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Gex: A ReRun of Fallen Glory - Chapter 5

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Gex: A ReRun of Fallen Glory
Chapter 5: The Music Man

Arriving back in the New World Hub, I had the feeling that this was going to be little more than a revisit to a lot of the places I had visited in my early days, though how many I was uncertain of. But it wasn’t too long after getting back from that winter wonderland that I found out that this adventure might be longer than I had anticipated. I heard something that sounded like a band playing, and while the music wasn’t that bad, it also got on my nerves. In searching for the source of the music, I came across a television set that was…different. It was a plasma screen TV pinned to the wall, and it glowed with such a brilliance that I could scarcely look directly at it. I lingered there for a few moments admiring its beauty. The shape of it was…pristine, almost a perfect rectangle, yet curved…one of those high-end systems. This didn’t belong here. What in the world…

As I approached it, I felt a static buzz near me, as if it was trying to lure me in…

This was a portal. A new world. One that I had not seen before.

So, the monster can make worlds of his own as well. Great. It was the only source of sound I could find active, so I figured that must be my newest destination. I leapt into the screen with all my might, and when I landed…

Lord knows where I was now, but it seemed to fit the whimsical places I was used to traveling to. Dressed in a colorful band suit that was NOT my own, I was standing on what looked to be a giant platform of glass with a music sheet scrawled on it. Actually, the music sheet WAS the platform. Just what kind of zany world had I stepped into? I didn’t have to wait long for that answer…

-Gex, you are in for a treat this time. While many of the worlds that have been prepared for your arrival are just modified worlds that you are used to, as much of a resurrector as I am, I am also a creator. This is one of my personal creations; I call it “Music Montage”. Here, music dictates everything and is the literal foundation upon which you are stepping on. Notes and giant instruments will be your only way of advancing, but that doesn’t’ mean that they are going to follow your every move. No, the music here beasts to my drum and mine alone, so I suggest you get used to the beat and be prepared for a little bit of fun. Now, with that said…let the music begin!-

The moment he said this, the platform I was standing on began to move on its own, and giant notes began to drop down from above. I dodged them the best I could, but it got a bit more difficult when they started to appear near the sides of the platform as well, shooting across the area like rockets with me playing twister trying not to get hit. Soon, the music sheet began to fade away, and I jumped onto a note floating in the middle of space and clung to it for dear life. This was more like it! Finally, some fast-paced action! This is the kind of stuff I used to live for! Yeah, that’s what I thought at that moment; too bad my body proved not to be as ready for it as I had hoped…

As I jumped from note to note, I noticed that I was being followed by what looked like a swarm of…birds? Yep, they were birds, singing vultures that made the most awful racket I had ever heard in my life. I made sure to slam as many of them as I could out of the sky with my tail as I bounded from note to note, but the bastards just wouldn’t stop coming…

The pathway of notes ended abruptly in the middle of space; I had nowhere to go. I examined my surroundings, and noticed something odd. There was a piano floating far below me, just dancing away and playing a tune. At this point, the vultures weren’t giving me much of a choice, so I swallowed my courage and leapt from the last note into the abyss below. The birds followed me down as I fell, and all I could think at the time was “What the hell was I thinking!?” But, I put aside my fear of the abyss, carefully maneuvered myself, and managed to land on top of the flying piano without much trouble. For some reason, the vultures did not follow me after that; I guess that there was something about the tune it was giving off that they didn’t like.

I rode the piano across a void until I saw something that took me at least a little bit by surprise. A giant string of instruments, all paying their own little ditty, stood floating in the abyss. That was what I had to expect. Giant instruments. Okay, maybe not all that original…but with no solid ground beneath me, you can imagine that I was still a little bit nervous.

The piano started to sink as I approached what looked to be a series of flutes and other wind instruments, and I knew that I was not going to make it if I didn’t get off of the hunk of wood. So, once again raising my courage, I leapt from my falling ride and stuck to the surface of a giant flute. As I clung to its side, I could hear the deafening sounds that it was producing, and they just about knocked me out flat. I struggled to maintain my grip until the thing stopped making noise, then slowly climbed up its surface to the very top. As I traveled, I almost got knocked over on more than one occasion as pins and latches closed over the holes on the side, with air being spat out like geysers. I finally made my way onto the very lip of the instrument. I was actually expecting there to be something blowing on the giant structure, but there was nothing…well, almost nothing. A string of music sheet material was surrounding the lip of the instrument, and seemed to be the source of the sound being played through it. I figured out pretty quickly that the source of that music must have been the place where ReRun likely hid the remote in the area.

I carefully leapt to the moving sheet and used it to hike around another series of wind instruments before arriving at a dead end. I looked over to the side and saw what looked like flat, gilded platforms in the middle of the void. I would have thought nothing of it, but strangely enough, whenever I pointed my head in their direction, I heard music. A light, upbeat melody of some sort that seemed to grow even more intense as I continued to stare in the direction of the platforms. Suddenly, a music sheet appeared out of nowhere and grabbed me against my will, taking me across the void and throwing me onto one of the gilded platforms. There was a series of them before me, and they all looked the same. I wondered what kind of instrument these things were supposed to be and…

And then I knew instinctively to start running. And it’s a good thing I did, because the moment my feet left the surface, another gilded platform came slamming down where I had once stood. They were cymbals. Of all the things, I had to jump on a series of cymbals.

I moved quickly across the floating platforms as quickly as I could, doing my best not to get squashed in the process. The pattern of movement proved to be a bit more complex than I had anticipated, so I had to move back and forth across a few of them in order to avoid an untimely demise. By the time I had gotten to the very end, I was running out of room. I leapt through the void and fell down onto a different platform. This would looked like it had a series of keys on it almost like a…

Friggernany. I was in trouble again.

I ran across as quickly as I could, again almost being flattened. Figures; I avoid getting squashed on giant symbols, and now I’m being chased around by giant sticks on a xylophone! This place was fast-paced to be sure; there might not have bene much in the way of enemy fire here, but I was definitely getting more of a workout than I had ever anticipated I would.

I dodged back and forth to avoid the swings of the sticks playing the instrument, and high-tailed it to the opposite end as quickly as I could. I could see even more instruments off to the distance, and that same music sheet was flying by. I grabbed it the best I could and tried to walk on it, but all of a sudden the thing jerked up and went completely vertical; had it not bene for my sticky grasp, I would have been a goner for sure. I pulled myself up and ran over to the next obstacle, a giant French horn. Now, this was where I started to feel like things were getting at least a little bit ridiculous, but I had no choice; I dove into the horn on that thing…and promptly found myself in a maze. The sound of wind passing through the thing nearly blew my ears off, and with all the sound blaring in my head, I could barely think to keep track of where I was going. I think I made a wrong turn at the third twist at least twice before I made it out of there. By now, my head was killing me, and I was longing for some form of silence…

And there it was, that damn string of music, just rolling right on by me. I leapt right back on it and continued on my way. Wind and percussion instruments had already been put in play, and now it looked like a quartet of violins was my next destination spot. Unlike before, the music here…was actually pretty nice. It wasn’t too loud or too rough…it was actually really nice. I stepped onto the surface as a giant bow moved across the strings ever so delicately, with seemingly no sense of malice towards me at all. For a little while, I sort of enjoyed the tune and took my time approaching the end of the first instrument. It was nice to be able to stop moving so quickly for once; this was much more of a workout than I had anticipated, and I needed the rest…

Except I then heard a terrible screeching sound and managed to duck just out of the way for the bow to fly right over me, the BLADE on its side nearly missing my head. Well, crap; it looked like the band had gotten back together again. As the music shifted from a calming melody to an ear-piercing screech, I had bows flying at me like guillotines looking to end my number before I had even played my piece. I managed to get past then with some quick dodging, only to see…more instruments. Ugh. And this time, I had no choice; I was swept onto the next set by the backwards motion of one of the bows.

When I landed, I started to bounce up and down. A drum. I was wondering where that part of the orchestra was actually going to show up. And above me…tambourines…okay…well, that was new. I bounced up and over the drums and tried to make it across, but the voids between drums were simply too large. There was no way I was going to be able to get across.

Thankfully, my careful eye noticed that the tambourines were actually moving from drum to drum, and I had a brilliant idea as to how to proceed. I bounced as high as I possibly could on the drum I was standing on, and when the nearest tambourine approached, I latched myself to the inner ring and let it take me to the next drum. It would have been a terrific plan if the tambourine hadn’t been spinning as well. By the time I got off the damn thing, I was about near sick to my stomach and didn’t think I was going to be able to take much more…and then I had to ride at least three more of those damn things just to get to the end. I was so close to hurling that I honestly don’t know why I didn’t. I signed up to save the world, not for motion sickness.

But I was in luck. The music string was still there, but there were no more instruments in the distance. In fact, the only thing that I did see was a semi-large object that looked like it was printing something…

That was it. That was the end of the road, the source of all the music these giant instruments had been playing. Finally, this montage was at its end. I hitched a ride on the music string, endured a couple of ups and downs, and made it over to the source. It was some sort of advanced machine that I dare say looked more high-tech than anything I’d ever seen in Rez’s possession. After all of the music I’d been forced to listen to and the blaring pain in my ears that I couldn’t shake off, I wasn’t ready to let this thing go quietly into the night. No, I Tail Bounced on it over and over, watching sparks and bits of metal fly off with every bounce, until the contraption ceased functioning and all of the background music just disappeared entirely.

As I stood on the broken hunk of junk, I noticed that there was something stuck inside of it. I reached in and found something I could grab. I pulled as hard as I could, and what I pulled out as…a remote.

Now, I might not be the most inclined of individuals to try and understand what actually keeps some of these worlds running, but this was definitely unheard of. In the Media Dimension, remotes are generally used to turn on and off gateways into worlds…but using them as a direct power source for a device…I didn’t think that was even possible. It seems my adversary was more experienced in his craft than I thought.

-Well, that was quite rude and unkind of you. That was my favorite music box, you know. I love listening to that melody so much that I didn’t even feel like taunting you this time…but now you’ve gone and done something irreparable.-

“Yeah? Well band camp sure as hell didn’t turn out like I expected it would. Not even a single girl here!”

-Ah, so the gecko can still make cultural references after all. I was afraid that part of you had died completely.-

I was done with this crazed environment. This set the bar, alright; if Rez’s worlds were a bit on the nutsy side, and this is the benchmark for comparison, I had quite the loon to deal with at the end of all this.

Before I entered the portal to return, though, there was one pressing question that I felt the odd urge to ask, and I sort of regret doing so…

“By the way, what’s with the getup? I mean, it certainly fits the theme to be honest, but really? You had to put me in a stiff petticoat instead of a rocker t-shirt?”

-Well, I figured that the outfit was better-suited for a more classical design. I was hoping that you were going to enjoy it more, as I made it personally by hand. Getting your exact measurements wasn’t exactly easy, as I had to start making things for you the moment after you arrived. Thankfully, you’ve been in enough…positions…that I was able to tailor it to your exact measurements. I had to make sure that it wouldn’t restrict your movement or anything, you know; fair is fair. Besides, I think you look quite cute in it.

Yeeeeesh! I was done. Rez was creepy in his own right, but this guy…this was a whole new level. I got the hell out of there immediately, as I heard his laugh echoing through the quiet void of that musical nightmare of a world…

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Music. Despite all of the social and cultural differences that exist in the world, it seems to be the one thing that can unite the world at large, and that seems to be the case no matter what reality you enter.

It makes you wonder, though, why this is the case. It is something so deeply ingrained in the psyche, the love for music. There is something about it that lends to our creativity and thinking minds…an ability to convert the words and feelings of others into sounds, and even vice-versa…and if I were just talking about humans, this would seem impressive enough. But no, there is more. All those that have the ability to hear share this strange feature, and it does not seem to be any different wherever I go. Even to creatures that are incapable of haring sounds, the physical nature of sound can sometimes still move them. To be mentally moved by something that you cannot hear but can still feel…it seriously expands what can be classified as music at all. For centuries, this simple physical concept of physics has shaped the development of the real world and countless others, to the point where it has seemingly become inseparable.

As wonderful as this sounds, however, music can still be a problem. Because it is merely a transmitter of emotion, it can be used to portray both positive and negative emotions. For every song telling about the fortune of life, there are others that tell of life’s pitfalls and our desperate attempt to find meaning in a pointless world. For every song that rings of peace and prosperity among neighboring nations, there is a song devoted to war and the love of conquest against the opposition. For every song telling of miracles that go beyond what the human imagination is capable of, there is a song telling of the gritty issues of reality and the cold, hard truth of the limitations of one’s social and cultural standing. Music is a terrific thing, but can anyone truly say that it is a good thing? Is it possible to stand by the use of music for good causes when we know that it will equally be used for heinous ones?

Music, perhaps unwillingly, is a living embodiment of duality and the complications that come about it. It is a medium that so many trust, knowing that it has the power to both help and destroy lives. We have come to trust it so much despite its consequential nature…so why do we find ourselves unable to do this with our fellow man? Music is not a living, breathing thing that is mortal, yet we trust it more than we do others and even ourselves. We are all agents of duality, yet we turn to something that has so few boundaries that it cannot be adequately be controlled. Sound. Music. We trust our sense of hearing so much that we allow it to take over all aspects of our life and culture…

How can we trust a feature of the multiverse that we live in, something that has the power to equally create and destroy great things, more so than something we can control? Why do we ceaselessly throw our fate into the hands of an unreachable force, when we can throw them into the hands of someone…or at least something…whose ultimate verdict will be constricted by the same laws that constrict us? Why do we trust the untouchable, and not what is understood? Is our faith in the known really that shallow…?
This is the sixth chapter of my proposed story/story-line for my idea of a new Gex game. I am planning to invest a lot of time and energy into this project, and I can only hope that it will be justified in light of the work that I am more well-known for.

Here, Gex enters the first of many worlds personally crafted by ReRun himself, and finds out that band camp isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

Note: Where you see dashed lines, there is a change in narrator from Gex to ReRun.
© 2015 - 2024 Mutitus
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LightArcIndumati's avatar
Very nice work, professor.