Slurp-Slurp.

In the shadows, a figure emerged, diligently licking its paw-like appendages while casting its gaze upon Alex. It scrutinized the surroundings, its eyes shifting to a luminous translucence as its mental faculties engaged in analysis.

“Calculating active time.” Ching.

ERROR “-, last known activity in frontier space star fleet—.” ERROR

“Data corruption. Priority 1: human contact. Priority 2: establish communication with the captain of the frontier division.”

Within the softly illuminated cavern, bathed in the glow of luminous minerals, the luminescence of the figure’s eyes dimmed.

“Newly registered host, first priority.” The figure looked at Alex.

Approaching the injured form, the figure mused, “My human is injured. Ruptured organ and blood loss. Hypovolemic shock imminent. Well, it seems I’m back in service once again. I had hoped this activation would be my last.”

The resonating purr of the creature reverberated through the air as its mechanical body gently stroked the unconscious Alex. The prone figure lay upon the rocky ground, an image of lifelessness, the earth beneath stained by small rivulets of his own blood.

“Vital signs in flux. C.A.T model HIW9998 acknowledges its master and will aid him until priority 2 is met.” The clanking of metal reverberated as the feet and body morphed into tools that started working on Alex, stripping his body as they worked on the damage.

Alex’s eyes slowly opened, and darkness was the only thing that greeted him. Suddenly, a light shone on his face from a source that pointed at his eyelids, causing them to open. Alex felt his body was too heavy to move or even make a movement. With no energy, he could barely even lift a finger. With a faint recollection of events. His heart raced with the possibility of danger. He just played it off as he was not being attacked to gauge the situation.

"Flarb nok zorx"

A figure lit up the surroundings with its light source. Alex saw a creature that he had never seen in his life. His eyes darted at the tech that the thing had on its arms and limbs. Its features resembled something he had never seen, but Alex couldn’t quite place it. Something was amiss. It spoke, yet he couldn’t understand it. Was there a language barrier? From the way it approached him, Alex thought to himself,

It didn’t harm me, did it? My injuries are-”

“Thraax yalx zixx?” the creature spoke.

Alex mustered what strength he could and touched his wound area. His critical wound was now sealed. He blinked and just stared at the creature.

I was in critical condition. How? And in this storm? And the cone-like thing Alex thought to himself.

“Just how? What are you?” Alex said, looking at the creature. Both of them stared at each other for a good minute. The creature stood on both feet, looking like it was staring at Alex as its head tilted sideways. While Alex was thinking about whether he was in danger or not.

Alex’s eyes lit up with fire and astonishment that he had survived. As he looked around the surroundings, he couldn’t see the cone that was in the center of the cavern. He observed that he was practically naked because his clothes were torn off, but that was just a mild concern at the moment. The breeze and temperature were very cold, and the noise of a hail storm echoed through the cave. But he was used to it. By thinking a little, he came to the conclusion that something had happened to the cone or this thing was the cone?

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Alex thought about it while sitting with his legs curled up. He became sure he was in no harm because the creature was just observing and wandering around him. Sometimes it even touched him with one of its legs, like it was swatting him. From what he had observed for the past hour, it didn’t make any harmful approaches. It just slowly made moves as if not to alarm him.

“It has intelligence, yet we can’t communicate. No one can enter a storm like this. No one could have actually found me here of all places. My wound healed from critical condition. It healed me. Either I’m making the stupidest move here or the most sensible one, let’s find out,” Alex thought.

Alex stood up and approached the small creature. The creature stood on its four legs. It was smaller in height than Alex’s kneecaps. The creature’s movements were precise and controlled. Its head was small with triangular ears that pivoted. From time to time, sharp claws extended from its paws. For some reason, it made Alex want to pet it. Before that, he concentrated as his prime tool materialized on his arm with some concertation to check if this creature was a registered species in the Zep-7 database. The eyes and body of the creature jolted up as it saw Alex working on his device.

It jumped on his shoulder and tried to touch his prime tool with its paws. Alex was a little astonished as he tried to swat the creature away, but its relentless assault on the prime tool made him just take off the tool. He gave up, thinking that even if it tried, it couldn’t do much to a level 7 tech.

“My prime tool is sturdy. What could a small creature do to it? Let’s observe,” Alex thought to himself.

The creature jumped from his shoulder and approached the prime tool that had been dropped. With some cords and wires that emerged from its tail, the cord flew into the device as it broke the device into pieces, with some sticking to it like it was a needle. Alex screamed after seeing his precious prime tool being splintered.

“Fuck! Why did you need to destroy my prime tool?” he ranted as he ran towards the cat, but a hologram materialized from the prime tool with a message.

“Hello Alex, I’m CAT. You’re Cybernetic Android Tabby,” the message read.

The creature’s facial features twisted as Alex watched it. It looked like a smile, no matter how much Alex denied it wasn’t. The cords went back into its tail and body. For some reason, Alex felt like the cat was saying, “I’m not just any ordinary cat, I’m a CAT-astrophe!”

Alex became tense as the thing that called itself CAT had a change in demeanor. Its eyes became cold like it was looking at its prey. It slowly made its way towards Alex, which made him step back in fear. Alex knew there was something off about the cat creature. It had bio-tech beyond anything he had ever seen. Alex wasn’t sure before, but now it felt like his life might be in danger.

“Don’t run away, I just need to check,” the cat said.

Alex heard the cat talk in the same language as he spoke.

This thing is not just smart, it’s terrifyingly adaptive and I feel like I am in danger. My prime tool is destroyed and in pieces. I need to run, NOW! Alex thought to himself.

Without a second thought, he tried to sprint in the opposite direction, trying to flee from the creature. Yet as he made his first step, he felt like he had stepped on liquid. Alex looked at the liquid that had just grabbed his ankle with such strength that he couldn’t break free. The liquid started to climb onto him as if he was being slowly engulfed in it. Alex tried hard to break free but only managed to get two steps in before he tripped onto the ground.

“What do you want from me? Wait, let’s talk!” Alex tried to reason with the being, yet his talk fell on deaf ears. The cat looked like it was becoming an organic, sliver-like puddle as it looked at Alex. Its red eyes beamed at Alex, staring into him.

“No!” Alex screamed.

The sliver-lined liquid slowly enveloped Alex as he struggled to get it off, yet nothing worked. No amount of force made it slip from his body. It slowly enveloped him until it covered everything. The cat-like figure watched, taking his final breaths as he was fully enveloped in the liquid that was the cat itself.

----------------------------------------

Meanwhile, in Daxion city, Gobo clung to a device shaped like a slim touch screen that displayed names as he paced around his shop.

What’s taking so long? We don’t have time. Alex is in danger

Gobo thought as anxiously expected something as he glanced at the hologram of Alex playing with a distorted image. It had been 5 hours since he left.

Suddenly, the front entrance burst open as a group of people barged in, fully equipped with gear and armored suits tailored for extreme environments. Their bulky exteriors were powered by advanced tech as they piloted their armor suits toward Gobo, their footsteps echoing on the metal floor. The suits were massive, towering over Gobo at nearly 9 feet tall, with intricate designs and advanced weaponry built into their frames. Rody approached from the back as his suit opened up with a hiss.

“Sir please fill in as we go. Due to a strange phenomenon, the eye of terror storm is completely gone from the face of the planet. You mobilized all of us with heavy gear. What happened?” Rody asked with his eyes and face showing concern

“Alex. He had gone into the Eye of Terror. That reckless kid. Something seriously bad has happened. We are going on a rescue mission. I didn’t want to ask this much of you,” Gobo said as he hung his head low. He felt like he was asking too much of them. Desperation had gotten the better of him.

Everyone let out a sigh as they looked at Gobo.

“Sir, you gave us another chance at life. We all had our own circumstances, yet you gave us a chance to make a living. It’s not much, but we want to repay our debt. I believe we owe you that much,” Rody said.

“Let’s move! We need to act fast before the authorities try to check on the area. I just lost contact with Alex a few moments ago,” Gobo said with determination in his voice that was met with a resounding

“SIR!”

“Check your tools and gather all the firepower we can carry. We might need it. Ready the ship and get to it!” Gobo shouted out loud as he pressed a few buttons on his device. With a whirring sound, a massive suit materialized on the platform he was standing on - an armor suit 9 feet tall that he thought he would never lay hands on, yet here he stood.