Chapter 7: Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Dalton was halfway through his meal before those words reached his ears. In front of him was a painfully small woman who looked like a small child in stature. Bubblegum pink long hair and... fox-like features? The girl in front of him looked like a bubblegum pink-furred kitsune. She looked at Dalton quizzically, "What? Something on my face?" She playfully touched her face as if looking for something; only now did Dalton realize he was staring at her for an uncomfortable period of time. He shook his head.

"No, sorry. You're just..." He trailed off, only for her to respond. "Cute~?" She giggles. "I know! Everyone tells me so, but where're my manners? I'm Poko!" She waved her hands - she had paw pads on her human-like hands. "But I wanted to see who's got everyone up in a tizzy! The Doctor made you with some help after all." She looked smug. Did this mean she had a hand in making Dalton's new body? Dalton pointed at himself, "I suppose that means you, in no small part, played a big hand in creating me?" Poko grinned, "Yup~! Specifically, I had to help with the fusion of machines and biology. It wasn't easy. A lot of rare things went into ensuring everything would run 100% in the simulations! So feel free to call me Mom~!"

She was being dead serious. Dalton deadpanned. Poko was at most 3'8" in height. Plus, she didn't seem all that powerful as an alien being. Dalton didn't know what to make of it. Poko just giggled. "Well, it was worth a shot. The Doctor still did most of the work, but he did have assistants like me helping. However, you're more...mature feeling than I thought. The Doctor was right! The only thing that didn't go right was that weird data that appeared out of nowhere. It was interesting to look into it. It was so garbled if we took a piece of it and tried to analyze it! It was densely packed with so much data I thought everything would explode!" She laughs out loud as if that was funny.

"But it didn't? Being born was an odd experience. I was lucid for the whole thing." Dalton put in his two cents to the conversation. "The virtual reality, the weird shape I took. Everything here is new. Fresh. I'm not sure how to feel about all of this yet either..." Emotional Dampening was genuinely horrible. Dalton could feel it like a single block between him and authentic feeling. It's why he's decided to deal with it later in his room. There was a disconnect between him and this body, probably held behind the dampening too. "But I don't believe it's a bad thing. I'm being taught I have food and shelter. Despite being thrust into violence on the first day."

Poko smiled, "It'll only get tougher from here! If you ever need any medicine, seek me out. Gimme your scouter number." With a short exchange, the two had given each other their numbers. "Great! Now I get to play mother to a cute creation!" She was beaming like the sun. Dalton felt the dampening weaken. Yeah, Poko was...adorable. He filed that away. The two of them continued to make small talk while Dalton finished his meal. He had to prepare himself for what came next. He'd be dealing with too much emotion at once. As he stood up to leave, Poko stopped him.

"Hey, Genesis." Dalton looked at the small fox, who looked serious. "If you think something is too much for you, tell someone. Me, the Doctor, someone. A lot is riding on you to become stronger. It isn't safe outside, or inside the asteroid field we're in. This lab is hidden for a reason in this stretch of space. There are a lot of unsavory people inside and out. So be careful; some people might not like your status as the Doctor's prized creation."

Dalton frowned, then spoke up. "If that's the case, I'll have to get stronger. The data I've been born with tells me...I'm nothing compared to the truly monstrous beings out there." A dip into his knowledge of DBZ didn't hurt. Freiza, the Ginyu Force, Vegeta. If any of them found him right now, he'd be torn to pieces. Despite his gift for bodily potential and talent, he's sure he'd not quickly get near Freiza's level.

Poko nodded. "As long as you know. I'll leave you be - just be careful, okay?" Dalton smiled, "I'll try my best." With that, the meeting between his co-creator and himself ended. The Doctor and Poko didn't seem bad, though he was drawn more to Poko than the Doctor. The Doctor was a fly-man; after all, hard to feel parental love for something that treated you more like a weapon. Poko seemed more agreeable with though.

Dalton put up his tray with a sigh and started the trek back to his room. Honestly, this was going to be a terrible idea. But it needed to be done sooner than later so he could adequately deal with what was happening.

He got to his room, the military time stating it was nearer to night. Most folk should be getting some shut-eye - but with how the base is filled with supernaturally powerful people and races, these rooms weren't used too often, especially regarding science. "Whatever, let's get this over with." He sighed and touched his new horns before entering the door. His room wasn't messed with, but it looked like there was a note on the single bed.

'Your wardrobe is filled out with some outfits and more clothes. A woman has to have some variation!' - Poko

How'd she know his room- duh, co-creator. She's probably just been waiting to get him alone to herself ever since his awakening. Dalton sets aside the note and opens up his wardrobe. Sure enough, it was filled with a lot more clothes. Ten outfits worth? They definitely all fit his new body to a T. His eyes could see that. His main reason for opening up this was to get at the large mirror built into the wardrobe. He sat on the bed after angling the mirror to see himself.

Just like before from his awakening. He was still a predatory beauty. In human terms, she'd definitely be popular just by looks alone. Even the predatory look would strike people in their desire rather than need to stay away. He sighed. It wasn't his body. There was a disconnect between his feelings and this, which were the most important things to deal with. There just wasn't about to be any filter to protect him with.

[Emotional Dampening: On]

[Would you like to turn it off?]

There wasn't any going back. He breathed in, breathed out to steel the bubbling of anxiety underneath his flesh that filled his body. Even with the dampening, his body knew this would be terrible.

[Warning: Turning this off will result in significant emotional outbursts. Continue?]

With a mental thought of yes, his entire vision swirled.

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It was like someone had just broken a dam in his head. Everything he's been suppressing this entire time came like a cascade of violence. A swirling all-consuming tide erupted through his whole body. Thankfully, there was soundproofing in these rooms. Because before he knew it, he was screaming his lungs out. Horror. Pain. Agony. Fear. So many small and minor emotions were pushed into a scream that had rocked the entire room. His eyes were flooding with tears. His thoughts were utterly un-mitigated.

These were held all from the start when he knew he had died—the betrayal of his closest friend. The pain of the shots came back to him. He heard his own skull explode for the single millisecond it took for the bullet to enter. He was reliving every single moment. The uncertain fear of now never being able to be safe. This was fucking DBZ! This entire lab could be destroyed just by a strong enough being tossing a beam at it! No matter how powerful weapons and science were, there were literal single people capable of disintegrating worlds for fun!

Sure the betrayal of his friend hurt, but he was in a world where something beyond just being shot and killed would be possible. He kept screaming. His eyes were still bursting with tears. His body wasn't in his control anymore. Unbidden to him, he started to writhe like an eel, his body trembling and wildly hitting things around him with full force. Sure the materials around him were strong - but if he tried this when he was stronger, it might've made Broly's anger look childish in comparison.

So many things flit through his head, the unfairness. His uncertain future. His new body. He was a victim of all of this. Slowly, his brain filtered through everything he had been dealt with in the past several hours until he couldn't scream anymore. He had calmed down, his entire body covered in sweat. He couldn't even speak; now it came out as short, hoarse croaks. His tear ducts have dried out.

A quick look at the time, it took him three whole hours to deal with all of this or at least filter through it without being rushed down by every single emotion he had held back. It must've been particularly stressful at the start. That's where all the pain came from in the first place. He shuddered with a whole-body sob. His bed was a damned mess, and so was he. He had taken a shower earlier but now feels he needs another one.

On shaky, sore legs, he stood himself up and unceremoniously undressed, tossing the clothes to the side. A short walk to the shower and quick activation led Dalton underneath the showerhead. The scalding hot water scalded his flesh ineffectually. He just needed the feeling. A slight distraction. He held himself up against the wall, looking at his reflection in the quickly fogging-up shower stall glass.

This was him now. Dalton was dead. There was no point in holding on to that name anymore. He was Genesis. A bio-android created to enact the whims of the Doctor. To make him rich and powerful, supposedly. He's still trying to figure out what the first mission will make him do. It won't be anything savory, though. He looked over his body, and there was no damage from the earlier spar shown on his body. His pale white flesh was unblemished. He opened his mouth, and a sharp-toothed smile and purple insides were shown with a purple tongue and dark purple cheek flesh.

Gods, he was bizarre.

His thoughts were still chaotic.

He gave another deep breath and exhaled. 

He couldn't think of himself as a 'He' anymore. Given there was nothing down there. His - no, her fingers curl up tightly in a grip. Farewell, buddy. But this wasn't all that bad. Her new body was powerful despite its current aching from her emotional outburst. There was energy running through her veins. Soon he'd be able to learn how to fight and use Ki like everyone else. She was given tools to be able to fight monsters like Freiza. She just needed to grow into them using nothing but raw effort. This was a universe where an effort to train and survive was rewarded with more substantial power.

While she wouldn't get anything retarded like Zenkai, it was good enough. Dalton, now Genesis, laid underneath that shower for thirty minutes, mildly putting every rampaging thought they had in place. Honestly, it took a strong force of will to cast away the dead part of oneself. Genesis knew going forwards, trying to hold on to those old memories would be nothing but baggage weighing them down. It wouldn't help them defeat monsters, and it wouldn't help them get closer to their peers. It'd be an invisible wall blocking progress. The new reality was that they were now a monstrous killing machine with the potential of the strongest being in Universe 7.

Genesis turned off the shower and stepped out to dry themselves off with a towel. Their entirely alien body finally feels a bit more familiar with accepting themselves. Everything they had, from the tip of her horns to the end of her tail, was hers to use as a tool they found fit. When they finally exited, they looked at themselves in the mirror, naked. Genesis took in their entire body, the predatory beauty they found with it. Dalton was dead. The only thing left of them was their soul, which turned into the data for Genesis. Genesis is now the one left.

A new life and all the danger that came with it. She'd have to put in the power to survive in this world. Genesis frowned, opened the wardrobe, and pulled out a single bit of night ware, a nice-looking thin fabric dress. She put it on with some underwear and plopped themselves dead tired into the bed. The bed was comfortable. They had memory foam mattresses? Rather high quality, she expected an uncomfortable bed to sleep in.

But the fatigue of the day slipped in.

They had their entire future in this world ahead of them.

They'd learn to survive or die trying.

This was their resolve as Genesis fell asleep.