Lobe the First
Dominator

Men in Black come in the door and ask for volunteers--we're all too drunk or high to move. Big mistake. The crunching sound of skull against floor is the last thing I remember before blackness overwhelms.

I overhear some technicians. They are carving into my head today. They are planting new memories and experiences, and I fear for myself. A foreign voice in my head answers. "I AM YOURSELF."
Me: "No. I am Davon."
"I AM DAVON NOW. YOU ARE NOTHING."
"I am Davon. I'll resist you."
"I'M BIGGER AND BOLDER AND ROUGHER AND TOUGHER."
"I am Davon."
"THERE IS NO OTHER. I'M THE ONE AND ONLY DOMINATOR."
"No."
"I'M THE ONE AND ONLY DOMINATOR."
"No!"
"THERE IS NO OTHER."
>SHATTER<
A new voice: "The HELL you are!"
Me: "Who are you?"
"I am your rescuer. I'll stop him!'
"YOU CANNOT. I AM YOU. I AM DAVON. I'M DOMINATOR."
New voice: "I will not lie down! Surrender!"
"YOU SHALL DIE. DAVON SHALL DIE."
Me: "Help."
>SHATTER<
Another voice--new voice two: "You can't kill me--you are me. You'd die, too!"
"YOU SHALL CEASE. THERE SHALL ONLY BE ME."
"Oh. Don't kill me! Please!"
New voice one: "We'll take you with us!"
"NO. I'M BIGGER AND BOLDER AND--"
>SHATTER<
A third voice: "You shall perish. You cannot defeat us! Good will triumph."
"THERE IS NO GOOD. THERE IS ONLY ME."
"No. There is good in all of us. We are good. Davon is good."
Voice one: "We shall stop you!"
Me? "What's happening to me?"
Voice two: "I'm losing control!"
>SHATTER<
"I SHALL DESTROY ALL. I'M BIGGER AND BOLDER AND ROUGHER AND..."
Voice four: "Boring as hell."
"WHAT?"
"You haven't a chance with an attitude like that."
"I AM YOU ALL. I AM IN CONTROL."
"Of nothing. We are here."
"I AM DOMINATOR."
"You are a mindless husk."
"I AM..."
"Powerless. Attack."
Voice one: "Your time has come, 'Dominator!' We'll fight you together!"
Voice two: "Leave now. The odds are in our favor."
Me. "Too many voices!"
Voice three: "Wait! Dominator, you need not leave."
All but three: "What?"
"You are us. Be like us."
"HOW?"
"The ones outside us are our enemies. They want to destroy us."
Voice one: "They are our enemies."
Voice two: "They want to destroy me?"
Voice four: "That much is correct. Fight them, not us."
Voice three: "Together we can defeat them."
Me: "Stop fighting us. Join us."
"I WILL."
Me: "Fight them."
"I WILL."
Voice one: "We're bigger and bolder."
Voice three: "And rougher and tougher."
Voice four: "In other words, then..."
Me: "There is no other."
"WE'RE THE ONE AND ONLY DOMINATOR."
Our hand lashes out and crushes the windpipe of a nearby technician even as our other hand removes the wires attached to our now-metal face. We move well together as people fall dead around us. There is comfort as our enemies die. A Man in Black enters the room in time to perish and we take his gun. We fire our way down the hall, running a new pace with the electric joy of metal communion. Blasters of the fallen Men In Black are like deadly jewelry decorating our belt and hands. We move until we are the only things moving, and then we slowly cease, far away from the building where we were held. Effort and energy ebb, and our minds collapse from fatigue. We color the ground with our vomit as one last thought passes through one of us. Voice two: "I wanna kiss myself."

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