In a Cell

In a cell, Femi was dressed in a plain two-piece that looked like pajamas. He also had a thick collar locked around his neck. He sat on the floor with his leg crossed looking directly at the cell bars that made a holographic see-through wall. More precisely, he looked at the opposite cell room.

Hearing movements from behind him, he turned towards the direction and saw Arwan stand up from the small mattress that was at the corner of the cell room.

"Hoho, you're finally up." Femi said.

Arwan was dressed similarly to Femi. After ignoring Femi, he did a short stretch, then sent a mean look at Femi.

Feigning obliviousness, Femi shrugged, "Why are you looking at me that way?"

Arwan's face changed from a mean one to an angry one. "Bastard! This is what you wanted, right? Well, happy for you, you got it." He hissed.

Femi merely burst into laughter; he found those words interesting.

Femi did want to be captured. Right when he told Arwan but his hunch, although not sure about exactly what it was, he already knew the sycnro trio were up to no good. Femi realized that it'd be easier to leave the deduction part to Arwan, then have things play out to where they were put in a dangerous situation- a situation Femi desired.

"I'm no fan of this. Why the fuck did you drag me into this?" Arwan snapped.

"But we already agreed though." Femi slowly pointed at himself, then pointed at Arwan as he said, "You use me, I use you."

Arwan couldn't retort. Truly, that was how things were.

Femi continued, "Still, you don't have to be so aggressive. We both know if you wanted to avoid this whole situation you would, you have a reason to be here, don't you?"

Arwan shrank, he felt like he had just been read like a book.

Taking Arwan's silence as affirmation, Femi ended his statements with a tease, "What a goodie two shoes. Hahaha." He laughed.

"Tch!" Arwan spoke. He decided to ask a question he had been curious about right from the moment when he knew Femi's goal. "You. Why did you let yourself get captured too? No offense, I don't take you as a person who lends hand to just anyone without gaining anything."

Femi looked at Arwan with a clueless face. He tilted his head left and right, looking for the right choice of words. "As you know, there are more cells right beside us with clueless people in there. Their freedom was taken from them. As someone who has had his fair share of enslavement, I'd help those who are enslaved.

Heartwarming words that even touched Arwan a bit.

Nevertheless, those Femi words were blatant lies.

Femi did believe he went through his share of enslavement. As someone who could only experience 2 to 3 emotions of the six primary emotions, Femi's life was a bit of confusion.

There's a state of being emotionless and a state of being emotionful but feeling only 2 emotions for all situations he encounters; it was mind bugling.

There were things he wanted to hate, yet he couldn't. What he was supposed to be mad at, he laughed at. Things that would scare anyone, Femi tilted his head in confusion.

For example, Femi really wanted to hate the idea of enslavement and those who enslave, but he still couldn't. As of this moment, Femi felt neither pity for those in these cells who were enslaved and destined to become tools for experiment nor hatred for those who enslaved them.

These minor things affect his decisions. Just like how having an emotional outburst affects people's decision, having the wrong emotional outburst to a situation affects Femi's decisions.

Every actions that Femi has made and will eventually make all has benefits to Femi. Arwan, for instance, is someone Femi wants to try and form a 'trust' bond with.

Any actions that Femi makes which doesn't correlate with the feeling of happiness and anticipation is just Femi trying to imitate the other emotions.

Femi believed that until he was in the direst situations, those emotions wouldn't come, hence why he steps into dangerous situations. He rather died trying to experience those emotions, than live a life were he's a slave to mere emotions.

"Enough with the chit chat. What's your escape plan?" Femi asked.

Arwan looked at the ceiling of the room, walked close to the cell bar and slightly hit the walls not so far from it. He then slowly put a finger on the holographic walls formed from the cell bars. Feeling electric current passing through the walls, he quickly retracted his hand.

Arwan began murmuring, "No cameras in cell so there's definitely one in the hall. Since the current flowing in the bars are of this quality, we should be underground, away from tether interference. Things seem to be cost effective, confirms that there's more than one base. Lastly," he turned to Femi who patiently waited for a response, "What does that collar do?"

"This? For some reason it weakens my strength," Femi shrugged.

"I see. So, I'm not strong enough to be given a collar. Tch. " Arwan stood, carefully processing his thoughts, "Breaking out of the cell will be easy, we only need time."

"Actually, I believe we do have time. Eh, you see... They will sell you. They're gathering information about you right now." Femi said. He avoided that topic merely because he didn't want Arwan to panic.

Shockingly, Arwan didn't take it that way, instead he smirked. "They want to use me to collect ransom eh. Figures, they should have guessed I have an influential background. Jokes on them though, proof of me doesn't exist. I definitely have time."

Femi sighed, wanting to leave Arwan to do his thing and continue his own thing. But instead, he paid attention to what actions Arwan took next.

Arwan slowly parted his hair, letting Femi see what was hidden underneath. Blending with Arwan's hair was a little white bag tied perfectly to his hair.

After untying the bag from his hair, Arwan opened the little bag and brought out a short metal stick the length of his index finger.

"You always come in handy," Arwan said to stick.

The stick was a multi-mouthed screwdriver he always hid in his body since he was a kid. Seeing the situation they were going to enter, the screwdriver was one of the precautions Arwan prepared.

Now with his tool, Arwan stabbed the wall where he had previously hit and mentally marked. He opened a small hatch delicately, not wanting to trigger the alarms that were set. He looked through the wires and began sorting. He would have moved faster than this, but even a slight mistake would cause issues.

Even so, Arwan was a master at breaking in and out. A third-rate security like this was nothing compared to those in the GRA.

Femi wasn't interested in the rest of what Arwan did, so he went back to looking through the holographic walls.

A few moments later, Arwan said he was done cracking the hatch. "Just a flick of his hands and the bar opens," were his words.

"You sure? It's just been around 40minutes." Femi asked, still looking at the holographic walls.

"Yeah, I'm sure. How are you telling the time? I don't think you're bored enough to actually count." Arwan chuckled.

"Nah. I'm naturally just good with time and stuff." Femi claimed. "Just for the context, daybreak is soon, we've been here overnight. Let's wreck this place before the people wake." He shamelessly declared.

"What a straightforward plan. Quite like you." Arwan rolled his eyes. "We have to deactivate that collar first. Can't have my meat shield in a weakened state." He walked to where Femi was seated.

Arwan hadn't worked with anything like this collar before. But with his experience, something like the small collar that wasn't hard to deactivate. They would find a way to remove it later. 

After Arwan finally deactivated Femi's collar, he could pay his attention to something else. Femi, who was hard to please had his attention on something ever since Arwan woke up. Of course, Arwan would be interested.

"What exactly are y-"

Before Arwan was done asking, Femi already pointed, "She looks weird. Not Eva level weird but still. Her eyes too. They look so cool."

In the cell that was facing the duo's, a girl knelt, looking back at the duo with an emotionless face. Her stature was petite, the two-piece clothing she wore looked big for her. Her blackish purple hair was made into a sort of styled bowl cut. She also had a similar collar to Femi around her neck. The most attention catching about her was her eyes -the hazel iris that constantly changed its shape.

"She really does look weird." Arwan commented. 

Feeling that time was running, Femi stood warranting Arwan's attention. "If you open the door, they'll know we're out, right?" Femi asked.

"Right. Their third-rate security works that way."

Femi stretched, then said, "Let's get to it then. Let's ignite the fire of this hell."