NPC Post
Erek flexed his hands. To some extent, he knew this would happen. “It was a suicide mission,” he muttered, sighing. “I’m going to die,” he said, now more broadly, towards the entire group. “That’s my choice. I have to.” He propped himself up against the wall, head turning towards the door on the far right of the room. “I wouldn’t recommend following them, Nathaniel. Even with using my hologram to become nearly invisible, they still landed a good shot on me with their Dracon beams. How do you think you’d get out of that situation?” Erek raised an eyebrow pointedly. “If you really want to help- really want to do something- just… listen for a sec. I know it’s going to sound crazy, but you’re going to have to trust me.”
Erek looked up at Halia guiltily. “I’m sorry, Halia. Please believe me when I say I didn’t mean to startle you- if everything had gone perfectly, none of you would’ve ever known.” Part of Erek supposed that maybe it was better this way, but he didn’t dwell on those thoughts. “Who am I? Well, I’m still Erek. But, what am I?” He traced a finger across the tile floor. “I’m a Chee.” Erek laughed when Saige compared him to “a robot Anubis”. “Well, yeah, something like that. My kind- the Chee- we’re androids. We were built by an alien species called the Pemalites. Long story short, they look a lot like dogs, and we were built in their image, so… well, you saw the resemblence.”
Erek looked down. He knew it was a lot. Aliens. Androids. But his time was running out. Now wasn’t the time to mince words. “As far as I know, I’m the last of my kind that’s still alive. We’ve been hunted down, over the last few months. I assume whoever was caught was disassembled. Used for parts. Chee, we’re powerful technology. Valuable. But… we’re pacifists. We can’t fight. If someone who knew our secret wanted Pemalite tech?” Erek laughed darkly. “We’re toast.”
“The one’s who have been hunting us down- they’re here today. They said it was for a business conference.” He spoke faster now, more harried. “Berenson & Co. I don’t know how, or why, but their CEO, Jake Bereson, he knows about us.” Erek held his head, grimacing. “It’s like I should remember something, but I don’t. There’s just a gap. I have perfect memory- I’ve been around for hundreds of human lifetimes, and I remember everything perfectly. But there’s just a void there when I try to think of a few specific years…” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. If you want to help… here’s how.”
Suddenly, Erek’s chest split open, the edges of the hologram dissolving where robotic parts extruded from an otherwise human body. Erek reached into the compartment, pulling out a glowing box that shifted between shades of blue and violet, almost as though it was alive. The light was calming, but staring at it for too long would make your head hurt, almost as though you were looking at one of those tesseract diagrams from physics class. “It’s called an Escafil device,” Erek said, his chest cavity closing with a whoosh. “It’s an alien device, it…” Erek growled. “Dammit. It’s so frustrating. I can’t remember almost anything about it.” He sighed, holding up the box. It was a bit bigger than his hand, but fit comfortably in his palm, though it seemed to interfere with his hologram, warping his skin and clothes. “I don’t know why, but whatever Berenson & Co. was doing today, it wasn’t just a normal conference. They had alien tech on display- all kinds of it. I’d gone to investigate, and I saw they had this. And… it felt important. I had to take it from them. So, I grabbed it, and this.” He held the off-white crystal in his other hand. “It’s a Pemalite Crystal. Powerful technology. Can rewrite code in any system- even in Chee.” He crushed the crystal in his hand, the sound of crunching glass filling the room. “It’s too dangerous in anyone’s hands. I don’t know how it washed back up, but now it’s gone. For good.”
Erek shifted his other arm, moving so that he now held the blue box with both hands. “I feel like I don’t remember everything I should about the Escafil device. I know I don’t. But I know enough.” His gaze met everyone in the room. “It gives any crature who touches it the power to morph. Turn into animals. Shapeshift, transfigure, what have you.” He gripped the device a bit harder. “I know it sounds crazy. It is crazy. I wouldn’t believe it myself, if I wasn’t, well, me.” He chuckled. “It’s a lot to ask. I don’t expect you to accept. But it’s the only thing i can give you.” For a long, eerie second, there was no sound, and only the light of the blue box filled the room. “Berenson & Co. killed the entirety of my people. I have a feeling that, whatever they’re planning, it would put everyone in danger- everyone on Earth. This… it’s the only power I can give to try and stop them.”