Ghost Transistor.

@lady-incisor​

Hal flinched as the woman’s face pushed into his breathing space. It was almost impressive, but mostly frightening, that though she couldn’t really see him, she could pinpoint with pretty good accuracy where his face was.

He tried to get a good look at her in the dim light. Her eyes weren’t focused on him, but rather somewhere to the left of him, but her expression was chillingly steely nonetheless. That said, she at least didn’t seem eager to bring him to the security guards, or she would have done so already.

“Look, uh… I promise I’m not going to hurt you,” Hal began slowly, nervously, “…or turn you in, or anything. I’m not with the company… and, I’m not supposed to be here at all… maybe like you? Er… and, as for the thing that makes me invisible...”

Suddenly, the light whirring of the optic camouflage, the only slight comfort that was still afforded to him, spluttered violently. Hal’s blood froze as the mechanism, after one harsh flicker, fell silent.

It died again.

He was visible again.

He stared forward, unblinking, unseeing, as his brain processed this for half a second.

“…it’s broken,” his voice broke.

Ghost Transistor.

@lady-incisor​

Hal’s entire body seized up and adrenaline immediately flooded his veins all over again. Three thoughts shoved their way to the forefront of his mind and stuck there: He wasn’t alone, he couldn’t run, and there was a gun pressed against him.

“I-I…” he stuttered, his voice hardly above a whisper.

She was going to shoot him.

The darkness didn’t matter. His camouflage didn’t matter.

He had been found.

“W-well…”

Hal swallowed thickly, closed his eyes and tried to get a grip on himself, to think rationally. This person couldn’t be working with the security guards, could she? There was no way she would be hiding here in a dark maintenance closet if she was… right? Employees don’t normally hide out in dark maintenance closets… especially not with guns… right?

“You’re not with the company, are you?” he suddenly asked her, though his voice was still quiet and shaky.

Ghost Transistor.

lady-incisor:

Hal tried to keep his pace up as he made his way down the hall, though it felt like his heart and lungs were still trying to kill him. He had to get out of the way… that was his first priority. After all, even though he was invisible, they could still feel him if they ran into him, and he was as good as dead when that happened.

But, speaking of running into people…

That person he had run into…

Hal quietly hoped she wasn’t the type to point the security guards in the right direction. Not that it would be surprising if she did, it wasn’t like he didn’t look suspicious, after all...

Suddenly, a shot of fear hit his heart.

What if she had seen him using the optic camouflage…?

If she told anyone, a sizable part of his defense was absolutely meaningless!

He quickly turned around to see if she was still there, if she was waiting for the guards so she could tell them what they knew…

Oddly, she had disappeared.

Hal nearly exhaled in relief, but he quickly swallowed it in a choked whimper when he noticed the forms of the security guards in the distance, quickly moving closer.

He quickly turned around, and stumbled the rest of the way down the hall.

He ended up hitting the far wall with a thud, the noise causing his entire body to seize in fear. They heard that. They definitely heard that. He quickly wedged himself into the corner between the walls and held his breath, afraid to make a noise or move an inch.

The optic camouflage’s abilities were far from perfect. Since the device refracted the light around him, his outline could still be seen in a specter-like shadow…

But it wasn’t too noticeable unless someone was looking for it, and it was even less noticeable when he was still…

Hal closed his eyes.

He heard the guards coming up to them, their footfalls heavy. They paused...

And...

Then turned the corner and continued down the hall.

Hal waited until the sound faded, and then his breath left him in a deep sigh and he slumped against the wall.

The danger was passed.

But, he knew he couldn’t stay in that corner forever.

His camouflage was already being temperamental, if he stayed in such an open area and it went out again, it would get him caught for certain. He needed to find more cover and quickly, at least until they gave up the search.

He slowly made his way back the way he came. Since the guards already swept this area, it might be a little while before they came back. It gave him a good opportunity to find a hiding space to wait it out… but, where would be a good place to hide?

The doors were unfortunately locked in most of the rooms that lined the halls. It made no difference, though. When Hal peeked inside, he noticed that the rooms didn’t seem to offer much in the way of cover. No good if his camouflage failed.

Then, he happened across a maintenance closet.

…and the door was unlocked.

It was probably his best bet. There was probably enough junk to be able to hide behind in there, and no windows in the he door gave him a little more comfort.

He turned the knob as slowly as he could, opening the door only enough space for him to squeeze in, and quietly shut it behind him. Good, now to find some cover…

Ghost Transistor.

The crowd of workers in the cramped production room spoke confusedly amongst themselves.

“What is this, a Gundam…?”

“I suppose we can make some of these, but it’ll be so expensive.”

“He has that much money to throw around? Geeze.”

There were piles of papers, which ranged from small-printed technicalities to rolled-up blueprints. An important-looking man observed the group of frazzled, low-level engineers as they pinned papers onto corkboard bulletins. Murmurs amongst the workers confirmed him to be a man named Kosuke Gamo, who had pulled all these people together over the last few weeks. He looked on with pride and barely knew a thing about the process or science behind these behemoth machines, but he had other people to worry about it.  

As the production workers looked on, a sense of uneasiness settled over them. Earlier that morning, a large shipment of unmarked boxes arrived that were hauled off to places unknown. It was a silent weight on their minds, until one of the workers, a young man, looked towards his supervisor and piped up.

“Boss? Do you know what we’re building?”

Wordlessly, the supervisor shook his head, his lips parted. There was no further conversation as they looked ahead. After one last glance at the papers, Gamo left with a couple of engineers following close behind.

With a large group of new workers to overlook, the supervisor never noticed that a mild-mannered woman called Taeko Onuma disappeared into the shadows. That was her name for now, and she had the fake ID to prove it. She adjusted the collar of her navy blue coverall uniform to align the row of buttons, rather than out of nervous fidgeting. While the goings-on were strange and piqued her interest, Onuma had other intentions.

Her objective was to find Kosuke Gamo, and kill him. 

Gamo disappeared within the sea of people in the brightly-lit hallway. She was told that his office was on the top floor, but he probably had other engagements first. The other information she received indicated that he was formerly a drug dealer who came into an obscene amount of money a few months ago. 

Onuma’s plain white shoes barely made a sound on the linoleum. An uncomfortable silence filled the area that she just entered. Slowly, she walked down the hall and occasionally paused to listen to her surroundings like a prowling cat. Unlike the previous floor, where she could tell that people were holed up in their cubicles or locked away in a meeting, there was no indication of any presence here. As she rounded a corner, heavy, running footsteps sounded before something collided with her. It was forceful enough to knock her onto the floor, and the dark hat that obscured her features and tightly coiled bun landed delicately nearby. Onuma was quick to get back on her feet, hands instinctively craving the weight of the small blade hidden in her pocket. She glared at the man on the floor. While he was the only person she could have run into, she swore that she never saw him coming. The realization spooked her, which made her expression deepen. His appearance also threw her off: he had round blue eyes and a mop of grayish brown hair - his skin had a rosier complexion.

“What the fuck’s your problem?” She asked, her voice harsh. “Watch where you’re going.”

Hal bolted down the hall with all the strength and speed his scraggly frame could muster, desperately trying to gain some distance from the several nasty-looking security guards who were already in pursuit. This wasn’t supposed to happen like this! This was going to be an easy operation, sneak into the building, get into the server room using the optic camouflage, find and copy any and all REX clone blueprints, and then sneak out without a trace.

The plan would have worked just fine, if the optic camouflage didn’t glitch out precisely when a security guard was in the area.

He didn’t even manage to snag one document before he was spotted…

And if he didn’t get his cloaking device working again, he’d be lucky to escape with his life.

He skidded around a corner, his breath coming in burning gasps, his heart pounding frantically in his throat, choking him, his muscles aching in protest of all this physical exertion he was in no shape to be doing. However, erratic bursts of adrenaline pushed him on… he couldn’t get caught like this!

“Come on, come on, work!” he whispered desperately to the little gadget pinned to his chest, pressing the little power button over and over again in a desperate attempt to make it somehow burst back to life. Did a wire come undone? Did the battery die? Did something burn out?

“He ran down this way!” he heard someone yell in the hallway behind him.

“Damn it, how did that foreign bastard even get in?”

“I called some help, we’ll get that son of a bitch in no time.”

Hal let loose a stream of curses in English as he redoubled his effort to get the little device to cooperate… he began hitting it in a desperate, stupid attempt to make something, anything happen, and…

Suddenly, with a sharp mechanical whir, the device miraculously sparked to life!

He let out a choked barking laugh of excitement. Great! He could no longer see his body! It was working! He was going to live! He just needed to find a shadowy corner to hide in, and then--

WHAM.

Hal was suddenly on the floor, his brain belatedly telling him that he had just run into someone. A worker. He had run into a worker. She was on the floor, too.

And…

The comforting mechanical hum of the optic camouflage had gone dead.

He was visible again.

A thought hysterically burst to the forefront of his brain, It doesn’t matter, get up! Just keep running! But his body didn’t want to respond. His frame felt too heavy to move, though it was still shuddering violently with adrenaline. His heart was thudding oppressively in his ears and throat, and his muscles felt like they were constricting against his bones.

Don’t stop now! Get up! Go around her! Keep going!!

However, she was already back on her feet, staring down at him with piercing, dark eyes. She said something… problem? Did she say problem? Yes, there was a problem!

Hal stuttered out an, “E-excuse me!” in a nearly-hysterical half-whisper, and quickly struggled up onto his feet, looking comically as shaky and unsure as a young horse. He stumbled around her, forcing his body to move on, though it desperately wanted to remain still. His gait was an obnoxiously slow jog, his legs didn’t want to work that much anymore…

He heavily hit the device again.

And again.

And…

Oh thank God!

The mechanical whir started up once more!