"Ugh..." Nero rubbed his head, dizzy. He had just woken up from a nap. The last thing he remembered was flying in the tornado, and getting hit in the head by something hard. He remembered being close to Rendenburg...
Shoot!
Nero shot up, ignoring a headache. Where even was he? Taking in his surroundings, he was able to come to one possibility:
He was so very lost.
He was in a white room, with a black glass wall on one side, and a white door. The floor was also white but gridded, and there were cameras EVERYWHERE.
"Aaaaaaaaah..." Nero rubbed his forehead. He was SO CLOSE to reaching home! Nero turned his hand around to check for bleeding and paused. There was a tattoo on his hand. 10,019 "Huh," Nero wondered aloud, before looking at his clothing. His cape was ripped, and so was his clothing, but not too severely. To be safe, Nero closed his eyes, focused on being an inkling, and felt his hair change, and the pattern on his eyes turn to the inkling pattern, his tail disappeared, and his ghostly form faded. I don't want anyone to know I'm an octoling or a ghost.
/ / Ping! / / / / Subject 10,019 has awoken, beginning phase one / /
A loud robotic voice scratched from a black speaker in the corner of the room. Nero jolted, immediately alert. What? HUH? Confused, Nero turned to the glass wall, which he could see nothing out of. He pressed his face against the wall, trying to see through it. A loud rumble came from behind him, and Nero turned around to see one of the walls slowly lifting, revealing an identical room, but with people in it. There were five people in the room, not including Nero, and they were all inklings. That's...odd... Nero coughed, and the five inklings snapped to attention, noticing Nero for the first time. "Hey!" A blue inkling girl stood up and approached Nero. "Are you alright?" She had a gray sweater on, and the words Idol Were written on it. She had black shorts, and black shoes, and had a blue and white bobble hat. She wore a cheerful expression, her closed eyes and her open smiling mouth seemed to be stuck in place because they never changed a single bit.
"I think so..." Nero rubbed his head, looking around, and then observed the other inklings. They all had different colored tentacles and different expressions. And they were all boys. There was an inkling with pink tentacles, seemed to be in a cheerful mood, and he seemed like a party animal. He had a blue Hawaiian shirt with white flows printed all over it. He wore a sun hat and black shorts. An expressionless purple inkling stared off into the distance, wearing a black and white skull bandana as a mask, and a red shirt that faded to salmon pink. He also had black shorts. Then there was an inkling with cyan tentacles and wore a gas mask. he had a camo long-sleeved shirt on, also with black shorts. And then there was a yellow-green inkling. He had a black rider jacket, and black shorts, and had no headgear, unlike the others, he looked grumpy and didn't seem to notice Nero.
"I'm Bobble Hat," Nero's attention went back to the blue girl. "What's your name?" "Nero," Nero pointed to the boys. "Who are they?"
"Ah! That's Aloha," Bobble Hat pointed to the pink boy, "Mask," the cyan boy turned and noticed Nero when he heard his name. "Skull," Bobble Hat gestured to the purple boy. "and that's Rider," Rider glanced at Nero, then back to the wall. "We've been here for about two days." Bobble Hat shrugged, then paused as the white door at the other side of the room creaked open, revealing soldiers, humans, all covered in white gear, faces covered by black helmets. There were about a dozen of them, and they marched over to the inklings, pinned their hands behind their backs, and marched them out the door. "Hey!" Rider yelled, lashing at the soldier who pinned his arms and tackled him, slamming his bare fists into the soldier's steel chest plate. Several soldiers piled onto Rider until he was pinned on the ground, thrashing and yelling. All Nero saw was Rider making two seconds of eye contact with him before Nero was swept down the corridor into darkness.
As Nero and the four other inklings were brought down dark hallways, they passed windows that showed parts of what looked like a scientist's lab. there were tubes and posts everywhere, and there were large glass tubes with blue liquid bubbling inside them. As the hallway came to an end, there were three doors at the end. The soldiers split into three groups, Bobble2 Hat and Nero were in one, Mask and Aloha in one, and Skull in another. Nero heard crashing behind him, and Nero watched a struggling and bleeding Rider brought over to Skull. Nero was able to cast a pleading look to Mask before the groups were brought through the doors.
--
As Nero and Bobble Hat were brought through the hall, Nero spotted another door with a keypad at the end. As they were thrown into it, the lights flicked on in the room, the door slammed shut, and Nero and Bobble Hat were alone in the room. It looked exactly like the white one they were in, but smaller, and the black glass was barely see-through now. On the other side were humans in lab coats and goggles, looking through the glass and scribbling on clipboards.
"Great," Nero huffed, turning to Bobble Hat, "What now?"
Bobble Hat was fussing with the door. "There must be a way out..." she murmured. "Do you have a bobby pin?"
Nero rustled his har, turning back to the glass, and watched one of the scientists move to a keypad, talking. Nero squinted his eyes, trying to read what she was saying, and watched as the scientist pulled a lever. A glass pane fell out from the ceiling, splitting the room into two mini rooms. Bobble Hat and Nero yelped in shock. They were separated. Nero banged at the clear glass, "Bobble Hat!" He yelled. Then he glared at the scientist. Why you... The scientist pressed the keypad, and gas started steaming out of the ceiling on Bobble Hat's side. "This gas, Ni2oX, should have the victim's mind and vision be nothing but their worst fears, and into their brains so it will be ready for the CiST3x chamber," Nero murmured, reading the scientist's lips. Panicking, he turned to Bobble Hat, who was withering on the floor. "No No No No!!!" She shrieked, before going still.
"Bobble Hat!? Bobble Hat look at me!!" Nero banged on the glass. Bobble Hat stared at Nero, tears streaming down the face she had since she saw Nero. The gas died down, then clean oxygen poured out of the ceiling, and Bobble hat stopped shivering. She got up and put her hand against Nero's from the other side of the glass. Nero smiled, released, but then the Ni2oX gas hissed on his side of the glass. Nero paused, his breath going into shaking rasps, then crumbled, visions flashing through his head. Water, water everywhere, flowing through his mouth, filling his mouth, choking him, pressing the life out of him, squeezing every single drop of hope in his heart. He was faintly aware of Bobble Hat banging on the glass, crying, screaming, begging for him to get up. As Nero withered, he felt himself lose control of his inkling disguise. No! Come back! But it was no use. His hair changed, the inkling pattern shifted to Octoling on his eyes, and his tail appeared. Stop! Nero was able to hold his ghost form close, preventing it from coming onto his body. No one must know. The last thing he heard was Bobble Hat whispering, "N-Nero?" before he lost consciousness.
YOU ARE READING
Hello, I'm Dead
FantasyNero's dead, and surprisingly, he's as happy as can be for some reason. His depression problem is gone, he has his voice, and he actually has feelings! But he feels different, and he still has no memories of his previous life, and when he comes back...
