Mysterious Black Box 1
Black’s Birthday
The long, black limousine pulls up to a house with its red haired occupant in tow. She looks at the back of the chauffer’s head uncertain. “This is the address of the Thirteen Corporation? A house?” The driver nods once. “Oooookkkkk …”
She slides out of the elongated car muttering about the stupid man giving her stupid missions. She climbs the half a dozen stairs to the door of the white cottage that doesn’t look out of place or threatening at all. Her eyes fall on the intercom. She pushes it once and hears a chime inside.
Suddenly the hairs on the back of her neck tingle and rise. She dares not look back. A super sweet voice states, “Identify yourself.”
“Tracey Torquist.”
“State you business.”
“I was told to come here to meet Black Dulheart.”
The edge leaves the sugary voice and a more cheerful one responds, “Okay! <3 Come on in!” The door clicks and swings open. Tracey looks back as she steps in and counts at least 5 blasters and death rays pointed at her.
But what she sees inside surprises her more. The house is completely empty and white. The only sign of anything is directly across from her. It says “For appointments press white. For Black press black.” Then it lists a bunch of names and colors. Next to the instructions is another intercom with a rainbow of colored buttons.
She shakes her head and activates the black button. A distracted male voice answers, “Yeah?”
“Mr. Dulheart,” she asks.
“Yes.”
“I’m Tracey and I’m here to …”
“Right. Follow the black line.” The door slides up and a fuzzy view of a hallway appears.
She steps through, and everything becomes clear. The corridor travels longer than the house. “Where am I?” Then she looks back at the closing door. It shows a blurry image of the white house. “That must be a teleport door. Cool!”
On the floor are all the colors of the rainbow except white which is the color of the tiles. The lines start straight but then begin to braid themselves as she goes forward. “We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto,” she comments to herself. After a step, she corrects herself, “Well, I wasn’t in Kansas to begin with.”
Despite there being virtually no doors here, the lines feint here and there as if they were trying to throw her off. A couple break off and head down passing hallways, but the majority continue on until they reach an open room. The colors separate like they hit a prism and head in all directions.
She follows the assigned line up some stairs and along the overhang around the room to a door. It opens before her and she steps in. She is assaulted by pink. A woman behind a desk addresses her in the same sweet voice, “Tracey? <3”
“Yes. That’s me.”
“Of course it is. We have scanned you and compared your data to that which is on file.” Tracey is a little disturbed by this. “Black will see you now.”
She follows the black across the room to the other door which opens up as she approaches. “Almost like our automated doors at the lab,” she whispers to herself.
And then she sees who she is looking for. The young man with black hair and green eyes. Clad in a black shirt he looks up at his visitor, “Tracey, I presume?”
“Yes. Ready to go, Mr. Dulheart?”
“Call me, Black.”
“Ok. Ready to go, Black?”
“Sure!” He sets down his pen and stands. He comes around the desk and offers his arm.
About time things go my way. “Great. Let’s get out of here.” She takes it, and they follow the black line all the way back to the white house and then to the black stretch car. “Driver, take us to our destination.” With a nod the vehicle starts up and begins moving.
“So, where are you taking me?”
Tracey leans in and lowers her voice even though they are the only two in the car, “A secret place not far from our lab. One day this mysterious black box appeared. It has one entrance and one exit. Once you enter everything goes dark and then you arrive at the exit. Changed. We don’t know much about it, but we are figuring out its interface.”
He leans back, “That’s it?”
“Pretty much.”
“And I’m going to this? And going to be changed?”
“Yup. For 24 hours.” She pauses and then adds, “At least.” And then, “If we programmed it right.”
A bright smile fills his face, “Great! What will I become?”
“I don’t know. Uncle Ben didn’t say. All he said was, ‘It is what he wanted.’” They travel the rest of the distance in silence while Black ponders what he wants, and Tracey watches him.
The limousine stops with a slight squeal of the breaks. “We’re here! Ready?” They exit to the back of the labs where a white cottage with six stairs sits looking out of place.
They approach the place. He asks her, “SaveCo?”
She nods, “Yup.”
“Us, too. We got a five percent discount for using our corporate card and buying in bulk.”
They start up the steps. “That place is so huge. I was surprised when I saw they had whole houses in there. For sale! And it’s the perfect thing to hold this mysterious black box from another dimension.”
She steps up to the number pad by the door. She punches in a code and waits a second. Then another code and another wait. Finally she punches in the last code and the little led lights up. She turns the handle and opens the door gesturing to Black that he can enter.
---
Black enters and sees a blank interior much like the ones he has back at the Corporation. What draws his eyes is the device in the center. No matter how he looks at it, it seems to suck him in deeper. The only exception to this is the open door, the closed door, and the gold letters in a rectangle of red rubies. The letters are D and C with the latter a little right and lower like it’s hanging from the former.
The red head named Tracey addresses him, “Both are authentic. We tested them, and they grew back. But now they won’t remove anymore.” She gestures to the closed door, “If you’ll enter here, we can get started.”
Black heads to the door and enters. Once inside he sees a smallish room. It is the width of the room but only long enough to stand sideways. She continues, “Once I close the door, please remove your clothes and place them in the locker over there. We discovered that the device only works on living things. And then touch the black wall.” He sees her point to the empty surface opposite of the door.
With a parting, “Have fun! See you on the other side,” Black sees the door close and lock him in. He does as she said and then touches the barrier, and it yields under his touch. He tries to pull his hand out, but it seems to be one way.
As he contemplates this, it gently and softly pulls him. “Ah, this is how I change!” With that revelation he smiles and dives in. When the last of him is pulled in, he loses all sense of feeling. Everywhere there is this blackness and pressure. Time seems to stand still.
And then his feet hit something, and he hears a distant clang. What in the world? Weight presses on his legs. He bends them at the knee. They dangle and that seems to solve the problem.
That is until his knees hit a wall. He hears another clang. This one is nearer. But he doesn’t focus on it as something doesn’t feel right about this. There is something between his knees and the whatever-it –is they are against. Pressure builds again. With effort and only his legs, he uses the surface to turn his body in a barrel roll leaving his whole legs to hang now.
CLANG! The sound vibrates from his behind through his torso to his head. Wait. Clang? Isn’t that the sound of metal hitting metal? What’s going on?
The weight of his lower half pull him out backward. As his hands and arms exit they in turn help speed the process. The suddenness of his release causes him to crash his head against the wall with another clang ringing his bell.
Once he regains his senses he looks to see what he became. Unfortunately the light of the exit hole isn’t enough. With metal on metal steps he leaves the black box and steps into the light.
---
Tracey looks at the figure exiting. “Black? Is that you,” she asks the robot person thing.
It’s mechanical voice replies in a monotone, “Yes.” Surprise fills its human looking eyes as a robotic arm and metallic fingers cover its normal looking mouth.
Tracey looks over it trying to determine what it is, “Ummmm, Black? You look like one of those transforming robots in that movie.” She watches it look down in wonder. Is he male or female? She looks at the normal areas that determine that and find that they are covered by gender ambiguous parts. The thighs and exposed arms look smooth and its face appears soft. Female? Tracey smiles at the red hair poking out from the antenna helmet head covers one of its blue eyes. The red gems and sensors complement the brown with gray and yellow highlights color scheme.
“Maybe you can change into something like a car like they did,” she suggests to the cyborg.
In response, she sees the parts of its body turn and combine and move into positions that make her wince. And then it flops forward as a jet with a cannon under each wing. “You still in there?”
“Yes, I am,” its voice seems to come from somewhere there.
“Are you ok?”
“This is wonderful!”
“That’s not quite what I meant. Are you in any pain?”
“No. Not at all.”
“Ok. Good. Now change back so you don’t accidently take off and take out this house.” More changes and painful body positions. Tracey plasters on a fake smile to hide her facial flinches.
When the changes are complete and the androgynous cyborg is back, Tracey suggests, “Why don’t we get out of here so you can spread your wings?” She leads the way and opens the door. But the hardware on the robot makes it all but impossible to pass. “There’s got to be something in there to deal with that. You have any more forms?”
Its arms and legs turn in on themselves to reveal “real” flesh and bone. The hips and torso do the same revealing once and for all the gender. Tracey blushes from embarrassment for the female Black. Finally the top of the head flips finishing the mess of her red hair.
“Oh! That could be a problem. Come with me. You look about my size. I’ll let you borrow some clothes.” She heads toward the back door of the lab while the bare female follows her. Tracey turns back for a moment, “Happy Birthday, Black. Or maybe I should call you, Red.”