As the five of them get to the exam room, the first thing Lee notices is that the room seems bigger; the chair has the helmet already connected, this one with soft pulsing aqua-blue lights and what seem to be two small built-in fans on each side.

  This room has a floor-to-ceiling glass wall too, like the other one, but the other side of this wall it seems bigger too, as this one has chairs on a higher platform. On two of the chairs near the glass wall, Lee finds the two women from before, Beta and Charlie, whom he can only recognise as Roxy and Annabeth, like they introduced themselves.

  Waiting by the chair is the Asian doctor from before and a bald blue alien, who by his face contours seems male, with two antennas, four violet eyes, and once in a while, there is a streak of blueish light visible on his head; Lee is unable to notice if the light is blue or is only a side effect from the alien's skin.

  The fairy nurse gives Lee a little push towards the doctor and the blue individual as she indicates for Lee’s family to follow her to the other side of the glass wall.

  Lee takes a step forward and feels a hand on his shoulder; when he looks up, he finds his dad, who tells him, “This time, I’m here with you, son.” Lee smiles; he wasn’t the least bit concerned or worried, but it felt nice to him knowing he wasn’t alone.

  On the other hand, Kenji is pondering why Lee mentioned to the nurse that Sue was crying because she thought the reason he was there was due to negligence on their behalf, instead of saying that Sue started crying after the two women left.

  As they near the chair, the doctor takes a step forward and shakes Kenji’s hand. “Hello, I’m Doctor Jaborian. I was the one who conducted your child’s first test…” the doctor says in a soft voice. “First of all, let me apologise for the incident that happened. The hospital and myself especially are thankful that nothing worse happened and that the nurse acted fast,” he says, taking a bow in apology and accidentally naming Raxen as Lee’s saviour. “That is why we called Master Bexy-oxion to be present for this test,” the doctor says, indicating the blue individual.

  “Nice to meet you, Doctor,” Lee’s dad says, then looks at the blue individual. “And why would you call upon him for this test?” Kenji asks, not rudely but just curious.

  “It is simple, actually.” The doctor starts, then looks at Bexy-oxion almost looking for approval; when he gets a nod, the doctor continues. “Master Bexy-oxion is a Brainiaxian, and one of the many main creators of this technology.” The doctor points to the chair and helmet.

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  Kenji takes an involuntary step back. “I don’t know much about technology, but I believe that it’s probably an honour to be in the presence of someone so important.”

  “Please, there is no need to be so polite,” says the Brainiaxian in perfect Japanese. “First, just call me Bexy. If I wanted to be humbled all the time, I would remain in the office.”

  The doctor nods. “Mr Bexy was intrigued when we requested his presence for this examination, even more so when he heard that one of the helmets short-circuited.”

  Meanwhile, Lee is examining the helmet without actually touching it, and notices that the fans, even though they are clearly visible, there seem to be thin but strong net covers on them. Bexy, noticing Lee’s curiosity, asks, “Are you admiring the design, or are you afraid of it because of what happened to the other one?”

  Lee looks up, and asks curiously, “Is this one broken?” Bexy shakes his head, but before he can say anything, Lee adds, “There is no screen!” He points out the lack of a visor.

  Bexy is taken aback. “That is a clever observation,” Bexy admits, then picks up the helmet. “Here, let me help you put it on and you will see.”

  As the helmet is placed on Lee’s head and the safety strap clicks into place, there is a hum as the helmet boots up; then a hologram appears in the place of the missing visor, and the loading bar is displayed.

  Kenji helps Lee get into the chair and fastens the safety straps to make sure he doesn’t fall from the chair.

  The three of them—Kenji, the doctor, and Bexy—go behind the glass wall just as the loading bar is finishing loading; then a display in several languages and characters Lee has never seen before appears, but they are all the same message: ‘Booting complete, searching for host.’ Then there is an alarm that seems to be coming from all around, but in the next instant, it is gone.

  “I was expecting something like this; just give me a second,” says Bexy, standing and tapping the glass wall. “Now let’s try this again.”

  Lee sees the loading bar again followed by the ‘looking for host’ message; this time there is a different message, with a soft female robotic voice. “Host found, origin young male human. Detecting brain waves. Brain waves not detected! Detecting brain activity. Brain activity not detected! Checking connections.” A diagram of the chair and helmet appears on the hologram, and as the self-test continues, green lights appear on the diagram indicating that the chair connections are properly connected.

  “Of course they are properly connected, you stupid machine, I did them myself,” Bexy exclaims, frustrated.

  Once all connections are checked, the robotic voice is heard again. “Connections are correct. Detecting blood flow into the host's cerebrum.” This time there is a ding before the robotic voice is heard saying, “Blood flow confirmed, no problem detected in the blood passage. Initiating deep brain wave detection. No brain wave detected! Initiating deep brain activity. No brain activity detected!”

  Then all hell breaks loose; alarms sound in the room. Bexy runs to the glass wall and taps frantically; everyone stands at attention in shock, seeing Lee not moving in the chair and the message—which is only visible on the other side of the glass wall—in multiple languages: ‘The host is brain dead, no activity found’.