Chapter 12: Chapter 12

Chapter 12

The fluid burned.

It was like fire entering every single pore of Genesis' body. But they were incapable of even screaming. It was a reflex from the pain that caused her mouth to open and get filled with the violet ichor. She flailed her arms around helplessly for several seconds, which stretched further into minutes. Wait, minutes? She didn't need to breathe in this stuff? Actually, the longer she stood here, the burning slowly stopped being hot. Moments later, she was grabbed by something out of the vat, something hard and mechanical. Yanking her upwards, she was pulled out with a loud, wet squelch.

Genesis took a deep breath of fresh air as the sludge fell off her body in piles of gunk. The thing that grabbed her was a giant metallic claw belonging to an absurdly tall robot made of glistening dark blue metal. It shook her, getting the rest of the gunk off before putting her to the side of the vat. Genesis' heart was racing as she touched the ground. She did an immediate self-diagnostic...

Her wounds were gone. She felt 'refined' slightly. "What the fuck was that-"

[Alert: Body Refinement undergone through foreign contaminant.]

[Imperfections purged.]

She felt like her skin was radiant the more she looked at the bare flesh. In fact, some kind of smoky haze had clouded her mind before this. She never even knew it existed until this moment. She rotated her arms and kicked her legs to test this new 'refinement.' There was a qualitative change to her entire physical form. The Doctor floated down and chucked Genesis' clothing at her, smacking her face while she was distracted.

"I see you like my gift! Hahahaha! This was to purge any foul things that might've marred my beautiful creation from their conception. Feels good, right?" The Doctor grinned with that odd circular tooth-filled maw of his. Genesis had to agree; she felt incredible. "I feel like my entire body was given the deepest massage possible. Blockages I never knew I had are gone. My skin, my flesh, even my bones feel more robust. My energy flow is smoother too..." She held on to her clothes - then realized she was naked and began putting them on one piece after the other.

The Doctor was still smiling, "I had to use a lot of materials for this one-time thing! Glad it's not in vain. Or else you'd have become nothing but sludge yourself." Genesis, who had been putting on her jumpsuit, froze at the Doctor's words. "You mean you had no guarantee!?" The Doctor scoffed, "It was a 78.4678% chance. I liked the odds enough." She furrowed her brow, then finished clothing herself. When she was done, the Doctor spoke up once more. "I know you'd like to train and get used to your body, but you're going out tomorrow on a mission. Remember, I own you. I've paid dearly for your conception. You'll work it off bit by bit by BIT!" He rubbed all four of his hands together in front of him.

"Report to Zigan tomorrow early morning. He'll set you up with the mission details. For now, rest, and do whatever you need to do tonight. I'm looking forward to your progress!" He chuckled...."Now get out of my lab." The dark blue titan of a robot started to shove her toward the private lab's doors. "Gah! Okay okay! No shoving! I'll go see him, sheesh." When she was finally outside, the lab's doors smashed shut and locked themselves from any more visitors.

Genesis sighed. Zigan, huh? That was the alien who looked to be made of solid stone that day she was born. She remembers his face, his presence. He was the leader of every single security branch on the asteroid lab. For a good reason, too. His strength was similar to a true Freiza elite. He was definitely a tad bit stronger than Captain Ginyu. That's what her library told her. But there was just one rumor she knew of but couldn't confirm; Zigan could transform.

He was the strongest normal being in this Lab. No one really knew his race, and he never told anyone. She set her Scouter to wake her up at a reasonable time tomorrow. Whatever the Doctor was going to have her do wasn't going to be easy, but it would be at her level. Or so she thought. With a sigh, she began walking back to her dorm room. It was about time for everyone on the base to be winding down, except for the most eccentric and devoted scientists and security forces.

She brought up what actually changed for her. Her stat page opened up.