8 Put him in... the POD!

Kendrick tossed and turned on his bed in a twisted manner. In his sleep, he received vivid dreams and setups that stirred his emotions and prodded him. From the flames of hell licking his ass to the Night he seen those wretched creatures fight in front of him too when he met the Nightmare gods, right back to that time he burned his hand on the stove as a child... Endlessly repeating, mixing, churning, turning over, and molded again into new monstrous thoughts and sensations.

With the feeling of falling, Kendrick jerked awake and sat straight up in his bed, as his chest moved up and down in rapid succession, with a heavy pant. Kendrick looked down to his medical gown that was now drenched in sweat and could see the water pour off his face, as it landed on his gown.

He brought his eyes back up to search the room and found that there wasn't anyone here, but it was still that same medical room.

[I was dreaming, but I'm not in a dream... What a nightmare, Oh! Ah... Haha, I see what I did there.] Kendrick laughed to himself as he found his own wording to be amusing.

Kendrick was chucklingly to himself, as the door slid open and Val walked in...

"Ummm, you haven't lost your mind, have you? Because if you have that's going to save me a lot of time, and I can collect my reward and go home." Val said with a bit of humor, while he watched Kendrick chuckling.

"Well, its either laugh or cry around here... Is it time to go?" Kendrick replied.

"Yeah, it's time. Come on, old Yu has a tank for you. We are going to submerge your ass and run diagnostics on you, then We get to have fun babysitting you while you connect to your Yogg tech chip. Oh, joy... Well, come on fairyass." Val walked out as soon as he verbally abused Ken some and then walked out, in almost a loop.

Kendrick was left in the room... He got out of bed and looked around for any more clothes, but after thinking for a moment... He was going to have to get in a tank of liquid, sooooo...

He walked out into the hallway to see it deserted.

"Val!" Kendrick called out, as it echoed down the halls.

[Where the fuck is, he, and how the fuck would I know to go...] Kendrick looked around some more.

Sighing to himself, he walked to the end of the hall and turned a corner to see a pair of gemini nurses with white hair each walking out of a room, as it closed behind them.

They both turned their heads in sync, as they saw Kendrick approaching.

He raised his hand to greet them, "Oh, hey... Do you know where I have to go, Mr. Wyrd asked me to go get in a tank for diagnostics. So, I'm not sure where that is..."

The two nurses nodded, and then spoke together, ""Yes. We know where you need to go, take our hands.""

Both nurses reached out on both sides of Kendrick and took one of his hands. They led him with both his hands holding theirs.

The first thing he noticed was their hands... One was burning hot and the other was ice cold.

[Just what are these nurses???]

Kendrick was led through several halls ways that turned left, right, left, right, right, and then left again. He approached a pair of silver sliding doors.

[Finally, an elevator.] Kendrick was happy, as his hands started to feel very uncomfortable. While he was surprised that his hands didn't burn or freeze with the two nurses, but it didn't feel good either.

They released his hands, and they both walk to the side to tap on the screen for the floors.

Kendrick watched as the odd text on the screen that looked like vertical lines with marks slashed through the lines changed.

Finally, they completed their inputs, and the doors opened to reveal a pitch-black surface.

""Right through here, and you will arrive at the lab for Doctor Yu.""

"Ah..." Kendrick let out a sound, as he looked at the rippling liquid looking surface in front of him.

"Not... Not an elevator?"

""...Elevator? No... This is a Telavator. It will take you directly to the lab floor."" The two voiced in unison.

"I, I see..." Kendrick said as he summoned up his courage.

[Screw it.] He thought in his mind, as he closed his eyes, and walked forward into the black abyssal fluid.

To his expectation, he felt the liquid covering him with a slimy feeling and clung tightly to him. As the feeling consumed him, and he felt gooey all over, he felt it left him just as fast as it came.

Still walking with his eyes closed, he knocked into a wall, with a pinging thud.

"Boy! What are you doing?" Kendrick heard the familiar voice of Old Yu, as he opened his eyes to look through a glass wall, into a large white room lab.

"Ah... The Tele-Thingy left me disoriented." Kendrick half lied to save face.

"Oh, that can happen. Haha! Come around the side and place your hand on the pad. After confirming you, the doors will let you in." Old Yu laughed and then instructed.

"Okay." Kendrick saw there was only one way around, so he sighed in relief.

He walked around the glass lab, as he watched Old Yu typing away at what appeared to be a keyboard made out of light... A hologram? Kendrick wondered.

He walked to the sliding glass doors to the left, as he saw a hand pad on the left of the doors, and so placed his left hand on it, as it matched the picture of the hand on the hand pad. Kendrick felt it strange that it wasn't the right hand.

After a moment he felt many little sharp pinpricks in his hand, and as he jerked his hand back, he found it was stuck to the pad.

Slight panic sat in, as he heard Old Yu from behind the glass again, "Don't worry, it does that... It's checking your blood in many placed on your hand. It's so you can't trick it with a skin overlay."

Kendrick looked up to see Old Yu speaking without turning his head, in a very casual manner. Feeling slightly better, the stinging pain subsided, and the doors opened.

He lifted his hand, and it came free. Kendrick stood there for a moment to look over his hand to make sure it was fine. As he inspected, he didn't see anything wrong or any stab marks.

"Better walk-in faster, or it's going to close, and you're going to have to open it again through the hand pad." Val walked up behind Kendrick and spoke.

Spooked, Kendrick quickly took several steps inside the door, as Val waited for the doors to close. Ken watched him do his hand on the pad, and then the doors opened for him.

"..."

"You're wondering why I didn't walk-in behind you? Well, unless you want to be gassed along with me and Old Yu, I wouldn't."

"What?!"

"Yeah... Unauthorized persons get gassed." Val said as he walked to the side of Old Yu.

"Actually, Val is an unauthorized person, but the system let him in because he's the former champion of the North." Old Yu laughed.

"Hey, just because the system and me are Kool people, doesn't like to mean you can like shit on them, or me... Just saying."

"Yeah, yeah... Unauthorized is unauthorized to me." Old Yu waved one hand before getting back to his work.

"Is the system a person or a computer?" Kendrick asked behind them.

Val turned and spoke, "Well, the system is an AI made by the Nightmare gods, and it's pretty damn smart... I'd say it's a person at this point. In my opinion, he's good people."

"Oh..." Kendrick remarked as he thought about the technology is really high here.

Old Yu rotated in his chair, as he looked over Kendrick again and spoke, "Alright, step right over to that black tiled circle. Keep going. Yeah, there. Stand in the middle of it. Keep your arms close to your body. Stay perfectly still, perfect."

Kendrick followed Old Yu's instruction when Old Yu tapped a button on his hologrammed Keyboard, and around Kendrick emerging from the floor came a clear glass tube surrounding him.

He stood, as he was soon elevated inside the glass tube, and he could see the tops of Val's and Old Yu's head. Ken looked up and seen from the ceiling a device descending and connecting to the top of the glass tube.

After a moment, a pink liquid flooded into the tank from the top that now connected to the ceiling filling up the tube. Ken was waiting for the breathing mask to drop down soon...

He could hear Val and Old Yu talking about information on the screen, which Ken couldn't understand, but he was getting nervous now that the pink liquid had come up to his stomach.

He waited a bit longer, and now it was up to his chest...

"Ummm... Guys... GUYS!" Kendrick called as it was now at his chin threatening to drown him.

Val looked up to see Ken panicking. Old Yu laughed, while Val facepalmed, as he spoke, "Hold your breath, until the liquid is over your head, then let all the air out of your lungs... After that inhaul the liquid... I know it sounds stupid, but the liquid has breathable oxygen in it. Don't ask me why they do it like this, as it's always been like this. It feels funny for a few moments, but it'll be okay."

Kendrick had long held his breath as he listened, and the voice of Ken became distorted as the pink liquid flooded his ears. Ken did remark that he could see through the liquid better than water, though everything had a pink tent to it.

He just couldn't help himself, as he didn't want to drown. He swam to the top of the tank and wanted to get out.

"Just do as I said... It's going to be alright. Trust me. Don't give in to your fear. Be the fear. Control it." Val continued, as he walked to the front of the tank.

Ken looked down, as he heard the garbled words.

[Screw it... This isn't even the most shocking thing today...] Kendrick wasted all the air in his lungs, as he felt lightheaded, then he attempted to 'breath' up this pink solution.