Adonis Chapter 2.01

The elevator ascended so slowly… so painfully slowly.

Haley had spent her first hours in her new body alone, panicked for much of it in the dark about her identity for its entirety. Release from the small prison she previously endured rewarded her with a much smaller, much lonelier prison in the guise of an elevator. The only thing she could do was stare at the button panel and try to put her brain to some sort of use. From what she saw on the display, she was originally on the floor labeled B32. Coupled with the observation that the elevator traveled upwards, she guessed the facility she was within extended deep underground. She had no clue why it did so, but she drew a blank on a variety of oddities about the backwards facility. She also noticed during her trip to the lobby that the duration between some floor changes were quite long, suggesting there was some very big rooms on a couple of the floors, especially in the teen levels. B32 looked to be the lowest floor, with five floors above the lobby level.

Not surprisingly, the last thing she noticed was that the elevator went straight to the lobby. Thirty-two floors and not a single stop to pick up more people did not help her plummeting hope of finding other human life.

Adonis Chapter 1.04

The final room that Haley came upon was messy and disorganized, a stark contrast to the other expansive and simple rooms. Tables, computers, and all sorts of foreign machinery cluttered the room up greatly, which was at least interesting to examine—the technology provided a distraction to make up for the lack of human life. The door to the hallway sealed shut as the girl stepped into the room, sealing her in completely. After Haley had some time to get acclimated to the room, one of the monitors flickered on, text scrolling while the electronic voice from earlier spoke. “Please have a seat in the red chair by the monitor.” Obediently, the girl did so, ready to do whatever it took to finish these tests as fast as possible so she could get out of the doldrum facility.

“Please remain still during the entire testing process. We will only be administering scans in a non-invasive manner, but you must remain seated. While the scans are in progress, we will ask you some questions regarding your opinion and concerns about your overall health, your satisfaction with your current body, and your opinion on Adonis Laboratories.”

Adonis Chapter 1.03

To Haley, it felt like time was passing by far more slowly than it should. Even though she had been awake for what was likely an hour and she had only known her name for minutes, the lack of clocks, displays or any other timekeeping devices made it feel like an elongation of the intervals between the passing moments. Entering a room that seemed more appealing to the eye than the previous locations she’d visited, she looked around for that which was lacking from the majority of her experience at Adonis Laboratories: people. What she saw, instead, was a sort of dining facility with tables to one side, while the opposing wall had a stack of clean trays, and what looked like a self-serve food bar sat in the back, but in front of a kitchen station with doors leading to what was most likely food storage and preparation rooms.

Noticing her own hunger, it did not take long to convince herself to pick up a tray and start picking food, though a thought rose to the fore of her mind that her search for more human interaction may be complete, as the food did not simply place itself out for consumption on its own. Haley was smarter than to assume the food has just always sat there, and knew there was an active hand in its creation and display. After she had stocked a tray with a bowl of carrots, cottage cheese, and a hastily-made sandwich with a questionable mystery meat and accompanying condiments, she looked towards the door leading into one of the back rooms.

Nothing entered.

Adonis Chapter 1.02

It was not long before the girl found herself repeating the same lonely walk she had just completed in her trek to the man behind the desk, bringing about a mild case of déjà vu. She still felt odd that she did not interrogate the man further as she left, but she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind as the conference room came into view. The room was vastly different from the locations she had visited so far, set up with large-screen monitors on each wall, as well as a giant oak table surrounded by cushy chairs atop a carpeted floor. It felt more human than the other rooms, though she was not shocked by the lack of human presence in it as well. The room itself came to life upon her entrance, as the lights dimmed while the monitors all flashed on, briefly showing a logo for Adonis Laboratories which promptly faded away. Her gaze fixed upon one of the screens, she pulled out a chair and sat down, her mouth opened slightly in anticipation for what she hoped would be information overload.

“Adonis Laboratories–the future of you.” Speakers in the room echoed those words with the voice of a middle-aged woman, while synthesized music one would expect at any half-rate business presentation played in the background. “Here at Adonis Labs, we have worked hard to bring you the highest quality in body modification technology the world has seen. The number one complaint from a scientifically-created survey sample of five thousand people was in some way or another related to their bodies. From those who wished for a better solution to fighting their obesity, to people expressing issues with their height or perhaps their hair color or body structure, all the way to transgendered men and women seeking a more viable solution than a long set of surgery they could not afford, as well as those with genetic disorders and defects that affected their outer appearance and inner processes, Reformation offers a solution for every one of these cases and more.”

Adonis Chapter 1.01

“Good morning, subject one.”

The sounds of a calm computerized voice and a pneumatic hiss were the first experiences she could recall as light teased her eyelids into opening. It was as if her body was slowly powering on in chunks, in no hurry to aid in discerning her location and questions that were brewing even before registering sensory input. The first thing she noticed once she began to process what her eyes were seeing was that her world was being filtered through a transparent plastic casing, only inches from her face.

Her hands were the next things she seemed to develop control over, and a quick push revealed that the casing gave way easily, allowing her to repress the panic that was beginning to build in her head as the seconds passed.

Taking a brave step, the woman exited the pod she had been encased in, stepping into silence. The room she observed was bare, a sterile white from floor to ceiling with only modest lighting.

None of it seemed familiar.