Fan Fiction ❯ Human Alloy ❯ Careful Submission ( Chapter 9 )

I don't even remember what's going on in this story anymore o.o;

 

Have ANY questions? Please email me! EmbarChicken@aol.com

 

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Five minutes? That was rather sudden. Somehow I didn't think I'd be quite so ready to leave in a mere five minutes. I closed my eyes, Kane brushing the palm of his hand on my cheek. I sat up my mind clear enough to think straight. Standing, though wobbly, I nodded as Dua prepared for flight, stretching his wings before fluttering through the door that opened to reveal Yue's face.

 

“Are you alright?” he called, standing with the door to his back. I could tell there was much concern tracing the delicate lines of his face.

 

“Yeah,” I mumbled, taking a deep breath.

 

“You're sure you're feeling well enough?” Cale asked, still sitting despite that he was the only one doing so.

 

“If you need to rest some, you can say here. I don't think Yue's doing much, so he could probably convince Root to let him stay here with you,” Kane put in, brushing his hair away from his face, falling into place beside me, watching for my response.

 

“That's alright. I can go on.”

 

“Well….. if you're sure.” Kane was hesitant, but he knew that once I had made up my mind, it was hard to change.

 

“Okay then. Root wants to meet us all outside the base,” Yue said, watching as I walked past, followed by Kane, Cale, and finally Yue himself. My mind was set. I still had slight doubts as to whether I'd tell someone about the secret rebellion against R.A.D.A.R. I really didn't want to get mixed up things, especially if I was caught. People nowadays, even way back when, didn't look twice if they accused you of wrong-doing. Just about everything you did was wrong anyway, even living as a human being, as I was told forwardly later on, but because of that human nature, it was perfectly acceptable to commit murders that were never found out about or deal crack on the street for sky high prices. Some humans had what people would call `justice' but there was a bleak outlook of the future of the posterity. Since this world was so morally corrupt into thinking this life of metal and dust was peace and welfare, I knew already there was no point in continuing to live the lie that I was trying to build myself on.

 

It was one of those unexpected reasonings that just rationally hit you like a blow and made you stumble. My mind was floating off on the subject, but my feet were wandering toward the door across the living room. Root stood there in his shimmering glory of mint green hair, arms crossed, standing tall, eyes narrowing as I approached. Gin flounced out of her room, humming and bouncing to a stop next to Root. The small coalition gathered at the door, looking to the leader for instruction.

 

“You know Root…. the more ya gots that sow'a look on ya face, people'd think it's `alloween again already! `onestly!” she scoffed, sticking out her tongue when Root only glared.

 

“Now,” Root started, clearing his throat, “do we all know <I>exactly</I> what we're going to do?” He looked to each of us in turn who nodded, or in Gin's case, “Righto!” I remembered vaguely what I had to do, but I had what I needed in case it slipped my mind. Root observed me carefully as if under inspection even after I had confirmed that I did indeed know what I was to do.

 

“Alright,” he said, breaking eye contact and turning away. He opened the door that lead outside to the elevator for us.

 

“Jean, you head up with Mercy, get what you need, do what you need to, then head down and copy the files on the chip to the computer. You should be able to do that, right?” Root growled, but it was more of a direct order.

 

“Aye aye Captain!” Mercy responded with a pirate wav file. Her metalloid ears perked toward the sound of the humming elevator. Gin stared at it curiously, Yue looked concerned, Cale was spaced out and Kane wasn't paying attention. Root looked stern as my fox jumped on her feet, lowering herself and ready to run or attack if she had to. If you've never had Mercy attack you, you wouldn't want to. Not only can she scare all hell out of you, but metal hurts with pressure. The low croon of the metal box stopped, the anticipation building as the doors hesitated before sliding open. In it was….. nothing. At least it appeared to be nothing. Quizzically, Mercy cautiously lifted her nose, warily surveying the empty compartment, searching for anything that her sensors could pick up. A chill ran up my spine as the strange feeling of someone watching me crept over my body, but it passed in the blink of an eye.

 

Trotting into the elevator, she peered around, then offered us a sweet grin and a whistle.

 

“It's okay, it wasn't anything. Must have been someone disconnected a wire and reset it or something,” she reassured us. Whatever breath we each held was let go.

 

“That's a relief! I ain't in the mood to be kickin' anyone's ass now!” Gin sighed, following Mercy into the elevator. I started to follow but Root's arm held me back.

 

“Wait.” Gin grinned, waving to us, winking and giving us a thumbs up as the doors slid close; Mercy slipped out at the last minute. The elevator grinded its way up on the cable lines as Gin disappeared to wherever she was needed.

 

“I said you went with Mercy. Go after Kane leaves,” Root said firmly, dropping his arm at last.

 

“Oh.” My blond headed friend left next, and though he seemed exasperated and a somewhat nervous, I knew he'd be fine. When he and I were younger we used to fool around all the time with the computers system files and programs. They were practical jokes, but nonetheless we had learned a few valuable tricks from them.

 

Finally Root disappeared, glaring death through his moon yellow eyes, Dua flitting after him as he did. I offered a sarcastic smile. Yue was talking softly to Cale behind me as Mercy clanked over to the elevator, awaiting its return.

 

“…..it'll be soon,” Yue was saying so faintly it was like a whisper. I turned to him, wondering if he'd be going to or staying to play housewife with my brother. He smiled pleasantly at me.

 

“I'll be going after you,” he said in response to my thought. “Don't worry, you won't be doing anything too difficult, I promise.” I nodded. I knew what I was doing.

 

“Come along Jean. Time to do our thing!” Mercy exclaimed childishly, giving a cartoonish laugh. I turned to leave, trying to keep nothing else on my mind, despite everything that happened in such a short time.

I felt wandering hands restraining me.

“Be careful.” It was Cale who was hugging me from behind. I patted the white adorned head on my shoulder.

 

“I will,” I mumbled as my brother released his grip on me.

 

“Time to go!” Mercy whined, standing in the doorway to keep it from closing. I stepped forward to have another hand hold me back. This time it was Yue's strong but delicate grasp on my shoulder. Very gently he turned me around.

 

“Be <I>carefu</I>l,” he breathed, stressing his heed. His eyes were sad, but I avoided his gaze, nodding. He took my face in his hands, his forehead to mine as I drew in a deep breath. I felt numb. Completely numb as he took my mouth in his for a last prolonged kiss, I knew vaguely that something might be up. He could be doing it because he truly cared and knew it was dangerous, despite the low risk factor, even after the attack several days ago, or he could be doing it because he knew he might not see me for a while, or that something would go amiss and that everything may not turn out as intended.

 

He withdrew a fraction of an inch, lips parted ever so slightly, only to return with even more kisses until the deep breath that I held released slowly between embracements was gone. As soon as he had let me breathe I took a dash to the elevator; Mercy had decided not to wait any longer and was allowing the doors to close on her. Watching Yue's worried look, his hands still out as if holding my face close to his, the metal slides enveloped me and he was gone.

 

“As if you couldn't have made that any faster! This is crucial Jalene!” Mercy chastised with an authoritative tone. “If we waste too much time this won't work out! Now no slacking and I mean it! I'll meet you on the main floor lab 2 at the elevator in half an hour okay? I expect you get everything done by then! No excuses!”

 

“Yeah, I will, don't worry,” I sighed, one hand to my temple. My fox looked sideways at me with one eye.

 

“You know I will, regardless of what you say.”

 

“It can't be helped.” I shrugged, leaning against the back of the small room as the elevator rose to the requested level.

 

It stopped at the labs I had worked at before with Kane, created a structure for the H.M.S.'s. Mercy took no time in pressing a button for her floor as soon as I had stepped off. All the broken glass and lights had been cleaned up, though the aid for repairs was going slowly, if nonexistantly. Entering the lab, I felt the odd sensation of a presence, the same as before, only this time it lingered. I felt as if it were a curious animal watching me, before slowly the energy in my mind was sapped and the presence was gone. Was it perhaps some kind of psychic link between me and whatever else was roaming around? Paranoid, I took to concentrating on the task at hand navigating around the suspended metal table to the computer I had worked at only days ago. I poked the screen and the image of a blank desktop appeared. I sighed heavily, reaching under the desk and groping blindly around for the disks that were always kept under the computer as spares.

 

I found the stupid little compartment, pulling it out to find some small disks. They were around an inch by an inch long and as thin as paper but very durable. I slipped one into the machine, ran a check to make sure there wasn't something accidentally placed on it. Other than a couple of short porn clips and images there was nothing of importance unless documents of information on certain whores and strippers counted. I kept some red head named Kaley's number in mind for Kane. He always had a thing for them. Unless it was Larin of course. He was only particular with her when she decided to torture me. Then he was just plain evil. Erasing the file I ran several consecutive searches for the requested information, making sure not to be too stubborn. I played solitaire as I waited for them to search the trillions of files R.A.D.A.R. had stored.

 

Sadly card games were still alive, though gasping for breath through all the technology we had. Virtual games were a biggie, and always improving, but I didn't have the necessary equipment for it. I wouldn't have bothered anyway; there was too little room to maneuver for a three-dimensionally based game. There were about two hundred giga bytes on each little memory disk, so I wasn't worried about space. Once copying about half the entire R.A.D.A.R. database onto one chip, I reached for another, only to have my hand land on something cold, wet, and slightly hairy. I jumped back in complete surprise, my heart racing, terrified at the thought of what it could be. I waited, clutching my heart, for whatever it was to jump out and skewer me or tear my eyes out of their sockets or maul me, but nothing did. After a very long moment of silence, my heartbeat drumming in my ears, I settled down enough to check from a distance. Nothing was there.

 

I breathed heavily, swearing I had touched something so real. Afraid because of the incident and by the fact that I was the only person on the floor, I very gingerly stood as far as I possibly could from the computer, ejecting the first disk and putting in the second to finish copying the files.

“Dammit that was scary!” I muttered shakily, hoping it was only a figment of my imagination. Intent on the computer for several moments, I heard something slithering behind me. Head snapping back I noticed the end of a tail of some sort vanish through the door, leaving behind it a thick trail of something wet. Gulping, I hurried the computer as much as I could, though it helped little when I started muttering and banging the top of the console with my fist. After what seemed like ages it finished and I took the disk out, adding it to the second and slipping it somewhere safe.

 

I high tailed it out of there, onto the elevator and checking my watch for the time. I had avoided the trail of liquid which had condensed into some sort of sticky film on the floor. I still had plenty of time to spare to get to where Mercy was. Watching the numbers tick by, I was by floor fifteen. A puddle of that oozing liquid substance pooled slowly from my opposing diagonal. I shuddered, eyes wide with fear, like one of those people in the movie <u>The Blob</u>. I heard a huff and a snort from its direction, and I had to guess that whatever it was, was either invisible or had incredible camouflage. Floor ten passed by. A wet clawed footprint appeared in the drying liquid. Heart racing I mashed the open door button as much as I could. The elevator had stopped, nearly to floor seven with only a foot to spare.

 

I hopped out and sent the thing in the elevator up as far as I could. The floor was relatively busy, which it took me a moment to notice the sounds of conversation for my head was ringing with fear. I sighed, stepping away from the door as inconspicuously as I could, looking around to see if anyone was watching me. For the most part I was unnoticed, but several people had glanced at me. I could either risk another elevator ride or take the stairs. Walking past desks and cubicles, people on cell phones and at computers, I noticed I was in some sort of research section of the building. I had never been on this hall before, but that was okay with me; all elevators and doors were marked. The intercom announced Lord knows what, which I ignored, looking down a long white hall for an elevator sign. I found one soon enough.

 

No one paid any, if little, attention to me as I waited for the elevator to go down. The doors received me and I noticed it was quite full. I took it anyway. From floors seven to two, at least two people got off until there was me and some weird guy remaining. He was a head taller than I was, with soft almond shaped eyes, spiked black hair, several earrings and a nose stud. His eyes were a complacent grey which kept me staring a little longer than intended. Catching myself, I noticed my floor had been waiting for me to step out. The guy caught the door as it started to close.

 

“I believe this is your floor?” he asked gently, his voice deep but beautiful.

 

“Uh yes,” I replied with a nod, thanking him and stepping out as he winked. I was blushing. I looked over my shoulder as he gave me a thumbs up.

 

From the elevators I checked my watch again, with about ten minutes left. That was plenty of time to get to the main lab, unless of course if I was stopped by someone else. Kane had taken me to this lab before, since it was partially biological experiments, so I knew where the lab itself was, but the exact directions in getting there was something else. Work was like any given day at any given office in R.A.D.A.R.—everyone was half asleep and no one really cared who came or go, unless of course it was a highly ranked manager, the president, Mr. Quendenski or an inspector. Then everyone sucked up and looked busy. Important labs were usually kept in the center of the building's floor, away from outside attacks or infiltration. With a brisk pace, checking left and right along the walls, halls and offices and open areas of cubicles on either side of me, I found the wall with the large open doorway that lead to main lab floor two. Looking around discreetly, no one was watching me as I walked in, but the people inside did notice.

 

Looking around I noticed Mercy in the farthest corner to my right. The people in the lab still continued t stare at me, so with an awkward feeling, I walked toward Mercy.

 

“What are you doing?” one man behind me asked, making me stop in my tracks. I turned around nervously.

 

“Who me?” I asked innocently, offering them all a grin.

 

“No the Easter Bunny. Yes you! What are you doing in here? You aren't the man Kane sent for us.” Kane? Mercy barked and wagged her tail but didn't move.

 

“Uh, I'm here for my Mecha-Pets. She got loose and I haven't been able to find her, but I followed her here. Sorry,” I said quickly.

 

“Hey guys, it's five till, we got fifteen if we head out now,” one other guy in a coat near the front of the group said. Several people nodded and shuffled out of the room. The guy talking to me sighed and rolled his eyes.

 

“Coffee…. Honestly! It's just coffee. Well hurry up and get her and get out before you do any damage, all right?” the first guy addressing me said.

 

Mercy barked again and bounded out of the room.

 

“H-Hey!” I shouted, chasing after her. Keeping what we had to do in the lab on mind, I followed her white and red tail out of the door and around a corner by a stairwell and window that showed us a view of a computer lab. Mercy checked as the last guy in the lab left.

 

“That was a good enough excuse,” she whispered in a sly Western bad guy voice, as if she was in the Wild West. “We still gotta do our stuff though.” I nodded, head buzzing from the adrenaline and nerve of facing up to some guy. I usually wasn't in a situation that meant life or death, just some that meant my job. Taking a deep breath I responded in a low voice.

 

“Should we go in now or wait a minute?” My fox gave a slight whine, cocking her head to the side.

 

“Aye matey, we be going in…. now!” She chuckled a pirate growl as she bounded back into the lab.

 

“Do you know where to put the chip?” Mercy asked, heading over to the wall she was at before which was entirely composed of what looked like old versions of stereo systems, but I knew they were most wave detectors and monitors. I found the papers Gin had gotten me and scanned them.

 

“Uh yeah, I do now,” I said. “Where is it?” I accompanied Mercy at her side, the chip dispensed in her mouth. I felt nervous with anxiety and anticipation as I looked for the right monitor.

 

“Number 327Ab,” I breathed as I located it. Flipping a small latch in the lower corner, there was a disk drive and I slid the chip in. It fit perfectly. I then turned the monitor on, stepping back before heading to the nearest computer that linked to it. Mercy stood at the door which was thankfully the only one we needed to watch.

 

“You sure those security cameras are cut?” I muttered as I opened a program from a recently saved document.

 

“Yes. I relinked the system to record what was happening in a different lab, since they're all pretty much identical,” Mercy said, poking a head out the door.

 

Concentrating, I ran a file I found that shouldn't be there, but was. It was someone else's doing. I smiled, glancing at the second code on the given list. The password was accepted and access was granted. Interestedly I looked through some of the files.

 

“New developmental studies of animals and humans being conducted on several floors, highly protected areas, betrayal is death,” I said, intrigued. “My, my, what is Mr. Q planning?”

 

“Any day now,” Mercy crooned, aggravated.

 

“Sorry.” I dodged a couple auto scans, opening files from the back door, not directly, until I was where I needed to be. Running the illegal software, I was almost startled, though pleased that computers and equipment all began to run various operations, deleting files at random and having virus scans pop up with at least a dozen different viruses.

 

Mercy whistled and motioned for me to follow her, which I gladly did. She dodged to the left where the stairwell we had hidden by earlier was. Slipping beneath the window, for there were several men now standing near the window on the other side, I pulled the door open enough to slip through without being seen. Mercy's eyes glowed until a strong light showed. It was strong enough to see by, but faint enough to extinguish in a hurry.

 

“Do we head back now?” I asked her, one hand on the wall as we ascended the steps.

 

“Not quite, we need to meet up with Kane,” my fox replied, padded metal paws clinking softly on the steel stairs.

 

“Where's he?”

 

“Floor five.” We ascended the stairs in silence, several groups of people easily passing us in the opposite direction. I opened the door as we got to our respective floor, noticing the door was near an air elevator.

 

The floor was very similar to the one I worked on in the computer department: synthetic plants, blue carpet, a receptionist's desk to the right, chairs around the perimeter, large windows, a couple of coffee tables—in fact it was nearly identical to the department I worked in. The only differences were the unconscious bodies scattered across the room and Kane sitting coolly at the receptionist's desk, jamming to music and dancing in his rolling chair. I could here his music. Usher and Luda would never die out. I grinned as I approached his desk.

 

“Excuse me, I'm looking for babe to give a number to,” I said, leaning on the desk as Mercy took to wandering around the room. Kane looked up, his music still blaring, the bass probably rattling whatever brains he had left.

 

“Dorm room 42607CK,” he said loudly, attempting to hear his own voice over his song.

 

“Gal named Kaley, red head, nice legs,” I said.

 

“What?” Kane asked, slipping his headphones out of his ears.

 

“I said there's a bitch who wants to hook up with you!”

 

“Tell her I already have a hook up!” Kane slipped his headphones back in as another song started up.

 

I laughed as he continued to jam, standing up now, dancing in place, pressing keys here and there, singing the parts he knew. Mercy joined by my side a moment later.

 

“What a simpleton,” she quoted from the movie <u>Dracula Dead and Loving It</u>. Such old movies. My friend finished whatever he was doing, turning his music off as his computer screen went blank.

 

“Mission accomplished,” he grinned, giving me a peace sign, green streaks falling in his face.

 

“Then let's go before these people wake up,” Mercy said, already ahead of us and to the elevators. She accessed them and waited for us to get on. As we went up, I inquired as to what Kane had been doing.

 

“What happened to the people?”

 

“Just sleeping gas,” he replied, pushing his hair behind his ears. “I started getting sleepy myself but I think it was just searching for a certain hidden file, more than the gas.” My blond friend chuckled.

 

Looking past him at the blue plastic floor I noticed the glinting of what looked like some sort of liquid. Eyes wide I pointed.

 

“What? The corner? What about it?” Kane asked, glancing at where I was pointing. The ooze was building up. There was no way he could miss it.

 

“Puddle of…. liquid. Some kind, see?” I said eyes wide as it slowly spread out.

 

“I see a corner,” Kane said blankly, blinking at the pool of substance. Terrified, knowing some kind of invisible monster was there and waiting for… whatever it was waiting for, I clutched Kane's arm, pulling him away the liquid came closer. Mercy whistled, tilting her head and sniffing around, walking through the liquid. I made a face as she did, closing my eyes against Kane's shoulder. The elevator dinged for our stop. Kane pulled me out, watching the elevator.

 

“What was is I'm looking at again?” he asked as I cautiously peered through one eye. The substance was gone.

 

“It…. It was…. a pool of… something. A liquid…. It dries and gets sticky and there's some sort of invisible monster, or something, that makes it. I saw it earlier,” I said, fretfully, knowing I probably sounded like a complete loon.

 

Kane stared at me skeptically.

 

“I think you need a drink, and a break.”

 

“But—”

 

“Come on,” he urged, pulling me by the arm. I stared into space as he led us through the floor and towards the room that would lead to the elevator that would take us down to the hideout. Turning a white plastered corner we ran into Cale. He looked frightened, eyes wide, and he jumped upon seeing us, but after recognizing us, he ran to Kane, hiding behind him.

 

“Don't let them catch me,” he said fearfully.

 

“Who?” I asked.

 

“Catch you,” Mercy said, voice full of warning and concern.

 

“Jean, you remember that guy we punched out?” Cale asked, looking to me, his eyes wild.

 

“We found him again?” I asked apprehensively. Cale nodded.

 

“You punched a guy out?” Kane asked, turning to Cale.

 

“Hey you! Clones! Stop! Clones!” a shout resounded. It was that guy we had punched out earlier all right.

 

“Uh, Kane?” I asked. Mercy growled, gave a bear roar and lunged for the man. He looked from side to side, found an alarm and pulled it right when Mercy tackled him. He went down hard, my fox biting his collar and shaking him back and forth. I knew her weight would keep him pinned. A blaring siren was going off. We stood, ears covered in confusion for a long second.

 

“RUN!” Kane yelled, grabbing my brother and me by the shoulders and forcing us forward. We got into a stairwell, voices shouting, footsteps pounding. We slammed the door and ran down an opposite hall for another stairwell. This one was less used.

 

Abruptly the sirens stopped. My guess was that they'd either pinpointed the location of the siren, were checking the tapes for who they were looking for and were out to look for us, or that someone had short circuited the alarm system. I hoped the entire security system had been dismantled long enough for us to carry out our mission, but that was only a farfetched wish. Panting, running at a sprint, fueled by adrenaline, the three of us bounded down the steps. My bracelet picked up a signal from Mercy. Pulling up my hologram as I ran, I got a digital picture of the course she was running on a small map. Nodding, I sent her a voice response.

 

“Get to the base level! Don't head towards the hideout. Take the back door to the gardens,” Mercy ordered.

 

“We heard,” Kane panted, reading my mind. “Lead us Cale.”

 

Cale ran ahead, bursting through a door, people on the other end were rushing about, too frenzied and looking for us or hiding to even notice us. We dodged them, I staying as hidden as I could, wondering if half the people in this room could even recognize us from a line up. I was placing my bets on them not being able to. Cale sidestepped us into another hall, hesitating before going down to a series of doors along an endless hall.

 

“You sure this is where we go?” Kane asked.

 

“I think so,” Cale replied. “It's been a while since I was last down this way, so I'm not a hundred percent sure but….” Kane nodded and pushed him forward for encouragement. We walked along, all the doors looking the same. Everything was eerily silent; our footsteps were loud and resonating. Cale turned to a door, and tried the knob. It didn't turn.

 

I heard wet footsteps behind us, looking to see clawing imprints, much larger than the first set I had seen. Eyes wide I tugged on Kane's shirt, backing away, lost for words.

 

“What?” Kane said in clear annoyance. “What the hell is it Jean?” He looked at what I was pointing. “This isn't a time for games!” People were shouting down the hall, first on one end, then on the other.

 

“Dammit!” Kane swore loudly. Cale was trying his key, hands trembling as he tried to fit it in the lock. “Hurry Cale!”

 

“I'm trying,” my brother panted, nervous, blood rushing, heart pounding.

 

“They're going in room 1057!” a man shouted.

 

“Stop them!”

 

“Surround them!”

 

“Don't let them get away!”

 

“They're twins!” one man gasped. They were only meters away, on both sides. Cale bit his lip, blinking back tears. Kane hit the door in frustration.

 

I was paralyzed, the pace of the unseeing monster quickening, loping towards us like a charging bear, the sticky trail of liquid splashing along the walls in copious amounts. Trembling, I took a step backwards, knocked of balance, falling to the floor.

 

“Jalene,” Kane shouted, glaring at me. The key hadn't worked.

 

“Freeze,” a man shouted, pointing a weapon at me as the monster lunged for me. I had no intention of moving. Covering my head, cowering on the floor, I waited for the thing to land on me, but nothing did. Looking up, I saw that the water fluid was gone. Guards pressed in around us, grabbing Kane and Cale roughly, cuffing them, pulling me up, throwing us around, giving orders. I was terrified. In defense I lashed out, an animalistic fear wielding my body as a weapon, thrashing, kicking. I knocked two men out as others shouted, pinning me to the floor, an elbow was in my side, arms pressed forcefully against my chest. I could breathe, I couldn't see anything, they'd blindfolded me. I felt a needle in my skin, someone's weapon against my temple. I was a twin. They could have sent a few dozen amperes through my body, instantly killing me, sizzling my innards, making my flesh burn and boil, but it would have killed every person touching me, including the one who held the weapon.

 

With a burst of energy I jerked forward, causing several people to tumble off of me, straining against the pile of bodies that kept mounting. I screamed, in terror, in rage, in hate, before whatever they injected me with took hold on my brain, sedating me. I was half conscious as the people quickly bound me, dragging me along to some God forsaken place.