Tip tap… tip tap… came the sound of blood dripping on the tiled floor of Terradom Labs. A lamp flickered in the distance casting a hazy shadow of another one of Professor Stitch’s creations. A large tube attached to Jester’s mouth shone fluorescent blue. An unpleasant feeling of extreme body aches and a pungent smell woke Jester up. His green eyes registered to the surroundings for the first time. A sudden flashback took over his mind.
“Run Jester… RUN!” Amara was shouting.
Huffing and panting Jester knew if he ran any further he would be endangering Amara too.
“Go Amara… Leave NOW! Warn the others,” shouted Jester with the last of his strength.
His memory faded and the only thing he remembered after that was a bald man poking him with his walking stick. The neon headlights of Professor Stitch’s car blinded his sight as a sack came over his head.
Shaking his restless mind back to present, Jester tried to gain a mindful perspective of where he was. Why did he feel so weak? He felt hungry. Hungrier than ever before.
“It was about time you woke up boy!” a croaky and dense voice alerted Jester from his numb mind.
As Jester struggled to keep his eyes open, his mouth tube was being retracted and his hands tied to either side with a strong chain. Jester pulled against it but all in vain. He was too weak.
“What have you done to me?” he groaned.
“Nothing that hasn't already been done on the grounds of Terradom before,” chuckled Professor Stitch. His busy hands mixing a vile of shiny green into a lustrous vile of blue.
“Aaah… Perfect!” Professor Stitch looked proudly at the resultant cyan tube in his hand.
Jester started comprehending his instincts. But there was only one thing he could feel.
“I … feel...different. I feel...”
“Hungry. You feel hungry my boy,” the Professor stole words from Jester’s mouth.
Filling the cyan liquid in an injection, Professor Stitch started walking towards Jester.
Jester pulled again at his binds. Deep inside he knew it wouldn't do him any good. If he was in Stitch’s lab, he was a lost hope. He silently prayed for Amara and the handful of humans he knew. He wished them to be as far away from this godforsaken place as possible.
“Let me go! Now!” Jester demanded knowing fully well he wasn’t in the position to make demands.
“I am only trying to help you boy! This liquid you see…” The Professor flashed the injection to him.
“It’s what your body craves for. It will fill you up with energy for tonight’s show.”
As the warm cyan liquid flowed through his body, Jester felt better. He could feel his senses waking up and ruffling through his body. A wave of thunder captured his heart and his green eyes flashed a different color.
With one flick Jester broke himself free. His muscular arms reaching straight towards Stitch's neck.
“Now... are you sure you want to do that? I am the only one who can keep you alive. This one was just a taste of the real power you can have boy,” said the professor calmly as he stopped Jester’s arm by just looking at it.
All of a sudden, Jester felt drained again. Hungry for more of the warm cyan in his blood, he collapsed on the floor.
“Give me… MORE,” he said desperately. He was ashamed of his craving but he wanted it. He needed it.
“I will, my boy. And tonight you will start your journey as the new fighter of Terradom. You will be my golden ticket to the championship,” said the Professor in a dreamy voice as he injected Jester with more boosters.
Jester stood up trying to understand the new formation inside him. Something felt moving inside him continuously.
“What is this... feeling?” he questioned, rather confused.
“It’s your DNA mutating. Your body is now recreated to be a powerful shapeshifter. You can be whatever you want to be now boy…” Professor said, slashing Jester’s chest with a blade.
To Jester’s surprise, not a drop of blood trickled down his body. It healed almost as fast as it was cut.
“The Pit will open at midnight! Save your strength boy. If you lose tonight, I might have to hunt down the rest of your clan to make more of my fighters. One way or another, I am winning the championship,” Professor Stitch turned around and left Jester alone in the lamp lit lab.
Jester made no further attempts to escape or defy the professor. He obliged quietly as he was being escorted towards the fighting pits. He could hear the loud cheering noise from the audience as he stepped inside a huge cage stranded with high voltage. One touch and any mutant would die within a moment.
“Welcome to The Ultimate Championship. Today we have Mutant 3005SK from Terradom Labs fighting against Mutant 6003DQ from Kitnip. The winner will get a direct entry to the finals,”
screamed the announcer from 100 feet above. The fighting cage stood at the centre of the pit while the audience watched the show from stands 100 feet above the cage. Some were leaning over the railings to get a better view. One push and they would crash on the cage to death.
Jester was no longer just Jester. Now he was Mutant No. 3005SK. The faster he let that sink in, the easier it would be to focus on the fight.
“Winning mutant will get five energy shots. An offer too delectable to deny. The winning lab will get access to the world’s largest resource lab and a green card for the upcoming Mutant supply to Saturn.” The crowd cheered loudly. The stakes were high. All Jester could think of was the feeling of warm cyan inside his blood. He wanted more. His body craved more.
“Let the fight begin!” the horn blazed and Jester’s opponent entered from the opposite end of the cage.
For a minute he could not believe his own eyes. It was Amara. She has never looked more hatefully at Jester. He fisted his arms. He knew better than to fight a match to death against his best friend. But he could not let those boosters slip away. Against all his better instincts, Jester jumped towards Amara with a lethal blow.