Twisted Wonderland

Loss of Power

A ringing comes from one of the phones in Idia's room. Idia picts it up and brings it to his ear.

"Idia Shroud speaking."

"Acting Director, I have a status report on the River Lethe for Case LOD-627. It is now one hundred percent charged. The info-scrubbing team is all set, and the Charon Hexa Team has arrived over Sage Island waters."

Idia nods. "2200 hours on the dot. Gotta hand it to you guys. Run the flood as scheduled at 0000-"

The power in his room shuts off.

"What? The power went out? Control room, come in! Hello?" Idia hangs up the phone. "Nope, I'm not getting through. How about the wired network... No luck there either. The door's not opening. Shouldn't the emergency power have kicked in by now? Whatever. I gotta get out there and see what's happening. Where's the emergency release? Ah, here we go."

Idia strains as he tries to move the switch.

"Geez... Why's this thing so hard to move? Isn't it supposed to be for emergencies? Requesting QOL update!"

Idia manages to open the door and steps into the hallway. The long corridors are dark, and nearly impossible to see the other end. Idia takes a couple steps down the hall.

"Ortho! Check the Styx HQ emergency power! Ortho? He's not answering. Have all the microphones in here gone offline? What in the world?"

Red lights appear in the halls. An alarm blaring.

"Blot alert. Blot alert. Elevated levels of blot density detected within the facility. All personnel, report to your stations immediately."

"If an alert's going off, the emergency power must be back online. But elevated blot density? Does that mean something's up with Tartarus or the Underworld? Cerberus! Turn on maximum security for the whole island. Deploy the Charon power armors on autopilot. And transfer all Chariots from the hangars to the port. Cerberus? Cerberus, respond! The power should be back, but the Cerberus System isn't responding to me... Ortho! Come in, Ortho!"

Idia groans in frustration. "Just what is going on here?"

In the control room, the technicians frantically type on the computers and rushing between monitors.

"The Cerberus System's completely down. It's not accepting any commands from the outside!"

"Tartarus cryopreservation levels dropping! Cages are thawing in the first sector of Towers one, two, and three! All subjects are regaining consciousness!"

"No response to our emergency signals! We can't get through to the director either! And we've lost contact with the Charon team near Sage's Island! We're completely cut off from the outside!"

"I can't get the invisible shield's emergency release code to work!"

Idia rushes into the room. "What's happening?"

"Acting Director! The Cerberus System has shut down!"

Idia's eyes widen. "That's impossible! Any changes to Cerberus require biometric authentication from a member of the Shroud family. I'm the only one on the island with that level of authority. How did this happen? The how and why can wait. I gotta smack Cerberus awake! If it won't boot via bio-authentication, I'll have to punch in the code by hand."

"Idia."

Idia hears the voice in the microphone attached to his ear. He smiles with relief. "Ortho! Boy am I glad to hear your voice. The Cerberus System's down. Help me get it back up and running!"