18.4 Welcome to RemiMania!
Remi had watched a lot of wrestling as a kid. Most of his friends had given him a hard time about it because it was “fake.” He knew that, but at the time he couldn't express what about the spectacle of wrestling still drew him to it. As he learned more about stories, he discovered it was because wrestling was very Shakespearean. There were clear heroes and villains. It’s unabashedly about entertainment, and even though it wasn’t real, it’s really fun to watch the rise and fall of his favourite wrestlers. And now here he was, standing in a glowing ring of light, about to throw down with three Monstergears who he was certain had no plans of playing along with the script.
Unlucky for them. Remi wasn't planning on giving them a choice. He also wouldn’t let them orient themselves. They were in triangular formation in front of him now—no pillars left to hide behind, no time left to think.
The ropes pulsed with system light: a red line to the north, blue to the east, green to the west, and the south rope blank. A full HUD square. Remi faced north.
So in an action he'd seen so many times before, he pushed backwards against the rope, turning it into a slingshot as he launched off the rope, firing across the space in-front of him. He raced between the group, Looper and Searer on the left, and Shredder on the right.
The Looper did as he'd hoped; it copied his movement. Just a few seconds later, both ricocheted off ropes. The Looper rebounded off the red rope, just as Remi bounced back from the blue eastern one. They were on a collision course, ready to meet in the center of the ring. Remi was ready with his stick, which he brought down double handed just before their paths crossed. The crunch of wood on machine was accompanied by the HUD notification.
[CRITICAL HIT!]
“Copy that!”
He could see that he'd stunned the Looper. It was sputtering; film spooled out of the back, piling at his feet. He flipped open the lid, looking for an off switch, but discovered something better. The loop button. He covered the red blinking key with his thumb and channeled Edit Strike into it. He thought of how he wanted the spell to repeat: play it back, but don't target me.
[ECHO THREAD RE-ASSIGNED]
Input Registered: EDIT STRIKE
Target Override: REMI → ENEMY UNITS
Loop Mode: ENABLED
Reflected narrative confirmed. Playback redirected.
“Let’s see how you enjoy being the rerun!” He stowed his metre stick, and with both hands free, he tore the Looper from its tracks. There was a popping sound juxtaposed with the screech of torn metal. Remi kicked the track out of the ring. And he ran with the Looper in his hands straight for the south rope. Hoping it would be harder to target a fast-moving object. The recoil yanked him forward before he could even aim; the Looper blurred past his sightline.
[SPEED VECTOR EXCEEDED: LOCK LOST]
The Searer’s beam fired too late, as he was already flying. He used the Looper’s lens to absorb the beam as he rapidly closed the distance and then slammed into the Searer. Sandwiching the Looper between them. Sparks and spell code exploded between them, and the Looper dropped on the impact, spun across the floor and away from Remi.
The air in Remi’s body left all at once. He was winded and found himself on his knees. But this worked out, as the Looper’s lock had worked. The Searer’s beam, normally a targeted laser blast, was now firing in a steady stream, just inches above Remi’s head.
Damn, that was lucky! If he’d been standing, it would have burned right through his chest, leaving him with a scorched wound, that could’ve been used for one of those dramatic through the body sci-fi camera shots. That would have been terrible.
With no further time to consider, he flopped forward and rolled behind the Searer, scrambled to his feet and grabbed the AV cart it was on by the rear directional handles.
The Shredder was his biggest remaining threat. It had 146/180 HP, and was sturdily built. So with a jerk to the left, he shifted its axis, slicing the air with a red-white beam. A red-white arc seared across the green wall, scorching a black scar as he drew it toward the Shredder’s quadrant.
He pivoted the beam directly onto the metallic form of the Shredder. It burned bright. The arc sliced through the air, clipping the Looper on its path. A high-pitched whine pierced the relative quiet, followed by the acrid scent of burning electronics. Then, a shudder ran through the deck plating as the Looper succumbed to catastrophic failure. The casing collapsed with one last spark and a final loop of film that shot up into the air to wrap around Remi’s forearm.
“Reflect this.”
The beam fired. It lanced across the arena, blasting into the Shredder. It burned bright. But clipped the Looper, too—sending it into final tape-deck failure. One last spark. The casing collapsed. Tape fluttered like a ribbon across Remi’s forearm.
Remi quickly wrapped the film around the Searer’s frame. He wasn't sure if it would help maintain the loop, but he knew it couldn’t hurt. He could feel the Searer fight against him, but Remi had been smart enough to lock the cart’s wheels. It could no longer spin, and try as it might, it couldn't prevent Remi from turning it into a celluloid Christmas present.
The Shredder roared as it burned; its armour bubbled. The paper in its gnashing teeth immolated with the heat. He could have left them like this, but where is the fun in that? With a quick flip with his toes, the AV cart was unlocked, and at a slow and steady pace, Remi marched the Searer forward, moving it inexorably towards the shredder. As he moved closer, he could see the metal of the machine blister and pop, the sound of internal wiring sizzling like water on a hot coffeepot element. It didn’t go out quietly. The Shredder detonated in a howl of flame and teeth, gears and careening sparks.
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Remi locked the cart’s wheels one final time. Extracted his metre stick, and with a clean targeted slam, he brought his weapon downwards on the Searer’s projecting mirror. It re-angled the lens' beam, causing it to be redirected onto itself. It did not take long before it too exploded, flooding the ring with smoke, ash, and silence. When the chaos cleared, two AV carts remained, scarred, scorched, but whole. The coloured ropes dimmed, system light draining from red to grey.
For half a second, Remi stood tall. The HUD shimmered gold at the edges, and he felt he could hear an invisible crowd cheering. Winner by knockout!
He smiled. Remi didn’t just have to survive the Crucible’s script—he could rewrite it.
Smoke curled over the ruined ring. For a moment, the only sound was the slow pings of cooling metal. The Crucible seemed to inhale.
[SYSTEM NOTICE]
NARRATIVE CONFLUX RESOLVED: CONFLICT COMPLETE
C-RANK ENTITY NEUTRALIZED
Reward: +450 XP
Quest Complete: Clear the Path
Reward: +150 XP
Ding! [LEVEL UP!]
Level: 8
[Stat Points Awarded]
+1 to each core stat
+1 Additional Choice Stat Awarded
+1 Metre Stick Mastery
A small zip-up kit dropped to the floor. It looked similar to his Scrivener set, but this one had the words AV NERD written across it. He didn’t have time to figure it out now. He dropped it in the murse as the system finished its updates.
[HP: 209/260 | MP: 325/350]
[INKWELL: 80% | Status: Alive but running out of time!]
TIME REMAINING = 4:37
THREAD STABILITY = 100%
The air still shimmered with residual heat when the maze lights flickered back on. The fight was over; now he just had to get to the end of the maze.
Four minutes wasn't a lot of time, but he should be able to make it out if he ran. He jogged towards the archway the Monstergears had entered through. “The only way out is through,” he told himself. So, he was surprised to discover that the entrance was closed. It was gone, sealed, the wall flat like the gap had never been there at all.
He froze. How was he supposed to finish the maze if he couldn’t continue? And then it hit him. He’d misunderstood it again. This wasn’t a puzzle-box. The memory clicked—a labyrinth, not maze—a truth he’d initially known but then forgot. This was Deadalus’ Minotour maze.
The clues were all there. The maze had one path. One predator. And only one exit. Heat flared across his cheeks; even the HUD tinted red. How could he have missed it? Remi did not have time to wallow, he turned shame to recognition. He’d been reading the wrong genre the whole time.
“The only way out is not through,” he said. “The only way out is back.”
[AI]: That is correct.
He checked the timer. 3:54 remained. That wasn't enough time. As if reading his thoughts. Archie responded.
[AI]: I know! You don’t have enough time to even run out!
Remi’s mind blanked. He was done for. Maybe he could use his button blink. No, that was only usable line of sight, that maze curved. He spun to see the entrance he'd entered from had once again opened, and down its length the rope stretched into the distance. Vibrating with the hidden tension of a taut Bungie cord pulled to its limit. How…was that still here? He hadn’t just turned the loop into a solid cord. It had been the entire thread. That was why the stability had returned to 100%.
This was stupid, but it appeared that was becoming Remi’s specialty. He grabbed the two AV carts and quickly wheeled them to the entrance. They squeaked. One veered slightly. He corrected it and slammed them side by side at the hallway mouth. 2:57 remaining. He aligned the wheels, angled them straight with some rapid toe taps, pointing them down the dark corridor. 2:45 remaining. He climbed on top, placing his chest down on the first cart, feet hooked through the metal lip of the second.
It wasn’t stable but that was the least of his concerns. 2:02 remaining. He wrapped his hands around the line and gripped the rope; the part taught like a high-tension clothesline, disappearing into the dark. 1:55 remaining. With one final thought of how insane this was, he focussed on the line immediately in front of him, just behind where he was holding it. He then mentally snapped the thread. He did not have to ask for the lash to recoil; it did that, all on its own.
There was a snap. Not just a sound, but a release of the tension. The carts lurched. Then launched. The world became blur, rope, and speed lines. There is a line in a movie about going ludicrous speed. It is so fast that the Winnebago spaceship turns plaid. In this moment, as Remi rocketed past glass walls pulled in reverse through every loop in the maze, he understood that reference. It wasn’t a punchline; it was actually physics. The speed actually made the light blur into lines. The memories he passed became a haze of colour. Nothing was definitive, only light and line, and blur and impact.
His shoulder smashed the wall as he rounded the corner; pain sparked and static lit the HUD. Like a bobsled that loses the line at the Olympics, still moving but a disaster in motion. Remi barrelled down the track, but his journey was a jarring and haphazard one. All Remi could do was hold on, and hope that he wouldn't die. His life bar plummeted. Each impact chipped away at the red bar. Slam. Dip. Slam. Dip. His vision vignetted; his vision’s edges blurred to black. 34 seconds remaining. Slam. 157. Slam. 132. Slam. 109, 95, 87, 62, 55, 42, 31. Lower and lower his health spiralled. Each loop, swirling him closer and closer to destruction, was like the Crucible was erasing him one corner at a time.
[HP: 31/260 - CRITICAL ZONE]
He would have been done for if there had been just a few more twists and turns. But he saw it now, the final straightaway, bending wide toward the trophy case. The start of the lash. The line was slack. All its energy having transferred to the motion of the wheels. Bone-rattling spinning, that squeaked and screamed as Rocket Remi hurtled around the bend towards the case. There’d be no stopping. Not now. He curled in, arms overhead, praying the cart would take the brunt of the impact.
Back when he’d entered the maze, Remi had punched the glass, and nothing had happened. Apparently what he needed was a stronger punch, because when the cart slammed into the wood base, and Remi’s body was launched like a cannonball against it, the glass yielded. Remi shot through the glass, shards of dust splayed outwards with him. He blasted past the trophies, skidded along the hall, and tumbled through the open office door. Remi didn’t land so much as arrive—limbs splayed, covered in rainbow silicon dust. He had 3 HP. He was bloody and bruised, but more remarkably the clock still read 00:04.
He almost laughed. He was still whole and raring to go. Finally, part of the show, instead of simply watching from the bar while eating chicken wings.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
THREAD SURVIVAL CONFIRMED
TIME REMAINING: 00:04
[Quest Complete: Don’t be Late]
You actually made it on time. That wasn't on my Remi Page Bingo card for today.
Reward: +150 XP, and a silent round of applause.
Ding! [LEVEL UP!]
Level: 9
[Stat Points Awarded]
+1 to each core stat
+1 Additional Choice Stat Awarded
[NEW SPELL ACQUIRED]
Stat Surge: Level 1
Remi’s last thought before he blacked out was that if the Crucible felt he needed two levels before last period, that what was coming next was really going to ring his bell.
