Chapter 10 - Trial and Error
Tentatively, He approached the glider and looked at it. Unlike him it had escaped the ordeal unscathed. He touched the side of it, and winced he instantly tried to contact it. He touched it again and hefted himself over the edge of the glider and balanced on the side for a second before stepping in.
He looked down at the front of the glider and grimaced. There were no controls, except for telepathy. Hit with a burst of inspiration he held his hand out and touched the dash of the glider.
His arms tensed and a quite rushing sounded in the back of his head. As he made contact and formulated what he wanted the rushing grew louder. White flashed over his eyes and the rushing blasted through his ears.
He shuddered as his body changed temperature and the dashboard rippled. He felt pounding as the crimson river smashed through his head. He felt his face grow wet as the dashboard melted into a semblance of what he had wanted.
The last portion of the dashboard melted and revealed two levers and a set of buttons. He leaned back into the glider and shook as cold rippled through his body. Slowly the pounding faded and the rushing subsided. The river now submerged he relaxed.
He felt a strange sensation around his ears, He reached back and rubbed his fingers over his ear finding a warm liquid coating his lower neck. He pulled his hand back and found his fingers coated in blood.
"I thought I told you it wasn't worth it." Came a strong voice from behind him.
He focused on his glider and ignored the voice as he felt the blood start to dry on his fingertips. He spat on his fingers and quickly rubbed them off on his pants. He tensed as the Cognit came within his small range of feeling.
"You are still using it." It said, disbelief evident through its voice. "You can't stop can you?" The Cognit seemingly glided across the floor and came to a spot in front of him.
It adopted a strikingly human pose, upper torso reclined and arm rubbing against its chin. He grinned, despite himself. "What is your name?"
The red eyes widened and examined him for a moment before he answered.
"I am Lupus, Named for the color of my eyes." He looked at Lupus's eyes, but discerned no difference from any others he had seen.
"Color?" Lupus turned away, And started walking back the way he had come. He stopped suddenly,
"At'thias Would like to know your consciousness's resolution soon." Then he continued on.
Achilles stretched as he peacefully relaxed and ruminated on the events of the last twenty hours. He ransacked his brain, trying to find anything reliably linking him to the planning or execution of the events.
He finally relaxed and gave up trying to figure it out. He tapped into the viscous thoughts of his remaining nineteen co-conspirators. To his suprise and slight dismay, He found them all in similar states, Mimicking his thoughts.
Disturbed, He withdrew from their sanctums and left them to their own cross of confusion and turmoil. He had enough problems to worry about without adding their discomfort to his. He stood and turned around gazing over the green grass and vibrantly colored flowers.
He strode through the light fields and approached the glass barrier between this and the harsh wind outside. He gazed through the glass and watched the clouds drift lazily through the sky. As a large cloud passed around the globe, diverted by the glass, he caught sight of a crude construct slowly floating through the air.
A large spoke on the front of it deigned it as a Human Freight Barge coming from one of their secret mines off past the Cognit reach. It veered towards the edge of the city and He shivered with anticipation. If that barge came within ten blocks of the border then the Anti-Air Cannons would engage and blow them out of the sky.
He chuckled as a warning shot flew high into the sky and exploded sending shockwaves through the air barely missing the ship. It quickly veered away from the city and small puffs of smoke could be seen being puffed into the sky as it ascended to a safer altitude.
He wandered through the immense garden till he reached a lookout point. He walked through a set of glass doors, and stared down at the earth below the dome. He made out the faded shapes of Cognit wandering to and fro within their mammon-thine city yet how they were dwarfed by their great world.
He sat back in the glider and examined the complex array ahead of him. A large blue button sat between two simplistic levers, while a series of red buttons ranged on either side of the levers. He reached out and pulled at one of the levers but nothing happened. He pulled the other, still nothing.
Slightly nervous he glanced around and before he thought better of it he reached out and tapped the big blue button. The glider shook as it lifted from the floor and the control panel lit up. He reached again for the levers and gingerly pulled them back in synchronys.
Popping erupted from beneath him and the glider raised higher up into the air. He pulled them back a bit more and he raised up. He relaxed them and he drifted downwards. Slowly he relaxed them and set back down on the ground.
He pulled one hand back from the lever to wipe his face, and suddenly the craft began to spin. He was thrown off balance and he held onto the lever for dear life. The glider spun faster and faster as he grasped for a a handhold.
He grabbed for the other lever but lost the grip on the one he had in the process. He watched surreally as he flew backwards from the glider and it stopped spinning. He continued on through the air and lost all thought as he felt the wall approaching.
Desperately, He called out and the air around him cushioned his crash against the wall. He screamed as he slowly floated down the wall, Body and mind experiencing pain beyond any other. By the time he hit the ground his mind was vacant, and his body was limp.
TheUltiStar Thanks, And I will... Though my original word goal probly won't be reached...