Rui snapped awake.
No fuzzy vision, no waiting for his eyes to adjust. That's the cool thing about having synthetic eyes—you just see. He couldn't remember what it was like not to, though.
In fact, he couldn't remember much of anything.
He sat up and checked out the room. It was... weird. Not weird like creepy, but weird like some kind of spotless mess. Everything was sterile. The walls were grey metal, a little old-looking from slight discoloration, but totally clean. No rust, no dents, nothing. Super shiny, actually.
But that was only what he could see, given the mess that seemed to cover every surface. White sheets covered the walls, scribbled on with notes that looked like total nonsense. And in the middle of it all, a lump that he could only assume was a person was curled up under a thick blanket. Blankets, or even sleep for that matter, weren't things people really needed anymore, so it was super strange to Rui.
Rui tried to stand up off the cold surface he was lying on, but he was stuck. Then it hit him: he wasn't even breathing. Didn't need to, thanks to the oxygen tank tucked where his lungs used to be. Oxygen was still flowing, but the fact that he couldn't move was a little concerning.
"Oh, hey, you're awake!"
A high-pitched voice piped up. Rui glared at the girl.
Or… he would've if he could get any of the systems in his face to work.
He tried to talk, to ask her what the heck was going on, but his mouth wouldn't work either.
She had the blanket pooled around her feet. She was wearing white sweats and a light blue shirt. Her hair was neon pink with dark brown roots and streaks through it. It contrasted nicely against her warm brown skin. She padded over to him, and Rui watched with mild distaste as her eye slipped back into her skull, replaced by a camera lens. People swapping out their own body parts never failed to freak him out.
After twenty minutes of intense staring and analyzing, she finally backed off. She jotted something down on a fresh sheet and taped it to the wall.
Rui had a ton of questions, but even if he could talk, she seemed so spacey she probably wouldn't listen.
Spacey?
That shouldn't be possible. The implants were supposed to keep everyone logical. Illogical thoughts earned you a tiny corrective shock. But this girl was a walking contradiction. Nothing about her made sense. It was fascinating. The second he could move, he'd grill her. And if she played dumb, he'd rip her apart to figure out her mechanics.
He should have been shocked for that last thought. He wasn't.
Tap. A light touch on his forehead. He hadn't even seen her move. She let out a small huff and unplugged something from the port on his wrist.
Suddenly, he could move again.
"Who are you?" The question tumbled out before he could even stand.
She just stared. He knew she could talk; she did it earlier. Was she ignoring him?
"Hey! Kid! Where the hell are we?" He kept badgering her. He needed to know.
She just kept giving him this annoyed look.
Okay, she could definitely hear him.
Rui slid off the cold metal table. His legs were basically useless, just propping him up to make the fall more painful. He had never understood why they had pain receptors. The whole point of body augmentation was to make everything as painless as possible, so why even bother getting them if the only benefit is that your lifespan lasts as long as your core battery does?
He saw now what he was on: a bare metal table, like an operating slab in a movie.
"What'd you do to me?" he asked, annoyed. He tried to push himself up, uselessly.
Before he could do more, a pair of arms grabbed him and plopped him right back on the table. It was another person. Messy blonde hair stood out first, then the thick, silver rings covering every finger of his hand, that was now way too close to Rui's face.
"Whaaat are you doing?" Rui asked, totally baffled. This whole thing felt so unreal, he figured he had to be dreaming.
"Open up." The guy finally spoke to Rui.
"Open what?" Rui snapped. If they were gonna be difficult, he could be worse.
Huh.
No shock for that, either.
The guy rolled his eyes, grabbed a screwdriver, and jammed it into the back of Rui's neck.
Oh.
Rui let out an annoyed sigh. "Dude, that's expensive to fix!" he whined, feeling the damaged polymer. He pouted, but let the access panel pop open. The guy had made it clear that he would get his way, whether Rui complied or not.
The blonde walked behind him, reached into the panel, and started messing with the wires.
A massive shock ripped through Rui's body, making him yelp. He tried to speak, but nope. Mute again. It was the third time it had happened, so he wasn't even that alarmed anymore.
"Alright... you can talk now." The guy said.
No! I can't! Rui thought, forgetting the girl was there. The guy wasn't talking to him.
"Perfect!" The girl spoke, and her voice sounded deeper now, more grown-up. She was probably older than him, despite the childish air she carried herself with.
"Now, I bet you have some questions," she said flatly as the camera receded back into her eye socket. It was quickly replaced with a black orb that had a white ring in the center. It matched the other one.
What was the point in having a camera installed in your head if your eyes were surveillance cameras?
Rui tried to speak once again, but his voice failed him. She saw him struggling and shot a harsh look at the blonde guy.
"Y'know, I don't know why I trust you with anything tech," she grumbled, taking long strides toward them. She was way taller than he realized, absolutely towering over his 5-foot-4 frame.
She snatched the tools from the blonde, smacking him on the back of the head as she did. She leaned close to Rui, messed around in the panel, and suddenly he could speak.
"Who are you?" he demanded, finally hoping for a straight answer.
"The name's Sparks. And that idiot over there is Cage," she answered, folding her arms over her chest.
"So, what did you do to me, exactly? And why were you ignoring me?" he asked, irritated.
"Doesn't matter. What matters is you're alive. By the way, I fixed the issue with your processor. You somehow caught a virus. And don't worry, I'll set you back to normal once we're outside." She finished with a shrug.
Then it all clicked. "...you disconnected me."
That's why he wasn't getting shocked. That's why he felt strangely free. They had cut him off from the server.
"I could go to jail," he told them.
Sparks pressed her lips together. "So could we. That's why we can't plug you back in until you're outside."
She'd saved him, yeah, but now he was allowed to be irrational, free from the servers.
"What is wrong with you people? How'd you even know how to get into the system?" Rui's voice was angry and bewildered.
Sparks looked uncomfortable.
Cage didn't hesitate. He slapped Rui, hard. "She saved your life. Be grateful."
Rui knew he was right, but his ego was bruised and he was pissed. "Oh, come on! You're criminals! You definitely have some kind of angle here."
"Well... he does have a point," Sparks admitted with a little shrug.
That sentence made his stomach drop. They were going to use him. He had just been spouting angrily before, but now… that fear was a reality.
"Yeah, but we don't need him. We just need the chip," Cage muttered, sounding annoyed.
Cage grabbed Rui's wrist, and Sparks easily held him down on the table. She plugged the cable back into his wrist.
It wasn't as abrupt as before, but the sudden overwhelming darkness was enough to make him panic.