Rain World: High Voltage

2: A Controlled Environment

Green tipped tails swung in the air, green bubbles frothed from their mouths, beady, dark eyes glared from rectangular-shaped heads that flickered between bright green and black. As one lizard with fleshy, green spines that stuck out of its black-colored back regained its balance, it waved its head towards the orange rodent-like creature with blue eyes, and opened its mouth, ready to bite down on his flesh.

As soon as he realized what might happen if he stayed where he was, the green and black lizard hissed through his own frothy green spit and lunged. The little rodent creature only leaped back, leaving the lizard to snap his jaws at nothing. Angered by its failure to catch the first food it saw after what felt like several hours of starvation, the lizard lumbered down the hall towards the potential prey. But he was already running down the hall at full speed.

Static sounds fizzled from speakers that lined the walls, then an ecstatic sounding voice resounded, "How graceful, you are almost just as fast as the miros birds! Run, little slugcat, run!"

As he ran, just ahead of him, a gap opened in the ceiling, and a new kind of lizard dropped out. It was smaller, faster, and... bluer than the green lizards. But its eyes gleamed with the same hunger and rage. It landed smack onto the ground just as the little orange slugcat approached it at full speed. "No!" he shouted in a panicked Without any time to think, he quickly dodged the other direction, then pushed off the ground with his legs, performing a miraculous backflip. Soaring over the blue lizard's head, he stuck the landing on the other side of the blue lizard. It growled, sending a long tongue shooting towards him.

He let out a loud "AGH!" as the blue lizard's tongue attached itself to him,  reeling him in towards its mouth. Just as it was about to snap him up, four purple tick marks appeared on the sides of its head, like a targeting cross-hair, and the tiny white pupils in the blue lizard's dark eyes suddenly emptied of emotion. With a sharp pling sound, a glowing purple dot popped into existence, hovering just above its head. As soon as the lizard's tongue loosened, the slugcat shook himself free. 

But the other three green lizards were still storming down the hallway, though at an almost depressing speed. They were quite far behind, and they never had a chance to get close enough, because, without warning, their rubbery bodies were thrown straight up, down, up, then down, by a mysterious invisible force. So violently were they bashed from ceiling to floor, that they quickly fell to the ground, limp. Their glowing green heads slowly dimmed, until they appeared as lifeless as the deep lenses of the cameras that surveyed them.

The little slugcat watched on, shocked. He quickly came to a realization that even if the lizards were dead, he would be in terrible danger for as long as he stayed here. 

Glancing back at the blue lizard, who seemed to be stuck in some sort of trance, he made a run for it down the last stretch of the hall. As he reached the hallway's end, he came upon a cramped-looking hole. The inside of it was closed, but a three-dotted symbol flashed white in the middle. 

NO! It's closed!

Inspecting the inside of the hole, he reached his little three-fingered hands out to grab the two metal pieces that bent in towards the hole. Turning around, he spotted the zombified blue lizard approaching down the hall, the little purple light hovered above its forehead. But instead of lumbering like the green lizards, his legs worked quickly, scurrying across the floor, then onto the side of the wall to the right of it. 

"Leave me alone!! I hate you!!" he cried out, his eyes watering as he was backing against the hole in the wall. All of a sudden, the hallways shrunk out of view, and white lights flashed past him. He felt he couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't breathe. The breathless grip of the shaft that sucked him in was released, and he fell onto the floor with a thud. 

The room he had emerged into was darker, and red lights flared in the corners of the room. Large, rectangular panels equipped with rows of blinking red and blue lights decorated the walls that consisted of a maze of wires, pipes, and electrical circuits. Poles stretched from floor to ceiling, wall to wall. And in the center of the room, an enormous, bulky machine lay quietly in the dark, complete with a wide circle of thick lines that flickered a pale blue.

Behind the little orange slugcat, the three dots that marked the hole he had just traveled through flickered blue instead of white, glowing brighter and brighter.