The crash still echoed through the hall when everything went black.The alarms stopped. The flickering lights froze.Silence ... the kind that made your spine crawl.
Then came the whisper.A soft, distorted voice ..... like it came from everywhere and nowhere."Two will be chosen…"
Everyone froze.
"Okay," Tanya said slowly, "I vote Tim and..."
Before she could finish, the floor beneath Pluto and Tango lit up. Blue veins of light crawled up their legs, spiralling around their bodies.
"Uh… Luna?" Pluto said, eyes wide. "I think the floor's flirting with me."
Luna's heart dropped. "PLUTO...TANGO....DON'T MOVE!"
Too late.In a blinding flash of blue, they were gone.No screams, no sound....just… gone.
The air shimmered where they stood, leaving only the faint scent of burnt circuits.
"WHAT.WHAT. JUST. HAPPENED?!" Tim yelled, spinning in circles. "DID THEY JUST GET AVENGERS-DUSTED?!"
Tanya clutched her pan. "Spirit. Definitely a spirit. Every haunted place has one."
Luna exhaled sharply. "Dr Varex's ghost. He said death is irrelevant, remember?"
"Yeah," Tim said nervously, "but I thought he meant metaphorically! Like....'I live through my work' type thing, not I kidnap people into the ghost Wi-Fi realm!"
Siria stepped forward, her eyes glowing faintly blue ; something that, frankly, no one had time to question."It's not just a spirit," she said. "It's the lab itself. The AI… It's alive."
Emmanuel crossed his arms. "So the building has a soul now. Cool. Totally fine. Love that for us."
They split up .... because obviously, that's what every bad decision in a horror scenario starts with.Luna led Tanya and Tim down one corridor, while Siria and Emmanuel scanned the central systems for signals.
Every hallway looked the same .... sterile, cracked, humming with ghostly energy. Occasionally, a hologram flickered on, showing fragments of the lab's past: scientists running, alarms flashing, and Varex shouting something about "Project Echo."
"Echo," Luna muttered. "That's what he called it. Maybe that's what took them."
"Echo?" Tim said. "As in... sound waves?"
"As in... memory," Siria's voice came through the comm. "The AI stores human consciousness through sound. That's probably how it keeps them here."
"So… Pluto and Tango got absorbed into an AI's mixtape?" Tanya asked.
"Basically, yes," Siria replied.
Luna clenched her jaw. "We're getting them back."
They reached a circular chamber filled with tall glass tubes .... empty, but humming with faint blue light.Tim gulped. "Okay, I've seen enough sci-fi movies to know someone's about to get cloned."
Tanya stepped closer. "Luna… look."
Inside one of the tubes, faint shadows flickered; Pluto's outline. Tango's too . Their faces distorted like static on a screen.
Luna slammed her hand on the glass. "PLUTO! TANGO!"
No response. Just the faint whisper again."Two will be chosen… to remain…"
Tim stumbled back. "Nope. Nope. Nope. Someone get me outta this cyber-seance!"
The lights dimmed, and from the ceiling, a faint projection of Dr. Varex appeared ; fractured and glitching."Do not interfere," his voice boomed. "The process is must be completed."
"The process?" Luna shouted. "You mean stealing my friends?!"
"Their minds are… compatible. They will stabilise the Echo."
Luna lifted the rod, sparks flickering at its tip. "Yeah? Stabilise this."
She slammed it into the glass.Electricity burst through the tubes ; alarms screamed again ; and the blue energy pulsed violently.
Siria's voice crackled in through the comms. "Luna, whatever you're doing...don't stop!"
The tubes shattered.Blue light exploded outward, and for a split second, Luna could hear them .... Pluto yelling something about snacks, Tango complaining about being trapped with him.
Then they fell out of the tubes .... gasping, alive, but looking like they'd just come back from an interdimensional road trip.
"Dude," Pluto coughed. "I saw colours that don't even exist."
Tango groaned. "And I think I met Varex's spirit. He tried to sell me a data plan."
Tim ran over, hugging them both. "You guys smell like burnt USB drives but I missed you!"
Luna exhaled in relief. "Don't just disappear again out of nowhere."
Pluto grinned weakly. "No promises. But next time, at least bring snacks."
The alarms quieted. The blue glow faded.And from somewhere deep in the lab, Varex's distorted voice whispered once more...."You cannot save them all…"