Warning: This chapter will contain descriptions of abuse and mild bodyhorror.
And Now, ESP Entertainment presents, the continuing, true life adventures of the worlds premiere Psychic Agents, True Psychic Tales! Today's story- The Mind of a Machine!
This was not how Sasha Nein thought he would be spending his time in Rottenberg. A summit full of some of the most prominent minds in the study of psychic abilities, it seemed most likely that he would simply spend it enjoying a few lectures and then going home. Though, dear reader, as you probably know from previous issues, things rarely go as Sasha Nein expects.
Milla Vodello had been dreading the summit herself, and if the interruption had been anything other than this, she may have almost been relieved by the disaster. But this, this was perhaps one of the few things that was worse in her opinion.
This is Rottenberg. It is a small city east of what was once Grulovia. It is currently hosting a summit of Psychic researchers to present findings in exciting new fields. And over the last 3 days before the Summit began, 3 psychic children had vanished from there beds in the night. The psychonaut agents were asked to help conventional police the moment they arrived…
Which is why Milla Vodello and Sasha Nein are currently rushing through the chillingly cold streets of a Rottenberg in winter, scanning everywhere they could to try and find the missing children. Leaving only one psychonaut, and one who was currently on a very, very short leash, in the Rottenburg Exhibition Hall when a tarp was pulled off a large machine, and with a wicked grin, Dr. Otto Von Metzger began speaking.
"Behold my Contemporary counterparts!" The doctor excitedly gestured into the air. "Two years ago Today, you scoffed at me! Mocked me when I said that I could create a machine that would be a more powerful psychic mind than any that could possibly exist naturally! Today, I intend to prove you wrong! Behold, the Machine Mind" Metzger began typing at the panel before him, and the entire stage began floating before the gathering crowd. "One of its more basic functions, yes, but I assume you can note that this is…many times heavier than an untrained psychics average power! And this is not the only power I could program this to perform!"
Morceau Oleander was a man with a lot of regrets. Chief among them right now, as he stared at this terrible machine, with its all too familiar parts…and the gruesome, far more dangerous parts of it towards the occupant… Right now, Oleander could not regret more that he knew what a terrified child psychic's presence felt like.
Good god man, at least his design kept the children from feeling pain. He subtly put a hand to his head and sent a telekinetic message to the other agents. "I found the kids. I need you at the Expedition hall as fast as you can get here.
And then, much less subtly, Oleander began climbing onto the stage.
"H-hey! What do you think your doing you dummkopf! This is my presentation! Wait your t-"
"Relax Dr Frankenstein, I just think the crowd here would like to see how this thing really works"
"What are you…Stay away from that!"
Morceau's eyes glowed a burning orange as he telekinetically ripped the false wall of the device off, revealing a ghastly sight.
The missing children, all 3 of them. Their heads cut open and there brains visible, the 3 of them suspended in shackles as wires ran between their brains and the computer, faces contorted in silent screams of pain.
"Yeah doc. That sure looks like a mechanical mind." A not so subtle rage boiled behind Morceau's voice. Hypocritical, perhaps, given what his plan for the campers was, but this…with a clearer mind he now had, he only felt angered due to this…and then a blast hit him from behind as the computer began levitating, Metzger still at its controls
"No! NO DAMN YOU! I WILL NOT LET YOU RUIN THIS FOR ME!" Metzger continued angry fiddling at the panel before him. "THIS MACHINE GIVES ME ACCESS TO THE MOST POWER PSYCHIC MIND TO EVER EXIST! I'LL…I'LL USE IT TO DESTROY YOU, AND REWRITE THIS HALFWITS MEMORY! ALL THEY'LL REMEMBER IS MY BRILLIANT MACHINE!"
Morceau stood back up slowly. "And how exactly will that go for once I kick you from here to Kingdom come, Doc?"
"PLEASE! I HAVE A PSYCHIC WEAPON THAT COULD RIP YOUR MIND APART! WHAT HOPE DO YOU HAVE TO BEAT IT!?"
"Don't much need to beat it when I can just do this" Oleander's eyes glowed again, a screaming, raging presence fills the psychics nearby…and a bloodcurdling scream is released by Metzger as psychic horrors, all the anger, all the rage Morceau still had in him, pulsed through him…and the panel bursts into sparks as Metzger was sent flying back.
Some time later, we see Sasha Nein at the machine, slowly dissembling it, taking care as he did. Two doctors are carrying out Metzger on a dolly, the once genius mind now held in a straightjacket, drooling as he is hauled off. Milla levitated nearby, her eyes glowing. She was within the currently fused minds of the children, trying to help disentangle the three.
And then Morceau walked up behind him "So…"
"So." Nein removed a piece of the device.
"Think you're going to be able to fix the damage the doc did to these kids?"
"Physically, probably. Disentagling them, hopefully. The traumatic scars from this? We can only hope, but…"
"Hope ain't gonna fix Trauma?"
"That be one way to put it. But…with hope and help they may overcome it."
"…I really think I didn't rip that guys mind apart enough"
"I…I do not disagree frankly"
