Axel gulped as the few remaining members of Obsidian-1 brought them before the stark white table, a blinding contrast to the dark void they were inside. The four jars atop the table had the same writhing substance inside, only each one of them were different in many types of ways.
The right-most one, where the team had situated Mason, was a large writhing red thing. It was nearly solid and barely see-through, and it was one long tentacle colored many different shades of red, often shifting from neon to nearly black. It was the strongest physically, as it's container had numerous cracks in the strong glass.
The one left to it, Axel's, was a bit different: For one, it was a light blue color and almost completely see-through, with the tiniest fleck of light shimmering against the dark lid of its container. Although the void was completely silent, Axel could tell that if the lid was undone, it most certainly would have gurgled.
The next one, Marrisa's, was much more different than the others. It was a heavenly white color, a shining golden aura being emitted from it. Despite this almost divine color, it was rather spikey and sharp, with jagged edges pulsing as it repeatedly stabbed the glass. It called to Marrisa,
The final one, though it had no one in front of it, was clearly meant for Hannah. Despite this, Obsidian-1 hadn't tried to do anything with her, instead giving her off to B-4 to hold while they made the others bond with Upgrade.
It was a dark grey material, completely solid and unmovable, and was completely stagnant. Just looking at it made them depressed, as although they were essentially upgrades to living creatures, they were still living creatures with a mind.
"They are alive-" As Amerinthia explained, "-Once bonded for a time, they think in you language. They talk with you, they think with you. But right now, they do not think, just feel." They still didn't shed much light on those things, and certainly didn't quell the fears created by Mason or the others in touching them.
Luckily, it was more of a case-by-case ceremony, as Obsidian-1 didn't want to overwhelm them all. Unluckily, since Mason was the first one put there, he was the first one to interact with his Upgrade. He gulped, but followed along.
"They transform to what you want. Like pet, but smart." Amerinthia told him as she pushed him towards the thing, "Transform into a hidden item to use- Mine is this." She brought her arm up, and now that Mason could see it, her entire arm was an upgrade. He wondered how she lost it.
Amerinthia grabbed the glass container that held his Upgrade and brought it up to her face. She observed it for a few seconds, nodded her head, and slowly undid the cap. Mason fidgeted uncomfortably as he observed it.
She placed the nearly unscrewed container back on the table and quickly threw the cap off, just to grab the wriggling tentacle with her good hand and squeezing it tight, as to not allow it to bond to her.
"Here. Grab." She told him, outstretching her arm and presenting the Upgrade to Mason. He hesitantly brought his hand up to grab it, fearing the worst. Amerninthia, impatient and without much time, just shoved the thing into his hand.
Mason felt a scream well up inside him as the tentacle slammed into his awaiting hand, seemingly melting into a searing hot pile of red mulch before quickly spreading across his entire arm as tiny sparks of molten magma seared off of him.
It overlapped the clothes the protogen made for him, creating clothes for him out of its own metamaterial. They took on the appearance of molten rock and metals, and it gave off a large amount of heat that although not painful to Mason himself, seemed to warm up the air around him to a large degree.
The Upgrade finished right before the base of his neck, and before the base of his paws. With his original clothes disintegrated and the new clothes given to him, it slid off his body, noe permanently tethered to him.
The slimy red thing slithered right up against the palm of his hand, and then started to shift form. It passed a range of items, from a large staff, to a thing resembling a rose, before settling on an umbrella: Dark Crimson handle that gave off a dark red aura, and a fiery red material for the canopy of it.
Mason felt a firety red pi8ng in his heart, and his clothes once again shifted. His chest's metamaterial shifted to part with his "Pants", giving off a slightly bulky appearance while making way for a large pool of red boson particles, safely stored in that region.
Mason quickly stepped a few paces backwards, gripping his head as he felt his entire being on fire. It wasn't burning pain, nor was it searing, but the kind of dull pain worse than that, always present, but never exuberant.
But as he felt like he was being ripped apart or drowned in a sea of lava, he felt his senses enhance. He could smell every single being inside the void, he could feel the vibrations on the ground as B-64 quickly ran over to him.
He could see the tiniest speck of dust on the floor, he could taste the very air. Amerinthia, who seemed to be the one that was supposed to train him, quickly stopped B-64 from approaching any closer.
"He is burning at five-hundred degrees. I am circumventing the temperature to three meters around him, but it will quickly evaporate anything besides him. Do Not Get Closer." Amernthia said those last words very slowly, making sure B-64 heard it loud and clear.
B-64 gave a short whine in response, hating to see Mason in such pain, but not being able to do anything about it.
"I will take care of it. Mistress, will you please set the others with their upgrades?" Amerinthia spoke to both B-64 and Mistress Red, who nodded in understanding and made her way to the table.
"Axel. Step Forward." Mistress Red spoke in a rather uniform way, not quivering like Amerinthia, but rather eloquently and spacious, almost floaty even. Her voice, however, was rather posh, and the ever lingering pain from being burned severely still lingered on her breath.
Axel was even more afraid of taking the Upgrade now he saw what Happened to Mason, and as he stared at the water thing before him, he gulped.
As Mistress Red got closer to the container, the water started to agitate, as though it was aware and excited about what was going to happen. Mistress Red scoffed at it, undoing the cap of the container and tossing it behind her.
The watery upgrade loosely jumped up, but it seemed not as mobile as either of the other ones. Mistress Red spoke to him as she got closer, "Ready?" She asked, a faint grimace on her face as the words exited her mouth.
Axel took a deep breath and nodded his, looking down at the ground. Mistress Red nodded, gripped the bottom half of the counter, and jutted both her arms out, splashing the entire container onto Axel.
Axel felt a cold he never knew before as the water clung onto his very being, lowering his surrounding temperature to a harsh degree to get itself solid enough to tether itself to him. Once it got solid enough, it started to do the same thing the other one did to Mason.
It ate away at his clothes before making its own. Axel's new uniform seemed to be more designed then Mason's, as it appeared very Victorian styled to Axel, with some of the metamaterial becoming something of a long coat, and his pants being very, very tight.
The cold around him took another dive as his entire body started to lock up. The Upgrade let him survive as it continued to bond, creating the coat's arms and undershirt before stopping, and sliding down to his palm just like Mason.
Once it reached his palm, it immediately took on different shapes. But, it finally settled on, of course, an Axle Wrench.
Even through the intense cold and fear of freezing to death, Axel felt pretty cheated that his thing was essentially a pun on his name. His frown even overshadowed the cold and frostbite he had to endure.
Mistress Red called over one of the other members, The Mechanic, to teach Axel once his tethering stopped happening, and she moved on to Marissa, who was terrorized at this point. Rightly so, as hers appeared the most hostile with all it's sharp points.
He lightly gripped the container and haphazardly ripped the cap off, tossing it behind her with such nochelanche that it wouldn't be out of place in a sitcom. She tilted her head and examined Marissa, grinned and said, "Are you ready?"
Before Marissa had the time to shake her head, Mistress had already tossed the thing at her, morphing into an amorphous blob of white spikes and bristles. Marissa had barely any time to prepare before the sharp points stabbed into her.
She closed her eyes, expecting the worst, but found that she felt slight tickles around her body. She peeked through her shut eyelids before fully opening her eyes, peering down at her body.
The white blob had, indeed, stabbed into her, but only with the faintest of pain and the least amount of coverage. But Marissa started to feel dread well up inside her as she saw the thing not spread around her body like the others, but instead seep into her bloodstream.
She panicked, hyperventilating as it fully disappeared inside her. Mistress Red saw her distress, and remedied it by smacking her in her stomach, making her double over in pain and forget about the Upgrade inside her.
"White Boson is different. Rearrange organic tissue is what it does. What you call 'soul' is white boson energy, generated by all living entities. Upgrade inhabits the soul, and creates the ideal body for its host." If B-64 was being honest, he was quite impressed by how much Mistress Red managed to interpret from that little needle of knowledge that Catalyst gave them.
"Then what is it doing to me!" Marissa screamed, finally looking back down and panicking once more. B-64 had to cover Poor Hannah's ears, and eyes due to Mason, because she was starting to get scared.
"Your body is being transformed." Was all Mistress said on the matter, before signaling the last member of the team, The Painter, to be the one to teach her once the tether and transformation stopped, since it would take quite a deal longer for her to finish than the others.
Right when she turned around, she saw Mason standing up finally, with the ambient temperature back to a bearable degree. His tethering was done.
And in B-64's warrior eyes, seeing his Mason in what was essentially a uniform made out of lava, he considered him pretty damn cute.
The uniform was much like a captains garb, but not historically accurate. If Mason were to describe it, his outfit would pretty much resemble Jack Sparrows' outfit from The Pirates of the Caribbean films.
He had a long, flowing cape that constantly changed shape and color, all shades of red and in varying stages of decay-looking. His chest's pool of Red Boson Energy was morphed into the buttons donning his undershirt, and the remaining few pools were added to his pants as buttons as well.
As Mason stood up, the lava like nature of his new clothes slowly descended into a cold, almost rock like texture while still remaining as soft as silk and as durable as steel. His entire outfit still had a certain dark red glow to it, adding to the danger factor that B-64 adored, especially on someone as cute as Mason.
And as B-64 approached, he decided to test out one of the few features he knew Upgrades had, "Can you hear me?" He asked, pointing his mind towards Mason. Mason jumped back in surprise, hearing the rather effeminate, but obviously male, voice of B-64.
"Was that... B?" Mason asked himself in his mind, getting a chuckle out of B-64 through the mind link. B-64 nodded in pure joy, quickly rushing over to him and enveloping him in a deep hug.
Mason melted into it, feeling the warm softness inherent in every protogen. His heightened senses felt every single tingle and tremor that ran between their bodies as their pools of Red Boson Energy fields interacted, and both somehow giggled at the sensation.
"Ho-How?" Mason asked through his mind, still hugging what is, at that moment, essentially his boyfriend. B-64 just smiled and hugged him deeper.
"Upgrades have several upgrades, hence the name: Universal translators, miniature force fields, smaller and less forceful reality generators, and a mind link." B-64 replied, just happy he finally could communicate with his love.
And there was no denying that feeling. It wasn't just liking Mason anymore, he was well beyond that phase, he well and truly loved him.
Amerinthia gave a girlish giggle at their comments, and at the amount of emotions piling up from B-64. She couldn't believe that what was essentially a sentient toaster could express any kind of love, especially a cold B-Series captain, basically programmed to not feel most emotions.
She shrugged and just lounged around them on the floor, not wanting to interrupt their little moment. She knew better than to disrespect the person she tried very hard to kill before.
Once the two were finally satisfied with one another, she got down with business, "I'll be honest, this will be rough. You have to get a substantial grip on this tech to help us at all, and in a very short range of time."
Mason nodded his understanding, and although his face did not show it, he was very giddy underneath. So giddy, in fact, that the Upgrade even felt the faintest inkling at an emotion for the first time.
"Catalyst and Ion should be just about wrapping up the meeting and lying to B-04, so we only have a few hours before the fruits of his 'experiments' are supposed to be shown." B-64 and Mason nodded again, fully understanding this plan so far.
"The plan is simple, infiltrate the main mothership to the mainland through the guise of anatomical research and evolutionary studies, and attempt to stop B-01 from..." She paused for a moment, "Well, We aren't sure what he is planning, but Catalyst and Ion will tell us. Otherwise, we should get started, ready?" Mason took in a deep breath, and with a fire in his eyes, nodded.
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Heya!
So, just a bit of a longer chapter today, and so will the next one be. A lot of action, and a bit more fluff if I'm being honest.
And, while it was not the entire purpose for Axel's name, this pun was planned for a long, long time. Was it in poor taste? Probably. Did I find it funny? Hell yes.
Anyways, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
~ Candle