Arc 3 All These Squares Chapter 9

With all that averted I sifted through my new things. Neon Nurse had taken all of the broken models with her, including that special one, it needed repairs after what I had done to it and had been sitting in that box under the bed ever since.

Already the room felt, quieter, emptier, more lonely without Fluffles being a cute little menace. I lifted the water bowl, missing my fluffy moth. A little odd to be so attached so quickly, but when you around something all day everyday for weeks at a time it tends to get rather familiar. That and I am very sensitive to smells.

“Guess it is just you and me again, Mr. B.” I said sticking my fingers into the aquarium, teasing my little water dragon.

Mr. Bubbles circled about my finger.

I glanced at the clock. 9pm. It certainly had been an eventful day. I yawned snuggling up in my bed. Faster I get some sleep faster I am free from this purgatory. My clawed finger flipped the light switch as I nestled in. Sleep came rather quickly I was a bit drained after all.

***

My eyes jolted open to the sound of something smashing wetly on the floor and the toilet flushing, followed by fast foot steps bolting away. What the fuck kind of prank is this? I sat upright pawing at my face in a sleepy stupor to see what was going on. Blurry… the door sealed shut once more. I blinked a few times until my vision was clear. Though I could see in the dark I still flipped the lights on.

It was 1:30 Am.

Grumbling I looked about to see what had been disturbed, I mean these fucking scientists did go through my stuff on occasion. As I looked little pools of water led away from the toilet over to the table where Mr. Bubble’s tank was. Was. I did a double take seeing the aquarium broken on the floor.

I skidded across the tiles my claws frantically searching through the debris for my pet. Everything was shifted, moved, over turned. Even the little castle. Nothing. Mr. B was gone. Not a slimy gill of my Axolotl. My brain started piecing it together, following the trail of water to the toilet… Did, did somebody flush my pet down the toilet? Or did something come out of the toilet? I mean I know there are mutants and shit down there so. Either way something broke my pet’s cage. Something tells me they broke the tank to cover it up.

I sat there in disbelief. Why? Who? What purpose could this possibly serve. I could hear the laughter outside of my enclosure. It was those observers, those scientists that Dreamer brought. My eyes narrowed into burning slits, the pupil glaring. They did this.

As it sunk in that Mr. Bubbles was gone and might as well be dead. He either got blended up in the water processing system or got dumped into the sewers, assuming he lived. A fate possibly worse than death with what is down there. My face scrunched up distorting as I realized that I was crying. Those thick hot scalding tears falling on the floor. Why? What the fuck did I do to deserve this?

Slowly that hurt and sadness congealed into something else. Rage. I had been quiet. Accommodating. Mostly cooperative. And yet they still fuck with me? Good thing Fluffles wasn’t here they would have done something to her too those sick bastards.

I slunk to the glass, pressing against it as I glared at the scientists out there. There was three of them at the moment. A short one, a tall one, and a middle one. I couldn’t see their faces, but I could hear their voices even through this glass.

“Don’t you think that was a little much?” said the short one.

“Eh who cares after tonight we will never see this bitch again.” The tall one replied.

“Thank god for that, getting pulled off of real projects to baby sit this boring ass monster.” The middle one seemed a bit uninterested.

“Yeah but the fish didn’t do nothing wrong.”

“So what? We wasted a whole month on this wasp monster. I don’t know what the fuck Dreamer is so paranoid about this thing is weak, doesn’t even rate up with the local gangs. It is a coward.”

“Still that was uncalled for.”

“What, we all did it.”

“Ain’t no we here that was all you. I don’t know about you, but I want nothing to with this.” The short scientist, cleaned his hands of it and left the room.

The large one just shrugged, “Eh your loss. So what should we do to it nex-“

My fist slammed into the glass, punching it hard enough that my fingers curled a bit. My yellow blood streaking across the surface. I dragged it around spelling out, “Fuck You.” In my own blood.

“Oh look at that she is pissed. Too bad wasp you are stuck in there. What are you gonna do about it?” He snarkily tapped at the glass.

“Yeah it was pretty funny seeing that fish swirling down the bowl, it kept grabbing onto the side had to flick it down in that drain. By now it is down there in the sewers, probably died the moment it hit that water.”

I cracked my knuckles, resetting my fingers as I looked about my room. I breathed deeply trying to calm down. I mean the damage was already done. Bubbles was gone. At least that is what the rational part of me was saying. Sub, though, well Sub was pissed.

‘What are you doin?’

‘What do you mean? I am letting it go, being the bigger person. Nothing can be done about it now.’

‘Pussy. Yeah you heard me Bitch. Can’t even stick up for yourself. You are a fucking coward. Everybody is gonna walk all over you, take all your shit, they are gonna fuck with everything you love. Because you are a little bitch and won’t do nothing about it.’

‘Shut it Sub. You will make things worse.’

‘Ohh worse huh? Like what? If you don’t fight back they are gonna take more. You are encouraging them.’

‘No, I am not.’

‘Bitch we were the bully in High school. You… you damn well know that if they didn’t fight back we just kept escalating. This is the same shit.’

‘I wasn’t a bully. I might have done some stupid shit but I wasn’t malicious about it.’

‘Don’t you fucking lie to me. I live in our memories.’

‘Look I know I did some really stupid shit back then and I regret it. I am a much nicer person now.’

‘Nice? Are you stupid? Nice people get stepped on, I know you into that, but stick up for yourself. Fuck being a nice person, what has that ever gotten us? A flushed fucking pet that is what.’

‘Why you being so mean to me right now?’

‘I am trying to get you mad. Because you should be. Don’t you remember the only way to deal with a bully is get a bigger bully or become one.’

‘I am not falling for that Sub. I am going to be a Hero starting tomorrow. Tonight is the last night and then we are free from this hell. Just a little more endurance and we don’t have to ever see these mother fuckers again.’

‘Oh so you just gonna let it go, turn the other cheek? Hmm? Oh so magnanimous of you. Forgiving them for murdering your pet. And here I thought you cared about poor little Mr. Bubbles taken before his time. I thought you loved Mr. B.’

‘I do but not enough to kill somebody over.’

‘When did I say kill? I just want to rip their arms off and slap them in the face with their own hands until their heads cave in. Ok fine, I wanna kill them. Cut them into little pieces and flush them like they did to Bubbles.’

‘Swolix above Sub! That is some serial killer shit. See Sub you just need to calm down a little bit. The best revenge is getting the hell out of here and prospering. Gotta treat it like a toxic Ex. Stop giving them reasons to lock us up.’

‘You know what, you right. Maybe I was blowing my load a little too prematurely. You are right, Vesper, almost lost my cool there.’

I breathed a deep sigh, exhaling all that venomous emotion. Needed to suppress that. I can’t just throw away all the mind numbing suffering we endured all month over a momentary laps in-

“What happened to that moth thing anyway?”

“Pretty sure Neon Nurse took it earlier.”

“Damn, I was gonna rip that things wings off and squish it, just like those eggs under the bed.”

My head snapped in the direction of the bed and I dived under it. I scanned the area where the glowing eggs had been and they were gone. Pulling myself out My antenna flicked smelling for them, sure enough there next to the door. Broken soft shells, the larva within mashed and spurt out onto the floor like tooth paste.

I felt, a coldness within as I cradled the dead brood. Something inside of me breaking open, something that had been sealed as tears would not stop rolling down my bone like face. This felt, familiar… but from where? I have never had children. These are not even my children. Ah, this was Her emotions. Her pain. I see. Mother Imperatrix… part of her still lingered in me somewhere. I tried to suppress that vast all consuming loss welling up from my depths. Just a slight brush against that memory was enough to make my mind reel. The sight had stirred, the joy, the despair, the pain, the rage. A love so deep and vast the world would drown in a sea of blood for it. Too much to bear. The sensation of thousands upon thousands of voices being extinguished in an agonized scream that scarred the mind. And that, that was only the first time it happened.

I will make them pay… for every drop of Vespidian blood. The words were familiar. I remembered, that song, that dirge. Sung in sorrow. Filled with regret. I could hear the echo, reverberating from deep within. It wasn’t the same song as before. Not sung by that soothing one. It was the Imperatrix herself, mourning and grieving the deaths of untold children. Her face overlapping with mine in the reflection of the glass.

“In their eyes we were monsters. A threat to be erased.

Vile creatures to be displaced!

My brood. My pride.

I’ll avenge with every breath.

Until this world reflects the pain of our death.

We feel them, every joy and every cry.

Every wound, every scream.

We feel them all, we hear every plea.

My world! My brood!

Everything I hold dear.

And yet into the fires of war I must thrust them as a spear.

My tears and my fears have long run dry.

My love bled out drop by drop,

Child by child until my heart can take no more!

Let the rage consume!

Let the pain fuel my might!

Their cities will crumble under my wings of Despair!

I will make them pay for every drop of Vespidian Blood!”

I shifted, my vision tinted, corrupted by her influence, and overlapped with those memories, struggling against it. The rage guttering into a soul crushing emptiness. Not some pitiable depression or a lingering wail, nor even a blazing hot anger, but a void. It was the opposite of love… not rage, not sorrow… apathy, cold and unfeeling, emotions murdered out of necessity. Cutting away at ones own self to numb and dull a pain that seared so hot that I shivered violently, my blood run cold just from being exposed to that vast web of interconnected thought.

Clinging to myself to not be drowned, consumed, I brought up memories of my childhood, of playing baseball with my Dad. My hands coiled around the gravity weight. I slid into a pitching stance and drew back, my arms flung the weight at that image of the Imperatrix reflecting back at me. As I let go of the dumbbell, I tapped the weight adjustment, it maxed out. With an earth shattering crack it struck in the middle of her phantom face as it sang that dirge of despair, tears of blood flowing from her eyes. 50,000 pounds hurtled through her face as it shattered and that voice distorted growing quieter, the Super resistant glass obliterated. The entire sheet fractured falling away, opening my enclosure to the outside world.

I fell to my knees throwing up blood, head pounding, vision blurred as yellow flowed. Her voice subsiding as Sub desperately severed memories to stem the tide. Slowly my mind quieted as She was sealed once more. Or at least the fragments of her that remained within me. I flopped over coughing. Everything seemed to hurt. Vaguely I was aware of a shrill siren. Flashing lights above.

I blinked a few times, going in and out of consciousness. Neon Nurse standing over me, one moment, cradling my head the next. Beyond her I could make out the shapes of others, cyber swat members… Dreamer… her face twisted into a vicious grin.

***

I awoke, head turning to look around the room. I was still in the containment cell… My limbs flexed, unable to move I was restrained. My wrists and ankles shackled, bound, holding me in place. I was getting flashbacks from my time in Molotov’s lair.

Dreamer stood, her blue outfit reflecting in the sterile light, pacing slowly as she observed me. “Well, well, well. I knew you would show your true colors eventually. To think you were so close to being let loose. Thankfully you fucked up. We can’t afford to have something as unstable, unpredictable, inhuman as you on our roster. It will make all of us look bad. Let alone the damage that you will cause. We almost made a terrible mistake.”

She walked closer, that melted mask barely hiding her face. The thin veneer of professionalism did not conceal her disdain for me. She poked a finger into my chest. “I know that you can’t be trusted. I know that you are a vile villain. And I know that Molotov sent you here to destroy us from within. Already thanks to you there are cracks forming in our ranks. I don’t know how you managed to get that emotionally dead cyborg on your side, but it is proving to be most annoying and disruptive. You are not smooth, not slick, you are haphazard and that is why you almost got away with it. No serious villain would be stupid enough to be as blatantly suspicious as you are. That kept throwing me off, kept giving me doubt. Surely no villain is this stupid, maybe she is being honest? Maybe she is just an innocent that was in the wrong place at the wrong time caught up in affairs that she has no control over.”

She continued, tracing her finger up along my neck and then drumming them on the side of my face. “That was the doubt I kept having. If it was just a matter of being a mole or double agent, that can be fixed rather easily. But after what I saw in you, I know it is bigger than that, you are even more evil than Molotov is. Memories do not lie. That is the perplexing thing about you. Idle delusions do not have sensation, emotion, not like memories. You felt all of those things. Which means they happened.”

She paused withdrawing and placing a finger to her chin in contemplation, “Yet. The reality of the world dictates otherwise. I don’t understand it, yet I can’t dismiss it either, you pose a far greater threat than anything else here in Bronson. And that includes Kraken and their operatives that have been sneaking in as of late.”

“Oh you did see that I was threatened by Molotov. Then you know that I turned on her and don’t want to help her.” I replied.

She chuckled, “We are far past that my dear. I don’t care about Kraken and their cops and robbers games. How are you related to That.”

“To what?”

“The Imperatrix. The rest of your kind. Where are they?” She replied, her eyes stabbing me like daggers.

“I don’t know. She kinda just transformed me then took off.”

“That was a rhetorical question… hmm perhaps you don’t remember.”

I thought about it. Coming up blank. “Actually, I don’t know.”

She squinted at me. “I believe you on that.”

“Why is that?”

“You didn’t look away. I suppose for now that will do. After that stunt you pulled, I have you all to myself for the foreseeable future. No need to rush, you are not going anywhere.”

“All to your self?” asked that familiar voice of Neon Nurse, the door opening as she stepped in. She wagged her finger, “Now, now Dreamer. You are getting ahead of yourself. Even if she did break containment, that just means that I need to keep a closer eye on her. Besides due to that malfunction in the surveillance equipment during the altercation, it is unclear who started things. If I was more paranoid I would think it was done on purpose to cover up the truth. But even without it, knowing Vesper to be a reactionary individual there is clearly leeway to assume she was agitated and instigated by your personnel.”

They squinted at one another, a death gaze of sorts that would send sparks flying. “She is not under your jurisdiction anymore.”

“No, but Ringmaster gave me express permission to do personal observation. After all if she is a threat, it is better to risk my cybernetic body than one of you soft and… weak organics. If Vesper is such a monster, a dangerous creature, we wouldn’t want your precious subordinates getting injured, now would we.”

Dreamer turned and left. Not bothering to refute or even acknowledge her. Leaving us in the silent room, the slight buzzing of a vent filtering the air.

Neon Nurse turned, unlocking the restraints. I relaxed a bit before she hit me on the head. “What were you thinking? You are lucky no one got killed.”

“I… I don’t really remember what happened.” I replied, looking down, dejected.

“That isn’t good enough, Vesper. You need to restrain yourself.”

“I… I know.”

She pat me on the head, “Good. Still, this has complicated things. I will be staying with you as best as I can during the remainder of your sentence. Don’t act up. It will make things worse.”

“You, you are right. I will do as you say. How long did it get extended?”

“I don’t know.” She replied giving me a reassuring pat.

Little did I know what hell awaited me

---

~~***~~

Dreamer returned to her office. Data slates of case files stacked and organized almost obsessively. The room spotless clean as a little robot made its rounds moping the floor with spinning brushes. She sat heavily in the leather chair, leaning to one side as she contemplated. Spinning the chair she gazed at the digital black board covered with pictures and lines connecting them. Notes and the like typed neatly under each image. A picture of Molotov was nestled in the middle with lines spider webbing out to the surrounding faces. Each was the local gangs of Bronson City. Laundry lists of crimes noted below each gang leader. Thanks to all that information out of Vesper’s head, all the dots were being connected. Those villains were scheming together, up to something big.

Her finger swiped and shifted all that to the side. A new blank board began to fill out. First Vesper’s image appeared. She added another picture of Vesper, but drew a line through it, creating a scar on her face and placed it above, titling it the Imperatrix. Adding to the side an image of the Spore, she connected them with a line. Adding notes, scrolling down the haunting songs that plagued her dreams even now.

She sat staring at it. Thinking deeply. Then it clicked, that memory she had seen of Vesper’s first encounter. The Spore. It said it was going to wake it up. That damned thing is on the Spore.

Dreamer’s head tilted a little as she went limp, then her eyes snapped up as though possessed.

She turned pulling out a drawer, fiddling with a hidden mechanism and the false bottom opened. Within sat a pearly white phone and a different mask, one not melted. She lifted it, switching masks and dialed. It rang several times. Not connecting. She dialed again, and again until finally it connected. A projection materialized. An inhuman face wrought of bone and carapace. Scarred and pitted, the many black void like eyes glinted, not blinking.

“This had better be good.” Snarled the voice over a scream of someone’s neck being broken and their cries reduced to gurgling squeals not fitting for a person to make ultimately silenced as the head was torn free along with the entire spinal column.

“Of course, I would never interrupt you, Arachnaon, unless it was of vital importance.”

“Spit it out. I have little time and even less patience. You are interrupting my hunt and giving away my position. This city must be purged before morning to ensure that the Kraken council members do not escape again. I have them cornered like the rats they are. I won’t let them get away again.”

“There might be another Spore Spawn.”

Arachnaon paused, the motion of tossing something away jolted as she turned her full attention to the the screen. “Go on.”

“It is complicated. Currently I have one called Vespidian in my custody. She is a wasp monster. However while I was mind diving it, I saw memories of many more, stronger ones. Sitting at the apex would be the one called Mother Imperatrix.”

“I see, and?”

“From the things I saw, it needs to be dealt with immediately or we are going to have a doomsday level threat.”

“Oh my.” Arachnaon’s face split into a depraved, inhuman smile, her fangs and mandibles clicking with excitement, “Doomsday you say? How strong is it? Where is it?”

Dreamer pointed up, “I believe it is on the Spore. I can’t be positive on how strong it is, but if the memories are accurate it might give you a run for your money. You should definitely take Mantia and Centi with you to deal with it.”

“How sure are you that it is there, let alone exists?”

“About 70% could just be a lot of psychosis and trauma creating false memories.”

“Thank you little wisp. For once you have proven to be useful. If it is on the Spore then it is certainly one of us. Once we are finished here, we shall go recruit our new sibling. It better be there or you have just wasted a lot of our time. I will contact you again after I see for myself. Continue with whatever it was that you were doing.”

“What should I do with the Vespidian?”

Arachnaon thought on it, “How strong?”

“From testing about rank 4-5 regeneration and 2-3 in speed and strength.”

She waved her hand dismissively, “Weak. Not worth our time. Kraken’s vat clones are stronger than that.”

“Should I indoctrinate her?”

“I will decide after I see what this Imperatrix can do.”

“Very well I will keep her locked up for now.”

With those words the image flickered, fading out. Dreamer sat for a moment, tucking away the phone and switching masks. Sliding the hidden drawer shut. She leaned back heavily in her chair letting out a long and exhausted sigh to the point that she went slack. After a moment she jolted slightly as though coming to her senses. She glanced over the board again before turning away from it and leaning onto her desk, hands folded over one another.

The rustling of the little robotic vacuum rounded the corner as it finished its cleaning cycle, the movement drew her eyes as it returned to its dock and loudly emptied its tray.