To the reviewers, please...
To K9: Since when has the government let anybody alone?
To moonjava: Thanks.
To LadyKayoss: I can't imagine what would happen if I was the subject of a top secret CIA experiment.
To Agent Silver: You will find out what happened to our favorite mad scientist soon enough.
To Pheonix Master: Hope so!
On to the next thrilling chapter! Read and review!
Chapter 3: The Monster Inside
Well, Jaclyn Hyde could keep it quiet, especially when a card-carrying CIA agent told her to. Unfortunately, some people could not keep secrets as well as the principal of Shylock High School.
Brittany Gibson, for example. She was the polar opposite of Octavia: rich, beautiful, popular, with only two arms, and a complete airhead.
The Queen Bee swaggered through the hall, mostly empty after school, as if she owned half the school and held a mortgage on the other half. The other Queen Bees of the school, Brittany's cheerleader cronies, wearing outfits identical to Brittany's except for a few insignificant details, strutted behind her, all reveling in the attention and looks of longing they knew the boys were giving them.
Brittany paused, her eyes lighting on the one girl she detested most in the world: Octavia Jones.
"Well if it isn't Octavia Jones, the little Lady Octopus," Brittany mocked. Her closest female crony Heather Cannes held up Brittany's latest gimmick, a cue card that said Snicker and laugh on it, prompting the other cronies to do exactly that.
"Well if it isn't Brittany Gibson, the little phony snob," Octavia replied.
"I mean you walk around the school like you're somebody important, Octavia," Brittany continued. Heather held up a cue card that said Nod in agreement. "Well, I think you're just a little attention-starved science nerd with megalomania."
Octavia was fuming. "Ignore her, she's jealous," Jordan whispered in her friend's ear.
"Did you say I was jealous of the little geek, Jordan?" Brittany smirked. "I don't know what you think, but I just don't think that being the clone of a psycho super criminal and having four honking metal arms sprouting out your back makes you that special myself."
Octavia was struggling in Jordan's firm grasp on her shoulder. "Fighting in the halls isn't worth it, Octavia!" Jordan shouted.
"I do think Dr. Hyde should have expelled you," Brittany further taunted. "You know, I saw Spider-man 2—not because I'm into that comic book crap but I think Tobey Maguire's hot—and you're his exact clone, we really don't need to have you building miniature suns in the science lab—"
With unprecedented strength, Octavia jerked out of Jordan's grasp—
"—and running out on lunch hour to rob banks—"
"Shut up, Brittany!" screamed Jordan. "No one talks to my best friend that way!"
"—and planning to take over the world during study hall—"
"I don't need you to defend me, Jordan—"
and Octavia threw off her trench coat and attacked Brittany with full force.
If the tentacles could fling a cab through a wall they certainly had no trouble doing the same to the cheerleader. The cronies watched, not about to break their nails to defend their leader.
Brittany screamed as her body hit the lockers full force. "I knew it, you little freak—"
A tentacle grasped hold of Brittany's shirt, lifting her far above the floor. At the same time Octavia's lower two grasped the floor and extended, bringing her face to face with Brittany and far above the crowd. "Care to repeat that a little louder, Brittany?"
"I said—you're a little freak!"
Maybe she shouldn't have. The tentacle slammed her into the lockers, again and again. Jordan, Daisy, and the cronies could only watch in horror as the monster in Octavia was unleashed.
Finally, a fifteen-inch blade popped out of the upper left, slashing Brittany's face one, two, three, four times. Brittany's face would be forever and visibly scarred. And the loss of Brittany's physical beauty was emasculation in the culture of the Queen Bee.
Octavia cruelly snarled as she stood above her bloodied, beaten, adversary. Then, she picked up her coat and walked away, with one message to her friends.
"Don't follow."
"I have a spy posing as a new student at the school. She is dutifully gathering information on the clone."
"And what information has this spy gathered?" The Director began drumming his fingers on the desk.
Agent Cypher referred to her files. "Since the biological template is a male, the clone naturally has a higher internal level of testosterone than a normal female. Her physical strength, discounting the tentacles, is comparable to a grown man's. Her intelligence is above genius level. She is far more aggressive than a normal girl of her age. She could grow violent."
"So that means we pretty much answered the question of nature versus nurture Grace Morrison was working on. The clone would be far too unpredictable and independent for us to control as a human weapon. You need to eliminate the girl before she hurts somebody. She is an imperfect prototype—we will learn from our mistakes and build a better one."
"Not to be disrespectful, sir, but she is a human being."
"Now you're saying the same things Carlyle did. Sometimes you have to sacrifice some things for the greater good, Cypher. This isn't even a human being we're talking about here. We're talking about government property, a clone that we created, an experiment to be used for our own purposes. Comprende, amiga? What do you do with a defective equation? Erase it from the board and write a new one."
"Of course, sir. Now, about the genetic template—"
"You eliminate him too. Face it, Cypher. Octavius is a murderer and a criminal who would be on death row if he didn't keep escaping. Perhaps we should have chosen another genetic template."
That day, a new entry was filed under the assassinations section: Project Apollo, subject Dr. Otto Octavius.