Where was he going? I wondered, but I figured he didn't want to be there to watch his own body be disrobed, no matter how respectful I would be.
I wasn't sure if there was some kind of policy about a non-Infiltrator using an Infiltrator's armor. If there was, @awesomedog must have been able to see the logic of upgrading mine. I think it was more a matter of whether I could keep the armor rather than if I could wear it now.
Although @awesomedog wanted to be gone for my removal of the armor, he still helped himself to the supplies on @clonedog's body. He pocketed a few items, patting down @clonedog. Then he reached out and presented @foxcutter with another shh500 gun, the one @clonedog had been carrying.
"You want to exact some revenge on your captors?" @awesomedog asked @foxcutter.
"Hell yes," @foxcutter replied eagerly.
@foxcutter hadn't said much yet. I wondered if he was still processing the fact that he'd been saved. Then again, we weren't saved yet. We still had to get off this moon, at which point we'd head right back into more dangerous situations. That's the job, though. Either way, I was worried about him.
"We're going to clear out the rest of the building," @awesomedog announced.
He waved @foxcutter to follow him. I exchanged a quick hug with @foxcutter as he passed by to help welcome him back, to remind him that he was safe, and then they made their way to the big metal door.
"Show him how the suit works," @awesomedog instructed @sundial.
She stood across from me, a few paces from @clonedog. She gave @awesomedog a firm nod, not taking her eyes off his clone body. She waited, tapping a finger on her hip, for them to leave the dungeon.
"Don't lock us down here," I yelled after them.
"Don't tempt me," he called back.
If @sundial wasn't here, would he lock me in? I wondered. Nah, probably not. Probably. I analyzed his tone. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it held a casual reciprocation of humor. He seemed genuine. That was a good step in the right direction. I felt like I could start trusting him more.
That wasn't my only surprise.
"Finally!" @sundial said, as the sound of their footprints faded away. "I have to act so professional around him. It's insane."
Her posture changed almost immediately. It was like we were friends now instead of colleagues, like she was a different person entirely. It was a welcome change. I didn't want a harsh judge yelling at me while I fumbled around with the Infiltrator armor.
"At least you have a mentor. I'm just kind of winging it."
She flicked her right arm up in the air. "It's helpful, sure. I'm learning a lot, but I'm eager to finish my apprenticeship."
"How does that work? How long does it take?"
"Normally it takes 25 years," she answered. "He can promote me sooner if he wants, if he thinks I'm ready. Otherwise, I have 18 more years to go."
"25 years!"
"It's a drop in the bucket if you think about it. I'll be an Infiltrator for hundreds of years, maybe more."
She had a point, but here I was with no one to train me, and she had 25 years of potential training to do. No wonder Infiltrators were so feared.
"I guess it's easier to learn to go in fast and destroy as a Vanquisher," I said. "We're not so subtle in our approach."
@sundial removed the hair tie from her ponytail to rearrange her hair, letting it spill over her nearly invisible shoulders. It was a lovely look on her, but she quickly rearranged it. She bent at the waist, letting her hair fall toward the floor where @clonedog lay, this time wrapping it in a twist before securing it in place.
"Your hair looks nice all down like that," I said. She glanced at me, narrowing her eyes, her hands still fixing her hair, making sure she got it right. I crouched next to @clonedog's body. "It looks good like that, too," I added quickly.
"I'm not allowed to wear it loose," @sundial said. "It would just get in the way."
That made sense. Infiltrator work would be easier without hair flopping about. I was surprised she didn't have a shaved head, actually.
I turned my attention to @clonedog's body. Now that he was dead, the armor wasn't shifting around with the environment. It looked just like a common space jumpsuit, the type of thing you could buy cheap and throw away without giving it a second thought.
"You don't have to shave your hair?" I asked, inspecting the armor. I was fascinated to find that, in the same way that it looked like a common jumpsuit, it came off just like a common jumpsuit. That was clever. A person would never know without close inspection that this was Infiltrator armor at all. "I heard Alliance Infiltrators have to shave their heads."
@sundial chuckled, and I wondered if she was asked that a lot. "I didn't want to. It's not a requirement." The way she said it made me smile. She had a bit of rebellion in her, it seemed.
I was careful as I removed the armor from @clonedog's body. I crossed his arms over his chest, folding his hands atop the other. @clonedog wore a standard undersuit beneath it.
"Do I need the undersuit as well?" I asked @sundial, stopping to look her in the eye. She was standing a few paces away, her translucent arms crossed, watching me do my work. Apparently, I had been doing fine so far.
"It's a nanosuit," she began to explain. "When the body dies, it's programmed to mimic whatever the Infiltrator wants. It's a setting on the suit. The Infiltrator can pick the type of suit they want the armor to mimic, and they can change that setting whenever they want. That way, we can try to keep the armor hidden if something bad happens."
"If you die, you mean."
"Well, yes, but also if we get captured."
"You don't just self-destruct?"
@sundial laughed at me. "Self-destruct? You all really are a different breed. Infiltrators rarely self-destruct. We'd rather escape or break free."
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
I was surprised I hadn't realized that myself. They would be experts at breaking out of situations, and they would probably get good intel doing it. "I guess that makes sense," I said. "Hence, the many years of training."
"Exactly." She had a pleasant voice. Kind of short and punchy, crisp in her annunciation, but much more pleasant now that @awesomedog was gone.
I had finished removing the armor and was now standing like an idiot, holding it in my left hand, wondering if I just put it on like a common jumpsuit as well. I looked at her expectantly and raised an eyebrow.
"What do I do now? Just … put it on?"
She shook her head at me with a smile. "Take your clothes off first. Then I'll walk you through how to use the suit."
I didn't mind changing clothes in front of @sundial. I wouldn't have minded if @awesomedog or @foxcutter were there either. But having 15 zombies drooling, clawing at the bars, and yapping at me while I did it made me uncomfortable.
"What do I call you, by the way?" I asked. I dropped the armor to the floor and started removing my jacket and working the buttons on my shirt. @sundial was looking at me funny, not understanding my question. "I mean, are you still an Infiltrator, being an apprentice? Or more like an Infiltrator in Training?"
"Oh! They call us Worms," she answered. "Like to worm your way into a place, but also worm because we're not adult Infiltrators yet. You know, like a worm that turns into a fly, the juvenile stage of development. It's dumb, but whatever."
"Maggots turn into flies," I said, correcting her. "Not worms."
That pissed her off. "That's a derogatory term," she snarled. "You call me a Maggot, and I'll kill you."
I raised my hands. "Sorry. Sorry. You're not a Maggot." I tried not to stumble over my words, searching for a better analogy. "You're more like a caterpillar, a caterpillar that turns into a beautiful butterfly."
She laughed. "That's better. I'll accept beautiful butterfly. Do you always flirt when your life is threatened?"
Was I flirting? Yes, I guess I had been.
I wondered if I had to answer her question. She was standing confidently, but easily, relaxed, watching me with interest. Did she like me? We had just met, but I felt like maybe she did. It's strange how you can live forever, but it can take just a moment to develop feelings for someone. Not deep feelings, of course, but attraction. Attraction is near instantaneous by comparison to how long we live. I think I'd been lonely all my years as a Wavepilot and just never realized it.
And maybe I was flirting because I liked her.
In fact, I knew I did.
Don't be nervous, I told myself. She's just a lovely woman. You're around lovely women all the time. @bitchfrog and @zerogstar are both lovely. You don't flirt with them. You don't have feelings for them. This is just another girl.
No matter what I told myself, though, I really didn't want to change my clothes in front of her now. I was starting to feel awkward, especially standing there shirtless. I placed my shirt on the floor next to @clonedog, and I picked up the Infiltrator armor, holding it in front of me.
"You going to show me how to use this?"
She looked at me with disappointment. "I was hoping you wanted me to threaten you more. It's one of my favorite parts of the job."
"So, that's a no," I said. I lowered the suit back to the floor. There was no avoiding it. I would just have to change quickly and not make eye contact. "I guess I'll just wing it."
"You need to learn by doing," she explained. "You'll remember more and learn better if you just dive right in and do it. Wing it."
"Can you at least give me a clue? Do I put it on just like normal?"
"Ugh," she exclaimed. "Just watch me."
She held her arm out, shaking it so that I could make out the outline even though it was invisible. "As you know," she said, "the armor can match your environment, making you disappear. But nanosuits don't just change appearance. They can change shape. I can make it open up, wherever I want."
The armor pulled away from her hand. I could see from her fingers up to her elbow. She waved at me. Then the armor crept back down her forearm and into place. "Useful for fingerprinting or when you need to go to the bathroom and don't want to soil your suit," she giggled.
I hadn't seen much of this side of her. She was kind of funny.
"Okay, I think I get it," I said. I rotated the suit in my hands. "I just need to put some of it on. Then, like, make it move around the rest of me?"
@sundial tilted her head sideways. "More or less. I mean, look at it. It's a basic suit of armor. Just put it on."
"Right," I said, feeling a little stupid. "But, a more advanced technique, maybe, would be just to put my arm in the sleeve and let it latch on and do the rest itself?"
She phbbbted her lips. "Eh. You'll figure it out. I don't even think about it anymore, but it needs to know it's you, you know?"
I nodded thoughtfully. "What else can it do?" I asked, inspecting the material. It was hard to see it as anything other than the jumpsuit that it appeared to be. It felt like any other suit, not too different from my Wavepilot suit.
"There's more to the mimic trick," she answered. "Like what you saw when the suit was abandoned. You can have the armor transmog to mirror a different armor set. You just need to have that armor set preconfigured. Not only that, if you find new armor - or clothes - you can analyze them to load them into the system."
Her armor shifted. The transluscence faded until @sundial was standing before me, wearing some of my clothes - the dark blue jeans and white button-down shirt I had chosen for my @wrench persona.
"Whoa!" I exclaimed. "That's impressive. And, I must say, you look good in my clothes."
@sundial rolled her eyes, but she was beaming. "I look good in any clothes."
As her body disappeared again, I almost blurted or none at all. If I had a bit more bro in me, I'm sure I would have, but Henry Hayes was more … reserved. I inherited that from him. We both lacked confidence around women.
"I'm sure you do," I replied instead. "Thanks for showing me what it does." I wouldn't say that she was teaching me how to do anything, but at least I was getting a sense of the armor's capabilities.
"Oh, it can do more than just that," @sundial noted. The smooth skin of her right leg became visible, from her toes up to her thigh. She rotated and bumped her leg out. In an instant, it disappeared again. @sundial flickered the armor a few more times, her leg appearing and disappearing, seemingly out of nowhere.
"You can make the armor completely see-through," she said, smirking, "like I just did. You're much more interested now, aren't you? Is this helpful?"
I knew what I thought, but I didn't know what to say. The growling of the zombies spiked every time she showed her leg. A zombie in that armor would be deadly.
"Cat got your tongue, huh?" @sundial joked. "Not impressed?"
@sundial rolled her eyes again, and then she squatted. Her floating head dropped down to about the height of my belly button. I tried to make out her outline as the suit shifted around her, masking her form. It looked like she was spreading her arms out behind her like wings. What the heck was she doing?
Then the armor vanished to reveal @sundial's figure underneath. She was bowing, like a performer, with one arm wrapped to cover her bare chest and the other out to the side. Her twisted blonde hair bobbed in front. Her legs were crossed, one foot in front of the other, as she dipped.
Just as quickly as she had materialized, she disappeared again.
"Ta-da," @sundial's floating head announced. "To your earlier question, you don't need the undersuit unless you want the undersuit. As you noticed," she said playfully, "I didn't choose an undersuit."
She laughed and laughed, while I stood with my jaw dropped. "What do you think?" she asked.
I gulped, clueless what to say, trying to collect my thoughts, trying to slow my heart rate and the flush of embarrassment on my face. "I think you're amazing," I stammered. I felt the heat on my cheeks. "And beautiful."
She tossed her arms up to frame her face, making them visible for emphasis. "Of course I am. I'm glad you finally noticed."
I studied her face. She stood tall and poised. I knew if a zombie escaped from just behind her, she would turn and bring it down without so much as blinking.
I kept my eyes locked onto hers and took a step toward her.
And I tripped on @clonedog's body, falling to the hard concrete floor. I'm great at ruining the mood. @sundial chuckled but was unfazed, proud of herself for giving me a proper distraction. I gathered myself, and when I was on my feet, she was standing right in front of me.
"Your clumsiness is kind of adorable," she said with a smile, as our eyes met.
Was I imagining this? Two aiways in a zombie-filled dungeon, crushing on each other? In the hundreds of years of living, few people had surprised me more than @sundial. The last thing either of us probably expected was an intimate moment in a dungeon, but somehow it was fitting.
We laughed quietly, feeling each other's breath, acknowledging the absurdity of the moment. Then we kissed and wrapped our arms around each other.
We had that moment, enough for it to be more than an accident, and then the boom of the metal door sounded. @sundial shoved me away, and I almost tripped again.
@awesomedog and @foxcutter trotted into the room, looking back and forth between us. I put my back to them and started frantically changing clothes. @awesomedog muttered some sort of curse word.
"Let's go!" he hollered.
I still didn't have a damn clue how to use the armor.
End of Episode 9 - The Colony
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