MEMORIES OF ENIGMA
Chapter II
Cold Air
The curtains were drawn to an absolute shut. The ghostly, pale lights of the surrounding monitors glazed the dark laboratory. Dimly lit silhouettes of a wide variety of Mobians gathered around a semi-circle of tables, each clicking and typing away in their own individual projects.
Suddenly, a large series of digital beeps resounded from the computer room's hallway. Various mechanisms on the front of the metal door clicked and spun and after nearly ten seconds of puzzling, the contraption quickly collapsed to the side. The researches flinched as natural light flooded into the quiet space. Looking towards the hallway, the fellow scientists were greeted by a tall blue sheep and a glass, boxy backdrop of scurrying clouds.
The convoluted door instantaneously, yet daintily slid back into place. What was once a clear, lucid figure faded into the ghostly gleam; leaving only the shape of jewelry-laden ears, an afro, and a leather-coated figure. The dim shadow moved and took a seat near the front of the chamber. As it unzipped a bag and pulled out various devices, a feminine voice pierced the uncomfortable silence:
"How're we doing here?"
An energetic monkey swiveled around, unearthing his own tablet from an unsightly pile of paperwork, throwing a handful of forms hither and yonder. As the boy entered a passcode on the device, he began speaking as he shuffled through a seemingly infinite list of software and applications.
"The bot-guided automobiles and agents we've put in Liberty and Paraiba haven't picked up much until yesterday. There was one in Liberty suburbs that we got a trail on, but if you look here", he said pointing to a complex pattern atop a map program, "The half-life trail just sort of faded away at this point."
The fashionable shadow raised an eyebrow.
"Did the dash-cams catch the moment it 'faded off'?"
The other scientist pressed a button at the bottom of the screen, the tone in his voice shifting into a mood of slight disgrace.
"Err, unfortunately we didn't quite catch it, it was far too fast for our equipment. The wisp had to travel over a hill. We even sent over a few units to block the next intersection, but it must have known. We got outsmarted by a one-foot tall alien"
The monkey's voice trailed off into disappointment. Like watching his favorite team blow a clean pass, it was a bit sad to watch AI built with his own two hands fail at their one job.
Sped up, thermal footage looped on the tablet of a bright white trail, everything around was dull and gray, practically impossible to see. It was clear that they were picking up something, but the path just vanished, fading into the black of the footage.
The boy bit his lip, and looked down. While he expected some sort of reproach, or even a passive-aggressive jab at his machinery's screw-up the woman reached down, turning the display off. She smiled at her colleague and rubbed his shoulders instead.
"Don't beat yourself up, Heath. While we don't have this specimen, we still got a lot of intel from the chase. We now know that at least some of them have intelligence at least parring that of a Mobian. These aren't mindless creatures we're dealing with."
The monkey looked up.
"So, Bliss, does that-"
With a slight snicker, Heath was cut off.
"Yes, that means I'm not mad. You did what you could for now. This just means we're going to have to be more creative in our approach now. We'll worry about that in a bit, but for now, just stay positive. We won't get anywhere sulking."
"Ah yes, thank you!"
A smile returned to Heath's face as he returned to his seat.
As Heath walked and swiveled back to his seat, Bliss dug further through her bag even more, pulling out her own tablet and a twinkling, light blue gem. The sheep cleared her throat, and the room of busybody scientists shifted attention. When all eyes were on her, Bliss typed a command on her tablet, which switched the display from the mobile device a large screen board at the front of the laboratory. She pushed her chair aside and leaned against the wall.
"Now, through my own research and expeditions, I've just found something big! It happened at home when a wisp flashed by and approached me from outside of my office."
A key was pressed, and a blurry image of a shimmering, baby-blue blur expanded on the screen.
" Funny thing is, that it swirled and circled around my place for a while. The satellite at my house detected that this thing orbited around the place many times over before I could go outside and engage it. Apparently, it was there so long that the energy started to manifest as weather. The whole place had dropped about ten degrees and the windows were even iced over!"
A walrus researcher lifted his hand and spoke out.
"What do you mean by 'manifest', ma'am?"
Bliss smirked, "As in, this thing was so powerful, that the neutral energy that it naturally gave off from existing was enough to manipulate the temperature of the place. It wasn't even trying to cause anything, yet its fallout energy was enough to alter its immediate environment."
After expanding a satellite chart of Bliss's property, showing a drastic temperature change in two hours, she clicked once more.
"I had observed it long enough, and I captured the thing. It's in Spinell lab C-4R right now under Russo's and my observation."
The next page depicted a choppy, live video feed of a byzantine, alien creature. It was bright blue in some sort of mechanical pod. The creature itself was shaped like a choppy snow cone, but it seemed at peace. It was odd for a being in captivity to act this way, but the image showed a constant, reassuring smile popping up on the wisp's face every ten-or-so seconds.
"Since we got the funding for this project, the C (confidential) lab that's housing it is equipped with weather-smart devices that neutralize the wisp's innate power. It won't be breaking out."
She paused for a moment and let the video play, enthusiastically spouting scientific jargon and terms that were probably only meaningful to those devoted to high science as this group. After a good fifteen minutes, Bliss concluded the presentation dealing with the wisp itself. She placed her tablet aside and revealed a bright blue, tear shaped gem from her coat-pocket.
"Now, I took all of that research and used this plus captured energy to develop this. It's still in testing, but this gem can safely scan, absorb, and display information gathered from the wisp. With it, we can even utilize their power and harness the process through machines. Imagine a weather machine, a device that keeps,"
Her rant was cut off by a piercing ringtone, and her dedicated focus dissolved into a flurry of impatience as she dug through her purse for her phone. After an awkward exchange of eye contact between her colleagues, she finally uncovered the device.
"Sorry guys, this is a correspondent from Liberty at Doctor- "
Bliss's voice trailed off as she read the message and the energy in her body and voice faded into a strange mixture of annoyance and gravity.
"Heath," she said matter-of-factly, "The cars you sent as a trap, can you show me footage of that?"
Unsure of what was running through Bliss's mind, the monkey returned up to the front of the room with his tablet. After flipping through files, the duo stared at dashcam footage through a moderately poor neighborhood. There was a bright pink flash near the side of the capture.
"Woah! There, pause there!" the sheep exclaimed.
Heath rewound a bit and paused the video. While it was blurry, the footage depicted a teenage dog with floppy, sand colored ears and large, pink hat. After gaping for a moment, Bliss snatched the device from her monkey coworker.
"Hey, that's!"
"Shut up for a second I have to think!"
Bliss pulled up the energetic trail map from when the wisp was being chased. From the surrounding area and GPS position, the end of this trail and the point paused were at the same place as this boy. A lump started to form in her throat. She slowly handed the tablet back to Heath as he puzzled, trying to figure out what his boss was so worked up over.
The air was tense. The computers hummed and whirred, as if they took it upon itself to try to break the darkness and silence of the lab. Their efforts were in vain. The company, even Heath didn't quite understand what was quite going on, but nevertheless they were still scared to the edge of their seats. Finally, she dropped her head.
"No. This is bad."
There was one more pause. Bliss hastily packed her things once more and ran out of the laboratory. She took the elevator down that would lead into the parking garage of the facility, leaving the staff to look at each other, scratching their heads at the whole fiasco. It was quiet once more, but after a fearful minute of thought and reflection, the team eventually returned to their own work. It would be what Bliss would want them to do anyway.
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