What Happened to Her?

“****, you won’t believe it! Last night I dreamed I had superpowers. But not just any superpower. I remember my body feeling like a machine... I can’t recall all the details, but I could copy anyone around me.”

“I think you’ve been watching too much science fiction.”

“It felt so real... to be honest, I was sad when I woke up. I really wanted it to be real.”

Beep, beep, beep, beep...

“What is that?! ****, do you hear that sound?”

…

I jumped up quickly and accidentally hit my head on the glass above me. The impact knocked me back down into my previous position, lying flat.

I had just woken up from a dream... but which reality was I in now?

I looked around and saw several cables connected to my chest. It felt like I was inside one of those machines Alba and Dom used for detoxification. The only difference was that I couldn’t see outside, because the glass above me was completely black.

“Where am I? Can anyone hear me?!” I shouted, pounding on the glass with both hands.

No one answered.

Did they manage to take me to Nowy?

I quickly started running out of breath. I tore the cables from my chest and began pounding on the glass with greater intensity.

“Where am I?! Someone—?!”

“Inertia, can you hear me?” I heard a voice from outside the machine, muffled and distant. It sounded like Alba’s voice.

“Alba?” I asked, still uncertain.

“Yes, it’s me. It seems the communication radio in this machine is broken. Don’t worry, you’re with us. But you can’t leave yet. Your leg is still healing.”

I looked down at my right thigh, and sure enough, there was a huge open wound.

“We’ll need to keep you under observation for a few more days,” she said.

“Alba, I’m not feeling well... I don’t know, I feel kind of claustrophobic. I can’t see anything, this space feels too tight, and I don’t even know where I am.”

“You can’t see? Wait a moment,” she said.

The next moment, the glass turned transparent, and I saw her standing right next to the machine.

With just a quick glance, I noticed that her arm was completely healed. Then she went on.

“You had a severe infection in your leg and had to be kept in an isolation room. Since bacteria no longer affect us, there aren’t many studies on the newer strains... but Luna managed to take care of it.”

She went on:
“We found this machine that accelerates healing. It’s from 3,000 years ago, but it still seems to work just fine. Do you feel better now?”

From where I was lying, I could see her and most of my surroundings. That alone was enough to calm me down.

“Yes, I’m fine now. I think I just woke up a little disoriented... What happened after that? Does my phone still work? And where’s Rei?”

“Calm down, we’ll have plenty of time to explain everything once you recover. Just a moment,” she interrupted.

Alba then stepped out of my line of sight, and without thinking, I called after her. I guess I was still shaken from everything that had happened.

“Wait, Alba, don’t go—”

She came back before I could finish the sentence and placed my phone on the glass above me.

“Here’s your phone. We found it over your wound after you passed out. We spoke with Rei while you were in an induced coma, so I believe the phone is still working perfectly.”

That was a relief. Just seeing the phone made me relax, and I felt all the tension drain away. After all, Rei and that phone were the only certainties about my origin and the only things keeping me sane. So I thanked her.

“Thank you! I can’t believe it’s still working after everything.”

Alba went on:
“Dom is fine too. He’s not here right now because he’s busy with Chefe, but he promised he’d come back to see you as soon as he finished his task.”

“We were lucky that everything happened near Luna’s house. You passed out and went into cardiorespiratory arrest a few minutes later. She managed to resuscitate you, and then we transferred you to the lab. Luna said your heart stopped because of neurogenic shock. Here, she examined you and discovered that your spinal cord was compromised, and she still doesn’t know how you survived.”

She placed her left hand on the glass and went on explaining.
“Luna had to induce you into a coma to preserve you, but unexpectedly, you recovered very well. She took your blood to check for any associated infection and ended up discovering something different... in you.”

Something different?! After everything, I suppose it was to be expected that something unusual would happen. But what?! I widened my eyes and exclaimed, “What?!”

“There was a type of cell in your blood, something she had never seen before. It was as if these cells were intelligent, mutating according to the needs of the tissue where they acted. Since you had a bacterial infection, Luna had to monitor you. She took your blood again 24 hours later, and by then those cells were no longer present.”

“I’m not human anymore?!” I asked, still in disbelief.

“No... you’re still human. But her theory is that your phone has properties that can alter your body. We were waiting for you to wake up so we could learn more about the moment you transformed and to get your permission to examine your phone.”

To be honest, I didn’t even know exactly what had happened to me at that moment.

“I remember very little, to be honest...”

“Don’t worry, you don’t need to force yourself to remember right now. You’re still recovering,” she replied.

“And Rei? You managed to talk to him, right?”

When I asked about Rei, my memories slowly began to return. More precisely, the memories of that nightmare started coming back.

I remembered the pain that ran through my entire body and the torment of not being able to communicate with anyone.

“To be honest, all our attention was on you. We only managed to talk to Rei after you were fully stabilized.”

***

DEFEAT.

The app ended the round and returned to my phone’s home screen.

What now?!

I had never really stopped to think about it... but what usually happens in the game’s timeline after a defeat? Normally, we just start a new round and that’s it, right? The past defeat is forgotten, and we begin again from scratch. Maybe that same way of thinking had taken hold there.

A reset? No... I didn’t think that could happen in her world.

Even though I didn’t believe it, I tried to start Versus mode several times.
No success.

I tried to make a video call through the Live app.
No success.

Looking back, there was no chance I could have won that battle… I was holding a tank in my hands, but I was surrounded by nearly fifty experienced soldiers. But what’s the point of thinking about that now?

I felt that with every passing minute, Inertia’s chances of survival were slipping away. Why did I have that feeling? I didn’t know...

But I didn’t give up. I kept opening and closing the apps over and over. I tried restarting the phone, I tried starting a new battle, I exhausted every option available at that moment.

I also considered the possibility that her phone had died... it seemed like the most likely explanation. But if that were true, my only option was to wait for her to return the call.

…An hour passed, and I still hadn’t heard anything from her. I tried starting another call, but she didn’t answer.

Deep down, I knew what had happened, but I was refusing to believe it. Inertia had either been captured or was already dead.

That transformation had seemed incomplete... it hadn’t worked.

What happened to her?

End of Report 18