The Big O and all of its settings and characters are owned by Bandai Visual, Sunrise, and Cartoon Network. Additional material by Lisa Smedman.
THE BIG O:
ACT 33
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR
Chapter Six: A Beautiful Specimen
Slowly the green nightmare faded, leaving dark stains in my soul that would never come off. I felt like flatlining. I was all shook up. I awoke in a cold sweat, shivering as frozen metal pressed against my bare skin.
Light finally invaded his world, but not the colorful light he experienced in Jenny Grant's garden. This was a cold white light that cut through his corneas like a knife. He squinted and blinked as he tried to focus. He was laying down on a cold metal surface and his limbs were restrained by leather straps by the feel of it. He shivered because someone had stripped him to his underwear.
He flexed against his bonds, testing their strength. It was no good. His arms and legs were spread in a jumping jack position and he didn't have any leverage. Even a man who could lift a two hundred and eighty pound android couldn't break free. His head still hurt especially his eyes and nose. It felt like someone had punched him in the face repeatedly before going at him with a box cutter. Someone had stuck a tube down his throat and he gagged as he struggled.
"He's awake Jenny," a man's voice said. Roger thought it was the gangster named Vince but he couldn't be sure.
"Oh good," came Jenny's quiet husky voice. "Remove the feeding tube, won't you Vince? He won't need it anymore."
"Yes Jenny," the gangster said, his speech slurring a bit. Roger winced as the tube was extracted from his gullet. He gagged and coughed before looking up at the figure blocking the overhead light.
Vince stared down at him, his eyes empty. The gangster was now dressed in overalls and a white lab coat instead of his pinstripe suit. Roger stared at him as he realized what had happened to the gangster. The question was… what was going to happen to him?
"Tilt the table so he can see me," Jenny ordered. "Not too much or his restraints will cut off his circulation. Just a little bit. There we go."
Roger found himself at a forty-five degree angle looking into a chamber that had to be a laboratory. Several stainless steel laboratory tables were lined up along the middle of the room. Blown-glass test tubes, beakers, vials and pipettes, Bunsen burners glowing with blue flames, coils of copper tubing, mortars filled with strange powders, delicate weigh scales, thermometers, and dark brown glass jars filled with liquid, were arranged on the tables.
Along the wall, two windows provided a view of the scarred, primeval forest. Six brass bathtubs, each covered with a glass lid and filled with a pale green liquid sit beneath the windows. At the foot of each tub are sets of dials marked with captions: 'Temperature,' 'Salinity,' 'Pulse Frequency,' and 'Nutrient Level.' Needles jiggled in each. Hoses just below the gauges carried gurgling liquid from the bathtub into a humming black box and into the tub again. On top of the box, an inked needle scribbled a wiggly line across a scroll of paper.
Each tub contained a recognizable creature. The first three tubs contained animals—a rat, a dog, and a monkey—that were almost fully formed. The next two tubs held human tissue. The first was little more than a living torso—a rudimentary skeleton had formed, and immature organs and tissue had sprouted at attached themselves to it. The second was in an even more primitive stage of development—only its brain, eyes, and spinal cord had formed.
Jenny Grant was in a white lab coat over surgical scrubs. She looked up from a microscope and smiled at him. "How are you feeling?"
Roger groggily searched for a witty retort. "Like someone took an icepick to my face." Best he could do under the circumstances.
Jenny shrugged with vacant eyes and a crooked smile. "A syringe actually. I just wanted a sample from your cerebral cortex."
"You… you took a piece out of my brain?" Roger blanched.
"Just a little piece," she assured him as she strolled over to his table. "Don't worry. If my assessment is correct, as long as we continue to feed you a nutritious diet you should be fine, better than fine really." She surveyed him with predatory eyes. "You really are a beautiful specimen. I would have stripped you entirely but those cute little black silk boxers are so sexy I couldn't bring myself to. I'm a bit of a fetishist I suppose."
"You're crazy!" the words were out of Roger's mouth before he knew it.
"I'm not crazy, I've been tested!" Jenny Grant pouted.
"You're just like your brother!" Roger gasped. "Experimenting on human beings…"
"I'm nothing like my brother, he was a kook," Jenny insisted. "The only human beings I'm experimenting on are bad guys who deserve to die anyway. It doesn't matter how they die, does it? Don't say things like that."
The adrenaline helped clear my dizzy head. I was trapped in a mad scientist's lab and bargaining for my life. Getting her angry might not be the smart thing to do. She thought I was sexy in my boxer shorts. It was time to turn on the charm like my life depended on it, but I'd have to be subtle, or she'd never buy it.
"I'm strapped down by a beautiful woman who's sticking needles in my brain," Roger growled sarcastically. "Forgive me for jumping to conclusions!"
"It looks like I also jumped to conclusions," Jenny admitted. "There's no way you can be one of Zeke's boys."
"Really?" Roger's smile came out as more of a grimace. "What makes you say that? Checked my ID?"
"No, it's the fact that your body has actually fought off the spores," Jenny said.
"What?"
"I said you've managed to fight off the spores," Jenny repeated. "That is, of course, impossible. Once they start growing in a living brain they slowly replace the cranial tissue until the subject dies a mindless vegetable. In the meantime the victim is in a docile, euphoric state and is susceptible to suggestion. There is no treatment for it. Once you inhale the spores you're doomed."
"Why am I snapping out of it then?" Roger asked.
"That's a good question." Jenny darted over to the microscope. "Come over and take a look." She turned sheepishly back to Roger. "Oh, well you'll just have to take my word for it. You can't see much at this resolution anyway. It seems that your cells are infested with a subcellular microscopic virus."
"Did you do that to me?"
"No, you had it before you met me dear," she said. She sauntered playfully back to his table while gazing predatorily at him. "The virus appears to be some kind of symmetrical grit that's small enough to pass through your cellular walls. But here's the interesting thing. The virus appears to be beneficial. It's going into the fungal cells and taking them apart from within. It's using the debris from your damaged neurons to rebuild them. Your synapses are being rebuilt good as new."
"What are you saying? Are saying that my brain is invincible or something?"
"Look you don't understand." Jenny was grinning like a maniac, but that was appropriate for her. "Nerves don't heal. Brain damage is permanent, the synapses just reroute themselves as best they can, but brain damage doesn't heal. Don't you see? Not only has your body rejected the spores, the brain damage has been reversed. Don't you know what this means?"
"What? That I can heal brain damage?" Roger was trying to keep up.
"You still don't get it handsome." Jenny leaned coquettishly on his table and rubbed his nipple with her forefinger. "If your nerves can heal, what other regenerative properties does your body possess? Can you heal any injury or never get tired? How much… stamina does a beautiful specimen like you have, darling?"
Roger shuddered under the unwanted intimate contact but still valiantly tried to flirt. "Undo these straps and maybe you can find out," he smiled weakly.
"Nice try sweetie, but I like you like this," Jenny grinned a crooked smile. "So what's your name dear? I'm Jenny Grant, but of course you know that don't you? Yes. Doctor Jenny Grant, experimental biologist. How do you do?"
"Hi," Roger smiled sheepishly. "Roger Smith. Negotiator. I've been better."
"So Roger Smith Negotiator, what brings you to my doorstep?" She smiled condescendingly. "And with such interesting company too."
I decided to simply blurt out the truth. I was still too dazed to make up a lie and the truth might actually help.
"I was hired by Ezekiel Crater to negotiate for a biochemical serum that's in your possession," he said as smoothly as he could.
"Were you?" Her smile was cruel now.
"I understand that you two have a history. Might I ask what a nice girl like you has in common with a thug like Zeke Crater?"
"Oh, well… you know how it goes," Jenny rolled her eyes and a rosy color brought some needed color to her cheeks. "Sometimes nice girls like me can't resist someone who's completely no good for them. That's been the story of my life. I've always been attracted to the bad boys. Garbage on legs. Usually I watch my step but Zeke had a real zest for life, you know what I mean?"
"How did you two kids meet anyhow?"
"Well after my brother went off the deep end the Paradigm Group cut my funding, I had to provide medical services for Zeke and his little friends to pay for my research. You know, removing a bullet, doing a little cosmetic surgery, things like that. Then Zeke noticed me and we started seeing each other. You know, I never met a man like him before. He really knew how to have fun, and quite honestly, I really didn't. I'm a real bookworm, I guess. Don't relate to people at all. I tried to look the other way when he kept playing around on me but one day I just snapped. You know how delicate a lady's heart can be, don't you? I injected him with a mutagen that turned him into the cockroach he is and now he can't play with women anymore. That will teach him."
Roger's breath caught in his throat.
"Don't look at me in that tone of voice," Jenny frowned. "I don't expect a man to faithful but it was just mean for Zeke to throw it in my face like he did. That's men for you. You give them an inch and they take a mile. If we were an item, and you were seeing other women you wouldn't invite them over to our place would you? If you invited me to a party, you wouldn't disappear with someone else would you? I didn't think so. But Zeke, he just didn't know how to be nice. He was like a child that way. You're not like a child are you?"
"What?" Roger gulped. "N-no," he shook his head and tried to look as nonchalant as a man stripped to his boxer shorts and strapped to a table could be.
"I don't know…" Her large eyes squinted suspiciously at him. "You look awfully young to me. You're as adorable as a little boy, handsome."
"I'm older than I look," Roger said. "Honest."
"That's interesting." Jenny brightened. "How old are you?"
"Thirty-five, give or take," he shrugged.
"Interesting," she tapped her finger on her chin. "I wonder if the little buggers in your cells also rejuvenate you. You look twenty-five. Could they be responsible?"
"What are they?"
"That's a good question," she nodded. "Your little friends, the critters in your cells, they're like no virus I've ever seen. Normally a virus hijacks the nuclei of the host's cells and produces more virus, but these little guys act like antibodies. They actually hijack any cells that are going wrong and fix your DNA to get rid of any mutation. They've completely broken apart the fungus cells. May I ask how you got them?"
"I have no idea."
"You aren't hiding something from me are you?"
Roger glanced down at his exposed body. "Kind of hard to do that isn't it?"
Jenny gave a playful giggle. "Oh, you really are fun. I'll take some samples, then we can get to know each other better over dinner. Hopefully I'll know more about what makes you tick by then."
"How long have I been here?" Roger asked as Jenny strolled leisurely to a table filled with medical equipment.
"Oh, just a few hours," Jenny said as she selected her syringes. "You took a long nap, so you'll probably have trouble sleeping tonight. I can give you something if it helps. It will be interesting to see how long drugs can affect you. Can those little guys neutralize chemicals as quickly as an infection? Should be interesting."
Roger drew in a breath and tried to remain calm.
She was crazy all right, but a lot more subtle then her brother. Poor Crater must have had no idea who he was getting involved with. It was possible that I could talk my way out of this, but the odds were that she would try to keep me here for the rest of my life. I didn't think that Crater was a patient man. If he didn't hear from me in a day or two he might not think it was necessary for Dorothy to stay in one piece. I would have to get out of here, and soon.
In the meantime, miles away in an ivy covered mansion by the coast Dorothy Wayneright was menaced by the inhuman Ezekiel Crater. With his shirt off, the girlish android could see that his chest was banded with rib-like strips of ivory white chitin, with deeply shadowed depressions in between. Four extra appendages connected to his body just under the armpits and resembled jointed whips ending in sharp bony hooks. They unfolded from his body and spread his cape open like a man-sized pair of wings.
Dorothy struck Crater dead in the chest and the crime boss flew backwards until the wall stopped his flight, causing him to tumble to the floor. As he scrambled to his feet she could see that his legs had an extra joint and his extra limbs flailed about, knocking over the little table with the lamp on it and plunging the room into darkness. Dorothy didn't stop to take in the details; instead she turned and dashed for the windows and plunged through both glass and wooden shutters. Although she dived successfully through the barricaded window, she lost most of her momentum so she tumbled awkwardly just outside before she rolled to her feet and tried to lose herself in the wild and unattended hedges near the house.
"You little minx!" Crater yelled. "I'll get you!"
A gunshot exploded through the night air. Dorothy tripped on the vegetation but she didn't dare use the halogen light concealed in her head under the barrette that framed her bangs. Her only hope was speed and concealment. In the dead of night Roger's preference for black was sensible for it made Dorothy that much harder to locate.
"After her youse guys!" Crater bellowed. "Duh android's escaping!"
Dorothy spared a glance in the direction of the Crater's voice, for it didn't come from where it should have. Instead it came from an impossible angle that indicated that he was at least a story up. Perhaps his altered form gave him a strange agility to leap into a tree. No. A strange shape was silhouetted across the moon. Crater had giant membranous wings that he used to turn his jumps into titanic unbelievable leaps that resembled actual flight.
Dorothy shouldn't have looked back. Against the darkness her white face almost glowed in the dark. "There she is! I'll handle you, doll-face!"
Dorothy gasped and ran at full speed. Her barrette slid out of her head to reveal a halogen lamp to light the way for her. In the meantime she heard voices shouting. Crater's men must have left the house to join the chase.
Crater did his best to keep up but didn't catch her until she reached the edge of a cliff. "Now ya got nowhere to run," he crowed as he landed and his extra arms spread to block her way.
Dorothy could see her blow hadn't injured him. His chitin-like skin was like a suit of armor. She glanced over the side to see waves breaking off the jagged rocks below. Her barrette slid back into her head as she made her decision. Without a word she catapulted herself over the side of the cliff and into the sea.
On a desk filled with hourglasses a phone rings. Roger's hand picks up the receiver and a sinister voice says:
Next: It's Just That Easy