"You were already passed out when Commander Jared gave the lecture. I never thought I would figure it out so early."
Tommy motioned after marking the Rat with his booger.
"Unravel."
A low hum was heard from his Glassheart. And then the rat began to twitch. First its hair fell, and then, like wet paper, its skin fell apart. By now, it was shrieking in pain.
And then the muscle, peeling like an orange, dancing in the air like loose thread. Incredibly enough, blood did not spill, like it was still guided through the veins and arteries as it should. And with it all, the rat only shrieked louder and louder.
"I can even decide the parts I want to extract, and the parts I want to keep." He removed some blood, letting it wobble at the side.
Now, its shrieks were even louder and piercing to the ears.
Soren could not take it again. "Tommy, you are hurting it. Stop!"
"STOP IT!" He grabbed Tommy by the hand.
"Okay! Okay!! I'll put it back. Stop nagging me."
The muscles mended into place step by step. But the soul energy became unsteady for just a bit.
SPLAT!
Blood, muscle, and meat paste splattered all around the room and on them in a visceral display.
Soren spat out some of the meat paste that had gotten into his mouth.
There goes any appetite he was having.
"Shit! Another failure." Tommy lamented as he stood to his feet.
"Another?" Soren raised a brow.
"Yes! I have been practicing since yesterday." He flipped open a mat in the corner.
Soren's widened at the sight before him.
He had never seen so many abused dead rats in one place. But what surprised him more was the way Tommy treated it like a simple failed experiment. He walked over to another side. There was another cage housing more rats for his experiments.
"Tommy... You shouldn't be doing this? I mean, it's..."
Cough, cough, cough.
Tommy's eyes widen in panic, and he rushes to a second room adjacent to his own. Soren followed. The room smelled of incense and strong local medicine. The windows were tightly closed here. A frowzy woman lay on the bed at the edge of the room.
She coughed green liquid again and again. Tommy rushed over to her. "It's okay, Mum. It's okay. I'm here. I'm right here." He soaked a rag in warm water and wiped her face gently and affectionately.
As he did, her frown eased slowly. "Tom Tom... My sweet Tom Tom..."
Then Tommy wiped her sides. He stayed with her for some time, speaking comforting words. "It's alright, Mum... your soulbound warrior is here."
A slight maternal smile had replaced her discomfort. "My soul... bound... warrior?"
"Yes, Mum. You remember, right? I already told you about it nine times since yesterday. I touched the glass and passed. I'm going to become a Soul mecha pilot and take you out of this dump, and..." His fingers wrapped around hers, squeezing them tightly. Like he was afraid she would be gone in the next second.
"Really... Tom Tom... You have... grown. My baby is..." She slowed even more in speech.
Soren looked at the warm water. It was already filled with a dark green substance.
Ectoplasmic poisoning. This was what Tommy's mother was afflicted with. It affected not just her body but also her mind. It was in no way a rare condition. In fact, it was one of the reasons a lot of people had lost their loved ones.
Ectoplasm was a result of waste from both Eldritch souls and Soul Mecha. Whole lands had been poisoned by it. Even worse, it was flammable. It was just dangerous in all sorts of ways.
Tommy's mother had been poisoned by ectoplasm when she ate food poisoned with it a long time ago.
Back then, they had been very desperate for food, and the rats in the town had fallen to an all-time low because of famine and constant hunting.
Tommy had eaten the same food but was lucky to not have been poisoned.
Soren stayed there and watched for a while. Tommy held her hands in his. After she had fallen asleep once, he took the bowl of water out to be disposed of, and then he went back to his room.
Immediately, he brought out another rat. Ready to continue his experiments. However, as he did, Soren noticed his hands were even less steady than before. He dropped the rat twice.
He transferred it to the cage of his experiment.
Soren noticed he did not bother to clean up the place. This was unlike Tommy. Like he was in a hurry to get back into it.
Unfortunately, the next rat exploded. And the Next. And the next after that.
Soren just stood there and watched. He wanted to stop Tommy, but he just couldn't.
But then, Tommy suddenly stopped. Tears fell from his eyes. "I... I know it's not right. No. It does not feel right. But... the academy will not let me bring her with us... If I leave her here, no one will take care of her," he sniffled. "I don't want to lose my mum." More tears fell, and now, he was full-blown crying.
At that moment, Soren understood.
He had always known that Tommy had the dream to be a Soul Mecha pilot. That dream had bonded them. He also knew that he was doing it for his sick mother. However, back then, Tommy had lost all hope when it came to treating her illness. He just wanted to do it for her.
However, now he had been given an incredible ability as a result of his bond. And with that came HOPE.
Even Soren could figure out that Tommy was experimenting with the rats not because he wanted to, but because he had to. If he was successful, then he could possibly extract the poison from her body. At least in theory, it was possible.
He was not like Tommy. He did not have the privilege of growing up with his parents. In fact, he did not remember what they looked like—only that he had carried the stigma that they left behind.
Still—he understood. If he lost Machos, like he saw in that nightmare, he would be broken too.
And if he had the opportunity to save the old man, he would too. And while he thought what Tommy was doing was inhumane, he wondered if he had the right to stop it.
Soren walked over to comfort his friend. He stayed all day with him.
After a while, both of them decided to take a walk and go check on Pencil.
Pencil lived and worked on a corn farm at the edge of town. They talked a lot about their dreams as they walked. And then finally, the question popped up.
"So... F-rank."
"Yes... No Soul mechas for me." Soren sighed. Tommy understood his friend well. No one wanted to be a soul mecha pilot more than him. He thought of saying some comforting words. But before he would begin, his eyes looked on, frozen in shock.
Soren's eyes followed Tommy's.
There he was. Pencil. But half of him hung limply from one of the mouths of the Elderitch soul. The abomination's saliva and Pencil's blood dripped to the ground.
It turned its head to them.
And then the Elderitch soul moved. First it killed Tommy. And then—
Soren felt its tentacle slice through his neck—his head tumbling in the air, eyes on what should have been his body.
[You died.]
————————————————————————
Soren jolted awake.
cough. cough. cough.
The Intense need to throw up ravaged his senses once more. His body. He felt assaulted.
The ceiling—"One Day, I'll Pilot the Stars."
Once again, he was in his room. The posters of Soul Mechas were still on the walls. And the Action figures still there—staring at him.
He looked at his hands. They shook without seizing. His lungs, they refused to work. His breath came, shallow and panicked. It was as if they tightened around his ribs.
He instinctively grabbed his neck. It was still attached to his head. But he remembered it. There. The warmth of Tommy's blood on his face. The memory of it ignited the urge to claw at his skin.
"This... It can't be. It can't be real."
The realisation dawned on him. It had not been a nightmare the first time. He had really died.
Immediately, he rushed out of his room—turning back to wear his shoes, 'again'—and into the workshop. "Machos! Machos!!" His eyes darted around in search of the old man.
"Machos!!!"
He ran into the kitchen. And there he was. The old man was stirring the pot of soup.
[Author's Note: Please add the Book to your Library.]