[Dungeon] 53 – Questions

[1,528 Words]

[Bright's POV]

While the CyberLife Androids were left to achieve the mission the alien gave them, Bright was left observing the creature as it hopped around with clear agility and grace between multiple projects, workbenches, and boxes full of random junk and materials.

"If you have questions, speak. Watching me as I work is growing uncomfortable," The alien suddenly spoke, not even looking up to address Bright as it gathered a bunch of miscellaneous items and objects onto the central Workbench, where it began to disassemble and take apart with a wide variety of what looked to be both custom and scavenged tools.

"What are you doing?" Bright asked directly, not understanding anything of what he was looking at as the creature took various objects apart and began to sort them across the Workbench in piles.

"Using what the Synthetics gather for me on their daily scavenging missions to make new weapons, armor, and gear to increase their effectiveness against the local threats that wander the city," The alien explained without a care.

"What kind of threats?" Bright asked, fishing for information.

"The various Giant Ant Hives, the Corrupted Machines, and whatever wanders through the fog wall surrounding the city now and then," The alien supplied.

"What kinds of things?" Bright inquired, "That wander through the fog wall, I mean," He clarified for the alien.

"It depends, whatever comes through is always different in shape, size, and danger, the most common seem to be some kind of Humanoid Primitives in green that wield primitive weapons and armor, though every time my Cyberlife Androids noticed them wandering into the city through the fog wall they usually ended up fighting one of the Giant Ant Hives or running into one of the Corrupted Machines and getting their party wiped out," The alien supplied, before pausing and leaping away from the workbench he was working on to grab what looked to be a camera hanging on the wall and tossing it to Bright.

"I have the Cyberlife Androids take a picture of anything new they find while they scavenge and explore," It explained before returning to its work, assembling what appeared to be the foundation of some miniature firearm that would fit comfortably in its own hands.

Holding the camera, Bright turned it on and began to cycle through the images, witnessing what looked to be distant photos of various creatures, buildings, and even a strange-looking tower that seemed to lie on the edge of the city by the fog wall. Creatures that ranged from the very same Goblin-esque creatures that were depicted in the sparse recordings in the Ranger Stations, to creatures that looked to be straight from fiction, if what looked to be a Western Dragon pictured flying through the sky was anything to go by.

"How common is it to see these things come into the city?" Bright's expression grew more concerned with each image he cycled through on the camera.

"Fairly common, multiple entrances a day. I have not yet figured out how they manage to cross the Fog Wall surrounding the city, but they do it somehow. I assumed that you and your group managed to cross the same way using the same method they do." The alien spoke before focusing on Bright, "So how did you all cross through the Fog Wall?"

Bright took a moment to think of an answer before eventually speaking with a shrug, "We just walked through it, we don't know why it let us through now when it did not before, perhaps these Fog Walls have a short time frame when you can cross through?" 

Listening to Bright's thoughts, the Frog-like alien hummed in contemplation.

"Perhaps, regardless, the Synthetics will reach the Fog Wall in the Park in half an hour; until then, you are free to check in on your people. I have had the Synths give them the necessary medical attention, food, and water they may or may not need. I have plenty to spare, and I am not compatible with the scavenged human food the Synthetics find in their scavenging trips." The alien spoke to Bright, focusing back on the project it was working on at hand.

"Compatible? What do your...kind normally eat?" Bright asked, suddenly curious.

"My people have evolved to consume small insects, bugs, and various other small fauna and flora that developed on our home world," The alien explained without hesitation and with a calm, somewhat detached expression, as if he was explaining something that he had to explain countless times before.

 Before Bright could continue his barrage of questions to fulfill his curiosity, an Android stepped into the room. This one resembles a doctor, with its white coat and a green cross seemingly etched into its eyes and on its clothing. 

“Father? There has been a complication.”

“Speak, X4000,” the Alien spoke promptly. 

“We have detected anomalous properties amongst all of our new Guests,” The X4000 CyberLife Android spoke, its eyes flashing with green light.

“Show me,” the Alien commanded, hopping off its Workbench and over to a nearby makeshift computer that had various parts and strange parts inserted and jutting out. 

Bright didn’t interfere, though he did understand the context clues that the Android was speaking about his party, and must have been some kind of medical Android, based on its appearance. 

Stepping forward, the Android’s eyes began to rapidly twitch and vibrate as the strange circular ring on the side of its forehead turned a brief bright blue that rapidly blinked before stopping and returning to its normal green color. 

On the computer before the Alien, a series of charts, graphs, and scans appeared.

Briefly intrigued by the technology, Bright focused on what was on the screen.

“Strange…you are sure that they are Human?” The alien asked.

“We have checked their DNA, they are Human, but altered, enhanced to a degree that we are having trouble understanding. Their cells are more robust, their muscles more compact, their immune and nervous system stronger,” before the Android continued, the Alien asked, “Genetic Tailoring?” 

“That is what we suspect. They are human, but unlike anything we have catalogued or examined before, they are superhuman,” the Android spoke, before bringing up another issue, “We have also detected an unidentified energy circulating through their veins and centered on their heart and brain.”

Pulling up a chart, the alien examined the readings, “Your scanning technology is too primitive to be of any use,” the Alien commented before looking to Bright, “What are you?” 

“Human,” Bright answered firmly, before raising his hand slowly, and summoning a bolt of mana, “But I will admit we are not quite like we were before we arrived in this place.”

Looking unfazed by the reveal, the Alien asked, “Expand. What caused these changes? From what I can gather from the previous data, the X4000 has. Humanity should not be capable of any sort of energy manipulation.”

Bright stayed silent for a few moments, contemplating which direction to take this conversation. On one hand, the creature before him was an unknown, and claimed to be an alien belonging to a species capable of extreme mental feats. 

On the other hand, the Alien was also, while not exactly welcoming, it did provide sanctuary for his party and even Bright himself, as well as medical attention. 

However, Bright’s biggest issue was that the Alien reminded Bright of too many of his past coworkers when he worked with the Foundation. Apathetic, inquisitive, demanding, arrogant, and containing a thirst for knowledge, they would be willing to sacrifice or endanger countless others in the pursuit of their goals. 

Sure, the Foundation needed such individuals to contain several dozen SCPs that proved to be far too dangerous for Humanity as a whole, but some of the things Bright has seen? He would have preferred to die and keep his humanity than to even associate with such monsters hiding under human skin. 

Sighing, Bright made his decision; even if it could endanger himself and the others, he spoke the truth.

“Before I say anything, know this, I mean you and the Androids no harm, but if you attempt to do anything or endanger the others or our people, I will personally kill you and destroy all of the Androids here,” Bright warned, letting his perfectly controlled mana leak out of his pours and into his surrounding, causing a sort of pressure to fill the room and give a weight to his words.

“I will not harm you or any other Human unless you initiate hostilities first,” the Alien spoke, clearly not bothered by Bright’s threat at all. 

“That’s fair,” Bright acknowledged, before reigning his mana.

“Ask your questions, though know that I do not know everything, nor do I know if our method would work for you or the Androids,” Bright spoke after a few moments of silence. 

“When we crossed through the portal and found ourselves here, one of the first things we found right outside and next to the portal was a giant floating obelisk of metal and emitting a bright light,” Bright began, thinking back to their first moments in this new home of theirs.