Why ?

Black Sheep or Carmen ?

Maelstrom POV

"Has the girl been brought in yet ?" I ask Shepherd as I walked into the lab.

"Yes, Professor Maelstrom. Shall I take care of her discipline for yesterday ?"

"No, leave it. We'll take care of it ourselves. Take your afternoon off, Black Sheep will stay with us until her curfew." I enter the laboratory to find the rest of the Faculty waiting for our guest to arrive. A short time later, the Cleaners arrive with the agent. Studying her quickly, I notice the fatigue on her features. Obviously she hasn't slept all night.

"We ask you nicely one last time. Where is ACME HQ ?" Coach asks her with a menacing look. The agent looks terrified but still refuses with a shake of her head.

"I told you yesterday. I would never tell you its location, no matter what you do."

"Though it's unfortunate we expected it." The Countess begins, a smile on her lips then we approach the one-way mirror the girl is behind. Black Sheep sits on the floor, her hands locked in handcuffs attached to a ring on the floor. "So we took the liberty of making arrangements."

"What are you going to do to her ?! She knows nothing and is innocent in all of this."

"We know she doesn't know much about ACME's current plans, otherwise we would have to really worry about our ability to control her. However, I have to disagree with you on one point, she is very far from innocent. After all, she almost went against one of our punishments yesterday, and all because of you. And we cannot tolerate such opposition." She hides her terror very poorly at my words, and I can feel the excitement rising in me as to what is to come. It has been so long since I had a mind to play with. Since the girl had been broken, she had made a habit of hiding her fear, keeping a capitulatory voice. Bellum arrives with her control tablet and unlocks the sliding mirror. I follow the scientist and the door closes behind us both. Bellum approaches and unlocks the handcuffs holding our little sheep.

"Come on stand up and lie down on the table."

I see Black Sheep get up as best she can and move towards the metal table while glancing uneasily at the various scalpels beside her. Docilely, she lies down and we take our places on either side of the table. I can hear through my earpiece Agent Argent worrying about what we plan to do.

"Your wrists." She holds out her hands and I grab them, crossing them over her head. I lock the cuffs on her wrists and ankles. Doctor Bellum, meanwhile, places two patches at Black Sheep's temples, connected to wires leading to her new toy before hooking up a heart monitor. I stroke her hair, taking on as gentle a voice as possible.

"Just relax and everything will go quickly." I then turn to Bellum, who is making the final adjustments. "What do you think about taking this opportunity to test our latest theory Dr. Bellum ?" She immediately raises her gaze to me.

"The one about the senses being more sensitive if the others are neutralized ?" I nod, and I don't think I've seen her so delighted since her last experiment proved ineffective. She retrieves a blindfold and noise-canceling headphones from a drawer. I take the blindfold and tie it around Black Sheep's eyes, then Bellum puts the headphones on her. Normally, if we are right, her touch and feel should be finer now that we have removed her sight and hearing. We step back and Dr. Bellum sends her a first electric shock at a higher voltage than usual.

Jules POV

Brunt holds my arm as I watch Bellum and Maelstrom blind and deafen Carmen. Then a few seconds later, Carmen screams in pain and struggles against her restraints. It's not hard to guess what they are doing to her. The presence of the wires at the level of her head make clear the electrocution to which they submit her. I look away, unable to watch, but the screams cannot be ignored. Several tens of seconds later, they turn off the voltage and I see Carmen trying as best she can to breathe.