Harrison was starting to get pretty tired of seeing the other guys pull out glowing scythes and axes and about twenty swords, while his hands stayed empty. He hadn't liked being disarmed as a police officer, he didn't like being knifeless in the room that got everybody killed, and he didn't like having nothing to reach for now.

From what he knew, the weapons were...alive, somehow. And The Cove was the place to get one. So after a briefing from one of the higher-ups, Harrison found himself renavigating the long stairs into The Cove. The stairs were unlit, but the walls were lined with a weird, glowing alphabet. Some were more picture than symbol, and some vice versa, but what it amounted to was a creepy cave straight out of a fantasy novel.

The problem was that nothing here looked...usable.

The room wasn't big, he could walk the whole thing in a few strides. The floor was plain. He paid closer attention to the wall, where a rune that looked vaguely like an axe caught his eye. Here, a hammer maybe, there, a...tank? He touched that one, and got the distinct feeling of buzz off. He yanked back his hand.

Harrison wiped his hand off on his pants, because it had started to sweat, and tried another one.

Most of the time, he got nothing, other times a lot of repulsion or anger, or just the feeling of move along, move along, and he started to wonder what would happen if he did come back empty-handed.

Right back into the chamber, if he had to guess.

He was startled by a sudden burst of radio music.

erised eno ruoy
erif ruoy ma I

It sounded like...a satanic version of the Backstreet Boys*. Just as quickly, someone changed the station.

Freedom is eternal for you- look to where they lay - and dance forever - could you walk and talk at the same time? - if I could find a way - I'd kill every last one of those bastards, my friends.

The songs kept shuffling in an eerie, half-sensical shanty. He followed the noise down the wall, closer to the floor, until the songs were louder and changing a word at a time, and then a syllable at a time, until he saw what he should have been looking for in the first place.

X marks the spot.

The rune was two swords

Something that might have been the Frightful Fantasy victory music played in G Major.

"So now what?" Harrison asked.

Give nothing back, take what you want, something growled.

"Was that from the Carribbean movies?" Harrison asked, even though the quote had been mangled.

No. ...What? No. Don't make this more complicated than it is. ...Unplug me.

The voice was...reedier, than he expected. Kind of young. Peevish. Definitely a guy.

Harrison wasn't sure about being bossed around by a wall, but at this point he was willing to take anything that sounded like advice. He got a good grip on the tablet., then braced himself, and pulled. the section of the wall came away easily. Once it did, he wasn't looking at a piece of wall any more. He remembered this feeling, this grip, something for each hand, the skull fitted snugly around his left hand, another sword in his right. Uncomplicated, ready, glowing with raw power and....hell, much better than a kitchen knife. Maybe better than that scythe. Maybe the best thing he'd ever seen in the whole damn world. He held up the swords so he could see them properly. He could stare at them all day, that's how good they were. He'd never used a sword before, but he was sure as hell ready to.

Username: xXxCr0ssb0nezxXx, Nickname: B0nez

"Harrison," he replied, still gawping. He looked at the dual cutlasses, the treasure map etched into the blades, the glowing eyes of a wicked-looking skull. He thought the air smelled briefly like salt, but he couldn't be sure if it was the nearby ocean or, inexplicably, the lingering odor of a bag of potato chips. And in spite of the distinctly teenage voice, Harrison was left with one impression. "You're a..."

Champion of freedom, B0nez suggested.

"Yeah," Harrison agreed, grinning. He was ready to free the s**t out of somebody.

*This was, of course, the popular 90s group, the Backwards Boils.