[CW/One-Shot/possible Short Story?/Feedback] The Shutdown Protocol

[Rosesong]

When the alarm began to sound, there was nothing. No running to find the cause, no hurrying to shut off the shriek that pierced the building. The only people around were two lab technicians, intently watching the cause of the alarm: a man in his early thirties, thrashing about in a human-sized capsule. His limbs flailed wildly, crashing into the thick plastic that separated him from his audience, while his neck was restrained loosely to prevent his head from bashing into his confines. The whites of his eyes showed clearly, the irises unseeing and glazed over with immense pain.

Both lab techs scribbled furiously onto notepads that they had pulled from their pockets, constantly moving to view different angles of the convulsing man. Pages flipped constantly, as they were filled with as many observations as possible. Finally, one of the lab techs skipped over to a monitor on the side of the capsule, blonde ponytail bouncing as she scrambled to write down the vitals as they blinked across the screen, changing every second as the man's condition worsened. Her pen blurred as her hand raced the flashing numbers. A couple more seconds passed of pens frantically scratching across the paper's surface before the screen stopped blinking and its info became stationary. The blonde twirled back over to her counterpart, who was now by the control panel, and pulled off her glasses as her coat fanned out around her, a large grin present on her face. Together, they placed their hands onto scanners, waiting for the screen to acknowledge that the prints had been read. Almost at once, silence commanded the room in a disconcerting, abrupt change.

"Andy, that was fantastic!" the blonde squealed, unable to resist breaking the eeriness that had accompanied the silence. "We've never seen someone's nerves overload to that extent! Look, even now, 22B is still flailing from how overactive his nerves were!" Sure enough, a glance toward the containment cell showed the man still thrashing helplessly against the walls of his confinement.

The man ran his hand through his short, spiky brown hair, bowing his head in exhaustion briefly. "Monica, I've told you not to call me that," he groaned, doing his best to affix the upbeat woman with a stern glare. "My name is Andrew, as I know I've told you several times."

"Yes Andrew," Monica sassed, sticking her tongue out at him. Reaching up to let her ponytail down, she shook her head out and allowed her hair to regain its freedom before shooting a side glance at Andrew. "Seriously though, we've never had a reaction like that. What could have made 22B's nerves so hyperactive?"

Andrew glanced over, slightly wincing as 22B continued to flail, having gained no control over his body yet. "Well," he started, allowing his eyes to roam over the subject idly as his mind flew at top speeds trying to come up with a plausible explanation, "according to our data on him, he's had a history of overactive nerves. It can't have helped that our people took him forcibly, which would have put his mental state under a considerable amount of duress. Add in the terror of being confined as well as the initial tests, and I would think that logically, his nerves just couldn't handle it anymore." Andrew took a moment to pause, shutting his eyes in thought, before adding, "We also don't know his full medical history. Theodore will have to swipe those from the hospital soon for us."

Thinking for a minute, Monica nodded her head furiously in agreement. "Theo should have gotten those a long time ago; we could've started the proper tests ages ago." At another glare from Andrew, the blonde rolled her eyes and amended her statement, commenting, "Yes, of course it would be after the observation phase, but it doesn't need to take so loooooong." Without waiting for her partner to respond with a probable chastise for lack of respect for procedure, the girl twirled herself over to 22B's pod, gazing at the struggling man with rapt fascination. "I wonder what he feels," she mused, more to herself than Andrew.

Shaking his head, Andrew led his partner away from the pod and back to the control panel. "Wonder another time; we can't have him hurting himself before the trials start. We need to get his mind resting again."

"But Andy..." she whined, making sure to duck at the fast right handed swat that followed her nickname for Andrew. Giggling, she quickly straightened herself, sighing as she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear as the expression on her face grew more serious. "Yes, I know you're right." Quickly, Monica placed her hand on the scanner, hearing a small beep as her hand print was read. Moving her fingers deftly, she hit several buttons in quick succession before hitting a lever. Immediately after, she pulled out a couple of pairs of noise canceling headphones from a drawer underneath the control panel, chucking a pair toward Andrew before she slammed her pair onto her own ears.

Just a second later, 22B's pod began to fill with a light grey gas as a thunderous, robotic female voice tore through the room in a similar manner to the engines of a jet roaring to life. "This is the shutdown protocol," the voice boomed, piercing through the pod that 22B resided in. "Your first step is to focus on nothing but the words that you are hearing." Slowly, 22B stopped thrashing, his breath wild and frantic, eyes wide and unfocused. "Please begin to focus on your breathing. Breathe in... and out... As you do this, you should feel your eyes opening as wide as they want to go without forcing them open on in breaths. When you breathe out, your eyes should gradually shut, until they can no longer open."

As the voice droned on, Andrew tapped on Monica, pointing at one of the levers and motioning for her to pull it down. She quickly did, and the robotic voice suddenly took on a sweeter, more calming tone that gently coached the subject back to a relaxed state. As they watched 22B's vitals on the master screen, they saw that his heart rate slowed significantly within seconds as he regained control of his breath. Slowly, his eyes began to shut more and more with every breath out, until they were no longer open.

"You should begin to feel weight within your limbs," the voice rang, almost song-like in its newfound sweetness. "Your fingers and toes can barely move, creaking whenever you try to move them. Your legs and arms will refuse to move, no matter how hard you try." Both technicians watched attentively as 22B tried with all of his might to move, emitting a sigh when he had expended all of his energy in vain.

Silently, Andrew reached behind Monica to flip the last switch in the sequence. "Imagine yourself on the shores of a beach..." the voice faded, slowly becoming only audible to the subject.

The lab techs stood still, watching the monitor as 22B's brainwaves began to take the form of a sleeping pattern. Both took off their ear protection, and Monica looked at Andrew with reverence. "How does it work?" she questioned, her voice no louder than a mere whisper.

In response, Andrew shrugged. "The gas released into the pod stimulates the overproduction and release of serotonin, which instantly calms all of the brain's activity. As for the voice, it gives the subject something to target their focus on, which unconsciously allows for the serotonin to shut down the mind more quickly and effectively." Turning around, he threw over his shoulder, "It's still quite the grand and mystifying spectacle, for those that don't know anything about the process."

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This is just an idea that's been floating in my head for awhile, feedback is welcome

[Noir]

An interest-piquing piece of work here, Rose. It's fluent and engaging, with nothing really glaring to the eye at a glance, with sound depictions of suspense, calmness, and vibrant conversations in one setting, with good clarity as well so the characters are easily to differentiate between and the whole thing becomes understandable. Great!