Chapter 13 : The lab.

Everyone started getting on the elevator.

The elevator wasn't matching the vibe of the building in the slightest.

Inside the elevator, the lights were neon, like from one of those cyberpunk movies.

Teal frowned from the bright light coming from every direction. He turned to look at Ryu who had excited face, his eyes were sparkling looking at the lights.

"This is so cool! That's how I would expect an elevator from a person as cool as you."

Teal turned to Van expecting a calm demeanor, but Van was the most excited of them all, his eyebrow and lips twitching while maintaining calm composure.

"I thought it was cool to give the elevator a cyberpunk touch." Theo spoke as vertical lines from the gap in the door kept passing through.

The elevator stopped as though it hit the ground.

The impact made the others jump.

"Sorry about that, I didn't think of the impact when I designed it."

The door opened with a hiss. The smoke from the room filled the elevator.

Everyone started coughing in the elevator, Ryu coughed louder than the others.

"What is... cough.. this smoke."

The smoke cleared a bit revealing a futuristic lab.

Screens on the wall, robots on one corner and a door in the middle from the wall straight ahead.

Van broke his composure jumping out the elevator "This is so cool! I can't believe a lab could be so good!"

Teal's focus was on the door instead of the robots or the screen.

"What is that door over there." Teal asked.

"Well that door leads to my room. Where I sleep and all."

Theo goes forward and opens the door revealing a simple room with a bed, desk and bookshelf.

"This is my room. Nothing special about it. I just sleep and read here."

Teal looked around like he was searching for some clue.

"I see you still are suspicious of me."

"It's not like that. The last person we met to ask for help suddenly went berserk and attacked us. I am seeing if there is anything similar in this room that was in her office that triggered her berserk state." Teal replied while through the drawer. 

"I don't think the triggering was something from her room. As long as i remember the key was pink sky, she started screaming like something snapped in her." 

"What? Pink sky...?" Theo's expression suddenly went blank.

"Shit." Teal suddenly retreated back pulling Ryu and Van by their back of the collar with him.

"What the hell man." Ryu yanked Teal's arm off his collar.

"His reaction shifted when he heard pink sky. Like the word triggered something or like he remembered something." Van's had his brows had been pulled together while looking at Theo.

Theo snapped back "Woah. I went into something like a trance there."

"What the hell was that." Ryu also had the same reaction as the other two.

"I don't know why, but that pink sky triggered something in me, like I had some familiarity with it. What is this pink sky."

Teal and Van exchanged a look and nodded at each other.

"Well... at first I thought I was seeing things when I first informed Van about it. But it keeps getting real. Our principal, Mrs. Debra Shades, she went berserk after she heard it, it felt like she had experienced something that made her rage and lose rationality."

"So it was Debra who went berserk. Did she have metallic limbs too?"

"She had the metallic limbs but she was very good at using them at combat. She almost killed us off. If I hadn't arrived and helped them these buffoons have been killed or seriously injured." 

"What happened after she calmed down? Did you guys confine her or something?"

The room went dead silent. No one uttered a word. The faces of the three receiving the question, everyone had their gazes down, avoiding eye contact.

Van broke the silence not lifting his head "She is no more..."

"Oh... I see..." Theo's face had a hint of sadness.

"You knew her didn't you?" Teal looked at Theo with a soft expression.

"She was the only one in the world whom I could call as friend. We were classmates when we studied robotics. She was kind of forced into studying it by her parents, she said she wanted to be a teacher, taking of kids."

Everyone fell silent like they were in deep thoughts, maybe thinking of the time they had with Debra.

A tear fell to the ground. Theo started sobbing, starting to let go of his pent up sadness.

"sob... I—She—" He couldn't utter a word. The loss was overwhelming for him.

The three of them just stared, not out of pity nor any emotion, just staring as he let go of himself.

"sniff... When was the funeral..." he rubbed the tears from his eyes, leaving them red.

"It was a day ago... She had many of her students attend the funeral." Teal spoke.

"How did she die...?"

"We tried stopping her. Ryu tried stopping her by destroying her metal limbs... we don't know the exact cause, but I think the reason was that she may have used too much mental power." Van spoke while walking restlessly.

"Mental power?"

"Yeah. She had this restless expression, like her head was constantly giving her pain, I saw a faint trail of blood coming from her ear."

"That could be the reason too. How did you guys manage to make sure her metallic limbs?"

Three of them looked at each other "We... we were the one who proceeded with her funeral as she didn't have any family member. We made some arm and leg like structure of plastic and covered it in clothes so no one expects." Teal spoke on their behalf.

"I felt guilty, I thought maybe as I was stopping her I may have killed her." Ryu covered his face with a hint of guilt.

"Any last words from her...?"

"She was worried about us rather than herself... and she said she was glad the sky isn't pink." Van looked at the books when he spoke.

"I see... what if this pink sky is something that hints to this situation of you guys having these metallic limbs?"