Tuesday, July 13, 2010

145 - Finish climbing

You reach the top of the LADDER and dart into the BATHYSPHERE DEPOT HUB, the PRESSURE DOORS clanging shut behind you (about a half-second after the picture above). You are in another circular HUB room, similar to the one below, but this one appears to currently be a dead end. Above you, the GLASS CEILING prevents you from rising any higher in life. Typical, really.

M. BISON sleeps peacefully on what appears to be a huge PILE OF BLOODY ASH. There must have been quite a battle here. A BROOM leans against a CONSOLE nearby; M. BISON probably swept up. He likes to keep things tidy.

On the other side of the room, ELLIOT and his BADGER are conversing with a BEATEN CANDIMP, who looks to be in no condition for further battle. (DEAD ELLIOT lies nearby.*) 

There is a row of CLOSED BOXES on the wall, each labeled with a name on a small bronze plaque. RED WIRES connect each box to something above the DOOR which looks to you like some kind of FREAKING BOMB. Not the kind of thing you want to mess around with, though you are relatively sure that ALAN could disarm it pretty quick.

ELLIOT is interrogating the CANDIMP.

ELLIOT: Like I told your friends, I'm not in the mood for games. Ninjas don't solve puzzles.
MARS: I'm telling you everything I can! You're my best friend!
ELLIOT: Stop doing that!
MARS: Each of us has to tell one truth and one lie! I deeply want you to hit me again!
ELLIOT: Argh!

The CANDIMP nervously catches your eye. ELLIOT and the BADGER look over to you.

ELLIOT: You, girl; can you solve puzzles?
JILL: Yeah, of course. Do I look like a ninja to you?
ELLIOT: OK, listen. To get the door to the bathysphere open, we need the access code that's in one of those boxes on the wall. We can't just go opening all of them, because there's a good chance that would blow us all to kingdom come. So we've been interrogating and killing all the little red schmucks up here to find out which box to open to get the codes. Still with me?
JILL: Yeah.
ELLIOT: Good. So each little red guy gave us two statements before we killed 'em. One is apparently always true, which the other is always a lie. Here's what they said.

Twizzlers:  Nerds doesn't have it! Snickers has it!
Snickers:   Baby Ruth doesn't have it! Nerds doesn't have it!
Bubblegum: Baby Ruth has it! Snickers has it!
Baby Ruth: Nerds has it! Twizzlers doesn't have it!
Nerds:  Bubblegum has it! Twizzlers doesn't have it!
Mars: Each of us is telling one truth and one lie! I hope you live long and fulfilling lives!


ELLIOT: So which box is it in, little miss ponytail?

And just as he says this, the DOOR behind you, leading to the LADDER you just scaled, blares out an alert message, which adds considerably to the tension of the situation.

DOOR: WARNING! PRESSURE BREACH IMMINENT! PLEASE EVACUATE AT ONCE!






*Footnote: You quickly wonder if this poor ELLIOT died of emphysema in London, 1965, then disregard the thought as too brainy for 50% of your audience, then disregard that thought as too much strain on the fourth wall.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Activate (spoiler) http://bit.ly/cfON6Q

Scratch M.Bison's belly.

Mike R said...

but with a lot of style. gotta impress the ninja.

obes said...

make silly CURSE OF THE BAMBINO joke as you show the answer to the puzzle is Baby Ruth,

Then poor ONE out for your HOMIE Goerge Steinbrenner as you now realize that his time is long since past.

then ask Elloit politely, WTF is going on?