Inside the present, there was a Strong Hunting Knife. Underneath the knife, there was a strange device that looked like an electric megaphone with no microphone on the end, apparently programmed just to make a sound when its trigger was pulled. Ronnie walked into the room followed by Stewart. "Boy howdy! Whatinneh world is all this?" Ronnie drawled in awe of the mysterious room. "Oh, be careful with that device, Isaac. We don't know what it does! We wouldn't want anything bad to happen, I say!" Stewart tutted. The trigger on the megaphone was lit up, glowing, as though crying out to be pulled, almost irresistable to human nature...

Harry raised his eyebrows as the plant spoke to him. But there wasn't much time to concern himself with that, he had already wasted enough time in this room. Harry climbed up the ladder and entered the room that the others were in. "What's up with all this stuff?" Harry asked curiously as he stepped into the room. He eyed the megaphone Isaac had gotten from the present. A few minutes ago he would have just used it for fun, but now he wasn't sure if that was a good idea.

Isaac opened the present to reveal a hunting knife and an electric megaphone. Well, this might be handy. Isaac said, taking the hunting knife out. He did a few short, experimental swings, trying out the weight. It's good. Isaac thought. It was a little heavier than his kitchen knives, but it swung well and the grip felt good. Putting it in his pocket, he turned his attention to the megaphone. Isaac picked it up, examining it. It didn't appear to have a microphone part, so Isaac wondered what it was for. Maybe it only played one thing? The trigger was glowing, almost begging Isaac to press it, but he resisted. He had no idea what this thing could do. It was a risk, finding something strange in a strange place that you found in a strange way. But still... "Boy howdy! Whatinneh world is all this?" Isaac jumped as Ronnie's drawl resounded around the room. He relaxed as he realised that it was just the investigation team. "Oh, be careful with that device, Isaac. We don't know what it does! We wouldn't want anything bad to happen, I say!" Stewart said. "Yeah, I know. Good timing." Isaac said, pocketing the megaphone. He'd find out what it did later. "There are 3 boxes under the counter there. Could you check them out? I have to read a bit." Isaac told the group to explore the contents of the lock boxes, but he was curious about the rest of the red binder. Crossing the room once again, he re-arrived at the red binder and flicked to a new page.

The binder flipped several pages and landed on an informational resource page.

^{NextStep Program Manual}

Emergency Protocol (continued)

subject and the Reversal Reaction has not worked, then the only remaining thing to do is to exit the building immediately without looking back and contact the Experiment Cleanup Department (ECD) as soon as possible. The ECD will assess the situation, evaluate the cost, and execute judgment for the failed experiment before commencing the cleanup. Note that if you have made a mistake and the experiment failure is found to be your fault, you will be subjected to any type of punishment the current ECD staff feels is fitting for this current situation, including confinement, torture (such as tickle torture, water torture, flogging, etc.), or any other method of punishment listed in the Potential Punishments section of Appendix K on page 2255. As soon as the ECD has executed their punishment upon the responsible party, they will begin their work incinerating the building where your failed experiment is loose. The incineration process is long and difficult, and the ECD is always sure to leave nothing but a fine, black powder at the site once they are done. To clean up the fine powder and preserve the Secrecy Statute (which you agreed to on page 143), you will need to file a Cleanup Request with the Secrecy Preservation Erasure Crew (SPEC) to ensure that the area is cleaned properly and thoroughly so no suspicion arises. See page 309 for detailed instructions for obtaining and filling out the Cleanup Request form.

_{Non-Life-Treatening Emergencies}

If there is an emergency that is not life-threatening, then you will need to contact the HR Department and fill out a Non-Life-Threatening Emergency Report form reporting the emergency. It may take up to 24 hours before anyone will be able to review your form, so please be sure that emergency is definitely not a life-threatening emergency or else you will be subject to — Page 727

© Nu-Evo Inc.

The binder continued on like this for several more pages following this, but one of the pages Isaac saw before this as he flipped through the binder was a full page diagram of a megaphone-like device just like the one he had picked up. He flipped back to the page and examined the diagram:

^{NextStep Program Manual Figure 526 – The Awakener Deluxe} — Page 703

© Nu-Evo Inc.

The curiosity was really killing Isaac right now. But he still couldn't be too sure about what the megaphone did. Logically, though, he assumed that it would impact on the vacuum sealed container with the seed inside. Hmm... Isaac thought. There were a few things he could do right now. The first was activate the megaphone, but he didn't know what that would do. The second would be to explore the contents of the lock boxes. The third was to flip the switch, but he didn't know what would happen if he did that either. So really, there was only one thing to do that was less likely to go up in flames. Isaac bent down and inspected the boxes under the counter.

Harry wondered what all the technology in the room was being used for. Although, he got a bad feeling from being there. If his experiences from the room below told him anything, it was that even the most innocuous of the things could be potentially dangerous. But he searched under the room's counters to further inspect the boxes below them. While they appeared to be locked, there wasn't any harm in trying, right?

Harry and Isaac opened their lock boxes at more or less the same time and were instantly hit with the most repugnant, warm, clammy cloud of stench. Both Harry and Isaac became NAUSEOUS! Inside the lock box was a subtly bubbling, thick, bright orange liquid with actual visible stench lines rising off of it. Judging by the leaf-like pattern scorched onto the inside of Harry's lockbox, this must have been how the owners of the orb disposed of failed experiments. Only destroyed biological material could have produced a stench that bad. The two clouds of stench rose to the ceiling and mingled together in a dense, dark orange cloud above, completely obscuring the ceiling, but nothing else seemed to happen.

Isaac quickly shut the lid of his box and reached over, slamming Harry's lid closed as well. He got up, coughing, and took the cap off of the bottle of water he had, drinking half of it. It helped, and he spluttered slightly. The repulsive clouds collected on the ceiling where it stayed, like overhanging doom. Isaac coughed to get it out of his lungs and slumped onto the counter, trying to recover from his coughing fit. He heard a clicking sound and looked under his right hand. He had accidentally pressed the power switch. "Whoops." Isaac said.

A low hum started up and the sound's vibration could be felt in the air and (harmlessly) in everyone's chests. Isaac could see the suspended platforms begin instantly glowing red, and the liquid in the beakers left on some of the platforms started bubbling. It all happened so fast that there was little time to react: The boiling liquid in the beakers started streaming steam upward in a desaturated rainbow which mingled with the noxious gas cloud above. There was a bright flash and a burst of heat followed by a rain of thick drops of slightly burning water composed of the water shooting from overhead sprinklers mixed with the unknown, gaseous chemical. Soon everyone was soaking wet and more than a little bit uncomfortable. Ronnie vomited in the corner while Stewart ran out of the room repeatedly shrieking "No! Heavens, no! Not my suit! No no no!!" Isaac started feeling a different kind of occasional heat from his pocket, where he found the Weird Megaphone sparking from the trigger. Some of the water had apparently gotten in. There was some more sparking and then a loud *POP* from the megaphone, and suddenly the Weird Megaphone started blaring out this sound: https://instaud.io/private/b5589ef98e1d0df5c7d1fb4e8f09c3c086468424 The sound was uncomfortably loud, and it played over and over and over with no way to stop it!

"EUGH!" Harry cried out as the stench from the box reached him. He felt as if he would throw up! He was relieved when Isaac closed the box for him, but was still irritated by what had just occurred. Soon after, he had the misfortune of hearing the loud tune that played from Isaac's and caused chaos all throughout the room. He couldn't bear to stay in the room any longer. He barely stopped himself from vomiting as he saw Ronnie! "Isaac, smash that thing! I'm gonna go check on the old man! Check on Ronnie, he's in—" Vomit rose up Harry's throat, but he swallowed it to stop it from escaping his body. "Bad...shape..." Harry quickly exited the room after his grandfather, he himself would need a change of clothes afterwards, as well!

The megaphone blared out a strange tune, and it was heating up in Isaac’s pocket. Acting fast, he took the megaphone out, threw it in a corner and stomped on it. He continued until it was a mangled mess and quickly got out of the room. The water was quickly turning putrid thanks to the gas cloud, and he didn’t want to be in there for too long. He exited the room and shook himself off like a dog, dripping water everywhere. He sighed, tired. Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to explore that room after all. This was turning out to be a mess, and there weren't really any answers to be had. He dumped the rest of the bottled water on his head to deal with the stench and threw the bottle away. Sighing again, he tried climbing the starirs to get some air.

As Isaac mounted the stairs, the whole orb lurched to the side, causing him to stumble. Bangs and the sound of groaning metal came from below, and the green liquid in the lower room could be heard loudly splashing as something thrashed about. It didn't take long to discover what the source of these noises was, for a thick, green tentacle burst up through the metal floor of the room where the sprinklers were still raining down toxic water. A roar came up as another tentacle burst through beside the first and spread the hole wide, and the pair of tentacles pulled up a giant venus flytrap head followed by a huge attached Nepenthes rajah (pitcher plant) with the previous green tentacles (ten in all, each at least 1-foot thick in diameter at their base) protruding from the bottom. The venus flytrap head roared again as the burning water sprinkled down on it, its tentacles thrashing and making the rajah's digestive fluids slosh around. The giant plant was nearly as tall as the room and was half as wide, and it thrust its tentacles through and ripped apart the open doorway to pull itself out of the experiment room and into the front room where everyone currently stood in shock. The monster paused for a moment, shaking itself to get off the water, before it noticed the small collection of humans. "Oh my..." Stewart stuttered, his back pinned to the wall and his face contorted in horror. The monster roared a hungry roar at the group, and, with a single move from all of its tentacles, twisted off the top of the orb and tossed it aside, the bright midday sun beaming into the suddenly-roofless orb as Ronnie shrieked and fell into a fetal position, trying to hide from the monster behind his own arms. The top of the orb crashed into the sand 50 feet away and burst into a fury of flames and sputtering toxic sprinkler water. This whole ordeal had been enough to finally stop Hans from admiring his body and flexing, and he said, "Aha! A worthy opponent!" getting into a fighting stance... ----------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile, in the nearby peaceful suburb town of Nexton, a talented kickboxer named Karol was teaching a group of children at his dojo in the Nexton Megamall, a sprawling 2-story mall with just about every popular store or activity you could think of inside that attracted thousands of mallgoers and tourists every week. The Megamall was the centerpiece of the entire town, the whole suburb being built around and expanding outward from the mall. The mall was big enough that it was more than just a mall, too, as it also contained the town hall, police department, fire department, and other such amenities that a growing town like Nexton needs.

If things weren't annoying enough, a huge plant burst out of the wrecked pod, waving vines everywhere like a sentient being. Isaac was annoyed now. What he really wanted to do was get some air and go home, because this'd been a massive waste of time. Now this giant beanstalk had the guts to get in his way. [Laid-backness -1. Bloodlust +1] Isaac drew his knife out, imagining just what he would do to the giant plant. He adopted a dark expression as he imagined all the ways he could cut the plant. "How would you like to die?" Isaac said menacingly to the plant. "Any way you ask, I'll make it painful." His mouth turned upwards into an unhinged grin and he approached the plant slowly.

It was just as any normal day since Karol had moved to Nexton. He was teaching his after-school program which usually had twenty youth. Karols parents were to keen on him being away from their hometown but truly Karol didn't feel like he belonged there at the moment. Seems a little drastic just for losing just one kickboxing match, but not in Karols heart it didn't. It was the finals in the largest kickboxing tournament that is only held every four years. Luckily for Karol he had just been old enough to compete in the tournament, the minimum age is 17 with parental consent and just two days earlier was his 17th birthday. Karol was in the age group 17-25 and he was absolutely phenomenal in the tournament having never come close to losing and he was considered the favourite to win the tournament with ease. So by the time that the last two fighters had made it to the finals Karol had been quite confident that he would win, all he had to do was beat one more opponent and he would be the youngest competitor to win this age group. The only person left that he had to beat was a lad with decent record his name was Monty Aeon which he went by 'The Mountain'. The semi finals had ended on Saturday night having the hype of the finals carry into Sunday afternoon. While on his way back home to rest before the big day Karol was stopped on the way out of the stadium Karol was cut off Monty stating that if he ever wanted to fight again that he better lose the fight tomorrow. Sunday afternoon came around and it was a brutal fight that could have gone either way but in the end Karol lost with a split decision that might have even rightfully been his. Karol who was 17 did quite well against Monty who was 21 and that it was his first last tournament fight. Karol in good spirits since they would likely see each other again in four years Karol said that he would train hard and absolutely win the next tournament. Which really didn't impress Monty since if he won again in four years he would be making history since he would be the only person to win that age bracket all three years of eligibility [17,21 & 25]. After the loss Karol decided that he couldn't live around his parents trying to console him and that whole town talking about him losing the tournament (not in a negative way but Karol couldn't stand always being a topic for conversation; the person who ALMOST won the towns first kickboxing title since it was a big aspect of their way of life). That was what brought Karol to teaching kickboxing at the dojo that he created himself in the mall in Nexton a mere 6 months ago. After the training session was over and all of the youngsters had left with their parents Karol would wipe down all the sweat covered gear since everyone always worked hard here regardless of age. So while Karol was wiping down the gear with his back turned to the doors a gentleman entered into the dojo with a long tan trench coat on and a black baseball cap. Since the dojo didn't have any training sessions it was closed to the public until tomorrow so when Karol noticed that there was someone there with him.Hello sir, can I help you Karol had raised his voice so that his it would carry the length of the dojo. The unknown occupant didn't respond so Karol proceeded to walk closer in case he didn't hear him. Hello there sir, yes you Karol was now pointing at the gentleman as he walked towards him Is there anything that I can help with. At the moment we are closed but if you want to come back tomorrow we can definitely help you out. Karol said this with a smile on his face, that sounded professional and friendly as he had hoped. However Karol had a bad feeling coursing throughout him now. A few seconds later off came the trench coat and Karols worst nightmare now became a reality staring him in the face. In front of him was 'The Mountains' training coach standing in front of him with a baseball bat.

"So you thought you could escape your shame, did you?" the aged training coach glared at Karol with narrowed eyes. "Only a coward runs away the way you did." This wasn't the reason Karol left at all, and it occurred to Karol that he was the only one who really knew and understood why he left town. It would have been easy to assume that he had left in embarrassment, especially since he was so renowned. "But you are not a coward," the coach continued, "No. My pupil told me what happened—how he threatened you. That is a coward's play! The Mountain seems to have just been a molehill all along, winning his fights through threats..." He looked away, disgusted. "I have been looking for you since I discovered this, and here you finally are." He looked Karol dead in the eyes. "Fight me. If you win, you can out my pupil as the coward he is in front of the whole town with me as a witness! If you lose, I still consider you worthy of a rematch with the 'Molehill', and you can regain your honor fair and square." The coach threw his baseball cap off, tousled his own gray hair, and struck a fighting stance in one swift motion, eyes fiery.

Karol had once heard a rumour that such a man existed winning all his fights with threatening his opponents but he was a man who was much older in the 44-52 unless he had a son or pupil that he handed down his mentality to! Karol wasn't prepared for a fight right now since he had only been wearing training gear that he always used for training others. However he would make due with what he had. "I accept your challenge! I have sparred but not been properly challenged since the tournament" Karol thought that the fight would have a decent outcome either way, the only thing that he could do was give it his all, which he had done every time that he fought. Karol never took his eyes off of the trainer while he did a standard bow to his opponent, which was followed by getting into his preferred fighting stance. He tugged on the white belt that he had attached to his training Judogi and put his hands up in front of his face ready. "As you know challenger makes the first move " Karol said with a toothy grin then put in a mouthpiece.

The corner of the trainer's mouth angled slightly as he rushed in, right fist flying at an incredible speed! Name: Spruce Yee Stats:

• Speed: 10
• Strength: 9
• Guts: 9
• Wits: 5
• Pride: 15

• 1. Spruce Yee
• 2. Karol

Dice to use for Action Checks [Rolled 2] Spruce cursed as he found that his trajectory off and he sailed right past Karol, landing with a hard roll on the mat behind Karol. Anger was visible in his face, and it was clear that he had not thought it would be important to warm up. He punched the ground and stood up with a loud kiai before Karol could really even react. Even though he had not warmed up, he had years of conditioning and speed above Karol.

Karol could tell that this fight would be no walk in the park. He could tell that the old man was very well experienced, even more so than Karol was and he would have to be extremely calculated if he was ever going to stand a chance in this exchange. The trainer had zoomed past Karol with a uncalculated leap. Ahahahahahaha! Karol couldn't help burst out laughing when he flew past him. I guess that's what happens when you don't warm up He wasn't as warmed up as he would be before a fight but he had been stretched out from showing the youngsters methods of how to improve. [Rolled 4] All of the taunting that Karol had done to the trainer was aimed to bring down his defenses.

Spruce Yee's Pride drops by 2 points at Karol's taunt, but he gets into a Focus stance and exhales deeply. [Rolled 6] Karol can't help but be impressed. His stance looks impenetrable, and Spruce Yee is ready to counter anything that comes his way.

Karol knew that he was a professional when he seen one and knew that taunting wouldn't affect him dramatically. He wasn't going to win on complete defence so Karol took a deep breathe and was ready to attack. He was preparing for a swift jab-jab-cross combo. [Rolled 2] Obviously having taken a focused stance worked well for him since when Karol launched his combo only the first jab caught him but had the other two had been parried away.