Feeling better now? Oh, good, the transplants took. What's that? You don't like cats? But these tiger paws look so good on you! Heh, heh, MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! 'Kay, I'm back. Rini has attempted to escape the compound, and discovered some...interesting wildlife. And now the good Dr. Tomoe will try to explain said wildlife! But first...disclaimers!
Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi, Toei, DiC, Pioneer, and Cloverway, in that order, none of whom are me.
The Island Of Dr. Moreau belongs to H.G. Wells and his descendants(if any), also not me.
This is emphasis, and this is thought. And ((this)) is auditory/visual flashback.
And now, the terror continues...
The Island Of Dr. Tomoe
by Scorpinac
Chapter 4: Dr. Tomoe Explains
I wasn't sure how long I sat on my bed, waiting for them to come for me. I was still convinced they intended to put me on the operating table next and horribly mutilate me for life, if I was to survive the surgery at all. I do know that by the time I next heard a sound at the door, it was pitch black outside.
When the door finally opened again, Greg timidly stepped in. His eyes showed he was very nervous, but determined to do the job that had been given him.
"Mistress Rini?" he asked quietly.
"Yes?" I replied. "Have you come to escort me to the lab for my torture session? 'Cause if so, I'll just throw myself out this window right now."
"No, no!" Greg snapped in shock. "No need kill yourself. I only here take you to dinner. Doctor wishes to talk, to tell you what he does, how he made Greg and others."
"I don't want to hear what he...what was that last bit?" I started to get huffy, then froze as the last words he said connected with my brain.
"How Doctor made Greg and others on island," Greg stated. "Except Mistresses Kaolinite and Mimete and Young Mistress Hotaru, they come with Doctor when island claimed."
"Yeah, I know that...he made you? But you don't look...you seem so...how...what...?" I was now thoroughly confused, and then a horrid thought occurred to me.
(("That was the Cougar!")) Mimete's words echoed in my mind. And the scene in the laboratory that morning also replayed itself in my head. Could she have been telling the truth? But then...why was a cat now in the general shape of a...and then the monster I had seen at the lagoon returned to my mind, and the pig creatures that wanted to play with me, and the thing that was like a bear, yet not a bear, and suddenly I felt a wave of revulsion. I looked back at Greg, and this time really looked at him!
His face was moderately distorted, with brown fur in spots here and there, and he was slightly slumped over. Looking in his face now, I realized his brow was sloped more like a primate's than a person's, if only very slightly, and even his nose was sort of ape-like. How had I missed it before! Probably because...I wasn't looking.
"Are you...a monkey?" I breathed slowly.
"No, Greg start as Ape, great Ape, powerful, then Doctor make me smart, make me man," Greg said. "Come, Doctor tell you more, tell you better." My curiosity finally winning me over, I got up and followed him out of the room and down and around to the dining hall, where Mimete, Kaolinite, Hotaru, Melanie, and most important of all, Dr. Tomoe awaited.
I quietly sat down and they waited until I was comfortable and served with a meal before Dr. Tomoe began to speak. He waved Greg away so that only us humans were present.
"By now you're probably wondering about what you saw in the forest, but first, if you would tell us what you did see, just out of curiosity," he stated, and requested.
"Well, first I ran into this rather beautiful cat-like thing at a lagoon while it was getting a drink, and then I ran into these three pig-like things not much bigger than I am that wanted me to play with them, and then this giant, sorta bear-ish thing jumped into my path and called me a five-man...come to think of it, Unazuki called me that once..." I said, and only then realized that I was rambling. "And it doesn't matter 'cause I still think you're just trying to keep me fooled til you can start doing surgery on me like you did that poor man in the lab!"
"What man? Oh, do you mean the new one we're making from the Cougar Mimete brought us?" Hotaru asked, and I must confess that her totally calm attitude about it shocked me to no end!
"Rini, would you humor me and tell me exactly what they looked like, the ones you saw in the forest?" Tomoe asked patiently, so I gave a quick description of what I had seen, to which he nodded. "Kakeru, Miharu, Kotaru, Nanako, and Chad. Alright, then. So you know, there are considerably more than just those out there, they've built themselves a whole community area near the center of the island if you ever want to go see it, but I would recommend waiting until one of us has an errand there and go with them rather than go by yourself.
"As to where the creatures came from, I created them myself, mostly with help from Kaolinite and Mimete, through purely scientific means. I imagine you have no idea what a vivisection is?" I nodded in the negative, and he continued. "Very well, a vivisection is when a scientist or doctor cuts a piece of flesh from one part of a body, and grafts it, sews it back on, in another place. Such procedures are used to cover missing skin in areas where too big a section is missing for it to grow back properly. It's called 'skin grafting', and is employed by many surgeons as we speak.
Vivisection is also used to examine the inside of a living thing while it is alive, and to move organs around as needed to treat a problem. This is what I've generally been doing. I have been using vivisection to alter the form and shape of animals into a more human one. Such things have been within man's grasp for centuries, yet none till I have had the courage, the raw stamina, to take it up as a means within itself! As stated, men have surgically moved bits of skin from one part of the body to another for grafts, and the subject is visited by the author Victor Hugo in 'Le' Homme qui Rit.' Have you read it?" Again, I had to shake my head no. In fact, until then I had never even heard of the book! He continued, "A pity, but no matter. The point remains that I had seen the potential for vivisection, but no one brave enough to pursue it to the utmost extremes.
So I began to experiment in my lab. Small things at first, but then I tried to brave things further, and one of my assistants, I never really did find out which, betrayed me, and I was ostracized for my theories and thrown from the academy in disgrace. But I wasn't about to let that stop me, so I began seeking a place to work in private, in peace, and thus, with Hotaru in my arms and Kaolinite, who has always supported me and my endeavors, even through my wife, Himeko's, death, I came here, to this island. Back then, the only others who knew I had come here in self made exile was a band of African natives, a ruly bunch who aided in building this house for me and my family."
"Surely you could have gotten better work somewhere else? Couldn't you?" I cut in, asking Kaolinite.
"No, because I believed, and still believe, in the Doctor's work," Kaolinite answered. "I spoke out for him after the betrayal, and was equally ostracized for it. They were so jealous of the Doctor's brilliance, they put out fliers and a post to all other colleges and universities filled with slander and lies about our experiments. We were cut off at the knees, as it were. We had no where else to go, and only limited funds to make a decision. Thus, as he said, we chose to come here."
"And what about you?" I stared into Hotaru's eyes. "Don't you ever want to see what's out there in the world beyond this island?"
"And get bullied in a regular 'school'?" she asked back. "Get targeted by evil men who get off on torturing little children and listening to them scream? Why would I ever want to go into that when I have paradise right here! And if you're worried about my 'education', don't. Father and Kaolinite have seen to my every need, even books and learning. I bet if we tested our IQs, I'd prove to be much smarter than you!"
"What about boys?" I asked. "Don't you ever want to go out and find a boyfriend?"
"Mating? Having babies?" Hotaru stared back at me. "I think I can do just fine without. And if I ever do get the overwhelming urge to mate, I can always just slake it off on one of the creatures should self ministrations prove inadequate." I would like to profess at this time that I had, and still have, no idea what she was talking about! The only time I tried asking my parents where babies, and thus I, came from, they got flustered and quickly changed the subject, leaving me in the dark.
"As I was saying," Tomoe cut in, picking up where he left off. "Once I had everything set-up, and had acquired fresh animals to work with, I began to start my experiments anew. I started by altering a rabbit, but the final result was so grotesque and unpleasant that after a week I dispatched the thing out of disgust. Then I took an ape, a chimpanzee, and carefully, oh, so carefully, worked on it. Sinew by sinew, muscle by muscle, and eventually I produced a creature that greatly resembled the human form. My first great work, and an absolutely amazing accomplishment it was, and still is, for he is still very much alive!"
"You're lying!" I jumped in, for I had realized one problem with the whole concept, something that exposed the whole thing. "They can't be animals! They're humans! They have to be! They can TALK!"
"But of course," Tomoe continued calmly. "Tell me, what is it that keeps an animal from talking, but we humans can? I will tell you. An animal's vocal cords are structured differently, but otherwise there is no reason why they are basically mute. One of the things I discovered in my early experiments before coming to the island was that with a simple surgical alteration, the vocal cords of almost any animal can be made to resemble quite closely our own, thus making them capable of speech. Though, as you no doubt noticed, some of my alteration attempts didn't go as well as others."
"Unazuki..." I breathed.
"Yes, she's a very good example," Tomoe agreed with me. "Her vocal cords were extremely stubborn to the change, and in the end she must clearly struggle to form each word, as you noticed. But from such trials and minor failures, from the most minimal of setbacks, progress is made! That first ape, for instance, after his surgeries were finished, I was able to educate, to teach up to a third grade level, then introduced him to the Africans as a semi-slow stowaway, and had them continue his education further while I turned my attention to a gazelle. And learn from them he did, he even crafted his own hut as they had done, and I dare say he did better. But then one of them got angry with him, I forget what for, and he dove up a tree in panic, the accursed ape flesh growing back, seeping back, reverting him to what he once was. I was furious, and did not know what to do. Then, to my horror, my gazelle, who was no sooner finished and learning, also starting to show visible, if only minor, signs of reversion. I do not think that you can begin to imagine how livid I was.
But then fortune graced me. Kaolinite had left the island to acquire more animals for me, and met Mimete, who had just lost her own place in society due to unfortunate circumstance, and was a brilliant chemist. Like you, she was at first horrified at my creatures, and I had but six when she arrived, having experimented by then on a tiger, a wolf, an orangutang, and even a sheep, but with the same continual problems of the animal flesh growing back, reverting. It took a while to calm her, but as you will, she came to accept my work, and even developed a powerful serum which halts the reversion process, keeping them human longer and more powerfully. But in the end even the serum has proven only temporary, the animal still trying to force itself back, prompting further doses every now and then, to maintain them.
As time progressed, the creatures, as I have stated, formed their own little community, and six of the nine Africans who came with us stole our primary vessel, my once private yacht, and deserted us, leaving us with only the relatively small launch tied to the dock now. As to the other three, I must regretfully say that they have died. One had a stroke, nothing to be done, and as to the others...
You see, I have not just restrained myself to the human form. Every now and then I take two animals and mix and match parts, just to see what sort of new beast I can create, and one day I began combining a boar and a leopard, but before I finished it escaped, and slew the remaining Africans before Kaolinite and I could destroy it. Mimete hid in the house, cradling Hotaru to her chest for the most part of those four terrible days that the creature was loose as though she were her own.
But it matters not, for they have been replaced. Mimete took it upon herself to train several of the beast-folk, as she calls them, as servants and assistants, and in the end I myself took with the idea, personally teaching Greg how to operate and properly speak over the radio headset, or as well as he could muster, anyway.
And now, after almost twenty two years, counting ten among civilization, and countless efforts and experiments, you came to us, Rini. And thus, here we are. Now, do you understand my work, my endeavors? I do hope you see the fascination of it all."
I thought quietly for a moment, considering all that I had just been told. Reflecting on all the people I had seen whom I had believed to be simply malformed, and the creatures I had encountered in the woods just that day, I realized that except for those of us at that table, not one had a truly human aspect to them on closer inspection. I quietly pushed my plate, only half cleaned, away.
"I think I'm gonna be sick," I muttered aloud, and to my side, Mimete chuckled.
"Well, that brings back memories," she said. "Had sort of the same reaction myself. But you do understand now, right, kiddo?"
"You're crazy," I blurted out, and then more loudly I proclaimed as I leaped to my feet, "You're all mad scientists! Like Frankenstein and Wu Manchu and all the others in the pictures! You're all out of your minds!"
"Crazy? Mad?" Hotaru piped. "You dare to accuse my father of insanity!"
"If the shoe fits!" I roared despite myself. For at that moment, I did not see myself ever being allowed to leave the island again. I now believed they would hold me prisoner, though still allowing me to roam the island as I pleased, for the rest of my life! If they didn't decide to kill me first.
"Now, now," Tomoe jumped in, speaking in a calm and measured voice. "Settle down, girls. Settle down. Hotaru, we must give Rini time to come to terms with what she's learned. Mimete, herself, thought me mad at first, but she soon saw the light. And I know you will, too, Rini. In time."
"Never!" I yelled. "You're crazy, and that's all there is to it!"
"Why you..." Hotaru started to stand up, but Kaolinite restrained her.
"Let it go," she coached, but I could tell that I had hit too big a nerve. More to the point, I didn't really care anymore.
"I'll swim back if I have to!" I snapped. "I'm not staying, not one more second!"
"Okay, I think Rini needs to lay down and sleep on it," Tomoe stated, and, putting down her fork, Mimete stood up, took me by the shoulder, and took me back to my room. Once inside, she sat me on the bed while sitting for the moment at the desk.
"Kiddo, you really need to cool off a bit," she said. "Does it really matter if it's 'mad science' or not? I mean, just between you and me, it's not like he's gonna solve the problem in his lifetime. I doubt it'll ever spread beyond this one small island."
"Then why help him!" I snapped. I couldn't help it, I was still nervous, angry, and frightened all at once. And I did not like it!
"Nothing better to do," she replied. "Can't go home. God, I envy you."
"What do you mean?" I asked, feeling stunned. "Why can't you go home?"
"I killed someone," she answered. "Oh, I didn't mean to, and I probably would have gotten off, but... I was dating this guy, and one night he got too touchy, and then tried to force himself on me. I struggled, grabbed the first thing that came to hand, and hit him with it. It was a broken beer bottle, and after he fell off, in a state of heightened adrenaline and abject fear for my own safety and well being...well, I, hit him several more times." I stared at her, suddenly shocked numb at her admissions. Yet...
"When I finally stopped and realized what I'd done," she continued, "I immediately went to the nearest pay-phone and called the police and reported it, gave a statement, the whole bit. I figured I'd get off as I had a great justification-he needed killing-defense built right in, but his father was a hoity toity politician who made up his mind about it the moment he heard what happened, and basically bought the judge against me. In a panic, I jumped bail, and met Kaolinite. She offered me an island paradise escape, and, well, the rest you know."
"That's too bad, Mimete," I said quietly. "But it doesn't change my mind about what Dr. Tomoe is doing here."
"I didn't think for a minute it would," Mimete stated. "It just felt...good, to get it out. To get it off my chest." She giggled a little, and commented, "I guess I was just using you for a little self therapy."
"Mimete," I looked at her carefully, "Do you really think Dr. Tomoe will still let me go home on the next boat? He wouldn't keep me here and lock me up just to keep me from telling anybody what he's doing, would he?"
"Oh, please!" Mimete waved the notion away. "Even he's smart enough to know that coming from you, at your age, and with everybody else on the island flatly denying it, no one's gonna believe you. At best, they'd think you were making up stories to get attention."
"But what if someone did believe me?" I asked carefully.
"Trust me, without someone backing up your story, no one will," Mimete answered confidently. She then rose and headed over to the door. "And just to make sure you don't try another stunt like earlier, I'm just gonna lock the door to make sure you sleep on it, okay? It's for your own good." And with that she closed the door, and again I heard the click that signified that I was once again trapped in the room.
Well, not that trapped.
On my way down to dinner I grabbed a few paperclips off the office desk as we passed through it, distracting Greg by asking him about the boat being summoned to "rescue" me, to wit he told me there still wasn't any available to be sent to the island, and stuffed them in my pocket. Now I pulled them out and placed them on my bedroom desk, and thought about my intended course of action.
Human or animal surgery, it was still mad science! And I intended to escape the island before Tomoe decided to run any kind of experiments on me, so I'd taken these as a precaution. In some of the pictures, the hero would pick a door lock with just a few paper clips, so why couldn't I?
But first I turned off the light and waited, wide eyed and very nervous, until late into the night, when I felt sure everyone else was asleep, then rose and picked up my paper clips and started working on the door.
I would like to state now that the pictures make it look a lot easier than it really is! I'm not sure how long I worked on it, but I broke at least three or four of the clips before I finally managed to pop the lock and escape my bedroom prison.
I quickly made my way down to the first floor, located some bags, took two, went to the kitchen, stuffed one bag full of fruits and vegetables, and the other with bottles of fruit juice from the ice box, and then went outside to the yard, threw the control wheel to open the gate, and headed down to the dock and onto the launch. I stowed my two, I must report rather heavy, bags near the main wheel, then looked at the controls carefully.
Confound it! I discovered to my dismay that the motor was activated by a key ignition, like a car, and I had no idea where to find the key! I wasn't getting to the nearest mainland this way. I considered going back into the house and searching for the key, but since I, as already stated, didn't know where to begin to look, and I absolutely wasn't going to take a chance at getting caught again, I had only one real option then.
I left the launch and my two bags where they were and started walking along the beach, scanning around for anything I could use or alter into an oar with which to steer my original lifeboat. I also kept my eyes open for any distant bodies of land off in the water that could tell me where to go, though it also occurred to me while I walked that I could just check for a map of the ocean in the launch when I went to retrieve my bags.
And I also made it a point to keep safely clear of the jungle area. I learned that much the last time! No one ever needs to tell me the same thing twice! I must have taken longer getting my bedroom door open than I thought I had, for within mere minutes, definitely no more than half an hour, after I began my sojourn along the beach, the sun began to rise back into the sky in its constant, daily routine.
Before too long the sun was high enough to warm the beach, as well as myself, and I knew it was now only a matter of time before my "hosts" found I had once again escaped from them. I also started to realize I had made one mistake when setting out on this walk - I should have taken something to drink with me! Before too long, I found my thirst starting to revive, and began looking for some fresh water with which to satisfy it.
It is at this time, I must report, that my adventure on the island took a new twist. I came across a stream that flowed straight into the sea, and followed it up slightly into the woods to a lagoon, about twice the size of the one I'd come across the day before...or maybe...no, I am sure it was a different one...
Regardless, I walked up to the edge of the water, knelt down, and using my hands quenched my thirst for the time being. Afterward, I felt tiredness grip me, and leaned against a tree for a little while, resting. I think I may have dozed off for a bit, for the next I knew the sun was a little higher in the sky than before.
By this time I felt especially warm, and wanted to cool off. Staring at the lagoon, I considered going in for a brief swim, my momma taught me when I was six and made sure that I was like a regular fish before letting me swim without help, but alas, I was without swim wear. Then I recalled that my nan had once told me of people who preferred to swim without wearing a swimsuit...or anything else for that matter.
Did I dare? Could I really just...strip off everything and swim naked? My earlier shenanigans aside, I wasn't sure I had the courage. On the Nemesis I had little choice until Mimete returned my clothes to me, and that first day on the island I knew everyone else was outside bringing Mimete's luggage and other acquirements into the compound, thus allowing me much time for my brief bit of rebellious fun.
But this? At anytime one of my captors, or worse, one of the 'Beast Folk' I had seen yesterday, or one I hadn't, could come along...yet the water was so inviting and cool looking... So finally, I decided on a simple compromise. I removed my dress, but kept my underwear on, my grandparents had once told me children would sometimes play in puddles that way, and timidly began to step into the water for a quick, cooling dip.
It was sooo nice. I must have just swam around in various strokes for hours, or so it felt, before I looked up from a backstroke back towards the shore I started at...and saw a new Beast Man crouched there, watching me.
This one was short and sort of slender, with pale, sort of peach colored fur lining its skin, and a shock of bright orange hair atop its head with a single stripe of black in the center of it. Switching to a breaststroke, I moved back towards it, noticing as I drew closer that it had a decidedly feminine aspect to it, two paler patches around her hands and one all around her face, and medium brown eyes with black slits in the middle, like a cats, which hinted to me as to the beast girl's original shape. She wore only a pair of blue loincloths across her waist and chest, giving the impression of budding maturity, or the belief thereof at any rate.
"Uh...hello?" I ventured nervously, hoping she wouldn't take after her fellow cat born "cousin", and seek to have me as her next meal. But she just stared back at me, not saying anything, then ambled over to where I had set down my dress before entering the water. As I watched, she picked it up, unfolding it, and sniffed and stared at it, as though it were the most curious thing in the world.
"Uh...please...could you...uh...put that back?" I asked, still nervous. At least she wasn't coming after me. It occurs to me now she may have retained her feline instinctual fear of the water, hence her choice to ignore me for the moment. But then she glanced at me, seemingly just as curious about me as I was afraid of her. She glanced at my hands, and smiled widely.
"Five man! Like me!" she declared, her very feminine voice confirming her gender for me. "Five man! Five man! Like me!" she continued, showing me her own, rather pleasantly shaped five fingered hands while my dress fell on her knees.
"Yes, five man, like you," I confirmed, trying to smile back. "Um, could you please put down my dress now?" She looked at it again, sifted it through her hands, examining it as though it were a newly discovered buried treasure, then turned back to me.
"Five man!" she said. "Five man! Real five man!" I blinked in confusion, and then she rose to an almost full standing position, still holding my dress...and then bounded off into the woods with it!
"Hey! That's mine!" I screamed, and dove out of the water and up to the woods' edge. Ignoring the chill of the air against my wet skin, I stared around for her, and spotted her just a little ways away, still holding my dress.
"Give that back!" I demanded, temporarily forgetting my fear. Swimming around for a little while in my undergarments was one thing, but there was no way I was going to even try to row away from the island and to freedom that way! My parents would never let me live down the scandal it could cause.
"Five man!" the cat-girl cried out. "Follow! Come! Join!" And with that she moved further into the woods, stopping after a few feet to look back. I realized she was trying to lead me somewhere, and though I really didn't want to think about the possibilities, I didn't want to lose my dress, either.
What choice have I got? I thought, and, seeing no other recourse, gulped and moved into the woods, following my new "guide" to where ever she was leading me...
Next - the community of the Beast Folk! This could be trouble... Be here when Rini meets "the Sayer of the Law!" And in case you haven't guessed yet, I'll reveal the cat-girl's identity next chapter! (Heh, heh, I'm so evil...)
Oh, and Kakeru was the human guy Luna got a crush on in the Sailor Moon S movie, in case you had trouble placing the name.
R&R please!