As the party meandered through the forest, one member stumbled into trees and tripped over rocks while the other could be seen a few meters to the front looking back and flinching at every crash and bump.
Rex, now lightly bruised in many places, grew angry and got ready to explode, both literally and figuratively. His back muscles twitched in anticipation of a shower of deadly shards to destroy any conceivable obstacles within the general area.
It just so happened that Seeker looked back just before he showered the landscape. Brilliant shimmering wings rose from behind the half-bowed figure, catching light and glittering. Each feather glinted to accentuate their razor edge.
Seeker started. “Rex… Um… Could you please, um, put those away, please?” She carefully danced around the imperative, in the hopes that this would save her from his anger and save her a place away from his list of obstacles. She had guessed his purpose from the deadly shards poised for launch. Although her worry was palpable, her face was stoic.
Rex turned his head to face Seeker in a show of politeness. “Why.” This did not sound like a question but was instead perfectly deadpan with a hint of anger. He was generally angry from walking repeatedly into the obstructions of nature.
Seeker fumbled about for an answer. “It, um, makes me nervous…scared. And, um, the townsfolk, they uh, they might… feel the same way.” She spoke in monotone jolts that still managed to convey fear. This was not just an excuse, as the townsfolk might collapse completely if they saw the living liquid that took their neighbors, and their children, away in the night.
She understood now that Rex did not completely control the liquid to do the things it did, as he snatched up a bird without even meaning to, being scared of the small animal even. With that said, there was no way the townsfolk would be able to see Rex as anything better than a child-eating monster. She wasn’t sure if he was better than that, but she chose to believe in his moral compass. She hoped this was not a mistake.
Rex sighed and shook his wings. They collapsed to the ground silently and sloshed back into the holes on his upper torso. She has a point, he thought. He was a little scared himself of what these things could do. What they did do. He knew something bad had happened when he was controlled. He just didn’t know what had happened when he had escaped.
Seeker closed the distance between the two. Rex guarded himself with his arms. This time, however, the creature he was guarding against did not die. In fact, all Seeker did was hold out her hand.
She had a bit of an internal struggle before doing so. He needed someone he could trust. She shook, made up her mind and tentatively continued to stretch out her hand.
She waited for a moment before sighing and grabbing on of Rex’s hands and hoisting him up. He flinched. He’s not completely evil. He is just scared. Fear with great power is a bad combination. She softened her gaze imperceptibly.
Seeker offered her shoulder to Rex. She would guide him and show him the new culture that he could not see. Her hometown was just the first step. Sure, she felt bad leaving the townsfolk without revenge or closure and with broken households, but really, what else was she supposed to do? Let this dangerous death trap stumble blindly about until he gets angry enough to decimate something or someone that someone else cares about. Over her dead body. Rex was coming with her.
She also had the benefit, if she could get him to recognize her as trustworthy, that a powerhouse that could destroy an entire town would be following, relying, on her. She wouldn’t have to settle debts or deal with thieves or pestering scammers. Once she got over the massive hurdle of trust, she would have him at her beck and call. She would follow his commands and be his friend. Then, maybe a ruin or two and she’ll have enough money to live in comfort, no, opulence for the rest of her life.
I’ll be running a thin wire, she thought, but I’ve run on thinner…I think. She was adept at convincing herself, a trait well suited to jobs with a chance of horrible death. It eliminated middle ground, so every move was a gamble. The corpse rolling was a fair example of this. The insidious fear of those luscious wings and that weak body would be harder to remove, so her plans remained only plans for now.
Seeker made up her mind to be a friend. She always thought in terms of gains and losses, for better or for worse. It helped her climb emotional obstacles others would have deemed insurmountable, such as interacting with a potentially murderous man as a potential friend.
She slung one of his arms around her still-bloody shoulder. Rex was muddy enough not to care. The soft dirt squeezed through his toes as he trusted his navigation to her. He shivered. I guess I should probably get something to wear other than this muddy pair of leggings.
The liquid, while indescribably useful in almost all other areas, was still clear. Although he couldn’t physically tell the difference between see-through clothes and normal ones, he figured that he should retain at least some sense of decency for the sake of those around him. An odd case of thoughtfulness in his otherwise void ability to empathize.
He brought up his concern to Seeker, who had completely forgotten that he was only half-clothed. She agreed that both should find an unbloodied, clean set of clothes. She laughed uncertainty. Her clothes being dirty was part of her job. She wasn’t even sure that she had clean clothes at all. Maybe if she rooted around in her parent’s old stuff.
Rex was feeling rather jovial. He had escaped his prison, felt strangely refreshed, full and had a navigation system to show him how the world had developed in his absence. Only the sound of wind rustling above drifted to his ears. He didn’t mind the dirt and grime that was getting all over. He’d get that off pretty soon when they got to the town.
Jovial though he was, a beautiful forest is pleasing only to the eye and without that stimulus, he was bored. He was without games or other amusements to occupy his attention and he would have distained them even if he had them.
I am a scientist! Well, I was… But what scientist would amuse himself with pre-made games. Research shall be my game. Rex began to get himself excited at exploring his new abilities. He was intending to figure it out before he was…preoccupied with…voicing opinions…Yeah.
“Hey Seeker, let’s play a game!” The liquid spun around Rex’s free arm, following the path that his muscles wrapped. The liquid coalesced in his palm into a ball about the size of an infant’s head.
Seeker did not shudder. He would ask why if she did and she was not sure how he would react to being directly feared. Sure, she could lie but she was not great at lying.
Rex quickly followed up his unapproved proposal with a clarification. “Name something, first thing that pops into your head.” She responded quickly, “blood, feathers…uh…” She looked around. “a tree?”
Rex had ignored the first two subconsciously and immediately grinned. “A tree. Excellent.” The blob nestled in his hand shook like gelatin before rising to form a rod-like mass. As the small sapling grew branches, veins popped on Rex’s face and body. It was clear that the many simultaneous tendrils were taxing when using only his own mind to command them.
Why is it so easy when I lose control? Or when I don’t try to concentrate? He hadn’t been thinking about the wings or the legs as he used them but even this simple exercise was taxing.
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It was like walking down stairs, hopping right down is easy until looking and noticing one’s feet. Then, all dexterity seems to flood away and then the bottom of the stairs await quicker than is anticipated.
Rex knew this pretty well; he had stumbled down several staircases while thinking too hard about this very phenomenon. But training should help, Rex thought to himself. Any muscle, synthetic or otherwise, was able to gain strength from continued stress. This muscle was there. It was strong already. It just needed control. Control enough not to give in to his more primitive emotions. He was not off to a great start.
Rex tried to add leaves to the unstable crystal plant but instead he started shaking, no leaves on the tree. He looked like he was crying, a clear substance leaking from his eyes and nose as he shook. The liquid leaked down his face in erratic paths.
He licked around his mouth. “Not blood?” He furrowed his brows. He wasn’t crying. He knew at least that much about his emotional state. He had figured that he was bleeding from brain overexertion or something to that effect but the liquid on the tip of his tongue was tasteless.
“Oi Seeker! Don’t be alarmed,” Rex said, unslinging himself from her shoulder. She was immediately concerned. She watched as he summoned a crystal blade around his fingers with his hand in a chopping pose. She was beginning to understand what he was going to do as he held the other arm perpendicular to his chest. He raised his bladed hand above his head and swung down.
Seeker averted her eyes from the messy scene. Drip-drip-drip. Drip. Drip. She tentatively turned her head around to see a clear puddle on the ground and Rex’s inquisitive face staring at a quickly closing wound on his arm. Small needles shot out of the cut and grabbed both sides of the wound to close them and sew them shut.
“Fascinating.” Rex rubbed his fingers over the former cut with a curious face. “Rather painful, I guess. But nevertheless fascinating.” Seeker peered at the cut, her eye enhancement allowing her to zoom in beyond a normal amount. It was almost the same as the surrounding area but with thin treads tightly tying together the recently separated skin.
“I don’t bleed. My wounds seal shut in an instant. What a wonderful liquid! An ichor! The blood of an unearthly being!” Seeker was concerned about his ego. Sure, she had called him an angel, but it was in shock and she regretted the bloating of his self-image. He was either a feral beast or a self-proclaimed “unearthly being.” It was disarming and she could not be caught off guard.
It certainly explained how his skin was so pale. How could he have a blush when his blood was not red. Now that Seeker looked, she could see no blood vessels in his eyes or in other areas that they were normally.
Rex had done a little experimenting on his own invention before it was stolen from him by his coworkers. His ichor had meshed with the rest of the lab’s “creativity” in a way that they may not have expected. They certainly took advantage of this discrepancy.
The chip in his brain was able to regulate the small electrical impulses that controlled the liquid and was able to get his cells to produce it as a product. It seemed he must still have at least one organ.
This mystery organ must have developed over time, as he had been thoroughly hollowed out. That operation was never supposed to be a success. But between his time controlled and his time asleep, the chip had plenty of time to become acclimated to its host.
The chip was a danger. It controlled the most dangerous part of Rex’s body and most of that body. The ichor did the work of every organ and a glitch or a small problem could be the end of him. A full body shutdown. He needed it to become fully a part of him.
He needed a way to get the synthetic into the organic, essentially creating an entirely new brain within himself. A quest fit for a scientist. His dependency on an inherently foreign object, placed within him by his enemies, almost led him to carve out the chip himself. He knew that, not only would this kill him, the AI within the chip would have surely have a failsafe for that event anyway. That thought made him even angrier.
He pushed off his previous instances of wrath as a product of this system. Completely out of my control. It made him feel massively better, even though he still relied on the chip as a scapegoat. He knew he did not act like that before he was betrayed, so it must be the chip, it had to be the chip.
But now he had a goal. Find some way to get the chip out of his head, while retaining life functions. He’d be able to lead his life again, become a scientist again. He could live a life that he wanted. He plead with himself in his mind that life would go back to how it was. He had to have a reason to live in a world that was an era apart from his own.
He resumed rubbing the cut. He started scratching at it. Clear liquid once again slid down the side of his arm. His fingernails brushed faster. The cut widened until it stretched beyond the length it was cut. He needed to think about something else.
A sweet hum entered Seekers ears. Rex was humming an unknown tune as his fingers dug into his skin. The needles shot out of the cut in a futile effort to repair as they were broken by a rhythmic slash from a neat fingernail. Seeker watched. If she grabbed his hand or asked him to stop, she knew he would react. He was not in the state of mind to fear what he was doing.
She turned her head and waited. Seeker listened to the humming with a light percussion of scratches. Eventually, whatever internal struggle that had prompted that event was over. She held out her hand in his general direction. He grabbed it. His hand was wet.
He did not speak as she once again settled his hand on one shoulder. He just made a little tree in his free hand. It was just a trunk and three branches bare of leaves. Why had he made it of liquid before? He had neglected a significant portion of his powers.
Sure, liquid is flexible and can move in complex ways, but it is not solid, obviously. He had to spend a large amount of mental power just to prevent it from collapsing. A complete oversight.
The trunk gradually hardened, starting from the base, into a bark with a liquid center. When the miniature tree was fully barked, small leaves popped up on the sides. The liquid core was used to create this lush bloom, as the solid could no longer move. “HA! First step!” Rex yelled and threw the sculpture into the air. It fell and shattered onto a rock.
Rex didn’t care in the slightest. He grinned manically. “Heehee! I did that with my own brain! Not someone else’s!” As he skipped in place, he pointed in the direction he had heard the sound of glass breaking.
Seeker was unsure if they would make it to the town before dark with all of these interruptions. She would not mention this problematic fact to him. She was sure that he would protect himself and her, if only because she was his guide. She hoped it would not come to that as the night held many dangers.
Not one to waste, Rex willed the fragments of his sculpture to him. They remained stationary. He tilted his head to the side. He held out his hand and gestured. They were still shattered and no closer than before.
“Seeker, guide me to where my sculpture broke.” She complied. He crouched on his knees above the pieces and placed his palm among the pieces. Only the ones he touched were absorbed back within himself.
How curious. However, it did made sense. Electricity did not travel as easily in air and Rex did not possess the power or control to connect him to the pieces remotely. His power was confined to his own body.
It was a weakness he hoped never to have to deal with. Rex did not believe that Seeker understood that this was a weakness that he displayed and even if she did, he doubted she would be able or willing to take advantage of it.
Although his newfound weakness was alarming, he remained upbeat about his accomplishment. He had already been doing this subconsciously with the help of the chip, but it brought such greater satisfaction when it was his own findings that prompted it.
It made him further relieved to find nothing magical about his surroundings. Electricity worked like it should without telepathy or telekinesis, even if it meant having a weakness. He didn’t have to wave around a magic wand either. He was glad that the fundamental laws that he believed in were unshaken.
Resolve steadfast and universal laws still unbroken, the pair marched on. Seeker, of course, noticed it first. Rex, a little while later, felt smooth packed dirt beneath his feet with patches of gravel. A road. A sign of human civilization that was not destroyed.
“We are close,” Seeker said.
She looked to the top of the walls that loomed above, at least a mile ahead. Seeker often thought about how large the walls were for a small frontier town. They were cold metal and spoke of a more prosperous time.
It lay unfinished, with metal scaffolding welded to the structure itself. From above, the wall was a crescent moon shape with the thickest and most finished part of the wall facing the forest where Rex and Seeker observed it. There were a few small openings to allow water in or out but they were grated and covered by thick bars.
The components had come from an ancient underground factory that the citizens had been barely able to operate. It was found in a ruin by another of Seeker’s profession and was used until it broke.
It was still light outside and the villagers were not keen on outsiders, as evidenced by the lack of an easily accessible gate. She assumed that they would be even less keen on a blind, half-naked stranger that unnerved or uncomfortably awed onlookers. Especially when they came from the dried riverbed that had, until recently, taken so much.
They would have to wait until the night.