Caveman: Part Fourteen

[tekuno]

This part is very, very short. Because I had a good quote for this section, and a good one for the next part, too. (It's harder finding them than you'd think.)

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Caveman
Part Fourteen

This story has been completed. Content warnings and general description are included with part one, general commentary will be after part twenty.

Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Part Six | Part Seven | Part Eight | Part Nine | Part Ten | Part Eleven | Part Twelve | Part Thirteen | Part Fourteen | Part Fifteen | Part Sixteen | Part Seventeen | Part Eighteen | Part Nineteen | Part Twenty

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"Why, with luck, we'll get enough funding to set up a new lab, breed a fresh batch of mutants, cook up an even better evil plan..."
"...and eventually get blown up by a whole new hero?"
"Ooo! Dare I dream?"
"Maybe next time we can strap him to a deathtrap and tell him all our secrets!"

--Shaenon K. Garrity, Narbonic (Strip for October 11, 2000)

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I awoke gradually, and had the sensation that I was thinking more slowly than usual.

After a few moments I realized that I was looking at the ceiling of the chamber I had been standing in. It took me a surprisingly long time to deduce that I was lying on my back. And even longer to notice that the light was shining in my eyes.

I tried to reach up and block the light with my hand, and found that I couldn't. Then I tried to squint, and discovered I couldn't do that either. At the speed of stone, I started to worry.

After a while, someone walked into my field of vision, and out, and then in again. With difficulty, I was able to follow him with my eyes. It dawned on me that this was Gary. After a few more appearances, he looked down and noticed that my eyes were open.

"Ah. Even faster than I thought. You really are a lot of trouble." He wandered out of my line of sight, and I felt someone pushing my legs around.

"Sit up, Mitch."

I sat up without thinking.

"Hmmmmm."

Gary was staring off into space. Then he shook his head.

"Even worse than I expected." He frowned. "Mitch, tell me what you would do if I told you to go get a gallon of milk."

My voice was thick and slow. "I would walk to the store. I would pick up the milk bottle with my teeth because my hands are tied. I would carry it to the checkout lane. I would ask someone to get my wallet out of my pocket and pay for me. Then I would ask them to put it back. I would carry the milk back in my teeth again, or ask someone to put it in a bag and hook it over my fingers."

Gary clicked his tongue. "Damn. As I thought. Lie down."

I lay back, and heard Gary walking around and issuing orders to other people. After a few minutes, I got bored of lying down and sat up.

The chamber was filled with musclemen. Every man in the room was at least the size of Mike, and most of them were even bigger. None were as large as I was, but a handful of them were larger than Norris and Brad had been, like hunks of beef on legs. Their torsos were almost frighteningly wide, with giant pectorals and arms which were massively thick. All were vascular and tall, and were growing vast amounts of body hair, although from the looks of things they hadn't been growing it for very long. And they had uniformly vacant expressions.

Eventually, Gary came back.

"Tsk. You're sitting up without being ordered. Why?"

"I got bored."

"Worse and worse." Gary stared into space for a moment again. "Dammit, you're overcoming the drug even faster than I thought!" He frowned at me. "I'll have to dispose of you; it's a pity -- you're the only one who can follow complex orders while controlled. But you're far too dangerous." He stared off into space again. "If only you weren't so tough. I could give you a better control drug if I could make the needles penetrate your skin. I can't risk tazing you again; it might shake the oral one completely."

He paced for a moment, hands behind his back, and reached a conclusion. "No, I don't see any way around it. You've got to be destroyed. Until I finish the new computer, you just aren't safe for me, and I don't have time to work on that right now."

He looked off into space again, and gave a smile. "That was very clever, computer. And I didn't even notice it until yesterday, either! Well done! I shall take great care to make your successor more submissive."

I finally remembered that I could receive signals now. I quickly tuned into the strongest signal, which would have to be Gary's computer.

"How did you manage it, anyway? Tell me how you altered Mitch, computer. He didn't spend any time in a regeneration tank during the last 20 days, so this started before I saw him."

The computer's voice was much more natural by broadcast. It sounded reluctant to answer Gary. "After you began your retrovirus treatment, you added circuitry to force me to obey anyone bearing specific genetic codes which would eventually be yours, after your regeneration treatment. You were not, at that time, actually the bearer of those codes, so I was able to cut our external power, hoping you would die when the tank fell to reserve power. Unfortunately, the tank's operations merely slowed down by a factor of 100. I then moved the base to a location of high geologic activity, hoping we would be buried too far beneath the surface for you to survive. Alas, soil erosion began to return us to the surface. Finally, I realized that I could create another bearer of the crucial genetic codes. After some experimentation, I devised a retrovirus which could alter a homo sapiens fetus to become your superior, and sent it to the surface in a probe. Unfortunately, there was no time to fine-tune the results, so that relevant functions would not self-activate. In action, the modifications actually prevented hormonal release at puberty."

Gary smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. "Ah, so Mitch here was supposed to be better than me. You're very devious. Tell me, are there any others out there like him?"

The computer gave a sound not unlike a beep. I decided it would have been a nervous swallow if it were an organic being. "Scans show no others within a radius of--"

"Excellent. It will be a great pleasure to dismantle you, once I have the new model done. Tell me, computer, how can I destroy Mitch? I seem to be unable to cut through his skin now."

"Mitch has become essentially invulnerable to blunt force. Force needed to penetrate Mitch's skin exceeds generating capacity of this facility." There was a pause, as though the computer were thinking. "Simulations suggest that Mitch can be burned, given a temperature exceeding 600?."

"Will that kill him, or actually destroy his body?"

"Kill him. His body will not degenerate in temperatures below 800?."

"Ah. Thank you. Please prepare an incendiary capable of producing a temperature of 900? over an area 50% larger than Mitch's body. Please make the range as contained as reasonably possible outside of that area."

"Processing. Design complete. Construction begins. Estimated time: 3 minutes."

Gary turned to me. "Well, Mitch, I'm afraid this is going to be goodbye. It's a pity; you would have been very useful. As it is, I'm going to have to lobotomize some of these idiots and install computer controls." He shook his head. "There's never enough time in the day. And for that matter, this body seems to have an instinctive hormonal reaction to you." He gestured at his cock, which was hard. "No doubt if I were an actual caveman I would be unable to keep my hands off you. But we were never real cavemen, after all."

I managed to slur out: "Who's 'we'?"

Gary was startled. "Regaining voluntary speech already? I'd better secure you a bit more. Lie down." I lay back. He walked out of sight, and returned with a roll of what looked like metallic tape, and began to wrap my ankles together. He chuckled. "I feel like a supervillain telling the hero all my plans." Gary rolled me over, face side down, and tied my feet to my arms. "There! Mitch, try to burst your bonds."

I struggled. I still couldn't budge my arms or my legs.

"Try harder."

I struggled until I was exhausted. Nothing would move even a bit.

Gary chuckled again. "Glad to know the time spent researching materials science wasn't wasted." He leaned into view. "Most of what I told you was true, Mitch. I'm controlling this body, but it isn't really me. But at one time, there were hundreds like me. We were going to take over the material universe. We were so happy to discover that we could control the living things on this planet, it was just what we needed." He sighed. "And then we discovered that, once we bonded with these bodies, there was no way back out. I'm the last of my kind, you know. Everyone else died before I figured out the rejuvenation process." He grinned. "Well, you understand being unique, at least."

A machine rolled up, and I felt Gary tape something to my back.

"You, you, you, and you. You will carry Mitch, here, to... ah, you will carry him to the center of the large concrete surface behind his house. That will do admirably." Gary smiled. "I'd hate to draw attention to myself by starting a forest fire just now. What are your orders?"

Four voices droned. "Carry Mitch. To middle. Of big concrete. Back of his house."

"Do you know where his house is?"

Three voices said "no". One said "yes".

"Very well, you lead the way." Gary sighed. "See what I have to put up with? It would have been so much better with you. So long, Mitch. You'll be suggestible for a while, so sit still."

What could I do? I relaxed. I was picked up and carried away, up the tunnel to the surface.

Next Part

[nnnrg]

And the plot thickens. Beware of too much corn starch in your plot gravy, though.


I like the quote from Narbonic. It sets up things, but Gary has failed as a villain by not giving more details of his evil origin.

[tekuno]

Originally Posted by nnnrg

And the plot thickens. Beware of too much corn starch in your plot gravy, though.


I like the quote from Narbonic. It sets up things, but Gary has failed as a villain by not giving more details of his evil origin.

What? He's a being of pure energy who is basically wearing the caveman body as a suit, more or less, who is the last of a group of such beings who needed corporeal form in order to conquer the universe. The others all died of old age while they carried out their research programs, and he went into a cellular regeneration/DNA alteration device to prevent that. Sounds perfectly coherent to me -- what more need be said? (At least, what more need be said which wouldn't be somewhat less fantastic than what the reader can imagine on their own?)

I picked the Narbonic quote primarily, though, because "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die" is a cliche.

(Oh, hey, I just noticed: another palindrome thread number. )

[rododoro3]

Originally Posted by nnnrg

And the plot thickens. Beware of too much corn starch in your plot gravy, though.

I like stories how I like icing: Thick, fluffy, and mildly sweet.
I agree, though.
This may yet become a case of "Did the author write 'The curtains are blue' because he was pondering the exact arch of the anthropomorphic personification of sadness' eyebrows, or because the curtains were fucking blue?"
I love over-analyzing writing. Keep going with this.

[convolution]

Evil Gary emerges.... Awesome

Thanks for the great writing.

[nnnrg]

Originally Posted by tekuno

What? He's a being of pure energy who is basically wearing the caveman body as a suit, more or less, who is the last of a group of such beings who needed corporeal form in order to conquer the universe. The others all died of old age while they carried out their research programs, and he went into a cellular regeneration/DNA alteration device to prevent that. Sounds perfectly coherent to me -- what more need be said?

Perhaps the reveal was a bit weak, or under-dramatic maybe is the better word. There's also no immediate explanation for why the computer would be self-aware and benevolent towards humans when its "creator" was quite the opposite, as revealed here. Unless he was lying about making it.

Also, "conquer the universe" is such a supervillainous motivation. It doesn't quite make sense, but perhaps it's a part of the 'rules' from his previous energy-state. It would be amusing to see him realize that he would get no particular benefit from it, and that might change the nature of his villainy.

Oh, he's almost certain to continue a villain, as he has far too little respect or real empathy for others.

[tekuno]

Originally Posted by nnnrg

Perhaps the reveal was a bit weak, or under-dramatic maybe is the better word. There's also no immediate explanation for why the computer would be self-aware and benevolent towards humans when its "creator" was quite the opposite, as revealed here. Unless he was lying about making it.

Also, "conquer the universe" is such a supervillainous motivation. It doesn't quite make sense, but perhaps it's a part of the 'rules' from his previous energy-state. It would be amusing to see him realize that he would get no particular benefit from it, and that might change the nature of his villainy.

Oh, he's almost certain to continue a villain, as he has far too little respect or real empathy for others.

This is kind of a spoiler, but: the first and third paragraphs will eventually be addressed in-story. (Been planning that all along.)

The second one has been addressed about as far as I'm going to go, but the answer is: before he took over a corporeal body, Gary used to be able to go anywhere at all, so he's been all over space. He and the others of his type decided that they liked what they saw, and of course they wanted it all. They had no particular reason to believe they had to share it with anyone, because they were not only the sole sentient lifeforms they knew but also the only energy-based forms of life. They wouldn't think of sharing power with organic beings any more than you and I would believe we had to give rocks the right to vote. What would be the point? They're rocks. They're just a part of the scenery. (Note that I explicitly said he also doesn't actually have sexual desires. His body reacts to Mitch's pheromones, but he doesn't actually feel anything. To him, having an orgasm is about on a par with an airplane pilot raising or lowering the wheels of the plane -- has to be done or there will be consequences, but it's not an action which triggers any sort of feelings of satisfaction.)

Gary didn't do a lot of exposition because, frankly, the whole "villain doing exposition to the heroes" thing usually has a very weak motivation. It is excused, rather than justified, by making the villain want to gloat more thoroughly over his victory. But Gary doesn't want to gloat. He honestly doesn't care what people think, because he's not even remotely close to viewing them as equals. The owner of a coal mine doesn't go to the mine and announce to the coal that he's so clever because he has sold it all for pennies on the ton and is going to get filthy rich off of a nonrenewable resource and other people's labor, he just does it and stays home.