Figment, Part 9

Forget Your Fears

By Hedonism

Synopsis : Rebecca has kept her best friend with her since childhood, despite knowing full well that this friend is just an imaginary one she never had the heart to forget with maturity. Putting up with this minor psychological trait, she got on with life. Until she was attacked by two vicious gangs, and the friend she knew damn well was just made up turned out to be quite real, and capable of giving her ass-kicking transformation powers.

Rebecca, her supervisor Sarah and all the members of a thuggish gang have been knocked unconscious by a strange police force with serpent overtones and extremely advanced weaponry. It may be a good idea to read at least Episode 8 if you haven't already done so. Otherwise this could get confusing...

* * * * * * * * * *

"What the hell caused that?!" asked an elderly woman to the police officer as he stood guard outside the library, ensuring nobody tried to cross the perimeter tape.

"Beats me," he replied carefully, resisting the urge to hiss with wonder.

Up until all the glass in the building shattered, the little crowd of nosy onlookers had been pressing against the cordoning tape, looking for signs of excitement. Now they were sloping carefully back to the barriers after a brief spell of running like mad.

Certain things are guaranteed crowd pleasers. For example, a big group of beaten-up thugs rumoured to be the SCANs, walking into a library like they intended to kill everyone inside. Or the police surrounding said building in double-quick time, dispatching a twenty five strong Armed Response Unit into the place. Or the sudden bangs of dozens of windows smashing inwards, and smoke belching out through the empty frames. However, it was quite dissapointing that there had been no noise of gunfire or similar from the library when the police charged in.

The sound suppressing devices were doing their job of keeping all the gunfire nice and private.

Every so often, sparks of light issued through the destroyed windows. Sighing impatiently, the officer said to the old woman that he hadn't any idea what those were either, even though he recognised them as SevenLeaguers at work. According to the voice on his radio this job was going to take a while to complete.

All he wanted was the nosey journalists to stay in line when they inevitably arrived. That and a proper fitting tongue.

* * * * * * * * * *

The limp, reptilian form of Hedonism was only half unconscious. That half was Rebecca. The Figment half of the communal body felt a necklace-thing go around her . Some more voices came out from above her prone body.

"Operating Room 5'ssssnow clear."

"Cute ain'tssshe."

"Yeah, whatever."

An actinic flash glared angrily through her closed eyelids and she felt an intense sensation of movement. Then the sounds and smells became completely different.

The patient materialized on an operating table. Assorted medical machinery was scattered in a loose circle around her. In visual interest terms they ranged from bland to terrifying. Ironically, it was the boring looking gizmos which were the most technologically advanced machines. They outclassed anything made by humans by a generation or two, and those generations would have to be pretty strange ones to get the required inspiration for this gear.

The people in the room looked much more interesting. That's because they weren't humans.

Their language consisted mostly of different types of hiss, with no pauses in the sibilating except to inhale. To Hedonism's mind they had quite nice, relaxing voices. For this she was thankful because she was scared out of her wits.

Her eyesight was still out and her body was completely immobile due to a paralysing electrical charge on the operating table. It was probably that which was keeping her from waking Rebecca as well. Her powers of transformation were still kaput because Rebecca was still unconscious, and therefore couldn't generate any emotion power to run it.

Hedonism did still retain the power to unmerge from Rebecca, which would change her host back into a human and allow the parasite to escape the shell. As soon as their body was left alone, this is exactly what she would do, even given her extreme reluctance to leave Rebs just for one second.

Apart from this she still had rudimentary telepathy and the ability to transform her mind. She resisted the urge to make it calmer by increasing relaxation chemicals.

This left Figment with nothing to do except use her hindbrain to work out word associations in the unending sibilance of the creature's language. This it compared with the flickering surface thoughts caught from the creature's minds, and mixed the two to create translations of their words. After an hour, Hedonism had learned about five thousand words of their sibilant language.

Assorted pads were applied to her body in various locations.

There was a pause in the exchange of esses, but the silence only lasted for a few seconds. She took a break from worrying and started to translate.

"It looks female, but according to this it's completely genderless. It appears to have humanoid mammaries, but they are just growths of flesh. It has no genitalia, reproductive or excretory organs, but it does have a working digestive system. Maybe it can completely metabolise digested food?"

: Personal! :

Hedonism wished Rebecca was awake to reply to the words said inside their mind. She felt so alone and afraid.

"I think it's a 'war' shape, customised for battle."

"I agree. Therefore she probably has at least one other form. Scan her DNA profile and aura for complementary form templates."

There was a pregnant pause.

"I picked up an infinite variety of forms!" said the first creature excitedly. "She... it... is not restricted to just one other form, but can change into practically anything! But... she has two completely different DNA structures inside her. I don't understand... That makes no sense."

"Think about it. When would you get two types of DNA strand floating together?"

"Well... If you got two different animals and put them in a liquidizer..."

"Close enough. She is two separate creatures. Power up the Template Switch, and we'll split her up..."

Hedonism tried to shake her head urgently. That didn't sound pleasant.

: Don't harm Rebs! : she broadcasted into the minds of the two creature standing over her. She initiated the change herself.

The composite reptile's skin smoothed and became pink. The limp snakes atop her head split into hair follicles. Her body shrank atop the table to around five and a half foot tall. Her wings and tail withdrew into her body, her claws became nails. Her snout pulled itself backwards until it was a standard issue human face.

"Thank you," said the second voice triumphantly. "She's awake. She's been reading our thoughts for quite some time now."

"Ssshe hassss?"

The first voice had returned to English momentarily due to it's owner's surprise.

"I suppose it's only fair," continued the second creature, "that we read hers..."

Figment, now a separate creature resting inside Rebecca's chest, squirmed with fear.

* * * * * * * * * *

Back at the library, normality ensued. In great quantities. People went in and out, some were shushed by Magpie in a piercing voice which distracted readers who hadn't remembered to bring their earplugs.

Throughout the day Sarah got Rebecca and Isha regular coffees to soothe their nerves. It was only yesterday that the gang had marched in, smashed up the place up and locked them all in the back room. They joked maliciously that they were waiting for the police to enter, so that a bomb they planted would blow the place up and kill everyone. Rebecca was nearly in hysterics when the cops broke their way in and set off the bomb. Thankfully it only created a lot of smoke, and only had enough force to blow out the windows. Despite this practical joke covering the place in smoke, the police did a great job and arrested all the gang members as they tried to escape.

Funnily enough, although the assistant librarians couldn't talk about anything else, Magpie didn't say much about it at all. She just got broody. Maybe the events had kicked her into one of those I-wanna-be-a-bird depressions she got every so often.

Without any reason, Reb's mind turned thoughts of the imaginary friend she used to have. Keeping one until age fifteen had to be some sort of world record. Late adolescence, and the bloke in the year above at school finally created enough distractions to see the non-existent companion off. It was... a pity, really. She loved to talk to the little lizard.

She really loved that little weirdo.

Tears splashed the desktop, and Rebecca started to sniffle.

Why am I crying?

She felt Magpie's arm go around her. A couple of bookworms that had been researching here all day looked up, concerned.

"What's up, love?" asked her supervisor, her voice softened from it's normal intense caw.

"I... don't know. I've never cried about it before..."

"Cried about what, dear?"

Cried about... about losing an imaginary friend five years ago?!

Rebecca swayed suddenly. There was a presence somewhere deep inside her. A sudden feeling of warmth. Something loved her, and it was inside her mind.

: Hedonism? Figment? Are you back? :

Why do I want a schizophrenic childhood thing back!?

The presence remained inside her mind, just checking to see if she was okay. But the picture forming in head wasn't a little four foot tall lizard. It was furry, and much larger. It had long arms and limbs like black branches, and fingers and toes like deceptively weak-looking twigs. It was another creature. A... critter?

The two guys stood and walked towards the counter. "Are you okay?" asked the younger one, a gawky kid in glasses. They seemed to be taking an avid interest. Maybe they were journalists or something stupid.

Like Figment, the critter also looked like one of those childhood nightmare monsters. Saucer-like eyes, teeth that looked like they had been pulled out of a shark's mouth. But she remembered him not as a source of warmth and love inside, but as an independent entity, and existing outside. But it professed to love her just as much as Figment, it's feelings quite sincere in the force of it's bared emotions. Without entirely understanding, or believing, the strange things she sensed, she felt utterly happy. Did two creatures love her?

The older guy, maybe the younger one's father, pressed a button on his mobile phone and it emitted a warbling beep. Both Magpie and Rebecca froze completely. At the Enquiry desk across the room, so did Isha.

"Rebecca, go into the back room," he said into the phone quietly. She did so casually, her mind asleep.

"Sarah, Isha, you won't notice us following her. Continue working."

Neither responded, but they did get on with their jobs.

* * * * * * * * * *

"Watch carefully, John," said the taller man through his beard. He pointed to the mobile phone's digital display. "There's something inside Rebecca's mind, someone thinking of her."

They looked at Rebecca's tearful face. John swallowed deeply.

"Wow... Does it know what we've done to her?"

"No. It's just aware she's here, it doesn't have access to her thoughts. We can't let it stay; it's making her remember."

"Well, maybe we - "

The taller man hissed.

"How many times do I have to say it?! No, she _must_ forget, stupid boy! It's her only chance of getting over that parasite!"

He keyed something into his mobile.

"I'll... exorcise the presence. It seems to be some sort of monster, so I think it's a friend of the Figment creature. All I need to do is..."

* * * * * * * * * *

Far away, his limbs fastened to a rooftop gargoyle, Critter Man felt the bundle of conscious thoughts that made up Rebecca's mind. He wasn't quite sure what she was feeling or thinking, but the simple reassurance of her existence was comforting enough. As he sensed the presence, he tried to figure out the nature of his addiction to her and Figment. Could he love two creatures at once? Was it just feelings for the human, or for the reptile inside her? Could they love him back? Did they?

Figment, the other half of that strange double act that made up Lizard Lady, stepped into this psychic attention. She wordlessly, gently, told him off for probing their thoughts. Simon responded with a small burst of emotional imagery, a smile stripped of the cruel fangs which made up his normal grin. He politely turned his mind away from them both.

Simon pondered for a while why Hedonism didn't return his farewell. And why he heard just a little bit of feedback-like static as their minds went away.

* * * * * * * * * *

"Rebecca," murmured the man into his phone to get the girl's attention. He couldn't hide the triumph from his voice.

"None of this happened. Remember conditioning program number one. You discarded Figment five years ago. You are recovering from a gang attack which took place yesterday. Your life is perfectly ordinary. There is no evil parasite in you any more. There's no monsters stalking you."

Rebecca didn't respond. They didn't expect her to.

* * * * * * * * * *

The day was nearly finished, and Rebecca was very glad of that. Magpie had been getting very cagey, and had been stealing more than the normal number of glittery things.

"Pen?" she asked in monotone.

Magpie handed it over. It was a nice silver one.

"Stamper?"

Magpie handed it over. It was a nice silver one. Free of things to play with, her supervisor stood up and stalked the bookshelves noisily.

Rebecca thought about the terrifying events that took place yesterday. Then about her old, imaginary friend...

Magpie returned to the counter as she heard her assistant crying out loud. Two chairs slid backwards noisily as a couple of readers got up and joined her at the desk.

"It's just not working!" exclaimed John. He looked close to crying as well.

"Shut up!" hissed his mentor as he reached for his mobile. He pressed the button that froze the librarian's actions.

"Rebecca, return to the back room," he murmured. Ignoring the tears dripping off her chin, she followed his command.

"Sarah, Isha, you won't see us going into the back room. Continue working."

They both did as they were told.

When the door shut, Magpie looked up and whispered, "Sod that."

* * * * * * * * * *

"Remember conditioning program number one, damnit! You feel nothing for Figment, you threw her away five years ago!"

The canteen door opened. Sarah bustled in.

"Don't mind me, I'm just - "

Magpie closed one hand around the back of the taller man's head. He looked at her with alarm as her other hand zoomed towards his face, open-palmed. She crushed his nose with a sickening, gristly slap noise, filling his vision with teary blackness and numbing his whole face. He flopped to the floor and started to scream as shock gave way to agony.

Magpie reached over to the stunned younger man and pulled out the mobile phone which was sticking out of his shirt pocket. Dropping it, she shrieked, "Come with us quietly, or die!"

For extra effect, she wiped her blood splattered hand on him. He nodded, dumbfounded.

She yanked John and the equally dazed Rebecca through the back door and into a bland corridor. As they left, Magpie's victim fumbled for his own mobile. He couldn't see the buttons, and even talking was too much effort. He swallowed bloody spittle, dialed in a few digits by instinct alone and vanished suddenly in a blue-white flash.

By Hedonism