Holmcross Project (Year 1)

Chapter 13: Luminous Woods

8:00 in the morning on the third day. The large tires of their newly borrowed SUV rumbled beneath them as they bumped along. They had traded in the sports car partially because they were in need of something that could handle the unpaved forest floor, and partially to avoid having to mess with the local gas station. Tony sat in the back seat with Wesson and asked him a bunch of questions about being in the army.

"So, was, like, your dad in the military? Is that how they let you in so young? 'Cause I really wanna help fight the demons now."

Wesson shook his head. "My....'dad' is a scientist. So is my mom. I have a kinda' special circumstance that makes me different from you, but I'm not sure if you'd get it."

"Boo!" Tony jeered. "I'm almost a grown up. I can understand anything." He crossed his arms confidently.

"Describe the basic structures of the different parts of a rocket." Nils jumped in from his seat on the other side.

"What?" Tony responded quizzically. "No! I mean important stuff."

"Well, okay." Wesson looked at Tony. "Well, do you know how babies are made? They're born from a mother and a father, right?"

"Psh'yeah. I know that." Tony waved.

"Well....we—my brothers and I—weren't born from a mother and father. We were created by a couple scientists in a lab." Wesson said, shrugging a bit. "From the moment we were 'born', we have been able to wield and fire weapons like this." He held up his revolver. "Nils and Luger, too. And we're not the only ones."

"Wait, so you're like...robots or something?" Tony asked.

"Guess you could put it that way." Wesson shrugged with a smile. "We're artificially-created humans, made to fight the demons."

"So, you're like...robot super-heroes." Tony thought aloud. "Cool! Hey, can I be one?"

"Uhm..." Wesson looked unsure on how to answer. "Well..."

"Oh, right. I get it. I'd have to be a cyborg." He looked back and forth between the two. "Hey, if I joined the army, do you think they'd make me a cyborg?"

"It'd hurt." Nils warned. "You have no idea how much."

"Yeah, every time we have to get a limb repaired, it really hurts." Wesson nodded. "I remember one time I got my hand bit off by a demon – I think it hurt more to get it replaced than when I lost it."

Tony looked at Wesson's gloved hands. "Can I see?"

"Hm? Okay." Wesson blinked and nodded, and then setting his revolver in his lap unbuckled the strap on his right glove and pulled it off. "See, it's a little hard to tell without knowing what to look for, but there's a slight discoloration on this hand compared to the rest of the arm." He held out his arm, pulling up his sleeve. "See? It's paler from the wrist down, because of what they had on hand. It's partly why I started wearing gloves, actually."

Tony looked a little grossed out. "So, is that someone else's skin? Like a skin graft?"

"Naw, it's made from scratch." Nils said. "It just has slightly different amounts of stuff, like the melanin that makes your skin color."

"Melon-what?" Tony asked under his breath. "So...So, it wouldn't look all super-cool and robot like?"

"There's nothing 'super-cool' about literally having your bones and joints exposed!" Wesson frowned.

"Couldn't they just do a metal outside like the golems have?" Tony suggested helpfully.

Nils sighed and pulled the shoe and sock off of one of his feet. "Check this out."