Rain World: High Voltage

1: Unpleasant Wake Up Call

The little creature blinked. His eyes were bright blue, like beautiful jewels against a tattered, dull cloth that was his surroundings. He lay still for a while, his confusion preventing him from moving. He tried to sit up, but it was too difficult for him, so he lay back down and decided to feel around with his fingers. He brushed the surface of a cold wall, and the sudden chill made him unconsciously gasp and he snatched his hand back. Now that he realized it, it was very dark in here, and he felt pretty cold himself. Was this what woke him up? This feeling that made every part of him cry out in discomfort?

Come to think of it, had he ever woken up before this? He had memories, but he could barely recall them. They were too vague. 

All he could remember were bubbles, and blurry movement. He could remember feeling better than he did now. 

"Have I ever felt this cold?" he asked out loud. His very first words. Suddenly, he was showered in a faint, red light, and he looked up from where he lay. A small pinpoint of red light hovered above him in the darkness. 

He saw the same light in his memories. On the other side of the bubbles and blurriness. They were all around him, blinking eerily. Watching every movement. Something much bigger than him was on the other side of his comfortable, warm sanctuary.

"Awake now?"

He blinked in confusion. 

Somehow, he understood what it meant. He also had some knowledge that newborns of his kind shouldn't understand any kind of language like this so early. Yet somehow, he had all the knowledge and experience as if he had been living his life in the waking world for an entire puphood. 

He wasn't sure what to make of this.

Then he felt the cold floor beneath him vibrate, and his small world hummed to life, a white light brightened up the room, coming from a small vent above him. Now that it was no longer too dark to see, he could now be sure of a few things:

1. His room was small, but large enough for breathing room and movement.

2. He was being watched. Probably by the thing with the red light. The word 'camera' emerged from his faint memories. Maybe that was what it was called. 

Once again, the voice spoke: "Climb through the opening."

What opening? The room rumbled again, while at the same time, a loud roar and grating of metal gears  echoed all around him, it was a frightening and disorienting couple of moments. Then a slot in the wall opened, and the noises stopped. So he climbed through the new gap, like the disembodied voice told him to.

A dull, purple light shone at the end of the narrow tunnel he crawled through, and glowed brighter and brighter as he came closer. Finally, bursting out of the den onto a mossy/metal surface, he came face to face with a single eye. Or, what looked like an eye? It almost looked like the camera's eye. And a purple, stripey tail stuck out from the top of it's head, attaching itself to the ceiling.

"Please right yourself. Your tail is over your head, but I have to admit, you look rather adorable."

Huh?

Now that he realized it, the way he landed as he popped out of the tunnel, he somehow ended up upside down. The uncomfortable pressure in his head gave him enough evidence. Since he had landed on his back with his lower body curled over his head, he let his tail and legs flop to the ground before rolling back onto his two feet. Then turned to look at the little purple thing with the white eye. Now that he had his stance all figured out the 'ceiling' that the tail creature's tail was attached to, was actually a 'floor'. But to be honest, the entire hall that he had just entered was all symmetrical. The ceiling looked just like the ceiling, the walls like the walls. All lit up by a clear white light. Rather dull looking.

"Are you the thing giving me orders?" He asked the tail creature. 

"Giving orders... such a harsh way to put it! More like helping you. I didn't have enough time to analyze the accuracy of your muscle memory or knowledge I implanted in you, so I'm going to continue to help you." The disembodied voice replied. Though it didn't seem to come from the tail creature. Somewhere along the walls was a device that he believed to be called a 'speaker'.

"And what if I do not except your help?" He asked the speaker, staring the worm thing in the eye.

"Then you will die, even if it isn't me who disposes of you, nature will. And that is why we are going to give you your first test, starting now..."

"What?"

"Dodge the lizards."

"Why so soon! I just woke--"

But it was already too late to protest, because as he turned to look at the source of the loud grating noises behind him, three green lizards dropped behind him, landing awkwardly on their backs and heads, hissing angrily. The worm creature suddenly disappeared and reappeared on the ceiling above the lizards, flashing the hologram of a symbol that flashed red and pointed to the hissing mass, whose mouths began to froth with green bubbles that boiled into the air above their mouths. 

"I suggest you use your 'running' skills please." said the wall speaker in an infuriatingly casual tone. "Show me what you can do."