Chapter Text
Lien-Da floated in place inside Dr. Finitevus’ secret lab. It was an ‘I’ shaped bunker buried deep in the ground. The soft rattle of electric fans pumping air from the surface filled the place. The filtered air was cool and sterile.
At one end of the bunker was Finitevus’ sleeping quarters. It had a bed on the left, a washing machine and mini fridge along the wall, and a small bathroom and shower on the right.
The main hallway of the lab was wide, with enough room for three mobians to walk side by side. The walls were covered in laboratory equipment. Screens were mounted into the walls everywhere. Keyboards that could be raised or lowered jutted out. Two black computer servers the size of refrigerators sat in the corner near Finitevus’ quarters. A portion of the main lab had a plastic curtain that could be drawn to seal off half the space and be made sterile. A sliding slab of metal could protrude from the wall and serve as an operating table. The medical equipment for procedures was in a cabinet on the opposite wall. The door leading up and out to the surface was in the lab’s center, but it was rarely used, with Finitevus preferring warp ring portals for entrance and exit.
The other end of the bunker housed its other two occupants. On the left was a large glass tube containing the medicated, unconscious form of Thrash the Tasmanian Devil, floating in a nutrient solution and covered in a mess of wires and tubes monitoring his vitals. Across from Thrash’s containment was Lien Da’s docking port.
She’d failed to adapt to walking on her dreadlock tendrils like Dimitri had, so Finitevus had upgraded her with a levitation device. Now she floated about the lab and did Finitevus’ bidding, made to be obedient through her cybernetics. Her dreadlock tendrils flowed down the glass bubble around her silver metal plated head. Her eyes were mechanical now, black orbs with glowing red pupils. Finitevus had left a small tuft of her pinkish red hair across her head inside the bubble. It almost appeared that her body was invisible, standing beneath her floating head. The ends of her tendrils were outfitted with various silver gadgets that served different functions. The two tendrils closest to the front had silver, three-digit hands.
She didn’t know where the bunker was located on Mobius. She didn’t care. At first she’d been horrified to the point of insanity by what Finitevus had done. Now she felt nothing. Perhaps it was because Finitevus had tinkered with her brain to make her not care, or perhaps the shock had broken her psyche. It didn’t matter. The fire that had fueled Lien-Da’s quest for power was snuffed out. What remained was little more than a robot.
A shimmering gold ring portal appeared in the lab’s center. Finitevus stepped through. His cape trailed over the swirling portal’s rim. The bright light of the sun cast him in a dark silhouette. Lien-Da’s eyes made a metallic whir as they squinted. The mad doctor had something slung over his shoulder.
“We have our test subject,” Finitevus said. The portal swirled closed behind him. Lien-Da’s eyes adjusted to the lab’s light again. Finitevus had an unconscious mobian slung over his shoulder, Charmy Bee.
Lien-Da only blinked. The doctor looked disappointed. “Prepare the table,” he ordered. Lien-Da raised one of her tendrils with a pointed silver attachment. She inserted the appendage into a socket, and the operating table slid out from the wall.
Finitevus laid Charmy out on the metal slab. “IV pole,” Finitevus said. Lien-Da floated to a small compartment in the corner of the lab. She opened it and pulled out a tall metal pole with a hook. Finitevus handed her a bag full of clear liquid. She hung it from the pole while Finitevus attached a tube to the bottom.
Finitevus poked a needle into a vein on Charmy’s arm, inserting the tube. “He’s out from a blow dart, but this will keep him under,” Finitevus said. Lien-Da made no response and floated in place. The doctor sighed in annoyance. “Fetch the relic,” he ordered.
Lien-Da floated to Finitevus’ quarters. She returned lugging a giant cyan ring with pink dots that nearly dragged her down. Finitevus took the relic and raised it over the sleeping Charmy. The inner part of the ring began to glow with swirls of cyan and pink energy. Finitevus gently took his hands off the relic, which now floated by itself above the bee.
“Now the helmet,” Finitevus said. Lien-Da fetched a black and silver helmet with two coils on top and placed it on the doctor’s head. The lab came to life with the whir and hum of machinery. The monitors flickered on, showing readouts of Charmy’s and Finitevus’ brain waves.
“Now,” Finitevus whispered, “Let us begin.”
Suddenly, an ethereal voice echoed around the lab. “Puppeteering an injured mind!?” the voice shouted, “This is a new low even for you doctor! I will not tell you again. You will never control the Reverie! Release him!”
Lien-Da startled out of her stupor, looking around the lab for the voice’s source. Finitevus grinned. “You can’t deny me now guardian.” The doctor’s eyes glowed with the same energy as the ring.
“No!” the voice shouted. Two pink trails of energy shot out from the floating cyan ring. Each collided with Finitevus’ and Lien-Da’s heads.
“What are you-!?” Finitevus’ question was cut off as he sank to the floor in sleep. Lien-Da’s eyes fluttered shut. Her floating head sagged in place, and her tendrils went limp. The lab continued to hum with machinery, drowning out the soft snoring of Charmy and Finitevus.
Meanwhile, in another realm entirely, the owner of the voice sighed. She was a cyan furred mobian ram with curling white horns on either side of her head. She wore a flowing blue dress with red and gold accents. She floated just above the ground in a strange place.
The floor was shimmering and clear, like water covered glass. What appeared to be the night sky, smattered with stars, stretched beneath the floor. The border of this surface was a wide ring of glowing white light, and the sky above was a swirling mess of pink and blue streaks. There was no discernable sun, yet the place was filled with cool blue light.
Behind the floating guardian was a large portal that resembled rippling water, like when a large rock is tossed into a still lake. She pressed her hands up against this rippling surface and pushed. The surface did not give. She could not pass through. “No,” she whispered, slamming her fist on the barrier. She floated away from the portal, holding her chin in thought.
She needed help. The echidna doctor had blocked her out, but perhaps another could get through. But who to seek for aid? She knew of plenty of heroes she could call on, but would they be able to stay long enough to help her?
One could only enter this realm when asleep, and a mind that was aware it was dreaming was more likely to wake up, and at the worst times. The Reverie could keep someone safely asleep to traverse the dreamworld, but the relic was closed off from her, as was the mind of Charmy Bee, by Finitevus’ machines.
That left her with only one option. One hero who she’d watched over ever since he’d fallen in battle. She could not heal his wounds in the real world, so she’d thought the least she could do was grant him happy dreams until he awoke… or died in his sleep.
The guardian raised her hands. Light glowed from her palms. The watery glass floor began to morph in the middle. Shifting liquid gathered and morphed into a bed and chest of drawers. Once the furniture had been made, the guardian clasped her hands within her sleeves and closed her eyes. She focused for a moment, then her eyes opened.
The bed was now occupied. The hero lay on his back, the sheets up to his neck. He snored softly. The guardian winced, wishing she didn’t have to disturb his peaceful slumber. She’d seen glimpses of his sacrifice through his dreams. Even without the full picture, she knew he deserved more than she could give. But time was of the essence.
The guardian sighed, then whispered, “Awaken, Antoine D’Coolette.”