Time slowly faded into meaningless numbers with each passing day; Mortuus wasn't even sure if it was night or day. Ever since awakening, he'd been forced into a strange chamber for hours, maybe even days, not that it really mattered which. He'd long lost his understanding of time.
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"The Memory Pod is designed to create false realities in which you will be trained." The bot had explained before throwing him into a pod. It didn't seem so bad initially, but things became unbearable slowly.
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One could live a thousand lives in the pod, and that's precisely what was happening, each one ending more painful than the last. From being hit by a train and shattering a shower of blood to having each bone broken in slow motion as he watched with no way to end it. Each experience was worse than the last.
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"Now your real training begins!" The bot chirped with robotic excitement as it typed away on a control board, imputing various codes and algorithms.
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Mortuus put his hands up defensively, "Hold on, Tin-Man. What the fuck have I been doing the past six days if I wasn't training??!!"
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"Reactivation of the muscles and nerves. Phase_2: Nerve_Revival::Status:: failure." Beeped the small robot before activating the pod. Mortuus's consciousness faded as the pod's lights dimmed, and it began filling with water. He couldn't argue with it once it activated the pod.
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Mortuus woke in an alley. Old cans littered the ground around him, and bags of trash were slumped against the wall. He walked toward an old slumped-over box, something moving restlessly inside. Mortuus ripped it open, and a scared cat jumped up and clawed at his bandages.
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"GAH!! What the fuck??" he shouted, fixing his bandaged face for what was probably the thirtieth time. A hand grabbed his shoulder, spinning him around and punching him in the face with a powerful right hook.
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"Who the fuck do you... Oh shit." Mortuus grabbed his hanging jaw, fixing it back into place. A gorgeous girl stared back at him. He could hardly believe this girl was responsible and not an ex-con or something.
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"Well? You gonna sit there all day, Sunshine, or fight back?" The girl told him while she put her hair back in a ponytail. She was really quite pretty and, especially now, with her hair framing her face.
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"Depends. Is your skull thicker than your ass because I'll tear up both." Mortuus shouted.
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"I liked you better with your mouth shut." The girl said, annoyed by his dumb response, punching Mortuus in the gut. Mortuus stumbled back, gripping his stomach and allowing the girl enough time to jab a knife into his jaw.
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Mortuus grabbed the knife and stabbed it into the girl's stomach, dragging the blade up to her heart and kicking the handle hard enough to send her flying into a dumpster. "Did I stu... What the fuck??" Mortuus stared, confused by his body lying where the girl had landed.
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"I may have just been brought back to life, but even I know that's not normal." Mortuus crouched down by it, observing in perfect detail what was himself lying dead on the ground. "That's my body." He mumbled in complete and utter confusion.
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Again, the room began to fade, and the subtle sounds of clicking gears returned. The sound had become like a mother's call to him.
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