Chapter 7: "Sleep, My Beautiful Boy"
One day earlier
Crow awoke with a splitting headache. He groaned softly, almost too tired to open his eyes. But he opened them nonetheless, and as soon as he did he wished he'd kept them shut. He was lying down on a cot, strapped in with steel chains. Father was standing in front of him, a cruel smile on his face. Crow gazed around the room. It was Father's personal laboratory, part of the underground chamber of Father's mansion. Not even the Delightful Children had ever seen this room. Only two people ever came into this room and came out alive, Father and Crow. It was filled with dozens of test tubes, beakers, and white coats, but it was also filled with dozens of experimental firearms, some of which Crow himself invented.
"You're up, son!" exclaimed Father. "You know, I had to work very hard to fix you up. If those brats of mine hadn't caught us in midair, we both would have died. You almost didn't make it. You really shouldn't have tried to kill me, Crow. You ended up with some nasty boo boos," he snickered.
"Eh?" asked Crow. He looked down at his body. His vision was a little blurry, something was wrong with his right eye. He didn't notice anything at first. Great, thought Crow. The bastard's probably cut my nose off. Then he looked to his left and noticed his arm.
"Son of a bitch," whispered Crow softly.
"Yes, you see, I was so angry at you that I started tearing you limb from limb. Good thing I stopped after I tore off your arm. But I don't see what you're so upset about, Crow. I put so many nice weapons into your arm, you're even deadlier than before! And once you get used to your new eye, you'll find it's quite useful. Infrared, x-ray, etc, I was even going to install a laser in it, but I haven't quite perfected the process yet."
"So that's why my eye's so blurry," realized Crow. He gave a small laugh. "I really don't understand what this is all for, Father. I'm not going to work for you. And you can forget about those mind control devices, I'm never going to submit to one of those."
"Yes, it's a shame that your mental defenses are so great. But, if you willingly let me place one of those restraints on you, and don't try to fight it off for the first 24 hours, it would be very much effective," pointed out Father.
"So?" scowled Crow. "What makes you think I'd ever go willingly?"
"Do you remember that blue mohawked Aussie that you thought you inadvertently killed?" asked Father.
"Oh, God, don't tell me he was the passenger you picked when you left the Mantra," moaned Crow.
"What's wrong, Crow? Feeling a little guilty? Just think. You never killed him at all. Now there's no reason for Wally to despise you. Unless, of course, you don't do as I say. Then I'll torture the little bugger to death, and then it will be all your fault, all over again, son."
"Why do you keep calling me that?" asked Crow, bewildered. "I don't remember all this son stuff from before."
"Well, when you were talking to that Wally friend of yours, I noticed you made a little mistake in your story. You see, Crow, I never took you away from anyone. You've always been mine."
Crow paled, then recovered quickly. "I hate to think of the unfortunate hooker that ran into you," he mocked.
"How clever. But you see, Crow, I never needed a hooker, or anyone else, for that matter," replied Father.
"Oh, you have a uterus and a vagina, then?" asked Crow. "And you learned to reproduce asexually. My, I'm impressed."
Father only smiled. "I never showed you a picture of me in my youth, did I?" asked Father. He pulled a picture out of his pocket. "I used to be quite handsome, before I got carried away with my pyrokinesis. I tried to amplify it in a science experiment gone awry, and here I am today. But when I was younger, ohh...well, see for yourself." He showed the picture to Crow, hovering it over his head.
Crow let out a gasp. No, it can't be! This is a trick, photoshop, or some other stupid thing! But even as he heard the words, he knew they weren't true. Hovering before him was his own mirror image, down to the last detail. Except in the picture, he was wearing a long trenchcoat, one that Crow had never seen before.
"A picture of me in my youth," explained Father. "But I trust you've already concluded that. Yes, Crow, you're my clone. You know, it's funny, you never thought to check your DNA against mine. You checked Wally's and the Delightfuls' but never your own. You just assumed you were like all the other soldiers. You see, Crow, once I had perfected the DNA process, I did something I had only dreamt about. I cloned myself, and enhanced my clone in every way I could think of."
"You're lying," snarled Crow.
"Of course I'm not. Crow, you have no idea how frightened I was to clone myself. I was so ambitious and powerful. A clone, especially an enhanced one, would have been a great threat to my plans. Or a great help. But I plucked up the courage, and here you are. I was actually going to stop with you. But I realized that you would be very likely to rebel against me, with the genes inside of you. That's why I needed Wally, to fight you if you ever got out of control. I needed a soldier without enhanced intelligence. But that plan backfired as well, and so I chose to stop my quest for super soldiers. I decided you were enough."
Crow was doing his very best not to shudder. So he was more than just a science experiment. He was a clone. A clone of a man who was as evil as Hitler and twice as powerful.
"You've turned out so well, Crow. You're stronger than I ever was, than I can ever be. You've already showed great skill with pyrokinesis. You even had the power to change the color of your flames, even I could never do that."
Shut up, thought Crow. Shut up and leave me alone.
"But back to our original topic. Will you submit or not?" asked Father.
"Yes," said Crow, without hesitation. "I may be your clone, but I'm nothing like you. I still have a soul. Let Dizzy live, and I'm all yours."
"Well, we'll see how long that lasts," laughed Father. He pulled a small circular device out of his pocket, no bigger than a quarter, and with a small needle sticking out of it. He lifted Crow's head up and jabbed it into the back of his neck. Crow gave a small wince and then passed out.
"Sleep, my child," murmured Father. "Sleep, my beautiful boy."
One day later
"So, I guess it's time we work out another plan," said Hoagie. "Anybody got any ideas?" Sector V, the Aussies, and the teens were in the Treehouse, gathered around the dining table.
"Well, Father is obviously seeing this as his one chance to kill us all," stated Chad. "He's knows we're going to come at him any second now, so the element of surprise is kind of lost now." He gave a smile. "But I can think of a way to surprise him nonetheless."
"And how's that?" asked Cree.
"We attack him directly. We give him everything we've got."
"Everything we've got isn't enough to take him down!" exclaimed Numbuh 5. "Even if we called up Numbuh 362 and asked for reinforcements, a siege could take weeks!"
"I'm not talking about a siege. I'm talking about a desperation maneuver. I say we crash the WarTalon and the Boomer right into the mansion. That should give him a shock."
No one said anything for a few moments. Then the Aussies all started bursting into laughter. "Now that's a plan Dizzy would be proud of!" laughed Dingo. "Never heard of a suicidal attack like that before. I'm liking it more every second."
"Does sound pretty crazy, doesn't it?" asked Walker. "Well, I've never tried flying the Boomer into a building before, but I guess there's a first time for everything. Are you guys willing to crash the WarTalon, though?"
"I'm not going to leave my leader in the dust," said Chad. "Besides, it's his ship, not mine, so why should I care?"
"But won't we end up killing Crow and Dizzy?" asked Numbuh 2.
"No. From the broadcast we saw, it looks like they're in that secret underground lab that Crow told me about. If we just charge the mansion itself, then the lab shouldn't come to any harm," said Cree.
"So that's the plan? We're just going to crash into Father's mansion, and then shoot anything that moves?" asked Numbuh 1.
"Yeah, sounds about right," answered Jackknife. "Makes about as much sense as any of the other plans we've come up with."
"Well then, glad that's settled," said Numbuh 4. "I left some of my cold ammo in my room. I'll go check to see if it's still there." He got up and went to his room.
"Uh, Wally, wait a second!" called Numbuh 3, running after him. "There's some stuff I need to clear out–"
"What are these stupid Rainbow Monkeys doing in my room!" yelled Wally. There weren't very many, just five multicolored ones in his wrestling ring bed, as well as a rainbow monkey pillow and blanket. He leapt into the ring. "Ugh, they're all over my bed! I'm gone for five seconds and you've already girlied it up!"
"Five seconds! You were gone for three months!" shouted Numbuh 3, running into the room. "And from the way you were talking, it sounded like you were never coming back!"
"That's no reason for you to completely rob my room of all it's masculinity!"
"They're just a few Rainbow Monkeys!" she shouted back.
"Boy, they're really going at it, aren't they?" asked Silo, who could hear them clearly all the way from the dining table.
"You get used to it," sighed Numbuh 2.
"Well, I can't pass up an opportunity like this. I think I'm gonna make fun of him a little bit," announced Jackknife, a wicked grin on his face.
"At your own risk, mate," warned Dingo.
"And what's this!" shouted Wally, holding up the Rainbow Monkey blanket. "A Rainbow Monkey–" he paused, suddenly realizing what he was holding, "blanket?" he whispered.
"Give me that!" yelled Numbuh 3, grabbing the blanket from him, turning red.
"Numbuh 3, were you...sleeping here?" he asked.
"Wally, when you kissed me back in Australia, did that kiss...did it mean anything? Or were you just drunk?" asked Kuki. She moved closer to him, standing less than an inch away from him.
"Well, I... you see, Numbuh 3–" started Wally.
"Oi, Wally!" shouted Jackknife, walking into the room at precisely the wrong time. "What's this I've heard about Rainbow Monkeys in your room? I mean, I always knew you were a closet queen, but..." he paused, realizing how close Kuki and Wally were standing to each other. Oh, shit!
"I'm gonna kill you!" screamed Wally, charging after him. Jackknife ran for his life.
"Wally, I was joking, really!" he cried, running as fast as his legs could carry him.
"And what difference does that make, you idiot!" roared Wally.
"Jesus Christ, don't kill me!" shouted Jackknife. He leapt onto the dining table, trying to get some space between himself and Wally. Wally leapt right after him, and was about to pound him into oblivion before Numbuh 1 intervened.
"Numbuh 4, you're part of my sector again, and I will not have you fighting with our guests! Understood?" asked Numbuh 1.
Wally looked for a moment like he was going to beat the crap out of him anyway. But he took a deep breath and took a seat at the table. "I'll let it slide this time," he muttered.
"Excellent. Now onto more important matters. What are we going to do about Crow? From the looks of it, he's not exactly all the way there. If he's become a tool for Father, then what are we going to do?" Numbuh 1 queried.
"I'm not sure if we can take on both Father and Crow," admitted Chad. "Crow's not only a master of firearms and hand to hand combat, but he's also got the ability to flame up like Father. And it seems that Father gave him a few upgrades, too. I don't like the look of his new arm."
"Isn't there anyway we can bring him out of it? I can't see how Father could brainwash him so easily," said Cree.
"I think I do," spoke Numbuh 2. "I'm not sure, but I think I saw a restraint on Crow's neck. If it is a mental restraint, I'm betting it's a very powerful one. Any attempt to pull it out would kill him."
"So how do we free him?" asked Chad.
"Well, we can try to freeze it, thereby shutting it off. We can even use the cold ammo we use against Father. But I'm not sure how safe it is, it might kill him as well."
"It's better than nothing," said Cree. "Crow would rather be dead than a servant of Father, he'd want us to take the risk."
"So, let's get a recap of the situation," said Numbuh 5. "We're going to crash into Father's mansion, probably killing ourselves in the process. Those of us lucky enough to survive get to take on the Delightful Children, Father, and Crow all at once." She sighed. "Numbuh 5 really wishes she had stayed back in Australia, where things were sane."
"Do you want a beer?" asked Jackknife. "Might help the nerves a touch."
Numbuh 5 glared and gave an impatient sigh. "Boys," she muttered under her breath.
(A/N) Here's the end of chapter 7. There's something I'd like to mention. I know that Father is actually supposed to be really nerdy looking and nothing at all like Crow. Well, screw that, this is my fanfiction and I can make Father look like a badass if I want. Well, only two chapters to go, folks, and the next one is guaranteed to be a doozy! See you then!