CoCo

Chapter 5

The weasel tried every type of torture method he could think of on CoCo. He chained her to the wall. He whipped her. He dunked her head in icy water. He forced her to listen to annoying children's Nursery Songs over and over again. He pressed her between two slabs of solid stone. He ripped her fingernails out. He tried Chinese Water Torture. He hung her upside by her toes for long periods of time. He put her in a room filled with nothing but spiders. He pressed hot metal rods against her skin. Hell, he even tried Tickle Torture. He tried and tried but he couldn't get her to talk. But how could she tell him something she didn't even know?
However, there was one torture method he hadn't tried yet. A torture method so horrible, he had saved it for last...

"Vat ze fuck!" the weasel shrieked in anger. "Why are you villing to endure so much torture! C'mon! Just tell me the SHC's plans already! Tell me vat you were going to reveal to zem!" He hit her with his bionic arm.
"I...already...told...you!" CoCo whispered, as she took another hit from him. "I don't know anthing!"
The weasel stopped hitting her. He looked at her blood, splattered all over the ground. "You've forced me to do somezing zat I hoped I vouldn't have to resort to," he said, grimly. "But you leave me no choice! Zis torture is possibly ze vorst torture method ever known. I should know, it vas used on me..." He got out a roll of duct tape. "Behold! Ze duct tape!"
CoCo started to sweat. She didn't like the looks of that duct tape. "Wha-what are you gonna do with that?" she squeaked, nervously. The weasel didn't answer her. He grinned as he approached her with the duct tape. She tried to back away from him, but he had her cornered against the wall. He was closing in on her with that retched tape. There was nothing she could do, but to let the torture commence.
Oh, you should have heard her cries, her pleas. She screamed the most horrific, most greiving, most painful scream, a scream that would send shivers down your spine if only you could hear it. Truly, it was awful.

After he was done with the terrible duct torture, the weasel backed away from CoCo, waiting to see if she would say something. CoCo, on her knees, breathed heavily.
"Vell?" he asked, impatient. "Are you gonna tell me or do I have to use ze duct tape on you again?"
CoCo was silent.
"Stupid girl! Do you vant me to torture you vith zis duct tape?!"
Slowly, she looked up at the weasel and croaked in a raspy voice, "For you...A thousand times over." She fainted.
"Fuck!" the weasel shouted, as CoCo lost consciousness.

When CoCo woke up, she found herself lying, naked, on a metal hospital bed. She tried to sit up but couldn't because she was strapped to the bed. The weasel was sitting beside her, attaching chords on various parts of her body.
"What are you doing? What's going on?" she asked him.
The weasel put the last chord on CoCo's forehead and pulled a lever.
"Since you refuse to reveal your secrets", he said, as a glass covering zipped out of the sides of the bed, encasing CoCo in a very large tube. "I am going to find zem out myself, by invading your mind."
"Why didn't you try this in the first place," CoCo asked. "This way seems so much easier than torture, don't you think?"
The weasel blinked. She did have a point there. But then he smiled and cackled, "Because torturing you vas so much fun, of course!" He floated over to a computer, the control center. He pressed a button and a strange green liquid started filling the tube CoCo was in. CoCo wanted to say something but couldn't find the words. A helmet plopped down on her head from the top of the tube.
"Oh yes," said the weasel, looking at the computer screen. "Vich memory shall I snoop through first..." He searched around on the screen. "Zis one!" He clicked on it. It was a memory of CoCo's childhood. She was showing her parents this stupid dance she had learned at school.
"Hm, zis isn't it..." the weasel muttered as he fast-forwarded through CoCo's memories. He fast-forwarded through her entire life, through her parties, through her walks, through her encounter with the old gray squirrel... up to the point when she drank the potion. After that, the screen went black.
"Vat ze fuck is zis?" the weasel asked, not sure what was going on. He fast-forwarded the black memory. Her memories became clear again when CoCo woke up, when she was captured by the Tediz in the forest. He watched her on his screen, he watched as a Tediz soldier whacked her on the head with his gun. More black screen. The memory continued when CoCo woke up in the dungeon. Again, he watched her memories of her sitting in her cell, the dungeon being bombed. He watched as she snooped through his base, crept into his lab. He watched himself choke and torture her. Another blank memory. He watched her wake up on the metal bed, in the tube. Her memories were, by now, playing in real time, he could see what she saw. She was looking at him.
He tore his eyes away from the computer screen in disbelief. He looked at CoCo, who was staring right back at him. "She really doesn't know anyzing...Zis doesn't make any sense..." the weasel whispered softly. Slowly, but surely, he approached CoCo's tube. He looked up at her, pondering. CoCo never took her eyes off of him. She smiled and waved.

At that moment, a Tediz surgeon burst through the door, his jaw flapping away, telling the weasel the results of the battle outside. Help was needed in the hospital ward.
"I'll deal vit zis shit later, " he mumbled, referring to CoCo. He followed the Tedi out of the door. CoCo watched him leave, longing for his return.

He left CoCo in that tube for days. Upon returning to his lab, he never looked at her. He pretended she was never there. CoCo always watched him. She stared, interested, wanting to know what he was doing. Everything he did fascinated her. She hoped that, one day, he would finally acknowledge her presence.

During her time in the tube, CoCo saw very few Tediz. In fact, she really only saw one. It was the same surgeon Tedi that had interrupted the weasel's investigation of CoCo's memories. He came in and assisted the weasel from time to time. The weasel sometimes made things, medication and what not, for the surgeon Tedi to take back to the wounded and sick Tediz soldiers. The surgeon would occasionally glance at CoCo suspiciously, but only for a few seconds. His master's orders were more important than his own curiousity.

One night, the weasel was working late in his lab. Whatever he was working on must have been pretty fustrating because he would bang his fist and recite a long string of cuss words. He put his hand against his cheek and huffed a short, angry breath. He tapped his pencil, thinking. Then he glanced at CoCo for the first time in days.
"Maybe...I could use her for somezing," the weasel concluded. "I mean, I could use her as a decoy, like I did vit ze Little Girl and ze Experiement...Hmmm...ja...No doubt ze Squirrels vould vant to save zis damsel in distress! Ja! I zink I can make zis vork!" He called for his surgeon Tedi.
"Brand zat squirrel," the weasel instructed, handing the surgeon a tattoo pen. "She is Tediz property now."
"Yes sir!" the surgeon saluted.
"Oh and one more zing," the weasel added. "You are not to tell any of ze other Tediz about zis Squirrel. I vill keep her somevhere private until I am ready to use her. Understand?"
"Yes, of course, master," the surgeon said.
"Gut," the weasel said. "I'll be back. Just tattoo the Tediz symbol somevhere on her body. Don't let her leave zis room." With that, he left. The surgeon took CoCo out of the tube and lead her to a metal bed.
"Lay on your side," he ordered. She obeyed. He took the tattoo pen to the side of her leg, just a few inches below her bikini line and inked in the Tediz logo. CoCo lay there, excited. My first tattoo! She watched as he marked her skin. After a while, CoCo's need to socialize got the best of her.
She introduced herself. "My name is CoCo!"
"I don't care," the surgeon said, flatly.
"Oh," said CoCo. "Do you have a name?" The Tedi didn't answer her. CoCo didn't like the silence so she tried again. "Hey, I asked you if you had a name!" Still no reply. "Can I call you Simon then? Is that alright with you if I call you Simon? Cuz if you are not gonna give me your name, then I'll just make one up for you myself! Simon!"
"Alright! You can call me Simon!" the surgeon grumbled. "Just shut up!" He gave her the stink eye. "Other side," he ordered. CoCo turned on her opposite side. Simon inked a twin symbol on her other leg. So, now, she would have two tattoos of the Tediz symbol, one on each side of the outer thigh regions of her legs.
"Who was that weasel?" CoCo asked, breaking the silence once again. She giggled, a dreamy look in her eye. "He's cute! And he's really intelligent, too! I love the way he talks!" CoCo rambled about all the things she liked about that weasel, regardless of the fact that he had totured her. Simon listened with no interest. When CoCo ran out of things to say, she giggled and daydreamed. And then she said, "I'd like to shake his -"
"Okay, that's enough!" Simon interrupted "I really don't wanna know what perverted things you wanna do to my master."
"What are you talking about?" CoCo asked. "I was gonna say 'hand.' I want to shake his hand..."
"Whatever," Simon said, rolling his eyes.
"What's his name? C'mon, please tell me!" CoCo pleaded.
"It's Professor von Kriplespac," Simon responded, blandly.
"Professor von Kriplespac," CoCo repeated. She liked the sound of it.

CoCo was moved to a different room the next day. She was moved into a bedroom. Actually, it was Kriplespac's personal bedroom. But he never really used it that often. Most of the time, he slept in his lab or in his office. All weapons and dangerous objects were removed before CoCo's relocation. He chose to move her in this room because it was the only room that was absolutely strictly off-limits to the Tediz. No exceptions. Not even Simon, the only Tedi who knew about CoCo, was allowed in there. The only way Simon could gain access into the room was if he first asked permission from Kriplepac. Otherwise, Simon would only drop food and water through a small slot in the wall. The only she thing she wouldn't have was a companion. Once again, CoCo was alone.