Mall of America, Bloomington, Minnesota - 8:15 PM

I walked through the entrance to the building, shattered glass crunching beneath my feet. Midnight Steel hovered soundlessly in the air next to me. Lucas had originally wanted to bring his Dangerboxes in as well, but I had told him it was unnecessary. They would only get destroyed.

<<<>>>

[[Scenario Quest: Plastic War]]

The Mall of America is one of the largest temples to consumerism in the United States, and that kind of hubris cannot stand.

Your first step was to push the plastic menace back from whence it came, and you did so admirably. Now the leader, the Mannequin Master, is fortifying his castle. While his materials may be depleted, his will is ironclad, and he now creates a new monstrosity to release upon the world.

Hidden away on the fourth floor, he toils to create a beast worthy of wiping out the flesh and bone scum that built this debauched church of capitalism. His defense is ironclad, and can only be opened by collecting three keys. Find them, and end the Mannequin Master’s threat before he unleashes his new creations into the world.

Objective: Find the three hidden keys and defeat the scenario boss.

Reward: 1,800 points, Key to the Mall of America Safe Zone (MVP).

[[Patron Quest: Defeat the Mannequin Master!]]

Wow, this administrator is a bit heavy handed, aren’t they?

Whether they’re a drama queen or not doesn’t matter. The threat the plastic forces represent is real, and they do need to be taken care of. Find the three keys and defeat the scenario boss, just as you’re supposed to.

However, you dragged Lucas into this. He could have easily stayed outside, so you have to protect Midnight Steel. I’m sure it won’t be a problem for you.

Objective: Win the scenario.

Optional Objective: Midnight Steel survives this quest.

Reward: 2,500 points, a gift.

Optional Reward: 1,000 points.

<<<>>>

“Holy buckets, that’s a good chunk of points,” Lucas excitedly whispered, his voice filter still active.

I put on a thin smile, hoping it wasn’t too strained. The end quests for the scenarios were notoriously stingy on points, but to most people that much would be a gold mine. Since it was meant to be one thing after another to give rewards out incrementally, I could see it, but for someone hunting for MVP accolades it was a little disheartening. Especially when I would just keep skipping to the end results.

“Okay, it looks like you’re right,” the drone whispered. “Justin, Mabel, and Stuart — the ones in charge — don’t really care that you’re in here. They expressed some concern that you’re going to die and they’re going to send a couple of people over later, but that’s it. Sorry I doubted you.”

“What did I tell you?” I asked, not bothering to lower my voice as I paused not far from the entrance. The elevator had been torn from its glass enclosure and haphazardly tossed nearly fifteen feet away, heavily dented. We continued forward. “You did your due diligence, so now it’s their fault they didn’t listen. Congrats! You’re off the hook.”

The destruction continued. At the north entrance, there was an open atrium that showed the second and third floors. Chunks of the balcony had fallen onto the broken tile. Couches and trash cans laid haphazardly amongst the wreckage, shoved out of the way by the beast that did this. I came to a stop in the middle of the large room.

“Shouldn’t you keep your voice down?” Lucas asked, the drone moving closer to hover over my shoulder. “What if it doesn’t know we’re here yet?”

“Oh, it knows that we’re here,” I answered firmly.

Without looking, I pointed to three separate spaces. Midnight Steel swiveled to look at each of them. Hiding behind different pieces of debris were small plastic creatures. They consisted of the head of a mannequin with two hands attached to its neck. Each one had a voice box melted to its face.

The closest one stumbled out, its plastic fingers clacking loudly against the floor. Its oversized head threatened to make it fall over, and it had to move back and forth slowly in order to keep its balance. While it certainly wasn’t cute, the sight of it doing its best really removed a lot of the creepiness of its lack of facial features.

“Will you be my friend?” it asked in a young girl’s voice, looking up at me and Midnight Steel.

“It’s a Plastic Watcher,” I explained as it fell over, the act of tilting back enough to see our faces knocking it off balance. The fingers grabbed at the floor, but couldn’t find purchase and it ended up slowly crawling towards us. “It’s the Mannequin Master’s security system. From the moment you lit me up with those high powered flashlights outside, they were aware of us.”

“I love you!” the voice box continued.

“Wait, so I blew your cover?” Lucas hesitantly asked.

“There’s hundreds of these things all around the building. So, no, even if you hadn’t stopped me I still would have been seen,” I answered. Above us, on the third floor, something large entered my vision. “Don’t feel bad or whatever. It’s all a part of my plan.”

“Right. The plan. What exactly is the plan? You didn’t really go over the plan.”

“Relinquish yourself to the sweet release of the void!” the Watcher exclaimed.

Midnight Steel looked down at the mannequin head. “Okay, that one was-”

I grabbed the drone and started running, stepping on the Plastic Watcher as I did. Its head was crushed, but there was no time to celebrate the measly point it got me. I took one more step before sailing forward on my Heelies.

“Whoa! Put Midnight Steel down!” Lucas objected. Behind us, right where we had just been standing, an absurdly large plastic conglomerate fell onto the first floor. “What was that!? Turn me around!”

While I was against letting Midnight Steel go, I did turn it so that Lucas could see what was behind us.

“Don’t put me down!” he yelled, panic in his voice. “Midnight Steel was expensive! Run, Mr. Anthony, run!”

An overwhelming roar came from thousands of voice boxes at once, and the hallway began to shake. Behind us, a mass of plastic torsos had been fused together, creating a horrible conglomeration that seemed like it could have come straight from a nightmare.

The Merger Mannequin was small enough to fit through the mall’s halls, but just barely. Hundreds of arms and legs propelled it towards us, using the floor, walls, and the walkways above to keep its momentum. It needed it, as its body had to be over fifty feet long. The sound of its plastic limbs tearing and crushing the already destroyed storefronts nearly drowned out the roar.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Despite its size, it was catching up.

“Can you fly at the speed we’re traveling?” I asked. I knew that the drone could keep up with me when I had Divine Messenger, but now that it had been improved to Winged Messenger I wasn’t so sure.

“No, you’re way faster than Midnight Steel,” Lucas answered after a moment. “I’ve been neglecting the Speed stat because it’s not really a combat drone. Sorry.

“No worries. Looks like you’re stuck being carried.”

“Can you point me at it?”

In my arms, Midnight Steel lifted the tinted cover over its eye, which had started glowing. Even though I knew it wouldn’t do nearly as much damage as he had hoped, I didn’t stop him. Instead, I steadied the drone and slowed down a little bit.

A large, orange laser erupted from the round drone. It had enough of a kick to it that I was propelled forward on my wheels, going slightly faster than I had before. The Merger Mannequin reacted with concerning speed and began climbing. The attack hit its underside. This still left several arms and legs clattering to the ground, melted, but I knew it wasn’t going to do as much as Lucas hoped.

The laser only lasted a few seconds, and by then the Merger Mannequin had ascended to the third floor. It pushed itself one last time, leaping through the air and holding its limbs against its massive body. With unerring precision, the plastic creature sailed expertly between two walkways as it headed right for us.

Lucas screamed, but I wasn’t about to let us get caught. Getting grabbed and ripped apart limb by limb wasn’t a part of my plan. Keeping my head down, I helped us turn at high speeds, heading left at the first big junction.

Behind us, the Merger Mannequin collided with the floor. Its multitude of arms and legs scrambled to slow itself down, but there wasn’t much it could do right away to stop itself right away. There was simply too much mass.

“Where are we going?” Lucas asked as the tinted cover closed again. “Will it follow us?”

“Nordstrom for the first piece of the puzzle,” I replied. “And we’re not getting away that easily, kid.”

I spread out my perception. While the Plastic Watchers weren’t fast enough to keep up with us, there were so many of them that they didn’t have to. They absolutely littered the mall, hiding on walkways, in stores, and among debris. Although they were nearly no threat in combat and weren’t worth many points, I started picking them off one by one.

As I crushed them with trash cans, impaled them with broken fixtures, and sliced them with large glass shards, I appreciated the challenge. Absolute Awareness let me see everything around me, but it was aura based. Neither the Plastic Watchers or the Merger Mannequin had exceptionally powerful auras. Their gray almost perfectly blended in with their surroundings, and it was hard to notice them when they didn’t move.

I jumped into the air and spun so that I was facing backwards. In my free hand, I retrieved my Vague Sword from my inventory, raising it into the air.

The Merger Mannequin, deciding not to go around, burst through one of the storefronts. Its limbs were tangled in jewelry, lingerie and Christmas ornaments. Part of the structure broke, falling onto the boss, though it shrugged it off in its pursuit. I slashed at it, activating Distant Slice. It dodged upwards just as it had before, climbing to the second floor before falling back down with a ground shaking crash.

Just like Midnight Steel’s laser, it didn’t seem to do much. Some of its limbs were cut off only to be picked up by the trailing back half. It wasn’t for nothing, though. Dozens of broken ornaments, snow globes, and pieces of debris had been slung towards us.

Thanks to my attack and the Merger Mannequin’s evasive maneuver, only a few were precise enough to be a threat. Letting up on my relentless attacks on the Plastic Watchers, I shoved the ones that would hit us out of the way with Orbit. They were thrown with such strength that I wouldn’t have been able to stop them all if I had tried, but nudging them off course was certainly doable. The thrown projectiles shattered against the ground, leaving small craters where some of the heavier objects landed.

The hallway opened up into a large, open space. Like everywhere else, this place was covered in debris from the nearby shops, with banners torn on the ground along with a few trees worth of plant material. Underneath the stairs, which was missing its middle, was a wishing fountain. Coins were scattered throughout, though the water had long since leaked out.

Ahead of us was Nordstrom. The large store took up an entire corner of the mall, three stories high. I jumped and activated Force Field in quick succession. Each one gave me a stepping stone to get higher. Seeing our ascent, the Merger Mannequin headed for the broken stairs, needing something that could hold its weight to get on our level.

I evened out on the second floor. Once I was close enough to see all three of the levels, I used Spin on the keys in the wall inside the store. Even though there was no electricity, the security doors started to close. The Merger Mannequin roared again as it lunged for us, and I used Drop on myself to get out of the way.

The boss collided with the second floor walkway just as I hit the ground, rolling under the security door just as it closed. I stood up and waited.

There was no collision.

“Will you be mine?” the Merger Mannequin’s multiple voices asked loudly enough to be heard clearly. Most of the boxes had to be damaged, because while some sounded sweet and innocent others sounded distorted and strained.

I could still see it, though the thick barrier did hamper my vision substantially. The boss was sitting against it, fingers and toes of various limbs stroking the security door longingly. Its voice was replaced by irregular heartbeats, which continued as I let Midnight Steel go.

The drone was watching the door dubiously. “That’s it? Stopped by a gate?”

“Yup.”

“Why?” Midnight Steel turned to look at me. “I mean, I’m thankful it’s not chasing us, but why did it stop?”

“It’s not allowed in here because there’s something else to worry about,” I answered ominously.

Just like everywhere else, the whole place was a wreck. I could see all the way to the other end of the store. Clothes were strewn everywhere, glass cases were upturned and shattered, and barely anything was left standing above waist height. Putting a hand on Midnight Steel, I directed the drone towards the escalators.

<<<>>>

[[Scenario Subquest]]

You have managed to make it into one of the Mall of America strongholds. A plastic beast far stronger than most you’ve come across thus far awaits you. This creature is the one that holds the token required to enter the lair of the scenario boss.

Objective: Defeat the Mirror Mannequin.

Rewards: 750 points, Scenario Key.

<<<>>>

“Oh, there’s a quest in this quest,” he said after he read it. “What’s a Mirror Mannequin?”

“It’s a tank-based boss that has high hit points and likes to reflect damage back at the people attacking it no matter the distance,” I replied. “I want you to hang back on this one until I tell you to take the final blow. My Patron put an extra condition on the quest she gave me, which was to make sure Midnight Steel comes out of this in one piece.”

“Thank you, ma’am, for considering Midnight Steel,” Lucas said. “Also, you have a Patron?”

“Yup. Been with me since Florida.”

“The only ones with Patrons around here are Mabel and Stuart, and they’ve been pretty tight-lipped about who they are,” he remarked. “What’s having one like?”

I considered that. “It’s like having a really helpful stalker that wants to see you succeed while, oftentimes, relishing in your pain,” I answered after a few seconds. “Mine doesn’t like that last part, though. It also helps that we get along famously.”

<<<>>>

[[Patron Message]]

I’m not sure how I feel being likened to a stalker, but… I suppose it is a fair comparison. Watching specific players is a big part of being a Patron.

No wonder you liked to pick the one who barely interacted with you. Having someone watching you 24/7, whether you consent to it or not, sounds terrible.

Sorry, by the way.

<<<>>>

“No need to apologize; we get along famously, remember?”

Smiling, I swiped away the message. I carefully navigated through the wreckage of the department store, still heading to the second floor. Midnight Steel followed just behind me, and I was glad I didn’t have to worry about someone wading through this all with me.

“Well, that sounds nice,” Lucas said. “Are we going to take out the big guy that was chasing us before we go after the next subquest?”

“Nope. We shouldn’t even if I wanted to,” I answered.

“No?”

I shook my head. “It would take a lot of time, effort, and resources to whittle the Merger Mannequin down to zero hit points. And I mean a lot. I may be able to do it, but then I wouldn’t have anything left in the tank to fight anything else here before it comes back,” I informed him. “Though, it’s a moot point. Once the Master is taken down, it’ll die. We just have to dodge it until then.”

“Ya, sure. That sounds like a lot of fun,” Lucas said, his enthusiasm dampened slightly as he followed me up to the second floor.

We stopped a good distance away from the escalator and watched as a hulking figure came down from the third floor. Its body was twice as large as mine, making its descent awkward, and covered in broken mirrors. The glass cracked with every move it made, breaking in some places. One of its arms held a mannequin’s leg by the ankle, while the other ended in a torso like a shield.

It was hard to tell due to its reflective surface, but it seemed to be staring straight at us.