Chapter 64: Rabbits

'It's been fun, Dad. Daddy is right about this place. Bunny gets to learn new things and meet new people. General Blackwater was really mean and not nice to me, but h-he was nice after that. He taught me a lot of cool stuff, gave me a lot of presents, like a new dress that looks really pretty and lots of toys, and he talks to me like Dad does… sometimes. Bunny met Mister Simmons too, and he's a lot like Daddy. Bunny don't think Mister Simmons and General Blackwater are friends though. What's… that word? T-they were shouting at each other, and I don't think friends shout at each other.

Bunny still miss you, Daddy… I miss you so much (sobbing). It's nice to make friends but… Friends are not the same as Daddy. Bunny wants Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup too. Bunny never got to play with sisters (sobbing). Mommy's been staying away from me. I don't know why (sobbing). Did Bunny do something bad? When I asked General Blackwater about it, General Blackwater said that we are just busy, and Mommy's been busy too, and it's just how it is when people are doing work and trying to help people like Bunny's sisters.

Bunny can't wait to come back. Bunny finally get to see Mommy again soon. Mister Simmons said that Mom's going to teach me some things like you did. Goodbye Daddy, and goodnight, sound recorder.' - Bunny Utonium, 02/26/89, 2053. Sound Record File 1.

Training Segment: Rest and Recreation

Date: 26 FEB (Sunday) 1989

Time: 2155

Subject: B-50 'Bunny Utonium'

Role: Black Ops Organic Weapons Platform (Bioweapon)

Status: In Training

The last hour had been less eventful for Bunny, but it was hardly boring by any definition. After taking a quick shower (a sergeant assigned to watch over her made sure that it was a really quick shower) and after a similarly quick meal, she got to really be with her Mom again. With Dad absent, it was her turn to teach her new words, and by General Blackwater's orders, simple mathematics; adding and subtracting numbers up to a hundred and the times table.

When that painful affair was over, Bunny was called to the general's office again. After knocking on his door, she entered the room and was met with a most interesting sight. Sitting on General Blackwater's desk was a cage. There was a white, fluffy rabbit in it. The general was bending over it, caressing the rabbit, which did not seem afraid of him. He looked up when he noticed that Bunny was staring at him.

"Evenin', Bunny," the general greeted. He was finally out of his tactical gear. This time, he was wearing a standard-issue USDO shirt with the trousers of his uniform and boots still on. His ID tags were hanging loosely on his neck. "Don't just stand there, cadet. Come over here and meet your new friend."

Bunny scooted over to the general eagerly, pressing her face close to the cage as she watched the rabbit twitch its whiskers, flexing its nose and turning to look at her with its dark, beady eyes.

"This here specimen is what you call a rabbit," the general introduced the creature to her. "Her name is Rabbit. Here-" Picking up the rabbit by the skin of its nape, the general plopped it into Bunny's arms. The rabbit did not resist - it was entirely obedient and submissive.

"Dad told me about rabbits!" Bunny exclaimed in excitement as she wasted no time to stroke the creature's luscious fur.

"Do you like it?" the general asked, a triumphant smile spreading across his face.

"Rabbit's beautiful!" Bunny said.

"I knew you'd say that. How about you keep it?" the general proposed. Bunny's eyes went up to meet the general's, all happy and starry and grateful. "Let's go to your bunk. I'll teach you how to take care of it. It's a heavy responsibility I believe you'll be able to handle…"

But that wasn't the only thing the general did. After teaching Bunny how to care for Rabbit the rabbit (an odd name choice that Bunny did little but laugh at), the general ordered Selicia to leave the room.

It was bedtime, and General Blackwater had a very different idea of what would make a really good bedtime story. He would tell her about his very own exploits, turning the period before she fell asleep into a stealthy lesson with the most pragmatic moral ever. He told her about his participation in World War II as a young enlistee, how he had become involved in the war long before other Americans did. He told her about him aiding in the hunt for Rommel until he and his squad was called away to a very special mission where he would find an ancient tomb. He would go on to battle a monster found deep inside it, which had likely been wandering its massive halls and catacomb-like corridors for millenniums, or been woken up by the Nazis and Imperial Italian legionaries who disturbed the underground necropolis. He would describe the battle in agonizing detail, and that he had, in the end, triumphed.

"And that is why there's nothing wrong with retreating - as long as you're doing it to survive and find another way to defeat your enemies," General Blackwater pretty much spelt out the moral of the story, referencing how he and other surviving soldiers had retreated into a room filled with black water, only for him to find a Duranium spear that helped him defeat the monster in the tomb. The monster was the very first enhanced creature he had ever faced - some kind of an arthropod, though not entirely, that wouldn't have looked out of place in a primordial age - and its death had been his crowning achievement for a very long time. In a way, it still was. "And when you survive, you'll go on to do more."

"What happened to General Blackwater's friends?" Bunny asked timidly as she gazed up at her general, completely enraptured by the story he told, by the stories he would tell.

"Call me Carver. Douglas Carver. I'll leave the middle name out for now. I'm off-duty," the general introduced himself for real this time. "Just don't do it in front of anyone."

"What happened to Mister Douglas Carver's friends?" Bunny repeated her question as she turned a little in bed so as to better face the general. She felt a certain connection to him, despite the man pushing her away from him at times.

"They… died one after the other over the years. Of all the men who went into that tomb, I was the only one left," the general said. He leaned back on his chair, his face out of the light from the table lamp beside Bunny's cot.

"Mister Douglas must be lonely…" Bunny surmised, feeling sad for the old man. "Does Mister Douglas have his own family? Like a Dad? And Mom? And sisters?"

"My parents are long dead. I have two brothers and a sister - families were huge back in the day. I think I have about nine or so nephews and nieces running around, with their own children. Wife's dead, and my children - John and Eleanor, either doesn't know I'm still alive or doesn't care," the general went on. From the glint of his eyes still visible in the dark, Bunny thought she could make out that the general was upset, though she couldn't be sure. "Last I heard, John's some officer in the army while Eleanor ran a chain of restaurant, got married and had several children. I haven't seen them in more than a decade. But I'm proud of them - they are their father's children..."

"Mister Douglas must be really lonely…" Bunny added to her previous speculation.

"Lonely? Hardly. I have hundreds of soldiers here at headquarters and more around the country and the world," the general said. He sounded like he wanted to say more, add some things to his list, but hesitated and sighed. "You should sleep, Bunny. Training will get harder tomorrow. Make me proud."

"Yes, Mister Douglas…" Bunny obeyed and yawned before closing her eyes.

An hour passed, then two. While Bunny slept, the door to her bunk opened. Bunny did not notice, of course, as she was asleep and snoring loudly like Buttercup. A shadow crept into the room, watched only by Rabbit the rabbit, and it stood over Bunny as if contemplating over a range of things it could do to her while she was helpless as a baby. The shadow watched Bunny as she breathed in and out in her sleep, a bolster and a rabbit soft toy in her arms. Carefully, the shadow wrapped its hand around the neck of the rabbit toy, a gift from Bubbles, and tugged at it. Bunny's arm fell away, unconsciously relinquishing control over the soft toy. Soon, the shadow was able to possess it. Shaking with silent laughter, it retreated out the door and away, the door closing by itself with all evidence of it ever being there gone.

A further three hours passed, and Bunny stirred awake, having slept her fill. Five hours was considered excessive to Bunny, as she usually needed just four. However, it was still early, as the next training session wasn't until ten minutes later.

Sitting up from her bed, Bunny stretched her arms and her back, yawning heartily. Putting her bolster aside, she searched her bed for her precious rabbit soft toy, but couldn't find it. It'd concerned her, as it was precious to her because of its origin. Swinging down from her bed, Bunny looked underneath it for the elusive soft toy, only to find nothing, again. Panic began welling up in her when she realized that it was missing, and quite seemingly of its own accord too as if it were alive.

Selicia walked in on Bunny while she was still searching for Bubbles' gift. She was supposed to be ready and waiting outside her bunk a few minutes ago.

"Bunny, what on Earth are you doing!?" Selicia scolded the enhanced girl. The room was being turned upside down in Bunny's frenzied quest for her missing rabbit soft toy.

"Bunny's doll gone!" the enhanced girl wailed as she upturned her cot to search the floor below it. But there was no such luck. "BUNNY'S DOLL GONE!"

"You're supposed to be ready for training, Bunny!" Selicia shouted in disbelief. Bunny had never acted this way before. Even her new rabbit (the living one) seemed to realize what was going on and was hiding futilely in a corner of its cage.

"But Bunny's doll gone!" Bunny repeated herself - she had gone through the length and breadth of her bunk, turning it into a warzone, and yet her rabbit soft toy was still missing. She sunk to the floor and cried inconsolably.

"Look, we'll search for it after training-" Selicia tried to reason with her, only for Bunny to blow up:

"Bunny doll gone!" she repeated herself as she cried. "Bubbles gave Bunny doll and it's gone!"

The door opened once again, and another sergeant, a third party in charge of Bunny's discipline, walked in as well.

"What in the hell is goin' on here!?" the sergeant barked at Bunny. "You were supposed to be out five minutes ago! We have to wait for you now like a row of maids, princess!?"

"She's just been having trouble finding her favorite toy, that's all," Selicia explained apologetically to the drill sergeant, whose face turned from one of utter rage to one of disbelief.

"Just get her a new one! We need to move, now, now, now! Move it, soldier!" the sergeant barked regardless. Marching over to Bunny, he grabbed her by the upper arm and tried to drag her to her feet. Bunny screamed like an animal and wrenched herself away from him however, collapsing to the floor chest first. She wouldn't get up after that and instead kept on crying there, beating the floor with her hands and feet in a childish tantrum. The drill sergeant, in the meantime, was thrown into the upturned cot. He groaned in pain there and didn't get up immediately.

The training program was falling apart - all because of a missing soft toy.

And Selicia wouldn't have it. It was making her mad - Bunny had reminded her of Bubbles; how weak she was, how she couldn't live up to the potential she had in her. But now, Bunny was making Bubbles look good. Gritting her teeth, it was Selicia's turn to march up to Bunny. Just like the sergeant before her, she picked her up by the arm, dragging her to her knees, and before she could get away, Selicia delivered a slap across her cheek, letting the enhanced girl drop to her elbow, clutching her cheek as she looked up at her Mom in shock.

"Knock it off, Bunny Utonium!" Selicia bellowed at Bunny. "You're ruining everything over a stupid toy! So get up, get dressed and get out!"

Bunny, however, became too shocked to move instead, after getting that slap in the face. Selicia had to do everything for her in the end, and it took much longer than before. She had to skip a shower to make up for the lost time.

"What am I supposed to do with you?" Selicia remarked while she was helping Bunny to put her uniform on, softening up her voice when Bunny finally calmed down - at least on the outside. "I'd rather risk my life and limb going on a hunt for Blisstina again than do this at this rate…"

"General Blackwater's going to kill us all," the drill sergeant said while he was watching Bunny get ready - it was all he could do at the moment.

Training Segment: Day 2 Revision

Date: 27 FEB (Monday) 1989

Time: 0517

Subject: B-50 'Bunny Utonium'

Role: Black Ops Organic Weapons Platform (Bioweapon)

Status: In Training

There was a knock on the door. General Blackwater swiveled around in his chair to face it. He was already dressed in tactical gear - one could never be too careful these days. He had faced numerous assassination attempts before, whether it was perpetrated by the Foundation spies or Organization dissidents, it mattered little. In fact, he was surprised that no one had tried to assassinate him in his time in Townsville yet. He took a suck out of his cigar and puffed out the smoke. Normally, he wouldn't smoke, but times were changing, dragging him along for the ride, and even he was feeling a little nervous. As well as a whole lot of other things.

Whoever it was on the other side of the door knocked again on the glass pane of his office door. He hadn't seen who it was yet, not even on the CCTV monitor on his desk linked to the camera outside, but he had a pretty good idea who it was.

Training was supposed to commence at o-five-hundred hours. If he was pissed, he wasn't showing it.

"Get in here!" he called out to the person on the other side of the door after blowing out another lungful of smoke. The door opened. It was Selicia, holding a visibly upset Bunny by the hand, leading her in. Her cheeks and eyes were reddened, stained with tears. There was no subtlety to it.

"What is this?" the general questioned mother and daughter, unsmiling. It was that side of the general the both of them were afraid of. He turned to Bunny, specifically, who shrank away from his gaze as if it could shred Kevlar. She'd done it so hard that she had accidentally pushed her Mom back, who winced and egged her forward again. "Are you aware that you're late?"

"Bunny lost her soft toy is all, general. She was trying to find it," Selicia explained, but the general didn't even look up at her.

"I was talking to Miss Bunny Utonium, not you," he merely said, again without looking up at the sergeant. "Why don't you leave me and the kid be, Selicia Goodwin."

The Mom knew better than to object, despite her instincts telling her otherwise. The best she could do was to caress Bunny in the head one last time before walking out of the room. The best she could hope for was punishment for Bunny.

"Explain yourself, Bunny," the general demanded. Taking the cigar out of his mouth, he snuffed it out on an ashtray. Bunny thought it was for the better. The smell was horrible. Leaning back on his high-backed leather chair, he stared at Bunny, awaiting her explanation.

"Bunny lost toy…" the enhanced girl mumbled, unable to bring herself to look at the man she had just recently befriended - yet, the general felt like something more than just a friend. It made the moment all the harder to take. She forced herself to face him eye-to-eye. She knew he liked that. "Bunny's favorite toy…"

"So you wasted time - time dedicated to training so you may help your sisters - because of a toy?" the general said. For some reason, he seemed to be disconnected from this, beyond a wave of slight, seething anger churning beneath him. "Is your precious toy more valuable than your sisters?"

"No…" Bunny said. Her eyes searched the floor as she processed what the general had said, connecting the dots. She remembered why she was here - to train to be like her crime-fighting sisters and even exceed their capabilities so that she could protect them who were weaker - and it hit her that she had messed up. "Bunny's sorry…"

"It was a test, Bunny, and you have failed your test," the general added. "Had this been on the field, the consequences would have been dire. You would have jeopardized one mission or another." He pressed the buzzer on his desk after that. The door flung open shortly, and in walked Bunny's drill sergeant and in his hands was her rabbit soft toy, her treasured gift from Bubbles.

At this point, Bunny wasn't sure whether to be happy or upset - too many emotions were running through her, more than she could handle. Being raised in a simpler and more doting environment, she would tend to feel one thing at a time.

The drill sergeant saluted and went around General Blackwater's desk, dumping the white rabbit soft toy beside the general after that and promptly leaving. The general grabbed the toy by the artificial ears.

"Do you know how you lost your toy in the first place?" the general pressed Bunny. Bunny shook her head, face pale from shock at the turn of events, from the fear that things might get worse. "You let your guard down. YOU let your guard down and you lost your toy. And that wasn't even the worst consequence. Sergeant McKinsey was able to sneak up on you. If he were an enemy, he would have killed you. If there were anyone around you, relying on you, he would have killed them too."

"Bunny's sorry…" she cried, tears on the verge of spilling again, but she tried her best to hold it in, knowing that the general hated it. Surprisingly, it was harder than walking around in a 100-pounds-something protective suit, or firing a Browning heavy machinegun from the hip, or beating a multidisciplinary black belt at his own game.

"I don't need you to be sorry," General Blackwater growled. "I need you to be on your guard and be careful. If you like your toy so much, you'd better hold onto it tighter, just like how I want you to hold onto your friends and family tighter from now on, because one mistake and you could lose them all, do you understand?"

"Yes…" Bunny said.

"Don't lose it again, and I don't just mean the doll," the general said, handing the soft toy over. After studying the general's posture and the rabbit toy for a moment, aware that he could be trying to trick her, she swiped for it. No, there were no tricks this time, and she was able to get it back. Bunny cried as she hugged it closely, remembering how sweet Bubbles was to her.

The next hour was spent on revision, though with her, revision and examinations were one and the same. She was tested on everything she had learned the previous day. The general played a huge part in her revisions and was secretly delighted when she was far more serious than she was the previous day. After being woken up by her planned tragedy in the morning.

She was able to remember every radio alphabets from Alpha to Zulu, translate codes to their actual contents, and run through multiple entire radio scenarios without pausing or making mistakes. When given three random weapons, one after the other, she was able to name them, strip them, put them back together again and finally, fire them with near-perfect accuracy, with any deviation the fault of the weapons she was given, not hers. Whether attacked by an unarmed USDO operative or one who was armed with a sword or spear, she was able to come out unscathed and victorious. Finally, she was able to hold out against General Blackwater for numerous turns, whether it was in chess or his realistic Townsville tabletop game…

And in the latter, all she had to do was sacrifice one of her three sisters, thinking to herself that it was something that would never happen in real life.