Tokusatsu musebox

Waking up is beyond difficult. If I thought waking after the Enetron burn was like digging my way out of a shallow grave, waking up after installing the Anti-MetaVirus is like crawling from the depths of hell.

I wake in very slow stages. Sometimes I can hear voices around me, at least one of them completely foreign to me. Sometimes it's oddly quiet and I figure that's some kind of other side effect. And sometimes all of my progress falls away as I slip back into the embrace of a strangely calm darkness.

I finally make it back to wakefulness and I immediately feel sick. I can't remember the last time I ate physical food, so I'm concerned that if my stomach rebels, it'll just damage my throat.

I'm alone in Hiromu's room. Where are the others?

I stumble weakly to my feet and immediately topple over.

Well, maybe I'll just stay down here, then.

I'm flat on my back with my hands clasped over my face, the chain connecting the cuffs between my teeth, and it hurts but that's nothing compared to the static in my head, the splitting pain.

Fear, absolute terror. Anger, unbridled rage. Amusement? Laughter?

My back arches, I stare at the guards and they stare back. Guns drawn, aimed at my face. Everything fades in and out of focus.

I don't want this.

"S'il vous plaît," I'm begging, but for what? A bullet? "S'il vous plaît..." I twist and the guards twitch nervously, but they're still not shooting. Maybe they should be. Maybe they can stop this, before my friends have to do it. To save themselves. "S'il vous plaît!"

Black.

Then white.

Then slowly color focus. A shudder runs through me.

Curious.

The guards are moving closer. Fools.

"Salut, salut, salut!" I lift my arms, smirking, and my cables swiftly disarm them and throw them both against the walls before either of them can scream. The handcuffs split and fall away and I rise slowly to my feet.

I am in their base. So is my computer. Once we are reuninted, my majesté, Messiah will be freed from the subspace.

My goggles are still in an inside pocket of my coat. Very nice. I put them on before I step into the hallway. There are other soldiers out here. But not the Gobusters. So I have little to fear.

I lift one hand with another smirk. "Ça va."

Trapped. I feel trapped. Small spaces. Total darkness, indistinguishable from blinding light. Pressure. The concept of pain spelled out in code, but not real.

Tinsel. Data. A little boy in a vest and tie, something wrapping around my arms and my waist and my throat, a little girl crying when she was supposed to laugh. A promise of protection, a promise of perfection.

I can't breathe, but I don't need to. I can feel, but I don't have to.

Real pain, suddenly, and I wake up screaming, and understanding the word 'nightmare' for the first time.

Maybe the day could have gone better.

I find it kind of odd that they have a spare room to stand in as a holding cell in the deep recesses of their main building. They're not really any type of police force, are they? And they haven't yet made much of a point of capture over kill where any of my work had been concerned (though as I was marched into the room through a cavernous hangar I noticed bits and pieces of MegaZords scattered about, being worked over my any number of people).

I have no idea to what extent the room has been sealed to keep me in, what kinds of precautions they took. Obviously they weren't going to tell me. I suppose I should simply count myself lucky that their commander did not destroy me on sight, as I'd worried he would.

Guy seems kind of like a jerk to me.

I miss Ryuuji and Hiromu. It's not particularly cold in the room, and they'd even given me a blanket, but I'm not sure if I can sleep without at least Hiromu at my side.