“Where am I?” I asked myself as I woke up. “What happen… Ahhhhhh!” I cried out, searing pain, like daggers skinning me alive, exploded through my body. After what seemed like an eternity of sheer agony, i took a deep breath as the pain started to dissipate.

          “What the hell was that?!” I screamed as the pain finally faded.

          “A side effect of the bonding would be my guess.” Shadow responded.

          “What bonding, what is that, and where am I?” I asked; looking around the spartan metal box i was in shining green under the soft light of the glowing lumen orb. A simple cot was the only other object in this prison I found myself in.

          “What is this place?” I thought.

          “This is a holding cell” Shadow said, “We were brought here while you were unconscious and I couldn’t do anything to stop them from moving us.”

          “Wait, what is going on?,” I yelled “I can’t seem to remember anything and… and... wait, what do you mean by our body?”

          “Do you not feel different?”  Shadow whispered, “Look at your arms, or legs or any other part of our body, don’t you notice anything different?”

          I pulled the lumen orb from the sconce set in the wall and I looked at myself under the cool light of the orb. Everything seemed normal, but I could tell something was off. Drawing my arm closer I could see lines, raised bits of flesh along my arm. Frantically, I looked to my legs and saw the same raised lines of flesh, though unlike my arms Those were growing and I watched in horror as they progressed down.

          “What is That?!” I screamed; clawing at my arms, causing bloody furrows along my flesh.

          “Stop!” Shadow commanded, as blood started to run down my arm, “You’re hurting both of us. Just calm down and think for a second.”

          “What do you mean I am hurting both of us? YOU aren’t even here, are you? You’re just some person talking from some other room through speakers.” I yelled at the walls. “Come, face me, and explain what is going on!” I screamed

          “I can’t unless you call for me.”

          “What? You want me to say, ‘Come forth Shadow’ or some junk like that?” I gruffly replied. At that moment my skin started to writhe. A dark gray metal started to seep from the ridges on my skin, small patches appeared all over my body. It felt like ants crawling along my skin. “What is this stuff?” I called out, “and where are you ?”

          “I am here inside of you; at least I’m pretty sure.”  Shadow said in a whisper, “I am that metal and more growing in our body. However, I don’t know much more than you do. I only know a little that I have been able to deduce from the people around here and the brief flashes of memory that touch me from time to time. Though, I can take the pain away.” Saying this, the crawling feeling vanished in an instance.

          “What is this,” I asked, “and what are you? what have they done to me… I mean us?”

          “I do not know anymore then you do. I have only heard snippets from the men that dropped us here before lowering this wall around us. Though it made no sense to me… but it is bound to be interesting.” Shadow replied.

          I examined the cold, smooth patches of metal before it sank back into the ridges of my flesh. Strange sounds of creaks and groans started to filter into my metallic prison, as time wore on I watched the ridges of flesh spider across the rest of my arms and legs as the thing under my skin grew. It wasn't until it was almost complete that a thought came to me.

          “Shadow,” I muttered, “do you know how long we are supposed to wait in this cell?”

          “No clue.”

          “Well that’s just great.” I said, before lying back down on the cot.

*****************************************************************************

          “Oh… well I am getting out of here.  Shadow, how do I make the metal skin come out?” i suddenly stated.

          “Why should I know, do exactly what you did last time?” shadow responded

          “What did I do last time?” I thought to myself.

          “You said, and I quote, ‘come forth shadow’ and, I might add, not in the most pleasant of manners” shadow quipped.

          “Stop reading my thoughts!” I yelled.

          “I cannot help it, your thoughts and your words are the same to me; I cannot differentiate between the two.” Shadow angrily responded, “it does not matter just continue with what you were saying slash thinking”

          “Anyways, let’s try to bring the metal skin out now. Come forth shadow.” With that phrase, my skin started to itch as patches of black metal flow out like water, but there was a new color added to the twisting flow, a dark blue flowing from my forearms to take up residence along the top of my hand flowing into a honeycomb of blue metal that extended from the middle of my forearm to cover my whole hand. When the metal stopped flowing I noticed that there are still patches of exposed pink skin dotting my arms and legs; where the metal did not cover, the pink skin stood in stark contrast to the black and dark blue metal flowing over most of my slender frame.

          I stood up from the cot that I have been resting on and moved to one of the smooth walls, which were imprisoning me, and pulling back my fist I threw a punch at the wall. That punch, which seem of its own volition, sprang forth like a snake striking its chosen prey, it slammed into the wall where the metal flexed and tore before my assault. I then tore open a hole revealing a hallway of the same green metal that  stretched in both directions. i stepped into the hallway not bothering to avoid the metallic shards lining the edge of the hole.  

          “That was easier than expected.” shadow stated, “well we should go left, that is where they dragged us from before they dropped us in the room, hopefully that is the way out there”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

          I started walking down the hallway as shadow suggested peering around cautiously at every turn, but everywhere I looked, all I could see is more of the green metal and sconces with lumen orbs in their cradles. After walking for what seemed like a half an hour I came up to a solid door made of a stark black metal with silvery streaks running down the door.  I Walked up to the imposing dark door and saw a white slip of paper stuck on it. I ripped it off the door and it said,

          Congratulations on figuring out some of the abilities of your suit and for making it this far. Sorry about having you wonder around the base but Now here           comes the hard part. As you might have noticed there is no one in that section of the base, this is on purpose while you figure out the specifics of your suit.           The machine changes based on the person and could turn out very dangerous for anyone in the area, so this door won't open till you have the suit is fully           grown. That being said you’re probably very hungry and, I’m guessing, you look rather gaunt. We have left some food laced with different metals that the             suit can use down the hallway to the left and through the door marked with ‘dining hall’. We’ll tell you over the base intercom when we wish to meet with              you and where you should go from there. Have fun.

          P.S. Don’t break any more of the base’s walls, someone has to fix them.

          “Well that’s why no one is around.” Shadow stated, “But this note makes me wonder if they know about me. Well, nothing we can do about it now. How about we go to get something to eat?”

          After a short walk following the directions on the sheet, we made our way to a room with a black door with an etched brass plate that was crookedly on it. The plate read: “Dining hall”. Just as I was about to open the door,

          “Wait! I don’t like the look of this, Shadow spoke up,  Take a closer look at the plate it seems off.” Taking shadows advice, I look closer at the plate and notice that the plate is just stuck on the door. I pulled off the plate and underneath etched in the black metal itself the words, “Reactor fuel storage: mag suits required in room” were revealed.

          “Good job for noticing that, that could have ended badly.” Moving to the side of the door, In a moment of stupidity, I wanted to check if there was some mistake. so I punched the green wall and unlike before the metal only had a small dent. “Well this tells us that you are right; there must be a stronger metal behind this wall. So, let’s go back down the hall to the other door.”

          Going back down the same hall I come up to door made of polished bronze. I look at it closely and notice that there was a square indentation of metal that was missing, which, I guess, is the plate I ripped off the other door, should have gone. Opening the door I see a table with a platter of different foods set on a wooden table.  “Shadow, what do you think, is this also a trap like the door down the hall or was that just some mistake?” i asked giving them the benefit of the doubt.

          “I don’t know, but we should be careful. maybe it was a mistake on their part, but that would be a pretty big mistake. I feel there is more going on than they are letting on.” She said gravely, “but there is no sense staying here so let's move on.”

          Carefully I crept up to the table going to inspect the food and, I caught something white out of the corner of my eye. Hidden behind some strange grapes was a small piece of paper. This note had different handwriting than before, written in a spidery script was,

          They’re trying to kill you, so they can take the unlocked suit growing in you. Take a left out of the room and walk toward the main door, turn left and                      break through the wall. There will be a pile of metals that the machine should be able to absorb  to complete the rest of its systems. After that take another           left, go down the hall and you should see a large blue door, with warning symbols covering it. I want you to break through,  be careful as you are under a           mile of ocean you need to keep walking forward and you should reach the shore in no time.  Good luck.

          -The Bug in your ear.

          “What do you think, should we trust this note rather than the other one?” I asked shadow, wondering what to do with the second note

          “I don’t know whom to trust, but we do know that someone tried to kill us. Let’s see if this note is any better,  and find out if this pile of metal exists.”

          I Walked back to the black door, and followed the directions to place indicated in the note. I easily punched through the wall. I teared an opening for my metallic self and entered the dark room. In the corner of the room on the room I found the metal just like the second note said. I walked over to the pile of metal glittering under the light of the new ’door’ and I reached out to touch it, hoping the metal to rush up my arm but nothing happened.

          “Now what am I supposed to do?” I cried. I stared at the metal for almost an hour trying to figure out what it meant by ‘absorbing the metal’.

          At that point Shadow piped up asking, “Do you have the first note from the door?”

          “Yes.” I replied.

          “Did it not say something about food laced with metals to finish the suit? Maybe you have to ingest the metals..”

          Rereading the note, I saw that shadow was correct “How am I to eat all this metal?” the thought flittered through my mind.

          “Well,” I said loudly,  “why don’t I do the crazy, and probably not correct thing,  and just take a bite and see what happens? What is the worst that could happen?”

          “Our insides could be torn apart and we would die…” Shadow bluntly replied.

          Ignoring Shadow’s comment I tried to take a bite out of the black metal in the pile, but no matter how hard I tried I could not even put a scratch on it. Giving up ,my mouth a little sore, I finally withdrew the suit into my body and flopped down on to the  floor. Only a few minutes passed before  I fell into the quiet embrace of sleep.

          I woke up a few hours later, In that dark room no closer to finding out what was going on than before.

          “Have a nice nap?  ”Shadow asked.  “I have been busy, as you might be able to tell.”

          Looking around the large pile of metal was gone “What happened?” I asked in amazement “Did you figure out how to absorb it?”

          “Well, eventually it got inside us… you just needed a little help.” shadow replied.

          “How, did you absorb them when i couldn't?”.

          “I’ll tell you later… now bring out the suit I want to see the improvements” Shadow eagerly stated.

          “Did you use the suit while I was out cold?”

          “Yes, but It deactivated itself about 20 minutes ago, right before you woke up.”

          “Come forth Shadow.” I called and at that moment something different happened. Instead of teh maddening itch that had accompanied the suit release, this time something different happened. Instead I felt a slight pressure under my skin like water wanting to burst out. I looked at my body and I watch, fascinated by the metal flowing over my skin. The previous gray and the dark blue and now with wisps of orange and red, I could feel the metal as it started to harden around my body. I started to panic as i felt the metal slowly trickle and creep down from behind my ears and take position over my eyes and mouth.   Blinking a few times i was surprised it was not the black or the other colors of metal that was slowing flowing over my eyes, but this was clear like fine crystal distoring the darkness around me as it flowed over my eyes. It only took a minute before I could felt the flow of metal slow down and consolidated over my face and the rest of my body. I was excited wondering what I was going to look like but then came the pain. A lancing pain that seemed to flow through my whole body. It was so intense that I fell to the ground in sheer agony, my ears ringing, the feeling of fire washed over my skin as my vision started to fade. I wished that death itself would come to take me to escape the pain. Then it stopped as suddenly as it started and I regained my senses and immediately noticed what it had done to me. I could see as plain as day in this dark room. I could hear the slight creaking that was inaudible to me before.

          “Shadow” I called “what just happened to me, this is amazing… “

          “Shadow... are you there?” there was no response, “Shadow !” I screamed as I felt uneasy emptiness that I couldn’t remember feeling before.

          I felt alone.