Machine Man (serial)

Light. A strange kind of light. Diffuse. I couldn’t focus. I felt disorientated and stupid. I had forgotten where I was.

“Holding… that’s good. Keep that there.”

“A little interplay on the third core. Nothing serious.”

“Okay… let him have a look. But slowly.”

The light lifted. Or rather, the thing that had been draped over me was lifted, by a man in a striped shirt and bow tie. The thing was a lab coat. As it pulled back, the sleeve snagged and pulled me around in a half-circle until I was facing the steel gray box, the monitor. I tried to scream. Words streamed across the screen: NO BOX BOX I AM IN A BOX NN N L N OLALOLALOLALOLALOLALOLA—

The lab coat flopped over me again, blocking my sight. “Reverse that! Reverse all that!”

“Taking him down.”

“Shit! You see that output?”

“Yeah.”

I felt myself shrinking, ceasing to exist in pieces.

“Maybe she’s right. Maybe…” Before I could hear the rest of this, I was gone.

184.