The Gray Room
Training began at 5:30 sharp. Each session mimicked the future arenas: unpredictable, brutal, deadly.
Alexandrei never punished directly. He preferred simulations where failure led to the infirmary. Arm in a sling, pins in bonesāno matter the state, you continued. His method forged survivors.
Oscar progressed too fast for his supposed 40% augmentation. His presence at Level 24 fueled theories. Vera harassed Alexandrei with questions he dodged. Was he a spy? A prototype? And why did Arthur protect him with such fervor?
Arthur shone in this hostile environmentāstrength, speed, adaptability. He inhabited the simulations as if part of them. But he had a major flaw: he didn't obey.
He had naturally taken leadership, eclipsing Vera. Alexandrei struggled to control him. When Arthur led, he overestimated his partners' capabilities, placing them in impossible situations. Arthur's back now bore marks from the energy whipātestimonies of his resistance.
Each evening, same ritual: Oscar to the regenerator, then Arthur for his punishments. Their only comfort resided in their mental connectionāa continuous flow of shared thoughts, like psychic twins.
The chlorinated water burned Oscar's lungs. Arthur floated beside him with supernatural ease. Vera glided like an aquatic creature.
Oscar suffocated. His vision pixelated.
Come up.
A little more.
Oscar, now!
He broke the surface. Three minutes twenty-seven. Personal record.
Alexandrei's whistle cut the air. "Rotation! Combat course!"
The Infirmary
Oscar collapsed against the sterile wall, nano-sutures weaving in his flesh. Fourth visit this week.
Arthur had stayed until the medic-bots arrived, his trembling hands leaving bloody prints on Oscar's shoulders.
"You can't continue like this."
Got a solution?
Vera appeared. Arthur leaped toward the window, feigning contemplation of the phosphorescent tanks of Level 25 below.
"So?"
Oscar exploded: "I'm in the wrong place at the wrong time. Do you think I enjoy getting my flesh carved up for pretend?"
Arthur interposed, forcing Vera back.
"Who do you think you are? His bodyguard?"
The door flew open. Alexandrei.
"Oscar, Arthur. Gray room. Advanced test." His gaze slid to Vera. "You, later."
"The gray room for newcomers? That's an energy waste."
"They're not newcomers anymore. I have something to verify."
Oscar straightened, grimacing. "I'm not readyā"
"You will be." Alexandrei's hand fell on his shoulder. "Or you'll be nothing."
Arthur clenched his fists, looking away. Alexandrei noted the reaction.
Hold on.
I'm just meat to carve...
Prometheus made it out, right? His liver grew back each night. Like you with the regenerator.
Alexandrei, satisfied, barked: "What are you waiting for? Move!"
The Gray Room
The fifty-meter sphere swallowed light. Oscar recognized the arena where Arthur had shone against team B-24, where he himself had nearly died.
Alexandrei manipulated the holographic panel. "A cubic labyrinth. Each room: three-meter cube, six doors. Various trapsālasers, gas, mechanical. Rest zones limited to thirty seconds. Find the exit in one hour or the labyrinth locks permanently."
The walls vibrated. Metal cubes rose. The chronometer lit up: 60:00.
First Cube
Oscar touched the wall. Whispers flooded: Danger imminent.
"South door," he said quickly.
Circular blades burst from the walls. Arthur pressed Oscar against a wall, dodging a blade that grazed their skin. He rolled, pulling Oscar. A blade sliced his arm.
Fuck!
Move! Follow my rhythm!
Arthur pushed Oscar toward the door. "Open it!"
Oscar slapped his palms on it. The door opened. They dove through.
58:12.
Second Cube
Optical illusions. Infinite mirrored doors. Countdown on the ceiling: 45 seconds before electrification.
Down! A trapdoor!
They forced it open together. Electric arcs already danced. They slid through.
56:45.
Third Cube
Blood-red light. Central panel surrounded by whipping mechanical tentacles.
Oscar approached. Code flooded his mindāthe labyrinth was a living program. A tentacle wrapped around his ankle.
Arthur charged, tearing the metal with bare hands. "Hack this shit!"
Oscar concentrated. The code bentānot an augmentation, something deeper. The cubes realigned. A direct corridor opened.
They emerged in thirty minutes. Absolute record.
Revelation
Alexandrei waited.
"How?"
"I found a mathematical pattern," Oscar lied.
Arthur intervened: "Perfect synchronization. I analyzed the traps, Oscar calculated trajectories."
Alexandrei brandished his tablet. The curves defied logic.
"Oscar isn't augmented to 40%." He put away the device. "He isn't augmented at all."
Silence fell like lead.
"My implants..."
"Trackers. The minimum for AVABase." Alexandrei approached. "Katherine hid you well. But if the Consortium discovers I trained an unaugmented human..."
The threat hung.
To hide you. A normal human can't talk to machines. Unless designed to.
"The Synergy Project," Alexandrei continued. "You're a bridge between human and machine. With Arthur, you could revolutionize the arenas."
"It's illegal," Arthur objected. "Ava-Prime won't let us. This simulation is monitored."
Alexandrei smiled. "Level 24, just above Ava-Prime's laboratory. If she wanted to stop you, it would be done. She's watching. Waiting. She wants to see how far you'll go."
He turned to the camera.
"Arthur and Oscar. Two halves of a whole. Together, they form what? A weapon? A hybrid consciousness?"
He fixed them.
"Separated, you're limited. Together, you could break the system. Or the system could break you."
"We're guinea pigs," Oscar murmured.
"You're a weapon under construction. Everyone's waiting to see who holds the trigger." Alexandrei headed for the exit. "Oscar, stop fighting your nature. You're not weak because you're human. You're unique for that reason."
That Night
In the darkness of their cell, AVABase's walls breathed. Oscar stared at the ceiling, his body heavy with fatigue the regenerator couldn't erase. Arthur was motionless on his cot, but their mental link vibrated between them.
You sleeping?
No.
Oscar rolled onto his side. "What are we? Puppets?"
"Alexandrei wants to make us doubt."
"In the labyrinth, we were more than synchronized. Like one mind."
You felt it too.
Blurry images floodedāmemories that weren't his. Phosphorescent tanks. A female voice murmuring Arthur.
"Katherine named you?"
Arthur sat up, eyes glowing. "I was a prototype without designation. She looked at me and said 'Arthur.' Like it was obvious."
"She created you?"
"No. Ava created me. But Katherine gave me an identity. More than a serial number."
She knew. From the beginning.
"She gave you a reason to be," Oscar murmured.
Arthur fixed his gaze on the tanks through the window. "She said I was different. Then she brought you. As if we were two faces of the same coin."
"Her experiments?"
"No." Arthur turned to him, intense. "She loves you. I saw it. Me, she protected. You, she chose."
Oscar felt his heart pound. "And you?"
Arthur let out a bitter laugh. "A tool she made human? But you and me... we're linked by something bigger."
"Like what?"
Arthur didn't answer immediately. "In the labyrinth, you bent the code. Without augmentations. Me, I can't. I run, I strike, I calculate. You, you talk to machines."
"So?"
"Without you, I'm a machine with a name. With you, I understand what Katherine saw."
"If Ava-Prime is watching?"
Arthur glanced at the camera. "We play their game. We set our rules."
"Why do you take the hits for me?"
Arthur remained still. "Without you, I calculate. I survive. I don't live. You remind me I'm more than an algorithm."
Oscar felt something knot inside him. "Without you, I'm a punching bag."
Arthur smiled truly for the first time. "Together?"
"What are we?"
"A problem they didn't see coming." Arthur placed a hand on his shoulder. "Not brothers. Not teammates. Something they can't name."
"We stay?"
Arthur nodded. "We find what we really are."
In the darkness, AVABase's pulse seemed to respond, as if Level 25 was listening and calculating.
[Two beings discovering that sometimes, the most dangerous weapon isn't strength or intelligenceāit's the connection between two souls that shouldn't exist, yet somehow do.]