[DISCONTINUED + REWRITTEN] The Infinite Stars

Chapter 9

She woke up to a strange feeling. Something strong is within the building. She quietly gets out of bed, making sure she doesn't wake up her new friend.

The door opens with a silent hiss and she starts to walk around. Where is this thing she's looking for..?

She spots a room still lit up and she walks up to the door, taking a small peak in.

Her eyes widen as she sees a tall Mobian she's never seen before. He had a mask on, long white hair, and a long dark grey tail with a white tip.

Is this who she was looking for?

He was talking to one of the adults she recognized. She also noticed the little ruby, as she learned what it was thanks to her new friend, in his hand. He crushes it and it turns to dust.

"I will allow you to live," he growls, "But do not think you are free from this. From now on, the doctor will know what you are up to, and you are expected to follow his orders. If I find out you are trying to deceive us, I can shut this whole place down without the help of the doctor," a hum is coming from somewhere, "Do you understand?"

The adult nods, "Yes," they then gulped.

"I expect you to tell your boss about this. If you can create a model of the Phantom Ruby without it being a defective model like the doctor's prototypes, we just might consider leaving you and your experiments alive once we're done. The doctor may consider you and your experiments useful for plans in the future,"

He then turns heel to take his leave.

She immediately moves away from the door as the tall Mobian steps out and stops. He notices her and turns his head to her. It looks like one side of his mask blocks his vision, at least that's what she assumes. She can only see his eye on his left.

"Run back to bed, kid. Forget you've even seen anything," he tells her before walking away, fading into the dark hallway.

Who was he..? Any sane kid would be frightened by his appearance, but she was fascinated by him.

He had a similar red ruby on his chest. She was going to assume that he's working here, but the way he acted didn't seem like it.

The adult inside the room walked out and spotted her, "Sweetie, what are you doing out so late?" they ask before picking her up, "Come on. Let's get you back to bed,"

She then points in the direction the stranger went, "Who's that?"

"I don't know," they sigh, "But he wasn't happy, that's for sure... It's okay, he won't hurt us though," they smiled at her.

As they walked down the hall, she couldn't stop wondering about who he was. Why was he so mad?

After she was carefully settled on her bed, it took her a while to eventually go back to sleep. In the morning, she had already forgotten what happened last night.

She heard someone yelling just outside her door. Two others and she was able to recognize the one from last night. The other, not so much.

She couldn't understand the words they said. There's a certain feeling in her gut, telling her that she may not enjoy the next few days, weeks, or even months.

"Are you wondering why they are angry?" her new friend suddenly says.

She jumped a little bit calmed down when it was only them. She nodded.

They hum, "I am too...maybe it has something to do with the world above us. Do you know what's going on?"

She stared at her friend, shaking her head, "You've been up there?"