr. Brown walks up to a desk and invites them over, “I’ve been trying to get out of here for ages, I have even recreated my Transporter, but I have no power source, no power source, no getting out of here.” Ken then spoke up, “So all of your stories were true, but, no, this makes no sense man.”

The doctor then pushes one of the many buttons on his desk and a wall made of trash opens up, a room with computers and wire about all leading to the colossal cabinet in the middle, the hunk of old wood and scrap metal connects the roof to the floor, like a pillar, the door made from a boat, the insides were a metal tube with a metal grate covering the top and bottom transporters, “Well what was the power source?” Fire asked, Dr. Brown then pulled out a map of Stefan Weber Island, the roads were mapped out way differently than Dorcya Bay, a lot of it was in German, which they all knew at least some of, the doctor pointed to a building and said that it held something that could help, with the building was a sticky note and writing next to it, the sticky note had a picture of a battery looking thing, the building was heavily guarded, but they were a group of heavily dangerous individuals, except Fire, who was a pacifist. The doctor says farewell and sends them on their way back to the island, at night, when our heroes have been long away, he hears an explosion come from the entrance, smoke and the sound of a fire alarm fill the air, and the silhouette of 2 men walk slowly from the smoke, one starts speaking in a muffled voice, “Where is the Resistance, tell us and we wont kill you, its really that simple.”, the doc responds, “I have full belief that they can handle themselves, they are going back to Stefan, you can’t kill them all, how many times have you hopelessly tried and failed to kill just the normal group, now they got your counterparts, you wont stand a chance against yourself!”, Gas2 talks back, “But they don’t have our secret weapon.” And then Hubris pulls out a large cannon like gun, and with that the doc comes running in the opposite direction, “We never tested if the Teleporter is operational.” Gas2 said, “We couldn’t have known, not yet anyway, we need the power source.” Hubris said, then points to the map, “And I know where to get it.”

On Stefan Weber, they are running in the shadows, the gloomy purple accent makes this place feel dead, but Fire knows of the danger on every corner, “Like, dude I’m gonna go home, I don’t need to be here, plus I got a bottle brewing.” Ken said while walking into another alley, they knew where they were going yet Keys and Gas had zero idea of where they are. They then spot their destination, H.T.B., the Hubris Trophy Building, as advertised it was very high security, cameras, saw traps, laser hallways, the works, “How will we get in there?” Keys said while scratching his chin, looking at a costume store. Hubris then walks from the shadows with a line of prisoners in cuffs, “I need to enter.” He said while yanking on the chains. One of the guards spoke up, “What is the password?”, Hubris snaps back, “Is the answer Zero Pay?”, they then open the doors, a voice recognition software is attached to the second door, this also disarms all traps, as to not harm Hubris, a loud computer voice booms from speakers, “VOICE PASSWORD REQUIRED PLEASE.”. That was one thing they didn’t know, the password, our heroes then take off their disguises, the detective then looks at the console, “We have 5 tries before were locked out of this system for 24 hours, let’s start looking around shall we.”. Keys wonders to himself, how did he get to this situation, he wonders how he lets himself just go with the flow, he just wants to take a break and rest, he’s been on the run for what feels like a month at this point. Then the front door opens again, revealing both Hubris and Gas2, holding the secret cannon and backed up with 4 heavily armed guards.