Descent Into Madness

by Daniel Peyton

  Bark nodded. “I can try. She was in your lab, on Earth. Didn’t you know that was her?”

  “I realized it was her right away. It was so amazing seeing that she was one of the superheroes sent to help. But, I was so worried about the situation with my suit and all that I couldn’t just stop focusing on that and ask her such a silly question. Besides, she was so grossed out by the sight of me, and I don’t blame her.”

  “It’s okay. She is comfortable with fans, a few of the new students have fawned over her at first. She’s nice. I’m sure she won’t mind signing something for you.”

  “That would be so awesome. Especially Snow. I think I still have one of her posters back at the lab.” Dr. Ogle was about to swoon at the thought of that gorgeous poster of her back in her glory days as a dancer and model.

  Bark frowned again. “Poster? What kind of poster?”

  Dr. Ogle grinned, and even blushed, which seemed hard to do as just a head. “Well, I was a huge fan of hers back when she was a supermodel. In fact, I had the biggest crush on her. She came to Portland, where I was living at the time, but I was too embarrassed to show up in a wheelchair to see her. So, I just watched on T.V. I have kicked myself for years for not getting her autograph. Now that she is right here, I just can’t pass up the opportunity. But, since she is a superhero and, you know, busy, I was afraid to ask her myself.”

  Bark chuckled. “You shouldn’t be ashamed of being in a wheelchair. I was just walking around Knoxville looking like this. Trust me, being furry is even more awkward.”

  Dr. Ogle laughed in reply. “Sure. But at least you have a body that works. You are a toned superhero with animal magnetism. There really aren’t many people who find a mangled body in a wheelchair all that attractive.”

  Bark knew that he couldn’t break through this man’s insecurities without a lot of psychological training. So, he left that alone. “I'm just worried that my relationship with her will be over soon.”

  Dr. Ogle frowned. “Why? Trouble in paradise?”

  Bark’s body sunk as his collar spoke. “No. But, if I'm mutating into a dog, then there won’t be much of a man to love her. Trust me, I've seen what these mutations turn you into. A mindless soldier that acts more like a beast than a man is not really what Snow needs as a husband.”

  Dr. Stone returned then, with a new scanner that was much larger than the one he had been using. He had overheard Bark’s concern just before he approached. “Mr. Bark, I wouldn’t worry too much about that. There are probably many explanations as to what is happening to you. Don’t diagnose yourself just yet. Let the doctor do his work. Now, lay back and try to hold still.” Josiah approached the bed, while Dr. Ogle’s robot-body stepped back to let Josiah work.

  Josiah pulled a small, wand-like device out of the side of the box he was holding, with a thin cord attaching the two. He set the box on the small table next to Bark’s bed. Bark laid down, his tail literally between his legs. His heart was racing so hard that he felt the whole bed shaking with each thump. Josiah ran the scanner up and down his body. He went from the top of Bark’s ears to the tip of his toes and back again. Soon, he seemed to be focused on his chest, scanning it over and over.

  Bark was whimpering as he shivered in fear.

  Dr. Stone continued to scan as he said, “You sound like a scared puppy.”

  “See, I didn’t even want to do that.” Bark replied.

  Dr. Stone checked his sensor as he scanned, “Interesting.”

  Bark nervously asked, “What's wrong?”

  Josiah looked at the computer monitor on the wall giving him the readouts. “I cannot say why, but I'm reading a strange energy signature on your chest here. Let me run it through analysis.”

  Dr. Ogle’s robot stepped up and looked at the screen too. “Wait, I recognize that energy signature. That's a delta wave radiation signature.”

  Dr. Stone nodded. “Now I see it. That’s right, this is delta wave radiation. But, where did it come from?”

  Bark asked, “Was it from the practice this morning? That radioactive monster you had attack me?”

  Dr. Ogle frowned and turned to his friend. “You attacked him with a radioactive monster?”

  Dr. Stone shook his head. “That's not the signature of the radiation from the simulation this morning. This is entirely different. Your body should have sloughed it off like all the other energies we have experimented with. Let me check something.”

  Dr. Ogle continued to look at the screen. “Wait. I know where it came from. My armor.”

  Dr. Stone gave William a surprised look. “Your robotic armor uses delta wave radiation weapons?”

  William nodded. “The energy in the main weapons uses it, yes. It is much less harmful than most other radiations. In fact, it’s only other use that I know of is in cellular mutation experiments.”

  Josiah had an “ah-ha” look on his face. “That’s it! That's the type of energy used by the scientist who mutated you, Bark. That's probably why your body didn’t respond normally. This radiation is part of the matrix that created you.”

  Bark sat up in the bed and a cold feeling rushed to the pit of his stomach. “Does this mean that the mutations are active again? That I'm going to finish the process?”

  Josiah wanted to make him feel better, but he also would not lie. “I cannot say. There are a lot of facts about that mutation process he used on you that we are uncertain of.”

  Dr. Ogle tried to spin a happy note. “For most of my small experiments, it takes a bathing ray of this radiation to work the mutation process. A few blasts of it wouldn’t suffice.”

  Bark looked up to Josiah. “Can you do something?”

  “Not right now. I'll have to run some more tests. Let me take a few samples of your DNA.” Dr. Stone picked up a hypospray and extracted a vial of Barks blood. Then he took a few hair samples and swabbed his mouth. He wanted to be certain of every detail.

  Bark rubbed his arm where the blood had been taken. “Can I go now? I'm supposed to be seeing Snow tonight.”

  Josiah feigned a smile and nodded. “Yes. If I need anything else, or if I find something, I'll contact you immediately. Just don’t fret about this. It's probably nothing. Dr. Ogle is correct; radiation mutations usually require a much longer, sustained radiation to complete the process.”

  Bark returned the fake smile. “Thanks. Do me a favor: don’t tell anyone who doesn’t have to know. I'll try and contain my canine antics as best as I can.” The “anyone” he wanted to avoid sharing this knowledge with was Snow.

  “Patient confidentiality is your right. I won’t tell anyone.” Josiah watched Bark leave, sad to see his tail hardly moving and his ears almost as slumped over as his shoulders.

  Chapter 8: Ugly Truth

  Snow walked through the arboretum, waiting for Bark to arrive for their date. He had been talking about this evening for a while now, and she was expecting great things. She didn’t know what exactly he wanted to talk to her about, or do with her, but she had her hopes up.

  The lush, green arboretum was a stark contrast to the metal world of the station. Formally, this area was to help with training for those with shapeshifting or flight abilities. The room contained a lot of material for imitation, and a very tall ceiling with a nice, natural wind pattern. Informally, it was a good place for the students to relax and get away from the rigorous work of the UCH.

  Right now, there weren’t too many people here. There had been a shapeshifter who was practicing at changing into various plants and a woman who could turn herself into any sort of falcon, but they left for the evening. The only others here were a pair of children. The UCH does not have many children. In fact, at this moment, there were only four on board. Superpowers usually manifest themselves after puberty, but there are rare exceptions where children are born with them active. The UCH is a scary world to enter when you are young and pulled away from your parents. But, the law is the law.

  Snow kindly ap
proached the children to see what they were doing and learn about them. As a senior student, she felt responsible to help the younger students adapt. The boy was Caucasian with brown hair and freckles. He looked to be about ten. With a comic book T-shirt, torn shorts, and dirty arms and legs, he looked the part of a child. The little girl was Latino and maybe 4 years old. She was in a pretty little pink sundress, and appeared to be very nervous. All she was playing with was a little green tennis ball.

  “Hello.” Snow went over and sat next to them on the grassy ground. They were playing next to the artificial river that ran through the gardens.

  The boy smiled at her. “Hi. Hey, you’re Snow, aren’t you?”

  Snow nodded, “Why, yes. I'm Snow. Who are you?”

  “Kenny Oak.”

  “Hello, Kenny. How long have you been at the UCH?”

  Kenny thought for a moment and then said, “Five weeks, I think.”

  “What are your superpowers,” she asked, pretending to be excited for him.

  Kenny held up his hands, made fists, and then suddenly from his wrists up through his fingers, his hands became gray as iron. He hit the ground with all his might and created two pretty good craters for a small child. He pulled hard to get his hands back up, and they returned to normal. “I have metal fists. I'm still learning how to use them.”

  Snow smiled at him. “Very nice.” She then turned her attention to the girl. “And your powers?”

  The little girl frowned and looked down at the small tennis ball she had been playing with.

  The boy poked Snow in the shoulder and said, “She doesn’t speak English well. She’s also shy.”

  Snow donned a pleasant expression and sat right next to her. “Watch this.” She looked out over the water and held up her hand. Snow took a deep breath and then released it with a gentle spray of white particles in the air. The surface of part of the water froze solid. Snow lifted her hand and the ice grew up and up. Then, she threw her arm out and the pillar of ice burst and started to shower snow all over them.

  The little girl smiled brightly and tried to catch some of the snowflakes in her hand. Both her and the boy were dancing around, catching and melting snowflakes.

  The small girl smiled at Snow and exclaimed, “Bonita.” Or beautiful in Spanish.

  Snow continued to smile and asked again, “So, what are your abilities?”

  The child set the tennis ball down and then looked at it with her eyes. She concentrated so hard that her face turned deep red. Suddenly, the ball lifted up and gently rose to be right in front of Snow. Snow kindly took it out of the air to let the child stop focusing. “Oh, so you have telekinetic abilities.”

  “No strong yet,” the girl said.

  Snow smiled. “Work hard, train well, and you'll be as strong as you want to be.”

  The boy, still exhilarated at the brief snowfall, ran up to Snow and asked, “Can you do it again?”

  Snow, always happy to show off a little, walked over to the edge of the water and turned so that the water was to her back. She held out her arms and closed her eyes. There was a cracking sound. The river slowly stopped moving, its surface grew icy white, and suddenly there was an upward spray of snow. It arched up and over Snow and rained down upon the children, who were playing in it like a true snowfall.

  While Snow was occupied with the children, Bark walked into the arboretum trying to think of what to say. He had intended for this evening to be a special, wonderful experience. He would propose to her and then take her on a romantic date to celebrate. But now, he didn’t believe that would be wise. She didn’t need a dog; she needed a man.

  A soft breeze of icy air ran all over Bark’s fur and he shivered. Where on earth was that coming from? He walked around several trees and a boulder, and eventually found Snow playing with two children. She was crafting a gentle snowfall while the kids jumped around and tried to catch the flakes. The snow glimmered off of the artificial sunlight in the room and sparkled all around her and the children. It made her look so beautiful, her blonde hair dancing with the slight breeze she was creating with her powers. Bark stopped walking and just watched her.

  It felt foolish. It felt downright childish, but he could get lost just looking at her. She was so beautiful, so elegant, that he could get overwhelmed. A woman of such beauty and honor deserved so much more than he could give her. Yet, a part of him could not imagine a day without her.

  Suddenly, his eyes caught sight of the falling flakes and he could not contain the urge. He burst into a mad dash and ran for the source of the snow. The children both jumped back at the sight of the man running at them, but he was not looking at them, or even Snow. As soon as he got to the snowfall, he jumped around, biting at the air, trying to catch the snow in his mouth. He did not know why, but there was something in him that said to do this, and he did.

  Snow stopped her display and let the last of the flakes gently fall to the ground. She frowned and looked at Bark while he was still excitedly looking around at the last few bits of falling snow.

  “Bark? What are you doing?” She stopped him by putting a cold hand on his arm.

  Bark stopped mid-motion and gave her an almost worried look. He couldn’t explain what he was doing; he didn’t quite understand it himself. He gulped, straightened himself up, smiled at her, and said, “Uh, nothing. Just playing in the snow.”

  Snow shrugged. “Well, you reminded me of my old boxer when it would snow. Kind of funny, when you think about it.”

  Bark forced himself to laugh. “Yeah, guess there is more dog in me than you think.”

  “Come on children,” a woman’s voice called out from another part of the arboretum.

  “Thanks, Ms. Snow.” The boy ran off in a hurry.

  The little girl came over and held out her tennis ball. Snow knelt down and took it. “For me,” she asked. “I couldn’t.”

  “A gift. Gracias, Ms. Snow.” She refused to take the ball back and followed the boy over to their caretaker.

  Snow stood up with a warm smile. She held the little green ball in her hand. “I wish we didn’t have to force them to come up here. At least they have the arboretum to play in.”

  Bark nodded. “Sure. I didn’t know we had any children on the station.”

  Snow shrugged and tossed the ball back and forth in her hands. “Yeah. Only four here, but they are required to come up, just like the rest of us.” She turned and walked with Bark in another direction, where there was a large boulder that they liked to sit on to have picnics. “So, what are your plans for us tonight? I have been thinking about it all day.”

  Bark cleared his throat and tried not to look nervous. “Well…uh…I had planned…what I mean is…” He didn’t want to tell her about his mutation problem, or that he had a ring for her. He had to come up with something special to tell her. “I thought we could have a picnic here, and then go and take in a movie in simulator four tonight. I got the controller to get us a romantic movie to watch.”

  Snow smiled and leaned up against him. “Something we can smooch in.”

  “Yeah. That kind of movie.” Bark didn’t sound all that excited about the idea, which was odd considering how much he liked necking in the movies with her.

  Snow turned and looked him over, rubbing her free hand up against his arm. “You've been working out.”

  Bark looked at his chest and then arms. He had certainly been working out, mostly with Toshi Sensei, but he started a little extra weight training with Thrasher a few weeks back. He was glad she noticed. “Just making myself manlier for my girl.”

  “I do love having a pet that’s easy on the eyes,” she teased.

  Bark tried to smile, but Snow’s joke brought back the fear. “Yeah, sure. What do you say about the picnic and a movie?”

  Snow tossed the ball against the ground and let it bounce up to her hands. “That sounds like a nice evening, but you were talking about it being extra special. Did you have something else
planned?”

  Bark cleared his throat again, buying a few moments to come up with something. “Well, you see, I did have something special planned. But, I, uh, you see, didn’t get it in time. So, well, it will have to wait. I'm so sorry. Really, I am truly sorry.”

  She didn’t know what he was profusely apologizing for, but it didn’t take a telepath to know that there was more here than he was telling her. “Bark, is there something wrong?”

  Bark felt that urge boiling up in him again. The dog was fighting to get out. “I…I can’t tell you. Not yet.” Then he whimpered. He actually whimpered like a dog, his body was starting to shake, and his eyes were darting around.

  Snow was worried, scared sick to be precise. He was not acting right, and this could be a major problem. “Bark!? You're shaking so hard, and your tail is wagging itself off. Are you having some kind of seizure?”

  Bark bit his lower lip and his eyes focused hard on the ball in her hands. “Please, throw it.”

  Snow looked down at the ball, then back at him. “Throw it?”

  “I don’t have any idea why, but you HAVE to throw it.” He was about to shake all the fur off of his body.

  Snow was worried about him, so if this would help for some reason, she would oblige. In her mind, she thought that he just wanted her to get rid of it, so she did. With a good pitch, she let the ball fly across the arboretum, hoping she wouldn’t accidentally knock someone on the head.

  Before she could ask him why he wanted her to get rid of the ball, he was off. He blasted away from her at a pretty good clip, dashing for the ball like it was the Holy Grail. Snow’s jaw dropped as she watched her man run, at times on all fours. He grabbed up the ball with his hands and ran back to her at almost the same speed. He placed the ball forcibly in her hands and stood there with a big smile, his tail wagging crazily, and his tongue actually hanging out.

  Snow did not throw it again, which was his obvious request without words. “Bark, what is going on?”