Transitioning back to the laboratory, Vinnie and Natalie guided Team ENTITY through the multiple doors that divided the outside world and Natalie's lab. "Why are there so many doors?" Gerald asked Natalie, who almost instantly looked back at him. "Ever since I started making defense mechanisms for ART, I was required to coat the lab with more walls for some reason.
"If the lab is this secure, I'm guessing you have something that can assist us with breaching the meeting grounds between Dreamalia and LUO?" Victor asked. "That's a good question," Natalie responded. "I have no idea what you just said!"
Victor covered his face with his hand in disappointment. "So smart, but just so dumb…"
The final door bordering the laboratory and the outside of ART finally opened, and everyone following Natalie and Vinnie stepped in alongside their guides. "Welcome to the lab!" Natalie said cheerfully. "There's a lot of prototypes I've made over the years clustered in this room, but I'm working on making a new chain-saw for Vinnie!"
"Chain-saw?" Michael asked. "Why'd you say it like that?"
"Because, it's a chainsaw, and it's just a spinning saw! So I call it a chain-saw!"
Natalie sat down in a spinning chair behind her computer while everyone else continued to explore her inventions. "What the hell is this!?" Gerald screamed, followed by a loud bang that shook the entire laboratory and threw Samantha off the couch. Aggressive, she stormed up from her seat and rushed over to Gerald's side, but gasped in awe as she glanced at the gigantic robot that stood before both of them. "What the hell is this?" Samantha asked Natalie, who spun her chair around to look at the enormous robot. "Jorgen left that in the lab after he left ART, no idea what it does. It turns on every once in a while though and jumpscares the hell out of me!"
Gerald brushed off the dust of a specific part of the robot, revealing a giant print that was labeled J-283. "J-283? Is there any instruction guide for this thing?"
Natalie shrugged. "I usually call it The Titan. You aren't the first person whose soul left their body upon seeing it, though!" she enthusiastically said, spinning her chair back to look at her computer. "Maybe you'll learn something about it if you keep looking!"
Samantha rolled her eyes to Natalie's response, slowly walking away from the robot as she frequently looked back at it, as if there was something she knew about it. "Something feels familiar about that thing," she thought to herself. "The thing is, I have no idea if it's referenced to anything…"
Volume 12, Chapter 7 - The Titan
Both Princess Layla and Notch looked at the six LUO generals standing in front of them. Their soulless, unusual expressions continued to show across their faces as Tofura put her hands on both of their heads once again, causing a pitch to sound throughout their brains. "I can only keep this up for about an hour, so I'll make the order as fast as possible," she told the other five generals behind her. "Princess Layla, I order you to follow every command we tell you. On the other hand, Sir Notch, I command you to go after Vinnie, and bring her to me."
"Yes, master," both of them said obediently. Still soulless, Notch quietly walked out of the room with his sword as Princess Layla stood by LUO's side, no thoughts processing through her head. "The brainwashing is complete," she told everyone. "They will now follow our every command." A deep laugh sounded from the radio in response to Tofura's statement. "You guys have done well," he congratulated. "At this rate, the world will be at our fingertips before we know it!" Each and every general in the room smiled, all engulfed in dangerous amounts of confidence. "Next, we'll be sure to get the administrator of ART as a little thank you gift!" Itsura joked. "We thank you for giving us this opportunity, boss."
Back at the lab, Natalie silently stood on the balcony at the laboratory as she watched the raindrops splatter across the rooftops throughout the island. A few minutes later, Samantha came up to the balcony, silently walking over to Natalie and sitting beside her. "You know if you stay too long in the rain, you'll get cold," she advised. Natalie nodded, reclining further and further into her seat. "The rain usually helps me think of new inventions to better the defense of the island," responded her, who turned her head over her chair to look at the roof of the lab. "Mmm," Samantha replied, looking at the beautiful island as the rainclouds made way for the rays of sunlight that enveloped the island shortly after. "I wonder if that robot back in the lab will ever wake up…" she continued. Suddenly, Samantha's heart dropped. Someone was approaching them rapidly, and was going to attack shortly from now. "Someone's coming to the lab!" she told Natalie urgently, pushing off of the floor and plunging into the sky. She looked around cautiously, noticing Notch obediently walking towards the laboratory with his sword drawn. He noticed Samantha in an instant, his expression unchanged.
"Is that Notch!?"
He pushed off of the ground, charging straight towards Samantha with his sword. "What the hell happened to you!?" she reacted. She punched him hard to the point where he plummeted to the ground and slowly rolled down the hill.
"At least talk about why you're doing this!" Samantha exclaimed, dropping herself onto the ground to look at Notch face to face. She continued to sink deeper and deeper into his eyes, and the pitch that was coursing through his brain started to overtake Samantha's. Upon noticing, she looked away as fast as she could, but the pitch continued to grow inside her, causing her to fight against her consciousness. "What the hell is happening to me!?" she screamed. "I'm losing control… of my MIND!" Notch drew his sword without a thought in his mind, preparing to slash straight through Samantha's flesh. He swung it with all his might, but right before she had received a fatal wound from him, she broke through the illusion that was overtaking her mind by tapping into her own domain, then exiting it quickly before any of her power was consumed.