//------------------------------// // Chapter 34: Sharp as Needles // Story: Bounty Hunters 3: Genesis // by Jasper77W //------------------------------// Just a warning from me before hand, we've got a chapter about torture here. That involves needles, as mentioned in the chapter name. So.... Yeah. Blithy slowly woke up, her vision focusing. She seemed to be looking down at some sort of metal floor, stained a dark crimson by long dried liquids. A series of numbers flashed across the HUD imbedded in her robotic eye, indicating it was coming back online. >All systems check. >Activating. She sighed. She must've passed out- she had no memory of being transported here. She wriggled her fingers, then realized they were above her head. She was chained to the ceiling, left dangling above the floor. She would've tried breaking loose, if she weren't feeling so weak. She started taking more notice of her surroundings. There was a small metal table next to her, on it a tray, and in the tray a used syringe with a disturbingly long needle. It seemed to have been stained with blood, and Blithy didn't need much to guess it was her own. Val probably punched a syringe full of weakener into her or something- she barely had enough strength to move. Even keeping her eyes open felt tiring, so she closed them. She tried to contact the fleet, but as expected- Val had a signal jammer nearby. She was completely on her own now. She could feel her arm throbbing- that must be where Val stabbed that damn needle in. Probably didn't even bother cleaning it. And, as with any typical movie scene that would look like such- only that it was in real life- Val chooses to enter just as Blithy wakes up. "Oh dear, you look like you just had seven hundred mili-grams of paralyzer injected into your system." Val chuckled at her own joke. "Hey, what's with the grim expression? Smile, you're on camera~" she pointed at the far upper left corner, at a small camera with a flashing red light. She then tapped her robotic eye, and grinned. "I'm watching." she said. She walked up to Blithy, a grin on her face- back to usual it was, then- only this time, it was much more insane- more genuine, in a dark way- and much, much scarier. She stared into Blithy's eyes, tilting her head to one side and studying her tired face. "Not an ounce of strength left huh?" she chuckled. Blithy spat at her face, only for it to be blocked by Val's hand which flashed across her face. "Haha, now I saw that one coming." she grinned, shaking off the spit. Blithy could only growl and bare her teeth, and nothing more. Val turned around and went for the metal table, and heard Blithy spit again. She moved out of the way just in time, and it splattered on the floor. "You, dear, need to work on your targeting skills." she laughed. "BUCK YOU." was all Blithy could say in return through gritted teeth, and Val only kept laughing. "You know, when I see ponies laughing their evil laughs in movies, I often find it ridiculous. But now that I'm in this situation, you look BUCKING HILARIOUS!! Do you have any idea-" Val giggled, turning around and walking back up to Blithy. "Do you have, ANY IDEA- HOW WEAK YOU LOOK?" she laughed. "WEAK! USELESS!! YOU CAN'T EVEN INSULT ME WHEN YOU TRY!!" she couldn't stop laughing. It was at a hysterical point, where she was jumping around and clapping. "Oh, dear. Drew tears out of me." she wiped the corner of her eye. "Success is the best revenge, so they say. I can testify to that right now." she grinned. She turned back to the table. She waved a hand, activating a sensor. The table surface flipped over, revealing all kinds of tools- ranging from huge saws to tiny scalpels, and everything else in between and beyond that looked menacing and could become.... Hurtful. "Now, back to business. I was preparing a few 'yo momma' jokes for the occasion, when I realized I'd actually be insulting my own mother. Although, I might still pull out a few; because she was quite a bi-" "DON'T TALK ABOUT HER LIKE THAT!!" Blithy screamed. "-tch. Hmmm." Val had a thoughtful look on her face as Blithy struggled to normalize her breathing. "You're still on their side are you? Do I really have to remind you?" "You don't." Blithy growled. "Did you see how hurt they were when they left us on the roof? Mom could barely walk, and you saw. I saw. We both did. And I believe, we can both agree- that it wasn't any of their fault that it had to end up this way. It was us. We had the disease." Blithy shook her head, staring at the ground. "If you are on their side so much... Then tell me-" Val grinned, leaning on Blithy's shoulder. "-why were you the one who ripped their hearts from their chests?" Blithy's eyes widened, her mouth lying slightly agape. "I didn't come to existence until the moment you took control of the science faction, and took up the nickname 'Valkyrie'. I was just an ego, building up... Piece by piece as you continued living your pathetic little life.... And eventually, there I was. But of course, I wasn't able to be a complete alternate variation of you until my plan came into shape. But, I shall explain that later." Val leaned close to Blithy's ear, and whispered in it. "Wasn't it great, when you crushed their vital organs? God, the hate- I can still feel it. It was delicious." she smacked her lips. "And now... After brutally murdering them- you regret it?" "I... I..." Blithy was shaking, her eyes concealed under her dirty and unkept mane. "What's wrong? Speak up!" Val smacked her on the back. "I... I regret everything I ever did before. I really do." Blithy whimpered, and Val could see a shining tear rolling down her cheek. "It could've been great. We could've been a family again. I was all patched up, and could essentially live for as long as I wanted to. We could've been all normal, happy again.... But NO! I chose to kill them. I chose to rip their hearts out... And for whatever reason, I... I went with that path." she cried, now having a continuous stream of tears running down one side of her face. The other couldn't cry, as it was the cold eye of a robot. "I made the wrong choice. I did the wrong thing." she looked up, not at Val but at the ceiling. At something beyond it. Then she looked down again, drained. "Although... Now that I come to think of it..." she shook her head, and let out a sad chuckle. "...when have I ever done anything right." Val walked around her, and stood in front of her, an odd expression on her face. The smile wasn't there anymore- replaced by annoyance and disappointment. "Mom... dad... I'm sorry... I'm so, so sorry..." Blithy cried, the last word barely coming out as she broke into tears again. There was a loud crack as Val slapped her across the face with the back of her hand. "GROW UP!!" she yelled at Blithy's face, now with a red mark across it. "I AM ASHAMED, TO EVEN BE ASSOCIATED WITH YOU! You know what you are? A WEAKLING! A BUCKING, WEAKLING!! You can't do anything right? WELL NO CRAP!!" she screamed, then let out an amused chuckle. "You see all this around you? This world? And the events in the previous one- all those deaths? The pain? Now that you admit it- IT'S TRUE! IT'S ALL BECAUSE OF YOU!!" Val laughed. "Don't you see? YOU CREATED THIS! YOU STARTED IT!!" the expression on her face was hysterical. Blithy only stared at Val in shock. She didn't know what she was expecting from Val, but this certainly wasn't one of them. But... She was right. "You know what. Let me tell you a story. One we are both familiar with." Val said, picking up the empty syringe. "You see this here? Let's just say this is a certain rainbow maned friend of ours. You see, I couldn't quite defeat her last time- so this time, I decided to weaken her up a bit. That'll make things a whole lot easier, right?" she grinned. "The Elements of Harmony... I never really found them to be much of a threat. I just wanted Rainbow to see her friends dead, is all. You know, I wish I could've been there to see her face when she found the tombstone- but unfortunately, I can't. But I would've loved to." she grinned. "So, one crack there." she tapped the syringe, cracking it slightly. "And I have many more planned. Cloudsdale, Canterlot... HahaHA! This is going to be great. Give her hope, then crush it. Weaken her, bit by bit." Val tapped the glass syringe again and again, until it had cracks all over the place and was barely holding up. "Until finally, all I have to do is add a little finishing touch-" she tapped the glass syringe one last time, and it shattered in her hand. "After that, all I have to do is pick up the pieces." she walked around Blithy, in a slow circle. "Hope is a cruel thing. I heard someone say that to me before. And yes, I genuinely believe that more than anything. The higher the hope you have, the more injured you'll be when it throws you down. So that's what I'm doing. Lifting lil RD up, then throwing her down again." she grinned. "But also, same with all of you. You think I can't destroy you all without the barricade? HA! We shall see." she brought a hand up to her face. "As usual, I still have many tricks up my metaphorical sleeve." she said, and a socket in her wrist popped out. The handle of a serrated knife revealed itself, and she pulled it out and juggled it around in her hand. She walked around Blithy in circles, grinning at her terrified expression as she stared at the knife. "Now... If you don't mind holding this for me..." Val said, and slammed the knife into Blithy's back, through her ribs and into her vital organs. Blithy gasped as the knife tip punctured one of her lungs, her screams coming out as nothing but dry rasps. "Alright. Here's how this is going to work. You are going to co-operate and tell me the names of the magic faction ships, and I will stop torturing you." Val said, leaning on her shoulder. She let out a groan as Val put all her weight on- and there was a loud click as her arms popped out of their sockets. Blithy resisted screaming, closing her mouth firmly shut. And when the pain finally died down, she opened her mouth to speak again. "I... Am not... EVER.... Going to work with you." She said through gritted teeth. "That settles it then." Val grinned, taking her weight off and walking behind Blithy. "Wait, what?" Val ripped the knife from her body, the serrated edges tearing her flesh to shreds. Blithy screamed, tears streaming down her face. She squeezed her eyes shut, her jaws firmly clamped. "I never really wanted you to work with me. I just wanted an excuse to have a nice looong torture session with you." Val said, throwing the knife down and picking up a scalpel. Blithy could only stare in horror. Val walked up to Blithy, and poked Blithy with the tip playfully. Blithy flinched as some blood was drawn, but held. "Ponies say science controls me. Science is my cause." Val sighed, and sunk the entire blade into Blithy's arm. Blithy groaned, but didn't say a word. "But that is not the case. I control science. The science faction is at my hooves, therefore the rest of the universe is too. I don't give a buck about glory, or any of this. I just want to let those happy, laughing, cheerful little ponies; see what I saw." she said, and with that started slowly slicing down Blithy's arm, coming around to her arm pit. Blithy screamed as Val cut several of her primary nerves in two. Pain shot up her arm, and it started twitching uncontrollably. Tears swarmed into her eyes- and she was powerless to stop any of this. "You know what I mean. Despair, crushed hope. Shards. You remember what it was like back then, don't you?" Val waved a hand, and a hologram of words popped up. "See? This is what they used to call us. Let me read the definition to you. 'Blight, to destroy; ruin; or frustrate'. And that's what they called us. Everyone hated us, you do so remember- and the only ponies who loved us were mom and dad- or so they said. 'I love you'. Three words, that meant to us more than anything. It was everything to us. And what happened when they left us to die on the roof? We found out those were lies. They love us!? That's bull crap! It was everything to us, and then we found out... It was nothing." she bared her teeth, and started shoving the scalpel into Blithy's arm- with the handle and everything. It slid between her flesh and skin, and her screams were throat ripping. Until finally, there wasn't a sign of the scalpel at all, just a long bump on Blithy's arm. She could feel that area burning and throbbing with pain, blood trickling down her arm and to her body. "Then... Why are you taking this out on me?" she asked, her voice shaking. "Because you're on their side, is what. I want everyone to see, including you- you saw it, but forgot about it. I'm not going to." Val said, going to fetch something else. "Don't get trapped in your past- GAH!" Blithy screamed as Val threw the serrated knife from earlier into her chest. Blood gushed out as it severed several main arteries, and poured down Blithy's stomach. "That wasn't what I was looking for." Val muttered, continuing looking through the tray of stuff. Blithy could barely breath, let alone talk. There was a knife halfway through her body, so it did make a lot of things a difficulty. "Unlike you- I enjoy pain, somewhat. That's why I'm your ALTERNATE ego, I guess." Val said, having finally found something. A bunch of needles. "Now, open your eyes." she grinned. "No..." Blithy managed with a dry rasp, staring at the sharp thin tips of the needles. She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping for the best.... "Oh, you're gonna keep them closed? That's fine too, I guess..." Val said, and the next thing Blithy heard was a loud whoosh and pop. She screamed as the needle went through her eyelid and into her eye, going into it for almost an entire two centimeters. And she could still feel it sliding through her flesh as Val pushed the needle deeper into her eye, almost reaching the optic nerve. In her instinctive reaction, she tried to open her eye- which made things worse as her eyelid dragged the needle through her eye; cutting both. She screamed again, and squeezed them shut, blood and other liquids from her eyes pouring down her face. Val ripped the needle out, and Blithy heard it clatter away on the ground. Her wound was quickly healing, but the pain still echoed through her brain. Her breaths were distorted, as the knife was still in her chest. Val seemed to notice- which could be both good and extremely bad. Blithy felt her chest burn as Val ripped the blade out. But she didn't have any air left in her lungs to scream. Then the scalpel slid through her flesh on its own weight, and fell out of her arm. It clattered to the floor with a squishy quality, accompanied by bits of flesh. "Feeling better there?" Val tilted her head to one side at the hyperventilating Blithy. Blithy didn't reply. She just kept trying to catch her breath. And just when she was about to suck in a fresh lungful of air, Val splashed her mouth with a cup of water. She chocked, then gasped for air; all the while coughing uncontrollably as the water had gotten into her lungs. Val just laughed. "This is pretty weird now that I come to think of it. I'm torturing MYSELF." Val had a thoughtful look on her face. "Anyway. Since I can't think of any other horrible things to do to you... You know. Electrification, skinning, digging your eyeballs out... Those are too cliched. Don't like it. So-" she picked up a small disc-like device from the table with a glowing blue LED light in its center. It wasn't any larger than Val's hand- just about two times smaller. She juggled it around, turning back to Blithy. She pressed the blue LED light, and there was a click and weak hydraulic whine as four needles deployed from the bottom of the device, with wires plugged into them and linked to the device. "This... Is a nasty little thing. I can remotely control this, so pretty neat too." Val grinned, pinching it between her fingers. "Have fun." she said, and with that; slammed it into the back of Blithy's neck. The needles punched through her skin and slid through her flesh, then crunched into two gaps in her spinal cord, latching into it firmly. The blue LED suddenly turned green with a short beep. Blithy groaned. An odd tingling filled her body, and she tried her best to ignore the odd device shifting in her flesh as she flexed her neck. Then a loud buzzing noise filled the room, and Blithy screamed; her body going into a spasm. She writhed, trying to break free of her bonds- but failed miserably. "STOP!! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!!!" she screamed. Val tilted her head to one side, and grinned. She sent a signal to the device, and turned it off. Blithy was left gasping for air, cold sweat covering her body and tears streaming out of her eye. She had pissed herself without noticing, and her entire body was still shaking from the left over waves of pain rippling through her nerves. Her skin burned, her insides felt like they had been completely ripped out and rearranged. "As I said earlier... Nasty." Val said. She grabbed Blithy by the chin, and turned her head this way and that, checking for injuries. "Ah, good. No damage." she grinned. "As expected though. That little device just sent some signals through your nervous system... Forcing your nerves to register extreme pain. You know... Just another one of YOUR creations. I hope you haven't forgotten about the little gadget." Val grinned. Blithy only glared at her with rage between puffed breaths, but could do nothing more. Val chuckled, and ruffled Blithy's mane. "I'm going to go get a hot chocolate or something. I'll get you one too- not that I'm gonna poison it or anything." she laughed, and left the room, leaving the battered and tortured Blithy to sulk in her own misery.