The Vespidian
Arc 10 Brooding
Chapter 2
The next day I awoke to Xava’s kind face. I smiled content, reaching for her, and then the realization that I was now a crippled came creeping back with the one arm that extended out, hugging her. Though there were three other arms, they were not my own, limply they hung from my sides as I tried to move them. The tingling impulses making the fake limbs tremble as they shifted slightly. Xava must have attached them while I was out. She hadn’t gotten to the legs yet and so I was still mostly immobile. I gave up on them for now.
“Xava how long have I slept?” I asked as she handed me a cup of ice cold water. I was a little afraid the last time I had been out for weeks.
“Since the incident or since last time?”
“The incident.”
“Two days. Vesper it is remarkable that you are so cognitive after taking such extensive damage. Usually, you are out for a week or two.” She replied toweling down my face with a wet cloth where I had spilled some water while trying to keep my robo hand steady.
“Ah, I see,” I replied vaguely staring up at nothing in particular. I felt tired, numb.
I didn’t really feel good about that, sure I was stronger now, but that didn’t mean shit. I was useless. I can’t imagine torso girl is going to be much help if anything happens.
“Xava, how am I going to live like this?” I asked her.
She smiled, kissing me, “Well, you will get used to the feeling and how to manipulate the arms and legs, once I attach those.”
I glowered, “I am just relying on you again.”
“There is nothing wrong with that Vesper. Everyone needs help sometimes.” Xava smiled, sitting down next to me and she leaned in, “Besides, I enjoy taking care of you.”
“But it seems like it is all the time for me. I want to be stronger. I want you to rely on me.”
She stroked my face, “There, there. Don’t worry about that just take your time. There is no need to rush anything.”
I held my face, trying to keep from crying, but failed miserably, “I am tired of being so helpless Xava. Tell me, how can I get stronger?”
“You don’t have to be stronger, just let me take care of you,” she replied, hugging me softly. I snuggled against her.
My antennae perked to the sound of the door opening and there was a familiar green haired mad scientist. Dr. Arbor paused for a moment before saying, “She is awake already? Well, that exceeded my expectations. Is this a bad time? Am I interrupting?”
“Yes, you are,” scathingly replied Xava.
I feel like I missed something, usually, these two are thick as thieves. Something must have happened between them.
Dr. Arbor ignored Xava’s outburst, humming with that little, I am a genius tone, “Vesper, Vesper my dear sweet child I have wonderful news for you. We can begin the treatment at once. All of my preliminary testing has concluded.”
I looked blankly between the two, “What? What treatment? What the fuck are you talking about.”
“You have not told her yet?” Dr. Arbor gasped as though this was the most appalling thing she had ever heard.
Xava stared her down, “She isn’t ready yet.”
This looked like it wouldn’t end too soon or well for that matter. Something about this was making me feel as though I had been left out and that, well that made me angry. So I interrupted, smashing my hand down on the little table next to me, breaking it, “What the fuck are you two on about? Explain.”
“Don’t you dare tell her.” Angrily said Xava.
Dr. Arbor shrugged, “But she asked, I can’t not tell her.”
“I won’t let you do that to her. We don’t know what it will do to her.”
Dr. Arbor waved her hand dismissively, “Oh please. Xava you are being too protective. She has to leave the nest sometime and you can’t just keep her locked up here all to yourself for the rest of her life. The other test subjects only showed minimal deviances, none of which were life-threatening.”
My mind reeled for a moment as I tried to keep up with their back and forth. “Wait, what other test subjects?”
“Why, the other Vespidians of course.”
“There, there are others?” My eyes darted between the two to make sure they weren’t just pulling my nonexistent leg.
“Well, yes, you met one of them remember? I believe you named her Astrea.”
I stared at Xava, “Why didn’t you tell me there were others?”
She froze up for a moment, “Vesper, they are not what you think. They are your genetic duplicates. Dr. Arbor made them for her experiments.”
“Genetic duplicates? So wait clones? You cloned me? Shouldn’t I have been asked for consent or something, I mean fuck! This is one hell of an invasion of privacy.” I looked between the two attempting to rationalize it. I had heard cloning was a thing a while back, but fuck I never thought I would be cloned. I thought that was for Russian super soldiers.
“Oh please, you act like I haven’t seen every inch of you. Why yes, I cloned you so as to better understand you without damaging you. How else was I going to study your anatomy? Especially, with how against getting dissected you are. If I hadn’t, well, I never would have discovered the exact strain of Mutigene that was used on you.”
“Wait… then oh, OH shit.” I gulped, “I almost fucked myself. So Astrea was me? Whew dodged a bullet on that one.”
Arbor smiled, “She wasn’t you, a clone is merely a body that is genetically identical, with some deviances and variations since we have not perfected the process yet. The mind is not transferable, think of it as a blank slate. That would be the common misconception when people speak of cloning, they think it is perfect duplicates that know what the original knew, however that is impossible due to how the brain functions. While physically the clone might be an adult, but mentally they are newborns or children still learning.”
I stroked my chin, letting it all sink in, “So then she was just a child, learning about the world around her… That, that makes me feel even worse about her death. How did you make her so big and why did you throw a child out into the sewers to fend for herself?”
“She was under close surveillance. You act like she wasn’t the apex predator down there. The only thing that could beat her out would be Nuclear Knight. I was observing her behavior patterns in a semi-wild environment to get a better feel for how your kind are supposed to act. Granted, her mental capacity wasn’t very high, highest among her counterparts, but like all of your clones, she suffered from mental retardation by design. Since these were originally more for studying your anatomy and understanding how your body would change given different stimuli and mutigenics. Really, you should be very thankful for my research and thanks to your clones I now know how to unlock your genome, at least as far as Mutigene can change you. I wouldn’t risk exposing you to spore just yet. After all, the Spore is not to be trifled with.”
I was silent for a few moments, she made a lot of sense, but one thing was bugging me, “Why were my clones retarded?”
Dr. Arbor nodded, “It was more of a safety measure as I couldn’t risk them cooperating and escaping in an organized manner. Even from their diminutive nature, it is very evident that your kind are extremely social creatures. Which makes them very dangerous, if I had left them to be as they should have been. They wouldn’t have been like you with a moral conscience from your time as a human. In that regard, you are quite the anomaly. I have long since learned my lessons on creating things I can’t control. They have roughly the intelligence of a dog. Even as they are, they have an uncanny cunning.”
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I looked at Xava, “How long have you known about this? No more secrets. I don’t want to be in the dark anymore.”
“Since we started sharing our findings,” replied Xava.
“And you didn’t tell me? This sounds like something I should have known about.”
She looked down, “Vesper, it was hard to find an appropriate time to tell you. Since Dr. Arbor was finished with her findings, she stopped making new ones a while ago, by the end of the month the remaining ones will have died out.”
“Died out? Why are they dying?” I asked, looking over at Dr. Arbor.
“It is an unfortunate side effect of the flawed cloning, they were merely lab rats, after all, never intended for life outside of my lab. I put them down before the madness sets in from their brains shrinking or rather their body cannibalizing the brain cells. It is a mercy not letting them suffer.”
My face scrunched up, “You are a sick and demented monster. Why would you make them only to suffer, only to die?”
Dr. Arbor rolled her eyes a little, “They are not people, Vesper. They are clones, lumps of cells that I cultured into test subjects. I did this for you. You are the one reaping the benefits of their sacrifice. There is always sacrifice in order to advance. Whether it be with medications or new research in general. How many lives do you think have been lost in order to make things whether it be vaccines or skyscrapers?”
“They didn’t ask for it-” I started.
“No, they were made for it. They only existed, so you wouldn’t have to be experimented on. Are you trying to tell me that you want me to test things that could kill you, on you rather than screening them through nearly mindless body duplicates to see how they will react? I have done so much for your benefit that you could never possibly thank me enough. But that is fine, a parent is often times misunderstood by their child. You should show some gratitude, if not to me, then to them. Thanks to them and their sacrifices, I can fix you. I can complete you. As you are now, you are merely a shadow of what you could be. I will make you better than you have ever been before. We can bypass years of your natural growth and make you mature. Don’t you want to regrow your missing limbs? I can help you with that.”
I stopped myself from replying. Looking between her and the robotic fingers that twitched… she did have a point. This sounded like the sort of power that I was craving. My eyes drifted between her and Xava. I wanted my own body back. “What will it do to me?”
Dr. Arbor wrung her fingers with glee, but Xava interrupted her, “Vesper, you don’t have to do this. You are fine the way you are.”
“I am just considering it, I want all my options on the table.”
“Well, it will accelerate your growth and force your body to quickly reach maturity. I should warn you, it will be extremely painful as you might recall your initial change, it will be worse than that. However, you will be sedated for the duration to minimize your suffering and you will awaken in your new, complete body. Currently, you are projected to be very similar to Astrea in terms of size and relative power. Of course, since she was merely a flawed clone you will likely be even stronger than she had been.”
“How exactly will you do this?”
“I will suspend in you in a tank of Mutigene to allow your body to soak it all in.”
My fingers drummed on the metal railing as I thought it over, “What will it do to me mentally?”
Xava spoke up, “We don’t know. We do know that it will alter your brain chemistry as to what that will do to your behavior, thoughts, actions we don’t know. That is why I don’t want you to do this.”
Arbor tapped her fingers together in front of her, “We do know some. Unfortunately, because the clones were mentally deficient to start with, they made for a poor baseline. I couldn’t ask them what was different, but they did have significantly increased aggression and were much more fervent in their mating attempts. This is due to the elevated hormones and the closest thing I can think of would be a heat or mating rut. Since we are using Astrea as a baseline here, it did calm down after several weeks. Though she did kill ten of her partners due to being overzealous.”
“Partners?” I asked.
“Yes, I let some of the clones mate to see what would happen. It was pretty obvious what she wanted, she was humping everything in sight. Once she had gotten that out of her system she did calm down a lot. Unfortunately, she was sterile like all the other clones, so nothing really came of it, but I was able to observe their behavior. It was very interesting.”
That certainly explained a lot. So she didn’t have eggs? I am starting to think it was a very good idea to reject her advances. Astrea probably would have unwittingly raped me to death in her animalistic frenzy. Can I really blame her though? Would I be able to control myself if I was in her position? I mean shit I was ripping Xava apart when we first had sex and I have to hold back even now.
“Well, that doesn’t sound so good. I don’t wanna hurt people. I don’t want to be some monster that impregnates people with my eggs. I mean this is sounding like some horror movie stuff. I know that there are a hell of a lot of fucked up wasps out there that are parasitic. What if my young eat their hosts? We are talking some chest burster shit here.”
“Xava has agreed and is more than willing to be your incubator for your young. So you wouldn’t hurt anyone so long as we got it out of your system.”
I held Xava’s hand, clutching it, “What if I can’t control myself though? What if I attack somebody? I don’t want to be a fucking rapist. Besides, I have seen how big Astrea’s dick was that thing would kill a person. Is there some way to negate or dial back the sex drive? It is bad right now, I don’t want to imagine how bad it would be like that.”
“If you need to Vesper, you can use me as much as you need. I will be here for you no matter what you choose to do.” Said Xava from beside me.
“Astrea also made a sort of nest, a honeycomb if you would, that she laid her excess eggs in. You will have outlets for this so I wouldn’t be too worried about this. No matter what you do, you will eventually grow into adulthood. It is a matter of putting this problem off or dealing with it now. Xava will likely be more than sufficient to satiate your needs. Though if you really needed it, I could make some sort of suppressant to help keep you in check.”
“How many eggs did she lay?”
“About a hundred over the course of a week.”
I gulped, “A hundred!? That is like more than ten a day.”
“Fourteen to be exact.”
“Sounds lovely,” said Xava under her breath.
“I thought you were against this!”
Her face seemed a little redder than usual… I had forgotten how badly Xava wanted my brood. “I am, but I do want your babies Vesper. Nothing would please me more. Still, I can wait. There is no need to rush into anything Vesper.”
“It is perfectly safe… ok there is a tiny possibility of it going poorly, but nothing is perfect. I mean getting the flu shot can sometimes kill you, it is kinda like that. I know the exact dosage I need to give you and what strain to use. I have already tested this many times over and had extremely positive results. Genetically, they are mostly identical to you so it should be the same for you. I have already screened out all the bad strains and side effects.”
Hmm, I shifted a little, “What exactly happened to them?”
“Astrea was the first that I had transform, she was the breakthrough. There were three more that had that same reaction, though unfortunately, they have expired as well.”
“What happened to them?”
“I dissected them to see if there were differences between their mutations. And oddly enough, there were. One was stronger than the others, one was faster, and the last had a thicker carapace than the other two. None of them had your regeneration. The change augmented one of their abilities, each was well in the Rank 7 category, but they were a bit unstable. Which is the problem with the clones, they are defective and as such, I can’t learn any more from them. However, I have learned enough to change you mostly safely. Naturally, I will have to study you for a while after you change to see how your biology changed and ticks.”
“Mostly safe?”
“Well, as I said, nothing is a hundred percent. As with anything, there are risks. You will change, but as to how and to what degree might vary a little. I have high expectations for your growth.”
“Would it be possible to lose a power by doing this?”
Dr. Arbor started thinking, “It is not unheard of. It would depend on how your body changed. For instance, usually, if you got bigger and bulked out your speed would go down, where, as if you got thinner and more lithe your speed would go up, but your endurance or strength would go down. It is a sort of balancing act. Either way though whatever did go up would more than compensate what went down.”
I lay there thinking it all over. This body had already reached its limit. Until I reached adulthood, if I reached adulthood, I would be stuck. I wanted power. I wanted to be stronger. I don’t want to feel so useless and powerless anymore. But at what cost? Though Dr. Arbor says it is mostly safe, that still means there is a chance it can go wrong. I get the feeling I am going to lose something if I do this. But what is the alternative? Xava turning me into a cyborg wasp? Sure, that sounds kinda cool, but it won’t be a power upgrade. I will be just as weak and powerless as I had been before.
‘Sub, what do you think?’
Hmm. Well, I am almost all for it, but the problem is going to be mental here. I can tell you right now the instincts and hormones are going to get stronger. We will be less human. This is your call, Vesper.
‘I am already not human, though. Without Chief, I can’t even pretend to not be a Subhuman. I can’t be a hero like this.’
Fuck being a Hero, what does that shit even matter? Who gives a fuck what those normies think of you? You, do you, and don’t let nobody tell you otherwise. You might not be able to be a hero, but you don’t have to be a villain either. I mean, who the hell gets to decide who is a hero and who is not? I mean, think about, Nightmare was a Hero. The bar is pretty fucking low. If that is supposed to be a hero, maybe we are better off being the villain. Maybe society is all fucked up and everything is backward? I don’t know, it is hard to understand humans, they are so fucking flip-floppy and hypocritical. I see all these rules for thee, but not for me. Maybe, we should make our own fucking rules. No more hiding in a suit, no more hiding what we are, no more holding back.
‘You got my back?’
Did you really need to ask? Of course. You, do you.
“Dr. Arbor, when can we start?” I asked.
Her chromatic eyes sparkled, “Immediately.”
Xava looked a little sad, but she didn’t say anything to refute my choice. I felt a little bad about ignoring her feelings. But I had made up my mind. I would rather die than be so worthless, so useless again. I won’t lose someone again, never again, I won’t let Xava or any of my other friends die… not, not like Sunshine. I won’t let them sacrifice themselves for me.
“Good. Let’s get this over with.”
Xava lifted up a needle, hesitating for a moment, “Are you sure?”
I nodded, “Yes.”
The needle slid it into my arm. “Goodnight Vesper. When you wake up again it will all be over. I love you.”
She leaned in, kissing me on the lips. I held her hand as the world started to blur and drift away, “I love you too, Xava.”