Subject of interview is to be identified as Dr. Marcus Lane. Interview initially conducted by Agent Cobb, Site B’s resident archivist
COBB: Do you need a paramedic? I was told you were tended to already but that-
SUBJECT: Looks bad, yes I know. They did everything they could. The fact we aren’t in a hospital room right now is inhumane
COBB: Humane went out the window since your little research team was promoted. (ruffling papers) Does it hurt?
SUBJECT: Unbearably so.
COBB: Can you describe the pain?
SUBJECT: Oh so this is a hospital, my mistake, doctor
<SUBJECT SPITS>
COBB: Come on now. You’ve done these interviews before yourself. You know the sooner you cooperate the sooner they’re over with.
SUBJECT: Yeah, then it’s off to jail or Site C, right?
COBB: I’m not a lawyer.
SUBJECT: Then I want one present.
COBB: You know we don’t do that here anymore.
SUBJECT: I do..
COBB: Describe the pain please.
SUBJECT: It’s like being electrocuted, but only around those blue bits. The rest burns. Like acid.
COBB: Do you feel the blood uh… Dropping out?
SUBJECT: What, this?
COBB: Yes.
SUBJECT: Do you feel your blood when its fallen off of you?
COBB: No.
SUBJECT: Then I wouldn’t feel the looping drops either, would I?
COBB: I suppose not. Are you saying you can’t feel it?
SUBJECT: No. Except that one that starts on my arm. I feel it before it drips off. It feels fresh every time it restarts.
COBB: You’re not actually losing blood though, correct?
SUBJECT: Seems that way, yeah.
COBB: Do you feel… These? Things?
SUBJECT: I’ve been calling them flesh pixels. I feel the ones where you can see flesh.
COBB: Right.
<COBB can be heard writing and shuffling papers. SUBJECT lets out some winces of pain, and sighs.>
COBB: You claim a Monommy did this?
SUBJECT: Oh we’re finally calling them by name?
COBB: Did a Monommy sever your arm, Dr Lane?
SUBJECT: No. It was a human.
COBB: You claim this was a human weapon that caused this glitchy looking mess?
SUBJECT: No, not a weapon. A human.
COBB: A human did this with their bare hands?
SUBJECT: No. They used Monommy abilities.
<SHRILL ALARM is set off to keep COBB from hearing further. COBB exits interview room and the alarm stops.>
SUBJECT: Christ my ears I can’t cover them! Fuck!
<SUBJECT tugs at handcuff, rattling of metal>
<Door opens as Coordinator PHILLIPS enters to take over interview>
PHILLIPS: Hello there Doctor Lane. I understand you had a run in with a Monommy?
<Silence>
SUBJECT: No. It was a human using Monommy abilities.
PHILLIPS: Ah. See that?
<Silence>
PHILLIPS: The lack of an alarm means you’re allowed to say that to me.
SUBJECT: I work here. I’m the head researcher at-
PHILLIPS: You’re not affiliated with Twin Star Contingency at all, Doctor Lane. Not anymore at any rate.
SUBJECT: Of course.
PHILLIPS: Describe your assailant please.
SUBJECT: I attacked him actually.
PHILLIPS: Hm?
SUBJECT: The term assailant implies he attacked me first. I was the one who instigated it.
PHILLIPS: You instigated a fight with a Monommy?
SUBJECT: Human.
PHILLIPS: Humans can’t do that on their own, you know this.
SUBJECT: They can if they’ve pacted.
PHILLIPS: Is that what they call it?
SUBJECT: Yes. When a human and a Monommy perform a pact ritual, the human gets a portion of the Monommy’s power, and the Monommy becomes stronger.
PHILLIPS: Alright. Good.
SUBJECT: Good?
PHILLIPS: That matches the hypothesis of Doctor Bridges.
SUBJECT: Ah. Moved on already I see.
PHILLIPS: We need everyone out there doing their best work. And for what it’s worth, you were doing a fine job for a while there. Project firefight is coming along nicely, despite your shortcomings.
SUBJECT: I was kidnapped.
PHILLIPS: That’s not how we see it. Especially since they didn’t press you for any real information. Didn’t torture you. No, not even a scratch on you. In fact, we even intercepted a transmission from this Uplinkmy character. Direct orders to kill you-
SUBJECT: Wait, really?
PHILLIPS: -and yet, they didn’t. And you were found assisting one of your so called kidnappers in attacking a crowd of innocent civilians.
SUBJECT: It was just the one kid. Like I said before.
PHILLIPS: A child, Marcus? You’re confessing to conspiring with the enemy to attack a child?
<Silence>
SUBJECT: It sounds worse when you put it that way.
PHILLIPS: How should we put it then, doctor? Because that’s all I’m seeing here, and other than adding credibility to Bridges’ theory, you haven’t done much for me to want to help you.
SUBJECT: The virus. The one I mentioned in my journal entries. It’s alive. I succeeded where FIREFIGHT failed, and it is alive.
PHILLIPS: FIREFIGHT hasn’t failed, doctor. Your suggestion to proceed with the vivisection lead to a breakthrough.
SUBJECT: That’s the first positive thing I’ve heard in weeks.
PHILLIPS: We know about your virus already. We’ve been searching for it, and as far as we can tell it must have died. It isn’t even connected to the cyber hive any more. Uplinkmy herself cut her out.
SUBJECT: The guardians- my kidnappers. They can sense Monommy life force. My virus is still alive. It’s a full fledged Monommy, just confined to cyberspace. It’s in that kid’s flip phone.
PHILLIPS: You attacked the child because you think the virus is in his phone?
SUBJECT: He’s more of a teenager…
<Silence>
SUBJECT: It is in his phone though. Or it was at any rate.
PHILLIPS: What happened to it?
SUBJECT: I don’t know.
PHILLIPS: Witnesses say you pulled out a green blob and splashed it on your hand, and then a… dragon woman appeared and started shooting..
<PAPERS RUSTLING>
blasts of air at your uh… opponent. What was that about?
SUBJECT: I summoned Dragomy.
PHILLIPS: Okay that’s a new one. We’ll have Bridges interview you for that.
SUBJECT: Great.
PHILLIPS: What happened after you summoned it?
SUBJECT: He panicked. I saw an opportunity. I told Dragomy to whip up a tornado to get the phone out his hand. She did as I asked.
PHILLIPS: You commanded a Monommy and it listened and obeyed?
SUBJECT: I gave a suggestion and she agreed.
PHILLIPS: Right. What then?
SUBJECT: The tornado knocked the phone out of his hand. I just instinctively dove for it. That’s how I-
<SUBJECT’s arm bangs on table>
Ouch, fuck- that’s how I got the road rash on my… good arm.
<PHILLIPS is heard laughing for a moment, then coughs>
PHILLIPS: Bad day for Marcus.
SUBJECT: … Yes. Bad day.
PHILLIPS: We didn’t see a phone on you when we got you. What happened next?
SUBJECT: I got it. I jumped up, I was happy and excited for the first time in months. Let my guard down.
PHILLIPS: And then?
SUBJECT: Then a massive, neon green set of teeth appeared out of nowhere and…
PHILLIPS: Ah. Is that why it looks like..?
SUBJECT: A bite. Yeah. Teeth.
PHILLIPS: Big green glowing teeth bit your arm off and now it’s fucked up lookin like a Volt Berry game exploded?
SUBJECT: Yeah.
PHILLIPS: Do you remember what happened next?
SUBJECT: It hurt like hell. Then I told Dragomy to.. I told Dragomy to slice him in half.
PHILLIPS: Did she?
SUBJECT: No. She said I wasn’t worthy of her drop. My ring’s light faded, her drop evaporated, and she approached the kid calmly.
PHILLIPS: Hmm. Wonder why she changed her mind.
SUBJECT: It was always supposed to be temporary. Just didn’t think it was that temporary.
PHILLIPS: Did she say anything else?
SUBJECT: Dragomy didn’t. But… When the phone hit the ground…
PHILLIPS: Along with your arm I’m assuming?
SUBJECT: No. That was gone. Completely. Stop interrupting I’m helping you, asshole.
PHILLIPS: Carry on, doctor.
SUBJECT: I heard the phone. A little voice called out from it. I thought for a moment it was calling my name. But.. No, I never told it my name. It was saying Kane. Not Lane. Certainly not Marcus. Kane. I think – no, I know that kid formed a pact with my virus Monommy. That’s where the teeth came from. From him. Monomasters can use their pact partner Monommy’s powers, but only their pact partner Monommy’s. None of the gemstone guardians trusted me enough to let me do that. But Dragomy let me take her drop to help find the virus. To eliminate it. She always wanted to save it, didn’t she? Stockholm syndrome. I should be above this.
PHILLIPS: So. You created a real Monommy, and it’s formed a pact with this teenager.
SUBJECT: It has to be the case. My arm disappeared. What’s left of it is clearly… Corrupted. Glitched. He deleted it. Down to my DNA, it was deleted. Glitches in my bloodstream.
PHILLIPS: How does that work?
SUBJECT: … I’m assuming cancer. Mutations. Or it just stays like this. I don’t know. I never dreamed it could manifest in the real world like this. It’s not what I designed anymore. Not at all.
PHILLIPS: Where is it now then? The boy? Dragomy?
SUBJECT: Dragomy was talking with the kid when I passed out. I don’t know.
PHILLIPS: Well. This was more productive than I thought it’d be. Thank you, Mr. Lane.
SUBJECT: It’s doctor-
PHILLIPS: It’s nothing now.
<Coordinator PHILLIPS leaves the room, recording ends>