Heroin for the heroine (DARK)

A while later, Ms Kyoto carried the blue synthetic brain back into the room where Rocketgirl lay brainless and motionless. Ms Kyoto delicately placed the brain on a medical tray atop a cart. From within the cart, she took a bunsen burner and braced a large test tube atop it. Using tweezers and a scalpel, she carefully extracted the first of the 365 nodules she intended to place daily into the former Rocketgirl's head. She placed the nodule inside the test tube and lit the bunsen burner, smiling as the flame danced under the test tube, gradually loosening the dense nodule, which slowly expanded, melting into a blue pool at the bottom of the test tube.

Ms Kyoto then opened a dime bag of heroin. She carefully measured out a dose and scooped it into the test tube, where it bubbled and hissed lightly before dissolving into the blue liquified brain nodule. Ms Kyoto began sealing the dime bag, but paused. She glanced at the braindead superheroine, calculating how much of the powerful narcotic she could afford over the next year. Then, shrugging her shoulders, she reopened the dime bag, dumping its entire contents into the test tube.

Rocketgirl could see all of this. Whether she was watching, whether she understood what was happening, Ms Kyoto could not say for certain. So as she tied a tight rubber band knot around the heroine's upper arm, she explained her process. She would repeat the explanation for the next several days to be sure it registered in the former heroine's consciousness as her brain became more capable of retaining the information.

"I don't know if you're paying attention, Rocketgirl, but I suggest you listen up. I'm about to give you the first piece of your new brain. As you may have guessed, your new brain will be injected into your bloodstream, one liquified strand at a time -- one strand every day for a year. As much as I look forward to tormenting you with these daily injections, I've decided we may as well make it a little more entertaining -- for both of us. So I'm not simply going to inject your new brain into your body; oh, no. I'm also going to give you a dose of heroin each day. Well, actually, quite a bit more than a single dose. With the amount of heroin you'll be ingesting each day, you'll be addicted by tomorrow. You'll get incredibly high; you'll feel absolutely euphoric as the nodules make their way through your bloodstream and into your head to build your new brain. But I'll only dose you once a day, so you'll also crash, go into withdrawal, and feel depressive lows until I give you another injection. For the time being, I only intend to inject you once a day -- you'll get a full bag of heroin along with every nodule of your new brain. But if you're a really good girl, I may decide to give you more injections of heroin between your daily nodule injections. You'd like that, wouldn't you? Well, maybe not yet. But soon you'll be begging me for more heroin, I guarantee it.

"Today's nodule," she continued, shutting the bunsen burner and retrieving the test tube, "should be the perfect one to start. It contains your new moral code. Remember being Rocketgirl, the high-and-mighty superheroine with a noble sense of right and wrong, and a boundless desire for justice? Well, let's just say the new Melissa won't have that same black-and-white vision of the world. No, there's plenty of criminal behavior that Rocketgirl stood against that the new Melissa will enjoy engaging in. Oh, I so look forward to profiting as you prostitute yourself. Maybe I'll even let you join a gang and see what petty crimes you can commit."

Ms Kyoto placed the needle of a syringe into the test tube. Pulling it up, she filled the syringe with the test tube's blue contents, then laid the test tube down. Sitting on the bed beside Rocketgirl, she swabbed the heroine's smooth, pale arm with ****. She glanced at the syringe.

"But here's the delicious irony of the situation I'm about to place you in, Rocketbitch. According to your new moral code, there is nothing worse than using or selling illegal ****. You will find any and all **** activity abhorrent. The lowest of the low. Beyond redemption. Utterly reprehensible. Completely inexcusable. And yet..." she smiled maliciously. "You yourself will become addicted to heroin through these daily brain injections. And guess what's on tomorrow's menu? The second segment of your brain contains the strand of your personality responsible for addiction. And wouldn't you know it, you've got a highly addictive personality. Who knows? Maybe you'll become addicted to other ****. Oh, I suspect with the company you'll keep, you're likely to be exposed to plenty of other illegal substances. And maybe I'll grow bored of just giving you brains and heroin over the next year and start to get you addicted to something else. But one way or another, you're bound to become a massive **** addict. And thanks to this strict moral code, you'll come to absolutely loathe yourself for it."

Though Rocketgirl didn't yet have any motor control, Ms Kyoto could have sworn she heard the heroine's breath catch in her throat, watched her mouth open just a tad more from its already open gape, as though shocked and horrified by the villainess's revelation.

Ms Kyoto grabbed Rocketgirl's pale, sleeping arm and plunged the needle of the syringe, shooting its contents into the heroine's vein. She unwound the rubber band and watched the blood return to Rocketgirl's arm. The heroine gulped and swallowed. She blinked, then her eyes gradually fogged over and her head lolled to one side. Her fingers twitched, then she was still.

Ms Kyoto checked the heroine's pulse. The significant overdose of heroin was admittedly dangerous; she could have killed her prey before the game got good. But to her relief, Melissa was still alive. She must have just been even more lost than she had been for the last 24 hours without a brain -- lost to the high induced by the massive quantity of heroin pumping through her body.

Ms Kyoto leaned down and tenderly kissed Rocketgirl's lips. "Enjoy this euphoria as long as it lasts, my love," Ms Kyoto whispered in her ear, stroking the girl's opposite cheek. "This is the best you'll ever feel for the rest of your life. Come this time tomorrow, as much as you'll crave the heroin, its high will come with the guilt and self-hatred of knowing how wrong it is to take illegal ****. Such a pity. You won't deserve to feel as awful as you will for the rest of your life. But you'll think you do. You'll always blame yourself, and you'll always hate yourself."

She stood up and packed the **** paraphernalia and the synthetic brain. "I'd better go. I shouldn't be saying all this to you right now and making you feel bad. Enjoy that heroin high, heroine. I'll see you tomorrow." And off she went, leaving the euphoric Rocketgirl to her ****-induced high.