The Scottish Institute of Myth and Technology was a strange place, the reason it was built was unclear and the secrets that it hold were clearly dangerous enough for it be moved across an entire ocean so it wouldn't have fallen into the wrong hands. The mysterious blue man that they ran into only upped the puzzling nature of the place.
Miley, Catherine and Haven searched the entire second floor for a stairway leading down but they weren't able to find one. The only upside is that they haven't ran into another ghost. The dim blue hue of the area only serves to dilute the time even further, they hadn't been able to keep track of the time from the moment they entered the facility but now it felt like they've been in here for hours.
They've been going in circles, or squares, or pentagons, it was really hard to tell what shape the building was but it was clear that they were lost. The hallways were similar but different enough that the group had to second guess if they had been there before. They couldn't even find the stairway leading back to the floor above them, everyone was on edge as they continued to silently traverse this maze of a floor.
"It would be real nice if we could find a map or something that tells us where we are." Catherine broke the silence.
"How did any of these assholes managed to get around this place?" Miley complained.
"Maybe the Scots liked bleeding from their eyes..."
The blue lights were cool at first but started to become a headache as they were everywhere and overwhelmed any other colour on the floor, other than the complete darkness, making the hallways one continuous line of blue. A stomach growling broke the silence again.
"I think... I think I'm starting to get hungry." Haven said as he held onto his stomach.
"What do you mean you think? It's either your hungry or your not, right?" Miley stopped to look at back at Haven.
"I don't know, I just feel sick just being here... it's... confining."
"I know what you mean, everything feels the same here even the rooms!" Catherine opened another door and was greeted to an almost identical room as the last ones. "Every door feels like it leads to the same room... where are the stairs!"
"I fell like I'm going to starve to death in here." Haven sat down next to wall, defeated.
"Don't just accept your fate so quickly!" Miley pulled him back up.
"Aren't you worried that you might run out of energy?"
"No way, anything we eat gets converted into energy!" Catherine quickly explained.
"What?"
"Yeah, you've ever wonder why androids eat food when we could just fuel up at a recharging station?" Miley said.
"I thought it was to, you know, make you more human?"
"A little bit of column A and a little bit of column B." Catherine said. "I don't think it's limited to people food either, we could probably charge up by eating dirt."
"Cath, who the hell would want to eat dirt?" Miley opened another door only to find another similar looking room.
"It's fiiiine just turn off your tasting modules." Catherine turned to Haven. "Hey, you think we can eat you once you bite the dust? Assuming we're still lost and we run out of paper to eat."
"W-what?" The man slowly backed away from the two androids.
Miley slapped Catherine in the back of the head and went to reassure Haven that androids do not eat humans, living or dead.
"Ow... it was just a joke! Just trying to lighten the mood since we'll be stuck here for awhile since we can't find the... oh hey stairs."
There was a staircase symbol right next to a door, opening it revealed a stairway leading further down. It wasn't exactly what they were hoping for, their original plan was to go deeper into the facility to find its secrets but seemingly hours of wandering changed their minds. They wanted to leave and come back when they were more prepared.
"Should we go down?" Catherine asked the others.
Miley contemplated their next action, leaving the place would be a good choice but who knows when they'll find the stairs leading up and by going further down they can complete their original plan. The other problem is Haven, it would be troubling for them if he starved to death since he only brought snacks with him but if he rations it out he can stave off the hunger. Miley and Catherine can go for days without needing a recharge if all they did was walk, so there won't be a problem unless they have to keep fighting.
"Let's go and see what they were trying to hide so badly." Miley walked ahead of the two and began making her way down.
"This seems like a bad idea..." Haven sighed as he cautiously followed them.
Once they reached the third floor Miley took out her knife and scratched the wall next to the door.
"We'll use markings this time so we don't get lost."
As she finished making an X mark she turned around to check their new surroundings. One major difference was that there was actually lighting, everything was visible and no colour was dominant over the others. This came as a relief to their eyes. The reinforced metal walls looked like it hadn't aged a day and the floor looked pristine, it was as if something was cleaning it for the past century.
"This seems... modern." Catherine touched one of the walls. The facility was built before World War 3 yet it looks similar to present time architecture, in fact it was a little more futuristic, like it was a far offshoot of what could've been if humanity hadn't bombed itself back a couple of decades.
As the group walked up to a door it slid open and they walked through it. The room they entered had a cold look to it just like the hallways. It was a large room and in the center of it were 8 large glass tubes arranged neatly in rows and columns, the transparent glass showed that there was nothing in them.
"This sure is... spacious." Haven wandered around the room.
Miley walked up to one of the tubes to examine it further, there were interfaces next to each tube but she wasn't sure if she should press anything. One of the tubes had parts of its glass broken off but other than that nothing was really noteworthy about them.
"Hey!" Catherine shouted from across the room. "We got working computers over here, Haven come help me check it out!"
Miley's attention quickly fell back to the broken tube. She was sure that there was something to them, why else would they take center stage like this. If it was deadly gas she should have been able to detect it from the broken tube, it might have dissipated long ago once it reached the open environment so she couldn't rule it out completely.
As she peered into the broken tube something felt off about it, like she was staring at something that wasn't there. The more she focused on it the more uneasy she felt, her eyes tend to fail her but not at this range, not this close. Something compelled her to reach in, maybe it was her mind telling her that grasping at the nothing will reassure her or maybe it was some outside force asking her to reach out to them. Whatever it was, the moment her hand entered the tube she felt a slight stinging sensation that quickly made it's way up her arm. She pulled back as fast as she could but the sensation was now spreading across her body, at first it hurt like hell but after a few seconds it was just annoying and eventually it passed.
"Was that gas?" Miley tried to deduce what had occurred. She held the hand that entered the tube up but nothing was there. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!" She shouted at her missing arm.
"Miley are you okay?" Catherine ran up to the tubes to check on her.
"Of course I'm not okay! My arm has been disintegrated by some type of... super gas!"
"Miley?" Catherine looked around. "Where are you?"
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
"What? What do you mean? I'm right here! In front of you!"
"Uh..."
Miley looked down at her body and screamed again. Nothing was there, it wasn't just her arm that went missing. Catherine tracked the screaming down and bumped into something knocking her down, two thuds were heard.
"Cath! Cath! What the hell is going on?" Miley panicked.
"Miley I think you're a ghost!" Catherine got up and slapped the air in front of her hitting Miley across the face. "Not a very good ghost though since I can hit you..."
Miley scrambled up and hit Catherine in the arm. "Ghost. Aren't. Real. Also slap me again and I'm kicking your ass."
"Hey! I managed to find a layout of this floor and there's this really important looking room. I can lead you guys to it." Haven approached the two of them.
"Oh wow, look at you go super hacker!" Catherine congratulated him. "Anyways, Miley's invisible."
"Hacking wasn't involved I just fou- wait what?" Haven looked around for Miley.
"You're not going to find anything, I'm invisible... wait how do you know I'm invisible?" Miley asked Catherine.
"Well... you're not a ghost so the next logical explanation is that you've turned invisible."
"I... y-yeah I guess you're right..." Miley was thankful that she couldn't be seen because her face was probably bright red. She didn't detect any gas and there was no way gas could do this so something in the tube must have turned her invisible.
"Soooo should we get going?" Haven looked at Catherine and then to the empty space next to her.
"I'm actually over here- nevermind lets go." Miley tapped Haven on the shoulder, startling him.
Catherine led the way as Haven pointed her in the right direction. As they turn the final corner they ran into another blue man causing both Catherine and Miley to point their guns at it. Even Miley's gun was invisible making it harder to know if she was aiming it correctly, she could still feel the grip and stock of the gun.
"Hold up!" Haven said. "From the computer I learned what these things are, they're holograms."
On closer inspection the blue man was much more composed than the previous one, he lacked the static mist. In his hands was a broom and he made back and forth motions with it.
"Wouldn't it attack us like the one above did?" Catherine still had her sights on the hologram.
"Yeah and it physically was holding me up." Miley's invisible face was clearly angry.
"I'm not sure but the document said that they're not suppose to be hostile, it also said that they can interact with real objects." Haven explained.
"How does that even work?" Miley lowered her weapon.
"I don't know, it never explained."
"Are they even holograms anymore if they can punch me in the face?"
"I don't know, it's what the document called them."
"Hehehe those crazy Scots and their wacky tech." Catherine walked pass the hologram giving it a little salute before opening the door behind it. The two followed her but not without bumping into each other first.
The room they entered was spherical, their was a strange bowl-like object in the center, they couldn't make out the exact size of it but from where they were standing it appeared very large. Above the object were 4 large monitors each facing a different direction.
"You were right, this room seems kinda important..." Catherine took in the view from the upper level of the room.
They took the stairs down towards the object, passing by rows of computers and equipment. As they finally reached the bottom level, Catherine was the first to approach the object. Haven jogged towards a computer station that was hooked up to it.
"Woah, what do you think this is?" Catherine looked up at it. Very large was a poor description of it, now that they were in front of it they could see that this thing was ginormous, it was the size of a small house. The outward appearance of the object could be described as an aurora because the colours were in a constant state of shifting, it was a mixture of turquoise and purple that felt like they were slowly floating off the object. The texture was rough with spikes protruding off certain parts of it. Catherine circled the object hoping to find a way in.
"GUYS HOLD ON!" Haven shouted as he stared at the computer.
"What is it?" Miley said right next to Haven, spooking him.
"T-t-t-the Loch Ness Monster... it's here!"
"Really? In this room?" Catherine ran up to the other two.
"No it's in a room further down from this one, but... it's real, it's really real!"
Catherine and Miley looked at the monitor, it showed a picture of a skeleton of what appeared to be a prehistoric beast with a long neck, it was placed in a room with a weird pool of liquid.
"Holy shit." Was all that Miley could mutter.
"The professor is going to lose it once we show him this!" Catherine smiled.
As the girls were celebrating from the news, Haven scrolled down further.
"There's more..."
"Are you telling me there's more Loch Ness Monsters?" Catherine grabbed Haven's shoulders and looked at the monitor.
"No! But read this!" Haven highlighted a section of the file.
Catherine quickly read over it and squeed with excitement as she ran up to tell Miley, though she had trouble finding the other girl.
"I'm over here." Miley called out.
"Guess what we found out!" Catherine hopped over to the sound of Miley's voice.
"What?"
"The Loch Ness Monster..." Catherine briefly paused for dramatic effect. "IS AN ALIEN!"
"Oh... HUH?!?"
"That THING in the middle? That's the spaceship it used to get to Earth!"
"Cath... I don't know how to take this in..."
The facility, invisibility, holograms and now the Loch Ness Monster. Miley was having a rough day with all these revelations. Was this what the Scottish were trying to hide? Miley thought to herself. The good thing was that it tossed her preconception that all aliens were going to be reskins out to the trashcan.
Haven ran up to the two accidentally crashing into Miley knocking him into the ground.
"Are you okay?" Miley reached her hand out but Haven couldn't see it so he got up on his own.
"Y-yes. I'm fine but I found another thing out!"
"What is it this time? Are humans the real aliens?" Catherine said in anticipation.
"No, it's something about Miley's invisibility problem."
"So it is invisibility, can I turn it off or am I stuck like this for the rest of my life?"
"You're invisible because you touched a group of nanomachines that can bend light around them and they've linked themselves to you. It's like a, how do I describe this... a rain coat covering you."
"How do I get it off."
"So think really hard about getting the nanomachines off of you." Haven pointed a finger at his forehead.
"How hard?"
"Uh, really hard."
"How does it work? Like do the nanomachines detect my thoughts or do they-"
"Don't think about that, think about getting them off of you!" Haven cutted her off.
Miley closed her vision and hearing modules, the only thing she wanted to sense was the nanomachines getting off of her. A deluge of get the hell off me was sent from Miley in hopes that the nanomachines understood the message. She gripped her hands tightly and the onslaught of verbal abuse hurled at the nanomachines continued.
Suddenly, something tapped her right shoulder. She turned her modules back on to see Catherine slapping her and shouting that they can see her again.
"Miley! You're not dead!"
Miley looked at her hands, they were visible once more. She let out a sigh of relief.
"Thanks Haven, how'd you find out about the nanomachines."
"Oh the files had an in-depth description on them. Apparently, the Scottish were trying to copy the cloaking technology of the the Loch Ness Monster's spaceship for decades. They stole the nanomachine idea from it." Haven pointed at the bowl-like object.
"Really..." Miley looked back at her hands and moved them around. "Is there a way for me to become invisible again?"
"I think you just have to think really hard again." Haven answered.
"Where do the nanomachines go?" Catherine walked around Miley to see if she can find any trace of them.
"Around, I guess. They're invisible so..." Haven walked back to the computer but his stomach grumbling stopped him. He reached into his pocket to pull out a snack but came out empty handed.
"You out of food Haven?" Catherine asked.
"Yeah... I really should've ate breakfast this morning..."
"We should make are way out then, we can always come back. Let's follow my markings and hope we get lucky on the second floor." Miley made her way up the stairs.
"About that, I forgot to tell you but there's an exit on this floor. I found it on the map."
"What? So I did all that marking for nothing... well whatever, if this is faster then I'm all for it."
The group made their way towards the new exit with nothing really noticeable happening. When they reached their destination, they were greeted by a hallway that was vastly different from anything in the facility. The brown industrial look stood in contrast with the silver futuristic design of the third floor. While they could probably date when each floor was constructed, this new hallway appeared to be forcing it's way into the institute like a parasite.
"Are you sure this is the right way?" Miley turned on her flashlight as the hallway had no light and no power.
"It should be... but I didn't see this hallway on the map." Haven followed behind. "There was suppose to be an elevator here."
They continued deeper into the new area, fortunately it wasn't as maze-like in fact it was basically one straight lane with doors leading small rooms. The place smelled a lot similar to the first floor but wasn't as dirty. Their perseverance finally paid off as they reached the end, or so they thought. The end of the hallway was an underground dock with scuba gear laid all around.
"Are you telling me we have to swim up?" Miley checked a can of oxygen lying on the ground. "All of these are empty."
"Is there no other way?" Haven checked for any doors or elevators that might lead them to the surface. He met back with the rest once he scouted the whole area. "Damn it! Nothing."
"Shit... I guess we wasted time here thinking it would be faster, let's head back." Miley kicked over an empty oxygen container.
"And try our luck with the second floor?" Catherine said. "I think I know how to get us through."
"How?" Haven asked.
"See, my type is really good with water, It's like I can cut through it." Catherine pointed at herself.
"That's great for you but what about us? I can barely swim, can you Haven?" Miley looked at Haven as he shakes his head.
"Nah don't worry about that, I can carry you guys. All I need to know is the where the surface is so I'll head up first to get my bearings and I'll come back down to pick you up one at a time." Catherine confidently strutted up to the edge of the dock and tossed her gear on the ground. She then started to take off her clothes until all she had on was her inner wear.
Haven turned around to give her a little privacy. "Do... do we have to strip too?"
"What? No, I'm just making it easier for me to swim. Miley you should leave your gun here too unless you want to accidentally electrocute us." Catherine said as she tied her long brown hair into a ponytail.
"This is military property, we'll get in trouble if we just throw it away."
"We have a bunch of them at the base! And besides we'll eventually come back here and pick them up." After a few stretches, Catherine took a running dive into the dark water. Her head popped back out splashing the two bystanders. "Oh! And if I don't come back in a while, feel free to leave this place."
With that said, she soon disappeared again. All Miley and Haven could do was wait.