OBLIVIOUS

Chapter 17

"Don't let him escape!" yelled the woman who was on that window while I got up from sprawling on the floor. It was a struggle because I was shot by something on my left shoulder.

"They're going to capture you," Baron whispered to my ears, who helped me stood up, but it was already too late. I could feel my head spinning again. And he was right. Several White Shadows were running towards us from the upper landing of the stairs where I came from. "Let me help you."

I don't know what he was going to do because I could not see him, but I think he's going to meet the White Shadows halfway before they reach me. And that's what happened. The White Shadows were all screaming in shock when one by one they were tripping or they were being pushed down the stairs before they could even take a step closer to me.

"It's him! He's here! Be careful!" the woman warned her men, which meant that they were really talking about capturing Baron too a while ago. "He's just using his ability! Other than that, he is just the same!"

But that advice didn't help them at all, because Baron was strong enough to take them all. I really wanted to know what he was doing, but since I was shot I could only try to stay conscious.

"Just get to Axis 1! Leave him for now!"

That confirmed a lot of things. I tried to stand up straight, but something happened to my body ever since they shot me with some type of drug, I guess. I think I'm starting to get paralyzed again, and this was going bad. I was also starting to have hallucinations. I could see faces whenever I close my eyes. I was becoming weak again.

The faces seemed to be calling me, but I just can't figure out what they were saying. I think there were at least three faces which were more of silhouettes rather than images.

In my mind, I was furious and enraged at what was just happening to me, because I don't want to get captured again. I don't want to go back to where I woke up. This was unfair. I could already feel my adrenaline piling up because of the frustration that was already swelling up inside of me. I wanted to strangle someone. I wanted to hurt the enemies. I wanted to attack.

But the moment that I was just yearning showed itself when three White Shadows were already holding into me. They were attempting to carry me, but because I was muddy all over it proved to be a difficult task as the mud slightly spread into the protective suit that I was wearing. Being messy has its own advantages I guess.

"Remove the goddamn suit from him!" one of the White Shadows yelled, to which they did as fast as they can. "He's slippery!"

"He's just sliding through our grip because we are wearing the suit too! Our suits became slimy too from touching him!"

"Then remove your suits dammit!" They were very tenacious in doing their best to capture me, but I wasn't going to go to them willingly. That's why with all my might, I tried to touch them using my bare hands on their bare skin. "He's still conscious! Be careful!"

But I was already in my element. Sparks started to cackle like some weird magic out of my bare palms, and because they took their suits off too just to be able to hold me tightly, they totally received the high voltage power of my electricity.

They shouted and then fell unconscious to the floor, causing the other White Shadows to back down. I think they already know what I can do, so they took caution with me. However, the woman that seems to be a high-ranking official on this facility was preparing to do something I immediately felt as threatening, because her face looked confident and fierce. She was holding what looked like a whip while she walked towards me.

"Let's go, Axis!" Baron had scooped me again and carried me on his shoulders but this time, he was completely invisible. It was an extremely odd feeling, because to my point of view I was floating in midair while he was carrying me. How I wish I could be invisible right now too.

Baron was running through the corridor here on the second floor where the end led to another set of stairs when I heard Vista's voice again. "There it is again! They are really using her as a bait to us just like that. Do they think that we are that dumb? They should have given us more credit than what they give us now. We escaped from this facility by only using our instincts. I feel very insulted by this..." Baron was close enough in cursing the White Shadows and I was just listening because I was already sleepy. The drug that was in my body was already taking effect, and everything became dark.

***

I woke up feeling thirsty. When I open my eyes everywhere was pitch black, except for a familiar flower that I knew was used by Baron as a lamp substitute. "You're awake." I saw Baron beside me, eating food that smelled so good that my stomach lurched and I gave in and joined him.

It was when I realized that we were already back in the cave, back in the spot where I left him. And we were not alone. Nest to Baron was an unconscious woman, who wore a protective suit just like the White Shadows. The woman had to be in her late twenties, with jet black hair and sharp features.

"She's a White Shadow named Bridgette," Baron told me as we continued our meal. "I stalked her on her quarters and learned that she's just new here. Maybe she's just here for several months because I heard her talking about not still getting used to the weather and the poisonous smoke."

"How did you catch her?"

"I mistakenly hid on her quarters, but as she can't see me she was defenseless. I tied her and knocked her out and left her somewhere her people won't see her. Then I went to search for you, and when we reunited I came to pick her up."

"Woah, woah, wait..." I said, trying to digest everything that he just said. "You did this all by yourself? How can you even carry the two of us back here? You were just at the brink of death before I left you!"

"It was not easy," Baron said with a frown. And then he proceeded to narrate what had happened after I left him. He was knocked out as I left, but got woken up because the bite marks on his chest and neck were searing in pain. It was too painful, according to him that he thought that he was going to die. But then he noticed that the dark marks were starting to glow and pulsate a neon kind of light, the very same kind of light that the plants on this place have, in the dark. To cut the long story short, Baron's body became luminous.

"That happened? But how?"

"I don't know, obviously," he said, "because when the pain disappeared I just felt fine."

"Fine? Fine like you weren't injured from that monstrous mud crab's pincers?"

"Exactly!" Baron was now very absorbed in telling his story that I was close to laughing because he was now acting very not himself. It also made me see him as someone my age, because all this time I have this high respect for him as a mentor, or senior. Something like that.

"Your wounds and injuries just disappeared?" I asked just to make sure that what i was thinking was what really happened.

baron nodded. "I felt okay! I felt like I was healed by magic!"

That didn't sound logical to me. "But how was that possible? Are you saying that somehow the poison that's spreading on your body right now had healed you?"

"I don't know. I might be imagining things, I'm not sure. I know it's not sensible but that's how I felt."

"I believe you," I replied. "I can't think of any logical reason for what happened to you anyway, and it worked out fine in the end so I won't complain. But I still want to know how you knew that you can turn invisible."

That perked him up even more. It was obvious that Baron was very delighted to discover that he has his own ability too. I know it might have been kind of frustrating for him to know that a weak guy like me had an ability and a stronger person like him don't. He probably thought that he should have an ability too because he can put it to good use (which was true) so now that he learned that he actually has an ability must have been satisfying to him.

"It all started when I decided to follow you after I realized that I was not hurt anymore..." He again narrated how he just went outside the cave, not knowing that he was already invisible. The sneaky plants just outside the cave could sense his presence naturally, and he was caught off guard. He was bound by the vines but then something wild and unexpected happened--- the vines that were touching him were blasting one by one as if his skin was an explosive.

Baron was confused about it, but he soon realized it was the arm-protector that he was wearing on both his arms just like me. The moment the tip of the snake-like vines touches the fish scales on the arm-protector, it exploded nastily. The longer the vines touched the scales the bigger and louder the explosion was.

"That's unbelievably cool!" I exclaimed as he recounted that scene, because it's true. Aside from it being very spontaneous, it's also a very surprisingly good timing. He could have died with the vines there, as his invisibility was useless against the vines that uses their vines as feelers. But the coincidence of the plant's vines exploding like firecrackers at the very unexpected reason got me agreeing to Baron's earlier quip that the White Shadow's should have given us more credit than they already had given us.

"It was a weird experience, because I never thought that I was going out there alive but it was the exact opposite. Because of that, the plants acted strangely," Baron added.

"What do you mean?"

"After a while, the plants seemed to have 'realized' that they could not touch me anymore without getting blasted into smithereens, so the vines retreated. It was then that I thought of a lovely plan," he said. His smirk already told me what was on his mind. And I was right, because he revealed to me that he attacked the plants using the arm-protector, cutting the vines and collecting them for 'useful purposes.'

"It was that?" I asked with disbelief. "The thing that destroyed those Slackers and Mediborgs were that deadly combination of fish scales and plant vines?"

"Exactly."

I gaped at Baron. I was in total disbelief. How was that possible? Those two random things made those huge explosions?

"I saw you already climbing and I heard the White Shadows coming to you. I overheard one of them telling others that their radar sensed you and sent an alarm."

"The insect-like bugs," I said gasping. I remembered how they swarmed to me immediately when I was climbing the wall. "Was it them? So they really can track us?"

"Apparently, yes," Baron answered. "The White Shadows call it Tracing Flies."

"That's a very boring name."

"I agree, but very effective too, as they immediately sensed that you were there."

"Yeah. You are right. But still, I can't think how on earth those Tracer Flies or whatever they are called do that. I'm not that dumb, you know. Some logic might be behind this, because if they have this technology then they would have known my location all the time, won't they? They would have shown up on the hollow tree if they could track me all the time."

"That's true. It makes me wonder too. Those Tracing Flies only show up to you at a certain point."

"Let's just talk about that later, because I still have so many questions for you," I said. Then Baron continued his narration. He said that as soon as he realizes what was happening, he thought about how to make a diversion for me, just like he originally planned.

The explosions were huge from the vines being exposed to the scales, something that the White Shadows were not aware of so they were puzzled as to what was happening. It was then that Baron discovered that no one can see him, as not a single enemy had come to him even though he was just in front of them doing all the mess. He took the opportunity and made that havoc, which helped me get inside the room that I originally intended to get through in the first place.

"I heard that woman from the window yelling 'it's him,' so that made me think that they knew that I could be invisible."

"yes. She actually mentioned that you were just using your 'ability' and that her men did not need to get scared of you."

"But of course I was scary to them, because they could not figure out how the hell did I made their robots explode."

"Baron, I think I just solved something. Remember that time when we were just about to escape to the other side of the fence, and when those Slackers almost killed you and you fell down, knocked out on the ground but they just moved past you---"

"Yeah! That time I may have used my ability too! They could not see me there!"

This was a good development for us. Now that we are aware that even Baron had an ability, it was pretty clear to us that each one of us Moss, has some kind of an ability. Mine is the power to produce electric material, while Baron can disappear and be invisible.

Is this why the White Shadows are determined to get us back? Is this why we are here in the first place? Is this the experiment that they have been doing to us? To make kids like us possess abilities that a regular person can't normally have? because if this was it, if this was the answer, then it fits to the narrative that we had gathered up since we met. That Baron and I are not humans, in a sense, because if we were, we should have been dead by now, by the number of times we were in danger but we managed to survive somehow.

"Now that I know my ability, those White Shadows can eat dust," said Baron and I laughed, agreeing as I just felt a lot stronger now. "I could already feel that we'll be out of this place soon."

"Not so fast," said a woman's voice, and we both looked at the unconscious White Shadow but now she was awake, smirking at us.