Clouded Skies: Chapter Three
A.N: This was changed and rewrote by 4 of us like 5 times so apologies if the writing styles gets a bit wacky. This will not be a common occurrence!
"Marina?" White text flashed across her vision. Marina's brow twitched, ignoring the bright text as best she could.
"Marina?" The message burned into her vision again.
"Marina, I told you to keep your comms on!" The woman sighed, stretching her limbs out and blinking away the overlays that swarmed her vision once she opened her eyes. Marina laid in the air, black cables wrapped around her limbs, hooking into the walls around her and securing her in the air. The wind from the ventilation made her sway in the air, the cables sliding in their holds as she flipped herself upright in the air.
A call notification blinks annoyingly in the corner of her eye. Marina cursed under her breath, giving up her attempt at ignoring it and connected to the call.
"Somebody better be dead or dying." Marina snapped, tying her waist long hair up into a messy bun as she spoke. "This better be really fucking good."
"We are open, you know, cut the swearing." Vanessa grumbled with a sigh. "Where are you?" Marina swung herself to the wall, finding her footing on the thin ledge. One hand searched the wall for the light fixture, the other reaching up to the ledge above her, her metal fingers digging into the concrete to keep her stable.
"Oh, you know, just hanging around." Marina hummed, a small smile curling her lips as her fingers met the smooth plastic case around the lights. Her fingers pressed into the plastic, and a purple spark jumped through the case, reaching the light and fueling it to life. The neon light flared to life, the energy transferring to the other light fixtures around it, illuminating the elevator chamber in a purple hue.
Marina smiled, looking down to the decommissioned elevator in the basement that she used to climb into the chamber. Now, from the top, the elevator was a small speck in the distance, the vent she opened at the top was even smaller.
"Now, get to the chase would you? I don't have all day, and I was hoping to get some rest before my shift tonight."
"Jackie didn't show, and nobody can pick up her shift at Fazerblast." Vanessa seemed to sense Marina's anger flaring, and was quick to cut her off. "I'll double your pay, and Kevin will cover your shift tomorrow. You'll have the day off for that big event." Marina sighed, rolling her eyes. What was Vanessa expecting her to do at the event anyway? Marina didn't know what it was for, just that they were maxing out the building's capacity for the whole day on parties alone. Her father had practically everyone scheduled, she was originally supposed to work a double. She didn't have much she could do, the crowds were too much for her to hang out in the arcade, and her room could get lonely quick.
"You do realize I have an appointment at Part's and Service right?" Vanessa hummed.
"Yeah, just head straight over to when you're done and I won't complain." Marina clicked her tongue.
"You even think about asking me to work tomorrow, Vanessa, I'll kick your ass." Marina disconnected the call, glancing down at the elevator once more before she fell forward. She flipped in the air, straightening herself out when the elevator grew close enough. She hooked the free cable to the system screwed into the metal venting, slowing her to a stop a few feet from the metal floor. Marina smiled, untangling herself from the strings and sending them back into the system. It certainly wasn't the excellent quality, the cables not nearly as sturdy as the hooks Moon used to get around but it was a close enough match. She hadn't fallen and died yet so she wasn't complaining.
Marina forced open the elevator doors, squeezing herself through the gap and letting them slam shut behind her. The coldness of the service tunnels immediately sunk into her skin, a harsh chill shooting up her spine as she made her way deeper into the basement. The basements always made her anxious, the labyrinth of tunnels always found a way to make her lost. With her monthly prosthetic maintence visits to Parts & Service, she memorized one route, but if she missed one turn, it was a lost cause. It ended up becoming a running joke amongst her coworkers, much to Marina's dismay.
Parts & Service was far too loud for her, she could feel the buzzing of machinery beneath her feet before even she reached the door. She peaked her head in the doorway, scanning the room for one of the two mechanics on shift. Wyatt, the newest of the mechanics, peaked his head out from the back room with a toothy grin, his hands covered in black oil.
"Hey Rina! Just give me a second!" Wyatt ducked back into the room. Marina scoffed at the nickname, hesitantly making her way deeper into the room. Marina sat at the desk in front of the protective chamber, glancing at the endoskeleton inside.
"You want me to disconnect these or you want to run dio's first?" Marina called, locking her jaw shut as she caught movement in the corner of her eye. She fought the urge to look over, curling her hands into tight fists. The mechanical whirring grew louder and louder. It drilled into her head, piercing in volume that likely would have deafened her if she had organic hearing.
She forced her hands open, tearing her eyes away from the endoskeleton to work at prying her right leg prosthetic off. She couldn't care less what Wyatt's response was anymore. She needed something to focus on. Something to keep her fingers from carving into the flesh and metal of her arms. Something to shut the damned whirring up-
"I get that it's my job to fix that, but can you not break it right before I have to work on it?"
Marina froze, the whirring quickly fading away to nothing.
Her fingers were dug beneath the metal plating separating her thigh from the prosthetic, hellbent on prying off the clasps from underneath them. She slowly pulled away her hands, exposing the bent, scraped metal under her fingertips. Wyatt stood to her left, head tilted as he looked down at her, brows furrowed with a small frown.
"Right." She mumbled, cracking her fingers and twisting her hands together anxiously. "Did you-"
"You can take them off, it's no problem. You feeling alright?" His eyes bounced from her to the damage she did, winding his jaw. "I can call Nicholas if-"
"I'm fine." She cut him off, quickly unsecuring the prosthetic properly, tossing it on the desk as if it metal burned her. "I'll need your help with my arms." Marina reminded, glancing up at the man's expression. Wyatt had been hired for for few months now, but he always looked like a deer in headlights whenever he saw her prosthetics, despite working with endoskeletons daily. "Okay?" She asked when he stayed silent, setting the metal calf and foot on the desk. Wyatt nodded quickly, rushing to her, awkwardly holding his hands out.
"What do you need me to..." He trailed off. Marina sighed, slowly unfastening the clasps at her left shoulder, making sure he was watching. "I need you to do that for the ones at my bicep, alright?" Wyatt nodded quickly, and she took off her left arm, hesitantly setting it down before holding her other arm out to him.
"I hope for your sake that you paid attention." Marina sighed wearily, leaning back in the chair, the plastic dug uncomfortably in her back. Wyatt rushed to pull it off, almost flinching back when he pulled it away, as if the girl would hurt him. She wasn't sure how he expected her to hit him when she was practically immobile, he was the one carrying her limbs into a different room after all.
Wyatt peaks his head out of the doorway again. "You gonna be alright sitting here for a while? This'll take me a bit."
"Yes, just-" She waves her hand in the air dismissively. "You're fine, just get it done, please." She added the 'please' a little too late, but hoped it still calmed the nervous mechanic. Wyatt nodded quickly, grabbing a few tools before heading back into the room.
She sighed, nudging herself closer to the desk with her elbow, reading over the computer screen. The screen was cracked and dark, the green text practically impossible to see. The technology was horrendously outdated, it had to be at least 50 years old. Why the company couldn't cough up the money to give the maintence crew decent tech was beyond her. It was no wonder the animatronics had so many glitches when the ones repairing them had tech from the 90's. She struggled to find the right angle to read the text, a dull pain shooting through her arm each time her elbow rolled into the desk. Her balance wavered, threatening to send her to the floor.
"Can you hear me?~" A glitched voice echoed through the room, buzzing painfully in her ears. The room spun around her, and she forcefully shoved herself back into the chair. A wave of nausea washed over her, her vision faded in and out of focus. She searched the room frantically, her ribs painfully contracting in panicked gasps. Dull colors melted into concrete, layered figures swayed across the room. Dark forms stretched tall, growing wider and wider with lunging steps, bright red starbursts burning at the top of the figures.
A frigid grip curled around her neck, the blurred figures inches away from her. Marina thrashed against the feeling, frantically blinking in an attempt to regain her vision. Her systems screamed at her, flashing alarms that only hindered her vision more.
"Marina~" Her entire body froze against her will, despite how much she resisted. Two ruby eyes suddenly focused before her, inches from her face.
"Let's have some fun~" The grip around her neck disappeared, only only a garsh shock burned down her spine, her teeth grinding together, a muffled scream coming through her lips. Her senses died, her hearing dying with a painful crack, her head rolling forward, leaving her in complete darkness. Raspy breath curled through her lips, her vision coming back in bursts of static.
Her head flew up, bloodshot eyes feverishly scanning the room for the figures and the source of the voice.
Her body trembled, muscles finally unraveling their tight coils, almost collapsing in on herself as she laid her head on the desk. The cold stung her burning skin, but she didn't have the energy to move, her system still screaming alarms at her from the attack.
Hallucination, she corrected herself.
