I loved the sounds of fizzing and bubbling things around me. Test tubes, journal entries, and various other
things were scattered across the foor and file cabinets. Books stacked up beside an Experimenting Table, where I loved to torture innocent animals. But today, I had gotten a call from a much more interesting test subject.
First off, they were dead. In a way, they were dead, but also alive. This perplexed me greatly when I got the call for this test subject.
Secondly, they were human. Ish.
Thirdly...they were the last of a kind. A member of an extinct race. Well, several - which made them a treasure. They refused to tell me the gender, so I had to figure out when they came.
My laboratory was a bit of a mess, so in my spare time, I organized it. I have a basic earthly phone hooked up to one of the outlets where animals call via telepathy or just a reg. phone, telling me that they're next and will be coming by soon. It's almost like a little buisness, if you wish, but much more fun.
When I heard the knock at the door, I saw a great fluffy beast in the shape of a Drayjon standing by the door with a cage. And I immediatly recognized what they meant with the phone call.
"Which one's going?" I asked hoarsely.
"The little jerk in the cage."
I bent down on my four knees and saw the pittiful looking human trapped inside. They were right - she was both dead and alive. A ghost, maybe, but she was solid. And very, very scared.
Scared animals are the most fun to play with.
I grabbed the cage and walked over to the Experimenting Table. "Stay if you want, but it's better if it's alone." Footsteps echoed behind me and I knew that the creature had left.
"Let me out," The girl's voice was so pittiful it made me want to laugh.
"Oh, you WILL be let out. Onto here." I snapped my fingers and teleported the raggety thing onto the ET and strapped bands of hybridized steel and a demonic substance to her wrists and ankles.
For once, I almost didn't want to test out horrible things on her - that look in her eyes told me everything about her. But silver hair receives no mercy.
"Alright!" I clapped once and started pacing the room. I always liked to let my test subjects choose what fate they wanted. Everybody's gotta have some freedom, you know. Even if it's me who's doing it. "So, what's your favorite - fire, ice, electricity, or cyborg implants?"
"Get me out!" She squeaked. That wasn't an answer for me. I looked through my file cabinets and picked one file that read in bold black letters INSTRUCTIONS FOR...the last word was muddled and faded out. I liked it, anyway. I quickly read through it and immediatly got to the point of this. But I had to know some things first.
I leaned in and brushed my claw across her chin, which made her shiver like crazy. "What's your name?"
"S-sky." I could tell that wasn't her real name.
"GIVE ME YOUR REAL NAME OR ELSE THIS WONT WORK!" I shouted on purpose to intimidate her. She paused. "First, middle, and last, please. I'd like to document this."
"J-jessica," She looked like she was about to cry. "Jessica R-rosalyn Moonsina."
"That's better. Thank you." I wrote her name down on a blank sheet of paper so I wouldn't forget. "You get one second shorter of a torture test for almost cooperating."
"W-what are you g-going to do?" Jess' voice broke at the first sound she spoke. This was clearly a distraught girl.
"My, my. Do you mind if I call you Jay-Jay? I like giving nicknames. Nice name...Jessica. But Jay-Jay is better. So ANYWAYS!" I slapped my hand down on the cabinet to emphasize my authority over this laboratory. "I can't quite tell what I'm going to do, since you are truly one of a kind. Do you have any siblings, Jay-Jay?"
"Y-yes," My test subject responded shakily. "J-jake. But he's..."
"Dead?" I cut Jay-Jay off. "I knew it. That helps." I scribbled down that bit of information as well. It's always good to document EXACTLY who you're testing on. "You're very predictable, you know that?"
Silence.
"So, lets get down to buisness." I wanted to know more about Jay-Jay. Names weren't enough. "Pretend you're in a room with a councilor and tell me your life."
"NO!" My first thought to her scream was Geez. That kid can shout. But I had the authority in this lab. I don't believe in the use of whips, so I used my voice.
"YOU WILL TELL ME YOUR HISTORY RIGHT NOW, JESSICA ROSALYN MOONSINA, OR ELSE THERE WILL BE A FUNERAL RATHER THAN A TEST!!"
That shut her up more than it did help.
"Okay, okay, fine." I suggested. "That shout was 72.41% unessecary. So you know what I'll do instead? Stop listening to you talk and switch that role around. Since you are clearly stupid and confused, I'll tell you exactly what's going on before we get down to the real buisness."
I saw Jay-Jay gulp before I continued. "So where are we? We're in my lab. This lab is resting on a meteorite a few bare meters from the centre of a black hole. The space-time contiuum is ripped to shreds, so the time always remains the same. See?" I grabbed a clock that was next to my clawed hand and showed my test subject. "It's always 4:02 PM. Never changes."
"The lab is also interdimensional. Since you're so dumb, you probably don't know what that means. What it means is that this lab is in several places at once, or at least it can be. It's locations can be controlled, but its true location is on the meteorite I mentioned a minute ago. Its all complex techno-wechno stuff that you wouldn't understand-"
"Where's Erik?" I heard Jay-Jay say in a tiny voice. From past experience as a "councilor", I immediatly recognized that whoever she's talking about is a beloved friend of hers. I leaned in close and responded,
"What did you say, Jay-Jay?"
"I said, where is Erik?" She repeated louder.
"Well, how should I know? I don't know any Eriks." I guessed she'd taken in enough information if she was talking and interrupting now. Now, though, it was time to initiate the plan.
"Now, Jay-Jay, I must warn you that this is entirely for the sake of my entertainment. And project-finishing-upping. Yet...you are such a perplexing character. I'm torn between doing this experiment or keeping you around."
She stayed silent. "I'm still fascinated by you. Yet...that's probably because you're human. I work best with animals, but I guess you'll do."
"Who are you?" Jay-Jay asked.
"Who am I?" I asked. A snicker slipped from my lips. "Your worst nightmare. Or possibly your best friend. Doctor Xeph. It's short for Xepharaegonn. I was once a human like you, but...things changed." My mind slipped back into the memories before returning to reality. "But that doesn't concern you. I've procrastinated for too long!"
I zipped over to the file I left on the cabinet and read through it once more. "But before I test this on you, Jay-Jay, I shall test something else - your physical capabilities. You are very lucky to be able to be spared this long. Which means you'll be zapped some."
I saw her stiffen as I walked over and grabbed my plasma taser. "I'm setting this on the lowest setting. Don't be such a baby."
I didn't bother to warn Jay-Jay ahead of time when I jabbed the taser in her arm. I could see the plasma jump from the taser to her arm. She squeaked like a mouse and struggled against the steel straps around her wrists.
"Well then. Your physical capabilities are HIGHLY limited." I concluded and scribbled some notes about that down on the sheet of paper. "Then again, you ARE a female. I suspected your capa-"
"That's sexist," Jay-Jay interrupted angrily.
"Does it look like I care?" I gave her a sarcastic look before returning to scribbling. "You're lucky I've only shouted at you twice. Normally I shout every other time I talk."
"Would you have shouted at your family?"
That question took me by surprise. Nobody had ever mentioned my family before. "I don't have a family," I responded blankly. "I live alone."
"Then how were you born?" Jay-Jay suddenly seemed interested in knowing who I was and I didn't know why.
"I didn't grow up in a bar, if that's what you're asking," I set the paper down and leaned against the cabinet. "Nor was I born in one. I don't care to remember. Anything else stupid that you'd like to ask?"
"Why do you experiment on animals?"
"Finishing projects. And for the fun of it." I walked over to a half-dissected frog that I never finished and glanced at its foggy, lifeless eyes. "Its fun to see them fear me."
"Why?"
These questions aggravated me more and more to answer. "I don't know...it's better to keep an environment controlled."
Jay-Jay didn't respond for a long and awkward moment. "You keep an environment controlled by controlling others? I thought you said you liked people to have some freedom."
"I do, chatty bird." I growled. "Normally, you'd be dead by now."
"So why am I not dead?"
"Because..." I hesitated. That was a hard question to answer because I didn't know the answer to it. There was just something about this test subject that captivated my interest. I sighed before replying. "I don't know. It's just been delayed."
Suddenly, a loud rumble echoed throuout the lab. Some beakers filled with acidic liquid fell on the ground and shattered.
"What's going on?!" Jay-Jay shouted over the noise, panic rising from her voice.
"Does it look like I know everything?!" I shouted back.
A roar pierced the air. For the first time in a long time, fear shattered my insides. I had no knowledge of the situation, which drove my instincts to hardcore more. I quickly set the multidimensional location of the lab to a random grassland on Earth and bolted out the door - not to escape, but to see what the heck was attacking my precious building.
It was a giant Drayjon - a savage dragon that had a long, muscular neck and a tail that was about two-thirds the length of a bus. It had four small horns the length of a cat's tail jotting straight out of the back of its head and six thin whiskers that twitched as it climbed its way up on top of my lab. It had nine pairs of spikes running along its back and bulky, long limbs that were striped as deep of a purple as its eyes.
No wonder it was making the place shake.
I ran back inside and grabbed a vial of acid, then ran back out and tossed the vial at the Drayjon. The glass shattered on contact and made the gigantic beast screech in fury. Steam, smoke, or some kind of gas was emitted as the Drayjon toppled over and fell off the roof.
Wait...where's Jay-Jay? The question took myself by surprise. When I looked back into the laboratory, though, she was still strapped to the table, and scared as heck.
"I know what you want. And fine. But I'm gonna regret this." I trudged over to the Experimenting Table and reluctantly unstrapped the bars of steel from her wrists, but before I could get to her ankles, she slapped me hard across the cheek. I hissed and backed up some.
"What's the matter with you?" I growl while rubbing my face, which felt like it was on fire. "I'm trying to get you out!"
"That's for tasing me with plasma." Jay-Jay scowled at me.
"Never mind that! There's a giant flesh-eating creature outside wanting to tear us apart!" I quickly unstrapped the straps on Jay-Jay's ankles and dragged her out of the building. It wasn't safe in there anymore.
"Hand me the Zycomorphic Neutralizer!" I shouted.
"The what?!"
"Oh, forget it! I'll get it myself!" I sprinted inside the laboratory and grabbed the item that she was oblivious to, then ran back outside just as the Drayjon was starting to amble over to us, moving around the building. "It puts them to sleep! End of story!"
The Drayjon howled and continued to amble at a slow pace. I knew Drayjon behavior well, since I experimented on them often, and this is what they did to trick you into thinking that they're slow - but they're as fast as demons and I'd know, since I let one or two escape before.
"Aren't you gonna shoot it now?" Jay-Jay's voice trembled with a mix of fear and anxiety. "Its as slow as a turtle!"
"Don't let that fool you!" I shouted. I shot a projectile from the Zycomorphic Neutralizer but missed by a few inches. The Drayjon's beady purple eyes followed it until it fizzled out and turned to steam, then looked back at me with an intense glare. It roared and charged at about 50 mph to our direction.
Jay-Jay screamed and backed up out of my line of sight. I yelped myself and shot the gunlike tranquilizer at it. The Drayjon screeched to a hault, then fell over on its side.
"Good. It's asleep now." I rambled to myself. "Now, to take it to a place far away from here, like it's natural habitat, so it wont disturb this lab a-"
The Drayjon twitched. I flinched back, but when I looked over, it was Jay-Jay trying to drag the sleeping Drayjon backwards. And it was moving, ever so slightly. That wasn't even physically possible. Drayjons weighed over two tons. Besides, Jay-Jay wasn't able to take the scratch from a cat. How could she drag a gigantic dragon all the way to a forest or swamp, let alone a couple feet?
"You, my friend, are a very perplexing person." The words slipped from my mouth.
"Oh, so now I'm your friend?" Jay-Jay shot a teasing glance at me. "Good to know that I'm not a test subject anymore."
"We'll have to see how that ends up!" I snickered. "You're gonna need some help with that."
"I'm fine," She argued.
"Have you ever dragged a Drayjon to a forest?" When she didn't respond, I took one of its legs and started to pull with her.