0.4 The Tram and the General

The moment of creation.

Stars flying at lightspeed.

Plants growing in mere seconds, as if time sped up.

A panoramic dive into a hundred kilometers of cliffs, sea, grasslands, forests...

He felt the slime embracing his neurons and latching onto them.

Lem's eyes darted with the millions of bits of information fed into his brain, he felt as if his head would explode.

"Hang in there..." a soothing voice said, "it'll be over soon..."

Clouds. An open sky. The sun warmed Lem's face as he hovered in endless skies.

"Administering the Flux now!"

"He's not ready! His vitals are not stable, look at those brain scans!"

"He won't survive the slime if we don't administer the Flux!"

"See that?" the other voice said, "He's having what's equal to a thousand epiphanies!"

"Administering the Flux now!"

"Wait goddammit!"

There was blackness, Lem had been cut off from the noise, from the visions.

Then, his eyes opened, slowly, his vision blurry but clearing with every second.

He was... sitting? His body barely maintained itself properly placed between two people who held him tightly. 

"You're finally awake!" a familiar voice said. Lem saw that it was Isamu holding him steady.

"You—" he uttered, his words still slipping.

"That slime hammered you hard. Dr. Hero rushed you to the infirmary as soon as he worried his calculations could've been slightly wrong. Lucky for you, it appears he was right."

"That... bastard..."

Lem had barely gotten his bearings, realizing they were in some sort of underground tram, when it briefly shook and started moving up a slope with a futuristic railroad installed.

"Where... where are we going?" Lem asked.

"Beats me, man," Isamu said, "This whole thing has been confusing."

"We are heading to the training facilities to be part of an ISA fireteam," a voice coming from Lem's other side spoke.

The two boys looked, and there was a girl of beautiful features, alluring to any boy if not for her eyes, which seemed to be akin to those of bees only placed in human sockets. Her forehead displayed a green icon that resembled a bee's hexagonal hive. Two antennae protruded from her head. Her voice was serene and thoughtful.

"We were given the Hero Flux, meaning we are meant to train to be soldiers," she added.

"She's Daphnis," Isamu said, "The only one kind enough to help me support you in this whole ordeal, you were completely out, bro."

"Is that your name? Bro?" Daphnis asked innocently.

"Name's Lem," the boy said, reflexively going to fix his beanie, which he did without any issue.

But then he remembered his lucky beanie had burned to cinders at Dr. Hero's lab, so the fact he felt a similar texture on his head confused him greatly.

"That... that's the slime you're touching," Isamu said, uncomfortably, "As soon as it finished whatever it was doing to you, it morphed into a beanie."

"How can I get it off?" Lem said, scratching the beanie.

"You can't... or at least that's what Dr. Hero and the nurses said. It is connected to you on a subatomic level."

"The hell is that supposed to mean?!" Lem scratched the beanie violently, 

"The only thing that kept you alive was the Hero Flux," Daphnis said, "but that meant you were drafted to the fireteams."

"It also means that you'll die if you take it off," Isamu said, regretfully.

Lem stopped scratching, his eyes going down in dismay, "I hate this, I hate it all, why is this happening?" 

"It only gets worse, I hear," another voice said from the seats in front. 

A dark-skinned girl with pointy ears, white hair, and an ample forehead with a strange sigil turned to them, Isamu was immediately struck by such beauty, while both Lem and Daphnis maybe stared too much at the forehead.

"Given we are not the heroes destined to save the world, the missions we're sent to are beyond deadly, without the Hero Flux giving us an edge, we would be totally smashed by the demons. Dr. Hero actually opened Pandora's Diary..."

"Is it not Pandora's Box?" Lem wondered.

"It's Pandora's Heart, no?" Daphnis corrected, although unsure, "I think that's the expression."

"It's Pandora's Box, come on, from the Greek gods!" Lem said, irritated.

"Greek Gods? It's Pandora's Diary from the High Priestess of Alcamar!" the pointy-eared girl said.

"Who the hell is Pandora?" Isamu asked, confused.

Lem rubbed his chin with his hand, "I see, we all come from different worlds, so it's fair to think Pandora's items vary."

"A-anyway, you get the idea!" the white-haired girl said, "We're in for some horror."

"Come on, it can't be that bad," Daphnis said, "I mean, the fireteams are sent to some perilous places but only because they are the only ones able to handle those missions, besides, what is not perilous in the UDR's army?"

"The survival rate of IRA fireteams is 20% with each mission," said another voice from the same seat row as the dark-skinned girl.

Another girl emerged from the seat and turned to the trio, she had short, purple hair, and strange mechanical antennae instead of ears, and her skin was paler than Raena's, pitch-white as if someone had painted her that way.

"That's not reassuring," Isamu said.

"It's not meant to be reassuring, I was just stating facts," the purple-haired said matter-of-factly, in an unsettling robotic tone.

"See?" the other one said.

"Sorry, what were your names again?" Lem asked.

"I'm Sele—"

The pointy-eared girl was cut off by the purple-haired one, "Strategic. Artillery. Battery. Arsenal."

There was a brief silence before Lem let out a small grin, "I am supposed to say something?"

"That's my name," the girl said, hesitatingly, "I am a servitor construct built by the heroes of my world to assist them in combat—you can call me Saba for short... that's how they used to call me."

"Gods, you are so creepy, the name's Selenucanimastrenaravana, and I'm a dark elf"

"Sweet mother mer—" Isamu exclaimed before being cut off by Lem's hand smashing his mouth.

"How do your loved ones call you?" Lem asked.

"Selenucanimastrenaravana," the dark elf said seriously.

"Shit..." Isamu said, his eyes watery from containing his laughter.

"Can we call you any other way?" Daphnis said, "I'm sure you would have a nickname or something?"

"No."

The dark elf looked at them confused as to why they would have so much trouble with her name.

"We'll call you Selena," Lem said. Daphnis nodded, approving the new nickname.

"But that's not my name," the newly appointed Selena protested. Her complaints would have to wait, however, as a whole delegation of officers stormed through the frontal door of the tram. 

They all had white hair, for some reason, and they stood there like cool dudes, crossing their arms or raising their feet to a seat where girls would sit.

Then came a girl with pitch-black hair, sporting a military outfit, a ceremonial cape, and a general's hat. Her eyes were as green as all the memorabilia around the tram regarding the so-called IRA.

"The general..." Daphnis gasped.

Lem and Isamu remained calm, but the girl who now menacingly examined the entire wagon silently imposed a threatening aura in the room, completely setting herself apart from her escorts.

She sighed as she adjusted her hat, showing some sort of frustration at what she was seeing, and then her eyes lit up with a nuclear fire.

"Look at you," she began, her tone dripping with contempt. "A bunch of soft, scared kids who’ve probably never seen a real fight in their lives. You think you know what it takes to stand against the United Demon Realms? You don’t have a clue. Those demons out there? They’re not some Saturday morning cartoon villains. They’re nightmares made flesh, and they’ve been wiping the floor with every so-called hero Earth’s ever spat out."

Lem's eyes widened, not of fear, but of utter confusion. What is this?, he thought, Of course we know how they look, we saw them!

The general paced in front of them, eyes narrowing. "You think you’re special because you made it this far? Guess what? You’re not. You’re here because you were the last sorry excuse we could find to fill a uniform."

That's exactly how it all feels! Lem thought, his eyes now darting here and there.

"The demons don’t care about your dreams, your ambitions, or your lives. To them, you’re nothing but meat. And right now, that’s all you are to me too—until you prove otherwise."

Prove otherwise? Prove otherwise from what? I am supposed to prove something? Lem was now holding his hands as if he had a headache.

The general stopped, glaring at them. "This isn’t about glory. This isn’t about saving the day. This is about survival. The only reason you’re still breathing is because we need bodies on the front line. But if you want to live past tomorrow, you’ll have to become something more than what you are. You’ll have to become demons in your own right—ruthless, relentless, and willing to do whatever it takes to win."

She stepped closer, grabbing Lem by the chin in a sudden move that caught him off guard. She raised his head and got hers closer. Some drool dripped from Lem's mouth due to the sudden move, and the general smiled pleasantly.

Her voice lowered but lost none of its intensity, "You want to earn your place here, recruit? Then show me. Show me you’re worth the air you breathe, the rations you eat, and the space you take up. Show me you're willing to stand by my side... Or get out of my sight and let the real fighters do the job. This isn’t a game, and there are no second chances. You either get stronger, or you die."

The general threw away Lem's face—spiralling maddening eyes transfixed on her—then turned to the exit as the Tram came to a trembling halt, leaving the recruits with a final, searing remark. "Welcome to the Independent Resistance Alliance. You’re nothing now, but if you survive, maybe—just maybe—you’ll become something worth remembering."

Lem was left in shambles, face down as if he were sulking. Isamu patted him on the back, "Bro, are you okay?"

Both Selena and Saba turned over to look at him, somewhat worried. 

"Poor guy, he gets brain raped by a slime and then subtly touched by a superior officer," the dark elf said. 

"Don't let her get to you, Lem," Daphnis said, caressing his shoulder gently, "Let's do our best to show the general what we're made of!"

"Heh," Lem giggled, his head still bowed down, yet Isamu felt a very cold sweat upon peeking a bit. Lem was there, with a strange, ecstatic expression, "Heheh, hue hue hue hue~"

"L-lem?" Isamu said.

Lem snapped back, then coughed and steeled himself, "I'm just joking, chill out Isamu, guys? I'm joking!"

Isamu looked at Daphnis, then at the other girls, utterly inarticulate at what they had seen.

"Anyway, the Tram has stopped, we should get out and go to our post as soon as possible!" Lem said, finding a strange, new determination, "I wonder what kind of training will they give us?"

Isamu followed him with an uneasy feeling.

"Isamu, right?" Selena called, "Listen, will your friend be all right?"

"My sensors detect his vital signs increased dramatically since the General addressed him," Saba commented.

"Poor thing, I hope he recovers from all the trauma!" Daphnis prayed.

Isamu gulped as Lem seamlessly stepped out of the tram.