This choice: A lone scientist, still in the lab, helps the brothers • Go Back...Chapter #7The Neural Linker is Activated by: Ctbro   The pod door flew open, and Mason felt himself and his brother falling forward from their momentum. If he had his own body, he knew that he could have caught himself or even kept balance on his feet. But with their two halves not cooperating, their massive body landed flat on the concrete floor of the lab.
"Atlas! I cannot believe it! I was sure the fusion process had been long enough." The familiar voice of Dr. Mudrov spoke.
"Sorry Doc, Atlas is not here..." Logan answered.
"Its just us... sort of." Mason continued. He suddenly felt himself rolling, his brother seemingly having pushed them over so that they laid on their back.
The doctor came into view, gawking. "Oh my..." He stood above them with a hand covering his mouth. "This is most certainly not what I expected. I feared you perished in the pod, but clearly that was not case."
There was a heavy silence in the room. Out of the corner of his eyes, Mason could see the other scientists who had been present stand and stare. Their looks appearing to be a mixture of quashed hopes and astonishment. The room then shook again, from another explosion somewhere. "Please, you have to do something. Can you separate us?" Mason thought he knew the answer, but he asked out of desperation anyways. "There's no way we can fight like this, let alone escape!"
Dr. Mudrov appeared to have a curious gleam in his eyes. "You survived a partial fusion... That is a most interesting finding...."
"Doc!" Logan grabbed his ankle as he was standing closet to him. "There is a battle going on upstairs. If you want to survive, you have to separate us!"
"Ah... uh... Let go" The tight grip of Logan's arm seemed to have brought sense back to the elder scientist. He stepped away, Logan having letting him go. "Separate... No, that is impossible." Dr. Murdov pushed his glassed back up his nose, though Mason was not sure how helpful they were. One of the lenses was missing, and the other was cracked. The doctor continued, "There is no power; the pods won't be able to finish your merge let alone reverse it."
Mason clenched his teeth and heard his brother grunt. That was not the answer they hoped for, but it also was not unexpected.
"But... why cannot you not fight? You should have all of the strength and regeneration Atlas had, and your skills are still your own." Dr. Murdov asked seeming to be genuinely confused.
"Well, we seem to have Atlas's strength, but our body... Its like it is split between us." Mason explained.
"Split... very curious." Dr. Murdov brought his hand to his beard and began stroking it. "I need you to roll over." He spoke as he walked away from them towards one side of the lab.
"What?" Both Mason and Logan questioned. With little other options, they attempted compiling with the doctor's order. Though, the action of rolling over was more difficult than rolling onto their back. Mason had still been stunned, so Logan was able to push them over. Now, both he and his brother were trying to turn their body over but in opposite directions. Finally though, Logan relented and Mason shifted them on their stomach again. "What are you doing Doc?" Logan asked.
The doctor returned with two objects. Mason knew that the first, a glass-window looking sheet with metal surrounding it, was a portable x-ray, but he was not sure what the second was. It looked vaguely like a small half-sphere with two claw like needles on opposite sides. He held the first just over their back and activated it. "As I cannot do a thorough examination, this will have to do. As I suspected, you are very much akin to dicephalic parapagus twins, without obviously being twins... You have separate spinal columns still, meeting at the pelvis. That explains the divided locomotion and likely sensation. Well then... this should help."
Suddenly, Mason felt the cold metal of the half-sphere pressed against their upper back. "What is that?" He asked, but before getting his answer, he felt the left needle pierce his skin. "Gaw!" He cried out, along with his brother.
"Early on in the project, we had difficulty completely intermingling the neural networks of the two subjects. As such the combined entity had a duality of sorts in personality and experience. This is an early prototype that helped in that connectivity. And if I am right, this will help you both work together more fluidly.
The pain subsided and Mason's breathing began to stabilize. "What... happened?" Suddenly, he got a feeling of wanting to sit. Deciding to following the instinct, he shifted so that he and Logan were on their back and then pressed his arm into the concrete to raise their torso. He turned to stare at his brother, suddenly realizing that they had sat up together with no issue. "How?" He glanced at their outstretched legs. The right half of their body still was not his. He could neither feel or control it.
"Think of it as a telepathic connection between you, a twin telepathy of sorts." Dr. Murdov began to explain. "Your body is still divided between you, but the Neural Linker acts as a bridge between your spinal cords. Your subconsciouses should 'know' what the other wants to do allowing you greater coordination then you had."
Mason glanced at his brother. Even though he could not feel Logan's right hand, he knew that his brother was clenching it. "Its like a phantom limb." he said aloud.
"Its not ideal, but I guess this gives us a fighting chance." Logan finally said. "Though... I think we're going to need clothes first."  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
| Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
<<-- Previous · Outline  · Recent Additions © Copyright 2025 Ctbro (UN: ctbro at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Fares002 has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work within this interactive story. Poster accepts all responsibility, legal and otherwise, for the content uploaded, submitted to and posted on Writing.Com. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author