We Are
Questions

“We’re going to try very hard to accomplish that goal, Ramona, and I’ll be sure to let you know if we do.” Shoma assured her, and the six of us drove back to the base at the North Pole and had to decide between getting some well-needed sleep first or doing more strategizing first.

“I say that we do just a bit more planning, and then we get some sleep.” Isana suggested, and no one objected to her idea.

“I’m wondering why this string-puller hasn’t been making a bunch of impossible-to-miss waves if they’re so powerful.” Oron said, “Are they planning to make a big boom at some point or something? What’s their goal?”

Shoma got a big board out and began writing down what was being said in an organized way.

“What is string-puller capable of, and what are their goals?” he said, as he wrote, “Also, what are their limitations?”

“Is it possible that string-puller’s somehow trapped somewhere?” Isana ventured, to which Aleeza nodded, and added, “Maybe they originally wanted for Manisha and Pallas to free them, but ended up deciding to ditch that plan and attempt to trick Khin and Diago into freeing them instead.”

“Which would mean that if Diago and I (and perhaps others along with us) transported over there and tried to transport string-puller to a no-power zone, we might be playing right into string-puller’s hands.” I said, worriedly, to which Diago added, “Which might mean that just staying away from string-puller could be out best option, even though it seems like that’d kinda mean giving up on bringing them to justice.”

Shoma wrote down, “Option #1: Don’t approach string-puller, because they might be trapped and the best way to keep them contained is to not set them free in the first place.”

“Even if string-puller is trapped, though,” Aleeza said, “we know that they can be found and visited because Pallas, Manisha, Khin, and Diago have all been to where they are. If those four could all find (or stumble upon) them, then surely others could too.”

“Good point.” Shoma said, as he continued writing, “Let’s run through some different potential ways of proceeding if string-puller IS actually trapped, and then we’ll run through some different possible ways of proceeding if string-puller ISN’T trapped...”

As people continued to talk, and Shoma continued to write (somewhat by hand and somewhat by using his power), I thought about how string-puller had wanted for Diago and I to have more power. Why would they want that?

Presumably, we were supposed to become apprentices or something, but why would we want to apprentice with string-puller?

What if Diago and I decided to apprentice with string-puller and see what happened?

Wasn’t it the only way to figure out what was going on and prevent what happened to Manisha and Palls from happening to anyone else?

The others would never approve, though. They wouldn’t trust us. But it was the only way…

“Diago.” I suddenly said, “Transport to string-puller with me now.” to which Shoma began saying, “N-“ but that was all that I heard, because Diago and I had now transported to where string-puller was.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Khin.” Diago gulped, “But I certainly wasn’t going to let you transport over here alone.”

“I can’t say that I know what I’m doing for sure,” I admitted, “but it just became clear to me that the only way out of this is through it.”

“Smart girl, that one!” string-puller praised, “You’ve got yourself a keeper, Diago, no doubt.”

“I know she’s a keeper.” Diago said, “But I don’t know your name. What should we call you?”

“Better idea! You two come up with a name for me! If I like it, then I’ll keep it; and, if I don’t like it, then I’ll tell you what my current name is. I’ll give you a half hour! Do play along. After all, I assume that you transported here to play ball, not to just fight me.”

“We’ll come up with a name.” I said, and Diago and I began discussing ideas.

After a while, though, I asked string-puller, “What’s your gender?”

“You can’t tell?!?” string-puller raged, before chuckling and saying, “I am a fusion of a female and a male. Even capable of reproducing all by myself!, though I have no interest in doing so at the moment. Best to come up with a gender-neutral name.”

“Whoa…” I thought, “If true, this person has been using the power in some INSANE ways!”

After a while, I suggested the name “Kahuna” to Diago, and he liked it, so we told string-puller that it was our choice.

“Very good!” string-puller cheerfully responded, “I am Kahuna.

So, do you want to hear more about who I am and what I want to accomplish? Of course you do!! So, I’ve been around for a long time, but trapped myself into this location with my own power usage!

That’s right! When I finally managed to accomplish my goal of fusing from two into one, I found that I had a hell of a lot more power but was unable to leave this cave. It really sucks down here. The other two found me, but I ended up deciding that they weren’t going to be very good pawns, and so I chose you two instead.”

“Why would we make better pawns than Manisha and Pallas?” I asked, “And, what’s to stop us from just leaving you and simply protecting this cave from being visited again to make sure that you don’t murder anyone else.”

“Oh, silly me, I forgot to tell you. I used my power to link you two into whatever it is that has me trapped here. You won’t be able to leave until I’m able to!”

Diago and I tried to transport away, but Kahuna’s words seemed to be correct.

“Why didn’t you just do that before?” Diago asked, to which I added, “And, btw, we plan on bringing you to justice for murdering Pallas and Manisha.”

“Justice, justice, justice. Is there really such a thing? And do those who ever claim to want if ever truly want it? There are just so many double standards that so many people have, aren’t there? Oh, and as to why I didn’t do that before, I wanted you two to transport here a third time, but this time intentionally. A mixture of third-time’s-the-charm and ya-coulda-just-left-well-enough-alone, dontcha know?”

“Hmmm…” I mused, “This does actually accomplish our goal of containing you, though, if we just decide not to try to leave. It’s like we’re the jailers, and you’re our prisoner.”

“Ha!” Diago agreed, “Mission accomplished! Problem solved.”

“Oh, you could do that; to be sure, to be sure.” Kahuna conceded, “Just like you could’ve not transported here a third time. But, as was the case with transporting here a third time, you won’t be able to resist trying to leave. Let’s put it this way; if I’m the prisoner, and you’re the jailers, then you two’re gonna be a couple of ?!$$-poor jailers.”

“We’ll see, we’ll see; oh smart one.” Diago said, contentedly, and was suddenly holding up a tray that had pizza on it and saying, “Some pizza for the jailers, and some pizza for our captive!”

Kahuna took a piece, ate a bite, and said, “This tastes horrible! Is it vegan or something?” to which Diago responded, “Of course! Your piece is, anyway. Ours is normal, lol.”

“You know that I can make food appear just like you can, right?” Kahuna said, in annoyance, and suddenly Diago and I were trapped up to our shoulders inside of giant carrots!

“You won’t be able to get out of them on your own.” Kahuna said, boredly, “And I could chop you up and pop you into my mouth in a heartbeat!”

“How’re we going to be your ticket out of here, then?” I asked, to which Kahuna sadly responded, “Yes. That is the flaw in that plan, isn’t it? Damn…” and the two of us were suddenly no longer trapped inside of the carrots, but our pieces of pizza were now being digested by Kahuna.

“So,” I asked, “you say that you can procreate by yourself, but how do you know for sure that you can if you haven’t tried?”

Kahuna finished slurping down some soda that they’d conjured up to wash the pizza down with, burped very loudly, and said, “Good question. I’ll make you a deal; you two procreate, and I’ll give it a try too!”

“Creep!” Diago said, disgustedly, “If we ever decide to have kids, it won’t be in order to convince you to have them too.”

“Oh, I’m a creep now, am I? Y’all start asking about whether I truly can reproduce or not, and suddenly I’m the creep! How about this; you two keep your noses out of my reproduction and I’ll keep mine out of yours.”

“It was just a question.” I muttered, “I wasn’t trying to get everyone into reproduction-war mode…”

“It was a reasonable question,” Kahuna admitted, “but I don’t want to prove that I can for the same reason that you two won’t want to be having kids anytime soon. Because I’M TRAPPED IN THIS <?!/@ CAVE!!!”

“Right.” Diago said, waving his hand dismissively, “So, how big is this cave, anyway?”

“Oh, it’s very big!” Kahuna assured us, “You two could go exploring for years! And you should be able to transport, as long as you transport within the cave (as I also can), which means that the three of us can become pretty far away from each other but also always be ever-so-close!”

“Huh.” I said, “I guess Diago and I may as well do some exploring, since we’re gonna be in here doing our job of being your prison guards for forever-and-a-day.

“You may as well.” Kahuna said, with a shrug, “You might be surprised at what you’ll find down here!” and suddenly transported away from where Diago and I were, leaving us to begin looking around to see where the best place to begin exploring would be…

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