Appleture Laboratories

by The Infinity Doctor

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"ow...owowow...owieowie..."

'M...mel...melissa?' I thought dazedly, attempting to push myself up.

Something's off here...I don't...can't think straight...what...what's going on? What happened? We...we were...

Dammit! Why can't I think straight!?!

The sound of metal scraping against something made itself known in the darkness, and I stopped for a moment, trying to figure out what it was.

"H-hello? Is anyone there?" I rasped.
"I...I am..." came Mel's voice.

'Oh thank god...' I thought in relief.

I steadily pulled myself up, working to stand straight. All the while, there was more of that scraping sound.

Seriously...what is that?

A bright orange orb of light appeared in my vision, it looked like it was squinting, if the movements of the light was any indication.

"What...are...you?" came Mel's voice.
"I'm Max" I replied "what're you?"
"I'm...Mel..." her voice replied "...wait...Max? Where are you? All I can see is this...blue light"
"That's funny...all I can see is this orange light..."

"Do you think...we might be looking at each other?"
"No..." I replied.

It was just ridiculous! People don't just lose an eye...or get a glowing one...

"Mel...I'm going to try something...please...just stay still..." I said, approaching the orange light.

"Max? Where are you?! Help! HELP!! It- it's getting closer!"
"Mel- stay calm..."
"St-stay calm? Stay CALM?" she asked incredulously.
"Yes...please...just-"

I felt something cold and hard slap against my face, the sound of metal striking against metal resounding through out the room.

'Oh my...god...' I thought.

I fell backward, my new body striking against the floor. The orange orb stared at me in shock, more of the scraping sound was heard before the orb tipped, the body it was attached to laying on the floor.

"Mel...this..."
"Shut up" she moaned.
"But-"
"I said...shut...up..."

I sighed as I put a hand to my new head, and just stared at her for a moment, contemplating our situation.

'Well...we've got portal guns...right? Or are supposed to...that's something...'

But it didn't make up for the fact that we were- wherever the hell we were...

"I'm going to go and look around" I said, standing.
"I'll be here..." she said, almost silently.

I fumbled around in the dark for a few minutes, before I found something that remotely felt like a door handle. I twisted it, and pulled, letting light leak into the shed-like room. The area outside the door wasn't quite what I was expecting, by the looks of it, we weren't in a testing chamber (thank goodness), but we appeared to be in an old office building, no-one around except for Mary and myself. The tiles of the ceiling looked aged, like the building hadn't been tended to in months, maybe years. I looked back to Mary, still laying on her side on the floor in her new body, the light filtering through the door catching her white skin, giving her an angelic look.

'What did we get ourselves into?' I thought.

X X X X X X X

I kept a mental note to remember which floor we were on as I walked up a flight of stairs, leading to the next floor, Mel (I wonder if she'll let me call her 'P-body') following close behind.

"So...what do we do now?" she asked quietly.
"I don't know..." I replied "start looking for civilization, I guess"
"And how do you think they'll react to us? We're....we're not human...anymore..."
"I know..." I said sympathetically.
"How are you so calm about this?"
I shrugged as we continued walking, the sound of metal hitting the floor filling the stairway.
"I don't know...I guess I'm just looking at it like this- something really frickin' scary happened, we were changed, and there's nothing we can do about it"
She was silent for a little while.

I sighed and ran a hand over my eyes...eye? Yeah...eye...

"That's just how I look at it, I'm not saying I'm totally accepting of it...but...I understand where you're coming from"
I think she somehow managed to smile without a mouth, I think I returned it as I pushed the door to the next floor open.

"Wait a minute...why don't we have portal guns?" she asked.
"I don't know...maybe they're around here somewhere" I shrugged "why don't we split up and look for them?"
"Holler if you get into trouble?"
"Yep"
"Alright...see ya..."

With that, we went our separate ways, I took the left side of the floor, while Mel took the right.

'What was this place even used for?' I thought, glancing around the empty offices.

More importantly, why did I want to know?
I shook my head, incidentally making my 'head' swivel violently back and forth.

'Great...relearning motor skills should be fun...'

X X X X X X X

I heard the sound of Mel's screams from all the way across the floor, I quickly ran through it, searching for her.

"Mel? Mel, what's wrong?!" I shouted, looking everywhere for her.

"R-right here" she gasped, holding a hand to her chest.

'Oh...yeah...do we even have hearts anymore?'

Well, we obviously couldn't, but it was still another thing to find out...

"What happened?" I asked.
"Nothing...a mouse scared me..." she replied.

"Ooookkkaaayyy...well...any luck finding the guns?"

"No...where else could they be?"
"I think there could be a few" I said.
"What about the storage closets?"
"..."

I face-palmed.

'Why didn't I think of that?' I thought, walking to a nearby closet. I yanked the door open, and found...nothing.

"Well...we've got an entire building to search...should be easy...right?"
Mel shrugged, and turned to walk down the hall, eventually disappearing around a corner.

"Okay, I'll catch up later" I said sarcastically.

Another scream tore through the halls, I flinched at the noise, and looked down the way Mel had disappeared- only to see her running for her life.

"Runrunrunrunrunrun!" she shouted, running past me in a blur.

"What? Why?" I asked.

My questions were soon answered, as three or four small horses bounded into the hall.

"MCMC Monster Catchers!" they shouted in unison, leaping forward with a butterfly net of all things.

I bolted after Mel, sneaking glances behind us to the horses. Several questions were buzzing around in my head, namely, how the hell did they talk? What are they doing in an abandoned building? And, how are we going to get out of this?

"What about the guns?" I asked as I caught up.
"Less talking, more running from the mutant horses!" she replied.

Comments

[Dovah Merith]

i was begining to think this is portal onlyts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=HN.608048153909068964&pid=1.7

[MTDragonslayer7]

"MCMC Monster Catchers!"

What does the extra 'C' stand for?

[Headlock1_0]

5222912 You mean the extra 'M'? I'm not sure...we should be finding out soon enough.