Liminal Space

The whiteness surrounds all her area. There was a vast emptiness inside her mind currently.

'What is this place anyway?' She tries to figure out her construction powers had no effect, almost like this wasn't her mind at all.

"K4, I missed you." A deep man's voice, just like on the television, echoed across the white landscape.

K4 turns around, seeing the same man standing in his formal attire; he looked exactly like a professional broadcaster.

"Who are you?" Her voice was demanding.

The man lets out a chuckle. "I change my voice, and you can't recognise me? How disappointing!" The man points at her.

"Sorry, not knowing someone who put me here." At that moment she remembered the only person who could accomplish this feat.

"pandemonium"

"took you a while..." The man's voice was definitely off-putting as it walked towards K4, somehow applying gravity to itself in the liminal mind space.

K4 asks quickly. "What happened to you? Why aren't you a child?" Analysing the man further, she notices the black suit mixed with a white shirt behind it gives a professional look; the black jeans give it a businessman look, which was certainly different from the fiery red child in the white robes and yellow eyes.

"I don't have a form; I never did. I just wanted to make you think I had one so you would come running after a red, fiery-haired child." The man stands in front of the floating K4.

k4 meets its gaze "What do you want?"

"I'm here to suggest you give up; this laboratory won't save humanity. Give any clues" or actually nothing at all." Pandemonium was serious, too serious.

K4 gives out a small laugh. "Is it because I got here before you? Is that why you want me to give up so fast?" She points out laughing at Pandemonium, who stands unfazed by the taunts.

"See for yourself." There was a hint of games being played or even a hint of lies; Pandorium just started to fade like before into the white mind space, becoming one with it.

K4 continued to float in the mindspace until eventually falling rapidly down and hitting a hard surface; the impact crushed her body completely, and circuitry and metalwork were lying all around the white mindspace until eventually just waking her back in the lab.

with a fast nudge "Are you ok?" His voice was loud, almost desperate for a reply.

'I'm back here; this wasn't the plan at all. I need to get towards the power circuitry already.' K4 turns her gaze to Hino, who is standing and has a camp set up; the lights in the laboratory were working as well.

her mouth wavers slightly "How much time has passed?" There was slight concern.

"Around five days..."

K4's mouth falters and her eyes widen. "But I was only in the mindspace for a couple of seconds max. Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

K4 starts to look down and detaches herself from the computer; it seems that her journey just shortened.

'It seems that time in any mindspace with pandemonium applies the flow of time dramatically. I'm not sure if it affects my time or the entire world's time; since this is a rewind that defies time already, it can be any answer.'

Her thoughts conclude when Hino starts to talk to her, "I found nothing of interest yet in here." His disappointed motions give off regret.

"Don't worry; we still have around a week and two days left before the invasion." K4 remembers the words of Pandemonium once more about how she won't find anything here.

K4 looks around from the middle desk, noticing the structure of this room; it was like an operating base almost for the broadcast team, but that wouldn't explain the reason it was hidden.

K4 starts going away from the middle desk, walking around the operating room in search of any files; it seems Hino has already taken all the files from the desks and assembled them into neat piles for segregation.

"Are there any other files?" K4 asks

Hino, shouting across, says, "No, there isn't any left here."

Activating her lens once more to scan the room, her lens focuses on the all-around shape. She rushes back to the middle table standing on top of it, puts her finger out, and starts spinning on top of the table until stopping 270 degrees from the left.

Her finger points underneath the entrance; there seemed to be something off. K4 rushes over to where they came from, analysing the floor. It was a bit rusty and dismantled compared to the other parts of the room; it was odd.

"Hino, I think I found something." K4 starts using her robotic strength to lift up the metal sheeting; after finding a small grip in between the rust, she rips out the rusty sheet, whooshing the air and throwing it onto the computers behind, which causes a clang to play out.

Looking down, it seemed to be a tunnel in a tunnel base; the irony was despicable. K4 hand signals Hino over before jumping down; it was all metal, just like the laboratory but even more rusted down here.

Hino shines down the flashlight. "What is this?" He gave off a sense of confusion.

"A secret tunnel?" K4 starts to walk further into the tunnel; the rusty smell fills the tunnel below. Hino, without a choice, decides to jump down with her; his flashlight shines the path forward, which seems to be unrusted and very protected in this suspicious tunnel.

Without waiting for options, K4 starts her railgun with a lower power output, the white flow illuminating the dark tunnel more than Hino's flashlight. The beam shoots out and causes the door to gush out into the room inside, hitting the metal wall in the room. The smoke started to fill the tunnel, and a burnt smell entered towards them.

With the entrance to the hidden tunnel unveiled, K4 and Hino take a step inside; it looked like a library of sorts filled with papers and files that seemed to be of equal importance, as they were stored securely in baskets labelled with different topics.

The ceiling was at least double the height of K4, which was impressive. This was definitely where they would find information on the missile's launch place or a way to prevent them from activating.

"Look for files about military establishments." Hino nods at this and starts looking with K4 for any hope of military documents.

Hours passed in the room without much progress; they found the basket they needed, but the amount of files was still overwhelming.

"I found something you might like..." Hino pulls out a piece of paper; it was old but in good condition.

K4 takes it out of his hand, staring down at the ineligible language. "What is this? It's all gibberish compared to the other documents." Her comment made Hino's brows lift and his eyes focus.

"Do you not see the words?" a simple question

K4 looks at Hino, thinking he's a bit lost. "What do you mean, words? There isn't any language here."

"I see them, but you don't." His words suggested a possible encryption.

K4 looks down at the sheet once more. 'Did the humans develop an anti-robot language to prevent us from seeing things? That would make sense, but would it be possible?'

Hino gives a saddened look after he took his turn looking down at the sheet. "This... there's no way..."

K4 looks at his face, the widened eyes, the face opened, the brows lifted; that expression wasn't surprise only but a mixture of multiple powerful emotions hitting at once.

nudging him back into shape K4 asks, "What does it say?" She tries to look at the sheet, noticing there was nothing here for her to see.

"You might not believe me, but..." He stays silent.

"Say it already!" K4 yells at him.

He looks at her and reveals, "The robots didn't ever activate the missiles; they never knew the codes. It says it right here."

'But if the robots never launched the missiles, then why did they know about it during the broadcast? And if it was pandemonium, that would mean it knew that the missiles were located somewhere within its memory, but that defeats the purpose of coming here.'

Putting down the file on the floor, Hino looks over at K4. "We can't do anything anymore; let's just give up."

'Is he ok? There is definitely something he isn't telling me; just because the robots didn't launch the missiles doesn't mean they are launched yet. Also, that means Pandouium just wanted to stop me from seeing this. There has to be a deeper plot to this.