Mamoritai 4 - A Llorumi story

3. Dyer Island

Words: 1512

"And then the commissioner came in and told us that games have changed into Prime Empire!" Kai explained. I had just gotten onto the Bounty and the guys were now catching me up. "Now we are going to visit Dyer on his private island, hopefully to get some intel." Zane continued. "Riiight." I answered. "You'd think there'd be an easier way to contact Milton Dyer than flying to an island and trying to figure out which house is his." Cole said. We were standing in front of the computer, which had an old photo of Dyer. He had red hair and a thick mustache, very typical 80s. "Dyer is a recluse. No one has seen him in almost 30 years. However, it is a private island and there is only one house, his." Zane explained. "He owns the whole island?" Nya questioned. "Yeah honey, that's what a private island means." I said, placing my hand on her shoulder. "That explains why it's called 'Dyer Island'." Kai said. I noticed that Nya seemed to be sad. I hope my comment wasn't too harsh? I know she's worried about Jay. They have been ying and yang for almost half a year! Wait. Could it be that their anniversary is coming up? Wait, that's it! That's why Nya is taking this extra hard! Their anniversary is next week!

"I'm gonna go sit down for a minute. I'll be back soon." Nya said and shrugged my hand off her shoulder. She climbed down and probably walked downstairs. "She's taking this pretty hard." Cole said out loud. "Yeah, but it's pretty understandable. Their six month anniversary is next week." I answered. "Oohhh right. But what does it have to do with this?" Kai said. Is he joking? "Kai, when's the last time you dated someone for more than two weeks?" I asked. "Weelll, me and Skylor dated for a little over half a year after the Garmageddon. Why?" Kai said. "We're gonna have to circle back to that nickname!" Lloyd commented. "Aand did you celebrate your anniversaries?" I asked. "I mean, we usually just tried a new position in bed." Kai shrugged. "What! You didn't go on a date or anything?" I wondered. "Even I think that is cold behavior." Zane said. "Now I understand why she broke up with you again. C'mon Kai, do better!" Cole said. "Hey! That was private!" Kai yelped. "Wait! YOU got dumped! Go Skylor!" I chuckled. "Why'd she dump you?" Lloyd asked. "I said something stupid and we got into this stupid fight. Then she said that 'maybe we'd be better off as friends' and that's what we are, again..." Kai answered. Awkward silence. "I'll go check on Nya!" Cole announced and left.

We arrived at the island and dropped the anchor and slid down it. We were now at a tropical island, standing in front of a decrepit metal gate. "Guys, are we sure this is the right private island? This place looks a little... rundown." Nya asked. Nya and I opened the gate with ease. Hmm, why isn't it locked? "These coordinates are correct." Zane assured us as we walked through the gate. Now there were tall hedges all around us. Is this a maze? "What is this?" Cole wondered. "It is a hedgemaze." Zane said. "Well, let's stay close together." I said. We turned left and then right and then right again. Soon we came across a moss covered statue. It was a human with wings. "By the looks of it, Dyer's not the only one who's been missing for 30 years. His gardener clearly vanished too, I mean, look at this mess!" Kai said, pointing at the mossy statue. It felt like forever, the maze. But we finally made it to a clearance that was surrounded by a brick fence. It had a broken water fountain in the middle of it, and behind it stood a huge mansion, which was covered in vines. There were two more of the same statues on both sides of the mansion door. "Wow. Anyone can just walk up to the front door?" Nya said. "You'd think he'd have a little security." I said. "Or a hedge-trimmer." Kai chuckled and knocked on the door.

Right after the knock, the floor below us catapulted us! What the hell! We all yelled as we flew through the air and landed right outside of the first gate. "Let's try that again, and this time, no one gets catapulted!" Cole said. Ugh, are you kidding me? We walked through the maze again and were now at the clearance. Then, right in front of Nya, a weird ivy vine shot itself from one side of the brick fence, to the other! "Whoa! That was close!" Nya said. Now there was a vine in front of us. "Strange. Ivy is not normally known to be a dangerous plant." Zane wondered. "We must've set off a whole security system! Who knows what other booby traps are here?" Kai said. "Step slowly and deliberately. You never know what-" Lloyd was explaining, until a laser was shot at him! He yelped and dodged the laser. Somehow, mossy statues moved behind us and were now shooting lasers out of their eyes! "New plan! RUN!" Lloyd yelled. "Talk about giving the evil eye!" Kai said as we ran further away from the statues. Then, right as we were getting close to the door, a gate rose up from the ground, trapping us! Then, three dog robots jumped in front of us as well. What the hell is going on!! This guy was crazy! "Robot-dogs have a land speed of 30 miles an hour! We cannot outrun them!" Zane said. "Newer plan! Fight!" Lloyd yelled. So now, these robot dogs were closing in on us, while we were being shot by lasers. Amazing. Welp I guess I've needed some challenge.

Me and Lloyd took on one of the three dogs. I kicked the dog's jaw and Lloyd hit it with spinjitzu. "These statues aren't running out of lasers either!" Cole yelped. I tried to kick the dog again, but it dodged. Suddenly, the brick fences started moving inwards! "We need to escape this garden or we'll get squished!" I yelled. "Or zapped!" Kai yelled. "Or eaten!" Nya yelled. One of the dogs jumped on Lloyd! I ran to save him, but one of the lasers hit the dog and its power was shut down! "That's it! Those lasers will drain the robot-dog's batteries!" Nya yelled. "I'll hold this back!" Cole yelled, activating his lava arms and trying to push the closing fence back. Now our plan was to get these lasers hit the dogs. I took a risk and took one of the dogs by the throat and held it up. The laser hit it! The dog powered down! "Let's stop these statues!" Nya said, shooting the statues with water, which Zane froze immediately. Then, the wall just stopped, and the gate disappeared again. "Nice work, guys!" Lloyd said, panting on the ground. We all catched our breath. "Sorry, I was in the shower. Or else I could've just buzzed you in." An old man in a robe said suddenly in front of us. "A-are you Milton Dyer?" Cole asked. The man laughed. "Oh, heavens no! I'm Bob the Intern!" He said. What? "Come follow me, I'll show you around!" He continued and walked back to the house.

"I've worked for Mr. Dyer for 31 years now. Though, he hasn't been here in a long, long time." Bob explained as we walked into the mansion. "Wait. Milton Dyer isn't here?" Lloyd asked. "No. I was hoping you were coming with information for me about where he is! I've been waiting rather patiently for his return! He promised me a promotion!" Bob giggled. We all looked at each other. "What can you tell us about Prime Empire?" I asked. "Oh, Mr. Dyer can explain that better than I can!" Bob said and walked into a room. "Y-you just said he is not here?" Zane questioned. "He isn't. This is a recording of him on the day he finished the game." Bob said, as he dragged an old tv in front of us. He opened a drawer and took a caset out of it. "Wow, look at all these scrapped game concepts!" Kai said, looking through the open drawer. "Fist to Face 4, Unfinished Adventure Game 1, Ukulele Legend!" Kai read. "But Prime Empire was his favorite. It was so advanced, he said it would seem like magic." Bob said and hit the play button. The same man, whose photo we looked at earlier, popped up on the tv screen. "Prime Empire is not just a video game. It's a ticket to another world! A world so immerse, you'll think it's real! Prime Empire isn't going to just change how games are played, it's going to change the world as we-'' Dyer explained. He suddenly stopped as a bright light was seen in the corner of the screen. He walked towards it and the recording ended.