# Victernus - Chapter 21

Author: Baumarius
Tags: Cybernetics, Science, Transformation, War, Werewolf, Wolf, apocalypse, corruption, dystopia, implants, mind, tf, uploading

            When Namara did not return, Mahalia
and Athius decided to go out and find Gala. Because Mahalia's tracking device
told her that Namara was still near the forum, she figured that he had gotten
side-tracked with the scientists. It was not unlike him, considering that he
usually had trouble stopping when going on about psychology and computers.
            Once the fog - a simulation built so
that the students would not leave the School during teaching hours - lifted,
Athius and Mahalia set out towards the school's courtyard. Mahalia walked with
Athius in the street, but still had her cloaking technology active so that she
would not be found out. They remained silent so that Athius would not seem
suspicious or schizophrenic. He could still see her, and all he had to do was
touch her to join her in her stealth.
            The School's courtyard rested in the
"shadow" of a giant building before the forum. The School itself had fourteen
stories and housed every grade up through twelfth. It was, as the Great
Demonstrators of the past had called it, "the machine over the machine." There,
some hopes and dreams were realized, and some were crushed. Students who failed
to meet the standards were never heard from again, and only the new ones dared
to speculate.
            When they reached the courtyard,
Athius saw his friends working on a new project out on one of the paths. Gala
was with them, and they were all sitting down on the ground. Athius glanced at
Mahalia, who gave him a nod to go forward. He stepped forward and headed for
them confidently, half-hoping that he wouldn't have to try too hard to convince
them to join him.
            Their response to seeing him was not
born of amusement or playfulness, but of fear. Gala got to her feet and came
close, asking, "Where were you? You missed the first class!"
            He sighed, "Gala... I couldn't do it.
I had something else to attend to first..."
            She scolded him, "What do you mean you
couldn't do it? You know the penalty for skipping school!"
            Athius shook his head, "I already
received enough grief from my dad last night... I didn't come here to get it from
you too."
            Gala narrowed her eyes at him and
asked, "What do you mean? You're gonna get it from the school officials now!"
            He stared at her painfully and
spoke, "I did not come back here to be subjected to this system again!" After
looking down at the ground briefly, he took off his shirt and turned around so
that she could see. He looked over his shoulder and said, "I came to find out
if you would leave with me."
            She gasped and covered her mouth.
"Your dad did that to you?!"
            He nodded and then put his shirt
back on, turning to her again. "Last night, I found someone from the old society...
the one before New Selania. It's hard to explain how he is still living, but he
and his friends have offered us a way out of this cavern. He says that he's
been to the surface, and that it is perfectly safe. He also wants to give us a
life that isn't forcefully devoted to science research."
            Gala looked back at her group and
then said, "I'll have to think about it... I'll run it by our friends and see
what they think."
            Athius stepped back from her and
warned, "Think quickly - there isn't much time left. How about... how about we
meet tomorrow night at the bridge that leads outside of the city? We can talk
more then."
            She sighed, "I'll see what I can do...
What you are asking for is a lot, you know."
            "Yeah... but, you are my best friend. I
really don't want to leave you behind..."
            Gala nodded softly. In response,
Athius put his hands in his pockets and began to walk back to Mahalia slowly. "I
guess I'll see you, then. Be careful Gala." When he finished, he took Mahalia's
hand and vanished.
---
            Namara woke up in a small black cage
that was barely big enough to give him room to stretch in. Thick iron bars
surrounded him on all sides, spaced apart just shy of being able to let his
head through. Touching his neck, he found that he was wearing a thick collar. He
tried sitting up, but he hit his head on the cage's roof. He rubbed his head
gently and then peeked out of the cage. Around him were more cages - all empty,
as he would have expected. There were no animals down in the cavern except for
the flying ones in the forest.
            A little rectangle of blue light
filtered in through the automatic door at the end of the room. Namara called out,
"Hey, is there anyone here?"
            Someone's shadow moved over the
rectangle. A few pistons hissed behind the wall and then the door slid open.
They took two steps in. A light female voice sounded, "Hello?"
            Namara sighed in relief and
continued, "Hey... Can you get me out of here?"
            She approached and stopped by the
cage, looking around for the source of the voice. After bending over and
looking into Namara's cage, she stood back up and called, "Where are you?"
            He tapped on the bars and said,
"It's me. I can talk, you know."
            She crouched back down and then
raised her eyebrow, "But... You're a... a..."
            Namara saw the thin, blonde teenager
on the other side and then smiled. "I think 'werewolf' is the word you're
looking for. You can call me Namara. Who are you?"
            Sitting down, she folded her legs
and asked, "Um... My name is Laieh."
            Namara smiled, "That's a nice name,"
and then pointed at the bars, "Now, would you please let me out? This cage is
cramped and I don't really like being treated like this kind of animal. I also kinda need to go to the bathroom
soon..."
            Laieh sighed and then got back to
her feet, heading back out. "I'll have to ask Jordan... I'll be right back."
            He held onto one of the bars and
called out, "Hurry back!"
            The electronic door slid back into
place when she left, leaving Namara in silence again. He sighed. Darn it, why does Lynn have to be alive
still? That idiot should have died so long ago... Ugh, I hate him so much!
            When Laieh returned, she came with a
white-haired, thin man who was scolding her, "You know, they warned you that it
can mess with your mind. You can't give in." They both stepped in front of the
cage and bent down to look. He continued, "Just look at it. This thing was made to kill!"
            Namara shook his head as best he
could and then interrupted, "Jordan? I was not made to kill. I made myself this
way to find what may be the pinnacle of human desire. I have never taken a
life."
            He laughed and mocked, "Why would
you become an animal to find something human? I have not heard something more
stupid in my entire life!" He started laughing hysterically, "Everyone knows
that other animals can't think anywhere near the way humans do!"
            Namara growled, "That's because
nobody has ever been anything else before. But, here I am; I have the brain
capacity of a dog, and I can still do this!" He grabbed the bars at the front of
the cage and tried to thrust himself into the man's mind. But, he pulled back
out when he felt himself getting shocked around his neck continuously. He shook
and stuttered, "St...st....sss...." and then fell limp on the ground when it stopped.
A warm sensation formed around one of his hips. He thought to them shakily, D...damn it...
            Jordan laughed again, "He's wetting
himself, isn't he?"
            Namara shouted into their minds, Well, I wouldn't have IF YOU HAD LET ME OUT
ALREADY!
            Silence filled the air. Attempting
to compensate, Namara apologized, I'm
sorry... for yelling... Please don't let me sit here like this.
            Jordan stood and told Laieh, "Pull
him out and get him on one of the tables. You can clean him there and get him
ready."
            She protested, "You're the reason this
happened in the first place!"
            He shook his head and walked out,
"Not my problem."
            Laieh looked down at the helpless
wolf in front of him and said uneasily, "Well, as long as you don't do anything
to me..."
            Namara rolled his eyes. Laieh, I can't even move. Besides, I
wouldn't do anything to you. I really am sorry...
            She pressed the pads of a security
device that was resting on the cage and then the lock opened. After letting the
door swing open, she took his arms and pulled him out, dragging him into a white
operating room. There were three large, beige-colored beds inside that were
beside tables with monitoring equipment on top - most of it geared towards
animals. Laieh shouted into the doorway on the other end of the room, "Hey Jordan,
get back here! I need your help getting him on the table."
            Jordan huffed, "Fine," and then came
back through the hallway. Stopping at Namara's feet, he bent down and grabbed
his ankles. With Laieh, he lifted Namara up and put him onto the bed. Once he
was settled, Jordan left them alone.
            Laieh took one look at Namara and
said, "Screw this; I'm getting the bucket."
            Namara sighed, feeling his control
returning slowly. I didn't come all this
way to have... this... happen to me. The thought made him chuckle.
            Laieh returned shortly after,
lugging a bucket of water towards him. Because he was able to move his mouth
again, he asked aloud, "Um... what are you d-"
            Before he could finish, she lifted
it up and dumped the bucket of freezing cold water on his belly, letting it
wash him clean. The freezing feeling shot through his limbs, giving him
complete control over his body again. He grabbed the bed with his hand tightly
and sucked in air through his teeth before shouting, "H-hey!" He felt
disoriented, feeling a phantom limb clutching the bed where his prosthesis was.
            She laughed, watching as he
squirmed. The bed sucked up most of the water and drained it into a bin below.
As he dripped clean, she flipped a couple of switches on the end of the table
that caused air to blow upwards through tiny holes. She smiled, "That'll get
you dry enough."
            Namara shivered and then rested for
a moment. Before he could get up, he felt himself being pushed backwards into a
tube. He sat up and then hit his head, only to lie back down. He tried grasping
the edges with his hands, but they were too slippery for him to pull himself
back out. He called, "Hey, what are you doing?!"
             Laieh's voice entered the tube, "I'm just
running a couple scans to make sure you're alright. Don't worry."
            A light-blue glow ascended up the
tube towards Namara's head and then back down to his feet. When it shut off, it
was replaced by thin red lights that circled his whole body at a high speed. He
watched them until they dissipated, cuing the bed to slide back out. When it
came to a stop, he sat up and asked, "Well... is everything alright?"
            Laieh, who seemed to be processing
the data on the screen near the scanner, responded, "Yeah, it's just... hmm..."
            Namara slid off of the bed and
approached the screen, "What's the problem?"
            She pointed to a three-dimensional
diagram of his body and zoomed in to his shoulder and then the corpus callosum
in his brain. "There's a few... implants, if you would call them that... that I've
never seen before. The technology doesn't appear to be Selanian by any
standard."
            He smiled, "Well, one of my
companions from a long time ago gave me a telepathy implant. I think it might
be related."
            Laieh shook her head and zoomed in
to a section of his frontal lobe, "I'm pretty sure that this is the telepathy implant. Whatever those other things are...
Well, I don't know. I see no reason as to why they are there."
            Namara shrugged, unable to offer up
an explanation. He thought to himself, I'm
going to have to have Theo look into this.
            Behind them, Jordan entered the room
and said, "Hurry up guys; the GD's not getting any younger."
            Laieh sighed and told Namara, "Yeah,
you should probably go. I'll keep looking into this for you just in case."
            He agreed and said, "Thanks," and
then followed Jordan, leaving Laieh on her own.
            Jordan eyed her in suspicion before
turning and heading out. The hallway he walked down was bland and dark and led
into the receiving area of the veterinary clinic. The lobby had a five chairs
lined up on a wall and thick metal cage in the center. He pointed to it and
said, "You're going to have to get in there."
            Namara laughed, "I'm not a dog."
            He held up the remote for the collar
and said, "The hell you're not. You'd better get in the cage or I'm going to
have to shock you and do it myself."
            He sighed and twitched one of his
ears, "Fine." Stepping close to it, he bent down and opened it before asking,
"Why are there chairs here? And cages? Honestly, what is even the point of this
place? New Selania doesn't have animals, does it?"
            Jordan held up the button in his
hand and threatened, "Get in already!"
            Namara mocked, "Fine," and then
crawled into the cage, curling up on the bottom so that he could fit properly.
He pulled the door shut and listened to the locking mechanism slide into place.
Suddenly, he was reminded of how when he first transformed, he was able to lift
the glass enclosure with his mind. Ideas began pumping in, and he couldn't help
but feel excited about them. He sighed. They would have to wait. For now, he
would rest.

Source: https://sofurry.com/view/912255

Previous: https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/911967-victernus-chapter-20.md
Next: https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/912869-victernus-chapter-22.md