GUN laboratory – What doesn’t kill you…

[Val]

Caged. Isolated. Every extension of being severed. The starfish-like creature languished in his containment cell, a single bulbous yellow and red eye at the centre staring out of the thick glass wall into the sterile corridor beyond his confines.

As he hovered there he shuddered, the wavering tendrils reaching from his form twitched erratically as he hated. The revulsion of his own miniscule body was all he could think of. These humans had taken him, locked him away, prodded and poked him. Hate. He hated them. But more than the humans he hated that one rebellious child, the aberration who was responsible for wiping out his entire species.

Shadow.

That name reverberated about his mind endlessly. It was Shadow’s fault he was now trapped, confined in this maddeningly singular organism without the means to reproduce anymore.
He had to get free somehow. The Black Arms would not die like this, he refused to allow that.

[Jammerlee]

Outside his containment cell a door leading into the unit whisked open. Surrounded by three GUN soldiers was a pangolin in a lab coat. Dr Zachary adjusted his spectacles as he glanced around toward the various containment units. His heart thumped within his chest. Never would he dreamed he would be lead so easily into such a tightly secured location. All around him was everything the conspiracy lunatics always claimed. One cell he passed contained a white octopus-like creature that stared at him with its one soulful eye, begging him silently him silently for help. He felt like a kid in a candy store.

And then his eyes fell upon it. The cell containing a starfish-like creature. Though his expression barely reflected it, he eyed the alien with a sense of awe. It was him. Black Doom.

[Val]

What was this? More scientists to experiment on him? The thin reptilian pupil at the centre of Doom’s form darted about as he examined the approaching troop. The things he would do to these inferior life forms were he in his more powerful form.

If.

The weight of reality was crushing him. He was a ruler, a God, true biological perfection and yet here he was…little more than just another lab experiment for these miniscule minded vermin to study in vain hopes of understanding him.

His form hovered forward to the glass, his tendrils shifting as it underwater. All the grandeur and presence he once commanded now nothing but a memory…

He would strangle this bespectacled scientist if the glass weren’t there.

[Jammerlee]

Of course Zachary's moment of reverence couldn't last. He had a task he had been brought here for, and so breaking off his eye contact with the alien emperor, he continued on his way to another area of the room. It was here where an examination area was set up, and sprawled across an operating table and covered in various tubes and wires, was a creature whose appearance almost seemed to parody Shadow the Hedgehog's. Its black and red skin was scaley and reptilian, and its three eyes were glassy and vacant and devoid of pupils, but the unmistakable features of a hedgehog could also be seen within the otherwise alien figure.

A prototype of Project Shadow.

Zachary's head canted slightly at the bizarre chimera. A tube ran down into its throat from the mouth, and from the various monitors, he could see that the creature was on life support and unable to breathe on its own. Its heart rate was barely stable.

Thus the reason the cyborg surgeon was called in came into focus. His eyes swept across the tools that had been provided for the oncoming surgery, and he turned and began addressing the staff standing in wait of his orders as he began his prep work.

[Val]

Floating to the farthest corner of his enclosure, Black Doom was able to see the experiment laid out on the table and a shiver of revulsion and that itch for destruction rippled through him, causing his tendrils to waver. He wanted to break through this glass. He wanted to annihilate any trace of his bargain with that cowardly underhanded human professor from the face of the universe.

What did they hope to accomplish with this? Did they want to create another Shadow? Another being that was their better and trick it into servitude? Just another beast under control. The disgusting sinister nature of free will that these species touted as their greatest asset. That very nature that had corrupted his own flesh against him and led to…this.

[Jammerlee]

Zachary felt like he was staring down the barrel of a practical joke. This creature's inner anatomy was a hodgepodge of both familiar and completely foreign. A great mind like his should have had no problem finding his way around and ascertaining where to start. Everything from the fact its blood was green, which tinted everything an unfamiliar color, to the presence of strange organs he could only begin to guess the purpose of.

Locked behind his stoic expression, the cyborg doctor was thrilled. He wanted nothing more than to study this strange creature. To run it through a battery of tests, to research its genetics, to learn all there was about its makeup. Ah, if only he could spirit it away to his own private lab! But no, he was brought here for a specific purpose, and like it or not he was under tight surveillance at that moment. He had to behave, and it grated him. It wasn't as though his purpose for being brought here wasn't a dream come true in its own right. This creature - this Project Shadow prototype - had been on life support and slowing dwindling into organ failure since being awoken from its cryostasis. Unable to survive on its own, Zachary, the world-renowned cyborg doctor, was called in to replace its failing organs and attempt to prolong its life. To what purpose Zachary had no clue, and to be frank, he didn't care.

Choosing to start with the most obvious, Zachary began to focus on the creature's lungs.

[Val]

If only he had his complete form, still. If only he had *any* form beyond this. The ‘what ifs’ and ‘if onlys’ were driving him manic, it was like a splinter stuck in his mind refusing to leave him be. From the day he’d been captured in the aftermath of the Black Comet’s destruction and brought here like some collector’s pet, he’d said nothing. Only living in his own mind, mulling over everything that’d happened. He hadn’t wanted to give the humans the satisfaction of knowing they infuriated him, that being here burned him so.

Now was his turn to burn them.

Muffled slightly by the glass of his cell, a deep guttural croaking laugh floated into the lab where Zachary was working. The voice that followed was an inhuman combination of clicking and croaks yet somehow every pair of ears that heard it knew what it meant. “That abomination is only a shade of the true Black Arms. You play with scraps and think you could ever understand. Pathetic.” His voice dripped malice but it was clear he was enjoying their futile attempts to understand his species. It was little wonder they had decimated the planet so easily.

[Jammerlee]

Zachary glanced up from his work, eyeing the starfish-like creature floating within its containment cell. His expression remained neutral.

"Hmm. Sadly what remains of the true Black Arms is languishing in a fish tank."

[Val]

“What you call languishing, I call waiting.” Doom snarled, biting back the stab of rage at the pangolin’s flippant dismissal of what should have been his God by now. “This pitiful facility can not hold me forever and when I rebuild the Black Arms, little scientist, you will learn first hand how little you truly understand.” His voice remained calm, sure, as if making a deceleration of prophecy rather than a threat.

[Jammerlee]

For the first time the doctor's neutral expression broke. His snout wrinkled as a low snicker escaped him. "As a scientist, I already understand how little I know. Science is the pursuit of understanding."

And speaking of a lack of understanding, the doctor found himself continuing to struggle with understanding this strange prototype's inner workings. Unsure of what to expect, he had arrived with enough artificial organs to replace its entire abdomen if necessary, and yet he still found himself having difficulty making heads or tails of what he was looking at. Continuing to set his focus on the lungs, his scalpal traveled with precision as he made preparations for its artificial replacement.

And that was when the heart monitor began a continuous buzz.

[Val]

The sharp buzz filling the room was soon joined by a deep sadistic laughter. “What a pity.” Doom hovered about his cell, knowing what was happening, “How will the humans feel if you cost them their precious specimen? I assume you were hired to achieve different results. Not that they can blame you, only providing you with such an impure, mongrel creation.” His mocking tone gave way near the end to bitter disgust at how his pure and perfect DNA had been abused and twisted by Gerald Robotnik into his little experiments.

[Jammerlee]

Ignoring the alien emperor's taunting, Zachary sprung into action barking out orders. The nurses rushed with syringes in hand, injecting the prototype with adrenaline while Zachary himself attempted to administer mild shocks of electricity into the organ. For a few precious moments his efforts seemed to of worked; the heart spasmed, and its monitor blipped accordingly. But the beat was erratic. Despite administering more shocks, the heart failed to return to a steady rhythm, and soon once again ceased to beat entirely. This time, as the loud buzz rang through the room, it would not be started again.

Zachary looked at his hands in dismay, before taking a step back and sighing heavily.

"Call it."

[Val]

“What use are you now?” Doom’s voice slithered down the corridor from his cell as he floated away from the glass, the show evidently over. “Pitiful. Scratching at things you can not comprehend, thinking you can twist it to your goal.” Another croaking, deep laugh from the alien emperor. “That freak, as misshapen and defective as it was, was still a superior lifeform to anything else to come from this planet….This planet…barely out of the primordial ooze.”

[Jammerlee]

Staring down at his hands, Zachary frowned to himself. "Barely out of the primordial ooze.." he mumbled under his breath, wrinkling his nose a bit. He glanced at the now dead specimen. In spite of its demise, a treasure trove of research laid in front of him, ready for the dissection. But his role in this scene was now finished, and he would be ushered away while other lucky researchers would have the remains to study. He had to get a sample..! His eyes darting around, he spotted the table of used gauze that had been used in mopping up excess fluids. Glancing toward the nurses and other technicians, all of them seemed to be focused on the prototype for a moment. He could easily just...!

Slipping by, he grabbed a wad of the material, enough that he could conceal in his palm. Glancing around, he spotted the hallway leading toward the bathroom and slipped away. Pushing into one of the stalls, he opened his hand and grinned down at the piece of what, to him, was biological gold. Of course, he would never make it out of the highly secure military base without it being discovered if he merely intended to carry it with him. And so, holding out his other palm, he flicked his wrist. A small and unusually chunky golden ring appeared in the air, expanding just enough for him to insert his hand through. Pulling out a glass vial he hastily unscrewed his cap, stuffed the soiled gauze inside of it, and shoved it back through the ring. It faded with a small shimmer. No one would ever know.

As he walked back, a pair of soldiers approached him. It was time for him to be escorted away and deal with the boring aspects of his failure. As he was lead past the tank that contained Black Doom, Zachary's eyes met with the former emperor's in a lingering, almost longing gaze...

... A few hours later, a chunky golden ring would appear in the bottom of Doom's tank.