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chaotic-orphan · 11 months

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June of Doom, day 1:

“You don’t want to do that”

collapse // fear // locked door

Cw: lab Whump/science whump/dehumanisation/experiment whumpee/scientist whumper/depersonalisation/death (mentioned)/dead body (mentioned)/beating (mentioned)/torture (implied)

*~*~*~*~*

Flint came to oversee his latest project before it was to be unveiled to the rest of the world. His perfect weapon. His trained mongrel mutt that he had been beating into submission since the day it was born.

It was in an enclosed reinforced cylinder. It took Flint’s engineering team weeks to figure out something strong enough to hold it. His little devil. Obeying only the whims of its master.

The doors slid open and Flint walked in. The scientists overseeing experiment 34214 all stopped when they noticed their chief step into the observation room.

“All hands to stations,” Flint said after a moment of respectful silence. His response was a resounding: “yes sir!”

The head scientist working under Flint’s command fell into step beside him, listing off the usual run down.

Vitals: good.

Mood: as expected.

Muscle capacity: normal.

Brain function: normal.

“All is well with Wolfe today, sir,” said Thrawn. Thrawn was an eccentric to say the least, but she had loose morals and looser ethics and wanted to push the boundaries of science.

No matter the cost.

Flint could work with that.

“Doctor Thrawn I must insist you call the subject by its medical name today.”

Thrawn just glanced at him from the corner of her eye with a wicked grin on her face. “He likes the name Wolfe.”

“A bit of professionalism today wouldn’t hurt, Doctor.”

“And here I thought you liked my unorthodox approach.”

Flint smiled. “There is a line to be drawn at public occasions. Once the day is out you can call it whatever you like.”

“Subject 34214 it is, sir.”

“Excellent. We must make sure this goes off without a hitch. We’ve worked too hard and too long for it to be any less than perfect.”

“Aye, sir,” said Thrawn and then went back to barking orders at the scientists on mains control. Flint just watched with a small, satisfied smile on his face. He was the first in the history of genetics to mutate humans beyond their original form.

To make them stronger. Faster. Smarter.

Earnest Flint’s name would go down in the history books, the next chapter following Darwin’s theory of evolution. Man made evolution. Flint made evolution.

It was time to show the world exactly what Flintlock Mechanics could do.

When the donors and shareholders started arriving along with the reporters for a few paper publications into the building it definitely generated a buzz. Flint smiled and welcomed them all in his perfectly tailored grey suit and tie. He even invited his rival from College who grinned widely when they saw Flint.

“Peters,” said Flint and put his arm out. The other man, Peters, grabbed his elbow and pulled him in for a hug. “Good to see you. So happy you could make it.”

“Of course, Flint, wouldn’t miss it for the world,” said Peters stepping back. He was wearing a red dress shirt tucked into slacks, his stubble perfectly trimmed. The same renegade man he always was. Then Peters stepped back and revealed a raven haired woman who’s hazel eyes seemed a little too inquisitive, a little too judging.

Peters gestured to the woman in the red dress matching Peters, and said: “you of course remember Collins. Or should I say Doctor Collins.”

Flint smiled politely and bowed slightly, taking Collins’ hand in his and pressing a kiss to the knuckles: “of course. How are you Marion?”

“Intrigued to say the least, Flint,” she told him withdrawing her hand. Peters put his arm out and Collins took it with a demure smile. “Let us hope you haven’t broken too many laws of the Geneva convention for this revelation.”

Then the pair walked away, and Flint squeezed his hand into a fist, a scowl trying to make its way onto his face as he glanced after the pair. Then he took a deep breath and went back to his host’s smile and greeted his guests with charm and poise.

It was easier to walk back into the observation room while the curtains were drawn to see Thrawn smile confidently at him and put his mind at ease.

“How are our guests?”

“Opinionated and intrigued,” said Flint, not getting Collins’ comment out of his head. “Is everything perfect?”

“Running smoothly, sir.”

“Wonderful. I best go out and introduce it then.”

“You’ll do great, sir.”

Flint smiled, as thin as it was, and walked back out to the whispering crowd. Some had glasses of champagne in their hand. Peters was one such person, raising it in a toast as soon as Flint walked up to the mic.

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am so happy to see so many of you showed up,” said Flint honestly, and that got a couple laughs from the crowd.

“I must admit my invitation was quite vague but I did promise you a night to remember,” said Flint, his confidence settling into his shoulder’s and his charming smile. “Tonight, you shall witness history. My team of geneticists and biochemists have developed human DNA that will bring our species into its next phase of evolution. I present to you: subject 34214.”

Flint boomed the name into the mic, stepping back and spreading his right arm wide as the curtains fell and gasps filled the room. The control room was sunk below the raised cylinder in the middle of the room, housing Subject 34214.

Gasps filled the room, some shouts of outrage demanding to know what the meaning of this was. That it wasn’t a subject but a human being.

Flint raised his hands to quieten the crowd down, his pleasant smile reassuring as he said: “I understand your concern. However, subject 34214 is not human. His DNA was sequenced into a cadaver which had donated his body to science.”

“That is an insult to his memory,” cried a man from the audience.

“Please, I understand your outrage. I understand. But without bodies donated to science we would never have the cures for modern medicine. We would never be able to fix any problem in our bodies without having first dissected them and seen what was inside,” Flint implored, and as he spoke the crowd’s outrage too settled. “Subject 34214 has human tissue. A brain. A heart. Muscles. Bones. Thoughts. Feelings.”

“How?” A clear voice demanded from the crowd. Collins. She was standing. “How can he have such things if he was dead?”

“Clinically dead,” said Flint. “Our subject was in a coma since the age of ten. At seventeen his parents having seen no brain activity decided to pull the plug. That’s when Flintlock mechanics stepped in.”

“A child cannot donate it’s body to science,” said Collins, voice hard.

“No,” said Flint, “but his parents could and did. As he told his parents he wanted to be a scientist when he was younger, they thought the best way to give him his one dream was to donate his body to science.”

A couple of lies and half truths and very lightly dusting over the intense blackmail and settlement the family received to stay quiet after signing their NDA.

Flint smiled humbly. Maybe a more human approach was better with this crowd. “We have taken to calling our subject: Wolfe, as he enjoys listening to Mozart to calm down after a long day.”

And another lie, wow. He was on a roll. Flint should have been a politician instead of a scientist. Maybe in the next life.

“May I present the one and only of his kind, Wolfe!”

Again he spread his arms dramatically, and turned to look through the observation glass and into the room to see Wolfe awaken.

It’s eyes flew open, too bright a blue to be human, blinking owlishly at it’s audience. Hair settling in its unnatural white waves. Wolfe placed a hand on the glass of its cage and stopped levitating, placing it’s feet on the ground. That elicited a couple gasps from the crowd. To know that while he slept he hovered, something not humanely possible.

Because Subject 34214 was not human.

It was human adjacent. Human-esque and that’s where the similarities ended.

“You must let us get a closer look,” said one of the shareholders. Flint found his wide eyes in the crowd. Quinton. Flint smiled as the glass to the observation deck opened and Flint invited everyone up on stage. To further inspect his creation. His creature.

A man in a slim black tailored suit and black dress shirt caught Flint’s eye as he straddled behind everyone. He was pale, red rimming his eyes to a point it almost looked painful. Sickly. Flint stopped him when he made to walk by, a cold smile found it’s way to his pale lips.

Dark eyes found Flint’s, so dark brown it almost looked black.

He stretched his hand in greeting, and said with the lilt of a French accent: “I don’t think we have been properly introduced. You must forgive me, I arrived later than expected. My name is Felix Graves. You of course need no introduction, Mr Flint.”

“My friends call me Flint,” said Flint with a charming smile.

The stranger smiled at him and it put Flint on edge. Something primal in his body screaming at him to run. “Enchanté. My friends call me Graves. How delightful to make your acquaintance.”

Then Graves dropped Flint’s hand and gestured for Flint to walk with him towards the cage. Flint obeyed.

“It is quite extraordinary what you have done here, Mr Flint,” said Graves, gesturing at the lab and the cage. “To have created life from death. It is beautiful, no?”

“Like I said, there was still life in the boy’s body,” said Flint, finding it harder and harder to keep the smile on his face.

Graves just smiled at him, turning his head so Flint could see the extent of it. It was a genuine smile, Flint could tell, but there was something behind it. Something lurking beneath skin, hidden, dangerous, malevolent.

“Ah. That is not the story you should tell the word, Mr Flint. People will get bored of semantics. You must craft the tale to enrapture the public, oui?” They stopped behind the crowd looking up at the cage and the inhuman boy. “The man who makes life from death, that is you, Monsieur.”

“And who are you, Mr Graves?” Flint asked and Graves smiled like it was the question he was waiting to be asked.

“Allow me to show you,” said Graves. He moved through the crowd with ease, slipping behind and through people trying to view the cage. Flint could only watch, eyebrows knitting together in confusion before he saw Graves stop beside the cage. Raising his hand to press to the glass.

“Mr Graves!” Flint called in a panic. “You don’t want to do that. It is unsafe.”

Graves smiled back showing all their teeth. “I know.”

The moment Graves pressed his hand to the glass Wolfe looked down at him. A cackle of green electricity lit up the cage, eliciting gasps from the crowd in delight. They thought it was part of the show.

Flint knew better.

Wolfe’s eyes went to Flint then and flashed an unnatural green.

Then the electricity went out and the lab was thrust into darkness.

The sound of glass shattering and then a scream turned to many. People panicked, running back towards the auditorium, back towards the safety of the exits. When the lights came back on Graves was gone.

And the cage was empty.

Broken from the inside out, and people were screaming. Flint just looked down to Thrawn who was standing in shock staring at the empty cage much like he was. Then he saw her fall to her knees, then collapse to the side. Only then did he see the scorch marks over her heart.

Someone grabbed his arm and turned him away from the scene, all he saw was red.

Peters.

“Hey Flint! Flint?! Look at me buddy, hey! The door’s locked, Flint. Why are the doors locked? People are panicking.”

“I— the doors shouldn’t be locked,” said Flint, breathless.

“Well they are and no one can get out. Do you have the keys? A back entrance? Hey, Flint! Look at me!”

But Flint’s eyes were drawn to the stage where Graves now stood at the microphone, his dark eyes catching Flint’s with a wink and a smirk as he said: “ladies and gentlemen, do not panic. This is no time for fear or tears. That part comes later, please everyone take your seats for the next part of this presentation.”

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