Luminary Institute

92: NOT. FRIENDLY.

“Man, I’m too tired for this,” Nyssa grumbled as she free fell through the darkness. After attempting in the first second to transform into a bird and escape, she had found a sealed entrance on the other side. Too lazy to try anything else, she let the increasing suction force take her. 

The air whistled around her as she fell. Her hair fluttered, and the faint glow she gave off faded into nothing. No walls as far as she could see. 

“I hope Celeste is okay,” She spoke into the air as the falling continued. Though, after a few thoughts, she flipped in the air to face downward. “This is probably smarter...” 

As she fell, the air turned colder and whispered into her ears like snakes peddling their lies while her surroundings brightened like an entrance into heaven. After a faint period of blindness, the ground came into view, and she, out of prudence, transformed into a bird, floating in the air instead of landing. 

She flapped her wings, gliding in slow circles while scoping out the room. A cracked floor punctuated the sleek metal walls, lines of solid light criss-crossed along every wall, and a few ragged boxes sat in a corner, half-rotted after years. 

After sweeping her eyes over the area one more time, she descended with a swoop, transforming back into a human as she neared the floor. Landing in a crouch after letting her human body handle the last of the descent, she frowned. Her hairs stood on end and her stomach flipped. Gear sounds filled the room as the lights dimmed and flickered, shifting towards a more blue-hue with every passing second. 

A section of the wall opened on one end of the room, out from it came a humanoid robot covered in a liquid-like covering of nano-machines. Its eyes glowed blue-white as it crossed its arms in stretches. It laced its fingers and pushed them outward to crack its knuckles, it tilted its head left and right to loosen its neck, and pulled its legs back one by one as if any of these actions would make a difference in its capability. 

“What... What the...” Nyssa scrambled backward while staying in a crouched position. Her legs tensed up as she swiveled her head. 

Wall. Wall. Wall. Good, there’s nothing else. 

Without any other walls opening up to let anything through, she turned back to the automaton with a deep breath. The wall closed behind it with a couple of clunks and a hiss, the crack marking the door from the wall non-existent as she watched the plates sit flush with the rest of the wall. 

Her shoulders rose and fell as her eyes squinted. After holding in a faint breath, she let out a long sigh as her heart rate increased. The machine, on the other hand, took slow steps forward. Its body swirled as nanomachines migrated across the surface of its body in tidal-like currents. 

“Hello?” Nyssa called out to the machine. She balled up her fists and adjusted her transformation to give off no light. “Hello? Do you speak? Are you friendly?” 

Silence. 

The sound of her breaths filled her ears. Blood rushed to her head as she felt the fatigue from the previous ten-plus floors of exploration begin to weigh down on her. 

Why? Why didn’t I budget my energy better than this...

Not a second later, though, Nyssa’s train of thought derailed as the robot disappeared from its spot. With all her senses blaring at her, she transformed into a bird and zipped upward into the air with panicked flaps, leaving feathers behind as the automaton’s fist swung through where she had been standing. 

Not friendly. NOT. FRIENDLY!!!!!

Twirling through the air, to regroup and keep track of her position, she felt an oncoming headache as the automaton leapt through the air, nanomachines morphed into jet thrusters to allow the automaton airborne mobility. 

So, I’m really doing this, huh? First serious fight all alone and it's a trap... of course. 

Flipping in midair, her body shifted into hawk as she began flapping to put distance between her and the automaton. A series of midair acrobatics later, she put half the room between them and pulled out a trump card. Her body glowed and, not even half a second later, a lopsided dragon with a giant head and tiny body appeared and shot a pure-white laser of energy into the automaton’s face. 

The laser rocked the room, searing the wall and causing it to glow red-hot. As a collateral casualty, the poor boxes in the corner became ash and entered the afterlife without even a whiff of a proper ending. 

“Whew...” Nyssa transformed back into a human and floated back to the ground. Her feet touched down with a slight thud as she caught her breath. A few coughs left her mouth as she felt her head pound in sync with her heart rate. Pinching her fingers on the bridge of her nose, she kept her eyes on the other side of the room. “Nothing... a few deep breaths can’t solve.”

Those deep breaths never came though. The automaton, on the other side of the room, began reassembling. Its nanomachines folded inward and, after a loud clicking sound, had a newfound ice-blue sheen. 

“Don’t be stupid and let it regenerate,” Nyssa slapped herself on the cheek as she dredged her motivation. Transforming back into the same lopsided dragon from earlier, she sent another blasting laser beam in the automaton’s direction, though this time, for a fraction of the time. 

The sound of steps. 

CRACK. 

Nyssa scrambled backward, cycling through transformations as she rushed away. 

What? Huh? Hgeello? Whrut?

A sharp pain on her nose pushed her out of the transformation. Blood dripped down her face as she transformed her lower body into a frog to leap away. The automaton chased after her with a newfound lance in place of its arm. 

Unaffected by the laser? Did it adapt?

First the thrusters, then the blue-layer... and now a lance. Is it transforming like me?

She scowled, holding her nose with one hand as the frog transformation allowed her to keep a sizable distance from the automaton. They fell into a cycle, pacing in circles around the walls of the gymnasium-sized room. Whenever the automaton came rushing forward to attack, Nyssa backed off. 

I need to think... How am I supposed to beat people who transform again? Angelica and Roxanne were lecturing me about this last time... Why was I sleeping? Come on... Why? Why?

As the battle dragged on though, she felt her body burning up. Each breath scraped against the insides of her lungs as her head began to pound. Her eyes unfocused every few moments, leading to lapses in attention. 

And the several holes pockmarking parts of the walls acted as cruel reminders of why she had to stay focused.

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