ALEXiThymia: Chapter 94 The Kansas City Shuffle

Chapter 94

The Kansas City Shuffle

Sunday

“You sure you don’t just want to come back with us?” Julie asked Alexa for the tenth time.

“No, you know how Luke is, besides we need to pick up a few things from our house before we go back to campus.” Alexa said.

Gina just looked at Alexa, her new class was telling her that something was off, but that it was likely best if she didn’t bring it up. That was the main reason why she decided to go with the convoluted plan that was concocted.

“All right, so, just to make sure I understand this whole process.” Gina began, “we are now officially banned from this dungeon forever, unless we get an invite back with you.” Gina said, directing her last point to Luke.

Luke nodded. “Thankfully, we will never have to repeat this same hellacious Analysis quest again. I will also be sleeping off my changes, so don’t wait up for me tonight.” Luke said, directing his last comment towards Julie.

“All right, so you are going to tell Bottomless Gorge here to send us to the Dawning Light dungeon’s entrance. From there we can either partake in the combat scenario or go to bed?” Julie asked.

“Go to bed!” Gina said, sounding simultaneously energetic and exhausted by Gina standards, at the same time.

“Hah, I will at least try the combat scenario.” Julie said, while stifling a yawn, then with a more suggestive look she turned to Luke and said, “a shame you brought your car here, otherwise we could all just head back together, and talk.”

“Gah!” Luke said, as he looked from Julie then to Alexa and all but pleaded with his eyes. Alexa just gave a subtle shake of her head, letting him know where she stood on that question. With that, Luke let out a resigned exhale as he turned back to Julie and shook his head. “Sorry, no can do. We really need those things from Alexa’s room.”

“What things exactly?” Gina pressed.

“Birthday gifts.” Alexa said in a deadpan voice.

At that Gina’s eyes went wide. “Wait, you know?”

“Of course, I do. The twentieth.” Alexa said.

“Wait, what?” Luke asked.

“Her birthday, it is the 20th.” Alexa answered her voice coldly logical.

“How would you have gotten the presents to your house; you didn’t even know me before you came?”

“Amazingzon’s Free Shipping. I had our house as the delivery point.” Alexa said.

“And your parents couldn’t bring them because they were already at campus. Well played.” Gina said, with an approving head nod. Then she asked her next question, feeling that she would eventually be able to get Alexa to slip up. While she knew getting Alexa to stop whatever it was she was clearly planning to do would be impossible, she might get her to at least admit to what she was doing. “How did you find out about my birthday?”

“Simple, I asked Sarah Marie Steven’s bodyguard. He knew all of our personal information off the top of his head.” Alexa said in a matter of fact tone.

At that Gina’s eyes went wide. “The ox? Wow, I didn’t even think to read his mind.” Gina said, a note of contemplation filling her voice as she tried to find another way to deduce what Alexa was up to.

“What are you badgering her for, anyways?” Julie finally asked.

“She wants to know what I intend to really do when you two leave and I send Luke to pick up the packages that are waiting at our house.” Alexa said.

At that Julie and Luke’s eyes went wide, as they looked first at Alexa and then to Gina.

“It’s about the trials, you are going to try to finish them here today, aren’t you?” Julie posed.

Hearing that Gina stood up a little straighter and then got a look of defiance to her. “You yourself promised that you would wait until Thanksgiving to do that.”

“I will. I promise that what I plan to do doesn’t involve completing the Trials of Ascension at all.” Alexa said, her face emotionless as she was well past the typical time it took to absorb her eleventh greater Analysis crystal.

Gina stared at Alexa for a long moment, then finally let out a sigh. “Very well. I will see you on campus tomorrow?”

Alexa nodded her head, “on campus tomorrow.” She confirmed.

At that Gina and Julie gave each other a look, then walked over to Luke. “Very well then, you might as well open this up so we can go back to campus.” Gina said.

Luke paused for a second, clearly noticing the tension in the air, but suddenly glad he was not the center of it. He knew Alexa was acting sketchy, especially the fact that he knew for a fact that Alexa just palmed the last greater crystal and didn’t take it, lest she still be under the effects of it right now. Still, he knew that calling her out on such an act would only cause more tension to what was an otherwise calm departure. At least it was calm as far as he was concerned. Alexa can work out her own problems with the others on her own time.

Of course, Alexa did not tell Luke her real plans.

Not that Luke blamed Alexa for not telling, Gina was like a bloodhound when it came to discovering hidden facts. Not only was she able to pluck information at will from people’s minds, but she was now able to predict answers and outcomes at an unimaginable rate. Essentially she was an unstoppable little goblin right now and he would be lying if he said he wasn’t happy to not have to drive her back to campus in his vehicle.

Focusing with his new class, Luke brought up the exit points for the dungeon and made it so this dungeon’s exit coincided with the entrance to Dawning Light Academy’s Tier II dungeon. Surprisingly enough there was a much higher dungeon on campus, but that one seemed to be constantly maintained by one Markus Mackie. At least that is what his interface with the dungeon network was telling him.

“See ya.”

“Bye.”

The two girls said, as they made their way through the dungeon exit and in a second their details were listed as being thirty miles away.

Woosh.

The sound of them leaving actually took longer to come than his near instantaneous knowledge that they had moved. That was something odd, that Luke knew might come in handy in the future, but didn’t quite know how or why.

With the two girls gone, Luke turned his attention back to Alexa. “So do you want to tell me now what this plan of yours is?”

Hearing that question Alexa nodded. “You can let me enter any dungeon and make it so the exit is at any other dungeon?”

“Yeah, I believe so. It would just be me setting your entry destination and then fixing your exit destination. Shouldn’t be too hard. Why? Got a dungeon in mind?” Luke asked.

“I do. I want you to send me to 9V14894.”

Luke paused as he brought up his interface and looked up the dungeon, then paused. “That’s part of the Trials of Ascension?”

Alexa nodded.

“You just told them both that you wouldn’t partake in the Trials of Ascension, to their faces. I saw it…”

Alexa just shook her head. “No, you are mistaking. I said I would not complete the Trials of Ascension, as I promised to do so over Thanksgiving break.”

“So what is this? You are literally asking me to send you to the next stage of the trials.”

“Yes, just the next stage. Once I get in, I want you to set up my exit point to be Dawning Light Academy’s dungeon.” Alexa said.

“That’s why you told them that you would see them tomorrow on campus, just not when?” Luke asked.

Alexa nodded.

“You know, I am really glad I will not have to deal with this fallout.” Luke said. He paused and waited for Alexa to say something, maybe something related to what fallout, or do you think it will be that bad? But of course, this was his sister he was talking about, which meant that of course she wouldn’t have any true feelings about this misdirection.

Finally, Luke asked the question he hoped she would bring up on her own. “You are okay with this lie?”

“It’s not a lie, it’s a Kansas City Shuffle.”

“Slevin? You are quoting Slevin right now of all times?”

“Of course, when else would I be able to regale you with my movie trivia.”

“I don’t know, maybe at home where you said you would be. Where you said there would be packages waiting… Wait, are there even packages waiting?”

“Of course, her birthday is in two weeks.” Alexa said, shaking her head as if it was only common to plan for things like birthdays weeks in advance.

At that, Luke paused. “How are you two?”

“Gina?”

“Yeah. You two seem close.” Luke asked.

At that Alexa took a breath. “She is truly amazing, and someone I wish I could be happy with.”

“You just don’t feel anything, for her?”

“Sometimes, though it is hard to pin down how I feel.”

Hearing that Luke nodded in understanding. “Well for what it’s worth, I hope it works out for you. Also, I can have your portal open for you shortly, though know I can only place your exit point right after you enter.”

Hearing that Alexa nodded. “Good, the next thing to practice on is not just diverting other people, but seeing if you can delay their departure from a particular dungeon.”

“Oh, that is devious, you willing to volunteer?”

Alexa shook her head. “No, I don’t know what will be required of me in the next stage of the trial and I can’t risk coming out later. That said, you can practice by trying to delay everyone by a fraction of a second.”

At that Luke nodded. Then he paused for a second as he finally asked a question that had been nagging him. “How did you know that my manipulating people’s interactions with dungeons would help me level faster?”

“It was a hunch.” Alexa said.

At that Luke just stared at his baby sister, if only for a moment.

“A hunch.”

“At the very least it was clearly one worth practicing. Just as Gina levels by trying to read our actions and force a particular reaction. Julie also leveled twice just by clobbering you.”

“Hey, don’t remind me.” Luke said, rubbing at his side where a phantom pain from a particularly hard pin move occurred. Of course Alexa had healed him almost immediately, but the pain still lingered on, a constant reminder of what he was now up against. A werewolf infused fighter who could predict and react to his every action and reaction. Of course, everyone’s capabilities only skyrocketed with each greater crystal consumed, they didn’t level per say, but they found ways to level easier. It was as if the number of experience points seemed to diminish with each class related crystal they consumed. Making it so that now by doing seemingly simple tasks, Luke was leveling almost constantly. It also helped that these were the easy levels, the levels where you could gain them by killing ten summoned aspects. Or by doing what he was doing now and completing different paths and hidden quests related to his class.

Surprisingly every suggestion that Alexa made was a new quest, which of course meant new experience points awarded, and new levels gained. Those levels also came with a pain point, one that he knew Alexa would harp on when given the chance.

“Don’t think that just because I am away means that you don’t need to try to cap out your attributes at their new caps.”

“Oh come on.” Luke pleaded, “haven’t you driven us into the ground enough?”

Hearing the pleading tone in his voice, Alexa drew in a deep breath and then let it out slowly. “Fine, but you still need to get my packages and at least apply the remaining greater crystals related to your class.”

At that Luke just stared at his twin sister. “When did you become worse than mom?”

“Hah. I was always worse, you were just always blinded by your over protective streak.” Alexa said.

“You know, your fake laugh sounds terrible.” Luke said, trying to make a comeback.

“Not as terrible as your face.”

“Ouch. I almost think you meant that.”

“What makes you think I didn’t?”

“You know you are giving the person who can choose your next two destinations a lot of lip all the sudden.” Luke threatened.

“That’s fine.”

“That’s fine?” Luke asked.

“Yeah, when I get back, and I will. I will just tell Julie and Gina the truth.”

“The truth?”

“Yes, that we had a plan to work on a dungeon but I was then betrayed and forced to fend on my own, until I managed to make my way out of your evil trap.” Alexa said, her deadpan delivery only making her words seem somehow more believable.

“You are just evil.”

“So does that mean you will stop trying to compensate your lack of good comebacks with feigned abuses of power?”

“And twist the knife. Wow, don’t you have a Trial to complete or something?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Alexa said, then as she made her way to the exit, she paused and stared at her brother. Then in a bout of extreme trust, she held out her last crystal and showed it in her palm, before consuming it.

Instantly the reaction of chemicals in her brain causing her emotional centers to come alive were apparent for anyone with eyes to see. Still holding out her hand, “if I don’t come back. Tell our parents I love them, oh and delete my search history.”

“A death flag, seriously? You wave a purposeful death flag before this?” Luke asked, then commented. “Also aren’t you the one who taught me how to use an anonymizer before tor to conduct activities?”

“Good, you were paying attention. In that case, don’t touch my things.”

Then with that, she was gone.

Luke paused, seeing that she made it to the dungeon world she had asked for, then making a few last minute adjustments, he closed off Alexa from being able to go to stage seven and forced her to go to the tier II dungeon on Dawning Light academy’s campus. Then taking one last look around, at Bottomless Gorge, he let out a sigh. “I guess this is it for me too. Till next time.”

Flash.

Seeing the response from the dungeon, he couldn’t help but feel that his sister was once again rubbing off on him. Though whether this was for the best or not still remained to be seen.

***

Meanwhile, back on Dawning Light campus two girls exchanged thoughts right outside of the dungeon.

“You don’t believe them for a moment do you?” Julie asked.

“No, no I do not.”

“So what do you think she is up to?”

At that Gina paused, and just shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“On the bright side, other than dungeons you can expect her to be faithful.” Julie joked.

Heh. Gina let out a slight whimper of a laugh. “Yeah, coming in second place to inanimate torture chambers.”

“Could be worse. You could lose out to her mom.” Julie said.

“Hey now, you can’t really blame him. Their mom is pretty cute.”

Hearing that Julie just nodded in agreement, “their mom is pretty cute.” She repeated.

Then with that, the two made their way back on campus, they still had half their Sunday left, most of which they intended to do in their rooms sleeping.

“See you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow.”