An Evertech Tale Chapter 3
Well things are really heating up for poor Splicer, how will he manage to escape this time?
Splicer was left looking down at the floor for an hour, no one came to talk to him, or pick him up, really much of anything. The entire building was silent, save for a few whimpers as the wolf got back to his feet and weakly tried the doors again to no avail. Giving up he looked down at the floor and begin trudging his way towards the elevator and going inside the already open door. He pressed a button at random, just wanting to get away from the false promise of freedom the lobby offered. But one of the buttons was already lit, and no other button was responding.
"I guess I've got no choice..." He sighed and laid back against the wall, watching the numbers tick up and up. When the door opened, his jaw dropped to the floor. Walking into what could only be called the most lavish pet room he had ever seen, there was a massive dog crate with a luscious floor bed inside. There was a food and water bowl in the wall with a strange machine above it. Inspecting it close he found a clock that was counting down, and a few digital buttons that appeared blank. Aside from that the room seemed empty aside from a massive wardrobe with a locked symbol on the handles. Tentatively, he tried one, feeling a hard shock in his hand where he touched his handle. A message flashed before his eyes in all red lettering saying "ATTEMPTED ACCESS TO A RESTRICTED AREA PUNISHMENT ADMINISTERED" As he ripped his hand off the door handle, inspecting it for burns, he saw nothing out of place. Was it in his head? Or could the things in his body force him to imagine that sensation? Before he could think more about it another message appeared to replace the other. "Welcome to your new home puppy! I hope you like the room. <3" That pink badger, he's taunting me. But if the wolf was to be real with himself, no matter how humiliating this place was, it was much nicer than the dingy hideaways he used as safehouses. Hell, he touched the bed in the cage, he didn't know something could feel as heavenly as it did.
But he still had his pride and sleeping in a cage was out of the question no matter how nice it was. But a clock reading 22:00 appeared in his eyes with a memo next to it reading "Puppies bedtime" and without notice, his body began to slow down again as slowly he could almost feel the machines in his blood slowly putting themselves into some sort of sleep mode.
"I'm still not getting into your damn cage." He called out to no one in particular, leaning against the wall, letting his eyes close, but it wasn't long before a full body jolt of electricity made his eyes shoot open. The electricity wasn't stopping, in fact it was only getting worse. Tears formed into his eyes as he crawled his way forward into the cage, shutting the door on himself. The electricity crackling in his veins ended right when the cage door closed with a sure sounding click. He knew what the noise was but gave a few experimental tugs on the door just to confirm his suspicion. No chance of budging, locked tight. The cage looked bigger from the outside, he had to admit. He looked pretty sad, curled up into a little ball on his new bed, slowly feeling the energy draining from his body and his eyes shutting with a final message in pink.
"Good night, puppy".
Splicer woke up the next morning feeling surprisingly refreshed for how uncomfortable his position felt, pushing on the door to his cage without any kind of give. He heard a click and noticed that the door started opening on it's own with a new pink message appearing in his vision.
"Good morning, puppy."
God, is that damn message gonna appear every time? Splicer was thinking as he stretched out, feeling a few cracks in his back as he heard another beeping coming from behind him. Walking over to the dog dish the buttons began to light up with different breakfast options. Oatmeal, eggs, bacon, coffee, orange juice and water. He pressed to egg button along with the bacon button, then decided to have some coffee too.
"Well I might as well enjoy something..." Splicer grumbled, along with his stomach. He was almost dying of hunger not having eaten for a full day. With an odd whirring noise coffee began to pour down into one of the dog bowls and a slot spat out the bacon and eggs into the other dish. Before the strange machine went silent. "Hey can I get a plate, maybe a fork even?"
The resounding silence in the room was the only answer he needed. Damn it he thought, before lowering his muzzle to the bowl and began to wolf down the contents. He turned his head to the coffee dish and began lapping at the contents inside, finding it to be the perfect temperature and taste. He finished up his breakfast and realizing he was on his hands and knees quickly stood up and patted his hands on his chest. A new message replaced his good morning, this time in just plain text.
"Enter the elevator."
Without much else to do, and still a little apprehensive of getting a full body shock he entered the now open door and waited for something to happen. He ran his fingers up and down the buttons pressing all of them but, nothing happened. Stepping towards the exit, it flashed in red, causing him to stumble back shocked. He was never going to get used to all those things popping up in his head, he thought. But the door closed, and the elevator began moving on its own. He shuffled back and forth, terrified of where he was being taken. It wasn't long before he stepped out of the elevator and into a room without any of its lights on. Scanning around the room that should have been darker than it looked, but it had to have been something to do with all those nanites or whatever in his body. It didn't matter, he confidently stepped out of the elevator. Well, I'll just have to deal with these freaks' whatever or not, and then I'm home free. Hell, I'm sure I can figure some way to wiggle out of this place, I can deal with these nanites somehow, I've slipped out of worse. The wolf was thinking that the whole time when the elevator door dinging and closing brought his attention back to his current predicament, looking around the room he caught a glimpse of the red beeping light he was looking for.
"Hey! I assume you're watching me you freak, now you want me to work? Tell me what you want, and I'll do it! I promise. AND GET ME SOME CLOTHES" Splicer added at the last second remembering how pitiful he looked with his sheath on full display.
"Well now, that's no way to talk to your new boss." Laguna's voice confidently came from the ceiling once again. "The clothing is a definite no, it was decided test subjects will be prohibited from wearing clothes. There's no specific reason, it's just for personal amusement. As for what I want you to do, it's simple really, you're going to meet one of my subordinates soon, or not if you're lucky. But he'll be coming out of that elevator in a few minutes. He'll be very interested to meet you, and it's in your best interest to avoid that happening. Think of it like hide and seek, you'll be hiding, he'll be seeking. Now then, you'd best get going.
"Run: 5:00"
His new directive flashed into his eyes and as the clock began ticking down, Splicer backed away from the elevator and began running down the hall passing cubicles and office doors. Not here, not there, there's no where good to hide. Splicer's mind raced as he ran around, peering into offices he passed until he gave up and just picked a cubicle desk to hide under.
"Hide: 10:00"
Sticking close to the wall, holding his knees to his chest so nothing was exposed from the aisle, his timer hit zero, and a resounding ding rang out through out the office. A tall, midnight furred otter stepped off. Adjusting the tie on his suit, he sighed.
"Why do I have to play this stupid game..." His gruff voiced sighed, slightly annoyed he'd been called off his previous surveillance mission to play with some new random toy Laguna snapped up. "Damn it, Laguna you do know I have an important job, you can't just call me out on a whim y'know." Finally, his objectives appeared.
"Find target: 10:00"
"Good Luck."
"Bastard..." He muttered under his breath, pulling the box Laguna handed him out from a pocket. If nothing else, maybe he could at least have some fun with whatever poor slut the pink badger snapped up. Well, it would be fun for him if he actually caught the bitch, it would probably be the worst time the wolf would ever experience. His mouth twisted into a sinister smile, maybe he would enjoy this after all...