"Please don't shoot!" Ian Requested rather reasonably, emerging out of the containment chamber, raising his one hand up through the hole. He huffed hard, trying to easy himself up the ropes with only one hand. He was starting to list dramatically to one side.
To his relief, no one did shoot as he managed to raise his eyes above the level of the chamber. Somewhere down the steps, in the main and unseeable body of the room, there was movement, boots and coats and vague shuffling.
Finaly, Ian was able to sit himself on the edge of the hole and was immediately stung in the backside by a metal splinter. He gnawed his lip and tried not to shriek like a baby lamb or fall back into the hole he was leaning severely into. Someone started climbing the stairs behind him. They didn't reach the top, but they did apparently leap from the top of the stairs to the bottom, rolling into a sprint.
"NOT CLEAR! CONTAINMENT NOT CLEAR!"
Ian dropped his head, but the tiny, empty smile on his face stayed where it was. Because it wasn't a smile.
"…..…... Ah shit…."
There was a flurry of sound in every direction, clattering and frantic footsteps. Someone screamed. It must have been quite chaotic, not that Ian could see a thing. Amidst the scrambling and the barking of orders, he could at least be thankful that the alarms hadn't gone off.
He looked back down, into the hole, down at the face… or… canvas bag of 096. Down there, in the hole, it was reaching up to hold his hand. It tilted his head to the side as if it couldn't figure out what Ian wanted, and the visual made him laugh so hard he, again, almost fell in. His laughter echoed so loudly around the steel room, over the sounds of unplanned panic… and of course, it made him laugh even louder. 096 tilted its head to the other side.
If the strait-laced staff weren't running in fear before… Then they should be now.
"Hello." A very plain voice said directly above him once he had finished cackling like an evil bird. He looked straight up and was almost alarmed to see Regent, who had apparently clambered up the stairs to meet him.
"Hi…" Ian blinked up at him, in the most guiltily innocent of tones.
"Generally, when we change the parameters of an experiment," Regent explained calmly, kindly, kneeling down, putting an arm around his shoulder. "We explain them… before we carry them out."
He leaned around Ian to where he was half stuck in the hole to peer down at 096 and his bony arm that was reaching up, grasping the entirely trapped hand of Dr Kyles.
"… I panicked…" Was all Ian could say.
"… Fair enough…" Regent replied. "… So… have you got a plan?" he proceeded to ask, returning to his nonchalant cheer that Ian absolutely interpreted as a strange, cheery sarcasm that was… well earned, actually, but also probably entirely in his head. His eagerness might have been borne out of anxiety… possible.
Ian considered this for a second, which did not help the plausibility of his answer. "Yes."
"Oh good." Regent's smile widened, and he nodded. "Hope it's a good one!" He joked, summoned a laugh, then slapped Ian's back, and immediately grabbed both of his shoulders to stop him topping back into the dark hole he was still half-in. He took the opportunity, while leaning quite close to Ian's ear to say, "We are both in a lot of trouble for this."
Ian, who was still more dazzled than anything else, could only nod vaguely, having lived for the past few minutes in a world where he was accountable to no one.
Down in the pit, 096 whimpered. Regent, apparently already with the program, leaned over the edge, on all fours, and whispered "Hey, shhhhh, its ok!" He sounded like he was talking to a beloved nephew, and it made Ian's heart sting a little. He reached down to touch it, but ultimately changed his mind. As his hand retreated, another, significantly less healthy looking one chased it slowly out of the dark. Potentially for unrelated reasons, Regent stood up very quickly.
The skeletal fingers rose and gripped the ragged edge of the metal. Then Ian's entrapped arm began descending.
"Help. Help me." He wheezed and stretched himself back as far as he would go, against the innocently trusting pull of 096. He blacked out for several seconds and when he came too again, Regent was crouched behind him with his arms wrapped soundly around Ian's chest, looking blue in the face.
096 was out. It squealed a little as it hauled itself out and rolled onto the top of what was formerly its prison, pulling Ian and subsequently Regent along with it. Ian wheezed like a deflating pool floaty as the weight of the exceedingly tall Doctor landed on his back.
Again, Regent stood with astonishing speed. Ian was significantly slower to stand, as he was significantly more tangled in long, skinny arms. When he was eventually able to stand up, Ian's ribs were still aching but at least he didn't fall over when his vision went stary. 096 rolled into a very low crouch, then perched like it was about to leap off the roof of the chamber, down into the rest of the room. Ian didn't resist, he just kind of resigned himself to it. Instead, it just sat there, balanced on his haunches, holding his little hand.
Regent wobbled closer, observing, pointing to Ian's little hand where it was being softly grasped.
"Aw…" He cooed, not sure if it was cute or concerning.
By the time either of them turned back to the room, it was shockingly empty. Regent scratched his head.
"I should probably tell them not to call the task force…" He admitted. He gave Ian a smile and a nod and ambled off, trotting down the stairs and ripping the radio off his belt as he went.
096 groaned behind him. Ian, suddenly and truly believing his plan was going to work, did not turn to look. He was devoted to getting through this. He just wasn't sure he could handle the foundations worst bureaucrats AND the fact that he was leading around an abomination in a fuzzy jumper with a sack on his head. Though, the more this went on, the less he could resent 096 for anything. Just a little while in that box had rendered the free and occupied outside world a terrifying breath of fresh air. Listening to it while and shuffle around, all Ian could think was '…Yeah… I get it…'
As much as he wanted to remind himself of the kill count his companion had amassed, which was admittedly not much, esspecialy given that it was only a conservative estimate and yet still numbered in the tens of thousands, he couldn't help but feel an odd, angry pang in his chest. He wasn't angry with 096. He could see the perfect, uptight font of the declassified files blaring, obnoxiously cold, when he closed his eyes. the callus a-sympathy of the matter-of-fact information dump detailing the deaths of countless people… at the hands of the foundation…
It was only worsened by the thought of encroaching guns and was the same as the seven-day ache of being locked in a cell until the end of time. The accountability that was unaccounted for. He wanted to curse, to spit, to bite someone, someone specific who had no face, no name, but who's features he could clearly see. Someone wearing a white lab coat just like his.
Ian blinked furiously and breathed deep, pettily bobbing in his anger rather than letting himself drown in it. He squeezed his charges hand. It sleepily rubbed at its eye through the mask, dainty despite its clumsy fingers. He watched quietly, petting the side its hand with his finger.
"Why don't we find somewhere more comfortable?" He desided. 096 neither agreed nor disagreed. He smiled. For the first time in a while, he was utterly unafraid.
"Come on."
.
.
.
Coincidentally it's Christmas day.
Welcome to the first of a new breed. This chapter was half finished, and then I scrapped most of it and so it is the first fully refurbished chapter of Modern Eddy.
I have a question. Settle this for me: Should I add more characters? As it is, the story would function just with our named boys, Mostly Regent and Loanyard, plus Ian obviously, but there could be more... maybe? I am undecided. Let me know what you think.
Also, because it's been on my mind, I actually have another fanfiction on Archive Of Our Own, a much more recent...ly started one, if y'all feel like more hurt-comfort. Its a GOD DAMN MCU fic, don't sue me. I just like spider-man. I was actually baffled when I re-discovered that its 11 chapters long and FIFTY THOUSAND WORDS. I have no idea what happens in it any more. Its called Avengers: Home again, because fuck me I'm shit at titles.
FUN FACT; the title of this fic is an acronym. FUNNER FACT; I think I've said that before, BUT I haven't said what it is... AND I WON'T NOW!
