The End of the Dream

Chapter 13

The HQ building was inscrutably vast. You thought you'd already seen much of it—surely most—but the twists and turns Dark led you down took you to a whole new area again.

The corridors gave way to white walls that were sleek, hypermodern, and vaguely thrumming with the electric lifeblood of machinery. A laboratory of some sort.

You felt like you were thrumming too. You'd been settling into your skin so well, the initial discomfort and ill-fitting sensation having faded. Even your face had changed. Maybe. It was subtle, difficult to tell when the change was gradual, but you thought you resembled something different now, something more you. Like your form was moulding itself to the soul inside.

The crystal complicated things. It clawed inside your veins, awakened since you'd tapped into its power during the fight.

You'd been under significant duress, worried out of your mind for Dark and Wilford—you'd assumed that was why you had felt so strange since the battle. But in the heavy silence, it only lingered and grew.

Though it defied being put into words, you could only imagine it was the same instinct, itch, impatience, as a pupa within a chrysalis, past its time to emerge.

The lab worsened the sensation. The air was thick with a strange, static pressure that made you want to squirm, like the unfeeling eyes of the monitoring equipment were staring at you.

An alarm blared, rudely interrupting your thoughts. You flinched. Dark didn't react.

Blue light flashed above one of the doors, and it slid open to burst forth a petite woman in a lab coat, glasses, and a wide camo headband holding back her wild curls. What she lacked in size, she made up for in character. And also in the oversized, threatening-looking plasma blaster that she levelled at you both.

"Professor," Dark greeted politely.

"Oh, Dark." The blaster was lowered, then frowned at. The Professor tapped at a readout screen atop it. "You're registering anomalies with my equipment again. More than usual."

"Actually, that may be my associate." Dark turned aside, allowing you a clearer view. He gestured to the Professor. "May I introduce Professor Beauregard? Preeminent expert in the identification of anomalous energy signatures."

She beamed in greeting, but the expression quickly faltered. "You seem familiar somehow."

The blaster beeped insistently. She gave the screen a solid tap, then, muttering to herself, retreated back into the room she had emerged from to consult the more powerful sensors inside. Dark followed, and you did likewise.

The lab contained a complex web of island work benches, each littered with assorted gadgets, gizmos, and computer screens. Someone else was present too; blonde hair tied up in a pleated red bow, a sharply pressed blouse, and even sharper cheekbones with a scale pattern dusted across them.

"And Lady Alu Minium, formerly of the Universal Stability Agency," Dark said by way of introduction.

Their red-stained lips were pursed tight.

"Oh no, no," they were muttering. "I've seen this energy before."

"Right?" Beauregard agreed, joining them at one of the screens. "The anti-anomaly blaster has been picking it up too."

"I am glad to hear it," Dark said. "I was hoping to recruit your services in tracking that very energy signature."

Beauregard looked at Dark like he was missing a few of his marbles. "It doesn't need tracking, it's right here in the room! But how..."