Deep in Thought

Tommy could feel a strange energy entering his body. At the same time he could also feel himself being lifted up by straps. The straps were placed one around each limb and one around his waist. His first thought was that everything was a dream. He was being lifted out of his basement by straps. As this euphoric thought was drifting through Tommy's mind, the Black Ivy Monitor had made it's return. It was slowly picking up Tommy as his armor was receding back into the pores of his skin.

The Black Monitor now had Tommy raised into the air covering his body in those vines, once again creating a cocoon around Tommy. Nothing but his head was visible.

The whole time he was dreaming about being home his Spirit was gathering excess Spirit from the vines wrapped around him. This was something that should be impossible as far as the nephilim was concerned. You couldn't steal the soul of another so healing yourself with their soul was impossible. What they didn't know was that it wasn't soul at all. It was energy, an almost electrical energy, and these were computers, in their original form, were full of energy. That meant they were constantly drawing energy from somewhere. All Tommy was doing was borrowing some of that power. In doing so it was actually weakening the Black Ivy Monitors attack.

The Black Ivy was sending all of his power into these vines, flooding them with his power. By doing so, it was impossible for him to tell how much was stored at one point in time. The Black Monitors only command when performing this attack was to flood his energy, meaning that it would never actually check for stored energy. Monitors could only do what the Tower commanded in the real world.

Tommy had no clue what was going on. His dream was turning for the worse as the straps were turning into snakes and suffocating him. This was the real world vines wrapping him up. As this was all going on his body had fully healed, but due to the amount of energy filling the vines it was difficult to stop the flow of energy into Tommy, causing the straps to tighten in his dream. The overflow of energy felt as if it was constricting his body, filling him to the brim with energy that his body could not happen. Tommy could see a sword floating in front of him while he felt pressure from everywhere squeezing him.

Suddenly his hand was able to break free of the snakes. He reached for the sword, and as he grabbed it he heard that strange, yet familiar voice in his head.

*Overflow of Spirit being directed into Pawn Geno Gem. Upgrading in process.*

Tommy opened his eyes upon hearing this voice. It woke him up and placed him back in this hell of a reality. He could see that evil Black Ivy Monitor directly in front of him.

The previously black screen flashed white. Tommy knew what this meant and expected to be flash fried. Yet all that happened was a quick jolt of electricity and faint glow from the vines around him.

*Geno Gem upgrade complete.*

*Paladin Lighting Rod Geno Gem now complete.*

Tommy didn't hesitate and immediately tried to summon his great sword. The once beautiful sword had changed. It kept its previous electric blue color, but instead of a beautiful large great sword it used to be, it was now this thin sword, the blade appeared ruined as it was bent every foot or so having 2 bends in it, the sword was only around 3 feet now. The hilt was this cragged looking piece of glowing crystal. The blade looked like a lighting bolt.

When the blade was summoned it had immediately ripped through the now weakened Black Monitors vines. The pale green monitor Tommy had followed here had regained its strength while Tommy was out.

Tommy went to point the sword at the black monitor in a threatening manner, and a bolt of lighting was shot out of the tip of the sword into the monitors screen. The lighting was so powerful you could actually see it electrifying every vine in contact with the black monitor including the threadlike vines in the back. Tommy could see where they lead to. It was a cubicle right next to where the Red Ivy Monitor was standing and staring at Tommy.

At the moment he could see all thread lit up to the cubicle, a loud shriek was heard. It sounded like the beginning tone for dial up internet back in the early 2000's. Except it was piercingly loud. Tommy tried to cover his ears but it had zero effect.

He put his finger into his ear and felt a warm liquid. His ears were bleeding, the sound abruptly stopped, almost like the speaker had blown.

Tommy turned and ran directly into the cubicle. He ignored the weak green monitor as it had stood still since he electrocuted the black monitor.

This cubicle was different than the last one he had been in. It wasn't the size of a basketball court, but more the size of a large bedroom. It had what looked like a large desk against the wall.

Tommy started to walk towards the desk when he realized that there was someone laying on top of the desk. The person was completely golden in color and lying flat on their back.

Tommy quickly ran over to the desk only to find out that it wasn't a desk at all. It was a large, oddly shaped flower pot. It was shaped exactly like an office desk, but instead of a solid flat top it was what looked like soil.

The man had roots growing out of him into the desk. The feet of the desk were actually connected to the floor. Tommy started to look a little closer and his jaw dropped as he noticed that the entire flower pot was made of vines. The feet of the desk was connected into the ground and from there were multiple vines spread out from that point all across the Office Graveyard. This is the command center.

Tommy made sure to keep his distance, the last few vine people he had met had been extremely hostile towards him. He wasn't willing to take any chances. That brief dream had really stuck it into his head that he truly was alone in this world. At first this had caused sadness, causing him to lose sight of his surroundings. It was this momentary lapse in judgement which prevented Tommy from noticing the thin golden vines loosely working their way up his legs.

Tommy was still stuck in his head, reliving the dream he had as well as the moment he left his family. Tommy couldn't fully focus on reality as his mind was slowly breaking as everything that had happened came crashing down on him. Taking the life of the Demonic Barbarian, fighting with Solus, being lied to, and now this "test" they put him through.

"Why does everything seem to just push me around? I can't catch a break. First my family is gone, forced to go into this insane building. I'm DONE. If they are going to push me around I'm going to push back. I can't survive here being a victim. I need to be strong. I need to fight. Fight for my family and fight to get home." Tommy's mind was racing with thoughts. The depression that had once set in was turning to anger. Angry at everything that had happened and most of all angry that he was even put into this situation.

Tommy was ready to fight no matter what was coming at him. But it was a little late at this point. The golden vines had wrapped up his legs and around his hip. They weren't touching Tommy but extended around his body about an inch from touching anything so that Tommy wouldn't feel them.

Realizing that he wasn't actually being restrained, Tommy went to take a step towards the golden man lying on the table. At the moment his leg twitched to move, the golden vines tightened around Tommy's body so tight that his skin was actually cut.