Dimension 987 Chapter 9

'Wha? where am i?'
there was no response.
Theon got up and looked around. there seemed to be no end to the space he was in. suddenly, a key fell, several meters away from him. there was a small tinkling sound when it fell to the floor.
'what's that?'
Theon went over to the key and picked it up. suddenly, this time behind him, something big and heavy seemed to materialise. it fell with a thud onto the floor. he turned around to face it.
there, in front of him, stood an old wooden chest, bound with chains by the dozen, and it was still jerking. rather strongly. it was held with one lone gilded lock.
'there is something very powerful in that chest.'
Theon stared at the lock and then at the key in his hand. he slid the key neatly into the lock and turned.
'amazing, it fits.'
all at once, a red spirit thrashed its way out of the chest, and circled in the air. Theon's immediate reaction was to find the best place possible to try and watch the spirit without being in any danger by it. he hid behind the huge wooden chest. but it didn't seem to hide him from the red spirit.
Theon was frightened. it was a natural reaction.
'what should i do. is this where i die? no. it would be too melodramatic for my life to end this way.'
the red spirit swirled around in the air, and all at once, Theon focused in on its amazing detail. it zoomed past his face, and he saw the billions and billions of digits woven neatly into its body. he followed the spirit with his eyes, and hardly seemed to notice it wrapping around him in a dome. in one fluid movement, his space was sealed.
'wow.'
the spirit suddenly dove inward, too fast for Theon to follow. and he fell to the ground, motionless, as the spirit filled his body.
***
"Theon?!"

"hey, Theon, are you ok?"

by the time the light stopped, Theon seemed to have collapsed. Ryan supported him and he stood up, and Hisagi came forward to the door. he watched as the metallic doors weighing exactly a tonne each slide apart loudly.

"this is our time. let's go in without wasting time." he said, and everyone looked at him in surprise. "wow, you just talked!" Jean said, and Wan looked amazed. "i speak when needed, now let's not waste time." he said, and everyone stepped forward to the door.

when questioned, Theon answered, "i don't know. i just figured out the whole system and all the codes. i have no idea what happened."

"less talk, more walk!" Hisagi whispered, and without knowing, he became point.

when the group had entered through the silver doors, they stopped. "oh... my.... god." Sheri whispered.

in every corner of the room, lasers were pointed at an angle. it seemed they were programmed to move at random. Wan slapped her head as Faye and Jean said at the same time, "... whao." Ryan moved forward and said, "we have got to get past this."
"I'm not going to stop. look at what's beyond the red beams." Hisagi said, pointing, but quickly withdrawing his almost severed finger.
they looked beyond the lasers. they gasped.
in front of them, was over 200 computer stations in the next room. on the second floor, the railings were fitted with glass, and further in on the higher level, and they saw through the glass to the hugest mega computer they had ever seen in their life. it had over 400 cables streaming up into the ceiling, all branching into different directions. the screen, although was dark and supposedly to sleep, was huge and was about 3 by 4 meters.
"that... that is just plain impressive." Sheri commented, and everyone nodded. "look, let's just focus, one step at a time, finding some way to get past the lasers is more important." Jean reminded, and everyone nodded. "could we deflect them with mirrors?" Ryan asked, and Faye nodded. "there were many mirrored walls on our way in, all we would need to do if that worked would be to crack a few shards off the walls." she added, and Theon held up a hand. "look at the walls. the lasers are everywhere, we wouldn't be able to deflect all of them."
the group looked at the walls. Theon was right, little spots were staining the silver walls. the fact that it as a small room only served to harden their quest to reach the other side. "we need someone to go. it's a challenge, I'd say about 25 beams are in there? make it 30." Ryan said, and he shrank back into his position behind Faye.
"..."
it seemed everyone would be afraid to be annihilated.
"I'll try." Sheri said suddenly, and Wan looked at her. everyone did, and they were surprised. Sheri was daring, but no one thought this daring. in fact, this should be where everyone starts playing rock paper scissors to decide who goes. "are you sure? you could get shocked. we still don't know the potential of the lasers." Theon said, and he frowned at the red lights switching course randomly.
"someone has to do it, and i love challenges. although this is potentially dangerous, i guess it would be a totally awesome challenge to brag about for... just about ever." Sheri replied, and she walked back a couple of meters to a mirrored wall. she slipped off her loosened shin high boot and hit the heel against the wall, causing a few small shards to fly out. she picked a larger one, and pulled it off the wall. the hit seemed to loosen the hold of the mirror onto the wall, and it came off easier than expected. she laced up her boots tighter than before.
"be careful Sheri." Wan said, and Sheri laughed slightly shakily. "yeah, split all my crap among yourselves if i don't come back, got it?" she stepped in front of everyone else and abruptly, the doors opened, and slid shut behind her.
'let's get this down.' Sheri thought, and she began inching forward. just as she was about to deflect a laser, another one came at her. she immediately felt the instinct to block that one. then another. and another.
A red light flashed from within Sheri.
"what's going on?! this is like what happened with Theon!!" Faye said, and Ryan pressed his palms on the doors. "it happens now." Wan said softly, and Jean leaped to the buttons, trying to do anything she could to open the doors. it didn't work.
"stop."
everyone did. the all looked to the speaker: Hisagi.
"you have to let her run the full course of the ritual. i will speak to all of you about it later. for now, trust. trust that Sheri will make it, and that like Theon in his ritual, she will help us through this stage." he said, and they looked reluctantly at the scene.
it looked like Sheri had been lost in a sea of light.