Lycoris made his way into the lab, groggy as ever. The coffee this morning seemed to have the odd property of lacking any and all caffeine, meaning that he had about as much energy as a fasting sloth. If it was a normal day he could probably get over it easily, it was not as if there was anything urgent going on that day, or in the near future. They were wrapping up the prototype phase and were moving on to the actual design process. Artists were now getting involved working on the concept art for the dolls themselves, which would then come back to the lab to be worked into full designs, which put a large gap between any actual work on their part.
Lycoris entered the room, seeing Persica and Anne talking to each other. Anne was the new intern, she had been placed under the care of Kryuger who placed her under the care of IOP who placed her under the care of Persica and Lycoris. Thinking about it made his head spin. Anne was a shy young girl, she was about 15 and lacked any and all self-confidence. The psych eval said she had residual emotional trauma from the death of her parents, so he couldn't exactly hold her accountable for that. She was rather smart, however, and took to the work she was given well, not that it was all that complicated.
Lycoris approached the two, rubbing his eyes as he jutted himself into the conversation.
"What's going on you two." He said, yawning.
"Uh-uhhh- Mr. Kryuger said that he wanted to train me…" Anne replied nervously.
Lycoris' eyes shot open, any remnants of exhaustion left his body at that statement. He remembered the "training" he had received under Kryuger. It was more like torture. He sent him out into the woods near naked to hike kilometers through feet of snow in order to reach some godforsaken flag while being chased by armed SWAT guys and an attack helicopter. He could not let this young girl go through that.
P7 came out from the back room saying some sort of prayer, followed by a few forest animals. She approached the group, doing a little spin before speaking.
"How is it going here," She said enthusiastically.
"Oh, well, Anne is waiting for Kryuger to come to pick her up for her training," Persica replied with a dry snicker.
Lycoris without thinking grabbed Anne's hand and ran with her out of the room.
"Mr. Ly-lycoris, where are we going?" Anne asked
"ANYWHERE BUT THERE!"
Lycoris had never run that far in his life, somehow his normally unathletic body pushed itself with the threat of this young girl he just met being put through the same hell he had gone through.
"O-ok."
"HAVE FUN LYCORIS!" Persica shouted as they ran out.
Lycoris had to find a place where he could hide her from Kryuger. He could be there any minute. He knew that the compound had a panic room just in case one of the sides of the war decided to bomb the place for one reason or another. There was no way he could get in there.
Somehow Lycoris managed to run all the way there, running into the room, shutting the massive vault doors before Anne could question him. The room was set up like a meeting room, with a large table surrounded by chairs on all side, with doors leading to various living arrangements scattered about. Systems showed that there was nobody but them in the panic room. He took a seat at the table, panting from exhaustion. He had run more than he had ever run in his life. He was panting like a sick dog.
He planted his face into the wooden table, seating like a horse when he heard a familiar gravelly voice.
"Nice room you got here."
Lycoris struggled to sit up, as he saw Kryuger himself inspecting the room. He did not have the energy to be surprised.
"How… Did… You… Get… In… Here" He managed to say in between his heavy breaths.
"Through the door."
Lycoris had no energy left to fight it anymore, he was on the verge of passing out from exhaustion.
"Ready to go Anne?"
"I… I guess so Mr. Kryuger…" She said.
He then finally blacked out.
When he awoke he was back in the infirmary, looking at his watch it was a full day later. Was that run really that bad for him? The nurse swung over from her desk when she saw he was awake.
"Hello, nurse." Lycoris said
"Hello Mr. Lycoris, how are you feeling?"
"Like I just slept for 24 hours."
"Alright sounds about right. I really do recommend you start exercising more, the amount of effort you put in was not near enough to make a healthy person pass out."
"I know."
"Oh, by the way, you have a visitor." She said, pointing to the young girl in the corner of the room.
That young girl was Anne, but she was almost completely different than when she left. She oozed confidence, every aspect of her showed power and authority. Not even normal power and authority, it was like she had enough power to crack mountains in two and obliterate armies with a mere glare.
"Hi, Lycoris. You really need to get in shape, we can't have you passing out like that again." She said.
He was dumbfounded, this was not the same girl that he knew before, it was like everything about her changed overnight, all that trauma just wiped away.
"I suppose so." He replied.
"By the way, I finished all my work for the week, wasn't even that hard, took like an hour. Anyway, see ya, Persica sends her regards."
Lycoris was so confused, his head swimming so much, he fell back against the pillow and stared at the ceiling for the rest of the day. He could not even begin to comprehend the events of the past 24 hours, and he had the feeling he never would.
