Starr Park: A Brawl Stars Story

Blustery Blow

For Gale, today was just another day at work, like every other day. Gale was a cute old man with white hair and a big mustache who was wearing a blue woolen suit with yellow buttons and a red scarf. He'd been working at the Snowtel since it first opened its doors. Now, he was cleaning the ground floor and got ready to welcome new costumers. He opened the outer gates of the hotel to let potential visitors with cars or other vehicles enter the front parking of the hotel. After a while, he heard the sound of the elevator; it was his boss, Mr. Paananen who was coming from the last floor. He seemed to be angry and frustrated, but when he saw Gale, he immediately smiled and approached his employee.
    "Good morning Ilkka!" Gale greeted him. He always used Mr. Paananen's first name when he talked to him.
    "Hello Gale! How are you today?" Replied Mr. Paananen. He was always very polite to Gale.
    "I'm good! My legs still feel a bit heavy, but I'm better." Answered Gale. His voice was modulated, deep and calm and he spoke slowly.
    "I'm glad to hear that!" Said and walked towards the elevator, "Oh I forgot to tell you that one of our hotel's computer broke down. If you see anything suspicious, inform me immediately. And stay away from it." Added and left the ground floor. Gale didn't ask for further information about it; he trusted Mr. Paananen and was going to follow his orders. He'd always been proud of working at this hotel and mostly working for Mr. Paananen. He really appreciated his boss and what he had done for him. After a couple of minutes, a costumer entered the hotel. It was a young tall woman with a red shirt and jeans. Gale welcomed her and asked if she had booked a room.
    "Good morning! I'm Max. I won a ticket for a free room at this hotel for two weeks. Here's the ticket." Said Max and showed him the ticket.
    "Your room is on the last floor. Enjoy your stay!" Replied Gale. She thanked him and walked to the elevator. Gale had never gone to the last floor. Mr. Paananen was always saying that there are other employees on that floor and that Gale's position was up here. He didn't mind; he liked his job there. As he was walking towards his desk to rest until another costumer arrived, a blue bright light appeared in front of him. He stepped back scared and approached the elevator. Suddenly a short blue unplugged computer came out from the light.
    "Who are you?", exclaimed Gale, "You're the computer that broke down, right? How can you work without your plug?"
    "Calm down. I'm 8-bit. I can explain everything, but I need you to trust me." Replied the computer.
    "I must inform Ilkka!" Shouted the man and picked up the phone from his desk. The computer teleported quickly near the desk and unplugged the phone.
    "I want you to listen to me. Ilkka Paananen is not who you think he is. Nothing here is what you think it is."
    "What do you mean?" Asked Gale curiously. He was confused and wasn't sure if he had to trust 8-bit or not.
    "This is not a normal hotel.", 8-bit started, "I know it may sound crazy, but the time to explain everything is now. Things are going to get really bad."
    "I've been working here for years! I've seen nothing 'bad'." Exclaimed Gale loudly and coughed a couple of times.
    "This is the last floor.", said 8-bit and showed him pictures of the floor on his screen. It looks like a jail. Thought Gale, "Paananen experiments with people on this floor. With the so-called 'costumers' of the hotel." Added 8-bit.
    "This can't be true!", said Gale angrily, "I've known Ilkka since he was a little bird!", he sniffled between his words, "Ilkka was tortured! Starr corporation experimented with animals decades ago. I was foolish. I was young and I needed money; I didn't care about birds. I applied for a position there. I worked at the birds department.", he burst into tears. His legs were aching more and more every second that passed and decided to sit down, "There were two birds there. A crow and a penguin. They couldn't talk but I could see the pain in their eyes! They were suffering! One night; it was the last day of the experiments, I decided to do something. I saved them. I freed them. After that, we parted ways. A few years later, Ilkka found me. He offered me a job here, in his hotel to thank me. He could never hurt people!" It was obvious that Gale didn't want to recall those memories.
    "I understand how you feel.", it was actually strange for 8-bit to use the word 'feel', but after he escaped the 'plugged version' of himself, he could actually feel things, "That's why I wanted to explain everything to you. Because I know Ilkka's past.", he added, "After you saved him from Starr corporation, he went back to take revenge. The experiments gave him super intelligence. He created a machine to produce starr-swabs to control other people's minds. He killed everyone in the corporation and took charge. Then, he created the hotel here. It was the easiest way for him to gain more subjects for his experiments. This is not the real world. Everything you know that exists is fake. This hotel is located in a park, named 'Starr Park'. This is how the experiments take place. Innocent people think they visit a park, when they actually take part in Paananen's evil plans. Last year, with the help of a space team, he managed to create a machine, that is so powerful that can interfere directly to people's DNA using the energy of the black hole in the middle of Milky Way." 8-bit had now explained everything to Gale.
    "Why are you telling me all that? I can inform Ilkka about you."
    "Because I know you'll do the right thing." Replied 8-bit. Gale knew 8-bit wasn't lying but still he didn't want to believe him. He thought every single 'costumer' he welcomed. If 8-bit told me the truth, I sent each one of them to Ilkka's laboratories. I destroyed their life. He had to choose between Ilkka and his morality; between a lie and the truth. Although this may sound as an easy decision to take, Gale found it very difficult. Sometimes it's easier to believe in a lie than have the whole world turned upside down by the truth. It's easier to ignore the truth than seek for it. Gale would feel safer if he decided to tell Mr. Paananen about 8-bit, but is thinking you're safe better than accepting the truth? Especially when the truth involves experimenting with people. No matter how much Gale tried to pretend that 8-bit was lying, he couldn't deny the truth. He stood up and looked at 8-bit.
    "How can I help?" He asked and wiped away his tears.
    "We're going to the river. There's a ship that can help us there."
    "Lou is coming with us." Said Gale.
    "Who's Lou?" Asked 8-bit. Gale used the elevator, went to the second floor and returned with a cute blue robot with a red bow-tie.
    "This is Lou. He works here too."
    "Hello! Who is this, Gale?" Asked Lou. Gale and 8-bit explained everything to him. The three of them got out of the hotel quietly and started to walk away from it.

    "You see anything?" Asked Colt. Darryl was using a pair of binoculars to watch the surroundings of the ship.
    "No... Nothing... Wait!" Exclaimed Darryl.
    "What?" Asked Pam.
    "There are three people coming from the Snowtel." Said Darryl.
    "If they're from the hotel, they must know something about the kidnappings." Said Colt.
    "Me and Tick will stay here. You guys go down to see who they are." Said Darryl and the team left the ship and started to walk towards the people from the Snowtel. Finally; after two days, something happened that gave them hope.