The Vespidian
Arc 9 Twilight
Chapter 12 Interlude: Husk
Xava and Fire Chief paused their advance towards the center of this crazed imagination land. The battle in the distance came to a close when the giant, slutty catgirl uppercut the also massive stripper and or prostitute… it was hard to tell. From the yelling and grandstanding it was apparent that the stripper was called Thotimus Prime. She arched into the sky and vanished through the clouds from the blow. A shock wave rippled out and it reached the pair. The wind howled and blew, throwing both the glowing critters and the darkened horrors that were crawling out of a child’s nightmare.
“Chief, how you holding up?” asked Xava, turning the Scorpio in his direction.
His suit took a step crushing the mewling creatures of both light and dark that were swarming about like locusts. They were eating the surroundings, eating each other. At first glance, one would think the misshapen horrors to be winning, however, things were rather even. The puppies, bunnies, butterflies, and kittens were putting up quite the fight. They were cute… or at least they would be if they were not ripping into their dark counterparts.
A familiar scene unfolded around them. One of the glowing critters would be caught and stuffed into a hungry mouth. Then that dark creature would get swarmed, each of the pink animals would take a bite and then proceed to pounce onto the next enemy. They were a veritable school of piranha frenzied by their own dying and drawing blood. Both of the shadow monsters and the glowing critters steered clear of the foam glistening on the duo of machines that trudged through this quagmire of death.
“Damn, I really wish we could fly. I never thought about even trying with the mass of this thing,” said Chief watching enviably as Sunshine’s fleet moved through the sky unopposed to the castle.
“A few of those ships went down over there, maybe we could jury rigg one of them to fly?” asked Xava.
“Not a chance. This is all imagination delusions, I highly doubt Sunshine could make a working engine, let alone make something that could be taken apart and repaired through actual logic.”
“True, most of it works because she wants it to. It is like magic, she doesn’t have to actually know how it works.”
The world around them seemed to freeze. The shadow creatures and the glowing animals stopped their fighting. All of them turned, looking up at the castle that Sunshine had gone into. It was eerie. The squealing and frantic sounds fell away, leaving only silence, a quiet broken by the mechanical footsteps of the mechs. Something about this seemed… wrong. Xava increased her pace, she had a bad feeling about this.
Now that nothing was getting in the way and the shifting tides of animals had come to a standstill the pair found themselves below the floating island. Blackened things fell from it like flaking, dying flesh.
“So, how the fuck are we getting up there?” asked Chief, his mech crossing the arms and staring up.
His suit was tall, but it would take two of it on each other’s shoulders just to scrape the bottom of the jagged landmass. Around the outside of it the fleet that Sunshine had brought was moored in place, though nothing was moving.
Xava paced a few steps back, snapping the scorpion’s claws with irritation, until a thought crossed her mind. “Hey, Chief. How hard can that thing throw something?”
He turned, “Pretty hard. Why?”
The Scorpio curled into a ball and she replied, “Throw me up there. I need to get closer for my transmitter to work.”
Fire Chief looked between her and the landmass above, gauging the distance, “Yeah, I think I can do that. Hold on tight, it might get real bumpy.”
His massive mechanical hands scooped up the giant robotic scorpion and he took several running steps before the arms shoved out with a hiss from their pistons. Xava spun to the point that a normal person would be throwing up and likely have blacked out. The ball of mechanical legs shot up, missing the mark by a bit, but once she reached a sufficient altitude the legs all extended. They created drag and slowed her ascent and guided her descent. Tentatively, she shifted the weight and the whole machine tilted, banking to the side.
She had corrected the trajectory and was aimed straight at the cathedral looking structure in the center of the castle. The varied eyes and lashing limbs turned in her direction, aware of her approach vector. The Scorpio positioned the legs into a point for maximum penetration. Xava was going to drill her way in if she had to. Metal screamed against insanity and both gave way.
The ceiling collapsed around her impact point and the robo scorpion plummeted down directly into the throne room, landing in the midst of strange purple suits of armor. Xava’s optical inputs scanned the room in a moment, noting Sunshine and Vesper, or rather that crazed cat girl she had become floating off to the side, trapped in bubbles of darkness. Saving them came later.
The Scorpio turned facing down the ruler of this place, Twilight-chan who sat upon her throne. It took a step, sputtering, servos and gyros, grinding in distress. That impact had been harder than anticipated. Xava tilted her head, all the camera lenses looking in different directions for her objective, which wasn’t here. The body, the real Sunshine had to be here somewhere. It had to be nearby.
“My, my, my and who the fuck might you be?
Crashing into my house,
This one is certainly no mouse.
Clacking and clanging with your metal claws.
Are you planning to eat me with those jagged jaws?”
“You have gone too far Twilight. The city will be destroyed if you keep this up,” said Xava, pacing as she paid less attention to Twilight and more to the little blip of a signal on her arm. She was buying time, if Twilight was anything like Sunshine then she would monologue like one of those stupid Saturday morning villains.
“Do my eyes deceive me, can it be, Neon Nurse?
Ah yes, I remember you and your curse.
I was going to spare you as you spared me.
You had best flee.”
The pulse got a little stronger. Xava moved closer, following it while ignoring the ramblings of the crazed alter ego. The legs froze up as inky shadows surged up, grappling on to hold her at bay. They pushed through the sludge, her mechanical eyes only on her target. The signal was still getting blocked, but it was here. Not in this room, but deep down below Twilight-chan.
“Can you not hear?
Ah, your machines have no ear.
I can see it, I see what you flee.
Rotting and dying, did you think that metal could set you free?
Tell me are you blind as well?
Are you bumbling about lost in your own hollow shell?
Do you feel?
Or have your senses died in that steel?
I wonder why does a failed machine like you even know fear?
You died long ago, now disappear.”
“Enough of your rhyming you crazed bitch!” Shouted Xava lunging, the claws snapped where Twilight had been as she flew up out of reach.
The darkness welled up around the scorpion, pulling it down. Shackling it to the ground and soon it started to sink into the abyss of quicksand. Xava lay in the cockpit, her eyes staring at her arm and the blip as it got stronger. She smirked as her machine sunk deeper. It was close now, almost in range, but not all went as planned. The protective liquid had long been scraped from the outer shell of the Scorpio and delusions started to plague her sensors, overwhelming them. Blackness took hold and she floated, only hearing a faint rhythmic beat, like that of a withering heart.
~~~
Beep... beep... beep...
The sound filled Xava’s ears as her eyes slowly slid open. White all around, soft hospital linens covered her as her head wobbled, unsteady. She felt so weak. Her throat dry and she coughed. Her eyes gaped at the hand that had covered her mouth. An IV drip ran to the sunken wrist. The hand and arm were skinny, mere skin and bone, hardly any muscle to be seen. Her mouth quivered, shaking as she held her face.
No. Lies, this can’t be real. I escaped this wretched body. This, disgusting human flesh.
The curtain to her side parted and a nurse appeared, she held a clipboard and looked Xava over, there was a brief moment where she frowned, but then she smiled, “Good morning!”
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Xava snarled back, There is nothing good about this!
However, her body did not. She felt it smile, weakly and reply, “What did my tests say?”
“Good news Xava, the chemotherapy killed all the cancer. Now you just have to rest and get better,” said the nurse turning away to check on several of the machines.
Liar! You bastards killed my immune system! The cancer is in my bones, it will come back. Move damn you, move! You stupid body. I have to, I have to save myself. The flesh and bones must be striped and replaced before it is too late!
Despite her raging thoughts, Xava smiled, “Really? That is wonderful. How long until I can go back to school?”
The nurse didn’t make eye content, “We will worry about that later. For now, just rest and get stronger.”
“Ok.” She said blankly already slipping back to sleep.
Ah, these are my memories then. Xava nodded to herself, understanding what was happening. That was why her body moved by itself. These things had already happened. Then it was following a script, a preordained line of progression. She mulled over it, trying to figure out how to break free. For now, she had little choice but sit and watch as she relived the most frustrating, saddest and yet the happiest days of her life.
Time held little meaning while she lay in that hospital bed, too weak to walk. However, while her body rotted her mind awoke. This was where she gained her superpower. The radiation that had destroyed her body had been the catalyst. Knowledge, foreign and out of place flooded into her mind. Xava smiled reminiscing over the archaic designs that she managed to piece together through her fevered dreams. She was left with only her thoughts and the new found ideas springing forth from every corner of her mind. Plans, shapes, and schematics coalescing from the abstract into definitive reality. She understood what should not be, could not be. Machines years, decades, centuries, perhaps ahead of their time.
However, even with all this glorious knowledge, she was powerless, trapped in a dying body. Though she was still in denial about that, until one day, she couldn’t hide from it anymore.
As usual, Xava lay in bed brainstorming over the complex designs of a machine, when she heard vague voices outside of her door.
“I can’t lie to her anymore. She isn’t going to get better.”
“I suppose we can’t put it off any longer. Fine, I will tell her.”
The door opened and in walked the man who had been in charge of Xava’s treatment, Dr. Anton. He had personally assured her and guided her into various treatments to fix the problem. She trusted him. It was his idea to get Chemotherapy. She tilted her head, wetting her lips.
“Xava it is about your treatments.”
“Yes?” She croaked, hoping that what had been overheard was about someone else.
“I am sorry.” He said, “You are going to die.”
Her eyes twitched and she hacked, coughing in between a coarse and fluid-filled laugh. She was sick and she knew it, there was flem and flakes of blood in her spit, “I am dying? But I did everything you told me to.”
He looked at a clipboard, “The cancer is more pervasive than we thought. It was hiding in the bone marrow. It had a resurgence. At most, you have six months before the cancer spreads to the heart and lungs. The Chemotherapy failed, it, unfortunately, destroyed your immune system. You won’t survive another treatment.”
“That’s not fair. This isn’t how things were supposed to go. I trusted you!”
“It was a misdiagnosis if we had found it sooner then-”
“Get out!” She screamed at him, “You murdered me!”
His face tightened and he kept himself from saying anything. After a moment he turned and left her alone.
The next several days were lost in a fit of depression, denial and finally bargaining. She had contemplated suicide several times, but it didn’t sit right with her. Xava was too scared of that unknown. She had never been religious and the thought of fading into nothing insulted her.
I am too young to die like this. First in my class, an IQ of 182. I am supposed to be the future of robotics. I can see it all, these wonders, but this stupid, useless body! I am going to die, alone and forgotten. Why was I given this knowledge if I can’t even use it… wait… I could save myself. Yes, it is here that can save me. It wasn’t just robotics swirling about in her head, no there was something else as well.
~~~
“You have a visitor,” said the nurse opening the door.
“Come in, come in-” started Xava before she coughed roughly as she set her laptop to the side, “I am pleased you could make it.”
A man in a business suit entered the room. He looked extremely clean cut, immaculate in appearance. He had no facial hair and his head was shaved to a waxy finish. He shut the door behind him and stood over Xava, though his face scrunched up seeing her. He crossed his arms and said, “Your message got my attention, miss Zanna.”
“Xava,” she corrected him.
“Xava, can you actually do it?” he asked, eyes piercing through her.
“Assuming I survive long enough, yes. I can save your daughter, it won’t be particularly hard. However, I need funding, a place to work, assistants, materials, and research subjects.”
“How long do you still have?”
“Three months give or take.”
“Then we will begin at once, my daughter comes first, then we-”
“No!” Interrupted Xava, putting up as much of a struggle as her frail body could, “If I die then no one gets to live! Your daughter still has over a year, she has time to wait, I do not. Besides, once I save myself, it will be a lot easier to save her. I will be able to perform the operation personally.”
“What guarantee do I have that you will follow through?”
“Well, I am desperate. So there is that. I suppose you need some collateral? Should I expire before I can fulfill my end of the bargain then you are free to use my materials, though I highly doubt anybody would be able to actually use them, other than myself of course. So don’t get any funny ideas about killing me. Besides, this will be a very lucrative partnership.”
He scratched his chin, “Go on.”
“As I mentioned in the emails, we are talking Cybernetics here. It will revolutionize the healthcare industry. Now I know, I know you people are not in the business of “curing” but rather “Treating” But hear me out. There will be maintenance costs for the users, which will create more revenue in addition to newer models.”
“You have my undivided attention.”
“Cybernetics will be the future. It is a cash cow, the golden egg laying goose. But if I die, the goose dies. Fifty-fifty, split right down the middle. Though in truth the money is not what I am after, but I have expenses. And Mr. Viktor, head of Chronic Tonic, you could be be at the forefront of it all. Ahead of the competition, have the corner of the market. No longer will your company just be a pill popper’s haven and looked down upon in the industry as the drug addict distillery.”
His face tightened, “You hear a lot.”
“It would be foolish not to research my future partners in depth. I don’t give a damn about your shady business, in fact, that would be why I chose you.”
He took a seat, “Oh? And why would that be.”
“I am going to need live human subjects to experiment on, also animals. People would normally frown upon such things. Everything has to be perfect. I will only get one chance to save myself, so I will need as much practice and experience as I can get before the final plunge.”
“That is a bit unethical even for me.”
Xava leaned over, her face ghastly pale and sunken to the point it looked like a corpse, “Everything is unethical before it is acknowledged. If boundaries are not pushed we will stagnate and die. Is your daughter worth less to you than some drug addicts? Besides, it is not like they will outright die from the experiments, only if things go poorly will there even be adverse affects. If anything they should be considered lucky to be given this prototype procedure.”
“Still, the legal ramifications.”
Xava pat her chest, “If we get caught, throw me under the bus. Blame it all on me. As far as you knew I was experimenting on cats and dogs. Either I die before any of this even really matters or we save myself and your daughter.”
“Fine. I will get it all arranged. You start tomorrow.”
~~~
Weeks flew by in a blur of frantic research and unprecedented breakthroughs. Robotics had been explored, experimentally, and as a result, there was some base material to go off of. Xava used this to create a rudimentary exosuit to support her withered corpse of a body. It was connected to her mind and allowed her to move it as though it were her own body. It was the first of many prototype bodies. After obtaining this exosuit she was able to make striding advances where before she had to explain everything to others rather than do it herself.
Now she could begin the real work, fusing man and machine. She started with animals, though. Cats and dogs, they perished time and again. The mechanical organs failing them. Limbs and external upgrades were perfectly fine, it was the organs, the important parts that were the problem. They were complex organic machines that had to function properly or the others would fail in unison. She had to find a way or else when the time came for her own operation she would die.
Prototypes came and went. Animals died in droves until her fanatical research found it. She had broken the code at last, but it had wasted an entire month.
“Xava… what are you doing today?” asked the girl who had been following her around lately.
“Finishing the testing on the animal hearts.” Said Xava hurriedly carrying a mechanical heart that beat in her hands.
“Oh?” asked the girl, “Does it hurt?”
“Does what hurt?”
“You, do you hurt?”
“Of course I feel pain. In fact, every moment is burning agony.”
“Then why are you so desperate to live if it hurts?”
Xava paused, staring down at the pudgy girl. She was kinda cute, in a fluffy huggable sort of way. She brushed aside her thoughts and said, “Because I am scared of death far more than I am of pain. Honestly, I hardly even feel the pain anymore.”
“But you said it burned.”
“It does burn. The pain lets me know I am still alive. But eventually, you will go numb.”
“Will it hurt when I get my new body?”
“… I am unsure. We haven’t gotten there yet. Although, you will be sedated so it will be painless during the operation and it is doubtful you will even be aware of it.”
“When will it be ready?”
“I don’t know.”
There was only a brief silence between them before Xava continued what she was doing. She stood before the incapacitate dog on the table. It was a larger one, a great Dane. Twitching she sliced open the canine and cut the rib cage so that it hung away from the beating heart. The metal hand reached in, clamping the blood vessels shut before severing the heart, pulling it free and throwing it aside like the inferior organic that it was. Gently the cyber heart was lowered in position. Her bulky fingers worked the veins over the tubes and she spread a sealant like adhesive that bonded the organic and inorganic as one.
Xava slowly and meticulously made sure that everything was in place, perfect. The heart beat. A steady thump rose and she began to seal the rib cage back together. She stapled the skin back together and washed the blood from her hands. Her eyes darted over to the monitors and the readings were normal.
Xava sighed, “Uhh, good so then it wasn’t just a fluke last time.”
The girl who had been watching all of this with fascination, despite how gruesome it was, leaned over watching the dog breath in and out, “So the heart works?”
“Yes. Now we can move to the next phase.”
“People?” she asked.
Xava sat down and folded her fingers over one another, “Yes, people. Soon Velda, your illness will be a faint memory.”
The soft and squishy young lady smiled, “Father will be pleased to hear that.”
“Yes, run along and tell him, I am ready.”
Xava watched Velda leave and turned, lost in thought. Lying only gave her a slight pause. It was more of a white lie. The heart wasn’t ready yet, that needed extensive testing, but she didn’t have time. This was taking too long. She didn’t have time to perfect it, things were getting worse. All this activity had accelerated her own demise. It was now, or never. She proceeded to human trials out of desperation.
***
Xava’s thoughts concentrated… she was wasting time here, living in these delusions from her past. Due to the mechanical links to her brain this quasi-mind control was wavering at times. She knew what was happening, these lucid dreams were being projected straight into the host’s mind, trapping them in a coma-like state.
Xava blinked, seeing the cockpit around her. How much time had she already lost? Now like then, time was a commodity she did not have. Kraken were going to nuke the city if this did not get settled. Vesper was going to die if she did not do what she had come to do. She concentrated hard, pulling herself from the murky depths. But they pressed in again, drowning her consciousness below all her misgivings and fears.
Fine. She thought, before letting everything go.
*Disconnecting neural net from emotional drives and memory banks. Suppressing external senses. Automated administration activated. Prime directive, acquisition of Vesper. Direct cortex link severed.*
Xava’s eyes opened again, clear of the plague that organics suffered from, emotions. There were no delusions and hazy warped memories. The outside of the Robo Scorpio was still inundated by the concentrated psychokinetic matter. The blinking on her arm pinged that she was in range. It was the logical thing to do, one life to save thousands, though they were insignificant organics. Sunshine’s life for Vesper’s. Thinking of it now and finding that she should have pressed this button long ago, it would have prevented a lot of trouble. However, it would have made Vesper sad… error- feelings are… irrelevant.
She pressed the button. There was only a slight delay before the detonation. A shock wave rippled out from deep in the heart of this made up world and with it a blood-curdling scream. A crescendo of violence unfolded as reality collapsed in on itself like a neutron star.