The Vespidian Arc 1 Contamination Chapter 5

Darkness and nothing for as far as I could see and feel. It was empty. What a strange place. Trapped here alone. A dream should have ended, but a nightmare would linger and torment. This was neither. It was more like space, cold and devoid of sound. I existed, that was all that I did here. Pain would come in waves, shattering the null and I could only writhe and scream silently, all alone. If only there was someone else here. Someone to share this misery, to protect me, but there is nothing here, except pain.

How many waves there were I do not know. It felt endless as the tide coming and going on a sandy bar, washing away more of me with every agonizing movement. Tiny stings spread out across my body like needles stabbing everywhere. It felt like I was being torn apart and put back together. My body was melting and bubbling, turning black as the seething surroundings. The tighter I held myself, the less it hurt. I lay there curled in a ball, trying to keep myself together. It was not working. Pieces would slough off usually when the rolling ocean of agony came.

I could see them now, before they came. The darkness would well up like a tsunami and crash down onto me. The terror that I felt seemed to only encourage it. My eyes burned from gazing into the abyss for so long and hollow eyes looked back. They were everywhere, blinking slowly, always watching.

Who, who are you? Can you hear me? my voice echoed out into the cavernous abyss.

There was no reply. All alone. So lonely, so scared, why is there no one here to save me? Mom, Dad, where are you? I don’t want to be alone any more. Where am I? Why can’t I leave? I don’t know how much longer I can keep myself together. Will I go mad in this place? A ringing filled my ears from the silence.

Was it a ringing? Or was it a buzzing?

~~~

My eyes opened gently. It was more vivid than any dream I had every had. After what felt like an eternity in darkness, light, light at last! Oh god, it burns! Bright bulbs glared at me, blinding in fact, but I could feel the heat radiating out of them. My fingers twitched as I tried to shield my eyes, however the arm was restrained. It took far longer to realize this than I would have liked. I twisted and pulled with all my strength to no avail. It held fast. Something inside of me was screaming to run, that I was trapped like an animal. For a moment all of my limbs became lax, then I pooled my strength and thrashed.

I felt weak. Like I had been asleep for a long time and had bed sores or something. I was likely, hurting myself, yet I needed to escape, this light, these shackles, driving me mad.

“Easy.” Said a voice from somewhere nearby. “Calm down you are safe here.”

“Get the light out of my eyes!” I screamed, my voice cracked almost as though it was the first time I had used it. It was wrong, all wrong. The shrill screech sounded strange, deep and yet feminine.

I blinked uneasily when the burning bulb turned off and lifted away from me. I could feel every muscle in my body spasm and there were new sensations as well. My stomach hurt. I could not quite see over these blackened mounds. My head was a mess, but I knew those... or at the least I had, my breasts were different, bigger... Holy shit! When did I get Ds? They were encased in some sort of hardened material. My eyes scanned over what little else I could see, but that black material that turned velvety blue under the light covered my arms as well. Exhausted, I lay my head back and closed my eyes trying to sort everything out. None of this was making any damned sense.

“What happened to me?” I asked more to myself than anyone else, but he replied all the same. “You were exposed to a very volatile substance. You are lucky to be alive. Although, you will soon find out that you are very different than you once were.”

“Who are you? Where am I?”

The voice had a low mechanical buzz to it. “You may call me Dr. Tesla. We are currently in my lab.”

“What is different? What did you do to me?” I cried. A million thoughts scattered like roaches through my head. I could feel them crawling through my brain like fire. It was far too much to sort out. Did my skin melt off? I have cancer don't I!?

“I saved your life, as to what has changed, well it would be easier to see for yourself.”

The restraints loosened and I pulled myself free from the slab like table. Something got stuck and I fell forward. However, something kept me from hitting the floor. My ass flared with pain and I glanced over my shoulder. There was a huge thing there, attached to my back just about where the tail bone should be. Bugs had been my bread and butter when I was a kid and that, that was an abdomen from some sort of ant or wasp. Problem is that thing was bigger than half my body.

My head started to throb and my hands held it, even that felt wrong. The fingers were hard and sharp like claws, then I realized there were four hands. A mirror flipped into view across from me. My eyes gaped at what it held, certainly something that was not human. I felt disgusted to my core. I had turned into some sort of monster. What the fuck? I thought getting exposed to superpower stuff was supposed to make you sexy and shit!

This, this thing that I had become was frightening to say the least. I had four arms, each more slender than a human's and covered with a carapace. My chest was armored as well, but it caved in below the rib cage to the point that a prisoner of war looked fat. I had almost no stomach to speak of. It was like a skeleton with saran wrap over a piece of meat. I could wrap two hands completely around my torso. How am I so skinny? This can’t be healthy.

My legs were thick and powerful at the thigh, but below the knee joint they grew spindly. I had no feet to speak of, only two curling, segmented claws and a third that came from the opposite direction intersecting it. They opened to make a tripod of sorts. Reminded me vaguely of a crane claw at some truck stop.

My face was angular, like some sort of armored mask and my chin formed a spike. It was sharp too. I was expecting my eyes to be huge and round, but I was only half right. They were larger, but they were almost like gashes in my hardened skin. Each was about the size of a chicken egg, but held straight wicked curves. Then I realized that there were two more eyes, much smaller than the main pair, but still larger than normal eyes. They were positioned where my temples should be. There was no pupil, no white of the eyes just blackness, or so I thought. When I concentrated on a spot a red sphere materialized where I had been looking. It would shift as I looked around then would vanish, so that I could look all around.

The lips were about the same, but they stretched much farther to each side. That was the normal part, well, as normal as this gets. However, what lay within was something out of a horror movie. My tongue was prehensile and long, about two feet. I know because I extended it as far as it would go. Oddly, I could tell that it was hollow. As to where it went and how it stayed in there, it felt like some sort of pouch in my throat. My jaw had extra hinges, which allowed it to open to the point that I could stuff an animal in there without trouble. There were no teeth. So at first, I thought that I would have to gum my food to death, but then I discovered the mandibles. There were two sets, one in the center of my mouth and the other at the front. The front set came up and down and the back came from the side. It made a sort of jagged smile when closed and my lips were open. My neck, though it seemed rather thin, was extremely muscular and after a few test gulps, I knew that it expanded when needed.

At this point, I was more numb than anything else. I blankly looked at myself, then noticed something else about my head, which was more like a helmet now than anything else. It was elongated, becoming a crescent pointed back down and looked almost like some ornate headdress. There were even strange tendrils hanging down from it. I could wiggle them. The feeling was similar to fingers without bones. My hair was all gone, only that carapace remained. It covered everything except the very front of my face. It made my face look like some mask that a monster was wearing to try and look human.

My face was nothing like it had been before and I doubted anyone would recognize me. There were no ears either, nor any nose holes, but instead I had two thick segmented noodle-like antennae that curled up away from my head. I could move them, unfurl and wiggle them. It was so fucking weird. I was far too afraid to look over the abdomen carefully to see what else this horrible body had in store. It was an odd feeling this new body, all of it felt wrong. This could not be happening... Why? What the hell did I ever do to deserve this?

“Done looking yourself over?” Asked the man.

“Kill me.” I cried, tears flowing down my face. “Just kill me. I don't want to live like this.”

“You have been given a great gift. Unfortunately, I have devoted far too much time and resources into you to allow you to die.”

“Gift? You call this a gift?! I am a fucking monster!” I screamed in a rage, tearing the light down and shattering it on the ground. That mirror mocked me, so I slammed two fists through it. Glass scattered across the floor and my image only grew more distorted. I kept hitting it, as though that would make this just an illusion. My head bashed against it again and again.

This was all just a bad dream. How did you wake up again? That hardened face crashed into the splintered glass and I felt pain from a jagged piece sticking out. No, no, no, no! This is not a dream. Dreams don't hurt. My clawed fingers ripped out the shard and yellow stained the glass. Was that my blood? The wound was already closing... What the fuck am I?

Words radiated in my head, My Child. As they did a searing stabbing pain shot through every nerve in my body crawling up and pooling in the center of my forehead. I doubled over slamming my head against the floor. The pain receded as did the image of the bone white mask whispering.

It faded allowing my thoughts to come back. That face had been familiar yet there was a blank spot where it should be. Just a faint, haunting smile. What was that? Who was that. Brain throbbing, pounding, just trying to think of it hurt.

I closed my eyes taking long deep breathes trying to push it out of my mind. Suppressing it. It helped. Calming, subsiding.

“Are you ok?” asked the man from the monitor.

I rubbed my head, “I think so?”

“There are others that are far worse off than you. Your mind at least appears to be mostly intact. Just calm down and think. I did not spend the last four months, keeping you alive to let you kill yourself.”

My thoughts came screeching to a halt. “Four months? My family do they know about this?”

“Unfortunately, we do not even know who you are. The men started calling you wasp girl.”

“Wasp girl? What the fuck is that? Some stupid super hero name?” My mandibles clicked angrily.

“Well, obviously.”

“A Super Hero? As if! If I went anywhere looking like this I would be shot on sight. The phrase kill it with fire comes to mind. Oh fuck, oh fuck. They will send me to the slums. Not like this, please not like this.”

“You do have a point. Captain Metal for instance, would most likely blow your brains out rather than listen to anything you had to say.”

“Then what do you want me alive for?” My face contoured, it was evil looking, the fractured slivers of glass made me look even worse.

Monster was the only thing that filled my mind. Disgust, revulsion to this face that was a mockery of humanity, the thoughts of tearing it off to see what horrors lay beneath surfaced over and over. This was not my face, no, this would never be me! I could still see a face, my face as a phantom image. But it was not really there.

“First of all, I want to study you. If given enough time, I might be able to turn you back.”

Was that true? Would a superhero really just kill me without even attempting to reason with me? I thought they were supposed to be the good guys for fuck’s sake. Well then again, if I ran into something looking like me in a dark alleyway... I would run away screaming. If I was cornered, I would try beating it to death and keep hitting it until there was nothing left. This doctor guy is probably lying. How the hell can I trust some sketchy guy I don't even know. The room looks rather secure too, I don't see a way out. This is bad, but If he is telling the truth maybe I can get back to normal.

“Let me see you face to face. How can I trust you if I don't even know you. Besides, you can't hold me here it is against the law.” Surely that would get me somewhere.

“Caution is an admirable quality it has saved my skin on numerous occasions. I would not trust me either if I was in your position. As such, for now, we will video chat. I can't risk you attempting to kill me after all. As for the law, I don't give a damn about it.”

A screen lowered into view. It flickered for a moment, then the crystal clear image showed a masked man. His face was covered in some sort of dark colored respirator or filter like thing. Red goggles obstructed his eyes. He was wearing a half buttoned white lab coat and his hands had thick rubbery gloves. His hair was cut short and blond. Everything about him screamed super villain. He looked like some guy out of a bond film or something.

“There we go face to face. One Super to another. Now then miss... What was your name?”

“I-” I stopped myself, who… who am I?

I have these memories, but they are scrambled. It is almost like somebody else’s life. I am scared. Everyone has to be someone, then… my brain hurts a lot. This, this is very important. I am forgetting something vital. Wesper? No, Vesper, yes Vesper sounds right. There was more to it, Valda? Walda? Yes, Walda. Then that must mean the last part was Vasska. Is that who I was? Who I am? So fragmented. I can’t think straight. I wasn’t, I was normal before. I remembered some things, almost instinctively. I cleared my throat and said, “Vesper. My name is Vesper. This might sound rude, but you look like a Super Villain.”

“Well, it is not rude to call someone what they are. And seeing as how you appear to be disorientated, I will pay no heed to it. Allow me to introduce myself once again. I am Dr. Tesla, philanthropist, scientist and as some of the narrow minded call me Super Villain. I pursue the betterment of all mankind, but the government and the so called hero society placed limitations on my experimentation. The fools are impeding progress, they are afraid of what wonders can be achieved with proper testing.”

“You sound like some crazy guy. Ah, that was said badly.” I muttered and he replied, a little miffed. “Quite.”

“I didn't mean crazy, I meant ahh.... a little unhinged.”

“That means the same thing miss Vesper. No matter though I have heard far worse and given your circumstances it is understandable. For the time being you will stay here until you are acclimated to your new home.”

“New home? I want to see my parents!”

“In time, but let us say you did see them, right now, how do you think they would react?” He asked, placing his hands behind his back and tilting his head. “Do you think they would even believe that you are their daughter?”

“They... They... Would, ah shit you are right.” I sat down on the table, letting my legs dangle lifelessly. This whack job was right. Damn it! I am a monster there is no way my parents would believe me. I still don't even believe this. Four months... I wonder how worried they are. Knowing dad there is a missing person's case and he whipped the whole community into a fever. I can't go back, not like this, but I don't want him to be so worried.

“Dr...” I started, but trailed off and he supplied. “Dr. Tesla what is it miss Vesper?”

“Would it be possible to contact my parents and let them know that, well, I am at the least alive?”

He turned a little. “I will get in contact with them.”

“You mean it?” I smiled it was scary how far this face stretched. “Wait, you are not going to hurt them or anything are you?”

“No. That would be counter productive. We want your cooperation and that would only agitate you.”

“So, how long am I going to have to stay here?”

“I am not sure. But once you are stable you will be assigned a room and allowed supervised outings.” He said, rubbing his face. “You have to show me that you can be trusted though. Otherwise, you will be confined to a room like this one.”

“That is inhumane! You can't keep me here like some animal!”

“You are forgetting several things miss Vesper. You are no longer human, so such laws no longer apply to you, same with all Supers. You are misinterpreting my keeping you here. I am caging you not to keep you in, but to keep those who would hurt you out. Should the government task force Chimera ever discover you... Well, you would be dissected to see how you ticked, if you were lucky.”

“There are boundaries,” I said angrily, “ I mean, there is the Hero League for fucks sake.”

“I suppose most civis would not have heard of Chimera. It is not the Hero League, think of it as a gray area. Morals don’t apply in this world. You place far too much faith in those who lie to us on a daily basis. I am surprised that anyone trusts the government these days. I suppose, it is something that has to be learned first hand rather than heard from someone else.”

“How do you know about that sort of thing anyway?”

“I have seen what they do to those exposed to Mutigene. You are not the first and certainly not the last.”

“So explain to me exactly what this Muti whatever is and anything else I need to know.”

I sat cross legged, thinking for a long time, listening to everything he said. A lot of it flew over my head, technical science stuff, but what I got out of it was more disturbing than I had initially thought. Mutigene was an extract from the great jellyfish in the sky. The Spore. Apparently it was like half plant, half animal? A fungal jellyfish?

Mutigene itself was a deviant cocktail of DNA that was highly unstable and prone to wild mutations. It was essentially like taking a shotgun filled with foreign, extraterrestrial life and firing indiscriminately at the DNA strand, to see what would stick. Due to how unpredictable the changes were it was outlawed, but both the governments and various organizations never stopped experimenting, they simply moved it underground. Understanding it properly was beyond me. Apparently, this stuff was where about a fourth of Supers came from. However, the majority of cases of Mutigene did not end well at all.

I was something special apparently since my personality was mostly intact. I could tell something in my head was all fucked up, but I can't tell or even remember what it might be. Among the differences I can feel a strong desire for meat, but then again I was always a steak and potato kinda girl. So that is probably nothing to worry about.

About the others… well, I am beginning to have an appreciation for my humanity. Some had their brains fried, others were reduced to some sort of primordial soup, most mutated into freaks, but became feral during their transformation. There was a very small percentage that were like me and still held onto their humanity. The higher the amount of exposure the more rapid and drastic the change that occurred. There were also different strains, I had been exposed to the Xo-395 strain. What the hell that is I don't know, he explained it five or so times, but I could not grasp it.

One thing had become abundantly clear, I was fucked. Once exposed to that shit there was no going back, there was no cure and what little Dr. Tesla could do was a stopgap at best. His power was in creating technology that dealt with spatial dimensions, in other words, he could make a bag of holding. Which was pretty cool, but meant that he did not actually have a specialization in organic engineering. On the plus side, he knew people who did. One of the best Bio Engineers in the world was here working on me. Or I should say studying me. Her name was Dr. Arbor. If his praise can be trusted she was a fucking genius. So, maybe I will be alright? He did say something a little weird though, she was very hands on, whatever that means. At least he gave it to me straight.

He had been tracking the cargo plane that went down and planned to steal the Mutigene, but somebody shot it down. They were only able to recover a small amount of it and Dr. Arbor was currently decoding its structure to learn how to recreate it. If they had enough and were able to study it in depth it could be possible to figure out some counter serum to reverse the effects. He was not sure though since no one had ever tried before.

Apparently, if somebody got all discombobulated they were killed or studied indefinitely and never saw the light of day again. Those who still appeared human for the most part were allowed to join the heroes and those who deviated from this were labeled as villains. Some people were lucky and only received augmented abilities like super strength or counter magnetism that allowed them to fly. In other words, if what he was saying is true, there was no longer a peaceful life waiting for me. Either the government would track me down or someone else would.

Everything about this had all the hallmarks of an origin story. Kidnapped by a Super Villain, mutated by some crazy Mcguffin sauce, and next thing you know some evil organization was going to try and recruit me. That last part was a stretch, but I had seen enough of these stories and movies to know that it was all down hill from here. Things never went well for those people, so why would it be any different for me?

My thoughts steadily darkened. Dr. Tesla might be the lesser of two evils here. Something just tells me that the government was bad news bears. From the sounds of it, they would love to get their grubby mitts all over me. That did not bode well at all for me. The only thing I could do was trust Dr. Tesla and that was going to be hard.

My time spent in that room seemed like an eternity. He did not trust me and I did not trust him. I was fed through a tube in the wall, it was protein paste. Who wants to eat that shit? No matter how I protested he would not give me any meat. I wanted a burger or something, hell I would take a slab of raw bloody meat at this point. At first, I stared at it and refused to eat, but that stopped after the second day... I think? It was a day there was no sun down here and no way to tell time. There was only the fluorescent light overhead and it never turned off.

I learned very quickly that my new eyes were sensitive to light and my antennae acted as my nose and ears. It was very strange to experience sounds boring through the center of my head rather than the sides. As for smell there was a lot of new things there, mostly pheromones, from me no less. The aroma itself was pungent like citrus fruit. The smell changed depending on my mood. Since I was so angry and scared it kept switching between fruit and a musky wet dog smell. It was strange, I would have thought the stench would be less pleasant, yet it seemed to soothe me, focus me. It scared me that I was growing accustomed to it.

The cameras were always watching. I was a prisoner here no matter what he told me. Out of boredom, I explored the abdomen and discovered more troubling things, well perhaps useful. I had my back to the camera, trying have something reminiscent of privacy. Granted, I had the feeling they had already examined every inch of my body while I was out. Just thinking about it made me feel even more violated and vulnerable.

The abdomen was extremely flexible. I could tuck it between my legs and it could stretch to the point that it was right in my face, which made looking it over a hell of a lot easier. I had a stinger and almost lost an eye when it jabbed out. It oozed some sort of secretion, likely a venom. It retracted, but the length was around a foot of barbed harpoon. Whoever was unlucky enough to receive this thing would hate their life. Unfortunately, my intimates were located in that thing as well, I found out the hard way.

I had four holes beside the stinger and they all looked angry. I did not want to know what any of them did. I was curious, but I was more scared of what I might find in there. For all I knew I had tentacle dicks or something... I mean I already almost got my eye stabbed out by something. I had watched way too much hentai to know where this was going, pushing my luck did not seem like a good idea. I knew that two of them were for excretions, but that still left a mystery hole.

I ignored them and started tapping the sides of it to figure anything else out. As far as I could tell most of my organs were inside of the abdomen and not my main body. That would explain why I am so damned skinny, there are hardly any organs in there. The armor was thickest there too, interlocking plates that sealed completely shut. There was even a hatch sort of thing to cover my most intimate of places. My crotch was empty, just a crease in the armor, but that was because of the natural curve. I was actually relieved by that since for all I knew, I had more than one muff. This is already weird enough, I don’t want any more.

My observation continued and to my delight, I discovered that I had wings. Considering how big they were, I honestly don’t know how the fuck I missed them in the first place. Might have something to do with me smashing that mirror. They were an orange mixed with red color. Very pretty too, mesmerizing in fact. I stared at them for hours. While not spread they appeared like a cape, draping my back, it was kinda cool. The wing muscles were extremely hard to control I would have to devote a lot of time to training them. I still hated this body, but wings were exciting. They brought the possibility of flying and that, that was something to look forward to. The more that I looked, the more I resembled a wasp. The amount of Super Villain vibes I was putting out were becoming apparent, like blatantly. Hopefully nobody thinks I am a bad guy. I mean, I should be judged by what I do rather than how I look, right? I could see why people referred to me as wasp girl. I despised that name.

Dr. Tesla finally decided that I was somewhat safe. The door opened and there stood something I never would have thought to see, nor expect to fear, an adorable little girl.