Log 2: N. Boarding
Nathan pulled his car onto the side of the road, halfway up the mountain. He cursed under his breath and stared into the pouring rain, kicking himself for dressing to impress on the first day of work.
"You start next Monday. I recommend you start packing and making arrangements as soon as you can."
"Does the room and board cost me anything?"
"No. We occasionally try to make up for the fact that we don't pay you well. Now, the same road you took to get here today? When you come back, around halfway up the mountain, there's a large tree with bright red leaves. Right next to the tree, get out of the car and knock on the mountain five times."
"...knock on the...?"
"It's where we'll keep your car. It's connected to the rest of the castle. Questions?"
"...several...?"
"Good. See you Monday!"
Nathan still wasn't fully convinced that Cortex wasn't playing a prank on him, but felt as though he had little other choice. He took a deep breath as he readied himself to open the car door and brave the pouring rain.
When he finally stepped out of the car, he groaned as he felt his clothes and hair soak through in an instant. He scurried over to the side of the mountain, placing his hand on the rock. Remembering Cortex's instructions, he knocked five times, first two slowly, but as he spat out rainwater, the other three were much more rapid. As he raised his arms above his head, in a feeble attempt to shelter himself, he thought he heard something. A rumbling sort of echo seemed to germinate from inside the mountain, and he placed his ear on the wall, concentrating, squinting...
The wall in front of Nathan started shifting rapidly, and he yelped, leaping backward, and swore loudly as his ass landed in a deep puddle. Shivering, he watched as various parts of the wall pulled apart from each other, folding inward, like origami. As the walls kept moving and snapping, an opening began to reveal itself, rapidly growing large enough for him to fit his car through. Though not well lit, as he stared, he could gauge that the inside of the cavern was vast. Looking at the hole that his knock had made, he marveled at how much effort and engineering must have gone into creating this false wall. He briefly wondered if the mountain itself wasn't real, another creation of whoever designed the wall.
He exhaled in a whistle, and pulled himself to his feet, wincing. Shaking off the aches, he put his mud-coated hands into his pockets, instantly regretting having done so, and walked back to the car. As he restarted the ignition, he sniffed and spat into the cupholder, deep-cleaning his sinuses. He gently tapped his foot on the gas and slowly rolled the car inside the opening.
As the car grumbled and inched along, the headlights revealed the vast, smooth, grey emptiness of the cavern. Though the space could easily store a parking garage's worth of vehicles, it was nearly completely barren, save for a couple of small lights on the far-right wall. Nathan squinted, swiveling his eyes in every direction to look for something, anything, that might also be around -
He shrieked and slammed his foot on the brakes, staring straight ahead, at the man who had been mere feet from being hit by the car hood. In his exploration, Nathan had neglected to consider looking straight ahead of him.
As he tried to catch his breath, Nathan got a good look at the guy, and felt the air get stuck in his lungs. The man shone in the headlights, the glare reflecting off of his face. More specifically, off of the half of his face covered in metal. As Nathan tried to will his breathing back to normal, he noticed that the man seemed to have one eye and a deep dark hole where an eye should have been in the half-mask. But more than anything else, it was impossible to ignore what appeared to be a rocket sticking out of the man's head.
Keep it together, he probably loves and celebrates Halloween…five months early…
The rocket man extended his arm, pointing to the left side of the cavern, and Nathan shook himself out of his shell-shock, looking to where the man was pointing. He saw, on the ground, two lines painted, like parking space guidelines. It was almost cute.
He signaled, giving the man a thumbs up, and pulled the car into the designated spot. Turning off the engine, he took several deep breaths, steadying himself, calming his heartbeat, and opening the car door.
He stepped out, turning towards the rocket man, who was walking over with brisk, small steps. As he approached, Nathan eyed the rocket man up and down, trying to get a read on him. He wasn't exactly...attractive...even when one took into account the fact that he only had half a face to look at. His body was shorter and more rotund than most men Nathan had met. His red hair was clean, but untidy. And as Nathan made out more features of his face, he noticed that the man didn't have a hole where his eye should've been in his mask: instead, it was a dark, cybernetic eye, with a small red glowing dot in the center.
Yet, despite this Nathan found it hard to be repulsed by the rocket man. He certainly wasn't all too pretty, particularly considering that the rocket did appear to be very real, and very much lodged into his head. But particularly considering the top of the man's head, sans rocket,only came up to Nathan's eyes, there was something almost adorable, or "friend shaped" about the man, despite his cyborg-like appearance. One could make a plush toy designed like him and at least a few people would buy it.
But Nathan knew full well that this man was just like him: anything but harmless. No one would work with Dr. Cortex if they were good, generous, selfless, or gentle.
"You are the new hire?"
When the man spoke, Nathan felt his blood grow chilly. The man had a noticeable accent. It sounded European, maybe Eastern European. But that wasn't the thing that shook Nathan: it was the echo in his voice. For the first couple of syllables, Nathan thought he was imagining it, but the echo was a clear and constant feature to the speech pattern. There was a more human-like component, but it had an almost metallic overlay, pitched just higher enough to cause dissonance in one's ears, as it tried to process the uncanniness.
The rocket man held out his right hand. Or, rather, a metal, hand-like...glove? Prosthetic? Whatever it was, Nathan took it, wrist trembling as the tepid plating instantly cooled his own hand. While not exactly "feeling up" the artificial hand, he could tell that it was sturdy and could apply a vast amount of pressure to whatever it encountered. He gulped, as the thought of the glove crushing his own fleshy hand in an instant, whether on purpose or by accident, invaded his mind's eye.
Still, he managed to shake the man's hand.
"Ah, yep, that's me. I'm Nathan Dustrielle. Dr. Nathan Dustrielle." He added the last part hastily, making sure that this man was knew that Nathan was someone with a bit of authority around here.
The rocket man stared at Nathan, dead in his eyes, for a few silent agonizing seconds. Then he raised his one visible eyebrow, as if having figured something out, and grinned. It was a wide, toothy expression, one that teetered on that edge before a fit of giggles.
"Dr. N. Dustrielle? Oh, I love it. I am Dr. N. Gin."
Nathan opened his mouth to ask why N. Gin used his first initial and last name. It seemed a rather odd way to refer to him.
And then he shut it.
Of course...my name is a pun...and so is his...
He sighed, curling his lip into a small, amused smile, shaking his head slightly and taking a deep breath.
"That'll do it. Mind telling me your first name?"
N. Gin furrowed his brow slightly and scowled, his eyes wandering towards the ground. "I'd rather not. Just call me N. Gin. Please."
"Then call me Nathan."
N. Gin looked back at Nathan, keeping the hand in the metal glove. While he didn't tighten his grip, Nathan wondered, feeling his rain soaked back grow frigid, if N. Gin was considering doing so.
"I think you'll find that you'll fit in better if I don't call you that. N. Dustrielle will suit you best."
Nathan considered stopping there, but felt an urge to press just a bit more, just to get a little more information. He knew he was testing N. Gin's limits and pushing his own luck, possibly dangerously so. Still, he couldn't resist his instincts.
"Oh? Fit in? What, do all the coworkers have punny names?" He smirked. "Care to tell me them?"
N. Gin tilted his head, seeming to consider the idea, and opened his mouth. But he shook his head and closed it, letting go of Nathan's hand and smiling.
"I don't think I'll spoil the surprise. I suppose they should introduce themselves to you. Fret not, I think you'll find their names to be as ...entertaining...as ours are. But first, Dr. Cortex wants you to come up and see the lab. He sent me here to make sure you don't get lost."
Nathan nodded, reaching for the trunk of his car. "Yeah, I appreciate that. You know, I nearly got lost coming up the mountain again. Nearly got myself killed, too. The rain makes things way too slick. I swear to God, is Cortex going to make me go up and down it often? Because I might well give him a piece of my mind. I mean, after my brain splatters on the road, there will be plenty of pieces to go arou-"
N. Gin lightly grabbed Nathan's wrist with his non-metal hand, chuckling loudly and shaking his head.
"Oh no, no, no...Cortex doesn't want you to unpack just yet. He wants to give you the tour, just in case he scares you off. You wouldn't be the first who thought the job would be less crazy than it is. And by the way..." N. Gin grinned, slyly. "We designed the mountain that way. Deters invaders. You'll be fine. We'll give you an easy way up and down it, soon enough."
Nathan exhaled, thankful he wouldn't need to risk breaking his neck anymore. Well, at least not when he was leaving or entering the castle. He squeezed out the excess water from his shirt, lest he become a wet floor hazard for the hallways, and jerked his head towards the entrance.
"Did you design the secret passage?"
N. Gin raised his eyebrow, but didn't stop smiling, a small twinkle forming in his eye. "Why do you ask?"
Nathan shrugged, pointing up to the gears of the false wall, the mechanisms that had folded the pieces of the passage around.
"I think it's a marvel of engineering. I couldn't tell it wasn't actually the side of a mountain, especially by sight. And how the walls fold back couldn't have been easy to execute, but they clearly work well. Won't need too much repair, since the angle of movement probably won't result in much wear and tear from general use. Must've taken a lot of planning to plot this out. At least, I think. It's not quite my area of expertise."
N. Gin let go of Nathan's wrist, and pulled out a small device from his pocket, clicking a button. The walls whirred and whined and began reverting to their original, camouflaging, positions. Nathan tried to watch the passage close completely, now privileged with a view of the mechanics at work. But N. Gin tapped him on the shoulder and gestured for him to follow, walking through another door. Nathan obliged, walking closely alongside N. Gin, consciously slowing his steps. He was always a fast walker, his teachers always used to tell his mother that he had too much energy in him. But he saw that N. Gin needed to take a couple of steps for every one that Nathan took. He tried to limit and channel that energy somewhere outside of his legs.
The halls that they walked through twisted and turned, and every so often, there would be several potential pathways for the men to walk. Combined with the fact that all the walls, floors and ceilings were a stark white color, it was a disorienting, almost terrifying journey. One that would be far, far worse if taken alone. Nathan felt his head spinning after a few minutes, rubbing his temples with his fingers and groaning.
"Good lord, you could throw an enemy here and he'd starve to death before finding a way out."
N. Gin snorted. "We might consider that as a future plan. But for you, you'll get a map. And you'll get used to it before long. Although…" He pursed his lips mischievously. "We once played a prank on Dr. Cortex and got him to come here while he was drunk. It was funny..."
He trailed off, his face growing dark for a split second, before setting it firmly in a neutral expression, continuing the stroll in silence. Nathan almost asked about what had happened, but refrained from doing so.
After a few more minutes, N. Gin held his gauntlet up.
"Just a second…"
He leaned against a spot on the right side of the hall and knocked five times.
Nathan pointed to the wall, gasping. "Is this another-?"
Before he could finish his question, part of the wall folded back, this time to an elevator, with simple and sleek black walls large enough to fit a dozen people inside.
N. Gin entered and beckoned to Nathan. As Nathan entered, N. Gin pressed a button labeled "47." While the walls shifted, closing them into the elevator, Nathan kept close to N. Gin. He intentionally chose to stand next to the left side of N. Gin, the… human side of his face and body. As a loud chime tolled, the men remained silent, with N. Gin staring towards the floor.
"Thanks." muttered N. Gin, almost too low for Nathan to hear.
Nathan squinted, trying to parse out what Gin meant.
"For...?"
N. Gin looked like he was desperately holding back a smile, face still downturned, but his eye looking up at Nathan.
"I was the one who designed the wall entrances."
He said no more as the elevator sped up towards the 47th floor. It was the fastest elevator Nathan had ever been in, and the pressure he felt pushing him from above made him feel as though the force would knock him down at any second. N. Gin's body still looked still and balanced and as though he didn't feel the pressure. Nathan wondered if it was because of N. Gin's lower center of gravity or just being used to the elevator's velocity. He hoped it was the latter, though it would be yet another thing to add to list of "things to get used to."
And his first day hadn't even technically started yet.
The elevator doors slid apart, opening without any sort of folding action. Nathan knew precisely why: this was the castle, and if you made it here, you most likely were meant to be here. There was nothing to hide from people who had access to this room.
Cortex was sitting in a desk chair nearby, eyeing over a small piece of paper with intense interest. Without looking up, almost absentmindedly, he waved.
"N. Dustrielle, good to see you found the garage. And that you're freshly showered. Come on over, let's walk through a bit of onboarding, shall we?"
He stood up from his chair and cracked his back. Twisting his body one way and then the other, he nodded to N. Gin.
"Get the show on. Now."
Gin nodded, and as he stumbled over to a nearby projector machine, Nathan noticed a stiffness and urgency to the way he walked...something that hadn't been present when they had been walking through the halls. He mentally jotted that down as he looked back towards Cortex, who was pulling down an almost comically large white screen. He heard a few clicks from the projector and the light came on, filling the screen with a black background with the words "The Source of Our Discontent" in white text.
Cortex gave a thumbs up to N. Gin, and held out his arm in a grand sweeping gesture.
"Now, N. Dustrielle, I assume you're familiar with our mission statement and goals?"
Nathan silently wished he hadn't left his messenger bag in the car. He would've pulled out his notebook and scribbled down everything he could gather during this session. Assuming the notebook hadn't dissolved in the flood, of course.
He nodded. "Of course. Each member of the Cortex Commandos is meant to execute their specific role to the highest of standards, to ensure the subjugation of Earth's population under the heel of our boots."
Cortex held his hands up in front of him, closing his eyes and smiling.
"Almost word for word. I love to see that enthusiasm. In your case, of course, you're our new chemist. So we'll be needing you to analyze and synthesize materials for various purposes, as the need arises. N. Brio has informed me that you should have everything you need to- oh, Dr. N. Brio is our resident biologist and biochemist. Similar background to you, but a bit more specialized towards our...animal efforts."
Nathan put his fist up to his mouth, biting the skin, trying to hold in an exasperated spurt of laughter. It appeared N. Gin might not have been kidding about everyone's names.
Then, as he thought about what Cortex said, he remembered something he had read in the job posting about the scientists' various efforts.
"The Evolvo Ray, then?"
Cortex's face twisted slightly, as if barely holding off a fit of rage, but straightened out his expression.
"Dr. N. Brio has made a couple of contributions and tweaks to the Evolvo Ray, but it's my creation, my idea, and my execution. Clear?"
Nathan tilted his head but held his hands up in surrender. "Crystal."
Cortex nodded. "Perfect. Now where were we - right, the slides. Now, N. Dustrielle, do you happen to know why our progression has been... what's the right term? Let's go with 'suboptimal'?"
Nathan considered the question, frowning, and shrugged. "I'm not a sociologist, but you've got to admit that the world has gotten pretty complicated. It's much harder to do much of a planetary conquest without running into logistical entanglements, or being tracked down and neutralized before efforts and action plans are fully underway."
Cortex grinned. "Oh, definitely, a perfectly logical answer. I'd expect no less from a particularly well-educated simpleton. But you're wrong. Very very wrong."
Nathan almost snapped at Cortex for calling him a simpleton. But he didn't even need to hold his tongue, as Cortex interrupted with a loud shout.
"N. Gin! Next slide!"
The screen shifted to the next slide, which stated simply:
The reason why we've been unsuccessful thus far boils down to one simple factor.
Cortex clapped his hands together. "One more, N. Gin."
A new picture filled the entire screen. It was some sort of orange creature. It looked kind of like a cat...or a fox...but bipedal...in...shorts…?
"THE BANDICOOT!"
Nathan flinched, yelped, and nearly fell out of his chair with the suddenness and intensity of Cortex's yell.
Cortex pointed at Nathan and then back at the bandicoot. "Yes, I understand why you might be intimidated. He has thwarted us at every turn, outsmarted and outmaneuvered even our most well-laid schemes. It makes enough sense, of course. I created him. But he has used all the attributes I gave him against me. And that's why we need new tactics and new resources. And that's where you come in. You must channel that fear into your drive and help us see victory over that rodent and his allies."
Nathan looked at the bandicoot closer, eyeing his wild eyes and vacant-looking smile. He didn't exactly look, well, brilliant, but apparently he was a master tactician.
"You made him?"
Cortex nodded. "Not physically, of course. He was a wild animal. But with the help of my Evolvo Ray and my Cortex Vortex, he was meant to become the general of my mutant army. Unfortunately, the experiment went less well than we anticipated. Truly? I have no idea why he chooses to work against us, but he's become a constant pain in our collective side. You might well encounter him face to face someday, and then you will understand what it's like to face him in battle. You will understand, at your very core, what it means to be a Cortex Commando."
Cortex's face calmed, hands behind his back. "But for now, your current tasks will be background. No fights with him. At least, that's the plan. As we finalize the pieces of our next major objective, we'll lay out what your particular role will involve within it."
Cortex made a hand signal to N. Gin, leaning back, smiling.
"So then, N. Dustrielle, any questions?"
Nathan opened his mouth and closed it again, narrowing his eyes, trying to process exactly what he heard. Of course he had read about the Evolvo Ray, but the bandicoot had been a bit of a surprise. He wondered how… when… why…
He raised his hand up, weakly. "I have...a few questions..."
Cortex nodded. "Good. Someone will answer them for you. Sometime. Maybe. Now, let's get you settled in." He cleared his throat audibly, straightened up, and strode towards Nathan.
"Now...N. Gin's going to be a good minion and help you get your things in, won't you N. Gin?" He flashed a grin at N. Gin, who nodded slowly and turned off the projector.
"Good. Run along now, minions, get N. Dustrielle set up, and come back down at 2 PM. I think the daily team huddle might be the most efficient way to get everyone introduced."
Cortex waved his hand, as if Nathan and N. Gin were insects to be warded off. Nathan got to his feet, slowly and tentatively, and looked back to N. Gin. N. Gin nodded, gesturing for Nathan to follow. As the two entered the elevator, N. Gin looked up at Nathan, cybernetic eye glowing a brighter red than ever, and a light flow of smoke escaping his rocket.
"How did you like the presentation?" N. Gin asked, the space between each word growing longer with every syllable. Nathan guessed that the cyborg was choosing his words very carefully.
Nathan shrugged. "I wouldn't exactly call it comprehensive, but at least I have some idea of what's involved. And I think I have a few ideas to contribute, once the time comes."
As the elevator dropped, Nathan winced and placed his hand against the wall to steady himself. N. Gin watched this, and smiled, tilting his head, as if he understood exactly what Nathan was thinking.
"So you're attending the meeting, then?"
Nathan raised his eyebrow. "Um, yes, why?"
N. Gin chuckled. "We've tried to hire quite a few people throughout the years. They annoy Cortex, Cortex annoys them, they think the job is too difficult, they think they could be better leaders than he is. Maybe 80% of them don't even make it through the presentation."
Nathan narrowed his eyes. "You're a current team member. You've clearly seen this before. So you tell me straight: do you recommend I stay?"
"For your safety, I'd definitely advise yes."
"Beg your pardon?"
"But if you got through that, you're probably as mad a scientist as we are. And that means you're probably going to stay. Welcome to the shitshow, hope you brought your coping mechanism."
He winked and laughed, as Nathan felt his stomach freefall along with the elevator.