Chapter 8 - The Rabbit and the Ghost
#9 of Main Storyline - Children of Gaia - The Beginning...
Meanwhile, back at the Mansion, The snowshoe rabbit known as Geist, AKA Justin wandered around the sub basement level of the facility. He insisted to Dr. Moreau that he be down here. He had literally just woke up from the previous night's mission. He still wore his full black leather outfit as it's really the only clothes he finds comfortable. With the way he was treated, wearing tight fitting clothing was soothing for him. This was considering for most of his life he didn't have clothes. He ran his hands through his head fur and ears sleepily as he entered the Hard Drive's room. After a wide yawn and a quick stretch, he sat down at the main console and began typing on the keyboard.
As he began typing, the familiar hologram of the mouse appeared behind him, watching over his shoulder. "What are you up to Geist?" he asked curiously.
"Please Alex... you can just call me Justin when I'm at home," he replied. "As for my intentions, I'm checking up on your systems. The usual, oxygenation levels of your physical body, system checks. Just making sure everything's working."
"Justin, you and Felicity both designed this system I am in, it is infallible!" he mentioned absolutely.
"You and I know Alex that nothing is infallible. I want to make sure everything is operating at maximum capacity. Might also want to update the antivirus and firewalls just to be on the safe side."
"If you feel it is necessary." The mouse replied. "How was Russia by the way?"
"Don't know, there was no time for sightseeing" Justin said half paying attention. "Would have loved to stay, but unfortunately a group of GeneCorp troopers kept us from staying."
"I see."
"Yeah, would have loved to..." Before the rabbit could finish his sentence, his ear perked up, as though he heard something. His ear flickered with suspicion.
"Would have loved to what?"
"SHHH!" Justin hissed as his ear twitched again. "Did you not hear a woman's voice just now?"
"I do detect a strange anomaly using my visual scanners just outside our room. Though there is no physical body out there, it is as if someone, or something, is watching us."
"This is a perfect time to try your active Electromagnetic Field detection application."
The mouse simply nodded as closed his eyes. "Activating active EMF detector." With that, a small little window appeared over the Hard Drive's eye as he searches the door. "I have a fairly high irregular spike of 4.12 milligauss reading from the door." To Hard Drive, the figure he could see was merely a light mist. To Geist though, he saw a full bodied apparition, but only a glimpse as it glided away. He noticed the figure was female, perhaps a deer, and a strange little bow on her tail as she disappeared behind the wall.
"Hard Drive, keep communications open, I'm going after her!" he yelled as he started running and phased through the wall.
"Communications are open Justin, and did you say her? I only detected a mist-like anomaly."
Geist with a sudden burst of speed phased through the wall she disappeared behind to try and quickly pick up on the direction she went only to catch another glimpse of that ribbon laden deer tail turn around another corner. She wanted him to follow her. This spirit must not have the strenght to speak yet. With only a 4.12 milligauss is kind of weak for most spirits, and he knew the stronger the EMF reading, the more the spirit is able to manipulate. He continued following spirit down the hallway to notice her phase through the elevator door.
"She's a spirit, She just phased through the elevator doors, are you able to track the spirits EMF reading?" asked Justin.
"Affirmative, the anomaly is heading towards the bio dome behind the main facility."
"The Bio dome? LANI!"
In the bio dome, Lani was still garbed in her lab coat as she tended to the several hundred plants throughout the facility. The lush vegetation had been growing better than she had originally hypothesized. She charted each plant's progress on the chart that was attached to the clipboard she held in her hand. Also documented were the control readings from a fellow doctor of hers whom she asked to produce. She knew she wouldn't have been able to prevent her own intervention.
As she knelt over to check upon what she had labeled as "Edible Vegetation" section of the dome, she felt a strange cold sensation running softly up her spine. it caught her off guard because the dome was set at an optimum seventy-eight degrees fahrenheit. She quickly turned around to find the source of the cold pocket to reveal nothing was behind her. There wasn't even a breeze coming through, and the feeling had subsided for the moment. It felt strange though. It was cold yes, but there was a static feel to whatever caused that feeling. She shrugged it off before turning back around and returning back to work when Justin suddenly bursts into the room, she shuddered violently and shot a look to the rabbit.
"JUSTIN WHAT THE HELL?!" she screamed. "What's with all the ruckus?!"
Justin didn't say a word as he panted. It was obvious he was running to get here from the mansion, chances are had to run up a bunch of stairs to get here to. He paid her no heed as just kept looking around, as though looking for someone.
"Justin?! are you alright? have you been up too long and seeing Hallucinations again?"
"No..." he huffed as he knelt over. "You... didn't have anything strange happen? anything unusual or out of the ordinary before I came in?"
"Other than you, No!" she huffed as she placed her chart down on the table. "Next time, can you knock before you come in? You scared the plants!"
"Tell them I'm sorry, but it was important." As he finally catch his breath, he noticed something he hadn't before. He saw a family picture that had been laying on her desk before him. He recognized Lani as a child and Dr. Moreau before he grew his beard. The other doe though was what caught his eye. In a fluster, he rushed over to the desk to pick up the picture. The body figure, the height, that blue dress. Check, check, and check. But the one part of the picture that caught his eye was the blue bow tied around the doe's tail. He quickly spun the picture around and pointed to the mystery doe. "Who's that?" he asked suddenly.
"That's my mother, Charlene. Why do you ask?"
"I saw this woman down in the sub basement not 5 minutes ago..."
"Impossible," Lani replied as she snatched the picture away and placed it lovingly back upon the desk. "She's dead... She's been dead for 26 years."
"Impossible to be here physically, but spiritually, not so impossible." he said.
Lani turned around and glared, "You mean to tell me that you saw my mother walking around the facility. That's very hard to believe."
"I told you I'm a medium Lani, I told all of you I can see and hear spirits."
"Scientifically unproven," she replied nonchalantly.
Justin sighed a bit and lowered his head, he wished people would just believe him for a change. Then again, they probably all think he's crazy thanks to the experiments Genecorp performed on him. Suddenly his ear perked up, as if someone was speaking into his ear.
"She called you Lani-Doe... that was her nickname for you." he said as he raised his head suddenly.
That stopped her in her tracks and made her turn around. Her eyes were similar to what would happen to her feral kind in headlights, eyes a wide and mouth agape. The look of surprise came over her like an atom bomb.
"What did you say?"
"She called you Lani-Doe."
Tears slowly began trickling down from her eyes, her lip quivered as her ears droop. "How...? Only My father knows of that nickname. How could you have known?"
"She whispered it to me."
"Can she do that? I mean..."
"She's still very weak and faint, but your mother's spirit is here... I can't see her yet, but I will definitely let you know when she becomes stronger." he said as he gently placed her hands on her shoulders.
Lani's eyes watered even more. She couldn't hold back anymore. For the first time since those days 26 years ago, she cried. She buried her face into the rabbit's chest and quietly sobbed. Justin gently patted the doe's back gently, comforting her as best as he could. After a good 15 minutes, she finally stopped and looked up to the rabbit and gave a weak smile.
"Thank you Justin... you gave me a little solace in knowing my mother is alright in the afterlife." she said through the sniffles. "I... Also think we should inform my father of her arrival..."
"It is going to have to wait..." A voice chimed in. Beside them materialized the hologram of Hard Drive yet again. "You have been Summoned to the kitchen Lani, your father says that you have a visitor"
"A Visitor?" she asked as she blinked a bit