"Squareface", the Captain snapped his fingers impatiently, not taking his eyes off that 'tumbleweed' warily. "You got any of those pyramids left?"
"Uhhh, yeah I've got a few. Why you think...", Squareface replied, pausing. "You reckon that's gonna work?"
"Whatever that thing is, it's dangerous but not indestructible. And we can't get close enough to contain it, so we're gonna have to destroy it."
Circleface perked up at his third favourite thing, destruction, and hopped on his feet excitedly a few times.
"Yeah, we'll need your help too", Captain Resquilatron begrudgingly acknowledged him. He took the pyramids from Squareface's outstretched hand and weighed them. Each was about the size of his palm and there were three.
Silver in colour, they glowed faintly in the dark tunnel with that haunting blue of radiation. Beautiful but just as deadly. Its surface was smooth of any markings, as though it had been formed from a single piece of metal smelted into the form of that three-sided pyramid.
Circleface peered over curiously at the objects while Squareface seemed nonchalant about the amount of ordnance he regularly carried around with him.
"Yes, this should be enough", Captain Resquilatron's tone was approving. He looked back towards the 'tumbleweed', analyzing it with a critical gaze. It lay still where Circleface had dropped it, unmoving in the centre of the tunnel. In fact, it seemed so inconspicuous that several times the Captain had to almost remind himself of its existence as though his mind couldn't fully comprehend it.
He turned to Squareface and Circleface, standing behind him, and spoke commandingly.
"Squareface, you take one and Circleface you take one. As soon as we get within a five metres throw it near the...thing". He still wasn't comfortable saying that word, 'tumbleweed', out loud. If there was anything he was certain of, it was that names so often had power. And that power could go both ways.
"Why do you even need us for this, Captain?", Squareface complained. Circleface poked him in the shoulder and gestured to his flexed biceps.
"Duty? You always say that when you want me to do something. Man it sucks being the only normal person here"
"Get over yourself Squareface", the Captain snapped. "You know the pyramids can only be activated one at a time. If I could do everything myself I'd do it, but unfortunately, I can't. So I have to rely on the Gratches-damned wastes of breathable air you two are. Gletrious, you're just as likely to blow us all up than that thing"
Circleface put a hand on his chest, offended, as though proclaiming that he was clearly always competent and never messed up a task once. Well, I suppose, from his perspective that may be true. Unfortunately, the rest of the universe operated at a much more regulated level of sanity.
For now.
Squareface sighed in the face of the Captain's tirade, more than used to his place as the punching bag of his outbursts. He looked towards the ceiling mournfully.
'Such is the sad life of Squareface'
Unfortunately, he was unable to brood for long, as the Captain glanced at his thing-detector, and spoke rapidly.
"We've not got long, men." The beeping from the thing-detector was slowing down. "On my mark. Ready." He paused.
"NOW!"
His shout echoed in the comms of their suits as all three of them dashed forward at the same time. Everything seemed fine until they reached the fifteen metre mark from that thing when everything started getting...strange.
Squareface felt a feeling of treacle assault him, his legs struggling to move as though the air itself had a weight to it. He looked to the side, where the others were similarly stuck, moving as though in slow motion.
'Temporal...'
The thought itself formed with difficulty from the foam of his subconscious, as though his mind was also affected by this strange phenomenon. However, his Gridlock was still active, and an invisible pattern descended on reality around him, freeing his mind.
Though his body still moved in slow motion.
He glanced side to side, the familiar blue grid-patterned overlay gracing his eyes. The area around them was almost lumpy in a way, the topology of the landscape having strange peaks and troughs.
'We're going down a trough right now, and slowing down in time'
The anomalies in the usually flat, graph-like landscape originated from that object. A sense of shock permeated his mind as he looked at it. It was like nothing he had ever seen before. The Grid around it was constantly in flux, like the surface of a sea during a tropical storm.
More shocking was the distortion to the Grid itself. Those perfectly regular, right-angled squares twisted into different shapes and forms as though rejecting the 'normality' being imposed upon it by Gridlock.
'I've never seen Gridlock react to something so strangely'
The square on his visor began to glow with the same blue colour as the lines of his Gridlock, as he increased its strength with a flex of mental effort.
'Always doing the heavy lifting'
He knew that affecting the object would be far beyond his capabilities, as the range of its distortion on his patterned vision grew with every wasted moment. Instead, he focused on the waves that it emitted, still violent with high peaks and deep troughs, but far less than that whirlpool at its core.
A grunt slipped past his gritted teeth as he felt his mind almost leaking through his ears with the effort he applied. Abruptly, with a snap, that rocky surface clicked back into place and an immense sense of ease graced his mind.
He let loose a deep sigh as that treacle-like feeling dissipated and their running motion continued. The Captain nodded to him out of the corner of his eye, but quickly turned back to the anomaly.
The glow on Squareface's visor brightened as he kept a strong hold on Gridlock, halting all the ripples that came their way. Luckily, nothing caught him off guard like that first one, though he kept his vigilance high just in case.
Ten metres.
At the five metre mark, the Captain stuttered to a halt, the other two behind him. Without wasting a second, he threw the pyramid and dashed backwards, Squareface and Circleface copying his actions.
Three new points appeared on the Gridlock, in the middle of that nexus whirlpool of distortion around the anomaly, looking like three proud mountains breaking through the clouds of a storm.
Confirming their success, he relaxed his vision and the blue glow from his visor faded, returning it to that depressed, black colour.
None of them dared to look back until they were safe, but the Captain checked in his own way, briefly glancing at the thing-detector, a smug look of satisfaction on his face.
Circleface barely held himself back from turning around too soon and, feeling immensely proud of his own restraint, pat himself on the back.
Once they were at a suitable distance, they stopped and turned around. Almost at the same time, as though at some unseen signal, the three pyramids lit up with a crimson red light. Arcs of electricity wound around them, growing until it linked with the other two, forming a cage of sorts with the anomaly in the middle.
A loud whine sounded, its volume increasing in a crescendo until it was almost deafening. The Captain stood, a malevolent grin on his ugly mug, the crimson lightning reflecting off his visor with ominous red flashes. Circleface was positively vibrating with excitement, grabbing Squareface by the shoulders and shaking him violently.
The lightshow grew in size until it formed a larger pyramid, each of the three smaller ones a point on its base, made up purely of that fractal red lightning. It stood there for a split-second, lighting up the dim cavern in its bloody glow, as though demanding reverence from those watching, before imploding in a blinding flash of light.
By the time Squareface's eyes had recovered, all that remained was those three pyramids, smoking lightly, and a scorched, triangular pattern on the floor. Circleface stood still before applauding loudly. Even the Captain let loose a whistle.
"Man I bet Trianglechest is sad he missed that", he said amused before turning to Squareface inquisitively. "Hey, why are you carrying those things anyways? Shouldn't triangles be his job?"
Squareface looked silently at the Captain, looked towards the destruction wreaked in the distance, not an atom of that immensely dangerous object remaining, and back at the Captain. He spoke it a slow drawl.
"With respect, Captain, are you dumb? You really think Trianglechest would carry any of those things anywhere near him?"
Even Circleface looked incredulously amused at the prospect (even though his visor was opaque...don't ask too many questions), and Captain Resquilatron shook his head exasperatedly.
"Sometimes I wonder. Whatever, let's get a move on. If my senses are correct, and they are always correct, there should be treasure at the end of this hall."
He rubbed his hands together, laughing maniacally as he walked ahead of Squareface and Circleface who, exchanging a knowing look, followed behind.