Inked Wings

/ Noel’s POV /

The tiny popup beeps in my ears.

A cute, squeaky voice screams “Battery Low. Pause Game.”

I sigh but exit the app and plug in my play-tablet to charge. This new room isn’t any different from the others shitty Angel cramped me up in; dull, mid, mostly empty, etc, etc.

I would play more while the play-tablet charges but because of the power of some apps the charger gets glitched, which means it becomes slower and slower to charge. Get another?

Not an option, Abi makes every technology I own….Made.

This play-tablet and charger are one of a kind. Rainbow llama in a dull field of other wool.

I don’t want to go to bed, even though I feel dead. It’s all bad thoughts lane if I do.

Need a distraction.

Outside the room, inside the hall, copycats of natural light blind me. AGAIN?

I rub my eyes, trying to find my way through this giant maze. Where’s that lab again?

Hall third, room…it says on a plate above the door. Here.

I knock cuz why not? The doors immediately slide open.

That old friend of Abi is inside, wearing extravagant doctor gear. His mask is cool.

‘Noel, I’m happy you decided to come.’ He pushes the mask on his forehead.

‘Meh, thought I’d get a prize if I helped around.’ I shrug.

He smiles. ‘If it motivates you, of course. I have candy -’

‘That mask…’ I point.

He looks at it then he looks at me. Back and forth.

‘Ah-ha, you like this?’ He takes it off. ‘Alright. Help me around the lab five times and you can have it.’

‘Mm.’ I pout. ‘Five times for how long?’

‘However long you want.’

‘That’s easy.’ I fully go inside, checking out all the crap he owns.

He’s called a doctor but this room looks like it’s owned by a mad scientist.

‘Do you want to see how Archylic is combined?’ He shows me a system of tiny tubes.

‘Chemical reactions, really?’

He hands me a pair of gloves. ‘We’ll use the result to separate atoms from radioactive corpses. Samples of Ranished.’

‘What’s that?’ I heard about it before.

‘How wild mutants and forced hybrids came to be. The work of a madman.’ He fixes one of the tubes and pours a pink substance in a recipient.

‘But it’s old news. Don’t worry about it.’

A tiny flame sparks under the substance. He guides me through using this stuff. The boiled substance goes through the tubes which are already greased with something transparent.

The color of the substance changes to blue with black spots then falls into this circle thing.

‘Turn off gravity.’

‘We’re throwing stuff in vid?’ My head snaps his way. He’s hovering from behind me.

He nods. ‘It’s pretty, isn’t it?’

I nod. ‘Cool.’ The substance goes berserk.

‘You can take your gloves off -’

Argh!

I slap my hands against my ears. ‘What’s this noise?!’

There’s a blazing alarm suddenly joining in on the fun. Abi’s old friend messes with the ViD device and the first noise stops but the alarm, not as loud now, is still going.

‘Ugh, what’s going on?’ I rub my temples.

‘So soon?’ The Doctor is weirdly watching the green lights turn on and off on the ceiling.

‘What?’

‘Did Angel ever tell you why he needed your father’s help?’

The homie tells me in detail how Shitty Angel is planning on destroying W.P.A property and - the ass face - will take down everybody on his way.

Abi’s friend tries to soften the terms for me but I can spell so I can read:

‘Is he gonna kill them?’

My mind rolls back to that time...all the corpses around him…the gun in his hand…

I gag, feeling like dirt. When I’m trying so hard to trust these people, cosmos. Feces.

‘But - aren’t they - why can’t he just knock them out?!’ Pledge Killing gets you nowhere.

‘Noel…’

I storm out, running in the halls.

Where’s that panel - or should I go the garage? But that’s too far.

The control room is coming into sight. There’s Mr. Pretentious there.

‘Hey!’ I slam my hand in the wall.

He turns to me. The dude’s a nerd with muscles. ‘Kid, not right now.’

‘Where’s shithead, I need to talk to him.’

‘Angel can’t speak to you right now.’ He presses controls at the speed of lighting. ‘They’re approaching danger, they need to be digilent.’

‘Did everyone go?’

‘It so happens this base is too big in numbers for three persons to handle it like initially planned. We want to be subtle. With this breakthrough I’m working on, we can. Now, let me work.’

The screen shows a ...map, no, plans of the - base, it’s the base, alright.

That symbol in the right…Oh. Abi’s a genius.

I shake my head, hard. ’Just - if you’re gonna be subtle, tell him don’t kill people.’

Mr. Pretentious is ignoring me. On impulse, I try to grab one of the stationaries.

He grabs my hand. It hurts.

‘Don’t touch that. If you’re worried, listen and -’ He opens a new tab. ‘Watch after them with me.’ He lets go by throwing my hand down like it’s nothing.

Freaking - Argh. I pet the spot. That squeeze hurt…

…what am I even doing?

‘Look. We have tabs on all of them.’

I raise my head. These people are cuckoo.