Mom, I'm Bulletproof

Chapter 11.4: Your Technology

Future Girl awoke, groggy and disoriented, feeling the sensation of hours having passed.

Adding to her disorientation was that she was attached to a ceiling, facing downward.

It was dimly lit space. Below her, campus security guards scuttled about, dressed as always in their matching hazmat suits. A collection of tables had been set up beneath her, with computers and scanning equipment. She looked to the left and right, and could see no visible restraints holding her to the ceiling. Her hair fell down the right side of her head while the left half of her was pinned behind her head and back.

The rounded walls, dim light, and thick moisture in the air convinced Future Girl that she was in some sort of cave, deep underground. She was relieved to see that she had not turned into Amber while unconscious, something she had often wondered about.

"Finally, you're awake," she heard Ms. Kahror say. "Took you long enough."

Future Girl tried to speak, but she didn't have the strength – not to mention the strength to pull away from whatever force held her pinned to the ceiling.

"I tried to help," Kahror said, staring up at Future Girl. "I gave you the opportunity to work with me, to share resources. We could have been great together."

Unable to move or to speak, Future Girl tried to give Kahror another tough girl glare, hoping the headmaster would get the message.

"Reduce mitochondria by 25 percent," Kahror said to a security guard. The guard nodded, typed a few keys on a laptop, and Future Girl exhaled air again.

"Miss... Kahror..."

"Shut up, you little bitch."

Future Girl felt herself pressed against the ceiling even harder.

"My name is not Gwendolyn Kahror. It never was. What you're seeing is only a mask that I wear. Those who constructed me named me Madam Corruption."

"What... do... you..."

"Want? I want your technology. Once Mirai students reverse engineer the source of your powers, this will become the nation's predominant educational institution for gifted students. The most brilliant young minds on the planet all under my roof, ripe for corruption."

"No," was all Future Girl could manage.

Madam Corruption, as she now called herself, snapped her fingers and two of the security guards hurried over with a fold-out ladder. They set it up and held it in place as she climbed it toward the ceiling, toward Future Girl.

"No," Future Girl exhaled.

Corruption peeled the shiny yellow glove off of Future Girl's right hand. When she dropped it, it faded into nothingness, having been reabsorbed into the Paradoxicon.

Corruption pressed her fingers upward against Future Girl's palm. "Yes, I can feel it. You've got technology of unknown origin embedded beneath your skin."

Corruption climbed down the ladder and barked orders at the security guards.

"That... thing under her skin. Remove it. Surgically. No painkillers."

"Please..." Future Girl said, feeling a little strength returning. "It can't be removed. The universe will collapse in on itself."

"Using normal earthbound science, that might be true," Corruption said. "But I am an agent of the Temple. I also have access to science no human has ever seen."

Corruption again addressed the Mirai security guards. "Remove the device, and let reality twist and bend all it wants. It will reform to meet the Temple's desires."

A security guard climbed the ladder, with a scalpel ready.

"Please, no," Future Girl said.

The security guard, faceless as always beneath his hazmat suit, carefully pressed the scalpel against Future Girl's palm.

Future Girl winced as the scalpel dug into her skin. Normally used to being bulletproof, the cold hard metal of the scalpel slicing into her palm was a foreign sensation – and a painful one.

"It's a stone," the security guard said with a gruff voice. "Just an ordinary rock, right under the skin."

"Remove it and bring it to me," Corruption said, staring up at the guard and Future Girl.

"No..." Future Girl said. "End of the world..."

She was reminded of pain, a rare of sensation for her.

"That scalpel is made of atom-slicing radiative zone metal," Corruption said. "Nice to know there's something that can cut you."

In addition to the sharp cutting of the scalpel, Future Girl felt a warm wetness on her palm. She was bleeding. Some of her blood dripped downward, onto the surgeon's hazmat suit, and some tricked down her arm.

"Without this device, you're just another young person," Corruption said. "Like all young people, you're filled with thoughts of goodness and hopefulness. It's as if you want someone to corrupt you."

Future Girl squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the pain.

"Almost there," said the man without a scalpel, taking a moment to wipe Future Girl's blood off his visor. "I'm not used to operating like this."

"Just get that thing out of her," Corruption said. "Once we have it, she's nothing but a meaningless individual."

The man in the hazmat suit shrugged, and dug the scalpel deeper into Future Girl's palm. She let out a small cry as he kept cutting.

She felt the Paradoxicon loosen inside her hand, and she lost her breath as it did.

"Almost got it," the man said.

Future Girl's blood had dotted the man's hazmat visor with tiny red spots. But then there was a green spot among them. The green spot grew a little larger, large enough to spout a tiny mouth and a single arm.

"I... am... Milfoil!" it said in a squeaky, high-pitched voice. Under different circumstances, Future Girl might have found this funny.

The guard swatted at the small green blob. As he rubbed against his visor, even tinier Milfoil blobs split off, attaching themselves to his sleeve.

"Oh, God!" the man said, pulling the scalpel away from Future Girl's pal. "They're eating through my suit! My suit!"

He fell backward, off the ladder. His body smacked against the rock hard floor. The scalpel fell from his grip. Its sharp edge sunk into the ground, cutting downward until it was out of sight.

Future Girl could see the green Milfoil blobs spreading across the man's hazmat suit, revealing wrinkled grey skin underneath.

"How the hell did that thing get here?" Corruption said. "Someone do something."

Future Girl smiled slightly as the other security guard rushed around the room beneath her, obviously confused and not sure what they were doing.

For a second, Future Girl thought she was flying again, free from whatever force was keeping her pressed against the cave ceiling. After a few seconds of freedom in the air, though, her body hit the floor. She had not been flying, but falling.

Future Girl rolled over onto her back and saw her roommate Marci standing at one end of the cave. Marci held the container where Milfoil had previously been trapped, only now it was open. Future Girl realized that Marci must have let the creature loose in the cave, all to save her.

Before turning any more attention to Marci, Future Girl focused on her own right palm, to find it a reddened, blackened mess, where the guard's scalpel had dug into it, she clenched her right wrist with her left hand and concentrated.

Dripping more blood onto the ground, she told her body to heal. 

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Next: Fighting Corruption.