Chapter 12 -Collective Torture.
He reclined to hide his jump of anticipation as the Collective bots filled the air with buzzing and lifted from the table like a rippling carpet. He clenched his fist as a bout of envy crippled his thought process, and took him to places he had fought to seal away in his mind. He averted his eyes from the bots forming themselves into a spherical shape, and focused on Lupus rocking back and forth in concentration.
Lupus was surely the one that had led him to witness At'thias's murder. Once he had witnessed Lupus's eyes for himself his assumption had been unshakable. Now protected under the unbreakable film that coated his sterling blue eyes.
The Collective Hovered around the room and faced him as a large mechanical blob floating through the air. He looked at it for a moment before a cheer rang out through the room, he looked up at a set of screens and saw the side of his head showcased on it.
"Functional Telepathy!" A cognit roared behind him.
The collective moved away from him and formed a threadbare shell around Lupus. A tiny highpitched whine shot through the air and Andrew grabbed his ears as it relegated itself to a lower pitch. Everyone jumped as a monotone voice superseded the medley of pitches.
"Don't you love, Multi-tone speakers!"
Everyone looked at Lupus's prone form for a long second before cracking up laughing. the Cognit flooding the room with their hackling chuckles.
He groaned as he straightened up and his ducts flooded, washing the film from his eyes and making him wince at a harsh light above him. As the light faded he instantly became aware of the fact that he was definitely not in his Dorm room. Hesitantly glancing through the seemingly purposeful glare he discerned a shadow of a desk ahead of him and a stand lighting the air ahead.
He hissed as the light grew brighter forcing him to fall back. He jumped from rest position and launched himself towards the light source intent on taking it out. Instead of smashing the light source he smashed into a hard metallic wall.
He groaned as he realized his mistake and patted the reflective surface before lunging back towards the light source. His head exploded as the true light source blasted him and he charged closer.
He turned his head averting his eyes and broke the bulb sending the room into an unparralelled darkness. He fell to the ground and groped at his eyes. A deep voice he immediately recognized as The Headmaster spoke.
"So that is why your charisma has halved since your arrival."
He spat in the general direction of the voice.
"You Freaks aren't Cognit!"
"Neither are you."
"This entire academy is full to the brim of unsuceptible freaks." He spat again, Rattled by the light, and the looseness of his tongue.
"It seems we are more, Aquainted with you. Then you are with us."
"We are Rulixe And we know your weaknesses." Another light flicked on, half as bright but strangely painful to watch.
He twisted backwards but strong limbs took hold of him and forced his head closer to the light. His mouth opened and words streamed as the light overtook him.
The Threadbare shell lit up and drew more laughter before the collective finally made its way out of the room. Quickly soaring up into the atmosphere, it flew into a column of geese. Squawking ensued as the geese tried to avoid the unnatural companions of the air.
They watched as the collective seperated and landed on a few of the geese. The geese went into fits trying to shake the miniscule bots and the room barely contained their laughter. The geese rocketed through a cloud and the Collective dispersed leaving them behind.
They went up and burst through the cloud running directly into a mettalic bird of the sky. Stunned the cameras rotated as the Collective fell, before quickly reorienting itself. They flew up and peered through windows and buzzed near entrances.
After a couple of minutes, they formed a line and went into the ship. It was a calm place, seemingly devoid of human life. The group remained sitting entrapped by the view of the Ghost ship. The Collective meandered through analyzing signs and following the directions toward the bridge.
They arrived at the bridge in seemingly no time. And found a disturbing sight, A human body sat at the controls, but that body was lax and its skin was pasty. They flew towards it and found wires attached to it with data ports around it.
They landed on its hand and all but one flew away in surprise when a hand clamped down on it.
A red light seared through the lone trapped camera and Lupus began shaking uncontrollably. All eyes returned to the screen as a laugh echoed through the speakers, And a loud voice crackled through. "Little, Filthy Spies! We are going to follow you all the way home." Lupus groaned behind them and andrew glanced over and watched the liquid drop off his eyes.
His horror grew as he turned back towards the screen and watched the Collective continue to move.
He blinked again and found himself lying in bed. His dim recollections of the night seemed to offer a horrible torturous experience. He examined his room but found nothing out of place. He shook his head and clambered from rest.
He walked through a thin curtain and listened to the musical tinkling behind him as he walked through the Dorm halls and headed towards his first classroom. His eyes roved the hallways and picked out a couple of people that he knew.
He waved and chuckled as he turned into his first classroom. He shivered as another memory of his dream, floated to the front of his memory. He looked at the Guest lecturer and found that he too was like the rest of the people here.
Empty and soulless, But here was a place he fit in. He couldn't twist things and people to his will, maybe because there was no will but he could have a conversation without being bombarded by the thoughts of fear and respect he forced on his companions.
He looked up, realizing that the Lecturer had begun to speak and returned from his little world.
"He Doesn't seem to remember the incident." The larger spider said.
"Could he be acting?" The Headmaster Asked.
"He didn't flinch during a seminar on torture techniques. I think he is safe. For now at least."