[Dungeon of Stories] 51 – Bright’s Interlude Part 2

[A/N: Thoughts on this chapter? Feeling like rewritting it]

Bright’s worry quickly rose as, after an entire hour of searching, he could not find his expedition. All tracks seemed to halt, and he could not see where they could have gone. Every once in a while, another Machine would appear and attack him, but a few spells were all it took to take any of them down. 

Yet, just as he entered one of the nearby buildings, thinking his expedition had fled into them, he froze when he heard the click of a handgun being cocked.

“Halt. Identify yourself,” a stoic voice spoke calmly from his right. 

“Whoa,” Bright hissed and froze in place, slowly raising his hands, “I mean you no harm, just looking for my Expedition.”

“You were with them? Alright, come. We will take you to them,” The voice spoke, stepping out in front of Bright to reveal what appeared to be a person at first glance, until you looked at their face.

[CyberLife Android - Level 10]

“What…are you?” Bright asked, a bit disturbed by the half-missing face that seemed to have melted off.

“I am an AC700 Sport’s Type CyberLife Android designed to assist in promoting the physical health of my Owner,” The machine explained, before suddenly and very much robotically lowering its firearm. 

“Follow me. We are a mile away from the Factory and still well within the Ant Territory. They’ve likely already caught your scent and are tracking you now,” it turned about heading out of the building, another Android following behind it, this one a female in appearance with tattered clothes.

“What is this place? What did you do with my expedition?” Bright began to question, trying to keep up with the two Androids.

“We have learned that this city is named Invictus. We have brought your people to our ‘Father’ in the CyberLife Android Factory. ‘Father’ can answer any other questions you may have,” the male Android answered.

As his mind whirred and questions formed in his life, Bright followed after the Androids, heading deeper into the city. 

…

As he followed the Androids, he noticed more and more peculiarities with the city, until he reached what looked to be a small Factory merged with a…bank? 

“What the hell is wrong with this city…?” Bright muttered to himself. 

“Father believes that we are in an alternate dimension and reality that pulls pieces and sets of other realities and merges them to form a new one. It is why many objects, structures, and entities do not belong together in the city,” the female Android finally spoke, seemingly having heard Bright’s words. 

"...What?" Bright asked, baffled as they approached the strange, melded structure, coming across what looked to be dozens more Androids standing still around the building, setting a sort of perimeter around the building. However, Bright saw it as incredibly creepy due to all of the Androids' postures, empty expressions, and heads that followed every movement he made.

"Father will explain inside," the two Androids spoke in unison, making Bright's hair rise.

If the outside looked strange, the inside was even worse, or that was what Bright was thinking until he saw the sheer amount of what looked like body parts hanging around, piled in pallets, filling drums, and so much more, making what was supposed to be a factory seem more like a butcher's workshop.

"Do not be alarmed, Father uses a large majority of the spare parts and materials in the Factory to maintain and repair us and uses what’s left over to work on its projects,” The male Android tried to assure Bright, not that it worked much.

As he was brought further and further into the factory, he saw more and more armed Androids. 

“Father lies in the room ahead. Do not fear, human. Father means you no harm, though it will defend itself if necessary,” The female spoke, gesturing to an open garage door that led to what seemed to be the most bizarre workshop Bright has ever seen.

As he stepped in, Bright noted the sheer amount of unknown and strange-looking technology in the room before freezing in place when met with what looked at first to be a frog walking on its hind legs, but…off.

[Male Galvan]

“They found another one of you, eh?” The small creature with giant eyes asked, not even glancing up from its work.

“Where are my friends?” Bright asked straightforwardly.

“Resting, I had the Androids take them to the nearby apartment complex,” the creature spoke without hesitation.

That’s when the creature put down the small blowtorch it held and leaped off the workbench onto a lamp head directly next to Bright’s face.

“How many more of you are there? Where did you come from?” The creature asked.

“I won’t tell you until I get some answers first,” Bright answered in a demanding tone.

“Speak,” the creature waved its hand, turning around to look at something in the workshop. 

“What are you?” Bright asked first, getting a sigh out of the creature.

“This is why I dislike you, Pre-FTLs, don’t even recognize a member of the most intelligent race in the Universe standing before you,” It complained before looking at Bright, “I am a Galvan, from Galvan Prime, home to my people.”

“How did you get here? How long have you been here? Do you know what this place is?” Bright questioned more.

"I arrived in this small Dimension around an Earth year ago, due to what appeared to be a golden 'crack' within a wasteland I found myself trying to escape from after my ship crashed. While I do not know exactly what this place is, I theorize that it is a dimensional dumping ground that emerged a few years ago, continuously growing from whatever finds itself here. How did you and your people end up here?" The alien creature questioned in return.

"We arrived from a Dimension we call 'Infinite Ikea,' a Dimension that models itself after an Earth store. We found the portal one day, and thinking it was a way out, all of us came through and found ourselves in what we later came to find out was a park," Bright explained, only to be interrupted.

"You came from beyond the fog?" The creature asked, surprised.

"The fog dissipated a few days ago, letting us finally leave the park and start venturing out into this strange city," Bright admitted.

The frog alien creature cursed in some unidentified language before focusing back on Bright, "You and your... friends are welcome to stay for the next few days. I will send a few Androids to check out the park and see if the fog wall truly collapsed. If it does, I would like to...hire you all to escort me out of this city."

"Is there a fog wall around the city as well?" Bright asked, confused.

The creature nodded, "The city had two fog walls, forming it into a sort of donut shape around your park. If your fog wall truly has come down, perhaps the one around the city has come down too," The creature explained its thought process.

"How do you even know about the park?" Bright suddenly asked.

"I found some documents, news articles, and something called 'Blog Posts' from what few computers the Androids scavenged for me; they all detailed some kind of important project being done at the center of the city in the park," The creature explained before looking away from Bright and calling out, "Come here."

Moments later, the two Androids from before showed themselves.

"Gather a few Androids and send them to check out the potential park, I want to know if the Fog wall is still up or not," It demanded, making Bight a bit wary about the intentions of this creature, and the literal army it had at its command.