The One Left Behind [Part 2]

The one real downside that came with having really high pain tolerance was that you couldn’t black out from the agony if it wasn’t high enough. While that was useful for high-intensity battles, it made enduring torture an incredibly annoying thing.

And having new parts being surgically installed into you without anaesthesia was a really painful experience.

“There we go.” Doctor Gottfried hummed as he pulled away the healing device away from Mellow’s head. “All done. How are you feeling?”

“I’m gonna burn all your research notes, trash your research facility, and hit you hard enough on the head to give you autism.” Mellow said evenly, his vision returning as his regeneration reconnected the severed optical nerves. “Then I’ll make sure your daughter never gets to—ack!”

“I thought I missed something in there. A stubborn little growth that just won’t go away.” The scientist tilted his head back and ripped the scalpel from where he stabbed it into Mellow’s neck. “There we go.”

Mellow coughed blood and glared daggers at the doctor’s back. What a dick.

The restraints came undone and he sat up, glaring at the operation room’s observation deck. Seated on the front row seat was Libra, the chain user smirking as she waved a hand. The greeting was answered with a defiant middle-finger salute and a glare that would have melted heavy tank armor.

He wanted to get up and fight, if only just to spite the other two people in the room. They killed his friends and made him into a living weapon, he had a right to seek vengeance.

But he was not an idiot. Dying here wouldn't change anything, in fact it would only make things worse when the XSG gathers the remaining Nothing Pieces. Which meant that if he really wanted to avenge his fallen friends, he'd have to complete what they were originally summoned here to do; stop the XSG at any cost.

It wouldn't be easy but damned if he wouldn't try.

“Are you done exchanging pleasantries with Libra?” the doctor called out and Mellow glared at his lab coat clad form. He was standing beside a trolley, laden with clothes. “Because the time has come to test out your new implants and there is not a lot of time for that.”

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” Mellow sighed and got off the table, walking over. “Did you have to replace my arms with metal ones, though? Couldn’t you have given me something more organic?”

“What, do you have a problem with cybernetics?” the doctor raised a brow.

“No, but I do have some beef with shit being done against my will.” Mellow brought up an arm, one of his new limbs, and looked it over. “Man, you don’t hold back when it comes to augments.”

His new arms were entirely cybernetic now, made from synthetic muscles armored with durable metal plating. The segmented plates fit perfectly and made nary a sound when he tested them out with brief motions and snap movements, possessing the full range of motion that his original arms had and more. He breathed in, noting how his internal organs shifted almost unnaturally in response to the displacement of internal mass, and exhaled slowly to get used to the strange ability to feel his internals. His eyes flickered between infrared, nightvision, x-ray, magnification, and some sort of strange sight that was no different than his normal vision.

As he got dressed, Mellow found his eyes being drawn to his length, which was now far larger than it used to be. The sheer size difference between past and present was punctuated by the shaft’s head being caught by the hem of his underwear as he pulled it up, and he scowled as he tried to get adjust it to a comfier position.

It was altered over the course of the operation by Libra with a little help from the doctor. His shaft was at least eight inches long limp and his balls were the literal size of oranges. He internally despaired; there was no way any ordinary women could survive intercourse with this monster dong. Of all the things they could’ve done to him, why did it have to be that?

He finished and followed the doctor out of the room, into a hallway. The various soldiery stationed there respectfully saluted the man in white, but did nothing for Mellow.

“It was a challenge to find a good set of augments that complimented your combat style, and I was torn between giving you ranged augments and melee ones.” The doctor said. “But ultimately, I decided that you performed your best in melee combat, so I gave you a set of close-combat augments which should fit your combat style best.”

“Makes sense, given the cyborg arms.” Mellow mused, clenching and unclenching a fist. “I’m always up for punching people harder. But are these it?”

“Such simple thinking…” the doctor chuckled mockingly. “No, I did not just give you the ability to ‘punch harder’ Mister Proudmoore. If you remember correctly, I also installed augments into your legs and replaced various internal organs to make you more efficient at doing your job.” He raised a finger. “I’ve boosted your regeneration speed as well as your endurance, speed, and durability. I’ve made sure that the replacement organs synergized well with that.” Another finger. “Your eyes have also been modified so that they can see in various conditions; x-ray, heat vision, zoom, and nightvision, and mage’s sight.”

“Let me guess, its some kind of supernatural sight that lets me see various supernatural energies.” Mellow squinted at his metal arm and tried to see if it could morph into a gun. The doctor hummed.

“I’m impressed you could deduct something like that without a lot of clues.” He mused. “You are less of an idiot than I first thought.”

“I don’t have to be a genius to know what that meant. There’s something similar on my home universe that lets mages see raw magic.” Mellow rubbed the back of his head. “There’s no name for it, so people just call it magic vision.”

“That sounds like a terrible name for an equally terrible television channel.”

“I never said the people in my home universe were good at naming things.”

“It shows. What kind of person names their child after a word that means ‘rich’ or ‘expansive’ when they exhibit none of those traits?”

“I know, right?” Mellow nodded wholeheartedly. “I could’ve been named ‘Max’, ‘Johnathan’, or some fitting German name like ‘Christoph’ or something. But nooooo, it had to be something thematically inaccurate.”

“…Regardless,” the doctor sighed, disappointed in being unable to get a rise out of him. “Besides the physiological upgrades, I’ve also installed some augments you’re your legs as well as additional abilities into those replacement organs; mainly optical camouflage, and soul and life cloaking. The latter two only last a minute and require an hour to recharge however. Be sure to use those abilities sparing now.”

“What about my arms? Any built-in weapons I should be aware of?”

“I’m glad you asked.” The doctor grinned and came to a stop before a door. “Step inside and we’ll test out those armaments.”

Mellow complied and found himself in a training room, where several others were busily training as well. They paid his appearance no mind and resumed what they were doing, uncaring about the fact that the resident XSG mad scientist was there. The augmented young man was directed to a room filled with various drones, where he stood at attention while the doctor fiddled with a control panel outside the room. Five of the drones came to life, brandishing electrified weapons of various kinds.

“Your arms have several built in weapon systems that you can use. Go ahead and think of swords.”

Mellow did so a pair of arm blades shot out from their scabbards hidden in his forearms. They were painted matte black with a non-reflective coat, and a strange light radiated from their edges. Another thought had the blades retract and reappear from his elbows.

“Those arm blades are enhanced with energy to make them cut through things easier.” The doctor said. “You also have a set of armor-piercing dart launchers linked to your arms for an easier time doing sneaking missions. Additionally, you’ll have a set of gauntlet add-ons for those arms that can let you break through any defensive measures easily. Unfortunately, those add-ons won’t be available for you to use outside of missions, but you can try out your new toys on those drones.”

“A little stress relief, huh?” Mellow grinned savagely as the drones approached. “I could get behind that.”

He tensed and surged forward, covering more ground than he expected to with a single stride. Two drones were savaged by his armblades, and another was rendered inoperable with a solid kick to the sternum. Four boots rushed at him and Mellow jumped. He spun in the air, turning into a killing whirlwind that reduced the would-be attackers into smoking scrap.

He landed, rolled out of the path of an electrified axe, and blocked a sword cleave with his metal arm. He grabbed the robot’s arm with his other hand, pulled the limb out of its socket, and used it to clobber another drone’s head off. He kicked the one-armed drone away and took out two others with a pair of darts, then pummeled the remaining two into submission with his bare hands. At the end of it all, Mellow stood amongst the smoking wreckage of dented junk with an air of... not quite satisfaction, but it was close.

“…that was certainly quick.” The doctor mused. “I hadn’t expected you to get used to your new parts as fast as you have.”

“It was?” Mellow blinked. “Did you time me?”

“I did. 15 seconds.”

“Huh.” Mellow shrugged. “A lot faster than I was before.”

“Your augments are working as intended. Nothing that I can see requires any adjustments or changes. How do they feel?” the doctor inquired. “Any pains or aches?”

“If there are any, I either can’t feel them or I’m used to pain by now that I can’t feel it.” Mellow shook his head. “What’s next?”

“Now we get you acquainted with your new squadmates.” The doctor opened the training room’s doors and Mellow stepped out to see four people standing at attention before the waiting doctor. They were all tall, with the shortest among them being at least six feet in height. They looked him over and Mellow felt himself being judged with inferior eyes. “Let me introduce you to team Nightfall. Agent Romanos, you may begin introductions.”

“Yes sir.” The shortest of the four stepped forward and gave Mellow smile, offering a hand. “Nice to meet you, Mellow. I’m Giovanni Romanos, the squad leader. It’ll be a pleasure to have you on the team.”

“Nice to meet you, cap’n.” Mellow smiled back, shaking his hand firmly.

“Hmph. So, a new member enters the group.” The second member of the squad stepped forward, crossing his arms. “It shouldn’t surprise me, however. Everyone wishes to behold my mighty skills as a mage, so I shall grace you with the privilege of learning my name. Tobias Johnson, one of the most powerful metal mages on Advatus!”

“But not the most powerful, otherwise you’d have gotten into the Signs.” Mellow grinned at Tobias when he flinched, the others snickering.

“I can turn your arms into scrap metal.” The bull Anima snarled. Mellow grinned wider.

“We’ll see about that.” He nodded and turned to the tallest member of the squad, an eight-foot-tall lizardman with green-blue scales.

“Krag Verk'zik, melee and silent killing specialist.” He rumbled, crossing his arms. “If you want some dead up close or quietly, call me and I’ll take care of it.”

“Will do big guy.” He nodded and turned to the fourth and member of the team.

“Iyera Vellaris.” The sole woman of the squad said as she stepped forward, voice low and yellow eyes firm. Mellow looked over her athletic figure and noted the pair of Elven ears that stuck out past flowing green locks. “Sniper.”

“…That’s it?” Mellow blinked and the elf woman nodded. “Well, at least I know who to turn to if I ever have some shit to unload on.”

“These four and yourself will make up Nightfall Squad, an infiltration and sabotage unit for the XSG.” Doctor Gottfried explained. “You five will be deployed into valuable target locations of XSG enemies and either capture of destroy it. This is especially true for you, Mister Proudmoore.” The doctor turned to the augmented young man with a flat look. “Those augmentations of yours were not given to you for free. You will pay for them by working for us in eliminating our enemies and ensuring the organization’s goals are accomplished.”

Mellow considered the doctor’s words, and asked a question which he knew the answer to.

“What if I refuse?” he asked. The other four blinked in surprise and the Doctor grinned.

There was a shift in the far reaches of his mind and the world became muted. His senses were numbed and his limbs moved on their own accord to stand at attention, as though controlled by an unseen puppeteer. He tried to scream, but his mouth did not open. He tried to move, but his limbs didn’t comply.

“When did I ever say you had a choice in the matter?” The doctor spoke and then the trance was broken. Mellow staggered back, breathing heavily and pale faced. “You will comply, willingly or otherwise.”

Mellow shot his squadmates a pleading look, but they looked back stonily. There was no help to be garnered from them.

Seething fury and indignation settled into the hollow of his chest and he clenched his hands hard enough to make them creak. He grit his teeth and levelled the worst glare he could make at the mad scientist, who smirked back.

“I’m starting to understand why your daughter ran away from you.” Mellow grit out. And the doctor’s smirk was replaced with a snarl. “For her sake, I hope you never see her again.”

A metal arm shot out of the doctor’s back and hit Mellow, sending him skidding back. He recovered but didn’t engage.

“I should have sewn your filthy mouth shut.” The man snarled and willed himself to calm down. He turned and walked away “Regardless, you have been assigned a living space. A vehicle will take you there within two hours. Don’t delay or you will miss it.” Something shot from the metal limb and hit Mellow’s chest; a note and a thumbtack. “Those are the passcodes to a safe which contain your belongings. You can claim them at any time.”

He glared at the man’s back until he left the room. Only then did he remove the thumbtack and looked over the information on it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his squadmates trade glances at each other and decided to nip the problem at the bud.

“The fucking prick and I have a really bad relationship.” Mellow told them. “I might or might not have turned poked a really sore spot about him and his daughter, and he might or might not have done something to me without my consent.”

“Ah.” Giovanni nodded uncertainly. “I… see?”

x-x-x-x-x

The jeep pulled into one of the fancier neighbourhoods of the Wu capital, one usually inhabited by middle-class citizens who had the money and influence to acquire a comfier home environment for themselves and their loved ones. Mellow watched the fancy houses and their equally fancy inhabitants from his seat beside the driver as they drove past, taking in the sights of the place he would be living in for the foreseeable future.

It wasn’t so bad. Certainly better than the home he grew up in.

The vehicle slowed to a stop at the entrance to a street on the outskirts of the area, and the driver nodded at Mellow. The augmented young man nodded back and got off.

Then he saw a familiar face smirking at him.

“…Are you fucking kidding me.” He deadpanned, ignoring the jeep as it pulled away.

“Of course some lowlife like you would be surprised by all this.” Libra grinned and one of her chains shot out into one of the houses, which he saw was stuffed to the brim with various clothes. It returned with a sun hat, which she put on. She pointed down the street, at the smallest building out of the dozens in the street. “That’s where you will live. Don’t even think about going anywhere without my permission. Understood, dog?”

“…Good thing I don’t need anywhere big to live in. And that looks about right for my tastes." he looked around as he followed the woman down the street. "And an entire house for clothes? Really? I know women like their clothes, but isn't that a little too much?"

A chain appeared and hit him on the back of the head. The strength behind it was enough to force him to the ground.

"I like variety.” Libra answered, not even bothering to turn around. “It’s bothersome to wear dresses, and when I have to do it, then at least I have quite the collection to choose from."

Mellow pushed himself off the ground and grit out an a ‘noted’ as he followed her into her house. The interior was luxurious and armed with all manner of weapons, artefacts, and various things that would be better seen in the possession of a man; a pool table, playing cards, and various other odds and ends. But there was still the odd scent and feel that denoted their possession to a woman, obvious enough that Mellow could feel it hanging in the air like smoke.

He was led up to the first floor, to a dining room with a table that could fit more than a dozen people. Pulling up one of the more expensive-looking chairs, Libra sat down, crossed her legs, and gestured for Mellow to stand before her.

“Before I let you go to your house, answer me this.” She asked. “What does a good dog do?”

Mellow felt his brow twitch and indignant fury well up in his chest. This... This was cruel, even by his (admittedly) low standards. He thought that they were at least humane, that they were better than the Immortal Beings they so despised despite the apparent abuse they dished out and disdain they held for him. That they had some redeeming quality in them that could balance out the cruelty they gave him.

There was nothing humane about this, nothing redeeming about expecting another person to act like an animal in their presence.

What kind of life did she live to consider this inhumane treatment of another sapient being to be an acceptable practice? That it was okay to degrade another person so much?

He dropped his duffle bag and knelt. The look of indignity and fury he wore was a miniscule fraction of that which roared in his chest.

"Woof." he growled.

Libra grinned and laughed, her tail coming around to poke at Mellow’s chin.

"I honestly didn’t expect you to do it so quickly! Man, you are pathetic. And I was looking forward to beating you into shape too." The tail moved to his neck and, in an extremely surprising show of strength, effortlessly lifted him into the air. "Though considering your thoughts... I guess some kind of preparations will be needed for the missions."

She dropped him and he walked away, gesturing to follow.

Mellow laid on the floor for a long moment, considering whether or not it was worth getting his ass kicked in the house before the actual ass-kicking could start (because what else could those preparations be besides a thorough ass-kicking?) and pissing her off.

He sighed, made up his mind, and stood up himself.

Then he lunged for her tiny little neck to at least wring the damn thing fortreatinghimlikesomeANIMALWHATKINDOFPERSON

Libra turned to him in response to the noise he made, and her eyes widened as Mellow tackled her. Both fell to the floor and Mellow brought his hands to her neck and tried to squeeze. But no matter how much he tried to make his hands close around Libra neck, no matter how hard he thought or willed it so, no matter how badly he wished to, his hands refused to comply. Libra looked up at him in absolute livid fury and willed her chains to appear in the air.

They wrapped around Mellow’s arms and pulled them away from her, allowing the woman to sit up. Her tail rose and wrapped around Mellow’s neck, squeezing tight.

"...that is not how a good dog behaves." She snarled lowly.

"Woof-woof, bitch." Mellow spat. "This dog has teeth and he'll bite your ass if you don't at least consider him a person." he struggled despite the chains that restrained him. "I've lived through enough shit in my life to know when to take indignities and when to decide that enough's enough. I've had enough fools making me eat their scraps, and I refuse to take yours too."

Libra narrowed her gaze and her tail tightened its grip around him.

"I thought you were supposed to be the good guys in this Immortal-Mortal conflict." Mellow snarled, emotion leaking into his voice. "Good guys don't go around treating prisoners like subhuman filth."

The tail holding him up threw him to the floor and Libra sat on him. A single finger pressed on his chest and Mellow felt an enormous weight hold him down.

"I don't let dogs like you touch anything I don't want them to. So even if you would like it, that will stay a mere dream." She cut open his left cheek with a quick gesture of her now clawed hand. "There is no need to treat you anything different than some mutt. Anyone who follows an Immortal... who abandoned the people like that isn't anything more than their little, pathetic mongrel bitch. A dog."

"You say that like I had a choice. Like I wanted to work for her and do the dirty work she should've done herself." Mellow spat back, ignoring the pain of the scratched cheek. "I didn't want that. I didn't want to get involved in this world's brand of bullshit when I had enough of it back home." he sneered contemptuously. "But at least she did a better job at the whole saving humanity and not turning into an utter monster in the process. You'd think the people who'd oppose these 'evil immortals' would be any better than them. Turns out you're worse."

Libra’s hand blurred and gripped Mellow’s neck. Her claws dug into his skin and drew blood.

"Now you listen here you little smartass." Her grip on him tightened. "Most of us don’t care if we become Monsters to stop these Monsters. Sometimes you have to get your hands dirty to a get a job done. However..."

She let go of Mellow and stood. A chain pulled one of the chairs and she sat back down.

"...It is true you didn’t have a chance at this. So, I will give you one. Obviously I can’t just let you go free. But you can have a much more enjoyable stay here if..." She stretched out her right leg, moved her boot-clad foot right in front of the man's face "If... you serve me. Then we can talk about your standing, Mellow Proudmoore."