Chapter 4:

Exiled

5 Years Ago

"Dr Andross, can you explain what exactly you're doing with this body?" asked a somewhat disturbed General Pepper, his frown apparent, regardless the respect he had for one of the smartest minds in all Corneria. "I just don't see why you should use our dead soldiers as...your test subject."

Andross turned his head towards the General, an annoyed look on his face. "With all due respect, sir, the soldier's mind is as strong, if not stronger, than his body. If we could learn how to enhance their ability and have them be able to go all out without running out of stamina by having the brain have it's own pain killer and be able to accelerate the heart even a little faster to keep up with the rush, then our army would increase 10 fold!" he smiled, looking for what the General thought, and could see he was not pleased.

"Andross...my friend. I can NOT allow you to continue on with these..." he looks away from the mess in front of him. "disastrous experiments. I want this body buried by this weekend at his funeral. I also want you to clean up, get rid of, and destroy all records of this work and all items in this lab. You'll be moved down one floor so that you can go back to working with disease. I won't let you continue your research here any longer. That is all." He walked out of the room, the door sliding close behind him. He sighed, shaking his head. Andross....I've known you since you came here with nothing but theories. Now you are one of the most respected scientists known to the Lylat. Don't let me down again...

Andross had set aside his clip-board, utterly shocked. First, the love of his life told him to get lost and she never wanted to speak to him ever again. Now his life's work is going to be destroyed because the General doesn't approve? No. It is NOT going to be like this! I WILL continue my research. But I need to speed it up. They'll have their body back this weekend. But not for his funeral...for his revival! He laughs slightly, a dark energy swirling around his hands. "Thanks to my research, I've learned to channel some of my life-force with my physical body on the outside. With this, I'll be able to do WONDERS! It's all thanks to you...Pepper." He turned his back towards the door, looking at his subject. "Now...to finish this up."

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Two days later.

An upset dog ran into a giant room filled with trophies, medals, ribbons, pictures, and golden placks covering the most part of the left side of it. The right side was a giant window, where you could see almost the entire main Cornerian city. The sun was at just the right angle, shining its brightest into the room, causing a beautiful scene on the floor, the sun reflecting off of all of the items hanging on the walls and sitting on the shelves. He ran towards the lone desk in front of him, the chair turned away. He saluted, taking a military stance at full attention. "General Pepper, sir! An explosion has destroyed 17 blocks of our city!"

Pepper turned around, jumping out of his seat, running towards his window. "Where!? I didn't hear about this! I don't see it!" He frantically searched for the smoke, the destruction, but saw nothing.

The soldier shook his head, releasing his attention from being formal in front of the General for the moment. "Sir, it came from the other side of our building. It..originated from the Science District. Over 200 are dead and roughly about 150 have been wounded. What are we going to-"

"Andross....was Andross any of those!?" Pepper had turned and quickly ran towards the soldier. The dog had backed up a little, not expecting the General to ask about the scientist.

He looked the General in the eyes, the sweat trickling down his head, knowing where he was going with this. "No sir. His body was nowhere to be found in either list. He is being questioned as we speak at his house." He paused for a few seconds, then built enough courage to ask. "Sir, with all due respect, I think Andross had something to do with the explosion.." He waited for a reply, the dog in front of him turning his gaze away from him.

"No. Andross had EVERYTHING to do with that explosion. Set up the prison cruiser. We're going to add one more to its cargo-hold. Apprehend him immediately. The moment you make his arrest, I want you to send him DIRECTLY to the cruiser then head directly to Venom. Understood?" Pepper had told the soldier quite fast, but the soldier nodded his head, and ran out the room as fast as he could manage. Pepper turned around, hitting his head on the window-wall in front of him just once, looking down at the city below him. Curse you Andross. I told you to get rid of it...and now I must take matters into my hands.

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30 minutes later

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS! YOU HAVE NO PROOF! LET ME GO YOU MUT!" Andross screamed at the top of his lungs, his howling being able to be heard almost a block or two down the road, causing a scene. Others watched. Some said nothing. Others muttered to each other. The rest just ignored it. Better not to even think about getting involved. The watching groups saw the flailing monkey's hair flop everywhere, white strands now dangling in his face. He was being shoved into a Cornerian transporter vehicle, and those were only sued to take prisoners to the "cargo" bay. He hollered, yelled, cussed, insulted, and some think he was even speaking a different language. Who knows. Maybe he really had lost it. Their first Mad Scientist. And nobody thought it was intriguing. After a while, they all went about their normal business, having almost already forgotten about the incident already.

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Months Later: Planet Venom

A guard walks up to cell 293, labeled Class S criminal. He opens the level 5 security door by paw-print, license scan, eye scan, voice recording, and an 18 digit number that changes every 2 weeks. He mumbles under his breath "Stupid procedure. If it wasn't for these mandatory scans and that blasted numerical code, I wouldn't have such a problem handing these guys their food. But it just ticks me off SO much..." The door finally slides open partially. Another security measure. It's enough for him to stick his hand in and place the bowl down on the floor and leave.

He looks down at the steaming soup made out of everything you didn't want swimming in your bowels, and nearly pukes at the sight AND smell. AGAIN! He shakes his head, trying to hurry up so he can repeat this on cell 294. 67 more cells after this one. Then my shift is over and I can finally take a well-deserved nap. He thought to himself, proudly. He set the bowl down inside the cell, and felt a hand grab his wrist tightly. Dark swirls wrapped around his mouth, keeping him from yelling, seeping into his nose. His eye color changed from a brown color to that of purple. He stood up, the hand having left his wrist. The door slammed shut, and he regained his composure. His eyes turned back to the normal shade of brown, and he shook his head. "What....what was that?" Thinking that it was just the lack of sleep finally catching up to him, he ignored it and walked off to cells 294-300.