The Laboratory

A small clock rings and Kuta turns over in bed to shut it off. His deep brown hair is a mess as he feels for his mask. He may have lost his natural vision in the war, but he had a new way of seeing, a better way. Once the mask was on his face, he could see the small clean room he called home. Everything was outlined in neon green, teal, and pink. He still hasn't gotten colors correct yet, but he hardly had the time to. It worked and that was all that mattered to him.

After finishing his morning routine, Kuta dresses in his white crisp lab coat over his plain looking slacks and pocketed black shirt. As he enters his small kitchen area, E-4N is sitting and reading a book that looks tiny in his monstrous hands. Coffee is already poured with only sugar, just to his liking. He sits down to his plate of sausage and omelette with a piece of jelly covered toast. "You know, I can get my own breakfast, right?" E-4N doesn't look up from his book. "Well I understand you were just being helpful, but perhaps for once, I could cook something." E-4N carefully flips a page and Kuta takes the time to finish his omelette. "Really?" E-4N continues to read. "Got to say, your family does love cooking an awful lot." E-4N grabs a large glass vial filled with a green liquid and replaces the empty one jutting from his arm from outside his cloak. "Oh thank you for reminding me. It'll all be in the same kind of envelope. Those marks have been quite the savior in my research, especially for you! By the way, have you heard back from the scouts?" E-4N slides an envelope out from his dusty brown cloak over to X. The only part of him that stands out from the desert is his bright white mask with "E-4N" stamped on it in black lettering. "What do you mean you didn't have time to go over it? You made a full breakfast but couldn't look into a small note?" Kuta pouts as he finishes up the sausage and toast. E-4N looks over to him as he does his long, spiked hair up in a ponytail. He stands, almost filling the room. While Kuta looks over the report, E-4N does up the dishes. Kuta stands and walks to the door that leads into his lab. He walks inside to see how his experiments are doing. None of the could be a host, but he didn't mind having more subjects. All of them wore stark white builder masks with black letters and numbers printed on them. Each one has tubes sticking out of them like E-4N. Some have tubing wrapped around them, some have puppet parts in place of regular limbs, some even have limbs added. He begins to list his observations from behind the one way glass into their rooms."K-80 seems to be taking well to the new legs. R-08 might need an adjustment to the arms. Z-4E seems to be enjoying the scorpion tail a bit too much, suggest introducing sedatives. He continues his walk down to where some people are in large glass vats with machines stuck to them. "Remove P-6Y, deceased. Remove T-5O, deceased. Remove I-7I, curse mark seems to have balanced out and allowed them to stabilize. Yes, I know you're not my secretary, but I also know you're writing it down anyways." E-4N pulls a lever and P-6Y's vat begins to empty. "Also you really should have read the report, it says that they think they found someone compatible with the One Tail. Your nephew." E-4N snaps the lever out of sheer surprise, forgetting his own strength. "Se...baa...ta..."

Kuta looks at the giant form of E-4N in surprise. He glances at the glass tube to see that is still mostly full. "Well now, it seems like that may be a touchy subject. Anyways, let's continue on with-" His sentence is cut short as P-6Y screams to life. Their twisted body scrambles on its scorpion-like legs and leaps on Kuta.

"WhaT hAvE yOu doNe tO ME?!" It screams, the voice sounds like two as one while a rusty door squeals. It reaches its now artificial hand up and grabs the mask away with claws. The face has one long scar line down the middle, the sides of the lips are mismatched. One eye is blue while the other is green. The jaw stretches down further than should be possible and whirling blades kick on in the back of the throat. "LOoK aT ME!"

E-4N quickly grabs P-6Y by neck and lifts them into the air. The head begins to extend and E-4N shoves his open palm into the mouth. Blades flick over his palm, but he shows no reaction. Then P-6Y starts to scream in pain. Pale green blood trickles out of E-4N's palm and begins eating through the abomination. Skin and metal hiss as the highly corrosive poison that now makes up his blood burns through. He splashes more of his blood on the creature before turning to help Kuta up with his uncut hand. "I appreciate that. Let me get the acid resistant bandages out. Make sure you come to me every 3 hours to have it changed. Yes I know you understand. I am fine. Please worry about the one of us that is injured. I'll have to make sure none of the others are actually alive before we drain the next vat." Kuta walks toward the infirmary area and E-4N follows.

A week later Kuta wakes in a cold sweat. Nightmares from the war again. In his dreams the colors are correct, not the neon mess of lines he had grown accustomed to since dawning his builder's mask.  Every detail from before his eyesight was taken from him were burned into his memory. The gleaming sands as they whipped in the wind, the wood of puppets as they clattered around, the crimson of the blood spilled by the puppets on to the sand, and the flash of yellow and white before the explosion. He shakes his head. He remembered long arms picking him up from the darkness and a calming voice. The voice of his comrade and close friend. He shakes his head again and puts his balled fists to his temples. "No. It's over. I fulfilled my obligation to him."

E-4N opens the door to the room. Kuta must have overslept. "I'm sorry. Must not have heard the alarm. Yes I'm quite alright. I'm not-" His arm shook and he grabbed it with the other hand to stop it. "Right. Anyway no time for breakfast. A lot of work to do today. I'll be okay." He reaches for his mask. His room is brightly lit but Kuta is unable to tell. He smiles to his last living friend. His face is badly burned, his eyelids had been melted shut by the blast that had scarred his face leaving the holes and scar tissue on it. His nose was all but gone and his lips were warped but he knew that E-4N knew it was a smile before he covered his destroyed features once more.