Out of This World Gaming [~ read description]

Chapter 5: Secrets

"So," questioned a low, but menacing voice, which could send just about anybody into a fit of shivering. "You lost the experiment?" The bass in the masculine figure's voice reverberated all over the massive room even at a low volume, like a sort of tranquil anger was being all but held back. "I'm supposed to have some of the best scientists and security in the facility, but the incompetent fools let them get away. How could you have let them be sucked into space?"

A scientist spoke up. "We didn't lose everything. We know where she and her grandmother went to. Our sensors have detected multiple instances of internet connections originating from a single point on a planet of humans."

"Sir!" There was a second scientist who came running into the room, nearly stumbling as she approached the CEO. 

 "What now? Can't you see we're in the middle of a serious discussion?"

"What we're going through is also serious," she pushed her glasses up. "Another has escaped; Experiment DOL-001." She saw her superior form a scowl, and fumbled to pick up where she left off. "She is also on the planet of humans, and it's not far from here. With the right recon, we'll have them right in front of you by the end of the week." 

 "Apparently our projects found a place to hide - among humans, no less." A smirk grew on his face, a mischievous grin stretching ear to ear to be exact. "I'm honestly impressed that they got somewhere like that as fast as she did. This place is full of wormholes, after all." The CEO looked down upon the trio of scientists. "You three will be in charge of looking for them and bringing them back at any cost. Failure  to do so will be met with swift punishment. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir!" The women's assertive response was followed by walking briskly out of the room through an open door that let in light from the corridor, providing the only source of light up until one of the scientists closed the double-doors behind her. 

They've got another thing coming for thinking they can escape me. Humored by his thought, he chuckled as he gazed at the vast expanse of space through the massive office windows. 

*    *     *     *     *

"Just how can graphics get any more real than this?" Iris questioned as she sat upon the leather couch with Clover, her eyes glowing the same blue as they did when she was in the hospital as her choker's screen only displayed the title of the video game she pulled from its library to play. For the nineteen-nineties, it truly was a realistic driving simulator. 

As for Iris herself, her leg healed nicely, her reddening and swelling having gone down in the days following the surgery, able to bend and stretch her leg with a little less pain, but walking still required crutches. Thankfully her body responded well to the prescription, but the only thing she found hard to do was keep her leg raised above her heart as her leg kept slouching off of the pillows unconsciously. 

It was a fun little game between the siblings about how long it'd be before someone would have to help her lift it back up onto its perch. Zander lost the bet at some point since he was slouched over a basket of laundry he painstakingly folded and tried to sort despite the limited space. He couldn't exactly put the clothes on the floor, he thought. 

"Forget the real graphics, how are you running an emulator of an old console on modern hardware?" Zander questioned, "don't get me wrong but wouldn't a choker have its own software?" 

"Um, well, I-" 

"Emulation must be popular among her circle of friends," Clover excused. She didn't hear Iris breathe a sigh of relief, though. "I do it all the time since Zander and I can't exactly buy a new modern console on a whim." Clover looked over Iris; she seemed so focus on the television screen. "Are your eyes blue because your console's in some sort of wireless mode?" 

"I'm not sure why they turn blue, I just know they do. Grandma Stella used to have her eyes turn blue when her choker was hooked up to a television as well." Iris explained plainly, too focused to put much emotion into her voice. "Grandma Stella helped with making the chokers." 

Clover, overcome with curiosity, moved towards the choker. Maybe she could try to remove it to get the weight off of her shoulders. She grasped it and found that there was just the slightest bit of wiggle room that she could see into, to find that the very choker itself had its wires embedded in her neck. Not only that, but wherever they connected into her neck, there was metal plating as if her skin had been replaced in those areas. "Did it hurt when they put it on?" 

"I don't remember a time where I never had it," Iris admitted, too focused to understand exactly what she was saying. "It's always been a part of me, really. I'm used to it." 

Clover and Zander exchanged glances right as Iris's leg slouched off of its pillowed perch once more; it was her turn to put her leg back. Clover sat back down and used the quiet time between the gameplay and Zander's grumbly laundry folding - her eyes glow, her choker not only runs games but also is connected to Iris in such a way that it can't be removed, and she seemed just a tad heavier than a normal seven year old. Was she some sort of cyborg of the gamer variety?