As Nox approached Chet, he felt himself slipping back into business mode.
Gone were the bright lights, the laughter, and the carefree energy of CoreCoaster. Now, standing before the junkyard, reality sank back in.
The contrast was almost jarring.
Yesterday had been color, movement, and noise. Today? The rusted, rundown sprawl of discarded technology and forgotten scraps stretched before him like a graveyard of progress.
The air reeked of rust, oil, and decay, clinging to his fur as he took in the sight of endless heaps of junk. Broken electronics. Shattered machinery. Twisted metal. Piles stacked so high they looked like monuments.
Most of it? Useless.
But to someone like Millio? This was treasure.
Nox exhaled, shaking his head.
"Alright, letâs get to work," he muttered, glancing at Chet, who was already scanning the area. "Weâre looking for anything Millio can use. No distractions."
Chet grunted in acknowledgment and started wading through the mess.
Nox followed, his hands brushing against cold metal, half-melted plastic, and dirt as he sifted through the debris, searching for somethingâanythingâthat wasnât completely useless.
He found a few things worth grabbing: intact silver wiring, salvageable screws and nailsâalways useful for Millioâs gadgets. He even spotted a rusted chain, covered in oil and mud, but still intact.
"Eh, itâll do. Millioâs inventions are one-time use anyway," Nox chuckled to himself, tossing another scrap into their pile.
He wiped the grime from his hands and kept looking, eyes scanning for something betterâperhaps a coffee machine for himself if he got lucky, but...
Thatâs when he saw it.
Something shimmered in the distance.
Near the newest pile of junkâfreshly dumped from a disposal truckâa strange shape caught his eye. Half-buried, sleek, and polished. It stood out against the rusted surroundings like it didnât belong here.
Nox took a cautious step closer, kicking aside broken metal bits as he bent down toward the object.
"What the hell is that?"
The more he uncovered, the clearer it became.
His stomach twisted. For just a second, his heart turned cold.
"Is that⦠a head?!"
Instinct took over. He crouched down, brushing away dirt and grime, revealing more details. It had a strange lookâa smooth, metallic surface, completely undamaged, with some faint blue lines glowing softly along its edges. Was this the head of a Protogen?
The interior had a visor-like interface, polished and seamless.
A network of wires and circuits peeked out from the underside, as if designed to extract or upload data ⦠a lot of data.
Nox swallowed hard.
"Chet?" His voice was unusually serious. "Come here. Look at this."
Chet trudged over, his boots crunching over debris. His ears flicked.
"What in the world of Coreline is that?"
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He leaned closer, eyes narrowing.
"It looks like one of those... Protogen things, right? But itâs, uh... dead, isnât it?"
He took a step back.
"Oh, I donât wanna be involved in this, Nox."
Nox turned the object over in his paws. It was heavier than expectedâthe material cold to the touch, a mix of metal and some advanced polymer. Smooth, but with faint, almost invisible seams tracing across its surface.
"I thought so too, butâ¦"
Chet made a disgusted face.
"DONâT TOUCH THATâEwwww!"
But Nox wasnât listening.
Something about the design wasnât⦠right.
The front was sleek, featureless, aside from the faint outlines where the visor would usually light up.
His fingers ran along the edgesâno rough welds, no exposed screwsâjust a seamless, almost organic design that felt more grown than built.
Was it really a head? â¦No.
"This doesnât feel or look like a regular Protogen head. Look insideâ" he tilted it slightly, tapping his claws against itâa dull, sturdy thunk. Not quite metal, not quite plastic. Durable.
He took a closer look at the sleek interface inside.
"This might be a gadget. Or a mask."
Chet raised an eyebrow, skeptical.
"Youâre kidding. That thingâs got wires inside. How do you know Protogens arenât just built like that?"
Nox could feel the cold but soft inside of the mask, almost alive with dormant potential. Pressing against it made it adjust to the pressure.
Nox shrugged, a smirk creeping onto his face.
"I donât. But I always trust my gut."
Before Chet could stop himâNox lifted object --- and put it on.
It was lined with a thin, silk-like padding, seemingly adjusting to his facial structure. It felt almost alive.
The screen lit up...
SYSTEM BOOTING⦠Loading 1%
NEBULAR 4.0 SYSTEMS ONLINE
Status â OK
Power Source â Internal Arc-Cell Charge: 98%
Diagnostics Check â All Systems Operational
Neural Interface â SynchroLink Established Latency: 0.002ms
Environmental Sensors â Calibrated
AI Companion â ACTIVE
Helmet Initialization Complete 100%
Nox froze as his vision shifted. A strange overlay flickered to life across his sight, flashing information in the corner of his vision.
Chet took a step back.
"Uh⦠Nox? Put that thing OFF!"
Nox blinked, his voice now distorted, robotic.
"I⦠I can see everything."
The mask had turned on now Nox looked like a Protogen his eyes depicted on the Masks smooth overlay as two orange round lights swiftly moving around his mouth a sharp Zick Zack form synchronizing with his voice.
The AI voice continued.
HUD Status â Online
Visual Overlay â Activated
Targeting Systems â STANDBY
Tactical Feed â Synced to Command Grid
Encryption Level â MIL-GRADE PROTOCOL 7
Motion Assist Modules â Enabled
Chet frowned, shifting uneasily.
"Nox, you sound like a damn robot right now and your eyes and mouth!"
Nox lifted his hands, flexing his fingers. Everything felt⦠odd.
Names. Tags. Information all over the place.
Data popped up over random scraps of junk. It was like an augmented reality filterâexcept it wasnât just junk it was on every surface, there was a map a pool of information about sectors shops and⦠people.
Thenâone tag stood out.
Chet.
Nox froze.
"C-Chet?"
His voice was quieter now. He reached out, fingers hovering over the strange floating data tag.
Chet, rummaging through old parts, glanced up.
"What now?"
Nox hesitated.
Why the hell is Chetâs name on this masks overlay?
He tapped the tagâmore details appeared.
DATA ENTERY: CHET
Species : Bull
Occupation: Gardener
Wage: [CLASSIFIED]
Height: 6â7â
Living Space: Sector Crossway
Notes: Strong, Naïve, Low IQ
Nox yanked the mask off, his heart pounding.
Chetâs expression darkened.
"Nox. What the hell did you just see?"
Nox hesitated.
"Nothing important⦠just some weird comments. Probably a glitch."
Chet narrowed his eyes but didnât push further.
"Right. Well, letâs just finish this job and get out of here. I donât wanna be part of some freaky tech horror story."
Nox nodded, but the unease didnât fade.
This mask was something he had never seen beforeâ¦
And whatever was hiding inside it⦠felt important, valuable.
After gathering enough scrap, the two made their way back to the boulder.
Nox placed the mask near a crate, covering it with old scraps.
Chet watched him.
"So, uh⦠you keeping the head? Youâre even freakier than I thought, man."
Nox adjusted his scarf.
"Itâs not a head, Chetâitâs a mask. And I think Zee might be able to figure something out about it."
Chet rolled his eyes.
"Right. Definitely not hoarding I dunno what Zees gonna think about this thing.."
Nox smirked.
"Listen, some things are just too unique to toss into the scrap heap. besides that if I show this thing to Millio heâs definitely going to try to disassemble it canât let that happen."
With that, a groaning Chet lifted the boulder, creating a gap for Nox to squeeze through.
"Iâll be back in ten minutes!" Nox called as he vanished inside.
Chet muttered,
"You always say thatâ¦"
And with a deep, heavy rumbleâ
The boulder fell shut.