Tales of the Parodyverse

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Dancer with the required content warning
Sun Oct 09, 2005 at 02:24:54 pm EDT
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Far Away #11 - contains some nasty bits but no added preservatives
Originally
Far Away #10
In Reply To

Dancer will try to keep these coming as long as people try to keep up with the answering
Sun Oct 09, 2005 at 05:46:55 am EDT
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    The Minister of Torment peeled the skin back from his victim’s cheeks, exposing her bloody flesh below. He delicately clipped his electrodes onto her exposed nerves and selected the right impulses to sear through her ruined face. Then he turned his scalpel to her pinned, stretched tongue.

    She tried to scream, but her larynx was half demolished, so all that came out was an anguished strangled gurgle.

    Torkamahda carefully selected the right probe to work out the nerve endings on her sliced tongue. This was the delicate part of the procedure. Botch this and she wouldn’t feel the full range of the torment impulses when he added the miner nanites to her mouth.

    He carefully unhooked her jaw. Even with her teeth ripped out he needed more space to work. He was nothing if not a perfectionist.

    Behind him, the captured archer hammered against the side of his force cube and shouted threats and obscenities at the Minister. In the next cage round the dark-skinned one had battered his hands bloody trying to get free and was screaming curses. Torkemahda had increased the sound insulation properties of the capsules so he didn’t have to hear the prisoners noises. But he kept the cubes transparent so they could see what he was doing. In fact he’d arranged for the procedures to be magnified onto the wall viewers too, so the other captives knew what awaited them.

    A tear dribbled down from one of the subject’s blood-reddened eyes. The salt water must have stung on the stripped back cheek. Another gurgling scream.

    The Minister applied the final touches to the sectioned tongue and left it for a while to concentrate on making belly incisions to gestate the pain maggots.

    Life was good, and the Minister of Torments loved his job.



___




    Doc rocked back and forth, his hands clutched around his knees. “There has to be a way. There has to be a way. There has to be a way.”

    Trickshot turned and shook him savagely. “Well think of it then, brainbox! Find some way to pop this cage so I can go stop that bastard out there! C’mon!”

    “It’s a force field,” Doc went on, hardly heeding his angered cellmate. “Projected leptons cohered through a magnetic inversion, where k is the sum of…”

    “Faster!”

    “I could do it. I could. But I need equipment. A phase inductor coil, a power source…”

    “We don’t got those things. We got you, me, my muscles an’ your brain. That’s it! Now get us out of here!”

    Doc looked up suddenly, his eyes filled with horror. “I don’t know how! I don’t know!””



___




    “Runner, stop it,” Canada said, grabbing the angry black man as he battered again at the unyielding force cube. “There’s nothing we can do!”

    “He’s murdering her!” the Runner cried. “Man, he’s tearing her to pieces in front of us. He’s killing her and making us watch!”

    “I know. But beating yourself against the wall isn’t going to do anything to help her. You’re just amusing him. Giving him what he wants.”

    Blood from the Runner’s broken hands trickled down the smooth force wall and gathered in little pools at the base of the prison. “We have to do something! We have to!”

    Canada was as shaken as his comrade, but he had to keep it under control. “I know. But not that. Look, we need to find a way to get these collars off. If you had your speed powers, or if I could find a hat…”

    The Runner’s neck was already rubbed raw from attempts to get the thick metal circle loose. But the power dampener collar had been designed to stay on the toughest of prisoners. The only way to get it off was to take the head off first. “Keep trying then, man. We have to get loose so I can kill that torturer!”

    It was useless. They were all trapped like rats in a cage, waiting for the Minister’s blade. But Canada went to work again, trying to get his fingers under the Runner’s collar, ripping his nails in vain to find a way to be free.



___




    Robogirl came back to consciousness with a hell of a headache for somebody who was supposed to be entirely made of metal. Her camera eyes flicked on, and she refined the focus to realise she was sprawled out on the floor of an energy construct. A force cage.

    She was cradled on someone’s lap, and somebody was stroking her hair.

    “Wh…” she managed. The effort exhausted her. Internal diagnostics put her power at 3%, systems failures at 40%, cascade malfunction imminent.

    “You’re alive?”

    Robogirl identified the voice. It was Sarah. She was being held by Sarah.

    “I thought you’d been… killed.”

    So why didn’t you bury me this time? the cyborg thought, but she didn’t have the energy or the heart to say it.

    “Are you okay?”

    “No.” Finally she was able to divert enough power to get her voice online. “I’m not okay.”

    “None of us are okay,” Sarah answered, and Robogirl could hear the fear in her voice.

    “I don’t understand why I’m still functioning,” said Robogirl. “I was hit by an electromagnetic pulse that should have wiped my datacore. My brain-pan is shielded, but that pulse just jumped right past the buffers. I should be wiped clean.”

    “Maybe you were lucky?” Sarah was beginning to realise how hurt the being in her arms really was. Not dead, but surely very close.

    “I’m not lucky. But… Sarah, there’s no way a robot could have survived that attack. None. That’s why it was used against me.”

    “But you did survive. You’re here.”

    “And there’s only one way that could be. Sarah, I don’t think I’m a robot.”

    “R-Girl, you have torn wires protruding from your neck and stomach.”

    “Yes, the body is robotic. But I think I have an organic brain. I’m not a robot. I’m a cyborg.”

    “A cyborg?”

    “Human mind in a robot prosthesis. Sarah, I’m human!”

    Sarah thought about this. “Well, it saved your life, and I’m happy for that. And I’m glad if it’s important to you. But by now, I really don’t think any of us minded whether you were made of carbon or tin. We just accepted you.”

    “I’m human. And I’m dying.”

    “Dying? You’re wounded, yes, damaged…”

    “My power levels are critically low. Auto-repair functions are down. My body is failing. I’ve known it ever since I woke up on this world.”

    “You can’t die. That’s not fair.”

    “Sarah, I’m not afraid of dying. Living forever, in the dark, buried alive, yes. But not of dying. I’d rather die.”

    Again the fear. “Me too.”

    Robogirl expanded her perceptions outwards, forcing herself to map the force field and what was happening beyond.

    “They caught us all,” Sarah explained. “We’re in the minister’s laboratory. It’s over.”

    “Over?”

    “Yes.” Sarah voice was small now. “I’m very afraid.”

    “Miles? The Runner?”

    “Caught. And before, when I was escaping… Stuart said, if I was captured again, he’d send for me. He was so angry. He said I’d suffer so much that women would be horrified about it forever. And he meant it.”

    “Sarah…”

    “He’ll come for me, R-Girl. I know he will. I don’t think I can stand it.”

    “Sarah, you have to hold on. You did what you could. Maybe you’ll have another chance later.”

    “I don’t w-want my face peeling apart, R-Girl. I don’t want to be chained out on a bed for him. I don’t… I can’t…”

    “Don’t cry. Don’t give them the satisfaction. Don’t…”

    And then Robogirl fell silent. The light in her eyes died out and she froze solid.

    Sarah swallowed back a howl and forced herself to take deep breaths.

    But Splendiferous Stuart would be coming for her. She knew it.



___




    The Minister had to pause in his ministrations when General Steppenstoat arrived with the candidates. He left the half-dissected woman stretched on the experiment rack and went down to inspect the Soldiers on parade.

    “You’re looking worse for wear, Steppenstoat,” he said with some satisfaction.

    “You know why. Your dangerous game with the Terran superheroes.”

    “We had to locate them somehow. And once they’re dismantled and mapped we’ll find all kinds of military applications for their powers.”

    “We already know Earth’s capabilities. We could Doom Tube in and snuff it in less than a day.”

    “That’s just not true. Earth has many protectors and protections, overt and subtle. We would win, but not easily and not without cost. You’ve seen the simulations.”

    “I don’t believe them.”

    “No, I’m sure you wouldn’t, Steppenstoat. But I do, so I’m making sure that when we deal with that troublesome little planet we are properly prepared and they are properly destroyed. You stick to your Faction wars with your toy Soldiers. Weeding out the unfit in the destruction zones and in that Arena of yours are all you’re good for these days.”

    The General stiffened but knew better to retort.

    The Minister pointed to his captives floating in their force cages. “In there we have a source of Serious Matter, a mutate tapping into the Zoom Zone, an entity suffused with Divine Spark, and another that psionically interfaces with the probability curve by tapping the power of Galactivac! Imagine the applications when we own those properties. And the scrawny one at the end was able to bring our whole world to the brink of oblivion with nothing but his mind. He’s for the Brains Trust, of course.”

    “Just so they die painfully,” declared the General. “I hear Stuart’s bringing in special equipment for the probability witch.”

    “He can do what he likes with her once I calculate the psionic transfer of her abilities,” shrugged Torkamahda. “But for now I’m more interested in converting this Shoggoth beast. At the moment it has even less intellect than you, Steppenstoat, but I intend to change all of that.”

He examined the dozen Soldiers who stood to attention while he humiliated their commanding officer. “These all meet the psyche-profile, do they? And they’ve all been prepared by the psyche-techs, fitted with consciousness amplifiers and neural stimulation packages?”

    “I have no idea what mumbo-jumbo your technicians have done with them. They’re prepared, that’s all I know.”

    “Excellent. Then they’re ready to become the new mind of that brainless elder being there in the pit. Have your men jump down there and let it absorb them, General Steppenstoat.”

    The General glowered at the minister but didn’t object. “Step forward, dogs!” he shouted instead. “Shout off and hurl yourselves into the pit, on the double.”

    “Sir, Jaxarr, ready for duty, sir!” The first Soldier fell into the writhing biomass below and was consumed.

    “Sir, T’Rookk, ready for duty, sir!” A second man died in the pit of horror.

    “Sir, Sothii, ready for duty, sir!”

    Steppenstoat watched impassively as each Soldier fell, till only one was left.

    “Sir, Koom-Lu, ready for dutying, sir!” the final victim called, and dived into the twisting biomass.

    The Minister checked his readings. “It’ll take a while before we’ll know if the Shoggoth has assimilated their minds,” he told the General. “You may go.” He turned back to the woman pinned out on the rack. “I have work to be getting on with.”

    Steppenstoat stormed from the lab. Torkamahda reached for a speculum and forceps.



___




    “Miles.”

    No reply. Just an unblinking stare at the Minister and the woman he was dismantling, piece by piece.

    “Miles, turn away. Don’t look.”

    Still he watched, fixing every detail in his mind for ever.

    “Miles, it’s not doing any good at all. Please. Look at me instead.”

    Finally he turned. His face was pale as a ghost. “This is my fault. I brought you all into this. You were safer out there in the destruction zone.”

    “Miles, it’s not your fault. I chose to come with you. Nobody forced me. Those others, they chose too.”

    “I’ve killed you all.”

    “It’s not you that’s going to kill us, Miles. It’s that terrible man. It’s this horrible place. Not you. You just tried to do what’s right.”

    Miles stared back at Torkamahda. “That’s going to be a lot of comfort when he starts that procedure on us.”

    Katarina Allen caught Miles face and forced him round to look at her. “Stop it. This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be.”

    Miles frowned. “Supposed to be.”

    “That’s right. I have a very clear idea of how it’s supposed to be, and this isn’t it.”

    “How what’s supposed to be.”

    “Our meeting. The next time we got together. It wasn’t this. Silence, and guilt, and unspoken fears, and bitter recriminations.”

    “You were a survivor. I said I’d keep you safe.”

    “And you tried. I saw what you did in the Arena, Miles. I saw what you endured. You came for me, against all hope! I so yearned for you to come, wanted you to come, needed you to come. And I knew that was foolish of me and that you wouldn’t, couldn’t, mustn’t. And you came!”

    “Too late,” Miles said. “I’m sorry.”

    She stopped him turning away again. “Talk to me,” she insisted. “Come on. Ask what you want to ask. Get it in the open.”

    “What did they do to you?”

    “They questioned me with Sarah, and when they found I wasn’t anything special they sent me to be a pleasure slave in the Arena, to be given to the champion who won their barbaric games.”

    “I’m… I don’t know how to begin…”

    “I wasn’t raped, Miles. They put me in with Glowing Bouncing Boy here.” She gestured to the injured young man who was sprawled across the floor of their captivity cube. “He was kind to me.”

    “Oh. I thought… I assumed…”

    “It was plenty horrible without that. And there was the part where they told Glowing Bouncing Boy that if he didn’t have sex with me then they’d take me away and use me themselves.”

    “You had to have sex with… him?”

    “We faked it,” Katarina said. “He seemed to know just how to do that. And then you came along and all the gladiators were loosed to fight you.”

    Miles accepted this with a brief shutting of his eyes. “But we’re still here. I haven’t saved you. I haven’t kept you safe.”

    “You haven’t saved me yet,” Kat agreed. “Well, not in the getting-me-out-of-danger sense. But you’ve not let me down, either.”

    Miles pointed to the Minister, who was delicately peeling back his subject’s lower ribs to expose some vulnerable organs. “And what about when he’s finished punishing Gloriana there? What then?”

    “Then you’ll have to save the day, Miles. After all, you’re the hero.”

    “I can’t. There’s no way to escape.”

    Kat pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. “You know that’s not true. Your friends there have all been put in those collars that stop them using their powers. We were just confined when the force fields closed in around us. You still have your powers. Even poor Glowing Bouncing Boy must have his powers, because he’s not died from that snapped back of his. And that Minister said you had the strength to break free from this box.”

    “When I try, the force is turned back on the occupants. I’d be pounding you to death, Kat.”

    Katarina nodded. “Well that’s my choice, too. I’d rather die this way than like that poor woman there. And I’d rather die for something, to get you free, to give you a chance to rescue Sarah and the others you came with.”

    “I’m not going to kill you, Kat. I won’t.”

    “Look at them, Miles. They’re going insane. Look at Sarah, holding on by a thread. They need this.” She took the hero’s hand. “They need us, Miles, they need us. You to save them. Me to let you.”

    “That’s not fair. I promised to keep you safe.”

    “And now I’m releasing you from that promise. You’ve seen this world, Miles. You’ve seen the horror of it. You’ve seen the evil. It has to be stopped, and somebody… somebody has to make things right. Truth and justice. Life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Her eyes were wet as she looked up at the man she was holding hands with. “I’ve never met a real hero before. But since I have one now, I intend to get my money’s worth.”

    “Kat…”

    “You have to, Miles. Come on. It’s not every day a girl from Bienville, Louisiana gets to save a world.”

    “Kat, I don’t remember who I am. I don’t know what commitments I have – Sarah, or anyone else. But if I didn’t… What I’m saying is…”

    Katarina pushed a finger to his lips. “I know what you’re saying, hero. Like I said, I had a very clear idea of our next meeting, this meeting. I know what you’re supposed to tell me. And it was all very romantic, really, completely Gone With the Wind. But I think to save you embarrassment we should just cut to the part where you kiss me.”

    “I kiss you?”

    “Oh yes. Passionately. A last kiss. A goodbye kiss.” She looked up at him. “A kiss for the ages.”

    Miles did his best to meet the exacting requirements of Katarina’s plan.

    But at last she pushed him away. “Miles, it’s time.”

    The hero found it hard to breathe, and his eyes were stinging. “I…”

    “No more words. Now it’s time for actions. Make me proud. Be my hero, okay?”

    Miles nodded.

    And he gathered up all his strength and fury, pulled back his fist, and shattered the cage in a wild flare of energies.

    “Torkemahda!!!”


Continued in a few days…



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