AN: I just wanted to tell you all one thing. I'm sorry for failing all of you.
I thought I could handle writing a consistent minimum of 4k chapters every week, but this one really kicked my ass. I tried to write something everyday, even after work. However, I can't write anything after halfway through the chapter. I couldn't even write more than 500 words last Friday. I just wanted to rest after working and help out my Mom with my dying Grandpa. I could've posted this on Sunday, but I wanted to follow my 4k word minimum I put on myself.
So I ask you all this, do you want me to just get rid of the 4k Minimum word count and just post whenever I think a chapter is good enough? I think I can write much more and faster when it's just whenever. Also, I've been having thoughts about making another little snippet of fanfiction about Path of Ascension by C. Mantis. I can't get it out of my head.
Please, tell me what you think. I keep spiraling over this.
Jack felt like he was dying. His guts burned and signaled that it was outside of his body. Sweat beaded on his head as laid on his side in the forest just a little outside the Munchkinz house. He tensed and groaned. He heard the shouts and yells of surprise and fear come from the people on the road as they fled the Munchkinz house.
The smell of feces came out from behind him as the fast acting and strong laxatives worked his guts like how a masseuse worked the body. Painful with hints of relief before going back to pain. His body was more exhausted than when he fought against the bear yesterday.
Needless to say, he hasn’t managed to convince the parents that Merci was an evil little girl.
“What? How dare you say that my little angel is capable of doing any of that! Much less that she would even want to!”
“Yeah, Larry, you tell him! No way our perfect little girl could do anything wrong!”
Even when he brought out the recording and showed it to them, they still didn’t believe him.
“Wow… I can’t believe that you would fabricate her voice and her friends’ voices as well! If you were my son, I’d spank you ‘till you cried for it to stop!”
“Yeah, honey! Spank him! Then you could do it to me afterwards!”
“Laaarrry, not in front of our guest!”
He really didn’t want to know what they were doing in the bedroom.
Instead of believing in the recording, they told him that he’ll need to be the first to eat the cake if he believes that there were laxatives in it. Jack, in front of an entire party of people, ate a slice of cake. Thankfully, the parents didn’t tell anyone there about how he accused Merci of that, but he knows now that the parents were going through the same thing he and the other party goers are experiencing.
That soothed his soul, but did nothing for the dragon raging through his body.
He tensed once more, but thankfully didn’t feel anything else. The only thing that was happening now was the laxative forcing his guts to contract in pain over and over. So he picked up the roll of toilet paper he took with him and cleaned himself up before heading back to the house so he can focus on cleaning the toilets, especially since the parents and boys were now outside trying to find an available toilet before they soil themselves.
Jack learned to use the outside as his own toilet during his three months of training. For him, the only thing that humiliated him was the pain in his guts and the fact that Merci managed to get him in her trap when he planned to not trigger it at all.
Once he was done cleaning up, Jack began to move away and headed to Pol’s clinic, both to visit Tea and talk to Pol about his Nurturing River Technique. His right hand cradled his abdomen, grimacing a little at the feeling of his guts still trying. Maybe a way to get rid of this laxative, too.
Hopefully, he doesn’t shit himself on the way there.
Line Break Here
Meanwhile, in a bush in the Munchkinz’ neighborhood.
Larry and Disi were not having a good time as they both squatted in two neighboring bushes. You and I both know why they’re doing so, but the husband and wife didn’t think that today they’d learn just how real their oath of ‘in sickness and in health’ was. Both of them looked around and saw fellow party goers scrambling to find an open bathroom or toilet in houses. If they couldn’t wait, they just went to either a bush like the Munchkinz parents were doing, or they would just soil their pants.
The two aforementioned parents felt humiliated and embarrassed at how this happened and at how their guest, who was simply trying to help them, had been right all along and suffered with them. Admittedly, they couldn’t see where he was, but they forced him to be the first to eat a slice of the cake. In the end, they owe Jack another apology.
“... Honey, what are we gonna do about Merci?”
Disi felt some rage and indignation at what their now clearly devilish child had done. She knew the perfect punishment for her. She opened her mouth to tell her husband, but stopped from a very bad movement.
“... Nrgh, I’ll tell you later.”
Right now, they would just squat in a bush in shame, much like the hillbillies many cities thought small villages like theirs were.
Line Break Here
Meanwhile, with Irah and Tate in the town square.
Both Irah and Tate were just walking down the street as Irah whistled and Tate read through a book from his birthday. The cover said Technology in Sci-Fi and How They’re Closer to Real Life Than You Think! Irah couldn’t believe how lucky they were to eavesdrop on Jack explaining Merci’s latest plan to their parents this morning. Them getting up early was supposed to find Merci’s newest dastardly plan before she could execute it, but Jack thankfully explained how they wouldn’t find it since Merci had already planned it ahead.
Irah could feel his respect for Jack rise as he thought about how he ate the cake, despite knowing that it was filled with laxatives. He even took a close eye to see if Jack would spit it out later like he and Tate did, but he ate it all! Irah also couldn’t help but think about how there was now an adult that now knew about Merci’s evil nature. Maybe, just maybe, Merci could be stopped!
“Hey, Irah?” Said his smart little brother, breaking Irah out of his fantasies and whistling. Irah looked over at Tate and sent an affirmative “Hmm?” at him. Tate continued, “Do- Do you think that Merci will, uh… Will she finally be stopped?” He then stuttered out his next words as he tried to destroy the hope within him. “I-I mean, she probably won’t, but i-it would be nice that it happened, right?”
Irah could feel himself soften at the death of Tate’s hope. He understood. Ever since Merci was born, it was like no one thought she could do any wrong. When she was 3 and Irah 7, Merci blamed her drawings on the wall on Irah, despite her hands having residual dusting of crayons. Irah tried to explain that it wasn’t him, but he was a troublemaker throughout his entire life.
Apparently, his birth made some complications for Mom and she could no longer pee without feeling something close to labor pains for an entire month. Apparently, while he was going down the birth canal, Irah kicked his mother’s bladder in such a way that it was incredibly bruised. His time as a baby was filled with similar incidents. Whenever a parent was changing diapers, there was a 10% chance that Irah would immediately pee all over them, but mostly in the face. This caused his parents to buy one of those riot masks that swat uses in the big cities.
His time as a toddler, both before and after his younger brother’s birth was apparently filled with him drawing on things he wasn’t supposed to, trying to stick forks into outlets, accidentally knocking down things from cabinets and tables that easily broke, and a bunch of other small mischief. He got spanked a lot, according to his parents and neighbors.
His brother, on the other hand, was basically the most polite baby around. His birth happened at home in just three minutes. His mom cleaned him up and said that it didn’t hurt nearly as much as Irah’s birth did. Tate’s time as a baby was also ‘polite’. He never screamed for help at night, and only peed or pooped once Mom and Dad were up. He did so again after lunch and before dinner and once more before bed. Then he slept for 8 hours straight. This happened everyday, without fail.
It wasn’t until that they started to potty train Tate that they had the thought that Tate might be a genius, because it only took him just three days for him to understand. Compared to Irah’s training which took over 9 months of training. There was even one time that Irah pooped in the toilet, took it out, and stuffed it back into his pants because he thought that was where it was supposed to go. Then he got a spanking, so next time he just put it in the garbage can. Needless to say, he was a very frustrating child.
Tate was pretty average when it came to walking and physical activities, though. Irah, meanwhile, was walking at around month 5. He was very active and ran around everywhere once he learned how to move fast. He wasn’t very smart, but at least he could put circles into circle holes.
That was how it worked out for the next two years. Irah showed off his strength and mischief, while Tate was quiet yet intelligent. He was still a kid, though, because one time Irah told his little brother that because he ate watermelon seeds, he was now going to grow a watermelon in his stomach and his little brother went crying to mommy and daddy. Irah got a scolding for that.
Needless to say, the two brothers were just regular siblings. The Merci was born, and she was basically the best of them both. Polite as a baby like Tate, but as strong and active as Irah. Yet, for all that she was ‘polite’ there were numerous times that she wasn’t blamed for things that they were blamed for at her age.
She also did the ‘put poop back in pants’ thing that Irah did, but she didn’t get a spanking. She went ahead and annoyed both of them, too, and never got a scolding like Irah did. Whenever they tried to mess with her back, they got stopped and scolded instead! Yes, indeed, at that age, Irah learned something about the world.
Girls don’t get punished for being ‘cute’, while boys have to take it. It was then that Irah made a subconscious goal for himself. ‘Equal rights for all!’ Let the boys fight back against the girls! Let the girls understand that all are equal under these tiny hands of ours!
Then Irah grew up some more and realized that Merci was pure evil and changed that subconscious goal. ‘Nevermind! Merci must be shown that she is a human, too! Not some kind of Messiah as all adults seem to see her as.’
He’s failed.
Anyways, after that tangent of childhood memories and the unfairness between the brothers and Merci, Irah answered back to Tate. “Probably,” he casually said. “I hope so, anyways. Jack’s the first person to figure her out. That might mean her ‘innocence’ is starting to fade. For all we know, when we go back home, we’ll see Merci being spanked like we were back as babies.”
Tate, despite reading his new book, had a quirk on his lips in a small smile. Irah chuckled, “Well, today’s your birthday, bro. Where do you wanna go?” Tate, without hesitation, said, “Can we go to Dr. Pol En’s? I’ve wanted to see her x-ray machine. She said that she made it herself!” Irah, despite being Tate’s brother, couldn’t help but think to himself, ‘God, he’s so lame!’
His outside face didn’t change, but he nodded anyway. “Sure, bro! Let’s go.”
Line Break Here
“You’re serious!?” Jack asked very loudly. Mostly because he was sweating and bent over holding his abdomen. The pain from earlier came back for seconds, and it seemed to come for keeps. He was in the bathroom, and he had already taken off his shirt from how much pain he’s in.
Dr. Pol En was standing just outside the door, a somewhat annoyed look on her face. Not because she was dealing with Jack, but because Jack was the first in a long line of people she had to try and diagnose what was happening to them. Parents, kids, and teens used to be all in the lobby. Used to, because they then had bowel movements and she had to direct them to go outside and find a public restroom. Hers was taken by Jack, who had come in, open his mouth, before suddenly palling and rushing straight for her only restroom in the building.
She sighed, “Yes, I am. Laxatives can’t be cured. You can only endure it.” She stretched her arms above her, and started to head outside to deal with any others. “Anyways, thanks for telling me about what’s happening to all of them. I’ll go and tell them about it, and let you deal with your…” She looked back at the door, which had cracked a little for Jack to hear her. “Well, that. See ya!” She gave off a cute idol wave and wink she saw one time in East City and left.
As she took a deep breath outside and looked at the blue sky with its sun hanging high, she heard someone to her left shouting out, “Hey, Miss Dr. Pol En!” She looked over and saw two short boys, Irah and Tate. She lazily lifted her hand up at them. “Hi,” She said. She glanced over them, “I see you two didn’t eat some cake.” She made a sarcastic smile, and said in a teasing tone, “Although, shouldn’t the birthday boy be eating his own cake? What, did they get you chocolate instead of vanilla?”
Tate hid his face behind his book, but Pol could see his ears turn red. Irah thumbed his nose, “Oh, come on, Miss Dr. Pol En, didn’t you know that Tate is a genius? He figured it out straight away that the cake wasn’t any good!” Tate just shrugged himself deeper into the book.
“That’s good, young kids like you won’t be able to recover from soiling yourselves in front of everyone on your birthday,” Said Pol. She then spoke to Tate, “So, are you here to see Jack? He’s inside, but he’s not feeling very good, now.” Tate peeked over the top of the book, “Oh, I didn’t know he was here. I just wanted to see your x-ray machine. I heard you made it yourself?”
Pol just nodded, “Yeah, I made most of the equipment here. Well, the complex ones. I’m hoping to get them to be used for- uh, study.” She hesitated at the end as she thought about studying the “Chakra” that Jack had. Her past few weeks have been nothing but creating and using the equipment to study what was happening to Jack.
Jack’s body was fascinating to study. She couldn’t find just where the Chakra came from, or even see it in action, but Jack’s body showed quite a few improvements over the regular human body. Firstly, after getting that first ever x-ray, she took a few examples from Jack all over his body. Her tests with them have shown that they were normal in every way. Then, just a few days ago, she got a second full body biopsy done on him and noticed that something happened.
You see, she had to do the biopsies herself, since there was no train to take them directly to East City for any professional lab. The latest results showed that his cells were somehow alive during the examination process, and didn’t die for the next hour or so. Whatever he did, it changed his cells down to the organelle level. His cells should’ve had only one mitochondria, but several thousand cells out of several million seem to have two mitochondria.
Examinations done to his muscles seemed to show some change, too. His cells could go longer, stronger, and recover faster than he could just a few weeks ago. Really, he has shown a remarkable change to his body that couldn’t be explained by just regular science.
She was glad that he was here, ‘cause after she was done with all of the other people coming for the laxatives they accidentally ingested, she was going to have him sit down and explain even further what he has done to himself.
She focused back onto the kids, “Come on in, but you’ll have to wait until I’m done with all of these… ‘customers.’” She waved them inside, and turned back to the sidewalk just as another family walked up to her with a funny walk. She sighed, this was going to take a while.