Reman was clearly stressed, and in panic started asking a lot of questions. “Institute… Institute? Do you mean THAT institute? The one that kidnapped me and put this on me? The ones that just dumped me out onto the street as soon as they were done with me? The one who melded this…” Reman clasped his brace with an iron grip. “with my arm? That institute?” Reman felt himself boil over and started to think about something. “You have to be the one I met in the chamber, right? You’re Alpha, aren’t you?”
Marie, however, only tilted her head at Reman. “Who’s Alpha?” she asked.
“Alpha was the one that brought me into this mess, he as the first face I saw when I woke up, and he was the one that first gave the key to me.” Reman brandished the cyclone key, looking for any sort of marking or identifying symbol other than the cyclone symbol, desperate for her to understand. “And what do you mean by ‘Machine’? Were you the one that put me in the chamber to begin with?”
“No...I don’t remember experimenting on any people.” Marie stated. “And no machine I made could be big enough to fit a whole person. There were chambers that could, but they were more used for the medbay.”
“You don’t think they could have operated in secret? You never saw anything about Fusion research? NOTHING?” Reman is getting visibly more stressed by the minute. “And what do you mean, nothing big enough to fit a whole person? Did… Did you create the driver?” Reman, in a fit of panic, extends his hand outwards.
“Maybe this will show you what I mean.”
With the help of the previous visibility actions, the air could be seen spiraling towards his palm, creating a flat, sharp disc of concentrated air. All the air that was revolving towards the disc was going at an incredible speed, that enough to rival gale-force winds. He quickly dissipated the air back to the atmosphere before things got hairy. “You were able to use electricity, so surely you’ve been exposed to the Voltage key, haven’t you?”
“No...I’m a Sage. I was born with electrokinesis.” Marie stated. “I don’t remember whatever a Driver is, nor do I remember a key like yours.”
Machines, however...machines. The Sage, walking away from the crystal, began thinking. What’s the most human-applicable machine she had ever made? All she made was microcontrollers and such, but...there was certainly one project she made.
“I did make a strange sort of medical scanner once.” she mused. “A medical scanner that would link to a given HUD-compliant device that only gave an overall assessment of health. I tried it on myself as an experiment, and it said my health score was...31?”
“I’ve never heard of a system that uses such low numbers, which was quite odd...it’s definitely not BMI, I know mine is lower than that,” Marie concluded. “I believe it was made for epidemic containment, EMT triage, and automated priority systems.”
“Interesting, REAL interesting! Then may this change your mind. For real this time.” Reman Primed his brace than unprimed it. The driver briefly projected text; reading FUSION LEVEL 33 before returning to its original state. “Similar numbers, and a similar scale!”
“That screen…” Marie observed, leaning into the brace. “...exactly the same as my handiwork. And I dropped it here...yes, and accidentally scratched it with a screwdriver…”
“Well. That’s something.” Marie concluded. “Someone must have reprogrammed it. Even the font is different. I’d crack it open to make sure but I think a few of the other components in there are probably also made by me.”
“...I’m not sure where they would fit a human experimentation lab, though,” Marie asked herself.
“See even if you can, I can’t get this thing open worth a damn. I’ve tried everything, from frequency-based locks to using the disc I just demonstrated. I neatly cut my arm off in the process.” Reman stepped forward, and practically placed the driver in her hands. The driver was full of tubes, mechanical implements, and ornate decor. Whoever made this was passionate about making it, and using it.
Marie, with her detail-oriented eye, examined what she could. “This scuffing here,” she stated, pointing at a little location on the Fusion Level screen. “This should be where the logo goes. This isn’t a mishap, it was deliberately filed away.”
She started fiddling with the brace itself, yanking Reman’s arm towards her, the magic of her Sage abilities pulsing through the brace in an unobservable matrix. “Whoever used what I made for this was smart. A complete reset, down to the memory. But some of the work is mine, some others are from diagrams I’ve seen, that’s for sure.”
To Marie, it was as if the brace was responding to her. Like some sort of strange semi-living creature, it was able to read her, and know her intent.
Reman knew exactly what to do. “If my theory is correct, you should send a pulse through the brace. Remember what you said about a level? If so, it should read the exact number that you gave, or something close to it.” Reman primed the brace again and motioned Marie to put her hand flat on the brace.
Marie put her hand against the brace, giving it a shock. “I don’t expect any differences, really,” she admitted.
The driver moved on its own, unpriming itself, and refreshing the display. The readout this time was different than the first. The readout was a different color than the green from before, it was a bright, electrical light blue, and read a different number than before. FUSION LEVEL 31 was what shone on the screen, and Reman, a bit calmer but still not less confused asked; “Light blue? That’s not a color of key I think I’ve ever seen before. It usually reacts to what kind of key the user uses most s- Wait. Are you a knight as well?” Reman motioned towards his key, and while not letting her take it, let her get a careful look at the design. “Did you ever experiment with these at the laboratory?”
“I...don’t think so? I mean...I don’t remember it.” Marie stated. But as she said it, she remembered a very minute detail. A fellow electrokinetic, the one that taught her, had a similar key.
“That’s a lie.” she quickly replied. “I do remember it. Another electrokinetic like me wore it around.”
“Does he have one of these? Or something similar in design at least?” Reman pondered, the answers to the questions he had been seeking never before closer. “I do remember his name. I found his chamber after I woke up. His name is… Romulus… something…” Reman struggled to find the words he was looking for, but he knew for once, he was actually getting somewhere.
“No...I don’t think he has one of those. At least if he does, he made it himself after I built what seems like over two-thirds of yours.” Marie replied. "If you must know, what seems like most of the electrical handiwork is mine. Some of the interfacing with the mechanical is mine. I have no idea how the theory works -- seems like spatial compression of some form. And someone else must have shaped the casing.”
“But, if it’s from the Institute...that means someone there must be the man you are looking for.” Marie theorized.
“... AURUM!” Reman blurted out. “That was his name. Romulus Aurum. And you say that you know him? So you know what this does…” Reman primed the brace, now calm and solid in determination. “And you are correct by the way. I usually don’t do this, but, in your case there’s no way in hell I’d pass up an opportunity getting this far towards what happened to me.” Reman inserted the driver into the primed brace; echoing “INSERT! CYCLONE!”, right as the brace hit it’s cap. The brace lit up, and started filling with fluid, a mint green, viscous mixture of unidentifiable materials. Reman raised his fist in the air, and opened his palm. As sudden as his actions, the air in the room just begun to spiral towards him with sudden, violent velocity. The wind aura was blinding green, whipping at gale force speeds, and anyone caught outside was finding themselves short of breath. Suddenly, the air burst outwards, as if to return to its original state, though not fast enough to really knock anything over. When the air dissipated, reman was clad in a suit of green and silver metal, hydraulics coming out of the joints, and what looked like a pair of jets on the back. He had somehow conjured a suit out of thin air, topped off with what looked like an ancient european knight helmet, with a red visor where the eye section should be. As soon as the transformation was done, the brace emitted the sounds of war drums, and one last line. “UNDYING CYCLONE! CYCLONE KNIGHT!”
“Does your research say anything about EvoKnights?”
“I don’t recall anything about EvoKnights…” Marie stated as she got up slowly after the spectacle. “And I’ve never heard of a Romulus Aurum, much less...a self-equipping suit of armor. At the very least, no one in the Institute I know would make such a...loud device built for battle-unless…”
“I may not know who you are talking about, but I can make you a list. One of them is bound to be Romulus.” Marie told Reman.
Reman, fearing for both the others safety, and his own, disengaged the key. The armor collapsed back into the brace, folding in on itself until it slipped back into the brace. The key gently released itself, and as he pulled out the key, the key was visibly drained of some of it’s liquid, leaving a small, but visible gap of air. “You understand that now, I have to investigate this place. I have no other choice, and even if it has to be by force, I will find out who cursed me with becoming a weapon for their own selfish gain.”
“A justified course of action...if violent.” Marie mused. “Although I have a feeling that you won’t need to investigate the Institute.”
And now, Marie began to question. Did this have to do with how she was…donated to science? Not because her parents were supposedly afraid of her, but because of involvements with…
She blinked back those thoughts. An appalling theory, but a theory. And data. Data must be written down, recorded. And that was what she did, writing down page after page furiously in her notebook.
EvoKnights… how very interesting.
“For the glory of science.” she once again muttered.
