Vespidian Arc 3 All These Squares

Chapter 5

Well there wasn’t much to do. I sat observing them as they observed me. They all wore that anonymous green suit that made it so I couldn’t see their faces or anything else to identify them. After the broken wrist none of them were willing to brave getting in my personal space. Minutes, I glanced at the clock… make that hours ticked by in silence. I was so weirded out by this that I couldn’t play games or watch tv to pass time. Even Mr. Bubbles was upset knocking things over in his cage. My wasp senses were on overdrive. Every little twitch or movement almost setting me off.

Yeah this isn’t good. I needed to calm down a bit. I took a long moment thinking on things. I retreated to the back corner of room out of sight behind the shower stall. Piling things up to make a private little space. I curled up keeping a little spot where I could spy out for invaders.

It seemed that the adrenaline had worn off and I had dozed off again as I startled awake to the hiss of the door closing. The familiar pink glow of my cybernetic friend relieved me more than I thought that it would as I quickly emerged.

“Neon Nurse, what the fuck is going on?” I asked her.

Her smile was plastic, fake, she was clearly upset. Well at least to me since I had observed her enough to notice the tells. Might also have to do with my enhanced sight picking up on the subtle twitches of her synthetic muscles.

“Good News or Bad News?” asked Neon Nurse, not making eye contact.

I raised a finger, quickly withdrawing it before I was about to speak. I thought on it more. “Eh… bad news?”

She tilted her head to one side and her blonde bobcut swished a little, “Well… unfortunately I and Dr. Arbor have been… out ranked. We are not in control of your care anymore as such the quarantine will not be lifted. Dreamer went over our heads and got Ring Master on her side. Ah come to think of it, I don’t think you have met him. Ring Master is the Bronson Hero League Director, more or less the highest ranking individual in charge of the city. As for Dreamer, well she has been advocating for your relocation to the Institute for the Villainously Insane. Not a nice place.”

“I figured from the name.” I started nibbling at my claws stressed, “G-good news?”

She made a little heart with her hands, “I am on your side.”

“Oh Swolix, I am so fucked!” I cried.

She wagged her finger at me, “Now now that is rude. You should be mostly ok, she can’t ship you unless you demonstrate some monstrous behavior or the like. You can thank me and Dr. Arbor, we have advocated to keep you here, which is the only reason you didn’t get shipped. So be good Vesper. What we can do is minimal, but this should sort itself out sooner or later. I mean they can’t keep you locked up forever.”

“So what am I supposed to do?”

She seemed thoughtful, her green glowing eyes pulsing, “Well according to the regulations unless they find something to warrant your captivity they have at tops about two weeks before needing to get approval for an extension.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad.”

“Affirmative, it is the standard quarantine procedures. With my findings displaying that you are very clean this shouldn’t even get that far. You don’t pose a significant threat of infecting others with anything.”

I paused, my head feeling a little weird. “I feel like we have had this sort of talk before.”

The cybernetic nurse tilted her head, “I suppose we did, but this a bit different. I am only allowed visitation and small windows of testing. Dreamer is running this so I doubt it will be as comfortable as what I had supplied.”

“So what does she want exactly?”

“I am unsure. You should know better than me. She was raving about wasp monsters eating people, a dooms day scenario. She kept insisting that what she saw in your head wasn’t just fantasies, they were memories. Something about kill it with fire before it can breed type of thing. Personally I find that to be highly absurd, very organic to be so emotional about a little procreation. After all I am avidly awaiting the day that you do lay eggs.”

“She saw some of the nightmare stuff floating about in my head. Too many horror movies and the like have been influences. Certainly stuff that I would never do.”

Neon Nurse nodded, “I see. Well luckily she can’t project her memories for others to see as such it is very much a he said she said type of deal. That being said, she does have a lot of leeway as she is usually right about this sort of thing. What with being able to extract exact locations of evidence and like after interrogating a criminal.”

I put a hand on her shoulder, “I am not saying she didn’t see some fucked up shit, more just it not real and never happened.”

Neon Nurse nodded understandingly, “While I am here I might as well do some tests.”

She took my arm and very smoothly swabbed it and slid a needle in. My yellow blood bubbled as it filled the syringe vial. Considering that I despised needles I was a bit surprised that no stomach turning squeamish sensation arose, let along pain. She pulled it back, humming happily, satisfied with the my wasp substance.

She handed me a bright swirly colored lollipop for my trouble and I idly licked it while she sat across from me. She was oddly calming, just there. The way her eyes glowed and shifted back forth made it obvious that she was reading through something in her over layed vision.

“Slight spike in…” Her eyes scrolled a little needing reference material, “Oxytocin? Oh it seems you are getting more acquainted with me.”

“What is that?”

“A feel good hormone produced when one is bonding with another. Some call it the Love chemical.”

“I don’t think this feels like love. I think I am more just happy to not be alone with those weirdos.”

She pat my head, if I didn’t know her better I might think she was being condescending, “Love is a strong word, it is more of a familiarity chemical, friends, bonding, learning to enjoy the presence of another, or so they say.”

“So they say?”

“Indeed, unlike most my brain is very regulated on what chemicals are manufactured and fed to it. It does wonders for keeping one extremely focused and motivated. It is also very handy because I can force myself to feel whatever emotion I desire by simply inducing the right chemical compound. Or inversely I simply shut it all off and remove all emotions. In case you were wondering how I function, thinking about it I never did elaborate the intricacies of my cybernetic housing and my brain chemical feed system or rather my emotion controlling mechanism.”

That seemed to be a bit out of my wheel house. “That does seem to be rather indepth.”

“Indeed it is. Let me tell you,” She wagged her finger as she usually did before delving into a tirade or complex rant.

Normally I would shut her down, but it was nice talking to somebody. Even if she did almost all of the talking. That and well, It isn’t good to interrupt an awkward person because then they get even quieter and more awkward. I had noticed that a bit while talking with Neon Nurse. Most of the energetic and bubbly stuff was a veneer that she wore to be more approachable. She really is emotionally stunted… hmm rather maybe more dulled. An odd thought bubbled up, it was kinda cute watching the Cyborg fumble through emotions. Clearly she was uncomfortable or rather unused to it.

‘Oh getting the hots for the robo nurse? Wanting to fill her plugs? Curious about how a synthetic clam will feel?’

‘No sub. She is kinda weirdly cute. It nothing sexual about it. Why are you always so lewd?’

‘You sure about that?’ Sub licked at the back of my mind, ‘She gave us a nice toy to play with. It would be a shame, not… to… use… it.’ That last word was punctuated by a loud slurp and a teasing wiggle of her tongue.

My eyes roamed the room trying to ignore the horny lewd wasp on my shoulder, they fell on my bed and the box below it. There certainly was a robo puss in there. Come to think of it, using that thing would probably feel pretty close to fucking Neon Nurse. I did have an alien wing wang so it was on the table so to speak. I mean she did give it to me and it kinda rude not use a gift… I shook my head realizing Sub was trying to manipulate me. I waved my hand banishing the bad influence back into the depths of my subconscious.

I slapped my face getting my mind out of the wasp gutter before I start popping a stiffy or something weird.

“And that is how the drip feed system ensures that I am always within optimal emotional balance. Any questions?” Neon Nurse smiled at me, clearly thinking that I had been listening rather than blanking out into my mind palace.

“Uhhh nope. Seems like a good system to me.”

She excitedly nodded, “It is rather robust, but it does have its flaws, sometimes the system can’t keep up with stimuli signals in those cases it tends to do an emotional dump either draining or trying to catch up and over loading.”

I rubbed my chin, “That sounds a little dangerous, won’t you freeze up or something if you overload?”

“Theoretically yes, but it hasn’t ever reached that threshold before. Nothing has ever stimulated me to that degree before.”

“So what, you are starved for sensation?”

She tilted her head, gazing at the ceiling for a moment before tilting back and forth thinking it over. “I suppose so. Due to the set up, most if not all tactile stimuli or auditory, olfaction, gustation, even visual are altered often muted or suppressed. Though thanks to the systems the visual audio clarity is in some ways more defined and crisp than organics perceive. Also is nice that I record everything that I see and hear so I can play it back later. After all it is all signals being fed to my brain through the sensors of this body. No true warmth or touch. It is all simulated, static so to speak, phantom like in some ways.” She reached out, affectionately holding my face, sliding a finger down my cheek to my neck.

“That seems a bit grim.”

She paused for only a moment, “The alternative was much much worse I assure you. I have gotten used to it, hardly even notice these days. Except the cold, the cold never goes away… not truly. After all this is my normal.”

“You are cold?”

“Well it is the opposite of heat, Vesper.”

“How does that work? Couldn’t you just have the system register warmth?”

“To a degree, I have been experimenting with temperatures that is very adjustable have even adapted into my body and prototyped into some of the cybernetic equipment. Most models have heating feature for life like feel though that more for physical, tactile. What I speak of is more of a psychological thing. trauma likely.”

A loud tapping on the glass rose as we turned finding Dr. Arbor in her forest green suit. I almost didn’t see her face from the amount of mist in her helmet. She nearly lost her footing wrestling with the keypad to open my prison and the large animal carrier in her other hand that was bucking rather rambunctiously. Finally she got it right and the door slid open. She got about two steps in before flopping and the cage slid across the floor. Whatever abomination she had cooked up was freaking out in there thrashing and bouncing the carrier.

Out of the breathing holes several spindly legs popped out and the box scuttled across the room. It hit the wall several times darting in a different direction like a cockroach before veering hard under my bed. I recoiled, retreating behind Neon Nurse as we stared at the darkness where the thing was chittering.

“What the fuck is that?” I asked worried, I mean it is under my bed, that is where I sleep damn it!

Dr. Arbor recovered rather quickly getting back on her feet, dusting off her suit. “That my dear sweet daughter is your soon to be pet.”

I crossed my arms, “Get that thing outa here. Throw it in a fire for all I care.”

She sighed hurt, exaggerating as usual, “OOoh my poor sweet little pet. Give it a chance Vesper. Please at least give it a look. You don’t know how many I had to grind up just to make this perfect one.”

I gave her a long hard stare, “I told you I didn’t want one of your super freak pets.”

She clutched her chest like I just stabbed her heart. Always so dramatic with this bitch.

She ignore my protests and got on all fours sliding under the bed to wrangle out what ever the hell that thing in there was. Despite myself I stared down at her hips that shifted back and forth. I slapped myself.

Sub, knock that off.

I kinda want to slap that ass. She deserves it. I wanna hear her scream. Doesn’t even have to be kinky.

Sub.

Fine, fine your no fun.

She pulled back out clutching the cage. It shifted a bit, the ehh legs retracted back inside. I shivered a little. Why am I am getting spider vibes from this fucking thing? Out of the front bars a pair of feathery feelers poked out wiggling around like a dousing rod as they swished and groped the air. Grope might not be a strong enough word, those feathery antenna were aggressively contracting. They froze for a moment whipping in my direction before vibrating, for that matter the whole cage started shaking violently. There was a grumbling noise… no a purring? Purring?

Never looking away from the box I got on top of my desk. Something was telling me I didn’t want to be on the same level as that thing.

“You better not open that.” I growled at Dr. Arbor.

She dismissively wagged her hand at me. “Oh Vesper, my dear this child would never hurt you. It loves you. Look how happy it is to see you. See it is even purring. After all I have been feeding it your pheromones. It could smell you out in a ten mile radius.”

I pointed at her, “That is not reassuring!”

“Behold my creation!” She had that fufu I am a genius smug look on her face as she opened the bars. The little gate swung open and the thing darted out. It was fast. A blurr. Whatever it was it a was fuzzy and white with black spots or maybe stripes. I don’t know it was too fast to see properly.

At any rate it was under the desk now, scratching at the legs as it scooted about down there. Circling with what I assumed to be hunger.

I shook my fist at Dr. Arbor, “Why can’t you make anything normal?!”

She crossed her arms, “You are being dramatic Vesper.”

“You grab that thing then.” I sneered at her.

She contemplated it, chromatic eyes lingering below the desk. “It is your pet, you should pick it up.”

“I ain’t touching it with a ten foot pole. Knowing you that thing is gonna rip my arm off if I reach down there.”

“Come now we could always reattach your arm.”

That isn’t a denial that it will. Definitely not going to look down there.

Seeing me not budging an inch Dr. Arbor sighed and once again got down on the floor trying to coax the beast out. Her hand went under the desk, and she moving it back and forth petting the thing.

“See, there is nothing to be worried about. It is perfectly-” her words cut off as the creature pulled her, yanking her under the desk.

A struggle ensued bucking, the whole table nearly collapsing from banging and clawing. My computer nearly fell off of the desk. Finally Neon Nurse who had been observing till now reached down in there wrangling for the critter. I heard the whine of a taser before a loud squeal and the shaking stopped.

“Oh my this is an interesting creature.” Smiled Neon Nurse dragging the white fuzz ball out along with a disheveled Dr. Arbor.

She hefted the quivering thing up. It was soft looking, very fluffy. That is one weird looking cat. The white fur bristled as its antenna lashed about in my direction. It had six furry legs that got rather spindly at the ends, there were little grabby claws that opened and closed as it jostled about in her iron grip. It had a big fat fuzzy abdomen that wagged like a tail. Definitely not a cat. Or was it? The more I looked at it, the more I was getting feline traits. Which is odd since that thing is clearly a giant cat sized moth. The eyes were huge like drink coasters, pitch black and multifaceted. Ah, it was the antenna, they formed the silhouette of cat ears.

“What is it exactly?” I directed my eyes to Dr. Arbor.

She plapped a hand on the moth’s head scritching it, the antennae curled around her arm as it happily wiggled in Neon Nurse’s grasp. “It is a genetically modified silk worm moth, I spliced a little Persian cat dna in there. That may or may not affect its behavior. This one was bred for maximum cuteness. Don’t worry it has been trained on your pheromones.”

“Why didn’t you just get me a cat?”

“As you might recall from our research of you, mammals do not like your smell. Insects however have a high affinity for it. As such a moth was a good base. If this one does not please you I am sure I can sell it as a luxury pet, if not back in the juicer it goes and I will try again later. Perhaps a bee next time. Some sort of bee dog mayhaps.”

I paused, “The what now?”

“The juicer?”

“Yeah that.”

“I have to recycle failed experiments somehow. It is so wasteful to just throw all the genetic material out.”

Neon Nurse nodded to that, “True even with the robos I have to melt them down to base materials to get back my investment to try again.”

I squinted at Dr. Arbor. Slowly I dragged my eyes away to the purring moth. “Is it, is it safe?”

“Appears to be so,” said Neon Nurse, “I believe it was over excited earlier.”

I tentatively stepped back down off of the desk, no longer acting like a Bronson City sewer rat had scurried about. The creature flapped it wings in excitement as I loomed over it. Gradually my hand descended plopping onto the head with unease. The feelers coiled around my arm as its soft, abdomen wagged back and forth.

It was soft. By Swolix above it was so fluffy! All four of my hands grabbed that thing and started ruffling over its fur. It purred and chirped, squirming. YES! I fufued as I nuzzled it rubbing my face all over it like a brand new fuzzy pillow, my antenna tapping at its, linking together as its little claws or rather now that I was closer they were padded feet for gripping coiled around my head latching onto me. I should probably be concerned about that. I worked its claws, peeling it off of me.

Dr. Arbor looked down with a rather smug look on her face, “I told you, you would like it.”

I did, but I didn’t particularly want to thank her. Hmm… maybe that is a little too mean, she did make it for me. So I should be nice… She finally did something normal… as normal as a moth cat is. Although this critter was likely made with horrendously unethical means. That left me with a little bit of a dilemma, if I did refuse it, who knows what will happen to it. Something tells me this little guy is gonna get tossed in the juicer if I reject it.

I hefty the critter under my arm possessively. This is mine now.

“I will admit, it is cute. But knowing you, there is something fucked up about this thing. Well, what is it, what wrong with it?”

She looked away, “It is a failure! I couldn’t give it super powers.”

“Wait so it is not a super freak?”

She sighed, “No, I will need to try again this was just the best of the batch.”

“The batch?”

“Yeah went through a few hundred of these, this one was the most stable. See right here is where it was branded.” On the back where the wings met there was a large burned scar, etched by some sort of laser. The number 107.

Number is not a name so definitely going to need to name this thing.

I thought about it a bit, “It seemed like it was pretty fast and strong though.”

She shooed with her hand, “Not even rank 2 nothing of note. It is normal.”

“So it is what rank 1?”

“Yeah more or less.” She sounded despondent.

Neon Nurse pat the critter on the head, “Do you like it Vesper?”

Did I like it? I did actually. “I do. I shall name it, Fluffles.”

She looked between me and the creature, “What an exuberant name.”

“What eh what does it eat?”

Arbor gave me a reminder post it note. “Fruits, protein paste. It really likes bananas. But you shouldn't over indulge it.”

I inspected the creature, speaking of, where was the mouth? My hands dug through the fur on its lower face I had missed it but it had a tube thing rather than a proper mouth. Proboscis? How the hell does it eat a banana then? The coiled up tube unfurled hitting me in the face as it felt about slurping on me. It was either trying to eat me or was licking me I think.