Young Writers Society

Bo looked up at the lights, blinking a few times as his eyes adjusted. "Someone's pressing buttons I guess," he said as he turned off his phone and put it back in his pocket.

"But uh, let's see if we can find a brace for your shoulder while we're here. I didn't know you hurt it that bad, but figuring how you went all out with trying to jump around and stuff I'm not surprised. That was a wicked fall." He began looking around the room, searching through drawers.

"It's not bad," Aegeas said. "I just don't want it to get worse." When he could finally see, which took a minute, he pulled out some of the drawers by the beds. They were either empty or contained strange devices with blinking lights. Nothing he was familiar with. Fortunately, he spotted a small door on one side of the room. The label printed on it in tiny letters read "Storage Closet."

Just like the hospital door, this door slid aside when Aegeas stepped in front of it. Inside was an assortment of boxes towering to the ceiling, all gray and large. A dim light flickered overhead, reminding him distinctly of the room he'd woken up in. Shaking aside a feeling of claustrophobia, he stepped into the closet, prying open the lids of some of the boxes.

"Is this it?" he said at last, pulling out what looked like an oversized sling (to him, though he knew his arms were fairly small). Slipping it on to his bad arm, he tightened it and slung the strap over his good shoulder. Aegeas flexed his arm; the sling held it mainly in place. The shoulder still hurt, but now it felt manageable.

"Let's get back to the others," Aegeas said, making his way to the hospital entrance.

Lucy stifled a laugh at the remark, his comment proving the point. She was the only one here who could really understand how to use this technology. Even Oliver, the one who created her, had only been knowledgeable on how to make someone like her. An actual building would have been a mystery to him.

She hoped he would return soon.



He was surprised that there wasn't more of a reaction to his appearance - he did look like Earth's stereotypical extraterrestrial visitor, after all - but he was grateful that there wasn't a big fuss about it. He suspected that the others might have different thoughts on it; Lola and Raiden were much younger than Bo was, and would likely be less mature. Even if Bo was startled by what he looked like, he had the tack not to draw attention to it.

He joined Aegeas at the entrance.

"Oh," he abruptly said, suddenly remembering something quite important. "Before we go, I just want you guys to know that my real name is Codix."

Aegeas walked out into the hallway. He couldn't quite see the elevator, but he went with his gut (and his memory) and took the path to the right. "Thanks for telling," he said, looking back at Oliver/Codix. It was at that point Aegeas realized he hadn't gotten a clear view of Oliver's true form until now. Sure enough, it was strange, particularly with the vaguely human features and gray color. But, this place was full of strange things, and he'd seen much weirder in the past year or two. Not much shocked him anymore - why should this?

Seeing as Aegeas was going in the right direction, Bo followed behind, finally getting a good glance over at Oliver. Or Codix.

Codix looked surprisingly much like what he would've expected. Probably because he stayed true to the stereotypes of the classic aliens portrayed in popular media, but he obviously wasn't like, going to abduct people or whatever. In this case, he was one of the abducted, just like them.

That said, it was still going to take just as much getting used to as Aegeas, the talking otter. But he'd just treat it like it was normal - because it was, for them. Just not to him.

He flashed Codix a small smile. "Alright then, Codix."

The microwave suddenly switched itself off, and the lights returned.
"Say...what do you say we grab some food and get back to the control room?" Raiden said, his eyes wide.
"I don't wanna stay here...where..." he gulped, "m-microwaves can...g-go on spontaneously..."

xXx One Timeskip Later xXx

When Codix returned to the control room, he found that the rest of the group had returned from their respective adventures as well. Lucy was explaining the technology of the room to Boris, and Lola and Raiden were having a makeshift picnic in the center of the control room. He wasn't sure if he should have been shocked by the later of these developments or not, but he was starving and desperately wanted something to eat as well.

There was just a little problem.

Only Lucy, Aegeas and Bo knew who he was.

And he really wished Lucy wasn't there, because she had an absolutely murderous and horrified look on her face when she noticed him. He ducked behind Bo - who he had been standing beside - and gave her a terrified little wave. "Hi, Lucy," he said.

Aegeas looked around at the control room and its occupants. Between the walls, masses of buttons, and the picnic on the floor, he was disappointed to find that everything made as much sense as usual. When he saw Lucy - who was busy glaring at Codix for whatever reason - a memory from the confrontation with Kartiel entered his mind.

"Lucy," Aegeas said, "Are you human? Codix mentioned that you were" - a pause, to remember the right word - "a robot?"

Raiden looked up from the picnic.
"Codix? Who's-" his eyes fell on Codix's true form.
"WoOoAAh wheEEn did we get an aliien?" the words spilled out of him before he could stop them. His legs had carried him to behind Lucy out of pure shock.
"Hey, so if you're a robot you've gotta have like cool laser guns and stuff, right?" he whispered to her, as he hid - very badly - behind her.
"If the alien tries to eat our brains and kill us all, can you like, shoot it first? Yeah?"

“Codix is Oliver’s real name, and this is his true form, so there’s no reason to be afraid.” Bo said to everyone, though he was looking at Raiden. “He’s still just as friendly as he was when you last saw him. As is Lucy.”

It is my opinion that everyone should live in a city with devils, tomb-colonists and rubbery men. If not more tolerant, it at least makes one more accustomed to the inhuman.

''There is no need to be so rude, you'll make him feel self-conscious.'' I told Raiden reproachfully. Then I turned back to Oliver.
''Codix, is it? A pleasure to be reacquainted with you.''

Satisfied that I had done my part to make him feel more welcome, I addressed the other subject at hand. ''Miss Lucy, pardon my ignorance, but the robot as I understand it is only a mythological concept. Could you please enlighten me?''

Her explanation was mercifully clear and simple, but even still, much of it was beyond me. She explained that a robot is a very smart machine, like the ones we had seen here, that is differentiated from them by shape and intelligence. Everything else flew over my head.

''But dear Lucy... are you really a phone?'' I had to ask her.

She was admittedly still terrified about their secret having been revealed, but the comment made a smile dance across her lips. "I guess you could I say I am," she said. It was probably best to tell Boris that than try to explain the difference between phones and every other type of technology.

Now that the explanation was finished, she turned to look over at Codix. He had finally come out from his hiding spot between Bo, and she wasn't sure if she should roll her eyes or ignore him doing it in the first place. "Did your fracturing get too bad?"

"It did," he admitted. "And I couldn't avoid changing back to normal."

She sighed. If that was the case, she would be alright with that. Then she turned to the others, giving a slight smile as she did so. "If Codix told you his real name, I guess I should probably as well. I'm Nadira."

“Well hello Nadira,” Bo said with a small bow and a smile. When he stood back up, however, he cleared his throat.

“Well, now that introductions are actually over, there is something we need to tell all of you. We found the person who brought us here. He goes by the name of Kartiel, and says he’s a god. He ‘god of souls,’ I guess, and he said that our souls were restless or something and that’s one of the reasons he chose us to bring us here. He also made it sound like we’re just the test run for the real group of people, so I don’t know what that means. But the thing is, Kartiel didn’t stick around for long. Aegeas and him got into a bit of uh, a skirmish, and Kartiel spoofed.” He snapped his fingers. “Just like that. But before he dissapeared he basically said that that was one of many forms he’s taken, so it sounds like we might be seeing him again. If he, I dunno, regenerates or however that works with ‘gods.’”

Bo took in a breath and decided to stop there for a moment before bringing up the soul-sucking, life-leeching creatures that could potentially pop up.

"Codix is Oliver's real name." At that, Raiden "ooohh"ed and waved at Codix with a sheepish smile, a bit embarrassed about his rudeness. He then walked back to where he was originally, while Boris was learning about Lucy - or, as he soon found out, Nadira. As Bo was talking, Raiden watched him intently.
"...the uh, map thing detected him the first time, right? Can we check it again to see if he's really gone?" he spoke, after Bo's __ news. He wasn't sure if it was good or bad.

Nadira nodded, already heading over to the map. "We have some important information as well," she added. Codix followed behind her, wary of what that information might entail. "Boris and I found out what happened to the people who lived here. There was an enemy called the Wraith who-"

"Oh," Codix said, sighing in relief, "we already heard about them. Kartiel talked about them for a good minute before he...uh...'poofed'." He mimed stabbing someone with a sword and gave a not-so-sneaky look over in Aegeas' direction.

Nadira raised an eyebrow, but she didn't comment what he was implying. She turned her attention back to the map. "That makes things easier, then." She studied it for another moment before looking at the others. "It seems like there's a life force in the tower beside this one - the color is weird."

"Color?" Codix asked.

She pointed at the screen. "We all have the same color - see the white circles in the center of the middle tower? He had the same color earlier, even though he's a god. But that dot in the other tower? It's red."