She could detect the strange wires and cables wrapping around her. The sensation was unimaginably strange, the fact that her vision was covered by darkness did not help the situation.
It was like she was passing the digestive tract of some ginormous creature. Passing through the mouth and going down esaphogus.
She could sense herself swaying in place like she was traveling within a ship at sea. She was making her way towards somewhere, she just didn't know where.
Titan was taking her somewhere, yet no clues as to where she could be heading to can be found within the darkness, while being surronded by worm-like and maggot-like wires squirming around her.
Grurp...
Finally, she seemed to have arrived at her destination as a strange popping sound echoed as she was plopped out into a new room.
She looked back and saw the tendril-like copper wires slowly close the walls back up.
With a blank expression, she rushed towards the already repaired wall and started banging the wall.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
After a series of fisticuffs with the wall, her blank expression started to warp, her originally brown pupils began to turn into a deep shade of red and purple. Her mouth began to silently curl slightly downwards as she started smashing the walls faster, stronger, and more aggressively.
Her gray hair started to grow longer and longer as they stiffened and creaked like tree branches. Her expression continued to slowly change until an expression of desperation was formed.
Under her relentless attack, dents, fist imprints, and cracks appeared within the wall panel, slowly copper tendrils began to seep and reveal themselves behind the wall.
[ Warning: Surronding Wonder Levels have now exceeded safety range...! ]
[ Master's Clock has sensed Wonder Corruption and has begun emergency cleansing... ]
For a moment, she lost control of her legs and her limbs. She fell onto the ground weakly and was paralyzed. She could feel something some type of flowing power being gathered into her throat.
Because of it, the mechanical girl began to realize that she was feeling... strange. In fact, her feeling anything was strange as a machine.
She had this feeling that made her desperate to move. She got the idea that she couldn't sit still. She simply just had to move. She felt that she needed to do something, but she wasn't sure what it was.
[ Master's Clock has identified weak Spectrum Wonder Derivative (SWD): Anxiousness. ]
[ Sensing Anxiousness has invaded and accessed dormant instructions, "Official Will." Beginning Removal... ]
Her throat, which mimics a human's throat, began to "cough" incessantly. The flowing power gathered in her throat was expelled as a magical purple and reddish mist that dissappated into the air.
The copper wire tendrils, that had appeared earlier, retracted after she ceased attacking the wall. The wall's dents and damage were still left, but there was little hope of escaping by breaking through the wall.
Spending the moment to recovering, after expelling the mist, she no longer felt anxious; returning back to her normal stable self. She began to survey her surrondings as soon as she could.
The room was not actually a room, but instead a small space with a low ceiling. The place was barely enough to allow her to jump in place. It was even more densely filled with pipes, gears, and mechanical devices than all the other room she has been in combined.
Due to how little space there was, the temperature here was high. The hot and humid steam billowing out from some of the pipes being a hazard for large organic lifeforms.
However, being a clockwork girl, she remained mostly unfazed and slowly looked around for a way out or at least to move forward. Yet, there was nothing.
Even if there were gaps leading to somewhere, they were far too small for her to even crawl.
It was a dead end. She supposed that Titan had purposefully placed her inside a room she could not escape out of.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
***
After spending over an hour, searching every knook and cranny for a way out, she came back empty handed.
Although unable to find a way out, she did find a couple dead rats in between some of the pipes...
Than suddenly, the walls opened up and revealed a tangled mess of writhing wires. The wires were like blood vessels and they wriggled crazily as something emerged.
With a plop, a cocoon of wires fell to the ground before retreating back into the wall. In its place was a strange new object.
The object had a dull brass horn and was attached to a old yet ornate box with no turntable for record players, but still had a crank on its side ready for turning. It had an antique-like air and felt particularly sophisticated.
It seemed like a modified old gramophone.
Driven by a need to investigate, she quickly approached the gramophone. She tapped on its surface and poked its empty tabletop.
There was no reaction, so she looked into the horn and found it to be empty, but she did find a engraving that spelled out "Keeper."
She moved on with her proding and pressed her hands against the gramophone and found that the texture of the gramophone's old base had some hidden scratches and scuffs.
She felt around the back and touched a round button, which she pressed. Immediately, a little rectangular door opened to reveal a slot for a disk similar in size to the CD she placed into her Master's Clock earlier.
As she was about to take out the CD in the Master's Clock, the gramophone's crank started to move on its own.
《 Playing "Test Recording." 》
《 Ober 3rd, Year 407. I am now 17 years old. Old enough for my father to set me a weekly allowance. I have decided to purchase new materials and make a gramophone from my previous life. 》
It was the voice of young boy in his teens. However, there was a hint of familiarity.
《 It seems I have been brought into another world. After all, there was no way such a clean atmosphere exists on earth... 》
There was a slight quiver as he spoke. The sounds of choking sobs came through the gramophone.
《 I wonder... how are my mother and father doing on earth? Why am I the only one brought here? 17 years... fuck. 》
Gasps and silent swallowing of tears seemed to echo out of the gramophone. After a couple minutes, the boy returned to his senses.
《 Shit. I want to get angry so bad. This damn heart disease following me goddamn everywhere, even in another world... 》
Than a scream of frustration and pain came through the gramophone. Than as if realizing he was still recording himself, he said in self-deprecation.
《 What a waste of a CD... 》
After a hollow chuckle, the boy said in a slightly better mood, having slightly recovered from his emotions of helplessness.
《 Keeper. That will be your new name. You are my first creation using my Ponderer ability. So please record my every word when I ask you to. I will have to make many CDs in the future. 》
《 End Recording. 》
The gramophone crank stopped moving. Than a red light appeared for a moment, before the crank started spining again.
《 Recognized Successor. Playing "For Anical Life." 》
《 Hah... 》
A old man's sigh resonated with the area. She immediately stood at attention without intending to.
《 Uary 4th, Year 1527. It has been over a 1,000 years ago since I made this first recording. How nostalgic.... It brings back some memories. Both good and bad. 》
The Master spoke with the vicisitudes of living an unimaginably long life.
《 Hello, successor. If you are seeing this, it could only be one of two ways. 》
The Master didn't stick to his feelings for long. Seemingly trying to avoid something.
《 One, you have somehow successfully completed my training program without trouble and have found my old gramophone several years after diligent management. 》
《 ...Or second, the more likely scenario that I envisioned. Titan has, for some unknown reason, confined you and other automatons into a dead end. 》
There was a momentary pause before he continued.
《 Suffice it to say, this is a challenge you have to overcome. For now, you just need to know one thing. You have to stop Titan by finding my body. 》
《 This is naturally an impossible challenge for you to accomplish alone. Titan is so much more than a security or managment system I created to look over the complex. It is my life's work over the last thousand years. 》
《 You'll need to find or free all the automatons you can find. A coordinated attack is required for this. Titan has control over the entire complex, but if she is acting out now, it means she... has been corrupted by my wonder. 》
《 You can take advantage of this. Machines corrupted by wonder will act irrationally and leave plenty of blindspots. Use these blindspots to infiltrate the Main Body and find me using my clock. 》
《 Additionally, if you see any other corrupted machines, shine the face of my clock on them. They'll return to normal if the wonder contamination is shallow, but otherwise, you will need to neutralize them. 》
《 Avoid confronting Titan. You will lose. The wonder corruption on Titan is no longer at the superficial level if she is acting out of control. 》
The Master said, without an ounce of hesitation. It was an objective fact, one that cannot be refuted.
《 You mu- 》
The Master coughed before he can finish his words. He entered a coughing fit and he coughed harder and harder, before he started hysterically laughing and the thuds of desks being smashed and stomps on the floor could be heard reverberating through the gramophone.
Than the sound of a slap came from the gramophone and the cackling ceased. The sound of heavy and intense breathing came through came through, before the Master took a deep breath and continued in a weak voice.
《 You must... find my body and retrieve my heart. Once you do, seal it inside you. Only you can do it. 》
Click...!
A compartment opened on the side of the old gramophone, revealing a black CD.
《 ...This CD grants you Master-Level permission throughout the complex. This allows you to override Titan's control of the live wire power grid. It also gives you a map of most of the complex. Use it well. 》
《 ...If I could, I would have liked to have given it to you after training you more, but... there's likely no time for that. 》
《 ...Consider the events that are about to take place as part of your new training arrangement. 》
《 I need to go rest... I will have to wake you up tomorrow... 》
《 In the future, if there is one, go through my diary and entries... they'll tell you everything I know. 》
《 I just don't have the time... right now. 》
The gramophone's crank stopped and silence prevaded the space. She stood in silence for a brief moment before stiffly picking up the CD and inserted it into the Master's Clock.
[ Instruction Added: Retrieve the Master's Heart and Seal it. ]
[ Recieved Master-Level Permission. ]
[ Unrestricted Authority to command Live Wire Power Grid (LWPG). ]
The mechanical stood quietly in front of the gramophone before clapping her hands, mimicking the mechanical jester that coached her how to move.
There was a short moment of delay before the walls started to shift, making an opening to reveal the writhing worm-like copper wires beneath.
[ Opening Internal Complex Map. ]
An enormous digital map of the entire complex opened before her vision. It was filled with countless living quarters, halls, maintence tunnels, vents, utility rooms, green houses, sewage plants, among many other needed infrastructure.
She looked around for a moment and had wanted to command the live wires to take the old gramophone back to a safe storage area, but realized that she couldn't.
It wasn't due to lack of permission, but rather due to her lack of comprehension and control. It was like when she was learning how to walk the first time.
Right now, she could only tell the wires to shift open the walls, but not anything else.
She didn't have any intuitive or instinctual sense for reality. Even infants had more pre-programmed instincts than her. She, for some reason, "felt" something missing inside her.
She conducted a quick self-diagnostic on herself and found nothing wrong with her. Physically, she was fine.
It was just the prompts going through her head of Titan being able to manipulate the live wires effortlessly made her... restless.
She had to practice. Now.