~ Chapel Perilous ~

[Craines]

Somewhere outside of Planet Honshu, drifting silently and invisibly, the Ska Ralla stood poised. The sheer volume of it mimicked a moon, but it was far enough away to avoid causing the oceans of Honshu to react differently.

On board, the mechanized children of Doctor Artifice wandered about, performing maintenance and correcting trajectory degradation. The station was filled with many distinct sounds, of which one was the sound of a human shrieking. For on board the Ska Ralla, fifteen men and a woman had been abducted, and one of them, Ronald Fredon, was being experimented on by the Doctor.

"Tsk, tsk, Ronald. Your personality is so, well, bland. You have no reason to live. And so, I will kill you. A good, unharmed and unaffiliated brain is such a terrible thing to waste on a human. And so, I will kill you." The doctor's voice was hard, gravelly, and had an accent that betrayed his past. Ronald's eyes opened wide, his mouth unable to move, and quickly were shut again. For the doctor had thrown a switch, and Ronald's personality was being drained from him. He was being killed, and his body would remain unharmed.

"NURSE!" Doctor Artifice called. A lumbering behemoth of twisted metal and Nomad organic technology entered the rust-colored room, and in it's hands, it held a large orb that pulsed with unnatural life. "Hello, my child," Doctor Artifice said, stroking the orb with one hand and using the other to type on a keyboard. "Soon, you won't be confined anymore. You'll be free, my child. The world won't be so cruel to you, but you can be cruel to it. Come now, my child. It will be over soon."

The Nurse set the pulsating orb on an outlet, made to perfectly mimic one half of the outside of the sphere. As the Nurse set it down, Doctor Artifice threw another switch, and ten thousand megavolts of energy entered the orb. Slowly, the current moved to the body of Ronald Fredon, and then, with the smell of burning flesh and hair, Ronald stood up.

"How do you feel, my child?" Doctor Artifice asked.

The body of Ronald began to breath, which was a loud and tedious sound. "Goo...dddd... myyy... fattthhhheerrrr..." the thing said. Doctor Artifice smiled, and looked around at the other humans in the room. 15 others.

"Then, my child, live! Be happy. And be prepared to be. Soon, you will go to Planet Honshu. Soon, you will find my descendant." The body of Ronald nodded, and then shambled off. Doctor Artifice looked at the others. "Do not fear, my fellows. You will be tested. And if you are very lively, then you'll be... rejected. However, if you are good stock, then you'll be used for my children. Is there a better future?

"If there is, I cannot think of it."

The human survivors shuddered, and Doctor Artifice simply laughed. "You!" he said, pointing at Beau. "You're up next."

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