"No! It's too early, he's not supposed to awaken this early!" "What do you want me to do? You're the smart one here!" heard Stefan, as if he was isolated in a different room.
He couldn't breathe. He couldn't move. However, he was alive. And fully conscious as well.
"Who are those people… where am I… am I dead? Reborn?... No, the voices sound too familiar… 'smart one... Is it… that cat?" asked Stefan within his mind.
START OF SEASON 2:
REBOOT
His senses start to slowly awaken. He can think, he can feel, he can't smell but he can see, slightly, he opens his eyes barely and sees 2 familiar blurred figures. However, he was in a green liquid. He quickly realizes that he might drown if he is in here since he cannot breathe. He opens his eyes fully, the first thing he notices is that several wires are connected to his body, and the hoodie he used to wear is ripped in half, but still stuck onto his body. Then, he looks to his left and sees that the left side of his body looks way weaker, way more injured and fragile than his right side.
"What the hell is going on?!" tried to scream Stefan.
Suddenly, the glass chamber's walls lower and the green liquid leaks out. He suddenly feels like he's asphyxiating. Several tubes pluck out of him and he falls down then soon enough faints.
An unknown amount of time passes once more. Stefan wakes up on a table. He slowly opens his eyes. He gets up and looks around him, white walls, white table, spilled coffee on the floor, a few tools next and on the table. It's too obvious that he's in the workshop. He looks at his left arm and he sees that his entire left side of the body has been replaced with some sort of cyborg suit. He also noticed that he has a yellow and blue belt around his waist, and that his hoodie and the cyborg suit have a weird wavy pattern of energy on the part where they're linked. Stefan looks at his arm, it's painted in a deep blue, the circuits can be seen and they're painted in cyan. Sometimes electric currents flow through them. His knuckles have some yellow wires that extend to his wrist, something like veins. He clenches his cyborg fist, but accidentally releases an electric shockwave which propels him into the floor, destroying the table at once. Stefan took no damage from the impact, but it did confuse him a lot. He rubs his eyes a little using his right arm. The cat instantly comes into the room, mad.
"What is going on here? What have you done to my table!? That was my sturdiest table! Aurgh, I'm too lazy to find polypropylene now!" said the cat with annoyance.
Stefan's confusion doubles before speaking.
"Proly what?..."
"Polypropylene, a material mainly used in car parts. It is very resistant against corrosion."
"Oh, I think I understand." said Stefan.
"What I don't understand however is why you decided to manage havoc within my vicinity." said the cat.
"Sorry… But I don't know how this thing works."
"You'll get the hang of it quickly. In addition you don't need to fight in it. It's merely a support shell suit." said the cat, as he helped Stefan get up.
The cat taps his arm a few times.
"Eh? Love it? Of course you do. Made out of pure cobalt. 5 plates of armor, mwah, chef's kiss. Loaded with an artificial heart engine to keep your right side going, what more could you want to live?" said the cat with a smile.
The moment Stefan hears the word "fight", a weak memory starts hitting his head.
"Fight… Why do I feel like I just got out of a big fight…?" asked Stefan.
The cat looks worried at him then speaks again.
"Hey… you remember me, right?" asked the cat.
"Yeah, you're Cat. You're the creator of… of what…"
"Of your hoodie. I saved you a few times… And even sent you on a mission twice."
"Oh… so, I lost? I remember always being human… So that means I lost…" said Stefan, disappointed in himself.
"Look, look, don't be sad, we're all good now, alright? You'll be just fine. What else do you remember?"
"I remember having a friend, Rares. He controls fire."
Stefan looks around him, he realizes something.
"Wait, am I older?" asked Stefan.
"Eeeehhh… Yes. Your brain was… damaged, to say the least. Ehm… half of your body… was lost. It's been 2 years ever since that happened… so now you're technically 12. Not 10 anymore."
Stefan ribs his chin a little and tries to remember things.
"I remember a sword, I remember a gray world with blue things. I remember a black fighter which I had a rivalry with. Also something about hating my mother. That's all." said Stefan truthfully.
"What about your name? What's your name?"
Stefan is surprised by the question, but he can't find an answer for it.
"I don't know. I can't remember."
Silence fills the room for a few seconds, then the cat breaks the ice and speaks up.
"Look, I was an asshole before, I'm sorry for treating you like nothing but a weapon. You ended up in this state."
"Eh, I don't mind staying in this suit for now. I feel good. Will I have it forever?"
"No, you'll heal in just a few days. After that there will be no need to wear it anymore and I'll let you go."
Stefan walks out of the room and goes into the main room. The cat follows him.
"Are you sure you're alright?" asked the cat.
"Yeah, I am." said Stefan.
Stefan hears some weird noises from upstairs so he goes to check it out. Once he reaches the upper floor he sees Rares heating up machine that links the wall and the floor.
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"Hey, what's up? You look cooler than last time!" said Stefan excitedly.
Rares turns his head around, sees Stefan then returns to what he was doing.
Stefan goes over to him, places his cyborg arm on his right shoulder and looks over his shoulder to see what he's doing.
"What are you up to?" said Stefan.
The cat pulls him back.
"Let him do his job. That machine extracts energy from the travel void. With insane heat, the energy can be purified and turned into electricity to fuel the workshop further. He mainly uses it to train his fire element." whispered the cat.
"Oooh, alright, I get it. When will he be done though?"
Rares suddenly stops pushing flames into the machine and goes past Stefan and the cat. He goes downstairs then says out loud.
"I'm leaving."
Rares proceeds to use the cat's teleporter and leaves.
Stefan remains confused once more.
"What's his issue? Why is he so grumpy for no reason?" asked Stefan.
The cat sighs before speaking again.
"He's extremely pissed that he isn't more powerful than Andrew. He single handedly destroyed several anti-elementalist military police bases, which helped him rank up to a middle rank elementalist.
"I think we have enough time now to explain some stuff to me."
The cat sighs once more then goes over to a white board, grabs a marker and starts explaining.
"Elementalists are humanoid entities that have the capabilities of altering, bending, whatever you want to call it, a specific element. Elementalists split in different ranks. Null rank, which means you never used your said element before, low rank, which unlocks the most basic moves of your element, middle rank, which grants you a natural booster known as "elementalist coat"." explained the cat as he was drawing on the whiteboard.
"Wait, but how do you rank up?" asked Stefan curiously.
"Well, I have no idea. From low to middle rank you evolve by being in a near death fight. That's what Rares told me at least. After middle rank, there is high rank. After that it's grandmaster and champion which I really have no detail upon. However, Rares had an USB stick, an item with which humans use to store data on their digital machineries. Within this USB stick I have found information relating to a "Third Child". Andrew being the second and the fire elementalist you and Rares defeated, being the first one. In this document it's supposed to vaguely explain how humans desire to use those 3 elementalists against the elementalist race. Of course, Andrew betrayed them, but me and Rares have found absolutely no records of this third child ever existing. My theory is that they tried to create a perfect elementalist fighter in a laboratory, but they never had enough funding to finish it, that being the reason we've never encountered it until now." explained the cat as he kept drawing on the whiteboard.
"Do you have any idea what rank Andrew is?" asked Stefan.
"Without a doubt, sigh, he is a high ranker. That's why Rares is so annoyed. He's been training really hard for the past 2 years. Even though he never seemed to mention you. It's as if everything was for his own purposes. Recently he is just over the top angry because he feels that his body won't advance further, as if it's refusing to get stronger. He told me several times that he feels that he's barely scratching the bottom of his potential, but his body rejects going further. I'm a great engineer not a biologist so I have no idea what is going on with him. Anyways, now I need to refill the teleportation device since it might be empty again." said the cat.
The cat puts the marker down and floats downstairs.
"Wait, what am I supposed to do now? Is there any way I can help anyone?" asked Stefan.
"Just heal. Rest. After you heal you will be of help." said the cat, as he went over in a different room downstairs, leaving Stefan alone.
Stefan goes downstairs as well and sits down at a table.
"Military… police? Elementalists… Andrew… Was Andrew my rival? Yeah… He was, no, he still is… wait… I remember…" said Stefan in his mind, as he suddenly gained a flashback.
He remembers it vividly, Andrew chopped half of his body in order to heal up, that's the reason why he's in this cyborg suit right now. Stefan grows angrier and is about to slam his fist into the table, however he remembered that the cat will get mad, so he decided not to. Stefan notices a mirror then decides to go see himself in the reflection. Half of his left head had cybernetic enhancements and so did the half rest of his body. The suit was mostly colored in deep blue, he has 2 red circuits that go from his leg to his foot. On the part of his body where the stripes of his hoodie were supposed to be, they're replaced by red and cyan circuits. He notices his belt which has a yellow outline, the middle having a yellow circle which he dares not to press or interact with. What he interacts with however, is the weak energy rift in between the suit and the hoodie. He slowly drags his cyborg pointer finger across it. He feels nothing, but energy seems to stick onto his finger when he places it there, as if it's looking for its other half desperately.
"Damn, this looks good, I'm not complaining." said Stefan in his mind.
He suddenly realized that his left eye was replaced with a red cyborg eye, which has visible cyan circuits around it. He is suddenly confused about it.
“Huh? Mechanical eye? But I can see as if it’s a normal eye.” said Stefan in his own mind.
Stefan turned around and looked at the teleporter. He saw a jar with the “juice” which is used to fuel the machine. It was not empty. It was only a fifth full. Stefan gets an idea. Since he really doesn’t feel like staying in one place, why can’t he go help Rares into finding Andrew and vanquishing him? Stefan goes up to the teleporter and pulls the lever. The carpet lights up a sky blue color, flashy. Stefan jumps right into it, closing his eyes. When he opens them, he finds himself falling from the sky. He sees the top of a block of flats, he tries to boost himself into falling on the top floor, but he barely misses and instantly uses his cyborg arm to slide down onto the building’s wall with ease. Stefan looked around him, this did not seem like Earth. It seemed like something more… futuristic to say the least. There were humans? Something like that? Cyborgs? Or secretly robots? Stefan couldn’t make up his mind, but the people around the street looked part robot part human, so he decided to say that they’re cyborgs.
“Whoa, I didn’t know that in 2 years everyone will be a cyborg. That doesn’t make me that special anymore I guess.” said Stefan to himself.
Suddenly, he hears a constant beeping noise. It feels like it’s coming from his head. Stefan tries to press around his cyborg part of his head until he answers the call.
“What did I tell you not to use the teleporter?!” screamed the cat into Stefan’s headset.
“Owch! Calm down, you’re breaking my eardrums!”
“You have no eardrums you idiot. It’s the cyborg part. It just feels hyper-realistic.”
Stefan sighs before talking again.
“Alright, is Rares around here? I wanted to aid him.”
‘You don’t understand, you teleported yourself on a different planet. It’s a planet from which I get most of my materials because the air there is breathable for me.”
“Wait, so I’m not supposed to be here at all?”
“Of course not! I wouldn’t be scolding you right now if you were on Earth! And you have no way to come back now. I can’t come after you because someone used up all the juice in the jar! And I needed to go to that planet and get more juice.”
Stefan starts to worry a little.
“Alright, calm down, there is a way to return, alright? You just need to find an electricity generator. The ones on that planet have a small canister within them with juice similar to the one that I use. Just punch them really hard with your cyborg arm meanwhile you think of the workshop and you’ll be able to open a portal back to the workshop, alright?”
Stefan is quickly relieved.
“Alright, I’ll try to find one.” said Stefan.
“Okay, now, do not fuck up again. Alright? I’ll call you later.” said the cat before closing the call.
Stefan goes onto the streets, looking for any place that would have an electricity generator. The city was beautiful, however what seemed weird for him is that the sky had a pink purple hue. Stefan found that shade of color relaxing, so he decided to smile and enjoy his time there. He walked through the city, he saw many different people. Each and every single one of them with their own unique enhancement. He felt normal within that city. Other than that, it felt pretty much like Earth. The buildings looked the same, the streets looked the same, the architecture was pretty much similar, still unique in its own way, but nothing too fancy compared to Earth. After a solid half of an hour's walk, Stefan finds a factory, which wrote out big “ANDREW’S”. Stefan is intrigued by the obvious coincidence, so he decides to try and go in. The front entrance was closed, so he decided to go through the back of the building. He finds an emergency door open, so he decides to step into it. Upon entering the building, he hears the loud and obnoxious sound of the conveyor belts and the machines, which were assembling… humanoid robotic exoskeletons of some sort. The entire production suddenly stops. Stefan sees a red laser appear right on his forehead, then a voice suddenly tells him.
“Duck.”
Stefan quickly ducks and what appears to be a railgun is shot in that direction by one of the machines. Stefan grows alert of the situation and tries to think of his next move, when he suddenly hears a familiar voice yell out.
“Get him! Don’t let him escape! Purge him!”