The abyss was infinite. Every way you looked. On and on and on and on. When had he arrived here? Not sure. Why was he here? That too was foggy.
'...as long as I see the bright lights, I know I'm okay.'
These were the thoughts that kept him safe, kept him sane. After all, they had been here for as long as anyone could remember.
Anyone simply meaning him. After all, he was the only one around.
He faintly remembered feeling attached to a body of some kind. The feeling was long gone now, but the bright lights were there back then, too, he was sure.
So it must have been a dream.
Then, the darkness began to speak to him. Not how it usually did, with the faint whispers and memories.
In a much less intelligible way. The malleable substance that he must have coalesced from, and that surrounded him, shifted. Then the lights shook. Their gold hue flickered, and trembled, and finally, they shattered.
Wholly and unceremoniously. The abyss faded alongside them, replaced by a similar sort. The darkness had just weaned by a hair, but the ever-present formless shadows were formless no-more.
He saw outlines of things he must have recognised. Their familiarity echoed in his heart.
Heart?
He looked down, and saw a body. A thin, scrawny, weak and downtrodden body. The arms were stained with dry blood, and he could smell filth emanating out of him.
This wasn't new. But it felt foreign. The texture of dry blood stiffening his skin, cracking as he moved his shackled wrists. The ever-present headache, the weight of keeping a head upright.
Before the chance to reorient presented itself, yet another new but familiar variable presented itself.
Sound.
In a rough direction in front of his body, rapid thumping resounded, descending closer upon each. Eventually it silenced, before a much louder, much closer bang emanated.
Light poured through a rectangular opening in the wall, and a figure - a person - stepped through.
"Shit- you're still here!? God damn- I forg-..." The youthful, short figure hobbled over to the chair, and quickly undid the shackles, "What was it- Eli? Listen, y-you can't leave, we gotta lay low…" The youth audibly winced as he dragged Eli from the chair, and pulled him out of the small blank room.
"...Eli…?" He muttered. It was familiar in his tongue. "Right… Eli… yeah."
Eli was in a lit, dingy room. Exposing the man beside him to exposure. He was hooded and enrobed, about the same height as Eli himself, and covered in blood.
It was all so much, and all at once. Eli glanced around. The deep yellow lights hung from cables loosely dangling, mattresses were stuffed into odd corners of the basement, yellowed and ruined. Small signs of life were all that betrayed it as the hideout it was.
"Hideout…" Eli muttered, his mind's gears whirring.
At last, the final piece of the puzzle came to him. It was in the form of creaking, achy joints, that advertised the arrival of a small, metal critter. It descended the stairs slowly, and with a limp.
The last few proved too much of a challenge for the poor creature, as its rust-red front paw collapsed, and it rapidly descended the stairwell.
"Dogbot!" Eli yelled, sprinting his weary, unwieldy body over to the little canine.
It was on its back, one broken leg spinning, desperately attempting to right itself. Eli gave the small creature a push, and it managed to find its footing. The rust-red beast turned to Eli, and sat as gracefully as it could.
The exposed internals of the mechanical dog heaved and jolted. Dogbot panted as though it were in deep pain.
"Dogbot… I'm Eli… hideout." The small boy stared at his creation intently, as the world put itself back together. He furrowed his brow, and turned to the robed man, "Kidnapper…"
Dogbot stood, its creaky jaw snarled open. Eli followed suit, and soon, the pair and the robed man were face-to-face.
"What are you doing-?" The hooded boy asked, shaking his head, "W-we need to stay on the down-low!"
Dogbot's mechanical limbs stepped forward. The cement beneath each curved claw cracked, and the red eyes of the beast were glowing.
"You… you piece of shit! I was in there for- fuck! D-dogbot, fucking- kill him!" Eli commanded, his face warped, close to madness.
Dogbot needed no further words. The moment the phrase left Eli's mouth, the hound barrelled forth, its weary limbs cranking with the explosive motion.
The dog leaped forth toward the injured boy, its open maw colliding with his throat and snapping shut with a grotesque snap.
The boy fell, with Dogbot along with it. The bot ravaged the body, thrashing wildly and staining its rusted maw with blood.
"D-dogbot! Dogbot stop! Stop!" Eli called, and eventually, the hound released its prey, and hobbled back to Eli's side.
The hooded boy… the corpse lay flat, unmoving. From its neck pooled the life essence of the boy within the costume, staining the grey concrete floor.
Eli had just killed a man.
'...or have I? Is this… even real?'
The room was still. Eli stood before the body, frowning. He glared at the lights dangling in the room, and stared into the shadows with a snarl on his face.
Each small miscrepancy he saw filled him with uncertainty, each shadow that slightly moved under the waving bulb of the basement. He couldn't tell.
He couldn't feel much of anything. Dogbot stirred a familiar sense of joy when he saw the beast. The corpse left him devoid of anything. Surely if this were real, he'd feel sick, repulsed, distraught…
Eli stepped forward, and kneeled beside the body. From within the robes, he pulled out a small object that had reflected from within.
The RAT. Just the faceplate. His other creation. Not as good as Dogbot. He frowned, and stepped away, carrying the large steel faceplate with him.
"Helloooo? Mr. Cultist? I missed you!" A bright and cheerful voice suddenly filled the empty basement.
Eli spun on his heel. The stairwell was lit up, blinding like a nightclub. The sheen grew louder as he heard steps growing closer to him.
A NORA registree. He remembered Tiffany sharing a video with him. Miss Magenta.
Eli was in a room, alone, covered in blood and sweat, with a mutilated body, and a threatening metal beast at his side.
He pushed the metal faceplate against his head. It scraped some skin from his cheeks as the jagged edges pressed into his skin, but it stayed in place.
Just in time, as the cheerful voice had revealed itself. A gorgeous series of lights filled the room, dancing colours and reflections mesmerised him. He felt compelled to gaze into them forever.
She stared at him, then the corpse, "Vigilante…?" Her gaze dropped to the hound, and back up to the familiar metal faceplate. Her vibrant grin grew, and her shining teeth let out a bright purple sheen, "Oh… secret member number five…?"