Chapter 2: Prototype
During one year and a bit more, Cortex ordered his robots to construct a permanent habitat on the Islands in order to test Brio's new invention: The Evolvo-Ray. The captured animals could see the construction everyday and, near the end, they noticed that some of the robots were carrying big metallic barrels which on some of them, a green and bright liquid was flowing out. When the robots finished the project, Cortex named it the "Cortex Complex".
Cortex Complex, Islands, 9pm, September 15th 1995
Inside the building, robots were verifying the animals health condition by forcing them to exercise so they can take one of the hostages as the next to be on the iron table. Unfortunately, they had to kill some animals because some of them were too lazy to exercise or they were severely wounded.
Among the animals, Danny and Craig were doing very well but it wasn't enough to exceed a certain kangaroo's performances. When the robots saw how talented and healthy the kangaroo was, they took him by the hears.
[Leave me alone!] the kangaroo tried to said. [Someone, help me!]
Sad, Danny thought [Poor him. He's going to get blasted by that cannon.]
[That's not your fault.] Craig said. [You can't do anything to save him. It's too late.]
The robots took the kangaroo away and brought him in Cortex's room. They showed the animal to Cortex and the hairy scientist said "What are his performances?"
"THIS KANGAROO EXCEED IN EVERY PHYSICAL EXPERIMENTS." the robots reported. "THE SPECIE LOOKS POSITIVE FOR THE EVOLVO-RAY."
Pleased, Cortex said "Excellent.". Looking into the kangaroo's eyes, he ironically said "I hope that your new fate will please you.". After speaking, the scientist laughed as the robots carried the animal into the testing room.
The testing room was a huge room with two parts: The first part was the observation room where the two scientists would take notes and save the data and the second part had an iron table with a strange device pointing at it. The robot entered the part with the device and attached the kangaroo on the table. A few later, Brio and Cortex went into the observation part to see if the robot did everything correctly.
"I can't believe that we are going to try the Evolvo-Ray for the first time." Cortex said, excited. He spoke into an speaker and said "Attention! Those that are in the pipeline section of the Cortex Complex must start filling up the pipes with the chemical product.". As soon as Cortex ended talking, the robots that were in the pipeline section started filling up the pipes.
When the job was done, a robot came in the testing room to said at the two scientists "JOB COMPLETE."
Then, the two scientists began to program the device they used to call the Evolvo-Ray. The cannon started energizing itself and then fired on the kangaroo. The poor animal was suffering and its limbs started to grow up. At that moment, a robot came into the observation room and told the two scientists "CANCEL EVOLUTION PROCEDURE. LEAK DETECTED ON MAIN PIPE."
Angry, while Brio cancelled the experiment, Cortex took a wrench and beat up the robot and yelled "WHY! DID! YOU! HAVE! TO! TELL! US! THIS! WHEN! WE! WERE! TESTING! THE! EVOLVO-RAY! YOU! PIECE! OF! JUNK!". The robot was ripped into pieces after the hairy man's speech.
However, the kangaroo did become a humanoid but he couldn't talk.
"What should we do?" Brio asked while Cortex was putting back the wrench.
"Blast it a second time." Cortex answered. "He must be able to talk. Else, he'll be useless in our army."
Meanwhile, the robots repaired the leak in the pipe carrying the chemical product.
To his words, the bald man programmed back the Evolvo-Ray and the device shot the kangaroo a second time. The humanoid had to suffer a second time and something went wrong: After the mutation, his fur became blue, his tongue was longer and his eyes were yellow with spirals in them.
The two scientists waited for him to talk but something else happened: the kangaroo started to laugh. Also, his laugh was so high-pitched that the two scientists were unable to hear it without suffering.
"ROBOTS!" Cortex said, his hands on his ears to prevent himself to hear the noise. "GET THAT THING OUT OF HERE!"
The humanoid started to jump everywhere in the room, making it harder for the robots to catch him. Finally, after many minutes, the robot grabbed the kangaroo by his ears and put him into a straightjacket and they left the testing room.
Then, Brio asked to his partner "How will you name him?"
"I don't to give this thing a name." Cortex replied. "It almost ripped my ears... wait. Let us call him Ripper Roo. What do you think about that, Nitrus?"
Nitrus was Brio's first name. Nitrus answered "I think it is fine to call him Ripper Roo.". At those words, the bald man headed to a computer to type in some informations:
INITIALIZING DATAS
PROJECT NAME: RIPPER ROO (MACROPUS)
SPECIE: KANGAROO
HEIGHT: UNKNOWN
WEIGHT: UNKNOWN
AGE: AROUND 25 (HUMAN AGE)
MORE INFOS: BLUE FUR, LONGER TONGUE, YELLOW EYES WITH SPIRALS, INSANE, LAUGH USED AS NORMAL SPEECH.
SAVING DATAS
...
SAVE SUCCESSFUL
Later this night, while Cortex was sleeping, Nitrus decided to take a book from the headquarter's personal library and headed to the room where the animals were kept in. He went next to a room to see his first experiment laughing in an endless breath. Fortunately, the room was made of anti-sound walls, preventing any sounds to pass them.
[What a mess.] Brio thought, disappointed. [My first creation and it went so wrong.]. He then left to continue his way to the animal storage room. There, the hostages were unable to sleep because they knew that no one would come and save them. They were afraid of Nitrus more than Cortex because Nitrus didn't look like a human with everything that made him a Frankenstein's monster. However, instead of torturing them, Brio took something out his white coat. It was a copy of the Holy Bible and the bald man started to read it to the animals. The animals were so confused at the beginning but they understood that the man didn't want to injure them.
As they were sleeping, they heard Revelation 21:6:
"I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely."
Dream world
Both Craig and Danny found themselves in the same dream. They were in a room with very few light coming from a little light bulb that was brightening the creature they saw in their first dream a year ago. However, the creature was lying in the ground and facing away from the dingo and the crocodile with many severe injuries.
"Are ya alright?" Danny asked to the creature.
"...Run." the creature said. "Run while ya can... he's going to torture ya... ya'll be his tools of massive destruction.
"Who, he?" Craig asked. After asking, the creature burned to death and both Danny and Craig suffered an infernal headache.
Note: Capitals are used for robots, computers and persons that are very angry. If you have any questions about why Brio reads the Holy Bible, the answer will come up much later (somewhere in part 2)
