Formatting code for BkVICh8
======Book VI Chapter 8: Gabriel======
===[[Splitcha Splitcha Psionic Research Center]]===
===[[ChimriWilds The Chimri Wilds]],[[Chimre]]===
===//**3 Days Ago**//===
"Welcome back, Number Fifty-Four Twelve," droned a plump woman in a gray labcoat as [[Gabriel]] slipped into the Center's lobby again.
He avoided eye contact, slipping his hands into his pockets.
"...hi. I'm here for my 11:30 appointment."
"Go on in; they're ready to begin." She gestured to a nearby door, and Gabe followed her finger.
Researchers swarmed the laboratory in pairs, exchanging books and notes, discussing the events of the previous day, tending to the specimen cages and the hungry creatures inside them.
[[Voluxi]]shuffled and paced and yipped within their confines, wriggling their paws in between the bars in a futile attempt to break free.
"Controls," a nearby[[Doc]]said cooly, adjusting his glasses. "We set them free in the mazes to make sure nothing's off before we perform the main test. They're good to whet the mutants' appetites without leaving them disinterested in a beacon signal."
The man stroked the back of a strange, sinuous-looking voluxi with multiple tails and a tiny white mask, its fur the color of clotted blood.
The little creature yawned, a toothy mouth opening up in its neck just below the white mask, painted with an eye symbol Gabe swore he had seen before.
Gabe eyed the pair warily. "//Mutants?// What does this test involve, exactly?"
"Mmm, //well//. Honestly, it's half test and half training. For //us//, we measure the strength of your [[Psionic psionic]]signal and your control over it. For //you//, you learn how to stifle the feeback at will."
"Stifle the feedback? I didn't know that was even possible. What if I don't learn?"
The other Doc looked at him. "You //learn//. Go and sign in, and change into your Beacon getup."
The little mutant voluxi gazed sightlessly at Gabe and licked its lips.
"Yes, sir," Gabe sighed, unbuckling his coat and slipping it over his head.
He felt mildly self-conscious even quickly changing his clothed in front of these people; there were far too many well-trained and appraising eyes in the room, and he was suddenly unnervingly aware of how bony and fragile and pale he was.
The Beacon outfit was a plain, beige jumpsuit with "Property of the [[SilentRose Silent Rose Organization]]" printed onto it in smeary, important-looking black letters.
It fit him baggily, and he tugged on the belts to try and keep it from sliding down on him.
As he finished, several Bio Docs gathered before a wide glass pane on one side on of the room, gazing curiously inside and murmuring to one another in hushed voices.
Another voice rose above the mass; a man's, high-pitched with terror and on the other side of the pane. Gabriel crept towards the group, peering over someone's shouler.
The window opened up over a great, white-walled maze within the facility. Several caged doors, one open, sat around the perimeter, while at the maze's heart, a man in the Beacon uniform sat within a tiny chamber with walls raised, his arms wrapped tightly around his chest and his eyes wide.
"You can't do this to me! //You can't do this to me!//" The man wailed, cut off abruptly by a gurgling, snarling bellow from the northwest end of the maze.
Suddenly he grew silent, save for a terrified whimper.
The monster-- a voluxi[[Pseudoleupak pseudoleupak]], by the look of it-- suddenly burst into view, throwing itself bodily down the middle corridor and onto the terrified man, its dark red maw and slashing claws tearing him to pieces before the watching scientists.
Gabe's blood ran cold as the man's spilled across the stark white floor of the maze; the pseudoleupak devoured every bit of him, and lapped eagerly at the mess that remained.
"...that's ... //that's not the test//," he murmured, trembling.
"This is the test. This is //training//," a nearby woman said, not lifting her eyes from her notes. "Psychic beacons are markers of exceptional strength to any supernatural creature capable of comprehending psychic phenomena. Every day of your life that you've been untrained, you've been waving this marker like a great red flag and attracting anything nearby that might be interested in you.
"For a beacon to have survived into adulthood without our assistance is, frankly, nothing short of miraculous-- but it makes little difference now. As a beacon, knowing how to turn your ability on or off at will means the difference between life or death. You would not survive in Chimre without several guards nearby at all times, and even that would be a stretch.
"How you peform today, and in the days that follow, will determine whether you are an asset... or //dead//. It //is// cruel, but we are //slightly more merciful// than anything that might have gotten you otherwise," she said coldly.
"This is insane," Gabe breathed, watching Splitcha personel in red jumpers lead the pseudoleupak back into its cage and scrub down the walls and ceiling.
As he stared, the semi-reptilian beast struggled against its handler, its head raised.
The glass pane they looked through was one-sided, he knew-- and yet, the beast was staring straight at him.
A chill washed over Gabe, and he clenched his fists.
//So it's a matter of when I die, and not if,// he thought. //I guess on some level, I've always known that.
So be it.//
They came for him through a large, reinforced metal door on the side of the observation room.
"Five-four-one-two," they announced, and he trudged towards the fate awaiting him on the other side.
He was led down a narrow corridor and into a lift with barred walls; he sat upon the floor and closed his eyes, fighting back the dread that gnawed at his insides.
//If I die today, can I say I lived a full life? //He wondered. //Yes. It was full of something.
Irony.//
Gabe gently folded his hands into his lap as the lift lowered slowly into the maze; he may have marveled at the level of technology available in the SRO's research facilities in different circumstances; there had to be a treated [[Miracrystal miracrystal]]core somewhere within the facility sufficient to power a small town.
The lift settled into the floor with a metallic// clang//, and its four walls lifted away, leaving him exposed.
His nose caught the tangy odor of the last man's blood, even though the maze walls had been scrubbed so meticulously that not a drop of telltale red remained.
Quietly, he gazed up at the one-sided window that he knew the Docs were watching through; he had stood there just moments before.
Now he had taken the place of the man who had come before him.
He heard the grate on the far end of the maze open; he saw the beast within it crawl out with his mind's eye, a[[Amol hulking and chitinous thing]]with a shark's face, wicked claws and dead, white eyes.
It shuffled forward on little legs, scenting the air carefully before charging with reckless abandon into the maze, hunting him.
Gabe took slow, deep breaths, closing his eyes and counting slowly up from one as the mutant amol galloped through the passages, its maw open wide and full of wicked, pointed teeth and drool.
Its twisted feet pounded the floor in time with Gabe's heart; he said nothing, thought nothing, made no sound.
//Twenty-five
twenty-six
twenty-seven
twenty-eight//
They hadn't told him the prerequisites for passing the test, he realized; his pulse quickened, his mind suddenly exploding with questions he couldn't answer.
Was he to stay here until the test concluded? Was he meant to sneak to an exit door before the beast found him?
Was he meant to pluck the answer from the thoughts of the Doc running the trial?
The amol screamed. Its footfall became frantic, thundering through the halls, seeking him, homing in.
He could smell the sand baked into the thing's hide, as well as the sticky-sweet mirajin residue that remained from its transformation into the muscle-bloated monstrosity it had become, violet goo dulling and breaking its mind even as the stuff redesigned its physiology.
In an instant, he understood.
The clawed horror froze just as it discovered the final corridor leading to Gabriel himself. Its pale eyes flickered, and it tilted its head as best it could to try and find the lead that had come and then vanished so quickly.
The bars of the lift dropped back into place as the amol blundered back the way it had come, its path all but forgotten.
As the lift rose back into resting position and the blue-clad personnel unlocked the cage and let him out, Gabe slowly opened his eyes.
"I expect significant compensation for this, both monetary and otherwise. I want a raise, and special treatment, and a nice house somewhere private, and a bodyguard, a-and..." he demanded emotionlessly-- just moments before collapsing onto his knees to weep bitterly, purging the rage and terror he had denied himself for the sake of survival.
In the maze below, the amol screamed.
----
Next Chapter: [[BkVICh9 Book VI Chapter IX]]
----
[[http://www.valenth.com Valenth]]>[[HomePage VWiki Home]]>[[Story]]>[[BookVI Book Six]]>**Book VI Chapter VIII**
===[[Splitcha Splitcha Psionic Research Center]]===
===[[ChimriWilds The Chimri Wilds]],[[Chimre]]===
===//**3 Days Ago**//===
"Welcome back, Number Fifty-Four Twelve," droned a plump woman in a gray labcoat as [[Gabriel]] slipped into the Center's lobby again.
He avoided eye contact, slipping his hands into his pockets.
"...hi. I'm here for my 11:30 appointment."
"Go on in; they're ready to begin." She gestured to a nearby door, and Gabe followed her finger.
Researchers swarmed the laboratory in pairs, exchanging books and notes, discussing the events of the previous day, tending to the specimen cages and the hungry creatures inside them.
[[Voluxi]]shuffled and paced and yipped within their confines, wriggling their paws in between the bars in a futile attempt to break free.
"Controls," a nearby[[Doc]]said cooly, adjusting his glasses. "We set them free in the mazes to make sure nothing's off before we perform the main test. They're good to whet the mutants' appetites without leaving them disinterested in a beacon signal."
The man stroked the back of a strange, sinuous-looking voluxi with multiple tails and a tiny white mask, its fur the color of clotted blood.
The little creature yawned, a toothy mouth opening up in its neck just below the white mask, painted with an eye symbol Gabe swore he had seen before.
Gabe eyed the pair warily. "//Mutants?// What does this test involve, exactly?"
"Mmm, //well//. Honestly, it's half test and half training. For //us//, we measure the strength of your [[Psionic psionic]]signal and your control over it. For //you//, you learn how to stifle the feeback at will."
"Stifle the feedback? I didn't know that was even possible. What if I don't learn?"
The other Doc looked at him. "You //learn//. Go and sign in, and change into your Beacon getup."
The little mutant voluxi gazed sightlessly at Gabe and licked its lips.
"Yes, sir," Gabe sighed, unbuckling his coat and slipping it over his head.
He felt mildly self-conscious even quickly changing his clothed in front of these people; there were far too many well-trained and appraising eyes in the room, and he was suddenly unnervingly aware of how bony and fragile and pale he was.
The Beacon outfit was a plain, beige jumpsuit with "Property of the [[SilentRose Silent Rose Organization]]" printed onto it in smeary, important-looking black letters.
It fit him baggily, and he tugged on the belts to try and keep it from sliding down on him.
As he finished, several Bio Docs gathered before a wide glass pane on one side on of the room, gazing curiously inside and murmuring to one another in hushed voices.
Another voice rose above the mass; a man's, high-pitched with terror and on the other side of the pane. Gabriel crept towards the group, peering over someone's shouler.
The window opened up over a great, white-walled maze within the facility. Several caged doors, one open, sat around the perimeter, while at the maze's heart, a man in the Beacon uniform sat within a tiny chamber with walls raised, his arms wrapped tightly around his chest and his eyes wide.
"You can't do this to me! //You can't do this to me!//" The man wailed, cut off abruptly by a gurgling, snarling bellow from the northwest end of the maze.
Suddenly he grew silent, save for a terrified whimper.
The monster-- a voluxi[[Pseudoleupak pseudoleupak]], by the look of it-- suddenly burst into view, throwing itself bodily down the middle corridor and onto the terrified man, its dark red maw and slashing claws tearing him to pieces before the watching scientists.
Gabe's blood ran cold as the man's spilled across the stark white floor of the maze; the pseudoleupak devoured every bit of him, and lapped eagerly at the mess that remained.
"...that's ... //that's not the test//," he murmured, trembling.
"This is the test. This is //training//," a nearby woman said, not lifting her eyes from her notes. "Psychic beacons are markers of exceptional strength to any supernatural creature capable of comprehending psychic phenomena. Every day of your life that you've been untrained, you've been waving this marker like a great red flag and attracting anything nearby that might be interested in you.
"For a beacon to have survived into adulthood without our assistance is, frankly, nothing short of miraculous-- but it makes little difference now. As a beacon, knowing how to turn your ability on or off at will means the difference between life or death. You would not survive in Chimre without several guards nearby at all times, and even that would be a stretch.
"How you peform today, and in the days that follow, will determine whether you are an asset... or //dead//. It //is// cruel, but we are //slightly more merciful// than anything that might have gotten you otherwise," she said coldly.
"This is insane," Gabe breathed, watching Splitcha personel in red jumpers lead the pseudoleupak back into its cage and scrub down the walls and ceiling.
As he stared, the semi-reptilian beast struggled against its handler, its head raised.
The glass pane they looked through was one-sided, he knew-- and yet, the beast was staring straight at him.
A chill washed over Gabe, and he clenched his fists.
//So it's a matter of when I die, and not if,// he thought. //I guess on some level, I've always known that.
So be it.//
They came for him through a large, reinforced metal door on the side of the observation room.
"Five-four-one-two," they announced, and he trudged towards the fate awaiting him on the other side.
He was led down a narrow corridor and into a lift with barred walls; he sat upon the floor and closed his eyes, fighting back the dread that gnawed at his insides.
//If I die today, can I say I lived a full life? //He wondered. //Yes. It was full of something.
Irony.//
Gabe gently folded his hands into his lap as the lift lowered slowly into the maze; he may have marveled at the level of technology available in the SRO's research facilities in different circumstances; there had to be a treated [[Miracrystal miracrystal]]core somewhere within the facility sufficient to power a small town.
The lift settled into the floor with a metallic// clang//, and its four walls lifted away, leaving him exposed.
His nose caught the tangy odor of the last man's blood, even though the maze walls had been scrubbed so meticulously that not a drop of telltale red remained.
Quietly, he gazed up at the one-sided window that he knew the Docs were watching through; he had stood there just moments before.
Now he had taken the place of the man who had come before him.
He heard the grate on the far end of the maze open; he saw the beast within it crawl out with his mind's eye, a[[Amol hulking and chitinous thing]]with a shark's face, wicked claws and dead, white eyes.
It shuffled forward on little legs, scenting the air carefully before charging with reckless abandon into the maze, hunting him.
Gabe took slow, deep breaths, closing his eyes and counting slowly up from one as the mutant amol galloped through the passages, its maw open wide and full of wicked, pointed teeth and drool.
Its twisted feet pounded the floor in time with Gabe's heart; he said nothing, thought nothing, made no sound.
//Twenty-five
twenty-six
twenty-seven
twenty-eight//
They hadn't told him the prerequisites for passing the test, he realized; his pulse quickened, his mind suddenly exploding with questions he couldn't answer.
Was he to stay here until the test concluded? Was he meant to sneak to an exit door before the beast found him?
Was he meant to pluck the answer from the thoughts of the Doc running the trial?
The amol screamed. Its footfall became frantic, thundering through the halls, seeking him, homing in.
He could smell the sand baked into the thing's hide, as well as the sticky-sweet mirajin residue that remained from its transformation into the muscle-bloated monstrosity it had become, violet goo dulling and breaking its mind even as the stuff redesigned its physiology.
In an instant, he understood.
The clawed horror froze just as it discovered the final corridor leading to Gabriel himself. Its pale eyes flickered, and it tilted its head as best it could to try and find the lead that had come and then vanished so quickly.
The bars of the lift dropped back into place as the amol blundered back the way it had come, its path all but forgotten.
As the lift rose back into resting position and the blue-clad personnel unlocked the cage and let him out, Gabe slowly opened his eyes.
"I expect significant compensation for this, both monetary and otherwise. I want a raise, and special treatment, and a nice house somewhere private, and a bodyguard, a-and..." he demanded emotionlessly-- just moments before collapsing onto his knees to weep bitterly, purging the rage and terror he had denied himself for the sake of survival.
In the maze below, the amol screamed.
----
Next Chapter: [[BkVICh9 Book VI Chapter IX]]
----
[[http://www.valenth.com Valenth]]>[[HomePage VWiki Home]]>[[Story]]>[[BookVI Book Six]]>**Book VI Chapter VIII**
