SHADOW KID

Chapter 4

Ash woke up, rather muddled and confused about where he was. It was only after a few minutes that his memory gained back upon him.

     "Ouch", he groaned as he held his hand to his head. He actually hit it pretty hard the last time and he was starting to regret his decision coming to the besmirched sweatshop in the first place.

      "I better get out of here", said Ash to himself and slowly helped himself up, leaning against the wall behind him. He happened to have sprained his ankle, so he limped his way out of the restricted room slowly but surely.

      "How did I survive that?" contemplated Ash as he staggered back out into the secret lab's main chamber. He glanced back one last time at the marvel he discovered and reminded himself there's no way he's coming back. Not after all that happened, anyway. He could have risked his life in that explosion! And he was more than grateful to survive a deadly blast like that.

     "Never. Never come back again Ash", he told himself. He was in the elevator shaft now. Reminiscing his way through the lab wasn't as hard as he thought it would be. It was supposedly, "Easy", thought Ash. Not that the lab was that immense, anyway.

      "Now how do I go up?" thought Ash as he frantically searched for the buttons that would most likely operate a usual elevator, but all that was inside was a wide steel slate that probably acted as a support. Ash thought hard and scolded himself for not paying attention to the important details before entering the lab.

     Just as he was about to scream out his content, the lab's alarm breach went off. "Oh crap!" said Ash. "Now there's an intruder?" His face started perspiring with anxiety as the alarm rang louder in his ears. "WARNING, INTRUDER ALERT", an analitical voice repeated. "Oh, come on!" Ash cursed under his breath and accidentally, swiped his hand over the steel slate vehemently.

     That was when a set of cognitive keyboard systems popped up. "Woah!" Ash jerked.  The 'so called' keyboard, looked like a modern typing machine with holographic interlocks and letters, leaving Ash still partially confused and shocked. "So this is how it works?" thought Ash and just with a hinch, he swiped the letters on the modernized keyboard upwards with his index finger.

     The elevator shaft shook for a moment, before Ash felt it took off, this time, defying the gravitational force that pushed it. "I guess I am a genius after all", Ash complimented himself and chuckled.

     When he was back at the factory's distinctive ambience, Ash's nose wrinkled before he said, "So much for a factory huh?" He looked at his watch and gasped at the time. "Mum and Dad's going to kill me!" he bellowed anxiously, and dashed out the factory, unaware of the thin, black vapour that trailed along before diffusing entirely into his body...