Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

We are Legion

Her hands flailed.

But then something caught her, and she was dragged through.

She burst through gasping arms flailing. Blackness dripped from her body and her skin returning to the pool below her. The room, or void she stood in was exactly like the one she had just come from, with its black coated floor and distant blackness.

There was one key difference.

The black shapes looking at her.

Having come through the floor she thought she might be able to see them better, but that was not the case. They were simply silhouettes two dimensional and completely light absorbent, like looking into a black hole.

They stared at her, and she stared back.

When they moved she could see they were in all sorts of shapes and sizes , the vast majority of them appeared human, but she saw an extra set of arms here and there.

"Who are you!" She demanded

At first no one replied.

But Kazna stepped forward and attempted to grab one of the figures, her hands passed through it like smoke, and it reformed to her other side as she stumbled arms flailing. When she stood, she stood face to face with a creature that was just as tall as she was. It had no definable Drev features onther than a second set of arms which rested gently by its sides.

And then in a voice like the hiss of a corpse worm it spoke.

"We are legion."

***

"What is it?" Adam asked

"Not sure." Krill said, "I have never seen anything like it."

"If you had I would be shocked." Adam said pacing around the cube. His feet echoed on the marble black floor and overhead the cube was completely silent, simply a conduit to.... Whatever this was.

"maybe it's a portal of some kind.... Like in that movie you made us watch." Ramirez said

Adam glowered at him, "I have made you guys watch a lot of movies with portals in them, so you are going to have to narrow that down a bit."

Ramirez rolled his eyes, "The one with the goofy robot who lost his brain and the cyborg with the robotic arm."

"Treasure planet?" Maverick ventured.

"That would be the one" Conn said, "I would interpret for you, but his brain runs like the NASA supercomputer that sent Armstrong to the moon."

Ramirez looked between them, "Was that supposed to be an insult?"

Adam grimaced, "It is, basically he is saying that the average cell phone has more computing power in your brain." Ramirez frowned and patted him on the shoulder, 'Its alright, you're pretty enough not to need to be smart."

Ramirez huffed and Adam laughed.

Conn tittered as well.

Ramirez pointed a finger at him, "Laugh again and that gravity belt comes off."

"What is with you people and always threatening to undress me." He struck a pose, "If you find me attractive, you can just ask."

Ramirez grimaced, 'Ew no, you're not my type, and honestly that is kind of a low bar that you miss considering that everyone is my type."

"Slut." Adam muttered

"You better believe it."

Sunny continued to wander around the cube while Adam continued that line of conversation.

"So aliens aren't your thing."

Ramirez shrugged, "I never said that."

Adam frowned, "Wait really?"

Ramirez shook his head, "Gotta try everything at least once to know if you like it, maybe two or three times to really know for sure. For instance, if a Drev or a Tesraki walked up to me at a bar and offered a good time, I would have to say yes just on principal. Now I will likely never get the chance with the Drev seeing as I would have to fight it first, and that sounds like a lot of work."

Even sunny snorted at that.

Adam rolled his eyes.

Krill crossed his arms, "As much as your banter is entertaining, perhaps we should work on figuring out what we are doing here other than simply causing someone trouble?"

"trying to find answers." Adam said

"Well perhaps we should move on considering that this room clearly does not contain any of those answers. And let us be honest here, you are only using that as an excuse to "go see cool things" again."

Adam shrugged, "Maybe, but what is cooler than the Makers home base."

"My office, my nice warm office where there is light, and a nice steaming mug of sugar water, that is what's COOLER."

"You didn't have to come."

"OF course I had to come!, who else was going to watch out for the group of you. Out of all the galaxy this group of people right here has exactly one braincell between them. For instance, Ramirez is a marine which means we can already rule out on him owning the brain cells."

The others laughed.

"Same thing goes for maverick, though I thought that on occasion she might bother go get some sense. Clearly I was wrong, and then there is Conn, who I might point out went against his entire race to come join the humans galivanting across the universe, and the only thing keeping him alive is a gravity belt that can be undone with one click of a button. Then of course there is you Adam, and I have already waxed long in my explanations of why you are an idiot."

He turned to look at Sunny, "You I am disappointed in, I thought you were better than this, I was counting on you to be the cautious one."

Sunny shrugged, "My brain cells are less affective when spread out over a wide area."

"Might I point out doctor that you also abandoned your own race to go galivanting across the universe with humans, and you can easily be killed if I turn up the thermostat to high."

"That is.... Beside the point."

Adam stepped closer to the cube Next to where Conn was floating, looking down into the vast sky beneath him.

"Well, as much as I would like to know what this thing is-"

There was a loud THUMP at the door.

All of them leaped in their places, startled.

Adam spun on his heel.

And lost his balance.

His hand flailed outward to try and catch onto something, but only managed to snag onto the back of Conn's flannel, and then the two of them were pitched backward. His feet flailed as they fell through the cube's curtain. Blackness faded behind them as they were engulfed by a glowing clear blue sky.

He screamed.

They were falling.