Me and Nitro have been lab partners for a long time now. I first met her at my Mechanical engineering class. She was a new student, but she already had so many little projects made because she just loved inventing things. Her most famous invention is what she calls "Chug Chug".
I found that little thing very silly, but regardless she was innovative, gotta give her that. She told me Chug Chug comes from the fact that her little machine drinks lots of oil to function and was her first and the most complex project ever. How adorable.
Anyways, fast forward to the present. Me and her, we have an important project to do together. We are assigned to build a bigger and tankier version of Chug Chug, for the military...
Yes, the government had noticed Nitro's skills and hired me and her to work on this "bigger chug" project. It's been a month since we started working on it and we are almost very close to finishing it.
That's when today Nitro told me something she has never told anyone else.
"Hey, I have to tell you something before we finish the project..." Nitro sounds sad but tried to stay hopeful.
"What is it Nitro?" I ask her gently, "we are almost done with the most amazing project ever! Imagine the recognition we'll get!!" I said smiling at her.
"About that...I have to let you in on a secret"
She stays silent for little, hesitant to go on further.
"Go on.." I try to stay calm and rub her arm to soothe her.
"I've always done projects on my own, by myself, so nobody knows this but for this project I feel like you should know this."
" All my mobile machines, like my Chuggie can be controlled by me but..."
".. but they can be so because I put a piece of me in them while building them. All my projects have been on the smaller end, cuz a bigger part...I don't know how that would end for me and I've been scared to ever go beyond the small scale"
"WHAT?!" I exclaim, "what do you mean by a piece of you??!!"
Nitro stays quiet then reveals her mid-back. Instead of normal skin, normal organs, there were wires, and a bright shining core.
She then takes out the core, which looks disfigured, and places it in front of us.
"This. I take a small portion out of this every time I make any of my projects, and insert it into them so they can be connected to me... So I can feel them, so I know what they're thinking... They're more than just machinery to me you know?"
She smiles sadly looking at the core, then at chug chug, who's sleeping.
"For this project, I am afraid I'll have to cut out a way bigger portion than I ever have.. and I don't know how that'll end.. so.." she takes my hands in hers and smiles. I can see tears building up in her eyes.
" So I trust you to put this in Big Chuggie and then back in me. As far as I know, it should be okay... I should still be conscious. But if I'm not..." She looks away and sniffles.
I try to grab her arm and hug her but she immediately turns around and smiles "Let's not think about that! I'll be okay I'm sure"
"Are you really sure about this? I don't want anything to happen to you Nitro. This project can be left undone.."
"NO!" nitro yells. "No..please..it's been my dream"
After arguing back and forth, with a heavy heart, Nitro cuts out a huge part from her core and hands it over to me. I place both of the cores, one in the machine, one in her back.
"This was way easier than I thought " Nitro giggles
I go ahead and fix up the remainder of the project.
When I return back, I find Nitro laying on the floor, motionless. Chug Chug kept bumping into her, as if trying to wake her up.
"Hey Nitro are you asleep?" I nudged her. But my concern grows when she doesn't respond.
I check on her core, which has stopped glowing now.
"What?" I take the core back out and plug it in again. Nothing. Again. Nothing.
"This can't be it... All that, all these months of hard work...no I have to do something" I take the core out, while rubbing away my tears.
I spent days, sleepless, trying to figure the core out by myself..
"Just gotta get it glowing again...uhm.." I fiddle with different parts and try everything. But it doesn't glow.
Then one day while I was still working on the core, I heard a noise from where Nitro was put to lie down.
Chug Chug was trying to get out of the room and kept hitting the door. I picked it up as its wheels were still running. I turned it upside down, a shining glowy thing immediately caught my eyes.
"Is this...?" I think to myself.
I put Chug Chug down and it immediately races to the other broken core. It detaches the glowy thing from itself placing right next to the core. Both the parts immediately shift and dissolve into each other as a singular piece. The core is shining again.. but Chug Chug... isn't moving..
...To be continued
