Author's Note:
First thing's first. This story was originally posted up on my Deviantart site, but because I was so amazed at how well it turned out, and the response to it, I thought, "Why not post it up here? Let others who don't access DA see it?" So, here it is. Done in dedication to dear friends with the help of Wormtail96, valito, Ahardie and 630Kila before I met my beloved Erin (my girlfriend, whom I sincerely hope is reading this, (blows kiss) and who is VERY sweet), this story is the result of a lot of hard work and I hope you all enjoy it.
For those of you confused about the TIMING of this story, and when it takes place in my grand timeline, this tale takes place after "Nobody Gets Left Behind". Specifically, it begins two years afterwards and there's a significant majority of "Experimental Americans" living in Hawaii now. The rest you'll figure out for yourself. ;)
Enjoy…and remember to review! I really enjoy answering the reviews in "Review Replies".
There is a story. A comic book series called "The Sandman". In it, there's an origin given for the power of dreams.
It's said that people died off too quickly in the beginning…so quickly that they didn't have TIME to dream.
The details are skewed a little.
You see…dreaming is wondering…hoping…wishing that perhaps things could be a bit different…
Dreaming is "what if"…dreaming is wondering why.
The moment people looked up into the sky…the moment they felt even the tiniest desire for something that they couldn't have…they began to dream about what it would be like if they could have it…they began to dream about how the things around them were made.
Why…why was life the way it was?
People still ask that question all the time.
And I would come to ask that question when the incident occurred.
I guess…you could say…we saw it coming. It wasn't too much of a surprise.
There are always signs that a child is going to be…special. But we didn't know that the children that were born would have to go through this, and not from…not from him.
But this is the way it worked out.
And for better or for worse…we will have to endure it.
AS THE WORLD BURNS
PROLOGUE
A dark, dark room. No light, save for a single, flickering bulb. There was the vague outline of shapes lining the sides of the walls, but you had no real idea what was inside this room. You could feel from the draft, and hear by the echo of your own breath that it was big…enormous even.
Then the light switch went on, revealing it in all it's glory…a laboratory. Capsules lined up and down the walls to the left and right, with a large computer console and viewscreen attached to the computer. A keyboard was placed by the console with a blinking green light at the top of the viewscreen broadcasting that the computer was, in fact, on.
The walls were dark steel with, interestingly enough, a nice carpeting of ivory. There were several smaller computers to the sides of the various capsules that had different…things…floating in them. It was hard to tell what they were. They looked almost like people…like they had, at one point, been people would be a better term. Science had twisted and raped their bodies into disgusting abominations.
There were tables littered around the laboratory, with a large circular table at the far front end of the room. To the right were countertops that had jars at the top containing odd…things. Yes, it was hard to tell what the stuff in these jars and capsules were. One looked like a pickled frog, it's body bloated as if it had been in the sun for three days. Another looked like a pig fetus. Yet another appeared to be the human brain…a fat and squishy brain at that.
Behind the table was the experiment that the doctor had been called to see. The doctor turned his head to look at the experiment's husband, frowning slightly as he placed his thick-gloved hands together. Genuine concern was in his large, maroon eyes as he looked at the husband, his black antennae quivered and lowered.
"She looks more stressed than you described her. Are you CERTAIN she's in a good enough-"
"My mental state is none of your business, but for the record tubby…it's FINE." The experiment snapped. She adjusted the goggles off of her eyes, putting the welding tool she'd been using on her latest project to the side after turning it off. "We heard you were the best for this thing…"
The doctor simply sighed. "I do what I can with what I can. What is it you need my assistance with, Dr. Jookiba?"
"The problem is that I happen to be…be…" She quivered slightly, then bit her lip, her golden eyes closing slowly before she answered. "…unable to conceive. We have tried very hard, but...there are no drugs that have helped. And in-vitro fertilization is a process that neither I nor my husband have experience in." Dr. Jookiba informed the Irken doctor.
Dr. Skoodge rubbed his chin. "Well…alright. Sit down, both of you. I'll explain the process." The experiment and her husband sat down at the table as the doctor rubbed his gloved claws. "In-vitro or the "test tube method", is simple. I'll give you a drug that will be injected into your body that will cause you to drop multiple eggs." He informed the female experiment.
"Would there be any side effects?" The husband demanded to know.
"It MIGHT make your wife act…irrational."
"Dooky! I'm not scared of that!" The husband laughed. "Now go on, go on." He asked, waving his gloved, clawed hands, asking for Dr. Skoodge to continue.
The doctor placed his claws together and nodded. "You see, at ovulation, instead of doing an insemination we'll harvest the legs and fertilize them in a lab. The embryos shall then be placed within the lining of your uterus and then you'll carry them to term like any other mother." He informed them.
"This procedure sounds…rather sinister." The husband spoke. "…I like it." He added, grinning a zipper-toothed grin.
Dr. Skoodge nodded. "Alright." He told them both. "But you must understand that for this procedure to work…I'll need a blood sample from you." He said, nodding at the husband. "That way I can get the DNA needed to fertilize the egg. I'd normally use sperm, but unfortunately the equipment at my lab that would allow for the sperm to be used was totaled in a microwave burrito accident." He nervously blushed, his cheeks turning dark green. "So…"
He recomposed himself and then pulled out a small hypodermic needle, handing it to the husband. "Go ahead."
"Finally…the glorious moment has come when, at long last, I shall be able to have a child of my own!" The husband proclaimed. He smiled evilly as he held the needle up into the air and it glinted in the light of the laboratory. "And soon our shall rain DOOM down upon all of their inferior heads!"
…
…
…
… "Can you believe it?"
It was an alien rodent that had almost rabbit-like ears, a pink nose and a body that resembled a gerbil…or rather, a hamster. He had red eyes and a long tail with a light brown, fairly large tuft at the end and he wore a doctor's coat.
Dr. Rupert Jacques von Hamsterviel was his name, and he was speaking with his beloved wife, Ariel. "I'm going to deliver a baby. I've…I've never done this before." He admitted sheepishly.
Ariel was a female experiment who closely resembled her mother, Angel. She had white fur though, with no "v" insignia on her chest and above all…heterochromia. One eye was red, the other blue. She, thankfully, had little physical resemblance to her father, Leroy, who had raped Angel, thus producing HER.
Ariel had her son sitting next to her as Rupert addressed her in his office. Junior von Hamsterviel, as they'd named him, resembled his father in head shape and tail-wise, though his general form was more experimental. Most interesting were his eyes, like his mothers, were red and blue respectively…or rather, blue and RED.
They were inside of West Kauai Clinic. The walls were painted white, as were the floors, a stark contrast to the sky blue of Dr. Rupert Jacques von Hamsterviel's office. The doctor had to get to work soon…a patient of his, Bellatrix, daughter of 627, Legion and the experiment Belle, was going into labor.
"You'll do fine." Ariel wrote down on a notepad she had with her, showing it to her husband. She couldn't really speak, she'd been a mute most of her life. Thinking a little, the beautiful Ariel tapped the pencil in her paw/hand to her lip, then wrote some more. "Just think…they're going to have a son or daughter soon."
Yes, neither Jude nor Bellatrix hadn't decided to find out the sex of the baby…Jude was just glad that the "In vitro" process had worked for them too. He was a choir boy training to be a priest like his father had been at one point, he wasn't allowed to actually have sex, which, according to Legion, was true blasphemy.
"Alright…" Rupert nodded. "I'd best get a move on."
He walked out the office after patting his son Junior on the head, who looked up from his book "My Pet Goat" and smiled broadly.
…Bellatrix was like a living loudspeaker. With her and her mom, you didn't have to set an alarm…just point her at somebody's house and she'd wake you up with a yell no matter how far away you were! She had her father's body form, but her mother's turquoise fur, yellow stripes on her arms and, most importantly, a LARGE mouth.
Her husband was holding her hand as he looked into her eyes. His eyes were, to put it simply, beautiful and entrancing. He had a fox-like tail, angelic wings and hair that fell neatly down at the top of his head, shortly cut. His chest was furry like a lamb's, and his body had a shimmering, almost opaque look due to him being crystalline in color. His father, Page, had also had a child born in this manner, having been given permission by the Pope.
Soon Page and Crystallene would be grandparents, Dr. Rupert realized as he stepped inside the room. Bellatrix had a slightly dazed look in her eyes and she was smiling in a fashion that made those lookin on wonder if she'd been hit in the face.
"Let's name it Lasagna." She remarked dreamily.
"…the child is not going to be named Lasagna." Jude said gently. "Remember?" He squeezed her hand again.
"Are you ready?" Dr. Rupert asked gently, smiling. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave, Jude…"
…
…
…
…it was a girl.
"A beautiful baby girl"
"Ooo-ull aybee url!"
…and they named her Echo on the spot.
…
…
…
… "Well, c'mon! Get it outta yer system! I screw up everything else…this has gotta be MY fault somehow! Say it! I'm the cause of everything bad in the universe and now…I BRING YOU RAAAAIN!" He yelled, holding up his paws. "C'mon! Get it out!"
"I'm…having…THE BABY!" She yelled.
"…oh. OH."
The rain poured down heavily as the bear-like, tubby experiment with brown fur nervously looked around, holding his groaning, moaning wife in his arms. His brown fur was soaked with rain and his small, stubby ears were pressed against his head, his small black eyes looking down at Bonnie with genuine loving concern. Bonnie was undergoing the pains of childbirth, her pale green fur even paler than normal, her beautiful blue eyes squeezed shut in pain. Her yellow/white-furred chest rose up and down as she gasped in pain and the rain continued to "pluk-pluk-pluk" down onto her husband and her.
"H…hurts…" She gasped out. It was like her lower body was tightening up, like she was being squeezed dry and something had to come out and SOON…
They were never gonna reach the hospital in time. Their car was wrecked, Clyde had driven it home in a hurry after Bonnie had called him up, telling him the news…Thunderbirds were go, folks. But now she couldn't move her body, save for twitching in pain.
"I…I never thought…never thought it would happen like this…" Bonnie gasped out. "It…it HUUUUURTS…" She wailed, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I…I can't believe I'm having the babyyyyyyyy!"
Clyde was frightened. What was he supposed to do? He had to help her…he had to make her feel better.
"How can we do this? We're thieves…and we keep fighting…we've been fighting ever since Grendella and Sandy started dating…we've been disagreeing all the time. We have to figure out some way to FIX this."
"Bonnie…yer gonna git through this." He insisted. "I promise. I love you."
"I don't just mean our hard times…we have to think of…think of some way to respark our love. I…" She clenched her fists. "I want you to tell me seven reasons why you love me! Right NOW!" She gasped out. "And I better believe it!"
"I…I'd love to say why I love you."
She opened her eyes up. "I…I love you too, Clyde…" She said in her Chicago accent, her blue eyes twinkling as the rain continued to pour down.
"I love the way you wake up in the morning and after you shower, you smell of raspberries!" Clyde yelled as the rain came down harder, thunder crackling as lightning split the sky, the wind blowing stinging drops against his face.
"I love the fact that when you hug me tightly, I squeak a little!" Bonnie yelled back.
"I love how you sing "Katrina and the Waves" songs in the shower!"
"I love the way you suck in your gut whenever I walk into the room!"
"I love the way your forehead wrinkles up when you get worried!"
"I love the fact that you stole that beautiful crystal chandelier for my birthday because you knew how much I always wanted one!"
"I love your eyes!"
"I love your smile!"
"I love the fact that you keep me focused…how you're always my voice of reason!"
"I love how you keep me happy…you know how to make me smile when I'm feeling awful!"
"I love that nothing in my life has been complete until I've shared it with you!"
"I love everything about you…"
Two pairs of eyes looked right at each other. One black. One blue.
"And I couldn't have asked for a better partner!"
…
…
…
…Skoodge was hard at work in his own office which, conveniently, was also inside of the West Kauai Clinic. Within a secret room that had an elevator running from it to his main office stood a large tank that had bubbles rising up and down in a blue liquid…the floating objects inside of this liquid were eggs, and they were about to be fertilized once Skoodge had taken the DNA sample from the blood donation he'd obtained and converted it into an injection that would-
Uh oh. Problem. Skoodge looked over the various jars that lined up and down the large countertop he had in the room which was across from the tank. The labels…he'd forgotten to label five of them. Which one of the blood samples was the one he wanted?
Think, Skoodge thought as the light flickered off again, reminding him that he needed to pay the electrical bill for the room. He's an Irken like me. Our blood is green, like THIS sample!
He reached out and grabbed the sample, smiling as the light stayed off. Then he took the sample and placed it in a small, mixer-like machine which began to convert it into a glowing grey substance which would then fertilize the eggs. With that finished, the light turned back on and he took the fertilization sample, placing it into the control panel of the tank and fertilizing the eggs. He watched as one of them was penetrated and nodded in satisfaction, turning around after pressing the "release" button.
The eggs were deposited in a jar and would later be placed within his patient's uterus so that she could give birth in time. But that wasn't what he was thinking of now. What he noticed…was that there was ANOTHER blood sample that was green on the countertop.
There'd been two…
Who else had had green…
HADN'T it been green blood he'd just used? He was sure of it…
…
…
…
…She groaned as she looked at the flavors for the Icee machine. Strarospheric Strawberry Slime? Rockin Hard Raspberry? Blue Berry Blitz? Lemon Lime Lollapalooza?
"Need some help choosing?"
She turned her head to see him. Grey fur, with a very furry light grey chest and stomach. He had un-retractable thick black claws, and black taloned feet. There were black eyes with shades of green tint at the bottom, and a vaguely pig-like, gumdrop-shaped nose in the center of his face, with long ears hanging down. He had brown hair with thick locks, brushed back like a mane, and he wore no shirt…only tie-dye pants and a necklace with a blue mood orb at the end of it.
"Something's bothering you." Grey Nicholas Pelekai said gently. When he spoke, there was a faint, slight growl, with an underlying hint of melody in his voice. His voice slightly reminded her of that singer, Jesse McCartney. "Every time you come into my convenience store it's ALWAYS to get an Icee and it's ALWAYS because something has upset you. You angry at Angel again?"
"SLUT." She hissed under her breath. "Him AND her…but no, I'm worried about something else. I'm…I'm late."
"Eh?"
"…I'm LATE." She informed Grey.
"…OH." His eyes went wide, eyebrows shooting up. "I see. You mean you're pregnant? Got a bun in the oven?" He joked.
"Ha-ha. It's…it's serious business." She insisted. "And I don't know what I'm going to do. I mean…it's a test tube baby and there's this problem, and…" She held her paws to her head and took a long, deep sigh. "I don't know what I'm going to do."
"Any kid you have is going to be a love child because you're going to love it." Grey said sagely.
"Angel made it look so easy when SHE gave birth to Sandy." She mumbled, looking down at the squeaky white floors of the convenience store, turning her back to the Icee machine to face an aisle with doughnuts, bread and other similar products.
"Aw, c'mon!" Grey laughed, patting her on the shoulder. "Angel's a solid 8, but you've got those beautiful eyes going for you…and you're funny and witty and SMART. Kila, you're an 8 and a half!" He insisted.
Kila looked up, looking slightly skeptical.
"Nine when you smile." Grey added with a small smile…a sincere one.
"…thanks." Kila said. "I…I don't think I'll abort it. I'm keeping it." She patted her womb where her child was growing even now. "In a few months…I'm gonna be a mom." She blinked a few times. "Wow. I can't believe it. A mom. Me…"
…
…
…
…a new child for Bonnie and Clyde. Everyone was interested in seeing the new boy that had been brought into the world.
As the brown-haired youth gently brushed the lock of hair at the top of the child's hair away to look into its eyes, his eyes went wide.
"He's got purple eyes." Nicholas Michael Grey whispered quietly.
"…God help him…" Grey thought, hand flying to his mouth.
"What did you name him?" The girl asked. Her long black hair fell down the back of her red and white flowery muumuu as she blinked her brown eyes.
"We named him Jack, Lilo." Bonnie informed her as more people clambered into the living room of Bonnie and Clyde's house. "Jack…"
Jack blinked his purple eyes, his frail-looking, light-green-furred body quivering with a mixture of excitement and joy as he looked at all the people around him.
…
…
…
…the clouds moved over Kauai, slow and steady, drifting by to extinguish every path of blue. Bit by bit they let loose their cargo…white snowflakes.
"I'm a reasonable person, godfather…so I know this can't be snow." Jack mumbled. He had teal patches on his arms and legs like his mother did, and stubby antennae like his father, with stubby ears to match. His dark purple eyes were slightly bloodshot at the bottom, the tinge surging up slightly as he walked towards the car.
"Don't worry…it never sticks." Grey laughed, patting his head gently as Jack hobbled his way into the car with his cane. After Jack had put his seatbelt on, it was time to head out. School awaited.
BGM: Rock Island, 1931, by Thomas Newman
As the snow fell down to the streets below, Grey drove the Lincoln with calm precision as Jack sat in the backseat along, with Grey turning the news off and allowing the calm silence to fill his large ears.
The snow fell down in thick, lazily-floating flakes as the cars ambled down the street. Jack could make out other people through the snowfall, but their features were muddled…some were blobs of fat, others were simply fleshy sticks. Different-colored people all making their way to jobs or, like him, to school.
As the car stopped at the light, Grey looked up and breathed a long, deep sigh. He hadn't heard from Kila in a long time…years, in fact. 3 months after he'd had that conversation with her…she'd dropped off the radar, as had her husband. Whispered rumors, none of which sounded REMOTELY true, were all he heard.
The light turned green and the Lincoln continued to make it's way through the slightly slushy streets, reaching the school after a long drive. Once a memorial to those who had lost their lives in an invasion caused by Leroy, now it had been put to proper use, doing what it was meant to be doing…molding young minds.
As Grey pulled up to the large, light-brown-painted building's parking lot, getting as close as he could to the door, he parked the car and helped Jack out. It was December 19th, and Kokaua Town Middle School was waiting for them. A large globe at the front of the building, handcrafted out of crystal by Crystallene herself greeted newcomers as people filed into the building.
The white stairways were exposed by large windows, and Grey now led Jack up one of those staircases to the second floor, where Jack's homeroom and first period class was…room 241. This was where he taught. Opening up the multi-colored door that gave away to all that it was HIS room.
Grey smiled and nodded to Jack as Jack stepped inside, the first student there. Then Grey took his place behind the desk as the other students began to pile in. Now 80 years old but not looking a day older to prove it, Grey was glad he had the chance to teach Hawaiian to the students.
The bell rang to symbolize how the students needed to get into their rooms and Grey went to the looooong windows, placing one clawed hand against the pane, breathing on it to fog it up slightly as he saw the flakes continue to fall outside.
The day was beginning, he thought to himself as his students began to pile inside.
It was time to get to work. He turned around and grinned broadly as the second bell rang. "Roll call!" He announced enthusiastically. "Echo Koʻokoʻo!"
"Echo present 'n accounted for!"
"Junior Von Hamsterviel!"
"Present!"
"Jack Aihue!"
"Here."
"Heartwing Kō'ao!"
"I'm here!"
"Charlie Richard Kennedy!"
"I'm here!"
Grey smiled broadly. "Alright class…let's get started, shall we?"
(Music comes to an end)