Written for Yappichick's birthday.....
Dunce Cap
"Walter? What the hell do you think you're doing?" Peter's voice was full of utter exasperation, as if he'd said these words every day for his entire life.
Walter looked up and over the lab desk beside him with surprise, as if he'd only just recalled that his son was in the same room as him. He was wearing his usual white lab coat and thick plastic goggles around his eyes.
"Why hello there son," he said smiling. "I'm just using a sodium phosphate enema to cleanse this chicken's small intestine, in the hopes of revealing the toxic combination of fowl excrement and the vapors from the soft solution. This can then be utilized in mass utero fertilization."
"Oh well then," Peter said sarcastically. "I'm just so glad I asked."
Over in the corner of the room, Astrid just shook her head side to side, her ringlets swaying back and forth gently, with a small smile on her face.
Suddenly, the doors to the lab burst open and in came Agent Olivia Dunham; a bedraggled look about her that was entirely misplaced.
"What's wrong?" Peter said immediately noticing the crease in her forehead and the frightened look in her normally bright shiny eyes.
He crossed the room in strides towards her while Astrid did the same, though Walter continued his workings, never once looking up.
"I can't stop it," Olivia said painfully, putting hand up to her head. "Something's happened. I keep hearing people's thoughts in my mind and my head feels like it's going to explode!"
Peter looked at her intently before sharing a worried look with Astrid.
"How long has this been going on?" Walter voice came over echoed and distant from his position across the room.
"About a week," Olivia said automatically, her hand still pressed to her head. "I- Oh Walter, that's disgusting. Please wait until I've died from a massive migraine before you start cutting up sheep."
"Sheep?" Peter and Astrid said at the same time, both of them looking worried and confused.
Walter smiled wildly. "Amazing! I was only just thinking of using a sheep to further this experiment! Why Agent Dunham, it appears you really can hear people's thoughts. Tell me – what food am I thinking about now?"
Olivia almost doubled over as a new wave of pain hit her. Though she did manage to blurt out, "Purple cotton candy!" before Peter caught her in his arms just before she hit the floor.
She was sweating profusely and Peter quickly carried her over to the examining chair, asking Astrid for a cold cloth to cover her head.
"Walter!" he barked. "Why is this happening? How do we fix this?"
Walter finally placed down his instruments and rushed over, putting his goggles atop his messy hair.
"I suggest a total lobotomy," he said matter-of-factly.
"Walter!" Peter snarled.
Walter snapped his fingers and behaved as if he'd had another idea suddenly hit him.
"There was something, ages ago really. A device I called the Dunce Cap. Its magnetism would desist all extraneous brain activity that wasn't normally supposed to occur in the upper right hemisphere, though the side effects could prove to be permanent though I couldn't guarantee that. The subjects I tested it on simply appeared normal, though I wouldn't really know if they'd forgotten things like their mothers name or how to get home after the experiment was over, as things relative to that weren't on the standardized tests I gave them afterwards….."
Olivia was starting to convulse violently, causing Peter and Astrid to both reach out and hold her down so she wouldn't fall onto the floor.
"Just go get it!" Peter cried.
"What?" Walter said as if waking from a daze. "Oh yes, yes, quite right."
He rushed off into a shadowy corner of the lab that held a crate of some of his old experiments. After a few moments of digging, they all heard, "Aha!" and watched as he emerged holding what looked like a metallic baseball cap.
Olivia had somewhat quieted down her convulsions and gripped Peter's hand hard, forcing him to look at her.
"Tell my sister…….," she croaked.
"No, whatever it is, you can tell her yourself," he crooned, brushing back some hair from her sweaty face.
Peter stared at her intensely; strong emotions unwillingly pouring themselves from his mind into hers and praying that whatever radical invention his father had retrieved would actually work.
Even through the pain in her mind, Olivia could see how worried Peter really was about her and how it pained him to see her so. It was unexpected she thought, and beautiful, like a brilliant white light surging through her mind. It was the last thought she had before Walter slammed the metallic cap down onto her head, plugged it in, and flipped a switch.
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