Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, or else you wouldn't be reading this.. =1
A/N: I'd like to thank the lovely people who've reviewed so far. Your suggestions are most definitively taken into account. I've also done some minor corrections to the previous two chapters. Thank you very much for your contributions, and I'd love to hear from you guys again! *tears of joy* Please enjoy this chapter...
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Day #03: "Chimera"
[The king has in progress a new weapon. Let's look at Claus' first day at the chimera labs...!]
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If there was anything that didn't change in this eons-old world was the skies. Sure, he's managed to look at the skies on days when it actually turned red in color-but that was just due to the ambiance inside the planet. Outside the Earth, the universe remained unchanged. It was vast, dark, never-ending, wondrous, untainted, and full of mysteries yet to be conquered.
He could be angry at the Earth or its people, but there's no blaming the skies. Perhaps this was why he had ordered an astronomical painting on the dome-shaped ceiling of his room. Stars decorated nearly every corner of his place. And the walls were mostly windows, so that he could see more stars once the sun settled. During the day, he kept his curtains down to cover the sun. But at night, his room could almost become an observatory; a place to gaze at the stars confined within deadly technology-although it still needed the actual telescope-and surrounded by loads of unused toys as an added touch.
There weren't any toys in his bed because he always managed to toss them out during his sleep. Tonight, however, a small model that looked like a Porkbean sat at the very edge of the lower corner of the bed, remaining safe. Porky Minch had his arms spread over various pillows and his head deep in a bigger, fluffier pillow, with his white hair scattered over. The moonlight gave his bluish-tinted skin a paler color that matched him better with the white pajamas he was wearing. He was breathing normally, and was very very sound asleep.
Tonight, the villagers outside had another reason to mourn. But the soon-to-be King, however, was having a rather enjoyable dream.
In it, the earth was painted black, yet the villagers still walked in it as if it were a normal thing. Like blind idiots, they'd make little packs and would run around anything that flashed at their eyes, littering the ground on their way. They were easy-to-manipulate idiots, and merely spectators-if not victims-of the unnatural show about to unfold.
Out of the black soil, a puddle of the litter they had thrown started to move, swirling around until it gathered enough junk to pile up, forming a mountain of dirt and metal. When the villagers passing by finally noticed the growing heap of earth, they panicked and started to flee as it began taking the shape of a humanoid figure. It grew a pair of legs and arms, but one of the arms started to shape out what looked like a cannon. With a pair of glowing red eyes, the soil pointed its cannon out to the innocent people, and opened its mouth to look like it was an enraged demon about to engulf the entire village. Its screech chorused along with the people's screams.
Porky smiled.
...
Dr. Andonuts wasn't entirely surprised at the fact that he had somehow ended up inside Porky Minch (that insane psychotic brat)'s conspiracy. But he was sure baffled immensely at the place he ended up in: years after the end of the world. It was a frightening thought no matter how much time passed.
Still, he somehow managed to keep his sanity-and some morality-to a certain degree. He had gotten word from Pigmasks earlier this day that a boy would be arriving to the labs. He then was contacted by Porky himself to tell him that what he wanted out of this boy was a new weapon: a powerful, self-sufficient, logic-driven, unemotional, multi-tasking little monster that has to look "human-enough to fool an ordinary person" (the wording Porky had actually used was more insulting, but Andonuts was used to ignoring those things).
"To look just like his human self, huh..?" It was an intriguing and very unusual requirement. Normally, Porky could care less how 'his creations' ended up in terms of looks. The more messed up and unnatural, the better.
Something else bothered his head. "He wants him alive...?" (Meaning 'the same soul'?) he murmured as he gathered various papers with scribbles, notes, and diagrams of several species-including humans and machines.
"I can only guess what he's going to do with it," shrugged a woman who was having a smoke inside the room. She wore a lab coat and her expression was indifferent to the gloominess (and creepiness) that infested the lab. She was also one of the many random scientists Porky had snatched from previous eras. Therefore, her name is not important; in fact, it's probable that she has forgotten herself what it was. Many of the scientists gathered here were all brainwashed, save for Andonuts.
"I'll start the self-recuperating capsule," the woman said, tossing the cigarette out and leaving the room. She was talking about a capsule that generated some type of fluid that instilled the growth of natural cells on whoever entered it. Like this, any specie that had been badly damaged had a chance of being saved by accelerating their normal self-healing rate.
They heard a crowd gathering outside, and Andonuts suspected the boy had arrived. He left the room quickly, and soon after, various lights installed around the lab started flashing red.
The Pigmasks were carrying the boy on the emergency bed toward one of the operating rooms. Once Andonuts caught sight of him, he gaped in horror at the massive bleeding coming from the boy's head and right arm. He sped up and gave the alarmed Pigmasks directions as to where to go.
Once they brought the boy to an operating room, various wires were attached throughout his body, pulses taken, shots given, and other devices were at work. Andonuts and other scientists gathered around in wonder and began construction of King P's new toy. The boy was going to have its right arm replaced with a fiery cannon, some bones replaced with steel or other metal, some organs enhanced with bionic parts or matter, and so on.
They were going to make him the most capable, human-looking little monster they could ever come up with!
...
It's Day 3 of the Operation. Yokuba should be inside the village, torturing a little monkey and fooling the first Tazmilians into getting those damn happy boxes. Things were going well.
Porky was awake. He sat up in his bed and rubbed his unseen eyes. A pair of monotonous footsteps could be heard approaching the room.
"Good-morning-Master-Porky!" The little robot maid, Miss Marshmallow, came in. Her voice tone was set to "enthusiastic." Nearly every word she said was out loud to sound like a cheer. Needless to say, she was not good for sneaking attacks. But she did carry quite an array of deadly weapons hidden. She was like a bodyguard and a personal maid to Porky. She came in carrying a tray with breakfast, set it on a table next to Porky's bed, and began closing the curtains; the same thing she does every day.
"Nice-dreams-Master?" her polite programming commented. Oh, yes, of course! Porky smiled and got up quickly and walked toward his closet, tossing the small Porkbean model that had remained in his bed during the night. Unlike their usual routine, Porky grabbed one of his best outfits: a black and red stripes suit.
"As a matter of fact.." Porky ordered the maid robot. "..We're visiting the chimera labs," he finished with a sadistic grin forming on his face.
"Right-away-Sir!"
After gobbling a few jelly bean-filled breakfast donuts and getting dressed, Porky and Marshmallow stepped out of the room. The Fierce Pork Trooper was usually on stand-by in front Master Porky's door, to ensure no one unauthorized intruded into the King's room. And on the rare occasions in which Porky would leave, the Bull-like Chimera man would escort him. The three of them took the elevator of the tower, gathering a few other Pigmasks on the way, and went out into a Porkbean that would carry them to the Chimera labs.
...
He was far from finished, but at least the scientists were now sure the boy was going to make it.
The body was now in the self-recuperating capsule with still a bunch of wires attached all over him, and other mechanical instruments covering large parts of his body. He also had a mask attached to his mouth for breathing, and other machines outside the capsule were reading his vital signs. His skin looked so pale and white, as if he were a corpse (and he kind of was..).
Andonuts browsed through the screens and some more papers while scratching his head. He then began to hear several Pigmasks panicking outside, as if gathering for the welcoming of someone's arrival. Then he heard the heavy footsteps of the Fierce Pork Trooper's, and there were two others calmly following it. Andonuts supposed what the visit would be about, and prepared for the door to be slammed open.
But it was a surprise for him to see who else had come by.
"Hey..." Porky greeted Andonuts with a teasing smile that sent shivers down his spine. He walked inside, and signaled for Marshmallow and the Trooper to leave, and they did so.
"So how is his progress? ...My new toy..." Porky spoke in a low-tone, almost sneering voice, as he approached the capsule containing the red-haired boy's body, shoveling devices and unimportant papers here and there on his way. Once he reached it, he looked down at the boy to examine him closely. His skin was so much paler than what he had seen on his monitor, with cuts and bruises all over it. His once naive face was now distorted with his left eye closed, and the right one covered by some machine.
Andonuts didn't take his eyes off Porky. He was wondering badly just what was Porky's intent toward the innocent boy. It made him uneasy as he watched Porky put one index finger in the surface of the capsule, tracing a line from the boy's bionic face down to where its heart was supposed to be. The heart wasn't fully visible-there were lots of wires on the way-but Porky could see something moving in his chest; pumping blood, perhaps...
He started at it deeply, as if trying to figure out how much of it was human and how much was mechanic. It only made Andonuts sweat.
"Hmn..?" Porky now had both arms crossed and rested on top of the capsule, with his face sticking out, staring down at the boy. "Is there a way he can self-suffice without it?" he finally asked.
"Excuse me?" Andonuts was dumbfounded.
"His heart!" Porky shot back (he's so easily irritated). "..Can he function without it? Is there a way possible?"
Andonuts didn't know what to say. He was very perplexed as to what Porky really meant to do with that "Uhh.." but he supposed that it was better to say, "Well, if you insist on keeping him alive, I'd suggest NOT to try something radical like that..." he fixed his glasses.
"Is that so..? Heheheh..." more shivers went down the poor traumatized scientist's bones.
After a brief conversation, Porky walked out of the room. "When he's finished, send him over to me with Yokuba," he smiled. He returned to Miss Marshmallow and the Fierce Pork Trooper, and headed back to Lightning Tower.
Andonuts stayed inside the room where the boy was contained in the capsule. He felt his heart heavy (as he has felt many times over being stuck in this Nightmarish world!). He began to wonder whether it would've been better to have left the boy to die and pretend it was an 'accident.' But it was too late now...
Later that night, Yokuba arrived with huge bruises on his face. Various Pigmasks were scattered around as he was rambling on about some stupid blond kid who had a Drago attack him a few moments back. He was walking around the lab, probably looking for first-aid, until he passed the room where Porky had come to see his new toy's progress.
Yokuba paused, turned around to face the door to the room, turned the knob, and went inside. He was shocked when he saw a familiar face inside the capsule that lay in the middle of the room... The boy inside looked a lot like that blond kid, but it was clearly a different person. But what shocked him the most-the reason that brought him to this room-was what he was able to sense from the boy..
For whatever reasons he was here at this very lab, this boy...possessed powers of PSI. But who was he? And what on Earth was he doing here..?
Fin...
TO BE CONTINUED! *woot*
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