This chapter details the trial of Mika on the fifty-second floor.
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Floor 52
Her First Trial
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When they appeared on the next floor Mika had already put her hands to her hips. A sense of foreboding hung about the group, as across their vision a rolling ocean of white fog moved. If there were any dangers inside it they wouldn’t know until it was too late.
Next to her Lisa let go of the shell’s hand. “So what do we do here, you’ve never explained that one,” Lisa asked of their father.
There was an awkward moment of silence, one that caused Mika to worriedly look at the shell. In their tests on the lower floors they’d had no issues crossing through the portal, but if the black drone had stopped working they’d need to retreat.
The head of the shell turned to look at the two of them, and then her father's voice came from the machine, “You’re going to have to find that out yourselves. Good luck.”
It was a response that brought about a moment of panic for Mika, yet when she tried to speak the world around her swirled. The white fog that’d so calmly lingered below her waist flowed skyward. Mika closed her eyes and raised her arms up defensively, while crying out in surprise.
“Jan, what’s the matter?” asked a deep masculine voice from next to her.
With the new voice right next to her Mika jerked away, at which point she realized she was now seated. She lowered her arms down, her one hand straying to her waist for the wire sphere.
Gone was the field of white fog, instead Mika was inside some type of rectangular box. The box contained five chairs, one of which she was on. A strap of some type ran from behind her right shoulder across the front of her shirt, and all the way down to her left hip.
“Jan?” came that voice again, and as Mika turned her head she realized it was a man she’d never seen before.
He wore a black shirt with long sleeves, and he had black gloves on his hands. His pants were also black, held up by a black belt with no visible buckle, and combat boots completed his ensemble. On top of his head a black cap of some type obscured most of his light brown hair.
Mika was about to ask who he was when she realized the holder for her wires was gone. Inside the darkened interior of the box she pawed at her waist and looked down, only to realize that her clothing had also changed.
“What’s going on here?” Mika muttered to herself.
“Jan,” the man next to her said again as he put his left hand on Mika’s shoulder, “are you going to be okay for this?”
A hint of understanding began to dawn, and as Mika turned to look more closely at the man she realized another fact. Behind him was a window, and the world outside of it flowed. The box she was in was moving.
“Alex, I think there’s something wrong with Janet,” the man next to Mika said.
Ahead of where she was seated a woman on the right turned to glance back. “I don’t care. We’re going through with this.”
“But what about Jan?”
“Look, we’ve only got one shot at this before they turn it on,” Alex said, “so push comes to shove she can stay in the sled.”
“But it’s Janet!”
Alex turned to glare back at the man. “How many did we just lose? Everyone? Stop worrying about your wife and focus on the mission.”
Mika glanced back and forth between the two as she tried to calm her nerves. It was obvious she was supposed to be this Janet person, but she had no clue where she was. Her father and sister were gone, her body had changed, all of this was beyond anything she’d heard about before.
That was when she turned her head to the left and realized there was a window next to her. Outside the world was unlike any she’d encountered so far. Cylinders rose up to the sky, lights streaming along their length and casting illumination over the nighttime landscape. A white moon was half-obscured by vast objects that hung freely in the sky.
“What floor is this?” she wondered aloud, and then reached up to touch her own lips. The voice that’d emerged hadn’t been the one she’d expected.
The box around Mika shuddered, and when she glanced at the window the landscape no longer whisked by. “We’re stopping?” she asked of the man next to her.
The man gave her an odd look, but then he reached down and touched a button near his window. The side of the box he was on slid open and he slipped out. At the front of the box Alex did the same thing.
Mika reached down to her own side of the box and found the button they’d used. Once she pressed it the wall slid open and she climbed out, her feet touching cold ground. She looked at the ground as she realized it wasn’t merely dirt or rocks, but something else that was smooth.
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“Shichi killed everything after he disabled the backup,” Alex said as she went to the back of the box and opened it, “we have about ten minutes before the military moves in.”
Mika followed her to the back and saw an assortment of rifles, pistols, and other types of items she couldn’t recognize. Alex picked a sleek rifle out of the pile and tossed it to Mika, and then pulled one out for herself.
Mika caught the rifle, her eyes tracing the weapon as she tried to figure out how it worked. It seemed similar to many of the types that her father used, but it didn’t seem to have any type of crystals embedded in it.
“Oz, just like we said no mercy,” Alex said to the man who was with them.
The man named Oz picked out two pistols and tucked a third into his belt. “I know, because they’re just going to try and talk us to death.”
Alex gave a nod to him. “And if they turn it on with how they programmed it, Shichi’s said it’ll be too late.”
“Turn what on?” Mika asked, as she continued to struggle with this odd setting the labyrinth had thrown at her.
Her two companions looked at her like she was insane, and Alex half-raised her rifle in Mika’s direction. There was a moment as the two glanced at each other, and then Alex let out a sigh and walked away.
“Come on, Janet,” Oz said to her as he motioned with one pistol in the direction that Alex had gone, “I know you’re nervous and all but don’t fall apart on us. I need you.”
Mika looked to where Alex was heading and saw a large black silhouette. It was some type of building, but it was taller than any building she’d ever seen in her life.
She snapped out of her state of awe when she realized Oz had followed Alex. Mika ran after the two, trying to keep her rifle aimed at the ground in case it went off accidentally.
When they reached the building she paused outside of it, even as Alex and Oz darted through the black hole which was the front entrance. On the right side of the doorway was a big sign with letters she could easily read.
“Laboratory Upsilon?”
For some reason when Mika spoke those words she felt a chill run down her spine. She shook her head, trying to discard the sensation, and ran into the building after Janet’s friends.
The interior she entered was at least forty feet tall, with visible balconies that overhung the spacious entryway. To her right was a table and to her left were numerous chairs of an unknown material.
“Alex get back!” yelled Oz from somewhere ahead of Mika, and with those words she tried to find him.
The pair had found a door offset from where the table was, though only Oz stood next to it. A few seconds later Alex ran back through the door, an explosion bursting to life in her wake.
Oz leaned into the doorway and fired his pistols into the dark, an action that Alex followed soon after with her rifle. “How many tin cans do they have guarding this place!” Oz hollered.
“This isn’t going to work,” Alex said as she slipped a magazine out of her rifle and put a new one in.
Mika approached the pair, though she stayed clear of the open doorway. Though she didn’t know what or who was beyond bullets had started to fly through it, and she had no idea how durable her new body was.
“Isn’t there another way to get where you want to?” Mika finally asked the two.
Her question caused the two to stare at in her, and then Alex let out a loud laugh. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that,” she admitted as she raised her right hand to her jaw, and then her fingers dug into her jaw, “Shichi turn the lobby elevator on.”
A few seconds later the wall beneath the balconies lit up, and Mika saw a door slide open. She needed no urging from the other two to run for it, and by the time she reached it Alex had just stepped inside.
It was after the elevator doors closed that Mika realized something was odd. She’d ran into it without hesitation, along with two people she didn’t even know. Mika looked down at her body, and began to wonder if it was Janet that’d controlled her in that moment.
There was a slight lurch as the elevator began to ascend. Alex and Oz reloaded their guns, their focus not on Mika but rather what was next to come.
The tension became almost palpable within the elevator as it continued to climb, and when the machinery stopped Mika’s two companions glanced nervously at each other. Even Mika couldn’t help but raise her rifle and aim at the door, as a shiver of anticipation tickled her.
That was why when the door opened and revealed a mysterious white figure Mika shot before she even though. The bullet the gun discharged pierced the center of the humanoid shape, and it staggered back due to the impact.
A flat face lifted to look at Mika, and a type of camera embedded on the front whirred audibly as it focused on her. Only then did two hands lift up, each one holding some type of pistol that she couldn’t recognize.
Oz’s pistols roared to life as he unloaded every bullet he had into the robot. The machine staggered time and again with each hit, and then finally collapsed to the floor.
“Can’t just do it once, Jan,” Oz said as he snapped a fresh magazine into each of his pistols, “the secroids will just shrug it off otherwise.”
Alex peeked out the elevator doors, and then she slipped out into the t-section of two hallways. She knelt down next to the immobile robot, beckoning with one hand to the others.
When Mika and Oz joined her in the hallway the lights above them flickered on. The once darkened area turned a brilliant white, the spotless condition of the walls and floors only marred by the oil that leaked from the robot.
“What! That was too soon,” Alex growled, and then she gripped her jaw, “Shichi what’s going on?”
A few seconds passed and Alex’s face started to turn red with rage, and then she stood up. “He didn’t respond,” she informed Mika and Oz.
“It doesn’t matter, the machine should be on this floor,” Oz said as he glanced at the three directions to choose from, “but where?”
Mika raised her free hand at that question, which drew the pairs attention. “If I was going to store something important I’d put it in the center of the floor.”
The two looked at each other, and Oz gave a shrug. “It’s as good an idea as any. You two go first, I’ll hold the elevator.”
“Why do you need to do that?” Mika asked, but Alex grabbed her hand and started to drag her away.
As they walked down the hallway they passed what looked like doors, each of which were completely transparent and had no latches or hinges. Every door they went near gained a red tinge, but Alex paid no attention to it.
Ahead of them a single door remained, one that wasn’t transparent but instead made of metal. From out of the wall next to it two robots similar to the one near the elevator appeared. They slowly turned their heads in the pair's direction, mechanical hands lifting to point at them.
From a pouch at her hip Alex pulled out a cylinder, and with a quick flick of her arm she threw it at the robots. Before the cylinder reached them she turned and leapt at Mika, dragging her to the floor.
An explosion filled the hallway when the grenade hit one of the robots, and chunks of metal were scattered everywhere. Mika felt Alex wince, and when she looked over her shoulder a large piece was visibly stuck in her.
Alex coughed, a bit of blood dripping from her mouth, and she struggled to stand back up. Mika rose from the floor, and then helped Alex even as she surveyed the damage done.
The robots were completely gone, as well as parts of the white walls on both sides. The metal door had been thrown into the room beyond.
“Come on!” Alex said as she tried to walk forward, but without Mika to support her she struggled.
Mika shook her head, trying to figure out exactly how hurt Alex was. “You need to rest, you need help right now.”
“Why don’t you get it!” Alex roared at Mika as she pulled her in close with one hand, “Janet, they made a weapon without limits or controls! We need to get in there now!”
Any further discussion was disrupted by the sound of metal being crushed, and both of them turned to look at the now open doorway. A single slim leg had extended into view, and the bare foot attached to it had crunched down on the metal.
“It’s too late,” Alex said as tears started to form in her eyes, “everyone died for no reason!”
Mika looked at her, and then at the person who’d slowly emerged into the hallway. There was something familiar about the face, and behind the slim body extended out multiple pairs of white wings. A golden object hung in the air above the person’s head, one that Mika knew all too well.
Mika’s rifle dropped to the ground as her hands lifted in the direction of the woman before her. It was when their gaze fell upon Mika that her hands retracted, and for a brief moment she doubted what she was seeing.
Before she could ask a question the world in front of her turned to fire. The flames surged down the hall, devouring her body, and for a brief moment all she felt was the heat of it. Then the fire was gone and instead it was replaced by fog, a cool mist that lathered her body and seemed to almost cradle her.
A second later she was near the portal, and on the fifty-second floor again.