Chapter One


Awoken


I can't tell you what time it was. Or what day, what month, or even what year. All I can say is that it happened, and how.

The first thing I remember is hearing someone outside what was my containment tube, though not clearly. I was in a sort of stasis at the time, aware but not really awake. I couldn't move much, only a bit. I can't tell you how much time passed as I was in that God-forsaken tube. I hated it. I hated not being able to move, to see, to do much of anything.

After a while, I could hear a bit clearer, and understand what the person outside my tube was saying, although it was muffled by the glass-like material and whatever sort of liquid I was in.

"…has to work… it's almost perfect… already halfway complete… my best project…" he said.

It. I guess that would be me. I'm not an "it." I'm not an "it."

"Brain seems to be functioning properly… it's being completed at an astonishing rate…" he continued.

I'm not an "it!"

I wanted to scream. I wanted to prove I wasn't just a project, an experiment. But I could do nothing. Just… float here, and listen to him insulting me. I doubt he even realizes I'm conscious.

"This prototype will be my best work… once I perfect it, it'll be unstoppable!" I heard a sort of maniacal laughter after that.

Prototype. An "it" and a prototype. The beginning of a project. The test subject.

I am none of these things. But in his mind, I am all of these things.

That was when I heard the crash. Something must have broken, perhaps one of his other projects escaped. All I knew at the moment was that it wasn't my tube. I wished it was my tube.

"Not you again! Get out of here, rodent!" The insulter exclaimed.

No, it wasn't one of his other projects… it was someone else. By the tone of his voice, it was someone he hated.

"Heh!" a second voice said sarcastically, "I would've thought you missed me after all this time! I'm shocked!"

Whoever the other voice belonged to sounded confident, perhaps even cocky. This may be my chance to escape…

"This is your last warning, pest! Get out of here before I force you out!" the insulter exclaimed.

"You and what mustache? C'mon, I think we both know how this will end," the cocky one retorted.

There was a sound of items breaking in the vicinity. Someone was destroying things. Likely the cocky one, as the insulter probably wouldn't break his own machinery on purpose. Not too long after, sirens started blaring…

And I heard a loud thunk, followed by a sharp cracking sound, extremely close to me.

The tube cracked again after a moment, then a third time, after which it shattered. I knelt on the floor until the liquid that once surrounded me drained away. I then stood and opened my eyes, seeing for the first time.

"NO!" the insulter, a fat human wearing a sort of red-and-black outfit with an ugly, bushy mustache said, "It was only halfway complete! What have you done?!"

"What were you doing with a girl in a tube in the first place?" the cocky one, a blue, bipedal hedgehog with green eyes wearing red and white running shoes, asked, arms crossed.

I looked around for an exit of some sort. Finding the cocky one was blocking my way to the only possible exit, I ran past him, pushing him aside. As I neared the edge, I realized I was on an airship above the ocean.

I had no second thoughts as I jumped off the edge.