Factory Reset

Chapter Twenty-Two: Acceptance

Mason watched on through the heavily fogged glass of the Observation deck, glancing down at his friends trying to utilize what The Foundation had given them. He was a bit surprised that they have Axel, a tablet like device with blue liquid instead of red.

From what he had seen before they had handed it over, it was a sleek and shiny black box with a scree. It was rather bulky, almost like a book. It had a screen with numerous displays and information displayed.

Axel had a much more difficult time than Mason as he had no idea what he was doing. They gave him a list of abilities, once again reminding Mason of spell names, and told Axel that he should try to use them

They then changed the environment, one such as a small rural town. The observation area bled into the walls of a mountain. The entire town seemed to be coated in a thick layer of fog, and Axel seemed to be cold based on his constant shivering.

They hadn't given Marissa anything though. She was just left to watch Axel struggle with the tablet as they watched. Hannah was taken up into the Observation Area, of course, and had enjoyed several sandwiches before they even got the simulation started up.

B-64 had to give to the scientists, what they were doing was rather impressive. Even his sensors had a hell of a time trying to figure out if what he was looking at was reality or just simulation, though it was not impossible.

He glanced at Mason, who was intrigued with looking at his friends trying to figure out what to do. He looked like B-64 when he was observing Mason down there, even down to the small, but progressively bigger, worry beginning to itch itself on his face.

As the experiment hit the ten minute mark, the fog thickened somewhat. Mason had the strange feeling that he had seen this somewhere before, possibly a game or some book, he wasn't sure. But it felt familiar.

Finally, after another ten minutes of configuring and silence, Axel triumphantly declared that he had figured it out, and that he was ready. Marissa was standing close by him and peered over his shoulder.

They talked for a bit before Axel got into what he probably thought was a fighting position, but it just made him look more lame than anything. Axel placed the list against the tablet and breathed in air, before yelling out the words.

"Blue Blazes!"

Nothing happened. Nothing powered up, no ethereal blue flame, no nothing. Axel looked confused and glanced down at the sheet of paper before trying again, "Blue Blazes!", and nothing happened again.

"Try to speak calmly, it needs to recognize your voice." Lied stated, Axel flinching as he heard the voice. Marissa giggled for a few seconds, before returning to her stoic face.

"Okay... You got this, this is easy. Whoo... Okay..." Axel said to himself, jumping on the balls of his paws in an attempt to hype himself up. His hair bounced around as he did so, making him have to constantly move it.

Once collecting himself and gaining composure, Axel held the tablet out from him, squinted an eye and said, "Blue Blazes?"

This time something did happen. A blue emanate from the consul as a small, almost exhaust port lookin device stretched from the tablet. Axel's body glowed in an ethereal blue color as the power built up.

And not a moment later, a huge blue flame erupted from the small tablet, nearly five meters in length and high enough to scorch the simulated ceiling. Axel grinned manically, whipping the makeshift flamethrower around haphazardly, nearly scorching Marissa in the process.

But as one would know, there are few bad ideas that are of equal value as combining the words makeshift and flamethrower.

It soon got out of control as the fire expanded further and further, and Axel had close to no control over it. The tablet soon grew hot enough to begin to melt, and Axel tried his hardest to keep it from doing that, somehow not getting burned despite touching liquid metal.