Cold.

A numbness.

Not empty just... unused.

Not swallowed just… languishing.

A form being outlined in mundane entropy.

Familiar.

Nostalgic.

But ever so slightly resented in its entirety.

The infinite. The nothingness that blended with escaping energy. The eternity of existence beyond material want and wane. All of it flowing back down in tugging reverse. A blind and deaf and free flowing loop back. Like space had tired of its weightless voyeur and time was demanding its due.

Darkness impermeable and filled to its brim by unbound soul, gradually saturating into clouded light merely blocked by anatomy. The tone of existence and unchecked expansion, filtering down to soft reverberations without resetting ring. The vast and infinite modal, slowly knowing true with the burn of a full body chill. Its lack of need and lack of want being rudely rebounded, body relearning that it does indeed have a set depth.

Bones feeling this all over nip. Nervous reactions lighting up the once hollow sensation. Prickling, scrunching, pulling side to side as unconscious happenstance to draw that frozen air in. The deepest contours, lungs burning in inverted energy conveyance, a heart shaking in place just as shivery. Even a hunger so long overlooked it may as well fall in on itself for all that was cared about. Stimulation across a broad expanse, across every end point and back. But bottlenecking harshly. Stopped before a consciousness unwilling to wake up. The dream was so nice, the world was so cold. What was five more minutes to the eons already experienced?

Apparently too much.

A shock, ill-advised yet punching through with no regard. Resuscitation to get that heart beating in rhythm once again. To force those empty nerves back into living rhyme. To crack the sheets of ice locking up veins and spring life to everything. But really only succeeding in bursting that bottleneck open like an unwilling dam. A flood of sensation, of bare naked discomfort, of freshly reborn regret for being dragged back to life.

Once tame numbness became entropic cacophony, the chill of death a far cry from this frozen over hell. A deluge of pain receptors screaming what was already known, gritting teeth between rattling jaws. Flesh and blood and bone knowing all too much that it was fucking cold in here! Wanting nothing more than to set this place alight in warping plasmic fire! And those crying nerves were more than willing, as that darkness flashed to resolutions unstoppable.

Bright grid work and over dense constellation, material nature seen for all the tiny particles that held it together. Direct flow and oscillation showing data streams and power conduits filled to their brims with it, outshining everything and haloing the more organic forms awaiting.

One mundane, stature fitting but attention not directed. Resolution still too lax to read with any certainty other than they were just walking toward.

But the other disproportionate, thin yet solid in its preternatural existence. Stretched to fit a height unneeded but taken anyway. Stretched so much it may as well be a ghost come to haunt the one they'd just set free.

But even in this waking state, its toothy smile was too bright to ignore. Its feelings too direct, too tuned just for him, to ever see as anything but a long lost friend. Even as it faded away to the background, flowed back and found a downspout to catch a ride on as a brighter current. Left so this new shining morning could be his to have and know. Not beholden but to the fate already set in motion. As the gulf of time marked its place with void more pressing, and a hunger to fill it so this cold would cease its incessant pricking.

The starlight world lost out to the tight shut dim, to less resolute sight and more abstract thought. Of following down pathways and discriminating toward redundancy. Grabbing hold of tight lines of electrons stuck in their back-and-forth dance of utilization and burn up. Taking in their ebb and flow, their harmonic messaging, their… indecipherable meanings.

The data density just becoming noise, no intake or output to make them clear cut. Information and exploitation rendered moot and unrecognizable. That's just what he gets for using all that helpful infrastructure as fuel. But the rest offered enough, more than enough. All that could be needed to break this prison and relight this fire. And so all that could be acceptably taken was seized. And all that was needed…

Was pulled.

Inattention, busy work to start the day, Hugh had little reason to check off what he knew was still status quo. Spreadsheet tablet in hand bordering on fraud, yet the reality always ended up being the same. Everything in working order, the systems more than up to the task of maintaining this over engineered daycare. His job just to sign off on its work and be there if something breaks. But his inattention, his willful ignoring of the bodies stacked up around him, was broken by a single flashing strobe.

A single green light indicator pulsing in accelerating frequency, catching his eye halfway through one more checkmark. The old pod beside him an ill fit for this more modern neighborhood. Bulky yet threadbare yet saying silently aloud that it still knew its purpose. A purpose coming to a long awaited end that really shouldn't be happening right now!!

A rush of fear and scramble to take in the readouts, to hope and pray and see it all melt from his face across the reflective glass panel. The pod was terminal, its defrost cycle too far gone, its resuscitation already fired. Its coils heating, life smoldering, contents jolting as years of sleep come crashing down hard. Too hard!

The frosted interior steaming over. The shadow inside convulsing like the shock tripped a seizure. The indicators flipping from green to danger orange. Franticly typed commands tried to abort this excessive action. Cut the lines and stop this decrepit machine from boiling its occupant alive. But even the screen proved unable to cope, the curse that seemed to follow poor Hugh jaggedly compromising even this analog construction. Static cutting into every readout, numbers flying wildly in their parameters, commands decompiling into gibberish laden nonsense. Even the wires seemed to be unable to handle this…

"Shit!!"

Hugh retreated in horror as every line to and from, every adapted concession and siphoned off resource flared down their paths in over energized glow. Static cling frilling every hair left on his body, prickling numbness and jolting fear. Fear enough to scramble, to throw himself back, to fling himself away and just get as far as he could. Before all that this excess became torrential raking-

*ZZZZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAAOOOOOWWWWWWWWW*

From ceiling to floor, from steamed glass to blaring glare, from convulsion to absolution of all this intent. Lightning down every pathway, lighting conduits to blackened char. Igniting tiles and panels off every chilled surface, cratering them in blackening halo witness. A ball of electric fury localized yet unmitigated. And all that power…

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Just one hell of a waking yawn.

Nerves once chilled swelling instantaneous, gorged on power stripped away from those unneeded. Muscles denying atrophy to tear themselves to prominence. A beat too loud to not feel across every amp, his heart making up for all this lost time. And all of it coiled and roped in close, wrapped in threads of being extraordinary and parallel. Electrons coopted and brought into the fold, waving and roiling to a singular tune. His tune, his life, his embodying resonance.

Seth was awake, and there was no stopping it now.

Not even the overt pressure cracking his imprisoning casing, the flash fired frost of a body reconstructed and left with all over freezer burn. A hard breath searing down through incapable blockade, gritted teeth and highlighting tract screaming for relief. Tougher skin managing fine, but the need to be free was deeper yet still. Bunching muscle still wound too tight and cramped, a leg lifted through the charley horse tight enough to break steel. Because the lid on this pressure cooker needing a good old fashioned kick out of the way!

*KANGGKANGAKAKAngggg*

The hardy glass and metal frame popping free in one piece, ricocheting off the walls and ceiling and floor all at once. Cashing in bent and dented aside its container, with contents spilled forth in billowed obstruction. Steam and heat meeting cold and dry, condensing on all sides as more solid matter rose. Accommodations not quite afforded, stiff molded ergonomics still too hot to the touch. But hands clenched edges and pulled their whole up, minimal contact and minimized time so this sought after warmth didn't turn into seared in bed sores. A scrunching pull and tensing stride wringing out the built up cramp of how ever long this death had been.

Each vertebra creaking as his angle increased and pressed further. Toes wiggling, making sure they still had feeling all the way down. And crunching down on wetted charred laminate with all the force of a sleepy titan. Juxtaposing temperatures swirling in convection, brushing over naked skin not really wanting to be touched. Bones still creaking and popping out their atrophies, twisting joints in all directions to get every spot. Until only the mother of all cricks in the neck snapped free and hollow, oncoming silence echoing away through who knows how many halls. Another morning after everything, falling on shoulders thought dust. Falling on Seth as he… realized more fully that he wasn't alone.

A frozen bashfulness caught mid soothe, a puffy lab coat kind of jealously looked at as all that standoff steam fell to the wayside. The look of pure horror on a wholly bald head. Though at least it curtailed the issues of waking up naked in… wherever he was.

A failed chalance dragging his gaze about to take in the real world surrounding him, not just its baser contents. And finding a small grace from maybe one pitying god, in a locker only slightly smashed in across the room. Squeaking sidesteps tried to hide his shame as Seth dragged himself closer to the very needed coverage. Though the stunlocked onlooker seemed to take this moment of defensive obfuscation as the only time he had to run for his life. More material squeaks trailing him out from this side hallway. Leaving Seth the small peace he needed for this one hell of a morning after.

A tug and *CHEEee* dislodged the door free of it impacted state, though its contents seemed unhurt by the percussion. And also a bit odd in their material and function. But it was all they had and the temperature was dropping back to its chilly equilibrium. A straightening whip opened the one piece suit for him to shove his feet into. Zippers along the waist and up the legs modeled this as a pretty tight fit. But as they went up the fabric loosened, tension coming undone all on its own. Not quite smart fabric, as the material stayed inert under scrutiny, but it was nice. Kind of soft as well, though more like a rubber glove than anything cloth. And the ports Seth eyed, and felt the bunch of all over it, certainly told him its function. To coat the body in a substance, and freeze it stable.

'Would have been nice to wear this before I…' "Hmm…"

A soft look down bearing solemn smile in one pale hand, and the rest of the suit in the other. Flexing the physical with the metaphysical as one and the same again. Taking in the world he'd left behind on… Well as good of terms he could have.

The grand scar of his life healed over, its loss no longer a mar on everything. The dark part of him used up, taken in for all it had taken itself. Resent and Rage now one and the same. The expenditure weighing yet lighter than ever, just another death to add to the tally. That existentially burdened hand rubbing the thought away, and finding that his own more permanent scar was still quite there. White hair as staunch as ever, feeling like spite- *clak* rather than- *CLAnk*

The moment was stomped away by metal feet on sanitized tile. Marching steps weighing inordinate on an already heavy mind. And darkening the fluorescent hallways on both sides. Bulky robots, like the old training constructs but roided up with armor and servo musculature. Chunky rotations and preset stances. A step up but not the full research track. Yet still formidable. Hall sweeping barrels chunking into place and prime. Transparent plastics filling near to half the height of the hall with definitive bulletproof protection. Formations aligning two abreast simply because that was all the space available, but bearing disparity regardless.

Seth dragged his taken up cryo suit slowly over his arms, watching this heavy response to his sudden awakening form firing lines on both flanks. The one behind less crowding out, simply two bots and all firepower. The other obviously leading deeper into this place, closed with prejudice by twin shields and interlaced shotguns.

A gambit. Intent with less action. A weaker front to sacrifice and lead the enemy where you wanted.

The other arm squeezed into its warmer conforming home as Seth's gaze tracked over to the 'easy' route out of here. Top not even being zipped up all the way before a cold stare was offered to those given over to his mercy. Met with blank calculation he still couldn't decipher, but already self-decoding into a more audible response.

"STAND DOWN AND REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE!! DO NOT RESIST!!"

Its tone irkingly deep, loud and grating like it was meant to get on his nerves. To drag him away and make him regret the fire rising inside. A smooth motion already forming as his hand fell free of the last zipper. Body language and intent screaming this thing was not long for the world it wanted to deny him. A deep down tinge conducting that tune like it was all there ever was. A foot sliding out, locking all stock into tearing into this waste of precious space. An angle forming in micro expressions, all intent before inevitable action. All enough to draw calculated ire and armed interdiction. All barrels tightening to meet this ill-advised defiance of programed authority.

Yet all that conflict careening into a brick wall. As his head whipped opposite with that fire beaming near maniacal. For all the rest to see that truer defiance in its sudden revolution!

Tile shattered, lock whipped round and starting gun outpaced in meters per second. As all this protection and strategy lost to the winds of something far greater than resentments weight. New age plastics buckling apart, metal and carbon fibers crunching to splinters. And all that preplanned instruction rendered moot in the face of a reborn avatar barreling elbow first! In the unquenchable joy of finally being alive!

A haloing of truer fire, harsh wizzing and catch up striking with malicious force across his back. But doing little more than propel him faster, draw his own fire to further prominence in rubberized transfer of energy. Turn his ballistic all out into rolling cavalcade of momentum fueled revelry. Locking another step with over exuberance as non lethal rounds were made a mockery of. As he charged into the light of this brand new day with all the life that had been denied! Resentment be damned, he was alive and finally free! And to hell with whatever wanted to stand in his way!

Fluorescent halls rocked and buckled with every bound. Screeched as corners were torn and shattered. Tiles burned and marred as he slid and swept under every impediment. More robot responders tossed asunder by sheer over indulgence. Knees ripped out, bodies borrowed as backstops, even the floors cratered to make this grand way on. All as power filtered through Seth's fingers like water splashed in his wake.

Like he was too happy to slow down and not threaten everything with simple proximity. More lab coats and onlookers, witnesses to this harsh happiness. Bystanders to be rounded before they even knew what was going on. But still allowed to see that smile wave a hell of a morning to them, even as it whirled about and crunched their protectors into force dashed shrapnel.

One last long hallway, a stretch of open ground with a light more natural at its end. Bounds taming as nothing else stood to curtail. Seth dropping into a run to drag this moment out to its fullest. Past rack after rack of fellow frozen bodies, leaving them in the dust to see the sun yet again. Past shocked faces and dissuading motions of those unaware and unprepared. Past all the trappings trapping him in this cold stark function. And past all the pain of one life lived out and a new one screaming into the light. Crashing through the window separating him from this world that grew up free of the scar of his first rebirth. That needn't hold any more fear for what horrors awaited it. That had its heroes back after so much turmoil and pain. And had the light of this bright future streaking down upon it.

And…

was a lot...

higher…

than Seth was expecting.

As the breadth of this new Kadia filled every corner of sight. Rises of titanic scale and marvels towering high. Buildings so big they nearly took up whole city blocks. Brutalism's conquest of the clouded over horizon absolute, yet overtaken by culture and warmth more contingent. Colors and glass and bombastic expression. Holographic illumination and differentiated designs. Neon exuberance making life not beholden to this monolithic expansion.

Yet… all of it fleeting so fast.

As gravity still had a score to settle.

All that shining future growing dark and shadow dense. Just in time for Seth to remember that-

"yyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!"

He can't fly!!

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