The first thing that Mason noticed when he stepped outside the vehicle that Catalyst had bought was that he was incredibly high up. The second thing was that the air was very, very thin up there. So much so that he could barely breathe at all.
B-64 stepped outside next and glanced around. There was a time that he felt really, really scared about being so high up. He didn't care now, but just by the looks of terror that his group had on their faces, they were experiencing that mind-numbing fear.
After easing his breathing considerably and stopping breathing hard, Mason noticed where they were. It was a lot like a helicopter pad, with a gigantic X mark in the middle of a small protrusion from the main building.
The building itself was very spherical, with little bulbs of strong and flexible glass sticking out of. Mason attempted to not look down, and through the glass he was standing on, but failed miserably.
Catalyst quickly called the car away when everyone was out, and marched on towards a little glass opening. He slid a claw against the seam inside, and when he noticed that a hologram appeared against the glass, audibly groaned.
"Locked. I'm gonna throttle that worthless..." Catalyst mumbled to himself, his thin needle like bristles that covered his body vibrating as he grew more annoyed. He turned to look at the group with a sigh.
"Give me a moment." He told B-64, flashing a fake smile before quickly running to the vehicle that brought them there. He disappeared inside, and B-64 knew by the way he was acting that he was looking for the keys.
Mason held onto his little sisters hand tightly, more so for his own benefit since Hannah was in her usual oblivious self. She did look down, but tilted her head in more fascination than being afraid.
Marissa was actually the only one of the group that wasn't that afraid of being up that high. Just like Hannah, she looked down through the glass with mild interest, like someone looking at a mildly good-looking pair of shoes.
Right before Axel was going to voice his reservations about the structural integrity of the little blip they were standing on, Catalyst got out of the vehicle and made his way towards them, a large slender object in his hand.
B-64 recognized it: It was an access key, and not just any normal one, it was an administrator key, meaning it could access every single door and lock in that building, save for the master suite.
Without saying another word, Catalyst slid the administrator key into the thin line between the glass, and gently opened the door. The door was also pretty strange, as it melted into the other glass door without any noise.
Catalyst threw his head back and beckoned them to follow him, and although weary, the group followed.
The inside of the building was vastly superior to the outside. The floor was not see-through and was actually rather sturdy and metallic. There were numerous potted-plants that resembled nothing like the ones on Earth, and many chairs and tables scattered around on that floor were circular.
The only main issue they faced was the smell. Due to the combination of it being a Boson-Enriched building meant that some of the materials that normally don't blend together did blend together, resulting in a rather unpleasant smell. One so weird that the Protogens smell receivers weren't designed to detect.
But Mason and his friends could. It smelled similar to acrid garbage mixed with spoiled milk and too sweet smelling Febreze. Nothing pleasant.
Despite this minor challenge, the group managed to follow Catalyst through the many floors of the building without puking once. Of course, Hannah made a face the entire way down, but only coughed a few hundred times.
They stopped nearing the fifty-first floor, appearing before a large box shaped room completely covered in a thick metallic mesh, with heavy concrete underneath it. Axel wondered, just for a moment, how the glass could keep it there by itself, but remembered what happened to get him there in the first place, and just let the idea go.
Catalyst slid a claw against the seamless wall of concrete, and the door opened with no trouble. B-64 heard a small "Yes!" come from Catalyst, but he could've been mistaken. He let the door open by itself, and gestured for the others to enter inside.
Mason was, like always, a little apprehensive about going inside any room that was pitch black, but B-64 grabbed his hand knowing this, and just tugged him inside before he second guessed himself, and the others followed suit.
If anything, the room was not what Mason expected. He expected possibly a barren room, maybe a place for them to stay and learn about what was happening, or maybe even food, but it was not that.
Instead, they found themselves inside a gigantic lab, much larger than what the room should contain. Thousands of counters, equipment, and chambers were scattered across the room, and thousands of smells and lights assaulted their senses.
Not three seconds had elapsed after they had entered when another noise joined the horrible chorus, the sound of clapping. A white and red protogen approached them, their body drastically different than any other one they had seen.
Their body seemed wholly metallic: Their visor was a dark red with white eyes, their neck long with layer of scales coating the thing, arms much longer than normal and were coated in what seemed to be rubber, and their legs' inner workings completely exposed and only having a thin layer of glass separating them from the outside.
This one B-64 hadn't recognized, and he instantly felt protective of Mason, putting his hand around Mason and pulling him close. Catalyst chuckled at the action before returning his gaze to the strange protogen.
"I do believe I have what Ion wants." Catalyst said firmly, flexing his claws in a lazy manner. The other protogen turned their head and looked at the group. Marissa could feel something about them that was just... off.
"You are B-64, correct?" Their voice entered B-64's mind, very stark and gravely, "I am Cypher-10, Experimental Model B9-08 for the-"
"Ion! Cyphers doing that thing again!" Catalyst screeched in their native tongue, appearing nothing more than garbled screaming to the others. It was rather interesting to hear from Mason's point of view, finding that despite sounding like screaming, he could hear a constant tone in the voice, appearing as almost an accent.
B-64 grimaced at hearing it though. Their native tongue, known as Protenia to other life forms, was somewhat taxiing to non-organic ears. And unluckily for him, that so happened to be one of the few upgrades he got before being captured.
A rush of pawsteps later, another protogen soon appeared before them. They were almost identical to B-64, although there were some slight deviations besides color.
They were large and lanky, slightly taller than B-64 but with a much smaller build. Their visor was the standard black, and he had electric yellow eyes, as well as fur color. Their entire body, minus the metallic parts, were some version of yellow.
Their head fur was charged with some sort of electricity, with a small cackle of power running through it occasionally. His metallic legs, paws, and arms were all painted white, though it was obvious he needed a fresh coat.
"Sorry about that, she has always been a little... Oh! You all are here!" Ion said, jumping on the balls of his paws as he looked at them all. A little spark of wonder shot in his eyes as he observed them, his claws itching with the need to explore them.
But, he attempted to restrain himself. They were from a race unknowing of other life, and they were on a completely other planet. He couldn't just do anything. So, he did the best next thing, and attempted to communicate with them.
"Do you have knowledge on their language?" Ion asked, quickly rushing over to where B-64 stood. B-64 took a small step back but nodded his head, not remembering this Ion. The one he remembered was calm and collected, this was just weird.
"By order of Council and B-01, Ion was... Re-assembled from an accident due to him not making an heir. They did a piss-poor job of it too, just wanting him to make an heir and die, but nope. He somehow is still functioning." Catalyst explained, crossing his arms.
"May I access your data bank to speak their language?" Ion asked B-64, steadily moving closer and closer to him with an almost creepy expression. B-64 gave a nod, but it was more out of weariness and slight terror.
"Move! Let him have room!" Mason said, getting in between B-64 and Ion. B-64 gave silent thanks to Mason, and Ion's fascination only grew tenfold, having this specimen so close.
But again, he refrained himself. He backed off courteously, as though he may not understand what Mason said, the way he said it was more than clear enough for him to get it.
Catalyst announced to B-64 that he'll also download what he has learned to communicate, and to explain to the others what's happening, as they looked too confused for his liking. Plus, he desperately wanted to give a tour of the lab he worked hard in creating.
Ion had set B-64 upon one of the encounters inside the lab. It had been a while since he operated that machine, but he thinks he remembers how to correctly use it.
He detached a small liquid rubber pipe from underneath the table, and spilt it in half. The pipe corrected itself and regenerated so it had two heads. Gripping one end, he peeled open a small flap in his arm and jammed the pipe into it.
Steam bellowed from underneath the table as Ion was connected, "Remember, you have to focus on what you know. This is only a prototype." B-64 nodded and attempted to get semi-comfortable on the hard table.
Ion called Catalyst over and stuck the pipe into his arm as well, before returning to look underneath the table. Mason, feeling a little left out on what was happening, bent down and looked underneath the table.
It was a mess down there. Hundreds of wires and cross beams littered the underside with all of them coming out of a bulging white box. There were several buttons down there, and a couple of the same rubber pipes he attached to himself.
Ion grabbed what looked like jumper cables and got up from his position. Standing over B-64, he slipped them and clamped them on the backside of his neck, causing B-64 to twitch his claws from the momentary sting.
Ion slowly bent his knees and felt around for another button. Finding it, he hesitated before pressing it, wondering what side effects could this cause. After all, his whole shtick was more on the basis of reality bending and evolutionary lines, not data transference and consciousness uploaders and memory banks.
Shrugging, he decided that it was a problem for his future him, and pressed it. All three protogen instantly shot rigid, standing completely straight as their minds got slowly uploaded with memories and language code.
Mason breathed heavily, not taking his eyes of B-64. He trusted the others just because B-64 trusted them, but this was stretching his limits. He wasn't sure what he would do if something bad happened.
Mason sighed deeply, moving away from the table and other protogen and sitting alongside his friends and Hannah. There was nothing for them to do, as Cypher just stood there and acted as a guard.
And so, they waited for whatever they were doing to finish.
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Heya!
So, this is another chapter. It isn't my finest work, but I feel like I did okay. The next one though, whoo! It's gonna, well, it's gonna be something.
Some lore is gonna be dumped, and I'm gonna try by best at making sure it isn't dumped in a bad way. And don't worry, there is gonna be a deus ex machina here. No saving grace.
Anyways, hope ya enjoyed this one, thanks for reading!