"Hey, you alright??"
"Huh, yeah... I think. Why?"
Both women were looking at me, having finished their conversation, they were ready to get back to it. Maria pointed at me, as she spoke:
"Your nose, it's bleeding again."
I wiped my nose with my hand to see blood on it, I stood and walked over to washed my hands. I washed aggressively as the images replayed in my head, I could help but constantly look over my shoulder at the shield as they worked.
"Does this happen often?"
"What, his nose bleeds? No, it's a first for me too."
"Interesting, I wonder if its the exposure to the shield that's causing it. We should test it to see."
"Yeah, I'd rather not have my prodige be a guinea pig for something we know nothing about. Besides he knows more about this than we do, so if something goes wrong, we'll be at a loss."
"Right, right. Oh well, worth a try. Would've been interesting if it worked out."
Walking over, I didn't even ask what they were talking about. My mind was still on the images, walking over to it I rubbed my hand over the emblem. I could feel its grooves through my gloves as I traced it's outlines.
"Looks like we might get to see something after all."
Sofia excitedly whispered to her, whom just rolled her eyes and looked back my way:
"What's up Sun, you notice something.?"
"Ugh... yeah... I mean no... I'm... not sure."
My heart raced as I slowly took my hand away, and removed my gloves:
"Hand me a zip lock bag."
Neither of them questioned me, as I reached my hand out waiting for the bag. Sofia excitedly rushed towards the drawer and grabbed one, handing it to me. They both instinctively took a few steps back, but kept their eyes trained on my hands.
I traced the emblem once more with my finger, then slowly towards the edge of the corner we tried to cut before.
I could feel a tingling sensation on the tip of my finger, and even more so when I held onto the piece. I could feel small sparks of electricity, cling to the tips of my fingers as I effortlessly snapped the piece off.
I examined the piece for a moment before putting it in the bag, after a moment I tossed the bag over to the two and walked to sit back down.
"How did...?"
Maria caught it, and just stared at it before looking back up at me, as I walked away. Sofia was still smiling as she leaned over to her:
"Told ya."
She just looked at her; a little annoyed. Sofia then took the bag and walked away to analyze it further, Maria on the other hand was more interested in finding out how and why I thought to do such a thing.
After sitting down I reached for my journal and a pencil, I tried my hardest to recreate an image of the creature I'd seen as well as the shield when it manifested.
From the corner of my eye I could see Maria walking over, I internally hoped she would just walk past me, but I knew she would ask.
"I can see you're busy but I've gotta ask. What gave you the idea to just break off a piece with your bare hands when a freaking lazer didn't work."
I stopped for a moment to look up at her, then looked away and started drawing again:
"You're gonna think I'm crazy."
"We're scientists, we're all at least a little crazy; otherwise we wouldn't be able to create things others couldn't dream of. Besides between you and Bryne over there, I think you're pretty safe."
We both looked behind her to see Sofia mumbling to herself as she took notes, looking back at eachother we chuckled a little.
My face turned back serious as I looked over at the unfinished drawings:
"Alright, but let me finish before you judge."
"I can work with that." She shrugged as she spoke, before taking a seat beside me.
I pushed the journal over to her and pointed my pencil at the figure:
"This is how I figured it out..., well more like tested it out."
"Ok, and who might this be."
"I'm not sure... but it's not exactly friendly, or human for that matter."
She studied the image for a moment before looking back up at me:
"Alright, so what's our little friend here have to do with the shield?"
"That's the thing, it came from the shield. The thing manifested out of some kind of smoke the came out of it."
"Hmmm, ok. And, how did you figure this out, I mean we've all been here together, we've gone over the notes and as far as I know none of us knew about this until now."
I looked over at Sofia for a moment, I could tell she was pretending not to listen in. There was no reason to be by the machine for that long, the process pretty much did itself.
Maria followed my eyes then smirked, she grabbed the pencil I had and tossed it over to her, hitting the back of her head.
"Ow, what was that for!?"
"We know you're listening, so either pay attention or find something to do."
She pouted as she rubbed her head, it wasn't a hard hit by any means, she just wasn't expecting it.
She decided to come sit on the otherside of the table, still holding an unhappy look on her face.
A small smile appeared on my face before I spoke:
"Like I said before let me finish first..., this... is the part where you'll think I'm crazy."
"Go for it, no judgement."
I looked over at Sofia for a moment waiting for her to confirm:
"I won't say a word."
(Good enough.)
I went on to explain the events as they happened, them talking, the shield shattering. The figure emerging from the smoke, it trying to kill me. But what really made their ears perk up was the so called reset.
I found myself in the same spot I was before it all happened, the conversation they were have hadn't even finished, yet I already knew the ending.
"Right so all of this happened to you a few minutes ago, but to us it never occurred.?."
"Like an alternate reality, where you died and took the place of this version of you with the same knowledge. Or maybe it all just happened in your head, like you were daydreaming or something."
I looked over at Sofia as she spoke, the alternate reality part peaked my interest but I know for a fact it wasn't a dream.
"Wasn't a dream or my imagination, I know that for a fact, the air struggling to escape my lungs as I was being held off the ground by my throat was no dream.
I can still feel the marks of its grip, and the fear I felt as I struggled to break free, from something I couldn't even touch. All of it was real. But I just can't explain how or why it happened."
Maria put her hand on my shoulder; in an attempt to comfort me. She annoyingly looked over at Sofia, she knew she was thinking of it in a logical sense but she was also not thinking of how it might've affected me in the end.
"It's alright, I believe you. You're right, it does sound crazy, but sometimes the best things and ideas come to us in the most unorthodox ways.
If you ask me this was the universe guiding you to your goal of uncovering it's secrets, little rough way of doing it but you got the message regardless."
"Yeah I guess..., one hell of a hint though."
I lightly laughed as I stood up and walked over to the shield, I placed my hand on it as I looked over to them with a light smile.
In the momentary silence a beep went off from the machine, we looked at eachother before walking over to the computer.
The information was being sent over to the computer as the system cross checked itself. Maria sat in the chair as we stood behind her, she began going over the information.
A frown appeared on her face; which turned into confusion, we watched as she ran the test again, then another time after that just to be sure.
"Well that's interesting."
"What?"
"Well for one, what ever the material it's made of it's not in our database at all, I even checked with my own clearance level. If it's in here I don't have clearance, but I doubt that."
Me and Sofia looked at one another, a stunned expression painted our faces.
"Well that would explain the durability of the thing, and also supports the more advanced theory."
"Right, makes sense. So what's the second thing?"
We both took a step back as she moved away from the computer and looked us in the eyes:
"Well..., how do I say this..... what ever substance was used to create the thing was also infused with unknown traces of... DNA..., or at least something closely resembling it."