They got to it once again quite quickly, once someone brought him some water and everyone made sure he was doing completely fine. Shell gave him a few words of encouragement and a pat on his shoulder before leaving the room once again.

Everyone kept giving him tense looks as he helped them figure out where they might have gone wrong. It irritated X quite a bit, and he wanted to snap at them and tell the to stop treating him like a baby, but he pushed it down by reminding himself that they did it because they genuinely cared about him.

'So that's where I felt that something was off. Do you remember when I asked around to check if everything was going well?' X elucidated. The team nodded with realisation striking their eyes.

The team member responsible for that part went through the steps he'd taken, and X gently corrected him in the place he'd errored.

The guy had a very guilty look on his face, but X waved it off for the hundredth time with a wave of his hand and a reassuring smile to ease him down.

Then it was finally time to attempt the whole process once again. The entire room was thick with tension as they began typing out the code required. Every move was double checked and confirmed with before going ahead with the next steps.

This time X too was on high alert, consulting with them every now and then to make sure everything was going on track. Everytime he felt something was going wrong, he made sure everyone knew that and they cross checked all the codes again.

The tension in the room was palpable. The clanking sounds of fingers on plastic keys echoed throughout the room, the sounds carrying the weight of the high stakes. The faces in front of the keys were fraught with anticipation and concentration.

The clacking of keys was only slightly disturbed by the sharp footsteps Agent X made as he moved through the screens that displayed the codes they were typing in, pacing around the room with a quiet tension that was clearly visible in his clenched shoulders.

After what felt like an eternity, a coder announced that he was going to type in the last pieces of the code. Everyone looked up in sync, their breath catching in their throats in unison. They immediately stood up and went to stand around the coder, who looked positively petrified now. X silently glided over to the procession as well, silently watching from behind everyone.

'Okay, I'm gonna enter the lines everyone.' He breathed out. Nods were given from everyone, and he typed in the last few keys for the encryption code.

For a while there was a terse silence as everybody waited with bated breaths. It was almost agonizing as they looked on for something, anything, to happen. X looked like he was about ready to pass out from the mystery.

Then he drew in a sharp breath and crumpled to the floor with a strangled groan, furiously clutching at his back.

The team immediately let out choked screams as they gathered around him in a rough circle, close enough to let him know of their presence, and far enough to make sure they didn't impose on him. A safe distance, basically.

It was horribly painful for everyone seeing X in that condition. He was trying his best to not writhe around and make everyone feel scared about it, but the pain was almost unbearable at this point now, and what made it worse was that it was hurting with even greater intensity than the first time it happened.

A strangled yell or two even slipped past his trembling lips when it got too much for him to bear. One of the teammates, in desperation, even tried to come forward and help him, but X wiggled away from her before she could touch him and worsen the pain and the situation.

The pain slowly but surely abated after a while, leaving X in a pathetic heap on the floor. The after effects of the pain was still acting upon him, leaving his back sore and aching even after the intense pain quelled down.

It was quite embarrassing, X felt, when he was collected enough to compose thoughts that didn't comprise of him screaming about the pain.

He hated being so vulnerable in front of them. He actually hated being vulnerable in front of anyone, but the fact that these people barely knew him made the embarrassment much more acute and sharp.

'You are so brave, Agent X.' One of the coders said in a soft voice. He looked up to see a face full of admiration and grim courage staring back at him. She extended her hand to him in a reassuring manner. He didn't feel quite so ashamed when she was being so encouraging to him, and in a gesture of trust, slipped his hand into hers.

She helped him stand up by gently pulling him up and supported him when he wobbled due to the lack of strength in his legs. The rest of the team scrambled to ease him into one of the chairs by holding him tightly and lowering him down.

Someone offered X a tall glass of water, which he gratefully accepted and downed in one large gulp. He was just beginning to thank whoever gave him water when Shell came rushing in again, this time with the bright gleam of triumph shining in her dark eyes.

She halted in her tracks when she saw him sitting on a chair, surrounded by everyone again. 'Did it happen again? Did the code not work?'

X craned his neck to see her through the mass of bodies, and nodded slightly in affirmation. Shell let out a sad sigh and ran a hand through her hair.

'I'm so sorry X. I could have prevented this if I was just a few minutes early!' She grumbled with a frustrated sigh. He was about to assure her that it wasn't her fault at all, and that he had chosen to do this in spite of the risks when something she said dimly registered in his head.

'Wait, did you say you could have prevented this? How? Did you find out the solution to the map?' X gasped with drawn eyebrows. Shell's forlorn expression cleared momentarily as she remembered what she'd come to say.

'Oh yea! I'd come here to tell you that Snow has cracked the code, per se. I don't know how we all missed this earlier. I mean, we're literally six coders working on it and we still couldn't figure it out.

Anyways, Snow observed the map and just randomly told me that the whole thing looks like a puzzle! That's right. The whole fricking map is a riddle for us to solve!' She exclaimed in an amused albeit irritated tone.

Everyone, including Agent X, immediately slapped their foreheads as their brilliant minds instantly made the connection. Of course it was a puzzle. Why didn't we see it beforehand?

Shell laughed at their stumped faces, 'It's okay, guys. It didn't even register to my brain till Snow pointed it out. What's important now is figuring out that map in the puzzle style.'

'That means we're not needed here anymore, right?' A coder asked. Shell tilted her head in contemplation for a minute, then shook her head.

'No, I guess not. Now I just need Agent X and Snow onboard the project. I hope you guys understand. You all may leave now.'

Everyone nodded and patted X's shoulder as they packed up their systems and began leaving the room one by one.

'All the best Agent X. I hope you succeed in your mission.' The kind coder wished him as she slung her bag over her shoulder. X nodded and thanked her for her kindness, to which she just laughed and waved off with an always ready to help.

Once everyone was gone, Shell surveyed him for a minute. X caught her gaze and raised his eyebrows in question, silently asking her to voice whatever was in her mind.

'Are you sure you're alright X?' She queried in a concerned tone. X felt himself flush with deep embarrassment at being treated like a small child who got scraped while playing.

'Yeah Shell, I'm completely fine now. You don't have to keep worrying, and asking me that.' He replied with a pained smile. Shell immediately understood what he was trying to imply and dropped the subject completely.

'Okay then, since we have everything and everyone we need for the mission here itself, let's continue planning in this room.' She said instead and spread her arms in a wide gesture. X nodded and scraped his chair forward to face his table while Shell called for Snow to join them and took a seat close to X.

He pulled up the map using the holographic chip and enlarged it so it filled a huge volume of the space in front of them. X's eyes immediately widened when he saw the links that were becoming painfully apparent to him as he kept Snow's assumption in mind.

'Yeah, I definitely see it now. This whole thing is nothing but a puzzle. Those people must have put false security systems to fool us into thinking it was encrypted so we would repeatedly try to hack into it.' He remarked through gritted teeth. Shell thoughtfully nodded beside him, staring deeply into the map.

Snow joined them shortly after and settled down at the opposite end of the table. After the customary exchanges of greeting, X spoke up, 'So Snow, you'd said that this map looks like a puzzle right? Could you elaborate on the factors through which you came to that decision? Like, what made you realize that this map is a puzzle? And is there anything you noticed about it after that realization?'

Snow nodded and pulled the chip closer for easier access to control it. 'So I was just looking at the map while Shell was explaining the whole process of what you guys were doing. Then suddenly I realized that there were almost systematic dotted lines throughout the map. Like, it was divided up into smaller territories like any political map of a country usually is.

At first, I didn't think much of it, but then I noticed tiny little arrows pointing around to various territories on the map. That meant that the map was to be read systematically, and the arrows were meant to indicate which direction we should read it in.'

X nodded thoughtfully. 'Yeah, I think that about sums up the assumption I had in mind as well. Look, these tiny symbols at the border of each territory are those arrows you were talking about, right?'

Snow nodded her head in affirmation.

X studied the arrows carefully and raised his eyebrows when something struck him. 'Er, hate to break it to you, but the arrows are pointing in random directions as of now. Look here, look at these adjacent ones.' He pointed out.

Shell tilted her head in confusion. 'So what does that mean?'

'It means,' X said with a slight sigh, 'that we're gonna have to play a guessing game of which order the parts are to be read.'

Shell threw her head back and gave a sarcastic laugh. X truly expected her to get irritated at this point, but her constant patience was certainly getting his respect.

'Then that means we have to keep guessing until we get it right.' She said with a decisive tone, cracking her knuckles. X chuckled to himself at her stubbornness and never give up attitude, and switched to examining the map carefully.

'Hey, wait a minute. Look at this part.' X suddenly said, pointing to a part at the bottom of the map, 'All the symbols in this part start with a common letter. Airport, amphitheater... all these words begin with an A. I think this is one of the parts of the map that need to be read out!' X exclaimed with a child-like bounce. Shell and Snow squinted at the map carefully and nodded when they came to the same conclusion.

'This seems like another way to try and solve the map. Let's hope that this doesn't go wrong as well.' Shell breathed out. X cracked his knuckles in response and started trying to decode the rest of the pieces.

All of them fell silent as they intently studied the map, only occasionally speaking up to share a clue or a hint that was then discussed and pondered upon by the other two until they all came to the same conclusion, which Snow then took a note of.

The other clues were decidedly harder than the one X cracked in the beginning, so the whole process took much longer than any of them had anticipated. There were mild squabbles as well when they all didn't agree on a letter that a particular part seemed to signify. For those letters, Snow noted all the possibilities everyone offered and kept them aside for a final decision to be made later.

At long last, all parts of the map were sufficiently encoded and copied down by the diligent Snow and everyone had more or less agreed to the letters currently noted on a piece of paper.

'So there are eight parts in this map and eight corresponding letters for each part. I'll read them out now, ok?'

Both Shell and X leaned forward in anticipation and grimly nodded their heads.

'Okay, here goes. The letters are C, R/M, C again, S, O/D/Q, A, K, and E. Is everyone in mutual agreement on these.... X, what's wrong?'

X felt the stabbing on his back again and he'd slumped forward in his chair, trying to hide the expressions on his face. Snow stood up and rushed to his side and tried her best to comfort him, while Shell looked on and waited for the pain to pass.

'Looks like every time we tell a particular order of the letters, the map somehow registers our words and checks if they are correct. If they're not...' She ended her hypothesis with a gesture to X, implying that this will happen again and again.

Snow looked seriously concerned and seemed like she was going to try to convince X to back out of this. But he just pulled the list close to him and started reading the list again, this time with different letters. His back burned again as the answer he gave turned out wrong, and he let out short, quick breaths until the pain passed again.

Shell scooted over to X and began helping him cross out the wrong combinations.

They went on like this and settled into a small routine, listing down the possible combinations and waiting for the inevitable pain to pass through.

Hazy with the residual pain now, X suddenly felt like he saw a possible pattern through the letters floating in front of him.

'I've got it,' he managed to wheeze, 'I. I think I've got it. The.. the combination is A-C-E-R-O-C-K-S, I believe.'

Shell's eyes widened with an expression no one could define. Snow let out a snort and slapped her forehead. 'Of course, it's that. Those stupid people probably thought that they were really smart for pulling off something like this.' She scoffed with a shake of her head.

Shell was about to reply to that when she was interrupted by the chip, which emitted a bright light that momentarily blinded them. When that passed, the whole room echoed with a peal of booming laughter that echoed from the chip.

Dayum, who do you think that weird laughter was from? I'm pretty sure you would have guessed by now, but you're more than welcome to post your guesses here!