Automated Cure for the Unfaithful
Chapter 1: Unlocking Dark Secrets
A personal war waged merely for the sake of one's family is quite noble but often consuming. It can blacken the purest of hearts, all to purify another's, or so they think. All in all revenge is nasty business, a business that Carl Clover knows all too well. Breathing heavily from his rigorous confrontations within the depths of the NOL main headquarters, he now stood before a large, steel door with Nirvana's arm helping him to stay upon his feet.
"That was a lot of personnel we had to fight through...but guess what sis...we...finally made it..." Carl's breathless words were weak, but audible as he stared at the aged, stamp painted writing that read "Science Division, Testing Lab". He knew that on the other side of this door, his detestable father was continuing to perform experiments that he could only assume were dastardly and cruel. Carl found his vision growing in and out of focus as he held a single wound that was able to be inflicted upon him. He took two long breaths to steady himself before tightening up his focus.
"Alright...I'm ready. I will make him fix what he has done to you and mother no matter what I must do..." Carl groaned, standing up straight before signing to Nirvana to smash through the door. Rearing back first, Nirvana then lunged forward, the force of her strike tearing the door off its seemingly rusted hinges, allowing it to crash to ground with a loud, deafening screech. Carl found himself clasping his ears in pain, waiting for the dust to clear. To his surprise, the room looked as if it had been abandoned. Cautiously entering, Carl was forced to cover his mouth as the stagnant dust from the floor began swarming about the room like flies. He slapped his palm onto the wall in a desperate attempt to find some sort of light switch, his fingers gliding over an electronic panel.
The lights suddenly flashed on, as blinding as the sun. Carl immediately went to shield his eyes, Nirvana moving to his front to guard him from potential danger. As the light began to dim, Carl took a peek around Nirvana to now find himself in the midst of actions playing out around him in the form of an active laboratory. Lights blinking, bubbly sounds of fluids being fed through heat and hoses as well as observational monitors lining the walls, it was nothing short of a lab from a good science fiction novel. Glowing in the very center of the room was a large tube chamber, it's fluids glowing a fluorescent green hue that lit up its contents. Carl's eyes widen as he saw his sister as she used to look; her pale complexion glowing brightly in the fluid, her bangs cut flat along her eye line with the rest of her long locks spread out around her. She appeared perfect in every way, just as Carl had remembered her.
"Why is this here...?" Carl said to himself as he ran up to it and placed his hands to the glass to get a closer look. Too busy with his observation of his new discovery, another figure appeared behind Carl, the reflection shining brightly with the fluorescent fluids revealing their identity.
"It truly is marvelous isn't it? She is subject #030...one of my finest works to date," the voice sounded from behind, a pair of large, white gloved hands grasping a top his shoulders. Carl felt pale, his heart stopping in his chest as a hurricane of fear and rage built in the pit of his stomach.
"Father!?" Carl shouted, trying to break free of Relius's grasp. He motioned for Nirvana to help him, but nothing happened, not even as much as the sound of a joint moving an inch.
"Carl...don't waste your energy trying to escape. This room is encased with magic that disables the the souls and energy that reside within nox nyctorus and a person's are magus should one possess one, myself included," Relius said, releasing Carl from his grasp. Carl let out a furious growl as he whipped his body around, his hand balling into a fist to be thrown as a punch. Relius snatched up Carl's wrist, effortlessly dragging Carl to the floor with a firm yank.
"How does it feel being unable to have your own sister or your little toys help you?" Relius said with a smirk, standing and waiting for Carl to retaliate. Carl tried to prove him wrong, but his own automatons didn't react to his actions either. Both of his hands became fists as major frustration began to filter through his system, his eyes glaring with the fury of the sun behind them.
"Why bother asking such a trivial questions when you don't care about the answer!" Carl barked, charging at Relius again. Blow after blow, Relius was able to cast each one off to the side, eventually kneeing Carl in the stomach once he became off balance. Carl yelped out in pain as he crumbled to the floor, tears starting to cascade from his eyes as he turned at the disabled shell of his sister.
"Carl...this place that we are in...this is private place away from the eyes of the rest of the world especially the NOL. There isn't a need for further physical conflict. If you wish to proceed I won't stop you, but I'd suggest against it," Relius's tone of voice dropped its hostility as Carl continued wincing on the ground.
"I...want...answers...!" Carl coughed as his voice elevated. Looking away from Relius, he scanned the ground for anything that could be used as a weapon, his sights locking on a metal rod that used to be in a hydraulic buffer. As Relius approached, Carl turned and lunged at Relius raising the bar over his head and swinging down as hard as he could. With a face of disappointment, Relius sighed, grabbing the bar as it came down. Carl the kicked off of Relius's abdomen, a small grunt following in its stead.
"The answers will quite possibly shock you boy...what answers do you seek?" Relius said, throwing the bar off to the side and focusing his attention on Carl.
"Why did you turn mother and sis into these...things?!" Carl huffed as he caught his breath. Relius sighed, shaking his head as he applied a very serious expression to his face.
"Here is the full truth...while it is true that they were experiments for creating weapons, there is a more...shameful side to the truth that I was hoping I'd never have to explain...your mother and sister weren't exactly...the finest of people. Your mother had two separate affairs that I was none the wiser to. I know it seems unreasonable to believe, but she had always been a genius performer, one of the many reasons that I had loved her. As for Ada...she took after her mother. After she would tend to and watch you, she would sneak off the estate in the dead of night and usually arrive home by dawn, her clothes often in shambles and covered in filth.
"Thats a lie! How could you ever insist on such horrible things?" Carl spat, his teeth clenched tightly to try and calm his temper. Relius sighed softly, turning to the shell of his daughter.
"I decided since I needed living subjects anyway, I would find a way to preserve them, keep them safe from such wicked ways until I could come up with some form of cure for such behaviors aside of using tactics such as electrotherapy. Alas, however, as time went on my attentions were turned to the world around us and the madness it had brung. Leaving them in such a state proved to cure the issue in the end," Relius said without a single hint of hesitation, which irked Carl's stomach immensely.
Is their even proof father? Or are just making up some pitiful fabrication of a story to trick yourself into believing what you did was so much as remotely just!" Carl scrambled to find something, anything to prove against such horrible claims. The thought of such disgusting things about the family he cherished made him want to curl up and die inside. Relius lowered his head slightly, walking over to one of the wall control panels and immediately typing in command protocols.
A video began running next to Carl, his eyes turning to see the logo of whatever security system they had at the time. A date listed itself across a black backdrop before fading away. Carl heard a few more flacks of some keys coming from Relius, the camera feed cutting to black then back on once more. Now gazing at his living, full of fine furniture, antiques and trinkets, laughing could be heard off camera between two individuals. Sure enough, it was his mother and some one that clearly wasn't his father. His eyes shifted from the video over to Relius, who seemed to be occupying himself with other prompts on another console.
"It's really strange being in the same room with dad without the fear of death hovering over my head...something is clearly off..." Carl noted, making sure to keep an eye on him periodically. The video continued, his mother going off screen then back on, this time carrying a tray with a bottle of wine and two glasses on it. The scene plaid out, appearing to be a simple meeting of friends catching up. But just as Carl let his guard down, his mother moved from where she had sat and straddled the man's lap. Carl found himself covering his mouth as the man tore her shirt open before she shoved his face into her bosom, her hips clearly working the man's shaft through his slacks.
"N-No...there must be some kind of mistake..." Carl muttered to himself. Noise began filling the room but Carl was too engaged with the horrors laid out in front of him. His eyes widened as she moved off the man, undoing his slacks and tearing them to his ankles. Then, in full view Carl stared as if cast in stone as he watched his mother giving the man an aggressive fellatios interaction. Carl fell to his knees, clenching his eyes shut and covering his ears.
"No more! No more! Stop this!" Carl cried out, the video feed immediately terminating. It wasn't as if his dad was a hero, but seeing such a horrifying display certainly gave him a human reason to do what he did. His thoughts then turned to his dear, beloved sister, the very thought of her doing such things cause him to turn away and spit up.
"T-This is too horrible..." Carl whined, breathing heavily as Relius continued his business.
"I'm telling you all this now because I'm casting aside the small sliver of empathy I have for this subject. I'm going to be handing you an ex machine, after this, never show your face to me ever again..." Relius said, the sounds of a machine kicking on turning Carl's attention to the tube to which the shell of his sister floated within. It was hooked up to the slumped over Nirvana, the reason becoming quite clear. Upon finishing the commands, Relius then turned from it all, pausing as he walked past his mentally scar'd child.
"I have disabled the magic binding of the room...once the function finishes the soul transfer, she'll be conscious within her new body. The code to drain the tube is 1621, type it on the panel. Through that door you will find her traditional clothes she used to wear back at the estate...that is all..." Relius said, gently patting Carl on the shoulder before vanishing through a void. Carl couldn't help but to clench his teeth tightly as he tried to choke back tears. In a fit of frustration, he turned and slammed his fists on the terminal to his right.
"Does he expect me to forgive him or something for this?!" Carl shouted at the terminal, taking several deep breaths to steady his nerves. As furious as he was, he was going to have his sister back in her purest form. Knowing now the horrors that went on behind the scenes within the old Clover household, he knew he'd have to watch Ada very closely, just as he always had for the past several years. Finally stable, he walked over to the tube, pressing his hand up against the glass. As the mechanisms died down, Ada slowly reached out her hand, pressing it against Carl's through the glass.
"I won't let that happen to you sis, I'll make sure of it..." Carl said quietly, pressing his head against the tank with Ada following suit. Nobody knows what was to come next, all he knew was he got his big sister back, for better or for worse.
To Be Continued...