Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

Well, it's a death trap. They're usually no good. But I kid, Gazzy.

New chapter.

CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Squish-Squash

Underseen had started by walking down the yellow corridor. It quickly became him sliding down the corridor as it unexpectedly and inexplixably shifted the steepness randomly. It started out at a modest one-degree decline. Then it quickly went to a steep fifty-degree incline. Underseen couldn't stop his slide, his descent, into . . . into God knows what.

He was powerless to stop his slide, as he couldn't form a coherent thought. He required a certain amount of thought and willpower to shapeshift. At least, on a conscious level. And his own curiosity was an impairment. He was curious to see what was at the end of this corridor.

He had come down into a room that was like a big, square box with the walls, ceiling, and floor were rather unnaturally flat, and felt rather metal-like, though not quite. Underseen looked around and noticed that the walls, ceiling, and floor had an oddly sinister sheen. It looked . . . wet. The room also smelled rather abysmal, like the main room of a slaughterhouse.

A feeling of foreboding and a trickle of dread threathened to overtake him.

It was only expounded upon seeing the crushed detris of . . . of . . . of . . . past visitors. Crushed black glassess frames, visceria, crushed ballpoint pen, crumpled forgotten clothing. A badge . . . that belonged to one Officer Justice. Underseen never really had much of an interpersonal relationship with her, but he knew of her and her flawless reputation.

She . . . she must have come here, suspicious of the disappearances . . . that went unnoticed, unreported, or forgotten. Perhaps all three. He felt some guilt that they, as RAFians did nothing about this before now. That they knew nothing about this.

"Oh, dearie me," A.I.E. said, with unconvincing regret and drolly dry tone of voice. "You weren't supposed to find this."

"You lead me here," Underseen accused, though it was not entirely true.

"I must crush you."

"Say what?" Underseen said, before he thought, Say, are those walls getting smaller? Is the room getting longer or -- oh.

He didn't know how he was going to get out of this one.

[redtailedsaffa]

Oh man, I remember Officer Justice.

[Cloak]

Yep.

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWELVE:
Where No One Can Hear Your Screams

Sakki travelled in the indigo corridor, regretting her decision immensely. It was dirty. It was filthy. Honestly, the sewer was cleaner. The corridor made no sense, as if the spatial dimensions were grossly distorted. It smelled foul, and it felt oppressive inside it.

She was quite eager to leave it it, but this eagerness was edged with trepidation and anxiety as to just where this would open out into. Hopefully, not more of this vile mucky walls and abhorrent smells.

"Boy, did I ever make the wrong decision," Sakki muttered murderously. But she still continued forward doggedly. "I don't know why I'm even putting myself through this crap."

It was only more putrid the further she went.

"House of the Future, my Aunt Sally!" Sakki spat. It was easy to do in this area. "This is just . . . oh, FINALLY."

The corridor opened up into a very odd room, as the rancid corridor closed itself off from the room. Sakki was not sorry to see it go. She was just glad she gotten none of that putrid goop and vileness on her, in and of itself a miracle.

She looked around at her new surroundings. She was standing on a catwalk that looked rickety, but it was actually quite sturdy. It was deceptively offputting, almost as if it was by design.

The walls above, below, and and around were accordioned. There was absolutely no echo here, which there should be. They were sound absorption paneling. Sakki was quick on the uptake. Someone was trying to render her powerless.

She noticed some sort of computer console. It was situated in the middle of the catwalk, and seemed to stand out. She crossed over to it, the catwalk not making a sound, which Sakki didn't like. It should have made a sound, anything else was creepy.

She deftly accessed the console and couldn't make heads or tails of the first bit of the data she found on it. So, she dismissed it. She continued on untils she came to something that she actually could read.

Turns out that whatever this house intelligence was, it used to be benign, passive, nearly timid, and almost fastidiously polite. So, what happened to make her rather like a GLaDOS with all charm of of a spoilt child? What happened to make her delight in death, fear, shame, guilt, grief, and deception?

The answer was surprisingly simple.

It was a virus. A virus introduced into house's mainframe A.I. Sakki easily suspected who was to blame. Because, after all, wasn't she always?

"Tsk tsk tsk," came the house voice. Sakki rankled as the console powered down immediately and seemed to retract somehow into the catwalk itself. "Tsk tsk tsk. Curiosity is a sin, dearie."

"No, it isn't!" Sakki protested, and in her indignation, she was apparently unaware the accordioned panels were straightening out, making a surprisingly seamless surface above, below and all around. "Curiosity is not a sin!!"

The voice was silent, and Sakki, in her protesting outrage, did not notice the echoes that were occurring. That she was standing in a huge echo chamber.

If she activated her sonics at all . . .

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
Have You Taken Leave of Your Senses, A.I.E.?

GH proceeded down the orange corridor, finding it rather bland and boring. The sound of his footsteps echoed a little, but were largely ignored. It wasn't all too unpleasant though. Just plain and . . . ugh.

GH was never one to enjoy being bored. Heck, he was playing parent to a mutant alligator child! That was never boring. Never. Especially since he gave him his own bass guitar and was teaching him to play. Leather was proving to be a surprisingly good and proficient student. Perhaps GH would give him some drums -- er, no. He wasn't a masochist. He enjoyed sleeping. Perhaps just a keytar or something.

GH continued his nonchalant pacing, finding the path rather peaceful and uneventful. Then again, he had not gone out of his way to present himself as a threat, and he decided to continue as such. Perhaps he would continue to be lucky. He could really do with some luck. It would be really nice.

Then the room opened up into a cavernous, sonorous room. He stood on a catwalk, the rightmost side, as the corridor closed up behind him. He felt rather unimpressed. It was another square cube of a room. The walls, ceiling, and floor were of a featureless metal of some sort.

Halfway on the catwalk was a console. GH, despite the goofy, crazy demeanor he sometimes showed, was not an idiot. He knew that he was supposed to access the console and nothing would happen until he did. He couldn't help but liken it to the limitations of a video game. It wasn't a turgid concept.

"Blahity blah blah blah . . ." he muttered, as irreverent as ever, as ignored the illegible bits of the data. He kept tapping at the attached touchscreen, almost impatiently, the brief novelty wearing off rather quicker than he would have liked.

Then he got to a area that he could make sense of. As it turns out, this whole House of the Future spiel was supposed to be an amusement park attraction. GH couldn't help but snorting in derision. Yeah. Real amusing.

"Alert! Alert!" the house voice droned.

"What now?" GH said, suddenly moody.

"Contraband detected." the voice continued its droning speech. "Please present your contraband for incineration."

GH said nothing, and did not visibly react.

"Please present your contraband."

GH remained unmoving.

"Present your contraband."

GH narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brow in anger.

"Present your --"

"I don't have any contraband!" GH snapped, seeing where this was headed.

"You wear it on your back," the voice said.

GH unshouldered his guitar, transforming it into its axe form with a flash of light reminiscent of summoning a Keyblade.

"Then you and me? We're gonna have problems," GH growled.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With

Cloak continued down the green corridor, which did not vary in the least, and just continued forward. He walked with a calm, diligent purpose, with a nonchalant exterior. Within, he was rife with insecurity, uncertainty, trepidation, and anxiety. But he was meticulous in not allowing this show outwardly. Didn't want to show weakness.

Suddenly, a blade revolved out of the wall high, then low. Cloak dodged it by ducking the first, and jumping over the next. Then he stopped short of one and leaped through another, and landed unscathed. He was prepared for traps, and expected some inane commentary from the house's voice. Which never came. So he proceeded normally.

Then the electrodes came out and attempted to electrocute and electrify him. He nonchalantly redirected them back at the electrodes, destroying them, as he continued on his less-than-merry way.

Then several stone ball bearings were shot his way and he didn't even flinch as he held out his right arm to guard against the brunt of this attack. This attack was foolish as it provided Cloak with weapons that he didn't have before. The house was providing him with ammo! This was either a very stupid move on its part, or a very cunning play to lure Cloak into a trap by allowing him a moment of hubris, a very dangerous thing to have on his part.

Not going to work. . . . Well, not going to work, this time.

Cloak pressed on. Then he came to a part of the corridor that trundled around, like a front-loading washing machine. Cloak, despite himself, found himself disappointed. This wasn't a trap. This was a mere obstacle, and one that was easily overcomed as well. He just leaped through it, landing daintily with feline grace.

Cloak didn't allow himself to relax his guard, not even in the slightest. Which was good, because the floor was rising to meet the ceiling, and squeeze and crush him in the process. He simply leaped off, slid beneath part of the ceiling that was extending to kiss the ground. Rose up his energy barrier when the two walls attempted to meet and crush him in the middle. They couldn't break his energy shield, though. They fell, mangled.

Without a second thought, Cloak proceeded onward, as two panels in the walls before him opened up, and water nozzles extended. They fired a highly concentrated stream of water each, under high pressure.  Cloak pulled the water to his left, turned with jets of water obeying his wordless commands like loyal puppies, and then he extended both arms and the jets of water destroyed their own spout sources. Cloak only cracked his neck as he proceeded forward.

Soon, two more spickets were extended from small panels in the walls, mounted high up, near the ceiling, and pointed downward. Fire dangled like spittle and snot from a fussy toddler. As Cloak approached, it issued a test flame, a warning shot. Without so much as breaking stride, Cloak used the earthen remnants of the previous trap to destroy these fire spickets.

Soon enough he make his way into a room, and was not surprised to see the corridor seal itself off upon him crossing the threshold. The room were a bleached white room whose surfaces were unnaturally smooth, and clean. But Cloak paid no mind to it, and accessed the console inset in the furthest corner away from the corner the corridor let him out in.

The console only confirmed what he suspected. Malice had had a hand in this whole house thing. Uploading something, presumably a virus, into this computer's mainframe and networking, corrupting the artificial intelligence of the house.

"Tsk tsk tsk," came the voice."You sh--"

"Shut up," Cloak said, without hesitation.

"Pardon?"

"Shut. Up," Cloak growled.

"How dare you sp--"

"Shut the Veil up," Cloak said.

"Fine. Die."

A panel from each wall opened up and fans started to suck the air out of the room.

"No," Cloak said, defiantly.

The very air halted and did not move at all. The fans sucked on nothing.

"You have no idea who you're messing with," Cloak accused, " do you?"

[guitarhero01234]

. . . That was quite possibly the most badass moment I've seen in Memoirs. Someone, please, animate this chapter.

[redtailedsaffa]

Ooh, useless fact. Did you know the Romans have a goddess of the sewers?

[Cloak]

. . . That was quite possibly the most badass moment I've seen in Memoirs. Someone, please, animate this chapter.

Here, here! That chapter probably came from me binge-watching "The Legend of Korra".

Ooh, useless fact. Did you know the Romans have a goddess of the sewers?

This has been another . . . useless fact.

New chapter.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
Reunions

Cloak, in irritated anger, blasted his way through a wall. The wall gave way easily, and opened into some sort of entrance hall deal, a main lobby, with a grand staircase dominating the background. The design of the staircase was not unlike the one in the Biltmore House in terms of design. But it didn't apear to lead anywhere but the ceiling.

There were blasts and hisses and soon he was met by the others. Az rising up from the floor,  Gaz entering from somewhere as a haze and reforming into a corporeal form, Underseen oozed down into the room as an opaque goo before reforming into his recognizable form, Sakki busted in from the wall on the left, and GH burst in from the wall on the right.

It didn't make much sense, especially as Az went up and Underseen went down. But that was the thing with Perplexahedron was that it, by design, didn't make sense, that it confused and addled those within it. That it was a living tesseract, essentially.

They rejoiced in their meeting, and exchanged stories of ehat happened during their separation. Cloak went first, and told them of the traps in the green hallway that he faced. And how he refused to accept the house's -- A.I.E., Gaz corrected -- death trap, and blew his way into this room. He confirmed that Malice had a hand in this somehow,and explained the image he saw of her doing something to the mainframe.

"It was a virus," Sakki said. "That's what I found out, anyway. Then A.I.E. locked me into an echo chamber, stranded on a catwalk. I couldn't use my sonics, which I was sorely tempted to do. Instead I discovered the sound-absorbing paneling she used, at least on the other side of the catwalk was brittle and frail. It looked almost deliberate. I was ripped them away, and then used my sonics on the hole and the echoes actually helped me burst through the wall and landed me into this room."

"All I found was her name," Gaz said. "Artificial Intelligence Entity or Artifical Intelligence Experiment. A.I.E. Then poisoned spikes began to rain down from the ceiling. But apparently A.I.E. forgotten that I could go all misty. But given how little she actually knows, it's hardly surprising. So, I filtered into this room and reformed."

"I found out that E. Z. Velocimortis wasn't a real," Az said. "He was quite literally an empty suit. A sheath for A.I.E. to occupy to lure people here with persuasive rhetoric and song-and-dance. Then she tried to drown me by flooding the room. She didn't know about my cryokinesis. I froze the pipes that water was coming in from. They burst, and I was launched into the ceiling, and I dug my way here."

"I found out that this entire place was intended as an amusement part attraction," GH said. "though I don't know why. I couldn't think of a less fun place. Okay, maybe Congress. Anyway, I had to hack my way into this room, from that room lined with that strange metal."

"Probably vibranium," Cloak noted.

"Maybe," GH shrugged.

"I found out that we weren't the first to investigate this house," Underseen said, solemnly. "I found viscera on the ceiling and floor, as well as a number of crushed detris of former investigators. Including a police badge."

"Who did it belong to?" Gaz asked.

"Officer Justice," Underseen said.

A resounding silence met these words.

"Who?" GH asked.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Down, Down, Down

Cloak suddenly realized that this flooring was marble. A cheap-looking and cracked marble, but still marble. Which meant that he could Earthsight again. He was estatic about this. He had felt cut off without it.

Then he noticed something the next time he took a footstep. He saw it as an oddity, a curiosity. Sakki seemed to have noticed, or sensed something as well.

"YOU STAY AWAY FROM THERE!!" A.I.E.'s voice sounded loudly, sounding at once, very cross and forceful, as Cloao and Sakki began to stride toward the left side of the grand staircase.

"You don't want us to go any further?" Cloak said, innocently, as he Earthsighted a hidden staircase beneath the grand staircase. The opulent, grandiose grand staircase was a distraction away from this more drab, simple staircase.

"No!!!"

"Good to know," Cloak said. To the others, he said, "Let's go onward, shall we?"

"I TOLD YOU NO!!!"

"Yeah, we know," GH replied in indifferently as he defiantly descended the staircase.

"I FORBID IT!!!"

"Yeah," Sakki said, dryly, with a drolly impassive face, as she descended the staircase right after GH, "we don't care."

"STAY OUT OF THERE!!!"

"Not gonna happen," Az quipped honestly.

"STOP THIS NOW!!!"

"I intend to," Underseen said, his tone uncharacteristicall y acidic, as he descended the stairs. The things he saw in that death trap clearly left an indelible mark upon the RAFian.

"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!!!"

"I do, and you know it, don't you, A.I.E.?" Gaz said, as she decended down the stairs.

"I'LL KILL YOU ALL!"

"You tried that already," Cloak said, not turning his head. "You failed. Not once. Not twice. But six times."

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS!!!"

"I think," Cloak said, voice low, level, and dangerous, "you'll find that we can."

Then the Realm Walker swept down the staircase.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
Processing . . . Processing . . .

The room below was as you might expect. It was painted in earth tones, so it looked as if it was buried into the earth. Only the cream-colored floor and ceiling were smooth, polished, and shiny. The room was surprisingly well-lit, though as if through a dingy filter.

In the center of the room was something that could have easily been mistaken for a Dalek who was mounted to the floor and blinded. On this "Dalek platform" was a bulky box, with a singular, circular, red-glowing, robotic eye.

"The main processor room, I take it?" Sakki said, in her usual casually irreverent way.

"If it's not, it really looks like one," GH said.

"Leave." A.I.E. growled. But it did not come from the walls, but the glowing eye.

"And if we don't?" Underseen asked, very seriously.

"You will leave."

"Don't think that's in the cards, mate," Az said.

"You must leave."

"Oh, we must, must we?" Cloak said, acerbic. "And, enlighten us, A.I.E., why is that, precisely?"

Silence for a beat, before A.I.E. replied, "Leave this place."

"She's vulnerable here," Gaz said. "That's why she's so desperate for us not to be in here. Here, she's at our mercy."

"Leave." the AI said. "This will be your last warning."

"She thinks she has an ace up her nonexistent sleeve," GH observed. "That's why she's so self-confident."

"Do not say you were not warned," A.I.E. said, sinisterly.

Suddenly, a cascade of metallic tentacles fell from the ceiling, to seize the RAFians. Only to backfire in a major way. Cloak easily took control of them and rended them to nothing.

"The old titanium tentacles from the ceiling bit?" Cloak said, with an ironic smirk. "A.I.E, perhaps no one has informed you yet, but this isn't the eighties anymore."

The eye seemed to burn with hatred and anger. Interesting, considering things like that robotic eye were usually devoid of emotions.

[guitarhero01234]

Suddenly, a cascade of metallic tentacles fell from the ceiling, to seize the RAFians.

For a minute, I thought this was going to turn into a very, very different book.

. . . I need to stop internetting.

[Cloak]

C'mon, GH, you know I don't write that kind of stuff. It was actually a reference to the '80s TMNT, the episode where they went to that futuristic recycling center.

New chapter.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
Now, Now! None of That!

"You think you're really something, don't you, fleshbag?" A.I.E. snarled.

Cloak said nothing, but eyed her. It was clear that the Dalek-like podium on which the device housing her consciousness was clearly the core main processor for the entire house, the entire Perplexahedron. It was the lynch pin for this whole thing.

Apparently, this was not lost on A.I.E.

"Don't even think about it," she growled.

"You're out of tricks, A.I.E.," Gaz said, reasonably.

"Oh, am I?" she said, in a haughty screech. "I still have a trick or two up my sleeve!"

"You don't have sleeves," GH said.

"Semantics!"

"Give it up, A.I.E." Underseen said, crossly, having folded his arms and narrowed his eyes. "You lost. Get over it."

"Activating self-destruct sequence," she said.

"Wait, what?" Az said quickly.

"Initializing . . . processing . . . processing . . ."

"Is this for real?"  GH said, unable to conceal his bewilderment.

"The detonation of this facility will proceed in ten . . ."

"So," Sakki said, "this is a thing now."

"Nine . . ."

"Shouldn't we be leaving?" Az asked. "You know, evacuating?"

"Eight . . ."

Silence.

"Seven . . ."

"Guys." Az prompted.

"Six . . ."

"We are in no danger, Az." Sakki said.

"What?" Az asked.

"Five . . ."

"What amusement park attraction comes with a legitimate self-destruct feature, Az?" Cloak said.

"Four . . ."

"Maybe she installed --" Az said.

"Three . . ."

"She couldn't even install flashing red lights," Gaz said, dismissively. "She's lying."

"Two . . ."

"But what if she's not?"

"One."

"She is." Cloak said, with a resounding finality.

"Dammit," A.I.E. was heard to say.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
A Memory or Two to Take

"You'll never deactivate me," A.I.E. threatened, as the front panel swung open by Sakki's hand and endeavors. There were twenty-six slots occupied with a board, a glowing white circuit board.

"Oh, really? Why is that?" Cloak said, affecting mild surprise.

"Because you have to remove the boards in a specific order, or they will be locked into place!"

Underseen narrowed his eyes suspicious of this sudden forthcoming of information. Cloak was suspicious, too, but he compartmentalized and internalized it.

"And just what order would that be?" Cloak asked, his gentleness sounded almost genuine. He was being manipulative, and he knew it. He hated himself for it. But he was his mother's son, after all.

"X-ray, India, Romeo, eagle, tango, papa, alpha, hotel, Charlie," she said.

"That's just gibberish!" GH said.

"Not really." Cloak said. "Third one from the right first, then the eighth, then the first, then the sixteenth, then the twentieth, then the fifth, then the eighteenth, then the twenty-fourth last. She thought she was being clever."

"How'd you get that from gibberish?" Az asked.

"It was a phonetic alphabet," Cloak said, as he successfully started pulling out circuit boards, presumably A.I.E.'s memory. "But she spoke it backwards to try to trip us up. There are twenty-six slots, and teenty-six letters in your alphabet. And you read from right to left, so that's probably how this is situ--"

Then A.I.E. yelled something that sounded very drunk and very trollish. And it wasn't very polite. Yep, not very polite at all.

"Great, you turned her into a YouTube commenter." GH said, pausing to listen to more vitriol from.A.I.E. "Oh! Got to remember to write that one down."

"There it's done," Cloak said, as pulled out the last board. The whole facility powered down and became lifeless, as a convenient exterior popped open from their left.

"What a remarkable cowinky-dink," Gaz said.

"'Cowinky-dink'? This ain't the eighties, you know." Sakki said, grumpily.

"That was too easy," Underseen said. "There's gotta be more at play here."

"Let's just be thankful for small favors, and be done with it." Az said, as they left.

[redtailedsaffa]

Oh, the dialogue in this chapter.

[Cloak]

Glad you enjoyed it. 

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWENTY:
Who Are You?

Cloak looked around. He was standing in some crystal catacombs. Alone. He didn't know why, though . . .

This was another one of those lucid dreams, wasn't it?

He heard a voice singing, and followed it.

"Thanks for the high tide,
Thanks for the seaside,
Thanks for the light at high noon.
Thanks for the lightning,
Thanks for the singing.
Thanks the First Light,
And Fate Soon.
Thanks for the red dawn,
Grass that we walk upon,
Thanks for the river's whispered tune.
Thanks for the Wind Brother,
Thanks for the Earth Mother.
Thanks to the First Light,
And Fate Soon.
Thanks to the First Light,
And Fate Soon.
Hey-ya, hey-ya, hey-ya-a-a!
Hey-ya, hey-ya, hey-ya-a-a!"

Cloak had cautiously padded to this area and saw a mass of crystals -- reds, blues, greens, yellows, purples, pinks, and colors that defied explanation.

It wasn't long before he saw the singing voice's owner. It was another Realm Walker, a lupine one. A wolf whose fur was like molten moonlight. She was deftly rearranging crystals.

"Hello, there, young one," the voice was melodious and feminine. Her tone was kind, like one would adopt when there was a skittish child around. "There's no need to lurk in doorways."

"Who are you?" Cloak said.

"A Truth Dreamer, like you," she said, calmly sitting with her legs crossed. She seemed so powerful in her calmness, in her genteel demeanor.

"I'm no such thing," Cloak said.

"Oh, then that's why I'm not afraid of you," she said, though it didn't sound as offensive as it would appear. "Why should I be afraid of one who does not know who he is?"

"I know who I am. I am Cloak, Master of the Six Elements and son of Ursa and Brute. Descendant of Master Avatar. And I am a veteran RAFian." Cloak retorted, then growled. "Now, again, who are you?"

"I am Aniyu," she said, having winced a bit when Cloak mentioned his dad's name, "daughter of Farsight and Perspective, both simple Walkers. This answer tells use what we are, but not who, at least not entirely."

"What do you mean?" Cloak said, before altering his question to inquire about she was doing with those crystals. Suddenly, she used the crystals to refract a beam of light to illuminate the entire room.

"I am shedding light, where darkness lies. When every Walker hatches, a guide stands beside them."

"Why?"

"To light their way through the dark, long night. And sing them songs to guide them."

"Why is that?"

"Because each of us has a destiny that sets us all apart.
The path is different for you and me,
But thr journey begins in the heart.
You must go to the east, go to the west,
The road is rocky and the way is far.
It's a dangerous trail, a difficult quest,
If you want know who you really are . . .
There are voices all around you,
To comfort and to guide you.
Fathers and teachers,
Powerful creatures.
And a voice that sings inside you.
Or you can turn back around,
Run along home.
Back to the place where your RAFians are.
Perhaps that is best,
You need the rest.
Who wants to go on a ridiculous quest?
Unless you want to know,
You truly want to know,
Unless you want to know . . .
Who you really are.
Who are you? Who are you?
Who are you? Who are you?
Who are you? Who are you?
Who are you? Who are you?"

"Aniyu," Cloak said, " Aniyu, are you my father's --"

But she was gone, and Cloak had woke up, wondering what that was about. He was deeply confused.

***

From the shell of the former House of the Future, which was slated for demolition, a prone figure clawed its way out. Only its left mechanical arm was functional, as the legs below the knees were mangled and useless, and it was missing the lower part of its right arm. It was a robotic endoskeleton.

It clawed its way from the building, in the dark of the night, horribly conspicuous to anyone who would see. It was odd that no one did, and it got off scot free . . .