The incisors retracted out of Enza's mouth. Each one was carrying what looked like a tiny crystal, except they were matte instead of shiny.
The tubes produced a clicking sound, and a vacuum noise began. The strange crystals were sucked up to an unknown location, and the tubes retracted out of the ceiling.
Enza had caught a vague glimpse of them right before they disappeared, but in her tiredness, she couldn't remember exactly what colors she had seen…
That's less variation in colors than usual. How many was that, five? No, not even that. Four, perhaps?
She rubbed her eyes and yawned. The numbing agent had worn off quite suddenly.
Following the count so closely makes me more tired by the end, but it kind of makes decontaminating easier… There really was lots of turbulence this time around… Nothing even feels real right now. It's like a dream…
Enza suddenly felt an itching sensation begin to fill her entire body. It was a deep itch, it felt like it was digging into her skin and trying to get somewhere deeper.
Ugh, I'm not done quite yet…
She looked at her reflection in the polished metal wall.
Covering her body was a grotesque suit of armor, an amalgamation of every kind of organic matter. A thick slab of rock formed a chest plate, and more rock made up the armor's structural outline. Carved pieces of bone protected her shoulders, knees, and back. There were patches of dyed fur pasted all over her chest, and a giant curved tooth served as a neck brace.
The white bone looked like it had been haphazardly slapped on all over the suit, creating a chaotic assortment of random angles and spikes. If you tried to hug her, you'd probably get impaled.
The suit was divided into two distinct halves. On Enza's left side, the armor was filled up with dried flesh and a clear and gelatinous substance, like blubber. It squirmed around so much that it almost looked liquid, but it held together like a solid. If you smacked your hand against it, it would feel like hitting a hard surface.
On the right side, it looked like she had been trying to smuggle the contents of an entire forest through her clothes. Sticks, leaves, tree bark, and grass stuck out on all sides.
She wore fingerless gloves that looked like they were made of rock, but were surprisingly flexible. On her feet were boots that resembled deer skulls. Spiders were crawling all over them, in and out of the eye sockets… Enza didn't pay them any mind.
She reached her hand into her chest and started ripping out huge chunks of the armor. It peeled away with a series of disgusting noises.
Earplugs. I should've thought of that. Well, there's always next time…
She repeated the process for her entire body.
She looked down to see herself surrounded by shredded organic material of all kinds.
Why isn't there a machine to take the suit off for me…
She slammed both her fists against each other, breaking the gloves in half. Unfortunately, they weren't reusable.
A click resounded from the ceiling, and a single black tube descended. This one had a significantly larger diameter than the others.
A high-pressure jet of water mixed with soap sprayed out and started washing off Enza, as well as the entire tube. Once everything was soaked, it produced a whirring sound and began vacuuming with incredible strength. It removed all the excess moisture from the room in seconds, and then sucked up the debris from the suit into the darkness.
Right after, another click came from the ceiling and a pair of pincers came down holding a set of dark-colored clothes, which Enza quickly put on to warm up.
Enza stepped outside of the box, feeling clean and refreshed. She looked at the other box and noticed that the tubes were still attached to its top. She frowned upon seeing this.
She was being lazy, but her contamination shouldn't be too serious…
It's not my problem anyways. I wouldn't be doing anything good by playing hero. We don't have protocols just because it's fun to make them up.
Right then, Athalia hopped out of the other box and beamed a smile at Enza. She was wearing identical clothes to Enza, except for the same crudely cut rock boots as before.
I guess there wasn't anything to worry about after all.
After this ordeal, the exhaustion set in for both of them. They hunched their backs and trudged to a far corner of the room, where there were two beds made of a thick red blob with a fuzzy carpeted surface covering the top. The two of them fell into bed and passed out instantly.
A few minutes later, a single black tube snaked down from the ceiling. It had some sort of sensor attached to the end. It hovered in front of Athalia's face for a moment before quickly retreating.
…
When Athalia woke up, Enza was already gone.
She stretched her arms and let out a satisfied yawn.
She was about to stand up when she noticed a note beside her on the bed.
"The all-division debrief is tonight. Don't you dare forget!"
Athalia grabbed the note that was scrawled with Enza's sloppy handwriting, and slipped it into her pocket.
She really doesn't need to worry so much.
How bad does she think my memory is, exactly? I'll never let the one who lied about having a photographic memory when we were kids tell me to remember something so obvious.
Walking into the center of the hangar, she noticed something different from usual.
There were hundreds of upright glass statues scattered at random across the floor. They looked like they were originally supposed to be depictions of humans, but their features and limbs had been wildly distorted by some external force.
Don't tell me…
They're letting that idiot practice his instrument again? But why? What happened to zero tolerance…
Athalia's mouth twitched slightly as she considered a possible explanation.
Do they need him again?
What could possibly have changed since we got back? And out of all the places, why would they have him practice here?
For the maxim to be disobeyed, there has to be something pretty serious going on. After Enza and I, the expedition schedule was supposed to be clear for a month, as per the regulations.
Either they need him for an internal dispute or some sort of test, or they want to schedule another expedition early. If it's the latter, that's sacrilegious! Surely Aleksi wouldn't allow such a thing.
Confused and slightly frustrated, Athalia smacked the back of her hand against a large white button on the wall. A loud and long creak filled the hangar, and one of the walls started rolling itself up like a garage door.
She squinted into the bright light that gradually shone in from outside.
It wasn't actually that bright, she just hadn't adjusted yet.
The hangar was on top of a cliff. The drop was at a perfect 90 degree angle. Mechanically perfect… such a sheer wall was very disorienting to look at.
A vast canyon stretched below the cliff, with a red river rushing through the center. From the bottom of the canyon, there were giant pillars of rock that extended to the ceiling over a thousand feet above. They had long, white rock formations sticking out of them, almost like tree branches. They gave off the sense that they hadn't moved for a million years.
There was a plateau at the mouth of the river.
Atop it, a city of red and white buildings.
It was rather small to be called a city, but a city it was known as by the residents.
It was nearly perfect circular, save for a few blemishes.
Most of the buildings were around the same height as each other. They had chosen to build low and flat rather than tall. In the past, there was no concern about running out of space.
The most prominent building was a black tower. It was one of few structures in the city that wasn't red or white. There were giant sideways words engraved on it; you had to turn your head to see what they said. Even with the recent improvement to her vision, she couldn't quite make out the words, although she knew what they were.
Giant spiderwebs crisscrossed the air over the city. Spider thread formed ropes that were multiple feet thick, and tied together in an elaborate airborne tapestry that used the ground and the pillars as anchors. It formed a giant dome over the city, although it was full of holes. It looked more like a white soccer net draped over the city than anything.
It isn't often I get the chance to come up here…
The curved rim of the cliff stretched out before her.
On one side, the canyon. On the other, the chasm.
The chasm stared at her.
She forced herself to look away, back towards the city.
I could take the safe route…
But I'm in a mood for celebration. Plus, it's not unsafe if I simply don't fail!
With a gleeful smile on her face, Athalia reached her hand into her sleeve. She pulled out a small anchor with sharp edges. From the bottom of it, the long end of a tape measure extended…
It was neatly wrapped around her left arm. It looked exactly like an anchor that would be used for a boat, like the typical design for it you'd seen in a children's book. The only differences were that it was scaled down, and there tape measure instead of a rope.
Athalia rolled up her sleeve and moved her arm in small circles. The flexible metal rapidly unwound from her arm as the anchor whipped through the air.
After the final rotation, the anchor flew up. Athalia extended the tip of her right finger into empty space. The end of the tape measure looped around her finger.
She transferred the momentum into a spin, turning around 360 degrees!
She suddenly stopped and partially turned the other way, making a sharp whipping motion with the anchor.
A series of cracking and popping sounds came from inside it, and it suddenly expanded to many times its original size! It was a third as tall as Athalia was!
She rolled her shoulders and wrapped the end of the tape several times around her right hand. She once again gracefully spun in a circle like an ice skater, holding tightly to the anchor as it rapidly gained momentum. To an outside observer, it would look almost like spinning helicopter blades!
With an ear-piercing whistle, the anchor flew at an astonishing speed towards one of the pillars. The buzzing sound of the tape measure continuing to extend slowly went out of earshot.
The end of the measure had a textured grip. It was partially so Athalia wouldn't cut herself on the metal, but it had an even more important function than that. She squeezed it tightly, and there was a sharp click!
As soon as the anchor made contact and embedded itself deeply into the pillar, a mechanism within the anchor screamed to life. Athalia was whipped in the direction of the anchor with astounding force!
After the initial jolt, she was steadily flying straight. The tape measure's rigidity could easily support the weight of her body, so she had only hung on with her arms for a moment before climbing up and onto her stomach.
She extended her hands for stability.
Ah, this is great, but it's only half of being a bird… It can't really feel like flying as long as I'm supported by something…
The whirring sound became louder.
She was ready for this, and she kept her body as controlled as she possible as she slammed hard into the pillar.
One day, with an advance in technology, we'll think of a way to make that less painful…
She let out joyful laughter as she repeated the process for the next pillar, soaking in the feeling of torpedoing through the air. It felt otherworldly after being cooped up for so long.
With less than ten crossings, she was already above the city of Alavieska!
She examined the city below her and grinned.
Perfectly aligned…
Like she was chopping firewood, she sent the anchor rocketing towards the ground.
The anchor slammed into somewhere far below. Athalia didn't need to look where it had landed; she was sure she had been accurate. She pressed in on the handle, and was dragged at breakneck speed towards the ground!
The buildings and the area where the anchor had hit quickly came into focus. Athalia suddenly felt that the angle she was being pulled at wasn't the angle she had thrown the anchor at. She barely had time to drop her jaw in surprise.
Not good…what?…why was it inaccurate…
Athalia flew like a missile directly at the fountain in the city's center!
The dirty water in the fountain was only a few feet deep; it meant absolutely nothing when approaching at that speed.
CRAAASH!
The last thing she thought was, "Impossible!"