Chapter 2: Bigger fish
Finally, a totally original beginning to a chapter: no re-capping of established scenes from hereon in!
I'd just like to take a moment to thank my reviewers for such lovely reviews. Good characterisation is the highest praise you could give me, particularly from two authors who seem pretty spot-on in that department themselves. I'd be absolutely delighted to have my story added to your C2 community, if you're willing to take it.
I just hope I can do your lovely reviews justice in further chapters…
In the darkness, the machines slumbered. Lifeless metal, sterile and cold, their limbs motionless, their wings flightless, and their clockwork hearts still, they slept, waiting for the touch of warm flesh, and the twist of a human hand to wake them.
And in the darkness, the greater machines loomed. Great formless things of cogs and springs, that lurked behind the scenes. Behind the façade of the huge, empty house, half-hidden behind drapes, the vast batteries of inscrutable mechanisms also slept.
In the darkness, and the stillness, the only sound was the soft, wheezing hiss of breath.
Mechanikles slept, sprawled inelegantly on his bed, one foot protruding from under the blanket. He slept a comfortable and dreamless sleep, one brought on by working on his projects for too many sleepless nights. A sleep that was destined to be much shorter than he had hoped for.
What woke him this time, with a gasp, was a splitting bolt of pain, running from the palm of his hand and up his arm. He jolted, almost falling out of bed, barely managing to keep his balance and dignity.
"Great Zeus, what was that!?"
He squinted blearily down at his hand. For a moment, he was sure he could see, glowing in the blackness, the blurry imprint of a star. Muttering under his breath, he groped for his beside table, finally managing to locate his eyepiece.
Scrutinising his hand again, he saw something that made his heart skip, and nausea rise in his throat: marked into his flawless flesh was a shiny, star-shaped sore.
"It's finally happened!" He stumbled out of bed, the covers getting tangled for a moment around his awkward, panicked shape. His stumbling continued until he collided with the wall.
"Scooter! The lights!"
From the surrounding darkness, there was another sound: a heavy, regular clanking, and the swishing of wings. The clanking of this one machine was slowly joined by a chorus of many, making a symphony of groans, whines, and clangs. In the gloom, the greater machines began to spin.
Very slowly, with each turn of the huge cogs, the darkness was peeled back, a dull glow filling the room, becoming brighter with every passing second, flickering as it grew. It illuminated the inventor, shielding his eyes from the brightness. It illuminated the white, marble vastness of the house. And it illuminated, the light playing warmly off its bronze body, a beetle larger than a man, hovering at roughly head-height, its bat-like wings beating the air with regular, noisy strokes.
Mechanikles turned to the beetle, and patted its vicious beak.
"Well done, Scooter." He turned away from the creature, and squinted around the room. "Did you see anything? Hear anything? I don't keep you wound up all night for nothing, you know."
The only reply from Scooter was a shake of its head. It was a difficult manoeuvre, involving its entire body twisting in the air, as Mechanikles had never seen a reason for articulating its neck.
"You sure? Nothing?" He paused for a moment to listen. There was no sound, at least not one louder than Scooter's comfortingly regular clanks. He glanced down at his hand again. The mark was still there, looking distinctly unsanitary.
"Go check the storage rooms. We can't be too careful. I'll check the workshop." A frown came across his face. "Nearly drown me, will she? Well, we'll see how she fares on dry land!"
It was just as he said those words that his bare foot landed in a large puddle that was busy soaking into the tiles of his workshop. He flinched, and hurriedly withdrew his foot, staring down at the water glinting on his immaculate floor. He wrinkled his nose.
"Dirty water? This place is going to stink for days…" He glanced around for a clean cloth, a search that was interrupted by the clanking of Scooter's return.
"Well? Did you find anything?" He demanded.
The only reply was another awkward shake of the head. Mechanikles sighed.
"A false alarm? It can't be a false alarm." He glanced down at his hand once more. "If felt it, Scooter. It's never done this before. And how else would you explain this?"
He pointed down at the puddle with an expression of revulsion. Scooter also examined it, with cold red eyes. The beetle seemed to think for a moment, its gears making a slightly louder whirr, then turned to gaze mutely upwards, its mechanical eyes scrutinising the ceiling.
"A leak? You think? But we just fixed the roof!"
A droplet of water, as if to prove a point, came falling from the ceiling and splashed into the slowly growing pool.
Another sigh. A quill and a scroll were once again removed from their hiding place, the inventor muttering as he scribbled. "Fix roof again." He glared down at the damp tiles. "Sanitise floor."
He rolled the scroll away, meeting Scooter's gaze again.
"Are you sure you didn't find anything? You didn't see or hear a thing?" He sighed as the beetle shook its head. "Perhaps I'm being paranoid?"
This time, Scooter nodded its head.
"Don't you give me that! You might not have been there, but I remember it! I remember having to swim to shore! I remember having to walk back for miles, with only one sandal and half the ocean stuck to me! I don't make things up, Scooter! I don't hallucinate!" His eyes glittered dangerously, and his mouth stretched into a wide, toothy grimace. "I, Mechanikles, am not insane! This might be a false alarm, but I know what I saw!"
He gave a yawn, blinking sleepily.
"Alright. Turn out the lights, and get this mess cleaned up. We'll fix everything tomorrow." He pointed an accusing finger at the beetle. "I want you on full alert tonight, nonetheless. If anything happens, anything at all, the tiniest bit of chaos in all my precious order, wake me. Is that clear?"
A nod.
"Good." Mechanikles gave a smile somewhat softer than his previous one. One of his long fingers tickled underneath Scooter's savage jaws. "You know daddy can't stay cross at you for long, don't you Scooty-poos?"
The beetle hovered impassively until it was released from its master's grip, before flapping off towards the great, churning banks of machinery. Slowly, the clanking stopped, and darkness seeped back into the house. Mechanikles yawned again, as he passed through the growing gloom, back to his sleeping space. The room was in total darkness by the time he crossed the threshold, barely visible as the looming black outlines of walls. He weaved his way across it, until his knees collided with the cold bronze frame of his bed. He yawned again, and slumped down on the bed, not even bothering to remove his eyepiece.
And, to his horror, found himself lying on something bony, slimy, and ice-cold.
"AAAAAHHHH!!!"
"I've heard many things from men in bed before, but that's certainly a new one on me."
This time, Mechanikles really did fall out of bed, sprawling heavily on the floor, staring up at the dark figure above him. Teeth flashed in the gloom as she smirked.
"Scooter!"
The light began to grow again, illuminating Saleen lying full across his bed, her tail flopping languidly.
"I must say, I'm impressed." She commented, glancing up at the ceiling. "These lights are very flattering to the complexion."
"How did you get in here!?"
"What, me?" She glanced down at her tail, and laughed. "I walked."
Her gaze snapped up at the sound of Scooter's noisy progress, watching its flight into the room.
"Ah, Scooty-poos." A glance at the inventor. A wicked smirk. "I see this one works, then?"
Mechanikles was on his feet now, and it was his turn to loom over her.
"Scooter here is the fruition of months, years of careful planning and back-breaking labour! He's seen a thousand re-modellings, countless tune-ups, and a myriad of long nights repairing! His motor is the most powerful yet lightweight of all of my beetles, and meticulous design has infused his cogs with a powerful intellect!" A frown crossed his face. "Well, as much intellect as I can cram into something light enough to fly, anyway… His jaws can cut through bone and tissue like paper! And he can wash dishes without mercy!"
To illustrate the point, Scooter fixed Saleen with a beady red eye, its serrated beak opening just a fraction.
"Well, you know what they say: giant clockwork beetles may be quite continental, but cephalopods are a girls best friend." She flicked her tail, a few beads of saltwater speckling the insect. "But I digress. I'm not here to admire your creations. No, I'm here for affairs of the heart."
A brief look of contempt crossed the inventor's face.
"Indeed? Then what can I do for you there, then? A comb? A mirror? A necklace? Something nice and trivial?"
"Maybe later. No, at the moment, I've got bigger fish to fry. And this particular magnificent specimen isn't going to come back to the ocean without a fight."
Realisation glinted in Mechanikles' eyes. He frowned.
"You ask me to waste my effort and genius on dragging some unwilling soul into your clutches?"
"Not unwilling. Not in the end. I'm sure once he's in my clutches, away from the influence of his little friends, he'll be quite the loyal little fishy." Her smile turned hard. "And that's where you come in. You see, getting him away from their bad influence has proved easier said than done."
"Ah. Now I understand. You wish me to waste my effort and genius on disposing of his friends, so you can drag some unwilling soul into your clutches." He turned his back on her, with a shake of the head. "Well, it may be trivial, but it should be easy enough."
Out of the corner of his eye, Mechanikles caught a glimpse of Saleen moving. In one fluid motion, she swung her tail over the side of the bed, stood up, and began to walk towards the inventor. Mechanikles was, for a moment, speechless. What had begun with her lying helpless, a fish from the waist down, had ended with her stood beside him, smiling that smile. His eyes cast a furtive glance down. Yes, somewhere along the line, she had gained a pair of legs, albeit ones clad in the same stripy, slimy skin, and bristling with fins. He quickly withdrew his gaze, composed himself, and resolved not to give her the satisfaction of shock.
"So, then. I send my creations in, dispatch his friends, and have him delivered to you by…" He consulted his scroll. "…Ooh, about Tuesday? Will that satisfy you?"
A sharp-nailed finger was waved in his face.
"Nuh-uh. It's not that easy to land this catch. I've tried. His friends are not the ordinary sort."
"My machines are designed to deal with all eventualities. Well, most of them…"
"Perhaps, Mechanikles. But tell me, have your creations ever faced a genie?"
"A genie, you say? Pah! My inventions are equipped with state of the art anti-genie technology! Capturing a genie is child's play! You, see, all you have to do is…" Mechanikles' explanation petered out as his brain caught up with his mouth. "A genie!?"
"A particularly annoying one at that."
"You want me to help you capture someone…someone who is friends with a genie?"
"Experience with magic carpets would be a help, too."
Saleen paused. There was a look in the inventor's eyes that made her take a fraction of a step back. His mouth was fixed in a grimace that showed every overly-large tooth.
"Aladdin!"