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The cold atmosphere of the lab was sterile and comforting after a long day. So as the machines began humming, music to her ears, Lami slid her scalpel into the specimen in front of her.
She was told that his name was nothing worthy of noting, so she had dubbed him Michael. As she did with all of the specimens given to her without names. He had a strange sort of substance on his body, which she noted down out of simple hobby rather than necessity. She was unsure what could have caused it, but after locating a small puncture wound very similar to her associate’s stinger, Lami noted down that she was the cause of the substance. Though she very much was not, and she would have to look into it more later.
From DNA sampling she became aware that he had a stag beetle complex, something that could be strong in the hands of the right person. But with Michael laying on her table, he was not one of those people.
He had a very strong exoskeleton though, which was very interesting seeing as it appeared her associate, Gayeon Sin, stabbed her stinger straight through without a crack. It was intriguing as there were no other wounds on his body, only Gayeon’s toxin inside his bloodstream and the strange substance sticking to his body.
He wasn’t anywhere over the age of twenty. Around her age, if she had to guess. His hair hadn’t grayed and he had no wrinkles on his face. In fact he still had some of his baby fat to his face, or maybe he just had chubby cheeks. His organs seemed to be healthy as well, aside from the toxin. She set several cuttings of his organs aside to give out as food for living specimens, it didn’t matter if there was any of Gayeon’s toxin inside or not- she would probably be more than happy to take control over more specimens without even lifting a finger. If she even could control them in the first place since the toxin is not as concentrated now…she would have to test that out.
She also discovered he was in the process of developing lung cancer, and evidence of smoking was highly present on the insides of his lungs. It was astounding how much one could learn about a person’s day to day life and habits by dissecting them bit by bit.
His optic nerve was smaller than the typical human’s. Whether that was due to his insect complex or just his genetics, Lami was not sure. After all, she didn’t even know this kid apart from what she was discovering herself. Along with the fact that they had gotten him from a rural town just south of here. The poor guy probably didn’t even know what hit him before he perished.
A knock sounded on the lab door as soon as she was getting the blood bags out to extract the rest of the blood from today’s Michael. What great timing. Lami bit back a groan and ignored it, continuing with her business and setting up the bags beside the box filled with the bits of the maybe-toxic organs.
Another thing she found fascinating about this Michael is that his bones had morphed thanks to his complex, taking on different shapes likely to help support the hits taken to his exoskeleton or even the parts of his body not covered by it. Fascinating, really. They were structured more securely and the muscles surrounding them had strengthened to adapt to the huge biological change of becoming an insect human.
“Trafalgar? I know you’re in there.”
This time she didn’t even try to suppress the groan, slamming down her tools on the table. “Probably because there’s a sign on the door saying ‘Do not disturb’ on it. Which I always put up when I’m in here.”
Lami was never sure why these people were so ignorant of her personal space and projects. If they had their way, they’d all be hanging by her side every second of the day. Why? That’s a question she’s never figured out the answer to.
Twelve years of living here and she hasn’t given them a single drop of any reason why they should want to be around her longer than necessary. She was beginning to think they were all masochists of some kind.
She wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if all of them were indeed masochists with how they acted. Not just about or around her, but most specifically about fighting or feeding on other insect humans. It was very deranged.
She kept to herself, she ignored people when they tried to do small talk, she turned down every invitation unless it was to a lab or for an experiment, and spent practically all of her time cooped up somewhere in the library or laboratory conducting experiments or looking over notes and books.
Nobody else was interested in that stuff here. Aside from maybe Breeder, but he was almost constantly busy so he didn’t really count. So why would everyone follow her like ducklings?!?
The person at the door simply knocked again, followed by a rattle and a thump which Lami could only figure was them rattling the door knob and leaning against the door when it wouldn’t open. “Come onnn.” He whined, revealing exactly who this person was to her immediately. ”I thought maybe you’d waive that rule for little old me!”
Lami glared at the door as if he could see her. “Yeah, no. No exceptions.” She huffed, pushing herself away from the table and beginning to finish up. If he was knocking at her door at this point, he wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon.
A sigh was heard from the hall, another clonk against the door. Presumably, he knocked his head against the door. She only wished he knocked himself out, then at least she wouldn’t have to deal with his presence anymore.
“You’re so boring, Lami.” He never shuts up, does he? “You know, I could remove this handle and have the door open without a key.”
“Yes, but then you’d have your reckless predators running around my precious lab- where all the experiments you want to get done are held might I add- and ruining the data that we’ve gathered.” She put away the last of her things, now onto getting Michael into a box so she could transport him to the specimen containment center. She grabbed a box atop one of the shelves around the room and dragged what was left of him into it, and grabbed the dolly to move the box because as much as she enjoyed being around dead things, she didn’t want to be covered in dead man stench today. At least, not when she was around the specimens. That could mean getting a bit mauled if she took the wrong step.
After putting the quarantined containers holding the maybe-toxic organs on top of the Michael box, she opened the door to find the smiling man she was expecting.
He’s the one who took her under his wing when he found her twelve years ago when she was but a child, barely even 7 years old. She would always be grateful for the fact he saved her from what would’ve been certain death, even if it was just because she had her family’s knowledge in medicine and the Jungle Juice product as a whole.
Hell, the two of them were basically adopted siblings at this point. He’s only 6 years older than she is afterall. They were kids when they met, they grew up and matured together. She watched as he built this organization, Pet Shop, from the ground up. She wouldn’t call him her older brother, because nobody could replace the one that died with her country, but that’s what he was.
And by all the powers that be, she hates how clingy he is.
“Why did you stop by, Breeder? You know I’m busy today.” Lami blinked tiredly at him, giving his appearance a quick once over in case that would give her any clues.
He was wearing a long blue cardigan and black baggy pants, not far from his usual outfit. A white shirt was visible under the cardigan, and slippers were on his feet. Yeah, no, she wasn’t missing anything important if he was wearing his slippers.
His pale blue hair even had a pink headband in it- a headband! That was pink! It was weird just thinking about it, let alone looking at him wearing it. She didn’t even know he owned that thing. Eugh, he was such a fashionable guy that seeing him like this physically hurt.
“Is it a crime to check in on my favorite doctor?”
“It is when I know it’s more than a check-in.”
“Well, aren’t you a spoilsport?” He sighed dramatically, Lami started pushing the dolly down the hall and he fell in step beside her, hands in his pockets. “Do you remember Joker?”
Lami refrained from rolling her eyes. “Yes, I recall the name.” It wasn’t as if he talked about the guy every chance he got, they were newly business partners after all. It only made sense he was the talk of the town for now. “Did he need something?”
Breeder hummed vaguely. “Depends on how you look at it. But a familiar name was thrown into the conversation, almost too familiar.”
She spared a glance at him out of the corner of her eye, his stupid smirk still unwavering on his stupid face. She bit back a groan when he didn’t tell her anything more.
“Do you like me that much to the point you’re telling business partners about me? Come on. That’s too far.” Lami returned her gaze to the hallway.
“Close, but not quite, Lami.”
They were nearing the end of the hallway and where the specimen containment zone began, so she shrugged, giving her last answers before giving up. “Gayeon? You’ve been proud of how far she’s come along. Or is this about Bidan Lee?”
The squeaking of dolly wheels stopped when they reached the end of the hallway and the door to the next zone. Lami turned to look at Breeder, who looked way too enthusiastic to tell her the ‘oh so familiar name’ that Joker had mentioned.
“They have the last name ‘Trafalgar’ if that rings any bells.” He grinned widely, though it didn’t reach his eyes. He was observing her reaction as if she wasn’t already sure how this story ended.
“There’s nobody left in the world that has that last name aside from me. You, of all people, should know this.” She scoffed. Entering the code to the containment zone to forget this conversation.
It wasn’t as if she hadn’t thought about her family since then, not as if she hadn’t cried over their fates in the last fourteen years. She was the only survivor to have left that country. The second kid to leave a country’s decimation alive in the span of a year, the other being the Devil Child Nico Robin. Lami wasn’t sure what has become of Nico Robin, there haven’t been any sightings of her or even rumors in years.
When she was younger she really wanted to meet her and become friends. They had been through the same thing, so obviously they would get along great. At least that was how she used to think.
Now that she’s seen the world and become familiar with the horrible atrocities that people commit, and seen people she tried to call friends get mauled or eaten right before her eyes, she doubts she could be friends with anyone. It just wasn’t in her blood.
But hearing that Joker knew her family name meant that he had found something. She figured he probably found out about her parents being very involved in the making of Jungle Juice and its properties and didn’t know that they had both died.
“It appears we were wrong, dear doctor.” Lami finished punching in the code and security caps, entering the zone without a second thought to whatever Breeder was trying to say.
She had given up hope long ago, nothing he said could change that fact.
He seemed to realize she wasn’t going to reply after a few more moments of silence, effectively prompting him to continue. Maybe she should have changed the subject, this felt like a tease.
“Do you happen to know the name Trafalgar Law?”
Lami stopped in her tracks.
That name shouldn't be anywhere near the history books or any sort of log. There shouldn’t be anywhere in the world that that name is still spoken, nobody should know or even hear that name apart from her mouth alone.
She had grieved that name for twelve whole years. She knows the owner of that name is dead. She watched him die. She saw him run and heard the shot of the gun and the body falling to the ground. She knows. She saw.
She hadn’t even told Breeder that name over the twelve years he’s been there to comfort her through the hard times. And that was saying something considering how torn up about it she was, Law would be proud of her restraint of information.
Lami continued walking, the squeaking of the dolly wheels resumed.
‘No. I don’t. Even if I did he would be dead.’ is what she wanted to say, but nothing would come out with how clenched her jaw was.
All she could do was shake her head with a deep frown. Getting lost in her thoughts.
If Law was truly alive, she couldn’t let Joker get to him, not if he was a similar person to Breeder. Not if the two got along as well as Breeder said they did.
As much as Breeder helped her out over the years, she got to see the awful side of him too. The guy had a lot of immoral notions he lived by, a lot of heinous actions done that would have him sentenced to nothing short of life or death in prison. Not saying Lami wasn’t an awful person by now either, she had done her fair share of crimes and wrongdoings. Hell, she was sure her morals were entirely opposite from what they had been when she was younger and her family was alive.
But Breeder had always gone one step further than she ever dared, and that was okay with her. In any case but this one.
“Well, Joker took in a kid named Trafalgar Law several years back. The description he gave sounded awfully similar to yours, he even had the same skin condition, can you believe that? He would be three years older than you
by now.”
She felt her blood run cold, she gripped the handle of the dolly tighter.
No, it wasn’t the same person. It must have been someone pretending to be him. It had to have been someone else. She had grieved him, he was dead. If he was still alive what would all that grief have been for??
“I thought it was strange to hear a name so similar to yours from someone who has no idea you exist, don’t you agree?” Breeder continued, either unbothered by her silence or relishing in it. “So color me interested when he asks me to look for him. Supposedly he ran off with Joker’s brother, who tragically had to be put down. He says he still has the body, preserved and everything. I figured he might make a good gift for you to look into.”
“Joker’s brother?” Was all she could say after that, trying to distract herself from the glimmer of a very confusing emotion by focusing on the thought of science.
Breeder hummed confirmation, a bubble of water beginning to flow around his head like a helmet as they neared the sounds of specimens lurking in their containment cells. He certainly knew how to sway the conversation in an easier direction for her, it was almost scary how well he knew her, but she appreciated it at times like these. Distractions were good.
So Lami continued. “Then if we play our cards right, we could theoretically perform a temporary or artificial resurrection on him. If we find the correct complex and the right formulas and techniques it should work relatively well. It would depend on how mangled his body is.” She took a deep breath. “I know I can figure something out, or see what properties his complex had to determine an appropriate experiment to subject him to. Whether that be feeding him to one of our specimens in a contained space or offering his body to a predator. Though, depending on how long he has been preserved he might not reach their high standards of feeding.”
Lami definitely didn’t flinch when Breeder set a hand on her shoulder, stopping her from continuing her thought train aloud.
“How about you join me next time we have a meeting, then the three of us can discuss the matter together.” He had an easy smile on his face, like he didn't possibly flip her world upside down.
She nodded, it wasn’t as if she could turn that down. It would be a good opportunity after all.
Silence followed them as they made their way through the corridor. The noises of the feed-trained specimens echoing as they avoided coming close to the bars. It had taken them a long while to get them to fear them this much, but it was worth their while for sure. Lami was always glad to not have to watch every direction for a flying claw or stinger coming at her.
Lami stopped in front of a specific cell, unloading the smaller boxes to reach the large one underneath that contained the majority of today’s Michael’s corpse.
Breeder chuckled at the choice, glancing at her through the water bubble that she was still fascinated by to this day. “Any reason you wanted to feed this one today? And such a tiny morsel too.”
Not particularly. Lami looked at the large cell, containing a larger than life centipede specimen that was almost constantly starving. It was on purpose, so when they release it then it will go on a rampage. That’s what they always need, more chaos to distract the people that were against them. She shrugs.
“Someone has to eat this.”
After she left the larger box inside and shut the door to the huge cell once more, the specimen began to move. This one in particular was still smarter than some of the others of his generation as she called it. The cell was designed to give the specimen space to grow into his complex, as the larger ones would sometimes take time to grow to full size. It was also a reason they had multiple specimens of similar attributes, in case one didn’t live up to the full potential for Breeder’s desired mission.
They would take over Korea one day, and it would be grand.
Uncoiling his large body and unfurling his humanoid arms from his torso. They had given him a cloak to keep him from absolutely freezing and it had already gotten so torn even after the week they had given it to him, she was impressed that it was because it had grown too small for his form. Which meant he was on a rapid growth rate, which is exactly what they wanted.
Breeder wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her tight against his side. Lami flinched and pushed against him to no avail, feeling the water bubble soak into the side of her hair.
“It was such a surprise to hear about your brother. I do hope you’ll join us in locating him.” He spoke matter of factly, not giving her room to refuse his ‘request.’ His voice rumbled into her ears as they watched the specimen devour the corpse she gave him. “It’s about time for a Trafalgar family reunion, wouldn’t you agree, Lami?”
- Four days Later -
“Wow, Breeder wasn’t kidding when he said that you look just like Law.”
Lami flinched at her lab table, the log she had been writing completely scratched out by the sudden jerk of her pencil. The unfamiliar voice was grating to hear, almost as bad as the vibrant pink feathered coat that came into view of her peripherals.
Turning around to see the giant man entering through the doorway, who had similar spindly spider limbs extending from his body, but his were striped with yellow and black instead of solid black. He wore giant reddish glasses with a unique white frame, his spiky blonde hair somehow complimenting his entire fit of vibrant clothing. The dude was both an eyesore and a fashionista, no wonder him and Breeder got along well. They were the two sides of the spectrum of fashionistas; the minimalist and the maximalist.
Lami stood up and wiped her hands on her lab coat to appear a little bit more dignified, and gave him a bow in greeting. “You must be Joker, it’s a pleasure putting a face to the name.”
When she lifted her head to look at him again there was a huge smile across his face, it looked almost painful. “And you must be the infamous Doctor Trafalgar. Tell me, how did you get your license at just nineteen? You must be pretty ambitious for a kid.”
She shrugged vaguely, observing how his spider-limbs moved near-constantly as he spoke, minutely twitching. A tell for his emotions most likely. The patterns suggested some sort of joro spider if she had to take a guess, but she wasn’t certain.
“What can I say, I didn’t have anything else to do and had all of the resources for success. Also, I was 16 when I got my license.” Lami gave Joker a grin. “Now, I was told you have a brother I might be able to help you with?”
Joker laughed ominously, approaching and towering over her. Gods, how was he so tall? It was irritating. Lami let her arms hang loosely at her sides. Guest or not, if he attacked her in any way she would retaliate. It’s what she had her complex for anyways.
“I think we both have a brother the other can take care of, Doctor. I see so much of him in you too.” A hand gestured to her face, the spider-limbs that were attached to his elbow grazed her hair.
Lami’s smile dropped into a scowl immediately, swatting his hand away. “As far as I’m aware, both of our brothers are dead. Are they not?” She decided against commenting on how she reminded him of Law. She didn’t want to open that can of worms today, if ever. “Even if you saw mine all those years ago, who's to say he didn’t die with yours?” That made him grimace, or grin even more…it was hard to tell with him. But he definitely popped a vein in his head, it was almost funny how quickly that happened for him.
Before he could reply, the familiar fashionista walked into her lab without knocking. This was why she kept the door at the very least shut, she hated when people walked in unannounced like that. She wasn’t sure how Joker had entered without making a single sound when he unlocked the door, it’s a loud door, but maybe she was just too in the zone with paperwork.
“Ah, you’ve already met! No introductions needed then, this is good.” Unlike a few days prior, Breeder had decided upon a two piece suit with a dark blue button up. Very put together, from his spider earrings all the way down to his black dress flats.
He dragged a rolling chair over to them and sat down, waving to the multitude of other rolling chairs across the room. “Come on, sit, sit. We’ll do our business here since we’re all present. Doctor, you too.”
The two complied after giving each other a look, taking seats across from one another with Breeder between them. A nice little triangle.
“So, Doctor." Breeder started, using the name they had very thoughtfully came up with for her during business meetings. It was nice to have at least your identity be a small secret in the dark parts of the world such as this. "Your brother is someone of interest to Joker here, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about how to reach him would you?” He smiled at her easily, clearly already knowing the answer but asking in Joker’s stead anyways, and Lami had to take a deep breath.
“No. The last time I saw my brother was during the raid on Flevance, my home country. It was entirely destroyed as you both know, wiped off the map. My brother was running away as he was being shot at, I thought I saw him die back then. So it’s hard for me to believe that you saw him so shortly after.” She directed her attention to Joker, raising her brows. “I have no way of knowing where he is now, considering I didn’t know of his continued existence on this earth until a few days ago.”
Her statement made Joker frown, and his frown deepened and deepened as she spoke. His frown looked just about as painful as his grin did, especially without the popping veins in his forehead.
The room was silent, Lami didn’t feel like continuing anything past that final sentence because what else would there be to add? That was the extent of her knowledge of Law, She doubts he even knows that she’s alive too. She wouldn’t blame him if he forgot about her like how she pushed him to the back of her mind as much as possible.
Breeder spoke up. “Well, I can confirm that I haven’t heard anything about this kid aside from what you’ve told me, Joker. So you can’t accuse her of lying.”
“Tch. I wasn’t going to, I’m honestly surprised that she’s telling the truth. You’d think kids would look for their siblings these days.” Joker leaned back in his chair with a lighthearted laugh. But Lami was a bit aggravated.
Of course she had wanted to look for her brother. Of course she had wanted him to be alive. But her life was on the line and she had wanted to live and not have both of them die. At least one of them would live to see tomorrow, that’s all she wanted. Maybe it was selfish to run away, even if she knows that Law would’ve wanted her to. He would’ve told her to turn tail.
Maybe she wasn’t even sure if she wanted to find Law again today, now that she’s changed and become so different, but that didn’t matter right now.
But yeah, he kind of ticked her off with that.
It wasn’t like she could say anything to his face about it though. She’d have to rant to Gayeon or to the next Michael she got to dissect and inspect. Or with Breeder, but he was never available for consistent gossip or venting sessions.
“But that’s whatever. Moving on, Breeder said you wanted your hands on my little brother? He’s my Corazon, you know. If you mess anything up with him I’ll have your head. I’ll make you wish you were dead, doctor.” Joker went back to his painful-looking grin, and the spider-limbs on his back curled upwards menacingly.
Lami was fine with that. She never messed up anyways so it was no real threat. She was confident in her abilities.
She nodded, leaning her elbows on her knees as she hunched over in the chair. “I do. I assume Breeder mentioned possibly artificially reviving him to you? He wouldn’t have consciousness if I’m thinking right, but if I used DNA from certain complexes like the roach then I could simulate life. A sort of reanimation if you will. But if it goes better than expected, then it could even become an actual revival.”
Joker mimicked her posture, head tilted with an intrigued expression.
“And what makes you think that’ll be possible?”
Lami gave him a flat look. “Everyone in this building is genetically part arthropod. I think there’s a lot of things possible in the world we live in.”
He laughed a bit too loudly at that.
“That’s a good one kid, I’ll give you that one.” He lounged back in his chair again, his grin already back on his face. “He’d definitely make a horrifying zombie, I’ll have Diamante or someone bring him down to you. But I want updates throughout your process.”
She nodded, agreeing to that. At the very least it was a start. Joker pulled out a phone and began typing, causing Lami to remember a very strict detail she had to ask about.
“What state is he in, before you send that order? If he’s mauled and barely there…”
Joker cut her off with a dismissing wave of his hand, grinning even more like a madman as he typed away on his phone. “Just gunshot wounds. Nothing too crazy. He’s also probably rotted, so you may want to take that into consideration. He has just some fly complex or something, I never cared to ask.”
Her teeth grit together, she felt Breeder’s gaze linger a bit too long on the side of her face while she stared at their guest. Sure, fly complexes were overall weak compared to others, especially if the person drew the shortest straw in the bunch. She too had a fly complex afterall, and she was very proud of that fact. It was a great tool to get people to underestimate her until she got her hands on them.
She couldn’t wait to get her hands on his brother just to see what specific fly complex he possessed. There was such a variety of specimens out there the possibilities were near endless. Just thinking about it brought a grin to her face.
“Rotted, you say?” Breeder chimed in.
“That would be because we haven’t exactly done anything with him since I shot him.” He shot his own brother? Now he wants to bring him back? That’s not suspicious at all. But Breeder didn’t look totally bothered, so surely it was fine. The look on her face must’ve given away her thoughts, so he explained further. “He betrayed me, what can I say?”
Fair enough, that checked out in her book.
“Could you bring me the files you have on him? If you have any.” Lami’s grin widened as Joker nodded, already thinking of tests to run and inquiries to write on this guy. “Does this brother of yours have a name?”
“Corazon.” Joker said almost too quickly and without room for argument. Not that there would be any, she was caught off guard on why he was adamant about that since neither she nor Breeder knew of his brother outside of what they’ve been told.
…Unless Breeder looked into him before this meeting. She wouldn’t put it past him to do that.
But she didn’t know anything about the situation besides the dead brother and the desire to bring him back. So Lami nodded, grabbing a clipboard and flipping to an empty page to write down some notes about this project she would take on relatively soon.
“How long has it been since he died?” She inquired as she scribbled on the page, Breeder rolling closer to peer over her shoulder at her notes. She sent him a brief glare, annoyed by his close proximity, but did nothing of it. Opting to focus on her notes instead of the chance of getting briefly waterboarded later for being rude in front of their guest.
Joker made a vague noise from his chair, causing her to look up and narrow her eyes at him.
“I wouldn’t say he ever…died, per say. More like we got him to an effectively braindead state.”
She blinked. “And you left him alone for what, weeks, months?”
“Years. It’s been 10.”
Lami stared at him. Breeder was silent too, a sign that Joker hadn’t told him of this beforehand. That surprised her, in all honesty. She had thought this guy was freshly dead, maybe even a month or a few at the most. But ten whole years. A decade. Was this guy an idiot?
“...Are you an idiot?” Breeder eloquently spoke her thoughts into reality. "He's practically a corpse by now."
Joker had the gut to throw his hands to either side of him, chuckling. “What? It’s not like I had anything better to do with him, and I didn’t want to throw him to my subordinates to get devoured. And I’m not insane enough to eat my own little brother.”
“So you let him suffer in a coma until he likely died due to negligence.” Lami concluded, nodding to herself, still absolutely bewildered by this. “Yeah, because that’s something people do.”
He waved her off. “I had people checking on his vitals every now and then. It wasn’t as if I completely abandoned the bastard.”
Lami narrowed her eyes at him, processing the whole situation. First he shot his little brother, something she would never imagine Law doing even if she betrayed him in some way, and then he left his brother to rot for ten years before even thinking of giving him the active care he’d need. Probably even keeping him comatose.
Who the hell even does that? Joker apparently. She looked at Breeder whose gaze was still focused on Joker, and she didn't think that she’d ever seen him so ticked off and bewildered at the same time.
He glanced at her and they locked eyes, Breeder gave her a subtle nod and that’s all she really needed to make her own call for the situation.
This was stupid. She wasn’t going to do something that could’ve been done years ago. She wasn’t going to let this fool repent of whatever mindless sin he committed just because he wanted to be on Breeder’s side and Breeder confirmed that he was on their side. This guy was going to drag them into shit they couldn’t get out of, she’s sure of that.
“So let me get this straight, you want me to revisit a mistake that you made on your own accord simply because you’ve come to regret it?”
Joker hummed noncommittally, making a so and so motion with one hand. He wasn’t elaborating, but with how his spider-limbs were twitching he definitely had something to say.
She sighed, looking at who was likely stopping him. “Can you step out for a moment so us two can chat?” Breeder narrowed his eyes, but left the room nonetheless. Lami knew he would be standing right by the door eavesdropping, unless he decided to respect their privacy for once in his life which was highly unlikely.
Raising her eyebrows at Joker once the door shut, she grinned. “Tell me your reasoning, and I’ll decide if I want to help or not.”
He chuckled, stretching out in his chair. “Y’know, you’re pretty smart for a kid.”
Her grin flattened. “I know. If you can acknowledge that fact then it means you’re not stupid, which makes me want to know your reasoning for coming to me- or rather, us- for this.”
“Well, Doctor, as you know, me and Breeder have our own business to tend to. He’s been telling me about your work and my, is it exquisite.” Well that was no secret. She knows her work is more than good. “I figured if I was working with him so closely, I should give you something in return for stealing his time away from you.”
She narrowed her eyes. Hesitating to reply as she processed his words. “…Thank you for the consideration-“
“Of course-“ Joker spoke over her, chapelling his hands. “I wasn’t originally going to, I want my little brother to rot for how he betrayed me. But then he said you had an idea, and I simply couldn’t resist.”
It sounded suspiciously like a ploy to keep her busy and out of their way. She wasn’t the biggest fan of being sidelined like that. If she was going to do something, she wanted it to be important enough to be talked about.
“And why, exactly, should I bring your brother back? Assuming he’s dead.” Lami crossed her arms, leaving her clipboard sitting on her lap.
Joker’s smile never wavered, the overhead light caught his glasses making her blink. “You know of Breeder’s predators, I hope. I want him to be like them. Powerful, but loyal to our cause. He can be our little fly on the wall in Nationautical.”
Nationautical? That was the first time he mentioned that organization. Odd to bring up at this point.
“What does Nation have to do with this? We’re far out of most jurisdictions. I don’t see why they would be a problem for us.”
A global organization that dealt with all things insect human. They were known to be strict with their rulings and making sure that no ‘innocent’ humans were harmed by insect humans. Or vice versa in some cases. It was bad fifteen years ago, or so she had heard from Pil, but now that there was no King (AKA the boss) to control the ranks, it was pretty much all for themselves since he vanished. Everyone says he died, Lami doesn’t really care to know his fate.
There was no Korean branch. The country was left to an Organization known as NEST, since Jungle had a large facility in South Korea. Pet Shop was planning on taking them down, to then become the Korean branch instead. What Lami suspected Joker being here for as an ally, was he was going to help their operations spread further across the globe to topple Nationautical as a whole.
She really needed to talk all of this over with Breeder sooner rather than later to confirm her suspicions, though.
Joker’s grin was growing a menacing amount, at least his veins weren’t popping like they were before. He almost looked as if he was hiding something again with how twitchy his spider-limbs were, though Lami would say it was more of an excited twitch than a ‘I’m not saying something’ like it was earlier.
“He happened to associate them while betraying me, specifically the daywalkers.” She wasn’t sure quite what he was referring to here, but with the way he spat the name it couldn’t be great. “If we get him back on his feet and on our side for certain, we’ll have a very effective spy.”
Lami hummed as she thought about it. It was a good idea at the very least, so she could get behind that aspect of it. The risk was in Joker’s hands, he was giving her his vulnerable brother as a form of trust or something similar.
Though, that trust didn’t mean much when he didn’t have any care for what happened to his brother in the end, as long as he became of use.
In short, he was giving her the human equivalent of spare parts.
Not that she didn’t like that, she loved free humans that she could do with as she pleased. They were fun to test their physical boundaries, and the effects of various Jungle Juice injected into them.
But the cons were still larger than the pros.
She would have to trust him, and he didn’t come off as the most trustworthy person. He had lied to them about his brother being comatose and not dead. He left out the part where he had been like that for ten whole years with no sun or high end treatment.
Lami knows he wasn’t low on money to get treatment, even if he was saving his brother for a time when the treatments would work…something felt very, very off about this whole scenario.
So she got to her feet, setting her clipboard on her chair and leveling Joker with a look. Somehow they were eye-level when she was standing in front of his seated form, but that was unimportant.
“Come back to me with better motivations and reasoning. Then maybe I’ll help you. I won’t accept something that merely was an afterthought to you.” She scoffed, turned around and walked away from him.
She locked eyes with Breeder as she walked out of the door, whose face held the smallest of smiles.
Well, she attempted to walk out of the room. Next thing she knew she was staring at the lab ceiling with a grueling tightness around her neck. Sharp pain exploded in her head and spine when she slammed into the ground, gasping for air that wouldn’t come and clawing at whatever was restraining her neck.
The looming pink figure of Joker appeared over her, facing off with the blue figure of Breeder who returned to the room. It seemed they were at a standstill, or maybe arguing. Their voices were muffled by a sudden ringing in her ears, the lights were starry and blinding, it didn’t help that the room was spinning. She probably had a concussion of sorts, and if she knew Breeder he’d test her for one later. She closed her eyes, still trying to dig her fingers under the string around her neck.
She really hit her head hard against the ground, because soon enough the world around her went black.
.
.
.
She came to with aching all down the back of her head and back, what felt like not even a minute later, but judging by how she had been placed on one of the lab tables rather than left on the floor, she had probably been knocked out for a good while.
“Good morning sleepy head.” Lami turned her head to see a smiling Breeder sitting on the table beside her head, brushing her bangs out of her face and carding his fingers through her hair. “How was your rest?”
She answered with a groan and swatted his hand away from her head, sitting up to massage her head and the impact spot.
“Sounds like it was good then, since that’s how you greet me every morning.”
Lami shot him a glare, to which he replied with an easy smile. “How long was I out?”
“Long enough for us to reach an agreement. So around half an hour.” Breeder set a grounding hand on her shoulder, a very brief moment of silence fell between them, then he spoke again. “You must have been tired along with that nasty fall, usually you have a much shorter turnaround time.” He commented with a chuckle, getting off the table and perusing the room.
Lami blinked at him, slowly looking around the room now that she was more aware. Sure enough, Joker was nowhere to be seen. Good riddance. Though she could still see the pink feathers scattered here and there around the lab. She’d have to sterilize everything top to bottom again. It had only been a week since her last deep clean, but she wanted to make sure his feathers wouldn’t interfere with anything she does in here.
A stressed laugh broke free, and she pulled her legs up into a criss-cross fashion. “I’m honestly shocked it was that quick. I haven’t gotten any sleep this past week.”
Breeder’s laugh joined her own, and a comfortable silence fell between them.
He wasn’t on edge, which was a good sign. He was still wearing his fancy suit, minus the jacket. A glance around the room told her it was discarded on the chair he had sat on during their meeting. Joker’s chair and her own had been slid back to their original places, and the clipboard restored to where Lami was working last. There were a few strings from what were probably webs attached to the walls and ceiling, likely from the faceoff between the two spiders- Joker and Breeder. But everything else was tidied and in its place.
She couldn’t help but smile at the care put into that, even if it was just a small thing.
Breeder was on the opposite side of the room now, picking up and inspecting some of the equipment she had just cleaned. His mannerisms were relaxed, calm, and most importantly normal. He would be hovering around her much more if it had gone worse. That, or he’d have left Pil or someone with her while he burnt off steam elsewhere.
“So, what happened with Joker while I was out?”
He tilted his head where he stood, twisting around to face her again and lean against the countertop. He twirled a beaker around in his hand, acting as if there were actual liquids inside. “Like I said, we reached an agreement. We should be receiving a guest within the next couple days delivering Corazon, who Joker revealed is still in fact alive. His subordinates had been taking better care of him than he originally thought. But! You should still be able to do your experiments you wanted, as he’s a vegetable, or in a brain dead state.” Breeder grinned, raising the beaker in his hand into a cheers gesture.
Lami nodded along, making mental notes to prepare the lab for Corazon’s arrival. Though, a memory of what exactly she had discussed with Joker came to mind again, causing her to frown.
“I denied him, why is he still sending Corazon here?”
Breeder froze, blinking at her confused before breaking back into a smile. “You denied him for lack of good reasoning, didn't you? Why don’t you consider this his apology for nearly separating your head from your neck.”
She considered this, and shrugged with a shudder. That was good enough for her, she supposed. It was better than simply wanting to create just another super soldier for their cause, she didn’t quite enjoy that reasoning.
Maybe it would be so fun to have someone that could eventually talk back to her during her experiments, instead of ending up in pieces under her scalpel. Along with side effects of the treatments she gives him. Maybe he won’t be as rude as her associates were about it. Maybe once she gets him awake and responsive again, she could badger him about Law.
Because as much as she wanted to leave her past of Flevance behind her, it would be nice to know how her older brother is or has been doing while she works with Pet Shop.
“Wonderful.” She smiled, one that caused crinkling in the edges of her eyes. “I can’t wait to meet him.”