Feathers- Chapter 5

Instructions

Chapter 5 EX As I’m walking down the street toward Scar’s bakery, where a suspicious number of people have gathered, without warning, this boy with a halo, wings, and wolf features walks past. When I try to ask him if he’s okay and tell him the rules, he panics and disappears. Strange, I think I’ll ask Martyn if he knows anything about it. Right as I round the corner and see the storefront a guy with blue hair takes off with Tango, a hybrid who I begrudgingly gave a permit not to hide his features after Xisuma nagged me for years. Nice to see he’s using it. Most people disperse as fast as I appear, but Scar and one other remain at the store as I approach. The yellow-haired boy is frantically talking to Scar, and I catch only a few words, nothing of importance before they see me and stop. “Hello!” Scar says politely to me. “How are you this fine evening?” “Fine,” I reply, “Curious about the crowd of people at your shop.” “Oh, that? That was just me closing up my shop, and you know how it goes, that's the time when you have most customers.” Annoyingly, I can’t go into the shop to investigate without valid cause, per shopping district law. Supposedly, Scar works for Xisuma, but I’m always doubtful. He seems too suspicious for that. I walk around the corner, then fly up to the roof and continue snooping. Again, I don’t hear anything, but I can tell by their faces it's something important. When he leaves, Scar heads back inside the shop, and I walk along the rooftop, exhausted from the long day. Just as I'm flying to my base, I get a com from Xisuma saying something strange is going on. There’s one more player signature than there should be. Weird, he also asked to meet at my base. We almost always meet at his; that’s where the code nexus is. I loop around in a lazy circle, flying over a stretch of ocean, when I notice all the sand is purple. Huh. I guess something glitched. Coming down to Xisuma's base, I skid to a stop, turning around to see my brother with the code nexus in his hands. “Something happened, it just glitched like this! The code’s unaccessible now…” He looks worried, and honestly, it’s worrying. The nexus is about the size of a tennis ball. Normally it’s big enough that at least twelve people can stand inside it. “Calm down, you said something about an extra player signature? Let’s get that out of the way first.” I’m trying to portray calm, but I think Xisuma knows I’m just as worried as he is. I walk over and lean against him, I hate physical contact but it always seems to calm him down, and check the player signatures manually from my comm. He’s right. There is one extra, but I can’t tell who it is, the letters are all jumbled up into strange symbols. Usually, it’s translated automatically through the code, but whatever language it is must not be in the system. I carefully, carefully, take the nexus and try to scan it. Nothing happens. I’m speechless. I take a deep breath and then say to Xisuma, who has been watching me, “Okay, tomorrow, first thing, I’ll question Martyn. You go see Doc, and see if he can do anything about it.” “Okay, Okay, Okay,” Xisuma says, appearing to calm down. “While you're at it,” I add, trying not to push my luck, “there was a color glitch at these coordinates.” I send him the cords of the purple beach. “Now go to bed. You need it.” I walk out, dropping the nexus off in its courtyard in the off chance it grows again in the night, and jump into the sky.