Raphael’s head snapped toward me, obsidian eyes flickering dangerously.
“Don’t tell me what to do, human,” she hissed.
Joey’s eyes bulged. He coughed, hands clawing at his throat as the funginoid’s hands tightened around his vulnerable neck.
Elyssa just stood there, hands flying up to cover her mouth. Her whole body froze like that of someone paralyzed by shock – unable to move or speak.
“M-Morgan…” Joey forced out between coughs as his face turned an unpleasant shade of dark blue.
On impulse, I lunged forward, trying to punch Raphael’s face – but he was faster. His shoulder jerked up, hitting me in the chin – the sharp stench of fresh mushrooms with a faint metallic undertone hit me harder than the punch itself as I fell to the ground.
Still, the hands around Joey’s neck didn’t loosen their grip.
From the corner of my eye, Lucie rushed to the nearest console. Her fingers danced across the cracked holographic interface as if she weren’t even reading, just remembering.
“Why are you doing this?” I bit back a scream as the pain spread in waves through my jaw and throat, blurring my vision. Being powerless while my best friend was getting strangled hurt worse than the physical pain.
“No one touches you but me,” Raphael barked, dark eyes briefly flickering to me. Joey’s movements went limp as his face turned a darker purple. The light in his eyes started to dim.
“What the fuck, Zafyra!” I screamed out, my voice hitching. “Have you lost what was left of your sanity?! He’s my best friend – he doesn’t even like girls!”
Zafyra hesitated for a moment, her grip on Joey’s neck faltering just enough to allow him a sharp inhale.
Movement in the corner caught my attention, just as Lucie tore open the wall. Her hand disappeared into a tangle of dark wires and glowing veins pulsing with low energy.
She squeezed something. The lights flared blinding white, then cut to black.
A low-frequency crack burst through the air – like static splitting reality.
Raphael’s body jerked once.
Then, his hands unclenched. Joey crumpled to the floor, coughing violently.
For a moment, the funginoid stood frozen – twitching, eyes fluttering, as if he didn’t know who he was anymore. Then he collapsed, hard, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
As the echo faded, the silence was interrupted only by the low buzz of electricity.
“That’s for using me as a test subject and dropping me in this strange world by myself.” Lucie snarled down at the unmoving funginoid. She spoke firmly, but her words lacked their usual bite.
“Joey.” I crouched over to him, tears staining my face as I could do nothing but shake him. “Joey, are you okay?! I’m so sorry.”
“I’m… fine,” Joey forced out between coughs. His blue eyes flickered to Raphael’s still body. “Now what the hell was that?”
“It looks like Zafyra hacked Raphael’s neural core to temporarily override his identity with hers – like a virus.” Lucie crossed her arms, her face growing stern. “She hijacked his processing in real-time, suppressing his identity which remained dormant underneath. So I did the only thing I could think of – forcibly remove her consciousness by triggering a localized electromagnetic spike through the lab’s wiring. These bodies are sensitive to that kind of interference. It forced a reset of his core functions and kicked her out.” She sucked in a sharp breath before mumbling: “This was her plan all along. She tricked us again, using Raphael as her puppet this time. My god, I’m so sick of this bitch.”
“That makes two of us,” I muttered. Joey raised his eyebrows as if he wanted to ask an uncomfortable question, but silently stopped himself. Instead, he took a deep breath before turning his gaze to Lucie.
“You saved my life.” He forced a weak smile. His breathing had slowly returned to normal, but his pale face and the bruises on his neck told otherwise. “Thank you, Lucie.”
Lucie made a dismissive gesture. For the first time, the girl seemed not to know what to do with herself.
“I’m sorry, guys.” Elyssa’s voice came out unsteady. “I—I don’t know what happened. I just froze.”
“That’s your body going into freeze mode.” I forced a weak smile. “Our nervous systems are wired to protect ourselves in dangerous situations by going into fight, flight or freeze. It’s something you have little control over and definitely shouldn’t feel guilty about.”
“What will happen to him now?” Joey asked in a brittle voice, his eyebrows knitting together as he glanced over at Raphael’s body once more. Such a Joey thing to worry about the man who just attacked him.
“His consciousness is now anchored to this body.” Lucie glanced over at herself in the reflective glass of the pod next to her. “That seems… something that can’t be just undone.” She sighed, then shook her head as if silently coming to terms with the idea of having to live out a human-like life. “Now that I’ve banished Zafyra’s presence from his system, it’s a matter of time before he wakes up.”
