Futuristic An Agent of Maniacles

[Freikugel]

"Can't believe how stupid you are" replied Fizzy

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu didn't even bother looking at Fritz. "Takes a fool to call one out." He said in response and looked at the Joes again to see if the silhouette he had seen earlier was just a figment of this world. Or could it be Kotsu's sanity finally starting to chip? Both could likely be possible.

 

[Darkling0096]

Sam knelt next to Cova to cover her. "Denton, I'm not blaming you for this, but if you show the slightest hint of anything like this crossing your mind, I'm going to strap you to a table and use your skull as an anvil."

In a twisted way, this was something she and Owl shared, although definitely by wide, wide margins. Sam held no delusions that for Cova it was far worse than the hospital. Cova had been a child, and actively refusing, that the man continued anyway because he knew a "use" for the little mind mage? If the boys hadn't ripped him to pieces, Sam would have given him a liquid-laser bath.

 

[Kinggunlucky]

The words pieced Denton. Cut him. Bled him.

Kotsus shouting, Joe's questions, Sam's implications. They made him want to run, curl up, and hide away. He settled for taking a few steps back, separating himself from the others, a form of disconnecting.

Thoughts swam through his head. The next plan of action, next step. They were all half-formed. His mind was running on empty.

He massaged the bridge of his nose. The girl. Focus on the girl. What to do? She was just a memory. So were Khepri and Mao.

Maybe...

"Look," Denton sighed. "I'm not saying what happened was good or it excuses Maniacles I'm merely suggesting that this was not an orderly way to do this. I and several other colleagues would never have left the girl in hands of men like this. No this hasn't crossed my mind. This lacks care. The agent who did this is known to be of the cutthroat class. A real bastard." He kept his composure cool. "Let's keep focused on the task at hand. Yes? Getting Owl back to normal."

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu could agree on only one thing in what Denton said. He would be helping Owl get back to normal. But one last sharp jab pierced into his mind to direct at Denton. "Can you ever be 'normal' after experiencing this not once, but twice? And having to replay it over and over when you shut your eyes? Screaming yourself awake at night? I ask you that Denton not for you to answer, but for you to take in." Kotsu said with a calm voice, still shaking slightly. His pupils still completely red, piercing the night around them.

 

[Spoiled Bread]

Aria
​

A slit appeared next to the Joes and it opened. Aria passed the double door and stepped into the desert with a Joe's head in her left hand and a giant syringe in her right hand. A lot of blood was splattered on her clothes.

"See? Like I said, I can detect the whereabout of the current Joes." The Joe's head spoke proudly, if only he has a body, he might puffs his chest as high as possible.

"Thank goodness. Sorry I was kind of lost and..." Looking at the current situation, Aria finally noticed the strangeness of the situation. They were in the desert, at night. Owl was at the verge of crying, there's several ashes that Bickle seemed tries to do something with and Kotsu, Fizzy, the Joes and Denton were staring at each other.

"Uh oh," Aria and the Joe's head grunted in tandem when they felt the heavy atmosphere.

 

[Exzalia]

A Blue lesson.
​

Yellow owl was weeping at the shocking scenes staying close to Kotsu. Blue owl is stronger though she trembled at the memory. She walks towards the her weeping past self who was so distressed she didn't even notice them. Just crying into her hands, calling for her papa who would not come.

Blue Owl puts a hand on her head. "Let this be a lesson to you." She says with a trembled breath.

"love no one, trust no one, rely on no one. Not even those you think closest to you."

"Cova.." Bickles says but she cuts him off.

"You will call me Owl." She swallows though she trembles her voice is steady and determined. "I'm ending this memory now."

"What about her?" Bickle asks pointing to her past self still curled up and weeping.

"Leave her." Blue Owl says coldly. "this will make her strong."

If anyone else made objections she didn't listen to them, her eyes glow and a sand storm covers the moon and begins to eat away at the memory, until it plunges them into the black and they awake back in the prohibited room back in joes lab.

Blue owl stands from her clone who was still unconscious, with out a word she pulls her pistol from her holster and aims it at her clones head.

*Bang!*

"We got my memory, we can leave this place now." Blue owl says suddenly exhausted.

"No." yellow owls says standing though tears still flowed.

"What other business do we have here?" Blue owl asks.

"The joes, they are still suffering. I'm going to help them, all of them." yellow owl curls her fists. "I'm going to find the doctor in the nightmare, and I'm going to kill him."

"it won't change anything in the real world." Blue owls says with none of her usual passion, she sounded hollow, numb.

Yellow owl looks at Joe 1 and 2. "If they die, some version of them will end up here correct? Even if it's just a dream I want to give them a happy ending, there is no way I'm letting them wind up here like this. I'm going to kill that doctor, I'm going to fix the joes here, and then I'm going to renovate this lab into something, beautiful."

"It is Illogical." Blue owl says.

"And in this world that is a good thing, don't try to change my mind I'm doing this." yellow owl says determined.

Blue owl sighs, she looks at Joe and Joe with sad eyes. "Okay, I'll help."

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu took in the sight of what had transpired before him, he held Yellow Owl's hand as it all happened. He flinched visibly when Blue Owl told Bickle that what happened would make her strong, he flinched again when she shot her clone. Yellow Owl could feel Kotsu shaking. Kotsu said nothing. He did however, let go of Yellow Owl's hand for a moment, and walked over to Blue Owl to hug her. "Maybe you need this more than you know." He said, before pulling back and holding Yellow Owl's hand again. He willed his body to be clean of the gore that riddled his body, but his shirt underneath his suit was still stained with blood. Kotsu swallowed hard, thinking about what Blue Owl had said.

"Love no one, trust no one, rely on no one. Not even those you think closest to you."

Maybe that black box was better off being left unopened back in the real world.

 

[TheAdept]

It was satisfying seeing Kotsu and friends killing those bastards a second ago, even to a cursed old man like Clayton, but when they returned to the lab, Clayton returned to his thoughts regarding Joe. Clayton wasn't the type to let ideas go...or old grudges but that was a different story. He watched as Blue and Yellow Owls argued and decided to chime in once more.

"Like I said before, this is a dream world where someone's beliefs alone change reality. If these Joe's could somehow come and stay here, they could live. We would just need to create our own means of accessing this world so Maniacles couldn't do shit." Clayton said, not caring if he was interrupting.

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu stared at Clayton. "That won't be something they'd like." Kotsu pointed his chin at the twins. "If you don't believe me? Ask em yourself."

 

[TheAdept]

Clayton shook his head, his disbelief apparent in his expression. He turned to the Joes.

"You hear that idea? You wouldn't have to stay in this damn lab obviously. Hell if I were you I would imagine a big atom bomb blowing this place up and go to some...tropical island. Some paradise. The ideal life for you. Its a dream world, you could be gods here, or close to it. Its gotta be better than dying."

 

[mmarage]

The twins could only stare at Denton in disbelief at him trying to excuse the Maniacles at this point. They shook their heads and said nothing more. They watched the Owls with a detached interest. They winced when Blue Owl put a bullet into the clone Owl's head. When Yellow Owl insisted that they go further, that she was going to make this world into some kind of paradise, they shook their heads. "...Owl. This is our mind. To do that... to try and make us change how we view all of this... would be wrong, a violation of what few rights that we do have. That... power is just the thing that we fear that the Maniacles will want to use on the world. I'd rather them have as little data on that being feasible as possible." 01 said, trying to keep his voice as respectful as he could as they turned to walk out the door.

When Clayton pitched his idea, the twins shook their heads once more. They turned back to him. "You do remember that our physical bodies are in pods right now, correct? That the technology that the Maniacles are planning on using currently only transport objects and not people, correct? Furthermore, this place might be shaped by thoughts, but we're beings of reality, we can try and run into dreamland and try to live forever, but it's not going to work. We'll still die. Even then... we don't want to run away. It doesn't solve anything, there'll just be another batch of clones to replace us once we've melted down or just disappeared. You guys would also be put onto their hit list considering that not only do you know highly confidential information, but you also tried to, in what I would imagine in their eyes, try to steal it." 02 said.

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu smiled sadly. "Kinda figured you guys'd say something like that." Kotsu's voice sounded sad as he spoke. He followed behind the Joes, not saying much.

 

[Spoiled Bread]

Aria​

"Then, what do you think we should do, Joe?" Aria walked next to the Joes. "Wait, no. I meant to ask, what do you want to do then?" They're right, this was their realm. Did they want to proceed further? Did they want to just leave immediately or something else entirely?

After getting lost in their mind maze and spoke to several versions of them, she felt like supporting the current Joe's decision was the only thing she could do. She might even agree to help them if the Joes choose to... prematurely discontinue their life in the real world. Yes, just like what she did to several of their clones here.

 

[Freikugel]

Fizzy frowned.

"Trust me here, being a Maniacles' target is pretty much asking to be killed.... I've seen comrades falling after they learnt too much." His face wore a sad expression.

He pressed his chest as he remembered ...

"And I agree with you, there are many assholes and they are into real shady stuff, but even if you still disbelief me. Denton is one of the few you can trust within the Maniacles."

 

[mmarage]

The twins continued walking. "...We're going to continue on. We may as well find what's at the depths of all of this. Who knows, there might be another version of Owl running around here somewhere. We can't leave until we've searched everything." 01 said, not bothering to wait to see if anyone was following them. Though... there was another thought that had come to his mind. If this was a somewhat accurate depiction of the real world... then surely one of those computers must be here, right...? One of those large computers that the scientists used to enter all of the data inside. A plan was beginning to slowly enter 01's mind as he walked.

 

[Exzalia]

The research hall​

The group walks with an awkward silence trying there best to forget the disturbing memory that replays it's self stubbornly in their minds.

Blue owl walks with her head held not so high her gaze focused on the blood stained ground beneath them. She has a haunted look to her the fresh trauma still tainting her normally aloof expression.

Blue owls expression doesn't change even as they enter a new area. Row upon rows of cages and all them housed mutants, twisted rasping amalgamation of random limbs and flabs of flesh haphazardly lurching about in their cages in an unco-ordinated tumbles. Some moaned in disturbingly human tones, other lay silent, twitching in their cages.

How close were these mutant to the real world things? Or were they simply a product of Joes dream turned nightmare? Born out of his fear and hatred of the researchers in the real world?

A voice sounds over the intercom bright and cheery.

"paging Joe 99, paging Joe 99, you physical exam is pending, please visit the doctors office ASAP. And thank you for choosing the Mainaicles research ward for all you medical needs."

In the distance down the long rows of mutated horrors a man in a lab coat is working, but his features are exaggerated to nightmarish proportions. His fingers a long and bony, more like a series of sticks nailed together than fingers. His nose is almost as long and his eyes are squinting so hard they look deformed. The bile of mutants covers his lab coat and he walks hunched over. Not from age, but from permanently stooping down to study his creations his smile unnatrually wide with yellow unbrushed teeth stabbing out of his exposed gum. He has a note pad and with one bony hand was scribbling notes furiously for one mutant before moving on to the next. The pages were all attached together, and a mile long list of notes trails behind him as if all he ever did was write them and never stopped to put them away. He approaches the group, but doesn't look at them, even as they walk with in arms reach he ignores them keeping his eyes glued to his creations.

There were others like him, researchers, all in lab coats, all mad. All with twisted inhuman features and nightmarish proportions just shuffling like zombies, writing and shuffling again. One of them stabs a creature with a surgeons knife listens to it squeal in agony, then calmly writs down more notes. Notes notes notes a sea of notes trail each of them written with out purpose.

Research for researchs sake.

Blue Owl kills one, puts a gun to it's temple and shoots the lab worker dead. Her eyes were hollower now and she seethes with bitterment. The group prepares for a fight as the other lab workers snap to them.

But the other researchers don't react violently, in fact several of the freakish lab works shuffle over to their fallen comrade, stare at his corpse for a few moments.

and then start taking notes, scribbling furiously excited at this unexpected opportunity for more research, more notes.

 

[Freikugel]

The researchers, gnarly figures twisting throught the lab's fog and darkness. Their only worries in mind to improve their research, nothing had more meaning, what was DEATH to them? Just a step, a joke even.

Fizzy felt a great disgust in front of these creatures. A delicate mixture of disgust and guilt

 

[mmarage]

01 looked at the researchers with nothing but disgust. He produced a fire bomb, and tossed it right into the center of the researchers, now gleefully researching the body of their fallen comrade. He... didn't feel any remorse as he watched the fire bomb burst, engulfing the scientists and researchers around the body in flames. "...Disgusting... let's keep moving." He said, already drawing his scythe in case any stragglers tried to do anything.

02 had similarly pulled out his bow and already nocked an arrow, ready to fire upon the researchers at a moment's notice.

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu still said nothing but followed the Joes. He stared longingly at Blue Owl every so often, and then would turn his head away if she seen him looking at her. He drew his whips, he'd be combat ready if he was needed.

 

[Exzalia]

Blue owl stops at one of the dead researchers and studies him, then she looks at his notes.

"Hold on Joe, don't be so quick to destroy them. They just might be what we are looking for."

She picks up the burnt remnants of their notes and hands it to Joe.

"read it."

Experimental subject Joe 97 lasted a partly 24 hours, but the splicing of his and experiment 234578 did produce a magical signature how ever brief this give new hope to the creation of a magical...

The note is cut off, as if the researcher was distracted by something else.

Mutant subject 46839483.5 moved it's fifth eye ball exactly 3 microns to the left...

Again it cuts off and starts again on a new point.

We have managed to revive the original Joe, Joe zero is located-

It's cut off again this time by a note about mutant bile matter.

"Did you see it?" Owl asks him. "The original Joe, Joe zero, he's here, in your dream. in this nightmare he is here somewhere, or at least a dream world version of him."

 

[mmarage]

01 took the note and read over it quickly... before tossing it into the fire. "Yes, did you think that would be news to us? This is our dream world, remember. Of course the man that we were made from would be here, considering that his body is still on ice back in the facility." He said. He... was concerned over seeing the word 'revival' in that note... however, it... would also make some twisted sense that he'd be alive. After all, he and 02 had some of his memories inside of them. "Let's just keep moving. If we run into him, we run into him, if we don't then we don't. If we do, don't expect him to be the person that you all remember. He's but an amalgamation of the few memories 02 and I possess." He said simply. He had to remember the logic that this world ran by. The reason everything was so messed up was because this was how they saw the facility... so they couldn't exactly expect to find a powerful ally made up of fuzzy, barely memorable memories.

 

[Exzalia]

"yes Joe I know that, but remember. The dream world is also home to forgotten knowledge, Quentin never knew about Moa Do until after we went to his dream world. I think if it's answers your looking for it's worth it to find Joe zero." owl picks up more notes and begins to scan them.

"His where about might be in here somewhere."

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu started to read into the notes himself, trying to decipher scribbles of madmen. He was curious. He looked over to the Joes. "I thought I saw someone behind you two. And have heard three voices instead of two. Could he be reaching out...?" Kotsu half said half muttered to himself.

 

[mmarage]

The twins looked back at Owl. "...What answers should we expect from a man that died 10 years ago? Any information that he had doesn't pertain to what we're going through now. He didn't know he was going to be cloned or anything." 02 said, a part of them... was afraid to meet their original. Would he be disgusted by them...? Would he just try to destroy them outright...? "This is just a waste of time, we should keep moving." He said, it was clear that he wanted to get through all of this as soon as he possibly could.

The two did pause when Kotsu was talking. "Three voices... a person behind us...? Ummm... when did this happen?" They asked in unison. They hadn't remembered hearing a third voice, nor did they sense the presence of a third person.