Stolen Powers: Rise of the NGZ

Chapter Four: Training Camp (Part 1/3)

Landon was suddenly shoved by Professor Adams into a room. Before he even had a chance to say anything, the room grew dark. He then heard a lock turn.

"What's going on?" he asked, more to himself.

Then the room brightened immensely. It took him a few seconds to get his eyes adjusted to the light. Landon then realized that the room was built pretty similar to when Michelle was around, making everything fuzzy. He figured that this was done intentionally to make it harder on him.

Professor Adams then proceeded to explain what was going on. When he mentioned the boxes, Landon looked around the room. Indeed, there were three boxes sitting in multiple places scattered throughout the maze. All of them had something in them, and it looked like small slips of paper.

"Only one of the codes on the paper lead to the correct door. If you pick up the wrong one and go into the wrong door, you lose."

"What happens if I lose?" Landon asked.

The professor was quiet for a couple of seconds. "That's for you to find out."

That made him pretty uneasy. "Alright. I can do this..."

"You have ten minutes to escape," his voice said. "Begin."

Landon stood up and scanned the room using his power. What confused him about the room was that it was harder to see when it was extremely bright. He ran to the closest box, which was hidden in a corner. Inside was a note that read "23, 65, 2."

Scanning the room again, he found no doors nearby. He threw his arms up, getting frustrated. "So, how am I supposed to know if this is the right one or not?"

"Again, that's for you to find out," the professor answered. "But the secret is the locks on the doors, that much I am willing to tell you."

He thought for a moment and began to run around more of the walls. Landon was at a huge disadvantage for two major reasons, he realized. One, everything was still extremely fuzzy. Two, the information that was given to him was just like a riddle that he had to solve. This whole thing still didn't make much sense to him, but if it was to sharpen his abilities, he was still willing to go along with it. It wasn't like he had much of a choice, anyway.

He found the next box sitting high on a shelf. When Landon grabbed it, he set it on a table and flipped open the top. Straining his eyes to read it, the note said "14, 9, 39."

"Alright, another set of codes," said Landon. "Do all of the codes work on one of the doors?"

"There are three codes to three doors," Professor Adams said. "To answer your question, yes, they do."

That actually cleared a few more things up for him. With a new understanding, he smiled. "Great. How much time do I have?"

"At this pace, you're doing better than I thought. You have six minutes and twenty seconds."

Finding the last box wasn't as easy as he hoped it would. The maze of hallways seemed to continue forever, but he didn't let that get to him. Landon made markings by chipping off a corner of the walls to let him know that he'd already been there. After about two minutes of marking and turning corners, he finally reached a place that blurred his vision even more. When he finally found the box sitting in an impossibly high place, he froze to think. Landon estimated that the box was at least twelve feet above him. It's possible that he could get a running start and jump for it, but that'd take perfect timing, which is hard for his eyesight.

"Might want to hurry, Ford," Professor Adams announced. "You have two and a half minutes to escape."

He quickly scanned the area one last time, and he sighed at his results. If he could back up and get a perfect speed and jump time, he'd grab onto the ledge and pull himself up. Then, Landon would quickly get the note, jump down, and run towards the doors as quickly as he could.