By David C. Daoust
“My goodness!” Hamlin exclaimed as he did what he could to extinguish the small fire atop his head.
Hamlin stood, alarmed, before a full length mirror, patting at his head – trying to figure out why his actions did not seem to make much of a difference to the wild fire that raged above his brow… nor, after a moment of freaking out, seem to be actually burning him in any way. He realized, dryly, the small tuft of fire was part of the holographic form that made up his body.
Once he calmed down, he got a good look at his new form. Yellow and red…? Not really his colors. As he grumbled, he got a feel for some of the forms abilities… with but a thought of his blue colored cloak, which he’d become accustomed to wearing among the Royals of Delphine, the color of his new body suddenly shifted to match it in color- with a little more concentration, he shifted the yellow to a bit of white. He was pleased with the change; it matched his normal digs, at least a bit closer.
Upon studying his neck, which was made up of a clear field; Hamlin could feel it, he just couldn’t see it. After a moment of thought, it seemed like it shouldn’t be that much different than changing color. He concentrated some more, and found that he could spread the clear field, throughout his entire body, leaving only the rather unusually bobbing Holobot device visible to give him a way.
Unlike the color change though, making himself invisible seemed to be taxing. He held it as long as he could; he imagined the strain was akin to a human holding their breath. Yet once he was at his limit, the familiar blue and white form, and the raging fire above, returned.
Hamlin shrugged as he studied the rest of his surroundings.
He had absentmindedly left the workroom in which his holobot device was just fabricated, all in search of that reflective surface which he used to get a better look at himself. Now, he found himself in a small lavatory across the hall.
Hamlin was on a mission. He knew where he was- a Starport on Twin Crown. He knew where he had to get- as far north as he could. The means of actually getting there- still in question.
It was the voices in the hall that broke his train of thought.
They sounded hurried, and the hushed tones, told him they were likely up to no good. He stepped behind the opened door, and peered through the crack between the hinges… he saw an old man with an impressive mustache, and a teenager with a shock of red hair.
Of course, it was not until they both suddenly looked in his direction- that he remembered about the raging fire on top of his head. He sighed as the red headed teenager came to investigate the strange light.
He had no choice but to go invisible. Upon doing so he then dove behind the sink in the hopes that the telltale device may go unnoticed.
The teenager entered the room, got a good look around, finding nothing, he turned back to return to his companion in the hall. Hamlin hurriedly followed behind, slipped through the door before the teen could unknowingly shut him within the room; he could only hope the pair did not notice his floating Holobot device bobbing around.
In the hallway, he got a quick look at what they were up to. They appeared to be trying to drag a large floating device down the hallway by a long rope that they had tied around it.
He was reaching his limit- Hamlin had no choice but to duck into another workroom across the hall, less he flicker back to normal right in front of them.
Luckily, the light was a bit better in this room, so when he let himself appear, the light did not change so much as it had when he was shifting about in the darkened lavatory.
They were headed for this very same room!
Hamlin jumped, rather impressively, up onto a worktable, and then up to the top of a storage cabinet. The fire on his head was really not helpful at all- not even a bit. He snatched up an old grimy tarp that was tucked within an upper shelf of the cabinet, pulling it over his head he managed to hide the holographic flame from sight as he ducked back within the shadows above…
The old man entered first, dragging the floating device behind him, pulling with all his might at the rope tied around it, the red headed teen followed behind, pushing the contraption with his shoulder.
“This wasn’t exactly the plan,” the old man stated once the pair dragged the device into the room and got a minute to study the workroom full of tools. “I mean, I know what we’re doing -destroy the Brain Stealer- but this isn’t really playing out right.”
What the old man called a ‘Brain Stealer’, Hamlin recognized as a ‘brain cloning device’. It was old tech, ancient stuff, even most Arkroys don’t know how it works anymore. Hamlin sure didn’t know much more about it, except that he doubted the AIs would want it to come to harm.
“There has to be something in here that can crack this thing open,” The teenager answered, “I don’t think anyone expected it to be so hard to wipe!”
“Clearly,” the old man said grimly as he dragged a heavy oversized sledge hammer from a side cabinet. “What’ya bet this’ll get’er done.”
The teenager laughed.
This was not a human sized hammer, it was clearly built for a gigantic droid to work with… Hamlin did not believe the old man could even heft it, yet to Hamlin’s surprise, he managed to get the hammer up on one shoulder before he approached the device menacingly.
The man squared his shoulders as he flung his whole body, throwing his momentum into the hammer as it arched over head- to come smashing down against the device. The device ricocheted about the room, smashing from wall to wall, barreled the boy over, who landed on his backside, and than dented the large cabinet Hamlin was hiding above. Gave the hidden Aspirant a good shake, as he watched the device slow to a halt. Despite the damage to the room, not so much as a spark flew from Brain Stealer’s inners, nor a dent appear on its surface.
The old man grunted in disappointment.
Abandoning the hammer, the two started sorting through tools; power drills and coupling devices. The old man started studying the Brain Stealer’s seams, trying to find a place to drill…
Unnoticed, the teen approached with a massive plasma cutter clutched in the nook of one arm. He got the old man’s attention by gripping the trigger tightly, he let the plasma roar over his devious grin.
A grin the old man returned upon the sight of the impressive tool.
Suddenly a small window opened in the center of the ‘Brain Stealer’ device, revealing a lens that, in turn, projected a hologram into the room…
“Wait, wait,” the hologram hastily begged, a look of sheer panic on its face as its body was still being woven together, “Please, don’t destroy me! I only just came to be!”
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