Mason had always dreamed about a lot of things, and ruined buildings and monstrous creatures were by and large a huge part in those dreams. But his nighttime dreamscapes didn't hold a candle against the real thing.
The floor above them, where B-04 came from, was absolutely shredded. The walls were completely gone, and the ceiling barely held the other eight and a half levels above it.
B-04, knowing that they couldn't jump as high as he could, relegated to making them take the stairs, plainly telling them that if any one of them were to try to escape, that they would be executed on the spot.
It took an entire thirty minutes to ascend the stairs, of which Mason took the time to observe the new protogen.
He was rather tall, a bit higher then himself, and he had massive ears. He had a fuzzy black furred head with a white visor. Along the base of his neck he had a simple rose gold 'jacket' that didn't really do much other than look a little nice.
His mid-section contained black fur with white chest floof, a golden-red metallic body, and metallic gold-red finish on his legs. His black legs slowly faded into white at the paws, and his claws were a bright white.
Despite the harrowing situation they were in, and the possibility of death looming before them, he actually liked the look of the protogen. It was much fancier than B-64's pallet.
Speaking of, Mason did notice subtle little differences in his little protogen friend after expending his energy during that Scarlet Blast, and the fight after it.
The bleach white fur was the obvious one, his entire fur-covered body now white in coloration save for a few splashes of purple. His neon green claws now seemed even more out of place, as they almost glowed against his new fur.
His visor was cracked in several places, though Mason could see the cracks slowly disappearing. The metal around his legs was severely dented in, with the backside almost entirely caved into itself.
His midsection, where his chest cavity was, was in a state of disrepair as well, caving in as well as smoldering slightly. Mason was worried, at first, but after thirty minutes of walking up stairs with his friend, he started to not care.
But even so, he wasn't about to let anyone else touch his B-64, not in a million years.
Axel and Marissa, on the other hand, were absolutely terrified. Everything around them was completely destroyed, and although they had seen dead bodies before, this was nothing like the town they had seen before.
This was not just a massacre. This was a promise. By the way the bodies were strung up, sliced up and propped like little tokens of war: Heads thrown into a pile while the bodies were subjected to extreme mutilation.
This was a promise to the Foundation. To say stop resisting. That this will happen again if they continue fighting. Marissa was sick to her stomach, trying to keep her way from the blood. But it was impossible, as the blood quite literally flooded the floor.
Axel was also finding it hard. He could smell much better than either of his friends, and he could scent the death and rapid decay in the air. But unlike Marissa, he had something to take his mind off of it. Making sure Hannah was safe.
He made sure to cover her eyes and ears, not wanting her to hear or see anything around them. He cringed constantly as wet squelches filled silent hallways, and he could swear he could hear the damned screams floating downward.
They reached for D at the twenty-three minute mark, and they encountered even more bodies. This floor housed the cafeteria, and it was lunch time when the breaching accrued. Mason could barely keep it together, holding B-64's body close to him for comfort.
They had to walk through an entire room painted and bathed in blood. The smell overwhelming, the bodies undetectable besides a few spare pieces floating in the macabre pool. Mason nearly vomited as he stepped on an eyeball, B-04 giggling as if it was the funniest thing in the world.
And at the end of the cafeteria were nine bodies. Totally solid, yet obviously dead, bodies.
Eight were identified by Mason and Axel to be part of the Nine-Tailed Fox Crew, all being foxes and having the same insignia on their chest. The last was a scientist. A cottontail rabbit of blue fur. Lied was there, face up and blank.
Mason scrunched up and held B-64 closer. But he did notice one thing. Gears were missing. He wasn't with the bodies, and Mason hoped that he had, at least, escaped.
Marissa was in a state of shock, her hands trembling. This was beyond her breaking point, but for the sake of her friends, and for the sake of Hannah, she willed herself to stay quiet and not break down. If she did, well, she had no idea what B-04 would do.
The exited the cafeteria, reaching Floor A rather quickly. B-04 sighed in relief, raising his arms and saying, "The one good thing about your miserable little speck of dust is that you have clean, good air. At least, compared to most other planets at your level."
The entire time they had gone up the stairs, B-04 had been soaking up data on their languages, quickly managing to speak English fluently. Mason glanced down at B-64, wondering if he would be able to do the same, and if he was, why didn't he?
Mason caught himself though. He already knew English when they met, so he must've either gotten used to it, or maybe he did do what B-04 had done.
Mason gulped, feeling a slight level of apprehensiveness as he saw B-04 hold out his arm in front of him, activating his hard-light generator.
This time what came out seemed to be a computer, or some other tech. The keyboards were strange, having only four large buttons with three symbols on each, and a single smaller button in the middle divided in half.
B-04 smiled, rather creepily if Mason was concerned, and pressed a small button on the side of the keyboard.
And Mason gasped. What they thought was an unobstructed view of the mountainside was really a cloaked ship. One massive in size, so massive that it dwarfed skyscrapers and was the length of several football fields.
The hulking behemoth of a ship was colored white and black, with dark purple and red highlights around the main thrusted. It was kept suspended in the air without using those, so Mason guessed that it only used those to speed up.
B-04 spoke quickly, nudging Mason and his friends forward, "Get on the ship."
A blinding white light shot down from what looked like the main deck, pummeling into the ground and dispersing white energy. Marissa shivered slightly, feeling the waves blast pass her. Strangely, she felt much more alive and much more energetic as the waves went through her.
"Don't make me to tell you twice."
Mason gulped, hugged B-64, and jumped into the light.
The first thing he saw was nothing. A bleak empty blackness devoid of any other color. It was just him and B-64. He felt like he weighed nothing, and he could feel waves of Red, Blue, and White Boson Energy rage through him, shattering his frame of mind.
He dropped B-64 to the ground, dropping to his knees involuntarily. He felt nauseous, cold and alone.
And in another split second, he could feel again. Light invaded his eyes as he could see again, finding himself in a room. Grey walls and ceiling, padded white flooring with small glass tubes between each panel, Boson material bouncing and flowing through them.
Mason quickly looked around the floor, finding B-64 huddled in the corner of the room, on a single bed and still knocked out. How did he get there?
Mason found himself almost completely declothed, with only a slim pair of white shorts, most likely created by the Protogens, and a very tight shirt that fit snugly against his fur. He shivered, not liking the idea that those things touched him.
But how did that happen? Wasn't he in some void just a moment ago, what had happened? Maybe he was knocked out, but that can't be right, because he was never knocked out. He remembered jumping into the light, the void, then this.
Maybe this was a form of teleportation? But then, if it had teleported him, why had it caused him to black out. Maybe they teleported him into the video, then knocked him out somehow?
Mason rubbed his forehead, his brain hurting. He wasn't sure what to believe.
But there were two things he did know: That he needed to figure out where his friends, and more importantly his sister, were, and two, that the pair of "Shorts" they had given him were wildly uncomfortable.
Mason sighed, figuring that he had nothing better to do then look around the room for clues as to what happened.
The walls, despite being gray and very hard looking, were actually a pleasant shade of light grey and were surprisingly soft. The glass chambers that the Boson energy flowed through was very hard to the touch, and by slamming his hand against it, figured that even a bomb wouldn't even crack the tube.
It was a rectangular room, much longer than it was wide, and contained just three beds, what looked like a desk with a lamp shaped almost like a phallus, and a few light fixtures.
All in all, this reminded Mason much more of a home then a holding cell. Almost like the foundation.
But the door was the only thing un-home like. It was hard and rough, and about five inches thick. There was a solid glass looking hole through the center, colored blue, and by peering at different angles, Mason could see two guards stationed on either side.
Mason frowned, and turned to look at the other side of the room.
But before Mason reached it, B-64 started to activate again. Mason, startled, tripped backwards and landed hard on the almost concrete like floor. His cry of pain caused B-64 to instantly jump up from the bed, his dagger unsheathing itself instantly.
"It's okay! It's okay!" Mason said, almost yelling. He didn't want to attract attention to himself, nor to B-64, just in case B-64 wasn't supposed to wake yet. B-64 understood, sheathing his dagger and deactivating his shield.
B-64, after a quick scan, found that he was, indeed, in deep trouble.
Almost every single one of his defensive features were offline or badly damaged, and he could feel the pressure mounting in his head. Normally his Boson reserves kicked in and altered reality so he didn't feel that pain, but for some reason, he couldn't activate it.
B-64 gripped his visor hard with his claws, nearly tearing another hole into it as he gave a few trills in agony. He fell back on the bed in writhing pain, throwing the thin blanket covering off of his legs.
And sticking out from his chest was a thin piece of material, hard enough to resist his dagger. It blinked red in rapid succession, obviously preventing B-64 from activating his Boson reserves.
Mason acted quickly, jumping onto the bed and gripping B-64's hand. It did little to distract from the pain, but it did pull B-64's mind from focusing on it. Mason could tell that the action helped, so he went further.
Mason cupped B-64's other hand in his own, rubbing them with his own while softly humming. It was something that he had learned from his dad, distract from the pain either by talking or acting, and since he was all out of words, actions took the forefront.
But that still wasn't enough, and so Mason stretched forward and gave a soft, small kiss right on the middle of B-64 visor. The Protogen seemed to understand the intimacy of the gesture, somehow generating a soft red tinted affect on either side of his visor.
If Mason hazarded a guess, he would say a blush.
But that still did not help as much as Mason wanted. There was the last thing that B-64 did with him. Cuddle.
Mason quickly slipped against B-64, snaking his arm underneath him and wrapping another hand around him. B-64, appreciating the kind gesture, snuggled against Mason and nipped at his neck in a friendly way.
Mason sighed, finding that being the one to snuggle someone else was actually rather enjoyable. And although the threats that loomed over them were high, and the mysterious that he wanted and needed to find out still weighed heavy on his mind.
He couldn't bring himself to care about it at that moment. However much he ended to know, however much he needed to see, he also wanted this. To snuggle with B-64, to just enjoy something like this and forgot everything that had happened.
To be whole.
Was this what he was missing this time? Was it the adventure, was it the thrill of death, the terror and the horror of seeing abominations and massacres? Or was it...
B-64?
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I hope, no beg, that someone appreciated that Dungeons and Dragons title joke...
Heya!
So, yeah, this is another chapter. I enjoyed writing this one, ect.
Please answer this question, because I have no one else to measure these stories: How is the pacing with this relationship thing? I don't have a solid basis on how to write this kinds of things, and I don't know if this is going too fast, too slow, or if it is even cute or plausible in the first place.
I based the idea of a romance thing on the movie "Shape of Water", even though I only watched a little of it. I wanted to add the romance plot into the original story, but... Well, the main character was sixteen-seventeen, and I was already through like half the story, so I didn't.
I really, really hope that this is actually good, and not creepy, or going to fast, or not like how relationships work, or how this would work. Or it going into... That direction.
Anyways, that's enough of me ranting. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and like youtubers say, see ya next time (Next chapter in two days...)!
~ Candle