*Continuing from Part 2...*
VAIN didn’t respond, but did just as she requested. The river of data, or rather the frozen river of clustered confusion, disappeared. The assimilation chair shook a bit before two large arms popped out and unfolded from the machine. At each arm’s tip was a scanner that could detect even the faintest trace of radiation poisoning. One started from his head, the other at his feet, and together moved in the opposite direction until they reached the other end, completing the scan in a green iridescence. After that they quickly folded up and disappeared inside the assimilator once more. Ramada tried not to lose her temper as VAIN interpreted the data, which usually took a few seconds. Fifteen minutes went by.
Finally an image of Dante’s x-ray flashed on screen, though distorted and foggy. Ramada paid no attention to it, what concerned her was the ultimate results. Was he in the red or not? Blue letters flashed on the screen below the x-ray image, leaving Ramada speechless for a time. Wait, didn’t blue mean no radiation? That was so weird for an outlander, being that they lived in the ruins of a nuked city. The radiation hadn’t completely worn off yet. Most undesirables had at least some poisoning…but not this Dante.
“Interesting.” She mused, but despite this moment of curious fascination, VAIN was in trouble. Maybe she’d look into this later…preferably much later. Everything would be a day behind schedule, a nightmare for a scientist like herself. That meant a day behind on research. That sucked.
“Ok, good news for you Mr. Dante, You won’t be neutralized today. Maybe some other day…don’t think you’ve gotten out of this, I might just come back for that tissue sample. If I can remember it. ”
Dante frowned at that, furrowing his brow. Ramada didn’t like skipping procedures; that was just sloppy…the way things used to be done. Before she became overseer of integration there were several slip ups, resulting in mutants running the streets and committing heinous bio crimes, spreading festering diseases to the innocent public. That can’t happen again, especially under her watch, but for some reason Dante didn’t look threatening in that manner. Emotionally disturbed, yes, but a festering mutant?…probably not.
“Alright, there’s only one thing left for us…the climax of our little session, not that this will be the last you’ll see of me. There’s the day after tomorrow, when integration truly begins. I think you’ll be much more agreeable next time we meet.”
Dr. Ramada got up and walked slowly to the assimilator, shaking her tantalizing butt all the way. Mitchell was admiring her from afar, like always, pretending that he was actually doing something useful. Guarding the doors was hardly what she’d call useful, it would take a mega rocket-powered missile to get through those doors, the walls were about eighteen inches thick, in a facility highly protected on the surface of a wintry wasteland of rubble and scorched earth. What could possible touch them here? Definitely not the hordes of mutants living in caves and sucking on bones, cannibals that they are; they were too stupid and lazy for any sort of sport. Not even the half breeds had the guts to take them on, and they were too scarce to be any real threat anyway. Celestia was the jewel of the planet, the lone city that remained after the nuclear holocaust of man. What could be more glorious than that, the way the tables turned and the hunters lurking in the shadows became the gods of this new era? A never-ending era at that.
Ramada reached the surgical table beside the assimilator, which held some very gruesome instruments. No worries, these were only used on experiments, not on subjects for integration. However, there was one device that had to be manually attached to the machine, a little something she thought up herself.
“Are you sure there isn’t something you’d like to tell me? Anything at all?” She asked, fixing a rather large needle into the device. The side plugging into the device was sharp, the opposite end rather blunt, and the metal gleemed cruelly in the light. Dante looked at the device in bewilderment. The doctor smiled at him as she readied a second one just like it, fitting another needle between what looked like four metallic prongs that held it in place. There was a niche in the needle that the prongs caught, so that they could clasp onto the slender spike and spring it downward. The boy gulped, finding his mouth dry in this moment of anxiety.
“Don’t be afraid, it won’t hurt…much. Then again, I wouldn’t know. I lied about everything, you see. I really hate children, and if I had my way I’d have you neutralized without a moment’s thought…oops, did I say something horrid?” Ramada laughed, firmly pressing his head against the cold surface of the assimilator. As he struggled to move his head, the doctor grabbed a strap next to his left ear, which had been draped loosely off the side of the chair. Dante’s eyes could read her just as well, and saw the malice in her like a brewing storm. He knew it immediately, sensing that something horrible was going to happen, even worse than the laser. “Stop that and behave! It’ll hurt more if you struggle. It’s not like you’ll remember it anyway!”
“What?!” He shouted, unable to contain himself. The doctor tightened the strap so that he couldn’t move his head. Then, Ramada stroked his cheek with a finger, for an instant motherly in a way…but it didn’t suit her at all. She went back to attaching the devices, screwing the spindles into place on this strange device above him…he never noticed the equipment before now, but it appeared there was a mold for his face, and the needles would…Dante cringed, shaking uncontrollably with all his might, but he just wasn’t strong enough. He was never strong enough.
“Truly, you don’t know? You are property of ARGOS and affiliates now, so why should we let you keep your wretched memory? It would only hinder your productivity, constantly moping around about home, death, and all of that uselessness. It’s for your own good that you forget everything…aside from the essentials like how to talk, walk, and not shit yourself. It’s not complete regression, only selective memory deletion. Technology is wonderful, is it not?”
“You will be destroyed for this atrocity!” He shouted, shaking in trepidation.
“Oh, such big words for a little tyke…that’ll change.” Ramada was serious about that. Would he be dumbed down beyond compare? His soul irreparably shattered forever? The doctor, outwardly blessed with unnatural beauty, was like a golden paradigm of perfection. Yet, her eyes were pools of liquid evil, vicious hatred, and lustful orbs of delight all rolled into one. Dante had seen eyes like that before…long, long ago in a forgotten place, alive only in the back of his vast memory. What sort of place is this Celestia for creatures like her to be given such freedom to torment? She's wicked; absolutely seething with evil…an all too familiar presence that he could never seem to avoid. Now, it's over. His life is over, and someone else would emerge from the shell of his old being. That was simply a part of the eternal cycle, the forever decay and renewal of all things. That was life, according to his creed.
“Farewell, Dante.” Ramada cheerfully sneered, lowering the machine over his face. Total darkness ensued, pitch black…
“VAIN, try to get this right. Don’t fry his brain, please.” The doctor ordered. “Start the final stages of assimilation. Hollow him out.”
Dante reflected for the last time at how this was…the way he should finally die. In a sense, this isn’t actually death; his body would still be here in one piece. Yet, everything that made him Dante would disappear. So, for that reason it would be death…at least, his death. Everything he knew and had witnessed firsthand…that would vanish along with him. Hopefully whoever came next would know the truth someday, however unlikely, holding fast that fleeting wish. They would never stop looking for him, he was sure of that…but whoever they find, if and when they do, will not be the one they're expecting.
A sharp pain splintered into either side of his temples, a grinding feeling as if something were burrowing inside his head, scraping away relentlessly. His screams echoed inside his skull, muffled and gut wrenching. This digging went on for quite some time; like an agonizing eternity. Then, a jolt of searing electricity pierced his brain…that was the last thing he ever felt, because after that, all that was Dante faded into the abyss.
VAIN didn’t respond, but did just as she requested. The river of data, or rather the frozen river of clustered confusion, disappeared. The assimilation chair shook a bit before two large arms popped out and unfolded from the machine. At each arm’s tip was a scanner that could detect even the faintest trace of radiation poisoning. One started from his head, the other at his feet, and together moved in the opposite direction until they reached the other end, completing the scan in a green iridescence. After that they quickly folded up and disappeared inside the assimilator once more. Ramada tried not to lose her temper as VAIN interpreted the data, which usually took a few seconds. Fifteen minutes went by.
Finally an image of Dante’s x-ray flashed on screen, though distorted and foggy. Ramada paid no attention to it, what concerned her was the ultimate results. Was he in the red or not? Blue letters flashed on the screen below the x-ray image, leaving Ramada speechless for a time. Wait, didn’t blue mean no radiation? That was so weird for an outlander, being that they lived in the ruins of a nuked city. The radiation hadn’t completely worn off yet. Most undesirables had at least some poisoning…but not this Dante.
“Interesting.” She mused, but despite this moment of curious fascination, VAIN was in trouble. Maybe she’d look into this later…preferably much later. Everything would be a day behind schedule, a nightmare for a scientist like herself. That meant a day behind on research. That sucked.
“Ok, good news for you Mr. Dante, You won’t be neutralized today. Maybe some other day…don’t think you’ve gotten out of this, I might just come back for that tissue sample. If I can remember it. ”
Dante frowned at that, furrowing his brow. Ramada didn’t like skipping procedures; that was just sloppy…the way things used to be done. Before she became overseer of integration there were several slip ups, resulting in mutants running the streets and committing heinous bio crimes, spreading festering diseases to the innocent public. That can’t happen again, especially under her watch, but for some reason Dante didn’t look threatening in that manner. Emotionally disturbed, yes, but a festering mutant?…probably not.
“Alright, there’s only one thing left for us…the climax of our little session, not that this will be the last you’ll see of me. There’s the day after tomorrow, when integration truly begins. I think you’ll be much more agreeable next time we meet.”
Dr. Ramada got up and walked slowly to the assimilator, shaking her tantalizing butt all the way. Mitchell was admiring her from afar, like always, pretending that he was actually doing something useful. Guarding the doors was hardly what she’d call useful, it would take a mega rocket-powered missile to get through those doors, the walls were about eighteen inches thick, in a facility highly protected on the surface of a wintry wasteland of rubble and scorched earth. What could possible touch them here? Definitely not the hordes of mutants living in caves and sucking on bones, cannibals that they are; they were too stupid and lazy for any sort of sport. Not even the half breeds had the guts to take them on, and they were too scarce to be any real threat anyway. Celestia was the jewel of the planet, the lone city that remained after the nuclear holocaust of man. What could be more glorious than that, the way the tables turned and the hunters lurking in the shadows became the gods of this new era? A never-ending era at that.
Ramada reached the surgical table beside the assimilator, which held some very gruesome instruments. No worries, these were only used on experiments, not on subjects for integration. However, there was one device that had to be manually attached to the machine, a little something she thought up herself.
“Are you sure there isn’t something you’d like to tell me? Anything at all?” She asked, fixing a rather large needle into the device. The side plugging into the device was sharp, the opposite end rather blunt, and the metal gleemed cruelly in the light. Dante looked at the device in bewilderment. The doctor smiled at him as she readied a second one just like it, fitting another needle between what looked like four metallic prongs that held it in place. There was a niche in the needle that the prongs caught, so that they could clasp onto the slender spike and spring it downward. The boy gulped, finding his mouth dry in this moment of anxiety.
“Don’t be afraid, it won’t hurt…much. Then again, I wouldn’t know. I lied about everything, you see. I really hate children, and if I had my way I’d have you neutralized without a moment’s thought…oops, did I say something horrid?” Ramada laughed, firmly pressing his head against the cold surface of the assimilator. As he struggled to move his head, the doctor grabbed a strap next to his left ear, which had been draped loosely off the side of the chair. Dante’s eyes could read her just as well, and saw the malice in her like a brewing storm. He knew it immediately, sensing that something horrible was going to happen, even worse than the laser. “Stop that and behave! It’ll hurt more if you struggle. It’s not like you’ll remember it anyway!”
“What?!” He shouted, unable to contain himself. The doctor tightened the strap so that he couldn’t move his head. Then, Ramada stroked his cheek with a finger, for an instant motherly in a way…but it didn’t suit her at all. She went back to attaching the devices, screwing the spindles into place on this strange device above him…he never noticed the equipment before now, but it appeared there was a mold for his face, and the needles would…Dante cringed, shaking uncontrollably with all his might, but he just wasn’t strong enough. He was never strong enough.
“Truly, you don’t know? You are property of ARGOS and affiliates now, so why should we let you keep your wretched memory? It would only hinder your productivity, constantly moping around about home, death, and all of that uselessness. It’s for your own good that you forget everything…aside from the essentials like how to talk, walk, and not shit yourself. It’s not complete regression, only selective memory deletion. Technology is wonderful, is it not?”
“You will be destroyed for this atrocity!” He shouted, shaking in trepidation.
“Oh, such big words for a little tyke…that’ll change.” Ramada was serious about that. Would he be dumbed down beyond compare? His soul irreparably shattered forever? The doctor, outwardly blessed with unnatural beauty, was like a golden paradigm of perfection. Yet, her eyes were pools of liquid evil, vicious hatred, and lustful orbs of delight all rolled into one. Dante had seen eyes like that before…long, long ago in a forgotten place, alive only in the back of his vast memory. What sort of place is this Celestia for creatures like her to be given such freedom to torment? She's wicked; absolutely seething with evil…an all too familiar presence that he could never seem to avoid. Now, it's over. His life is over, and someone else would emerge from the shell of his old being. That was simply a part of the eternal cycle, the forever decay and renewal of all things. That was life, according to his creed.
“Farewell, Dante.” Ramada cheerfully sneered, lowering the machine over his face. Total darkness ensued, pitch black…
“VAIN, try to get this right. Don’t fry his brain, please.” The doctor ordered. “Start the final stages of assimilation. Hollow him out.”
Dante reflected for the last time at how this was…the way he should finally die. In a sense, this isn’t actually death; his body would still be here in one piece. Yet, everything that made him Dante would disappear. So, for that reason it would be death…at least, his death. Everything he knew and had witnessed firsthand…that would vanish along with him. Hopefully whoever came next would know the truth someday, however unlikely, holding fast that fleeting wish. They would never stop looking for him, he was sure of that…but whoever they find, if and when they do, will not be the one they're expecting.
A sharp pain splintered into either side of his temples, a grinding feeling as if something were burrowing inside his head, scraping away relentlessly. His screams echoed inside his skull, muffled and gut wrenching. This digging went on for quite some time; like an agonizing eternity. Then, a jolt of searing electricity pierced his brain…that was the last thing he ever felt, because after that, all that was Dante faded into the abyss.
