Chapter 2
First Test Failure: The Institute Put At Risk
Artemis watched as the wall slid open on the opposite side of the arena below opened slowly. Through it came a large, worm-like creature. Its size was about half the distance from the arena floor to the on-looking room the scientists were located. The only thing besides its size that set it apart from being completely worm like were the set of elephant legs it walked on, the strange tusks by its mouth, and the strange color. It was yellow with a rippling effect, as if it were made out of water. It let out some kind of sound, something that sounded like a mix between an elephant, a whale, and a lion. It walked towards the center of the room it was in, the ground shaking with each step.
She turned her attention back towards the other scientists in the room, looking towards a man at the back, who frantically began typing on a keyboard. This person didn't have on a lab coat, instead sporting a black button down jacket with jeans. His skin was a deep, golden brown and his hair a forest of black curls. "The Alchemical seems calm for now. Matter levels are fluctuating at an even and steady pace," he said, not turning his gaze towards the woman.
"Good," she said as she looked back into the arena, staring at the creature below. "Then send in the prototype." The man she spoke to nodded, despite knowing that his superior wouldn't see it. The typing on his keyboard came to a halt, a window popping up on the screen in front of him. It read 'Confirm: Yes or No?'. The ravenette pressed where the 'Yes' was on the screen with his index finger, the screen rippling as he did so before going blank.
Down in the large room below, the wall across from the beast, known as an Alchemical, slowly began to open, but not as wide, or tall, as it had for the giant worm. It was about the size of a normal door one would find in an everyday house. Through it, walked out the silhouette of a small girl, probably no more than 4'6. No details had been added onto the body yet, meaning it had no distinguishing details other than the sheer lack of it. The only thing about the prototype that could be definitively seen, other than its smoke grey, metal body, were a set of eyes with golden irises, filled with an ocean of questions and curiosity. They contrasted against her body, making them stand out and visible even from the room above. As she walked out the door, the brunette in charge walked over to one side of the room to look at their creation.
'Beautiful,' she thought. She turned her head to look at the Alchemical, painting the image of the two of them, the prototype golem and the mindless beast, battling it out in an exchange of pulse pounding combat. A true spectacle that would be one written for ages to come. Or it could be written, if this wasn't a top secret assignment. Once all the scientists all died, no one would ever know this had happened. A frown had begun to form on her face, but that would change after what she saw.
She looked over to the creature, thinking that she saw something off about it. Artemis wasn't completely sure, but she thought it looked like the Alchemical had shrunk a little. If it had the amount was too miniscule to definitively tell from where she was, so she could only guess. "Um, ma'am," the man who had opened the door for their prototype spoke, slight anticipation dripping from his voice. That slight undertone was enough to get the head scientist's attention, turning towards him with a quizzical expression.
"Ray, what's wrong?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, noticing that his screen had been turned on again.
"The Alchemical's fluctuation just spiked briefly, and then it went flat," the black haired man, whose name seemed to be Ray, pointed to the screen, a straight line running across it, "as if it had gone dormant."
"Dormant?" She looked back at the Alchemical, noting that it was being too still. Was it planning something? Had it died?
Her question was answered when a quick, repetitive beeping sounded from Ray's computer, catching everyone's attention. The worm reared its head back, looking directly up, letting loose a roar similar to the one it had earlier, but this one was much, much louder. The intense energy released by the simple roar was enough to cause the ground, and even the hanging room, to shake violently, knocking several scientists who were standing flat onto the ground, Artemis being included in those few, while the ones in chairs held onto their stations desperately.
The brunette looked towards Ray, her nerves standing on end and her expression overwhelmed with fear as she pointed at the console. "Activate Vorpal Protocol, now!" She didn't know why, but she had a bad feeling about what was going on.
Ray nodded and began typing frantically, smoke beginning to come from the keyboard before it spat sparks at him, causing the male to wince back. "I can't! The computer circuits are over loaded!" He yelled in panic, getting up from his chair to grab a fire extinguisher from the other side of the room. 'Damn it,' Artemis thought. 'Just what the hell is going on down there!?'
Prototype X204 stood in the arena, staring up at the worm-like creature as it roared loudly, the ground beneath her shaking violently as she stood unaffected. What she saw as she looked at it wasn't like how a normal person would view it. Instead it was like a person looking through a scope, crosshairs in the center and aimed directly at the Alchemical. "Target: Identified," she said in a monotone, purely mechanical, voice. The tips of her fingers opened up, each one changing to shape what would look like the barrel of a gun. "Mataranda Alchemical. Wurm Class." She began walking forward slowly, the beast halting its roar only to look towards the thing approaching it. "Self-Replicable." With one swift movement, the golem turned to its left, aiming both hands at a spire and shooting at it repeatedly. From her finger guns came out bullets made out of pure magic, glowing pink in color. The bullets easily pierced through the rock, crushing it within seconds, kicking up a large dust cloud.
A soft cry came from behind the rock after it was crushed. It was revealed afterwards that the source was some kind of giant slug, rust red in color with the same ripple effect on its body, holes riddling its body. "Takamata Alche-" before she could finish that thought, a blue, spear-like object hit her directly in the back at an angle, spiraling as it had begun digging into her back. This caused the golem to stumble forward a few steps before falling to the ground, the object pierced through the right side of her chest and into the stone floor. This pinned down the prototype, despite its efforts to push itself off the ground multiple times.
Meanwhile, the worm, apparently called a Mataranda Alchemical, turned its body towards the wall to its right, seemingly staring it down. Slowly, its body began to shrink, a flood of reds, blues, and pinks out of it. Once they hit the floor, the colors separating and forming different shapes, some slug like, some shaped like a tadpole, twice the size of the slugs, with a large mouth full of molars, drool dripping from its mouth, and 4 limbs to allow it to walk, and others shaped like humans, each a solid mass of a single color, the same rippling effect on them. Only, the pinks didn't turn into the slug or human shape. Instead, the pink globs either were the tadpole things, or ones that looked like a grape with human limbs. After each one was completely formed, the Mataranda slumped down to the ground exhausted, a gust of dust flowing as it hit the ground.
As it did that, the grape like beings walked towards the wall it had been facing, the others created Alchemicals following behind them. They all stopped a foot from the wall, each "grape" glowing brightly. Without a single moment to waste, the spheres flew off of their bodies, each grape things sending a total of 13 each, and hit the wall, exploding upon contact, kicking up a cloud of debris and dust, hiding any damage they created. Within a few seconds, an alarm began blaring loudly, filling both the arena and the entire lab. The smoke cleared to reveal a hole in the wall, large enough for all except the giant worm to fit through.
Artemis watched in horror as the events unfolded. The Alchemicals were going to get into the lab. She couldn't allow them to get to her daughter. The idea of what would happen, she couldn't bear it. So without second thought, she ran to the back of the room, repeatedly pressing the button to open the doors impatiently, her mind unable to think of anything but her daughter's safety. Once they opened she stepped through the door and into the elevator she had come in through, rapidly pressing the first floor button, as if it would cause the elevator to bend to her will. She had to get to her child. Without her, she'd have nothing left. No family, no one to care for. She'd just have a job and that's it. She didn't want that, she wanted her child to be safe.
Meanwhile, in the mess hall, Angela and little Lucina were having breakfast together. Or rather, Lucina was eating and Angela was cutting up the pancake for her. It was something the younger's mother had told her she did. It wasn't because of a lack of trust, but a want to make sure that her only child wouldn't harm herself with a knife. Angela didn't mind at all, watching the toddler's expression light up with each movement of the knife. The sitter at least gave Lucina the freedom to bring up the food to her mouth with a fork; a freedom the girl didn't take for granted.
The mess hall was a simple grey with no windows or anything. They were underground so there really wasn't any point to have any windows. The tables were all blue benches, lined up in 7 different rows, 3 benches per row. Near the doors was a food line, people behind a counter with assorted toppings in baskets. They looked like they were cleaning up after they had finished breakfast service or something akin to it. Angela took all of that in as she continued to slice up the pancakes.
Angela enjoyed watching the girl's expression, seeing something she never had at her age. She hadn't been treated like she was treating her responsibility, how she made all kinds of cute faces and noises at something as simple as a pancake. A mixture of rage and jealousy swirled inside of her, secretly wanting to be in Lucina's place. She kept it all hidden though, knowing such a feat was an impossible wish.
Halfway through the pancake, she put a hand on the younger blond's head and ruffled her hair a bit. "Enjoying your pancake there are you?" She heard a soft giggle in response, smiling at the girl's response.
"Mhm! They're just like how mommy makes them," she said cheerfully, watching as Angela began cutting more pieces for her. "She said the main ingredient was love, and I think whoever made this one agreed with her." Angela finished her cuts, her smile seemingly more tired than it was before. Lucina didn't notice this, too focused on the pancakes. "What about you Angela?"
Hearing the question, the said girl moved her left bangs behind her ear, curiously looking at Lucina. "What do you mean?" She set down the set of silverware, watching the young blond pick up the fork.
"Well," she stabbed one of the pieces, picking it up and pointing at Angela with it, "didn't your mom ever make you pancakes with love?" She then brought it up to her lips, taking the bite into her mouth and swallowing it, a large smile on her face and what appeared to be a tiny, barely noticeable blush.
Angela's smile faltered, looking down at the table. "My mother," she paused for a few seconds. It wasn't something she wasn't comfortable talk about, but the child's curious gleam in in her eye made it difficult to stay silent. "My mother actually died giving birth to me. She wasn't too healthy, and delivering me just pushed her beyond her limits." Her voice was sad and her body language showed that it was a sensitive subject. "My dad never came around either so I don't know him."
Without any warning, she felt something sticky poke her cheek. With a raised brow, she turned her head to see the cause, only to see that Lucina was holding out her fork, pancake hanging off the end, for Angela. "Pancake?" She asked innocently, obviously offering it to the girl.
Angela gave her a "Why?" look, only for the pancake to be pressed against her lips. "Mommy always made pancakes when I'm upset. Made me feel better," she explained as if it made all the sense in the world.
Thinking it would be best to humor the girl, she opened her mouth and let Lucina feed her the slice. She bit down, finding the flavors all mixing together well. It even brought a slight smile to her lips. She swallowed only for Lucina to look at the remaining pancake. "I never knew my daddy. I always wondered what one was like." Her expression was neutral, weighing down on Angela's heart.
"But it's not all bad," she said, her tone happier than she looked. "Mommy always made sure I was taken care of." Her smile grew as she picked up another piece, eating it happily. "I was never lonely. I guess I sometimes take that for granted but," she stared at the last piece remaining, pushing it to Angela. "But I think that as long as you have someone who cares for you, it's all good." She then gave a bright smile to her sitter, hugging her as tightly as someone her age could. "So, I want to be that person. Like your sister."
The Elder blond looked at the girl confused. She was touched by the gesture, and couldn't help but hug back. "My... sister?" She said, feeling like it was OK to say that. "Yeah. I think I'm good with that." A smile began to form on her face, lifting the girl up onto her own lap.
Before anything else could be said, the alarms began blaring, Angela's features instantly changing to a worried one. "We need to move, now," she said, quickly grabbing the last bite with her hands and eating it. She picked up Lucina in both her arms, not bothering to explain what was going on. She ran towards the nearest door, hoping to escape before things went south.
Unfortunately, things went south quicker than expected. The wall next to the door exploded right as she got to it, sending both girls flying away. Angela held on tight, using her body as a shield to keep the girl safe. Her back skid along the ground for a few feet, feeling a small sting come from it. She slowly stood, glaring in the direction of whatever it was that made the explosion.
Out of the wall came several blue, red, and pink Alchemicals, assorted from the human-like ones to the slugs and even to the grape like ones. Angela just grit her teeth, watching as they came towards her. She gripped her 'sister' tightly, beginning to feel fear. Wait, no - not fear. This was anger. These things had escaped and actively sought her out for her magic. She was enraged at herself for putting Lucina in danger. But she knew what she had to do: remain calm.
"Stay away!" She shouted, throwing an arm forward. In front of her an emerald circle appeared, a torrent of winds shooting out of it, blowing all of the Alchemicals back through the hole they came through.
Lucina had had her eyes closed this entire time, unaware of what was going on. Upon opening them she saw something that caused her to mouth "Beautiful."
Angela's skin had turned a forest green, her hair whipping about in all directions. Lucina had never before seen anything she viewed as beautiful as what she saw before her.
Angela's expression was something with a calm out expression with a deep rage seething beneath the surface. She only thought about keeping Lucina safe. She was going to keep her promise to Artemis, no matter the cost. "Let's get you out of here," Angela told her, staring as more creatures came in through the hole in the wall. "I'll get you to Artemis, no matter what."