Chapter 14 – Crust Protocols
- G.P. Torte
- 37 minutes ago
- 2 min read
“Some recipes are locked for a reason. Some fires were never meant to be relit.”
The chamber pulsed.
Orange. Blue. Orange. Blue.
Deep beneath Pastrypolis, the ancient oven—forgotten by most, buried by design—was waking.
And the beat was getting faster.
Aboveground Briefing
At CES HQ, Captain Crumble stood before a flickering holo-map. Every dessert district glowed a shade warmer than it had the day before.
“We’re looking at a citywide destabilization of the bakeplane.”
Whip Siren folded her arms.
“The core’s bleeding heat. The fillings are rising. If this keeps up, the entire base layer could blow.”
Glazey Dave raised a shaky hand.
“Soooooo… is that bad?”
Crumble didn’t answer.
She reached into a sealed frosting-safe and removed a crust-colored folder.
Stamped on the front:
CRUST PROTOCOLS – DO NOT UNSEAL
Velvet’s handwriting was across the seal.
Meanwhile, Underground
Blue Bulk examined the oven’s edge. The walls were made of ancient grahamstone, inscribed with flavor glyphs.
“This wasn’t just a heat source. It was a heart.”
Strawbrawler leaned in close to the glow.
“Feels like it remembers us. Even though we’ve never been here.”
A sudden pulse shook the chamber. The floor cracked.
From a hidden groove, a syrupy inscription lit up in frosting-light:
“Only what is crusted may contain the flame.”
Velvet’s Arrival
Back at HQ, a door hissed open.
Velvet stepped in.
Cool, deliberate, unreadable.
“I told them never to open the protocols.”
Crumble stepped forward.
“The cracks opened themselves.”
Velvet surveyed the data. She tapped a control. All screens synced to one image:
The Oven Core – ACTIVE
“Then we have no choice.”
“Activate the bindings.”
The Truth
Velvet faced the CES team.
“This oven isn’t just ancient. It was built to contain a dessert too powerful to plate.”
“What kind of dessert?” Dave whispered.
Velvet’s voice chilled the room.
“The kind you don’t eat. The kind you seal in crust and bury.”
Final Beat
Deep below, the oven pulse changed rhythm.
A new glyph flared:
“BAKE CYCLE INITIATED”
And far away, in a sealed freezer archive, a case of scrolls cracked open—
scrolls stamped with a symbol no one had seen in decades:
🜛 The Mark of the Overbake.
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