-M~~T~~P-

The Mad Tinkering Peach

"Time Slip" story arc pt. 14

More Clone Shenanigans

With her desired traits entered, she locked the DNA sequencing and replication process in. Another of her iterative improvements was to the recombination and incubation process. Where it took Momo a month to grow Hana in the tube, and with the improvement the two of them came up with together, a week for Teepo, Eichichi's rig would be able create, incubate, and accelerate this clone to their original's current adulthood age in a matter of hours. With the cloning rig set to alert her for any anomalies, Eichichi decided to bed down for some much needed rest.

~-At the mining camp in the mountains-~

Ryu had settled back in with the Amajina miners and had convinced Rand to let him start his solo project. Rand, knowing his presence meant increased output and a boost to the crew's morale, acquiesced without delay. His only caveat was that Ryu take breaks often enough to allow his guys to go in and reinforce his offshoot tunnel.

With the details taken care of, Ryu donned his mining gear. He was prepped and ready to get his hands dirty and blow off the steam of all his accumulated frustrations. He needed this. Dealing with Bison had him thinking thoughts that he was very uncomfortable with. Ryu felt the need to make himself useful. Not just to get his mind off the situation, but also as a way to sort of atone for having entertained such negative feelings in the first place.

With the mindset established, his gear in hand, and fellow miners on standby, Ryu went about starting his new tunnel.

~-Hours later, in Gantz-~

After a few hours of much needed, uninterrupted sleep, Eichichi rose from her bed with the grace of a drunken mule. Sitting at the edge of her bed, she yawned loudly and stretched the life back into her weary bones. As she stood, she felt the need to un-wedge one side of her panties back down one of her fairly plenteous cheeks. After a few satisfying pops and cracks to get the kinks out of her back and neck, a quick peak through the nearest window showed her that it was early evening. She wasn't surprised in the least, given that she had continued her work from the previous evening into the early part of the following day's afternoon. And though she was giddy to get to the results of her work, she felt it prudent to get cleaned up first. And considering she had not been alerted to any abnormalities in the process, she felt alright to let it continue unabated. With that, she lumbered her way toward the shower.

After freeing herself from all the gear grease, forge soot, iron shavings, and the smell of chemical solvent, Eichichi felt so fresh and so clean. And while she was certainly no fashionista, she understood the importance her appearance could play going into the next scenario. Even though she was similar to Momo in that she had basically been locked away in her lab or library for so long and never put much thought into her wardrobe, her recent interactions with Momo's friends had made her more aware of herself and how men outside her homeland might respond to her. With that in mind, she saw fit to at least make an attempt to dress accordingly for the occasion. She peered in her closet and fished out the closest thing she had to mimic Hana's typical red velour pants and blue crop top, making sure to show cleavage, all in an effort to immediately invoke at least a faint bit of familiarity. She also thought ahead in another aspect. To avoid any possible awkwardness or embarrassment, she saw fit to have some clothes prepped and ready for the clone.

Once dressed, Eichichi made her way back to her lab. She got to her main console and and was full glad to see everything remained green. To satiate the lingering doubts she had nipping at her heels, she ran thorough diagnostic testing on the entire system. Her mind was set at ease moments later when all the tests came back in the positive. After all the double and triple checks, the careful planning, and tireless toil, it was finally time. After a long deep breath to compose herself, the Iron Ox egghead initiated the evacuation protocol for the chamber to birth the clone.

Though her rig was a bit different to the one in the Tower, it was functionally identical to its predecessor. The evacuation protocol caused the tank to start draining the vita-fluid through pipes at the bottom. As the thick translucent liquid slowly drained past the clone's head, she caught the first glimpse of their striking and familiar features. When the tank was empty, the breathing apparatus around the clone's face was retracted into it's sidewall. Then, a loud hiss sounded through the lab as the tank depressurized. Rather than the entire tank lifting up like the old one did, the plexi-plasteel door of Eichichi's tank shifted slightly to unhinge itself then slid open to the side. "EVACUATION COMPLETE" blared from the main terminal.

Before Eichichi stood the fruit of her labors. After months of study and iterative improvements, she bore witness to the birth of a perfect clone of one of her closest friends. As he went to take his first step in life, his knee buckled. Eichichi was quick to catch him before he fell to the floor. As she held him up, he began coughing up the last vestiges of tank fluid as he took his first breaths. Once he was steady on his feet, he opened his eyes for the first time. The first sight he beheld was her big orange hued eyes. After a bit more coughing and sputtering, he managed a weak, "Eichichi?"

"Yes," she replied softly. "Its me." She took a moment to ensure he was stable standing on his own. Once he was, she turned to grab a bundle of clothes. "These are for you." She handed off the bundle and turned to allow him a moment of privacy.

When he was done dressing, he said to her, "So... You made me? Like Momo and Hana made Teepo?"

His words carried some kind of feeling, but Eichichi couldn't quite figure out what kind. She thought on it for a moment before turning to face him. As her big orange eyes met with his emerald green ones, she realized what it was. Confusion. Staring directly into his eyes, as if peering through to his soul, she responded with, "Yes, I did. You know me and you know where you are. Do you know who you are?"

One of the small bits of programming she did add to his mind had indeed worked. He knew he was not the original, as well as knowing that Eichichi would fully accept any decision he made regarding choosing his own way forward. He also knew his name. With his head held high, the clone proudly proclaimed, "I am Lu Long of the Brood. I am a dragon. I am a protector."

Eichichi felt a burst of pride in her work. She pulled it off flawlessly and the finished product was perfect. The moment got to her and drew a tear. In an instant, before she could even process what had happened, Lu Long was at her side with her in his arms. "Are you alright? Have I done something to upset you?"

For a second, Eichichi was at a loss. She was so very unaccustomed to physical contact with another, much less a man. Then she realized what had happened. Ryu's natural need to always be there for those in his life coupled with the adjustments she made to Lu Long's affection and loyalty meant that any distress he witnessed from anyone he knew from Ryu's memories would be met as such. "Oh, no! It's not you," she said. "It's that I was just so glad you came out just so... So... Great." From her point of view, the single most perfect specimen of sentient life, which had been created by her hand no less, was holding her closer than anyone else had ever held her before in her entire existence. She didn't want the moment to ever end, but her conscience was demanding that she had to clear the air.

Without making her movement feel like she was trying to pull away from his touch, Eichichi took a step back and looked Lu Long directly in the eye. Knowing this moment was going to have to happen, she steeled herself for what may occur. With her resolve composed, she said, "I have something I need to admit to you." After the words left her lips, the shame of what she was about to say gripped her and she broke eye contact, instantly looking down toward her feet.

Lu Long immediately noticed the shift in her demeanor and his concern for her rose. As if moved by instinct, he reached a hand out toward and said, "What is it Eichichi? You look a bit... off."

Eichichi pushed past the shame to say what she had to say. She looked back up and into his eyes again and mustered to strength to say, "Follow me." She led Lu Long out of the lab and into the foyer of her home. "Look there." She turned her gaze toward the wall. The recently repaired section where Ryu had let out his anger about Bison. "You recall that, don't you?"

As soon as Lu Long saw the patch job, his anger instantly began to rise. "Bison... That son of a bitch! I'll gut him and use his insides as bait to catch dinner!"

Even with how graphic it was, his sentiment actually made Eichichi feel warm inside. "That. Right there," she said. "That response is basically why you're here now. Why you're alive." Hearing her say that had the instantaneous effect of cooling Lu Long's seething rage. His attention was locked back to Eichichi. She turned back to him and locked eyes with him again. "Since they first arrived, I was intrigued by Ryu. But his response to Bison made me fully fall in love with him." The shame crept its way back to the forefront and caused Eichichi to break eye contact again as she continued. "I had already been building my own version of Momo and Hana's cloning setup when this whole mess with Bison came up. And you have Ryu's memories from when we came back here."

She was right. Lu Long remembered clearly how she had broken down. How she had said she had one last thing to finish before leaving Gantz. Eichichi went on. "My original plan was merely to test out my improvements to the cloning process on myself and create a sister, as Momo did with Hana. But then..." She looked back at the patched hole. "Ryu's devotion to his friends and family pushed me over some edge that I didn't even know I was standing on." The tears began to flow. The shame was getting to her even stronger as she continued speaking. "I'm so sorry! You exist because of my own selfishness. I saw what Hana had and I wanted that. I wanted him. So I made you."

The reality of his birth started to sink in on Lu Long. At first, he felt an odd sense of existential dread. He was knotted up. Confused. But after a moment, his emotions started to tell him something. The other part of his mind that Eichichi had added. She had not only left his free will intact, but also specifically programmed in a thought explaining that he was allowed to do as he well saw fit upon his birth. She spelled out simply and plainly that she was not creating a slave, but a free mind. This revelation, when added to fact that she was in love Ryu, brought Lu Long to a realization. He understood she made him specifically so she could love him. He also understood that while Eichichi had indeed created him for herself, she also gave him the option of whether or not he wanted to accept it.

Once it had all been absorbed and he fully grasped the breadth of his situation, Ryu's typical quirks began to manifest and mix with Lu Long's own heightened loyalty and sense of affection. In an act that took her off her guard in the immediate moment but made perfect sense given the source, Lu Long hugged Eichichi around her waist, head firmly planted against her heaving bosom. "You made me for yourself. Some part of me deep down wants to be offended." After speaking that aloud, he pressed further into her cleavage. "You allowed me the freedom to choose. So I'm choosing to ignore that part of me." Lu Long then stood up straight and looked down into her eyes. "You gave me life. It almost feels like something deep in me is commanding me to want this. And I am choosing to follow that."

He saw another tear threaten her eye. She looked off to the side away from his gaze and said, "I may be responsible for that too. I turned up your sense of loyalty."

With a single finger under her chin, Lu Long gently turned Eichichi to meet his eyes again. Fully channeling the mojo of his original, Lu Long said, "Maybe so, but dammit if that's not hot!" He had her full attention at that point. He continued. "Ryu already has Hana, so you made me so you could love me. I think that's actually pretty awesome." Lu Long's increased loyalty was subconsciously latching on to the fact that he was created to be someone's lover. Deep down, he understood that, and not only did it not bother him, but rather it was fueling his actions. "You made me for you with the idea that I might not want that. But the way I see it, you did me a huge favor." Further proving he was a copy of Ryu, Lu Long punctuated his statement by smiling Ryu's big goofy grin. After Eichichi responded to his positive energy with a smile, he provided even more proof of his origin by nuzzling his face right between the her breasts and then getting a bit handsy.

Though still not used to the contact, Eichichi was very much enjoying how liberal Lu Long was being with the use of his hands. It was doing her heart no end of good to know that a male was enjoying her as she was, a short and small reject of the Iron Ox clan. She felt infinitely vindicated knowing that there was indeed nothing wrong with her, and that it was the closed minded way of thinking of the people of Gantz. These thoughts and feelings had her mind going in directions it never had before. Her body was feeling sensations it never had. And Lu Long's wandering hands were causing her to slip into a state of being she had never thought she would be in. The more Lu Long's hands explored her frame, the more Eichichi found herself feeling attractive. She felt wanted. And for the first time since the days before Bison so coldly rejected her, she felt the heat of passion. She felt lust. Eichichi was feeling horny.

However, just as Eichichi's mind had been made up as to her next course of action in response to Lu Long's touch, the air was cut by the sound of the front door opening. "Professor Auroch?" The voice was familiar to both of them. From the front entrance of her home and into the foyer stepped Teepo. As his eyes took in the sight of Lu Long, his mind immediately processed him as a familiar entity. He was also able to instantly correlate the sudden appearance of a clone of his brother to Eichichi's plight. "Ah, brother!", he said in an inviting tone. "Pardon the intrusion, Professor. Hana mentioned you were knee deep in your work and that you might not hear a knock." Eyeing up his new brother, he continued with, "I see now just what held your attention. So this is the final project you were working on before leaving the island." Teepo approached the pair. "Uncanny. Just like Hana, a perfect one to one copy." Teepo extended a fist in greeting and said, "Do you have a name, brother?"

Enthusiastically bumping the offered fist, he replied with, "I am Lu Long."

Teepo nodded in approval. He looked toward Eichichi and said, "How very fitting. My my, Professor Auroch. It seems your vast stores of knowledge extend beyond science and technology." Seeing the single eye brow on his new brother shoot upward in an inquisitive manner, Teepo went on to expain. "'Lu Long' comes from an old tongue that originated in a land far to the east. It can roughly be interpreted as 'Green Dragon'." As he spoke, Teepo pointed to the mirror on the wall near the door.

Lu Long beheld the sight of himself for the first time. Physically, he was identical to Ryu, save for two details. Taking note of his emerald hued eyes and seafoam colored hair as opposed to Ryu's crystal blue eyes and cerulean hair, he said, "Yeah. Definitely very fitting."