Chapter 10 Clues and Clubs
Later that night Vivienne was pacing around her apartment worried and nerves resting on her back so hard it would break. Her stomach did summersults as thoughts ran through her head about how this night could go. "What if I embarrass myself in front of Cato?! What if he doesn't show up?! W-What if- Ah Calm down Vivienne! Calm down! Things are going to be alright!! I need to focus, this isn't a date, it's about the Chrysocolla," Vivienne reminded herself.
After reminding herself of the mission and the stakes at hand she got her headset on and logged in. As soon as she logged in she was transported into the floating planet select space. Looking down at herself Adria was able to see the dress she had gotten from Penavie. The dress was made of purple silk with white fake gems around the waist line, and a white fabric sewn on the edges of the dress. Her hands had black gloves with white swirls around the palms. Finally she had purple shoes with beautiful pearls on the toes. After making sure her avatar had everything for tonight she pulled up planet Mixtape and selected it. Once selected her avatar was instantly teleported to the planet, and she was blinded by all the bright lights. "Agh! I almost forgot that this place is said to be incredibly bright!" Adria cried out as she covered her eyes.
She slowly opened her eyes letting them adjust to the bright light bit by bit. Soon her eyes were fully adjusted to the bright lights showing the beauty of planet Mixtape. The whole planet was covered in clubs that had neon lights bursting out of them like mad. Some clubs were made of gold, diamonds, or other gemstones indicating that those were for the very rich players.
"Wow, this place is incredible! I've never gotten the chance to come here before, but now... i-it's almost unreal to me!" Adria exclaimed her eyes widened with awe as her whole body froze.
"HEY A! YOU MADE IT!!" Adria heard Penavie scream. She looked around until she spotted Penavie's familiar female muscular avatar, jumping around while waving her robotic arms. Penavie's outfit was a tight fit pink v-neck crop top that lightly showed her cleavage, blue leather leggings, and golden flat shoes.
"Hey Penavie! Wait for me, I'm coming over!!" Adria called out to her friend.
She ran over to Penavie a skip in her steps as she made her way over to her best friend. "Adria you're rocking in that dress!" Penavie complemented as she admired Adria in her outfit.
"Thanks Penavie, you're looking good yourself," Adria returned the compliment as she stopped running.
"I know right! This outfit of mine is new and I've been waiting to wear it for sometime now," Penavie informed.
"Wow, I'm jealous that you can afford dresses and outfits like this," Adria said as she looked down while rubbing her arms.
"Hey A you'll be able to get thies now with the more free time you have with school being out and all the money you've got now," Penavie stated.
"Yeah you're right, I'll get started on that after tonight. Also where are Minmin and Valador?" Adria asked.
"Oh they've met up with Cato already so I'll take you to the club," Penavie said as she grabbed Adria by the arm and brought her to Night Light Way. The club itself was made of a dark reflective metal and glass that had robotic fish swimming around. The entrance had the club's name flashing in neon light alongside an image of a man and woman dancing in fancy outfits.
"Wow! I've never been to this club before! I can't wait to see what's inside!" Adria exclaimed.
"I know right! EEH!" Penavie squealed as the two ran inside. The inside looked like they had just entered an aquarium tank. There were holographic fish, sharks, and axolotls swimming around above everyone. Meanwhile the walls were tanks that contained sea creatures swimming around inside. Each tank was separated into a different habitat to fit the needs of every sea creature inside of them. However it wasn't just the sea critters swimming around there were also people above their heads; they were either dancing, making out, drinking, or swimming in the air.
"Wow! How are some of the avatars flying? Not all of them could have flying abilities, wings, or anything else that could lift them up off the ground!" Adria exclaimed.
"Well apparently this place has an anti gravity dance floor, and once you're on it, the effects on your avatar will last for a long time," Penavie informed.
"Ah okay... so where is Cato?" Adria asked, her eyes glazing over everyone in the club.
"Is he the only thing on your mind right now?" Penavie asked, crossing her arms.
"Um... no n-no of course not! I'm also wondering about Minmin and Valador!" Adria quickly added, smiling nervously. Penavie crooked her eyebrow, staring down at Adrie as she smiled nervously.
"HEY PENAVIE-SAN! ADRIA-SAN OVER HERE!!" The two heard Valador call out. The two looked over and saw Valador and Minmin waving at them from the mezzanine balcony.
"HEY VALADOOR! HEY MINMIN! WE'RE COMING!" Penavie shouted. Valador smiled and gave them a thumbs up before sliding out of sight of the two.
"How do we get up there?" Adria asked, looking around for any way up.
"Oh I've done my research on this place, so I know exactly what we need to do and where to go!" Penavie declared, lifting Adria up over her head and running over to a pillar. At the pillar Penavie pressed a few buttons on the side, the two getting shot up instantly afterwards. Cato, Valador and Minmin were all sitting and waiting for Penavie and Adria to arrive. In a split second Adria was thrown upside down right onto the seat next to Minmin and Cato, and Penavie jumped onto the one opposite of her.
"Ugh! Hey Penavie... I got a better sensor detailing headset and gear, so can you not roughhouse me like that please?" Adria asked, groaning as she sat upright and rubbed her head.
"Hehe Sorry, I forgot about that, but it'll be a hard habit to break, so keep that in mind girl," Penavie informed, smiling awkwardly. Adria just smiled and rolled her eyes, as she fixed herself she realized that her seat was right next to Cato. Her face heated up and she froze in place as thoughts of what to say to him flew through her head.
"Alright now that everyone is here, I wanna tell you all my theories," Cato announced, snapping Adria back to the mission.
"Um... y-yeah! W-What's your theory Cato?" Adria asked, smiling nervously.
"Alright so you all see the gravity dance floor right?" Cato asked while looking over to said dance floor. Everyone else turned to the floor and nodded their heads, slightly confused.
"High and Low the flow goes, that part of the riddle stood out to me and I feel like the anti gravity has to do with it," Cato informed.
"Huh? Really? How does that stick out to you?" Penavie asked, her eyebrows crooked slightly.
"High and low, and everyone there can go high and low there! And they are always going and flowing," Cato stated.
"But what about the rest? The chrysocolla is just as so, look in the sky and night, and you'll find an utmost delight?" Minmin asked, still confused on how that could have anything to do with the dance floor.
"That I'm still figuring out, but maybe just maybe, if we go there we could find out," Cato suggested.
Minmin, Valador, and Penavie all looked at him, sceptical about his idea as they were doubtful that he'd figure out the rest. "Hey! I'd think it's a good idea!" Adria exclaimed, jumping up from jersey and leaning closer to Cato.
"Okay Adria wants to give it a chance, anyone else?" Cato asked, looking at the others. A silence hung in the air for a bit after Cato asked the question.
"Alright we'll give it a try and see what we find out," Penavie agreed. Minmin and Valador looked at each other for a split second and shrugged. Cato smiled slightly at everyone's answers, so he got up and walked out of the booth.
Everyone followed him, Adria was the one to stay closest to Cato while they made their way to the dance floor. Please allow me to dance with Cato! Please! Adria begged in her head. The Glittering Stones soon arrived at the entrance of the anti gravity dance floor. Adria looked down into the abyss that went down so far, Adria felt her stomach drop in real life. Even though it wasn't real it still felt all so real with her new headset and gear.
"Oh god!" Adria stated and backed up.
"Hey Adria are you alright?" Cato asked as he looked back at Adria.
"Y-Yeah, I-I'm just unsettled by the endless abyss," Adria informed.
"Or right, I forgot to inform you Cato, that Adria has a slight fear of heights. So this might be harder for her than we thought," Penavie informed.
"Hmm really? Well if you're scared I can hold your hand," Cato suggested.
When Adria heard Cato's suggestion her whole face heated up; making it much hotter than it was under the helmet. "Um... S-Sure thing. T-That'll help m-me out!" Adria stammered as she reached out and clutched onto Cato's warm, digitized, avatar hand.
"Oh boy I can only imagine where this will be going," Penavie uttered under her breath. Minmin and Valador nodded their heads in agreement, as they had ]heard what Penavie had said.
"Alright, let's go now!" Cato demanded as he gently brought Adria back over to everyone else.
The Glittering Stones all nodded and instantly jumped into the anti gravity dance floor. As soon as they jumped they all began to float up; unfortunately, Penavie, Valador, and Adria were unsteady since it was their first time in anti gravity. Cato tightened his grip on Adria's hand, pulling her close to him insuring she wouldn't fly away from the group. Adria had her eyes shut tight as soon as she went up into the air, but after benign in anti gravity for a few seconds her VR gear readjusted to the new sensation. So now Adria was able to stabilize herself and stand upright as best as she could.
"Wow! Okay after the shock wears off this is actually not too bad," Adria comments.
"I felt the same when I went anti grav for the first time," Penavie said as she floated upside down.
"So what do we do now Cato?" Minmin asked, her mind on their mission.
"Let's all look around and if anyone finds any clues report it back to the rest of the group," Cato instructed.
The Glittering Stones all nodded and split apart, Minmin and Valador went together while Penavie searched on her own. Thus this left Adira with Cato, who was still holding onto her hand even though she was stable now. "Well then Cato I-I guess we're working together on this," Adria stuttered nervously.
"Looks like it, come on let's get searching," Cato instructed, as he and Adria floated around looking for clues.
Meanwhile in T.B.G.I the twins Shelly and Brandon were hiding away inside their bedroom. "Alright Bro are all the doors and windows locked?" Shelly asked as she strapped a harness onto herself.
"Yes everything is locked and I made sure that our warning system will go off before anyone gets the chance to come in," Brandon stated.
"Awesome, even though it won't be very likely anyone will come by. Especially dad, after all he cares more about being a slave owner than being a father," Shelly commented as she looked down angrily.
"I know, and I wish mom would've seen that about him before she passed!" Brandon exclaimed as he looked at a small altar. The altar had a photo of a young and beautiful woman, with blue eyes, and blond hair.
"Me too, but what's done is done, and all we can do now is try to help bring dad down!" Shelly reminded her brother.
"You're right, but what if he finds out who we are?! He might not know jack shit on our avatars or that we even own copies of the F.S.I.G. but if he sees us with the Glittering Stones, then who knows what could happen!" Brandon exclaimed, worried and scared.
"Dont worry bro, you know that I'm a pro hacker! Better than any of those suckers who work for dad. So if anyone tries anything funny, I'll stop them right in their tracks!" Shelly declared.
"Alright sis, let's get into it then!" Brandon exclaimed as he walked up to his treadmill and strapped himself in. The two slid on their headsets and logged right into the F.S.I.G. determination to stop their father's evil ways. Back with the Glittering Stones, none of them had found a clue just yet making all of them frustrated. Adria and Cato still held onto each other's hand floating around with each other.
"Um... H-Hey Cato, y-you wanna take a quick break and dance?" Adria asked, her voice quivering.
"... I don't really dance," Cato answered.
"How come? It's pretty fun," Adria said.
"I-I can't dance, that's all," Cato stated as he looked away. Adria was quiet for a moment before she gave a light smile and gently pulled Cato up to her. She wrapped her other hand around his waist, and while stunned he placed his hand on her shoulder.
"If I can dance, then you can to Cato," Adria said as the two began waltzing together. As they danced, Cato was surprised that he was actually good at dancing.
"Huh, I-I forgot how good it felt to dance," Cato unconsciously said.
"Really? So you've danced before?" Adria asked.
"Um, Uh Uh! N-No I didn't!" Cato lied as he looked away.
Adria's brows frowned after hearing his lie, but she decided not to put pressure on him to tell her. A minute or two passed before Adria began speaking again. "Hey Cato, I've wanted to tell you something," Adria said.
"What's that Adria?" Cato asked.
"I-I love you Cato, and I want to be with you!" Adria confessed.
Cato went utterly silent after she said that, and Adria's heart was racing after her confession. "Adria you don't love me, you just love my avatar," Cato stated coldly.
"B-But I do! Believe me I do love you!" Adria exclaimed desperately.
"No you don't! Trust me when I say this, my avatar looks nothing like me. If you saw me in real life I know you wouldn't love me any more," Cato informed.
"I don't think so! If we just meet in real life, I can prove that no matter what your real face is I'll still love you!" Adria incsted.
"No! We shouldn't meet up in reality ever!!" Cato bellowed.
"Come on Cato! There's gotta be some way for us to meet! Please! I'll do anything Cato! I wanna prove to you that I do love you!" Adria pleaded.
Cato looked into Adira's eyes and saw how realistic the desperation on them was. So he thought about what to say to Adria next, as he didnt want to upset her. "Alright Adria, there's one thing you can do to allow us to meet up in real life," Cato said.
"What is it!! I'll do anything for you!!" Adria exclaimed.
"Alright, what you'll need to do is-" Cato was saying before he was cut off when an explosion went off. Parts of the ceiling went flying everywhere causing everyone to fly into a panic. Some avatars logged out as soon as the explosion went off, while others looked up at the damaged area. Adria and Cato looked up, their hearts dropped as soon as they saw what happened.
A ship with the acronym T.B.G.I dropped in, a side door opened up and gun wielding troops began pouring out. Adria felt her heart in the real world drop upon seeing this, while she still had some weapons in her inventory none of them could hold up against the armor and firearms. "SHIT SHIT SHIT! WHAT DO WE DO?!" Adria screamed, clinging onto Cato.
Cato pulled out a small gold rail gun, aimed it at the troops, and fired a large laser blast. The blast bursted into tiny lasers and hit any troup they could reach. "Wow! Is that the Multi Laser Blast Railgun?!" Penavie's voice cried out.
Adria and Cato looked and saw Penavie swimming up to them, her eyes directed right at Cato's weapon. "Yes, why?" Cato asked.
"Holy crap I've been trying to get my hands on that bad boy for two years now! It's hella expensive and hard as hell to get in Aliens apocalypse 3!" Penavie exclaimed.
"Hmm, well hope you get it soon," Cato lightly commented before another blast was shot at them.
Penavie, Adria, and Cato all dodged the blasts; Penavie aimed her robotic arms at the bad guys and fired a green toxic blast. Toxic mist spread everywhere slowly kicking off points of any avatars health bar. "YOU GUYS OVER HERE!" Minmin called out.
The three looked and saw Minmin and Valador hiding behind a crystal podium, throwing regular ninja stars and grenades at their attackers. "Cato, Adria hold on to me as tight as you can!" Penavie called out as she opened her arms.
Cato and Adria swam up to Penavie and both clung onto her tightly. Once they had a good hold on her Penavie raised her robot arm, hiss sound came from it and her arm extended to the podium grabbing onto it and pulled all of them forward. "Wow! I almost forgot you had that feature!" Adria exclaimed.
"I know after all, I hardly ever use it," Penavie said as she pulled the two behind the podium.
"Are you all alright?" Minmin asked.
"Yeah we're alright, but what do we do?!" Adria asked, scared.
"I don't know! I never thought that this would happen! Ugh, I should've thought about this!!" Cato cursed himself.
"HEY GLITTERING STONES! OVER HERE!!" A male voice called out. The Glittering Stones looked down and saw a male avatar near an emergency exit.
"Who is that?" Penavie asked.
"I don't know, but I feel like he might have good intentions for us!" Valador declared.
"Are you sure? They could be working for the enemy!" Cato expressed.
"Well my friend Unless you've got a better choice then I'd love to hear it!!" Minmin exclaimed. Cato didn't say anything as he truly didn't have any other ideas to get out of here.
"Alright, fine! But I don't trust that guy!!" Cato blurted out.
Everyone nodded before grabbing onto each other, and swimming down to the male avatar. Shots were still being fired as other avatars were fighting back against the soldiers. So The Glittering Stones were able to escape without much trouble, outside the friendly fire. As soon as they reached the door the male avatar grabbed onto the avatar closest to him. Suddenly everyone was teleported out of the club within the blink of an eye. "AHH! WHAT HAPPENED MY SCREEN WENT WHITE!!" Adria screamed.
"I-I don't know! The same happened to me!!" Penavie replied.
"Sorry it was the only way to get you all out of there safely!" A voice replied. Soon Adria's vision returned to normal and she was able to see where she was. Herself and friends were all in the planet selection screen; all of them floated in the digital space as they relaxed from what happened.
"Holy cow! That was too close for comfort!" Penavie exclaimed.
"You said it sister! Even though we wouldn't have died in real life, it still was scary," Adria stated.
"Well you all are safe now, and that's what matters," A female voice said.
The Glittering Stones looked and saw two avatars one a boy and the other a girl. The male avatar was a shirtless cyborg with his lower body and half of his face were robotic while the rest was human. He had brown hair and green eyes, some of his cybernetic parts were glowing green. The female avatar was a regular human, with mutable gadgets on her. She had a pink strapless crop top that showed her stomach, magenta pants, and rose boots. She had headphones over her ears, a phone attached to her crop top, a glove with a tablet and buttons attached.
"Hello, I'm Cyberman, and this is my sister Glitch out!" Cyberman introduced himself.
"Hey," Glitch out greeted.
"Oh I recognize them! They are in the top ten scores for the contest!" Valador pointed out.
"Really? I didn't notice them! Then again I didn't look at it all that much," Adria said.
"Hey I've got a number of questions for you!" Cato shouted, scaring everyone.
"WHO ARE YOU TWO!?! WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?! AND WHAT DO YOU WANT!?" Cato asked aggressively.
"Wow Wow! Let's all just not attack each other... and if you're worried we're trying to hurt you, we're not! I promise we want to help!" Cyberman assured.
"Cato, I think they're telling the truth! After all, they saved us!" Adria reminded him, trying to defuse Catos anger.
"They did but that doesn't mean this could be a trap!" Cato insisted.
"It's not! We promise! My brother and I hate T.B.G.I just as much as you all! So we want to help you all in taking them down!" Glitch proclaimed.
"Hmm... I don't trust either of you so don't expect me to be nice to either of you," Cato said as he crossed his arms and looked away.
"Apologies about him, he's a tough one," Minmin apologized.
"It's cool, but what were you all doing in that club?" Cyberman asked.
"Cato thought that getting the Chrysocolla had to do with the anti gravity dance floor in that club. But none of us were able to find anything," Penavie explained.
"Ah I see, well that was a good idea, and maybe there's something there that can give us hits," Glitch said.
"That's what I believed! If only T.B.G.I didnt interrupt us!" Cato expressed angrily.
"Yeah... hmm...High and low, the flow goes," Adria muttered inaudibly as she looked around. The planets were high and low, while everything here was going and flowing.
"The chrysocolla is just as so, look in the sky and night, and you'll find an utmost delight," Adria finished as she looked over to the digitized sun. The sun was about the size as a yoga ball and it mimics and eclips once every month. Adria's eyes whiddened as she thought about the last part; Look into the sky and Night. "Holy cow! GUYS I THINK I JUST FIGURED OUT THE REST OF THE CLUE!!!" Adria screamed.
"YOU DID!! WHAT IS IT?!" Penavie asked.
"Shinjirarenai! Tell us my friend!" Valador exclaimed.
"Yes I wanna know what you discovered," Minmin added.
"Hmm, let's make it quick," Cato ordered.
"Alright so you all know how the riddle says High and low the flow goes right?" Adria asked. Everyone nodded, giving her all curious looks on what she was getting to. "Well the planets here are high and low! And everything in here is flowing and going!" Adria exclaimed.
After that explanation everyone looked around and fully realized that Adria was right. The planets were found high and low, flowing and going all the time. Cato felt like punching himself in the face for being so stupid. He never once thought that this place could've been what Noha had meant in the riddle. Cyberman and Glitch however were very impressed by how clever Adria was by finding this out. Glitch thought that the riddle meant water or something, but it actually meant space. "Oh Noha you were such a creative person," Glitch complemented under her breath. Cyberman smiled as he thought about how clever this riddle was, making him excited for what the remaining riddles could be.
"What's the rest A?" Penavie asked.
"Well I believe that the rest, Look into the Sky and Night, and You'll find an utmost delight. Well I believe that means the eclipse as when Noha referred to a sky they always meant the day sky. When it's the night sky they call it the stars or night. So when they say the Sky and Night, I think they meant an eclipse!" Adria informed.
As soon as she finished her explanation a silence fell upon everyone, letting the information skin in. That only lasted for half a second until Penavie screamed, "HOLY CRAP!! THAT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE!!"
"YEAH! WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT NOHA IT DOES!" Minmin shouted.
"IT DOES! NOHA DID THINK VERY DIFFERENTLY FROM EVERYONE ELSE!" Valador added his excitement clear as day.
"Hmm.." Cato just grumbled while looking down.
"Oh I can't wait to see if that's true!! When's the next eclipse?" Cyberman asked.
"I'll take a look, I've got several rare gadgets and gear for anything and everything," Glitch blurted out as she started typing on her arm tablet. After a few seconds of everyone staring her down she raised her head and gave them the news. "Two weeks from now. Seems like enough time to get some training in," Glitch said.
"Training?" Adria asked, confused.
"We don't know what this challenge will hold. So we should train and practice on everything we can till the day comes," Cato informed.
"I agree with him. So I'll get started in the morning. It's late for me so I'm gonna crash out, night everyone," Penavie said before her avatar dematerialized.
"Valador and I need to leave as well. So we'll see you all another time! Goodbye my friend," Minmin said before she and Valador disappeared.
Adria looked to where Cybermand and Glitch where, but saw that they too had disappeared. Now all that was left was Adria and Cato; which was actually kinda awkward at the moment. Adria felt her face heat up as she was left all alone with her cyber crush. "So Adria, as I was saying before," Cato broke the silence with his charming voice.
"U-Um... Y-yes?" Adria stuttered.
"What you'll need to do for us to meet up in reality is... Impress me," Cato finally finished.
Adria was surprised by this, as she thought he would pick something harder. "That's it? Oh well that will be a piece of cake for me!" Adria declared.
"Hmm... yeah it wont, I'm not an easily impressed guy and I won't even tell you if you've amazed me or not," Cato informed.
"What?! How will I even know if I did or not?!" Adria asked.
"You'll know when I am. Now I need to go now, goodbye Adria," Cato said before his avatar dematerialized.
Leaving Adria all alone with her thoughts on everything that happened. Adria has possibly found out the chrysocolla location and if she wants to meet the real Cato, she'll need to impress him.
"Oh boy I've got a lot to think about... but first I need to sleep, that last bit of excitement back there took me out," Adria said as she logged out. Leaving the game world to think on her next actions and digest all the information she has now.
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