The Vespidian

Arc 2 Me, Myself, and Neon Nurse

Chapter 4

My eyes shot open. "Snakes! Oh god, they are everywhere!" I screamed, falling off of the table.

Standing over me was a young woman, but her skin seemed wrong; it was lifeless like hardened plastic. Yet it also seemed to be supple and pliable. Her head was helmeted and left only the lower face exposed. Doll's eyes, glossy and glowing green, sat behind a pink visor. A nurse outfit covered her; it was not fabric; instead, some sort of bendy metal and was pearly white. The logo of a syringe was emblazoned upon her front like it had been stamped there in red. She wore thick shoulder-length gloves and knee-high stockings; both were black and made out of that metal. There were grooves carved into her, and neon lights shined pink, washing her in a strange aura, I could only describe it as creepy. I never knew pink could be so scary.

Neon Nurse stared down at me. Then her crooked smile spread. "How did you know about those, I wonder... Ah, but these are not snakes; that is the old model. Worms are the new model, twice as efficient. You look scared, don't worry. Looks like someone needs another shot. I am not done yet. Just hold still now."

"Get the fuck away from me, you sick bitch!" I kicked her knee out, and she fell back.

"Hey, that hurt." She got back up far too quickly.

"My ass hurts. What is your point?"

She smiled, twirling the giant syringe. "It is not nice to call people names. Oh, I know, it is because you don't know who I am. I am Neon Nurse. Cybernetic Genius at your service. As for the exploration, it was a resounding success." She shuddered, looking like she wet herself. Pervert! It's a pervert! "You should be sore for about a week. Well, a normal person would anyway. I doubt you will even feel it after a few hours."

I have never felt so violated in my entire life before. Everything felt wrong on the inside. Thankfully I did not feel any snakes still in there. Thanks to Sub, though, I knew that they had been everywhere... everywhere! I shivered, even imagining it. This bitch I am going to kill her! The world will be a better place without her. Of that, I am confident. I had trepidation about killing, but I could do it after what she did to me if it was her. I would not even feel bad about it. In fact, I think it would be pretty damned satisfying. Wow, that got dark; well, she does deserve it.

"I don't care what you are. I am going to kill you!"

"We can be such good friends, though. Why do you want to kill me?" She asked, readying the syringe.

"How do you not understand after what you did to me?"

"What did I do to you?" She asked, tilting her head to one side. "I just gave you an examination. Every Hero gets an examination by me here. I must say your body is... breathtaking. Your anatomy is so alien; it gets my circuits moist. I want to study you more and more. I may have gotten a little carried away, but I learned so much about you! My dear Vespidian, you are healthy, I think. Honestly, I am not too sure because you are so inhuman. I will need more data to be sure, though. You seem to be agitated... so let us stop for now. Are you hungry? I emptied your stomach to see what diet you have been partaking in."

"You bitch!" I tackled her, wrapped all four hands around her neck, and squeezed. It was undoubtedly metal, and I had to really try to break it. What the hell is made out of, Titanium? She tried to jab me, but I kicked the needle away.

"Owe, stop. Come on, stop; it tickles. Violence is never the answer." She kept babbling, and I started shaking and bashing her head into the floor. "Breaking me won't change anything. You are so cute when you are angry."

I snapped her neck finally, and the damned thing started sparking. "That is not nice. How did you know I can't die from that? You knew about my snakes too. You are full of so many surprises."

"Why won't you die!?" I shouted at her.

"Don't worry, you did not do any damage I can't fix in an hour or so. I forgive you."

I reached back and started punching her face. You forgive me? Fuck that, die! She kept smiling the whole time, though. What is she a masochist? Her face is made of metal too. Is she even a cyborg, or is she a robot? No matter how hard I hit her, the smirk would not leave her face; it was getting bigger. Oh god, she is M! I pulled away from her and accidentally vented. Her eyes grew huge when she saw that.

"Finished? To be able to break my neck with your bare hands, you are stronger than you look." Smiled Neon Nurse holding her head straight. She was looking closely at my abdomen. "What was that you just did? Do it again. What a fascinating adaptation. I want to just lock you up and unravel the mysteries of this wondrous body."

My eyes turned deadly, and she took a step back. This bitch was just like Dr. Arbor! I could smell that stink that meant I wanted to kill. "You would not be the first to try. I will make you the last."

"Oh, someone has already studied you? Who? I want to compare research, imagine the potential."

I threw her into the wall knocking over something that looked very expensive. My hands were twitching. "I will kill. I mean it. You violated me!"

She rose slowly, and her head nearly fell off. "I am sorry."

"You are what?" I asked, a little dumbfounded.

"I am sorry." She replied. "I get a little over-excited when I see new things. I just get lost in trying to figure out how every little thing works. I really want to be friends with you, though. I will respect your boundaries from now on. However, it would be in your best interest if I am allowed to study you more. There could be complications from certain drugs, medicines or chemicals you see. I have a feeling it would be terrible if you died. Mutigene is very unstable and dangerous, you know. You could be a walking time bomb for all we know. It would not be the first time."

"You know about Mutigene?"

"Oh yes. It might not be my field of expertise, but I know quite a bit. Let's see, fumes can cause cancerous cells to mutate and take over host cells at a phenomenal rate. Direct exposure is really not recommended, though. It leads to complete and utter genetic breakdown. It is some really dangerous stuff. You can get Super Powers from it, but that is only about six percent odds, and that is only at light exposure. Odds of survival plummet if more than three drops come into direct contact and are absorbed into the body. Most of the scientific community is terrified of the stuff. My friend Dr. Arbor is the leading researcher on it. If you liked, I could make an appointment and have her look you over."

I shook my head. "No. I never want to see her. Wait, you are friends with her? She is a Super Villain!"

She smiled. "No, no, silly Dr. Arbor is neutral. There is a little gray line where most Technological and Biological focused Supers fit. You see, being a hero will greatly restrict your progress, but you are mostly safe. Being a villain, there are no limitations to what can be achieved. Still, it will land you on the wanted list and make you easy prey for all sorts of unscrupulous types. You have to hire muscle if you want to be safe like that, which is very expensive, let me tell you. Sometimes even the hired muscles aren't enough to stop the more predatory villains."

Neon Nurse sighed, "Then you run into the funding predicament; experiments cost a fortune, you know. There is the middle where you work for the Hero League with most things, but you hide the crazy stuff. That is the neutral line. Often, you end up working for the government if you take that route. They look the other way to the more questionable aspects of your work and throw wheelbarrows of money if you can produce results. The main problem with working with the government is that they are very greedy when it comes to the finished product. They will frequently take it unless it helps you make something even better."

"That sounds beyond unethical. Are you neutral?"

"I suppose I am." She smiled, leaning her head to the side and keeping it there with her hand. "Although these days I mostly work for the Hero League. Ah, I did sell Dr. Arbor my prototype Robo Snake about two months ago. It is self-replicating, but I have not quite figured out a few little glitches in it."

"Self-replicating? That sounds terrifying. You know Dr. Tesla as well?"

"Oh, Dr. Tesla? He is a supervillain, but he's still very close to the neutral line. His Dimensional Pocket technology is absolutely groundbreaking! I have several units myself. I use it whenever I collect samples out in the field. All that I had to give him was a thousand Robo Snakes and a hundred Robo Scorpions; really, it was a steal. You see, the scientific community is rather small, so we all know one another. We even have an annual meeting to share research and see if anyone might be having the same problems we are and if they have found a fix. Mr. Green, for instance, is a really nice guy. He won the peace prize last convention for his radical new crop experiments."

"Mr. Green? Who the hell is that, the hippie cousin of Mr. Clean?"

"You have not heard about him? He is trying to solve world hunger."

"He really does sound pretty cool. That seems like something to get behind." I smiled vaguely.

"It has been a while since anybody heard anything from him, though."

"Like how long?"

"A couple months, I think. It is not as though we talk regularly. He likely locked himself in his lab and is working on something crazy; it is what we do when we are inspired. It is a real shame he was not very interested in my Robos. I was hoping to get a contract going with him."

"Well, let's just say I am well acquainted with your snakes. You know Molotov as well?"

She shook her head. "Molotov is a very bad person. I would never deal with her. After all, I do not want to be mixed up with the Russians, or Kraken."

"What do you mean the Russians I thought she defected?"

She gave me a strange look. "Why would she defect? Molotov is the head of KGB."

My eyes opened wide, and I shook her. "Are you sure?"

She nodded, "Has been for the last twenty years. No one knows where she came from or how she obtained Eternal Youth; she has not aged a day since her appearance. Her ferocity and Super Strength have made Russia a world threat. She even made Super Soldiers. Ten years ago, the whole world was almost consumed in nuclear fire, that is, had she not stopped it. That was the North Koreans though, she executed everyone responsible and appointed a new leader."

"You do realize that is the person chasing me, right?"

"Of course. We are taking precautions. She is scary, but there are true monsters out there. Besides, she works for Russia's best interest, and war with the USA would be exceedingly bad for both sides. Mutually assured destruction and whatnot."

I nodded. "Were there any other tests I had to do to join?"

"Well, we have to gauge your Rank, but that is in the lower facilities. We also have to figure out what kind of Super you are."

"How much of you is still human?" I asked her.

"Me? Roughly thirty percent. It is only my brain and some more vital organs left. Everything else has been replaced by glorious machinery. In fact, I have almost created a cyber heart, lung, and brain for humans; I already have animal ones. Soon I will be one hundred percent machine, assuming things go well. They often don't. So many setbacks. Well, what is progress without setbacks? You want me to make you some Robo limbs or armor, perhaps? The limbs are very popular with amputees."

"I will think about it. Just keep your snakes away from me."

"Friends?" She smiled, extending her hand. With it absent, her head fell over crooked, wires sparking. I took it and nodded. "I guess."

"Oh, you never told me. How much Mutigene were you exposed to?" She asked, fixing her neck while I sat on the table.

"I guess about this much. Hard to say I kind of fell in it." I said, holding up a flat bottomed breaker.

She dropped her head and stared between me and the container. Neon Nurse jammed her head back into place, I heard a few things break. "You. How are you alive? Exposed to that much, you should be primordial soup burning a hole through the earth right now!"

"I get that I am special, but is it that surprising?"

She started breathing heavily. "You don't understand. You, let me dissect you!"

"Hell no!" She had her arms out towards me, and I held her back. After a few moments, she calmed down.

Neon Nurse held up a test tube and poured a tiny amount of water into the bottom. "This is roughly the amount that a human can survive of Mutigene. However, that is only physically. Mentally they will be handicapped, develop split personalities, amnesia, schizophrenia, bipolar, or prone to outbursts of rage. There is a lot more than that, but that should give you an idea of what happens. Anything beyond this much leads to complete degradation of DNA strands. Most turn into giant cancerous lumps of flesh with no intelligence to speak of. You have been exposed to over a thousand, no ten thousand times the lethal dose. Maybe even more. To be frank, you are an aberration; something like you will likely never be created again! I wonder how you are sane? You must have high mental fortitude. I will have to scan your brain later and see where all the activity is. I will study you. We must discover the secret to this."

"I don't get it. If the shit is so dangerous, why do people still use it?"

"The potential is where that answer is. Super Powers that can be obtained from light exposure are well, they could be anything. There have been cases of Pyrokinesis clear to Muscle Adaptation. The ranks are all over the place as well. It is a wild card, so to speak. People crave power and will do anything to get it. If it could be perfected... one could have superpowers in a can."

"How does everybody else get powers besides that shit?"

"Well, that would be various ways. They could be born with it and might be hereditary. Cursed bloodlines and whatnot, or being bitten by a radioactive animal, happens more than you would think. There is a whole gang of subhumans running around in the slums. Exposure to heavy doses of radioactivity, but that is only about a three to five percent chance of success; most just get cancer. Oh, and of course, let's not forget Magic."

"Magic?"

"Magic. You know there are demons, right, angels too? I suppose they could be considered alternate dimensional beings. Granted, they can't come here directly, but they can influence certain things through magic."

"I heard about that. What about Demon Rider's demon bitches?"

"He breaks the rules on that. After all, he can cross over and bring things back, like his harem of succubus and his demonic bike that feeds on cocaine. Really it is no surprise he is a rank 9. He is one of those true monsters I was talking about. Usually, though, it is mostly possessions and throwing fireballs or shooting lightning type stuff. There is also vampires and werebeasts, but those typically fall under the radioactive animal category. Honestly, not that impressive."

"Not impressive?"

"Well, no. I mean, we have nukes. Radioactive zombies are pretty intimidating in case you don't know."

I nodded. "Point taken."

"Anyway, back to you. I will pay you to be my research subject. You like money, right? I promise it won't be anything life-threatening."

"I will think about it. Since you are so insistent. How much are we talking here?"

Neon Nurse started unzipping her uniform and leaned into a sexy pose. "I could pay with my body."

"What happened to the money?" I asked, eyeing her dismissively.

"Well, I could give you money and could let you indulge in my body."

I slapped her and shouted. "I don't want your body! You look like a fucking mannequin!"

"But, but eggs and.... you need someone to inseminate!" She ripped her clothes off, exposing all of her sculpted figure. Not entirely sure what was going on between her legs, it looked normal, but something told me to be afraid, very afraid. "I guarantee the soundness of my robo vagina. Three times as good as a normal one! I have patents in the sex toy industry!"

"I am into men, damn it!"

She leaned in, showing off her breasts as though that would seduce me. She gave me a bizarre look. "Oh, then you would put your brood in the..."

I realized where she was going with that. "Oh god damn it. No! Enough with the eggs!"

"Then if I made a male model body, you would."

"No. I don't want to fuck you!"

She looked dejected, and I kind of felt bad about it. Neon Nurse started buttoning up her costume with a huge frown. She might be unhinged, but I think she is genuinely worried about me. I mean, she was literally throwing herself at me. Maybe it would not be so bad? I suppose I should take what I can get considering I am not human. At some point, I will lay eggs... it might be challenging to find a willing host, although who is to say I even need a host? I would probably just make a nest or something. Well, I will cross that bridge when I get to it. If I get to it, I hope to god I never do. In fact, I hope that the bridge burns down and I never even have to see it. It is one thing as a fantasy about, but as reality, it seems rather scary. Besides, if I did, what kind of hellspawn would I even produce? More of me running around does not sound very appealing.

"I am not promising anything, but should I be in the brooding mood, I will consider it. I just want the money, ok. So how much can you pay?"

"So what you are saying is, if I pay you, you will inseminate me?" Her clothes dropped again, and she latched onto my side. "How much? I can pay one million right now." She stared me down with earnest eyes.

My eyes opened wide. "A million?! Why would you go so far?"

"Call it scientific pursuit?"

"So you are not actually into me?"

She licked her lips and rubbed a finger over them. "I never said that. My brain tingles just thinking about you. I want to explore every part of you personally, and in return, I would love to feel you venturing through my components."

"There is no reasoning with you, is there?" I pleaded. She shook her head, rubbing my leg sensually. I poked her hard with my fingers. "If it does happen, it happens on my terms, but don't expect anything!"

Neon Nurse nodded with ardent eyes. I could feel spiders running up my back. It was enough to shake a little. She scooted in close to me, and I shoved her away. She just kept gazing at me like I was made of solid gold or something. Oh god! How deep did I just dig a hole for myself? I just wanted to sell my body to science for money! Is that so wrong? Where did it go so horribly awry? Wait a minute, what the hell does she even want to do with my eggs? What about the children!? I will not bring her sick fantasies to life! How do I attract all the weirdos? If I just ignore it, it might go away, right?

"Put your clothes on, will you?!" I yelled at her, and she sulked. "What are people going to think if anybody sees this?"

"Fine. Fine. I jumped the gun a little bit. I just wanted your organic positor in my port storage unit." She said, pulling her metal clothes back up.

I eyed her for a long moment. "So about that testing. How much could you pay for that?"

"Well, let me get back to you on that. I am not entirely sure how much money I have at the moment."

"You offered a million."

"That is part of my emergency fund."

"Where do you get all of your money?"

"Sex toys and robo limbs, mostly. I sell a lot to the military. The veterans absolutely love them. I got some outstanding ones. You want to try?"

"No. I am good. Wait then, what are the snakes and stuff for?"

"Oh, those are just for fun, mostly. The Robo Snake is used for surgeries and exploring body cavities to find problems, like cancer. Seems to be a lot of cancer these days. It is very useful. I remember Dr. Arbor lamenting a contract to cure it. She kept saying it was taking valuable time from her new pet project. I kept bugging her about what she had on the drawing board, but she kept being all hush, hush about it, some secret government project. I never did find out what she was doing. I have Robo Spiders in the works, too. I am about halfway through getting all eight magnetic legs to move properly."

I shuddered. "Snakes, scorpions, and spiders? What is wrong with you?"

She shrugged. "I like how structured nature is. It is beautiful, and I try to replicate it and make even better versions. I have a cyber cat named Mittens. He was hit by a car last year, and I had to do extensive remodeling, but he is alive and well. That was an enjoyable project. He was in here somewhere, but you scared him off. He is such a scaredy-cat."

"You made a cyborg cat? Please tell me it does not talk."

"Why would a cat talk?" She asked, thinking. "I might be able to make him talk. How interesting. I never thought about that. Oh, you are just so full of helpfulness. I think we are going to have a long and intimate friendship."

"Don't remind me." I scowled.