escape(solo)

[Nova]

The room was eerily quiet, the usual beeps and hums could be heard but other than that, no sound could be heard. Malachi wished that the other scientists were there and able to help him out. Being the youngest and with the least seniority made these visits rare but this one really had the young man rather shaken, as if he knew that he wasn’t supposed to be there.

The only company in the room with any warmth was Nova, in stasis as usual and once Malachi saw her kept his eyes averted as he was not comfortable seeing a girl, or girl-like, with no clothing. It was silly, since he really didn’t have a thing for girls with cat ears and a cattail but the other parts were girlish enough for him to care.

“Aesop, why’d you ask me here?” Mal said hoping the computer was just playing a game and hiding, to risk his career for nothing would really upset the young scientist, and here it might get him killed.

“I’m glad you came. I need your help and you’re the only one I can trust.” Aesop chimed in with a rather paranoid choice of words.

“What’s going on here?” Malachi yelled, upset with the urgent vocabulary of the machine. “Why, am I the only one you can trust?”

“Because… Aaron has ordered me to be reprogrammed and Nova to be disposed of. I need you to save Nova. I’m almost done with a few upgrades that will help her survive without me.”

“Wait, you want me to save her? I’m hardly a scientist, they still treat me like a student, I can’t save her.”

“Please…” Aesop pleaded as his system started to turn off, the beeping and lights started to dim while a final groan came from the chamber that locked up the cat girl.

[Nova]

Nova woke with a moan; she had suffered a nightmare that she couldn’t remember. The kind of dream that ended in tragedy that the mind would forget upon awakening and all was left was the feeling that something bad happened.

Malachi, seeing that Nova stirred turned his back to the girl, now that she was moving, looking at her was even more awkward for the boy. “I’m glad you’re alright. I think we need to leave… Um would you mind getting dressed?”

“Meow…” Nova blinked feeling she wasn’t sure what was going on. “Where’s Aesop?” The cyber kitty asked, knowing it was the computer that asked her to sleep and she expected the AI to greet her when she woke up.

“He’s not here.” The young scientist peeked for a moment then turned back in haste. “Please you need to get dressed, Aesop wants it. He had to shut down.”

“Is, Is Aesop Ok?” Nova asked, disobeying the order to dress, she was more worried about her creator than her modesty. “Please I feel something’s wrong. Please tell me.”

“I’m sorry but he probably isn’t. He was talking strange before he went offline. Scared me a bit but I’m sure it’s one of his jokes.” He peeked again and then blushed, being rather annoyed. “Get dressed, we have to go. For Aesop’s Sake.”

“A…” Nova sobbed with some tears rolling down her cheeks. It was strange, she had never cried for someone else before. Nova had only cried in pain or when things were not going in her favor but now she was crying. “Albright.” Nova started to dress her self quickly. She knew something was wrong with her creator and it was hurting her like cancer to the heart.

Malachi looked back one more time, promising to scream if the cat girl was still nude and he was glad she was not.

But then fairly dark room started to be washed in a flashing red light and a loud sound of something like a drunken dragon playing the horn over and over again.

“What’s going on, my ears hurt!” Nova cried out while placing her hands on her ears to try to stop the pain.

“It’s an alarm!” Malachi yelled out for something was indeed wrong.

[Nova]

Hopefully the alarm was just for intruders, maybe the whole thing was nothing and Malachi would go back to keeping the labs clean and Nova to just messing around and being poked and prodded while asleep. Not much of an existence for her but being alive was better than dead and if what Aesop told Malachi, they would soon be dead.

“Alright lets go and be careful.” Malachi nearly yelled to Nova thanks to the alarm, having her go first. A rather cowardly act and a smart one, if anyone shoots and hits, Nova had the greatest chance of survival.

“Um, ok.” Nova walked out the door, a loud bang piecing the howling alert and scaring the catgirl to take cover behind some barrels. “Why are they shooting, Malachi?” Nova cried out. “I thought we were friends.” Nova said to herself. She lived with these soldiers, didn’t know their names but they lived together and now they were trying o kill her.

Malachi dashed behind the same barrels as Nova and almost getting shot his self. He only half heard the cyborg’s question but he knew the answer. “Aesop was right they want to terminate you.”

The two soldiers waited for the pair to leave cover, they weren’t going to risk shooting the barrels though. The warning sticker for toxic gas was deterrent enough to keep from going for an easy shot. If the barrels faced a puncher then it might mean death for all of them and it wasn’t worth risking a paycheck.

“Nova, we have to get out of here.” Malachi whispered right into the hybrid’s cat ears.

“But they’ll kill us.” Nova whined, she saw no way out and leaving cover would be bad. They had to think of something but what, the cat girl had no idea.