Drake had already plugged himself into the mainframe again, and met with a very sorry looking Glitch. He had a replacement arm that was a blue-ish emerald color, which was coated with a glaze of a light amber colored substance. The arm was fastened by square metal clamps that dug into his skin. One of his feet looked to be the same, meaning he had now lost his leg too.
"How's the new arm and leg?" He asked but with a disinterested tone.
"Still hurts, Wira had to rip me open to put everything in." He grimaced, and clutched his shoulder.
"Is she licensed to do that sort of thing?" He asked, putting his hand to his chin.
"I don't think so, it was very… Messy, and she forgot to give me anesthetic beforehand so… If you felt a jolt at around five in the morning today, that was me." Glitch looked away slowly, rubbing his new arm.
"I guess a being created by mother's mind wouldn't be able to get one, either." Drake forgot that it takes living in the human world for a while to be able to get those credentials.
"She was created to run things and build Wire Girls and Tall Dolls, not to install arms and legs onto a Fallen that is flesh based." Glitch looked back at him, his brow furrowed and his eyes squinting.
"Alright, alright, I get it. I'm sorry you had to go through that." He put his hands out in front of himself.
"Yeah, well I didn't appreciate being cannibalized either. Just because I was made of machine parts didn't mean I didn't feel pain." Glitch slouched his head forward, signifying extreme disgust.
"You didn't deserve to have your own body anyways, father only did it to keep you away from me. I told you that if you let down your guard around me, bad things would happen. That wasn't a warning, it was a promise." Drake gave him the same look back.
"Why did you let me live for so long then?" Glitch asked, his face softened to confusion instead of anger.
"I wanted you to have a better taste of what you lost before I took it from you," Drake said, making sure that his words were sharp.
"Jesus, I thought you were warming up to me for a second too." Glitch lurched his head back.
"You killed the only girl who ever loved me, and made me a criminal. I only tolerate you, at least until you are gone." Drake turned away in disgust.
"So it was to satisfy you, at least your want for revenge. You didn't have to lie to me, you know." Glitch shook his head.
"I didn't want to… I didn't want to give you that. I just want this to be over as soon as possible, every moment I have to deal with these outbursts and being around you is suffering." He scrunched his nose slightly and furrowed his brow in disgust.
"Oh right, I forgot that you were having those. Maybe that's why you suddenly got really mad at me?" Glitch put an open hand to his chin, his metal claw of a thumb dug lightly into his face.
"I hate this. I hate this so much. I'm not used to these emotions being so strong. It's so difficult to control." Drake put his hands on the sides of his face.
"You aren't used to the demonic energy yet, getting random zaps of it will do things to your mind. You should ask your half-brother how he dealt with it." Glitch tried to smile, but it turned out to be more pained than was intended.
"Don't try to smile, it's freaking me out." He slightly put his hands out in front of himself.
"Oh… Sorry." Glitch turned away, and started to walk towards one of the elevators.
"Where are you going?" Drake followed closely behind.
"Wira said we need to find that boy, whoever he is." He grabbed Drake's arm and stuffed himself and Drake into the small elevator.
"There's barely any room, I think this is only meant for one person." Drake raised and furrowed his eyebrows and frowned, he didn't like being this close to Glitch in the least.
"It'll work, it might be a bumpy ride, but it'll work." Glitch carelessly pressed the button to go up.
A loud clunking noise followed by a whirring sound resounded, and the shoddy metal box went upward quickly, the box made a loud metal on metal screeching noise as it constantly smacked back and forth against the shoddy metal shaft.
"I'm taking the stairs next time." Drake had bumped into Glitch a multitude of times during the ride. Every time the box moved backwards it flung him back into Glitch, and when it moved forwards it flung Glitch into him.
"It's much faster to do this. You can take a separate one next time." He shrugged, and walked out onto the catwalk.
Drake followed close behind and went up a ramp that led to one of the higher up open hallways, which were tall and had rudimentary railing that was slightly rusty. The burgundy colored paint on the walls and ceiling had places where the paint was chipping. He looked to Glitch, who was walking slowly, and wondered why, if he needed to find someone, was he walking so slow?
"You seem to be taking your sweet time," Drake said in annoyed tone.
"I don't think the little one will be able to go far. After all, his name is Boy, he must be a tiny thing if he was named that." He folded his arms and shook his head.
"Whatever." Drake shrugged and continued to follow.
They walked for a few minutes, past rusty doors with handwheels that would be more at home inside a submarine. Once they reached one somewhere in the middle of the hallway, there was a squeaking noise that came from behind the door, and the hand wheel on the door quickly turned.
The door swung open, and a young man who wore all black with stringy black hair down to his chin walked out. He didn't notice them at first, but then turned around, revealing that he too had a Fallen mouth. He scratched the ghost white skin of his face with pointy gloved fingers, fingers that were the same as Drake's. That meant he also had claws for hands.
"What the- Who are you?" Drake was surprised, he didn't know there was another male Fallen walking around. Why hadn't Wira told him about this?
"Oh, it's thing one and thing two! I've heard a lot about you from Wira. She didn't tell you about me?" The stranger's red colored eyes smiled back at them.
"Don't compare me to him." Drake folded his arms, disgusted at even the thought of being compared to Glitch.
"But we look almost exactly the same." Glitch shrugged.
"I don't care," Drake said with a harumph.
"Looks like you two get along great." The stranger said jokingly.
"What's your name, brother?" Glitch lightly pointed at said stranger.
"The name's Aiden. And I'm not your brother, I'm the first sired fallen. Your mother found out how to turn a dead person into a Fallen, subsequently reviving them. I had an… Altercation with an exorcist boy, back when I was still a vampire." Aiden shrugged and smiled.
"You don't seem too worked up about it." Drake was confused and jealous at the same time, and wondered how recent his siring was.
"I'm still getting used to the changes that were made to my body, but so far I'm liking my new self." Aiden struck two poses imitating what people do when they check themselves out in the mirror, his foot long tail fully clothed in black slapped against his leg as he turned around.
"Jeez, the whole nine yards. Even the tail, too." Glitch looked Aiden up and down.
"I'm glad I never had to cut holes in my pants." Drake tried to think on the bright side but was still jealous that he was having a better time with being a Fallen than he was.
"Most Fallen I know hide their tails, except maybe Wire Girls, I'm proud of mine, though. Maybe you'll get yours someday, like your half-brother." Aiden smiled and flicked his tail.
"Show off." Drake looked away, his arms still folded, and gave out another harumph.
There was an opening in the architecture of the flooring above them, and for every floor above their floor, there was a small two foot walkway that was for crossing. The awkward silence was broken by a distant yell that was held and got louder as it came closer. A loud thump resounded as a humanoid creature landed ungracefully in between Drake and Aiden, and the creature's yell was silenced.
"Mother?" Drake gasped and looked down at the creature that looked eerily similar to his mother.
"Nope, that's a Wire Girl, what happened, little lady?" Aiden put his hands onto his knees and leaned down.
The creature, whose skin was a shiny greenish yellow metal, got to its hands and knees. The female creature had a Fallen mouth, but her teeth were made of shiny gray metal. The only organic thing about the girl was her long fluffy blonde hair. She got up and brushed the dust off of herself, her tail slightly shaking with each brushing movement. Her red colored eyes widened, and she looked both ways, from Glitch and Drake to Aiden.
"B-Boys?! Here?!" She said, her voice in and of itself childlike.
"Oh, that's right, Wire Girls rarely ever see Fallen boys, thinking them all extinct." Aiden laughed and got up.
"I thought there were no boys left," the Wire Girl said in a breathy voice.
"What happened that made you fall?" Glitch spoke up and took two steps forward.
The Wire Girl looked to the small metal wings on her back that were a mix of plane wings and butterfly wings.
"My jetpack augment stopped working… Now I have to walk to the factory to get it fixed." The Wire Girl groaned, and stood up.
"Well you'd better get going then. I heard Boy was spotted in this area." Aiden raised his hands in a grabbing fashion.
"Oh, oh no! I'm out of here! G-Goodbye!" The Wire Girl ran past Glitch and Drake.
"Green 137? What's that supposed to mean?" Glitch turned around to face her.
The Wire Girl turned around quickly.
"Oh, that's my name! Wire Girls don't have human names, we get assigned a color based on our personality. Each Wire Girl gets a number correlated to the number of Wire Girls created under that color based on the number of that color built." She smiled and turned around, then continued to run away.
"Oh yeah, we're looking for him, you said he was seen around here?" Glitch turned back to Aiden.
"Yeah, but an incomplete Fallen is dangerous, they were all cleared out from the front area before you came, except for Boy, nobody can catch him since he's a Tall Doll. They can jump like a flea, so they're hard to catch if they have both legs. Other incomplete Tall Dolls will always come back to their designated area though, but not Boy, he was excommunicated at birth, and has no emotional connection to any home." Aiden shrugged again.
A loud boom rang out, and Aiden turned around. Another loud boom resounded shortly after, but much closer.
"Speak of the devil." Aiden folded his arms.
"Shouldn't you be running?" Glitch quickly ran up and put a hand on his shoulder.
"We'll make a run for it if he's stupid enough to grab me. If he grabs you, wait a second until he starts monologuing, then scratch him." Aiden held an arm straight out to keep Glitch from going any further.
Another loud boom, and a large, purple skinned creature with a torso twice as long as a human's, with thin arms and legs three times as long as a human's, and a head twice as big as a human's gripped the railing with large feet with claws that had the same feet as Zlyena, the back claw gripped the railing tightly. It's short and fluffy white hair and purple eyes were also similar to Zoriyans. There was an open wound that did not bleed over where its heart was supposed to be, but only darkness lay within.
"Holy shit." Drake's jaw dropped, he'd never seen any Tall Dolls before, and the fact Boy looked like a nightmare creature frightened him.
"That's not what I expected when I heard the name Boy." Glitch looked at Boy with wide eyes.
"Three of you. And one repaired, and what about me? Why do I get nothing?" Boy's nose crinkled in disgust, and he grabbed Aiden with his free hand, his other one dug into the upper floor with the claws of his hands.
"Agh, we meet again, asshole." Aiden tried to loosen Boy's grip with his right hand because his claws were digging into his flesh, his left hung loosely over Boy's hand.
"Some of you even know yet I'm always refused help. I've done everything in my power to fix the mistake Mother made, and what do I get in response? That there's nothing they can do to help me, and to just live with it. Why shouldn't I break you open and take what was denied from me my entire life?" Boy scrunched his spine and fit himself into the tall hallway, the back of his head scraped the roof.
"Run!" Aiden shouted, and lifted his hand up in front of Boy, a swarm of bats came out from the palm of his hand.
Boy yiped as the bats swarmed his face, and he dropped Aiden, who bolted after Drake and Glitch, who were already running for the open door Aiden came from.
"No, the next one over! I'll get it!" Aiden ran past the two and quickly used the handwheel and swung the door open.
The three of them ran in, and Aiden used the handwheel to close it back up, in the same quick and unnatural manner he used to open it. There was a loud boom as Boy slammed his fists against the door.
"Get back here! I'm not done with you yet!" He shouted as he continued to pound on the door, which caused the door to dent at points.
"I'm going to preemptively say that I'm fine, by the way. He didn't get me that deep, or break any stitches." Aiden held a hand over his chest, and all his wounds slowly closed up.
"Stitches?" Glitch pointed to his face, which was adorned with stitches.
"Yeah, see?" Aiden pulled up his shirt to reveal a long thin wound stitched up in the center of his chest.
A whirring siren that increased in tone to an ear piercing pitch flooded their ears and assaulted their senses. The pounding stopped, and everyone covered their ears. The siren lasted for a short time, and once it ended, Drake looked at Aiden, confused. Out of the corner of his eye he could tell that Glitch had the same expression.
"That siren is to tell people The Witch is loose." Aiden shrugged.
"Her name is Dahlia, she's an Aspect. A part of mother, like I am a part of you, Drake." Glitch turned to Drake and took a step forward.
"That's right, Dahlia, The Witch of Shadow. We need to get to safety before she corrupts us. The alarm is to make sure that everyone has time to run. Being corrupted isn't fun, I've heard horror stories from Wire Girls about it, we really need to leave." Aiden walked up to the door and spun the handwheel to unlock it.
"What if she finds us?" Drake walked up to Aiden.
"Just don't let her touch you, she can't corrupt you if she doesn't touch you." Aiden opened the door and gestured frantically for them to step out.
"Alright." Drake walked back and grabbed Glitch by the arm. He felt ill for a second coming into contact with him, but he shook it off and tugged at Glitch for him to follow.
"I'm not a child, let go of me." Glitch yanked his hand out of Drake's grasp and grimaced while quickly walking past him.
They ran out into the hallway, there was a ramp that led down to the ground close by. Aiden turned and silently gestured in the direction of the ramp. Drake nodded and they all ran down it. As soon as they got in the middle of the structure, a black cloud materialized, and the female creature that tried to manipulate Skyler stepped out of it.
"Well shit." Aiden stopped running and held out his arm to block Drake and Glitch from going any further.
"Oh look, a few new friends to play with." Dahlia said suggestively, her right hand creeping down her chest and onto her thin, emaciated thigh.
"Guess I have to do a repeat, go! Get out of here! I'll follow!" Aiden raised his hand and bats poured out of his palm again and swarmed Dahlia.
"Hey! No fair, get off! Why isn't it working?" Dahlia tried using her shock powers but the bats were unaffected and continued to swarm her.
Drake made a run for it, reflexively he looked back to see if Glitch was following. He was, so he turned back around, and skidded a bit to avoid running into Dahlia. He picked up the pace. He heard Aiden and Glitch's panting as they ran behind him. The area he first saw when he landed in the Mainframe flashed in his mind, he thought that if he could run there, Dahlia would not be able to follow.
He ran for a short while longer, until he could no longer hear the squishy footsteps of the two who were behind him. He turned around, and saw both Glitch and Aiden as they tried to catch their breath.
"Why did you stop?" Drake shouted breathlessly.
"Safe zone… We're in the safe zone… Invisible, wall…" Aiden continued to pant and cough.
"Invisible wall?" Drake walked up to where they were bent over.
"Don't." Glitch grabbed Drake's arm and yanked him backwards.
"I'll show him, just… Give me a second…" Aiden was still gasping for air.
"There's an invisible wall there... If you go past it... She'll come for you again." Glitch continued to drag Drake backwards as he tried to catch his breath.
"I'm fine, I'm fine now… Just needed to recover from that sprint." Aiden got back up and brushed himself off.
"Where is this wall you two are so sure exists?" Drake turned to Aiden and gave him a confused shrug.
"Observe." Aiden held a hand out, and a yellow colored barrier appeared near where his hand stopped.
"So she can't get past that?" Drake leaned in to look closer.
"Nope, we're home free." Aiden smiled and lowered his arm.
"Oh, there you boys are!" Wira's voice came from behind him.
Drake turned around to see Wira as she walked quickly towards them, a weird contraption that looked like another machine like the one Skyler was given jammed under her arm.
"What's that thing you got?" Drake pointed to the contraption under Wira's arm.
"I had enough materials to make another machine like the one I gave Skyler, this one is yours. I was able to use a Wire Girl shoulder plate because… Well... " Wira covered her mouth with her free hand
"Well what?" Drake folded his arms for the umpteenth time.
"You're body type is very… Feminine." Wira choked back a giggle.
"I-M-My body type is not feminine!" Drake balled his fists and quickly shifted them to his sides.
"I have the same body type, my friend. You just have to live with being androgynous." Aiden walked up to Drake with a snarky grin.
"I haven't grown fully yet!" Drake stiffly turned to Aiden.
"How old are you again?" Aiden put a closed fist to his hip.
"I'm fourteen!" Drake yanked at his hair.
"Jeez, I didn't think you were that young. Doesn't that mean your mother had you when she was really young?" Aiden raised his hands in shock.
"Lyserge's age of consent is fourteen, I didn't make the laws." Drake put his hands back to his sides.
"Sheesh, it's eighteen where I'm from." Aiden hugged himself in discomfort.
"They did it to minimize sexual assault lawsuits, Lyserge City fucking sucks." Drake grimaced, thinking of all the young girls who have gotten accosted by crusty old lawmakers.
"Enough of that, here you go." Wira walked up and handed the device to Drake.
"Thanks, I'll ask Skyler how to use it." Drake took it and nodded.
"No problem. Now, I gotta go help a Wire Girl with a dysfunctional jetpack." Wira turned around and walked away.
"I'm going to go now, it was nice meeting you, Aiden." Drake turned to Aiden and waved.
"You too, I might come back sometime." Aiden waved back.
Drake disconnected his wireless connector and woke up in bed with the contraption in front of him. He rolled over to find Lunara awkwardly standing in the middle of his bedroom.
"What? Who let you in?" Drake slowly got up and took the wireless connector off.
"Y-Your dad let me in… I was worried about you, so…" Lunara fiddled with her dress.
"You don't need to worry about me, I'm fine." Drake walked up and put a hand on her shoulder.
"But I haven't seen you for a while, and after all you showed me… I just wanted to talk to you again." Lunara looked up at him.
"You'd be better off not trying to get too close to me…" Drake recoiled his hand, he put it on her shoulder reflexively and as soon as he realize, he took it back off.
"Why?" Lunara put two closed hands to her chin.
"I'm too dangerous, you'll get killed if you get too close to me." Drake grabbed his own wrist and moved his hands close to his chest.
"I don't believe that, you don't look dangerous at all." Lunara lightly pounded the back of her feet on the floor.
"Trust me, if you don't want to end up dead, give up on me." Drake turned away from her and walked out.
In the hallway that he needed to go down to get to the front of the hospital, Nagix was leaning with her back against the wall, both her legs and arms were crossed.
"What is it? What do you need?" Drake walked up to her, still a little tired from waking back up.
"You missed your checkup. Even Pain never missed a checkup. I don't want your fingers to fall off again." She turned to him and squinted, clearly not pleased with him missing an appointment.
"I know I know, I just… I was busy." Drake tried to walk past her but she blocked his path.
"I know you want to get closer to your mother, but you need to still be grounded in the real world too." Nagix held out her hands as she tried to reason with him.
"I don't even know how long I was out but I really need to use the bathroom, could you move? I'll tell my dad to reschedule." Drake tapped Nagix's shoulder and pointed to his belt.
"Alright, but make an early one, I'm open and willing to check your hands anytime." Nagix looked at him suspiciously and then turned around and walked out.
He spent the rest of the day reading up on his studies, since he was homeschooled. He went to bed wishing he hadn't told Lunara to stop trying to get close to him. He was just scared that she would end up like Marissa. He felt it was for the best, but simultaneously hoped that it wouldn't change her mind and wished that it would. He liked her, but he was so afraid to get close to anybody.
Read the rest of the book here: https://moonquill.com/book/46