Imbue, Chapter 6: A Little Empathy Goes a Long Way
Imbue, Chapter 6: A Little Empathy Goes a Long Way



Foreword from unacat
This was my first full length fan-fic, but I can't say it was my best. I was still in the middle of developing and refining my AC, so una's behavior changes back and forth thruout Imbue. But still, I'm glad that I got a somewhat major part. Anyway, the thing that got my attention in Imbue was the unique and intriguing plot, of a monster completely invulnerable to emotions...
That was also why I had attempted to have my AC prophesize about the upcoming struggle, about how ones with no emotions lose to those with emotions... didn't turn out too well, though. But other than that lame attempt at getting with the feel of things, Imbue turned out okay. I am looking forward to the next mega-if that Anthadd starts, in which Cptn. Poo had better watch his back.

P.S.: Una was under Fake's influence at the end. Why no one recognized that is completely beyond me.
And while all this was happening, Dan stood haggling with a pickpocket who made his living selling things he nabbed back to their original owners. The shady figure laughed uncomfortably in true used-car salesman mannerism.
"Hey, this is a fine...erm..."
"Newton. As in my Newton."
"Are you accusing me of stealing? I'm HURT."
"It has my name on it," Dan said. In a rare moment of anger, he pulled the man, considerably taller than he was, closer towards him. "If you don't give it back to me...I'll...I'll..." Dan turned toward an abAndoned building. Not under control of himself, he shouted something, and a blast of Psychic energy flew across the street, blasting a good-sized hole through the brick wall.
"I...I...changed my mind! You can take yer salamander."
Dan grabbed it, smiled to himself, and walked off towards the ruins, all the while while muttering "Now THAT was awesome!" to himself...

It wasn't Poo's fault that the Fourside Dinosaur Museum had been robbed. One thing led to another. This is exactly what happened:
Poo had been walking down the street, aiming to get to the site of the destroyed Topolla. Across the street he saw a masked man entering the museum. Thinking he was up to no good, Poo went in after him in hopes of playing hero. Just as the masked man drew a gun and pointed it at the curator, Poo tackled him from behind, knocking him into a display of Tyrannosaurus Rex bones. The masked man, scared by now, ran out of the museum. Poo ran after him in hopes of catching him, but he tripped over a bone and was knocked unconcious. When he woke up, he found his hands handcuffed. The police were dragging him to jail. This wouldn't do, so Poo broke free and ran, with the handcuffs still on him. Now he was a wanted criminal and it had all happened in less than an hour...what should he do now but continue on his mission. He still had to find the fiend who had destroyed his boat.

Luna dragged Skulryk along an avenue somewhere in Fourside. "This is not working..." she scowled, looking around for a direction that might lead her towards the theater.
"Luna, could you let go of me now?" Skulryk asked tapping Luna on the shoulder.
"Hmm? Oh, sure." She responded, letting go of his arm. "Now... where to go."
"Look! Over there, in that park, isn't that a hint guy?" he yelled, pointing at the large sign in the park that pronounced: 'Hints: 50$'
"Yeah, but do you have 50$ on your at the moment?"
"I would have if I'd kept all those coins..."
"Oh no matter! C'mon!" Luna said, grabbing Skulryk by the arm again. "We have some bargaining to do!"

"So you must be Dr. Andonuts. pleased to meet you."
unacat had finally gotten the blue paint off of his body, returning him to his usual orange state, and was explaining the situation to the group.
"I have deduced what the AoE's phrophecy meant. It said that it was having problems seeing the events that would happen in this adventure, so I think it had to make do with a long-term statement. Kinda like one of those good always wins over evil things."
"So we're on our own?" demanded Jeff.
"I'm afraid so... All we can do is prepare for the unpredictable."

As Rockwell finally got to the end of Stonehenge, he stopped. It appeared that there was absolutely no clue whatsoever to find.
"I wasted my time coming down here!" Rockwell shouted as he punched a wall. Doing so, the wall collasped, revealing a secret passage. He stood there for a moment with a large anime-like sweatdrop forming on his head.
"Talk about luck."
He walked into the newly made path, hoping to find some clues...

Luna and Skulryk were bargaining with the Mr. T look-alike.
"This thing? I'll give you at least... $16 dollars for this," said the manager.
"$16? That's all?" Luna asked.
The manager nodded.
"Forget it. Let's go Skulryk," Luna sighed.
"Skulryk? Skulryk? Where have I heard that name before? Oh yes... you own me $60." The manager growled as he crossed his arms.
Skulryk stood in front of the store manager, rather dumbfounded.
"What are you talking about? $60? I've never been here before... I've never even been to FOURSIDE before!"
The manager flinched for a moment, then shouted, "Liar! I'll call the police!"
"Listen, I don't know what you're talking about! You don't have any proof either! Now, if you'll excuse us, we need to get going. We'll have to find somewhere else to sell some stuff so we can find Narcy and the others and..."
The manager suddenly grew rather angry, with a sense of recognition. "Narcy, did you say? NARCY? I know all about Narcy! You're a thief, aren't you!"
Luna slapped her forehead and sighed rather angrily. "You IDIOT! Come on, let's go before you get us into any more trouble!"
Before the manager could say another word, she pulled Skulryk out of the door, inadvertently knocking over the policeman from earlier, and ran off.

As soon as unacat had explained everything, and the scientists had displayed their findings, there was a general confusion as to what should be done next.
"Okay," began Paula. "So we know that a..." Her face twisted slightly. "....StarWOMAN was somehow brought to life in the now reactivated Stongehenge base. She was the work of Orange Kid, who had been working on imbuing life from one person to another." Apple Kid shook his head in disbelief. "Orange Kid has disappeared, and now the Starwoman seems to be furthering the experiments for unknown reasons. From what you've said, unacat, she wants to remove emotions from life."
unacat nodded, and cut her short. "Yes, and she seems to be managing well. If her experiments continue, there's no telling what she'll do to all of the life in the Winters area."
Paula nodded, and went on. "She's cut off Winters from outside, and done horrible things to the people there. It's obvious she has to be stopped.... with the 'right feelings', whatever those are. Apparently your friends are somehow instrumental in this." She indicated unacat.
"The 'Bridge' that the transmission on the Sky Runner spoke of..." put in Jeff. "It must be a bridge between reason and life. By eliminating emotion, the Starwoman hopes to fill the world with life that is aware, but only exists to perform certain functions. Scientifically it makes sense, but scientists like ourselves realize that emotion is just as important when it comes to life."
"And we've found out various other pieces of information," added Dr. Andonuts. "Such as that the Topolla Theater had a previous owner. We couldn't find who, but we know that the Theater didn't exist under that ownership - it was only built after the exchange in possession. Also, the current owner, Miss Fake, had taken a vacation, and has mysteriously disappeared. Reports say that she had gone to Winters... perhaps, she is somehow involved in this?"
Rusty had been listening to everyone exchange information, but now spoke up. "We all should prob'ly check the Topolla ruins together, and help unacat find th' others. Findin' out more about th' Topolla before it was a theater might give us an ideah as t' why it was destroyed."
Everyone nodded. "I think that's well in order," agreed Dr. Andonuts. He turned to unacat. "unacat, you say that your friends had not arrived yet?"
unacat shrugged. "I don't know, they might have gotten here by now. I suppose we'll find out."
Rusty got up. "What're we waitin' for, le's find them and figger out what feelins we need to stop that Starwoman!" He headed for the door. The others followed, Dr. Andonuts and the Apple Kid gathering their materials. The seven stepped outside and began to head for the Topolla, unaware of how nearby a number of unacat's friends were.

"Y, your Diamond?" Anthadd stuttered.
"Hold on!" Narcy exclaimed. "If this is your Diamond..."
"Yes," the Starwoman glibly said, "I am Fake."
"Of course! Orange Kid experimented on you!" Cyan noted.
"That fool... he tried to extend his limits... and made me what I am today. Give me the Diamond, now!"
"No! It's mine!" Narcy cried.
Cyan drew his ever trusty sword.
Anthadd began to focus in advance to use some Stellar skill.
Narcy drew her gun. Miss Fake did as well.

"You idiot... going and mentioning Narcy like that could've gotten us arrested... as if we don't already have enough problems. I still don't know who the heck I am, besides the fact that my name's Luna." Luna said to Skulryk, dragging him around another corner in a constant search for the theater ruins. Suddenly, as they walked along the side of one building, they were there.
"I think this is it!" Skulryk said, jumping up. "Woohoo, finally!"
"Get down!" yelled Luna, tackling Skulryk to the ground, a laser bolt barely missing them. The Starwoman, aka Miss Fake, had fired the first shot. "You.. idiot!" Luna gasped, bonking Skulryk on the head. "Three times!"
The former Miss Fake had no time for games. She sneered evilly, raising the gun again, and pulling out another, keeping one trained on Skulryk and Luna, the other on Narcy and group. "I see you doubt that I can fire these simultaneously. Want to test your theory?" she said, her voice dripping with menace. "Now give me that Diamond, or prepare to pay!"

Mike heard the discharge of an energy weapon close by. Oh man, that isn't good. He ran towards the sound of commotion and noted that people who he knew were being threatened by a Starwoman.
Mike assessed the situation carefully and noticed that he was on a building. Shrugging, he walked to the edge and jumped down, knocking the gun out of the starwoman's hand and knocking the diamond from Narcy's hand.
"Hey!" Narcy and Fake exlaimed at the same time.
"Incredibly sorry," Mike apologized. He picked up the diamond. He went to throw it at Fake, but Narcy held his arm.
"What do you think you're doing?!" Narcy asked, bewildered. "That's MINE!" Mike only winked at her. He then proceeded to throw the diamond at Fake.
Fake caught the diamond and laughed a menacing laugh. "Ahahaha. Thanks, fool!" She then warped out of the general vicinity.
Narcy fell to the ground and started to cry. Between sobs, she said "Why did you give my diamond away?!" Mike grinned and produced a diamond from his coat pocket.
"Haven't seen you guys in a while. What's up?"

Narcy grinned, and hugged Mike. "Master Criminal-erifficness, old boy! I do say, jolly wot!" She snuggled the diamond up next to her cheek, and sighed.
"It's mine anyway. My father lost a diamond a few years after I was born, in the desert. And now its mine again! Ahahaha! This is a victory for Narcy Topolla!"
Luna raised an eyebrow. "Your last name is Topolla?"
"Well, duh. My grandad is the one who built the lab. He was shamelessly unoriginal, hence the name."
Cyan tapped his foot impatiently. "Where could Fake have gone? its not like we have all day here. For all we know, she could have burned Onett and Twoson by now!"
"More importantly, what's with the diamond? I mean, it IS worth alot of cash, I bet, but why the urgency? She's basically invincible, so money shouldn't be an issue..."
Narcy shrugged. "I dunno. My dad never got to tell me much aboutt he diamond before he died. But that's in the past."
"We should really find out why that diamond is so important." Anthadd said slowly, resting his hand on the diamond.
"Back off, bucko." Narcy sneered. "This diamond doesn't leave me without a fight. I think we need to concentrate on how to bring fake down."
"I have a theory about that."
Narcy looked down to see Charles twitching his tail slightly. "I think it might only be possible to understand her weakness if you were imbued to another life."
Luna blinked. "You mean like putting our minds inside another body? That's suicide! And how do we even know we could get back? AND couldn't you just tell us her weakness?"
"We don't know if we could get back. it's the only chance we've got. AND I couldn't TELL you. You'd have to experience it for yourselves to understand how she works."

Rockwell sighed and put his hand against a dusty wall after coming before another dead end. The brick that Rockwell had his hand on gave way and a small hole opened underneath Rockwell. He fell and hit the floor with a loud crash.
"Ow... no way out of here. Hey, what's that?" Rockwell asked himself as he caught a glimpse of a operating table.
"Uh... Orange Kid's signature?" Rockwell asked as he scratched his head.
"What does Orange Kid have to do with this?" he pondered for a while.
Then he snapped his finger and said, "Of course! The disappearance of Orange Kid! It's finally connecting itself together! But I think the others already figured that out... say, what's that piece of paper that's beckoning me to come and pick up?"
He picked the paper up and examine it.
"Strange, strange indeed. It's so... illegible. Joy, I love puzzles." Rockwell sighed with sarcasm.
He took a chair and went to sit onto it and a loud explosion rocked the area. Then the light went on in an instant. In front of him, were deactivated Starmen, fainted Foppies, and unconcious Mooks Seniors.
"What th-" he gasped in astounishment, "What kind of sick plan did Orange Kid had in his mind?"
Then a shadow loomed over Rockwell.
"*beep* Surrender or... *beep* die."
Rockwell slowly moved his hand toward his Esca Sword, but a laser hit him in the back knocking him unconcious.
"Prepare the subject. *beep*. It's time to create the ultimate monster for Miss Fake. *beep*"

"What do we do now?" Skulryk asked.
Everyone stood there and thought about this for a while, until a light-bulb appeared over Luna's head.
"Who has $50?" Luna asked the group.

"But who would be Imbued, and into what?" Anthadd queried.
"Yes," Charles mused, "this would be a predicament. I suspect that once you're Imbued, you can only be Imbued back into your own body. However, the permanency of Imbuing still remains a mystery. We would have to consider all possible variables before even preparing to Imbue minds."
"You're right," Cyan commented. "We'd have to decide what would be best for the group, not to mention the two guinea pigs in the Imbuing experiment."
"Well," Luna murmured, "you've all reasoned well. I suggest we vote on if we should Imbue life on our own. Would it bring us down to Fake's level?"

"Impossible," Narcy scoffed. "We would be willingly Imbuing ourselves into new bodies, to do great justice. We aren't being pushed into this."
"Says you," Poo muttered.
"But look at it this way! How much time do we have before she imbues again? Not much, not much at all I say! How can we sit on our hands! We have to take action, no matter what the consequences are! And if it means I spend the rest of my life as a Spiteful crow, so be it!" Narcy hollered.
Everyone else clapped politely, then Anthadd started to talk. "This isn't just a shoot 'em up though. We're implicating everyone involved. For instance, Venus is an innocent bystander. Why should she be forced into this?"
Venus looked, and began to speak quietly. "I..I think we should do it. If it means that no one else has to go through this torture... I am willing to sacrifice myself."
One of Narcy's eyebrows quirked slightly. "Well said, I suppose. I'm all in favor of it, and if princess Venus here has no problem, I'm just waiting for the rest of you."

"So..." Skulryk said, "if we go through with this... and... imbue ourselves... would there be any way back?"
"I'm not sure..." said Anthadd. "I seriously doubt it."
"I don't care," said Narcy. "We need to stop this before Fake destroys everyone with this godforsaken mad experiment.
For someone who's a thief, she's pretty kind-hearted... Skulryk thought.
"I think... I think we should go through with this. I don't care if I can't get back... I'd do it even if I couldn't. Otherwise, everyone could be doomed."
"Alright!" Narcy shouted. "Who else? Come on, come on, we gotta do this fast!"

"Anthadd and I will be the guinea pigs," said Cyan flatly. Anthadd fainted.
"Is he all right? And why you two?" asked Narcy, feigning concern for Anthadd.
"Face it, we're the best two for it," continued Cyan in the same tone.
"I wouldn't say that," muttered Poo to himself.
"You've seen how similar we think. We say the exact same thing simultaneously on a regular basis. I figure that if we switch bodies we'd have the easiest time adjusting to the change. Even if I'm wrong, I have an idea of how we can switch back later if we have no other way."
"How is that?" asked Skulryk.
"Don't ask. Very long story and I don't feel like explaining it for the time being," said Cyan, continuing in the same tone.
"Fine, but if we're going to do it let's get it done soon," concluded Narcy.

Miss Fake flew towards Stonehenge.
How did everyone escape? she thought angrily. I could have sworn they couldn't have escaped!
She realised she was wasting time by thinking.
She dismissed her thoughts, and flew faster.

"Where are we going to perform the experiment?" Anthadd asked.

Rockwell groaned and rubbed the back of his head as he awoke. Nearly half-awake, he got onto his feet and walked around the place.
"I feel... strange." Rockwell sighed.
"*beep*, Awake subject! *beep* Bow before your leader!" shouted a voice.
Rockwell looked up at the voice and saw a Starman DX pointing to a Starwoman.
"Huh? What happened?" Rockwell groaned.
The Starwoman growled and screamed, "Bow before me! Or I'll disassemble you!"
Being confused and dazed, Rockwell bowed underneath a few Starmen DX tentacles.
"What is your name, foolish subject?" the Starwoman asked.
"Rockwell... and why are you guys calling me subjects?" he asked politely.
The Starwoman snapped her fingers, bringing forth two Starman DX with a mirror.
"Look in the mirror." the Starwoman laughed.
Rockwell looked and saw a Starman in front of him. Reacting to this, he slashed the Starman once. The Starman, or so he thought, shattered to pieces. Then it came to him, he looked at his hands, but saw tentacles. He... was a Starman himself. Angered by this, he swung around and shouted, "What have you done to me? You monster! Where's my body?"
The Starwoman stood there and chuckled.
"Answer me! Who are you?!" Rockwell tried to cry, but robots were incapable of creating tears.
"Oh, stop crying. You might rust yourself... I am... Miss Fake. One of my loyal solider shot you, and I, Miss Fake, Imbued you into a Starman body. Of course, with a few modification; Why, you are as powerful as I am..."
"And... what became of my body?" Rockwell asked.
"Don't worry, we have it cryonegically frozen to keep it fresh. We're planning to imbue a Mook into the body."
"What? Forget it. Put me back now." Rockwell growled as he raised his tentacle at Miss Fake.
"Oh, my dear... I'm afraid that isn't possible." Miss Fake giggled. "And I wouldn't try to do that..."
Miss Fake pulled out a remote control with a red button on it.
"If you try to act out, one press of this button will send through electronic magnetic pulse throughout your body. And I might warn you, it can be quite painful, you'll survive, but it's painful..." Miss Fake laughed.
Rockwell lowered his tentacles and looked upward. The ceiling was made out of glass, acting from this; he shot a blast of ray in order to lift him off the ground. As in doing so, he charged up toward the glass.
"Stop him!" Miss Fake screamed, "Or I'll put you into a Mole Playing Rough!"
The Starman DXs started shooting at Rockwell. But luckily, Rockwell went through the glass and out of the horrifying lab.
"Oh man... oh man..." Rockwell groaned.
He charged up his booster and checked his radar. He detect familar lifeforms in Fourside. He charged up his booster and said, "Fourside, here I come!"

"Hello?" said Narcy loudly. "This is a laboratory!" She looked around at the layers of dust. "Well, it was, anyway. There's no reason for us not to do it here."
"That makes sense," replied Anthadd a bit sheepishly.
"So how do we go about this?" asked Dan. He turned to Charles. "We don't know about the technology... I assume you know how we're supposed to do it?"
Charles started to reply, but before he got far, the group heard voices coming faintly from above. They caught the end of a female voice speaking, "...down there up ahead. Come down here." Footsteps were heard on the stairs. Tension of Miss Fake's possible return went through the group, although it seemed unlikely that it would happen this fast.
Just then, a young blonde girl in a pink dress appeared at the foot of the stairs. Upon seeing the crowd assembled there, she mumbled, "Oh..."
Nobody had time to remark before six more people came down the stairs. One of them was unacat. Poo curled his lip; and Narcy, Anthadd, and Cyan all radiated uneasiness. The other five were all male and seemed a range of ages. Anthadd recognized one of them. "Are you Doctor Andonuts?"
The man with sparse white hair turned his head to Anthadd. "Indeed, I am. Who might all of you be?"
"Maybe you should ask your friend there," chuckled Poo darkly, pointing to unacat.
"Well?" remarked Jeff to that individual.
unacat stared at the group, and coughed. "These are all the people I told you about."
Dr. Andonuts walked forward to Anthadd. "Oh! So you were in the Winters base. Perhaps you can fill us in. We've been researching what could have happened as well. It seems a scientist found a way to add life to substances, but didn't publish their results." He paused, and chuckled. "Oh, pardon me. Which of the ones we've heard about are you?"
"I'm Anthadd," the addressee answered. "And we know about the process of transferring life. They call it imbuing life.... they being the Orange Kid, and the former Miss Fake."
Paula thought over this new information. "Miss Fake's behind this? How? And why?"
"The Orange Kid experimented on her," remarked Luna. "And then he was killed by her. Now she's furthering the experiments. We still don't know why, though."
Narcy crossed to Charles. "He suggested that we might figured it out if we imbued ourselves into another body, so we were in the process of figuring out how to do it."
"That could be dangerous. If you aren't certain how to do it, who knows what horrible results might be caused," said the doctor.
"Well, it's our only chance, and we've got the lab to do it," replied Narcy, spreading her arms to indicate the room they were in.
"Ah! So this 's what the buildin' was before it became th' theater," said Rusty.
"Well, we're all scientists," said Jeff, pointing out Dr. Andonuts, the Apple Kid, and himself. "We could help you to figure out the process used. It may take awhile, though. And it may not be reversible. Who would volunteer?"
"We've already volunteered," said Anthadd and Cyan at the same time. The new group of seven goggled. "Never mind that," sighed Cyan.
"Then we should begin right away," said Dr. Andonuts. "We can split into teams. Some of us will work on the imbuing process, and the others can form a plan as to how we will infiltrate the base." He paused, once again remembering something. "Oh. I suppose I should introduce the others. This is my son, Jeff Andonuts. This is the Apple Kid. This is Paula Polestar, a friend of Jeff's. This is Rusty, a friend of Paula's. And this is TsuramiSea, who is acquainted with both Jeff and Paula." TsuramiSea facefaulted for some reason, but quickly recovered and calmly smiled. "Now, let's decide how each person will help out. Also, it would help if you gave me as many details as to your travels in Winters as possible. In turn, I'll give you all of the information that we've discovered." With that, the two groups joined together, continuing the discussion of how the Imbuing would be done.