Arya Arya! Girl, we can't go in there! Don't force the lock! It's a building that's been abandoned for years, you'll get us in trouble!
Called her friend Dante. But Arya didn't care and pushed her short white hair behind her ear, determined to get inside this old building, she took out the thieves tools and started working, after a short while there were clicking sounds, Dante was so scared that he couldn't stand it anymore and started walking to the other side of the street. He was leaving Arya.
Scary... let's see what this legendary abandoned workshop has in store...
Arya opened the door and went inside. She was met by a second door. It was metal and cold, and it said INKWELL CRAYON COMPANY, but it was old compared to the other buildings in the city. In a few minutes she opened this door too and... disappointment. An old motorcycle repair shop... or something like that.
Whatever it was used for at the time, it wasn't as haunted or spooky as one might have feared. There were rusted engine parts lying around. Metal hanging from the walls... Arya walked into the room, thinking that since I was so far in, I should at least investigate a little. She saw what looked like a microscope in the alcove. This could be worth money in Neon City, she thought. Moving to the microscope, she realized that what was being examined was a box of crayons. Ten crayons, a little thicker than her thumb. But they looked a little different. Like... glowing and moving?
aand glowing orange! One of my favorite colors!
It's another midnight in Neon City, where the working people are asleep.
Arya was in an alley, working with these magic crayons she had found the day before. A writing she had written on the wall was glowing. The one in another color disappeared after a few minutes. She decided to try the blue one, the one that said portal blue, the O in portal was written in a different font. Arya noticed it too and drew a big circle. Like the letter O. Then, when nothing happened, she drew another circle on the opposite wall and bam! Suddenly she heard tearing sounds. It was as if a piece of paper was being torn. When she looked at the letter O in the wall, she saw herself. From the back, a huge techno-portal had opened.
The Portal Blue Crayon in his hand, the letter O, began to light up. A light turquoise color. Arya pressed on it and suddenly she heard a warping sound. The portal closed.
She couldn't hide her excitement and a smile appeared on her face as she looked around to make sure she wasn't being watched. There was no one there, so he started to examine the other crayons.
Origami Black? Skywriting White? Powered Red? Spider Silk Grey? But there was something different about this Grey Crayon. As soon as she took it out of the box, it started to make little mechanical noises, and suddenly legs emerged from its sides. It turned into a little spider-like crayon and looked at Arya as if waiting for orders.
Come on, Spidey, you're the only one who smokes here. Open this door...
Arya pushed Spider Silk Grey Crayon into the lock and turned around.
She looked at her three masked friends waiting for her and could tell by their body language that they were excited. But if they wanted to find and prove that this so called public health company was hiding the cure for cancer, they had to get into this pharmaceutical warehouse.
Waited for eternity. Almost.
Grey Spidey must have managed to open the door because with a click clack, he came back again and entered the Crayon Box. Arya pushed the door gently and they entered the warehouse. There weren't many people in this warehouse, cold metal lit by the white neon lights. This was a secret lab maybe?
They stealthily made their way to the back rooms and saw a door with the words ``DO NOT ENTER AUTHORIZED PERSON ONLY'' written on it. Arya took Spider Silk Grey out of the box again and told him to go under the door. Then she took out the Portal Blue Crayon, drew a large O on the side and then pushed the Portal Blue Crayon under the door;
Come ooooon, Spidey. You just draw a circle on the wall. That’s it buddy!
Spidey couldn't speak either, but it understood the box carrier and did as it was asked. After an anxious wait, again, suddenly Portal Blue and then Spidey appeared from under the door. Portal Blue's letter O glowed turquoise.
NO! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO... HOW DID THEY FIND OUT WE WERE SHARING! WE USED HACK-PROOF CYBERCRYPTOSECURED VPN COMPUTERS!
I don't know, but I counted 21 cyber-batons at the door. We better run, Arya!
Damn it, Dante! We should have been more careful. Now that we've made everything public, co-orp's gonna catch us and incriminate us-
Come this way, we can climb up on the roof and escape! We'll use the zipline or jump to the next building, come on!
Parkour! Now you know I'm no good!
I said come on!
Arya ran like there was no tomorrow and got to the top of the building. The zipline was already under control by drones, she and Dante looked at each other with shock and it was clear they were ready to jump to the next building. They ran at full speed and jumped with one last breath. As they landed on the roof of the next building, Arya's leg broke. Cracking sound silenced the city for Arya.
Oh no, no, now we're burned!
Dante was saying, but Arya quickly grabbed the Crayon box in pain. Healing Green. She popped it in her mouth, thinking, "Let's see what you're good for. Suddenly she felt nanotech robots crawling through her mouth, her teeth was numb and in a few seconds the pain in her leg was gone, and there was a green dye where it had been broken. It was like… a light?
They jumped to the next building. Then the next one... Then suddenly they were cut off and they realized they couldn't go any further. Some hunter drones were following them.
Well... if this is where it ends...
Arya took out the Skywriting White color from the Crayon Box. She opened the QR code of the videos links they had uploaded on her phone and held the white crayon on it. Suddenly the colors started freezing on the phone like a glitch. Red blue blue white black purple... Then the words ``insufficient power'' appeared.
Arya quickly took out a Powered Red Crayon from the box in her hand. She quickly cracked it and poured the red energy from it like a dry paint onto the phone. She could no longer see the screen, but the White Crayon was getting brighter and brighter. They heard what sounded like a confirmation notification, and suddenly the white crayon projected a huge QR code, like the Batman symbol from the comics, into the dark clouds of the cyberpunk city.
Dante threw up his hands, expecting the drones to take pity on them.
But Arya had already felt the effects of the tranquilizer dart that had just stabbed her in the back of the neck... At least people learned...
At least people learned, Dante... We did it...
Arya's eyes closed, slowly.
Thank you very much for reading. As you can guess, this story was written for inkwell prompt crayon box. I hope you liked it. It was absolute blast to write this piece and Im so happy how it came out. See you soon!
All images are created by me using leonardoai.
