4- The first experiment

I had to stop the mesmerizing gaze of Faraday towards me since it was actually making me uncomfortable. once we introduced ourselves again face to face I told Faraday to go back inside her cage so I can actually concentrate in trying to figure out everything in the manual that Alan filled with so Mani post-it notes that he practically made a book on his own inside the manual.

I had to close the door but I could still see thru the window inside the cage, from time to time I could see Faraday looking towards me then turning away almost immediately. looking ashamed of what she is doing, clearly something is going on inside her mind, did I do something wrong? anyway, it's not time to be thinking about what ifs, I need to keep going.

...

So, apparently there is a button here that allows this window to be looked at from both sides. I'll remember that because we'll need it later since this is basically my lab now and I can't let Faraday out of that room. but that'll have to wait until I need it.

I think I finally got a hold of the room and I'm pretty sure I can make this work. so let's get right into it

I turn to the window again to see Faraday again in her bed, writing in what I can assume to be a diary.... I hope she is not writing bad things about me.

I press the microphone button again

-Faraday, I finished with the room, I think I can make this work now so we can start once you think we are ready.

-Start... wait what are we doing again?

-finding a material

-Right....how

- Oh it's simple we just.....

Oh

- I think we can do trial and error with a bunch of alloys and see Wich ones get us the best results, but before even that I think we need to really find what you're capable of. did someone one ever did tests on you?

-Eeeh no... I think the only think resembling an experiment was Mr wall-

-Alan

-Eh?

-Mr wall is Alan, faraday

-Oh yeah I keep forgetting he was a human too haha sorry. anyway I think the only thing I did was zap an antenna they put in the hole I get my food from, I zapped it and then Mr... Alan never asked me to do anything again and I never asked about it

-Hmmm. let me see what I can find about it. Faraday can you please wait for me while I go and talk to Alan?

-Oh yeah sure I can wait, and please tell him I said hello 👋

-Yeah sure thing

when I exit the control room I'm greeted with the primary question of life.

Where the fuck is Alan?.

He said I could call him whenever I needed help, yeah, but he kinda forgot the fact that I don't have a phone, they took it away from me at the entrance, and he didn't even get me a number to call... he left me alone didn't he?. I mean that is what I expected to happen this was all too good to be re-

-Hi there

-How

-How what?

-How the hell did you know I needed to talk to you ?

-Aaaw you did? I'm glad you remembered me

-Where the hell did you came from?

-I was outside the door the whole time, you didn't turn when you left the room, I was right next to you.

-....

-What?

-Why

-Oh I wanted to hear faraday's reaction, and see if you treated her well, you did quite a good job may I add

-...sureeeee... anyway I need to ask you something

-Sure go ahead

-I need a baseline to start working on the material, and Faraday told me that you only did 1 experiment this whole time, may I ask what you learned about that?

- Oh let's see....oh right the one rod from 15 years ago yeah

-Wait 15?

-Yeah, Faraday was only 5 years old, quite a cute girl

- You experimented in a 5 year old little girl?

-Well I told her I needed a favor to ask her and asked her to zap the rod with one of her fingers, she melted it in les than 0.03 seconds according to our fastest recording camera.

-Well I mean it's a lightning it's supposed to be hot

-Oh I didn't tell you the best part yet, that rod was an allow made from tungsten and tantalum carbide, all covered with a energy shield from madame Gustave.

-THE WHAT?!

-Yeah madame was there, and she was angry that her shield got absolutely destroyed, you should have seen her face

-Bu-but madame Gustave is one of the 7 members of the high council, she is supposed to be invincible!

-Yeah apparently she isn't.

- How can you say something like that all relaxed?! this means there exists someone more powerful than people on the high council!

-Yeah it's kinda neat ain't?

-No it's n.... well it is but still, how can you be so chill about this? this is such a huge news, and kinda bad because it means it's unstoppable, how the hell did they keep Faraday alive?

-There are... some things I can't tell you yet, but let me assure you non of the council want Faraday death, they just want to contain her. madame was sour about the whole thing yeah but to be honest she isn't even the most powerful of the 7. still pretty impressive isn't it?

-Well yeah, but that means she just disappeared one of the strongest materials known to science against heat that was already powered by one of the 7 and she did that when she was only 5

-Yeah pretty much, awesome right?!

-... I have a problem then

-With what?

-How the hell do I discover something to go beyond that, that is literally the best combination we know

- Well I mean, you said it yourself, that WE know, you the tools at your disposal and the best testing ground available. I know you can do it mate, I trust in you

Why does that goddamm smile work so well

- Fine I'll see what I can do, but I'll have to do more thorough experiments, are you ok with that?

-as long as you don't harm Faraday I'm ok with everything so please try not to take it too far with her

-I hope it doesn't go that far, you can trust me.

-Okey fine by me then, I have to go now, if you need to find me I'll always be by the office near the entrance of the facility, I'm watching the cameras of the whole facility now while you work in my office.

-Oh thank God you told me where to go this time, I didn't knew where to go before I encountered you here.

Then Alan proceeds to walk away in the hallway shaking his hand to me and smiling, I'm beginning to believe he is some kind of experiment on its own, there is no way someone so kind works here and enjoys his job like that, there is something unusual about him and it makes me feell uneasy

this whole thing still feels like an elaborated trap.

but I still don't know for what purpose. they clearly don't want to kill me, they want so use me, but still I feel it has nothing to do with Faraday. either way it's not an intelligent decision for me to go against their wishes, so I'll play on the plan for now.

first thing I need to figure out is how Faraday works. and maybe I know how to do it.

I'll need to run some experiments.

I return to the control room to see Faraday lying in her bed face down writing in her little book again, while she is listening to music and dangling her legs.

I approach her cage so I can stand right in front of it, as I notice she isn't looking at me again, I then hit one of the metal bars with my prosthetic arm, and using my finger I hit the bar so hard a loud sound comes from it, enough to make my ears ring, and enough for Faraday to be scared to death, who then proceeds to get scared again once she sees me and proceeds to Hug tightly the book she was writing in, and then turns her body around avoiding me, she clearly doesn't want me to see that book.

-AH ah Ms cecile I didn't see you there hahaha- she says being nervous and sweating a little

-Yeah I can see that, anyway, I'm ready to start with some tests so I need to see if you're too

-Tests? already? I thought you were going to see Mr Alan to ask him something

-Yeah and I did, it was kinda short but he told me what I needed to know, I'm Al prepared now, although I realized I have a ton of work ahead

-Did you tell Mr Alan I said hello?

I forgot about it, oh well, doesn't matter

-Yeah he says hello too, he'll come and visit some time

-Yaaay - a barely noticeable increase in the brightness of her hair exposes her true excitement

this really does mean a lot for her... I see...

-Anyway you ready?

-Yeah sure, let's do it ms cecile

-Alright wait for me here now I just need to go inside the room to retrieve some tools.

-Oky dokie (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)

..... right

inside the control room I saw the equipment they used back in the day when they did the rod experiment on Faraday, including the camera and some cables with sensors in them, and I gotta say for being 15yr old, this camera really stands out as high tech. even for today modern technology, they must have had a really good engineer back in the day.

I have a personal curiosity about everything Faraday can do now that I know she is in such a high level, but I need to focus in finishing my work so I'll just focus for now in the intensity of her lightning power. for now I'll be using the sensors, unless I can figure out how to make this camera work in thermal mode.

Faraday was still sitting in the bed with her earphones on, the moment she sees me she jumps of the bed and walks towards the door of the cage to meet me there.

-So, I'll need you to take out your uper shirt so I can put some of these in you arm

- Y-you want me to take out my shirt?

-Yes, I need you to expose your arms, either of them works.

- I mean... sure

the little bit of red that appeared in her face was concerning at first, until I realized that I'm the first person to ask her to take out her clothes... one clothe, but still I can see why that would be embarrassing to someone in her situation.

The moment she finishes getting out of her orange shirt i put the membranes of the sensors on her arm, I approach a little close to her to get sure I'm putting them in the correct order and place.

The way we are positioned right now makes it so Faraday has her face close to my chest, the moment I hear tiny sounds coming from below my head I turn to see Faraday who is red as a tomato and facing the complete opposite direction.

-Are you ok Faraday?

-Y-yeah I'm good it's just that the nodes a-are cold and it feels weird

oh yeah, surely

-So, it's ready, ok they're situated on your forearm so if you focus on your finger tips there shouldn't be any kind of problem, and I SHOULD be able to see some kind of reading in the device right here. so. since I don't have any metal around here.

-Zap my arm

-What?

-Hit it with a lightning, I'll be ok, don't worry

-But isn't that connected to your body?

-The material is non conductive don't worry about it

-Are you sure Ms cecile? this really sounds dangerous.

- It's fine, trust me ok?

- Oook... here I go

you know, when you're in danger people say that life starts happening in milliseconds, the suddenly you can see every detail in your surroundings as if they were happening in slow motion. and I can see that those words were real, for a moment I can see a lightning rip the flesh of faraday's finger before it strikes my arm with such a force it completely rips apart every part on it from the hand to the shoulders was absolutely decimated and destroyed, I can still see the flying parts near my face. the knockback from the impact made me fall from where I was standing right to the floor where I hit my head in one of the tubes of the cage.

The pain coming from my head was intense, but the hit wasn't hard enough for me to lose consciousness, the ringing in my ears stopped me from hearing the worried Faraday screaming that she was sorry so fast that the words coming out of her mouth were not understandable by how fast they were coming out. the moment the ringing stops and I recover from my blurry vision i see in front of my face Faraday crying and sobbing her heart out.

-Miss Cecile please wake up I'm so sorry I didn't mean to hurt you!

- I uh... augh this hurts, I'm ok Faraday it's just a flesh wound at best, it just hurts but I'll be fine don't worry

-Im really sorry please don't be mad at me I swear it was an accident

- Yeah I know it was an accident it's ok... augh goddamm. I think I need to leave for now. I need some sleep

-Noooo miss Cecile please don't go, I said I'm sorry I swear.

-I'll be coming back geez, it's just that I finished for today, tomorrow I'll be back

-O-ok... pls come back.

After saying that Faraday wiped her face with her hand, trying desperately to clean all the tears she just let go a moment a go, maybe in an attempt to calm her nerves. I can tell she is scared of me leaving her behind and never coming back, but I can't do that, I need this job.

I'm finally able to stand up and I start walking towards the door and in the mesh of sobs and tears I hear a low worried voice telling herself a deep wish

-Please como back...

This is becoming quite annoying.

After I reach the security check again I see Alan waiting for me near the guards

- Hey miss how you doing?... is everything right? your holding your head a lot

-I hit my head during one test, I'm good tho, it just hurts... I'm just tired you know

-Oh I see, you sure you're ok? I can lead you to the infirmary if you want, we have good doctors

- I think I'm right but thanks, I really just want to sleep for now

-Okay sounds good. yo guys can you give Ms cecile her things again?

-Sure thing Mr Marco.

They then lend me back by bag and my things that's when I remember how I got here in the first place.

-Wait how I'm I getting home?

-9h a portal will appear in your home, don't worry about it.

Alan then puts out a phone from his jacket to start a call.

-Yo? umbra, Cecile wants to go home for now so open one of those.

As he finishes his sentence another one of those damned purple things appears behind me.

As I see the other side of the entrance I notice it is going straight to my room. I thought it would leave near the street where I live, or let me in one of the bus lines of the city, but they actually just know where I live on full detail. I quite feel uneasy by that.

-How do I go back to work? I don't know where this portal guy lives or anything

-Oh right, here, have this.

Alan lends me a paper with a phone number written on it, so I put it on my bag. I then walk thru the portal and end up in my room, as I turn around to check my back y see Alan in the other side waving his hand and smiling as the portal closes leaving my previously illuminated room bathing now in the darkness of the night. As I stumble upon my bed my thoughts are filled with reflexions about my life decisions and what lend me to deal with this kind of bullshit.

Wait now I remember my arm is broken but....

Wait.

Why isn't my arm destroyed?.

I remember it clearly, it exploded, I saw the fragments, I saw the explosion I saw the impact. this is the whole reason I hit my head in the first place why is my arm intact?...

wait no, it's not intact, it's not functional, most likely the joints are not connected right, so....

it WAS destroyed, but got rebuild, but not because of me.

I didn't do this, Alan didn't, the portal guy most likely didn't do it because he looks dumb as a rock and it would take an immense amount of time to even finish the forearm on its own, and he clearly doesn't like to be subtle about the things he does

so the only one left...

Oh for the love of god.

How?I didn't see any movement what so ever when she was in front of me, and even when I had blurry vision i could still see glimpses of things happening, I could have saw her moving with no problem. Even more, she was crying the whole time while begging in her knees for me to not get mad at her, the only time I didn't see her face to face was when I was leaving, and the space from when I turned and she said her thing was barely 2 seconds.

She managed to put all the pieces together one by one in the span of about 1.5 seconds. And for it to be so fast I didn't even realize it happened at all means it should have taken fractions of a millisecond. No, no way, that's way too good to be true, it must have been Alan, he clearly has some kind of magnetic manipulation and he used it on me while I was talking to him, it makes sense that he didn't ask me about it in the first place, he was just repairing it while I was distracted. that makes quite a lot of sense, he never told me he had one of those souls but it makes sense for him to have some kind of special ability to deal with the job he is doing, and we have seen magnetic manipulation before.

Alan you cheeky bastard, you could have told me so we could have avoided this, you just scared me so hard.

Although his almost null knowledge in prosthetics shows, this is quite an amateur job coming from someone at the 7th division. I should teach him some day how to actually do the job right, because most likely I'll have this kind of incidents going forward with Faraday. in the mean time I'll repair this tomorrow... I'm really tired right now...

The softness of my bed combined with the alluring texture of my bedsheets slowly wrap my mind and soul so they can be delivered to Morpheus in an ever pleasing sensation going through my body and....

Nothing happens

I can't sleep

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September 7

Today Ms cecile went away to talk to Alan, it was quite short but I got so distracted writing that she sacred me when she went back, I was really scared!! I even threw the diary when she made that sound, but I managed to grab it again, it's not like I have something wrong written in here, but I would still be ashamed is she read my diary...

But... maybe some day I will let her

When Ms cecile wanted to start a experiment she put some nodes on me, they were cold, it startled me a bit but what was really surprising was that she got so close to me. I could smell her perfume, she smells really pretty. it was like the cookies Mr Alan sends me sometimes, I think it's the smell of vanilla.

Ms cecile is really beautiful, her face is really pretty and she is tall, so having her so close made my heart race a bit, I think my face was red because I could fell something in my cheeks, I hope she didn't notice (⁠・⁠_⁠・⁠;⁠)