Driven by the insistent nudges of the robot’s appendages, Brock staggered through the doorway into an immaculately clean room. The door slid shut behind him with a quiet hiss, and Brock glanced around wildly.

One of the walls had a floor to ceiling mirror on it, reflecting a panicked face. After a second, Brock realized the stranger gaping at him was himself, and he stared in wonder. It was the same face he’d seen on the photo in Mikael’s cubicle. Wonderingly, he patted at it, but it didn’t change. He had a square jaw, a five o’clock shadow, and a shock of black hair that spiked out in hedgehog tufts.

It looked like the face of an action hero, or a grizzled warrior.

It did not look like Brock’s acne-spotted, round-cheeked face at all.

Tearing his attention away from the mirror, he examined the rest of the room. The other three walls were painted a spotless white, and both the ceiling and floor were a soothing light blue glass tile that evoked tropical water. As Brock looked closer, he realized the tiles actually had fish swimming in them, tiny orange and blue shapes darting to and fro amidst waving green fronds. Despite standing on an aquarium in miniature, however, his focus was diverted towards the cylindrical machine in the center of the room. It looked like a brass bullet pointed towards the ceiling, and an opening in its side beckoned ominously.

“Please enter the scanner.”

The coldly professional voice sounded like it was directly in Brock’s head, and he whirled in surprise. Nope. He was still the only person in the room.

A segment of the mirrored wall shimmered, then shifted into transparency, revealing two figures. One was seated behind a desk, fingers tapping on a holographic screen, while the other was standing behind her left shoulder, black eyepatch standing out against her lightly-tanned face. Brock recognized the standing one as Cap, but the one behind the desk was new. Her skin was so pale it seemed to glow, and her purple hair was held back in a tight ponytail. She lifted a hand in a brief wave, causing her large steel earrings to sway side to side, and a steel choker glinted around her neck beneath her white lab coat.

“It won’t hurt. Just need you to step inside.”

The voice still sounded like it was bypassing Brock’s ears, and he gawked at them.

“What... how... buh...”

“Look, just get in the damn scanner, okay?”

This time the voice was recognizably that of Cap.

“Tara!” The lab-coated woman didn’t bother to look up, as if this was a discussion they’d had many times before. “Protocol, yeah? Sekkies aren’t used to the direct bone induction speakers.”

Cap flipped her raven hair to the side, expression diamond hard.

“I don’t have time for this, Yuriel.” She pointed a finger at Brock. “Get. In. The. Scanner.”

Cowed, unable to resist, Brock shambled over to the bullet machine and stepped inside. Once he did, sapphire light rose up around him, and a low, throbbing hum filled the room, matching the strange thrum in Brock’s head.

“Scan initiated.”

Confused, Brock reached out his right hand to touch the strange blue light, but instantly pulled it back after receiving a nasty shock.

“Stand still. Scanning is in progress.”

The lab coat woman’s voice remained dispassionate, as if Brock was some squirming thing to be examined under a microscope. The bullet-shaped chamber began to rotate around him faster and faster until it seemed like he wasn’t enclosed at all, merely looking at the world through slightly blurry glasses.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“We’re fully releasing your Limiter.” Cap’s voice was tense. “Like I said before, if you try to escape, it’ll wipe you out of existence, so don’t do it.”

“I just updated the cleaning spells in that room, too,” the woman, Yuriel, added, “so I’ll be extremely upset if I have to do them again. Try to relax. You won’t feel a thing.”

She was wrong.

It hurt like hell.

Brock’s necklace chimed softly, and words like thoughts vanished from his sight as quickly as they appeared. In silent agony, he writhed inside the chamber.

“I told you, Yuriel. Saitama-class. And he’s not alone.”

For the first time, a flicker of interest sounded in the purple-haired woman’s voice.

“...impossible.”

“Look at those brain wave patterns. Look at the deltas! You can’t tell me that’s normal. Starak’s in there somewhere.”

“Impossible.”

“I know what I saw, and the system’s backing me up. Whatever this Sekkie is, he’s different. He didn’t wipe his host. Dammit, just look at that ultra skill name! It literally says it!”

“Impossible! You’re seeing things that aren’t there, Tara!”

“I’m Appraising him, I can’t see things that aren’t there, Yuriel!”

Brock felt like the pressure inside his head was going to split him in half. Without thinking, he raised his hands to his forehead. The sound of snapping restraints never registered.

“Unghhhh... what... stop...”

“What the hell-”

“-was that?!”

The pressure in Brock’s head disappeared and was replaced by the sensation of his brain exploding. Colors he didn’t know the taste of slammed into his skin like icebergs hitting tropical islands. Symphonies the texture of rainbows danced across his eyes, playing rhythms in self-referential time signatures following non-Euclidean patterns. Dimly, he was aware of his teeth chattering uncontrollably, like he was chewing on a live electrical wire. The room vanished from sight, followed by the rest of his senses. What replaced them was an overwhelming stream of mathematical symbols so concise they made him want to weep at their beauty.

He felt like he was staring into the soul of the universe.

“He’s reacting to the Appraisal! It’s gotta be that Adaptation skill! Shut it down!”

“The data I’m getting, Tara!”

“Dammit, that’s Starak in there, Yuriel! I’m shutting it down!”

“No!”

The band around Brock’s neck chimed.

Struck by the sudden whiplash in his body’s internal equilibrium, Brock tried to barf again, but his cramping stomach refused to produce anything worthwhile. Groaning, arms clamped around his midsection, he sank to his knees, his brain feeling like it was caught in a steel vise. Around him the bullet chamber slowed to a stop, the two figures still visible in the mirror beyond. It looked like they were ready to fight each other, battered black fatigues versus immaculate white lab coat, the pair face to face with fists clenched.

“This is my lab! How dare you!”

“That’s my fiance! Fuck your data!”

“Horrkkkkk...”

“The temporal markers in there-

“-don’t matter!”

“Bleuuurrghhh...”

“You don’t understand!”

“I’m one of the only people who can understand!”

“Gnrghhhhhh... graghhkk...”

“I need to scan him again!”

“He’s not leaving my sight!”

“...splort.”

Brock finally succeeded in evacuating whatever last tiny morsel of sustenance had evaded his earlier attempts, driven by the uncontrollable cramps sieging him, and finished his collapse to the floor. He was pretty sure Cap and Yuriel were still screaming at each other, but that ranked a distant third in his mind behind the unrelenting pain in his empty stomach and the sudden ache in his bladder. He felt weak and woozy, like he was about to pass out. If they didn’t find him a bathroom soon, one of his problems was going to solve itself.

“Excuse... me...” Brock moaned. “Is... there a... toilet near?”

“The cleaning spells will take care of it!” both women snapped, not missing a beat in their argument.

Brock let out a quiet sigh, and then finished slipping into unconsciousness, where one of his problems did, indeed, solve itself.