Cybil (2018) #projectsuper

Chapter 1: Awakening

Theme Music: "Prismatic" (Mega Man Zero 3)

Present Day

James was brought back to the cold, dark reality of steel and computers by a not-so-delicate elbow to the shoulder. A deep and very irritated voice followed it.

"Falling asleep on me again, McDougal? This is getting real old, real fast."

In hindsight, it amazed James how prone he was to daydreaming about his past, even while walking. Especially when that past was, both literally and figuratively, now merely vapor. It was clearly irritating to the six-foot-five linebacker of a man in charge of "protecting" him.

"N-No. I'm fine..." James stammered, never failing to be enthralled by those eyes as intensely dark as the complexion that surrounded him.

Looking at him, it was a wonder to James that this mountain of a man hadn't gotten sick of him and snapped him in half by now. In fact, He had actually taken a liking to James. Sometimes he wondered which was worse.

The man wasn't fooled. "Dredging up the past again, eh?"

He didn't bother responding to that. They both knew that he was.

The big man's gaze then turned into something resembling concern. "Look, you can't change the past no matter how many daydreams you have," he began in a whisper. He sighed deeply and put a brusingly powerful arm around the very frail scientist's shoulder. "You know, it's men like us... men without a past, that are the most free."

"Free?" Even though he thought he could hear popping sounds in his left shoulder, that didn't make what this man was saying any less ridiculous. "My fiance is a charred corpse in a morgue somewhere! My parents have bounties on their heads! I'm imprisoned in some building buried 300 feet underground!"

"Trust me, it could be worse..."

"Worse?" James hissed. "How?!"

"You could spend your first few months sitting in a test tube having some cult of imbeciles arguing about..."

"G-get...off...crushing...me"

Realizing that his anger had gotten the best of him and he was doing a good job dislocating James's shoulder, he let go.

"Sorry," he sighed. "Would you look at that... Now I'm in a bad mood. Let's just go."

The rest of the walk went quietly. The two came to an opaque, human sized tube.

The real show was about to begin.

"If you would do the honors, James? Oh, and you do realize that this is your last chance. If what you produce today ends up as bad as those last four...or five...'failures', well..."

The man made a beheading sign with his hands. This was followed by a wink at James.

If this wasn't a life-or-death situation, he might've had a dark chuckle at this. Just how messed up have I become?

Shoving this thought aside, James began powering on the tube and operating its opening functions. After four times through this, the process had become effectively automatic.

The sound of containment fluid draining away gave way to the smooth rolling of gears as the chamber opened.

Suspended with wire work in this tube was the likeness of a relatively short young woman with carmel-colored skin and dark brown hair. The fact that the woman looked like the spitting image of Marcia Grey was no coincidence, as James knew all too well.