Aura & The Hell's Kitchen

[ WARNING-!!! ]

[ DETECTED UNAUTHORIZED USE OF ENHANCERS ]

[ PRISON LAW - #309: BREACHED ]

[ ILLEGAL ACTION WILL BE REPORTED ]

"AAGH!! SHIT! SHIT!"

Vermont groaned in slight pain as he rolled onto the tiled floor, trying to put off the fire. Despite the wetness, the fire-wall around the kitchen still caught onto the cloth fiber like a blood-sucking leech would stick to an animal skin.

[ ERROR-!!! ]

[ CONNECTION TO #2345 JUVIE CENTER HAS BEEN LOST ]

[ ANOMALY DETECTED IN HOST ENVIRONMENT ]

[ SCANNING HOST'S BODY FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ]

"Ugh!!!" Vermont held his head in annoyance. The constant notification ringing in his ears felt like somebody rang the humongous temple bells beside his bed.

"Aura, stop it. No need for scans. Stop all the non life-threatening warnings for the day."

Although he hailed the prison AI as Aura, the artificial intelligence didn't sweat the minor detail. Prison AI could decipher the host's intentions and wouldn't meddle unnecessarily unless a law was being breached.

Following his command, there was an eerie quietness in his head. The monotone voice disappeared as if it didn't even exist.

In 31st century Earth, the AURA chip was mandatory for every official citizen of a planet that was part of the Heaven's Council. Complete name "Artificial Universal Raksha Anka", it was a 10mm chip implanted near people's brain via a minor surgery done at birth.

There were two primary uses of the AURA chip:

One, it had a Universal Raksha Anka that was a 1024 long string of number, characters, and special symbols used to identify a unique 'Aura' of a Lifeform.

Second, it acted as an interface between the host's brain and a smart device enabling a seemless integration of digital devices with the human mind.

Without an interface device like a smart phone, ring, watch, necklace, or any other embedded devices that was connected to a person's AURA chip. It would not have any function except acting as an identity card like AADHAR from the erstwhile Bharat.

Vermont was receiving Prison AI's messages from the device he was wearing around his neck like a collar. It connected directly through his neck via multiple small hair-like flexible needles injected into his esophagus.

THUD…

"AAGH!!!"

"WHAT THE F*CK!!"

"AAGH!!! HELP, I'M ON FIRE!!!"

Rave participants appeared on the tiled floor one by one. Falling from mid-air, there were no vortexes or wormholes in the sky. As people fell from the sky, the smell of roasted chicken rose. None of them had the time to appreciate the majestic Hell's Kitchen.

***

(10 Minutes Later)

A chain of gasps and surprises travelled through participants. As more people realized the absurdity of the world in front of them, the shouts only got louder.

The kitchen was nowhere to be found. Replaced by something humanity had never seen before in their centuries of space exploration, Hell's Kitchen's countenance was beyond just otherworldly. It was one of the infinite mystical dimensions that civilizations hunted for all around the Universe.

'~tsk. I guess there is no advantage to entering first.'

Vermont didn't care whether people were burning, drowning, or vomiting because of the nauseating feeling of switching dimensions. The only thing on his mind was to get to the zone. He wanted to absorb Damon's Reverie and get done with the rave.

'I hope he wasn't the one to be left out.'

If Vermont hadn't glanced at Damon's position before entering the rave dimension, he would have been in a panic, but that wasn't the case.

Vermont sighed in relief when he saw Damon running in one corner. He wanted to talk to him, but it wasn't the right time yet. He won't take action until the participants reach the zone.

Pulling his focus away, he finally turned to Hell's Kitchen and basked in the sight that was presented to him.

BA-DUMP... BA-DUMP...

His heart rate increased as he soaked in the Hell's Kitchen's glory. The prison AI would have suggested he breathe slowly had Vermont not previously disabled it for the day.

He didn't see Hell's Kitchen in his last life. Devices, except those directly implanted in human bodies, didn't work inside the Rave dimension because of the interference of Strop Energy. That is why the only information he had about Hell's kitchen was from Damon's interview.

If a human wanted to have a mechanical drill, he must first have it protruding out of his stomach or forehead like a lame villain. That was the rule of raves.

"Is the simulation able to recreate something as wonderful as this?" Vermont's first reaction, however, was that of denial.

Creating a world from memory was easy, but Vermont hadn't seen the real Hell's Kitchen as it had already collapsed by the time Vermont broke out of the prison.

So the Ravett controlling Vermont's mind must have either seen Hell's Kitchen himself or constructed the current grand dimension based on his broken memory fragments.

"That is impossible for any human, irrespective of his bloodline and Ravett Abilities!" he pondered.

Expanding beyond his limited vision, he witnessed a sea of lava swallowing the entire world above it. A starless blanket of darkness covered the starless sky above the horizon. He felt his gaze getting sucked into the darkness as he looked at the sky.

Across the horizon, where the glowing lava met the gloomy sky, enormous land-cubes, distanced by thousands of kilometers between them, were floating lazily.

On further glance, there was a white and black hue to the land-cubes like they were the checkered kitchen tiles, magnified by a billion times. As if countless millenniums had passed since their magnification, the clean-cut borders of the white and black land-tiles had eroded.

The slashes and the deep crevices visible on the sides of a nearby land-cube looked like titans had tried to rock-climb the mountainous kitchen tiles while running away from the lava ocean.

Below his feet, a vast desert extended till as long as his eyes could see in the opposite direction of the lava ocean. He couldn't tell how high they were above the lava ocean. From the slight white tint on the edge, however, the ground looked like it was one of the white tiles.

***

Lost in deep thoughts, Vermont was gazing into the distance. He looked like seeking to decipher the mysteries of the majestic Hell's Kitchen.

"Umm! Hi?"

Beatrice walked up to the stupefied Vermont and reluctantly brought him out of his stupor. Vermont looked towards the woman on his side. A teen girl was curiously looking at him while pocking her chin.

She was wearing a burnt blue overall. Her torn clothes covered most of her body, but the leggings still revealed her jade-white legs. Vermont could tell what remained of her mask by the hanging string near her ear.

'Why are you still wearing that coat in this heat?' He decided not to ask.

"~cough. Can I help you?"

"Hi, I'm Beatrice... Can tell me what is going on here?" A beaming smile appeared on her face.

"huh?"

'why are you asking me out of 98 other people?'

"Um! I know I was abrupt, but can you please not stare?"

Hyuk-! ~cough ~cough

He felt like somebody caught his tongue.

In the chaotic environment where everybody was trying everything possible to figure out what was going on, why would somebody ask a 15-year-old for anything? Unless they knew Vermont was an anomaly?

Feeling unease by Beatrice's question, his hands automatically inched slowly towards the knife on his waist, but he stopped as he remembered something he had missed earlier.

"Wait! What did you say your name was?"

"Hi, Yes. I'm Beatrice. No need to be alarmed by me."

She raised her arms together in folded namaste while pouting with a jubilant face. She had clearly seen Vermont reach for the knife, but didn't point it out.

"... I am a 2nd year student at INI Mumbai. The plane went out of control while I was returning from Japan and crashed at the prison. Although I survived due to luck, but now I don't think so anymore. I was wondering if you-"

Her rant continued on for a minute.

Her blushed cherry cheeks were like a pufferfish and she swirled both her index fingers against each other in a shy manner as she spoke.

Unlucky for her, though, her oni-chan charms weren't affecting Vermont. First, he was not actually a 15-year-old. And second, he had already remembered why the name Beatrice sounded so familiar.

'What is the Eye of Providence doing in Hell's Kitchen?' He thought.

"huh-? Oye, stop tugging on my shirt."

Beatrice still continued to inch closer to Vermont while acting like a spoilt little sister, even though she was 4 years older than him.