Chapter 3: Burgeoning Intrigue
My eyes popped open. This was a… lab? I was strapped down again. Strapped down… strapped down… wait a minute!
I lost?!
I suppose I should be glad I wasn’t dead. Judging from the vague tingling I felt, I suspected they had used nerbo instead of bullets. So he knew our weakness? No wonder he wasn’t as scared as I’d hoped he would be.
I decided to look around. It was easier this time since I was face up.
He called it a trial, didn’t he…? the room was blue, with a large monitor behind a wall of glass. The Guy stood nearby, typing some stuff onto it.
Something pricked my arm, and cold tingly fluid entered my veins.
This isn’t a trial. This is an experiment, I realized.
“It shouldn’t hurt or anything,” the Guy said through an intercom-sounding system. “Statistically speaking, it’s—”
“Shut up!” I struggled against the bonds. “Let me out! I’m sick of you bothering us. Let me out so I can beat you up!”
“Erm… I’ll be quiet, how about that,” the Guy conceded.
I groaned and closed my eyes. I really can’t catch a break, I thought. I have to get out of here…
Wait a second. I feel free. Did he free me?
I opened my eyes.
Huh? What am I doing on the ceiling?
Wait, no. That isn’t me… I’m me. But I know the person I’m looking at is me, because I was beaten up and strapped down, and she is definitely all of those things. So I must be…
I turned over. Suddenly, the ceiling was the floor. I was strapped to an operating bed… but I was also at the ceiling.
Oh great, I thought. It’s a hallucinogen.
It felt real, though. I could still perceive what was around me quite well, and nothing felt fuzzy or filtered. Most off-putting of all, I didn’t feel calm, like those other drugs they would stick in me from time to time. I was still thinking nice, clear, aggressive thoughts.
I mulled over these points, then looked back at my body. If this isn’t a hallucinogen… then what is it?
I tried moving. Soon I found myself between the Guy and the monitor he was watching.
Without thinking, I ran my fist through his face. He didn’t react, but it still made me feel better. On the monitor, it looked like the Guy was observing the readings off of some kind of body scanner. It was titled IKIRYŌ PROCEDURE: SUBJECT CONDITION UNSTABLE.
Now he was staring at my body. He must think I’m still in there, the dork.
Although, now that I looked at me, it seemed like something was off. I was starting to feel ghostlier than I did at first…
Oh, I see. My heart rate has flatlined, I noted, flyffing back to the operating bed. That probably isn’t good. I hope I can still return to my—
“Hah!” I sat up. The bonds were off! They must’ve just been removed.
“AGH! What! How are you still here?!” The Guy looked shaken.
“What could you possibly mean?” I tried to sound innocent. “I was always here. YOU just weren’t paying attention.”
“No! You flatlined! You were dead,” he cried.
“Dead? Me?” I tried to look scared. “Oh, the horror.”
“This isn’t a joking matter! You died!”
“I was only mostly dead,” I replied.
“All of your vitals were shown on the monitor! No heart rate, no brain activity, no muscle response, no breathing, nothing! How is this possible?”
“Never trust a machine,” I snickered.
“Hmmm…” He clicked a button, and the glass wall between us slid into the floor. “This confirms it then. The Ikiryō procedure was deemed a preemptive failure, but of course that doesn’t…”
“What! You wanted me to die!?” I yelled.
“No! Frankly, I doubt you’d get it even if I explained it to you. But this does answer a few very important questions. How do you feel right now?”
“I’LL CRUSH YOU,” I shouted, jumping to my feet.
“Um, sir?” A guard stepped into the room. Her nametag read SHEILA. “The other aeronauts have returned.”
“Hm? Where are they now?” the Guy asked.
“Destroying the place,” Sheila explained. “Bob’s been keeping tabs on their location.”
“Why aren’t you guys trying to STOP them?!” The Guy sounded agitated.
“They’re aeronauts! What are we gonna do?” Sheila tapped her comm. “Oh. Bob says they’re now heading down… Hallway S? Huh, that’s this way–” BANG! Sheila was suddenly knocked to the floor. My aeronaut pals had made their triumphant re-entry!
Immediately we engaged the enemy: Bernicia and I grabbed the Guy and manhandled him into the straps on the operating bed, while Travis and Blake beat up the other guards gathering at the entrance.
“All right, Guy, answer me,” I demanded. “What do you want from us?”
“Heh. You all are wondering why my robots weren’t attacking the safe house,” the Guy replied. “Were you surprised that Joseph wasn’t home?”
“H-hey, no fair,” I stammered. “You’ve been trying to capture us, right? What’s your motive?”
“Forget it! Information isn’t free, and you’ve got nothing to barter with.”
“Grrrgh! You suck! You cheating prick!” I promptly smashed his face in with my foot. “Let’s beat it before more people show up.”
“Hey, Kit. I found a map up front,” Travis said as we regrouped. “Apparently this place is called the House of Steel. Edgy, right?”
“That Guy has no taste,” I grumbled.
We made it out of the building and through its exterior defenses without a hitch, and soon we were safely out of range.
“So what did you think of him?” Blake glanced over at me. “Hot, right? He seems like your type.”
“Maybe if he didn’t do that weird probey thing with my brain,” I replied.
“Probey thing?”
“It’s not fair! Why does he get to know what I’m thinking, but not the other way around? And he flaunts it, too. Ugh, he’s the worst.”
“Huh. Seems like you’ve had some time to think about it,” Blake said.
“Hey, Kit,” Bernicia called. “There’s another drone fighter to your seven. It doesn’t look armed, though.”
“Those guys just don’t stop coming, do they,” I mused. “Okay, guys, pull back. I’ll slam it myself!”
“Go team,” Travis called. “We’ll meet you at the safe house.”
The four of us fanned out, and I made a sharp u-turn. Soon I was right on top of the unmanned aircraft. Bernicia was right; it wasn’t armed. Weird. Was it a scout?
The drone shifted its ailerons and did a full roll, possibly trying to smack me with its wing. Of course, since I was an organic, thinking being and not an aerodynamic hunk of metal, I just whiffed upwards a few meters, then streamlined my wings for a dive attack.
Crash! Instead of knocking it off course, the thing’s wing just broke clean off, and the whole mess spiraled towards the ground. Based on what I had seen, all it had was a few cameras and a hatch on its underbelly. Perhaps it was a bomber?
Boom! Its remains violently exploded a kilometer or two down. That's a bomber, all right, I figured. I wonder what its target was…
Not that big a deal, I suppose. I shifted my wings and zoomed back towards the safe house.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone