The Prisoner, the experimenter and the MBP

The ship swayed from side to side, the waves crashed into the wooden hull of the vessel and the rain pattered on the deck. The wind roared the boat forwards while the sun’s light failed to pierce the ship, leaving Jack to lie in pitch black.

He had woken up a while ago and felt around in the darkness. The floor was covered with straw and above him was a low-lying ceiling. Surrounding him were metal bars, with gaps too small to escape through. He knew he was traveling on water as the nauseating he felt gave it away. The growls and brays of animals surrounded the room. Just where was he being taken?

There were also some moans, a few screams and manic laughter. Jack felt something wet trickle beneath him. He moved to the back of the cage as, combined with the putrid smell that fill the room, he was sure it wasn’t anything sanitary.

‘Ugh. Another one? Damned Eurasian scum,’ a voice said from above.

Jack heard the footsteps from behind him. It grew in loudness until it stopped, right beside him. He saw the silhouette of a person feeling the floor. Jack could hear the faint splashing of a liquid followed by a slurping sound.

‘Yep. Another one’s gone. Oi! Come help carry him out,’ the same voice said.

Another pair of footsteps made its way beside Jack’s cage. Jack listened, as the screeching of a metal cage being dragged along the boards, echoed across the room. The animals howled in response. Jack drowned the sound out instead. His body felt heavy. His mind was fatigued. He curled himself up into a ball. He didn’t want to think about what was in store for him.

As the day (or night; Jack couldn’t tell) went on, Jack’s eyesight adjusted to the darkness. It wasn’t perfect, though. Half time the time, what Jack thought he saw was just his mind playing tricks on him. The mages looked like animals and the animals looked like mages. The treatment was the same, however, so in the end the distinction wasn’t needed. All were covered in urine and faeces and all were slaves to the masters of the ship.

Occasionally, these very masters would grace the prisoners with their presence. Jack could tell who they were by the greenish glow of their eyes. It was like a firefly dancing in the night, as the person bobbed up and down in his walk. The prisoners, Jack included, were like frogs staring at them. Rightfully so, as them being below deck only meant one thing: food.

The food wasn’t anything to be excited about. It came in small bowls, with a form of gruel slopped messily inside. It tasted horrible, but as the only source of nourishment, Jack forced it down with his bare hands. In his weakened state and without utensils, the gruel dripped to the floor whenever Jack ate. The stains never got cleaned nor did the bowl.

This routine continued for weeks. At some point, the howls and moans coming from all the other prisoners were drowned out. Either that or the prisoners all died out. The shouts of ‘another one gone’ followed by the screeching of cages moving mingled with the other sounds. How many were there at the beginning? How many will remain? All Jack knew was that he was alive. That was what mattered. He had to survive. He didn’t know why, but his desire to live was so strong that he had completely forgot about Esper.

****

A loud clanging against the bars of the cages jolted Jack up. The animals chorused in response, while what’s left of the other prisoners groaned. The source of the clanging came from several pairs of glowing eyes. Jack counted at least a dozen, more than double the usual amount. They separated into several sections of the floor, hitting the bars of the cages, making sure everyone was awake.

’Fifty-two animals, twenty-seven humans,’ Jack heard from one of the glowing eyes.

‘Not bad of a turnout this time,’ said another. It appeared they had finished their area and began a conversation.

‘The one the boss wanted alive?’

‘One of them, yes.’

‘Which one?’

‘The chameleon.’

‘That weakling? Oh well. Just bring him out for transfer.’

Jack acted as if he heard nothing as one of them stared into his cage. A jangling of keys, followed by the creaking of the cage opening, and the eyes edged closer to him. A smell Jack hadn’t smelt for ages filled his nostrils. It was fresh; a delightful scent of tree bark and leaves. It reminded him of Eurasia.

‘You’re coming with me. Guard, make sure he doesn’t escape’

Jack said nothing in response but got suddenly pinned down. Some hard metal got wrapped around his wrists, binding the two hands together. He feebly tried to move his hands free, but the bindings only gripped tighter. Jack was weak. He always was, relying on others to help finish the job.

An arm grabbed the nape of Jack’s neck. It pulled him out of the cage, where another person gripped onto his arms, leading him towards a staircase. He tripped several times along the way. His legs didn’t want to cooperate. It was like being a baby, learning how to take its first steps all over again. How many weeks was he sitting for, making his legs inactive in the process?

Somebody tutted in disgust. By the tightening grip of his hold, Jack could tell that the guard was also restless at his uselessness. It took one more tumble to the floor before the guard roared angrily. He swept Jack off the floor and hurled him over his shoulders. Jack was too weak to tense his stomach, as the collision between him and the guard caused Jack to vomit.

‘Oh, you got to kidding me!’ complained the guard. ‘Eurasians are the worst. I should have killed him while he was still in the cage.’

‘You can’t do that,’ replied another, walking beside him. ‘The boss wanted them alive but the other failed to make it. We’d be used for one of the boss’ experiments if we brought nothing.’

‘Ugh. I hate it when you’re right. Get the door for me.’

The second guard took a few quick steps up the stairs and pushed against a wooden hatch. A stream of light burst through, blinding Jack momentarily. His head writhed in pain, his eyes felt like they were burning, his body hit by a wave of heat.

Once his eyes adjusted the light, Jack surveyed his surroundings. His movements were impaired and vision limited, only able to see what was in front: a vast ocean without land in sight. The water sparkled in the sunlight, but what surprised Jack the most was how clear it was. The wildlife and seabed, beneath the surface of the ocean, were completely visible, as if he was looking at thin air. It was a huge contrast to the murky waters of Eurasia.

As Jack moved, courtesy of the guard, the ship’s top deck came into view. It felt out of place. The filthiness of the ship ruined the image Jack had a few moments ago. It had smears of red, black and yellow. The stench of the ship battled with the perfume-like smell of the ocean. It was a form of art, in its own way.

‘Oh! That him?!’ a man shouted in delight.

‘Yes, boss.’

‘Put him down. I want to inspect him. You can go get the others afterwards.’

Jack was hurled to the deck of the ship. He felt something soft squelch beneath his head. Jack grimaced at the thought of what it was. His legs felt weak and arms were heavy. In his current state, he just wanted to bathe in the sunlight, so he just closed his eyes.

‘You’re not dying on me, are you?’

Jack opened his eyes again to find a child, no older than fourty, looming over him. The boy had pale white skin, dark blonde shoulder-length hair and freckles on his face. What’s he doing outside of the MBP? Jack wondered.

‘Oi! Can you speak?’ the boy asked.

Jack didn’t feel the need to reply to a child. He had lost interest anyway, so he closed his eyes once more. It didn’t last long as he got slapped awake. The child looked angry this time. It wasn’t intimidating in any shape or form. In fact, it actually looked quite cute with his plump cheeks that puffed out. Was Jack ever like that? Jack smiled at the thought. Oh, how eighty years changes the way you look!

‘Not one to talk, are you? Were you like at birth or did you lose it along the way? Are you a bestial stealth type or a chameleon type? Oooo so many wonderful things to find out! Alfred, carry him!’

‘Yes, sire,’ a man in a black and white suit said, picking Jack up.

It was the first time Jack saw this attire. What type of mage was he? Alfred’s grey hair and wrinkled face didn’t give anything away. He wrapped Jack around his shoulder just like the guard did.

‘Alfred. Has my 4DS charged yet?’ the boy asked.

‘Yes. The PS8 is also ready’

‘Finally! Do you know how fucking long the journey is? I need my FFVC and AC9, otherwise the trip goes to sh-’

‘Please watch your language, sire. However, I concur that it was quite the trek.’

‘All worth it now that I got several more beauties like this one!’ the boy said tapping on Jack.

‘Indeed, sire.'

‘Turn him around. I want to sit on his lap!’

‘Certainly.’

As Alfred flipped Jack into a sitting position on his shoulder like a ragdoll, Jack wondered what they were talking about. There were words he had never heard about. Their interactions were strange too. Surely there was no way that child was the grown man’s superior, right? However, the respect the man gave the child, and the way the child ordered him, suggested that was the case. The fact that Alfred bent down, allowing the boy to clamber onto him and on Jack’s lap, cemented the idea.

‘Let’s go already!’ the boy shouted impatiently.

Jack heard the gushing of water. The boat began to sink, along with the water level, to reveal an orange-yellow wall extending to as far as the eyes could see. It protected the continents from getting flooded, while acted as defence at the same time. Jack knew they existed in Eurasia, but did the continents have them too? Just where on Earth was he?

The ship tilted forwards and began to move, along with the flow of the water, into the wall. The brightness quickly disappeared into darkness when they were inside. Jack braced for darkness but was shocked at how bright the insides were. Inside the walls was a tunnel, with a stream in the middle and pathways either side it. The walls were also lit up, not with torches that Jack was used to, but of glass and a glowing metal that shone a bright white.

The new experiences didn’t stop as someone handed the boy a metallic box. He opened it and pressed a button with a strange symbol on it. It looked like a ‘U’ with an ‘I’ in the middle. Immediately, some images popped out from the inside of the box. The images seemed to move, in accordance to the child’s button pressing. The images took the appearance of a man in a white hooded jacket, killing others. Why was it doing that? Jack didn’t understand. Was this the power of a new type of mage? Maybe, but Jack couldn’t help but be mesmerised by it.

His trance was broken when the ship halted to a stop. Jack heard an anchor being dropped into the stream as Alfred began to move, carrying both Jack and the boy in the process. They went down a plank that extended down to the pathway, beside the stream.

There was a pad with numbered buttons on the walls. The child closed the box, handing it to Alfred, jumped down from Jack’s lap, and pressed them in a certain order. A hidden door slid open, leading to an area where the walls, floor and ceilings was made of stainless steel. Compared to Squadron W’s Rezah and the stone homes he used to live in, it all felt unnatural.

Some guards carried cages containing animals and humans. These were the people Jack lived with the past few weeks. They looked filthy but it made Jack conscious of his own appearance. He was no better. His clothes were ragged, covered in blood and vomit, and his limbs looked like twigs.

‘Hurry up, Alfred!’

‘Yes, sire.’

The child climbed onto Jack’s lap once more and the trio headed down the metallic hallway. There were more glass lights but of several colours. They were placed over doors, but with no signs on them Jack couldn’t tell what was behind them.

In the end, they went through a door with a green light above it. Jack saw a lot of people, dressed in white coats, busy writing something down on paper. There were also several large glass cylinders, with people inside them. Some looked lie they were in pain while others stared blankly. They all had masks on and the bodies floated in liquids.

Jack suddenly realised what was the earlier discussion was about. He felt fear. He squirmed and wriggled, trying to get free, but Alfred’s grip was too tight and the bindings on his arms were too tough to break. He didn’t want to be an experiment. He didn’t want to go become a lifeless body at the mercy of these people.

‘Place him in container LZ-one after preparations,’ the child ordered.

The boy jumped off, signalled to a few of the white coated men who prepared a few injections. They stabbed Jack with the needles, injecting some sort of serum into Jack’s veins. His will to escape dropped and his body drooped as it became weaker than it was before. He couldn’t move at all, which allowed the people to change his clothes into thin garments. If he looked pathetic before, he was a complete joke now.

Alfred took Jack to one of the cylinders. After opening the glass door, Jack was placed inside with a mask, connected to a hollow tube, attached onto his face. Air funnelled through the tube, forcing him to take it in. It smelt fresh but Jack could tell something else was mixed within it.

Alfred closed the door before activating a switch on the side. A greenish liquid began to flow into the cylinder. It was cold to touch. The garments began to absorb the liquid, making it bulge. As more of the liquid began to flow into the cylinder, Jack began to float, with the help of his new clothes.

It wasn’t long before the whole container was filled. Jack bobbed up and down within the liquid. He was now one of the others. He was one of those who stared blankly, as if his body was a lifeless vessel. He was helpless. All he was allowed to do was think and look at what was in front of him.

‘Welcome to my Mage Breeding Programme a.k.a the MBP! I am Bastion East and I will be your supervisor. Please enjoy your stay because this will be your new home,’ the boy said, grinning at Jack with enthusiastic eyes. He seemed to have an important role despite looking so young. Just what was he? Jack thought

‘Now where shall we start?’ Bastion continued. ‘You’re a special one. According to my sources, you can camouflage and change your appearances to an extent. Amazing capabilities you have there, but here’s the catch! You’re only an E rank. How is that possible? My ranking system is highly accurate. You should be able to do what you do, so what gives? Do you have a mutation that only occurs during adulthood? Or maybe there’s a fault with the system? What makes you tick? Oh, there are so many questions to ask and so many answers to find out!’

Bastion couldn’t hold his excitement as he jumped up and down in delight. He mumbled some numbers off the tip of his tongue before nodding to himself.

‘Oh, I know! Let’s fix that speech disability you have. Elise! Come!’ Bastion called. He was annoyingly loud, but no one dared to correct him.

‘Yes sir?’ a skinny woman with long dark hair answered.

‘Carry experiment fifty-seven on this one.’

‘Certainly.’

The woman jotted something down, glancing up sometimes to make sure she got it down properly.

‘Why are you still here?’ Bastion asked. ‘Shoo.’

‘Oh, er, I was just putting down the test subject’s number down.’

‘Does it look like I give a damn what you’re doing?’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Does. It. Look. Like. I. Give. A. Damn? Stupid woman.’

Elise looked scared and scurried away. She didn’t want to be victim of her boss’ whims. Bastion, on the other hand, didn’t care who’s involved. As long as his curiosity is sated, the people he used didn’t matter. That was his philosophy. That and the desire to entertain himself.

‘That reminds me,’ Bastion said, ‘Is the Blu-ray ready, Alfred?’

‘Yes. Which movie would you like to watch today?’

‘I’m in the mood for the eleventh transformers movie.’

‘I shall prepare it straight away, sire.’

Bastion was ecstatic. Even more than usual. New experiments and a good movie to watch later on. What more could a guy wish for?