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parachutingkitten · 4 years ago

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Good Morning, Mr. Borg

My goodness, it’s been a while. Good to get back into it though.

The whole thing was feeling more and more like a horrifically elaborate escape room. We had been dropped into a Borg Tower on full lockdown and given no clues as to how to get out again. Even though we hadn’t been given a time limit, every second that ticked by seemed to get progressively more urgent- And none of us wanted to know what would happen if that urgency caught up with us.

“It can’t be that easy, can it?” Cryptor insisted. “A reset button just seems too obvious.”

“Technically, it’s a reset switch,” I corrected him.

“Cutting all of building power seems dangerous, especially during this storm,” Mr. Borg shook his head.

“Yeah, well, so is whatever is in control of the tower right now,” Cryptor shrugged.

“It’s the only option I could find in all of the notes. Cutting the power would force the security system into a hard reset. Whatever is in the system would be gone in an instant, and we’d get control back within a few minutes.”

Cyrus still seemed unconvinced. We had been pouring over blueprints and building documents for a few hours now. We had fallen into the trap of false hope a few times before. Everything we found seemed to be a dead end. I didn’t blame him for being skeptical. We were all getting antsy. It was already late afternoon. If we couldn’t even figure out what the problem was at this point, how long would it take us to actually get out? “Well, where is it?” He asked, his eyes still frantically studying the blueprints.

“There’s one on each maintenance floor. The closest one to us would be on the 93rd,” I explained.

“How sure are we that this will work?” Cryptor asked.

“I don’t know, how much do you trust Pixal’s understanding? They’re her notes.”

His face soured as he looked down at the table, taking in all the factors. “Well, I guess at this point it’s the only option we’ve got,” he sighed.

“You two will have to go down without me. I’m not risking using the elevator again.” Cyrus shook his head.

“Why even two of us?” Cryptor countered. “It only takes one person to flip the switch, right?”

Mr. Borg stared pensively down at the blueprints, his nerves obviously catching up with him a bit. “I’d feel better if you didn’t go alone.”

“Well, I don’t exactly feel good about leaving you alone,” I returned.

“Look,” he sighed. “We know that this level is safe, at least for now. But the switch is seven floors down. We don’t know what’s down there.”

Cryptor and I glanced at each other, his implication striking both of us.

“You could monitor up here to see if system status changes or anything,” I suggested.

“And then we could just use some hand radios to communicate.” My. Borg agreed. “But first, we should fit you up with your arm,” he turned to Cryptor.

“Yeah, I guess that might help,” Cryptor chuckled, looking down at his stub.

“I’ll go get our supplies,” I offered.

And with that we split up. I was off to a storage room to find radios, flashlights and anything else we might need on our journey downstairs. As I found myself alone for the first time that day I caught myself thinking of my new companion. It was strange. Strange that a man that caused so much destruction would act the way he did. Everything about him seemed more subdued and lighthearted than I could have imagined just yesterday. It didn’t make sense. Had they done something to him in prison to make him act this way? Some sort of reprogramming? It didn’t seem like an act. He seemed to genuinely be this decent person. I got along with him so easily. Maybe that says something about me. The most boring girl on earth and one of Ninjago’s most infamous war criminals certainly doesn’t seem like a natural match up. And yet there we were, about to venture down to the depths of an unstable building together and the one thing I wasn’t worried about… was him.

After finding what we needed I made my way back to the main room, meeting them on the production floor.

“How’s the new arm?” I asked, grabbing Cryptor’s attention.

“It actually works this time.” He smiled, wiggling it a bit.

“Well, I’ve got flashlights for the two of us.” I tossed him one, his new arm moving to catch it quite effortlessly. “And coms for everyone.” I placed the carrier down on the desk, disconnecting them and handing them out.

“Is this thing working?” Cryptor tested the radio, the sound echoing on the other coms as I attached mine to my belt.

“No messing around while you're down there,” Borg pressed. “Just get in and get out.”

“And no stupid horror movie stuff either,” I added. “No splitting up or anything, I will freak out.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry about it,” Cryptor flipped on his flashlight, shining it around the room.

“This is serious, I don’t want to get abandoned down there.”

Cryptor clicked his flashlight off again, his eyes returning to me. “And neither do I.”

“Here,” I switched my flashlight to my other hand, extending my free one. “I pinky promise.”

He raised an eyebrow, now officially skeptical.

“Come on, it’s a very solemn swear as long as both of us respect it. I won’t abandon you, and you won’t abandon me.”

He looked at it a moment, still hesitant, but reluctantly raised his hand to meet mine, our fingers interlocking.

“There,” I smiled. “Now, lets go flip a switch.”

“Remember,” Borg chimed in as we started towards the stairs. “93rd floor, second left.”

“Got it.” I nodded.

“Best of luck to you.”

I gave him a shy smile, my mind already fixed on the dark corridor awaiting me.

A soft click came from behind me, my eyes still fixed on Mr. Borg.

“You ready for this sticky note?”

My eyes narrowed as I spun around. “I don’t know, marshmallow, are you ready?” I clicked on my own flashlight, joining his in illuminating the hallway.

He glanced at me, sighing. “Well, there’s no point in just standing here looking at it.” He took a tentative step forward into the darkness, my own footsteps shortly following behind.

“Borg tower is so… different with the lights off.”

“You mean creepy.” He corrected me. “It’s creepy with the lights out.”

“Not necessarily.” I shook my head as we reached the first landing. “It’s just so empty and lifeless. The whole point of the building is to be this sort of lighthouse in the middle of the city. When the lights are out it just feels… wrong.”

Cryptor continued down the steps, my words hanging unresponded in the air for a moment.

“You know, most technology still at least has a warning light activated when it’s broken. The only time it ever goes dark is when it’s completely dead."

His words echoed through the corridors, soon fading into the walls, the space filling only with the continued click of my heals as we continued down the hypnotically repetitive stairways.

One two three four five six seven eight nine

Turn

One two three four five six seven eight nine

Turn

One two three four five six seven eight nine

The floor numbers counted down to our eventual destination, a chill running up my back as we got closer. Perhaps it was the cold seeping in from the storm outside, or maybe just the spirit of whatever it was that was keeping us here rushing past. My eyes turned up to see the increasing number of flights we had descended down stretching up into the darkness- fading away as if our path back no longer existed.

“I get the strange feeling we’re being lured into something.” I murmured as we reached the last landing. “And the only way to escape it is going to be running up a dozen flights of stairs.”

Cryptor turned around, his light shifting towards me. “Or down a hundred,” he countered.

I lifted my radio, clicking it on for the first time. “We’ve made it to the 93rd floor,” I told Mr. Borg.

“The switch will be in the main control room.” He answered back. “Take your second left, and it should be at the end of the hall,” He directed us.

Even with our directions, we both stood frozen, neither of us willing to open the door.

“You ready for whatever’s behind there?” I asked.

“I mean... assuming what’s behind there is probably nothing.”

“...I don’t love those odds.”

Cryptor’s flashlight shifted, landing on the emergency fire axe sitting in a conveniently marked box next to the door. He glanced at me, questioningly.

“I’m not sure how much safer I’d feel with you swinging an axe around.”

“You could take the axe,” he offered.

“I’m not sure that’d make it any better.”

His light turned again to the door. “Let’s just hope there’s nothing behind the door then.”

And with that, he pushed open the door, our eyes gracing the other side. Our first few steps came with more caution than I think I’ve ever given anything. There were no lights left on in the hall, but nothing seemed off aside from that. If something else was on this floor with us, it certainly hadn’t touched anything.

“See, nothing here,” Cryptor sighed. “Second left he said?”

“...yeah,” I answered, both of us moving down the corridor a touch quicker now. “We just have to get in, flip the switch, and get out. That’s it.”

“Exactly. Like I said, we didn’t even need two of us to do this.” Cryptor mused as we passed the first left.

“You can’t blame Borg for wanting to be cautious.” I countered as we rounded the next corner. “I mean last time what was down here was-”

And there it was. Right in front of me. As if my words had willed them into existence, there they were. At least a dozen pairs of unflinching red eyes, staring through the darkness back at us.

“...the Overlord.”

Something about them was almost hypnotic in a way. Magnetic. They drew me to them in a dreamlike trance, only my subconscious really in control. I started towards them, my feet moving beneath me in an unspoken need to know more, perhaps drunk on the shock of standing in front of my possible death.

It was only a few steps more before my light could reach the end of the hall, finally illuminating the phantom nindroids.

“They’re just screens,” I sighed. “From inside the lab, they’re not real.”

I glanced over my shoulder, trying to find Cryptor, but he wasn’t behind me. I turned around, finding him stuck at the beginning of the hallway. He hadn’t moved since we had rounded the corner.

“Cryptor?” His stare went straight through me to the displays behind me. He was lost.

“Whatever it is must have replaced the security camera feeds.” I moved my flashlight to better illuminate them to try and bring him back. The two large double doors to the control room were wide open, exposing the whole area. Although, the fact that our mystery bug had already hacked this control room shed some doubt on our plan. “You think it means anything?”

“...I-” Cryptor glanced around, snapping out of his trance. “I don’t know.” His steps moved to join me as I again turned my attention to the room.

“We just need to find the switch,” I reasserted. “Let’s not get distracted.”

“Right.” Cryptor sighed, finally catching up with me. “Just flip the switch and get out of here.”

I took a few more steps into the room, scanning for any other evidence of our mystery intruder.

“I don’t like that it knew we were coming here,” Cryptor muttered.

“I just don’t understand how it got into the system to begin with,” I pondered. “It must have entered between yesterday and this morning, and the tower’s been closed that whole time, no one’s had access to the system besides us. I mean, what’s changed since then?”

I could hear Cryptor’s footsteps stop behind me. “...me.”

“What? Are you self-admitting to having a secret evil agenda?” I chuckled.

“No,” he sighed. “But the day I get back, the tower goes back into Overlord mode, projecting those nindroid eyes everywhere… that’s not a coincidence.”

“Well, I don’t think-”

I was stopped by a sudden and loud burst of music from behind me, startling us both. We both turned to the source of the sound, one of the monitors now showing an extremely familiar video.

“Welcome to Borg Industries,” Pixal’s voice echoed through the room as her image faded onto screen. “Where the future-”

CRASH!

She was cut short by Cryptor, violently smashing the screen with his flashlight. We both stood in silence for a moment, his reaction surprising the both of us. “…I can’t stand that video,” he sighed. “Her voice is so annoying.” He brushed it off, turning to continue the search.

I felt a smile slip onto my face as I followed him. “I swear, that video will always be ingrained in my head, I must have listened to it a thousand times.”

“Maybe it really is the Overlord back again, because only he could truly appreciate how agonizing that video is to use it against us like that.” He glanced back at me, smirking.

I chuckled a bit, deadening my voice a bit, “Where the future is what you make it,”

“Let me be your guide as we step into that future together!” Cryptor joined me in reciting the line, our cadences matching as we continued to wander past the monitors.

“Woah, is this it?” Cryptor’s light landed on a large lever sticking up from the floor.

I crouched down, examining the handle. Large capital letters spelling out POWER were printed on the side. “I think so.”

“I was imaging something a little smaller,” He mused as I stood again.

“You want to do the honors?” I offered.

“Why not?” he shrugged, placing down his flashlight.

I pulled my com from my belt as he approached the lever. “We’re ready to flip the switch,” I announced.

“You should be clear to go,” Mr. Borg responded.

I looked up at Cryptor as he nodded, gripping the handle, and beginning to move it. It let out a large groan, as if never before been used, struggling to move into position before-

THUD

Everything stopped. The monitors were blank. The humming had ceased. And for a moment it seemed as if the entire world had halted. Cryptor and I glanced at each other, neither of us breathing.

“Looks like it worked.” Mr. Borg’s voice came over the radio. “Hopefully that took care of the problem. Flip it back so we can get things moving again.”

“Got it,” I sighed, letting out my breath.

Cryptor began to switch the lever, it again letting out a nasty creek as it switched. But once it got to the other side…

Nothing.

We both stood there a moment, waiting for the lights to buzz on or the monitors to start up… but nothing.

“Well, this isn’t good,” Cryptor picked up his flashlight again, taking a few steps through the room.

“Are you getting anything upstairs?” I asked Mr. Borg, hoping that everything was simply on a bit of a delay.

“No, nothing.” He responded.

“Well, should we try again?” I asked.

I waited a moment for a response, all of us at a loss of what to do.

“Well, at least we know my arm works,” Cryptor shrugged, finally resigning to one of the seats by the monitors.

“I’m glad the second one is working for you.”

“Me too,” he smiled. “Even if the first one did work, I’d probably be a bit suspicious. The first one never works right.”

“Drew, why don’t you wait a few minutes before trying again,” Mr. Borg’s response came. “As long as the power’s off, we should be safe, and we don’t want to over trigger the system.”

“Got it.” I responded, moving to join Cryptor as we waited.

“I just don’t get why we would be able to turn the power off, but not back on.”

“It means we’re not in control,” Cryptor concluded. “Which means whatever it is is still in control.”

“But we turned off the power,” I countered, sitting down.

“We don’t know that,” he shook his head. “We turned off the power on this floor and the top floor, that’s all we know for sure.”

“You don’t think we turned off the power?”

“I think it let us turn off the power.”

I sighed, still stumped at our situation. “But what would have such complete autonomy over the tower like that? To override the overrides?”

“I did,” he shrugged. “I don’t anymore, obviously, but when I was first built, I had complete access to every function in Borg Tower, final override authority. Which is obviously insane, no one should have that amount of control, but… I guess that’s the responsibility the Overlord gives you when you’re the first one off his factory line.”

His words stirred with me for a moment as I thought. What could be doing this to us? What would want to do this to us? And now? My eyes trailed off as I thought, eventually catching hold of Cryptor’s new arm.

“...Maybe it’s you.” I sat up, the pieces falling into place in my head.

“Me?” He asked.

“You said you were the first one off the factory line, right?”

“Right,” He nodded.

“But we know that can’t be right,” I continued.

“Why not?”

“...Because the first one never works right.” I grabbed my com. “Mr. Borg, were there any nindroids manufactured before the main line?” I asked.

“Um… yes, actually,” he responded. “We made one test droid before starting on the rest. Good thing too, it had some issues. We couldn’t get the vocal transmission to work, everything always came out all garbled. Fixed it for the main line though. Why?”

I turned to Cryptor, now convinced. “A malfunctioning nindroid who had all the same programming and accesses as you, and was likely disposed of in the basement furnace-”

“When I plugged in to the tower’s system for the diagnostic, that’s when everything started acting up, that’s what probably activated his code.”

“Drew?” Borg’s voice came again. “Did you two flip the switch down there?”

Cryptor and I looked at each other in panic for a moment.

“No why? What’s happening?” I stood up, moving towards the door.

“Well, I think things may have just taken a moment to start up, the production line at least seems to be working.”

“No. No, this is bad.” Cryptor stood as well, starting for the door.

“Why, what’s happening?” I could feel myself growing more panicked by the moment.

“He’s making himself a body.”

“How do you know?” I asked, following after him.

“...Because it’s exactly what I would do.”

Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3

#Ninjago #ninjago oc #ninjago cryptor #cyrus borg #GMMB #writing #OC: Drew Peterson