Chapter 4: Unwilling Escape
Silence.
Luke woke up to a heavy, ringing silence as though the world had been wrapped in cotton and shoved far away. His eyes fluttered open to a pale, washed-out sky and drifting particles of ash.
For a moment he didn't move.
His breath came out in a shallow way.
And his body felt suspended in a strange numbness, neither feeling pain nor feeling comfort.
His feet which were in sneakers could already feel the heat that radiated from the ground beneath him.
Am I… dead?
This was the first thought that came into his mind.
He studied his surroundings again.
Clouds of dust swirled overhead and soot clung to his eyelashes almost blurring his vision.
The smell of burnt flesh wafted in the air.
Luke blinked.
No he wasn't dead … but was very much alive.
Luke pushed himself upright.
He sat at the center of a crater, its edges jagged and smoking. The Museum or at least what remained of it was an uneven silhouette of twisted beams, shattered glass, and collapsed displays. Flames flickered weakly among hunks of melted alloy. The melted alloys were still red and drifting smoke.
Charred bodies lay scattered around the wreckage.
They belonged to the guards, the civilians. And everyone else who been here.
A wave of nausea rolled through him as a despairing thought appeared in his mind.
" Where is Rin…?"
His voice cracked.
He struggled to stand up, his legs suddenly quivering.
Debris fell away from his coat.
He turned in circles, scanning desperately.
But there was no sign of her.
In fact there was no sign of anyone alive, making Luke ponder how he suddenly survived the bomb.
Not only was his flesh not scorched but aside from the slight headache, Luke didn't even feel pain.
His gaze landed on the ground where a Second Generation Machine had been, as a sudden thought that the reason he survived was because of that machine.
The item itself was nowhere to be found making him disgard that speculation. Instead he noticed that his gloves were still around equipped in his hands and they had experienced a change.
Just when he was about to inspect the gloves, Luke suddenly heard a deep mechanical rumble echoe from somewhere beyond the smoking ruins.
His head jerked upward.
Dozens of VT-42 Enforcer choppers were slicing through the sky from a distance, engines roaring with growing intensity. Their floodlights tore through the haze, their sharp beams cutting patterns across the wreckage.
They were fast, far faster than normal emergency responders.
It seemed the authorities had noticed the explosion here and were already responding.
Luke felt relieve wash upon him seeing the choppers. Finally help had arrived.
As he stared, something odd then happened.
The gloves he was wearing suddenly vibrated.
A soft hum ran along his fingers, and then.....
A voice suddenly spoke.
It had a calm and synthetic tone.
"Luke. You are in imminent danger."
Luke stumbled backward, nearly tripping over debris.
"W—who said that?!"
The glove pulsed and the voice came out again.
"I am a newborn AI system design: F23 Node. Your vitals show elevated stress. Please relax. I will explain shortly. But first, you must leave this location."
The Enforcer choppers drew closer, sweeping the crater with lasers and scan-lights.
Luke looked between the glove and the approaching authorities.
"I—leave? But I haven't done anything! Won't they help me—"
"Not necessarily. "
The glove's voice remained emotionless.
"Your presence at the epicenter will classify you as a high-priority suspect. Escape is recommended if you wish to avoid detainment. Also the fact that you are in possession of a Second Generation Machine won't help."
His blood ran cold.
"That makes no sense—why would they— What Second Generation Machine?"
This didn't make any sense. He had searched for Dr. Chuck's invention only to not find it. So what's this about him having it.
At this point one of the scanners locked on to him.
A piercing alarm blasted through the chopper's speakers.
"UNIDENTIFIED SURVIVOR DETECTED! MOVE TO CONTAIN!"
Mecha-armored enforcers descended via cables, landing around the crater rim with metallic thuds.
Luke's breath caught.
The glove tightened faintly around his wrist.
"Luke. Run."
"I—where?! How?! They're everywhere!" Luke's voice cracked with panic.
"Initiating emergency transfer."
"What—wait—WHAT TRANSFER—?"
The glove erupted in blinding light, symbols spiraling across its surface like code unraveling into physical form.
Then the world before Luke folded and vanished.
His stomach felt sick and his vision stretched, dissolving and reforming unnaturally in different resplendent colors.
And then—
Green trees suddenly appeared.
Luke hit the ground hard.
Leaves scattered beneath him. Cold wet mud pressed into his palms.
The Museum had suddenly vanished.
No it wasn't that it had vanished but Luke himself had vanished.
"Spatial technology codex " Luke muttered in awe.
He didn't know how his glove could produce such a complex code but if he had to guess it had something to do with the mysterious voice.
He turned to study the area he was in.
Only a forest surrounded him now. Tall trees and sunlight breaking through in pale beams. The soft trill of birds replaced the mechanical roar he'd expected.
Luke sat frozen still confused by the events but somehow now calm.
He stared at the glove . The now gleaming,and impossibly modified glove, which was his only anchor to the nightmare behind him.
As he scrutinized the glove, Luke's brows furrowed.
He had been suspecting before but now he was sure of it.
The Incomplete Fifth Generation Machine had made a sudden change.
The Incomplete prototype had now a calibration soul on it meaning that it was nolonger incomplete. Also he didn't know if he was imagining it but Luke had an inkling that the gloves had risen it's rank. It may had became a Fourth Generation Machine.
"…What the f**ck is happening to me?"
As a dignified scientist Luke had never once in his life uttered a vulgar word but at this moment he felt that it was now the time.
At this moment the glove hummed again.
"You can relax now. Your anti-tracking evasion was successful."
Luke was silent for a moment before he said.
"Good..good- now can you explain what the fu**ck you are and what are you doing inside my gloves. "
The voice was silent for a moment before it said with it's synthetic tone.
"l already told you what l am. I am an Artificial Intelligence Module F23 Node. But if you want me to simplify it for you. l will say that l am the newest but strongest Second Generation Machine to come into existence. The latest invention by the scientist Dr. Cyrus V. Chucks."
The voice paused for a moment before continuing.
"My simple name is Eye of Fate "