In which graceful is the new awkward, Joe suddenly becomes brave, after which he screams.
Shadows cask beneath her eyes, her head bowed as she stands before him. If you look closely, you can see her peach lips are pressed together in a tight line, almost a sneer, but not quite, she's restraining herself. She can't show weakness.
"The brat saw me once, it won't happen again."
He looks down on her, his eyes narrowed. Anger is visible on his pale face as he walks towards her in quick motions, before he grabs her neck and forces her to her knees.
"It won't. Because you will not be continuing your mission."
Her eyes widen at his words and she struggles in his hold. The hood of his cape barely covers his face anymore.
"No, please. I am capable of completing the plan, I will not disappoint. I promise…" Her voice can't finish the sentence she's forming, as his fingers harshly close around her throat, blocking her airway.
"You have failed; you have let the company, the plan and most importantly; me down. You have disappointed me. You have lacked your responsibilities."
"No… I will not, I can…" Her voice cracks as her blue eyes stare up into his, but behind his glasses lays no compassion.
"How can I trust you, after you have failed me? How can you ever be of usage to me when your little friend has blabbed to important links in our plan?"
Her eyes widen, both in disbelieve and anger. She seems unable to speak because of the emotions, so foreign to her.
"He is not my friend." She finally manages to whisper.
The shadows around them shift as he releases her.
"Doesn't seem like it, the way you've let him get away." He steps away from her and turns towards the window, a look of disgust on his face. "A measly young boy. One young boy, absolutely no threat and with a knowledge that could harm what I have build and you let him escape. It's a mistake, an imperfection. It's unforgivable; I will not do with anything but the best. I take you can understand that."
She is still on her knees, her fingers buried in the expensive carpet beneath her. Her blonde hair falls in curtains around her head, hiding her face.
"You are not profitable to me anymore." He fingers a golden rope that is attached to the curtains and pulls. The curtains slide towards each other, leaving only a little trail of light that hits the lithe body in the middle of the room. He smiles.
There is no sound to be heard in the small scaled laboratory. There probably hasn't been a day when the room has been this silent. It's complete, nothing reaches Joe's ears. Not even the slight buzzing that always hung in the air around the Humanoid that is staring at them, the sound has completely disappeared.
It's scary, how much he looks like a human being. The way his curls fall over his smooth skin, the way he stands; his palms open and slightly hunched. And exactly that is what makes him slightly scary.
Because Joe knows he is not and yet, his eyes give him the message that what stands before him is indeed, a human being.
A slight ache deep inside him wants him to step forward, to let the boy know its okay; that they're not going to hurt him. It wants to touch, it's an instinct for Joe, it wants to touch its hands. To use the familiar sign to soothe.
He wants to see if the boys hand still fits his own, but he can't, because he can also see the flaws.
The eyes, though a perfect brown colour, the exact duplicates of his own, are too focussed, watching everything.
He's too still, he doesn't move at all, not a finger, not a breeze leaves his lips.
It's a robot. It's a human.
It's confusing and once more, Joe is torn between two thoughts. Two urges. The urge to know and the urge to leave this all behind once more.
But he knows he can't.
Macy, once again, is the first to move. Her brown hair flying behind her as she approaches the Humanoid without fear.
He realises it's not more then normal. She created him— it. She knows what he is till the deepest corners of his being.
She made him; of course she's not scared. She didn't make something dangerous; she made something that is meant to help people.
"It's time for phase five." She says, as she lifts his arms and lets them shakily drop back.
"It's time for the testing." Big rob mumbles in Joe's ear. "Time for the bigger thing."
Joe just nods, still observing the creature before him, which now slowly moves across the limited space, ordered around by Macy. She looks like she's having the time of her life and Joe just stands there.
He wants to be there, he wants to help and his curiosity is killing him.
As, apparently, is his dog.
Elvis walks forward and without anything as caution presses his nose into the boys palm and then in his exposed knee.
It is only then, that Joe notices the humanoid is just wearing a simple pair of black shorts, nothing else. He doesn't know why it hasn't occurred to him before; maybe because he is used to seeing it bare-chested, or maybe because he was too caught up with its looks, to notice it's… body?
Joe shakes his head and then their eyes lock and it feels like a shock of pure electricity rolls through Joe's body. Like the eyes freeze and melt him at exactly the same time.
Not because the eyes are scary, like he labelled them before, but because the eyes are longing, confused. Or so they seem.
Joe walks forward, their eyes still on each other's faces and Macy gapes at him when he fearlessly says: "Hello. I'm Joe." He's taken by instinct once more.
The humanoid slightly cocks his head to the side, like he's waiting for something and then he slowly replies. His voice surprises Joe again, soft and hesitating.
"Hello." His slightly mechanic tongue has disappeared as he accurately copies Joe's way of speaking. "I'm…"
Then, his face goes blank and Joe almost laughs. Instead, he smiles.
This too, seems to intrigue the boy. His eyes flashing and trailing over Joe's face.
"Your name is Nick." Joe says, as Elvis once more pushes his nose into the Humanoids' hand. It's like they're welcoming him.
Nick looks down for a second, his movement is slightly stiff. When their eyes meet again, he repeats; "Nick."
"Because you're the first Humanoid in the N.I.C.H.O.L.A.S. project." Joe says proudly, though he has no idea why. He just feels proud.
He—it moves it's mouth, once more cocking his head before he carefully replies. "Nicholas…"
Joe almost punches the air in triumph. "Yeah. Nicholas." He turns to Macy with a smile on his face. He knows for sure she's beaming too, but his grin quickly disappears when he sees her face.
"What? What's wrong?" Joe looks back at the humanoid, checking, but he seems normal. "Macy…"
"What is it that you do to him?" She wonders, swallowing and staring. Her expression is one of fright and excitement. "He's not…" She shakes her head. "You are certainly something, Joseph Lucas."
He feels the confusion till deep in his bones. "What? Why?"
"He's not supposed to speak, to converse like this! We can only activate the basic abilities in here. His first instinct is to help, so he could say those first few words, but his databases haven't been decoded yet… It's amazing. You just taught him how to talk."
Joe feels slightly annoyed. Are they honestly still not done prodding the poor boy? He steps a bit closer to the form behind him, which is silently observing him. Stands before it, like he could protect it.
Apparently, big Rob can read his face, for he almost unnoticeably shakes his head.
But Macy is all smiles again. "Let's go activate him! And then we can go for the first round of testing!" Freaky scientist she is, even though he's come to like her.
"But I thought you said we couldn't do that here?" Joe asks, his eyes watching for what the Humanoid can obviously not yet see.
"Who said we were going to do it in here?"
As if on cue, once more, Joe and Nick look at each other.
"Are you com-eing?" The Humanoid asks, his eyes wide. He was certainly not ugly, Joe noted. True Lucas genes.
"Of course.
"Prove that you are!"
Joe should've been examining the room they were in. Or at least the room the Humanoid is in, on the other side of the glass.
But his eyes are focussed on the young face, the expression so uncomfortable, all alone, once more separated from Joe by glass. It feels wrong. It feels too distant.
He wants to curse it, the glass, he does, but he's afraid that will only set the half-robot more on edge.
Restless, Nick moves within the round, perfectly sterile and smooth white room. Looking around, his movements become slicker and smoother with every blockade dismantled, until he isn't anything but graceful.
"Activate the speech-databases." Macy says into a small microphone.
"Joe. I hereby officially promote you to my second assistant." She says, completely serious. "Nothing fancy. Your voice seems to soothe him; will you please ask him, that microphone over there, to say something?" She points to an equally white microphone standing before the glass that separates them from the testing-room.
They went down several levels to reach it and Joe believes they are now deep underground. They're standing in what to the most resembles a control-room of a high-tech airplane.
There are buttons and screens everywhere. Displaying Nick from several sides. Multiple point of views.
He takes a deep breath and leans towards the microphone.
"Nick? Can you hear me?" He says and he hears his own voice on the other side of the wall.
If Nick had been a dog, like the one left miserably upstairs, his ears might've peered up.
He immediately turns to where Joe is standing behind the glass and stares intensely at what to him must be a solid wall.
"I'm here, its okay. We just want you to say something."
"What should I say?" Nick immediately answers, his English flawless.
"Keep talking to him, Joe. Try a different language."
"Can you say something in… Err— Spanish?"
Joe canonly stare at the humanoid's face as it tries to locate him when he speaks, still softly moving, never altering. His body now perfectly balanced.
"Por supuesto que puedo, mis bases de datos muestran varios acentos y dialectos. Cuál te gustaría escuchar?"
"Amazing." Joe whispers.
"That's my humanoid." Macy agrees, as she keeps pushing buttons. "Okay, now give him full access to his senses. No, no reverse."
Suddenly. Nick's eyes fixate on Joe's face and he smiles. He actually smiles, a perfect, white-toothed smile.
Unbelieving, Joe raises his hand to wave.
Nick immediately reacts. Lifting his hand in one sweep motion.
"Joe! Keep talking."
"Right. Nick?" Joe is now smiling too; he's starting to enjoy this. The Humanoid isn't scary. He's really freaking cool, as intended. This boy can have a conversation with anybody. Right?
"Can you speak… Indonesian?" Joe doesn't exactly know Indonesian, but Nick replies anyway, though he isn't paying attention to Joe very much anymore. Now, he's examining the test-room more closely, with what his 'full' senses and what not.
"Ya, sebagai Sebenarnya aku bisa."
"German?"
Nick turns around and quickly walks to where Joe looks through the window, his blackish curls bounce. "Ich mag dieses Spiel, aber warum bist du auf der anderen Seite des Glases, Joe?"
He peers through and raises his hand to the glass, before pressing it against it. Naturally, Joe presses his hand to the glass, almost as quickly, though with less grace.
"French?"
`Je souhaite que nous pourrions faire cela sans le verre, Joe.´
`Amazing, he reacts exactly to your desires.´ Macy sighs and she and Joe share a secretive smile. `It's almost like…´
`The real question here, I will he obey my orders?´ A cold voice snaps harshly, interrupting Macy's last words.
The glass, the glass Joe´d loved to have broken just moments ago shatters to tiny pieces barely a second after the voice spoke and the sharp elements scratch and scars his skin. Everything around Macy and Joe seems to explode and they're forced to back away from the desk and the gaping hole in the wall.
When something kicks him harshly in the chest, Joe is thrown back, landing harshly on his back. He doesn't see the attacker, just the face of Nick. It is looking surprised, but calm as he tries to make his way through the falling pieces of solid wall and the dark, cloaked shadows that move in between the two young men.
`No! Not Joe! My Humanoid!´ Macy shouts and then she screams, but her cry of pain is muffled.
Joe coughs loudly, dust and noise dulling his senses. Where's big Rob when you need him?
`You're coming with me. Enough testing.´
At that moment, Joe recognises the voice, the cold voice that's been carved into his brain ever since he witnessed her marking an innocent girl.
Penny's after Nick. Mr. Coler hadn't been able to stop her.
A loud screeching noise fills his ears and he feels pieces of more broken electronics land just inches from his curled-up body. He attempts to crawl from the mess, but the dust blocks his sight and he can't hear because of the loud yelling.
Penny wasn't alone, either.
At that moment, surrounded by enemies. On his knees, destruction all around him, just one thought is clear enough to act upon.
Nick.
`No. Please, he his unlocked abilities haven't been tested yet!´ Macy screams, before Joe is finally able to find her, falling to the floor unconsciously, her face covered in blood.
Joe screams too when one of the shadows approaches him. He fears for his life, that of Macy and the newly found one of the Humanoid. Of Nick. He'll never forgive himself if anything happens to it. To him.
But he doesn't know what to do; he doesn't know how to defend himself, let alone fight for Macy's beautiful creation as the cloaked figure closes in on him.
Suddenly, the shadow of a man is lifted off his path and thrown into the nearest wall. He lands on the floor with a loud crash and new screams erupt around them, but this time they come from one very annoyed blonde when she sees her goal slip through her fingers again, as he easily throws his enemies to the side, trying to find Joe.
`Nick!´ Joe yells, effectively catching his new… friend's? Attention.
It's a wrong move. He has distracted the graceful being and Penny isn't below taking advantage of that, he should know that. She harshly presses a double-ended device in Nick's abdomen and presses a button, just before Nick wraps his hands around her wrists.
`Joe.` He manages to whisper, before his whole mechanic body went limb.
Joe can't stomach it. It's too much; he can't even answer the boy's plea. His vision goes black. No device needed. His brain knows how to protect itself.
`wrong move´
It's shorter then usual. But it has also more action then there has been up until now.
And we're getting deeper into the plot! I am very excited because of this, especially since it's even hard for ME to follow what is going on at times. Holding the storylines isn't always easy.
I really hope you enjoyed the chapter and I hope (beg) that you'll leave me a lovely review, but even more, I'd like to say that if you like this and my writing, I would advise you to check out the collaboration between myself and Chibiyugixyami.
We decided to combine our strengths (And seriously, her strengths make chapters as suckish as this one so much better) and write a story together.
The story is called ´the reality of dreams´ and is written under the penname of ´SilverChibiAngels´
Original, right? We know, but it (the story) is one of my better (and her regular) brilliant ideas. So check it out!
Now, I hope to see you soon again too in this story too, for we shall see what becomes of our heroes!
Silver