Imbue, Chapter 8: Back in the Fray
Imbue, Chapter 8: Back in the Fray
Foreword from TsuramiSea
Imbue was good, if not somewhat dark. There were people dying and being displaced into other bodies, after all. Then again, science-used-for-evil-purposes plots can be that way.
I was surprised that the 'life' theme wasn't made more use of in the story, considering that numerous questions could've been raised from it. It might have only added dead weight to the story.
Interesting, as well, how so many people got dragged into the situation without any idea how to fix. (On a somewhat related note, where did Luna come from, anyway?) At least the story didn't end with the creation of ten new dimensions.
Here's to hoping that more exciting adventures happen in the EarthBound universe - while maintaining a somewhat lighthearted spirit, that is.
"It's so creepy in here..." mumbled Venus, dusting some cobwebs off a table.
"Well, as long as there are no snakes, I'm fine." Said Mike, cheerfully.
"Nevertheless," Anthadd stated, "it's freezing. Can anyone find the thermostat?"
"I'll look by the door!" announced Luna, walking over to check. "Ah, here it is..." she said, smiling, and switching it to 70 degrees.
Then the door opened. The snow outside framed a starman DX in the doorway.
"Rockwell!" Luna said happily, running up to him. "Thank goodness you're okay! We were really worried... Rockwell?"
"I am X-015. And you," he said, turning to Luna, "are dead."
"Huugh..." Luna gasped, falling backwards, holding a spot on her chest with her hands. She hit the floor, and slid backwards. "Rockwell..." she whispered, eyes misting over, "What... did they do?"
X-015 laughed a cold, evil laugh, still holding his laser blaster. "They did nothing but good! They helped me see that I was on the wrong side... now I'm on the right one. Miss Fake is the only one I serve! Now then," sneered X-015 "anyone else care to sample my laser? If you care to try it, by all means, speak up. It will be your last." he smirked, laughing again, as the group stared from X-015, back to Luna, who's eyes had closed, still holding the wound.
The group backed up. What could they possibly do? One of their friends, cut down in an instant. Venus and Charles quickly ran foward, grabbing Luna's limp form, as the robot's sensor scanned the area.
"Anyone else?" The robot laughed yet again in its cruel, inhuman voice.
Dan held back a smirk and stepped foward. X-015 raised its laser and without a word fired. The shot flew foward and...bounced off? X-015 stood in a mix of shock and horror as Dan turned off the Game Genie which had been on his belt. "Heh. Shiiiiiieeeelds." Dan called to the robot tauntingly.
Anthadd shouted. "He's recharging! Run!"
The group dashed out of the lab, Venus carrying Luna, who was obviously near death. It was only a matter of minutes before X-015 would return to attack them. They quickly hopped on Tessie, who was taking a swim around the sea. "Get us across as fast as you can!" Narcy yelled. Although it most likely didn't understand English, it understood the message. It glided across the sea, and quickly reached the other side.
"What do we do now?" Cyan asked.
"We get to Snow Woods. fast!"
The group ran for 10 minutes in an adrenaline accelerated frenzy until they were at the walls of the great Boarding school. A screen on the wall buzzed to life. "Hello. Maxwell Labs here. Whaddya want?" They related their story. Now, most people would have been more than a bit skeptical, but Labs, who had helped Jeff on his adventure, understood. He opened the gate, and the group ran in. Maxwell was waiting for them in the lobby. "There's an empty room with enough bunks upstairs. You guys look like you need a rest. I'll take your friend to the infirmary wing, but I don't know if they can help. She looks pretty banged up..." He trailed off with a sad look in his eyes.
The greif-stricken group was shown to their room by a student, and they settled in. It was there that they came to a stunning realization. They couldn't let everyone at Snow Wood know what they were doing. As the TV hummed on with no one there to watch it, they were all huddled around the computer. Dan checked the medical records nervously. Finally, he found Luna. She was in critical shape, but luck was on their side in another category. Glancing at the reason for injury. The whole group, sad as they were, smiled. It simply said "Lab accident." Good old Maxwell...
Mike wandered into the infirmary. He saw Dan thumbing through some medical records. "Is she going to be alright?"
"I'm not sure. It doesn't look that great, but there's always a chance."
"Mmm. I see." Mike left the room so that he could use his cell phone without messing up any of the instruments. He dialed his own number.
"Admiral Mike's office" the secretary on the other side responded.
"Hello, this is Mike."
"Sir, how are you?"
"I could be better. Listen, I need you to get me a few things. When you gather them, send them to Snow Wood Boarding House, alright?"
"Aye aye sir." Mike proceeded to tell his secretary what he needed. "I'll have the stuff to you in about an hour and a half, sir. See you in a couple weeks." *Click*
Mike chuckled to himself as he hung up the phone. I'm going to take care of that robot and my friend as well... Mike thought to himself. He then took a seat in the hall and began to think about other things.
Skulryk finished off the last of his soda as Mike sat down next to him.
"Hey..." Skulryk said to Mike.
"Hey Skul."
"I saw you coming out of the infirmary... Anything new?"
"About Luna? I didn't see her... Dan told me it doesn't look good, but I just got a way to make her chances a whole lot better." Mike let out a small smile.
Skulryk changed the subject. "Mike, I know you've been wondering why I went back to fight X-015 by myself, and I'm not too sure why I did it myself right now... but I got a feeling right then... I'm not sure if I can explain it, but I just knew that it wasn't just a starman, and someone we knew was in there... I guess I was right, but... he was still to strong for me... Thanks for saving me..."
"Hey, no problem... I'm still not quite sure what you mean by a feeling, but that's ok."
"One other thing." Skulryk held up a floppy disk. "I managed to grab a disk the starman had on him at the time, but right now everything on it is unreadable... Do you know anything about this kind of stuff?"
"Heh... not a bit."
"Well, ok... I think I'll get a coffee and start to work on it... See ya later."
"See ya."
Skulryk got up and left. Popping in the disk to the computer, he set to work on trying to crack the code.
Several hours later, Dan walked in to find him slumped across the keyboard in sleep.
Dan let out a sigh, then took a look at the computer screen.
Pushing Skulryk ever-so-gently out of the chair and on to the floor, Dan peeked at the computer screen. A Command Prompt stared back.
Enter code_
Dan thought for a second, and punched something in.
Incorrect. Please try again
And so it continued, until Dan was about ready to give up. The clock on the wall said 4:30.
"Just once more..." he said to himself (Skulryk was still asleep.)
Enter Code>Imbue_
There was a slight pause as the old computer processed the data.
Password accepted. Please continue.
Dan double taked. "I did it, I did it, I diiiiiiiid it! I am invincible!" He shouted, waking up just about everyone in the surrounding area. That was unimportant, though. He continued through the disk, eventually finding something the group could use.
"What is it?" Narcy asked. (They had all been awakened by Dan's triumphant yell.)
"It's talking about the entire Imbuing process; It also gives more than a passing mention of X-015/Rockwell's creation..."
The next morning, Anthadd dipped his feet in Lake Tess.
"Tessie... is there only one?"
He peered in the water.
"It's too murky to make anything out... wait, what's that?"
He glared at the water.
"Oh, wait. It's only my reflection."
He waited a second again. The surface began to ripple.
"Yai... Centau..."
"Don't hurt me!" Charles cried.
"What are you doing sneaking up on me? I could have went into cardiac arrest?"
"Sorry," the Strong Watcher replied. "I had to investigate Tessie first hand. This body has its advantages."
"How long have you been down there?"
"A few hours..."
"It's seven in the morning! You mean to tell me you've been up since 4:00 or 5:00?"
"Yeah. Anyway, what were you trying to use when I surfaced?" Charles shivered. This body had its disadvantages too.
"It's Stellar."
"Might I be able to use it?"
"It does take training, and a lot out of you," Anthadd explained forlornly.
"I'm willing to take the risk."
"If you're sure..."
And so Anthadd began to train Charles, the Strong Watcher, in the ways of Stellar.
Meanwhile, Narcy stood watch over Luna in the hospital.
"She won't last much longer..." Narcy said, rhetorically. However, she was overheard. Venus walked into the room somberly.
"Isn't there anything you can do?" She said, drying a tear with her once-white gloves.
"Not a thing. We can only pray that something in her wakes her up...otherwise, she will leave us."
Venus began to cry again, and against her better judgement, Narcy threw a consoling arm around her. "It'll be ok...She's going onto a better place." As Venus rested her head on Narcy's shoulder, she let the tears flow freely onto Narcy's suit. Narcy looked up.
Luna had flatlined.
Narcy felt the tears well up in her eyes, and she pushed Venus' head aside. "I have to talk to Anthadd...quickly."
She threw on a jacket over her dress, and walked outside into the bitter cold, leaving Venus alone with Luna.
She could feel her heart beat with each step she took, and emotions stirring in her mind. Luna was gone, but this wasn't an accident. Looking up, she saw Anthadd and Charles down at Lake Tess. Narcy sat down in the snow, and called to Anthadd. He saw her and waved, and walked over.
"Narcy, Hello there."
Narcy's hair lopped out of her pigtails slightly as she began to speak. "Anthadd...Luna died a few minutes ago. There was nothing I could do...what do we do now?"
Anthadd thought for a moment, and Narcy could see that he was definantly disturbed.
"I don't know."
Narcy and Anthadd reached the lab after a short walk back, with Charles at their heels. Narcy leaned her head aroundt he door, to see Venus with her head down near Luna, sobbing quietly.
"It hit her pretty hard," Narcy said admittedly. However, Anthadd wasn't listening.
"The disk...reaccessing parts of the brain..this all makes sense now." He turned sharply to Narcy. "Is it possible we could Imbue what's left of Luna into a new body, and revive at least some of her?"
Narcy curled a piece of hair around her finger. "I suppose anything is possible...Oh Anthadd, we don't have a body!"
Venus looked up, her mascara running fown her cheeks. "I'll do it."
In the basement of Maxwell labs, Narcy and Anthadd threw on labcoats, and surgical equipment.
"We have to do this quickly," Narcy said, "Before what we have to work with diminishes even more." Anthadd nodded, and grabbed a syringe from a bag of equipment.
"I made a few adjustments to the formula," Narcy paused, "We don't have to take anyhthing out of Venus. All we have to do is add Luna's personal chemicals into Venus' brain, and the Venus complex should remove itself into a state of hibernation almost entirely. However, there will be some traits even I can't remove. When the time comes when we need to remove Luna, it should be a quick process, and Venus will be back to normal. Are you ready, Venus?" She said, eyeing her.
Venus looked up from the surgical table. "I don't think I can ever be ready for this, but its for the best."
"Good. Now stare straight ahead," Anthadd said, as he slowly sedated Venus. Narcy handed him another needle, full of Luna's life force, which he squeezed tightly. Aiming it at the tip of Venus' head, he crossed his free fingers. He pushed the needle in, and hoped for the best.
Narcy and Anthadd stood around the surgical table in complete silence, not daring to move, or speak, not daring to break the tension that literally hummed in the air.
Suddenly, Venus's eyes fluttered open, then went wide.
"I'm.." she gasped "I'm alive..." Luna, in Venus's body, sat up slowly, and brought her hands to her face. "I'm really alive..."
"WE DID IT!" laughed Narcy, hugging Anthadd and then proceeding to jump up and down. "The experiment worked!" Anthadd couldn't help but grin at their success.
"Wha... experiment?" Luna blinked, then suddenly realized something: she was wearing long white gloves. "Whawhawhaaaa!! I'm Venus!.. or is Venus me!? Or is.."
Narcy couldn't help but laugh. "We imbued your lifeforce into Venus's body, putting her consciousness in a state of temporary stasis. So you're yourself, only in Venus's body!"
"So Venus is all right?" Luna queried, still unsure of what was happening, and had happened.
"Yes, Venus is fine," Anthadd said, still grinning, helping Luna off the surgical table.
"Yeeee!" Luna shrieked, falling down, causing both Narcy and Anthadd to stare. "You know," Luna said frostily "It's rude to stare."
"Are you okay?" asked Narcy, helping Luna up.
"Yeah, just the high heels..." said Luna, pulling them off, "...kinda tripped me. I'm going to go change into something a little more comfortable... this dress is freezing me!"
Narcy and Anthadd could only grin.
X-015 growled and tried to operate his radar, but for some reason it's seem to be malfunctioning. One moment, they were in Winters, now in Summers.
"This is useless... I'm going to have to do this the old-fashion way... destroy things."
Then X-015 clenched his metallic body and fell to his knee with a pitiful moan.
"What's going on?! Is... Rockwell trying to resist me?!" X-015 screamed and then fell down onto the ground with a thud.
Everything blacked out before him.
Venus, or Luna as you would know, was now in jeans, sweatshirt and sporting a pair of tennis shoes.
"Better!" Luna, who is controlling Venus' body for the time being, smiled.
Soon, she clenched her stomach and fell onto her bed, with a silent 'sprung'. Then everything blacked out...
A girl, stood alone in the blackness, shivering and rubbing her arms.
"Gosh, it's cold in here..." Luna sighed.
She brushed her hair back and saw an image of her original form, before she was imbued into Venus.
"Wow... do I really look like Princess Leia?" Luna chuckled as she reached out for the image.
The image felt like smooth glass, as if it was a mirror, the strange thing was.. the image was moving along with her.
"Oh my... I'm back in my original body again. But how?" she asked herself.
"That is a good question, and I can answer that for you. Welcome, to the sanctuary which all imbued lives take refuge. This is also my first time here... but I've learned that many imbued lives are known for their fame here." said a voice.
"Isn't that... Rockwell? I thought you were X-015?" Luna asked as she came face to face with Rockwell.
"No, X-015 controlled me. But I control a small part of him... his heart." Rockwell sighed and continued. "But, unfortunately, he's a robot."
"How did they gain back control of you?" Luna asked.
Rockwell turned away and sighed.
"According to my suspicion, she must have some kind of device that controls that... next time you see me, destroy me at all costs."
"But why? Can't we just..." But Luna was interrupted by Rockwell.
"No, forget the idea. It will never work. Maybe, I can help you fight somehow... luckily, I managed to disable X-015's radar. It should... help your friends. But he's getting too strong for me. He'll catch on soon and will try to eliminate me..." Rockwell gulped, "And I would rather die with honour, than inside a robot."
"What about Miss Fake? Will she try to repair you?" Luna asked once again.
"Not unless you destroy the very core that created the evil of X-015." Rockwell sighed, "I'm... sorry for killing you."
Luna sighed and turned her back on Rockwell and said, "Will we ever see you again?"
"In another time, another space, perhaps... another dimension. Our path will cross once again..." Rockwell chuckled.
Luna turned around to face Rockwell again, but found him to be gone.
"Remember what I told you... destroy the very core that create the evil within me..." Rockwell's voice echoed through the darkness.
Then Luna awoke, gasping. Anthadd and Narcy loomed over Luna, who is now in Venus' body once again.
"Are you okay?" Narcy asked.
"Yes, yes..." Luna sighed as she put her hand onto her forehead.
"Would you like to tell us about it?" Anthadd asked quietly.
She nodded and told them the whole story. Charles protested and said, "But I've never been there..."
"I think you need two imbued lives in order to arrange that..." said Luna, as she tried to take a wild stab in the dark.
X-015 was back online, and ravaging mad.
"Rockwell, you have toyed with me for the last time... I'm wise to you... your pitiful human mind will not reigned over my superiority!" X-015 screamed.
Mike went to the reception desk and inquired about his package that should have arrived. The receptionist pulled it out and asked for ID. Mike pulled out his ID card and showed it to the receptionist, who promptly handed over the package with a smile. Mike nodded and left the room to go sit back with Skulryk.
"What do you have there, Mike?" Skulryk asked.
Mike opened the box and pulled out a laptop, a card, pieces to a handgun of some sort, a disc, and a small black box. "Just some things that'll help us out, I suppose." Mike took the card and hooked it up to the laptop. He started a program and started typing away.
Skulryk looked over his shoulder. "Project Oppenheimer, eh? What's that?"
Mike only looked up at Skulryk. "I'll tell you when I'm done. I'm afraid that I don't have much time." He continued to type away for 20 minutes.
At the end of the 20 minutes, Mike closed the laptop. "There, finished." Mike assembled the handgun in a matter of seconds and loaded the card into the handgun. Mike reopened the laptop and turned it on. In the background, he saw that the weapon and the card were functioning properly. "Skul, this is the Vindicator." Mike showed the handgun to him. "Although I can't tell you the specifics about this weapon, what I can tell you is that it has the capability of neutralizing a main battle tank in one shot. I'm going to take out X-015 with it since he hurt one of my friends severely."
Mike got up and went into the infirmary, only to find that Luna wasn't there. Skul entered the room as well. Skul started to speak. "I didn't know you could use hardware such as that with relative skill." Mike only grinned and shrugged. "Anyhow, I saw some people carting Luna towards the lab. She may be in there."
Mike nodded and left the room and went to the lab expeditiously. Once there, he saw Anthadd and Narcy. "Where's Luna?"
"She's dead. We had to imbue her into Venus' body," Narcy replied. "But everything is alright. She's the same person, just... a bit different."
"... I see. Where's her body, then?"
Narcy looked at Mike closely then motioned to the back room. He walked into the room. He pulled the black box from his pocket, and placed it next to her body.
"What is that?" Narcy asked.
"Just something that I developed a while back as a pet project. Nanobots and stuff, capable of reconstructing bodies and whatnot. It takes a while, though. I guess you can switch her back eventually, right?"
Narcy shrugged. Mike nodded slowly and left the room. Pulling the laptop from his backpack, he checked the status of his gun. "Alright, everything is in order." Mike disconnected the weapon from the laptop and stuck the disc into the drive. He put the laptop into the backpack that he was wearing and put the weapon into his pocket. He then smoothed his uniform out and cleaned himself up. Adjusting his tie, he said, "I'm set. Now what do we do?"
It was midnight. The big clock in the hallway chimed 12 times, then went silent agian. A door silently opened, and a gold-haired head popped out. Silently, Luna snuck through the halls, wearing her pajamas, a housecoat, and a pair of bunny slippers she found in the room. Quietly, she snuck down to the back room, where her body was. She pulled a chair over, and sat down.
"So..." she said quietly, "This is me... without me." Luna looked at her own face, lifeless and cold, and shivered a shiver that had nothing to do with the temperature.
"Yeah, that's about the size of it..." chuckled a voice from a corner of the dark room, causing Luna to jerk around and peer intently into the dark.
"Who's there?" she called out, nervously, as a figure formed in the dark.
"It's only me, Luna." Narcy grinned, coming over to sit down beside her. "Pretty creepy, huh? Seeing yourself when you're not in it and all..." Luna could only nod. "I knew you'd be down here.. and I figured you'd probably sit here all night. So I'm here to send you back to bed. You need all the energy you can get."
"I guess you have a point... okay, I'll go back to bed in a minute." Luna smiled, as Narcy got up to leave.
"Take care, Luna," she said, as she headed back up to the room.
A couple minutes later, Luna was standing by the body, trying to remember something. She came down for a reason... but she couldn't remember it. Shrugging lightly, she headed back up to the room, careful to close the doors. She was sure to remember whatever it was tomorrow.
Narcy watched Luna hover over her old body, then return to her bedchamber. However, Narcy had other ideas. Wehn she had seen that Luna was gone from the premises, she took the lifeless body, and slung it across her shoulder.
"Here we go...easy now," she whispered to herself. She slowly began to carry the body down to the lab.
When she reached the bottem, she took care to gently rest Luna's body on the surgical table. Grimacing, she put on hr labcoat and stared at the gaping wound in Luna's abdomen.
"Alright, timef ro a few general repairs...Boy, is it ever good to be back in a lab."
With every minute the hand on the clock ticked, Narcy continued to work on Luna's body. She applied stitches and bandages, and took a few cell samples.
She saw that all she could had been done, but there was still a large hole where the wound had been. However, she was prepared.
Narcy added a skin cell to a beaker, and sat beside it, staring. "Grow!" She chanted, "Grow!" She took out her latest weapon, and stood back to aim. With a shrp click, the ball of energy was going off around the room. Narcy stood, ghostly pale, as she mentally directed the energy. Slowly but surely, the ball flew into the test tube, and mixed with the skin cell. The cell immediatly began to expand, and Narcy grabbed it with the tweezers. She quickly inserted the constantly expanding cell into the wound, and in a matter of seconds the wound was invisible to the naked eye.
Narcy wiped her brow. "She can thank me later." Suddenly, she whirled around at the sound of footsteps.
"Or I can thank you now." Luna stood at the foot of the stairs, gaping openmouthed at her newly repaired body. "It's...me! I look perfect! Thank you, Narcy!" She said, running to hug her. Narcy chuckled bashfully, as she threw off her dirty labcoat and accepted the hug.
"It was nothing, really."
"So can I go...back to my body?" Luna whispered slowly.
Narcy raised an eyebrow. "Not yet, I'm afraid. See, you're porbably the strongest one of us now, with all of your imbiuing power, so we need you to defeat Fake."