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Damien watches The Doodles - His own, his trusted Wolfreeze, and TJ’s - Clash. He doesn’t need to command his Doodles. They’re skilled in their own right, only turning to Damien if they believe he holds the correct answer; It gives Him time to think. He wonders, idly, as he watches them fight, what made him join the key Hunt. he knew from the start, ever since meeting Teneson; they just wanted it for themselves. So, why didn’t he back away? Not be a pawn?
It would have been so easy- go home. He wouldn’t have to do a thing. Not signing out of the competition, for all he knew, DoodleCo didn’t keep track of contenders unless they showed promise. At the time, he didn’t. It’s far too late, he muses silently. Now he has to see this through, collect the keys like it’s something he genuinely cares for. In reality, Damien just wanted to feel thrill, again. Challenge, that rush. The rush he hadn’t felt in years.
Damien remembers the incident, and after. The searing pain, the inability to move, the blood, a dark crimson that scared him, then. The fear he was going to die and that no one would ever find his body. He remembers waking up in a hospital, his mother grief stricken and afraid . Learning he wouldn’t be able to move, or even exist ever again without life support. feeling resigned, hopeless laying in that sterile white room; condemned there forever. “ It could have been worse,” the doctors had said, pityingly. “You could have died.” Damien recalls that phrase, vaguely.
Then, He Remembers clearly, the knowledge of a testing phase mobile life support directly connected to the brain, Bracers, really, with how they allowed him to move, to exist again, but Cannot remember feeling joy, or anything at all. Damien recalls after the surgery, waking with an advanced, mechanical exoskeleton. Bracers down his legs,letting him stand without crumpling to the floor. A mechanical ‘bone’ on both of his arms, down his fingers, along the backs. Letting him move them. Most of all, he remembers the tubes, going throughout him and over him.
He recalls the necessity, constantly fed nutrients, water, and other liquids they had told him that he no longer recalls that were stored in what was the equivalent of a high-class Box TV For a head that only ever displayed vital readings back at him, He had to wear it. But that wasn’t the worst thing, not even the tail they had given him- “The bracers won’t be able to move you properly if you turn while running. The tail will, like a cheetah, a rudder, really.” they had said, almost boredly. They had to replace his heart, too. It would have given out when he stood otherwise or tried to move from the strain, as the exoskeleton stimulated muscles, as well. What beats there now was a cold, mechanical thing. Damien thinks, mildly amused, that it fit when people said he had no heart. No longer. Perhaps, that is where the lack of anything empathetic, emotional, stems from. Sometimes, Damien feels concerned, asks about it, as he did when TJ was talking to the student council president, concerned when he can sense the growing animosity towards Himself from TJ. But that is always fleeting.
Damien remembers when his companions had asked about it, and his own, simple response to the curiosity. He didn’t explain what was hidden under his red and black suit, or his gloves, or the jeans he wore. He had told them only the slightest truth, that was encapsulated with more lies, kind of like a Doodle. He had said, monotone and terse, that he had issues running. The tail was to help him run properly. The TV head always showed how the tail was functioning, if it needed repairs. (“Don’t you think it’s kind of much? Couldn’t it have been an app on your phone?” Suzie had said, after he had explained. Damien didn’t answer her.)
Damien was slowly pulled back into reality by the sound of TJ’s frustration, and shock. Reminiscing time was over, it seemed. Time to deal with Oasis Energy.
he wondered when it would end.