Futuristic An Agent of Maniacles

[Darkling0096]

Sam shook her head and started scribbling on the little notepad next to the bed. "Twelve for the prosthetics, two for the drones, I put eight into the bike, and the power cell." The resulting costs would drop someone's finances by almost twenty-five thousand. "Denton, Denton, Denton, I hope you're well paid.

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu looked at Owl, speaking in Arabic so she'd understand him. "Feel free to check my memories if you don't believe me. I'm not going to lie to you. You're working for Dionysus and Denton. Also, you do drink. Quite heavily. You could probably drink me under the table." Kotsu said with a genuine look. "And we'll have to go see Dionysus again for you to maybe get back your memories. I also have to repair The Whip It." Kotsu said, remembering he left it in his room before they had left. "Actually, I overheard you talking about praying to him earlier? Maybe you can try to ask him yourself if he can give you your memories back through prayer?" Kotsu asked Owl. "Plus, then you'll see that I'm not lying as well. It's like a two-for-one deal. And I've always loved a good bargain." Kotsu said with a smile forming his lips. "Plus, I could take you to dinner later tonight, if you're up for it, that is." Kotsu blushed slightly. "Be the least I could do since you saved me."

Exzalia

 

[mmarage]

02 looked up as the two entered the room. He looked... quite tired. As the potion was offered, he got up, walked over, and took it, giving Kotsu a tired smile. "...Thank you for your consideration..." He said quietly, before setting the bottle down next to 01's bed on a bedside table. He then looked at Owl and gave a slight wave, before his smile finally broke. "...He won't be able to drink it until he wakes up." He said as he looked at 01 once more, staring at his missing leg, deep in thought.

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu looked perplexed. "Just... Slip it into his IV?" Kotsu asked with a bit of confusion in his voice. "Does that stuff work like that? Figured it'd get to the blood stream faster." Kotsu said, walking over to Joe 02 and hugging him. "I'm here for you, Joe. Both of you. I just wish I was stronger so I could have protected you all." Kotsu's face stiffened. "It may not be the time to ask this, but; is there a way that you know of that I can grow stronger?" Kotsu inquired. "I need to make sure I can protect you guys for as long as you'll be around." Kotsu said.

mmarage

 

[mmarage]

Kotsu looked perplexed. "Just... Slip it into his IV?" Kotsu asked with a bit of confusion in his voice. "Does that stuff work like that? Figured it'd get to the blood stream faster." Kotsu said, walking over to Joe 02 and hugging him. "I'm here for you, Joe. Both of you. I just wish I was stronger so I could have protected you all." Kotsu's face stiffened. "It may not be the time to ask this, but; is there a way that you know of that I can grow stronger?" Kotsu inquired. "I need to make sure I can protect you guys for as long as you'll be around." Kotsu said.

mmarage

02 looked up at him, he looked... very tired. "...I... am not sure if injecting that stuff would be the smartest idea. It's intended to be drunk, not injected." He said quietly. He slowly returned the hug. "...I... don't think you can grow stronger from two half-bit alchemists that... were never even supposed to have existed. Especially since... one half will probably be terminated. Alchemy... will be impossible for me to perform on my own." He said quietly.

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu looks at 02, and pulls out his phone on a notebook app. "If it's not too much trouble, write down everything you know. You said you weren't supposed to exist. What do you mean by that?"

 

[mmarage]

Kotsu looks at 02, and pulls out his phone on a notebook app. "If it's not too much trouble, write down everything you know. You said you weren't supposed to exist. What do you mean by that?"

02 looked down quietly. He grabbed Kotsu's phone and began typing... but stopped. "...They... can probably see all of this anyway. They're going to know that I talked. So... who cares anymore...?" He asked quietly, seeming quite defeated, handing Kotsu his phone back. "...I was never supposed to exist, because... I'm... we're... not real." He said, looking up at Kotsu. "We're fake. Everything about us is manufactured. Every last feature, every last drop of blood, every last cell in our bodies. We're not twins. We're the same person, just imperfect copies. Clones of a mage who died ten years ago. Who cares about a clone dying? It's not as if we're... it's not as if we're real people. You can just make another set. Why bother making a prosthetic for something you can just grow in another tube? It's not as if we can haunt them once we're gone. We don't have souls, we don't have a true being, nothing lives on from us. He's dead weight now, so he'll probably be terminated, or just kept in the facility until the very last moment he dies. Since we're both two halves... no... not even halves of a whole... I'll probably be terminated too, or just be used as cannon fodder for another one of Denton's plans." He said quietly.

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu stared quietly at Joe, before handing him back the phone. "You're still my friend. One of my only friends in 50 years. Clone or not. So... With that being said, I want you to write down all of your memories with us. So I can show it to the next clones. So that they'll realize that even if you're manufactured, even if you're just artificial, you're still real people with at least one real friend out there." Kotsu said with a sad smile. "Both of you will always have me as a friend until the day I die. Count on it." Kotsu said, offering Joe a fist bump with a wide grin.

 

[mmarage]

02 looked at him quietly as he held the phone. "...You... still want to be our friend...? Even though... even though we weren't supposed to have existed? That we're just... just... puppets...?" He asked quietly, looking down to the ground. "...Thank you, Kotsu." He said quietly, a small, sad smile forming on his lips. "...I... is... it right that there'd be another set of us after all of this...?" He asked quietly. "...They'll just die too... whether its after one of us suffers a major injury... or... in a few months... when our bodies fall apart." He said quietly, dread spreading across his face as he said this. The scientists, the researchers... they didn't sugarcoat what they expected to happen to their bodies in a few months, to what had happened to their predecessors, and what would invariably happen to those that came after them. Would those clones too feel that sense of dread...? That sense of hopelessness...?

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu looked at Joe 02 quizzically. "Why the hell wouldn't I want to be your friend? And you ain't a puppet. I can tell you that much. Puppets don't have emotions. I've seen you guys smile, laugh, even that fear you've shown before when I smelled you guys dying. Same fear you're giving off now. You're just as human as I am. Clone or not, you still lived, and for now, you're both still alive." Kotsu said with a genuine smile on his face, getting on his knee to stare Joe 02 in the eyes. "Look, I don't know if the other clones will die. I don't know how long they'll last, hell, how long I'll even stay alive. But the important part is, you got to experience things that the other clones didn't." Kotsu stood up again.

"You know what the world was like. And if they send us you guys back again, I want you to remember who you two are. And maybe one day when they're able to make you guys built to last, or if you guys find a way to stabilize yourselves? You'll be a permanent addition to our team, and then you won't have to read about your adventures with us anymore. You'll be able to live them permanently." Kotsu put his arms behind his head. "I ain't the best at pep talks, but I kinda hope that helps." Kotsu said beaming. "Oh yeah!" Kotsu translated everything back to Owl that transpired.

Exzalia mmarage

 

[Exzalia]

Owl nods then walks up to Joe 02.

"I don't know why but I have one of your memories...actually several. Where we friends?"

mmarage

 

[mmarage]

02 shrugged. "Well... I... it's an apt description, is it not...? We're humanoid creations, made to perform tasks by the ones that made us, the ones that control us." He said quietly looking Kotsu in the eye. "...The clones that will come after us... won't be us. They might have our personalities, they might have a few of the memories of the man that we were cloned from... but they won't be us. They too will be used. They will suffer. They will die. They will be replaced. No part of them will remain, nor live on. They'll be tested time and time again to try and perfect the process. Then... I don't know... be mass produced maybe. A few words... a few words is not the same as experiencing it all for yourself." 02 said. He looked... hurt. Could... Kotsu really just replace them as easy as that with another set? Were... they really that expendable... that replaceable...? He knew the answer was 'yes'... but still. It... hurt to have something like that come from the only man in the world that was his friend.

He turned his gaze to Owl. "...No. We weren't. I... don't know how you have our memories, but... this is probably one of the first few times that we've actually spoken." He said quietly. He... had no idea what she meant by having his memories. When could she have gotten something like that...?

 

[KotaKotsu]

"Joe, you don't get it do you?" Kotsu said. "You're going to die. I can't help with that. I can only help with Owl's memory. The only thing I can do is show you who you are personally. And that you're not just a clone. You're still as much you as I can ever see you. If you're going to be mass cloned, you're better off knowing who you are." Kotsu smiled. "This, in a way, is kinda like your soul? Your thoughts and how they've changed depending on what happens." Kotsu smiled genuinely. "Because it's always going to be you. As who you are. And you'll always be there for me, just like I'll be there for you." Kotsu said offering Joe some way to be himself and remain a part of this world without dying the ultimate death. "I don't want to forget you and your brother a day in my life. I live too long. Forgot my own siblings faces. I don't wanna forget you two." Kotsu smiled softly.

 

[mmarage]

02 listened to him quietly. "...You... don't understand. Sure they'll read what I wrote, and they might add their own thoughts, but they're ultimately just words. They might not even believe you. Our next iterations might not be assigned to this unit again. What I told you is highly confidential. They only said that we were allowed to say that we'd be gone in a few months and that was it. This cloning stuff... it's still tricky. Who... who knows what they might be trying to do to us in the cloning process. They might... they might try to remove emotions and personalities altogether. Just keep the raw fighting skill. You said it yourself, they had you murder civilians and children in order to keep their secrets. Who knows why they wanted to create us in the first place." He said.

His expression hardened as he placed his hands on Kotsu's shoulders and looked him hard in the eye. "Kotsu, I don't think you understand. Do you know how scary it is to be brought into this world and know that there's nothing waiting for you on the other side? There's no 'ifs' for us. We are completely artificial, we don't have a soul, we don't have anything waiting for us when our bodies finally give out. We've seen a god, we've seen a demon, there's something on the other side for everyone else, including you, but not us. Do you even know how painful it's going to be for us...? It's not... it's not like dying from old age where we pass quietly and painlessly in our sleep. Our bodies are already beginning to deteriorate. Right now, it's just a little bit of hair loss. But it's going to progress. We're going to lose nails and teeth... our bones are going to be so fragile that just putting our weight on them is going to be enough to snap them... our skin won't even be able to hold together, limbs'll start to fall off, our flesh will just tear with any tiny movement that we make, until we just melt into a slurry. For every agonizing second, they're going to keep us alive to gather all of the data they possibly can to make a new set suffer all over again, just longer. We were never supposed to exist, and the crime for doing so, is a very painful, agonizing death. We are just sick, twisted, disgusting perversions of nature, Kotsu. I can only imagine that even if we do become 'stable' the death will likely remain much the same." He said, his voice was cracking, he was shaking, tears were in his eyes as he looked at the vampire. "You're... you're... you're being completely selfish!" He snapped finally, taking a few steps backwards.

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu chuckled. "There's one flaw with what you said. I'm cursed. My soul is damned, but my body lives. I only tell myself that I'll see people on the other side. I know I won't." Kotsu said with a sad smile. "Why do you think that I forgot their faces; my siblings?" Kotsu sighed deeply. "I'm hard to kill, but once I die. I'm gone too. But you all will remember me for as long as I survive in your memory." Kotsu started to cry while smiling. "That's the only way I'll stay alive."

 

[mmarage]

02 sighed. "Well... there's still a chance for you, still hope for you. You have... hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years to figure something out. Us...? Even if we became stable tomorrow, there's an expiration date for us, and no hope. Kotsu... I'm scared of what they might make us do, what they'll do to us. We... we were originally told that the reason that we exist is because they wanted to develop cloning for medical purposes, and that they needed to see how a fully functional human being would be with cloned organs or limbs, and that it seemed that everything just eventually fell apart. We... were fine with the idea of suffering for that purpose... being able to a lot of save people... but... it... it just doesn't add up. Maniacles are a paramilitary organization hellbent on keeping the magical away from the mundane, and are cutthroat with their tactics. Where does medical science fit in there? Just fitting their soldiers with spare parts when they lose them? Why use some mage that died 10 years ago as a blueprint? Why even bother sending us out on missions? They say its to test us out in the field for further data... but... I'm not so sure about that." He explained, crossing his arms as he stayed close to the corner, shrinking into it.

"We... we don't care about what happens afterward, or if anyone even remembers us, it might even be better if no one did... but... knowing that it's going to happen to a lot more clones, possibly for terrible purposes... it's... it's just... cruel. Bringing more of us into the world, making us fear the end, making us suffer... for... a lie. To... possibly hurt a lot more people. To... to... strip what little is left of that man's memory and pervert it... it's... cruel." He choked out, a few tears now sliding down his cheeks. He couldn't pretend to smile, to put on a brave face. "I don't even know what's going to happen to us now. 01 lost his leg. Do you think they're going to make a prosthetic for a clone that's going to die anyway?" He asked.

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu shrugged. "Could ask Sam? She could think about making one? She made me The Whip It! She's in the hospital too! I could ask her?"

 

[mmarage]

02 looked up at Kotsu, looking quite exhausted. "...If you want. I... would feel bad for her wasting her time in creating a prosthetic for a dying clone though..." He said quietly.

 

[KotaKotsu]

"You guys are part of the group. And I can ask Sam in exchange for money. Or to test something dangerous. Learning I can suffer third degree burns and being thrown about without dying and getting my eyes poked through." Kotsu said, rubbing the back of his head. "I'd offer to turn you guys, but I dunno how."

 

[mmarage]

"You guys are part of the group. And I can ask Sam in exchange for money. Or to test something dangerous. Learning I can suffer third degree burns and being thrown about without dying and getting my eyes poked through." Kotsu said, rubbing the back of his head. "I'd offer to turn you guys, but I dunno how."

02 shook his head. "Please... don't do that. I don't want you to get hurt over a leg, or lose a lot of money for that..." He said quietly, before rubbing the back of his head. "I'm... not even entirely sure if you could turn us if you wanted to. I mean... we are artificial creations. So... it might not even work... and... honestly... I don't mind dying. Forcing us to live longer, to dread more and more each day knowing that at any moment we'll die and then that'll be it... that'd be pure torture. At least... at least like this we know the end is coming. There's... some peace in knowing that we won't have to suffer like this too long." He said quietly.

 

[KotaKotsu]

"I don't mind it. It's like endurance trainin'! We'll be rich from Dionysus giving us the gold drachmae." Kotsu said with a smile.

 

[mmarage]

"Erm... you'll be getting rich. Anything that we make goes right back into the Maniacles' budget." He said quietly, deciding to be honest with the vampire. After all, they were just property of the organization. They didn't have any real personal belongings. Just whatever they were supplied with.

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu cocked his head. "So why not just talk to Sam yourself about commissioning a leg? I'm sure Denton can petition us to keep you guys since you're already dying? You guys can talk to Sam as well and get another friend! I have to ask her if we're friends now too." Kotsu said rubbing his chin.

 

[mmarage]

02 shook his head slowly. "We... don't really know her, and... I don't want to bother her, not after she just nearly got killed by a demon... and Kotsu... you've been listening to what I've been saying, right? They're not just going to let you 'keep' us. We're highly classified projects that belong to the Maniacles corporation. I just don't know if we'll be terminated outright, either for 01 losing his leg and thus making us useless in the field, or for me telling you this information. I have no idea if we're being listened to, it's very much possible. Right now... I just want to be here with 01." He said quietly, dropping the 'brother' pretense altogether. They were clones, not brothers, they'd gotten used to calling one another their brother in order to just wave off the oddity of their matching appearances and names.

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu stared sadly at the Joes, the reality setting in for the situation. "Your bond is real... Ain't it?" Kotsu said, a little hesitant. "You care for each other. You're all you both have." Kotsu said perking up. "He's your brother for real. And at least you know that ain't fabricated."