*A man introducing himself as Kayden arrived in town a few hours ago, introducing himself as a treasure-hunter in the area for his next expedition. He’s a man of middling height in his late twenties, and on the skinnier side with a charming face. His expression and posture seem weary, but his eyes shine with excitement... or greed. The self-proclaimed treasure-hunter wears a grey sports jacket and jeans, and probably hasn’t shaved in a few days, but it give his face a ruggedly handsome look.

Kayden explained he needed a guide and some able bodies to help him carry loot out of the laboratory he planned on hitting, in exchange for 50% of the profits. No danger at all, just easy money. He also asked you tell as few people as possible that he had arrived, and especially not anyone in charge. Considering Mayor Kyler’s stance on outsiders, you agreed this would be for the best. In the end, you and three other young adults took him up on his generous offer.*

---

Kayden scans the keycard with bated breath, praying that their surroundings won’t explode. Some facilities did that to deter intruders. Mercifully, the door that more resembled a vault swings in silently. Inside is a long hallway, immaculately clean and brightly lit. Floor to ceiling glass windows run down the length of the hallway, periodically broken up by closed doors. Behind the glass are desks, computers, and workstations, with apparatuses of unknown purpose strewn about. It looks as if people had stopped working just moments before.

~A pleasant feminine voice chimes from all around you.~

“Greetings, visitors! Welcome to Fervor Corp. Laboratory Y-02.”

The voice pauses, apparently waiting for something. Nothing happens.

“Dr. Nadim doesn’t seem to be present... But I’d be more than happy to conduct the tour myself!”

A bright yellow disc-shaped object, about a foot wide and a few inches high, falls out of a nearby ceiling vent and clatters noisily to the ground before the group. Now coming from the disc, the voice chimes “If you will, please follow me!” The robot starts moving at a slow amble. Kayden frowns and looks back to shrug at the group before following.

The painfully yellow disc stops and turns to the window on the right. “Dr. Isana doesn’t seem to be present... but I’d be more than happy to conduct the tour myself! If you’d direct your attention to your right, we have Dr. Linus and Dr. Milan working on--” The robot trails off into barely intelligible sciencey language. As the four young adults have been homeschooled by unqualified individuals at best, the words fall on deaf ears. In addition, beyond the glass there is a clear lack of anyone present.

Oblivious to the disinterest of her audience, the robot finishes speaking and resumes moving down the hall. To the collective horror of the group, the disc pauses and turns once more. “Dr. Tzion doesn’t seem to be present... But I’d be more than happy to conduct the tour myself! To your left, we have... *unintelligible science gibberish that continues for several minutes*” Gritting his teeth, Kayden calms himself with happy thoughts of selling whatever he’s about to steal for a fortune. The voice eventually quiets and the crowd continues onward. The robot pauses to give one more informative monologue before they reach the end of the rooms.

Pausing before the large, sturdy metal double doors at the end of the hallway, the robot rotates 180 degrees to address the group. “I hope you have all enjoyed your visit for far! Dr. Miodrag and Dr. Bence don’t seem to be present... But I’d be more than happy to finish conducting the tour myself!”

The set of doors at the end of the hallway slide open to admit your group, revealing the large space beyond. A richly carpeted floor extends to the left and right, ending against wood paneling. Powerful spotlights are affixed to the high ceiling, illuminating the ten marble pedestals on obvious display. Upon each pedestal is a small object of some kind--able to be held in one hand--and protected behind glass walls. Kayden and the others filter into the room, struck by a collective sense of wonder.

Each oddity gives off a unique sensation as one draw near.
Looks like... a blue pixie. You feel a drifting crispness about it.

A rose red egg inset with 4 large rubies. It has an atmosphere of anticipation and impatience. Your mouth abruptly feels dry.

A winged sandal. You smell static and suddenly feel fidgety.

A gleaming, intricate steel spiderweb. You sense motion and placidity all at once.

A black leather glove, unisex. It gives a off a dextrous, powerful feel.

A set of purest white angel wings float suspended. It has an unyielding air about it.

A triangular pyramid made of glass, with the hologram of a golden shield suspended within. Looking at it makes you feel safe.

A silver eagle claw, poised to tear apart the skies. You get an impression of sharpness.

A quartz crystal gleams in the light. You feel warm and fuzzy inside.

A sword hilt sits blade-first in the marble pedestal. It emits a menacing, sinister air. Tortured souls scream inaudibly in your mind.

“If you’d like to personally test out our newest advances, please choose a sample. There are more than enough for you all, so please, only one per person. Once you’ve all decided on what you’d like, I’ll lower the glass. Lightly touch the sample with your hand, and our technology will do the rest!”

[Celine]

Accepting Kayden's proposal was a no-brainer, the chance to earn "fortune and riches" just by following along with this man's plans was invaluable. The only way to make it better would be to bring friends along! Once everyone was informed, Celine met back up with Kayden, only this time heavily armed. Carrying a rifle and several handguns, she would be decently armed enough to take down someone's Oversoul... and run out of bullets afterwards. A backpack carrying water and a travel sized first aid kit was all she probably needed... right Kayden?

---

The soft and soothing voice emanating from the small banana colored disk was a mildly unsettling experience to Celine, but Kayden didn't seem too fazed by the spectacle. Her tight grip on her rifle loosened as it quickly became clear that this place was uninhabited, as the number of empty rooms increased.

The room revealed at the end of the highly engaging and informative tour was starkly different from the boring laboratory design that they felt like had been walking through for the past year. The bold display of the items at hand was nearly overwhelming to her compared to the show of the perfectly round banana disk spinning around as if it had a front. Celine crouched down in front of the disk, lightly patted the top of it and said "Excuse me nice lady, what's your name?"

[Claire]

Was that a freaking roomba talking to her?? Claire zones out the pleasant female mechanical voice while tapping her foot, impatiently waiting for the tour to end. She was promised excitement! Not to listen to a silly yellow disc vacuum spew out some science-y nonsense. She only came here because it sounded fun and interesting--compared to the drab routines she did daily in this sleepy town. Her gaze flicks to Kayden with a hint of frustration. Her best buddy close friend Celine seemed to be taking all of this in well at least. If she missed anything important, she could always ask her afterwards.
"Dr. Miodrag and Dr. Bence don’t seem to be present... But I’d be more than happy to--" Blah blah blah. No one was here. Great. As if the group didn't it get that by now. Claire lets out a small sigh and rubs her forehead. She really wanted to pick up the banana-colored pancake shaped robot and throw it at a wall--if not for the fact that it was their only ticket to the goods.

Her interest finally perks up when objects on white pedestals, illuminated by beams of light, enter her field of view. Claire is briefly stunned by awe at the soul techs, but makes a beeline towards the display cases. She makes a quick loop around them all, finding that each gave off a unique aura. As she approaches the red egg inset, Claire feels a sense of impatience and anticipation. Her mouth goes dry, but to her it was the taste of adventure.
Putting her hand on the glass, Claire looks back at the ridiculously yellow robot and calls out, "I want this one!"

"Excuse me nice lady, what's your name?"

The brilliant yellow disc spins to face Celine. Not that any one side of the disc looked different from the rest.

"I-I don't have a name. No one has ever asked me for my name before..." The disc finishes sadly. It emits a sad carpet-cleaning drone and wobbles side to side slowly.

The AI doesn't respond to Claire. It isn't feeling very talkative at the moment.

"I-I don't have a name. No one has ever asked me for my name before..." The disc finishes sadly. It emits a sad carpet-cleaning drone and wobbles side to side slowly.

[Celine]

Celine reaches out to steady the distressed robot.

"oh noooo, poor bb. Don't cry! You can just pick your own name!"

She gives the small robot a final pat on the top and smiled at it as she got up from her crouched position. Hopefully it had eyes.

Seemed like Claire had been pointing at a red... Egg? Maybe she should check out what was on display in closer detail. At least that was what Kayden seemed to be doing. With the egg out of the lineup, it left nine others to be chosen. Nothing really struck out to her visually, perhaps the crystal or the web would do.

[Damon]

The functionality of the decrepit establishment incites Damon's hesitation, but as more of the facility is revealed to be empty, he performs mental gymnastics to invent new ways for this scenario to be suspicious. It was already suspicious enough as it is, really, with a shifty drifter giving a bunch of random strangers an offer that was too good to be true. When the tour came to an end and the roomba of potential mass destruction announced that everyone would be getting a single soul tech, everything fell into place. Damon decides that the best course of action is to ask the roomba for details on the soul techs, then call everyone over and propose the acquisition of two soul techs, simultaneously making sure to keep important ones out of the hands of Kayden that could determine who survives if the roomba were to decide that getting greedy with the free samples is a sin worthy of a violent, fiery death.

As Damon plans literally 5 steps ahead, Claire steps forward and immediately chooses one, ruining everything. God dammit Claire.

At this point, adjourning a meeting would just appear suspicious. The only reason why Damon might have been able to in the first place is because that dumbass roomba might be programmed to mind her own damn business, and he'll be damned if there's not a strong possibility that it's connected to a security system that has eyes and ears everywhere. Already, he can imagine it, every last one of them in a fiery fucking pile from a truly excessive explosion. Hell, there's even the possibility that Kayden would see through his actions and kill them on the spot. None of his friends knows anything about what he could be packing.

The best Damon hopes for now is a nonviolence policy from the roomba or otherwise coming to grips with the soul tech before Kayden decides to drop the charade. Tempting Kayden and to go on a killing spree more than he already is without knowing with certainty which artifact can most effectively assay the issue of both Kayden and the roomba is a fool's errand. Already, he can imagine it, every last one them slaughtered in a plasmatic fucking pile by an eclectic collection of impressive trinkets Kayden hid down his trousers. Hell, there's even the possibility that the roomba is as dumb as sack of potatoes dropped on its head when it was a child and won't even attempt to interfere with the slaughter.

Whatever. Whatever! Now's the time to just pick an artifact blindly, so Damon goes over to look at them all one by one, intrigued with the respective corresponding sensations they exude.

Let's see, the pixie is an obvious trap, the egg is taken and the winged sandals and black leather gloves would probably get annoying, considering that there's no other matching pair. The steel string is appealing yet uninteresting, (why a spiderweb of all things?) the angel wings seems like another trap, and the pyramid is yet another trap, and not even trying to hide it. It looks useful, conceivably, but come on, a shield within glass? What's that supposed to mean? The silver claws are the fourth trap, clearly going to rip holes wherever they are stored, and the quartz gives Damon Hotel California vibes. Finally, he comes to the last object, a sword hilt sticking out of its pedestal. He immediately gets the feeling that there's no sword on the other end of that hilt, but also the feeling of 'sinister' white noise buffing the harsh edges of the static making up his usual thoughts. It's actually pretty calming, in a way.

Definitely a trap. The absolute biggest trap. A bigger trap than all the other traps in this facility combined. Even so, Damon theorizes that the white noise might help with his sleeping problem and decides that such an invaluable possible utility trumps the risks, Kayden be damned.

Turning back to the roomba, he calls out to it while pointing at the hilt's display. "I'll be taking this one. ...What does it do?"

[Roy]

Assisting a treasure-hunter that wished to avoid Kylertown’s upper authority with friends was the last possible errand Roy had expected to make up the day's events, but it was something that he could clear his otherwise lackluster schedule for. The idea had been novel at first, especially the way Celine had put it. “Fortune and riches” were three keywords Roy could not easily pass up on. It meant having something to potentially trade with for more food, water, and maybe even Soul Tech and Soul Gems. The thought filled him with a momentary lapse of giddy excitement and hope. However, from the moment the laboratory’s vault-like doors swung open, the gravity of the situation slowly began to sink in. He was outside the village now, and that meant any number of things could happen to them. Silently kicking himself for never pulling aside the adults in his life and asking more questions about the world outside their small village, Roy anxiously followed the group and their brilliant yellow tour guide/roomba. Maybe the information could have helped him comprehend at least some bits and pieces of what the small, kind of cute machine was rambling on about. As the toured continued on, it became clear, for better or worse, that the facility was devoid of the scientists that used to operate within the lab… and was exceptionally clean.

“I’ll have to get a roomba like this for mom one day… maybe one that's not as vibrant, though,” murmured Roy to himself in before the set of doors at the end of the hallway opened up to the trophy room. As the disc and company entered the vast room, it became apparent the well lit pedestals held the “treasure” they were looking for.

“If you’d like to personally test out our newest advances, please choose a sample. There are more than enough for you all, so please, only one per person. Once you’ve all decided on what you’d like, I’ll lower the glass. Lightly touch the sample with your hand, and our technology will do the rest!”

The news was too good to be true. One per person without any hassle was an exceptional deal. There had to be some kind of catch, though. In this day and age, there was always a catch, right? Roy spun around in an attempt to catch sight of any irregularities, anything out of the ordinary. However, everything seemed out of the ordinary and yet not at the same time. Roy swiftly terminated the futile action and joined his teammates in analyzing the items sitting pretty on their respective pedestals. His gazed settled on the blue sprite floating listlessly in space. As his feet autonomously carried him towards the mesmerizing enigma, Roy felt a sort of air of drifting crispness about it. His hand extended towards the glass.

“This one,” was all he could manage as his attention was solely fixated on the movements of the blue pixie.

And I'll choose this one." Kayden states, stepping up to the silver claw. He'd been waiting near the back of the room, content to let the others pick first.

"oh noooo, poor bb. Don't cry! You can just pick your own name!"

"Hrmm... I'll be Ai-chan then!" The disc chirps cheerily. "Thank you for your patience, everyone!"
The glass walls in front of Kayden, Celine, Damon, Roy, and Claire. At the same time, the other five Soul Techs sink out of sight into slots that open in the marble pedestals. Kayden curses and snatches up the silver claw as soon as he is able, peering around at the missing Soul Techs with an anguished expression.

“This one.”

Roy reaches out and touches the pixie.

The bluish-white sphere of light bursts into a handful of swirling snowflakes. A unique sensation of growth and completion strikes Roy. It's as if somewhere inside of him there was an empty sphere he never knew existed--a sphere now filled by a cold, crisp pixie. If he focuses on the sphere, he gets impressions, images, thoughts, explaining how to use his newfound ability. With an exertion of his will, the pixie would appear nearby. An extension of himself, a mere thought could send the pixie soaring through the air, or release a slew of snow, sleet, hail, and ice. Manifested precipitation could be of any combination of quantity and textures.

"I want this one!"

Claire reaches out and touches the eggu.

A flash of heat and light is all that remains of the bejeweled Soul Tech. Claire could liken the new impression to a bed of kindling that had lain dormant all her life, only to suddenly burst into flames. The sensation was similar to the difference between a cold drafty room and the gentle warmth of a lit fireplace, except that the cold room wasn't unpleasant, just not there. Her mind was alight with images of red circles appearing where she willed, and forceful heat exploding upwards after a moment's time.

<Snipped quote by Mattie_>
Nothing really struck out to her visually, perhaps the crystal or the web would do. She decides on the crystal and steps up to the corresponding pedestal.

Celine reaches out and touches the crystal.

The quartz collapses into shimmering quartz dust before vanishing entirely. Vibes of weight and pleasant fullness suffuse the girl, as if she'd just eaten a most delicious and filling meal. It felt like there were a set of scales within her head that were now impeccably balanced. If she willed it to be, Celine knew that she could create a golem made out of quartz nearby, one with a connection to her mind. Flawlessly loyal, it do exactly as she mentally directed, and would do its best to follow instructions it was given. Also supplied was a mental image of Celine's own body clad in quartz armor.

"I'll be taking this one. ...What does it do?"

Damon reaches out and touches the sword hilt.

It explodes violently, throwing Damon off his feet. His Oversoul prevents any injury, but tiny fragments of the sword hilt scatter across the room.

"Hmm... that wasn't supposed to happen. _{Do you want to try one of the others?}"

The wood-paneled far wall rises into the ceiling smoothly, revealing a space 1.5 times as large as the room the humans were currently in. Sleek steel took over where the rich carpeting of the showroom ended. Occupying the new space were test dummies--mostly featureless robots in black and yellow coloration, with large targets on their chests and heads. The testing room contained 50 dummies scattered haphazardly throughout.

"Feel free to test out your new abilities on these dummies! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!"

[Celine]

There was no way to describe the sensation other than warm and fuzzy blanket, fresh out of the dryer, fully enveloping her body. She barely has a chance to take in the instructions planted in her head before whipping around to see Damon exploding. What the fuck Damon. By some instinct she didn't have before, she forms the quartz around her, encasing herself completely. This was of course, several seconds after the explosion and resulting shrapnel splashed across her. Quite fortunate that she and Damon had an Oversoul.

Celine claps her hands together, testing the feel and hardness of the crystal that surrounded her. She felt nearly weightless, with it suspending all parts of her body within. Testing the movement by hopping side to side, she was surprised to find that it was more nimble than she expected, akin to a skintight suit rather than a bulky mass of armor. She could easily crouch down and spring back up again, jumping up and down without any effort on her part at all. This feels awfully similar to the level of stuff Mayor Kyler could do...

But wait, There's more! It's intended to be a free moving golem too! Celine re-visualizes the crystals, imagining them moving off her body, and the crystals vanish from around her. Slowly rising from the ground, the golem takes only a few seconds to fully emerge, a form standing only slightly taller than her. A simple push of her mind and it followed her will immediately, even complex instructions with several steps included. All it took was another thought of the golem vanishing and it was gone in an instant. After various re-summons, she realized that she could only create the golem a short distance from her, quite unfortunate, hopefully it could be instructed to go quite a distance and still remain under her control.

Now it was time to really test it out. Celine orders golem-chan to charge at a a dummy. It breaks into a sprint immediately, engaging the robot with a powerful body slam that sent it toppling into the others. The disturbed robots quickly returned to their positions after the impact, only to receive several more relentless punches and kicks from the golem, which was performing at an athletic level Celine couldn't even hope to achieve. Unless she wore the quartz armor herself at least.

One final test she could think of was how dexterous this companion of hers would be. Pulling out handgun, she hands it over to the golem, which grips it properly and immediately begins firing at her visualized target. Celine jumps in excitement and claps her hands together, proud its accomplishments! "Woo! Now check this out guys!"

[Claire]

A grin spreads across Claire's face after the soul tech is absorbed and a warm, fiery feeling courses through her. Claire was immensely happy, to the point where she barely notices the debris from Damon's faulty soul tech bounce off of her oversoul. She marches over to the generously prepared test dummies and starts visualizing a red circle underneath one unfortunate victim.
Sure enough a glowing red circle appears and, after a brief delay, heat surges upwards from the location and blasts the dummy into smithereens.
She lets out a gleeful laugh, bringing her hands together in excitement at the wanton destruction. She wanted more. Barely containing her anticipation, she tries imagining multiple circles. Four circles materialized one by one on the ground, and when she attempted to add a fifth, nothing happened. Four more dummies are burnt into crisp. Neat! She could make more than just one. But why only four? Why not ten? The girl was both elated and disappointed at this limit of hers.
What's more, making multiple circles at a time seemed to not increase the delay (much to Claire's delight). She smiles broadly. What would happen if she made one big explosion?
Claire strikes what she thinks is a cool pose--with her feet apart and arms held out and crossed in front of her. Honestly, all that would be needed to complete the picture would be a cloak majestically fluttering behind her. She conjures up the biggest circle her soul tech would allow her to muster and patiently waits for the ensuing chaos.
After what Claire could guesstimate to be 20 seconds, a brilliant column of fire 15 feet across engulfs several training dummies, charring them badly.
Peals of joyful laughter sound from her lips and she turns to see Celine equally excited about her own newfound ability. Claire holds out a hand to fistbump Celine.

@vanovick

[Roy]

Roy gazes in awe as the blue sprite bursts into a handful of snowflakes. As they spiral to the ground he attempts to catch a couple. At the same time as he makes contact the with crystalline structures, a slight chill manifests somewhere deep inside of him, filling a hole he never knew he had. He suddenly felt… whole. Bringing his hands to his chest, he closed his eyes, embracing the cool, but wholesome feeling. As his attention dwells on the sprite within him, a tutorial of sorts plays out in his mind outlining the extent of the possible options the Soul Tech provided. Thoroughly intrigued by this newfound power, Roy pays only a moment’s acknowledgment to the fact that one of his friends had just experienced a direct explosion due to a faulty Soul Tech. Surely someone would head over to make sure Damon was okay.

Focusing on the blue sprite, Roy experimented with beckoning it out. He imagined it materializing in the palm of his outstretched hand. Within in seconds, his will was granted. A faint blue light, about 1 inch in diameter, manifested itself into the palm of Roy’s right hand. It looked so petite and fragile. He had the urge to crush it in his hands as he would with a snowball. His better judgment advised him otherwise. Instead, Roy gently closed his hand around the blue pixie, and was surprised it was actually tangible and quite cool to the touch. An amused expression crosses his face. Roy imagines the blue sprite flying upwards, slowly lifting his body off the ground. The command is relayed without fail. The blue pixie fidgets under Roy’s hand, attempting to rise high into the sky. However, it failed to escape Roy’s grasp. Realizing that his plan was impossible for the small creature, Roy terminated the command in order to test the remaining limitations of the Soul Tech.

Next up, Roy ordered the small sprite to fly as far as it possibly could go. The sprite stopped but 5 feet away from Roy, unable and unwilling to go further. Slightly disappointed by the short range, Roy decided to close the distance between him and the test dummies in order for the sprite to also move closer to them. He was eager to test out the extent of the Soul Tech’s abilities to produce precipitation. Aiming for the nearest test dummy, he commands the sprite to spew rain followed by snow, sleet, and then hail. The precipitation came out as a stream, slamming into the test dummy. Roy then imagined all four forms spewing from the pixie at once. I jumbled mess of different forms of water slammed into the testing dummy, spilling onto the floor and splattering adjacent test dummies. Intrigued and disgusted, Roy imagine separating the precipitation and aiming them each in different directions, rain heading straight up, snow heading straight down, sleet spewing from the right of the pixie, and hail spewing from the left. Admittedly, the string of commands seemed better in his head than it did in reality. The small pixie looked like a real piece of modern art. The only thing that could make this better, would be if the pixie was spinning. Roy commanding the pixie to start rotating. Immediately the pixie turned into a sphere watery doom. Throwing precipitation left and right, Roy had to take cover as he had failed to calculate that the precipitation would hit him too at this close of a range. Ordering the pixie to cease the streams of precipitation, Roy decided to dissipate the pixie’s existence and attempt to control the manifestation of precipitation himself. Imagining the formation of hail from the palm of his outstretched hand, he willed the hail to impale the testing dummy. Nothing happened. Disheartened, Roy summoned the pixie.

Satisfied with his experimentation for the time being, Roy turns his attention to the girls and observes the fruits of their labor.

[Damon]

Four more roombas zoom over to each individual in the room, entering from random vents in the walls. They pause at a respectful distance, cleaning up bits of sword hilt nearby.

Already, he can imagine it, every last one of them lying in a gruesome fucking pile, butchered by whatever the flying fuck those claws do. He'd be the last one to die, having to watch everyone go down before him for having failed to pick an item that wasn't a legendary pile of shit. Stupid, so fucking stupid, is was such an obvious trap, god fucking dammit. Why does he have to destroy everything he touches? Damon can't help but stop and wonder when it'll finally happen. When the proverbial looming sword of Damocles will come crashing down, throwing the dark curtain over their saccharine excursion. Kayden's acting so suspiciously benign. When will he strike? When the roomba is away? How could this situation be turned around?

Escaping now would be simple enough, but all of his friends might die as a result, and that's not the kind of outcome that can be considered acceptable. He could try provoking the roomba, but that's more likely to just draw its ire to himself. Finally, there's the prospect of attacking Kayden first, but if that became the only reason he decided to attack, everyone's deaths would all be Damon’s fault.

Damon spends a good minute or two lying down after being blasted away, staring blankly at the ceiling and trying to find ways to circumvent elaborate problems which may or may not exist. His gratuitous internal turmoil is interrupted by the surely well-meaning concern of the only adult in the room. Kayden peers down at Damon, trying to make out signs of life. It takes longer than one would expect, but eventually he blinks, indicating that, yes, he is still alive.

Concerned adult and sole guardian of these four kids, Kayden is looks relieved. He opens his mouth, pauses, then tries again. “...Why aren’t you getting up?” Belatedly, he offers Damon his hand. Damon continues to be comatose for another five uninterrupted seconds of pure awkwardness before he takes Kayden’s hand and gets up. ”Thanks, I appreciate the gesture.” Damon doesn’t answer Kayden’s question at all, instead dusting himself off as he weighs the possibility of the roomba just being fucking broken to begin with.

Shrugging off the immense amount of disinterest he had garnered, Kayden attempts communication once more. “You should pick a different Soul Tech--the web and glove looked fairly promising.”

Yeah, that’s definitely not suspicious. God fucking dammit, those would have been his other choices, whatever will he do now? ”Yeah, you’re right.” Like walking into a trap on purpose, Damon tries to think of ways to, at the very least, batman gambit this son of a bitch. He then comes to the conclusion that this is fucking stupid, and that such an ultimatum would be better off resigned to when he actually has a Soul Tech to work with.

He turns to the queen of the roombas and asks the most important question in this dangerous game of life and death, the answer to which would change fate forever. ”Why is the steel string in a spiderweb pattern?”

”Dr. Nadim decided that stainless steel was aesthetically pleasing when arranged into a spiderweb.”

Meanwhile, Kayden gives up. He walks over to an empty pedestal, the roomba following, and asks it a question that the others don’t catch.

As if his world view had just been shaken at the foundation, Damon looks at the steel string in a new light, as if this bundle of metallic silly string held power over the lives of everyone here, because yeah, it probably did. He doesn’t even bother to look in the roomba’s direction this time. ”I’d like this one then,”

”Understood.” A slot on the pedestal opens up, and the spiderweb rises up out of it. The slot then closes, leaving the spiderweb on the pedestal. At the same time, the glass lowers. Off to one side, Kayden spots this and glowers at his roomba, conversing in low tones.

Damon takes the web, subconsciously bracing for impact. It somehow turns into an actual cobweb and gets stuck on his hand.

Scenes of himself using the web flash through his mind. A rope, fired from his hand, sticking to targets. Separating the rest of the rope from himself to fire the other end at another target. At Damon’s whim, things sticking to the rope, or sliding off of it. The rope contracting and flinging things together violently. The rope relaxing and sagging. One of two ropes vanishing as Damon creates a third rope.

With an expression of pure placidity, Damon withdraws the web and points it at the roomba. The rope extends, latching on to the hideous yellow hockey puck before he gives it a whirl, spinning the roomba around and smashing it violently into the pedestals. Somehow, its glass parts only get minor scratches from the collision.

”Please do not assault the self-directed cleaning units. There are fifty training dummies for that express purpose directly to your right.”

”I’m feeling pretty lied to right now.”

”I do not recall the self-directed cleaning unit having lied to you.”

”An aesthetically pleasing arrangement and indicating that it turns you into fucking spiderman are two very different things. Are you telling me I need to deal with this sticky mess just to function?”

”The ability should not leave any residues behind. If you’re referring to the activation of the Soul Tech, that will only occur upon absorption.”

Damon blinks behind his glasses. ”‘Absorption’?”

”When you touched the Soul Tech, you absorbed it.”

Damon lifts the roomba up yet again before bringing it back down, slamming it against the pedestals again. A crack forms, but the glass still holds steady. Wow. ”Couldn’t you have mentioned this earlier? Do you have any idea how much I hate spiders?” Already, he can imagine it. This stupid rope thing servicing as a makeshift noose to end this joke of an existence he’s been cursed to.

”Revealing the ability earlier would have ruined the surprise.”

”Shut up, you stupid, worthless hunk of garbage.” Damon pinches the bridge of his nose, absolutely blown away by the sheer magnitude of stupidity at work here. He feels his fingers stick to his face ever so slightly as his anxiousness increases.

“Kid, how about you don't insult our host? _{The one that could bring this whole place down on our heads at any moment...} Kayden whispers furiously, having crossed the room with surprising speed.

...That’s an interesting reaction. Damon remains silent, appearing to ruminate broodingly as he confirms that his three friends are on the far end of the room, unable to see him. His right hand, pinching his temple, pushes his glasses up and to mask his face as it twists, tears starting to escape.

Kayden just stares awkwardly. What else could he do? Put him out of his misery? If the kid made a scene too, he might actually consider it. Kayden looks over at Damon’s friends, but they're all gleefully occupied with their own new powers. Such good friends.

“Are you sure I can't have a second Soul Tech?”

The heavily dented roomba crackles, but otherwise answers as usual. “I am sure.”

Suddenly, Damon is hugging Kayden, burying his face into his shirt and gripping uncomfortably tight. Kayden is torn between comforting the kid and violently freaking out when Damon pushes off him, looking as if absolutely nothing just happened. “Sorry, man. When I was younger, my dad was bitten by a venomous spider, and... you look a lot like him.” Walking backwards towards where they came from, Damon makes an announcement loud enough for the others to hear. ”I’m ready to go, you guys coming?” Kayden is left to wonder what the fuck just happened.

“Before you leave, please return your Soul Techs to the pedestals.” The AI’s voice echoes to the room. One might pick up a hint of frostiness in the AI’s tone.

So this is the game being played. Alright then. Your move, Kayden. With a facade of innocence, Damon turns to Kayden, as if deferring to his wisdom. ”Kayden?”

“Listen to the nice lady and put it back on the pedestal.” Kayden gives Damon a reassuring smile.

Damon’s expression manages to be completely and totally neutral. ”It’s been absorbed, remember?”

“Have you never used a Soul Tech or something??” Kayden asks rhetorically.

”Welcome to Kylertown, where only a single person in the entire town has ever used a Soul Tech. I’ll give you a hint, it isn’t any of us.

“...That’s actually amazing. What the fuck age is your town living in?!”

”It’s actually a concentration camp with no selection criteria.”

“...That ...I ...wow. Okay then. Damn. Whatever. Focus on your Soulspace and just think of removal, taking it out, lifting it out, however you want to think of it. It should appear in your hand, judging by how it disappeared in the first place.”

Damon lifts his hand, palm up, as if to say ‘well there you have it.’ Nothing happens.

Kayden blinks. “What’s the problem? Literal children can do this on their first tries. ”

Damon, without moving anything else, looks in the direction of his palm, then back at Kayden.

“...Don’t tell me you can’t. Fuck fuck fuck, god fucking dammit of course.”

[Celine and Claire]

Celine hops over to Claire and returns the fist bump before retrieving her gun from the golem.

”So you can make explosions now?!”
“Yeah! Isn’t it great?”
”You can see the golem I can make, but that’s not all, I can cover myself in quartz as armor too!”
“That’s pretty neat! I don’t think I want to cover myself in explosions though.”
”Maybe if I covered you in crystal first it would be safer?”

It doesn’t work.

”Maybe you can cover me in explosions? Don’t blow me up though!” Celine says with a glare while materializing the armor around herself.

“Okaaay.” Claire visualizes a very weak explosion on Celine’s back and it almost instantly detonates. Celine doesn’t even move an inch.
“Guess I have to use more force,” she mutters to herself, trying once more.

By the time Claire’s blasts are able to push Celine around, the quartz is already badly damaged.

“It’s too dangerous to make the explosion any stronger.”

”Aww, that’s too bad, but you could just do it to me while I’m not inside.”

“Yeah. If I blow up your golem, can you get another one?”

”Time to find out.”

Celine prepares the golem a good distance from them, the far corner. Claire backs away as well and readies up a powerful explosion. The red circle glows painfully bright aaand--nothing happens. The adrenaline that had built up in Claire’s system slowly drains away in the next ten minutes. She gently pokes at the circle, “Is it stuck??”

Celine, crouched by the other end of the room calls out ”Did it work yet?”

“No??”

Celine walks the golem around, as if that would change the situation. Nothing changes.

Claire turns to Ai-chan and asks, “Help. Is my soul tech stuck?”

“No. The ability will trigger eventually.”

“How long will it take?”

“I can’t tell just based on the color of the circle. What did you try to do?”

“Celine and I wanted to see if she could remake the golem after it broke. So I made a super powerful explosion.”

“It won’t trigger for several hours at the least.”

”Oh. Can I make it stop?”

“Breaking the surface of the circle will cancel the ability.”

“Okay, thanks Ai-chan!”

“You are quite welcome.”

Claire creates a small, but decently powerful explosion on the ring of the circle. The attack disrupts the red circle and it deactivates--much to the relief of Celine and Claire (and probably Ai-chan).

[Celine, Claire, Damon and Roy]

Kayden turns to the other three with a desperate look in his eyes.

As they arrive onto the scene, Kayden hurriedly describes how to remove one’s Soul Tech.

Celine focuses on her palm, imagining the crystal reappearing. A bit of quartz rises and appears on her hand. It in no way resembles the original Soul Tech. “Hmm… kinda misshapen? Did I do it wrong?”

“...That doesn’t look right. Try again please.”

Celine frowns and tries once more, only to lose her balance and fall over. Kayden looks like he’s seriously considering seppuku. She tries once more, imagining a part that looked like the original crystal. She fails. Something roughly similar to the golem’s shoulder pops out and looks even worse than the one before.

Roy watches intently as Celine attempts to draw the Soul Tech out and back into its original form, growing more hesitant with every second. He liked the pixie. He really did, and parting with it sounded like such a sad proposition. Stealing a glance at Kayden’s pained facial expressions, he decides it is for the best and attempts to remove the Soul Tech. Delving deep within himself, Roy imagines picking up the tiny sprite and removing it from its snug spot. As soon as the sprite was out of place, the sickening feeling of being incomplete sunk in and his grip slipped. The sprite fell back into place.

Staring at her hand, Claire attempts to manifest the red egg she touched earlier by imagining the flame being sucked out of her soulspace. Nothing happens. “Ai-chan, what do we do if we can’t give the soul tech back?” Claire asks.

“I suppose you’ll have to stay here.”

“How long?”

“Until I get permission to let you leave.

“Can we go outside and have you escort us instead?”

“You’re not allowed to leave with the Soul Tech. Going outside would be leaving with them. _{And I can’t go outside anyways...}”

“But we can come back to the lab when your boss is back. And we can take you outside with us?”

“You’d still be leaving the facility with the Soul Tech.

” Oh… I guess I’ll just stay in here then?”

“Yes.

“Ok! Where do we stay?”

“Here.

”No like, where? We need beds and food!”

“Anywhere in here. Or in the hallway. I have no beds. The food probably went bad a few hundred years ago.

“We’ll starve to death in here. If we die, we can’t return the soul techs and you’ll never be able to get them back.”

“...Hmm...”

“If we can go outside, we can get food and not die.”

“Ooh! What if my golem-” Damon rushes over and covers her mouth before she can say anything else to worsen the situation. She struggles to finish her sentence anyway. “Mmmmmfffffggggg- Damon!”

“What were you going to say?”

“She meant to ask what we’ll do if her golem suddenly goes berserk because she’s dying from starvation.”

“You can still die if you go outside. Humans die all the time outside.”

“But we’re guaranteed to die from starvation by staying here! The mayor keeps us pretty safe on the outside. We’re less likely to die outside.”

“Since you’re not actually a roomba you wouldn’t technically be leaving the facility if we took one with us. You’ll be able to monitor the situation and tell us when your boss is back so we can return the soul techs.”

“Who is your Mayor? Also, I would not be able to communicate through the self-directed cleaning unit once it leaves the facility. ”

Kayden edges over to an unchosen pedestal nearest the entrance and leans against it, one hand in his jacket. His relaxed posture is at completely at odds with the tension visible on his face.

Changing the topic, Celine instead suggests the solution to everyone’s problems. “What if I become the boss!”

“If you became my boss you could give yourself permission to leave.”

”Ok! How do I get promoted?

“A Fervor Corp. employee would have to employ and promote you.”

Changing the topic again, Roy asks “Is there any way you can leave with us?”

“Not right now. I would have to construct a suitable chassis, one capable of carrying my “mind”.”

”How long will that take?”

“I do not know.”

”Do you have an estimate?”

Kayden turns and pulls out a handgun--aimed at the glass atop the pedestal. He has to fire three times before the already cracked glass breaks enough to reach a hand through. Heedless of the sharp, broken glass, Kayden places his hand on the slot covering up the glass pyramid Soul Tech. Deafening crackling fills the air as electricity splashes against the sides of the glass box.

“Stop.” Ai-chan’s voice booms from every corner of the vast room. The training dummies turn toward Kayden as one and break into sprints.

Damon turns to the other three. ”I think now would be a good time to bail”

“Stop her! She won’t let us leave anyways!” Kayden roars over the sound of his own electricity. He levels his other hand at the oncoming dummies and fires a bolt of lightning, downing two robots immediately.

”Ai-chan, if we help you stop this man, can we leave?” Celine whispers to the nearest cleaning unit.

“Don’t worry Ai-chan, we’ll run to the exit, cutting off his escape!”

Claire winks at Kayden. Roy also winks at Kayden. Celine can’t wink. A very forced blink is attempted. Celine’s golem can’t wink either. Damon’s eyes are invisible from behind the most glare-catching pair of glasses mankind has ever known.

[Celine, Claire, Damon and Roy]

”Huh?!” The lightning ceases as Kayden stares at the three kids for a moment. What did winking with both eyes signify? Was Celine going to double-cross her friends for a greater cut? Cut of what? He had the only Soul Tech with him.

Kayden turns back toward the dummies and while steadily walking backwards, releases a wide arc of electricity at the dummies, dropping the closest ones and slowing the ones behind.

Claire primes an explosion near some of the incoming dummies that were going for Kayden. They’re blasted away after a short delay.
“Oops, I missed!” she shouts loudly, winking at Kayden again.

Kayden gapes. He just... what.

Another set of dummies are sent flying back from an explosion
“Darn, I’m really bad at controlling this power!” Claire shouts at Kayden, winking once more.

Celine, very confused and wondering why everyone was winking merely follows behind Claire and the rest of the group. Claire probably knows what’s going on.

Damon had a plan, a backup plan, and a backup backup plan, but decides that whatever the fuck is happening right now is beyond coherence. He fell down a rabbit hole, got stuck in wonderland, then tripped over Pandora’s box and ended up in the twilight zone.

Kayden screams in a potent mixture of frustration, confusion, and more confusion. ”I GET IT ALREADY!!!” He abandons the Soul Tech pedestal and runs to the double doors, which were unsurprisingly locked.

From vents lining the room, a veritable horde of roombas flood in, moving alarmingly quickly.

“Nooooo I’m going to get sucked up! Ai, I’m trying to help you here!” Celine hops backwards at the sight of the approaching swarm.

“Self-directed cleaning units are also equipped with potent acids to clean up all manner of substances.” Ai-chan points out, sounding rather pleased with herself.

”Buy me some time!” Kayden shouts as he places his palms flat against the door and closes his eyes. Electricity gently thrums through his hands and the doors begin to tremble.

”Ai-chan, help! Kayden is sealing us in forever!” Celine shouts to the ceiling. She is currently receiving a piggyback ride from her golem.

“Then cease breaking the training units and stop Kayden.” Ai-chan snaps.

”But I didn’t do anything yet!”

“I’m sorry I get really nervous under pressure and kept missing him!” Claire responds.

Damon steps forward and aims a string at the ceiling, which immediately connects to the string previously placed on Kayden’s back, thickening and contracting to lift him off the ground. He dangles helplessly. ”You mean like this?

“Thank you.” The dummies and roombas come to a halt.

”Can we go now?”

“...No.”

”Wow, fuck you then.”

Cursing unintelligibly, Kayden thrashes in the air until he can see the doors again and fires a thin arc of lightning that connects. The doors open. ”Let me down now?”

The string begins to relax, lowering Kayden down to the ground.

“Wait! I might let you four leave, but not him. He’s still carrying an unactivated Soul Tech.”

”That doesn’t sound like a promise to me.”

“Incapacitate Kayden and return his Soul Tech intact, and you four can leave.”

”Alright Kayden, your turn. Why should we trust the guy liable to attack us the moment we get out of here?

”Why would I turn on you guys?! You don’t even have anything to steal.” Kayden shouts.

”Why would you invite a bunch of random strangers to a laboratory raid, and why young ones at that?”

Claire lets the others do the talking, she was just itching to blow more things up.

Celine has a roomba in her hands, clutching it as if it was a teddy bear.

”To carry shit for me.”

”You do realize that would mean turning on us in this situation, right? Your terms were 50% of the treasure. If we got out of here and then just went our separate ways, that’d be 20%”

”I have literally no reason to turn on you guys, none of you have any treasure to start with!”

”What kind of idiot has his own personal pot of gold and plans to give away half of its contents in order to get help carrying it?”

”I wasn’t-it doesn’t matter! I promise I won’t kill you guys once we’re outside for god’s sake.”

”You know, that’s a poor choice of words for someone whose life might depend on it.”

”He promised!”

”Listen to Celine! I promised!” Kayden protests.

”What do you think, Ai-chan? Does he seem trustworthy?”

“No. Humans will say anything to save themselves.” Damon sighs.

”Can you let me down at least?”

”No.” Damon steps forward and fires another string through the door, catapulting Kayden through it before dissolving it and quickly working on flinging the others through the door.

“I see.”

Damon launches Celine and gets ready to throw Claire through as he responds. ”As suspicious as Kayden is, you’re not very forthcoming.” He tosses Roy away and slaps his chest to connect one end to himself. ”Should’ve told me what the web did.” Damon goes flying, landing feet-first on the wall outside the doors before reconnecting the other end down the hall, sending himself flying before turning around and dragging everyone except Kayden along, one by one.

Ai-chan speaks through an intercom. “Please do not leave. I cannot protect you four outside.”

”Ai-chan! We’ll come back when you have a body made!” Celine calls out as she gets flung about like a ragdoll.

“Is that a promise?”“ Ai-chan asks, almost hopeful.

“Yeah! We’re being dragged against our will Ai-chan!”

”Why are you guys so heavy?”

“Sedentary lifestyle, I imagine. _{That was a joke.}”

Claire struggles to her feet and pets the nearest roomba, the roomba buzzes with glee. “Don’t worry, we’ll go after him. I have no clue what Damon was thinking.”

”I’m thinking you’re full of shit.” Damon continues dragging his friends to the exit as fast as possible. Just as Damon reaches the exit doors, they open on their own, immediately drowning all sense of urgency.

“Hopefully, I’ll see you three again soon.”

Kayden pauses in the doorway to flip off Ai-chan before dashing outside.

[Celine, Claire, Damon and Roy]

”Kayden that was rude!”

“Ai-chan has feelings too!” Claire reprimands Kayden.

”Does it actually?”

“Yes!”

”Fuck you kids. Fuck all of you.”

”You’re welcome Kayden, glad to know I made the right choice.

”Fuck off.” Despite how badly he looked like he wanted to throttle Damon, Kayden sits down on a bit of collapsed brick and watches as the rest of the kids leave the lab.

Damon stands nearby, doing the same thing. ”In case it wasn’t clear, my dad survived the spider bite, and saying that you look like him is a bit of an exaggeration.”

Claire wanders over. “In case it wasn’t clear, those explosions were in fact, not meant for you.” Claire winks at Kayden. He lets out a long-suffering sigh.

Celine gently sets down the pilfered roomba, patting it gentle once it was seated on the grass. ”Hello? Can you still hear me?”

The roomba doesn’t respond.

Kayden gets the group’s attention with a snap of electricity. ”I guess I owe you guys one, so I’ll give you guys a warning. There’s a band of murdering cutthroats looking for this facility, and they’ll silence anyone that knows about it to prevent word from spreading. They’re called Morcant Excavations. Every one of them is stronger than I am.”

”I take it you tried to get them to help you raid it?”

”Wow thanks for the heads up. That would have been nice to know in the job description,” Roy finally musters.

”Wait this guy looks kinda weak though…” Celine muses.

_{”Fuck you.”}

”You know, you’d be a lot less shady if you your modus operandi made sense, what kind of treasure hunter needs help carrying things?

Kayden stands up and rolls his shoulders. ”A bad one. You guys should probably skip town. This lab is worth a lot more than you guys realize - Morcant will go to great lengths to keep it quiet.” He shrugs and walks away, awkwardly keeping his eyes on the group until they’re out of sight.

Celine jumps to her feet, realizing something. ”GOLEM CHAN IS STILL INSIDE GUYS!”

“You can just remake your construct you know.” The roomba suddenly chirps, startling the group.

”She’s alive! Ai-chan, there’s a group of people after you! You need to hide!”

“I heard. I’ll have to prepare the best I can. Unless you four would like to help defend me?”

Already, Damon can imagine it, the facility doors slamming shut behind them and every last one of them losing their minds as they slowly starve to death. Hard to say, really, how long it would take before someone resorted to cannibalism.

The same possibility occurs to Celine. Roy can make us water, Claire can boil it. Maybe they could eat Damon’s long, thick white stuff too. They can’t eat Celine’s crystals, or it’s inedible at least. Ai-chan, too, is inedible. Probably. No one has tried. It is colored like a banana...

Claire has been making tiny, weak explosions off to the side out of boredom. Small poofs of dust rise slowly and erratically off the ground. “It would be safer helping AI-chan than staying outside, right?”

“But if we go back, would Ai-chan let us leave again with the Soul Tech?”

Claire looks over at roomba-chan, “Will you let us leave after we help you?”

“I doubt you four would be able to help me very much. If what Kayden said is true, you four will be in greater danger if you stay here.”

”Then you should come with us! We can run away together!” Celine says.

”Yeah! Come with us Ai-chan! It will be fun!”

“I cannot. I will construct a body capable of leaving the facility in time, but Morcant Excavations could arrive at any moment. ”

”Do they even know how to get inside the facility?”

“If they know the general location, they will find this place eventually and break in. If you are inside when they do, you will most likely be killed.”

”Maybe this is a job for Mayor Kyler!”

”No.”

”Oh.”

The groups sits in silence for a minute, thinking about what to do, or about inane things like lettuce.

”When will you be able to leave?”

“Again, I do not know. Not within the next three days. ”

”Then… we come back in three days? Let us know when through this unit, I’ll carry it with me until you’re ready!” Celine says, proud of her plan.

“I do not want you four to die. When Morcant Excavations arrives, I will tell them that you four live in a town nearby, and give them your names and descriptions, unless you agree to not return. ”

”Oh! I get it! alrighty!” Celine smiles and winks. Properly this time.

“...I don’t think you do. Has she been like this all her life? I couldn’t find records of any developmental disorders that would cause this.”

”No this is quite usual behavior for Claire. She’s always the wild one, you know?”

Claire stares blankly at them, not getting it.

Damon steers the conversation back to Ai-chan’s warnings. ”I’d like to point out that Ai-chan just threatened to do everything she can to help Morcant Excavations hunt us down. Even better, she claims her motivation is our safety.” Damon rolls his eyes. ”Let’s pretend that Ai-chan is completely trustworthy. If we wait for her in Kylertown, she can come find us when her body is finished. However, not only is there a chance that she’ll stand out enough get into a fight with Mayor Kyler, but she might also end up getting followed by Morcant Excavations. Either way, skipping town becomes a lot harder, and the lives of innocent people, including our friends and family, could hinge on the decision we make here and now. Is all this worth having an anthropomorphized roomba as a traveling companion?”

“It’s really not.”

”Well we can’t do anything with Morcant lurking about, so shouldn’t we just leave town before they arrive?”

”Yes, that’s my point. It’d be a bad idea to stick around.”

”Where do we even go? We’ve never left town before.”

”I dunno, why don’t we head north? I’ve always hated the New Texas climate.”

Celine proceeds to stare at the sky for several seconds trying to deduce which way is north.

“North is that way.” AI-chan ‘points’ helpfully.

Damon christens this one inane action as the greatest utility Ai-chan will ever offer mankind. Ai-chan is fucking useless.

“Ah, my apologies. I cannot point using a self-directed cleaning unit.” The roomba rotates 136 degrees and stops. “This way is north.”

Deafening silence.

“That was a joke. North is this way.” The roomba drags a furrow in the dirt indicating the direction.

”Forget it. We’ve got to go home and grab our stuff anyway, along with as much supplies as we can reasonably steal from our parents. We’ll meet where we met Kayden earlier and decide where to go then. I'll see if I have a map lying around somewhere.”